linguine with cauliflower and brown butter

Since it was Friday night I figured we could have one of the more indulgent recipes from the book, Linguine with Cauliflower and Brown Butter. One of the things that cooking from Everyday Food has taught me over the years is that pasta is so much better when you don't use jars of tomato sauce. This recipe uses butter, cooking liquid from the pasta and parmesan for the sauce. It was good, not overwhelming in flavour, but nice. I actually had a bit of difficulty even detecting the sage which is uncommon when adding herbs to dishes. Maybe because the parsley is a much stronger flavour. I liked the added touch of bread crumbs at the end which gave the dish a great texture. This one I'm not quite sure I'll make again since there wasn't quite the payoff butter, pasta and parmesan tend to bring to food.

mexican wedding cakes

OK, here is my first attempt at baking from Everyday Food. I was worried about this because Nuno doesn't eat sugar and I'm not knowledgeable enough on baking substitutions to figure out how to rework these recipes to use agave nectar or Splenda. In order to get through all the sweet recipes I have to have a good excuse to share the baking or I'll end up eating everything myself! Today is an office meeting, so it is the perfect excuse to bake. Because I hadn't planned on baking anything this week I had to bake from ingredients I had on hand. This fit the bill for the Mexican Wedding Cakes. I have a stash of pecans in the deep freeze that my dad would bring home from Georgia when driving back to Ontario from Florida. It kills me to use them though because he no longer drives, so my pecan supply is now dry.

So, baking doesn't get any simpler than these cookies, it's almost as easy as buying those tubes of chilled Pillsbury dough. OK, a few more steps, but you get what I'm saying. The only thing about this recipe is that it takes a little time because of a few extra steps. It requires you to chill the dough for an hour before baking, then cooling before the powdered sugar completes the cookies. They are so fragrant while baking because of the cinnamon and the texture is dry and crumbly but melting when eaten. My gosh, they are so delicious I can't begin to tell you all the ways I love these cookies! I might just accidentally forget to bring them to that meeting today.

shrimp and snap pea salad with ginger dressing

Last night we had Shrimp and Snap Pea Salad with Ginger Dressing. I started prepping this recipe at 2pm because salads take a very long time to prep, which may be why I don't eat them as often as I should. This recipe was probably the most monotonous recipe I've made in a long time. I had an assembly line of trimming and pulling the ribs off of 50 sugar snap peas & peeling and deveining shrimp. Not to mention the not quite as labour intensive, but still no fun task of washing and chopping all the produce. I did all of this with Owen in the Baby Bjorn, just to see how it would go. It went very well although I hope I'm not considered too haphazardly of a mom for using a huge knife with a baby against me. I do have limits though, the only things I could not complete with Owen was juicing a couple limes and blitzing the blender.

So, some comments about this recipe. I like that it calls for Boston lettuce, it's probably my favourite salad leaf. It has a beautiful texture and I think it tastes better than any other leaf. One slight revision I made to the recipe (and I'm so glad I did) was to add a second head of lettuce. This made for way more salad (stretch this one out for another meal) and this truly would have been a garnish heavy salad if I hadn't. Another note is how much I enjoyed the sugar snap peas. I've actually never had sugar snap peas before because I'll usually choose snow peas. Well, I'll totally be making the switch to sugar snaps now. They were probably my favourite part of the salad.

If I made this again I'd add avocado. After this experience I'll probably look at some of the recipes in this book and ask myself, "Would avocado go nicely in this?" because I can't get enough avocado in my life. Shrimp and avocado are one of my favourite combinations!

So the consensus on this recipe is it is fresh, delicious and a total 'make again'! It was well worth the time and effort because this is the sort of food that makes you feel really good to eat.

braised chicken with shallots

To kick things off with the Everyday Food book, I made Braised Chicken with Shallots last night. This recipe was very simple and inexpensive to make. I haven't done much meat browning before (does taco beef count?), so this was a bit of a new experience. I have roasted shallots on several occasions and LOVE them (if you haven't tried them, you must!). That's probably why I chose this recipe first. I also chose it because it's a winter warm-up sort of dish.

Well, not really much of a looker, but it tasted quite good. I had planned on serving this over egg noodles but didn't have quite enough so I opted to serve over basmati rice instead. That was probably the better choice anyhow because the rice absorbed the sauce which is something we really liked.

I would make this again in the future because it was fairly easy although somewhat time consuming since it's a stew. However, it made so much I feel it can really stretch out your dollar and time.

(literally) every day food. my personal challenge!

