Mexi-Style

I have been on a wrap kick for the last few weeks and really enjoying that kind of dinner. There aren't a lot of dishes, it's not messy, no cutlery is required, and it's not a lot of work.

I know if that's all I was looking for, I could just head to the nearest McDonalds. But I also like a few vitamins in my meals. And home-cooked wraps provide all the vitamins I could ever want. I'm making them, so I can put just about anything I'd like into them.

Today's recipe is more than just a wrap. It's a whole Mexican dinner stuffed into a wrap. And, if you're into wraps, it's great served as a casserole and just topped with avocados and cheese. I've happily eaten it that way more than once!

Salad Toppers

Have you ever tried corn nuts? I haven't until now and I am surprised to say that I like them. They look a little like the corn I used to buy from vending machines at farms to feed to the animals, but they taste like crunchy, salty, bites of goodness. And they are great as salad toppers!

The best thing I found about corn nuts is that they taste great on top of any salad I've tried so far. But I have to say that the salad I'm sharing today is pretty fantastic when topped with corn nuts.  Maybe it's the vinegary bite of the pickled beets with the salty corn nuts, creamy avocado, earthy lentils, and sharp green onions, but I think it's a great pairing!

Summertime Tabbouleh

I feel very comfortable cooking most cuisines but middle eastern food has never been one of my favourite foods to eat or cook. But when I first tasted a new version of tabbouleh, filled with fresh Canadian corn, I knew I would be revisiting middle eastern cuisine all summer long.

The tart lemon and sweet corn are a perfect match in this dish. And the roasted baby tomatoes and salty feta cheese don't hurt either. I like to eat a big bowl of this tabbouleh with nothing else, but I know it would be great served as a side dish with something grilled too.

My Canadian Voice

Over the past year I have participated in writing monthly posts with Valerie Lugonja from A Canadian Foodie in the Canadian Food Experience Project. I've really enjoyed each post because they made me think about what it is to be a Canadian food blogger.

Canadian food bloggers are more than just foodies. We reflect on what we've eaten and created, we spend time taking photographs of our work, and we share it with the world. Our posts are full of a wide range of delicious creations - farm fresh produce, local food heroes, gardening, preserves, and food from all cultures of the world. We are a pretty great bunch and I am proud to be one of us.

The recipe I am sharing today is a really quick recipe for a week night meal or even a lunch. And I think it sums up me as a Canadian food blogger. It's a Fresh Salmon Wrap and features locally caught salmon, a homemade corn relish from last year's BC corn, cucumbers from a local farm, spinach from my garden, and a whole lot of happiness.

Mexican Green Goddess Dressing

Farmer's Markets are getting a little sad now. Oh there are still lots of delicious squashes, beets, and carrots, but the warm ripe tomatoes and happy little bundles of herbs are really thin these days. So, in honour of the warm summer days we've enjoyed, I'm giving a summer salad one last hurrah.

This weekend, when I'm planning for Thanksgiving, I'll start enjoying thoughts of roasted root veggies more. Today, I'll be enjoying a cerveza with my Mexican Green Goddess Salad! 

Read on for the chasing the soon-to-be-winter blues away recipe!

Southern Asian Fusion

When I watch reality cooking shows I love the episodes where the chef-testants have to fuse together two entirely different cuisines. I think of much of my cooking as fusion and think it is incredibly fun to cook that way. Not only am I always coming up with new dishes, but I'm also teaching myself new tricks. 

If I was on a cooking show today and pulled both Asian and southern cuisines, I wouldn't know what to cook. But today's dish is awesome tasting and shows that Asian and southern cuisines actually can go well together. 

Read on for my yummy Hoisin Glazed Tofu and Southern Veggie Medley. 

Homemade Creamless Corn

I have been known to buy creamed corn from a can from time to time. I love the flavour of creamed corn, but I really hate looking at the gluggy goo slopping from the can. It's just not appetizing. 

So when I had an abundance of corn on the corn in my fridge, I thought of trying my hand at making a homemade creamed corn - hold the cream. I love cream, but I thought I could make a delicious creamed corn without the extra calories so I could still enjoy dessert! 

The dish I came up with was great! The only problem was that the pan was emptied too soon. But I can remedy that too; next time I'll just have to make a double recipe! 

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! 

Mexicali Lovin'

Mexican food and I are like squabbling sisters. Sometimes we get along and want to spend every night together and other times we don't want to speak for weeks. 

These peppers were inspired by a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen and they make my squabbles with Mexican food seem ridiculous. They are so unique tasting and the spicy peppers balance the creamy filling so well that I could eat them every night for a week without getting sick of them. 

Just one note of advice if your wear contacts - take them out before you start to peel the peppers and take their seeds out. I was not so happy when I forgot. 

Eggplant-cellent Sauce

I love to cook, but I don't often make my own tomato sauce. Usually when I cook with tomato sauce I am either making a lasagna that requires too much effort already or I am making a quick weeknight supper and I just want to to grab a jar of pre made sauce from my pantry. 

Now that I've made this Tomato and Eggplant Sauce, I will no longer be reaching for the jar come pasta night. I have served this sauce with spaghetti, spaghetti squash, and polenta and each time it's been right on the money. I still haven't made it into a lasagna yet, but I bet I could come up with a lasagna recipe that would be perfect for it!

Gardener's Pie

I read the name Gardener's Pie in a cookbook the other day and loved it so much that I had to make my own version. I think that this recipe goes to show that eating a vegetarian meal can lead to sentences like "this is delicious" instead of "this is delicious, for a vegetarian meal". 

