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Ingredients:

1.5 - 2kg butternut pumpkin, cubed 1.5cm x 1.5cm approx
olive oil spray
sea salt flakes
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shredded mint
30 grams fetta

Honey and Balsamic Dressing:

1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Place pumpkin onto trays lined with baking paper.
Spray lightly with olive oil and crush salt flakes over the pumpkin.
Cook pumpkin for at least 20 minutes, before turning. Cook for another 20 - 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is starting to brown.
While the pumpkin is cooking either dry fry the pine nuts or brown them on a lined tray under the grill, until they are golden. Store in an airtight container if it is a while before you will use them.
Remove pumpkin from oven when ready and allow to cool. (As this step can be completed ahead of time, you can place pumpkin in a container in the fridge.)
I prefer to shred the mint and crumble the fetta at the last minute. As such I will often cook the pumpkin the night before and just add the fetta, pine nuts and mint an hour or so before we need to eat.
The dressing should only be added immediately prior to serving.
Dressing:

In a small jar add honey, vinegar and olive oil.
Prior to using on the salad, with the lid on the jar shake vigorously to mix.
Take off lid and heat in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
Shake vigorously again and all ingredients should combine beautifully!

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Ingredients

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

Method

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.

4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or grapeseed oil using a pastry brush, or with a little butter. Or use one of those convenient vegetable oil sprays. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

Makes 12 cupcakes (or 48 mini cupcakes).

Ingredients
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons almond meal
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For Frosting:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons soy creamer or heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in coconut milk mixture. Stir until just smooth (do not overmix).

Pour into liners, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter (cups should be no more than 2/3 full). For mini cupcakes, fill each with 1 tablespoon batter. Bake 18-20 minutes (or 10-12 for minis), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until combined. Mix in vanilla and cream. Continue adding sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition (depending on the temperature of your butter, you may need more or less sugar/cream to achieve the proper consistency). Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla Buttercream:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature
3-3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine soymilk and vinegar and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes. Mixture will curdle.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Whisk sugar, oil, vanilla bean, and extract into curdled soymilk mixture. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 3 Tablespoons of batter (cups should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-22 minutes or until lightly golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add soy creamer and mix until combined. Add remaining confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla seeds, extract, and food coloring, and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add more cream or sugar as necessary to achieve proper consistency. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

so much food could be made more appealing with this technique

justbesplendid:

mini sticks

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Baked Chicken Meatballs
Adapted from Gourmet

These were unbelievably good, quite possibly my new favorite meatball recipe; they pack a lot of flavor from a few ingredients and can I say this? I hope it sounds as good to you as it does to me: They taste … cheesy. Like you’d snuck a whole lot of melty goodness in there, even though there is none. In my book, that’s a high compliment.

These make for an excellent main course, but I will definitely be making miniature versions of them for a party, hopefully one day soon.

Gourmet suggests you serve these with pepperonata, a marinated roasted red pepper antipasto. We enjoyed it, but don’t think it’s in any way mandatory to get the most out of your meatballs. One cooking note, should you choose to make it at home: I’d suggest roasting the peppers whole — rather than in strips — and peeling them before slicing them for the dish. Perhaps it’s just a personal preference, but I found the strips of still-attached roasted pepper skin annoying to eat, and easily avoided. You can find the pepperonata accompaniment over here.

Serves 4, or more as appetizers or sliders

3 slices Italian bread, torn into small bits (1 cup)
1/3 cup milk
3 ounces sliced pancetta, finely chopped (you can swap in Canadian Bacon if you can’t find pancetta)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken
2 tablespoons tomato paste, divided*
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 400°F with a racks the upper thirds. Soak bread in milk in a small bowl until softened, about four minutes.

Cook pancetta, onion, and garlic in one tablespoon oil with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large skillet over medium heat until onion is softened, about 6 minutes. (Alternately, as in “I thought of this after the fact”, I’d bet you could render the pancetta for a couple minutes and cook the onions and garlic in that fat, rather than olive oil.) Cool slightly.

Squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with chicken, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, pancetta mixture, bread, and parsley. Form 12 meatballs and arrange in another 4-sided sheet pan (I used a 9×13 roasting dish).

Stir together remaining tablespoons of tomato paste and oil and brush over meatballs (the paste/oil does not mix in any cohesive manner, but just smoosh it on and run with it) , then bake in upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes (though mine took a good 5 minutes longer).

* I accidentally added a heaping tablespoon of the tomato paste into the meatball mixture the first time I made it, and ended up liking it better than without it. I’d use the tomato paste on top too. It’s good both places.

