Directions and Dreams

It's been quite a while since I last posted here on my blog. It seems like Facebook has taken priority of my writings. I have a group on FB for Michele's Morsels and usually just post pictures and recipes there. I need to change that. I need to post here on my blog and share it on FB. The start of 2012 has brought some big changes into my life.....I am still slowly losing weight- 30lbs total at this point - slowly but surely......It has been about 21 months of NO Smoking for me  ( YAY ) and I have decided I needed to have my hip replacement surgery. I won't bore you with details of the daily pain and struggles but the pain has exceeded the fear and surgery has been scheduled. I am always the " boy scout " when it comes to preparation of all things in my life. My hospital bag is packed, over 1 dozen dinners have been cooked, frozen and labeled for my return home post op, the house has been cleaned, bills paid, cards written out and stamped for mailing and all furniture moved and prepared for my imminent return.  So of course trying to be the optimist in addition, I have bee thinking about my future. My future as a Chef. I miss cooking for people and getting paid for it. Oh I cook plenty at home, but I want to be OUT of the house doing what I love. I have been thinking about where I can take my Culinary skills and talents and be happy.  I have several ideas and am hoping that during my recovery I can set a plan in action to aquire my dreams and goals. I went to Culinary school at 40, why not change directions at 50? One of my favorite quotes of all time is " Go confidently in the direction of your drams. Live the life you have imagined. " by Henry David Thoreau.......who says we cant change our direction or our dreams at any given time!

Easter Bread

I know its been a while since my last blog....what can I say? I have been busy. Lifestyle changes and some medical issues took precedence. I am glad to be back. I will be leaving for Texas this coming Saturday ( 5 days ) for the month of April. I will be staying at my brother and sis-in-laws house and taking care of the kids, pets, house and cars for a couple of weeks while they celebrate their anniversary in Europe! I am happy to do it. I love spending time with all of them. So the past few weeks, I have been preparing for a lengthy vacation. Clothes, Spring Cleaning, Food preparation for my mom while I am gone, etc..... Today I am making my Easter Bread....the only time I havent made it is when I was living in FL for one Easter.  I decided I didnt want to leave my family without it so I am making it ahead of time and freezing it for them to enjoy on the holiday. My son usually gets his own loaf and wouldnt want to disappoint him. My mother started making this recipe when I was a child and when it became difficult for her to mix the dough by hand, I took over. It is a family tradition and its most delicious. I refuse to revise this recipe and make any changes, it may not be Healthy but its too good and we only eat it once a year. I will be making it in TX this yr as well for my brother Scott and his family...my neice Cassie will help me and maybe carry on our tradition in TX. I serve this bread on Easter morning for breakfast with our colored eggs and fresh fruit. It is a sweet bread and more like a dessert than a dinner bread, but we Lessard's eat it with dinner too!

Easter Bread

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 lukewarm water

1 cup milk ( scalded )

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 1/2 - 5 cups sifted flour

2 eggs

2 tsp grated lemon zest

Sugar glaze

Soften yeast in the lukewarm water. Combine milk, sugar, butter and salt and let cool to lukewarm. Add in about 2 cups flour and mix well.***. Add eggs and continue mixing. Add softened yeast and lemon zest. Add remaining flour to make a soft dough. ( I usually use about 4 1/2 cups of flour depending on the humidity ). Let rest 10 minutes.

Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl in warm place covered until doubled ( about 1 1/2 hours ). Punch down. Let rise until double again ( about 1 hr ). Punch down and divide into 2 balls. Let rest covered about 10 minutes.

for each loaf;

Divide each ball into 4 equal parts. shape 3 of those parts into strands 12 inches long tapering ends. Line up strands 1 inch apart and braid loosely without stretching dough. Diving remaining fourth into 3 strands and make strands 8 inches long and braid. Place small braid on top of large braid, tucking ends of small braid into large braid. Cover and rise until double. Bake loaves at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes . While warm spread with sugar glaze.

Makes 2 loaves.

*** Note: I use my Kitchen aid stand mixer with dough hook attachment!

Sugar Glaze:

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar with 1/4 cup hot water and 1 tsp butter..mix well until a drippy consistency and drizzle over warm breads.

Resolutions or Banana Bread?

