VH Chinese New Year Blog Tour - Recipes and Giveaway!

I like to keep a cooking mindset that food should not be boring.  We love to try food from other cultures and 'theme it up' once in a while for different celebrations; pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, Roast Lamb for Easter and most recently, a Chinese Feast for Chinese New Year!
When we were living in Toronto, we were most fortunate to have become friends with a pair of sisters who were originally from Hong Kong.  One of our most treasured memories was being their guests at an authentic Hong Kong Chinese Dim Sum.  We were the only table in the room with non-Chinese guests at it.  Our hosts ordered for us as the menu was only in Chinese.  The food was fantastic and I've had a longing to recreate those dishes now that we live elsewhere.

(our family at Dim Sum in Toronto last summer)

While I've never been able to recreate those recipes (yet) - we still do enjoy creating our our Canadian Chinese food at home.  That is why I was so happy to be asked to join the VH Chinese New Year Blog Tour.  What better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon than to have a family feast?  

Whenever dining Chinese it always strikes me how family and friend oriented the meal is.  At a Dim Sum restaurant, the tables are usually round so there is no head.  Dishes are served in large portions so to be shared with the entire table.  We all partake in the meal together.  Chinese tea is often featured, traditionally, you do not pour your own tea, someone else at the table serves you, just as you would serve them.  It is a great reminder of friendship, family and community.

At home, we try to remember this act of family dining by creating many large dishes to share.  Having small children (ages 7, 4 and 2), we also try to find food that will please their choosy palates, while still satisfying our own need for unique and tasty dishes.  The menu we came up with for this Chinese New Year was greatly assisted by the sauces to try out from VH.  We feasted on: Sweet and Sour Shrimp, Pineapple Chicken, Mushroom Chow Mein, Beef & Broccoli and Steamed Rice.

The Giveaway!

Thanks to the generosity of VH and Mom Central Canada you, I invite you to join in on the fun of having your own Chinese New Year Celebration!  Leave a comment below telling your favorite Chinese Dish and you will be entered to win a Chinese New Year Gift Pack valued at $60! Giveaway is open to Canadian residents only.  One name will be drawn at random at the end of the day, February 10th.  Please include your name and contact info (email address) in your comment so I can reach you should you win.  Readers may enter this giveaway on multiple blogs, but may only win one prize.  Prizes will be sent out from Mom Central Canada on behalf of Crafty Kris.

The Recipes!

Mushroom Chow Mein

drizzle of canola oil - heat in large frying pan or wok - add:

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

cook over medium heat until heated through and just beginning to soften - add:

a couple of Tbsp of VH Hoisin Sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp chicken stock powder

1/4 C water

stir it all in together and turn heat up to medium high to get everything really hot! - add:

 4 oz chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup sugar snap peas

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 can bamboo shoots, drained

a generous drizzling of soya sauce

1 cup bean sprouts

2 cups of chow mein noodles, uncooked

mix it all together, add a bit more water to get some steam going in the wok (1/2 cup).  Cover and allow noodles to steam cook.  This cooks fast so check often and keep stirring to prevent sticking.  Top with green onion slices for garnish when serving.

 *on a happy eating side note - my picky eating boys both ate the noodles (and unknowingly the bean sprouts) from this dish as well as tried the bamboo and water chestnuts and thought it was pretty good!

Pineapple Chicken
By far the easiest of the dishes I made!

drizzle of canola oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp flour
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 jar VH pineapple chicken sauce
1/2 can pineapple tidbits

Heat oil in medium cooking pot - medium heat.  Toss the chicken pieces with the flour to coat the chicken.  Put coated chicken and red peppper in the cooking pot, stir frequently.  Add the jar of sauce.  Continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce starts to bubble.  Add the pineapple.  Continue to cook until the pineapple is heated.

*my kids loved this dish 

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

My husband's contribution to our feast.  He used a Buttermilk Batter recipe from Food.com (originally intended for onion rings).  

16 shrimp (tails on) - he let the shrimp marinate a little bit in a mix of a little bit of Thai Fish Sauce with a pinch of salt before battering

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups buttermilk

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

canola oil

VH Sweet and Sour Sauce - to serve over the shrimp once cooked.

Whisk together the flour, buttermilk, sugar, baking powder and salt until smooth.  Pour oil to a depth of 2 inches in a dutch oven.  Heat to 375*.  Dip shrimp in batter, coating well.  Fry a few shrimp at a time until golden.  Drain - (my husband uses a 2 step draining process, first in a metal strainer, then onto paper towels.)  Repeat with remaining shrimp.  *We had enough batter to fry up some onion rings as well, which isn't very Chinese Food-ish, but still delicious with the sweet and sour sauce.

