I’m going to Paris!

Paris!

I can’t believe it. I am getting on a plane and going to Paris.

With so many preparations and plans, I haven’t had much time to blog so I’m leaving you with these pictures from our garden: the first strawberries of the season!

Enjoy … and I’ll see you in a little over a week!

Au revoir!

Happy Victoria Day to all my fellow Canadians!

Even though the first day of summer is still roughly a month away, for me, Victoria Day has always been the unofficial beginning of summer.

Barbecue season is underway, my strawberry plants are on the verge of yielding some sweet berries and I can now officially wear white pants without incurring the ire of the fashion police!

While we use the barbecue virtually year round at our house, for many Canadians Victoria Day is the first opportunity of the year to have a big barbecue.

If there’s one thing that I love at a barbecue, it’s potato salad. Much like pancakes, I’ve probably tried a thousand recipes for potato salad. And I believe I’ve loved every one!

For our Victoria Day celebration, I tried a recipe from the July 2005 issue of Canadian Living: Warm Potato Salad. The only change I made was to omit the green bell pepper, which never sits well with me for some reason.

It was a lovely salad and a perfect accompaniment to our meal.

This is my entry for this week’s Magazine Mondays. And here are some other entries to intrigue you:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Cherry Tomato and Prosciutto Focaccia.

Wandering Coyote from ReTorte made Chocolate-Orange Brownies from the March 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

Brenda from Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen made New York-Style Crumb Cake.

Recipe Sleuth of Eye for a Recipe made Harissa Chicken with Green Chile and Tomato Salad from the June 2010 issue of Food & Wine.

Carla from RecipeAddict made Braised Chicken Stew (Pollo Guisado) from the April 2010 issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray and Risotto with Spring Greens from the June 2009 issue of Oprah magazine.

Valerie of Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll made Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemons from the May 2009 issue of Bon Appétit.

I wanted to end off by sharing a delicious treat made by a family member. I have lots of little cousins and they’re all sweet but my “little” cousin J (she’s 21), made this delicious cheesecake for our family barbecue. So you can see the baking gene runs in the family. So sweet!

There won’t be a Magazine Mondays next week (May 31st) so we’ll see you in a few weeks.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Today, Inter (FC Internazionale Milano) defeated FC Bayern München by a score of 2-0 to win the UEFA Cup.

My papa was a huge Inter fan.

Huge!

I know he’s in Heaven celebrating with all the other Inter fans.

Forza Inter!

Ciao!

Hot on the heels of my delicious baked rhubarb, I bring you Rhubarb Tartlets from Issue 9 of Jamie Oliver’s magazine.

I am a huge fan of tartlets. This is mainly due to the fact that I can pretend that I am eating a pie all by myself (a dream of mine) and I don’t have to share it with anyone.

What can I say? I can be a selfish Cream Puff when it comes to the matter of sweets.

While these took a bit of work to make the pastry shells and the custard, they were completely worth it. I overcooked my rhubarb ever so slightly but in the end it was all so delicious.

This is my entry for this week’s Magazine Mondays, the non-event I created to give everyone the opportunity to at least tempt to tame the pile of clipped magazine recipes I know we all have.

Before I get to the list of participants for this edition of MM, I want to introduce you to a lovely new blog recently started by a kindred spirit. It’s called Eye For a Recipe. I’m happy to say that Sleuth is participating in her first Magazine Mondays with a submission from the April 2010 issue of Food & Wine: Chicken Sukiyaki!

Here are all the other lovely entries for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Mini Baked Potatoes.

Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Mini Tomato Chèvre Tarts from the April 2010 issue of Chatelaine.

Dawn of Doable and Delicious made Cauliflower Souffle with Brown Butter from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet and Barley Salad from Cooking Light magazine.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Curried Pork Burgers from Canadian Living.

Remember, anyone can take part in MM. Just send me a link to a magazine recipe that you posted. Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Click here for the Rhubarb Tartlet recipe from Issue 9 of Jamie magazine.

I always heed Cath’s call.

Whenever she asks if I want to participate in a book event, I’m there.

Especially when the author of the book is someone like Deborah Madison. Some people are born to write cookbooks and Deborah is one of those people.

Her latest cookbook, Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm, and Market, is another example of Madison’s ability.

The hardest part for me was getting over the unfairness of not being able to try so many of the tempting berry recipes because we are nowhere near berry season here.

