InstaPot Chili

Posted by Pussycat in Main Dishes | Leave a comment
23September2020

Are you feeling the crisp of the fall weather coming where you are? We have been, it’s feeling like a difficult transition this year knowing that we’re likely not going anywhere to escape this winter. Most years we’ve had a trip or two to look forward to, this year, not so much. Certainly we’re very fortunate that that’s the worst of our issues given so many people have definitely dealt with a lot worse with all the Covid craziness. Rather than going somewhere warm to do scuba this year, we are instead going to focus on some snowshoeing and x-country skiing.

And so I’ve been looking through my cooking options and craving some comfort food. My husband and I have been together 13 years now and he has always told me he hated beans. Chili has never been one of my favourite foods so I pretty much pushed it aside and made other things. I’v never felt like it was worth it to force someone to eat something they hate, never did it with my kids and won’t do it now. Of course after not having something for so long it was something I mentioned and after more than a decade my husband said he wouldn’t mind trying it. So here it comes… a delicious, hearty, slightly spicy scratch chili. Mmmmm I have missed this! It’s so damn good… You need to try it. Add a little cheese or sour cream, or both and enjoy.

Chili

  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 2 onions (diced)
  • 1 Garlic bulb (whole peeled and minced) not even kidding!
  • 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 cup fresh mushroom (diced quite fine)
  • Red pepper (diced)
  • Yellow pepper (diced)

Saute all ingredients, onions, garlic and mushrooms first, once they are fragrant and soft add the meat and cook through. Once the meat is cooked add the diced peppers and then add:

  • 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcester sauce
  • 1 teaspoon chipotle pepper
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1 jar of tomato soup
  • 1 large can of sewed tomatoes (with green pepper, celery and onion)
  • 1 large can of no salt added diced tomatoes

Mix well and pressure cook for 20 minutes. Let the pressure out once done and then add:

  • 2 cans of rinsed red kidney beans

Pressure cook for another 10 minutes and enjoy! Serve with cheese or sour cream.

I generally have homemade tomato soup and tomato paste that I use, but you can certainly use store bought. I would just say be careful adding all the canned ingredients, I always make sure not EVERYTHING had salt included, just too much salt for me. You can always add it in at the end to taste but I doubt you’ll feel the need.

Also, this freezes beautifully so you can easily double the recipe and freeze the extra for another time. Or if there is only two of you then this will leave enough to have some frozen for another time.

Apple Cranberry Strudel

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment
25August2020

It’s that time of year when apples are plentiful. If you don’t have any fruit trees in your yard, or if like me you do but they aren’t bearing much fruit, perhaps someone will share with you. I was in that fortunate position a couple days ago and a neighbour of ours brought over a box of apples. One of my trees has a couple dozen or so and they look good, but for now I’m making this treat with a bountiful gift and leaving those to ripen a bit longer. A shout out to neighbours everywhere who are sharing, we appreciate it!

My mother would make apple strudels all the time, more frequently in the fall as apples are abundant this time of year. And I remember eating this not so much as a ‘dessert’ but really more of a snack or even sometimes breakfast. At our house it was never seen as unhealthy or a ‘sweet’ but more apples prepared in a delicious way. LOL…. There is nothing bad in this; cream cheese, butter, lots of apples and some sugar and cinnamon basically, and what’s bad or unhealthy about that?! I’ve just had two pieces for breakfast, old habits die hard I guess. :0

Dare I say the crust is spectacular and amazing and flakey and light and so simple it’ll never fail, you can’t mix too much or too little or have it too warm or too cold, honestly you’ll be embarrassed to tell people how easy it is to make something this damn good. Yes, that is a mouthful, but trust me, you’ll want to use this crust for everything… so… you’re welcome!

Apple Cranberry Strudel

For the Crust

  • 250 grams unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 250 grams full fat cream cheese (room temp)
  • 250 grams flour

Put flour in a pile on the workspace / counter. Cut in room temp butter and cream cheese. With clean hands, roll up your sleeves and take off any jewelry and mix together well to form into dough. Cut into half and roll out onto surface into a rectangle 2 1/2 times the width of finished strudel and just a touch longer than the baking pan. This dough makes two strudels, you can half or double the recipe to make one or four.

