Catering Capers

My SIL and her mom, C, have a catering business they do in addition to their day jobs. They are very popular, I can tell you, and I have eaten quite a bit of their excellent food! Last Friday, C was away in some exotic locale celebrating her birthday and Shan had an Xmas party to cater at a private home for 40 people, and she asked me to help her.

This was a big deal for me. It was going to be a very long day and an early morning for me, and I haven't had an early morning or a long day on my feet for 3.5 years, when I came down with my latest bout of MDD. My shifts at the place I bake for now are late in the morning and are very short, which is what I need because A) I always have a medication hangover in the morning that takes about 2 hours to overcome, and B) I have big issues with focus and concentration that make sticking to a task for long periods of time difficult for me. Also, I have a lot of problems maintaining physical energy for sustained periods of time. But, because I have been feeling so well these past few months, I really felt it was time to start taking on more challenges, and this catering gig with Shan was right up my alley. I was so pleased that she'd asked me to help her out!

The menu for the party consisted of appetizers and some sweets. Here is the list:

• veggies & dip
• tomato tart with a cornmeal crust
• bruschetta and crostini
• crab-stuffed mushroom caps
• beef satays with peanut dipping sauce
• yogurt marinated chicken skewers
• baked brie & candied pecans on crostini
• sushi: California rolls, smoked salmon rolls, and veggie
• chocolate cupcakes

Shan had done a lot of the prep the day before, but there was still a lot of work to be done. She picked me up at 8am on the dot and we drove to her mom's place in Castlegar to do all the other stuff.

Here are some pictures! There aren't tons because we were very busy and also it isn't, obviously, professional to be clicking away with your camera while you're at someone's house catering their party!

Here is the veggie tray I put together. We made a lemon & dill dip to go with them.

Stuffing the mushroom caps. The filling was delicious!

Tomato tarts. Yes, those are olives.

Baked Brie & candied pecans on crostini. These were fabulicious!

And these were the cupcakes! Shan made them the day before, and I did the icing and the piping, and then Shan cut up fruit to garnish the platter. These were amazing!

Full Flickr set here.

The day went very well for me. My back was very sore by early afternoon, and I did get pretty tired, too. But I took a break at about 2:30 and had something to eat, and then after that I seemed to get a second wind.

At the house - which had a gorgeous kitchen that was a pleasure to work in! - there was a lot to do, too, but it went smoothly. I did have to stand outside in the -5C weather BBQing the beef satays and the chicken skewers, but I did get to do this grilling on the host's rather lovely Weber grill, so I wasn't going to complain too much!

It was a great day! I was sore and exhausted at the end of it, but I was so pleased and proud that I had such a successful time. It was fun, too! I hope Shan asks me again sometime!

Chocolate M&M Cookies

Just to let you all know, I was away all weekend and came home to over 400 unread items in my Google reader, and due to time & energy constraints, I have deleted them all. So, if I'm not up to date on all your blogs or haven't left any comments in the last few days, that's why!

All righty! Recently, there was a customer appreciation day at the coffee shop I bake for and I was asked to make some special cookies. My boss suggested something with M&Ms, so I came up with a riff on this cookie recipe we use all the time at work. Accidentally, when purchasing the M&Ms, the person who does the grocery shopping picked up peanut M&Ms, but those are my favourite so I thought they made the cookies extra special!

Chocolate M&M Cookies

1 lb butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 cups white sugar
4 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
2 bags M&Ms (I can't remember what size they were...The ones you get in the candy aisle)

Cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave, and beat it into the butter/egg/sugar mixture. Fold in the dry ingredients. Fold in the M&Ms. Bake at 350F for 12 - 15 minutes. DON'T OVERBAKE!

Apparently, they were a hit!

Lunch at Jackson's Hole

Yet another shopping trip to Nelson last week meant yet another lunch out with Dad. This time, Dad wanted to go somewhere completely off my radar, though he had eaten there before...Years ago. He had had a great experience at Jackson's Hole with a friend way back in the mists of time (a few years ago, but other than that he couldn't specify how long it had been) and wanted to try it out again. Well, who am I to argue? Though I hadn't heard anything about it myself, I did silently acknowledge that things do change in the restaurant business from time to time, so hopefully the place was still good.

It was crap! Crap, I tell you!

