Urban Suburban Mommy

Category Archives: Delicious Dishes

What to do with all that pumpkin (spoiler alert – vegan pumpkin balls)

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On Halloween night the pumpkins were ablaze – from traditional Jack-O-Lanterns to creative stencils and magical patterns – oh, and the big pumpkin throwing up all the pumpkin guts – that seemed to be a popular one this year in my hood.

But the day after Halloween, they’re just hollowed out squash destined for the garbage, the decorative pumpkins sitting around go unused, and leftover pumpkins at the market are on deep discount.

So what to do with all that pumpkin? If you’ve still got some good ones around, there are loads of pumpkin treats. I make pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin soup and pumpkin cookies. But fellow mom, photographer and creative cook extraordinaire, Nicole had these amazing pumpkin treats posted on Facebook, and as my mouth watered, I knew I needed to share that recipe with you all!

Nicole says: With the holidays coming up – that means holiday parties, potlucks and general excuses for food and merriment. I don’t know about you – but I always seem to have at least one person in a crowd who is worried about food considerations, and try as I might, accommodating them doesn’t always happen. However after a recent

Pinterest scroll, I lucked out! London Brazil over at Gluten Free with LB saved my balls (pun intended) so to speak. And as per my usual I added my own twist to her recipe.

pumpkin-balls

I needed sweets for two different events, one of which was going to include a vegan, with a known sweet tooth and a love of things pumpkin. So I did what all fellow sweet tooths who also love chocolate do – I found some GF vegan dark chocolate made by Good Life, melted it and covered those pumpkin balls! After the chocolate set just a bit I sprinkled some coconut sugar on top to give myself a way of setting them aside for said Vegan. I didn’t buy enough to do the entire batch, so I used regular chocolate almond bark to cover the rest.

pumpkin-balls-in-boxes

Both were met with rave reviews.

Also included in the pictures are margarita balls, that I scored from Katie over at Butterlust. (for the non-adult drinking age types I did make a non-alcoholic version that I did not put a tiny piece of lime zest on so as to not confuse the two 😉 )

These easy Halloween party treats will make you look like a star!

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Do you want to make something special for the class party or the Halloween bake sale? Is your child having friends over and you’re not up to a long night of baking and decorating?

#Solution: Why not do some super-easy toxic waste or some Frankensteins or pumpkins!

No, I’m not going to go all Pinteresty on you – well, maybe just a little, but I’m going to call this “Pinterest for the time deprived” because I’ve dug up some very very simple Halloween treats that will make you look like a star – with very little time spent.

It all starts with a rice crispy treat. How easy is that? We’ve all wowed our kids with cooking this one up – it’s the classic three-ingredient treat that takes all of 10 minutes to prepare. And then a few more minutes to decorate. But EASY decorate. Not up-all-night-trying-to-create-intricate-details decorate.

Rice Crispy Treats:

What you need:

– 1/4 cup butter
– 4 cups marshmallows
– 5 cups Rice Krispie Cereal (name brand or generic)

What you do:

In a large pot on medium heat melt the butter. Add the marshmallows and start stirring until they all melt. When they’re gooey and melted add the cereal, remove from heat and keep stirring.

This stuff will be pretty hot at the start but cools fairly quickly and is easy to form into balls or pour into a large greased baking pan to cool.

They’re a great base for a whole lot of treat ideas – it’s all in the decoration with these:

1. Ghosts: icing, chocolate chips

Take the cooling crispy concoction and form it into lumps. Tall lumps, fat lumps – this one isn’t fussy. Using an icing tube, pipe on two big blob dots for eyeballs and then pipe in little black pupils or use mini chocolate chips for the pupils, it works too. (You can do the easy thing and buy one black and one white tube of icing or you can mix up a quick batch of one cup icing: 2 cups powdered sugar plus 1/4 cup butter, 1 tbsp milk beaten till firm, add food colouring to achieve colour.)