Seriously yummy!  The Sweet and Sour is our favorite VH Sauce to use!

Beef & Broccoli

 

This recipe comes from Stephen Yan's Cookbook on Chinese Cooking from the late 70's or early 80's.  He was the charismatic host of Wok With Yan - a Canadian Chinese cooking program that ran for 15 years or more.  This recipe is simple and very tasty.  

 

1 pound of fresh broccoli, sliced into bite sized pieces

1/2 pound beef flank steak, sliced thinly across the grain

1 tbsp light soy sauce

dash of pepper

1 tbsp tapioca starch or cornstarch

a few drops of sesame oil

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

4 tbsp sesame or peanut oil

Marinate the beef with light soy sauce, pepper, few drops sesame oil and starch for 15 minutes.  In a wok or skillet, help up 2 tbsp of oil until smoke begins to rise.  Put in broccoli, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of water.  Mix and cover with lid.  Cook with high heat for 4 minutes, until steam escapes from the edge of the lid.  Remove to a plate.  Use high heat and 2 tbsp of oil; when hot, brown garlic for a minute.  Then add beef, stir fry until the color of the meat changes.  Return broccoli and mix.  Serve hot.

A sprinkle of sesame seeds on top makes a nice garnish!

*This was the first time we used our new rice cooker and I'm in love with it - super easy and perfect rice!  I highly recommend you get one too.

Still in the mood for Chinese, but not so much up to cooking tonight?  Look out for VH Steamers in the freezer section of your local grocery store. 

Disclosure – I am participating in the VH Chinese New Year Celebration program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of VH.  I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Best Beef Dip! - for a slow cooker

Beef Dip is one of those recipes that I always order at a diner.  I love it.  It's a treat when made well, but I've never thought to make it myself.  Rewind to two weeks ago, I was browsing at one of my favorite recipe sites, food.com, and found this recipe.  It had very high ratings (4 1/2 stars out of 5) and a lot of positive reviews.  The ingredients were simple and staples in our home.  It looked super easy (and it was) and honestly, I couldn't believe how delicious this really was.  My husband has not stopped talking about it ever since.  He has asked a number of our friends if they have slow cookers and told them to get this recipe off of me.  That's high praise :)  The original posting is found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/french-dip-roast-beef-for-the-crock-pot-103403.

• 3 1/2-4 lbs boneless chuck roast
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 -4 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 12 French rolls , split - (even better when toasted and then spread with a little mayo before adding the meat)

Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients.  Pour over roast.  Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.  Cook, covered, on LOW for 7 hours or until very tender.  Remove roast, reserving broth.  You may shred roast with a fork and serve on sandwich rolls with the broth on the side for dipping.

Tikka Kebabs

This was a fantastic recent find of mine.  I have a couple of amazing cookbooks by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.  They are a couple who travels in different parts of the world (mostly Asia) and learn to cook in villages by the locals.  They have the most wonderful recipes in beautiful books.  This recipe came from Mangoes and Curry Leaves:Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent.  It just so happened that this book was the end book on my cookbook shelf.  The back cover picture kept staring at me calling my name until I became determined to find out just what that dish was.  This is it.  As my husband said, this was the best marinade he's ever had.  And this is a man who is serious about eating good meat!
The recipe is supposed to be for lamb kebabs (not much in the way of beef recipes in India) but seeing as we do eat beef here and good lamb is harder to come by, I used beef instead of lamb when we did these up.  We've had them twice in the past 2 weeks, once without the yogurt in the marinade as I didn't have any on hand and once with.  Both versions were good.  I even managed to convince my husband to BBQ them for me in the snow - isn't he great?



Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder (I used stewing beef in substitution)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp minced garlic (or garlic mashed to a paste)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4-1/2 tsp ground black pepper (optional)
lime or lemon wedges

Trim the meat of any excess fat and cut into 3/4 inch cubes.  Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, coriander. oil, 1 tsp of the salt, the cayenne, and black pepper.  Pour over the meat.  Stir with a spoon or your hands to get all the meat surfaces coated with marinade.  Cover  and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for as long as 12 hours. 
Thread the meat onto metal skewers, without pressing them tightly together, grill over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until browned on the outside and pale pink in the centre (or all the way through if you prefer).
Just before serving, sprinkle about 1 tsp of salt over the meat.  Put out lime or lemon wedges so guests can squeeze on fresh juice.
Serve with flatbread.

