Potluck

My apologies, I know I haven't posted in a while. My life picked up like a whirlwind and kind of overtook, well, for lack of better word, my life.

To pick up where I left off last, I had a potluck at my place at the end of March.

I invited a lot of people, but even with a handful of polite declines, I still had more people coming than usual. I didn't even have enough chairs for everyone!

Everyone had arrived by around 630 and there was a lot of (delicious!) food at the table! =D

Not enough chairs to go around, whoops! =(

It was also Denise's birthday the weekend before, so I made her a banana cake with cream cheese icing in celebration.

Mmm delicious cake... *droooooools*

I didn't get a good photo of all the food, as I slowly became busier as more people trickled in.

We enjoyed a LOT of yummy foods made by everyone, had birthday cake, played catch phrase and things in a box.

There was a lot of food going around afterward still. Drunken gummy bears, homemade Bailey's, caramel fondue and so much more. There was a lot leftover, but thank goodness people took things home (like all the chicken wings left!)

All this writing is making me hungry... time to grab my bedtime snack! =D

Avocados!

I've been having a big hankering for avocados lately, so I went to the store and picked up a bunch a few weeks ago. After that, I realized that although I love avocados, I don't actually know how to use them in a large variety of ways.

So I tried a couple things out.

Turns out, avocado is more versatile than I realized. It's great in so many things!


Firstly, I tried it in a simple salad. I had lettuce that had been sitting in the fridge for longer than it should, I clearly needed to use it. Rummaging around my fridge, I found a container of feta that wasn't open yet (yum!). And there always seems to be cucumber and tomato lying around somewhere.

Cut it all up and throw it together, into what turned out to be a delicious (and heart healthy) salad!


Next up was grilled cheese, with a twist. I added sliced of avocado and tomato to the mix and grilled it up on the stove. The avocado got all warm and gooey, and the cheese melted into the tomato. Mmmmm heavenly...

I actually picked up a fresh bunch again just yesterday as well. Good thing I'm expanding my avocado repertoire! =)

Salmon and potatoes

I love salmon. And I love potatoes.

Yum yum.

I was craving some crosstrax a few weeks ago (and still are, coincidentally), but didn't want to head to the Keg on campus to get my fill of such greasiness.

Instead, I decided to make wedge potato fries for myself in the oven with my trusty herb: rosemary.

I also had some portioned filets of salmon in the fridge, so I went ahead and made them with lemon wedges and some cracked pepper.

To round off the meal, I added some nice fresh green beans from the store for a deliciously colourful meal! =D

Monkey Toasts

A couple weeks ago, I went in to Toronto for the weekend to hang out with my cousins, Winnie and Sharon. Winnie's birthday was a couple days before, so we decided to head out for dinner and a comedy club of her choice.

We ended up at Banjara Indian Cuisine, which, by the way, was absolutely DELICIOUS. It's even better than Diwa Classic here in Guelph, and I really like that place...

Anyways, the place was packed, fueling my comment that it was a great place to eat.

After dinner, we walked around the Queen St W area because it was a beautiful cool night. When it was about good timing, we headed to Comedy Bar with our tickets to Monkey Toasts!

I like live comedy, but haven't been out to see a lot of it because not many of my friends are interested in it. Glad my cousins are up for anything! It was a great show, with three guests (John Catucci, Mike Layton and Marnie McBean).

It was pretty cool, because Marnie is an Olympic medallist for Canadian rowing and she shared her experiences on that. Mike Layton is the Trinity-Spadina city councillor, and John Catucci is on the Food Network!!

I definitely hit up John Catucci afterware for a photo and the chance to ask him about being on the Food Network, how he got to where he is now, etc. Although he didn't have the authority to get me a show on the network, he was interesting to talk to and an overall awesome funny guy.

Me with John Catucci!

Pesto salmon

I'm not sure if I've posted something like this before, but it is still delicious.

There was some good lookin' salmon at the store, so I picked up some of it.

I also love pesto, and always have that lying around, so I thought I'd put the 2 together and make some epic delicious-ness.

My creation?


A plate of awesome. That's what.

I'm a strong proponent of crispy skin and flaky flesh., so the consistency of the fish was a little on the mushy side for me. Overall though, it tasted pretty good.

It was a simple foil packet of salmon with the pesto rubbed on top. I left it to bake in the oven for 20 minutes and it turned out great!

Tofu stirfry

I really like the new plates I got back in January, and have been thinking of how I can start to utilize them in my photos.


Not a particularly interesting dinner, but I love the ease of stirfries and how delicious they are when I add my signature sauce to it.

William Fitzsimmons

Don't be alarmed by the massive facial hair. He's safe.

LOL.