I packed a lot of flavours into this dish and it is really quick to make, especially if you make a double batch of my Garlic Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, one for the night before and one to save to top this dish the next night. 

The ground soy product tastes great to me, but you could always substitute ground meat if prefer. 

Abundance and Plenty

Many people wish for abundance and plenty on for the New Year and, since fish produce a very large amount of eggs at once, they're a typical New Year's food. To celebrate wishes such as abundance and plenty, I'm going to share a few seafood recipes with you over the next couple days. 

I don't know about you, but even though I feel blessed and very satisfied with my life, I won't stop wishing for plenty of happiness for the new year. 

Read on for today's recipe, Salmon and Corn Chowder, a true bountiful catch of the day. 

Dessert into Dinner

Every year I have to get a little more creative to find ways to make my leftover turkey taste great and this year I've come up with a winner that's going to find it's way into my oven for years to come. 

I always make turkey pies, but I wasn't feeling like eating too much pastry after all the pumpkin pie I inhaled recently, so I decided to pull out a recipe for cobbler I used a few months ago. At first I thought that I was crazy thinking I could make a turkey pie with my sweet dessert topping. But then I thought about adding cheese to cobbler topping and of course I wouldn't use the sugary glaze, so why wouldn't it work? 

This dinner was a huge success! And it's is nothing like a dessert in way other than being delicious!

I Relish Corn Relish

I love grilling sausages, putting them in a soft bun, and topping them with a generous amount of corn relish. But sausages and corn relish are both things that I've never tried making on my own. I don't have a meat grinder or a sausage casing machine, so I'm not ready to try making sausages just yet. But with corn and peppers in season, I think it's a great time to finally try making corn relish. 

Canning veggies seems a lot harder than making jam because there's the added step of processing the jars and I don't have a pressure canner. But I've learned a few tricks and now I feel comfortable canning without a pressure canner, at least comfortable enough to try making corn relish. 

My corn relish tastes great, my jars are tightly sealed, and I'm satisfied with my efforts. I don't even think I need to keep my first batch as a tester, but I will because it looks so good!

I may not know a lot about canning yet, but I'm an eager learner and I'm excited to head to the market this morning to pick up some more fresh veggies for my next project. 

Read on for a few tips that I've learned about canning using the water bath method and my recipe for Sweet Corn Relish! 

Being Corny

I think it's important to laugh at yourself. And this is one I am very successful at -- laughing at myself all the time. I am a little bit corny and being silly makes me happy. 

So I am going to warn you, this post is seriously corny. And it's going to start off with a corny joke. 

Question: Why is it not wise to tell secrets in a corn field? 

Answer: Because there are too many ears! 

I can hear all you groaning from here, but hopefully I made you smile! Let's keep the corn going and cook with it. Today's simple recipe is a cheesy and corny dish that's easy to make on the BBQ or in a steamer. I promise it'll make you smile more than my corny joke did. 

Killer Pasta

I like to think that I have a pretty good grasp of both the English language and the exotic food language, but sometimes I am surprised by the pronunciation of a word. 

Orecchiette one of those words. I have always thought it was pronounced "orca - chet - ee" and therefore the little ear pasta has always reminded me of big and beautiful orcas. 

The correct pronunciation is of orecchiette is "o - reck - ee - ay - tay". So, there really isn't anything in the word that screams killer whales. 

But I still think that orecchiette is a killer pasta. And more importantly, this recipe that's inspired by a similar one from June's Chatelaine is really killer!

Meatless Meals

One of my New Year's resolutions was to try and have one meat free meal a week. Once I started thinking about it, I realized it was easier than I expected. Plus, it's going to be fun to cook new things. 

Then I looked into some of the benefits of my resolution and found out a whole lot of great things. 

Going meatless only one day a week is great for not only you, but also the environment. 

You might have already known that going meatless once a week can help reduce your risk of getting preventable diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, but did you know how great it could be for the environment?

Studies estimate that the meat industry generates almost 20 percent of man-made the greenhouse gas emissions that are increasing climate change throughout the world. That's a lot more than even transportation...

Plus, the water needs of livestock are enormous. Studies estimate that 1800-2500 gallons of water go into each pound of beef! 

So do your part for yourself and the environment; stay meatless once a week.  

Chili Today... and Chili Tomorrow

Victoria is cold and wet in the fall and all I want for dinner is something that's not a lot of work and will warm me up.

These two recipes do both for me. The first uses my favourite invention, the slow cooker, and the second is an easy recipe that makes a lot for even easier leftovers.

So I guess that means the title of this post should read "Pulled Pork Today, Chili Tomorrow, and More Chili After That". But that doesn't really have the same ring does it?

Let's start with the basic Pulled Pork with my quick BBQ sauce.

Learning to be my own videographer

Gosh, I had no idea how difficult it would be to be the "star" and the cameraman at the same time. It takes so much longer and sometimes I can't even manage to film my whole face at once.

Luckily I have my Luke to film me most of the time, but when my cameraman heads out for a much needed break of mountain biking and creativity strikes, I am left to my own devices.

As you can see the result is less than stellar.

Luckily for me, I believe that my (somewhat dorky) personality still shines as does my love of cooking. That meant that I submitted this recipe for corn pudding to the Philadelphia contest in hopes of being considered based solely on personality and recipe creation talent.

So thank you Luke for not making all the contestants suffer through watching me attempt to film myself too often. I am sure each and everyone of them are very thankful.

Here is another entry where Luke filmed me, you can use this one to compare our techniques. This entry for polenta two ways is equally delicious even if it looks a little better on film.

Who is better? Be honest...