A Day Late . . .

Happy (belated) St. Patricks Day!

I'm in the midst of a six day breakfast shift week, I'm currently on day five. I usually only do two really early shifts per week, but the other girl wanted March break off to spend with her kids and how could I say no? I was super nervous with being one man down in staff and also because of some other issue that happened on earlier in the week with another staff member, but we're getting through it and we're doing pretty good! Not exactly where I want to be but damn close!

Even though I bake all day at work, sometimes I still have the urge to bake when I get home. Apparently some people think that I'm crazy for it but whatever, I enjoy it. So with St. Patty's I wanted to do something Irish for dinner but wasn't fond of the idea of colouring our food green . . . I know someone who did that once and it's not a pretty sight. So I ended up going with a 'mock' Irish stew and some soda bread. I say 'mock' stew because traditionally it's made with lamb, which I seriously dislike, but I used beef instead. I wasn't over the moon about the stew but the bread turned out decent. Hop over here to find the recipe I used.

Finally!

Food photography in the winters sucks. And as a extreme novice at taking food photo's, it extremely discouraging to take them in the winter when natural light is lacking in the evening when I tend to do most of my cooking. I've been waiting and waiting for a nice sunny day to snap a quick picture of anything that I was cooking, and today was finally my day!! Was making my self some late breakfast when the sun finally peaked out, and I dashed to grab my camera to snap my food. Nothing super special, but it was super yummy.

Goat Cheese and Asparagus Omelet

2 eggs - salt and pepper - asparagus - goat cheese

In a small frying pan over medium-high heat, bring a small amount of water to a boil. Place asparagus into water, cover and cover for 2 minutes. Remove from water, set aside and keep warm. Empty water out of pan, and return it to the heat. Turn heat down to medium-low. In a small bowl whisk eggs with a splash of water and the salt and pepper. Pour into pan and swirl pan if necessary to coat entire bottom with the egg. Cook until top is no longer jiggly and bottom is browned, flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle one half of omelet with goat cheese and place asparagus spears on top of cheese. Fold omelet in half and remove from pan. Enjoy!

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies

Today's a big day, its my cookie overload day!! I'm jumping on the cookie baking bandwagon and ain't getting off until I've baked enough christmas cookies that will make Santa's beg for mercy!! My friend, who not much of a baker, and I have a list of serval types of cookies she wants to bake. . . . we'll see how many we actually get through because it usually turns into me baking and her 'supervising'. I actually whipped up some of these White Chocolate and Pistachio cookies the other day and I must say, they were good! I'll give you my modified version of the recipe but you can find the original over at the blog Honest Fare.

White Chocolate and Pistachio Cookies

1 cup butter - 1 cup granulated sugar - 1 cup packed light brown sugar - 2 eggs - 2 tbsp milk - 1 tbsp vanilla extract - 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour - 1 tsp each baking powder, baking soda and salt - 1 cup rolled oats - 1 1/4 cups chopped pistachios - 1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter and sugars together on medium speed until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and milk. In seperate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add into butter mix and mix. Add in oats, nuts and chocolate chips and just combine. Roll into 1/2 balls and place 2 inchs apart on a baking tray. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool slightly on tray before moving to a cooling rack.