oops i forgot, after you bake it for 25 minutes, put the topping on and bake another 20 minutes

Blackberry Sour Cream Apple Pie

here is it...blackberry sour cream apple pie

-1 cup sour cream

-2/3 cup sugar

-2 tbsp flour

-1/4 tsp salt

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 egg

-peeled and diced tart apples (we usually use granny smith and might mix a little of any other kind in there)...personal preference for the amount. We always change it, usually its about 3 cups

-blackberries

preheat over to 400 degrees. Beat all ingredients folding in apples and berries gently. Bake 25 minutes

You can add a topping consisting of oatmeal, cold butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and a little bit of flour. Mix it all together cutting in the butter till its crumbly. My mom doesn't like the oatmeal in it and its the closest to the original without oatmeal, but i like it in there.

Thanksgiving from Oregon

So once again it has taken me forever to post, and i'm about two weeks late but my thanksgiving dinner as amazing! My parents have recently moved to Oregon, and it was time to visit to their new house. My brother, sister and even their friends have been to my parents house, but this was my first trek to the southern Oregon coast to the little town, Sixes with Allison.

I've always helped my mom in the kitchen, but i've never taken a huge part in cooking until this year and I now know what my mom has gone through for years and years. We were in the kitchen ALL day: literally. Among my sister, Allison and I, we cooked the entire meal minus the turkey.

Just about everything we used for dinner came from my parents garden or neighboring gardens. Allison and I started off early on the desserts including: pumpkin pie and pecan pie. For the pumpkin pie, we got the pumpkin from a neighbors garden. It was ginormous and for some reason we decided to cook the whole thing. We boiled the pumpkin, and next time I will bake it instead. It retained too much water in the boiling process making the pie a little more soupy than it should have been. The crust however was pretty good. It was just like a graham cracker crust but instead of graham crackers, we used gingersnaps. My brother could eat a whole box of those in one sitting, so that crust was for him. Overall the pumpkin pie was good but nothing note worthy (sorry Paula Dean). I think that that is a problem in cooking sometimes; you set your expectations too high and in the end your not satisfied even if it does taste good. Next was the pecan pie, which was pretty good. I love pecan pie, its so simple but its so good! Eggs, butter, corn syrup, pecans….Adding little bourbon in it did the trick.

Next was the cranberry sauce. Usually you're going to buy this in a can at the store, but I was determined to do as much as I could from scratch. We got our cranberries from the cranberry bog (yes ocean spray commercial status) that is literally 20 feet from the house. Thanks to cooks illustrated (and I think Jake can agree) this was far better than that from a can. It calls for cranberries, water, and sugar and a little simmering time.

Collier, as always, made the mashed potatoes. She used mostly red potatoes from moms garden, and in the end result they had a pink hue. I don't know what she does but they are absolutely amazing. My mom likes to say that she got the "potato gene" in the family. I must say that it is quite the gene to have. I don't think I will ever be able to replicate the taste. She also made one dessert that my family can never go a holiday without having and that is the blackberry sour cream apple pie. I know right upon reading that, a lot of you thought “ugh sour cream”, but trust me when I say it is the best pie I have ever had. We used to go to this little place called Apple Hill where they made them and one day the little pie shop closed down. Ever since then we have been messing with this recipe and I think this year we came across our closest match.

The rest of the meal consisted of steamed asparagus, rolls (which my mom made) salad (with my brothers delicious candied pecans) and of course the turkey.

I'm excited for Christmas and to put some new items on the menu (and keep some old ones). Unfortunately my sister wont be around this Christmas so we wont have her mashed potatoes, and I will have to do my best to match hers. I'm up for the challenge. Wish me luck. I'll be reporting how they turned out.

~Mel

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

I made my way home this past weekend to run the BC Cross-Country Championships, my first race in a while. I ran at Jericho Beach, which is beautiful, I highly recommend taking a walk along the beach if anyone ever takes a trip to the area. Its surrounded by mountains and you can see downtown Vancouver across the water...it always makes me realize why Vancouver is considered one of the most beatiful cities in the world. The race went well, I got 3rd, but there's still alot of work to be done before I get to Nationals in a month.

