[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. 

 

[50/365] behind some shades

[49/365] tweet

 

I think birds are beautiful but something about those beady little eyes that gives me the heebee-jeebees. 

[48/365] sew happy

I really don't sew, but I love going to Mitchell Fabrics to look around.

  

I did end up getting a striped navy material that I want to make a shirt out of. It's on my list to make an article of clothing, so stay tuned to see if this shirt turns out nice enough to wear!

Some of the fabric is so expensive that it's almost more worth it to go out and buy an already made article of clothing. I did however get my navy material for a good price and found a red and white patterned material that would make for a cute scarf (it was only $0.99/m!).

[47/365] sweet tooth

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I saw this recipe because of the corn flakes in it. I've only had corn flakes as a cereal or as a breading, but never in a dessert. Also, when I was thinking truffles, I was thinking more along the lines of a cake like ball like rum balls. These proved to be pretty addictive with their chocolatey goodness and slight crunch. See below for recipe.

 

Nutella Truffles (yield: 2 dozen truffles of approximately 1 inch diameter balls)

Ingredients

8 tbsp nutella

24 mini chocolate chip cookies, crushed 

2.5 cups corn flakes, crushed

2 tsp butter

cocoa powder for rolling


Directions

In a microwave-able glass bowl, take nutella and butter and melt it for 1 and ½ minutes to 2 minutes. Add crushed cookies and corn flakes to it and mix well.

Place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to cool. Make desired sized balls and arrange in grease paper.

Roll in cocoa powder to coat it well.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.

Adapted recipe from Rak's Kitchen.

[46/365] bundle up

It's so cute that little kids like to dress up their snowmen.

[45/365] love day

RyBread and I weren't actually going to celebrate Valentine's Day till the weekend when he wasn't doing homework and I didn't make plans with my girlfriends. It felt odd not seeing each other at all though, so I swung by with an impromptu sushi picnic before heading out to meet my friends.




We were extra full though, because when I arrived, RyBread had made me steak not knowing I was surprising him with sushi.

[44/365] downtown

Arriving too early for an appointment downtown, I couldn't resist enjoying the beautiful spring like weather (in February!).

It was actually much colder in the shade (which there was a lot of where I was) so I ducked into Bison Books.

[43/365] heart me

Just around the corner....day of love or stupid marketing scheme?

[42/365] pancakes for dinner

Breakfast food is best when it's not breakfast.

[41/365] you had me at cinnamon

RyBread and I made churros from the box mix that I got in Cancun. It was my first time having churros and they were so yummy!

[40/365] shoe store

Papa Bear likes to spoil us with clothes and shoes from Hong Kong. Every time he comes home, he brings us quite a selection!

      

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