Chicken Pot Pies and Pear Upside Down Cake

I have been on a pastry experiment kick as I had been trying out several pastry recipes in advance of Thanksgiving this weekend (I offered to make the pumpkin pie but haven't make pastry in years).  While my husband has been a very willing guinea pig, there is only so much pumpkin pie I can make.  So, I found a recipe for chicken pot pie and set about to make a batch of pie pastry using the traditional Tenderflake lard recipe (found here).  I had already done shortening and butter based crusts, but thought I should go back to my childhood and try the recipe that I first learned when baking pies for family holiday dinners (or watching anyways).

I followed most of the instructions for the pot pie, except I used pre-cooked chicken (cut into cubes) and used frozen peas and carrots rather than fresh carrots.  I also cut the amount of liquid to 3 cups of broth and 1 cup of milk.

This was too die for!  I don't know if I could go back to store bought pot pie!

[As an aside, for my pumpkin pies, I decided to use this pastry recipe.]

I also made a cake for the husband.  When we were grocery shopping, he asked if I could make a cake with pears, which he loves.  After some searching, I found a recipe at Kraft.  It called for cranberries, which I omitted in order to ensure that my husband would try the cake rather than run away (he is definitely not a fan).  I also used canned pears rather than fresh.  Otherwise, it was made according to the recipe.

To put it briefly, this has already been asked to be made again (like, he already went and bought the ingredients again).

Painted Pumpkins - Fall Edition

Oh I have so many posts to get around to.  I have been baking up a storm during my maternity leave and have tried a variety of recipes I found on (or as a result of) Pinterest.  But I will start with the painted pumpkins I did for the front porch.  I wanted something quick and simple to distract from the hideous excuse for my garden, which I have not attended to this year for rather obvious reasons.  Previously, I have made more than a dozen painted pumpkins for Hallowe'en.  This year, I decided to paint a few for fall decor.

I wasn't sure how much crafting or baking I would get done during maternity leave.  Honestly, I find it easier to bake or cook because it naturally fits into most days.  However, painted pumpkins take very little time and with the baby wrap I was able to have little E with me for most of it (being very careful not to get paint on him, of course).  (Apparently he was camera shy here.)

I wanted rough lines for a more rustic look.  I only used tape on one of the smaller pumpkins but otherwise this was all free-hand.  I used gold and dark red for a nice autumn feel.  Here is a shot of the pumpkins after they were dry.

Here are a couple shots out on the front porch.  The floral arrangement is something I threw together last year with faux flowers from the dollar store and Michaels.

I should probably also show a close up of our current centrepiece on the kitchen table.  I switched it up for fall and used two types of dry beans to fill three square/angular vases of differing heights and finished it off with candles and a little bit of twine on the two smaller vases.

 

My next post will be the first to get on the with business of updating on the baking (chocolate cake, apple cake, pear cake, pumpkin pie, pudding cookies) and cooking (Philly Chicken Cheese Sandwiches, Chicken Pot Pie) that I have been doing lately.

Donuts - Baked not Fried

Who doesn't love donuts?  Thankfully, baked donuts are all the rage right now.  I had been thinking about making some for a while when the Grandparents Day brunch became the perfect excuse.

For the brunch, I made a dozen of the vanilla donuts below.  A couple days later I also made the chocolate donuts based on the recipe found here. (The only thing I would change in the chocolate recipe is to add 1/4 cup sugar.)

Ingredients
2 cup cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 large egg
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
4 Tbsp. 2% milk
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Vanilla Bean Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. 2% milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray donut pan with cooking spray and wipe off any excess.

In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon) until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk all wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt, milk, butter, vanilla bean paste) together until smooth.

Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Pour batter into large ziploc bag (or pastry bag if you want to have to clean it up afterwards), cut a corner of the bag off and pipe into donut tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until donuts spring back to the touch.

 

When I made the chocolate donuts a couple days later, I made both a chocolate glaze and a vanilla glaze.  As a result, I had four different types of donuts.  Apparently, the hubby is a fan.

Baked French Toast and Chilled Fruit Salad

Two other dishes I made for Grandparents Day brunch were Baked French Toast and Chilled Fruit Salad.  Both were amazing.

Baked French Toast
I was a little concerned about whether this would turn out, but it was a favourite at the brunch.  Its a lot more like bread pudding - oh, so good.

Ingredients

1 loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices and some cut in half

8 eggs

2 cups 2% milk

1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden corn syrup

   
Directions

Arrange the slices of bread in a large ceramic pie plate. 

