toasted oats with yogurt & fresh applesauce

Remember way back when I declared myself a genius? Well, I'm toasting oats again and riding those genius coattails into fame and fortune. Okay, there's no fame and certainly no fortune, I'm still half asleep and haven't had my daily dose of caffeine yet. But I can most certainly tell you about the amazing breakfast I had last week. Read all about it and grab the recipe on Poppytalk.

I realized I had twittered about this, but never posted a link here. Want to find out more about me? My small business heros, Lauren Bacon & Emira Mears interviewed me on their blog. Go on, read all about it. If you haven't read their book, The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business, go out and do it now! It's filled with practical and inspiring advice about running your own business (and it ain't just for the ladies). I was also very recently interviewed by Karencilla from Sweet Little Hearts. So please go on over and say hi.

Also, how about a little more self-promotion? My etsy shop is filled to the brim with lots of new cards, including seasonal holiday cards. If you haven't dropped by in a while, go on over and take a peek. If you are in Vancouver, I'll be setting up shop at Toque at the Western Front, November 27th and 28th and at Got Craft? on December 6th.

baked mini corn dogs

Last night I posed a question to my husband: would he like a stir fry or corn dogs for dinner? Obviously not a very fair question. Sorry, stir fry, your time will come. After my husband closed his gaping maw, I got down to work. After a bit of Google-ing, I spotted this near-perfect recipe. I made it more perfect by adding in some chili-powder for flavour and a kick of spicy cayenne for bite. These would be a perfect addition to your Canada Day or July 4th holiday party.

The end result isn't the cylindrical n' greasy meat-pop of your carnival dreams, but it does satisfy any food-on-stick craving you might be hankering for. These corn dogs are flat at the bottom, but they are crispy and the flavour is just right. I wasn't sure about adding all that sugar, but it actually helped them taste more authentic. I liked the sweetness but feel free to cut it down or leave it out completely.

I had some lollypop sticks leftover from some fall-time caramel apple making and they worked perfectly for this meal. Please note that this recipe makes a lot of batter! So feel free to increase the hot dog amount to 8 if you are feeding a crowd or do like we did and use the batter the next morning to make a really great corn bread. Just fry up a small amount of bacon - or just heat up some vegetable oil or bacon grease in a cast iron pan. When hot, pour in the batter and place in a pre-heated 375F degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Slice into quarters and eat hot.

baked mini corn dogs
1 c cornmeal
1 c flour
2 T brown sugar
1 T chili powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 c milk (feel free to use almond/soy/rice milk)
1 egg
1 T canola oil
4-8 hot dogs, cut in half (use tofu or veggie dogs, if you like)
8-16 lollypop sticks

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients. In a smaller bowl, mix together the milk, egg and canola oil. Pour the wet into the dry and mix gently with a fork.

Cut your hot dogs in half (mini-dogs not skinny-dogs) and pierce each half with a stick. Dredge each half into the cornmeal batter and place onto a silpat-covered cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until the batter becomes golden brown.

happy new years: glazed chocolate cake with sprinkles

Oh, the holidays...so much going on, lots of parties, and way too many sweets! But c'mon, this rich chocolate cake is way too pretty to ignore. I spied this recipe on the Gourmet website and fell in love with the photo immediately. This cake screamed holidays and glamour and it's nice to end a holiday meal with a bit of a spectacle. I made this as our dessert on Christmas day and the cake was moist but it was the bittersweet ganache that stole the show. Be sure to use a good chocolate for the frosting...I used a dark bittersweet chocolate from Callebault and it was amazing.

A chocolate cake shouldn't be fussy and this one is simple as it is stunning. The red dotty sprinkles helps to make this cake festive and gives everyone a reason to celebrate. And have I got a reason to whoop it up a little. The CBC has listed me as one of the "best of the food blogs". Huzzah!

glazed chocolate cake with sprinkles
(adapted from Gourmet)
1 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 tn baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/2 c yogurt
1/2 c skim milk

for ganache:
1/4 c half & half cream (+ additional)
3 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
2 ts light corn syrup
sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a round 9x2 cake tin or bundt pan and set aside. In a large small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour to salt). In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Combine the milk and yogurt in a small bowl. Add flour and milk mixture alternating in batches, beginning and ending with the flour.

2. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

3. While cake cools, bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add in chocolate and whisk until smooth. If the chocolate is too thick, add in a touch of extra cream. Stir in corn syrup and set aside to cool. Using a spatula, spread glaze over cake and decorate with sprinkles.

auf wiedersehen!

Our bags are packed, our apartment is tidy and we ate a great breakfast of pancakes with a fresh strawberry-rhubarb compote. In just a few hours, we'll head to the airport ready to board our flight to Frankfurt. We're very excited! While Cornelius has been to Europe many times, it will be my first visit and I'm excited and nervous about facing a 10 hour long overnight flight.

I will have a post on the Food Network Canada's blog, Food for Thought, coming up most likely on Wednesday. So definitely check that out next week and read about my adventures of shopping and living next to North America's 2nd largest Chinatown!

I'll return with stories and lots of photos, I'm sure. See you in October!

love proof

I'm a sucker for love so pretty much every day seems like Valentine's Day. Yesterday Cornelius jokingly said that Valentine's Day is the day where you have to prove your love to the other person! After laughing, I decided that I'd bake up some proof right away. After seeing Gourmet's recipe for a Truffle Chocolate Tart pretty much everywhere, I was smitten. Unfortunately, I didn't have really great dark chocolate at my disposal. I did however have some pretty decent semi-sweet baking chocolate and some really amazing imported French dark dark cocoa. I also had some Callebault white chocolate on hand...so I decided to modify the recipe somewhat and knock me out some love cake. Using 2 different chocolates, I decided to marbleize the ganache and create some pretty looking swirls. And since I was using white chocolate which is quite sweet, I did not add extra sugar to the mix. I'm sure it will be sweet and rich enough without the extra sugar! Truth be told, I haven't taken a bite out of this tart (we're saving it for tonight), but every time I lift the lid off my cake dome, I'm instantly salivating from the heavenly chocolate aroma. Oh my! Bring on the love!

chocolate truffle tart
For crust
28 chocolate wafers* (1 1/2 cups)
6 T butter, melted and cooled

For filling
1/2 c okay-quality bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped + 2 fine-quality T dark cocoa
1/2 c fine-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 T butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 t salt
1 t pure vanilla extract

Special equipment: an 8-inch (20-cm) round springform pan

1. Make crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap a sheet of foil over bottom of springform pan (in case of leaks). Lightly butter side of pan. Stir together ground wafers and butter in a bowl until combined, then pat mixture evenly onto bottom of pan and 1 1/2 inches up side. Bake until crust is slightly puffed, about 10 minutes, then cool completely in pan on a rack, about 15 minutes. Leave oven on.

2. Make filling while crust cools: Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Divide mixture into 2 even halves. Set aside. Over low heat, melt dark chocolate, cocoa and half the butter in one saucepan and melt white chocolate and the other half of the butter in another saucepan. Stir until smooth and remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the dark chocolate mixture into one of the egg mixtures and add the white chocolate into the other egg mixture and combine well with a whisk.

3. Assemble and bake tart: Pour white filling into cooled crust and then drizzle the chocolate filling over top in a random pattern. With a fork or the end of knife, create swirls being careful not to mix too much. Rap pan once on counter to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake until filling 1 inch from edge is set and slightly puffed but center trembles slightly when pan is gently shaken, 20 to 25 minutes.** (Center will continue to set as it cools.)

4. Cool tart completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours. Chill, uncovered, until center is firm, about 4 hours. Remove side of pan and serve.


* I didn't have chocolate wafers, so instead I used vanilla wafers and added in a tablespoon or two of dark cocoa.

** It took about 40 minutes for the batter to not be totally liquid. Maybe I just have an old stove.