Mexicali Pizza Wheel

I strongly detested this. Nothing special about it, really. I guess I just have a general dislike of Mexican food in general, after having numerous bad experiences with it. Tacos + beach volleyball tournament + hot Californian sun = not a happy Megs.

There was beans, ground beef (not a fan), peppers, and cheese (I love cheese). The dough wasn't that great, mostly because of the cornmeal the recipe called for, which I'm not too fond of.

The icky dough

The icky ground beef

I cooked it til browned

In went the tomato sauce!

Look at the pretty art on the dough

It isn't ready until the liquid had been soaked in!

Decorate that dough with your sauce and CHEESE

It looks like a sun!

All done!

So, I ended up giving most of mine away. I didn't like it. I prefer mac 'n cheese.

Field Trip

We went on a field trip to the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (PICA). We got a tour of the building and they made us a gourmet lunch! After lunch we had a demo of a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache drizzle. The dessert was so chocolatey it could've killed me.

My friend Cat and I finally found PICA after getting lost. It was a terrifying experience (not really). We took the skytrain and then bussed, but the directions weren't that great, as they said "Go nine stops" once we got on the bus, instead of telling us the name of the stop to get off at (come on, Google, get it together). Now, I have a very small attention span, so I kept on forgetting to count the stops. I then had to estimate how many stops we had passed, so we ended up getting off about four stops too early. We had to walk about three kilometers before finding the entrance to Granville Island, where PICA is located. Of course, by this time, Cat and I were feeling like lost children in the Big Apple, even though we weren't really lost and weren't in New York. We were so proud of ourselves for having found our way there after the incident of getting off the bus too early. I felt like Indiana Jones.

So we got to Granville Island and paraded around for a while. We sat on the docks and rolled down a hill and climbed a set of stairs. It was a good time. 

This is Cat, after we narrowly escaped an awkward encounter with a man who smelled a lot like skunk but it wasn't really skunk. You've got to love downtown!

We met our teacher at the doors to PICA and once everyone was assembled, we embarked on our journey to fill our stomachs. We sat down at our table with all my favourite people, and found a magnet and a pen on our place mats. Not only did PICA serve us lunch, but they gave us a pen and a magnet too! What lovely people!

A blonde lady in a fancy suit talked to us about the school for a bit, then she took us on a tour of the kitchens. We saw what the called 'The Chocolate Room' and Jackie almost had a heart attack from joy. At the end of the tour we got to walk through the actual kitchens, not just the hallways in between, and I felt like throwing up from all the overwhelming smells in there. There were so many different smells, and they were all so strong, and every time you'd take a couple of steps you'd get slammed right in the face with a new, even stronger smell. It was just too much for me. I was turned off being a cook forever right then and there. Even though I've never had the desire to be a chef before. 

Then it was lunch!

First course was a chicken salad. The chicken was probably the most delicious chicken I've ever had in my short life of 17 years. The salad was a little lacking though, it definitely needed a lot more dressing.

Then came the main course: Steak and Fries. These were the best fries I've ever had in my life! I ended up eating Cat's too because she only likes the soggy MacDonald's fries (ew, right?). 

There was a Bearnaise sauce on the steak and it was very good. The only thing I didn't eat was the mushrooms and the weird pale yellow carrot-looking vegetable.

The cheese in the tomato was really good, but for some reason the tomato tasted off.

This was the cake they made for us! She garnished it for us and we got to share the garnishes and we each got a piece of the cake. It was a three-layered cake with raspberry jam and chocolate in between each layer. It was really good. So good I just had a tiny little sliver and I was full of chocolate. 

After that, it was time to go. Cat and I almost got lost again, but I used my expert sense of direction to get us on a bus that took us to Pacific Centre and we hopped on the skytrain home. It was a lot faster than the other bus would've taken us to get back.

All in all, it was a great day. 

I highly recommend paying PICA a visit. They're food is awesome. Way better than mac 'n cheese.

Calzones

We made calzones one day, and they were great. My only problem with them was that there wasn't enough filling for the dough pockets. I liked it, and I was lucky we made them that day because I didn't bring a lunch! Jackpot!

My lovely lab assistants rolled out the dough for me.

Look how good of a job they did!

I prepared the sauce

Add that cheese in there

M for Magnificent Me

Mine's the best

A little lacking in the filling, but still great!

