Sweet Potato & Curry Hummus

I'm currently "in-between" jobs in Australia and spending a great deal of time in the kitchen. We have been hitting up the farmer's markets and last week got a giant bag of sweet potato's for $2. (I should probably mention it was actually my boyfriend's parents who got them while we were at the beach... haha). So I went onto Pinterest earlier this week and searched for anything with sweet potatoes... I found lots of great stuff but I wanted something healthy so I chose to make the hummus.

There were tons of great recipes so I used a combination of a few of them. Hummus is great because you start with a can of chickpeas and then add pretty much anything you like! Garlic, lemon and tahini seem to be a good base with the chickpeas and then add anything else! I'm hoping to try a few more varieties next week too!

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas (15oz)
• 1 roasted sweet potato
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (roasted)
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder (I used Madras Curry Powder)
• dash of cayenne pepper
• salt/pepper to taste
• Crushed cashews for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Place 1 sweet potato on cooking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until tender. You can also roast the garlic at this time.
3. Let sweet potato cool and then peel off skin and cut into pieces.
4. Place all ingredients (except water) into food processor and mix on low.
5. Slowly add the water a little bit at a time until it is the consistency you want.
6. Add crushed cashews for garnish.
7. Store in fridge for up to 5 days.

How To Bake Rainbow Cupcakes

After moving from Toronto to Vancouver last May, I am only able to make the trip back home once or twice a year. When I made my first trip back last summer, I decided to have a baking fun day with my 4 nieces and make rainbow cupcakes. I had made a rainbow cake in the past and it was a big hit with my new friends in Vancouver (now I'm officially the 'rainbow cake girl').

Since I was baking with 4 extremely impatient little ladies, I decided to use the good old pre-mixed cake batter. It works out well when you are working with kids and want to speed up the process. You can use any plain white/vanilla cake mix for this recipe. (I used 2 boxes) Or you can always use make the batter from scratch. For the cake I made, I used a coconut cake recipe and then topped it with a cream cheese coconut icing... so good!

Make sure you get the food colouring 'gels'. They are the only ones that give this vibrant colour. They can be found at Michaels Craft Store in Canada. Not sure about the US... 

The girls each had their own colour to mix up and pour into the muffin trays.

We made them like a real rainbow and went: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

Things got a little hard to manage at some points... "No Anna! Not the blue icing!"

Very careful! 

Messy, messy, messy, but fun!

When the cupcakes went in the oven, the girls pulled up chairs to watch them bake. SO cute.

Enjoying the finished cupcakes! I used whipped cream on top which was a good short term icing. For longer lasting cupcakes, use a nice vanilla icing on each one.

Happy Niece... (or "Stop taking our pictures Auntie Kate")

Orange & Rosemary Roast Chicken

I decided to try my first roast chicken this week. I knew that you could just pop a chicken in the oven with some salt and pepper and it would turn out pretty well. But what's the fun in that! I found this recipe on my Epicurious iPhone App and thought it sounded amazing. I changed it up a little bit and the final product was sooo tasty. Definitely going to make this one again!

Ingredients:
5 green onions
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature (or less if you want to save on calories)
4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 7-pound whole roasting chicken
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 medium potatoes
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth

1. Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 400°F. Mince 1 shallot; mix with butter, rosemary and peel in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Pat chicken dry. Using fingers, loosen skin from chicken breasts, legs and thighs. Spread half of rosemary-orange butter under chicken skin. Tie chicken legs together to hold shape. Spread remaining butter over chicken. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Place rack in large roasting pan. Add the onion, carrots and potatoes. Chop 2 green onions; add to pan. Place chicken, breast side up, on rack in pan. Roast chicken until meat thermometer inserted into innermost part of thigh registers 180°F., stirring vegetables in pan occasionally, about 1 hour 40 minutes. 
4. Transfer chicken to platter. Tent with foil while making sauce (do not clean pan).
5. Place same roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add wine to pan; simmer until most of wine evaporates, scraping up any browned bits, about 5 minutes. Add broth. Simmer until sauce is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Strain into 2-cup glass measuring cup; discard solids. Spoon fat from top of sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve chicken with pan sauce and an orange slice to garnish.


Original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-with-Rosemary-Orange-Butter-100978