Bruschetta... Geoff Style

Butternut Squash Risotto

Goat cheese, cream cheese and garlic scape stuffed chicken breasts

This is one of the meals we had stored on our camera before the long hiatus.

Super easy meal with very little work, and looks pretty impressive to boot!

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 strands of garlic scape
2 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp goat cheese
4 tbsp cream cheese
whatever seasoning you'd prefer

1. Preheat oven to 350F
   
2. Mix together garlic scape, cheeses, and chives
   
3. Slice a pocket on the side of the chicken breast, be careful not to go through the other side
4. Spoon cheese mixture into the pocket
   
5. Season the outside of the breast with whatever seasoning you'd like, we used herbs de provence
6. Bake for 30 minutes
   

Thanksgiving dulce de leche cheesecake and our return to blogging

It's been so long since we've updated our blog. But it's not without reason. Geoff and I went on a day long bike trip to my cottage and the next day I woke up and had no balance and very blurry eyes. After a month in the hospital I was diagnosed with severe acute MS. I spent the next month on my moms couch waiting for my sight and balance to return.

Now things are getting back to normal and we're finally back to cooking. This is one of the first things I have made on my own since July. It wasn't too bad, definitely need to add some Baileys or some other liqueur to the cheesecake batter.

We totally stole this recipe and idea from the daring bakers April challenge. This is where I found the idea to top it with dulce de leche and whoppers.

Scallops and Bok Choy with a horseradish emulsion

I love this recipe. It's sweet and salty and has a little bit of a kick. It's fantastic and very simple.

Generally I hate beets. Beets and peas. For this meal, I was able to get over my contempt for beets and do something delicious (I don't think I will ever be able to enjoy peas, I've hated them since before I could talk, just ask my parents). The beets were roasted instead of boiled or coming from a jar, the baby bok choy was fresh, and the scallops were giant and delicious.
My Uncle John has been telling me that you have to have the pink scallops instead of the white scallops. The seafood lady at costco told him that the pink scallops are supposed to be the females and are sweeter than the white ones. I didn't notice too much of a difference between the two, but you should try and let us know if there is any difference.

We totally stole this recipe from WrightFood and only improvised a little (substituting baby Bok Choy for Russian kale)
Serves 2

Ingredients:
8 large scallops (lightly salt and pat them dry with paper towel to draw out the water)
3 large beets (you could use more or less depending on your liking)
4 sprigs fresh time (I'm sure dried thyme would be fine though)
4 heads of baby Bok Choy
garlic scape or just 1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Emulsion:
2 egg yolks
2tbsp melted butter
1 tsp creamed horseradish

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. Wash the dirt off of the beets. Put enough water into a roasting pan to just cover the bottom of the pan and a glug of oil. Toss in the thyme and and the beets. Move it around to coat the beets in oil. Cover with tin foil and put into the oven to cook for 45min to an hour depending on how large the beets are. You'll know they're done when they are knife tender.
3. When beets are done, allow to cool until cool enough to handle. Take paper towel and remove the skin. Slice into 1/4in pieces.
4. While beets are cooling, slice the bok choy into quarters. Add butter, garlic scape and a little oil to a pan, and sautee at medium heat until tender.
5. At the same time, in another pan add some oil to another pan, put on medium heat. Put scallops in, and allow both sides to brown. They will not brown if you don't pat them dry first.
6. Everything should finish at about the same time. Plate it nicely then throw all the ingredients for the emulsion into a blender, and blend for a couple seconds. Then drizzle on top of everything!
   

Naan Bread

So now that we've made a couple of recipes using the Naan bread, and had a piece pretty much every day after work or class, it is finally time to put up the recipe.

We made a simple dip using the yogurt that was left over, some fresh dill, garlic and a little lemon juice. Then we just tear up the bread, dip, and enjoy.

The recipe is incredibly simple. Geoff used to make this at his last job all the time.


Ingredients:
Wet:
1 c water
2 eggs
2 teaspoons yeast
1 c plain yogurt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 c oil

Dry:
8 c flour
1 tbsp salt
1tsp baking soda

1. Put all of the wet ingredients in a large bowl but don't mix and let it sit in a warm place for 20 minutes (to activate the yeast)
2. Add 4 c flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until all the flour is absorbed into the dough.
3. Slowly add remaining 4 cups, using your hands to knead the dough into a ball (you might not need the entire remaining 4 cups, but it should be close. You'll know when the flour stops joining the rest of the dough)
4. Cover with a dark cloth and let sit to rise (We let it sit overnight)
   
5. Section the dough into about chunks that are about 1/2 to 1 cup, depending on how big of a bread you'd like. The dough should keep in the fridge for about a week, but you could probably freeze it to make it keep longer.
6. Preheat oven to 400F
7. put a little bit of flour down and onto a rolling pin. Roll out the sectioned dough as flat as possible.
8. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 2-4 minutes each side. You'll know when to flip when its all poofing up and the bubbles in the bread are just starting to brown.
9. Brush with a little bit of butter when you take it out of the oven and serve however you'd like!
   

Homefries and Eggs Benedict with a twist

There is a restaurant here in Ottawa that makes a killer egg's Benedict. I've only had it once but I still can't stop thinking about how good it was.

A couple of weekends ago, we decided to recreate it.

Instead of English muffins, we used fresh buttery croissants, peameal bacon instead of ham, a perfectly poached egg and some spinach that had been lightly boiled until wilted.

I'm not going to lie, we didn't make the holandaise sauce this time. We just melted butter and added a prepared mix from Knorr. I'm not proud... but it tastes good and it's easy and you don't have to worry about it separating. If you want a recipe for holandaise, here is one we've made before.

Homefries
1 can white potatoes, they can be whole but the sliced potatoes are easier
1.5 tbsp butter
whatever seasonings you'd like (we used some cayenne pepper, and garlic)

Fry it all up until slightly browned. You don't need to boil the potatoes or anything since they already have been at the factory.

