Cafe World Challenge Week 49

It's been over a month since my last post, but I've been VERY busy in my blog absence. We're moving in August so I've been busy getting the house ready for listing. A good friend of ours is our realtor and she's been helping me pack away all the excess stuff and stage our home beautifully. I am now absolutely besotted with the house again, at least we still get to stay in the 'new and improved' version for a few more months. While I've been working I've still fed my family and have 4 more Cafe World dishes to report. That means according to my final list...... I am DONE with my Cafe World Challenge. It was a self-imposed challenge to add a weekly component to my blog and keep it active, but now that it's done I'll try to keep posting, I'm a VERY slow sewist and I'm trying to not dominate my blog with excessive cooking stuff. My cutting table and my patterns and fabric have been packed away so I might be limited to the amount of sewing I can do in the next weeks. Hopefully the house gets sold quickly and I can move some of my sewing essentials back into the house. I'm still cooking yummy stuff, so you'll get a recipe here and there if there's time and definitely a post showing the house photos for the listing. I LOVE the way it looks now. I don't have before photos for every room, just the messiest ie. the sewing/computer room.

Anyway Happy Easter to everyone and on to the LAST Cafe World dishes.

GRAND TANDOORI CHICKEN

I love Indian food. Need I say more. So even if this recipe was bad, it would have been great to me. But my husband seems to think it was good too, so it might be worthy of sharing. Tandoori chicken is grilled chicken marinated yogurt and spices. It can be prepared in a traditional tandoor clay oven or just grilled in the oven or on the barbecue. It usually has a red or orange colour, but mine came out a little more yellow. I used only ingredients I had at home so it was an experiment, but I do have a very well stocked spice collection.

Tandoori Chicken

1 lb (500g) chicken breasts
1 large onion, finely chopped

Marinade:

3 tbsp lemon juice
1 3/4 cup plain fat free yogurt
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp crushed/minced ginger
1 tbsp crushed/minced garlic

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade and add the onion. Wash and dry the chicken and using a sharp knife cut diagonal slits into the chicken breasts.Place the chicken in the marinade mixture and rub into the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, turning occasionally. Preheat the grill. Place on a grill tray in the oven and grill for 20 -30 minutes or until done. It can also be prepared on a barbecue.

IRISH STEW

Cafe World's Irish Stew was made with beef, but if I wanted to be traditional I think I should have rather used lamb. An Irish stew definitely needs potatoes, so I added those and I debated about using Guinness, which I've done before, but I was making this in the crock pot and it was still too early for the liquor store to be open, so the decision was made.

"Irish Stew"

2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tsp paprika
4 carrots sliced
3 potatoes diced
1 onion chopped
1 celery stalk sliced

Put meat in stone ware. Mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over the meat and stir to coat. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 hours (or HIGH for 6). Stir before serving.

I LOVE stew, I think I've mentioned this before. A good meal which I served with Pumpkin Scones RECIPE HERE.

BEEF WELLINGTON

I also love Beef Wellington, a very English dish consisting of a beef fillet wrapped in puff pastry with a layer of pâté and/or mushrooms.

I love chicken livers and I bought a delicious pâté topped with crushed black pepper from my local deli..awesome on its own, but unbelievable in this dish. I used Martha Stewarts's version. Très magnifique!!!

My husband was skeptical of the description, but wholeheartedly enjoyed this one.

GEM CAKE

I finally used Fondant, and it was so very easy. I initially balked at the price of the tub ($18) but I only used about a 1/3 so I'll get a few more cakes out of it. I could've made my own but didn't want to be scared off by icing that didn't turn out well. I admit I spent quite a while watching demonstration videos on YouTube just to be certain and then I took the plunge. To replicate the look of the Gem cake I used a light moss green fondant, but instead of gems I opted to make a Spring/Easter cake for our dinner at my in-laws today. So I made little "flowers" with the Easter pastel shade smarties in the centre. The cake inside is just box Devil's Food Cake.

