Greeting Cream Puffs in Venice readers,

If you are awake and/or own a computer, you will already know that today is the reveal day for the February 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge. The individual known to you as Cream Puff is unable to post today so she has arranged for the delivery of a text message from her cell phone via this blog and the autmated blog posting team she has set up for just such emergencies. Please see below for the text of her message:

Hi all my BFFs! Can’t post 2day. Workasaurus attacking again. Help! Send George. Or Brad. Or 007. Didn’t make cake. Made cupcakes 4 u. Yum! Was so good & … oh … wait … Workasaurus on prowl. Hav 2 go. No … wait … wasn’t Workasaurus. That was stomach growling becuz was hungry. LOL!!! OK … TMI … BTW … want 2 thank Wendy & Dharm. Cupcakes EZ to make and delish. Ice cream soooooo good! GRATZ on gr8 challenge! OK now really have 2 go. Luv u 4ever! Will b back when Workasaurus gone. Ciao!

Cream Puff has advised our team to inform you that she prepared Chocolate Valentino Cupcakes with Wendy’s version of the ice cream with the addition of coconut and caramel. Cream Puff has further advised us to tell you that she will provide a recipe when she returns to her regularly scheduled blog posts.

Thank you Cream Puffs in Venice readers. This is an automated post. Please do not reply.

Regards,

Cream Puffs in Venice Automated Blog Posting Team

Note: The February 2009 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s Blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose a Chocolate Valentino with ice cream on the side. They provided two versions of a basic ice cream recipe for adaptation. Thank you so muhc to Wendy and Dharm for a fabulous challenge!.

This isn’t going to be a very lengthy Magazine Mondays post as the Cream Puff is tuckered out! Work is nutty again and I’m beginning to feel like I’m bouncing straight from my bed to my desk and back.

For today’s MM submission, I give you the glorious brussels sprout. I didn’t grow up eating brussels sprouts, in fact I probably tasted them for the first time about ten years ago. But I was hooked as soon as I tried them and simply don’t understand why they’re not the preferred vegetable of more people.

Last year, a good friend invited me over for dinner and one of the dishes she served was Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Pistachios from the February 2008 issue of Bon Appétit.

I took one bite of those luscious brussels sprouts leaves drenched in lemon with all these lovely bright pistachios amongst them and I was hooked! Not only is this a fast option for dinner, but it’s delicious with a capital D to the E to the L to the I to the C to the I to the O to the U to the S!

I strongly urge you to try this dish. The Cream Puff has spoken.

As always, I’m joined by a number of other bloggers who have looked at their magazine pile and challenged it to slim down:

My dear Wandering Coyote of ReTorte is sending us Paprika Roast Chicken with Sweet Onion from the February 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Angela at A Spoonful of Sugar has prepared burgers and fries that would rival any diner’s. The recipe is from Irresistible magazine.

Mandi of Red Dirt Mummy participates in her first Magazine Mondays with Baked Chicken Cannelloni from the August 2008 issue of Australian Table.

My sweet Jenny of All Things Edible made some yummy Cinnamon Buns from the February 2007 issue of Fine Cooking.

The lovely Joanne of Frutto della Passione (whom I missed seeing when she was in Toronto) made Fritole Ricche in honour of Carnevale.

So there you have it! Look how many magazines were cleared out in the name of Magazine Mondays! Remember, you don’t have to post your recipe on a Monday to participate. But if you have posted a magazine recipe, just send me the link and I’ll post it!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Ciao!

While I love my Italian heritage, I am first and foremost a proud Canadian girl.

And as such I am addicted to hockey.

My grandparents and parents, all of whom came to Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, very quickly became fans of the game and of course my aunts and uncles followed suit as they grew up in a nation that idolizes the sport.

Just say 1972, even to young children, and everyone knows that you’re referencing the great hockey battle between Canada and the former Soviet Union.

I love hockey. I love the speed, the action, the camaraderie, the artistry and yes … the fighting! I love watching men’s and women’s hockey and will happily go and watch the children of friends and coworkers as they take part in the sport.

