Toast Topper #15: Spicy Peach Jam

I'm still getting around to showing off the goodies I canned over the Summer! While most of my jams and chutneys are going to make their way into Christmas baskets next month, we do save a few jars for "quality control". Honestly, I don't think I could have kept my mom away from this jam if I tried - peaches are her favourite fruit, and after she finished the Chunky Blueberry Peach Jam she started eyeing the jars of this spicy, all-peach concoction I adapted from Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food.

One spoonful and she was hooked - and of course at the end of the season, good peaches were in short supply so I couldn't do a second round! Freestone peaches are the best for making jam since the fruit doesn't cling to the stone, which makes them easy to pit. However, I really lucked out at our local orchard / frozen food supplier - they had IQF, flash-frozen peaches on sale that were already peeled, pitted and chopped! Win. Since they were picked, peeled and frozen in season, they had that "ultimate sweetness" the fresh ones did, so I didn't need to add as much sugar!

Submitted to Gluten Free Mondays, Gluten Free Fridays, and Foodie Fridays

12 Grain Buttermilk Pancake Mix for a Helping Hands #SundaySupper

One of the things I remember fondly about growing up were Saturday morning pancakes. pretty much every Saturday saw us kids first mixing up the batter (we always fought about who got to break the egg yolks with a whisk), then waiting at the table with chocolate chips, maple syrup, pancake syrup (my sister doesn't like the real stuff) and margarine (butter was for Christmastime only) while mom did the cooking. Stacks of fluffy pancakes shaped like whatever my mom decided to do with the ladle (she would always do our initials, and was really skilled at getting dogs done and off the pan in one piece!) would be devoured greedily, and mom allowed us to eat our fill before dishing up her own portion.

Of course, mom took a little help from a certain Aunt when it came to Saturday breakfast. Since she was the main cook in the household (though my dad does make stellar pancakes, especially at our trailer!), as well as wife and mother to two constantly fighting girls and working full time and commuting 45 minutes minimum to and from work every day (does this sound familiar?), I think she's entitled to take a few shortcuts here and there. Whole grain options for "quick mixes" didn't exist back then, but I'm sure she would enjoy this one of mine - just as fast as good ol' Auntie's, but with 12 grain and whole wheat flour, a dash of spice, healthy stevia and a spoonful of the superfood maca!

If you live in the US, I'm sure that now, after the holiday feast (and extended weekend, if you're lucky enough to have it), the last thing you want to think about is something rich and heavy for breakfast. If your meals for Thanksgiving were anything like ours were at Christmas, you didn't want to see food for at least a week afterwards! But, sad glad but true, we all have to eat - and breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

This is also a special #SundaySupper, dedicated to help those impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Whether this is your first time hearing about our movement to bring back mealtime around the family table, you're a long time fan or you're a contributor yourself, let's show what #SundaySupper Power is all about!!! You can join in the force to get everyone back on their feet and better than ever by checking and helping out the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund and Hope Force.

Here are our Helping Hands offerings this week:


Breakfast and Brunch:

• Orange Rolls from That Skinny Chick Can Bake!!!
• 12-Grain Buttermilk Pancake Mix from What Smells So Good
• Cranberry Bread from Home Cooking Memories

 

Comforting Casseroles and Entrées:

• Pork Chop Casserole from In the Kitchen with Audrey
• Basic Lasagna from Fast Food 2 Fresh Food
• Italian Sausage and White Bean Bake from Girlichef
• Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes from Crispy Bits n Burnt Ends
• Turkey and Vegetable Pasta Bake from Gotta Get Baked
• Baked Salmon with Cucumber Salad from The Urban Mrs.
• Enchilada Pasta Casserole from Dinners Dishes and Desserts
• Spaghetti Pizza Bake from Small Wallet Big Appetite
• Gluten Free Spaghetti Squash with Pancetta from No One Likes Crumbley Cookies
• Cabbage Koftas from Soni's Food
• Bowtie Marinara with Goat Cheese from Family Foodie

Warming Soups and Sides:

