French Onion Soup (Working Class Foodies)

I remember finding the cooking channel on YouTube years back when I first got into cooking and this blog. Julia Child has influenced me in many ways, but I think Working Class Foodies is what gave me the drive to create a blog to document the recipes I make up or try out.
The very first video I watched from WC Foodies was 'French Onion Soup'. And at that, I immediately went to go buy beef stock because I had everything else in the pantry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH9S47_3wL0&feature=plcp&context=C3b77adbUDOEgsToPDskILN7R0BFj6D2b0GQY1xECS

If you're interested in seeing what WC Foodies is about, go to that link above. I feel like WC Foodies is modern and contemporary but it's also really 'good food'. They make wholesome, yummy things that just seem to have a lot of thought and love put into them! (:

Almond Tea Cookies!

Adapted from: Bravo! Best of Bridge Cooking

I've been MIA from my blog for so long now, but to be honest, blogging, cooking, photography, and writing are things that just aren't at the top of my list at the moment, With that said, I will try to post more often, but honestly, I have 3 followers on this blog... so it's not very important to me to try to post every single thing I cook.

I found this recipe for these awesome biscuits in a cookbook I received for my birthday a few years ago. However, when I looked at it, I thought... "Butter?" As Julia Child once said, "You can never have too much butter." But in tea cookies? I got kind of grossed out so I switched in the butter for shortening, which is much healthier. Overall though, these cookies are quite healthier because the recipe only calls for one egg white (no yolk), and almonds, when grounded, acts almost like butter, so it's a great substitute.

Ingredients:
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 cup Ground Almonds (buy whole, blanched almonds and grind them)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Golden or Vegetable Shortening (You can also mix in 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening)
1 Egg White
1 teaspoon Almond Extract

Step 1: In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
Step 2: In larger bowl, cream shortening and sugar together until white and fluffy. Beat in egg white and almond extract.
Step 3: Pour dry mixture into the wet mixture and stir until the mixture becomes a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 45 minutes.
Step 4: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Step 5: Roll tablespoons of the dough into little balls and place them on a greased/lined baking pan. Flatten the dough balls out with your fingers or a glass cup. Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes, or until the edges or lightly browned.
Step 6: Serve with a hot drink.

French Style Scrambled Eggs

One day I was watching French Food at Home and Laura Calder made these eggs. I tried out her recipe (I looked for it online again), and they were delicious! I've never made my scrambled eggs any other way since!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
salt & pepper

1. Separate the eggs. Yolks in one bowl, white in the other.
2. Melt the butter in a pan on medium to high heat. Whisk the egg whites slightly to produce some froth, and pour them into the pan. With a fork, quickly stir them. (If you know what baby vomit looks like, well at this point, that's what the eggs will look like)
3. Do not let the eggs over-cook. Once the egg whites have turned from clear to white, immediately add in the yolks and stir frequently.
4. Take off the heat, add salt and pepper for seasoning. (The eggs should look almost like a paste)
5. Serve with anything you like! I like eating my eggs with ketchup or bacon.

So, I described how to make these eggs in a very... gross way eh? I promise you, they're delicious!

Turkey Caesar Sandwich (Carolyn's Sandwich)

I was at Tim Horton's the other day and for the longest time, I've only eaten their chicken noodle soup and their tuna salad sandwich. I decided to try out their turkey caesar sandwich it was such a heavenly sandwich. It was very light and if you don't count the bread, it only had four things in it, but it tasted so good!

Ingredients:
Bread (any kind you like, my friends)
Lettuce (green leaf or romaine, don't use iceberg - it'll taste odd)
Thinly sliced cooked turkey breast
Thinly sliced tomato
Caesar salad dressing (any kind that is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon)

1. Toast your bread, tear out your lettuce (one leaf is plenty), slice your tomatoes (two slices).
2. Wait for the bread to cool a bit, then start layering!
3. I usually spread about a tablespoon of dressing on the bottom slice of bread, place two slices of turkey breast, two slices of tomato, and the lettuce. Top with the other slice of bread, cut in two, and enjoy!

Voila!

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe is Driving Me Insane!

So I don't know why, but I've been stuck on this Hollandaise Sauce for a while now. I want to perfect this recipe before I put it on here, so bear with me!

I bought a manufactured packet of powdered Hollandaise sauce today - to try out, you know? Compare it to the one I've been making. It's by McCormick, and I also buy their herbs and spices, but anyways, it tastes... well delicious. The only problem? It's factory-made, and that just takes out all the goodness of it. Oh, and it's so thick it seems more like a savory pudding than a sauce.

Even the ingredients are hard to pronounce. But! Hold everything! One of the ingredients was onion powder! Now I'm not a fan of using onion/garlic powder either, but this got me thinking... So far, my Hollandaise sauce had always been too salty, or too acidic. I mean, the only other spice I've put it is nutmeg, and I think I'll stick to that because it gives it a light, wintery feel to it.

So, I will go and make Hollandaise sauce again, and I think I'll add some onion and garlic to it. Maybe something a little sweet too, and less of something citric.

