Late Supper Suppa

Not sure where I have been as of late, my motivation tank seems to be running on empty.

I'm a little woefully behind with this, but better late than never.

Suppa Club Part 2

The recipe selected for the second Suppa Club meal was a Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot It seems to have been a big hit. I personally didn't make any changes, just the addition of a few whole garlic cloves and we all loved it so much that I have actually made it twice. It has my two favourite qualities in a recipe, ridiculously easy and megga delicious. I know it will become a well loved and much used member of my recipe collection.


Sorry about the pic, yummy as this meal was, I found it difficult to get a pic that actually did it justice.

Please check out how the other members of the Suppa Club felt about it. Siri, Ingrid, Kirsten, Nicole and Molly.

The next recipe on the list is Pork Roast with Three Mushroom Ragout. It looks to have the potential to be seriously yummy. I just hope that I don't take forever to make it.

Alive and Well...

I can't believe how quickly September is flying by. Anyhoo, enough with my life on fast forward. I do plan on being more diligent in my postings in the future. I had thought about again participating in NaBloPoMo, but I was really keen on the theme for October. Although I really do like October in general. The trees get all gussied up in their fall colours, there is Thanksgiving for us Canadians, and of course, there is Hallowe'en my favourite of holidays. I will admit though, it doesn't seem to be quite as much fun now that the kidlets are getting older.

On to what is new and exciting. I have joined an online Supper Club, and if all of the recipes turn out as fab as the first, this is a club that is going to a joy to participate in. The particular Supper Club is the brain child of Molly over at Batter Splattered. How it works, someone chooses a recipe and we all, within the same week, make up the recipe. Adaptations are allowed and then by Monday(at least I think that's it) we post with our results, thoughts and hopefully yummy looking pics to drool over. Considering that I am still pretty new to the whole food photography thing, my may not always be drool-worthy, but practice and all that.

This week's recipe was Cheese and Potato Soup, from Epicurious. I made mine up Thursday, but am just posting now as I spent most of the weekend helping a friend prepare to move. Back to the soup. It was delicious with a capital 'D'. Everyone absolutely loved it.

As usual, I did make a couple several of changes. I nixed the celery, as I am not a fan of celery strings, and instead added about a half a teaspoon of celery seed with the other seasonings. I used a bouillon cube, I know, I know, but I didn't have any chicken broth kicking around. I bumped up the cheese factor by using a combination old cheddar, mozzarella and smoked cheddar. I also added more ham, about a half a cup of niblet corn, a few dashes of Cayenne instead of the Tabasco and a sprig of fresh Rosemary for luck. The corn was a last minute thing that I decided on to replace the celery. Oh, I almost forgot, I sautèd the ham with the onions, carrots, garlic(2 cloves, diced,which I apparently also forgot to mention) and seasonings. I wanted to give the ham a little additional flavour.




Overall thoughts, the soup was amazing, and I would even like to try it with more broth and no dairy. For those wondering why, here's a shot of the soup pre-dairy. It even tasted great at this stage.



If you're interested in a few more takes on the soup, have a peek at the other Supper Club member's blogs. Siri, Ingrid, Kirstin, Nicole, Amanda and of course, Molly.

Delicious Thievery

Ever since Foodie Girl posted her stuffed mushroom recipe I have been dying to try them. Bought the mushrooms and the cream cheese, since I already had the other ingredients I figured it was a go. Not so, I am such a procrastinator I hadn't gotten around to them yet and was afraid that they would soon fall the way of the Monkey Bread that never seems to get made.

Tonight, I decided to steal her recipe and as I always do, I doctored those babies up a little. Being that I am not one of those people with super-human self control, who choose not to eat bacon, I added some crisp, crumbled, food of the gods bacon to the stuffing mixture. Then, since there was already a part of one in the fridge, I added some finely chopped, red pepper. Since I had no onion powder, I switched in some finely chopped, green onions. Finally, because I had a recently discovered recipe contest on my mind I topped the little, filled mushroom caps with some grated, double smoked, cheddar. They were incredible, they taste even better than they look.



Kelly's Magical Stuffed Mushrooms, the Moonlit Knit Way

20 whole fresh button mushrooms(I bought 24, but 4 vanished)
1-2 tablespoons finely diced sweet red pepper
3 slices bacon, fried, cooled & crumbled
1 teaspoon bacon drippings
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
6 oz cream cheese, softened(I could have probably gotten away with 4)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese(I used 1/2 Parmesan, 1/2 Romano)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup grated smoked cheddar

Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.

Heat oil & bacon drippings in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, chopped mushroom stems and sweet red pepper to the skillet and fry until moisture has disappeared. Set aside to cool.

