Magnolia's Pecan Pie

I am not a huge pie person, but I just love me some good pecan pie, and apparently it makes me talk all Southerny! It was my Dad's birthday way back in September, and for his birthday and a reward for doing so amazingly well with his weight watchers I decided I would make him a pie and chocolate cake. No better reward to loosing weight than eating junk food right! I have to admit I hate making pastry so Chris made the pastry for this, I don't have a clue what recipe he used, so I will just share the filing recipe, if it were up to me I'd just buy the frozen kind! Sorry Granny!

This is from one of my favorite baking cook books, Magnolia bakery, where they tell us that they got this recipe from a friends Texan grandma. I have also added chocolate chips to the bottom of the crust prior to pouring the filling it to make a taste chocolate pecan pie, but not everyone loves that.

Pecan Pie Filling

1/3 C unslated butter, softened to room temp
3/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 C light corn syrup (I actually ran out when I made this so used half light and half dark, didn't notice a huge difference)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cups coarsely chopped pecans (I save a few whole ones to throw on top too)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar. 
3. Once well creamed, add the remaining ingredients, except for the pecans, one at a time until each is well incorporated.
4. With spatula stir in pecans. 
5. Pour over prepared crust.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until filling is fairly set (filling will firm up as it cools).
7. Allow pie to cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

Annie's Freaking Chili

So as I've mentioned before I come from a long line of great cooks, my grandma has a few staples and her chili is definitely one. When Buppy and Nanny lived in Port Angeles she made chili ever single Saturday night for the races and it flew out of the concession, none of that can crap for us. She also made it for her the PIG Club at the tavern, but that's a whole different story and honestly we don't have time for that. Let's just say my grandparents are 2 of the funnest people that ever hit Port Angeles! Nanny's chili became some what famous and her friends even gave it a crud name so I've made it a bit more kid friendly.

I figured this was a good time of year to post a chili recipe, especially boy friendly served over a hot dog. I also hear it's football season (I hate sports on TV) so this could be a great thing to serve at a football party, or if you are like my kick butt girlfriends you like boy food too, the messier the better!

Enjoy my grandma's chili and I take no responsibility for the noises it may make, hehe!

Annie's Freaking Chili

Equal parts canned diced tomatoes and red kidney beans
Large Onion, Chopped
Large Green Pepper, Chopped
 Note: Depending on the size of your cans of beans and tomato you may need more veg. If I have mushrooms in the fridge I throw those in there too.
4-6 tbsp of chili powder (this is to you/your families taste)
Approx. 1lb of ground beef
 Note: depends on how much chili you are making

Directions:

1. In large pot brown ground beef.
2. Once cooked through add onions and peppers, stiring occasionally until softened.
3. Add beans and tomatoes (liquid and all), stirring until well mixed. 
4. Add Chili powder and simmer ... the longer you the simmer the better. 

Serve over of a cooked hot dog and fresh bun with shredded cheese and chopped onion. You will need a knife and fork! 

This doesn't photograph well, but MAN does it taste good!

Giada De Laurentiis Pasta w/Brown Butter Sauce

Holy smokes, it's been a VERY long time since I blogged. I've missed this loads, but between the craziness of summer, which is sadly a distant memory, and a September/October that left me a bit under the weather, I'm ready to take the reins back and share my favorite favorite recipes and disasters with you!

I've taken a few days off work and yesterday thought I should make my hubby a delicious but easy pasta dish by one of my favorite chefs, Giada De Laurentis. I saw this made on Giada At Home last spring and made it for my Dad and Margaret one night when they were here, that night I served it with lemon chicken, which is one of my favorite meat dishes. However last night I wanted something a little less labor intensive, so went with a mild Italian turkey sausage from the red barn market. As usual I changed the way I did a few of the things from Giada's recipe, but that's the joy of cooking, making it your own.

Enjoy!
Danielle

Pasta with Brown Butter, Arugala, Pine Nuts and Lemon Dressing


Dressing:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

•    NOTE: I only use a splash as the butter provides enough grease

• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• Pasta:
• 1 pound of your choice of pasta

• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

• 4 cups baby arugula

• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

• 1 cup grated Parmesan

• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts 

• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained.

•    NOTE: I like to pan fry my capers to take some of the liquid out of them and give them a little bit of a different texture. If you've ever had the Caesar salad at Haro's in Sidney, this is a trick I learned from that! 

Directions:

For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper until smooth. Set aside.

For the pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water (I don't do this).

In a high-sided skillet, whisk the butter over medium heat until melted. Simmer until foamy. Continue to cook until the butter has a nutty aroma and turns a caramel color, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the pasta, dressing, arugula, tomatoes, Parmesan, pine nuts, and capers. Toss until coated, adding the reserved pasta water (I don't do this), 1 tablespoon at a time to loosen the sauce, if needed. Transfer to a large bowl and serve. Serve with extra Parmesan and a protein on the side for a well rounded meal. 

Bite Size Brownies

WOW, it's been way to long since I posted a blog post, apparently I am a bad blogger. I've made several yummy and new things including some cute cupcakes for a baby shower, but I keep forgetting to take pictures! OOPS! Also in the summer life is just busier, on the weekends we try and spend time at Shawnigan Lake, and when we aren't doing that, the hubby is racing at Western, or Saratoga Speedway.

Anyways, tonight I decided to make my favorite little morsel treats to take the ladies I work with, for our administrative team meeting tomorrow. These are my go to's for a quick make for company or myself and you can switch them up easily by making them bite size, or bar style, or by adding peanut butter chips, smarties, or any type of icing!

This recipe came to me in the cook book that my fabulous Aunty Sandy made for my cousin Kim when Kim got married in 2007. The cookbook features a bunch of family favorites plus recipes provided by friends and family that they wanted to share with Kim as she embarked on married life. My cook book is looking a little used as I frequently pull it for dinner and dessert ideas.

This is the wording from Aunty Sandy about where this recipe came from:
"When Kim was in grade 2 or 3, her class made a cookbook. She took the recipe for Banana Loaf and a boy in class brought this recipe. They had bound it and gave to their mom's for mothers day."

Brownies Ingredients

1/2 C room temp. butter
1 C brown sugar
1 beaten egg
3 T. Cocoa powder
3/4 C flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Using an electric mixer, mix butter and sugar until well beaten.
2. Add beaten egg, followed by remaining ingredients.
3. Place into un-greased 9 x 12 pan and bake for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from pan, and let cool (though let's be honest, these are amazing hot out of the oven)

Alternate way of baking: Use mini muffin tin and fill 3/4 full and bake for 12 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

I made these with butter icing on top as that's my favorite thing to make. Just follow the recipe on the icing sugar bag, and it's perfect every time! I also made them for my girlfriend Mal when she was in Victoria and put Reese peanut butter chips in the top before I baked them.

Pulled Pork Sliders

One of my favorite things is pulled pork, I love messy food you can eat with either a fork or with out utensils. One of the first things that I started making and kind of got requests for was pulled pork. My family use to have a weenie wagon at the Sidney Market and we sold pulled pork, once we got rid of the weenie wagon I figure out how to make my own! It's a great thing to make because you can literally put it on and walk away from it for hours, ahh... the beauty of a slow cooker! There are many different variations to make this, but this has to be favorite. I but the pork logs from Costco, same as used in my pork chili, and cut a hunk off to make this.

Ingredients:
hunk of pork loin/butt/shoulder (whatever you have a hunk of is good)
Mexican chili powder
Garlic Powder
Season Pepper
Garlic Cloves (approx. 5)
1 Can of Coke/Diet Coke

Take the pork and slice some holes in it with a knife. Rub the pork down to taste with the 3 powdered seasonings. Take your garlic cloves and cut them in half, shove them into the holes of your pork. Place the can of pop into slow cooker and place your prepared meat into the slow cooker. COok on Low for approx. 5 hours. Once ready you should be able to pull the meat apart, you will have to drain some of the pop out of the cooker. Leave on keep warm until you are ready to serve. You can slather your choice of BBQ sauce onto the pork at this point or you can add a bit more pop to keep moist until you are ready to serve, I do this so people can choose their BBQ sauce.

