Some of my favorites are the hippos (big one and wee baby one), the dinosaur, and the elephants.

So I made sugar cookies, orange cardamom sugar cookies to be precise, because sugar cookies are just perfect for some cookie cutter fun. In the name of science, I decided to see just how expansive my cookie cutter collection has become. I made a whole batch of cookies and got to use each cookie cutter once! It started getting to the point where I was running out of cookie dough, so I had to cut a couple of cookies out of other cookies (concentric hearts, little chick cut out of a big bird).

I’m starting to worry that this collection is too big…

but there so many cute ones out there!

Orange Cardamom Cookies

(adapted from Gourmet December 2007)

2 1/2 Cups flour

2 Tbsp orange zest

2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp salt

1 Cup butter

1/4 Cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt.
• In a second, smaller bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until they are fluffy. Next, incorporate the egg, whipping cream, and vanilla.
• In batches, add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until the dough forms.
• Cover your dough in cling film and refrigerate for an hour.
• Next, roll the cookie dough out 1/8″ thick, and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, reserving scraps and rerolling to make more cookies.
• Put the cookies onto baking sheets, and bake in  350° oven until the edges are golden brown (~9-12 minutes).
• Optional: after the cookies have cooled, decorate them with Maple Brown Sugar Icing (recipe to follow).

What I really liked about these cookies was that there is really not that much sugar in them (until you cover them with icing), but you get a really nice flavor from the orange zest and cardamom. I’ll definitely be making these again.

Maple Brown Sugar Icing

(from Dandelion’s recipe on Group Recipes)

2 1/2 Cups icing sugar

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1/2 Cup butter

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 Cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Beat sugars, butter and salt together until fluffy. This is easiest using a machine mixer.
• Continue beating, and drizzle in slowly both the maple syrup and vanilla.
• Ice whatever your heart desires!

This icing is so tasty! The color isn’t awesome, but I think it would take some color by way of food coloring really well if you were decorating something like a cupcake.

Mr says: These cookies have a super good combo of subtle flavors. There isn’t one that really jumps out at you, but everything works really well in combination.

This time last year: Deeply Chocolate Ice Cream

This is hard for me, because he is one of my favorite people to make much ado over. Especially at times of year like this (his birthday was on Thursday), I grapple with my urges to try and lasso the moon for him, overdo the festivities, make every favorite thing he has ever mentioned.

He says: “There’s no need to make a fuss.” 

It doesn’t feel like making a fuss, I just want to be able to give him everything, want moments to be perfect, want to demonstrate how special he is to me. We kind of tend to be the overly sweet duo who makes everybody else sick; we’re very much hand holders and “I love you” sayers, so I know that he knows I think he’s special. But still, at times like these I am driven to show him extra hard.

So after the third or fourth asking, “What would you like? What would make it extra special for you?” I got a response that wasn’t “Dana, you’re making enough for the party” or “What do you feel like making?” He decided on cream puffs.

Happy birthday Mr, I love you. Sorry for making a fuss, but I’m probably going to keep the habit.

Cream Puffs

(Adapted from Celtic Kim’s recipe on All Recipes)

1 Cup water

1/2 Cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 Cup flour

4 eggs

1 Cup whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp Chambord or Cointreau

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 425°.
• In a saucepan set over high heat, melt the butter into the water and bring it all to a roiling boil.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat, and stir in the flour and salt until smooth.
• Stir the eggs in one at a time. Do not add the next egg until the first one is completely incorporated.
• Your pâte à choux should not be stiff, it should slump off of the back of your spoon.
• Pipe the pastry in dollops of about a tablespoon onto your baking sheet. Pull up as you pipe to encourage the cream puffs to expand upward, not outward, during baking.
• Wet the tip of your finger with water, and flatten the pointed tips left by the piping bag, so that they do not burn.
• Bake until the puffs have expanded and are a burnished gold (~25 minutes).
• While the puffs are baking, whip the cream. As it begins to stiffen, slowly add the sugar, vanilla, and Chambord or Cointreau.
• Allow the puffs to cool, then poke holes in the bottom of each and fill with the whipped cream filling, using either a piping bag, or an icing injector.

These are so cute when they come out of the oven! I’m really happy Mr had the idea to request these while I was pestering him for ideas. He’s a smart one, that Mr. We’re big fans of dipping in our house and a big platter of cream puffs at his birthday party, with a bowl of chocolate sauce for dipping, was lovely.

