Coming soon

I am desperate to make Christmas cookies, fudge and chocolate truffles, unfortunately I have essays to write and college work to finish before Christmas can truly start. However I will be making these very soon and the recipes will be up here. So apologies for the Sundays that I have missed but I'm doing my best to get an education, which is harder than it should be, and I am looking forward to baking asap.

In the mean time here is another wintery/Christmasy picture I took during the snowy week.

The weather outisde is frightful, tea and scones to warm up with

It's December which means two things right now. Winter weather outside, and essays due in for the end of term. Did you think I was going to say Christmas? I wish  I could, but Christmas can't officially start for me until I have submitted all of these horrible essays. So as much as I wish that I could start my Christmas cookies, Christmas cake and pudding making etc, it will have to wait until after the 17th to start, which is way too late for my liking.



 Essays are the most boring and painful things to write so I do think I deserve a little treat even if it's not a Christmas treat. This morning I was watching Nigella make buttermilk scones and I was inspired to make scones to eat while I work.

White Scones with Butter

1 Cup self-raising flour
1 Cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 stick butter melted
200ml milk

preheat the oven to 400'F/200' C. Sieve together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix together the milk and melted butter. If you like raisins then this would be the point to add them and coat them in the flour mixture. In the center of the bowl make a hollow and break the egg into the bowl, add 1/2 of the milk and butter mixture and stir to combine. Continue to add the milk and butter mixture until the dough is springy and moist but not overly wet or dry. There may be some residual flour in the bottom of the bowl but this will be incorporated in the kneading. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5-10 minutes. Until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is very springy and there are no visible cracks in the ball of dough.
Split the dough into balls about 2-3" in diameter. Place the scones at least 3" apart from each other on a cookie tray and bake for 10 minutes or until firm, brown and hollow sounding to tap.
Serve with butter or jam and enjoy.

Cornbread- A Thanksgiving treat in Ireland

I could apologize for my absence but instead I will say in form of explanation that Christmas is approaching and therefore so are my semester end assignments.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow though and therefore even as a novice food blogger I feel that it is my duty to report at Thanksgiving recipe. Even if it weren't I have to say I thoroughly enjoy Thanksgiving. I have celebrated it many times in America and with Americans in other countries. There are many elements of this holiday that I enjoy, namely the many varieties of  pie, but by far my favourite part of the thanksgiving meal has to be the cornbread. I love cornbread. Since the day I discovered that the genius people in America found a way to serve cake as part of the main meal I have devour it at every available opportunity. However in Ireland these opportunities are few and far between, so I make my own!!

Cornbread (irishstyle)

250g Polenta
175g Self -raising Flour, + 1tsp baking powder sieved together
150g Demerara Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 eggs
250ml Butter/whole fat Milk (if you choose the Butter milk the double the salt and add more sugar to taste)
150ml vegetable oil or butter

Sieve together the dry ingredients and whisk together the wet ingredients. Then using the hollow in the centre method combine the wet ingredients into the dry. Only mix until everything is combined not until completely smooth, i.e. don't over mix the batter or it will be a tough bread. Place your mixture into a parchment lined tina and bake at 175 degrees for 15-20 mins
Cool and enjoy with chili or just a smidge of butter or maple syrup.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding

One of the best desserts my mother ever showed me was Bread and Butter Pudding. It was something that she made very rarely but she made very well. I have very fond memories of seeing her puddings in the oven, smelling the beautiful aroma and the excitement that accompanied that.
This week we did not touch our bread and this morning I realized that it was an eat now or dump situation. So I decided to whip out the old bread and butter pudding recipe, this time however with a change. It's November and the Christmas season is well and truly alive in the shops around me. This inspired me to use cinnamon butter instead of butter and raisins. It is of course possible to include raisins here and probably delicious.

Cinnamon Bread Pudding

1 Loaf Bread of choice, we had a seeded bread but white/light brown would work
1.5L milk
4eggs
100g butter
50g Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
Icing sugar to decorate

Lay your bread in a layer on the bottom of a roasting dish. Mix your room temperature butter, sugar and cinnamon to make a paste and spread this on the bread, then add another layer of bread, spread more paste and so on and so forth until the dish is full or your bread it gone.
Ina jug whisk your eggs and add milk. Pour this mixture over the bread and push the bread into the liquid until it is soaked. Store this in the fridge for 1 hour. Then bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes or until brown
Let this cool and then decorate with icing sugar.

Enjoy with ice-cream and a smile!

A failed attempt at caramel apples and It's a Spicy meatball

For every great success there are a number of unmentionable failures and well in this post I intend to mention one of these and at least someone can learn from my mistakes and possibly advise me on what I am doing wrong.

Every year at Halloween I intend or attempt to make Caramel Apples. I hate how they taste but the idea of them appeal to me for some reason I cannot explain. Perhaps it is the all american-ness, perhaps it feels like the only pg13 adult way to enjoy the holiday. However every year they evade me and then I vow to do better next year. So far I have yet to succeed.
I make beautiful caramel, this sounds so modest but I think I must defend myself on this element of the recipe. I have tried changing this caramel to suit the apples, thicker, thinner, hotter, colder. It never sticks Every time I try these the caramel runs off. I have tried washing the apples, cooling the apples and it never works. I have tried applying a thin layer of caramel and then adding to it but the new caramel heats the old caramel and pulls it away from the apple.



This year I came close. I had a delicious recipe with Burnt Caramel, and salty toasted almonds to coat. however despite my preparation and consideration I ended up with this -

 

Clearly this is not what I was hoping to achieve and as you can see even after the caramel had set on the apples the weight of the toasted almonds dragged the caramel to a pool on the bottom of the apples.

