Port and Sesame Biscuits

It's a fairly well known fact that I don't drink. I was never big on the taste of alcohol, despite my early introduction to it (in sips!) by my parents. It held no allure, and in most cases just bordered on plain nasty. Wine, champagne, spirits, or any beer besides Guinness? I'd take a pass (and even in the case of Guinness I had to be in the mood to drink it). Wine and champagne were the worst to my tastebuds, and discovering that I was hyper-sensitive to alcohol was almost a blessing because it meant I had an acceptable excuse for avoiding it at social events.

But just because I can't drink any alcohol doesn't mean I won't cook with it! I'm fully aware of the flavour profile a good glug of red wine can add to a beef stew, and how a glass of white can transform a chicken, broth and rice combination to Hen and Chick[pea] Paella Soup. I'm not above baking with it either, as numerous cakes, pie crusts, a peach tart and even a cookie I've posted show. Why not add to the boozy cookie arsenal with an unusual offering that is meant to be served with the liquor it contains?

When my grandparents came back from a trip to Portugal and Spain with a renewed taste for the sweet, fortified wine of the Portuguese Douro region, they also brought back a few bottles of varying kinds. After a few "try this one!" tastings of different bottles (I know one was a white port, which I had never heard of before), a tawny barrel-aged concoction, was gifted to us. Then it just sat in our liquor cabinet, more or less forgotten. Until now, that is.

A few months ago, I was reading through a copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar that I had taken out of the library and stumbled onto Isa's recipe for Sweet Wine Biscuits with Sesame. I was intrigued by the fact that the cookies were not overly sugary in design, more or less riding on the port for a little "oomph" (or in Portuguese, eu não sei o que!). I made some modifications to the recipe along the way, finding the dough too finicky as written, but the overall spirit (pardon the pun) stayed the same. I agree that these would be great to put on a cheese tray with fruit and crackers after dinner with a glass of the good (?) stuff.                     

Gianduja Cookies

I've been in a bit of a funk this past week - physically, emotionally and mentally. No matter what I tried, I just couldn't find the "get up and go" to do the things I normally clamour to, which was (to put it mildly) frustrating!

Finally, it seems, I've got my groove back on track. Between hitting the gym, having great conversations with pals on Twitter, a dinner out with my sister and dad, getting super excited about a friend's new baby boy and hearing about Carla's Award-Winning Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes, I've been too busy to be mopey (although I did take a few naps along the way)! The other thing that I love to do when I have a fresh burst of energy (or a ball of stress) is - surprise! - bake! Chocolate is such a great comfort food to me, and Nutella used to be a weakness that I could eat right from the jar.

The rich chocolate-hazelnut combination is also nothing new on this blog or in the food world in general. To me, the sudden craze for the spread was somewhat belated - by the time the rest of the world caught on to it, my sister and I had been eating it for almost 20 years. From what I can gather, it was the company's lack of cross-America availability until recently that's to blame, but now that it's here, it's here to stay. Unless somebody else decides to sue Ferrero, that is. Seriously - what posesses someone to believe that a chocolate spread is an overly healthy item? Even if the marketing did portray it as such (and I'm not saying it does or doesn't), can we not read labels anymore and see the 11 grams of sugar, 100 calories and 6 grams of fat per TABLESPOON?

But I digress.

These cookies actually don't contain Nutella - at least not the spreadable variety. Instead, I took the flavour elements of Nutella on toasty whole wheat bread and formed them into a sweet, snackable and much less messy form!

Lemon and Herb Scented Spring Vegetables - Recipe ReDux

Sometimes it's the little things that just make your day. For me, it was driving home from an appointment earlier this week, when I noticed that our local produce shop was once again open for business after a winter that seemed far too long (even if it was mild). Our family's been shopping there for years and within the past few seasons they've also opened a community vegetable garden next door, so those who can't afford to buy organic or fresh produce have the opportunity to grow a row for their tables. What I love most about this little shop was open again is the fact that it often heralds the arrival of Ontario-grown asparagus, fiddleheads, radishes and greenery. Ultimately, the beginning of local harvest season means tomato season is just around the corner.

I'm honoured to now be part of a healthy cooking and blogging event series called The Recipe Redux. This event series is founded by registered dietitians (though any health-conscious blogger can participate) and each month centres on a different theme ingredient or concept that we embrace in a healthy way. For April, the theme (chosen by Katie of HealthyBites) is “The First Shoots of Spring” - the tender, baby plants beginning to crop up around us. While a lot of the more commonly accepted "spring" veggies aren't available here yet, the few that are are packed with vitamins, minerals and the innate energy that comes from reviving after a long winter dormancy. Think of the common winter crops out there - mostly plants that are storing all their goodness in their roots, forming starchy or sweet vegetables like beets, potatoes, turnips and carrots. Come the thaw, the energy comes back to the stems and leaves, fueling the plant growth and giving us the treats like spinach, rhubarb and asparagus.

Given that we actually do have some local asparagus now, I chose to focus on it's fresh, green flavour when it came time to find an Easter dinner side. The recipe is a variation on my award winning (and recently published) Sautéed Asparagus and Mushrooms in a Lemon – Thyme Butter, where I swapped out the mushrooms for blanched carrot coins (since we were also serving a mushroomy dish). I also opted to add a touch of rosemary to the thyme butter to pair well with that night's roasted turkey. The flavourful but light medley was, to quote my mom, "a reminder of why I loved the original".

Kettle Korn Cookies

I never used to like the taste of Kettle Korn. The sugar, the butter, the strange combination of salt and sweet with a poufy, crunchy chew that too often melted into stale gumminess by the time you got to the bottom of the bowl - it just didn't appeal to my younger palate. Times changed, I grew up and fell in love with the flavour of the Scouts' microwave variety - nowhere near a nutritious choice, but the rich, balanced flavour made it worth every calorie. Eventually I found mini bags of it which sated my cravings, but those disappeared from our stores quickly, leaving me with only one bag left. Thankfully (in a way) the high oil content in the snack meant I couldn't eat it anymore anyways, but that still left me with the problem of this extra bag.

Then I saw this post on SugarHero for Kettle Corn Cookies a la Trader Joe's. Never having been in one of those superstores myself, I didn't have a point of reference, but I did know what I wanted in my cookies. Or rather, what I didn't want. The economics of our house right now meant butter and eggs are reserved for meals, rather than baked goods - especially considered that the end product wasn't going to be around for family nosh (not that it would matter, nobody here is willing to eat baked goodies anymore). I also wanted to minimize or eliminate the amount of white flour and sugar that went into the batch, since kettle corn is by nature sweet!

After a few Googles, I came across the Amazon blog Al Dente's recipe for Popcorn Cookies, which were not only completely whole grain but vegan! I had a few problems getting the mixture originally posted to come together into anything other than sandy crumbs, so I modified along the way until I was rewarded with a sticky batter ready for the pan. I also got far fewer cookies than Sidra Forman's original recipe dictated, but that wasn't too big of a deal. Because the originals also only used plain popcorn (and weren't really designed to be sweet from what I could see) I played around by using a mixture of raw sugar, Krisda's stevia baking blend and Nature's Agave delicious, rich amber agave syrup and doing away with white sugar altogether. I actually really loved the caramelly flavour the agave gave to the fine-grained mixture, especially around the edges where it added a little bit of toffee crunch. I can only imagine how delicious it would be in a smoothie or pudding where it's not cooked out at all!

Dental Soft Doggy Bites

Those of you who work in the healthcare industry will know what I mean by the term "dental soft". Actually, if you've ever had your teeth pulled, braces tightened or other oral procedures done, you'll likely be familiar with the feeling of being unable to chew much of anything! Most of my experience with the phrase came from working in a retirement facility coding and modifying menu charts, and it was a more or less running joke in our family since the home would simply overcook or food-processor chop the whole menu together and spoon feed the rather unappetizing result to the seniors. But lo and behold, that short co-op of mine came calling, just not in the human form I expected.

We have an old dog.