On a very basic level, I believe hockey allows Canadians to gather at their local arena and just be Canadian. It’s a way to enjoy our cold climate and a way for our children to participate in an active lifestyle.

On a more profound level, in a country as enormous as Canada where a relatively small population is spread out from coast to coast, I believe that hockey has been one of the few common threads in the tapestry of our nation. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in British Columbia or in Prince Edward Island, we all play hockey.

While Canadians are generally known for being “nice” and mild-mannered, hockey seems to be one of the few issues that galvanizes us. I love the fact that I’m Canadian and that we have peaceful values but it always amazes me how territorial we become about hockey. And it further amazes me how territorial I’ve become about hockey!!!

Closer to home, I am, of course, a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Actually, make that LONG-SUFFERING, GREATLY PAINED, FRUSTRATED, ANGRY, TIRED, IRRITATED, BEATEN-DOWN Leafs fan.

The other Leafs fans out there will know exactly what I mean.

But even though I am a LONG-SUFFERING, GREATLY PAINED, FRUSTRATED, ANGRY, TIRED, IRRITATED and BEATEN-DOWN Leafs fan, I’m still a Leafs fan and I still love hockey. If I am home on a Saturday night, and it’s hockey season, then I will be watching Hockey Night in Canada along with millions of other Canadians.

So today is Hockey Day in Canada, 2009 and all over this country, communities have planned events to celebrate. The day-long celebration is broadcast on the CBC and always ends up having you crying with all the sweet stories about kids playing hockey. The show also highlights a lot of Canadian professional hockey players who seem to be very generous with their time and efforts towards making the day as special as possible.

The centrepiece of this celebration is the NHL schedule that has the six Canadian teams matched up against each other throughout the day (this year: Montreal vs. Ottawa, Vancouver vs. Toronto, Calgary vs. Edmonton).

While HDIC is largely a television event, it’s amazing how it has come to be embraced at the community level. Canada is driven by its communities. While those of us that live in large cities like Toronto or Montreal often like to pride ourselves on being the centre of it all, the fact is that hockey is community-driven. This is why I love the fact that so much of HDIC is about kids playing hockey, especially in small towns or communities. There’s not much that’s more beautiful or fun to watch than a bunch of kids playing hockey on a cold winter’s day.

I wanted to make something special to celebrate HDIC, 2009 and all week I was trying to find some really amazing dessert or sweet that I could whip up. But I’m in a really busy period right now and all I kept coming back to was “make something with maple syrup”. So then I whittled that down to “maple syrup”. I whipped up a batch of my favourite waffles and drenched them in the very best maple syrup (which everyone knows comes from Canada!!!)!

For the final word on the glory of hockey and what it means to Canadians, I give you an excerpt from David Adams Richards’ bittersweet and beautiful book Hockey Dreams: Memories of a Man Who Couldn’t Play:

Hockey is played in the cold, and a generation of movies from Hollywood that have influenced our outlook about ourselves has shown us that cold weather is something abnormal.

However we are the coldest country on earth. And everyone except the children want to deny it. Thousands of us froze our hands, our feet and our ears every day just walking to school. And where we went after school was to a cold rink to put on frozen skates to play hockey on ice.

So our hockey is evidence, to outsiders, of our coldness, and with our coldness, our abnormal lack of sophistication, etiquette and probably humour. As I say, a thousand movies have been made to reinforce the stereotypes we use against ourselves.

Hockey becomes a kind of verification for outsiders and for ourselves, of how Canadians hate to be labelled in the first place, “Ottawa: colder than Moscow and without the night life,” the joke goes.

Contempt for ourselves is the axiom upon which so much of our country’s asses sit. Except the children. Except the children like Stafford Foley.

The children frolic in the cold like little white bears. Know what the game means. There is a time in every child’s life when he or she wants us to regain the game, to be recognized by everyone as the greatest hockey nation in the world.

Happy Hockey Day in Canada, everyone! Go out there and be like a little white bear!

Ciao!

Note: If you love hockey then you should read Ken Dryden’s The Game, which, along with Hockey Dreams, is in my estimation one of the greatest Canadian books.

Note** (Warning … Toronto Maple Leafs and Mats Sundin rant ahead): Today marks the return of Mats Sundin to Toronto in the uniform of some other team. Whatever. As far as I’m concerned he’ll always be a Toronto Maple Leaf regardless of where he goes or plays. Much has been made about his return and what the reaction will be. Based on the circumstances under which he left the team, the feeling is that there are many in Toronto who resent Mr. Sundin for not waiving his no-trade clause and for not returning to Toronto. Like I said before, whatever. I’m not going to go into all the gory details of the 2008 trade deadline and what Mats said or didn’t say and how each one of his words should be dissected and how he took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to decide to come back and play. Whatever. For thirteen years, he was an amazing Toronto Maple Leaf. Amazing. He delivered, he never did anything to embarrass us or our city, he was exciting to watch and he provided some genuinely thrilling hockey moments. For a team that has waited 40 plus years for a Stanley Cup, we should be grateful for the moments of hockey pleasure that we enjoyed thanks to Mats. And now he’s gone and as has been repeatedly noted by the media, he had every right to leave and owes Toronto nothing. Very true. But here’s what the media always forgets to mention. Toronto doesn’t owe him anything either. The fulfillment of the contract goes both ways. He fulfilled his contracts to us 110%. If every player fulfilled their contracts to the degree that Mats Sundin does, the NHL would be a truly awesome place. But … newsflash … the Toronto Maple Leafs also fulfilled their contract to him. And as fans we fulfilled our contract to him. SO NOBODY OWES ANYBODY ANYTHING HERE. I personally hope that he is cheered tonight not because “we owe him anything” but because it would be a nice gesture of appreciation for his 13 years of service. That’s it. Yes, Mats Sundin was a great Toronto Maple Leaf and yes, Mats Sundin is a great hockey player, but he ain’t no Wayne Gretzky or Rocket Richard. And there’s my two cents.

Note ***: For those of you that have been patiently waiting for the waffle recipe, here it is. I have a 4-pocket Belgian waffle maker and this recipe yields two 4-pocket servings. So in essence I end up with 8 2-inch waffles. And now I shall never do math again.

My Favourite Waffles
From The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.

2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp. coconut extract (you can use any extract you like or leave it out altogether)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (melt a little extra butter to use on your waffle iron)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. sugar

You can use a mixer for this but you can also do it by hand with a whisk: whisk together the eggs, milk and extract until very foamy. If you can do it for a couple of minutes by hand, you’re a winner … otherwise use your mixer.

With a rubber spatula, mix in the melted butter trying not to deflate the egg/milk mixture too much.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar and then add to the egg/milk/butter mixture all at once. Again mix it in gently with the rubber spatula.

Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. Just before the 30 minutes is up, heat your waffle iron.

This recipe makes two servings of four 2-inch waffles in my waffle iron. So I use half the batter for one set and the other half of the batter for the second set. Based on the yield of your waffle iron, use the according amount of batter.

Cook the waffles to your specification (we like them somewhat golden but not too hard or crispy).

Serve with lots of butter, maple syrup and fruit.

Enjoy!

Just kidding! But I made ya’ look, didn’t I?

While I would love to hop on a plane tomorrow and fly back to the homeland, that’s just not in the cards (at least not for tomorrow). Instead, let us take a moment to sit back and pretend that we’re flying to Italy tomorrow and then we can further pretend that we will be spending our days looking for one osteria after another in which to indulge our passion for Italian food.

I love pretend.

In Italian, the word osteria refers to a simple sort of restaurant that tends to serve food that here in North America we would likely refer to as “rustic” or “homey”. For those of us of Italian backgrounds, an osteria would likely serve some of the dishes that our grandmothers or mothers would make at home. But one should never think that an osteria is not worth a visit. While the food may seem “simple”, osteria meals are usually flavourful, comforting and satisfying.

I’ve had the book for so long that it seems like it was about a thousand years ago that I received it, but I was given the chance to review Rick Tramonto and Mary Goodbody’s Osteria, a cookbook dedicated to the type of food that one would enjoy in an osteria (in case the name didn’t signal that …).

I’m a big fan of Rick Tramonto’s books. While I’ve never had the pleasure of dining at any of his establishments, I have had the pleasure of his cookbooks and he’s a very successful cookbook writer, in my opinion.

