Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto

I'm going to go ahead and take full credit for this one : this is a Hillary original! I used to think I absolutely hated tomatoes (while loving ketchup and pizza, mind you) until I met my boyfriend. His mom's side of the family is very italian so needless to say when we met I had a choice before me : be polite and eat the tomatoes, or book a one way ticket to bad first impressionville.

I ate the tomatoes.

And they were delicious!!! I've been trying to eat twice as many to make up for lost years ever since I realized how wonderful they can be, and I've definitely become way more interested in italian cuisine. I do still like doing things my own way though, so this penne dish is what my brain came up with when I felt like creating something italian inspired. Someday I promise I'll learn how to make sauce and meatballs, stay tuned!

Arugula and Tomato Penne with Pesto  (2 servings)

Ingredients

- 2 tomatoes, diced

- 1 large onion, diced

- 1 large handful of arugula, chopped

- 1 large clove of garlic, minced

- olive oil

- 2 servings of penne (follow box serving size)

- 2 heaping tbsp of pesto

- grated parmesan (if desired)

Directions

- Boil a pot of water and put penne in to cook (12 minutes for al dente, I prefer 14)

- While pasta cooks, chop up the tomato, onion, arugula and garlic

- Toss all of these in a large pan or wok and sprinkle generously with olive oil, frying on medium heat

- Fry until onion begin to look more transparent and tomatoes have softened 

-Turn the heat down and continue to fry until pasta is done cooking, it will allow flavours to mix with each other

- Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the frying pan, along with pesto

- Mix all ingredients together on low heat

- Add a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese if desired, mixing in

- Serve

TIPS FOR QUICK EASY FOOD

1) Pick things you know go well together. In this case, pasta, tomatoes, garlic and pesto are all commonly used ingredients in italian food, so you already know you can throw them together and it'll all turn out fine. It doesn't matter if you don't know for sure, make educated guesses.

2) Don't use the oven. Anything that needs to be baked either takes forever or at the very least requires you to preheat the oven. Ovens are for long, thought out meals, not "I just got home from the gym, dear god I need sustenance NOW" meals.

3) Chop things in big chunks just because you can. It'll cook down anyway, no need to cut things into perfectly symmetrical tiny cubes. You just do you, no one's going to break out a ruler.

Heavenly Glazed Donuts

Donuts are the little fried dough balls that fell from heaven. Up until last night, it had never really occurred to me that these dreamy snacks could be made at home. However, as I was perusing the food corner of the web last night in search of inspiration, I came across this post {click here} from The Thirty Spot and decided to give it a whirl, adding in some of my own tips and tricks.

A couple observations before we start out...

Deep Fryer : Useful but not crucial to the process. I used a plain old pot half full of canola oil.

Candy thermometer : Again, useful but not necessary. Can be used to measure the temperature of your oil. I just watched the oil for when it started to look like it had what i call the "blown glass effect", when it starts to make shapes in the bottom of the pot, then i used a couple little pieces of dough that I had left as testers to make sure it was hot enough. If those are turning brown, you're golden.

Tools : DO NOT USE ANY PLASTIC SPATULAS, SLOTTED SPOONS OR OTHER INSTRUMENTS THAT WILL COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE OIL. Plastic melts, you have been warned. 

General tip : Donuts cook much faster than you'd imagine. There is no harm in continually flipping them in the oil to make sure they're not burning, it will give you a better sense of how much time they take.

When to eat :  Right away! The donuts do keep for a day or two, but because these are homemade and not stacked with preservatives, they do go stale quicker than you'd like, so don't make them too long in advance.

Heavenly Glazed Donuts (Makes approximately 24)

Ingredients:

Donuts:

- 2 packages of yeast (8g each)

- 1/4 cup of warm water

- 1 1/2 lukewarm milk (easiest way is to microwave it until it's hot then let it cool down)

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 eggs

- 1/3 cup shortening or unsalted butter

- 5 cups all purpose flour

- canola oil (make sure you have enough, as you will be frying with it and it requires a fair amount of oil)

Glaze:

- 1/3 cup butter (softened)

- 2 cups icing sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 4-6 tbsp hot water

Directions:

- Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl (feel free to mix it, mine didn't dissolve on it's own as fast as I wanted to and in this case, impatience didn't hurt my baking. So go ahead and beat it!)

- Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 2 cups of the flour.

- Beat until it's all well mixed in

- Add remaining flour and beat until smooth

- Cover and leave to rise for 50-60 minutes. The dough is ready when you can make an indentation and it stays.

- Roll out on a floured surface until dough is 1/2 an inch thick

- Cut the donuts using a large cup for the outer circle and a shot glass for the inner circle. Obviously, you may use a donut cutter if you own one, but i'm assuming most people do not.

