Archive for January, 2008
Christmas ’07 – appetizers
Curry chicken appetizer
– recipe coming
We always had these at Christmas when I was younger, then didn’t have them for a few years, but now they’ve made a return! My mom found out she can eat almonds (thought she was allergic) so we made lots (they’re actually still pretty good without almonds if you wanted to make them nut-free).
Spinach roll appetizers
– recipe coming
These are REALLY easy, and yummy. Even people who don’t usually like spinach would probably love them, because once cooked, they get all warm and bubbly and crispy on the bottom and the most prominent taste is bacon and cheese.
Christmas ’07 – Harlequins & Choco-mice
Another Christmas cookie, and a Christmas candy, both pretty fun to make.
First it’s Two-Tone Harlequin cookies, chocolate and orange flavour.
Two-tone Harlequins (chocolate & orange)
Recipe by Canadian Living
Chocolate dough:
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda, salt
Variation – Orange Dough
Omit chocolate, add 1 tsbp orange zest and
1/2 tsp vanilla with the egg.
Beat butter with sugar, then beat in the egg. Stir in chocolate (or orange zest & vanilla). In separate bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture in two additions.
The directions are a bit complicated sounding, but it’s easy. You divide each batch of dough in half (this makes enough for two big batches of cookies, I saved my extra dough in the freezer) and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Then you roll the dough into logs (make sure they’re the same size) and chill for another 30 minutes. Then cut each log into quarters, and re-build two logs alternating the chocolate and orange. Chill again, and then slice the dough into about 1/8-1/4 inch slices.
Bake at 350 F for about 10 minutes.
When I first made them I was worried that they didn’t look perfect, but I think they turned out pretty well. These cookies are perfect for having with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. They’re thin and crisp with just a small hint of delicate orange flavour complimenting the chocolate.
Chocolate Mice
recipe from Canadian Living
(coming soon)
hence the name…
Time = $, like the expression. And… thyme as in the herb. 
And thyme IS money. Lots. Especially when you’re a student with no job in the part of the country with the highest tuition rates. Some ingredients that might be nice to use like saffron or vanilla beans or even fresh herbs aren’t really financially smart with the average student’s budget.
Of course I think it’s worth it. Who needs books, anyway?
So that’s the origin of the name. I’m a mostly-broke wannabe gourmet eating the unversity cafeteria food and dreaming about Madagascar vanilla beans or just steak with potatoes and fresh asparagus.
I might put a subtitle up there (the title) summing that up, although I’m not even 100% sure I’ll stick with the name that I have now. We’ll see. If anyone’s reading this and you have a better food blog name and for some reason I haven’t heard it yet, leave a comment.
Christmas ’07 – Scotch Cakes
scotchcakesI went home over Christmas (I live in residence – luckily I do have access to a kitchen most of the time though) and baked a lot. There was a week where I baked or cooked almost every day, which is odd when you’ve gone a month or so without cooking (! tragic). I made a lot of tasty food that wasn’t sweet but I seem to always forget my camera at those times. Anyway here are some great Christmas cookies.
The recipe is from “Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens”, which is a great cookbook.
I’m not sure if you can actually get it, our copy is falling apart.
I’ll take a picture of a page when I go home next – I think it has a joke recipe or two. Ooh! You can see the cover of it in my picture. Also it looks like I left a pan of cookies half on and half off of the kitchen table. I’m glad I didn’t knock it off, I’m pretty clumsy. These are pre-oven.
Scotch Cakes
(from Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens)
1 cup butter*
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups flour
Cream butter, blend with sugar. Gradually add the flour, then knead gently on a floured surface. Pat to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out shapes. Bake cookies at 325 F for about 20 minutes or until almost golden. (These instructions are all me except for the temperature. The cookbook is great for that, a lot of the recipes say “mix as usual and bake” or something similar)
Anyway these have three ingredients, but they’re amazing. It’s another name for shortbread, with the main difference being brown sugar and no cornstarch or other ingredients.
I put a tiny bit of buttercream icing on top. I got to practice piping and it tastes amazing because the cookies themselves aren’t that sweet, although you can definitely eat them plain.
Oh yeah, here’s my “recipe” for buttercream. I actually don’t know the correct amount of milk, I always just add tiny bits until it’s the right consistency. I’ll try to measure it next time.
Buttercream icing
(from mom)
1/4 cup soft butter* (room temperature)
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
some milk
Cream the butter and add in the icing sugar about a cup at a time. Add the vanilla and a little bit of milk (maybe a tablespoon?), and stir until the consistency is creamy but still thick.
* I use salted butter. I know this is a baking faux pas… I never bother looking for unsalted and I’ve never had a problem with it. I think these cookies might actually taste weird without the saltiness of the butter. If someone wants to try them and tell me it’s good with unsalted butter I might try it then. You could throw in some salt after, but if it’s all the same I’ll stick with my regular butter.
Ancient cupcakes (and cookies)
My plan is to post my old food pictures, some fairly recent stuff, then jump right into regular updates. Here it goes. I first baked these cupcakes…maybe about a year and a half ago.
I used the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe ( here ) and it’s pretty good as is for an easy cupcake recipe. If you’re going to make it be careful not to overmix the batter. I ususally finish it by gently folding in the last of the dry ingredients instead of using an electric mixer.
I can’t believe I hadn’t really made cupcakes before. Very weird. I grew up helping my mom bake and cook in the kitchen, but I guess we didn’t really do cupcakes.
Anyway here are some of my first vanilla cupcakes.
Afterthought: I just remembered searching for a cupcake recipe, and getting tons of helpful Google hits something like “prepare cupcakes according to box instructions. Decorate with icing and candy!” So completely helpful. I really don’t consider that a recipe at all. I’m by no means a food snob, and I’ve actually used a box mix cake once for a base cake that I soaked in caramel and rum and covered in whipped cream (yeah, it tasted awesome. Maybe I’ll do it again and now I can blog about it!). It’s just that you’re not really baking. I actually enjoy getting the flour and sugar together and mushing things with a spoon. Maybe I’m weird, but I think it always tastes better that way. If I didn’t feel like baking I’d buy a cupcake already made. Oh no, my second post already contains a rant. Look, cupcake!
Sugar cookies + icing + some stems and leaves I stole from a plant in the living room.
Thyme Is Money 
