Better Butter Spread'R for Corn On The Cob

It's summer here on the West Coast of Canada and corn-on-the-cob season is here. My family loves fresh corn but one of the most annoying things about eating corn is the mess the hot corn cob makes of your butter dish.
Have no fear because our solution is at hand!
Introducing the smartest gadget around, the 'Better Butter Spread'R' that slices the butter and holds it in place while you spread the butter over your fresh cob of corn.
Thanks to Lynn and Duncan for this great door prize from the 'Survivor Finale'.

Marinated Cuc/Tomato/Yellow Pepper Salad with Olive Bread

Recipe from: Carol Booth, Calgary Alberta

Presented By: Miriam Borys

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

6 mini cucumbers

1/2 bag mini tomatoes of your choice

1 large yellow pepper

1 cup of fresh basil 

Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

4 tbsp. red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil or avocado oil

3/4 cup red onion (1/2 small onion) - diced brunoise  (fine dice (1/8th-inch or less)

dash of salt and pepper

1/2 load of day-old bread - cut into bite-sized cubes day old bread . (approximately 6 cups of bread cubes).

Carol has used a baguette for this recipe and it works really well. It just so happened that we had a half loaf of the Artisan Green Olive Terra Bread which was a bit dry for eating the next day but perfect for this salad.

A little hint before you start - add the cubed bread just before serving the salad or the bread could become too saturated with the vinaigrette dressing. 

Procedure:

Rinse all vegetables well before dicing.

Salad Dressing

Dice red onion into a tiny dice. Set aside for now. 

Add dijon and vinegar into a small mixing bowl. Whisk well until combined.

Drizzle in olive oil and continue to whisk until well emulsified.

Add diced onion, salt & pepper and mix well to allow the onions to marinate in the oil mixture.

At this point you could dice the basil (small diced) and add 1 tsp. to the dressing which would allow a more intense basil flavor throughout your salad.

Cut up the vegetables into desired chunks. Add vegetables a mixing bowl.

Pour half of the vinaigrette onto the vegetables and toss well to allow the vegetables to marinate. Just before service add remaining vinaigrette and bread cubes and toss again. Pour salad into a serving dish and serve with your favourite protein…perfect for a hot summers night.  

Leftovers keep well in the fridge and believe it or not the olive bread wasn't overly saturated.

Even though this salad has the three veggies in it you could easily add other hard vegetables like carrots, zucchini and other colored peppers if you wished.

Chef Miriam Borys, B.Ed., MA.

'Cooking Uncovered'
http://www.youtube.com/user/mlborys?feature=mhee
blog: www.cookinguncovered.blogspot.com
Website: www.miriamborys.com

Vinaigrette 

slightly toast the bread cubes

add red onions to marinate until dressing is needed

Easy New-Potato Salad for a hot summer day!

Recipe by: Carol Booth (Calgary, Alberta)

Carol lives in Calgary with her husband Barry and they served us this delicious, one of a kind, potato salad with their famous smoked BBQ ribs. Carol and Barry are childhood friends from my Edmonton days. 

Presented By: Miriam Borys Busby

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

5 hard cooked eggs  (click here to go to my YouTube Video of how to cook a perfect HARD COOKED NOT BOILED egg http://youtu.be/Hi15LEXNG0w )

2 lbs. new potatoes - not peeled

1 tbsp. salt

1 bunch chives (chopped)

4 medium size dill pickles

salt & pepper

3 tbsp. fresh dill

sprinkle: spanish smoked paprika for garnish

Potato Salad Dressing 

(this dressing can be made up ahead of time and kept in the fridge until needed) Try this dressing on shredded cabbage and apples as a perfect coleslaw.

20 ml sweet pickle juice

1/2 cup mayonnaise 

2 tbsp. lemon juice (fresh is best)

2 tbsp. ranch dressing (any brand)

1 tsp. dijon mustard

Cooking Potatoes

Clean off the new potatoes and cut into large chunks (the size of the potato is up to you).

Place cut potatoes in a sauce pan and cover with cold water. Salt water. 

Turn stove to high heat, cover pan and bring water up to the boil. Once at boiling point turn the heat to medium high and continue to cook potatoes until softened slightly and cooked (when inserting a sharp knife it goes in easily). 

When cooked, drain off the water and allow potatoes  to cool.

Hard Cooked Eggs

Cook eggs to hard cooked (see video info above) and allow to cool in cold water and then peel. Discard shells and place eggs in fridge to become cold before adding to the salad. Once cold, chop eggs into smaller chunks.

Assembling Potato Salad

Place cold cooked potatoes into a large serving bowl. 

Sprinkle salt and pepper sprinkle over cold, chopped potatoes

Add chopped dill pickles and half the chopped chives and dill.

Add chopped eggs and salt and pepper the eggs. 

Pour salad dressing (below) over entire potato mixture and gentle fold in to ensure that all potato pieces are coated with this delicious dressing. Stir well so all the potatoes and eggs are coated with the dressing.

Add remaining chopped dill and chives and gently mix again.

Garnish with a light sprinkling of smoked paprika.

Chill if not serving immediately. 

Enjoy from S.E. Calgary, Alberta and our good friends the Booths!

Chef Miriam Borys, B.Ed., MA.
'Cooking Uncovered'
http://www.youtube.com/user/mlborys?feature=mhee
blog: www.cookinguncovered.blogspot.com

too-hot-to-cook easy and tasty Salad for 2

Summer is here and it is too hot to turn on the stove or the oven. This tossed salad is easy, quick and perfect for a hot summers day.  To add protein use up the left over chicken or salmon, or open a can of tuna. Happy summer everyone! Please click here to go to my original salad video.  

(published first in Dec. 2013 on http://cookinguncovered.blogspot.ca/2013/12/individual-green-salad-with-chilli.html)

By: Miriam Borys

Yield: 2 salads 

Ingredients:

1 large tomato

1 cup of bell peppers - your choice (in this 

recipe I use yellow, red and orange bell 

peppers which are so tasty

1/2 cucumber 

4-6 olives - green sicilian

3/4 package (5oz. package) of Herb Blend 

Salad Mix  or lettuce of choice

4 basil leaves  - fresh

Chilli Dijon Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white balsamic or wine vinegar

1/2 red chilli (or more if you like it hotter)

3 drops of hot sauce

1 tsp. dijon mustard

salt & pepper

Wash & dice bell peppers, cucumber & tomatoes of choice. (peeling not necessary if using an english cucumber)

Wash basil leaves and cut chiffonade 

Chop up 4 sicilian green olives. Use 2 olives per salad.

On a dinner plate arrange salad greens of choice. 

Top with diced tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and fresh basil.

In a bowl measure out the vinegar and olive oil.  

Add the diced hot chillis, salt & pepper, hot sauce and mustard.

Whisk until emulsified.

Spoon dressing over salad and add roasted chicken if desired.  Enjoy!

Chef Miriam Little Borys, B.Ed., MA.
'Cooking Uncovered'
http://www.youtube.com/user/mlborys?feature=mhee
blog: www.cookinguncovered.blogspot.com
Website: www.miriamborys.com

How to pit an Avocado & Easy-Make Guacamole

Please follow this link to view a quick demo of removing the pit of an avocado and how to remove the delicious flesh when making easy Guacamole.

For a complete recipe for guacamole please follow this link to the recipe in this blog.http://cookinguncovered.blogspot.ca/2013/04/guacamole.html

Children Baking in Vernon...can't get any better!

Happiness is...

There is nothing more enjoyable than being in the kitchen with children who are so eager to learn, bake, and to eat cookies. These chocolava cookies (click here to go to the recipe)  are easy and tasty and perfect for children wanting to bake. At the end of the mixing the dough gets a little hard to handle so we helped out with that part. We used teaspoons to portion out the cookies ....the goal is to have all cookies the same size so that they all bake at the same rate. 

Today's young bakers... Tristyn, Carson & Jaida

Tristan reading the recipe out loud while we organize our ingredients.

Halle says "Mommy, when is it my turn?" 

carefully measuring all the dry ingredients 

Jaida measures the flour correctly

Carson measuring the vanilla

Carson's turn to mix the cookie dough

Before we start scooping the cookies to bake we watch the video of Carl scooping the cookies and rolling them in icing sugar (click here to go directly to that video on YouTube)

Chocolava Cookies....so good...one is not enough!

Cocoa doesn't get any better so please click on this link to go to my YouTube video of this recipe.

These cookies are really easy to make and you don't need commercial baking equipment to get
perfect results. Using room temperature butter really allows the batter to be mixed by hand or with a mixer. If the cookie dough looks dry, do not worry as this is the way the batter is. The egg whites give these cookies enough moisture and they allow for the crispness on the outside while being soft and chewy on the inside. Without a doubt one of the tastiest cookies for children and adults alike. They were a big hit at my sister's, Marie-Terese and brother-in-law's, Kevin's garden party in Metchosin this past weekend.

Yield 44 cookies   (this recipe can easily be cut in half to make less cookies)

2 2/3 cups all purpose white flour

2 cups white sugar

2/3 cups brown sugar

1 1/4 cups cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp.  salt

1/2 cup butter - room temperature

5 egg whites

3 tsp. vanilla

2 cups icing sugar - reserve for dusting the scooped cookies

Into a large bowl or a mixer bowl sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa. There is usually unwanted lumps in the flour, baking powder and cocoa hence the reason for sifting. I use a wire mess strainer for this.

Add brown sugar and salt and mix well.

Add butter to the dry ingredients and mix the butter in until it disappears. 

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and save the yolks for another recipe.

Now add egg whites and vanilla and mix until the cookie dough becomes wet and almost comes together.

Don't be surprised if the dough looks a little dry. This is normal but it comes together when you start to scoop the cookies.

Pre-heat oven to 350° (176° C).

Place sifted icing sugar into a bowl. Roll dough into small balls or scoop with a small portion scoop as seen in the video and roll in powdered sugar to coat completely until the cookie is white. 

Place white cookies 1 1/2 inches apart on a cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes in a pre-heated oven. The goal is to have the cookies soft on the inside and done on the outside.

After removing the cookies form the oven allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet to set. Transfer to cooling rack or a large platter to cool.