Mini-pizza snack

I remember doing something like this as a kid, then again throughout university. Now with a hungry and fussy (but getting less fussy) 10 year old around, we are having them again. Probably everyone has a version of this, but this is how we like them.  Actually that is what is great about them, it is so easy to customize them to your liking.  One kid has just cheese and sauce, another likes green olives.  I add hot salsa. Plus, it doesn't have huge thick crust with too much greasy cheese. I just can't eat pizza like I used to.

Anyway, this was for dinner but makes for a great snack. Those squeeze bottles of pizza sauce last forever, pretty much any kind of cheese can be used, a bit of pre-sliced pepperoni from the store and even pre-sliced green olives. Yum. And quick!

Mini-pizza snack

The trick turns out to be toasting the english muffins before popping them in the oven. So toast them up well, squirt some pizza sauce, then layers of cheese, pepperoni, green olives, and more cheese. Maybe some hot salsa or chili flakes or the like if you want. In the oven with convection for 4 minutes and there you go.

Next time: if we happened to have left-over chicken I'll try that, maybe different cheese

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

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Updated - see below.
Right off the top, I have to say this one is as low-brow as it is tasty. It is about as Asian as chicken balls. We're talking middle of the week comfort food, cooks up in less than 15 minutes start to finish. And the best part is that it makes fantastic left-overs to bring to work the next day (assuming you have a microwave).

This could be made fancier by using "real" noodles and not the instant $0.99 packages, "real" beef slices and not supermarket extra-lean, and fresh ginger instead of powdered. But who is going to do that when you just got home late at 6:45pm, and are starving and grumpy? Not me.

The recipe comes from SO's former co-worker and friend. It got published in one of those small-town raising money for something coil-bound cookbooks you buy for $10. Fantastic deal if you ask me. There are a few questionable things in there, but it is worth the price for this idea alone plus there are lots of other "my momma's recipe" dishes. I mean, even Julia Child's cookbook has a section on Aspics. Yikes. Good luck trying to find a copy of "A Taste From Our Homes" though, from the Goulbourn Jubilee Singers Community Choir. This link (familyoven.com) is almost identical to the one from the book.

Update:
So we needed something for lunch, and I had 10 minutes to make it. I saw a couple of the $0.99 noodle packets in the cupboard, so thought I'd make this again. We always have ground beef in the freezer. No snow peas, but that was my inspiration to do it a bit differently. Not having something is often great for inspiration. The difference? Started with diced onion and garlic, then added green beans, frozen peas, and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Turned out excellent!

Slightly different version, with garlic, onion, gr. beans,
peas, and Worcestershire sauce

Next time: this is so simple, there is nothing to change or do differently. Maybe make a bigger batch.

Me: 9/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: n/a, but I would guess 5/10 once he tried it

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto with Broccoli & Tomato Slaw

Sometimes running out of something turns out to be good, especially when you're not expecting it. I'll get to this later. G&G were coming over for dinner (a.k.a. Gramma and Grampa, or Mom and Dad), and SO had come up with a great idea - risotto with shrimp. Browsed around for a recipe I liked, but as usual they were all not what I was looking for.  I didn't want mushroom risotto this time, the Martha Stewart one called for a pressure cooker, the Food & Wine version seemed overly fussy with butter and I didn't feel like saffron, Giada de Laurentiis' version sounded good but I didn't have fennel or arugula, and I wasn't going for lemony.  And on and on. Actually another thing I didn't like about virtually all the shrimp risotto dishes, they all called for throwing in the shrimp at the last minute and stirring until just cooked through. As my friend would say, BORING.

But then I thought, making risotto isn't rocket science.  Well as they say, it is easy to make a crappy risotto, very hard to make a perfect one. I'm not sure if "they" really say that, but that seems to be the general consensus. Judging by the number of risotto dishes that Mr. Angry Chef Ramsey throws in the trash, it could be true. That's tv though.  I'll just wing it.  There isn't a fixed amount of anything you need anyway, you just keep ladling broth a bit at a time until it is done. I'll fix the one thing I don't like though, I'll bake the shrimp.  One recipe tossed the shrimp in paprika. But.....I ran out of paprika! Who runs out of paprika anyway.

