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I’ve been very busy these past few days everybody, so please take some time to check out the new additions to the website. On the navigation bar at the top left, you’ll notice some new pages. I’ve put up an FAQ page, some Tips and Tricks, a Foray into Photography, for those non foodies (though I don’t know how you got here), and I even updated the About Me section. Let me know what you think!
I’m also very behind in posting recipes, so stay tuned for some Brownies, Mocha Cake, Chicken and Chestnut Dumplings and Butternut Squash Soup. Now, onto today’s fine dining.
Lamb, it’s not everyone’s idea of a cup of tea. Described by some as “gamy”, lamb has a strong flavour usually associated with other game animals, such as elk or venison. I don’t see it, or should I say, taste it?
Having grown up in a family that, at one time, relied solely on my Mother and Father’s hunting ability for protein, I’ve tasted a lot of “real” game animals. I find the flavour of lamb unique, yes, but not very gamy. It is very similar to goat, but I’m sure most people haven’t had the opportunity to try goat, at least not in North America. What is the cause of the distinct flavour of lamb? As far as I can find, the reasons include their varied diet and an ability to exercise more than your average farm animal.
In any case, good lamb is not hard to find around here. They are abundant, to say the least. Compared to New Zealand Lamb (the most famous of lamb suppliers), I’d have to say it’s right up there. Hard to compare fresh to frozen though, and you all know I will always choose local over import.
Of the many ways I love to cook lamb, I’m going to have to say that Greek style on the BBQ is at the top of the list. And so I give to you Greek Lamb Kebabs and my personal recipe for Greek Salad Dressing.
Lamb Kebabs with Greek Salad
Lamb Marinade
1.5 lbs. lamb (Shoulder, roast, shank, etc.), cubed
1/4 cup of fresh rosemary, minced
1 clove garlic, minced fine
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, minced
1 tbsp fresh oregano, minced
note: If you have to use dry herbs, crush them into a powder in a mortar and pestle and use less. How much less? That depends on the freshness of your dried herbs.
1. Combine all, except lamb, in a small bowl. Stir to combine.
2. In a plastic bag or any deep sided dish, add lamb and pour marinade over. Marinate for at least 2hours, preferably more (like 4).
3. When finished marinating, skewer meat cubes onto metal or wooden skewers. If using wood, make sure to soak for at least 20 minutes in warm water prior to cooking, to avoid charring.
4. Heat BBQ to medium high and grill for a few minutes on each side. Lamb should be served medium rare, so don’t cook it longer than 10 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Greek Salad
For the Dressing:
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
juice of one lemon
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt and fresh cracked pepper
2 Tbsp fresh oregano, minced
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
For the Salad (serves 4 generously):
2 large bell peppers (not green)
4 large tomatoes or at least 3/4 lb. tomatoes
1 large English cucumber
1 small red onion
Handful of Kalamata olives (optional)
1. Cube peppers, tomatoes and cucumber and add to bowl.
2. Slice onion very thinly (nobody likes big ol’ hunks of onion) and toss that in with the other veggies.
3. Mix dressing in right before serving, toss and enjoy!
I’ve just recently purchased a new Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D lens and created my own light box, so look for my newly honed photog skills to be making appearances from now on! And keep those e-mails and comments coming people. I love to hear about you making my recipes and loving them! If you don’t love them though, tell me about that too! Maybe I can fix it. Thanks for sticking around.
Ciao,
Elizabeth
Today, I’m taking you back to your childhood. No matter who you are, where you grew up or what kind of Mother (or Father) you have, you surely came home to the smell of freshly baked cookies at one point in your life. Whether they were chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, snickerdoodles or sugar cookies, somewhere, sometime, you had them fresh out of the oven.
