Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I met Maija last spring, on the cusp of my 40th birthday, at the Kraft Canada headquarters.  We had both been invited to take the tour, and for some reason, she was one of the few people that really stuck with me.  Months later, when I began to work for Yummy Mummy club I remembered Maija, and now we are co-workers at Yummy Mummy.  Maija loves chocolate and peanut butter, and now every time I see a recipe that marries the two flavours together, I think of her and our day at the Kraft kitchens.  (psst...check out Maija's chocolate peanut butter cupcakes over at Yummy Mummy club)

This weekend our family made a trip over to Vancouver and like every month when we venture into the city now, we took a detour by Costco.  With a giant jar of peanut butter and a ridiculously huge bag of chocolate chips, it just made sense to make some cookies with them.   I'm usually a little skeptical of peanut butter cookies, mostly because they are often dry and I like mine to be a little more moist.  This recipe is a keeper because the cookies are still fairly soft and more moist than I had expected.  Make sure to watch them carefully and not overbake, and have your butter just softened so it's easy enough to blend, but not really room temperature soft.  Be sure to let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet a little once you remove them from the oven, because they are quite fragile and will break if you don't.  However, I discovered that broken cookies only meant that they were fair game to eat and we all know that broken cookies have no calories, right?

Adapted from canarygirl.com

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup smooth peanut butter 

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and stir together on low until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop the batter by level tablespoons onto the parchment paper lined sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are just set on top and golden on the edges.  Let the cookies cool on the sheets for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

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Soy Sesame Steak

This steak is one of the easiest ways to please my teenager. Sliced thinly, marinated for a few hours and then seared in a hot pan, it's a great way to stretch a cut of meat to serve a few people. Kevin has made this before on his own, which shows you just how easy it can be to make. The secret to getting perfectly cooked and yet tender bits of meat is to get your pan really hot, and add the beef strips in batches so that they sear quickly, yet leave the inside a bit pink. It only takes a brief 45 seconds to 1 minute to do this, so stay at your stove and watch it carefully.

 Adapted from Gourmet

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (this is important-make sure you use low sodium or the end result will be too salty)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sake
1 bunch scallions (white and light green parts separate from the dark green, minced)
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 lb flank steak, sliced very thin ( 1/8th of an inch?) across the grain

 Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, sake, white and green parts of scallion, garlic, ginger, and sesame seeds in a bowl. Toss with steak strips, cover dish with plastic wrap, and chill for about 2 hours.

Get your frypan hot over medium heat. Add a little oil. Add about half of the beef strips, stirring and moving it around quickly as it sears. The trick with having tender steak strips is to cook it just briefly. When sliced so thin, beef doesn't need long to cook at all-maybe just 1-2 minutes per side. Don't crowd the pan, but rather cook in batches, stirring it around as you go.

Heap the cooked steak strips on a plate, sprinkle the remaining green onion over top, and serve with rice. 

Serves 2-3

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Beet, Carrot, and Spinach Salad with Couscous and Feta

I was tempted to call this 'Science Salad', because it was inspired by one of the science teachers bringing something similar for their lunch last week.  I admit that I'm somewhat of a lunch stalker, always noticing what the people around me are eating and occasional gleaning inspiration from them or out right asking for a recipe.

This salad also reminds me of Anne, a friend of mine (and Science teacher!) who once had a huge garden in her backyard, full of beets and carrots.  I never really liked beets that much until I met Anne, and her enthusiasm made me wonder if they really were better than I thought.  Anne moved away recently and is now without her beloved garden, but I think she would like this recipe.  Look Anne, you have me eating beets too!

A word about the recipe:  beets are nasty suckers to shred and this is best done if you have a food processor with a shredding attachment. In fact, my little food processor made this recipe really quick to make.  You can use a box grater, but it might be a little messy and you'll come out looking like you murdered the beets rather than just shredded some tasty vegetable.  Don't be put off by the ingredients in this-by themselves, they aren't anything special. Pair up sweet beets with salty feta, the tender couscous and tart dressing, and it's really, really, tasty.  If you can't find Israeli couscous, substitute quinoa or regular couscous.  You don't need a lot per person, but enough to pile the veggies on.  I think you could just eyeball it.

Makes 4 servings

2 medium beets, peeled and shredded
3 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
2 cups washed and trimmed fresh spinach leaves, torn into bite sized pieces
1/4 red onion, minced
Feta cheese
pistachios, chopped
1 1/2 cups uncooked Israeli couscous (allergy allert: Substitute pearl barley!)

Tahini dressing (recipe below)

In the bottom of a medium sized pot, toast the couscous over medium heat in a bit of oil until golden, which should take about 3-5 minutes.  Make sure to stir so no bits get burned. Pour in 2 cups boiling water, bring the couscous to a boil, then put a lid on, turn the heat down to low, and cook for about 10-12 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.

