Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Country Peach and Raspberry Tart

I had extra pie dough left over from making pumpkin pie so I found this lovely recipe and I am very glad that I made it! I used a half recipe..(because thats how much dough I had left over..) but I will share with you the whole recipe here and you can do what you like with it! The original recipe called for just peaches..but I decided to add some raspberries. I would most definately recommend following the recipe here and using just peaches. The raspberries made the tart a little more sour...and I think if it had of been just peaches it would have been perfect. Now I know for the next time!

Here is what you will need:
-1 single crust pie dough recipe (easily found online)
-1/4 cup of sugar
-4 tsps flour
-1/4 tsp of cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg
-3 cups of peaches or nectarines pealed and sliced
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-1 tbsp sliced almonds
-milk

Preheat oven to 375F.

Step One:
Prepare your pie crust. Roll out the dough on parchment paper into a large circle. Slide the paper with the dough ontop onto your baking sheet. Set aside.

Step Two:
In a large bowl mix together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add the peaches and lemon juice...Do this until the peaches are all covered.



Step Three:
Take your peaches and put them in the center of your pie crust. Start to fold up your pastry dough leaving an opening in the center.
Step Four:
Brush a bit of milk onto the pie dough and sprinkle a bit of sugar ontop. Add your sliced almonds.


Step Five:
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden. Cook for 30 minutes on a wire rack.

Happy tuesday everyone!
xo

Monday, September 26, 2011

Roasted Tomato Couscous

At the restaurant I work at we make an awesome couscous salad...which made me want to make one at home as a side dish. It is practically the same recipe as what we use at work..except I roasted the tomatoes. Here is the recipe to this delish couscous:

First take your cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes and put them in the oven. I normally bake them at 350F and I keep an eye on them and take them out when I like what I see. I also lightly salt and pepper them.


-1 cup couscous
add
-1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. (or however you like it)
-2 tsp of chicken stock
-2 tbsps of olive oil
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-then add one cup of boiling water. mix and let it sit

In the mean time cut up
-1/3 of a cucumber
-1/2 red onion minced
-1/4 cup of corn

TA DAAAA!

xo

Pumpkin Seeds

Hello Everyone! I am posting pretty late today..but it is still MONDAY! hhaha. I told you I would post on mondays...and here I am. Things have been pretty crazy around the Guindon household... Dan has been working crazy on his physics work (he is currently studying online) and other things on top of that have made for a crazy week. The good thing about a crazy/ stressful week means I got lots of COOKING in! It always seems to cheer me up. This week I started getting festive. I love fall. This week on my way home from work I had a huge smile on my face because I saw the trees changing colour. That means I get to start wearing warm sweaters and scarves. I love fall. Not to mention that my birthday is in the fall..which probably makes me like it so much. ANYWAYS....my point was that I bought a pumpkin. I just had to. I just love fall and I couldn't wait to start cooking yummy pumpkin things! Which brings me to this blog entry! Pumpkin seeds. Seriously so yummy. Here is a quick recipe online...
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/roasted-pumpkin-seeds/detail.aspx

I needed to share this with you all today to encourage you to GO BUY A PUMPKIN!! You know you want some roasted pumpkin seeds right now..and eat some pumpkin loaf with some tea. Anyways, here are some pics of my pumpkin seeds....

lightly salted!!
putting the ones we didn't eat away for later! (the jar is a little large...I know. haha)

enjoy. xo

Monday, September 19, 2011

Carrot Nut Muffins

I have been dreaming now all week about these carrot muffins! I had to wait until all of our banana muffins were eaten up before I could make these. Yum. They are so tasty and moist. Yes, moist. haha.  For real you need to go and make these.
I found this great recipe on a blog. Of course I changed it just a little bit, like always.
Here is the recipe.
3 cups finely grated carrots
4 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/4 cups of oil ( I used half oil and half unsweetened apple sauce)
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350F
Makes 12 muffins.
Put your muffins cups into your muffin tin and set aside.
First combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl or mixer. Flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Next add your sugar. Next start adding the liquids. Your carrots, 4 large eggs, oil(apple sauce) vanilla and walnut. Mix until all combined.

