I suck at baking, but these turned out brilliantly (after an initial false start…turns out chemistry makes me panic). I followed this recipe more-or-less exactly, but I have a few tips if you’re going to try it.

1. Making dulce de leche is more complicated than it sounds and takes longer than you think. A glass bowl won’t cut it — you really do need a glass pie plate for it to work properly. I’m also pretty sure that cooking it at a lower temperature for longer would be better — mine developed a darker brown crusty top which, while tasty, sort of made it look gross.
2. Let the chocolate/butter/cocoa mixture cool before adding the eggs. Don’t freak out if the butter starts to separate out after adding the second egg — just press on regardless and it’ll work out in the end.
3. Switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon before adding the eggs — just trust me.
4. Don’t be an idiot and forget to add the pecans you carefully toasted and chopped like I did. Pewp.

They nice, thick, moist, yummy, crazy brownies. I expect one warmed and topped with a tiny scoop of vanilla Hagendaaz will be even better.

Yet another variation on chili…I tend to just make these up as I go. This one’s more beans than meat and has the added nutritional bonus of barley. The ingredient list is longish — I might try a simpler variant next time.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lg spanish onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 19oz can red kidney beans
• 1 19oz can white kidney beans
• 1 14oz can butter beans (lima beans)
• 1 14oz can black-eyed peas
• 1 12oz can corn niblets, ideally peaches + cream corn
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 14oz can diced tomatoes (drained)
• 14 or so white or cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 2 lg red peppers, chopped
• 5 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 c cooked hulled barley
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup chili powder (I used 1/4c today but will reduce to 1/8c next time)
• 1 tbsp chipotle chili powder
• Fresh ground black pepper

Method

1. In a large stock pot (6.5 quart or bigger), heat oil over med heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for 5-7 mins or so. Toss in ground beef and stir occassionally until the meat is thoroughly browned. Add chili powders and some black pepper, and continue cooking for 5-10 mins.
2. Add mushrooms and stir, cooking for 5 mins or so, then add the red peppers and celery chunks. Stir and cook for another 5-10 mins.
3. While the vegetables are cooking, open, drain, and rinse all 4 types of beans and the corn niblets. Add to the pot, stir, then add the crushed and diced tomatoes.
4. Turn down to minimum heat, cover. Let this sit on the stove stewing away for 45-60 mins.
5. Remove from heat, stir in barley, let sit for 15 mins or so.

Serve topped with fresh grated cheddar cheese and fresh, thickly-sliced and lightly buttered bread and/or tortilla chips. Serves a lot of people, or 2 people for about a week.

I had some slightly wilty asparagus left over from last week, so I decided to make asparagus soup. Very simple and really good.

Ingredients

• 2 lb asparagus, washed, tough end bits snapped off, cut into 1″-2″ chunkies
• 1 med onion, diced
• 1 large-ish stick of celery, diced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 c low-sodium chicken stock (Knorr-in-a-box)
• 1/4 c table cream (totally optional)
• Salt + Pepper to taste

Method

• Basic soup method – melt butter in a good sized stock pot. Toss in onions and celery and saute until all translucent and yummy. Add a few grinds of pepper.
• Toss in the asparagus chunkies and chicken stock — bring to a quick boil, then reduce to minimum and simmer for 20-30 mins or so (I went to 40 and it makes no difference at all).
• Remove from heat, blend with an immersion blender.
• Stir in the optional cream (I probably won’t bother next time — didn’t do much for the texture and didn’t add anything but unnecessary calories). Taste and add salt and additional pepper if necessary.
• Serve in nice big bowls with fresh 12-grain bread.

That was lunch (with leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch). Dinner is 4 bean chili.

The local health-food shop stocks some seriously tasty organic short-grain brown rice. This recipe makes enough for 3-4 meals, easy.

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups short grain brown rice
• 4 cups water
• 1 tbsp oil (peanut, whatever)

Method

• Rince uncooked rice three times and drain well.
• Put the 4c water on to boil in the kettle. This will boil separately from the rice to start.
• Heat oil over med high heat in a lidded sauce pan. Saute uncooked rice for a few mins, stirring constantly.
• Pour boiling water over rice. Give a quick stir, then cover and turn heat to low (I just put it on minimum). Cook for 45 mins undisturbed.
• After 45 mins, turn off heat and let sit for 5-10 mins.

I’m not a huge fan of regular white rice, but this stuff is great. Sauteing the uncooked rice in the oil for a few mins brings out a nice rich, nutty flavour.

1) Homemade curry powder. Recipe stolen shamelessly from A New Way to Cook, my new favourite cookbook (recommended by the ever-wise Shona).

2) Beef curry made with said curry powder (with 1/2 tsp cayenne for a bit of heat) served with toasted organic brown short grain rice. Mmf.

3) Organic green beans topped with butter-toasted almost-burnt almond slivers (recipe, what it is, below).

I invented these when I was trying to figure out something yummy to put on random greens or mix with rice:

Butter-toasted almost-burnt almond slivers

• 1/4c sliced or slivered almonds
• 1 tsp unsalted butter (there’s irony here)
• A quick grating of sea salt

Procedure: melt butter over med-low heat in a small non-stick pan. Add almonds and stir until just getting on the verge of being too brown. Add a quick grating of sea salt (really, not much). Stir a few more times, add to whatever.

