Weekend Munchies

It's been a couple days since I have last posted, so I am back with a weekend installment of the foods I've cooked and enjoyed. Just a reminder that there are only two days left on my weekly poll so get your pizza votes in. C'mon, it's pizza. Everybody loves it.

Friday, as I mentioned last, I went ahead and made the Cod au Gratin I had originally planned to make on Thursday. It turned out half decent - the only thing that annoyed me (and Randy mentioned it as well) is that the sauce didn't seem to get thick, giving it an almost watery consistency. I used a recipe my mom had written out for me in a cookbook she gave me a few years back, but either I did something wrong or that is the way it was supposed to be. Either way, I kept adding flour and cornstarch to thicken it up but to no avail. Still, it tasted pretty good. I paired it with a side spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette and one of those homemade rolls I made on Thursday



Cod Au Gratin with Spinach Salad and homemade roll

Today I picked up some chicken legs and threw them in a casserole dish with italian dressing and onion soup mix on top. I paired these with stuffed baked potatoes:

This actually turned out really good! The chicken legs marinated in the dressing and onion soup mix really well and were very juicy and fall off the bone delicious. The potatoes were a bit of a nuisance (having to scoop out the the middle while trying to hold onto scalding hot potatoes that had already been baking for an hour) but in the end, I was glad I made them and they were a nice side to have with the chicken.

Tomorrow I am having a go at another Rachael Ray recipe - this one is Sausage, Penne, and Broccoli casserole with ricotta cheese. I always have a lot of success with her recipes and they're very flavourful so I'm looking forward to trying this one.

On a side note, I think I am developing an unhealthy obsession with Party Mix. I had some more last night and will probably finish off the rest tonight if only to accompany the beer I have with Randy while we watch the Pittsburgh game. He picked up a 24 case of Coors Light, largely (I believe) because there was a free toque inside. He's been buying Canadian for the past little while because you get a free beer glass - we now have four beer glasses, no cupboard space, and I have had to put my foot down on beer glass acceptance, lol.

Shout-outs from the past two days go to: Tim Horton's plain tea biscuits, dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds, and partridgeberry tea. And, of course PARTY MIX.




Beer and Salad- the perfect combo of sinful and sweet

Yesterday Randy and I heated up a bowl of my dad's famous won ton soup and had that for our supper. I've got to get him to teach me how to make it at some point because I love it; all that I know that is in it is pork wrapped in wonton wrappers with some noodles (Mr.Noodles?) and I'm not sure what else. This is what it looks like:



 

Dad's Wonton Soup

Did I mention how I dumped a good 1/2 cup of hot sauce in the soup? I was never into hot sauce or anything remotely hot or spicy for the longest time. Even so much as medium instead of mild salsa was too much for me. But since dating Randy (who loves all foods hot and spicy), I decided to suck it up and assume that a taste for hot and spicy is an acquired one, and maybe I'd get used to and appreciate it over time. Well, I was right- I am a total convert. I'll admit that I still don't appreciate things that are uncomfortably spicy (i.e. eyes watering, throat coating, choke back your tears hot) but I have developed quite a palate for the hot and spicy. Although I think I may have dumped a little too much hot sauce into the soup this time because halfway through my bowl, my lips were burning and I had plowed through two cans of diet root beer. But nonetheless, still delicious, and a big thanks goes out to my dad for giving me some!

Last night before bed, I was getting pretty munchy so I had a bowlful of some trail mix my mom gave me one of the last times I was in Gander ( I know what this sounds like, but believe it or not, I do buy my own groceries). Now I've had all kinda of trail mix before and they're pretty much the same, but this one had a couple different additions - dried blueberries and little yogurt chips. Yum. I usually try and measure out 1/3 of a cup or one serving when I eat this stuff because it's pretty filling but also very high in calories. So a 1/3 of a cup, though it may not look like much, is actually pretty satisfying.

Trail Mix

Today I wasn't substituting so I decided to make some homemade rolls to have with various supper meals. I had a lot of time and while it would have been quicker (and cheaper) to buy rolls, I like the taste of homemade ones so much more and since I had the time on my hands, I figured I may as well make them. Anyway, they turned out like this:

I usually leave a few out and then freeze the rest to take out whenever I cook a meal that could use one. I had the intention tonight to cook cod au gratin with some leftover items we had around but when Randy came home from work, he offered to take me out for a couple beer and some supper. Since we're running a little low on groceries (which also makes me run low on creativity when it comes to cooking) and I had been home all day, I scrapped the cod idea and we went out.

