Filled Crescent Rolls

Here's another idea i picked up on Pinterest.  I made 3 variations of filled crescent rolls.  All were tasty and given a "thumbs up" by my kids for lunch.  All use Pillsbury Crescent Rolls to make, adding a filling before rolling it up to bake as directed

Variation 1 - cheese filled
Variation 2 - cheese & hot dog
Variation 3 -peanut butter and chocolate chip

I think the possibilities here are endless.

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.

The Best Chili!

For the first few years of our marriage, I'd make chili and my husband would eat it, but not enjoy it. The problem is that he really, really loves chili, but I couldn't seem to find a recipe that he liked. So I stopped making chili altogether. That was it. If I wanted chili, I'd get a bowl from Tim Horton's or Wendy's. Now that the fall weather is here, I was craving chili again. I thought I would scour my favorite blogs and recipe sites until I found the perfect recipe and make it. My friends, I have found that recipe. This was the perfect chili. And yes, my husband enjoyed it too. This is my keeper. I found it on food.com (formerly Recipezaar.com) and it is delicious. The only differences that I did with this recipe was use our homemade tomato sauce instead of canned, increased the onion to half an onion, and added a finely chopped green pepper to the mix. Other than that I made it according to her directions. So enjoy, the perfect chili.

Seasoning Mix

* 4 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together seasoning mix.
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

* 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
* 1 tablespoon minced onion (I used half and onion instead, I also added a chopped green pepper)
* 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans


-In a skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink.
-Drain.
-Add onion and 3 tsp of seasoning mix.
-In Crock-Pot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, one can of beans (drain and rinse the beans) and two more teaspoons of seasoning mix.
-Place the other can of beans (drain and rinse the beans first) in a blender and process until smooth.
-Add beans and meat to the crock pot.
-Stir together.
-Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

The Rotisserie Chicken

I really think that the rotisserie chicken is one of the greatest gifts that grocery stores have given us shoppers.  Think about it. You get a perfectly cooked, flavorful chicken, usually for less than the cost if you bought a chicken and cooked it yourself.  I get mine at Costco every 2 weeks, only $6.99 (CDN).  You can't beat that.  These chickens are so versatile.  Here's a small sampling of what you can do with one of these.  Please let me know your own uses for these chickens in the comments section - I'm always looking for ways to be inspired.

-chicken dinner
-chicken salad sandwiches
-chicken wraps
-chicken nachos
-BBQ chicken pizza
-chicken for baby food
-butter chicken
-chicken curry
-chicken in salad
-chicken burritos

Wild Rice and Turkey Casserole

2 C cut up cooked turkey or chicken
2 1/4 C boiling water
1/3 C milk
1 small chopped onion (1/4 c)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg seasoned long grain and wild rice.

Mix everything together in a casserole dish.  Cover and bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes, or until rice is tender.  Uncover and bake 15 minutes more, until liquid is absorbed.

Mom's ideas for turkey leftovers

1. Chow Mein

2. Shepherd's Pie - using turkey for the base and mashed yams for the top.  Follow the normal recipe for sheperd's pie.

3. Turkey Loaf - Cook and stir for 1 min 1 1/2 tbsp grated onion in 1 tbsp butter.  Add to it 2 C cooked turkey, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 cup cracker or bread crumbs, 3/4 C gravy or stock, 3/4 C milk, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 C chopped celery.
Place in a well greased loaf pan.  Bake 50 mins at 350*.  Place loaf pan in a pan of hot water while baking.

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger - post 2

As requested from comments in my previous post, here is a picture of Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger.  This is the reheated version (as are the home fries - I know they don't look great, but they taste good).  Even re-heated my husband was raving about this burger, it's just that good!
After much contemplation I did decide to post the recipe.  It goes along with the premise of the book.   He wrote it with the intention of getting people to cook again.  The recipes are easy to follow and have picture tutorials throughout.  He also wants people to pay it forward with cooking. Well I recently moved and don't know anyone out here well enough to tutor them in cooking so my blog will have to do it for me.  Here's the recipe:

12 cream or plain crackers
8 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1 pound ground beef
1 large egg
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Wrap the crackers in a kitchen towel and smash up until fine, breaking up any big bits with your hands, and put them in a large bowl.  Finely chop the parsley, including the stalks.  Add the parsley, mustard, and ground beef into the bowl.  Crack the egg and add a good pinch of salt and pepper.  With clean hands, scrunch and mix everything up well.  Divide into 6 and pat and mold each piece into a roundish shape about 3/4 inch thick.  Drizzle the burgers with oil, put on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator until needed (this helps firm them up).

We BBQ-ed them and melted cheddar on top.  Jamie reccommends using a grill pan as well to cook the burgers.  Place into a toasted bun and top with your favorite burger toppings.  Enjoy!

Sausage & Potato Bake

If you are a reader of Today's Parent magazine, you may recognize this recipe. It's one of the 'Dinner's in the Oven' recipes from the current issue (April 2010). I was really excited about this because I am living in a city now where I can easily find turkey sausage (traditional pork sausage does not agree with me at all) so I knew I could adapt the sausage and be able to eat it. Here's the recipe...then read on to see what happened.