Last month, Jer and I ventured into Toronto one fine Friday evening to go see William Fitzsimmons in concert. We left a bit earlier, so we could go somewhere for a bite to eat. Along the way there, he decided on going to an oyster bar. I recall seeing that Oyster Boy was only a few blocks from The Great Hall, so we found a parking spot at the nearby Green P and walked over.

It was a nice evening and at one point, we were walking behind the great man himself! That was exciting for me, especially since I didn't notice. Jer had to point out to me that the "disgusting smokers" we were walking behind, was William and some other people I could only assume to be in his band (turns out it was his band manager and the opening act).


The oysters were delicious of course (St. Simon variety from New Brunswick).

Oh, yes. The concert was absolutely fantastic too.

We got back to Guelph really really late/early. Aka, sleep timeee =D

Spicy shrimp with avocado mayonnaise

I love sandwiches. Having said that, the choice to not eat meat makes it a little more difficult to have sandwiches... =(

I found this delicious recipe on gojee and wanted to try it asap!


The avocado mayonnaise was something to die for, it was sooo good. However, I didn't find the spicy shrimp quite spicy enough, so that was a bit disheartening. I was looking for something with a lot more heat and kick to it to really get me going. I'll just have to double the amount of spice next time =)

French onion soup - a beginner's tutorial

Okay fine. I'll admit it. I've never had French onion soup before.

Whaaat?!?!?

What is a crazy 25 year old lady like you doing trying to make French onion soup from scratch then?!

I know. I am ridiculous.

What gives? Well, I just. Felt like it.

Turns out it's pretty simple. It just takes a long time.

Step 1:


Caramelize the onions over low heat with a generous portion of delicious butter for a long period time. Best to do this in batches so they don't crowd the stockpot and steam instead.

Step 2:


Add liquid. Traditionally, beef broth is used, but seeing as how I am not a meat-eater, I opted for vegetable broth and spent a good chunk of time simmering it to reduce and concentrate the stock.

Step 3:


Fill oven-proof soup bowls 2/3 full of soup.

Step 4:


Cover with baguette and cheese, and melt under the broiler for a few minutes.

Again, since this was from last month, I was still in the process of chugging through the leftover cheese. I was on the last of the brie, and since it is a gooey melter, I thought "why not?".

Rookie mistake...

The rind of the brie cheese prevented the melty gooey cheese-y mess I expected atop my soup. Still. It was delicious.

=D

Salmon casserole

I love eating salmon. And frankly, I don't really mind the canned stuff, as long as it includes the bones (weird, I know...).

Although the canned stuff does have a slight smell to it, it goes away after you cook it. And my salmon casserole turned out delicious!

Double whammy grilled cheese

There was a significant amount of leftover cheese from my birthday wine and cheese party. Despite the massive cheese-fest gorged on that evening, I made room for more cheese! =)

May I present to you my delicious masterpiece, my double whammy grilled cheese sandwich. One layer of plain aged cheddar, one layer of jalapeno havarti. Sandwiched between not two, but three, slices of bread, buttered up and pan fried to perfection!


Don't worry. I paired it with a healthy spinach salad. Loaded with fresh mushrooms, some grated gruyere cheese and finished with a lemon poppyseed dressing.


What a delicious dinner! =D

Leek risotto

Mmmm I love risotto. This was from last month.


I paired this with breaded catfish that I baked instead of fried (for my health's sake).

Delicious!

Plant Ag xmas party!

Our departmental "holiday party" was mid December, just a few days after my defense. It was a busy week for me, because I was prepping for my defense, then I had to organize a baking party to get our Christmas treats ready, then there was our annual Secret Santa party where said treats were disseminated, and then there was the Christmas party.

The party was being held at Atmosphere cafe this year, and although I was a bit hesitant because of the layout of the restaurant (long and skinny), it seemed to work out pretty well. We had our projector set up for a rotating picture slideshow.

And a fun addition was the return of Santa himself! He had been amiss for a couple years, but we decided to bring him back, with Greta and myself as his personal elf assistants!

Rudolph managed to make it in to enjoy some of the festivities as well!
There was good food (although I hardly got to eat any of it) and a great crowd of people. We gave away door prizes and prizes to go with our trivia questions. There was some fun dancing in the back of the restaurant, and of course heading downtown afterwards for more drinks and dancing!

My post-defense self was a lot more relaxed and definitely excited about being able to drink and celebrate, but my regular self didn't allow myself up later than 1am, so I definitely had to go home and call it a night.

Butternut squash and goat cheese...

Oh man, food is my life.

Just writing this blog post title made my mouth salivate.

I just love the strong complex flavours of goat cheese. How it's such a soft cheese. How it's not quite a silken texture yet, but it's not really a gritty texture either. How it pairs well with a nice white. How you can drizzle olive oil or balsamic vinegar over it. How you can just eat it. On it's own.

Ooooh yummm...

...

Anyways.

