Game of Thrones Feast Part 2: Easy Honeyed Chicken

It was hard come up with a main dish for out GOT feast (here's Part 1). Partly because we didn't want to hunt for venison and love dragons too much to eat them for dinner. So we ventured into the darkness called the internet to see what other GOT fans were cooking up in the kitchen. Luckily, there is such a thing as a Game of Thrones Food Blog so we got to work and decided to make their version of Honeyed Chicken 

Closely adapted from the original recipe found here

Ingredients: 

• 1 chicken 
• Butter (we used a little more than 1 tbs ~1/4 to 1/2 stick just enough to get the skin buttery, especially in crevices) 
• garlic salt (instead of just salt)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (sweeter than white or malt)
• 1/3 cup honey
• Dried or fresh mint (optional)
• Craisins or raisins (1/4 cup)
• ~1tbs butter

How to (serves 4):

• Preheat oven to 450F. Place some foil on top of a roasting pan with the chicken at the center. Cover the chicken skin with butter and salt (crispy skin so work that butter!). 
• Roast the chicken for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, until skin is crispy and center is not pink (typically 180 celsius inside if you have a thermometer)
• To make the sauce, combine apple cider vinegar, honey and raisins in medium heat until the reduced (aka the sauce becomes a little thicker and less watery) 
• Pour sauce over chicken and season with mint as desired 

Easy! 

Winter can come now. We're ready to hibernate. 

Game of Thrones Feast Part 1: Freshly Baked Bread

We're a little bit excited about the upcoming premiere of the new season of GAME OF THRONES (cue music). As hammer and potato tradition, we prepare for this glorious day by feasting the way lords and ladies do- except we don't really have servants so we kind of have to do the hunting and cooking and cleaning up. Safe to say, at least we know we won't be re-enacting a purple wedding fiasco in front of the tv our dining hall. 

First course - freshly baked bread! 

Ingredients (for 3 giant loaves): 

• 1.5 tbsp salt
• 1.5 tbsp honey 
• 1.5 tbsp fast rising yeast 
• 6.5 cups flour
• 3 cups water + 3-6 tbsp

How to: 

1. Place the yeast in a small bowl and add 3-6 tbsp luke warm water and honey. Quickly stir to dissolve most of the yeast
2. Add flour and salt into the mixture
3. On a clean flat surface, sprinkle some flour so that the dough doesn't stick. Start kneading the dough until it becomes one giant mass. (Add flour as needed to not make it stick to the surface). You're ready when you poke it and the mass bounces back.



dough ball - pre rising! 

4. Place in a large (we used the largest mixing bowl we had) bowl and cover with cloth (any towel will do). 
5. Sit back and let the dough rise uncontrollably. (2-3 hours) until it becomes one giant ball that is the size of Westeros (not really, but you know what we mean!) 
6. Use your Dothraki-like muscles to work and divide the dough into desirable size (bigger ball = longer bake time). We made three loaves the size of our heads with these ingredient amounts
7. Form smooth balls. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and let the dough rise for another 30 minutes. Shape and decorate as needed. We use the standard three stripes along the top the way we would draw bread in cartoons :D  
8. Preheat oven to 450 F
9. Place a small roasting pan filled with water at the bottom of the oven and the would-be bread in the middle/top racks (this is an added step for a nice and crispy crust) 
10. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top crust browns 
11. Let cool for at least 15 minutes and enjoy!

One of three loaves the size of our heads.

A feast fit for a king - or seven. Or two really awesome queens 

Easy Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

One day, we were debating over the merits of what we wanted to go with our savory meal. One of us wanted to do some sort of cheesecake, and the other wanted to do something easier and less time-consuming like cookies. Like all great partnerships, during times of trouble, we decided to compromise and make some sort of cheesecake-cookie hybrid that wouldn't take up a lot of time and was low on ingredient cost. Hence, the choice to make oreo cheesecake cookies.

Ingredients: 

about 10-12 oreos 

1 cup chocolate chips (milk or dark)

3/4 cup butter (thawed)

1/3 cup cream cheese (thawed)

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F
2. Remove the white centre from the oreos and place the cookies in a ziplock bag. Crush them until semi-fine
3. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until all ingredients are combined.
4. Add the egg yolk, vanilla and salt
5. Slowly add the flour while mixing 
6. Then add the chocolate chips and oreos until all parts are evenly mixed
7. Line baking pans with parchment paper. Scoop and make 1-1.5 inch balls of the cookie dough to place on the baking pan. Press these with a spoon until they resemble mini-cookies (there is minimal expansion with these cookies).
8. If desired, create patterns on the top with a fork (i.e. something that looks like --> #)
9. Bake from 12-14 minutes or until the edges are golden. If you can't see the golden edges, you'll notice the batter becomes dry and the texture looks a bit cookie-like. This should be enough
10. Remove from the oven and let them cool .... 
11. Try not to go all cookie-monster on these yummy things. 

Oreo. cheesecake. cookies. Still warm from the oven and ready to melt in your mouth. 

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

Breakfast is a very important meal to us. Apart from what experts say, we believe eating breakfast is essential so that we don't get cranky before lunch. (No rumbling tummies around 11am!) But, it's really hard to get up in the morning and have to prepare something, and on the days that we don't want smoothies, but need to get rid of those overripe bananas, simple muffins are made (and eaten for the rest of the week).

Yes, breakfast muffins are the way of the future. 