The mini chocolate chip makes this even easier. All about the easy!

2. Frankenstein: food colouring, icing, chocolate chips

You’re going to add some green food colouring at the melting marshmallow/adding rice cereal phase. When the gooey mess is all blended and the colour is of your liking, pour into a greased baking pan to let cool. Cut into rectangles – these can be large or small to accommodate the number you’d like to serve.

With icing, pipe on Frankie’s hair at the top, the eyeballs – same as the ghosts – and a stitched mouth: one horizontal line and then 4 or 5 randomly spaced short vertical lines. The less tidy, the better the effect.

3. Pumpkins: food colouring, chocolate nubs or pretzel pieces, icing

Add orange food colouring at the marshmallow/adding rice cereal phase. When the gooey mess is all blended and the colour of your liking, form them into balls. Chunky balls, not perfectly round – flatten them a bit. You can press the vertical ridges in with your fingers or with a toothpick pressed long-ways against your ball, vertically – though it’s not necessary. Leave them a little lumpy, it will look fine. Finish these by creating the stem on top. A chunky piece of broken pretzel works well, or if you prefer, you can break pieces off of a chocolate bar to create little nub-sized chunks and press them into place.

For those who want to take this a bit further (you over-achievers, you!), you can pipe on some black icing triangle eyes and mouth for a Jack-o-lantern effect.

4. Confetti: sprinkles, melted chocolate, food colouring, Halloween sprinkles, ghoulishly cute straws

This one’s the simplest and ends up looking super cute. You can colour the crispies – or not. You can form them into fun shapes or balls or just cool them in a pan and cut into rectangles – the shapes get popped on the end of a stick/straw. You can partially or fully dip the treats into the melted chocolate – white chocolate shows the colours better but regular chocolate is fine too. Gently shake off the excess chocolate and lay treats on a cookie sheet lined with foil, parchment or cling wrap, covered in sprinkles. Add another layer of sprinkles and turn, coating all sides. You can also dip into a container of sprinkles, though this can get messier. You can do a light coating of sprinkles or go for full saturation. This one is fun to play with and nothing has to be uniform.

Go with the orange, white and black sprinkle mix, or go fancy with bone sprinkles or skull sprinkles or even spider sprinkles if you dare. There are a lot of options out there – some are easier to find than others.

4. Coloured treats: food colouring

I’m saving the easiest for last. Simple coloured treats. Make mock candy corn triangles with yellow and orange. Colour them green and call them Toxic Waste. Colour them orange and call them Pumpkin Bombs. Colour them black and call them Coffin Crispies. I always title the creations I send to school, it’s become half the fun of baking for those sales and parties!

Happy Halloween! Don’t eat too much of the kids’ candy.

LOL – who am I kidding? Go to town on that candy, you’ve more than earned it in the last 365 days!

Fondue Chinoise

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You may think you know fondue, but if you haven’t tried Fondue Chinoise, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Fondue Chinoise is two meals in one. First, you create a broth in the pot. Then you take a piece of cheese, and wrap the cheese a piece of thinly shaved slice of meat. You submerge it in the broth and let it cook. Give it three or four minutes, then take it out of the broth, let it cool for a minute, and then pop the cheesy filled piece of meat in your mouth and go “mmmmmmmm!!!”

photo: Kae Yen Wong

photo: Kae Yen Wong

AND THEN, when you’re done dinner, you throw the leftover meat into the broth. Let it simmer and save it for the next day. It’s the most decadent, best beefy onion soup you’ll ever have. Toss in some cheese topped toast and you’ve got French Onion Soup.

