When I was younger I used to collect those small magazines that they always kept in the grocery store around the tils. They were usually put out by companies like Pillsbury and Betty Crocker. I still have a lot of them, and every once in a while I will revisit them and see a recipe I wouldn't mind trying.
Of course because I live in the UK and don't have access to a lot of the products used, I end up having to adapt them to what I do have and make these things from scratch, but that's okay. I don't mind.
They've only just started getting cake mixes over here. There is Vanilla, Coffee, Carrot, Lemon and Devil's Food. In all truth I would rather bake a cake from scratch though. There always seems to be a bit of an artificial flavour to cake mix cakes.
I don't like buying store bought cakes either. They are always dry. Homemade cakes is the way to go. But this is neither cake, nor store bought. It is bread. Cheesy Pesto Bread.
Adapted from a recipe I found in one of those little recipe magazines, entitled Picnics, by Betty Crocker, published in 1999. They are recipes for picnics and camping. I am doing neither of those, but I do have an oven which I thought would bake this tasty bread in perfectly.
The original recipe called for a French Loaf. I used an olive ciabatta loaf, or slipper bread. I thought it might end up tasting a bit like pizza . . . what with the sun dried tomato pesto and the mozzarella cheese. If I make it again, and I think I will, I am going to add some cheddar and maybe some chopped ham, bacon or pepperoni. Now, that would be excellent!
*Cheesy Pesto Bread*
Serves 6
Cut the bread diagonally into 1/2 inch slices, cutting almost all the way through, but leaving intact on the bottom. Lift the loaf onto the centre of the aluminium foil. Spread both sides of the slices of bread with the pesto. Sprinkle with the cheese. Wrap in the foil to cover. I try to leave as much space around the bread as possible.
Just look at that ooze. This would go great with pasta or for snacking on while you watch the football match, or hockey play-offs! Or even for a teenagers party. Quick and simple to make and quite delicious. Bon Appetit!
Have you tried the New Oreo Thins? Oreos have always been one of my favourite cookies. I like the traditional black and whites . . . that crisp chocolate cookie, that almost mint flavoured cream filling. With a glass of milk, you almost can't get any better than that. Very moreish!
And I don't think I am alone in feeling that way either. We love Oreos. They come in a variety of flavours now, and recently they have come out with Oreo Thins, which is like Oreo Cookie's thinner sister. They come in two varieties so far . . . the traditional ones and the chocolate filled ones.
I was sent a couple boxes to try, but in all truth I had already tried them. (A bit of honesty here!) I loved them. If there is any problem with them at all it would be that you might want to eat twice as many of them . . . you know, like potato chips . . . you can't eat just one, right?
Same delicious flavours. Same crisp cookie. They come two packs to a box and lets face it . . . you open one of the packs and before you know it, its gone. If I was a super-hero, one of my super-hero powers would not be self-control.
Note - although I was sent these cookies free of charge for the purpose of reviewing them, I was not required to write a positive review. They quite simply have always been my favourite cookie. They still are. Any and all opinions are completely my own.
I wanted to bake a treat for Todd this weekend. He's suffering some side effects now from the radio-therapy and I wanted to make him something very tasty that he would enjoy.
He has always been a huge fan of cherries and cakes with cherries. He also loves shortbreads. So I baked him some Cherry Almond Cookies!
These are one of his favourite cookies that I make and no small wonder. They melt in your mouth!
I like them too because they are simple to make and the recipe doesn't make a ton. Only 25 perfect, buttery, crisp, moreishly delicious cookies.
You melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the rest of the ingredients to make a soft dough, which you then roll into balls and space out on a baking sheet.
Pressed down lightly with the palm of your hand and topped with a cherry, you then bake them until they are golden brown.
The almond drizzle is my own addition. to this recipe which I adapted from a small book I have, entitled Cookie Jar by Love Food.
*Cherry Almond Cookies*
Makes 25
Deliciously moreish and not hard on the eyes! These please on many levels. Bon Appetit!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
As a Type 2 Diabetic I really struggle with baking. I love to bake and I love to eat, which is probably what got me in this situation in the first place, combined with an hereditary disposition towards developing Diabetes. Sweet baked treats are not something I am able to enjoy a full slice of anymore. Its tough to live in a world where everyone else can eat the cake and you can't!
This is particularly difficult during the holidays. They are the worst times of all. Everyone around you is enjoying chocolate and cakes and cookies and pies and you sit and munch on carrot sticks. There is just NO comparison. No comparison at all. Carrot sticks just DON'T cut the mustard!
