chickpea wraps

 drain and rinse a can of chickpeas, then add to a pan with some oil, over medium heat.  sprinkle in some paproka, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper.... whatever tastes good.  fry gently, careful not to burn, until hot and fragrant.  add to a wrap with tatziki, cucumber, tomato and feta.

 the next morning for breakfast, take some of the leftovers and mash with a bit of mayo and lemon juice, then spread on a fresh toasted everything bagel.

 

2 recent sunday brunches

one with photos and one without.

lets start with the one without photos

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monte cristo sliders

blt avocado brunch salad (no egg)

fruit

hash brown patties

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 this was so good and easy to put together.  we did the jam on the side of the sandwiches, because of the kids, but the adults all opened their sammys and added it.  the kids refused to try.

the salad was delicious - a definite make again, as were the sandwiches.

 

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hot brown sandwiches

hashbrowns

yogurt

granola

fruit

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 a little more complicated that the first brunch sandwich, but well worth it.  the boy made most of the sandwich and sauce on his own, with his dad anxiously watching over his shoulder.  we left the tomatos off for the tomato haters, but i fried them and we added them to the tops of sannies.

some people had yogurt parfaits, with the granola and fruit on top, some had straight yog, and some had none at all

a quick dinner - sausage and cheese biscuits and fruit

 I feel like we need to add an extra day to the weekend every week, a day that I could use to meal plan and cook.  I would love that!  I haven't planned meals in ages, preferring to live on the edge and just figure out what to have at the last minute.  It's just as enjoyable as it sounds.

This particular day I had thawed a pound of ground pork and was searching thru the pantry for something to add to it when I spotted the bisquick mix, et voila!

Warm biscuits with some melty cheese and a herby-garlicky sausage patty.  Fruit on the side. Comforting and delicious.

Sunday and Monday and Thursday dinners

 

We were reminiscing with The Grandpa one night about the Millarville farmers market just outside Calgary, that we went to regularly when we lived there, and I (of course) remembered the food concession that was run by the locals - coffee, pancakes and sausages, and back bacon on a bun sandwiches with fried onions.  It was so good.

We've made the sandwiches ourselves a number of times since we moved away, but the ones this Sunday were probably the best we've ever had.  The Mister made the onions and bacon and I'm pretty sure his secret was way more butter than I would ever use, but they were so dang good.

The next night to combat all that butter I made a healthy(ish) spinach and pasta dish - Creamy Spinach Orzo.  Easy and delicious - even the kids ate it without complaint!

Cooking every day is bloody exhausting, so we went simple for Thursday - beef stew in the crockpot.  This recipe is a winner every time.

I tried....... the internet breakfast sandwich

Like nearly everyone else I've been glued to my phone/internet more than usual, but for all the gross bad stuff on there, you can occasionally find some good, like when you discover new food people, or recipes, like the one pan breakfast sandwich.

It's pretty straightforward, eggs and bread in one pan, we added some cheese and ham to be super fancy.  I couldn't quite perfect the dunking the bread and turning it over and getting egg on both sides, as you can see from my photo, but it's a small problem that didn't affect the delicious taste of the sandwich.

Here's a little writeup that shares a video too, so you can make your own delicious sandwich.

Sunday DInner and Thursday Dinner

A while back my Dad and I went through some of my mom's recipes and I brought some home, including her lasagna, cheesecake and caramel corn. I made the lasagna for Sunday dinner, along with some salad and cheese buns. 

Her lasagna is ridiculously delicious and quite simple.  We love it.

For dessert I made a recipe I ripped out of a Bon Appetit magazine more than a decade ago - Eva Marie Saint's Apple Pie.  This is easy and super delicious.  My Mother In Law requested a copy of the recipe to take home and to my knowledge, she is not a regular baker.

The following Thursday I made Asian Style Chicken Bunwiches with Ginger Sauce from The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook.  They were super good and the ginger sauce was amazing.

We had raw veggies and fries and saved some room for a delicious dessert - Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Spice Cake.  It was a big hit, especially with my Dad, who would have taken the whole cake home if I'd let him.

Slow Cooker Beef Roast

We had a cheapie beef roast in the freezer that I wanted to use up, 

but I wanted, nay, needed the recipe to be quick and easy.  

First I pulled out the crock pot, then I headed to Pinterest to see what I could see.