This recipe is healthy, packed with protein, fiber, potassium and chocolate chips

Ingredients (yields 15-18): 

3 mashed bananas 

1 cup almond milk (or soy, but almond milk is delicious)

2 eggs

1 tbsp baking powder 

3 cups steel cut oats (or rolled oats. they work too)

1 tsp vanilla extract 

chocolate chips (at your own risk! we prefer to use plenty) 

Procedure: 

1. Preheat the oven to 370F
2. Mix bananas with almond milk, eggs and vanilla extract
3. Add the baking powder and oats to the mix and stir until even. 
4. Grease, or line the muffin tins. Either would do
5. Mix a million pounds  the chocolate chips until you think you have enough. (We normally use about 50-60g) 
6. Place batter in the muffin tins. Keep in mind these don't rise as much as regular muffins do.  
7. Bake for 18-25 minutes (until tops are golden brown) and cool for 10-15 minutes. To reheat just place in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. 

Muffins are the way of the breakfast future. 

Summer Cocktails: Kiwi Blueberry Mojitos

As previous service-industry workers, there are some drinks that are a little bit of a pain to make during a rush like cappuccinos, matcha lattes and mojitos. At the same time, we LOVE summer cocktails because they're really refreshing. The bonus bit about making your own cocktails is that you don't have to really scrimp   measure alcohol, or any of the ingredients for that matter, and it costs a lot less. The ingredients here are an estimate that has worked for us, but feel free to change to suit your palettes.

Here's a recipe that yields 4-6 tall glasses (1 pitcher) of the kiwi blueberry mojitos:

Ingredients:
200-250g blueberries (one medium pack at the grocery, or 2 cups frozen)
8 kiwis
mint (for garnish.. but very important in mojitos)
1/4 cup lime juice (that's about 3-4 limes)
1/2 cup sugar and a little more (1 tbsp) for the rims
1.5 cups sparkling water (tonic water)
ice cubes
rum (dark/light) - amount varies

Procedure:

1. Peel 5-6 kiwis, squeeze lime juice, add 1/2 cup sugar and puree in a blender. Add as much rum as required (to taste)
2. Set aside 2-3 sliced kiwis
3. Gently crush the blueberries and set aside
4. Prepare the glasses by moistening the rims with a slice of lime and running the moist rims against the 1tbsp of sugar on a plate
5. After the rims are moistened, place ice, 1-2 slices of kiwi and some blueberries in the glass. Add the puree from step (1) until about the halfway point, and use sparkling water the rest of the way. Add mint to the top for garnish. Stir and enjoy!

The final product - refreshing, fruity summer cocktails 

Mojitos are more often than not, worth the effort

And remember folks, hammer and potato do not support drinking and driving!

High Tea Saturday Part 3: Prosciutto Gruyere Parmesan Scones

At last! The final recipe we used for our High Tea Saturday series (here are links to part 1 and part 2). This was our first time making savoury scones and they turned out to be a pretty cheesy success. They also turned out to be breakfast for the next two days--easy to warm up by sticking them in the toaster while the coffee is brewing.

We would like to give credit to the original recipe, found here

Ingredients: 
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup grated gruyere (we don't really measure cheese. we may have added a bit more)
1/2 cup chopped prosciutto (again, we may have added a bit more)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup chopped green onion (we may have used less. not a big fan of these)
2 tablespoons half and half

Procedure: 

1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Chop up the butter and slowly add to the mixture until crumbly (use your hands.. just because it's fun!)
2. Add the eggs and buttermilk and whisk together
3. Add the cheeses, onion and prosciutto and mix until the dough is sticky
4. Find a clean and flat surface. Flour the surface and knead until all ingredients are evenly combined. 
5. Roll the dough flat until it is about 0.5-1 inch thick and cut into fun shapes (like triangles. triangles are pretty fun)
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the scone triangles. (The original recipe yielded about 10 scones but we used our amazing tetris skills to get more scones out of the surface area of out baking sheet and yielded a little above 15 triangles of different sizes. with a bit of space in between each scone as room for expansion)
7. Lightly brush batter with half and half cream and sprinkle with additional salt/cheese
8. Chill in the freezer for half an hour and preheat the oven to 400F
9. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown at the top. Best served with some tea (this isn't high tea without the tea, folks!) 

These scones look quite photogenic

The final product: Different sizes of scones loaded up with all the things we love--cheese and prosciutto. Notice all that ham sticking out of that middle scone. /happiness

High Tea Saturday Part 2: Tomato Basil Mushroom Quiches

Sorry for the delayed post folks! Part 2 of our High Tea Saturday Adventure, consisted of some delicious Quiches! Quiche is one of those recipes that are made differently by everyone and differently every time it is made. The great thing about quiche is that it's so versatile and customizable! You can put practically anything you want in it. In our version of Quiche, we added tomatoes, mushrooms and some fresh basil.

Tomato, Basil and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:
Phyllo pastry
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Basil
Eggs
Seasoning

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cut your phyllo pastry into little squares and place over each well in your muffin tin. Make sure the squares of phyllo are big enough that they hang a little past the edges of the wells in the muffin tin.
3. Prep and chop your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil into bite sized pieces.
4. In a separate bowl, beat your eggs and add in your tomatoes, mushrooms and basil and your seasoning of choice to taste. For seasoning, we used salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano and thyme.
5. Carefully pour your filling into each phyllo pastry cup.
6. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

It is important to note that the reason why we didn't specify any exact measurements is because the amount of ingredients you use will depend on how many quiches you want to make, so we recommend just eyeballing the amount of ingredients you want to use. We made about a dozen mini quiches that day. Additionally, you can put almost anything in your quiches! We recommend getting creative! Suggestions could be some cheddar cheese (or any cheese of choice), bacon, pepper, garlic etc. The sky's the limit with Quiche!

Fresh baked mini quiches, straight out of the oven

Quiche is so simple and easy to make, yet it's packed with flavour and deliciousness! Give this refreshing twist on eggs a try!