- Cut as many as you can, then set aside your donuts, roll out remaining dough again and repeat until you've used as much as possible

- Cover donuts with a tea towel and let them rise again for 30-40 minutes

- While donuts are rising, begin the glaze by beat the icing sugar and butter together

-Beat in vanilla extract

- Add hot water (as hot as your tap goes will do just fine, no need to boil) 1 teaspoon at a time

- Set aside

- If you have a deep fryer, set it to 350 degrees F, if not, fill a pot or a wok styled pan with canola oil and put on high heat

- Once oil is heated (starts making cool patterns, and test dough turns brown, see tips above), place donuts in the oil to fry two at a time, flipping them once you see golden brown creeping up the side

- Flip back to check that both sides are golden, then remove from oil. Easy way is to just slide a butter knife through the middle.

- Set on rack to dry

- Once all donuts are fried, remove oil from heat immediately (or shut fryer off)

- Carefully dip donuts in glaze. The easiest way is to dip it in and twist it. If you prefer, you can also glaze them with a butter knife, but the look may be different.

Grilled cheese with Tomato and Pesto

One last quick one for the day! This fancy lookin' grilled cheese is perfect for those nights when you're craving something delicious but don't particularly want to commit any more than ten minutes to making it.

Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Pesto (1 sandwich)

Ingredients

- 2 slices of bread

- sliced tomato

- mozzarella

- pesto

- butter

Instructions

- Layer tomato and mozzarella slices on one slice of bread

- Spread pesto on the other slice

- Assemble sandwich

- Melt some butter in a pan on medium heat

- When the butter begins to bubble, fry the sandwich in the pan

- Fry until both sides are golden brown

- Devour!

Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Frittata

Ok I lied. This frittata is technically an omelette because I decided to fold it, but it did maintain it's flatter look because I wasn't trying to make a fluffy omelette, so I guess you could call it a hybrid. However, if you follow this recipe and just flip the entire thing like a pancake instead of folding it, you will have a frittata that's true to it's name. I was just scared it would break!

This particular asparagus hails from the streets of the Byward Market here in Ottawa, which holds a pretty awesome farmer's market every morning (and Thursday nights!). Right now I find their fruit supply is rather low, but the veggies are excellent, and I can always hit the Byward Fruit Market if I need some. It's technically a store, but it resembles an indoor fruit stand and it's fantastic. And rainproof. Bonus! Plus, their apricots were looking particularly delectable yesterday.

Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Frittata

Ingredients

- 6 stalks of asparagus, washed and snapped in half
- 1 tsp of butter
- olive oil
- 3 eggs
- grated swiss cheese

Instructions

- On medium-high heat, melt the butter until it's bubbly
- Throw the asparagus in the pan
- Sprinkle asparagus with olive oil
- Cook, rolling them with a spatula, until the colour begins to change and the asparagus begins to shrivel slightly (if you're not sure, test one! Don't burn yourself.)
- Once cooked, removed from heat
- In a small bowl, beat 3 eggs
- Add as much grated cheese to the egg as you wish, mixing it in
- Pour the egg mixture over asparagus and put the pan back on medium heat

- Cook until you start to see the amount of liquid egg decreasing

- Check from the sides with a spatula if your frittata feels solid

- If it doesn't, leave it a little while longer and check again

- Once it feels ready, either flip it completely (frittata) or just fold one half over the other like I did to make it an omelette-frittata hybrid (this is much easier, especially if your frittata is rather thin and fragile looking)

- Flip your frittata or omelette to check that both sides are equally fried before serving

- Serve with seasonal fruit and enjoy!

Raspberry Cheesecake

Baking was my first love. Some kids liked Lego, I liked baking cakes and horrifying my mother with the outrageous amounts of dishes I could produce.
Now, there's cake, then there's the cheesecake. Cheesecake is the ultimate cake because it combines cheese and dessert. Who doesn't love cheese and dessert?! Nobody, that's who. This particular cheesecake was a special request from a friend for her sister's birthday, so it had to be as beautiful as possible!! There's just something so satisfactory about making pretty food and making people happy.


(Perfect?) Cheesecake

Ingredients

- 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup of melted butter
- 1/6 of a cup of granulated sugar (crust)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 3x250g packs of cream cheese
- 1 cup of granulated sugar (cake)\
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice

Material

- 9 inch springform pan (I found mine for $1.99 at our local Dollar store, no need to spend big bucks!)


