Hilary makes food

Much-needed baking bliss: Lemon olive oil cookies and orange-raspberry muffins

~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

As written on Thursday evening…

I was going to go to bed early tonight. I swore to myself that I was. Early these days is anything before 10:30 p.m., FYI, so that I can wake up at 6-something and listen to CBC’s morning show. I have failed to wake up before 7:20 a.m. three times this week. And tomorrow’s not looking too hot, either. Next week I’ll adapt to this full time work thing. Promise.

Anyways, how am I supposed to go to sleep when I had such an amazing evening of baking and creating things? I am on a DIY high, and no matter how tightly I shut my eyes, sleep will not come. I’ll blame the sugar – the mouthfuls of cookie batter and almond glaze that was transferred from mouth to belly this eve.

It seems as though Thursday has become my baking day. I’ve discovered that if I do not bake, I get really anxious and grumpy. Back in Ottawa I would bake at least three times a week, and it’s an activity that has been significantly cut down post-grad. No more running to the corner store in my sweatpants to buy icing sugar and cherry pie filling. Perhaps this is for the best… Anyways, my point is that baking relaxes me and makes me feel like my normal self again. Baking is something I know and am always sure of. It’s a chance to make something beautiful out of nothing, a principle that I’ll hopefully be able to apply to my journalism work over the next few months.

But enough of the personal ramble. Let’s talk food and flowers.

One half of the food-flowers super combo

I’ve wanted to make lemon cookies ever since Brittany made these delicious little cookie morsels that burst with lemony flavour. I still don’t know what recipe Britt used and, since I started making these cookies at 1 a.m. Paris time (remember? She’s on an exchange!), I figured I wouldn’t disrupt her slumber for the sake of my own personal cookie pleasure. Anywho, I used a Joy the Baker recipe because she is my favourite cookie recipe source ever. These were a little untraditional – lemon scented olive oil cookies with almond glaze. Yeah, you read that right. Olive oil. What the hell, right? Ah well, Joy knows what she’s talking about. And god knows the Greeks need me to use all the olive oil that I can.

I also made some orange-raspberry muffins.

Then, in true Hilary fashion, I had a photo shoot in my bedroom, where the 8 p.m. sun shines the brightest and my cute desk decorations serve as the perfect backdrop.

I also made a paper flower out of nine paper muffin liners. Yes, it is looped around that bottle of Marsala that I still haven’t put away. Yes, I do plan on making my own muffin liner bouquet should I ever get married. Yes, I did give this flower to my mom as a corsage. Judge. Not.

These are accompanying me to work tomorrow and shall be gifted to my hardworking, well-deserving CBC colleagues. Apparently Hilary Makes Friday Treats is baaaaaack.

Happy Thursday (well Friday now) and cheers to DIY bliss.

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Mother’s Day chicken marsala

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

</blog posts revolving around a special event>

(after the mother’s day dessert post, that is)

Now that we have that sorted out…

I have wanted to make chicken marsala since June 8, 2011. That was the day that I bought the nicely-labelled bottle of Marsala wine that you see below and used it in tiramisu cupcakes. And by “used it” I mean that I used 2 tablespoons of it.

So what does one do with a leftover bottle of Marsala wine? Given my tendency to spontaneously drink my cooking wine (#studentlife), I’m surprised this lasted through my fourth and final year of university. To be honest, I forgot about it, and it was left to rest by our collection of balsamic vinegars, sesame seed oils and a bag of mouth-burning “chilly pepper,” which doesn’t chill anything even a little bit.

I rediscovered the wine when I moved home a few weekends. I carefully wrapped the bottle in old newspaper and wedged it in my pink garbage can in the back of our moving van. My urge to make chicken marsala was re-ignited.

Note to all before I continue: My family is not the adventurous eating type. I present to you, our cast of characters…

Dad – meat and potatoes kind of guy. Grew up in Ireland, gets slightly intimidated by things that look a little unusual. Doesn’t eat chocolate. Puts ice cream on all desserts, even when you tell him not to.

Mom – dietician. Very practical with cooking. Doesn’t like buying a lot of fancy ingredients and usually sticks with her dozen or so go-to dinner recipes (which are, might I add, very good).

