Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

I don't know why, but scalloped potatoes with cheese has always been one of my favourite dishes ever since I was little; if I was feeling sick or sad I wanted either scalloped potatoes with cheese or my Grandma's chicken and noodles.

For the past while I've been trying to make a scalloped potatoes recipe that a) actually cooks (don't use raw onions, it makes the potatoes crunchy) and b) isn't super duper runny. I have finally found one. It's a titch more work than your basic scalloped potatoes recipe, but it is SO worth it!

Dorothea's Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

1 c. chopped onion (approx. 1 medium onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 c. milk
1/2 c. cream
about 2 1/2 lbs thinly sliced potatoes (my favourite potatoes are yukon gold)
approx. 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

In a sauce pan fry onion and garlic in butter until the onion is tender (it won't really brown, too much butter, but just get 'em cooked). Stir in flour, salt and pepper and fry for a moment before adding the milk and cream. Cook and stir over medium until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a buttered casserole dish, layer the sliced potatoes about three layers thick. Top with a small amount (most of the sauce is going on the final top layer) of sauce and sprinkle with a third of the cheese. Layer potatoes another three-ish thick and repeat last step. On the final layer, spread the remaining bulk of the sauce over the potatoes and sprinkle with cheese.
Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 400F, then turn down the oven to 350F and bake for another 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft (poke 'em with a fork to check). You should let it stand, uncovered, for about 5 minutes before you try to serve it, otherwise it will slop all over and burn you. True story.

There you go! Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes of Happiness

I am not really a dessert person, I much prefer salty things, but when I do make a dessert I like, it is usually a personal sized one. Cupcakes, cinnamon buns, etc. I don't know why, but I am more excited about a dessert if it's in its own little wrapper or individual size. I also enjoy feeding other people, heck, people I don't even know---I sent some of these cupcakes with Aaron to share with the guys he works with (they loved them and when one of them dropped Aaron off that day, he pulled up in front of me and said "I loved your muffins!" It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about...)---and it is a great deal easier to send food that is small and you don't have to slice into. So, long story short, unless I am making something specific for someone, I usually turn my cakes into cupcakes.

Chocolate Cupcakes of Happiness

a recipe out of my favourite cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (of awesome, in my opinion) 

3/4 c. butter (softened)

3 eggs

2 c. flour

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder 

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. milk

Line two trays of muffin tins with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a large (WAY large, chocolate cakes splatters like no other) mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Gradually add in sugar, 1/2 c. at a time. Beat on medium speed until well combined (creamed). Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Alternately add in flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more, then fill muffin tins. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Be sure to get the cupcakes out onto a wire rack right away.

Now, while the cupcakes are cooling, make any icing you choose. I used Penuche icing, which was DELICIOUS, so I will give you the recipe here.

Penuche Icing of Yumminess 

1/2 c. butter

1 c. packed brown sugar 

1/4 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

In a saucepan, melt butter and stir in brown sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly (really let it get bubbly, the browner the better). Remove from heat and vigorously whisk in the milk and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar (still whisking like a mad man, otherwise it goes lumpy and grainy) until frosting reaches a, vaguely sloppy, spreading consistency. Ice immediately! Even if your cupcakes are still warm, that's fine. This icing hardens no matter what, it won't melt like a butter cream frosting would.

So there you go! A wonderful treat to bring to any gathering, send with anyone, or just eat in your own home. 

Dine in or Take out? Chinese food at its best

There is an adorable little, family run Chinese food restaurant just down the street from us called Halibut House (it also does fish and chips), and they do FANTASTIC Chinese food. I usually find Chinese food way too sugary and not very filling, but theirs is more flavours than sweet, and quite substantial.

We have gotten food from them quite a few times now and I love the atmosphere. The hostess is funny, sweet and enjoys getting to know the patrons. This time when Aaron went in to pick up our food, she challenged him as he walked in the door with "password?!?"
He said, "um...Dorothea?"
She said, "spelled 'IA' or 'EA'?"
He, now laughing, said, "EA."
She pulled out the brown paper bag with our order in it and handed it to him, saying, "Hmm, good to know for next time. I spelled it wrong."

We had Ebeth over, and we got Sweet & Sour Pork, Ginger Fried Beef (SO good), Broccoli in Garlic Sauce, and Chicken Chow Mein. It was delicious.

An Ode to Curly Fries

Also entitled: what pregnant women want, pregnant women get.

Here's the deal, I generally eat very heathily. I don't eat much fast food (maybe once a month?), I don't eat a lot of sugar, rarely have processed foods, etc. I feel like I have quite sophisticated tastes. 

HOWEVER, I love my curly fries. When I was a kid (I grew up barely EVER eating fast food, etc, etc) what I wanted for my birthday dinner was chicken strips and curly fries---pretty much without fail. I hadn't had curly fries for probably...8 years? And then I got pregnant...and then curly fries went on sale. The rest, they say, is history. 

I would love to say that I'm going to try to make them next time I'm craving...but I don't think that's possible. I just love the 'so bad for me' taste.

My house smells like an Italian Bakery

For reals. I'm sitting in my living room and revelling in the smell. Let me tell you why.

I bake darn good bread.

There you have it. That is why my house smells amazing and why my husband gets to brag at work that his wife makes him the best sandwiches in the world. I bake amazingly delicious bread.

AND YOU CAN TOO!

