As I was sitting waiting for an appointment all I could think of were these cookies I saw posted on Wanna Be a Country Cleaver. It was a crazy morning with absolutely rotten weather, so I had to rush out of the house without a coffee or breakfast. I thought that I would have time to drive to Starbucks after dropping Timothy off at preschool but it was pretty rough driving so I had to drive straight to my appointment. Twitter was my saving grace that morning. It kept me occupied and I had a little chat with Megan over […]
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 […]
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
With this gluten-free gingerbread recipe, I think a new family tradition has been born. I always do some baking at Christmas, but not always cookie decorating. When Timothy was just over one-year old, his second Christmas, I bought a gingerbread cookie mix from the grocery store and did some feeble decorating. Timothy loved the cookies and ended up having them for dinner on Christmas Eve. I was too busy to do anything last year with being back to work full-time and George having surgery to remove a mass on his bladder. Thankfully it wasn’t cancer but we have been to […]
Chipotle Chicken and Corn Chowder with Black Beans
For the most part, I’m not big into spicy food. I don’t go crazy over chicken wings and when we go out for Thai or Vietnamese I stick to the very mild dishes but there is something about the combination of the rich, spicy and smokey flavours of this soup with the sweet bite of corn that keeps me making it again and again, heat and all. This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Cooking Light’s Chicken Tonight cookbook. There are many ingredients that are the same in both recipes but I left out the hominy since it isn’t a […]
Pasta with Pesto, Peas, Pancetta and Grilled Chicken
This is a meal I crave in the early weeks of summer but is great any time of year if you have had the forethought to freeze pesto or just use store-bought. The thought of the flavour packed pesto combined with the hit of fresh sweet peas, salty bite of pancetta and little bits of mellow mozzarella are making my mouth water as I write this. I make the pesto in a fairly typical way – lots of basil. a clove of garlic, toasted pine nuts, fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, pinch of salt and pepper and lots of olive oil. No great […]
Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Strawberry season is in full swing here in Ontario. I was finally able to get out strawberry picking on Canada Day this past Sunday at Barrie Hill Farms and picked about 20 pounds of berries in a hour. I admit, I had help. Simon picked a few and Timothy was there in a purely supervisory role and to keep my mom in line. I was too tired to make jam on Monday since we had just returned from an extra long weekend away in Niagara Falls and then to visit family in Barrie. The dogs enjoyed their holiday at Nana […]
Carrot Cake with Honey and Cream Cheese Icing with a Gluten-Free Option
I have been planning on posting a carrot cake recipe for quite some time. I make carrot cakes twice a year, one cake for each of my dogs’ birthdays. Don’t run away from reading this recipe – this is a human cake and I give a small piece to my dogs as a treat. Every time I would pull out the Canadian Living recipe that I used to make I would cringe at the disgusting amount of sugar and oil that the recipe calls for. I just felt that it was all really unnecessary so I was determined to do […]
Almond and Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomatoes
This recipe has had a few versions and it has morphed into a gluten-free recipe out of necessity. I used to make this with half parmesan cheese and half seasoned bread crumbs but that would send my husband to the washroom for the better part of a day so I make it with ground almonds now. You can buy ground almonds and I actually recommend that if you want to speed up the process. Also, the sound that grinding your own almonds makes in the food processor is deafening. I didn’t grind the almonds really finely for this simply because […]
Macaroni and Cheese with Cauliflower and Peas (sauce is Gluten-Free)
It has been quite a while since I have had time to sit down and write a blog post. It has been a very busy few months at my house – I started a new job, George has had another health crisis (x2), and Christmas was thrown in there. As for our Georgie; he is doing much better. He had a tumor removed from his bladder and the diagnosis before it was tested was that he only had a couple months to live. Thankfully, the surgeon who did his surgery back in October for the massive lung infection and subsequent […]
Acorn Squash and Kale Soup
The acorn squashes from my lovely CSA this year were so adorably tiny due to the drought in the summer. I used six little bitty squashes in this recipe where I would have normally just used 3 regular sized acorn squashes. Actually, I don’t know for sure that they are acorn squashes but they look close enough and acorn squash is very easy to find in local grocery stores so I’m sticking to calling these acorn squashes. Feel free to peel your acorn squash but the size of mine and the toughness of the skin on the little buggers made […]