Since moving to Grand Falls, Randy and I had been on the hunt for a decent pub with good beer and supper as well. The best place we found is the Crown and Moose- a pub actually inside the Mount Peyton Hotel. The Hotel actually has three places to eat: a steakhouse in the basement (which Randy really enjoys, but I once had a disgustingly overcooked rubbery chicken breast in), a nicer restaurant called Clem's upstairs, and the Crown and Moose adjacent to that. We started off with this lovely appetizer:

I ordered a chicken caesar salad with dressing on the side ( I hate how some restaurants give you a caesar salad swimming in dressing) and Randy ordered wings and a clubhouse sandwich. Here's my salad:

Doesn't LOOK the greatest but it wasn't half bad. I know what you're thinking - beer and caesar salad? Gross. But I like combining something (somewhat) healthy with something not so healthy. It's nice to make smart(er) choices while still not feeling like you are depriving yourself.

Randy ordered hot sauce on the side for his wings this time - usually he gets them cooked in the sauce but he wanted to see if it would be spicier having the sauce on the side to dip the wings in. He was right. This is a pic of him shortly after he nearly died from the spiciness; I think if you look closely, you can see his eyes watering.






After all that food and the beer, we were feeling pretty blah after coming home so we've just been relaxing for the rest of the evening. Even Sebastian ate too much wet food and conked out for the night:

Anyway, that's about it for now. I tossed the cod in the refridgerator and am planning on making the Cod Au Gratin tomorrow with a side salad and a homemade roll. I'll be trying out some more recipes (including Rachael Ray, Weight Watchers, and some from my Stir-fry cookbooks) after I pick up some groceries. In the meantime, it's going to be either some inventive meals or some pretty plain and/or standard meals.

Shout-outs for the past two days include cold pizza, crystal light lemonade, fererro rocher chocolates and green apples!

The Back of the Fridge- Who Knows What Lies Within?

Welcome to another blog about my latest culinary escapades. Yesterday was a school board holiday and I took it upon myself to clean out the fridge. A boring task no doubt, but it was starting to get dirty in there and I knew it was probably the only time I would care to get around it. Well, I hauled out the fruit and vegetable drawers and lo and behold, what do I find behind them but a mini Coffee Crisp bar! Let me explain - back before Halloween, Randy and I bought an obscene amount of mini chocolate bars and bags of chips. I justified this by saying it was "for the trick-treaters" knowing full well that being in a basement apartment, we'd be lucky to maybe get ten kids. No trick or treaters? Well, someone has to eat the candy. We had devoured this candy a few months back but this lone Coffee Crisp bar made its way to the back of the fridge to serve as my reward for cleaning. So folks, the moral of the story is: Clean out your fridge. You never know if a Coffee Crisp bar might be waiting to be rescued.

As I mentioned in my last post, I used the leftover proscuitto and salami from the Spaghetti Pie I made and made a homemade pizza. For the first time, I made my own crust (whole wheat) as well as homemade pizza sauce. The crust turned out perfect - I found a recipe online that uses whole wheat flour, yeast, olive oil, and a few herbs and spices. I wouldn't recommend making your own crust though unless you have a lot of time. It's basically like baking bread in the sense that you have to knead and let the dough rise several times (for an hour at a time) before it's ready to go on the pizza pan. The sauce I also found online - I made one with tomato paste because I happened to have a can in the pantry. The sauce wasn't quite as good as the crust; the recipe that I chose made for a thinner, more watery crust than I would have liked. Still, it was not bad by any means and I really enjoyed actually making everything homemade. I also threw on some onions and green pepper before topping it with mozzarella cheese and fresh ground pepper. The proscuitto was better than I thought it would be on the pizza - delicious! I'd give this pizza an 8/10.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I have customized the look of my blog a little. Check out the weekly poll in the top right corner and cast your vote. This week's theme is pizza (inspired by tonight's meal of course) and I'll be changing it every week, as well as posting the voting results. I also added a counter to the page.