Distribute your muffin dough evenly into the muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Check with a toothpick or knife to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

Enjoy these not so much muffins...but little carrot cakes!

xo

Monday, September 12, 2011

Red Curry with Chicken

Dan and I always joke that curry to us is like kraft dinner for most families. It's that meal that when you are super busy and you need to make something quick and easy. It is an easy meal and we make it when we don't really feel like cooking much. Huge comfort food right here. haha.
Here is what you will need
-2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
-50 g of red curry paste
-one can of coconut milk
-2 tbsp oil
-2 tbsp fish sauce
-fresh basil leaves
-2tbsps of sugar
-chili flakes, or fresh chilies
- LOTS OF VEGGIES( we normally use the bag of frozen veggies because its our lazy day food. Also I normally add some broccoli and mushrooms)
-white rice

LETS GET STARTED.
-Put your oil and curry paste into the frying pan and let it heat up. Stir a bit. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and your chicken. Let it simmer and cook your chicken on medium high heat.
-Once you think your chicken is almost cooked through add your broccoli.
-Cut open a piece of chicken to see if it is cooked all the way through. If yes, add the rest of your veggies, the chilies, sugar and the basil leaves. Cook until the veggies are ready. Do not over cook the chicken.
To eat pour the curry over cooked white rice. Voila. Easy and yummmmmy.

enjoy! xo

Easy Chips

This is not really a recipe..but more of a great idea! Last time we went to visit Dan's parents his mom made us these chips and served it with hummus. I tought it was a great idea and I've been making them ever since! Bascially you take a tortilla shell and cut it into chip like pieces. I happened to use a multigrain tortilla this time. I preheated the oven to 350F and put the chips in to bake. It really does not take ong at all. 5 to 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them. You want them to be crispy..but not too hard. Give it a try. Promise you will love it.
*Best eaten with homemade salsa*
Try it out!
xo

Healthy Banana Nut Muffins

Like you can probably tell from the blog, I really love muffins. These muffins turned out great and have been an excellent start to my day! I have been putting a little bit of apple butter on them..hahah which makes them a little less healthy...but it's worth it! :) This recipe makes 12 muffins.
Here is what you will need:
-2 cups of flour
-1/4 cup of sugar
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp salt
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-3/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce
-3/4 cup of skim milk
-2 tbsp oil
-1/2 cup of walnuts & pecans
-dark chocolate chopped
-2 bananas ( we use frozen bananas that we defrost before using. Make sure they are soft.)

Preheat oven to 400F
Put muffin cups in your muffin tin.
-Take your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and your salt. Mix together well & set aside.
-In your mixer add your beaten eggs and your sugar. Mix. Add the apple sauce, and the 2 tbsps of oil.
-Add your dry ingredients to the mixture. Also adding your skim milk.
-Lastly, add the 2 bananas, the nuts and your chocolate. Mix well.
Add your muffin batter to your muffin cups and get em in the oven!

Bake for about 15minutes. Make sure your knife comes out clean! :)
ENJOY !!
xo

White & dark chocolate, pecan, & cranberry oatmeal cookies

The name is long but  needed to include all of the goodness of this cookie into the title! The other night before Dan and I sat down to watch discovery channel with our teas I decided that I should make cookies! I found a great oatmeal cookie recipe and I added all of the yumminess that I could find in our cupboard to the cookies. Also, I had just bought a new cookie scooper and I was super excited to try it out! I brought a plate of these cookies to our youth group and everyone LOVED them! They were all eaten up! I hope you guys enjoy this recipe as well!
Here is the link to the basic oatmeal cookies recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/the-best-oatmeal-cookies/detail.aspx
It's a good recipe! I know I have been ad for giving you guys links..but it is so much easier to give you guys the link directly than to re-type it all. Also its nice to give credit to the person who made the recipe rather than myself who just copied it! haha
For this recipe I cut up peices of dark chocolate and also come white chocolate. I added about a handful of craisins to the recipe as well.