He’s worked on a number of cookbooks including Gale Gand’s Butter Sugar Flour Eggs and is the author of several of his own including favourites like Fantastico and Amuse-Bouche (also with Mary Goodbody).

In Osteria, Tramonto presents a wide range of comfort dishes with many of them updated. In his Breakfast section, for example, there’s a recipe for Eggs in Hell (I’d eat them just for the recipe name) that features eggs served up in a spicy tomato sauce with toast. We’ve all heard of ricotta pancakes but how about Goat Cheese and Ricotta Pancakes?! There’s a trusty section on Sandwiches and a section on Soups and Salads for some lighter fare. What would a book based on osteria-cooking be without a section on Pizza (short but nice) and Pasta? The book continues with Fish and Seafood, Braises, Poultry and Meat, Side Dishes, Cheese and of course, Desserts.

If I had to choose one word to describe it besides delicious, I would choose comprehensive as it very comprehensively covers every course (and then some) with ideas for every manner of osteria-type food.

The recipes do tend to be lengthy but the idea is to take your time preparing these dishes that are sure to make everyone happy. The book itself is pretty to look at (lots of great photos), well-organized and enthusiastic. By this I mean that you can tell the authors of the book truly enjoy the subject of the book (you’d be surprised how many cookbook miss the mark on that point).

While I wanted to try so many recipes, I only managed to try two, both of which turned out very well. I would have liked to take the time to try more but I’ve already had this book for so long that I felt it was time to share it with you.

When I go out to eat I almost never order fried calamari because I find them to be one of the most horribly prepared dishes in restaurants. Either the quality of the calamari is very poor or they’re an oily mess. So you can understand that I was drawn to the recipe in the book. The breading for the calamari is a mixture of semolina flour and panko crumbs. I was unable to locate panko so I used homemade bread crumbs instead (we grind dried bread in the food processor and use that for breadings). The calamari are accompanied by a flavourful “aoli” of mayonnaise, sour cream, herbs, salt, pepper, lemon and lots of fresh garlic. The semolina gave the breading a nice crunchy edge and I have to say they were the best fried calamari we’ve ever made at home.

For the second recipe, I was still out to sea (heh … sorry!) so I decided to try the Tagliatelle with Octopus Putanesca, except we never actually made it to the tagliatelle part. This twist on Pasta Puttanesca has you baking a mixture of onions, octopus, fennel, olives, wine and tomato sauce in the oven before using it to dress the tagliatelle. Now I know it doesn’t look very promising, but trust me, when this baby came out of the oven it was tagliatelle be damned and just dig in with some bread, which is exactly how we ate it. The more observant among you will notice a piece of skate floating around in there. I had a tiny piece of skate languishing in the freezer so I threw it in to no ill-effects, thank you very much!

I wish I could go on about the recipes but I only tried these two. But they were greatly enjoyed and based on those two, I would highly recommend the book.

So … failing a trip to Italy to visit a real honest-to-goodness osteria, you might consider the book instead!

Ciao!

I will never forget the first time that I saw a container of Marshmallow Fluff in a grocery store! I was taken aback with mixture of fascination, excitement and disbelief with a little revulsion thrown in. So this is the stuff that goes in Twinkies!!! Now I’ve eaten my fair share of Twinkies over the years but I have to be honest, I’m always mildly horrified by what’s in them. Not that it stops me from eating them, mind you.

We all have our vices, I suppose.

Something made me buy a container of that Fluff stuff so it was only a matter of time before I used it. That happened to be a few weeks ago when I was perusing my magazine pile and came across a recipe that I’d bookmarked from the November 2002 issue of Food & Wine for Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling.

The recipe turned out very well although some of my cupcakes didn’t have a lot of filling as I was afraid that I might actually burst my cupcakes by overfilling them. Overall, though, they were yummy and should I ever be in possession of another container of Marshmallow Fluff I’d try these again.

This is, of course, my Magazine Mondays entry. Here are some other entries for the week from people who have tackled their magazine pile!

