Happy PieDay to all of those who have been nagging strongly encouraging me not to give up on my PieDay’s just because I took on planning the Culinary Arts Cook Off and a double thank you to those who remained silent and didn’t send emails.

Just kidding. I am ignoring my inbox completely lately. It’s time for another music playlist to get my inspired to clean my house, do laundry and all these other menial things that just don’t take precedence. I’m wondering what era of music really screams ” I don’t care and I don’t want to do this”.  Would that be 90′s grunge? 80′s rebel yelling? I’m going to have to think on that. Think with me, suggestions are always appreciated.

Speaking of not taking precedence, thank you to everyone for their patience with me. I’m not super stellar at returning emails lately, I’d like to blame the fact that I am fielding upwards of 40 a day sometimes but I do need to watch out for my friends names in those “from” areas. Just email me twice if you haven’t heard back from me, making sure to call me a name or two so you feel better.

Some friends, as only the best of friends can do, just simply like to mess with my scatterbrained head when returning emails. The pie recipe this week came from friends of ours that attended the Great Pie Party and I am finally getting around to posting it.

When I asked – for the second time mind you because I lost her first response- this is what I got:

9″ graham cracker crust (we used purchased ones)
250g cream cheese
1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 1/3 cup key lime juice
2 tbsp anchovies

Filling:
Beat cream cheese until soft.  Then add remaining ingredients.  Pour into shell & refrigerate.  Wonder why fridge has a d in it but refrigerate does not.  Top with whipped cream, sprinkled with the anchovies.

Recipe courtesy of Marcel Van Woensel (whoever that is).

I dare you to follow the recipe exactly. Actually I double dog dare you and let me know how it tastes! I think however, that one can decipher the true recipe from within those lines of prose? And it’s very tasty, whippy and limey.

But that’s what good friends are for. Forgiving you when your can’t remember your own name,  tracking you down when you haven’t emailed them or booked a date in a while and trying to get you to post recipes on your website that include putting anchovies on top of pies. I’m pretty happy that I actually noticed it and had a little sigh of relief that my mind isn’t that far gone. Yet. It was a good Jedi mind test.

Today I am off to see the delightful Amanda Rose at D’Lish about the cook off followed by a two hour meeting at the school regarding that same fabulous event. As much as my life is completely, utterly in every single way engulfed by this event, I am also having an amazing time.

I am finally meeting people that I have been meaning to get together with, but never seemed to be able to make the time. Like Teresa Spinelli of the Italian Center, she and I have been trying to get our schedules to collide in one place for months upon months.  Now because of this event, we managed to get together for a coffee and one of their amazing chocolate breakfast croissants. Try one, I promise it’ll change your life. One word : Nutella.  My children get the chocolate croissants every time we go for breakfast at the Italian Center and do you think they ever shared this with me? That the center has Nutella in it? Not a peep out of them that there was a delightful hazelnut taste to it. Ever. Smart, evil little devils, those children of mine.

This list of people I have been meaning to meet also extends to all the chef’s I am seeing and talking to, the restaurant owners,  those people that I “see” in my social media life yet never truly met.

But that means with meeting all these new people, there’s little time for the regular people in my life. So thank you, my regulars, for putting up with me, for supporting and understanding, the mental slaps once in a while,  for the encouragement and kind words. You really, really can tell who your truest friends are when it comes to times like these, so don’t think I haven’t noticed all of you standing there behind me, beside me, supporting me all the way. You’ll know who you are by the simple fact that my words made your heart feel lighter than it was 5 minutes ago.

And just so you know, I love you more than pie.

The Getting Too Sappy So This Post is So Over Now Magpie

Wine is poured. Food is served. Strangers no more, the laughter of a small, intimate gathering echoes through out the cavernous building. Friends are made. Stories are shared. The producers of the food featured on the menu are seated at the exact same table as the guests,  their eyes drinking in the sight of these strangers enjoying the literal fruits of their labor. One hopes their hearts are close to bursting from well-earned pride in their work. The chef, done her creating,  joins the table for a well deserved break and mingles with her guests, creating an intimacy rarely found in a dining experience.

Tired yet sated at the end of a satisfying night, the guests start finding their way out, shaking hands, exchanging goodbyes and heading out to all corners of the city and beyond.

A meal, some wine and company, yes. But all who are leaving exit with this tingling, innate knowledge that they have been fortunate enough to have  just experienced something quite out of the ordinary.

End Scene**

It’s amazing what trouble one can get up while they are purposely avoiding getting any productive work done. With the new Culinary Arts Cook Off, my workload has tripled in volume. And it’s ok. I have wine and I have chocolate, what more does a girl need?

But Thursday night I needed some major motivation, I took one look at my Inbox, thought of PieDay and how I hadn’t written up the post yet and crumpled into a defeated, sad Magpie. And when I’m overwhelmed and need motivating, music is what does it. I always go for some nice retro rock. Ah, you would think I was a true child of the 70′s but much to my glee I am still a young ‘un and was born in 1976, so missed the rock of that era. Yes. I’m 35. I’ll save you the counting backwards.

