Tag: recipes (page 1 of 5)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I hope your evening is filled with more treats than tricks! Ours will be filled with steaming bowls of butternut squash and beef chili (one of our favourites!), topped with sour cream, homemade pickled veggies and cheese. And for dessert, a wickedly delicious chocolate and orange cake with luscious amounts of frosting. It goes without saying that we’ll be watching Hocus Pocus, which will be preceded by It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Is it even Halloween if the marvellous arrangements by Vince Guaraldi aren’t heard while the Peanuts gang go trick-or-treating?

Watch out for witches flying over this most hallowed of full moons! A full moon actually falling on Halloween only happens once every 18 to 19 years. This full moon also happens to be a rare blue moon. It will be the first time that a Halloween full moon will be visible across the entire world since 1944! That feels auspicious!

So here’s to goblins and witches and magic and candy and pumpkins and revelry under the light of the full Hunter’s moon.

I hope that this Halloween finds you all safe and well. 🎃

{“The Halloween Party” (1974), by Lonzo Anderson, illustration by Adrienne Adams found HERE // Pinned HERE}

Egg On A Spoon

Many, many moons ago, in an interview with Lesley Stahl in her California kitchen, I saw Alice Waters make “egg on a spoon” over an open fire. I have long been an admirer of Alice Waters. I grew up in a large Irish/Italian family and on a farm, so eating with the seasons and growing your own food always made perfect sense to me.

There is something so very distinctive about her voice, it’s like listening to Julia Child. Even without looking up, you know it is her voice, there is a particular pacing to the way she speaks. In reading an article on Food & Wine yesterday, I came across this updated video of her cooking her famous “egg on a spoon”. All I can say is, that I want to go to Alice’s house and sit in her cozy kitchen and watch her cook this over an open fire and break bread with her at the table by the french doors!

Click the link to watch the video on the Food & Wine site: Alice Waters’ Secret for preparing “Egg on a Spoon”

{Image of the egg spoon was found in a wonderful Remodelista article I had saved, where Alice and her daughter take us on a tour of her home kitchen}

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Mr. Moon

I see the moon and the moon sees me!

I’m spending this cloudy, windy, chilly Thursday afternoon, listening to a spooky podcast and decorating Halloween cookies for school tomorrow.

I’ve made chocolate and vanilla moons, pumpkins, bats, witches and ghosts. I used Baking A Moment’s chocolate sugar cookie dough recipe and it tastes like a brownie in cookie form! Happiness is…

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The Ending of the Week

This has felt like a week where there has not been a chance to catch your breath. The news is inundated with sadness, from all over the world. I’m very much looking forward to this weekend, as chance to catch our breaths and to hide away in the cottage; baking, cooking, listening to music with candles lit and restoring our beings from the week that has been and the week that is to come.

Inspired by a recent blog post from the lovely Alexandra Stafford, I made her pickled vegetable recipe yesterday morning, to sprinkle over homemade pizza tonight. I don’t know why I haven’t thought about this combination before, as one of our favourite pizza joints in Copenhagen, Neighbourhood, has a pizza that is topped with pickled veggies and we simply adore it. I normally try and recreate things at home, but this one has slipped my mind to attempt. So, I am very excited about dinner tonight, followed by our movie date to see Blade Runner 2049.

On a side note, I have long been a reader and fan of Alex’s and have been making her mother’s peasant bread ever since she originally posted the recipe. It is a staple around these parts. It is super easy to make and incredibly delectable to eat. I make it not only for us, but also for my family when we visit them and quite often to give away to friends. I would highly recommend making a loaf for yourself or someone you love. It is great toasted, slathered with salted butter. It makes a divine grilled cheese, a perfect pair of book ends for a roast beef sandwich and we normally save the ends to make croutons with as toppings for soups or salads.

I hope that wherever you are, you find peace in this weekend and are able to find the beauty in the everyday, because it’s still there, even in this messy, messy world.

Marilyn Monroe’s Stuffing

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - MAY 1953:  Marilyn Monroe on patio outside of her home.  (Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Maybe more famous now then during her lifetime, Hollywood starlet, Marilyn Monroe seems as at home in the kitchen as she did on the silver screen. Auctioned off during a 1999 sale of her personal effects at Christie’s, heralded two well used cookbooks and a set of bright yellow enameled Le Creuset pots and pans. She had a love affair that fans never knew of, she was a kitchen goddess, long before it became a “thing” to be.

I know that today, for many, is a day of preparation and if I was at home celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, we would already be in the kitchen working away on family favourite’s and much loved recipes.  In case you are looking for something new this year or haven’t quite finalized that Thanksgiving menu, I thought I would share this little recipe.

Marilyn Monroe Stuffing Recipe

This recipe, like a recipe from your grandmother or mother, is scrawled on letterhead from an insurance company, probably the nearest thing she had to hand. Recipes written on the back of receipts or in the margins of a book always seem to me, the best kinda recipes! And like many old recipes I have, there is not a clear step-by-step directive, but you can still follow along or hazard a guess at her meaning. However, the NY Times Cooking section has researched and refined her scribbling in to an exact recipe and I shall include that below, in case you don’t have the time or inclination to decipher this yourself.

