Quesadillas

At this time of year everyone I know travels to some glorious warm place, escaping the bitter cold. I as usual turn green with envy and say 'someday'...

So as usual I start to make dishes that make me feel that I'm someplace exotic...the first in what I'm sure will be a long line of many...the quesadilla...

Stuffed with chicken, mushrooms, cheese, and green onion and dipped into some home made salsa (left over from the garden bounty last year...I made tons of it just to use up the plethora of tomaos I had). Yummy...

Chicken with lemon Rice and green Beans

This dish is one I usually make when I'm either pressed for time or just plain old lazy. I start with chicken breasts, rice and green beans. I then add white wine, onion, lemon juice, vegetable stock, chives, parsley, garlic, almonds, soya sauce and cracked pepper. Then I bake it for about 30 minutes at 350'.

Ususally right at the end I'll add cheese to the top of the chicken and watch it melt. A Lovely light, fresh citrusy meal!

Valentines Day Feast

Valentines day for me is a day I usually spend cooking. My hubbie is one of the least materialistic people I know and never wants anything... so many years ago i decided that my gift to him would be a romantic, lovely home made dinner.

We stopped going out for dinner at fancy restaurants years and years ago as we tired of fighting for reservations. Half the restaurants refuse to make them and those that do usually had an extremely limited menu. Then they would hover and try to rush you out the door to seat the next couple. Not very romantic!


The first course was a lovely plate of jalapeno monterey jack cheese, Madagascar peppercorn cheese, sesame rice crackers served with champagne. For the first time ever I served the cheese at room temperature as I'd read that to serve it chilled inhibits the flavour. Boy what a difference! The spice of the cheese combined the the bubbles from the champagne made for a decadent flavour overload!




Our entree was this amazing strawberry avacado salad. I like to find different recipes to try to surprise my hubbie and I have to say this one was a rousing success! Lettuce, avacado, strawberries and almonds made up this simple salad. The dressing was what blew me away! It consisted of white sugar, honey, olive oil, cider vinegar and lemon juice. I'll admit to being skeptical at first as it sounded awfully sweet, but it turned out to be quite tasty and not overpowering at all!

The main course consisted of twice baked potatos, a 6 oz, fillet mignon, sauteed mushrooms and baby carrots. My hubbie loves my twice baked potatos, they're simple and easy to do and make a meal just a wee but fancier!

You bake the potato, once done scoop out the potato and combine it with sour cream, butter, cheese, bacon bits (i use real bacon crumbled or those trans fat soaked real bacon bits) and chives. Mix it all together and then scoop back into the shells, then top with more cheese and bacon bits and bake for 15 minutes.

For the steak I was in a quandry as to how to cook it. I initailly planned to BBQ it but after a very painfull chiro visit and a nasty flair up which put me in bed for most of the week I didn't think I'd be up to BBQing. It didn't help that the temperature outside was about -40, so I had to find another method.

I decided to pull out my cast iron skillet and sear these babies! So after searing them I cooked them on a very low temp. (2 on my stove). I was really worried that I would over cook them as both of us prefer our steaks a little pink, but as it would happen they turned out perfectly!

Since there was no char from grilling all you tasted was amazing meat flavour. Next time though I think I would season them with sea salt and cracked pepper. I hesitate to season fillets though...a knee jerk reaction I think...my sister in law as wonderful as she is insists on marinating her fillet minion in Bulls Eye BBQ sauce...shudder...

For dessert I was in trouble. I'd already gone shopping for supplies and was not about to head back...but I'd forgotten to plan a dessert! I searched and searched for the perfect recipe and I was having no luck until I found a recipe for an apple bundt cake. The problem? I had no apples! However I did have mangos and cantelope...

I've never made a bundt cake, so I didn't really know how substituting my wheat/gluten free flour would work but I thought give it a shot! So I started to mix up the batter when I realized I also didn't have any orange juice which was called for. What to do?! I then realized that a couple of weeks ago while shopping I'd found this mango guava rum drizzler. I combined that with water to substitute for the orange juice and continued on.

I then decided to subsitute mangos and cantelope for the required apples and mixed them with cinnamon and sugar. I wasn't sure how these would work either, but i figured if it sucked There was always chocolate! So I layered as best I could the batter and the fruit, but again the batter was incredibly thick...I think it's a side affect from the w/g free flour...

The result though was incredible! I'd over cooked the cake slightly and was quite upset until I realized that even though it was crusty on the outside i was incredibly soft and moist on the inside! And as my hubbie pointed out everyone always fights for the end piece of a cake loaf so now every piece was an end piece!

I dusted the cake with icing suger and topped it with the Mango guava rum drizzle a lovely light citrusy dessert!

We followed that amazing dessert with coffee and extra creamy lindt milk chocolate squares...Yum...

Part of the deal though is setting up a small table in our living room (as we don't have a dining room) and decorating the whole entire room. This take a large part of the day, but it's totally worth it! I light about 75 candles (there's a ton more not pictured...every available surface has candles) and this year decided I to sprinkle rose petals everywhere. The table is wrapped with white mini lights and topped with a simple white table cloth.

Last year I blew up about 70 balloons...it looked amazing but really wasn't very enviro. friendly and they all had to be popped the next day...

Fluffy open faced omlette

The thing about me is I'm extremely picky about how my eggs get cooked. I hate it when they get brown and crunchy. So when i decide to make an omlette it takes a long time. This omlette had bacon, green onions, mushrooms, almonds, sunflower seeds, feta cheez & jalapeno cheese.

I cook the egg over an extremely low temperature (1 or 2 on my stove), I then cover the pan with a plate. I find that by covering it the egg rises and becomes extra fluffy...the other bonus is that I use only 2 eggs and it goes quite far! It takes about a half an hour to cook this way, but i don't end up with brown crunchy eggs!

All in all a tastey breakfast!

Valentines Cookies

So after my cinnamon loaf victory i decided to try to master the soft & chewy chocolate cookie. Hot pink icing is my specialty...no matter how many times i try the icing always turns out neon pink...not red...not pretty pink...hot pink. I picked up the sprinkles at the local groecery store...i thought they would go with the valentine motif of the week.


The end result was okay...not as good as the cookies i saw in the store that inspired them...but they looked yummy!

10 minute fudge

After the mashed potato earth rat creation, I realized I couldn't show up empty handed to a potluck (there's not too many people I know that would be eager for cold mashed potatos).

So I decided to quickly whip up a couple batches of fudge (i had most of the ingredients left over from the plethora of christmas baking I'd done).

The first batch was chocolate with almond slivers...it'a a simple recipe...a can of sweet and condensed milk, 2 bags of milk chocolate chips and vanilla melted together...add the fruit/ nuts of your choice and presto...fudge in 10 minutes!

For the second batch I used white chocolate chips instead of the milk chocolate ones and added dries cranberries and pistaccios. All in all a sweet yet tastey contribution!

Mashed Potato Earth Rat

Friends of ours invited us over for setsubun this year again and set out the challenge to make the potluck a 'regrettable food concoction' evening. Many of these wonderful ladies pulled out the ladies home journal cookbooks and rose to the challenge admirably. Sausage cake, sandwich cake, and these strange wieght watchers balogny & mayo stacks were some of the most memorable for me.


I myself could not find a recipe that would be regrettable yet edible, so i decided to do an homage to the earth rat (this years chinese year symbol). I carefully crafted an earth rat out of mashed potatos (something that cannot be done when the potatoes are hot...at all...as my burns would attest). I then used raisins for the nose and eyes and grape rope licorace for the wiskers and tail (an interesting side note...i found that even when cool the mashed potatoes actually dissolve the licorace...creeepy).