I did however, manage to be 3 or 4 years old and have a massive crush on Glen Campbell, Mr Rhinestone Cowboy himself. I also was in love with John Schnider- aka Bo Duke- from the Dukes of Hazzard and the hot doctor from Trapper John MD. Oh, and does anyone remember the show Emergency! because I crushed on someone on that show too. Some paramedic dude. There are tons of embarrassing family stories about how I used to kiss these guys on the TV when I was little.

Oh! But I sure did get to meet one of the paramedics from Emergency when I was little and give him a smooch on the cheek.

Oh come on, look at this seventies honey! You’d kiss him too.

(photo from emergencyfans.com)

Apparently if you look at my track record, I crush on good-looking men who are daredevils or adventuresome lifesavers. I really want to know what this says about me. Truly, I admit, I still wink at firefighters when I catch them in Save On.

What? You don’t?

Awkward. Never mind then.

As per usual I have strayed far off track, the point of my post is lost almost completely after reminiscing about my childhood crushes. The point of this post is that thanks to a TweetAThon with a couple of awesome ladies, I have a fantastic list of music to get inspired by when I need to kick myself.

I would also like to share with you some of the awesome quotes from that TweetAThon:

And that’s what a bunch of women get up to on a Thursday night on the Twitter, now you’re totally “in the know”. I gave away our secret.

That was the most fun I have had in a while, that’s only about 1/50th of the tweets that went on that night. Song titles and band names were flying around, some awesome 70′s music was played and I built a truly awesome list consisting of my 20 favorites songs. My favorites from that night, at least. I know there are so many more out there but these ones are up there in my faves.

Without further adieu, ze list!

1.Black Betty – Ram Jam
2. Radar Love – Golden Earring
3. Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
4. Fortunate Son – CCR
5. Have You Ever Seen the Rain – CCR
6. American Pie- Don Mclean
7. Bang a Gong – T-Rex
8. Foreplay/Long Time- Boston
9. Paradise by the Dashboard Light – Meatloaf
10. Listen To the Music- Doobie Brothers
11. A Horse With No Name- America
12. Rhinestone Cowboy- Glen Campbell
13. Long Train Running- The Doobie Brothers
14. Highway to Hell – AC/DC
15. Don’t Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult
16. Can’t Get Enough – Bad Company
17. Rocky Mountain Way- Joe Walsh
18. Go Your Own Way- Fleetwood Mac
19.. Blinded by the Light – Manfred Man
20. Piano man – Billy Joel

I think music says a lot about a person and I don’t quite know what my list says about me, that’s open to interpretation.

I can say that I think Piano Man is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and performed, that American Pie is genius and I can sing every word and that the world is a better place for having Fleetwood Mac in it.

So there you have it, almost 100 minutes for you to go and download and enjoy. Think of me singing incredibly off-key when you play it -there’s a reason I send my kids to an Arts Core School ’cause this Mama can’t sing . And yes, the next one is going to be Hair Bands of the 80′s. We can hardly wait!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Can’t Stop Singing Blinded By the Light Magpie

This would be my first guest post for PieDay, my friend Pam was kind enough to ante up a coconut cream pie that she made this week. I met Pam while taking the mushroom course at NAIT this fall, when I tweeted asking anyone if they wanted to come with me, she jumped on it like white on rice! We proceeded to have a blast trudging through the bush looking for mushrooms then cooking up a storm in the NAIT kitchens with our lovely finds.

This was a very, very good week for my to have a guest post for my Friday PieDay.

This was adapted from an Anna Olsen recipe, according to Pam and she also added that she thinks a coconut alcohol in this pie would be an amazing addition. I concur. A little Malibu helps everything out.

Malibu would have helped me this week. It was all so very good until my daughter decided to pick up the stomach flu and only allowed this mom about 3 hours sleep in total on Tuesday night. Three horrible, broken hours of sleep. Of course, because children just know these things intuitively and decide to get sick right when you need the most energy, it was the night before Chef Shane Chartrand and I trekked around  downtown for hours and talked to places about the Culinary Arts Cook Off. I was impressed that I made it all day on those three horrible hours.  That I spoke English in semi-complete sentences – I hope. Perhaps no one was mean enough to tell me I wasn’t making any dang sense.

There’s most likely a rumour going around now that Magpie likes a little “tipple” of something in her morning coffee. I swear to all that’s holy, any slurring was sheer lack of sleep.

Sigh.

On the bright side, even though I didn’t make any sense, people are eager, excited and signed on to participate in the Culinary Arts Cook Off!  What an event this is going to be.

I expect you will all attend.

Ahem. That means YOU reading this. The only exception I will make is for my American readers.

Enough digressing,time for pie!

CRUST

• 300 grams crushed up gingersnaps
• 1/3 to ½ cup melted butter

Combine in a bowl using enough butter to make it stick together.  Then press into a 9” pie plate or spring form pan. Place in fridge to cool.

 

COCONUT FILLING

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups coconut milk,   about a can and a half. Use left over for curry next day….
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
•  1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted (optional toasting, I did not toast it, and I used long thread sweetened coconut because that is what was in the house. )

For the filling, stir the sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in the coconut milk, whole eggs and egg yolks, making sure there are no lumps.

Heat up the custard on low heat, whisking constantly for 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and continue whisking until the custard thickens and becomes glossy, which takes about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve.

