Raspberry & Black Pepper Vinaigrette

Shocker, it is another raspberry recipe haha.  I wanted to use my overflow of raspberries in some different ways other than just in sweets, so I decided to take on a vinaigrette.  I do a ginger soy dressing that I really enjoy so I just used that recipe and removed a few items and added a few in its place in hopes that it would resemble a vinaigrette. Cracked black pepper was added in as I love the bite of it with berries, and I do believe it worked out quite well.

I once again have used my Blendtec for this, but you can use whatever you have on hand (hand mixer, blender etc.).  This recipe is good for about 4 mason jars full, so you can make some for yourself and share a little with friends.

Raspberry & Black Pepper Vinaigrette

2 cups olive oil

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

1 tbsp fresh chopped basil

¼ cup agave nectar syrup

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper (or more if you want it to have more bite)

1 cup raspberries

1. Add all ingredients together and blend till smooth.

2.  Run through sieve to rid of the seeds. And enjoy.

Raspberry & Cherry Popsicles

Continuation of raspberry madness here.  It is finally summer  in the Lower Mainland, and there have been some fairly hot sunny days sprinkled in here and there. So, popsicles (or poc’les as my favourite little lady Memphis likes to call them) were in order.

As mentioned in the previous post, I have an abundance of raspberries from the backyard on hand and decided to add in some BC cherries while they were still readily available.  I have made a few versions of popsicles so far this summer, but these ones have been my favourite so far as I like a nice tart pop in flavour.  These were also Ryker approved as he finished his own and part of mine as well.

Raspberry & Cherry Popsicles

1 cup cherries, pitted

1½ cups raspberries

1/3 cup raw cane sugar

1/3 cup water

1.  Blend til smooth (I used my monster Blendtec for this task)

2.  Strain seeds out.  Pour into popsicle containers.

3.  Freeze and enjoy! Easy 🙂

Raspberry Coconut Macaroons

Ok folks, you are about to get bombarded with some raspberry concoctions, as our raspberry bushes received an abundance of rain during the spring and are quite plentiful.

First up are Raspberry Coconut Macaroons.  These little cookies are quite fun as they come out a bright magenta colour.  You can create a more marbled effect if you like by not blending the raspberries in all the way.  I used our blendtec blender which made the process move along super fast, but if you don’t have a ridiculously expensive and loud blendtec blender, a food processor will work just fine 😉

There are a few versions of these out there (I believe Smitten Kitten being the originator), and after tasting mine I’m pretty sure all versions are probably quite delicious.  Ideally, you want the outsides to have a slight crisp to them and a lovely chewy middle.

Raspberry Coconut Macaroons

2½ cups unsweetened coconut

½ cup raw cane sugar

2 egg whites

½ tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

¾ cups raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 325º

2.  Food process coconut until it is crumbly.  Add egg, vanilla, sugar & salt.  Then pulse in the raspberries (if you desire a marble effect, leave raspberries in chunks).

3. Place 1 tbsp scoops onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake about 25 mins.  Remove from oven and let them sit for about 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack.  Store in a cool place.

Makes about 2 dozen

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

Alright folks, it has been quite sometime since I have done a post on this page! But, I recently made some super delicious bars that inspired me to get back in the swing of things here.  I have also been busy on my other page The Mane Squeeze, which is focused more on hair, fashion, beauty and all of that good stuff.

Anyways, the Rhubarb in my backyard was almost on the brink of going past its prime but I caught it in time with a reminder from Richard.  I’ve never actually cooked or baked with Rhubarb before, but my mom always did as we had some in my backyard growing up as well.  I decided to mix it up with some strawberries (not from the backyard, but still local :)) and try out some crumb bars topped with a cinnamon and nutmeg glaze.  All I can say is yum! I had to send the majority with Richard to work out of fear of eating them all.

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

Filling:

1½ cups unsweetened rhubarb, chopped

1½ cups strawberries, sliced

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ cup white sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

Crust:

1½ all purpose flour

1½ quick cook oats

1 tbsp flax seeds

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup butter, softened

1 egg

Glaze:

¾ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF.  In a saucepan combine rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice.  Cover and cook over medium heat until tender, stirring occasionally.