We have a friend who has been pawning every manner of Epicure product on us lately. I generally like their products, but I like making things from scratch. However, the little jar of "Mango Curry Dip" spice powder just sang to me when I opened the cupboard door. So I rinsed the raw shrimp, patted dry, and then tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and some of this mango curry spice. Put it on a baking dish, and it was ready to pop into the oven.

As for the rest, it's just risotto. Start with onion and garlic in butter, toss the rice in it, then ladle a scoup of broth at a time for 15 to 20 minutes until done. Luckily I still had plenty of home made turkey broth in the freezer, that'll do perfectly. So worth the effort! I also added a bit of wine early on, and an extra bit of the mango curry. Near the end, popped the shrimp in the oven with convection on to crisp it up a bit, and voila.  Near perfection anyway.

Mango Curry Shrimp Risotto

Seems almost like an afterthought, but we needed something fresh to go with the slightly rich and slightly spicy shrimp risotto.  I'm not a big broccoli fan, but chop it up finely in a slaw and suddenly it transforms.  Not sure why, it just does.  SO thinks I'm crazy on this topic (and likely many others) but I won't apologize, it is simply true. So it goes like this. Wash and finely chop some broccoli, finely dice some fresh tomato, and maybe some fine dice of English cuke as well. Add a little bit of your favourite salad dressing, and you're done. Very fresh, a bit crunchy, and a good counter point to the curry.

Broccoli slaw with tomato and cuke

Finally, I had to say something about the appetizer I put out. On our trip to the east coast this past summer, we picked up some awesome smoked herring, both pickled and dried at this place called Fumoir d'Anton in Les Isles de la Madeleine. Really tasty, and interesting part of the islands' history. Threw on some olives for SSO, in case you're wondering.

Herring from Le Fumoir d'Anton,
Havre-aux-Maisons, Îles-de-la-Madeleine 

Next Time: Hmmm. Maybe would add in some fresh Cilantro or even Mint leaves

Me: 9/10

SO: 9/10

SSO: 5/10

Clam Linguine Alfredo with bacon and mushrooms

This is officially my new favourite pasta recipe. Just....wow. I wouldn't have thought that canned clams would figure in a such labeled dish, but there it is. Another great idea from SO - this turned out not too creamy or rich, but full of rich flavours with just a tiny bit of pop from dried chilies. Cooking things up in the fat from the double-smoked bacon turned out to be the first good idea. The second, I finally got a chance to try some of the black garlic I got from Chef Michael Smith's Flavour Shack in PEI, where we visited recently. Finally, fresh linguine was on sale at Sobey's today. Perfect!

Sauteing the clams with bacon and mushrooms

Mmmm, the smell of bubbling garlic, mushrooms, clams, bacon.....this will be good. Assembling it with the fresh pasta, and we have one fine Sunday dinner.

A nest of linguine with clams, bacon, and mushrooms

Next time: wouldn't change much! Maybe fresh clams, but that would be a lot more trouble.

me: 10/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 7/10, but that was the plain pasta with butter and salt, the clam part was probably 2/10

Carrot Chocolate Chip Bread

What can you make when you have 3 very large carrots hanging about in the fridge? Well you could make carrot cake. I love it, especially the icing, but that isn't something I want to tackle at 9pm on Thursday.  It's not popular for lunches, and there aren't any stir-fry's on the menu for a while. What about some sort of quick bread?

After browsing around for a while, I don't like any of the recipes. One called for 3 cups of flour, one had zucchini and orange juice, one had 2 cups of sugar, it went on and on - couldn't find anything I liked. They weren't even really adaptable.  So I just made up a recipe. It is loosely based on the banana bread recipe I make, but different.  I wanted whole wheat flour, so I started with 1 cup regular plus 1/2 cup whole wheat. You need at least 1 tsp of baking powder and soda, a pinch of salt, and some spices. For the wet, I'm thinking 1 egg or maybe 2, a little bit of oil, some sugar.  What else? Well the carrot of course.  Funny thing, the carrots I had were so gigantic that I got 2 cups of grated carrot out of one carrot. So far for using them up - one will do.  Let's try it out!

