Entertaining Your Family: Easy Muffins

One of my favorite afternoon snacks is a nice homemade, slightly warmed, buttered muffin. Rounded out with a cup of tea, it is comfort all around - especially in the colder months.

This is one of my favorite muffin recipes. Something about the almond extract adds a touch of elegance and a nice decadence not found in your typical blueberry or bran muffin.

In my house, we always have sour cream in the fridge, and we always seem to have sour cream that needs to be used up. My husband loves the stuff, I can't stand it (on it's own - in baking it is pure magic), and he can never seem to eat enough perogies or tacos to finish the container he insists I buy at every trip to the grocery store. No worries though - this recipe will make use of it (as do many quick bread recipes and even some cakes), and it helps to create a moist and tender muffin as a result!

I prefer to use fresh cranberries in this recipe, so that's how it is written. If you choose to use dried (which I did for this photo as a matter of fact because it was all I had on hand at the time), that works too. Just reduce the amount ever so slightly as the dried cranberries are much sweeter. Also, these make great use of any fresh cranberries you may have popped in your freezer after Thanksgiving! (See Cranberry Post for more info on freezing cranberries).

Cranberry Almond Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
3/4 cup fresh cranberries, halved

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and butter twelve 1/3 cup muffin cups.

Into a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Melt butter, and in a small bowl whisk together with sour cream, egg, and almond extract. Stir butter mixture, almonds, and fresh cranberries into flour mixture until just combined (do not over mix). Divide batter among muffin cups and bake in middle of oven until golden and tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Entertaining your Family: Pizzas on the Grill

So, my daughter just turned two. We decided to have a small birthday party for her, and invited a few of her little friends but really, it was mostly adults in attendance. So, what do you serve 3 two year olds and 8 adults that everyone will enjoy equally as much?

Pizza.

Who doesn't like pizza? I didn't want to go with take-out though (it's just not my thing), and my mom had just sent me a really great pizza crust recipe which meant there really wasn't much of an option - we had to make our own. Plus, I figured out a way to make it fairly easy on myself - cook them outside. This way, everyone could build their own pizza - cheese flying everywhere and all - but it wouldn't be too much of a mess in the kitchen. Then, we could just toss them onto the grill and not have to deal with a 500 plus degree oven in the middle of July. Brilliant right? Well, mostly...here's how it went...

I made the dough in advance, and had it rising just as guests were arriving. Then, I gave each "family" a crust which they could roll out and top with a variety of toppings that I had pre-cut and set out.

Here is the first pizza on the go...We decided that with everybody working to get their pizza ready we actually needed two stations - a crust rolling station and a topping station. Here is the birthday girl and her dad rolling out their pizza on the new "dough" station:And, here is a look at all the toppings set out. I was sure to include all the basics (pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, olives), but I also added some fun things as well like grilled Italian sausages, goat cheese, and pesto. Everyone used the toppings they liked best. Some even topped half the pizza with some ingredients and the other half with others.

Once everyone built their pizza, on the grill they went. Grilling them was a bit of an experiment that I had tested out a couple of weeks earlier to work out some of the kinks. I have a dual burner gas grill, and I found for this particular model the best way to grill the pizzas was to turn both burners up pretty high until the BBQ reached a temperature of at least 500 degrees. Then, working quite quickly at this point, I turned off one side of the grill, slid the pizza onto the side with no heat (you will need to make sure that pizzas are built on a well-floured surface, and you may need an extra pair of hands to ensure the whole thing slides smoothly onto the grill), and then I quickly closed the lid of the BBQ. I left the lid closed for a good 10 minutes before checking on the progress of the pizza. The pie is done when the crust if crunchy, slightly browned, and the cheese is bubbly. 10 - 14 minutes in total.

Unfortunately, by this point I was pretty busy with the party and didn't get a chance to snap any picture of the pizzas cooking, or the finished product. But, they turned out quite well. As with any party though, I would have done a few things differently if I were to do it again. Due to the fact I could only cook 1 pizza at a time, it took almost an hour and half before everyone had eaten. There were a couple of pizza crust leftover at the end that we made as "extras" for people to snack on, but in hindsight I would have made these first so that everyone could snack on pizza even before "theirs" had been cooked. If you have a bigger grill though, this problem could be easily solved (or of course they can always be cooked in the oven).

The crust though was fantastic. I love it, and will always have some in my freezer from now on. In fact, I don't think I can ever see myself using pre-made pizza crusts again. I do happen to like thin-crust pizzas though, so if a thicker, doughier crust is more your thing, this may not be the recipe for you.

Thin Crust Pizza Dough

1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water
4 cups bleached flour (I use half all-purpose, and half whole wheat)
2 teaspoons sea salt, fine
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

1. Sprinkle yeast over water; let stand until yeast is creamy, 5 to 10 minutes. (If yeast does not appear creamy, discard and start over with new yeast.)

