Raspberry Vinaigrette

I don't usually scale down recipes. This one I had to. I made a quarter of the batch. Who needs 4 cups of dressing when it has no preservatives in it, and it's simple enough to make again 2-3 days down the road?

This was great. It didn't separate like most vinaigrettes do (further reading informs me that the honey is the trick). It's a wonderful pink colour and looks really great on your salads, and it's way too easy to warrant buying the expensive salad dressings at the grocery store.

Recipe from Cooking with Chandra

Makes 1 C.

Ingredients

1/2 C. Olive Oil

1/4 C. Vinegar (whatever type you like, I use white)

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1 Tsp. Parsley

2 Tbsp. Honey

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/2 C. Raspberries (I used frozen that I thawed)

1 1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice

Directions

~Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until mixed

~Run mixture through a sieve to strain out the raspberry seeds.

~Serve right away if desired, but best if left to sit in the fridge for a bit for the flavours to blend.

Enjoy

Cheese Crackers (Cheez Its / Cheese Nips Copy-Cat)

These didn't exactly taste like Cheeze Its (for those Americans out there) and Cheese Nips (for the Canadians). They tasted better. Different, but oh so much better. Let's just say the batch almost didn't have a chance to cool and leave it at that. Plus, there is only five ingredients and they are pretty darn simple to make (but they do take a bit of time to chill and cut, but nothing hard about that).

One thing for certain, roll them thin. Like really thin. The ones that worked the best for me were the ones that I could see the colour of the countertop underneath them coming through. They puff up. So unless you want little cracker cubes, roll them thin. I though I had them thin enough, I didn't. Not that it made them taste any worse. They just weren't as crunchy right out of the oven.

Recipe from Better Home & Garden

Makes 14-15 dozen crackers

Ingredients

1 C. Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1/4 C. Butter

1 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Flour

2 Tbsp. Cold Water

*Optional* Additional Salt for Sprinkling

Directions

~Combine cheese and butter in an electric mixer.

~Add in salt and flour and mix until well combined and crumbly

~Continue to mix while adding the water, until a ball forms

~Form dough ball into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate to chill (at least an hour)

~Preheat oven to 375 F

~Roll out dough onto a floured surface to a 1/8 of an inch (when you think you have it thin enough, keep rolling)

~Cut into squares using a pizza cutter, knife or pastry wheel (if you want the classic jagged edge)

~Place squares on baking sheet and with a chopstick or similar sized utensil, poke a hole in the centre.

~Sprinkle with a small amount of salt over the top

~Bake for 12 minutes

Enjoy (warm they are delicious, cool they are crunchy)

Margarita Donuts

As soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. But donuts aren't something we eat a lot of and so I was waiting for the right opportunity to make them. I was really intrigued by the idea and finally I got the chance to try them.

I'm going to critique these because I really like the idea of them, but the donut itself really did nothing for me. The margarita curd filling was absolutely amazing and I am trying to think of something else to make that would use it because it is so great. The donut dough portion was not the right thing for this amazing curd.

I've never tried making donuts before. I don't deep fry anything and so the idea of a baked donut intrigued me. Unfortunately, this baked donut tasted a lot like a dinner bun. They looked beautiful and very much like a donut, but when you bit into them they were just like eating bread. I don't know if this is how all baked donuts turn out, or if this was just because of the recipe.

The other problem with this was I made these and then put them in a container and carted them around for eating the next day. A mistake. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea. You'd never eat a bought donut the next day. They sweat when stored in a container or even a paper bag and they aren't good. Basically, I ended up throwing out almost a dozen and a half donuts because of this mistake.

I would like to try them again, but with a different donut dough. I'll have to do a bit of research because I'm really not at all familiar with donuts and then maybe you'll hear back from me some day. The one good thing about this recipe though was that you did not need to deep fry them, and you didn't need one of the fancy donut pans.

Recipe from Searching for Dessert.