Let the couscous cool to room temperature.

To assemble:

Divide the couscous between 4 plates.  Top with spinach, then a handful of each of the shredded carrot and beets.  Sprinkle a bit of red onion, then feta and pistachios over top.  Serve with tahini dressing, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Balsamic Tahini dressing (from Choosing Raw)

1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3/4 cup water

Blend everything together in a food processor!  You can adjust the amount of water depending on if you want it thinner or thicker, in which case it makes a great dip.  I seasoned it up with a little more salt and pepper as well.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for Mother's Day

When I was a kid growing up in the country, we had rhubarb growing in our garden like most people we knew. I think it was one of the only things that would grow over in 100 Mile, and since we had a ton of it, Mom made everything with it.  Pie, jam, rhubarb crumble, crisp, even platz (a sort of coffee cake with fruit and crumble topping)  I admit, I overdosed on rhubarb.  For over 20 years I haven't touched it and even claimed that I hate the stuff.

Last weekend meant a trip to the Sechelt Farmer's Market (which I meant to blog, but I forgot my camera), and there I met Farmer Jon from Sechelt Farm.  We talked about a new farm to school program that's coming together, the new location of the market, and he talked me into some farm fresh spinach, rhubarb, and a ridiculously tasty rhubarb vinaigrette dressing.  I had planned to make salad, but some how the week got away from me.  Instead, it seemed as though pie was the only other option.

Oh, wow.  Tart, yet sweet and delicious, this pie is SO good.  You could reduce the sugar if you want to, but I think the amount called for is just perfect.  Orange zest adds wonderful flavour and compliments the tart rhubarb and sweet strawberries nicely.






Adapted from Canadian Living

Pie crust

4 cups chopped rhubarb (1 inch pieces)
2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp cold butter, cut into tiny cubes
egg yolk
2 tsp sugar

Pre-heat your oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, toss together the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, vanilla, and orange zest.  Set aside.

On a lightly floured counter, roll out one of the disks of dough to about 1/8 thick and fit into a 9 inch pie pan, leaving about 3/4 inch (2cm) overhang.  I always find this a bit of a challenge, but you can do it!  Don't let the pastry win.  Spoon in the rhubarb filling.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and 2 tsp water, then brush over the rim of the pie.  This is your glue to keep it together. Don't skip that step.

Roll out the other disk to 1/8 inch thickness and fit over top of the rhubarb filling, leaving about 3/4 inch (2 cm) overhang. Fold overhang under bottom pastry rim, seal, and flute edges.  Okay, I don't really know how to flute.  Fake it. Don't worry if it seems a little thick, the crust is tasty and you'll eat it anyway.

Brush the top with egg and sprinkle with sugar. Cut some steam vents in the top.

Bake the pie on a baking sheet in the bottom third of the oven for about 15 minutes.  You want to make sure that if there are any drips or bubbling that it's not all over the bottom of your oven.  Reduce the oven to 350 F and bake another 45-50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling bubbly.

Cool pie completely on a rack before serving.  I mean that, too.  If you don't and cut into it, you'll end up with soupy filling that will run all over the place.  Resist temptation, friends.

Serve with ice cream.  Yum!

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Un-fried Fried Chicken

I'm going to admit straight out-when I first saw this recipe, I was completely skeptical.  Breaded and baked chicken can be tricky-some recipes can turn out dry and sandy, and others leave you with a soggy breading.  I hate trying new recipes with the risk of failure, but most from John Bishop turn out amazing, so I gave it a go.  Not content with just plain breadcrumbs, I couldn't resist adapting by adding a bunch of spices.

Drumsticks were on sale at the store this week; buy 1 package, get one free, which meant our chicken legs were only $.50 each.  A steal!  You can leave the skin on here if you like that, but I don't and always remove it.  These babies baked up super moist with a tasty crunchy coating, and we scarfed down every last bit while licking our fingers and exclaiming about how downright delicious they were.  Try having them cold the next day in your lunch, with some potato salad, and you have a picnic!  Kevin declared these to be "just like Shake N Bake, but SO MUCH better!".  Well, then! A great home made alternative?

12 chicken drumsticks (skin removed if desired)
1 cup fine dried breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the mustard and oil. Set aside.  In another shallow bowl or pie plate, stir together the breadcrumbs, garlic powder, pepper, paprika, and oregano.

Dip each drumstick in the mustard mixture, coating well.  Roll in breadcrumbs and set on the baking sheet.  Continue with each drumstick until all are coated.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning the chicken pieces half way through.  Make sure to use a spatula/flipper instead of tongs so that you can lift each piece and keep the coating intact.  Tongs tend to allow some of the coating to stick to the pan and come off.

Once the drumsticks are cooked through, remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, and serve.

Makes 12 pieces

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