{Recipe Image From “Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe”}

Marilyn Monroe’s Stuffing, Matt Lee and Ted Lee

INGREDIENTS

  • A 10-ounce loaf sourdough bread
  • ½ pound chicken or turkey livers or hearts
  • ½ pound ground round or other beef
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil
  • 4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 cups chopped curly parsley
  • 2 eggs, hard boiled, chopped
  • 1 ½ cups raisins
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1 ¼ cups chopped walnuts, pine nuts or roasted chestnuts, or a combination
  • 2 teaspoons dried crushedrosemary
  • 2 teaspoons dried crushed oregano
  • 2 teaspoons dried crushed thyme
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon salt-free, garlic-freepoultry seasoning (or 1 teaspoon dried sage, 1 teaspoon marjoram, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon pepper

PREPARATION

  1. Split the bread loaf in half and soak it in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Wring out excess water over a colander and shred into pieces.
  2. Boil the livers or hearts for 8 minutes in salted water, then chop until no piece is larger than a coffee bean.
  3. In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef in the oil, stirring occasionally and breaking up the meat, so no piece is larger than a pistachio.
  4. In your largest mixing bowl, combine the sourdough, livers, ground beef, celery, onion, parsley, eggs, raisins, Parmesan and nuts, tossing gently with your hands to combine. Whisk the rosemary, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper together in a bowl, scatter over the stuffing and toss again with your hands. Taste and adjust for salt. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use as a stuffing or to bake separately as dressing. To serve as a dressing, pile about two quarts of the mixture into a 9-inch square baking dish and bake at 350 degrees until the top is evenly browned, about 1 hour.

Happy Pi Day!

Jennifer Michie Pi Day 2015 1

Happy Pi Day! We’re nerds and we’re okay with that, so today we made a pie. This year’s choice was a black bottom oatmeal pie that I saw on Smitten Kitchen this week. I made a few changes, as I used my favourite pie crust recipe and I took her substitution suggestion of switching karo syrup for golden syrup as I always keep that in the pantry. Karo syrup is not always the easiest thing to find here.

It was scrumptious! After a late dinner date we came home and had a slice with some ice cream! Heaven!

Jennifer Michie Pi Day 2015 2

Dolly Parton’s Banana Pudding

Dolly Parton

I LOVE banana pudding. I don’t think I could call myself Southern, if I didn’t. I also happen to adore Dolly Parton. She is a spitfire country woman for sure! While cruising through Pinterest tonight on my way home, I saw a picture of her, which led me to her banana pudding recipe! What could be better to beat the Monday blues than a little bit of sunshine yellow banana pudding?

The meringue topping would be an interesting twist, I’m more of a sweet whipped cream kinda gal, but if Dolly likes it, I’ll give it a whirl!

The recipe from her cookbook Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s, is below and the original article can be found at AnOther mag.

Pudding

1 box of vanilla wafer cookies
4 large firm, ripe bananas, sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
1 large egg
Yolks of 3 large eggs
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Meringue Topping

Whites of 3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In deep dish toss the cookies and bananas to mix well; set aside.

3. In a large saucepan combine 3/4 cup of sugar, flour and salt, beat in milk until blended and smooth. Bring to boil over medium-low heat and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

4. In small bowl beat egg and egg yolks, adding 2 – 3 tablespoons of the hot milk mixture. Stir egg mixture into saucepan and set over a low heat. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is hot but not boiling. Stir in the butter until melted. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour mixture over cookies and bananas in casserole.

5. To prepare the meringue topping beat the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract together until stiff peaks form. Spoon the mixture over the top of the pudding and bake for 15 minutes until top is golden.

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream for Ice Cream!

It’s been pretty hot lately! We have been eating a lot of cold things to stay cool and I have been very inspired by my ice cream Pinterest board. Here are just a few things that have caught my eye:

Jennifer Michie Ice Cream Pins

1. Blackberry Pie Frozen Yogurt: Amanda K. By The Bay
2. Cherry Almond Ice Cream Cake: Love, Life & Sugar
3. Copycat Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip: Something Swanky
4. Classic Vanilla Bean Ice Cream: Drizzle & Dip
5. Blueberry Pie Milkshake: Saveur
6. Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream: Your Home Based Mom
7. Tangerine Sherbet: Shutterbean

{Don’t follow me on Pinterest already? Click HERE}
{Ice Scream! You Scream! We All Scream for IceCream! board HERE}

Summer Squash Pizza

Jennifer Michie Summer Squash Pizza

I love vegetables! One thing I truly miss living in London is the roadside vegetable stands and pop-up Farmer’s Markets that exist in the South. The places you stop by on a hot Summer day, the vegetables still warm from being picked out of the fields. A Southern staple is yellow squash. I have not been able to get it in England until recently. Last year we noticed that Whole Foods was selling it and like crazy people we stocked up.

This year, I have done the same. Stocking up, slicing it and throwing it in to the freezer, so we have it as a side dish or to throw in to soups, pastas, risottos or in a vegetable medley. I picked some up on my way home from work on Friday and an idea started buzzing in my head. I knew just what I was going to do with it. Mr. Michie was on a school field trip on Saturday and I decided that I would make pizza for dinner. I have played around and around with this one particular dough recipe we like, making adjustments and tweaks and I have finally perfected it to satisfy our tastebuds.

I made the dough early in the day, so it had plenty of time to rise and just be. Before, Mr. Michie got home, I sauteed thin slices of yellow squash and cubes of pancetta. I also slowly cooked down an onion, till it was golden yellow and tender. Once he arrived home we got to work. I shaped the dough and brushed it with garlic oil and a little salt. We sprinkled freshly grated mozzarella over the top and then layered on onions, squash and pancetta. We finished it off with little dollops of ricotta, here and there. Once it was out of the oven it had a sprinkle of freshly chopped basil and some oregano.

It was wonderful. It was the taste of Summer in your mouth, the salty, the sweet, the savoury. It is most definitely a combination that we would make again.

{We have tried many different dough recipes over the years and this has become our favorite. I have made my own tweaks to the dough, but this is the recipe I used before I took the leap to start changing things: Annie’s Eats Homemade Pizza Dough}