100 Ways to Celebrate Julia Child's 100th Birthday

I like this very much, found this morning at Crave - 

100 Ways to Celebrate Julia Child's Birthday

Looking forward to slowly savoring this list.

Grocery shop August 17

Milk, blueberry waffles, butter, salsa, parmesan cheese, cream cheese, carrots, strawberries, salad, turkey, peanut butter cups, bananas, crackers, creamer, tortillas, juice, broccoli, apples, nectarines, plums.

I would tell you how much I spent, but the receipt has gone missing between the store and here.  I think about $75?


Tonight for dinner - chicken quesadillias.  Tomorrow - the coconut shrimp I found in the freezer.

Julia Child

Yesterday would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday.  Gone for 8 years now, she continues to teach and inspire.

I made 2 of her vegetable dishes this week - Epinards Etuves au Beurre (Buttered Spinach)

Carottes Etuves at Beurre (Carrots braised in butter)

They were both delicious - the spinach was very very buttery - too buttery really.  The carrots were perfect and I will definitely use this recipe again.

Here's to you Julia.

Bon Appetit! 

Bread Baking Buddies - Easy Little Bread

Thanks to all the Babes and you out there who baked my choice for the Bread Baking Babes July bread - Easy Little Bread. There were some varying opinions but this truly is a favorite recipe of mine.

Thank you a million times over to Lien for the graphics.

I adore the shaping of this bread from Szeretetrehangoltan

A traditional shaped loaf from A Messy Kitchen

This loaf made the guild of knitting kninjas think of soup in the Fall

Beautiful bread from Gilad

Happy ready for jam bread from girlichef

Bread from my old stomping grounds, Calgary, from Crumbs of Love

Berry bread by Sweet and That's it

Bread from a familiar face, Judy's Gross Eats

I don't know why, but I always have trouble with photos from Soepkipje. My apologies, but please click to see her lovely bread.

I've been having some computer troubles lately, so if I've missed you, please send me an email.

Don't forget that the Babes are celebrating Julia Child this month - scroll down to the bottom of Tanna's post for all the details.

Thanks everyone! Happy Friday!

Bread Baking Babes - Easy Little Bread

It was my turn to choose the Bread Baking Babes bread for July.  I chose a bread that I fell in love with earlier this year - Easy Little Bread from 101 Cookbooks.

I love the simple ingredients - oats, whole wheat flour, honey - I love the texture, I love that it really is an easy bread, and most of all I love the taste.  If I could bake only one bread for the rest of my life (I think all the Babes are shuddering at the thought) it would be this bread.

This bread isn't going to win any beauty contests; it isn't elaborately shaped - it is pretty much just a really wet dough you scrape into a pan and let rise briefly before baking.  But the flavor and the quickness are divine.

Thanks to the Bread Baking Babes for allowing me to choose the bread this month!  I hope you all enjoyed it.

I hope you out there too will enjoy this bread! Want to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Bake the bread before July 29 and send me an email at iliketocookATshawDOTca. Include a photo and a link to your blog.

Cheers!

Easy Little Bread
from 101 Cookbooks

 1 1/4 cups / 300 ml warm water (105-115F)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g whole wheat flour
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats (not instant oats)
1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing


In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the honey and set aside for a few minutes, until the yeast blooms and swells a bit - 5 - 10 minutes.
In the meantime, mix the flours, oats, and salt in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir very well.
Brush a 8-cup loaf pan generously with some of the melted butter. Turn the dough into the tin, cover with a clean, slightly damp cloth, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes, to rise.
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C, with a rack in the middle. When ready, bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan. I finish things up by leaving the bread under the broiler for just a heartbeat - to give the top a bit deeper color. Remove from oven, and turn the bread out of the pan quickly. Let it cool on a rack so it doesn't steam in the pan. Serve warm, slathered with butter.
Makes 1 loaf.
Adapted from Gran's Kitchen: Recipes from the Notebooks of Dulcie May Booker.
Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 35 min

Creamy Corn Cups (Fall 2011)

We bought an awful lot of corn last fall and it was fun to see if I could find some "different" recipes to use the corn other than grilling on the bbq.