What you need:

Broth
– 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 2 big bay leaves
– salt & pepper to taste
– 1 cup heavy red wine (or half cup win,e half cup brandy)
– one beef bouillon
– 6 cups water
– 2 large onions – halved and then sliced into long narrow strips, sauteed until deeply caramelized

Meat & Cheese
– 1 pound of cheese, cut to half-inch cubes: Jarlsberg, Swiss or Havarti are best
– 1/3 pound of meet, thinly sliced, per person – usually found in the meat or freezer section

What you do:

Put all contents of the broth into the fondue pot and get it simmering for an hour or two. You may need to top the pot off with water if you let it simmer long. You want to make sure that the onions are very caramelized as this will make the flavour really come out. You’ll get the best results by sauteeing the onions slowly, on medium-low heat in vegetable oil.

The fun of fondue (or “fun”due as my brother likes to say) is that everyone cooks and eats at their own pace. The fondue pot is placed in the middle of the table with a burner beneath on medium to keep the broth simmering. You wrap a piece of meat around the cheese and secure it on the fork (you can pre-roll them or have guests wrap up their own). Then put the fork into the pot for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the cheese has melted. Serve with some crust bread. And wine, this goes great with deep, rich red wine. You can also serve with a garlic aioli dip. It’s great for a dinner party or a family meal – or even an intimate dinner for two!

It’s hands-on and social. Depending on your family and friends, a little stealing may go on, but that’s only because it’s so delicious, and it’s hard to be patient waiting for those little morsels to cook up.

After cooking all that meat and cheese, the broth will be rich and flavourful. Dump the rest of the remaining meat into the broth and let it simmer. Serve the next day as soup, or you can add toasts with melted cheese and it makes the best French Onion Soup!

Thanks for the recipe AP. I’ve made it many, many times, it’s always a hit, and it always reminds me of you!

 

 

 

Easy peanut sauce

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I love peanut sauce. When I go for Thai food I usually end up ordering an extra two or three sides of peanut sauce. It’s one of those flavours that I just can’t get enough of. Some people are like this with Swiss Chalet sauce, some people are like this with plum sauce, I’m like this with peanut sauce. I think part of it was that I so rarely got to have Thai food that it was a real treat. Continue reading →

Cinnamon bun-a-licious

I love making school lunches! (Said no mother, ever.)

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About a week ago I started noticing all of the social media posts about school lunches. There were the “What’s the best container on the market?” discussions. There were parents asking if the school hot lunch programs were worth the money. (Yes! The answer is YES!) Continue reading →

Grilled Prawn and Mango Salad

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prawnsSince you can’t all come down to The Good Son, Chef Vittorio Colacitti has been good enough to let us bring The Good Son to you. When Michelle and I had our Mommies’ Night Out and dined at The Good Son, this dish, Grilled Prawn and Mango Salad was prepared for us – and I have been wanting to go back for it ever since.

“Truth” Dressing

What you need:

– 1 Anaheim chili pepper
– 1 1/2 lime (juiced)
– 2 tbsp Palm sugar
– 1/4 shallot
– 4 tbsp grapeseed oil
– 2 dashes of fish sauce

What you do:

Roughly chop Anaheim chili, shallot and palm sugar. Place in blender.

Blend on low speed until smooth (add a touch of water if needed to loosen mixture). Slowly add grapeseed oil until fully emulsified, then add lime juice.

Mango Salad

What you need: 

– 3 large green mangoes
– 1 large carrot
– 1 medium daikon

What you do:

Using a mandoline, julienne vegetables (or use shredding attachment on food processor) and set aside.

Grilled Prawns

What you need: 

– 5 large prawns
– 2 tbsp red curry paste (Aroy-D brand recommended pinch of salt
– 2 tsp vegetable oil

What you do:

Combine ingredients in a bowl. Marinate for 10 minutes. Grill or roast in oven until translucent (1 minute per side).

Assembly:

Combine “Truth” dressing and julienned vegetables. Top with grilled prawns. For additional garnish and texture add any combination of the following: cilantro, thinly sliced chili, roasted peanuts, squeeze of lime juice.

Serve family style or in portions.

So, what are you going to do? Make this dish or make reservations – it’s definitely worth it either way!

