Another mini ode to oatmeal.

Another great breakfast today of oatmeal, mashed banana, blueberries, pecans and flax seed! Yum!

Breakfast at The Old York.

We had brunch with one of my husband's high school friends and his girlfriend yesterday. It was really nice to see them here in the city and we took them to a little place near our home which does great brunch (which says a lot coming from someone who isn't a huge fan of all that!). They pay attention to detail which I love! We all had huge glasses of orange juice and then there were 2 breakfast wraps ordered, I had grilled tomatoes and eggs and my husband had French toast.

Unfortunately I am not a good critic of this dish because it falls so closely with the hot wraps that I am not a huge fan of. And the idea of egg wrapped in there with salsa doesn't make me warm and fuzzy! However, the people who do know how to appreciate this food said it was amazing! Thick bacon, omelette and chunky salsa, these folks were pleased!

They all came with these wonderful hash browns which were thinly sliced and crispy, and a fresh, green salad with a berry vinaigrette. Even a blackberry and citrus wedges for decoration!

I didn't think my meal would have been hugely visually appealing so I didn't take any pictures of it, a couple slices of grilled tomatoes and some well done eggs, with the same lovely hash browns and salad. I made tomato sandwiches with my multi grain bread and dipped my hash browns in the most amazing hot sauce ever! It was thick and so well seasoned/spiced ( a dirty yellow/brown colour), I am pretty sure it was an in-house concoction, well done indeed!

My husband had already said at home that if there was French toast he was having it! And he wasn't disappointed!

He said the apple compote tasted like apple crisp/crumble, so there must be lots of sugar in it right he asks? Yes! And lots of butter too! He was pleased and said he would order it again. 

Mexican feast.

I have never made Mexican food before, I am not a huge fan of tacos, or burritos or fajitas, so I guess it never occurred to me to make it. However, my husband loves it and so do our regular weekend guests so I decided to step out of my element and make a go of it. I couldn't pin point exactly what I wanted to make either so I just went all out and did a bit of a lot of things! It was quite labour intensive and I did enlist the help of my husband for quite a lot of it, which was fun! And now we have a fridge full of left overs which is great. 

Not only was I trying to get a lot of things ready at the same time, but we have a limited amount of pots and pans so it was a little interesting getting it all cooked too!

I guess I will start with pictures from the finished end and work backwards on how we got there. 

The first thing I got going was the seasoned ground beef. I fried it in a frying pan and once it was brown I transferred it to a pot with a lid that can go on the oven. I added salt, pepper, oregano, coriander (because I didn't have cumin), chilli flakes, crushed tomatoes, Montreal steak spice and chipotle chilli sauce. I bought a can of chipotles, it is stuffed full of the smoked chillies but there is also a lovely thick sauce around them which I scooped out and used in a lot of the dishes. I just let it simmer away slowly until it was ready and then I put it in the oven, covered, very low to stay warm until we ate. 

Second longest job was making the rice. I fried the rice grains in the same pan I fried the beef in. I added a chopped onion, chopped tomato and crushed tomatoes to this and let it fry a little. Then I transferred it to a pot with a lid too, and added some chicken stock and let it start to cook. I added a chicken stock cube for more flavour too and ended up using an entire box of stock. I cut up 2 chipotles really well and was about to add them all to the rice when I decided to taste them and boy were they hot! So I added half instead. And some more of the lovely sauce. Also some chopped fresh cilantro and salt and pepper. You need to keep stirring the rice, a bit like risotto. It looks a dirty, orangey colour when it is done, from all the tomatoes. I think there were chilli flakes in here too actually. And coriander, because I had no cumin. 

Next I diced up 2 onions and got them frying in a wok, along with about 10 large brown and white button mushrooms, sliced, and 3 different coloured peppers cut into strips. 

I sauteed a can of sweet corn in half butter half oil then added a can of black beans to it that had been rinsed thoroughly. I loved the bright yellow and black colours together. I seasoned it simply with salt and pepper and garlic. 

Lastly I sliced up the turkey breasts and seasoned with salt and pepper and garlic powder and flash fried them. They were the pounded thin breasts so cooked really fast. I had gone shopping for chicken but found the turkey on sale and opted for that instead, it is cheaper normally anyway!

I admit there was a quite a bit of can opening here, corn, black beans, and I bought re fried beans in a can too. It really helped me time wise. I warmed the re fried beans up slowly in the microwave when we were ready to eat. 

