Easy Tomato and Bocconcini Salad Recipe

Are you still harvesting tomatoes from your garden? I sure am! And anyone who has homegrown tomatoes knows how much tastier they are than grocery store tomatoes! This recipe allows the full flavour of your tomatoes to shine. When combined with fresh mozzarella cheese, basil and a little drizzle of sweet balsamic vinegar summer doesn't feel over just yet!

Note: You can add the olive oil if desired but I prefer just the sweetness of the vinegar without the oil.

Ingredients

8 medium tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick

5 large bocconcini cheese balls, sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)

3 Tbsp reduced balsalmic vinegar (see instructions below)

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

A bunch (at least 16) of fresh basil leaves

What to do

Alternate tomato, basil leaves and bocconcini slices on a platter. Drizzle reduced balsamic vinegar and oil (if using) on the salad and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately.

Reducing balsamic vinegar will turn it into a sweeter, thicker, slightly carmelized thing of beauty. To reduce balsamic vinegar, simply pour one cup of regular balsamic vinegar into a medium sauce pan. Bring to boil and reduce heat so vinegar simmers slightly (NOT a full on boil!). Simmer, uncovered, until vinegar is reduced by 2/3 (i.e. 1/3 is left in pot) and coats the back of your spoon with a slightly syrupy consistency. Watch carefully and stir often so it doesn’t burn! This usually takes about 20 minutes or so but will depend on heat level and size of pot. This will obviously give you more vinegar than is called for in this recipe so put in container and refrigerate for future salads or drizzle on strawberries.

Olive oil banana bread with molasses

This banana bread came about one day when I had a bunch of overripe, fruit fly calling bananas on my kitchen counter but no room temperature butter. I know I could have zapped the cold butter in the microwave but I always seem to melt it too much and make a mess. And being the impatient baker I am, I did not want to wait to let it warm up naturally. Instead, I used a light tasting extra virgin olive oil.

In case you didn’t know, you don’t substitute olive oil and butter amounts tbsp by tbsp. In this case, the original recipe calls for ¼ cup of butter but I only needed 3 tbsp of oil (healthier already!). I also didn’t cream the oil and sugars as I would have if I had used butter since the oil is in a liquid state.

Olive oil works in many baked goods but especially well here with the fruity bananas and deep tasting molasses and oats. It also adds a great depth of flavour that goes well with the cinnamon.

This banana bread is amazing toasted especially with … a little pat of butter! LOL…so much for “health” improvements. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll love it anyway you eat it! 

Ingredients

1 c white flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c large flake oats
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 c molasses
2 large eggs
1 c mashed bananas
1/3 c low fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

What to do

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Whisk, in a large bowl, flours, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
3. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, molasses, olive oil, bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
4. Add wet to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Place batter into a 8 x 4 pan that has been coated in non-stick spray.
6. Bake for about an hour or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool for 15 minutes and then remove from pan to cool completely.

Ginger Snaps with Lemon Butter Cream

This is my Mom's ginger snap recipe but I have sandwiched two of them between a light and flavourful lemon butter cream. Lemon and ginger are AMAZING together. I especially like this combination in a Christmas cookie because it is a great contrast to the season's heavy meals and flavours. Tip: These are also great straight out of the freezer! Almost like an ice cream sandwich :) 

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, large
1/2 cup molasses
2.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt


What to do
1. Cream butter and 1 cup sugar well.
2. Beat in egg.
3. Mix in molasses.
4. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
5. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
6. Shape into 1 inch balls. Note: you want make each cookie the same size so you can sandwich them easily)
7. Let sit 20 minutes (you want them to be soft enough so that they will spread)
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Lemon Butter Cream

Ingredients

2 c icing sugar

1 c unsalted butter

1 tsp pure lemon extract

juice of 1/2 medium lemon

What to do

Cream butter and sugar for 5 minutes.

Add extract and juice. Beat 1 minute.

Putting Cookies Together

Place 1 tbsp icing onto flat side of a ginger snap. Place another cookie on top of icing (flat side in). Squish slightly. If desired, add Christmas candy decorations with a little bit of icing to act as "glue."

Cardamom and Vanilla Shortbread

It's only September and Labour Day Weekend hasn't even ended so I'm bound to really annoy a few people with a Christmas Cookie post! If you are one of those people I'm sorry and warning you I'm posting another Christmas cookie recipe today so it might be better if you wait till mid-week to come back again :)

Anyway, Christmas is my favorite holiday and I like to plan ahead - everything from present ideas to my Christmas dinner menu are thought of months in advance. I also like to get an early start on planning my Christmas baking. I like to try a few different things but these are really new takes on old recipes. My first post is a simple shortbread recipe but made "new" with the addition of green cardamom and vanilla. I know you are familiar with vanilla but for anyone not so familiar with cardamom it is worth trying! It provides a warmth and heat (not spicy hot though) that pairs perfectly with vanilla. I keep cardamom pods in my spice drawer and just crush them open for the seeds when needed. I used 15 pods in this recipe and then ground the seeds (about 1/2 tsp once ground).

In this recipe I molded the shortbread batter into a 10-inch tart pan and before I baked it, I sliced it into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter. Within 5 minutes of it coming out of the oven, I removed the side of the pan and recut the slices (I left it on the bottom of the pan). I thought Santa and Christmas trees were natural designs for the triangles shapes. Like them? If not come back in a couple months once the snow is in the air...maybe they will look cuter then!!! 

Cardamom and Vanilla Shortbread

Ingredients

1/2 c cornstarch

1/2 c icing sugar

1 c flour

1/4 c ground almonds

3/4 c unsalted butter, room

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (approx 15 pods)

1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out

What to do

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Sift cornstarch, icing sugar, flour into mixing bowl of stand mixer. Stir in (on low) ground almonds, vanilla seeds and ground cardamom.
3. Beat in butter on low speed.
4. Pat batter into 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom. 
5. Using a knife or pizza cutter cut into 8 pieces. Note: You might find it easier to remove bottom of pan, cut and then place back in tart tin.
6. Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until shortbread is golden in colour.
7. VERY carefully, separate bottom from sides (keep shortbread on the bottom of pan).
8. Re-cut the 8 pieces.
9. Cool completely.

To decorate you will need royal icing, food colour gels and icing bags and tip.

Ingredients

• Approximately 2 c royal powder icing.
• various food colour gels - I used Wilton in green, red, pink, light copper, black.

What to do

Christmas Tree

For green:

• Add 1/2 c royal icing powder to a small bowl and add 2 tbsp water. Mix until smooth. 
• Add green colouring until desired colour is reached.
• Using a #2 tip and icing bag. Outline and fill every other triangle to make Christmas trees.

For red decorations on tree:

• Add 1/4 c royal icing powder to a small bowl and add 1 tbsp water. Mix until smooth. 
• Add  red colouring until desired colour is reached.
• Using same tip (washed of course) pipe little strings of red lights onto trees.

Santa

For hat band, hat puff and beard...

• Add 1/4 c royal icing powder to a small bowl and add 1 tbsp water. Mix until smooth. 
• Use cleaned tip as above, pipe Santa's hat band, hat puff and beard. Fill in.
• Repeat but add black colouring. Pipe eyes and buttons.
• Repeat but add pink for cheeks. Pipe cheeks.
• Repeat but add copper for face. Pipe.
• Repeat but add red for Santa's suit. Pipe and fill in.
• Let dry overnight before eating, giving or wrapping!

Cookbook Review - Poptails by Erin Nichols - Bellini Pops

A "boozy treat" from POPTAILS.

"Poptails" by Erin Nichols is all about putting frozen cocktails on sticks!

