Recipes That Worked by Mandy Higgins

Recipes from Christmases past

2023-12-21T16:25:00.000-06:00

I've reviewed some great recipes on the blog for the Christmas season! They're definitely worth a second look.

Cranberry Margaritas and Brandy Milk Punch

Orange Butter Cookies with Grand Marnier Glaze

Double Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Christmas Punch

Cardamom Crescents

Honey Spice Cake

White Chocolate and Peppermint Brownies

Toffee Millionaires

Cranberry margaritas and brandy milk punch - two great cocktail recipes for your holiday arsenal

2013-11-29T16:23:00.009-06:00

Updated on Dec. 18, 2023

Here are two recipes I tried that would be amazing additions to your holiday entertaining arsenal.

Cranberry Margaritas: These festive cocktails are unique and fun. By unique, I don’t mean strange-tasting – these are delicious and most everyone will like them. Its uniqueness comes from the rim on the glass, which includes Chinese five-spice powder. It adds an extra hint of tingle to the drink.

Be careful when making the cranberry jam. It boils down faster than the recipe indicates. I didn’t need the full 30 minutes, 25 was more like it, and for the last 15 minutes I was standing by the pot the entire time, constantly stirring. The mixture will reduce down into a small amount of a jam-like substance, so small, in fact, it barely made enough for three cocktails, not four as the recipe states. I recommend doubling the jam recipe if you make it.

Brennan’s Brandy Milk Punch: This recipe comes from May 2013 issue of Saveur magazine, but I find this drink much more suitable for the Christmas season, not spring! Egg nog fans will love this combo of brandy, half-and-half, a simple syrup and vanilla extract. It froths up beautifully. But I wouldn’t serve it with brunch, as this drink traditionally is in New Orleans. This cocktail, to me, has evening-in-front-of-a-roaring-fire written all over it.

Simple syrup, by the way, is very easy to make. Sugar (or, I used Splenda) and an equivalent amount of water are brought to a lively simmer in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then left to cool. Simple syrup keeps well in the refrigerator for at least a week.

A fast winter weeknight dinner, and an easy-to-make, popular cake

2013-11-28T15:35:00.006-06:00

Updated on Dec. 18, 2023.

Here are two recipes I tried recently that will warm up your winter nights.

Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce: I’m all for trying what might be considered a slightly exotic dish to my North American taste buds, especially if it looks easy to do. That’s why I picked this recipe, and it came through with flying colours. I halved the recipe, so the simmering time in step 2 was cut back drastically - barely eight minutes instead of the 20 minutes listed in the recipe. My advice is to keep a very close eye on the dish during the simmering part – when it has thickened slightly, it is ready. I served this with warmed naan bread – delicious.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting: This would more accurately named Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey-Cream Cheese frosting, as cream cheese is a vital component of the frosting and what makes it so delicious. This easy-to-make cake was a big hit at my workplace and my husband’s – people gobbled it up and some even admitted to thinking about it in the days following!

Soup, speedy potatoes and tomatillos

2013-10-07T16:28:00.004-06:00

Updated on Dec. 21, 2023

Here are some cozy fall recipes I've tried. Click on the links to get the recipes.

Kielbasa with Mashed Potatoes: A super-easy recipe that includes a simple, speedy and smart way to prepare mashed potatoes. The potatoes are cooked in the microwave for just 12 minutes, then whole-grain mustard and whole milk are added and the mixture mashed. Easy-peasy, and very good. I have to admit that to speed up this recipe even more I skipped the broccoli and sauerkraut mixture altogether.

Pork Ribs in Tomatillo Sauce: I’ve never cooked anything with tomatillos before, but I’ve always been curious about them. I took the plunge recently and bought some as they are in season, then picked this recipe to use.

I wasn’t sorry. It was very good, and quite easy to make. As the recipe is from Saveur magazine, known for its authentic international recipes, I’d like to think I was making traditional Mexican comfort food.

Maple Cake: This easy recipe yielded a simple, yummy cake that was comforting and fun to eat. It’s an ideal dessert for fall.

Three Pepper Pork Tenderloin and Grilled Bratwurst

2013-09-09T16:01:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of new recipes I tried during the week of Sept. 2-6. They’re awesome! Click on the links to get the recipes.

Three-Pepper Pork Tenderloin with Peach-Cucumber Salad: The peaches and cucumbers provide a refreshing foil to the peppery pork in this delicious recipe. We only used a pinch of cayenne pepper instead of the full ¼ teaspoon.

Don’t forget the yogurt (we used plain Greek-style yogurt) and naan bread mentioned at the end of the recipe ingredients – they will pull all the recipe’s components together nicely. You can put the parts together and eat it on a dish, or eat it with your hands by putting sliced pork, salad and yogurt in the naan bread and folding it in half.
This recipe feeds four comfortably.

Grilled Bratwurst and Onion Open-Face Sandwiches: Our first time trying bratwurst sausages was a success thanks to this very easy recipe.

We didn’t make this as an open-face sandwich; rather, we used sausage buns instead of bread, and ate them like hot dogs. The circles of sliced onions will break apart as they cook, making them perfect to pile on top of the sausages in the buns.

Late summer recipes: Paloma; Black Plum Ice Cream

2013-09-03T15:30:00.002-06:00

Here the awesome new recipes I tried from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1. Enjoy! Click on the links for the recipes.

Paloma: (alcoholic) This refreshing and elegant cocktail is an easy mix of grapefruit juice, tequila, and lime juice. I cheated and used store-bought grapefruit juice instead of freshly squeezed. Make sure to salt the rims of the glasses – it’s half the fun!