2. In large bowl, whisk together flour and salt; form a well in centre. Add yeast mixture and oil; stir until dough just comes together. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead vigorously for 10 minutes. Cover with a damp dishtowel and let rest for 10 minutes, then knead vigorously for 10 minutes more. Lightly oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Note: I did this step in my stand-mixer using the dough hook. I found it a lot easier than kneading by hand for that long

3. With dough still in bowl, punch down with your fist (dough will be stiff), then fold sides over one another, turn dough, tightly cover bowl again with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hour or up to 24 hours.

4. Divide dough into 4 pieces; shape pieces into balls and place on a lightly floured work surface, leaving a few inches between balls. Loosely cover with a damp dishtowel (not terry cloth) and let rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours (if skin forms on dough while rising, lightly spray surface with water).

Note: If you want to freeze a portion of your dough, I do so here. Simply divide your dough, and set aside what you are planning to use to rise, and freeze the rest. When you want to use the frozen dough, let it defrost in the fridge overnight, and then allow to rise for a few hours as detailed above.

5. If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven while the dough rises. Heat for at least 45 minutes before baking pizza in an oven set at between 500 and 550 degrees.

6. On a lightly floured surface, press each dough ball with your fingers to begin to shape into a round. Use a fist and hands to gently stretch the dough to a 10 - inch round. (A floured rolling pin can be used to help roll out dough). Working fairly quickly, add your toppings (pizza Margarita is nice and simple and will showcase this crust nicely). Slide onto pizza stone or onto a baking sheet, and bake until cheese is melted and bubbling in spots and edge of dough is crisp and golden, about 7 minutes.

I used 6 balls of dough for this recipe. I had two in the freezer from when I conducted my "experiment", and you honestly couldn't tell which was which. Freezing them turned out just fine.

So, if any of you are thinking of trying this out for your next party - drop me a line! Let me know how it worked for you! At the end of the day all of our guests enjoyed it (from kids to adults), which means it was a success in my books!

Entertaining your Family: Tomato Sauce

Now that you have all that freshly grated fantastic Parmigiano Reggiano at your disposal, I figured it would be quite logical of me to post about how you can also give up that pre-bottled pasta sauce and make your own - and it too will cost you less money! Though it may seem quick and convenient to buy one of those jars (and how can you miss them, what are there about 50 varieties now?), I am here to tell you that making your own can be just as easy (and just as quick and convenient). It is also extremely easy to customize the flavours of each sauce to your liking, or to your particular mood, or to whatever ingredients you have on hand! Can it really get much better than that? YES! I'm going to give you 3 of my favorite "go-to" sauces that you can use any day of the week - even tonight - because I can almost guarantee you have all the ingredients in your house right now for at least one of these recipes!

It all starts, of course, with the humble tomato. This pictures is taken from a website that talks about San Marzano tomatoes (as well as the health benefits of tomatoes in general, so be sure to check it out HERE). San Marzano's have a reputation among many cooks (and Italians alike) as being the best tomato for a pasta sauce. And though I do buy them when I happen to be in a speciality shop, I'm not going to tell you that it's a necessity for good sauce (not to mention I can almost guarantee that the stuff in those jars we are trying desperately to steer away from do not contain one single San Marzano tomato). But, you do need tomatoes, of some sort or another. Most common for me is a regular old tin of whole tomatoes. I happen to like a smooth sauce, so I give the contents a quick whirl in the food processor before I use them, but mashing them with a fork or the back of spoon for a more textured sauce also works well. I've also been known to use vine-ripened tomatoes (when in season) for my sauces. If that's what you choose as your base, it's a good idea to blanch them, and then remove the skin. If you don't even want to go to that amount of trouble, but still like the idea of fresh tomatoes, try cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes. They'll pop and release their juices, but the skin won't be as much of an issue. Basically, choose whatever kind of tomatoes are easily available to you and require the least amount of effort!

So, the recipes:

1. Simply Delicious

This is as simple as it gets, but it will blow you away at how tasty it is!

2 tbsp good quality olive oil

2 gloves of garlic, finely sliced

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 can (28oz) tomatoes (with their juice)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook gently until garlic just begins to brown. Add tomatoes. Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes just until the sauce starts to thicken slightly. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Add-Ins: I use this recipe quite often as a base for a pesto/tomato sauce. After the sauce has simmered, I add in about a cup of pesto. Alternately, you could simply add a cup of fresh basil for fresher flavour.

Serving Suggestions: Of course, this sauce is great on it's own with spaghetti, but we find it's a perfect pairing with tortellini and grilled Italian sausages - in fact, I served it during a dinner party once (Andra if you're out there say all those great things you did that night at dinner!!).