• New England Clam Chowder from The Meltaways
• Italian Wedding Soup from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Soul Warming Butternut Squash Soup from Cupcakes and Kale Chips
• Creamy Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese "Croutons" from Damn Delicious
• Corn Basil Handpies from Vintage Kitchen Notes
• Manhattan Clam Chowder from Noshing with the Nolands
• Comforting Broccoli Cheese Soup from Juanita's Cocina
• San Antonio Chicken Tortilla Bake from The Weekend Gourmet
• Peruvian Steak and Potato Stir-fry from Hip Foodie Mom
• Simple Southern Red Potato Salad from Mama Mommy Mom
• Homemade Chicken Soup from Daddy Knows Less
• New Orleans Red Beans and Rice for Those in Need from The Catholic Foodie
• Sweet and Sassy Pineapple Stuffing from In the Kitchen with KP

Sweet Endings:

• Pound Cake Loaf from Magnolia Days
• Fall Apple Pie from Cravings of a Lunatic
• Dairy-free Marble Cake {Marmorkuchen} from Galactopdx
• Mini Dark Chocolate Cakes with Mint Chocolate Chip Icing from The Realistic Nutritionist
• Orange Pound Cake from Basic n Delicious
• Spicy Gingerbread with a Mocha Glaze from Daily Dish Recipes

Please join on us on Twitter for #SundaySupper on November 25, 2012, throughout the day. In the evening, we will meet at 7 PM EST for our weekly #SundaySupper live chat. All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag or you can follow us through TweetChat. 

We’d also love to feature your recipe ideas for #HelpingHands on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board so we can share them with all of our followers.

Chewy Chocolate Candies and Crispy Bars

I found myself with a sizeable bag of candy corn the other day. It was the result of an impulse purchase - marked down Hallowe'en candy (that was more or less shelf stable) was out and as soon as I saw "candy corn" I immediately remembered my Homemade Butterfinger Bars and was determined to make them. What can I say?

It is hard to mess with a good thing though, especially when that "thing" is candy! The original formula works so well that I wondered if a variation with a chocolate flavour would work, and for a while doubted any sort of success would come my way! Nevertheless, I made a small batch, using both peanut butter as well as rich Nutella and even chocolate frosting! The mixture wasn't quite as easy to form as I remembered, so I tossed in some butter and it all worked out! The resulting candy actually kind of looks like a red velvet confection too, thanks to all the colours swirling. 

After I made my successful "test" batch, I made another - but this time I jazzed it up a bit by kneading in some crispy rice cereal, which made the resulting mix too hard to form into the turtle mould I used for the smooth version. Instead, I pressed it into a square pan, and on cutting it I definitely got memories of the Crunch bars I'd eat as a kid, but better! As I was writing up the recipe, I did some quick fact checking and found out that not only were both versions of this new creation delectable, but they're gluten free too (double win!). Of course, that was dependent on the specific ingredients I had, but the Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge frosting and the cereal I picked both are so the rest of the story followed suit. 

I coated them in a mix of (conveniently) GF milk and dark chocolate (I didn't have enough of either to do one kind) and then decorated them with melted green coating wafers and white chocolate so they'd look pretty enough for Christmas gifts - like the ones offered in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats (the roundups and Pins!)!

In the end, I think I even like this version of the chewy, nutty confections better than the originals, both because I love peanut butter and chocolate together and because I got to use my turtle chocolate moulds :-D.

I can't believe that Christmas really is just around the corner, it seems like Halloween was just yesterday!

Citrus Whipped Sweet Potatoes - a Vintage #RecipeRedux

I love a good baked sweet potato. I'll gladly have one in it's "jacket" any day of the week, but I hate the "traditional" recipes for mashed, whipped, pureed, gratinéed, marshmallow-topped or what-have-you versions of what should, technically, be a rather nutritious side dish. Most of the older recipes, like the one below, contain needless amounts of fat (usually via butter and/or cream) and sugar, some are high in salt, and none of them, in my opinion, taste that good. If I'm going to eat a sweet potato, I'm eating it because I like the flavour of sweet potatoes, not butter and sugar. Besides, adding all that excess to the vegetable negates any sort of good you'd get out of them in the first place, and as a society we all need to learn to live a more "whole" life with less adulterated food.

