Mini-pizza snack

I remember doing something like this as a kid, then again throughout university. Now with a hungry and fussy (but getting less fussy) 10 year old around, we are having them again. Probably everyone has a version of this, but this is how we like them.  Actually that is what is great about them, it is so easy to customize them to your liking.  One kid has just cheese and sauce, another likes green olives.  I add hot salsa. Plus, it doesn't have huge thick crust with too much greasy cheese. I just can't eat pizza like I used to.

Anyway, this was for dinner but makes for a great snack. Those squeeze bottles of pizza sauce last forever, pretty much any kind of cheese can be used, a bit of pre-sliced pepperoni from the store and even pre-sliced green olives. Yum. And quick!

Mini-pizza snack

The trick turns out to be toasting the english muffins before popping them in the oven. So toast them up well, squirt some pizza sauce, then layers of cheese, pepperoni, green olives, and more cheese. Maybe some hot salsa or chili flakes or the like if you want. In the oven with convection for 4 minutes and there you go.

Next time: if we happened to have left-over chicken I'll try that, maybe different cheese

Me: 8/10
SO: n/a
SSO: 9/10

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Updated - see below.
Right off the top, I have to say this one is as low-brow as it is tasty. It is about as Asian as chicken balls. We're talking middle of the week comfort food, cooks up in less than 15 minutes start to finish. And the best part is that it makes fantastic left-overs to bring to work the next day (assuming you have a microwave).

This could be made fancier by using "real" noodles and not the instant $0.99 packages, "real" beef slices and not supermarket extra-lean, and fresh ginger instead of powdered. But who is going to do that when you just got home late at 6:45pm, and are starving and grumpy? Not me.

The recipe comes from SO's former co-worker and friend. It got published in one of those small-town raising money for something coil-bound cookbooks you buy for $10. Fantastic deal if you ask me. There are a few questionable things in there, but it is worth the price for this idea alone plus there are lots of other "my momma's recipe" dishes. I mean, even Julia Child's cookbook has a section on Aspics. Yikes. Good luck trying to find a copy of "A Taste From Our Homes" though, from the Goulbourn Jubilee Singers Community Choir. This link (familyoven.com) is almost identical to the one from the book.

Update:
So we needed something for lunch, and I had 10 minutes to make it. I saw a couple of the $0.99 noodle packets in the cupboard, so thought I'd make this again. We always have ground beef in the freezer. No snow peas, but that was my inspiration to do it a bit differently. Not having something is often great for inspiration. The difference? Started with diced onion and garlic, then added green beans, frozen peas, and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Turned out excellent!

Slightly different version, with garlic, onion, gr. beans,
peas, and Worcestershire sauce

Next time: this is so simple, there is nothing to change or do differently. Maybe make a bigger batch.

Me: 9/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: n/a, but I would guess 5/10 once he tried it

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto with Broccoli & Tomato Slaw

Sometimes running out of something turns out to be good, especially when you're not expecting it. I'll get to this later. G&G were coming over for dinner (a.k.a. Gramma and Grampa, or Mom and Dad), and SO had come up with a great idea - risotto with shrimp. Browsed around for a recipe I liked, but as usual they were all not what I was looking for.  I didn't want mushroom risotto this time, the Martha Stewart one called for a pressure cooker, the Food & Wine version seemed overly fussy with butter and I didn't feel like saffron, Giada de Laurentiis' version sounded good but I didn't have fennel or arugula, and I wasn't going for lemony.  And on and on. Actually another thing I didn't like about virtually all the shrimp risotto dishes, they all called for throwing in the shrimp at the last minute and stirring until just cooked through. As my friend would say, BORING.

But then I thought, making risotto isn't rocket science.  Well as they say, it is easy to make a crappy risotto, very hard to make a perfect one. I'm not sure if "they" really say that, but that seems to be the general consensus. Judging by the number of risotto dishes that Mr. Angry Chef Ramsey throws in the trash, it could be true. That's tv though.  I'll just wing it.  There isn't a fixed amount of anything you need anyway, you just keep ladling broth a bit at a time until it is done. I'll fix the one thing I don't like though, I'll bake the shrimp.  One recipe tossed the shrimp in paprika. But.....I ran out of paprika! Who runs out of paprika anyway.

We have a friend who has been pawning every manner of Epicure product on us lately. I generally like their products, but I like making things from scratch. However, the little jar of "Mango Curry Dip" spice powder just sang to me when I opened the cupboard door. So I rinsed the raw shrimp, patted dry, and then tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and some of this mango curry spice. Put it on a baking dish, and it was ready to pop into the oven.

