Tag: cooking (page 2 of 9)

A Surprise!

I walked to meet Mr. Michie on his way home from school yesterday evening. We were discussing how each of our day’s had gone, when he suddenly stopped in the middle of the street and told me to open up his backpack.

I reached into the peppermint stripe interior and felt a thick cardboard envelope. I pulled it out; slowly opened it and inside was a cookbook. Now, I have a bit of an obsession with cookbooks. I don’t cook from all of them; some I use for inspiration, some are vintage and were too good to pass up with the pictures they contained and some are like my bible, I’ve returned to them again and again.

In reading an article that Nigella Lawson wrote this weekend, he discovered Roast Chicken and Other Stories, by Simon Hopkinson and knew that although I would probably not make deep-fried calves’ brains, or roasted lambs’ kidneys; I would be enthralled with other recipes within the book.

He was absolutely correct! What’s even better than the recipes are Hopkinson’s notes and stories that accompany a chapter or recipe. I’m already working on our weekend menu and I think a recipe or two will definitely be featured out of this book.

I’m very a lucky girl to get surprises, especially when they are cookbooks!

Friday

I’m late out for my walk this morning. I normally go when it’s still dark, but I got caught up in doing things around the house. I’ve mopped the bathroom and kitchen floors and replied to a few e-mails and chit-chatted with my postmen after he knocked on our door with a bundle of parcels in his hands for us. It is one of those days where I can’t seem to get ahead. I’m doing things, but that creates another pile of items to be sorted. I’ll get there in the end.

It’s damp outside and raining, it feels like a Friday. The air has that feeling. I’ve been singing along to Christmas tunes while I clean. It makes my heart happy. The weekend is up for grabs. We have a few errands to run on Saturday and I’m working on a grocery list for the week ahead. I have a new recipe that I want to try from a cookbook that Mr. Michie surprised me with.

Mr. Michie had a late school night last night and so when he got home, we ate breakfast for dinner. I made brown sugar and maple syrup roasted apples and sausages with clementine zest, cheese grits and a pan of buttermilk biscuits. He was very happy. After dinner we cozied up on the couch and watched Love Actually. That movie always puts me in a good mood.

Here’s to the weekend! Long may it last!

Sugar Cookies

jennifer-michie-cookies

I’ve been baking this morning. The house smells of fresh bread and sugar cookies. The candles are lit, Christmas music is playing and I’ve just sat down with a hot cup of tea! Happiness is…

Turkey Day Countdown

vintage-thanksgiving

Well, the turkey has been bought. The stuffing is made and ready to be cooked tomorrow. There are cinnamon-brown sugar-clementine marinated carrots prepped and ready to be roasted and a pumpkin pie is cooling on my kitchen table. Lots of my other prep work has been completed, so that should make tomorrow pretty straight forward, fingers crossed.

I’m on Thanksgiving countdown and I can’t wait! What I’m most excited about is my leftover turkey sandwich and a slice of pumpkin pie.

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Getting Ready

getting-ready

I’m getting ready for the weekend. It should be busy, there are lots of errands to run, a menu to plan and a trip to the grocery store. I have a few new recipes that I want to test out as well. Mr. Michie treated me to Ina Garten’s new cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey, which should arrive today and I’m very excited. I don’t know if I have shared this here before, but I have a bit of a cookbook fetish. I don’t cook from all of them, some I use for inspiration alone. But I just love cookbooks. Especially vintage ones! I scored two great Christmas ones last year that are just the sweetest things ever.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, wherever you may be! Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!

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Cooking With Beth

Ms. American Pie Book Cover

For Fourth of July this year I decided to make a pecan pie. I chose a recipe from Beth Howard’s cookbook. I baked “Frank Barnett’s Pecan Pie”. It is more of an old fashioned recipe as it uses just brown and white sugar and not Karo syrup. But whether or not it is made with just sugar or sugar and Karo syrup, I’ll take pecan pie any way I can get it!

It was heavenly. I love pecan pie filling even more than I love pecans, so in the future, I would be tempted to double the recipe for the filling but still use a cup of pecans.

Jennifer Michie Pecan Pie

It was the perfect end to a wonderful evening. We sat with a slice of pecan pie, a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and watched the sun slowly set!

Sugar Cookies

Jennifer Michie Sugar Cookies

There was a heavy drizzle my entire walk this morning, it started as I walked out the door. The morning was quiet, I only passed a few other people. The overcast day and the rain put me in a baking mood, so I decided to roll out a batch of sugar cookies. They will be the perfect dessert tonight. I might have snuck one or two already, but that was just for the purpose of quality control!

Leftovers

Jennifer Michie Galette

I just made it inside yesterday before the sky opened and a thunderstorm commenced. I lit candles and watched the rain pour down from our bedroom window. It was cool yesterday after a hot weekend. The weather made it a perfect excuse to make something comforting for dinner. By using up leftover sautéed onions, sausages, butternut squash and some goat’s cheese, we whipped this galette up for dinner.

I love to create new meals out of leftovers, it makes them more exciting. Although some leftovers don’t need to be tampered with. You can’t beat a good turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving or leftover meatloaf turned into a sandwich oozing with ketchup!

Served with a salad, this savoury galette was the perfect Monday night dinner!

Cooking With Nigella

Nigella Lawson Feast

Mr. Michie went back to work on Tuesday and I got to work too! I pulled out my Feast cookbook by Nigella Lawson and made a batch of dinner rolls. I made them slightly larger than her suggestion and after bathing them in an egg wash and sprinkling them with sesame seeds they were ready for the oven.

Jennifer Michie Nigella Rolls

We used these as the base to build cheeseburger sliders! Perfection!

Bruschetta

Jennifer Michie Bruschetta 1

Today we attacked our bedroom closets and I am now sitting amongst a scattering of bags filled with items to donate to the charity shop. The house smells amazing because we are slow roasting a pork shoulder to make BBQ for dinner tonight. So dinner and another area decluttered are two things I can tick off of my list today.

Jennifer Michie Bruschetta 2

To fortify us for an afternoon spent gutting closets, we made bruschetta for lunch. I marinated the tomatoes over the morning so they were extra flavourful before spooning them over a loaf of ciabatta that I had drizzled with oil and rubbed with garlic before toasting. Fresh mozzarella sat on top while the tomatoes were delicately nestled all around.

A few sprigs of torn basil and a splash of balsamic vinegar and lunch was complete!