Dark Hot Fudge Sauce

 Dark chocolate hot Fudge Sauce.....absolutely  precarious for everyone who loves chocolate. I know I've posted this before, but each time it comes out a little differently. Kind of like those chocolate chp cookies. Made this again, this week, because we had company. Couldn't think of anything but chocolate. So made it fresh, right in front of company, scooped out a quantity of plain vanilla ice cream, or yogurt, depending on what each person preferred, then  ceremoniously drizzled Hot Fudge sauce languidly over  it all, and then we watched while it swirled and eddied into melted pools of chocolate and vanilla........ Got you hooked, yet......?

INGREDIENTS: 2/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup,  2/3 milk or cream, plus a tad more for good measure ( it tends to be overly  thick), splash in a tablespoon of wine/whiskey/sherry to give it an added ounce of flavour.  But not much...it is good on its own. 

METHOD: Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, or it will burn. Eventualy, the mixture will bubble and burp its way to success, and end up looking thick like treacle. Do not boil this. Just reach the hard bubble stage, take off the heat, and serve at once. Great for last minute.......

Cranberry Sauce...with or without the booze

WIth Easter coming, decided to tweak  cranberry sauce so it sits up and roars a little. So easy to make the real stuff. Forget the gelatinous gloop you can find in the grocery store. It's days are numbered......

INGREDIENTS: 1 pkg fresh cranberries, 1 apple cut into small chunks, leaving on the peel,1 cup sugar, 1 cup orange juice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 cup Grand Marnier or Whiskey,  or you can leave it alone.

METHOD: Cook everything, including the tad of alcohol together in a medium saucepan over medium hear. THe cranberries should pop most  invitingly once the  fruit has cooked down, and marnier should have become just a whiff at this point, with no raw alcohol taste. Serve with dinner. Or smother over turkey sandwiches and serve to some very lucky people.

Those Chocolate Chip Cookies Again

Here we go again. So this makes it about 17 or 18 times that I've made these since the fall. I think.......I have lost count, to be truthful. Ooey and gooey and completely addictive. Will cure anything.......

INGREDIENTS: 4 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 cup butter, 1 cup margarine, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1 package instant vanilla pudding, 1/2 cupwhite sugar, 4 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 4 - 5 cups large semi sweet chocolate chips or nibs.

METHOD Enjoy beating all together. Very satisfying. Plop onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes.   Heaven.......

Pasta with Cream and Mushrooms

 Lovely, and veritably voluptuous in taste, with the cream lightly drizzling  curls of pasta. So easy. Nigella Lawson makes  version of this, but I've got my own spin. Depends on what ingredients you have available. And I added a few things ( like veggies) to spruce it up a bit. Just add a green salad and everyone will be happy, happy happy.

INGREDIENTS: Medium size packet of whole wheat or brown rice pasta. ( Use the good stuff, not the cheap no name brands). A few handfuls of cut up mushrooms,  a cup and a half of chopped up celery and some onion, a handful or two of various veggies like broccoli, parsley, snap peas, etc. Not too much. Jsut enough for colour and interest. 1/2 a pint ( or a bit more) of whipping cream, salt, pepper, garlic, basil, dash worchestshire sauce, or a hot sauce if you wish.

 Chop up musrooms,  other veggies and spcies, set aside til after the pasta is cooked.

 This is whole wheat pasta. Reall liked it. Usually I use brown rice pasta. This was a nice change.

 Boil in boiling water, throw in a dash of olive oil. Drain, and set aside while you make the sauce. Actually the sauce kind makes itself....

 In same pot, throw in a 1/4 cup of margarine, with about /4 cup clour , give or take a bit. Doesn't hve ot be accurate ( I am not big on being precise...just go with it).  Coo until a roux is formed. The flour and margarine will combine and this is the thickener. Takes only a  minute.

Throw in the veggies and cook with the roux. Add a tad of olive oil to help the cooking procecss.Cook vegies till they are soft and not cruncy Crunchy is bad. Then pour in the cream, can always add more if it is too thick. Do not add half and half, or water. Yuck. After the cream is incorporated into the veggies drop in the drained pasta. Stir to coat...should not be drowning in sauce. Double yuck. Adjust seasonings to your requirements. Serve at once. Leftovers are good the next day only. Very yummy. A nice treat.Not something I would serve every day. Great for company.

Apple Turnovers

 MAKE PASTRY FIRST: 2 cups flour, cut in 1cup cold margarine, add 1/3 cu ice water. Ombine till dough ball forms.

 Add an ice cube to make water ice cold, before adding to pastry mixture.

 FILLING:  Cut up 5 or 6 granny smith apples, toss in 1/2 cup sugar,  1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg,
1/8 tsp cloves.

 PASTRY: Flatten into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill about an hour. Makes it easier to roll out.Don't use prepared pastry. It is not nice. This is nicer. 

 Roll out half pastry .............

 Cut into a square, and divide into 4 sections. Leftover pieces will be reused.

 Pile a bit of apple mixture on half of pastry flat.

 Roll over to other edge, crinmp edges with flour dipped fork. Have fun making a mess......

 Wash each turnover with egg wash, and sprinkle with raw sugar.

 Should look something like this. Have fun making more mess with the raw sugar.....

Bake at 400 degress for about 22 minutes. Absolutely lovely with cream poured over top, or eaten cold.  Better than apple pie. Two people can share one turnover......but  may have to fight over the crumbs.

