Have a Happy Käsekuchen Birthday <3 - Signe 4/12/2011

Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday to you~
Happy birthday Signe!
Happy birthday to you!!!

Here's to your 22nd birthday. =)

Current Go-to Recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

A lot of people out there loves them some oatmeal raisin cookies. I composed a list of recipes to try to find THE oatmeal raisin cookies. When I got to number 4, Mr. L and I stopped exploring. I have made these over and over again, for road trips, plane rides or just snacking. It is really excellent but it's not quite "perfect". One day, I will try the rest of my list to see how others turn but for now this is my current fav!

My Orange Delight!

There are a few recipes that I make only once a year. This includes the orange tuile. It's not because the recipe makes such a huge quantity that it lasts for a whole year but it's takes DAMN long to make these crispy orange delights. I have actually timed it it takes about 12 minutes to make 3 tuiles. Also, my finger tips get super hot / burnt because I like them in cigar shape than the traditional tile shape. It's real difficult to not start cursing a few hours into this lengthy torture.Yes, I bitch and complain while making these but it's worth all the trouble. It's crispy with wonderful almond and orange fragrances. It is perfect on its own and it's the best topping you would ever have on vanilla ice cream.

Secret Family Pie Crust Recipe Unveiled!

I have been looking for a great pie crust recipe where I don't have to worry about the amount of liquids I add and the crust doesn't shrink. I've tried and tried and even with the spray bottle trick, I am still having difficulty with crust shrinkage. I have began to give up on the so call "fool proof" recipe. Tada~ I was handed a photocopy of Grandma Lussier's family pie crust recipe like a little golden baton. It's a family treasure. Before I misplace it again (err oops... that shouldn't say "again"), I will immortalize it on the net.

The recipes that I tried before taught me one thing; butter is awesome especially for savoury fillings. However, I find it overwhelming for simple fruit fillings like apple. Grandma Lussier's recipe is all shortening which makes the crust very flaky but... bland (sorry grandma).  I know the pie crust holy grail is suppose to be all butter; I still find 50:50 butter to shortening ratio strikes the best ratio for flavour and flakiness for apple pies. For those who wants to go all butter, roll out the dough and fold it over itself 4 to 6 time then roll it out again to achieve flakiness.

Giant Birthday Cookie - Perfect Cake Alternative

A giant cookie is the birthday celebration solution to someone who does not enjoy desserts (cakes included) but LOVES cookies! And what better recipe to use than the one from the back of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip packets? NONE! It's easy, straight forward and delicious as agreed by everyone who has had a bite. It is also quite fun to look at the person's face when he receives a giant M&M adorned cookie at his birthday party. It's a gift that no one would see coming~!

How to get this 11 x 15 x 1 inch monstrosity to the party? NO PROBLEM! Simply transfer the cooled cookie to a disposable aluminum baking tray and cover with aluminum foil. Gift wrap the whole thing so it doesn't move around too much. Slip it in a giant gift bag and no one would be the wiser that it's a cookie. Lay it right side up in the car and it should make it to the party in one piece.

Healthy Muffins Take 2!

Currently, my culinary endeavor is going through a health conscious phase as I've been prohibited by one of the communal living laws to make anything that will send us straight (fast or slow) to a diabetic shock, a heart attack or a brain aneurysm. There are a few exceptions... mostly involving the presence of guests, family, and/or friends. So here we go, some healthy healthy muffin production take 2!

Remember the last time that I tried to make some? Oh yes, the whole "oh-no-I-ran-out-of-berries-because-my-boyfriend-ate-them-all" fiasco. This time, it's different. I have ample supply of the good stuff and a wicked new recipe to try out! Surely enough, we were munching on some delicious bran muffins within the hour.

I am not joking when I said "wicked recipe" btw. This is now my go-to recipe for bran muffins. It's moist with a nice crusty muffin top with just enough sweetness and of course LOADS of blueberries. I cannot wait to bake them again soon. :D

A French Movie Night

I have been taking French lessons for a few months now. It's going not well. My "R" sounds are still very German. I am also hopeless in remembering the different verb tenses. Buggers. My quirky friends and I from French class decided to plan a French movie night to improve our learning and appreciation for the language. With a copy of "Bon Cop Bad Cop" in hand, let the evening start!

For the evening, the hosts (Mr. L and I) have also came up with a delicious dinner plan for our guests. Unfortunately, one of the hosts (slowly rising my hand while no one is looking) forgot to inform one of the guests that the evening included dinner along with the movie. Nevertheless, I think everyone had a good time.

