I talk about food, you read it.
Appetizer
Tomato Tart with Goat Cheese
3
One of my Dad’s favourite vegetables is a tomato. I am pretty sure he could eat them every single day for the rest of his life and never get sick of them. With all the different tomato varieties out there I can definitely see why he loves them so much. They can be sweet, tart, and tangy and even complement numerous dishes that would otherwise be rather boring.
My parents grow multiple tomato plants and by the end of summer my mom is scrambling to use them up or find recipes that require tomatoes so they don’t go bad. She does can a lot and makes different salsas or even gives a lot away. Well, mom, a tomato tart is definitely something you’re going to want to try. It’s delicious and uses up tomatoes in the most wonderful way!
Ingredients
- One chunk of phyllo dough
- 4-5 heirloom tomatoes or tomatoes of your choice
- ½ pint of grape tomatoes
- 1 once of goat cheese
- ½ cup shredded mozza
- Bunch of chopped basil
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
If you make phyllo dough, then make it. If you bought it, then roll out a chunk of thawed dough to fit a parchment lined baking sheet. Cook as per directions, I believe I just tossed mine in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Keep oven on.
The dough will puff up, so if you have pie weights then you could use those. I just pushed mine down with a cloth.
Slice tomatoes ¼ inch thick. Set aside. Top cooked dough with goat cheese and mozza and then arrange your tomatoes on top of the cheeses. Fill in the blanks with the small grape tomatoes and using a pastry brush, lightly coat tomatoes with olive oil and add salt and pepper. Cook for 15-20 min.
Keep an eye on the dough because the tomato juice will go under the dough and potentially can burn it. Pull it out of the oven and top with chopped basil. Cut and serve.
I don’t think my dad is a huge fan of goat cheese per say, but I know he would absolutely love this tomato tart. I enjoyed every last morsal of this and I know J loved it as well as our company who came for dinner. The tomatoes sweeten up even more when they’re baked liked that and over a flaky crust of cheese you really can’t go wrong. I can’t wait to make this again!
Grilled Oysters with a Spicy Lime Vodka Sauce
1My family and I were relaxing at the family cabin a few weeks ago when my parents mentioned that the store had oysters on sale. We went down to the market picked up 9 fresh oysters and then came back to the cabin trying to figure out what we were going to do with them. We didn’t have a schucker so my dad ended up taking an axe to them. We didn’t know how to grill them and all we had was hot sauce. In the end they tasted great but it made me want to have easy grilled oyster recipe in my head so next time this happens I will be more prepared.
Fast forward a few weeks. I found a recipe for grilled oysters with spicy lime butter. I couldn’t wait to try there so we got some fresh oysters to give them a go. While I was making the sauce I also added some vodka as well since it was on the counter and seemed like a good idea. Well, I am glad I did because these were amazing.
Ingredient
- Oysters on the half shell
- 1/5 cup of butter
- 1 tsp Sriracha sauce (or a spicy chilli sauce)
- 1/2 – full lime juiced
- 1 tbsp vodka
- 1 small shallot minced
- 1 tbsp minced cilantro
- Salt
Mix the butter, shallots, salt and cilantro together. In a separate dish mix Sriracha, lime and vodka together. These won’t mix together, you can try, I did, but it doesn’t work.
Heat grill or BBQ to high. Grill should be very hot.
Top each oyster with a dollop of butter mixture and drizzle of lime mixture. I reserved some of the lime mixture as well to top when they were cooked.
Grill for 3-4 minutes. Careful when you eat them, the shells will be burning hot. Do not overcook.
J and I both absolutely loved these. We usually eat our oysters raw with horseradish and I think we’re going to have grill them more often. The actual oyster flavour isn’t lost at all and is only enhanced by the topping. I can’t wait to make these again; this recipe is definitely a keeper.
Pizza topped with Prosciutto, Goat Cheese, Carmalized Onions and balsamic reduction
0Say prosciutto.
Go ahead, say it………………Prosciutto.
Prosciutto sounds like a delicious Italian word. It sounds Italian because it is. It’s Italian for ham. It’s a rich tasting cured ham that is sliced thin and can be eaten uncooked. You can wrap it around fruit, eat it with cheese, set it out for appetizers, put it in pasta, cook it with asparagus or do what J and did on a Saturday night. Put it on a savoury pizza with goat cheese, caramelized onion,
Prosciutto
Mmmmmmm, prosciutto!
I also decided to top our pizza with a slight drizzle of a balsamic reduction I made earlier. Our pizza was delicious! I would definitely make this again and think cutting it up into smaller pieces for an appetizer with friends would be outstanding!
