Holiday truffles to take or make

This is my foray into food photography. Featured below, dark and light truffles with powdered sugar, cocoa, crushed walnut, and pink sprinkles (Simone’s invention). The recipe is included below if you’re struggling with something last-minute. They aren’t hard but they do impress and they’re fun to make with kids.

Also, please take one! From our house to yours, best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a happy new year.

Truffles

Basically, a truffle is made from a ganache (a mixture of chopped chocolate and heavy cream), flavouring, and coating. There is some chilling involved–about 5 hours in the fridge or overnight. To keep things really simple, buy a package of milk chocolate or semi-sweet dark chocoate chips. A variation with white chocolate is given at the end of the recipe but we found it behaved a little differently. You can go nuts and buy more expensive chocolate and chop it yourself but you don’t need to, especially if you’re pressed for time.

To make 30 truffles:

• 8 oz milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate
• 3/4 cup of heavy (whipping) cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp flavouring such as vanilla or liquer
• coatings such as cocoa powder (I recommend Fry’s), powdered sugar, crushed nuts, or sprinkles

To make the ganache:

Place the choclate chips in a metal bowl or pan and set aside. Heat the whipping cream and the butter over medium flame, stirring constantly until it boils. Pour the boiling stuff over the chips in the metal bowl immediately. Let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Add 1 tsp of flavouring–vanilla or liquer. Refrigerate covered for 5 hours or overnight.

To assemble the truffles:

Once your ganache is ready, roll it into little balls, and coat it with the stuff of your choosing by rolling it around. What we found is that doing a bunch of coatings at the same time created a lot of cross-contamination, so again, if you are pressed for time, just do one coating (cocoa is the classic) or do two coatings in separate batches. Keep your truffles separate according to coatings because they contaminate each other in the container. Nothing like a nice smudgy spot on a white truffle.

Tip: If you are serving these at your own place, coat them again just before serving. They will look instantly fresh.

Martha suggests doing a mixture of milk and semisweet chocolate. She also  forces you to scrape a vanilla bean into the cream and butter mixture (sigh) but this does ensure the addition of vanilla extract or liquer won’t screw up the ganache. Too much extract/liquer is what I believe may have contributed to our initial failure when we upped these quantities somewhat with white chocolate. Or maybe the white chocolate behaves differently–who knows? After chilling, the ganache was too soft so I just melted some additional white chocolate, added it to the mixture and chilled again. Then it was OK. (The thing is, 1 tsp isn’t a lot of flavour so I think we bumped it to 2, probably which caused our mini-disaster.)

Bottom line, substitute white chocolate for dark but stick with 1 tsp of flavouring for every 8 ounces. The butter and cream measurements also stay the same.  (To my mind, there is nothing like the white truffle with the cocoa coating hitting your mouth bitter and finishing in melting sweetness.)

Store your truffles covered in the fridge for 2 weeks or in the freezer for 2 months. Bring them to room temperature before you serve and remember the recoating tip so they look fresh every time. The ones with powered sugar loose their dusted look in the fridge.

Filed under: food, kids, life , butter, coatings, cream, crushed nuts, dark chocolate, ganache, Martha Stewart, milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, sprinkles, truffles, vanilla

Pasta, healthy and simple, with cherry tomatoes

I love this summer pasta recipe. We just made it again tonight, and I could make it almost any night. Talk about quick and simple. And healthy. And good for kids too. A friend told us about this recipe.

US pint of cherry or “grape” tomatoes

Filed under: food, kids, life, solo life , cherry tomatoes, garlic, healthy, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pasta, summer

The things I’ll never do

Yesterday I started thinking about the things I’ll never do.

As in my life. And it was pretty liberating.

And it all started with the word Beirut.

Helping Simone with her geography homework on the weekend, I watched as she plotted the landmarks of the Middle East on an outline map. There was Gaza, and the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem. . .and Beirut. She didn’t know how to pronounce it, so I said it out loud and then it hit me: I’ll never live there.

