Despite our long hiatus, we are still cooking and writing. Due to many time constraints, we’ve been unable to post as regularly as we wanted to in the past 7 months, however, that will soon change. We’ve partnered with The Charlatan, Carleton University‘s student newspaper, in order to bolster our resolve to this blog, as well as help out a local media outlet. Our goals with this site will remain the same: we intend to experiment in our dandy little kitchen, but a few of our articles will instead be found on the Charlatan’s website.

The first of these recipes has already been posted! Please have a look at our very own Paella recipe. Our spin on this classic Spanish dish was to provide the basic plan for a mixed paella, but also keep the costs low.

In the coming months—as the temperatures and leaves drop—Rebecca and I plan on introducing a spotlight on particularly warm and hearty dishes involving slow cookers. With the shrinking of the daylight hours, we find we’re more reluctant to put on elaborate, lengthy meals together. Our cooking solution for the earlier nightfall is to prepare these things in advance, and a slow cooker is an excellent option.

As Fall arrives, we hope to make semi-regular posts here, and occasional posts over at the Charlatan. Stay tuned for a wonderful fall and winter of special dishes.

Curry over steamed jasmine rice, with fresh cilantro.

First, sauté the onion and garlic in oil in a large pot, until the onion has started to become translucent. Add all of your spices, and stir this mixture together for a few minutes over medium heat with a sturdy wooden spoon. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan frequently, otherwise your spices will burn. Add in the diced chicken, and stir to coat with spice mixture. Continuously stir this over medium-high heat until the meat has been browned.

The above process is what’s known as “dry roasting”. This will bring out the full flavour of your spices, and at the same time, coat the meat. Just be sure to pay attention, or you’ll have burnt spices, and a smoke-alarm to tend to.

Add in the tomato pieces and the juice from the tin. Stir and turn down to a simmer for five minutes. Add in the chickpeas and potatoes, stirring occasionally, for about two hours. Hopefully you’ll find something else to do, because at this point, the excitement is over. The dish will technically be done sooner, but if you allow this much time (or more) the flavours will really come together. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to serve, stir in the yogurt. This would also be a great time to start cooking your rice. I’d suggest adding the juice of half a lemon to the boiling water for the rice, it balances nice with this hearty curry. Serve with cilantro for garnish.

Also, I seem to have two types of recipes. One that is created out of necessity and one that must be specifically planned out and purchased. Guess which one this is.

Beef Stroganoff with a glass of white wine

Add a small amount of olive oil to a frying pan. In our case we used a Spanish olive oil, but that’s only because we rule your face, plus it was kinda fancy looking. To this, add the ground beef. Use whatever is on hand, but if it is not a lean ground, then be prepared to drain out the fat to keep your arteries from clogging. Toss in the diced shallots and let brown.

To this add the Worcestershire sauce and let simmer for about five minutes. Turn up the heat slightly and toss in the wine. I believe I only added 1/3 of a cup, but really anything goes. Throw in the bay leaves, making sure they are covered in the liquid. After another minute or two, create a small “pond” of liquid by pushing the meat to the edge of the pan. To this “pond” stir in the Dijon mustard as well as the hot sauce. If you’re worried that you slipped in too much hot sauce, just add a healthy does of Worcestershire sauce. Toss in the mushrooms and a couple more swigs of wine and Worcestershire sauce and let simmer on medium for about 20 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and let cool for about five minutes. Slowly stir in the sour cream one spoonful at a time. Stop only when you feel the sauce is thick enough. Plate with egg noodles and pour yourself a glass of wine. This could be the easiest supper ever made.

Lemon ricotta cookies with lemon glaze

What you’ll need:

Icing:

The original recipe called for 15oz of Ricotta cheese, but, since this isn’t an exact science, we never seem to be able to match that amount. I’ve found that substituting in a thick yogurt seems to pick up the slack quite well. Carson usually details his steps in a recipe, but I find that I prefer listing the actions involved and then adding in comments and tips.

A couple comments about this recipe. I hesitated over using this recipe since Carson and I agreed only to post original versions of recipes. But we decided that I’ve tweaked the recipe so much over the year that it’s become my own. Secondly, as a warning, these cookies are sweet. They are sweet sugary goodness so be wary while eating them or you could lapse into a food coma. Also, this creates around 3 dozen cookies, so make sure you have room on your counter. Now before I go any further, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a baking sheet. It’s better to start this early than mid-way through the recipe.

First cream the margarine and sugar, making sure to vigorously stir until it is light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and keep on stirring. Zest the lemons over the mixture, or, if you’re smarter than me, zest first and add later. Add the lemon juice, the almond extract, and the ricotta cheese. The mixture should be a thick liquid.

Add half of the flour, making sure to stir the mixture all the way through. Once combined, add the baking powder and salt. Slowly add the the rest of the flour, stirring throughout. The cookie dough will be the consistency of thick icing. Don’t worry, this is supposed to happen.