1 tsp veg oil
1 lb raw Italian-style sausages (I subbed turkey sausage here)
1 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 jar (about 200 ml) alfredo pasta sauce
1 tsp dried parsley
2 lb waxy-potatoes, washed (I really don't know what waxy potatoes are, I just used white potatoes)
1 small onion, peeled

Preheat oven to 375*. Heat oil in a deep 12 inch ovenproof frying pan (medium heat). Lightly brown sausages (6 minutes) - set sausages aside onto a plate, drain excess grease from pan. Add broth, alfredo sauce and parseley to pan. Whisk to blend. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat and set aside. Slice potatoes & onions thinly. Spread evenly in pan, nestling into broth mixture. Transfer to oven, bake for 40 minutes, add sausage, bake for 20 more minutes (check sausages are cooked through). Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*I did all as asked and my recipe turned out nothing like the picture. The potatoes were still crunchy and the broth was really thin, not at all creamy so here's how I saved it. I took the sausages off and set them aside on a plate. I then melted 1/4 cup margarine in a cooking pot, added 1/4 cup flour and blended to a paste, I then drained off the liquid broth mixture from the potatoes and added to the cooking pot. I whisked it all together and brought to a boil. This thickened everything up nicely. I poured it back over the potatoes, turned the oven heat up to 350* and baked it all for another half hour. It worked and was pretty yummy. I think if I were to make this again, I would add a flour mixture to begin with to be thicker to start. I would also up the cooking time to let the potatoes cook really well. The flavor was nice.

Post 100 is...Cheeseburgers!

So I'm still not on par with my blogging life, but I'll get there. Today was my last day of work for a little while (ahh, summer vacation), and what better way to celebrate what I consider to be the beginning of summer than a post about homemade burgers and potato salad?

Burger Patties

1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup BBQ sauce of your choice

Mix everything together with your hands. Shape into patties, your preference of size. BBQ. Add more BBQ sauce as the burgers are cooking for additional flavour. Add cheese to melt on if you wish.

Potato Salad

6-8 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 eggs
1/4 cup diced red onion
2 generous spoons of light mayo
a good squirt of mustard
salt and pepper
dash of paprika

Boil potatoes until cooked. Boil eggs until they are hard boiled. Cool both. Peel and chop eggs when cool. In a medium bowl add all the ingredients except paprika together. Mix together. Sprinkle paprika on top.

Pierogy Lasagna with fried peperoni

This was something I had once at a potluck and always wondered about. I love pierogies. For those of you who don't know what they are, (and there are those of you out there, I know), they are a kind of dough filled dumpling, usually filled with a potato mixture. They can be boiled, and fried, sometimes baked too. You can find pierogies pretty easily in the potato section of your freezer section at your grocery store.
A pierogy lasagna has a similar idea, getting the flavour of the potato filling, but using lasagna noodles for the dumpling dough part. I didn't have a recipe to do this, so I made one up.

12 lasagna noodles, boiled as per box directions(this was the first time in a long time that I'd bought regular lasagna noodles instead of whole wheat - I didn't think whole wheat would give it that pierogy taste I was going for)
8-10 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks and boiled until soft
1 tbsp margarine
1 onion, diced
1 cup cheese (I used swiss in the filling, but any hard cheese would work)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cheese (I used cheddar for the topping) - grated

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Drain the boiled potatoes. Add margarine and mash thoughroughly. Add onion and grate the 1st cheese into the mixture. Mix well, so cheese melts in. Add salt and pepper and mix again.
Grease a lasagna pan with oil or margarine. Layer 1st layer with 4 noodles. Spread half the potato mixture over top. Layer next 4 noodles. Spread rest of potato mixture on. Layer last 4 noodles, grate cheese on top. Bake for about half an hour. Serve with sour cream.

Fried Peperoni

Cut a peperoni stick into medallions. Add a little bit of cooking oil to a frying pan (just a tsp really). Swish oil around to grease pan. Cook peperoni over low-medium heat, browning both sides.

Fiddle-dee-dee

This is my first post request! Chef E posted about fiddleheads a couple of weeks back. Knowing that fiddleheads were a local dish where I live (New Brunswick, Canada) she asked if I would write about them too. So here I go.
I will be honest, I had never heard of fiddleheads until I first came to visit my (then) fiance during his college Christmas Break. We were having a New Years Supper with some people that he had gotten to know and one of the ladies had made a dish from fiddleheads that she had frozen the spring previous. I liked them. Fiddleheads are a kind of fern that is edible. I've eaten them plain (as seen in this post) and cooked in a casserole in place of broccoli. They are available fresh in May, so you have to get them when you see them.

We often see fiddleheads growing wild around here. This picture was taken on a recent hike at the Nature Park. There are so many of them along the path.