Honeydew, Cucumber and Mint Cooler: (non-alcoholic) This became an instant favorite of mine the minute I tasted it. The lime juice in the recipe amplifies the cucumber in a wonderfully salty way. The recipe says it serves eight, but I was only able to make just two nicely-sized servings with it.

Black Plum, Port, and Cinnamon Ice Cream: This ice cream tastes like ice cream and pie, without the pie! My husband closed his eyes to savor the wonderful taste. Cooking the plums, port and cinnamon will definitely get you in the mood for fall.

Grilled Lamb and Halloumi Skewers, Broiled Plums with Mango Sorbet, Zucchini Carpaccio

2013-08-26T14:52:00.003-06:00

My latest round of delicious summer recipes, tried by me in the time period from Aug. 15 to 25, includes a kabob and some must-try cooling summer salads. Click on the links to get the recipes.

Grilled Lamb, Tomato, and Halloumi Skewers with Orzo Salad: These easy-to-make kabobs, with their simple and delicious side of orzo salad, are good for a weeknight or an outdoor party. They reminded my husband and I about the awesomeness of halloumi cheese, which gets perfectly-but-not-too-gooey when grilled. Its salty tang is to die for.

Broiled Plums with Mango Sorbet: So easy and so delicious. Plums sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla are broiled in the oven and go on top of store-bought mango sorbet. We couldn’t find mango sorbet but did find mango ice cream, which was just as delicious.

Chai Blossom: A simple combination of chilled chai tea, lime juice and club soda is absolutely delicious. The creator of this recipe is very smart to have thought of chilling chai tea.

Zucchini Carpaccio: This ingenious recipe is so easy and quick to make, but is an elegant crowd pleaser. It will work on weeknights with the family and at dinner parties. And with tons of zucchini around these days, this recipe is ideal for using it up.

The recipe I linked to is a little fancier than the one I used from an Epicurious specialty publication. The recipe I used, for example, didn’t call for pine nuts or zucchini blossoms (the zucchini blossoms are strictly optional, in my opinion!) My recipe also said you could grate the cheese onto the zucchini rather than using a vegetable peeler.

Vodka-Grape Sparkler, Herb Green Beans with Feta, Summer Twang, Raspberry Pops

2013-08-12T15:35:00.003-06:00

I tried four successful on the weekend of Aug. 10 and 11, 2013. Click on the links to get the recipes:

Vodka-Grape Sparkler: This recipe from Bobby Flay is a grown-up grape soda. I made half of the recipe, and it produced three very decent-sized cocktails.

Herb Green Beans with Feta: If you’ve been plagued by the problem of mushy, overcooked and unappetizing beans, take this recipe for a whirl. It produces crisp beans with delicious overtones of mint and dill.

Summer Twang: This non-alcoholic drink is a definite refresher. The base is a combination of pureed cantaloupe, honey and apple cider vinegar, and it’s finished off with club soda. The recipe makes two large or four small servings.

Raspberry Pops: I substituted an equal amount of Splenda for sugar in this simple recipe that produces refreshing, delicious ice pops. I used my handy-dandy Zoku instant ice-pop maker to freeze them.

More terrific summer recipes - pastas, salads, appetizers, cake!

2013-08-07T15:33:00.002-06:00

My promised update of recipes I tried so far this summer that worked continues. In this blog entry are summer pastas, salads, appetizers, sandwiches, cake and more. All of them were awesome – try all of the recipes below without fear!

Summer pastas

Here are three pastas that are perfect for summertime: They use fresh tomatoes and basil.

One-Pan Pasta: This amazing recipe really does require just one pan. The pasta is cooked right along with tomatoes, garlic and basil. It’s ideal for weeknights: It took my husband just 25 minutes to make it, from prep to serving, without rushing.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella: This pasta has a no-cook sauce. Kids will love it!

Spaghetti with Sun Gold Tomato Sauce: The sauce has some unusual ingredients, a star anise pod and whole clove among them. But what results is an amazing, warming sauce that makes lovely use of tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes can be substituted.

Strawberry delight

Here are a couple of fantastic recipes using fresh strawberries:

Herb-Crusted Chicken with Fresh Strawberry Relish: This dish is so good, it’s a little breathtaking. Make sure to use a roasting pan as directed to get a slight crisp on the chicken.

Strawberry & Blue Cheese Bruschetta: Serve this with champagne and you’ve got a gorgeous start to a summertime dinner party.

Something’s fishy

Shrimp and fish fillets are featured in these lovely recipes:

Striped Bass Poached in Herb Butter: Caught some fish you’d like to cook and enjoy? Here’s a wonderful recipe in which fish fillets are poached, rather than fried, in butter, resulting in tender, flavourful fish. Any type of white fish can be used. Since we couldn’t find striped bass, we used cod with great results. You don’t even need to use fish with skin on one side, as the recipe calls for. We used cod fillets without skin and they worked fine.

Summer baking

Lemon Bundt Cake: Although this recipe is from a December issue of Food & Wine magazine, I thought it looked much more suited to spring and summer. The recipe is a little involved but the end product is definitely worth it.

A whack of great summer recipes

2013-08-06T15:40:00.003-06:00

It’s been a looooonnnng time since I’ve posted on Recipes That Worked.

That’s because things have been so hectic at my day job that I’ve had no time for any outside writing projects.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to have to change the way I update Recipes That Worked.

I will likely not have much time any more to write full blog entries about the recipes.

I’m going to have to start making weekly updates, telling you about new recipes I tried in the week before (the ones that worked, anyway!) with a short note describing them and any changes or substitutions I made in the recipes (which is quite rare).