Mr says: the cream puffs turned out amazing. The raspberry whipping cream (the Chambord version) is decadent.

This time last year: Woodgrain Cake

The Funky Kitchen has opened up a deli/sandwich shoppe. (Wouldn’t that be fun?) Say you were one of my regular customers, someone who could come in and say, “Hi Dana, I’ll have the regular please,” and I would be able to tell what it was.

What would your regular have on it? What would it be on? I ask because people’s answers vary so much, and due to the extremely adaptable nature of a sandwich, there are a lot of interesting ideas out there. If there was a signature sandwich with your name on it, a perfect sandwich for you, what would it be?

The Dana

(Sopressata sandwich on an English muffin, with all the right fixings)

Start with an English Muffin, vaguely toasted. I really like the size of English muffins for a sandwich, and also the spongy texture. I’m not known to be the greatest advocate of toasted bread, but a lightly toasted English muffin is perfect for the Dana sandwich. The little bit of crunch adds to the texture.

To the bottom side of the sandwich (depicted at the left) add a little bit of mustard, and to the top side (depicted at right) some mayonnaise.

To the bottom of the sandwich: a few slices of sopressata. Sopressata is my favorite deli meat by a fair measure. To the top of the sandwich: 2 or 3 layered pieces of romaine lettuce. I love the crunch of romaine, and the slight bitter flavor it has.

Atop the sopressata: a few shavings of old cheddar cheese. Atop the lettuce: A slice of tomato with black pepper cracked over top.

Stack the sandwich parts together, and voila! My most favorite sandwich. If you don’t have English muffins available, or are looking to have a larger sandwich, rye bread would be a close second choice for me.

Mr’s signature sandwich seems to be a riff on a club sandwich, and is much more gargantuan than mine. From the bottom, he has: toasted white bread, mayo, pepperjack cheese, bacon, chicken, toasted white bread, kolbassa (coarse garlic sausage), lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, more bacon and a third slice of toasted bread. Quite a sandwich! Maybe that’s what I should make next.

I’m looking for interesting ideas for what to put between slices of bread; what would your perfect sandwich be?

This time last year:  Spaghetti with Spicy Italian Sausage, Roasted Acorn Squash and Labneh

Food can ingrain some very detailed memories, and pounchki do that for me. They are like little fried doughnut holes, filled with a poppy seed filling. Pounchki are also known as paczki or pampushky. They are so good, and even better if you dust them with a little bit of icing sugar.

My Baba didn’t have a written recipe and my mum knows how to make them, but not the proportions of what you make them with. Now, after paying some studious attention, weighing and measuring as we went, we have a recipe.  As we kneaded, rolled and pinched the morning away I got to hear about my Great Baba, her mother-in-law whom I never had the chance to meet. From what I’m told, she is the reason we only make pounchki in the winter.

I’m really happy with the way they turned out, and also that I’ve got a recipe so that we won’t be out of luck when my Baba decides she isn’t going to make them anymore. The following recipe is for a lot of pounchki, because my Baba does not make things in small batches. Feel free to halve or quarter the recipe.

Pounchki

5 Cup warm water

2 Tbsp yeast

8 eggs

1 Cup vegetable oil

1 Cup + 1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp salt

13 Cups of flour

• In a bowl, bloom the yeast with 1 Cup of the water and 1 Tbsp of the sugar. Allow to sit while you assemble the other ingredients.
• Beat 8 eggs together in a big bowl.
• Stir in the oil, remaining sugar, vanilla, salt and bloomed yeast.
• Mix in the flour until the dough will not take it in anymore, and then tip out of the bowl and knead, knead, knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Baba says: “You want a nice, soft dough.”
• Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let it rise twice, punching down between rises, while you prepare the filling.

2 pounds of poppy seeds, ground with a coffee grinder (This way you can control how well ground they are, and they will be less likely to be rancid)

1 Cup sugar

1 Cup honey

2 Cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp lemon juice

• Combine all of the ingredients.
• Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often to ensure it does not burn.
• Remove from heat and let cool. Spreading the filling on a sheet pan to increase its surface area will help it cool more quickly.