Right now I'm on the hunt for more creative breakfast and lunch options. I always try out new recipes for supper meals but I've kinda stagnated with my breakfast and lunch options. Breakfast is usually Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip muffins, or Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies. Lunch, if I'm substituting, is usually a ham or turkey sandwich. If I'm at home, I might have soup or tuna with hot sauce. New ideas are more than welcome!

Shout-outs today go to: Diet A&W root beer, Shortbread cookies, Blueberries, and Jelly Belly jellybeans.

Stay tuned for the next post when I review Dad's Wonton soup.

Long Weekend Food Summary

Hello readers, and welcome to my long weekend summary celebrating delicious food. On Saturday, I traveled to Gander for a hair appointment and stayed the night with my friend Carrie. I don't know what it is, but there's something about going to Gander that makes me snack obsessively. Maybe it's a leftover from mine and my siblings Christmas food benders (the highlight of which would have to be our midnight double Sunrise burgers the night before Pamela left) or maybe it's just because I'm surrounded by new foods I don't normally keep stocked at home. Either way, I got to Gander and dug into the Laura Secord mints and Quality Street chocolates. Drool. Once I got back from my hair appointment, I was famished and hadn't had lunch (at this point, it was 2:30 p.m.). I wasn't in the mood to cook anything or wait long for food so I popped some Bagel Bites in the oven. I'm pretty sure I recall an episode of 'X-Weighted' where Paul Plakas goes in someone's home, hauls out the Bagel Bites, and comments on how it isn't real food. Well, real food or not, they are darn tasty.

As I mentioned before, Mom and Dad treated us to barbecue steak. Kudos to Grant for pulling on the winter coat and tackling the BBQ in a semi-snowstorm and less than warm temperatures. We also had caesar salad and baked potatoes.

My delicious cow

It was such a treat to have barbecue. I haven't had it in forever, and really appreciated it. I'm also not a huge steak person (I avoid ordering it at restaurants) but love having steaks made at home. Not pictured is the 'Summer Pie' Mom had made for dessert. I'm not sure what's in it but it's light and yummy and was a nice sweet thing to have afterwards.

Quite possibly the food highlight of my trip to Gander was knowing that Mom (who had just come back from visiting my sister in Ottawa) had gone to Sugar Mountain and brought me back some candy. When I say 'Sugar Mountain', I am, of course, referring to the candy store by the same name. Although were there a mountain of sugar, I'd probably be equally as excited. Sugar Mountain is basically like a big Sweet Shop (remember that old train that used to be in the Avalon Mall that sold all kinds of candy?) where all the candy is the same price so you don't have to shag around with putting all the candy you want in separate bags. So you can imagine my glee when I walked into my old bedroom and was greeted by this lovely smorgasbord:

Mom didn't seem to understand my excitement as she commented that it's expensive and you can get the same kind of candy at Wal-Mart. As for the first, yes it's expensive, but damnit, a bag full of assorted candy is worth its weight in gold. And yes, some of it you can probably find at Wal-Mart, but it won't have the same magical experience as going into a candy store and you'd likely have to wedge your way past an angry fat woman from the bay just to get some candy that has a 50/50 success rate (either it's delicious, or it's falsely gummy and hard as a rock).

It's been two days since I got this bag of deliciousness and I currently have a couple jellybeans left and little else. I think I hear diabetes calling my name.

The night in Gander was capped off by a couple trips to the deepfreeze for some frozen leftover Christmas cookies (because naturally, I needed more sugar) and a satisfying bowl of Party Mix.

Last night, Randy cooked Shepherd's Pie which again gave me a break from cooking. The two of us actually have quite a nice cooking relationship - he cooks the basics (such as turkey, which I don't have a sweet clue how to make) and I focus on trying out new recipes. His Shepherd's Pie was great - he put a bit of cajun powder in the ground beef to give it a nice kick and the poatoes on top were really creamy and delicious.

Shepherd's Pie - pre plate

 I had mine with bread and butter because some meals are just bread meals. This is Randy's:

After my Party Mix adventure Saturday night, I was really in the mood for it again. Randy and I went to the convenience store and picked up a dozen beer and another bag of Party Mix. Tonight, of course, we're having leftover Shepherd's Pie because there was so much of it. Tomorrow I am using the leftover proscuitto and salami (from the Spaghetti Pie of my first entry) and making pizza dough and sauce from scratch (which I have never done before).

