Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

If you like chocolate and peanut butter together, you're going to love these. They're chocolate-y, peanut butter-y, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and totally delicious.
I wasn't entirely sure if there were going to work as they were an experiment, but they did and I'm really happy with the result.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Prep: 25 mins | Bake Time 10 minutes | Yield: 3-4 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 squares semi-sweet baker's chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:
1. Cream together the butter and the sugars until smooth and creamy using a wooden spoon. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the melted chocolate (make sure it has had some time to cool because you don't want it to melt the butter) and mix well. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg.
2.  Add the flour and baking soda to the peanut butter/chocolate mixture. Blend until just mixed. Add the chocolate chips and stir until incorporated
3. Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased, non-stick cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart (if your cookie sheet is not non-stick, grease lightly with a bit of vegetable oil or no-stick spray or line with parchment paper).
4. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-11 minutes. Check after 10 minutes - if the cookies are very puffy looking, bake for 1 minutes more (this will give them the crunch on the outside ad the chewy centre).
5. Let sit on baking sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 3 minutes. Put them in an air-tight container while they are still warm.

Be sure to enjoy one or two while they're still warm from the oven with a tall glass of milk

Linguine With Garlic Oil and Pancetta

 I made this a short while ago for dinner and it is amazing. I found the recipe in the book Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson (it is the recipe, in fact that made me want her cookbook). It is posted on her website and I thought I'd share it with you. It is so easy to make and so delicious!

The recipe calls for garlic infused oil, which I didn't actually have, so I just cooked 3 smashed garlic gloves in 2 TBSP of olive oil for about 2 minutes, then discarded that garlic and used that oil and it worked just fine.

 

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/linguine-with-garlic-oil-and-pancetta-188

What's For Dinner?

In light of my husband's recent development of food sensitivities (tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach), he has come up with a theory: our bodies are designed to digest food that our ancestors ate, and are less likely to be able to digest foods that weren't available before globalization carried food around the world. His ancestors hail mostly from the United Kingdom and therefore he has challenged me to cook foods that would be classified as "British" to see if his body feels better eating those foods rather than things like spinach and bell peppers.
Here's what I've come up with:

First off, a ham roast (just the pre-cooked kind, not one that you have to cook all day) with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed baby carrots. Good old fashioned comfort food.

Next is Chicken Club Wraps. This is basically a chicken club sandwich in wrap form (cooked diced chicken breast, bacon, lettuce, cheddar cheese wrapped in a whole whet tortilla) . I've taken out the tomato part and added chopped green onion (I add green pepper for me too because I love it) and Caesar dressing.  

We're going to have hamburgers with corn on the cob one night as we try to hold on to the last days of summer.

The ultimate comfort food this week is potato chowder, hearty and savoury. You peel and cube the potatoes and cook them in a little veg oil in a deep pot with the onions and carrots. Then you boil that mix in chicken (or veggie) stock with some earthy herbs (oregano, thyme, sage, etc). when the potatoes are super tender,  take out about a cup of potatoes and a cup of broth. Puree that until it's smooth and add it back to the soup. This thickens it and gives it a velvety texture. Then add milk, corn, bacon bits and green onions. Top with cheese.

Next, we're going to try a prosciutto and parmesan filled pasta (found this fresh pasta at the grocery store - excited to try it out) with a creamy chicken sauce plus cooked zucchini with garlic.

Then we're going to have beef stroganoff on whole wheat egg noodles plus steamed broccoli. Stroganoff is one of my husband's favourites and I never had it as a kid, so I've had to watch his mom make it and pick up some of her tricks. The trick is instead of using all sour cream, use half sour cream and half onion dip (that way, you don't have to chop up an onion) - if you use a cream cheese based one rather than a sour cream based one, it gives great flavour. I also add paprika for some depth and half a beef bouillon cube.

Lastly, chicken enchiladas. This is one of my favourites and is the only thing on the menu that has peppers. It was my very first "featured recipe" and it just gets better every time. Adding a poblano pepper gives it nice smokiness and serving it with salsa verde (a green sauce made with tomatillos,  serrano or jalapeno peppers and  cilantro) is key. Latin import stores often carry authentic versions.   

I hope this has inspired you.

Bon Apetit!

Kitchen Tips - Part 1

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has their favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe; whether it's the cookies your mom used to make as an after school snack, a secret family recipe passed down through the generations, a recipe you discovered at the back of a magazine, or simply the recipe from the back of the chocolate chips package.
I don't claim to have the best recipe - in fact, I have a sister-in-law and a friend who both make better chocolate chips cookies than I do and, to me, my Grammie was the reigning queen of baked treats (her double chocolate snaps, nutmeg logs with pink icing and coloured sprinkles, boiled raisin cookies and butterhorns were the best things around), but I found a good recipe (on the back of the chocolate chips package) that suits me just fine.
There are, however, a few tips for making GREAT chocolate chips cookies, no matter the recipe.

1. The fat you use - I always use butter and have found that it creates the best flavour. I have tried shortening (when I really wanted cookies but had no butter) and they were okay, but butter works best. Hard margarine works to, but I avoid margarine at all costs as it contains a huge number of ingredients I can't pronounce and is about 2 ingredients away from being plastic. Truthfully, you can use any kind of fat that is solid at room temperature (butter, hard margarine, shortening, lard) but no oils (your cookies will be a funky texture if you use oil). Also, do not melt the fat (same funky texture as using oil). Changing the fat will change the taste.
2. The sugar you use - Many chocolate chip cookie recipes will call for a combination of white sugar and brown sugar. They key here is that a higher ratio of brown sugar will make the cookies chewier; more white sugar will make them crispy. I personally like a soft cookie, so my recipe has twice as much brown sugar as white. (Brown sugar  has molasses added to give it its distinct colour and flavour. It varies in darkness depending on the molasses content. I generally use "golden" or light brown sugar because I think it gives the best flavour). Measuring brown sugar is different than measuring white sugar. Brown sugar needs to be "packed" (scoop it into your measuring cup and then press down with the heel of your hand so it compresses ("packs") some. Then add more sugar and press down until you have the full measurement. Perfectly packed brown sugar will keep its shape when you tip it out of the measuring cup.
3.  The crucial first step - most cookie recipes start the same: "Cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla." Creaming the butter and sugars together is sooo important in getting the texture right. The butter must be room temperature soft (be careful if you microwave the butter to soften it - a few seconds too long and it's melted and that is not good for your cookies). You need to beat the sugars into the butter for several minutes (please, please, please, use a wooden spoon, not an electric mixer! Using an electric mixer makes the texture too fine and besides, cookies taste better when mixed with a wooden spoon) - you will notice that the mixture gets very creamy and the colour will get lighter than when you started mixing. Only then are you ready to add the eggs. Add them one at a a time and fully mix it in before you add the next one. 
4. The flour - This step is more important when making cakes and pastries, but it's not a bad habit to get into for cookies. When measuring the flour, use a smaller scoop/cup to spoon the flour into the measuring cup, then level the top with a flat edge like a butter knife. Spooning the flour into the cup gives you a more accurate measurement. If you just scoop it up with the measuring cup you're using  and then level it off, it packs the flour into the cup and you will actually get more than you really need. 
5. Baking - once you've added all the other ingredients, you're ready to bake. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet and bake for the shortest time as suggested by the recipe, then check them. For a softer cookie, they should just be golden around the edges; for a crispier cookie, they should have a light golden colour on the top and darker edges. To keep soft cookies soft, put them into an airtight container when still slightly warm. 
6. Be sure to eat one or two when they are still warm from the oven with a big class of cold milk!

Featured Recipe

Okay, these are amazing. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was very very happy with the way these turned out. I was a wee bit worried about the flavour and that's the biggest problem with making meatloaf - you can't taste it until it's completely done. Thankfully, they worked and were delicious. I was worried that they would be too spicy, but they weren't at all and had a really nice smoky taste - just what I was hoping for. Not too much work either . We ate them with Mac and Cheese and a side salad.

Smoky Pork Mini-Meatloaves

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground pork
1 poblano pepper, diced
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp each dried oregano and paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper, divided
1 TBSP Johnny's Garlic Seasoning
2 pinches chipotle chili powder
1 tsp hot sauce (i.e. Frank's Red Hot Sauce)
4 TBSP BBQ sauce (I used Bullseye)
1/4 cup quick oats

Method:
1. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add poblano and onion. Cook until very soft, about 12 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with half the salt and pepper. Puree in a food proceesor until smooth. Cool in the freezer for 5 minutes
2. Add all remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Add pepper mixture. Gently mix with your hands until just mixed (be careful not to mix the meat too much as that can make your meatloaf tough).
3. Form into mini loaves (about the size of a hamburger patty and about 1.5 inches thick). Cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit on a drip tray  for 20 minutes (the drip tray helps them get crispy all the way around as the fat can drain off); flip and cook for 20-25 minutes more (until the temp reads 170 on a meat thermometer).

  

Featured Recipe

This idea came about from a conversation with my brother-in-law (who is also a bit of a foodie) who was telling me about savoury waffles. We had quite the conversation about all the different kinds that could be made and, to be honest, he beat me to the punch and made ham, cheese and broccoli waffles a few months ago. I made these tonight and they were really, really good! I made a bell pepper sauce to go on them which just rounded out the whole flavour. If you're looking for a savoury option for breakfast (or dinner), these are the waffles for you!

