Old Favourites

Sometimes I feel really creative in my kitchen and come up with tons of new dishes. And other times I slightly less creative and merely take a past winning dish and work on it a little to make it even more winning. 

Tonight's dish is a reworked favourite and if you love Asian foods stuffed full of garlic, ginger, peanut butter, and lime - I know you'll love it. I amped up these flavours from the original dish and made it into a complete meal with a side of sautéed spinach and some crispy tofu. 

Read on for my reworked recipe!

Sweet, Sour, and Summery

I bet when some of you looked at this picture of this salad you thought, oh great another simple salad and now she's adding radishes....

Well if you did think that I'm happy to you that you're half right, but you'll hopefully also be pleasantly surprised. This is another simple salad and I am adding radishes, but it's much more than that too. Today's salad is slightly deceptive, but in a good way. All the veggies, except for the lettuce, get marinated in a sweet and sour mixture that makes this salad special and bright. 

I think this salad will reign supreme at my house this summer with many different veggies taking the starring role. I hope you all love it too. 

Christmas Curry

Today is halfway to my favourite time of the year, Christmas, so it's only fitting for me to make a Christmasy curry. But before you start thinking about how I might be using pine needles, cinnamon, or sugar plums, let me tell you that I used perfectly normal and delicious curry ingredients - I just made my dish extra special with thoughts of Christmas in mind.

First off, I made my curry reflect the colours of Christmas by making a red curry sauce with plenty of fresh green broccoli and basil. And secondly, I decorated my curry with one of my favourite heirloom potatoes - the Warba New Nugget. I like to think of the Warba New Nuggets as little glass balls decorating my bowl because they're round, sweet as can be, and are even speckled with a decoration of pink eyes. 

You might be surprised at my use of potatoes in a curry because curries are usually paired with another starch, but potatoes are actually frequently used in curries and after one bite of this recipe I know you will never think twice about using a Warba New Nugget in your curry again! 

Stop and Smell the Roses

Today was my Nana's birthday and I wanted to make something special in her memory. She loved flowers and I had some lovely fresh strawberries in my fridge so I knew right away that I wanted to make some pretty strawberry rose tartlets. 

The question I had was what to fill my tarts with. When I went out to my garden and saw that I still had some rhubarb, I knew I would make a strawberry-rhubarb curd. I had a recipe for it that I had been meaning to try and I knew that this curd and strawberry tartlets would make a perfect pairing. 

I think I was right. Read on for my recipe to decide if you agree or not! 

Pocket of Happiness

Lately a lot of my dishes have been made with speed in mind. I still want everything to taste yummy, but I also want everything to be ready quickly. Today is the first day of summer and it's time to be enjoying the weather, not slaving away in the kitchen! 

Today's dish is a sandwich that's based on a salad I showed you last month, my Greek Chick Pea Salad. The salad was so quick and yummy that I used it for the base of an equally yummy pita pocket sandwich. My only problem now is that I don't know which dish I'll serve more often! 

Hay and Straw Salad

First off, don't worry because this salad doesn't actually contain straw or hay. I just am borrowing the term from a pasta dish that contains long strips of regular and spinach pasta because both the pasta dish and my salad have long strips of bicolored edibles that look like straw and hay. 

Secondly, if you've read Smitten Kitchen, you might have seen something that looks a wee bit like this salad before. However, I've made my version entirely different by taking out the original yummy salad dressing, adding in a new fabulous Asian Pineapple salad dressing instead, and changing a few other bits as well. I can not put into words how delicious this salad dressing is other to simply yell out the word YUM! 

Ok, I'm getting hungry. Let's not waste another moment, read on for the recipe! 

Dinner's a Wrap

I used to think that tacos should never have fish in them and should always have lots of cheese. That's all in the past now because today's post is a taco that has no cheese and lots of fish! 

I was inspired by a recipe in Canadian Living magazine to make dish, but my recipe is slightly simplified and I didn't think my fish needed breading to be a success.

I was so in love with this easy dish that I made it twice in two weeks! It was that yummy! 

Chilly Summer Days

We all seem to be having really erratic weather this year, so even though it's June and it's warm where I am, I thought I would share one of my newest chili recipes. I sure hope we don't need to warm up with a big bowl of chili, but I guess we just don't know what weather we are going to get. 

And, to be honest, I like chili in the summer, regardless of the weather. It's awesome to serve any leftovers on top of a sausage in a bun! 

Life (and Grilling) Made Delicious

I love to entertain outdoors in the summer. It's just me, my grill, my friends, and my family. The only problem is that I sometimes find myself in a rut when I think about what I'm going to grill.

Since I've stopped eating most meat, I'm don't have as many choices for grilling. Of course there are veggie burgers and grilled veggies, but after a few months of that I know that my palate is going to get a bit tired. Luckily I am pleased to tell you that I'm part of the Life Made Delicious blogger program for the second year running, and I know that this website is going to help me stay creative and interested when I'm entertaining outdoors this summer.

