Caffeine, the Legal Drug

To many people, caffeine is fuel.  It's needed to wake up in the mornings, needed to get through the day, needed to cope.  It's part of the daily ritual for many and it's probably the most heavily consumed legal drug in North America.  Did you ever wonder why or how coffee works to perk you up?  Click here to find out, you might be surprised.

It's highly addictive and comes in many forms.  Coffee, caffeinated beverages that taste like soda, food, tea, chocolate.

I'm by no means a frequent consumer of caffeine since drip brewed coffee severely upsets my stomach and as a child chocolate did the same so I grew up not consuming much.  I instead defer to tea and the occasional espresso (I love the smell and taste of a well roasted bean).  Usually, I would find myself consuming a cup of caffeinated tea a few times a week with the herbal stuff in between.  Now I'm 30 and I've noticed that instead of having a decaf small coffee only once or twice a month I'm having a cup almost weekly, sometimes even two cups!

It started in my mid twenties when the Starbucks Green Tea Latte pulled me in.  I've always enjoyed green tea, green tea ice cream, green tea chocolates, etc.  and after one go at it the Green Tea Latte (soy) ensnared me in it's warm, velvety, slightly bitter cup.  In hot weather I enjoy the Green Tea Frappuccino.  Equally delicious but cool and sweet.  I consumed at least one latte or Frappuccino a week for about 5 years.  Sometimes I'd even have 3 a week plus regular tea I brewed at home or at work.  That's got to be something like 100mg of caffeine during those days.  Yikes!

This morning I find myself sipping an Americano I brewed at the office with the Nespresso Lungo pod and I loved it!  (It upset my stomach about an hour later)

I wonder how long it'll be before I find myself on the caffeine addiction band wagon?

Recipe - Lungo Coffee (my tastes)

1 or two shots of espresso

double amount of hot water

To assemble - Pour hot water over the shots of espresso.  If you pour the espresso into the water instead, it's called a Long Black.

Hearty Winter Food

Today's dinner was a hearty salad and soup combo. I don't think they compliment each other so unless your an oddball like myself use these in two separate meals.

Salad -was baby greens with the following toppings

• Honeycrisp apple slices
• lightly toasted almonds
• medium cheddar
• dried cranberries
• canned beets (for me only since hubby has no interest)

Next time I'll add slices of turkey breast to the salad as well. Dressing of choice is balsamic vinegarette. If there's no turkey I recommend using goat cheese crumbles instead of shredded medium or strong cheddar.

Hubby actually really liked the salad, it shocked me but I'm glad. It's one of my favorites and I'm not a fan of salads.

Soup- Hearty beef noodle

Everything just goes into the slow cooker for about 5.5 hours on high. A dutch oven will probably work as well, but maybe a reduced time of a couple hours simmering after coming to a boil.

• Seared stewing beef- rinsed and excess fat trimmed off to avoid scummy stuff on soup. I used tiny pieces of it but you can use a large piece of any meat and shred it into the bowl at the time you serve it.
  
• chopped carrots
• chopped onions
• chopped celery
• water- at least enough to cover all the ingredients. I added more since I like the soup.
• salt
• pepper
• paprika
• 1 beef bullion cube for every 3 cups of water used (optional)

I used mostly dried herbs, but fresh ones are better, just use less since it's more potent.

• basil
• oregano
• bay leaf
• rosemary (fresh)

After the soup is done, pour over separately cooked aldente thin noodles. Garnish with some fresh parsley or green onions.

The house smells awesome and the soup is great.

This is a recipe I will definitely repeat.

"That's One Spicy Meatball"

Seriously though it wasn't. I made spaghetti and turkey meatballs for dinner to day and they were fantastic. It went pretty fast so I don't have a photo to post but they were super yummy.

I like my meatballs to have a nice crisp crust so I didn't pan sear them and throw them into sauce to finish cooking. Instead I pan seared the meatballs then popped them into the oven for about 25 minutes. I tossed them into the sauce just prior to serving. I don't measure when I cook without a recipe but below are the ingredients I used with a very rough approximate measurements.

• 1 Package of ground turkey. (Prime Extra Lean about $5.50 for the package)
• about 1/2 cup of plain white breadcrumbs (I add extra for the extra crunch)
• 2 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
• 1 clove of garlic (I think 2 would have been good too)
• 1 onion
• 1 egg (I got lucky it worked, I think 2 would have been better)
• 1 tsp of black pepper

I didn't add salt since the sauce had salt and maybe the Italian seasoning too. They were well seasoned when I tasted them so *shrug*.

I mushed everything up in a bowl using a silicone spatula. I formed them into balls and pan seared with olive oil until golden. Then into the oven at about 400F for 25-30 minutes.

Spaghetti was whole wheat out of a package, and the sauce came out of a can. Mine is always bland since I don't have the time to let it cook slowly. If I ever find the patience for it I'll give it a go though.

There were leftovers so fiance and I get to enjoy it again for lunch tomorrow. Yay!

That's some Hot S***!

I cooked a chicken dish from the Metro newspaper on Sunday. (I guess Metro doesn't keep old issues on hand so I don't have a link to the recipe. I can scan and send by request if it comes to that.

One of the ingredients was 1 tsp of hot sauce.

Fiancee nor I go out of our way to make food spicy so I don't keep a bottle of the stuff on hand. What I did have though was a packet of the chinese food take out hot sauce so I used that. Just 1 packet.

Well let me tell you, that 1 packet was super flavorful but damn! It packed a punch for us who aren't into spicy foods.

Next time I make this I'll be sure to use only 1/2 the packet but I will be making this again. In spite of being super spicy and the fact that I'm scared to have it again for lunch today, it was yummy. (My throat burned all night after eating this.)