Butter Chicken

Geoff and I made butter chicken about... 3 months ago. We took pictures, and even uploaded them to our blog. Somehow we have been able to write twenty or so recipes up since this and have completely neglected this one.

It was really good. My mom and sister had been telling me that they have been making butter chicken from a jar for months. They kept bragging about how good it was and how nice it was to have my grandparents move out of my mom's house (there was a fire and they stayed at my mom's house until there house was redone) so they could continue to make butter chicken whenever they wanted without my grandparents complaining.

Finally I had been convinced that I needed to try butter chicken. I decided to make it from scratch since anything homemade has to be better than from a jar. I'm still not sure that what we made and what my sister and mom make is the same thing, but it was delicious.

Recipe from Taste Buddies

Ingredients:
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces (we used 3 chicken breasts)
150ml natural yogurt
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
3 bay leaves
4 green cardamom pods
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp of grated ginger
2 garlic gloves, crushed
400g can of diced tomatoes
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs of butter
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 tbs of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of cream
1 cup of water
Steamed basmati rice to serve

1. Mix the yogurt, chili powder, bay leaves, cardamon pods, cloves, cinamon, garam marsala and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken to the bowl and cover it.
2. Melt the butter in a pot. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and ginger, cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat.
3. Add the chicken mixture to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and the water, stir. Bring to a boil.
5. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and add 1 tbs of cilantro. Stir well and then cover. Gently simmer for about 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Just before serving, stir 1/4 cup of cream into the pot. Garnish with remaining cilantro and serve on white rice.
   

Naan Pizza

We've made a few Naan pizzas before, but this is finally our first with our own homemade Naan. I've had this medley of ingredients in the back of my head for a long time and it turned out even better than I expected.

Before you go ahead and put Pesto sauce on your Naan, this is not made with Pesto sauce. We blended some fresh rosemary, thyme, green onion, garlic scapes, a bit of parsley and chives into a bit of oil to make the layer of sauce underneath all the veggies.

Ingredients (besides the green sauce):

1 Large piece of Naan bread
1 tomato, sliced
1 handfull of mushrooms, sliced
some green onions, chopped
Some artichoke hearts
1 Red pepper, sliced
2-3 pieces of Pemeal bacon
Cream Cheese
Goat Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese

1. Lay the green onion, mushrooms, and red pepper on a pan, toss in salt, pepper and oil and roast in the oven until everything is soft. Meanwhile, fry the pemeal bacon until both sides start to brown.
2. Coat the naan with mixed herbs.
3. Throw the roasted veggies, artichokes, and bacon onto the Naan.
4. Spread slices of Mozzarella Cheese over the veggies.
5. In a medium bowl, mix a good chunk of goat cheese and cream cheese together to make an even consistency.
6. Lay the slices of tomato on top of the Mozzarella and top with a small ball of the goat cheese and cream cheese mixture.
7. Throw the pizza into the oven until the cheese starts to brown and enjoy.

Garlic Scape Scampi

Geoff and I have been getting organic vegetables delivered to our door for the last year. It's always a great surprise to find out whats in the vegetable box. This week we received garlic scape.
I had never even heard of them before now. After a quick search on tastespotting, we were able to come across several recipes. Most of the recipes had the scape blended and made into a pesto. That seemed pretty boring to us, so we decided on this amazingly tastey dish from Closet Cooking. The recipe was fast and tastey. We definitely recommend trying this out.

The Ultimate Naan Sandwich

Finally, we've gotten around to make a batch of fresh Naan bread. I learned how to make this at a restaurant I worked at for a short time. Its so simple and always delivers tastey results. The recipe for the Naan is soon to come, but to start off what will be a number of posts including Naan bread, here is an absolutely fabulous sandwich that you'll be making for yourself every lunch once you try it.

Instead of simply melting butter on the freshly cooked Naan, I made a quick aeoli sauce by mixing some fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice into some mayo. Just put in as much of the ingredients until you like the taste. This can be used as an excellent dipping sauce with strips of Naan bread for an appeteizer.

After coating one side of the freshly cooked Naan in the aeoli sauce, I put some fresh greens, sliced tomato, green onions, radish and a big slice of fried pemeal bacon on one side of the Naan. Then I just folded the empty side over, holding everything together with a couple toothpicks and cut into two pieces. For a touch of added spice, I sprinkled some cayenne pepper over the sandwiches and the plate.

Fresh Salad with Orange Dressing

I've been meaning to try and make my own orange-tasting salad dressing and this is what I came up with. It was very different than your typical salad and looked so delicious in these bowls.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of plain yogurt
1/4 cup honey
Juice and zest of 1 orange
Splash of lemon juice
Splash of vanilla extract

The salad itself consisted of mixed greens, some fresh cloves, sliced strawberries and half a can of mandarin oranges. It makes a very nice side dish to any meal.

Jamie Oliver's white fish wrapped in smoked bacon with lemon mayo and asparagus

During our most recent trip to Costco we decided to get a package of tilapia and do some experimenting. We stumbled upon this recipe in our Jamie Oliver cookbook. It took maybe 10 minutes to put together and was so delicious we nearly made it again the next night.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

4 pieces of white fish fillets
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
Juice from 2 lemons and their zest
ground pepper
16 pieces of thinly sliced bacon
4 tablespoons of mayo
olive oil
2 bunches of asparagus, trimmed

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Rub fillets with lemon zest, pepper, and fresh rosemary
3. Flatten 4 pieces of bacon on a board, slightly overlapping
4. Lay fish on top of bacon and roll the bacon around it tightly
5. In an oven-safe pan, cook the bacon-wrapped fillets for one minute
6. Place pan in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bacon is golden-brown.
   

For the lemon mayo:

1. While fish is in the oven, mix the lemon juice with mayo and add pepper.
2. Taste to ensure the lemon is strong enough.
3. Boil the asparagus with slightly salted water
4. Drizzle the lemon mayo onto the asparagus and serve with the fish.