I found this slow cooker french dip sandwich and ooooh boy, was it tasty.

We didn't follow the recipe exactly, we don't have any creole seasoning, 

and The Mister added a big glug of red wine from the previous Sunday dinner, 

we added some carrots and other spices, but this is a good recipe to 

follow to the letter or play around with.  

The meat was tender and flavorful and the sauce was delicious.  

I did omit the mayo on the bun because that just doesn't seem right on a beef dip sandwich.

Is that just me?

Tomato Sandwiches

I love when tomatos are good (and cheap!) at the markets. 

Tomato Sandwiches are one of my very favorite late summer foods, but there are rules. 

1.  The bread must be white bread.

It can be "cheap" grocery store bread (there is no such thing as cheap bread any more!) or fancy artisanal bread. White bread just works better and tastes better for a tomato sandwich.

2.  You must use butter AND mayo.

A very thin layer of butter, to keep the bread from getting mushy right 

away, and a slightly thicker layer of mayonnaise for flavor.  

3.  A light sprinkling of salt.

Just a smidge to enhance the flavors of the tomatos. 

4.  Slice your tomatos thinly.

Also, blot gently with paper towel so they aren't too wet.

5.  If you can handle it, some hot sauce.

Because yes.

Vietnamese Subs and Crock Pots

I'm here! I didn't go away again! 

We - and by we I mean pretty much everyone I know - has been sick.  This has been a bad year for flu and cold bugs.  I think we're mostly over everything now, but my boy is still not 100%.  

Nothing very thrilling has been going on around here, and that includes cooking.

I've had this recipe saved on Pinterest for a while. 

This is my favorite kind of food - I think I've documented that well over the years.

I liked the recipe, but didn't love it.  I found the sauce too strong and salty.  But I would try again, with modifications - cut down on the soy and hoisin, add more broth or water. 

My favorite Vietnamese style sub is still my no-recipe recipe for chicken subs.

No-Recipe Recipe

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We've got a very busy few months coming up, and I thought it would be wise to plan ahead for dinners to make it easier on busy days.

I've been trying to find some make ahead meals and crock pot recipes, but I haven't had much luck so far.  Today the crock pot is cooking a beef roast in homemade bbq sauce - I'm hoping to get 4 meals out of the pot, one for this week and 3 to go in the freezer.  I also assembled and froze a turkey meatloaf recipe, and froze some leftover baked pasta.

I bought some bulk ground pork, ground beef and chicken thighs, and froze them in 1 pound bags.

But now the hard part - finding something to DO with them. 

Grocery shop December 22 and Egyptian Hawawshi sandwich

This was hopefully my last trip to any sort of store before Christmas - just for odds and ends.  

I love that the Superstore is open 24 hours a day at this time of year.  I am an early riser, so for a couple of weekends a year I can go and do my shopping, be back home and have everything away before anyone else in the house is even awake.

Coffee, coconut milk, pineapple, english muffins, avocados, lemons, limes, oranges, chicken, sausage, ham, crackers, juice x 3, peas, corn, fruit snacks, granola bars, beef bouillon, jam, smoked oysters, smoked mussels, ginger ale, sparkling water, cream cheese, gingersnaps.

$85

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I made the most wonderful dish that I found on Pinterest last week, but my pictures are so horrendous that I can't post them.  

But check out this Egyptian Hawawshi sandwich - ground beef seasoned with veggies and spices and stuffed raw into pita, which is then brushed with butter and baked.

We loved them, and I will make them again.

Paninis

I've had panini's on the brain lately.

 Made these ones from leftover rotisserie chicken with our trusty Foreman grill.

This is the kind of quick delicious meal that I need to remember to make more often. So good and easy, and the possibilities are endless.

 I made a chicken, cheddar and barbecue sauce one for my boy.

Like most food I give him, it was met with lukewarm enthusiasm. 

For the grownups, I made a masterpiece. 

Chicken, spinach, brie, and peach chutney. 

OMG. 

Monte Cristo Sandwich

Doesn't that look delicious!?!?!!?

I've been craving this sandwich for months now - we were out of town last year and I spotted a restaurant  that had them on the menu.  We tried to eat there but they were too busy, and I just couldn't get the thought out of my head.  This was supposed to be our New Years Day dinner but I was sick, so I put it off for a week.

I am so glad I made this.  So good.