2.  Combine the white sugar and cornstarch, and stir into fruit mixture.  Cook until mixture comes to a boil and mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and set aside.

3.  Combine all of the crust ingredients in a bowl, except for the egg.  Beat at a low speed until mixture becomes crumbly.  Reserve 1½ cups of crust mixture, set aside.  Beat in 1 egg into the remainder of the crumb mixture.

4.  Line bottom of a 9×13 greased pan with the egg crumb mixture.  Then spread the filling evenly across the crust.  Then sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture.

5.  Bake for 30-35 mins or until golden brown.  Let the bars cool completely.

6.  Combine all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl and drizzle over the bars.  Enjoy!

A Seussical Birthday

Today, my little man turned 1 year old! I just can’t believe that a whole year has gone by, it all happens so very fast.
Ryker is my everything, so I wanted to make his first birthday very special. We love Dr.Seuss, so that is the theme that I decided to run with. I made sure that all the food was Dr.Seuss themed, and I pulled different types of food from his books and made my interpretation of them.  To add some nice little details I made label cards and copied pages from the books of where the inspiration for the food came from.
Anyways, enough with the chatting. I’m just going to post all the pics below of how everything turned out. I’m not putting any recipes up on this post as it would make it insanely long, but if you have any questions at all about recipes, how I made things etc., please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments or leave me your e-mail and the requested recipe and I would be more than happy to share anything with you.

Treat Bags

Party fun stuff

Barbaloot Truffula Fruit (The Lorax) – Assorted fruit

Thing One and Thing Two (The Cat in the Hat) – Vanilla Cupcakes & Chocolate Cupcakes

Who Roast Beast (How the Grinch Stole Christmas) – Roast Beef Rollups

Three Cheese Tree (Fox in Sox) – Cheddar, Havarti & Swiss

Schlopp with a Cherry on Top (Oh the Thinks You Can Think) – White Chocolate Mousse topped with a cherry

Pink Ink Drink for Yink (One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish) – Berry Lemonade

Green Eggs & Ham (Green Eggs & Ham) – Green Deviled Eggs and Prosciutto Wrapped Honey Dew with Mint

Ryker’s Cat in the Hat Cake! It was my first attempt at decorating something properly ever.

Happy Birthday little man! I love you with all of my heart!

Reese’s Chunk Cookies

So because we had a dismal turnout of 12 kids this halloween (I blame Black & Orange day, but don’t get me started on that) and I was expecting over 100, we had a large amount of leftover halloween candy.  I set aside the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with the intentions of making something yummy, and the other day settled on making my Mom’s Chocolate Chipper recipe and replacing the chocolate chips with some Reeses Peanut Butter Chunks.

The result was amazingly delicious, so much so, that I ate a couple and sent the remainder with Richard to work out of fear that I could not show any restraint with these little nuggets of goodness.  The great thing about them is that the peanut butter filling in the cups melts into the cookie and that combined with bites of milk chocolate is fantastic.

I think this recipe would work great with any chocolate bar treats chopped up, just make sure you chill them first before stirring into the batter so they hold their “chunkiness”.

Reese’s Chunk Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2-2½ cups chunked & chilled Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (approx. 12 halloween size cups)

1.  Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugars together.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time and add vanilla

2.  In another bowl mix together flour, salt and baking soda.  Stir dry mixture into wet mixture.  Stir in Reese’s chunks.

3.  Drop spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for approx. 12 mins.

Makes approx. 4½ dozen

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

It’s cookie time!

I have had some butterscotch chips in my cupboard for quite some time just waiting to be used, so I decided upon a Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie.  I wanted these cookies to have a lot of texture and lots of bits of goodness in every bite so I added some walnuts and flaxseeds in with the oats and butterscotch chips….Just a side note, every time I type butterscotch, I type it like butterschotch, sigh.

These little gems came out tasting great and were full of flavour.   They have made it into my top 5 cookie list, and will be making some repeat appearances.

