Annemiek's Pasta Sauce of Deliciousness.

My room-mate's mother, Annemiek, makes the most incredibly delicious pasta sauce. I am not a huge fan of pasta, and I am also not the sort of person to keep eating after I am full, but I will gorge myself on this pasta sauce until my stomach begs for mercy. In fact, to avoid obesity I need to restrict how often I make this recipe it is so good. It is also ridiculously simple:

You need:

- Bacon, to taste. I usually use about half a package.
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic (or to taste. Really you can't ever have too much garlic and bacon.)
- One large can of diced tomatoes.
- One package of cream cheese
- Spices (optional. I usually use oregano, basil, marjoram and parsley, but only a very little bit so as not to overwhelm.)
- fettuccine.

Cook the fettuccine in a separate pot. I assume you all know how to cook pasta. Dice the onion and garlic (we often use a garlic press). Chop the bacon into small strips (we do this by cutting the bacon with scissors). In a large cooking pot fry up the onions and bacon until mostly cooked. Add in the garlic and fry for a few more minutes before adding the diced tomatoes and the cream cheese. Simmer with the lid of to reduce while the pasta cooks, stirring often so as not to burn the cream cheese. Add the spices, though really, the sauce is tasty enough without them.

Add to fettuccine and enjoy. So simple, soooooo good!

Om nom nom Muffins!

I love muffins! I love them so much I call anything that is cute, fuzzy (long story), or sad a muffin. Last night I finally had the perfect combo of time, energy and chocolate chips to make my favorite muffins: chocolate chip bran muffins. The recipe is shamelessly stolen from the top of the Quaker bran box and is quite delectable.

Here is the original recipe, with notes from me in italics:

QUAKER Bran Muffins

1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs (unbeaten)
1 1/2 cup QUAKER natural wheat bran
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 tsp salt <- I never add salt to baking recipes (with the exception of bread). I find things these days are usually quite salty enough without needing to add, and salt is easy to add on later either with a shaker or some salted butter.
1/2 cup raisins (optional) <- @#*% raisins! Add chocolate chips till there's more chocolate chips than batter! Then add some more!

12 servings - 1 dozen large muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream shortening and sugar together.
Add molasses and eggs and beat together well
Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl.
Add to liquid ingredients, mix well, add raisins.
I am kind of lazy and just dump the ingredients into the bowl one by one mixing the whole time. It works out fine.
Spoon into greased muffin pans. Or into muffin cups, easier to clean.
Bake 18 to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Mamma's Tortière

We had never made this traditional Québecois dish before (it not being part of our particular tradition) so, typically, Perle read a bunch of recipes, including Martin Picard`s of course, and made up her own version.

We did not make the puff pastry, but bought it at the gourmet shop which is catering the baby shower. Maybe next time...

We made 2 pies with pastry on the top only.

Ingredients:

1 lb minced pork
1 lb minced veal
1 lb minced beef
2 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic
sliced brown mushrooms
olive oil
cinnamon
cloves
thyme
salt
pepper
bay leaf
¼ cup white wine
2 cubes demi-glace
Tbsp flour
Tbsp butter

crush cloves, thyme, salt, peppercorns, cinnamon
sauté garlic and onions in oil, remove to a bowl
sauté mushrooms in oil, remove to a bowl
add wine and deglaze the pan
add meat and brown
stir in onions, mushrooms and spices and demi-glace
cook until most of the liquid is reduced
thicken with 1 Tbsp flour and butter

put the meat in pie plates, cover with pastry, brush with beaten egg
bake at 350° for 45 minutes