This is the fiddlehead statue at the Saint John Arts Centre uptown. Kind of a neat local landmark celebrating both something local as well as something arty (an actual fiddle). This statue is right around the corner from the church my husband works at.
So how to cook fiddleheads? Well, pretty much the same as any other green veggie. Wash them first. Steam them. That's what a did this time around. Some people like to soak them first. I added a little butter and salt and pepper when they were cooked.
I served these with baked potatoes, corn and honey mustard chicken. (mix equal parts dijon mustard and honey - pour over boneless, skinless chicken breast, bake at 350* for 40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through). Nice meal altogether.

Fajita Fiesta

This was a very adapted shared meal with my friend Jen's family. Originally this was to be just a meal for our family on Sunday. My oldest who is 4 really wanted to play with his best friend (Jen's son Josh). So I thought, why not? and invited them over for supper. The only drawback was realising that I only had one pack of wraps (6) and I was now feeding 8. I did NOT want to go to the grocery store on a Sunday. It's crazy! I had no desire to stand in a huge line up just for wraps. I stopped by the bread outlet instead and while they didn't have any wraps in, they did have pita bread, so we used that instead. It actually ended up working better for the kids as all the filling didn't fall out of their wraps (which is what usually happens.

Here's all the fixin's

Beef - I had cut a large piece of steak meat into strips the day before. I put the beef strips into a ziplock back. I then took a Fajita seasoning pack and sprinkled it all over the beef. I added about a half cup of water and mixed it all together. I sealed the bag and refrigerated it to use the next day. I just pan fried the beef until cooked through. I had wanted to BBQ grill it but it was pouring out.

Veggies - I cut a large onion and one and a half red peppers into thin strips. I used the leftover marinade from the beef to saute into the veggies. I cooked them until the veggies were softened.

Beans - 2 cans of beans in tomato sauce into a casserole dish. Hand blend it until relatively smooth. Grate 1/2 cup of cheese into it. Sprinkle in a few tbsp of Tex-Mex seasoning. Mix it all together and cook it in the microwave for 5 minutes. I usually use one can of beans and tomato sauce and one can of kidney beans (well drained and rinsed) but I didn't have kidney beans on hand. You can also sub in one packet of taco seasoning for the Tex-Mex seasoning.

Guacamole - I used my own recipe found here

Sour Cream

Salsa

Grated Cheese

Heated Whole Wheat wraps and pita bread

Multigrain tortilla chips

Hungarian Goulash

I cannot take credit for this wonderfully delicious recipe at all (only the fact that I asked for it). I first ate this at my friend Jen's place a couple of years back. She had asked us if we liked goulash and to be honest, I had no recollection of ever eating it. I was in for a big treat. This is so tasty! And it is a wonderful recipe for the slow cooker. I need recipes like this for days when I know I just won't have time to cook after work.

Here's Jen and I just before leaving for New York on March Break this year. Yes, we drove to New York together with 4 kids 6 and under. (a 1 and a half day drive - and we survived!) She's a great girl. Our kids are pretty close in age (6, 4, 4, & 2) and we often share meals together, or take kids for each other to give the other a break.

Jen's Goulash

1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat, cut int 3/4 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 garlic clove, crushed (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
14 oz canned tomatoes with liquid
1/2 tsp liquid gravy browner (I leave out because I never have any)
2 tsp beef bouillon powder
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2-1 cup sour cream

Combine first 7 ingredients in a slow cooker. In a medium mixing bowl stir together tomato, gravy browner, bouillon powder and sugar. Pour over beef mixture. Stir.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5 hours. Add sour cream - stir. Serve over rice.

*Mommy Gourmet has her polls up for a dinner you would enjoy and I'm one of the people up on it for my Thai Dinner Evening from not too long ago. Check it out and don't forget to vote!

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!

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!

Slow Cooked Lamb

Mmmmm, this turned out delicious! Absolutely the best lamb I can remember having. I just have to remember that I love slow cooked meat. So tender. Lamb has a tendancy to overcook and become tough easy, but not like this. Here's what I did:


1/2 cup red cooking wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp dried rosemary

Mix these ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

1 lamb roast - I picked a leg roast (no bone), small enough to fit into a crockpot easily
4 cloves of garlic
tbsp flour
salt
pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Heat a frying pan with at a medium heat with a tsp olive oil. Slice 4 cloves of garlic up into 2mm slice. Poke holes into the meat with a steak knife, insert the garlic slices into the holes. Sprinkle salt and grate pepper all over the roast to season it. Dust it with flour and put in to the heated pan to sear (remember to wear and apron and be ready for spatters!). Turn meat to sear all sides.

Place seared lamb into the crockpot and drizzle your reserved wine mixture over the meat. Place lid on and turn onto low for 8-10 hours.

Roast Turkey

whole turkey
margarine
salt & pepper to taste
sage
thyme

Heat oven to 325*. Remove giblets from turkey and wash turkey thoroughly. (Set giblets aside in a plastic container in the fridge for later, they can help make a beautiful turkey stock). Rub turkey with margarine. Place turkey in a roasting pan. Sprinkle salt, pepper, sage and thyme over turkey. Cover and roast. Roasting time depends on the size of your turkey. We usually get a smaller turkey (between 8-12 pounds) and I cook it for 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Check a roasting chart if your turkey is larger than this.