Stir in vanilla, butter and coconut and stir until the butter has melted. Pour immediately into the chilled pie shell, let it cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then chill completely before topping with cream, at least 4 hours.

Whipped Cream Topping

• 1 ½ cups whipping cream chilled
• ¼ cup sugar
•  1 cup toasted coconut, I used long thread sweetened cause that is what I had.

For the lovely and must-have cream topping, whip  the cream to a medium peak, and whisk in the sugar . Top the coconut custard with whipped cream, and sprinkle remaining toasted coconut on top as garnish.

Keep pie in fridge if there’s any left over…lol!

So thank you Pam, so very much, for this lovely recipe and pictures! It saved my bacon. If anyone else wants to share a recipe, go on ahead!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday. I am so looking forward to cleaning my house and catching up on laundry from having sick kids. Oh boy!

Love,

Really, I Don’t Have a Tipple in the Morning Magpie

Pizza dough is the winner.

In case you are a little confused about that first sentence, I shall make everything crystal clear. I asked everyone on FB and The Twitter what they wanted me to post about, elk stew, pizza dough or my reading room. Pizza dough was the definite winner of the day, with my reading room pictures coming in a close second.

I was introduced to this very simple, fast and super tasty pizza dough recipe back in October when I was hosting an open house for Halloween. I needed a good pizza dough recipe STAT and was sent this one.

I have now been using it for the past few months and it gets better every time. Soft, fluffy and tasty and look at how I stuffed that crust with cheese! It’s such an indulgent pizza crust, I still like my whole wheat pizza dough recipe, but something is so wonderfully decadent about a good, white bready pizza crust smothered in cheesy toppings.

 Ingredients Needed:

First you need to proof your yeast, something I never skip doing. Nothing is worse than inactive yeast. So combine the water, yeast and sugar in your mixer bowl and leave to the side for 5 minutes or until you can see the yeast is foamy and active.  Add in the oil. Get out your dough hook and attach to your mixer.

When working with my mixer, I always put the liquid ingredients into the actual mixing bowl that I am going to use and pour the dry into the wet. My mixer leaves less dry material on the bottom and sides this way.

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl, turn your mixer onto low and start adding the flour, slowly, until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook.  Keeping the mixer on low, let it knead the dough for 10 minutes until it’s elastic and smooth. Add in a wee bit of flour if it’s too sticky, the dough should just barely stick to your hands when it’s ready.

Oil the bowl that you are going to let the dough rise in slightly so the dough won’t stick. Place the dough into the oiled bowl, turn it so that all surfaces are oiled and cover it up with tea towels or plastic wrap. I prefer a damp tea towel still and yet to any other method.

Place in a warm, draft free area and let it rise for about 30 minutes or until it’s doubled in size.

This makes about 5 personal pizzas, depending on if you make stuffed crusts or not.

To make a stuffed crust, roll a larger circle than you actually need. Take cheese – and low fat cheese actually gives you a nice, stringy filling which is what you want- and place slightly inside the circle then fold over the dough and seal shut. Like the picture below, which is from my whole wheat recipe. Continue until the crust is stuffed!

I always place my pizzas on oiled, cornmeal dusted cookie sheets to rise and cook. Let your pizza crusts rise again for another 10-15 minutes before you put any sauce or ingredients on top, this will prevent soggy bottoms. Pre-heat your oven to 450 while it’s rising.   Once it’s risen a bit, start creating!

Cook your pizza for 10-15 minutes, you want to cook it hot and fast to prevent soggy crust. This is also why you let the crust pre-rise again, this allows for this fast, extremely hot baking.

It will be done when the crust is beautifully browned with lovely melted cheese.

Try it out this weekend and let me know what you think!

Things have been incredibly busy planning the Culinary Arts Cook Off and my life is going to be consumed by this until March 18th. It’s so fun, so exciting yet very time and life consuming. I still will be posting here as regularly as I can, but please forgive me if I cannot return your emails, recipe requests, respond to comments or the like. Just nag me a few times and I will be sure to get back to you!

And of course, there will be pies all Fridays! There’s another one coming this week, perhaps not the one I intended but I think it’s going to be my first guest post for PieDay!

Now, get out there and start enjoying this amazing weather we are getting here in Edmonton. In January!

Love,

The Kitchen Magpie <—– can’t even come up with a witty ditty to put here

Happy PieDay everyone! Time for another pie already, can someone tell me where the week went? Please? I feel like I should be wearing a tinfoil hat and cowering in my house with this loss of time and apparent blackouts.

Oh, wait, I know where it went. A haze of emails, tweeting, launching the Culinary Arts Cook Off and generally not sleeping. And loving every minute of it. Even when I am awake at midnight thinking of the emails I didn’t reply to…the tweets I didn’t make and the people I haven’t contacted yet. No prob, Bob, I got it covered.

I also played travel agent for almost my whole family (dad, brother, sister,nephew)  who are going to Anaheim/San Francisco this May and booked hotels to match the travel dates of everyone who is flying in (all at different times, of course) all the while trying to find the best deals, free parking in the San Francisco hotel (dream on sister)  and places that include breakfast. This is a must in my world. You better serve my feral children something to eat first thing in the morning or it’s just all downhill. And coffee for myself.

