A New Cookbook

Today, deserves another post! The reason being I couldn't not post this wonderful news that I have to share with you. My Sister (I am so pleased to say we share the same blood) has just released her first cookbook. She has such an amazing heart and is giving away some of the proceeds to several charities that specialize in advocating for and empowering women around the world. If you like my cooking, you will love hers!
Please buy her cookbook today and buy another one for a friend or family member! The cost comes out to be around $25.00 with all the shipping and taxes. This cookbook will be worth every penny and you will also be helping out so many women around the world. Wouldn't just that be worth your $25.00!!!

A Gift from Cooking Helping to empower women around the world

Click on the link above to view and purchase your book.

Cheesy Mac n' Cheese

Am I still a kid if I absolutely love Mac n' cheese? I even love the boxed Kraft Dinner:) I am sure my kids would be okay with me serving them that for dinner but my husband, not so much. I accompanied this mac n' cheese with my bbq hot wings and I thought it was a great delicious combo. Today's blog is lacking in photos, I do apologize but I think you will be able to follow these directions very easily. Enjoy.

1 egg, beaten
3 cups milk
5 Tbs. unsalted butter
3 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
12 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsps dried mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 lb. macaroni pasta shells or any other type of short noodle

Boil your macaroni noodles, as directed by package. Cook your noodles until Al Dante.  

In a bowl beat 1 egg and set aside. In a saucepan melt 5 Tbs salted butter, mix in 3 Tbs. flour. Let this cook for a minute without burning the flour. Pour in 3 Cups of milk. Add in your cayenne pepper, dried mustard and season with salt. Over medium high heat, bring your milk to the point where it has thickened. Turn your heat to low. Take about 1/4 cup of your thickened milk mixture and while whisking your egg slowly add the mixture into the egg. Don't add it too slowly as you don't want your egg to scramble. Add the egg to your saucepan and add your three cheeses, not the parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan).

Mix your noodles in with your sauce. Adding more or less noodles, depending how saucy and creamy you like it. Serve up your macaroni and top with fresh parmigiano-Reggiano or at this point you could also bake it in your oven at 350 degrees in a 9x13 pan. Before you bake this add the parmigiano-Reggiano and a little extra cheddar cheese. Bake until cheese is bubbly.

First Giveaway!!!

Hello all my followers and soon-to-be followers! I first of all wanted to thank everyone for your support in my blog and all the amazing comments and compliments you have given me over the past couple weeks. Now that my blog is up and running I will probably post about 3 to 4 times a week so that you will have a few new items you could put on your weekly dinner menu.
Today, to say a big thank you I am going to be giving my first giveaway! If you want a chance to win one of my favourite kitchen utensils you have to
a) Become a follower of my blog
b) You need to go to my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nellys-Pantry/370457192970521 and "like" the page
c) comment on my wall which food item or recipe you would like to see posted on my blog

Happy winning!

Cinnamon Land of Nod

One of my guilty pleasures in life are cinnamon buns. I once made a pan and ate at least 6 cinnamon buns in one day. But in all honesty, cinnamon buns are sooo good the first day. After that they always seem to kind of go downhill from there. Now, if you make a 'land of nod' you could probably get away with eating at least 2 of these delicious buns in one sitting. A couple of days ago I made these for a brunch and yes, they were quite good but I wasn't fully satisfied. So I guess the only thing to do would be to make them again! In most land of nod recipes out there the recipe calls for 20 frozen dough buns from your grocery store. The bonus about this is that you can keep it out overnight and just place it in the oven in the morning. With my recipe, you can also make it the night before and place it in the refrigerator, it will rise very slowly. 
So, I made the recipe again and my son, who is potty training had me a little distracted and I left them in the oven for 10 minutes longer then they should of been in there for. AHHHHH!!!! Yes, even I make mistakes. I guess a third time is a charm, right?


Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 and 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Make sure you are using the dough hook on your mixer
In your mixer dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
Warm 1/2 cup milk in a small saucepan. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and 1 teaspoon salt; stir until melted. The milk does not have to come to a boil. It just needs to be warm enough to melt the butter. Let cool until lukewarm.

 In your mixer combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, 2 beaten eggs and 1 1/2 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Allow your dough to knead for a  few minutes. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

 Divide your dough into 12 pieces. Round out each piece into a ball until smooth.