• Roll our your dough, in portions, to about 1/4″ thick, and then cut it, with a knife into small squares, ~1 1/2″.
• Spoon about 1 1/2-2 tsp of filling onto a dough square. Pinch the corners of the dough together across the filling, and then pinch the seams closed, sealing the filling inside the dough.

• Roll the pounchki in your hand a little bit to help it become more spherical.
• Repeat the above three steps until you run out of filling.
• Deep fry the pounchki in batches in a pot of oil that is hot but not smoking, until puffed and golden brown. They do grow a fair amount during frying.

• Set fried pounchki on paper towels to drain away extra oil.

Serve as is, or dusted with icing sugar if you’re feeling fancy. If you have extra dough left after all of the filling is used, make doughnuts!

Pounchki are so good. These bring me straight back to being probably six or seven, in my mum’s kitchen, biting into my first one before even getting to the table.

Mr’s Babcia makes something very similar, but instead of poppy seed filling each golden bun of goodness contains a prune. Mr was not a fan of the pounchki I brought home, but in this case, Mr is crazy! He liked the doughnuts though.

This time last year: Spaghetti with Spicy Italian Sausage, Roasted Acorn Squash and Labneh

Fellow Canadians: you’ve probably met one or two other these before, right? And to those of you who haven’t yet had the delight: this is a poutine.

It is crisp golden french fries mounded with fresh cheese curds with a ladle of gravy over top. You don’t need to be a potatoes and gravy addict like myself to know that a plate of this is pure bliss. Salty, fried, carbohydrate laden heaven.

The poutine hails from Quebec, but migrated across Canada spreading gooey savory joy. Poutine is calorie dense. It probably does not have a place in your New Year’s diet. This is Canada, though, it is cold this close to the Arctic. We need food that sticks to the bones. And what is life anyway, without the opportunity to try new things?

With all of this talk, did I make poutine for you, dear readers? No, I didn’t. I’m sorry. How to do it: French fry some potatoes so they’re crisp and golden on the outside, soft on the inside. Cover with cold cheese curds, then hot gravy. That’s that, it isn’t too difficult, and you should try one.

What I bring to the table today, are petite poutine. A bite size, appetizer version of the Quebecois loveliness that is poutine. Having had one (or maybe a second sneaky one, ahem) at a friend’s wedding recently, I just had to recreate the recipe.

Petite Poutine

(Recipe inspired at Ian and Heather’s Wedding)

24 baby potatoes

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Cheese curds

Gravy

Directions

• Cut the tips off of both ends of your potatoes, so that they will stand upright on their own.
• Core out the inside of each potato, about 3/4 of the way through, creating baby potato cups. A melon baller or an apple corer makes the job very easy.

• Toss the prepared potatoes with the olive oil, salt and pepper to coat.
• Roast the potatoes in a 375° oven until they get crisp and golden (45 minutes).

• Put a cheese curd into each roasted potato cup then top it off with gravy.

• Return your petite poutines to the oven until the cheese is melted and the gravy is bubbly.
• Bon appetit!

So yummy! I’m definitely going to make these for my next party. I love that poutine, something of a big mess food, becomes a 1 or 2 bite finger food. You minimize the dishes, and cut down on the calories. What’s not to love?

Mr says: These are the greatest idea to ever grace the idea of ideas. (And you should have called them poutinis!)

This time last year: Mum’s Parmesan Chicken

2011 has been quite a year; we’ve experienced some losses and met some new and fabulous people. We’ve traveled a little bit, as well as settled into our sweet little house. I graduated from University. There have been so many fabulous meals shared with friends and family. I’m a little bit sad to see 2011 go, but it’s exciting to look forward. It is impossible to know what 2012 will hold but I am so very excited to find out.

To all of you, thank you so much for being here. This project is such a source of joy for me, and you’re all a part of it. Happy New Year!

xoxoxo

Chocolate Truffles Trio Version 2.0

(basic recipe is the same as last year’s, flavor options have changed)

1/2 Cup whipping cream

1 Tbsp honey

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp chai masala, or 1 1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses, or 2 sprigs of mint

10 oz chocolate

1 Cup cocoa, for rolling

• Combine cream, honey, and salt in a bain marie, stirring until dissolved.
• Add flavoring ingredient of choice and let steep for 5 minutes. For the mint truffles, strain the mint out before continuing.
• Stir in chocolate until melted and the mixture is smooth.
• Transfer mixture into a clean resealable container and refrigerate until firm (~2 hours).
• Using a melon baller or your hands, roll out the hardened truffles into small balls. Roll the balls in cocoa powder so that they will not stick together.

