Delicious Potato Leek Soup and My First Brioche!

As soon as I woke up this morning, I was ready to get baking my first brioche. It turned out very very good considering it's only the second bread I've ever made myself. We ate half the loaf almost today! Mark had been bugging for a roast chicken, so I made one for supper. I just stuck it in a big casserole dish with some onions garlic cloves and bay leaves on top and seasoned it with just salt and pepper. Keeping the cover over the casserole keeps the chicken from drying too. It was juicy and super tasty! Nothing is better than chicken!

I also made my first potato leek soup from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I must say it was super delicious and I think it was the easiest soup I have ever made in my life. I think everyone in the whole wide world needs to make this at least once! I can't wait to have more for lunch tomorrow..

I also altered the recipe. It said to put butter or cream, I put butter and some 1% milk to make it creamy. 

To make the potato leek soup, you will need -

3 cups leeks, chopped (3 leeks, the whites and the light green)

3 1/2 cups potatoes, chopped & peeled

7-8 cups water

tsp salt

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp milk

salt and pepper. 

Put water, potatoes, leeks and salt into big pot. Bring to a simmer and simmer 40-50 minutes covered until veggies are soft. Mash potatoes and leeks with masher, then use hand blender and puree the soup. Season with salt and pepper, add butter and milk. Stir and serve.

I hope you enjoy this delicious soup!

Until next time, 

Jacqueline

Vegetarian lasagna without noodles

Last night I had supper at my parents house. We had duck stew with molasses beans and I made a flour-less chocolate cake. When I came home, I just threw together this meal and stuck it in the fridge because I knew Mark would want to relax tonight, instead of making me supper since I had to work until six.

This recipe is just something I made up. I just had a zucchini, an eggplant and some mushrooms in the house. I had Mark make me some gorgeous marinara sauce. I just roasted up the eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms layered it with the sauce and put some Cheese on top, lots and lots of cheese! Sometimes I roast peppers when I have them, and layer them in too. Just use what you have and this will turn out fine! Hope you like what I had for supper! What did you have?

It didn't come out of the pan as planned, but it sure was delicious!

Tomorrow I am cooking something fabulous! So make sure you come back to see!

Until next time, 

Jacqueline

Suprême de volaille aux champignons a la Julia Child

Today I made something so rich and delicious I feel like sharing it to the whole world! Chicken breasts with mushrooms and cream. Now I never ever will call this health food, because as you will see, it definitely is not! But what it is, is deliciously rich and flavourful. You do not need to overly season and you will not feel the need to over-eat either for that matter, the richness helps the portion control! I was planning on making braised leeks with this meal, but I had an extra potato I had laying around that I decided to bake. I had just got off work at six thirty. No need to play around in the kitchen too much when you're starving!

For the chicken you will need -
5 tbsp butter (I only used 3!)
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/4 lb sliced mushrooms (I used mini bella)
sprinkle salt
4 chicken breasts (I used 2 big ones and cut them into pieces)

The sauce -
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup whipping cream
salt and pepper

Preheat oven at 400F. Heat butter in large casserole until frothy. Add shallot and stir for a minute or two. Add mushrooms, cook one minute. Add chicken breasts. Coat both sides in butter. I cooked them on each side for about 30 seconds or so. Put in oven with cover on for 8-9 minutes. It really only takes that long. I couldn't believe it, but I guess we're used to eating over-cooked chicken! Take out chicken, and put on warm plate.

Put casserole back on heat, high heat. Add broth & wine. Boil down until syrupy. Add cream & boil down until reduced about half. Season with salt & pepper. Serve over chicken!
Simplicity at its best with this recipe, and it was SO good. We rated it 9 out of 10! I hope you guys enjoy!

I have also become a proud mommy to my first enameled cast iron dutch oven. There was a huge Kitchenaid sale happening at Canadian Tire earlier this week and I snatched it up! $30 from $70! Who can resist that deal?!

Until next time,

Jacqueline

P.S. -

This is the delicious bread Mark made for me today! It is so good!

Rôti de porc poêlé avec purée de pommes de terre à l'ail et pois

Today was my first day of cooking with my new favorite read; "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I must say that I probably should have read these recipes and memorized them step by step, because there are so many steps to trace back to. What I decided to make was a casserole-roasted pork, that has been marinaded for a few hours, garlic potatoes and snow peas. The snow peas were just steamed with salt and pepper, you can't afford to put anymore butter after you see how much butter there is in the potatoes! Mark and I rated the recipes as we ate them, giving the pork a 9.5 out of 10 and the potatoes 9 out of 10. It was a pretty good start to this French cooking journey.

Our super delicious meal!

I chose to make a simple marinade with lemon juice and herbs. I only had a 1 1/2lb boneless roast, so I just made the measurements the recipe called for. If you have a bigger roast, I would suggest to double it for optimum flavor. What you need for the rub is:

Salt & pepper

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

parsley (I used dried)

1/4 tsp thyme

1 bay leaf

clove of garlic, mashed

You rub the salt and pepper all over the meat. Mix everything else together and drop the meat in and turn the meat all around a few times. Marinade for 6 hours or so. I only marinaded it for 4 and it was fine. 

When you go to cook your meat, it says to use pork fat. Well all I have is olive oil, and I'm honestly not going to go buy pork fat. Preheat the oven to 325F.You heat oil in a pan, or whatever you're cooking the meat in. (I do not have a dutch oven, or a casserole I can put on the stove so I used a frying pan.) You brown the meat on each side to sear it. Then you take out some oil, leave about a tbsp and add a tbsp of butter or so. Add 1 cut up carrot, 1 cut up onion and 2 cloves garlic with skin on, some thyme and a bay leaf. Stir this,cook and cover for 5 minutes. Put all this mixture into a casserole and cover and cook for an hour and a half or so. Mine only took an hour and 15 minutes, but it was smaller.