Red Velvet

Oooh,Red Velvet....all the rage again. Very southern. This is a really nice recipe. The cake is soft, and lovely. Perfect red velvet coulour...surrising, since the recipe came with the pan!

Ooo, shiny new mixing bowl and heart shaped pan. Brand spankin' new, ready to be battered.Spray pan with Pam and set aside. Turn on oven to 350 degrees.

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/4 cup cake flour,  pinch salt, 1/2 cup butter, 3/ cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp cocoa, 1 ounch red food colouring, 1/2 cup buttermilk,  1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp vinegar

Combine flour and salt in bowl.

 Beat butter, sugar together till wonderfully beaten.

Add egg, cocoa and food colouring ( can also use an organic red paste from specialty shops. But here in Flannel City we are sorely lacking in something like that)

             Beat all together, adding mixture of flour with  buttermilk in several additions.

                          Add vinegar to baking soda and let it fizz. Then fold into the batter.

 Place batter into pans, smooth over tops and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

 Better clean up that dirty bowl to make buttercream frosting.........................

 FROSTING: 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup or so of icing sugar, vanila, a tad of water or cream.Beat very vigorously. ake sure that it does not taste overly sweet. Less sugar is best...

Finished cupcakes. Frost liberally,and enjoy.

Grilled Tomatoe and Cheese

       Ohhhh, yum, yum, yummy. Love Grilled tomatoe with havarti cheese.  Slice up  few tomatoes, slap between two slices of stone milled bread, slather on the Havarti and voila....instant comfort food for a cold day.
  The tomatoe ( Solanum  lycopersicum) was brought to North America by the Spanish. The fruit ( it is technically a fruit... I found written evidence that the U.S.  has been the one to call it a vegetable.....I apologize to my American friends in advance of this knowledge!). It is a member of the nightshade family, and was first domesticated by the Aztecs. Cortez is said to have brought little yellow tomatoes back with him, after first setting foot in Aztec country.
  The Pueblo people believed that tomatoe seeds were blessed with the power of divination.The larger tomatoe was considered for years to be a sort of mutation on the original cherry tomatoe variety.The Spanish took the tomaotoe to the Caribbean, Phillipines and South East Asia. The first recipes using tomoatoes was in 1692 from Naples....before that they were considered "table top decorations", not for eating, but for admiring.......
   Therefore.............I present some tomatoes for you to admire.............

Things to do with Wibbly Brownies

Couldn't resist posting this. Hopefully you've read the recipe for Wibbly Brownies. I think you will be able to appreciate it more this way................. ( Yum, yum,yum........good for giving away to a lot of lucky friends.)

Deliciously Wibbly Brownies

 We've all made brownieson autopilot. This is a great recipe from Nigella Lawson's newest collection.It uses cocoa powder, and is studded with lucious nibs of chocolate, above and below. It quells that longing for a dark chocolate fix, in the middle of a dreary, or not so dreary day.

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 cups butter,  1/2 cups brown sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa, 1 1/3 cup flour, 1 tsp soda, pinch of salt, 4 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, couple of handfuls of dark chocolate nibs, or semi sweet chocolate chips. And lastly, a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips to scatter over top.

                                         Melt butter in microwave, toss in brown sugar and stir.

 Add cocoa to this mixture and stir.....

 Add flour, soda, pinch of salt and stir all together. It will appear dry.

 Beat eggs with vanilla. Pour all at once into batter mixture. Toss in chocolate nibs.

 Spread batter in foil lined pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle extra handful of chocolate chips on top. Return to oven for about a minute. They will magically melt.  Let brownies cool. You can eat them gorgeously warm,while they still wibble a bit,  but  you might burn your fingers and that would never do.

Tumeric Risotto

 Risotto. The best of the best of comfort food. My mother always made rice wth tumeric. It was always golden and  just about perfect. I like to turn it into risotto.  Takes some time. Well worth it. Good the next day, just add a bit of hot water to  soften up the rice.

Tumeric (Curcuma Longa): is part of the ginger family, native to tropical South Asia. The rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep yellow-gold powder. It is often used as a dye for fabric, besides used in food. In medieval Europe, tumeric became known as Indian Saffron, and was used as an alternative to the more expensive saffron spice. It has long been sought after for its anti-inflammatory properties.

 In a skillet dump in a handfl of chopped celery, onions, cilantro, a dash of olive oil and a blob of butter. Stir over medium heat till cooked slightly.

Add to the skillet about a cup of rice. I used a mix of Jasmine and brown rice.  Don't be too fussy. It all works.

 Have on the stove, in a separate pot, a carton of veggie broth, boiling away.Toss in a tablespoon of tumeric, give or take a bit.

Add to the skillet a cup of hot broth, at a time, and stir, stir, stir, stir, till all the broth is used up, and the rice is just softened and rather creamy. Very very nice.

Greens 'n Stuff

 Baby Bok Choy ( one of my favourites)....stir fried with veggie oil, garlic, pepper, aqnd a dash of sesame oil. Easy. Good. Very green.

 Red Leaf Lettuce. 1 gram of fiber. Good source of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and selenium. Very good ona plat with balsamic vinegar with olive oil to dip, and french bread. Very Very green.

 Sweet corn is  thew result of a naturally ocurring recessive mutation in the genes which controls conversion of sugar to a starch........steamed, barbecued, then cut off the kernels with a sharp knife, trying to keep as many intact as possible. Looks great tossed on the salad.

Or, just steam everybody together and be done with it......................add a tad of butter, and presto, instant yum....