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!
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, breakfast, cheese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, snacks
{11 comments}
YAY! This is Vanilla Latte’s 100th post! Well to be specific, this is Vanilla Latte now as a food and travel blog’s 100th post, I deleted the ones that were irrelevant from 5 years ago. So for such a celebration, I would like to share one of my favorite mac and cheese recipes. Now this isn’t the one I normally make for dinner parties that involve 5 cheeses, that one will have to wait. This version is an attempt to be slightly healthier… I threw in spinach! 
Okay it’s not that good for you. Anything that starts as a roux and involves adding milk and cheese always ends with ooey gooey goodness that can’t be that good for you. Ah well, that’s why it’s a celebration!
I’ve used low fat milk, low fat cheese, and spinach. Little ways to make sure this delicious dish won’t cause a heart attack. But feel free to live on the edge, use full fat milk and cheeses! MAN my mouth is watering as I’m writing this. So delicious and easy to make. And really good leftovers with a splash of Tabasco. Hope you like it!
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm
Tags: american, baking, cheese, cooking, food, pasta, recipe, recipes, spinach, vegetarian
{11 comments}
I used to always buy those packets of seasoning that you just mix into a tub of sour cream. In fact, I love that stuff! French Onion was my favorite flavor. And since I can’t seem to find the same thing here, I thought I’d make my own!
It takes a little more effort than just cutting open a packet and mixing but it’s well worth the extra 15 minutes of work. Please note, time estimated does not include chopping of vegetables… cause that takes time! This dip is great with cut vegetables but my favorite is with Ruffles chips (or equivalent), YUM! Ooo this would go really well stuffed in baby peppers too.
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cheese, cooking, dip, food, random, recipe, recipes, snacks
{9 comments}
I made a cheesecake!!! A very patriotic red, white & blue cheesecake to be exact. Okay so it’s more like yellowish instead of white but you get the idea. Now for a disclaimer: I generally don’t like cheesecake. I usually only eat the crust and the little bit of cheesecake that touches the crust. So that said, I actually liked this cheesecake! Biased? Well of course because I made sure the crust was nice and thick and there was enough berry topping to balance the cheesecake-ness.
This cheesecake was made with a graham cracker crust, the most important part! Note, for the Aussies that read this, you cannot find graham crackers here! Although I think a good alternative would be crushed up Anzac cookies! Definitely going to try that soon. I actually had my mom ship us some graham crackers so I can make this. Well worth the extra shipping and handling. I adapted this recipe from Martha’s Blueberry Topped Cheesecake. Now this cheesecake is note quite as cheesy as a traditional New York style cheesecake and it’s also not as tough. It’s got a bit more lemon to it as well. Hmmm might be why I liked it? Hope you like it too!
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: american, baking, cheese, cooking, dessert, desserts, food, lemon, recipe, recipes, sweets
{7 comments}
Okay so “amazing” may be a little biased but it sure is OOEY GOOEY delicious! I have to be completely honest, this dish isn’t exactly good for you. In fact, it might cause a mild heart attack. WARNING: all of you on diets, stay away from this post! I even added more spinach, used low fat cheeses, used low fat sour cream and mayo but at the end of the day, you really can’t call this healthy food. Even if you eat it with just vegetables !
Now for all of you who are willing to be a little dangerous, this dip will knock your socks off and have you coming back for more. I’ve altered the ratio of ingredients to attempt to make it a little healthier less bad for you. But feel free to play around with it and see if you come up with something better. I don’t have pepper jack cheese which is what I would normally use instead of mozzarella so mine was a little lacking in that pepper jack punch. I would definitely advise using pepper jack if you have some! Mozzarella is my favorite alternative because it’s stringy not so much cause it’s similar in taste at all. You can add more cheddar if you want to skip the pepper jack or mozzarella too.
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cheese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, seafood, snacks, spinach
{11 comments}
Cauliflower cannelloni doesn’t exactly sound very exciting, but believe me, it’s delicious. Great way to squeeze in your veggies as well! I saw this dish on one of Jamie Oliver’s shows… I cannot seem to find the recipe online so I’m not quite sure how accurate I am. I got the main parts of it down but I may have added a bit more here and a little less there. It all came out great anyway!
The shredded Parmesan cheese on the top with the mozzarella made the entire house smell like pizza. I loved the added crunchy texture the toasted cheese adds to the ooey gooey sauce. You almost forget that you’re eating cauliflower! The filling is actually cauliflower, broccoli and broccoflower boiled and then cooked down with olive oil, chilies and anchovies. You can make it without anchovies for a vegetarian option.
I have another cannelloni recipe that’s a bit more low fat but hey we’ve got visitors in town and Vini’s been begging me to make this for a while. Low fat will have to wait! I’ll post that recipe at a later date. In the meantime, hope you like this one!
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cheese, cooking, food, Italian, pasta, recipe, recipes, vegetables
{8 comments}
Cinco de Mayo is only a few days away and in honor of the beloved Mexican holiday, I’ve got a great enchilada recipe for you. We had some leftover steak from steak and eggs this morning so I decided to make Vini some steak enchiladas and I made some spinach enchiladas for myself.
If I were in LA, I would have bought my enchilada sauce canned at my local Ralph’s but here in Sydney, I couldn’t even find dried chipotle chilies. So I had to make my own sauce from scratch, sans chipotle. It’s not as smokey without the chipotle but it was still fantastic tasting, so much so that I ate my entire dish!
I added several cloves of roasted garlic to the sauce which made all the difference. I would have made it spicier but Vini says I should practice making things a bit more mild for guests. So on a Maggie scale this would be a Mild but I guess on everyone else’s scale it’s probably at a Medium.
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cheese, cooking, food, meat, Mexican, recipe, recipes, spinach, vegetarian
{8 comments}
Earlier this week, someone asked me for a vegetarian chili recipe. I realized I didn’t have my own written down anywhere. I’ve made it before, maybe not exactly the same each time but pretty close. I like my chili a bit more on the watery side but you can just alter the recipe depending on what you like. This recipe is jam packed with flavor, you can add some meat to it if you like, ground beef or turkey or even steak chunks. Or for extra crunch and flavor, you could use bacon!
I love chili because you can dress it up however you want. You can make it really spicy or you can make it mild. You can use just about any beans you like and you can add in vegetables like zucchini or carrots if you want it more on the hearty vegetables side. The best thing about chili is that you can top it off with your favorite topping. I love a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and big dollop of sour cream and a little green onion.
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cheese, chili, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, vegetables, vegetarian
{3 comments}
Wow, I never thought I would even try to make french onion soup. It always seemed like a big challenge but this was incredibly easy to do! I think I was more intimidated by the beef stock and finding something to make it just as rich. It really all came down to using some really really really good vegetable stock.
Most important part is to get the right onions! You want yellow onions, the kind that’s a complete bitch to chop cause you tear up before you even peel the skin off! Stay away from the sweet white ones and fragrant Spanish red ones. The yellow ones that are incredibly spicy and pungent raw are the ones that will cook down to a nice sweet soup base.
It also depends on the type of cheese and how much of it you put on top. It depends on how traditional you want to be, a nicely aged cheddar works well, so would the traditonal emmental, but mozerella gets nice and melty and gooey as well and tastes wonderful!
This recipe serves 4.
(more…)
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes, soups
Tags: cheese, cooking, food, french, recipe, recipes, soup, vegetarian, winter food
{6 comments}
Mmmmm risotto. I’ve been fighting a cold since I’ve been back from my vacation and I’ve been really craving some hearty comfort food. And after having Asian food for a few weeks, a rich creamy risotto was exactly what I needed. This is a very basic vegetarian risotto, using vegetable stock instead of chicken, and you can really alter it by adding different types of mushroom, vegetable and even different types of cheese. Hope you like it!
Ingredients:
2 cups of Arborio rice
2/3 cup of dry white wine
8 cups of vegetable stock
3 tablespoons of butter
2 french shallots - finely diced
1 yellow onion - finely diced
1 cup of finely sliced button mushrooms (porcini would be better)
2 sprigs of fresh oregano - finely chop the leaves
1 sprig of fresh rosemary - finely chop the leaves
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of frozen peas
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
chili infused olive oil for garnish (optional)
Step 1: Prep!
Before we get started, make sure everything is chopped and ready to go. You’ll need 3 pans for this, small saucepan, medium size pot, and medium size saucepan. In the pot, pour in about 4 cups of the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. In the medium size sauce pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and throw in the chopped onion and shallots. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Let that sweat for about 3 minutes on low heat.
Step 2: The stir!
Once you’ve got the onions and shallots ready, add the last tablespoon of butter and the chopped oregano and rosemary. Then pour in the 2 cups of rice, mix it around and let the rice coat with butter. Let that cook until the rice is a bit golden. Pour in the white wine and let that simmer until buttery - about 5 minutes. Make sure you mix often. Once the wine has been absorbed, pour in about 1 cup of the simmering stock from the other pot. Stir until the liquid is absorbed and repeat until the the rice is cooked - about 30 minutes. I used 8 cups of stock to 2 cups of rice, it might differ based on type of rice, broth and pan size. Before your last cup of broth is added, start on the next step!
Step 3: The mushrooms!
In a small saucepan, drizzle about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Throw in the garlic and let that cook until it starts to turn a little brown. Now throw in the mushrooms and cook until soft, should only take a few minutes. There will be some juice from the mushroom cooking down but it’ll just add to the flavors once you pour the whole thing into the risotto. Once you pour it all in the risotto, fold until the mushrooms are mixed evenly. Now make a hole in the middle of the risotto and pour in the frozen peas. Cover it up and let that cook for about 2-3 minutes before mixing it through the entire dish. Sprinkle the entire pan with the grated Parmesan cheese, mix and you’re ready to eat!
I added a drizzle of chili infused olive oil for a little extra kick, but you can top it off with a drizzle of truffle oil to really bring out the mushrooms. You can use other vegetables instead of peas like zucchini, asparagus, spinach, or even finely chopped celery.
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cheese, cooking, food, Italian, recipe, recipes, rice, vegetarian
{4 comments}
