Happy September!

I can’t believe that summer is over It went by soooo fast! I probably say that every year, but this was the busiest summer I’ve had in a long time. I spent the first few weeks of the summer adjusting to having a 12 year old at home (and watching endless episodes of 16 & Pregnant, Campus PD and Toddlers and Tiaras), and trying to get us both ready for a 3 week vacation! But after lots of shopping, and laundry, and packing lists, and packing, and repacking, we were eventually ready for three weeks away. While she spent three weeks sleeping in bunk beds and riding horses and swimming in the lake, I spent three weeks sleeping in hostels, sitting on trains, and swimming in the sea. When we booked our flights to London, the plan was to spend half of the time with Meg’s cousin in London, and the other half travelling. But the best laid plans often go astray, and things didn’t work out the way I had planned. A year ago, I never would have thought that I could spend that much time alone, and especially not backpacking around Europe by myself. But I did, and it was definitely the best thing I’ve ever done! The first few nights were pretty intense. I got to London and realized that I had booked my hostel a day early, so I had nowhere to stay. So I spent the day in London, and then took a train to Paris. I got there at 10pm and was SWARMED by men. It was terrifying. So on night one I got a hotel room in Paris, and phoned Sarah in tears. I was not so excited about being alone in Europe. But I woke up the next morning to an amazing view, and LOVED every minute of the trip from then on. I went from Paris, to Nice, to Bologna (where I saw Lisa Hannigan play for fewer than 100 people in a garden on a perfect night), to Rome, to Venice, to Berlin, to Amsterdam and back to London (on day one of the Olympics). I spent 7 nights sleeping in train stations, woke up to someone trying to rob me, lost my camera and got it back, left my passport in a train station and had it returned, caught the last train to Nice 6 minutes before it left, missed a train in Rome and caught the last one 20 minutes later, and left a package in a store in Amsterdam where it waited until I returned. All these years I’ve been waiting for my good karma, and it turns out it was in Europe all along! I didn’t come back with much since I had to carry everything on my back, but I did come back with a new tattoo. Veni, Vidi, Vici. I came home a few days early to surprise Sarah, and it worked! She saw me hiding in Meaghan’s room and didn’t hug me, or cry, she just screamed. Ah! AHHHHHHH!!!! It’s been a month since I got home and I am finally back into the groove of things. My Dad and I are laying tiles in the kitchen, my pictures are finally posted on FB, and my foster kid is finally back in school. I’ve never been so happy for September in my life!

 

Monday Date Night: Fried Green Tomatoes with Pork and Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa

• 1 mango, diced
• 1/2 plum, diced
• 1/2 small green tomato, diced
• 1/4 red pepper, diced
• 1/4 cob of roasted corn
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Combine all ingredients. That is all.

Fried Green Tomatoes

• Two large, green tomatoes, sliced into 1/4” rounds
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup oil (for frying)

Heat oil over medium heat. Dip tomato slices in milk, then coat in flour, dip in egg, and then coat with cornmeal. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and fry until golden brown.

Pork Chops

• 2 Boneless Pork Chops
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil
• Salt & Pepper

Grill 3-4 minutes per side, slice thinly, serve over fried green tomatoes with mango salsa. C’est tout!

Happy Father’s Day!!

Courtney and I are very lucky to have two amazing parents, and to have celebrated with them both this weekend!! Not only was it my Mother’s birthday yesterday, but it was also her wedding day! She married the man that she has been in love with for the past ten years in the most intimate, romantic ceremony I’ve ever seen. The wedding was perfect, and so was the venue. I might only think that because of the open bar… but that’s ok,  right? We had amazing night, even if Amy and I almost got us all kicked out Congratulations Mom! Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day.

Once I recovered this morning, I got to make a father’s day dinner for my Dad, who has to be the best father out there. I know everyone thinks that, but I know it’s true because I came home from the wedding to new kitchen cupboards!! My Dad and I argue, a lot, but we have a lot in common. We’re both stubborn! And intelligent, and funny, and modest!! hahaha. Dad – thank you for all of the work that you’ve done to make my house a home. Thank you for all of your honest advice, even when I haven’t asked for  it. Thank you for convincing me to buy a house a block away from you and two blocks away from Courtney. I can’t imagine being a step further away from Baby. And thank you for Sunday dinners. I never could have imagined how much they would mean to me some day.

Since Courtney and Terry had dinner at Terry’s parents tonight, I got to make Sunday dinner. I am posting the pics because I promised I would before I went to bed! But the wine was too good, and now I’m sleepy, so the recipes will follow.

I hope everyone else had as great of a weekend as I did.

Cottage Food

I thought for sure that once camp was over I would have all kinds of time to blog, but it turns out life got in the way. Meg and I broke up, and T’s 5 visits a week mean lots of driving (for those of you who are wondering, T is my foster kid and I use her first initial for confidentiality reasons). It has been a wonderful 18 days, though. The weekend after camp, I took T to Montreal to celebrate her birthday (I missed it while at camp) and to get her a grad dress. It was an amazing weekend! We ate lobster, swam in the rooftop pool, went shopping and found the PERFECT dress, went to Old Montreal with a very good (and beautifully preggo) friend, and ended it with a trip to Ottawa to pick up our new bestie.

