Friday Recipe: A Delicious Method of Eating Easter Candy

My family isn’t super religious, but we certainly do enjoy our holiday meals.

Easter dinner this year was smaller than it has been in the past – my immediate family (mom, dad, two brothers, and my sister-in-law), live in Ottawa and we had a great family dinner consisting of delicious ham and several sides. Quite often in the past, my family drives down to Oshawa where my grandparents lived, and where a large part of my extended family still resides.

We have jokingly referred to these meals as ‘feeding the thousands’. Over the years for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and other family events, we have gathered the many members of my extended family in the home of my Aunt Judy to eat (read: demolish) meals consisting of both a ham and a turkey, a minimum of four types of cooked veggies, salad, bread rolls, more than one crock pot full of mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and various other items. We also always finish up with dessert. Usually two or three cookie and square trays, a minimum of three (usually more) pies – apple and pumpkin are popular – and frequently some sort of other interesting and delicious dessert. Possibly a cheesecake.

Although these family get togethers involve a lot of noise, overeating, and the discreet requesting of names of extended family members I don’t know very well, I have always loved them. Getting to see these members of my family I don’t get to see regularly is always a highlights of the holidays. We laugh, we eat (too much), and we play a lot of music.

That said – sometimes it’s really nice to not hop in a car and drive four hours only to have to drive four hours to get home again two days later!

This years small gathering was wonderful – and my mom, as always, sent us kids away with a bag full of Easter candy and a chocolate bunny. The chocolate bunny didn’t last long (being consumed over the next two days), but I decided to get a little more creative with some of my other Easter chocolates – primarily, that king of Easter candy, the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Sooo delicious!

A key ingredient in many of my recipes.

 

Creme Egg Croissants

1 package Pillsbury Croissants
Cadbury Creme Eggs
Assorted other chocolate

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-heat your oven to 375 F. Grease either a cookie sheet or a muffin tin – both work work well. Wrap up your Creme egss or other chocolates inside of your croissant – but don’t get stuck on the idea of a perfect croissant shape! Some of my croissants were more turn-over shaped, and others turned out more muffin shaped. Place those bad boys in the the oven for about 10 minutes.

Voilà! Deliciousness wrapped up inside more deliciousness.

What lies inside this golden delicious pastry?

I may have eaten three of these immediately.

(Not) Friday Recipe: Chocolate Wonders

Final projects are on, client presentations in school are upcoming, and excitement is being generating from my upcoming graduation – sadly, all of this ended up resulting in my absent-mindedness this week, and the missing of not one, but two updates. I’m sorry!

So, in apology, here’s one of my favourite easy cookie recipes: chocolate wonders!

They are super delicious, super easy to make cookies, that do not require baking. You can easily whip up a batch of these in ten minutes or less, and impress friends and family with their deliciousness. I love these cookies – more than once, I have made these in the morning before rushing off to school, when I’ve needed cookies for focus groups, impressing clients (business school, remember), and bake sales. I can make them while I’m eating breakfast, and they’ll be ready to go by the time I’m ready to leave – they are just that easy and fast.

Photo courtesy of Crazy Sweet Life

Chocolate Wonders (also known as chocolate haystacks in some households!)

2 cups sugar
1⁄2 cup milk
1⁄2 cup butter
1⁄2 cup cocoa
1 dash salt
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup flaked coconut

Add the sugar, milk, butter, cocoa and salt to a saucepan, and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Let it boil for about 1 minute, then remove from heat. Add vanilla, oats, and coconut, stirring everything in quickly.

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper, let them cool, and enjoy!

These also keep very well in the freezer, if you want to make them ahead of any events or parties : )

Friday Recipe: Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I’ve been informed by a couple of my non-baking friends that they are not completely sure as to what the picture my website banner is showing…

For those particular friends, they are cookies – specifically, some of my favourite Earl Grey Tea cookies!

A super easy cookie to make, that uses nothing particularly special, this recipe was given to me by my friend Melissa! Melissa is someone I’ve known literally my entire life, and her family, mine, and one other all lived on the same little dirt road in the country. Growing up in a rural area with children all in the same age range was quite helpful for our parents – their children has nearby friends that they could walk over to see, and they had nearby neighbours who could frequently help out with child care.

