We made some changes to this to make it a bit more healthful; primarily, cutting back on the cheese and corn chips. (The recipe calls for making your own by frying corn tortillas; we had a package of corn tostadas and just broke some of those up.)

Skillet Beef Enchiladas

Cook's Country June/July 2016 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 batch enchilada sauce
• 1-1½ C shredded mild cheddar or jack
• ¼ C sliced olives
• 3 green onions, sliced thin
• 4+2 tostadas, shattered
• sour cream for serving

Directions

1. Add beef, onion, and salt to a medium-hot skillet. Cook until beef is browned, ~6 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add enchilada sauce and four of the tostadas.
3. Simmer until thickened, ~5 minutes.
4. Top with remaining tostada fragments, olives, scallion,s and cheese.
5. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until cheese is melted.
6. Serve with sour cream.

Made this so we could make deconstructed enchiladas. Not much to say about it.

Enchilada Sauce

Cookie and Kate

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin, ground
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• ⅛ tsp salt
• pinch of cinnamon
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 C broth
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• ½ tsp fresh black pepper, ground

Directions

1. Mix together flour, chili powder, cumin, garlic, oregano, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
2. Heat oil in a small pot over medium-high heat until a pinch of the flour mix sizzles when dropped into it.
3. Whisk in flour mix and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly darkened, ~1 minute.
4. Whisk in tomato paste. It will clump.
5. Add broth and whisk to de-clump it.
6. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer gently, whisking often, until sauce thickens.
7. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar and black pepper.

Lean, cornmeal pancakes without any butter or oil in the batter. They're pretty tasty, but I do feel that they need a little syrup or something on top. I thought about putting more fruit, but I really wanted the syrup.

The original recipe said that you should get four servings of three pancakes each using ~1/4 c. of batter per pancake. I did that, but I only got 10 pancakes from my batch! On the bright side, that did make the math for Points per pancake work out a little nicer.

Oh. I think I just figured out why a) my batter seemed a bit on the thick side and b) I didn't get as many pancakes as the recipe said I should. I forgot the water! It wasn't listed in the ingredients, so, as far as my brain was concerned, it didn't exist. Aargh!

Cornmeal Blueberry Pancakes

Slightly adapted from Weight Watchers

Ingredients

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/3 c. cornmeal
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. buttermilk (or 1 c. milk + 1 Tbsp. lemon juice)
• 2 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 large egg
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt.
2. Sift in the baking powder and baking soda and stir to combine.
3. In a measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, lemon zest, egg, and WATER.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Stir in the blueberries.
6. Set aside for 5-10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, heat a griddle or tawa over medium-low heat.
8. Very lightly grease it and cook your pancakes, using ~1/4 c. of batter for each one.
9. Serve with fresh fruit and/or maple syrup.

Weight Watchers billed this recipe as a "cake". Looking at it -- and tasting the results -- I would say it's more of a baked oatmeal. Although I will grant them that adding the raspberries does take it up a notch and make it feel a bit more sweet and indulgent. (I mean, it still tastes fairly lean and "wholesome", but it was enough to scratch that dessert itch for me tonight.)

I think I'd be inclined to add a little vanilla (and maybe a touch more maple syrup) next time, but it was decent overall. Especially considering that it managed to squeak through at only 2 "Points" per serving. (Obviously the Points per serving would increase if you started doing things like bumping up the maple syrup quantities, but at least this gives you a low-cost starting point.)

The recipe calls for plain Greek yogurt, but I only had regular yogurt, so my "batter" came out pretty runny. It still cooked up fine though. I think it might've been nice to add another tablespoon or two of oats to the mix, but maybe I wouldn't have wanted that if I'd been using the thicker, lower moisture Greek yogurt called for.

Microwave Baked Oatmeal

Slightly adapted from Weight Watchers

Ingredients

• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 c. plain (Greek) yogurt, preferably fat-free
• 2 tsp. maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. uncooked quick oats
• 2/3 c. fresh or frozen raspberries

directions

1. Mash banana and combine it with the yogurt, cinnamon, and vanilla.
2. Mix in the eggs.
3. Stir in the oats.
4. Divide mixture evenly between two mugs.
5. Microwave on high for 1 minute.
6. Stir, then microwave on high for another 1 1/2-2 minutes.
7. Top each portion with half of the raspberries and serve.

This was, in theory, meant to be a butternut squash soup. But I could only get pumpkin in my produce basket this week, so I made it with that instead. And then I was a bit shy on pumpkin, so I tossed in a lonely sweet potato that I had left over from another recipe to make up the difference. So, all-in-all, maybe not quite the same soup that the recipe authors had in mind, but it was tasty nonetheless.

And using the pumpkin worked out nicely because then I had freshly roasted pumpkin seeds to use as garnish. The original recipe called for roasted, salted pepitas (which are just shelled pumpkin seeds anyway). I had some shelled pumpkin seeds in the freezer. But I figured, rather than trying to roast and salt them, it'd probably be easier and more efficient to just use the freshly harvested in-shell seeds. They're a bit different texturally, but they still provide some nice salt and crunch, so I think it worked out well.

The original recipe was mean to be a small batch, "cooking for two" recipe. But since I wanted to use up the whole pumpkin in one go (and have enough soup to serve all three of us + have some leftovers), I just doubled all the quantities.

Pumpkin-Sweet Potato Soup

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2021

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin (~900g)
• 2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil, divided
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 3/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground, divided
• 1 sweet potato (~200g), peeled and cubed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried sage
• 4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Halve the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and "guts". Reserve the seeds.
3. Brush the pumpkin halves with 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil and place cut-side-down on a baking sheet.
4. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for 30-45 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
6. Meanwhile, reduce oven temperature to 150°C (300°F) and toss pumpkin seeds with 1 tsp. of olive oil, 1/2 tsp. of the salt, and 1/2 tsp. of the pepper.
7. Roast the pumpkin seeds at 150°C (300°F) for half an hour, stirring and turning every 10 minutes.
8. Once the pumpkin has cooled enough to handle, remove the flesh from the skin. Discard the skin and reserve the flesh.
9. While the pumpkin seeds are roasting, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. of olive oil over medium-low heat.
10. Add the onion and sweet potato and cook, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.
11. Add the garlic and sage and cook for another minute or two.
12. Add the stock, pumpkin, and remaining 1/4 tsp. of salt and 1/4 tsp. of pepper and bring to a boil over medium heat.
13. Reduce heat medium-low and simer, covered, for ~15 minutes.
14. Remove from heat and blend until smooth with an immersion blender.
15. Stir in cream.
16. Serve garnished with blue cheese and pumpkin seeds.

