Better late than never

I’m sorry its been so long but its been a crazy several months for me filled with life, death, travel and food. In March, I spent a week in Washington DC doing the tourist thing you know The Smithsonian, Memorials and of course Baseball!! Here are some pics of my travels:

Nationals

Lincoln Memorial

Julia Child’s kitchen in the Smithsonian

Just a little sample of what I saw in the DC area. The city was beautiful and bustling with tourists, buisness and history. Oh and the local food wasnt too bad either. We went during the busiest weekend of the year from what we were told as it was the Cherry Blossom Festival which was amazing to see in the flesh. We stayed in one of the historic boutique hotels right off of Pennsylvania Avenue just a 5 block walk from the White House.

I’ll be back very soon I promise to update everyone on everything else in my world

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Did you miss me?????

Hello Fellow Foodies,

I know it has been a while since my last post but I do have good reasoning for the hiatus….. I recently started a part time job on top of my regular one so I have been busy making some extra coin just in time to pay off my credit cards after all my Christmas shopping and yes I am ALMOST done thankfully!!!!

So i just wanted to let everyone know that yes I am still here and when I get a spare chance I will be posting with all the festive meals and gatherings that I attend.

Also I wanted to tell everyone about my new and exciting part time job. I have recently started working in a gourmet grocery store located in my hometown well just outside of my hometown in Greensville, Ontario. The store is actaully called the Greensville Gourmet ironically enough. It is a small boutique grocery store with its own kitchen located underneath the store where we make the most amazing products including:

Chicken and Pork Sausages, Burgers, Stuffed Chicken breasts, frozen single and full serving entrees, pies, salads and they also do catering!!!!

I’ll give you a breakdown of our fantastic flavours…..

In our chicken sausages we have Thai Garlic, Basil, Honey Dijon and our signature Cheddar Chipotle.  We also make chicken burgers which are the same as our sausages without the casing which are Cheddar Chipotle and Basil varities. Also in burgers we have our 2 sirloins – carmalized onion and The Mighty Market burger which is made with blue cheese, roasted red peppers and garlic!

We also make some pork sausages including out Maple Chili Pepper sausage which is my favorite. It’s a little sweet like me then leaves you with a kick of heat also like me.  They can also make other pork sausages to order in our kitchen if anyone was looking for a specific flavour combination.

In our stuffed chicken breasts we make the following: Cordon Bleu, Sundried tomato and goat cheese, Spinach, ricotta and bacon and our Cheddar and broccoli.

Pies we make a delicious Chicken Pot pie, Steak and Mushroom and a traditional Tourtiere for the meat pies. And for the holidays we have Pumpkin, Apple and Cherry.

There is also a retail side of the store…. we carry Planet Bean coffees, several tea varieties, bakeware, spices, BBQ and Hot sauces, Robert Rothschild, Rootham, From These Roots and many many more products and companies that I know that I have not mentioned.  We also can create a lovely gift basket for you while you are browsing the store FREE of charge!!!!!

Please check out the website www.greensvillegourmet.ca our come into one of our locations:

161 HWY 8 Dundas or in Burlington in the Roseland Plaza at the corner of Guelph Line and New St.

Generational Soup Time!!!

This is it folks!! This is TT’s version of a 4th Generation family recipe of Cheeseburger Soup. Now I guess it’s time for me to make my version

Late Night Noshing

It’s 1 am, you can’t sleep and you’re up watching re-runs of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and you think to yourself damn it Guy Fieri did you have to eat that heart-stopping 4 patty burger with the fried egg, bacon and onion rings it looks AMAZING despite knowing that the patrons that go to that restaurant on a regular basis are going to die of complications of heart disease or Type 2 Diabetes. And then it hits you…… you are STARVING. You go into the pantry and fridge to look for something to tide you over until the morning and what do you make????? What are your go to late night snack favorites??? Chips, popcorn, pizza, chinese what’s your poison?

Growing up in my parents house on Saturday nights were fantastic for late night snacking. We would get to stay up late either to watch a movie, Hockey Night in Canada or Saturday Night Live which ever Dad wanted to watch typically but always meant around 10 or 11, TT would make us something.

My mom’s go to snack for us was English Muffin Pizzas…. If you don’t know about these little gems this is something that everyone will love both kids and adults and all you do is slice up the english muffins throw them in the over to crisp them up a little take them out add sauce, cheese and whatever other toppings you want and back in the over for 2 minutes and presto pizza!!! These are even great cold for kids school lunches the next day. All my friends were loving me the day I came to school with them.

Another late night fav was nachos or my mom would make french onion soup on colder nights.

Since I started working full time (and I have always worked shift work in every full time job I have had) and had finally moved out on my own my go to has been cheese, crackers and bread and butter pickles and if I had kielbasa, I would add that to the mix. I found that this was a wonderful end of the night snack either with a beer or a glass of wine.

 

Back on nights again…. time to cook

well its been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything but that is the life of a shift worker but I’m back and made beef stroganoff tonight for dinner. This is something that I have only made with assistance of Mr. Hamburger Helper but it was surprisingly very easy to make….

