Cheese

What's that?  A cheese I've never had before??? 

Guess I have no choice - I'm going to have to buy it.

That's how my brain works in the grocery store. 

Oka is boring.  Very boring.  The smell is strong, but the taste is similar to the most mild mozzarella available.  The texture is like a slightly creamier mozzarella.  I don't think we'll buy this again.

This green thunder cheese is full of flavour and really good.  

It is quite crumbly, green in colour, and packs a lot of punch with the old cheddar taste combined with a lot of herbs.  We like it. 

What is your favourite cheese?  

Weekend

What a great weekend!  On Friday night we stayed in, and were asleep by 8:30.  After a glorious 11-12 hour sleep, we made an omelet and sausages for breakfast, and then relaxed until the evening.

Saturday evening went out to Sake to celebrate Vicki's birthday.  First up was all-you-can-eat sushi.





Then we sang karaoke in a private karaoke room upstairs.



We got home late, but slept in on Sunday to make up for it.  Sunday was spent watching TV/movies, researching more about our Mexican resort (19 days away), and snacking - I don't think we ate any actual meals.

How was your weekend?

Crowd Pleasing Crab Dip

I love appetizers and snacky foods, and this crab dip has become a new favourite.  It's easy, and it's always a hit at parties.

Crowd Pleasing Crab Dip

1 cup mayonaise
1 block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups imitation crab meat, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cayenne
juice of 1/2 a lemon
4 green onions, chopped

Combine everything.  Stir.  Put in oven safe dish and cook at about 350 F for approx. 25 minutes. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips, or a spoon, or whatever!

Do you like crab dips?

Do you have a favourite recipe? (link it if you want)

Ten on Tuesday

1)  We've been enjoying the goose fat we got a while back.  On the weekend we used it to make waffle- iron hashbrowns (just grate potatoes, squeeze out all the liquid, grease up the waffle grill and you're set).

2)  Serve the waffle-iron hashbrowns with an omelet and bacon to make everyone happy.

3)  I used to get made fun of occasionally for still buying CDs.  I was told that people don't do that anymore.  But then I found a boy who I think is "a people" (the jury is still out), and he totally buys CDs too.  We put a little Amazon order in recently, each making two choices for new discs.  One of my choices came yesterday, and we've really been enjoying it.

I absolutely love Cocorosie.  If you don't know of 'em, you should.

4)  We've started watching Archer on Netflix.  It's a cartoon, but definitely not one for children.  It's good when we want a quick show, as the episodes are only about 22 minutes.

5)  Dinner tonight is spaghetti with turkey meatballs. 

6)  I love Taco del Mar.  We had the fish burritos for lunch on Saturday and I could not stop mmmmm mmmmming.  Mondo fish burrito: sour cream, guacamole, a bit of re-fried beans, cabbage, cilantro, pico de gallo, and white sauce ... get it.  Take it home and douse it in jalapeno Tabasco and thank me later.

7)  I don't know how I've lived this long without this burger in my life.  I mean, I know I only came across this post tonight, but ... but ... I neeeeeeeed.  Honey?  Are you reading this?  Take note.

8)  We booked a summer vacation - we're headed to Montreal for a week!

9)  We thought that booking this trip called for a Montreal-themed dinner.  We made a Montreal-style hotdog called a "steamie", loaded with mustard, chopped onion, and sauerkraut.

 

One the side, poutine.

 
10)  We slowly made our way through the McCain cake in the freezer.  I'm not much for desserts, but I took bites here and there:

How's your week going so far?  What are your Tuesday things?

Monday Musings

Fun news - the lovely people at Gourmandize contacted me recently wanting to interview me and make me their featured blogger for today.  Check out that interview here!

In other news, I absolutely love sauerkraut.  The other day we browned up a seasoned pork loin, poured half a jar of sauerkraut on top, sprinkled paprika on it, and then cooked it the rest of the way through in the oven.

We served it with perogies, sour cream and sriracha.

Another recent dinner was a one pot meal - roasted chicken with veggies.

I am a little bit obsessed with crispy chicken skin. 
I think I might have a problem.

When you roast a chicken or turkey, do you eat the skin?

 (If not, send it my way)

(Seriously ... like FedEx it)

So, ummmm ...

Organic strawberry:

Creepy, ugly, likely genetically modified strawberry:

That is all. 

Snacky Time

A week ago we had friends/family Vicki and Will over for a afternoon of munchies and visiting.  We made a bunch of delicious snacky foods including ...

Zucchini bites:

Shrimp fresh rolls:

Meat, cheese and crackers:

Shrimp cocktail:

Cheesey vegetarian chili dip:

Bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos (and some without bacon):

Crab dip:

Puffed wheat cake:

And a chocolate chip, dessert, cream cheese ball:

Ooooooh yeah! 

It was a great Saturday afternoon/evening.  Recipes in future posts! 

What are you up to this weekend?

Ten on Tuesday

1)  One of our recent dinners was salad, roasted beets, a plate of fruit and juiced fruits and veggies.  We threw a couple of radishes in with the beets to see if they would be good roasted, and we discovered ... they are!

2)  A few days ago we tried cooking polenta for the first time.  We fried it up in an Italian spice seasoned olive oil, and then topped with with marinara sauce and fresh parmesan. 

3)  We had another Italian-style dinner last night - chicken parmesan with some zucchini and mashed rutabaga.  I love rutabaga.

4)  Sometimes McCain does the trick.  Hadn't had one of these in years, but we bought one last week.

5)  We made buttermilk pancakes on the weekend.  Mmmmmm!

6)  It has been so beautiful outside for about two weeks now.  Could spring really be here? 

7)  We were having bee bim bop the other day and the kimchi in the fridge had gone bad :-(  We were both very sad.  How did we allow this to happen!?  Not. Eating. Enough. Kimchi.  Never thought that would be a problem in our home.

8)  I think my new favourite way to eat eggs is soft-poached.  So creamy.

9)  Kale has been rated the healthiest vegetable in the world.  Does adding kale to my Tuna Helper make Tuna Helper healthy?  Because I may or may not have done that for dinner today.  Ummm, I also drank a good bunch of it in my smoothie yesterday.  Try this recipe for flawless kale chips on Angela's site ... her cookbook just came out - eeeeeeeeeeeee!  Rambling.

10)  Breakfast this morning was Greek yogurt with toppings and toasted soda bread:

What are some of your Tuesday things?