Coq Au Riesling

I haven't eaten meat in 9 months. I haven't missed eating meat for 9 months. Until I made this. The smell of chicken and bacon simmering in white wine and mushrooms surely is one the smells wafting out at the gates of heaven. Sweet baby Jesus this smelled good. However I still didn't have any. All I had to do was remember back to 15 minutes before when I was ripping the skin off the poor bastard and ripping his bones apart from each other to put my stomach in a good enough knot not to eat meat for another 9 months. Let me tell you when I was prepping the meat for this dish I was admiring myself for the level of devotion I was displaying to this project. Here's a pescetarian mutilating a poor little chicken just because she said she would make all the recipes in this book. Even amongst my pure disgust I was a little in awe of my own stubborn determination and level of commitment.

Anyhow, for the meat eaters this dish will amaze you. Husband enjoyed it and the aromas will carry you to the kitchen like a Looney Tune Cartoon.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

Well Grandma K is chalking up another year on her belt and to help get her in the celebratory mood I thought why not make her some fudge? If anyone love fudge it's Grandmas. This is so easy to make and so delicious to eat. If you're in someone's bad books just make them this fudge. God Damn it is good. Right now Grandma K is probably thanking God that her grandson married me. Solely based on her enjoying some pistachio fudge right now. Forget the fact that I haven't given her any great-grandchildren. I've given her something better. Fudge.

Pappardelle with Escarole

I was really excited to make this recipe it looked so yummy and sounds a little exotic. I was let down. This recipe is lacking in exoticism. It's okay to make as a side dish but stop it there. This can't pull off a main course.

I had to call my sister from the grocery store for this too. I was all full of confidence when I made my grocery list but the in the grocery store my confidence was shattered when I didn't find and egg pasta labelled pappardelles and I started to wonder is this pappardelle even an egg pasta? My nerves became shot and I reached for my cell phone. I did not want to get home and then find out I'd bought the wrong thing. So I phoned it in and was told to buy a fat egg white noodle. Which I did.

Then I came home cooked her up, and was terribly let down. Well maybe not terribly, but I was painfully aware that I was eating an okay dinner on my half pleather couch in the middle of suburbia and not somewhere exotic eating fantastic foods and laughing heartily at some snobbish joke about the little people. No this meal made it painfully clear that I am that little person someone somewhere is laughing about. I can hear them now:

"Wilted lettuce on a egg pasta for dinner Charles, can you imagine Darling?"

"And the worst part is they're probably eating it on a half pleather couch Camilla dear."

Yes the heir to the throne and his chuffed up booty-call were probably having a good chuckle about the little people while I ate this for dinner. Well the jokes on you Charles because we all still remember those dirty phone sex conversations you had with your "classy" wife. What an SNL skit those made.

All bitterness aside, flip past this page in the book.

Chickpeas with Rocket and Sherry

Good Gravy this was awful!!!!! Pelgh!!! Don't do it.

Spiced Peaches

Yesterday was one of those terrific September afternoons where the sky's are brilliant blue and the air is crisp and opens your lungs. There's still a feeling of summer about the day but there are undeniable fall undertones too. Like the smell of leaves in the air and a slight chill to the wind. Those are by far my favourite days and Husband and I made the most of it by going on a fabulous bike ride in the park by our house. Past the pigs, peacocks and cows. Just and awesome afternoon. I came back from the bike ride hungry and wanting something that would really just make the world seems perfect after that. You know like when you were a kid playing outside in the winter for hours, and when you come inside and you can feel the cool air in your cheeks while you drink a hot cocoa and warm by the fire? I wanted to get that feeling from my lunch. Well, these spiced peaches delivered in full force. The peaches give you the summery feel but the cinnamon and the soft gentle heat give you that cozy fall feeling. This is an amazing dish for the September/October months. Making this for your Thanksgiving will be delightful. Nigella suggests to serve this with a ham...and I'm sure that it would be good... if you like ham. But don't think you can't make/serve these on their own. I really, really enjoyed this and if you're looking for a fall comfort dish next Sunday afternoon, this is your ticket to paradise.

BTW, I also highly recommend watching Boardwalk Empire for anyone with HBO. I just watched the premiere and I'm hooked.

Ginger Pom

Argh! What a day I had yesterday. I couldn't get any work done but I was running around around like a chicken with it's head off anyhow. I felt like my brain was going to ooze out my ears when I left work last night. So I had definitely earned a drink. This drink is made with Pomegranate Liqueur which is $40 for a bottle. I didn't want to spend $40 for just a couple ounces of Liqueur. So I decided that a proper substitute would be the Grey Goose that's down in my basement. This turned out pretty well and I quite enjoyed the drink. It's not very boozey either so you could easily drink a lot of these not realizing how much or how fast you're getting liquored. Lucky for me I avoided that situation. (must be a first!)
Anyhow, this drink is perfect to serve at a cocktail party. Everyone will like it and there's much more juice to the drink than alcohol so you don't have to worry about someone getting trashed after 2 drinks and shouting at one of your guests that they've always hated them. PS. stop inviting that person to your parties.