It had been a dream of mine in my twenties to go to the American University, nothing my parents ever really knew about or could have even afforded. I just wanted to do it. It was either Beirut (untouched at this point by the civil war that started in 1975) or Hong Kong, which seemed dizzingly exotic and remote. Either way, I figured these places were how I’d blow the family away, something every child has to do. (I’m fairly certain these fantasies were largely fueled by our National Geographic subscription.)

Before I could control myself I started babbling about Beirut to Simone–totally useless exercise, except it started me thinking about how dreams get deflated or beautifully transformed as time goes on, as in today I have a deeper connection to China than ever expected.

So here are some dreams of mine that have recently been put to bed in soft covers to sleep for. . .shall we say,  a very long time (eternity sounds so long). But before we go there, though, a moment, please, to gaze upon the glorious Paris of the East that once captured my heart:

Alrighty then.

1. I won’t live in Beirut or Hong Kong. However, I’ve done more than my share of travelling in Asia, and Beirut will be on the list one day if it ever stabilizes.

2. I won’t ever open my own restaurant. But maybe my daughter will.  (Mother living out her fantasies through her child. Gah.) For years I entertained this fantasy but cooking for family and friends is probably more fun.

3. The family piano won’t find its way here and I will not master jazz chords. Probably the most sorry to see this one go. Even as I read it now it wants to get up and bite me.

4. A dog. Ain’t gonna happen. It’ll be cats for the rest of my life. The fluffier and stupider the better.

5. A second child. I will not have. Officially gave this one up in 2000 but it still needs its own little bed to sleep in. Nighty-night.

6. I will not go back to school. At some point life teaches all things and the corresponding need to know goes down, down, down.

7. I will never fly to the moon or even into zero-gravity. At $200,000 for 30 minutes, it’s too big a drain on the single-mom wallet. Anyone who gets to go: send this space junkie your pics.

8. The Olympics won’t be awarded to Toronto in my lifetime. Or ever. And I won’t get to see them.

9. There is no chance that my nails will be “done” day in and day out.

10. I will never reconnect with a few important people who blazed through my life. Blame it on distance, time, circumstances. It just is, and it’s OK.

So how about you? I’m calling this a meme and tagging Ms. Single Mama and Lorraine over at FirstMother forum. I think their responses will be pretty cool.

Filed under: adoption, cats, food, kids, solo life

Amazons in the kitchen

Simone asked me tonight if she could cook her own meal. I said yes–anything to reduce my domestic goddess load is a good thing. It started off great and then deteriorated into some bickering over who had dibs on the one large burner (I killed the other one at Thanksgiving and have yet to replace it).

The crazy thing is that we made essentially the same dish (Exhibit A below) so fighting over space was too silly for words but we did it anyway! Oh, yeah! At one point I think both of us either threw pasta or slammed it on the counter. Good thing about food–it’s forgiving.

Filed under: food, kids, life , burner, cooking, kids, kitchen, meal, pasta

2-min salad with romaine and pear

Inspired by the Glamour 30-day food plan, I’ve decided to do salads for lunch. Had this one yesterday and liked it so much, it went in the bowl today. You could change it up with different lettuce but make sure you get something on the tender side like the loose spring mix. This is an easy way of adding more fruit and veg to your diet in one go.

Plus the nuts are good for people like me and Sally Field, which is a nice way of saying old.

Bonus: had it yesterday and it left me surprisingly full.

Note: The girl doesn’t do salads. We try but so far it’s hopeless.

Ingredients

1 cup of baby romaine or spring mix lettuce

1 tsp green onion

1/6 avocado

1/2 smallish pear

dash of salt

black pepper if desired

1 – 2 tsp olive oil

squirt of lemon

7 pecan halves (I bought no-name and they were fine)

Dump the spring mix into a bowl. Finely slice (you want lots of thin pieces to spread the flavour around) the pear and chop the avocado. Finely chop green onion. Plop it all in. Add the pecans, salt, pepper, olive oil, squirt of lemon, and toss.