On the cold front, we had chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, grated cheese, finely cut green onions, finely cut cilantro and guacamole. We normally like a spicy/seasoned guacamole but this time we went really low key because of all the other flavours and heat around. Simply mashed avocados and some green sauce, which is like a green salsa but runnier. I also picked up a peach/mango salsa which I thought would be interesting. Somehow it escaped the photo (I think it was on the table for dipping purposes already) but I made a chipotle sour cream/mayo which was just a finely chopped chipotle and spicy sauce with salt and garlic powder and sour cream and mayo. It was very, very good!

We had spinach and plain white flour tortilla wraps to encase it all in, which were warmed slightly in the oven to make them really pliable. 

Because I am not a huge fan of the hot, stuffed wrap I just had a selection of it all on a plate!

The flavours were amazing! I was so impressed with all the freshness, heat, colour, texture, it really was wonderful. It was very amusing watching the gents try and stuff ridiculous amounts of filling into the wraps and then try and keep them wrapped as they ate them! I did take photos of this but can't bring myself to put them up! Though it does show how tasty the food was with everyone tucking in so voraciously. My favourite part was the spicy rice, with some peach/mango salsa and chipotle sour cream!  Yum! 

I had no idea where to start with this meal but there is a wealth of information online as usual that points you in the right direction. A lot of what we eat isn't necessarily traditional Mexican food, I believe there are a lot of embellished ingredients that we have decided we like in burritos and tacos etc and that is all good, and thus the taste buds evolve. I think go with what you like and try things you think you won't like and it's all good!

Scrambled egg whites with parsley.

Ok, there are so many things wrong with the title of this entry that I don't know where to begin. I am not a huge fan of eggs with things in them i.e. I hate omelettes! I also am a little unsure about the whole egg white only thing. However, I used 6 egg yolks in my custard for the pear and caramel trifle on the weekend and I had 6 egg whites left. Not wanting to waste anything I made some egg white scrambled eggs. I filled it with pepper and freshly chopped parsley to help it along it's way and it wasn't all that bad I have to admit. They weren't as dense as normal and obviously the pasty colour isn't as appetising as the usual golden yellow but once you get past that it really didn't send me running for the hills. 

I ate the scrambled eggs along side some veggies and dip and a crumpet with butter and marmite! We have a large bag a cut up veggies in the fridge at the moment so there is something healthy to snack on easily. However, I caution you with the dip aspect of your 'healthy eating'. We have a roasted garlic hummus, which isn't hugely bad on the fat content though it has 70 calories in 2tbsp. It does have some fibre in it and yum to garlic that makes chickpeas easier to eat! Now enter the spicy artichoke and asiago dip! 2tbsp  has 22% of your daily quota of fat! And 130 calories! Wow! You really do need to check your labels! Go for yoghurt based dips instead of mayo ones if you are being careful. Also, try taking a small amount of the nice spicy artichoke and asiago dip (of course it's nice, it's bad for you!!) and mixing it with a larger portion of hummus to spread the flavour and slim the calories. I really should try more to make my own dips, although I would know what went in it I wouldn't necessarily know how bad it actually was. One bonus of the store bought package. One. I do remember seeing a low fat spicy hummus which seems like a good compromise?

What can I say about the crumpet, I love them, I have a weakness for them. I toast them till crisp and put butter and marmite, or jam on them! Mmmmmm! Good thing I don't find them often. 

Oatmeal with blueberries and pecans.

I love oats! It is a great way to start the day as it keeps you full so long. Yesterday I felt like a warm breakfast so I made some oatmeal porridge. I use the instant packets, I know they aren't the best form of oat but they are so handy! I always get the regular variety which means they are un-sweetened and un-flavoured which is great for me as I always find the others so so sweet that I can't eat them!

To my oatmeal I added a small amount of brown sugar and a dash of maple syrup, small amounts, you don't want to overdo it if you can eat it less sweet. I topped it with fresh blueberries and chopped pecans. What a way to start the day!

Today I didn't want that warm cereal so I topped my strawberry yoghurt with berries and home made granola, still getting the good old oats in! Yum!

P.S. Oats are also good in things like crumble topping and chocolate chip cookies!!

Chicken, pancetta and mushroom pasta, all green salad and roasted garlic bread.

My Uncle and Aunt came for dinner last night. I say Uncle and Aunt yet they are no blood relation whatsoever, though they are basically second parents to me as they were around all my childhood. I consider them family without a doubt. Anyway, family definitions aside, I wanted to make something that could be prepared in advance so that I wasn't busy in the kitchen when I could be visiting. I also didn't want to use the oven too much because we have an eat in kitchen and we would die of overheating if that were the case! Our place is small enough as it is, never mind 2 extra people, and a hot kitchen! 