I saw this recipe on the food channel (back when they actually showed cooking shows, not "reality" cooking shows) and I was glad to have seen the dish prepared, otherwise I never would have made it. (Mayo, it was the mayo.)

Creamy Corn Cups ("Esquites")
Recipe from Marcela Valladolid


4 ears sweet corn, husked and silks removed
4 tablespoons mayonnaise or Mexican sour cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons crumbled queso fresco or mild feta cheese
Ground chili powder, for sprinkling
Salt, for sprinkling
Lime wedges, for serving, optional

Directions

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the corn and cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the corn to a platter and allow them to cool slightly. Using a serrated knife, remove the kernels from the corn. Divide the corn between 4 individual cups or small glasses. Put 1 tablespoon mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon butter in each glass. Sprinkle with cheese, chili powder, and salt. Serve with the lime wedges, if desired.


It was different, and fun, and tasty.
Hoping our flooding and rain won't hamper the crops too much this year so we can have this again.

Banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting (Spring 2011)

This is a reminder post because I don't have a recipe to share yet. This is a banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting that one of my co-workers made. The combination was as fabulous as you would expect and it's on my list to recreate.

Strawberry and rhubarb crisp

This is the glorious end result of the rhubarb post down below.

It was so simple and so delicious. I used this recipe and it is definitely a keeper.

Have a great Friday!

Bread Baking Babes - Oatmeal Twists

Nobody freak out - not only am I writing words on this blog, but I have also baked the monthly Bread Baking Babes bread!

This month's Oatmeal Twists is from Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms, and they are so cute and fun to make.  I love the texture and taste of the bread and the shape is adorable.

Visit Elle's blog here to see the recipe.  

If you would like to be a Buddy this month, please email Elle a link to your post by June 29 at plachman(at)sonic(dot)net.

Check back next month - I am the host of July's BBB Bread!

First Harvest

Gorgeous rhubarb I picked from the garden yesterday.  Making it into a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp for dinner tonight.

Grocery Shop May 5

Instant potatos (don't judge), salad X 3, raspberries, oranges, bananas, avocados, pears, apples, tomatos, green onions, steak, cheese, clamato, broccoli, buns, deli chicken, cottage cheese, english muffins, corned beef.  

Nothing too exciting this week.  I am working on yet another project, this one I am hoping I can stick with and start sharing soon.  

In other news I challenged myself today - exercise every day for 75 days.  I worked late tonight so my short walk at lunch covered day 1.  

Cheers!

Salmon

Scott bbq-d a piece of salmon for dinner for him and P. 

Potlucks

Last summer a couple of the ladies that I work with and I were talking about work, how stressed we could get, how sometimes we felt solitary, even though there are people everywhere.  The idea of a morale-boosting lunch came up, and after no progress in the weeks that followed, I jumped in and organized a potluck lunch for our department.

It was a great lunch; fun and relaxing and full of amazing food.  We decided to do it monthly and we have been, for the past 7 months now.  I am still the organizer and each month after the date is picked I email everyone their course.  (I have a spreadsheet I created to keep track of who has made which course for what month, so no one has to make a main course 3 months in a row.)  It's a nice way to socialize and relax for an hour.  It's also a super way to find new recipes.  The dishes have been creative and awesome and we definitely eat well.  We've had pulled pork sandwiches, quesadillas, Italian meatloaf, bacon wrapped asparagus, cheesecake, and oh mah gawd.  So much good food.  Gee, I can't figure out why I am not losing any weight......

I don't have photos of most of my dishes but I thought I'd share what I've made for the lunches so far.

