Wednesday means we are cooking with Donna Hay. She has such wonderful recipes for everything – cakes, shrimp, meat, ice cream. So many recipes. So little time
Anyway… tonight is supper night for our church so I made Donna’s cinnamon apple sour cream cake. Super simple.
The cake mixture is poured into a 9″ springform pan and then topped with thin apple slices tossed with almond meal, turbinado sugar and cinnamon. The turbinado adds a nice crunch to the topping. One hour and you have a delicious cake you can eat warm or cold. Perfect with ice cream.
I needed something really easy for Wednesdays with Donna Hay. REALLY easy. I am prepping for two teas this weekend and I also wanted something new to serve. I ran across this recipe for Parmesan Wafers in Donna’s flavours. (pg 147)
Simple ingredients. Grated Parmesan (2 Tbl) and shredded basil (2 tsp). 5 minutes at 400 and done.(Normally we don’t publish the recipes but this one is just so simple.) One could increase one or the other of the ingredients and they would still turn out well.
It just doesn’t get any easier. And they are so delicate looking. And tasty. They would be perfect served with soup or a salad. Or just a snack. By the way KETO friendly!!
If you need a simple but tasty cake this might be the one for you. It has a light maple flavor in the cake and more in the maple cream frosting. The cake has brown sugar which seems to heighten the maple flavor and the simple cream and maple ‘frosting’ means it is not a heavy cake at all.
The recipe is from Donna Hay’s off the shelf (page 176) which has so more wonderful recipes I want to try.
Check out Gayle and Kayte for their WWDH dishes this week.
I needed something quick and small for todays’ Wednesdays with Donna Hay. These little frittatas were perfect. As Donna says “served hot or cold (they) are great for a picnic or other portable occasion.” She is right. Infinitely portable and very tasty.
They use a simple base. Eggs and heavy cream beaten with cracked pepper. The additions are endless. Add in anything you want – cheese, potatoes, pesto, spinach, bacon – anything. I used grated cheddar cheese and chopped ham. The perfect snack. Especially if one is on KETO.
The recipe is from Donna’s new food fast. (page 122)
Kayte and Gaye are also in our Wednesdays with Donna Hay group. Check out what they made for today.
Tonight is the night of the monthly church supper. It is a perfect night to bake and share Donna Hay’s Pound Cake. And it is the most basic pound cake recipe ever.
All the typical ingredients. 12 oz butter, 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 6 eggs, 3 cups AP flour and 1 Tbl baking powder.
Simply whip the butter and the sugar. Add the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift the flour and baking powder and then FOLD the dry into the wet. Does it get any easier than that? I didn’t think so.
I added a cup of coconut with the flour mix and topped the cake with a simple coconut and powdered sugar glaze. The glaze added a bunch of coconut flavor.
My only regret is baking it in a square pan, as Donna listed, instead of a bundt pan. Ah, well. Next time.
You can also make it plain, with poppyseeds, with orange zest or lemon zest for different flavors. Each one is a simple cake to make.
The recipe is on page 158 of Donna’s The New Cook. Lots of great recipes in this one.
This particular dish was super simple to put together. Marinate chicken breasts in a mix of Balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, garlic, and sugar. Then just cook the chicken in a shallow pan until done. That’s it. That’s all there is. And unfortunately that is all it was. Chicken cooked in a pan.
I found it to be really bland even though I left it in the marinade longer than suggested. Even with the simmered marinade over the sliced chicken it was still pretty bland. Ah, well. Maybe the next recipe will be more delightful.
Since I am on KETO I subbed out the garlic couscous for another side – tomorrow on Eating with Ellie!! I left the sugar as it was only 2 Tbl. I was afraid to sub in an artificial sweetener like Stevia.
You can find the recipe HERE. It is from Donna’s flavourspage 102
I should really label this as bacon rather than pancetta. But only because I couldn’t find any pancetta. The product shortages are now starting to hit Central Louisiana. Even the basics are starting to come up short. Fortunately, I had all the other ingredients to make Donna Hay’s chicken stew.
The recipe is in several places on the internet so I don’t feel bad sharing it here.
8 bone-in chicken thighs
all-purpose flour for coating ( I did not use the flour as I was trying to make this more KETO friendly)
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 oz pancetta, diced (I had to use bacon, but…)
2 leeks, sliced (make sure you clean them really REALLY well)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
7 oz button mushrooms, halved
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine (I only used 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon (sorry, not a fan)
sea salt and cracked black pepper Flour the chicken, shaking off any excess. Place half of the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken; remove and set it aside.
Add the remaining oil and cook the pancetta, leeks, garlic and mushrooms until golden; remove and set aside.
Bring the chicken stock and wine to a simmer in the pan, scraping up anything from the base of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan and cook, covered, for 25 minutes.
Add the pancetta, leek, garlic and mushroom mixture, the cream, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until reduced and thickened.
Donna always takes me out of the box with her recipes. I would have loved the pancetta in this because of the flavor it would have added. Next time…
The recipe originally comes from modern classics Book 1. I’ve been cooking from this book since 2013 and there are still plenty of recipes in it I want to try.
If it’s Wednesday then there is a Donna Hay cookbook on my counter. Because on Wednesdays several of us use Donna’s cookbooks for some delicious, healthy food.
This week I chose to make her stir-fried pork and shiitake mushrooms. Glad I did. It was simple and delicious.
I usually have ingredients in my pantry to cook us something with an Asian flair. Mirin, sesame oil, shredded ginger, soy sauce coconut aminos, and dried ‘shrooms are always there.
This dish was simple, even though it has 10 ingredients. Bok choy, pork slices, and garlic were added to the above Asian ingredients. And it was delicious. The shiitake mushrooms added a touch of sweetness as did the mirin.
Since I subbed in coconut aminos for the soy sauce making this dish more KETO friendly but the mirin (14 gm carb and 13 gram sugar/2 tbl) sorta cancelled that out.
Recipe is on page 103 of Donna’s new food fast.
See what the other members made this week.
Kayte
Peggy
Gaye
If you want to join us just cook any recipe from Donna Hay’s books, post it and let us know. We will add you to the list.
The beginning of a whole new year. And I find myself asking what happened to the last one. It seemed to have passed so quickly. But, that seems to be the way it is as one grows older. Quick!
But the new year does mean a new beginning and mine is to get back to healthy eating. KETO to be exact. Donna Hay’s classsic baked lemon cheesecake was adaptable to KETO with very little problem.
B has been asking for something sweet. He loves lemon and I love cheesecake. Perfect.
Just a hint of lemon flavor. There is lemon zest in the filling and I increased it.
The adapting I did was in the base or crust. I used a cheesecake crust that I use for all my cheesecakes now.
Mix these ingredients will and press into a 9″ springform pan.
The filling is all Donna Hay – except for the sugar. By replacing the sugar with erythritol I made this KETO friendly.
1 1/4 lb cream cheese
3/4 cup sour cream
6 eggs
1 Tbl grated lemon zest. I used 1 1/2 TBL
1 cup sugar erythritol (and I added a tad more)
In a food processor mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and erythritol. Mix until smooth. Add in the eggs and lemon zest and blend until well combined. Pour the filling into the crust. Bake for 1 hour at 275. Allow to cool before serving.
It took longer than 1 hour to bake. About 75 minutes total.
It had a delightful mild lemon flavor. I might add more zest and maybe a little lemon extract next time.
The original recipe is in Donna’s flavours cookbook (page 50)
Tea and Scones 