Baked Zucchini Sticks
2I have been making a lot of salads lately and they’re just not doing the trick. Ive been craving French fries or something like it. I was going to attempt at making some at home and then I changed my mind. Instead I would make oven baked zucchini sticks. I actually can’t even remember the last time I’ve had those so I made it my mission.
My mom used to put some oil in a cast iron pan and fry some up for the family with some fresh creamy dill dip on the side. I was curious if you could bake them so I tried it out. The answer is yes, and they’re so good baked! I little healthier and still get nice and crispy!
Ingredients
- 1-2 zucchinis, cut into sticks
- ½ cup of pankco bread crumbs
- ½ cup regular bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated fresh Parmesan
- ¾ cup flour for dredging
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp water
- Salt and pepper
Cut up zucchini and set aside. Arrange 3 bowls for dredging or plastic bags. In one bowl or bag put flour in. In a second bowl put egg and water in and beat (don’t use bag for this step). In a third bowl or bag put in bread crumbs, Parmesan, salt and pepper.
Take you zucchini and dip them in flour, shake off lose flour. You could do this all at once in the bowl or bag.
Then one or two at a time, dip floured zucchini into egg mixture.
Put egged zucchini sticks into bread crumb mixture. Either doing them all and shaking in a plastic bag, or dipping them in a bowl. Assemble zucchini sticks on parchment lined baking sheet. Cook on 400 degrees for 20-30 min, or until soft and browned.
I quickly made up a sauce with Greek yogurt, fresh chopped mint, dill, a dash of hot sauce, garlic, salt and pepper to dip them into. I love zucchini sticks and probably could eat them several times per week. J really isn’t a fan of zucchini at all but said he really liked these and ate them with a smile.
Feta Dip
0Chatelaine Magazine often comes out with a page in the very back called “Loose Ends”. It features recipes that come in handy if you have leftover ingredients in your fridge that you can’t seem to use. This happens to me a lot since I am always trying new recipes and more times than not, something goes bad because I can’t seem to incorporate it back into other meals.
Feta is something that I always seem to have lingering around but I either forget about it, it goes bad or I get sick of adding to various salads. Chatelaine saved the day and gave me a recipe for a delicious feta dip that I served with some pita chips!
Ingredients
- up to 8 large fresh Basil leaves
- 3 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 cup crumbled feta
- 4 artichoke hearts, canned
- ¼ cup Greek Yogurt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Blend all ingredients into a blender until smooth.
You will probably need to blend for longer than you think because of the texture Feta has. I didn’t buy whole sun dried tomatoes; I had julienned tomatoes so I guessed the amount, not to mention that I don’t really measure my ingredients. I really liked this Mediterranean style dip. It was creamy, tart, sweet and salty. A perfect snack and the perfect dip for putting out when friends come over. I topped mine with some kalamata olives and YUM!
Potstickers
0The night I had my girl friends over to help me do my wedding favours I also wanted to give them some food to eat. I needed to keep their energy up and also show them how much I love them by filling their tummies.
I was browsing around Wolfgang Pucks website and saw potstickers which instantly made me drool. I then began to google more recipes and I entered into dangerous territory since I don’t have much experience in Chinese food at all. This was going to put me in the kitchen tediously filling little dumplings and potentially coming out with a disastrous and odd look appy. I went ahead and adapted a variety of recipes and prayed that they would be delicious.
Ingredients
Filling
- 35 to 40 small won ton wrappers (preferable round)
- ½ pound ground pork
- 2 tbsp finely chopped red pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 inch of ginger grated or minced
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
Dipping Sauce
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tsp sriracha sauce
Combine all filling ingredients together (except for wrappers) in a large bowl by hand. Set Aside
Remove one won ton wrapper from the package, covering the remaining with a damp cloth. Brush the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place a rounded teaspoon sized ball of pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over edges and squeeze together. Shape as desired. Set on sheet pan and continue until finished.
To cook the potstickers, fill a large pot with water and boil. In small batches cook potstickers in boiling water for about 8 minutes. Drain. Heat a non-stick skillet with oil and sear potstickers until golden brown. Remove and serve with dipping sauce.
To make sauce, combine all ingredients together and whisk until incorporated.
I thought these tasted pretty good for my first try! I ended up buying square wrappers and they sort of looked like tortellini so I used a cookie cutter to make them round. I think all the girls really liked them too, as they were the first things to go at the table. I will definitely be making these again and experiment with different filling ingredients. The sauce was wonderful!
Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
4I wish I could take credit for inventing these because they’re absolutely delicious! A co-worker of mine brought them to a potluck we had and I fell in love! There is nothing better than biting into a fresh summer strawberry filled with a cheesecake center! I did however change up her graham cracker topping to a chopped up snickers for that extra sugar high!