I have a place to sleep in Anaheim. We have a breakfast and a pool. We can walk to Disney. The kids even get bunk beds and their own room! *insert mom doing a happy dance*

I have a place to sleep in San Francisco (technically Burlingame) with a full hot breakfast and free parking. I would also like to ask : what is WITH only double beds in so many hotels in San Fran? Hasn’t anyone ever slept with a child? Or next to a full size adult? Double? Yikes.

I do not yet have a place booked in Seattle. Nor have I bought BlogHer Food ’12 passes yet. Soon. I think.

Each child is going to plan a day of what to do, either in Anaheim or San Francisco. Mr K has picked Legoland, of course. The Princess is considering all her options wisely and if she’s anything like her father, won’t tell me until the very last minute.

And I thought Christmas week was busy. HAH,  say I. Nothing compared to what’s coming.

So lucky for me I held a Pie Party – soon to be repeated!- and I have pie recipes from that evening.

This pie was brought by a guest and is full of everything awesome,completely evil and amazing in this world. She got it from here. It suits my week so entirely, so thoroughly that it is the perfect pie to post.

It’s fast. It’s easy. You just don’t give a flying fig that it has completely unhealthy ingredients in it. You can toss this baby together and still have something technically homemade. It’s a pie you make in a time pinch.

And of course with all those sinful ingredients, it tastes wonderful. The only addition it needed – a much agreed upon consensus from guests – was that caramel drizzled over the top would just put it…well, over the top.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts
• mini Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, about 15-20 chopped up

Want to continue on to the easy?

Beat together the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar with your mixer.

Then it’s time to simply mix in the peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the whipped topping.

Spoon into the pie shells.

Sprinkle on the PB cups.

Freeze until firm.

Serve with caramel drizzled over the top.

Yessssssss.

Today I am on an all day field trip to the Telus World of Science with my son, something I forgot about completely. Meaning I had to rearrange a whole bunch of stuff. Meaning that stuff just gets pushed onto Monday.

Oh, weekend and wine, thou art mine.

Love,

Just Couldn’t Let Y’all Down on PieDay Magpie

I am sure that if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or simply have the dubious distinction of actually knowing me in real life, you have already heard of my newest baby. My third child.  The project that has me a aflutter with excitement, anticipation and quite simply what keeps me up at night with chest pains.

Chest pains aside, the excitement and anticipation is overwhelming for me. Being involved in not only the online global food community so heavily but the Edmonton food side of things, this baby of mine has been setting in the back of my grey matter for oh, almost a year now.

Almost a year of planning on the side, working with the amazing parents of Mount Royal Arts Core School here in Edmonton, Alberta and collectively putting that grey matter to work on launching a soon-to-be large official fundraiser for the school.

Anyone who has said dubious distinction of knowing me in real life knows that my son started in a partly homeschooled learning environment. When it came time for us to move out of that, I combed Edmonton looking for schools that suited our families learning beliefs.

I’ve been everywhere, man, just like Mr Johnny Cash, when it comes to looking at educational institutions in Edmonton.  Mount Royal School has only recently in the past few years become an Arts Core School and the newness and excitement I found within this school was exhilarating. There is nothing, nothing like finding a school bursting at the seams with unsung potential, with the love of children apparent in every nook & cranny and the passion of artistic endeavours echoing through the halls daily.

Oh, did I mention I was coerced into fundraising this year?  Ah, I tease. I have been promising the parent’s advisory council that as soon as my youngest was in school full time I would become an active member. I spent my entire days driving my kids to school, no word of a lie, since we don’t live anywhere near the school and time has always been an issue.

Time is still an issue, but this was the year.

So when looking at a fundraiser for the school it was more than a natural succession of events to celebrate something that is close to my heart.

And thus, the Culinary Arts Cook Off has come to fruition.

I have been blessed in knowing so many fabulous people in Edmonton thanks to writing this site, that when it came time to ask someone to help, I had a very hard time deciding who to ask.  I decided on Chef Shane Chartrand from L2, a well-known and very talented chef here in Edmonton.

Why did I decide on him, you ask?

I was mean and calculating. I knew he had a soft heart,  I had him at the words “helping out kids”. I saw it when I asked him, he was hooked and there was no going back.

So Chef  Shane has been sending out those contest applications and working on his side of the fence tirelessly and putting up with my endless nagging, which I’d like to thank him for profusely.

Now I know so darn many of you here in Edmonton that I am having a very hard time contacting you all. I have almost 1400 of you following me and Twitter is just mean when it comes to searching. I just tweeted this morning for #yeg and #yegfood to let me know how you would like to get involved. Email me.  Let me know.  We want to hear from you. In the meanwhile, most of you will get emails from me. If you don’t hear from me, please email me. My brain is scattered in about 5 millions directions right about now.

Want to volunteer in a position? Let me know.

Would you like to donate some items? Contact me about the advertising for your company that comes with a donation.  Oh yes, advertising. We’re trying to give back to the foodie community too, not just take.

Want to just come? Tell me you’re attending and stop by to say hi. I’ll be the one running around freaking out. Then you’ll have that dubious distinction that I keep talking about.

But make sure to go follow The Culinary Arts Cook Off  on Twitter,  Facebook and our new website.

Our first official post is up!