2. Tomato Sauce with White Wine

Browning onions and tomato paste give this sauce a little more depth of flavour. It also shows a recipe using vine-ripened tomatoes, but you can always substitute canned...it won't make a difference!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
4 gloves garlic
1 can tomato paste
3/4 cup white wine
3 vine ripened tomatoes, blanched, and finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Heat olive in a medium size saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until onions are just starting to brown. Add tomato paste, and cook for 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, scrapping any brown bits. Add tomatoes and half the basil, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Let cook, uncovered, on medium-low heat for 30 minutes, or until mixture starts to thicken. Add remaining basil as well as salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Add-Ins: This is the base I use for my red clam sauce. I live in Calgary, so fresh clams are not always at my fingertips so I use canned quite often. Simply add 1 can of clams (with juice) after tomato sauce has simmered, and cook for an additional 10 minutes (just until clams are heated through). Then add the remaining basil and season with S&P.

Serving Suggestions: When making this into a clam sauce, the logical choice is linguine, but this sauce is pretty rich and delicious on it's own. Serve with penne or any kind of short pasta!

3. Veggie Tomato Sauce

Don't tell the kids, but this sauce is packed with carrots and zucchini! They'll never notice though...trust me!

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, grated

2 large cloves garlic, grated

1 zucchini, grated

1 carrot, grated

1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine

1 tsp Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in medium sized saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add zucchini and carrot, and allow to cook a few more minutes. Add tomatoes, wine and seasoning, and allow to simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Add-Ins: Use a mixture of any vegetables you have on hand. Red peppers also work well. The trick is to grate the vegetables (any large-grate cheese grater will do). This will allow them to melt away during the long simmering time and make them virtually unnoticeable!

Serving Suggestions: This is perfect as is with a good mound of spaghetti.

Finally, I have one last suggestion for the perfect pasta dish. One thing I always do before adding the sauce to the pasta is that I dress the hot noodles with a nob of butter, a handful of Parmesan cheese (hello parmigiano reggiano), some freshly cracked black pepper, and some fresh herbs. I find the butter and the cheese give the final dish an extra smooth and silky texture and the fresh herbs stay fresh and don't run the risk of getting over cooked. Then simply pour over your sauce (I happen to like the Italian way - just enough sauce to coat everything really well, but not so that the pasta is swimming), and serve any additional sauce on the side.

One final tip - leftover sauce (from any recipe) will freeze really well. But, if you have just a little bit left that you don't want to waste (and if you have young children), freeze it in ice cube trays for a quick defrost and quick meal for your little one if you are on the go!

I hope this has inspired you to give your own sauce a try! Hey, if you have a sauce that you love please share it with me! I'm always on the look out for new recipes and new ways to use that one can of tomatoes - and avoid buying 8 different jars!

Entertaining Your Family: Decorated Sugar Cookies

I know...Valentine's Day is over, but seeing as we are still enjoying the baking I figured I could still post about it! I had every intention of making these the days leading up to Valentine's Day, but a nasty bug got a grip of the majority of the people who live here (dog included), so instead of consuming this treat on Valentine's Day they were baked that day, iced the next day, and I've been eating them with my afternoon tea all week.

All that aside, it's more the concept of the cookie that I'm after in this post - not the shape. Sugar cookies are actually a fantastic way to get the whole family involved in baking (maybe not your husband - mine iced one then went back to painting a wall in the house somewhere...so I guess it kinda counts as decorating). But if you have kids they will get a kick out of getting creative with the icing. My daughter is only 19 months old so she didn't really help either, but she was a very important part of my test kitchen...several cookies had to be consumed (both with and without icing for comparison purposes) in order to get the official thumbs up!

The great part about sugar cookies is that the ingredients are most likely already in your house. I don't consider myself a real baker (I'm more into cooking and meal planning) and I even have these ingredients at the ready. I also like that they can be cut out into whatever shape suits the occasion - or your mood really. Go ahead and get creative. I'm planning a baby shower in a couple of weeks and I'm going to make another batch in the shape of buggies, rattles, bottles, and whatever else I can find. If you can't find cookie cutters, you can always print a shape onto paper, cut it out, then use it on the dough and trace the shape out with a knife (requires a tad more patience then I have, but certainly doable).

As far as icing goes, this is a variation of a classic royal icing. By reducing the amount of icing sugar, the icing becomes thinner and more easily spreadable. Also, if cookies are iced with two colours at the same time (rather than waiting for one colour to dry), the new colour will sort of seep into the base colour giving the cookie a smooth finish. My mom has been decorating her sugar cookies this way for years. The icing will still dry to a hard finish, but it won't be the consistency of cement, and it will make your cookies look quite elegant.