Makes 12 donuts

Ingredients

Donuts

1 Heaping Tsp. Instant Yeast

6 1/2 Tsp. Sugar

1 1/4 C. Flour

1/2 C. Warm Water

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/4 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 Tbsp. Butter, melted 

Margarita Curd

6 Tbsp. Butter, melted

6 Tbsp. Sugar

Zest of 2 Limes

1/4 C. Lime Juice

1 1/2 Tbsp. Tequila

1 Egg

Glaze

1/4 C. Berry Sugar

1 Tsp. Orange Zest (1/2 Orange)

1-2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Directions

Donuts

~Combine all ingredients of the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix to combine and then knead for 5 minutes. If dough is very sticky, increase flour until it forms a nice ball of dough.

~Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap and a towel and place in a warm spot and allow to rise to double it's size (1 hour) or place in a cool spot and allow to rise overnight.

~Preheat oven to 350 F.

~Roll dough out onto a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to about a 1/4 inch in thickness.

~Using a 3 inch round cookie cutter (or glass) cut rounds from the dough.

~Place on a floured cookie sheet.

~Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and allow to sit and rise for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

~Bake for 12-13 minutes or until the edges just begin to turn golden.

~Allow to cool.

Margarita Curd

~Combine butter and sugar in a microwave safe bowl and whisk until sugars have dissolved.

~Add zest, juice and tequila and whisk.

~Add in egg and whisk well.

~Place mixture in microwave and microwave for 30 second intervals, whisking in between each time. For a total of 3-4 minutes or until mixture remains on the back of a spoon.

~Run mixture through a sieve.

~Place in refrigerator to set.

Glaze

~Combine sugar and zest and mix well to evenly coat.

~With a toothpick, poke a hole into one side and wiggle it around inside to open up the inside.

~With a pastry bag outfitted with a narrow and long attachment, pipe curd into the donut.

~Brush donut with melted butter and roll in the sugar/zest mixture.

~Allow butter to set and then eat right away.

Enjoy

Thick & Fluffy Pancakes

Pancakes have really been important for us in our house. So much so that I almost can't appreciate them because I've eaten them for dinner too many times. While most households have soup and grilled cheese, a hot dog, order a pizza or pick up a burger when there is no food in the house, we haven't been able to do that because of dietary restrictions. So, enter the pancakes.

While we make waffles from scratch ALWAYS! Pancakes have been a different story. Probably partly because we make them for dinner when we are in a hurry or because we make them up the cabin (the first day there we always have pancakes) and we don't have tubs of flour, etc. sitting up there. It's just easier to take a box mix.

Now for us, pancakes aren't thin little white things that are loonie size and flavourless. Pancakes are supposed to be thick and filling and have a lot of flavour. We achieve this with the pancake mix (there is only one brand we're allowed to buy and one type in that brand) by always adding the eggs, oil and milk to it. Not just the water that some mixes brag you can get away with doing. Not worth it.

But we have to sub out the milk for soy milk. Vanilla soy milk to be precise, and wow! The vanilla adds so much flavour and the thicker soy milk makes the pancakes puff up all that much more. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but one time one of the neighbourhood boys stumbled and said these were better than his mom's (and they were from a box mix). Big oops. But they are great.

Why I'm saying all this is because we ran out of pancake mix. All available boxes had migrated up to the cabin and never returned. I suggested we just make some from scratch and that idea was shot down. I guess the recipe that had been used before for scratch wasn't so good and it really flopped. This recipe did not. They were thick and amazing and very similar to the famous mix pancakes we've always made. I think we may have just cured the box pancake mix obsession in this house, because I've been asked 'have you printed out that pancake recipe.' Success!

This recipe was very similar to what we are used to, it just lacked a bit of sweetness, but it didn't lack flavour. So not a big deal. Later in the afternoon after making them for breakfast I commented about this lack of sweetness and I hadn't been doing the measuring of ingredients. The one that was told me there was no sugar in this recipe. I pulled up the recipe and noticed that there was in fact sugar. What I'm trying to say is these are still very good pancakes without the sugar. It's not necessary. I think we'll try them with some of the sugar next time, but we probably won't use the whole amount I'm going to list because really, they were just fine without and who wants to add sugar if it's not necessary?

