Holiday Gift List – The Chef/ Foodie

When I have time, I love to cook!  I enjoy reading my cookbooks, researching recipes on-line and generally checking out all the food porn!  I've got quite a few chefs and foodies in my family; this list is in honour of all the family get togethers and celebrations past and those to come:

Eclairs

Éclairs are my dad’s favourite dessert and thus a necessity in my cooking repertoire. 

Here’s one from a batch I made for Father’s Day this year (the rest got eaten before I could snap some shots!).

Broccoli & Pine Nut Soup

I had some broccoli left in the fridge that was on its last legs and it was lunch time.  I was hungry and I was craving something healthy and delish, but not a salad – for once.  

Daily Afternoon Snack

I must be a creature of habit.  Every day around 3 pm, I get really hungry.  Starved, in fact.  And I typically reach for my trusty apple and cheese combo.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you garden for the lovely bounty of produce you have provided throughout the summer!!

The Bomb Brownies

I was heading out to dinner Friday evening with my bestie and had to whip up a batch of our favourite brownies to celebrate!

Fresh Mint Tea

Fall is my favourite season.  But this year, I welcome it with a bit of sadness – sadness knowing my garden season is coming to an end. 

Sriracha & Honey Chicken Wings

These wings are seriously finger licking good! 

I recently stumbled upon The Woks of Life’s blog and have already noted several recipes I can’t wait to try out.  But first up are these ridiculously tasty wings.

Chocolate Swiss Roll – Two Filling Options

My better half LOVES Swiss rolls.  You know.  The ones that come in pairs packaged in clear plastic?!  So I decided to try a homemade version.

Italian Walnut-Raisin Whole-Wheat Bread

I'm a toast eater.  Raisin toast with peanut butter eater to be precise.  The bread itself has changed throughout the years, but it has been my go to breakfast for 15+ years.  I literally look forward to it every morning.  How crazy is that?!

I found THE best raisin walnut bread at a small bakery while living in Japan.  I used to toast it up in my toaster oven and either eat it with butter or peanut butter if I was lucky (meaning I had some left over from one of the batches my mum shipped out to me!).  I've been searching for something that comes somewhat close, without any lucky.  Until possibly now.

English Cucumbers Update & Pickle Salad with a Kick

My English cucumber plants are in total production mode!  My earlier wishes for them to catch up to my basil have come to fruition J

Andes Crème de Menthe Chunk Cookies

It seems like we can only find Andes Crème de Menthe around Christmas time and we never fail to pick up several boxes!!  This past winter, I stumbled upon Andes Crème de Menthe Baking Chips and quickly grabbed a bag.  They’ve since been sitting in my pantry stacked with my other baking chips just waiting for the day I finally got around to using them.  Well – I finally have!

First Garden Salad of the Season

This is why I love having a garden – I can simply head outside and pick whatever is ripe and create a lovely salad.  Such a great accompaniment to meals in the summer. 

Basil Seedlings Update

As you can see from my Basil & Goat Cheese Pesto post, I'm already making great use of the bountiful green leaves my little basil seedlings have produced! 

Basil & Goat Cheese Pesto

The last several years I have been growing basil as it is my favorite herb and pairs so well with cucumbers and tomatoes (two other staples in my garden).  Every year I plan on making a batch of pesto, but always hold off not wanting to demolish my basil plants.  This year I said nuts on that and tackled a batch nice and early.

Carrot Ginger Soup

OMG – this soup is ridiculously good.  So good, I kept grabbing spoonfuls every time I passed the pot while it was cooling down.  Hot or cold, it was scrumptious!

Roasted Beet & Garlic Salad with Fresh Herbs

Beets are one of those vegetables that I can’t seem to get enough of.  The method I use for preparing beets is typically to roast them with some garlic and decide from there how I want to finish them off – soup, salad, side dish, etc.  Today I am sharing one of the many salad variations in my repertoire (mostly based on what I have readily available in the fridge J). 

DIY: Almond Meal

Turns out almond meal is pretty straight forward as a DIY.  Having twice made almond milk in the last couple of weeks (which you can check out here), I had the chance to test out making almond meal with the remnants from that DIY.

DIY: Almond Milk

My blender recently bit the dust, which gave me a valid reason to finally upgrade to the Blendtec Total Blender.  I’ve been eyeing the more powerful blenders for some time now, but was quite hesitant to shell out so much for a blender.  My dilly dallying paid off as (1) I got full use out of my first blender until it finally broke and (2) the cost of the Blendtec blenders has significantly reduced since they first hit the market!

Coleslaw

I've been tinkering in the kitchen today trying out a new rib recipe, which also means whipping up a batch of coleslaw.  In my household coleslaw is the accompaniment of choice and with BBQ season rapidly heading our way, I thought a post on the crunchy side would be apropos.