Enchiladas?

I went to a restaurant in Saskatoon and had an excellent enchilada made with cream cheese and spinach, so this is my attempt to resurrect it.

Maybe 1 cup of spinach
About the same of your choice of meat, I used shrimp
1 brick of cream cheese, softened
pepper to taste
salsa and cheese to cover them






Chop up the spinach and shrimp














Soften up the cream cheese in the microwave, and stir in the spinach, shrimp and pepper. Maybe I added some sage, too, I can't remember...












Wrap, em up and cover with salsa and cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
This tastes a little like a mushroom cap baked with salsa and cheese. I like all those things, and I like them together.

Borscht

This one takes a bit of chopping or grating, but it's SO worth it.

1-2 beets
1 small onion
1 medium potato
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 cup red cabbage
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1/2 tsp dill
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
black pepper, to taste
2-3 tbsp sugar
1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I used balsamic and it was good too)

Grate all the vegetables and place them in a pot with the stock, tomatoes, water, dill, caraway seeds and pepper.
My recipe said to use a food processor to do the grating, which would probably save a lot of time, but alas... I used a little grater for most of it and just chopped up the onion and celery. It was actually kind of relaxing :)









Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until vegetables are very soft, about 25-40 minutes. I let this boil for about 50-60 minutes, because I am easily distracted, but you can never go wrong letting a soup meld longer than it tells you to.

Add sugar and vinegar, and simmer another 5 minutes, then taste to see if you like it, and adjust sugar and/or vinegar if you need to.








Mmm, look at that color!

Make Your Own Pasta Sauce pt 2

2 cups white wine
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp cardamom
1/4 cup sour cream
small pasta
I used a bunch of seafood cooked in olive oil and garlic also








Bring wine and spices to a boil














When it's boiled for a few minutes (maybe like 5 mins), drop in the sour cream and whisk it around.
This works well because it gives you a creamy texture but doesn't curdle like milk does and you won't have to throw out 2 batches of sauce and start all over. Ahem.











Reduce until it makes a sauce.
I would add some cayenne or something next time around, even with all the curry powder, it was a little bland. Hmm.

Some Kind of Fish

Peanuts, crushed
Honey
Salt & pepper












Crush up a bunch of peanuts, enough to cover the fillet
Drizzle with honey, just till it starts to drip over the edge.
Salt & pepper, to taste.
Bake as usual

Black Bean and Mango Salad

1 can black beans
2 cups mango
1 cup sweet red pepper
1/2 cup tomato
2 cups lettuce (you could probably use spinach too)
1/2 lb shrimp
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
salt & pepper






I cooked the shrimp for a few minutes to heat it, and the black beans.













Chop the veggies up, combine ingredients. Eat.

Chocolate Cupcakes (NSFW bit at the end!)

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water (or coffee)
1 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt 
1 tsp espresso powder*
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

* a note on espresso powder

I literally baked coffee grounds on a baking sheet and then blended them to make them super fine. Espresso powder basically makes chocolate stuff really good. Plus if you use coffee instead of water at the beginning, you'll get a lovely flavour. Do both if you want! Or one, or the other.


Preheat oven to 375. Butter or spray or line cupcake tins.
In a small bowl, stir boiling water or coffee and cocoa powder until smooth, let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, espresso powder and salt.

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat only until just mixed. Then add cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

As a side note, this recipe seems to be excessive, like there's too little dry ingredients, then too much, then too little again. But it evens out in the end, and tastes great :)

Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake for 16-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

(Chocolate) Buttercream icing
This is the easiest thing ever, if you are too lazy to make your own icing, you shouldn't be baking. Period.
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar
(opt) 1/3 cup cocoa

(opt) Pinch of espresso powder

Mix together. That's it.

You can decorate these cupcakes any way you want! Whee!

Shrimp Salad

1/2 lb shrimp, cooked.
1/2 cup avocado chunks
1 med tomato, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper



Mix oil & lemon, salt & pepper, stir in shrimp, tomato and avocado.
Serve on a bed of romaine or spinach.

Asparagus and Shrimp Risotto

Apparently the new things I've been making lately require a lot of reductions. I didn't notice until I posted 3 of them on one day. Hmm.

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
1 pound fresh asparagus, sliced diagonally into 1-inch pieces
1 lb shrimp, cooked and peeled
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup uncooked Arborio Rice
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt


Heat water and broth in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and keep warm.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium heat; add asparagus and cook until tender crisp. Remove asparagus; set aside.







In same saucepan, cook onion in remaining 1 tablespoon butter until soft. Add rice and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Add wine; stir until absorbed. Increase heat to medium-high; stir in 1 cup water-broth mixture.









Cook uncovered, stirring frequently, until liquid is absorbed. Continue stirring and adding remaining water-broth mixture 1 cup at a time, allowing each cup to be absorbed before adding another. Cook until rice is tender and mixture has a creamy consistency, approximately 25 to 30 minutes.







Stir in shrimp, asparagus, cream, cheese, salt and pepper. Stir until mixture is creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.










I didn't find this all that fabulous. I was at the stove reducing for almost an hour, and it came out with very little flavor. I could have just put rice and asparagus and shrimp together. Anthony ended up smothering his in hot sauce.
So if you're looking for something that LOOKS impressive, or if for some stodgy English family who don't like spices, this is the recipe for you. Otherwise, not worth the effort. Or maybe I just don't care about risotto

Shrimp Scampi

This recipe is supposed to be for appetizers, but we had little baby shrimps, so I just put it on top of some rice.

2 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup olive oil
1.3 cup vermouth
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp salt
1.2 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice, about 1 large lemon



Heat oil over medium low heat in a large skillet. Sauté shrimp; add vermouth, garlic, salt, and pepper; simmer until liquid is almost evaporated.
Ha ha, you're supposed to put the parsley in later, but I don't read so good. It turned out good anyway.








Sprinkle with parsley and lemon juice. Gently stir and serve with toothpicks as an appetizer. Or over delicious fluffy jasmine rice. Thanks rice cooker!

Make Your Own Pasta Sauce pt 1

The ingredients in this recipe are approximations.
2 tbsp butter
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Basil
Parsley
1/2 cup white wine, mine was pretty sweet, but you can use anything
1 tbsp hot sauce, I used sriracha because it's nice and hot
1 cup milk or 3/4 cup cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)

I was bored one day and decided to rummage around in my fridge and use up some ingredients to make my own pasta sauce. What could possibly go wrong, right?


I started with the butter and garlic. Let the garlic brown for a minute and the butter get a little bubbly and frothy.












Then I added Worchestershire sauce, a little handful of both basil and parsley, and white wine. Let that simmer a couple of minutes, until it comes to a rolling boil.











Add hot sauce and let the sauce cook for a few minutes. Everything should be melding together, except the butter tends to skim along the top, but that's fine.











I added the milk, but cream would have been better, probably. This isn't about going out to buy things, though, soooooooooo

Also, you can add lemon juice at this point, too. DON'T ADD LEMON JUICE BEFORE MILK. If you do, it'll congeal and be a giant mess and you'll have to pour it down the sink, like I did on my first batch.

I threw in parmesan too. Do what you feel like.

The key to reducing a sauce with milk or cream in it is to watch for the color to change. It takes a long time to boil down milk, but if you just keep whisking, it'll happen. When the color actually changes to a kind of yellowy-er color, it's almost done. Take it off the heat immediately when it's thick enough for your liking.

This sauce was good. I didn't stray too far from what I knew would be good in a pasta sauce, but the hot sauce in there was just enough to give it a little kick.

Donairs

Everyone from Canada (and Lebanon, probably) knows that donairs are delicious, but they are super bad for you. Well, the home made version is probably a lot better, especially if you use ground round, like we do :) Enjoy!

1 lb ground beef or 1 pkg ground round
1 heaping tbsp cayenne
4 tbsp garlic
salt & pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning or oregano
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup white sugar
OR 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp garlic or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
lettuce, chopped
tomato, chopped
onion, chopped
cheese, shredded
pitas

Mix beef, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano and cook 1 1/2 hours on 350, or cook ground round for 1/2 hour on 350.












Chop up your onion, lettuce, tomato and cheese













Mix milk, sugar, garlic and vinegar with an electric mixer until thickened. This takes forever but makes an excellent sauce.

I usually am lazy and use sweetened condensed milk but once you mix it with vinegar, it thickens almost immediately and you have to use it up before it becomes glue.







I found that the pitas wanted to tear when I put the stuff in them, so I made a hilarious steamer of a sieve and a pot of boiling water, then throw them in there for about a minute with the lid on and -wallah- easy to work with.


Anyway, throw beef, cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato and a lot of sweet sauce in the middle of the pita and wrap up. Eat. Yum.

Creamy Beef & Potato Bake

1/4 cup butter, divided
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 zucchini, sliced OR
2 cups peppers, sliced
salt & pepper
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/2 cup prepared tomato pasta sauce
2 cups milk, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups grated cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 375
In a skillet, melt 2 tsp butter and oil. Add potatoes and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until almost cooked through.
Seriously, I didn't cook mine long enough, thinking they would cook in the oven, but they were hard in the middle. Boo.
Add peppers or zucchini, salt and pepper. Cook until tender









Spoon vegetable mixture into a 9'x13' baking dish. Set aside.














In skillet, cook onion and Italian seasoning until onion is tender. Add ground beef, cook and stir until meat is cooked through. Stir in tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of milk. Spoon meat mixture over vegetable layer in the dish.











Melt remaining butter, stir and cook for one minute. Gradually whisk in remaining milk. Cook and stir until sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Stir in cheese.












Pour sauce over meat layer. Cook 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.













Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Yorkshire Pudding

1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt










Heat oven to 400.
Melt a little bit of butter or bacon fat in muffin tins in the oven, and mix other ingredients together in a blender. I suppose a hand mixer would also be fine for this. Pour batter into muffin tins and bake for 30 mins.

It's really that easy. I was expecting a trick here, but you can impress your friends with minimal work by making them Yorkshire pudding. Plus, if you pour a little syrup or honey on them, they're a good dessert, too.

Indonesian Chicken

1 cup cooked rice
1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped
2 tsp canola oil
1 lb chicken breast, cubed
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp red chile paste or sriracha
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 green onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp peanuts, chopped



Cook green beans until crisp tender. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook chicken 5 minutes on a side, or until juices run clear.












Mix chicken broth, peanut butter, honey, soy sauce, chile paste and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.












Mix chicken, sauce and green beans and serve over rice.