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Hot Chocolate on a Stick
Yield: 10 cubes of hot chocolate (ice-cube-tray size)
(use 1 oz. hot chocolate on a stick per every 1 cup milk or cream)

Equipment:
Ziplock bags or piping bags
A double boiler or pan with a glass bowl that can sit over the simmering water
Some kind of chocolate mold, ice trays work great
Stir sticks or a bag of wooden craft sticks like I used (available at any craft store)

Ingredients:
8 oz. chocolate (with at least 70% cocoa butter, see note above), bittersweet, semisweet, milk, and white chocolate all work
1/4 cup cocoa, Dutch processed if possible, sifted
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

6 cups milk and 2 cups heavy cream if you plan to enjoy these right away

Method

1. If your chocolate is in a block, chop it into meltable pieces. Simmer a couple inches of water in a pan and place glass bowl over the top to make a double boiler. Be sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water beneath it, and regulate the heat so the water stays at a simmer. Dump chocolate into the clean, dry bowl and stir as the chocolate melts.
2. Once the chocolate is 2/3 melted, with just some pieces of the chocolate unmelted, remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring until chocolate is fully melted.
3. Add cocoa, sugar, and salt and continue to stir until combined.
4. Lift the bowl off the pan and use a towel to dry off any drips of water. Pour chocolate into a ziplock bag and clip off the corner.
5. Pipe the chocolate into your chocolate mold, tapping the mold on the counter to make sure all the chocolate settles into the mold. Add a stir stick and you’re done. The stir stick should stay upright without any trouble.
6. Let the chocolate cool either at room temperature or in the fridge if you’re in a hurry.
7. If you don’t like the look of the chocolate once it is removed from the mold, you can dip the cubes into a new batch of plain melted chocolate for a shinier finish. This also lets you add sprinkles or crushed candy or just lets you dip in fun patterns. I like dipping at an angle into a different color of chocolate.
8. In order to enjoy these, heat up any combo of milk, water, half and half, or cream. I like 6 cups milk with 2 cups heavy cream. One ounce of chocolate on a stick should be melted into one cup milk or cream. So a standard ice cube-tray block, which is 3/4 an ounce, should be melted into a mug with 3/4 cup milk or cream in it.

How to store it: Chocolate will keep in an airtight container for up to a year. Don’t keep it in the fridge because it is really good at absorbing odors.

via Meet Me at Mikes :: Recipes

6 cups of plain flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp dried yeast
1/2 cup soft butter
1 egg

makes 30 more-ish rolls

Dissolve yeast in 2 1/2 cups of lukewarm tap water. In your mixer using a dough hook, plonk the flour, beaten egg, sugar, salt and butter - begin to mix it up gently, pouring in the water/yeast slowly. Knead until smooth and elastic. (You can do this by hand too - it’ll just take longer).

Leave to rise for a couple of hours. Then punch down and knead again until smooth and elastic. Let it recover for 15 mins and then split your dough into 3. Each third will make 10 dinner rolls - so divvy up the dough into tens. To shape the rolls - flatten each little piece of dough and then roll it into a ‘roll like’ shape, tucking the ends under and putting it seam/join side down on a well greased oven tray. You’ll need a couple of trays - be sure to grease them.

Let your dough rise again for an hour or so - until the rolls are a bit puffed up and nearly twice as big. Bake in a HOT oven for around 15 minutes until nicely browned.

from maya*made

Ingredients:

• 2 cups finely diced, peeled and cored apples
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup flour

Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Into large bowl add diced apples and sugar. Let stand for about 15 minutes.
• Pour in oil and egg. Stir.
• Add dry ingredients. Stir.
• Add vanilla and walnuts. Stir. It will be quite stiff, don’t worry.
• Pour into a well greased and floured 8 inch square pan. Bake for 45 minutes @ 350 degrees.
• Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a cake rack.
• Dust top with confectioners sugar before serving.

veronicalovesarchie:

jjae always posts the most delicious looking food. Here is a great idea - I had never thought of blending up anything other than basil for pesto. This meal looks so good I kinda want to make it for dinner tonight. Yum!

jjae:

Rosemary garlic roast chicken and broccoli pesto pasta

• Mixed chopped up rosemary and garlic in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Stuffed that between the skin and meat of the chicken.  Stuffed the chicken cavity with onion and lemon.  Roast.
• I had several heads of broccoli staring at me from the fridge, so I cooked it, and blended it with pecorino, parmesan, cooked spinach, garlic, olive oil and almonds (because I don’t have anymore pine nuts, and I couldn’t find the walnuts), salt and pepper to make a pesto.  It works!  You can probably take any vegetable and as long as you blend it with olive oil, parmesan and garlic, it will make a decent pesto.