Cedar Planked Teriyaki Chicken

November 22, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Contrary to the image that might pop into your head when you think “Canadian winter“, on the West coast of Canada it doesn’t actually get super snowy and impossibly cold – it mostly just gets super rainy and only rather cold. This means that, among other things, it is still totally possible to grill or barbeque outside through the winter. Which explains how I found myself cooking cedar planked teriyaki chicken on the barbeque on a drizzly November day. Read the rest of this post at the SeaChange blog! 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in celebrating today in the US (or elsewhere, for that matter!) 🙂

Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Sourdough Scones

November 20, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 24 Comments

Coincidence (noun): a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance.

Serendipity (noun): good fortune; luck; the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.

Was it a coincidence or serendipity that just days after bookmarking these roasted pear and chocolate chunk scones, I discovered that the Sourdough Surprises project for this month was sourdough scones?

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One for You, One for Me

November 16, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Last weekend I made two chicken, leek and mushroom pies: one for me and Nate, and one to give to some good friends who just recently had a sweet baby boy (I also made them some Perfect Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies). They appreciated it very much, but so did I – because, while I obviously love to cook and bake, what I really love is sharing what I’ve made with people and seeing them enjoy it (or in this case, hearing about it). It’s pretty fulfilling to create something that makes other people happy, be it a piece of art, some words on a page, or a slice of chicken pie and a peanut butter cookie.

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A Visit to Merridale Estate Cidery

November 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Back in September, when the sun was still shining warmly and the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, Lynette and I went to check out Merridale Estate Cidery. It’s been on our to-do list for a few years, and by convenient coincidence, I now live literally about ten minutes away from the property. Merridale makes traditional hard cider from apples grown on the premises, and in addition to cider, they have started making other types of spirits such as vodka and fortified ciders (but more about that later). They also run a fantastic bistro (open year round) and outdoor kitchen (open in the summer) that feature their products in many of the dishes, as well as lots of other local ingredients. We showed up on a Sunday for brunch and enjoyed our meal in a sun-drenched, covered patio area. Lynette had a chicken pasty and potato-leek soup:

I had a breakfast pizza topped with local chorizo and bacon and a poached egg. It was fantastic.

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Beans, Greens & Sausage Soup

November 7, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 15 Comments

One side benefit of cooking a turkey is that you can get some great stock out of the deal. Our Thanksgiving turkey was big enough that I divided the bones for stock between my slow cooker and Dutch oven, and I managed to get 3 liters of beautiful, thick stock out of it. And where there’s stock, there’s soup.

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Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Muffins

November 3, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 17 Comments

Pumpkin spice muffins are one of those things that seem to spring up in every coffee shop and bakery on the very first day of fall. The ones I’ve had the most are the Starbucks version – not because they are the best, but because they are everywhere. The Starbucks pumpkin spice muffin is more like a pumpkin cupcake and has a cream cheese filling inside, which, while a good idea, has sort of an odd, gelatinous texture. My ideal pumpkin spice muffin – which I have been on the hunt for – is denser, warmly spiced, and has a cream cheese filling with a much more cream cheesey texture. I tried to create such a muffin last year and failed miserably, so I’m happy to say that this recipe pretty much nailed it.

Oh hai, Riley-cat!

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Brain Cupcakes for Hallowe’en

October 31, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

On Friday when a co-worker asked me if I had any plans for the “Halloweekend” (ie, this past weekend, the one when presumably everyone was going to Hallowe’en parties), I gave her a look so blank and uncomprehending that I’m sure I almost offended her. Honestly, Hallowe’en wasn’t even on my radar, other than handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. None of our friends were having parties (they were (almost literally) having babies instead!) and we live pretty far out of town, so “going out” wasn’t happening either.

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Daring Bakers: Roasted Plum Mille Feuille

October 27, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 67 Comments

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Mille feuille (aka napoleon) means “a thousand layers” in French, and is so-called because it contains three layers of puff pastry (pâté feuilleté), each containing many flaky layers, plus two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière). I’ve been wanting to make puff pastry since making croissants and danishes – the laminating process (aka rolling and folding and rolling and folding) is exactly the same, the only difference is that croissants and danishes are yeasted and puff pasty is not.

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Black Bean Brownies

October 24, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 21 Comments

These have been on my “to-make” list for a long time since first seeing the recipe on 101 Cookbooks. Black beans in brownies? How could you not be intrigued?

Once I actually read the recipe through, I realized that it included agave syrup, which I didn’t have – but I remembered seeing a version using brown sugar on Christina’s beautiful blog De La Casa. The only changes I would make to the recipe for next time are to add a little bit more sugar (I like my brownies bittersweet, but I felt these could be just a little sweeter) and to toast the pecans to keep them crunchy and enhance their flavour.

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Sourdough Grissini Twists

October 21, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 22 Comments

This has been a busy month for me, so here I am, a day late for Sourdough Surprises, with a bit of a flop. And while I’m sure these sourdough grissini twists could be perfectly lovely, mine were… not. I’m equally sure that there is nothing wrong with the recipe, but that all my issues were totally due to user error. 😉

User error and a stupid too-hot oven!

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