Stir in cream cheese, Parmesan(and Romano) cheese, green onions and spices with fried mushroom, pepper and bacon mixture. Combine well. Fill mushroom caps generously, using small spoon or butter knife. Arrange the mushroom caps on cookie sheet and top with grated cheddar.

Bake for 12-18 minutes or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

If you're like me and forget to add the cayenne, you can sprinkle it on the mushrooms just before slipping them into the oven, or while they're in the oven, if you're a lot like me.

Delicious Cinnamony Goodness

Today's project was going to be Monkey Bread, but as I couldn't really find a recipe that suited me, I instead made Cinnamon Rolls.

In the past, I have tried two different cinnamon roll recipes. Both were good but neither was fabulous, so I decided to try another and see if it was more of what I was looking for. I Think I may have found the one. As usual, I did tweak the recipe just a little. They were oh so soft and yummy. I will be using this recipe more often and I look forward to playing around with different fillings. The tweaks I made are in green.

Dough

4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour(I only used 3 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 envelope FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 TBSP cream
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Cinnamon Filling (recipe follows)

Directions
In a large bowl, combine 1-1/3 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, cream and butter until very warm (120o to 130oF). Gradually add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. I didn't refrigerate, I just let the dough rise in a warm spot til doubled then rolled it out.

Remove dough from refrigerator; roll to 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with Cinnamon Filling. Beginning from long side, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal; cut into 18 pieces. Arrange rolls, cut sides up, on greased large baking sheet to form a heart.* Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake at 375o F for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from sheet; cool on wire rack.

Cinnamon Filling: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar(1/3 cup white sugar, 2 TBSP brown sugar) and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Stir to blend.

The recipe also calls for an icing sugar glaze, I instead made a cream cheese frosting.

Adapted from www.breadworld.com



This photo was taken before the second rising and subsequent baking. By the time they were baked all the good light was pretty much gone. Even unbaked, you can see all the sugary, cinnamon, buttery yumminess.

Pseudo Elegante Gourmet

Can Pillsbury Crescents ever be elegant, or gourmet? Probably not, but for me most of elegant is in the presentation, and I'm not really a gourmet kinda girl anyway.

These babies were quick, easy and very tasty. I whipped them up this morning as a gift for Patrick, one of my fave supervisors at work who has decided that it is time for him to move on. I will miss him and decided that even though my shift for today had been cancelled, I would take these in when I said my goodbyes. Patrick always appreciated the goodies I brought to work.


I did change up the recipe a little, since I didn't have the exact combo of ingredients. I swapped the pepperoni for salami, and switched up sharp cheddar for the mozzarella. I also omitted both the egg yolk in the cheese mixture and the egg white brush on top. I did sprinkle them with grated Parmesan before popping them into then oven. I'm sure these would work with endless combinations of ingredients.

The Forgotten

I can't believe I haven't made this yet. I found the recipe a while back and was waiting on a bundt pan. I finally remembered today that I wanted to give it a try. Well, as luck would have it, now I have two bundt pans ... and not enough yeast. I will be making it this weekend. I must, it has to be done.

Still Lovin' It.

Last evening I once again used the Berry Bundt Cake recipe. This is the third time I've used it, and I am loving it more and more. The first time I made it with strawberries as the recipe calls for. The second time the batter was poured into the mini muffin pan with blue berries as the fruit. This time I used blueberries, and my trusty bundt pan. Each time, I have had tremendous success with it. This time I did have to make a couple of modifications due to me not being aware we were out of a couple of items, namely milk and vanilla. I will list the recipe, with my changes in blue, below the photo.

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups plus 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk/buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla/spiced rum
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries/1 1/4 pints fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the vanilla extract(or spiced rum).

In another bowl, sift together the 3 cups of the flour, the baking powder, and salt. Gradually add this to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk/buttermilk. Toss the berries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, and fold them into the batter.

Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake in the center of the oven until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out just clean, 1 1/4 hours. I found it baked up a little more quickly, 55 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan over a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake into the cooling rack and let it completely.

Enjoy!

No matter what berries you use or if you make some of the changes I did, this cake is awesome. It is wonderful served with a little whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just a sprinkle of icing sugar and a few fresh berries.

Protege at Work

This evening, Tall Child made us a wonderfully tasty dinner. Chicken wings with rice and steamed broccoli. I oversaw and gave a couple of bits of advice, but otherwise she was at the helm. Okay, so rice and broccoli are no biggie, after all we do have a rice cooker. The wings however were downright dee-lish. Maybe she will be cooking the meals more often. Here are photographic evidence of the delectableness of the wings and her recipe.

