Macaroni Cheese

Growing up Canadian there is no better comfort food than macaroni and cheese. If there's a person in Canada who didn't grow up eating Kraft Dinner then they aren't really Canadian. I did a student exchange when in high school and when my exchange partner left to return to Germany she took some Kraft Dinner with her...what does that tell you. But maybe your a little older, a little wiser or don't live in Canada anymore (or never did - who knows whose reading this) the thought of eating powdered cheese maybe has lost some of it's appeal to you (heresy!). Well friends, you can get all the comfort of your Kraft Dinner without all the processed foods from this recipe. I can't say that this recipe is any better than the baked mac & cheese I've made on a whim myself but perhaps you're not the kind of person to just toss things in a pot and hope for the best. If you are the kind of cook who needs some sort of reference or compass while cooking I recommed using this one for your baked Mac & Cheese. And may I take the liberty of making a suggestion of my own...adding a little broccoli to any mac & cheese recipe is always both healthy and delightful. I obviously didn't do that here because Nigella didn't call for it but that's what's so good about mac & cheese is it's really a kitchen sink meal. You can toss in what ever you need to use up and it will taste delish.

So husband and I enjoyed a nice comfort food lunch - but I can't say this will by any means relieve me of my addiction and guiltly pleasure of a nice bowl of KD now and then.

Bunuelos

Well friends, don't be fooled by the delicious looking photo. This one turned out shit. Actually I can't even say it turned out shit because it didn't turn out at all. Sure they look good and I was soooo excited to eat these - I made a decaf cappuccino and all to eat this. I actually couldn't wait to eat this I ate my "test" piece of dough that checks the oil temp and, based on how delicious that was, I was even more excited to eat a couple of these babies. And then I bit into one......raw. Raw, raw, raw. I was heart broken. I franticly started ripping them open to find ONE that was cooked. Only to have my heart fully shattered. Not a one turned out. Here's where I went wrong:

Things started out right - nice and smooth. I measured, I mixed, I was in the zone. I heated the oil, I tested the oil. When I tested the oil the small drop of dough turned a glorious golden brown and I took it out and immediately went temporairily insane with anticipation, where I could no longer cook and everything I know about frying left my brain. These little bad boys where cooking like mad. Turning a golden brown near to immediately and a dark brown within about 45 seconds. So when they reached this dark brown colour I removed them from the oil. Right there, that was it - that was where I went wrong...12 times. The first rule of frying - when you use previously used oil your food will turn a dark brown and not be done...this is the critical piece of information that just got up and left my brain.

So when I did bite into these bunuelos reality and sanity came crashing down on me in the form of a raw doughy centre. Oh the humanity of it all. Had I cooked these as Nigella told me to, aka - finished reading the instructions and a full 2 minutes, these would have been AMAZING. I will have to make these again because I know they will be delightful...next time though, I will have to make sure to use fresh oil and be sure to cook the correct amount of time.

0 for 2 this weekend .... hopefully Team Canada fairs better.

Maple Chicken 'N' Ribs

Well, it's Olympic time in Canada and there's a hockey game tonight. I told my husband that I would make him and his friend chicken and ribs for the hockey game. I thought this would be a selfless act - selfish in the fact that it would prove once and for allt hat I am the perfect wife - otherwise a selfless act. Mainly because I have recently stopped eating meat. The only meat I'm eating currently is fish. So me making chicken and ribs is of no culinary benefit to myself. See...perfect wife.

Well truth be told Husband said he was going to invite his friend over for the Canada V. Slovakia game and I saw an opportunity to cross a meat dish off the list while not having a bunch of uneaten meat in in the fridge.