These days, we’re all spread out a little farther – some of us kids have stayed in Ottawa, but others have moved to Montreal and Toronto, or moved around to a few different places. Despite all this moving, whenever we’re all back home visiting for the holidays we often try to get together for tea – a long standing tradition among our little group. Around holidays, we all attempt to bake some goodies, and get together for a chat over a cup of tea. It’s a really nice way to stay in contact with old friends, and catch up on what everyone is up to these days.

Only seven, totally pronounceable ingredients! Although yes, a lot of butter…

It was during one of these teas that Melissa shared her Earl Grey Tea cookies, and I immediately fell in love and requested the recipe! She gladly shared it, for which I was definitely grateful. One of the best aspects of this recipe is that I get to use my food processor for easy and quick assembly of this dough. These cookies are also very easy to pair with various different types of icings or glazes if you want to add a little twist on flavour, but are wonderful without as well!.

Don’t forget the water with this step, it helps create a better dough.

Early Grey Tea Cookies

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 icing sugar
2 tablespoons Earl Grey Tea, or about 6 teabags
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter, cubed

Place all dry ingredients into the food processor and pulse until well blended. Add vanilla with one tablespoon of water, and butter, and pulse until a dough is formed – about one minute. The dough will be a little crumbly, but should be a little dense and form fairly easily when pressed and rolled.

Roll the dough into two logs, about 1 inch in diameter. Chill about 30 minutes.

Dough should look like this!

Slice the dough, about 1/4 inch thick slices, and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes, or until the bottom edges start to turn golden brown.

These are delicious to enjoy with a cup of tea, and if you want to fancy them up a little bit, top them with an icing glaze – vanilla or lemon go particularly well! This is the lemon glaze I used last time I made these cookies, and that batch is the one pictured in my blog banner! It’s a particularly delicious and simple recipe (and those cookies really did NOT last long).

Let me know if you enjoy the cookies!

Mmm, cookies!

Adventures in Rental Decoration

Pre-painted walls, pre-scuffed flooring, old cupboards…. Rental apartments can be boring, and definitely a little worn looking. Having lived in three apartments and a dorm room in the last six years, I’m definitely a little tired of not having a space which reflects a little of my own personality.

Putting up pictures and posters is definitely a great way to start shaping your space and giving it some colour and spark, but there are definitely some areas where that artsy poster you picked up at the campus poster sale four years ago just won’t cut it.

Prime example: the fake-wood closet doors that are oh-so-common in many rental spaces.

You know  – the dark brown ‘wood’ doors mounted on sliders that cover your entrance closet or hide the laundry in your bedroom. I personally haven’t seen a single apartment that has a paint scheme that actually matches those doors, and they can also really darken a space. Yes, you can un-hinge them and store them somewhere if you have the space, but not a lot of people do. This also leaves your nice hidden storage spaces exposed, showing your messy collection of coats, shoes, and random items to all of your guests.

In my apartment, I have three of these doors in my entrance-way, and it created a rather dark, and less appealing welcome than I wanted in my apartment. Luckily, I found a solution while browsing online that worked for me, both time-wise and budget-wise.

How About Orange has a great tutorial on how to cover your doors using fabric, water, and cornstarch! I read this blog, and got really excited – I also tried a test swatch on my doors to see if it worked, and got even more excited, because it definitely did. Using cornstarch and water, you make a paste that easily adheres fabric to surfaces, and then gets easily dissolved later using warm water for easy removal!

Less than picturesque doors in the process of being covered up! The dark spots are where the cornstarch mix is still wet, and not dried.

Instructions are easy and simple:

1. Find a fabric you like ( I got mine on a ‘last chance’ sale at Ikea!), and get enough to cover your doors (or walls, or whatever else you want to cover). Cut it to size, by carefully measuring it! Use a sharp fabric knife/craft knife to get a nice even cut, but don’t worry about hemming the edges, because they’ll get ‘glued down’ with the cornstarch paste.