I was reading the latest issue of "Fine Cooking" on the weekend and I came across an article about making fresh pasta. Following it, were a few recipes on making fresh lasagna dishes. The last one, was a butternut squash lasagna, with mashed garlic butternut squash filling between layers of fresh lasagna, coated in a beautiful goat cheese bechamel sauce.

Oh my, that sounded heavenly. But tough luck on getting me to make fresh pasta again without a pasta roller!!

I opted instead, to use up the rest of the pasta shells I had kicking around from the last time.

I roasted half a bulb of garlic and a butternut squash cut in two. Mashing it all together, seasoning it, and mixing it in with a cooked concoction of the leftover mushrooms and a shallot.

Stuff stuff stuff! Into the pasta shells they go!


I could have gone for a cheesier bechamel sauce, but I left it to a tad too late to start adding the goat cheese, and it was thickening up on me like no tomorrow. I only managed to add about 2/3 of a cup of goat cheese before I had to take it off the heat for fear of creating a glutinous mess.

What baked up in my oven 30 minutes later? A batch of heaven. That's what.

Insalata caprese

I didn't have the right cheese. And I didn't have fresh basil leaves. But I have everything else. And I added delicious avocado slices.

This salad is so... not... really a salad. But I love it. Alternating slices of tomato and mozzarella. Drizzled with a good quality cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil. Salt to taste.

Ooh, it sounds so delicious!

Oh yeah, this was my little appetizer treat for the Grey Cup. Oooh yeah....

Potato curry

I seem to be lacking a lot of ingredients in my pantry lately. Blame it on having a blanked brain while at the store.

I just wanted something simple and hearty, but was missing many ingredients typically used to make my curry.

For example, curry paste.

Seriously?

Nonetheless, I made it using skim milk mixed with corn starch. Well that doesn't sound healthy. Although I am weighing the benefits of that against the use of an entire can of coconut milk. Really, which seems worse?

I just wanted something delicious to eat. And thus, I made it.

Potato and carrot curry. I can't even remember if I added chickpeas to this. I would have been crazy NOT to.

Mac 'n cheese

I love love LOVE macaroni and cheese. I had a lot of KD growing up and with an appreciation for "real food" now, I've learned that it doesn't take much more effort to make it from scratch.


Lesson's learned this time around?:

1. DON'T buy the whole wheat macaroni. No matter how healthy you want to be, the Healthy Harvest just doesn't cut it with cheese macaroni.
2. Use more jalapeno. Apparently, this pepper doesn't have much effect on me. The spicy heat was sorely missed, and I was left with a sad bowl of un-spicy mac 'n cheese.
3. Bring on the cheeseeeeee. Man, do I ever love it.

Baked pesto salmon

Last week, I was in the mood for pesto, but not in the mood for pasta. I wanted to eat some protein, so I opted to try a pesto salmon.

I baked it in foil on a bed of green beans and it turned out great. I could have salted a teensy bit more (as usual) and let it bake for a touch longer, but it turned out great.

Delicious!

Spaghetti squash

I am a fan of butternut and acorn squash, but for some reason I just haven't ventured to the spaghetti variety. I thought I'd give it a try, as I bought one the other week.

After thinking for a week of what I could do with it, I realized why it is not high up on my squash priority list: there isn't much you can do with it.

So I did the standard.

Spaghetti squash seemed even more difficult to cut than the butternut. I couldn't hack through it, so I ended up making a bunch of slits and tossing it in the microwave for about 8 minutes before I could get a knife through it.

I tossed some olive oil over it and baked them cut side down for 30 minutes. Then, with fork-ful power, I turned it into this:


Looks delish, doesn't it.

It certainly looks great, but I got quite sick of eating it soon after. Plus, with such a massive squash, it was more than 1 meal. AKA. zOMG-give-me-anything-else-to-eat!!

My squash dinner was topped with a random assortment of "in-fridge" ingredients. Aka, pasta sauce, onion, chick peas and jalapeno.

Mediterranean soup

I was busy on the weekend. The kimchi and sloppy joes were on Saturday. Sunday I used to relax a bit, make some chocolate cookies (coming soon!) I was dying to try out and test out making a Mediterranean soup.

As usual, I get inspiration from watching the Food Network. Michael Smith was on TV and the episode highlighted his Mediterranean chicken soup. Given the fact that I don't eat chicken, clearly I needed to improvise. I started my soup stock with the standard mirepoix. The vegetables in the soup were rounded out with green bell peppers and half a fennel bulb (I didn't dare to throw it all in for fear of licorice-y-ness).

I know it's a Mediterranean soup, but I didn't start with a sofrito base because I wasn't making it Spanish. Just to make it even more ambiguous, the soup was finished off with a random assortment of things:

• black olives
• Israeli couscous
• chick peas
• fennel
  

I didn't realize Israeli couscous continued to absorb liquid the way it does, so my lunch the next day was conspicuously chunky. Still delicious though!