This year’s flavors were a big hit! Pomegranate came out as a strong favorite, which surprised me because I was worried that it would have been the weirdly received flavor if there would be one. The flavor of the chai truffles was really great, but the chai masala (chai spice mixture) made them a little bit grainy. I’m going to have to find a way to get the flavor in but somehow remove the powder. But how does one strain out a fine powder? Any advice out there? The mint is a classic pairing with chocolate. Yum! Next year we’re going to have to make more so that we can have some for ourselves left after gifting.

Mr says: making truffles as a team makes it a much easier and faster process. Pomegranate was my favorite! Happy New Year!

This time last year: Christmas Truffle Trio (Version 1.0)

Wash the dishes
Wash the dishes
The christmas dinner dishes
Three generations in the kitchen
All at once

Go and get a camera
And go and wake up grandpa
Three generations in the kitchen
All at once

Play a Christmas album
The Elvis Christmas album
Three generations sing Blue Christmas
All at once
Light another candle
Come sit near the piano
Three generations sing together
All at once

Put away the turkey
To make sandwiches tomorrow
And put away the bones to make soup for the winter
But not the wish bone
We’ll just put it on the counter
To let it dry out this week
In time to make a wish for New Years Eve

Take turns with the washing
And take turns with the drying
Three generations in the kitchen
All at once
Soak the tough ones ’til tomorrow
And save the suet for the sparrows
Three generations Merry Christmas
All at once

Put away the turkey
To make sandwiches tomorrow
And put away the bones to make soup for the winter
But not the wish bone
We’ll just put it on the counter
To let it dry out this week
In time to make a wish for New Years Eve

Put away the fancy dishes
Just to take them out next Christmas
Three genertaions are only together for so long
Telling stories of the good times
The bad times and the war time
Three generations
Are only together for so long

Cranberry Pear Pie

(adapted from Wanda Beaver’s recipe)

5 Cups pears: peeled, cored and chopped

1 1/2 Cups cranberries

1/2 Cup sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp lemon juice

zest of an orange

1 egg

Not-so-secret pie crust

Directions

• In a bowl, combine the prepared pears with the cranberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, orange zest and the egg.
• Roll out your pastry to line a pie plate with.
• Fill the pastry with the pear-cranberry filling.
• Roll out the remaining pastry, and either cut into 1 inch strips for a lattice top, or cut out some fun shapes with cookie cutters for a slightly funkier one.

• Bake in a 350° oven for 1 hour, or until the pastry is golden and the filling is thickened.
• Allow to cool before serving.

I really was impressed with this pie. It’s not too difficult to impress a pear addict with a pear pie, but what was really impressive is the way the filling held up. A too watery pie is a sad one, and I was worried that with the way pears can really go to mush when cooked that this pie would be runny, but the cornstarch as well as the egg kept the filling from spreading too much after being cut.

The flavor of the sweet pears and the tart cranberry came together well, and the orange zest really fragrantly permeated the pie. It was just the right thing to bring to Christmas dinner.

Mr was too full after dinner to have a piece, so I guess we’re going to have to wait until I make another pie to get his opinion.

This time last year: Chocolate Truffle Trio

I like them so much that every holiday season I wonder why I don’t make nuts and bolts all year, but somehow it does not happen until you start thinking about Christmas trees again. Maybe this can be one of my New Year’s resolutions: make nuts and bolts more often!

Anyway, to make nuts and bolts you need a great big roaster. I borrowed one from Mr’s mum, because none of mine are voluminous enough to hold all of the nuts and bolts. If you don’t have a great big roaster, you could also use multiple smaller roasters, but then you’ll have to do more stirring.

Nuts and Bolts

(recipe a combination from my Mum and Mr’s Mum)

4 Cups Shreddies

4 Cups Cheerios

4 Cups Crispix

3 Cups Pretzels

3 Cups Cheezies, the crunchy kind

2 Cups salted peanuts

2 Cups Cheese Nips

2 Cups Cheese Bits

1 Cup butter

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp celery salt

2 tsp paprika

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 250° F.
• Add the first 8 ingredients to your large roaster. You want enough room left in the roaster to be able to mix the nuts and bolts.
• Melt the butter. Mix into it the Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt and paprika. This is your seasoning mix.
• Drizzle the sauce over top of the dry ingredients, stirring so that an even coating is achieved.
• Put the roaster into the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
• Allow to cool, then enjoy!