  • 4 cups peeled, cored and sliced apples – preferable crisp like granny smith or something similar
  • 1 cup frozen cranberries
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1 egg whisked
  • Icing sugar to dust on top of baked, cooled strudel

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs evenly down the centre of the dough leaving an inch or so at the ends (this keeps the apples from soaking the actual crust). Put half the apples evenly down the centre of the dough, sprinkle cranberries then sugar and cinnamon. Make sure no apple pieces will stick out, you don’t want them poking through the dough, so move them around to make sure you have a nice even mound. Gently lift one side over the apples, gently rub some whisked egg (to help stick) along the top of the edge you have flipped over then flip the second side over and do the same with the ends. Carefully move to a baking sheet. This is where it’s good that you paid attention to the length of the pan (I have the pan close by and do an eyeball check when I’m rolling out the dough). Prick the top with fork creating a few vent holes a few inches apart down the whole side you can also use the fork to gently brush along the edges to help them stick together, finally brush with eggs. Set aside and do the same with the second one. You should be able to fit two strudels on a baking pan with a bit of space between them.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is, until a nice golden brown. Let cool and then dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.

You can also add raisons or nuts if you like instead of or in addition to the cranberries. In my house we all love cranberries but not everyone likes nuts or raisons so that’s how we make it here. For some of you it may seem odd to make two, but trust me, they disappear quickly. If you only want one then you can always wrap and freeze the extra for up to a month, let come to room temp before dusting with icing sugar and serving.

Frozen Lemon Meringue

Posted by Pussycat in Specialty Cakes, Sweets | Leave a comment
6July2020

It’s so nice to start getting back to some version of normal. I can’t complain much though since I’m pretty much ‘sheltering in place’ most days anyway and I like it that way though I must admit even I’ve been missing the ability to go out. Now that most places have reopened we’ve decided to catching up on some of our favourites.  

One place I like but we never seem to get to is Pineridge Hollow.  It’s a lovely country store with cool knick-knacks to look at and buy if you like, a beautiful property to wander around and pretty adorable restaurant with some delicious menu items. It’s a little out of the way, I think it’s about 15 minutes outside the city, which isn’t the factor for us, we’re 10 minutes out of the city anyway, for us it’s that we get lost a little on our way out there. We did this time as well…. I guess we’ll have to go more often 😉

Though I think we may have had this dessert there before something happened and this time it literally blew our minds.  It’s not often we order the same thing but this time we did and we were glad because once we hd a taste we likely wouldn’t have wanted to share. So so GOOD. A few days later we kept talking about it. So much so that my husband started searching for a recipe online.  I know most places don’t want to give away their secrets, and not that I can blame them but honestly most often and most people don’t want to start making their products at home. It can be a lot of work and sometimes it’s just nice going out to enjoy a meal.  But it’s also nice to find something amazing…. And then to … pretty easily – make it at home!  Thank you Pineridge Hollow for sharing this recipe for the Frozen Saskatoon & Lemon Meringue Torte, it was just what I needed to recreate the luscious dessert!

Unwrapping…

This was one of those recipes, though I had been ruminating about how they managed this amazingly scrumptious dessert, was surprisingly easy to put together. Seriously. Though it is a ‘make ahead’ recipe given it needs to freeze for 8 hours. This also means that it will keep for a few days and be just as good later in the week.

Also a good thing, most often I make a cake for company and feel bad about giving it also as left overs. I wouldn’t feel bad doing that with this one since it really needs to be individually plated.

Pineridge Hollow’s Frozen Lemon Meringue

Frozen Lemon Meringue – Adapted from Pineridge Hollow archives and Ciao Winnipeg

Meringue

  • 10 Large egg whites
  • 2 1/4 cups white sugar
  • 3 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 3 tsp lemon zest

Use a pot lid or plate to trace four, eight-inch circles on parchment paper. Place paper upside down on baking sheet (to not get the pencil or ink mark on the meringue). Combine 1 cup of the sugar, cornstarch and zest. Set aside.

In electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in 1 1/4 cups sugar until stiff peaks form. Take from mixer and fold in reserved sugar mixture.

Spoon meringue onto the prepared parchment paper and smooth the tops. Bake for 1 hr or until dry at 200 degrees and let cool completely. Meringues can be stored in a cool, dry place for 3 days. The meringues at Pineridge Hollow were browned a bit and I suspect that they used a hotter oven. I used the 200 degrees and mine tuned out pretty white.

Lemon Sauce

  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted

Mix all ingredients in a small sauce pot or double boiler and simmer slowly until thick enough to cover the back of a spoon. Set aside in a container covering the top with plastic wrap so a skin doesn’t form when cooling. Cool in refrigerator until ready to assemble with whipping cream.

