Tag Archives: recipe

Skor and chocolate chip biscotti – it’s my 2nd anniversary!

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Skor and chocolate chip biscotti

I can’t believe two years have passed since I wrote my first post. It’s a riot to scroll through the first few months. Those posts took me hours to create. Ralph used to hear me yelling at the computer screen after I deleted finished work because I would forget to hit the ‘save’ button. The day I topped fifty views was over the top. I couldn’t believe anyone besides my family would be interested in the musings of a fifty year old woman suffering from separation anxiety. For those of you who are new to my life, I started writing ‘bite by michelle’ just after my third daughter left home. The girls love to cook so I started telling them stories about our family via my blog and then attaching a recipe with it. Retelling the stories of our lives, helped me to see the joy in my life instead of focusing on the emptiness I felt after they had left home.

Two years later, I’ve settled into a this new phase of my life and although I still miss my girls, I’m having a ball. Thank you so much for taking this journey with me. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Skor and chocolate chip biscotti

Skor and Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Preheat oven to 350* F

2 cups flour
½ cups good-quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup Skor baking bits
½ cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy add eggs and beat well

Gradually blend in the dry ingredients, then mix in the Skor bits and the chocolate chips until the dough holds together.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into two logs the length of the baking sheet. Transfer the logs onto the baking sheet, evenly spaced apart.

Gently flatten the tops of the logs and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and cool 10 minutes.

Reduce oven heat to 300*F

On a cutting board, use a serrated bread knife to cut the cookies into 1/2-inches slices. Lay the cookies cut side down on baking sheets and return to the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, turning the baking sheet midway during baking. I stood mine up which is why they look a little funky. Unlike my other biscotti recipes, this one has butter which makes a softer dough.

Cool the cookies completely on a cooling rack then store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

THE LOVE: Try to get your hands on some really great cocoa - ‘Dutch processed’ if possible. It makes a huge difference!

printable copy

Skor and chocolate chip biscotti

one year ago: asparagus and Portobello mushroom tart

two years ago: fresh tomato salsa

Thanks for reading

blue cheese biscuits for a Maritime kitchen party

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blue cheese biscuits

This is an invitation to a Maritime Kitchen party:

“Having informal night at … tomorrow night!!! (Saturday night chili recipes are being featured!!) Friends are passing thru from Cape Breton. Love to see everyone … more the merrier!!! Drop over after 6:30ish!!! Bring a musical instrument if you are so inclined!! What to bring… 1. Whatever you wish to drink, but then I’ll have beer, wine too. 2.A choice of an app, biscuits or corn bread that will complement chili and Bob’s beans, or dessert, But it’s optional!! Don’t stress yourself.. enjoy your day!!3. A musical instrument if you play. But I do have a piano and spoons!!4. And if you wish to bring friends that’s great too! Just want a gathering of good peeps!! Cheerio!!”

blue cheese biscuits

The note showed up in my Inbox Friday morning. An impromptu, casual, last minute pot luck for neighbours and friends to spend the evening talking about everything from politics to trying to name our future pup. We’d only made it to the ‘c’s before one of my friends lost his mind. Not everybody finds puppy naming stimulating…

blue cheese bicuits

In typical east coast style, we had enough food to sink a ship! There were sixteen people to eat a huge pot of vegetarian chili, another of spicy ground turkey chili, a pork and garbanzo bean creation, two honking loaves of molasses cornbread, buttermilk biscuits and my blue cheese biscuits. All to be washed down with the odd bottle of wine or beer!

We cozied in for the evening telling tall tales and lies in true Maritime fashion. I loved it!

blue cheese biscuits

Flaky Blue Cheese Tea Biscuits

Preheat oven 425*F

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons white sugar
½ cup cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
1 ½ cups heavy cream

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together into a medium bowl

Add butter and cheese to bowl then, using a pastry cutter, cut into flour mixture until it resembles coarse oatmeal

Stir in milk…mix well and turn onto floured board

Knead lightly several turns then roll dough out to 1 ½ inch thick…cut with a sharp cutter

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet

Check at 12 minutes…tops should be golden and bottoms browned

Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack

THE LOVE: When you’re cutting out your biscuits be careful not to twist the cutter. Straight down and straight up! Twisting the dough inhibits the biscuits from their maximum raise.

printable copy

blue cheese biscuits

one year ago: coddle

Thanks for reading.

May Day Feast

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I love May Day! A day to celebrate springtime with revelry and feasts paying homage to fertility and planting. Oh to be pagan!

