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If you’re a hockey fan, you probably know the annual World Junior Championship (WJC) is in full swing in Ottawa. It started on Boxing Day (Dec. 26) and the gold medal game will be played on Jan. 5.
So far, Canada’s team has fared very well. Fingers are crossed that the streak will continue tonight with the highly anticipated match between Canada and the U.S.
I wouldn’t count myself as a true hockey fan, however I’ve been known to watch the occasional game. With a husband who scouts for the Kitchener Rangers, sometimes I don’t have a choice!
Modelling the Get Cracking Canada! tattoos we gave out at the Dec. 28th game of the World Junior Championships
Since Egg Farmers of Canada and Egg Farmers of Ontario are sponsors of the WJC, I attended Sunday’s game at Scotiabank Place – Canada vs Kazakhstan. It was egg promo night so a few colleagues and I handed out “Get Cracking Canada!” thundersticks and tattoos, as well as recipe cards for Pizza Frittata.
To get into the spirit of the game, we decided we should wear the tattoos we were giving out. The tattoos proved to be quite “permanent”! The one I put on my hand didn’t wash off easily after the game, so I decided to leave the tattoo on my face alone instead of trying to scrub it off. I did get a few comments and curious stares as I waited at the Ottawa airport for my flight back to Toronto. Once home, the tattoo came off with a little effort and a washcloth!
The Pizza Frittata recipe cards proved to be a popular giveaway. Most people like pizza, and a frittata (an open-faced omelette) is an easy thing to make. The cool thing about the cards is that they have a small packet of seasonings (containing mostly dried herbs) stapled to them.
We give out these cards at many of the events Egg Farmers of Ontario attends. (I mentioned them and provided the recipe in my April 28th post, but I didn’t show what the cards look like. For convenience, I’ll provide the recipe again below.)
At first people are curious about the card, or more accurately, they’re curious about what’s in the packet. Sometimes the contents get mistaken for seeds….or for something illegal that can be smoked!! We had numerous comments about the latter at the game. Not so sure about that hockey crowd!?!
Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars
Here’s the recipe for Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars which I mentioned in my last post. It’s from Anna Olson, Food Network TV chef and cookbook author.
No doubt Anna’s original recipe is great, and I’ll have to try the recipe as written some time. When I wanted to make it recently, I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand and didn’t have time to go to the store to get what I was missing. Thankfully, my modifications worked out just fine.
Here are my substitutions:
- quick oats instead of rolled oats
- salted butter instead of salt and unsalted butter
- 4 well-crushed Skor bars instead of Skor toffee bits
- chopped walnuts instead of almonds
- aluminum foil instead of parchment paper
These CAT Bars are good. No, very good! And, they make a great gift. If you’re giving them away, don’t forget to keep back a few pieces to enjoy yourself!
Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars
(Makes 25 to 36 squares – depending how big you cut them!)
1-1/2 cups (375 mL) rolled oats
1/2 cup (125 mL) graham cracker crumbs
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (250 mL) Skor toffee bits
1 cup (250 mL) chocolate chips
1 cup (250 mL) sliced almonds
1 can (300 mL) sweetened condensed milk
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease and line an 8-inch (2 L) square pan with parchment paper so the paper hangs over the sides of the pan.
Stir oats, graham cracker crumbs and salt in a bowl to combine, then stir in melted butter. Press crumbly oat mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle Skor bits evenly on top, followed by chocolate chips and sliced almonds. Pour condensed milk evenly over top (it will sink as it bakes).
Bake until top is golden brown and the edges are bubbling, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Cool to room temperature in the pan, then chill for at least 4 hours before slicing into squares.
It’s December 27th.
I don’t go back to work until January 6th, so I wouldn’t say Christmas vacation is over, but once we get back home to Kitchener from Winnipeg, where we spend Christmas with our families, it always feels as if the holiday part is pretty much over.
We got home late on December 25th. Christmas is officially over.
So, how did I spend this holiday?
It was a pretty typical Christmas except for the start. We were scheduled to fly out of Toronto at 8:15 a.m. on Sunday, December 21st. It was supposed to snow the night before our departure, so to avoid a slow drive from Kitchener into Pearson Airport in Toronto if the roads were bad – which could possibly mean missing our flight – we decided to stay overnight at a hotel near the airport.
Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars
After a hectic day of last minute shopping and packing, we got into Toronto Saturday night, enjoyed a late supper at Moxies, then checked into the Toronto Airport Marriott where we snacked on Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars I had tucked into my suitcase at the last minute. We enjoyed a great night’s sleep under a cozy duvet with our heads comfortably resting on feather pillows.
