Look what I made! - Another princess cake!

Can you believe that this one was a last minute order? A beautiful Princess Tiana cake!

Baked Oatmeal

I grew up eating oatmeal everyday for breakfast. Every morning, my grandmother would have a steaming bowl of oatmeal waiting for us when we woke up. As much as I love oatmeal, after awhile, the same old white stuff gets... well a bit boring. (Sorry mam!)

While at university, I came across this recipe for baked oatmeal. I'd never heard of the stuff. Baked oatmeal? People bake oatmeal? How does that work? Do you make the standard oatmeal and then bake it? So many questions. Only one way to get answers. I tried out the recipe and tasted awesomeness! Oatmeal had never tasted so good in my book. Perfectly sweet, chewy, fruity, cinnamony... like granola bar meets cookie. Total yum!

The amount of sugar and butter in this recipe makes it not an everyday breakfast kind of deal. You might even think you're making oatmeal cookies when you read the ingredients,  but believe me when I say I could totally eat this everyday.


Just a couple of things to consider:

• Don't use quick-cooking oats. The large flake ones work best for this recipe. 
• Any dried fruit would work with this recipe, but my personal preference is dried cranberries. 
• I know it looks like a pie, but don't bother with cutting. To serve, just scoop it into individual bowls and add some warm milk.
• If you want to go all the way down the path to cookie-dom that this recipe is, you could absolutely leave out the dried fruit and instead sprinkle some chocolate chips over the dish right before you serve it.

Baked Oatmeal

3 cups oats (not quick-cooking)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup dried cranberries, raisins, dried cherries, or other dried fruit

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted (you can substitute applesauce for 1/4 cup of the butter if you want)

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. 

In a large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and dried cranberries. In a smaller bowl, mix together the milk, butter, vanilla, and eggs. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and whisk to combine. 

Pour into a deep 9″ pie plate or an 8×8″ or 9×9″ baking dish. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. 

Serve immediately with some warmed milk.

Serves 8.



Enjoy!

Ash  :)

 

Roasted Curry Wings with a Honey Ginger Citrus Glaze

Chicken wings and curry. Not a combination you hear of often, but today I had a craving for curry chicken, and all I had on hand were wings. My go-to curry is more of a saucy mix of meat with potatoes and gravy. It is absolutely delicious and usually made with every other part of the chicken except the wing. Wings don't lend themselves well to soups and stews so I had to come up with something else. I had wings and I wanted curry so I went on the hunt for a recipe. I ended up blending a few recipes and this is what I came up with:

Roasted Curry Wings with a Honey Ginger Citrus Glaze

3 lbs wings, cut into pieces

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 tbsp salt

6 tbsp curry powder

1/2 cup honey

Juice & zest from 6 limes (or 4 lemons) or about 1/2 cup of lime (or lemon) juice

1 tbsp powdered ginger

Put the wings in a bowl and drizzle with oil, turning to coat them well. Add the curry powder and the salt. Turn the wings again to coat them with the seasoning. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Line a roasting pan or baking dish with foil (Makes for easier cleanup). Place the wings in the lined pan in a single layer. Bake at 425 for 45 - 50 minutes, or until they are cooked.

While the wings are baking, combine the honey, ginger, lime juice & lime zest in a small sauce pan. Heat until the mixture is just warmed through, or until it just starts to simmer. Don’t boil! Turn off the stove and let the honey mixture steep.

When the wings are cooked, finish them under the broiler (you can also place them on the grill), until they’re nicely browned. When done, pour the honey sauce over them, turning the wings to coat. Place on a platter and serve immediately.

These turned out so much better than I expected. They're definitely a staple on my menu as of now. I just know that you will love them just as much as my family did.

Enjoy!

Ash  :)

Look what I made! - Black and White hat

I fell in love with wafer paper after making these deldelicate flowers. Absolutely beautiful if I do say so myself.

Enjoy!

Ash :)

Look what I made! - Bicycle and Balloons

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The bicycle and the balloons were made using candy melts.