After several weeks of not paying close attention to my diet, unable to exercise due to pain, new pains arising, and the holidays....I started off the New Year vowing to myself I would do better! I know I can lose weight - because I have. I know I can like exercising - because I have.  I know I can do it because I have to. The holiday decorations are packed away, the house is back to normal.....and I will cook and eat only healthy foods. I can lose 25lbs before I go to Texas in April and I can get my blood sugar under control and maybe even come off the medication I was put on. Unfortunately these are words and not actions. Stress causes spikes in blood sugar and seems like stress is my middle name. I need to take action and beat this stress before I can beat the battle of the bulge? Mom cooked dinner tonite- a Vegetarian chili and it was very good. Mine went over some left over brown rice and broccol....odd combo but an added vegetable is a Good Thing. About an hour later she came into my room and said to me " what was I thinking.....we have no dessert".....I laughed since when I cook I try to include something for later. I showed her a recipe for Chocolate Banana Bread I had just printed out....and decided to make it. First of all- I substituted whole wheat flour for half of the flour called for, and I used granulated splenda instead of sugar. I thought these were healthier choices and the only way I can do things from now on. As a Chef and a lover of food, there is no way I can give up the things I love most but I can make them better for me!

Chocolate Banana Bread:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup dutch process cocao powder ( I used a mix of Valrhona and imported Dominican Cocao )
1 cup granulated splenda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs beaten

1/2 cup melted and cooled unsalted butter

3 ripe bananas mashed

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 white or dark chocolate chips ( semi sweet are fine )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt butter and let cool

Spray Loaf pan with Baking Pam or spray and flour.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, cocao, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In medium bowl combine mashed bananas, eggs, melted and cooled butter, and vanilla. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Batter will be thick and chunky. Add nuts and chocolate chips mix in. ( I sprinkled the nuts on top instead ). Sprinkle the top with coarse brown or raw sugar if desired. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes until toothpick comes out of center clean. Cool and remove from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. Totally worth making! The Banana makes it sweet, the chocolate gives some added flavor and its NOT sweet at all. YUMMY!!!  Now the Chef and foodie in me wants another peice...but the Healthy woman inside me is saying - Tommorow! Thats my Banana Bread Resolution! I CAN have both! Remember - Life is full of Tasty Morsels!

Canadian eh?

Michele Renee Cecile Lessard, a little French eh? Since I am a child, I have always added the Canadian to the word French. I am not just French, I am French Canadian! Proud of my Canadian roots, my family, my name, the country and especially the food. Maple butter ( map-o-spread ), Crunchie bars,maple leaf cookies, maple syrup, Tortiere, Sugar pie, and snow candy as we called it,  just to name a few of my favorites. Another one of my favs I have been eating ever since I can remember, is a dish called Pate Chinois. I was told it meant chinese pie but didnt understand why. Noone ever gave me an answer when I was a kid. I didnt really have to know anyway. It was delicious and I couldnt wait for my Grandmother or my aunt to make it. Of course, I then started preparing it. I have made it for my brothers, neices and nephews and my own son. We all seem to love it! I googled it and came up with these possible reasonings for the name.....The first possible explanation for the 'Chinese' reference is that it was introduced to Chinese railway workers by Canadian cooks during the building of the North American railroads in the late 19th century. These cooks made it under instruction from the English  bosses as an easily-prepared, inexpensive version of the popular shephards pie, with the sauce in the can of creamed-corn serving as a substitute for the gravy. The French Canadian railway workers became fond of it and brought the recipe back with them to their home communities.  Another more probable explanation for the name was traced by Lionel Guimont, a student of linguistics at Laval University, who shared his idea with Quebec language historian Claude Poirier. Mr. Poirier later published an article to this effect. Mr. Guimont had met an old native of Maine who was visiting Canada for the first time and had heard the man call the dish "China pie". Based on the fact that "pâté chinois" would normally translate in "Chinese pie", referring to the country (like in "French fries" as opposed to "*France fries"), Mr. Guimont wondered why the old man said "China pie", which in English refers to a city or a region (like in "Boston cream pie" as opposed to "*Bostonese cream pie"). He then found that two towns in the state of Maine, called China and South China, had been a favorite destination for Québécois forest workers, who came down from la Beauce along the Kennebec river by the turn of the century. Even today, a vast portion of the population of the China region is from Québécois descent and still bear French names so Mr. Guimont concluded that the name "pâté chinois" had not come down to Maine from B.C. via Québec (and become "Chinese pie") but rather went the other way. "China pie" must have been a common dish in lumbering camps and in mills kitchens around China. It had been (wrongly) translated later by the workers returning to Québec into "pâté chinois" because of the awkwardness of "pâté de Chine" in the French language. In parts of Maine, "pâté chinois" is referred to as "Chinese Party" -- phonetically more similar to the French term. How the dish was named is still a mystery to me but it is one of many reasons I love my Canadian heritage. So here is the Roi/Lessard version of Pate Chinois as made by my Grandmother Cecile Roi Lessard. Merci Beaucoup Grand-mere!

