Happy Birthday to Mr Ginge!

It’s Mr. Ginge’s birthday today! Yay!

The man who not only serves as an official Ginger Bakes taste tester, but is a driving force behind the blog, occasionally coming up with recipes, supporting me over the past two years, and ultimately the person who turned me into a “foodie” by always making me try something at least once. I mean let’s face it, this man is all about the food.

So in honour of his birthday, I’m sharing 15 of his favourite recipes from the blog.

In no particular order:

1. Christmas in a Cup – One of his recipes, his beverage of choice after coming in from shovelling the driveway. 
2.Cheddar Ranch Bubble Bread – I changed the recipe a bit one day ( which I should have known not to do) and completely ruined is day because it wasn’t how he liked it.

3.White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies – His absolute favourite cookie. I make him a batch every year to take hunting with him.

4. Nutella Crispy Rolls - The man loves chocolate. And cereal treats. He could hardly wait ( and didn’t) for the chocolate to set before slicing into these.

5.Caramel Apple Pancakes – Another one of his recipes that he came up with when he had a craving for pancakes and some apples that needed to be eaten.
6.Cracker Fried Pork Tenderloin ( or, as we call it, Snake)- I can not buy pork tenderloin and not make this.  It just doesn’t happen.

7.Dark Chocolate Bourbon Mousse – We are bourbon drinkers, so the combination was irresistible to him.
8.Pizza Rolls – The appetizer that sparked our relationship and a favourite of  the snacker.
9.Mom’s Lasagna – His requested birthday meal

10.Iced Toffee Scones – It was him who discovered these in the grocery store, and eagerly gobbled up the homemade version. That and I’m pretty sure he thinks Skor bits would improve most desserts.
11.Lobster Mac and Cheese – The man loves all things rich and indulgent.
12.Marbled Chocolate Orange Pound Cake – Citrus-y pound cake is one of his most favourite things and the addition of chocolate makes it all that much better to him.
13.Jalapeno Grilled Cheese – This was love at first bite for him.

14.Buttertarts – Mr. Ginge is a fan of any classic dessert, and requests these fequently.
15.Deep Dish Pizza – After all, he was the one who begged me to make it when we couldn’t get it in town.

So there you have it. A few of the birthday boy’s favourite recipes.  Happy Birthday to him!

Outside My Kitchen

At this very moment, I am scarfing down a croissant loaded with Boursin  cheese. Yum.

And while that is not a very exciting revelation this snowy February afternoon, it is decidedly more exciting than the mountain of laundry that I have to face. How two people amass so much laundry is beyond me.

As you can probably tell, I’m suffering from a tough case of writers block. I’ve got some recipes lined up, photographed and all ready to go, but all I think to say about them is ” Hey! This is good! You should make it!”, which, really, would get redundant after the first time.

So instead, I’m going to inundate you with some pictures (mostly of my cats) which I took with my new lens. Yay!

The first picture I took with the new lens was actually a Skylander,  but the various cats lazing around the proved to be better subjects.

Isn’t my baby cute?

 

 

We went out for sushi the other night, and broke in my lens on actual food instead of cats. It’s still throwing me off a little bit and I’m getting blurs in all the wrong spots, but I’m still in love.

Happy Caturday!

-Mel

Top 10 Recipes for 2012

2012 has flown by.

I can’t believe that there is only a few mere hours left in the year, but at the same time I am ready for a fresh new start in 2013. I don’t have any resolutions per say ( mostly because I don’t keep them!), other than to plough through my 25 while 25 list!

In terms of my little corner of the web, this year has been amazing and it’s all thanks to you guys! I’ve been extremely blessed to have some of my recipes featured around other corners of the web!

Based on my traffic stats, these were the most popular posts of this year:

1. Cheesy Garlic Bubble Bread

This recipe was the most popular by a landslide. Apparently I’m not the only one crazy about garlic bread!

2. Nanaimo Bars

3. Banana Upside Down Cupcakes

4. Tomato Soup Cake

5. Mini Apple Crisp Cookies

(These cookies were on the list last year too!)

6. Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

7. Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Dip

8. Gran’s Cabbage Rolls

9. Greek Pasta Salad

10.  Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies

Thanks again to everyone who has made this an exceptional year!

-Mel

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to your family from ours!

Wishing you a day full of happiness and joy!

-Mel, Mr Ginge and the Keels -

25 While I’m 25

Today is my 25th birthday! Yay!

In honour of this milestone ( is 25 considered a milestone?) I decided to challenge myself. Like I imagine many novice cooks and bakers, I have a sort of “bucket-list” of things that I want to make. I have chosen 25 of them, and have given myself 1 year ( or until I’m not 25) to try them. Hopefully there will be plenty of successes. Likely there will be failures. Either way, I’m going to work my way through the list throughout the year.

Some are simple, some are more challenging, a lot of them involve yeast ( Despite many successful attempts, I still fear yeast) and all of them I have been meaning to try for a while now.

In no particular order:

1. Bagels
2. Sourdough bread ( using a starter)
3. Butterhorns ( aka : Cresent rolls that don’t come out of a tube)
4. Croissants
5. Irish soda bread
6. Macarons
7. Baked Alaska ( like Gran used to make)
8. Pizza Dough
9. Baklava
10. Angel food cake (my nemesis)
11. Arancini
12. Fudge (the real stuff. Not the cheaters version )
13. Pierogies
14. Pretzels
15. Tourtière pie
16. Rye bread
17. Gnocchi
18. Cinnamon rolls
19. New to me icing ( I’m thinking a Swiss meringue… but we’ll see )
20. Ice cream
21. Whoopie pies
22. Marshmallows
23. Tortillas
24. Danish
25. Biscotti

So there you have it. 25 things that I am going to attempt to make this year, mostly just to say that I have. I have no idea if I will make it through this list in a year, but I am certainly going to try.

Dear God, wish me luck.

-Mel

One Lovely Blog Award

Last week, the lovely Amber from The Cooks Sister nominated me for The Lovely Blog Award! Yay My first blog award!

According to the rules of nomination, I have to share 7 random things about myself, and then pass the love on to 15 more lovely blogs

So here goes:

1. Going along with the season, I will confess that I hate pumpkin. I really want to like it. I see all these wonderful recipes on others blogs that I want to be able to like. I’ve honestly tried to like it, but it’s just not happening. Fortunately, this poses no problem for Mr. Ginge, who also doesn’t like it.
2. I have two uvulas. Uvuli? I know. I’m a freak.
3. I have a deep and undying love for Timbits and pizza. Not necessarily together.
4. I used to play flute, clarinet, alto sax, bari sax, guitar and piano.  I wish I could still really play any of them.
5. I found my doppelganger. One of my best friends looks strikingly like me ( or I guess me like her). We also had a knack for dressing exactly the same on the same day without planning it. Literally people would stop in the hall to ask if we were twins.
6. I am obsessively on time. I absolutely hate being late for anything. So much so, that I am often awkwardly early for things. Which really, is often no better than being late. It’s a viscous circle.
7. I cannot brush my teeth in warm water. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

And here are 15 other lovely blogs that you should definitely check out:

1. Movita Beaucoup
2. Food Through the Pages
3. The Spiffy Cookie
4. Bits of Sunshine
5. Dinner is Served 1972
6. Fotographia Foodie
7. The Gingerbread Road
8. Butter Baking
9. The Domestically Impaired Guide to Retro Kitchen Arts
10. Sugar for the Brain
11. Confessions of a Recipe Junkie
12. From My Sweet Heart
13. Cook Lisa Cook
14. Sweet Pea’s Kitchen
15. The Food Pusher

Happy Friday!!!

8 Thanksgiving Recipes

You know those weeks where everything gets away from you.

The kind where you accidentally hit the snooze button one too many times, and that include frazzled brains, stressed out hubbies, two rounds of retail therapy, one round of iced capp therapy, and then the sudden realization that it’s the Friday before Thanksgiving long weekend and you have no idea how it happened.

Yea….I’ll be lucky if I get some cranberry sauce on the table!

Fortunately for you, I gathered some Thanksgiving-y recipes all together in one place! Yay!