1.  Vegetable - Cauliflower with Tomato Curry Sauce- I found this in a Weight Watchers cookbook I own. Recipe here.  This was fabulous and the curry sauce is amazing.  It would be great on other veggies or even meat, if you were so inclined. 

2. Dessert - Tofu Mousse.  Even after all these months, this is still a sore spot with me.  I have made this mousse a few times before.  It is really really good mousse.  Anyway the day of the potluck I shared the "secret" of the mousse with one of my friends.  She was quite surprised and was looking forward to trying it.  Since it has been a few years since I made it, all of a sudden I couldn't decide if I should take the mousses out of the fridge for a while before the lunch, or leave them in until the last minute.  I left them in the fridge, which was the wrong thing to do.  The mousse was too firm.  As my friend blurted out the ingredients of the mousse everyone took their first bite.....and it was too cold and too hard.  No one said anything, but I could see that most people weren't enjoying it.  I told everyone to let the dessert sit on their desks for a bit that afternoon and then eat them.  I know a couple of them did, but I know a few got tossed out.  It bummed me out, that a tofu dish was getting a bad rap AND quite frankly, that I was coming off looking like I don't know how to cook.

3. Main dish - Lettuce Wraps.  This was a Rachael Ray recipe, chicken and veggies wrapped in lettuce.  It was good.

4.  Christmas - Caramels - This one has a story behind it that I was planning on telling here, but I don't know if I will.  Short version is that I tried to make butterscotch sauce for ice cream, but it solidified, so I smeared it on to pretzel squares and drizzled them with chocolate for our Christmas potluck.

5. Drink - Grapefruit Margaritas - Everyone in the potluck group has agreed that Drink is the hardest category - especially when the drink has to be non-alcoholic.  I found a recipe at Martha Stewart for Pink Grapefruit Margaritas.  They were a hit - very refreshing.  I will make these again when the weather warms up.

6.  Appie - Tomatos Stuffed with Guacamole - so easy to make.

7. Salad - Chop Chop Salad.  I have a photo of this one, only because I've made it before.  A real winner from Guy Fieri.  Excellent. 

At the top of my wish list

My God, I would LOVE to try one of these. Do you think it really works?

It would be SO MUCh fun to buy some of these TV products and really test them out in the kitchen.....anyone want to be the sponsor?

Grocery Shop X 3 and cookbooks

I sometimes remember to take photos, but then I never have time to post them.

Yesterday we went for groceries:

Milk, pop, tortilla chips,salad, a piece of flank steak rolled with cheese and spinach (had it for dinner last night and it was very nice), grapes, strawberries, lunch meat, tomatos, sour cream, yogurt, bread, onions, cheese, mayo, salsa, coffee, kiwi, broccoli.  This store tells you on the receipt how much you have saved.  We saved $15.21, and I have a $5 coupon, so we saved over 20 bucks.  Not too shabby.

This is last weeks shop:

Milk, tomato juice, pop, bread, bananas, 2 bags of noodles, lunch meat, salad, kiwis, bell peppers, bbq sauce, strawberries, carrots, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, juice, broccoli and potatos.

And the week before:

Which is hard to remember. Rice, spinach, some terrible terrible veggie chips, yogurt, waffles, soup, green onions, salad, romaine, apples.

I made this for dinner Friday night, chicken stir fried with spinach from Mark Bittmans How to Cook Everything.  I have been cooking a lot from it lately and enjoying it.  I'd like to do a round up of all that I have made from it, but I'll have to see if I can remember what I've made and if I actually took any photos.

Bread Baking Babes - Cuban Bread

Cuban Bread by Bernard Clayton from New Complete Book of Breads.

Delicious. Scrumptious. Amazing.

The bread so nice I made it twice.

Easy.

Want to be a Buddy? Bake the bread, recipe here, then send a link to Ilva at luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com by January 28. Use the subject "Bread Baking Buddy" in your email.

You will LOVE this bread.