Fiddle Heads Attempt #4

I just found this picture on my camera. Geoff and I made this for dinner a couple weeks ago after having gone out for drinks with his sister and brother-in-law. His brother-in-law ordered a pasta with lots of garlic, some tomatoes and oil. It smelled so good, I thought about it for days. It seemed easy enough so we gave it a shot and added a couple of extras.

Ingredients:
Pasta
Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Fiddle Heads, ends trimmed and washed
Tomatoes (diced, or cherry tomatoes cut in half)
4 cloves garlic, chopped as much as possible
Olive oil
Butter
4 tsp lemon juice

1. Boil fiddle heads for 5 minutes
2. When fiddle heads are done, begin boiling pasta (should take about 10 minutes for the pasta to be ready)
3. While the pasta is cooking, cook shrimp in a little bit of butter, 2 tsp lemon juice and garlic
4. Fry fiddle heads in a little butter and 2 tsp lemon juice
5. Once pasta is done, drain and put back in the pot, add fiddle heads, shrimp diced tomatoes and garlic. Toss with enough oil to just cover the noodles.
   

Sarah's Nanny's Strawberry Shortcake

This is the best cake ever. My nanny has been making this since my cousin was born (she's now in her mid-twenties). Every summer when the strawberries are ripening she makes cake after cake since they never last more than two days around my family.

Today, my grandfather shared the first cake of the season with Geoff and I, and it was fantastic. My grandpa is always VERY reluctant to share this cake with anyone, so we have to sneak pieces when he's not looking. When he can, he'll eat an entire cake on his own because it is THAT good.

Ingredients:
2c Flour
1/3c Sugar
1/2c shortening, butter or margarine
3/4c milk
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 container Cool Whip
some mashed strawberries with about 2 tsp sugar (my nanny was really vague on this point, she said to mash enough strawberries to put in the middle of the cake and cover the top)

1. Heat oven to 375F. Grease 9 inch round cake pan
2. In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Cut in the shortening using either two butter knives or a pastry blender until it has a consistency of coarse meal.
3. Add milk and eggs, stir just until the dry ingredients are just moistened.
4. Put dough in pan, bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Once the cake has cooled, cut in half so you have two layers. Put half of the mashed strawberries on one side, then place the second half of the cake on top and put the remaining mashed strawberries on top.
   
6. Cover with Cool Whip and decorate with entire strawberries ontop.
   

Father's Day Brunch

For Father's Day, Geoff and I went up to his cottage for the weekend. To be honest, we had no idea what kind of breakfast foods he liked to eat so we gave his mom a list of foods that we like to make. She informed us that crepes would be good, so we just had to decide on what to put on them.

We quickly decided to make them as breakfast-y as possible and decided to add eggs and bacon. They were great. I knew they were going to be good but they turned out great.

We also made the dessert crepes again for a breakfast dessert. A kind of heavy but great meal!

Ingredients:
1 c cold water
1 c cold milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c flour
4 tbsp melted butter
(add 2 tsp sugar for dessert crepes).

1. Cook a slice of bacon per crepe you plan on eating. Once done, pat with paper towel to remove excess grease then crumble into bits and set aside.
   
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. I don't think it really matters in what order you add everything, since it's all just going to be mixed up together anyway. At this point, you're supposed to refrigerate the batter for two hours to let it settle down, but we never have and they always turn out great.
3. Heat up a frying pan to about medium high and put a little tiny bit of oil on it to stop the crepe from sticking.
   
4. Here's the tricky part, figuring out how much batter to use to make each crepe. Be prepared to screw the first few up. Pour a little in and quickly turn the pan about until the batter is completely covering the bottom of a pan. Let it cook until it looks stable enough, then flip.
5. Crack an egg into the center of the crepe and put some of the bacon bits on top. Fold up the edges to make a rough square. Place onto a baking sheet and then under the broiler for about 1 minute to let the rest of the egg cook.
6. If you are making dessert crepes as well, with the rest of the batter, add 2 tsp sugar, and cook as above. When done, add sliced fruit, some melted Nutella and a bit of whipped cream.
   

New Camera!

Thanks to my wonderful family, I am now the proud proprietor of the Nikon D60. It's so much better than my point-and-shoot 6.1 MP Casio. YAY!

Tomato, Portobello & Fresh Mozzarella Melts

This was what Geoff and I made for dinner last night. Although there was no meat, it did taste very meaty. There's something about grilled mushrooms, and especially portobellos that tastes a lot like meat.

I can't say enough good things about this meal. Super fast and super healthy (although it didn't taste like it was healthy).

From Good Housekeeping: Grilling for Every Day

Ingredients:
2 c. loosely packed arugula or watercress
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 lg portobello mushrooms, stems removed and cut in half
2 med. tomatoes cut into 3/4 in. thick slices
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1 loaf focaccia or ciabatta bread about 1-in. thick (we couldn't find other, so we got a loaf of light rye bread)

1. Heat BBQ to medium-high heat and clean the grill. In a small bowl, toss arugula and vinegar until evenly coated. Cut bread into two 8" by 2" pieces. Cut each piece horizontally in half to make a total of four 8" by 2" pieces (or cut the rye into 1 or 1/2 in. slices).
2. Brush mushrooms and tomatoes with oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Place mushrooms, stem-sides up, and tomatoes on grill and cook 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender and charred, turning once. Transfer tomatoes to plate. Arrange mozzarella on mushrooms; cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes longer.
3. place bread, cut-sides up, on work surface; top with arugula mixture, grilled tomatoes, and cheese-topped mushrooms. Cut each sandwich into quarters and serve.

For some of the pieces of bread, we left plain, some with a little butter and some with a little cream cheese. Each was really tasty, but you really don't need to put butter or cream cheese on the bread since everything else has enough flavour.

