baked shells with winter squash

I am so pumped up about this dinner of Baked Shells with Winter Squash. It is only cooking through Everyday Food Great Food Fast that I would have tried this. The title isn't appealing and I'm not so big on pasta these days. Not only that, I couldn't find frozen winter squash puree anywhere in Canada. I stopped looking and went to the US and found it easily at Wegmans. I'm sure Whole Foods in Canada would have it. If I stumble on it I'll blog about it because this is a MUST TRY!

The flavour isn't really squash-y at all. It's actually tastes more like caramelized onions and rosemary. The parmesan sets it all off and the squash adds body and richness. Then there is a really nice contrast between the baked shells and toasted baguette cubes that sets you to 'died and gone to heaven on a plate.'

Sigh, with each passing day I wish I was eating this instead - that's truly how outstanding it is. I'm going out for a Valentines dinner tonight, but with the snow on the ground I'm thinking I'd almost rather be eating this. It's so crazy food creative, if I was ever to highly recommend a recipe, this is the one.

listen loud

It's not always easy finding new music that I can really connect with since turning 30. I’m not sure why that is, I do give most indie bands an honest chance. Two bands that I love & continue to are Wye Oak & Deerhunter.

I discovered Wye Oak the old fashioned way – a music video on The Wedge. I knew right away from their sound that they were something I'd enjoy listening to. So I bought their albums from the iTunes Store. They sound like Cat Power’s album “What Would The Community Think?” with an elements of intense rock-out similar to Yo La Tengo. I'm itching to see them live.

For years now I've been non-stop loving Deerhunter. I think this band is creating some of the best and most unique rock music of this time. I discovered Deerhunter because I really loved Atlas Sound first (Bradford Cox is the frontman of both bands).

If anyone would like to share their recommendations of music they've been enjoying I'd love to hear!

sole with lemon-butter sauce

I sometimes read notes Owen's daycare leaves behind about what he's been eating and enjoying. His daycare offers an amazing variety of food, just as diverse as our dinners at home, so I figured his log could help us decide on what to have for dinner. One recent note was that he "loved the lemon fish", and after recently working on room service menus that included appetizing descriptions of Lemon Sole I knew we had to make it happen. So we decided to try the recipe for Sole with Lemon-Butter Sauce from Great Food Fast.

I've always thought it was pretty to roll sole fillets, but there is method behind this presentation. It keeps the fish moist and it's actually a lot easier to eat. We decided on a side of Lemon Pea Orzo (no recipe here, just as the name states along with olive oil, s&p). Just like the daycare log indicated, Owen LOVED this dinner. Both sole and orzo are mild, so a little lemon, salt & pepper go a long way. The only downside to this dinner is that we came across a couple small pin bones while eating sole, so I'm a little hesitant to make this dinner a regular thing. But it was very nice and light dinner that pleased all three of us.

owen's saturday morning muffins

Every other Saturday morning Owen helps me make muffins. Most of the time they are Raisin Bran muffins but this week we added blueberries to the recipe. Nuno was using the iPod as we were baking and he caught some cute moments.

Here's Owen's big job of lining the muffin tin. He's very good at this job, but even better at counting.

Then he helps by mixing the ingredients. Here he is mixing the wet ingredients into the dry, "Stir, Stir, Stir".

He then stopped for a musical interlude as I filled the batter into the tray.

This is the moment he's been waiting for - licking the bowl and spoon time!

So, what'd ya think? Is he not slated to be the youngest Food Network star, or what?!

spicy black-bean cakes

We're not big sports fans around here, but for some reason (probably the timing of the event in boring February) we always celebrate Superbowl.  It doesn't matter who plays, we just get together at my parents with homemade pizza and Buffalo wings and watch the game. My dad watches for the game and the rest of us for the commercials. My parents get DirectTV which is a feed from the US, so we are super lucky we don't have to suffer through the Canadian ads. This year I wanted a bit of a switch-up from what we usually have. So I decided to make these Spicy Black-Bean Cakes from Great Food Fast along with my guacamole. 

These cakes are a mixture of black beans, sweet potato and bread crumbs with Mexican seasoning. They were very time consuming to make and managed to dirty half the kitchen, so for a snack food I really don't think it's worth the effort. These taste very similar to a burrito mix I make probably because the cumin flavour is quite overwhelming. But we all enjoyed them and I have to admit, if I ordered these as an appetizer at a restaurant I'd be happy with them. There is a side of cilantro sour cream (which is delicious!) and I also paired my guacamole with them. Here Owen is showing how he is the guest no one wants to invite to parties since he not only double dips, he also drops chips in the dip and stuffed dog toys.