S’mores

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Summer fun in our family includes camping. I know I usually post about staycations and 4 star hotels, but I know my way around a campsite. And what would camping be without a campfire and some S’mores.

smores

Mmmmmmmm

But you want to know a secret? You don’t need to have a campfire to make s’mores.

What you need:

– 10 Marshmallows
– 20 graham crackers
– 2 bars of milk chocolate

What you do (the easy version):

Melt a marshmallow. You can do this on a poker stick over a campfire or over a stovetop burner. (You can even cheat like crazy and just microwave to melt it, 20-30 seconds should do the trick.)

Put melty molten marshmallow on a graham cracker. Put 1 or 2 squares of chocolate onto the hot marshmallow so it melts.

Place a second graham cracker on top to make a sandwich. Let it cool for a second so you don’t scald the inside of your mouth.

Tell me that’s not what camping tastes like!

What you do (The authentic version):

Sandwich 2 pieces of chocolate and one marshmallow between two graham crackers. Wrap like a packet in tinfoil, making sure the edges are sealed well. Place packet into the campfire – not on the fire, but near enough to cook it through. Give it about 1.5 to 2 minutes there. Check on contents. They should be melted and gooey. If not, replace in the campfire and gauge how much additional time you’ll need. If you’ve got a good set of tongs or fire utensils you can try holding the packet over the fire to grill it. But that trick takes skill.

The cooked graham crackers have a different texture and flavour. This is definitely for the purist. If you want to get a bit creative, you can try adding bits of fruit – bananas and strawberries work well. You can add in nuts – peanuts or almonds. You can add in some caramel, use different kinds of chocolate bars, add trail mix or anything else you want that you think would taste good covered in chocolate and wrapped in warm marshmallow.

 

The Best Mommy Martini – Yesterday Once More

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So last week, Elisa and I had a fantastic Mommies’ Night Out.  We had the pleasure of trying Chef Vittorio Colacitti’s  (Top Chef Canada Finalist – Food Network) restaurant The Good Son.  I honestly died and went to heaven.  The food is unbelievable and the drinks are just as superb. The room is amazing. Read more about our MNO outing this week.

The Good Son - drinks

I delighted in a martini called Yesterday Once More and in all honesty – I keep wishing it was yesterday over and over again. This is the ultimate, delicious and refreshing martini. It is one of the best mixed drinks I have ever had (and yes I have sampled a lot in my day). I highly recommend a night out at the Good Son and you must try this drink.  But, if you can’t make it to Toronto – here’s the recipe for you adventurous mixologists at home.

What you need:

– 1.5 oz. Tromba Blanco (now that’s a smooth tequila)
– 0.5 oz. Aperol
– 0.5 oz Lemon Juice
– 0.25 oz Simple Syrup
– 0.75 oz Watermelon Juice
– 5 Basil Leaves

What you do:

Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin. Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Drink.

Repeat.

The result:

Very happy and relaxed mommy.  Here’s to yesterday.

Urban Mommy Elisa adds: Cheers to that!

martini

 

Chef Vittorio Colacitti of The Good Son

Chef Vittorio Colacitti of The Good Son

The Good Son is in Toronto at 1096 Queen St. W. 
Upstairs you’ll find a great little night spot – Wayward
If Hamilton’s your local, you’ll want to check out Colacitti’s newest spot, Born and Raised.
twitter @thegoodson_TO

facebook icon The Good Son Toronto

instagram The Good Son_TO

Cocoa snack balls

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My friend Ali, the beauty and the brains behind those sensation Au Naturel Artisan beauty and edible products (goingaunaturel.com) showed me this one. Rather, she got my husband hooked on these little pretty-good-for-you treats and I can’t make them fast enough to keep up!

There’s no set recipe, it’s kind of nice that way, you just need to follow the technique and include anything you’ve got a craving for or have on hand. You can make them into balls or bars. You can eat them while they’re still warm or you can wait for them to cool – sometimes it’s hard to wait! Once you try these you’ll see how easy and quick these are and you’ll be making your own versions all the time.