Mmmmm! Dessert Crepes!

The picture describes how good the crepes are better than my words ever could. This same recipe can be used for savoury crepes as long as you don't put in the sugar.

I first had crepes when I went to France in grade 10 on a school exchange. Instead of fry stands on the streets, they had crepe stands. The stand right by school always put Nutella on them. I've been hooked since.

The family I stayed with also made crepes a few times, except we had savoury crepes for dinner. This was also my first experience with goat cheese (which is my favourite cheese now). The crepes were made on a crepe pan, and then a big clump of goat cheese was melted into the middle while it finished cooking then it was folded all together so the melted cheese was trapped inside.

You can make the crepes ahead of time then just add whipped cream or nutella or fruit or whatever awesome sweet thing you want to have with your crepes.

Ingredients:
1 c cold water
1 c cold milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp melted butter

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. I don't think it really matters in what order you add everything, since it's all just going to be mixed up together anyway. At this point, you're supposed to refrigerate the batter for two hours to let it settle down, but we never have and they always turn out great.
2. Heat up a frying pan to about medium high and put a little tiny bit of oil on it to stop the crepe from sticking.
   
3. Here's the tricky part, figuring out how much batter to use to make each crepe. Be prepared to screw the first few up. Pour a little in and quickly turn the pan about until the batter is completely covering the bottom of a pan. Let it cook until it looks stable enough, then flip.
   
4. Once done, set it aside for a minute on a cookie rack to cool then you can stack them all up together.
   

putting nutella on the crepes is super good, but so is whipped cream, and fruit. You really can put on whatever you want.

Fiddle Heads Attempt #3 plus CRASH Potatoes!

I'm not sure what part of this meal was better, the fiddle heads or the potatoes. Probably the potatoes... but then I do love bacon... and fiddle heads.

The potatoes were AWESOME. I've never had potatoes that tasted sooooo good. They were delicious. We first made them for Geoff's sister, Brother-in-law and their sometimes roommate. They were a hit.

This attempt at fiddle heads was our best yet. I think frying them up really made them taste much much better than just putting a sauce on top.

Ingredients for Crash Potatoes
12 or so baby red potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
Coarse salt and pepper
garlic powder (or whatever spice you want to use)
sour cream for topping (optional)

Ingredients for fiddle heads
Fiddle heads
4 slices thick bacon

Potatoes

1. Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes until fork tender.
   
2. Preheat oven to 400F.
   
3. Arrange potatoes on a baking sheet and smash them down once or twice so they're broken open and kind of flattened but still in one piece.
   
4. Drizzle the olive oil on top, sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder on top. Bake for 20 minutes, serve with sour cream on top.

Fiddle heads

1. Trim the ends and boil for 5 minutes to get the gross brown coating off.
   
2. Meanwhile, fry up the bacon until crispy and set aside onto paper towel to soak up some of the grease.
   
3. Drain about half of the bacon grease from the pan and fry the fiddle heads up in the remaining grease for about 5 minutes.
   
4. Crumble the bacon up with the fiddle heads and serve!

Easy Cheesey Appetizer

I really wish I had bookmarked this recipe so I could give credit to whomever first made it.

It's pretty much a Caprese salad but it's not quite. It only takes 5 minutes to put these together. Super tastey and super easy. Perfect appetizer.

Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes
6-7 fresh basil leaves
ball of fresh mozzarella (around 500g I think is what we used but I could be completely wrong)
4 tbsp olive oil
skewers

Cut up the mozzarella up into squares and put them on skewers alternating with the cherry tomatoes. Blend olive oil and basil together until kind of frothy and pour on top of finished skewers.

Our first awesome dumplings

If we're ever out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, we always order some fried dumplings. The contents are very basic, yet the combination of the dough and sauce is what gives them the sweet and tasty flavour.

As we wanted to make our own, but had no idea how to go about doing so, we found this extremely detailed recipe.

We'd been searching for months for a recipe that was easy enough with ingredients that we could find without searching through Asian grocery stores in Chinatown.

Definitely try making these. The recipe is a little time consuming, but definitely worth it. Tastes just like from the restaurant. Just be sure you have one or two helpers so you can get the wrapping done quickly

Edit: Unless you love making dough, I would really recommend just buying the dough that's already been rolled out and cut up for you

Fiddle Heads Attempt #2

So this is our second attempt at fiddle heads. We had to leave the cottage early one weekend, so my grandpa gave Geoff and I each a delicious tender rib steak to make for our own dinner at home (we actually don't have steak every night even though Geoff would love that)

This time we decided to top our steak with quartered white mushrooms fried in butter and garlic. As for the fiddle heads, Geoff Googled some recipes in an attempt to find something new. He clearly can't read properly because he thought there was a recipe that included wasabi, so we mixed some into soya sauce and poured the mixture over the fiddle heads and rice. While wasabi can be fairly strong, we figured the rice would be able to soak up the excess spice.

Although it was something new, we probably wouldn't make it again. At least not with a juicy steak since the flavours clashed a little much, but it might compliment various types of seafood instead.

Fiddle Heads Attempt #1

This is our first attempt at fiddle heads this spring. They were good, but we've since done WAY better. Everyone probably knows how to grill a steak and how to cook rice already, so we're not going to talk about that here.

Ingredients
1/2 lb Fiddle heads ends trimmed
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp jarred garlic (could use fresh garlic but it would give it a much stronger garlic taste)
1 tsp lemon juice

1. Boil fiddle heads for 5 minutes in salted water in order to get rid of the brown coat that grows on the fiddle heads to protect them over the winter (it's this that makes the fiddle heads bitter, so you have to boil them even if you plan on pan frying them as well).
   
2. Mix the butter, garlic and lemon, pour on top. This mixture is really good if you have the rice underneath because it flavours the rice as well.

