Blueberry Scones

My husband hates using Blueberries in his scones as they get messy when he rolls the dough out!  I must say that my husband does the best scones ever. He likes doing the cheese and ham scones, but I prefer  blueberry!

Garlic and Chile Flavoured Cauliflower

What to do with a head of cauliflower, when you don't want to dump tons of calories i.e.  cheese sauce? 

I used an Indian recipe from Indian, cooking school.  The recipe suggested that you blanch the cauliflower first then add to a hot skillet that had spices heated to open up the flavours, cumin seeds, mustard seeds , chillies and garlic!   Skipping the step of blanching the cauiflower, I popped the small pieces into the hot pan.  After sautéing the cauliflower, the spices were starting to burn, and the cauliflower was not cooking so I microwaved the cauliflowers!  Wondering how authentic the recipe was, I googled it and found that  it can be done, just as I had done, but the most interesting recipe was to grill or bake the cauliflower to give a more golden look!  Which I did! 

Escargot stuffed mushroom caps

Last night I was asked to bring an appetizer for a lasagne supper.. Thinking Italian, I hate running out for stuff at the last minute and realized I had makings for Escargot stuffed mushroom caps.. Although it was snowing for the first time this year, I still had fresh parsley in the garden which I gathered for the dish!The last time I had made this dish, I had the mushroom caps stuffed.  

This time I thought I would fill the Escargot dish with escargot, chopped up mushroom stems that were removed from the mushroom cap, drizzle a mixture of Olive Oil and butter with garlic and tons of parsley! The mushroom caps were popped on top.This was baked for 15 minutes! Grated mozzarella cheese was added at the end.

The dish was broiled to a golden top before serving. Everyone enjoyed sopping up the garlicky butter with slices of french bread!   The Mushroom caps  did look wrinkled! Next time I think I will sauté the caps in butter before assembling the dish

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving Day!

I came across Mom's recipes in her Scribbler of Recipes that was once my science scribbler for high school!

Thanksgiving dinner always ended with her beautifully baked pumpkin pie in a homemade golden flaky pastry.  The pies were velvety and spicy accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream!  

Mom always used evaporated milk for the custard and her own mix of spices- cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg along with brown sugar. 

Everyone loved the pumpkin pie and there was always remove for a second piece. Only one of my son's did not enjoy pumpkin,   although every year he would try!

This year, I followed the recipe but used the whole can of pumpkin as well as the whole can of evaporated milk.

I used 1 T cinnamon, and the rest was 1 tsp of allspice, nutmeg, ginger and cloves! Although the recipe didn't call for Vanilla, I did add this and I think my Mom did too.. Mom reduced the amount of sugar  indicated in the recipe.

Next time, I'll bake the maple leaves and free styled leaves less, only about 15 minutes.  I had also baked them separate as uncooked pastry would sink to the bottom

Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe with Pecan Praline sauce. Not to sure if my family would settle for this with pumpkin pie without whipped cream or ice cream