Instructions

- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Take cream cheese out of fridge to allow it to soften
- Mix the graham crackers crumbs and sugar
- Add melted butter to graham cracker mix
- Press mixture into the bottom of your springform pan, patting it down hard and evenly
- Place pan with crust in the freezer for 10 minutes
- In the meantime, beat the cream cheese with the 1 cup of sugar in a large bowl
- Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time
- Add vanilla extract and lemon juice
- Pour mixture over crust in pan and bake for 35 minutes
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cool in the refrigerator for 3 hours or more
- Carefully open springform pan and slowly lift it off. Ta-da! Beautiful cheesecake!
- Top with Raspberry Topping or with any other delicious topping of your choice


Raspberry Topping

Ingredients
- 4x6oz packages of raspberries (or 1 1/3 cup per package)
- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Instructions

1. - Puree half of the raspberries (2x6oz) in a blender or food processor until smooth (NutriBullet does this in seconds if you have one!

1.  - Press through a mesh sieve with a spoon to remove seeds until you have 1 cup of puree. You can place the sieve over a measuring cup and do it directly into it to save dishes.

1. - Mix raspberry puree, sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan until blended. 

1. - Bring to a boil over medium-high heat

1. - Once it has boiled, cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it thickens

1. - Remove from heat and cool

1. - Once it's warm (no longer hot, but not cold, it makes pouring easier), pour over cheesecake

1. - Refrigerate for 1 hour

1. - Top with remaining raspberries

1. - Serve and enjoy people's dropping jaws when they see your beautiful creation!!!

Official rules of cheesecake

1. If your cheesecake cracks while cooling, IT WILL STILL BE DELICIOUS DON'T FREAK OUT.

2. If the topping doesn't come out as beautiful as you'd hoped, refer to rule 1.

3. Never think of any form of diet while eating cheesecake. It's awesome. That's all that matters.

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup with Monte Cristo

Figuring out what to cook tonight was a tad complicated as I had lots of ideas but a distinct lack of ingredients. Generally speaking, when I need to use up a mix and match of leftover veggies, soup is the way to go. The idea of making a homemade soup used to really scare me because I had only ever had soup out of a can (or in restaurants) and I had never seen anyone make it.

 Since I moved out of my parent's house in September, my cooking has gotten much more daring because I had been thrust into a world where you need to make your own food or starve. Or order pizza.The first thing I taught myself to cook after transferring to solo apartment living was soup! Little did I know that it often just required making broth from bouillon and blending in spices and vegetables. SO EASY.

So, today, when I saw two and a half lonely tomatoes in my fridge and a couple carrots who had managed to escape last night's beef roast, the lightbulb went on. And what's a tomato soup without a fancy grilled cheese? Seeing as I still had a loaf of Artisan Bread in the freezer, I figured that would do the trick nicely.

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup

Ingredients

- 2-3 large tomatoes

- 1 can of tomato paste

- 2 medium carrots

- 4 cups chicken broth

- 1 cup half and half cream

- basil

- salt

- pepper

Instructions

- Dice tomatoes and put in the food processor. Blend and set aside in a large bowl.

- Wash carrots, chop them, and put in food processor. Add to tomato bowl. (Add some of the cream to help blend if necessary).

- Add remaining cream to same bowl.

- Add contents of bowl to chicken broth in a large pot.

- Add can of tomato paste to pot and mix.

- Bring mixture to a boil then turn down and simmer for 45 min or more until desired thickness has been reached (more time = thicker)

- Add spices to taste

Monte Cristo (makes 2)

Ingredients

- 4 slices of Artisan Bread (or other bread)
- Butter

- 4 slices of deli ham

- Swiss cheese

- 2 eggs

- Splash of half and half cream (can be substituted for milk, but I only had cream on hand)
- Salt and pepper

Instructions

- Butter bread slices
- Put together bread with ham and sliced cheese as you would ordinarily make a sandwich.
- Mix eggs and cream with salt and pepper in a small bowl
- Dip entire sandwiches in egg mix, coating evenly
- Fry in a frying pan until golden brown, keeping temperature low-medium to allow cheese time to    melt
- Serve with Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup



This recipe goes to show that even old leftover vegetables and crusty bread can be absolutely delicious, so there's no need to be wasteful. Especially for those on a frugal student budget like myself, using every scrap you buy is of the utmost importance!

In most other recipes, they ask that you cook the vegetables whole then blend them into the broth after. I found this to be a real pain, because I'm working with a tiny Magic Bullet blender, and that would mean I would have to ladle the broth and veggies in, blend, and repeat 5 times. This all sounded very time consuming and contradictory to my lazy nature. So i figured...why not blend them first then let them cook in the broth? It would let the flavours mix together and save me the tedious work! Ta-daaaaa!
I wasn't 100% sure that this method would work, but I'm here to happily report to my fellow kitchen sloths that it does, and it worked WELL.

You're welcome! :)

Beef Roast with Veggies and Vino

This recipe was modified from Jamie Oliver's "Perfect Roast Beef" recipe, and I think it came out rather well!