When the roast is done, just stick in on a plate to rest. You take all the juices & veggies from this, put it in a pot and take the skins of the garlic too. Put in on the stove, and bring it to a simmer. Add 1/2 cup white wine or so. Simmer for a few minutes and mash up the veggies and you have some super delicious but strange gravy. It was so good, Mark kept trying to eat it!'

 Remember to pat the roast dry and remove any excess marinade!

Now the potatoes are a little different. I just used two big potatoes, and it made quite a bit of leftovers, so I'll tell you how she has her recipe and if you have to, you can halve it like me. 

Just make some plain mashed potatoes with about 2 1/2lb potatoes, and add some salt and pepper and some butter if you want. You might not want to after you make the garlic sauce.

For the garlic butter sauce you need-

2 heads of garlic

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 cup boiling milk

salt and pepper

Cook the garlic and butter on low heat for 20 minutes, covered until garlic is soft, but not brown. Blend in the flour into the butter and garlic, cook for about 2 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and add boiling milk and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil again for about a minute. Blend it in a blender or puree it if you like. I just mashed it with a masher because the garlic is so soft. Add to potatoes. Mix and then add some cream to them if you like. I added a bit, because Julia said so! 

We definitely don't cook like this anymore. I'm not a person who eats fried food. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a french fry, but I think french cooking is fabulous with all its fat and flavor. No wonder the french stay thin, you can't make this rich and flavorful food and pig out. Enjoying it in moderation is definitely the key. And it's always moderation for me, I always eat everything off a small plate unless it's pasta, because it's messier.

 The garlic butter sauce!

The delicious potatoes!

Bon appetit!

I hope you all enjoyed the beginning of my french cooking. Of course it wont all be french cooking. Mark loves his Italian cuisine after all.

Until next time, 

Jacqueline

Healthy & Spicy Sweet Potato Soup And Cinnamon Rolls!

All weekend I've had an immense craving for cinnamon rolls. Like the big, fat , oozing Cinnabun kind. Mark and I were going to make them yesterday, but figured it would be better on a Sunday morning. They didn't turn out oozing and doughy and gorgeous like I wanted, but still tasty and satisfying. I also decided to make something soothing and delicious for supper tonight. I have really been loving everything I've made from the Best of Chef at Home cookbook. He had a recipe for a southwestern sweet potato soup that looked so good I knew I would be making it, and I would definitely make it again, that's for sure!

The soup starts very simply; you just need :
splash of olive oil
2 onions, chopped
couple cloves garlic, sliced up. 
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
4 cups chicken stock
1 chipotle pepper from can
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
little salt to taste
sour cream to garnish (I didn't use any)

 Cook onions in a tbsp of oil until browned.

 Add sliced garlic, cook for a few minutes.

 Add chicken broth.

 I grated my sweet potatoes before hand, just so you can watch the onions so they don't burn.

 Add sweet potatoes to stock, onions and garlic. Bring to simmer.

 Once simmering, add chipotle, cumin and cinnamon. Stir well and simmer until potatoes are soft.

 Once the potatoes are soft, you use a hand blender or pour soup into blender and puree. Add salt if needed.

 Finished soup! I also made this ahead & re-headed for flavors to get richer.

 When I served it, I grilled a chicken breast, took 1/3 of it and cut it up in my bowl, and poured my soup over it. This added extra protein and flavor, but I just didn't know what else to make with it, and it went just fine!

Bon appetit!

I have no idea what yeast doughs have against me, but I always have an issue with them. I watched and read Michael Smith's recipe of sweet dough cinnamon rolls and thought it would be easy enough. My fiancee is a baker, and has been for ten years, so I figured with his supervision nothing could go wrong, but it did. My dough DID NOT rise at all. It was tough to knead and just wasn't cooperating. Maybe it's cause it was cold out, but I'm pretty disappointed. I'll give the recipe and maybe you'll have better luck than I did. And like most of my recipes, this one has been halved!

 You will need-
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/8 tsp yeast
2 eggs

 Mix half flour and yeast into bowl.

 Warm milk, butter, brown sugar, vanilla and salt until butter is melted. Low heat!

 Pour liquid into dry. Mix with mixer until well blended.

 Add eggs. Mix well. Add rest of flour and use dough hook on mixer to blend.

 Knead dough 5 minutes or so, until no longer sticky. I had to add more warm milk to this before kneading.

Place dough in greased bowl. Let rise about 2 hours or until doubled! Mine did not double.

 This is my dough rolled out after 2 1/2 hours resting.

 For filling, mix 1/4 cup butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar and a few spoonfuls cinnamon. Smooth over dough.

 Roll up dough & cut and place into buttered pans. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or so.

 Brush with melted butter. Let stand half hour or so, until doubled. And again, mine hardly did anything.

 For glaze, mix icing sugar, with milk and vanilla, until not too thick, not too runny. I just added milk until I got the consistency I wanted.

 Here are my cinnamon rolls! :) 

 YUM YUM!

Hope you like the recipes! I'll be doing a review on a cookbook this week also, so watch out for that. I also borrowed Mastering the Art of French cooking for the library, so be prepared for lots of french cooking!

Until next time, 

Jacqueline