Pantry Organization

Yuck! Does your pantry look like this?
Here's an easy way to get organized and you'll find the stuff you're looking for quicker.
Get a box that will fit alot of your stuff in it.  I used an empty freeze pop box.

Cut a piece of material larger than the box and wrap it as you would a gift.  

Glue the material in place using a glue gun.
Now you can put your things back in the pantry in an orderly way. Use a marker to label tops of jars to easily see what's what.

If you have all your baking stuff in one box, you can take it out and put it on the counter when you're baking for easier access.

Campanelle with Broccoli Raab (Rapini), Italian Sausage & Olives

We had this dish at a friend's house over the Christmas holidays and he was nice enough to share it. 

1 lb broccoli raab (otherwise known as rapini), thick stems trimmed, leaves and florets rinsed well (you could also substitute spinach if rapini is too bitter for you)
6 oz  (2 cups) campanelle pasta
3 tbsps olive oil
3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, with casings removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 pitted Kalamata olives, quartered
2 tsp finely grated lightly packed lemon zest
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano

Bring large pot of water to a boil.  Use 1-2 tbsp of salt in the water. 

Have a bowl of ice water ready.  Add broccoli raab to the boiling water and cook until bright green, 2 minutes.  With slotted spoon transfer broccoli raab to ice water. Then drain well and squeeze out excess water. 

Return the pot of water to boil and add the pasta.  I used farfelle (bow tie) pasta here. Having added 1-2 tbsps of salt to the water before cooking rapini, the water will be sufficiently salted to properly season the pasta. Cook as to package directions and drain.

Meanwhile heat oil in a 12 inch skillet.  Add sausage and cook, stirring and breaking up until browned and almost cooked, 4-6 mins.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until garlic is lightly golden, 1 minute.  
Pour broth in pan and scrape the brown bits up.  Reduce broth by about half.

Add the broccoli raab, olives and lemon zest, cook 1-2 mins.
Add the pasta and cheese to skillet and toss together.
Taste and then season accordingly with salt if necessary.

Serves 4-5

Beef & Guinness Stew Pie

This pub-style stew pie is great with (garlic) mashed potatoes.

Makes 1 - 10 inch pie OR 1 - 9 inch deep pie

You can double the recipe and freeze one pie for later.

1 1/2 lbs (about 700 g) braising beef cut to small cubes

(I used blade roast, tried bourguignon beef once but that did not turn out  as well)

2 tbsp flour

3 tbsp canola oil

1/2 a large onion, diced

2 small carrots, diced

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup beef stock

3/4 to 1 full can Guinness beer

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Shortcrust pastry

Phyllo or puff pastry

(You'll see pictures of all variations here)

Preheat oven to 350F.  

Toss beef with 1 tbsp flour.  Heat heavy pan until very hot, then add 2 tbsps of oil and cook beef until outside is dark and caramelized. Set the seared beef aside. 

Reduce heat to medium and add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil, onions and carrots.  Sauté 2 minutes, then add garlic, bay leaves, thyme and remaining 1 tbsp flour. Add tomato paste and cook 1 minute.

Return beef to pan and pour in Guinness, beef stock and worcestershire sauce.  (Keep about 1/4 of the Guinness aside to add to stew if it seems to need it later).

Bring to a boil.  Place in oven covered with foil, but not tightly. Leave a couple of sides loose. Cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.  Check after about 1 hour as gravy will reduce.  Add the remaining Guinness (you didn't drink it did you?) if it looks like it might burn. If you drank the Guinness already you can add 1/4 cup of water  : )

When cooked, add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Use any shortcrust pastry you like for the bottom. Line pan and leave a slight overhang.  Preheat oven to 400F then blind bake for 5-10 minutes.

Now you can fill the shell with the stew. Brush the rim with either milk or whisked egg. Place a circle of puff pastry, shortcrust or phyllo on top and press the edges down. 

I have used this recipe for puff pastry from Canadian Living in the past and it's very good. http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_puff_pastry.php 

But in this picture I tried using store bought phyllo pastry. 

I laid one sheet over pie and folded the corners on top.  Then sprayed with cooking oil (Pam) and continued until I used 5 or 6 sheets of phyllo.

Brush the top with milk or egg wash and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes.

Of course you could use regular pastry for the top crust but....phyllo is so pretty : )

This is what the puff pastry version looks like.

And here's a variation. Short crust and heart cut-outs for Valentine's Day.

I hope this isn't too confusing to follow as I wanted to include some pics from all the different pastry variations.

Bailey's Caramel Fudge

This fudge is soooooo creamy !!!

I wanted a Bailey's fudge that had cream in it.  Couldn't find one, so I worked with a few recipes and came up with this.  Fiddled with the creams and added caramel spread just for fun!

