Mashed Potato with Kale

Feb28

This side dish to delicious. Even if you don’t like kale just try it once I guarantee you will like it here. I know at least two people that do not like kale, don’t eat kale, but love this. I didn’t get a picture of it plated because I took this to a friends house for dinner.

This is not a low cal recipe. It is a hearty stick to your ribs winter dish. We only make it about twice in a year for a treat, though it is so good I could eat it every week.

You will need:

about 2 lbs potatoes

1 bunch kale

3tbsp butter

2 cups finely diced onion or leeks thinly sliced (I use Vidalia sweet onion or leeks)

1/2 to 1 cup half-&-half (10% cream) (start out with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup milk (start out with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)

1/2 to 1 cup grated while medium or old cheddar, you want flavour here ( I use Balderson’s)

Boil potatoes in slightly salted water until soft and then drain. once drained well, mash.

While the potatoes are cooking boil another large pot of water and cook the kale for about 5 minutes. It doesn’t get fully cooked at this stage as it will get finished in the oven later. One it is cool enough to handle chop it finely, just run the knife through it several times, it doesn’t have to be pretty.

In another small pot melt butter and cook onions with a sprinkle of salt until they are very soft and translucent.

Mix cooked onion mixture into the mashed potato. Add cooked chopped kale, cream and milk (be slow with adding the milk & cream so you don’t make it to runny. It should be very creamy but not watery. I add 1/2 of cup of each at first and add more as required to get the consistency as I want it. How much you add will depend on the potatoes you use and the moisture content. Mash all together, add salt to taste. I usually toss in 1/4-1/2 cup of grated cheese and mix it through as well, for extra cheesy flavour.

Place mashed mixture in baking dish or casserole dish and sprinkle top with grated cheese and bake at 350F until cheese is melted and top is lightly browned, about 20-30 minutes.

Cheesy warm creamy mashed potato flecked with little bits of green. Delicious!

Adapted from: The Green Door Restaurant Vegetarian Cookbook.

Snowballs

Feb1

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now. I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them. I made a batch recently and shared with a few people. They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

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The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

Into another bowl add the next 3 ingredients and mix to combine.

Add the melted butter mixture to the oat mixture and mix. Let this cool, I usually put it in the fridge for about half an hour until it will hold shape when rolled into balls.

Roll into balls and then roll in coconut. That is it!

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These also freeze well and are good in the freezer for a few months. Sometimes I freeze them and eat straight out of the freezer.

Mell’s Wheat Germ Muffins

Jan17

I really like these muffins, but we haven’t had them in quite awhile. The recipe is from my cousin, not sure of the original source, but we have had the recipe for many years. I ate a lot of these in the days after Evie was born, it was one of my sources of sustenance. I kind of needed a break after that, but I thought of them the other day and voila.

In a bowl mix together the following dry ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/8 tsp baking soda

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

In another bowl mix together the following wet ingredients:

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and let sit for 1-2 minutes.

This is what it looks like after sitting, sort of foamy

Fill greased muffin tins, or use liners, 3/4 full. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until done.

*Note: You can add in 1/2 cup of berries if you would like to make them into berry muffins.

I was given a large bag of frozen blueberries by my neighbour, who received a large amount from a friend who is a farmer and picked them fresh and then froze them. I did a split batch here, filled half the cups with non-berry batter and then added a couple of handfuls of berries to the rest of the batter and finished filling the cups.

These didn’t last long!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Sep2

Tomorrow is back to school, so we have been baking and cooking to have breakfast and other meals ready to make the school week a little easier. This is a muffin recipe that we make regularly and adapt it all the time to add different ingredients. Here is what we usually do:

In a large bowl add 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1/2 cup sugar, 2tsp baking powder, 1tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. I also add 2-3 tbsp of flax meal. Mix well.

In another bowl whisk 2 eggs until frothy, 1/4 cup cooking oil, 1/4 cup milk, 3 medium overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup and a bit).

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients along with half a bag of chocolate chips. Stir with a wooden spoon just until moistened. Do not over mix (batter will be lumpy) or your muffins will be tough.

Bake at 350F for about 18-20 minutes.

These freeze well also. We wrapped some individually in clingwrap and then placed in a container, so we can pull them out as we need them for breakfast or lunchbox.

Wild Blueberry Cake with Brown Sugar Sauce

Aug12

We went to pick some blueberries, they just grow on a little hill right next to the house. We probably picked about 4 cups, the blueberries here are wild and plentiful, extra sweet and tasty too. We wanted to make something out of them, but not muffins. We chose this recipe because I haven’t had it in a long time and Evie really likes it. This is a traditional Newfoundland recipe.

we used about 1 and 1/2cups blueberries

mix together 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar

add 1 egg and mix then add about 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder and mix until combined

add milk (about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup) while mixing so it is thick and creamy like cake batter.

then add the blueberries and fold in

then place in an 8 inch square baking pan and bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes until dark golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

While the cake is baking you can make the brown sugar sauce.

place 2 tbsp butter melted and 2 tbsp flour in a small pot and whisk while heating

Whisk in 1 cup brown sugar (it will be dry and thick)

then add 1 cup of boiling water and 1 tsp vanilla whisking and heating bring to boil and whisk until it thickens to a syrupy brown sauce

Serve the warm sauce drizzled over a piece of the cake

Bacon Cheese and Chive Quiche

Jul21

Reposting this as WordPress seems to have lost my original post and I am looking for the recipe!

Watching an episode of Madeline made us decide on quiche for supper. Probably not the one they had at Le Hotel Riche, but I had all of the ingredients in the fridge so we just made this one up. The chives were added because we had alot growing in the garden and Evie has been desperate to go cut some and carry them in her basket, so we added chives!

I didn’t have time to make the pastry so I just used a frozen store bought one.

Preheat oven to 350F. You will need:

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 & 1/2 cups grated cheese, I used half mozzarella & half cheddar)

3-4 strips bacon, chopped and fried to well done

1-2 tbsp chopped chives

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

whisk eggs with milk and add other ingredients, stir to combine. Pour into pie shell and bake for about 40 minutes until done.

It turned out really well, very tasty. I was unsure if Evie would eat it or not but she devoured it, and asked that we make it again soon. I guess this recipe will go into the recipe book.

cookswithevie

our adventures cooking … and other fun stuff

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