We had some goose rillette on crackers, French "chinoise" fondue with wine, followed by creme caramel with a side of meringues and fresh fruits. Taking traditions to heart, we all ate the fondue under the penalty of doing the dishes if we dropped a piece in the pot. We all survived the penalty (the dishwasher got the bitter end of the stick), though most of us did some "fishing" once in a while. Especially for those pesky but delicious mushrooms that slid off the forks. I don't remember much of the evening's conversation other than the boiled peanuts from the south (southern US not Canada). After dinner, we watched the movie (well half the movie as we took our time with dinner) while chewing on some colourful Twizzlers from one of those variety packs! There were also bowls of m&ms and chips being passed around. It was a fantastic evening! Another evening just like this is on the horizon complete with a wine an cheese theme and a Disney movie in French.

V for Valentine

St. Valentine's day has always been kind of special for me. It's special not for the boys, the cards, the roses, the chocolates (well maybe a little bit for the chocolates)or the over the top heart shaped everything. It's special because mom's birthday falls 2 days before the very marketed day of love. When I was a little kid, I thought that everyone loved mom and that's why when her birthday comes around there are heart shaped balloons everywhere, little chocolaty treats, very sweet cards, very cuddly teddy bear and discounts on diamonds. Over the years I have learned to never put off getting a birthday present for my mom. Traditionally, last minute shopping often ends up with her holding some sort of cuddly stuff animal clinching on to some chocolates or (god forbid) things that should never come from one's daughter.
Since my dad's birthday last year, I have decided to channel my love of baking in creating wonderful gifts for my loved ones. I shall bake birthday cakes for them! It is a great excuse to stretch my skills! No one (not even my dear beloved) can be mad at the overflowing amount of desserts if it's for someone's birthday!!! However, this concept is a little weird when the birthday-ee is my mom, dad or brother. Actually, it's probably more than just a little weird for most people. No, I am not referring to the cake baking but I don't live with any of my family members (thus they don't actually get to eat the cake). It's the thought that counts right? My mom thought so! Now the entire family is having cake in honor of each other's birthday!

My birthday cake plan boils down to these steps: 1) Plan ahead and think of what the birthday-ee would like as their cake; 2) Make cake to be ready for birthday (including adjusting for time zone difference in certain cases); 3) Sing happy birthday with lit candles on the cake (yes the whole shebang!) over video chat; 4) Eat cake! For mom, I decided on a decadent chocolate mousse cake, rich and just heavenly.

A Spicy Variation of Grandmère Casavant's Pumpkin Cake

It's an honour when you are given a family recipe. This Pumpkin cake recipe is a variation of Grandmère Cassavant's recipe. It's rich, moist and contains enough fiber to be a healthy breakfast cake. The variations are made as sometimes we have to adapt to what's in our pantry (and what you can fit in the cabinets). I thought the cyan pepper would give a kick to the cake! The result is quite agreeable. Make a batch with my variations if you want to be a little daring or follow Grandmère Casavant's recipe for plenty of traditional goodness.

Happy Birthday Love Part 2! December 4th, 2010

On Saturday evening, we were invited for a dinner party in my boyfriend's honor. His parents prepared a feast of appetizers, moose roast, cheese platter, and fruits. For dessert, I have made my favorite tiramisu. The recipe came from a very nice Italian lady who used to be a pastry chef. She now runs a boarding house for international students in Vancouver. She was kind enough to share her recipe. The resulting cake is the most delicious tiramisu that I've ever had. It is perfectly creamy and light. I swear if I was ever allowed I'd eat a whole cake. It is also the perfect birthday cake for a guy (aka my adorable boyfriend) who hates cream and frosting. I made one 8 inch cake for the dinner party and a 9x5 rectangular cake for the two of us for later. Traditional tiramisu is not served with anymore decor than a generous dusting of cocoa powder on top. However, I needed a way to unmold the 8 inch cake nicely as I didn't have any plastic cake collars. I my solution was to decorate the outer layer of the cake with rolled wafers. It was effective for a beautiful reveal. Downside, the wafers were soft by serving time due to the moisture of the tiramisu. I think I will go back to garnishing tiramisus with Savordi next time. Less dramatic but equally delicious!

Happy Birthday Love Part 1! December 3rd, 2010

It was my boyfriend's 28th birthday. I gave him full authority over our food choices for the day. Breakfast at home. I made some chocolate banana crepes. I was lucky to be able to rush into the grocery store last second to pick up some bananas the day before! The crepes were good but I think it's thanks to the chocolate and bananas. I would try a different crepe recipe next time as these crepes were a little rubbery.

Lunch at MBCo with his co-workers. And dinner at Chez l'Épicier. It's a very fine restaurant and wine bar. Needless to say, the wine was probably wasted on me. (I still have problem identifying good wine from bad ones....) The food was gorgeous! My filet mignon was cooked to perfection, rare but not bloody, just the way I like it. The desserts were fantastic as well. I forgot my camera or else there'd be a review in the "Eating Out" section. Though, it wouldn't make a very romantic evening with me trying to document each dish under the dimmed lights. Maybe next time!