Cranberry Sauce

Apple Blueberry Turnovers

Apple Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

Mini Apple Crisp Cookies

Tomato Soup Cake

Zucchini Cake Bars

Mini Mushroom Turnnovers

Yay for food related long weekends!

-Mel

How I Organize My Recipes

I have an addiction.

And it seems to be recipes. One that I also share with Mr Ginge.

There are recipes everywhere in my house, collected by me, Mr Ginge, or other members of our family, sometimes with sweets notes attached. Clippings from the newspaper from work,  pages torn from magazines, recipe card freebies from the grocery store all get collected and stacked somewhere in our home. And this doesn’t even include recipes that we find online. Needless to say, I had to come up with a way t keep them all sorted.

I keep them all organized using mainly four ways, and will say now that I am a lover of recipe cards and use them heavily. I get mine at Michaels, or just use index cards from the dollar store. Or bits of paper. Whatever. It just what works best for me.

1) Pinterest – Alright, everybody uses Pinterest for recipes, but dudes, it works! I have tried starring things in my reader, or using stumble upon, or even bookmarking pages, but they just get lost and I spend forever trying to find them. Online recipes that we find get pinned on to my various food related boards. I even started a board for recipes that I have made ( and liked!)  so that I can find them again. Occasionally recipes get printed ( then filed), but more often than not I am out of ink, so this works the best.

2) My Recipe Book – Here I keep my most turned to recipes, things that I make often or that Mr Ginge requests often. The book ( which I was given as a gift) has dividers for each type of recipe, and hold recipe cards. If recipes cards aren’t your thing, the same idea could be used for print outs, but that just didn’t work for me. I keep the book within easy reach so that I can turn to it  whenever I wish.

3) Recipe Boxes – So yes. I love retro recipe storage ways. I keep our less frequently used recipes here. Recipes that we have tried and liked ( or that at least one of us have), family recipes that are less frequently used, and the like. I do have two boxes, one for sweet and one for savory, but you could certainly get away with one. I’m just super persnickety.

4) The File Folder – When I first met Mr Ginge, many of his recipes were secretly stashed away in a shoe box, or in old cheque book boxes. Mine were stacking up, loosely stuck into an old binder. And then there was the pile of magazines to go through. It was getting to be mountain high. I actually came across the folder in an office supply store and it turned out to be perfect for all of the clipping and bits of paper.  I just labelled the inside dividers  with the type of recipe that I wanted an then slid them into the pocket. While this may still require a bit of time to search for a recipe to try, it’s at least narrowed own a bit more.

And there you have it. That’s how my recipes are organized. Too bad nothing else is organized that way.

My All-Time Favorite Christmas Movies

December 1st marks the first official day that, growing up, we were allowed to start watching holiday movies. it was the official start to the holiday season. First day for advent calendars, and first day we could bust out the Christmas classics. And while no I am one of those people who have their Christmas trees up mid-November and can be heard humming Christmas carols in July, this is one traditions I have always stuck to. It’s officially the holidays when the movie are busted out.

There a few favorites that I watch (several times) every year, and without them it just doesn’t feel like Christmas.I have listed below  my absolute favorites. Yes I know many of them were made decades before I was born, however they are classics for a reason. So grab a cup of cocoa, a fleecy blanket and curl up by the Christmas tree with one of these movies.

In no particular order:

Disney’s Babes in Toyland: (1961)

I’m not really sure this is a holiday movie, but we always seemed to watch it during the holidays. Always. “March of the Toys” instant takes me back to childhood Christmas’s. And, now that I think of it, holiday shopping since that song always seems to b playing in the malls around this time of year.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas: (1966)

Not the Jim Carey version. The 1/2 hr christmas special that you watched so often that you can recite it of by heart. Boris Karloff is the greatest Grinch ( not really a grinch… but the Grinch… you know what I mean) of all time.  And yes, the book is indeed better, however I can’t help but read it in his voice.

Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, my sister’s childhood nickname was based on Cindy Lou Who. Yes, since she was two, and yes we’ve watched it that many times. The name still gets busted out around this time every year too.

