STEAK SANDWICH

Hello,

So I have still yet to go grocery shopping however i did find a couple of steaks in the freezer, so decided to brush off the old BBQ (George Forman). I cooked up the steaks and seasoned with a little steak spice. I also had this pretty sweet (not actually sugar sweet but sweet nonetheless) Jerk BBQ sauce. To accompany i made mashed potatoes as to further deplete my sprouting softened potato stocks. Since I had no garlic I added a couple shallots while boiling the potatoes. After they were fork-tender i threw in some cream cheese milk and butter, and mashed it to perfection. As I only had one vegetable I decided to make some cucumber salad. See recipe:

Cucumber Salad!!!!

1/2 English cucumber
Oil
Red wine vinegar
honey (or sugar)
paprika
garlic powder

Dinner also to note, i was a little
overzealous with the BBQ sauce

Peel and slice cucumber as thin as humanly possible. Add remaining ingredients to taste (I just kind of wing it) Stir, let sit, the longer the better. For those out there wanting measurements lets go with 1/2 tbsp oil, 2 tbsp vinegar, 1tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp paprika and garlic should about do it.

Frying steak, Yeah i have the handle is pointing
off the stove but I like to live dangerously

But that meal was yesterday, as I had mentioned I had 2 steaks. So today was leftovers. I cut up the steak, and fried it in a little oil, cut up a shallot tossed that in there. Once pretty much recooked I added some hot sauce and some Diana's Sauce. I toasted some bread and took out my last 2 slices of emmental and made myself a delicious Sammy. I also ate the rest of the cucumber salad (as I said it gets better with age)

Steakwich, enough said.

Anyways lets hope I go grocery shopping soon...

Avocado: Berry Goodness!

Hi Guys!

Wow it has been a while since this has been updated, and then twice in one day! Today I am going to talk about my favorite fruit as of late: Avacado!

The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree native to the State of Puebla in Mexico,^[1] classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceaealong with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel. Avocado or alligator pear also refers to the fruit (a large berry that contains a large seed^[2]) of the tree, which may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped or spherical....

There is so much you can do with these creamy green "berries", from making guacamole, using it in salads, and making fresh fruit smoothies (yum!).

On Thursday night, I made a grilled chicken/ avacado sandwich. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1) 1 piece of grilled chicken breast, seasoned to taste (i used montreal chicken seasoning, but just salt and pepper works to)

2) 1/2 an Avacado

3) Parmesean cheese/ raosted tred pepper dip

4) Olive bread loaf

Directions:

Cut the chicken breast into thin slabs (1/2 thinkness of the full chicken breast). Season the chicken breast and cook on medium heat until ready (make sure it is cooked through. Cook time depends on thickness of meat). You can BBQ or gril itl, but as it is winter, I just cooked it stove-top in a little bit of EVOO.

Spread the parmesean spread onto one side of the bread. Put the cooked chicken breast and avacado slices on top, and cover with the other slice of bread. (That is right, I just explained how to make a sandwich in case you didn't know!)

The sandwiches were delicious, and we paired them wit some homemade chardonay (thanks Joseph!)

  Chicken Cooking

 Sandwiches! yummy

Salad with honey mustard dressing (nice paired with the avocado)

Ok..onto the next recipe. Avacado fruit smoothies:

Ingregients:

1) One full ripe avacado

2) Strawberry flavored yogurt

3) Milk

4) Sugar or honey (if you have a sweet tooth. I find it is already sweet enough without adding more sweetner though)

Instructions:

Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend. Enjoy.

New Toy!

For Christmas I asked for a crazy blender. My dad had no idea what I was talking about so he threw some money at me. What I would normally do in such a situation it to put all of the cash into the "Die student loan die!" fund and watch it make a negligible dent. The other option here would be to buy a normal not 500$ blender, but thats no fun.

First up the Apple smoothie:

In the mix:

-1 frozen banana

-1 cup of spinach

-1/2 lime

-2 apples (with the core!)

-1 cup of ice cubes

-1/2 cup of water

Before After

I was pleased this was after a few seconds and it was so smooth. I like the texture the apple provided and I also really like the colour the spinach brings (you cannot taste it at all).

Next experiment: Larabar mimics

These bars have a really short ingredient list consisting of dates, some sort of nut and some flavour. Devin requested something fruity so I made a lime one for him and chocolate mint for me!

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup cashews

-1/2 cup almonds

-7 dates

-for the lime flavour I added the zest of 1 lime

-for the chocolate mint I added 1 Tbs of cocoa and 1/2 tsp mint extract

process the nuts until powdery, stop before it becomes nut butter.

Pit and add the dates, these remind me of The Dancing California Raisins I just want to dress them up like Mr. Potato Head and have them dance around the kitchen.

And add in your flavour!