Methi Lobhia (Black-Eyed Peas with Fenugreek)

TF has been having some digestive issues lately, so we're trying to eliminated a few things from her diet to see if we can find the culprit. Right now, she's trying to eliminate soy and gluten to see if that helps. It does seem to be working. (Either that, or she's getting better on her own.) So, in a couple weeks, we can try adding one or the other back in to see what effect that has.

The upshot of all of this is that I had to do a bit of last-minute re-working of the meal plan for this week. So, instead of pumpkin soup (which would've involved a commerical soup stock concentrate with soy in it), I opted for this black-eyed pea dal.

It looked quick and easy to make. We had all the bits readily to hand. And it even used up a half tin of tomatoes I had sitting in the fridge. So, winner-winner-dried-legume-dinner!

Photo goes here.

Methi Lobhia

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried black-eyed peas
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 onion, minced
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-4 fresh green Thai or finger chilies
• 425mL diced tomatoes
• 1 c. chopped fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

Directions

1. Rinse the peas well and place in pressure cooker with the water.
2. Pressure cook on high for 20 minutes with a 15-minute natural release.
3. Meanwhile, melt ghee over medium-low heat.
4. Add onion, garlic, and chilies and cook, stirring occasionally, until nicely browned (10-15 minutes).
5. Add tomato, fenugreek, sugar, salt, and turmeric and cook, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
6. Once the peas are ready, release the residual pressure and add the sauce.
7. Simmer over medium heat for ~5 minutes.
8. Serve with rice and/or flatbreads.

A nice quick, easy, meal that produces very satisfying results. There's not much to it, but I found the sweetness of the onions and bell peppers really came through.

I didn't have quite as much sausage as the recipe called for, but I think it was still okay with the lesser amount. I also opted to toss a bouillon cube into the polenta in place of the salt called for in the original recipe. And, as usual, I cooked my polenta with a little more water than Cook's Country recommends. They advise a 4:1 ratio of water:polenta, but I usually do 5:1.

The only other change I made was to reduce the quantity of butter called for. I've been trying to eat a little healthier and I know just eating the same things with slightly less butter/fat won't make much difference, but hopefully it'll help a little.

Oh, and I was using Beyond Meat sausages, so this was actually a vegetarian meal for us as well.

Polenta with Sausage, Peppers, and Olives

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2017

Ingredients

• 5 c. water + 1 bouillon cube (or 2 c. water + 3 c. stock of your choice)
• 1 c. cornmeal
• 450g Italian sausages
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
• 1 onion, halved and sliced thin
• 425mL crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground, divided
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives, halved
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine the water and cornmeal and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until very thick.
3. Meanwhile, cook the sausages over medium heat until browned on all sides (5-6 minutes).
4. Increase heat to medium-high and add the bell pepper and onion.
5. Cook until vegetables are softened (4-5 minutes).
6. Add the tomato, red pepper flakes, salt, and 1/4 tsp. of the butter and cook until slightly thickened (3-4 minutes). Break the sausages up a bit if you'd like.
7. Remove from heat and stir in olives.
8. When the polenta is done, remove from heat and stir in butter and remaining 1/2 tsp. of pepper.
9. Serve polenta topped with sauce.

I've had this recipe sitting in my bookmarks for ages. It really appealed to me when I first saw it, but we didn't have all the ingredients (and also, it's pretty unhealthy, so I couldn't really justify going out and getting the bits for it). So, it sat there in my bookmarks, mostly ignored and forgotten.

I wasn't even planning on making it today. I was going to do a completely different unhealthy, cheese-based recipe. But, sadly, my goat cheese had gone off, so I had to punt on my original plans. But this still left me with half a package of cream cheese to use up. Perfect for making half a batch of brownie batter dip! And, since it's only a half batch, I feel less bad about its nutritional status.

(The recipe below reflects the original quantities since I figure I'm more likely to have a whole brick of cream cheese on hand than a half package, but feel free to scale it up or down as needed.)

Brownie Batter Dip

Slightly adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 6 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese with butter until combined.
2. Sift in icing sugar and cocoa powder.
3. Add milk, vanilla, and brown sugar and beat until smooth.
4. Serve with fruit or graham crackers to dip.

Bittarai Kirihodi (Egg and Milk Gravy)

This is a simple Sri Lankan egg curry and the "milk" in this case is coconut milk, rather than cow's milk.

I was reluctant to try egg curries for ages. They just didn't sound appealing to me. Eggs and curry didn't really seem like a natural match and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But every egg curry I've tried so far -- and there have been several -- has been fantastic!
TM and the Kidlet were both particular fans of this one, so I wanted to make sure I got it written up promptly. (It looks like one of the other egg curries we made a while back missed getting posted, so I'll have to try to correct that at some point.)

Bittarai Kirihodi

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredeints

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 1-2 (3") cinnamon sticks
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 fresh green Thai or finger chilies, halved lengthwise
• 2 tsp. untoasted Sri Lankan curry powder
• 1 (400mL) can coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 6 extra-large eggs¹, hard-boiled and peeled

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the fenugreek seeds and cinnamon sticks and sizzle for ~30 seconds.
3. Add the onion and chilies and cook for ~5 minutes.
4. Add the curry powder and cook for ~30 seconds.
5. Add the coconut milk, salt, and turmeric and stir to combine.
6. Add the peeled eggs (whole) and simmer, basting often, for 5-10 minutes.
7. Serve with rice and whatever veggies you prefer.

---

¹ Iyer calls for either extra-large or jumbo eggs. I just ended up using large since that's what I had on hand. If you only have smaller eggs available, you may want to consider adding one or two extras. Or, alternatively, just do it with six and see how much sauce you have left over after eating them. If there's a lot of extra sauce, you can always boil up some more eggs and simmer them in the leftover sauce the next day! ^Back

I had some nervous energy to use up last night, so I decided to try out a new brownie recipe. I've been eyeing up this one from Northwest Sourdough for a few days now. It looked pleasingly simple and seemed like a nice way to use up a bit of starter. Plus, I figured TF and the Kidlet would be well-pleased to discover a fresh pan of brownies waiting for them.

