All things sweet!

So it's been a pretty sweet week. I have my first ever pair of Fluevogs - thank you very much!! could anything be any prettier than this, I ask you???



Reubens Baroque Fluevogs

 So seeing as how I'm feeling oh so sweet I'm giving you a sweet recipe!  My Tropical Bread Salad (Sweet Panzanella). I came up with this recipe for a United Way fundraising event where I work - we did an Iron Chef competition and our secret ingredient was pineapple. So this is what I invented!

Sweet Summer Bread Salad with mint cream

Ingredients

4 cups pound cake, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/3 cup white raisins

2 tablespoons sparkling wine

1/2 cup of fresh mango – cubed into ½ inch pieces

1/2 cup fresh pineapple - cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup fresh papaya

1/2 cup fresh strawberries – cut into slivers

1/4 cup flaked unsweetened coconut or fresh grated

2 tablespoons pineapple or apricot jam (sugar free if you can find it)

1 tablespoon sparkling wine

1/4 cup light coconut milk

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, cut chiffonade

1 star fruit, sliced, for garnish (optional)

Intact Mint Leaves for garnish, if desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F;
2. Cut pound cake into ½ inch cubes; spread on baking sheet and  toast in the oven until lightly golden, keeping an eye on them (about 7 to 10 minutes depending on the oven);
3. While cake cubes are toasting combine the raisins and 2 tablespoons sparkling wine in a small bowl. Set aside and allow the raisins to plump for 10 to 15 minutes;
4. Remove the cake cubes from the oven and allow them to cool.
5. Cut fruit into bite sized pieces and gently toss together in a large bowl;
6. In another bowl whisk together the jam, 1 tablespoon of sparkling wine and ¼ cup of light coconut milk and set aside;
7. When ready to serve, add the cake cubes and raisins to the fruit. Toss together gently so as not to mash the fruit pieces. Sprinkle in the mint leaves and shredded coconut and dress with he apricot sauce. Toss to lightly coat;
8. Whip the cream, adding some of the chiffonade mint leaves to give it a minty taste;
9. Divide the salad among the individual plates, top with whipped cream and intact mint leaves and slice of star fruit, pineapple or mango, as desired.

Eat!

Enjoy!!

P.S.  Sorry - I don't have a picture to share but I have assurances that it was DELISH!!!!

Mmmmm...... Bread salad!!!

Otherwise known as panzanella. This is one of my FAVORITE summer salads. I make it a lot more than I should but it's easy, delicious and yummy, especially with some cold cuts and a ice cold beer (or a pitcher of sangria!)

The thing with panzanella is that there are a million different recipes out there. I got my basic ingredients from a lovely Italian lady who has been making it for decades. She told me simple is best...

And then I added more stuff. But I like it so that's what counts :D

Hey Kristen, I finally posted it!!!!!!

PANZANELLA

• FYI I have made this with gluten free bread and it works just as well. I used a rice bread and it was dense and yummy and chewy and delish!

SALAD

Ingredients

• 1 loaf fresh Ciabatta or Italian bread, cubed
• Olive oil
• Pinch or two of kosher salt
• Fresh cracked pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 3 sweet bell peppers (I like to use red, orange and yellow to add colour to my salad
• 1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced
• 1 box cherry tomatoes halved or 2 beefsteak tomatoes, deseeded and cut into chunks
• 1/2 red onion sliced
• 6-10 Fresh basil leaves
• Pepperoncino rings (to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes and toss with olive oil to moisten. Spread the bread on a cookie sheet and season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste. Lightly toast in the oven. Remove and set aside.
3. Chop peppers into a rustic chunk; cut onions in thin half moons; half cherry tomatoes or dice whole tomato;
4. To deseed an English cucumber first peel then slice in half. Take a small desert spoon and simply scrape out the seeds and then dice;
5. Place all chopped vegetables into a large bowl (the largest you have – this is a BIG salad);
6. Now add the toasted bread, pepperocino pepper rings and the capers, and toss gently ;
7. Rip the washed basil and incorporate;
8. Pour dressing  (recipe below) over salad and toss lightly. Taste and correct seasonings;
9. Serve and enjoy!

DRESSING

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped (the smaller the clove the more you can add just go by how much or little garlic you like)
• 4 to 5 flat anchovy fillets or a healthy squidge of anchovy paste
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions:

1. Mash the garlic and anchovies to a pulp (if using whole anchovy fillets). First dice all the ingredients to a fine dice and then sprinkle just a pinch of kosher salt onto the mixture and, using the flat of a wide blade like a santoku or a cleaver, scrape the chopped ingredients together until they become a paste;
2. In a mason jar with an air tight lid pour the oil, vinegar and add the salt and pepper;
3. If you are using anchovy paste add a squidge into the mason jar;
4. Add the garlic anchovy blend or just the mashed garlic if using anchovy paste;
5. Put on lid and shake well until everything is incorporated. Or you can use a stick blender and puree.

