It’s almost time for Thanksgiving!!! As soon as I decided to cook this year (about 2 months ago) I have been fine-tuning the menu and trying new takes on old favorites. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s pretty much the best excuse to cook all day long. So on top of the traditional Roast Turkey, Stuffing, Roasted Garlic Potatoes and Gravy, I am making my Jalapeño Cornbread, a variety of salads, and my alternative to candied yams or sweet potato…. sweet and savory sweet potato hasselbacks!
I love yams and I love sweet potatoes. I’ll eat them mashed, baked whole, french fried, in risottos and pretty much any other way to cook them. Except with marshmallows on top. I think it’s just a little too sweet for me. Hasselback Potatoes are baked potatoes with slots cut in and stuffed with garlic or breadcrumbs. It’s a Swedish dish… gotta love Swedish design, even in food! So I’ve tried a few variations of this recipe but this is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. You can use both yams and sweet potatoes for this recipe. Yams are generally a little more narrow than the sweet potato so make sure you don’t over cook, they will tend to mush together.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, savory, sweet, sweet potatoes, thanksgiving, vegetables, vegetarian
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Quite possibly one of my favorite ways to consume bananas… in cake form and with chocolate! These cupcakes are so fragrant and scrumptious looking just sitting on my kitchen counter, I had to have one with my cuppa tea this morning. Okay I guess the tea was more meant to go with my cupcake than the other way around. I mean it’s a hearty breakfast right? There’s bananas in them!
I pretty much buy bananas with the intention of eating about 2 and then patiently waiting for the remainder of the bunch to ripe for a few days so I can make banana bread. I associate banana bread with breakfast because the cafe’s in Sydney served them as a breakfast menu item. Mmmm, toasted with a little bit of butter melted on top. Wish my local cafe here had banana bread as an option!
I adapted this banana cupcake recipe from Martha, adding a little here and there. I used my go-to simple chocolate frosting recipe because to me, banana goes with chocolate like peanut butter and jelly. Hope you like them as much as I do!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, banana, chocolate, cooking, cupcakes, desserts, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
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Let me start off by saying… I don’t particularly love cheesecakes. When it comes to dessert choices, I almost always go for the fruit tart, anything chocolate or ice cream. But every once in a while… I just want a good slice of cheesecake with lots of crust. Vini has been requesting cheesecake to be put at the top of the “Please Make This For Me!!!” list for quite some time… so I played around with my Red, White & Blue Cheesecake and came up with this Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake.
My favorite part of any cheesecake is the crust. So I generally make crusts that go all the way to the top of the sides so there’s plenty of graham cracker goodness for every bite. The raspberry swirl is a perfect combination of tangy fruitiness to the rich creamy filling. This dish would be great for a dinner party, the pretty marbling will definitely impress guests! Cheesecakes are very time consuming and require at least 6 hours of refrigeration after all the baking is done but the result is definitely worth it. Bon appétit!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cheesecake, cooking, desserts, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
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So this is how it happened: I was out shopping for some boxes to organize all the stuff I have in my apartment. It started raining – I can’t buy cardboard boxes in the rain, that would just be silly. Across the street is Sur La Table. It is raining, did I mention that already? So I had to go in for some cover. They happened to have a sale. Two giant bags of baking toys later, I had to rush home to start making my tarts!
This dish has been on my mind for a while. Dark chocolate ganache tart with toasted pistachios and a pinch of sea salt on top. I’ve been on a pistachio kick lately and I think it goes really well with a dark bitter chocolate. I played around with several different crusts… yes I now have several different tart trays to work with… and the best tasting with this filling is “the great unshrinkable sweet tart shell” from Smitten Kitchen. Although mine definitely shrank. Graham cracker just did not taste right with this and neither did my chocolate biscuit crust, maybe too much chocolate with the dark chocolate filling.
Now this dish sounds pretty easy but it does take a lot of time. Please allow for time to chill the dough for the crust, bake it and let it cool (all in all about 4 hours). Then the ganache part will need another 2 hours to set so you’re talking some serious time commitment when making this. But it is totally worth it.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, chocolate, cooking, desserts, food, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
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Sometimes, I just feel like baking a cake. Luckily I keep a pretty stocked pantry so whenever this happens… Voilà! Cake! And that’s exactly how I stumbled upon making this deliciously moist chocolate cake last night. With an added touch of rum, it was the perfect dessert and night cap combo.
I was actually craving to bake cupcakes but when I went to get the trays I remembered that I just bought a new bundt cake tray that I haven’t even used yet. I used to make a variety of bundt cakes every week in college when I hosted Tuesday Night Dinners at my apartment. Back then I would have just used a cake mix from a box. I’ve thankfully evolved and honed my baking skills since then. This chocolate cake recipe is super easy. No more box mixes!
If you’d prefer a non-alcoholic version of the glaze, just eliminate that ingredient. The glaze will come out just fine without it. Although, the hint of rum does add something special to the flavor… and it’s the perfect night cap at 2 AM.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, booze, chocolate, cooking, desserts, food, recipe, recipes, rum, snacks, sweets
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The holiday season was a little off for 2010. I think it all started with not having a proper Thanksgiving. And then we didn’t have a Christmas tree since we were going to visit family. So I guess I had to compensate by making the house smell like ginger cookies all day long… for about 2 weeks straight. I made about 4 batches of these ginger molasses cookies around the holidays this year. Some were a little crispier than others but for the most part, the chewy ooey gooey ones were at hit. After a few tweaks, I finally got the right recipe and I was on a roll! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do 
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: american, baking, cookies, cooking, desserts, food, holiday, recipe, recipes
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However much I like to complain about rainy days, it’s actually nice to have a stormy weekend in every once in a while. It means I have time to finally read a book, clean the house and cook some food. Boy did I take advantage of it! I’ve been meaning to make a coffee cake ever since I saw a sour cream recipe in some magazine on a flight. Can’t remember the magazine, can’t even remember the flight. But I remember craving coffee cake!
So since I had the time, I played around with some recipes. I was mostly curious about the sour cream and then added blueberries for… antioxidants. The sour cream gave it this amazing texture and kept the cake nice and moist. The best part is that this is SO easy to make! Unfortunately I didn’t have any vanilla ice cream to go with it but some berry sorbet was a different but tasty substitute. Hope you like it!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, blueberries, cooking, desserts, food, fruit, recipe, recipes, snacks, sweets
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I know, I know… I’ve been a missing in action. I have been meaning to post but Winter sure does have a way of making me lazy! New York City makes me want to order delivery for every meal – delicious food at my beckoning call! It’s no excuse but I gotta say, it sure is convenient!
So it’s been warming up a bit… this weekend we had 50 degree weather. Spring is in the air and I am determined to blog more. This dreary cold has got me day dreaming of my days in sunny Sydney. One of my favorite snacks at the gazillion coffee shops I go to is banana bread, toasted with a little bit of butter. But of course I added chocolate chips to my version. YUM! I bought bananas specifically to wait until they are ripe to make banana bread. It’s definitely one of those things that you have to plan for.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, banana, bread, chocolate, cooking, desserts, food, loaf, recipe, recipes, sweets
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First off, I apologize for the recent lack of posts. Between the holidays creeping in and starting a new job, I feel like I barely have enough time to make tea! Luckily, this new job has a longstanding tradition of employees hosting a breakfast every Friday. This Friday is my turn!
I decided to make something simple yet jam packed with flavor. I would have liked to make one of my fritittas but it would be a little difficult transporting my cast iron to work! So I bring you, breakfast in one bite! Savory scones as a wholesome breakfast sandwich alternative. Well I can’t take credit for it, I got the idea from this little coffee shop I used to go to every morning in Sydney. I have been craving this for months but I finally have a good excuse to make a few batches.
You can really experiment with the ingredients but my all time favorite is tomato, basil and feta. Spinach and Swiss is a close second. I decided to make the tomato, basil, feta and a bacon, cheddar and green onion for the meat eaters. I’m much more of a savory person so this is my perfect breakfast all in one little scone. I hope the people at work like them as much as I do!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, breakfast, cheese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks
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I love Thanksgiving. It might be my favorite holiday due to the fact that I get to cook for a couple days straight. Last year I was planning 2 months in advance! This year, I only had 2 days but I managed to pull it off. We had the usual fixings turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mac n cheese, cornbread and pumpkin pie.
Our fridge is packed to the brim with leftovers. Last year I made a Turkey Fritatta with our Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. Vini has been looking forward to that fritatta the whole year! This time, not only did I make that fritatta but I also came up with a Thanksgiving leftover pot pie…kind of a Shepard’s Pie as well. It’s got turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes all baked under a flaky puff pastry. If you still have some leftovers, you’ve gotta try this!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm
Tags: american, baking, cooking, food, pie, recipe, recipes, thanksgiving
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