Ingredients
- About 24 Strawberries
- 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 3-4 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
- ½ snickers bar chopped up
Take a small paring knife and cut out the centers of all your washed strawberries, set aside. In a medium bowl mix together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla until incorporated. Taste and make sure you don’t need more sugar. Put cheese mixture into a piping bag, or if you’re like me and don’t have one, a heavy ziplock bag. Squeeze into cut strawberries.
With a large knife, chop up snickers bar into small pieces, the smaller the better. Dip exposed cheese cake ends into snickers bar. Plate, and serve your friends.
I will probably be making these all summer for BBQ’s, potlucks, and pretty much any time I have guests. I think they’re so yummy and so incredibly easy to make! I will probably try different types of toppers, and maybe try a chocolate cheesecake as well. I think a lemony filling would also taste amazing!
Grilled eggplant
0J came home the other day with some beautiful bright purple eggplants. I was very surprised because it’s sometimes hard for me to find vegetables that he actually likes and eggplant I assumed would be on his dislike list. He didn’t actually remember the last time he had eggplant so I wanted to make sure to prepare the eggplant the best way I could.
Since we were already using the BBQ I decided to grill the eggplant with a honey garlic sauce, and drizzle them with a balsamic reduction on herbs. Sounds yummy right!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- Squeeze of lemon
- Salt and pepper
Cut the eggplant in ¼ inch slices. Set aside.
Whisk all ingredients together and pour over eggplant, let sit for 15 minutes. The spongy eggplant will suck up some of the dressing. Grill on the BBQ for 2-3 min per side until tender. Arrange on plate, drizzle balsamic reduction over eggplant and top with fresh cut oregano.
J ate and enjoyed the eggplant! I loved it! The sweetness of the marinade was subtle as was the garlic so doesn’t hesitate to add more if you wish when you whisk ingredients together. The balsamic doesn’t need to be reduced; you can also just drizzle right out of the bottle as well. I can’t wait to make these again!
Baked Onion Rings
0I have a confession. I love onion rings.
I don’t eat them very often because those sweet little rings of heaven aren’t very good for you but occasionally I walk over to A&W to treat myself. I don’t have to sneak in a fast food snack anymore because I found a bunch of recipes to make them at home. The best part is that a deep fry is NOT required. That’s right, I didn’t make a mistake, they’re baked in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Corn Flakes
- ½ cup plain bread crumbs (I used panko)
- 1 egg
- ½ buttermilk
- ¼ cup flour
- 1/8 tsp cayenne powder (omit if you HATE spicy foods)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 medium yellow or sweet onion (cut into rings)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a food processor pulse corn flakes until fine crumbs and transfer to a medium bowl. Mix plain bread crumbs, salt and pepper.
In another medium bowl mix together egg, milk, flour, cayenne.
Dip onion rings into egg/flour mixture, let drip. Dredge into cornflake mixture, place on plate.
Pour oil onto a baking sheet and heat in the oven for 2 minutes, remove from oven and make sure the oil is covering entire service. Arrange rings onto the sheet and bake for 15 minutes turning once.
These onion rings turned out so well. I was really impressed that a delicious onion ring didn’t require a deep fryer! Some other recipes used chips instead of corn flakes which sort of defeats the purpose of baking them but I am sure that would takes great as well.
I didn’t have buttermilk so I used regular milk and they still turned out great!! I am 100% going to make these again!
Baked button mushrooms
6I am feeling a tad lazy. It’s funny that just this week I was gushing over the sun, fresh food and dressed up Coronas and now it’s cold and dreary. The feeling of being in a food comma and curling under blanket is much anticipated for this evening. There is one small problem….did I mention I was feeling lazy. Is it possible that dinner will just fall out of the sky and onto a plate in front of me? I don’t think that it’s too much to ask, but apparently food just doesn’t appear unless you pick up the phone and order it, and even then it definitely won’t be falling from the sky, unless you have a really mean pizza boy.
I didn’t order pizza, but I did manage to make a meal that is easy as pie, except its not pie and even easier then pie. I made baked button mushrooms to accompany regular spaghetti with meat sauce and since J and I both LOVE mushrooms we were almost wrestling over the last few little buttons of drippy buttery goodness. The poor spaghetti became an afterthought and the mushrooms were the star of the evening, in my opinion. Next time I would like to make these with a thick juicy steak as they would compliment the entire meal much more.
Ingredients
- 1 pound crimini mushrooms or white, halved lengthwise if large
- 1/4 cup White wine
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Preheat oven to 450°F Toss mushrooms with Olive Oil, garlic, wine, lemon and dried parsley. Throw butter pieces on top and bake, stirring occasionally.
Bake mushrooms until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in fresh parsley. Serve immediately, with baguette to soak up the delicious sauce.