The weather forecasters were on the mark as the next morning we woke to falling snow and slippery roads. We had planned to take the 7 a.m. hotel shuttle to the airport. Since we (unwisely) hadn’t built any extra time into our schedule (assuming that since we were so close to the airport, there couldn’t possibly be any delay getting to it!), when the shuttle hadn’t arrived by 7:10, we decided we’d better grab a cab.
Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport was a zoo when we arrived. There were long line-ups everywhere and those in line did not look happy. There seemed to be rampant confusion everywhere with frazzled passengers not sure what line they should be in. We already had our boarding passes and just needed to drop off our luggage. When we finally found the end of the line we were to be in, I seriously doubted we would make our flight. I had never seen as long a line – just to drop off luggage.
Garlic salt helped prevent slipping and sliding on the snow and ice-covered streets of Ankeny, Iowa (a suburb of Des Moines) this past week.
It’s normal to use salt on roads and highways to melt snow. But garlic salt? That’s a new option! Apparently the garlic salt (18,000 pounds of it!) was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a spice producer in Ankeny.
The garlic salt had been destined for the landfill, but instead road crews mixed it with regular road salt and sprinkled it on the roads and highways to melt the snow and ice.
It’s not surprising that the crew reported being hungry after their shift distributing the salt. They were probably craving garlic toast or a nice steak with some sauteed mushrooms.
Who would have thought the aroma of flame-broiled meat would be considered the scent of seduction?
Burger King considers the smell of cooked meat to be enticing – as they should considering they’re in the business of cooking meat, and selling that cooked meat! But enticing enough to be made into a men’s cologne??
It seems so!
The aroma of BK’s signature flame-broiled burger – the Whopper – has been captured in a cologne for men, and appropriately dubbed Flame. A 5 mL (.17 ounce) bottle sells for $3.99.
The perfect Christmas gift for the man who has everything…..or the woman who wants her man to smell like he’s been cooking over an open fire…..
Pumpkin Pound Cake with Dulce de Leche Sauce
Whether you like to bake or not, at Christmas there are lots of reasons to do so. Sometimes it’s because you’ve been asked – or you’ve volunteered – to bring dessert to a party. Last Friday I did just that – offer to bring dessert for a dinner with friends.
I’ve been making pound cakes lately, and thought that would make a nice dessert.
I had tried a recipe for an eggnog pound cake made with a cake mix. The end result was okay, but the recipe really wasn’t special enough to share.
Then I made a pumpkin pound cake from Company’s Coming new cookbook, Tonight! (Magical Meals on Short Notice). This pound cake was definitely better, but the accompanying sauce was nothing to write home about, or write about at all. Well, I’ll write a little about it.
Strike one…..
The first time I made the sauce, the consistency was great, but I burnt it. In the recipe (see below), the brown sugar and butter are to boil gently together until thickened (about 5 minutes). The key words in this concept are gently and about. Obviously neither word registered with me the first time around. I should have kept a closer watch on the sauce as it thickened – then blackened! - before I checked in on it. Sadly, I was too busy trying to multi-task: clean up the kitchen, pay some bills, feed the dog….while a sauce was boiling out of control, then burning on my stovetop!
Strike two…..
I made the sauce again, but this time the butter and brown sugar never quite melded together. I probably over compensated for the first disaster and didn’t boil the mixture long enough. I added the brandy anyway, hoping for a miracle. (What was I thinking??) When I tasted the concoction, I decided 2 tablespoons (30 mL) was either way too much brandy or, maybe I really didn’t care for brandy all that much! The sauce had a strong, harsh and unpleasant taste.
With the second attempt nearly as disastrous as the first, I looked around for another recipe. Lesser, perhaps more intelligent(?!) cooks would have given up and just drizzled a commercial caramel or even chocolate sauce over the cake, but not being one to give up easily I forged on, scouring some of my cookbooks for another recipe.
Strike three…..
I found one that called for cornstarch as a thickener. This should give me the right consistency, I reasoned, and then I’d just add less brandy than called for to minimize and mellow the brandy flavour. Of course, smarter cooks would have opted to try flavouring the sauce with some thing they liked, like rum or amaretto. But I seemed determined to make myself like the taste of brandy.
And so a third round of sauce-making began. Sadly, it too was unsuccessful. The sauce, although nicely thickened, was thin in flavour and very pale, almost sickly looking. Surveying the mounds of pots and wasted ingredients, I felt like a sauce-moron.
Home run??
Since I was bringing the cake to a friend’s place for supper, I needed a solution – immediately! A raid of the fridge produced a jar of dulce de leche (a caramel creme spread – pronounced dool-say de lech-ay). I spooned some of it into a small bowl and warmed it briefly in the microwave – just enough to thin it slightly and make it easy to stir. Into the sauce I stirred a little half and half. (Milk would have worked as would whipping cream -35%M.F.) In mere seconds, I had a smooth, creamy, not too sweet sauce. I sliced off a piece of cake and spooned a little sauce over top for a test run. Mmmm. Home run! At last!