I decided I was going to make pasta, salad and garlic bread. I made my sauce earlier on; chicken, pancetta and mushrooms. I also made the salad, though I didn't toss it and left the leaves on the top so they didn't go soggy. And even the garlic bread was made in advance and just warmed through in the oven quickly before we ate. All I really had to do was boil pasta and dress the salad, perfect!

So, the sauce. I started by finely chopping an onion and sauteeing it in olive oil. To this I added some crushed garlic, about 2tbsp. I then added a tbsp of brown sugar and the same or maybe half more, of balsamic vinegar. The idea being that it would reduce down nicely and get some good flavours going. To this I added half a can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, I would say somewhere between 1 and 2 cups of it. I added half initially and then kept adding more as I needed it. I added about 1 tbsp of dried basil, fresh would have been better. I did have fresh parsley so I put in about 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley. And some salt and pepper to taste. I let this slowly simmer away and thicken. And that was when I would add more tomatoes as needed. I had a tiny bit of cream left so I tossed that in, probably only 2 or 3 tbsps. Once the sauce was thick and tasty I turned it off. The sauce is not a bright red colour, it is a dark, deep red, because you put balsamic vinegar and brown sugar in at the start.

I removed the fat from about 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs and cut them up into bite size chunks. I fried them in olive oil with salt and pepper until they were just done then I added them to the sauce. I then fried the pancetta in the same pan (using up the left over pancetta from the trout dish we had last week), there was about 1 cup of it, maybe just under. I also sliced up close to a pint of cremini mushrooms. I don't think amounts matter hugely here, I used what I had, and it worked, I am sure using different amounts won't hurt anyone. Once the pancetta was crisp and the mushrooms golden I added them to the sauce too and stirred it around. My pasta sauce was now ready. I covered it and left it until we were ready to eat. 

I decided that I wanted a purely green salad to go with the pasta, so I got out zucchini, mange tout/sugar snap peas, baby spinach leaves and lettuce. I washed, topped and tailed and quartered the zucchini lengthways. Then I removed the spongy centre part. This was a trick I learnt on the plane watching Jamie Oliver! I then cut it into diagonal slices and it comes out looking remarkably like penne. I put them in the bottom of a bowl. I then took out 2 handfuls of peas and rinsed them and removed the stringy part. You do this by cutting the stalk off almost entirely then dragging it along the back of the pea, the straightest part of it. A stringy piece will come away and you will be surprised how less 'chewy' your pea is because of that.

So, string removed peas were then cut into 3, on a diagonal cut too and added to the bowl. Then I took about 2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves and removed any large stalks and added them too. And lastly, some lettuce, I used half a head, but again, I don't believe quantities matter hugely. I grated a little parmesan on top of this and toasted about 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts which I added once they were cool. I covered this and put it in the fridge until we were ready to eat. 

The garlic bread I made on a long, thin baguette which I sliced up but not all the way through, so the pieces were still held together at the bottom. I used the left over roasted garlic here, butter, very finely chopped parsley and pepper. I cut the baguette into 2 initially as it wouldn't have fit in the oven whole. Each half, once it was cut and buttered then went onto a piece of foil. I pinched the ends of the foil up around the 2 ends of the bread and left the top open, almost like your bread is sitting in a canoe. I find completely covering it makes it soggy, so by leaving the top open you ensure crispy bread. I left my 'canoes' on the side until about 20minutes before we were ready to eat and then put them in a low oven just to warm through, melt butter and crisp it up.

Dinner was pretty much ready and no one was here yet! I quickly made a dressing and they arrived as I was stirring it together. I would say equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil, totalling somewhere between 1/3-1/2 cup. A tbsp of grainy mustard, 3 tsps of honey, several shakes of garlic powder, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust accordingly. 

When we wanted to eat all I had to do was boil some water, cook some pasta, warm up the sauce, toss the penne in the sauce, put it in a bowl, toss and dress the salad and get the garlic bread out the oven. Voila! The pasta was wonderfully el dente, with a richly tomatoey sauce that was cut with just a tiny bit of cream, and then moist chicken pieces, salty pancetta and mushrooms running through it. I love the garlic bread, so crispy, with a roasted garlic flavour instead of the powerful raw garlic and the green in it was so pretty. My favourite part was the salad though!

Soft zucchini, snappy peas, crunchy walnut pieces, different leaves and then the balsamic dressing, mmmm!! I normally don't keep salad but we put the left over bit in the fridge and today I drained the dressing off it and stuffed it in a sandwich with left over roast chicken on toasted Good Hearth bread, it was heaven!

Chicken, veg and rice in a dish in the oven.

My husband pointed out yesterday that if we didn't have extravagant meals all the time maybe we wouldn't have so much washing up to do! I seriously doubt it would affect it hugely, but I decided to make dinner in one dish last night and see how it went. 