As per my usual disorganized self, I did run into several roadblocks:

1) My beef rib was about half the size of Jamie Oliver's. Did that mean half the cooking time? I had no idea.

2) I don't own a proper roasting pan. I pulled out the biggest corningware dish I could find and used that, which was definitely not deep enough. It only held the veggies and I precariously balanced my hunk of beef on top.

3) My helpful boyfriend scrounged up some wine to throw into the mix and accidentally sprayed it across the kitchen. Most of if still made it over the vegetables, and it narrowly missed my white shirt, so I guess all's well that ends well. Lord knows I wasn't planning on measuring specific amounts in anyway!


Beef roast with veggies and vino

Ingredients

-1.5lb rib of beef
-2 carrots
-2 onions
-1/2 a bulb of garlic
-2 stalks of celery
-2 potatoes
-olive oil
-red wine
-salt and pepper


Instructions

-Take rib of beef out of fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking (or the morning of the same day if you're taking it out of the freezer to thaw)
-Preheat oven to 425F
-Wash carrots, celery, and onions, chop them into big chunks, and toss them in the pan. No need to peel the carrots.

-Chop each garlic clove in half or in quarters and put them in the pan.

-Peel the potatoes, dice them up, and toss those in as well.

-Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the potatoes and veggies and toss with serving spoons to make sure everything is coated

-Pour (or spill, in my case!) a generous amount of red wine into the pan. Don't be stingy.

-Salt the meat heavily. Pour salt into your hand then rub it into the meat on all sides. Don't be afraid to use a lot of salt, it will make the roast 10x more flavourful. 

-Pepper the meat to your satisfaction. I do it lightly but others enjoy pepper more than me.

-Place the roast on top of your veggies and potatoes in the pan

See? I needed a bigger pan.

-Cook for approximately 50min, or until your meat thermometer deems your meat appropriate. 

(I recommend the meat thermometer when starting out, because I am no expert and it certainly helped me!)

-It should come out looking like this!

It smelled like heaven. And wine.

Mr. Boyfriend ate his plate and had seconds, which is a huge compliment considering he's not even much of a beef fan. He's usually more of a chicken and pork kinda guy. Regardless, it was wonderful. If you're attempting this one in your own home, please use a bigger dish, something like those black speckled roasting pans people usually use for turkeys on Thanksgiving. You know the ones I mean!! That way they can all be more spread out and all of them will be able to soak in the wine and oil while cooking : the potatoes from the bottom layer of mine were great while the top ones were dryer and more boring. Give them wine, and they will shine. Kind of like the cook.

Happy cooking!

Artisan Bread

The sweet smell of fresh bread from a bakery is a moment I know all too well : the moment my taste buds activate and my stomach starts grumbling as loud as thunder. My love of carbohydrates runs deep and is nothing short of a passionate love affair. However, seeing as I have neither a bakery within walking distance or a car at my disposal, I was driven to seek alternatives to feed my cravings.

My solution : bake some freakin' bread!

After scouring the internet for a suitable recipe, I stumbled across this one from Real Life Dinner, and decided to give it a go.

Artisan Bread

Author: Maria

Recipe type: Crusty Artisan Bread

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4-5 cups flour
• 2 tbsp corn meal

Instructions

1. Add yeast to warm water and allow to sit for 5 minutes
2. Sprinkle 2 tbsp corn meal onto a large baking sheet
3. Add sugar, salt and olive oil to yeast water mixture
4. Add the flour starting with four cups
5. Mix/knead by hand or in your mixer until dough comes together and no longer sticks to edges of bowl.you will most likely need to add the additional fifth cup of flour (once it is not sticking continue to knead for 3-5 minutes)
6. With floured hands divide dough into two equal pieces and form each piece into a ball
7. Place dough balls (4-5 inches apart) on the baking sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal (make sure each dough ball is coated generously with flour)
8. Using a serrated knife, make a tic tac toe design on the top of each ball
9. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 40-60 minutes or until dough has doubled in size
10. Preheat oven to 500 degrees
11. Uncover dough that has doubled in size and place on middle rack in your preheated oven
12. Throw 3-4 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven and close door (this is the magic step that makes the crust on the bread AMAZING!
13. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bread is golden brown
14. Remove bread from oven and cool on rack

After completing this recipe, I have 2 main comments:

1) Total time is not accurate, seeing as you have to leave it to rise for 60min, so total time is more like 90min

2) THE ICE CUBE TRICK TOTALLY WORKED AND THIS BREAD IS FANTASTIC. The crust is crispy and the inside is soft and perfect.

I couldn't even wait for it to cool before I tried it, I just cut myself a piece right away and slathered a pat of butter on it. I can safely say that it was delicious and well worth your while.