Month: May 2020

So During this thing (11 weeks now) was super excited to finally get chocolate chips. Baking has become a real thing! I asked my really close group of girlfriends – hit me with your fave chocolate chip cookie recipe – this one came back from my friend Emily which was originally from a friend of hers (Sarah? I can’t remember). But here is literally the best chocolate chip cookie recipe (at least in my friend’s group) so far.

Ingredients

2 1/4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

butter 1 cup (salted or unsalted)

1 1/4 cups lightly packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

instant espresso powder (I left this out) 2 tsp

2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions for the best chocolate chip cookies

Preheat oven to 350 F and cover baking sheet with parchment. In a medium bowl place dry ingredients (except esspresso powder) and mix with fork. In large bowl cream together softened butter and sugar until creamy with electric mixer. To the butter mixture beat in egg and vanilla and espresso powder. Gradually stir in flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Stir in Cocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoons onto prepared sheet and bake in centre of oven until golden around 8 min. Take out of oven and let set 2 minutes then move to a cooling rack.

So that is it – I hope you try these – I am actually going to go make these super yummy chocolate chip cookies right now. Even my husband who avoids chocolate most of the time thought these cookies were amazing.

So this week’s recipe post is a bit of a cheat… I’ve been busy getting the clinic ready for re-opening and have seen a few urgent patients. So good to be ready for when I can invite all of my patients back. I don’t have a recipe that I tweaked this week per se but I do have some awesome links to recipes I have made during my 10 weeks at home many of which have become family faves. I am sure they will stay in the rotation – Also tons of yummy breads and deserts… so here are some of my recipes that have become pandemic faves!

Pandemic Faves: Breads

Bread and baking have gone wild during this time… So much so that it is hard to find flour and yeast. Tip- Costco usually has 10 kg bags for about $8. Yeast – one of my friends found some in a small bakery in Mimeco… also I am now part of a cult – the Cult of Sourdough. Yep, it got me. If you want some sourdough starter just ask, I will give you some – we can have a physically distanced pick up and visit and everything. As with all Cults, I have become a bit obsessed….

Ok so here are the bread recipes I have done and continue to do:

This was Thursday morning – two loaves white bread and one sourdough…

White Bread (with yeast)

Baguettes (with yeast)

Sourdough

Sourdough rolls

I haven’t made the rolls yet but I will! My friend did and said they are great.

For the sourdough you need starter – honestly if you want some let me know… I can arrange it if you live close by.

Pandemic Faves Desserts

What’s a pandemic without sweet treats? Here are some of the best recipes I have come across in the way of desserts…

Blondies

Ya, Ive made these twice … it will happen again.

Oatmeal Cookies

So basically I am lucky I haven’t gained 10 lbs in quarantine… I hope you enjoy these as much as we have – but not all at once!

This recipe came to me by way of my friend Emily Howell (also a chiropractor) she said I could post it but should mention that it was originally a weight watchers recipe (though I think that is a different one she gave me once… this one has lard so not really WW friendly) – I have, as usual, made a few changes – but this base recipe for scones is one of the best ever. This time I added chocolate chips and crasins but usually I add white chocolate and blueberries – Leo says I need to get blueberries and white chocolate because that one is better… eat your chocolate cranberry scones kid… sheesh!

I do admit the white chocolate blueberry is better but this one ain’t bad either… you can also make these plain, with shredded cheese or any other mix of fun stuff! good luck and tell me your favourite combination!

Ingredients for scones

4 cups Flour

Baking powder – 6 teaspoons

salt – 2 teaspoons

sugar – 4 tablespoons

lard or shortening or margarine – 1 cup

1 1/3 cup milk and 2 eggs beaten

(and chocolate chips and crasins, or white chocolate chips and blueberries or whatever you like to add!)

Directions.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all dry ingredients. Add lard and blend with pastry blender. Add milk and egg and mix. Mix in chocolate/ fruit or your choice of stuff. Drop by handfuls onto cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake 12-15 minutes.