Assembly

Once meringues and lemon sauce have cooled whip up a litre of whipping cream. Once whipped fold in 1/2 of the lemon sauce. Place the first layer of meringue onto something that can used to carry and/or serve. I lined mine with plastic wrap that could be folded over the whole dessert when done. layer 1/3 of the lemon whipping cream on the first layer. Layer another meringue and continue until done. Finish the cake with a meringue layer, much easier to transport and store this way. Freeze for 8 hours or overnight.

Just before serving, remove from freezer, decorate with more whipping cream and drizzled lemon sauce (you only used half for the whipping cream filling) and top with some pretty fresh fruit. Bon Appetite!

Cowboy Candy

Posted by Pussycat in Sides | Leave a comment
26May2020

It’s a rainy day here in my part of the world and so I’m on a mission to begin stocking up on my favourite condiment, especially for the summer. I’ve been making these for a few years and on a day like today when we’re all still on a bit of a lockdown I’m making some of my favourites.

I’m also reminded of a summer when I went with a staff member on a work trip. We both love spicy food and when we saw a burger with candied jalapeños on the menu of a restaurant we both jumped on it. It was definitely love at first bite, in fact if I recall correctly we had another meal at the same restaurant and requested an extra bowl of these on the side and enjoyed them… well…. like …. CANDY!

We were told that they could be found at grocery stores though I’m not sure which stores exactly since we were never able to track them down. Of course that was all long before lockdown, I’m pretty sure these days I could just about find anything for sale on the internet. Back then I quickly gave up trying to buy them and just simply found a way to make them. This was several years ago and I’ve been making these ever since.

I found them on plenty of sites which I can’t even recall now but the one I’d been following most closely is this one over at Tasty Kitchen. I occurred to me recently that recipes and various internet sites aren’t forever – or at least don’t have to be since sometimes things I’m searching for disappear so just to be cautious against that I’m posting my modified version below, but by all means, go over to Tasty Kitchen and see where my inspiration came from 🙂

I hope you all are staying safe and maintaining distance from others. I know it’s hard, even for me though I’m a bit of an introvert so it’s for sure easier than for some of my extroverted friends…. for you especially, I hope things return to some semblance of normal quickly. And if you’ve been able to get really good at keeping your hands away from your face… make this – It. Is. Delicious. And one bit into your first jar you will wonder how in the world you have lived all these years without them. The sweet and spicy combination is to die for. We put this on burgers, hot dogs and I even often put them on my eggs when having breakfast. They do not disappoint I promise.

Cowboy Candy OR Candied Jalapeños

  • 4 – 5 pounds of jalapeños
  • 1 – 2 pounds of sweet baby peppers (I buy the multicolour bag)*
  • 4 cups cider vinegar
  • 8 cups white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon celery seed
  • 6 teaspoons granulated garlic
  • 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Start by washing and slicing the peppers, slice off the stem end and discard then place all the slices in a bowl and set aside, this is where it’s it’s really … really good to keep your hands away from your face! Alternatively you can also use plastic gloves if you have, I prefer to just keep my hands away from my face.

Place the vinegar, sugar and spices in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all the sugar is dissolved. Add the pepper slices and simmer for 4 minutes. Tasty Kitchen is pretty specific saying ‘exactly 4 minutes’ however, I’ve made these lots of times and give or take a minute or two doesn’t make much difference. I generally simmer for 5 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon and fill sterilized jars to within 1/4 inch with peppers. Turn up the heat on the remaining liquid and boil for 3 -5 minutes. You’re always going to have too much liquid, this boiling creates a syrupy sauce and also reduces the amount of liquid left over.

Ladle liquid into the jars to fill to 1/4 inch, wipe the top of the jars and close. You can simply screw the jars shut and leave in fridge for a couple weeks or you can seal the jars in a water bath and save for later and/or give to friends, cause you know they are going to want a jar or two or three! 🙂

Lastly, you will NOT ever have the exact amount of liquid to peppers to put in jars. I have tried and tried and it never works out. But don’t throw away the extra liquid, put it in a jar and use it for BBQing this summer. The sweet and spicy goes well on all sorts of meats, think chicken breasts on the bbq slathered with this sauce… Mmmmm Mmm.

*Initially I used to make these with only jalapeños but as of late like to add baby sweet peppers to tone down the heat just a little bit and to give them some color. The spiciness definitely infuses the sweet peppers and makes them equally amazing.

Enjoy everyone…. until next time, Bon Appetite