In the end, these came out a bit more like a chocolate cake than a brownie. An ultra-rich, very delicious chocolate cake, but still leaning a bit more cake than brownie. Although the author does note that if you use the full amount of starter called for, it will make them a bit cakier, and if you reduce the quantity of starter, they will be denser. I used the full 200g of starter for this time through, but I think I'd try cutting it back to 150g next time and see how that comes out. I'd also be tempted to omit the baking soda next time. I just wasn't sure if the alkalinity was needed to counteract the tang of the starter. Maybe I'll just experiment with reducing it somewhat for now. We'll see how it goes...

The only other small change I might try making is to microwave the butter with the sugar (rather than starting with the butter and chocolate toghether). I found a post on the King Arthur blog that suggests heating the butter and sugar together and then stirring in the chocolate. I'm not sure how much of a difference changing up the order of the ingredients will make to the final result, but I figure it's worth a shot.

Sourdough Chocolate Brownies

Slightly adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

• 113g unsalted butter
• 100g sugar
• 230g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 150g ripe (active/fed) sourdough starter @ 100% hydration
• 100g dried cherries (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract (optional)
• extra chocolate (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square pan.
2. If using both cherries and almond extract, combine them in a microwaveable bowl, cover, and nuke until hot. Then set aside to cool while you mix the batter.
3. Melt the butter with the sugar until hot and bubbling.
4. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth and melted.
5. Stir in salt and vanilla.
6. Mix in eggs.
7. Sift in baking soda and stir to combine.
8. Stir in starter.
9. Stir in any inclusions (like cherries, walnuts, raspberries, chocolate chips, peanut butter, marshmallows, M&Ms, etc.).
10. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~25 minutes.
11. Remove from oven. If desired, sprinkle top of brownies with chocolate chips or more chopped chocolate.
12. Let cool completely before serving.

I still kind of can't believe that I found a recipe that fit my ingredients so well. I had cream cheese, fresh goat chees, and mascarpone to use up. This cake uses all three. And it calls for cranberries and pistachios, both of which I had in the freezer. And the cranberries have been going begging for months now, so I was thrilled to finally have a use for them. (I kept contemplating trying to make cranberry curd to use as either a cake or pie filling, but never quite getting around to it.)

And the cake was delicious. Not, I think, my favourite cheesecake, but it was still really good.

The cake itself is very simple. Just cheese, eggs, and a bit of sugar and vanilla. No crust either! The topping is a little more complicated since you have to poach the cranberries and then strain them and use the poaching liquid to make a gelée. Plus there's making the candied pistachios. But none of those tasks are particularly onerous. I think the worst part of making this cake was all the waiting! Everything needs to be cooled and cilled to set up properly, so it takes forever to be ready to eat. (I actually got impatient and cut mine before the topping had completely set. It was still tasty, just a bit messy.)

Goat Cheese Cake with Wine-Poached Cranberries and Candied Pistachios

Slightly adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

Cake

• 375g cream cheese, softened
• 225g fresh goat cheese
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 vanilla bean
• 340g mascarpone
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

Topping

• 1 c. port¹
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2-3 strips of lemon peel (~2cm x 5cm each)
• 225g fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 Tbsp. cold water
• 1 1/4 tsp. unflavoured gelatin
• 1/2 c. candied pistachios

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and wrap a 23cm (9") springform pan in tin foil.
2. Combine the cream cheese, goat cheese, sugar, and salt.
3. Split open the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds, and add them to the bowl with the cheeses and sugar. (Put the vanilla pod in your sugar bowl or save it for another use.)
4. Beat the cheese mixture for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the mascarpone and beat it in.
6. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
7. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared springform and place it in a roasting pan or other large vessel. Pour hot water into the roasting pan until it comes ~2/3 of the way up the side of the foil-wrapped springform.
8. Carefully transfer the cake in its bain marie to the oven and bake at 160°C (325°F) for ~60 minutes².
9. Transfer springform pan to wire rack to cool.
10. After 1-2 hours, transfer cake to fridge and chill for at least an hour or two before proceeding. (Overnight would be better, but I'm not that patient!)

Topping

1. Combine wine, sugar, and lemon peel and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, for ~3 minutes.
3. Add cranberries and cook until they begin to pop (~3 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool (~1 hour).
5. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer, reserving both the cranberries and the poaching liquid. (Discard the lemon peel.)
6. Place cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle with gelain. Set aside for 5 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, return poaching liquid to pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
8. Cook, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
9. Remove from heat, add softened gelatin, and stir until dissolved (~1 minute).
10. Pour mixture through a fine mish strainer into a bowl and let cool to room temperature. Skim off any foam or bubbles.
11. Pour gelatin mixture over the chilled cheesecake, tilting to completely coat the top of the cake.
12. Chill, uncovered, until gelatin has set (~1 hour).
13. Meanwhile, make the candied pistachios as directed.
14. Once gelée has set, decorate the cake with the poached cranberries and candied pistachios.
15. Run a hot knife or offset spatula around the edge of the springform pan, then remove the sides.

---

¹ I didn't have any port and I didn't want to go out and get a bottle just for this, so I mixed ~1 tsp. of brown sugar into a cup of dry red wine and called it a day. ^Back
2 I checked my cake after 60 minutes and it still seemed really, really jiggly, so I gave it another 10. Then I was worried that it still wasn't done, so I turned off the oven, but put it back in the warm oven for another 10 minutes. I think that last 10 minutes in the warm oven may have been a bit too much though, because my cake came out kind of crumbly. Next time I should probably cook it a little less. Oh well... ^Back

I've been eyeing the photo for this recipe for ages now. I just looks really, really appealing. I never used to be much for beans in my youth, but I've warmed up to them over the years and, especially in the last year or two, I've found cannellini beans particularly appealing. So, a rich, savoury thick soup built on a base of cannellini beans sounded like a pretty fantastic dinner to me!

