Our Best Bites

I may not be doing a lot of crafting these days but one thing I am doing is cooking.


I think it was January when I decided I wanted a new cook book.  I'd been cooking one new recipe a week and was tired of searching the internet all the time, I wanted to be able to open a book from my cupboard and find something new and exciting.  I looked around a bit and then I discovered the Our Best Bites website.  I cooked from there for a while until they announced they were releasing a cook book and I knew that was what I wanted.

I've cooked a bunch of recipes from the book now and there isn't one I don't love.  I thought I'd let you know what I've made and a link to the recipe's they've posted online.


Glazed-Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf
This is just as awesome as it sounds, meatloaf wrapped in bacon.  I especially love that this isn't a ketchup based meatloaf.

We served this with roasted potatoes and my favorite Oven-Roasted Balsamic Brussel Sprouts.


French Dip Sandwiches

These were so delicious and super easy.  Who would have thought to put Swiss cheese on a beef dip?  So yummy and happy I made it.


Taco Chicken

I can't stop craving these taco salads.  The chicken is crazy easy and don't you dare skip this dressing, it's incredible.  Turns a regular taco salad into so much more. Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing

Then there was the Mexican-Style Sweet Shredded Pork that is just as crave able, sadly this recipe isn't online and perhaps I shouldn't but the recipe is so good I'm giving it to you here (sorry there's no photo).

4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp onion powder
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 (10 oz) cans enchilada sauce
1 cup brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup apple juice

1. Trim visible fat from roast and sprinkle with salt, pepper, chili powder and onion powder, massage into meat.
2. Using the oil sear pork roast on all sides until golden brown
3.  While meat is searing, combine the enchilada sauce, 2/3 cup brown sugar, salsa, Worcestershire sauce, and apple juice in slow-cooker.  Add the pork, cover and cook on low for 7 hours with lid on the entire time.
4. remove pork and shred, discarding any pieces of fat.  Add the additional 1/3 cup brown sugar to slow cooker and turn heat to high.  Add shredded meat, simmer with lid off for 30 minutes.


I served this with Lime-Cilantro Rice with Pineapple

 Pico de Gallo

Tortilla chips, my favourite Cilantro-Lime Dressing and avocado.  It was incredible only I couldn't find enchilada sauce so I made my own.  I'm at my in-laws still so I used the chilli powder that I found and it turned out to be insanely spicy.  I look forward to the next, toned down version.


Last there are the recipes that aren't in the book that I won't share with you:
Italian Chicken and Vegetable Skewers
Spinach-Chicken Stromboli  (oh man I loved this)
Oven-Roasted Broccoli


These are just a sampling of the yummy recipes found in the book, there are still a bunch more I'm excited to make.  It's awesome and I highly recommend it, you should buy a copy.

Angel Food Cake Conquered

I like to think that I'm an above average cook.  I like to eat good food so I like to cook good food, there are very few recipes that intimidate me and I'm not afraid of complicated ones.  There are however two foods that history has proven I can not cook, angel food cake and shortbread.  We'll talk about the cake today and the shortbead some other day.A few years ago I decided I wanted to make an angel food cake since I hadn't ever done it before.  I found a Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake recipe from Martha Stewart that looked delicious so I made it.  The process seemed just fine and I looked forward to the finished product only when I pulled it out of the oven it was super thin and dense.  I'm not used to cooking failures so it wasn't too long before I tried again with the very same result, a very thin, flat, dense cake.  Not what I was hoping for.  I can't remember if I tried a third time or not but I never succeeded so I got rid of my pan and resolved to buy them pre-made in the future.  That was at least 4 years ago and I've never made one since.Flash forward to last week when I made Creme Brulee with a friend, we made two batches so we ended up with 12 egg yolks (they were delicious by the way), that just happens to be the perfect amount for angel food cake so I figured I'd give it a go.I borrowed a pan from my Mom and used a regular recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook and I won!  This cake was delicious.  It was slightly dense and I would have preferred a tad less almond extract but otherwise it was a success.