What you need:

– 1/2 cup coconut oil
– 1/4 cup agave or 4 tablespoons maple syrup
– dash of vanilla
– 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder

These are approximate, I like to toss the ingredients from the container right into the sweetened coconut oil mixture:
– 1/2 cup steel cut quick oats
– 1/2 cup chia seeds
– 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (shelled)
– 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (shelled)
– 1/4 cup raw almonds, slivered or crushed
– 2 pinches sea salt

You can add any seeds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans (crush nuts before adding), shaved coconut – even popcorn if you want. You can pack them with protein and make energy bars. You can make them with dried blueberries, goji berries and other superfoods for a power packed pick-up. You can really play with the flavours once you see how the sweetened coconut oil binds the ingredients together.

What you do:

On medium-low melt the coconut oil and then stir in the agave or maple syrup. Stir in the vanilla and cocoa.

Remove the pot from the heat and start tossing in pinches and small handfuls of ingredients. The oats make the balls bigger, helping the nuts and seeds to bind. You can keep adding ingredients until the mixture is thick and starts binding together. If it gets too dry, just return to heat and add a bit more coconut oil to melt – just very briefly. Keep tasting along the way. You can add a dash more sweet or more cocoa – bump up any flavour that you like.

When the mixture is nice and thick and starting to clump, you can either pour out onto a piece of wax paper on a tray or roll into balls and place on a tray.

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Put the tray in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to set.

You can eat this warm or cold. You can leave them in the freezer and the cocoa flavoured and sweetened coconut oil is chilled and hard – it’s kind of perfect for the summer heat!

Plain as a potato salad

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Nothing brings back childhood memories of summer family picnics like a good ol’ bowl of potato salad. It’s not one of those dishes that gets made too often during the fall, winter and spring (unless prego cravings!) but come summer, it’s on everyone’s menu.

I’m lucky because my sister-in-law makes the best potato salad. In. The. World.

Seriously. I don’t know how she does it, but there’s no better. She’s got all of the big family barbecues and picnics covered. My husband makes a mean potato salad too, though I’m not super crazy about the celery in his.

Me, I like mine on the plain side. I don’t like eggs so I prefer when the potato salad isn’t eggy or have hard-boiled eggs creamed in there.

(Really, who does that?!?!?!)

Because I’m fussy that way, my potato salad ends up being a big hit with kids and vegans. It’s yummy, but plain. I’m always hearing “You should add…” followed with suggestions from fennel to smoked trout.

But it will never happen.

I think this plain as a potato salad will be a hit with the whole family, feel free to make it a bit more funky with your own tasty twist!

What you need:

-6 or 7 big potatoes
-2 cups Miracle Whip (or mayo)
-1/3 cup onion, very finely diced
-2 tablespoons vinegar
-pinch of sugar
-1.5 tablespoons mustard
– tablespoon salt
-pepper to taste

What you do:

Boil potatoes in salt water until soft. Drain and cool. Peel potatoes if you prefer skinless potato salad, I like to leave the skins on sometimes. Cube potatoes and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine all other ingredients and whisk together. You can taste it at this point and see if you want to add anything. Vinegar for more sour, or more sugar for sweet. Salt and pepper to taste.

Variations:

You can add a little bit of Dijon mustard, fennel, bacon bits, sweet relish, or even turmeric – which will give it a brilliant golden colour. You can add sliced radish, celery, beets or even corn. If you’re an egg fan or you really want to sneak the protein in, mash 3 hardboiled eggs and add into the mix.

Toss this dressing over the potatoes and coat well. This recipe is so forgiving, if you want to add more Miracle Whip/mayo it will be more creamy – or halve it to keep it dry.

Garnish it with a little sprinkle of paprika, some sliced green onions or a few sprigs of parsley.

Side dish. Easy, fast and full of summer.