Apple Chimichangas

Good evening, blog readers. This one is from Thanksgiving weekend, so I'm a bit late posting it, as usual. The past couple years I've attempted to bring a unique desert to Thanksgiving dinner. Last year I brought carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing (they were SO good), and this year I was a little braver. I decided to make apple chimichangas. I hear you asking "apple-what?".. well, a chimichanga is a Mexican dish that is essentially a deep fried burrito. So you can only imagine what an apple chimichanga is like. Filled with apples, deep fried. My pal, Kirk, suggested adding a maple cream cheese inside, which I did. Thus... apple pie filling (homemade), maple syrup beat with cream cheese, deep fried in small flour tortillas, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and then drizzled with caramel.

RECIPE!!
I found the original recipe here. I added a twist with cream cheese & maple syrup.

Apple Filling

4 apples, chopped (I used macintosh)
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Chimichangas
8-10 small tortillas
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp sugar
oil for frying (I used vegetable oil)

Optional:
1 brick cream cheese
1/3 cup maple syrup

Combine the water, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, salt and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for approximately 3 min, or til the mixture becomes very thick (this is key.... may want to sprinkle a bit more cornstarch in if its not very thick)

Add the chopped apples and reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer until apples become tender (about 10 min)... then allow to cool (also pretty crucial, could even do it the night before)

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow large dish. Spoon apple pie filling (& cream cheese mixture) onto a tortilla (the bottom 1/3 of the tortilla), then..fold the end over the mixture, fold in both sides, and roll up the rest, being careful not to let much seep out the sides.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet with about 1/2 an inch of oil for frying. Once the oil is hot (test by dropping something in to simmer, such as a piece of tortilla or apple piece), start frying the pre-cooked chimichangas. Cook until golden brown (approx. 30 seconds on each side)

Once fried, remove and immediately roll the chimichanga in the sugar & cinnamon mixture. Set aside.

If serving immediately: drizzle with caramel sauce (homemade or in my case, store-bought) and ice cream :)

If serving later: re-heat in oven for about 5 minutes at 300*F.

Veggie Pot Pies

This post should have been up a week ago! But it's not too late! I've been craving a lot of vegetables lately. I wanted some sort of comfort food like veggie pot pie or some sort of veggie version of shepherds pie. I went with the pot pie option, since it's something I've never done. It's relatively simple, especially if you use puff pastry!

Here's what I did:

Ingredients
A good giant pot full of:
Leeks
Celery
Carrots
Potatoes
Onion
2 cups of veggie stock
Dash of cream (optional)
3 tbp flour]
1 pckg of frozen puff pastry

4 small-to-medium sized ramekins

Preheat oven to 400*F.
In a large pot, cook the leeks and onion until they become fragrant and transparent, add in the rest of the chopped veggies you selected. Cook over medium heat for about 6 minutes.  Sprinkle with the flour, and stir to coat. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the stock (and cream) and bring to a simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

Roll out defrosted puff pastry and cut out little circles/squares. Fill each ramekin with veggies and seal it all in with the puff pastry dough! Bake for about 15 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown. Yummers.

Autumn Quinoa Salad

Man, I'm getting lazy with these posts. I've made so much but haven't documented it! Tonight I was feeling a bit ambitious and decided to rip off Bridgehead's roasted squash quinoa salad (plus I made it better). It's really good, but could use some more squash! Next time, I double the amount.


Ingredients
A package of cooked quinoa
Chopped & roasted butternut squash
Fried apple chunks
A good dose of dried cranberries
Feta cheese
Ribbons of basil
A shake of thyme
Handful of sunflower seeds
A bit of caramelized onion
Drizzle of olive oil
...Love.

Mix all that good shit up.

Gourmet Sammy

Back in Canada after a little stint in Mexico... After 3 days of work I came home and craved something more than just a plain pb&j. This did it. I'm not sure I've ever made a sandwich this good. The peppadew peppers are a new and exciting discovery- marinated peppers that are both spicy and sweet. The perfect addition to this meal.

What I used?

Homemade bread- courtesy of my buddy Bryn.
Sliced gruyere cheese
Baby spinach
Pesto spread
Thinly sliced spanish onion
Peppadew peppers, sliced

Pop it all in a toaster oven, toast for a couple minutes, and then broil for another couple.


I might make a second one...

Ombre Petal Cake

It's been far too long since my last recipe post. But this post is a FANTASTIC post, so it makes up for it. I've been planning this cake for a couple weeks. I knew I wanted to make my friend Kaley a cake for her birthday, and was originally going to try and use fondant, but I went for a frosted cake instead using a swiss meringue buttercream. This way it looks and tastes delicious. This cake is a three layer vanilla cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, both of which were recipes obtained from Sweetapolita.

The effect looks a bit complicated but is really very easy, just time consuming. It involves making little bubbles of icing and smearing them with a small palette knife. The frosting was just made in increasingly more vibrant colours and used to create an ombre or gradient effect down the side of the cake. If you ever want a birthday cake made, I'd be happy to try and work something out ;)

Quinoa, Corn & Scallion Salad

I recently borrowed a recipe book from Tara I've been meaning to go through for a long time, "Home Made"by Yvette VanBoven. There are so many awesome recipes I still want to try! But the first thing that caught my eye was this twist on tabouleh. I made a couple modifications to the recipe (due to a cheese-choice mistake and limited funds), but overall it is quite similar to what is displayed in the book. Definitely scrumptious and packed with NUTRITION.. which is something I've kind of been lacking lately. Needed some sort of salad to reverse this trend, and this happened to be the perfect pick.


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
4 fresh ears of corn or 1 large can of corn kernels
6 scallions
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
2 small heads baby romaine (I just bought a bag of pre-cut romaine)
1 1/4 cups aged goats cheese (YUM! However, I screwed this up and ended up adding shredded gruyere to try and self-correct)

Dressing
2 tbsp prepared mustard (I have this vinaigrette dijon that is delish- brand is "maison orphee")
1 clove garlic
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 white wine vinegar
2/3 cup grape seed oil

Make sure quinoa is either already cooled or run it under cold water in a sieve to cool it down, let drain. Cut the scallions into rounds, finely chop the parsley, cut the cheese into small dice. Mix everything together well.

To make the dressing I used my blender (magic bullet)...combine everything and pulse it until smooth. Pour over salad and mix well.

Cookie Dough Pops

I'm not sure my apartment has ever been this hot. That being said, I think it's time for a popsicle post. My favourite flavour of ice cream is cookie dough, and this is a close second- except much easier to make than ice cream. So what makes a popsicle taste like cookie dough? Surprisingly, not much.


Ingredients
2.5 cups whole milk (a bit heavy in my opinion but necessary to ensure creaminess)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
pinch of salt
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup choco chips


In a saucepan, dissolve sugars, salt and vanilla into milk at a low heat.

Allow to cool.

Put your chocolate chips in the popsicle molds.

FILL THE MOLDS.


Freeze. Enjoy cookie dough popsicles. Rob and Jeff did.