My Mother used to bake a cookie called “Bunny Cookies”. They were chewy, dense and full of fat, juicy raisins. The recipe had been passed down from a friend, whose Mother, Bunny, made them for him when he was a kid. They weren’t your average cookie, mind you. There is a whole drawn out process to making them and they take forever to bake, but they do pay off in the end. I will post a recipe for them coming soon. Well, my own version anyway. I can’t leave well enough alone, you must know that by now!
We’ve been playing host to my parents recently, who travel back and forth between my sister and I for six months of every year. They are Snowbirds, you see. The kind who live in far off tropical bliss every winter, while I freeze my butt off up here in the North. They come back just as the frost is melting and leave again when it comes back. This year is a bit different, as my older sister is expecting her first child at the end of November. We’re all very excited to be adding to the family. Finally a cousin for my little monster!
Anyway, when my parent’s are here, I tend to make more desserts. When it’s just my husband, our young son and me, it feels like too much to always be making huge amounts of desserts. Not that we wouldn’t eat it, on the contrary, we would eat it all. My thighs heave a sigh of relief every time I hear my parents RV pulling into the driveway.
So whether you lived a depraved life of no home baking, or your mother made the same cookies every time she baked, these cookies will surely become a classic in your house. Combining three of the most popular home baked cookies into one, these will remind you of childhoods long forgotten.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from Gourmet
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup peanut butter (smooth, chunky, natural, whatever)
2 eggs
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
1. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugars.
3. Beat in vanilla, peanut butter and eggs. Add flour a little at atime and mix until completely incorporated.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and do one of two things: Roll into 2 logs, 2 inches in diameter and refrigerate for 2 hours OR spoon onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart and flattening into cookie shapes and bake right away. The chilling does help a bit in the forming process but I found it somewhat unnecessary. (If you do refrigerate the dough, simply cut into discs, roll around a bit to soften edges, flatten, and bake for the same amount of time).
5. Bake at 375°F for 13-15 minutes.
For my young son, I hope to stoke the fires of culinary creativity at an early age. Not that I am pushing for a rock star chef, but I would love for my son to appreciate food as much or more than myself. Doing such small things as baking cookies for him when he’s still too young to really remember, I hope to do just that.
As much as I’ve been going on and on about how much a love fall and how the weather is cooling off, it’s still 80 degrees every afternoon. Mornings are another thing altogether though, with an average of about 45 degrees. So with this odd mix of cooler mornings wrapped in sweaters, hugging my cuppa and blazing hot afternoons, stripping down to our shorts and tanks, there seems to be a need for a transitional meal. Something I can cook outside while it’s still warm enough to want to do so, but still embracing the coming of the cooler weather.
In comes a spicy, chipotle and lime marinated chicken. Hello lovely, how have we missed each other all these years? I thought my chicken marinating had reached it’s full potential, but I should have known that knowledge never ceases to be accumulated. We are always learning, in and out of the kitchen. One will never be finished or full, at least not I.
Where was I? Oh right, you’re here to know the winner of the giveaway!
I was all official and used Random.org to generate some random numbers. Since my comments don’t have numbers, I eliminated double posts, my own posts and those of my husband as well. Weeded down, there were 29 posts, and the winner was #23, Jen from Vancouver!
Congratulations Jen! I will be e-mailing you shortly to obtain your mailing address. Thanks for playing everybody! I loved all your reasons for loving (or hating) fall. Stay tuned for more giveaways coming soon. I love giving you stuff, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Love it or hate it, fall is here. Make today’s recipe to prolong those summer moments, and just be thankful it’s not winter yet. Though I hear there’s been snow in some parts of the US!