Bread Baking Babes Buddies - Hamburger Buns

Thank you thank you to all the Babes and now our Buddies that joined me in baking the bread I chose for July, Hamburger Buns from Williams Sonoma.  I am so happy that you enjoyed them so much.  It's definitely a recipe I will make again.

girlichef

Bread Experience

Judy's Gross Eats

My apology to Rita at Soep Kipje, I can't get a photo of her delicious buns to download.

A Messy Kitchen

Thanks again Ladies! Y'all are the best looking Bread Baking Buddies I've ever seen!

(If I missed anyone, a million apologies. Please email me again. If you are a late comer, let me know and I'll add you too!)

Great Gazpacho

I had a hankerin' (oh yes I did) for gazpacho now that our weather has turned more summery. I was going to make my usual version with V8, but in the freezer I found a bag of tomatos that I had oven roasted and frozen last fall.

I used this recipe as my inspiration, but I went much simpler.

2 bell peppers (I used one orange and one red) whizzed smooth in the food processor with a few cloves of garlic and a spoon of sugar. I added my thawed tomatos and juice and pureed until smooth. I stirred in a couple of shots of red wine vinegar and some salt, then chilled for an hour.

Serve with a piece of cheesy toast, and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

Bread Baking Babes - Hamburger Buns

Good grief!  Can you believe it's already July 16th?  Not only does that mean that July is already more than half over (sob) but that also means it's time for the Bread o' the Month from the Bread Baking Babes.  And guess who got to choose the bread this time around?  Moi!

I chose Hamburger Buns from a recipe card I picked up in Williams Sonoma.

The recipe gives instructions for regular sized buns as well as sliders (aka the most adorable things ever).

Homemade Hamburger Buns

Williams-Sonoma

1 1/2 cups (375 ml) milk

8 Tbs (1stick/125 g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

4 cups (625 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

5 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs kosher salt

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water

sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and butter and heat until the butter is melted, about 7 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let cool to 105-155'F (40 to 46'C).  Add the yeast and stir until the yeast is dissolved.  Let stand for 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the 4 cups of flour, the sugar and salt and beat on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds.  Add the milk mixture and knead until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute.  Increase the speed to medium low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove the dough from the bowl, oil the inside of the bowl and return the dough to the bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 10 by 7 1/2 inch (25 by 19 cm) rectangle.  Using a ruler as a guide, cut the dough into 2 1/2 inch (6cm) squares.  Transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing the buns evenly apart, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  

Preheat oven to 400'F (200'C)

Remove the plastic wrap from the baking sheet.  Brush the tops of the buns with the egg mixture (I brushed the tops with milk) and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.  Bake until the buns and golder and an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of a bun registers 190'F (88'C), 14 to 16 minutes.  Transfer the buns to a wire rack and let cool completely.  Cut in half and use as hamburger buns.  Makes 12 hamburger buns.

For slider buns: Follow the instructions above but roll out the dough into a 9 inch (23 cm) square.  Cut into 1 1/2 inch (4cm) squares and place on 2 parchment lined baking sheets.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Position one rack in the upper third of an over and one rack in the lower third and preheat to 400'F (200'C).  Brush the tops with the egg mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.  Bake for about 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and 180 degrees halfway through baking.  Makes 36 slider buns.

Time got away from me once again and I didn't have time to try to make slider buns before it was time to post.  But I hope to soon and will show off my results.

Please visit the participating Babes listed over on the left.  I've seen some preview pictures from some of them and they've got some amazing buns (hee!)

 If you'd like to be a Buddy,  please make the bread and post about it by July 29th.  Send mt a link at iliketocook AT shaw DOT ca.

Sorry I've been so absent and things are kind of not interesting around here.  I'm working hard on getting myself out of this funk.  Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

Peace!

Grocery Shop, July 10

Bought at DeMille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm.

Corn, kale, leaf lettuce, 2 kinds of apples, blueberries, cherries, carrots, potatos.  Missing: loaf of cheese bread.