Well, he more than made up for it when he caught a glimpse of Madonna and proclaimed, "Man!" as she was flexing her arms.

me-love-mini-meat-loaves

I've never been a big meatloaf fan but my husband loves it. I've tried on numerous occasions to make a good one, most of the time ending up with something that tastes too beefy. That's why when I found a recipe in C is for Cooking (the Sesame Street cookbook) for Cookie Monster's Me-Love-Mini-Meat-Loaves, I thought it would surely be a good one if it is recommended for kids. 

This meatloaf recipe is a blend of lean ground beef and pork, oats and shredded carrot & onion. The extra step of shredding the vegetables is a great one. It keeps the meatloaf moist and therefore creating a uniform loaf. I didn't over mix or pack the meatloaf down because I feared the loaf might turn out too dense.

Here is our finished meatloaf. Although we followed the recipe for the meatloaf as instructed, we took several liberties after it was complete. First we made it into a traditional large loaf (where the recipe indicates to make mini loaves). This was simply because we wanted it to stay moist. Secondly, we added at TON of chili sauce on top. I can't stress to you how important that step is. As the loaf baked it reduced and thickened eventually creating a slightly caramelized sauce on top. We used Willies Chili Sauce (found in Ontario), which we don't use often, but it's like a sweet salsa with zip. Super delish if you can find it. But if not just blend ketchup with chili sauce and you're set.  

One thing that I really disliked about this meatloaf is how long it took to bake. My goodness, it went into the oven at 400 and stayed there for an hour and a half! Well, the best things come to those who wait, but this dinner is less than ideal for mid-week working families. Looks like Cookie was onto something making mini loaves...

This dinner was super tasty. And, if you can manage to let this dinner sit and cool, it is so delicious at almost room temperature (not sure why, but the flavours come together nicely).

greek-style mini lamb burgers

We first tried lamb at home while cooking through Everyday Food Fresh Flavour Fast. Since then we've been eating more and more of it. I've also noticed in the past two years it become more and more accessible in the grocery stores. We made these Greek-Style Mini Lamb Burgers from Great Food Fast which is also a recipe for homemade tzatziki.

And they were good, not great. I doubt I'd make them again simply because our ground lamb rendered a shocking amount of fat. The leftover in the pan was about equal to cooking bacon - no kidding. So, if we ever choose ground lamb again I'm thinking we'll just grind it ourselves so we can control the amount of fat that goes into our food. Anyways, I probably would have enjoyed it just as much with falafels in place of the burgers.

breakfast quinoa

Owen's been asking for rice for just about every meal lately. This past Saturday morning I figured I'd beat him to the punch and decided to make him something similar with this Breakfast Quinoa.

It's basically just a rework on oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon and blueberries. It is really tasty. I haven't looked into if it's nutritionally superior to oatmeal, but in my mind I'll say it is. So, it is not any quicker to make and doesn't have that gooey soft texture we've all grown to love with oatmeal. What it does have on its side is that it's great warm or cool. Typically we'll just toss out extra uneaten portions of oatmeal, but this breakfast quinoa retains its texture and can reheat well. I even used all the leftovers for some Sunday morning blueberry Quinoa Cakes. What a protein-packed weekend!

gnocchi with broccoli pesto

There was an interesting recipe published in this January's issue of Everyday Food for Pasta with White Beans and Broccoli Pesto. We used the pesto portion of the recipe and paired it with gnocchi last night. 

The seasoning on this pesto is spot-on with a nice lemon and garlic flavour. We love the texture of this pesto because it has body and substance. The thing that really turned Nuno off pesto was how pungent it tends to be - this recipe eliminates that. Because it doesn't call for pine nuts, it's a very economical pesto to make. The broccoli/potato pairing is really nice, I doubt we'd ever try the recipe the way it was initially intended to be eaten. The tender gnocchi dumplings absorb a lot of the pesto which we liked a lot. Owen loved it, so it's an all around winner. DELICIOUS!

potato and onion frittata and bell pepper sautee

If you couldn't tell by the pork loin & black eyed pea salad and iceberg wedges, I spent most of last week making meals that I was hoping wouldn't look or smell appetizing. My husband was doing a cleanse. Bless his heart, fasting from food is something I am unable to conceive for myself, but is a yearly thing for him. He rocked it and had amazing results, I'm so proud of him. Anyways, this Potato & Onion Frittata from Fresh Flavour Fast was something I thought he'd be disinterested in because of the whole breakfast for dinner thing. Turns out it was so fantastic I just had to make it a second time this week so he could experience it!

It doesn't look like much but not only smells amazing, it tastes fantastic. It seems like a total mess when you make it. There were many moments I felt frustrated and was just about to throw it out, but it somehow works out every time. The rosemary and parsley add such a wonderful flavour, I can't imagine a more delicious frittata.

