I Haven't Forgotten

Salsa, Cookies & U2

Quite a few years ago, Michelle & I took a cooking class at a natural/health food store in Oakville. The store no longer exists - I think it went out of business when Whole Foods moved in which is really sad because this place was really nice and the classes were small, informative and a lot of fun and the take-home recipe sheets have been well used over the years.

One of the things made during that class was an avocado salsa. This is one of those recipes that is so simple, yet so good. I make it quite a lot and serve it with things like fajitas.

A bit of a blurry shot, but here we have a whole wheat tortilla with some sautéed seitan, onions & peppers. Add some salsa, sour cream, roll up and voilà! Yumminess.

I also made an un-authentic rice & beans dish. This is done in a casserole in the oven from a recipe I've had for so many years I don't even remember where I got it. It's full of veggies and just enough spice. I like it!

This meal gave us lots of energy for U2!

These were taken at Rogers Centre. What a great show!

The rice & beans recipe makes a lot so a few days later I used most of it as a filling for enchiladas.

Again, no where near authentic, but it was a good way to use up left overs.

A little bit of cheese and some salsa made it pretty tasty.

I haven't been baking much of anything for months and then, out of the blue, was craving oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Out came The Garden of Vegan and I whipped up a batch of "Maureen's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies".

These are amazing! The evenings have a bit of chill in the air and these are definitely comfort cookies.

Fast Food the Gordon Ramsay Way

Fast food doesn't have to be greasy take-out. You can use fresh, quality ingredients and make a delicious dish in a short amount of time.

That's the idea behind Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food cookbook. Yes, we're all busy, and although these recipes do take a little bit of time, they are relatively simple and don't require a ton of ingredients or hours of slaving to make a special meal.

This salad was really good. Green Bean, Red Onion & Romano Salad took maybe 10-15 minutes to make.

Now, who doesn't have 10-15 minutes to make a delicious side dish?

For our main dish, I made this -

Tomato & Pesto Tart. OMG! This was so freakin' delicious, I made another one a few days later.

The crust is made with frozen puff pastry which is topped with pesto, cherry tomatoes, green onions, some herbs and grated Parmesan cheese. YUM!

Doesn't it look absolutely, mouth-wateringly delicious?

We pulled out this bottle of wine. I'd been saving it for a special dinner and Jim & I home together on a lazy evening seemed special enough. Brunello di Montalcino (or just called Brunello for short) is a wonderfully delicious wine from the Tuscany region in Italy. Made from a Sangiovese clone, this is considered one of the best wines that Italy produces.

Since peaches & nectarines are everywhere right now, this seemed like a logical choice.

Roasting them softens the fruit and produces a delicious flavour.

Once topped with the amaretti cream and sprinkled with crushed amaretto cookies, these went to a whole new level. Simple, yet quite gourmet.

With everything ready before I started, and a thorough read of the recipes, this kitchen adventure in fast food proved to be a resounding success!

Mom At The Airport

On Tuesday, my Mom was flying from Fredericton to Vancouver and had a layover in Toronto, so we took the day off to go hang out with her.

We hadn't seen each other in a long, long time so it was so nice to get caught up in person rather than just on the phone. We had some lunch while we waited for her flight. Mom brought me some of my favorite candy from out east.

It's just not Christmas without Chicken Bones. Years ago, I think these were only really available at Christmas time, but now, you can get them year round. Lucky for me! These are sooo good! The candy part is bright pink with a spicy cinnamon flavour and in the middle is a strip of dark, dark chocolate. It might sound weird, but trust me - it is fabulous! The only problem I have with these is that I end up eating too many at once, and my mouth gets kind of numb from too much cinnamony candy.

Also made by Ganong, which is Canada's oldest candy manufacturer, and based still in New Brunswick and still family owned, are these super sweet chocolate bars. Just a bit of trivia for you...one of the Ganong brothers was the first to come up with a wrapped chocolate bar and they were the first to introduce heart-shaped boxes of chocolates to North America. These Pal-O-Mines are a sweet, brown sugary fudge with coconut, a sprinkling of peanuts on the outside, then covered in dark chocolate. Sounds sweet doesn't it? And sooooo good! So thanks to Mom, I can spend my evenings on the couch in sugar shock. And memories of home.

Our truck is too tall to fit into the airports parking garage, so we parked in the "reduced rate" lot which is blocks away and took the shuttle train back to the airport.

It just travels back and forth between the parking lots and the different airport terminals. I think the longest one has to wait is about 5 minutes.

It travels on this track which goes over the parking lot and the streets.

I think it's a great idea. For 3 hours of parking though, our "reduced rate" was $14. That is criminal!

Instant Indian

You know when you're working full time hours and have other projects & activities on the go, sometimes coming home at 6:30 or 7pm and starting a dinner from scratch seems like such a daunting task. I'd rather just pick up the phone and order in, but that can become costly. So, on occasion, I turn to conveniently canned or frozen items to help with making the night-time meal.

President's Choice came out with a neat frozen product line of ethic foods. The concept is that you buy one main dish, two sides and an appetizer and there's your meal! I decided to give the Indian ones a whirl.

I got Aloo Gobi which is a favorite of mine.

Some basmati rice with onions, peas & cashews. Yum! But the mains were all meaty. Hmm....

So this can came to the rescue. Patak's cooking sauces are made with authentic Indian spices, are easy to use and so delicious! They have quite an array of products with varying heats. One of our favorites is Rogan Josh that is traditionally made as a lamb dish, but we use it for tofu, faux chick or sometimes just vegetables. This Korma curry sauce sounded interesting, so I gave that a try. I used Quorn Chik'n Tenders and it worked perfectly!

The appetizer in this line are vegetable samosas. These cook up nice and crisp and as an added bonus, it comes with it's own little tub of PC Memories of Punjab dipping sauce, which is a sweet, slightly tangy tamarind sauce.

Gotta have Naan bread! No Indian meal is complete without it. This packaged bread is quite good. All one has to do, is set it in the oven for about 2 or 3 minutes. I just put it right on the rack, flip it, then take it out. It's soft, warm and smells delicious!

Since there wasn't much in the way of vegetables really, I steamed some broccoli and added that to the plate as well. What a feast!

The Korma sauce was rich, yet mild. The samosas were lightly spiced, the cashews in the rice added a nice little crunch. I couldn't finish my plate. It was piled high and even though everything was delicious, my tummy was full. We had lots leftover for a meal the next day. This was one night when frozen food wasn't so bad.

Simon's Baby

Simon has been quite the little father for the past couple of weeks. I bought him a new squeaky toy and fully expected it to be ripped apart inside of two minutes. Much to our surprise, he's been carrying it around almost all day, everyday. He even brings it to bed. At first, it was interupting our sleep because he'd randomly squeak it throughout the night. That has stopped, but still carts it around inside and out. He's always got a close eye on it and if we dare to try and take it, he's on top of us to get it back.



Below is my very amateur-ish video of Simon heading out with us to run some errands. He takes his "baby", but then almost forgot it in the grass. Being the good "dad", he retrieved it and took it with him.



(the beginning part is dark & a bit difficult to see. It's just in our hallway, waiting for the elevator)