As for the rest, it's just risotto. Start with onion and garlic in butter, toss the rice in it, then ladle a scoup of broth at a time for 15 to 20 minutes until done. Luckily I still had plenty of home made turkey broth in the freezer, that'll do perfectly. So worth the effort! I also added a bit of wine early on, and an extra bit of the mango curry. Near the end, popped the shrimp in the oven with convection on to crisp it up a bit, and voila.  Near perfection anyway.

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto

Seems almost like an afterthought, but we needed something fresh to go with the slightly rich and slightly spicy shrimp risotto.  I'm not a big broccoli fan, but chop it up finely in a slaw and suddenly it transforms.  Not sure why, it just does.  SO thinks I'm crazy on this topic (and likely many others) but I won't apologize, it is simply true. So it goes like this. Wash and finely chop some broccoli, finely dice some fresh tomato, and maybe some fine dice of English cuke as well. Add a little bit of your favourite salad dressing, and you're done. Very fresh, a bit crunchy, and a good counter point to the curry.

Broccoli slaw with tomato and cuke

Finally, I had to say something about the appetizer I put out. On our trip to the east coast this past summer, we picked up some awesome smoked herring, both pickled and dried at this place called Fumoir d'Anton in Les Isles de la Madeleine. Really tasty, and interesting part of the islands' history. Threw on some olives for SSO, in case you're wondering.

Herring from Le Fumoir d'Anton,
Havre-aux-Maisons, Îles-de-la-Madeleine 

Next Time: Hmmm. Maybe would add in some fresh Cilantro or even Mint leaves

Me: 9/10

SO: 9/10

SSO: 5/10

Clam Linguine Alfredo with bacon and mushrooms

This is officially my new favourite pasta recipe. Just....wow. I wouldn't have thought that canned clams would figure in a such labeled dish, but there it is. Another great idea from SO - this turned out not too creamy or rich, but full of rich flavours with just a tiny bit of pop from dried chilies. Cooking things up in the fat from the double-smoked bacon turned out to be the first good idea. The second, I finally got a chance to try some of the black garlic I got from Chef Michael Smith's Flavour Shack in PEI, where we visited recently. Finally, fresh linguine was on sale at Sobey's today. Perfect!

Sauteing the clams with bacon and mushrooms

Mmmm, the smell of bubbling garlic, mushrooms, clams, bacon.....this will be good. Assembling it with the fresh pasta, and we have one fine Sunday dinner.

A nest of linguine with clams, bacon, and mushrooms

Next time: wouldn't change much! Maybe fresh clams, but that would be a lot more trouble.

me: 10/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 7/10, but that was the plain pasta with butter and salt, the clam part was probably 2/10

Carrot Chocolate Chip Bread

What can you make when you have 3 very large carrots hanging about in the fridge? Well you could make carrot cake. I love it, especially the icing, but that isn't something I want to tackle at 9pm on Thursday.  It's not popular for lunches, and there aren't any stir-fry's on the menu for a while. What about some sort of quick bread?

After browsing around for a while, I don't like any of the recipes. One called for 3 cups of flour, one had zucchini and orange juice, one had 2 cups of sugar, it went on and on - couldn't find anything I liked. They weren't even really adaptable.  So I just made up a recipe. It is loosely based on the banana bread recipe I make, but different.  I wanted whole wheat flour, so I started with 1 cup regular plus 1/2 cup whole wheat. You need at least 1 tsp of baking powder and soda, a pinch of salt, and some spices. For the wet, I'm thinking 1 egg or maybe 2, a little bit of oil, some sugar.  What else? Well the carrot of course.  Funny thing, the carrots I had were so gigantic that I got 2 cups of grated carrot out of one carrot. So far for using them up - one will do.  Let's try it out!

By the way - why is it that most recipes like this call for a ton of cinnamon?  I don't hate cinnamon, but I think it is definitely overused. It is very strong, tends to overpower everything. So I will use just a tiny bit.  I really like fresh nutmeg. Not sure if it is Michael Smith's influence or not. I saw an episode in season 2 of his new show "Chef Abroad" where he travels to Grenada to see how nutmeg is grown and used - very interesting.

Let's start with the dry stuff. The two flours, allspice,
fresh nutmeg, and a little bit of cinnamon.

After mixing the sugar really well with the eggs until it is a bit frothy and the sugar is well dissolved, I added the carrot.  At the last minute, I threw in some lemon zest - what the heck. I don't think I ever tasted anything with lemon or orange zest that didn't turn out better for it.

Eggs, sugar, carrots, and lemon zest

Finally, cook it for almost an hour at 350, and voila.  They were a bit low rising, so I'll make some adjustments next time and see if it turns out better. But they tasted pretty good!  SSO liked the chocolate chips I added, which is why they were there of course. The texture and density was spot on actually. Maybe swap the allspice for cardamom or something else.

The finished product - carrot chocolate chip bread

Next time: some adjustments so it rises a bit more, change the spices a bit.

Me: 8/10

SO: 8/10

SSO: 7/10