White Christmas: (1954)

The Bing Crosby classic. I love the costumes, the music, the choreography ( speaking of which…. how did that guy pop out of the floor?) the music. I love everything about this movie.  Mom always wished ( probably still does, despite the fact that I can’t carry a tune…) that my sister and I would sing this song. Really, I just want the dress.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeeer:(1964)

This one is my absolute favorite. I can not imagine a Christmas without Burl Ives as a snowman, Yukon Cornelius, the Island of Misfit Toys, or the Abominable Snow Monster of the North.

A Muppet Christmas Carol: (1992)

A lot more recent of a movie than some of the others, this is one of my favorite renditions of the Charles Dickens classic. That and doesn’t this song just put you in a great holiday mood? And really? who doesn’t love Kermit.

The Snowman : (1982)

I remember watching this in grade one, and it has stuck with me ever since. While not a classic like some of the others, it’s still one of my favorites. I love the soundtrack to it, and really how do your resist a story like where your backyard snowman flies you to he North Pole?

The Year without a Santa Claus:(1974)

Two words: Snow. Miser.

Santa Claus is Comin to Town: (1970)

The story of how Santa Claus came to be and how Burgermeister Meisterburger banned toys ( seriously, best villain name eer)Plus Fred Astaire narrates this one. And Santa is a ginger.

A Charlie Brown Christmas: (1965)

This one is my Dad’s favorite holiday movie, and again Christmas isn’t quite Christmas until without it.  I desperately want a Charlie Brown Tree.

So there you have it. I could, and will likely think of five more in the next little while, but these ones are a Christmas must in my family.

Any Christmas specials that are a must watch in your family?

Homemade Taco Seasoning

I hope every one had a safe and happy Halloween!

Now that it has passed, I can start gearing up for the Holidays! ( Or I can publicly start gearing up for the holidays without getting strange looks from people )

Last few days,  have been stressful enough, without throwing in the holidays! Ha!

One such stressful event happened on Saturday morning. Mr. Ginge and I planned to head down to the market for the last weekend before it closes for the season. We were meeting our neighbors and were going to head down. We we get to our neighbors house, I absentmindedly adjust my left hand ring, only to discover that is wasn’t there. My other rings that I normally wear were on my hand, so there would be no reason why my engagement ring would not be on. Instantly my heart sank. It was like a punch straight to the gut. The ring had slipped off and I had no idea where or even how long it had been missing.

So part of Saturday morning was spend crawling around on the ground , retracing my steps, trying to find my ring that could have been lost anywhere in the house, or some where between the house and our neighbors a block away. Let’s just say, you don’t really realize how much of a distance it really is until you are looking for something smaller than a quarter.   Mr. Ginge was about to send me to buy a metal detector in order to find it.

Fortunately, it was found where it has slipped off when I grabbed my shoes. It is now and secure at the jewelery store, getting sized down two sizes (no wonder it slipped off) so that we hopefully don’t have to go through this again! 

For stressful days, one of our go- to recipes are tacos. They are quick, easy, and we almost always have the fixings on hand to throw together.  Including this homemade seasoning. I like it better than the packaged stuff and it is so easily customize to your own tastes. It’s  also great as a rub on meats or fish, and I have even been known to throw it in a pot of chili in a pinch.

Homemade Taco Seasoning:

This makes about 1/2 a cup of seasoning, but is easily doubled.

• 1/4 cup of chili powder
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp garlic powder ( or garlic salt if you prefer
• 2tsbp chipotle powder ( or smoked paprika if you don’t want it spicy)

1. Dump all of the spices into an airtight container.
2. Close the lid and shake it a few times to mix up the spices. Store in the air tight container.
3. Use for taco meat, or as a rub, or use it to kick up your favorite recipes

To use for taco meat:

1. Brown and drain 1 Lb of ground meat.
2. Stir in 2 tbsp of seasoning and a couple teaspoons of water if necessary. Let cook for a few minutes.

Adapted from Kraft.
On another note, you should see the enormous sweet potatoes we picked up at the market. Perhaps this is Mr. Ginge’s way of telling me he wants some sweet potato pie?

-Mel