Progress: 88/88, ALL DONE

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Cafe World Challenge Week 48

So this is the 48th post about these Cafe World inspired dishes, not the 48th consecutive week, since I've been slowing off towards the end here. If I don't add the two new dishes I've unlocked, I only have 2 more to go. I quite fancy cooking the new ones, so I'll might just add them.

This post I'll share my Chinese New Year Candy box, Creme Fraiche Caviar and my husband's crazy Unbirthday cake.

CHINESE CANDY BOX

This box or tray is traditionally served at the Chinese New Year. I found they were a little expensive, but I waited till after the New Year and found one on sale at a good price. It contains an assortment of candied fruits. My favourite being the candied ginger and my kids liked the candied coconut.

The fruits in my box were (from top and clockwise): water chestnut, coconut, winter melon, ginger, soursop, sweet potato and lotus seeds (middle).

CREME FRAICHE CAVAIR

For this I used lumpfish roe on toasted baguette with creme fraiche. I've found a local source for creme fraiche, but I've made my own before.

Creme Fraiche

Mix together 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tsp buttermilk. Heat to 85F, pour into a jar and let stand at between 60 and 85F until thickened (12 to 48 hours). Refrigerate and use within 3 weeks.

For those that haven't tried creme fraiche before, it is similar to sour cream, but I find it is not as sour and has a smoother flavour. When I have some leftover from my recipe, I add some vanilla and eat it as dessert with some fruit.

UNBIRTHDAY CAKE


My husband was away for his birthday and the kids were horrified by the thought of a birthday without cake. So I promised we'd make a cake for dad when he returned. This was definitely more for them as they had a ball helping me add colouring to the frosting and sticking decorations to the cake. It was a great March break activity, although I'm still finding drips of bright pink frosting everywhere. I figured it was supposed to be fun and funky so I didn't care about the lopsided cake and messy frosting so the kids got to participate and do their own thing.

I made square cakes instead of round and just cut it to size. I also "cheated" by using box cake...Devil Food cake. Mmmmm good.



New Additions to Cookbook

I've now unlocked Irish Stew, for St Patrick's Day. I actually made one a few weeks back, but I love stew so I'll make another one. Also Beef Wellington, a quintessentially British dish, which I enjoy, but don't think I've ever made myself.

Progress:  84/88 with the two new ones included. Only those and Gem cake and Tandoori Chicken left.

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Cafe World Challenge Week 47

I attended a Japanese cooking class last year and have used my notes from that class to make sushi. I'm not a fan of raw fish sushi and prefer eating rolled sushi ie. maki. I usually order the vegetarian option at restaurants, but I had leftover smoked salmon from making the Lox Bagel so I added that too.

SUSHI SPREAD

The term sushi actually refers to the rice which is mixed with rice vinegar. This rice can then be topped or rolled in various ways. My cooking instructor stressed the importance of properly cooked rice, so I followed her instructions:

Sushi rice

3 cups of sushi rice
4 cups of water
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

Place rice in a medium sized saucepan. Remove excess starch from the rice by rinsing it 3 or 4 times. (Add cold water until the rice is covered, then drain water.)
Add the 4 cups of water to the rice and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat so that the rice continues to cook, without boiling over.
Cook for 15-20 minutes then turn off the heat.
The secret tip: Don't peek, do not remove the lid until the dish is ready to serve.
When ready, mix the rice vinegar into the rice.

Cover your sushi rolling mat with plastic, it keeps things clean and non-stick. I wanted to make inside-out rolls, with the rice on the outside, so I tried both methods. Method 1, was to lay the nori on the mat and then cover it with rice and then flip it over, the rice sticks pretty well to the rougher side of the nori. I also just spread rice onto the mat and then pressed the nori into it to cover. Both worked okay. A good tip was to keep a bowl of water at hand to dip your spatula or spoon into. This dislodges sticky rice and makes spreading easier.

I laid my smoked salmon in the centre of the nori parallel with the bamboo. If you did it the other way it wouldn't roll properly. I used avocado and fine carrot sticks in mine. Then just roll up tightly. Remember you don't want to enclose the mat so fold the mat over the fillings to form the roll. I then sprinkled mine with toasted sesame seeds and cut it into pieces. I served mine with soy sauce with a little wasabi mixed in.
Very delicious. Considering it was the first time I did this myself, I think it worked out pretty well.


