Baked Mini Chocolate Donuts (in less than 10 minutes!)

A few weeks ago, we added one of the most dangerous appliances to the kitchen... a mini donut maker (this one, to be exact)!! Being able to bake a batch of seven mini donuts in under 3 minutes is pretty much a dream come true! As you know, we are big fans of "cakenuts" (aka baked, cake-textured donuts) and I will continue to bake them until Taylor can convince me that we won't burn the building down by trying to deep fry them. haha!



Ingredients

1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup of water

(optional for icing & decorating)
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp water
rainbow sprinkles


Directions

1. Mix the boxed cake mix, egg, oil, and water together until you have a smooth mixture.
2. Scoop the mixture into a piping bag (or a Ziplock bag), cut the tip, and then pipe into each of the wells of the donut maker.
3. After about 3 minutes of baking, pop these lil nuggets out and set them out on a cooling rack.
4. While the mini chocolate treasures are cooling, mix the powdered sugar and water together in a small bowl to make the icing. You want the viscosity of the icing to be just a wee bit thicker than that of cooking oil.
5. Once the donuts have cooled, dip each of them into the bowl of icing and rotate to evenly coat the top.
6. If you're feeling super fancy, sprinkle on sugary sprinkle goodness!



Not going to lie.. I might've eaten half of dozen of these by myself before we took photos of the donuts for this post. I risked myself for... uh... quality control, y'know? You're welcome. ;)

Fresh Summer Salsa

Tortilla chips: the one thing we can never get enough of! I'll admit that I have a problem and will eat tortilla chips without anything on them because I like the texture and salty goodness of them. Taylor often judges me because, if he leaves a bag of chips opened within arm's reach of where I'm sitting, they get devoured by the end of the night.


Ingredients  - makes 10 servings

10 tomatoes on the vine
1 lime, juiced
1 red onion, diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, minced
1/4 cup of diced cilantro


Directions

1. Dice the tomatoes and onions into even pieces and mix in large bowl.
2. Mince the jalapeno pepper, removing the seeds in the middle, and then add the diced pieces to the tomatoes and onions.
3. Dice the cilantro and add to the mix.
4. Cut the lime in half and juice both halves into the tomato mix.
5. Mix well until all of the colours are evenly distributed.


To serve, heat a baking sheet full of tortilla chips at 325F for 10 minutes for a lovely pairing of warm chips and cool salsa. We also accompanied this with our favourite iced tea with a couple slices of fresh lemons.

Using the leftovers from last night's pasta and clams

A couple of nights ago Katrina made a delicious and simple meal of clams, tomatoes and some spices (you can check out the post here). She ended up making more clams than my body has room for, so I improvised and made a few meals with the leftovers to bring to work the next day. This might take the title for the easiest meal that will ever be featured on this blog. Even easier than that tomato salad, I promise!

Add 1/3 cup (it really depends on how much tomato base you have left after the first meal, but we are assuming there is 50% leftover) of cream to the pan with the clams and tomato sauce, stir and bring to a simmer. Toss in some cooked linguine noodles and that's it. Done. Serve it. Or don't. Who cares? Eat it tonight while you're sorting your Magic: The Gathering cards, nerd. (I sort mine by spell type and color.)

Below is the ingredients list and directions for Katrina's clams in tomato sauce for reference.

Ingredients - makes 4 servings

1 1/2 lbs little neck clams
1 lb manilla clams
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 8oz can of chopped tomatoes (we used the kind with garlic & onions)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup white wine
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 lemon
1/3 cup heavy cream
Linguine noodles, cooked


Directions

1.  Make the clams and tomatoes as described in the original post here.
2.  Add the cream and bring to a simmer, then toss in the cooked noodles. Serve.

Enjoy!

One Pot Meal: Tomato Clam Stew

On sunny weekends, Taylor and I will bike to the International District to grab groceries at one of our favourite stores, Uwajimaya. They've got such a great selection of fresh seafood and meats and have great sales! On this particular trip, there were little neck clams on sale for $2.99/lb, which is the cheapest I have ever seen clams at the grocery store. Secretly I was walking over to the tanks thinking, "I CANNOT WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON SO MANY OF THESE LITTLE GUYS!!" Ok, that's a lie. I'm actually terrified of tanks full of fish (long story) and avoid them as best as I can, so I made Taylor scoop the clams out of the tank since the clams were surrounded but all these other tanks of fish. Yes, I am a wimp.


I still can't get over how beautiful these clams are! This was half of the batch of clams we used for the meal. The other half were manilla clams, which were on sale for $5.99/lb.


Ingredients - makes 4 servings

1 1/2 lbs little neck clams
1 lb manilla clams
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 8oz can of chopped tomatoes (we used the kind with garlic & onions)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup white wine
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 lemon


Directions

1.  Soak the clams in cold water for 20 minutes prior to cooking; They'll release all the lovely gritty stuff they've stashed in their shells.
2. Dice the cloves of garlic.
3. In a large saucepan, simmer the diced tomatoes, garlic, parsley, pepper, and wine for 15 minutes on medium-low heat.
4. Add the clams to the pan and cover with a lid to let them steam in the tomato bath. Remove the lid once clams are opened (should be about 10 minutes).
5. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon into the pan, over the clams.


We ended up eating this with our favourite crusty bread from the market, dipping slices into the soupy tomato base as we devoured the clams. So yummy!

P.S. We never ended up finishing the full 4 servings of the clams from this recipe. Instead, Taylor ended up making a killer batch of clam pasta in a creamy tomato sauce with our leftovers, which he'll be sharing next up on the blog.

Our Favourite Summer Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes

Taylor and I have been loving the sun and spending as much time as possible soaking up whatever rays are left after work. This sometimes means eating dinner at 9pm when the sun finally decides to start setting. We'll make a snack and hang out for a couple hours before coming back in to start working on the next meal. We're like cows-- grazing at every opportunity possible! ;)

Our favourite snack this season is this heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese. It's super cooling and so easy to make!

Ingredients - makes 2 servings

2 heirloom tomatoes (contrasting colours are perfect!)
1 English cucumber
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup feta cheese



Directions

1. Wash tomatoes and slice the evenly at about 1cm thickness.
2. Wash and peel the cucumber and slice at the same thickness of the tomatoes.
3. Evenly drizzle the tomatoes and cucumbers with olive oil and sprinkle the salt and pepper to taste, then drizzle the balsamic vinegar on top.
4. Sprinkle the feta cheese on top & enjoy!


Serve as is, or add a side of your favourite crusty bread (we are in love with the baguettes from Pike Place market) with a side of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip!