Wine Braised Roulades, Sexy Celebs & Revengeful Geese

How's that for a title?

I was in a seitan mood so I pulled out my new copy of The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. A recipe called Wine-Braised Wheat-Meat Roulades caught my eye. Dinner was decided.



This was actually very simple to put together, but very gourmet in looks and taste. I used seitan that I had on hand, but the next time, I think I would make a batch just for this particular recipe. The seitan is supposed to be cut very thin in an approximate 3x6-inch size. Shaping a piece and cooking with this in mind would have made it easier for me to slice to the size required.


We had the roulades with some sweet peas & baby carrots and roasted potatoes. I wish I had had some of those tiny potatoes, but this worked just as well.




The slices of seitan were placed in a marinade of red wine, olive oil, garlic and herbs. I chose this wine and it worked wonderfully. We had the rest with dinner.

Once the roulades were finished, I made a red wine reduction sauce with what was left making sure to scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pan. That was then spooned on top. The sauce was incredibly delicious!

Here's a shot of inside. Spinach, carrots and peppers were used and everything was cooked to perfection! This would be an excellent thing to serve at a dinner party. For a more informal dish, a bed of spinach could be topped with the carrots, peppers and strips of the seitan all smothered with that delicious red wine sauce. This one is definitely a 10!

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It's time again for PETA's annual World's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity contest. To cast a vote for your favorite, click here.

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Geese Get Revenge: Pâté May Cause Rare Disease

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Geese force-fed and then slaughtered for their livers may get their final revenge on people who favor the delicacy known as foie gras: It may transmit a little-known disease known as amyloidosis, researchers reported on Monday.

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-although, I don't like the test done to discover this.... You can read the story here.

Yep, It's Summer

It's time again for the Burlington Sound of Music Festival - another sure sign of summer. While out for our walk on Thursday, Simon and I spied all of the activity. The amusement rides and vendors get set up early and crews were working on getting the stages ready. There will be music and merriment all weekend. This takes place downtown with most of it as Spencer Smith Park.

This is a block from where I live. Makes for a noisy weekend, but there are very seldom any "bad" incidents. I doubt I'll be participating much this year. I'll be working most of the weekend. The committee does a great job at getting something for everyone. There's rock, jazz, country, big band, something for the kids, etc. All of the muscial acts are free! Hometown rockers Finger Eleven have played a few times in the past, but unfortunately, not this year. You may have heard this song. It was a big hit for them. I'm really diggin' their new song. Check it out.

Simon was fascinated by the Berry-go-Round and begged for a turn, but mommy said no.
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So I guess we've determined that summer has indeed come to stay for a while. What better time than to have some BBQ Ribz!

I used this recipe and tweaked it a bit so it was more to my liking. When I made these the last time, I thought the peanut butter flavour was a bit too strong. Vicki at Vegan Vice had commented and suggested tahini instead of peanut butter. What a great idea!! I used half PB and half tahini. It was much better. I also added some BBQ sauce with the water to get more of the barbecue flavour into the actual ribz. Jim threw them on the BBQ for a few minutes at the end of the cooking time and it all worked really well.

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More roasted vegetables. I can't seem to get enough of these. I just use whatever I have hiding in the fridge. This one was broccoli, carrots, red peppers, and a few odd pieces of leftover cauliflower.

Since we were celebrating (nothing special, isn't life itself a celebration?) we had Jim's favorite wine.

Henry of Pelham winery has been around for over 20 years. They have taken the lowly hybrid and made it a bit of a cult wine here in Ontario. They have some of the oldest Baco vines in the province and the winemaker really knows how to work this grape. This is a perfect barbecue wine. Alas, this is our last 2002 bottle.

For a light, tasty finish we have Dreena's Coconut Lime Cookies!

These were a big hit at our house. So soft and chewy and what a great flavour combination! I think the batch made it through 2 days...just barely!
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Enjoy the weekend! I'm going to try and make the rounds to the blogs I visit over the next couple of days.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I have some food pictures, but just haven't had time to write about them. I haven't had much time to visit & catch up on everyone either. While I'm working on those things, I'm leaving you with a teeny collection of shows that I enjoyed during my childhood. For those of you born in the early to mid-60's, (or before) you'll remember these - I hope as fondly as I do. For those born later, you may or may not have heard of these shows or ever seen them before. I'd love comments!
{when you click on the Hollywood Squares video, it won't play here. Just click it again and you'll be re-directed to it on You Tube.}

The Munsters

Ahhhh!! What a great show. I loved it. Remember Eddie used to sleep in a dresser drawer? I thought that was so cool.

Hollywood Squares

I used to watch this while waiting for Mom to get dinner ready.
Check out the clothes and hair styles!

Remember This?

I would lay on the floor in front of the TV and watch this.

The Six Million Dollar Man

Awesome!

My Favorite!

I'd rush home from tap dancing lessons to see what they were up to this week. Confession - I still watch it!!

Summer Is Here!

You know it's summer when local asparagus is in the stores....

Rosé is on the shelves.....

and the Stanley Cup finals are on the TV. Woot!

To use the asaparagus pictured above I dug out a recipe I'd received last year in a newsletter I get e-mailed from Nava Atlas.

This was so simple to make and so delicious. A great weeknight dish.






I'm including the recipe at the end of this post for anyone who would like to try it.





I picked up a foccacia on the way and also made a garden salad and dressed it with Sweet Red Wine Vinaigrette from La Dolce Vegan.






Everything went wonderfully with this bottle of 2000 Hillebrand Showcase Merlot that I had been saving for an occaision just like this.

We had a glass of rosé as an aperitif, pasta with asparagus and the Stanley Cup finals on the TV. Yep. I'd say summer is here!

FETTUCCINE WITH ASPARAGUS AND SUN-DRIED TOMATOES

12 oz. fettuccine

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

28 oz. can diced tomatoes, with liquid

1/2 cup thinly sliced oil-cured sun-dried tomatoes

3 or 4 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (or 1/2-1 tsp. dried)*

1/4 tsp. hot red pepper flakes, or a few grains cayenne pepper

10-12 oz. slender, fresh asparagus, trimed and cut into 1-inch pieces

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cook the pasta in plenty of rapidly simmering water until al dente, then drain.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and sauté over low heat until golden. Add the diced and dried tomatoes, dried basil and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer, then add the asparagus and simmer over medium-low heat, covered, until the asparagus is tender-crisp, about 8 minutes.

Combine the pasta, asparagus and sauce in a large serving bowl and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at once.

Serves 4

*There was no mention of the fresh basil in the cooking instructions. I doubled the amount called for and added it when there was about 2-3 minutes of simmering time left.

Remember - Bryan Adams

What a babe! XO
Part 2 of this post is below.

My First Encounter With Bryan Adams

Shannon at Your Sweet Bippy had asked me about Bryan Adams and I said we went waaaay back. I found the video posted above and wanted to share it with you. The audio & video has degraded over time so it's a real blast from the past. As far as I can remember, this was my first encounter with Bryan. I was 16 or 17 at the time and I thought he was sooo cute. Over 25 years later and my celebrity crush is still going strong. I know Kleo has a long-standing one, and lucky girl, she got to meet her crush! Anyone else have stories to share? Come on! Don't be shy!








P.S. Like 90% of the female population, I think Johnny Depp is pretty hot.

And my Thursday nights just wouldn't be complete without this guy!

Après-walk

After the Pooch Promenade, Simon was beat. All the excitement wore him down - which isn't an easy thing to do. He's a Jack Russell, remember? While he was home, lounging in his/our bed, we packed up some food and headed over to Mama Rita's. She had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago and still only had the use of one arm, so I offered to bring over a couple of salads.


My first offering was from La Dolce Vegan. Here we have "Auntie Bonnie's Chickpea Salad". There's nothing to throwing this baby together and it is very nummy! I first tried this recipe when my naturopath's had me on an anti-inflammatory diet & I loved it.

Mama Rita really like this and raved about it. There wasn't much of this leftover, but we left some for her and took a couple of spoonfuls (literally) home for ourselves.

I also made Quinoa & Corn Medley that I have also made before. The recipe is courtesy of Beverly Lynn Bennett, The Vegan Chef.

This takes a bit more fussing & cooking, but comes out beautifully. It's very light and fluffy & was a nice contrast to the chickpea salad. The recipe for this can be found here. The recipe makes a huge amount, so I halved it with no problems.

We also went out and grabbed some pizzas. Here's my plate piled with some of everything. The pizza has a multi-grain crust and my toppings were green peppers, carmelized onions & sundried tomatoes.

My friend Michelle joined us as did Rita's friend Mary. Everyone was quite hungry and really enjoyed the feast. Jim was being such a gentleman and let the ladies help themselves first. He's patiently waiting for his turn, which explains the absence of his plate.

The star attraction was yet to come.



Ta-Da!! Dreena's Coconut Cake! She was kind enough to let me try this recipe out and let me tell you....I have a new favorite cake.


This was a snap to make and was so moist and delicious. It was quite a hit with everyone. Some even had a second sliver! The icing was great to work with and wasn't sicky sweet at all. Just Dreena-perfect! I wasn't sure if the recipe made enough to fill & frost the whole cake, but it did. I was going to pipe trim around the bottom and top edge, but only had enough for the bottom. Next time I won't make it so thick on the sides and top of the cake so I have enough to do fancy trims.


Here's my slice. This is so incredibly good! When the cookbook is released, you MUST try this cake.

We easily demolished half of the cake. I left some for Rita and her friend Gina. Simon adores Gina and she was kind enough to give him a generous donation for his walk. Apparently, she raved about the cake and practically licked her plate! So, yet another hit for Dreena!

UPDATE: I told you about Shane Bernier a few posts back. He's the little boy who is battling cancer and wanted birthday cards. Well, Shane's birthday was on May 30 and he got his wish!!








This was in the Toronto Sun on Thursday. Click the photo to enlarge and read the article, or go here.