Honey and Curry Asparagus

This recipe is so easy and tasty. If you have 10 minutes, you have time to make this. The best part is the minimal ingredients.
We stole this recipe from Taste as you go.

However, we did switch it around a little because we never have unsalted butter and were too lazy to make the curry butter separately. I don't think the flavour suffered at all from our changes to it though.

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of asparagus (ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Saute the asparagus to desired tenderness. Add everything else to the pan when the asparagus is done and toss to cover.

Tastey Spanakopita

Grilled Marinated Veggies and Shrimp

Last weekend Geoff and I finished exams and had the chance to escape up to my family's cottage for the weekend. Two out of three days it was rainy and cold and gross, but on Sunday it was gorgeous. Sunny, warm, no wind, 15C. Perfect spring weather. Finally BBQ season has commenced.

We went to the grocery store in town and picked up some shrimp (mom, just so you know we didn't even raid the freezer at the cottage... and there was A LOT of shrimp in there) and some vegetables.

The shrimp was probably the best shrimp we have ever made. It's way better than in a frying pan. WAY better. And of course the vegetables were really good too.

It was such an easy and fast meal that I plan on making again and again all summer now that I can finally uncover my own barbecue here in Ottawa.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini, sliced
2 bell peppers of your preferred colour cut into large chunks
1/2 of a large egg plant cut into slices then quartered
Bag of 21-24 sized shrimp
Butter
Garlic
Oil
Spices
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Wooden Skewers
BBQ grill pan

1. Soak skewers in water (this will prevent them from burning on the BBQ)
   
2. Mix 2 parts oil with 1 part vinegar in a large Ziploc baggy or a large bowl. Add in whatever spices you like (we used rosemary and thyme pluse some others that I can't remember... I just open jars and smelled, using whatever I liked at the time), 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, 1/4 tsp salt, fresh ground pepper. Make sure you mix it up well
3. Add veggies into the baggy or bowl and cover with the marinade. Let sit at least 20-30 minutes
4. Heat up the BBQ
   
5. Peel shrimp and impale them on the skewers. About 4 shrimp should fit on a skewer. Brush the shrimp with a mixture of 1 clove garlic and 3-4 tbsp melted butter.
6. First put the vegetables on the BBQ grill pan on the bbq and grill until almost done
7. put shrimp right onto the grill. Should take 1-2 minutes per side. Flip when the first side turns pink
8. Serve!
   

Salmon with Dijon-Dill Sauce

We were rummaging through the freezer and found some salmon steaks that we thought we'd finished. As it was already late and we were ridiculously hungry, we came up with this deliciously light meal that didn't take more than 10 minutes to put together.

We had some extra tomatoes that needed to be eaten so we made a small salad to go with the salmon. Our final touch was to fry up some mushrooms and drizzle the bed of veggies in our balsamic dressing. The bite of the salad dressing and the Dijon-dill sauce complemented each other perfectly so we could attack everything at once when we finally sat down to eat!

Ingredients:
2 Salmon Steaks
2 Handfulls of fresh baby spinach
1 Tomato - sliced
1 small hand full of mushrooms
1 Knob of butter
1 tbsp of Dill Weed
1/3 cup of Sour Cream
3 tbsp of Dijon Mustard
2 tsp of lemon juice
1 clove of garlic - minced
salt
pepper

For the sauce:
Mix the dill, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and garlic into the sour cream.

For the salmon:
Brush melted butter onto salmon and fry until cooked through. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, fry mushrooms in butter until softened. Spread the spinach on the plate and top with the tomatoes and mushrooms and drizzle with balsamic dressing. Place the salmon on top and cover liberally with the sauce and enjoy!

Fannie Farmer's Calming Creamy Tomato Soup

I promise you, this soup is the best cream of tomato soup you will ever have. I had it for the first time a few summer's ago when I failed to get a summer job and decided to start my own business for the summer. I would go to my grandmother's every day for lunch. There was always a different type of soup and usually salad plus a sandwich or some chicken or left overs from the night before.

One day she pulled out her Fannie Farmer's cookbook (which is the best cookbook ever and will teach you everything you need to know to feed yourself well for the rest of your life and still be extremely satisfied and impressed) and made up this soup in less than 20 minutes. The cookbook describes the soup as being "calming" and it really is. After every bowl of this soup I am ready for a nap or to go to bed. NOthing else matters when you have this soup. It's that good.

Last week Geoff and I decided we were going to make it. Geoff had never tried this soup before and I had been talking about it probably since I met him. He fell in love with it. There was complete silence as we ate. There were no words to describe how fulfilling this soup is. I strongly encourage you to make it and to buy the Fannie Farmer cookbook yourself.

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion, chopped up
1 tsp salt
1tsp sugar
4 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 cups of milk (we only used 3 because we ran out of milk and it was REALLY good)
1/3 cup butter
freshly ground pepper to taste
dried parsley for looks

1. Open the can of diced tomatoes and stir in the baking soda and set aside (the baking soda prevents the acid in the tomatoes from making the milk curdle)
   
2. Melt the butter in a pot big enough to hold all of the ingredients
3. Add the onions, cook until softened and translucent
   
4. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir (you've just made a roux!)
   
5. Turn the burner up to medium or medium - high heat
6. Add the salt, and sugar. Slowly add the milk into the pot, heat (but don't boil!) until slightly thickened
7. Stir in the tomatoes. Heat until at desired temperature and enjoy!
   

Lemon-Shrimp Pasta

While browsing through tastespotting (or maybe foodgawker) we saw a recipe with garlic shrimp and orzo pasta. It looked really tasty and after cleaning out the freezer, we found that there was 3 bags of shrimp stashed away from months ago so we gave it our own spin.