Already this summer I’ve tried a whack of new recipes that I haven’t written about. I’m going to tell you about them this week in a series of large blog entries. Here’s the first, updating on you on some drinks and frosty treats I’ve made that worked terrifically. Click on the links to get the recipes.

Drinks

Vodka Lavender Thyme Lemonade (alcoholic): Don’t let the lavender freak you out – it simply gives a slightly unusual, but incredibly delicious, edge to the drink. Have fun getting people to guess what the secret ingredient is. Dried lavender can be found at health-food stores.

Frozen Limeade Margarita (alcoholic): This killer recipe is officially my new go-to margarita recipe. You will be stunned, and so will your guests, at how good these are. The secret? Canned frozen limeade concentrate!

Blackberry Blast (alcoholic): This recipe uses rhum agricole, a type of rum made directly from sugarcane, rather than sugarcane by-product such as molasses as is the case with many other types of rums. It actually tastes more like whiskey than rum, which contributes a slightly unsual but very welcome taste to this cooling cocktail.

Berry Rose Sangria (alcoholic): This is the easiest and least time-consuming sangria recipe I’ve ever seen. Forget all the chopping of fruit and letting it sit for hours to blend the flavours – this delicious sangria is ready almost instantly by comparison to other recipes. And it’s delicious!

Salted Meyer Lemon and Sage Presse (non-alcoholic): Got a guest in a crowd who prefers a non-alcoholic drink? This is going to be a big treat for them. It’s got a the appeal of a well-made cocktail without any booze. I used regular lemons instead of Meyer lemons.

Ice pops and sorbet

Last fall, my mother-in-law bought me a Zoku instant ice pop maker for a birthday gift. It's an adorable little contraption that makes ice pops in seven to nine minutes. I cracked the thing open in the middle of July and have been making delicious ice pops since. Here are the successful recipes I’ve tried:

- Honeydew-Lime Pops

- Gingery Watermelon Paletas

- Blueberry-Lime Ice Pops

- Cherry Paletas

I wouldn’t feel that my summer was complete without making a sorbet or ice cream, and I finally got around to making one recently. It was Cucumber, Celery and Gin Sorbet, an absolute frosty winner.

Hate the idea of frying donuts? Try fonuts!

2013-05-30T16:29:00.002-06:00

I've always liked the idea of making donuts at home, but I’m frankly terrified of cooking with hot oil.

Luckily I’ve come across an excellent alternative: Fonuts, which you bake instead of fry. They have exactly the same texture as donuts without the use of oil.

A recent issue of Saveur magazine was dedicated to all things donuts, and I tried a couple of recipes from the issue for fonuts that were absolutely terrific: Strawberry-Buttermilk Fonuts and Cottage Street Bakery Dirt Bombs.

My husband was absolutely crazy for the results of both recipes.

I can’t recommend enough that you try both of them, particularly the Strawberry-Buttermilk Fonuts this time of year when strawberries are in season. Your family and friends won’t know what to do with themselves when presented with a homemade strawberry donut on a summer morning for breakfast (or any other time of day, for that matter).

Strawberry-Buttermilk Fonuts (click for the recipe): In order to make these actually look like donuts, you need a donut pan. I found and purchased an absolutely adorable one online, and proceeded to make this extremely easy recipe.

The recipe says to grease the pan with canola oil, and make sure that’s what you use. The oil will help the batter spread in each donut mold.

Cottage Street Bakery Dirt Bombs (click for the recipe): These are baked in muffin tins, and so obviously look more like a muffin than a donut.

The recipe calls for using six-cup muffin tins, which makes large-size muffins. I didn’t have any of these on hand and so simply used a 12-cup muffin tin instead. The baking time remains the same.

One thing about this recipe: It calls for 4 ½ cups of unsalted butter, softened.

That’s an awful lot of butter, and it’s not all needed.

I made the mistake of taking out all the butter overnight to let it soften to room temperature without reading further into the recipe.

Only 12 tablespoons of softened butter is actually used in the donuts.

The rest is melted, and the baked donuts are dipped in the butter before being mixed in cinnamon sugar.

I found I used less than half of the butter that was meant for melting when it came time to dip and dress the donuts.

So do yourself a favor and soften just the 12 tablespoons needed in the recipe, then melt the amount of butter you figure you might need to dip the donuts in. You can always melt more if needed.

Keep out the slow cooker for these springtime recipes

2013-03-27T15:37:00.001-06:00

You may be thinking of putting your slow cooker in storage after a long winter of use, but I’ve got a couple of recipes that will make you want to keep it out for some springtime meals.
    I chose both recipes because they required no advance cooking of the meat contained within the dish. That is one thing that irritates me greatly about many slow cooker recipes: The meat requires some type of browning.
    To me, that just defeats the purpose of a slow cooker, as it interferes with its primary attractive feature: Convenience.
    All I want to do is chuck a bunch of ingredients in and turn the thing on!
    That’s what you can do with these two slow cooker recipes, which are both very easy to make.

Slow-Cooker Five Spice Pork with Snap Peas (click for the recipe) is a crowd-pleasing recipe, with pork enhanced by a number of light ingredients including dry cherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and Chinese five-spice powder.

The recipe calls for a boneless pork shoulder. Surprisingly, this isn’t always easy to find in the supermarket. Don’t worry if you can only find a pork shoulder with a bone, as the shoulder is not used whole in the recipe. The meat is cut into pieces before it’s placed in the slow cooker.
Be sure to serve the pork over rice – jasmine is my recommendation.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Pho (click for the recipe) is a light and lovely soup of chicken, noodles and bok choy. Like the recipe above, it is flavored with all sorts of yummy ingredients: Brown sugar, fish sauce, star anise, whole cloves, fresh ginger, and a cinnamon stick.