I also learned that if you make a stir fry dish it's a good idea to lightly coat the protein in flour prior to browning. This gives the sauce something to grab on to.

All Hail the Muffin!

I baked peach muffins using a modified version of this recipe. Super moist, fluffy and yummy!

• Firstly I made 1/2 the amount so all my ingredients were cut in half
• Used brown sugar instead of white
• Canola oil instead of vegetable (that's all I usually keep around)
  
• Added just a wee bit of milk while combining the dry and wet ingredients since it was very thick and the mixer couldn't keep up.
• Sprinkled some turbinado sugar to the tops for some extra crunch

I only have one muffin tray and it makes little cakes more than it makes muffins. Although half the recipe should have yielded 8 muffins it make only 6 muffins using my tray.

If you end up having some uncooked batter around the peaches when your done baking it might be because you used too much milk. Use very little, because once the peaches are folded in the batter does become looser from the juices.

To peel the peaches I just stuck all of them in a pot and poured boiling water over them. I then shocked them under cold water in the sink. The skins came right off. They looked so pretty I took a picture of them.

These naked peaches have nothing to hide. I especially loved how the color from the skins stayed on the peach even after they were peeled. These would look so pretty chopped up with some vanilla bean ice cream. Mmmm..... I do have a few peaches left....

Peachy Keen!

Fiancee and I went to the local farmer's market for the first time on Thursday. The place has been around for 54 years and this is the first time I've ever been. Have I ever been missing out!

There are all sorts of booths with artisan pies, pastries, condiments. There are meat counters, and of course the produce area.

Like all farmers markets items are a bit on the pricey side, but keep in mind that these are handmade, fresh, unique, non-mass produced products. If you've ever tried making your own preserves, gone fruit picking at a farm, or made some pies you know that it takes a lot of time and effort. You have to make that up somewhere right?

We bought some small items here and there, but the major purchase was a basket of fresh and juicy peaches.

I'm not s big fan of peaches, preferring non fuzzy wannabe nectarines instead, but fiancee loves 'em and I'd love to try baking with them. Away we go.

Some peaches will be peeled and frozen for use in some protein smoothies. Some of course will be eaten by fiancee, and the rest will be baked or cooked tomorrow. The following are being considered.

• peach pie
• peach cobbler
• peach pancakes
• peach loaf
• peach muffins
• peach summer soup served cold (maybe a little to chic for me and fiancee, but still being considered)
• peach tarts

I've never made a pie and I don't know if I'll buy the shell or make it myself. I made quiche one time with purchased frozen shells and they were a greasy nasty mess. I don't want a recreation of that.

"Let them eat cake"

The neighbor of a coworker of mine works for a company which brings Cheesecake Factory Bakery® cakes to us Canadians. The neighbor works for a company call Dream Factory®. (This kind of sounds like a friend of a friend story doesn't it? Well I assure you that this is for real. Of course if anyone who reads this passes the news along it really will sound like a friend of a friend who may or may not exist story. Huh.)

Anyways, looking at the picture above it's obvious we all liked the sampler that was provided for us. It was my first time trying a cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory Bakery® and I was pretty impressed.

The cakes were all very silky smooth. They came in a variety of flavors that were incredibly spot on. When I tried to caramel cake it actually tasted like caramel. Not butterscotch or burnt sugar. Actual caramel. I was really surprised by how much flavor each cake had and how well they were incorporated. It didn't taste artificial like a powder or extract, it tasted exactly as advertised. The only thing I didn't like was that I thought the cakes were too sweet since I don't have much of a sweet tooth but that still didn't stop me from enjoying the spread and going back for a bit more of the Godiva® Double Chocolate Cheesecake.

We didn't try all the cakes and flavors but here are the ones that were offered.

Godiva® Double Chocolate Cheesecake
Very, very rich. If you have this cheesecake you're going to want just a bit. The texture is like a smooth mousse, but it's heavier because of the cheese. The taste is a chocoholic's fantasy made real. Even though it's sweet the flavor of the chocolate is not compromised and comes through like a 70% cocoa chocolate bar. I think this was my favorite since I was in a very choco mood that day.


Vanilla Bean Cheesecake 
Who says vanilla is plain? This cheesecake was smooth, rich and creamy. It tasted like the offspring of Mr. vanilla bean ice cream and Mrs. cheesecake. It was heavily speckled with vanilla bean showing off that it's authentic vanilla bean goodness. If you want boring vanilla go look somewhere else.


Tuxedo MousseIf double chocolate isn't your thing I'd recommend the Tuxedo Mousse. This cake is a bit lighter and less sweet since it's got some sponge cake and mousse. The bottom layer is rich and moist chocolate sponge followed by a velvety chocolate cheesecake layer. On top of that there's a neutral cream layer which ties in just right with the cheesecake and sponge to make a nicely balanced cake that's lighter than cheesecake but heavier than a sponge cake.

CheesecakeBerry White™ 
This was the office favorite; white chocolate raspberry. I'm not a berry fan but I've got to give my kudos. The raspberry color was very pretty with the white chocolate cake. The familiar velvety smooth texture was there and the raspberry coolie swirled into the cake was seed free. I hate getting desserts that have the berry seeds still in them.

 

Dulce de Leche 
This was a caramel flavored cheesecake which I found surprising since it can be difficult to properly flavor a baked good like caramel. I love the taste of caramel but caramel goods I eat usually taste like butterscotch or burnt sugar. This cheesecake was perfect caramel through and through. It is quite sweet but the flavor is great and the texture is wonderfully smooth.

If you're interested in ordering your own cheesecakes you can call (416) 623-8226 or stop by their store at 644 Millway Ave., #10, Concord ON.