Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry sauce

This one I just love. It takes a bit of time, but is really simple. We were staying at a friend's cottage, so were just hanging around relaxing all day - perfect for this recipe. The sauce I think tastes best with fresh cranberry sauce, but you can used canned as well. We fed 4 adults with two tenderloins, plus some side salads. I cooked the pork to an internal temp of 155 deg, although there are varying opinions on this. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recommends 160, while the USDA lowered its guidelines to 145. Don't forget to let the meat rest a few minutes. Once again, I forgot to take a good picture so I found one that closely resembles what I ended up with.

Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Sauce

Next time: I saw one recipe that substituted blueberries for the cranberries, and thyme for the rosemary

Me: 9/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 5/10

Spaghetti Squash with Thyme

Here is another side dish I made for Christmas dinner. I love squash along side turkey, especially spaghetti squash with the long strands it is known for. It actually has some texture, rather than being just a lump of mush. Most recipes out there suggest chevril or sage or basil, but I went out on a limb and tried thyme. The general consensus seemed positive - maybe I'll try it again and see, just to make sure it wasn't the rum and eggnog talking. Again, I had to borrow a picture from somewhere. This one wasn't the best, but it fairly closely resembled what I ended up with.

Spaghetti Squash with thyme

Next time: maybe another herb

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 4/10

Pan-fried Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Here's one of those veggies that nobody seems to like very much. I think they are making a come-back of sorts, I've seen lots of articles and recipes trumpeting their health benefits and flavour. I'm not sure what people don't like about them; I guess if you don't like cabbage you won't like these - but then again, it's all about how you cook them and what you put on them. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of mine, but there are thousands of photos I found through a Google image search that all look pretty much identical - so I borrowed one.

Pan-fried Brussels Sprouts with bacon

This recipe is so simple, yet really tasty. I ended up making this as one of the sides for Christmas dinner. Forget the mushy peas and boring carrots!  I've also seen an intriguing version that is baked and has a sweet and fiery sauce which I may have to try, but this time around it is all about the bacon!

Next time: Will try them baked with a vinegar/chili sauce, but honestly this was good as it was.

Me: 10/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 5/10

Tuna Cheese Ball

The Cheese Ball.  It isn't really my thing, despite the fact that I like putting just about any cheese on a cracker...and I've had many a quick tuna lunch or dinner. That doesn't necessarily mean that the two can go together though, right?  Turns out this is pretty delish. SO wanted a cheese ball to eat over the Christmas holidays, and so found a recipe similar to this. It had pecans which I decided to drop, and also green pepper which SO cannot digest. I also bumped up the hot sauce and horseradish, and ended up with this. It is also not technically a "ball", although I sort of like the shape. It seems more conducive to eating on a small plate.

Tuna Cheese Ball

Next time: I would put more celery for crunch, and bump up the hot sauce and Worcestershire.

Me: 7/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: n/a

Shrimp Fried Rice

I love this recipe because it is quick and easy, but also because I can generally make it anytime with ingredients on hand. I always have rice, frozen shrimp, and enough random veggies to make up the rest. It didn't end up tasting like your typical fried rice from your usual Chinese take-out joint - but that could be a good thing, well different at least.

So I started with the last half of a red onion, one large carrot, a few celery stalks, and a can of bamboo shoot sticks. I always seem to have either bamboo shoot or water chestnut lying around. Now that I think of it, I think I threw in a tomato as well, seeded and diced.

From there, sauteed it up for a bit, and added some lemon juice, and a fair bit of light soy sauce. Added in the thawed raw shrimp.

Finally, tossed it and fried it up for a bit.

Next time: I would add ginger, and maybe try different spices such as maybe 5 spice

Me: 7/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 4/10

Spicy Squash Soup

It happened again, a pattern is starting to emerge. SO thinks up a great idea for dinner, finds a recipe that sounds good, and lets me cook it.  I'll go even further and say there is inevitably a few ingredients we don't have, or there is something I don't like about the method - so I'll start the substituting game. Sometimes it is something we can't eat (SO and bell peppers, or me and grapefruit), or prefer not to eat, such as cheap and easy pre-packages foods. Why not go fresh if you can? Things such as "real" parmesan, fresh veggies, fresh spices (or freshly ground, such as pepper and coriander) all make a huge difference. Anyhoo. So it is fall, and one starts thinking about squash more and more. I've actually really wanted to get into soups more, so here's my chance. It turned out really good, if a bit spicy for SO's taste. Just right for me.

Spicy Squash Soup

So one thing that I think really saved a lot of time and made this a much quicker dish was the use of an immersion blender. The kind with a metal shaft, not plastic. Makes quick work of the blending, without getting out the food processor, and its 50 plastic parts that all have to be taken apart and washed. Not to mention blending in batches, re-heating the soup, etc.

Next Time: maybe a bit less spice for SO's benefit; even more cilantro; better quality or home-made broth

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a - are you kidding? Soup? Maybe in a couple years.

Fast, Low-Cal Spaghetti Carbonara

Uh-oh, the fridge is empty. Well not empty exactly, but you know, not a lot in there for a creative pull-it-together last minute supper. Two apples. Half an onion. A bit of lettuce. Part of a green pepper. Some cheese, eggs, milk. Not a whole heck more, not counting condiments, pickles, etc. Oh wait, some left-over cooked bacon (no really! how did that happen anyway). I think there's some "crappy" pre-grated parmesan. What about a carbonara, suggests SO. Unfortunately there is no cream, half and half or even cream cheese. So I'll try a simple white sauce thickened with flour, with a bit of  butter and milk? Close enough. Hopefully it is edible.

Basic white sauce, looking good.

