Baked Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs!!!

I'm SO excited to share my latest food epiphany with you! Not near as excited as I was to eat it, but excited nonetheless! ;)

In a serendipitous moment late last week, while daydreaming about Easter treats and deep-fried Mars bars (like ya would), a magical thought process entered my brain and produced the concept for 'deep-fried' creme eggs. So last night in a delicious, and at times, dangerous test kitchen, I tried out a couple of different ways to prepare the bundles of deliciousness. I had already determined the basics of wrapping and securing the eggs within the phyllo pastry, but whether they would be deep-fried or baked was still to be determined... that was until I basically smoked out the house and nearly caught the kitchen on fire while frying the bundles in fat on the stove (be safe friends, do not try this at home unless you really know what you're doing!). Needless to say, the baked version won out. With that said, even if I did own a deep-frier, I would still recommend the baking method, just because the phyllo pastry is so fragile and so delicate that in the few tests I did in the hot fat, it took less than a minute to brown and start to burn.

Anywho, with all that excitement/embarrassing info divulged (I like to keep it real in my food diaries), let's get to instructing you on how to make these delicious treats at home!

WARNING: YES! It tastes as good as it sounds! And YES! you will experience multiple foodgasms as you consume them. These are wicked-awesome-good!

Eggs Benny

After a week out of province (with a very slow internet connection), followed by a week of sickness (curse you stupid cold!), I'm finally, FINALLY on the mend and in a blogging mood again!! And since I posted the above image to my facebook close to 2 weeks ago now, promising the miracle recipe soon, I figure that's where I should start!

If you've been following along with my Instagram, you may have seen a post or two about Eggs Benedict. It's been a big year in Eggs Benny for me, I've graduated from first taste, to first attempt at home, to first mastered dish (a.k.a I accomplished a sauce that didn't separate!). You can view the word 'mastered' very lightly in this particular case, but I've experienced many trials and tribulations with this finicky sauce, so I feel I've overcome mountains!! In any case, I can honestly say I've tried many methods, with depressing results, until this blender method changed my life! Ok... so that may sound a tad over-dramatic, but when you know with certainty that you're not going to ruin your sauce, and have to start over again - waste another 3 eggs and a stick and a half of butter - you're not nearly as anxious when preparing it! Shout out to Simply Recipes for the tip!

Anywho, on with the recipe! Since I've also made this several times, I've established a rough timeline of how to prepare the other aspects of the eggs benny dish, so it's all nice and warm when you put it together. If worst comes to worst, heat everything in the microwave for a few seconds before adding the hollandaise, or preheat your oven to a low temp and leave your ingredients in there as you prepare them!

Guacamole

I often find myself proven wrong by my husband. I'll say things like 'Mmmmm we should pick up some salsa on the way home, we've still got those chips in the cupboard', to be met with 'we've got the ingredients home, I'll just make some', to which I typically respond 'but you've never made it before? how do you know we have the ingredients home?' to which he responds 'it's just this and this and this and that' which is always followed by an 'alright... we'll see'. Anddddd then I eat my words! This has happened with Salsa, Pumpkin Spice Lattes and a slew of other recipes including this one. To be honest, I don't even question him anymore. If he says he can make it, he can go to town, I'm sure it will taste the same, if not better than the food in question. This recipe has received rave reviews from our friends and he's even been told, it's second to none. It's sooo good!

Julia Child's French Onion Soup

Just look at that golden, gooey, perfection. It's a beautiful thing!

Soooo, french onion soup is a new thing for me. I've always wanted to try it, but never really did until a couple of weeks back. It was Valentine's Day, I was looking for a tasty appetizer for our romantic meal at home, and having watched Julia Child make her version on an episode of the French Chef, I was inspired to give it a go myself. And by 'myself', I actually mean my hubby. He was head chef on this course, and I, busy prepping other aspects of our meal, just helped when needed. In any case, this recipe was delicious! It takes a bit of time to make but the results are definitely worth it. I would honestly eat that cheesy bread topping every day. I'm not even joking.

Anywho, I would like to mention that although I don't like to post recipes I've tried only once, I'm making an exception with this one. After all, Julia Child is a cooking legend, so you know this recipe is good.

Shalimar Restaurant - Review

So aside from doing a number on my knee, after gracefully descending some concrete steps... this past weekend was a good one. If you've been following my blog, you will remember my friends and I recently formed a foodie group in an effort to organize ourselves into trying several restaurants around town. And as previously mentioned, since the co-founder and I each have a blog, we thought reviews would be a nice touch. After all, if you've never been to a restaurant before, it's nice to have an idea of what you're getting yourself into. Just keep in mind, we're no Karl Wells, so we don't claim to know techniques and pairings on a food critic level, we just know what we like and hope our review can give you an idea of what to expect.

