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Posts Tagged ‘cheese’

Queso de Bola Spread

Queso de Bola Spread

Because the holiday season is already so stressful, there are some things that you should never do in December.

Getting married is one of them.

This of course is from first hand experience when eight years ago, three days after Christmas, I said “I do.”  When I got engaged my then fiancé said “pick a date” and there was no doubt in my mind that we would get married around the Christmas holidays.  I had visions of a string quartet playing Christmas carols at the wedding reception, pointsettias hanging around the ballroom and because my Mom was taking care of the catering, I asked for a Holiday themed menu including glazed hams and roast turkeys.

The stress started as early as September when the dressmaker told me that because I wanted a beaded dress, whatever my current weight was then was what my weight had to be at my wedding.  There was no room to put on any holiday weight as this would mean major adjustments to the dress.

It was hard to enjoy engagement parties and holiday get togethers when every time I’d want to stuff myself silly I’d envision a little bubble over my head and inside was the dressmaker shaking his head saying “Tsk… tsk… I told you not to eat so much!”

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Bacon, Carrot and Cheese Cake

Bacon, Carrot and Cheese Cake

On my last trip to New York I stumbled upon a book called Cakes and Loaves by Ilona Chovancova.  It’s been seven months since I managed to use a recipe from it!  I remembered the other day that the book had a basic savoury cake recipe that I wanted to share for The Cooking Basics series.   This is a fantastic and delicious basic recipe from which you can vary ingredients depending on what you feel like eating, what’s available or what’s in season.   Making the cake is effortless – no need for multiple bowls, no need for a mixer (a grater and wooden spoon will do) and I promise it would probably take you less than ten minutes to put together.  These cakes can be eaten any time of the day – great for breakfast on the go, for lunch, an afternoon snack or even a light dinner with a salad.

Some tips should you choose to make your own savoury cake:

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Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

As part of “The Cooking Basics” series, I thought I’d share with you one of the books I consider to be an invaluable resource for creating your own recipes.  Michael Ruhlman’s “Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking” is slowly turning out to be pretty handy in the kitchen.

Essentially, the author refers to a culinary ratio as a fixed proportion of one ingredient relative to another.  He says that these proportions for the backbone of the craft of cooking.  The book contains ratios for doughs, stocks, sausages, sauces and custards and once you know the basics, you are really only limited by your imagination.  For example, the ratio for bread is 5 parts flour : 3 parts water.  So combining 500 grams of flour plus 300 grams of water plus a small amount of yeast will give you the basic bread dough.  Now, once you know how to mix this properly, comes the fun part!  Looking for a savoury bread?  Add bacon, caramelized onions, or cheese.  In a nutty mood?  Add walnuts, olives, and raisins.

I must caution, if you are looking for a “cooking bible” or “the best bread recipe, best custard recipe etc” this is probably not what you are looking for.  Think of this more as a guide to help you understand how certain ingredients work together to give you different results (for example, pizza dough and bread are made up of the same ingredients but why are they so different?)

This book enables you to rely less on cookbooks and more on your creativity and as the author says  “When you know a ratio, it’s not like knowing a single recipe, it’s instantly knowing a thousand.”

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