Presto pesto.

Few ingredients make summer fresh pesto.

The rain seems to have subsided for a couple days at least and was able to get in the garden and harvest buckets of basil.


In the past I have attempted at growing herbs from seeds but have had no luck starting them indoors as they get attacked by all kinds of ailments. To make my gardening life a little easier I cheat and buy my basil plants early in the spring and plop them in the ground next to my seeds. Luckily this year the plants were growing like weeds. Who wants to weed when the sun is shining and the pool looks so tempting?!

Blended in a food processor.

I don't want my basil plants to go to seed for two reasons: they slow down growing and tend to make the leaves taste more bitter. I made my first batch of pesto to keep up with the amount of basil this year. Since my tomatoes won't be ready until August caprese salads will have to wait. (insert sad face here) 

Pesto is a great to have on hand once winter comes when we need to be reminded of all of the goodness that summer provides. I use it in pasta, pesto aioli, dressings and to even make fish less fishy.  

I've used Jamie Oliver's recipe without the lemon juice and pour the pesto into ice cube trays or little muffin tins and freeze overnight. I pop them out and store in ziploc bags in the freezer when I need a little summer love in my food. 

Dish 'o' Fish

Having recently returned from Mexico, I was in the mood for some homemade deliciousness. I wanted fish as most of the seafood I had down there was overcooked and unenjoyable. I really wanted to make my own fish that isn't overcooked, dried out and tasteless. Wanting to make something easy because lets be honest, who doesn't like easy?! Having to get back to reality after sitting on a beach all week I wasn't in the mood for spending all afternoon in the kitchen. I'm still in vacation mode and I still can't seem to get myself into gear. I decided to copy our fisherman friend Highlander and make some homemade fish sticks. 

Using halibut we had frozen, I cut the fillets into quarters making them easy finger foods for my family to enjoy later that evening. I was afraid that baking fish sticks might make them mushy but at a hot, hot heat and smothered in panko (Japanese style) breadcrumbs they were very tasty with homemade tartar sauce. Panko is the only style of breadcrumbs I use now because they seem to be courser than most breadcrumbs and everything I have made using them turn out crunchy and delicious. If you've never tried using them I would try it. I make eggplant parmesan from the eggplant in my garden all summer using panko and freezing it too. The panko keeps the eggplant crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside even after spending months in the freezer.

I made a big, green salad to go with it and we had a delightful dinner of fish sticks. Since it was the first time making these I was happy that they came out almost like chicken fingers but with the blandness of halibut, which is why the tartar sauce was a welcomed addition. Highlander couldn't have made them better himself!

This would also be a great way to cook fish for children because its finger foods that are fun and similar to chicken strips. Give them a tasty dipping sauce and they will be none the wiser.

Click here for recipe for fish sticks and tartar sauce.

Tastes like chicken!

Mexican Madness

Mexican right at home.

Ingredients for guacamole.

In spirit of my upcoming trip to Mexico I made fajitas. Most people have made tacos and fajitas including me, however I have never made homemade tortillas or my own Mexican seasoning.  Fajitas are quite easy, I chopped the chicken and fried it up with the peppers and onions and added my Mexican seasoning at the end. The Mexican seasoning recipe was found on Pintrest, I love that website. It could occupy me for hours.

Like a pancake, but better.

I pre-made guacamole as a garnish that we could accompany our fajitas with. I started making this particular recipe from The Healthy College Cookbook I bought myself in university knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time to cook.

Guacamole.

Much like the pasta dough the tortilla dough only had a few ingredients and was easy to make.  The only time consuming part is rolling out your dough and frying up each individual tortilla. But the little amount of work I had to do paid off and was well worth the final product. 

Cooking the onions, peppers and chicken.

If you feel a little SAD cause of the winter weather and lack of sunshine make some Mexican food, turn on the white noise app with some soothing beach waves crashing and pretend your on a sandy beach drinking a margarita. Andele! 

Caesar--its all in the name.

Just a quick post to share my vegan caesar salad dressing.  I got the recipe from my ex, the professional cook and memorized all of the ingredients. I have been making it for over 2 years now and don't/haven't ever used actual measurements.

Vegan Caesar Dressing

1/2 cup of cashews or any oily nut 

2 cups olive oil

1 cup lemon juice

1 clove of garlic

4 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tsp Frank's hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Put the cashews, 1 cup olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, hot sauce and mustard into a food processor and combine.

While the machine is on, slowly add the rest of your olive oil, emulsifying all of your ingredients so they are combined.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

All ingredients combined should form a creamy dressing that you can use on any type of greens.

NOTE: if you find your dressing tasting like garlic add more oil and lemon juice. Adjust the dressing to how you prefer it to taste. At my house we love garlic so much you'd think the vampire apocalypse is coming.

Muy Bueno!

Who doesn’t love fresh pasta? This week I channelled my inner Italian and became a pasta-making queen.  This week’s menu included homemade ravioli. I have made fresh pasta before but never a delicious pocket filled pasta. So I started with making the insides of my ravioli using swiss chard, onion and parmesan cheese.  I sauteed the  onions and swiss chard and let them cool as I started making my pasta.

Pasta dough, much like any other dough is quite simple to make. It only takes a couple of ingredients and a lot of love…kneading. I kneaded until my arm was sore,  then let the dough sit for half of an hour. I got the recipe offline from the Food & Wine website (a fantastic magazine resource for food lovers).  I purchased a pasta sheeter a couple of years ago and today I put it to good use.Looking like an old Italian lady with flour everywhere, in my hair,  on my face and all over the kitchen, I slowly and surely rolled the dough thinner.  In the future I plan on getting technology to help me out; Ill be buying a Kitchenaid  mixer that comes with a pasta sheeter attachment.

Pasta sheeter hard at work.

Fill, fill, fill it up.

Its ready when floating!

The most difficult part about ravioli is putting the filling in the dough and having to seal it with an egg wash, pinch it together with hands or fork and hope that all your hard work isn't destroyed the minute you drop it in boiling water. If not sealed properly your ravioli will leak and get filled with water which doesn't make for a tasty piece of ravioli. 

One of the best things about homemade pasta is that it cooks in only a couple of minutes. You know when your dough is done because it floats to the top of the boiling water. The ravioli was tossed with our homemade tomato sauce that my Mom and I made this past summer.  I also paired it with my homemade vegan caesar salad dressing. The raw (local) garlic will ward off any kind of cold this time of year.

Memories of summer, tomato sauce.

After my pasta making escapade,I’m going to relax and indulge in a glass of vino. 

Beans, capers, trout...oh my!

Nicoise Salad.

The French do it right. Foie gras, duck confit and charcuterie are just some of the French foods or French cooking concepts I have come to love. This week I was craving what I call a substantial salad. A substantial salad is the kind of salad you can eat for dinner that incorporates all of the food groups. It's not your basic lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber kinda salad.

 I've never made a nicoise salad (pronounced nee-suaz). So all day Monday (my experimental cooking day) I called around St. Catharines looking for a reputable grocery store and fish monger who sold fresh, sashimi grade tuna. Unfortunately,  in the middle of January the only place that had some was Sobey's. It was previously frozen from the Philippines and was not sashimi grade. So needless to say I did not buy that to put on top of my salad. Many recipes also suggested using canned tuna, but in my mind that seemed like it was going to taste disgusting and ruin the beautiful salad. With an even more beautiful name. I decided on some fresh trout instead of tuna and I thought it tasted great! So here MY version of the beautifully sounding and tasting nicoise salad.

Find your inner Julia Child in you and make some French food. Find the recipe here.