In the two weeks since then I managed to open the pool (I CAN DO IT MYSELF!), get rid of most of the weeds that had taken over my yard, clean my garage so my new cupboards could be delivered, return $26 worth of bottles (they’ve been accumulating since last summer), remove the tiles from the kitchen floor, rototill the garden (thank you Sarah!! even if you mostly just kept me company), and had a few pretty fantastic food dates. I also snuck away to the cottage for a few very cold and rainy days, and that’s where this recipe is from. It was 30 degrees today and not the best day to post a soup recipe, but… well…. here it is. For your rainy days.

Coconut Curry Soup

• 2 cans coconut milk
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon chilli garlic sauce
• 1 large chicken breast, cubed
• 12 large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 large diced tomato
• Salt
• 2 cups beansprouts
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped

Bring coconut milk and chicken broth to a boil over medium high. Add curry powder, chilli garlic sauce and cubed chicken and reduce to medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes and add shrimp, mushrooms, and diced tomato. Cook for ten more minutes. Garnish with cilantro and beansprouts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!!!

Oh hey! Guess who’s still alive?! Barely. The last month has been insane!!! I can’t even remember the last time I posted anything. That’s a lie, I just checked. It’s been 35 days. Sorry bout that! (P.S. Thanks for noticing Jen!!). I wish I could say it’s cause I’ve been dieting for the last 35 days, but it’s not. I’ve just been super busy with camp stuff, and the new foster kid (who just happens to be perfect!), and more camp stuff. Somewhere in between all of that, my sister celebrated her 30th birthday. And we celebrated with a brunch. At her house. Which I almost slept through. It was a surprise, and she was less than thrilled when I showed up at her house at 10:45 (brunch was at 11) and she wasn’t dressed, Terry hadn’t cleaned (he forgot that I had invited people to their house for my surprise brunch), and MacKenzie was in sweats. Buuuut, I made up for it with monkey bread. Right Courtney? Right??!! She still loves me.

Monkey Bread

4 cups flour                                                                                                                                 2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/3 cup of  milk                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        1/4 cup sugar
1 package of quick rising yeast                                                                                                  2  tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 1/2  teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup of melted butter

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. In a medium saucepan, bring butter, milk and sugar to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in yeast. Add to flour mixture and mix until combined. Knead into a smooth ball. Place the ball in a greased bowl, and cover with a dishtowel. Allow to rest for one hour. Roll into a 12 x 12 cm square and cut into 5 dozen squares. Roll each square into a ball. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Dip each ball into butter, and then coat in brown sugar mixture, and add to a greased bundt pan. Pour remaining butter and brown sugar mixture over bread , dip in melted butter. Allow to rise for another 30 minutes, and then bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Sooo delicious!!

Courtney’s least favourite dessert

Today is my Dad’s 59th birthday. Hard to believe, considering he acts like an 18-year-old. His biggest concern on his birthday?! All of his birthday wishes on Facebook were from women, and it was going to make him look bad to all of the women on his Facebook. Hahaha, some things never change! Courtney made dinner, which I was super grateful for, since I am now down to only 2 cupboards – dishes and glasses. Everything else is in bins. I made dessert, and I don’t think I could have made anything worse than baklava for Courtney. She hates nuts. It must run in the family.

Baklava – 24 pieces

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 3/4 cup water
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 tsp clove oil
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup pistachios
• 1 cup pecans
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 package of phyllo dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, over medium heat, bring sugar, honey, water, clove oil, cinnamon and lemon juice to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer for 5 minutes, and set aside. Using a food processor, process nuts until finely chopped. Add salt. Melt butter, and grease the bottom of a 9 inch square pan. Cut phyllo sheets to fit pan. Layer phyllo sheets one at a time, brushing each sheet with butter, until you have 6 sheets layered. Sprinkle with a layer of nuts, and repeat with 2 more layers of phyllo and nuts. Top with 6 more sheets of phyllo. Coat top layer with butter, and then cut into diamonds or squares. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and then pour syrup into the cracks. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Congratulations Smarty Pants!!!

Sooo my blog posts are all screwed up. Things have been so insane for the last month! MacKenzie’s birthday and then Ray’s party and then year end and COC meetings, Easter, and a new foster kid have kept me insanely busy. That’s no excuse not to cook – everyone’s gotta eat! I just haven’t had time to post any of the pictures yet. So this isn’t tonight’s dinner, and it isn’t very healthy. But we had a lot of leftover vegetables in the fridge and not much else, and T was eating dinner with her Mom, so we had veggie tempura. So friggin’ good! Except the avocadoes. Cooked avocadoes are weird. Oh yeah, and Meg got accepted to the Master of Social Work program at UofT. No big deal.