In the most recent issue of Healthy Food they have concentrated on reducing the sugar in the diet and included in that was a recipe for an Orange Yogurt Drizzle Cake. It looked really nice, and came in at less than 100 calories a slice (93) and with virtually no sugar (0.9g per serving).
I've done low/no sugar before and it has been a largely disappointing exercise in futility.
Now, I know I should have done this the first time exactly as written, with oranges, etc. But I did not have any orange. I do always have plenty of lemons however and so I threw caution to the wind and flew by the seat of my pants, adding lemon zest to the batter and a small amount of lemon extract.
Lemon cake is one of my favourite flavours of cake, even more so than chocolate. It usually takes a lot of sugar to contrast the tartness of lemon however and so I had almost resigned myself to not being able to enjoy anything naturally lemony again.
I am happy to say that this cake turned out quite nicely! It is light and a bit spongy, but you would expect that from this type of cake, which is essentially a chiffon type of cake. These types of cakes rely mostly on the air that you beat into the eggs for their lift.
The original recipe had a yoghurt topping. I didn't want that. I wanted something a bit more traditional and so I opted to make a lemon drizzle using some of the same sweetener and some fresh lemon juice which I soaked into the cake while it was still quite warm.
Nothing sugary to decorate it either . . . just some wafer flowers from Dr Oetker, which add a touch of nice without adding anything too bad for you. In short, they looked really pretty.
And the cake? Well, you can judge for yourself. I thought it was quite nice and had a beautiful crumb and texture, without any discernable taste from the sweetener. It also tasted nice and lemony.
*Low Sugar Lemon Drizzle Cake*
Makes 8 servings
Will it ever really take the place of real cake? No, I don't think anything but a "real" cake can do that with proper sugar, etc. Much the same as no matter how much they try to convince you that gluten free goodies are as good as baked goods that contain wheat, they never quite manage to do it. But it is nice to know that I can have at something that is, at the very least, a little bit closer to the real thing . . .
It was actually quite, quite tasty. I think adding the lemon drizzle was a bit of genius on my part. Bon Appetit!
I was recently asked if I would like to try some Basaljo Black Garlic. I quite like garlic and I was immediately intrigued . . . black garlic. It sounded quite interesting! I was game to try it! I like to try new things (within reason) and from what I had read about black garlic, it sounded like something we would enjoy.
From Wikepedia: Black garlic is a type of "caramelized" garlic (in reality, browned by the Maillard reaction rather than truly caramelized) first used as a food ingredient in Asian cuisine. It is made by heating whole bulbs of garlic (Allium sativum) over the course of several weeks, a process that results in black cloves.
The garlic came, already peeled in a plastic pot. It looked a bit like garlic clove shaped black jelly babies. It was soft and slightly sticky. I tasted a small one just to see what it tasted like. It was only slightly garlicky, very mellow with an almost fruity balsamic quality. I could not wait to use it.
One of my first thoughts was that it would be fabulous in a vinaigrette salad dressing. Possibly a salad with earthy baby greens and some beetroot, and so that is what I used for the salad. I added some leftover roast chicken and green peas.
I left the dressing pretty basic as I wanted to highlight the flavour of the garlic. It was basically just a good olive oil, along with a touch of Dijon mustard and some good balsamic vinegar and seasonings, which I felt would go well together with the garlic. I blitzed it in my small food processor and was well pleased with the resulting almost amber coloured silky dressing.
It was slightly pungent, but not in a bad way. We really, really liked it. I think this dressing would be beautiful drizzled over some grilled salmon, or even brushed on the salmon prior to grilling, or even some good cod. I think it would also serve as a great marinade for beef or pork, or even lamb. I am going to try that in the summer for BBQ season!
*Black Garlic Vinaigrette*
Makes 225ml (1 cup)
The next thing I did was to use it in some mash. We love our mash and are very fond of roasted garlic mash. (We are fond of roasted garlic anything!)
My primary concern was about the colour. I was a bit worried that it might tint the potatoes a funny colour, the idea of really black potatoes did not appeal to me.
I wanted to make sure that the garlic was really smooth before I stirred it in, so I did what I do with normal garlic. I mashed it together with some sea salt. The sea salt helps to break it down really fine and also adds flavour to your potatoes. You won't need to add anymore salt.
We have really good new potatoes coming out now. They are sweet, but waxy in texture so not really great for mashed potatoes, but work great for smashed potatoes! You can peel or not as you wish. I chose to peel this time around.