By the way - why is it that most recipes like this call for a ton of cinnamon?  I don't hate cinnamon, but I think it is definitely overused. It is very strong, tends to overpower everything. So I will use just a tiny bit.  I really like fresh nutmeg. Not sure if it is Michael Smith's influence or not. I saw an episode in season 2 of his new show "Chef Abroad" where he travels to Grenada to see how nutmeg is grown and used - very interesting.

Let's start with the dry stuff. The two flours, allspice,
fresh nutmeg, and a little bit of cinnamon.

After mixing the sugar really well with the eggs until it is a bit frothy and the sugar is well dissolved, I added the carrot.  At the last minute, I threw in some lemon zest - what the heck. I don't think I ever tasted anything with lemon or orange zest that didn't turn out better for it.

Eggs, sugar, carrots, and lemon zest

Finally, cook it for almost an hour at 350, and voila.  They were a bit low rising, so I'll make some adjustments next time and see if it turns out better. But they tasted pretty good!  SSO liked the chocolate chips I added, which is why they were there of course. The texture and density was spot on actually. Maybe swap the allspice for cardamom or something else.

The finished product - carrot chocolate chip bread

Next time: some adjustments so it rises a bit more, change the spices a bit.

Me: 8/10

SO: 8/10

SSO: 7/10

Quick week-day one hour Jambalaya

This was actually a Sunday Family Dinner recipe, but it turned out so good and was so quick, I'll make it on a weekday next time. We always have some sort of sausage in the freezer, and with the addition of a few basic veggies from the fridge - a delish dinner with lots of leftovers is 45 minutes away.

Normally recipes call for Andouille sausage and fiery spices, but there isn't any reason you can't just use Farmer sausage like what happened to be in our freezer. I toned way down the fiery seasoning as well so SSO wouldn't melt. It may not be Jambalaya but it sure tastes awesome. I actually used the "Emeril's Essence" seasoning I've had in my cupboard for a longtime but never paid attention to. I did a bit of googling and turns out it is simply a Creole seasoning mix - a basic combination of paprika, onion powder, pepper, cayenne, oregano, and a couple of other things.

Quick week-day one hour Jambalaya

Next Time: not much I would do differently

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

Mid-week pan-salmon with veggie rice and peas & corn

Ok that just won the award for the most awkward blog post title. I was really stoked making this for some reason. It turned out good, even approaching great, but didn't quite live up to my expectations. I think it is because the flavours were too similar. I think if I added some crunch to the veggies it would've made it much better. Like corn flakes or something (they seem to be doing that a lot lately on "the cooking shows"; I saw it twice on the Bobby Flay show, and once on Iron Chef).

In any case, this Thursday meal was a crossroads of sorts.  If I were to characterize it further I would say it is the meeting of necessity, opportunity, and inspiration, although not necessarily in equal proportions. The necessity was "we need to eat", and "we only have celery and mushrooms in the fridge for veggies" (probably the biggest portion). The opportunity, well that is "I got home early and I have time to make this without having to rush out of the house delivering SSO to some activity" (second biggest portion). Finally, the inspiration was what ended up being the preparation and combination of ingredients and flavours. Smallest portion.

First, let's marinate the salmon for 30 minutes while I clean the kitchen and do some prep.

Fresh salmon steaks, marinating in maple syrup,
teriyaki sauce, and dijon mustard

Next, I'll start the rice. I'll fry up the celery a bit, add the mushrooms, then the rice. Mix for a bit, then add water with chicken bouillon (I like the Epicure stuff, it isn't overloaded with sodium like other pre-made stuff).

Rice with celery, mushrooms, and chicken stock

Now start the veggies. Brown up the mushrooms in butter - slowly, but get a good brown on them. Then, add frozen corn and peas, mix it all up. Simmer it on the back burner, and heat up a pan for the salmon. It should be pretty hot, if not smoking hot. Two or three minutes per side with the lid on (to prevent the house from smelling like fish for the rest of the week).  Plate it all, wow looks delish, especially for a Thursday.

The pan salmon with veggie rice, and peas & corn

Next Time: I would spice things differently, maybe try different veggies

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

Baked Chicken Rollups

If only chicken wasn't so expensive these days, I'd make recipes like this more often.  Seriously, 5 chicken breasts for almost $25? What the heck are they feeding these things? In any case, this is a good family meal since there is lots of leftovers, and everyone likes it.  And there's that 'easy' factor as well. A big difference here I think is using good quality sliced ham. Not pre-packaged stuff that you wonder if it's actually ham or not, but something that looks and smells like a real ham. Sliced a bit thinner than regular, and slices at least as big as pre-sliced swiss cheese.