Eat!

Enjoy!!! (preferably with a glass of some cold 'adult beverage' ::wink wink::

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Who You Gonna Call? RECIPES TO RICHES BABY!!!!

OMG OMG OMG!!! I can finally announce it to the world, scream it from the roof tops,  panic and freak out!!!

YES. I am a competitor on Canada's Recipes to Riches Season 2!!!

When there's something strange... in your neighbourhood....  It's my episode airing on Halloween. Hallo-frickin-Ween!!!! ::cue eerie brownie music, whatever eerie brownie music is supposed to sound like::

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1034587/recipe-to-riches-is-back-in-search-of-canada-s-next-250-000-recipe-and-grocery-store-sensation

Breathe Tracey.... everyone keeps telling you to breathe so do it!!!!

::deep breath::

Watch out Canada, my Salt kissed Dulce de Leche Brownies are going to be on your tv screens for the scariest night of the year!

BOO!!!

Tropical Fiesta Fish Tacos

Well it took me a while to get this posted so as a mea culpa I'm posting two recipes in one.

Please enjoy!

Tropical Fiesta Fish Tacos

Ingredients

½ cup pineapple juice

½ cup fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon smoked salt

1 tablespoon sea salt

4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

2  pounds fresh marlin, salmon or other meaty fish like mahi mahi or tuna (the ‘steak’ fish – shark would work too)

6 (6-inch)  flour or corn tortillas, warm

½ a red onion, half mooned and sliced super thin

splash of hot sauce

Directions

1. Combine pineapple juice, lime juice, salt, 3 tablespoons cilantro, garlic, a splash of your favourite hot sauce and pepper. Mix well.
2. Pour this mixture over the fish and let marinate for up 24 hours (but if you can only do a couple of hours that works too – it just doesn’t penetrate as much to give that delicious flavour).
3. Remove the fish from the marinade and place on well oiled grill (skin side down in the case of salmon) and grill or sauté the fish until done (see times below).
4. Remove from heat, rest and then chop into 1 inch cubes.
5. Place the fish in the tortillas and garnish with cilantro, onion, some crunchy coleslaw and my pineapple avocado salsa with lime crema (recipe below).

MARLIN	Allow about 10 minutes of total cooking time for each inch of the steaks thickness, turning once during this time
SALMON	Allow 7-8 minutes per inch of thickness of the salmon fillet
TUNA	Allow about 4 minutes of total cooking time for each inch of the steaks thickness, turning once during this time for rare, and 10 minutes of total cooking time for medium.
MAHI MAHI	Allow about 12 minutes of total cooking time for each inch of the steaks thickness, turning once during this time
SHARK	Allow about 10 minutes of total cooking time for each inch of the steaks thickness, turning once during this time.

Lime Crema

Ingredients

½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon smoked salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Whisk together everything but the smoked salt and cilantro.
2. Season with sea salt.
3. garnish with the cilantro

 Eat!

Enjoy!!

Overnight Meringue cookies

So it was a busy hectic weekend again. I watched a building 'blow up' - ahh the fun of Hollywood Theatrics. got to see a very bloody post-prom Carrie walk back and forth across the street and then see the gas station go boom.

And then I went home to my parents and cleaned and grocery shopped and did laundry for my dad. I made spaghetti sauce - not so exciting - but I didn't experiment. So in honour of being home I'm giving you one of my mom's recipes - overnight meringues! (Complete with mom instructions!)

(FYI - Ajay, you can eat these!!!))

Overnight Meringues

Ingredients

2 egg whites
pinch of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
2/3 cup sugar

optional: few drops of green food colouring: mini mint chocolate chips


Directions

1. Beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until stiff but not dry.
2. Gradually beat in sugar.
3. Mix in chocolate chips and food colouring (if using).
4. Drop on greased cookie sheets( I use parchment paper instead.... no cleanup)
5. Place in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven.
6. Turn off heat immediately, and let cookies remain in oven overnight.

ps: I used a tblsp. to drop the cookies so they wouldn't be too large.....depends what you want.

I also used up all my leftover egg whites from the Christmas baking so I had lots. I also prefer them plain but it is up to you.

Mom.

And there you have it - my mom's overnight meringue cookies! She made them for Christmas, obviously :D.

I've since made the recipe for a baby shower and color themed my meringues to the baby theme - a bright ducky yellow.

