Culinary Observations From Our Trip 8/13

We went to Toronto this past weekend and these are my food highlights:

At night, we took a walk and stopped in this coffee shop and they were selling Hello Dolly Bars. If you saw my last post, you will notice they look nothing like the ones I made...

 

I live a pretty plain nothing out of the ordinary type of life so I have decided to become more adventurous. However, I have a lot of fears so after ruling out the CN Tower's Edgewalk, I decided to focus on food. My friend suggested that I go to Chinatown and order something mysterious. I was going to do that, but after a very long bus ride to the Toronto Zoo, I decided to stop in Scarborough's version of Chinatown. This was an Asian and Malaysian restaurant.

My appetizer was the Poh Pia which was a crepe with mixed vegetables and egg. I didn't realize that it was a hard boiled egg so that was gross.

My entree was the sizzling sting ray. The pieces were deep fried and my first bite was into a huge bone. After I removed that, I realized that there were multiple little bones that I kept having to pull out. It was super annoying because there wasn't much meat...just really fatty pieces and bones. It definitely wasn't worth $16. Plus the service was awful...so overall the experience was a fail.

Other highlights:

Seafood stir fry from Marche

This Week's Concoctions Ending 8/27

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie"

I had way too many peaches again so after giving some away to a couple of people, I made this cobbler for the friends that watched our dog this weekend.

It was a co-worker's birthday and she wanted Hello Dolly Bars. I had never heard of them and was assured that it was very easy to make. They were right. It's just melted butter on the bottom, then a layer of crushed graham crackers, a layer of walnuts, a layer of chocolate chips, a layer of coconut and topped with a can of condensed milk.

August 26: Lizzie's Dog Biscuits

Lizzie's Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant)
1/2 cup (2.8 oz) rice flour
1 large egg
1 (2.5 oz) jar meat-flavored baby food
2 oz water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil.
2. Mix the oats, rice flour, egg, baby food, and water together in a large mixing bowl. Press the dough about 1/4 inch thick on a piece of parchment paper. Using a small cookie cutter, cut out your favorite shapes and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. These don't spread, so you don't have to space them out very much. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the cookies and bake for another 20 minutes. Let cool completely on the pan or on a wire rack.

The only cookie cutters I have are of a baby carriage and a onesie

Thoughts: This was a very easy recipe. The only annoying part was spreading out the dough on the parchment paper because it's very sticky. It was only going to yield 18 so I doubled the recipe....and only got 19. If you use a smaller cookie cutter, you'll get more. I gave part of one to Winston and after sniffing and poking at it for a minute, he picked it up and took off. So I guess he liked it....

August 18: Chocolate Nut Toasts

Chocolate Nut Toasts

Ingredients:
1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 large egg whites, room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons (2 oz) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon (2 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped almonds or a mix of almonds and other nuts
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit, such as apricots, raisins, and cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line 6 muffin cups with paper liners and spray the liners with flour-added baking spray. Alternatively, you can skip the paper liners and just spray the muffin cups.
2. Melt the chocolate in a small, microwave-safe bowl, using 50% power and stirring at 30-second intervals.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or in a large mixing bowl, using a handheld electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg whites until stuff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, and then beat in the salt, almond extract, and vanilla. With a large scraper, fold in the flour. Fold in the melted chocolate, almonds, and fruit.
4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, dividing equally among all six, and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until the "muffins" appear dry and the edges are lightly browned (it's harder to tell with chocolate, but 20 minutes should do the trick). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly, then remove from the muffin cups and pull off the paper liners. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then wrap loosely in foil and chill for about 4 hours, or until very cold. This makes the "muffins" much easier to slice.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 200. Lay the cold "muffins" in their sides, and using a large serrated knife, slice them into thin rounds. You should get at least 3 rounds and 1 stubby-looking top per muffin. Arrange the rounds in one big layer on a baking sheet and bake at 200 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until dried out. They'll dry out even more as they cool, so if the centers aren't completely firm after the full baking time, take them out anyway. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in a tightly covered container.

Addition of the sugar to the stiff peaks

Addition of the extracts

Addition of the flour

Addition of the melted chocolate

Addition of the raisins

Addition of the almonds

Thoughts: I was going to use a variety of mixed fruit because I thought I had both dried cherries and raisins, but I could only find raisins. I had a hard time yielding 4 slices per "muffin". It was more like 2 plus one stubby. Otherwise it was pretty straight forward recipe....too bad they were gross. I had a hard time trying to convince Patrick to try one, but once he did, he didn't like it at all. I thought he was being crazy, but then I tried it and felt the same way! Eww.

This Week's Concoctions Ending 8/20

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie"

Cinnamon Blondies I

Cinnamon Blondies II

Because of our fruit share, I have a lot of peaches....so it's a sugar cookie crust, cream cheese, vanilla and sugar as "cheese" and peach topping. I will have even more peaches tomorrow so I will probably make another pie or cobbler next week.

Peach Dessert Pie

This Week's Concoctions Ending 8/13

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie"

I forgot to post these last week. I made cutout cookies for my friend's baby shower.

I made this cake for the wrap-up party for one of the kids book club at the library.

Each layer had this look

3 cans of frosting for the whole thing!

August 12: Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 oz) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened, or 3/4 cup shortening
1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats (not instant)

Filling:
1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 (7.5 oz) jar marshmallow creme
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Make the cookies: Mix the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed. Reduce the speed to medium and beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture, then stir in the oats. Chill the dough for 1 hour, or until firm enough for you to shape into balls.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line 2 baking sheets with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
4. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press down the tops slightly. Bake one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Make the filling: Beat the butter until smooth. Stir in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated. Beat until smooth, then beat in the marshmallow creme and vanilla until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Spread the underside of one cookie with a generous tablespoonful of the filling, then top base to base with another cookie. Repeat until all cookies are sandwiched.

Dry ingredients

Addition of the egg

Addition of the vanilla

Addition of the flour mixture

Addition of the oats

Addition of the confectioners' sugar

Fluff!

Addition of the vanilla

Thoughts: I used shortening instead of butter just because I use butter all the time! I also didn't use freshly grated nutmeg...just the jarred stuff. Its important to put them in the fridge to firm up because the dough will be sticky even after being in the fridge. I put them in for about 10 minutes. I actually really liked the cookie and Patrick thought the filling was too sweet. There was a lot of filling leftover.