 

Therefore Caramel apples was not an option for the blog. I wanted something else seasonal so I made toasted vanilla pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin we carved. However these were apparently so delicious that they were all consumed before I had a chance to photograph the, brilliant!! At that point i gave up on my Halloween baking and then I made these delicious little fellas - 

Admittedly they are not baking products persay, however they are spicy, slightly sweet and they are baked in the oven.












Halloween Spicy Turkey Meatballs.

500g Lean Minced Turkey
2 eggs
200g Barn Brack Crumbs
100g finely grated Emmenthal or other strong cheese.

Mix All of your ingredients in a bowl and then use a spoon or your hands to form balls. bake these in the over for 20mins or until the turkey exceeds 79'.
Cover with your tomato sauce of choice and eat with noodles, linguine, spaghetti, in a sub, your choice. The meatballs are beautifully moist and the barn brack adds a spicy flavour that really puts one in the mood for the start of winter and the many holidays that go with it. The sweetness of the cake also counteracts the strong cheese and the overall experience is one that I will enjoy many times over the rest of the winter.

My Thoughts on Parenthood, I laugh, I cry, I get emotional and my boyfriend walks out

I made cookies on Saturday but was working Sunday and somehow all my cookies disappeared and the second batch was not as good, so no post. Sorry =(

However I have decided to talk about a TV show that I am loving right now. Parenthood!!

I was waiting for this show since about February of last year. I have a secret, I love, love The Gilmore Girls, actually if you know me this is not a secret, not at all!! I have every episode on my laptop and have followed the rest of lauren Graham's work since. So when I heard that she would be a main character in Parenthood, well I checked for a release date every other day until it was announced. There was some controversy surronding the premiere of this show and according to wikipedia Maura Tierney was due to play the part of Sarah Braverman. Now I must state that I am in no way glad or happy that Maura got cancer, and was unable to do this show, I do hope she is doing well and that she is getting loads of work. However, that said, no-one could play Sarah Braverman better than Lauren Graham. She has this incredible ability to play a single mom who has made some mistakes but works hard. She manages to come of as  both extremely intelligent and deserving of your respect while simultaneously silly, funny, unorganized and accident prone. If you are thinking, that sounds suspiciously like the character of Loreli Gilmore, well you're right but I say 'If it aint broke.....'

The show itself centres around the Braverman family and is a television spin off of the 80's movie. (FYI this is the second spin off but by far the best). The family includes the Grandparents; Zeek and Camille; siblings Adam, Sarah, Crosbie and Julia; and their respective partners and children. The drama in this show comes from the interpersonal relationships, as well as the trials of life inside the family and out. The first season deputed on march 2 2010 and included 13 episodes. Season 2 started in September and we are currently up to episode 7. I really hope that they are going to make a full 24 episode series, but it does not look promising because IMDB only shows up to 2.13. So we will see.

I personally enjoy this show. As a girl the relationships and love interests enthrall  me and as a young adult, stuck between the angst of being a teenager and the responsibilty of being a parent, I like the interpersonal dynamics and I fell like I can see from both sides. The show has a large target audience. I would compare it to something like 'Brothers and Sisters,' but for a younger audience. Teenagers will find story lines that affect them and adults will understand more fully the delicate balance between strict parenting and relating to your children.
My personal favourite Characters are Sarah Braverman, (obviously!)  and jabar (Crosbie's 5 year old son, who Crosbie never knew existed until the mother walked back into his life, unexpectedly). (Also side note for any GG fans - Luke's Daughter has a camio role in S2 episode 4, mirroring the Crosbie storyline).

Honestly my only criticism of this show is that it can be slow moving at times. As a trainee Psychologist, and a girl, I thoroughly enjoy all the conversations, the interactions and intricate dynamics of the inter-familial relationships. However I don't think these are enough to entertain the males in my life. In point of fact my boyfriend actually walked away when I tried to show him. He enjoyed the male bonding scenes over roof-top reconstruction, but once that was over, so was his interest. They say you cannot please all of the people all of the time and this is certainly true for Parenthood (2010). However for my tastes this show is just right!

Mini Cookies

I've had a long week and next week is due to be even longer and harder. I think we all know how this feels. Well half way through the week I was looking through Tastespotting and I discovered this lovely blog, with it's beautiful pictures - http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/mini-chocolate-chip-cookies/ 
These cookies reminded me of the delicious mini cookies I used to buy from Wawa, when I was living in PA, and thus the cravings began. The BF will attest to the fact that I spent the rest of the night moaning about how much i wanted these cookies, nothing, nothing looked as good as these cookies did. I knew then exactly what I would be baking for this week's blog.I adapted this recipe from the Chewy one cookie recipe of Alton Brown's Good Eats fame. I have done this recipe a few times and it needs special adaptation for size in my opinion. Hence my choices below

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies


150g Butter melted
125g Demerara Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Plain Flour/bread Flour(ala Alton Brown's Chewy one)
1tsp salt
2 egg yolks beaten with 2tsp of milk

Mix your melted butter and your sugar together until you have a paste consistency. Add the vanilla extract at this point. Then add your egg mixture, flour and salt slowly stirring constantly. Chill this mixture in the fridge for an hour.
Remove the mixture from the fridge and preheat your oven to 200'. Allow the mixture 10 mins or so to soften as the oven heats up and then use either a melon baller or your fingers to make tiny balls about half an inch in diameter. I put these balls directly onto the grease-lined cookie tray, without squashing them. As in my last cookie recipe this comes later.

The difficult part of this recipe is the cooking time. I could recommend 8 minutes but it all depends on your cookie size. You really, really have to watch these cookies and the minute they appear browned around the edges and solid in the middle take them out. Leave them on the cookie sheet for an extra 3-4 minutes and squash them down. After 5 minutes move them to a cooling rack.

Then enjoy them with milk, tea, or coffee.