The original recipe calls for a mix of chopped onions, carrots, and celery as the vegetable component. I was running low on veggies when I made this though, so I ended up swapping in some frozen "spaghetti" mix (onion, red bell pepper, carrot, green bell pepper, and celery). I used ~3 c. total. I also swapped in a few olives and an anchovy in place of the pancetta that I forgot to get. I think it would've been fine with just the olives, but I figured I'd toss the anchovy in since we had an open jar in the fridge.

Pasta e Fagioli

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2018

Ingredients

• 2 (450mL) cans cannellini beans
• 1 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• ~60g pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flake (optional)
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 115g ditalini or tubettini
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Drain and rinse the beans from one can and add to blender.
2. Pour in water and purée. Set aside.
3. Heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper (if using), pancetta, salt, and pepper and cook for ~10 minutes.
5. Add tomato paste, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) and cook for ~2 minutes.
6. Add broth and puréed bean mixture.
7. Drain and rinse second can of beans and add them as well.
8. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes.
9. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil.
10. add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta is al dente (10-12 minutes).
11. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan and basil.
12. Serve drizzled with extra olive oil and/or Parmesan cheese.

---

Variants

Vegetarian Version

Ingredients

• 2 (450mL) cans cannellini beans
• 1 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• ~60g green or kalamata olives, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flake (optional)
• 4 c. vegetable stock
• 115g ditalini or tubettini
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

Pane di Amore

I'm not sure what makes this "love bread", but Valentine's Day is coming up and I had a little bit of rye flour left over from a previous bake that needed using, so I figured I'd give it a try.

This is an interesting bread. It has a little bit of everything in it. The recipe calls for regular (white) bread flour, rye flour, milk, potatoes, a bit of sugar, and, optionally, whole wheat flour. I also tossed in a little pâte fermentée since I had some that needed to be used up. I also put in significantly more whole wheat flour than the recipe recommended. (The instructions said that up to 160g of the white bread flour could be replaced with hard whole wheat flour. I think I ended up using ~600g of whole wheat flour for my rendition of this bread.)

I've only tried a small piece so far, but the rye flavour seems to have come through surprisingly well considering that there's only ~60g of rye flour in the whole thing!

Pane di Amor

Slightly adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

• 200g ripe (active/fed) starter @ 100% hydration
• 600g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 60g rye flour (preferably freshly ground)
• 20g sugar
• 100g pâte fermentée @ 60% hydration
• 550g water
• 100g potato, boiled and mashed
• 80g milk¹
• 320g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 20g coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Feed your starter up and get it nice and active.
2. Combine the whole wheat flour, rye flour, and sugar and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour in the starter, water, and pâte fermentée.
4. Mix everything up. Start by mixing up the wet ingredients in the centre of the bowl. It's okay if there are some lumps of pâte fermentée. Then begin gradually incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the centre outward.
5. Cover and let rest for an hour or two.
6. Boil, drain, and mash the potato. Make sure it is very tender and mashed very well.
7. Add your milk to the potato and mash it in.
8. Add the potato-milk mixture to the sponge, cover, and let ferment in the fridge overnight.
9. The next morning, combine the white flour with the salt and work it into the sponge. You may need to add a little more flour or water depending on the humidity and how thirsty your flour is. The dough should be fairly soft and loose.
10. Cover and let rest at room temperature. Stretch and fold the dough every hour or two for 4-8 hours.
11. Once the dough is nicely risen, divide and shape as desired.
12. Cover and proof in the fridge overnight.
13. The next morning, remove from fridge and allow to rest at room temperature for an hour or two.
14. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F).
15. Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal. (Or, alternatively, preheat your pizza stone in the oven and dust a peel generously with cornmeal.)
16. Place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven.
17. Turn the loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet. (Or turn one out onto the peel.)
18. Slash as desired.
19. Reduce oven temperature to 230°C (450°F) and bake loaves on middle rack over pan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes.
20. Remove water pan, reduce oven temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
21. Turn off oven and allow bread to rest in hot oven for 10 minutes.
22. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

---

¹ The original recipe recommended using evaporated milk. I didn't have any on hand, so I just used regular whole milk. I suspect that powdered milk would also work well here. You'd probably need ~2 Tbsp. of milk powder to be equivalent to 80g of evaporated milk. And, of course, if you did this, you may find you needed to add a little extra water to compensate for the missing liquid from the milk. Could be a useful option if you don't have any liquid milk readily to hand though. ^Back

I have a lot of soft cheeses right now. More, probably, than it's reasonable for any one household to have, but... so it goes.

I used up a bit of the giant pile of cream cheese that we had making bread and tasty spreads, but that still left me with a bunch of cream cheese and mascarpone that needed to be used up. And, in addition to that, I needed goat cheese for a recent salad. And, of course, the good goat cheese only came in a 600g package. So then I had a big pile of that to use up as well!

Fortuitously, I actually found an interesting cheesecake recipe that calls for all three of those cheeses! It even included a cranberry topping. Which allowed me to finally use up the bag of cranberries that I got by accident back in the fall. (It's been patiently waiting at the bottom of the freezer since October.) I don't think I could've found a recipe more tailor-made to the ingredients I had on hand. Very convenient!

Now, the cheesecake recipe came with its own instructions for making candied pistachios in the oven. And that seemed fine. But I knew that the last Cook's Country that we got contained a recipe for doing it on the stovetop. And that worked out better for me today, so I used that one. Same idea, slightly different process.

Skillet Candied Nuts

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. raw nuts (chopped if large)
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground (optional)

Directions

1. Toast nuts over medium-low heat until fragrant (2-3 minutes).
2. Add sugar, water, and salt (if using) and stir to coat the nuts.
3. Cook, stirring frequently, until sugar caramelizes and nuts begin to clump (~3 minutes).
4. Transfer to plate and cool for at least 10 minutes.
6. Break into small clumps and serve or use as garnish.

Stroganoff is always a hit and this version is almost a one-pot meal and comes together pretty easily.

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Cook's Country December/January 2018, by Ashley Moore (p. 13)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 450g lean ground beef
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1L chicken or vegetable broth
• 60mL (¼ C) white wine
• 240mL (1 C) frozen green peas
• 450g dry egg noodles
• 120mL (½ C) sour cream
• 2 tbsp minced chives

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a deep-walled skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid and begun to brown, 5-7 minutes.
3. Remove mushrooms and buffer.
4. Add remaining oil and return to medium-high heat.
5. Add onion, garlic, ½ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion softens.
6. Add beef and another ½ tsp pepper and continue cooking until no longer pink.
7. Add flour and stir until well-coated.
8. Add broth and wine and bring to a simmer, deglazing. Cook until slightly thickened, ~3 minutes.
9. Once simmering, stir in peas and noodles.
10. Cook until noodles reach desired tenderness. Depending on their packing fraction you may need to cover the pot for a time and/or stir often to make sure they all get a turn in the broth.
11. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream, mushrooms, and chives.

