[72/365] seeing double

Sister Bears and I got our parents and iPad! At the same time, since Sister Bear One was going to buy herself one we ended up getting her a very very early birthday present. We were going to get her one for her birthday in October anyway... it's just a few months early...

[71/365] smmmore please

Every time I bring these to a dinner party, they're a hit. "Heavenly", "Scrumptious", "ooooo just one more..." are just a few reactions I get. 

smores Bars

ingredients:

1 Family Size Box Mix Of Brownies And The Ingredients To Make The Brownies 

9-15 Graham Crackers (depends on the size of your crackers)

12 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (Or More!)

3 cups Mini Marshmallows

1 box Yellow Cake Mix

1 Egg

1 Stick Butter, softened

1/4 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk

directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 by 13in pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil that has been generously coated with cooking spray. Make sure your lining goes all the way around the pan.

Mix up your brownie mix according to the box directions and pour it into the pan.

Cover the brownies with the graham crackers. You want to fit as many of the graham crackers on there as you can.

Pour the chocolate chips onto the graham crackers and then add the mini marshmallows.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the box of yellow cake mix, egg, and stick of softened butter. Use your hand to mix the dough all together.

Top the marshmallows with the dough. I found the best way to do this is to take some in your hand, press it so it’s flat, and place it on top of the marshmallows. Repeat this until all the marshmallows are covered (it does not have to be perfect) and then drizzle on the cup of sweetened condensed milk.

Bake it in the oven for 18-22 minutes. The top layer should be a golden brown

[70/365] yummy in my tummy

RyBread and I made East Indian food for dinner. The menu included palak panner, butter chicken, and channa masala. It's kind of cheating to make it with these spice packets, but I have never had any luck making it from scratch.



What are these you ask? Stay tuned!

[69/365] expansion

I am amazed at how much dried chickpeas expand by the next day!

[68/365] heat in the cold

A chile pepper shaped icicle!

[67/365] indulge

I love sushi... especially at Sushi Delight. The couple that run it seem so grateful for you to come and they make such tasty sushi!

LaMak and I ended up going to Timmy's after our lunch date. I don't normally go to Tim Hortons because I prefer Starbucks by far, but I wanted to rrrroll up the rim. Of course I didn't win anything though. 

[66/365] just a taste

Suzie and I had a quick snack at the Free Press Cafe. 

[65/365] caffeine

A perfect pick me up after an intense hot yoga session at Moksha Kildonan. 

[64/365] bouquet

[63/365] spherical

[62/365] Seafarers

This expansion pack took over an hour to set up and way too long to play... but it was the first time that I won in Catan!

[61/365] D & K

 

Kristina and Doug are getting married and asked me to do their wedding photos! I felt so flattered that they would even ask because I've never done wedding photography before and it was only my second time doing engagement shots. This was one of my favourite engagement shots of the day.

[60/365] colourful

[59/365] bubbles

 

Dubs and I love going to the Mikan Sushi for bubble tea. They used to be a bubble tea shop (called The Moment). Their sushi sucks but they have pretty good bubble tea. The atmosphere is nice and it's close to home.

Mikan is one of those places that have cards that they stamp and after you have ten stamps, you can get a free bubble tea. So we were just hanging out chatting tonight and it turns out that Dubs knew the waitress through her younger brother. The waitress ended up hooking us up with a full stamp card! How nice! We saved it for our next visit there :)

[58/365] A Cheesy Time

 

Dubs, Oat, Jan, RyBread, and I had a Swiss Cheese fondue.

Swiss Emmental and Gruyère cheese fondue flavoured with wine, fruit brandy and Kirsch. (pre-made by President's Choice)

Followed by a not so fast game of Settlers of Catan...

Ending the night with fresh beignets that Oat brought back from New Orleans was perfect.

[57/365] One Skillet Pumpkin Cookie Cake

I came across this recipe on foodgawker and was immediately intrigued by the pumpkin.

You really only use one skillet, which is great for the cleanup.

One Skillet Pumpkin Cookie Cake (adapted from Willow Bird Baking)

ingredients:

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) Unsalted Butter
¼ cup Vegetable Oil
¾ cup Granulated Sugar
¼ cup Firmly Packed Light Brown Sugar
1 cup Pureed Pumpkin
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
2 ⅛ cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Nutmeg
½ tsp Ginger
¼ tsp Allspice
Some Dulce De Leche Or 10-15 Caramels

directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the vegetable oil, sugars, and vanilla and remove from heat. Let this mixture cool until the pan is no longer hot (about 5 minutes) so you won’t scramble your eggs.

Add both eggs to the butter mixture, whisking them well to combine. Whisk in the pumpkin. Add the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.

