One of my rules for entertaining is, do as much as possible ahead of time. This is important to allow me to enjoy the party with my guests! I love kale salads for entertaining. Kale is not actually my favourite green. However, I love that kale salads can be made ahead without turning into a wilted, mushy mess.
One of my favourite summer-time treats is a grilled hot-dog. Butterflied, dripping with yellow mustard (no ketchup for me) and if we are going all out, fried onions and hot peppers. I am getting hungry just writing about it! But let’s face it, part of the experience is the bun. There is no way to make hot dogs a health food, so no whole-wheat here, just soft, fluffy white buns!
When the older members of the family get their choice, including my now teenage son, more often than not, they choose a Ding Dong Cake. What the heck is a Ding Dong Cake? Maybe remember a spongy chocolate coated, cream and caramel filled chocolate snack cake in a cellophane package that sat on corner store shelves and could likely survive the apocalypse? That was a Ding Dong. What I make may be inspired by that snack, but it is so much tastier!
Our favourite meal for summer outdoor entertaining is to grill up a big old Porterhouse Steak! It is actually very simple to make but makes an impressive entrance and is beyond tasty. I am pretty sure all of our friends have eaten this at least once at our house!!
Now that our son has a driver’s licence and a car of his own, he doesn’t seem to need to me as much (although I still hear, “MOM!! Where is my…,” at least three times a day). So what was I to do with my new found freedom? Get a job!!! I was looking for something with a deep meaning for me and I found my perfect fit with Mealshare.
If you have been out to eat at least once in the last few years, you have likely seen Brown Butter something on the menu. Savoury and sweet chefs' love this ingredient for the nutty, complex flavour it adds to their dishes. There is good reason for chefs' obsession with Brown Butter…it is delicious!! Beurre Noisette (that is just the fancy French work for Brown Butter) is simply unsalted butter that is cooked to the point that the milk solids in the butter begin to cook and caramelize giving your butter a nutty flavour.
A true Angel Food cake is only leavened by eggs whites and requires only five ingredients plus some flavouring. Homemade Angel Food may not be as tall, but it should still be light and airy and it will also have a superior taste to the boxed versions. In fact, it tastes so good that my son thinks I should change the serving size on the recipe from eight to one to two servings!
Now when it comes to icings, I am all about the buttercream (check out my blog for my Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe). While buttercream is great in a sandwich cookie or as a dip for sugar cookies, it is not optimal for decorating as it remains soft and will squish and smudge. For detailed decorating you need to use royal icing. Royal icing is a simple mixture of egg whites, icing sugar and flavour that is easy to pipe with and dries hard so your cookies can be moved, stacked and stored without the risk of smearing.
Working with the butter block and keeping it contained in the dough can be a bit tricky and turns off many home bakers. But don’t be discouraged, the is a way to get a very tasty homemade puff pastry with a bit less (okay, a lot less) stress….Blitz Puff Pastry. As the name suggests, this is a faster version of puff pastry.
When I have friends over for dinner, I want to enjoy their company and not be slaving away in the kitchen. This is especially true when they first arrive and it is time for a pre-dinner cocktail. I always want to have something ready to go to serve with those cocktails; preferably something slightly salty, something that can be made at least the day before and something with a bit of a “wow” factor. The answer is often Pork Rillettes. The French name makes them sound fancy, but really they are simple to make (but no need to tell your guests that).
I visit my favourite cheese troll and his shop on a regular basis. While I have some favourites* that I always turn to, Sean always seems to have something new for me to try and unfortunately I have rarely met a cheese that I don’t like! This usually means that I end up buying way more than I intended and I am often left with various little nubs of cheese in my refrigerator. A lot of those little pieces were thrown out. This seemed like such a waste that I went on a search to figure out what I could do with them. Of course, the French have a solution; Fromage Fort, literally “strong cheese.”
As a trained pastry chef I have to admit I am almost embarrassed to be offering this recipe. This once king of fine-dining desserts now gets snickers from chefs and foodies when it appears on a menu. It is now so common place it is seen as showing little creativity or technique from the kitchen. Despite the Lava Cake’s fall from fine dining grace, it is still hard to beat that first delicious bite of warm, oozing chocolate!
