♫Hey Food♫

Yes, we're still blogging. I'd blame the summertime for my lack of updating, but the weather's been downright dreary. It's just been a busy week. Nay, month!

Another move; another new kitchen!

I'd love to call this kitchen pseudo for the sake of blog integrity, but it's actually quite beautiful. We can only call it pseudo this week because it's full of unpacked boxes.

That being said? Easy peasy recipe for the night.

41/2 cups (450 g) confectioners' sugar, sifted

8-9 tbsp (120-135 ml) sweetened condensed milk

few drops of green extract or essence

few drops of green food colouring

6oz (150 g) dark cocholate

and 98% sugar.

After a solid 10 minutes of kneading the mixture, I swore to myself to designate someone else to do any kneading that's ever needed in the future. Bliss took over for the rolling part!

When we dipped the cookies in chocolate, Bliss couldn't help but recognize a fab four among us.

If I remember correctly..

[l-r] Ringo, John, Paul, George

And now, for the finale, click here to hear listen to Sesame Street's cover of "Hey Jude".

It's very fitting.

Summer Snowballs in Spring!

Well this one takes me back...we first made Summer Snowballs months and months ago. It's a really versatile recipe; you can make it as simple as you're in the mood for.

When we made it in the winter months, it was a derrivative of this recipe:

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (500 mL) sweetened shredded coconut

2 cups (500 mL) Vanilla ice cream

1 banana

1/2 cup various dessert toppings

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

Place coconut on rimmed baking sheet. Bake in centre of oven for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Cover another rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Scoop ice cream onto baking sheet in four even scoops, spacing scoops out without touching one another. Place baking sheet in freezer for 3 hours.

Roll frozen ice cream balls in toasted coconut to coat evenly. Slice banana thinly crosswise; top with your choice of dessert toppings.

Place coconut ice cream balls onto dessert plates.

***

Of course, when there's children and ice cream around, the patience level is slim to none.

However, the teamwork levels were through the roof.

The recipe intructions quickly became:

*Scoop ice cream.

*Ask everyone what toppings they want.

*Serve immediately.

Mmm, with a high emphasis on the serve immediately part!

Bliss is in the Kitchen ♫

That spring air just makes me want to..y'know..not sit around and blog, so I'm ever later than usual.

But speaking of Spring, what better way to welcome it than with smoothies.

This was really special to make, because for the first time, Bliss made a recipe all on her own!

Well, I suppose I awkwardly peeled the mango, but besides that - really proud of Bliss!

And really PLEASED with the results.

Ingredients

1 cup french vanilla/raspberry yogurt (an impromptu additive!)

1 cup pineapple/kiwi juice

1/2 banana, sliced

1 mango - peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup 2% milk (I think? Whatever was in the fridge)

2 tablespoons coconut milk

Since we did toy with the original instructions, I deem this a Blissy Original. When she names it, I will tell you what its name is.

I lament, bloggers. I cannot blog the rest. There is far too much sunshine to be absorbed.

Plenty of springtime cookin' to be had though, I shan't neglect this blog for long.

The Blog of Adventures Past.

Whoops! I took a night off from cooking.

When the weather is this beachy-keen (aaaahaha, you know I know you see what I did there. Oh, what to do with all this wit), you do not coop these boys up.

As a replacement, I wanted to share with you a a few favourites collecting e-dust.

First, my favourite piece of furniture in pseudo kitchen.

Behold.

Stunning, no? This microwave stand makes me smile, though I'm not sure if it has retired yet or not by now.

Next, my favourite little blondie that wanders the pseudo kitchen.

Sooo unbelievably sweet, my boy.

Perhaps one of the most important pictures of them all, my favourite picture of Cookie Monster:

And last but not least, my favourite completely random picture I found on Michelle's camera.

A Favorite From the Past + Cheese Scones from a B-b-b-boy!

We played with a recipe we made sometime last month. The coconut chicken chili. It's officially renamed coconut-shrimp-tofu-chili-sans-beans.

..Ok, ok, I'll work on the name.

We changed it up just a wee bit. To refresh your memory, here's the recipe (changes marked in green)

100g cubed extra firm tofu

3 cups prawns [Pretty sure we used more. T'was delightfully shrimpy. 3/4 of the bag, I think?]

1 large onion, chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper[skipped]

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

3 medium carrots, shredded with a box grater on the biggest holes [whoops! Skipped]

5 cloves garlic, minced [used a bit less, after the third heaping spoonful, spectators appeared nervous]

1 yellow pepper, Princess Sparklecaked.

Serve over hot cooked jasmine rice [used pasta this time!]

Summer is pro with Princess Sparklecake.

Her new hair clip is pro too, hey? .... :)

...I'll show you what that's for after the cooking's done.

What's next!? Cheesy scones!

We got this recipe from a friend of Jen's, and it was a lot of fun to make!

OOEY GOOEY fun, to be precise.

Ingrediants: [sic...lol]

-2 cups of Flour

-2 tbsp of White Sugar

-1 tbsp Baking Powder

-1/4 cup of Shortening

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup of Milk

-1 cup of grated Cheese, plus abit extra for top.

Steps:

Preheat Oven to 450.

1) Combine dry ingrediants in bowl. (Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder). Mix

2) Add in Shortening. Mix again XD.