Similar to the last post, we will be breaking our review into what we consider to be the key points of a restaurant outing:

1. Logistics
2. Service
3. Atmosphere
4. Quality of Food & Drink
5. Overall Experience

In addition to a quick note on each category, we've also included our individual rankings out of 10. You can find mine below, and Terri's (foodie group co-founder) on her blog Pop Culture, With Sarcasm.

So without further ado, I present to you the results of our second group outing:

The Touton Mountaineers visit Shalimar Restaurant

Hash

So you've cooked the big turkey, you've fed the masses, you've sent everyone away with a turkey party favour... you're feeling pretty good about yourself! You think to yourself 'I've pulled it off again', when suddenly it hits you, 'what am I going to do with all these leftover veggies?!' Unlike turkey, boiled veggies aren't easy to pawn off on relatives. And as usual, you've overestimated, paranoid you wouldn't have enough to go around. God forbid you not have an endless supply of veggies on hand.

In any case, there's no need to panic! Boiled vegetables make excellent leftovers. They're ideal for cold plates, and are amazing in Hash! In fact, whenever I'm making a cooked dinner involving boiled veggies and salt meat, I like to throw on a bit extra, explicitly for hash!

Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers!

Check it out on Amazon

So today's post is a little different than my normal posts but given it's Valentine's day, I thought why not?! Way, way back in the day, when I was in primary school, The Bailey School Kids book series was my fav! I could never contain my excitement for the next book. Each short novel featured a 'monster', doing everyday, mundane things and throughout the course of the story, the 4 kids (who's names I still remember?!) would discover and get rid of the 'monster'. Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers was one of my absolute favourites and I think of it every Valentine's Day! To be honest, when I see heart shaped cookies with sprinkles and icing (like those below), I think of the book. Apparently, it really stuck with me.

Photo Source

In any case, the story revolves around a new lunch lady whom the kids believe to be cupid. She keeps handing out special heart shaped cookies, which cast a spell on the kids and cause them to fall madly in love with a person they don't typically get along with. So cheesy, but oh so perfect for Valentine's day! Anyway, I think this is a great book and I would highly recommend it for kids in primary or elementary school.

Stewed Chicken with Dumplings

Today, I bring to you another golden recipe from my mom's cookbook, Stewed Chicken with Dumplings! I love this recipe for a lot of reasons... okay, mainly for the dumplings and gravy - I am a dumpling fiend - but aside from that, it's actually pretty simple to make. Everything is cooked in the one pot which means minimal dishes to wash when you're done. That's a selling point if I've ever heard one! Last week alone, I cooked Eggs Benedict (for the 2nd time ever) and in the process dirt 2 pots, a frying pan, several ramekins, a whisk, a bowl, measuring spoons, multiple other utensils and then the plates we ate it on. Maybe this isn't as big a selling point to those of you with dishwashers, but that stuff counts to us dishwasherless folk. But I digress.

This recipe is truly yummy and about the hardest part of making it is peeling and chopping all those veggies. Methinks I'll be making this again very soon!

Fun Fact: When I was younger, I would eat around the vegetables and essentially consume dumplings and chicken! Mmmm... dumplings!

Pistachio-Crusted Salmon

Pistachio-Crusted Salmon with Scalloped Potatoes

I LOVE salmon. There. I said it. I order it in restaurants, I make it at home in the oven, I grill it on the bbq in the summer, and I love it pan fried! So, when I found this recipe for pistachio-crusted salmon (in my trusty Looneyspoons Collection), a new and potentially delicious twist on my fav little fishy, I knew I had to try it. Good call, I've had it several times now, and it never disappoints! I've got one word... yum!

Quintana's Restuarant - Review

In an effort to try out more of the local restaurants, my friends and I have initiated a foodie group, epically (and ridiculously) named The Touton Mountaineers (long story/inside joke)! In a nutshell, the plan is to venture out to a new restaurant every so many weeks for (fingers crossed) good food and obviously good company. And since the co-founders of the group each have a blog, we thought hey?! why not throw in a review while we're at it! So with our next outing on the horizon, I figure it's time to get this posted.

We've broken the review into what we consider to be the key points of a restaurant outing:

1. Logistics
2. Service
3. Atmosphere
4. Quality of Food & Drink
5. Overall Experience

In addition to a quick note on each category, we've also included our individual rankings out of 10. You can find mine below, and Terri's (Touton Mountaineer co-founder) on her blog Pop Culture, With Sarcasm.

So without further ado, I present to you the results of our first group outing:

The Touton Mountaineers visit Quintana's

Located: Churchill Square, St. John's, NL