Holy puck!

Unless you just woke up from a 17-day coma, you've no doubt heard of this thing called the "Winter Olympics". If you DID just wake up from a 17-day coma, welcome back. We've missed you, your contributions to society, AND you're just in time for one of the most intensive hockey match ups EVER.

That's right. Men's ice hockey finals. The gold medal game between Team Canada and Team U.S.A. Now this site is all about food, but that doesn't mean you can't draw inspiration from the other simple pleasures of life. This recipe's for all you hockey fans out there. The B.L.T. Project proudly presents, Pucks du Chocolat!

What's sweeter? These biscuits or a home-ice victory? You decide.



Pucks du Chocolat

Ingredients

- Twelve (12) Ritz crackers (The 65% less sodium variety is ideal)
- 1/4 of a banana, sliced into thin wafers
- 200g of dark, bittersweet chocolate
- Two (2) Tbsp of Nutella
- Two (2) Tbsp of Peanut butter

Makes six biscuits



1. In a microwave bowl, heat chocolate on high for 3 minutes. Stir chocolate to ensure everything is melted.





2. While chocolate is melting spread peanut butter and/or Nutella on two open faced Ritz crackers.





3. Place in slice of banana in the center of one cracker and sandwich the other on top. Repeat with remaining ingredients.





4. Using a spoon, dip the Ritz sandwich in the melted chocolate, flipping over the biscuit to cover completely.



5. Place the finished biscuits on a sheet of wax or parchment paper and freeze immediately for 5 minutes.

6. Savor as Team Canada takes home another gold medal.



A few tips:
- Regarding the chocolate, you can buy a large brick or a small bag of chocolate chips. If you find yourself cooking with chocolate chips often then the bag is your best bet. It may be more expensive, but it's easier to cook with since you don't have to manually shave the chocolate yourself.

-Feel free to mix up the Nutella with the peanut butter and let the Project know how it tastes in the comment section.

-Serve with a glass of moo moo juice (milk).

-One final note: GO CANADA GO! Bring home the gold boys and make us proud.

Good morning sunshine

University students wouldn't have 8:00 a.m. lectures in the ideal world. It's a bummer though that we live in a less than perfect place. Speaking from personal experience, any lecture before 9 o'clock is nothing but torture wrapped in a course code and room number. Let's be honest here: if the sun isn't even out and doing its job, why should you?

Whether you love or hate morning lectures, the B.L.T. Project suggests starting the day off with a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes and home fries. But a lot of food requires quite A LOT of work and at 7 in the morning (6:30 a.m. if you'e slow and super preppy) are you really that awake to wield a frying pan?

You'll be happy to know that if you don't feel like raiding all of Old McDonald's farm for breakfast, a Sunshine Smoothie will get you out of the door and on your way to class just as effectively. Morning lectures may suck but that doesn't mean your breakfast can't be awesome and tasty.



Sunshine Smoothie

Ingredients:

-1/2 a cup (125 mL) of peach yogurt
-1 (one) banana
-1 (one) handful of strawberries
-2 (two) handfuls of blueberries
-Splash of orange juice

Makes one smoothie



1. Slice up the banana into smaller chunks for easier blending. Next, throw in berries, yogurt, and a splash of OJ.



2. Blend for 30 seconds on high.



3. Serve chilled or in a travel mug.




The Sunshine Smoothie: quick, easy, and gone from the house the next morning-- just like that person you hooked up with the night before.

So simple, yet so good.

Part of cooking is following instructions to create something you can be proud to serve your friends and family. The other part is just experimenting with what you’ve got on hand and making something good taste great. And it should be noted that the B.L.T Project loves makings great tasting things.

There will be days where you’re two bites into that sandwich/ falafel/ slice of pizza/ bowl of soup-noodles-pasta, and you stop chewing. Not because whatever you’re eating tastes bad, but because it feels as if something missing.

There will be times where you’ve followed recipes right down to the last gram of salt only to find that it’s still lacking a certain “oomph”.

So what exactly is this “missing ingredient” that you keep reading about? Well, the French call it “je ne sais quoi” but the B.L.T. Project calls it Fried Shallots!

You can lower your eyebrows now. Yes, not everyone is a fan of onions. Yes, cooking these little morsels of crispy goodness with make your eyes tear up a little. And yes, fried shallots don’t go well with every dish but for the ones that do pair nicely, you’re in for a special treat.



Fried Shallots

Ingredients:

- One (1) bag of small shallots (about 17-20 bulbs)
- Enough oil to cover a frying pan (Canola oil works well)

Makes about 1 cup



1. Cut off the tip and the bottom of each bulb for easy removal of the skin.



2. With a sharp knife, (or if you've got really long finger nails) peel off the remaining skin.



3. Run the shallots under some cold water for about two minutes. This will minimize the tears when it comes to cutting. Meanwhile, set frying pan at medium heat with enough oil to fill one quarter of the pan's volume.



4. Cut shallots lengthwise into 2mm thick slices. (Perfection isn't important, just aim for consistently sized slices as if helps for even cooking)





5. Once the oil is heat, slowly add in the shallots. Fry until golden brown and stir occasionally. Cooking times will vary stove top to stove top but the average time so far has been 12 minutes.



6. Reduce the heat as the shallots are turning a golden brown and remove with a slotted spoon or a ladle and place onto a paper towel-covered plate to remove excess oil.



Savor these shallots by throwing ‘em in a ham and swiss sandwich when you’re running low on onion buns. Or sprinkle some on your favourite soup for some added texture. Maybe toss them onto a pita smothered in humus for light snack. Be sure to keep the shallots in an airtight container for storage and add them to just about any dish from some flavour on demand.

An all you can tweet buffet.

Sorry folks, no new recipes for today. The original plan was to introduce you to some traditional Vietnamese dishes since yesterday was the celebration for the departure of the Kitchen God.

Generally speaking, the celebration brings family and food together as members say some quick prayers while the food is made as an offering. The point of the offering (to my understanding at least) is so when the Kitchen God reports to the greater heavenly bodies, he says good things about the family. A good report means good fortune for the household.

The night went smoothly but in the haste of eating all the food... someone forgot to take pictures.

So instead, this week's post would like to direct your attention to the top right hand corner of the page. We've now got Twitter! Like this blog, the Twitter account will be devoted to all things tasty and affordable around the Greater Toronto Area. Consider it... twittering with a direct purpose. After all, will following Tila Tequila direct you to a Ryerson bake sale? Probably not.

Next week: Seven days? Seven recipes! Three cheers for university reading week!