Got this recipe from an old friend on IRC. I had some trouble with lumpy miso but in the end it came together nicely and symbol and I both liked it, although Alex wasn't a fan

Miso-Glazed Eggplant with Cheese

Mahal

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant, cut into 1.5cm slices
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• a generous amount of grated melty cheese, like mozzarella

Directions

1. Brush eggplant slices on one side with oil and arrange oil side down on a baking sheet.
2. Score exposed face and brush that with oil, too.
3. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.
4. While baking, whisk together miso, wine, mirin, and sugar.
5. Remove eggplant from oven, brush generously with miso glaze, and return to oven for another 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven again, top with cheese, and return to oven for another 15-20 minutes, until cheese is melty and browned.
7. Serve.

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I guess stress'll do that. When I woke up after three fitfull hours of sleep the other day and couldn't seem to drift off again, I decided to get up and make pancakes instead. I'd been eyeing this recipe in Cook's Country for a while and, conveniently, it also used up the last of our malted milk powder. The Kidlet was, of course, delighted to wake up to fresh pancakes.

Malted Milk Pancakes with Nutella Maple Syrup

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2021

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 210g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. malted milk powder
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 3/8 c. buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Nutella Maple Syrup

• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 1/4 c. Nutella

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, malted milk powder, and salt.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, and butter.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined. Mixture should be a bit lumpy.
5. Let rest, undisturbed for 10 minutes. Do not stir again!
6. Heat tawa or griddle over medium-low heat.
7. Grease as needed and cook your pancakes using ~1/4 c. of batter for each one and cooking for 2-3 minutes per side.
8. Meanwhile, whisk the Nutella into the maple syrup and set aside.
9. Serve pancakes topped with syrup. Add butter and/or jam if desired.

I had planned to make some skillet-roasted green beans to go with dinner the other day. But that was before I'd realized that we were all out of beans. And corn. And bell peppers. And lettuce. And carrots. And cucumber. And cabbage. Basically, we were not particularly well-endowed in the vegetable department. So, after casting about for a bit, I settled on this creamed spinach. Not the healthiest of vegetable sides, but at least it'd give us something green. And it was incredibly tasty! So, it has that going for it.

Creamed Spinach

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2021

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 450g spinach (fresh baby or frozen chopped)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Soften half the butter (1 1/2 Tbsp.) and use a fork to mash the flour into it. Set aside.
2. Melt the remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp. of butter over medium heat.
3. Add the oinon and garlic and cook until softened (~4 minutes).
4. Add the spinach and salt and stir to coat. Cook until wilted (or thawed, as the case may be).
5. Add the cream and bring to a simmer.
6. Stir in the burre manié (that's the butter-flour paste made in step 1).
7. Cook until thickened (2-3 minutes).
8. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg.

I grabbed a bunch of rosemary in the last produce basket we got so that I could make the rosemary-cream cheese sourdough. But, of course, there was quite a bit of rosemary left over, so I've been making other rosemary things in the meantime. This was the latest and, despite cutting the proofing slightly short, the bread is still lovely. Really phenomenal flavour! Would definitely recommend.

I tried one loaf with whole olives and one loaf with sliced olives. The whole olive loaf was much easier to handle and seemed to come out better overall. Neither one got super great oven spring, but I think that's more to do with the proofing and (lack of) lamination than anything to do with the olives. I got a bit lazy with this dough and didn't end up doing any kneading or stretch-and-folds beyond what was needed to work in the olives and rosemary. Honestly, the internal structure is surprisingly good considering that fact. But I'm sure doing some proper lamination of the dough would've helped it out even more.

The original recipe calls for liquid starter at 166% hydration, but then has you mixing a preferment at 102% hydration. Rather than trying to mix up a cup of the 166% starter and then adjusting the hydration again when mixing the preferment, I opted to just use my regular starter and adjust the amounts of flour and water called for to keep it at roughly 100% hydration. This felt simpler to me and seems to have yielded good results.

Rosemary-Olive Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

Preferment

• 255g ripe/fed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 205g water
• 195g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Dough

• 623g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 17g coarse sea salt
• preferment
• 283g water
• 28g unsalted butter, softened
• 2-4 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
• ~200g pitted kalamata olives

Directions

1. Mix the starter, water, and flour for the preferment, cover, and let it rest and ferment overnight.
2. The next day, combine the flour and salt, then pour in the preferment, water, and butter and mix well.
3. Knead for a few minutes to work all the flour in. The dough will be a bit stiff, but should come together.
4. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature for 6-10 hours, stretching and folding every hour or to if possible.
5. Once the dough is nicely risen, divide it into two equal portions.
6. Press the dough portions flat and sprinkle each with 1-2 Tbsp. of rosemary and ~100g of olives.
7. Knead the dough to work in and distribute the olives and rosemary. If the dough becomes difficult to handle, cover and let rest for 10 minutes, then continue working.
8. Round the dough, cover and rest for 10 minutes.
9. Shape into loaves (preferably with a book fold for batards and similar shapes).
10. Place in bannetons, cover, and place in fridge overnight.
11. In the morning, remove from fridge and allow to proof at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
12. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
13. Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal.
14. Pour some boiling water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
15. Turn loaves out onto prepared pan and slash as desired.
16. Bake loaves on middle rack oven over pan of boiling water for 20 minutes.
17. After 20 minutes, remove water pan and reduce oven temperature to 220°C (425°F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
18. Turn oven off and leave loaves in hot oven for 10 minutes.
19. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

Sweet Potato Fritters

The stated goal here was to create "a delicious mash-up of mashed sweet potatoes and sweet potato fries" and I think they did a really nice job of that. The outside was crispy, the inside was creamy and cheesey. Very nice overall. Not super healthy, but nice as an occasional treat.