So many of the recipes I use are Martha Stewart's. I have been subscribing to her digest publication Everyday Food for 5 years now and most of what we eat are straight from years of reference to this magazine. 2 weeks ago she released her second Everyday Food book, Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast: 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day. Since I really enjoyed the first one, I'm thrilled to see this second release.

Since I know I'll be getting loads of use out of this book, I've decided to pull a little Julie & Julia and I'll be sharing what I cook & bake from this book as I work through it. Now that Owen enjoys spending time watching me cook in the kitchen while in his bouncer, I'm finally finding the time during the day to make complete meals.
So, having declared my commitment, I must say, I'm not going to be doing this daily. It might take a long time before I'm through it all considering there are 250 recipes, but my eventual goal is to have tried every one of them.
Wish me luck and check back to hear all about my happy eating!

real cool baby

Katie came back from Toronto this weekend with these rad shades for Owen.

Owen is so baby cool.

Triple D in B-lo

I've mentioned before about how I have this guilty pleasure in watching the Food Network show Diner's Drive In's and Dives. For anyone who hasn't seen this show, it's a cross America tour of, as the name suggests, Diner's Drive In's and Dives. It's fun to live vicariously through all the greasy, artery clogging and totally indulgent concoctions that exist out there. It's also a lot of fun to see what lengths restaurant owners go to to make quality, from scratch specialties.
I started following Guy Fieri, (who is kinda lame, I know) on Twitter just for the inside scoop on where he was. I joined him just in time for his visit to Buffalo!! I've been looking forward to the season where they feature their stops in B-lo. Although this season hasn't aired in Canada yet, I found these YouTube clips of their choices and I'm now totally obsessed with visiting these places. I hope to blog all about it as we knock them off.













Oh and speaking of TRIPLE D, we are planning a trip to St. Petersburg, Florida in November and I've already found 2 places from the show we'll have to visit.

lentil and bulgar salad

It was a year ago that Nuno and I decided we'd try for our baby. I'll admit, being a first time mom I probably went a little overboard being super cautious of what I was eating. I was thinking about a little life possibly growing inside me and wanted the best start for the little one. I only ate super-healthy food and this Lentil and Bulgar Salad was one recipe I became totally hooked on eating.

It may not sound appetizing, but it is so surprisingly delicious!! I was craving it again last week so now I'm back to eating this salad daily.

Lentil and Bulgar Salad
reworked from Martha Stewart

• 1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
• 3/4 cup fine-grain bulgur wheat
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved (2 cups)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions, (4 scallions)
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, cover lentils with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cover, and cook until lentils are tender but still holding their shape, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well.
2. Meanwhile, bring 1 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in bulgur,1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover; remove from heat, and let stand until bulgur has absorbed liquid, 30 minutes.
3. Transfer bulgur to a large bowl. Gently stir in lentils, tomatoes, scallions, lemon juice, and oil. Serve sprinkled with feta.

Goat cheese or feta can be added, but I recommend adding it just before eating. Actually, I found that the cheese doesn't really work well in the recipe, so I make it without and adjust the salt. Another recommendation is to seed the tomatoes - it takes extra time but removes a lot of the extra liquid in the salad.

abbreviations

Katie and I took a trip to Buffalo this time 2 weeks ago. We started off visiting the house that appeared on Extreme Makeover a few weeks ago. I've never watched a full episode of EM, but PVR'd the Buffalo episode because I saw quite a bit of coverage on the news when it was happening.

Here is the house after the makeover. Very different from the rest of the neighbourhood.

When Extreme Makeover came to B-lo, they must have felt like the entire 'hood needed work (which it does) and they helped many other homes. We recognized several as we walked to Dolores' house. This one is my favourite. The paint job is gorgeous and the house reminds me the homes in San Fransisco.

We then moved on to Mighty Taco. It's been ages since I've last enjoyed a Super Mighty and it did not disappoint! I love MT!

The real purpose of our trip was for some cross-border shopping. We went to the Walden Galleria and Target. In the middle of the afternoon we enjoyed Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Yep, we managed to fit in all our favourite stops while over the river and had tons of fun!

go saints!

I don't know if it's because I'm logging a record number of TV watching hours now that I'm home with Owen, but it seems like I'm more aware of the Superbowl this year (with the exception of when the Bills made it years ago). But I was really looking forward to Superbowl Sunday just to eat delicious food and spend time with my dad. He's really into football and seems to think that Owen is into football just like him. So for effect, I play along. But it looks like the boy born to two creative-types might just be a jock one day.