Chicken, cut up onions, carrots, cauliflower and mushrooms with a cup of brown rice and a box of chicken stock, salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves. 

I covered it in foil for the first 45minutes hoping that it would steam and help the rice cook nicely. The oven was between 375 and 400, I wasn't precise with it.  Now, normally, a chicken this size would be cooked in about 1 1/2hrs at this temperature but when I checked on this one there was not much going on. The top was cooking as usual but the bottom half, mainly the thighs, was so deeply buried in veg and rice that it didn't seem to be responding too well. After about 1 1/2hrs I ended up taking the chicken out and putting it on a foil lined tray to cook as normal (foil lined to avoid washing it, and hence keeping the washing amount down!). 

I don't even know how long it took to cook altogether to be honest, I kept checking on it, adding 10minutes to the timer, checking it again and so on. I would say that this method of cooking only works if you are cooking it at a lower temperature and have lots of time to wait.  It would work also if you had small pieces of meat rather than a whole chicken. If you want dinner in a normal time frame, cook the chicken separately.

The rest of the dish came out really well, like a brown rice casserole, with lots of flavours running through it. 

Eventually the chicken was ready. Though I had had to cut through the thigh part to check on it so many times it wasn't very pretty, but it did taste wonderful.

I still had gravy to make so there was a second pot/pan to wash regardless! I say, make the meal you want to and deal with the washing up afterwards! I made a chilli mayo to go with it which was a great bit of heat on the side. 

Egg and spinach sandwich.

I picked up a really tasty loaf of bread the other day, called Good Hearth Bread. It is full of rye, partially sprouted rye kernels, mustard seeds, flax seeds and some other stuff which makes it really, really good! This is unusual for me as I normally don't eat much bread, if any, and I am pleased I got it. My husband is a fan of brand breads, with oats and honey normally, that come pre sliced in a bag. When I asked if he would like to try something new he told me that he likes the bread he gets and that if I wanted something else I should get it. Needless to say, he has been sneaking Good Hearth Bread from time to time and really liking it! 

He also likes egg salad. And sometimes wants to make it himself too. At which point I brace myself for the huge bits of green onion that will be in it! This doesn't seem to bother him, I on the other hand wander around with my mouth on fire for the entire afternoon, glad that no one is around to talk to me! Knowledge of massive chunks of green onion aside, I did make myself a sandwich with the egg salad on my lovely bread, with some baby spinach leaves, it was heaven! I love the yellow and dark green colours on a rustic, seedy bread, could you ask for anything better for lunch on a Monday?! (Yes, maybe, if it didn't give you onion breath, but it's not like it's every day!).

Pear and Caramel Trifle.

This is another dish inspired by my in flight viewing of The Food Network. It was made on 'Ricardo and Friends', you can find the recipe by Googling his name and a combination of pear, caramel and trifle, or even by going on the Food Network website. I thought I was doing a good job of memorising it all on the flight but when it came down to it there were so many different parts to it that they had blended together in my mind. The recipe was easy to find, to save the day!

Now, I have said many times before that I don't particularly like recipes, this is a prime example of why, it was too sweet. The whole dish was overly sweet in my mind, and if I had been doing it myself I think I would have had control over that, but following a recipe you just go with it really, blindly obeying instructions. After tasting the custard and finding out it was so sweet I refused to put sugar in my cream even though it called for it, so I guess a small bit of rebellion happened but too late I fear. However, my husband loved it! Said it was the best trifle ever! I prefer the berry version with Sherry and jelly but each to their own. And don't get me wrong, the trifle was tasty, the components were divine, just a little too sweet which I am sure could be remedied.

Anyway, assessment aside, lets talk about how it came together. I woke up on Sunday, late, but no one needs to know how late! I knew we would be out in the afternoon and that the trifle needed to rest for the best results, so the plan of action was to make it all straight away, let it cool, assemble it then go out and come back to a ready to eat trifle!

I got out everything I would need to make it, cream and sugar and vanilla appeared a lot! The first thing I made was the custard or pastry cream as he calls it. Whisking flour and sugar together then adding 6 egg yolks! Yes, 6! Then slowly adding hot milk and cream and whisking until it started to boil, then removing it from the heat, adding vanilla and it is ready. Here in lies the problem of making things from scratch, instead of using lovely Birds Eye custard powder, you know how bad it is for you! Boo! Anyway, my beautifully thick, rich and creamy (but over sweet) custard is ready, I lay plastic wrap over the surface of it to prevent a skin forming and put it in the fridge to cool. 

