Lamb Cutlets with Chilli and Black Olives

Plegh! I can't eat lamb. I don't eat anything but fish anymore of course meat wise, but lamb has never been on the menu for me. I mean who can eat a sweet little lamby? If your name is Lucifer or Tim you may like this recipe though. I made this for Husband for dinner tonight. He said it's good but he's not really a lamb person so he wouldn't really want it again. This is was easy to make and that's the only points I'll award this recipe. Because frankly this dish looked pretty effing gross to me. ZERO appeal. Maybe the picture looks good to you??? But to me it looks pretty nasty.

Anyhow, if you want to try this you marinate the lamb in garlic, chillies, oregano, lemon zest and juice and olives. Then you fry them up in the marinade and serve. Sure there's a few more steps involved but that's the gist of it. See pretty simple. I'm only going to recommend this to you if you're a big fan of the lamb otherwise don't waste your time...and save a sweet little lamby.

Butterscotch Fruit Fondue

I have to tell you that I was truly disgusted by the photo of this recipe. I'm not much of a fan of butterscotch and the idea of dipping fruit in butterscotch seemed repulsive to me. But I decided that I'd have to make this eventually so I thought now was as good a time as any. I really wasn't too hungry for dinner so I skipped right to dessert. I made a half portion of this based on how much of the ingredients I had. Also I decided that I would use agave nectar in the place of golden syrup. The idea of that much processed sugar was just too much for me to bear. I had to add a natural factor which is why I went with agave.

It's really simple to make just bring your sugars and butter to a boil and let boil for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat and add - you guessed it - double cream and vanilla, then let cool. As you can see I served this with strawberry and banana. I was blown away by how much I liked this. Truly, truly delicious. If you have kids this is the PERFECT dessert to make them for a special occasion or to fun up a regular day. The banana was terrific with the sweet fondue and what would really be fantastic is granny smith apple! The strawberry was yummy too but ohhh the banana. I have tons left over (from a half recipe!) which is even now resting in my fridge awaiting further indulgence. I'd say this will keep in your fridge a few days to give you a sinful snack that you don't have to feel too guilty about given the fruit factor.

Mortadella Tempeh Pasta Salad

So I really wanted to try this recipe but I was urked that this recipe had pork in it. I didn't know what to do about this and then it hit me the other day. TEMPEH! Why didn't I think of it before??? I love tempeh so I really can't believe it took me so long to think of it. Overall this recipe is pretty darn easy to make. Pasta salads generally are. This one's not much different than any other pasta salad and I wouldn't say that it's anything to right home about. But if you're looking for a different pasta salad you may want to try this one. It's nice and light but not a home run. The dressing is a lemony mustard but not really a strong flavour. I think I did want the dressing to have more of a kick to it but it didn't deliver for me. Perhaps if you like a more mild flavour you'll enjoy this.

Lentil and Walnut Salad

Pay attention!!! I have a new alternative protein dish for you. Lentil and Walnut salad is delicious! You will have this made in about 5 minutes and then you have a great dish to

A) take in your lunches

B) serve at a party for veggie/vegan option

C) take yourself out the "protein box" if you will.

Can you work and can opener? Can you? Because if you said yes than you can make this recipe. Seriously, open a can, chop some chives, do a little measuring, give a stir and there you have it. A fantastic dish that literally anyone can make. Yes even you who has a hard time boiling water. I strongly recommend this recipe. I will be adding this to my regulars.

Noodle Soup for Needy People

Well, I have PMS today so that definitely makes me a needy person. And it really makes Husband a needy person, putting up with my mood swings and what not. You know the ones I mean. Men out there, as bad as it is for you it's worse for the woman, trust me. Sometimes you say something all mean and snappish and you immediately think in your head "Oh that was mean. That's the PMS talking - not me." But you don't apologize because the PMS is in you like a beast and if you keep talking you're only poking more at the beast and God knows what will come out of you mouth next. You'll mean to apologize but end up telling your Husband he's got terrible taste and why can't he do things faster or more correctly? So silence is best I find. And yes I do encourage people to steer clear of me when I'm moody. Sometimes I don't even want to be around myself.