Cookie factory!
 Who doesn't love cookies!
 Happy monday everyone!
Enjoy...xo

Monday, September 5, 2011

General Tao Chicken

It was Dan's birthday so we could totally justify making fried food. I love general tao chicken..a lot. We have made general tao a few times now but this is by FAR the best recipe we have used.
We of course changed the recipe and made it our own, because that's just what we do!
If you want to make a yummy Chinese dish..this is what you should make! You will not be disappointed!

This recipe makes 6 servings.
To start you will need:


  • 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken, cut into chunks
  • 1/4 cup of corn starch
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 6 tbsp white flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
Step one:
Coat the chunks of chicken in the corn starch.
Beat the eggs, salt and pepper. Add the flour and baking powder until there are no clumps and it's nicely mixed. Now add the chicken to the egg mixture and coat them evenly.

Step two:

Heat up the veggie oil on a frying pan on high. Drop the chicken pieces into the hot oil and deep fry them until golden brown. We had to do this a few times because not all of our chicken fit into the frying pan & we didn't want them to stick together because they were frying too close.
You want them to be fully cooked. "They" say it should take about 12 minutes. Set aside when the chicken is done cooking.

Step three:

NOW you need to make the sauce:

In a separate frying pan heat up the following ingredients on medium/high:
  • 4 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
  • 1/2 cup of green onions chopped into small pieces
Cook for about a minute or two. Then add:
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar 
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 tbsp corn starch (be sure to whisk it immediately into the sauce or else it will be clumpy)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
Cook it until it is all the way heated up & it becomes "saucy".

Step four:
 Stir the chicken into the sauce. Make sure they are all fully coated in the sweet goodness.

Serve HOT and enjoy!

xo
-Britt


Maple Pie

mmmm Maple Pie. Last week it was Dan's birthday so I decided to make his this sweet pie! He prefers pie to cake and he is a true sucker for anything maple....so I figured this pie was perfect! It was realy easy to make and it tasted excellent. Add  little bit of non sweetened whipped cream on the side and it is scrumptious. This recipe makes two pies. Here is what you need to do...
-A simple pie crust recipe, and place the unbaked pie crust into the pie pan..
Combine in a large mixing bowl:
-1 cup of brown sugar
-can of eagle brand
-3 eggs
-3/4 cup of maple syrup
-1 tablespoon of flour
-1 tsp vanilla
BEAT it all together with a mixer on high for 5 minutes
POUR into your unbaked pie crusts
BAKE at 400F for 10 minutes. Then reduce the het to 300F for 50 to 60 minutes or until your knife comes out clean:)
mmmmmmmmmmm
We had pretty much already eaten one pe by the time I went to take pictures!
enjoy! xo

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Rainbow Cupcakes

Hello everyone! My friend Katelyn is who inspired me to make these cupcakes! She is a very talented cake maker and she posted  pictures of the rainbow cake that she made! Man...her cake looks amazing. I am pretty sure I dreamt about eating it..haha. Anyways...another friend of mines birthday was coming up and I decided to make rainbow cupcakes! Overall I am happy with how they came out..but I was a little dissapointed with the icing I made. I decided to make a whipped cream icing and it was VERY difficult to work with...I suppose it is an icing that I still need to master. Here is how you can make your very own rainbow cupcakes!
You need:
- follow a basic vanilla cake or cupcake recipe
-muffin tin
-muffin cups
-food colouring
VOILA..
 Here is what I did. I made my basic vanilla cake batter and then I separated the batter into bowls.
(the picture is sideways...but I don't know how to fix it...:)
Once you have separated the batter you can add your desired colours.
The next step is you put your muffin cups into your muffin tin and then you start to add the batter! You layer the colours as you desire.
Bake as your recipe instructs you and then yayyy fun cupcakes!



xoxo-Britt