I served mine on home made sweet buns (see earlier post for directions) with mayo, grated chedder cheese and a few pickled banana peppers. ENJOY!

Max Turns 5

Today was a very special day in the Root house... it is Max's 5th birthday. He started out the day with scrambled egg, peppers and a tiny bit of bacon, then he had a couple of the birthday cookies that his mommy and daddy got him, and he opened his brand new devil ball! I know it's kind of crazy pants of me, but I decided that this year he needed a birthday cake, it's no small feet turning a whole paw old, so he got a yummy banana peanut butter cake.  We had mom, dad, nanny and Baxter over for dinner and had a yummy pulled pork sandwich dinner, which I will post later this week (I will not be ignoring my blog any longer). Max and Baxter had their normal dinner as I knew that the cake was coming!

Banana Peanut Butter Cake
Yields 1 9" cake

2 smashed bananas
1/2 C of melted low-sugar/natural peanut butter
1 C whole what flour
1/4 cup canola oil
water till moist just right
1/2tsp baking soda
dash of salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Once combined pour into greased cake pan and spread out. Pre-heat oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes.

For the icing I simple whipped some cream, do not add sugar, until well combined, spread a thin layer on the cake, for the 5 and decor on the cake I melted some peanut butter and combined with the leftover whipping cream and pipped it onto the cake. Since I thought that putting candles in the cake would be going over the top... I used some of Max's favorite treats and placed 5 in the cake.

We then put a piece on plate for Baxter and Max and let them have at it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIE BEAR!

My family thinks it's time for Chris and I to have a real child.... lol

Nanny Lesson

My goodness what a busy couple of weeks! It's been so busy I've had no time to get blogging. Tonight though I have a special blog for you. My Nanny is a superb cook, however she hates doing it now, so she has started teaching me how to make some of her key things. So far she has assisted me in making a turkey dinner for thanksgiving (truth be known she did it), won ton soup, buns, and lemon meringue pie to name a few. On Sunday we had our most recent lesson on how to make her filo wrapped halibut. Delicious. We've never been a big fish eating family, which since my hubby is all about fishing I am learning to like, though Salmon and I do not like each other, however this recipe has long been a favorite of my moms!

So at about 2pm I went over to prep dinner with Nan, we got everything already then I came home, got the man and pup and headed back for dinner, we made the sauce right before serving as the fish was cooking.

Ingredients

Fish
4 sheets of filo pastry
1/2 C melted butter
2 x 5-6 Oz Halibut filet
1 bunch of fresh spinach, stems removed (and steamed)
2tbsp shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper cracked pepper

Sauce
1 tbsp shallot, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 C heavy cream
2 tbsp capers (drained)
1 tbsp chopped chives

Fish Directions

1. Saute shallots and garlic in a little butter, then add in the steamed spinach. 
2. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste. 
3. Taking 1 sheet of filo and slather with butter, apply 2nd piece of filo pastry and cover in butter, place 3rd piece of filo ... continue until all 4 sheets are stacked with butter in between. 
4. Cut filo stacks in half to make rectangles, place spinach mixture in the centre of the filo pastry, place fish pieces on top. Wrap the filo around the fish to make a package presentation. If you need to use butter to close flap on filo.
5. Bake fish at 425 for approx 15 minutes. 

Sauce Directions:

1. saute the shallows in a little bit of butter and saute until translucent. Add the lemon juice to the shallots, cook until lemon juice reduces.
2. Add the ream and reduce until lightly thickens. 
3. Add the capers, chives and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

To serve place layer of sauce on the plate, place the cooked filo wrapped halibut ontop of the sauce and then drizzle more sauce over the filo fish.

Now for the best part... devour!