the key to the good life...

The key to the good life is having a friend who bakes. A friend who is an extraordinary bake. A friend who happily brings over a fresh challah. A friend who graciously offers to contribute pumpkin chocolate chip loaf to Thanksgiving dinner. A friend who is not offended when you send her a recipe at 2:30 p.m. on a Friday and suggest that she bring it over for dinner that same night.

Last-Minute Menu

Guacamole & Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

Paprika and Worcestershire Marinated & Grilled Top Sirloin
Roasted Fennel
Roasted Potatoes with Grainy Mustard & Shallots
The [gooiest-yummiest] Maple Pear Upside-Down Cake

*Recipes from Bonnie Stern's Friday Night Dinners except dessert which hailed from the Bitten Blog in the New York Times...and Julie's kitchen.

awesome pita chips, autumn salad, roast chicken

Have you checked out Food52? I'm addicted to the videos, the Piglet and their weekly recipe contests. This week, Amanda and Merrill are asking home cooks to submit recipes for their best autumn salads and best sweet potatoes. I thought about the salad, and what flavours/foods I'd like to include, then I built a Sunday night dinner around it.

Fall Sunday Night Dinner

Rosemary thyme pita chips (awesome recipe from Food52)
Roasted garlic & sage cannellini bean dip
Autumn salad (I'll post on Food 52 later this week)
Roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary potatoes

Let me know what you think about Food52. Could it become one of your go-to recipe sources?

Sunday dinner: braised short ribs

A few years ago Sharon and I went to a cooking class at the local LCBO (government-owned liquor store, for my American friends). The class was taught by Erik Peacock, from Niagara's Wellington Court Cafe. He showed us how to make Asian-inspired beef short ribs. We left the class and Sharon's been making those sweet, gingery short ribs ever since. It's taken me almost five years to attempt short ribs and I decided to try a more traditional recipe.

Braised in red wine and Port, short ribs can be started in the afternoon and left to cook over the next several hours. What wonderful comfort food for a cold Sunday night!

My Sunday Night Menu from Bonnie Stern's Friday Night Dinners

Hummus with cilantro pesto

Braised beef short ribs on red-skinned smashed potatoes
~I added roasted garlic and a couple of spoonfuls of caramelized onions for fun~

When I mentioned on Twitter that I was making comfort food for dinner, Meg from Maker's Table sent links to two of her favourite recipes: Beef Stew with Zinfandel and Mama Lorette's Rice Pudding. I will be sure to try both of these recipes soon!

Do you have a recipe that you'd like to share? What's your favourite, go-to, homemade comfort food?

how to make baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip)

It's eggplant season and I love it! One of my favourite treats is baba ghanoush which can easily be made at home and enjoyed with pita chips.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-large eggplant
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• Juice of half a lemon
• Smoked paprika (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and ground pepper
• Chopped parsley or cilantro (optional)

Slice eggplant lengthwise into quarters.

Cook skin side down on a hot barbecue until soft. I like to put a piece of aluminum foil underneath.

Cool the eggplant, then scoop out the insides into your food processor. Add the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse. Slowly add some olive oil and pulse. You'll want to add just enough olive oil to achieve a relatively smooth consistency but don't let it get soupy! Top with chopped parsley.

Time to eat eggplant dip!

friday night dinner

Friday nights aren't given enough credit. Most people avoid hosting dinner after the work week but, in my opinion, it's a fine night to enjoy good food and wine with friends. It's even better if your friend is Julie and she wants to bring homemade challah.

Challah is a traditional Jewish egg bread and it's often served at Shabbat dinner (Friday nights!) and at holiday time. Truly, it's a bread to be enjoyed at anytime.


Last Friday I introduced challah to muhammara, a Syrian roasted red pepper and walnut spread (I found the recipe in Bon Appetit). The slighty spicy dip paired beautifully with the sweetness of the homemade bread. Best of all, muhammara is a cinch to make if you have walnuts and a jar of roasted red peppers handy and it's a great substitute for hummus.

The remainder of our meal included basil breadcrumb chicken, green beans, a tossed salad and a raspberry-buttermilk cake (also courtesy of our friend the bake!). Fun Friday times!

sticky balsamic ribs summer menu

In celebration of a Sunday dinner, Jay picked clematis from our garden and set the table.

It's unexplainable but Sundays are the best cooking days. This week, I was planning to make Aunt Susan's Ribs but was missing a number of the ingredients so I started browsing through my favourite food sites. I decided on Gourmet's recipe for Sticky Balsamic Ribs. yum!

Thinking about what would pair well with this main course, I came up with a fabulous summer menu:

• Smoked Trout Spread with pita wedges seasoned with smoked paprika and fresh garlic (The spread was adapted from Bonnie Stern's Smoked Whitefish Spread in Essentials of Homecooking. You can find a similar recipe here.)
• Sticky Balsamic Ribs
• Mashed Potatoes with Corn and Garlic
• Tossed Salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes and fresh dill

The smoked trout spread was great for sharing on the patio with a glass of champagne. The only problem was that I should have doubled the recipe!

As for the ribs, let me first praise the glaze! This brown-sugar, balsamic combo made for a soft toffee-like coating. The only change that I would make to the recipe is that you should probably only grill the racks for a few minutes per side. Six minutes per side was a bit too long and some of the ribs were crunchy (not what you're looking for with baby backs!).

Do you have a summer menu that you think I should try?

sunday dinner with the in-laws

We invited my in-laws over for dinner but I wasn't feeling at all creative. I just wanted to make something that wouldn't involve any new recipes or measuring. Something pedestrian. You know that kind of meal that you can pull together with your eyes closed...

Pita and dip pretty much make a daily appearance in our home. Tonight I wanted it to look pretty, so I arranged the appetizer on a large plate. I made hummus with canned chickpeas, tahini, chili flakes, cumin, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. To jazz it up, I topped the hummus with my best extra virgin olive oil and chopped parsley.

Our main course included grilled chicken breasts, roasted asparagus, mushroom medley quinoa and salad. The chicken breasts marinated for an hour in a mixture of pantry staples: grainy mustard, wildflower honey, olive oil, herbes de Provence, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Unfortunately, the chicken spent a little too much time on the barbecue so it was a bit dry. Our salad was comprised of romaine, arugula, chopped tomato, crumbled goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and a light lemon vinaigrette.

All in all, it was a nice evening that finished with a slice of rhubarb crisp.

early mother's day meal

Yesterday should have been a lazy Sunday. But it wasn’t. We generated loads of errands in the morning, I worked on a financial management take-home exam in the afternoon and my mother-in-law came over for an early Mother’s Day dinner. Thank g-d that she’s not difficult to please.

In an attempt to multi-task, I roasted a lone red pepper on the barbecue while working on the exam. Roasting is always a good idea when you have peppers on their last legs. Once it was charred, I let it cool, peeled it and threw it in the food processor with canned organic chickpeas, chopped garlic, cumin, lemon juice, kosher salt and pepper. Yummy roasted red pepper hummus!

Our dinner menu was a simple old-school steak dinner. It took less than an hour in total to prepare and was easy to enjoy.

Menu:

• Roasted red pepper hummus with homemade pita chips
• Caesar salad
• Grilled rib-eye steaks
• Roasted baby potatoes
• Steamed asparagus (from Washington…Farmer Hric will have local asparagus this weekend at the Ottawa St. Market in Windsor)
• Sautéed onions and baby Portobello mushrooms

Of course, our meal started with a bottle of something bubbly. In this case, it was Henry of Pelham’s Cuvee Catharine Brut. “Catharine,” as it’s affectionately known, is one of our favourite sparkling wines from the Niagara region. If you’re interested in trying it, you can often find it in Vintages at the LCBO or visit the winery.

All in all, it was a simple Sunday night celebration in honour of Cathy.