Pounding the chicken is kind of fun, thin enough to roll, but don't get too overzealous or it'll have see-through holes like an old quilt. Or socks. I put it in a zip-lock to avoid splatter. Cling wrap I find doesn't work so well.

Pound the chicken flat in a zip-lock

I had a great idea as I was doing this.  I sliced off the filet part of each breast, and cooked them up like bonus chicken fingers. This was ideal for SSO, and the filet doesn't add anything to the roll-up anyway.

Out of the oven, making use of the filets
for some bonus chicken strips

I should have sliced it up for a much nicer presentation - you can see all the layers that way. Oh well, we were so hungry I barely had time to snap off a photo let alone present it well. Since it was Sunday (I think that was the reason?) let's low-brow it and do tater tots alongside.

Chicken roll-up, tater tots, and cuke slices

Next time: SO thought it wasn't cheesy enough, although it was fine for me.

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

Yet another Hummus recipe

Not sure what possessed me to make hummus again. And then actually blog about it. If you check Instagram, Pinterest, or even Twitter these days, there abounds many recipes for hummus - many of which don't even contain chick peas. There is also many a substitute for the tahini, or just plain strange additions like peppers, peanut butter, beets, ginger, pretty much anything.

I like a more traditional hummus with actual garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. I do like experimenting though, so I added black beans, jalapenos, and chili flakes. I figure SSO won't eat this anyway so might as well spice it up a bit. So I guess I'm no different than all those others - time to get an Instagram account.  On a side note, I haven't bothered with that since a) it is a lot of work self-promoting yourself, and let's face it that's what you have to do - I mean why bother otherwise; and b) although I'm a decent photographer when it comes to my family or landscapes or whatever, I can't seem to take good food photos. I know the theory, just can't seem to put it into practice. This one is a bit better, but I've had some pretty horrid ones. Thing is, I break a lot of the "rules". I usually whip out my cell phone as it is easier, it is often at night so the lighting sucks, and I'm in a rush making supper so no time for setup let alone a tripod.

More or less traditional hummus, except with
black beans and hot peppers

This turned out a bit "nutty", think I was a bit heavy on the tahini. I would make it creamier next time as well. Not less chunky, but less thick. Maybe try for some bolder flavors. It still rocks on crackers though.

Next time: less tahini or more chick peas, maybe a bit of lemon rind or different spices

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

Sausage Pasta Casserole

Once in a while we go back to an old recipe from years ago. In this case, it was from a book given to SO by her aunt, called "The Best of Bridge". It says they sold a million copies. Made in Canada, it contains old fashioned meat and potato staples passed down by Moms and Grandmas for years. This recipe is your basic pasta casserole. I "adapted" it slightly, I can't believe they would really suggest adding 3 cups sour cream and a full pound of cheese. Talk about the Paula Deen school of cooking. SO has a good butcher near her work downtown, and brought home some nice sausage on Friday. So we'll use that instead of ground beef. The rest is pretty straight forward. I made extra to ensure lots of leftovers for lunches.

Sausage Pasta Casserole - ready to go in the oven

Was pretty awesome in the end. Glad I cut back on the cheese and sour cream. A good spicy sausage really makes it I think.

The leftovers - 7 lunches ready to go

Next Time: More sausage, and maybe more mushrooms

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

Pickled Eggs with home made pickling spice

This is something that I love and SO does not. Not a lot of people seem to like them actually, not sure why. They make a great snack, and is healthy to boot. I usually get these small jars at the store - they are almost $6 for as many eggs, which to me seems kind of steep.  But maybe not, given that I just bought a dozen eggs for the same price; of course, they were from chickens that were free to range, were not fed any antibiotics, that nested with perches, and that listened to Mozart in the evenings. Maybe they'll taste different. Probably not, but I feel a tiny bit superior.

So why not make my own, seems pretty easy. And it was. The best part was mixing up a batch of home made pickling spice, well right after peeling off large intact pieces of shell from of the eggs - that was pretty sweet.