I think I'd prefer mac 'n cheese to this specific calzone recipe. But if you find a great one, hit me up!
604-555-1384

Doughnuts

These were so fun to make and even more fun to eat! I highly recommend you to make these. This is a super easy recipe and I can't wait to make them again and get fat.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to have a go:

7 mL fast acting yeast
100 mL lukewarm milk
30 mL white sugar
1 mL salt
1/2 an egg
20 mL shortening
310 mL all-purpose flour
30 mL margarine
125 mL icing sugar
1 mL vanilla
15 mL hot water or as needed

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast, milk, sugar, salt, egg, shortening, and 160 mL of the flour. Mix for a few minutes stirring with a wooden spoon.
3. Beat in remaining flour 50 mL at a time (3 additions), until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and cover loosely with a DAMP (not wet, or your dough will stick) tea towel.
5. Fast proof the doughnuts in a 200 degrees F oven for 15 minutes.
6. When there is 5 minutes left of proofing, melt margarine in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in icing sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water 7 mL at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Stir constantly.
7. Heat oil in an electric frying pan (or normal frying pan) to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towels. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to cool.

 

What a nice ball of dough!

My lovely assistant Steph cuts up the dough

Before the proofing!

These doughnuts are way too pasty.

That's better, they're a little tanner now!

A picture of perfection

Le glaze

THEY LOOK SO GOOD I'M GOING TO CRY

We covered some of ours in melted chocolate, and boy, was that tasty!

Aren't they good? Way better than mac 'n cheese, eh?

Garden Herb Bread

This was dang good.
I'm going to make this again and not tell my mom and hide it under my pillow so I can eat it at night and have happy dreams and I don't even care if I get fat. That's how good this was.

MAKE IT, I DARE YOU:

435 to 500 mL all-purpose flour
25 mL sugar
8 grams Quick-Rise Instant Yeast
3 mL salt
2 mL sweet basil
2 mL thyme leaf
2 mL whole rosemary, crushed
90 mL milk
60 mL water
40 mL butter or margarine
1/2 an egg

1. In a large bowl, combine 250 mL flour, the sugar, undissolved yeast, salt, basil, thyme, and rosemary.
2. Heat milk, water, and butter until very warm (120 to 130 degrees F); stir into dry ingredients.
3. Stir in egg and enough remaining flour to make soft dough.
4. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 mins.
5. Place dough in a plastic bag, place in fridge to rise. (About an hour, or you could do what we did and leave it until the next day.)
6. Remove dough from fridge. Preheat oven to 375 F. 
7. Punch down the dough. Turn it out onto a floured board and knead out all the bubbles for about 5 minutes.
8. Form the dough into a loaf by rolling the dough into a rectangle.
9. Roll the dough up like a jellyroll. Pinch seam closed. Pinch and tuck edges under the loaf. Place in a loaf pan and cover with a drying towel. Let proof in warm, draft-free place until double in size, about 30-40 minutes. 
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done, covering with foil during last 10 minutes to prevent excess browning.
11. Melt remaining butter, brush over loaf. If desired, sprinkle with additional spices.
12. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

That's a nice ball of dough.

Put that dough to bed!

Tuck that dough in so it can grow nice and strong!

 

They grow up so fast!

 

After being brushed with butter.

So you like it? Thought so. I'd eat this alongside mac 'n cheese.

Creme Puffs

Creme puffs are good, yum

But the dough didn't thicken

This always happens

That was my haiku about creme puffs. I was so excited to make them but for some reason (the universe hates us), mine and my partner's dough did not rise. So we ended up retrying it, and the same thing happened. Here's a recipe that will hopefully be better than ours.

We covered them in chocolate to attempt to hide our mistakes.

Creme puffs are yummy. You should make 'em. They're better than mac 'n cheese.

Chocolate Cream Pie

I was super excited to make these pies, but unfortunately they didn't turn out so great. For some reason, Jackie's and my filling just didn't want to thicken, so what we ended up with was basically chocolate soup in a pastry bowl with meringue topping. I would really like to make this again to see what it's actually supposed to taste like, but I have bad luck in getting fillings to thicken.

Anyways, if you want to give it a whirl, I highly suggest so! (Jordan's turned out great!)

We started out with the 'Never Fail' pastry again:
(Note that this makes two five-inch pies)

75 mL shortening
250 mL flour
3 mL salt
3 mL baking powder
25 mL beaten egg
3 mL vinegar
30 mL cold water (must be cold, so as to not activate the gluten in the flour as quickly)

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Cut in shortening (with a pastry blender, a fork, or your fingers) to the size of small peas.
3. Combine egg, vinegar, and cold water. Add all at once to the dry ingredients.
4. Stir until a stiff dough is formed.
5. Form into a ball. Do not over handle, or the pastry will become tough.
6. Chill for an hour in the fridge.
7. Once chilled, divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the two balls. The larger one should be larger than the pie plate, as it will line it. 
8. Place the large crust into the pie plate. There should be about 2 to 3 cm of excess crust hanging over the side of the pie plate.
9. The smaller dough circle will be the top to the pie. You can do the top however you like, we did lattice strips. If you are going to simply cover the pie, make sure you cut vents or a 'chimney' in the top crust, so steam can escape while cooking.
10. Use egg wash or milk on the edges of the crust, where the two crusts will meet.