I took a peek at some grilling recipes last night and one idea made me hungry just looking at it. The best part was that I already had all the ingredients in my pantry, so I was able to make Life Made Delicious' Grilled Picnic Taco Nachos for a snack this afternoon.

I chose to use small pie plates for my dish, so that I could pass out individual portions, but I know they'd be great served up family style too.

International Delight Iced Coffee with a Giveaway

It's a warm day here in Victoria and I am in the mood for something cool and refreshing. Luckily I was given a few coupons to try International Delight's new Iced Coffee. I am not the biggest coffee fan, but I loved this cool, sweet treat. And since a large family sized carton is about the same price as a single serving of iced coffee at some coffee shops, this is the perfect treat for me. 

But since today is extra hot, I didn't think that pouring a cool glass of the iced coffee over ice was enough. No, I chose to get a little adventurous and make a little iced coffee ice cream. Since the iced coffee is already made from coffee, milk, sugar, and cream, I didn't even have to add any additional ingredients. All I did was pour two cups into my ice cream maker, turn it on, wait 25 minutes, and voila - iced coffee ice cream! 

Interested in trying some International Delight Iced Coffee for free? I have two free coupons for a lucky Canadian reader.

Breakfast Fanatic

I used to be someone that didn't bother with breakfast. I would rather skip the time it took to make it, eat it, and tidy up in exchange for a few precious extra minutes of sleep. Now, I don't know how I did that because I love breakfast!

I love waking up in the morning and knowing that I'm going to be doing my body good by eating something healthy and delicious. And Dorset Cereals' muesli and granola served over yogurt are some of the best quick and easy breakfasts that I've discovered recently - and I should know because I was given all seven of their yummy versions to try!

So other than a quick and easy breakfast, why do I think you should try Dorset Cereals? Here are my top five reasons:

1. They're from Poundbury, England - a lovely village created by the vision of Prince Charles. Who doesn't love England?

2. There is no added sugar or preservatives - they contain only natural sweeteners.

3. There's enough whole grains and goodness to keep you full from breakfast to lunch.

4. With seven awesome flavours, there's enough to choose one per day of the week so you'll never get bored.

5. They make really good, chewy cookies too.

If you don't believe me about the cookies, read on for a great recipe!

My First Authentic Canadian Foodie Memory

I am proud to be Canadian, but Canadian food specialties often seem to meld into North American food specialties. The USA claims the All-American apple pie and the uber popular hamburger, but what does Canada get to call it's own besides the French fry, gravy, and cheese curd concoction of Poutine?

I'll tell you what else is Canadian - butter tarts! Canada's claim on butter tarts dates back to 1900 when a recipe was first published in the Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook in Barrie ON. And since I grew up mere minutes from Barrie, in Collingwood ON, it seems only fitting that my first foodie memory involves the sweet treat of a butter tart.

I was a small girl of maybe five years old and I'd get excited every time my Nana and Papa would drive up for a visit. I would of course be excited to see my family, but I'd also be excited for that white cardboard box hiding a slew of delicious butter tarts.

My way of eating them was not the most obvious of choices, but it was a wonderful way to me. I'd take a little sugar spoon and eat the filling bite by bite and then enjoy the pastry on it's own. Well that's what I'd do if my mom was watching, if she wasn't watching I'd eat the filling of two tarts and leave the pastry shells for later.

Now that I'm older, and know how much work goes into making the pastry, I eat butter tarts a little differently. I still love them all the same though!

Guest Posting on Hun, What's For Dinner

Yesterday was my first guest post for my friend Cindy at Hun, What's For Dinner. And since it was my first ever guest post, I wanted it to be something special. I had a few ideas running through my head and while they all sounded delcious to me, when I came up making my own goldfish crackers I knew I had found a winner. 

For my whole guest post, visit Hun, What's For Dinner. Or, if you're already drooling over the photo, read on for my recipe.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

As a teenager, I used to babysit for a boy who loved ranch dressing on everything. He dipped anything and everything into it and I'm pretty sure he would have drank it if no one was watching. 

I'm not as big a fan as he was of ranch dressing, but I do love it. I just don't like the idea of pouring ready made dressing into my food. I'm convinced that the preservatives and sodium are just too high for me to enjoy it. 

Now I've discovered a recipe for ranch dressing that has no preservatives and tastes amazing. I've tested it on grilled wedges of iceberg lettuce (yes, you read that right!) and every single leaf of the lettuce was gobbled up. 

Hearty Breakfast

Have you ever found a flavour of Cheerios you haven't liked? I know I haven't; I've loved every single flavour I've eaten - original, honey nut, peanut butter, apple cinnamon, and chocolate - and I cannot wait to see what's coming up next.