As much as I love the taste of this store bought Hollandaise sauce, I would much rather make my own. Part of the fun of cooking is creating your own flavors and to me, this is just too good that you can just tell it's store bought. Besides, I'm looking at it now, and it's getting gross and chunky. Rule #1 - wait, rule #1 is Hollandaise sauce is NOTHING without butter. So, rule #2, Hollandaise sauce should be served warm - not hot, nor cold. If I were to leave this store bought thing to cool down even more, it'd be pretty darn gross to eat.

Hollandaise Sauce

It is currently 10:32 pm that I am typing this down and instead of writing my overly romantic novel, I just had to watch Julie & Julia, and I just had to see the part where the delicious Hollandaise sauce was made, and I just had to get inspired and think to myself - "Eggs and butter? Sure!"

And so I rushed downstairs, remembered the recipe in my head, and literally winged it. One, because I currently do not own a whisk. My lovely old one was broken months ago, and I'm suspecting one for my birthday, so I see no need to buy one. Besides, I haven't made anything that requires a whisk in months. I had about three egg yolks, and eight heaping tablespoons of cold butter. Not to mention lemon juice, and my own personal seasonings.

I whipped together the egg yolks and lemon juice with a fork, and then put the bowl on top of a pot filled with boiling water. Then I whipped the egg mixture until it was slightly warm, and then started to add butter, a tablespoon at a time. The whole time I was adding butter, I kept thinking "please don't let this be like last time." I was referring to when I first tried this sauce without the correct ratios and I failed. I wasted eggs, and butter.

It was thick, and creamy, and... sour. Not overly sour that I couldn't eat it, but I added salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and that toned it down. The next time I make this, I will add less lemon juice. The acidity from the lemon helps the yolk and butter emulsify but I don't think I need as much as I put in.

I boiled some snap-peas quickly, and it was like I died and went to heaven. The sauce... was amazing.

Very fattening, but very delicious.

I absolutely promise you that once I really make the sauce work and taste even more delicious, Julia Child's Hollandaise sauce will definitely be on here!

Sloppy Joes!

So I said I was inventing some vegan, vegetarian, and meat burgers - yeah... they tasted delicious, but they were more of a... unsloppy, sloppy Joe to put on burgers. Bottom line, I couldn't figure out what to add to make them hold together more. So in place of the burgers, here's a quick sloppy Joe recipe that I'm proud to say I invented myself! This is probably the first with meat.


Ingredients:
Half of a large onion, diced
1 1/2 cups ground beef
2 cloves finely minced garlic
6 white mushrooms, sliced
1 diced tomato
156 ml can of tomato paste (or simply 150 ml of tomato paste if you can't get a can)
1 cup beef broth
1 small carrot, chopped
1 tablespoon paprika spice
Pepper flakes (optional)

Step 1: On medium-high heat, saute the onions, ground beef, and garlic. Once the beef is cooked, add the mushrooms and coat them evenly.
Step 2: Turn heat to medium-low and add the diced tomato, tomato paste, and broth. Stir to combine and cook for five minutes. Stir occasionally.
Step 3: Add the carrot, the paprika, and the pepper flakes if you prefer. Do not cover, and continue to cook for 30-40 minutes or until the carrot pieces have become soft. Adjust your seasonings (add more salt if needed).
Step 4: Get big bread buns out, and ladle on some sloppy Joe!

This should serve about 3-4 people, depending on how much you eat.

Nancy's Cordial

So I'm going to link this recipe with one of my favorite books - Anne of Green Gables. In the book, Anne mistakes wine for raspberry cordial, setting her friend drunk. So naturally, I searched everywhere for a raspberry cordial recipe. There was one on a PEI cooking website, but I think that would've taken an hour or more to make. There was the boiling, the measuring, and the preserving. To be honest, I didn't have the patience for that, even if it's Anne of Green Gables. There are two main ingredients that make a fruity cordial taste not like ginger, and not like the fruit itself.

INGREDIENTS:
Ginger-ale
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries (anything that can be boiled to make a jam/sauce)

Step 1: Use leftover blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries to make a sauce. In this recipe, I used blueberries but I really recommend using raspberries. Put them in a saucepan, add a teaspoon of sugar if necessary, and a tablespoon of water. Boil until the fruit becomes soft and a sauce forms.
Step 2: Strain the fruit through a sieve and discard the fruit.
Step 3: In a tall glass, pour in ginger-ale to the top of the glass, and add a tablespoon of the sauce and stir fast until foam starts to over-flow the glass. Add ice, and enjoy!

Cooking For One: Hot & Spicy Soup

Ingredients:
2 cups Chicken Broth
4 White Mushrooms
1 teaspoon Finely Minced Ginger
1 tablespoon White Vinegar
1/2 tablespoon Red Pepper Flakes (more or less, depending on how spicy you want it)
8-10 Frozen Shrimp (thawed)
1 tablespoon Chopped Green Onion

Step 1: Boil the chicken broth and begin slicing the mushrooms. Add them to the broth, along with the ginger, vinegar, and red pepper flakes.
Step 2: Make small incisions on the back of the shrimp and add to the broth. Cook for 10-15 minutes, and serve! Garnish with the chopped green onion.

This little gadget...

Otherwise known as a flour sifter!


I found this at the thrift store... oh my goodness - best thing ever. You could easily use a sieve to sift the flour through when making pastries, but if you know me, you'd know that I like to do things the old fashion way.

Basically you measure the flour, put it in the sifter, and you crank the handle. I can't wait to try it out!