Total calories: 260

Filed under: food, kids , avocado, baby romaine, calories, Glamour, pear, pecans, salad

Artificial sweetener consumption linked to scourge of single parenthood

It’s a fact: Family structure, in particular, the pernicious influence of the “non-intact” family is directly impacting society’s consumption of artificial sweetener.

Just look at the statistics. Single-parent households increased by three-fold since 1965 (up from roughly 10% of households in 1965 to 27% today) and so has the use of artificial sweetener (up from roughly 19% of the population in 1965 to 58% today).

Not only that, but we all know that artificial sweetener isn’t make us any thinner. In fact, its use has actually been linked to higher rates of obesity.

C’mon people, it’s staring you right in face.

Watch the nice green and pink lines and the pretty dots.

Single parents are making you fat. That’s right—FAT. Don’t blame anyone else. Phone Oprah. Tell her to stop beating herself up for falling off the wagon.

Aren’t you mad? Don’t you want to. . .like, you know, get a brick or something?

God, what else are they going to do?

Filed under: critical thinking, fatherlessness, food, solo life , artificial sweetener, family structure, graphs, NCES, NCES Kids, non-intact family, Oprah, single parenthood, statistics

Farfalle con dadini di vitello

Though I didn’t use dadini (cubes) or vitello (veal).

But I was really impressed with this recipe tonight. Dishes that feature a few simple ingredients that fuse in a wonderful way always turn my crank. So here’s my adaptation of the original from The NEW Complete Book of Pasta, an all-Italian cookbook that ain’t new. It’s at least 40 years old and going strong.

 

Note: I have already reduced the fat by more than half. If you want a half-decent flavour, don’t reduce it again!

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

1 large onion

1 pound of quick fry lean pork strips (use mock pork provided it hasn’t been flavoured; some varieties are barbecued flavoured). This  amount cost $2 and change, and fed three people with leftovers.

2 tbsp flour

coarse ground pepper

salt to taste (take into account how much salt is in your stock)

1/4 tsp dried sage (this was my inspired substitution; the original called for oregano and I think sage is superior)

cup of chicken or veggie stock

1 tsp fresh lemon

grated Parmesan cheese

16 oz of farfalle (the bowtie stuff, but you could substitute)

In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil and butter and saute onions until soft. Dredge the pork in flour and season with salt, pepper, and sage. Brown in the oil and butter. Keep scraping up the brown bits. Stir in the stock and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon. Leave in pan and cover or place in baking dish and cover. Continue to simmer over the burner or cook in an oven pre-heated to 400 for 20 minutes. I did ours on top of the stove for 25 minutes. The meat or mock-meat should be fork tender before you serve.

Cook the farfalle as directed (usually 12 minutes). When done, drain and add the sauce. Add 1 tbsb grated parmesan cheese to the whole mixture. Then on each serving, sprinkle a little extra cheese. Serve with salad or other veg. Delightful.

Footnote: The NEW Complete Book of Pasta is very cool. The authors appear to be wandering through Italy and when they hit on a good meal (usually from locals, not restaurants), they write down the recipe.

Filed under: food , Farfalle con dadini di vitello, Italy, mock pork, parmesan cheese, pork, sage, The New Complete Book of Pasta

Yorkshire Pudding to get over the Coulter virus

Okay, so readers have made it clear that we’ve had quite enough of Ms. Coulter. So let’s talk about something else filled with hot air but infinitely more delightful: Yorkshire Pud. I made my first one this Christmas and promised that I would pass on the recipe.

First, just to let you know that if you have a smoke alarm near your kitchen, smash it before you attempt this recipe. Or tape Coulter’s dense book to it so nothing can get through. Meow. Point being that in the last phase of preparation the oil has to be smokin’ hot, because that’s one of the factors that will guarantee a successful rise.