Also tasty: Rosenblum Cellars 2005 California Zinfandel. Just under $20/bottle at the LCBO and worth every penny.

Woke up with a sore throat this morning after seeing a friend last week who is now just getting over a nasty but short-lived cold. Imagine my joy. Now I’m eating Cold fX like candy and drinking lots of my homemade “go away cold die die die” tea:

Ingredients

• 3-4 c water
• Two thick 2″ pieces of ginger root, peeled and chopped
• Two garlic cloves, crushed
• One whole lemon, sliced thinly (including peel)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Method

Throw it all in a pot and boil for 5-10 mins. Strain a mugful, sweeten with honey, steel yourself for the oncoming pepper/garlic hit, drink. Top up the water in the pot and leave to steep on the stove, then reboil and have more later. Add more lemon, garlic, ginger, pepper as the day wears on and you continue drinking this strangely tasty concoction.

Friggin’ colds.

• 1 can diced tomatoes, juice and all
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Handful baby carrots
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 c chicken broth (Knorr in a box)
• 1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 6 small new potatoes, halved
• Salt + pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large-ish pot over med-high heat. Add onion and cook until softened. Add garlic, cook for 30-40 seconds. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables, sauteing for a couple of minutes. Add thyme and salt and pepper.

Transfer all that to the slow cooker, add tomatoes and chicken stock. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Add beans 15 mins before you want to serve to heat through. Serve in big bowls with crusty buttered bread.

I have no idea what this is like yet, but I’m going to try it tomorrow. Really, I doubt you can go wrong with this recipe.

Last night’s dinner was simple, fast, and yummy.

Cheesy polenta

• 2.5 c water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter (unsalted)
• 1/2 c polenta (corn meal, basically)
• 1/3 c milk (2%)
• 1/2 c freshly grated parmasean

In a medium saucepan, put water on to boil with salt and butter. When boiling, whisk in polenta and keep whisking for a minute or two. Turn heat down to minimum. Continue cooking polenta for 30 mins or so, whisking well every few mins. Don’t panic too much about the stirring — just try to keep it from getting clumpy. After 30 mins, add milk and parmasean, stir stir stir to incorporate. Ta dah — creamy cheesy polenta.

Sauted kale with garlic

• Bunch of kale, stems trimmed off and washed well
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lg clove garlic, minced or pressed
• Salt + pepper to taste

Put a saute pan on medium, add oil. When hot, toss in garlic and cook for 30-40 seconds. Add kale (don’t bother drying after washing, the water will help it steam), turn down to med-low, cover and cook for 30 mins or so.

Roast pork tenderloin

• 1 pork tenderloin
• Dry spice rub — this time I just used ground pepper, some sugar, some steak spice, a bit of unsweeted powdered cocoa, and a bit of salt
• 2 tbsp canola oil

Pre-heat oven to 375. Coat outside of pork with spice rub. Heat cast iron pan on stove to med-high, add oil. When oil is hot, sear the tenderloin for 2-3 mins per side. Put tenderloin (in cast-iron pan) in the oven and roast for 10-15 mins until cooked through. Let rest for 5 mins, slice and serve with polenta and kale.

Prep time around 10 mins total. Cooking time around 30 mins. Serve with a nice pinot noir or other lightish red. Or whatever. Have whatever wine you like. Or beer. Mm.

Making another slow cooker dinner today: oniony potroast with carrots.

Ingredients

• Sirloin tip roast (3lbs or so)
• 1 envelope Knorr onion soup mix
• Baby carrots (couple of handsful)
• 2.5 cups water

Put the roast in the crockpot, dump onion mix on top, add carrots, pour in water. Turn on “low” and leave for 8-9 hours. Prep time roughly 2 mins.

I put this on at 9am and the house smells all awesome oniony and yum. I’ll probably serve it with either boiled baby potatoes or maybe roast garlic mash. We’ll see.

I think it might be time to upgrade my slow cooker — I found a fantastic-sounding basic vegetable soup recipe that needs a bigger pot than I have. Luckily even the high end ones are inexpensive.

Experimented with my first serious dry spice rub last night, using it to flavour a couple of pork tenderloin that I seared and then roasted. Served up with thyme-pepper roast potatoes and sauted kale, it was a really fantastic meal.

Chocolate-chipotle roast pork

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsweeted cocoa powder
• 1 tsp chipotle pepper powder
• 1 tsp regular chili powder
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 2 medium pork tenderloin

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix cocoa, chipotle, chili, pepper, and garlic powder. Cut each tenderloin in half (through the width, not lengthwise) then coat liberally with the spice mixture — get as much on there as possible.
3. Heat canola oil in an oven-proof skillet (I always use a cast-iron pan for this sort of thing) over med-high to high heat. When hot, sear the pork for 2 mins per side.
4. Put the skillet in the oven and roast for roughly 10 mins. Remove from oven, put pork on a plate to rest for 10 mins, tented with foil.
5. At this point you can make a quick pan sauce if you like — I did a quick deglazing of the pan with sherry, reducing for a couple of mins, then stirring in a bit of butter at the end.

The kale was dead simple — I just washed, destemmed, and chopped a bunch of kale then set in a covered skillet to steam for 15-20 mins or so with a bit of olive oil, seasoning with salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice when it was done. Today we get leftover pork sandwiches for lunch.