Goat cheese, cream cheese and garlic scape stuffed chicken breasts

This is one of the meals we had stored on our camera before the long hiatus.

Super easy meal with very little work, and looks pretty impressive to boot!

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 strands of garlic scape
2 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp goat cheese
4 tbsp cream cheese
whatever seasoning you'd prefer

1. Preheat oven to 350F
   
2. Mix together garlic scape, cheeses, and chives
   
3. Slice a pocket on the side of the chicken breast, be careful not to go through the other side
4. Spoon cheese mixture into the pocket
   
5. Season the outside of the breast with whatever seasoning you'd like, we used herbs de provence
6. Bake for 30 minutes
   

Thanksgiving dulce de leche cheesecake and our return to blogging

It's been so long since we've updated our blog. But it's not without reason. Geoff and I went on a day long bike trip to my cottage and the next day I woke up and had no balance and very blurry eyes. After a month in the hospital I was diagnosed with severe acute MS. I spent the next month on my moms couch waiting for my sight and balance to return.

Now things are getting back to normal and we're finally back to cooking. This is one of the first things I have made on my own since July. It wasn't too bad, definitely need to add some Baileys or some other liqueur to the cheesecake batter.

We totally stole this recipe and idea from the daring bakers April challenge. This is where I found the idea to top it with dulce de leche and whoppers.

Scallops and Bok Choy with a horseradish emulsion

I love this recipe. It's sweet and salty and has a little bit of a kick. It's fantastic and very simple.

Generally I hate beets. Beets and peas. For this meal, I was able to get over my contempt for beets and do something delicious (I don't think I will ever be able to enjoy peas, I've hated them since before I could talk, just ask my parents). The beets were roasted instead of boiled or coming from a jar, the baby bok choy was fresh, and the scallops were giant and delicious.
My Uncle John has been telling me that you have to have the pink scallops instead of the white scallops. The seafood lady at costco told him that the pink scallops are supposed to be the females and are sweeter than the white ones. I didn't notice too much of a difference between the two, but you should try and let us know if there is any difference.

We totally stole this recipe from WrightFood and only improvised a little (substituting baby Bok Choy for Russian kale)
Serves 2

Ingredients:
8 large scallops (lightly salt and pat them dry with paper towel to draw out the water)
3 large beets (you could use more or less depending on your liking)
4 sprigs fresh time (I'm sure dried thyme would be fine though)
4 heads of baby Bok Choy
garlic scape or just 1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Emulsion:
2 egg yolks
2tbsp melted butter
1 tsp creamed horseradish

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. Wash the dirt off of the beets. Put enough water into a roasting pan to just cover the bottom of the pan and a glug of oil. Toss in the thyme and and the beets. Move it around to coat the beets in oil. Cover with tin foil and put into the oven to cook for 45min to an hour depending on how large the beets are. You'll know they're done when they are knife tender.
3. When beets are done, allow to cool until cool enough to handle. Take paper towel and remove the skin. Slice into 1/4in pieces.
4. While beets are cooling, slice the bok choy into quarters. Add butter, garlic scape and a little oil to a pan, and sautee at medium heat until tender.
5. At the same time, in another pan add some oil to another pan, put on medium heat. Put scallops in, and allow both sides to brown. They will not brown if you don't pat them dry first.
6. Everything should finish at about the same time. Plate it nicely then throw all the ingredients for the emulsion into a blender, and blend for a couple seconds. Then drizzle on top of everything!
   

Naan Bread

So now that we've made a couple of recipes using the Naan bread, and had a piece pretty much every day after work or class, it is finally time to put up the recipe.

We made a simple dip using the yogurt that was left over, some fresh dill, garlic and a little lemon juice. Then we just tear up the bread, dip, and enjoy.

The recipe is incredibly simple. Geoff used to make this at his last job all the time.


Ingredients:
Wet:
1 c water
2 eggs
2 teaspoons yeast
1 c plain yogurt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 c oil

Dry:
8 c flour
1 tbsp salt
1tsp baking soda

1. Put all of the wet ingredients in a large bowl but don't mix and let it sit in a warm place for 20 minutes (to activate the yeast)
2. Add 4 c flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until all the flour is absorbed into the dough.
3. Slowly add remaining 4 cups, using your hands to knead the dough into a ball (you might not need the entire remaining 4 cups, but it should be close. You'll know when the flour stops joining the rest of the dough)
4. Cover with a dark cloth and let sit to rise (We let it sit overnight)
   
5. Section the dough into about chunks that are about 1/2 to 1 cup, depending on how big of a bread you'd like. The dough should keep in the fridge for about a week, but you could probably freeze it to make it keep longer.
6. Preheat oven to 400F
7. put a little bit of flour down and onto a rolling pin. Roll out the sectioned dough as flat as possible.
8. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 2-4 minutes each side. You'll know when to flip when its all poofing up and the bubbles in the bread are just starting to brown.
9. Brush with a little bit of butter when you take it out of the oven and serve however you'd like!
   

Homefries and Eggs Benedict with a twist

There is a restaurant here in Ottawa that makes a killer egg's Benedict. I've only had it once but I still can't stop thinking about how good it was.

A couple of weekends ago, we decided to recreate it.

Instead of English muffins, we used fresh buttery croissants, peameal bacon instead of ham, a perfectly poached egg and some spinach that had been lightly boiled until wilted.

I'm not going to lie, we didn't make the holandaise sauce this time. We just melted butter and added a prepared mix from Knorr. I'm not proud... but it tastes good and it's easy and you don't have to worry about it separating. If you want a recipe for holandaise, here is one we've made before.

Homefries
1 can white potatoes, they can be whole but the sliced potatoes are easier
1.5 tbsp butter
whatever seasonings you'd like (we used some cayenne pepper, and garlic)

Fry it all up until slightly browned. You don't need to boil the potatoes or anything since they already have been at the factory.