Marinated Salmon

This is a variation on a recipe I found in "Eat Shrink and Be Merry" by Janet and Greta Podleski. Their original recipe is for salmon skewers (called Skewer Always on my Mind) and has a couple more ingredients that I didn't have on hand. I used a big Salmon fillet and let the marinade sit on it for half an hour before broiling.

Marinade:
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey mustard
1 tbsp BBQ sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp each cumin, ground coriander, salt, ground pepper

1 1/2 lbs (680 g) salmon fillet

Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl. Mix well. Place salmon on a large plate. Pour marinade on top. Let sit for a half hour in the fridge. Pre-heat broiler to high setting. Place salmon onto a baking sheet. Broil for 15 minutes (approximate), probably more depending on the thickness of your salmon fillet. Keep checking to see that the salmon is cooked through at the thickest part (use a fork to flake). Be careful not to overcook or the salmon will become dry. I broil in my oven, so I made sure to put it in the centre of the oven so the top doesn't burn.

Saturday BBQ at the park

One good thing about living in a company town is that they have used some of their land to turn into a park space. And because they are an oil company they pipe gas into the park right to gas BBQ's. I love this. Several times over the sunny (and somewhat warm) season (it's not long around here) we take our BBQ up to the park for dinner and then go for a hike afterwards.

Steak Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup steak sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground pepper

Mix everything together in a small bowl. Pour over steaks to marinade for at least 2 hours (I like to marinade them for 24 hours, it tastes better). I also bought the club pack (read=big, cheap pack) of steak meat this week. It came with 2 large cuts of beef. I cut one into serving size steaks and trimmed the fat from it. I then marinaded it with this marinade in a ziplock bag. The other steak I trimmed the fat from and cut into strips to marinade for fajitas (look for this recipe later this week).

Chick Pea Salad

Also known as Red, White and Yahoo Salad from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski. One of my favortite summertime salads (and requested potluck dishes).

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 pint of grape tomatoes, (slice each tomato in half)
1 container of mini bocconcini, (slice each cheese in half) - (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsalmic vinegar
salt and pepper to season

Mix everything together

*Bocconcini is fresh mozzerella in little cheese balls. You can find it in the specialty cheese area (or fresh pasta area) of your grocery store. If you've never had these before, you are in for a treat. I make another salad, that's very similar with the larger bocconcinis and tomatoes and basil that's absolutely delicious too :o)

Fruit salad

I love fruit salad, it's so easy and you can pretty much put whatever kind of fruit you want in it. When I was teaching kindergarten, for our end of the year party I would have the kids each bring in a fruit of their choice. We'd then cut it all up and put it in a big bowl to mix togehter, naming it friendship salad.
This week's fruit salad had:
1 banana
1 gala apple (peeled)
2 kiwi
1 cup mixed berries
1 mandarin orange cup (1/4 cup), drained
1 tbsp lemon juice

I know, I've said before that I'm not a fan of oranges, and I'm not...but I don't mind them in fruit salad because I can pick around them and other people like them.

Also at our BBQ picnic we had Party Mix and Pop.

You'll notice that this didn't have anything to do with Memorial Day. We don't have Memorial Day. Our May holiday Monday is Victoria Day (the week before). Victoria Day falls the Monday before May 24th, which was Queen Victoria's birthday. It's in rememberance of her and an acknowledgement of the reining sovereign (Queen Elizabeth) It doesn't mark the beginning of summer holidays either (though we still think of it as an official marker of summer). We still have until the end of June before school is out. I hope all of you had a great May long weekend (regardless of where you are and what you are celebrating and when) Cheers!

Thai inspired dinner with a good friend

I've been wanting to visit my favorite Thai restaurant, Suwanna for a while now. It's a nicer place to go and we usually reserve it for special occasions (the last time we were there was my birthday back in November. We were going to go there for Jonathan's birthday a couple of weeks ago but it was closed (they take a couple of week's holiday each year). So while we went elsewhere for dinner that night, my Thai craving didn't go away. While I make a decent Thai stir-fry, there are other dishes that I love eating but have never made myself. Tonight was the night to search and experiment. Can I make more than a stir-fry? Can I brave a carrot salad and succeed? How about Chicken Satay and peanut sauce?
I did some googling and found a few recipes for each. Some I followed as written, others I tweaked.
1st up was the carrot salad. Carrot salad is something I would never have ordered were it not for the encouragement of my friend Erin on her birthday at Suwanna one year. She raved about it. I thought how good could a pile of shredded carrot be? I am not a huge coleslaw fan to begin with, why would I order something resembling coleslaw at a fancy restaurant? I am so glad I did. This carrot salad was so delicious. I found a highly rated version at Group Recipes and gave it a go.