Tall Child's Saucy Wings

2 lb Chicken wings (we cooked 26)
2/3 cup Tomato Ketchup
juice of 2 limes
4 tbsp Brown sugar
1 tsp Ground allspice
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
2- 3 tsp molasses
splash of soy sauce
2 dashes of Worcestershire
pinch celery salt
smoked paprika

Bake naked wings on cookie sheet @ 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
Baste with sauce, bake five minutes. Turn wings and baste again, bake five more minutes. Baste again.

Broil 2-4 minutes, turn, baste, broil 2-4 more minutes.

Enjoy

Appetizer & Dessert

Last evening, Tall Child and I tried out a recipe new to us, and a slight variation of one that I have tried in the past.

The new recipe was Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies. They were awesome, and really, really easy. We will definitely be making them again. We added a little grated cheddar before wrapping them up in the bacon. Next time I think we might try adding some herbs to the cream cheese. Or topping them with various grated cheeses.

The recipe variation was of Berry Bundt Cake. I made it a while back and have been dying to try it again with different berries. This time we used blueberries, and instead of making in it a bundt pan, we used the mini muffin pan. They were incredible. Tasty, sweet, little morsels of cake, stuffed with yummy blueberries. I know this recipe will be getting a lot of use in the future and will be the subject of experimentation and of course, taste testing.

No photos this time, everything went way to fast, and I missed the opportunity.

And We're Off ... Again

July NaBloPoMo has begun, let's see if I can pull this one off. With the theme for July being food, I should certainly have a lot of inspiration.

When I'm not working, knitting, cooking or online browsing blogs I am often to be found watching the Food Network. My faves, Barefoot Contessa (I wanna be her when I grow up), Paula Deen, Tyler's Ultimate, and all things Nigella. I also really wanna catch the new show, Sweet Baby James, though I keep managing to miss it. I also really like Jamie Oliver, but I often find his stuff just isn't me.

My point ...I had a point. Oh yeah, here it is.

A few recipes from Food Network that I really, really wanna try.

1. Barefoot Contessa's Parmesan Chicken
2. Nigella's Chicken Mushroom & Bacon Pie
3. Paula Deen's Mystery Pecan Pie
4. Bobby Flay's Grilled Chicken Wings
5. Giada's Hazelnut and Chocolate Pie
6. Paula Deen's Lady and Sons Chicken Pot Pie

I'm a little behind with this news, but I did just find out from my Foodie Girl yesterday. It almost feels like a belated b-day gift. Tastespotting is not gone! Yay!!! It is apparently just hibernating, or regenerating. Either way I'm happy, and can hardly wait until it is up and running again.

In other news, the school year is officially finished. I am very pleased with both of my girls, and will love having them around more. However, by mid-July I will probably be questioning the sanity of that statement, and battling with them for the computer for the purposes of Tastespotting and Food Gawking. Not to mention Ravelry and Facebooking with Foodie Girl, who I already miss and she hasn't even officially moved away yet.

Pansies & Pretzels

First, a photo of a lovely little pansy, taken yesterday.


Tonight after dinner, Tall Child and I made soft pretzels. We used the recipe for the Bretzel Rolls. They probably wouldn't win any food beauty contests, but they are dang tasty. With practice, I'm sure we will get better with the pretzel shaping skills.

Rest, Relaxation & Rolls

Today being my day off, I took advantage of what will probably be the last Monday I will have to myself until the next school year begins. I lounged in my comfy clothes, planted a couple of plants I had picked up on Saturday, tried out a recipe for Dinner Rolls that I found through Food Gawker, and baked and iced a batch of Pink Lemonade Minis for an event at Megz school.

All in all, today was quiet and relaxing. The cupcakes turned out adorable. The dinner rolls were tasty, but I am still on the look out for a recipe more to my liking. No photos, I forgot to take them earlier, and now the light just won't very flattering ... nothing like orange tinted dinner rolls. I did take a few photos of a few plants, but they have yet to be uploaded. My time online this evening has been limited by the fact that I share it with two teen girls, one of them who happens to be an Anime loving Tall Child.

Home, Hearth & Muffins

My modern hearth, which due to the lack of a functional fireplace, is actually the stove in my kitchen. My dream kitchen does involve an Aga, but so far, that is a long way off. For now, I rely on my trusty stove, a much beloved Christmas gift from my Mother. Today my hearth was put through it's paces.