Dollop the dough onto the greased baking sheets and put into the oven for 10 minutes. The cookies will have a golden edge but the tops will still be slightly jiggley. They will look under done but they will be deceptively cooked.

Cream together the icing sugar and margarine. Add in the lemon juice until it reaches a smooth consistency. Thinly ice the cookies while they are still warm from the oven.

Sit back and enjoy. Or do the dishes. Whatever you desire.

For softer, chewier cookies reduce the flour to 625mL, for a firmer cookie increase to 750mL. I find that 675mL is the perfect mélange of soft and firm.

Simple avocado sandwich on focaccia bread

Although the dish features avocados, I couldn’t help but to make this a warm sandwich involving onion and green pepper. If you’re buying the avocados for this recipe, be sure to buy ripe ones, or allow them to soften up before using them—you’ll want the flesh to give when pressed with your thumb. Avocados do not ripen in the refrigerator; just leave them out, or, if you like, put them in a brown paper bag.

Since small, diced items will fall out of the sandwich, I sliced the onion into rings about half a centimetre wide. Don’t worry about separating the rings out from the slices, they’ll separate as you cook them. Next, slice up the green pepper along its length, forming narrow wedges. These will be long enough to lay along the length of the sandwich, and won’t fall out while you eat it.

“Sweating” differs from the traditional sauté in that the cooking temperature is lower: Flavours are released, rather than seared in. Remember also the golden rule of frying pans: hot pan, cold oil. You want to hear some sizzling when food hits the pan, otherwise the food will simply absorb the oil.

Sweat the onions down in the cooking oil until they are nearly translucent. Pour in the balsamic vinegar, and add the green peppers. We’ll be reducing this vinegar into a thick sauce (reduction), and coating the vegetables with it.

While the vegetables are cooking off, prepare the avocado. I sliced the avocado halves into lengthwise slices, but diced avocado might spread easier onto the sandwich, too. Start toasting your bread as late as possible so it stays hot.

To prepare an avocado, slice along its length, around the pit inside. Grab both halves, and twist them apart; one side will have the pit, the other is ready to use. Using a sharp knife, tap the blade’s length into the pit, twist and pull out. You can now slice up the avocado and remove the skin, or cross-hatch the fruit and spoon out for cubed pieces.Butter your toast, then start assembling your sandwich. A lettuce base, topped with the cooked vegetables, drizzled in the balsamic reduction, a few turns of fresh grated pepper and quickly topped with the havarti. The idea is to melt the cheese.

Handle the avocado slices with care, as a ripe avocado is almost like room temperature butter, and lay the slices on top of the cheese. Top off with the buttered toast, or leave open faced for eating with utensils.

Since avocados are the feature, a sharp white wine suits this sandwich best. A crisp chardonnay or a sauvignon blanc would pair well.

Rebecca and I first began talks about keeping a cooking blog about a year ago. We were living near each other, and knew we were going to share a kitchen in a few months. Having built a home server over the summer break, I toyed with the idea of running a blogging service on its web service. The problem of finding a topic for the blog wasn’t particularly difficult; we knew we wanted a cooking blog from day one. The name, on the other hand, was once a jokingly put ultimatum that simply stuck: Cleavage & Cupcakes. When we realized the site was actually going to be maintained, we signed up hosting (getting a great deal with Dreamhost) and changed the name to A Little Kitchen. Just so happened the domain name was available, too.

One thing you’ll find different in this blog from other cooking blogs is that we don’t claim to be experts. We’re not out make you feel inadequate just because you were looking for recipes online. Truthfully, we’re experimenting. That’s why you’ll find remarks at the end of most recipes we post, since we’re still not quite sure the dish is at its best, or we feel that there is room for some variations in most cookery. Another thing you’ll find is that we’ll treat you as an equal. You know how to measure, or chop, or prepare. We’re also not going to snap a photo of every single step just for length, nor try and fool you with simple steps in complex wording.

One personal issue I take with most recipes is the lack of metric measurements. I’m Canadian and I’ve grown up with metric. You’ll find my recipes will be rather particular about measures of ingredients, because I’m like that with most things. Rebecca, on the other hand, is a bit more free spirited with her measuring, so don’t always expect exactness. She’ll also begin an experiment with flavours halfway through the cooking process. You’ll get surprises with her dishes, even if its something done to death like mac and cheese.

I repeat: we’re students. It’s not a secret. We’d like to say we use olive oil from Rome, or butter from our friendly farmer down the road, but we don’t. We use fresh herbs when we can, but we’re not going to lie about what we’ve used in the dishes. Good food is more than simply expensive ingredients.

So, here we are, hope you like the place and decide to stay. We’ve got rss feeds, so please subscribe! We hope you’re looking forward to our recipes as much as we are sharing them with you.