The book covers all fruits, but I have pretty much had my fill of apples. Thankfully, though, Ontario rhubarb has begun to make its appearance this spring so I didn’t feel too badly.

What to say about the book?

It’s beautiful. It’s imaginative. It has depth.

I am relatively new to rhubarb but I love it. The recipe for Baked Rhubarb with Vanilla, Orange, and Clove immediately caught my eye so I couldn’t resist.

I cannot explain how happy I was as the gentle perfume of baking sugar, rhubarb and vanilla filled the kitchen.

I was even happier when I enjoyed the baked rhubarb alongside some five-grain cereal for breakfast.

The rhubarb will keep me happy until the berries arrive.

The book will make me happy every time.

Ciao!

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

The sad truth is I almost never cook any other type of cuisine besides Italian. The biggest obstacle to trying different ethnic recipes is that I inevitably find myself with a long shopping list of ingredients that I know I’ll only use once or twice. With cupboards that are already full of bottles, jars and various other packages that I rarely dip into, I’m reluctant to add to the clutter.

Deep down, though, I have a huge thing for Mexican food. I love it and it’s certainly not easy to find great Mexican food in Toronto (although it’s getting better).

I was so happy when I saw what the May 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was because I have always wanted to make enchiladas. I should also confess that I just love saying that word.

It makes me feel happy and hungry all at the same time.

The best part of this recipe was hunting down the ingredients for the Green Chile Sauce. Having never tried tomatillos, or purchased them for that matter, I thought I’d give it a try and locate them. My search took me to Toronto’s Kensington Market, which is home to several food stores that sell ingredients used in Mexican and South American cuisine. While I was successful in procuring tomatillos, I could not find Anaheim chiles so instead, I bought poblanos.

I had no idea that poblanos were as spicy as the ones that I bought were. It definitely gave the sauce a special “kick”. Luckily, we love our spicy food in the Cream Puff household so it worked out. I made a fresh salsa, however, and mixed in some of the chile sauce to take a bit of the edge off.

Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and ended up with a most delicious enchilada dish. Everyone loved it and there were no leftovers. I’m looking forward to using the rest of the chile sauce and corn tortillas and making this dish again.

I’d like to thank Barbara and Bunnee for doing such a great job of hosting!

For a copy of the challenge recipe, visit The Daring Kitchen recipe section.

Ciao!

I have been fortunate enough to have a few brushes with the pastry world.

I have had the tremendous honour of having lunch with Dorie Greenspan and many, many, many years ago, shortly after completing my university degree and enrolling in a publishing certificate program, I had the opportunity to talk to Regan Daley.

For about 30 seconds.

I was working on an internship with a publishing company and it was around the time that In The Sweet Kitchen, Regan Daley’s tremendous baking book, was being produced.

I no longer remember the circumstances, but I do remember being asked to call her to confirm a few details.

I believe the entire conversation lasted about 30 seconds. Or at least I was so nervous that it seemed like 30 seconds.

What I do remember was how sweet Ms. Daley was, especially when talking to a most nervous intern fresh out of school.

When In The Sweet Kitchen was published, I wanted it immediately. Strangely, though, over the years I have never picked up a copy. Do not take that as a sign of the book’s merits.

This is a tremendous baking book. It’s thorough, detailed and innovative without being intimidating.

What is particularly unique about the book is that the recipes don’t actually begin until more than halfway through. The first half of the book is an exhaustive look at everything from ingredients to baking methods.

I don’t care if you’ve never turned your oven on in your entire life, there is no way that you cannot come away from this book with a basic understanding of baking and more importantly, inspiration to start baking.

The recipes themselves are gems. Daley doesn’t go for the run-of-the-mill recipes but rather builds the recipe chapters with some really interesting recipes that are destined to become favourites.

The recipes are meticulous and the head notes to the recipes are both informative and often entertaining.

Once again, had I all the time in the world I probably would have baked my way through this book.

Instead, I settled on shortbread.

But not just any shortbread. Butter-Toffee Crunch Shortbread.

In the recipe directions, Daley writes, “I should warn you, at this point, that this dough now smells better than any cookie dough you have ever experienced. Restrain yourself …”.

She’s not kidding, people.

I have to confess that I was in very short supply of retraint and ate a significant portion of this dough. Raw.

These were quite simply the best shortbread cookies I have ever eaten or baked. And then eaten.

For good measure, I thought I should try another recipe and I settled on The Ultimate Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies only because I happened to have a bag of chocolate chunks lying around.

I can confirm that the cookies were the ultimate, were definitely soft and were also chewy.

Another winner.

If you already own In The Sweet Kitchen, then you know the joys this book has to offer.

If you don’t own it, what are you waiting for?

Ciao!

I love my mommy.

Even though I am fully grown, I still call her mommy.

She’s the best mommy a Cream Puff could have.

Happy Mother’s Day, mommy!

And a Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Hope it’s so sweet!

Ciao!

The Best French Toast
Serves 3 (or 2 very hungry people)

Note: This is my base recipe for french toast. You can amend the recipe based on what flavours you want to produce. You can add all sorts of extracts to the base, you can add liquor to the base, you can add flavoured sugars to the base, you can double the base or triple it easily and you can even make the base savoury for a french toast dinner. If you prefer an eggier french toast, add an egg and reduce the amount of dairly by a quarter cup. For the bread, I like to use thick slices of brioche or a good quality sandwich bread. You can keep the French Toast warm while you cook all the bread by placing it in a 200 degree F. oven in an oven-proof dish.

The Base:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
1/2 cup whole milk
a pinch of salt

To the base, for the recipe pictured here, I added:

3 tablespoons vanlla sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 slices thickly sliced brioche or sandwich bread
Melted butter (to grease the griddle or sauté pan)

Combine the beaten egg, cream, milk and salt in a wide shallow bowl. Add whatever additions you like to the base (in my case I added vanilla sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon).

Either heat a griddle or a large sauté pan and grease the bottom with a bit of melted butter. Regulate the heat accordingly so you don’t burn your French Toast (I generally keep it at medium-low once the pan has heated up nicely).

Dip one slice of bread in the egg and cream mixture. Don’t dip for too long (I like to dip about 5 seconds per side). Carefully place the bread in the griddle or pan and cook on each side for three to four minutes. The bread will be golden when you flip it. Transfer the slice to a plate and keep it in a warm oven while you cook the rest.

Once you’ve cooked all the French Toast slices, serve with whatever garnishes you like including: powdered sugar, strawberries, cream, maple syrup and butter.

Enjoy!

Sometimes I’m convinced that I have some sort of internal navigation system that activates as soon as I see a recipe I simply must try.

The navigation system kicks in and directs me home, as fast as possible, to try said recipe.

This can be a problem when you’re … say … at work.

Thus ensues a lengthy inner monologue between myself and navigation system on why I can’t leave work early to go home and cook.

Ah, the dilemmas of a cream puff!

The navigation system kicked in big time when I caught a glimpse of this recipe and read the accompanying article, from Saveur.

Published in Issue 120, I actually have the magazine and when I caught a glimpse of the article on-line, I remembered that I had bookmarked it.

After reading about the history of this much-abused pasta dish, I realized that I’ve basically been eating my mother’s version of “alfredo” for as long as I can remember.

The traditional pasta dish consists of pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano and butter. In my family, pasta with butter and Parmigiano has been a staple of quick family dinners. The difference between my mother’s version, and the original, is that my mother would use just enough butter and cheese to flavour the pasta. The technique of twirling the pasta in a warmed plate and slowly building a sauce, using nothing more than the bond of butter and cheese, is unique to the original.

I went ahead and followed the recipe, carefully slicing pats of butter and laying them in the bottom of a large warmed bowl. I twirled my pasta carefully working in the Parmigiano Reggiano, and I did it all with the bowl sitting on top of the pot of boiled pasta water (that kept the bowl extra warm!).

The end result was delicious. Navigation system fully satisfied!

This is my entry for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, the “non-event” I created to finally put all those magazine recipes to good use.

Here’s who joined me for this week’s MM:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake from the November 2009 issue of Canadian Living.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Coffee Sirloin Roast from the August 2009 issue of Taste of Home.

Tia from Buttercream Barbie made a Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza using a pizza dough recipe from a May 2007 issue of Canadian Living.

Tamy from Always Eat on the Good China made Apple Raisin Noodle Pudding and Imperial Pudding.

Carla from RecipeAddict made Tomato Jam from the July/August 2000 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Janet from The Taste Space made Chilled Soba with Baby Bok Choy, Snow Peas, Spinach and Tofu from the July 2008 issue of Gourmet.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

All you Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks, that’s who!!!

Check it out … The Independent published a piece on The Daring Kitchen.

Take a bow!

Ciao!