Below are the recipes, and don't forget to get creative! It's a fun way to celebrate everyday accomplishments (slip a heart cookie into your kids lunch), or holidays (Clover Leaf cookie anyone?). Not to mention there is something to be said for easy, inexpensive ways to get your kids into the kitchen and interested in cooking, and they'll be so proud of their efforts I urge you to hide a few right way so you can indulge with an afternoon tea!

Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

In large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy; slowly beat in sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into butter mixture.

Divide dough in half; flatten slightly. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 24 hours.

On lightly floured surface, roll out each half into 1/4" (5mm) thickness. Cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Place 1" apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375 degrees until light golden on bottoms and edges, about 8 - 10 minutes. Let cool on pans for 1 minute, transfer to racks and let cool completely. Makes about 36 cookies (depending on size of shapes).

"Spreadable" Royal Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp almond extract (or whatever flavour you desire...I actually used vanilla)

food colouring

Combine all ingredients (except food colouring). Mix with electric mixer until smooth. Divide icing, and mix with desired colours. Icing will harden within about 45 minutes of being spread on cookies.

Entertaining Your Family: Split Pea Soup

Well, it's officially winter which, in our house, means it's officially soup season. I love soup, and I love to use the crockpot for my soups. Just assemble all the ingredients in the morning, let it simmer away for few hours, then return home to a warm and satisfying meal that will stick to your ribs and warm you from the inside out!

One of my favourite winter soups is Split Pea and Ham. I use a recipe my mom has been using for years (with a few of my own adjustments). The key to this fantastic meal though is the ham. It needs to be a "real" ham, and by "real" I mean not a pressed processed ham, but a ham hock or shank that has good flavour and that will add complexity to this dish.

Ham's are easy to find around the holidays. They are often huge though, so my trick? I buy a large ham shank and cut it up into pieces. I freeze what I don't use in the first batch of soup for a soup later in the winter (when the holidays are over and they are less readily available). It does mean that there will only be one bone piece (and only one soup with that much more flavour) but surprisingly, the soup is just as tasty with a boneless piece of ham. This time, I bought an 8lb ham shank and cut it up into 3 pieces, the first of which landed in my crockpot for a fantastic and hardy mid-week meal. I prefer to buy hams that aren't smoked with any additional flavouring though (i.e. maple), as I enjoy the simplicity of this recipe.

Split Pea Soup

2 cups split peas, well washed
2 1/2 pounds ham hock
8 cups water
1 onion
2 whole cloves
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon peppercorns

1. Peel onion, and stick with the two cloves. Combine onion and all other ingredients in crockpot. Cover and set to cook for 8 hours.
2. With one hour remaining in the cooking time, remove ham bone. Remove bay leaf and cloves from onion, discard. Puree soup with an emulsion blender, or in batches with a blender. Cut off meat from the bone, and dice. Return to crockpot with pureed soup. Allow to cook for the remaining hour, serve.

This soup would probably serve 6 to 8 as a first course and 4 healthy portions as a main. I usually serve it with a nice loaf of crunchy garlic bread, but really all it needs is a spoon!

ENTERTAINING YOUR FAMILY: Greek Dinner

Tucked away in the freezer I found a package of pre-marinated (stay tuned for a tip on that soon) chicken tenders. I had marinated them in lemon, olive oil and herbs for my daughter's first birthday a few months ago, and tossed the leftovers in the freezer. This last package must have been buried beneath the ground beef, as I thought we had consumed all the party leftovers weeks ago!

Anyway, considering I was going to be heading out shopping this past weekend, I added everything I would need to go Greek with the package of remaining raw chicken. Basic Greek that is. And by Greek I basically mean Greek Salad. That is my favourite part of the whole deal, and I make a pretty mean Greek Salad (if I do say so myself). I could have had just that for supper, but I also tossed in some roasted potatoes as I'm trying to balance my daughter's meals with all of the food groups, so I used the fingerling potatoes that I found while at the grocery store. The end result was refreshing, tasty, and a meal that was really easy to put together. At the end of the day it was simply grilled chicken from the freezer, a salad, and a side of potatoes, but it had just enough of a twist to keep it interesting and a change from the everyday.

Basic Greek Dinner
Grilled Lemon Marinated Chicken Breasts
Greek Salad
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Lemon and Garlic

Here is the recipe for the roasted potatoes as it corresponds to my recent "BUY" post on fingerlings. This is just one way you can cook them, but of course the possibilities are endless!

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Lemon and Garlic
1/2 pound fingerling potatoes, washed and scrubbed clean
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
zest of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
juice of half a lemon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, and toss with garlic, olive oil, lemon zest and salt and pepper. Place potatoes in baking dish and roast for 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Remove from oven and pour lemon juice over while potatoes are still warm. Serve.