"Homemade Sodas", Beef Wellington, and Champagne Chocolates

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend was quite exciting with all of the things I made. I'm so sorry I haven't kept up with my blogs, things have been so hectic that I just haven't had time. I'm hoping to "plan" my blog posts better and actually post on a more regular basis. I really want to get back into reviewing cookbooks because I really enjoyed that. I also want to participate in the cooking and baking challenges by Chatelaine and Food Network. I just have to discipline myself better and get better organized. Organization was always a strong suit of mine until I graduate from my Masters program. Now that I'm at home and am just searching for a job, I don't plan my days and so I don't get a lot accomplished.



Anyways, enough blabbing. This past weekend I made two different "homemade sodas", beef wellington (with a side of garlic and potatoes), and some delicious chocolate truffles. Everything was absolutely fantastic! I would definitely make all of these again!

Homemade Sodas/Syrups 
I recently went to the LCBO and picked up the "Holiday 2013" edition of Food & Drink. They have a number of excellent recipes that I am tempted to make for the holidays, but one thing I decided to make immediately was a syrup they talked about in their Trendspotting section. Heather Trim discussed making steeped syrups to mix with cocktails, and since I am a big fan of Mio, I decided I would try to make one and combine it with Perrier. I had also seen a "homemade soda" recipe in the September 2013 issue of Food Network Magazine and decided to make it also.

Steeped Syrup (from Food & Drink Magazine)
The recipe tells you to make a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) and dissolve over heat, then cool. While the mixture is cooling you had your "flavouring". I decided to try orange and sage. SO YUMMY! I mix about 2 tablespoons with 1-1.5 cups of Perrier and it is so delicious and refreshing. Other flavour suggestions were chili, ginger and star anise. They also tell you various alcohols to mix in with these syrups.

Syrup on the stove with the Orange peel in it

Homemade Soda (from Food Network Magazine)
This recipe is meant mostly to mix with seltzer water. I chose to make the Basil Lemonade version they had which was basically taking a can of frozen pink lemonade and heating it with 1/2 cup of water and 12 torn basil leaves. This gets heated until it is syrupy and then is left to cool. While it is cooling, 8 more torn basil leaves are added. This mixture is then strained and seltzer is added. Again, I mixed 2 tablespoons of this syrup with 1-1.5 cups of Perrier. It also was very refreshing and delicious.

Lemonade syrup with torn basil leaves

Beef Wellington with Potatoes and Spinach 
My husband and I have been re-watching Hell's Kitchen during the past little while and ever since we started it I have been craving beef wellington. Last weekend I decided enough was enough and I HAD to make it. I obviously had downloaded the Gordon Ramsay Cook With Me App for my iPad and so had the recipe for the Beef Wellington. We followed the recipe to a T, except our oven seems to be broken and so we had to cook it for longer than the suggested time. Let me just say that Gordon would not have served our Beef Wellington, but for us it was fine. In fact it tasted amazing! The prosciutto, the mushrooms- YUM!!!!!! The recipe called for portabello mushrooms, but we used a mixture of portabello and white. We also made a Shallot and Red Wine sauce to pour over it. It made the Wellington that much yummier!

Mushrooms on Proscuitto

Mushroom Mixture after cooking

To go with our Wellington we made Garlic Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes (from the December 2013 Canadian Living) and Sauteed Spinach with Mushrooms (also from the December 2013 Canadian Living). OMG MOUTH ORGASM!!!! I am in love with the Garlic Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes!!!!!! You absolutely MUST try them!

Champagne Chocolates (from Crave by Random House)
Champagne + Chocolate = HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG?! And these chocolates did not go wrong! They were heavenly and yummy and OMG! These Champagne Chocolates were so easy to make and really really yummy! I followed the recipe but decided that since they chocolates were melting a little after I had cut them I would skip the extra layer of chocolate and just dip them into cocoa powder right away. They may have been better with an extra layer of chocolate (I mean who can argue with another layer of chocolate?!) but I decided that at 11 at night, it wasn't really that necessary. I really loved these chocolates and am planning on making them for my friends for Christmas (except instead of rolling them in cocoa powder, I'm planning on rolling them in crushed candy cane!)

Champagne Chocolates

WOW I had a lot of good food last weekend- definitely going to have to step up my exercise plan if I keep eating like this!!!! I was hoping to make a number of other recipes this weekend, but I'm going out for dinner tonight to celebrate my brother's convocation, and then tomorrow I am at a friends for dinner. I do have to make an appetizer for tomorrow night and am thinking about making some mini quiches.

Happy Cooking Adventures,
Tanya