When Cookie Recipes are Bad... They Often Ended Up Tasting Like Sand.

I think the blog title says enough... These are the worse cookies that I've made in a while. Should've taken the hint from the comments on the recipe website. Healthy is not always better... They are pretty though...

Almond & Honey-Butter Cookies recipe from EatingWell.

Where All The Good Apples End up...

My boyfriend's favorite thing in the world is apple sauce. 4 toasts with a generous helping of apple sauce on top of each slice are part of his daily breakfast (I approximate this is how he enjoys breakfast 300/365.25 days a year). This roughly translates to 24 oz of apple sauce every week and a half. Lucky for him, I enjoys my early fall apple picking trips and making apple sauce and apple butter (and other apple related things). Apple sauce is basically a cooked apple puree, and the apple butter is the thickened jam version. I've always thought apple butter is a funny name for it as there's no butter. That is, until I've tried it. It's just so rich and velvety in your mouth!

You Should Always Check the Fridge First...

You know how sometimes, you wake up in the morning and it's just like every other day. The only difference is that you have an urge to make some healthy and delicious muffins? You thought of the frozen berries in the freezer, and checked that you have the yogurt in the fridge the recipe called for and got started. About 20 minutes into making the muffins when the recipe called for the frozen berries, you open the freezer just to find out that your dear boyfriend has eaten them for breakfast. At this point, you blame yourself for not checking the freezer first. Then you smile at the batter and hope that a berry-less mixed berry muffin would taste just as good. (On yeah, but you know they won't be... and they aren't.)

What's Better with Strawberry and Cream?

Long long time ago, I was given the recipe to this incredibly moist chiffon cake. It's made with 12 eggs. I know... a whole pack of eggs. Please try not to judge and count your cholesterol. Yes, yes. Let's all throw caution to the wind. It's also worthwhile to know that this makes two sheet cakes about 3/4 inch thick. So for a 2 layer 9 inch cake it would probably only take half the recipe. The cake tastes great but it is slightly eggy. It may be wise to tune down the amount of egg yolks. (For both the cake and arteries.) However, it'd be a while before I decide to mess around with this recipe. It's too good to ruin!

Christmas is Coming Around Again

Here is another back posting of something that I made a while ago. As the Christmas season nears, I am reminded of last year's "Holiday Baking Madness". It was a full week of baking and wrapping and baking. There was also some force feeding of sweet stuff in my brother's mouth while he slept. It was quite amusing to watch him finish the bite while he slept. It would've been nice to get a comment from him before he fell back asleep.

Before the Christmas season started, a coworker of mine who was also an avid baker gave me a pouch of the "Amish Friendship Bread" starter. I was really excited to be a part of the chain. It was kind of fun caring for the baby yeasts and the resulting cupcakes were delicious! I ended up wrapping them and gave them away to coworkers as Christmas presents. This recipe is very common but here it is again!

Afternoon Green Tea

What gift to bring a friend for a "maybe" house warming? You know, when they call to say they've moved to a new place and you didn't know if they would be staying there for long and invited you over for the afternoon. We decided on some cookies and I thought hey... free guinea pigs! Here comes another new recipe from our "List of Recipes to Try" spreadsheet. These cookies didn't come out as flavourful as I'd hoped. I have adjusted the original recipe so there's more green tea powder, sugar and less flour.

Dying for French Chocolate Cake

I went on a family vacation in Europe this summer. We bought a slice of chocolate cake from a random sandwich shop in Paris for a quick decadent snack. It was the most amazing chocolate cake EVER. It was smooth, chocolate-ly, and just heavenly. Ever since then I have been craving for another slice. The first flourless chocolate cake that I had made was good but it had collapsed in the middle. I thought I'd give it a second try with a different recipe. This recipe did not call for stiff beaten egg whites to fluff up the cake which made it a easy recipe. There's no worry about breaking the egg white bubbles and deflating the cake. The table of flour in this recipe also helped to hold the cake up. The cake is finished with a dusting of icing sugar and a side of mix berries sauce.

Going Back in Time to My Very First Bread...

I have never ever baked a bread in my life until approximately 6 weeks ago. It was a nice day in the fall after a weekend of apple picking... I had a huge bag fresh off the farm. The distress call for new apple recipes over Facebook had proven to be useless as the best recipe consisted of: wash, dry, then eat the apple. Granted that was how some of the apples met their ends, I was still on the prowl for apple recipes on the internet and in my cookbook library. I settled on a few recipes to start, one of which was a delicious looking sweet apple bread recipe. The original recipe calls for a bread machine. I didn't have one so I did it the old fashion way following instructions from James Peterson's "Baking". I was (and still am) not sure how correct my methods were and the bread didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. All in all, it was still delicious. One apple down and another 50 to go!