Golden Goat's Cheese

Well, today was an interesting day. I have to tell you the office that I work in is quite entertaining. It's pretty rough and tumble. You'd better not be sensitive or your feelings will be hurt. We all tell it like it is without too much sugar coating (if any). And if you're on some one's nerves they won't hesitate to tell you to eff off. But everyone gets along for the most part and we try to make going to work fun. Today we had a meeting and we got a little off topic. Someone started telling one of Aesop's Fables. The story of The Wind and the Sun. (I'm making a very long story short here.) So they're telling how the wind was blowing and blowing harder and harder trying to get the man's jacket off and another co-worker pipes up and says "I bet it was the best blow job he ever had!" and the laughter ensued. I had tears running down my face. No one could believe their ears...what made it funnier was the story teller just pressed on and acted like nothing had happened. Which made me laugh even more. Oh my god, it has it's golden moments my office does. This was one of those times.

Anyhow, I came home from a hilarious day at work to make a fabulous salad and top it off with Golden Goat Cheese. I was expecting to have to fry this, but Nigella gives a baking option and I gotta tell ya. This recipe most certainly is golden. I loved this! This was soooo easy to make too. I'll make this again fo' sho'. Honestly, don't be scared of this. There's no frying, slice your cheese cover it in egg, then cake with bread crumbs and pop it in the oven for 9 minutes. What's simpler??? Not too effing much. Make this one for sure, you'll love it, your friends will love it. This will take a salad from ordinary to extraordinary.

Flash-Fried Steak with White Bean Mash

I have to tell you I was shocked by how good this was. Obviously, being pescetarian, I have not tried the steak (Husband isn't home from work yet to weigh in on the steak). But the white bean mash I thought would taste terrible but it actually tastes fabulous! I will tell all my veggie friends to try this. Yummy warm beans with a lemony, garlicy, rosemary taste. Delish!!!!! I think everyone should try the white bean mash. Aaaaand, lemme tell ya, easy to make?? Hells yah. Heat oil, add flavours, open can rinse beans, add beans to oily sauce pan, mash. KA-boom! An amazing protein dish for all to enjoy. I thank you for the white bean mash Nigella, this will change my culinary life.

As for the Steak...well, it's a fried steak isn't it. How good can if be? And when cooked by a non-meat-eater, well it's a victory if it doesn't taste like a leather shoe. Let's be honest. Though being a foodie I'm certain that a steak would go quite well with the beans because the beans have a huge comfort food factor going on. Yay beans!

PS- please remember you can get all these recipes by googling the recipe title and Nigella Lawson.

Chopped Fruit Salad

Lots of mornings for breakfast I will have granola with berries and yogurt. So I thought this would be pretty much the same. This is very similar but truth be told...I really missed the heartiness the granola gives to such a dish. If you were putting on a fancy brunch then this would make a good "dessert" course. But otherwise, don't waste your time. I think I'd be a little pissed that I'd made the effort to find the recipe if I weren't making all the recipes in the book. I mean isn't this what most people do anyway??? I can't just be me. There must be thousands of people unknowingly making this recipe at this very moment in time (less the juice). I think this is a bit of a page filler like the rice crispy squares recipe with sprinkles on top. Yes, the more I think about it the more I feel cheated by this recipe. If you have any inkling whatsoever about how to make breakfast, you don't need to use this recipe. Just wing it when you want a fruit salad like 99% of the population. I guess this recipe is for the one guy in southern Kentucky who can't do anything without blatant and specific instructions...don't be that guy.

Roast Poussin and Sweet Potatoes

Today is one of those perfect weather days. Crisp air, cool but warm, bright blue sky and the smell of leaves in the air. Days like this you want a comfort food dinner. This recipe was a bit of a Jack Sprat meal for Husband and I. Are you perhaps not familiar with the nursery rhyme Jack Sprat? It goes like this:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

His wife could eat no lean.

And so between the 2 of them,

they left the plate clean.

So the me not eating chicken and Husband absolutely hating sweet potato it really did take the both of us to eat this meal. It's incredibly easy to make all you have to do is make sure you've set your timer. It takes 45 minutes, do with that time what you will. Once you're done you will have a fantastic meal. Delicious and comforting. Husband loved his poussin and I loved my sweet potato. I highly recommend this to you!

Party Popcorn

TIFF has officially started so I thought,why not make some popcorn? As a matter of fact I've had my only little film festival going here this evening. I started by watching Valentino: The Last Emperor, and followed with Men Who Stare at Goats. Of the 2, for the average person, I'd recommend Goats. But if you're into fashion and designers like I am then I suggest the doc on Valentino. The gowns of his final collection were extraordinary! I love to watch documentaries and I love classic fashion. Tomorrow I think I may watch The Godfather II and I do believe the time is getting ripe for me to watch La Dolce Vita...but we'll see I may go with Funny Face. Anyhow, I made the party popcorn to watch the second film and I made a half recipe because I'm home alone. Well, let me tell you, the half recipe was enough popcorn for 4 hungry people. I had this massive bowl of popcorn and the only one to share it with was my green bin. The bin got 90% of the popcorn.