Living in Vancouver means long, hot summers...well ok maybe two weeks of hot weather...over the course of two months... but we Vancouverites relish those hot, dry days and try to make the most of them (well ok we complain about the heat and wonder if it will ever cool off... I think think this is why we are sometimes referred to as Crazy Canucks...). When you add two young kids  on summer vacation into the mix trying to beat the heat and have fun you can be sure our freezer has its fair share of popsicles...as a kid my favorite kind was rootbeer popsicles...I can't find them anywhere anymore but grape, lime, raspberry still seem to make the kids happy! 

Anyways, when Erin Nichols' new book "Poptails" landed in my mail box it just happened to be a really hot, wish-I-had-air-conditioning, kind of day. And flipping through the 60 cocktail-on-a-stick recipes and lush photos helped me cool off and made me crave these adult popsicles.

Erin does a great job in offering a variety of recipes to satisfy any adult craving including:

• strawberry-basil margarita
• cosmopolitan
• mojito
• moscow mule
• festive spiked eggnog
• white russian
• creamsicle
• and dessert on a stick like the "oatmeal cookie" and the "banana split"!

Obviously most alcohol doesn't freeze so Erin tells us the secret - boiling down the alcohol a little bit to keep the flavour and make it freezable!

I recommend this book for any adult having a fun party and looking for "something different" to make their guest "ooh and ahh".

I decided to make the Bellini Pops because I had a bottle of prosecco in the fridge and it didn't require the alcohol to be boiled down saving me some time.

They are delicious but definitely strong! Next time I will try them with pureed fruit to sweeten them up a bit. Btw...Erin has a recipe for "Big Girl Root beer Float" ...bet that will bring back root beer popsicle memories! Buy this book for great summer time treat ideas... even if it isn't summertime for much longer...who says a frozen treat in the fall or winter wouldn't brighten up someone's day!!

Bellini Pops from Poptails

Ingredients 
1-1/4 c flattened prosecco
20 ounces fresh or frozen sliced peaches (or other fruit)

What to do

• flatten prosecco (in your fridge) for 8 hours
• pour prosecco into moulds
• add a peach slice into each mould making sure there is at 1 cm of space at the top so the liquid to expand 
• add sticks or mould tops and freeze for at 24 hours

Note: How many this makes will depend on the size of your moulds - mine made 6.

Daring Bakers August - Pate a Choux Swans and Stabilized Whipped Cream

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild! 

I've made choux pastry before and went from being very intimidated by the thought of this dough to realizing it's quite easy to make and work with! My previous and only use of the dough was used in creating a delicious Croquembouche so I was looking forward to using it again in making a bevy of swans. My only concern was that the final result might look more like ugly ducklings than beautiful swans!  

I'll let you be the judge as to whether or not I succeeded!  

I kept it simple and used stabilized whipped cream as my filling.

Click here for a pdf of all the recommended recipes and look below for my stabilized whipped cream recipe.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

Using stabilized whipped cream will prevent it from separating - especially useful on warm days!

Ingredients

1/4 c water
1 tsp unflavoured gelatin
1 c heavy or whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

What to do

• Chill your bowl and beaters in the freezer for 20 minutes.
• Place water in a deep microwave safe bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the water.
• Let sit for 5 minutes.
• Microwave the the gelatin mixture for three minutes making sure you you stir every 30 seconds or so or it might bubble over and make a mess!
• Let it sit for about 10 minutes so that the mixture is liquid but not warm.
• Remove your cold beaters and bowl from freezer and pour in cream. Beat until soft peaks form.Add vanilla and sugar and whip for 10 seconds more.
• Add gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form.

Simple Homemade Ketchup

To go along with my homemade mustard from a few posts ago, I also made homemade ketchup. I love it - it does not taste like Heinz! It tastes like real tomato ketchup should - fresh and tomatoey!

Simple Homemade Ketchup

Customize this recipe to suit your taste - add hot sauce, chillis, extra spice - whatever your taste buds desire!

Ingredients

1 can 28oz  tomatoes (whole or chopped) 
1 can 5.5 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cloves
1 tablespoons (30 mL) nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon (5 ml) pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)

What to do

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half. Cool.

Once cooled, use a blender or immersion blender to puree the ketchup.

Store in refrigerator up to 3 months.