The bowl of each serving can be littered with toppings of one’s choice including bean sprouts, basil, mint, a Thai or serrano chile (we used a jalapeno) and lime juice, fresh squeezed from a wedge. We skipped the fresh cilantro, as we both despise the stuff!
The recipe calls for “wide rice noodles,” which are also called vermicelli noodles. They can most often be found in the Asian section of the supermarket. However, we were unable to find wide noodles and so used thin rice noodles instead. They worked absolutely fine.

Pasting supper together

2013-02-19T16:06:00.004-06:00

Recently my husband and I made two dishes that required paste.
Not glue, of course, but spice pastes: Harissa in one dish, and green curry paste in the other.
Both recipes, from the pages of Martha Stewart Living, are intensely delicious and very easy to make, making them ideal for weeknights. Both are terrific vegetarian dishes, too.

My husband and I were absolutely in love with Green Vegetable Curry (click for the recipe).

    I take the recipe’s title to have a double meaning – there are various green vegetables in the dish and the curry paste used in it is green too.
    Green curry paste is a type of Thai curry, and is easily found in the Asian foods section of many large supermarkets.
    It is spicy, so my husband and I used just one tablespoon of paste instead of the three listed in the recipe. This made it tame enough that even children could give this recipe a try.
    The dish’s secret ingredient is coconut milk. It mixes beautifully with the curry, shiitake mushrooms, green beans, baby bok choy (we substituted bok choy), bell pepper and basil leaves.
    Be sure to serve this lovely curry over jasmine rice.

Moroccan Vegetable Soup (click for the recipe) was both exotic and comforting at the same time – not an easy feat! It is a nice twist on everyday vegetable soup.

    The dish is flavoured with harissa, a type of North African hot-chile paste. Like curry paste, it is hot and spicy, so we used one tablespoon instead of the two listed in the recipe. Harissa can be found in the Asian foods section of large supermarkets.
    We found Israeli couscous, which is slightly larger than regular couscous, at a bulk/speciality foods store.
    The recipe calls for the main vegetables, carrots and rutabaga, to be cut quite large – three inch- and two inch-long pieces. This was correct, as the vegetables are cooked so as to be tender enough to break up with a spoon while eating them if desired.
    If you have leftovers of the soup, which warm up beautifully in the microwave, be sure to store it separately from the couscous. Then put the two together in a bowl, microwave them, and you’ve got a delicious lunch!

Get some Italian sausage in your stew

2013-02-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

My husband and I have always been fans of Italian sausage, the sweet or mild variety. (No hot stuff for us!)
    Italian sausage delivers a hit of awesome to the three things to which it is most commonly added: Pasta, soups and stews (except when it is eaten on its own as a breakfast sausage or grilled and served on a hot dog bun – also delicious, by the way).
    Italian sausage is pork sausage seasoned with fennel and/or anise. It is easily found in supermarkets, most often in the breakfast sausage section. It is packaged in two ways: In links, or in bulk, which does not have casings, similar to ground beef.
    If you know someone who has never eaten sweet or mild Italian sausage, you’re in luck: You’ll really wow them if you make a dish with it in it. They will wonder about the wonderous sweet meat they are eating. How did they go through life without it so long?
    Here is a stew and a soup that use Italian sausage to its delicious utmost. Both are fantastic to make on a chilly weeknight. Add some crusty bread on the side and you’ve got supper.

Chorizo and White Bean Stew (click for the recipe): Ignore the title of the recipe. The recipe calls for Mexican chorizo, a type of pork sausage seasoned with chili peppers, OR Italian sausage, which is what I used. And I used the mild kind.

This recipe calls for the Italian sausage to be in link form. The recipe says to cook the links on medium heat for 15-20 minutes until browned and cooked through. I found medium to be too hot – the links started burning slightly about 10 minutes in, so I turned the heat down to medium-low and finished off the cooking time.
The recipe says to crush a few of the cannellini or white kidney beans with the back of a spoon while the stew is cooking, but I found that entirely unnecessary. It is a bit frustrating to do, in fact, so skip this step if you want.

Sausage, Potato and Fennel Chowder (Click for the recipe): The recipe calls for sweet Italian sausage in links, casings removed. If you can find Italian sausage in bulk or ground form without casings in the supermarket, you won’t have to do this step. However, if you can only find it in links, no worries – the casings are easily peeled off in just a matter of minutes.

This recipe calls for mashing the potatoes in the stew after it has cooked, but as with the white beans in the stew recipe above, I found this to be a useless step which just wastes time. Skip it if you want!

Three coffee-style cakes to warm up your winter

2013-02-04T16:15:00.002-06:00

With winter still in full swing, there is still lots of time to hunker down and enjoy the coziness of home with a cup of coffee or tea and a slice of delicious coffee-style cake.
Although I’m personally not a tea or coffee drinker, I know that there are many of you that are, and that you’ll probably love a piece of one of the three cakes I’m going to tell you about with your favorite hot beverage.

Apple-Walnut Cake (click for the recipe) is a bit of a miracle. It’s exceptionally easy to make, with just one bowl and no mixers required to prepare it, but it yields fantastically-delicious results. It is very family-friendly, and pieces can easily be packed with school and work lunches as much as they can be enjoyed with coffee.

On epicurious.com, where this recipe is found, the recipe received several rave reviews and no wonder – this simple cake is simply a winner.

Brown Butter-Sour Cream Crumb Cake (click for the recipe) contains the flavor secret of brown butter. This is a technique in which unsalted butter is melted over low to moderate heat and allowed to separate into butterfat and milk solids. The milk solids naturally sink to the bottom of the pan. When the milk solids reach a toasty hazelnut color, the pan is removed from the heat.

If this sounds a little scary to do, let me assure you it is not, especially if you follow the direct and confident instructions of this recipe. The butter is browned when the tiny solids that sink to the bottom turn brown, which I found to be about five minutes after the butter had melted completely.

    Making brown butter is worth doing, as the resulting flavor and texture of the cake is made deeper and more exceptional than if regular melted butter is used.
    The recipe directs to put the brown butter into a shallow bowl and freeze it until its firm but not hard, about 15 minutes. The shallow bowl is the key here – the shallower it is, the more quickly and properly the butter will harden. I used a shallow plastic container.
    The crumb topping of this cake is also an exceptional treat – I want to make cookies made just of the crumb topping!

Orange- and Vanilla-Scented Bundt Cake (click for the recipe) is a moist, flavorful dessert that uses essential oils from orange peel to flavor it. It’s an ideal time to make this cake, as citrus season is in full swing.

The orange peel’s oils are added simply by beating finely-grated orange peel with sugar using an electric mixer.
My husband took all but two small pieces of this cake to his workplace, and all of it was eaten by the end of the day! I’m sure yours will disappear in similar fashion.

Ancient-sounding Onion and Ale Soup is perfect for winter

2013-01-31T15:11:00.001-06:00

The recipe for Onion and Ale Soup with Blue Cheese Croutons (click for the recipe) first attracted me because it had the word “ale” in it.
    This conjured up an image of men clad in animal robes, swords in scabbards on their belts, holding up humongous beer steins and grunting out appreciation for their mug of ale.
    It could have been onion and beer soup, but’s not – it’s onion and ale soup, which seems somehow more ancient and more cool.
    Upon further examination of the recipe, I saw it looked like a nice twist on traditional French onion soup. The onions are plentiful and there is cheese-topped bread on top, but there is none of the extra work of putting the cheese-covered soup bowls back into the oven before serving.
    This soup is delicious and terrific for a cold winter day. My husband was particularly fond of it, especially the blue-cheese covered croutons. The croutons sink into the soup, getting nice and soft and slurp-able.
    I was amazed to find how well leftovers warmed up the next day. I put the soup in a container with some croutons on top and sealed it with the top. The next day at work, I popped the whole thing in the microwave for lunch and was rewarded with a hot and fresh soup that was just as good as it was the night before.
    The recipe calls for pale ale such as Saranac or Sierra Nevada. These are both American brands not available in our local liquor store.
    There was a Canadian brand of pale ale, Original 16, that my husband bought and I used in the soup. It was brewed by the Great Western Brewing Company in Saskatoon, a city right in my home province of Saskatchewan.
    I have a couple bits of advice for this recipe. Abide by the recipe’s instructions to cut the sourdough bread into one-inch cubes. They are quite big, but need to be so that pieces of blue cheese can be put on them with ease, and so the blue cheese in turn has a large surface area on which to melt.
    Make sure, too, to use a soft blue cheese such as Gorgonzola, which the recipe advises. It will melt more easily. The recipe says to “sprinkle” the blue cheese on the croutons, but I took the time to put a piece of blue cheese on each piece of bread.
    Thinly-sliced yellow onions are cooked in a Dutch oven or other heavy-duty pot for up to half an hour.
    Pale ale is added and brought to a boil. This will take just seconds, after which the heat is turned down slightly and the ale and onions cooked until nearly all the ale has evaporated.
    Chicken and beef broths are added (I used storebought) and the mixture is brought to a boil, then simmered for about 10 minutes.
    Meanwhile, bread cubes cut from sourdough bread are tossed with olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet, then baked in the oven for about 10 minutes. Blue cheese is put on top, then the croutons are baked until the cheese has melted.
    The soup is served in bowls with the croutons and a sprinkling of fresh chives on top.

Celebrate citrus season in style with Blood Orange Margaritas

2013-01-28T15:40:00.001-06:00

It’s the time of year when citrus fruit is tumbling off the stands at supermarkets, and I’ve got a drink that will help you celebrate this abundance in glorious style.
    Blood Orange Margaritas (click for the recipe) are absolutely fab. You won’t go wrong mixing up a batch of these easy cocktails.
    Combined with the acidity of the lime juice, the puck-er-i-ness of the tequila and the salty rims of the glasses, the blood orange juice takes margaritas to a whole new level.
    As I suspected when I first read the recipe, blood oranges are a perfect fit as the main component of a margarita, as they are both sour and sweet at the same time. My husband and I always comment that blood oranges taste like sour candies.
    Blood oranges are so named because they have a crimson flesh that’s nearly the colour of blood. I love to slice open blood oranges and see the beautiful flesh.
    In Canada, you may or may not find the label “blood oranges” at the supermarket. Most likely, you’ll find them named as “Moro,” the only variety I’ve ever seen.
    You’ll need to make these margaritas now, as moros are only to be found in supermarkets in Canada during the December-early March citrus season.
    The margaritas are very easy to make. I used an electric juicer to juice the oranges and limes. Take note that the recipe makes 12 servings, so be sure to half the ingredients for six servings or divide the ingredients by three for four servings.
    Fresh blood orange juice, juiced from blood oranges, is mixed with fresh lime juice, Cointreau or triple sec, and silver tequila in a pitcher and refrigerated until chilled, at least 30 minutes.
    The rims of margarita or martini glasses are moistened with an orange wedge, then dipped into kosher salt to lightly coat.
    Ice is added to the pitcher of margaritas and stirred well, then the margaritas are strained into the prepared glasses. I used a small mesh strainer for this step, pouring the margarita through it into each glass and gently pushing on any solids left behind with a spoon to make sure all the juice was squeezed out of the pulp that will be left behind.
    I skipped garnishing the margaritas with blood orange wedges and sage leaves.
    Serve the margaritas.

Grapefruit-tangerine hybrid makes for yummy salsa with coconut shrimp

2013-01-22T16:48:00.002-06:00

It was all in the name: Tangelo.
   When I read the name of the of the citrus fruit it made me think of Jell-O because the two words rhymed, which in turn made me feel happy and want to try the recipe for Baked Coconut Shrimp with Tangelo Salsa (click for the recipe).
   Truth be told, it wasn’t just the name. First, I’d always wanted to try making coconut shrimp at home, and the recipe looked like a good one.
   Second, I saw tangelos in the grocery store one day, cementing my decision to give the recipe a try. (Tangerines can be substituted, by the way).
   A tangelo is a hybrid between a tangerine and a pomelo or grapefruit. The type of tangelo I used, a Minneola, is cross between a grapefruit and tangerine.
   The shrimp and salsa turned out very well.
   The shrimp was covered with a perfect amount of coconut, and the salsa was a fresh, bright accompaniment.
   Rather than serving them as appetizers, my husband and I ate the shrimp and salsa for supper with a side of jasmine rice. Make sure to heap lots of salsa on each of the shrimp before you eat them – the combination of tastes is part of the allure of the dish.
    The shrimp is cooked using an excellent technique which ensures they are properly cooked and don’t have coconut falling off everywhere when they are removed from the pan and then eaten.
  The shrimp are butterflied by cutting halfway through the back to the tail. The shrimp is dredged in a flour mixture, then stood tail-up on a baking sheet.
   We followed the recipe’s advice and used unsweetened coconut. Make sure also to use large shrimp (21-25 per pound) as the recipe says, as anything smaller will be much more difficult to butterfly.
The recipe is easy to make.
   The tangelos or tangerines, red bell pepper, a scallion (also called a green onion or spring onion), jalapeno pepper and salt are combined in a food processor or blender and pulsed to form a chunky salsa. (We skipped the cilantro, which we hate!)
   Eggs are beaten in one dish; flour, paprika and garlic powder are combined in another dish; and unsweetened shredded (or desiccated) coconut and salt are combined in a third dish.
   The shrimp is peeled and deveined, but the tail is left on (we skipped this step by using pre-peeled and deveined shrimp with the tail left on). After the shrimp is butterflied, it is dredged in the flour mixture, dipped in the egg then coated with coconut. The shrimp is stood tail-up on a baking sheet.
   The shrimp is baked until cooked through and the coating is starting to brown, about 10 to 12 minutes.
   Serve the cooked shrimp with the salsa.

Quinoa-Leek Pilaf is a stellar holiday dinner side dish

2012-12-08T16:07:00.002-06:00

Updated on Dec. 21, 2023

This time of year, many cooks are on the lookout for a stellar side dish, one that will be a worthy alongside a magnificent Christmas turkey, ham or roast.
    But the easier the side dish the better, right?
    Well, I’ve got a recipe that fits the bill perfectly: Quinoa-Leek Pilaf (click for the recipe).
    My husband and I agreed immediately after trying it that it was a winner. The quinoa was fluffy and light; the leeks a perfect accompaniment. But it was also filling and hearty, reminding me of stuffing.
    In fact, this pilaf could easily stand in for stuffing at any holiday dinner, and it is much easier to make. Leftovers also warmed up very nicely in the microwave, making this side nice to enjoy even after the big dinner is done.
    The secret to the pilaf’s excellent taste, I think, is that the quinoa was cooked in vegetable broth.
    The pilaf is so easy to make. Note that the recipe makes 10 to 12 servings, so be sure to halve the ingredients if you need to make less.
    The recipe says to use a large, deep skillet, but if you are nervous about this not being big enough, by all means use a large soup pot instead.
    Leeks are cooked in a skillet, then rinsed and drained quinoa is added and cooked for about five minutes.
    Vegetable broth (I used store-bought) and water are added to the leeks and quinoa and brought to a boil. The skillet or pot is then covered and simmered over moderately-low heat until the quinoa is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
    The pilaf is removed from the heat, left to stand for 10 minutes, fluffed with a fork then served.

Christmas cookie baking begins with Walnut Snowball Cookies

2012-12-07T14:44:00.004-06:00

Updated on Dec. 21, 2023

My annual foray into Christmas cookie baking began this year with Walnut Snowball Cookies (click for the recipe).
    I chose to try this recipe for two reasons: The apt-sounding name, and the use of vanilla bean seeds in the recipe, something I have never seen before in recipes for similar types of cookies.
    They were a good choice to get me in the holiday mood. They were easy to make and looked very wintery.
    Above all, they were bite-sized pieces of goodness that were a hit with everyone to whom I served them.
    One of my co-workers said they reminded her of the Christmas cookies her mother used to make.
    These cookies are practically begging to be served with a cup of tea, but they are just as good snuck off the plate, taken to a quiet corner, and enjoyed.
    They were easy to make.
    Walnuts are toasted in the oven, then coarsely chopped (I used a small electric kitchen chopper, but was careful the pieces weren't chopped too finely).
    Butter and vanilla bean seeds are beaten together, followed by additions of confectioner’s sugar (also called powdered sugar), salt, flour and walnuts until the dough comes together. It won’t come into a ball, but soft pieces; it’s your job to put the pieces together and roll them into balls.
    Level tablespoons of dough are arranged on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and baked for about 17 minutes.
    After the cookies are cooled slightly, they are rolled in confectioner’s sugar to coat, then left to cool completely. The recipe says to roll them in sugar again, but I didn’t bother – they were coated well enough.
    The recipe says the cookies will keep in an airtight container for about five days, but I found that after three days the freshness started to ebb away.

Texture almost outranks taste of Brown Sugar Almond Cake with Caramel Frosting

2012-11-27T18:42:00.001-06:00

Once in a rare while, I will make a dish or dessert whose texture almost outranks its taste.
   Almost.
    The texture of Brown Sugar Almond Cake with Caramel Frosting (click for the recipe - but watch out, it's missing an ingredient and has too much of another, read below*) is truly amazing. It’s moist yet fluffy, and it stays that way for about three days if kept in the fridge.
   A few samplers of this cake remarked on the cake’s terrific texture.
    I think the secret behind the texture is the unusual and clever step of blending canned pear halves with almonds to a thick purée, then blending that further with buttermilk and other ingredients.
    Not only is the texture great, the cake is also delicious. It is very family friendly, and works well for all sorts of occasions and situations from brunch to packed lunches.
    Another great feature of the recipe is an easy caramel frosting for which the refrigerator does most the work of thickening up the base caramel.
    *The recipe I linked to above is the closest thing I could find on the Internet to the recipe I used from the cookbook Bon Appetit: Desserts. It is nearly identical to the one I used from the cookbook, with two glaring exceptions – it’s missing an amount of white granulated sugar, and has too much golden brown sugar.
    The recipe tells you to put both sugars in a blender, but only the golden brown sugar is listed in the cake ingredients.
    The recipe, according to the one I used, needs 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup golden brown sugar.
    The cake easy to make.
    Canned pear halves, drained well, are blended with blanched, slivered almonds in a food processor. Buttermilk, white sugar, golden brown sugar, butter, two eggs, and vanilla and almond extracts are put into the processor and the mixture is blended well. As the recipe says, it may look curdled, but this is fine.
    The wet ingredients are added to dry ingredients of cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and everything is stirred together to blend.
    The batter is poured into a nine-inch square cake pan that’s been lined with buttered wax paper. The cake is baked, then cooled slightly before being turned out of the pan and cooled completely.
    The frosting is made by combining dark brown sugar, whipping cream and dark corn syrup in a saucepan, then stirring over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. After two minutes of boiling, the mixture is poured into a bowl and chilled until cold and beginning to thicken, about one hour.
    Butter and powdered or confectioner's sugar are beaten together until smooth, then the cold brown sugar mixture and vanilla are beaten in.
    The frosting is spread over the cake, and toasted sliced almonds are sprinkled on top.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies are not the best I've ever had, but they're pretty darn good

2012-11-21T15:59:00.004-06:00

One would think that cooking magazine editors have tasted the whole gamut of mighty fine-tasting cookies.

That’s why I was immediately drawn to a recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies (click for the recipe) in a recent issue of Food & Wine magazine. The intro said that Dana Cowin, F&W’s editor-in-chief and a cookie connoisseur, declared that these cookies are the most delicious she’s ever had. The recipe is from Belinda Leong of B. Patisserie.

Well, I thought when I read the intro, who am I to sit idly by and pass on this easy-looking recipe when it was certified golden by the editor of a major cooking magazine and the payoff was so potentially huge?

I dutifully tried them, and was definitely pleased with the results.

     So was my husband, his co-workers, and my co-workers.
    While I can’t declare these to be the best cookies I’ve ever had, they are certainly very good.
    The recipe has an unusual step of freezing the cookie batter for one hour. Although I am far from an expert on the manner, I think freezing the batter might help firm it up to be more like dough in order to scoop it up portions of it and put them on the baking sheets.
    The cookies are easy to make.
    Chopped semisweet chocolate and butter are put in a large bowl, which is set over a saucepan of simmering water. The chocolate and butter are melted, a process which takes about seven minutes. I did the melting on a medium-low temperature, which kept the water simmering yet kept it boiling.
    In another bowl, room-temperature eggs and sugar are beaten together until thick and pale, then vanilla, salt, the melted chocolate, flour and baking powder are added.
   Mini semisweet chocolate chips are stirred into the batter, which is scraped into a shallow baking dish. The dish is covered and put into the freezer until the batter well-chilled and firm, about one hour. I used a glass 9x13” baking dish to do this, and covered it with aluminum foil.
   Baking sheets are lined with parchment paper, and two-tablespoon-sized mounds of dough are scooped onto them.
   The cookies are baked for 10 minutes, cooled on the pan for 10 minutes, then transferred to a rack to cool completely.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting one of the best I've baked, husband says