Pickling Spice

Most recipes seem to suggest letting them sit for 3 to 5 days before eating - makes sense. I found that even after 10 days they were not strongly flavoured like the store bought ones, but still tasty.

The final product. Pickled eggs with home made pickling spice,
brown from the cinnamon and unfiltered brine.

Next Time: I'll omit the cinnamon next time, and maybe filter the brine through cheese cloth

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

Shrimp Laksa

Another great idea from my SO.  This has to be one of my first Malaysian dishes. According to Wikipedia, it is a Chinese Malay dish, so therefore you would find various types of this in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I had to improvise a bit since we didn't have all the usual ingredients that you would normally put in this dish. Most notable in their absence was lime, lemon grass, and rice noodles. What did I substitute? Well lemon juice mostly, although I also added Kaffir Lime Leaves as well.  As for the noodles, well I added the only thing I had which was gluten-free spaghetti. They are actually made partly from rice, but they taste like conventional spaghetti which is not ideal.

Further research revealed that there seem to be two main classes of Laksa - curry based, and tamarind based. I opted for the curry form. I don't have Tamarind on hand, maybe next time. I ended up blending about 5 recipes, since they all had either ingredients that I didn't have or found undesirable, or used overly complex methods. I didn't have carrots, fish cakes, or tofu puffs;  I didn't want macadamia nuts or mushrooms; I didn't feel like manually grinding 19 spices or simmering and de-boning a whole fish; and finally I didn't have or want ready-made curry paste. This may turn out to be Kraft Dinner for a Malay, we'll see.

Shrimp Laksa

The prep turned out to be a bit involved, but mostly because of all the ingredients. If you just used shrimp paste and curry powder it would go faster. But the actual cooking was very quick, and in the end a nice hot soup is both satisfying and fortifying.

Next Time: Make sure I'm not missing ingredients beforehand, esp. lemon grass and lime. Maybe try tofu puffs as well.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 9/10 (liked the plain shrimp and pasta - no sauce)

Roasted Lemon Basil Chicken

I don't remember much about this recipe, it was a month ago that I made this. It is one of those fantastic Sunday dinner meals though so I had to write this down.  We are starting to enforce the eating at the actual dining room table on Sunday evening. The rest of the week it is really easy to eat on the couch in front of the t.v.  We borrowed all 6 seasons of "The Big Bang Theory", and have been methodically going through it. Not terribly conducive to family talk and bonding, but at least we're sitting together. Nice to unwind after a stressful day.  Anyway, what could be easier than potatoes and chicken in a roaster.  I think we may have thrown in some frozen corn in the microwave at the last minute, since I realized the only veggie making an appearance was the cherry tomatoes.

Tossing the potatoes with basil-lemon puree

Can't say enough about these all-in-one easy dishes. It's nice to get complicated and fancy once in a while, but "easy" means that we'll end up with some quality food rather than something processed. Came out looking a bit strange with the roasted basil on top, but it tastes better than it looks.  And with the size of chicken breasts these days, three were enough for the 3 of us PLUS leftover for a lunch for me the next day.

Roasted Lemon Basil Chicken

Next time: maybe throw more veggies in there, and would season the chicken a bit more

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

Cinnamon Biscuits

I like this recipe.  It comes out looking more like a "Cinnabon" rather than what comes to mind when you say "biscuit", and it is a bit drier and not quite as sweet (which goes without saying as the classic Cinnabon is at the far end of the sweet spectrum). Way good with a fresh strong coffee.

Cinnamon Biscuits - rolled-out dough with butter spread evenly

I'm also not really a strong pastry or bread baker, so usually I shy away from anything that requires things like Crisco, and any technique that requires kneading, proofing, and "punching down". So this is more my cup of tea. Cutting in cold butter is not really that hard, and I can knead dough a few times as long as there is no yeast involved.

Cinnamon Biscuits - before baking

So after assembling the dough ball and rolling it out on my perfectly sized floured wood board (maybe I'll just try straight on the counter next time), it's really just spreading tons of butter, sugar, and cinnamon, rolling it up, slicing, and baking. Reasonably impressive and not too difficult. Just don't expect Cinnabon.