Allison at Bake Your Heart Out made some pretty cupcakes from the February 2008 Martha Stewart magazine.

The prolific Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made an Olive & Sun-dried Tomato Spread from Clean Eating magazine.

Remember, if you post a recipe from a magazine, let me know and I’ll link to it in a Magazine Mondays post.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my lovelies!

(And to you too!)

Ciao!

Valentine’s Day Butter Hearts

Note: It’s difficult to pin down the yield of these cookies as they can make anywhere from 3 or 4 dozen cookies to 5 or 6 dozen depending on the size of the cookie cutter. Either way, you’ll get a lot of cookies!

1 cup, unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar (If you have vanilla sugar, use 1/4 cup vanilla sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar)
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until very light (about 3 minutes).

Add the egg yolk, the vanilla and the salt and beat for another minute.

Add the flower and combine on low speed until the flower is incorporated and you have a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and gather into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

On a floured surface, roll the dough out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. With the cookie cutter of your choice, cut out as many cookies as you can, rerolling the scraps and making more cookies.

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake from 6 to 10 minutes depending on the size of your cookie. Small cookies like the hearts above will take about 8 minutes.

Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

A few posts ago, I gushed about a recipe that I’d found on-line thinking that I’d found it on some site that I’d never visited before. Well it turns out that said site had posted the entry and recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Apples (word-for-word) originally from the lovely Kickpleat of Everybody Likes Sandwiches without crediting her.

Shame! Shame! Shame!

Thankfully Kickpleat noticed and informed me. I have corrected my post and given credit where credit is due.

So just to be clear, I and all the oatmeal lovers out there want to thank Kickpleat for an awesome recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Apples!

Ciao!

I like to go on and on about my coworkers because they really are wonderful people. The occasional bad day at work is always mitigated by their warmth, friendliness and humour.

The fact that many of them are fabulous cooks and bakers also helps.

One particular coworker is dear to my heart (for many reasons) because of the wonderful stories she has of growing up in a close-knit family where food was at the heart of it all.

On one occasion, we happened to be talking about food traditions and she mentioned her mother’s cabbage rolls.

I am somewhat of a cabbage roll fiend in that I love them and love to hear about them. Strangely, though, we rarely make them in my family. My grandmother would make them from time to time but it’s not a dish in my mother’s repertoire and for some reason, I’ve just never stepped up to the plate (no pun intended) and tried them myself.

Well one thing led to another and before you know it my coworker and I had booked a day for me to travel to her home where she would enlighten me with her family’s recipe for cabbage rolls.

At this point, I feel that I should have paragraphs to share with you about the glory of cabbage rolls and what a life-changing event this was but the fact of the matter is that it was an enjoyable day spent with a lovely friend making comforting cabbage rolls. And that’s about it. I could say more, but that would be like adding too much filling to a cabbage roll: unnecessary.

Instead, I give you a photo journal of the process.

Cabbage Rolls 101

We started off by gathering all the ingredients, which included cabbage, rice, butter, cooked ground meat, onions and eggs (hard to see in the picture but they’re there).

We got to work by adding the eggs to the cooled filling mixture and onions.

In goes the uncooked rice.

With our filling done, we got to work by carefully coring the cabbage.

The cabbage then took a dip in a pot of simmering water.

As the leaves began to soften, we gently separated them from the core.

The separated leaves were transferred to a baking tray to cool and drain.

We carefully removed the top of the thick stem at the base of the cabbage leaves (the part attached to the core.)

We began filling the rolls by placing some of the filling in the top part of the cabbage leaf.

The roll begins by first rolling the uppermost part of the leaf over the filling.

After completing a roll the edges of the leaf are tucked in.

The end result is a tightly rolled, neat looking cabbage roll that’s placed in a baking dish to wait for all its little friends.

All our rolls in a row!

We topped the rolls with tomato sauce and seasoning.

Our rolls went into the oven (covered with foil wrap), where the liquid was absorbed until the rolls were nice and tender and ready to be served.

I want to extend the warmest of thanks to my dear friend and coworker and by extension her mom and sisters who offered much advice and many tips!

Ciao!

Cabbage Rolls
Recipe courtesy of a dear coworker.