So I read this recipe a few days ago and found the meat is marinated overnight. So I had to pick up everything yesterday. I made my grocery list and headed to metro after work. I needed to buy some Star Anaise. I had to google what this spice was and found it's a spice used in Asian cooking, which I was suspicious of but I had to make sure given my history. Here's the big surprise, I couldn't find star anaise. I looked in the spice section, I looked in the Asian foods section. No dice. So I have a brilliant brain-wave and think to myself " I bet Chinese Five Spice has Star Anaise in it.". So I head back to the spice section get a bottle of Chinese Five spice and read the label. Listed I find "Anaise". And I think to myself maybe I should check for "anaise" which I find. Now Nigella wants me to use whole star anaise and all I can find is anaise seeds. "It's as good as it's going to get in a Metro" I tell myself so I make do and pray that anaise seeds and Star Anaise are the same spice.

Back at home I put the chicken in one bag and the ribs in another and set them overnight. Tonight I came home from work and set to claim gold as wife of the century. Again I kept the meats apart and cooked the chicken in one dish and the ribs in another. Nigella says bake at 200C for 75 minutes. When I read this I thought "hmmm that seems a long time." But I bowed to Nigella's know-how and did as I was told.

Husband's friend arrived just as the food was coming out of the oven. But I have to tell you I was slightly dismayed by what I saw. My dishes were BLACK and the meat looked like it was in stage one of burning. "Yikes." I've got Husband's friend here and a near to burnt dinner. But I did what I do best and I pressed on.

I cut up the ribs and plated my dish and I also decided maybe I need to serve this with a sauce. Nothing covers the flavour of burnt like a good BBQ sauce. So I headed to the living room with my plate o' meat and a side of BBQ. Husband's friend is single so I'm sure he was just happy to eat someone's else's cooking. He said it looked and tasted delicious...I wasn't buying it. I told them both I need HONEST opinions for the blog.

Husband says "Do you really want my honest opinion?"

"Yes" says I.

"ummmmmm it's not so good." Says husband.

"What's wrong with it?" Says I.

"It's a little dry..."

"I thought so.....that's why I brought you the sauce. Just put on some sauce."

In the end the chicken was good and the ribs had good flavour but were a bit too dry. Or so I'm told. If you want to make this I suggest you cook this at 375 as opposed to 400. Of maybe cook for a little less time. But 75 minutes at 200C is a bit too long. One thing I can tell you about this is the cinnamon smells delicious when it's cooking...and I'll be scrubbing my dishes for the next 6 months.

Salade Nicoise

Are you ready to have your mind blown by a salad? Can I just tell you that this meal is AMAZING! The best salad I've had in a while. I couldn't even finish my dinner. Not because it wasn't delicious but because it was so hearty!

Now I know, I know, maybe you're thinking "But this salad looks so freaking amazing in your photo it must be a difficult make." Well, you're 100% wrong. Because this couldn't be easier! Ask yourself a question "Am I literate?" If you answer yes then you can make this salad. There's no cooking here...no risk of burning you or your dish. Just some chopping and weighing and bam. Fan-freakin-tastic meal. I even went the extra mile and used the optional anchovies. And guess what, they weren't sardines they were real actual anchovies. Maybe your thinking "Yikes! anchovies?!?!? Isn't that a little hardcore?" Yes it is, but I beg you to live on the edge and give it a try. Think back, no back further..a little further...were you maybe a little afraid of the taste the first time you had hard liquor....afraid of that strong flavour. But just think how delicous hard liquor is now. Now are you willing to try the anchovies? Please do. But if you do puss out and not try the 'chovies (shame on you) you'll still enjoy this salad. This is a must. As in YOU MUST MAKE THIS. You will not regret it. This will be a staple for me.

PS - this is even better with a glass of wine...it is a French salad after all.

Moonblush Tomatoes

These little charmers are a cinch to make. All you do is chop them season and leave them in your warmed up oven overnight. Can it get any easier? I think not. I used grape tomatoes but you can use any baby tomato as Nigella points out. She uses these a lot in her salads and you can use these in about 100o things. Make them the day ahead and your set to jet. :)

Tasty and visually appealing!

Quick Crostini with Avacado and Green Pea Hummus

Imagine you are in this scenario....You are mildly hung-over and you need to make an appetizer for another party you're attending. You only had 5 hours of sleep, you woke up with gut rot and a sore back, you're incredibly tired but you can't get back to sleep. You spent your day lazing around doing nothing at all really because you don't feel like it. You need to leave for your party in 90 minutes and you still need to 1. have a shower 2. make your appetizer 3. Make yourself pretty. If you ever find yourself in this scenario this is the appetizer you should make. Not only is this fast but it's simple and delicious.

Nigella lists making this with canned peas but let me tell you, canned veggies do not pass these lips. At least not knowingly. I picked up some frozen organic peas and cooked them up - they turned out great. Also the other side note here is that I used a whole clove of garlic when Nigella lists only a half...this was mostly due to laziness on my part of not wanting to cut a clove in half when I could just pop in the whole thing. Plus I like garlic.

The ratio of work put in to taste reward here is about 1:9. Very little work, very big reward. Next time you need a tasty app and have very little time or enery this recipe is for you. And no you can't really taste the peas.

Orange French Toast

I've come to discover that Nigella and I do not see eye to eye on French Toast. I believe that she is a fan of the eggy quishey type french toast. I'm not such a fan of this. I prefer my French Toast to be eggy, yes, but a firm toasty-eggy. Putting the TOAST in French Toast.

That being said I decided to veer away from Nigella's soaking and cooking instructions on this. I made this decision because I really wanted to enjoy this breakfast - not like the last french toast recipe. So I took matters into my own hands and halved the soaking time and doubled the cooking time. As a reslut of this .... I really liked this recipe.

Orange French Toast was a little confusing for me at first - taste wise. I couldn't decide if I liked it on the first bite. But that was just because it's so different. By my 3rd bite I was a fully confirmed fan. This breakfast is... dare I say elegant. I'm not used to having a syrup on my french toast but the marmalade syrup is regal. There is a richness to this orangey sweet french toast. I think to enrich this meal even more it should be served on fine china and with a high end tea or coffee (which ever you prefer). And really you should be dressed for this. That would be the ultimate way to eat this dish - it just tastes of richness and special occasions, thanks to the syrup. Think Ritz Hotel. But the true beauty of this dish is it's also humble enough to be eaten in your flannels watching Sunday morning Coronation Street with your cat curled up beside you. However you chose to experince this dish, it will be enjoyed.

Vanilla Apples with Sweetheart Croutes

Lemme just say it. This shit is good.

Not only is this good - I really don't think it's so terrible for you either. Basically it's apples sauteed in butter and vanilla..I mean there's calories in the butter but what maybe like 140 calories in ALL the butter used...that's nothing for a kick ass treat. Seriously the more I think about this the better it is.

Okay so I completely hacked the apples apart - you're supposed to make thin slices. Not like for a pie slices but nice pretty half-moon slices. I wasn't so great at doing that...and to tell you the truth I was a little afraid when I saw my final product compared to Nigella's perfectly golden apples in her photo. But then I tasted it and fell into tastebud bliss. Like falling into a big fluffy cloud that whisked me away to a place where desserts are vitamins.

I was also worried about how my "croutes" were going to turn out - they didn't look too impressive either...but again just delights. Now Nigella does say to serve this with cream but unless you're a blue blooded Brit - I say forget the cream. I think it's wasted calories. This recipe is perfect as is.

Nigella also says that this recipes serves 4. Which I'm sure is true, but I ate the whole god damned thing myself. It was too good and I hadn't had lunch yet. I did give Husband some to try but let's not fool ourselves. I ate the whole damned thing. 2 apples worth.

This dessert is perfect, perfect, perfect to make your Valentine this weekend and you won't feel terrible that you just ate a massive amount of dessert because you're just eating sauteed apples!!!

Oh - you do sprinkle sugar over this once done and really I think I used about half a teaspoon of sugar on the whole thing.

Nigella really hit the ball out of the park with this one.

Chocolate Croissants

Croissants are one of the greatest baked treats ever invented. Having a perfect croissant is a religious experience. Topped only by the accompaniment of a perfect cappuccino. Today I had an immitation of this.