We then continued to make the filling and meringue:

250 mL milk

60 mL sugar

25 mL flour

pinch of salt

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten

10 mL margarine

1 egg white

1 mL cream of tartar

25 mL sugar

30 mL cocoa 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2. Roll out half pastry. Cut into 2 circles 1" larger than the tops of 2 small pie plates. Gently ease pastry into pie plates. Fold excess dough under. Flute the edge. Line pastry shells with parchment paper. Fill with dried beans to a depth of 1".
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Remove  from oven. Set aside. Reduce oven temp to 375.
4. Scald the milk.
5. In a small pot, combine the 60 mL sugar, flour, salt. Gradually add the scalded milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
6. Cover and cook 2 mins longer, stirring occasionally.
7. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks slightly.
8. Stir a small amount of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk. Then blend the warmed egg yolk mixture into the remaining milk moisture.
9. Cook 1 min longer, stirring occasionally.
10. Remove from heat and blend in the margarine and vanilla.
11. Cool to lukewarm and pour into the baked crust.
12. Prepare meringue by beating the egg white with the cream of tartar until foamy.
13. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until very stiff and shiny.
14. Spread on lukewarm pie, covering entire surface and sealing the meringue to the crust. Swirl points.
15. Bake until tips become golden, about 12 minutes. Cool at room temperature.

Look at that beautiful meringue

Just bask in its glory

Make these. Much better than mac 'n cheese.

Spanish Tortilla Tarts

This recipe was okay, not particularly my favourite, but now I know how to make a quiche!
Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe, but here's a similar one. The recipe linked is a vegetarian one, but you can just throw in some pepperoni like we did. 

 

I would suggest that you roll the dough out thin before placing it in your muffin tin because our dough ended up much too thick. There wasn't enough filling but the filling that was in the tarts was very good.

 
I would make this recipe again as an appetizer for one of my mum's book clubs, I know the ladies there would love it more than mac 'n cheese!

Apple Pie

Usually I don't like pie (I'm not a fan of cooked fruit), but this apple pie was amazing. I think pies are definitely better when you make them yourself. Try it!

For the pastry, we used a 'Never Fail' pastry recipe:
(note: this recipe makes 1 6" pie, if you want to make a regular sized pie, I recommend doubling or tripling the entire recipe)

75 mL shortening
250 mL flour
3 mL salt
3 mL baking powder
25 mL beaten egg
3 mL vinegar
30 mL cold water (must be cold, so as to not activate the gluten in the flour as quickly)

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Cut in shortening (with a pastry blender, a fork, or your fingers) to the size of small peas.
3. Combine egg, vinegar, and cold water. Add all at once to the dry ingredients.
4. Stir until a stiff dough is formed.
5. Form into a ball. Do not over handle, or the pastry will become tough.
6. Chill for an hour in the fridge.
7. Once chilled, divide dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the two balls. The larger one should be larger than the pie plate, as it will line it. 
8. Place the large crust into the pie plate. There should be about 2 to 3 cm of excess crust hanging over the side of the pie plate.
9. The smaller dough circle will be the top to the pie. You can do the top however you like, we did lattice strips. If you are going to simply cover the pie, make sure you cut vents or a 'chimney' in the top crust, so steam can escape while cooking.
10. Use egg wash or milk on the edges of the crust, where the two crusts will meet.

We made our own filling:

5 mL | 1 tsp salt

2 apples

80 mL | 1/3 cup sugar

15 mL | 1 Tbsp cornstarch

125 mL | 1/2 cup cold water

5 mL | 1 tsp lemon juice

15 mL | 1 Tbsp margarine

0.5 mL | 1/8 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Fill a medium mixing bowl half-full with cold or ice-water. Dissolve the salt in the water.
3. Peel the apple and cut in quarters. Remove cores. Keep in salt water until all apples are finished to prevent browning.
4. In a separate small bowl, stir together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the cold water and lemon juice. Stir until well combined.
5. Rinse salt water from apple quarters and slice fairly thinly (around 1 cm thick) into a medium pot. Add ALL of the sugar/cornstarch mixture to apples in a saucepan, making sure to scrape bowl clean with a rubber spatula. Add in the cinnamon.
6. Bring JUST to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes until liquid thickens and apple slices are fork-tender. Don't stir too often, or the apples may break apart and you'll end up making apple sauce.
7. Place in the waiting crust and dot with margarine (drop bits of margarine over top of filling).
8. Place the top crust onto the pie. Make sure to egg-wash it frequently. Use the 'two thumb' technique to seal.
9. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden.

Place the filling into the crusts

All done!

This was a fabulous recipe, and I definitely will be making it again. Better than mac 'n cheese, for sure!