Go Team Canada! #CheerForGold

Canada always seems to be known for winter fun. I have even seen an American car topped with skis and toboggans driving through Canada in August. I hope they weren't looking for a ski hill to be open, but if they were, at least they knew where to come back to in the winter.

Because Canada is so known for winter, I am always especially excited for the Winter Olympics. Our athletes are talented and they are going to be so much fun to cheer on!

Since I am so excited for the games next month, I want to learn a little more about our athletes and General Mills, a great supporter of Team Canada, has made that easy and fun to do. For a limited time, you can bring specially-marked boxes of Cheerios* Cereals, Oatmeal Crisp* Cereals, Lucky Charms*, Cinnamon Toast Crunch*, Reese® Puffs, Nature Valley*, Gushers* and Fruit by the Foot* to life on your Apple or Android smart phone or tablet with the help of the Blippar app.

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! 

Potluck-y

I love going to potlucks and seeing what goodies everyone else has brought, but I hate coming up with what I should bring. 

Potlucks are tough because I always want to bring a dish that tastes great without it haven't to be reheated, with it having sat for a while, and still being tasty enough to have someone scrape the sides of the bowl to get the last bite. 

If anyone feels the same as me and thinks that their friends are getting tired of their same old standbys, here's a new dish to throw into the mix - Pineapple and Bok Choy Slaw. You'd never warm a slaw, it actually tastes best after it has sat for awhile, and it's so unique that everyone's going to want a taste! 

Nice Rice

I don't usually make a lot of extra rice because I like it fluffy and fresh, but fried rice is such a delicious treat that I sometimes make an exception. I mean, who wants to cook fresh rice when they're going to make fried rice? Not me. 

This fried rice may sound a little weird because there's cucumber in it, but the cucumber is added right at the end so it doesn't even get warm. It's just there for a little extra crunch. 

Carrot Cake in a Cup

When I serve dessert, I love to serve individual portions. Individual portions always look prettier and we eat with our eyes first, so looking good counts for a lot. 

Today's dessert recipe is a new version of one of my old faithful desserts, my favourite recipe for Carrot Cake and I added in a fruity banana frosting to make it extra special. I think my dessert looks yummy and I know you'll agree after just one bite! 

Sunshine in a Bowl

Some mornings bring grey skies and snow. Those are the days that I know I will need a little pick me up to get going. Sometimes a glass of orange juice will do it, but sometimes it takes a little more and it took me a while to figure out the perfect thing.

Today's post is a Hawaiian style Carrot Cake Granola that is perfect for making me happy on a grey day. This granola has everything that I love in a carrot cake - raisins, coconut, pineapple, walnuts, and of course it's full of grated carrot! I wasn't sure how the carrot would work as it baked with the granola, but I was pleasantly surprised with my experiment. It worked on the first try!

Read on to find out how I made sunshine in a bowl.

Island Lunch

I love to pamper myself and dream I am in Hawaii with a little island meal, but most of Hawaiian lunches feel a little dull. There's Hawaiian pizza of course, but I've made that hundreds of times and it doesn't feel special anymore. There's a fruit salad... I'm not going to even try to make a point with that. And, since I am not going to make a pig underground, what else is there? 

Welcome to my BBQ Hawaiian Pizza Sandwich. This is a fresh take on island food and will make you happy. It's fun, made on the BBQ, the tomatoes turn into jam, and the ham turns into bacon. 

That's right, bacon ham. Read on to find out more!

Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka means Merry Christmas in Hawaiian and I know far too many people planning on vacationing in Hawaii for the holidays this year. 

Since I will be staying in rainy old Victoria this Christmas, I decided to make a quick Hawaiian style dinner to try and make me feel a little less jealous of the fun in the sun crowd I know. 

The meal certainly reminded me of I think Hawaiian food should taste like. And maybe if I'm really good for the last few days of the year, I'll get a chance to taste the real thing sometime soon!