Note to myself: TRIPLE THIS RECIPE FOR 4 PEOPLE & A DOG if you don't want to just squeak by with barely enough batter. Doubling was the perfect amount if you scrapped the bowl, but we like to have a bit more wiggle room if people want an extra one. And yes, the dog gets a pancake. Mind you it's probably more blueberries than pancake, but it's still a problem because she's on grain free kibble because of allergies, but she ends up wanting pancakes. Someone gave a piece to her once and now she's hooked. You can't eat your pancakes and not give her one small one and have a clean conscience. She'll make sure of that.

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Serves 2

Ingredients

3/4 C. Milk (Vanilla Fat Free Soy Milk is amazing)

2 Tbsp. White Vinegar

1 C. Flour

2 Tbsp. Sugar, optional

1 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. Butter, melted

Oil

Directions

~Combine milk and vinegar in a medium bowl and stir once to mix. Allow to sit and sour for five minutes

~Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, powder, soda & salt) in a separate bowl.

~Whisk eggs and butter into milk.

~Add the dry ingredients into the wet and whisk out the lumps

~Head skillet or griddle and spray with oil or cooking spray

~Pour batter onto griddle and wait until bubbles appear and start to pop in the batter. 

~Flip

~Cook until golden brown

Enjoy

Crispy Cheesy Tortilla Bites

This is about the simplest thing you could ever hope to make. I always love grilled cheeses. Now I know most people thing that means a cheese sandwich (two pieces of bread around a centre of cheese) that has been fried up in a pan. Yeah, that is a grilled cheese, but that is a lot of work. What I'm talking about is a grilled cheese under the broiler. One piece of bread with cheese broiled on top until it is bubbly and potentially going crunchy (especially good if using mozzarella cheese because it gets this beautiful golden, crispy top on it that has amazing flavour). But it's not exactly the healthiest thing. Just a hunk of bread and cheese. So I decided to try this.

I kind of stumbled upon it by accident. I had thrown a tortilla into the oven with some stuff on it to heat it up and the tortilla bypassed heating up and went straight to being crispy in the time it took for the toppings to warm up. I ended up having made my own tortilla chips. What was even better was I have just recently found a brand of wraps that uses a half flour, half corn mix, so you get the best of both worlds. The flexibility and agility of a flour tortilla, and the amazing flavour of a corn one. So, it tasted pretty good and I just about dumbed the toppings off of this wrap so I could eat the tortilla all by itself with some salsa.

So the next day I decided to just do a tortilla under the broiler but as I was about to put it in the oven I had another idea. I always love things with a fine sprinkling of cheese that has been baked until it is crispy (like a pizza pretzel or cheese stick), so I decided to grate a very small amount of cheese over top of the wrap and presto, I had greatness. The key here is to have minimal cheese. You want just enough to get the flavour of some crispy cheese, but too much and you will get a lot of grease coming out of the cheese which will prevent the cheese and the tortilla from crispy up. If in doubt, use less. These are basically just nachos but using a soft tortilla instead of tortilla chips. Same difference, it just tastes really good. It's almost too easy to be posting, but I'm posting it for my benefit so I can remember it and make it again.

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 Flour & Corn Tortilla (I'm sure either or would work also)

1/8-1/4 C. Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Salsa

Directions

~Place oven on broil.

~Sprinkle grated cheese over one side of a tortilla.

~Broil until cheese has bubbled and the tortilla is crispy. 1-2 minutes. But make sure to watch it closely as it can burn very quickly.

~Cut into manageable triangles and serve with salsa.

Enjoy

Coconut Granola

I finally bought coconut oil. I've heard 'wonderful' things about it (that I can't help but roll my eyes at) but we'll see. I really like it as a lotion though. Just by itself. No perfumes, no chemicals, just coconut oil. It smells amazing and it leaves your skin feeling great. I'm definitely going to cook with it. But I won't be taking x number of tablespoons of it a day or whatever advocates of it are currently doing. It is still a fat. Maybe it is a better fat, but that doesn't mean you can consume it without consequences. Everything in moderation. So I will be using it as a butter substitute for some things. Which is a good thing, because I don't actually use butter because of it being a dairy product. So I'm always using margarine which isn't real in the slightest.

