Peach Cake (from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup warm whole milk
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl and dishes
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/8 teaspoons (a 1/4-ounce envelope) instant yeast
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
• 12 peaches, each cut into 1-inch wedges
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine water, milk, salt, egg, 4 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 cup sugar in a mixer bowl. Sprinkle yeast over mixture, and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add flour, beating until sticky dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until a ball forms, 3 to 5 minutes. Place in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
2. Butter two 9-by-13-inch glass baking dishes. Divide dough in half, and stretch 1 portion to cover 1 dish. Repeat with remaining dough and dish. Toss peach slices with lemon juice. Arrange peaches on top of dough (leaving juices in bowl), overlapping. Mix cinnamon and remaining 1 cup sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons butter over peaches, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Let dough rise for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake cakes in upper third of oven, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted in the centers of the cakes comes out clean (bottom crusts will be golden brown), 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool completely in pans on wire racks. Cut each cake into 15 squares, and serve.

Notes:

• The dough should be stretched quite thin if using 9-by-13-inch baking dishes. If smaller baking dish is used, then fewer peaches would be needed.

Nan's Scone Mix (from Ste Anne's Spa)

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 lb cold butter, cubed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• 1 cup butter milk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• extra all purpose flour (for dusting)

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix together with a fork: flour, sugar, caking powder, butter and salt. Combine until mixture crumbles.
3. Add cranberries or raisins.
4. In separate bowl, mix together buttermilk, egg and vanilla.
5. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and gently work together with your hands.
6. Flatten dough into round shape (1" thickness) on a table sprinkled with some of the extra flour.
7. Cut the dough into 2" rounds.
8. Place on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Cucumber, tomato and cloud ear fungus salad

• 1 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tbsp chili oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp white or black vinegar
• sugar to taste
• 8 baby cucumbers, cut in pieces and crushed
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• about 30 g cloud ear fungus, blanched and sliced

1. Mixes all condiments together and put cucumbers and cloud ear fungus in the sauce. Keep in fridge for 2 hours.
2. Put tomatoes in the sauce 30 minutes before serving.

Quinoa and Edamame Salad with Asian Flavours

From the Vegetarian's Complete Quinoa Cookbook:

• 1 cup (250 ml) quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups (500 ml) vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) frozen, shelled edamame
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 2 medium carrots, scrubbed well and diced
• 3 green onions, sliced

Dressing

• 2 tbsp (30 ml) canola oil
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) rice wine vinegar, no salt or sugar added
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) sodium-reduced soy sauce
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) minced or grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp (5 ml) wasabi paste
• pinch pepper

1. In an 8-cup (2 L) round, preferably deep microwave dish, combine the quinoa and broth. Cover and microwave at High (100%) for 5 minutes to bring to a boil, then at 60% for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and let stand covered for 5 minutes.
2. In a microwaveable bowl, combine the edamame with 2 tbsp (30 ml) of water. Cover and microwave at High for 3 to 4 minutes, or until bright green and tender. Drain.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the cooked quinoa, edamame, red pepper, carrots and green onions.
4. Dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, wasabi and pepper.
5. To serve: Pour the dressing over the quinoa and vegetables and toss well to coat all the ingredients. Serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftover for up to 2 days.

Makes 6 cups (1.5 L) 1 serving = 1 1/2 cups (375 ml)

Lemon Cheesecake

Adapted from Creative Culinary
The original proportion will yield 16 slices so I made only one-third of the original proportion to try it out. I also replaced the graham crackers (got none at home and nowhere to buy any on Christmas day) with giant lady fingers, and used less sugar than the original recipe called for. In retrospective, I would use even less sugar but more butter for the crust (as it was commented as too dry).

For the Crust:

• 3/4 cups giant lady finger crumbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

For the Filling:

• 8·ounce packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 + 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 teaspoon grated lemon rind

For the Sour Cream Topping

• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar

For the Glaze

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water (I tried using limoncello as suggested in the original recipe but the result was a bit of a let down)
• 1 tablespoons lemon juice

Prepare the crust:

1. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter. 
2. Press into bottom and 1/2" up sides of an 8 inch pan. 
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. 
4. Cool before adding filling.

Make the cheesecake filling:

1. Beat cream cheese until completely smooth.
2. Add eggs and beat until smooth.
3. Continue to beat, gradually adding sugar, then lemon juice and vanilla.
4. Stir in lemon rind.
5. Pour into cooled crust and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until slightly wobbly in the middle.
6. Blend sour cream topping ingredients.
7. Remove cake from oven. Gently spread sour cream over top of cake. Return to oven and bake about 12 minutes.
8. Cool on rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until topping is cool but not completely chilled.

Make glaze:

1. Combine sugar and cornstarch, blending in water and lemon juice until smooth. 
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Cook 3 minutes. 
3. Chill until cool but not set and spread top of cheesecake.
4. Chill several hours or overnight.

I also used some blueberries (about 1/2 pint) to decorate the top of the cheesecake as the color of the glaze did not turn out very nice.

Bacon Dip

Got it from my coworker S.

• 1 cup mayo
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 finely chopped peeled tomato with the seeds and gunk scraped out

1. Fry bacon until crispy. Crumble and mix with mayo, sour cream and chopped tomato. Chill and serve.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin II

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 pinch cardamom (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• chopped pumpkin seeds (optional) or walnuts (optional) or pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Put the entire brick of cream cheese on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper and shape it into a long log.

3. Put it in the freezer while you mix and fill the pans, up to an hour.

4. Unwrap and cut with a sharp knife so each cream cheese disk equals 1-2 teaspoons. If the cream cheese disks are too big around, cut thick slices and then cut them in half. This lets you push it down into the batter easier.

5. Mix all ingredients together (except cream cheese and nuts).

6. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full.

7. Put cream cheese disc in the middle, pressing down.

8. Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts.

9. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!).

10. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Do not touch the cream cheese until it cools