So this is my dad's girlfriend Martha's recipe for her favourite "holiday" sweet potatoes. At 350 calories, 17.5 grams of fat and 50 grams of carbohydrates per serving, it had better only be on the menu once in a blue moon! Keep in mind that this is a side dish, meaning that when it's served, it's alongside buttered peas and carrots, dinner rolls and a large hunk of roasted meat!

Mashed Silky Sweet Potatoes
serves 4
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp salt
pinch cinnamon

Before adding the green onion and parsley... oops!

While I'm pretty much a purist when it comes to my vegetable dishes (a throwback to the fact that most accoutrements I can't eat), I appreciate that not everybody can deal with "naked" sides. I devised this "redux" of Martha's sweet potatoes during my grandmother's birthday party with the help of my great aunt, a fantastic cook in her own right. Firstly, roasting the cubes of potato instead of the original "boil to death" method preserves more nutrients and concentrates the naturally sweet flavour  of the tubers. A touch of olive oil and blood orange juice replaces the butter and cream, and the whole dish gets a wallop of flavour from garlic both roasted alongside the cubes and minced fresh into the mix with a green onion. Fresh parsley, black pepper and a dash of salt finished up the side, which I pureed in a food processor for presentation (though my personal preference, if I have to have mashed sweets, is skin on and lumpy). They were a hit with everyone at the party - even the kids - and I even heard comments lauding the "lightness" and "flavour" of the dish!

Cinnamon Chips and Toffee Bits

If you're like me, you can't always get certain ingredients for a recipe you're dying to make after spotting it online or in a cookbook. Sometimes, it's a case of not wanting to buy a container of something to use a spoonful or two (like Thai curry paste, fish sauce, pickled radishes or apricot jam). Other times, economics rule - I personally can't afford to go out and buy 100% organic ingredients, or always use butter, or pick up items only found in the health food shop... particularly if I won't be eating them in my day-to-day life (case in point: so many of my recipes don't use eggs or dairy because I don't eat them myself!).

Of course, if you live out in the sticks like my neighbours and I do, some things just aren't available - no matter how much you're willing to spend. Around here, if I can't find something at the local superstore or Bulk Barn, I'm S.O.L.. And things come and go, too. For a while, I used to be able to find cinnamon baking chips no problem in the bulk bins. I was on Cloud 9 - finally, I could bake like all my American co-bloggers! And I did, for a while. Then one week I went to go stock up on my new favourite confection and it had disappeared. Poof - gone. No sign of it anywhere, nor any indication it was going to be discontinued. I hoarded the few tablespoons I had left, constantly checking back to see if it would one day re-appear, but no luck.

Then there was the case of the toffee baking bits. Now these are pretty commonplace, even around me. The thing is, the commercially available ones contain both almonds and chocolate, neither of which I wanted in a basic "pantry" ingredient. Not only do I have some clients / taste testers with allergies, but sometimes I don't want those accessory flavours in the finished goodies either!

However, the internet gave me the answers to my ingredient dilemmas - and I didn't have to place online orders or pay insane markups for shipping and duties either! Nope, the solutions lay in two extraordinarily simple, relatively cheap recipes that anyone can make on their own at home. No special equipment is required for either formula, just an oven, a stovetop, a pot, a couple bowls and some baking sheets lined with parchment. Of course, if you're anal about candy temperatures (or, like me, suck at gauging "ball" firmness with hot sugar) a cheap, reliable candy thermometer will help you out with the toffee. Mine was about $7 at the grocery store and has been invaluable!

The great thing about making either the cinnamon chips or toffee bits at home is that not only are they cheaper, but they're fast! Making your own ingredients, instead of scouting around for them all over the city, keeps you out of the grocery store and "in the black" when it comes to baking this holiday season - something we can all appreciate!

Have you ever made your own ingredients? What did you make?