Author: Hilary

Sour Cream Chocolate Crumb Cake

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

Pre-blog post statement: My roommate Ariel and I just finished a glorious afternoon of “shaking it like a polaroid,” Outkast style.  If anyone is ever looking for some sort of rainy afternoon activity, I highly suggest a dance off.

Okay, cake post…

I must admit, it is certainly nice to have 4 out of my 5 roommates back in the house.  Their arrival meant that I did not have to carry this cake on my bicycle to work nor did I have to sit in my pjs watching Rogers on Demand and eating the entire thing myself.  I made this cake on Friday afternoon and, by the time Saturday morning rolled around, there was hardly any cake left in sight.  Turns out a few of my roommates get quite ravenous after a night out and speedy cake ingestion is the result.

Now, for some inexplicable reason I appear to be drawn to two types of cakes.  Inadvertently, my past two cakes have both involved sour cream and chocolate, ingredients which one would think would be fairly easy to avoid while baking.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am not falling into some sort of rut…it’s just that sour cream chocolate cakes happen to be ridiculously delicious!!  In all fairness, I very easily could have left the chocolate out of this one since it was just mixed in at the last minute (keep that in mind if you’re not a huge chocoholic like myself!).  Also, anything that has “crumb” in the title always seems to attract me, so perhaps that is another thing that drew me to this dessert.  The only thing that potentially could have been improved on this cake was the moistness level – I am a huge fan of moist and undercooked things, so that was my only issue.  No big deal though!

Oh, PS this cake was from the September issue of Canadian Living and, once again, the recipe isn’t yet posted on their website, so I’ll post it on my recipes page as soon as I get a second to breath (school = slightly overwhelming already).

Broccoli Mozzarella Pasta Toss

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

Prior to this meal, I was absolutely petrified of broccoli.  After frequent verbal prodding by my roommate Natalie, I finally decided that I could avoid this vegetable no longer, and had to include it in one of my upcoming meals.  When I was young, I used to refuse to eat the flower of the broccoli, forcing my mom to chop off the top in favour of me eating only the stalk.  Since I’m a tad older now, I have decided to embrace (or at least try) the things I disliked when I was younger, and carefully cut florets out of my broccoli, leaving only the flower to be eaten.

Like the salad in my last post, this meal was only partially inspired by a Canadian Living recipe.  The inspiring recipe, which was called Orecchiette with Broccoli and Garlic, was the basis for this meal.  I couldn’t find any orecchiette (a cute little pasta that resembles a small ear) in the grocery store, and settled for another cutesy alternative, lumache.  I personally thought the pasta resembled snails, which I thought was absolutely adorable.  Also, I added a diced red pepper, a cup and a half of grated mozzarella cheese and bacon bits (yum!) to the mix to make the dish my own.

The final verdict on the broccoli?  The chewy tops tasted like delicious little cheese balls.  Absolutely glorious.  My 10-year-old self would be shocked at how far I’ve come.

Mexican Tortilla Salad

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

With the insanity of this week (frosh week at Carleton, I work everyday!) I am absolutely shocked that I managed to find any time to make any sort of food other than soup noodles.  Since I am completely exhausted, I will keep this post short and sweet, before my eyeballs drop out of my head and decide to take a quick power nap on my keyboard.

This salad was inspired by the Mexican Tostada Salad found in the September issue of Canadian Living.  I say “inspired by” only because I made a few alterations.  One of these alterations was to make my own crispy version of tortilla chips.  As I discovered when I made my chicken tortilla soup back in May, a great way to make a quick snack/meal helper-outer is simply to slice up flour tortillas and fry them on the stove.  They come out perfectly browned and deliciously crunchy; in this case they served as the perfect replacement to the tostadas required in the original recipe.  Also, I don’t know what tostadas actually are…  Now, the original recipe in Canadian Living identified this dish as vegetarian and required you add some sort of protein replacement thinger.  Never a fan of any protein replacement (tofu=disaster), I fried up some ground beef to add to the mix.  Another change I made was to not put salsa into the recipe (I got enough tomato taste from the tomato juice and sliced plum tomatoes).  Finally, rather than layering all the fun ingredients, I just kind of tossed them around in one of our popcorn bowls and voila!  Salad is complete.  Delicious.

Chilled Pea Soup with Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

Although this soup looks like something out of Harry Potter’s potions class, it actually tasted excellent.  Being more experimental with my vegetable intake, I decided that this chilled pea soup (actually called “cold pea soup with chives and lemon by Canadian Living) was a great way for me to adventure into the world of pureed vegetable soups.  It was super easy to make, and involved me using my roommate Natalie’s fantastic non-stick pan (always a joy) to cook everything up.  The “cold” aspect of this soup made it especially enjoyable, since we’ve been experiencing an unusual beginning of September heat wave lately.  Since I was far too cheap to buy the fresh peas required for this recipe, I made use of one of the million bags of frozen veggies we have in our freezer.  Due to this handy and large supply of frozen peas, this entire meal cost a grand total of…wait for it…$0 to make!

Also, these cheddar buttermilk biscuitswere amazing and so easy to make.  Although I had a terrible encounter with biscuit-making when I was young (something involving me using baking soda instead of powder…), every batch since has worked out swimmingly.  I definitely recommend these for a fast supper accompaniment.

Something learned from this dinner: Green onions are somehow related to chives.  Since I couldn’t find chives at the grocery store, three different people informed me that I could use green onions as an alternative.  Who knew?

PS: Sorry to Canadian Living for renaming both recipes, there was no way I could include the word “chives” in the name if they contained no chives.  I absolutely refuse to false advertise.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cake

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

For as long as I can remember my mom has been making this cake.  This was the dessert that, when I was young, kept me sneaking into the kitchen to trim the slightest of pieces off the cake, hoping she wouldn’t notice and somehow punish me with her evil dietician ways (kind of like this time I tried to masking tape shut a bag of chocolates, but that’s a whole other story…).

For any students who may read my blog, this chocolate chip cake is actually the most easy dessert in the world.  If you’re ever having any sort of guests over, or just wanting to plain out spoil yourself, this cake is decadent, moist and delicious – the perfect fix for both chocolate and cake cravings alike.  As an added bonus, any leftovers (hmmph, yeah right) also freeze wonderfully, and can be pulled out of the freezer last minute to stifle any midnight sugar cravings.

The three pictures you see below were again taken on the deck of my Sudbury home.  It’s quite different than taking pictures on my shaded Ottawa patio, and I was happy to have the bright evening light photograph in my favour.

Since this is a recipe that requires typing, I’ll post it right under the pictures!  Also, wondering where the hell you’re going to get a bundt pan?  Try rummage sales (where I got my vintage forrest green one) or Value Village.  Always an adventure.

Recipe
– 1 cup melted butter (or half butter, half margarine)
– 2 eggs
– 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
– 1 cup of sour cream
– 2 tablespoons of milk
– 1 tablespoon of vanilla
– 2 cups of flour
– 2 teaspoons of baking powder
– 1 teaspoon of baking soda
– 1 cup of chocolate chips

Blend ingredients together well.  Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and cake springs back when touched.

Voila (wasn’t that easy?)… bon appetit!