So the basic sauce went well enough. Usually I either burn something at this point or have lots of lumps that just won't go away. Being thus paranoid, I used a really low heat, and added the flour very slowly to the melted butter. I should credit our awesome gravy/sauce making flat whisk at this point. Something like this. I didn't cook it long enough before slowly adding the milk, so next time I'll watch for that. Next comes the parmesan and bacon.

White sauce with parmesan and bacon. Looking better!

At this point, it is easy to add a little more milk if too thick. Added this to the drained pasta, and voila, quick decent dinner. By the way, I say "low-cal" as a relative term here. Milk and a couple Tb of butter compared to a cup of heavy cream and gosh knows what else. 

The finished dish - Fast, low-cal Spaghetti Carbonara

Next Time: maybe 1% milk if we had it instead of skim; fresh parmesan would definitely help.

Me: 8/10

SO: 7/10

SSO: n/a (as usual, he had most of this in deconstructed fashion: bacon on the side, etc.)

Baked Eggplant Rollatini

This was another find of SO's.  Turns out it isn't really so much a middle-of-the-week recipe, as it too me quite a while to cook and assemble.  I started shortly after 6pm and we ate at 7:30pm. Mind you I was stopping to help SSO with homework throughout, and being the first time I tried this, it wasn't the fastest process.  I'm sure I could cut down the time significantly next time.

Anyway, this is a traditional Italian dish even if the word Rollatini is not. A quick search reveals that the Italians call it Involtini di Melanzane. There are recipes everywhere for this, strange I've never come across this before. Maybe not so strange, I'm not the biggest eggplan fan, except for one huge exception: in Thai restaurants there is a dish with Asian eggplant that is to die for. OK maybe two exceptions - good Chinese restaurants will have a dish with eggplant and black bean sauce. Yum.

I think a few key things helped make this successful - the thinness of the eggplant slices, and the prociutto. I've seen some recipes calling for 1/2" slices - too thick in my opinion. I've seen all sorts of strange ways to combine cheese and egg, too complicated. Also suggested was pre-sprinkling with salt to rid excess moisture and bitterness.  Well maybe I would do this, but there are so many strong flavours going on here that I never noticed any bitterness.  I actually messed up the beginning part - you are supposed to dip, crumb, and fry the eggplant in that order. I was so tired and in a rush that I forgot to dip and crumb even though I had prepared it and the bowls were sitting in front of me. So after frying (and after it had cooled a bit) I dipped and crumbed, and re-fried for a minute. Turned out awesome.

Eggplant Rollatini - before baking

Next time I will use home-made spaghetti sauce, rather than stuff from a jar. Other than that, there wasn't much I didn't like about it. SO was very happy with it - it is just the sort of dish she really likes. Was sort of satisfying rolling the little bundles up too. It took time, but was just, well, easy. We ended up serving with Cappelini (meaning: thin hair), which (I had to look this up too) is one step up from angel hair pasta. I will also say that it is one of those dishes that isn't a 10/10 to look at, but certainly scores big in the taste department.

Eggplant Rollatini - after baking

Next Time: will use fresh/home-made spag sauce

Me: 8/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a

Comfort Food, part 1 - Fried Pork Chops with Mushrooms

This has to be one of our all-time most popular go-to quick dinner picks. It has a lot going for it after all: juicy thick pork chops (from our local butcher), fried mushrooms are awesome, and left-overs for lunch the next day. It is never something I make, this is strictly one of SO's specialties; it was no different this time, except for slight differences in the ingredients and method.

Fried Pork Chop with Mushrooms

This time, instead of a good old can of Campbell's Mushroom soup, it was a couple big Portobello mushrooms chopped up. The other key to this is to use a "proper" browning pan, not a non-stick pan. It coaxes all the yummy browned meat flavour out like no other method. A scoup of rice is the base with which to gather the sauce, and of course mushy peas on the side.

Next Time: can't think of how to improve this

Me: 9/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 5/10

Fish Tacos with Spicy Bean salad

Tacos seem all the rage these days, especially in small-plates restaurants. This is a regular-sized version of a fish taco - it is meaty, spicy, and just darn delicious. The bean salad is a nice accompaniment.  Along with a nice fresh Pico de Gallo for an appetizer, it makes for a nice end of summer meal.

Fish Taco with Spicy Bean salad

The salad ended up being too spicy, so I cut back the cayenne in the recipe. The sauce on the taco also carries its own heat, so tone it down if you're not a fan.

Next Time: SO didn't like the corn tortillas, so maybe try to find small wheat ones. I'm not a huge fan of chick peas unless it is in hummous, so I would put a few less.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Pico de Gallo

Once you taste this classic fresh salsa, you will never go back to the mass-made salsa in a jar from the supermarket ever again. It is sort of like going from that fluorescent cheese you get on stadium nachos to fresh curds direct from the farm. It is so fresh and tasty, I can't think of any reason not to whip up a batch any time you need a quick appetizer. You only need keep a few tomatoes in the fridge, and some fresh chilis and cilantro, a lime and an onion.

Pico de gallo

I used half of a Poblano chili this time, but you can use good old Jalapeno or whatever you like depending on how hot you like it. The Poblano peppers I get from the local supermarket are hotter than the very mild Jalapenos they sell, but not as hot as, say, Bird's-eye chilis or Habaneros. A key step here is using salt to pull out the flavour and juices, and letting it sit in the fridge for at least half an hour. I like to use Kosher salt since it has nice large flakes which is better at drawing out moisture from foods, and generally has no preservatives or caking agents.

Update: a nice variation is to put a small splash of Sherry vinegar and a couple tablespoons of frozen corn. I've been playing with various degrees of pulsing in the mini-chopper. SO likes coarse and chunky, I like it a bit finer.