Here's how:

Shelley's Artisan Bread 

(confused? "but," you say, "YOUR name isn't Shelley??" aha, my little friend. Shelley is my sister's mother-in-law, and she taught me how to make amazing bread---thankfully not on a mountain in Tibet, though, I don't like snow)

6 1/2 c. all purpose flour (I've never tried it with whole wheat, but I imagine it wouldn't be quite the same...)
1 1/2 tbs. quick rise yeast
1 1/2 tbs. salt
3 c. luke warm water (100 F)
Cubed cheese (technically optional, but SO good I never leave it out)
Herbs of your choosing (I don't think I've done the same herb combination twice yet, it is so much fun to experiment!)
If you have it, sun dried tomatoes are also REALLY good in it, same with parmesan cheese

Measure flour, yeast and salt into large mixing bowl. Add whatever extra ingredients tickle your fancy and stir together with wooden spoon. Pour in the warm water and stir until moistened. Beat 40ish strokes (you wanna get the gluten excited, but not pop too many bubbles), scraping the bottom of the bowl until the dough forms a lumpy sticky mass.
Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size and has a sponge-like appearance (usually takes at least 1 1/2 hours).
Place dough on a floured surface and dust lightly with flour (you want to keep the dough as wet and sticky as possible without it sticking to you and everything else). Working the dough as little as possible (DON'T KNEAD IT!), form the dough into two loaf-ish shapes (it will rise like crazy, so don't try anything fancy. it will come out beautiful in its own right). Place on a parchment paper covered large cookie sheet (make sure they have LOTS of room to rise). If you want you can sprinkle the top with olive oil and/or cheese and herbs. Then let rise for 40 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450F when your timer hits 10 minutes left and place a small metal bowl filled with water on the bottom rack. Once your timer dings, stick the bread in,  set another timer for 27 minutes and inhale deeply as your house starts to smell delicious!! Once the bread is done, move immediately onto wire racks and wait at least 10 minutes (I know, it's hard) before you cut it open.

It has the most delicious moist insides with a nice slightly tough outside! SO good with a slathering of butter. Also makes amazing sandwiches, garlic bread---just about anything you can do with bread, this stuff makes it better!

Chicken Pot Pie

I have always liked the idea of Chicken Pot Pie. Crunchy pie crust, delicious creamy chicken centre with chunks of soft vegetables... Sadly it never worked out that way and I had to resign myself to the fact that the mess of mushy pie crust and super salty chicken lumps in my dish was as close as it was going to come. So you can imagine my surprise when, for reasons which I'm going to blame on my unborn child, I sudden had an intense desire to try and make Chicken Pot Pie like it was supposed to be (I imagine it helped that I was reading a Redwall book at the time too).

I began looking through recipes online and decided that, while there were bits of each of them that seemed like a good idea, I didn't really like any of them as a whole. So I decided to make one myself. After taking stock of my fridge I made my ever loving and patient husband go to the grocery store, while I began combining the things I liked about the ten different recipes I had found.

Also, I already had homemade unsalted chicken stock from when I made a roast chicken, so keep that in mind (a lot of chicken pot pie recipes made you go through the whole process of roasting a chicken and then making stock, but, for convenience sake, I'm going assume you have chicken stock lying around).

5 ish cups of unsalted chicken stock
1 lb. chicken (breasts, thighs, doesn't matter. just don't cut them up)
3 bay leaves
1 tbs. (approx) fresh herbs, minced (I have lemon verbena, oregano and rosemary growing on my deck so I used those, but any would be yummy)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
4 celery stalks
4 carrots
4 medium potatoes
1 1/2 c. frozen peas
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1/3 c. flour
1 c. heavy cream
Pastry of your choosing

To start, remove the chicken fat off the top of the chicken broth and put the fat into a large frying pan and set aside (if you are using chicken stock from a can or carton, ignore this). Bring the chicken broth to a simmer in a large pot. Add the herbs, salt and raw chicken to the broth. While the chicken is cooking, chop up the veggies into whatever size you feel comfortable with (be sure to keep the onions and potatoes separate). I went with a nice smallish bite-sized piece, that way I could get more than one veggie per spoonful. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the pieces and set aside. Add the potatoes and let cook until soft. While the potatoes are cooking, heat up the frying pan of fat (if you have no fat or if there isn't much, top it up to about 1/2 c. with butter) and add in the onions and garlic and fry until brown. Back at your pot of broth and potatoes, add in the celery and carrots and keep simmering. In your frying pan, once the onions are browning, add in the flour and brown it a little bit. Then add the heavy cream and stir until thickening. Add the flour and onion mix into the broth and stir vigorously (you don't want lumps). Once the mixture is thickening, add in the frozen peas and dice the chicken into bite sized pieces and then add as well. Let the mixture thicken and heat up the frozen peas for a little bit then dish it into ramekins (individual serving baking dishes, get some if you don't have any---they are so handy!) and top with a circle of rolled out pastry and crimp it around the edges. The trick I found to keeping the pastry from going mushy is just to not put pastry on the bottom, JUST top it. It works WAY better.

Whatever you don't use (I just made two ramekins since I was only feeding me and my hubby) you can freeze.

There you go! Chicken Pot Pie the way it should be! I'm afraid the recipe is sort of ramble-y, but I am not exactly a professional recipe-maker. I hope you enjoyed it (and enjoy it if you make it)!

Love,
Dorothea

Welcome!

So the only other blog I've ever tried was way back when Xanga was the new Myspace, and even then I think I updated it with scintillating anecdotes such as "I ate meat lovers pizza today---I prefer hawaiian" (yes, I've been a foodie from a young age), so I have no idea if this will succeed, if I will enjoy it, or even if  anyone will ever read it. HOWEVER; having been told that I need a cooking blog after the umpteesquillionth (I do food better than math, but I'm pretty sure that should be a number) time that I posted an update on facebook that was wholly food-related, I have decided that I should at least give it a go.

So. Here I am. Giving it a go. Tomorrow I will make something interesting and post it here.

Also, to anyone who will actually read this, do you want the recipes? Do you care?