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