To read all blog entries, go to http://emilieclaire.blogspot.com

Retro Sesame Street anyone??








Good enough for me! Cookies it is. Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.


What else? Well, today C stands for "Comfort Food" in my house.

Even though we have had a nice blast of warm weather here in Toronto, there have been enough chilly days to get me in the mood to cook comfort food.

What could be more comforting than...Chicken Casserole?

I'll tell you what would be slightly more comforting......



Cheesy Chicken Casserole


I never said eating our way through the alphabet would be a low-fat dining experience! Not tonight, anyway. I'll make up for it on another letter. E is probably healthy....

Anyway - tonight, it's all about yummy comfort.

This Cheesy Chicken Casserole was not from a recipe book. It's just made from things I had on hand. Chicken, cheese, breadcrumbs, green onion, milk, chicken broth, frozen peas, and macaroni. Okay, fine - and bacon! And a little thyme for seasoning.

It's one of those one-pot affairs. Breadcrumbs on top. Here are my attempts at capturing it 'on film'. I still think it doesn't do it justice. But....whatever. It was tasty. One complaint: My people thought I was a little heavy-handed with the peas. Duly noted.






Doin' its thing in the oven....











The peas added some nice colour though...I have no regrets.



Corn On The Cob

Good ol' corn on the cob. I haven't eaten corn "ON THE COB" in almost two decades. Reason? Braces. when I got my braces on, the orthodontist gave me the list of things I was not allowed to eat.

No hard candy, no gum, no gummies, no caramel, no popcorn, and no corn on the cob. Now, I broke most of those rules. I chewed gum, ate candy, caramel. But I always obeyed the corn on the cob rule, because they were not kidding around. Those bits of corn would hang around for DAYS in those brackets! Ew!

And I've never gone back. I'm the type that cuts the corn OFF the cob. Add a little pat of butter and some pepper - that's it.






And.....best for last....





Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a fan of the chewy cookie. The thin, chewy cookie. The secret? Butter (not shortening). Butter makes those cookies just spreeeaaaaad right out on the pan. You have to leave enough space between the mounds of dough on the sheets, or else they run together and you end up with one giant rectangular cookie. (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Oh - one other tip. Take it with a grain of salt, because baking is not my main thing. But I have noticed that cookies always turn out better for me when I really blend all the wet ingredients and sugar thoroughly. Really thoroughly. Then once I add the flour, baking soda, oatmeal, or other dry ingredients, I mix until JUST combined. Don't over-mix at that point. Seems to work for me.





Mmmmmm. Coookieeees. This particular cookie recipe is courtesy of Martha Stewart. The only thing I did differently was to substitute 1 cup of the flour for 1 cup of oats, because I like oats in my cookies.







Someone was lured into the kitchen by the aroma of freshly baked Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.....





..... Can I have one, mom?









FYI - Rexy has his own treats. We don't give him Cookies. Carrots, yes. Cookies, no.




I could use your input for D and E meals. The options are not as plentiful as B and C. Anyone?

Some letters will be easier than others.

A  was not that easy. I am telling you, there are not THAT many  A  foods. Okay, fine. Right now, you're effortlessly listing off thousands foods that start with A.

Apples, anchovies, arugula, artichokes....yes, yes.

But, please. If  A  has thousands of foods,  B  has....billions. B  is a bonanza! With B,  you have REAL OPTIONS.


In fact, in the last 2 weeks, totally unrelated to this exercise, I made Boston Baked Beans with Brown Bread, and Beef Stew with Biscuits.

Yum and YUM. More on that stew in a later entry...perhaps 17 meals from now...?


But back to B!   First of all, I wanted to cook something that I hadn't cooked before.



Braciola.

A thin slice of meat, usually wrapped around a stuffing and cooked with wine.

In this case, I used flank steak, and rolled it up around grated romano & provolone cheese, chopped parsley, and breadcrumbs. I browned the outside of the roll in an oven-proof skillet, then added some white wine and a lovely marinara sauce that I made earlier today. Then I put it in the oven and let it bake in the wine-y sauce for an hour and a half. Turning it every 30 minutes to baste.

Now...I TRIED to take a photo of the finished product. (which, by the way, smelled sensational)

I made everyone wait while I did a photo shoot with the braciola. I got that sucker from every angle. But I've come to the realization that food photography is truly a skill. A skill that I do NOT have. When I take pictures of my food, they look like the photos on the menus of food court kiosks. The meat looks grey and everything is too brightly lit. Completely unappetizing. But in real life, it looked really good, I promise!

As I write this - right now, I just spent several minutes trying to find a decent braciola photo on the world wide web...and now I'm convinced that braciola just does NOT photograph well. So, I'm going to leave it to your imagination.

Anyway - we loved it. It was from Giada's Everyday Italian cookbook (p. 160) and because it's the first time I've cooked that particular recipe, we had to rate it.

It scored 34 out of a possible 40 points! Slam dunk. Go braciola!








Next on the menu:


Broccoli & Beans (green)


This is my "GO TO" dish for broccoli, and tonight I added green beans because

a) We had extra guests and needed more food, and
b) Beans start with B

Once the beans are cleaned and trimmed and the broccoli washed and cut, I add some sliced garlic. Here is a "BEFORE" shot.




This is so easy. Check it out.... You pour a few tablespoons of olive oil over the veg, a little bit of S & P, toss it all together and then spread it out on a baking sheet. Roast at 425 for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring once or twice. As you serve it, shave some fresh parmesan over the top. You an also squeeze lemon juice over top too. That always works...

I can't show you an "AFTER" shot of the broccoli & beans because....my photos are terrible. I would be doing a disservice to the beautiful and tasty finished product. It's like seeing a really awful photograph of yourself. "What? I don't look like THAT!!!! Is that what I look like???"


So - moving on....


To round out the plate:


Bucatini

Basically - thick spaghetti with a hole in it. Like pasta straws.








I served up the bucatini al dente with the aforementioned marinara sauce. And...of course....freshly grated parmesan over top. We go through blocks of the stuff....





It was a beautiful meal. And through it, I discovered braciola and bucatini. Both of which I will most definitely make again.

A note about bucatini: While I liked it...the texture and shape, we found it decidedly difficult to eat. It's not QUITE small enough to twirl successfully around your fork. It is not a dainty pasta to eat. Not a first-date pasta. There is bound to be sauce flung from the end of it onto your shirt, or forehead. And there will be lots of forkfuls that were a little to ambitious and result in noodles not quite making it into the mouth, bitten off at the end, and falling back onto the plate...Klassy!....but fun.




A successful and substantial meal all around. I'm still full....

Sometimes I feel like I have to write about the MUSIC BUSINESS. And that gets tiresome. I am definitely busy....in the MUSIC BUSINESS. I'm in pre-pre-production of a new album. I'm doing some very exciting shows in the near future (dates are on my MySpace page and Facebook page) and my team is putting together a new website, blah, blah....

But, there are other things that feed me - emotionally, creatively... and physically. How do I relax? What do I do for fun? What excites me?

Cooking. Food. Jamie Oliver. Ok - many chefs, but him especially. Jamie Oliver inspired me - ME - to start a vegetable garden. I do NOT naturally have a green thumb.

I've blogged about cooking before. Let me say that I have come a LONG way from the "Turkey Disaster That Ruined Christmas" 5 or 6 years ago. Remember, the one that involved me calling the ButterBall Hotline?

I took on too much, too early.

But over the last several years, I've cooked a LOT. Learned a LOT.

It helps to have a hungry and appreciative crowd to feed. I remember from my bachelorette days that cooking for one doesn't have the same sense of satisfaction. I like feeding people. And my people like eating my food. So it works out well for all of us. Even Rexy, who is always patiently standing by, waiting for that piece of cheese to accidentally, or NOT accidentally, drop in his general direction.

Anyway, the whole point of this entry is to share a fun thing that I'm doing - just to keep things interesting.

We're going to eat our way through the alphabet.



This meal was brought to you by the letter:





By the way - on Twitter, I promised photos, but I forgot to take some! We were hungry. So, the images here are ones that I grabbed from the world wide web... These photos are pretty much what our dinner looked like. Thanks world wide web....


Alphabet Soup






Seemed like a good way to kick things off. To me, Alphabet Soup is ANY KIND OF SOUP, with the addition of alphabet pasta. Honestly - my soup looked exactly like the photo above - and I love that bowl! Anyway, I had some homemade chicken stock, and some carrots that were needing to be used up, so I made a very simple, good ol' fashioned chicken soup. Just broth, celery, carrots, a bit of onion, chicken and a bit of salt & pepper. And, of course, Alphabet Pasta, to meet the requirement to be considered Alphabet Soup. Simple, healthy, satisfying. It'll cure what ails ya.






Asparagus




I dry grilled the asparagus in a grill pan. Then drizzled them with good olive oil, a large squeeze of lemon, and S & P. I've only recently appreciated the taste of asparagus. This is how I like it best. Actually, it's even better with some fresh parmesan shaved over top. Thanks Jamie Oliver...



Arancini di Riso





Essentially - deep fried rice balls. What could possibly be bad about that?

This is a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis' Everyday Italian cookbook (p. 133), and it's the first time I've made it. I chose it because it starts with the letter "A" and because it calls for leftover risotto, which I happened to have. Last night I made mushroom risotto. Too much mushroom risotto apparently. So, this was a great way to use it up.

Basically, you mix the leftover risotto with a couple of eggs, some breadcrumbs, italian herbs, and grated parmesan cheese. Then you use the mixture to form balls around small cubes of mozzerella cheese. Roll the balls in more breadcrumbs and deep fry for a few minutes. You will be so glad you did. They are super-duper tasty and scored 38 out of a possible 40 points with our scoring system. (We score all new cookbook recipes around here)

Our beverage was apple juice, except I substituted  my apple juice for white wine, which doesn't start with "A" but is roughly the same colour as apple juice, so it seemed fair.

Actually, now that I think of it, it DID fit the bill because it was a beautiful Riesling from the Alsace region of France. The Alsace Willm Reisling Reserve is a great wine, by the way.





Cheers everyone..

Do you want to come to Emilie-Claire's taping of Radio-Canada's Studio 12 on December 9th in Montreal? We are giving away 20 pairs of tickets!!! If you are a fan and would like to see the show, send an email to marie-eve.pigeon@radio-canada.ca

20 paires de billets seront offertes pour le concert de Émilie-Claire Barlow au Studio 12 de Radio-Canada le  9 décembre prochain aux premières personnes à écrire à marie-eve.pigeon@radio-canada.ca