Next, the pears. Peel, core, and slice 4 Bosc pears. Make a caramelising solution in a frying pan (water and sugar) and add pears. I didn't let my water and sugar go brown enough i.e. there was still too much liquid in it, so my pears took about 15minutes to caramelise instead of 4-5. Lesson learnt. Let it go really brown before adding pears. I wonder if next time I would just bake them instead to avoid the sugar in the caramelising part, might help make it less sweet? Set aside in the fridge to cool. 

Next, caramel sauce. Thorn in my side! 'Boil sugar, water and corn syrup until golden then remove from heat and add hot cream'. There is a lot of discrepancy in 'golden' really isn't there? The first time (yes there were multiple attempts ) I added the cream too early I think, it just looked like washed out tea! And was so runny! I know it thickens when it cools but this did not look right at all, it returned to the boil so fast and by the time I was meant to be done with it I was sorely furious at it instead. I tossed this batch done the toilet. I was then so flustered by the failure that I forgot to add corn syrup to my second attempt. I watched my sugar and water become a clear liquid and then all of a sudden it went crystally and in a flash was solid! The water had evaporated out completely! Add to my frustration. I chipped bits out and then soaked the pan and got another pan for my final attempt. I threatened my husband, who was an innocent bystander, that if this didn't work we were going to be caramel free in the trifle! He didn't know what the right response to this was and uttered something somewhat soothing. Shortly following this I realised the mistake of the missing corn syrup and felt full of confidence that this final attempt would work. I let the solution bubble away for quite some time till it got very thick/foamy/bubbly and finally added the cream. I was so confident (I have no idea why after so many failings?) that I decided to experiment and add some Rum! Rum caramel sauce sounded like it would work with pears, so why not!? Anyway, once the sauce had simmered for a minute, I took it off the heat and added a tbsp of Rum, and stirred it in. At this stage everything was still very runny, but after a while in the fridge (and then the freezer because I got impatient) it was fine. 

Last thing was to whip some cream with vanilla and NO sugar! 

Time to assemble. Custard, quartered lady fingers (biscuits, you can buy them in any store), caramelised pears, caramel sauce, whipped cream. Repeat. I let it rest in the fridge like this for several hours. When we were ready to eat it I drizzled some more caramel sauce on the top and added some toasted almonds. You want to let them cool before adding them. I used way more than the recipe called for but I like the crunch. 

Verdict, too sweet, but everything was so decadent. I was thoroughly impressed with my creation. The sugar crystalised pot cleaned up just fine too which made my day! I think it was a bit of an overdose for someone sensitive to dairy too, but hey ho, worth a taste. I gave a huge bowl to my neighbour this morning so there was less for us to eat, and when you slave away at something, it's nice to share the love! 

I still have lots of Rum caramel sauce, which I think would be nice drizzled over our frozen vanilla yoghurt or in coffee. But, there needs to be a gap before more of that kind of indulgence can happen I think. Next time I make this, I will try to make it less sweet and see if I like it more and if my husband even notices! About 1/4 of the sugar in the custard seems about right, maybe no caramel sauce except on the top, baking the pears instead? We shall see.

Filet mignon, roasted garlic mash, broccoli and peppercorn sauce.

I offered my husband a choice of steak or chicken for dinner last night, he didn't even look at me, he just said, do you need to ask?! Ha! Silly me. So, the last of our wonderfully priced filet mignons from Costco were consumed in the most glorious way. 

On the grocery shop I had remembered to buy some garlic, knowing that at some point I would be making mash and would want it. Amen! Because it didn't take long to get to the mash meal, and as soon as I knew were having steak I knew it was going with roasted garlic mash. I used some mini red potatoes for the mash, they worked great, I loved the bits of red skin colour and the brown from the roasted garlic, very rustic! The broccoli was simply steamed and the onions were cooked for a long time to get the lovely caramelised colour and flavour. I used a packet of mushroom gravy and a packet of peppercorn sauce mixed together. I had also quartered some button mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and added them to the sauce, yum! I love the heat from the peppercorns, they really compliment the tender meat. The filets were perfection, 9minutes on the bbq and were on the rare side of medium rare. Mmmm!

I also LOVE the smell of roasting garlic! I did this earlier in the day when I was getting everything else prepped. We were out in the afternoon so it was nice to come home and just turn the pot on and the frying pan and be half way ready instantly! I halved the entire head of garlic, 2 actually, drizzled olive oil over them and put them in a hot oven, I then realised it didn't need to be so hot and turned it down to medium/low. The garlic is ready when it turns a golden grown colour, if it is black you know you did it too long, but oh well! I scooped them cloves out of the skins and left them to use later on. I made more than I needed too, you never know when roasted garlic will come in handy! I mashed it with a fork to make it easier to mix into the potatoes. I cannot believe how amazing it tastes. Roasted garlic rocks!