Makes between 36 and 40 cabbage rolls.

1 lb ground beef
½ lb ground veal
½ lb ground pork
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large eggs
½ cup long grain rice, uncooked
1 to 2 small heads green cabbage (depending on how many cabbage rolls you want to make)
1 16 oz can crushed tomatoes
water (if the tomatoes are not enough to cover your rolls, you can add water)
½ tsp. oregano*

*You can use oregano, basil, paprika, chili pepper or any other spices that you like in the quantity you like.

1. In a large sauté pan, cook the meat over medium heat until browned (there should be no pink visible in the meat). Season the meat with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the meat (it release some juice during cooking) and place in a large bowl to cool slightly.

2. Wipe out the sauté pan and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Cook the onions on low heat until they are soft and translucent. Let the onions cool and then add to the cooked meat.

3. Add the minced garlic, eggs, uncooked rice and any spices that you’re using to the meat and onion mixture. Mix thoroughly and set aside to cool.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two baking dishes (13 x 9-inch or whatever size you have).

5. In a large pot, bring a few inches of water to a boil.

6. Core the cabbage as best you can, being careful not to damage the leaves.

7. Carefully place the cored cabbage in the boiling water. Let the cabbage sit in the boiling water for a few minutes and then, using a sharp knife and a set of tongs, gently cut away each leaf and let it fall in the water as you cut it from the core. (The consistency of the cabbage shouldn’t be too soft or too stiff, but somewhere in between so that you can easily roll the leaves when stuffing them).

8. Once the leaves fall into the water, remove them to a large cookie sheet lined with paper towel to drain.

9. When cabbage has cooled slightly, take a paring knife and remove the thick spine on each cabbage leaf (this is the part of the cabbage leaf that was attached to the core).

10. Place the cabbage leaf flat on a plate or on the counter and put approximately one tablespoon of the meat filling in the centre of the leaf leaf and roll once, forming a tight fold over the filling. Tuck in the sides and then roll the leaf the rest of the way. Place seam side down in a baking dish (we used two 9 x 13-inch pyrex baking dishes).

11. Once all of the rolls have been formed and placed in the dish, cover with the crushed tomatoes and sprinkle on the spices of your choice and bake at 350 degrees F. for approximately 30 minutes. The cabbage rolls are done once most of the liquid has been absorbed and they feel soft when pierced with a fork.

12. Let the cabbage rolls cool slightly before serving.

13. Enjoy!

It seems I missed the anniversary of one of my life’s great loves: Nutella.

I don’t know when exactly I became so clueless when it comes to blog events, but it seems I find out about them usually anywhere from two days to four months after they’ve happened.

I realied that I missed World Nutella Day when I began seeing all sorts of nutella posts over the weekend.

So, how to make amends when you’ve missed your loved one’s anniversary?

Well, first of all, you must reassure your love that you still love them.

Nutella, I still love you.

Secondly, you must compliment your love.

Nutella, you’re awesome. And so are the hosts of your official day: Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso.

Thirdly, you must present your love with some sort of gift.

Nutella, I give you an oven-baked pancake upon which to lay yourself.

I was going to post something else for Magazine Mondays, but to make amends to my love, I am instead giving you an Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce from the April 2008 issue of Gourmet.

Here are the other MM posts that people have sent in for this week:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte is sending me some Coffee Crunch Squares because I really want some and some Dutch babies!

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook made Croissants from a Fine Cooking issue that I’ve been meaning to try. Nicely done, Di!

Kylie of of Thin Crust, Deep Dish made a fabulous pasta dish using beets and beet greens!

Remember, if you post a magazine recipe send the link to me and I’ll include in my MM roundup!

Have a great week everyone!

Ciao!

Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce
Based on this recipe.

Note: I made a few slight changes to the original recipe as I don’t have an oven-proof 12-inch skillet. I instead used an 8-inch cast iron skillet and made two crespellas. Please note that the recipe below is based on using an 8-inch skillet.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup Nutella
icing sugar for dusting (optional)
nuts and/or berries (optional)

Combine the flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, salt and milk in a large bowl and whisk to ensure that there are no lumps. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes.

