Thursday, February 21, 2013

Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Sour Cream

Growing up, mashed potatoes weren't among my (long) list of favoured dishes. I thought they were alright, and I would eat them, but they would never have been my first choice for a side dish. As an adult, I've had some fun exploring different options for mashed potatoes with more than the basic milk/cream/butter combination. This incarnation has just about everything but the kitchen sink thrown in, and I would gladly whip these up any night as a side to my meal.

Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Sour Cream

2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 onion, diced finely
3 cremini mushrooms, diced
3 tbsp milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/8 cup cream cheese, softened

Add the cubed potatoes to a large pot of boiling water and cook for 15-20 minutes until fork tender. Meanwhile, heat a small pan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and sauté until it begins to brown on both sides. Add the garlic, onion, and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and continue to sauté until soft, stirring often to ensure the garlic does not burn.
Add all the dairy ingredients in a serving dish ready for the potatoes. Once the potatoes are ready, drain them and add them to the serving dish. Mash thoroughly incorporating the milk and creams. Add the bacon and mushroom mixture and stir gently to distribute. Serve immediately.

The potatoes are pictured there in the background behind my Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken. They have a rustic look but such an amazing flavour with the combination of the bacon and the sour cream mashed right in. It's an unexpected treat - and one you'll want to savour.

For my beats, I'm throwing in another Mumford and Sons tune. I know I've already featured them in an earlier post, but Winter Winds seems to fit these potatoes. They are an ideal winter side dish full of warmth, comfort, and substance, and mashed potatoes are a staple in Great Britain. So once again for your enjoyment, here are Mumford and Sons, but this time with Winter Winds.



Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken

This one's just a quick post for an idea to make a regular, boring chicken breast wake up and pop with flavour. It only takes about fifteen minutes to prepare and tastes pretty wonderful.

Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken

2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
salt, pepper, garlic powder to season
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey

Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil is glistening, add the seasoned chicken strips to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes on the first side, and then flip, cooking 5 minutes on the second side. Add the wine to the pan. While the alcohol is boiling off, remove the chicken strips to a plate. Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the mustard and the honey, and stir. Once the glaze comes together, put the chicken strips back in the pan and toss to coat on all sides with the glaze. Serve immediately.


Here are my chicken strips which I served with some amazing mashed potatoes (to come in the next post). I also garnished my chicken strips with a bit of parsley. In addition, if you're more into sauces than glazes, then you could add a few more tablespoons of wine, some chicken stock, and a little cream to fashion yourself a light honey mustard sauce to pour over the chicken breast strips. Honey and mustard is a great flavour combination, and you should adjust the ratio depending on if you prefer the sweet or the sour. I like the balance of both which is why I kept their amounts equal in my glaze.



My beats to go with this quick dinner option also represent a great combination, but this time of performers. It's a cute little song featured in a great flick, Juno, performed in this case by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, two fabulous Canadian actors. Here's Anyone Else But You.


Monday, February 18, 2013

Creamy Tomato Bacon Dill Pasta

Pasta is one of my top five all-time favourite ingredients. It's so versatile - there are truly limitless options for pasta dishes with the various types of pasta, protein additions, vegetables, sauces, and garnishes. When I feel like experimenting in the kitchen, I usually turn to pasta. I challenge myself to come up with a new variation that I haven't done before with whatever ingredients I have on hand. This past week, I went all out with two proteins, a multitude of vegetables, and a flavourful sauce. I think this will be a repeat recipe!


Creamy Tomato Bacon Dill Pasta

1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into small strips, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
3 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ onion diced
½ green pepper, chopped
4 cremini mushrooms, diced
¼ cup white wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 small Roma tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup dill-flavoured cream cheese
1 ¼ cup whole wheat pasta of your choice
1 tsp dill weed/fresh dill

Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook on one side for 5 minutes. Flip the chicken strips over and add the bacon to the pan and cook for 5 more minutes. Continue browning the chicken and bacon for 3 more minutes, stirring each minute.
Add the garlic, onion, green pepper, and mushrooms to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and sauté for 5 minutes or until soft and brown. Add the wine and the balsamic vinegar and let come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and add the tomatoes. Toss gently and let the sauce simmer for 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and stir gently until it melts and is incorporated.
Prepare the pasta according to package directions; drain, and add to the sauce. Toss together and garnish with the fresh dill.



The addition of the cream cheese was actually a game-time decision. My initial vision of this dish was for a wine/vinegar-based sauce with no creamy ingredient, but the combination of tomato and dill is one that I have always enjoyed but rarely exploit. I am very pleased with the end result. I used whole wheat rotini as my pasta, and with all the vegetables the dish is colourful and nutritious. The saltiness of the bacon plays off the sweetness of the tomato, and the creamy tang of the sauce with the cream cheese and the wine and vinegar balances out the spectrum of tastes. 