Cinnamon Biscuits - after baking

Next Time: maybe a bit more butter-sugar-cinnamon mixture

Me: 7/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 5/10

Spaghetti with Mushroom and Sausage Tomato Sauce

This one all started when SO asked me where the tomato sauce was.  As in the big can of store bought sauce one would dump on spaghetti.  It was getting late, and was a weeknight. But still, a certain amount of righteous indignation welled up in me. I wasn't going to let the late hour and our tired old bones get in the way of doing something a bit better than dumping a can of sauce on spaghetti. We've all done that once in a while, but generally as a student.  In any case, I promptly took over and rooted around in the fridge. There wasn't much as we were due for groceries, but still it would work out fine.

Ingredients for the mushroom sauce

I ran down to the freezer and pulled out a package of sausages from the local butcher, and ran them under water to get them unstuck and somewhat unthawed. The rest of the raw materials ended up being onion, garlic, 2 jalapeno peppers, and a variety of wild mushrooms from a previous recipe. I took the casings off the sausages and started browning it. From there it went pretty quickly.

Mushroom and Sausage tomato sauce simmering away

Simmering away for 20 minutes was all it took. We didn't have any fresh pasta, but oh the sacrifices we make (major-eye-roll).

Spaghetti with Mushroom and Sausage Tomato Sauce

Next Time: I didn't even taste the jalapeno, so either eliminate it or bump up the spice

Me: 8/10

SO: 8.5/10

SSO: 2/10

Roast Chicken

I really like Michael Smith.  The chef, that is. He talks a lot about simple flavours, fresh ingredients, and he doesn't worry too much about exact measurements. Plus, in his cookbooks he actually explains why he does things a certain way. Imagine that, a chef actually giving away some secrets. Anyway, SO came home with a free-range, local, super-awesome blah blah chicken from the butcher. Not much more thought than to roast it in some fashion. Flipping through some Chef Smith books, in one recipe he advocates throwing everything in the roasting pan and just...well cooking the lot.  I closed the book, and started rummaging through the fridge. Here's what I found - not a bad hall, since we did groceries yesterday.

Roast Chicken ingredients - minus the chicken

So tomatoes, some carrots, the ubiquitous onions and potatoes, fresh rosemary, garlic, asparagus and lemon. That'll all do nicely. So now we just have to season the chicken with simple ground pepper and salt, and roughly chop everything and dump unceremoniously around the chicken. This is what is looked like.

Roast Chicken - before cooking

Was it too much?  Too little? Would it overcook or under cook?  Pshaw, doesn't matter too much. I wanted to just do it quickly and simply and see how it turns out.  Threw in the rosemary whole, and the lemon - well I've made the mistake before of putting in too much lemon slices. Doing that gives it a lemon flavour, sure, but imparts too much bitterness with all the rind.  So 20 minutes per pound at 400 F, and here is the result.

Roast Chicken

Wow, looks awesome. No basting, no stirring, nothing. I checked the temperature - supposedly 165F in the breast and 175F in the thigh, but opinion seems to vary on this so use your own judgement. The family was happy, and the chicken was wickedly moist - just unbelievable really, and the skin was nice and crispy.

And the bonus in all this, you can make some chicken stock with the carcass afterwards. See notes in the recipe below.

Baked Salmon with Mushroom Risotto

Why is it that salmon is so tasty? Lots of flavour not matter what you do to it - you almost cannot ruin it, except perhaps to dry it out. Grilling on the BBQ, poached, fried, raw as in sashimi, or baked like this recipe. Plus it has the much vaunted omega-3 fatty acids, blah blah.  I like white fish as well, but it seems to me that half the time it turns out awesome and the rest of the time it is just flavourless or "fishy" tasting. Anyway, one of my go-to cooks, Michael Smith, suggests baking at a low temperature for a change. Wow, great idea. No grill marks, but much improved smooth tenderness. You can throw just about any sauce you want on it, and voila.

As for the risotto, it's something you just have to make once in a while.  Kind of like eggs, it is easy to make but difficult to make really well.  To get just the right balance and avoid all the problem takes a bit of practice. There's lots of advice out there as well, for example this well thought out page courtesy of Alton Brown. Parts of it disagree with his own recipe I found on the Food Network, but we all change and grow as chefs - why would he be any different. In any case, I would take advice from a reputable chef like him, or Mark McEwan which is where I took most of the queues for this recipe.