I absolutely adore this cake! I hope you do too.

Ash :)

Butternut Squash Dal (Lentils)

Comfort food is food that hugs you from the inside. I don't think it can get more comforting than this. 

This recipe has been calling to me for the past few months. Taken off my 2013 milk calendar, I'm glad I finally gave in and tried it out. Eaten with some naan bread,  it was a perfect dinner. The subtle sweetness from the butternut squash combined with the notes of curry and ginger created a flavour party in my mouth. It was quite a filling dish, and my family of carnivores didn't even miss the meat!

Butternut Squash Dal (Lentils)

1 cup (250 mL) dried red lentils
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 chopped onion2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp (30 mL) minced gingerroot or
1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) ground ginger
2 tbsp (30 mL) Indian yellow curry paste or powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper3 cups (750 mL) chopped peeled butternut squash, about 1 lb/500 g
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) milk
1/4 cup (60 mL) chopped fresh cilantro or green onions
Garam masala

Place lentils in a fine sieve and pick through to remove any stones or grit. Rinse well and drain; stir into broth and set aside.

In a large, deep saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; sauté onion for 3 min or until starting to soften. Add garlic, ginger, curry paste (to taste), salt and pepper; sauté for 2 min or until softened. Add lentils in broth, squash and milk. Bring to a simmer, stirring often.

Cover, leaving lid ajar, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 25 min or until squash and lentils are soft and tender. Remove from heat and mash lightly with a potato masher. Sprinkle with cilantro and garam masala (if using). 

Serve with papadum, basmati rice, or naan.



Enjoy!

Ash  :)

Homemade Naan

Basically, naan is an indian flat bread that goes well with anything that bread goes well with. Marinara sauce, a sandwich, a personal pizza, bread to soak up your gravies.... Naan is your man! (cheesy, I know)

I stumbled on this recipe on www.budgetbytes.com quite awhile ago but I kept putting off making it till now. I greatly regret not making this sooner. I made it to go along with some Butternut Squash Dal I had made. I'll post the recipe for that later. The naan came out even better than I dreamed it would. Soft with lots of pockets allowing it to hang onto that dal. Oh this was delicious. The best vote of confidence came from my 3-year-old extremely picky eater. She gobbled this up together with the dal. What's more, she went back for seconds! And thirds! This is unheard of unless it's pizza night.

So without further rambling from me, the magic get-your-3-year-old-to-ask-for-seconds recipe is as follows:

Naan

Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

1 hour 25 mins

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
½ cup water
2½-3 cups flour
½ tsp salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup plain greek yogurt*
1 large egg



In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and water. Stir to dissolve then let sit for a few minutes or until it is frothy on top. At that point, stir in the oil, yogurt and egg until evenly combined.

In a medium sized bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the salt. Next, add the bowl of wet ingredients to the flour/salt mixture and stir until well combined. Continue adding flour a half cup at a time until you can no longer stir it with a spoon (about 1 to 1.5 cups later).

At that point, turn the ball of dough out onto a well floured counter top. Knead the ball of dough for about 3 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. I ended up using about 3 cups of flour total. The dough should be smooth and very soft but not sticky.

Loosely cover the dough and let it rise until double in size (about 45 minutes). After it rises, gently flatten the dough and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball by stretching the dough back under itself until the top is smooth and round.

Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out until it is about ¼ inch thick or approximately 6 inches in diameter.

Place the rolled out dough onto the hot skillet and cook until the under side is golden brown and large bubbles have formed on the surface. Flip the dough and cook the other side until golden brown as well. Serve plain or brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with herbs!

*I actually did not have greek yogurt on hand when I made this so I substituted with sour cream. I can guarantee you that there was no difference to the taste.


TIPS:
For the most bubbles, don’t roll out the ball of dough until just before it is ready to be placed in the skillet. I experimented with different skillet temperatures and found that a medium heat produces the most bubbles in the dough and does not burn the surface.

Enjoy!
Ash  :)