There was enough cake to enjoy for supper at my friend’s home that night, and to serve to guests at home the next day. A set of small gravy boats doubled beautifully as mini pitchers for the sauce so each person could serve themselves as much or as little sauce as they wanted.
Dulce de leche is basically cooked sweetend milk. You can make it yourself or buy it commercially. The brand I used was President’s Choice. You can use it as a spread for toast or as a topping for cakes, waffles, crepes, etc. Here are some additional recipes using it.
Pumpkin Pecan Pound Cake with Brandy Sauce
(Makes 12 slices)
When making the sauce, the brown sugar and butter should boil gently for 3 to 5 minutes without stirring, but keep watch over it. Instead of the Brandy Sauce, serve with warmed butterscotch or caramel sauce or maple syrup, or warmed dulce le leche spread thinned with a little milk or cream. A spoonful of sweetened whipped cream (add a little ground cinnamon if desired) or vanilla or butterscotch ice cream would also be a nice accompaniment.
1 cup (250 mL) butter or hard margarine
2 cups (500 mL) sugar
4 large eggs
1 can (14 oz/398 mL) pure pumpkin
2 teaspoons (10 mL) vanilla extract
3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
2 teaspooons (10 mL) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) chopped pecans, toasted
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and vanilla in two additions, beating well after each addition. (Mixture may look a little curdled.)
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Slowly add to pumpkin mixture, beating on low until combined. Fold in pecans.
Spread evenly in a greased and floured 12 cup (3 L) bundt pan.
Bake in a preheated 350F (175C) oven until wooden pick or cake tester inserted in centre of cake comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Let stand in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto wire rack to cool slightly.
Brandy Sauce: Combine 1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar with 1/3 cup (75 mL) butter in a small saucepan. Heat and stir over medium heat until boiling. Boil gently, uncovered and without stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/2 cup (125 mL) half and half and 2 tablespoons (30 mL) brandy. Drizzle over individual slices of cake.
Recipe Source: Company’s Coming Tonight! (Magical Meals on Short Notice), Company’s Coming Publishing Limited, 2008
As a follow up to yesterday’s An Appetite for Humour food joke (The Parrot Training Course), let’s consider what’s in the freezer. (You’ve got to read the joke for that segue to make any sense!)
Keeping a freezer full of foods that can become a meal at a moment’s notice or a party without a whole of last minute effort is a stress-relieving strategy, especially at this time of year when hectic schedules and unrealistic expectations about the season tend to heighten stress levels.
If you can spare a few minutes now to stock your freezer with pre-made brunch dishes, appetizers, entrees and desserts, you will reap the benefits when unexpected company drops by…or you come home tired and hungry from a shopping marathon at the mall…or the thought of cooking Christmas dinner for 20 threatens to overwhelm you.
A little planning and effort in the kitchen now will ensure you don’t end up slaving over the stove during the entire Christmas holiday.
Home economist, cookbook author and About.com’s Busy Cooks Guide Linda Larsen offers tips on freezing foods and make-ahead recipes for the Christmas season in her article Freeze Ahead Holiday Foods. These ideas aren’t just practical at this time of year. Keeping foods in the freezer is a useful meal planning strategy to employ at any time of the year.
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious, and laced with profanity.
John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music, and doing anything else he could think of to clean up the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally John had had enough. In exasperation one day, he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. He shook his fist at the parrot, but the parrot just got angrier and even ruder.
In desperation, John threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.
Fearing he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arm and said,
“I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behaviour.”
John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behaviour, the bird continued,
“May I ask what the chicken did?”
Tomorrow’s post:
Christmas Countdown: Freezing foods for easy entertaining during the holidays!
Mandarin orange segments make great dippers for chocolate fondue, as do pineapple chunks, apple wedges, banana slices, strawberries, pound cake cubes, pretzels....
Dippidity do dah!
Get out the fondue pot and forks. It’s time to gather ’round the glow of burning embers (make that a tealight) and dip yummy things into a vat (or just a small bowl!) of melted chocolate!
The nature of fondue makes it a special way to entertain, especially during the holiday season. This social, communal eating adventure allows participants to enjoy food and each other in a relaxed, leisurely way.
Chocolate is a favorite fondue choice. It’s fun! It tastes exceptionally good, especially if you use a fine quality chocolate. It’s easy. And a minimal number of ingredients (two!) are required – chocolate and cream (whipping cream or half and half both work). Liqueur can be added for flavour.
A good quality chocolate is essential and will definitely give the best flavour.
For easy melting, chop the chocolate into small pieces. You can use your microwave instead of a double boiler on the stove top to melt the chocolate, but do so carefully, at Medium (50%) power. Melt the chocolate partially, then remove it from the microwave and stir until the remaining chocolate melts.
