Jam Making

It's been on the to do list for years! This weekend I finally tried jam making with a friend.

We began with a lemon-lavendar infusion.

Got those jars sterilized.

Made a mess of a pot.

Got the sticky mess into jars and all sealed up.

Result? Delicious jam.  Yum!  We have room for improvement though, the recipe we were working with doesn't call for pectin so finding the "setting point" is a skill we have yet to hone.  We were supposed to have 10 cups of jam but ended up with 5.  I was the one who kept saying "I don't think it's ready yet," so I take complete blame for that!  On the upside all our jars sealed so we've got that bit down.  And the jam is still spreadable (just), we were worried it might turn out like a huge candy!

While we waited for the jam to set we made peach muffins which turned out perfectly - I'm much more comfortable baking then canning!

There are several more recipes we want to try - our go to book is We Sure Can.  I love it because it explains a lot about safety and process, as well as including recipes (by season!).  As an added bonus it's Canadian. Next up I think we're trying raspberry jam with pectin (we're up for a no-fail experience)!

Bicycle Cupcakes!

I made this peloton of bicycle cupcakes for a friend's birthday. Spent three evenings working on them and was so pleased with how they turned out!

 

The bicycles are made with melted chocolate chips, a ziplock bag & wax paper.  I made them a little too thin so they were repaired the following day with more melted chocolate chips & a toothpick!  The recipe (white, with chocolate chip cookie on the bottom) is from Martha.  She topped hers with mini cookies, which are cute, but I'm loving the bicycles.

Miniature Monday

Made from my favourite pizza dough recipe.

Miniature Monday

Have I ever mentioned I love all things miniature?  The smaller the better!  When I was making dollhouse miniatures (years ago) my favorite scale was 1/144", the scale a dollhouse in a dollhouse would be.  Although I don't make dollhouse miniatures anymore I do sometimes make things smaller then usual; I thought I'd share some here on Miniature Mondays.  Maybe not every week but hopefully more often then not!

Today's miniature is a cupcake made in a tiny cupcake paper from IKEA.  They came in a set with larger cupcake papers but I'm pretty sure these tiny ones are what sold me on the set!

Happy to report cupcakes are just as delicious in tiny size!

Long weekend

This past weekend was a long one here in Ontario...

Lots of time for baking & cooking.  On Saturday afternoon I had a solo "Cookernoon" and made cinnamon bread & buns, spring rolls, bran flax muffins, chocolate chip salted caramel cookie bars and carrot ginger soup - yum!  Although by the time I got to the spring rolls my sister was home from work so I roped her into helping roll them so it would go faster.  Homemade spring rolls are so yummy but quite labour intensive so I don't make them very often (maybe once a year).

I spent the holiday day at the ski hill.  This was my second time downhill skiing so I was pretty nervous at first but 20+ years of dance training pays off in body awareness!  I was good to go on the green circle hills but couldn't make it down the blue square hill without falling/crashing.  After skidding face first down the hill I decided not to push my luck any longer & went back to the easy hill for the rest of the day.

This picture was taken first thing in the morning - it definitely wasn't that empty by the time we left!  We've had a warm winter here so it was nice to get out & do something wintery before the snow disappears!

(less then a month till spring, who else is excited?!)

Nana's Rice Pudding

This picture doesn't begin to show how absolutely delicious this pudding is!  The recipe comes from my Nana and is a little lacking in standard measurements as that's the way she cooked.

1.  Stir a generous spoonful of butter or margarine into warm rice.

2.  Stir in a half cup of sugar.

3.  Add milk to cover and a capful of vanilla extract.

4.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.

5.  Bake at 350 for half an hour.

A little vague, eh?  Here's some more detail.

• 
  
  I've only used white rice for this recipe.
• 
  
  The rice can be rewarmed leftovers or freshly cooked. 
• 
  
  I've tried this recipe with varying amounts of rice and it always turns out.  I'd guess it's about 2ish cups of cooked rice (from 1ish cups of uncooked).
• 
  
  I'd say the butter is 2-3 Tablespoons measured out.  I just take a soup spoon and make a generous scoop!

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.  Equally delicious reheated the next day.

Yum!

There's been a lot of yummy food coming out of the kitchen this week.  Like this pizza, made with Little Birdie Secrets 15 minute crust.  The toppings (pesto, spinach, asparagus, onions, mushrooms, chicken, mozzarella) are based on a pizza I had at a local restaurant and so delicious!

This pizza crust is great. It really does come together in only 15 minutes so making a pizza from scratch is almost as fast as ordering it from a pizzeria!  It's good for other things too, like cinnamon buns:

I used this recipe from Martha's Everyday Food but only used about half the butter and didn't let the dough chill (too impatient!)  They turned out super delicious anyways, once you flip them out of the pan the tops are covered in gooey sugary goodness.

About once a month I get together with a friend for a cooking date.  This time we made pierogies.  They were good but I'm not sure if they were that much better then store bought (or farmer's market bought) to warrant all the extra work.  If you want to try, this is the recpie I used.

We also tried baked custard with raspberries.  Very awesome and super easy with a blender.  We both liked the burnt-ish bits on top.

Mmmm... my tummy is remembering how happy it was after all that deliciousness.  I'll be back tomorrow to share my Nana's (easy peasy) rice pudding recpie!

Hot Chaud

Years ago, when my mom was a teacher (i.e. before me!) one of her students introduced her to this drink that she called "Hot Chaud" (which doesn't really make sense because chaud is French for hot, so the drink is called "hot hot" but anyways it tastes delicious!)  Basically it's hot chocolate topped with ice cream.  Here I've used Candy Cane Crackle for a minty hot chocolate but usually I add vanilla ice cream.  As it melts it makes a wonderful creamy foam on top... yum!  Too sweet to have very often but delicious when you do.  And the ice cream cools the hot chocolate off so you don't burn your tongue!

Christmas Candy

I'm more of a baker then a candy maker but there have been a few confections coming out of the kitchen in the past few weeks.  First off I made candied orange peel...

So I could make this white chocolate bark (with candied orange peel and almonds):

Yummy!!

Then I made caramels.  Tried not to think too much about all the fat in the litre (yes, litre!) of whipping cream that went into making this pan:

Which then had to sit for 8 hours before being chopped up:

And wrapped in 192 little wax paper squares (we were environmentally friendly and ate some before they were wrapped to save the paper!)

The caramels have since been moved to a more festive tin but this bowl was what I had handy when I was wrapping them.

The last confection was filled dates.  The pictures didn't really do them justice as they look just like dates from the outside.  But inside!  A toasted pecan covered in caramel.  Delicious!  And almost healthy!  (Or so my mom and I tell ourselves as we eat them up!)

What have you been making?