For your celebration today give this simple pasta dish a try – easy peasy…

Fettuccine with Spicy Seafood

serves 4

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons pesto - you can substitute a commercial pesto

1 lemon zested

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes

12 jumbo shrimp, peeled

8 large scallops, heeled

2 lbs mussels, cleaned and scrubbed

1/3 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup marinara - you can substitute a commercial sauce

Prepare fettuccine according to manufacturer

As the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pot

Add shrimp and scallops and brown on both sides – this should not take longer than 2 minutes

Remove seafood from pot and set aside

Add garlic and chillies to the pot and saute for 1 minute

Add cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes

Add white wine and pesto - stir gently to incorporate

Add mussels and cover until shells open – about 3 minutes

Return seafood to the pot with drained pasta

Toss, plate, garnish with lemon zest and serve

Thanks for reading

hope springs eternal…

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Ralph loves to capture my intense sense of fashion!

It had to have been -25*C with the Arctic gale howling across our farm on Saturday afternoon as Ralph and I played in the dirt. Dressed in long johns, ski pants, hooded sweater, down-filled winter jacket and toque, I was perfectly comfortable working away in my garden. However, I did feel like a bit of a wimp being surrounded by the adorable little faces of my lovely johnny jump ups, giggling at my ridiculous outfit. Clearly, I have to toughen up!

Our soft winter proved a bit rough on the garden. I lost rose bushes, perennials and most of my herbs. Happily, my chives are thriving. I prepared a simple pasta dish from grape tomatoes and chives – Spring is here!

Time to move away from the long cooking sauces of winter and start to explore more simple, uncomplicated dishes.

I did not want the chives to have to compete with any other aromatic vegetable. I wanted the crisp pungent flavour that only early chives produce.

Grape Tomato and Spring Chive Sauce

serves2

2 cups grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons salted butter

sea salt

Warm olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat

Add butter and heat in the olive oil until frothing

Add halved grape tomatoes and saute gently for 5 minutes

Add cooked pasta I used spaghetti directly from the pasta pot allowing a bit of the starchy water to enhance your sauce.

Sprinkle with snipped chives and toss

Divide pasta between 2 plates and season with seas salt

HAPPY SPRING!

Thank for reading

tofu sucks

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When I wrote the menu for IbN, I included a few of my family’s favorite dishes.

The first time that Sara and her boyfriend, Craig, came in for dinner he said, “it tastes like Sunday dinner at your house, except I have to pay!”

The last time that Kaitie was home, Ralph and I treated her to dinner at IbN. Her reaction was the same as Craig’s. I feel like we are at home.

My family has both enjoyed and suffered my culinary journey. Their suffering has become the stuff of legends. Whenever, something does not taste good I work on it until I get it right. I never assume that it is the recipe’s fault.

When the girls were nine years old, I experimented with tofu. For several months, I worked on every possible combination of ingredients trying to create something delicious from soybean curd.

Week after week, our suppers consisted of tofu combined with all manner of vegetable and herb combinations. My normally boisterous dinner table was glum but dutiful. Ralph and the girls would eat in silence, smile politely when finished and spend the rest of the evening trying to digest their meal.

 I would prattle on about how nutritious tofu was and “isn’t it interesting how it takes on the flavour of whatever it is combined with?”

After weeks of silence, Kaitie lost it! She slammed her little hands on the table, burst into tears and said, “it sucks!”

Ralph’s grateful admiration for her courage and her sister’s resounding squeal of agreement has become one of our family’s most beloved ‘the things Mom made us eat’ stories.

The tofu experiments ended with me trying to ingratiate myself back into their appetites with a Pavlova peace-offering.

It worked like a charm!

I prepared Pavlova at the restaurant for the first time last week. My recipe is crunchy on the outside but billowy and soft on the inside – a perfect Italian meringue. Our customers are loving it as much as my family.

I could not ask for more!

Pavlova

serves 8

preheat oven 275*F

1 cup egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with baking spray

Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form

Gradually add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beat until billowy

Add cornstarch, beat well – the mixture will have a beautiful sheen

Add vinegar and vanilla

Spread out on baking sheet making a 12 x 12 square – batter should be 2″ high

Place in oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

Cool completely and serve with whipped cream and your favorite fruit.

Thanks for reading.

White Bean Mash

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White bean mash –  I know - sounds disgusting. How does white bean paste sound? I think the problem is not so much the ‘mash’ but rather the ‘bean’. A lot of people think that they do not like beans. It’s that whole childhood memory of having to gag down a bowl of sickeningly sweet canned ‘beans in molasses’ for dinner on Saturday night with a couple of fried, shriveled hotdogs on the side…

I thought about changing mash to smash but that would indicate more effort than is required. I could have used puree, caviar, tapenade or mousse just so that I would be able to keep you interested enough to give this recipe a try, but the truth is that the beans are simply mashed.

I am asking you to trust me. This is one of the most versatile dishes in my repertoire. I use it as a garnish, veggie side, base for a fish stack, filling for small pastas and as a warm dip. Ignore the main ingredient and focus on the other flavours. The garlic, anchovies, chillies and sage catapult this dish into a  salty, spicy bite of perfection!

WHITE BEAN MASH

19 ounce can white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

7 anchovy fillets

dried red chilli flakes, to taste

1 tablespoon dried sage leaves, crushed

1 cup water

Place oil in skillet over medium heat.

Add garlic and allow it to sizzle.

Add anchovies and chillies and saute for 2 minutes.

Add white beans, sage and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat.

Simmer mixture, stirring occasionally until beans have absorbed water and are very soft.

Using a fork, mash beans until they resemble lumpy mashed potatoes.

If this is your first bite of white bean mash, spread some on a bit of grilled baguette. I bet that you will have trouble not licking the pot clean!

Thanks for reading.

Meatloaf For A Chef

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It’s a daunting thing to cook for a chef. More so if he is, arguably, the best chef in New Brunswick or perhaps even the Maritimes. The only reason that I did not have a complete meltdown is that I have done it before. Chef Axel Begner and his wife Margret are two of the most gracious guests that has ever sat at my table and we have been friends for a long time.

Actually, they did not sit at my table. We were at another friend’s home. It was a group effort. I have always wanted to cook on our mutual friend’s stove. It is an old gas range that she lovingly refers to as her ‘workhorse’. I have lusted after it for years. Sunday afternoon she kindly allowed me to have my way with it.

I prepared a grand antipasti of Tuscan artisan salamis and cheeses accompanied by a platter of roasted bell peppers with chevre and basil puree, a cold green stringbean salad in a mint and garlic vinaigrette and a crispy focaccia with rosemary and coarse sea salt.

I borrowed our ’primi’ or first course after the antipasti from Jamie Oliver. Seared scallops on smashed cannellini beans with slow-roasted vine ripe tomatoes topped with a lemony arugula salad and crispy proscuitto.

For our ‘secondi’, I prepared meatloaf. Not the 1950′s style hamburger loaf with tomato soup poured over it. Oh no - this was a combination of sirloin roast and pork shoulder freshly ground with dried fennel seeds. I added fresh herbs, eggs, soft ciabatta crumbs, garlic and onion. Rather than making a loaf, I spread it out on a baking sheet, covered it with plump sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and thick slices of creamy mozzarella then rolled it up. After roasting it, I served whole slices on pools of garlicky tomato sauce.

Uptown Meatloaf

serves 12

preheat oven 400*F

2 lbs beef sirloin, cut into 3″cubes

1 1/2 lb fatty pork shoulder, cut into 3″ cubes

2 tablespoons fennel seeds

1 medium onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups fresh good quality bread crumbs

1 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup V-8 juice

1/2 cup dry white wine

large bunch fresh basil leaves

6 ounces sun-dried tomatoes

1 lb fresh mozzarella, thickly sliced

Coarsely grind meats with fennel seeds.

In a large mixing bowl combine ground meats with eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, onion, garlic, juice, wine and seasonings.

Place mixture on a parchment lined 16″ x 12″ baking sheet.

Spread out mixture to cover parchment.

Sprinkle meat with sundried tomatoes, basil leaves and 3/4 of mozzarella.

Roll up jelly-roll fashion.

Place in meatloaf in oven and roast for 1 hour.

Top with remaining mozzarella and roast until cheese is melted and golden.

Allow meat to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with tomato sauce.

I could have completely eliminated my stress by succumbing to high-end products like raw oysters and a big prime-rib roast, to ensure success. I love both…

My hunch was that Axel would enjoy a bit of creativity.

My hunch was right!

Thanks for reading.

Home for the Holidays and brown sugar fudge

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It’s funny – when I use to picture my life it never included my children traveling home for the holidays. It was more like them running next door to borrow some wrapping paper…

A couple of nights ago, Ralph and I were invited to a neighbour’s home. Our friends have an annual winter solstice party that usually falls on the same night that Kate is traveling home. This year, she flew in a day early.

We arrived at the party en masse - Ralph, Sara, Kaitie and me. Our hostess, Debbie, welcomed the girls so warmly that they were immediately relaxed and comfortable. I was fascinated with how easily my daughters were able to interact with my friends. I watched and listened, as they engaged in conversation with people twice their age.

When the girls were little, I used to get a kick out of people telling me how adorable they were. It was a novelty having three little girls the same age! However, I did worry that my three little kittens would get caught up in their looks. I never wanted the girls to become overly concerned with their physical beauty. My mantra to them was, ‘you are an ambassador for this family -  behave kindly and treat people as you would like to be treated’. I am sure that the girls could recite this in unison!

Kate and Sara, genuinely, listened to whomever they were speaking with. The girls spoke so openly and with such generosity. It was kind of mind-blowing! I must sound kooky but it is a precious moment when you witness your little girls communicating as gracious young women. It was lovely.

I made a batch of fudge just before we left to go to the party. Old-fashioned, sugary and delicious!

I wish you peace and joy.

Enough Sugar Cookies To Pull Santa’s Sleigh

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It’s 6:15 am. I have difficulty sleeping when my daughters are traveling home. Until they walk through the front door, my heart beats a little too fast.

Everything is ready.

Gifts are wrapped and under the tree. All of my family’s favorite treats have been baked and decorated. Our home is trimmed from top to bottom. Everything is ready to welcome another Hooton family Christmas.

Years ago, my mom warned me that anything I did for the girls when they were little would be expected, for the rest of their lives. It never occurred to me that she was speaking from experience! She has baked the same birthday cake for me all of my life – I would be heart-broken, if she deviated.

The first time that I baked these ‘reindeer sugar cookies’ was five days before the twins were born. It never occurred to me that I would end up baking thousands of these little guys. My reindeer cutter has actually become a family heirloom!

As I write this post, I am facebooking with Kate while she waits for her flight! She wrote, ‘I’ll be the girl with brown curly hair, big brown eyes and the smile that matches yours…

Sugar Cookies

makes 8 dozens

4 1/2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.

Add dry ingredients alternatively with the milk.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and shape into flat disks

Wrap each disk and refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven 375*F

Roll dough out on a well floured board 1/4″ thick

Cut out shapes and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 9 minutes – do not over brown.

Cool on a wire rack then decorate.

Thanks for reading.

Cranberry Orange Sauce made on a perfect day

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I wrote this post Sunday afternoon…

Another week to enjoy the anticipation of Christmas Day. I wish time would slow down. It has taken me years to allow myself to exhale and enjoy the beauty of the season.

I loved today.

The sun was streaming in through my kitchen windows, as I puttered. The counters were piled with butter, sugar, flour and eggs waiting to be turned into Christmas treats. Some of the most beautiful choirs in the world were singing stunning arrangements of carols on my stereo. And Christie popped in for a cup of tea.

For several hours, I rolled out my daughters favorite holiday cookies and Christie ate raw cookie dough – a weird little habit of hers!

It does not sound that amazing but, to me, it was perfect.

I love the verbal shorthand that Christie and I share. She is probably the only person in the world that can follow my erratic thought patterns. We segue all over the map and never lose our step.

We have been sharing Christmas since we were 14 years old. We were not always able to be together. Geography, family commitments and misunderstandings have all played a part in whether we would see each other. Yet, here we are – so many years later – on a perfect winter’s day, one week before Christmas still loving each other’s company.

Yes – today was a perfect…

I am hosting Christmas dinner this year for my family. Mom and I have switched. She will prepare our Christmas Eve dinner and I will prepare our family meal on Christmas day. It’s a bit of pressure. Mom has spoiled each of us by serving every plateful laden with the most delicious turkey dinner imaginable.

This morning I created my own cranberry and orange sauce to serve with the turkey – fingers crossed! When I made the candied orange peel, I saved the orange segments in a simple syrup so that I could use them in this recipe. I have rolled it around in my head for a couple of weeks.

Typically, most cranberry sauce recipes call for one pound of fresh cranberries, sugar, water and embellishments like orange and spices.

This is my version.

Cranberry Orange Sauce

makes 5 cups

1 lb fresh cranberries, cleaned

2 cups fresh orange segments

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.

Pour into bottles and refrigerate up to three weeks.

Thanks for reading. If you have a moment, leave a comment.

I would love to hear from you!