Pate Chinois
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef....browned
1 medium onion chopped
1 tsp olive oil
4 cans corn or creamed corn
Mashed potatoes to cover top of casserole
1.cook the onions in the oil until translucent. Add ground beef and brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. Layer meat and onions into casserole dish ( approximately 2in layer )
2. Layer corn ( if using reg corn- drain liquid , if creamed use all of the can) on top of ground beef
3. Layer mashed potatoes on top of corn approximate 2 inch layer
4. Bake in oven at 375 until inside is hot and potatoes are golden brown on top.
It is delicious and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Rappelez-vous, la vie est pleine de délicieuses bouchées!!

Christmas time is near...WHOOPIE

Its time to start getting ready for the holidays. That means lots of cookie dough and baking. I decided last year to add a couple of new cookies to my list of Christmas baking. This year after a few Test Kitchen recipes, I finally got my new 2010 Christmas cookie. Although I wont only be making it for Christmas...its absolutely delicious and quite easy to make. Whoopieeeeeeeeeee! or should I say Red Velvet Whoopie Pie! The recipe calls for Peppermint Cream cheese filling, but I decided to omit the peppermint. I may make some with the peppermint filling for Christmas as requested by a couple of people, but I am very happy without it. 

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs unsweetened cocao powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
red food coloring

Cream cheese filling ( recipe below )

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line sheet pan with parchment paper. In large bowl, beat butter with brown sugar until smooth. add cocao powder baking soda and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well mixed. Alternately add flour and buttermilk. ( I use a powdered buttermilk, easier to mix what I need when I need it ). Add red food coloring ( I used the paste kind ). Spoon dough from rounded measuring teaspoon and place 2 inches apart on sheet pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Make sure you do NOT underbake, as the cookies will fall if you do. Cool on sheet pan for 2 min then transfer to wire rack to cool. Spread cream cheese filling on flat side of one cookie and top with another cookie, to make sandwich. flat sides together. Serve cookies immediately after assembly. I baked the cookies and froze them- they thaw quickly and are perfect to do ahead.

makes about 40 cookies- to store after baking if you dont freeze, layer cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in airtight container. Store in refrigerator for 3 days, let stand at room temp for 15 minutes before serving.

Cream Cheese Filling:

6 oz of cream cheese room temp

3 tbs butter softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1-3 tsp milk

1/2 tsp peppermint extract if wanted.

Whip cream cheese until smooth and airy, add butter and mix until well incorporated. Add powdered sugar slowly until mixed and creamy. Add milk 1 tsp at a time until spreading consistency.

And there you have it.......My new favorite vintage classic cookie! Your going to love them! Remember, Life is full of tasty morsels!!

Michele's Morsels Test Kitchen NOW OPEN!

This is my Test Kitchen week......New Recipes, Old recipes revised and Final decisions made and produced. Tonite's Test Recipe is a recipe I found on The Joy of Baking site. It is for Cranberry Shortbread bars. As I absolutely LOVE cranberries, I decided to try this one out first. If it is successful, it will be a Christmas gift for several people as well as a new dessert. I have revised this recipe to make it a little more Diabetic Friendly. I used granulated Splenda in place of sugar, and Brown Sugar/ Splenda blend in place of the brown sugar. Cutting the sugar alone is a big big help. I have to remember its about portion control as well. The bars are baked in a 9x9 pan and recipe says 16 servings. Not large portions! I am trying to find a free online site to give me the nutritional value of the recipes I am re-working, to at least have an idea of what I am eating. I am not sure if my mom and her husband are "Willing" tasters ( subjects ) or if they are going to resent me for asking them to taste everything. Probably NOT! LOL.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars
Cranberry Filling:
8 oz fresh cranberries
2/3 scant ( not full ) cup of granulated splenda
3 Tbs water
Bring to boil and cook for about 5 minutes until thick and syrupy and cranberries have burst. Remove from heat and let cool.