• 
  

Place each ball into a bundt pan. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise another 30-45 minutes. 

While your buns are rising prepare your cinnamon mixture. In a bowl combine 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour this mixture over top of your buns. You can place the bundt pan on a cookie sheet to catch any sugar mixture that pours out of bundt pan. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes. Check around 15 minutes in case you need to cover with aluminium foil. Once done allow to sit 1-2 minutes and then flip over on to a plate.

Note: This is a picture of my overly done 'land of nod'. Surprisingly enough, the whole plate disappeared.

Bbq'd Hot Wings

Growing up, my moms sweet n sour chicken wings was one of my favourite foods. My husband on the other hand is not a fan of sweet n' sour. He would much rather prefer something spicy and hot. That's probably why he chose to marry me. I decided I was going to try and make hot wings, better then anything you can get in a restaurant and I think I did. You can bake these in the oven if you don't have a bbq but they are so much better on the barbeque. If you do however go for the oven make sure you bake them at a high temperature (425-450F) so they at least get crispy and then broil them for the last couple minutes.

Blueberry Cran Scones

Having company come over is always such a great excuse to bake foods you normally wouldn't. And for some reason it also makes it alright to consume all those foods you normally wouldn't. I have baked a lot lately and eaten a lot of that baking, oops. It's a good thing I have a fast metabolism. I do wonder when that is going to catch up with me though. Chasing three kids all day long is most likely helping and since I have no time to go to a gym they will have to do. Mind you, I am not sure I would ever step foot in another gym for a while. Years ago, I decided I was going to become some regular gym goer. It was my first time going so I looked around and decided I should start with the treadmill. Easy enough. Well I was on there literally 11 seconds and I hear, "Oh, hi Janelle! I didn't know you come here." I couldn't tell her it was my first time at the gym cause I was decked out in my brand new spandex shorts and tank top and I didn't want her thinking I had bought them just to be cool, which I totally did. I actually thought if I looked the part then the exercise part would be easy. "Hi, are you running on the treadmill too?" I asked. She glanced at my screen and saw that I had been on there about 20 seconds at this point. "Oh, you just started. I will join you." She sets her speed at about a 7. Well obviously, I have to set mine at the same speed. I am running for 11 minutes and I am dying! My head is pounding, my throat is throbbing, my legs are now rubber. Before flying off the machine I manage to pull the safety cord and wobble off in some direction. I am not sure where I am walking to because I am blacking out. I open my eyes and realise I am lying on the floor and the girl I was running with was standing above me "Janelle, are you okay?! You are lying on the ground." I smile. "Yeah, I know." As to make it seem like I normally did that in all my workouts. Let's just say my total workout time was about 12 minutes and 30 seconds and I have yet to step foot in another gym. I would rather eat really good food and be overweight then only eat carrot sticks and be skinny anyways. 

Scones, are not something I make often. I came up with this recipe this morning and was very pleased with them. My husband obviously enjoyed them too, cause there weren't many left when he came home from work today.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Until about a year ago baking was never something I loved doing or was even really great at. I felt disappointed spending my time on something and then it not turning out the way I wished. I think my baking downfall started when I added 1 cup of salt to my cookie dough instead of 1 tsp. I guess I should say I was about 9 years old at the time.
Today my goal was to come up with a cookie recipe that was a) delicious and b) chewy. I think I mastered it pretty well. I am dropping cookie crumbs all over my keyboard as we speak. Oops. To master the art of cookie  making I researched a few different cookie recipes and took the best ingredients from each. I will let you decipher for yourself how you think they are.


Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup  brown sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2  cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips


In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt; mix together and set aside.  In your mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter and honey.  

Mix in the eggs, beating well after each addition.  With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and beat just until mixed. Mix in 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Roll the dough into 1½-inch balls, Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet, a couple inches apart.  Using  a fork press the cookie down. 

Bake for 10 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden.  Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool.  Repeat with the remaining dough.  