Beat together eggs, milk, half and half, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices making sure all are coated. Cover with tin foil and refrigerate overnight.

The morning of your brunch/breakfast, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup and heat until bubbling.  Remove from heat and immediately pour over bread and egg mixture, again ensuring that all bread is coated.

Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Cover with tin foil and bake for additional 10-15 minutes.  (If I did anything differently, it would be to put a baking pan under the pie dish as the mixture bubbled over and made a pretty good mess in the oven.  Oh well, it was time to clean it anyways.)

Chilled Fruit Salad
This version is based, in part, on the recipe found here. The pudding mixture and the juices from the canned fruit make a lovely dressing that is almost glaze-like.  (Tip: If you don't want to use canned fruit, use 1 cup of orange juice instead and mix the pudding into the orange juice.)

Ingredients

1 (14 ounce) can peach slices, undrained
1 (14 ounce) can pineapple chunks, undrained
1/2 box dry vanilla instant pudding mix
1 lb strawberry, stemmed and quartered
1/2 pint blueberries
2 cup green grapes 
2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions
In a large bowl, combine peaches, pineapples, and vanilla pudding mix.  DO NOT DRAIN THE FRUIT.
Mix well until pudding is dissolved.

Stir in strawberries, blueberries, and grapes.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.

Add bananas and mix just before serving in the morning.
Enjoy!

Breakfast Casserole

One of the dishes I made for Grandparents Day brunch was Breakfast Casserole.  I adopted the recipe from the Egg Farmers of Ontario website - it has a great variety of recipes.  It was super easy and quick to make and was able to bake it in the oven for part of the time I was baking the french toast (which I will provide the recipe for in an upcoming post).

Ingredients
1lb turkey sausage
1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
12 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Remove sausage from casing; crumble and cook in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Remove from heat.
If I can't get the sausage to crumble into fine enough pieces, I use my food processor to break it down further.
Sautee peppers and onion until onion is soft.  Add sausage back to pan and continue cooking for 2 minutes.
Drain well and spoon into 9x13 baking pan.

Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper in bowl. Cook in large skillet, whisking constantly.
When eggs are set but still very moist, remove from heat and stir in 1 cup cheese
Immediately pour over and cover sausage mixture.  Sprinkle with reserved cheese.

Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 20 minutes or until eggs are fully set. 


E was a big help too - in that he was happily occupied by his bouncer while I made the casserole. What a good lil' goose.

Baby sewing projects - Soft Blocks

I'm a binge seamstress.  I won't sew for long periods, sometimes years, and then once I start I binge big time.  I had not sewed anything since Christmas when I decided that I would be able to sew a couple things while also managing lil' E.  As previously posted, suddenly that meant making headbands, a car seat cover and I also made soft blocks that E will be able to play with over time.

I was inspired by this website (Smile and Wave).  Her's are gorgeous and I loved the material.  For E, I went with simple black and white checker board and two different colours of baseball patterns in basic cottons.

When E gets bigger he will be able to grab them and throw them without causing any damage.  For now, he stares at the checker board pattern during Tummy Time.

Grandparents Day - Who Knew

I didn't know there was such a thing.  Apparently, Grandparents Day became an official day in Canada in 1995 (and has been a national day in the US since 1978).

Seeing as our parents are now grandparents, I decided that I am a masochist and invited them over for brunch today.  I spent last night and this morning balancing my time between cooking and feeding E.  I haven't hosted a brunch in ages but I had a blast figuring out what to make and actually making it, of course.  Here is the menu:
(Pardon the pictures, the lighting in our house is brutal and I used my blackberry.)

Baked Vanilla Bean Donuts

Chilled Fruit Salad

Buttered Toast (if you need a recipe for this, we should start with how to boil water)

Peameal Bacon (with Mustard)

Baked French Toast

Breakfast Casserole

Cheesecake in a Jar (I followed this recipe for the cheesecake but used canned cherry and blueberry toppings)

I also set up a drink station with OJ and cranberry juice and a selection of Tassimo cups (coffee and tea).

For decorations, I did simple tissue paper pom poms.  I also broke up a bouquet of white daisies and used a few of my blooper reel painted vases from last fall (which actually looked pretty good like this).

Finally, the table cloth, napkins, plates and cutlery are all from Target - because with a newborn, I am not doing more dishes than necessary.

Over the next week or so, I will try to post some of the recipes I used or modified (if there is a link above, I did not modify the recipe in any way except as noted).

I think everything turned out really well - even my Dad was complimentary and that's high praise. It was a good day.  Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures while everyone was here so you will have to take my word for it.