Cut to the Chase

I have seen people cut pineapple in some of the most odd ways.

Some people don't seem to see that there is a core that runs down the middle, they just want to taste the fruit and slice it up as fast as possible. Some take the top off first and some leave it on for a kind of decoration. Some are particular and want every last bit of the spiky skin off, and some don't care.

My grandfather was one of the people that cared about getting each spiky bite of skin removed and used the scooping end of a potato peeler to help him out. The result looked less than stellar and if we're being honest, slightly chewed.

So here's a way to achieve the (almost) perfect bite of pineapple. And it won't have you going to a can!

Brain Frrrreeeeze

Whenever I bite into an ice cream treat and devour it as fast as possible I get something called an ice cream headache, or brain freeze.

The funny thing about it is that brain freeze doesn't have anything to do with your brain at all. It has to do with the volume of cold food in your mouth.

When the ice cold food touches the roof of your mouth, nerves are triggered and a cycle of blood vessel contractions and dilations occur that cause a stabbing pain in your head.

So the good news is that nothing bad happens to your brain, the bad news is that it can really hurt like a migraine for a bit.

But what can you do? Sometimes those icy treats are just too good to pass up.

I guess it's a personal decision on risking the chance of an ice cream headache to eat something cold and delicious as fast as possible.

Here's one yummy icy treat that you can decide how fast you eat.

Deep Fried Shmeep Fried

Have you ever noticed how many menu choices in Canadian Chinese restaurants involve breading and deep frying?

It's like French cooking and butter. It's everywhere!

It tastes so good but it definitely puts a little a little extra cushion around my hips. And since I've lost a bit of weight, I have to say that saying I used to think was kind of stupid is true.

Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

Well, maybe I should revise that a little bit because I do love treats. I keep a little stash of goodies in my living room and enjoy a taste of one or two every now and again.

Thin feels awesome but don't forget what good things taste like?

Whatever. I'm really getting off track here...

I can't stand the fact that there are so many tasty creations on Chinese menus that probably would be just as good without the deep fried coating.

And I know there are steamed versions of most menu items, but they sometimes feel a little lacking. So I got to thinking that I should revamp one of my favourite dishes into a stir fried version of the deep fried original.

Sweet and Sour Pork normally is made with breaded and deep fried chunks of pork but I decided to nix the deep frying part on on my recipe.

I'm sure it's been done before because it's basically just a stir fry now, but I love making this quick dish and wanted to share it with you.

But before I share my recipe, here's a little history side bar for you. Sweet and Sour Pork is not a North American creation like Chop Suey. It's really an authentic Cantonese dish....

Well... Sweet and Sour is a real dish, but it was done with fish in China and the pineapple was added to Hawaiian-ize the meal in North America. And... I think that it might be a joke in China that Canadians love this sauce on pork....

So I guess that means it's a North American dish. But that doesn't mean it's not tasty!

Real Women of Philadelphia Canada

Hi everyone! This is my first post on a blog and I am excited to begin my journey. The first thing that I want to share with everyone is a contest I have recently entered called the Real Women of Philadelphia.

Here's the website incase any of you are interested in entering -- just remember me if you win the $20,000!

http://www.realwomenofphiladelphia.ca/

My first entry was my delish in a dish recipe called Philly Pineapple Meatballs. I used my yummy meatball recipe and instead of baking them with pineapple, I stuffed the meatballs full of ooey gooey Pineapple Philadelphia Cream Cheese and served them with a fresh mint and toothpicks of pineapple. Wow, were those puppies ever good, and I should know because I ate a whole plate of them.

I find out if I am through to the finals tomorrow and if not I will be uploading a pile of videos for the second week of the contest. I have a few great ideas - Polenta Two Ways, Party Stuffed Potatoes, and Fresh Pea Risotto. I don't know about you but my mouth is watering already. I almost hope I am not through to the finals so that I can make all those dishes!

Check out my first entry and let me know what you think :)