This event is our main fundraiser for the school year, with all proceeds going to the Mount Royal Parent’s Advisory Council who provide funds for activities and events integral to our Arts Core Programming.

When choosing what food we should challenge Edmonton’s best chef’s with, we tossed around quite a few ideas. Deciding that our event was going to be family-centric, with a strong emphasis on our students and parents attending together to have a great Saturday afternoon, we soon came to the conclusion that this year, our first fantastic year, was going to be Mac N’ Cheese.

And when your event is happening in the middle of blustery, cold March here in Edmonton, comfort food was at the top of our list!

So on March 17th, 2012 from 11 am until 2:30 in the afternoon, Edmonton’s finest are going to descend upon our wonderful little Arts Core school and present us with their macaroni and cheese creations!

Samples of their delicacies will be available at a family friendly price of $1 a serving!

The First Annual Culinary Arts Cook Off

DATE: Saturday, March 17^th, 2012

TIME: 11:00-2:30

LOCATION: Mount Royal Elementary Campus

        11303 55 Street, Edmonton, AB

        780-477-8202

 

Thank you to everyone who in the mere two days since I announced this has besieged me with emails, support and saying yes to me. Most importantly the saying “yes” part. It just reaffirms what an amazing, supportive food community we have here in Edmonton and I am truly blessed in knowing you all!

Love,

The Excited Like a Little Kid at Christmas Magpie

Why Magpie? Why?

Ah, I love ya guys. Like a bunch of cute seagulls circling ol’ Magpie here, cackling “Why? What? How come?”

“Why are you venturing into gluten/dairy free territory? What happened? Who can’t have gluten? Who was diagnosed with what? Are the kids ok?”  said the endless Facebooking, Tweets and emails.

No worries, my groupies. ( <—-I still think that’s hilarious)

My daughter was having her 6th birthday party this last weekend and her best bud happens to be allergic to gluten, dairy, nuts, etc. I talked to her mom at school about her allergies and told her that I bake a lot- understatement of the year methinks -and would love to tackle a gluten-free, dairy free chocolate cake as my next project. I belong to a gluten-free/dairy/corn/everything private board on Facebook but mostly just watch the recipes and comment, seeing what creations people are coming up with.

I do think that everyone these days needs one good allergy safe chocolate cake recipe in their back pocket. What I loved about this cake recipe is that not only is it gluten-free, but by using Rice milk I was able to make it dairy free as well.  You can also make it egg free – I’ve heard- by using egg replacers such as chia eggs, I won’t commit to my version of this recipe being the same with those replacements as I didn’t experiment with it firsthand.  My friend Melissa who suggested this recipe has used egg replacements with quite the success, so don’t be afraid to try!

I gave the original recipe a few reads and mulled over some techniques that were missed and thought of how to make it dairy free yet keep the qualities that one wants when you use buttermilk in a recipe.

It turned out tastier than heck. I was surprised that it really comes close to my favorite Old Fashioned Chocolate cake recipe, which pardon the pun, takes the cake when it comes to taste.

Ingredients Needed

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 tsp guar gum
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup Earth Balance butter flavor vegan hard stick butter at room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups rice milk
2 tsp vinegar

 Kick the tires and light the fires to 350 degrees.

The first part I instantly knew that needed to be kept was the acidity of the buttermilk. You need to use vinegar, the acidity reacts with the baking soda/powder to give you lift that shouldn’t fall. This is why buttermilk was used, but buttermilk is dairy, thus making it utterly unuseable in my version. I threw caution to the wind and used vinegar in the rice milk. Worked like a charm!

The other thing I noticed was the lack of salt. People are a little too scared of sodium, methinks. It has such a beautiful place in baking. Salt is used to enhance the chocolate flavor, which will help overpower any other tastes that come up from the unique flours used.To balance out the flavor of this cake, salt is definitely needed, when baking something sweet, salt will balance out the flavor, lending a complexity you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s best described as “one noted” “simple” or just plain “flat” when salt is left out of a sweets recipe. Salt is not a leavening agent, however it does help to add volume to cakes, even if it’s just slightly. When working with different flours, one needs all the help they can get!

So now that the ingredients were changed and set, it was time to bake.

Grease and flour your cake pans, this can do a 9×13 so calculate your cake pan area accordingly. To flour the pan, use rice flour. It worked beautifully. I don’t know if there is any truth to it, but years ago my Home Ec teacher told me that by flouring your pans, the flour molecules help the cake rise up the sides of the pans. I have no idea if it is true, but something in that sentence has always made sense to me. Not only does it not stick to the pan, but perhaps there is some science to it as well.

In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients, excepting sugars of course.

In your mixer bowl, cream together the “butter” and sugar. I liked the Earth Balance hard stick butter, remember when baking with different dairy replacements that the water content can vary greatly. Margarines and spreads can have so much water in them it can change your baking results. Stick with the sticks.

After that’s done, add in the eggs and vanilla.

So for mixing this batter, you do not want to add too much air by mixing it fast, this is how cakes will fall in the center after baking,a comment complaint.