The bar & grill type restaurant, located at 524 Vernon St., is located in a funky old building constructed in 1899 or thereabouts, and the interior is very cool indeed. The menu was decent, consisting of the usual lunch suspects you tend to find in a bar/grill. I had a hard time choosing, actually, but went with the BBQ Club House sandwich with fries, and my dad went with the Cajun Chicken Fajitas.

My sandwich was great - very tasty, nice bread, tangy BBQ sauce, but there was something wrong with the fries. They had a...flavour...It took me a few bites to recognize what I was tasting, only to realize it was staleness with a hint of freezer. I couldn't believe this. This place had to have a high turnover so there shouldn't be any stale fries on hand, but that was definitely what this odd flavour was. Ugh!
My dad's fajitas had several problems from my perspective, though he said the flavour was fine. For one thing, they arrived terribly presented in three different parts: the filling, a small ramekin with uninteresting and punily portioned toppings & little containers of salsa & sour cream, and then a third thingy containing the tortillas. It took up a lot of space and I have seen much more well-organized presentations of fajitas at other places. The ramekin with the toppings, as I mentioned was small and there were two problems with it. For one thing, it contained a whole bunch of olives. Now, this wouldn't ordinarily be a problem for me, but my dad detests olives, so he was trying to pawn them off on me. But when I dug in, the olives were obviously canned AND they were dried out and wrinkly - as if they'd been sitting out uncovered for a long time. They were disgusting. The second issue with the toppings was that there was no lettuce, but rather a spring mix situated underneath all the other toppings. Not practical at all. As for the filling, Dad said it tasted "all right" but it looked not very fresh and very unappealing.

So, if you're ever in Nelson, BC, give this place a miss. We won't be going back. Luckily, this is the first really bad meal Dad and I have had on our trips to Nelson, so we're doing pretty well, I think!

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #23: Cream of Chicken & Caramelized Onion Soup

I don't know exactly what inspired this recipe, although I'd been seeing some great chicken soup recipes on other blogs, and I for some reason this combination came to me. For the stock, I used, of course, one of my many chicken carcasses. It's a really simple soup to put together.

Cream of Chicken & Caramelized Onion Soup

2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 cup chicken from a roasted chicken
1 cup half & half (10%) cream
2 tsp flour
1/2 tsp ground sage
4 onions, thinly sliced & caramelized (for easy directions, see this post)
salt & pepper to taste

Bring the stock to a boil & add the chicken & sage. Whisk together the flour and cream & add to the soup. Add the onions & season. Simmer until thickened. Serve.

This was...okay...I'm not sure how I feel about it now. I ate it all, for sure, but I'm not sure I'd make this again. It was kind of a strange combination. It definitely tasted better the next day when the flavours had a chance to mellow a bit. I don't know. I wasn't super stoked on it. What do you think of the idea?

Texas Brownies

I made these at work last week for the residents' dessert. It's a really easy, really delicious recipe that makes quite a large batch. The recipe calls for a 17.5x11" jelly roll pan, but at work, I use a pan that holds about twice the amount a 9x13" pan does. This time, there were leftovers, so I actually got to try one of my own desserts for once! These were moist & lovely, and the icing was, although very sweet, had a nice texture.

Texas Brownies

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
3 1/2 unsifted icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour & sugar.

2. In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, coffee, and cocoa. Stir & bring to boil.

3. Pour boiling mixture over the flour & sugar in the bowl. Add the buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla.

4. Mix well and pour into a well-greased 17.5x11" jelly roll pan. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until done in centre.

5. Meanwhile, as the brownies bake, make the frosting. In a saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa, and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring. Mix in the powdered sugar & vanilla until very smooth.

6. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool. Makes 48 bars.

Saturday Laugh

I got this from an internet acquaintance of mine! I don't know the original source.

Magazine Monday #57: Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

I know it's not Monday, but I am going to be away on the weekend, so I want to get this MM submission published before that.

OK, this isn't technically a magazine recipe, but it did come from a magazine. I've made these shortbread squares many times and I got the recipe way back in 1998 from the Bake Fest insert that comes in the December issue of Canadian Living. I always used to look forward to the Christmas issue of CL just because of this insert, but in recent years I think it's gone down quite a bit. The recipes aren't as interesting and it's more about advertising than it used to be.

But these shortbread squares are excellent and very, very simple! I encourage you to try them. I doubled the recipe this year so I got a huge whack!

Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 squares (2 oz) semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat butter & sugar until fluffy. Sift in flour & cornstarch and beat into butter mixture until just combined.

2. In a parchment lined or well-greased 9" square pan, drop 1/2 the dough in small portions, scattering randomly. Combine chocolate with remaining dough. Drop chocolate dough between the non-chocolate dough in the pan. Press to flatten.

3. Bake @ 3o0F for about 25 minutes or until firm to the touch in the centre. Let cool & slice into squares or bars.

Dad's Roast Beast & My Yorkshire Puddings

My dad had my brother and me over for dinner the other night. We all know I have a ton of chicken carcasses hanging around my freezer, right? Well, my dad seems to collect roasts of turkey and bison instead. It must be in our blood or something! He is always complaining about his lack of freezer space because he has so many roasts! In order to help him out a bit, Jem (my brother) and I went up for dinner when my SIL was out of town on a road trip.

My dad cooks his bison roasts in a rich gravy made with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and some red wine. It's usually very delicious, and Dad makes all the fixings, too, including roasted potatoes and veggies. For this particular meal, he asked me if I could make some Yorkshire Puddings to go with the roast beast. My mom was the Yorkshire Pudding queen when we were growing up. We had it all the time. But, to be honest, I'd never made it myself before Dad's request. I found a recipe in my copy of The Essential Baking Cookbook.

Yorkshire Puddings (makes 6), adapted slightly by me

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
3 tsp vegetable oil

1. In a bowl, whisk flour & salt. Make a well in the centre and whisk in the milk. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until nice & creamy & pale. Add to the batter & mix well. Add water & whisk until large bubbles form. Cover & refrigerate for an hour.

2. Preheat oven to 425F. Pour 1/2 tsp vegetable oil in each of 6 holes of a muffin pan. Heat the pan in the oven for a few minutes, until the oil is smoking. Beat the batter again and pour into each hole, filling about 3/4 full.3. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350F and bake a further 10 minutes, until golden & puffed up. Serve immediately!Nice, eh? Here are my little puddings with my dad's lovely gravy:YUM!

I've Been Nominated for a CBA!

OH MY GOD - this little blog has been nominated for a Canadian Blog Award! I wasn't even aware of this until this morning when a long time reader of my regular blog, Sassy, left me a comment with a heads up.

So, I would love it if my readers could take a moment and follow this link to vote for my little old blog here! That would be totally cool - thank you!

And to whoever nominated me: THANK YOU!

Addendum: Once you chose a ranking, make sure you go down to the bottom of the ballot and click "vote" and you will get a confirmation.

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #22: Chicken & Rice Soup

OK, you are going to be seeing quite a few soup recipes appearing in this series now because I have quite an impressive collection of chicken carcasses littering my freezer these days, and I need to use them up before I start becoming tempted to throw them away. Plus, I bought two more whole chickens in the States a couple of weeks back - sue me - they were 98 cents/lb!!!!! - so I really need to start utilizing this stuff. So, you might all get souped-out because, trust me, I know I will be.

I do enjoy chicken & rice soup, so this is what I decided to make with one of my carcasses the other day. And it was pretty good, I must say - way better than the canned crap.

Chicken, Rice, and Lemon Soup

1 litre chicken stock using a chicken carcass
1 cup chicken breast, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup long grain rice (I used jasmine as that's what I have on hand)
freshly grated garlic, to taste
salt & pepper to taste

Bring stock to a boil, and onion & carrot. Add chicken, lemon & rice. Simmer until rice is tender. Season to taste. Add garlic & simmer a few minutes. Add cilantro last. Serve.
Seriously, it was that easy!

Lunch at Rancho Chico

Well, another cross-border shopping expedition resulted in my finding unsalted butter for $1.50/lb (I bought 4), eggs for $1.56/dozen, and 1lb Tillamook medium cheddar cheese for $4.86! Isn't that ridiculous? I feel so ripped off when I shop at home. Another trip to the States is planned for the first week of December, when we'll go overnight to Spokane, WA, and do some serious shopping with a grocery run in Colville on the way back.

As usual, we went to Rancho Chico for lunch! I was surprised it was open on a Sunday.

As usual, I had the Chicken Chimi. It's just so good!

My SIL had the Seafood Chimi, which is packed with scallops, shrimp, and REAL crab meat. I've had this several times and it's excellent!

My brother had the Macho Rancho Chilli Burrito. He said it was awesome!

Yum!