Coarsely pulsed in the chopper, with corn

Finely pulsed, with hot peppers and corn

Next Time: may try even hotter chiles, or different types of tomatoes

Me: 10/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Pork and Clams with Enoki

After traveling for a month through the Prairies and Rocky Mountains, it's time not only to get back to routine but also home cooked food. We had many awesome meals, one of the best of which was room service at the Fairmont in Whistler - go figure. You expect good things at a Fairmont, true, but I wasn't expecting the room service to arrive to the minute when they told me it would; and, it was not only piping hot, but nothing was over or under done. We also had bison in Jasper, Elk in Banff, overpriced but fresh salmon from the market in Seattle, and unique Japanese dishes sukiyaki and okonomiyaki made by our friend. That just cannot last forever though.

So for our first meal after returning? Something with clams, says SO.  After some googling for ideas, pork and clams came up a few times - mostly either Portuguese or Chinese variations. We opted for the Chinese one, and likely thinking of the sukiyaki we had recently, SO suggested to throw in some Enoki mushrooms.

Pork and Clams with Enoki

Being a weeknight, we cheated on the clams and used canned. Given more planning and time, fresh clams would be interesting, if more work.

Next time: more mushrooms, more hot sauce or chilies, and maybe fresh clams

Me:8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: n/a, he had plain pork and rice

Lemon-Roasted Chicken with Green Beans and Potatoes

Sometimes it is easy to be prepared; you create a meal plan, or thumb through a cookbook ahead of time. Other times, you open the fridge in a panic and throw whatever is in the crisper in a pan and cook either rice or noodles. Somewhere in the middle is where this meal landed. SO grabbed some chicken from the freezer and put it on the counter to thaw during the day. This is pretty common for us, grab a random frozen protein and then, if we have time, look up a recipe or otherwise think up sometime to do with it. We will email each other the idea by EOD.  In this case SO also found a recipe, emailed it to me, and then I modified it as per what ingredients we had and what I felt like doing. Sometimes something sounds wrong or doesn't feel right, so I go on a tangent. Speaking of which (tangents, that is) I'll go on a brief one:  why is it that recipes call for so much darn garlic all the time. I like garlic, and have occasionally roasted a head, but often I'll see recipes calling for three, four, or even more cloves diced up. I personally think that is a lot. I'll usually cut the three or four down to one and it turns out fine to my taste. Anyway. Here is what the before picture looked like. It usually looks nicer.

Lemon-Roasted Chicken w/Green Beans & Potatoes (before)

The prep time is 10-15 minutes, but the roasting takes a while so don't try this last minute. I was surprised at how much the lemon infused its flavour into everything. As a matter of fact, I should warn you - if you don't like really lemony dishes, this is not for you. Also surprisingly, the chicken didn't dry out like I thought it might. The green beans were a bit mushy, but they were lemony. Still edible in any case.  Particularly tasty were the potatoes. Wow they turned out awesome. Here is the after photo:

Lemon-Roasted Chicken w/Green Beans & Potatoes (after)

Next Time: maybe some fresh herbs

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 5/10

Peanut and Banana

I'm not sure how it is that I never thought of this before. I used to have peanut butter and banana sandwiches all the time, strangely. Near where I used to work was this sort of deli place in a food court. The cheapest thing on the menu was a peanut butter & banana sandwich. It was fresh bread, the peanut butter was thickly spread, and the bananas where layered in the middle. It came with a small soup, all for I think it was like $4.  Well it WAS the 90s.

Happy Breakfast - jam toast, peanut butter banana,
and a bit of watermelon.

Anyway, not long ago SSO's 6yo friend came for a sleepover.  The next morning, while trying to feed them some fruit, he insisted on having his banana cut in half and spreading peanut butter on it.  Brilliant! What a great way to eat bananas. I'm sure there are others out there like me, but I'm not the biggest banana fan. They are just hard to eat for some reason.  What a way to make it more palatable. While I was at it, I made the whole breakfast "happy".

Next Time: crunchy peanut butter?

Me: n/a
SO: n/a
SSO: 9/10

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Everyone has made countless versions of this. A.K.A. Bolognese sauce, to do a "proper" version usually requires browning meat and simmering for several hours.  However, families in a rush for their supper on a Tuesday night don't have 2-3 hours for this. You could open a can of Hunt's or whatever, but we don't have to stoop that low. You can get away without browning for starters. It does add a depth of flavour but you can (somewhat) substitute some minced bacon. As for the multiple hours of cooking, that is partly to fully release all the flavours blah blah, and partly to soften the meat which you probably just charred up during the browning process. Why not just omit the browning and simmer for 15 minutes? Works pretty darn well actually.

Meat sauce simmering away

Another secret to quick flavour here is sticking the veggies in the food processor. Once they are almost mushy, it will saute in no time flat. So two pots, 5 minutes of prep, and maybe 15 minutes cooking and you are done.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Next Time: Well there is always the using fresh pasta thing.

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 4/10

Easy Sunday Afternoon in-the-oven Ribs

I was a bit wary when SO suggested ribs for Sunday. She has all the good ideas in the family, but our track record for ribs lately hasn't been stellar.  Well we had a few disastrous mishaps in any case.  Oh well, let's try again. At our local grocery I got 2 large racks of side ribs for around $20, not too bad. We actually had the slow cooker out when she suggested doing them in the oven before leaving for the day to traipse around to the musem and the movies with SSO and his "date". A girl. Not a date he insists, but a "birthday present" since he missed her birthday party the week before. How does a 7 year old even know what a date is anyway? Anyhoo. So oven it will be.  Let's just wing it, how bad could it be?

