EpiCurious Generations

Inspiration:  Thanks to Little Spice Jar for this one! When a family member loves Nutella and it's their birthday and the universe puts a picture of this fabulous recipe on your Pinterest feed,  you really have to go with it! Turns out this was a great hit and really easy to make.   Check out this fabulous recipe for a giant Nutella Stuffed Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie at  Little Spice Jar !  Great alternative to a birthday cake and so very good.

I t seems that the subject of blanching garlic has come up recently for me several times and I have been recommending what I learned in cooking school for this process, i.e. bringing the peeled cloves to boiling, in water, up to 3 times (cover cloves with water, bring to a boil, strain and repeat 2 more times).  Each time the cloves are boiled, their flavour will mellow. I blanch garlic in order to remove the bitterness and potent bite of it when it is raw.  This is especially useful in recipes like gaspacho, hummus, aioli, as I find the taste of raw garlic tends to overpower the more delicate flavours of the other ingredients. This is really a question of preference and if you like garlic, then by all means, go ahead and use it raw to your hearts content.  For me,  garlic is good but in small doses and I find myself now using blanched or pickled garlic scapes  from Québec (fleur d'ail) more and more in many recipes that call for regular garlic....

With Christmas just one week away, it's time to start preparing. The recipe for these  wonderful, buttery whipped shortbread cookies has been in storage for the past 5 years while we were away.  When I made them last week, I remembered why these are always a hit.  The texture is perfect for shortbread and the use of salted butter creates a wonderful balance.

Inspiration:  This amazing Pecan Pumpkin Butter at Williams Sonoma

This was one of those fabulous appetizers that you order and when you put it in your mouth, you have to close your eyes to get the full effect of the combination of tastes and textures!

Inspiration:  This year's Octoberfest and baseball season. When I am looking to create a recipe I usually go through the same process:  If it is something new that I have never made before, I will study different recipes on the internet.  I also study the why's of how something works and one of my favourite sites to get information is Serious Eats  (seriously, this is an exceptionally good site).  I will then use my intuition and experience and try to create something that is tailored to my own likes and preferences and that hopefully will work.  Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I can get a recipe right the very first time but often, it is a trial and error process that requires a lot of fine tuning and taste testing.

Inspiration:  Octoberfest! Guaranteed hit if you are a beer lover.  I'm not but I really think the flavours of this soup are interesting in a really good way.   Had this add Bristro Vallier a while ago and have been wanting to recreate it ever since.  With the colder weather just around the corner, I feel this would be a great comforting starter for a weekend meal.  Choose you favourite local beer - one that's not too bitter and enjoy!