The Bell Pepper Sautee also from Fresh Flavour Fast is a perfect accompaniment to this frittata. Delicious eaten together! I love this dinner. It's light, inexpensive, flavourful & healthy.

broiled pork with black eyed pea salad

Here is our Broiled Pork with Black Eyed Pea Salad from Everyday Food Light. And it's bad...

Just horrible! Even Owen, who's never met an avocado he didn't love, couldn't eat it. If this is eating light - count me out!

The only consolation is that the leftover tenderloin made for great next day Cuban Quesadillas.

applesauce cake

Owen received a book titled "Owen" for his birthday this year.

Upon Owen's introduction we learn he loves, "Ice cream, peanut butter and applesauce cake". For applesauce cake to be listed so nonchalantly along with these other childhood staples I felt for a moment as though I hadn't quite fulfilled my motherly expectations by not knowing how to make one. That's when I stumbled upon Anna Olson's recipe for Applesauce Coffee Cake in my Another Cup of Sugar cookbook. Well, there isn't anything more delicious than a streusel topping, so it didn't take long for me to bake up my first ever Applesauce Cake!

And, wow, what a stunner! This loaf is great in the same way banana bread is. Besides what sets it apart (doesn't require any fresh produce - which is great), I'm treating it like a banana bread and eating it as a breakfast & dessert. It has the familiar applesauce taste but a coffee cake dessert-like quality. The house became so fragrant with spices while baking I can image it's perfect for those apple picking days before Thanksgiving. 

I love loaves and muffins that don't require room temperature butter that needs to be beaten. I need simplicity when I bake at a moments notice (i.e. during naps) this recipe required ingredients I already had right on hand. This Applesauce Coffee Cake not only fits the bill, it exceeds any other dessert loaf I've made before.

beef & orange stirfry

This is Great Food Fast's Beef and Orange Stir-Fry. I looked forward to this dinner all day because this recipe calls for RIBEYE! I had a marbled masterpiece of a meat slab that was 2 inches thick. Once I tackled slicing the steak there was the tedious process of dealing with the oranges. Slicing the peels off the oranges with a paring knife is no fun. While making this dinner, at no point did it indicate to season with salt & pepper. Almost every recipe does so this puzzled me and I ended up seasoning to taste once it was complete.

Here is the finished dinner. Everything was fantastic except the oranges. They started to break down immedietly and weren't very tasty anyways. I don't really eat oranges, and even though all the pith was removed they were still bitter. This would be way, way better with steamed broccoli.

iceberg wedges with thousand island dressing

This is Great Food Fast's Iceberg Wedges with Thousand Island Dressing. Or as it tastes -  a deconstructed Big Mac.

I've only had one Big Mac in my life, but, I swear this tastes very similar. Sure, there isn't any meat (do they even use 'meat?'), cheese, tomato and faux buttery flavoured bun. But it really is tasty albeit a little odd to sit down to a huge wedge of lettuce and chow down with a knife and fork. I actually used a steak knife on this because the serrated edge helped slice through the layers. This recipe is really just one for a homemade Thousand Island dressing, but it's killer. After a couple days now I've single handedly polished off an entire head of lettuce. This oh so retro salad is quite addictive, but I'm sure next week the novelty will have worn off.

my morning coffee

I'm really into New Year's Resolutions. I've made many and kept some of the most challenging ones. To start yoga, to start working out, to learn to cook and make homemade dinners, to keep up this blog, to stop my daily Starbucks habit (ie. save $). The way I made that last one work was to learn to make a fantastic cup of coffee at home. Here's my daily ritual.

It starts with the beans. I'm really into this Mapled Mocha Java that I buy 5 lb vacuum sealed. Buying in bulk is the most economical way to purchase quality beans. 

Once I open the bag I weigh 1lb of beans into ziploc bags and freeze immediately. Then as I need them I pull them out and store them in airtight containers. 

Every morning I grind the beans fresh. I can eyeball the ratio, but if you're just learning the ratio this tool will always give you the perfect cup. Once scoop per cup of water.

This tool is so basic, but along with boiled water it's all you need for one single cup of great coffee.

But I need way more than one cup daily, and this Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12 cup programmable coffee maker is the best I've ever owned.  Use cold water when brewing fresh coffee through a coffee maker.

There is a built-in water filter and a setting to brew small coffee batches (because have you ever tried to brew 3 cups on a 12 cup machine? It never works out!)

I'm no coffee somalier (if I were, I'm sure I'd know the proper term for it). So I hesitate to blog and come across like 'this is the right way' to make coffee. It's just what I like and found works for us through lots of trial & error.

So, what's my New Year's Resolution this year? Well, I'm giving my previous years failed resolution another go. It's to watch more TV. I keep finding myself in social situations where people go on and on about all these great shows like Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire. I feel like I'm really missing out on quality television and it bums me out. So I've got to find a way of making time to let myself relax and unwind - and stay awake. Believe it or not, it's a challenge for me.