Swee Potato Fritters with Cheddar and Chipotle

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

• 680g sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 5-6mm thick
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3/4 c. grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 4 green onions, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp. minced chipotles in adobo
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. oil, for frying
• sour cream, to serve
• lime wedges, to serve

Directions

1. Combine potatoes, water, and salt.
2. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender (~20 minutes).
3. Remove from heat and mash. Set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes or hold in fridge for up to 2 days.
4. Stir in cheese, flour, eggs, green onions, cilantro, chipotle, cumin, and pepper.
5. Heat oil over medium heat (aim for 180°C/350°F).
6. Scoop ~1/4 c. portions of potato mixture into the pan and press into flat patties with the back of a spoon.
7. Cook fritters 2-3 minutes per side. Be very careful when flipping; they are delicate!
8. Transfer to a wire rack to drain.
9. Repeat with remaining potato mixture.
10. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges.

---

Variations

Sweet Potato Fritters with Feta and Dill

Ingredients

• 680g sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 5-6mm thick
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 4 green onions, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. oil, for frying
• sour cream, to serve
• lemon wedges, to serve

I've been wanting to try this recipe for ages. But I don't often have the wherewithal to make waffles in the morning. And between that and the fact that I kept forgetting the recipe existed, it's just been languishing in my bookmarks for ages. But I actually took some time to flip through bookmarked pages that weren't sourdough recipes last night -- shocking, I know! -- and rediscovered this recipe and figured maybe it was time.

Sadly, we were low on molasses, so the flavour wasn't quite as intense as it was meant to be. They were still quite tasty though. The Kidlet packed away three before she finally deicded she was full, so that seems like it was a success. I might try to put even more ginger into them next time (this change is reflected in the recipe below), but other than that, they were pretty great. Although I'm not sure how much the orange really came through, so I've listed that as optional. I think they'd still be great even without the orange.

Gingerbread Waffles

Slightly adapted from Vurrata and Bubbles

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 1/2 c. molasses
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• zest of 1 orange (optional)
• 4 large egg whites

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and mix well, breaking up and lumps of sugar.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix them in.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, egg yolks, butter, molasses, vanilla extract, and orange zest (if using).
4. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
5. Stir dry ingredients into wet.¹
6. Get your waffle iron preheating.
7. Add ~1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and stir them in. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point, we're just loosening the batter.)
8. Add half the remaining egg whites and gently fold them in.
9. Add the last portion of egg whites and fold them in.
10. Scoop portions of batter into your waffle maker and cook as directed.
11. Serve waffles with custard and/or maple syrup and/or ginger syrup and/or whipped cream.

---

¹ I actually did this backwards and stirred wet ingredients into dry. Not sure how much of a difference it makes. ^Back

I've made fry bread before, but I'd never tried using it for tacos. Cook's Country had a recipe for fry bread tacos though, so I figured I'd give it a try. Their fry bread is a bit different than the type I've made before but, as I noted in that write-up, there's a lot of variability in fry bread recipes. The folks at Cook's Country opted for a yeasted dough. This does mean it takes a little longer than the chemically leavened fry breads, but I just made the dough first and then worked on the taco filling and side dish while I was waiting for the breads to be ready to cook. It actually worked out quite well.

The dough seemed really sticky when I was first mixing it. Even after kneading for a while (which I did in the bowl), it still seemed pretty wet. But it tamed down a bit after its first rise and I actually found it surprisingly easy to work with when rolling out my rounds. I figured it'd stick and tear all over the place, but I just slapped it down on the bench and went at it with the rolling pin and it behaved quite well! (My bench top is bamboo and my rolling pin is marble. I have a maple rolling pin as well, but I figured the marble one might stick less.)

I found the taco filling a little underwhelming, but that could be due to the fact that I ran out of chili powder and had to make some substitutions. And it could also be due to the fact that, since I didn't want to have to use one-and-a-half packages of ground beef, I used tofu as a stand-in for the last 225g of beef. Don't get me wrong, it was still tasty, just not as punchy as I'd hoped. I'd be inclined to toss in some chipotles in adobo or pickled jalapeños next time.

Fry Bread Tacos

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2018

Ingredients

Fry Bread

• 280g all-purpose flour
• 20g skim milk powder
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 3/4 c. warm water
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Filling

• 1 Tbsp. oil or bacon grease
• 1 onoin, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 680g ground beef
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. salsa
• sour cream, to serve
• grated cheese, to serve
• shredded lettuce, to serve
• extra salsa, to serve

Directions

Fry Bread

1. Combine flour, milk powder, salt, and yeast and mix well.
2. Drizzle in water and butter while mixing until dough forms.
3. Knead in bowl for 5-10 minutes.
4. Cover and let rise for 30-60 minutes. (You can use this time to do a little mise en place for the filling ingredients.)
5. Knock the dough back and knead it a few strokes, then divide into eight equal portions.
6. Round each one and cover. Let rest for a couple minutes.
7. Grease two baking sheets.
8. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out into a thin round 2-3mm thick. Do not use any flour when shaping or rolling out the fry breads.
9. Place the round on one of the greased baking sheets, cover, and repeat with remaining dough balls.
10. Let rest, covered, for 20 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, pour ~3cm of oil into a wok or Dutch oven and heat it to ~190°C (375°F).
12. Once the fry breads are puffy, cut a small slit in the centre of each one.
13. Working with one fry bread at a time (or maybe two if you're frying in a large Dutch oven), carefully add the dough round to the oil and fry for 1-2 minutes per side.
14. Remove from oil and set on wire rack to drain.
15. Do not stack fry breads as you finish cooking them, keep them in a single layer.

Filling

1. Heat fat over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add chili powder, garlic, cumin, and oregano and cook for ~1 minute.
4. Add beef and cook until no longer pink.
5. Add salsa, salt, and pepper, and cook for 2-3 minutes longer.

Assembly

1. Top each fry bread with some filling, cheese, sour cream, extra salsa, and shredded lettuce.

I don't usually make white bread, but this recipe looked too good to pass up. And I am pretty pleased with how it came out. Judging by TF's response to it, she is very pleased with how it came out. I'll definitely have to make more rosemary bread in the future!

When it comes to breads, I find that I'm generally able to get very good results from 100% whole wheat doughs that use commercial yeast, but I still sometimes struggle to get a really nice internal structure with the 100% whole wheat sourdoughs. Although, after this experience, I've realized that that may be, in part, down to my shaping technique rather than anything to do with the dough itself. More experimentation required...