Place dollops of dulce de leche or caramel candies around the surface of the batter. Bake your skillet cookie for 15-25* minutes (dependant on your skillet), or until the edges are getting golden and the center is still soft (a toothpick inserted into the center should come out with some moist crumbs, but no liquid batter). Eat immediately (preferably straight out of the skillet!) with heaps of vanilla ice cream (or a fun caramel flavour).

[56/365] green spirit

The Shamrock Shake is back for the season! Dubs and I went to McDonald's to try it for the first time. My reaction? Glad I got a small! It tasted like the green marshmallows in a bag of coloured marshmallows and it was overly sweet. Like all their shakes, it was pretty thick. I was also slightly disappointed that it wasn't in a clear cup. Neither of us ended up finishing our shakes and threw them out.

Since that was not as delicious of a snack as we had anticipated, we headed over to Taco Bell to try their Doritos taco. The people working there looked like we were crazy and had no idea what we were talking about. Unlike Dubs and I, if you had actually read the article about it, it actually isn't out yet.

So we headed across the street to Tandoor House and Commissary for samosas and cheese pakoras.

It was my first time having the cheese pakoras and next to the samosas I think they're my favourite East Indian appetizer!

[55/365] black out

Enter The Real Canadian Superstore... they had a blackout! Thank goodness they have windows, it was daylight, they had some backup lighting, and their computers didn't crash! Can you imagine what chaos it would be if the store was pitch black and they ended up having to evacuate the customers?!

[54/365] let's eat! - part 2

My other favourite of the night was All Day I Dream About Food's Crispy Rosemary Sriracha Chicken Thighs. I accidentally didn't follow the recipe when I was making the marinade. For some reason, I had  thought I needed 2 tbsp of garlic, so I minced away at the garlic, stirred it in... and then realized that the recipe required 2 cloves. The thighs turned out delicious anyway and when I make it next time, I will definitely add more!

ingredients:

¼ cup Plain Yogurt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Rosemary
2 Tbsp Sriracha
2 Cloves Garlic (add more if you love garlic!)
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Pepper
4 - 5 large Bone-In, skin-on chicken thighs

directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, Sriracha, garlic, salt and pepper. Place chicken thighs in a large ziploc bag and pour marinade over. Turn bag over several times to coat chicken. Place in refrigerator and let marinate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375F. Arrange chicken thighs in a single layer in a baking dish or broiler pan. Spread any marinade remaining in the bag over the thighs. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or till the meat reaches 75 degrees celcius. Then broil on high for 4 minutes, until skin is crispy and golden brown.

[54/365] let's eat! - part 1

I was preparing for making this fried ice cream yesterday. It was the end of the meal that I prepared for Mama Bear's birthday, but it was the best part, so I'm going to start off with it first. I've only had deep fried ice cream twice. My first time was at a thai restaurant and it was amazing. The second time was at a Mexican restaurant and it was horrible. The difference was that the first place made it to order and the second place had pre-fried it and put it back in the freezer. The outside was super hard because it was frozen and you could taste the overused oil. 

This recipe was adapted from Simply So Good. I've made just a few minor changes.

ingredients:

1 quart Vanilla Ice Cream, good quality
5 cups Corn Flakes, crushed
1 cup Flaked Coconut
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
2 Eggs
1 Tbsp Milk
2 quarts Oil For Deep Frying

directions:
Make 5 ½-cup scoops of ice cream. Place on a pan or baking sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze for at least one hour.

Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl add crushed corn flakes, coconut and cinnamon. Stir together. Set aside. In another shallow bowl, beat egg and milk together, set aside.

Remove ice cream from the freezer and roll and press the corn flake mixture around the ice cream. Like packing a snowball. Then roll the ice cream ball into the egg mixture then back into the corn flake mixture. This will give you a thicker crust. Return to the freezer for at least one hour or until the ice cream is very hard.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot until the temperature reaches 365 degrees. Remove the ice cream balls from the freezer and carefully drop into the hot oil. Deep fry for only 10-20 seconds. Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel. Serve immediately.

Garnish ideas: honey, caramel sauce, or chocolate sauce; cocoa powder' strawberries (I used caramel sauce, strawberries, and cocoa powder)

Notes: It's super important that you allow time in-between scooping the ice-cream and coating it with the corn flake mixture because you'll just end up with a pile of mush. Another tip is to allow enough time for the coated ice cream balls to harden before frying so that it doesn't all just melt when you fry it. Lastly, the coating burns very quickly so make sure to remove the balls from the oil promptly.

[53/365] sneak peak

.... Deep fried ice cream to come.

Update: Here's the recipe.

[52/365] snow day

Doesn't look like much of a snowfall, but the roads were slippery and some schools got to call it a snow day!

[51/365] be my clementine

 

Citrus reticulata. YUM.