Bourbon Cream Sauce

I was walking through the duty free at airport in Philadelphia with a friend/coworker & she was telling me about her visit to the Jim Beam Bourbon Distillery with her family. Half way through her talking about the recipes her family has made from the distillery recipe book my mouth was watering. The snack I had on the plane was definitely not going to satisfy my cravings! The recipe that stuck out the most was this one, bourbon cream sauce. It tastes great on anything, meat, fish, vegetables and even just a spoon. It has become one of my go to sauces!

Ingredients:

1 cup mushrooms - sliced or chopped
1/2 shallot finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup 35% (whipping) cream
1/4 cup bourbon
Salt & pepper to taste
(Recipe makes enough mushroom sauce to cover 4 steaks or 4 chicken breasts).

Directions:

1. In non- stick pan, over medium heat, add oil, finely chopped shallot & cook 4 - 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add mushrooms, salt & cook another 4 - 5 minutes.
3. Add bourbon, cook 1 minute to burn alcohol off.
4. Add cream and pepper.
5. Stir ingredients and reduce liquid to thicken (John thinks about 4-5 minutes depending on how thick you would like your sauce to be).
6. If sauce becomes too thick, add beef or chicken broth until you have consistency you want.

After removing sauce from heat, stir in 1 tsp parsley.

Serve over anything you would like!

 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup was introduced to me on a night shift. We often have "Cozy Saturday" at work in the winter; meaning we bring soup and comfort foods to get us through the night I love tacos so this soup has been on my menu a couple of times this winter since being introduced to it.  I simply can't get enough of it!  This simple and easy recipe can be done in the crockpot or stove top.

Ingredients:

1 can of pinto beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of red enchilada sauce
1 pkg taco seasoning
750 - 950ml chicken/vegetable broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 cooked chicken breast shredded

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a pot/slow cooker and mix well
2. Bring to a boil
3. Let soup simmer for as long as you want.


Top with crushed tortilla chips and sour cream

Note: use green enchilada sauce if you prefer a milder soup. I can only find enchilada sauce at Metro grocery store. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, soft and chewy. The recipe comes from my Auntie Jan and is probably as old if not older than I am. My mom has used this as her staple cookie recipe when we were growing up and you can tell how often it's been used by the condition of the recipe card! Over the past couple years I have tried to find a better/different cookie recipe; from the ones in famous cookbooks to the back of the chocolate chip bag. In the end this one is truly the best!

Last night after a tough first swimming lesson I offered to make a treat for the little guy as a reward for sticking with it and jumping in so many times (not his favourite part of swimming lessons) He picked classic chocolate chip cookies! Bright and early this morning I made a quick batch. This recipe is simple and quick to make. Although I'm trying to avoid sugar and gluten right now I had to sneak a warm chocolate chip cookie off the baking sheet this morning! 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup  white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a mixer cream shortening and butter. Gradually add in sugars, creaming thoroughly.  Beat in eggs & vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda and salt. The dough will be on the moist side. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Put teaspoon size dough balls on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. If you like them crispy, bake them a couple minutes longer.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe comes from a old friend of mine Lorraine who is not only an amazing mother of 4 but an awesome cook/baker! I'm always in awe of the delicious food she cooks her family. This one is a keeper!! Who doesn't love chocolate & peanut butter together!?! The peanut butter frosting is great on chocolate or vanilla cupcakes as well.

Ingredients:

1 3/4c flour
1tsp baking soda
1/4c cocoa
1/2c butter
1/4c peanut butter
1/2c sugar
1/2c brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/4c mini chocolate chip

Method:

Mix the first 3 dry ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.
In a mixer cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffly.
Add brown sugar and peanut butter, mix together.
Add the egg and vanilla into the mixer, blend until completed incorporated.
Add the bowl of dry ingredients slowly to the mixer.
Use a couple tbsp of cream to make all the dry ingredients blend in with the wet ingredients
Stir in the mini chocolate chips
Make tablespoon size balls of dough and roll into a bowl of sugar to cover the dough. Reshape the dough into a ball. 
Press with fork to make crisscross pattern
Bake for 6 minutes at 375degrees
Let cool completely


Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/4c butter
1/2c peanut butter
2c icing sugar
1/3c cream

Blend with a mixer and place inbetween cookies

adapted from:  http://www.lovintheoven.com/2011/02/double-chocolate-espresso-sandwich.html

Butternut Squash Soup

This veggie has grown on me over the years, probably one of the only ways I'll eat it is in soup. I'm picky with butternut squash soup though ... it can't be too sweet. In this recipe it's simple and easy & I think brings out the very best in butternut squash. I find it hard to type out my soup recipes as I don't measure anything - it's all about taste. So I'm going to try to put in measurements but go by your taste. Add more of what you like and less of what you don't. To top it off just before serving add a dollup of cream fraiche.


Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, cubed
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped
1 tsp ginger, minced or finely chopped
6 cups chicken broth or even plain water
cream

Saute the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Add the cubed squash and ginger, saute on medium for 5 minutes. Add broth, bring to a boil and then turn down the heat. Simmer until the squash is tender. With an immersion blender puree soup. Add cream and simmer on medium low for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Gnocchi

Velvety, light pillows of fluff ... that's how I describe really good gnocchi. It's very hard to find these pillows of fluff as most restaurants use prepackaged stuff which tastes nothing like handmade gnocchi. Once you've had the real stuff you'll never go back! I now ask servers if the gnocchi is handmade. My favourite restaurant for gnocchi is Paradiso, the 12 hour braised wild boar gnocchi is heavenly! In November I had the pleasure of experiencing one of their cooking classes and learned the secrets of great gnocchi! I've made it twice at home since then and the first time was just like at the restaurant; the second I didn't add enough flour. It didn't taste bad and my family loved it but I could tell the difference. It's still a learning process so if you love gnocchi don't give up. I haven't yet!

Here's the recipe the restaurant provided us.

Ingredients:

2lbs yukon gold potatoes
1 large egg
3-4 cups flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp salt

Method:

* Boil potatoes with the skin on until soft and drain
* Peel potatoes when slightly cooled by scraping off the skins with a paring knife, or the back of a butter knife. At this point the skin will slide off the potatoes.

* Rice or mash the potatoes and cool uncovered in the refrigerator. I recommend using a potato ricer. Cool overnight if possible.
* When potatoes are cooled place in mixer (with dough hook) and add eggs, cheese and salt and mix on low speed adding flour slowly until dough is soft and holds together. It will look similar to when you make bread with the dough hook, it will be one big ball of dough.  Too much flour will make the dough chewy so allow flour to mix in well before each addition.
* On floured work surface divide dough into 2 - 3" pieces and roll out into 1/4" tubes and cut into 1/2" pieces.
* Cook in small batches in a large pot of salted boiling water
* Gnocchi is ready when it floats to the top. Remove immediately to an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
* When cooled strain and pat dry and keep cool until ready to use.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

 

One of my favourite fellows, Mary, made this wonderful cake as a treat for us one shift and it has caught my attention ever since. I decided to make Nigella Lawson's version of a Chocolate Guinness Cake for a boxing day family get together. I wanted something pretty easy to make after a busy Christmas Eve & Christmas day. I've made this recipe before with great results. It's a dense, moist chocolate cake with cream cheese icing to make it all come together. When iced it almost resembles a glass of Guinness. If you don't like an overly sweet cake this one is for you!  I will pass on the glass of Guinness but not on a piece of this cake.

Ingredients:

• 50 ml Guinness
• 250 gram(s) unsalted butter
• 75 gram(s) cocoa powder
• 400 gram(s) caster sugar (I use regular sugar with great results)
• 142 ml sour cream
• 2 medium egg(s)
• 1 tablespoon(s) vanilla extract
• 275 gram(s) all purpose flour
• 2.5 teaspoon(s) baking soda

 Cream Cheese Icing:

• 300 gram(s) cream cheese
• 150 gram(s) Icing sugar
• 125 ml whipping cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and butter and line a 9 inch springform pan.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

 http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086