3 cups grated carrots
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 cup chopped peanuts
Finely chopped fresh mint for garnish (I didn't have fresh mint so I left this out)

Directions
In a food processor blend all the vinaigrette ingredients except peanuts and mint. (I used a hand blender to mix)
Wash the carrots with a brush and grate into a large bowl.
Add the dressing and marinate for 20 minutes before serving. (ours marinated for closer to an hour)
Garnish with chopped peanuts and mint.

The result was a lovely salad. All adults at the table loved it. I say adults because my kids took one look at their plate of salad, rice and chicken and kind of shook their head. Elijah ate the rice, tried the chicken and salad before rejecting it. Jeremy didn't even get that far. He immediately grabbed the salad into his hands and said, 'No like this' and started to pile it onto my husband's plate. At that point I figured it would be a lot easier (and quieter) to make them each a snack plate supper of cheese and crackers, yogurt cups and dried fruit. It worked!




Thai stir-fry and basamati rice I could probably make in my sleep by now. I made the stir-fry and curry sauce plain (no shrimp or anything) and added more veg than I would if I were making this with a meat. I halved the sauce from my usual as I had only half a can of coconut milk left over from the satay marinade.

Stir-fry

1 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped

Stir-fry all of the above over medium low heat until just soft, add the sauce (below) and allow to cook together to let the flavours blend into each other. Add some fresh chopped cilantro just before serving.

Curry Sauce (1/2)

1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 tsp red curry paste
few dashes of fish sauce

Boil altogether in a small saucepan, whisking well.



Chicken Satay

The chicken satay recipe I found at All Recipes.

1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (did not add)
1 tablespoon chopped unsalted peanuts (did not add)
12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 15 minutes (we just grilled the chicken without being on skewers)

In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut milk, ground coriander, curry powder, fish sauce, and chili oil. Add the chicken breast strips, and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill for high heat. Thread the chicken strips onto skewers. Discard marinade.
Grill chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until no longer pink. Time will depend on how thick your strips are. Transfer to a serving plate, and garnish with cilantro and peanuts. Serve with peanut sauce for dipping.

*We didn't skewer it and I didn't add the cilantro and peanuts at the end because I already had a couple of dishes with both. Also, when I started the marinade I was out of ground corriander so I used 1 tsp thyme and 1/2 tsp parsley in it instead. I did have to make a grocery run for a couple of things (highly unusual for me, I know) and ended up picking up some ground coriander while I was there and adding it to the marinade when I got home. I think the chicken sat in the marindade for a good 3 hours before we grilled it on the BBQ. I also managed to convince my husband to BBQ in the rain for me for this, which I am very grateful.

This chicken was really tasty. I would definately make it again.



Peanut Sauce

The peanut sauce I had a harder time finding. I read a lot of peanut sauce recipes and never did find one that I thought would be really good. What I ended up doing was basing mine on a recipe I found at All Recipes and then adapting it based on the comments it had received. It made a lot more sauce than I was expecting, and I ended up cooking it in a small saucepan over low-medium heat in order to get the peanut butter to a really smooth consistancy.

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth, natural)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar (I used brown sugar instead and increased it to 1 tbsp)
2 drops hot pepper sauce (I increased this quite a bit, probably 4 or 5 good shakes, not drops)
1 clove garlic, minced (I increased this to 2 cloves crushed)
1/2 cup water
*I added a little bit of chili oil and threw in some sesame seeds too

In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, hot pepper sauce and garlic until well mixed. Gradually stir in water until texture is smooth and creamy.
*These directions didn't work for me. I combined everything into a small saucepan and whisked it together over low-medium heat instead.

The results were quite tasty.

Dinner was followed by mango sorbet and chocolate chip cookies. Very tasty.

So a little while back, Mommy Gourmet challenged us to have a meal with a friend (or friends) and write about it. I really wanted to do this, not for the contest of it, but because I really enjoy spending time with my friends. Because of the chaos that is our lives at present I was starting to think that I wouldn't have the time to share an evening with everyone. We did have dinner with friends over the past month, but it's been dinner out, not dinner in.

This morning after church, my husband was chatting with a very good friend of ours, Debbie. As I joined them I kept getting the nudge to invite her over for dinner, so I did. (Hey, when God speaks, I've learned to listen). As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Jonathan said, "I was just thinking that, yes, you should come over for supper tonight." So she agreed.
It has been too long since we've had Debbie over. We don't live close to our family (life having taken us to the complete opposite side of Canada), but we've been fortunate enough to make some friendships here that truly have become more than friendship. I would count Debbie as someone who is more family to us. She is one of Jeremy's godparents. She is someone that we have travelled with. She is someone who has cared for our children when we've gone away (she looked after Elijah when I was labouring with Jeremy). She's one of the first people to know what's going on with us. She prays for us and with us. She's just a really lovely person. Her daughter, Christy is also very close to us and is the first person we call to take care of the boys when we want a night out. Christy was away tonight for the long weekend, so it was just Debbie, which was neat because we often don't get to see Debbie, just Debbie.
The boys were so excited to see her. She is one of their favorite people. You can always tell with the kids who they like and who they don't by how much they show off, and it was full force show off mode tonight.
Most of the night took place in the kitchen (because let's face it, I'm somewhat of a Maritmer now and that's what Maritimers do) and we just talked. We talked while I finished up supper. We talked while we ate. We talked while I cleaned up. We talked during dessert. And we talked over tea (Darjeeling - me) and coffee (Starbucks blend - Jonathan and Debbie) afterwards. Those are some of the best nights. You don't need to plan any entertainment (and really, a two year old running around in his diaper telling you he's naked is entertainment - and hey, there's always his four year old brother doing his best Elvis impersonation using a hockey stick as a guitar too). It's just friends being friends, catching up and being comfortable with each other. There's no pressure to be anyone in particular, just yourself.
Debbie loved the food. She fully admits to being a functional cook. She makes sure that there is always a nutritious meal set out (she and another friend of ours run a place called Jordan House, which boards women who need a place to stay), but she's not one to experiment with food. She had a good laugh that my kids would turn down this 'gourmet meal' for cheese and crackers. She thought the carrot salad was so tasty (never having had Suwanna's to compare to). She asked how I made the stir-fry (and had seconds, always a compliment to the cook). And just seemed to really enjoy the meal. She also had a giggle over me taking pictures of what we were eating, but was intregued enough to want to see the blog after supper.
I don't think you can ask for much more than that. Good friend, good food, good time.



Debbie with Elijah

Mother's Day BBQ

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day! I was so excited that we were able to BBQ tonight, our first BBQ of the season. I had bought a couple of steaks in hopes that we could do it soon, the weather here has been uncooperative so far (foggy, drizzly, chilly), but tonight the rain clouds let up for a few hours, like my own personal Mother's Day present. We went all out, I marinated the steaks, Jonathan marinated some chicken and we added a few hot dogs for the boys. Here's my own personal BBQ chef on duty.

Steak Marinade
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/4 cup steak sauce
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Spice
1 tbsp basalmic vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
Mix all together. Put the steaks and marinade in a strong ziplock bag and allow to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Chicken Marinade
Jonathan did this and just told me what he put in it, no measurements so take your best guess.
Olive Oil
Basalmic Vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
Greek Seasoning.
Mix all together. Pour over chicken (we used chicken breasts that had been slices into chicken strip size) in a strong ziplock bag and all to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

And what about the side dishes? The first was a Carrot Bake that I stumbled upon on Katy's blog(of Food For A Hungry Soul). It had been calling my name since I first saw it a few weeks back and I wasn't disappointed. It actually reminded me of a scallopped corn dish that I make and enjoy. I've quite often what I could do different with carrots seeing as J doesn't like glazed carrots and I really only know 3 other ways to cook them (boiled, stir fried, and mashed with turnip). So thank you Katy for something new to add to my repitoire!

The second side dish also has a story. I was on Pam's blog (For the Love of Cooking) and she had a teaser picture of a potato dish headed by the words: Need an easy side dish? And I was hooked. I wanted those potatoes now! Clicking that picture led me to a plethora of side dishes and I started to scroll, and scroll and scroll, until I finally found them. It turns out that she had found the recipe on thepioneerwoman.com. FYI they are called Crash Hot Potatoes and they are absolutely delcious and very easy to make.
Altogether with a glass of Diet Coke, not a bad Mother's Day meal. Have a wonderful day!