Despite my success I'll be returning the pan and I won't be making another any time soon, I'm still just as happy with store bought cakes but it's nice to know I overcame my failure.  

One day I'll work on the shortbread.

Balsamic Brussel Sprouts

Not too long ago Brad went to donate blood and they wouldn't let him because his iron was too low.  He's donated lots of times and never had a problem so before we resorted to a pill we decided to add some iron to our diet.  He eats a lot of Shreddies and our green vegetables and red meat have really increased.  I saw this recipe a while ago and now that we needed some iron this was the perfect time to make them.

Now let's be reasonable, if you don't like brussel sprouts then this recipe is not going to change your mind but if you love them like I do then be prepared for a new favourite preparation.


I won't give you the full recipe because you should go to Our Best Bites to find it but it's super easy and involves 5 ingredients: olive oil, garlic, pepper and balsamic vinegar (and brussel sprouts of course).  You should make them this week and add a little iron to your diet in the process.

(photo from Our Best Bites)

About New Food Friday

You probably didn't notice that last week there was no New Food Friday.  

I've decided I don't want to blog about it anymore, I still make a new recipe every week but I didn't like that I was sharing these mediocre recipes and adding them to my recipe tab.  I want to give you awesome recipes, not the so-so ones. I want you to be able to click on my recipe page and feel confidant that anything on that page would be delicious and successful.  I'll still post recipes occasionally when I find great ones but I'm going to leave it at that.

I still encourage you to make a new recipe a week though, you may be surprised at the deliciousness you can discover.

Valentines Day Food

Updates to my blog lately would have you believe I've done hardly anything lately and the little I have done has been food related.  This isn't true at all though.  I've been sewing like a mad woman, obsessively working on a project that I'm so proud of, I can easily call it my best work yet (it also happens to be the most frustrating project yet).  I've also sewn a second project though both of these are gifts so they can't be posted until I give them, which will be soon.

Since I can't post the awesomeness I'll just keep to what I've been posting lately, food.

For Valentines Day I did what so many other women have done and made my darling a heart shaped pizza, complete with heart pepperoni.  

I've seen this done so often it almost seemed mundane but I forgot the important thing, Brad doesn't read all the crafty blogs and he hasn't ever seen this done.  He was very impressed and it was extra delicious.  I also made some bread sticks that were a letdown

and the most incredible cheesecake pops.

I expected them to be delicious but wasn't quite prepared for just how much I'd love them.  I dipped them in chocolate and then in graham cracker crumbs, toasted pecans, skor bits or drizzled with white chocolate.  They knocked our socks off and I can't wait to eat more of them tomorrow.

My best best friend Brad bought me some lovely tulips and dark chocolate covered almonds.  We celebrated the day with hockey and sewing, something for both of us.

It was a delicious day and you can bet you'll see cheesecake pops again.

Cheese Face

I always think that people posting food pictures of their kids is gross, yet somehow it's not so gross when it's my own.

I'll understand when you don't appreciate the cheese mustache but it makes me smile.
And just try not to love those bottom teeth!

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Recently Catie has been a sick girl.  She was throwing up a lot and so in an effort to help her stomach we stopped with solid food, it's only been recently that I restarted and each time I've been reminded just how fun it is to share our dinners with Catie.

So far I've discovered that she loves tomatoes and the orange was a big hit too.  She doesn't care too much about cheese but yogurt is yummy.

Tonight we has Spaghetti & Meatballs, though messy it was by far the most fun.

She also loves to drink from a cup like a big girl

Yum!

I haven't talked about any sort of food on the blog for a while but we had such an amazing dinner last night it's all I can think about.

A couple months ago, in the summer, I had these amazing pulled pork tacos and it created a desire for more delicious pork so I bought a roast, threw it in the slow cooker with some store bought sauce.  When it was done I shredded it and piled it on yummy buns.  It tasted just how it's described, like pork with some store bought sauce thrown on it, nothing special and I was unsatisfied.  The taste was very generic and it could easily have been beef.  Luckily since it had been a big roast I'd only cooked half, meaning I still had another to try again and I was determined to have better results.