Chipotle Lime Marinated Chicken
This makes about enough marinade for 1 1/2 lbs. of chicken
8 small chicken thighs, bone-in skin on
3 small chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce) (This sauce is spicy! Reduce peppers if you’re a wimp)
Juice of 2 limes
1 clove garlic, grated
2 Tbsp cilantro, minced
1/2 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
1/2 tsp salt
1. Mix all together in small bowl.
2. Place chicken in plastic bags or small plastic container with a lid.
3. Pour marinade over, mix around to cover completely, refrigerate.
4. Allow to marinade for at least an hour, but longer would be better.
5. When ready to grill, preheat BBQ to medium high for about 5-10 minutes.
6. I like to begin grilling skin side down, which allows the chicken to get some nice grill marks.
7. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes per side, then flip (using tongs, never a fork!), cook for another 5 minutes, flip again and repeat once.
8. Bone in thighs should take 20-25 minutes on a BBQ at medium high heat. Full legs (thigh and drumstick) take much longer, as would bone in breasts. Boneless breasts will take 15-20 minutes.
9. If you are going to be using the oven instead, simply reduce cooking time based on the cut you use.
10. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before cutting in, as the juices need time to settle. If you cut into them while they are piping hot, all the nice juice will run out.
Serve with a green salad or even pasta salad, if you really want to prolong summer.
I made two batches of this to have a sort of dipping sauce for the chicken when it was done. Delicious!
Have you entered the giveaway yet? No? Why not? Get over there quick before midnight tonight (Thursday September 24th, 2009) or it will be too late! Hurry up!
Today is Mr. Guilty’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Lover!), and we’re headed out to this place for dinner with his parents. We haven’t been out for dinner without our little monster for so long, I can’t even remember a time when we had the opportunity. Not that I usually mind, but once in a while, it’s nice to get away and have an evening not be spent running around the restaurant trying to catch him before he starts begging at other people’s tables or meandering into the kitchen to play with all the sharp, shiny tools. He’s definitely worth all the missed dinner’s out though, don’tcha think?
Speaking of our little monster….for having been birthed (painfully, without enough drugs) by such an avid and passionate “foodie”, this little guy is what I like to call, a “picky eater” (crazy, I know!). He lives off Annie’s Bunnies, cheese, pickles, Peanut Butter smoothies and milk. No veggies please, unless they are being utilized as transport devices for some sort of creamy dip, like tzatziki, in which case, bring it on!
A few nights ago, I thought I would make something I thought would be a hit in his world. Cheesy, starchy and flavourful. Sadly, I was wrong, but it was a huge hit with the adults of the house. This recipe has been filed away in the “Must make again” files. So very good and astonishingly simple. Please make this, it will make your world go round.
Broccoli & Cheese Tart with Potato Crust
2 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes (or other sufficiently smooth fleshed potatoes)
1 Large Vidalia Onion
2 Large eggs, slightly beaten
salt & pepper
280 g Broccoli (cut into small florets)
2 baby leeks or 1 large leek (white part only), sliced
1 large garlic clove, grated or minced
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup dark beer or water
more salt & pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced fine
175g Cheddar, grated
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1. Grease a 9″ glass pie pan and preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Grate onion and potatoes and drain them of most of their liquid in a colander. (The less liquid, the more crisp your crust will become).
3. Mix grated potatoes and onions with salt, pepper and 2 eggs.
4. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, brush crust with a small amount of oil, and return to oven for another 15 minutes to become crispy.
5. In large, deep saucepan, heat oil. Add broccoli, leeks and garlic. Allow to sauté for about 5 minutes, then add in beer to deglaze pan. Continue to cook until broccoli just begins to soften. Remove from heat, stir in basil. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
6. In large bowl, mix remaining eggs, salt, pepper and buttermilk. Stir broccoli mix into eggs.
7. Time to finish this thing! Take your crust, layer on half your cheese, then pour the broccoli/egg mix in, then sprinkle on remaining cheese.
8. Bake in 375°F oven for 35-40 minutes.
9. Serve with side salad or soup.
You can’t go wrong with this meal, it brings together childhood favourites. At least it was a childhood favourite of mine. Really, anything with cheese can’t be a bad choice right? Tell that to this kid.
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I also hate saying good bye to summer fruit and Birks – I hate boots!