I'm not sure who originally posted the recipe but we used it as a starter for our own. The original didn't have any veggies and we had several lemons sitting in the fridge so we made our best attempt at customizing this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 - 1 + 1/2 cups of Orzo pasta depending on how hungry you are
2 tsp diced garlic
2 big handfuls of baby spinach, washed
an assortment of mushrooms, cleaned (we had 3 or 4 different kinds)
lemon juice
3 tbsp butter
peeled and deveined shrimp
olive oil
parsley

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, salt it and add pasta (should take about 10 minutes to cook)
2. In a frying pan, add 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp garlic and saute the mushrooms until they soften a bit. Then add spinach until wilted
3. Meanwhile, in another pan, melt remaining butter and add remaining garlic. Add shrimp, squeeze 1/2 of a lemon's worth of juice on top. Cook shrimp 1-2 minutes per side
4. Pasta should be done, drain, mix in a little olive oil, mix in veggies and shrimp. Add as much parsley as you like to make it prettier.
   

Yay!

Geoff is going to be doing so much zesting!

Thanks mom!

Creamy Vodka and Smoked Salmon Pasta

Geoff and I went out for dinner a couple of weeks ago and had a pasta dish really similar to this. It was so good we wanted to have it again. Luckily, it was also easy enough to recreate at home.

It was pretty cheap for us to make this recipe since my dad had given me a smoked salmon that his boss had given him. We had sectioned it off and froze it in separate baggies for easy meal use. Also, there was half a mickey of vodka hidden in the back of the fridge from months ago that had been long forgotten about (unfortunately!) so our entire meal only cost maybe $8.

Unfortunately, we made enough to feed a ravenously hungry family of 4. Far too much for the two of us, so when looking at the ingredients, remember, its for at least 4 people to eat until they can eat no more.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp butter
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 box bow tie pasta (or enough from a bag to feed 4)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes ( you could use crushed, but I like the chunks of tomato)
1 can tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup vodka
1 small jar of capers
smoked salmon (as much as you want, I'm not sure how much we used, but it was quite a bit)
4-5 tbsp cream cheese (not really necessary, just tasty and we had bought cream cheese in bulk from Costco that needed to be eaten)

1. Bring a pot to boil for pasta, cook pasta al dente
   
2. Melt butter in a pot or pan or roasting pan that will be large enough for the sauce AND all of the pasta
3. Add red pepper flakes, garlic and let cook for 30 second, then add vodka to butter, bring to a boil. Let simmer for 2 minutes
4. Add the cans of diced tomato and tomato paste along with the cream to the vodka mixture. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 5 minutes
5. Now if you're going to, add cream cheese. Slice up the smoked salmon and add it to the mix along with the jar of drained capers.
6. Drain the pasta, and stir it into the tomato mix and serve!
   

Jamie Oliver's Spinach and Goat Cheese Risotto

Geoff and I make risotto every other week, sometimes weekly. It's so easy and tastes so good with minimal ingredients.

My mom gave me Jamie Oliver's recipe book, COOK for Christmas (well actually, she gave it to my uncle and he already had it, so I took it) and in it, he lists several risotto recipes. This one was by far the tastiest looking and included everything that we already had on hand (I know, it's weird our kitchen staples include the ingredients for risotto and goat cheese...).

(serves two as a main dish, four as a side)

Ingredients:
1 cup arborio rice
2 tbsp butter
2 glugs of olive oil + slightly more for serving
1 med white onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 glass dry white wine
goat cheese (get the little tube, that's more than enough)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
5 oz spinach
3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth

1. In a pot, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium - high heat, and add 1 glug of olive oil. Add the diced onion to the pot and cook until translucent, then add 1 clove of choppe garlic and cook for a minute longer.
2. Add rice to pot and let it toast a little in the pot for 1-2 minutes. Then add the cup of white wine.
   
3. Once the wine is absorbed, start adding a cup of broth at a time. Continuously stir the rice so it doesn't stick to the pot. After 2 cups of broth have been absorbed, you're going to have to keep checking the rice to see if it's done. You might not need all of the broth.
   
4. In a frying pan, melt the rest of the butter, add a glug of olive oil and the other clove of garlic. Then add the spinach (Jamie added a grating of nutmeg to the spinach, but I didn't have any nutmeg and it still tasted amazing).
5. Once the spinach is wilted, chop it really finely, or put it into a food processor.
6. The rice should be done by now, so turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan and the spinach to the risotto. Cover and let it sit for about 2 minutes.
7. Now, take about half of the goat cheese and stir it into the risotto.
8. Serve in bowls or pasta bowls. Add a little coarse salt and a fresh grating of pepper. Crumble the remaining amount of goat cheese on top of the risotto and just a splash of olive oil.
   

I can't believe it's butter!

I had been craving banana bread for days and finally my bananas were ripe enough. This same week, I came across a recipe for homemade butter, and I realized that I had previously bookmarked 3 other recipes for homemade butter. It was fate, I had to make my own butter!

I chose two of the sites and kind of mixed together their methods for the butter. In this recipe, Dutch Girl Cooking uses a food processor (though I used a blender, in retrospect I should have used the food processor that Geoff recently got from his grandmother), way easier than shaking! and Omnomicon rinsed her final butter product which is supposed to make the butter keep longer.

I still have plenty of butter left, so tonight Geoff and I are going to use it to make butter chicken!

Ingredients:
1 pint of whipping cream

1. Make sure the cream is room temperature, everything will be much faster. Pour the cream into the food processor and process. First, it will become whipping cream, then a firm cream and finally butter!
2. Drain the buttermilk (you can save it to use for pancakes or biscuits or something that uses buttermilk if you want).
3. Next, rinse the butter. Using cold water, cover the butter in water, and drain it several times until the water runs clear.
4. Put the butter on a cutting board and press it down with a spoon and squeeze out all the excess water.
   