I used quite a few cloves of the black garlic, six altogether, and I added some grated strong cheddar. We got some really great cave aged cheddar the other day and the two were begging me to use them together. What a fabulous result! I could have easily sat down and eaten a bowl of this Black Garlic and Cheesy Smash all on its own with nothing else at all. It was fabulously delicious! A new favourite!
*Black Garlic and Cheesy Smash*
Serves 4 - 6
Black garlic is sweet meets savory, a perfect mix of molasses-like richness and tangy garlic undertones. It has a tender, almost jelly-like texture with a melt-in-your-mouth consistency similar to a soft dried fruit. Hard to believe, but true. It’s as delicious as it is unique. This is sure to become a pantry staple.
To find out more about Balsajo Black Garlic, be sure to check out their website.
Balsajo Black Garlic is available from www.balsajo.com and any good independent farm shops, fine food shops and delicatessens.
Balsajo
Black Garlic One Large Bulb - £2.99 from Sainsbury’s
·
Balsajo
Black Garlic Peeled pots 50g (£4.49) or 150g (£11.99)
·
Balsajo
Black Garlic Black Garlic Paste for 100g jar - £6
Many thanks to the people at Balsajo for affording me this opportunity to try something new! This has become a new favourite item in my kitchen! I can't wait to see what I can use it in next. There are plenty of recipes and tips on their site. That Black Garlic and Parsley Potato Salad is calling my name!
Note - Athough I was sent some black garlic for free to try out, I was not required to write a positive review. Any and all opinions are my own.
The last time I went to Canada (which was about five years ago now) I picked up a special edition magazine at the grocery store, the Taste of Home Italian Cookbook. I thought it was filled with lots of taste temptingly delicious looking recipes.
In our process towards downsizing and clutter clearing I spied this magazine in the spare room cupboard. I spent some time going through it, as you would if you were trying to decided to keep something or not.
I just happened to have pretty much everything I needed to make this delicious looking recipe, and the things I didn't have I thought I could substitute with what I did have, and so today I decided to make it for us.
It was quick and easy to do and in all truth I didn't want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen as I have tons of other things I need to be getting on with!
The resident pasta hater even had two helpings. I think because I used a really good artisanal orecchiette pasta, it wasn't really that pasta-ee for him, if you know what I mean.
Orecchiette is Italian for little ears . . . it was a good egg pasta and more like a dumpling than a noodle. The shape cupped just the right way to hold that delicious sauce . . .
With lots of meaty chunks of chicken, nice crispy tender vegetables and oodles of colour and texture, not to mention those tasty meatballs, it went down a real for both of us.
It did make rather a lot, but I have an idea that the leftovers will be just as delicious if not more so. I'll probably heat them up in a casserole in the oven, covered with lashings of cheese.
Mmmm . . . sounds rather good if I don't say so myself.
(can use an equal amount of any small pasta shells)
1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast meat, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
2 TBS olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 stalk of celery, washed, trimmed and chopped
1 tin of cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 tin of milk
1 chicken stock pot
1/2 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tsp chopped fresh)
about 6 cubes of frozen whole leaf spinach, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
135g of grated Parmesan cheese (3/4 cup)
Heat
half of the olive oil in a large skillet with a lid. Add the chicken
cubes and brown them all over. Scoop out and keep warm. Add the
remaining oil to the pan along with the chopped vegetables.
*Italian Wedding Soup Supper Dish*
Serves 6
Serves 6
It's got all the flavours of the traditional Italian Wedding Soup, but it's not soup . . . it's a hearty skillet supper, and it's delicious!
8 ounces orecchiette pasta (2 cups)
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced
a package of frozen cooked Italian meatballs, thawed (12 ounces)
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to the boil
Cook,
stirring until tender. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Return the chicken to the pan along with the meatballs, the soup, milk,
stock pot, thyme and some seasoning. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a
simmer and cover tightly. Cook for about 6 to 8 minutes.
While the sauce is cooking add the pasta to the water and cook according to the package directions. Drain well, reserving some of the water. Remove the cover from the sauce and taste. Adjust seasoning as necessary with salt and pepper.
While the sauce is cooking add the pasta to the water and cook according to the package directions. Drain well, reserving some of the water. Remove the cover from the sauce and taste. Adjust seasoning as necessary with salt and pepper.
Stir in the drained pasta and just
enough of the pasta water to give you a nice consistency. You don't
want it too thick but you don't want it thin either. Sprinkle with
cheese and serve.
I think this is a recipe most people would enjoy. I hope you will try it out! Bon Appetit!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons