Kate's Cuisine

Like all my holiday recipes, I went to Martha for this one. I made this casserole when my family came over for Thanksgiving. Green beans are by far my favourite vegetable and you add some shallots in there and oooooohhh man, is it ever good! I did make this the night before (even the shallots) and just wrapped it up with aluminum foil. It would have gone beautifully in the oven too, if my darned oven didn’t choose that exact moment to break! Grrrr…… It still tasted great, just the shallots were a little burnt. But put the casserole in a finely working oven and every bite will be a delight!

2 cups all-purpose flour $0.44
3 large eggs $0.51
1/2 teaspoon salt $0.01

Total Cost   $0.96

1.) On a countertop or other large work surface, place the flour  in a mound. Make a fairly large well in the centre. In the centre, place the eggs and the salt.

2.) Start by lightly whisking eggs and salt together, being careful not to touch the flour. Once the eggs are beaten, slowly incorporate the flour. Do this very slowly! Take about a teaspoon of flour each time and mix well with the egg mixture. When fully incorporated, take another teaspoon of flour with the fork and fully incorporate into the egg mixture. Keep doing this until it becomes difficult to move the fork through the flour and egg. Once that happens, mix the flour and eggs with your hands, mixing until it’s just combined and a nice, elastic dough forms.

3.) Form the dough into 2 or 3 small bowls. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Then use immediately, or freeze for later use.

4.) When ready to use, roll the dough out as thinly as possible using a pasta machine – this will be the “1″ setting. Follow the machine’s instructions, which is usually to start with the thickest (the biggest number) and work your way to the thinnest (the smallest number.)

5.) Once your dough is rolled you can make whatever kind of pasta you want! For these long noodles, you can put the rolled pasta dough through the cutters on the pasta machine. You can also cut it yourself with a sharp knife.

6.) When noodles are ready, bring a large pot of salted water up to a rolling boil. Add the fresh pasta noodles for two to three minutes, until el dente, and drain. Toss with your favourite sauce.

7.) Serve and enjoy!

Read the review here

People say that you should make your own pasta dough for a reason! There is a huge, huge difference between what you buy in the store and what you make at home. And it’s not hard. I have been making my own pasta dough for years, although it used to only be reserved for special occasions. Perhaps that’s why I feel as though I’m only now perfecting it. But all it takes is a few tricks, and I’ve tried to include some of them (such as using a fork and then your hands) in the actual recipe.

It is worth mentioning that it also much, much easier if you have a pasta machine. You can roll it out until it’s extremely thin but that’s much harder and it takes much longer. And you probably won’t enjoy making pasta dough so much.

I don’t know if it made a difference or not but last time I made this, I ran out of all-purpose flour. So I used 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup bread flour. They were some of the lightest and most delicious noodles I’ve ever eaten! I don’t know if it was that minor substitution or whether I really am just getting better at making pasta dough, but it was wonderful!

And another bonus? If you let your kids watch you put it through the cutter, you get to hear them squeal, “Ooooohhh! It looks like hair!!!!!” Try it once and you’ll see just how easy it is!

1 cup white sugar $0.19
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour $0.04
3 tablespoons cornstarch $0.81
1/4 teaspoon salt $0.01
1 1/2 cups water Free
2 lemons, juiced and zested $1.30
2 tablespoons butter $0.12
4 eggs, divided into whites and yolks $0.68
1 pie crust from Flaky Pie Crust recipe, unrolled and placed in greased pie plate  $0.89
6 tablespoons sugar $0.06

Total Cost   $4.10

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.) To make lemon filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice, and zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour pastry into pie crust.

3.) To make meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip eggs whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.

4.) Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until meringue starts to brown.

5.) Remove and allow to cool. For best results, place in fridge overnight so that meringue completely chills.

6.) Serve and enjoy!

Read the review here

I was watching TV one day and someone on a show was making lemon meringue pie. I instantly had to have one. Unfortunately, lemon meringue pie doesn’t take long to make, but it does take some time before you can cut into it without having a big, gooey mess on your hands. So it wasn’t as instant as I thought, but it was still absolutely delicious and making it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

I got the recipe from the good old fallback site, All Recipes. It was really good and let’s face it, any time you get to whip egg whites into peaks, it’s just fun! (I know, I know, I’ve already been called sick by a few for thinking this.) Coincidentally, a friend of mine was going to send me this recipe before I saw it on TV, and he gave me the tip of using fresh lemons instead of just the juice. I’m always in favour of fresh over anything else, and this recipe certainly benefits from it. And, the zest also adds so much more flavour than just the juice and you just can’t get the zest from a bottle of juice.

This recipe really does taste just like all the lemon meringue pies you ate while you were growing up. And the hardest thing about it is waiting for the filling to set!

So ridiculously good. So ridiculously simple.

4 steak tenderloins $16.98
1 cup Danish blue cheese $3.25
1 cup heavy cream (preferred), or 2% milk $0.88
2 tablespoons olive oil $0.36
Salt and pepper $0.02

Total Cost   $21.49

1.) Preheat grill or broiler to high heat.

2.) Pour heavy cream into a medium-sized saucepan. Crumble the blue cheese into the cream and season lightly with salt and pepper. Place over medium heat and whisk until cream starts to bubble and cheese starts to melt, whisking regularly making sure that the cream doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pot. When cream starts to bubble, turn off heat and leave pan on burner. Continue whisking to keep warm and to melt cheese further.

3.) Meanwhile, rub olive oil generously over steak tenderloins. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and place on grill or under broiler. For medium-rare, cook about 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. When steaks are finished, remove from heat and cover with aluminum foil. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

4.) After steaks have rested, remove foil and slice steaks in about 1″ slices, diagonally. Fan steaks out on a plate and drizzle blue cheese sauce over top.

5.) Serve and enjoy!

Read the review here

Steak is hands down my favourite thing to eat. So I don’t usually like to mess with it too much, or add too many sauces or things to detract from the steak’s natural flavour. Even marinades and rubs I have a hard time with because I just like steak to taste like steak. But this Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce is definitely an exception and I could eat steak this way every single day.

The recipe comes from Laura Calder. She made it on her show, French Food at Home, and when she was making it she even said she was embarrassed to show us because it was so, so simple. And it really is. It doesn’t even take ten minutes to make and I started my steaks before I started the sauce because I thought that even with the short cooking time of the steaks, the sauce would be finished before they were and I was right. As soon as I put the steaks on the grill I started the sauce and it all came together at the same time at the end.

I do like my meat pretty rare so of course, cook it longer if you like it done a little more than that. And I imagine that the sauce would be that much creamier and yummier with something like half and half cream but all I had was 2% milk and it was delish.