Normally I would shy away from recipes involving a lot of pre-made, open the box and use it products. But it wouldn’t be Christmas for me without these tasty munchies. Merry Christmas!

Everyone seems to have their favorite part of nuts and bolts; my favorite part is the Shreddies, Mr’s are the Crispix. Neither of us are fans of the pretzels, but we’ve got family who really love them so I couldn’t skip out. Nuts and bolts are kind of like a family in a way; you may all be slightly different, but you come from the same bowl.

When you put your cookies out for Santa, don’t forget a couple of carrots for his reindeer!

This time last year: Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Clam juice in a drink? The combination sounds weird to those who haven’t had one before, I know. Do not fear my intrepid food explorers! Think of the flavor profile of Manhattan clam chowder or ciopinno; tomato juice and clam juice make great friends.

A Caesar is a spicy, savory sipper best served in a tall glass with plenty of ice. The classic garnish is a celery stalk (how can you say no to a drink that comes with a snack?), but the glass can be additionally dressed up with a dill pickle, a wedge of lime or a spicy pickled green bean.

Caesar

Lime juice (for rimmer)

Celery salt (for rimmer)

Ice cubes

dash of hot sauce

dash of Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ oz vodka

1/2 oz brine from the pickled green beans (optional)

6 oz Clamato juice (or, if you can’t get ahold of it mixed, 3 oz clam juice, 3 oz tomato juice)

1 celery stalk

1 spicy pickled green bean

Directions

• Wet the edges of your glass with lime juice, and then through the celery salt. The lime juice will make the celery salt stick to the rim.
• Add the ice to the glass.
• Over the ice, add a dash of hot sauce, followed by a dash of Worchestershire.
• Pour in the vodka and the pickle brine, if using.
• Top with Clamato juice.
• Garnish with a stalk of celery and a pickled green bean.
• Enjoy!

Caesars are a really nice option for when you tire of sweet drinks, or are looking forward to something with a little spice to it. What a lovely cocktail!

Mr. Says: It takes a Canadian to add meat to a cocktail. And don’t skip out on the celery salt rimmer, he highly recommends it.

This time last year: Lemon Roasted Potatoes

But they aren’t the only pickle out there! Pickling is a process, and you can pickle quite a number of things: asparagus, peppers, preserved lemons (technically a pickle).

I love pickles. My baba makes awesome dill pickles, and Mr’s mum makes 9 day pickles that will hopefully feature next summer once my garden becomes a reality.

So what did I pickle that wasn’t a cucumber? Green beans! Spicy pickled green beans are delicious; they have awesome crunch and get hotter the longer you leave them in the jar. And they make an awesome addition to a certain cocktail that will be appearing in a few days!

Spicy Pickled Green Beans

1 1/2 Cups water

1 1/2 Cups white vinegar

2 Tbsp salt

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 cup dill

2 garlic cloves

2 spicy peppers (mine were Thai chiles)

1/2 lb green beans, washed with ends removed

Directions

• Put a saucepan over high heat and bring the water and vinegar to a boil.
• Decrease the temperature so that the brine comes to a simmer. Add the mustard seeds and peppercorns; simmer for three minutes.
• 
• Pack the dill into the bottom of a sterile jar.
• Cut the tops off of the peppers, and then slice them in half lengthwise. Deseed if you don’t want the pickles to get too spicy, but the spicy is kind of the point, so I would suggest leaving the seeds in.
• 
• Add two pepper halves and a garlic clove to the jar, on top of the dill.
• Pack the prepared green beans into the jar so that they are standing upright.
• Add the remaining pepper halves and garlic clove to the jar.
• 
• Pour over the brine, leaving a 1/2 inch air space at the top.
• Seal the jar and allow the beans to pickle at least a week.

We opened up the jar to give the pickles a taste, and they were super good! I am not generally the hugest fan of green beans, but I will definitely be making these again. The cocktail hour post will be in a couple of days, and the spicy pickled green beans will be making another appearance there.

Mr. didn’t give me something to quote about, but my pickles are slowly disappearing from their jar, so I’m thinking that either he likes them too, or we have a ghost.

This time last year: Tortellini Soup