Here he is sitting on Grandpa's knee and watching the game. I've never seen Owen watch TV before, but when football is on he's quite transfixed. He's wearing his Bill's creeper specially for Superbowl. At half-time (after the Who performance) he had another football creeper. He has a Who shirt too - but I'll hold back on the little guy. After dressing Owen in 3 different outfits the other day, Nuno reminded me that he's not a dolly. Hey, he loves hanging out on his change table and getting dressed, so I don't see any problem with it!

For me, Superbowl is an excuse to eat junky finger foods. How many occasions call for that outside of TV and Tupperware parties? I don't watch the game at all, just eat & drink. I made my highly requested guacamole along with other homemade and store bought dips. My parents made homemade pizza and Buffalo wings.

For dessert I made white chocolate toffee blondie bites. I kinda rolled Valentines Day into the Superbowl Party for a feminine touch, of course.

caring

I just finished putting Owen's name in for daycare. He will be enrolled this coming November, but there are very few places in St. Catharines who will accept 12 month old infants. I was advised to put him on the waiting list now if I want even a chance of getting into the daycare of my choice. But if we get in I'll be so pumped.

Daycare is so far off, right now I'm trying to help Owen learn and grow. It's pretty incredible to watch him change. He's a very active baby moving his arms and legs like crazy when he's on the floor with his toys. He get's this look of determination as he moves - as if he's got to prove to you how hard he can exercise!

Here he is at 8 am shaking a tail feather bright and early (happens every morning). He presses his lips together and stares in your eyes and goes to town. So I look at him and encourage him to work it on out. It seems as though he is the most active baby compared to all the other babies in his yoga & other classes. I'm banking on having Owen grow up to be a very active boy whom I'll be chasing around once he's crawling & walking. Good thing I'm in great shape!

He also loves music! He catches a grove when we sing to him and smiles like crazy. I started searching my brain and came up with a bunch of songs from my childhood and all the lyrics snapped right back. His absolute favourite song right now is "The Grand Ole' Duke of York" since I'll wiggle my fingers from his head to his toes at the appropriate times. It's been very cool to watch in mere days his full recognition of the songs and how happy it makes him to hear them. These songs even pull him right out of a fussy time!

11th year anniversary

I wanted to post about my husband Nuno.

This photo was taken a couple weekends ago making dinner and it cracks me up. I can't help but love Nuno's domestic prowess! I can count on him to make dinner, change poopie diapers (can you believe some husbands don't!), and snow throw not only our driveway, but all our elderly neighbours while he's at it.

Right now Nuno and I can say we've been together 11 years. I can't believe what started as a great friendship in college playing video games and drinking at the bar turned into a family and life together. I'm so happy our lives together have brought us to where we are today with our loving family.

got it!

I'm so happy we finally captured Owen's smile on camera!

He's full of smiles these days. The intentional kind - the ones we can bring out in him by cuddling, singing and playing with him. We are greeted every morning with big smiles from Owen. It is impossible to have a bad day when you wake up to this sweet face smiling at you. It's incredible.

healthy food choices

I wanted to link to a couple different pieces of information regarding food safety and sustainability. I think these are important for everyone I know to use these links as guidance for eating healthy.

The Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen - this link details which produce absorb the most pesticides.
Full List of Produce - please use this list and avoid items at the top, especially if you are pregnant!
Sustainable Fish Guide - this link is a guide on which fish to purchase to maintain ocean sustainability.

I've made it my new years resolution to keep these things in mind when shopping. I know, eating local and organic is difficult. It requires special trips out of your way and to make food decisions based on the season. It can be more expensive as well. But believe it or not, if we have a cultural shift where more and more of our grocery shopping demands local and organic we can change the industry! Wouldn't that be cool if we had the power change things?

growin' owen

In a couple days Owen will be 2 months old and, boy, is he ever growing. Yesterday Katie said she can't go two days without seeing Owen because she might miss something. I assured her there wasn't a chance of that happening. Well, no more than an hour after that telephone conversation Owen started to respond to tickles and cute voices by smiling, laughing and cooing. His face lights up and his toothless smile is heart melting! His voice is absolutely adorable. He is stringing what sound like words in baby language (mostly vowel sounds like "ahoo") and he hasn't stopped since last night. He's noticing all the mobiles and toys around him and is cuddling with toys now.

Here he is today snuggling his doggy blanket.

I think this major development was brought on by his play gym. He loves playing in this little gym he got for Christmas. This bee toy sounds every time he bats at it. It has really encouraged him to move. He can spend up to 20 minutes playing in here and moving his arms and legs.