Friday, June 21, 2013

And then there were two!

Hello lovelies,

I have some good new!!! Yesterday I asked one of my best friends, Maggie, if she would like to be the co-author of my blog. She said YES! So in a little while, Maggie will be writing posts too. I truly believe Maggie will make the blog even better because she is my cooking mentor. Plus she is in with all the cooking trends and likes to treat herself with cooking supplies. But don't worry I won't let her vegan obsession overtake Breakfast at Midnight. We have been cooking together for ages and the times we spend together in the kitchen are spent laughing, dancing, singing, bickering, and sometimes we even get a little cooking done ;) So here is a little collection of photos to introduce you to the my partner in crime. She can do wonders with egg whites and she adds coconut oil to everything:




So folks, let's welcome Magsters to the blog with a classic Patenaude family recipe... Sandy's Butter Tarts.

Sandy's Butter Tarts

I happened to have a 4" cutter but you can use a glass/mug/small bowl too. 

It's okay if you're filling is chunky. 


WARNING: These butter tarts are runny. So if you're looking for firm jelly tarts, bake longer or find another recipe.

Ingredients:

Shells
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 cup Crisco shortening
- 6 tbsp water

Filling
- 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 1 cup corn syrup
- ½ cup Golden Flavour Crisco
- 2 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla 
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup raisins (optional)

Directions:

Shells
✿ Use two knives or a pastry cutter to combine the flour, salt, and Crisco. 





✿ Drizzle the ice water into the mixture and mix with a fork. Don't get too fierce with your mixing because we don't want to abuse the pastry. Less mixing means more flaky.

✿ Once combined, sprinkle some flour onto the counter and roll it out thinly. Cut rounds with 4'' (10 cm) cutter. 

✿ Grease the muffin cups with the paper lining from the Crisco box. Fit shells into muffin tin.

✿ The nice thing about this recipe, is that it doesn't need to be perfect. It's a real homestyle recipe and I like how they look like something your grandma would give you at a backyard barbecue.

Filling
✿ Combine all filling ingredients except raisins; mix well. As mentioned above, it's alright to have a chunky filling. It all smoothes out while baking.

✿ Put raisins (if you like them) into pastry shells, dividing evenly.

✿ Fill shells almost to the top with the the syrup mixture. NOTE: The filling recipe always makes more than necessary so don't let that trick you into putting too much into the shells.

✿ Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden and flaky, and the filling has set on the top. Cooking them longer will make them firmer, but don't burn them!

✿ Cool on wire rack, then use a knife to outline the rim of the muffin tin to get the butter tarts out.

These are sticky but oh so delicious, so don't forget the napkins!

Enjoy :)

xox

Gaby

Friday, June 7, 2013

An Adventure in the City

Hello friends,

I would like to apologize for being so absent from the blogosphere recently but I have good reasons! For the past week and a half (and for the next two weeks) I have been in Montreal with my job, so I haven't gotten the chance to cook anything. Because of this the following post will be about my adventures in a foodie city and a few stories along the way.

First of all, it has always been my dream to go on a business trip. I have proof of this:
Me, coming home from Calgary pretending
to be a business woman (2009)
Present day business woman writing
to you from first class on the train

When my office told me I would be travelling to Montreal for an audit for three and a half weeks, I was thrilled to say the least. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be treated the way I have been though. The Office of the Auditor General really treats me like royalty. I have been staying in top notch hotels and every evening I venture off to a new part of the city to discover a new restaurant. Wether it's a fancy seafood place in Old Montreal or a burger joint in who knows where, I have been loving it, and the best part... it's all paid for! Depending on what I'm craving, I pull out my trusted iPhone and set out on foot no matter how far it tells me to go. Along the way I stop to read or take detours to go look in stores but the main goal is to get to a really good restaurant. Walking places is also great because I don't feel so bad for being stuffed with drool worthy food every night.

A few shots of my nightly strolls:





I thought I might be lonely all by myself in a big city but I am keeping busy and there are always people around so it doesn't bother me. My favourite dinner so far was a seafood salad at Chez Delmo. It was the best thing ever. It was so fresh and light but the ingredients were also decadent. There was about half a lobster, shrimp, and crab on top of a bed of boston lettuce tossed in a garlic/lemon dressing. I wanted to take a picture SO BADLY but it wasn't the type of restaurant. I probably would have gotten dirty looks from everyone there. 

Every morning I have breakfast in the train station because I need to take a train to get to the client's office. It's really nice food for a train station. There's one spot I really like because you can order basically anything from a counter/ buffet and then you can eat it at a table in the middle of the station and watch the hussle and bussle of the morning rush. Perfect people watching setting. My favourite game is "Who's a tourist and who's a local".

Here are a few pictures of my lovely room:



One evening I walked to the Vieux Port and walked along the water. I had been advised by a couple of people to try out Muvbox lobster shack and so I did. It was delicious but nothing compared to P.E.I. or Maine lobster (which I'm used to). You may have noticed that there's a recurring theme of seafood in the restaurants I have chosen, well that's because it's my favourite type of food! 

Good, but not comparable to Red's Eats, Wiscasset ME
Before I end this post check out this pic below of me cooking in my friend Elizabeth's kitchen at her farmhouse. Just look at that stove!!!! I was thrilled to cook on it and then she pulled out that chef hat and I was jumping for joy. 


That sums up my adventures for this little while but I'll write more soon (hopefully). Catch you later... get it? Catch you later. Cause I talked about fish. Ok, I know. I'll stop.

xo 

G