Easy Ribs in the oven

Well you know, it actually turned out awesome! I had trouble removing them from the roaster because they were falling apart like crazy. I decided to try and do them with as little work as possible, partly because I wanted to see if they'd turn out ok that way, and partly because it was supposed to be my do-nothing-because-it's-Father's-Day day. Nevermind that Father's Day was last Sunday. Things get delayed for camping, is all.  So instead of cutting up onions, mixing up fancy spices and bbq sauces, basting every 20 minutes like some recipes would have you do, it was a stick in big roasting pan with a bottle of bbq sauce and cook for 5 hours. Not much else. I ended up mixing the bbq sauce with a bit of water, some ketchup, some Sriracha hot sauce and the rest of another bottle of bbq sauce I had in the fridge. A little fresh vegetable medley of whatever I had in the fridge, plus some 10 minute rice, and that's it. Sometimes the whole KISS principle actually works, and I'm not refering to Rock and Rolling all night...

Next time: Not much different, actually. Maybe I'd try making a fully home-made bbq sauce.

Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 5/10

Chicken with Cabbage and Hot Sauce

Summer is so busy, there hasn't been a lot of time for cooking. Between weekends away camping or at someone's cottage, and ball games, and festivals, and friends or family visiting, it seems like we haven't cooked anything for a long time. Truth is we probably cook just as much, but just no time for anything elaborate or new.

This dish isn't really elaborate or new either, but the smell and taste drove me to write about it. SO did it all on the fly, and it was great. I think without the hot sauce(s) it would been an everyday sort of thing but man that Sriracha (Rooster) sauce is awesome. They not only have their own FB page, but I also found a comic tribute page on The Oatmeal (a little NSFW).

Chicken and Cabbage Stirfry

So this is your basic stirfry, but there are a few things that make it super easy. Skinless boneless chicken thighs are cheaper and delicious, and a bag of pre-washed coleslaw (basically shredded cabbage and carrot) makes it happen in no time flat. Throw in some onion, any other random vegetable (green beans in our case), hot sauce, and half a can of coconut milk, and Bob's your Uncle.

Next Time: would try different veggies; more hot sauce

Me: 8/10
SO: 6/10
SSO: n/a (would not have eaten it as-is with the hot sauce)

Orange Raisin Banana Bread

I make banana bread a lot. I'm not sure what it is about bananas, we are always buying them and they just sit there on the counter until they are starting to go black. I mean, we eat one or two, but there is very often 3 or 4 left. Which happens to be just the right amount to make banana bread.

Orange Raisin Banana Bread, hot from the oven,
already melting the slab of butter I spread on.

I suppose one reason I like to make it, apart from using up food that is about to go bad, is that it is just so darn tasty and versatile. Reasonably healthy, easy to eat for breakfast, maybe throw a piece in the lunch bag.  The thing is, my usual recipe is, while pretty good, actually not very exciting. This one however, is just great. SO doesn't like the traditional nuts you usually see in banana bread, so I thought I'd try the raisins...turns out to be a good substitute. It is the orange zest though that really turns out to be the secret trick. The cup of sugar sounds like a lot, but you can of course substitute the usual honey or apple sauce. My regular recipe has tons of oil, this one is only a few tablespoons, so there's a bonus. Next time I may try chocolate chips instead of raisins. Ho boy.

Next Time: maybe chocolate chips instead of raisins, just for fun

Me: 10/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 7/10

Avocado Chicken

"Honey, I'm home."  "Does it smell good in here?"  Sniff, sniff.  "Wow, smells awesome! What's for supper?"  Turns out it was Avocado Chicken baking.  I never liked avocado when I was younger, thought it was just a mushy green gross veggie. Or is it a fruit?  How about a large berry with a single seed?  Little did I know how good it was for you - lots of fibre, higher in potassium than bananas, lots of "good" fat, and high in vitamins B and E. Phew! In any case, delicious on salads, burgers, just about anything, including chicken.

Avocado Chicken with fresh basil, coconut rice
and a simple salad.

In this case, the gist of the recipe is a chicken breast pounded flat, with avocado and fresh basil. SO sided this with coconut rice and a simple salad. I love this dish because you get to pound with the kitchen mallet. That's just fun.

Next time: maybe some hot sauce

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 8/10, although we scraped off the avocado

Salmon Cakes

Cycled in to work today, so was extra tired coming home.  It was all I could do to help get groceries from the car, and drag the garbage bins to the curb. Good thing SO had dinner cased tonight. Was certainly smelling good as I sank down at the kitchen table. Potatoes plus salmon plus cilantro? Mmmm sounds fine to me.

Salmon Cakes. Somewhat lacking in presentation,
but makes up for it in flavour.

I'm not sure exactly what "traditional" salmon cakes are supposed to be like, maybe there isn't such thing. Perhaps it is just a variant of the more famous crab cakes. I know that I'm usually disappointed in crab cakes whenever I try them in restaurants. I don't think I'm overly fussy, maybe just high expectations. Oh well, this was pretty easy to throw together by the looks of it. And oh man, the  cilantro just smells so fresh. SO put in one can of salmon, we agreed that 2 cans would have been better with the proportions of potato and cilantro that we had.

Next Time: Should have added the hot sauce, more salmon and maybe even more cilantro.

Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a, but I would guess 8/10

Vittles

This is a really old favourite from when I was a child. I have no idea where it came from, although I vaguely remember my Gramma making it. In any case, the name vittles simply means food or snack. It is derived from victuals, and is likely a misspelling since it actually sounds like "vittles".

