belated catch up.

I've been neglecting my posts. I misplaced my camera and couldn't find it to add pictures to my post so I decided to wait until I found it. I did have a lot of fun cooking though.

So I'll start with my recipe Chicken Tortilla Soup. It's one of the things I cook a lot. Soup is easy and it lasts a few days so if I don't have time to cook if I make a batch and enjoy for a few days. It keeps me from eating the junk food I crave so much.

I also made those delicious chocolate Nutella cookies. You can see them cooling behind my bowl of soup. I halved the recipe because I didn't need to eat so many cookies. I forgot the extra hazelnuts though. I wish I had them I think they would have added the extra crunch that they needed. When I make them for Christmas I'll have to make sure I add them. I also thought rolling them in coconut might be nice.

 The finished product didn't last very long. Eric (DH) and I ate most of them and only had 2 left over.

I also made the Chicken Tiki Masala. It was really good, a bit to spicy for me though. I cried through dinner. Eric liked it though. Neither one of us had ever had anything like it before. I think I will make it again just hold off on some of the spice. I lost my camera at this point so I have no pictures. :(  I then I had to use my phone.

 

This photo is a bit washed out. It doesn't show the wonderful golden color of the cheddar, scallion, turkey bacon scones. They are one of my favorite things that have been posted so far. I've been eating them all week. I can't wait to make them again. I do have to say though that they reminded me of the biscuits you get at Red Lobster. 

Last but not least. Pumpkin Pancakes!!! I absolutely love pumpkin. I will seek it out this time of year, bread, coffee, pancakes, if it has pumpkin in it I will try it. I was so excited to make these on Sunday Morning.  I did have to do a change up since I didn't want to open a whole can of pumpkin for pancakes. Instead of Pumpkin puree I used some Trader Joe's pumpkin butter in the batter. It didn't have as strong of a pumpkin taste as I would like but they were still really good.

Update-palooza

This is a bit ridiculous, I know (and I'm sorry!), but I have a few updates to make. I figured I'd do them all in one post to try and be as least obnoxious as possible. I'll also keep the pictures down to one or two per recipe.

In order of first appearance on the blog...

Grilled Salmon with Blueberry Pan Sauce
We enjoyed this! I decided to use the entire amount of balsamic since we both love it, and I'm glad that I did. It was very blueberry-y (obviously), but I thought it paired really well with the salmon. Unfortunately, I didn't have any mint (and didn't want to make a special trip to just get that), so I made it without. As you can see, I served it over a bed of fresh spinach. Yum!

Thai Ground Pork Salad
We seriously loved this. I don't really have much else to say other than that. I pretty much made it exactly as written, except omitted the cilantro (my food arch nemesis... but seriously, the only ingredient I've ever come into contact with that I don't like. And by don't like, I mean despise) and made up for it with extra basil and mint. I also added a bit of extra Sriracha and jalapeno because we like things spicy. Oh, and as you can see I had to use iceberg lettuce instead of Boston (sad!). AND I used regular onion instead of shallots. Hmm, I guess I changed more than I thought, but nothing too drastic. Anyway, we loved it and are looking forward to the next time we have it!


Thumbprint Cookies
YUM! I made these today, and had to restrain myself to only eat two. They're delicious. I had a haunting suspicion that I'd love them given the Nutella and espresso and hazelnuts, and I was definitely correct. So tasty, and I love that they're semi-healthy. (Not really, but they're from Cooking Light, so I can believe that... right?!) I put a little extra salt in because I love when certain cookies have a bit of saltiness to them, and I was so glad I did. It worked perfectly with the sweet Nutella.

Rude-looking, but delicious cookies

Yay for a dessert week!

This was a pretty easy recipe. I didn't have instant espresso so I used a shot of coffee liqueur instead. I also had to skip the hazelnuts... I had some, but they smelled funky. So no hazelnuts.

I was confused at the instruction to beat the flour into the butter. In my experience, you can't just turn the beater on when you pour that much dry stuff over that little butter, or it goes flying. I found it much more effective to mix the dry ingredients in with a fork.