A chocolate fondue should be served in a small earthenware or ceramic bowl instead of the larger stainless steel or ceramic pots reserved for cheese, oil or broth fondues. A small votive candle or tealight will provide enough heat to keep the chocolate warm without burning it.
Dark Chocolate Fondue
(Makes 4 servings)
3/4 cup (175 mL) whipping cream (35% M.F.)
12 oz (375 g) dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp liqueur (e.g. Kahlua, Amaretto, Grand Marnier, kirsch), optional
Fondue dippers (e.g. slices or pieces of fruit, angel food or pound cake cubes, marshmallows, cookies, pretzels, potato chips)
In the top of a double boiler, heat cream over hot (not boiling) water until warm. Add chocolate; stir constantly until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
If desired, stir in liqueur. If chocolate mixture is too thick, stir in a little more cream. Transfer mixture to a dessert fondue bowl and place over a lit tealight.
Enjoy by spearing fruit or cake and dunking dippers in chocolate mixture.
For me, the perfect antidote for a hectic day during the busy pre-Christmas season is a few solitary moments spent savouring a cup of good quality hot chocolate.
Chuao Chocolatier Winter Hot Chocolate
While shopping for Christmas gifts at HomeSense a few days ago, I found a brand of hot chocolate mix I hadn’t heard of – Chuao Chocolatier. (Chuao is pronounced Chew WOW.)
Packaged in an attractive container, the contents rattled slightly when I turned the tin over to check the price of the mix. I was curious about the rattling noise (hot chocolate mix doesn’t usually make much of a sound), but the sticker price made me temporarily forget any unusual sound effects – $12.99 for 340 g or 12 ounces! (The original price was $18.00 but HomeSense sells things at 20 to 60% off.) Hmmm…if price was an indicator of quality, this would make one mighty fine cup of hot chocolate!
I ignored the price and examined the three types of Chuao Hot Chocolate on the shelf: Winter, Abuelo, and Spicy Maya. The text on the green and brown tin of Winter Hot Chocolate said the mix was made from bittersweet Venezuelan chocolate. It promised a rich, velvety flavour with the spices of winter: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and pepper.
Abuelo was described as silky rich hot chocolate, “made from Grandma’s strict recipe”.
A rediscovery of an ancient Mayan recipe, Spicy Maya was made from premium dark chocolate, chiles, cayenne peppers and cinnamon.
I was curious about Chuao Chocolatier and its hot chocolate offerings, especially the Winter mix with its combination of spices. If it tasted good, it could make a great Christmas gift for the chocolate lovers on my list. I tucked a tin into my basket, burying it under a couple other items so I couldn’t see it and stress about the price. Out of sight, out of mind, I rationalized. At least until I had to pay for it!
Shake, rattle and...voila! The chocolate is obvious in this hot chocolate mix!
At home later that evening, it was time to find out what $18.00 hot chocolate tasted like! When I removed the lid from the tin, the reason for the rattling noise was immediately obvious. Instead of a powdery smooth mix, this mix contained chunks of chocolate. Cool! Who wouldn’t want to actually see the chocolate in their hot chocolate mix?
I read the directions and proceeded as instructed, first boiling some water, then measuring 1/2 cup (125 mL) of it into a small cup. Three tablespoons (45 mL) of the chunky chocolate mix were stirred into the water. The chocolate melted easily with the heat. I then placed the mug in the microwave to bring the hot chocolate to a boil. About 30 seconds later, the mixture was boiling. (I kept a close watch on what was happening in the microwave as I didn’t want the hot chocolate to boil over.) I was then to whisk the hot chocolate for 30 seconds; instead, I used my battery operated hand-held frother to churn things up a little.
The result? A truly splendid cup of hot chocolate!
A cup of spiced Chuao Winter hot chocolate.
As promised, Chuao’s Winter Hot Chocolate was indeed a rich smooth drink and my small cupful was all I needed. I found the drink’s spicy nuances of clove and nutmeg and the bit of heat from the pepper to be most balanced when the hot chocolate had cooled a little.
The verdict? I may have to ration it so I can afford to drink it, but Winter Hot Chocolate might well become my drink of choice over the long, cold months ahead, especially when I just want to take a few minutes for a time-out during a busy day.
Because of the addition of spices, Chuao’s Winter Hot Chocolate might not be enjoyed by traditional hot chocolate drinkers. If you’re a hot chocolate purist, you might want to try the Abuelo mix.
You can visit Chuao’s web site to see what other kinds of chocolatey products they have for sale, but be aware the company does not ship outside the U.S. If you’re interested in sourcing Chuao’s hot chocolate mix, check the shelves of food products at your local HomeSense (or Winners), or try a gourmet or chocolate shop.