On the left is the dough when it is done, on the right is the dough rolled into snack size balls for easy snacks on the go.

The are so tasty!

What is your favourite on the go snack?

-Kirsten

Corned Beef Hash

Hello Everybody,

So had some leftover corned beef I picked up from the deli near my apartment for sandwiches over the course of the week. I also happened to have a half bag of potatoes which were sprouting and going soft. Long story short it was time for some corned beef hash; a perfect Sunday morning breakfast food.

Ingredients:

2 partially sprouting potatoes
8 slices corned beef
1/4 large onion
paprika
garlic powder
pepper

Dice potatoes into small pieces place in frying pan with about 1/3 cup of water. Cook uncovered until water is gone and potatoes are on the verge of being tender, if still uncooked add more water. Next add corned beef, onions and seasonings. the corned beef i had was decently fatty I didn't have any issues with it sticking, however you could add oil if you encounter trouble. Fry until potatoes start to brown.

Voila corned beef hash

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting but I have been procrastinating grocery shopping for a while now. So either way my post will have something interesting either me finding ways to putting of grocery shopping, or I'll pick up something cool next time i am out.

Cheers until then...

Slack week

Blog post have been very infrequent this week. I haven't done much in the kitchen since Monday! Tuesday Devin made some tortilla soup for din din.

Turns out I left my camera cord at school because I am a moron, so I will add pictures later.

My lunch for the week was pasta with "cheese" sauce and made it in my new blender! I got this recipe from another blog called Edible Perspective, she has lots of fun breakfast recipes too.

I liked the "cheese" sauce a lot, it was really thick though so nice time I might add more milk. That being said, I think in it's thick form it would make a really good dip with a hummus like texture... I think that is how I will finish it off this weekend!

Devin's soup creation was really healthy and also done in the blender.

Tortilla soup:

-3 cups of soup broth of choice

-1 tomato

-1 carrot

-1 celery stalk

-1 slice of onion

-1 clove of garlic

-1 slice of red bell pepper

-1 tsp taco seasoning

-1 tsp cayenne

-1/4 jar of black bean salsa

So I did this in my blender, to do this on the stove should work with an immersion blender or by food processing the veggies first.

So I added all of the ingredients (except the salsa) in the blender and blended until smooth and then added the salsa for some texture, I also put some wraps in the oven on 350 until crispy and sprinkled it into the soup.

Today I went to Costco and stocked up on nuts and veggies. I also picked up some farro, I have never used it but I thought it would be something fun to experiment with.

So that's that! I will add pictures on Monday probably so stay tuned!

-Kirsten

Not for the faint of heart

Hello!

Yesterday I had a pot luck to go to for the Chemistry Graduate Students Society executives. While running around stocking up on baking goods we stopped at a spice shop and I found some sweet loot.

Ginger Beer and pineapple pop. The pineapple pop kind of tastes like those rocket candy's you get on halloween, it was really sweet but oh so tasty. There were two brands of Ginger Beer, the one we picked had a bit of spice and was pretty good. We are trying to find a good source of ginger beer for a drink called Dark and Stormy, which is spiced rum mixed with ginger beer, quite tasty. Brent; I think you have had the Grace brand (the same as my pineapple pop) of ginger beer, what are your thoughts about it?

I also found jilebi, which is some sort of desert I had at New Asian Village a while ago and it is sugary and deep-fried so I decided to pick up a pack. The panner looked pretty interesting too, it is an indian cheese and when I've had it before it was so good. We will see how the pre-packaged kit turns out. These kits were 1.50 each so I don't think you could go wrong.

For the pot luck I made WHOOPEE PIES!!!! These are by no means healthy. These cookies are a cake like consistency with icing sandwiched between two of them.

I got the recipe here and modified it slightly. Instead of all white flour I used half white and half whole wheat. We made chocolate with mint icing and banana with cinnamon spice icing. I also found the batter very thick so I added a bit of water to make it manageable.

I have never had luck with egg based icings so I didn't use that recipe either.

Icing recipe:

-1 cup of lard

-4 cups of icing sugar

-cinnamon or mint

-vanilla extract

Blend lard with dough hook attachment for hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar one cup at a time until mixed. Add water until desired consistency (for these you want it to be pretty thick). Add 1.5 tsp of mint extract or 1.5 tbsp of cinnamon depending on desired flavour.

Mix-y the dry ingredients.

Devin helping with the wet ingredients and me pouting about the mess the sticky batter made.

Put cookies on sheet, I also put some in to muffin tins because there was SO MUCH batter, I recommend halving the recipe depending how many you want. We ended up cutting the muffin ones in half a and putting the icing in-between. Bake for 10 minutes on 350 et voila.

For traveling convenience I put the icing into ziplocks and when I arrived at the party I just cut off the corner of the bag and it worked as an icing bag.