The entire trip to the race (at least it felt like it), my parents talked about this place they wanted to take me too once I was done. Now that they have sold their business, they finally have the time to go downtown and spend their days exploring new areas. Well I can tell you that all of the fuss about they made was justified...they found this little place called Mr. Kumpir that serves stuffed baked potatoes...with any toppings you can imagine to choose from. As awesome as a stuffed baked potato can be, it was that. They basically take a giant baked potato, scoop out the insides and whip it up with some butter and then top it with any three toppings you want...for $5!!. I got green onion, broccoli and bacon bits and ate the entire thing. I think you should all take a trip to Mr. Kumpir if you get the chance...and if not, try and make your own, its really easy.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/1473463/restaurant/Robson-Street-West-End/Mr-Kumpir-Vancouver

This next part could be a little embarassing, but it happend so I'm going to tell. We walked to the little bakery next door called Beard Pappa's. Can anyone guess?...Cream puffs. They are apparently referred to as the "Cream Puff Kings" so I thought I might as well give it a try. The chain originally started in Osaka, Japan in 1999 and became so popular that its now in Canada and the US. They have vanilla, chocolate and green tea flavored custard injected into the pastry and dusted with powdered sugar. I tried the vanilla. If your a cream puff lover then you will be in heaven.

http://www.muginohousa.com/index.php

This is where it gets embarassing...right next to Beard Pappa's was Big City Cupcakes. My mom loves cupcakes so we stopped...I'm going to blame it on her haha. I got carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...really good.

It was basically the day of overindulgences, but it was Halloween so it doesn't really count in my books. The area that we were walking around is called English Bay, just outside of Stanley Park. There aren't alot of houses in the residential areas, mostly appartments, condos and townhouses. I noticed when we were in Mr. Kumpirs that there were alot of parents walking with their kids dressed in costumes...what I soon realized was that the kids were all trick-or-treating in the stores. All of the stores in the area had their employees dressed up in costumes and had bowls full of candy to hand out to the kids...it was a great idea and not something that I had ever thought about before.

It was a great weekend, nice to go home, see my family and spend some time in the city. Can't wait until I get to go back again and explore some more.

Here's a recipe for stuffed baked potatoes. You can really add your own touches to it, I don't always follow a recipe...its pretty self explanatory, but this will be a good starting point.

Hint: if you want to speed up the process, I always cook the baked potato in the microwave instead of having to wait 45-50 min in the oven. It should be cooked until you can scoop out the insides.

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

4 large baking potatoes

4 tbsp softened butter

3/4 cup sour cream (add until the consistency and taste is right)

garlic salt or regular salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

2 green onions

Scrub potatoes and pat dry. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45-50 min or until cooked through and tender (or use microwave). Cut top 1/4 of potato off lengthwise; scoop out pulp into bowl, add butter, sour cream, salt and pepper and mash. Add cheese and green onions; mix again.

Pile potato mixture back into the hollowed shells. Sprinkle with additional cheese and/or paprika if you'd like. Brush shells with olive oil to have a crispy shell. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 min or until cheese is melted and potatoes are heated through.

Enjoy.

-Anita

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almost a week after Anita's post I am finally getting to mine. Anita came to me with this idea and I thought it nothing but brilliant. Like every kid growing up, i have the classic "top five dream jobs list". To this day (in no order) it contains: an assassin (borne status), a professional runner, a photographer for national geographic (who wouldn't want to get paid traveling to the worlds most beautiful places taking pictures), a victoria's secret angel model (i know this is in every girls list), and of course a chef. Only in the past five or so years has the last one popped into the list. I cant say when the joy to cook came about, but its definitely there. I've spent numerous hours of my childhood, looking over my mom's shoulder asking her 'why she does this, and why she does that', but the answers have sunk deep into my memory.
Now that I am away at school, there is limited time to look over her shoulder in curiosity, but i still call her with my curious questions. Often times my dad answers; I immediately ask to talk to mom. He then reply's with "cooking question? just a second...." He always knows that's exactly what i'm calling about. She enjoys talking about it as much as I do and is now the curious one asking me what i've done recently. One of the best things about cooking is the experimentation that comes along with it. Its always fun to change something and add your own twist to it. And besides this, it is even better when you hear someone say they love what you've made them. Watching someone take that first bite it a little nerve-racking.
Its that time of year for pumpkin; and as my own personal rule, i never eat anything pumpkin until October first. Now that we are well into the month i've been getting my fair share of pumpkin and am loving every moment of it. To finish it off, here is a recipe for some pumpkin cookies which are my favorite. Everytime I get to see my brother around this time of year, these are what he requests without fail. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown suar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt and ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg and ground cloves
2 cups MILK chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350F. Beat butter until smooth and then beat in both sugars until mix is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and mix in vanilla and pumpkin. In a seperate boel mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Slowly beat flour mixture into the batter. Fold on chocolate chips. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Rice Pudding

Who knew it would be so hard to find pumpkin carving kits? A couple days ago, I decided to carve pumpkins despite knowing that they probably won't last longer than a week. Not that I have anything against the classic "Boo!" face design, but when I take the time to go through the messiness of "degutting" a pumpkin I want to do something make it count. So after searching two stores with no luck, I finally found some designs at the drug store. Something inside of me wishes I were artistic enough to make some wonderfully creative design on those unconveniently curved pumpkin walls, but its just too hard. I need the paper designs that I tape to the side, the hole puncher and the mini knife...you just need to accept your abilities for what they are sometimes. They ended up turning out pretty good. I did one and Ryan did one...please feel free to vote on your favourite.