Younger brother Garrett – typical 18 boy. Will eat in silence even if he thinks something is good. Shrugs if it tastes nice, shrugs if it tastes bad. Likes mushrooms and plain pasta. Inherited the dislike-of-chocolate gene from my dad. Does not like lemon, but does not see the need to tell someone this until after they make a lemon tart (see next post).

It is hard to please everyone, but I decided that this minimal combination of mushrooms, chicken and pasta would pass. And it did. Thank heavens.

It was good, but I will make a few points. Do not eat this on the patio like we did. It is prone to getting cold easily (as is any food, I suppose), and is only half as tasty this way. As a food blogger/photographer I’m used to eating food cold (womp womp), but this was a little extreme. My point: serve warm. But I guess that’s a given. Moving on.

Reduce the sauce more! I got impatient. Will know for next time. Also: possibly use cilantro instead of parsley. If you swing that way.

DO NOT USE THE SODIUM-FREE CHICKEN BROTH THAT YOUR MOTHER BUYS. I get it, we have a sodium problem, but the lack of NaCl meant a lack of flavour.

There. Done.

Otherwise, it was good. Pounding chicken breasts into thin cutlets is fun, as is dredging them in flour. Ah life, it’s the simple pleasures.

PS: You want rustic-looking photos like the ones I took back in Ottawa? Well you’re not going to get ’em. Old fashioned red brick does not feature anywhere into my neighbourhood and, dear god, I think I would kill a man for a textured board of dark wood.

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Cinco de Mayo 2012: Pico de gallo guacamole and beef and black bean enchilada bake

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone.

It has been quite the two weeks since we last spoke. Since my April 27 post (womp womp), I’ve moved 489 kilometres north, transferred four years worth of personal pack-rat belongings into my high school bedroom (which I promptly redecorated and rearranged as to not seem like I was back in grade 12. More on that later), and finished the first two weeks of my post-graduation “adult” job with CBC here in town.

Whew. Now that I’ve at least partially settled in, I hope to cook more for myself and family, and blog more as a result. I’ll be the first to admit that the past two weeks have come as a bit of a life shock. One Monday I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom in my pajamas laughing at The Devil Wears Prada and the next I was waking up early and donning my three-quarter-length “adult” GAP pants. Yes, that’s how I define adulthood. By the length of my pants. Clearly I have a lot to learn.

Anyways.

Yes, as this post suggests, this meal was indeed made last Saturday, a full week from today. I am hanging my head in shame, (and simultaneously lapping up a mug of coffee, a liquid which BAM, I have become addicted to. I’m a real journalist now. FYI I also measure adulthood by the amount of coffee one must consume).

This is the first meal I made upon my glorious return, and it happened to correspond with two events: Cinco de Mayo and my dad’s birthday. I’ve informally celebrated the former ever since taking spanish in grade nine, and love the day because it gives me an excuse to sing and dance to this song while cooking (I think I link to this tune in every Mexican-style meal I make…). As for my dad’s birthday…well Tex-Mex style food is one thing my entire family can agree on. So here we are.

When scribbling out my grocery list for dinner, I was terribly worried. In Ottawa, it’s likely that all things Mexican would have been sold out/in low demand at the grocery store because all the yuppies in my neighbourhood would be having themed taco nights. Then I remembered: I live in Sudbury now. People do not care about themed holiday meals. More tortillas, jalapenos, and avocados for me!

The first two courses of the Cinco de Mayo/dad’s birthday fiesta turned out perfectly. My dad kindly volunteered to be the hand model for these photos, so long as he got to eat each styled, guacamole-filled chip. Every ounce of credit for the dip’s success goes to this brilliant Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe. She is a goddess.

Dad hand. I am of the impression that he deliberately created several blurry photos, just so I would have to re-shoot them with different chips.

Oh boy, the enchilada bake was awesome too. It didn’t collapse and sink in upon cutting, nor did my plate fall off the deck when I took the picture you see at the bottom of this post (this is actually a serious risk!!!). Tiny celebrations.

Enchilada layers, illustrated. A four-storey Tex-Mex tower

Oh right, also regarding the enchilada bake: I used a February 2012 Canadian Living recipe, but my kitchen obedience pretty much stopped there. I was worried the original ingredient amounts wouldn’t make enough, so ended up tossing in some quinoa, extra black beans and corn. All resulted in me stuffing my 8-inch casserole dish to the maximum capacity, and pressing down on the tortilla layers as saucy bits came bubbling up. BUT IT WORKED.