Magazine Monday # 56: Latest Article from Coyote's Kitchen

Instead of providing you all with a Magazine Monday recipe today, I thought I'd share with you my latest food column, which contains two recipes! This is my piece from the Nov./Dec. issue of Bread & Molasses magazine, a publication out of Mirimachi, New Brunswick, for which I write a bi-monthly food-related article. According to my mom, the cheese ball recipe has been lost for a long time and she was pleased to have found it. Good thing I copied it down before I moved out 15 years ago! Click to enlarge. Enjoy!

Saturday Laugh

PS: I did my 50,000 words - yay!!!!

Family Dinner: Veggie Curry & Chicken Kebabs

You might recall the wonderful gift that my good blog friend and fellow foodie Palidor sent me last month. It contained a packet of Palidor's dad's own homemade curry powder, and I thought it would be great to share this with my own family, who are quite partial to curries. My SIL, Shan, suggested a veggie curry to go with some chicken kebabs she was making, so that's what we did. The results were amazing!

Here's what I did for the veggie curry.

Veggie Curry with Palidor's Dad's Curry Powder

1 onion, sliced
1" piece of ginger, peeled & grated
several cloves of garlic
3 tomatoes, diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
a couple of cups of sliced mushrooms
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp curry powder
cilantro

1. I sauteed the onion and ginger in some olive oil until the onions were nice & soft & translucent. I then added all the other veggies and sauteed them until they cooked down. I added the curry powder and let this all cook for a bit. The fragrance rocked! Everyone's mouths were watering and we couldn't wait to try the curry!

2. Near serving time, I added the can of coconut milk & the garlic & simmered for a few minutes until we were ready to rock 'n roll. I garnished with cilantro. I had made some nice rice to go along with our meal, too. The end result:
What beautiful colour! And it tasted awesome! Everyone was totally in love with this!

Shan made chicken kebabs by marinating chicken strips in some Greek yogurt, paprika, garlic powder, and lemon. Then she threw them on the BBQ. They were great! It was a fabulous meal all around, and we even had naan to go with it.Thank you so much, Palidor, for sharing a piece of your family with me and my family! This was a great gift!

Lunch at Frisco's Seafood & Steak House

OK, here is my latest NaNoWriMo update! The end is near - and so is my 50,000 words!

My dad gets really excited when Save-on Foods in Nelson has a case-lot sale, so we recently took another trip over there, which of course, meant another lunch out! On a whim, my dad suggested we check out Nelson's Prestige Lakeside Resort, where there is a restaurant called Frisco's Steak & Seafood House. I was game, so off we went.

Frisco's is in a lovely spot, right overlooking the water and marina located at the resort. The restaurant is quite beautiful, too, with a darker but warm ambiance and a huge gas fireplace. It was pretty busy when we got there at 12:30, but the service was excellent and the place emptied out quickly as 1:00 approached. There was a hot buffet on offer, but nothing on it appealed to us, so we perused the lunch menu and found a lot to choose from.

My dad doesn't eat seafood at all, so he went with the Beef Tender Tips with Asparagus & Portabello Sizzler. He also wanted some soup (it was a chilly day) so he ordered the French Onion Prime Rib Soup. I had a tough time choosing between the Frisco's Seafood Salad and the Frisco Burger. In the end, I went with the burger with half Caesar salad and half fries.

Both of us made great choices, except Dad wasn't keen on the soup. He said it was kind of bland, not nice & rich as a French Onion should be. But he was very impressed with his Sizzler! It came out sizzling on a cast iron platter and Dad said it was really delicious.The Frisco Burger contained beer battered halibut on a sourdough bun, topped with pickle, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and tartar sauce. It was really good, but for a signature burger it was a little bit uninspired. It wasn't particularly interesting even though it was well-prepared and tasted great. The Caesar salad, on the other hand, was fabulous! This was not your typical Caesar dressing; it definitely seemed homemade and was far better than any Caesar dressing I've had in a restaurant in ages. The fries were also good. I loved the garnishes they used on our plates; you don't get that everywhere, let me tell you!Both of us were way too full to have dessert. The prices were very reasonable given the quality of the food and the portion sizes. I had a quick peek at the dinner menu and it's very fancy and has things on it like lobster dinners, Dungeness crab dinners, and very expensive steaks. I won't be having dinner there any time soon, I can tell you that, but I'd definitely go back for lunch!