Vegetable Tempura:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup club soda
• Oil for frying

Mix first 3 ingredients, and the slowly whisk in club soda until lump free. Coat vegetables and deep-fry.  I used sliced sweet potatoes, carrots, red onions, cauliflower, turnip, zucchini and avocado.

THE HAPPIEST EASTER

My Dad told me 6 months ago that good things happened to good people. And I didn’t believe it. I always wanted so badly for karma to exist, but I felt like I tried so so hard to be a good person and have faith in other people, and was always let down. I could NEVER have imagined a year ago that I would be where I am now!! I work with an amazing Camp Organizing Committee that is so on top of things that I haven’t stressed about camp in months! I have a new foster kid (hence the lack of posts recently) who seems to be the perfect fit. I have the most supportive girlfriend in the world. And I ALMOST have a new kitchen. We spent Easter weekend making edible arrangements for Mom-swappers, eating our faces off at my Mom’s, my Dad’s and Meg’s parents’, shopping in Montreal, and then seeing Ingrid Michaelson and Pearl and the Beard at a sweet new (to me) venue. I think karma might exist, and I’m pretty excited about it!

Parrrrty Food

I’ve said before that Ray has been extremely supportive of my love of cooking, and has asked me to cater lots of parties at their place. On Thursday night I catered a going away party for the Family Counselling Center and tested lots of new recipes. I don’t have time to post all of the recipes right now but I promised my Mom I’d post the pics, so the recipes will follow soon. For the record, she insisted on the doily.

The menu:

Balsamic greens with caramelized pecans and parmesan crisps (1 tablespoon grated parmesan baked at 400 for 4 minutes)

Pea Soup Shooters – an Oprah recipe http://www.oprah.com/food/Chilled-Pea-Soup-Shooter-with-Fresh-Mint  CUT IN HALF!

Caprese salad skewers

Bruschetta (http://fifthstreetfood.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/a-lesson-in-taste/)

Brie in puff pastry

Stuffed mushroom caps (http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Prosciutto-Stuffed-Mushrooms)

Prosciutto & Gouda sandwiches (rectangles of toasted dark rye, topped with a slice of gouda, a dab of honey mustard, 2 thin slices of green apple, 1/2 slice red onion, and lettuce to garnish, wrapped in prosciutto strips)

Cajun shrimp in wonton cups with chipotle mayo

Cheesecake stuffed strawberries (http://fifthstreetfood.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/blog-away/)

 

 

MacKenzie turns 2!!

When my sister asked me to be in the delivery room when MacKenzie was born, I told her that the only day that I couldn’t be there was March 31st. It is government year end and crazy busy for anyone who spends the government’s money like I do. And,  of course, she went into labor on the evening of the 30th. I was JUST walking into the movie theater when Courtney called. Luckily, I hadn’t yet paid for the tickets (haha).  I figured the baby did it just to spite me, and the fact that she said A MILLION words before Aunty (including Elmo, Charlie, Mommy, Daddy, Puppy, Grandpa, and even MEGAN!!!) just reinforced that belief. Baby doesn’t turn two for another few hours, but we celebrated last Sunday. And then I celebrated being free from the kitchen after 3 days, and having Meg back home.

The Menu:

Mini hamburgers

Mini pulled pork sandwiches

Individual Taco Dips

Individual Veggies & Dip

Mini Mac n Cheese

Cheese Sticks

Pigs in a Blanket

Cheesecake filled Strawberries

Recipe for Pigs in a Blanket:

• Puff pastry (1 sheet)
•  1 pkg honey garlic sausages (5)
• Black sesame seeds
• 1 egg

These things were not the best idea I’ve ever had! Sooo cute, but painstakingly time consuming. Mac had a farmed theme party, so I wrapped cooked sausages in puff pastry, sealed them with a brush of egg, and then sliced them about 1/2 inch thick. I stuck mini triangles of puff pastry on with egg for ears, and added 2 black sesame seeds for eyes (this part took forever!), and then baked them for around 15 mins at 425. They were so adorable but it took about 2 hours to make75 of them.

Is that a frittata?

It’s been soooo long since I’ve posted anything! I’m sorry. Life has been INSANE! I’ve spent the last two weeks working overtime, and haven’t had any time to post anything. But I have been cooking insane amounts, despite the lack of photos. You’ll understand what I’m talking about when you see the next two posts! This was the last meal that I took a picture of before overtime took over my life. We had veggie frittata last Wednesday, and it was delicious.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• Two small sweet potatoes, baked and sliced
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 red pepper, sliced into rings
• 1/2 red onion, cut into rings
• 6 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups grated old cheddar cheese
• 2 + 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic

Heat oil over medium heat. Sautee red onion and red pepper in olive oil and garlic. Add chopped spinach, remove from heat. Add oil to pan, layer sliced sweet potatoes, then spinach, then red pepper and onion. Mix eggs and milk in a separate bowl, pour over layered vegetables. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.