Savoury Ham and Cheese Waffles with Bell Pepper Sauce

Ingredients (waffles:)
1 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika
1 1/4 cups milk
5 TBSP vegetable oil
2 eggs, separated
150 grams of sharp cheddar cheese
6 slices deli ham, coppped

Method:
1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside
2. Separate the eggs. Put the egg yolks in a medium size bowl, beat with a fork and set aside. Put the egg whites in a glass bowl and beat with a mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside
3. Mix the remaining wet ingredients, except egg whites, into the bowl with the egg yolks. Add the ham and the cheese
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet into the well. Mix gently until everything is incorporated. Gently fold in the egg whites
5. Cook on a hot, non-stick Belgian waffle maker (round waffles with really big "holes"). Cook until deep golden. Serve with bell pepper sauce (recipe follows)



Ingredients (sauce)
1 each red and poblano peppers, roughly diced
1/2 green pepper
1/4 small red onion, roughly diced
1 splash grapeseed oil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp Johnny's Garlic Seasoning
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 vegetable (or chicken) bouillon cube
1/4 cup water

Method:
1.  Heat the grapeseed oil in a large pan. Cook the peppers and onion for about 5 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the remaining ingredients (except the water) and cook for about 3 minutes more. Turn off the heat.
3. Add the water to de-glaze the pan. Pour into a large bowl and puree with a hand blender (or use a regular blender) until pureed (but don't make it super smooth, you want it to have some texture). Serve warm over fresh waffles.

Waffles with the sauce on top

This sauce would also be really good on pizza.

What's For Dinner?

I know it's been quite a while since I've done a "What's for Dinner" feature and, to be honest, I've had very little inspiration and my menus have been very boring repeats of the same things I cook all the time.
This week, things have changed. I was sick if cooking the same stuff over and over so I have at least 3 creative meals this week. My husband has some favourites so I've mixed those with the creative ones.

The first is an experiment and I made them tonight and they are so good! Savoury Ham and Cheese Waffles with Bell Pepper Sauce. Mixed sharp cheddar and diced ham into my mom's waffle recipe. The served them with a sauce made of green, red and poblano peppers cooked with red onion and a wee bit of veggie stock. They are good enough to be this week's featured recipe.

Next up, chicken club wraps. Cook chicken and sprinkle with some Johnny's Garlic Seasoning. Warm a whole wheat flour tortilla and put a on few thin slices of cheese, some chicken, bacon bits, green onion, green pepper, chopped tomatoes, lettuce and Caesar dressing and wrap up. Simple and quick and delicious

Next, Peanut Noodles with Chicken, Carrots and Red Pepper. This is one I came up with when I first got married and it's a favourite. Cook up some whole wheat spaghetti. Meanwhile, cook diced chicken breast with red onion, julienne carrots and julienne red peppers (julienne is just a fancy French word for really thinly sliced). Stir in some store bought spicy peanut sauce (I like President's Choice Memories of Szechaun), some warm spices (like ginger, cinnamon, cayenne), some green onion, and a few drops of sesame oil. Add cooked spaghetti and stir to completely coat. A nice change from tomato based spaghetti.

Next up, Smoky Pork Mini Meatloaves with poblano peppers and new potatoes. This is also an experiment and I'm not quite sure how it's going to work. I am envisioning roasting the poblano pepper with some white onion, then pureeing and adding it to the ground pork with some oats, cumin, chipotle chili and maybe some bbq sauce and/or Frank's Red Hot sauce. I have learned from my mother-in-law that if you make mini meatloaves and just cook them on a cookie sheet, they get crispy all the way around (no more soggy meatloaf!). Serve with boiled new potatoes. Fingers crossed it works out.

The third experiment is going to be mini beef meatballs with a sesame/soy quinoa salad. Quinoa, bean sprouts, green onion, lettuce with a sesame/soy ginger dressing. Then toss in some mini beef meatballs (home made, of course). Should be good.

Last up, Creamy Chicken Carbonara Penne. Chicken, bacon, red peppers and onions in a delicious creamy sauce serve over whole wheat pasta (penne or rotini work best). This is one of my husband's all time favourites (pretty much any creamy pasta sauce will please him, but this is one of his faves). I've made this with leftover pork tenderloin before and it was divine.

One last thing - a tip for today: if you cook with any kind of hot pepper (poblano, jalapeno, banana, etc) make sure you WASH YOUR HANDS before you touch your face. My face was a bit burn-y because I scratched an itch before washing my hands. Very Important Step!!  

I hope this helps you with some ideas for dinner.

Bin Appetit!