While the mixture is standing, place your skillet or cast-iron skillet in the oven on the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Once the oven is preheated and the mixture has stood for 20 minutes, place one tablespoon of butter in the skillet, close the oven door and wait 30 seconds for the butter to melt.

Pour half the mixture into the skillet and bake for 15 minutes. The pancake will puff up and become deeply golden. Check it every so often to ensure that it’s not burning.

Remove the skillet from the oven and place on a wire rack. The pancake will sink but don’t worry about this.

Let it cool for at least 10 minutes and then carefully slide the pancake onto a serving plate. Drizzle on a 1/4 cup of Nutella. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with chopped nuts or with berries.

Let the skillet cool for about five minutes or so and then wipe it out. Return it to the oven and let it reheat for 15 minutes. Place the second tablespoon of butter in the pan and let melt for 30 seconds. Use the remainder of the batter to make the second crespella.

Enjoy!

Technorati tag: world nutella day

I had intended January to be a month of breakfasts. As I explained in my first post in this series, after many years of ignoring the most important meal of the day, I was looking forward to sharing my newfound love for breaking the fast, so to speak.

And then January disappeared.

So I’ve decided to continue my little series into February in the hopes that we can all enjoy some special breakfasts!

Had I not wanted to continue the title for these series, I would have instead called this post, “Oatmeal, How Do I Love Thee, Let me Count the Ways!” To be frank, I cannot imagine my fall/winter without bubbling pots of oatmeal.

Oatmeal, of course, is the product of cooked oats. Whole oats (often called groats) are one of the most beneficial whole grains known to humans. Among numerous benefits, oats are packed full of fibre, provide calcium and are an excellent source of protein.

Okay. Now that the health information is out of the way, let’s get to the real reasons why oats are a true blessing.

To begin with, that bubbling pot of oatmeal that I referenced above would probably fall into my top five list of favourite things to eat. It is comfort with a capital C-O-M-F-O-R-T. I have been known to eat oatmeal not only for breakfast, but for lunch and yes, occasionally, for dinner. Said pot of oatmeal can be made at the beginning of the week and sustain you throughout the next five to seven days. One spoonful of warm oatmeal (with a touch of cinnamon and brown sugar, thank you very much), is akin to a hug to start the day.

The next reason to love oats is that with oats, you can make oatmeal cookies. I believe that on this point, no explanation is required.

Oats are also to be loved because when ground, you get oat flour that you can use to make bread, cookies and all sorts of other wonderful things.

I assure you that I am not on the payroll of any major oat company (not that I wouldn’t mind it). Rather, I just want everyone to know that Cream Puff loves her oats and by extension, her oatmeal.

My favourite brands of oats are the usual suspects: Quaker Oats, McCann’s Irish Oatmeal (for steel-cut oats) and when it’s on sale, Oats from Bob’s Red Mill.

To showcase my love of oatmeal for breakfast, I was going to prepare my standard oatmeal but as luck would have it, I have recently become enamoured of baked oatmeal.

Baked oatmeal uses all the same ingredients and add-ins that stove-top oatmeal does the difference being that baked oatmeal tends to have a slightly different texture. Depending on what you add, it can be airier and at times slightly cake-like. Baked oatmeal, in general, is also not as liquidy as stove-top oatmeal.

Awhile back I found a terrific recipe for Baked Oatmeal with Apples that I fell in love with. You can make this on a Sunday night and enjoy it for breakfast every day of the week. You can add all sorts of things to the recipe and of course you can use any fruit you like including pears, bananas and berries.

As you look towards next week and as you plan your meals, I hope you’ll consider this an option for breakfast!

Ciao!

Baked Oatmeal with Apples, Bananas and Walnuts
Based on this recipe from Kickpleat of Everybody Loves Sandwiches.

1 cup whole rolled oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1-1/4 cups milk (use any type you like)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9-inch pie plate (you can use any baking dish you like) with butter.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Pour into the pie plate and place on a baking sheet in case of spills.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed (but don’t cook it for too long or it will dry out too much).

Remove from the oven and let cool. Serve warm with yogurt and honey.

Enjoy!