The nice thing about this is that it is extremely quick, very tasty (to me and SSO anyway), and also very flexible. The basic recipe is essentially, for each person, 1 egg, a handfull of grated cheese, and a handful of breadcrumbs. Fry it up like a patty and voila.

Vittles. No this is not a product placement for
Heinz, but ketchup is so integral to enjoying
this that I had to show it in the photo.

The beauty is there are endless variations. Depending on the size of your eggs you just add a little more or less cheese or breadcrumbs.  Have a little chicken left over from yesterday?  Shred it up and stick it in. Almost any cheese will do, although practically it usually ends up being cheddar or similar. You can also use breadcrumbs from any kind of bread. I always take the last bits of any loaf, buns, bagels, or any other bread we have lying around and put it out to dry. Into the blender after a few days, then in a tupperware in the fridge. We've been known to also try things like a bit of hummous, other types of meat, even the odd random vegetable chopped up. I don't usually go too wild as the consumer of the end product is none other than SSO, the Vittle King.

Next Time:  Cannot improve this.

Me: 10/10
SO: 5/10
SSO: 10/10

Pad Thai

 Time to finally try making Pad Thai, or at least fake Pad Thai.  This ubiquitous dish seems to be everywhere...as expected in Thai restaurants, but also the asian place in the food court, the Vietnamese place run by the nice Indian lady, and even that take-out deli lunch place near your workplace. For some reason, actually probably that reason, I've never bothered trying to make it at home.  Well here is my chance, SO bought a Pad Thai spice packet from the supermarket.

Pad Thai spice packet

Hmmm, should be OK. Basically the recipe is up to you in terms of your protein choice, and what other fresh stuff you want to put in. The suggestion was some peanuts and sprouts, along with the spice packet which you mix with water, milk, and peanut butter. Excellent, I love improvising - lots of other stuff I can try adding. And even better, a family friend was coming over - the perfect guinea pig scenario. So I settled on chicken and tofu (the firm kind, so it wouldn't fall apart when cooking), lots of sprouts, and the suggested rice noodles, called Banh Pho, a.k.a. rice sticks. I also love fresh herbs, so a bunch of cilantro (here's a link for an explanation of cilantro vs coriander). There were also a couple eggs.  I ended up cooking too much chicken, so I had to make more sauce. I just supplemented the given recipe with some fish sauce, white wine vinegar, water, and a bit more milk and peanut butter. 

The finished Pad Thai dish, with chicken and tofu

 All in all, it turned out pretty good. I should have put in more cilantro leaves. I'd read lots about how it can be tricky to cook the noodles the right amount, I was worried about overly chewy noodles. So at the appointed time I drained and cooled them off with cold water. They had to be thrown in and mixed with the rest anyway, although it took longer to heat through. 

Next Time:  hmmm, lots of things.  More cilantro, different brand of noodles, more crunched peanuts, another egg.  I'd also slice the chicken finer, and make it a bit more saucier.

Me: 7.5/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 1/10  (hard time with this one, had to separate the chicken and a few scraped off noodles)

Wheat Bran and Cornmeal Waffles

Another thing I love is brunch. Not necessarily the out to a restaurant, spend $20, eat like a pig brunch, just the garden variety brunch you do at home with family. It is enjoyed approximately around noon, always involves bacon, and either pancakes, french toast, or waffles. This time I felt like waffles. Out of the freezer comes one of my pre-packaged frozen bags of bacon (I'll buy 3 or 4 pounds when on sale, go home and cut them in half and freeze in zip-locks), and into the frying pan whilst I cook up the waffles.

Happy Waffles. These have wheat bran,
cornmeal, and buttermilk.

We have one of those Cuisinart panini press machines, where you can interchange grill plates with griddle plates. I was considering buying a decent waffle iron when I came across waffle plates for the Cuisinart when browing around Canadian Tire one day. Very awesome. We really didn't need yet another small time-saving kitchen appliance.  This time the recipe came from the America's Test Kitchen book, almost unchanged. They turned out quite tasty, but all the extra work folding in whipped egg whites I don't think made a whit of difference.  The "plain-Jane" recipe that comes with the waffle plates is pretty much as good, although I really like the idea of substituting some of the all-purpose flour with wheat bran, and the addition of the cornmeal. Actually the honey is great too.  Notice in the photo the one measly slice of bacon...that was all there was left by the time I got through all the batter, snacking all the time. Good thing I saved some for SO and SSO. Had to have some fruit on top, usually some berries. For the first time in a dog's age we had almost no fruit in the fridge, so had to resort to, gasp!, pineapple in a can. Oh well, at least I drained it.

Next Time: I'd put a tad more cornmeal, and probably not bother with the whipped egg whites

Me: 7/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 8/10

Steak and Potatoes

Rib Steak and Baked Potato

Seriously?  Yes!  What the heck is wrong with a big honkin' steak from the butcher, and a baked potato with lots of butter, salt & pepper and sour cream?  Who needs salad or veggies.  Well OK actually we need to eat more but once in a while is perfectly fine. Hence the tiny bit of cuke and tomato, brought on by a guilty food conscience.

In this case, the steaks were hefty rib steaks (as opposed to ribeye steaks, which have no bone) from our local butcher. See the Cattlemen's Beef Board website for a cool "interactive meat case" that explains all the various types of beef and cuts.  Get some good sear marks on there, cook it medium-rare, and enjoy the wonderful flavour from the significant marbling present.

