Reuben Dip

We had our annual Family Ball Tournament this past weekend. This year we brought a dip and Rice Krispie squares. I screwed up the squares, but the dip turned out pretty good. Once again, I poached this recipe from Noble Pig, but I believe it originated from Family Circle Magazine.

It's basically all the ingredients for a Reuben sandwich, but in dip form.

You can't really see in this pic, but I ended up shredding the Corned Beef before adding it to the mix. I asked for two thick slices at the deli counter, thinking I would cube it, but it was a little too "gnurply" for that.

Other than that, just mix everything and dump it into a 9X9 baking dish. Bake at 350 until bubbly before serving.

I took a picture once it was mixed, but I did not have a chance to snap a pic once it was cooked. As I recall we had a kitchen full of people and two babies crying at the time. Maybe next time...

200 grams of corned beef
1 - 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup sauerkraut, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
Cocktail rye bread

Mix everything together (except the bread, dummy), and dump it all into a 9X9 dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

No-Knead Bread

So we got this bread machine as a wedding gift. "Great!", we thought, "Fresh bread all the time, right?"

Wrong. The thing sat in a closet for 3 years. We eventually gave it away. That was the end any chance of fresh bread on our table. That is until I saw my personal hero, Michael Smith, bake a No-Knead bread on Chef at Home. No kneading? Sounds great.

A quick search of the interwebs turns up about a million variations on a recipe created by a guy named Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery in NY. Apparently it's revolutionary.

Here it is:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp quick rise yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 5/8 c. water

That's it. Direction go something like this. Mix. Cover. Wait around 18hrs. Punch it down. Wait 2hrs. Bake at 450 for 45min.

The result is a golden, chewy loaf of Artisan bread. Definitely not your typical sandwich bread. It's perfect for sopping up gravy or as toast.

Mix all ingredients just until combined (around 10 seconds)

It will look pretty shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let the yeast do it's work for 18 to 24hrs. It will have roughly doubled in size. Now you need to transfer the dough to the vessel you'll be cooking it in. The dough will be very sticky. While doing this, you also want to "punch it down" a bit. This will help it rise a second time.

Cover again and let rest for 2 to 3hrs. Bake covered (if your vessel has a cover) at 450 for 25 minutes then uncovered for 20 minutes more. Cool on a rack.


For a Whole Wheat version, simply replace 1 cup of all purpose flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour.

As you can see in this pic, the whole wheat version is a bit denser, but I think it has a better taste.

I'll have the Cinnamon Raisin version in an upcoming post...

Salisbury House Cheese Nips

This might be my new favourite recipe. Since we are still without a BBQ, I was pretty excited to come across this recipe over at Big Red Kitchen.

Robin, the culinary genius at Big Red Kitchen has these billed as "White Castle-like Sliders", but once I saw her pictures, I thought, "Cheese Nips!"

This recipe is easy peasy and cheap like borscht.


First, sprinkle dried onions in a 9 by 13 dish.

I used about 3/4 of the pack shown in the first pic. Next time I'll use the whole thing. Then spread out the ground beef on top of the onions and sprinkle on the seasoning salt.

You might be thinking, "Gee, why didn't he use the whole dish?". Well, I only had 1 3/4 lbs of beef (calls for 2 lbs). I could have used a smaller dish, but I had already sprinkled the onions. Lazy!

After 25 min in the oven, you get this monstrosity. You need to use regular ground beef(not lean), so it gets pretty greasy. Just dab some off with a paper towel. Top with cheese slices and return to the oven for 2 min.

Use a pizza cutter to slice into whatever quantity of dinner rolls you have.

A couple of pickle slices for good measure.

Chocolate Syrup

This one is a request from the mother-in-law. I got the idea to make chocolate syrup from my personal cooking hero, Chef at Home, Michael Smith. I couldn't be bothered to find his recipe on my PVR (I tape every show!), so I found one here. Once I started, I realized there was a recipe right on the cocoa powder tin. Ha! Maybe I'll try that one next time.

This stuff is great on ice cream and for chocolate milk......

The syrup is a bit thick for chocolate milk. I find there is always some syrup stuck on the spoon. Perfect as a topping though, so I don't think I'll do it any different next time.

1/2 cup packed cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Whisk cocoa powder and water together thoroughly in a large saucepan.

2. Heat on medium-low and whisk to dissolve the cocoa.

3. Add the sugar and stir/whisk to dissolve. Be sure the sugar has dissolved before continuing on, so your syrup is not grainy.

4. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Be sure to watch this VERY carefully so it doesn't boil over. The longer it boils, the thicker it will get when it cools.

5. Remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla extract.

6. Let cool completely and skim off any skin that may have formed.

7. Pour into a jar and store covered in the refrigerator.

Beautiful Beef Stew

I found a nice looking roast for $7 at Superstore, so I thought I would try a beef stew. I worked off this recipe I found at allrecipes.com. It's a great site that lets you save recipes and read reviews. Anyway, I used the recipe as an outline, but I was pretty liberal with changes and additions.

I always try to follow the "always brown your meat!" rule, but sometimes I get lazy. Not this time...

I used a decent sized roast, so I browned the meat in 3 batches.

While the beef was undergoing the Maillard reaction, I chopped up some potatoes, carrots and onions. I also sautéed an onion in the pan that the beef was in. I used about a 1/2c. of red wine to deglaze the pan.

From there, I dumped everything into the Crockpot.

As you can see, I forgot the celery, so I just threw a couple of stocks on top.

6 hours later....


3lbs cubed beef
4 potatoes
4 carrots
2 onions
2 cups water
1 pack of dry onions soup mix
1 tbsp Worcestershire
1/2 c. red wine
salt & pepper
1/2 c. frozen peas
1/4 c. warm water
2 tbsp flour

1. Brown the beef!!!!!

2. Chop the potatoes, carrots and 1 onion. Throw into the crockpot.

3. Dice the remaining onion and sautee in the pan used to brown the beef (by now the beef should be in the crockpot!).

4. Add the red wine to the onions and deglaze the pan. The onions should be caramelized before they meet the red wine. Make sure you scrape up all the brown bits. They're delicious. Add the mixture to the crock.

5. In a separate container, mix 2 cups of water with the onion soup and the Worcestershire. Add it all to the crock.

6. A little salt & pepper maybe? Ohh! The celery! Just throw a couple stock on top of everything. I think I'll do this from now on. All the flavour without soggy celery. I simply discard the stocks once it's cooked.

7. Set the crock to low and cook for around 6 hours or until the beef is fork tender (you know, fall aparty).

8. Remove lid and add frozen peas.

9 In a separate container, mix 2 tbsp of flour with 1/4 cup of water until smooth. Add to the crock and turn to high for 15 minutes. This step is simply to thick the stew. If you like it thin, you can skip this step, but then it wouldn't be stew would it?

Here Goes Nothing!

I never thought I would start a blog, but here I am. I thought it would be fun to keep track of some of the things I do in the kitchen. Not sure who else would care to see what I've been up to. Maybe my Mom?