Shoutouts from the weekend include Party Mix (obviously), Sour and gummy candies, Nanaimo bars, and Cream of Wheat.





Volume Three

Hello again, and welcome to Volume Three of ny culinary adventures. I've made it to the third entry which makes this, as I mentioned in my last entry, my most successful attempt at blogging. I'm actually finding this pretty enjoyable - being on E.I. while substitute teaching occasionally makes for a lot of free time and I haven't found a hobby (until now) that I've enjoyed as much as this. It's almost like being an unofficial food critic and it gives me something to share and reminds me of the tastiest meals I've had so I can continue to make them.

As I mentioned in my last post, yesterday I tried out another Sopranos cookbook recipe. This one was called Hot Meatball and Mozzarella Heroes. I combined extra lean ground beef with pecorino-romano cheese, fresh chopped parsley, breadcrumbs, eggs, mik, salt and pepper. What a difference the pecorino-romano cheese made than just making regular meatballs! It made the meatballs super juicy and not dry like they sometimes are. Anyway, I set these aside and got to working on the Tomato Sauce. Basically just crushed tomatoes simmering with garlic, onion, and basil for 10-15 minutes on the stove. Once done I poured the sauce into the skillet with the meatballs and simmered for another 10 minutes, like so:

Meatballs Simmering

All I did next was take two whole wheat sub rolls, split them open and layer the meatballs inside and smother with the tomato sauce. I cut a couple slizes of mozzarella cheese and placed the rolls under the broiler for only about a minute or so just to melt the cheese. These bad boys came out looking like this:



Hot Meatball and Mozzarella Heroes with Crinkle Fries

 Okay, so I know that these are probably majorly unhealthy but holy crap, were they good. If it's meat and cheese and bread, I am there. Since these things were pretty massive (only four meatballs on each one but the bread and cheese and sauce was more than enough), I only popped a couple fries in the oven for Randy and I to have. These sandwiches were divine. Randy picked it as his number one favorite from the week's meals and damnit, were I a little more Italian (or even an iota of an Italian) and a little more badass, I would've felt like Tony Soprano himself chowing down on one of these. I was ungodly full when finished but they were too good to waste. There were enough leftover meatballs and sauce that I threw on a pot of rice and packed them up for Randy to take to work for lunch the next day. Definitely would give these sandwiches a 8 or 9 out of 10. If you're in the mood for something meaty and delicious, these are it.

Tonight Randy took me out to Don Cherry's in exchange for helping him out with some schoolwork. It was pretty packed when we got there so we ordered a jug of beer while we perused the menu. This is Randy looking especially cheerful as I annoy him:

Mr.Pleasant

We were not overly hungry which in the end was a good thing, because we waited almost an hour for our food. The waitress was pretty apologetic though and ended up giving us a 15% discount. I ordered the Chicken Bacon Swiss on Ciabatta bread with cherry chips:

It was pretty tasty and for once, I received a reasonable amount of food at this restaurant. By reasonable, I mean I didn't get a lumberjack's meal and actually left the restaurant satisfied but not grossly full. The only disappointment was that on the menu, the sandwich was supposed to have mustard on it but instead came slathered in butter. But whatever, mmmmmm butter.

Randy ordered the pan-fried cod with french fries which came out looking like this:

He commented that the cod was pretty dry which I am not really surprised at because it isn't something they're really known for. Overall, not the GREATEST food, but tasty enough and the beer went down well after we both had a day of bawling at arrogant teenagers.

Tomorrow I'm going to Gander for the night with Carrie and Mom and Dad are bbq'ing steaks.

Shout-outs for the past two days go out to chocolate chip oatmeal muffins (homemade), five star bars, apple-crumble vanilla Source yogurts, and  plain oatmeal with cinnamon and blueberries.

Thanks for reading!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hi folks, and welcome to the second posting of my blog. I have made it to two! One more entry and I will have surpassed my last attempt at blogging.

