Now, when I’m making somewhat elaborate dinners I like to prepare things ahead of time and get all my ingredients ready so I’m not scrambling around looking for the white wine while the garlic burns in a pan. First, I sliced the pork loin and laid it out on a piece of plastic wrap. For a video on how to butterfly a pork loin go here. Next, on another piece of plastic wrap, I made a lattice with the bacon by first laying down six strips vertically and then lacing bacon horizontally through the strips. The other thing I made several hours ahead of time was the creme brulee as that needed to chill in the fridge for at least four hours. And if you’re like me and don’t own a fancy brulee torch, then remember to bring out the creme brulee to sit for a few minutes at room temperature before broiling it in the oven.

Ok, Ingredients:

Stuffed Mushrooms:

6 to 8 white mushrooms

oil, I used canola

about 6 cloves of garlic, more or less depending on your taste

1 8oz pkg of cream cheese, softened

about 3tbsp Parmesan cheese

fresh ground pepper, to taste

cayenne pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Carefully remove the stems from the mushrooms but don’t throw them away – finely chop the stems and set aside. Mince the garlic and heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Throw the garlic and mushroom stems into the oil and cook for about 5 minutes and remove from heat. Add the cream cheese to the pan and stir until smooth and then add the Parmesan cheese, ground pepper, and cayenne pepper. With a small spoon, stuff each mushroom with the filling – there will be a lot of filling, don’t worry, the rest will be in the pork. Dab a bit of softened butter on the bottom of the mushrooms and place them on a baking sheet. Pop the mushrooms in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until juices are flowing.

Pork Loin:

I used a 760g/1.6lb pork loin

approx 12-16 strips of bacon

Leftover cream cheese filling from stuffed mushrooms

Kitchen twine

A generous splash of Guinness to keep the pork moist while cooking.

Turn oven heat up to about 400F. With the pork all ready to go, all you need to do is spread the cream cheese mixture over the top and then roll it and tie it with string. Place the pork in the centre of the bacon lattice and with the help of the plastic wrap, carefully cover the pork and press the bacon down. Place it in a baking pan (one preferably with a lid) pour some Guinness around the sides and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes to an hour. You can remove the lid halfway through, depending on how brown you want your bacon to be. I think we may have overcooked our pork – the bacon was a little crispy but the meat was amazing inside.

The sides:

2 russet potatoes, unpeeled, washed, and quartered

a bunch of asparagus – sadly our local store did not have artichokes

Hollandaise sauce

While the pork is doing its thing in the oven, boil the potatoes. And while that’s happening you can make the Hollandaise sauce. I would rather just tell you to Google Hollandaise sauce because one recipe and instruction may work for one person but it may not for another. The first and only time I successfully made Hollandaise sauce I used Laura Calder’s recipe but when Jay tried it, he wasn’t as successful. Last night, he used Julia Child’s version and the sauce turned out really well. In Jay’s opinion, it helps if you have another person reading out step by step instructions while you work on the sauce.

For the asparagus, place the stalks in a steamer basket and then over the simmering pot of potatoes. When the pork is ready to be cut, the potatoes will be ready and so will the asparagus as the stalks only need about 5 minutes or so to steam.

Creme Brulee:

For recipe and ingredients go here. As I mentioned before, I don’t have a torch so I used the broiler to burn the sugar coating. Unfortunately my broiler takes FOREVER to heat up and time was a-wastin’ so the sugar did not fully melt and did not have that crackly effect. However, the custard…oh the custard. Please make this. You don’t even really need the crackly sugar on top – the custard is like heaven in a ramekin.

This turned out to be a happy coma-inducing dinner where all we could do was say, “Wow, that was amazing.”

And in case you’re wondering – the non-alcoholic wine tasted like almost unsweetened grape juice. Oh the sacrifices we make.

Tonight’s dinner came from The Pampered Chef website because I seem to have a new found obsession with their products and recipes. For the BBQ sauce I simply Googled “BBQ sauce recipe” and I came across one on chow.com. Recipe is here and it is super tasty. The meatloaf recipe can be found here.

Even though I didn’t make the full amount of BBQ as shown on the recipe I still have plenty left over. I’m hoping to use the rest this week…perhaps some succulent ribs?

I absolutely love this loaf pan – I didn’t have to spray or coat it with oil, just shaped the meat into a loaf and baked.

This meatloaf was incredible – full of flavour and juicy. I paired it with pesto mashed potatoes from a previous entry.

For dessert I made a Chocolate Almond Cheesecake, as well, from The Pampered Chef website and the recipe can be found here. The spring form pan is awesome. The pans I had before were of much lesser quality but this one was so worth getting. My cheesecakes don’t stick and I don’t need to grease the sides.

This cheesecake was rich and silky. The almond extract is such a good combination with chocolate. In this recipe it says to use semi-sweet chocolate but I may try it with dark chocolate next time. I’m not a big fan of decorating cheesecake with whipped cream so I left it naked – it’s that good on its own. But you can also sprinkle some almond slices for a nice crunchy texture.

Today has been perfectly gloomy and rainy. I say perfectly because it’s exactly the kind of weather that makes me crave something warm and comforting and I found just the thing inside my blue notebook – Ginger Spice Cookies.

Some times I have no idea where I got the recipe cut out from but in this case I owe my gratification to a Karla Cogghe of Chatham, Ontario, who submitted her grandmother’s recipe for these cookies to Chatelaine magazine.

These cookies are incredibly easy and quick to make and are ready in a flash – or it seemed that way to me because before I knew it I was popping a warm and soft cookie into my mouth. The outer layer has a delicate crunch and inside is soft and almost chewy. Once the cookies have cooled they are little more crunchy. The cut out explains that Karla found her grandmother’s version of these cookies to be a bit too spicy for her (cloves and ginger) so she played around with the ingredients until she found the right formula. There was enough spice in the cookies but I think next time I make these I may add a bit more to give it an extra kick.

Makes about 30 to 35 cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 cup vegetable oil – I used safflower

1/4 cup molasses

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt and set aside. In a large bowl whisk the egg. Mix in the oil and molasses and then mix in the brown sugar until smooth. Add the flour mixture bit by bit until you have a nice sturdy dough. Put the granulated sugar in a bowl. Form tbsp sized balls with the dough and roll them in the granulated sugar. Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350F for 7 to 10 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until cookies start to crack.

And wow! I am never using another recipe for (baked) cheesecake again. That is how good it is.

The recipe can be found here. My slight modification was that I added about a tea spoon of my own pumpkin pie spice mix as I used the leftover apples from my Mini Apple Pies for the cheesecake topping. The combination of spiced apples and cheesecake was divine. I’m now remembering a while back I made a lemon bars recipe that came with my old Pampered Chef stone baker and if I remember correctly those turned out quite amazing as well. If all their recipes are this awesome I need to try them all out! Of course, I will let you all know how the recipes turn out.

I better not step on a scale though.

I used to feel that making apple pie was extremely difficult and delicate work. Difficult because you have to thinly slice a billion apples, and delicate because you absolutely cannot let the butter get warm. I’ve made really good apple pies in the past and also ones that come out with a crust that feels like wet sand.

Yesterday I was close to getting that wet sand texture but luckily the crust turned out well if a tad too soft on the sides. The filling was perfect and the apple sauce delectably sweet and gooey.

For the crust I used Julia Child’s recipe for sweet short paste from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. For the filling I used royal gala apples of varying sizes (they were organic and a bit on the small side). Most recipes will say to use tart apples like granny smith but I’ve used all kinds of apple varieties and they’ve all worked.

For the filling:

6 apples of your choice

the juice of half a lemon – about 2 tbsp

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon – I used a pumpkin pie spice mixture, which I found here.

Peel and core the apples and then thinly slice. In a bowl toss the apples with the lemon juice. In a separate bowl combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add the dry mix to the apples and toss until everything is coated. I let this mixture sit in the fridge overnight but it’s also good to use after an hour or two. See my note about a sauce at the bottom of this post.

For the crust:

2/3 cup flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

4 tbsp chilled butter and 1 1/2 tbsp chilled vegetable shortening (I didn’t have shortening so I used butter). The butter should be cut into 1/2 inch bits.

2 1/2 to 3 tbsp cold water.

This recipe is good for an 8 inch tart shell.

After cutting the butter I would strongly suggest placing the cut pieces back in the fridge for several minutes as the warmth from your hands may cause the butter to soften too much.

Mix together all ingredients except the water. Quickly break apart the butter with the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like tiny peas. Add the water little by little (make sure it’s ice cold) and rapidly blend together until you have a mass of dough. Add more water if the dough is too dry. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Next, place the dough on a lightly floured counter to knead. Use the heel of your hand (not the palm, as Julia explains is too warm) and rapidly press the dough down in small amounts and away from you, making streaks across the counter. With a spatula or scraper gather the dough into a mass and quickly form into a ball. Wrap in wax paper and place it in the fridge for about 2 hours or overnight.

Another thing I’m not entirely fond of is rolling dough. I always seem to break the dough or it’s too sticky and most of it ends up smeared everywhere. When I brought out my ball of dough it felt almost rock hard but I followed Julia’s suggestion to hammer it with the rolling pin to soften it a bit. Next knead it into a fairly flat circle making sure it’s just soft enough that it won’t crack when you roll it out. Sprinkle flour over the dough and on your rolling pin then start from the centre and roll out away from you until it’s a circle about an 1/8 of an inch thick. At this point you can press the dough into your baking shell.  Fill with the apple mixture and cover with dough. I used 6oz ramekins and I had enough dough for three ramekins but I now have leftover apple filling, which I’ll be using for something else.

The baking part of this project is what I’m a little unsure of. My oven isn’t very accurate – it seems to be 15 or 20 degrees hotter than what’s on the dial. Anyway, I set the temperature to 400F and throughout the baking I turned it down to 350F and near the end to 400F again. I also checked on the pies first after 15 minutes and then every 10 minutes until the crust was golden and not soft.

If you want to make a sauce you can place the apple mixture in a strainer and collect the juices in a pan. I got about half a cup of juices out of my batch of apples. In a sauce pan I combined the juices with about a tablespoon or two of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Over medium heat I cooked the sauce until it was reduced and very thick.

With a scoop of ice cream on top and a drizzle of apple caramel sauce the pies were like a little taste of heaven that the birthday boy devoured in an instant.

About ten years ago I purchased a square stoneware baking pan from The Pampered Chef. It was my absolute favourite pan until yesterday when we welcomed the new additions. If you’ve never baked with stoneware, I strongly suggest you do as these baking pans and sheets absorb the heat and distribute it for even baking. What I also love about this product is that because you only wash it with hot water (no soap) after several uses it begins to form a somewhat greasy coating. After a while the baking pan doesn’t need to be greased prior to baking.

Once we had our bakeware out on the kitchen table I decided to immediately make use of at least one item. I chose the baking sheet to make Halloween-themed sugar cookies. The recipe comes from Joy of Baking and I recommend watching the video for some tips on making the cookies.

I baked one batch on the baking stone and one batch on my non-stick baking sheet using a Silpat. The cookies on the stone were baked to near perfection while some of the cookies on the other sheet came out half burnt on the bottom. Some were golden and some not so much. The recipe, by the way, is awesome. I left my cookies sans icing sugar as they are subtly sweet on their own.

Of course I couldn’t just stop there. We have a basket-sized amount of apples on our counter, which I’ve been wanting to use for a pie but I still haven’t replaced my broken pie plate. Luckily The Pampered Chef products each came with recipes and one of them was for Apple Oat Muffins. The recipe can be found here. Not only were the muffins fast and easy to make but they turned out amazing. The sweet cinnamon crumble on top gives each bite a little spicy crunch and the apple bits lend their natural sweetness to the mix.

These cookies are crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Filled with chewy dried cranberries and crunchy pecans, each bite is an absolute delight.

I’m not sure where I found this recipe as it was cut out from a magazine but here’s how to make one dozen cookies:

2 egg whites

1/3 cup plus 2 tsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup plus a sprinkle more of semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 tbsp pecan pieces

3 tbsp dried sweetened cranberries

In a metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water whisk together the sugar and egg whites until warm and thickened – about 5 to 10 minutes whisking often. Remove from heat and beat on high with an electric mixer until shiny and very thick. Add the cornstarch and vanilla and beat for about a minute. Gently add the chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans. (Unceremoniously) drop tbsp measures of the mixture onto a lined cookie sheet (I used a Silpat sheet) and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until the cookies are dry and golden. I got a bit worried that my cookies would burn and I took them out a little early so they didn’t turn out as golden or as dry. Don’t worry, they won’t burn. Once out of the oven let cool completely.

Nutella

Peanut butter

Banana, sliced

Sandwich bread