Noodle Soup for Needy People

Well, I have PMS today so that definitely makes me a needy person. And it really makes Husband a needy person, putting up with my mood swings and what not. You know the ones I mean. Men out there, as bad as it is for you it's worse for the woman, trust me. Sometimes you say something all mean and snappish and you immediately think in your head "Oh that was mean. That's the PMS talking - not me." But you don't apologize because the PMS is in you like a beast and if you keep talking you're only poking more at the beast and God knows what will come out of you mouth next. You'll mean to apologize but end up telling your Husband he's got terrible taste and why can't he do things faster or more correctly? So silence is best I find. And yes I do encourage people to steer clear of me when I'm moody. Sometimes I don't even want to be around myself.

So given this is my state of mind today, Husband and I surely qualify as needy. The one good thing is that Spike is having a Star Wars marathon today so that is soothing to me. I made Husband and I this to slurp on while we watch the original Star Wars. It took me only about 10 minutes to make, so I had little time to get frustrated. I found out while I was making this that I didn't have enough sugar snap peas but honestly I found my portion to be quite enough. I used about half the amount. Also, shockingly my Metro didn't have shitake mushrooms. I thought about getting oyster mushrooms instead but then I chinced out and just used the regular old button mushrooms I had in the fridge at home. Were I to make this again, I would use the oyster mushrooms if I couldn't find shitake. Not that the buttons weren't good they just didn't add to the Asian feel of the soup. I would compare this soup to a Japanese Udon Soup (given the udon noodle that's a little stating the obvious). I love udon soup so this really hit the spot for me. Husband enjoyed this as much as I did. The title certainly fits the dish. If you're feeling needy a bowl of this may just well be your cure.

Caribbean Creams

This recipe has been tantalizing me for some time now. The picture in Nigella's book looks so yummy that I couldn't wait to try it. It is true that I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that this recipe too has double cream in it...though I'm not sure why I was surprised. I'm thinking about taking stock in double cream the way Nigella uses it. And I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to loose weight eating all this double cream. Anyhow, I did run into a touch of a problem at Metro with this one of course. But this time it was truly disappointing because normally my Metro does have coconut yogurt. But last night they were all sold out!!! Can you believe it? I couldn't. I just can't win with this grocery shopping thing. I didn't feel like driving to another grocery store so I decided to just go ahead and use the Greek Yogurt. So it wouldn't be as flavourful, but I would keep that in mind when reviewing the recipe I told myself. "Chances are it'll still be pretty good." thinking of that lovely photo beside the recipe. So this morning I made this recipe for after dinner dessert.

First off, I wasn't sure what dish to make this in because my ramekins are not glass and I thought this recipe needed to be seen, what with the layering and what not. After some hard thinking I decided the best thing I had to use were martini glasses. I lined the bottom of my glasses with banana, covered the bananas with the yogurt/cream/rum mixture. Here I'll tell you I used banana flavoured malibu rum (I thought the banana in the rum would help out the lack of coconut in the yogurt). Then you Sprinkle with brown sugar...I kept reading the instructions over again after this because my dessert looked NOTHING like Nigella's delicious looking photo. But after a few re-reads I found I hadn't missed anything and put my desserts in the fridge feeling let down.
Six hours later, I was a little hungry so I decided that I'd have my dessert as an appetizer to dinner. I took it out to the couch and dug in (Husband had the good sense not to question this behaviour). I have to tell you it was pretty damn good. And remembering that this was without the coconut yogurt I'm gonna say this dessert is damn fine. Mine still didn't hold a candle to Nigella's appearance wise but it sure did taste yummy. I wasn't too sweet and since my sweet tooth is baby tooth size this dessert is perfect for me. As a matter of fact about an hour after I'd had my caesar salad dinner I felt a little peckish again. So I ate Husband's pudding too! Caribbean Creams are light, yummy and when you are eating this you'll feel everything is Irie Mon! I really liked this dessert and I can't wait to try it with the coconut yogurt!

Crepes Suzette

This is my 100th post! And for my 100th post I wanted to make a really flashy recipe. What's more flashy than crepes suzette? I was nervous to make this because I was afraid of burning the house down. I thought about doing the flambe outside to make sure I didn't burn the house down..but then I thought that may be a bit too much. I decided that I could be a grown up and handle my shiz and do this in the house. So before dinner I prepped everything for this so that after dinner I could just make it happen. I asked husband if he would take a picture of the "flambe" which he agreed to do but not without trepidation. Basically he was afraid I'd burn his face off. I assured him I would neither burn him, myself or the house down....Though honestly I wasn't 100% sure about any of this. In Nigella's picture she has a massive flambe happening so this is what I was going for....It didn't happen so much for me...I used about 5 matches and I hadn't even gotten it lit. I did get some flame at one point where Husband snapped a blurry photo. But overall I felt let down about my serious lack of flames. But better too little than too many flames I guess. One thing I was not let down with though was the taste. Sooo orangey and sweet and boozey! I am a huge fan of 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s fashion and the whole history of pop culture in the first half of the 20th century. Crepes Suzette is the muscle car of desserts so for me it just has an aura of je ne sais quoi about it. But I am enchanted with this dessert. It's very retro chic and it's clear that there's a reason this recipe has stuck around to the next century!

Gammon Steaks with Parsley

Have I ever told you that my commuter train station is located directly beside a pig slaughter house? It is. And you can imagine the horrors that I endure from that. It's bad enough seeing the truck loads of pigs going into that place. And being at the stop light beside those pigs is even worse..I have the put my hand up like a horse blinder so I don't see. Have you ever made eye contact with a pig that's 2 minutes from the slaughter house? I have. It's awful. I could see the fear in the pigs eye. Terrified from being packed on that scary big rig truck and knowing they're going some place that something very bad will happen to them. Yech! Once I was looking at a poor little piggy and it was so scared it barfed right there. Ever since then I put up the hand blinder. What may be worse is seeing the empty trucks leaving because you know there's a fresh kill going on inside that awful building. But the absolute worst thing of all is the days that you can hear the pigs squealing!!!!! I almost vomit when this happens. The first time it happened I wasn't sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. I thought maybe it was my paranoia about this place that made my ears play tricks on me. But then it happened again and again and now I stand for the train as far from that house of horrors as possible. If I hear one more squeal I will barf all over the train platform. Honestly, to me this feels like I have to wait for a train everyday beside a fully functioning Auschwitz. I say that with 100% sincerity. Pork was the first meat I stopped eating in the past little while. Not because of taste but because of spending 10 minutes of my day beside Auschwitz 5 days a week.

Frankly, I have a really hard time coming home and even making anything pork for Husband because of this...and it's really too bad for him because he loves pork. I prefer my pigs on the farm as opposed to my plate though. But today I sucked it up for Nigella an this blog and cooked up a piece of what I'm sure was a Jewish slaughtered pig. Now I know that after my giant spiel maybe you're no longer in the mood for some swine but if even the images I just planted can't deter you from your love of the magical pig then this recipe is quick and easy. Husband really enjoyed it. This will take you about 7 minutes to make start to finish.

Because I'm being a terrible sales person for this I'm going to suggest to you some side dishes. I accompanied this with Marscapone and Truffle Infused Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans Sauteed in Butter and Garlic. The side dishes were amazing. They are not Nigella recipes - they are recipes I made up on the spot so you can't google those titles...well maybe you can but what ever comes up good luck with. I ate a veggie burger patty with my beans and mashed - I'll recommend that to you also. For those of you who have no soul or don't visit Swine Auschwitz daily try the Ham.

PS- Husband does wait for his train the same station I do..but like 98% of the people there he doesn't seem to be able to hear the pig squeals and when he sees a load of pigs pulling into Auschwitz he gets a sudden craving for bacon....Different strokes...

Nutella Pancakes

I love Nutella. It is so yummy. But I never have it. I associate Nutella with Germany and therefore don't think to buy it in Canada. You see, I did a student exchange to Germany when I was in high school and when I was there we ate Nutella all the effing time. What we did was we would dip granny smith apple into Nutella right outta the jar. If you haven't tried that - you'd best start now because you have seriously been missing out. Honestly.
But what's more decadent are these dessert pancakes. You could really knock the socks off your friends with this one. You can make these with shop bought crepes - but I decided just to make my own. Crepes are really quite simple to make. Then you spread them with Nutella and fold. Then cover with a butter and Fra Angelico concoction. But I didn't want to spend the money on another bottle of booze. So I opted to use Kahula. And this was a good substitution. Also, I couldn't find any hazelnuts (though admittedly I didn't look very hard) so I just went without. So bake in the oven for 10 minutes and while you're waiting you whip a little of the booze into some double cream (yes more double cream!!). I thought maybe this was a bit much but honestly the cream is such a compliment to the sweet, nutty, buttery crepes that I say don't go without it.

This dessert is so easy and so delicious. I urge you to try this. Let's face it crepes are not an everyday kinda treat. If you serve these to your guests or even your significant other you'll make them feel special and loved. And isn't that how we want to make the people we prepare food for feel?

Oeufs en Cocotte

With Husband being gone for the weekend that means I have to sleep by myself. Which means there's a chance I'm never going to sleep. I never thought there would be a day when I wouldn't be able to sleep in my own bed by myself because I used to LOVE sleeping by myself. I used to look over at Husband in the bed and think about all the valuable space he was taking up. Then I realized the best part about having someone beside you is you now have someone to take a bullet for you. Someone to be horribly murdered in bed while you get away. I've now got a 50/50 chance to get away if ever a serial killer enters the home. When Husband isn't home all I do is lay in bed and think what I'll do if a rapist-robber decides to strike that night. See normally, with him there, the plan is hide behind him or send him out into the trenches to battle the bad guy while I call 911 and either hide or escape to safety. I've never actually gone over this plan with him but I'm sure he's game for this approach. So what I have to do when he's not home to defend me is make myself incredibly tired so that I immediately fall asleep. As opposed to laying there for 6 hours becoming more paranoid with every minute. Oh, and I have to make sure I don't watch any CSI.

Last night was a particular challenge as there have been a couple of break-ins in my neighbourhood lately. We're all on a neighbourhood watch here currently. However I did manage to sufficiently tire myself last night and had little trouble making Zs. This morning I woke up feeling very proud of myself for not sitting up all night in a state of paranoia and deserving of a fabulous breakfast.

I'd planned that I would make this for breakfast today but I wasn't sure if I would like it or not. For one thing there's double cream in it and I feel like I've O.D'd on double cream lately.

(Ever since the margarita ice cream disaster) Secondly the eggs look a little runny in her photo and I don't like runny eggs. But I was really curious about this and I thought the addition of white truffle oil could only mean good things. So after giving myself a few minutes to wake up I started on the recipe.

It takes about 3 minutes to put it all together and then you bake in a water bath for 15 minutes. I still wasn't sure when I took these out of the oven. But then I took my first bite and oh. my. God. Flavour heaven. Maybe I should tell you that I used free range eggs because a) they're less cruel and b) they taste better. Don't chince of the quality of the egg you use for this. Nigella even specifies organic eggs. But seriously if you serve this to someone for your next brunch when they will look at you, you will have an aura of stars. You will become the God or Godess of breakfast. I don't know how to describe the flavour but it's nothing short of decadent. The white truffle oil adds layers of taste and dimensions of flavour. This is by no means a cheap breakfast but it is worth every penny you spend on it.

Jumbleberry Crumble

Husband is out of town this weekend. This means I can eat whatever I want for dinner. Tonight I had chips and dip. That's right I had chips and dip for dinner. I'm shameless. But I was a little hungry still so I thought 'hmm maybe I need some dessert'. That's when I decided to make this. I figured when you have chips and dip for dinner you should have fruit for dessert. It's crazy easy to make and it actually pretty tasty. Mine was a bit too runny - I think I should have added more cornflour. I used agave nectar instead of sugar and I should have accounted for the extra liquid when portioning the cornflour...I'll know for next time I guess. Sorry maybe I should clarify in regards to the sugar..because you use sugar twice. First you use raw sugar (Nigella calls this Demerara sugar) to make the crumble topping. Then when you put the berries in the ramekin you toss them in cornflour and sugar - this is where I used the agave. And where I should have used more cornflour though. But no matter it still tasted delish.

Make this if you want a real comfort dessert. Almost like a pie but much less work!