Empanada Gallega

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since last month's Daring Bakers challenge. I've been back to work full time for almost 4 months now and I guess I'm still trying to work out a routine for cooking, photographing my cooking, and writing about it. Plus, in solidarity for working mothers every where, I have been cooking really quick and easy things lately. Think (frozen) chicken fingers with sweet potatoes fries and frozen peas and corn. Thank goodness for Daring Bakers challenges, actually. Otherwise I wouldn't have made anything interesting in the last couple of months.

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished! The recipe included in the challenge was savory, but some Bakers made sweet ones. Some eager beavers made savory and sweet Empanadas. I'm jealous. 

I actually didn't have a plan for the filling of the Empanada but it turned out absolutely delicious with leftover bits and bites I had in the fridge. We'd had a party with family for Parker's 2nd birthday (two already! I have a separate, belated, post about his birthday coming soon) where we did make-your-own pizza. I had some pepperoni, roasted peppers, pesto, tomato sauce, feta cheese, and chicken in the fridge and these ingredients made a great Empanada. It was kinda like a giant Calzone. Delish.

One Year Ago: Tomato Recipe Roundup with Tomato Pesto Flatbread Recipe

+ Cacio e Pepe Pasta

+  Jerk Honey Garlic Hot Wings

+ Baby Food Part 1: Purees

+ Baby Food Part 2: Textures

+ Breaded Pork Chops with Creamy Orzo

Two Years Ago: Freezer Meals 

+ Mexican Pizza 

+ Vanilla Iced Coffee  

+  Ham, Swiss and Asparagus Crepes

EMPANADA GALLEGA RECIPE via Daring Kitchen

Cream Puff Baby Duckies

"Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair,"
"Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth,"
"Oh really fool?"
"Really,"
"Stop looking at me swan."

I cannot see a swan without quoting Billy Madison. Yeah, it's a problem.


(blog checking lines) Kat of the Bobwhites was our August 2012 hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Pate a Choux Swans. One of the Daring Bakers members says in the forum, "I was probably only 12 or 13 when I oogled a recipe of choux swans in a very 70's style cookbook. These gorgeous swans sat on a mirror and I always thought they were the height of elegance!" The height of elegance indeed. Somebody call the Beejees.

I was going to make swans, but I decided to make them for my brother and (almost) sister-in-law's baby shower, so I made little baby ducks. I think they kinda look like Peeps. Only better. Cause they are cream filled. Yum.

Nobody believes me, but I swear these are easy to make. Please try it. The piping takes a few practice ducks (I meant to take a photo of mine but I was trying to get them in the oven, get showered, and get the toddler dressed in under an hour). Even if they don't look perfect when baked just put little eyes and they'll be cute any way.

No eyes = boring blob

Eyes = cute baby duckie!

To pipe the little ducks, use a piping bag with a large round tip. Or use a Ziploc bag like I did- snip a little off the corner to fit the piping tip into. Use a freezer bag though- sandwich bags burst at the seams. I know from experience. Not pretty. Moving on.

Pipe a two inch oval, making one end a bit higher and pull up the piping bag at the end leaving a peak standing up. When the duckies bake the dough really pulls up and leaves you with a hollow middle to fill with delicious, delicious cream.

To fill the duckies put the cream in a piping bag or Ziploc (see above). Insert the tip into the bottom or side of the duck. Fill with cream, slowly pulling out the piping tip as you fill so that the duck doesn't explode. To make the eyes, dip the end of a toothpick in food colouring, then poke a little hole where you want the eye.

Get the recipe from Daring Bakers HERE

Bookmarked

Photo from Food and Wine

I like doing these Bookmarked posts because they are great to go back to when I'm looking for something new to make. Stuff gets lost in the quagmire of recipes I have in my favorites.

I have a few recipes photographed and ready to blog about, but for now here are some recipes I've bookmarked recently.

5 Veggie Burger from Today's Parent Hopefully these are dense enough to eat like a burger. Usually these type of recipes yield super soft patties that you have to eat with a spoon.

Rum Punch from Food and Wine For the parties I always plan in my head and then never have

Maple Chile Popcorn from Cooking Light This looks super yummy

Spicy Crab Cakes with Mango Puree from Food and Wine This is one of those recipes that looks delicious but in all honesty I will probably never make. I mean, who eats crab cakes at home on a regular basis?

Pizza Style Soft Pretzels from Yummy Mummy Club Yes, please

Open Faced Roasted Tomato Sandwiches with Goat Cheese and Parmesan Crisps from Bake Eat Repeat The photo makes me want to lick the screen. I think I'll make these for lunch next Saturday

Charred BLT Salad from Cooking Light I may have to subscribe to Cooking Light again.

"Special" Brownies

Apologies for the photo. Brownies are hard to photograph.

What does it say about your family when you bring a pan of brownies to a BBQ and they ask if they are "special brownies"? It says that your family is awesome? That's what I thought.

The funny thing is, these are special brownies. Special in that there are lentils in them. And you wouldn't even know it. These are honestly the best brownies I've ever had. They are dense and supremely chocolaty, with a crunchy top layer. I made them twice in two days. Yep. Twice. In two days. Hey, I shared, ok?

I'm telling you, this is the perfect brownie. Who says you need a cup of butter to make a pan of brownies (and why are there so many question marks in this post)? You do, however, need two cups of sugar. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Lentil brownies are a win in my book.

One Year Ago: nothing

Two Years Ago: Slow Cooker Brisket 

+ 

 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies 

+ 

Greek Shrimp and Tomatoes with Feta and Crostini

LENTIL BROWNIES

Adapted from Lentils.ca via Yummy Mummy Club

The original recipe says this makes 20+ servings. Elf servings, maybe. I'd say 10 servings. Tops.