So the trees have offically accepted that fall is upon us, I have already carved my first pumpkin, and I find myself facing aisles of candy everytime I walk into the grocery store. It's Halloween season. I have to admit...I'm not one for the pumpkin flavour. Sure, the idea of pumpkin pie is great...but I'm just not a fan. Can't even get myself to like the pumpkin latte's that people go so crazy for at Starbucks every year. I went as far as to roast the pumpkin seeds from my carved pumpkins last week in an attempt to find something I could appreciate about pumpkins apart from carving them. I can only remember my mom roasting pumpkin seeds one time when I was younger, and all I can recollect is her telling me, "not worth the work". Unfortunately, I have to agree with her. However, I know alot of people really do like them so I'm just going to take it as me not being a pumpkin person. If anyone thinks they can sway me into liking a pumpkin recipe, by all means do tell.

I'm going to be on the search for a good "fall" recipe this week since I don't really have one worth sharing with you at this point. I do have a recipe I'd like to share though. Both Mel and I have made this and we really enjoyed it. Its a good dessert, not too sweet, but something you can keep in the fridge in a tupperware for after dinner.

Rice Pudding

2 cups water

1 cup Arborio Rice

3 cups vanilla soymilk

1/4 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (+ dusting)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 tsbp. sweetened condensed milk (+ 2 tsp. for drizzle ontop)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Bring water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add rice, cover and simmer for 20 min., until rice is nearly cooked. In large bowl, whisk soymilk, sugar and salt. When rice is cooked and sitll hot, add soymilk mixture and cinnamon stick. Cover, place in oven and cook for 45 min. (you can transfer the mixture from pot to an oven safe dish (casserole dish perhaps...whatever works but needs to be covered).

Remove from oven, uncover and remove cinnamon stick. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 tbsp condensed milk. Pudding will be slightly liquidy, but liquid will be absorbed by the rice as it cools. Distribute into serving bowls, drizzle with additional condensed milk, dust with cinnamon, and nutmeg if you want.

-Anita

Spicy Mango Shrimp over rice

Well, her it is...my first post. I'm sure this blog will prove to be yet another tool for me to avoid reading, homework or school related activities of any sorts. Don't worry, I'll get the homework part done at some point, it'll just have to wait til' the last minute as usual.

I came up with the brilliant idea of having a blog about two weeks ago. I like to cook. My mom and I are always trading recipes back and forth, sharing tips. Since I came to college my parents have outfitted me with an entire kitchen worth of equipment. My christmas gifts have brought me a Mix-Master, crock pot, pot set, bakeware, spice racks...you name it. You can't help but try and make good food. My mom wanted to make sure I wasn't that kid that moved away from home and made TV dinners and chicken strips every night. I guarantee I won't be that girl...not putting anything past a chicken strip dinner though.

It's always fun to have people to cook for. You can tell that quality of your dish when your asked for seconds. After a recent conversation with my mom, I somehow managed to commit myself to the biggest culinary challenge of my life to date. Sounds dramatic I know...but I said I would make the turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. Yes, DINNER. Not just the turkey...everything. I always miss Canadian Thanksgiving since I'm down in Seattle. This year it was on Oct.12th (the second Monday of October) and my parents had some friends over. But its become more of a tradition to have a mock Thanksgiving during the American holiday when I actually do get the chance to go home. So thats when its all going to happen. The goal: have people get up for seconds. Updates to continue.

Since it's the first post...and this is a foodie blog, I'm going to put one of my favourite recipes up. If a recipe is posted...its good and definitely worth sharing with you. I know how it can feel to make something that doesn't live up to the hype. Ryan found this in a magazine...I've been told I need to give him recipe credit where it is deserved...so here it is.

SPICY MANGO SHRIMP over rice

1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
12 oz (~1 lb.) peeled & deveined medium shrimp
2 cups UNRIPE mango (mango will soften as it is warmed)
coconut (shredded/sweetened for garnish on top)

-heat 3 tbsp. vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute onion until golden brown.
-add 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp red chile flakes, 1/2 cup basil leaves, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp lime juice, and shrimp.
-cook, stirring often until shrimp turns pink.
-add 2 cups cubed fresh (unripe) or frozen mango and cook until warm.


-sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded coconut.

Serve with white rice. Makes about 3 servings.


Hope you like it.

-Anita