Eat!

Enjoy!!!

Grilled Pineapple Avocado Salsa and Fish Tacos

I have a friend who, whenever I say I love/want/desire/am eating fish tacos, gets this confused, grossed out expression on her face and goes 'of all the food combinations in the world that one makes the least amount of sense'. She's adorable in her lack of understanding about just how AWESOME fish is in taco form!

Take my pineapple juice marinated grilled Marlin tacos with my pineapple avocado salsa and lime crema. YUMMMM!!

Now to be truly evil I'm just doing one part of the recipe today. My salsa.  The reasons why I'm doing this way are:

A) because I'm evil;
B) it gives me recipes to post later on;
C) because this salsa is amazing on it's own without any fish to go over; and
D) did I mention I was evil?

Anyhow, without further ado - my salsa.



Grilled Pineapple and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 fresh pineapple,
• 2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
• Small handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and cut in half
• Juice of 1 lime
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt

Directions

1. Peel and slice ½ a pineapple; grill on barbecue until lightly charred, warm and juicy; remove from grill and dice;
2. Cut jalapeño in half, de-seed it and lightly coat with a neutral oil (like grape seed). Grill at the same time as pineapple. Remove and finely dice;
3. dice remaining of pineapple;
4. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and let stand in a cool room or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving in order to marry flavours.

Eat!

Enjoy!

(FYI - it's great with multigrain Tostitos and a splash or two of hotsauce!)

1. Enjoy!! 

Trick or treat at the office! (And beef koftas too!)

Well I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself today. It's our summer student's second last day and we held a surprise 'thank you/good luck/see you soon' gathering for her. I made my super special never to be disclosed AWESOME brownies (as Guy Fieri likes to say - these things are MONEY) and then I got to be the one to get her to the party.

So what did I do? I terrorized her. hehehehe. told her that our lawyers were on the phone with our boss in a conference call because of a project she helped me do. I learned to be evil from the master - my friend Rina, the Sith Mommy extrodinaire. It was brilliant. The look on her face. I figured I could get away with it because I did make the brownies and bring them in - those things will help me be forgiven almost anything.

And since I'm feeling incredibly chuffed with myself I decided to reward everyone with an extra recipe this week - my beef koftas! yummy summer treat for the bbq.

Kofta kebabs

Ingredients

2 tsp minced garlic (or garlic jalapeño)

1 teaspoon smoked salt

1 pound ground beef (can also use chicken, turkey, or lamb)

1 egg

½ cup panko

2 spring onions - chopped

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon grated ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

28 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions

1.                  Mix the garlic into the beef along with the egg, panko, parsley, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, ginger, and pepper in a mixing bowl until well blended.

2.                  Form the mixture into 28 balls. Form each ball around the tip of a skewer, flattening into a 2 inch oval; repeat with the remaining skewers.

3.                  Place the kebabs onto a baking sheet, cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 12 hours.

4.                  Preheat grill for medium heat, and lightly oil grate.

5.                  Cook the skewers on the preheated grill, turning occasionally, until the beef (meat) is cooked to your preferred doneness – approx. 5 minutes to medium

Serve with hummus, tzatziki and pita bread and a side of tabbouleh quinoa or couscous salad.  Yumm!

Eat!

Enjoy!!

Simply Scrumptious Steak and Mushroom Pie

With my mum down in Oz visiting her sisters my dad is doing the bachelor thing. That means the house was 'man clean' and he was eating sausage on a bun, store bought meat pies and potatoes. I had to stage an intervention this weekend. I went home and 'mom cleaned', did laundry, bought groceries, made him eat broccoli and made a bunch of stuff for him to eat that was healthy as well as good.

Here's one of the things I made:

Simply Scrumptious Steak and Mushroom Pie

Ingredients

2lb stewing beef or chopped steak, cut into cubes
plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, for dusting
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced
1 tbsp parsley (fresh if you can get it but dry works in a pinch)

1tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper
 2 cups (1 tetra box) of low sodium beef broth

1 pkg sliced mushrooms of choice (I tend to use cremini or a mixed specialty pack – white buttons will work but lack flavor)
1 sheet of puff pastry (defrosted)
1 egg, beaten

1 cup chopped roasted chestnuts (optional and seasonal)

(have some Veloutine, Bistor or sauce thickener on hand just in case)

Directions

1.      Dust the cubed beef with the seasoned flour;

2.      Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan and brown the meat on all sides, stirring frequently to prevent burning;

3.      Add the sliced onions, mushrooms, herbs, salt and freshly ground black pepper, chestnuts(if adding them) and the stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer gently for an hour and a half (if the gravy isn’t thick enough add some gravy thickener to help – I use Veloutine or Bisto);

4.      Preheat the oven to 375F;  and transfer the filling mixture to an ovenproof dish.

5.      Line the rim of the dish with a thin strip of puff pastry. Dampen the pastry rim by brushing with beaten egg. Cut a piece of pastry to fit across the top of the dish and place on top of the dish, pressing the edges together to seal. Decorate with pastry trimmings, make a steam hole in the centre of the pie by slashing with a sharp knife, then brush with more beaten egg.