2. Mix up your cornstarch paste (“goop”): take 3/8 of a cup of cornstarch, and mix in a little bit of water so you have a thick paste, that is not lumpy. Boil 4 cups of water in a pot, and then add the thick cornstarch paste – if you don’t pre-mix the cornstarch, you end up with a lot of little cornstarch lumps in your mix that don’t dissolve, so don’t skip that step.

3. Paint the doors! Use a nice big painters brush (pick one up at the collar store for cheap), and thickly lay on the cornstarch paste. It’s pretty thick, so it doesn’t drip very much, but do lay down some newspapers to catch the odd drip.

4. Put up the fabric! Start at an upper corner (if you’re short, like I am, make use of a tall roommate or family member), and slowly press the fabric into the paste as you move down from the top. If you get an air bubble, just lift up the fabric and re-position it; it takes a little while for the paste to dry, so you have some time to re-work any errors while putting up the fabric.

5. That’s it! Let it dry, try not to move it while it’s drying – it should be completely dry within a few hours/overnight (depending on humidity and temperature).

When you’re ready to move out, or you’ve decided you’re bored with the fabric, the great part is that the whole thing is an easy fix – grab a large sponge of warm water and soak your fabric. This dissolves the cornstarch, and the fabric peels right off.

Finished doors with a black ribbon accent where the fabric wasn’t long enough; it hides where the seam is!

How durable is this? I put my fabric doors up last year, and there isn’t a single thread that’s started coming loose! And if something did work its way loose, all you have to do is mix up some new paste, and brush it over the loose edges, which will put them right back in their place.

If you give it a try, let me know how well it works for you!

Friday Recipe: Honey Sesame Chicken

As you know, I’m a student, and as I’ve addressed in a previous post, I sometimes simply have NO TIME to cook, which means that I end up eating less-than-healthy food.

And, as a student, I don’t think I can say enough how much I LOVE MY SLOW COOKER. Because that bad boy takes whatever I toss in, and turns it into amazing meals. Prep can take minutes, and there are no issues with leaving that particular appliance plugged in all day (unlike a hair straightener…)

As well, slow cookers can be surprisingly reasonable to buy – if you get the original Crock-Pot, no frills (like timers, etc.), then it actually costs less than $30.00! Or free, if you drop the right hints around Christmas time.

Slow cookers are amazingly versatile – open up Pinterest and type in ‘Slow Cooker’, and you’ll be amazed at the variety of recipes it gives you. Dinners, appetizers, sauces, desserts, and even crafts are are made super easy with my favourite kitchen appliance (well, it’s tied with my George Foreman grill, and my food processor…). You can even buy crock pot liners if you hate washing the pot after you’ve finished cooking!

One of the things I love most about my slow cooker is that all of the meals that come out of it are super easy to freeze and keep for later lunches and dinners, which makes my life easy in the morning – I can just grab a tupperware container out of the freezer and pop it into the microwave when I’m at school for something that’s delicious, and doesn’t cost me money.

With that all said, this recipe for Honey Sesame Chicken (which I found from Damn Delicious, photos also from there!) is crazy easy, and one of my favourites to make for later lunches.

Slow cookers: making my mouth water since 1990.

I often make this one on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, because it takes less time than many other slow cooker recipes. I also love it because it uses simple ingredients, which are regularly stocked in my pantry. As well, chicken thighs go on sale for dirt cheap quite often – so whenever I see those on sale in my grocery flyer, I have a good idea of what meal I’m going to make this week!

Honey Sesame Slow Cooker Chicken

1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup honey (spray your measuring cup with cooking spray for easy pouring)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 green onion, thinly sliced for garnish
Sesame seeds, for garnish

In a large bowl, combine onion, garlic, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, vegetable oil and red pepper.
Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper, to taste. Place chicken thighs into a slow cooker. Add honey mixture and gently toss to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Remove chicken thighs from the slow cooker and shred the chicken before returning to the pot with the juices. Cover and keep warm for an additional 30 minutes.
Serve immediately, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired. Serve over a bed of brown rice, and freeze leftovers in lunch-sized portions for meals all week!

Definitely one of my go-to slow cooker recipes!