The finished product (the next day, my camera died when I got to the party).

Devin enjoying a hangover Whoopee Pie.

I also made a smoothie this morning. It consisted of 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, a splash of juice, and ice until full. Nice and refreshing morning snack.

Tonight is wing night!!! (Finally) My wing topping of choice is going to be sweet chili. What is your favourite wing flavour? What is the craziest/most unique wing flavour you have heard of?

Quinoa, and VietThai goodness (two separate meals though)

Hi Everyone!

I have been awful at this 'keeping in touch through food' thing... but I am going to catch up.

A few weeks ago my mom went to a lunch with a bunch of the ladies from the neighborhood (kind of like desperate housewives, only not desperate), and they had this vegan from the local hot yoga place cook for them. It was one of those hippy "love your body and mind" sort of things, but my mom came home with an amazing recipe. I will call it quinoa sweet potato salad, due to lack of creativity on my part.

Basically, you cook Quinoa the usual way. Then you cube some sweet potatoes and parsnips and cook them (steam, or fry, or bake... whatever you want really). Then you cut up some kale, and when the parsnips/ potatoes are almost done, you add the kale. When it is all cooked, you add it with the quinoa and add salad dressing. We used creamy poppy seed dressing, because that is what we had, but I think almost anything would work. (If you are actually a vegan, make sure you use vegan dressing). The recipe was supposed to be with cole slaw dressing, but we improvised! It was delicious, colorful, and healthy! (i took a picture on my phone, but I forgot to upload it, so I will do that later)  

I decided that I am going to be the worst at sharing recipes, because everything is so hand wavy with me. My recipes will be all "add this if you want.... or don't... "

On to the Viet Thai food....

Yesterday me and a few friends went to a restaurant in China Town! it was viet-thai cuisine. I ordered the grilled chicken vermicelli bowl (but i forgot to take a picture). It was HUGEEEEEE. The entire bowl was full of noodles, lettuce, bean sprouts, and peanuts, and they gave me two full pieces of chicken (with the  bones still in). Despite the deliciousness of it, I'm not sure if I would order it again. Eating full chicken chunks with chop sticks is HARD to do.

....I just re-read this post and realized the only words I emphasized were huge and hard. oops. 

More Soon!

-Sara

BALLS!! Flying Pizza Fail

Tuesday night is wings night at an awesome restaurant here called Brewsters. They have a list of at least 30 beers that they make and their food is really good too. Since I teach Wednesday mornings I had to pass on wings this Tuesday which was le sad. To make up for such a tragedy plans were made with the roommates for tonight to make our own fantastic wings...however that has been postponed until Sunday.

To try and make up for being lead on by wings twice in one week I thought homemade pizza would be a good substitute. I bet you can see this coming too, the pizza also did not happen. I wanted to make falafel balls to put on the pizza (haha balls), so when I got home at 8 it was a bit late and just settled with the falafel.

I would not call this a traditional falafel recipe, I just kind of mixed a bunch of spices together with chick peas to try and make something wonderful. I might be biased but these were pretty sweet.

Falafel-esk Balls

-1 can of chickpeas

-1/2 onion

-2 cloves of garlic

-2 tbs olive oil

-1 tsp coriander

-1.5 tbs cumin

-2 tsp parsley

Combine chickpeas, onion, garlic and olive oil in food processor until almost smooth consistency is obtained.

Mix in spices and form balls on cooking sheet.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, flipping once after 15 minutes, then broil for 5 minutes to form crispy exterior.

Let cool and enjoy in a wrap on pizza or to spice up a lazy salad.

The salad was dressed with apple cider vinegar, olive oil and honey with some feta sprinkled on top. Nom nom nom.

Adventures for the weekend involve wings, possibly a bread making adventure too.

Tomorrow I have a pot luck to go to but I have no idea what I am going to make yet! Any suggestions are welcome.

Cheers,

-Kirsten

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Yesterday we did a big Superstore run to save some moneys. I may have gone a bit overboard with the dried goods...

Lentils and beans and rice OH MY!! (and some coconut)

I foresee some awesome new recipes coming soon. Just for a little spoiler Andre's video may have inspired one (or more) of these ingredients.

And an update: the cheesy quinoa has major value as leftovers, I will be having some tonight before group meeting.

Cheers,

-Kirsten

My Pot has a Leek in it

So promised in my last post i have a leek adventure for you. So a bit of back story my grandfather is welsh, welsh people eat leeks. So i decided to embrace my welsh heritage and make some leek and potato soup. The leek is a noble vegetable kind of like a green onion except bigger and better.