So given this is my state of mind today, Husband and I surely qualify as needy. The one good thing is that Spike is having a Star Wars marathon today so that is soothing to me. I made Husband and I this to slurp on while we watch the original Star Wars. It took me only about 10 minutes to make, so I had little time to get frustrated. I found out while I was making this that I didn't have enough sugar snap peas but honestly I found my portion to be quite enough. I used about half the amount. Also, shockingly my Metro didn't have shitake mushrooms. I thought about getting oyster mushrooms instead but then I chinced out and just used the regular old button mushrooms I had in the fridge at home. Were I to make this again, I would use the oyster mushrooms if I couldn't find shitake. Not that the buttons weren't good they just didn't add to the Asian feel of the soup. I would compare this soup to a Japanese Udon Soup (given the udon noodle that's a little stating the obvious). I love udon soup so this really hit the spot for me. Husband enjoyed this as much as I did. The title certainly fits the dish. If you're feeling needy a bowl of this may just well be your cure.

Caribbean Creams

This recipe has been tantalizing me for some time now. The picture in Nigella's book looks so yummy that I couldn't wait to try it. It is true that I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that this recipe too has double cream in it...though I'm not sure why I was surprised. I'm thinking about taking stock in double cream the way Nigella uses it. And I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to loose weight eating all this double cream. Anyhow, I did run into a touch of a problem at Metro with this one of course. But this time it was truly disappointing because normally my Metro does have coconut yogurt. But last night they were all sold out!!! Can you believe it? I couldn't. I just can't win with this grocery shopping thing. I didn't feel like driving to another grocery store so I decided to just go ahead and use the Greek Yogurt. So it wouldn't be as flavourful, but I would keep that in mind when reviewing the recipe I told myself. "Chances are it'll still be pretty good." thinking of that lovely photo beside the recipe. So this morning I made this recipe for after dinner dessert.

First off, I wasn't sure what dish to make this in because my ramekins are not glass and I thought this recipe needed to be seen, what with the layering and what not. After some hard thinking I decided the best thing I had to use were martini glasses. I lined the bottom of my glasses with banana, covered the bananas with the yogurt/cream/rum mixture. Here I'll tell you I used banana flavoured malibu rum (I thought the banana in the rum would help out the lack of coconut in the yogurt). Then you Sprinkle with brown sugar...I kept reading the instructions over again after this because my dessert looked NOTHING like Nigella's delicious looking photo. But after a few re-reads I found I hadn't missed anything and put my desserts in the fridge feeling let down.
Six hours later, I was a little hungry so I decided that I'd have my dessert as an appetizer to dinner. I took it out to the couch and dug in (Husband had the good sense not to question this behaviour). I have to tell you it was pretty damn good. And remembering that this was without the coconut yogurt I'm gonna say this dessert is damn fine. Mine still didn't hold a candle to Nigella's appearance wise but it sure did taste yummy. I wasn't too sweet and since my sweet tooth is baby tooth size this dessert is perfect for me. As a matter of fact about an hour after I'd had my caesar salad dinner I felt a little peckish again. So I ate Husband's pudding too! Caribbean Creams are light, yummy and when you are eating this you'll feel everything is Irie Mon! I really liked this dessert and I can't wait to try it with the coconut yogurt!

Crepes Suzette

This is my 100th post! And for my 100th post I wanted to make a really flashy recipe. What's more flashy than crepes suzette? I was nervous to make this because I was afraid of burning the house down. I thought about doing the flambe outside to make sure I didn't burn the house down..but then I thought that may be a bit too much. I decided that I could be a grown up and handle my shiz and do this in the house. So before dinner I prepped everything for this so that after dinner I could just make it happen. I asked husband if he would take a picture of the "flambe" which he agreed to do but not without trepidation. Basically he was afraid I'd burn his face off. I assured him I would neither burn him, myself or the house down....Though honestly I wasn't 100% sure about any of this. In Nigella's picture she has a massive flambe happening so this is what I was going for....It didn't happen so much for me...I used about 5 matches and I hadn't even gotten it lit. I did get some flame at one point where Husband snapped a blurry photo. But overall I felt let down about my serious lack of flames. But better too little than too many flames I guess. One thing I was not let down with though was the taste. Sooo orangey and sweet and boozey! I am a huge fan of 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s fashion and the whole history of pop culture in the first half of the 20th century. Crepes Suzette is the muscle car of desserts so for me it just has an aura of je ne sais quoi about it. But I am enchanted with this dessert. It's very retro chic and it's clear that there's a reason this recipe has stuck around to the next century!