Notes:

I hate tomatoes! That also extends to ketchup – so I make this without any, and I find it completely delicious. If you DO like tomatoes (you freak), but don’t like ketchup, try adding in some fresh or canned diced tomatoes.
I also substitute half of the vegetable oil with sesame oil to give a richer sesame flavour – but not a straight substitute because sesame oil is expensive!
Also, if you really like spice, go ahead and add some sambal oelek – Thai red pepper and garlic sauce – in the bowl with the other ingredients. This sauce mixes perfectly well with the other ingredients, and adds another element to the flavour. I know it’s not likely a regular pantry staple in many kitchens, but I definitely suggest keeping some on hand – it adds well to stir-frys, asian dishes, and more! You can buy it in the asian foods section of your grocery store.

I’d love to hear what readers think of this recipe, when they’ve had a chance to try it at home!

Friday Recipe: Honey Sriracha Chicken

Do you get a craving for something with a kick to it every once in a while?

I certainly do, and I am also 100% on board the Sriracha flavour train!

This super easy stir-fry chicken comes from Prevention RD, written by Nicole Morrisey. The mouth-watering photos come from her blog as well!

This is a recipe that takes almost no prep time, and is dead-easy to make (and almost impossible to screw up!). I love these sorts of recipes for when I get home after a long day at both work and school, because I can quickly turn out something that is healthy and delicious. One other great thing I love about stir-fry recipes is how versatile they are – you can mix up the sauce, but sub in whatever meat or vegetables you want and if you’re feeling confident in your skills, you can leave the road map behind and experiment!

This particular recipe is easy and basic, and calls for cubed chicken to be stir-fried with the honey-sriracha sauce. I try to get a lot of vegetables into my meals, so last time I made this I also through in a LOT of broccoli, which takes the sauce really well! I imagine that bean sprouts would also mix well with this particular recipe, and certainly any other type of meat you have on hand could be cooked up instead of chicken.

Honey Sriracha Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Lots of delicious vegetables (broccoli, snap peas, whatever!)
• ⅓ cup honey
• 2 Tbsp sriracha
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ¼ cup water + ½ Tbsp cornstarch
• 4-5 scallions, chopped (for garnish)

Heat oil (or use cooking spray) in a large frying pan or wok (wish I had one!), and add the chicken, stirring occasionally until it is cooked through – about 5-6 minutes. Toss in your veggies, and get them cooking, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, mix up in a small saucepan your honey (pro-tip – if measuring out your honey, spray the measuring cup with cooking spray first, and the honey will slide right out, no sticking!), sriracha, garlic powder, soy sauce, and onion powder; bring to a low boil over medium-low heat. In a small bowl, whisk to combine the water and cornstarch; add to the sauce pan and whisk well. Cook until sauce thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Add sauce to chicken and toss to coat.

Serve over top of rice ( I love brown basmati rice), with your scallions to garnish!

Note: If you are lazy (like I am), instead of mixing the sriracha sauce in a saucepan, mix all the ingredients except for the cornstarch in a bowl (and use less water than is called for), and then just toss straight into the frying pan. The consistency will be different, but still delicious!

This meal also freezes really well – I froze at least two portions in tupperware for lunches later on, and it certainly stays delicious. Let me know if you enjoy the recipe!

Friday Recipe: Baguette and Brie Appetizers

Appetizers!

Or, in reality – dinner. Because you know  you are eating that much of this ‘appetizer’.

Om nom nom – super simple baguette, brie cheese, and Farmboy mango peach red pepper jelly!

I love these super simple snacks that are easy to prepare and share. These make an excellent item to have at parties, or to share with a couple of friends while having a wine and cheese night.

This stuff is delicious. Also try the raspberry red pepper jelly!

Bread, cheese, and red pepper jelly are all delicious, and I absolutely love Farmboy variations on red pepper jelly, because they do an excellent job.

Baguette and Brie Appetizer

1 baguette, sliced thinly – or thickly, however you prefer.
Brie -sliced thinly – or thickly – to top each baguette slice.
Red pepper jelly, spooned on top

Bake at 425 fahrenheit for about 5 minutes, or until the brie is melted and delicious!

Enjoy!

Yum! Enjoy with a glass of wine, or your other favourite drink.