This time I scouted out some recipes and found one that included a spice rub, some searing and a homemade sauce.  I figured if I was going to do this I'd do it right so I'd also make a homemade coleslaw to go with it.  I had serious doubts about the coleslaw, the main ingredients where cider vinegar and mustard and we're not huge fans of either but I thought it would go well with the pork rub and sauce so I made it anyway thinking it contained only cheap ingredients and we could toss it if we hated it.

So I rubbed, seared and cooked.  I chopped, whisked and stirred.  We were pretty unsure about the slaw but I didn't want to go halfway so I loaded our buns with lots of yummy pork and topped it generously with the slaw.  What an incredible meal!  The mustard and vinegar were a perfect compliment to the slightly sweet pork and we raved numerous times throughout the meal.  Today's lunch of leftovers was just as good.

My only complaint is that the pork really didn't shred well, I ended up cutting it instead.  The recipe called for cooking in the oven, next time I'd use the slow cooker.

Have I made you hungry yet?  Make your own, it was worth it!
L

Entertaining

Today I got to use one of the features on our oven, the delayed start.

Catie was blessed today so family came to visit and we were providing lunch after church. We wanted it to be ready right when we got home so we put the potatoes in the oven before we left, set the timer and off we went.

I made sure we practiced multiple times because I've heard so many stories of the oven not turning on, luckily this wasn't a problem we encountered. The house smelled so yummy when we came home and we had piping hot potatoes... yay for fancy ovens!
L

Noodle Soup

The other day as an attempt at some sort of normal dinner (I haven't really been cooking so much since Catie came) I whipped up some chicken noodle soup and biscuits. This is normally a meal that Brad and I really enjoy but something about this batch was off and I couldn't put my finger on it. It took me two days to realize that I'd forgotten to put in the chicken! Our noodle soup was very boring and I think the lack of sleep is affecting my brain :)
L

Chocolate

I'd suspected it was true but today I actually confirmed it... chocolate gives me heartburn.

I'm not impressed
L

Birthday Wishes for Me

I'm 28 today and I'm not really happy about it (I don't think this bodes well for when I turn 30).

I'm surprised it took me this long to think of it but what better way for me to enjoy a birthday than with a yummy cupcake. There's pretty much nothing that could stop me from heading down to Bliss & Co. at lunch and eating a super yummy cupcake (maybe two)
L

Writers Block

I realize all has been quite around here for a while but I seem to be suffering from a serious case of writer’s block. Nothing inspires me, nothing seems blog worthy.

As an effort to end the block I’m pressing through and dedicating yet another post to the cupcake. I have this weakness for cupcakes, they’re so yummy and pretty and fun to make and they always brighten my day. I’m pretty sure my like has turned into an obsession. I just added another cupcake blog to my Google Reader which brings the total cupcake blogs up to 6. That’s 6 blogs dedicated entirely to cupcakes that I follow, it’s a bit much. I’ll just convince me that I don’t need to follow another when I get inspired with something that looks incredible, like these Peanut Butter Brownie Cups, let’s see if I get around to making these in time to take them to the lake.
L

What Kind of Cupcake are you?

This seemed appropriate after my latest cupcake post.

You Are a Vanilla Cupcake

You are very sweet and mellow. You are easy going and easy to like. You are drawn to those stronger personalities. You get along with powerful people. You are like a cupcake because you appeal to almost every type of person. You are friendly and accepting. You bring out other people's best qualities.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

Cotton Candy Fail

I saw a recipe not too long ago for Cotton Candy Cupcakes and thought it sounded amazing. I love cotton candy ice cream so how can you go wrong with a cupcake version. For flavouring all they did was throw handfuls of cotton candy into their icing but I figured I could do better than that.

First hurdle, where do you get cotton candy in May? After a surprisingly low amount of looking it turns out you can buy small bags of it at Superstore, good thing I was paying attention that day.