Next Time: bacon for the potato

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 4/10

Pasta with Shrimp, Feta, and Basil

We seem to be doing a lot of pasta lately.  But then again this blog is more about what we eat on a daily basis, and not so much about the special, planned-out exercises you might do on a weekend.  I have done a few themed small-plate dinners though, which I'll talk about another time. In any case, this is one of our favourite dishes - right up there in the top 10, if not top 5.  So easy to make, and great for leftovers as well.  This may sound crazy, but when I take it to work the next day I would put the pasta and shrimp in a tupperware, and the feta, basil, and lemon in a separate tupperware. Microwaving the whole lot ruins the fresh basil and the feta melts into gloop.

Spaghetti with Shrimp, Feta, and Basil. The lemon
garnish is not optional!

I'm not sure when we started making this or where we got it from. As usual, it likely was based on something found via web search and then modified for what ingredients we happened to have. I've seen similar recipes after a quick search, although some seem to add what looks to be random spices to differentiate.  I saw one that was loaded with dried oregano, dried basil, and garlic powder.  Seriously?  Gotta draw the line there.  This one really keeps it simple, focusing on just a few flavours that meld well together.

There are two absolute "must do" things with this dish, otherwise you might as well not bother. First, fresh basil leaves. We get these little basil plants from the supermarket for $2.99. That is the same price as a small plastic container of leaves, but it produces more and lasts longer. No brainer. The second must is the lemon wedge. The spritz of lemon just somehow ties it together. You could arguably substitute goat cheese, and pretty much any pasta really, but the lemon and basil just have to be in there. We only had boxed spaghetti on hand, but fresh linguine or fettuccine would be great. A bit of freshly ground pepper and you're good to go. Forget the tomatoes, never mind the garlic (well, maybe on that), chuck the salt (feta has you covered there), and certainly no parmesan.

Next Time: fresh pasta would be better

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a, but would guess 3/10

Naan Pizza

Naan Pizza

I love making quick lunches like this. It's pretty easy to get tired of grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, cheese & crackers and mac & cheese. We just happened to have a some Naan bread (from the store, in a bag not unlike those ubiquitous bags of pita), and some gourmet pepproni that SO picked up on a whim. We always have at least bell peppers (one of SSO's favourites), sometimes mushrooms, and of course lots of different types of cheese. Perfect. No pizza sauce, but there was salsa. OK cancel that, too "spicy" for SSO. Well there's that emergency can of spag sauce.  Alright that will do.

Not much else to it. Fairly plain for SSO, all the toppings for me. In the oven for 10 minutes, broil for a couple more to properly sizzle the cheese. I was actually skeptical about the naan for this application, but it had just the right amount of crust - not too thick or thin. Yummy!

Next Time: n/a  it is different every time, depends on what is in the fridge

Me: 8/10

SO: n/a - she prefered Cheese-Wiz Toast, talk about a lunch which you either love or hate.
SSO: 7/10

Pork Pappardelle

Pork Pappardelle

Got home at 6:30pm after picking up SSO. Supper needed cooking, what to do. SO was at home sick, so she had enough energy to cook up some ground pork from our local butcher and boil some water for pasta, but not much else. Not much for veggies in the fridge.  Some almost old celery......an onion as always, this time red.......garlic cloves in the cupboard.......well there's the start of a soffritto base. There's always a big can of tomatoes.  Aha, some fresh oregano leaves and fresh chives. Ok, this will be alright.

I just love the big, wide egg noodles. This turned out like a nice thick ragout of sorts, in the general "main dish stew" sense, if not the slow cooked meat sense. A good dose of chilies and some brown sugar added the spice and sweetness.

If I made this 5 years ago, it would have been probably pretty tasteless. I wasn't so enlightened then about fresh herbs...garlic cloves instead of powder makes a huge difference, as does the fresh oregano leaves instead of dried. Canned tomatoes is really not as bad as you may think. Actually there's an argument to be made for good quality canned tomatoes being better than your average tasteless supermarket variety.  One of my favourite chefs Michael Smith even has a quick video tip about this. Mmmmm, leftovers tomorrow at work will be great.

Next time: would make it even spicier than I did

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 3/10

Chicken-Asparagus Penne

Got home late and tired yet again. The conversation went something like this:  What's for supper, hon?  I dunno.  Well, there's that asparagus sitting in the window, it's almost ready to be thrown out. What can we do with that?  Well, we can cook up some pasta. Wow that's exciting, asparagus and pasta!  OK ok, well there's this leftover frozen chicken in the freezer, already cooked from that meal last week, we can add that in with some tomato sauce. Hmmm, well that's starting to sound a bit better...

Chicken-Asparagus Penne

So that's what we did. While the penne was boiling, fried up some asparagus with a tiny bit of oil, some lemon juice, and a fresh diced garlic clove. We have this lemon-pepper seasoning (basically lemon + salt + pepper), that went on as well.  Threw in the chicken, some tomato sauce. Voila. Oh yeah, freshly shaved reggiano parmigiano... I think SO liked this much better than I did. Asparagus is not actually my favourite veggie, and tomato sauce is not my fav pasta sauce. We have a recipe we do fairly often I'll detail another time - basically has shrimp, feta, and lots of basil. No sauce, just a tiny bit of oil. Very awesome.

Next Time: Well, I'd use a different tomato sauce or pasta, but SO thought it was good.

Me: 6.5/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: n/a

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

This is something I make at least once a month. We are pretty good at eating up the bananas we buy every week, but once in a while there are 3 or 4 that get softer and softer and blacker and blacker. Past a certain point you just sort of ignore them on the counter, knowing that you have passed the point of no return.  Banana Bread time.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread with a big slice
hacked off the end. Just can't resist.