My dad said it was exquisite. I don’t think a knock-off Tex-Mex dinner has ever been described in such a way, but hey, I’ll take it.

Next up: A whole pile of carrot cake. And then a post about how I’ve decorated my bedroom, because, you know, I have nothing better to do except take pictures of my ceramic elephants and marble collection.

After that: Mother’s day. May is fun.

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Red lentil burgers with aioli

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

At this very moment (Sunday afternoon, 3:08 p.m.), my kitchen is a cacophony of smells. I’m studying for the final exam (Natural History of Ontario, literally a bird course (you wanna know anything about sandpipers or warblers? Come at me.) of my undergraduate degree and taking a break in between every lecture to bake/cook something. This, dear friends, is why I should not be allowed to study at home. As a result of my “study breaks” the smell of these burgers, pumpkin cupcakes, and fancy chocolate chip cookies is now wafting up my nose and into the parts of my brain that are trying to focus. Focus failure. Blog instead.

It turns out that cleaning out your cupboard provides plentiful opportunities to get creative with vegetarian burgers.

Out of all that’s left in my pantry, a huge bag of red lentils has been the most difficult to use up. I only ever put them in one thing, and that’s this spicy sweet potato peanut soup (more delicious than it sounds) that for whatever reason I’ve never blogged about. Since I went peanut soup crazy this past winter, I bought loads of red lentils to stock up. TOO MANY.

Another thing: A very upsetting thing has happened. My beautiful non-stick pan (the love of my life, second only to my bicycle) is no longer completely non-stick. I’m not sure when it happened, though it was likely sometime in between the accidental use of metallic objects on the surface and the multiple times when it has rested unclean on our stovetop, adorned with little bits of fried egg. Whatever combination of things caused it, the pan has now managed to nearly destroy quite a few things, including my should-be-flawless black bean burgers.

So I was cautious when I made these. I brushed the pan ever so lightly with a silicon brush dipped in oil. I was patient. And even after one of my burgers crumbled into two (part my fault, part the pan’s), I fixed it up gently.

When life gives you sad, broken burgers, make pictures that show-off said burger's innards

Sometimes when things fall apart, you just need to take a deep breath and put them back together again.

Making vegetarian burgers: synonymous with the lessons of life.

These were very, very good.

PS: these photos were taken in great haste. My camera battery was bleeping a threatening red and my stomach was grumbling. Sorry!

Operation Clear Cupboard: 3/4 cup red lentils, bread crumbs

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Sandwiches organized neatly: apple tuna sandwich

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

I am a completely uncreative person.

This mini sandwich series has been inspired by two things and two things only. One of those things is not a Hilary stroke of genius. Unfortunately.

Blame/credit Things Organized Neatly (awesome Tumblr) and What to Cook & How to Cook It (awesome cookbook).

Current desktop background, photos compiled from Things Organized Neatly
Best cookbook

Well now that I’ve admitted to being a shameless Internet troll and design copycat, let me introduce you to something I did think up myself: this delicious apple tuna sandwich filling. I would say it is the most delicious tuna fish sandwich that I’ve ever eaten, but I am in no way qualified to make that statement. It’s only my third ever.

Baby cans (3.5 oz) of tuna were on sale at the grocery store the other day, and, since I can’t really afford paying for groceries anymore, I stocked up. I also want to do a craft with the empty cans in the near future. Because, you know, I need more DIY stuff to hold my other stuff.

Anyways, here’s what was in this sandwich:

Cheer up, Mr. Sandwich!

– Two cans of tuna, half an apple, celery, green onions, pepper, chopped walnuts and mayonnaise

And, as if I don’t already spend enough time photographing my food once it’s done, this step-by-step, organized neatly thing is a heck of a lot more work. It involves me kicking open our screen door multiple times and nearly face planting into the porch as I perch birds-eye-view above the food. Strange stares and judgmental glances from passersby happen throughout, but I’m used to that by now (hey, at least I’m not standing on chairs anymore).

PS: I get that these photos aren’t completely step-by-step, but do you really want to be the one who takes pictures of me dicing the apple? Nope, didn’t think so.

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