Chai OH MY!

Wowie! Look at this! 2 posts in less then a week! Looks like @fiercekitty's #createsomething Vlog post (found here) has really motivated me go get my butt in gear.

About a month ago I discovered something wonderful..... I now like LOVE Chai! So after my roomie , Mirical and I plowed through a box in less then a week, I decided that it was time to test out yet another Arkell Family cook book recipe.

Not only is this chai easy to make, but it has an extra layer of deliciousness added to it by being made... are you ready for this.... in your super fancy SLOW COOKER!!!!

Because this recipe requires a lot of spices, I strongly suggest that you head to your local eastern market's bulk section (or any bulk section for that matter) and pick up some supplies on the cheap. (ahh cheap.. that's one of my favorite words!)

So here's the skinny!

Take your slow cooker pot and add 5 cups of cold water and 3/4 cup of sugar.

Grab a square of cheese cloth and lay it out. Take 3 cinnamon sticks and snap them in half. Place on the cheese cloth.

For those of you who have never worked with fresh ginger root, there is a fancy trick to getting the soft outer skin off. Using a spoon, scrape all the gray off so you are just left with you yummy yellow ginger. Slice off 3 pieces and place on the cheese cloth. Add 1 bigish teaspoon of cloves.

Grab the corners of your cheese cloth together and secure so you now have a lovely spice sack.

Toss your sack in the water and add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamon, 1 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.

Cook all this on low for about 4-6 hours, or if your inpatient (like me) on high for about 2.5 hours.

Take out the spice bag and add 6 cups of milk (we discovered that there is no taste difference if you use powdered milk or real milk, so if you wanna save some cash, this is a good way to go) Also, toss in 8-10 tea bags. I use orange pekoe, earl gray or English breakfast.Cook for about another 30 min and then toss the tea bags.

Your Chai is now ready to be enjoyed, and as an added bonus, your house now smells amazing.

THE BREAKDOWN!

3 Cups Cold water
3/4 cups sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
3 slices fresh ginger
1 t whole cloves
1.5 t nutmeg
1/2 t cardamon
6 cups Milk
8-10 tea bags

Not 'Yo Mama's' Corn Bread

This is a recipe I tried over thanksgiving. I think I changed enough of the ingredient's that I can officially call it my own. (Yay!)

This is not quite a traditional corn bread, but more of a loaf.

Preheat to 350F

In one bowl combine 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 tablespoons corn starch and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Whisk all the dry ingredients together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together just shy of 1 cup sour cream, a splash of milk, 3 tablespoons honey, and 3 tablespoons melted butter.

Now pour the wet into the dry and mix. This will turn into a dough, rather then the classic corn bread batter.

Now press your dough into a bread tin and bake for 20-25 min. Keep in mind that you arn't trying to brown the bread. You may want to do the toothpick test to make sure it is done. (stick a toothpick into the centre. If it comes out clean you know its done)

This is super yummy with butter on it or cream cheese.

(Sorry for not taking an after shot. I dont know what I was thinking.)

THE BREAKDOWN

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 T corn starch
1/2 t salt

1 cup sour cream
a splash of milk
3 T honey
3 T butter (melted)

Microwave Artichokes

This is another fav from my Arkell Family cook book

Its pretty straight forward and very quick.

 

You'll Need

• 1-2 Artichokes (Use scissors to cut off the pointy tips of the leafs. They are sharp!)
  
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 Tbsp White Wine

1. Put artichokes in a microwave safe bowl
2. Pour in white wine and lemon juice
3. Cover and cook until soft. About 7-10 min.
        - keep an eye on it and make sure that all the liquid doesn't evaporate

When its done the leafs should pull off easily.

So now if you have never had artichokes your probably wondering "how the heck do I eat this thing".

 

The base of the leaf is soft and "meaty". Dip this part into your sauce and then scrape it and the meaty part off with your teeth. YUMMY!

Serve with you choice of dipping sauce. I like to make a spicy mayo ( A scoop of mayo with cayenne pepper)

The Arkell's suggest hollandaise sauce.

Ma's Slaw

I have always been a huge fan of my mom's Coleslaw. Its more sweet then spicy and bitey. (is bitey even a word?)

For this recipe we were complete cheaters and bought the pre-shredded mix.

Here is what mother dearest had to say when I asked for her recipe

"Okay, here's my coleslaw dressing recipe...kinda, cause I don't really measure stuff, you may have to adjust it.
To 1 cup of Mayo, add 2 tablespn white vinegar, 1 heaping tablespn of sugar and some salt and pepper; maybe about 1 half teaspoon of each. That's it."

As far as adjustments, i found it needed a little more sugar and pepper. Also I added raisins!

Yummy Yummy Raisins. Trust me. It totally changes the taste. So good!

Also, just a small note. When your starting to mix things up, your probably going to be thinking " Hmmm I think I need more Mayo" TRUST ME! You don't. Just keep mixing it up.

"Just keep Mixing, Just keep mixing....."

Enjoy!

Holy Crêpe

We hope every one had a great May long weekend. Things are starting to look a little more normal in our kitchen. There was very little damage after the flooding. My landlord finally replaced my oven with a shiny new one, and Emmett is back from Berlin!

