If there is any meal that can bring Timothy up the stairs from the playroom for dinner then this is it. Aside from boxed macaroni and cheese, this is his favourite meal. While Simon and I love to put HP Sauce on it, Timothy loves anything he can put ketchup on. This is another recipe that uses a large quantity of ground beef, which is why I call it Cottage Pie rather than Shepherd’s Pie – shepherds heard sheep, not cows. In North America it would be very rare to be served Shepherd’s Pie and not have it be made […]
Spaghetti Sauce and Buying Half a Cow
The perils of buying half a steer from an organic farmer, such as Vibrant Farms, are few but the main ones are an inordinate amount of freezer space required and the need for some really good recipes for ground beef. With a small child who has varying degrees of pickyeateritis, which is hereditary, getting the optimal amount of vegetables into the little one is also a concern of ours. This recipe for good old fashion Spaghetti Sauce is perfect for two out of three issue; using a lot of ground beef and getting several servings of vegetables into a picky kid. I […]
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
This recipe is a favourite from my childhood. It was a pretty popular hors d’oeuvres in the ’80s and my mom would make them often. She would make some extra for my sister and me. For a picky eater, it was odd that I loved these so much. I think my mom would make them in the oven when we had guests but she would also make them in the microwave. We had a big Panasonic microwave that came with a cookbook. On the cover of the cookbook were an assortment of all the wonderful food you could cook in the […]
Homemade Chocolate Truffles
If you can melt chocolate and have a modicum of patience then you can make chocolate truffles at home. There are some rules that you need to abide by, but for the most part it is just a little fussy rather than difficult. If you take your time, you will end up with a rather large amount of truffles for a fraction of the price you would pay at a chocolatier. True, these aren’t tempered chocolates but nobody will care. The two most important tips to remember is to melt the chocolate slowly and get the right whipping cream to […]
Truffle Hot Chocolate
I think I lost all sense of time management at Christmas this year. I made almost all the gifts I gave to the adults in the family and hosted my parents Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my in-laws arriving in the late afternoon for a big turkey dinner. Keep in mind that we had to go to Barrie from the 21st to the 23rd for my husband’s dad’s Christmas dinner. This naturally took a huge chunk of time I had available to me to get everything ready for the big day. It made perfect sense to my frantic, yet […]
Chicken Cacciatore aka Pantry Cooking
My mom would often make chicken cacciatore and she always served it with rice. I have no idea if that is traditional Italian but who cares. I never put it with the rice on my plate back then because I was the kid who didn’t want the different foods touching. It would totally gross me out when my English relatives (and my mom) would mash all the different foods of turkey dinner onto the back of their forks. I have evolved slightly now and I do put the chicken on my rice rather than eat the two separately. It is […]
Kale Salad with Pancetta & Balsamic Vinaigrette
I’ve always like kale in soups but this salad is my favourite way to eat kale now. I have been eating absurdly large servings of this salad so I’m feeling like I should be entered into the running for dietary sainthood for eating this much raw kale.. Bacon notwithstanding. The first time I made a kale salad was on Christmas Day. I saw on Twitter that Martin’s Family Fruit store said they had a delivery of fresh Ontario kale and on the drive home to Waterloo from Barrie on the 23rd I asked them via Twitter whether they had any […]
Braised Beef Short Rib Ragout
I don’t know about you but after Christmas my bank account has a wicked hangover. This means that going out to dinner is just not going to happen. In fact we are usually still in recovering at Valentine’s so we don’t go out, or do presents then either. This recipe is a fair amount of work but when you sit down to something as good as you would get in a restaurant, it is worth it. This is hands down, my favourite dinner. The first time I had short ribs they were on the bone and in a restaurant. They […]
Eggnog Bread Pudding with Dulce de Leche
This is my second favourite Christmas dessert, behind Trifle, and it is definitely the easiest one that I make. To be honest it is hardly a recipe it is so damn easy. If your kids know how to crack eggs and stir then they could almost do it themselves. If they are allowed to use a knife to slice bread then go lay down for 15 minutes and let them put this dessert together. This recipe is sort of from my Aunt Val. Years ago Uncle Norm and Aunt Val went to my parents house for dinner and she […]
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Whole Roasted Garlic
This is another easy soup recipe that is all brought together by my kitchen buddy, the immersion blender. We had about 4 or 5 butternut squashes sitting in the pantry from our CSA that I was getting worried would go to waste so I decided that soup is the quickest think to do with them. The next question was how was I going to flavour the soup? I’m not a big curry fan, so that option was out for me. Another look in the pantry led me to a whole head of garlic. Well, roasted garlic it is then. The […]