The three servings I got from this recipe gave me great energy with the protein and whole wheat pasta. The flavours in the sauce are also inspiring and energizing, so I obviously need an upbeat tune to match this fabulous dish. My pick is Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet.

 

Slow Cooker Creamy Mushroom Soup

When you're having a busy week, it's comforting to pull out the old slow cooker and toss in some ingredients in the morning with the knowledge that you'll have a delicious meal and an aroma-filled house when you return home with hardly any effort on your part. This past week I decided to have a soup night. I had purchased an excess amount of mushrooms at the grocery store since they were on sale, and I needed a recipe that would use them up so I wouldn't end up tossing them in the compost at week's end. I took to Google and looked up some various slow-cooker mushroom soup recipes and created a hybrid of several to make my own creamy soup. 

Slow Cooker Mushroom Soup


2 cloves garlic, minced
½ onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 container cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp parsley
½ tsp paprika
½ cup wine
2 ½ cups water
1/3 cup cream
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup sour cream

Add first 11 ingredients to the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6 hours. Turn the slow cooker up to HIGH. Add the cream; stir. Mix the flour into the sour cream, add to the soup, and stir. Continue cooking on HIGH for another 2 hours.

I loved how simple this was. Admittedly, because I was at work and could not leave in the middle of the day to adjust the temperature, my soup ended up cooking on low for 8 hours before I turned it up and added the cream ingredients. I warmed up a nice piece of bread to dunk in this creamy delight, and it was a wonderful comfort meal for a crazy week at work.


I made this soup last Tuesday which is always yoga night for me at the gym. I practice for so many reasons - increased flexibility, better strength and balance, relaxation and recharging, and because I discover new music. The beats for this dish come from the moves we did in class a few years back, but I still listen to it frequently and it's always on my playlist when I decide to do some at-home yoga. Take some deep cleansing breaths, cuddle up with some creamy mushroom soup, and turn on Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.


Friday, February 08, 2013

Chewy White Chocolate Butterscotch Bars

Today was a snow day (I guess I should say is...the snow still hasn't stopped), so I turned it into a domestic day as leaving the house to go anywhere seemed entirely out of the question. After doing four loads of laundry and cleaning my entire house, I figured I could reward myself with some baking. During Christmas shopping this past December, I bought myself a cookie calendar on a whim. The price was good considering it's essentially a cookbook with 365 different recipes. Instead of being patient and discovering a new recipe each day, I went through the entire calendar right after I got it and flagged the dates with the must-try recipes. I jumped ahead today all the way to September 18 to make these bars.

Chewy White Chocolate Butterscotch Bars
(adapted from "The Cookie Calendar 2013")

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces white chocolate
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9x13 in pan with parchment paper (helps to remove the bars from the pan after baking). In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In another small bowl, melt the butter and white chocolate in the microwave. (I used the defrost setting for 1 minute at a time, stirring after each minute until the chocolate was fully melted). In a large bowl, beat the eggs until light. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla and the melted chocolate & butter and stir to incorporate. Add the dry ingredients in two additions stirring until just incorporated.
Spoon the batter into the pan and spread with a spatula or back of a spoon into all four corners of the pan. Sprinkle the pecans and chocolate chips over top. Bake for 25 minutes - the edges will be very puffy and just slightly golden. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then, grabbing the ends of the parchment paper, left the bars out of the pan and set them on a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Here's how the pan looked just before I put them in the oven - kind of like a big cookie.


And this is the finished product. The cookie-like batter expanded and puffed up around the chips and nuts making a dense but fluffy bar.


The accompanying beats have no profound explanation or link to the recipe as I usually try to do. This was a case of me hearing the song on the radio while I was beating the sugar into the eggs. My pick is Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.


Homemade Nachos

Sometimes we all need to indulge in unhealthy treats. Oftentimes this indulgence occurs while eating out, but lately I've been trying to replicate some of my favourite restaurant meals at home to have more control over the ingredients and to feel a little better about eating something more on the unhealthy side. My roommate in teacher's college is the one who introduced me to the idea of making nachos at home, and it became one of our staple meals that year. They're fun to create together and to eat together, and if you add lots of vegetables and use extra lean ground beef (or even ground turkey or chicken) then you can feel a little less guilty about the indulgence.