So slowly, on the lowest possible setting, mix the wet and dry in three parts, starting with dry, ending with wet.  Only three parts to avoid overmixing. This is also a really important part of why this cake turns out so fluffy. This is all about chemical reactions, so let me get nerdy here for a moment. When you are using different flours that need a little extra “oomph”, alternating ingredients ensures that all your “poof power” (I just snorted with laughter) doesn’t get used up right away when you dump your ingredients in all at the same time and combine. The chemical reactions take place as you mix wet with dry, so saving some wet ingredients until the end means that you are going to have some good reactions going on as you pour this batter into the pan and you are going to have a creamier batter.  Because you are adding in wet liquid which has vinegar in it for that wonderful “poof power” , you shouldn’t end with dry, the liquid mixes in much faster and thoroughly than the dry will, and we avoid overmixing. Now this is completely personal opinion, as many people do the complete opposite. However this cake turned out perfectly with this method, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

In baking with gluten, (doesn’t apply here of course) alternating ingredients to prevent over mixing also serves to prevent huge amounts of gluten from forming, meaning a tough baked good in the end. We just don’t want the air in the batter causing our cakes to fall in this recipe.

That was geeky. I’m sorry for that.

Once you reach the last liquid addition, stop the mixer and mix it in by hand gently. I found that this made the batter more pourable than the reviews said, I didn’t have any problem with the batter going into the cake pans at all.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on racks.

And then make it into an amazing castle cake. I am so glad I only do this twice a year for my kids birthdays. It takes up days of my life at a time.

But this is why I do it. All she could talk about at school was the castle cake Mommy was building. And then she saw it. And according to her, I make the BEST CAKES EVER. Which I most certainly don’t, but let’s allow her to think that a little while longer, I think.

The icing on the cake is vegan icing as well. That it such another story in itself that it will have to wait until another day this week for the recipe. It involved taste testing every non-dairy spread/butter product available that I could find. I was scraping my tongue off, I kid you not. Some of those are NOT good plain!

I hope everyone in Edmonton is surviving our first real deep freeze. I have been in a haze of stew and soups and snow and wanting to hibernate in my bed all day.

Love,

The Gluten Free Baking Newbie No Longer Magpie!

Alright. I made it to two pies in a row only 50 to go!

Aha. Ha. What was I thinking? Granted, unlike most of the world who settles back into routine after Christmas holidays, my life revs right up for a week or two after. My daughter’s birthday falls on January 3rd, meaning that we are almost always on Christmas break. Meaning that no kids can be invited before Christmas holidays. Meaning that my week back to school has looked like this:

- Phone in the entire birthday party and have it at Chuck E Cheese. Get over the guilt how one kid gets an amazing home party in November and the other always gets outsourced. Hurray for  Birthday party outsourcing!

- Stew over the fact that – excepting the amazing Harry Potter birthday party this year-  your kids like the outsourced parties better. I can’t compete with a dingy, stale beer smelling gray mouse who sings bad songs and terrifies children. What. The. Devil?

- Throw my credit card at said stale beer smelling mouse just to make the planning pain go away.

- Grab invitations late Sunday night -because honestly, who’s prepared? Ever?- and dash them out, pack them into the backpack.

-Forget to pack lunches for the first day back and sacrifice my morning coffee time to make sure the kids have food. I would have rather given up a kidney.

- Foolishly listen to your daughter when she begs to be the one to hand the invitations out at school. A lack of sleep and little caffeine had everything to do with this decision.

- Discover Tuesday that one invitation went missing and the other one your daughter “gave it to so-and-so because E wasn’t at school. Or maybe it was the other so-and-so? I don’t know who I gave it to Mommy?”‘

- Wonder who the heck this mystery child is that is going to show up. Do I make a boy treat bag? Girl treat bag? A creepy clown treatbag? Who knows who she gave it to.

- Apologize Wednesday to the two parents who didn’t even get to see the invitations and invite their kids. Late.  Grovelling ensued.

- Start making my first gluten/dairy/corn/nut free chocolate cake. Three days before the birthday. I work best when tearing my hair out with stress.

Remember on Thursday that you were a dummy and said you were doing 52 weeks of pies. Consider picking up a McCain cake, but don’t.

So. Here’s your pie, people. With a side of rant.

And that’s why you put up with me. Pie and ranting,where else shall you get that? Add in a cup of tea or coffee and your morning is set.

I am in hunt of the elusive perfect pumpkin pie recipe. Pumpkin pie is a family favorite and one of the only pies we love to eat cold as ice. Straight out of the fridge, chilled with whipped cream on top is perfection.

The best pumpkin pie I have ever tasted was from the Prairie Gardens Pumpkin Festival held out near Bon Accord, just north of Edmonton. Mike and I both agreed that it was the tastiest ever. I am going to guess that besides some possible secret ingredients, that they most definitely used sugar pumpkins in the recipe.

While still searching for my perfect pumpkin pie, this one I whipped up at Christmas was delicious. I do believe it’s from the Eagle Brand of condensed milk? It’s a very similar recipe and you know the internet, tracking down the original creator of a recipe is near impossible. All I can say is that it’s not my own, excepting spicing it up a bit because no one ever puts enough spices in their pumpkin dishes for me.

1 3/4 cups canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cups sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs beaten
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4  teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
one 9.5 to 10 inch pie crust, bottom only

Kick the tires and light the fires to 425 degrees.

I’d like to also point out how easy this recipe is. Wanna see?

Combine every single ingredient excepting the crust into your mixer bowl then beat at medium speed  2 minutes.

Pour those ingredients into your unbaked pie crust. Place the pie on the lower or second lowest rack, this again is where you need to know your oven and how it likes to bake pies. No soggy pie bottoms, make sure you are at least the second rack from the bottom! And if you are like me, cover the pie crust edge with tinfoil around the edges so it won’t burn, I did this after the first intial 15 minutes.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 350 degrees; bake 50 additional minutes.

Now with pumpkin pie – and this is just personal opinion- I take mine out not only when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, but when the very middle is just barely jiggling. It’s this happy place between overbaking and just underbaking so that when it cools down, it’s not overly done. I’m weird. Sorry about that.

So Happy PieDay everyone! We have a weekend with two birthday parties and countless things to catch up on. That gluten/dairy free cake recipe will come soon, it literally knocked my socks off with how good it was!

Speaking of food, is anyone else going to the 2012 BlogHer Food conference in Seattle WA on June 8/9 th this year? The speakers last year were incredible (Hank Shaw, Alice Currah, David Lebovitz and countless other amazing cooks) and I am crossing my fingers that it’s just as amazing this year. Since I happen to be in San Francisco that very week and driving home, I thought hmmm, let’s drive home through Seattle! The timing is perfect….like it’s meant to be… I hate flying which has stopped me from attending any other events, I just watch and yearn from an online distance. It’s Fate, I tell you, Fate.

I’m torn on whether or not to just buy my ticket before the speakers are announced in February and hope that I will be happy with who’s there. I imagine they sold out incredibly fast last year with such amazing speakers.

So, anyone out there in my blogosphere/twittersphere who wants to hold my hand and go?

Love,

I’m Socially Impaired So I Need Company At BlogHer Food ’12  Magpie

Granola is a nutritious, energy packed snack that is great alone or on top of vanilla ice cream or your morning yogurt. While I enjoy it as a snack, trying to get my kids to eat it isn’t always an easy task which is unfortunate because it comes loaded with fiber.

Unfortunately, many of the better tasting pre-packaged varieties of granola are loaded down with sugar and other ingredients that I normally don’t want my kids to over eat. To avoid these additional sugars, I tend to buy the plainer varieties which don’t always appease a child’s palate. While several companies, such as Prepare Wise, do offer more nutritious granola, I recently decided to save a couple of bucks and try my hand at making my own granola clusters – ones that me and my kids would enjoy.

Ingredients

3 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

¼ teaspoon of kosher salt

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

1/3 cup of honey

¼ cup of canola oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Additional Fix-In Options

Dried apples and almonds for Apple-Cinnamon clusters

Cranberries and almonds for Berry Clusters

Toasted coconut, dried mango or pineapple, and macadamia nuts for Tropical Clusters

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In one large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, kosher salt, and cinnamon. Once combined, add the fruit and nut combination which most appeals to you and your kids’ taste. The amount of put into the clusters is up to you, however, try to use nuts that are unsalted and fruits that weren’t preserved with sulfates. These types of fruits and nuts are typically more nutritious and are found in freeze dried meals and snacks.

In a second smaller bowl, combine the honey, canola oil, and vanilla. Once thoroughly mixed, pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture. Then using your hands, mix the ingredients forming clusters of your desired size.

Pour clusters over the lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the clusters are light golden in color. Be sure to keep an eye on the clusters throughout their time in the oven as those that become a deeper golden will have a burnt flavor.

Once light golden color is reached, allow the clusters to cool completely. Once cool, feel free to enjoy, but make sure to store all leftovers in an airtight container as they can go stale quickly if not properly stored.

Not only are my granola clusters cheaper, a small store bought bag can easily reach $5 to $6, but my kids enjoy them much more too. So if you want to create a fun, crunchy snack for yourself and your kids, give the above recipe a try.

Happy New Year, everyone! And to celebrate, here’s a recipe for pie.

What, you think I’d start the New Year out with celery sticks? Think again, my dearest friends, think again. That’s so not how I roll. If you have one resolution this year, make it this:

Eat more pie.

To add to that, bake more pies, create more pies, gift more pies and enjoy more pies, pies, PIES!

I started my pie kick way back in November. For all the things I have baked,created, made, I haven’t tackled many pies. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing better than pie. Flaky, melt in your mouth crust cradling a beautiful hot (or cold) filling, topped with ice cream that slowly melts over it, combining with the luscious ingredients to make the supreme mouthful of happy.

Indeed, I do like pies. I just haven’t really liked baking them that much. Pies take committment, planning and practice. That’s just a whole mouthful or words that I usually don’t have time for. But my New Years Resolution is to tackle pies.

So 2012 is going to be the year of Pie Day – Friday to you lay folk.

So I am going to try to get out as many Happy Pie Day posts as I humanly can. If it’s every Friday, then I’m kicking the tires and lighting the fires, Big Daddy. If I miss a Friday, don’t fuss, there are going to be a lot of pies this year.

Or how about this: If I don’t feature my own pie, I will make sure to feature someone else’s!

So.

52 pies in 52 weeks. Not necessarily my own.

I can do that. I like that. No stress! This makes for a happy Magpie. Have you ever seen a stressed Magpie? It’s not pretty. It involves pecked out eyeballs and shrieks.

