Friday November 30, 2012

Dinner For 2

Szechuan-Style Scallops
Stir fried Lotus Root and Sugar Snap Peas
Braised Cauliflower
 Noodles in Sesame Sauce

 Warm Banana Compote in Plum Wine with Candied Ginger

A fantastic Chinese inspired feast for my Husband and I tonight.  I love scallops and I love Szechuan. These were delicious.  Our son helped finish them off.

Stir fried lotus root has quickly become a favourite food of mine,  Tonight I stir fried it with sugar snap peas and garlic.  Delicious.

Braised Cauliflower is the only way to eat cauliflower in my opinion.  I received high praise from my husband who said it tasted just like it did when he was in China.

Noodles! Who doesn't love sesame sauced noodles?  Nutty goodness!

Finally to wrap up this feast Warm sweet bananas with candied ginger.

Friday November 16, 2012

Dinner for 2

Fried Mozzarella

Pasta with Chicken, Squash, Spinach, Mushrooms and Pinenuts
Apple Crisp

I am up at my Mom and Dad's this Friday as my Dad is away on business and my Mom doesn't like to stay alone.  My mom is a pretty picky eater (funny how that has turned around from my days of a picker eater as a child) but she does like simple tasty food.  One of her favourites is fried mozzarella.  I learned how to make it a while back and served it up as a starter with sweet chilli dipping sauce.

The main course was pasta with chicken, squash and spinach, a creamy mushroom sauce topped with pinenuts.  Super tasty hearty food.  I don't think my mom loved it as much as I did.

The dessert was apple crisp.  This is by far one of my mom's favourite thing that I cook.  I often make it in small individual serving dishes. That way it is heated fresh when every you eat it.

Apples are finely chopped and tossed with a little cinnamon.  Topping is 1 part butter, 1 part brown sugar and 2 parts rolled oats.  Yummy!

Friday Novermber 9, 2012

Dinner for 2

Ricotta Gnocchi with Fresh Tomato and Morel Sauce
Apple Pie

I have always wanted to make my own pasta but I have not got around to that yet.  Tonight though I made my own Ricotta Gnocchi.  Unlike potato Gnocchi it is light as air.  Although it was very fiddly it was delicious and well worth the effort for a Friday Night Dinner.   I love morel mushrooms and although I have only managed to ever purchase the dried I still think they are delicious.

Dessert tonight was Apple pie.  I am not much of a baker but I do love a nice pie.  Apple pie has always been a favourite of ours.

Kind of a disjointed dinner but great for the Hubby and I.

Source:

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Dinner For 1

Sweet Potato Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

So It is Sunday not Friday and only dinner for 1.  I had this actual dinner planned for Friday but a last minute change in plans had us heading to my parents Friday night.  After spending the weekend we came home Sunday and I decided to cook Friday night's dinner.

Friday Night Dinners are all about gathering with friends and family but this particular dinner was always planned for one, just me.  My husband, who travels a lot, has been out of town for a long stretch leaving me home alone. (This is why the kids and I made the last minute plan to visit my parents and see some of the glorious fall colours.)  Of course these gatherings truly began when my husband was working overseas regularly and I was living far from family, I would gather with my fantastic friends.  So it is sort of interesting and ironic that this one was always planned as dinner for one.

The raviolli is wonton wrappers and it is stuffed with cooked sweet potatoes spiced with a little nutmeg. They were folded over and sealed them and then carefully cooked them in boiling water. I drained them and topped them with a simple brown butter and sage sauce using sage fresh from the garden.  Delicious!

They froze beautifully too and were great when I needed a quick meal for me.

Friday October 19, 2012

Dinner for 5

Pork and Noodle Balls with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Thai Apple Salad
Chinese Broccoli with Shitake Mushrooms
Shrimp with Chilli and Basil
Steamed Rice
Thai Banana Fritters

Dinner for the five of us tonight.  The pork and noodle balls were a little fiddly to make but oh so tasty with sweet chilli dipping sauce.   I will be making them again.

 The Thai Apple Salad is a favourite of mine.  Although there are no apples in traditional Thai Food I really enjoy these flavour combinations. 

Shrimp with Chilli and Basil, Chinese Broccoli and Shitake Mushrooms along with Steamed Rice rounded out the meal.

 

Finally Banana Fritters for dessert.  Anything deep fried is pretty yummy and these were no exception. Dusted with a little icing sugar.

Source: All but the Pork Balls come from Simply Thai Cooking (third addition) by Wandee Young and Byron Ayanoglu

Friday October 12, 2012

Dinner for 5

Beef Sausages with Grilled Onions

One of our favorite things about Australia, we lived there for 6 years, was the all beef sausages (snags) cooked on a BBQ with grilled onions.  Always served on a slice of white bread.  Unfortunately back in Canada, most sausages are pork and served on a bun.  Now don't get me wrong I love a good pork sausage but I longed for the beef ones.  One day I was discussing this with one of the owners of Thatcher Farms at my local Farmers Market and they said they could make me up a batch of beef sausages.  Today I picked them up. Now the best thing to serve them on is Australian style white bread.  Turns out I can find that too, at Cobs Fresh Bread a bakery here in Canada that is part of Bakers Delight in Australia.  This excited me to no end.  I always loved their bread and now I could get my husband to pick it up on the way home from work (unfortunately there isn't a franchise in my city yet).  Today's dinner was not fancy or difficult to prepare but is sure brought our family back to our days in Australia.

It was a happy dinner in my house tonight.

Friday October 6, 2012

Dinner for 12

Japanese Illusion

Oysters with Wasabi Granita & Pickled Ginger

Sushi - Teriyaki Chicken, Carrot and Cucmber Rolls

Hearty Miso Soup with Spinach

Teriyaki Salmon Fillets

Chicken & Vegetable Yakitori

Japanese Beef Rolls

Japanese Rice

Green Beans with Miso Dressing

Asian Hot and Sour Slaw

Toffee Apple Roll with Sesame Ice-cream

It is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.  A time when my husbands family all gets together in one location to celebrate.  Last year we hosted the group of 68 at our home.  As I had already been doing Friday night dinners at the time, just not blogging about them yet, I invited anyone who wished to come to join us for dinner.  It was a huge hit with those that attended.  This year some people had to travel by our city to attend Thanksgiving so I put the word out that anyone who wanted to could stop in for dinner on their way.  We had 8 takers and including my husband, myself and our two oldest children we had a total of 12 seated around our table,  plus 2 little snackers that came in and out of the dinning room.

Some of these dishes I have made before and some were new to my repertoire.  I really liked the Teriyaki Salmon Fillets.  They were super easy to prepare and very tasty.  They will become a regular meal in our house I am sure.  Unfortunately in all the chaos of seeing people you don't get to see very often I totally forgot to take pictures of the food.  It was fantastic though.  There is nothing I am more thankful for than my wonderful family and I am always happy to share food with them.

Sources: Hearty Miso Soup and the Asian Hot and Sour Slaw were from Nina Simonds book Simply Asian Meals
All the other recipes were from Taste (an Australian cooking magazine website)