Tasty Tangents

Food, life and other morsels

October 31, 2012
by admin
Comments Off on Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Jack O'Lanterns made from food cans.

So this is going to be one of those tangents the blog title refers to. I’ve been in a crafty mood lately so I thought I’d share a fun idea for upcycling old cans to make Halloween lanterns. (They are food cans so I guess this is kind of food-related!)

Here’s what you’ll need:
-old cans (I used old bean, pineapple, tomato and dog food cans, but bigger coffee cans would be great too.)
-power drill or a hammer and a nail
-orange spray paint
-black acrylic paint
-small paint brush
-battery-powered tea lights

Wash out the cans and remove the labels, making sure there are no sharp edges.

Find some jack o’lantern patterns online or create your own and draw the design on the can with a marker.

Instead of carving, drill holes along the lines of the pattern or hammer the holes in with a nail. Wipe off any additional marker or it may streak when you apply the spray paint.

(If you’ve got little ones, you may want to file down the inside of the cans where the holes can be a little sharp.)

Spray paint the cans with orange spray paint. I didn’t use a primer, but I totally should have. After about half a dozen coats it still didn’t come out quite as orange as I would have liked.

Finally paint over the design with some black paint so the lantern looks great in the daytime too.

Pop in a battery-powered candle and voila! Eternal Jack O’Lanterns. I may add some green wire to hang them and look like stems too.

I got the original idea for these on Pinterest via Saved By Love Creations and I think I may try lanterns for other seasons one day. They are super cheap and cheerful!

September 22, 2012
by admin
Comments Off on Ginger Cookies

Ginger Cookies

Ginger Cookies

The start of fall for me brings thoughts of creamy soups and spicy dishes to help warm you up from the inside out.

It also brings my wedding anniversary, so I decided to take one of my husband’s favourite things, hot and spicy ginger, and amp it up a bit.

I found this great Ginger Snap Recipe and just upped the ginger quotient by doubling the amount of fresh ginger in the recipe.

The cookies came out delicious, chewy in the middle with just enough crispness on the outside for texture.

I think the key is not to overbake them. I trusted the recipe, even though they didn’t seem quite done and they were perfect.

Bring on the fall colours!

September 1, 2012
by admin
Comments Off on Honey Bake Shop

Honey Bake Shop

Honey Bake Shop's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcake

Does a place ever look so yummy from the outside that you just know that what’s inside is going to be delicious?

I don’t know why I put off visiting Uptown Waterloo’s Honey Bake Shop all summer, but it took until the end of August before I made it through the doors.

It was late afternoon when I stopped in after lunch with a friend at work, so the selection was a little low, only more than half-a-dozen cupcake flavours to choose from. (Insert quirky smile here.)

I opted for a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. It was delicious, moist and flavourful with just the right amount of frosting.

My pet peeve is cupcakes with too much frosting, and this one was just right.

They had lots of interesting flavours to choose from, truthfully, and I think next time the maple and bacon will be calling my name!

August 19, 2012
by admin
Comments Off on S’mores Cookies

S’mores Cookies

Do you ever get cravings that just won’t go away? It happens to me, and usually the only solution is to find a way to satisfy it.

Every summer I seem to get a hankering for s’mores, those gooey chocolate and marshmallow on graham crackers treats you usually enjoy around  a campfire.

So I figured there must be a way to enjoy them without the fire part. After a few searches I found an awesome-looking recipe on a blog after my own heart The Girl Who Ate Everything.

What could be better than combining s’mores with chocolate chip cookies?

S'more Cookies

Here’s my adapted version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
2 large Hershey bars, in squares
1 package graham crackers

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

Cream together butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and stir on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows by hand. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Place graham crackers side by side on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place a rounded tablespoons of dough on each graham crackers and press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press a piece of the Hershey’s bar on to each cookie.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Place graham crackers side by side on cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

July 31, 2012
by admin
Comments Off on Magic Beans

Magic Beans

I’ve been loving hitting the Coldstream Farmer’s Market just up the road for fruits and vegetables from local producers.

It has allowed me to discover the joys of blue potatoes, golden beets and magic beans!

Well, maybe not magic, but definitely fun to cook. They were actually delicious green beans, but one of two batches that I bought were purple to begin with.

After a quick steam though, they were back to the traditional green, though definitely a darker shade than the regular green beans.

Green and Purple Beans: The Before and After

I hope you’ve been taking advantage of the fresh produce from growers in your area!