Trout on rustic pesto pasta with pancetta and peas.

First meal inspired by my flight back home from Vancouver (engrossed in the Food Network for hours!). My husband picked up a piece of trout when we were grocery shopping yesterday so I decided that this would be what I made to go with it. He was in charge of cooking his fish; salt, pepper and olive oil, in a hot oven for about 10minutes or until done! Why do anything more to a perfectly good piece of fish!? And good it was!

The first thing I did for the other part of the meal was get some pancetta cubes crisping, when they were ready I turned the heat off and left them until the very end. 

I cooked some penne pasta and added frozen peas to the water a few minutes before it was done so that it was all ready at the same time. I made a pesto out of spinach, parsley, walnuts, parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, cream and lemon zest and juice. To begin with I wilted some spinach in a colander with boiling water. It was about 3/4-1 cup of wilted spinach. I chopped this up quite a bit then put it in a bowl. To this I added about 1/3-1/2 cup of chopped parsley and maybe 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. I grated some parmesan to go in, about 1/3 cup again. Then I grated the zest off 1/4 lemon and used the juice of half of it, added some salt and pepper, a couple of tbsps of chopped garlic and maybe 1/4-1/3 cup of olive oil. I only have a hand held pulveriser/blender, the kind you would use to blend soups with. If you have a food processor it would deal with this instantly! I however was getting nowhere fast, so I added some cream to loosen it up a bit, about 1/3-1/2 cup, and this seemed to help. Once it was fairly pastey I stopped, a few bits of leafy matter or crunch of nuts isn't a bad thing. 

I put the creamy pesto into the hot pan that the pasta and peas had just come out of and started to warm it through. I then added the pasta and peas into the sauce and tossed it all around until it was evenly coated and warmed through. The final touch is adding the crispy pancetta bits to it. 

The sauce was so fresh with the spinach and herbs and lemon, and the taste of walnuts came through ever so slightly. The pancetta added that bit of salt and richness to it in contrast with the sweet peas. It all made a wonderful bed for some fresh roasted trout to be served on. It would make a wonderful meal in it's own without the fish or even without the pancetta for a vegetarian. The glorious colours are so enticing.

Pork tenderloin, stuffed baked potatoes and wilted spinach.

Yay we are home! It doesn't matter how nice a time you had away, you are always happy to be home! We got in late but still managed to grocery shop on the way home and then I set to making a meal for us both. I had spent the entire flight glued to The Food Network so was full of inspiration and meal plans for many days to come! We don't have cable tv at home so you can imagine what a treat it was for me to watch all these chefs. Jamie Oliver stuffing home grown zucchini/courgette flowers with spicy/herby ricotta and deep frying them, 'Ricardo' making a caramelised pear trifle, the Chef at Home making spinach and walnut pesto  pasta, and the Barefoot Contessa making chilled cucumber soup, lobster salad and Eaton Mess! All while nibbling on my free in flight biscuit and gulping water to fend of in flight dehydration! The torture of it all! Anyway, rant/rave aside, first dinner back home was yum.

I cooked the potatoes in the microwave first to speed things up and started the oven heating up. I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper and then seared it in a pan. I actually cooked it quite a bit at this stage, maybe 5minutes a side to get it going nicely. When the potatoes were soft I transferred them to the oven to crisp up and I put the pork in with them on a foil lined tray. It was a small tenderloin and probably only took about 20minutes at 400 degrees. In the meantime I boiled the kettle and wilted the spinach in a colander with boiling water. I almost always cook spinach like this, pouring boiling water over it just gets it wilted enough but doesn't turn it to mush, and you can toss it around with tongs to evenly wilt it. 

I made a cream cheese stuffing for the potatoes, with some freshly chopped parsley, lemon zest and juice, cheddar, truffle salt and pepper. When the potatoes were ready I halved them length ways, loosened the filling and then added the stuffing with a little more cheese on top. When it was heated through and the cheese was melted they were ready. 

The gravy was a packet of Clubhouse pork gravy which I made in the pan that I had used to sear the tenderloin, scraping up any bits that I could. I added quite a bit of pepper to it for some heat. 

I am now of to download the hundreds of photographs from the trip so that I can get to updating some previous entries and making new ones from when we were away. Feel like there is lots to share!

Sweet potato/ricotta gnocchi with asparagus, grilled portebello mushrooms and turkey chorizo.

It was our anniversary yesterday and we all mucked in and made a wonderful dinner together. It was amazing. All my in laws are foodies which is a real blessing in my eyes. We had picked up some lovely stuff at the market to have too so it was good from the get go. 

