Vanilla Tzatziki

The other night I found myself faced with a daily question "What will I make for dinner?". As I stuck my head in and out of cupboards, the freezer, the fridge, I came across a box of falafel mix and decided that was it. Falafel for dinner, with rice and greek salad, perfect! Things went great making the meal but I realized that I really wanted some tzatziki to go with it and I didn't have any. I wasn't going to run to the store for it but I thought why not google the recipe and see if I have what I need to make it. I chose a recipe from "allrecipes.com" and checked my cupboards against the ingredient list. I had everything I needed except the only yogurt I had was vanilla flavoured. This made me doubtful that I was doing the right thing but I thought "What the hell, worse case scenario I throw it out." I didn't make the portion of the recipe they instructed for - it was calling for 2 containers of yogurt! I just needed enough to get me thru my meal so I scaled it back considerably. I used 3 tbsp of yogurt as my base and just winged it from there on portions of other ingredients. And I have to tell you I am sooooo glad that I went ahead with it. I think I actually liked this version of tzatziki better than regular tzatziki. The vanilla gives it just a little bit of sweet that is so delicious. I love it when my careless kitchen habits turnout for the good. This one paid out in spades. I now want to always make my own vanilla tzatziki and I'm going to share my "recipe" with you.

3 tbsp Vanilla flavoured Greek Yogurt (Liberte brand)

2 inches of a cucumber peeled and finely chopped

a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

a few dashes of lemon juice

a dash of salt

a good grinding of pepper

1.5 tsp of fresh (or frozen) dill

1 small clove of garlic minced

put all your ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Taste and alter as your taste buds allow.

example - if it tastes too sweet add more lemon juice, if it tastes too tart add more yogurt - but only small portions at a time.

I think you will really like this, I had a couple people at work give it a taste and they liked it as much as I did so it's not just me!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones!!!

Do you love pumpkin like I do? I get so excited when fall comes, not just because of the beautiful leaves and the crisp air and blue skies, but also because it means pumpkin is in season! Nigella has a great recipe in her Feast cookbook that brings pumpkin to your breakfast table, pumpkin scones! I've made 2 batches of these so far and the number will only go up from there. There is a subtle pumpkin flavour in these scones so that you can still enjoy and lovely jam on them. Or you can just put butter on and let in melt into a still warm scone. Is there anything more delicious?

I gave one of my pumpkin scones to a repair man that was at my house the other day and he told me 4 times how good the scone was and he made sure to point out his number to call him if I had anymore issues. He reminded me of his number at least 3 times and I have to say I think he was hoping I would call him back because he wanted more scones!

Anyhow, give these bad boys a try. They're pretty easy to make and a nice alternative from your everyday scone.

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/quickbreads/pumpkin-scones/

Chili Corn Chowder

I'm in a little bit of a soup obsession lately. But I feel like it's a good obsession to have. Making soup is just so great. And it's perfect to freeze for lunches or just for those days you don't want to make anything. Plus soup is a fantastic comfort food. Nothing makes you feel cozier than a terrific bowl of soup. As we all know I am also a little fanatical about Jamie Oliver right now so of course I have combined my 2 current obsessions and made a Jamie Oliver soup. Chili corn chowder to be exact.

Things were going pretty well in the making of this soup, until I realized that Husband had used our last bit of cheddar cheese the night before and I had to run to the store mid way thru preparation to pick up a block of cheddar. That was a bit of a hastle, but I'll not complain about it because he did use up the cheddar by making me a gorgeous mac and cheese dinner which I thoroughly enjoyed. (He even put homemade croutons in the dish which really made it an A+ meal) What a lucky girl I am! Once I had the cheese in hand though I was good to go and was rockin' and rollin' thru this recipe. The recipe came together lickety split and in no time I had myself a lovely bowl of comfort. I love how this soup is rusticly chunky and the dollop of sour cream, while not necessary, is a nice added touch. I'll make this again for sure, after all there's a long Canadian winter ahead of me yet and I'm going to need plenty of warm bowls of soup to get me thru it!

PS - I can't find this recipe on line right now..but if you download J.O's iphone app the recipe is on there!

Maple Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are underrated in my opinion. If you're anything like me you think of your mothers steamed/boiled sprouts from when you were a kid and you think PLEGH! However, I was awoken to the awesomeness of the sprout one day by watching the food network. I saw on a French cooking show a recipe where you break the sprouts into individual leaves (not for the impatient) and then saute the leaves with bacon. This was a revelation for me. I tried the recipe, loved it and have since become a fan of the brussel sprout. Yesterday I was cruising the produce section of Metro (yes I'm still shopping there!) and noticed they had fresh sprouts in stock, so I bought a handful or two and thought I'd base my dinner on the sprouts.

What I came up with was the idea of making them sweet and sour with a maple vinegar deglazing. First I pre-heated my pan, then added a lug of olive oil. Then I tossed in my sprouts with chunks of green zucchini and let it cook at a nice medium high heat so that I got that tasty crispiness on the outside of the veg. After a bit I added some Bolivian rose salt, fresh ground pepper and tossed in some cubed smoked tofu. Let it cook another 4 minutes or so. Then I took one tablespoon of real maple syrup and one table spoon of maple vinegar, whisked them together and poured that in the pan also where it deglazed nicely and I was left with a great sweet & sour tang to the crispy sauteed veg. I served this over rice but really it would be fine on it's own or as a side dish too.

