A Mother's Day Extravaganza

So this past Sunday was Mother's Day. Since my mom lives in Ecuador, I decided to lend a hand in the creation of a lovely meal for Sarah's mom. It was a great day of fun and all the young ones got involved. This is how the menu went down:

*Baby romaine salad topped with a dijon vinaigrette, dried cranberries, toasted pecans, goat cheese and warm panchetta

*Tortellini stuffed with a potato, romano, lemon, and mint filling, tossed with some butter

*Lemon sorbet

*Panchetta wrapped chicken breast on a bed of leeks and thyme

*Grand Marnier chocolate souffle


The salad dressing is just a simple vinaigrette. The ingredients are as follows:
- 1 glug white vinegar
- 3 glugs extra virgin olive oil
- 1 or 2 tbsp dijon
- 1 or 2 shallots, chopped finely
- salt and pepper to taste

I know, there aren't any real measurements in the dressing, but I've made it so many times off the top of my head I just sort of wing it. Just make sure to whisk it nicely so emulsify all the ingredients. If you feel it isn't coming together, put in some more mustard. If it's too sharp, add in some olive oil. The key to remember is that if you're going to serve it with goat cheese or some sort of dried fruit is that they will help to tone down the kick of the dressing. Just trust yourself and your tastebuds.

All the recipes, except for the salad, came from cookbooks lying on my shelf. Actually even the salad dressing was inspired by a book I had a while ago called A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke.

The recipes for the tortellini and chicken breast can be found in Jaime Oliver's Cook with Jaime. It's a great book that had a lot of information for beginner cooks. The good or bad thing about it is that it lets you have leeway with the recipes by not giving you specific recipes instead allowing you to make the decisions and in turn hone your tastebuds.


Finally the souffle recipe was from a culinary textbook called On Cooking that I bought last summer and never used. It's a great book with lots of basic recipes and it definitely goes into all the techniques needed to accomplish the dishes. It's a great resource and great buy, especially if you can get it used.

I failed to take many pictures of the meal, mostly because I was too busy eating, but below are some pictures of the entree and dessert. They worked out surprisingly well. I screwed up the souffle the first time and ended up with an orange custard, which isn't so bad.

Jaime's recipe was in a single portion form, where everything was cooked together in a single handmade foil packet/tray. Since we were making it for six people, I decided to just stuff it all into one pan and see how it went. The cooking time stayed relatively the same at around 35 minutes. The panchetta really helped to the keep the chicken moist and not being a very big thyme fan, I really liked it in this dish. I think next time I'll add some lemon rounds. I feel like the little bit of sour would make a really nice contrast to the salty of the panchetta.


Here it is plated in my favourite form. A tower. It seems every time I plate something, I like to go for the height. It looks a little bland in this picture. I suppose we could have used a couple sprigs of fresh time, or a little pop of yellow from a lemon.

And finally, la piece the resistance, the souffle. As a kid I remember watching so many cartoons about souffles and the need to stay quiet so that they don't sink. Now I know that it's just about keeping a good folding technique and making sure the eggs whites keep their air. I was very happy to see the rise to the occasion and taste just as good as they look. Although, after eating one of those, it's safe to say that I've hit my chocolate quota for the month.

I hope all you have a wonderful mother's day and perhaps even did some cooking of your own.

Happy cooking!
- Sandra

Sarah's super magic awesome special parmesan asparagus

I'm going to give you my super secret asparagus recipe.

It hath been passed down generations upon generations from Mother to Daughter. Unfortunately, because that sly witch Hazel has tricked me into giving her my first born daughter, I will have no one to pass this magical food item to.


1. So travel to the great beyonds to ye old supermarket

2. Picketh ye 25 asparagii of green variety

3. Pay?? (optional)

4. trek back to thine homelands, quicken thine speed verily

5. obtain thee from thine inventory these items:
1. baking tray
2. parmesan of cheese
3. oil of olives (mash with young virgins)
4. salt

6. aline thine asparagii along length of baking tray

7. drizzle thine oil of olives & young virgines upon the asparagii, and then salt

8. if this is salted and oiled to thine taste, place in the deepest darkest depths of Hel (enough to make the asparagii just as wrinkly)

9. apologize for the inconvenience

10. remove baking tray of oiled & salted asparagii

11. sprinkle with parmesan of cheese to thine tastes and shove thine baking tray of asparagii to the deepest darkests depths of Hel for TWO MINUTES

12. make thee a hasty escape with thine asparagii, plated for serving

End of school, beginning of summer...

Clearly this blog has been neglected for some time and set aside for other priorities such as exams and school. There is also the fact that we haven't really had the chance to spend time in the kitchen and really cook up some tasty meals. However, about a week ago, we gathered in our house and celebrated the end of another school year and the departure of some of our beloved roommates. It was a fun day of food, beer, and nice patio weather.

This is how lunch went down...
We made a bunch of pita bread pizzas. It was really easy, just some pitas, with some Fortinos pizza sauce, baby spinach, feta cheese, mozarella cheese, and red onions. You pop these into an oven that's about 350 degrees and bake them for around 10 minutes or at least until the cheese is melted on top. Ours looked like this:



That was lunch. It was merely a little taste of the true feast that was ahead...

For dinner I had my world famous beer-braised pulled pork, coleslaw and homemade bread. It's not really world famous, but my roommates love it and I love making it, mostly just because they love it and it's an excuse to cook a giant hunk of meat. Sarah also made some tasty oven-baked asparagus with parmesan cheese.

I'd share my recipe for the pulled pork, but...I won't. However, if you happen to be stopping by the LCBO in Hamilton, more specifically the one in University Plaza, there is a lady there what will more than happy to give you hers. The most I will say is that mine is made of magic, like that of unicorns.

I'd be happy to share all the other recipes with you though, but for now it'll just be all pictures with captions...for your drooling pleasure.


This is a giant hunk of tasty meat.


Roomie's hands, pulling at the giant hunk of tasty meat.


Nothing beats homemade bread...mmmm...


Asparagus covered in cheese. Cheese...


This is what my plate looked like outside beside a nice cold drink. I want to eat it now.

So yes, those are the pictures of the lovely meals we had to celebrate the end of another year of school and the moving on of roomies onto bigger and perhaps even better things.

I love summer.

Happy cooking!
- Sandra