What you do is you pop your popcorn on the stove top, then melt some butter and add spices, salt and sugar to the melted butter. Then toss it all up. The part that's hard is the tossing. I could not get the concoction to disperse amongst the popcorn. Nigella says to put it all in a bag and shake it up - but I don't have a huge ass bag hanging around. It's 2010 and we're all using eco-bags Nigella! So I put the popcorn in a huge bowl and started stirring. Popcorn was flying everywhere and the seasoning was sticking to about 5 kernels. So I stirred more frantically but all that did was shoot popcorn further around the house. So I got the bright idea of covering the bowl with a tea towel and shaking it up, like Nigella says to do with a bag. This really didn't work any better. I got the spices around a bit but I felt that I failed big time at doing this. Anyhow I took the popcorn over to the couch and decided what I needed was a soda. (I never, and I mean never, drink soda - maybe 6 times a year) This ended up giving me gut rot - which feels pretty awesome right about now, so stick with the water kids. And let me tell you I don't think the spicy popcorn is helping any. I didn't eat too much of this, just skimmed off the top really. And it's really not too bad but I gotta tell you it's much easier and in my opinion tastier to just have straight up popcorn and butter. I don't think this is worth the effort at all. Plus, think of the kernels getting stuck between your teeth! To quote my nephew "No thank-you!"

Mango Split

Well, it's a little ironic that I'm just making this ice cream treat now since the weather has turned so chilly and we had a scorching hot summer where I made hardly any icy desserts. But I digress. I was a little excited to have this tonight but then I got nervous about it. Not about making it, but about if I would like it or not. I wanted to like it but I was afraid I wouldn't. So I put it off for a bit. Then I couldn't wait any more...so I asked Husband if he wanted one. He asked me the ingredients, which I listed to him, and he said - No thanks. So my heart sunk a little deeper. I became worried about the taste. Then when I pulled out my vanilla ice cream I was more worried still. I don't usually scoop my ice cream. I prefer my ice cream on a stick. Actually the best ice cream of all is a Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia on a stick. I can snarf those down in the blink of an eye. But this vanilla bean ice cream has been lurking around my freezer for months on end and when I opened it up there was a thick layer of freezer burn over most of it. But I figured I had enough to salvage one scoop (which was all I needed).

So I toast my coconut and make the rum/lime/sugar sauce. Then I scoop the mango sorbet, salvage some vanilla and add the toppings. At this point I was terribly concerned. I don't hard ice cream that's gone soft. You know how some people let their ice cream sit the bowl and stew and melt? I can't handle that. It makes bile creep up my throat. To me eating melted ice cream is the equivalent to eating vomit. It's the grossest. My vanilla was not only freezer burnt but also soft. Not a good sign. But I braced myself and prepared to take one for the team.

I ended up being pleasantly surprised. What makes this really good is that the syrup hardens on the cool ice cream and gives balance to the softness of the mango pieces. Don't get me wrong this is no Cherry Garcia, but speaking as a non-sundae fan this one's pretty darn good. (Must be the booze!)

Green Eggs and Ham

Dr. Seus was right...I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am. I didn't like these and Husband didn't like these. Both of us ate our portions. Nothing was thrown out - it wasn't that terrible. But I won't make these again and I won't recommend them to you. Lemme tell ya these are no Oeufs en Cocoette. For me the taste was too strong and I wasn't diggin' it. I do really like pesto too but, no. I used the St. Yves veggie ham to make these and I wasn't very impressed with that either. Then again, I don't like real ham so why would I like fake ham??? Anyhow, it was something of a childhood dream realized to eat green eggs and ham but that's all this had going for it. I rank this as tasting just about a good as my mud pie I once decided to try at the tender age of 5. My imagination wasn't strong enough then and it wasn't strong enough now. Disappointment abounds...but at least I can honestly say I've eaten green eggs and ham.

Breakfast Bars

Sorry it has been so long since my last post but I have been cottaging. We don't have one of those fancy house cottages we have a cottage - cottage. As in the true sense of the word. Actually I was just telling Husband while we were up there that I think by today's standards cottage may not be the right word. It's more of a cabin in the woods. Either way though, cottage or cabin, there is no Internet there. There actually isn't even any hydro. We have solar power so we are totally off the grid up there. It's great, you live in a bubble when you are up there. A couple years ago Sister & Brother-in-Law were at the cottage when our entire province lost Hydro for days on end, they had no idea. That's how isolated you can be up there. It's a great way to re-charge and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

While we were at the cottage I made these breakfast bars for everyone. They received rave reviews from everyone except Husband. He heard the word cranberries and immediately decided he didn't like it. Even before he tasted it. Nigella says that this recipe gets better with age and it's true. I made these Thursday afternoon and by Saturday they were just perfect. The day after I made them if I had anything negative to say about this recipe it would have been that it was a touch too sweet. I thought that maybe using a yogurt/honey binding mix would be better than the condensed milk but by Saturday I really didn't notice the sweetness at all. I'm not sure if it dissipated over time, or if my palate just became used to it. I think the next time I make this I will try the yogurt/honey just to see the difference. I definitely will be making this again though. It is sooooo easy to make and really healthy and delicious. These breakfast bars are terrific!