Shortbread Bars:

2 cups flour

2 tbs cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup packed brown sugar/splenda blend

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and using canola spray or baking spray - lightly coat a 9 x 9 pan. Sift together flour, salt and cornstarch into separate bowl. In mixing bowl cream together butter, brown sugar blend and vanilla until creamy. Slowly add flour mix and beat until all ingredients are just incorporated. Evenly press 2/3 of the batter into the bottom of the prepared pan. Evenly spread the cranberry mixture to the shortbread base leaving a 1/4 inch border around the edges. With the remaining shortbread batter, using fingers, crumble the batter on top of the cranberry filling and lightly press into the filling.  Bake for about 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven or until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. While still warm, cut ito 16 squares. Allow to cool completely in pan. Makes 16 bars. Well I dont need to find out the nutritional information to know they are delicious. Mom thinks they are absolutely terrific and wanted more!  Cranberry Shortbread Bars - Pass!

FALLing behind....

Come Halloween, things start to get busier for some reason. With the holidays almost upon us, I guess its inevitable.  This is my favorite time of year. I love autumn and the flavors and smells that come with it. The crisp fresh air, the smell of the leaves falling from the trees, fire places starting to be used. Pumpkin spice lattes, Pumkin loaf, Cranberry this, Apple that..... I love getting ready for the holiday season, and most of all I love cooking and baking. Because I want to enjoy the season, I tend to be more organized this time of year. I dont like falling behind and I most certainly dont like being stressed. Lists are made, food is being labeled, gift bags are being organized....and it all seems to be done in a shorter than usual day. Ahhh the old Daylight savings time! I am vowing to NOT be ready for bed at 6pm....so to help with that, I am now preparing dinner for a bit later than we normally eat. Maybe this will help. I figure maybe something can compensate for the fact we seem to have less daylight in the afternoon. We will see. As for cooking, I am trying out new things and revising some old favorites. Sugar free or substituting Splenda for sugar, healthy for non healthy....Today I have decided to use the autumn flavors for dinner tonite. Grilled Chicken with a Sugar free Cranberry Orange glaze,  Roasted Mini Butternut squash, and a sort of Risotto made with some Autumn harvest orzo and canned pumpkin. Carot Cakes are in the oven. First thing I did was make the Cranberry Sauce. I did this yesterday so it would be extra yummy today from the flavors sitting together.

Cranberry sauce:
1/2 bag of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup Granulated Splenda
Cook in saucepan until berries burst and sauce thickens. About 20 minutes.
Let cool. Add 1 Teaspoon Olive oil, 1/2 orange  juiced, 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, zest of 1 orange. Mix and set aside or refrigerate.
I grilled up 4 chicken breasts without skin or bone, just to sear off the chicken and put some nice grill marks on it. Place seared chicken in covered casserole dish. ( this will keep chicken moist) cook for about 40 min. Uncover and put some of your cranberry sauce on each peice and continue cooking for another 15 minutes until you reach internal temp of 160 degrees.
While the chicken is cooking, I took my mini Butternut Squash and cut in half, legnthwise. Scooped out the seeds, brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt, black pepper, nutmeg and chili powder. Turn over and bake skin side up for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Heat up 1 cup of vegetable broth ( use chicken if necessary ) and add 1 cup of orzo. I bought a lovely autumn orzo mix so I used that. You want to cook the orzo slow like you would a risotto. Adding more broth as needed. The orzo will absorb the liquid slowly. When the orzo was al dente I added about 1 cup of canned pumpkin, cracked black pepper, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Stir until completely mixed. I then added 1 tbs of butter and 1 tbs of grated parmesan cheese to finish. Everything should be about finished the same time for service. I like serving everything, I found it definitely helps with portion control. The comments at the table tonite were...." I would pay for this in a restaurant"  and " If I ordered this out, I would not have been disappointed" LOL I guess it was good! It was definitely an Autumn Meal. Dessert will be later, a yummy carrot cake with some cream cheese frosting. ( sorry I cheated and used a mix for the cake )