Chickpea Curry

Surprised? Well if you were a  part of my family you would be! I have very non fond memories of eating curry when I was growing up. My mom didn't make it often but when she did I either did the a)curry in the cheeks, excuse yourself to the washroom and down the toilet it went. b) shoved it under my dinner plate when no one was looking and hoped it stuck to the bottom of your plate as you brought it to the garborator. Sorry mom, but maybe it was just your curry because the curry I had tonight was delicious. Nah, my mom is a great cook I think the issue actually was that I don't like the flavor of curry powder (the spice already pre-made up and in a jar at the store). When I used my own fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin and coriander it had such a great aroma to it. I actually made my curry the day before in order for all the flavors to really get into the chickpeas. I am so glad I decided to wait an extra day before eating it as I really think it made a huge difference in flavor. I went to one of my favourite websites www.williams-sonoma.com and found this chickpea curry. I did however change a couple things. Instead of adding the garam masala I added in cinnamon, freshly ground nutmeg and black pepper in its place. I also used ground cumin instead of seeds. This curry was served on rice with a great yogurt dip garnished on top.

Thai Chicken Pizza

So hopefully your homemade pizza dough that you made yesterday is already for the pizza you are going to make tonight, right??? My sister was the first person to introduce me to this recipe from www.rachaelray.com and ever since then this pizza is made regularly for dinner. Don't get scared off by the ingredients on this pizza. This pizza is delicious, just try it!

Easiest Pizza Dough

One of my jobs in the past was working as a manager at a Boston Pizza. I had many embarrassing moments while working there. I am not sure if others have had as many embarrassing moments as I do but for those of you that do maybe my stories will help you feel better about yourself. We had just come out with some new items on our menu that week and I wasn't quite familiar with them at that point. This gentlemen walked in with a very strong European accent. It was very hard to understand him and I was trying to focus really hard because I have a tendency to mimic peoples accents without meaning too. He had asked for our Beef Vindaloo. "Excuse me?" He asked again for the Beef Vindaloo. At that moment I repeated back to him what I thought he had said "You took a beef while on the loo?" Well lets just say I had a really hard time facing him after that.
I have a pizza dough which I use from another really great blog http://thepioneerwoman.com/ This pizza dough I am going to share with you is so easy to make, you can even make it a couple days before hand if you want and it just tastes better. You will never want to buy store bought crust again.

Everyone Needs a Little Bran in their Life

Bran, Bran the wonderful wheat. The more you eat the better you poop. The more you poop, the better you feel so eat your Bran at every meal.
Okay, that may be a little excessive but in all honesty if you have any issues in the pooping field add a little bran to your life. I made these muffins yesterday and they were delicious. I guess that is hard to imagine after I just mentioned the word poop a few times. I have never actually made bran muffins before because I find they taste a little bland so I took a recipe I found from one of my favourite food sites williams and sonomas and revamped it a little to my liking.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 tin muffin pan. In a small bowl put 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 and 1/3 cups unprocessed bran flakes, 1 1/2 cups raisins, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp salt. Mix it until combined.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Being a young women  you would feel really special if someone bought you a drink. It would make you feel like you were being noticed, or someone thought you were pretty... So I had spent about 5 weeks in Costa Rica when I was 19 working at the hotel my aunt managed during a practicum of mine. I was relaxing in the pool one day when a young waiter came up to me with a Pina Colada. I said "Oh, I didn't order that." Thinking he was mistaking me with someone else's order. He couldn't speak English so he just handed me the drink and a note which said, "To the most beautiful women in the pool." I said "thank you so much" to the waiter, thinking it was from him when he pointed to a boy on the edge of the pool, yes a boy, who could not of been more then the age of 12.

To go with my Latino story of the day I will go with a meal which has a few Latino flavors. One of my families favourite meals is my chicken enchiladas. Serve these with sour cream, salsa and some fresh guacamole and you can't go wrong.

In a frying pan fry up 3 large chicken breasts. Once cooked, remove from pan, take 2 forks and shred the chicken. Place the chicken back into the pan.

