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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Like the new background? Haha. 
Food is a lifestyle.

Hello All!

First I need to get something off my chest, I just came back from a organized league game and I did not perform as well as I wanted to. Thus ending my weekend off with a low note (insert sad face). Let's just say, I was a bit nervous and ya. Never mind, no excuses of course. Next time. =) (that's my happy face but with smaller eyes)

On the upside, yesterday I had a very, very nice dinner party with my friends from church and I got the chance to cook for 11 people! Let me ask you this, have you ever cooked for 11 people? Three course meal too! I was quite proud and so was the old man. The preparation was easy, I found a dessert recipe that allowed me to have it out for 4 days without going bad. This was the Chocolate Chiffon Cake. The appetizer was Sweet potato coconut soup(puree). This was made in the morning and for the main course, I had a lot of trouble with, since I wasn't sure how to manage the flow of the whole Oliver Experience. Luckily, I work at a publishing company and had access to all these cook books at my leisure. I made Prosciutto wrapped turkey with tangerine blueberry sauce. I did not want to disappoint my friends since they wanted a fancy meal. So the setup table was easy, it was the classic large plate below the smaller square plate for contrast and to top it off was the spotless wine glasses. I wore my chef uniform too because I wanted to give that extra "wow" factor. Now I just need a bigger house, HAHA. Anyways, without further a dew here are the ingredients for each dish.  

App  
Sweet Potato Coconut Soup 
2 ml olive oil 
1 small yellow onion 
2 cloves of garlic 
30 ml grated ginger 
2 ml salt 
1 ml black pepper 
1 ml ground allspice 
2 large sweet potato peeled and chopped 
1.25 l veggie stock 
 375 ml coconut milk 
30 ml fresh lime juice 

 For the steps just message me.

Main  
Prosciutto wrapped turkey with tangerine blueberry sauce. 
4 small tangerines 
2 cup sugar 
2 cups fresh OJ 
375ml fresh cranberries (I used blueberries) 
20 thin slices of prosciutto 
2 turkey breasts (750g) each pepper 
25 ml olive oil 
plastic wrap 

- To make the sauce, combine the segmented with the sugar and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. 
 - add the tangerines and sugar to a saucepan with the orange juice 
- cook until thick and syrupy 
- add the cranberries and cook until they are soft. Strain, set the fruit aside and return the liquid to the heat to reduce further. Once reduced, pour over the tangerine-berry mix. This tastes even better if you make it a day or two ahead of time. 
- Preheat oven to 350F 
- Line a sheet of plastic wrap with 10 overlapping slices of prosciutto 
- Place the turkey breast in the centre, season with pepper and roll the prosciutto like a jellyroll. The plastic wrap keeps the prosciutto from sticking to the layering surface and allows easy handling. 
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet to medium heat and sear the rolls, turning often until the prosciutto is brown. 
- Place the rolls in the oven and bake until cooked to an internal temp of 160F
- Let the turkey rest for 15 minutes before craving 
- Slice and place on top of mash potatoes and top with sauce.

Dessert 
Chocolate Chiffon Cake 
Refer to previous post. =)


The only trouble I had most was the sauce, remember to add more sugar than water and even when you think its watery. Let it sit for a bit and it will thicken up. Throw it in the frige a bit and it will be even better. Other than that, enjoy the pictures from my friend Clifton.

Thanks!

















Friday, April 27, 2012

Hello friends! First of all, I am ashamed that I have not been posting anything for the past few days but I promise that a big one is coming up!

What's cool is I found the time to read and the one book that I cannot put down is Outliers. Check it out! =) What we have here today is Chocolate Chiffon Cake. This is my second time using my new tube pan and let me tell you, I hate pouring batter in it. Theres this giant void in the middle where you have to avoid. But anwyays, I am SO excited to share this with you. When it came out of the oven, I thought to myself "damn this LOOKS good. It's so soft!" By the way, this cake is for a dinner party I am hosting on saturday, it is not quite complete yet. I have to make a composte or something to go along with it.

Here's how it went down:  
435 ml cake flour 
250 mlicing sugar 
75ml cocoa powder 
7.5ml baking powder 
1 ml salt 
250ml coffee 
125ml vegetable oil 
5 eggs 
2ml cream of tartar
60ml sugar

Baked at 325F for 45 minutes until the center comes out clean. The hardest part here was debating wheather I should empty out my default mixer bowl and transfer the chocolate mixture to another or use a fresh bowl for my egg whites. Did that make any sense? Haha. To be frank, I am quite nervous about this saturday's party. I have not cooked for 10+ people before and I hope everything will turn out great. Keep you posted. =)


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Monday, April 16, 2012

At first, I was like wha? But then the new layout looked a lot cleaner to me. It will take some time to get use to but change is good, it always is. =) Last night I baked some cookies and for the first time ever, I did not take any pictures because I was too caught up in finishing up and going back to "Game of Thrones." So, boo no pictures. Search my blog for Anna Olson Chocolate chip cookes. =) Lazy you.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

I am not going to lie, it has been a tough couple of days getting out of the lazy hole. It was so hard to just set some time aside to bake a bit but I finally got around to it.

I made a Earl Grey Chiffon cake with Maple Meringue Frosting. What's different about this cake is, I actually went out and got a tube pan for this cake. Apparently, if you use a normal pan the center will not bake. There was one part where I screwed up, it was in the beginning where you are suppose to set aside the meringue. Instead, I mixed the dry ingredients in it and continued on. The cake was still good, but it wasn't as soft and fluffy as it should be.

The frosting was very unique in a way that, I have never mixed maple syrup into a merginue before. It was very nice and sweet almost like candy. Although, more would have been better since the cake itself was so big. But anywho, my friends enjoyed it and so did I. =)