The gnocchi was made with roasted sweet potato and ricotta and served with a sage brown butter. Heaven! We had steamed asparagus on the side, topped with grilled mushroom slices that had been marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and garlic. We had come home from the market with some turkey chorizo sausages and we had a few slices each of these too! So satisfying to see the food, chose it, bring it home, cook it and eat it.

There was also a lovely rustic bread from the market, rye bread, with caraway and poppy seeds. We had some balsamic vinegar and olive oil to dip it into, in which I had tried to make pretty hearts but wasn't too successful.

This one looked like a 'bottom' apparently! That's what you get for trying to be fancy!

My sister in law was an absolute whiz in the kitchen and whipped up some chocolate souffles for dessert while there was a flurry of other madness going on! I recall her making a sort of custard, melting some chocolate to make it chocolatey instead of using cocoa powder and even melting chocolate and mixing it with butter and setting it in balls which were then put in the middle of the souffle mix. They were made in individual ramequins and when you dug into it there was an amazing lava centre inside the pillowy, silky body. Wow! We had a little side of her home made mint ice cream and cherries. The mint ice cream was a cream colour, with tiny flecks of green in it, not like the bright green stuff you find commercially! She had steeped mint leaves in warm cream, oh my goodness, yum!

I had some sparkling eldeflower juice in a wine glass to top it all off while the others had a wonderful red wine. Happy anniversary!

Granville Island Public Market.

We had the most amazing afternoon at this market, buying all kinds of vegetables and other produce for a wonderful dinner on Saturday night and for the next few days. It was raining really hard so the market wasn't as busy as it would normally have been (so I am told), which was fine by me, made for easier browsing! I was just in heaven taking in all the smells and colours and creativity and natural beauty all around me. There was a bit of everything you could imagine, of the highest quality too, and served by wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable people. My sister in law is a vegetarian and she noticed that there was so much that catered to vegetarians and vegans too!

There was an amazing chocolate place that made all kinds of fancy chocolates, I lingered here quite a while, and then revisited a second time having decided that I didn't do it justice the first time, and then I ended up buying a few chocolates after being offered a free sample. Divine!

Produce is produce right? No. Sometimes it is just another league altogether. How pretty do these look!?

This home made jelly looked like a piece of art!

There was a very friendly man making the most enormous cinnamon roll/bun who didn't mind me gawking or taking pictures!

We left laden with top quality cold cuts, pizza dough, half a vegetable garden, dips, spreads, fresh bread, sausages, cheese, ricotta stuffed jalapeno peppers, with the smell of fresh flowers lingering and bellies full of fresh pastries, croissants and decadent coffee! 

Strawberry muesli for the first breakfast in Vancouver.

First off, yay to being in Vancouver. Secondly, what a wonderful breakfast we had this morning. My sister in law made this muesli dish that had been 'marinading' overnight to it's perfection for breakfast. It was a combination of whole oats, almond milk, greek yoghurt, honey, a grated apple and some sliced strawberries. You mix this all together and then it sits in the fridge and all the flavours run together and the oats soften by absorbing all the liquid. We ate it with a little more honey and pecans, delicious! We had a version of this in a B&B a while back and she had made it with grapefruit segments and orange juice, yum! You could definitely play around with the combinations of fruit and liquid here for sure, and always nice to add some crunchy nuts and seeds when you are ready to eat it.

Apologies for the lack of photos, use of imagination needed for a few days here!

Tuna stuffed sweet potato.

We are going away for a week and I have been trying to use up everything in the fridge, this makes for 'interesting' meals and could use a little imagination. I used up the last banana on the crepes for breakfast today. We then had 2 sweet potatoes left and part of a red onion and an apple. I decided I could stuff the sweet potatoes with tuna mayonnaise but then realised we had no mayonnaise! The fridge really is bare! So, now to come up with something else to use instead of mayonnaise. I used a tiny bit of Ceasar dressing, not too much or it is very garlicy, a little Thousand Island dressing and a little cucumber relish. The tuna now had a good consistency. I also added a couple of finely chopped jalapeno stuffed olives, a little finely chopped red onion, some grainy mustard and some grated cheddar. I know it sounds like quite the mish-mash but it worked, with the saltiness of the olives, the sweet from the relish and Thousand Island, and the tangy from the mustard.

I cooked the potatoes in the microwave first, then put them in a hot oven for a while. Then I took them out and put them on a foil lined tray, cut them down the middle and put a little butter, salt and pepper into them. I mixed this around with the beautiful orange flesh then scooped the tuna mix into them. I topped it with a little grated parmesan and let them bake until the cheese went golden brown. 