To settle on which recipe, I went to the Internet where lots of tips are usually included (knew I needed all the help I could get). Located two great ones from two managers of guest inns in British Columbia–Maggie, at Bob’s Bed and Breakfast in Maple Ridge, and Pauline, at Wedgwood House on Vancouver Island. Their recipes are nearly identical, with the exception of one egg. So what you have here is Pauline’s recipe, because it makes exactly 12 Yorkshires, which works with a large muffin tin. And if you wanted to do Maggie’s, you’d do the same recipe except leave out one egg.

Key, key piece of preparation: let the eggs and milk come to room temperature before you use them (this is part of the rising magic). Allow about an hour and 15 minutes. I removed the eggs from the carton and poured the milk to start the process.

1 cup of flour

4 (or 3) eggs

1 cup of milk

1/2 tsp salt

oil for pans (can be bacon drippings, and recommended by both people because of the superior flavour, but I used olive oil)

large muffin tin

In a medium bowl, combine the first four ingredients to form a smooth batter until air bubbles form on top. Don’t worry about lumps. Let stand for half an hour.

About 25 minutes before you expect to dump these little lovelies into a bowl or basket for guests, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. When the oven’s ready, place the muffin tin inside the oven with 1/2 tsp of oil in each compartment. Now, make sure that oil is HOT before you remove the pan. It should be on the verge of smoking and should almost be quivering. (If you use bacon rendering, it is going to be smokin’.) Now, pour an equal amount of the batter into each compartment–that’s about 1/4 cup per muffin cup. The oil and the batter will do the most amazing dance–don’t worry about it; it’s normal. Try to complete this phase as quickly as possible as your goal is to shove that muffin tin back in the oven as quickly as possible. I used a pre-measured 1/4 cup measure with a little spout to make it easier.

Now, heave a sigh of relief. Flip your oven light on so you can check out the action. Within 10 – 15 minutes, your Yorkshires will rise to delightful heights.  Once they’ve really popped (see our picture, courtesy the World Wide Gourmet) remove from oven and turn out quickly. Rush to the table as they start to deflate slightly right away. Enjoy with roastbeef or something vegetarian, as long as there’s lots of nice gravy.

That’s the whole point.

Oh God, so much nicer than thinking about AC.

Filed under: food , Ann Coulter, Bob's Bed and Breakfast, muffin tin, roast beef, smoke alarm, vegetarian, Wedgwood House, Yorkshire Pudding

Snowstorm, tree, end of day

It’s been quite the Canadian storm here, and I’m glad it’s tapering off. I shot this pic of our tree with the night setting. Sort of like the effect. Normally, the view out the window would be much clearer–that’s still snow blowing around. Sim is going to make wontons tonight–her ultimate comfort meal. I hope I have time to blog tomorrow. It’s been quite the week.

Filed under: food, kids, life, solo life , Canadian, Christmas tree, storm, week, Wontons

The Young Chef’s penne al pomodoro

Simone has two cookbooks from The Young Chef’s series (Crabtree Publishing) and yesterday we made this delightlfully simple sauce to spoon over penne from the Young Chef’s Italian Cookbook.

Reason I really like this recipe is that I’m getting increasingly fed up with prepared tomato sauces. Did you know that Prego tomato sauce, about the cheapest sauce on the market, has corn syrup in it? This recipe uses fresh or canned tomatoes instead. We used diced plum tomatoes but you could use fresh if they were in season.

Pour a 13 oz can of tomatoes into a frying pan after draining the liquid. Add 4 tsp of olive oil to the tomatoes, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, and a dash of salt. Place over medium heat and partially cover. Simmer for 30 minutes. Note: We had to turn the setting down fairly low, about 2 on an electric burner, about 10 minutes into the half hour.

Cook the penne–about 2 cups–as directed, usually 13 minutes, in boiling salted water. Drain when done.

That’s it. Spoon the sauce over the penne, added freshly grated parmesan cheese and a few sprigs of basil on each dish and you’re done. This is superior tasting and probably better for you (more fibre for sure).

Filed under: food, kids, life , Crabtree Publishing, fibre, penne al pomodoro, Prego, tomato sauce, Young Chef's Italian Cookbook