So here was my brilliant plan, take a bunch of cotton candy and dissolve it in water and then reduce it down to a thick syrup to concentrate the flavour. Then add that to my icing for yummy cotton candy goodness.

Sadly it did not turn out as well as I had imagined… I followed the plan, boiled the liquid until it was a thick (brown) syrup and then added it to the icing. I gave it a taste, fully expecting carnival yummy-ness… what did I actually get? Buttercream. Ugly, brown, yet tasty buttercream icing. I still had more cotton candy so I threw some pieces in hoping it would help but sadly no, in the end it was still just brown buttercream. It was time to make the best out of bad experiment so I coloured the icing pink and blue and swirled it together on top the cupcake, I garnished with more cotton candy (which today is all shrivelled and crusty) and called them done.

Work will be happy to eat them even if they don’t taste a thing like cotton candy and they sure are pretty.

My next attempt will involve finding cotton candy flavouring on-line.
L

Craving #3

It's interesting how these cravings pop up… at some random moment I'll have a thought, "I've got to have some candy". Or "Chicken wings would be perfect right now". I wasn't even thinking about food at the time and then all of a sudden my head (stomach?) wants these very specific foods. Well craving #3 has appeared and it's no less weird than the other two, right now it's all about Pop Tarts. Remember how they used to be so yummy fresh from the toaster, how the icing would burn your mouth and the filling would be sweet and warm, well they're just as good as you remember so go out, buy a box and enjoy.

I've started on Strawberry and plan on moving to S'mores later this week.
L

(as I was looking for a suitable photo of Pop Tarts I came across this... homemade Pop Tarts... they look yummy and someone should make me some because it sure won't be me)

Second Lunch

I think I've started to notice an increase in my appetite... today my lunch just wasn't enough so I'm now working on second lunch.

Time to brown bag a little extra.
L

My Weight in Wings

My sister told me once that in her last pregnancy she gained an especially large amount of weight because all food tasted so delicious, she didn't eat anything for 9 months that she didn’t love.

Well I seem to have a touch of that. After our softball game last week we went out for 1 cent ribs. Ribs and I don't get along, we have an unhappy past and wings have never seemed worth the effort but being a good sport I ordered a plate of ribs and Brad ordered some wings. I've never tasted more delicious wings and those ribs were amazing. I've been dreaming about them all day and night and I've got to get more!

Monday night is cheap wings night… who's in?
L

Baking Discovery

I'm so proud and willing to tell everyone…

I would never have even thought about making them, who does? But I came across an article with a recipe for making your own bagels. It sounded fun to try so I whipped up a batch; and they were so amazing I made a second batch the next day.

I just discovered that pretty much nothing beats a fresh bagel still warm from the oven and proceeded to eat three from that first batch. My second batch was even just about as lovely as the picture below.

I'm posting a link to the recipe so you too can make your very own homemade bagels.
L

Calzones

The Wiebe's have a tradition, for birthday's we all get together and have dinner. Sometimes we have lasagna, or burgers. Or we've had beef on a bun or hoagie sandwiches but by far our most successful and crowd pleasing dinner was on Sunday afternoon.

Lisa had the brilliant idea to have us all make our own individual Calzones. My Mother-in-law and I made a ton of pizza dough and then I rolled it out into 10" round circles. Everyone brought their favorite topping and there was lots of cheese.

Everything was lined up on the counter and the assembly began. It wasn't the quickest meal as you had to wait for them to cook and there's enough of us that they definitely don't all fit in the oven at once but I think everyone was thrilled with their pizza and was completely satisfied. Hopefully we'll repeat this awesome meal.

There was one downside to the meal… my pizza dough was the last batch of dough my bread machine will ever make. It's been making not great noises when I use it lately and this last time was definitely worse. When I picked up the dough to see what was going on 3 pieces of the motor came with it, it's definitely dead. I suppose this is the encouragement I needed to start using my Kitchenaid.
L