3) Make a well in center of dough mixture, Add Eggs and Milk. Mix

4) Add cup of grated cheese to flour mixture. Mix briefly.

5) Pat out dough on floured surface with hands.

6) Cut into either wedges with a knife, or biscuits using top of a glass.

8) Sprinkle abit of cheese on top of cut scones/biscuits, to taste.

7) Bake for 15 minutes at 450.

My favorite part was making the "well"; a new term pour moi.

Well, second favorite. I think I speak for all of us when I say eating was the best part.

Delish!

...and I have not forgotten that I owe an explanation for the tinfoil hair decoration, so I will be back in an hour.

***

For the final reveal...here's what the tin foil was hiding:

Pink-and-purple-haired-little-monkeys!

Veggie Strogg and other adventures

I'm at risk for being an entire week late with this blog, so it must be done TONIGHT!! It seems that the more lovely the weather, the less likely I am to spend an hour hanging out with my keyboard and some e-recipes :)

Raisa's choice again for (last) Thursday. Well, sort of. Raisa chose the country, and I chose the recipe.

What country?

Russia!

Since I am a pasta nut, I chose stroganoff. Since Summer's a vegetarian...we pretty much made up a new recipe.

As long as it's pasta, says I.

INGREDIENTS

*1 pound of magical Yve's veggie ground

*freshly ground black pepper

*2 to 3 tablespoons peanut oil (hah! We used olive oil. I'm not running out for a bottle of peanut oil because "Company's Coming" tells me I need a tablespoon of it!)

*1 inner packet of onion soup and dip mix

*1/2 cup water + an additional 1 1/2 cups water as needed

*10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup

*8 oz. uncooked egg noodles (nyeh, we just used the pasta in pseudo kitchen's pantry)

*1 teaspoon olive oil for cooking noodles

*1 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS

Well, if you're Trina...your directions are to sit around and watch everyone else do the work, because I was pretty unplugged that night.

For everyone else involved:

*Get yon skillet; add olive oil, cook up the magical veggie ground.

*add the packet of onion soup/dip mix, with about a cup of water and the can of mushroom soup mix. Cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occassionally

*cook noodles while the sauce is doing it's thing. If the sauce is looking too thick, add water.

*Ask Trina why this recipe is so easy, forcing her to check the recipe again and holler "Whoops! It needs sour cream! Add one cup of sour cream!"

*Do as Trina says. >:)

*Stir it up and pour your veggie stroggy sauce over the noodles.

I looooved it. That veggie ground is magical!

--and I'll be back to edit this in an hour to explain the Russian stuffed egg on the plate.

***

Update:

Ok, it's an hour later.

Farshirovannye Yaytsa is (as far as I understand) Russian for "Stuffed Eggs".

While I did provide the recipe, Jen did the prep work! Well...ok, she did ALL the work.

INGREDIENTS!

6 hardboiled egg (I think we used 8? Jen? Was it 8?)

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon dry mustard

3 small pickles, finely chopped

"FINELY CHOPPED"???

That sounds like a job for Princess Sparklecake.

She was absent this evening. She was hanging out at Le Spa D'Cupboard @ Home.

Admiral Megatron has been stood up!? Admiral Megatron is displeased.

Life went on, much to his dismay.

DIRECTIONS:

*Peel the eggs and cut inhalf. Carefully remove the yolks and crush well.

*Mix with mayonaisse, mustard, pickles and season with salt and pepper.

*Using a spoon, fill the egg halves with the mixture

*chill until ready to serve.

Since Jen was in charge, she thought it could use some paprika. She was right.

..and if you need proof of the fact that she was right...observe the scraping of the dishes, and the interested onlookers:

Raisa's Wrap Recipe For the Win!

Mmm, I love alliterations as much as I love these wraps!

Dem's d'ingredients!

(We used Yve's veggie ground instead of beef. Raisa couldn't tell! Wee!)

Dem's d'happy boys waiting for supper, aaaaannd...

Dem's d'newest addition to pseudo kitchen! A gorgeously relevant quote! Beautiful!

This evening I learned how to manually mince ginger and garlic! ...who'd have thunk we'd ever run out of pre-minced garlic?!

Also, who'd have thunk we'd ever survive without Princess Sparklecake?

...somehow, it happened. We survived!

A colourful saute!

Instructions:

*Cut across lettuce a quarter inch from core.

Fill sink with cold water. Push lettuce up n' down until leaves separate. Gently pull the leaves away from the core one leaf @ a time. Remove leaves from water and dry on paper towels.

*In a heavy skillet, stir-fry beef (we used veggie ground and it was SUPER delish; Raisa couldn't tell the difference!) garlic and ginger for 2m.

*Add peppers, carrot and onion, stir-fry until beef (sic) is cooked and veggies are tender

*Remove from heat and add steam fried noodles; cook briefly (make sure noodles remain crunchy)

*Transfer mixture to the lettuce "wrap" that was earlier prepped. Wrap it up and enjoy!

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!!

Don't forget this sauce before you wrap it up:

Ok, now you can wrap it up.

See what I did there? Wrap it up?

See how hilarious I am with the double entendres??

...you know I'm funny.

Dem's d'final result. Seriously delicious. Everyone had seconds!

...Everyone except this sweet potato. I'm confident that that's only because she's still getting used to us :)