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Archive for January, 2011

Magazine Mondays: Banana! And an Apology!

Let me begin with the painful part and end with the banana part because the banana part is sweet and will make the pain go away.

Painful part:

I lost all my e-mail.

All of it.

Don’t know how. But last week, on Thursday evening to be exact, my e-mail went kaput.

Everything. Gone.

So painful. One of the most painful parts was that I lost some Magazine Mondays links sent to me by you … the lovers of MM! Sowwiee!!!!

Okay. Here’s the sweet part to take away the pain:

I made a delicious Chocolate Banana Swirl Cake!

One bite and the e-mail pain disappeared. This delicious cake is from Fine Cooking (Issue #54). Unfortunately the recipe is not available on-line but it’s essentially a banana bread with some melted chocolate stirred into part of the batter. You then alternate the regular batter and the chocolate batter in a bundt pan before baking.

So good!

Remember that to take part in Magazine Mondays, all you have to do is send me a link to a post on your blog based on a magazine recipe. For those of you that sent me links that I managed to lose, please resend!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

While the Fine Cooking recipe is not available on-line, here are some other really good chocolate banana recipes:

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel

Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins

Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I Bring You Flowers.

Here in Toronto, we’re in winter’s blustery grip and I have to say I’m pretty happy about it.

I love winter. Not as much as I love fall, but still, I love winter.

I’m a very good Canadian girl that way.

I do realize, however, that there are many of you out there who hate winter. While I do not understand your hatred of winter, it makes me sad that you’re in pain.

So I am bringing you flowers.

When it come to cake decoration, I have to say I just don’t go for it. I’ll take a simple buttercream over a blanket of fondant any day. And while I can admire the often mind-boggling achievements of cake decorators, I’ll be honest, nothing makes my heart go pitter patter more than a moist cake, simply frosted.

Having said that, I understand that sometimes life calls for a little pizazz. Case-in-point: last fall I was asked to bake cupcakes for a baby shower. The person throwing the party didn’t want to go for the “blue or pink thing”, but she did want pretty cupcakes.

While I am most often described as “the girl with two left hands” when it comes to cake decorating, one thing I do know is that if you can master at least one decorating trick, you’ve got it made.

My trick is “flowers”.

A few years ago, I followed a very basic recipe on the Wilton site for Royal Icing. Using a piping bag and a pastry tip (all available at your local cake supply store), I have mastered the all-purpose “flower”.

I think the first time I tried to make flowers, this was the flower I was aiming for. And somehow it evolved into my all-purpose “flower”. You can use Royal Icing in lots of different colours and it still looks like … a flower. And when you put it on a cupcake or on cakes or on a pie or on a cookie, it looks … nice.

Believe me when I say that if I can manage the dexterity it takes to put the icing in the bag, hold the tip up and pipe out some petals, then anyone can. And you don’t just have to make flowers. You can make all sorts of fun shapes!

So for all you folks “suffering” through winter, remember that the flowers are not far off.

Ciao!

The recipe for Wilton’s Royal Icing is here. This is a very versatile icing that you can use to make all sorts of decorations. It’s also great for gingerbread houses.

Wilton has a great section on decorating basics.

These are the instructions for a basic Swirl Drop Flower.

When I decide to make decorative flowers, I make up a batch of Royal Icing and make hundreds of flowers. Once dry, they last for months. I pipe them onto small pieces of waxed paper (I cut large sheets of waxed paper down) and then pipe one flower onto each piece of waxed paper. I store them in airtight containers.

Magazine Mondays: Going to The Taste Space!

My apologies for the silence on my end. I started in a new position at work this month and it’s been amazing but hasn’t left a lot of time for baking.

Thankfully for Magazine Mondays, I have a lot of folks out there willing to help host.

The lovely Janet of The Taste Space is hosting the January 24th edition of Magazine Mondays. You can read all about it here.

If you have an MM entry, please e-mail it to Janet at saveur11 AT yahoo DOT ca.