First up on the coconut oil recipes is this granola. Very tasty. The batch isn't going to last very long I don't think. But it is a little sweet, not too sweet but if you don't like sweet granola then it would seem sweet. But that may just be because I only had sweetened coconut on hand, so that might play into it.

Recipe from Shutterbean

Makes ~ 5 Cups

Ingredients

3 C. Rolled Oats

3/4 C. Nuts, chopped  

3/4 C. Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

1/3 C. Coconut Oil, melted

1/4 C. Maple Syrup

1/8 C. Brown Sugar

1/2 Tsp. Salt

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F

~Combine the first five ingredients in a large bowl. Stir well to evenly coat the mixture.

~Sprinkle brown sugar and salt over mixture and toss to coat.

~Spread mixture onto a rimmed baking dish or cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and crisp. Stirring every so often.

Enjoy

Uber Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I have done it! I have finally tracked down the best chewy chocolate chip cookie out there. They look beautiful, they are thick (there is a trick I've never tried before and it worked perfectly) and they have almost too much chocolate in them. I did say almost.

This recipe utilizes cornstarch, which is something I have tried before and it does make them chewier. Up until today, I thought that this recipe was my favourite chocolate chip cookie. When I actually compare the recipe it is pretty much identical except for a few small tweaks. I guess I know what ratio of ingredients I like in my cookies. One of these being, I like more brown sugar to white sugar as it gives it a fuller flavour in my eyes.

But, this wasn't the only thing different than other cookies out there. It used melted butter and an extra egg yolk which is new to me for cookie recipes. I was very intrigued from the very beginning when I saw this recipe and knew I had to give it a go.

All that aside, what is even more great is that they turned out to be really thick and they were dense and almost cakey. I followed the instructions that said to roll the dough into balls and make them slightly taller than they are wide. So when they bake they stay thick. I rolled the dough into a ball in my hands and then just gave the ball a quick one sided roll between my hands again to form it into more of a cylinder. I then placed it on the cookie sheet and pushed it down a bit from the top so it would have a flat bottom and not roll onto its side during transportation over to the oven. It worked beautifully. I made these a second time though and just rolled them into a normal ball, and the cookies still turned out incredibly thick as well, they just didn't have that little extra oomph. So either way really works.

The only thing I did differently from the original recipe is, like always, I increased the amount of vanilla.

One mistake I did make was on my 3rd cookie sheet I put in the oven (I had made a double batch) I had two extra cookie dough balls. Not wanting to deal with having to clean up one of my already used sheets for just 2 cookies I decided to rearrange and try to cram these extras onto the sheet. Unfortunately, my 3rd cookie sheet is the smaller of them all and it was already crammed to begin with. When I pulled them out of the oven it looked like I had make chocolate chip cookie monkey bread. It all tasted the same, but as a warning, because these are rolled taller, they appear like you can squish them onto a cookie sheet because they don't take up as much of a footprint when unbaked. Just remember that they do spread (even though they still are thick), so watch for that.

Warning, if you like crunchy, well baked cookies stay away. You've been warned.

This amazing recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction.

Makes 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 1/2 Tsp. Cornstarch

1/2 Tsp. Salt

3/4 C. Butter, melted

3/4 C. Brown Sugar, loosely packed

1/2 C. White Sugar

1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk

2 1/4 Tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Combine dry ingredients (flour, soda, cornstarch & salt) in a medium bowl. Toss to combine.

~In a large bowl whisk together butter and sugars until the sugars have dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

~Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix by hand.

~Add chocolate chips and mix in.

~Refrigerate for a couple of hours (I ran out of time and they sat over night in the fridge).

~Preheat oven to 325 F.

~Roll dough into balls and then shape into taller cylinders so they are taller than they are wide. Place on cookie sheet.

~Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they just begin the turn golden around the edges. Centre will still be soft and unbaked.

Enjoy