foody friday!

Blueberry Orange Cornmeal Pancakes

BEFORE

    recipe: Satisfied, soo delish.

AFTER!

on an Avocado kick...

Avocado and spinach eggs benny, homemade hollandaise sauce. yumm.

I was always intimidated to make hollandaise sauce, apparently it is extremely difficult to make correctly. but the other day I was craving a good eggs benny so I searched up a recipe and I found one that was sorta easy, and went with it. The most amazing thing, you make it in a blender! And it turned out awesome! Very tasty, though  I put a lot of pepper in my mine simply because I love pepper. I found this easy blender recipe at Blender Benefits, where it was just their easy blander hollandaise sauce recipe. This recipe does call for hot sauce, and I am not a fan also hot sauce doesn't say "gourmet french mother sauce" to me.... which hollandaise is sorta supposed to be, so I excluded it. Anyways check out the recipe, its a goodie, I will be making it again, though I do have full intentions to learn how to make it the 'right' way (crazy stove top shenanigans).

mmmmm, does it not just look scrumptious?   Now I'm craving them again!

wondering how to poach an egg?  heres a fairly good video  (it says to use vinegar, I don't usually but I'm thinking I will try it next time.) 

 "Perfect Poached Egg"   

avocado and falafel sandwich. amazing.

Despite the extreme heat here in Halifax I managed to drag myself away from the coolness of the basement and up to the sauna of the kitchen just because a delicious sandwich idea I had was begging to come to existence. Totally worth it. Here is the recipe

2 pieces of bread (your choice, I used an asiago cheese bread so I didn't put much cheese in the sandwich)
1/2 ripe avocado, sliced thin.
1 hard boiled egg, sliced thin
falafels,  (amount depends on how large your bread is)
spinach leaves
cheese (your choice, I used marble)
mayo (I use a fair amount, but its really up to the person)
basil/garlic pesto (same deal with the mayo)
sal/pepper to taste

I toasted the bread slightly on one side just for that little toastyness.  Mix mayo and pesto together, spread onto one side of bread. Heat the falafels so that they aren't extremely hot but enough to melt cheese (I usually do about 45 seconds in the microwave). Squish the falafels a bit so that they aren't perfectly round when putting on your sandwich, layer the cheese on top. Follow the cheese with the spinach, avocado, egg, salt and pepper. You may then put the other piece of bread on top, cut in half. Enjoy!

I like sides of fruit with sandwiches, just seems to go really really well... especially mango and these delicious oranges I got at the supermarket today, so juicy!

I had only been planning to eat half, but it was so good that I ate the other half for dessert!

Gone Fishin for Tuna Melts

These have got to be one of my favourite things to make and eat, so simple, delicious, and satisfying.

Recipe is my own/mother's...

Ultimate Tuna Melts
makes 10 melts


- 5 english muffins cut in half
- 1 tin of tuna, broke into little pieces
- salt, pepper and poultry seasoning to taste
- 1/2 can cream of celery soup (you can use any cream soup, i just dont happen to like chicken or mushrooms)
- 2 tbsp. Mayo (or miracle whip, whichever you prefer)
- 1/2 grated cheese + some for topping
- paprika

Turn oven on to broil. Mix tuna, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning together. Add the soup and mayo, the mixture should b very wet, if it isnt add more of both (or either) mayo and soup. Spread onto english muffin halves, cover with grated cheese and sprinkle with paprika. Put in oven and broil until bubbly, approx. 2 minutes, they burn fast so make sure to keep an eye on them.

enjoy!!

whats round, ringy, and delish? flatbread.

looks delicious does it not? guess what, it TASTES as delicious as it looks! what luck!

I made this as I have always wanted to make a bread that... well I really didn't have any specifications, i just wanted to make a bread. I chose a good starting point! The rosemary is both cooked in the bread and sprinkled on top, and with the onions... well its simply to die for!

I did follow the recipe right to the dot... one thing i did change: the amount of sea salt you are supposed to sprinkle on top. I used 2 tsp coarse sea salt on top rather than a full tbsp, maybe the sea salt i use is very salty, i dunno, but 1 tbsp was just too much though having a lot DOES look pretty, it doesn't taste as pretty and creates a nuisance when you have to pick it off.  The recipe is from a book I bought a while back and never got around to really checking out... until recently where I have made over half the book! It is definitely a recipe book that is worth every penny! so delicious and so easy to follow and get great results from, also the ingredients are wild and crazy things! you can get them ALL in your local grocery store and more likely then not, you already have them in your fridge... so I will stop the suspense and just tell you what the darn book is already!  It is called Vegetarian Bible: Fresh from the Garden. Buy it, its amazing.

anyways, if you don't want to buy it, here's the recipe

Flatbread with Onion and Rosemary

-1LB/450g  (about 3 cups) white bread flour
-1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, plus extra small sprigs for garnish
-5 tbsp olive oil
-1 1/4 c warm water
-1 red onion, finely sliced and separated into rings
-2 tsp coarse sea salt

1.  mix the flour, yeast, and salt together in a mixing bowl (I used a large one, worked very well), then stir in the chopped rosemary. Make a well in the center. Mix 3 tbsp of the olive oil and the warm water in a pitcher and pour into the well. Gradually mix the liquid into the flour mixture with a round bladed knife (I used a 'skinny' spatula). Gather the mixture together with your hands to form a soft dough.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (my dough was sorta wet .. very humid day, so I floured my surface a lot, just make sure you have extra flour on hand) and then knead until very smooth and elastic, approx. 8-10 minutes.  Return the dough to mixing bowl, cover with a dish cloth (clean of course) and let rise for 45 minutes- 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Turn out and knead again for 1 minute or until smooth (if you noticed that when you kneaded it the second time the dough lost some of its.. largeness a.k.a. deflated, its cool, mine did too and it will rise up again, no worries!)

3. preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/ 200 Celsius. Oil a cookie sheet ( I used one of those stone things). Gently roll the dough out to a circle (or oval, or whatever shape sorta resembles one of the two) about 12 in/30 cm in diameter. Transfer to the cookie sheet and cover with a dish cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.

4. Make holes about 2in/5cm apart all over the surface of the dough with the handle of a wooden spoon. Spread the onion rings over the dough and drizzle with remainder of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake the dough in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (mine was in for about 17 minutes, so start checking early!). Five minutes before the end of the cooking time garnish with the rosemary sprigs.  transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes, then serve the bread warm.

and that is all, enjoy!

press HERE to out smart hunger

so, this past month I have been, slowly, get over having strep throat, a full body rash, and (gasp, horror of all horrors for a teenager) mono. I have been doing a lot of sitting, let me tell you. oh, and laying down an sleeping, and though I DO enjoy this restful pastimes I found myself in constant boredom. Then I found Pinch My Salt, I had found heaven. It inspired me to make, first, coconut cupcakes with a delicious coconut cream cheese frosting (recipe from Simply Recipes). After the first plunge there was no stopping me, I made more cupcakes, cookies, pies, gnocchi, home made pasta (highly recommended), bagels and much much more. I was on a roll. I still am.

I didn't want to stop a good thing, I LOVE to bake and cook, but I'm back at work now and not really sure if I am going to have the time. However.... I DO love a good challenge, so I have decided to challenge myself to create a blog AND (here's the tricky part) keep it updated on a fairly regular (hopefully daily, if not bi-daily or weekly)! 


This is it, the start and continuation of what I hope to be a good thing.