And on that happy note of pecked out eyeballs, let’s move on to the actual recipe, shall we?

I was really proud of myself and made 3 different types of pies this Christmas. The one that I loved the most was the raisin pie, simply because I honestly haven’t had one that really jumped out and screamed “I am the awesome!”.

This one was the awesome. Tons of raisins, good thickness ratio and yes, lemon. I added lemon instead of the usual vinegar. Of course.

Ingredients Needed:

3 cups dark/Thompson raisins
3 cups water
3/4  cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2  tablespoons lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tablespoons of butter
pastry for a 9-9.5 inch double crust deep dish pie (I’ll be getting into crust recipes soon!)

Using a 9 or 9.5 inch deep dish pie pan, line the bottom with the pie pastry. Put it back into the refrigerator until you are ready to pour in the filling.

 First you need to make the raisin filling. Combine the raisins and water in a small saucepan and boil them for 5 minutes, getting them nice and soft and plump. Blend the brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt together then add then into the hot raisin mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is clear. The cornstarch will be cloudy for a little while then poof! All of a sudden your filling is clear and beautiful.

Remove from heat, and stir im the lemon juice and zest, followed by the butter. Cool slightly.

Time to get out your pie dish. Pour the filling into the pie plate and then cover with top crust. Seal edges, and cut slits in the top crust, whichever designs you like the best. Just make sure there are slits in the top of the pie.

Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes until it’s gorgeous and browned

Now, getting to know your oven is probably the most important thing I have learned so far in my foray into the Pie World.

The lower racks are where you want to bake your pie, whether it’s the very bottom or second from the bottom is something you are going to have to learn from trial and error. The bottom of unbaked pie crusts will not cook properly any higher than this, you end up with a too toasty crust and a soggy bottom.

On the note of that too toasty crust, you also will most likely have to cover the edges of your pie with tinfoil. All my pie crusts darken too much before the entire pie is baked up completely.

Oh, my, was I happy with this pie! Considering I was into my 3rd day of strep throat and trying to get Christmas dinner together, I was rather proud of myself for tackling this at all.

So Happy Pie day everyone! I can’t believe that Christmas break is over and the kids go back to school on Monday. Where did the last two weeks with my wonderful kidlets go? It was a massive blur of sickness on my part, an amazing Christmas anyway, followed by wonderful friends, family, visitors galore and sadly it’s over.

I also miss the Christmas music on the radio, am I the only crazy one? For some reason I am having the post Christmas blues, this year. It might have a lot to do with the fact that I was horribly ill with that strep throat from December 21st until Boxing Day, indeed, the very first meal I tasted was the prime rib I made that day. After weeks and weeks of preparation I felt a little ripped off that I got so run down and sick, right in time for the big day. The days were a haze of antibiotics, pain killers and not tasting a single thing I made. Bah. For a home cook, there’s nothing worse!

Luckily this pie kept so well that I was able to take pictures on Boxing Day and enjoy a real taste of it.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Hug those kids and enjoy these last couple days before they go back to school!

Love,

I’m Dreaming of Pies Magpie

]]> http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/introducing-the-inaugural-happy-pie-day-raisin-pie/feed 2 http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/introducing-the-inaugural-happy-pie-day-raisin-pie http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kitchenmagpie/~3/hUU1W0PJhqA/happy-birthday-to-my-beautiful-girl http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/happy-birthday-to-my-beautiful-girl#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:49:22 +0000 Karlynn http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/?p=17818

Happy 6th Birthday to my beautiful girl, my littlest love, my last baby. What a year this has been for you, full of so many firsts and accomplishments for such a little girl. Going to Grade One and being away from home all day, surprising your mama with how well you adapted, how much you love your school and the zest with which you tackled that new adventure.

Thank you for always reminding me of the fun in life. For doing all sorts of weird things for reasons that are only apparent to you, but entertaining and joyful for us. Things like climbing onto the fireplace mantle and pretending you’re a gymnast.  I still laugh when I see this picture. Only you, my girlie, would think of things like this for entertainment. Your skill of thinking outside the box and going places that no one else thinks of going is such an asset to you in this life.

I love that you are such a perfect little sister, bugging your brother to the point of supreme irritation yet always thinking he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. That’s exactly your job as little sister and you’re doing it wonderfully.

I love that you are always my partner in crime. Pick Saskatoons? You’re the first to chime in and climb into the van to go.  Go mushroom hunting with a side of geocaching thrown in? You have your backpack and mushroom pail ready before anyone else.

I miss having my girlie at home with me during the day,  your little apron hangs beside mine and makes me miss you when I don my own to bake you and your brother some muffins. I am cheered knowing how much fun you are having at school with your friends and fervently hope your specialness is appreciated and loved like it is at home. No matter what, we think you are the awesomest thing since your brother came along.

I love the way you sing everything, like the song in your heart is always so large that it has to burst forth no matter what you are doing. The best moments of my day are when I find you singing a song and get the chance to listen to you, just around the corner where you can’t see me.

Thank you for bringing so much joy to my life, so much fun and of course love beyond measure. You are the most special girl that I have ever come across and not just because you’re mine. I feel blessed daily that I get to be your mama.

Love you forever, my little girl.

Mom