Our good friend Morgan is pretty famous for his amazing crêpe batter. So after milking the recipe out of him before he went traveling, Emmett and I tried our hands at it.

This recipe leaves lots of room for playing with and adjusting to fit your tastes, also its super simple.

The Recipe

• 2 Cup Flour
• 4 Eggs
• 1 - 1 1/4 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/2 tea spoon vanilla
• Pinch Salt

I think my favorite part about this breakfast, is that the batter gets better with age. It will keep in the fridge (covered of course) for about 3 days. (and day 3 is the best!)

So after you mix everything together in a bowl, I like to pour it into something with a spout. Like my big measuring cup. But this is your call.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, pour your crêpe batter into the middle of the pan. Then tilt the pan to evenly spread the batter. It wont take long before its time to flip. You aren't looking for a golden brown like you would be with pancakes. Just Cooked.



Once you flip it, it should only need about another min to be done.

Now for the fun part.

You can top it with just about anything you can think of. Some topping you can try;

-Peanut butter
-Honey
-Jams and Jelly's
-Nutella
-Maple Syrup
-Bananas
-Fresh Berries
-Whipped cream

The possibilities are ENDLESS!

Water Water Every Where.... *sigh*

So just as Emmett and I headed into our kitchen to start making a nice home cooked meal for out friend Scotty from Calgary, we notice a reoccurring puddle on the floor. Open the cupboard to under the sink to find a slow drip next to a tap. Any time we touched the tap to attempt to stop the leak, the drip got worse.

So to make a long story short..... We had take-out instead.

Sorry Scotty, next time.

In the mean time, please enjoy an episode of Cooking With Harmony.

Spicy Edamame Curry

Day 2 of the wok, time to use up the rest of the veggies.

Heat 1-2 tbsp peanut oil in a wok.
Stir 1-2 tbsp green curry paste into the hot oil, then add sliced white onion and tofu pieces (marinate in soy sauce beforehand for more flavour). This should smell really good. Chicken would also work great.

When onions are cooked, add 1 can coconut milk, half a bag of frozen edamame (no pods), and sliced celery or whatever other veggies you have around.

The edamame should be cooked in about 5 minutes. Pour mixture over bowls of hot basmati rice and sprinkle with chopped cilantro and/or green onion.

If you find the mixture to be a little too spicy but don't want to lose flavour try using coconut rice.

Recap:

1-2 tbsp peanut oil
1-2 tbsp green curry paste
1 sliced white onion
1 brick firm tofu (or chicken breast chunks)
soy sauce
1 can coconut milk
1/2 bag of frozen edamame (no pods)
1-2 stalks chopped celery
Rice
cilantro and/or green onion



Posted by Emmett

Miso Horny? Miso Stir-Fry

The other night Emmett and I made a yummy Miso stir fry to celebrate the purchase of our fancy new wok.

Because this dish was made before we thought of making the blog, there arnt any pictures of the food. Sorry.

So to make the miso dressing (is dressing the right word? Topping? Awesomesauce?) we used;

3 Tablespoons miso paste

3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey

We ended up chopping way to much veggies and had to double this.

Heat 2 tablespoons Peanut Oil in the wok with 3 pressed garlic cloves and about half a large onion.

Sautè until onions are clear.

Now here is where the fun part of stir fry kicks in. You can ad what ever veggies or meat (or meat substitute) you like. We used

• 1 brick extra firm tofu, marinaded in Soy sauce for 10 min, then pan grilled till some what golden brown
  
• 1 orange, yellow, and Red bell pepper
• 2 green onion stalks
  
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 2 handfuls of Mushrooms
• 4 baby Bok Choy
  

I think there may have been some other stuff in there. But really you can feel free to use what ever tickles your fancy. (Or what ever is in season and is CHEAP)

So we served the stir fry over rice made in a rice cooker, but this may be something to try over something like couscous.

Simply Butter

A wonderful food blog that I follow is www.omnomicon.com. I found this super simple recipe for making butter..... from SCRATCH!

And to my surprise it didn't take hours of *shake*shake*shakin*

Here is the link to the Omnomicon post.

It helps if you shake the cream in a some what rhythmical way, so if your having trouble findin the beat why don't you give Emmett's Simply Butter 2 mix a listen.

Posted By Cherisse

Om Nom Nom Nom

Welcome to Nom this Blog.

After a week of living together and eating very very yummy food, Emmett and I decided (okay I decided and then talked Emmett into it) that our dinners were just far to good not to share with the world* (read:Interwebs)

We are going to try our best to remember to take pictures of the step by step process as well as finished product.

The recipes posted here will be our own creations, or inspired by others recipes and given our own unique flair.

A bit about US

Neither of us have any official training in the kitchen, just years of trial and error. (And maybe a little instruction from our beloved M-O-M's) We try to eat healthy. But in all honesty, we could be having greasy hamburger one night and tofu the next.

There are many independent grocers and produce retailers in our area. We try to buy local fruits* (read:cheaper fruits) as often as possible.

Feel free to use any of our posted creations and post comments of what you think. We would love to hear from you!

Happy Eating!

Emmett & Cherisse

Posted By Cherisse