I also saw no need to knead the dough on waxed paper. I just kneaded it in the bowl.

Here's a picture of the cookies before baking. It looks a little, um, rude.

I also took a picture of the dough in the bowl. But it looks even ruder.

Since Nutella (or my store-brand version) is rather goopy stuff, I devised an easier way to scoop it onto the cookies.

1. Take a measuring spoon and dig out a heaping spoonful.

2. Use a knife to scrape the top off onto a cookie.

3. Then dig out the rest onto another cookie.

Amazing. I loved them. Great nighttime snack. But I shouldn't have eaten three at once. That was a little too rich.

The chocolate portion of these reminded me of these Vegan Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles, minus the spice. I wonder if these could be made with oil instead of butter.

A twofer

I did in fact make the Pizza Pot Pie from two weeks ago, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write about it!

I made the decision to halve the recipe while I was at the grocery store buying the sausages, because 4 lbs of sausages is a LOT of sausage, and while Derek does eat a lot, he doesn't eat quite that much.

Also, I've never really had an easy time with cutting uncooked sausages, so I opted to just squeeze the meat out of the casing and just brown it up.

I was super disappointed that I didn't have enough ricotta (I barely had half!) but, it was what I had on hand, so I used that.

Here's out pot pie, fresh out of the oven.  I sprinkled the top with some sea salt, oregano and pepper flakes, 'cause that's how I roll.

And plated,

(it's sideways, but refuses to upload the way I've got it rotated on my computer.  I have anger)

All in all, we found this to be good, but way too salty.  While it was good at the time (and wonderful as hangover food) I don't think we'll make this again.

Next up, Aunt B's fantastic cookies.

These things are seriously amazing.

I was rather confused while at the grocery store, because they didn't have "hazelnuts" but they did have "filberts", which looked suspiciously like hazelnuts.

ETA: Don't worry, I did bust out my iPhone to double check that filberts = hazelnuts.  They do.

(this picture also refuses to load in the orientation I would like.  Grrrrrrrr)


I was not in the mood for finely chopping nuts today (hehe, I said nuts) so I pulled out my food processor and made quick work of them (after toasting them on the stove until fragrant of course).

The end result is fantastically yummy cookies.  I'm pretty sure Derek and I ate at least 10 between us tonight.  The addition of a bit of Nutella on top just takes them to awesometown.  It should also be noted that I included the option espresso powder.  I'm a big fan of espresso in chocolate things.  I feel that it adds a really great depth of flavour.

There are 28 cookies in this picture, but don't be deceived.  I made a math (or remembering) error when calculating how much weight each cookie should be (I like my cookies to all be the same size, so I weigh the dough, then do the math, then weigh out each portion.  A bit much?  Probably) and made a total of 36 instead of the recommended 28.  But they are small and cute and I love them.  I will most certainly be making these again.  I think they would make a great addition to a holiday baked goods package, since they very much resemble Ferrero Rocher.

Dessert!!

I wanted to switch it up a bit this week with a dessert recipe, and we're trying to eat a *little* bit healthier, so I found this cookie recipe on www.cookinglight.com. I figured it would be worth a shot, and that's what it's all about, right?!

Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients

• 4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Stir egg yolks with a whisk, adding espresso, if desired. Add the yolk mixture and vanilla to butter; beat well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.

3. Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax paper; knead 6 times or until smooth and shiny. Shape dough into 28 (1-inch) balls. Roll sides of balls in nuts, pressing gently. Arrange balls 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press thumb into center of each cookie, leaving an indentation. Bake, 1 batch at a time, at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks. Spoon a scant 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut-chocolate spread into center of each cookie.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

104

Fat:

6.5g (sat 2.7g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

1.6g

Carbohydrate:

10.9g

Fiber:

0.8g

Cholesterol:

23mg

Iron:

0.6mg

Sodium:

46mg

Calcium:

11mg