This morning while browsing Tastespotting I fell victim to a photo from The Teacher Learns to Cook, of some wonderfully yummy looking Bretzel Rolls. Being that I am me, and that today is my day off, I just had to make some up. I somehow managed to forget the milk in the recipe. However they still turned out awesome, everyone loves them. I will definitely be making them again. I am even thinking of trying them bite-sized next time. Who knows, I may even make the actual soft pretzels.



After the Bretzels came a batch of Mini Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. Then, while the chili simmered, I played with my corn muffin recipe and wound up with Cheesy Bacon Corn Muffins. They were also very tasty and went perfectly with the chili.



And my hearth isn't done for the day yet. Tall Child has requested Apple 'n Cheddar Muffins for this week's grab and go breakfasts. Who knows, there may even be a few peanut butter cookies before the night is through.

Identitiy Crisis

I very often think this blog should probably be titled "Moonlit Kitchen", since it seems to have way more food related entries than knitting ones. However, being the Gemini that I am, I would have great difficulty blogging about just one thing. Who knows, if it were Moonlit Kitchen, most of the posts would probably be about knitting, or sewing, or reading, or one of my many other loves. On that note, today I will share the products of my Moonlit Kitchen, which does actually have a lovely view of the moon this time of year.

Dual Focaccia Pizza

This is the pizza before going into the oven. I couldn't make up my mind what kind of pizza I wanted, so I went dual. I used a rosemary & onion focaccia. topped one half with asiago artichoke dip, rotisserie chicken, sliced capicolla, boconoccini and parmesan. I topped the other half with chipotle bbq sauce, rotisserie chicken, mushrooms and shredded monterey jack cheese. Both sides were very tasty.

Since making the Mojito cupcakes earlier in the week, I have been dying to make some chocolate cupcakes to go with the leftover mint buttercream. Today was that day. There were both mini cupcakes and regular sized cupcakes, and when smothered in the mint buttercream they were even more delicious. It was like eating a moist fluffy Andes mint. Come to think of it, Andes mints are sort of like a teeny, tiny, mint version of Nanaimo bars.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes



Chocolate Cake Recipe

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare pans, either grease and flour or line with parchment or cupcake papers. Sift together first five ingredients in large-ish bowl. Mix buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla in large measuring cup. Pour into dry mixture, mix well. Add one cup boiling water, stir just 'til combined. Pour into pans and bake.

30-35 minutes for cakes
12 minutes for mini cupcakes
18 minutes for regular cupcakes

This recipe is extremely versatile. Today I used it for cupcakes, 24 minis & 12 regular. In the past, I have used it for both 2, 8 inch round cakes, or one 9 x 13 inch cake.

On the note of mine and my blog's apparent identity crisis. The first two times I tried to type Moonlit Kitchen, I wound up typing Moonlit Knitchen. Maybe my Freudian slip is trying to tell me something.

By-Products of Insomnia

Usual suggestions to combat insomnia; warm milk, count sheep, a warm bath. Those don't work for me. What do I do for insomnia? I usually bake, or I knit. Tonight, I did both. I baked cookies, Toffee Chocolate Almond Crunchies to be precise. When those were done, and I was still unable to sleep, I turned to the knitting. I decide on something small and while hunting on Ravelry found this dishcloth.

The Dishcloth seems like it will be a fun little pattern. I have never tried the feathers and fan stitch before. The cookies are delicious and were fairly easy. However I think that I need to pick up a silpat or two before the next time I bake them up. The toffee bits make the cookies stick.

In Need of a Creativity Refill

I've been feeling exhausted for two days now, with no valid reason, so my brain is running a little low on creative ideas. Once again, there will be no knitting content to this post, but I am working on it, I promise. Today, there will be recipes, some of them I have linked to in the past, today, I will be posting the actual recipes here. They are in no particular order.


Top 3 Current Favourite Recipes


1. No-Knead Challah

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp course salt)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and room temp.
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

In a large bowl mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt. Add in the flour and mix until all the flour is incorporated. Cover (not airtight)
and let the dough rise for 2-3 hours on the counter. You can shape and bake after it has risen or you can refrigerate 4-7 days.

Either way, shape the dough as desired (I made it into large buns) let rest 40-90 (depending how cold your house is) minutes and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 20 min. After removing from the oven I gave mine a brush of melted butter.



2. Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter (I reduced it to 3/4 c)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I reduced it to 1c)
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.


3. Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1/3 cup thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
1/4 cup buttermilk


In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth.

Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in 350F preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

These are great topped with swirls of white chocolate, cream cheese frosting or a dusting of powdered sugar.

*Note, the original recipe said these made 10. I find one batch makes 6 medium to large cupcakes, or about 24 mini cupcakes.