See you soon!

Ciao!

Magazine Mondays: Farro!

Have you ever heard of farro?

I sometimes try to think of how I went so long without ever trying this delicious grain! I was introduced to farro by my family in Italy. One of my aunts, in particular, uses it quite a bit and I have been the lucky recipient of many of her dishes featuring farro.

When cooked, farro has a chewy texture that is so good. You can eat it in hot dishes like soup, but you can also eat it at room temperature or even cold. My aunt makes a delicious salad every summer with farro as a base for lots of summer vegetables, olive oil, vinegar and a sprinkling of herbs.

This past summer, I significantly increased the weight of my luggage upon my return from Italy thanks to the packages of farro that I had stuffed in there. For some reason, I’ve found it difficult to find Italian farro here in Toronto. I’ve noticed it in a few stores but it’s not always in stock so I made sure to lug as many packages as I could with me upon my return.

I was so delighted when I saw that Issue 107 of Fine Cooking had a recipe for Roasted Broccoli and Farro Salad with Feta.

This salad is like a gift from the lunch gods. You know … the ones you pray to every day when you find yourself staring into the depths of your refrigerator whilst you wonder, “What am I going to bring for lunch?”

The recipe for this salad yields almost six cups, which makes for a perfect dinner accompaniment and lots of leftovers for lunch.

Most importantly, though, it’s delicious. Between the chewy farro, the feta, the roasted broccoli and the spicy dressing, I had to resist eating all the salad in one sitting.

And best of all, it’s full of all kinds of nutrients. If I haven’t convinced you to make it by now, I never will.

This is my entry for this edition of Magazine Mondays. Here’s who else joined me in attacking that magazine pile:

Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls.

Karen of Mignardies made Macaroni and Cheese from Food Network magazine.

Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made One-pot Chicken with Sausage and Potatoes from the September 2010 issue of Everyday Food and Lamb Chops with Red Onion, Grape Tomatoes, and Feta from the November 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

Remember that Magazine Mondays is a very informal event. Just send me a link to a magazine recipe that yo upost on your blog and I’ll link to it in the next round-up.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

My 11 for 2011

Just before the end of the year, I put up a post about eleven things that I could do without in 2011.

It was an exercise that I read about on the blog the little red house and I found it a tremendously helpful one as it made me really sit and think about my year and what I envisioned for 2011.

In light of that exercise, I thought I’d come up with a list of the 11 things that I want more of in my life in 2011 or that I want to accomplish in 2011.

Here’s my list:

1. No more food magazines (except for the ones that I receive by suscription).
2. Can only buy one cookbook/month.
3. For every cookbook that comes in, one goes out.
4. Swim more.
5. Pay credit card bill every month.
6. Make fresh pasta, at least once a month.
7. Walk every day, rain or shine, for at least half an hour.
8. Read more.
9. Take at least one course that’s not work-related. Any course.
10. Use sunscreen every day.
11. One Saturday lunch or dinner date per month with Mamma Cream Puff.

I’ll let you know at the end of the year how I did! If you feel like it, why not come up with your own list and let us all know about it!

In the meantime, one thing that isn’t on this list is baking more because that’s not necessarily something I need to motivate myself to do.

However, the fact is that in 2010, I didn’t bake nearly as much as I did in previous years.

In an effort to refocus my energies on the things I enjoy, I decided to bake a cake for New Year’s Day dessert. I baked a Chocolate Pistachio Orange Cake from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking by Nick Malgieri.

It was just a lovely old-school type of cake with a delicious pistachio-flecked sponge (soaked in a Grand Marnier syrup), ganache and whipped cream.

And this leads me quite nicely into some great news for the new year. I am so proud to be a finalist in the Best Baking and Dessert Blog category for the 2010 Canadian Food Blog Awards! You can check out all the categories and nominees here. I am so proud to see how many incredible Canadian blogs there are out there and I’m just honoured to be considered among them!

Have a great 2011 everyone!

Ciao!