5. You can now add 1/4 teaspoon salt if you want the butter to be salted, or any herbs and spices you'd like
   

Roasted Asparagus and Brussel Sprouts with Jamie Oliver's Egg Salad

Ingredients:
for the egg salad
8 large hen's eggs
6 tbsp mayonnaise (we used Helman's light mayo because it doesn't add too much sugar too it like other brand tend to, alternatively you could make your own mayo which would be much better)
Lemon zest from one lemon
Juice from 1/2 lemon plus a little more
Salt and pepper

for the asparagus and Brussels sprouts
1/2 pound Brussels sprouts
1 bunch asparagus, stems removed
Coarse salt
3-4 tbsp white wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Freshly ground pepper
2-3 garlic cloves chopped


For the eggs:

1. Place eggs in a pot of water that is lightly salted. Bring to a boil.
2. Let boil for 3 minutes, then immediately place under cold water
3. Peel the eggs and cut in half like you were going to make deviled eggs
   
4. Mix the mayo, lemon zest, lemon juice together in a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. put the mayo mixture on top of the eggs

For the veggies:

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Cut ends off of Brussels sprouts and peel off outer leaves. Cut in half
3. Clean asparagus and cut into 3 sections
4. Toss veggies in olive oil and garlic and put in a roasting dish
5. Squeeze some lemon juice on top, sprinkle liberally with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
   
6. Put in oven for 15 minutes. About 8 minutes in, flip veggies.
7. When the 15 minutes is up, put the white wine vinegar on top, we just eyeballed it, but we probably put 3-4 tbsp of the vinegar. Put back in oven for 3-4 more minutes.

The veggies also taste REALLY good dipped in the lemon mayo that was used on top of the eggs

Eggs Benedict with Lobster

We love seafood, and just about any time we go out for breakfast we get sucked into ordering Eggs Benedict. We decided to bring these two fantastic things together with a can of lobster we got on sale at the store. What resulted: a buttery-seafood breakfast that fell just short of a heart attack and, instead, led to a state of utter satisfaction.

This almost turned out to be a disaster. We'd never made Hollandaise sauce before but we decided to give it a try with our newly inherited double boiler. Don't let the eggs scramble and you should be fine.

For the Hollandaise Sauce:

1/2 cup salted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

If you don't have salted butter, just add a little salt instead. Also, it's easy to go overboard on the lemon juice so take care not to add too much.

1. Microwave the butter until melted
2. Bring 1/3 of a pot of water to a boil and place a stainless steel bowl on top of it without it touching the water (or use a double boiler).
   
3. Separate the yolks from the whites by passing the yolk back and forth from one side of the broken shell to another, until all the white has dripped into an empty container below.
4. Place yolks into the bowl, along with the lemon zest and juice.
5. Bring heat to simmer and whisk yolks, ensuring that they don't scramble
6. Once the mixture is thick, but not scrambled, pour the melted butter in as slow and steady as possible while whisking briskly. Be sure you don't add too much butter at once or the mixture will split.
7. Add the cayenne pepper and mix.
   

For the Eggs and Lobster:

1 Can of lobster

1 knob of butter

English muffins

Eggs

Dash of white wine vinegar

1. Melt butter in a frying pan and drain excess water from the lobster can
2. Fill a pan with water and bring to a boil. Add the white wine vinegar (this helps keep the eggs together when poaching)
   
3. Dump the lobster into the pan and heat up to get rid of the excess water
4. Poach the eggs in the simmering water
5. Toast the English muffins
6. When lobster is heated enough, drain excess liquid and distribute the lobster onto the English muffins
7. Place an egg on top of the lobster
8. Cover with Hollandaise Sauce and Enjoy!
   

Deluxe Grilled Cheese

I want to start by saying that I had the best orange ever today. It peeled easily, it was ripe AND there were no seeds in it at all. It was perfect.

My nanny makes grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch almost every time I'm home. She uses white Wonderbread, Kraft cheese slices and some crispy bacon and as she's frying it up she squishes it flat so its barely 1cm thick. The best part about the grilled cheese sandwich was that she always served with with a huge dill pickle. I love grilled cheese sandwiches, and I didn't think any sandwich could compare to my nanny's until the last time I went to Montreal with Geoff to visit his parents.

His mom had cooked a ham for dinner the night before so there was plenty of ham left over. She used pumpernickel bread instead of white bread. This was the first time it ever even occurred to me that you could use any bread other than white sandwich bread. She filled the sandwiches with real cheese and thick slices of ham, and it was delicious. I've been craving another one since.

Ingredients:
2 slices black forest ham
Gouda, sliced
Pumpernickel bread sliced
Butter
Tomatoes, sliced

1. Butter the outer side of the bread
2. stack the cheese, ham and tomato (I used grape tomatoes because we had them left over from dinner a few nights ago) and put the other slice of buttered bread on top
3. fry over medium low heat until all the cheese is melted (5-7 minutes)

Spicy Pasta with Shrimp and Grape Tomatoes

Geoff and I made up this pasta as we went last night. We wanted to try and take pictures before it was too dark so we kind of rushed this meal. It was pretty tasty and really easy.

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

200g pasta of your choice (we chose springs)
3/4 of a carton of grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
5 cloves chopped garlic
1 jalapeno pepper
1 other hot pepper that was green and small
12 shrimp (6 each!)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 tbs olive oil
2tbs butter
grated Parmesan cheese to your liking
salt and pepper to taste

1. Defrost and peel shrimp
2. Boil pasta until al dente
3. While pasta cooks, melt butter in pan, add garlic for 20 seconds with red pepper flakes.
4. Add peppers to pan, then add shrimp
5. Cook shrimp until they curl up and turn pink (1-2 minutes per side)
6. Toss pasta with olive oil then dump in everything from the frying pan
7. Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste

You could toss in some spinach to this recipe for extra fiber, but we used pasta that already had lots of fiber and protein added to it (Catelli has made white pasta healthy, finally!)

Yummy Potato Salad

This is my go to recipe for potato salad. It tastes really good right away, but if you let it sit in the fridge over night, the potatoes soak up all of the flavour and get REALLY creamy and delicious.