                            

Progress: 81/86 (only 5 to go)

Next up: I didn't get time to make Unbirthday cake for my husband before he left, but will attempt it when he returns, which will be after his birthday. He's at sea for 3 weeks.

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Wild Thing skirt

I've found a new favourite skirt pattern. It sews up quickly and easily and has a few variations so that many looks can be created with ease.

Unfortunately the pattern is Out of Print, but you can still find it on the Butterick website.
It is Butterick 4613 and it has six variations including self fringe, flounce and lace edged. I made up View A, which actually has a self belt, but I omitted the belt.

I'm planning to make this version up in the Navy wool crepe to go with the Vogue 8692 jacket. I made a muslin and was so super happy with the style that I decided to immediately rummage through my stash and make up a wearable version. I came up with the ridged cotton woven in an animal print that I used to make this Burda jacket.

I LOVE THIS SKIRT!!! It's fitted through the hips without being restrictive. It has a waist facing and centre back zipper.

I also tried a new hemming technique on this skirt. The fabric is a little stiff so I didn't like the idea of hand stitching a hem and I really didn't want a top stitched hem. So I used hem tape for the first time. I have the Heat 'n Bond Superweight tape. I think it turned out great. The hem is nice and crisp.

I can see myself making many more versions. If the pattern pieces weren't currently attached to the wool on my cutting table I'd pull out a different fabric and sew another up.

I finished this skirt 2 weeks ago and have been waiting to get my hubbie to take a photo of me in it. But in the meantime I've been sewing more braid on more naval uniforms. My husband has been advertising my services to the unit. I should get a photo with all the guys and girls together posing with their Jen-sewn braids. That would be fun.

I've had a little hiatus from sewing my own garments, so I've turned to the sewing blogs for inspiration. One of my favourites, Faye's Sewing Adventure, has just turned 4. Congrats Faye!! She is having a giveaway a week on her blog over the next 4 weeks to celebrate. Check it out. It was actually her blog that inspired the Butterick skirt pattern choice as she made a version a while back and she also made a great animal print jacket which was one of a few made by the blog girls at that time. When I read through my blog list I always have a pen and paper in front of me and jot down any ideas or pattern numbers that I like and then I usually transfer the info to a computer file where I list my current and future projects and any additional inspirational tidbits. I've seen some lovely sewing room fix-ups and tidy-ups on the blogs lately, so that will be my next mission....get my sewing stuff a little better organized. Then maybe I can get in gear to get back to my sewing projects. 

Cafe World Challenge Week 46

Blah, blah, blah.....

That's how I feel lately!! So sorry about being lazy about blogging. I've had one thing after another happen that has hampered my plans and my creative juices have run dry. Not that any of my mishaps have been in the creative realm of my being, but it impacts my general mood. In the grand scheme of things I suppose it hasn't been that bad.
I had my large, heavy wooden fireplace mantle fall on my toes and cause severe pain and limited motion for a week. Then my husband goes away for a week and I get to deal with crazy little boys all on my own. Then of course it's that time again when talk shifts to possibly moving again. UGH!!! So my mind goes crazy. Then I get rear-ended and then have to deal with all the admin involved with a collision and insurance and car repair. So a few days got completely swallowed up with that. Now I have my husband home, but he's off again for 2.5 weeks. Aside from the stress of trying to find a job, but then if we're moving why am I bothering?

Enough of my rant!!! Thanks for listening. I needed to just hammer out my frustration on the keyboard, you were spared the worst of it, the delete key was used extensively.

So with just myself and the little guys to feed I haven't been cooking anything reportable....but managed to squeeze in a Cafe World dish. Lox Bagel. My 5 year old loves smoked salmon so he was very happy.

LOX BAGEL

This was an easy one. I bought "everything" bagels and spread them with my favourite whipped chive cream cheese, topped with salmon and thin slices of red onion. Pop open a bag of potato chips and Voila!!!

Next Up: I'm making Sushi...finally and since my hubbie will be away for his birthday, I'll make the Unbirthday Cake before he leaves.

Progress: 80/86 (nearly there..I haven't added any of the new dishes, since I haven't been playing to unlock any of them)

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Cafe World Challenge Week 45

We had a great Cafe World inspired dish this week, Chicken Adobo. I don't know how authentic the version was, but it tasted great. Like the stew in the previous post, my boys loved it.

I'm still pondering how to make an affordable Unbirthday cake. I could really cheat and say since it's no one's birthday and its a cake, it's an Unbirthday cake, but I don't think so. I investigated using fondant for decorating the stacked cakes, but it was $18 for each coloured tub and the multicolour packs with smaller quantities to cut out shapes and decorate is $11. What I might do is use coloured butter cream frosting and then use the $11 fondant to add stripes and shapes. Since I am expending lots of energy on the decorating I bought two boxes of devil's food cake to make the process a little simpler.

Anyway...back to the Chicken.

CHICKEN ADOBO

Here in North America, if you hear Adobo you think Mexican, which it is too. But this version is the Filipino version. Read the wikipedia entry for the detailed explanation.

Basically the Filipino version is meat simmered in vinegar. My husband grimaced at the thought, but ended up really liking it. My only change to the recipe I would make in future is to use reduced sodium soy sauce. Since you're using a whole cup, it was a touch too salty for my liking. The other great thing about the recipe, for me at least, was that it used pretty standard pantry staples. I only needed to buy the chicken and sprite (which is optional anyway). The sprite is suggested to sweeten up the tangy sauce. I used it because I knew it would bubble up the sauce when added and I figured my son who sometimes helps me in the kitchen would get a kick out of it. He thought it was really cool. Although I think he liked his little glass of sprite better, my kids are still little and I don't let them drink pop, so it was a treat. The bubbles in pop or even carbonated water seem to wreck havoc on his poor tummy though and he usually ends up with tummy cramps, so he told me, "mom I can't have too much I don't want my tummy to hurt." SMART LITTLE BOY!!

Okay so enough chatter, click here to get the recipe on Cooks.com

Up Next: I'm hoping to get an Unbirthday cake done.

Progress: 79/86

* Disclaimer: Image owned by Zynga. This site is not owned by Zynga. This site is not the owner of the intellectual property.

Seriously Super Stew

I made an amazing beef stew last week and am finally getting time to share it now. I found the recipe in the November 2009  Homemakers magazine. The recipe is on their website HERE.
This particular issue has some fantastic recipes and the splotchy condition attests to it's use. My other favourite from this issue was the "One-skillet chicken Provencal", the cover recipe. I don't think I've taken a photo of this one, but have definitely made it more than once.

Back to the stew...the issue has 5 different beef stew recipes and with the colder weather, I was craving a hearty delicious stew. The stew's intense flavour is due to almost a whole bottle of .....

The dried porcini and other mixed dried mushrooms also add tons of flavour and since the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms is added back into the stew, none of the flavour gets lost.

I served the stew with plain boiled potatoes, but it would be fantastic with mash too. It was a good thing that the recipe makes 6 to 8 servings because everyone wanted seconds and my eldest wanted stew for breakfast the next day and then stew for his school lunch and then instead of greeting me when I picked him up, his first words were, "Can we have stew again for dinner tonight?" So clearly a HUGE hit.

For my Cafe World Challenge followers: I've decided to finish off the remaining dishes when I can and probably won't be posting them every week. I'm stuck on trying to make an Unbirthday cake, as my cake decorating skills are non-existent. While I think on that, I'll try to make Chicken Adobo later this week. We have a huge snow storm heading our way tonight so I'll have to see how the roads look tomorrow and see if I get to the grocery store. They're predicting 30 cm overnight with blizzard conditions. But of course I used to live in Quebec City so I should be used to this weather. Weather is really pretty mild here in Windsor (for my non-Canadian readers...it's on the Canadian side across from Detroit)

Anyway cheerio, keep warm and don't let the weirdo weather get you down.