Why not whole wheat for a change. If we're going to go all healthy and that, then might as well cut the sugar and oil from my usual recipe (1 cup oil and 1 cup sugar) significantly and replace it with honey, yogurt, and applesauce. Now to be fair, the original is pretty darn tasty. And I usually don't put the full cup of either sinful ingredient in anyway. I also throw in an egg, although that can probably be skipped - the yogurt should be enough to bind by itself.

I just love slicing off a two inch piece, slathering with butter, and chowing down. Yum-a-yum-a. If there is any left after a day or two, then it is good in the toaster as well.

French Toast with Apple Topping

French Toast with Apple Topping and Bacon
(I had already eaten all my share of the
bacon except for one piece)

I love Brunch. It's not breakfast, and it's not lunch. And what could be easier than throwing some bacon in a pan, and frying up some french toast. I've started buying this "naturals" bacon, seems to have much less preservatives and "stuff" (nitrates, phosphates, etc). Is the same price as regular bacon, but comes in 375g packages instead of 500g. I'll buy a few packs when on sale, then cut them in half and put in freezer bags. When I'm ready to have some for brunch, I whip out half a frozen pack, defrost a bit, and Bob's your uncle.

Anyway, I noticed a bunch of apples sitting in the fridge, so I thought I'd make up something. It turns out that peeling apples with a potato peeler is actually really fast and easy - I always would have just used a knife before. So peeled, cored and cut, they are ready to be thrown into a saucepan. Also, it amazes me how complicated people like to get with French Toast - all these ingredients, and soaking overnight, blah blah. Egg, milk, dip and fry. Done in 10 minutes. Happy Family.

Next Time: a bit less corn starch, more bacon

Me: 8/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 8/10

Steak, Baked Potato and Caesar Salad

The weather is starting to hit above the freezing mark, so why not fire up the bbq. Yes, I know it is a grill and not a bbq, but we're in Canada, not Texas. And what is the best thing to start the season off with? The biggest T-bone steaks from our local butcher, naturally. 

Steak, baked potato with fresh chives and bacon,
and Caesar Salad with lemon-parmesan dressing

It's always a challenge keeping the 'cue at a high enough temperature in the winter, so it makes cooking the steak that much harder. Aimed for the usual medium-rare, and happily they didn't come out worse than a solid medium or a tad under medium. Phew. We tried an Applewood smoked bbq sauce - was pretty good, but didn't strictly speaking need it. Had to have a baked potato of course, with sour cream, real bacon and fresh chives. On the side was garlic bread, because we just abosolutely needed another carb. Huh. The caesar turned out well, based the dressing on a recipe from one of my favourite chef's - Michael Smith (Food Network, lives in PEI). Find his recipe here.  The glass of red in this case was "Apothic Red", from California. One of SO's favourite these days. All in all, a good start to the grilling season.

Next time: really, probably don't need the garlic bread

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 8/10

Fried Fish 'n Fries

So I stopped by our friendly neighbourhood butcher after work, I love that place. Got three fantastic huge t-bones for just over $20, ground pork for $1.79 a pound, plus a few packs of schnitzels made earlier that day. Strangely, they have a small freezer section with frozen chicken, fish, and locally made tourtières. This time I got a bag of freshly frozen Perch fillets.

Normally we'd roast some potatoes but seeing that it was Friday, I pulled out a bag of sweet potato fries from the freezer. After defrosting the fish, a quick dip in egg & milk, then into the breadcrumbs and frying pan. Whole meal in about 22 minutes, start to finish. Best part, SSO loves it.

Next time: maybe fresh veg instead of peas, but hey, gotta have peas sometimes

Me: 7/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 10/10

Toasted Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwich

So what do you make when it is late, you are tired, and you don't feel like making anything?  Maybe Asian noodles with beef?  Well that's one thing, but there's no beef, or noodles.  I would have said a huge bowl of cereal or maybe pancakes (breakfast for dinner!), but SO said peanut butter & pickle.  OK.

Toasted Peanut Butter and Pickle

What's not to like about it? Crispy whole wheat bread, smooth natural peanut butter and slices of tart garlicky pickles. Enough said. However, as much as I love peanut butter (satay anyone?) and pickles (is there any better side for a Schwartz's smoked meat?), the combination just isn't my thing. The SSO and I had an old favourite - Vittles - which is a fried cheese/egg/bread crumbs thing. Will write about that another time.

Next Time:  nothing to change

Me: n/a
SO: 10/10 (!!)
SSO: n/a

Bacon-wrapped Adobo spiced Chicken

This recipe actually started off as Chicken Legs stuffed with herbed rice, marinated in pomegranate. I neglected to leave enough time for marinating though, and I was going to the grocery store 2 hours before dinner. Oh well, save this for next week.  Since the chicken legs were thawed out, might as well search for something a bit easier. It's amazing, once you start surfing around, what you manage to find.  Lots of really cool ideas, that's what.

I started the surfing safari (a nod to the Beach Boys, whom my Evenko email notification told me are playing at the Bell Centre in Montreal in June) when I noticed bacon-wrapped. That's all it took to get me started on the journey. From there, I ended up reading about southern cooking, then on to Spain and Latin America.  Then the two merged, and I found this recipe.

Bacon-wrapped Adobo chicken legs with a colourful
medley of potatoes and onion. This is the 'before'
photo, the 'after' looks almost exactly the same.

Long side note: as I like to do when searching for recipes, I'll try to find 4 or 5 variations of the same dish and either pick the one that stands out, or merge my fav 2 or 3. It's amazing what crazy silly things some people do to perfectly good recipes. I actually saw one recipe that really looked promising, until it mentioned melting Velveeta cheese on each chicken piece. What The Face.  In any case, I've noticed a great many recipes on other food blogs seem to cut & paste almost verbatim from one of Allrecipes, Cooks, Epicurious, etc. I've seen the same mistake/typo from one place to another. I guess people don't like to surf much beyond the first page of google results.  I have nothing against those websites, I go to them a lot, I even have the "app" for two of them. Ah well. The cookbook isn't dead in any case.