6.      Transfer to the oven and cook for 1-1½ hours. If the pastry gets too brown, cover it with foil.

Serve hot.

Eat.

Enjoy!

Portents, Panic, and Pasta Puttanesca

So the last few weeks have been insane to say the least. Had to get my mum on a plan to Oz, had a trip down to the US to visit my bff and had massive amounts of personal and work stress to deal with. I've been coming home exhausted and collapsing. This does not make for a good blog!

I've successfully given myself the talk and have once more hopped on the recipe blogging bandwagon (having mum asking for easy and inexpensive recipes to make while abroad helps to motivate too!)

All this in mind, here is my newest recipe which is nothing more than a variation on an old recipe named for the world's oldest profession (if the stories surrounding the dish are true).

This is my take on:

Pasta Puttanesca

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small cooking onion
• 4-6 cloves garlic minced or 2-3 tsp already minced garlic from a jar
• 2-4 anchovy fillets or approx 1 tsp of paste
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 small can diced tomatoes and 1 box cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• OR 2 boxes of cherry tomatoes cut in halves/quarters
• 10-20 kalamata olives – rough chopped (from an olive bar or the best brine packed you can afford
• 5-10 leaves of fresh basil - rough chopped (or 1 tsp of dry) - I love fresh basil so I tend to go 'big'
• 2 tbsp capers - rough chopped if you like or left whole
• 1 lb of your favourite pasta (I'm old school - I use Spaghetti or even linguini)

 Directions

1. In a sauté pan combine oil, garlic, onion, anchovies and red pepper flakes. Sweat over medium until garlic and onions are translucent and the anchovies have ‘melted’ into the rest of the ingredients (approx 5 minutes);
2. Add the chopped and canned tomatoes, olives, capers and dry basil if you’re using dry. Reduce heat to low and simmer while you prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the package;
3. Keep an eye on the sauce and if it starts looking too thick add a bit of the pasta water to loosen it up. About a minute before serving rough chop the fresh basil if you’re using fresh and add to the sauce to infuse;
4. Cook pasta to al dente and then drain. Whatever you do, DON’T rinse because you’ll need the starch from the pasta to help make the sauce ‘stick’;
5. Add pasta to sauce, toss lightly, and serve. Sprinkle with a little shaved parmesan or pecorino cheese and a fresh basil leaf for decoration.

FYI: Putannesca is always good with garlic bread on the side ;-) If you’re going garlic you might as well go GARLIC!

Eat!

Enjoy!!

Shuffle off to Buffalo (Chicken Dip)

Everyone has their go-to party dip, the little black dress of finger food, right? Spinach dip, hot artichoke dip, seven layer dip etc. Well mine has to be the buffalo chicken dip.

I started off with one from a blog but it used salad dressing. It was a good idea but if I was gonna eat something that good that was bad for me I wasn't going to waste my cheese calories on unpronounceable additives and preservatives.  So I made my own. From scratch.

And this is what I came up with.

Buffalo chicken dip

Ingredients

1 cup no fat sour cream

½ cup low fat buttermilk

2 tbsp low fat mayonnaise (optional but I like the extra creamy goodness it provides)

1 container crumbled blue cheese (don't you dare get low fat - ewwww!)

2 cups shredded/diced cooked chicken

1 bag shredded tex mex or habenero cheddar cheese

½ cup hot sauce of your choice (more if you like SPICY like I do)

1 ½ tsp minced garlic

½ tsp smoked paprika

1-2 tsp of chilli flakes (again – optional if you don’t like heat)

Pinch of salt

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350;
2. Mix all the ingredients together in an oven safe dish;
3. Taste and add more hot sauce (if, like me, you have a cast iron stomach);
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and all the cheese has melted into an oozy mass of deliciousness;
5. remove from oven, sprinkle top with more smoked paprika and some cayenne pepper
6. Serve warm with Tostitos, carrot sticks and celery (for the illusion of healthful munching)

Eat

Enjoy!

(FYI – the dip refrigerates well and tastes even better the next day! Just zap it in the microwave for a minute to make it oozy good again)