Rosemary-Cream Cheese Sourdough

Slightly adapted from The Fresh Loaf

Ingredients

• 470g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 80g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 410mL water
• 100g ripe/fed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 40g pâte fermentée
• 40g cream cheese, softened
• 12g coarse sea salt
• 6g honey
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Feed your starter so that it's nice and active by the time you're ready to mix your dough.
2. Combine the flours and pour in the water. Mix well, cover, and let rest at room temperature for anywhere from 1-12 hours.¹
3. Mix all the remaining ingredients into the dough. I like to do them one at a time, but mix them however you'd prefer.
4. Cover and let rest at room temperature for ~2 hours, stretching and folding every 30 minutes.
5. Cover and ferment in fridge for up to 24 hours.
6. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 10-20 minutes.
7. Shape your loaves² and place in covered bannetons to rise.
8. Proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F) and dust a baking sheet with cornmeal. (I like to use a little butter on the baking sheet to help the cornmeal "stick".)
10. Turn the loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet and slash as desired.
11. Pour some boiling water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
12. Bake the loaves on the middle rack over the pan of boiling water for 15 minutes.
13. After 15 minutes, remove the water pan and reduce oven temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
14. Turn off oven and let loaves rest in warm oven for 10 minutes.
15. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

---

¹ I like to feed my starter and mix the flour and water the night before. That way the flour can be autolysing while the starter is building toward its peak. ^Back
2 I normally shape my sourdough loaves the same way I'd shape a pan loaf: letter fold, then roll up jelly roll style. I did that for one of these loaves. But for the other one, I tried a book fold. It was that second one that produced the better shape and gave me a nicer oven spring. So... maybe try book folds for sourdoughs going into bannetons to proof and save the jelly-roll-ing for pan loaves? ^Back

Easy Pound Cake

I've been craving cake for the last few days. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately, depending on how you look at it), we don't have any cake and I haven't had the time or the energy to change that fact. What we have had though are little containers of surplus lemon juice and lemon zest sitting in the fridge, waiting for a use. I was worried that if I didn't use them soon, they'd end up going bad, so I decided that (and my unrelenting cake craving) were enough reason for me to prioritize making myself a lemon pound cake.

Normally I put the version of the recipe that I actually made at the top as the main focus of the write-up and add any alternate versions below. But, since the lemon version is just the vanilla version + some lemon juice and lemon zest, I figured I might as well do that as the focal point and put the lemon variant below.

Pound Cake

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2017

Ingredients

• 250g sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. unsalted butter, melted and hot
• 170g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 21.5x11.5cm (8.5x4.5") loaf pan.
2. Beat sugar with eggs and vanilla.¹
3. Slowly drizzle in the hot butter while continuing to beat the egg mixture.
4. Sift in ~1/3 of the flour, sprinkle the salt on top, then this into the batter.
5. Sift in 1/2 the remaining flour and mix it in.
6. Sift in the last portion of flour along with the baking powder and mix it in.
7. Beat until there are no more lumps.
8. Pour the batter into the perpared tin.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 50-60 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and let cool in tin set on wire rack for 10 minutes.
11. Turn cake out of tin and set on wire rack to finish cooling.
12. If desired, drizzle with citrus glaze. (See below)

Citrus Glaze

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar, sifted
• 3-4 tsp. lemon, lime, or orange juice
• 1 tsp. lemon, lime, or orange zest (optional)

Directions

1. Wisk juice into sugar 1 tsp. at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
2. Mix in zest (if using).
3. Drizzle over cake.

---

Variantions

Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 250g sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract²
• 2 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 c. unsalted butter, melted and hot
• 170g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Orange Pound Cake

The recipe for orange pound cake isn't actually included in the magazine. It simply says that for the orange, almond, and ginger variants you should go to the Cook's Country website. Unfortunately, they only offer free access to those recipes for three or four months after the magazine comes out. And this one is now six years old. My guess is that the orange version was just the lemon version, but with orange zest and juice in place of the lemon. I'm not sure what the others would have been though.

• 250g sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. orange zest
• 2 tsp. orange juice
• 1 c. unsalted butter, melted and hot
• 170g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking powder

---

¹ Cook's Country actually recommends doing this step in a food processor, but I don't have one of those, so I just used my hand mixer on one of the higher settings. The next step is also meant to be done in the food processor. This (along with the temperature of the hot butter) apparently helps to emulsify the mixture. Once the butter is mixed in, you're meant to transfer it to a bowl and mix in the dry ingredients with a whisk. I just did the whole thing in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer. Do whatever works for you. ^Back
2 The recipe doesn't call for reducing the vanilla at all when making the lemon version but a) vanilla is expensive, b) I was running a little low, and c) I didn't want to dirty another measuring spoon, so I just reduced the vanilla to 1 tsp., rather than 1 1/2. I figured it'd be fine to go a little light on the vanilla since we would be getting the lemon flavour in there as well. ^Back

Cream Cheese Spread

I grabbed some rosemary in the last produce basket we got. I keep running into recipes that call for fresh rosemary and I either have to substitute dried or punt on them because they really seem to hinge on the fresh rosemary. This wasn't one of the recipes I'd had in mind when I got the rosemary, but it looked tasty and I had a lot of cream cheese to use up, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I'm really pleased with the result. And TF and the Kidlet both seem to like it as well. I'd love to try to other flavours sometime as well. The olive and scallion really sings to me and I think the Kidlet would be very enthusiastic about the cinnamon and brown sugar version. And, of course, I think everyone would like the smoked salmon and chive one!

Honey and Rosemary Cream Cheese Spread

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2019

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary

Directions

1. Combine everything and mix well.¹
2. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

---

Variations

Herb and Garlic Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley²
• 1/4 c. fresh basil
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic

Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Smoked Salmon and Chive Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 60g sliced cold-smoked salmon³
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh chives
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Olive and Scallion Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients

• 180g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives, patted dry
• 2 tsp. olive brine
• 4 scallions, minced

---

¹ Cook's Country says to use a food processor, but I managed just fine with a spoon. Just make sure your cream cheese is good and soft so you can mix it easily. ^Back
2 If you're using a food processor, you can just put the leaves into it whole. If you're mixing by hand, you'll need to mince them very fine first. ^Back
3 For use in a food processor, just tear it into chunks (4-5cm is fine). If mixing by hand, mince as finely as possible before adding it to the cream cheese. ^Back

I've put this recipe on my short list many times over the last few years. It always sounds promising, but somehow I never quite seem to get around to making it. Not this time! I finally made it. And it was great!

