Greek Salad

Hello, GOOD DAY!
For my birthday my best friend Chantelle sent me Jamie Oliver's Food Escapes cookbook. She is the best & she obviously knows me well :) This cookbook has sent me on a mission to create new & exciting dishes everyday! This week Dan & I had bok choy soup, cat fish curry & we made chicken pita's with avocado dip. Also as you can see above we had a great Greek salad the other night for dinner.
I went though Jamie Oliver's cookbook & I needed to use google to find out what the heck some of the ingredients were.
I love that. I love making something that is new & is a challenge for me. For example, two weeks ago I planned a surprise baby shower for a friend of mine & I was in charge of making all of the food. I also made the cake. I wanted to make something cute, so I knew fondant icing was the way to go.. but I had never made it before. When I was at the grocery store buying the ingredients I was thinking to myself  "oh maybe I can start making cakes on the side..start my own little business! How much fun would that be!" So I decided to make a "practice cake" before I did the actual shower cake & it was an utter disaster! I had icing sugar everywhere, the dough kept sticking to the counter & it ripped when I was finally about to put it on the cake! My thoughts quickly changed from starting my own cake business to "I NEVER WANT TO MAKE A CAKE AGAIN". haha

So I was nervous for round two of fondant making, but it turned out pretty good! I used a simpler recipe and
I am very happy with the end result.

*Don't mind the icing sugar all over my stove. haha*

Also here is the Greek Salad recipe:

Serves 4 side dish portions.

• 1 ripe tomato, sliced
• handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
• 1/2 cucumber, sliced
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• handful of fresh dill
• handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
• handful of black olives
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• feta cheese chopped (I didn't measure, so use as much of as little as you'd like)
• 1 tsp dried oregano

Enjoy!

Tomorrow I am starting my new job volunteering at my local food bank! I am excited to get out, meet some new people & work on my French some more! Wish me luck!

Have a great day friends!

xo

Newest Pinterest Finds

Okay, okay.. I love pinterest! & from the looks of my pinterest "following" page, my friends do as well. I think it is a great way for friends (& the world) to share the things they find & love. A BIG problem with pinterest in my opinion is that people can waste SO much time on there without actually doing anything that they found! I will be honest that red velvet brownie recipe that I found has still yet to be made.. but I have full intentions of making it at some point in my life. & that dress design that I found will maybe, possibly, one day be used...haha. I know that we are all guilty of pinning things that we find cool & fun, but we would never actually do or use...and that is totally okay!
But this post is dedicated to some cool recipes that I found/shared on pinterest & now I want to share them with you guys.

As you can tell..the jar is already half eaten!
This is the most wonderful peanut butter ever.
You can find it on Avery cooks blog!
Homemade Roasted Honey Peanut Butter

All you do is grind up roasted honey peanuts & voila...awesome peanut butter.
It's probably not the healthiest of all peanut butters, but it tastes pretty darn good. Next batch of nut butter I make, I will just use roasted peanuts instead of them being sweetened!

Dan and I made this dish for dindins one night & we loved it! I love everything roasted..and with HONEY, even better.
springtime honey garlic roast chicken skillet.

Okay, one more pinterest fav.
Thai crunch chicken salad

I even made this thai sauce and put it on noodles with veggies. YUM!

Okay well I better get back to pinning! ;)

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAV RECIPES THAT YOU HAVE FOUND ON PINTEREST? 

Have a great day everyone!
xo

Harvest {{Garden}}

Look at my little pumpkin! How cute is he? Yes, my pumpkin is male. :)
We have the cutest little pumpkin patch in our garden. We have about 7 little pumpkins. This was our second year having a garden, but the first year we didn't plant very much. It has been a fun learning process. With me gone for a month and a half to Toronto, Dan is definitely the one who took care of the garden. Although, I am the one who has been cooking non-stop with fresh veggies! Seeing as this is only my second garden, I am still in "awe" of how amazing our own fresh veggies are. There is just something more delicious about eating something that you grew yourself. So here is a little collection of pictures of our harvest!

See how cute they are? 

We had a LOT of beans and carrots. I didn't take many pictures of them, but here are a few pics of what's left of them!

This ziploc was full earlier this week! The ziploc was what was left of our harvest.

 Eatin loads of carrots that's for sure!