I hop you like these as much as we do – honestly the blueberry white chocolate ones are legendary. Friends of ours in London Ontario ask for them every time we visit or they visit us… The kids remember me mostly for my scones. Hey, its a good thing to remember! I’ll take it.

Ok so this pandemic thing is making me pull out my inner Girl Guide. This past weekend – Sunday – was the most gorgeous day. We are lucky enough to have a backyard and spend much of the day pulling out ivy from a garden next to the house (and found a crack in the foundation – don’t worry it is small and not serious and by the time I wrote this Wednesday night – fixed). I digress, we decided to cook outside (steak) on the BBQ and have a special dessert. No marshmallows to be found so I pulled out an old trick from Girl Guide days – Campfire Peach Cobbler. So yummy and quite easy – can be done over the fire or under the broiler too.

Ingredients needed for peach cobbler

Oatmeal cookies (two per person)

Peach slices – I used canned

Brown sugar

you will also need two peices of tin foil per cobbler and one damp paper towel.

We had no oatmeal cookies and strangely nut free ones (my son has an allergy) are hard to find. At Girl Guides we used Dad’s brand but they are not nut free. We didn’t have any on hand so I made a batch – so good and worth the extra time – I used this recipe I found online for soft oatmeal cookies from Allrecipes check it out. Oh and btw it makes way more than the 24 it claims to make in the recipe (not a bad thing).

Directions

Place down one piece of foil shiny side in. Wet a paper towel (it should be about a half size one smaller than the foil) and wring out and place on top of foil. Place a second piece of foil over top – doesn’t matter where shiny side goes. Put one cookie on foil then 2-3 slices of canned peach and maybe a spoon of juice. On top of the peaches put 1-2 tsp of brown sugar and then top with second cookie. Drug store wrap the cookie concoction. If you have no idea what that is click here and check out the end of the video with the foil. I learned this from my dad who was a pharmacist. Apparently it is how the drug stores wrapped sandwiches and packages once upon a time (the 1940s? 1950s? – anyway it is useful!)

Then what you will do is take these packets and place them on the coals of the fire – it has to be hot and they will get black on the outside – if the fire is really hot it only takes 5-10 min per side.

Remove from fire and allow to cool for a few mins so you can unwrap. Add whipped cream if you like and eat out of packaging with a fork – delicious gooey mess! Leo wants to do it again this weekend so we have to go easy on the cookies…

I have been posting a bunch of recipes and most of them are pretty easy. At least I think so. But during these weeks of us all staying home many of us have had more time to slow down and cook. Slow food, I think that is what the fancy chefs were calling it. Food. Like our grandmothers used to cook. With the extra time it has been super satisfying to finally have the time to cook and bake to my heart’s content. But then again, somedays one doesn’t feel like it. It is perfectly normal to go through ups and downs during this period of isolation and sometimes (damnit) I don’t wanna cook. Here is an old staple that is so easy and so satisfying on a comfort food scale that it is a regular and frankly one of Leo’s favorite (ok and mine too). Welcome to creamy noodles – don’t make fun of me for how easy it is.

Ingredients

Chicken (one breast cut into cubes)

mushrooms quartered – a small package (optional and mostly I don’t use them)

pasta (whatever kind is your fave)

one can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup (the condensed kind)

Directions for creamy noodles

Cook pasta and drain. Set aside. if you are using mushrooms cook them down so they release the water and set aside. Cook chicken and then set aside. Pour can of soup into a pot and warm until boiling and add a bit of milk to decrease thickness a bit. Add back in the chicken and mushrooms if you are using them and pour over pasta. That is it. Seriously don’t make fun of me. It isn’t our grandparents cooking it’s more like Mom from the late 70s cooking. But damn, Creamy noodles is one of my fave comfort foods. Use it on a day you just don’t feel like doing the whole bake up a storm thing. Happy eating!