Ingredients:
1.5 - 2 lbs baby potatoes, assorted colours
1/2 - 3/4 cup mayonaise (I'm not sure exactly how much, but it also depends on how you like it)
3 green onions, chopped
2 tsp dill
3 generous splashes rice wine vinegar
Juice from half a lemon

1. Bring potatoes to a boil over high heat then turn down to medium-low. Boil 15 minutes, or until fork tender
2. drain the potatoes and let sit until cool enough to handle
3. cut potatoes in half or into quarters, depending on how big the potato is
4. mix everything together in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

The Perfect Gin and Tonic

In my family, gin and tonic is the drink of choice. At the cottage, making a gin and tonic has become somewhat of an art. You have to have the right size glass, the right amount of ice, a perfectly sliced lemon, the right brand of tonic and of course, the right kind of gin.

If you have any of the ingredients wrong, it just doesn't work and you can't enjoy that drink until you've had 2 or 3 perfectly made drinks.

Ingredients
14 oz glass
lots of ice
a slice or two of lemon
1.5 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
1 can (not bottle) Schweppes tonic water

1. Fill glass with ice
2. Pour in shot of gin
3. Squeeze slice of lemon into glass, then put the slice into the glass
4. Fill the glass with tonic water
5. Stir with your finger
   
6. Repeat

Jamie Oliver's HUGE Yorkshire Puddings

My nanny used to make yorkshire pudding every time we had roast beef. She'd have to make at least 30 because everyone would want 2 or 3. The recipe she used had her whisking the batter all day before baking it. They were really good, but they didn't rise that much.

Then, one day my Uncle John was watching Jamie Oliver and saw him make HUGE Yorkshire puddings. Since then, this has been our go to recipe.

Tonight, my mom made the Yorkshire puddings. It was the first time she has ever made them and they didn't collapse, so I had to document it!

Makes 8-10 Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients:
1/2 pint (285 millilitres) milk
4 ounces (115 grams) all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
3 eggs
Vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Mix the batter ingredients together. Let rest for 10 minutes
3. Preheat a Yorkshire pudding tray or muffin tin with 1/2-inch (1 centimetre) of oil in each section.
4. After the 10 minutes divide the batter into the tray. Cook for around 15 to 20 minutes until crisp and puffy, don't open the oven door before then or they won't rise.

Roast Prime Rib of Beef with Horseradish Crust

My grandpa called me on Thursday when he found out that I would be coming back home for the weekend. He wanted Geoff and I to bring a 10 pound roast beef home for dinner Saturday night. At Costco they didn't even have roasts cut that big! We had to have it specially cut, but it was definitely worth it.

I've had this recipe bookmarked since last Christmas. I was watching the Food Network with my mom and we decided we had to try it. The last time we tried it we didn't have use the right cut of meat and it was too tough to chew. This time, perfection.

Taken from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/roast-prime-rib-of-beef-with-horseradish-crust-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:
We used a 10 lbs bone in prime rib
7 cloves smashed garlic
1/3 cup grated or prepared horseradish
leaves from 3 fresh rosemary sprigs
leaves from 6 fresh rosemary sprigs
3/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Lay the beef in the roasting pan, bone side down (you can use the bone as a roasting rack)
3. In a small bowl mix together all the ingredients and rub all over the roast
4. Cook for 20 minutes a pound to cook to medium-rare (the thermometer should read between 130F-135F, take out and let rest for 20 minutes before carving. While letting it rest, cover it with tinfoil)
5. Make gravy from the drippings!

Stuffed Zucchini

This was soooooo good. I can't even start to explain to you how much I enjoyed making eating this. Somehow the zucchini even tasted meaty. It was great!

I could eat these every day. Geoff and I found this recipe and had to try it right away. Unfortunately, the night we decided to make it, we made WAY too much, and also made the goat cheese crustinis because my sister was coming to visit me and we were going out to dinner the next night.

Luckily the left overs kept pretty well in the fridge overnight and Geoff was able to bring them into work the next morning to share with everyone was there. He said everyone that the stuffed zucchini loved it.

Taken from http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=1465

Ingredients:

2 zucchini

½ tomato, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tsp lemon seasoning

4-5 slices bacon

Goat cheese

1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 400F
   
2. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and spoon out the centre so it looks kind of like a boat
   
3. Roughly chop up the zucchini that you just scooped out and mix together in a bowl with the sour cream, lemon seasoning and tomato
   
4. Melt butter in a frying pan; add onion and garlic, sauté until the onion starts to brown. Mix in with the sour cream, tomato and zucchini
   
5. Cook bacon until crispy. Crumble into the sour cream mixture. Spoon mixture into the zucchini boats. Crumble a little goat cheese on top
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes

Spinach and Goat Cheese Crustinis

This is the start of the night that was deemed "The Delicious Disappointment." Due to the last minute arrival of Sarah's sister, we were forced to merge two nights worth of recipes into one. What followed was the Stuffed Zucchini. We feasted upon these crustinis as the zucchini cooked and ended up with two huge meals, instead of two small appeteizers. Theres no feeling worse than looking at two sets of food and not being able to eat them. I warn you: make these, but don't make too many because it will hurt more to throw them out.

Taken from http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=74098320&blogID=430277954

Large bunch baby spinach

1 garlic clove chopped

1 tbsp butter

Sliced almonds

¼ cup white wine

Goat cheese

Baguette

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1. In a frying pan, melt butter. Sautee garlic for a minute then toast almonds in the butter. Once they start to toast, add spinach until it begins to wilt. Add white wine. Cook until most of the liquid has disappeared.
2. Brush sliced baguette with olive oil and sprinkle kosher salt and black pepper on top, put in broiler for 1 minute until slightly toasted
   
3. Slice goat cheese and put on top of toasted baguette. Put back under broiler for 1-2 more minutes
   
4. Spoon spinach and almonds on top of baguette and enjoy!