fresh and delicious

Now *this* is what I should have eaten for dinner yesterday, to make the food topic day of this blogging challenge more interesting!


Seeing as there are no rules that say I cannot post additional content outside the daily parameters, I'm going to go right ahead and tell you about it... it was too yummy and pretty not to share!

The recipe was from the April issue of Chatelaine, which arrived on Monday, and was full of colourful, fresh, spring-inspired recipes. Their food photography is always drool-worthy, but this recipe in particular stood out to me, and I needed to try it right away.


The recipe called for Boston lettuce and arugula, but I'm not a huge fan of arugula, so I substituted baby spinach instead. The rest of the yummy salad ingredients include sliced avocado, blanched snow peas, and bits of ruby red grapefruit, all topped with a seared fillet of simply-seasoned salmon, and a dill-grapefruit-garlic-dijon dressing.

SO GOOD!

My dutiful assistant Steve kept watch to ensure that any bits which fell to the floor were taken care of in a quick fashion.


I am entirely ready for winter to end and spring to begin so that I can start planting my veggie garden and be able to have many more salads like this to look forward to.


Definitely something I will make again. Yum!

pancake tuesday

It's day four of this blog challenge for me, and the topic of the day is "what you ate today". I really wish I had eaten something prettier, or at least more interesting, but it is what it is...

Today is apparently Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, or any-other-name Tuesday... and while I am atheist, and therefore do not celebrate the occasion (nor will I be embarking on a self-depriving ritual of any sort starting tomorrow), having a breakfast food for dinner is always something I can get behind!


For some reason, I always seem to burn the first batch. It's like, a rule or something.


The second batch went much better.


I was feeling pretty lazy tonight, so I didn't make them from scratch this time... it was an Aunt Jemima affair. I know... I know... I am a terrible Canadian for not having any real maple syrup kicking around.

fat & happy

We had the boy's family come to our house for Christmas dinner for the first time, and I loved every minute of it! I have the "cooking gene", as well as it's chubby little sister the "feed people as much as humanly possible" gene, so preparing dinner for nine was a happy chore for me.

I wasn't sure at first if we would be able to squeeze seven adults and two kids into our tiny eat-in kitchen area that we call the dining room, but thanks to some folding chairs, a poker table, and a group of people who don't mind rubbing elbows while they eat, we worked it out.

I might also have the "Martha Stewart" gene, because I even baked gingerbread cookies and added each person's name in frosting in lieu of a place bard.
*insert pleased-with-myself giggles here*


I decided to be ambitious and try cooking the turkey differently than I have in the past and used Alton Brown's brining method - and it turned out fabulously:


I also served buttermilk biscuits, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, dressing, candied carrots, creamy dill potato salad, as well as apple-caramel cheesecake and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.

Don't you feel fatter just reading that? lol


The only way I was able to pull it off was baking the biscuit and the desserts the day before, and preparing the sweet potato casserole so it just needed to be popped in the oven to warm while I carved the bird. I made a detailed schedule and solid plan for the day of and stuck to it.

Afterwards we all piled down into the rec room and watched a movie. We had to set up the air mattress due to a lack of seating, but it meant that the kiddos had a comfy place to fall asleep, as well as prime cuddling opportunities, so it was a good thing.

Everyone left happy, and just a little fatter, so I'm calling it a job-well-done.

:)

ZUCCHINI!

See those lovely, innocent little yellow blooms? So pretty, right? So fresh, and summery!

Wrong! They are bad, bad flowers. They will bring zucchini... and zucchini has become my nemesis.

My refrigerator is overflowing with giant green phallic shaped vegetables. The refrigerators of my coworkers and family members are being overtaken as well by these evil little beasts. I've contemplated sitting out on my front step and offering them to passers-by, or putting a basket-full at the end of my driveway that says "Zucchini, free to a good home!"

At first I was all "Yum!" and excited that my little garden experiment was proving fruitful. But the zucchini just kept coming... and these are no slender little pretty zucchini that you see at the grocery store... Nay, these are giant, robust zucchini that could inflict blunt force trauma if swung at someone. They pop up so quickly that I am picking some every other day... and they won't stop.

My vegetable garden has gone from this...


To this...


... in what feels like only a few days. And it does not show any signs of slowing down. The zucchini has grown so much more quickly than the other vegetables that the broad leaves create a canopy over some of the other plants, and I'm afraid that they will not be nearly as healthy or fruitful.

There are only so many times we can eat stir fry with zucchini, and grilled slices of zucchini, and steamed zucchini as a side dish, and pasta with zucchini, and zucchini grated into sauces... and zucchini... zucchini...

ZUCCHINI!

Lesson learned I suppose. The tomatoes and the zucchini will be planted on their own, outside the box next year. And I will only be planting one zucchini plant... and maybe I will neglect to water it sometimes... or something like that.

Anyone want some zucchini?

Serious.