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup 35% cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup 10% coffee cream
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream Liquor (plus 2 Tbsps. for later)
2 Tbsp. Log Cabin Syrup
2 Tbsp. caramel spread
2 Tbsp. butter

Butter a piece of foil, then line an 8 X 8 pan with it.  (Easier to butter the foil first)
Mix all the ingredients in a pot and cook to boiling.  Use a good sized pot so you don't boil over. Boil until it reaches 238F on a candy thermometer (softball). Remove from heat and cool to 120F.  Do not stir.  You really need to use the candy thermometer, guessing doesn't work.
Add 2 more Tbsp. of Bailey's then beat until it loses the glossy sheen.  I actually took the pot outside (in the winter) to beat it.  It started thickening pretty quickly.
Pour into the 8 X 8 pan to set.

Really......let it set.  Don't be tempted to eat it with a spoon because it will set and make lovely squares. 
Hope you like it.

This is our friend, Bayley.  No relation to Baileys : )

Souped-Up Skillet Pasta

This was one of the first recipes I ever made when I was a newlywed.  And we made it like this for years.
The other day I wanted to make it, but discovered that I didn't have any ground beef in the freezer.  So I tried it with hot Italian sausage.  This might be better than the original!

Just slice the sausage into chunks and brown.  Follow the rest of the recipe as is.  I used 1 cup of penne rigate this time.

Colorful Swirl Cookies

I found this recipe here:
http://ouritaliankitchen.blogspot.ca/2010/12/colorful-swirl-cookies.html


and it was as easy as they said it would be.  When I got to the part where you had to lift one sheet of dough up and put it on the other, I thought it would be a problem.  But chilling the dough made it stiff enough to just pick it up. Easy peasy.

Makes36

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp of food coloring of your choice(and/or 1/2 tsp of any desired extra extracts)
1 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles

1. In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars with paddle on medium until well blended.

2. Add butter in, gradually, and continue mixing. Add in vanilla extract. At this point, your dough will form a ball on your paddle.

3. Remove all your dough and divide into two equal parts. Return one portion back in to the mixer and add the food coloring and any extra extracts. I used Wilton gel food coloring in leaf green and vanilla extract for this batch. You could coordinate your colors and flavors, for example green food coloring matched with a mint extract or yellow with a lemon extract, etc. Also, if you are using liquid food coloring, you will need to add a few tbsp of flour to keep the dough from becoming too wet. Mix until the color is spread out evenly.

4. Roll out each portions of your dough, between two sheets a wax paper until is reaches about 11 x 9 inches and is 1/4 inch thick. Slide both unto a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

5. When firm, remove the top sheets of wax paper from both. Brush the uncolored vanilla dough lightly with water using a pastry brush. Then flip the colored dough onto the vanilla uncolored dough so they are stacked atop each other and even. Press the edges lightly with your fingertips to seal them together. Using a small pairing knife, trim the edges of the dough to make straight, even lines.

6. Pour out sprinkles onto a large platter and set aside. Be sure your dough is still cold, but flexible. Once it's ready, begin rolling the long side of dough into a swirl, jelly-roll style. Now, don't get nervous if the outer layer of uncolored dough tears a bit. It's no problem, just pinch and pat those tears and voila, then just keep rolling.

7. Now gently lift your dough log onto the sprinkles and roll away. Cover the log completely with your sprinkles. Wrap the colorfully decorated log in plastic wrap twice. Depending on when you want to bake the cookies, either place the wrapped dough into refrigerator for about 3-4 hours or you can put it the freezer and keep it there for up to 2 months. (If freezing, give yourself time for the dough to defrost in the fridge overnight before cutting.)

8. Slice your dough into 1/4-1/8 inch slices and bake on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes until edges are slightly golden. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to finish cooling.

Roll them up, then roll in sprinkles, slice and bake!

Next time I'm going to add chocolate to a layer.

Here's another tasty swirl cookie
http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2015/12/cinnamon-roll-cookies.html

Salted Caramel Bark

You don't need many ingredients for this recipe.

6 squares of white Baker's chocolate
1 tsp. coconut oil
some chocolate to melt
some salted caramel bits to sprinkle

Melt the white chocolate along with the coconut oil in a double boiler.

Pour into a buttered foil-lined tray.  This was an 8 X 8.
Spread out the melted chocolate.  (Not too thin)  I should have doubled this recipe.
Pop it in the fridge to set.

 In the meantime melt a bit of chocolate in a ziplok bag in a bowl of warm water.  Snip the corner of the bag off and drizzle over white chocolate.

Sprinkle salted caramel bits (from Bulk Barn) over top, tap a little to press on and set in fridge before breaking into pieces. Ya, really should have doubled this recipe.