Homemade Nachos

2 cups whole grain tortilla chips
1 cup extra lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1/2 bell pepper, chopped in small chunks (or 1/4 of 2 different coloured bell peppers)
3 mushrooms, chopped in small chunks
1/2 cup grated cheese
sour cream and salsa for dipping

Heat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (this is a huge help for clean-up at the end). Spread the chips out on the baking sheet in an even layer with chips overlapping each other a bit. Place the baking sheet in the oven and pre-crisp the chips for 5 minutes. (This step ensures that you do not end up with soggy nachos).
While the chips are in the oven, heat a few drops of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the beef and sauté until no longer pink. If you want a spicier nacho, you could add some taco seasoning or other spices to the beef at this point. My old roommate and I are both not friends with spicy foods, so we keep our nachos pretty plain.
Remove the beef and vegetables from the heat and drain off some of the fat. (This again helps to stop soggy nachos). Take the chips out of the oven, and top with the beef and vegetables, and then sprinkle the grated cheese all over top. Use whatever cheese you like - Cheddar, Marble, Monterey Jack, etc. Put the pan of nachos back in the oven for about 5 minutes (just until the cheese melts). Serve with salsa and sour cream.








There's two views of my glorious nachos! This pan feeds two in my experience and the nachos are pretty fully loaded! It's easiest to just eat them right off the pan. Once you're done, just roll up the foil and toss in the garbage - no need to scrape melted cheese off of the pan.

Since this post has allowed me to reminisce about my teacher's college days, my beats are an homage to that year with our theme song at the time. I can't recall now all the details of how this song came to define our year, but I know we heard it all the time, and we even had a sweet dance move to go with the refrain in the chorus. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit my fondness for this song, but here you have Whatever You Like by T.I.


Pasta Alfredo

I love Alfredo sauce. I know it's really not the healthiest sauce, being full of fatty cream, butter, and cheese, but that trifecta of ingredients make magic together on pasta. I grew up with my Mom making it rather frequently with many different types of pasta. It was actually quite rare that we would have the traditional pairing of fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce. My Mom also likes to serve it buffet style - a whole mess of cooked pasta in a pot, and pot full of creamy white sauce, and then bowls with various toppings and add-ins, like cooked chicken, fried bacon, roasted garlic, and chopped vegetables such as red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. My nephews now really enjoy having that meal at Grandma's house, and I think it's a fun spin on a traditional dish. Obviously, at home with just myself to cook for, I don't serve myself buffet style. Borrowing a few of my Mom's tricks to make a sauce that's not too thick or overbearing, here's my version of Pasta Alfredo.

Pasta Alfredo

3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, chopped finely
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup cremini mushrooms, quartered
(2 chicken breasts, cut into small chunks, 1 cup spinach/baby spinach - I didn't use these ingredients this time, so you won't see them in the picture, but I do like to add them in when I have them).
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream (I usually use 18% rather than 35%)
1 tsp white sugar
3/4 cup - 1 cup Parmesan cheese, depending on taste
1 tsp parsley
1 cup whole wheat penne pasta (or bowties, or fettuccine, or whatever kind you like!)

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the wine to deglaze the pan, letting it boil for 2 minutes to get rid of the alcohol. (This is not a traditional ingredient in Alfredo sauce. My Mom has always added some wine and I continue with her recipe as it adds a little more liquid and volume to the sauce and helps cut some of the thickness and richness of the butter, cream, and cheese).
Turn the heat down to medium and add the cream. Stir to incorporate and allow to come to a gentle boil. You will notice the cream thickening as it boils. Add the sugar and stir. (This is also one of my mother's tricks. Again, the addition of a small amount of sugar helps to cut the richness, especially if you elect to use 35% cream, and it balances out the sharpness of the cheese). Turn the heat down again to medium-low and add the Parmesan cheese. Stir until it melts into the sauce. (Start with 3/4 cup, and do a quick taste test of the sauce. If you want it more cheesy, add the last 1/4 cup). Add the parsley and stir. Turn the heat down to low.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta RESERVING SOME OF THE PASTA WATER. (This step is crucial particularly if you are going to have leftovers. Sitting in the fridge Alfredo sauce tightens up quite a bit, and if you don't have pasta water to add, you'll end up with pasty leftovers). Add the pasta to the sauce and stir to coat. Serve immediately garnishing with extra grated Parmesan cheese, parsley, and freshly ground black pepper.
If there are leftovers, before putting them in the fridge, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pasta water and stir into the sauce. It might seem a bit runny, but 1 or 2 days later it will be perfect as leftovers.

Here's my pan full of creamy, dreamy pasta. This gave me three average-sized servings.


And my bowl with the garnishes. I enjoyed my bowl of pasta with a glass of white wine. Alfredo sauce pairs best with a glass of white or blush.


This dish for me is simple to make and an easy solution as a busy weeknight dinner since I've made it so many times. Like I say with most of my recipes, now I don't even measure the liquids anymore - I make the whole sauce by eyeballing. I find also that the quality of Parmesan cheese that you buy makes a big difference in the taste of the sauce, so if you're going to splurge on something, that would be the ingredient to choose.

My beat is a quiet and simple song that would act as a lovely background to this meal. It is understated but deep, much like this simple sauce gives a depth of flavour to the pasta. Here is Sparks by Coldplay.