Yesterday I cooked Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas. I got the recipe from a Campbell's cookbook my sister gave me for my birthday a few years back. Basically, these were flour tortillas with a mixture of marble cheese, chicken, and picante salsa inside. Poured over the top was a sauce made of sour cream, more picante salsa, cream of chicken soup and some chili powder. I then tossed it all in a shallow baking dish and baked for 45 minutes. This recipe is the 'Ugly' from the title - check out how it looked:

Enchilada Vomit

As you can see, not the most aesthetically pleasing creation. However, buried inder all that slop are indeed two flour tortillas filled with the above mentioned concoction. I also cut up some tomatoes and green onions and sprinkled on the top. Despite its less than beautiful appearance, this was quite tasty. Very little prep time and the fact that it had a little bit of a kick to it makes it something I'd turn to if I'm in the mood for a cooked meal but not really in the mood to cook. I'd give this meal a 6 out of 10.

Today, I went for a Rachael Ray recipe in the new cookbook Randy gave me for Christmas. The recipe is called 'Sliced Chicken with apples, pears, and camembert mashed potatoes'. Yum. This recipe had quite a bit more prep time and I found it difficult to co-ordinate the cooking of the potatoes with the separate cooking of the chicken so I had to re-heat the meal after it was prepared. The chicken is pretty basic (salt and pepper, then fried in a frying pan and sliced) and the apples and pears were sauteed in butter, honey, nutmeg, and lemon juice. For the potatoes, I boiled a bunch of baby yellow potatoes, then mashed them up with some camembert cheese and milk. Sprinkled over the top of both the potatoes and the chicken was a mixture of chives, fresh thyme, and lemon zest. Om nom nom.

Sliced Chicken with Apples, Pears, and Camembert Mashed Potatoes

Randy and I both enjoyed this meal - the sweetness of the pears and apples complimented the simplicity of the chicken quite well. While I enjoyed the mashed potatoes, I didn't really notice a difference with the use of the camembert cheese than if I had used another (possibly cheaper) cheese. Still, Rachael Ray is all about trhe flavour and this definitely had lots of that. Likely not the healthiest meal in the world, but healthy meals don't always taste great, either. I'd give this one a 7/10.

Shout-outs from the past two days also include: peanut butter M&M's, chocolate peanut butter macaroons (thank you, SPCA meeting!), and tuna fish sandwiches with hot sauce and green onions (totally better than using mayo).

Tomorrow I am hitting up the Sopranos cookbook again and making Meatball and Mozzarella Heroes!

Kathryn

Adventures in Cooking

I got this idea from a former co-worker of mine who had started a food blog posting pictures and comments about food she had prepared as well as eaten at various restaurants. Since I love to cook and am always trying out new recipes, I thought it would be a neat idea to try something like this myself. Although my past track record with online journal type thingees is spotty, I'm hoping this is something I can stick to, and hopefully share some good recipes with friends and family as well.

Randy and I have been watching a lot of mafia-related programming lately (including the first season of Boardwalk Empire and seasons one through six of The Sopranos) and I was looking around in Dollarama not too long ago when I came upon an actual sweet find. They had a hardcover book called "Entertaining with the Sopranos" that had once been 35 bucks in a book store but was at Dollarama for 2 bucks. It's full of all kibds of delicious Italian food recipes, many of which were featured on the show (as the characters seem to be always eating). There are several very complicated looking recipes in the book as well as many with obscure ingredients you'd likely never find in Grand Falls, but there are a few that seemed do-able (and for 2 bucks, really, who can complain?).

I tried my first recipe in this cookbook two days ago - Spaghetti Pie. Sounds disgusting, but it was kind of like a big frittata and a pizza combined, with a little spaghetti (okay, a lot) thrown in for good measure. The finished product came out like this:

Some of the spaghetti singed a little on top because I put it under the broiler maybe a minute too long, but other than that, it was cooked perfectly. The pink stuff you see in it is proscuitto and italian-style salami (called for Genoa salami but Sobeys was out of it). Besides that, it just has eggs in it, provolone cheese, pecorino-romano cheese and whole wheat spaghetti. Not sure if you can tell by the pic, but this thing was massive. It's supposed to serve eight so we ate it for lunches and suppers for a couple days.
This is what I served it with the day I made it:

This recipe was fairly tasty, especially with ketchup, but I found that it didn't really call for enough meat. The eggs and spaghetti tended to overwhelm the sharp taste of the proscuitto and pecorino-romano cheese so if I were to make it again, I would definitely add more meat. I'd give it a 6 out of 10 (with room for improvement).

Tonight's menu? Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas!