Claudia's Cookbook

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Food Blog Community

Claudia and I started our food blog back in June. Over the past several months, I have come to the realization that the food blog community is enormous and full of tons of passionate people willing to share their ideas and creations with those who have similar interests. I have been very fortunate to have been invited to share some of our Claudia’s Cookbook recipes on other great food blogs. I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize them here and encourage some of our followers to check their fantastic blogs as well.

Sweet as Sugar Cookies – Lisa has started up a great Sweets for Saturday recipe exchange that she asked us to be a part of it. Every Saturday, food bloggers can post their favourite dessert recipes to her website. We recently contributed our Nanaimo Bar recipe! We encourage you check out all the other amazing desserts posts and food blogs on her site.

Prairie Story – Alison is a fellow Manitoban and food blogger extraordinaire. She also has a great recipe swap on her blog that we have been actively involved called Recipe Swap Thursday.  Same idea as Sweets for Saturday, only these recipes can encompass any food item, not just desserts. We’ve contributed many of our recipes including our Date Squares, Nanaimo Bars, Chocolate Chow Mein Clusters, Cabbage Rolls and Pumpkin Scones. Prairie Story not only has some amazing recipes that we definitely think you should try, we also think that our blogs could be sisters as Alison features many of her own Polish family favourite recipes as well!

Miz Helen’s Country Cottage – Miz Helen is a food blogger from Dallas, Texas. She posts some great recipes that she plans to make over the next week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each week we look at the menu line up and wish we could one day be a guest at Miz Helen’s dinner table! She also does a great recipe swap each Thursday called Full Plate Thursday, where we were invited to feature our Nanaimo Bars recipe on. 

 Thank you to those mentioned above for inviting us to be a part of your communities! We look forward to meeting many more food bloggers as we continue with Claudia’s Cookbook and can’t wait to grow our own online food community as well.

Image above courtesy of Learn Food Photography

 

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Desserts

Nanaimo Bars

Growing up I never realized two very important things about Claudia’s Nanaimo Bars. Number 1 – they are a classic Canadian dessert. Number 2 – they are delicious! Like a spoiled brat child, I didn’t really care for Nanaimo Bars. I’m fairly certain it was the texture of the coconut. I wasn’t a huge fan. Fun fact: to this day I’m still not a fan of Bounty chocolate bars either! However as I got older and my palate became more sophisticated, I learned to love these Nanaimo Bars in all their glory. To this day, Claudia only makes these beauties for Christmas. I think that is part of the appeal. Sweet, creamy and chocolatey rich, they are definitely a once a year treat that everyone should enjoy.

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Desserts

Chocolate Chow Mein Clusters

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “I ate three times my body weight in holiday baking a mere month ago. Why would I want to bake and eat any more – especially when my New Years Resolution is to eat healthy?!” I hear what you are saying and feel the same way. Except when I am faced with these amazing chocolatey treats (like last night when I went over to my parents for dinner) and throw all my good eating intentions out the window.

Claudia has made these little treats for Christmas for as long as I can remember. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I seem to fall further and further in love with them every year. They are probably one of the simplest desserts to make and fulfill even the biggest chocolate cravings. Sweet with a hint of salty, these crunchy gems are a must try.  You will thank me – I promise!

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Ukrainian Dishes

Kutia

This is by far Claudia’s favourite Ukrainian dish. Kutia is always served as the first of the twelve traditional meatless dishes during Christmas Eve. Served cold, Kutia is essentially a sweet wheat soup.  (more…)

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Ukrainian Dishes

Ukrainian Christmas

Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7. It is tradition that on Christmas Eve (or “Sviaty Vechir”) 12 meatless dishes are prepared as it mimics the Nativity Fast, which no meat, eggs or milk (including cheese) are allowed during the supper. Only fish, mushrooms and various types of grain are allowed as the main offerings. (more…)

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Desserts

Red Velvet Cake Balls

We are just waking up from our holiday food comas. We hope that the holiday season is being kind to you all! We did a fair amount of baking leading up to Christmas, therefore the next few posts will be of the dessert variety. We honestly couldn’t wait to share this new recipe of ours with you.

This recipe is actually not a Claudia original. I actually found it on the blog by the wonderful and talented Bakerella. We tried it for the first time last week and everyone who has tried these little darlings has fallen in love. So of course, we simply had to share the love with you as well!  I think these little babies would be a fun addition to any New Years Eve potluck party. The only downside to this story is that you need Red Velvet cake mix. I haven’t been able to locate this in Canada, so I typically stock up on this when I hit Target in the USA. I highly recommend you give the Duncan Hines variety a try.

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Desserts

Date Squares

For as long as I can remember, Date Squares (aka Matrimonial Cake) were always on Claudia’s Christmas baking list. I’ll admit that when I was younger I didn’t fancy them too much and chose holiday desserts on the table that had a lot more chocolate on them. But as I get older (and wiser of course) I have grown to absolutely love them. The buttery crumbly layers and the sweet date filling makes this the perfect recipe for your own holiday baking list.

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Dinner, Ukrainian Dishes

Perogies

Today is my Baba’s (Claudia’s Mom) 82nd birthday. There really isn’t a better way to celebrate her life (and Claudia’s essentially) than to post the staple of my Ukrainian childhood (and the best food she ever made) on this day. That being perogies. No one, and I do mean no one, can ever top my Baba’s perogies. They are simply the best. I know there are a lot of you who say the same thing about your own family recipe. But I kid you not, my Baba made and sold hundreds (if not thousands) of dozens of these little nuggets of gold for people just like yourselves after they realized they did not have the best family recipe. Trust me on this one. I grew up on this stuff after all!

Claudia and I spent all Saturday afternoon perfecting the dough and creating dozens of differently filled perogies. We finally came up with what we thought Baba would deem as worthy to share with friends. Perogies are the ultimate comfort food. I have never grown tired of them. My hope is that after trying these for yourself, you won’t either.

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Healthy, Soups

Hearty Soup

I’m not really a carboholic. I’m more of a sugarholic. I like sweets..the more chocolate in those sweets, the better. However, there is something to be said about the weather changing your eating habits. As the weather continues to flirt with below freezing temperatures, I find myself craving heavier foods. Casseroles and soups have been my addiction the past few weeks. I can’t get enough. Not to mention this is probably one of the busiest times for me professionally, so the easier that carb-loaded meal is to make, the happier I am.

Hearty Soup is probably the easiest recipe Claudia has in her cooking repertoire. It’s so easy that while my Dad watched me and Claudia make this soup for the blog, he proclaimed that even he could make it and continued to copy the recipe for his own meal arsenal for an upcoming hunting trip. Beats his pickled eggs recipe he currently has that’s for sure. This soup is so delicious, it leaves you wondering how something so simple can be so good.

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Tag, we’re it!

We were tagged by our new friend and fellow Manitoban Alison at Prairie Story  to take part in this great little game of “get to know you”.  The rules are pretty simple, we answer the 8 questions asked by Alison and in turn, pose 8 questions of our own to 8 new bloggers! Pretty cool! Here we go:

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