My parents are leaving on a two-week trip to London next week. To encourage them to come back after their vacation is over, I made a batch of overnight cinnamon buns. The recipe comes from The Frugal Girl, and it turned out beautifully. The dough was easy to work with, and baked up light and fluffy. The filling was sweet, gooey, and had just enough cinnamon spiciness. I have a feeling these will get made fairly often in my little kitchen.
Ever since I picked up a copy of Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen
cookbook, I’ve been meaning to try her Irish oaten rolls. After a few adventures with a cooking scale, I’ve pulled together a Canadian version of her recipe, with volume measurements instead of weights. In this form, it’s a very speedy recipe that leaves you with a dozen steaming oat rolls – a perfect accompaniment to a bowl of hot beef stew.
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups stout (not quite a full bottle)
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp canola oil
4 tbsp liquid honey
In a large bowl, mix together the first five dry ingredients.
In a big measuring jug, measure out and stir together the remaining, wet ingredients. The milk will likely curdle because of the beer – don’t even worry about it.
Dump the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir together.
Spoon large dollops of the dough onto two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. You should end up with 10-12 rolls.
Top each roll with a pinch of extra oats.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350° or until the rolls sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Set aside on a wire rack to cool before serving.
Oh, quiche. I love you so, and yet I rarely make you. I don’t know why, as you aren’t exactly a complicated dish to prepare. Bake some pastry, saute some veggies, whisk some eggs, and voila! Dinner (after a quick stint in the oven) is served!
1 round of pastry (see here for my usual recipe)
3 cups finely chopped kale
1 leek, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
3 tbsp flour
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
Roll out your pastry and fit it into the bottom of a pie pan.
Bake the pie crust for 10 minutes at 400º while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cook the kale and leeks in the olive oil until softened – about 7 minutes.
Mix the veggies, cheese, seasoning and flour in a large bowl.
Take the pie crust out of the oven and lower the temperature to 350º.
Pat the cheese and veggie mix into the bottom of the pie.
In the same bowl you used for the veggies and cheese, whisk together the eggs and milk.
Slowly pour the egg mixture over the quiche fillings. At this point, you can also sprinkle on some bonus cheese, if desired.
Bake the quiche for 30-40 minutes, or until the egg at the middle is set.
A guest post from my bestie, Connolly:
You are correct. That IS whipped cream on those pancakes.
I had to look up “Pancake Tuesday” and discovered that it takes place the Tuesday before Lent begins. Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. The idea is to use up all the fats in the fridge before the season of fasting (lol!). If you’re into giving stuff up for 40 days, good on ya. I’m sure it makes you a much better person. I, however, have pancakes left over for tomorrow and they were pretty phenomenal.
Why, you ask? For the same reason as plenty of other things I cook are phenomenal. Booze.
The Pancake:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp (or less) cinnamon
1 can of beer (blonde)
2 eggs (separated)
a splash of vanilla
3 tbsp. butter
Mix the dry ingredients together. mix in the beer, egg yolks and vanilla.
Whip the egg whites until they’re stiff. Fold them into the batter.
Melt the butter in a frying pan, pour it into the batter. You’ve just killed two birds with one stone and greased your frying pan. Done-ski.
You could add a little milk (or more beer) if you like a thinner pancake. If you go with beer, you’ll have some drinking to do.
Fry up big, fluffy pancakes until they’re golden.
The Syrup:
3 tbsp. butter
1 cup maple syrup
2 oz. spiced rum
Put this stuff in a saucepan and simmer it until the butter is melted. I’m sure this is what unicorn blood would taste like. Thanks, Lord Voldemort. It’s hard to do the right thing when there is syrup involved, isn’t it?
Don’t make plans to go anywhere immediately after eating these. The rum is a bit of a kicker. Oh, and is there tequila in that orange juice? Why, yes… Yes there is…
Special thanks to Strater Patrick for quality control. Thanks also, to Bitchin’ Kitchen for the original recipe which I adapted, due to not having the right ingredients.
Okay, okay. So they’re just Rice Krispie squares with chocolate chips. But they still taste quite s’morey, what with their chocolate, marshmallowy crunch. Plus they’re much easier to pack for a mid-afternoon snack.
1/4 cup butter or margarine
40 big fat marshmallows
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup mini dark chocolate chips
Grease a 9×13 glass pan; set aside.
In a large, microwaveable bowl, nuke the butter until it is completely liquified.
Drop the marshmallows into the butter, tossing gently to coat.
Add the vanilla and zap until the marshmallows have blown up and gotten nice and soft.
Add the cereal to the melted marshmallows, stirring to distribute evenly.
Pour in the chocolate chips and work them through with as little stirring as possible – you don’t want them to melt and blend completely.
Wet your hands and press the cereal mixture into the prepared pan. Once it is all pressed smooth, put it in the fridge to set for at least an hour before serving.
To serve, cut into squares with a wet knife.
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