I would imagine that doing this with mushrooms and cheese would make a good alternative too. Or some sour cream and cheese. Lots of room for experimentation here folks. Half way through eating them, my husband said 'sweet potatoes are good for you aren't they?', after already saying 'this is good'. And yes they are, good for you! And yes they were, good!

Chocolate quinoa crepes.

We had these for breakfast today, from my Quinoa 365 book! Great way to start the day! They were very easy to make, and very quick, and they turned out great = one happy cook! (and husband)

They used eggs and a little butter, but I substituted milk for soy milk and I don't think it made any difference. I wonder if you could substitute 'whipped oils' (fake butter) to make it dairy free as well as gluten free?! Anyway, ponderings aside, great crepe. There was 2tbsp of cocoa powder in them and not a lot of sugar so you could really taste the chocolateyness, which I love! It also masked the nutty/earthy flavour that quinoa flour can have which for some non fans of it, is a great thing! 

The book serves them with a brown sugar, vanilla and yoghurt 'sauce' smeared all over them and bananas and then they are carefully folded over to look divine! I didn't have any yoghurt so I used our frozen vanilla yoghurt instead, in a lump, not as pleasing to the eye I know but what can you do!? We did add a tiny bit of maple syrup to them, which I think did what the brown sugar in the yoghurt 'sauce' would have done and made it just right! It may seem more like dessert, but when it is made with these ingredients and you don't cover it in whipped cream and chocolate, it really is a nutritious breakfast. 

Black Forest Gateau ( Cake ).

I started making this cake a few years ago when my husband (though he wasn't yet at the time) told me it was his favourite and when I saw the store bought version he was referring to I was horrified! I did go more in depth on the cake but deleted it for fear of offending anyone who does like them. I also get mocked for calling it 'gateau', though that is what I have always called this version of cake, that is it's full name in my opinion. You are basically looking for chocolate cake, chocolate, cream and cherries in this. 

I was very excited when Megan wanted this to be the birthday cake and asked for some assistance, who doesn't get excited about making pretty cakes right?!?

You start with making cakes. The recipe I found those years ago makes a really light (I think it uses about 10 eggs, and 6 of those just the whites so it whips up tonnes, hence the lightness of it) and not hugely chocolate-y cake, so from time to time I have made other chocolate cakes and used them instead. This was what Megan did this time. The original recipe also made a 3 layered cake but I find this messy and it always collapses so I advised only 2 layers. 

Once you have the cakes you can start making a syrup to drizzle into them. It is made from Cherry Brandy and a little corn flour/starch to thicken it which you boil until you get a fairly thick consistency. I poke little holes in the cake so that it soaks in better, and then you get lovely 'goo' in the cakes. Not enough that they fall apart obviously. This time I may have over thickened it as we were able to spread it on. So, we spread some Cherry Brandy syrup on each cake. Then we melted some chocolate. The original recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of chocolate, I always way over shoot this! Megan had some dark, toblerone type chocolate to use so we used that. Once it has melted you carefully spread it over the cake too, gently so you don't tear the cake.  Then you put them in the fridge to cool. This was the first major change to the cake, and the crunchy bits of almonds etc in the chocolate worked really well! 

As the cake is cooling you whip the cream, lots of it. You put a little brown sugar in, I also add a dash more of the Cherry Brandy for good measure!  Once the chocolate has set on the cakes, bring out just one of them. Megan had some raspberry pie filler in the fridge so we decided to use it up too, sort of like a raspberry puree. We spread this all over the chocolate layer. This was the second major difference to the original recipe and it also worked really well. Then we piled some cream in and spread it around too. You don't want to take the cream right to the edge because it will squirt out the sides when you put the lid on. Onto this we placed the cherries. You can buy them in a can, without their pits, the same dark ones you would eat fresh in the Summer. One can fills it just fine. Make sure you drain the liquid off properly first. 

Now it is time to put the lid on. You are going to invert the second cake so that the syrup and chocolate side goes on top of the cream filled centre and you have a plain cake surface at the top. You can spread more cream on the top, maybe some cherries for decoration and either grate some chocolate or finely cut some up for on top too!

This cake is so decadent, and there are so many wonderful flavours running through it that go so well together; chocolate, raspberry, cherry, cream, you really should give it a try sometime. Or versions of it, depending on what you have in the house. 

I think the original recipe I used just put chocolate in one layer, on it's own, and then 2 more layers of syrup, cream and cherries, hence the 3 layered cake.  I found this too fiddly and that it tastes just great when you get it all in one layer and there is more chocolate too! I know there is room for experimentation here with assembling of the cake, though I don't know at what point the 'Black Forest Gateau' label would be inappropriate.