 

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

¾ cup butter

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp water

1 egg

1 cup flour

¾ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

2½ cups rolled oats

1 tbsp flaxseeds

1 cup butterscotch chips

½ chopped walnuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Cream together butter and the 2 sugars.  Mix in water, egg and vanilla.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and cinnamon.  Combine wet and dry mixtures.

3.  Stir rolled oats, flaxseeds, butterscotch chips and walnuts into the mixture.

4.  Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-15mins.

Makes about 4 dozen

Turkey & Roasted Tomatillo Soup

I still had some leftover turkey and turkey stock sitting in my freezer waiting to be used.  My turkey hangover had finally passed from Thanksgiving the other day, so I decided it was time to make a turkey soup as planned.

I gave this soup a bit of a “fiesta” flavour and it features roasted tomatillos and corn alongside the turkey.  This is a slow cooker recipe (my favourite kind of recipe), but it does require a little bit of prep beforehand other than just some chopping.  The prep can definitely be done the night before and stored in the fridge so that you can toss everything in the pot in the morning and head off to work or go about your daily duties with no fuss or worry.

Now I had never worked with tomatillos before this recipe and was initially going to make a salsa verde sauce when I purchased them, but then decided that I wanted to experiment and incorporate a roasted version of them into my soup.  The result was delicious!…..I still have all intentions to try and make a salsa verde sauce though.

This little mixture of roasted tomatillos, onion and garlic is essential to the flavour of the soup!

Turkey & Roasted Tomatillo Soup

4 cups of turkey or chicken broth

2 cups of shredded turkey

1 cup of corn

½ cup carrots, diced

½ cup celery, diced

5 tomatillos, cut into chunks

½ tsp chili powder

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp sage

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp canola oil

½ onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Place chucks of tomatillos in a baking dish and bake in oven until skins have blackened a bit.  About 15 mins.

2.  While tomatillos are in oven.  Heat oil in a saucepan and add onions and garlic into pan, cook on medium heat until onions are translucent.  Then add roasted tomatillos into onion and garlic mix and stir, tomatillos should just fall apart into mixture.  At this point you can store mixture in fridge if you are planning to make the soup the next day or carry on with the recipe.

3.  Add all ingredients, including the tomatillo mixture into a slow cooker and cook for either 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.

Makes 4 servings

Calories Per Serving:

Calories 272      Fat 6g       Carbs 13g       Protein 37g

Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

Oh mashed potatoes, how I do love thee.  Mashed potatoes definitely make the cut for my last meal and would be eaten with a carefully crafted gravy volcano.

My mom used to make these mashed potatoes called “Deluxe Mashed Potatoes” on the holidays and they were delicious, so I tried to mimic them the best that I could.  This is a recipe for some cheesy mashed potato goodness.  If you are on a diet, you either need to close this page now, or just say “screw it” and enjoy 🙂

 Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

8-10 medium potatoes

4oz. cream cheese softened

4tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp milk

6 tbsp butter

¼ tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried dill

¼ tsp salt

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Peel and quarter potatoes.  Cook potatoes in a large sauce pan with enough water to cover them for about 20-25 mins or untill tender.  Drain liquid.

2.  You can use a food processor or electric hand mixer.  If using a food processor you may have to do the mixing in 2 sessions so divide ingredients as needed.   Combine potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, milk, butter, garlic powder, dill, salt and shredded cheese.  Beat/pulse mixture until fluffy.

3.  Put mixture into a  9×13 baking dish and bake for 30 mins covered, and 15 mins uncovered

Makes approx. 8 servings

Cranberry Sauce

Now, you can always buy canned cranberry sauce, but just tastes so much better when you can make it yourself and it is so very easy.  Cranberry sauce is a requirement for me with my turkey on the holidays.  I also put it on my leftover turkey sandwiches with some mayo and havarti…yum.

Here is a super easy recipe for you, it takes about 15-20 minutes.  I don’t like my cranberry sauce too sweet, so the recipe below reflects that, but you can feel free to adjust that amount as you please.

 Cranberry Sauce

10 oz. cranberries

½ cup sugar

1 cup pineapple juice

1. In a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the pineapple juice over medium heat.

2. Stir in the cranberries and cook for about 10 minutes.  Remove sauce from heat and pour in bowl.  Store in fridge.