Baked Brie and stuff...

Okay... the other day I was told that it is my grade level's turn to host the social for the month. Our fearless leader came up with the theme: Nutty for November. You know how cheesy we elementary people can be! haha. Well, it inspired me to make a savory dish with nuts in it. Originally I thought of making a cheese ball rolled in nuts and then I changed my mind to making little individual cheese balls. But then it ALL CHANGED!!! I was looking at the pilsbury website because my lovely friend Katrina sent me there to look at something she or a friend made (sorry, my memory fails me) and I saw a recipe for baked jalapeno brie cheese thingy. I looked, I saw, I decided to tweak. Have a look below and see what I did:


I couldn't find brie in the round, so I decided to use Camembert. I like the taste and it is pretty similar. I also decided to switch out the jalapeno jelly for fresh raspberries and walnuts.

I cut the cheese in half. I rolled out 2 crescent rolls from pilsbury and placed them on a greased cookie sheet and put one half of the cheese on it.


Then it was time to load the bottom half with fresh raspberries (which I kind of squished a little to make them flatter. I think using cranberries would be tasty) and walnuts. Then I topped it with the other half of cheese and put two more rolled out crescent roll dough pieces on top.


The next step is to seal it all up. If you have extra dough, you can cut it off and make adorable cutouts to put on top. I didn't, instead I made it a little thicker around the sides for a thick crust.


Once baked it came out looking like this!!! This is the trial one I made for my lovely lunch group that I eat with each day at school . Can't wait to crack it open and try it. I think with the one I make for school, I will do an egg wash with a touch of vanilla to bring a little sweet into the savory! Serve it up with fresh cut fruit and ENJOY!

HAPPY EATING!!

Carrot Soup

I know it is not the usual for most people, but carrot soup is YUMMY!! The picture simply does not do it justice. Here is how you get to it: You need carrots (I added in some butternut squash because I love it's flavour), vegetable stock, the spices you like (I barely salted and peppered the carrots as they boiled in the vegetable stock and the taste was perfect for me) and whipping cream. You also need a blender or food processor, I had just a mini one so didn't quite get the smooth consistency that I love. So, it is really simple. You boil your carrots and/or squash in the vegetable stock. Boil until they are extremely soft. But don't throw away the bathwater once the babies are done cooking... you need it for flavour and soupy consistency. Take the soup broth and the vegetables and put them in your blender and blend until SUPER smooth. Put the blended mixture back in the pot, add a pat of butter to help make it smooth and buttery. Then throw in the whipping cream (I used the smallest container and didn't even use all of it) and heat gently. It should look creamy and a pale orange. Then all you do is serve it up. I used to make this (without the squash) at the Lebanese restaurant I worked at in my university summers. It is such a hearty and delicious soup... perfect for a rainy day... and lots of people who aren't huge fans of carrots actually like the soup! :) Happy eating!

Lazy Black Forrest Cake

I am not the biggest cake fan, but WAY back in university, my roomie (Kris) used to make this cake and then I adopted it as my own (as we all do with the best recipes we come across). It is the lazy way to make a REALLY amazing cake.

You need 1 chocolate cake mix (two round pans for cooking), vanilla instant pudding (don't do it with soy milk... just doesn't set), a can of cherry pie filling and cool whip. I told you it was easy!

After the cake bakes and cools, put the cherries on the bottom layer with a thin layer of vanilla pudding. The put the top layer on. Mix the rest of the pudding and cool whip together and "ice" the cake. You can put on cherries and chocolate shavings to make it all fancy-schmancy, but I like it just the way it is. Make sure to keep it in the fridge so the cool whip doesn't melt off.

So yummy!!

Happy eating!

Caramel...

I love having caramel with apples and I like it even better when it is homemade. I use Sweetened Condensed Milk, Dark Brown Sugar and Butter. I use about equal parts of all three, heat over medium heat until it is well blended and hot. It should settle into a thick caramel as it cools.
I did try to make it recently, but must have messed up my measurements somewhere as it didn't set as I needed it to. *sigh* I wanted to use it to make homemade caramel apples (never made those before), but alas it didn't work.
Hope it works for you... my favourite cake recipe is coming up soon (Kris, you will totally remember it once I make it and post the pics here).

This is what the apple pie that I wrote about earlier looked like. I am telling you that the vanilla egg wash makes all the difference. Well that and making sure to dust the apples with flour and lots of butter before sticking the lid on. Used the recipe with my students and they were simply the best pies ever (even the moms and several staff said so).

This is the gorgeous pumpkin pie that my roomie made. SO good... pumpkin is my fave.

My first all-by-myself turkey!! Look at it? I didn't stuff it but put fresh dill, fresh sage, and some celery inside. Then I lightly spiced the outside and roasted that sucker!

I used the tri-colour potatoes, onions and parsnips. I dusted them with salt, pepper, a tiny bit of cayenne pepper and some rubbed sage. Throw in some butter and let it roast covered for about 35 minutes or so.

The turkey after... gotta include the pics of it all snarfed down!

Sweet, sweet apple pie.

Canadian Thanksgiving is just around the corner and being in the US (where they celebrate the holiday like nothing I've ever seen) it makes me a little homesick, so I am planning to throw a big dinner for those who are here and make me feel less homesick by being great friends. Today I made the apple pies for dessert. It was just a standard apple pie with a few little tricks that my mom passed on to me. She said to dust the apples with a little flour so that they create a thick sauce when they cook... yum! She also said to do an egg wash on the top crust. But I jazzed it up with a little Mexican vanilla. You should have been in my apartment to smell that!!!!
So next time you make an apple pie, put some vanilla in your egg wash. yum yum!

Meatloaf

I used ketchup, spicy brown mustard, lean ground beef, lean ground pork, bread crumbs, eggs, 1/4 of a red onion and minced garlic. It is a US favourite and is slowly becoming a favourite for me too. This was not a comfort food for me growing up but I can see how it was for others. Yummy stuff.

Throw everything in a bowl and get to mixing.

I think I needed to use some more bread crumbs in mine as it was very juicy.



To make the glaze for the top of the meatloaf, I used mustard, a little maple syrup, ketchup and brown sugar. The glaze was SCRUMPTIOUS!! Bake until done and serve up with garlic mashed potatoes! So yummy!