Pot of leeks and potato

I remember back in the summer of 2009 Kirsten and i grew leeks in our garden, a year later i returned to my former house and tried to reclaim our now decently sized leeks so i could bring them to Toronto, fast forward 3 weeks and all transported leek had died due to transplant shock and lack of water.

Leek and potato soup with Fried egg sandwich

Enough about the past, so my sister came over for dinner and i made some leek and potato soup (see recipe section for recipe). To accompany this delicious soup, We had grilled cheese for my sister and due to a cheese shortage i had a fried egg sandwich. A nice thing about this soup is it is low in fat, and due to the creamy texture of the potato combined with the leek you get a nice smooth soup without the addition of cream, milk or cheese (although cheese makes everything better). It was a solid meal and to accompany it we made Chili Chocolate Tea which i had received as a Christmas gift.

Twll dîn pob Sais! iechyd da comrade.

-Brent

P.S. http://www.leekspin.com/

Sunday morning Diner Breakfast

So first post but hopefully it will be inspirational. As i was in stratford over the weekend attending a going away box social for a good friend we needed some greasy spoon goodness to follow an epic night.

I decided to forgo the paul bunion special which although good did not come in sandwich form, so i opted for the "bosswich" it consisted of the following (in no particular order) Turkey, bacon, breakfast sausage, 3 eggs, and tomato sandwiched between a chiabata bun. oh yeah, and it had HP sauce on it and came with hash browns.

long story short it was delicious, and i wish i took pictures because now my post looks like garbage after k-tom's wonderful posts.

Up next from me: something containing leeks! So stay tuned.

-Brent

Quinoa Goodness

Every Sunday I try and make enough food for the week, preferably something that won't go bad fast and is still tasty when reheated in a microwave. This week's adventure is with quinoa. Why quinoa you ask? Mostly because I got a bag of it from Costco and because it is delicious and super good for you. I am also pretty sick of eating pasta since that was my easy meal fix all of last year.

Cheesy Quinoa

Ingredients:

-1 cup uncooked quinoa

-1 cup water

-1 large can of diced tomatoes

-2 cloves of minced garlic

- ½ cup shredded cheese

- 2 tsp oregano

- 1 tsp basil

- 1tsp dried chilies

Directions:

Combine can of diced tomatoes, water and spices and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of quinoa, turn down heat and let simmer until all liquid is absorbed (~20 min). Mix in cheese and enjoy.

Boil the tomato water...

Add quinoa...

CHEESE!!!!! and Enjoy.

This was super easy and delicious! How it worked as left overs? I have no idea. I'm a zombie in the morning and forgot to pack it.

BUT I was at school by 8:15 this morning! I have been trying to get to school early every morning (for me this means 9 am). Even though this is probably no where near as early as you real-job people have to get up, I am still proud. And exhausted by 3pm.

I think this weekend I am going to try and make some sort of afternoon snack for the week too.

Why won't it stop snowing!!

It has practically been snowing here non-stop since I got back. It just won't stop! It was a really sad moment on Saturday when -22 felt good. It also doesn't help that I left my parka in Ontario.

Anyways Saturday I went to this sweet burger joint called Rodeo Burgers, they make all of their toppings and buns fresh and it is pretty epic. I had lettuce, tomato, caramelized onion, pickles, banana peppers, chipotle ketchup and south west sauce on mine. It was wonderful.

Later that night my roommates had people over to watch the hockey games, it involved lots of booze mostly because that is the only way to I can pretend to watch hockey.

Today we went to Earls (it is a restaurant they don't have out east) and had the best spinach and cheese dip I've ever had, and just to keep going with the drinking thing a few Caesars were consumed. YUMMMMMM... Then we went to see Black Swan, I think I liked it but I am still not sure, the scene in the hospital with the nail file was a bit too much for me.

I have pictures for this post however I cannot find my camera cord, hopefully it is at school and I can upload the pictures tomorrow.

ALSO tonight I am going to attempt to make pizza flavoured quinoa for lunch for the week, wish me luck.

K-Tom

Taco's!

So, I know the point of this blog is that we are all living in different places, keeping in touch through food...but for now (and for the next 3 months) Brent and I will be in the same place..
Which brings me to the point of my first post:
Yesterday, Brent made me TACOs!!

They were so yummy....but pretty typical, containing:
Seasoned and deliciously cooked ground beef
Yellow and green pepper
Tomato
Salsa
and (my contribution) Cheddar cheese!!!

The tortilla shells were soo soft.

We followed up our amazing dinner with some (random, as usual) movies: "An Education" and "Suroggates", while drinking tea and eating cookies (store bought, unfortunately)

I really liked the first one, how can you go wrong with a BBC movie??


Anyways, I'm signing off.
You should also know that this is my first blog post ever,

Sara

Ostrich

I ate ostrich for dinner last night.
It was pretty epic, unlike this first blog post.

Cheers,
K-Tom