I looked online for the easier versions of this recipe since there were some that said from prep time to serving time was 4-5 hours and me being on night shifts I don’t have that kind of time. So from like 4 different recipes I ended up making my own version which is pretty much the same as all of the recipes out there. Prep time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 25 minutes. This recipe made 4 servings:

• 1 pound of stewing beef – cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 10 pearl onions quartered
• salt and pepper to uncooked meat
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 beef bouillon cube in 1 cup of hot water to dissolve
• 2 cups of low-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 tablespoon of margarine and 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 cups of any kind of pasta

I started off adding the margarine and canola oil to a hot skillet then adding onions and garlic to the skillet lightly browning them. Once lightly browned I added the seasoned meat and let everything brown up. Once the meat was browned, I removed the meat from the skillet and let it rest on a plate adding the 2 tablespoons of flour to the beef.  The remaining juices in the skillet I just left in the skillet to add to the rest of the liquids. First I added the beef bouillon and let simmer to a boil then added the sour cream to the liquid and whisked that in and again let it come to a simmer then added the milk.

Once I had the sauce all made I started boiling the pasta. I used rigatoni since that is what I had on hand. I know that typical stroganoff calls for egg noodles but what ever works for you. Once the pasta was about half way cooked I re-added the meat to the sauce and let all the flavours mellowed.

I also got a little fancy and added my Roasted Cherry Tomato recipe to top this beauty all off (well I had cherry tomatoes in my fridge and figured I might of well use them before they went bad) which was a very nice addition to the recipe.

For the recipe of the Roasted Cherry Tomatoes check out “What am I reading for my recipe ideas”

The one grocery store near my work sells this salad in their deli department and I always wanted the recipe now I have it!!!

Everything matters

This recipe is a nice alternative for sweet potatoes which are often served in very heavy fashion with lots of butter and sugar, etc. If you like sweet potatoes as much as I do then tasting their natural flavor in their simplicity becomes key.

I no longer eat grains. Sweet potatoes and green plantains are my most starchy veggies these days.

This salad has a dressing that is distinct but remains light.

Ingredients:

●  2 large sweet potatoes cut into large bite size cubes. (I left the skins on as they are very high in nutrients. You can, of course, peel them if you prefer)
●  1/2 a bunch of cilantro
●  4 green onions, whites and greens chopped up
●  3 tbls of olive oil
●  juice of one lime
●  1/2 tsp cumin
●  Salt to taste

I don’t eat nightshade plants anymore either, but if they aren’t…

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This is another oldie but a goodie that I will be making. Ever since I watched Julie and Julia I have wanted to make this and now I have a perfect recipe to try!!!

Rometti Limoncello

Here we are with the second to the last Cook N Bake French Series!

Rometti’s passion for turning every meal into a celebratory moment and create everlasting memories simply couldn’t avoid taking into consideration a dish that is synonymous to celebration, Beef Bourguignon. This dish is a harmonic combination of aromatic vegetables, spices, sauce and wine which create a delicious, savory bed for the beef.
Beef Bourguignon is a typical French dish that originated in the eastern Burgundy region (Bourgogne in French). Burgundy is also the kind of wine that is traditionally used to braise the beef (typically cut into small cubes), to which a broth of garlic, onions, and mushrooms is added towards the end of the cooking. Bacon is also another important ingredient that adds flavor to the beef.
Just like many other dishes, Beef Bourguignon was a creation of the lower class, and later it got…

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The Choice Had Been Made!!! (The traveller has come hehehe)

from my post “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME” I asked everyone what they thought my first thing to cook in my new dutch oven would be and drum roll please………..

Thanks to claire fuller I will be making No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

I am really not much of a baker besides my drunken apple pie that I make for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I have NEVER made bread in my life so I’m looking forward to this challenge. Once the task has been completed I will post my results

Roasted Beet, Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Salad

Last week we took a drive out to the Niagara Region for some local fruits and veggies. We stopped at a farmers stand and ended up purchasing heirloom tomatoe and carrots, golden beets and some very flavourful concord grapes (Hey when you are in the Niagara Region you must stop to get grapes since Ontario has the finest wines in the World so why not try the grapes before you buy the wines). So I woke up this morning and decided to make some salad I realized that I still had not used the beets so I chopped then and some regular beets, sweet potatoes, pearl onions and garlic through on some olive oil and sea salt and into the oven they went!!!! I know this isnt the greatest picture in the world since it was taken by my cell phone but you can get the drift. Adding some plain goat cheese added that lovely creamy texture that it needed!!!

In one of my first posts I had mentioned a generational soup that my family has made and I finally found my special twist to make this!!! Thank you!!

...a day in the life...

Yum! I have a GREAT soup recipe here! I’ve been making this soup for at least ten years. My kids love it…so that’s a good reason for me to make it! Here’s how it goes. Gather your ingredients…

Chop an onion (I used a large onion – Vidalia, but any kind will work.)

Mince 3 or 4 cloves of garlic…

Dice 3 carrots…

Cut up 2 stalks of celery…

Brown a package (1.5 lbs) ground chuck, then drain the fat…

Add your veggies to the browned meat…

ADD 32 OZS. CHICKEN STOCK AND 2 CUPS WATER. Dice two potatoes and throw ’em in. Put the lid on and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Add 2 cups cubed American cheese (a/k/a Velveeta)

In a separate pan, melt 1/2 stick of butter…

Then add 1/2 cup of flour to the melted butter and cook…

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