Kitchen Therapy

Monthly Archives: March 2012


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Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Onion Biscuits

I was excited about making these biscuits.
I fried the onions.
Sifted the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
Creamed the butter into the dry ingredients with my finger tips…

And then my 14 year old daughter and her friends asked if I could show them how to use the curling iron to curl their hair for the Taylor Swift concert they were going to.

I was happy to demonstrate.
Last time we went to a wedding I decided to teach myself to curl my own hair by watching a You Tube video!
(It is amazing what’s on there! I also learned how to apply eye make up like the girls from the Hills (?!) and many ways to wear a scarf!)
What can I say? Some things just aren’t “my thing” and I was in awe of what you could learn on You Tube!
I shared my excitement with my wonderful family, and they laughed at me!
Ha! Who’s laughing now!

The curls came out perfect (thank goodness!)
And I returned to my dough.

Not a minute went by before I heard “Muuuuummmmm!”
This was backed by shouts of “We don’t know what we’re doing! We need your help!”

 Four heads and a can of hairspray later I returned to my dough.

My head reeling from the hairspray fumes I finished the biscuits!

But I guess sitting there for an hour didn’t do them any favours!
My biscuits came out flat as pancakes!!!

(Oh! And while I was off curling hair, my husband ate the ham I bought to fill the biscuits!)

Despite the lack of height and filling, I thought this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe tasted simple but nice.
I can’t wait to see how what the rest of the group thought
(and also to see how these should have looked!


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Rugelach

I was very excited when my Baking with Julia book arrived!
And in plenty of time to join in on this week’s recipe scheduled for Tuesdays with Dorie!

I planned to enjoy making this recipe.
I set aside the last weekend of summer to take my time and play in the kitchen.
And this recipe fit the bill perfectly as it could be stretched over a couple of days.
No rush.

I made the dough and placed it into the fridge.
I had a two days up my sleeve until I had to cook it, so how easy was step 1!

In fact, it was so easy and stress free I decided to start on the prune lekvar.
(The prune lekvar is made with walnuts while the apricot lekvar has almonds. Two of my children are allergic to almonds while only one is allergic to walnuts, so prune lekvar it was!)
Harm minimisation!

We went on to have a great weekend at the beach with the kayak and the kid’s various boards.
Relaxing and leisurely!

It’s amazing what kids can do with boards when there are absolutely no waves around!
Creativity can be expressed in so many ways!

It was great knowing that whenever I was ready, my dough and lekvar were there, waiting for me.
No pressure.
And breaking the steps up like this, made what initially looked like a daunting recipe, into something manageable.
Easy even!

Processing the nuts, cinnamon and sugar was where I seemed to fall apart…
My food processor was sealed but somehow I ended up with a fair amount of this nut dust all over the kitchen.
It was a deliciously nutty, sugary, cinnamon-y mixture.

Unless you’re somewhat allergic to nuts!
Then it’s just a nerve wracking experience with kids coughing and complaining of heavy chests.

I used a mixture of hazelnuts, walnuts and pecan (the least allergic of all the nuts to our family).
But I guess with 3 kids, all allergic to various degrees to different combinations of nuts, it was going to be disastrous to some degree!

So after dosing kids up on antihistamines, I decided to skip the dried fruit and finish as quickly as possible!

I loved these!
I’m kind of glad I skipped the dried fruit.
I could really taste the prune butter and it was balanced beautifully with the nuts. Any more dried fruit and I think it would have been too sweet for my taste.

Granted, they’re not the prettiest looking things, but I loved these.
You can find the full recipe at Jessica of My Baking Heart and  Margaret of The Urban Hiker blogs. Our hosts for this week!

To see what others thought of this recipe head over to Tuesdays with Dorie and check them out!


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Roasted Salmon and Lentils

My boys ask the same question every day.
“Can my friends come over today”.
It doesn’t matter if they’ve seen their friends all day at school.
It doesn’t matter if they’ve just returned home from their after school activities (which they do with their friends).
It doesn’t matter if they’ve had friends over or been at friend’s houses every day this week.
It doesn’t matter if they’re sick. Or tired. Or what time of day it is.
It’s always the same question.

This question is then followed by,
“Can they stay for dinner?”
And then,
“Can they have a sleepover? Pleeeaaase???!!!!” 

As I headed home from school with a car full of 12 year old boys we were clearly at question 2.
They were suggesting a pizza night! Or maybe a hot dog night! Or tacos!

I told them they could stay as long as they were prepared to eat salmon and lentils.

They all went home for dinner.

Q3 didn’t even come up!!!!

We enjoyed this dish. It was hearty and satisfying.
And surprisingly easy to make!

That’s what I’ve come to love about French Fridays with Dorie. It’s become very much a family thing. We talk about the recipe of the week. The kids ask questions and they feel they are part of something bigger. They are more open and willing to try new things because they believe their opinion of the final product is valued!

I can’t wait to see what the other member of French Fridays with Dorie thought!