Hot Diggity Dog

Those of you that know me have probably heard this story several times but it is definitely worth reading it again! About 5 years ago we had a dog named Burton. He woke me up early one January morning to get his dog dish and fill it with some food. So I crawl out of bed, go to the kitchen and notice his dish is on the back porch. I see the snow on the ground and realise I am wearing a white tank top and a pair of pyjama shorts but i think 'well I will only be out there a second.' I decide to close the slider door behind me to not let the cold air in. I run out, grab the dish and open the do... "Oh no! The slider door has locked." I am standing outside in my bare feet, Burton is looking at me from the inside of the house and I don't know what to do. I start running around my house like a crazy women trying to break through any window but, no luck. By this time my feet are blue and I think I am going to die from hypothermia. I run back to the slider and try to get Burton to jump up and hit the lock but, no luck. So I finally talk myself into going and knocking on our neighbours door, whom I had never really spoken with. I was so embarrassed because once again I was wearing shorts, a tank top, no shoes and oh should I mention no bra under that tank top and I hadn't looked in the mirror yet so I had no idea what my hair and face even looked like. The lady answered the door and seemed a little confused and shocked while looking at me. I introduced myself and explained to her the situation and asked if I could borrow her phone. She told me "sure, you can just wait out here." Did I really look that horrid that she wouldn't even let me step inside! So she brings me the phone and my mind draws a blank as I can not remember my husbands cell number. I can only think of two numbers at that moment. I call my sister, no answer. I call my friend and she is on her way up to SFU campus to drop off a paper. She tells me she will be at least an hour to get to me. I tell her to hurry. I hand the phone back to the lady who is standing at her door and she says "I would give you a jacket to wear while you stand outside but I'm afraid they would all be too large." What goes through my mind "?!?!?!" Are you kidding me! So I have no choice but to scamper back through the snow on the feet that I now can not feel. I am sitting on my back porch undercover at least but the windchill is now getting to me. I go into survival mode. I noticed Burton's dog kennel sitting in the corner and it looked very warm in there. I did it. I crawled inside and laid in a ball. I had been in there about 15 minutes when I heard "Janelle? Janelle?" Oh my goodness! 'What should I do, I can't crawl out of here!' But then we made eye contact. "Are you in the dog kennel?" Well what else was I supposed to do???? I was freezing! She had at least brought me out a hot chocolate. So I thought at that moment the best idea would be to just pretend that going in a dog kennel was normal and there was nothing strange about it. I grabbed my hot chocolate from the neighbour. And then what did I do? I climbed right back into that dog kennel.

So, since we are talking about dogs I decided I would share with you a great recipe for hot dog buns. You will never want to buy store bought ones again! So once again you can pull out your handy dandy Kitchen Aid mixer. If not you can use a bowl but your arms might get sore again from all the kneading. I used a recipe for some great tips from http://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking_and_desserts/the_best_hamburger_buns.php which makes delicious hamburger buns as well.

Bun in the Oven

Just Kidding! Sorry mom, no more grandchildren from me. I have 3 kids all under the age of 4 and my life is busy enough. My oldest daughter Lexi, who is 3 and a half but turning 14, tells us her favourite animals are armadillos and chameleons, corrects me when I call something an oval when in fact "it's an ellipse, mom", applies nail polish daily, will only wear skirts and dresses and tells me "you can just call me Fancy Nancy" are just a few of the things about her that make me smile daily. Then there is my son, Lincoln, just looking at him melts my heart. He is 2 years old and despite how often I feel like I clean his little face he is just always a mess! He eats 1 gummy and he has it in his hair or stuck to his pants. He has this new little attitude that is getting him in to a little bit of trouble these days but at the end of the day he will climb into your lap and ask you for his hug, kiss and cuddle. You just may have to give Buzz and Woody a kiss as well.  Last, we have my little Lucy. She is almost 7 months old and might be the happiest baby in the world. What we have learnt about Lucy is that she loves her baby mum mums, loves her sister when she plays with her, loves her brother from afar, loves to lounge on the couch with daddy and loves mommy's "food source". My kids and husband are the loves of my life and I would not change a thing about them, even when I do feel like I am going to go insane or want to breakdown crying or want to pull my hair out, which can be pretty often. But as much as I love them I am not ready to have another "bun in the oven", ever again.
I thought the title was fitting considering what's in my oven as we speak. It may not be a bun but it's a very large loaf of homemade bread. Bread is one item that I make very often in my house, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. I don't own a bread maker and I would never buy one to this day. One thing I do have and use almost every day is my kitchen aid mixer. I consider her my 4th child. She gets much love and attention daily and brings me much joy in my life.

Italian Comfort in a Bowl

Do you ever have one of those days where you wake up fighting with your kids and then you realize that you're the one actually acting like the 3 year old? So you get up out of bed and make yourself your pot of coffee (yes, I said pot) and forget to actually put the pot back on the machine, so you start cleaning up all the coffee. Meanwhile, the doorbell rings and you quickly rub your hands in your hair and pretend all the while that you have been up and doing stuff for the past couple hours. You then notice their face when they look at you and you wonder 'hmmm, do I have a booger on my face, is my hair really that bad, are my boobs sagging worse then I thought from all the breastfeeding and I should actually wear a bra 24/7?" So you dismiss the person at the door go back up the stairs where your toddler is running naked, your 3 year old is using your toothbrush, the 6 month old is still sleeping, thankfully, and you go look in the mirror and you see the same face staring at you in the mirror as the one on the mans face at the door. It's a look of horror. Is it poop? No, it can't be I don't smell it. But I don't want to touch the inch long streak of dark brown substance on my cheek. What could this be? So then you go back in your mind about how your morning started. Oh yes, you were yelling at your child. Why, was I doing that? Oh yes, he woke me up by squashing a handful of brown play dough in my face. Is it just me?
So after this morning ordeal I have decided I need comfort food. I know that my husband is probably going to have a panic attack when he realises what I have done with a perfectly good dish to begin with. I would say one of his biggest pet peeves with cooking is when you take a recipe, like lasagna, and then vamp it to be something different. Does that make sense? Well I'm doing it again tonight! On the menu is Lasagna Soup. I have seen many different recipes for this soup but I find something missing or something that shouldn't be in it at all! So I am going to wing it and create my own version. Hope you enjoy it!

"The Sky is Falling" -Chicken Little

Welcome to my new blog! "What are you making for dinner tonight?" Those are 7 words I am definetly guilty of and I am sure you are to. Making a weekly menu has been a life saver for me. This has saved me so much time in my week because I am not running out to the grocery store everyday grabbing those few items I need for my chicken pot pie. Spend one evening a week and make your menu. Write down all the grocery items you will need for that week. Pick one day and go and buy all of those items. Now there might be some meals where an item needs to be fresh. So either plan to make that meal near the beginning of your week or set aside a few minutes in your day to run out and grab that. You will also probably notice that you don't spend nearly as much on groceries. The reason being you always end up buying more then you intend on when you go to the grocery store. I never used to make a menu until my sister kept insisting and to this day I still thank her (even though I may not say it out loud) for making my life so much simpler.
Now when I say what I am making for dinner tonight don't freak out! I have never understood why people are shocked when you say "I am making a roast chicken." It is so easy and doesn't take a lot of time to prepare at all. You will have to get your hands dirty but that's nothing a little soap can't clean up. So roll up your sleeves and get to it!

Before you start preparing your chicken I like to remove all the giblets inside of him and give him a good rinse. Place him in your roasting pan as shown above.

Soften about 1/4 cup of butter (you can use less but your bird won't taste as good;). Now you can use whichever herbs you prefer or no herbs at all. For this bird I used freshly chopped rosemary, thyme and Basil. Another great option is sage but my grocery store was all out. Mash it all together.

The skin of your bird should be pretty loose as you can see above. If you find it isn't take a sharp knife and try to losses the skin. With 3/4 of your butter shove it inside that skin and try to move the butter down into it's legs and all through his back.

Season the top of your bird with what you prefer. I used seasoning salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder.

For a little extra zest I like to slice a lemon in half and shove it up the birds behind. Now it is ready for the oven. Place your chicken in your preheated 400 degree oven. For a 3lb chicken your cook time will probably be about an hour and 20 minutes approx. depending on how your oven cooks. I use a meat thermometer to be on the safe side. You always want your poultry to reach 180 degrees in the thickest part of his thigh. Half way through cooking rotate the pan 180 degrees. If you like roasted veggies now is a great time to throw into the pan some carrots and quarted onions. Once your chicken is done remove from your oven and cover with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes before carving. This will give you plenty of time to make your gravy which you will most definetly need with those roasted potatos:)

Carve your bird (I'm definetly no expert on that!), and serve it with your favorite sides!