This recipe is completely from my own mind so there's no link to give you, but I was inspired by a Nigella recipe. I wanted to spread the word on this because it's really simple and maybe it'll get you to give brussel sprouts another chance!

Quick and Delicious Pea Soup

Not to hate but this recipe is way better than Nigella's pea and pesto soup. This is creamy, delicious and full of the goodness of peas! Jamie keeps winning points with me...but I'm a tough one to turn so he's not won a permanent spot in my heart yet.

I made this recipe from my JO iphone app and learned a good lesson about the app. A lot of these recipes you can make either for 2 or 4 servings, and there is a button you can select for your ingredients list based on portion preference. I didn't know this previous to making the soup and found this out the hard way. That being, halfway thru making this soup I inadvertently hit the button changing serving requirements and couldn't figure out how I'd gotten all my portions wrong. Then somehow, don't ask me how, I managed to figure this out. Not before questioning my sanity though. This was my only little hiccup along the way, but now that I've figured this out I have to say it is a pretty cool little feature of the app. I mean once you know about it.

Anyhoo, back to the soup. Very easy to make, and incredibly delicious. I chose to omit the croutons but think they would be a great feature.But i quite enjoyed the soup less these few carbs. The feta really makes this and is great for presentation too. The mint in the recipe isn't a strong flavour either, it just lends a hint of freshness to the soup which I love. Jamie has done it again for me, and I think this recipe will do "it" for you too.

http://www.takethoufood.com/2010/01/jamie-olivers-pea-and-mint-soup.html

Mussels in Brussels

On our Euro trip eating Mussels in Brussels was one of the things on my to do list. Not simply because of the clever rhyme, but because we were going to be in this little pocket of the world precisely when mussels are at their best, September. So, on our very first night in Brussels once Husband and I finally found a restaurant, I ordered Mussels in Garlic Cream Sauce. This ended up being my favourite meal of the entire trip. It wasn't just the mussels that were good either. I started the meal with a glass of proseco. Then moved on to a delicious dark beer that I has with deep fried Belgian cheese. which was amazeballs. Then came my lovely pot of mussels. I do know that everything always tastes better when you're on vacation. But this meal was so delicious. And these mussels were the best I have ever had. (Not that I've been eating them for a long time - I did have that whole anatomical hurdle to get over with mussels) However, the cream sauce on these mussels was indescribable. I literally do not know how to convey how good this was. At the time I thought it would be uncouth if I took my spoon and started ladling the sauce into my mouth like a soup but that is what I really, really wanted to do. I did take a couple spoonfuls because I couldn't help myself but showed some serious restraint by keeping it down to only two. The meal finished with more beer, some toffee waffers, oh! and an American giving me hell for not having been to San Francisco.

What really is a bee in my bonnet is not the American chewing me out in the most polite fashion possible, but that at the time I didn't know how good I had it. I thought "My God I can't wait to eat like this the whole time we're here. I'm having mussels at least twice more before we go home." And I did. But every serving of mussels after was just completely mediocre compared to that restaurant. O, to own a time machine. Or have the cash flow to just pop back to Brussels now and then to satisfy the craving. Since I have neither of those things at the moment, I find myself trying to re-create this seafood experience and failing miserably. I should have paid more attention to what exactly was in this dish but I was too busy having a gay old time in Brussels. I tried exactly 2 different recipes for mussels in garlic cream sauce since coming home from vacation and both times I've been sadly disappointed. Not that they weren't good, but it just didn't meet the standard or expectation. But I am on a mission my friends to crack this code. And if it takes me 10 years and a return trip to Brussels I will figure this out. I'm not one to give up easy. And dammit I want to experience those flavours again.

PS - I don't have any pictures of me enjoying those fabulous mussels so a random picture of our wanderings thru Brussels will have to suffice

SALSA!!!!!

Yo Quiero SALSA!!!! Salsa is the most popular condiment in North America and I do believe it is because it is so versatile and really effing good. So, I decided to pop my canning cherry with a bit of salsa making. My dad gave me the bernardin instruction/recipe book last year and after looking at all the recipes I decide that salsa was a good thing to try first time around.

As you should all know I'm not the best a fully reading instructions thru when it comes to recipes. But you'll then also know that I do usually somehow find a way to make things work even if it is a bit questionable at times. This was no different.

The first thing you have to do even before you start your recipe is sterilize your jars. I didn't do that first. I made my recipe first. All this really meant though was that I had to keep my salsa warm while I did sterilize my jars. And just an FYI that does take some time. Figure on 20 minutes. If you are doing things properly and get your jars going before your recipe you should save yourself some time. To make salsa you have to blanch your tomatoes, peel and seed them which is a bit of a chore but worth it at the end of the day. From here it's just chop, chop,chop. Boil, boil, boil. And the hardest part is remembering to remove your air from the jars before you put on the lids. Just be sure to read all the details/steps you need to do for your seals to take and voila you have some fantastic homemade salsa that you can give friends/family. Give as hostess presents or just keep for yourself!! You don't have to have a canning pot to make this, just a deep pot that will fit your jars with water covering them. I would suggest though that you do need at least a really good pair of long tongs if not specific canning tongs. I borrowed a pair from a friend at work, maybe you know someone you can borrow from too?

Be adventurous and give it a try!!

http://www.bernardin.ca/pages/recipe_page/51.php?pid=550