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup lentil puree

3/4 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 tsp vanila

1 cup flour

1 cup chocolate chips (optional, I didn't use any)

1 cup walnuts (also optional, didn't use these either myself)

Mix together butter, lentil purée, cocoa, sugar and salt. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla, flour, chocolate chips, and walnuts, if using.

Bake in a greased 8 x 8 pan at 350° F (175° C) for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.


*Lentil Purée: Place cooked lentils (drained and rinsed if using canned) into a food processor. For every 1 cup lentils, add ¼ cup water. Blend to make a smooth purée with a consistency like canned pumpkin. If needed, add additional water 1 tbsp at a time.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Butterflies

Honestly, sometimes I don't know why I bother. Tonight I didn't have all the ingredients to make the pasta dish I wanted to try, and I had a bunch of odds and ends in the fridge that were soon destined for the garbage. So I threw them all together into a dish with some pasta. Tyler declared it one of my best pasta creations.

This is everything that went in: roasted vegetable sauce, crushed tomatoes, slow cooker tex-mex chicken, a half a grilled sausage, a handful of cheddar cheese, 2 spoonfuls cottage cheese, thawed frozen spinach, and a third of a brick of cream cheese. Oh, and a splash of milk. So random, but it was actually really good.

The rando-pasta is not the recipe I am sharing with you today (plus, that's pretty much it above). I am sharing the cupcakes I made for my manager's birthday, which are far more impressive. You gotta put in a little extra effort for your boss, right? I spotted a tutorial on how to make chocolate butterflies on a blog. Those would look really pretty on Martha Stewart's multi-coloured cupcakes. Yes, it was all coming together, I just had to find the right cupcake recipe.

Joy the Baker had posted a recipe for a dozen cupcakes- with frosting- made with just one stick of butter. I know, amazing right!?! Usually there is double that in just the batter alone. And of course, they taste great too. You wouldn't expect any less from me and Joy the Baker (my blog idol), right?

TWELVE FROSTED CUPCAKES WITH ONE STICK OF BUTTER 

from Joy the Baker 

Or 24 mini cupcakes; bake for 5-10 minutes less if making them mini like I did

CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLY CAKE DECORATIONS

from Everything Old

Her butterflies look way better than mine. Make sure to cut the TINIEST hole in the bag so you get more delicate butterflies. My butterflies obviously at too many cupcakes. Or bacon.

HOW TO MAKE MULTI-HUED ICING

• Divide your icing into two bowls. Starting with one bowl, add 4-5 drops of food colouring- I started with blue. Stir well with a rubber spatula. Frost some cupcakes. 
• Add a few drops of red food colouring to the blue icing, stirring well. Frost some more cupcakes.
• Add some more blue and some more red to make a really vibrant purple. Frost a few more cupcakes.
• Repeat process with 2nd bowl of icing. I used red and yellow for mine to make pink, peach, and orange.

Creamy Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Creamy Chicken Salad Sandwich with Sweet Potato Wedges

I have a confession. Sometimes I am super cheap. You know how No Frills makes you put in a quarter to get the grocery cart and then you get it back when you return the cart? Sometimes I look for a cart that hasn't been returned so that I can get a free quarter. There, it feels better now that I've admitted it.

This probably isn't news to anybody else, but did you know you can take flyers from other stores to Wal-Mart and they match all the sales? I'm telling you, this is the best thing since sliced bread. My stepmom used to go to four different stores in a week to hit up the sales. I've never had that dedication. We went to Wal-Mart armed with the flyers from every other grocery store and saved almost $15! It's like free money!

The best deal was on chicken. Food Basics had a whole chicken for $5. The same chicken was $10.78 at Wal-Mart. Price match it up, baby! That bargain chicken gave us two meals, one of which being these chicken salad sandwiches.

This is seriously the best chicken salad I've ever had. I never thought I'd say this, but the blue cheese dressing makes the sandwich. I really try to like blue cheese, but I just can't do it. It tastes like moldy feet. But just a little squeeze here makes all the difference. Plus, I got a certain someone to eat avocado without even knowing it. Way to go Tyler! (You thought I was going to say Parker, the 2 year old, right? He loves avocado- he'll eat a whole one for a snack if I let him).

One Year Ago: Panini Bar + Summer BBQ Menu

Two Years Ago: Bran Flax Muffins + Breakfast Club Sandwiches + Slow Cooker Bristket

CREAMY CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES

Serves 4

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup sour cream, low fat or regular 
• 1/2 an avocado, mashed
• 1 tbsp blue cheese dressing
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 buns, toasted
• handful baby spinach

Mix all ingredients but buns and spinach in a bowl. Divide mixture evenly between buns, top with some baby spinach. 

Photography

I just got a Digital SLR camera. I'm super stoked about it. And over whelmed. I do not want to use it as a an automatic- I already have one of those. I want to play with the settings and take beautiful photos that my point and shoot can't do. But it's been a long time since I used a manual camera. My dad had one in the 80's (and it was still going strong throughout the 90's too), but he's now been using a digital camera for years too. Enter our friend Google.

I searched "food blog photography" and down the rabbit hole I went. I can't tell you how I ended up finding this post on food styling. The author takes a dish of unappetizing curried lentils and makes it look delicious, documenting the drab to fab process. Have a look, even if you are not into food photography- any artistic soul will be drawn in.

When Good Food Looks Bad: A Food Styling Post at Running with Tweezers