I ended up using tinned tomatoes instead of fresh because I had some open in the fridge that needed to be used up. And I couldn't get any fresh basil, so I had to roll with dried. Not my preference, but whatcha gonna do?

I think the only possible change I'd make is to double the sauce quantity. I mean, it was fine the way it was. I think it was an appropriate amount of sauce for one pound of pasta. But the sauce was tasty and I wouldn't've been opposed to having even more of it. Plus, it'd give you more veggies per portion. So that seems like a win.

Bucatini with Eggplant and Tomatoes

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2018

Ingredients

• 500g eggplant, peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 450g bucatini
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 c. diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
• Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, to serve

Directions

1. Toss eggplant with sugar and salt, cover, and microwave for ~6 minutes.
2. Line a plate with paper towels, transfer eggplant to prepared plate, and set aside to drain.
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil¹, add the pasta, and cook until al dente.
4. Reserve 1/2 c. of the pasta cooking water, then drain the noodles and set aside.
5. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in the now-empty pot.
6. Add the eggplant and pepper and cook for ~4 minutes.
7. Add garlic and pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute.
8. Add tomatoes and reserved cooking water and cook for 2-3 minutes longer.
9. Remove from heat and add pasta. Toss to combine.
10. Sprinkle with basil and serve topped with cheese.

---

Variations

Double Sauce Variation

Ingredients

• 1kg eggplant, peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 450g bucatini
• 4 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3 c. diced tomatoes
• 4 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (or 2 Tbsp. dried)
• Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, to serve

Eggplant will likely need more time in the microwave to soften and cook.

Vegan Version

The recipe is already vegan as is. Just make sure you're using vegan sugar and don't top it with cheese at the end. Or, alternatively, top it with nutritional yeast or a plant-based cheese of your choice.

---

¹ Cook's Country recommends 4 quarts (~4L) of water with 1 Tbsp. of salt. I always found I that liked my noodles just fine -- usually even better, actually -- without the salt, so I never used to salt the water. Lately I have been finding that I do appreciate a little salt, but I still don't add anywhere near as much as they call for. For 3-4L of water and 450g of pasta, I've found that 1 tsp. of salt is about right for me. ^Back

It turns out that when I first started making sourdough bread, I wasn't actually doing it with sourdough starter, I was doing it with pâte fermentée. It's a similar concept, just slightly different composition.

When I first started making sourdough, it was out of necessity. I'd already been making my own bread for close to two years when the pandemic hit. Then COVID-19 happened and we were all in lockdown and -- once they'd finished buying up all the toilet paper -- suddenly everyone decided that they were gonna start making bread. The yeast was all gone. The flour was all gone. Even the odd-ball, specialty flours were sold out. Baking soda? Nope. Baking powder? Nada. Any sort of ground grain and anything that you could conceivably use to leaven it had been bought up. Even -- much to my annoyance -- the big, industrial half-kilo bricks of instant yeast.

Now, I didn't care about the flour being all gone. I had a 10-kg bag of wheat berries and a grain mill at home. I could quite happily grind my own flour. But I needed something to make it rise!

In the end, I decided to use my last teaspoon of commercial yeast to make some bagels. And then, when making them, I held back one bagel's worth of dough and stashed it in a jar in the fridge.

A day or two later, I added that little dough lump to some fresh dough to make some pan loaves... and held back a fist-sized piece of dough and kept it in the fridge.

I kept doing that for a while. Eventually, I started going longer than a couple of days between batches of bread. And I started offering my pet dough lump feedings of flour and water in between to keep it going.

Somewhere along the line I started reading up on sourdough and learing about starters and how to maintain and bake with them. And slowly my pet dough lump transitioned into something more like a traditional, wet (100% hydration) sourdough starter.

I'd never actually heard the term "pâte fermentée" until a couple days ago. But, looking at it, it was traditionally pretty much exactly what I started with: a lump of dough held back from the previous day's bread and used to help condition and leaven the fresh dough. It's generally stiffer (lower hydration) than sourdough starter and, unlike starter, contains salt.

Sometime I should try to read up more on all the different bread leaveners: starter, mother dough, pâte fermentée, poolish, biga, sponge, rewena bug... Not sure what others there are. For all I know, some of those could even be different names for the same thing! But it would be interesting to learn about all of them and compare notes. For now though, here's what I've got for pâte fermentée...

Pâte Fermentée

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

• 210g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• ~1/16 tsp. instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 140g water

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature for 8-14 hours.
3. If not using right away, cover and store in the fridge until ready to use (up to 4 days).

Hamburger steaks! They aren't a prestige food, but they are cheap, easy to make, and delicious. A lot of the time I'd rather have a good hamburger steak than a steak steak.

The recipe as written calls for 1.5lbs of hamburger meat. Since we have frozen 1lb bags, I used two bags and scaled some of the other ingredients up slightly.

French Onion Hamburger Steaks with Potatoes and Gravy

From Cook's Country August/September 2018 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 675g (1½ lbs) potatoes, halved lengthwise
• 1 tbsp butter, melted, + 3 tbsp butter, solid
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper, freshly ground
• 900g lean ground beef
• 160mL (⅔ C) panko
• 1 packet onion soup mix
• 225g cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp flour
• 240mL beef, chicken, or vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp chives, minced

Directions

1. Toss potatoes with melted butter, salt, and pepper.
2. Arrange cut face down on a baking sheet and bake at 450°F until tender and browned, ~30 minutes.
3. Combine beef, panko, and soup mix a large bowl. Form into six wide, flat patties.
4. Melt ½ tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
5. Cook three of the patties until well browned and cooked through (160°F). Remove and buffer.
6. Melt another ½ tbsp of butter and repeat with the other three patties.
7. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid and begin to brown, 5-7 minutes.
8. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.
9. Stir in broth, bring to a boil, and cook until thickened, 2-4 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and stir in remaining butter. Pour over beef and sprinkle with chives.