Jessi & Gwyneth {12}

10 hour chicken

For serious - 10 hours... I had to have it the oven by 8:30 am  to have it ready for 6. 
When we finally took it out of the oven it was falling off the bones, thought I found the breast piece I had a bit dry - maybe I cooked it a little long at the end when you are supposed to uncover and up the heat 


I also am not a good judge of measurements - and when it says to put a "generous" amount of salt - I think I maybe put "excessive" amounts :)


Now I need to go tweet it so Gwyneth sees it and invites me over for some of her schancy cooking :P

at the 9.5 hour mark 

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> Jessi

Purple Cow > A Family Recipe

I made a traditional King (that's my maiden name)  family dinner on Easter Monday, why cause:

1)  I never get my family meals anymore 

2) I felt like it.

One of the staples at any big occasion family dinner - is a thing we call purple cow ( I don't know why it is called this). My grandma has been making this as long as I can remember. It's like dessert - but you eat it with your meal. I have no problems with this idea - cool whip and turkey should hang out more often.

Another thing I like about this is there is just something kind of fun and retro about jello based desserts - they should use it on Mad Men in any dinner scene

RECIPE

1 package of raspberry jello

1 1/2 - 2 cups of blueberries (feel free to add more!)

1 10 oz can of crushed pineapples

1 container of cool whip - thawed

Mix the jello with water as called for on the package.

mix in the blueberries and crushed pineapple ( with juices from can)

stir and refrigerate. Stir every half hour or so to keep berries and pineapples from settling

at the bottom. Once it seems to be holding cover top with cool whip. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

It won't get the consistency of jello - so don't expect it to harden up completely 

I forgot to take a nice pic of it - here it is half gone

 

 > Jessi

 

31 Meals in March

So I didn't remember to take pics everyday - but we successfully finished our goal. This was a pretty great learning experience and keeping track gave us a good peek into our eating habits!

#1 it became quite clear that although I was focused on making new mains, that our sides were always the same, so I needed to fix that, and it became a slightly bigger job trying to find new ways to cook our vegetables (Angelina I am totally going to try mashed cauliflower now!)

#2 - we eat a s*$# t ton of meat! I think we had 3 meals that weren't meat based - next goal, learn to make some vegetarian meals! (This is tricky for me as I have a raw fruits/veg allergy and an allergy to nuts!) Any suggestions on a good resource for vegetarian meals?

some of our meals (from top left): baked pork chops, Salisbury steak, fish and chips, hoagies, chicken parmigiana, hamburger helper (it was a lazy night!), stuffed chicken breast, breakfast for supper!, butter chicken & tikki masala, handmade cannelloni, pasta in a white wine sauce, Gwyneth turkey burgers, macaroni and cheese, bangers & mash, sloppy joes, meatloaf,

It was fun, and now I can get my reward of some new knifes! Is there a new recipe you have tried lately that you love? Or Any new goals (cooking or not) that you are challenging your self with?

> Jessi

Jessi & Gwyneth {11}

Baked Cauliflower

Doing this 31 one meals of March has also made me realize that we pretty much eat the same sides, cooked the same way with the same sauces. 

This side (though I burned it a tad!) was a welcome change to the normally boiled cauliflower we have. We had it along with my first Gwyneth attempt - turkey burgers, which we BBQ'd in our first BBQ of the season - Come on warm weather!!

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> Jessi

Mini Pies

I saw some little bite size pies at Starbucks, and thought - well I can make those...

I didn't have a recipe and had to wing it a bit, so I will try and give you as much details as I can so you can try it to! I took the pastry recipe from the Scandinavian pies, rolled it out and cut with a small wine glass. For the filling I diced up about 6 small apples and that was to much - 4 probably would work. I sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon until the apple looked coated, and added 2 tbs of minute tapioca for thickening. 

Once the tops were one (the wine glass was a bit big for this part, but I had nothing else to use) I brushed egg wash on the top and sprinkled with sugar, baked at 350 until they looked cooked ( I forgot to set a time but I think it was about 30-40 minutes)

Next time I want to cut out cute shapes int he top like the Starbucks ones, and try a blueberry filing :)

Jessi & Gwyneth {10}

Slow Cooked Tomato& Arugula Crostini 

I went on a Gwyneth binge a few weeks ago and then got busy and neglectful, so before heading to the grocery store this past week I went through the book, picked out some recipes and made sure to get all the ingredients so I would have no excuses.  But lets face it I probably will find other ones :)

I made this recipe for an appetizer for dinner with our neighbours, It was pretty tasty and easy so I will definitely be making these again!

 

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Spring Forward

Happy Monday! This weekend was the dreaded spring forward time change and it's killing me! Luckily this week is March Break so we are able to be a little lazy and take time to adjust.

How was your weekend? Ours was low key, coming off a pretty busy week, Clifford and Kate were away, so it was just me and the two littlest. We were homebodies and got in some baking and pasta making. I was obsessed with making the mini pies that were featured on Skunkboy Creatures, mine were a bit bigger, not nearly as pretty - but totally delicious!

