Christmas Baking

Saturday morning when I woke up, before I had my very first cup of Starbucks, I said to myself, "Today I can't allow myself to get lost in the world of mortals, werewolves and vampires... I seriously NEED NEED to get the Christmas baking done." Seriously... there were TONS of baking to be done!

After two days of continuous baking, I have made batches of everything:

1. Chocolate Lollipops for Joe's nieces and nephews (this is by far the easiest thing to make, though it is time-consuming)

Melt chocolate wafers, pour the chocolate into the moulds, freeze for 20 mins.

From Drop Box

2. Mrs. Fields' Chocolate Cookies

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 12-oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. in a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract
3. in another bowl, mix together all dry ingredients
4. combine wet and dry ingredients
5. stir in chocolate chips
6. place golf-ball sized dough portions, 2 inches apart on an ungreased cooking sheet.
7. bake for 9-10 mins

From Drop Box

3. Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1 tbsp poppy seed
1 tsp of finely grated lemon zest

Preheat Oven to 325F
Cream butter and add brown sugar. Beat together for 5 mins
Bet in egg yolk, sift in flour, poppy seed and lemon zest. When combined, roll into teaspoon-sized balls, flatten with a fork on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 mins or until brown. Remove from oven and cool.

From Drop Box

4.Lemon Bars (I made this because Joe loves lemon bars!)
Base:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt

Blend base ingredients and press into a square pan 8" x 8:. Bake at 325F for 20 mins

Mix filling ingredients and pour over base. Bake for 25 mins until nearly set.

Remove from oven. When cool, divide into squares.

From Drop Box

*** Joe had a small square, and he said, "This is different than what I had when I was a kid, but it IS way better!!!!" See it is not hard to make a guy happy... the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! :-) My mom is right! HAHAHA

5. Banana Oatmeal Cookies -- Joe loves this the most! :-)

From Drop Box

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter (very soft)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup mashed banana (1 medium banana)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
In a small bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in egg and banana, then vanilla extract.
On low speed, add in flour mixture
Stir in oats and chocolate chips
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepare baking sheet.
Bake for 11-14 mins at 350F.
Let cookies cool for 5 mins on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack
Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Jigg's Dinner

Every time when Joe and I go grocery at Sorbeys, he would bug me about making salt beef. Two fridays ago, we went grocery shopping after dinner. He was nagging and at the end, I finally gave in.

Saturday morning, I looked at the big tub of navel beef... and I was like, "what was I thinking last night?"

From Drop Box

Joe found this recipe of salt beef on the internet:

2lbs salt beef
1cup yellow split peas
6-8 med potatoes
6 carrots
1 med turnip, peeled and cut in chunks
1 med cabbages, cut into wedges
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper

soak meat in cold water for 6-8 hrs. Drain meat in large pot. Tie peas in cloth bag, leaving room for expansion, and put bag in pot with beef.

From Drop Box

cover beef and peas with water. heat to boiling, cover and simmer for 2 hours
prepare vegetables

From Drop Box

after meat and peas have cooked for 2 hrs, add vegetables and cook until tender. add cabbage last.
remove peas from bag, place in bowl and mash with butter and pepper to form peas pudding.
remove meat and cut into serving size pieces.
arrange meat and vegetables on platter
serve the peas pudding in a separate bowl

Diary of a Cooking Challenged Part VIII

Greek Style Stuffed Peppers (I made it last weekend and hubby loved it! Though it involved a bit of chopping here and there... time spent was well-worth!)

1 pound lean ground beef
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)
1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup bulghur
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, cores and ribs removed
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans low-sodium stewed tomatoes, finely chopped
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, onion, bulghur, egg, oregano, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomatoes over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer.

I made wide mushroom risotto to go with the stuffed red pepper... it was a yummy meal!

From Drop Box

Diary of a Cooking Challenged Part VII

On Golden Prawns (shamelessly adapted from Crazy Plates, but I did make modifications...)

1 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup minced onions and minced red bell pepper (I used yellow bell pepper)
1 clove garlic, minced (I love love garlic... so I put two cloves)
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander (I did not have ground coriander, so I used the whole... big mistake!)
1/2 tsp curry powder (I love curry... so I used 1 tbsp)
1 cup light coconut milk
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 pound uncooked jumbo shrimp, peeled
* I added 1 pound giant scallops, chopped into bite sizes (as hubby loves scallops, while I love shrimps)
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (I did not have this, so I skipped this)
4 cups hot cooked brown rice (I used whole wheat fusili)
* 2 tbsp sour cream (I put too much curry powder, so I used sour cream to tone down the curry flavour a bit so hubby would not complain.)

heat oil in a large, no stick saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, yellow pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 mins

Add cumin, coriander, and curry powder. Cook for 1 more minute. Add coconut milk, sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 2 mins.

Stir in shrimps and scallops. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook and stir until shrimp is cooked through. *Since I put in scallops so I cooked for 6 mins here (recipe calls for 4 mins only)

In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with 1 tbsp water. Add to shrimp mixture. Cook until sauce begins to thicken and bubbly. I also added sour cream as well. cook for 1 min.

Pour over pasta.

Hubby loves this pasta dish! :-)

Confession...

I have a confession to make. Between christmas baking and indulging myself in the world of mortals, werewolves and vampires... I hardly have time writing the blog these days.

It started off by picking up a copy of Twilight at Costco three weeks ago. It then turned into frantically driving from the west end to the east end just to pick up a copy of Eclipse at another Costco location, just because the one next to my office had completely sold out Eclipse. I spend most of the evenings and weekends reading, reading and more reading. Joe thinks I am nuts. The last time I "acted" weirdly was when the Harry Potter books first came out.