2012-11-16T15:44:00.001-06:00

My husband says it’s one of the best cakes I have ever baked, and I have baked a lot of cakes.
    Banana-Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (click for the recipe) was a hit with us from the very first bite.
    The banana cake was beautifully moist, studded with the perfect amount of chocolate chips. The peanut butter frosting was soft and heavenly.
    It’s a very family-friendly dessert. Everyone will dig into this one.
    Because it’s a double-layer cake, it has an extra bit of fanciness that makes it a nice ending to a family gathering meal.
    On the website epicurious.com, this recipe received mixed reviews. Some loved it, others not at all.
    This puzzled me, because I found, obviously, that it worked very, very well.
    My guess is that people who didn’t find it successful may have not followed the recipe to the letter. This is the fastest way I know to ruin a perfectly good recipe.
    Make sure to use very ripe bananas, just as the recipe directs. It gives the cake a terrific depth of flavor, contributing greatly to its success.
    And use full-fat sour cream – that’s going to help the flavor too.
    The cake is easy to make.
    Two 8x8x2-inch square cake pans are coated with non-stick spray, lined with parchment, then sprayed again.
    Sugar, butter, and brown sugar are beaten together until light and fluffy, then eggs and vanilla are added and mixed in. A mixture of flour, baking soda and salt is added, then mashed bananas and sour cream are added and beaten in. Mini chocolate chips are folded in.
    The cakes are baked for about 35 minutes. To ensure even baking, halfway through the baking time I switched the position of the pans, and moved the parts that were facing the back to the front. After they are baked, the cakes are cooled for 10 minutes, then turned out of the pans and left to cool completely.
    The frosting is made by beating creamy peanut butter, powdered sugar, room temperature butter and vanilla together.
    The frosting is spread on top of one cake, and the other is put on top. The rest of the frosting is put on the sides and the very top of the cake.

Mexican Noodle Soup: Just like something my grandmother would make

2012-10-31T16:29:00.004-06:00

Making Sopa de Fideo marked a cooking first for me: Never before have I made a soup with such homestyle comfort food appeal.
    Sopa de Fideo translates as Mexican Noodle Soup (click for the recipe), and I made a pot of it this past Sunday.
    It was an immediate hit with both my husband and I.
    Besides the fact it was absolutely delicious, I also loved that it was so homey, so comforting, thick with noodles and happiness.
    While still having a nice flavor, even the pickiest of the picky eaters will likely give it a chance. It’s absurdly family-friendly.
    It was like a soup my grandmother would make: Warm, simple, beautiful in its simplicity, and tasty, tasty, tasty.
    Although there was a bit of chopping and wait time involved, this was quite an easy soup to make.
    The recipe says it makes six-eight servings, but I would say count on only four if you are serving the soup as the main part of a meal (and it will disappear because it’s so good).
    In the absence of fideos (Mexican noodles) I used the substitute, rice vermicelli noodles, easy to find in the Asian foods section of supermarkets. I used the very thinnest kind available, which seemed to be the right one.
    A local supermarket luckily had queso fresco cheese in stock, so I could use it as directed. There is no recommended substitute in the recipe, but I think you could probably use mozzarella cheese in a pinch, and I have also seen feta suggested as a substitute for queso fresco in other recipes.
    In a large saucepan or soup stock pot, garlic, celery, carrots and onion are cooked in oil until soft, about 10 minutes.
    Chicken stock (I used store-bought chicken broth) and a can of whole tomatoes that have been crushed by hand are added, and the mixture is brought to a boil.
    The liquid is reduced to medium-low and is cooked about one hour. It’s strained through a fine-mesh strainer into another soup pot and is returned to the heat (I did this instead of straining into a bowl, then putting the strained soup back into the original pot, as the recipe directs).
    You may be put off by the fact, as I initially was, that the garlic, celery, carrots and onion are strained out and in effect thrown away (unless you save them for another use).
    But one mouthful or the soup and it will all make sense. The vegetables give the tomatoes and broth a mild salsa-like flavor that’s essential to the success of the soup.
    Fideos and vermicelli noodles are added to the soup and cooked (I did it for about 5 ¼ minutes, as opposed to the four suggested in the recipe).
    To serve, crumbled queso fresco is divided among soup bowls. The soup is ladeled overtop and it is garnished with parsley.

Orange-Scented Carrot Soup a good first outing with Ten Dollar Dinners cookbook

2012-10-19T16:04:00.000-06:00

I’ve only caught bits and pieces of a few episodes Melissa d’Arabian’s Food Network TV show, Ten Dollar Dinners, but I liked it enough to buy her first cookbook when it came out in August.
    Named Ten Dollar Dinners like the TV show, the cookbook is full of delicious-looking and nutritious ideas for weeknight meals.
    I tried a recipe from the book for the first time this past week and was very impressed.
    Orange-Scented Carrot Soup (click for the recipe) was quick to make and required few ingredients, but had an amazing depth of flavor.
    The secret ingredient was dried oregano, which infused the soup with an earthy feel.
    The description “Orange-Scented” is a good one – there is a very slight orange taste on the edges of the soup, but nothing at all overwhelming.
    Serve it with some crusty bread and a salad, and you’ve got a great weeknight meal.
    I made this soup by myself, and took about 45 minutes from start to finish without any rushing.
    Roughly-chopped carrots and an onion are cooked in olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot, then minced garlic, finely-grated orange zest (orange peel) and dried oregano are added and stirred for a bit.
    The recipe I linked to on the Food Network website says to “deglaze the pan with white wine.” The recipe in the cookbook is clearer on this matter, saying to increase the heat to medium-high, add the wine and stir for about a minute.
    Chicken or vegetable stock (I used store-bought vegetable stock) and water are added to the pot, brought to a boil, then reduced to a gentle simmer.
    The soup is cooked for another eight to 10 minutes until the carrots are tender.
    The recipe says to let the mixture cool for five minutes before processing it in a blender or food processor. This is good advice, but if you’re using a hand-held (immersion) blender like I did, you don’t need to wait for the soup to cool first.
    The soup is served with a swirl of sour cream in each bowl.