Baked Salmon with Mushroom Risotto

I'm not the hugest fan of asparagus, but I'm constantly trying to find ways to make it awesome. It goes well enough in the risotto. Luckily didn't overcook it so it was good. I found that it overpowered the mushrooms just a bit however.

Next Time: I'd go heavier on the mushrooms and leave out the asparagus

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 4/10

Avocado Salad with Quinoa

Quinoa is all the rage these days, and no wonder - according to HuffPo, it is high in protein, low in calories, and gluten free. It's also kind of expensive, I bought 1.5lbs for $17. I think you could get a metric ton of rice for $17. But apart from all the health benefits, it just tastes really yummy - and I find it is easier to cook than rice. Plus rice doesn't go well in a cold salad.

Anyway, SO found this and emailed me the recipe. "So what are we having with the salad?" I asked. "It will be hearty, we don't need anything else" she responded. Hmmm, we'll see about that. It took surprisingly long to prepare, but it was just chopping cooking the quinoa. I mixed all the ingredients together while I stuck the pot of quinoa in the garage to cool down. Looks good already!

The salad, before adding the quinoa. Looks colourful and tasty!

I was impatient, it was 6pm and the quinoa was taking forever to cool down even in a -10 degrees garage. I transfered it to a bowl and stirred it a few times, finally got it to luke warm temperature. So I got a bed of spinach down on the plates, sliced some lemon, got the sprigs of parsley out, and then mixed the quinoa. Just for effect, packed it in a bowl to shape it like they did in the recipe. And WOW was it delish! I think SSO hated it as much as we liked it. Well, he's nine so what do you expect.

Avocado Salad with Quinoa

Next Time: nothing

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 1/10

Pan-fried salmon with chickpea salad

There are lots of reasons why I really like this recipe - salmon is so delish, the whole thing is done in 15 minutes flat, and it is super healthy. There is nothing unhealthy about it. I think we came across this (or something like this) in a Weight Watchers book, but darned if I can find it again. In any case, it is something we go back to every once in a while and once we do, we wonder why we don't have it more often.

Pan-fried Salmon with Chickpea salad

A lot of people are not crazy about chickpeas, but they are low in fat and high in fiber. Add a bit of curry powder and you have a spicy and good for you salad.
Some crazy facts:

• India of course produces by far the most, but second place in production is....Australia
• Hummous, the middle-eastern staple, is actually the Arabic word for Chickpea, and is not just the name of the dip made with tahini
• The chickpea was cultivated as early as 7500 years ago!
• Other names you may recognize are Garbanzo beans, and channa (from the Indian buffet table)

Next Time: may try switching up the ingredients of the salad

Me: 8/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 4/10

Lemon Chicken Drumsticks with Fennel Slaw and Roasted Lemon Potatoes

Lemon  is definitely the theme of the meal this time. Unlike my other posted roasted chicken recipe however, this is a tad less "hit you over the head" lemony. It has lemon juice and zest, but that's it - no lemon slices in the oven.  The chicken part of the meal was adapted from a recipe calling it "Mediterranean Chicken", but I think that is not right at all (just because it has oregano and garlic?). Sheesh.

The Fennel Slaw is an idea from Chef Michael Smith. Wasn't the family's fav in the end, but I liked it. Any excuse to get the mandolin out.  But not just that, it is so fresh tasting and fennel isn't your everyday veg. As for the potatoes, well we roast potatoes probably once a week - but in different styles. Instead of the usual "throw on some kind of spice mix", we tossed the potato wedges in the remains of a bottle of Farm Boy lemon-garlic salad dressing. These dressings are pretty awesome. Checking the label, there is no added sugar or weird preservatives - just lemon, garlic, oil, salt & pepper.

Lemon Chicken Drumsticks with Fennel Slaw and Roasted Lemon Potatoes.
I almost forgot to take a photo before I ate it all, hence the tiny amount of everything on the plate.

This turned out to be perfect for a Sunday family meal. Was really super easy, very little muss and fuss.  Preparing the slaw ahead of time is actually better, the flavours marinate better. And plus, the chicken and potatoes can go in the oven at the same time at the same temp.

Next Time: would maybe try a bit longer at a bit lower temp

Me: 8/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 4/10