One easy way I try to improve the taste of a recipe is with fresh ingredients. Duh.  But not always obvious. For the Adobo spices, popular in Spanish, Latin American, and Filipino cuisine, use fresh spices. I had some cumin seeds in the cupboard, so throw those in the spice grinder instead of using  ground cumin. Try to grind pepper, not shake it. Same for salt, unless you use Kosher or a flaky salt such as Maldon. For the oregano, get some fresh leaves and sprinkle. You have to adjust quantities since dry and fresh differ in potency, but the result is definitely noticeable. The general rule is 3 to 1 for fresh to dried, although the dried stuff loses potency as it gets old.

Next Time: I'd sprinkle the Adobo lightly on the chicken before wrapping, rather than after; would put more onion but in coarser pieces; I'd take some fat off the bacon and possibly some of the skin on the chicken; actually, I'd try chicken breasts or thighs

Me: 8/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: 5/10 (not much except chicken fingers gets more than a 5)

Pasta Primavera

So I had to work for a good chunk of the afternoon, even though it is Saturday. What lured me upstairs was the unmistakable smell of garlic. It was a blend of veggies in the sauté pan, closer to an Italian soffritto than to a French mirepoix - onion, carrot and green pepper, plenty of garlic but without celery.  They were in big chunks rather than dice, but they were cooked nicely through - not too crunchy, not too mushy.  Another nice benefit, some of the onions were caramelized, which gave a bit of a sweet counterpoint. Last but not least, basil, parsley, and a handful of roasted soy nuts.  Gives some nice crunch, and protein to boot. All in all, it looked like the making of a good solid pasta primavera. Fitting somehow, as warm weather lately has everyone thinking of Spring, the English translation of the dish.

Pasta Primavera (sorry for the blurry photo, I'll start
using my real camera instead of the cell phone)

To be clear, this was entirely SO's idea, no recipe, just a throw-together.  Wow, it turned out really nicely.  No tomatoes (we didn't have any, but I'm not big on tomatoes anyway - no really - I'll eat them but they don't entirely agree with me), and finished with a sprinkle of parmesan.  I'm not usually fond of putting crappy supermarket processed parmesan on anything (our "real" chunk of parmigiano-reggiano finally ran out), but it would have suffered without it I think. Time to go to the grocery store, we didn't have fresh herbs either. Maybe I'll get a basil plant - they aren't any more expensive than a bunch, and it lasts longer. I've tried freezing fresh herbs before, with disastrous results. I thought maybe it was because I didn't take enough care to suck all the air out of the ziplocks. Some people take this seriously.  In any case,  no recipe is needed really - sauté the garlic then other veggies and herbs, throw on the pasta, sprinkle parmesan. I don't think it could be any easier. Ditch the parmesan, and you have yourself a vegetarian dish - actually it would be vegan at that (if you use most boxed pastas, not fresh). Good to have one up your sleeve in case a vegetarian friend ever visits.

Next time: ensure all onions are fully caramelized; try fresh herbs, pasta, and parmesan

Me: 7/10 (fresh everything would be worth a point and a half I'm sure)
SO: n/a - ironically, didn't have any due to going out with friends later
SSO: n/a - had plain pasta and veggies

Spicy daal with potato

Came home late and tired, smelled something wonderful as I walked in the door.  It was curry I smelled, and all was good. We were talking about eating more protein.  I had read somewhere that eating protein will make you feel more full, and really we eat way too much cheese. Nothing wrong with cheese, but there is a limit. Or there should be. Anyway, branching out from meat, cheese, and eggs meant legumes, beans and nuts. So let's try lentils. Turns out they are 3rd highest protein by weight, after only soy beans and hemp. Oh boy.

Lentil daal w/potato and naan

The recipe (from finecooking.com; isn't the one I used, but is almost identical) turned out to be fairly spicy, which I like. Not so good for the SSO, but this night he ate dinner at Gramma and Grampa's so no big whoop. My own curry recipes often turn out spicy but lack depth, but this time was different. SO had used my fav new kitchen gadget (spice grinder) to grind up some fresh cumin - I'm convinced that made the difference. Fresh herbs and spices are just awesome. Paired the daal with some naan bread from the local asian super store (a minute in the toaster got it tasting more or less authentic), and some yogurt for SO to tame the heat a bit. Great for left-overs.

Next time: a bit less heat, and less thick

Me: 8/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: n/a, but would be 1/10 if we made him try it (although he would like the naan)

Beet Greens and baked chicken legs

Borrowed picture alert: I forgot to take a snap
so I found this one, which looks nicer anyway.

Who'd have thought it.  Turns out beet greens are yummy. Somehow I never got around to eating these my whole life. The greens were always like carrot tops, something to cut off and throw out (recycle now...).  My SO found this recipe (food.com), it's actually for roll-ups, although I made it more like our old favourite "Lazy-man's cabbage rolls". Instead of rolling up rice in the leaves, just sort of munge it all together.

Had this with the beets themselves, which I just love. Beets are so great, and it turns out they are high in vitamin c, folates, and potassium. I forgot how long it takes to cook these things, was a good 50 minutes boiling on the stove.

As for the chicken, it comes courtesy of our local fav butcher. What a great place - good prices and great quality. Anyway, dipped them in some Shake 'n Bake Original (seriously) and threw them on the bakeware tray.

Next time: use less sour cream, and don't overcook the chicken.


Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 3/10