We even pickled some carrots!

 Last of our green onions...

Cooked up some little onions in garlic & red wine! YES PLEASE!

Here are some of our canned goods :)

Tomatoes.

Pickles! Made with some of our own garden cucks! We didn't have many big cucumbers, hopefully next year will be better!

Lastly, Parsley. We have been putting parsley in everything! I am trying to dry the parsley & I am wondering which way is best. I have about half of my parsley hanging & half drying in the oven on 200F. I will see how they turn out. What do you do to dry your parsley?

I just wanted to share all of the happiness of my garden with you!  
If you have a garden, what are the yummy things you grow?

ta ta for now.

xx

Sweet & Salty Pumpkin Seeds

Hello!
Pumpkin! Oh yes, pumpkin. I love everything pumpkin! Have I said that before?
Here is my latest pumpkin recipe!
I wanted to make something a little different from the normal lightly salted pumpkin seeds. So here we go!
I found a recipe online & I slightly modified it, of course.
Unfortunately, my picture doesn't look quite like the one they have on their website. Mine are a lot darker. They are darker yes, I think they taste marvellous!

What to do?

• take 2 cups of pumpkin seeds( Mine were from a large pumpkin, or you could use 2 medium size pumpkins) and BAKE them at 300F for 50 to 60 minutes.

• Once they have baked for an hour take them out and cover them with 2 tbsps of butter or margarine, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tbsp white sugar, 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt
• BAKE your seasoned seeds for an additional 10- 15 mins at 350F
• ENJOY!

xo

Pavlova

Today I thank the good Lord for my sister in law! This recipe is all her's and I am excited to be sharing it with you today! I was feeling super bad for neglecting my blog lately, then my sister in law came to the rescue with a recipe! YAY.
How are you guys doing? It's been awhile since we've caught up!!
This past week a friend and I went strawberry picking! It was perfect weather and a super fun outing! Then the day after, she and I made 30 something jars of strawberry jam! So wonderful! I love making things homemade. It's always better.
Here is the recipe for this delightful dessert!

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 pint fresh strawberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F . Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.
3. Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.
4. Bake at 300 degrees F  for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside. swoooooon
5. In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened. Decorate with fruit of your choice; strawberries are excellent.

Enjoy!

Have a great rest of your day!

xo

Banana Bran Muffins

Hello all!
Yes..I am finally posting a RECIPE! I keep posting about everything under the sun, except for food. So here it is, another muffin :)

This recipe comes from the family cookbook! So treat it with care & make it all the time. It is a well loved recipe.
Makes 12 big muffins.
Instructions:

MASH 3 large ripe bananas.
ADD 3 large eggs.
ADD

• 1/2 cup of oil. (I used 1/4 cup of oil & 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce. Less fat)
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup of oat bran
• 1 cup of raisins (optional)
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cups of flour

MIX until combined. Spoon them into a greased muffin tin, or use muffin cups.

Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes!
How easy was that??

ENJOY!

What have you baked this week?


xo

Homemade Summer Sangria

Bonjour!
Sangria! Yes please! I figured I would post this on a Tuesday so you could have the time to go out & buy the ingredients for your Friday night get together! A few weeks ago we were given a bottle of red wine as a gift! It was a very nice gift, except for Dan and I don't really enjoy red wine. I KNOW, I KNOW...all of you crazy wine drinkers out there are going to think I am crazy. I am sorry, I just haven't acquired the taste for it yet. BUT add some fruit & some sugary-goodness and I am on board! I love me some sangria! So here is a very not healthy, but oh so good recipe! Enjoy!

Mix together all of the following ingredients in a punch bowl or a large(or two) pitcher. Let the ingredients sit for 24hrs in the fridge to get the best flavour!

• 1 bottle of red wine (or your choice)
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 orange, sliced (you can squeeze the juices into the wine)
• 1/2 can of orange juice from concentrate
• 1 small can of diced pineapples (add the juice as well)
• check sweetness. If you would like it more sweet add a tbsp of sugar.

Add the following ingredients just before serving:

• 3 cups of ginger ale (4 if you like the wine more watered-down)
• 1 container of blueberries (1 dry pint)
• a handful of strawberries (frozen or not)
• 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced ( I used it for a little decoration :)
• add ice

xo