Actually, perfection of this scenario is really when you're experiencing such foods in Paris with the sun shining and you're sitting in a park or in the shadows of historic buildings. I don't think you'll get a more perfect croissant than the ones you'll get in France. However when you're stuck indoors on a -12 Canadian winter day. Nigella's Chocolate Croissants and your own homemade carmel latte can fill that gap just fine.

Now don't get me wrong the croissants don't hold a candle to the real thing (speaking as an obsessed fan). But when you're in a pinch and have a craving or a yearning - this is the ticket.

I did have a little trouble getting out of the gate on this one. These croissants are made with puff pastry - I've never made anything with puff pastry before. I had a bit of trouble trying to find it in my metro. We all know the trouble I've had with ingredients at metro in the past. But finally I found the tiny little package labelled puff pastry and mentally wiped my brow. Once home I defrosted the frozen pastry and watched Terminator 4. Once I'd wasted 1h45min of my life I'll never get back I went to start on the recipe. It was then I realized I hadn't bought what Nigella wanted me to. I was supposed to buy "ready rolled butter puff pastry". What I did buy was "puffy pastry". Hmmmm. Well let's do what we can - I tell myself. So I rolled out my pastry and hoped for the best. From here it was just some cutting and rolling and pop them in the oven. I crossed my fingers.

Nigella says bake for 15 min. For me it took only about 13 min. Then I let them cool and sunk my teeth into the croissant and my mind into Tuileries Garden.

A perfect afternoon treat!

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Well, I was looking for a sinful treat this afternoon and I thought I'd found it with this. Chocolate and alcohol...sounds like a perfect combo to me...but I ended up disappointed with this. Maybe it's because I didn't have the whipped cream topper...but Nigella says this is optional. No doubt it would have been better with it. But it's not supposed to be essential. I didn't have any cinnamon sticks, so in lieu of that I sprinkled ground cinnamon on top - like a cappuccino - and that I don't think was a deal breaker either - but I'm not an expert.

I think what was not suited to my taste buds was drinking warm Kahula. I'm more of a Bailey's girl for warm drinks and I don't think I'll be switching to Kahula any time soon. I'll keep my Kahula's in my brown cows (not that I drink those on a regular basis).

If you are the kind of person who puts Kahula in your coffee you'll probably really like this recipe though. It would be great to serve as a dessert at a dinner party. Especially on a cold winter day. But for me this drink just did not trun my crank.

Worth a Look!

So if you're reading these blogs you're either a fan of me or a fan of Nigella. Or maybe both! Since I started this blog I thought I owed it to Nigella to check out her website. Turns out it's pretty sweet! I really love the set up of this site. If you're even moderately interested in Nigella and her recipes I suggest you take a peek.

http://www.nigella.com/

PS - you can find all the recipes I make on this site.

Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup

I wasn't going to make anything Nigella tonight. But I found myself wanting to do more in the kitchen after I'd finished dinner. So I was trying to think what I had in my cupboard that I could knock another recipe off. These ingredients were all right there in the fridge needing to be used up so this is how I arrived at this recipe.

I have made this soup at least 5 times before so I knew what I was doing here. Nevertheless I still made subsitutions. Here I used vegetable stock in place of chicken stock and I used nutmeg in place of mace. To tell you the truth I've never once made this recipe with mace. I've always used nutmeg and I probably always will.

This soup is ridiculously easy to make. While making this soup I washed my dishes and changed in to my work out clothes. Does it get any better??? Why yes it does. Because not only is this soup a dream to make - but it's also a dream to eat. I freakin love this soup. It's joggers that look like tuxedo pants. You think it's all fancy - but then you find out nothing could be easier.

I guess I should also mention that other than the first time I made this soup, I've taken to dropping the buttermilk garnish. The soup is just as good without it -but if you're looking to impress your mother-in-law or something like that then by all means use the buttermilk. For everyday though, you really don't need to go to the trouble....unless you're uppity ;-)