Hope you all have a great week - gearing up to the drink fest that is this Saturday :)

> Jessi

Brown Sugar Tarts

I don't know why I am on such a food kick, must be a winter thing! 

I had some tart shells in the freezer, yep... store bought, feel free to judge :), and decided to make up some Brown Sugar Tarts. This is another old family recipe, and it's the one I used for the Winter Warmer's Recipe swap ( you can see Annika's here!)

Recipe:

2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp cold water
2 tbsp melted butter
2 packs of small tart shells thawed - or make your own


Beat eggs, sugar, water & vanilla. Add butter. Fill shells 2/3 full and bake at 350degrees for 30 -40 minutes 


Sounds pretty tough eh?

> Jessi

Homemade Donuts

Last week we had Family Day. My sister in law came down and we all went out for lunch and then came home to make donuts with the kids - and with the kids I mean, Lily played with flour and Maya only wanted to help with cutting them out!

Here is the recipe (it is an old family one), they look a little flat, but they still tasted just like old fashion donuts!

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup milk

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3/4 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil

with mixer combine eggs, nutmeg, sugar, oil. Stir in milk & vanilla. Add flour, baking powder & salt and beat until batter is well blended (will look crumbly-ish). Form ball and chill for 2 hours. Heat oil to 375 degrees ( I use my deep fryer at the french fry setting) separate into 2 balls and roll out at 1/2" thickness. Cut out 3 at a time (if you don't have a donut cutter, use a glass and bottle cap). With a flat spatula carefully put them in the oil. They will sink at first and then float to the top, when the underside is browned, turn it over and allow the other side to brown. Remove and place on paper towel to drain

> Jessi

Jessi & Gwyneth {9}

Can you tell I am on a bit of a cooking binge right now?

Tomato and Arugula Pasta

Another pasta recipe with my new attachments! Spaghetti went a lot quicker than the Ravioli, though it is still a bit of work, but the novelty of it has not worn off yet!

This was a really easy recipe, just tomatoes, arugula (which have now become staples in our house!) and a handful of spices. 

We opted to cut the recipe in half as we had so much when we made the ravioli, but it wasn't enough for this pasta loving household...and we ended up picking up so burgers later to fill us up (I was going to a going away party later that night and needed to have something a little more solid to drink on!) I am sure that's how Gwyneth would roll to :P

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> Jessi

Jessi & Gwyneth {8}

Sweet Potato Ravioli

We have wanted the pasta maker attachment forever and have never been able to justify it, until Gwyneth. Getting it opened up another section of her recipe book I could not have done without it :)

I have never made pasta before - it actually really fun- time consuming but fun! The inside of the ravioli is a sweet potato and mascarpone mixture. We had so much pasta that for variety we made a batch with spinach and mascarpone ...but the sweet potato was better. We invited our friend Suzanne over who is not a sweet potato fan - but liked these! The sauce is a butter and sage mix - which again I never would have thought to do - I probably would have dumped a jar of tomato sauce on it!

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> Jessi

Valentine's Day Popcorn

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a sweet little Valentine treat.

-pop your popcorn ( we have a whirley-pop and it is amazing!!) 

-double broiler melt some white chocolate 

-once melted add some red food colouring 

-put your popped popcorn in a lined roasting pan

-pour chocolate mixture over it and stir it in

-sprinkle with pink and red smarties (we also threw in the left over sprinkles from our cupcakes)

-Put in the fridge for 20 minutes :)

> Jessi

Jessi & Gwyneth {7}

 Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend - we got suddenly hit by winter here, it's been very cold! I hear it's supposed to warm up this week so I can quit complaining :)  I have been quite busy in my kitchen - there are alot of food posts coming as well as a sweet Valentine treat tomorrow! Also Cassie has been working on a new  feature that we will start sharing this week!
 

Gwyneth's Rotisserie Style Chicken

There is nothing Clifford hates more than when I decide to make something I have never made when we have company..but you can't really go wrong with chicken right? I have in the past made things that he had to take over and help with, but this was so easy! The drinks were flowing and I forgot to take a nice picture of the whole meal, so enjoy these ever so creative pictures of a dead chicken :)

My journey through Gwyneth's cookbook is making me feel alot more confident in the kitchen and making me a more comfortable with experimenting, like with this recipe you  make a rub for the chicken, and that is something I never would have thought to do and I now have a few ideas of different flavour bases for it. Do you have a go to recipe book - or one you love?

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ingredients for the rub

weirdly this step made me fell like a fancy pants chef

delicious roasted chicken!

> Jessi

Valentine's Cupcakes

Here's a little valentine's treat! We were lazy and just used a cake mix for the cupcakes, I did try to dye them red, but that was a fail. We made a cream cheese icing, which I like alot more than regular icing - it's not as sweet.

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz of cream cheese softened ( I didn't bother because the kitchen aid mixes it up good)

1/2 cup of butter softened (again didn't bother)

2 cups of icing sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

For one box of cake mix I doubled the icing recipe. we then decorated with heart sprinkles and cinnamon hearts

I think Maya likes to help just so she can wear an apron

Lily is more interested in the candies hiding in the cupboard

 > Jessi