Basically a Monte Cristo is a ham, turkey and swiss cheese sandwich.  But instead of eating it as is, or maybe toasting it, you go bonkers and batter and fry it.  THEN you sprinkle it with icing sugar and serve it with a side of jam.  It's amazing.

I've had this sandwich a couple of times before, most memorably at Disneyland.  So here's the recipe I followed, courtesy of a Disney recipe website:

Monte Cristo Sandwich

Try it and enjoy!

Project Notebook - Book 5

So I've been feeling down lately. Real down. Down, down down.

I figured I needed a hobby, or a project to keep my mind a little more busy. But hobbies are darn near impossible when you've got a crawling little guy that gets into everything. And potentially expensive. So I decided to make it cooking oriented, since I have to cook anyways.

I thought about heading to the used book store and finding a new cookbook, maybe try the ole "cooking through the book" thing again. But why spend money on a book when I've got a bookshelf full? But I couldn't find one that I thought I could, or wanted to, make a dent in. And then I realized I had the perfect project. All my notebooks. I'm up to 14 or 15 now, I think.  They are all recipes that I chose to keep, that for one reason or another I wanted to make. So why not start cooking through all these recipes I've been saving for years?

I call it "Project Notebook", for lack of a more imaginative/better name.

I have given myself a few rules. I can make any changes I want to or need to. If I have previously made a recipe I don't have to make it again, unless I want to. And if there's anything I want to skip, I will.

I am starting with Book 5, because that's the first one I grabbed off the shelf. I've been working on this project for a while now (month? month and a half?) and I no longer remember what order I've made these in, but I do remember this one was first.

Tomato Tartar with Tomato Water Sauce, Jacques Pepin

This was definitely the way to get this project started.  This was AWESOME.

Diced tomato, onion and bread with a tomato juice and olive oil vinaigrette.  I made this 3 times in as many weeks and can't wait until tomato season next year to make it again and again.  Just super.

I found the recipe online, slightly changed from what I have written down.  The tartar in my notebook has 3 tb of olive oil in it, and there are no herbs in the tomato water.  Recipe.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage, Rachael Ray

Easy to make breakfast sausage with not bad flavor.

Recipe

Pasta all Checca, Canyon Ranch

I made this after our Davison Farms visit in September, with their yellow tomatos.  I liked that it was no cook and had tons of flavor. 

Recipe

Grilled Steak and Mashed Potato Wrap, Rachael Ray

I found a little steak in the freezer and had wraps and potatos, this project has actually been very helpful in using up food I have in the freezer and cupboard.  This reminds me of a restaurant I went to years ago with my friend Simon in Calgary, they did all sorts of wraps and soups.  I loved it because they had wraps I had never imagined, like steak and potatos, or turkey and cranberry.  It was a good restaurant.

Orzo with Ham and Goat Cheese, Gourmet

It turns out we have made this before. It's really good.

Beef Hoisin Mini Meatballs, Rachael Ray

I do love me a good meatball, and these were ok.  Kind of a soft texture.  Hoisin and garlic and green onions in the meatballs, browned and simmered in a sauce of hoisin, red current jelly, garlic, ginger and water.  I made these because I had some red current jelly I wanted to use up.

6 recipes down!

Breakfast Sandwiches - Make em and freeze em.

I love breakfast! I do. I mentioned a while back that I like to have variety in my breakfast on the weekend, because my weekday breakfasts are boring toast or cereal. As I was driving to work the other morning I passed McDonalds and briefly fantasized about stopping and buying a McMuffin sandwich and enjoying a hot breakfast. I didn't, but as I ate my cereal at work I thought, why not make some breakfast sandwiches at home and freeze them, so I could have a breakfast that's not only hot but healthier than grabbing a drive thru sandwich.

I had all the necessary ingredients on hand - english muffins, eggs, cheese and ham, and the next morning before work I decided to put them together then so I could take one with me.

I used
6 english muffins
3 eggs and 2 egg whites
6 slices of cheese
sliced deli ham

I split and toasted the muffins and let them cool completely. I tore my cheese slices in pieces and put cheese on all the muffin halfs. You could use actual real cheese here if you wanted, but I love these fat free cheese slices.


Then I put some ham on half of the muffin pieces. You could use bacon, sausage, back bacon, or even omit the meat if you want. Tomato would be good if you were eating these fresh but it'd get soggy if you froze them. In my opinion.


