Caramel sauce

So with a few litres of whipping left to use up I thought of making caramel sauce. I find making caramel sauce more of a science; so I enlisted my husbands expertise and help. I found this recipe online but as most recipes that I show my husband go there is always a little tweaking to do.

I got to this stage and then I handed it over to Jeff.

When I got back from getting ready he was at this stage. He had let the sugar to reduce and carmalized until amber in colour. He removed it off of the heat to carefully add the cream and then put it back on the heat to boil. I believe at this point he added the maple whisky; boiling this burns off the achohol but leaves the flavour! Once it was the consistency he wanted he added in his butter. We used 2/3 cup total of my homemade butter for this recipe even though we times it by four; quite a bit less!

I decided to put the caramel sauce in jars to seal so that it will keep in the pantry. 

This will be a great gift to have on hand and the perfect topping for dessert! We had vanilla frozen yogurt and peaches topped with the caramel sauce. 

Perfect light-sweet ending to our delicious pasta dinner.

I had to show this cute photo from Aubrey and Jeff's father-daughter date to her first jets game! They had a blast!

Homemade butter; yes please!

I was given 8 litres of 35% cream so I thought I would try making butter. I can always use butter since I do quite a bit of baking and at almost $5 a pound it can get quite pricey.

I put 2 litres of the cream in my mixer with the whisk attachment. I let it whip.

And whip and whip and whip....

And whip and whip and whip!

At this point I decided to strain some of the liquid out. I probably could of let it go a little longer.

I put the strained mixture back in the mixture with the paddle attachment and then strained it again.

At this point I added a little pinch of sea salt.

I then put the butter into a Saran lined loaf pan to mold it into bricks of butter.

Out of the two litres of cream I got a little over one litre of whey. I was able to make way more butter than I expected.

My butter is on the left and bought butter is on the right. I thought the colour was very comparable and the texture was silky smooth.

It was delicious on a piece of my mother in laws bread that she made us.

I made Grilled cheese for Aubrey and Hurley. They both ate their entire sandwich; that NEVER happens. I think it was definitely the butter!

With 6 litres of cream left; what will I make next...the adventure continues!

An ode to duck fat!

My friend Cathy got Jeff and I a mystery basket of sorts for Christmas. She always finds creative things for her chef friends. This year there was a pc black label jar of goose fat in our basket of goodies. Today I brought it out and saw that it recommended using it for roasting potatoes. I just so happened to be making Potato wedges for supper; may I just say these were the best I've ever made!

I used 4 tbsp and a few pinches of seasalt on 6 potatoes cut into wedges.  As far as a fat goes this wasn't higher than butter or olive oil. I don't think I'd cook with this everyday but it's a great alternative. The potatoes we so crispy but perfectly fluffy on the inside. Aubrey loved them and at her request I omitted pepper.

While I was searing the sausages Aubrey was trying her best to keep Liam away from the stove!

There they go now to quickly get these into the oven!

I put both the sheet pan of potatoes and the skillet of sausages in a 375F convection preheated oven.

The sausages took about 25 minutes and the potatoes took about 40 minutes.

I served this with a nice spinach salad and a salsa verde vinaigrette. It was a great salad to cut the richness of the other components.

Even Liam enjoyed the potatoes!

About 8:45pm I was feeling quite hungry for some reason and so Jeff whipped me up truffle oil and Parmesan popcorn. I usually don't eat after dinner but can I just say delish...Yum!  Thanks again Cathy!

Now off to bed before I eat again!

Chocolate peanut butter pudding pie

What a fun family day! An afternoon of dough and pie making, Tangled and sushi. These are the memories and days I never want to forget. I put down the camera for the most part and enjoyed teaching Aubrey have to roll out pie dough, fold it in half, set it in the pie plate and crimp the edges. All I can say is precious!

This all started with a couple of litres of 35% cream that I was given. What to make???? Chocolate peanut butter pie of course. I decided to try an easier version that I found on Pinterest.

I mixed the dry ingredients in my large pot.

I did a double recipe and used 3 cups of 35% cream and 1 cup of water for my liquid.

Gotta love Christmas chocolate; I love baking with it. Thanks steph!

It thickened up quite quickly; at this point I was wondering why I ever buy pudding mixes. This was so simple!

After a taste I thought it needed more peanut butter. I added about 1 cup in total for the double recipe.

We blind baked our crusts and then filled them with the pudding.

Topped the pies with more of our beloved whipped cream sweetened with icing sugar and real vanilla.

My wonderful friend has offered to help get Aubrey ready for kindergarten and so I asked what I could do for her. I think her exact response was we won't say no to meals!!! Well I thought a homemade pie would be a good way to start...hope no one is lactose intolerant!