Then cook your eggs. I only like scrambled eggs so that's what I made. I used 3 eggs and 2 egg whites. It was actually a little too much, next time I will do 2 eggs and 2 whites. Let the eggs cool so your sandwiches don't get soggy, then pile em on the muffins.


Then I wrapped 5 of them in foil, put them in a freezer bag and tossed them in the freezer. In theory I will take one out the night before, put it in the fridge to defrost, then nuke, toast or grill in the morning for a nice tasty hot breakfast.

I have since thawed and eaten on of the muffins and it held up very well. The bread didn't get soggy. The eggs tasted fine. Ham was good and cheese was yummy and gooey and dripped all over the place. Add a side of ketchup for dipping and it's a perfect portable breakfast!

Other breakfast ideas:

Ham and Apple Breakfast Pie
Lemon Cornmeal Waffles
Yogurt and Berry Parfait
Bannock
Breakfast Burritos

Wordless Recipe - Meatball Sub

It's a mouthful - Curried Chicken and Endive Sandwiches with Pancetta

I had the tv on the food channel Saturday morning while I did some stuff around the house. This dish caught my eye and I made it for dinner tonight - Curried Chicken and Endive Sandwich with Pancetta from Giada De Laurentiis. I couldn't find a recipe for it online, so here's some vague directions for what I made tonight. And you should make them too, these were mighty fine.

Here's what you need:
endive, washed and chopped, like cabbage for coleslaw, or however you like
cooked chicken, I used one breast half to make sandwiches for the 2 of us
buns
mayonnaise
curry powder
salt
lemon juice
honey
pancetta, one slice per sandwich

Chop up your chicken and endive. I'd go somewhere between equal parts and 2 parts chicken to 1 part endive, whatever floats your boat. Toss them together in a bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together some mayo (I use light), curry powder, lemon juice, honey and salt. Make it taste good. I can't really tell you more than that, I didn't follow a recipe. The add it to the chicken and endive. Mix it up. Taste it. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Meanwhile, cook your pancetta slices, 1 per sandwich.

Put your chicken mixture on your buns,

Top with pancetta,

Eat, and wish you'd made more than 2 sandwiches.

Cuban Sandwiches

One of the best things about reading food blogs is discovering new sites. One of my newer finds and all time favorites is the blog at King Arthur Flour, Bakers Banter. Last week I was nearly drooling on the keyboard as I read their post about making Cuban style buns to make Cuban Sandwiches. They looked so amazingly good that I decided right there that I would make the sandwich and the buns.

The recipe makes 6 buns which in turn make 12 sandwiches. Because there are only 2 of us, I didn't follow the ingredient amounts in the sandwich recipe. When I marinated my wee piece of pork tenderloin I fudged the marinade by not measuring. I let the pork marinate all day.

I made the buns in the morning when it was less roastingly hot. As usual I added all the flour, which was not necessary, and had to add some extra water. Also the bun recipe calls for lard, but I used butter. Other than that the dough was fine.

My shaping sort of sucked, but they were all fairly the same size and shape. After their second rise I slashed them and spritzed them with water.

Scott and I argued about when to take the buns out of the oven. I think we could have gone for a little more color, but whatever.

Then at dinner time, when it was almost 40'C in the backyard, it was time to turn on the barbecue! What joy. The pork was cooked and thinly sliced.


We'd bought some kosher dill pickles and sliced them, along with some swiss cheese. There was ham too.


And the sandwich was put together. The recipe calls for your buns to be spread with olive oil, but we used butter. We layered the pork, ham, swiss cheese and pickles on the split buns.


Then we closed up the sandwiches and brushed the outside of the buns with a little more butter. We heated our pan over medium heat, then added the sandwiches, turned the heat down (my stove is very very finicky), placed a piece of foil over the sandwiches, and put my heaviest pot on top. I pushed down on the pot slightly to press the sandwiches.


They cooked until they were nice and brown on the bottom, then we flipped 'em and repeated.

Bad picture, but still doesn't that look amazing? And so filling. I didn't think a half sandwich would be enough for me, but I barely finished it. Scott ate a whole one, but said afterwards it was almost too much. The best part came 2 days later when I took the other half of my sandwich to work for lunch. I ate it cold and oh man, it was even better! Next time I will make 3 or 4 sandwiches so they'll be lots of leftovers.

Recipe: Cuban Sandwich