Friday, January 30, 2015

Friday!

Our eats haven't been too exciting this week; we've just been eating leftovers from the turducken we made on Sunday.  On Tuesday we had a cheesy turducken casserole, which made even more leftovers.


It didn't take long for everything to get eaten up. 

In other news, the bottom element in our oven burned out - boo!  Has this ever happened to any of you before?  We won't be cooking anything in the oven until the new part comes in and my handsome handyman, aka Christopher, replaces it.  Until that happens, we'll be cooking with the broiler, or on the stove.

We're looking forward to a weekend in Saskatoon visiting my mom.

What are you up to this weekend?

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

It was a Dippy Day!

We love staying in all weekend.  When we stay in all weekend, we like to cook a lot, and plan our meals around themes.  This past Saturday we decided to have a dippy day!  All foods would be dipped.

We started with breakfast ...


Lunch was cheese fondue with a bunch of veggies, some bread, mini meatballs, and mini tortellini.  We ate our lunch late, around 4:00 p.m..


For a late dinner we cooked our food on a raclette grill, and dipped it in different sauces:


And for dessert, chocolate fondue was the obvious choice!


What theme should we do next?

Monday, January 26, 2015

Turducken

The people from Echelon Foods in Alberta offered to send me a turducken to try.  Since I had never had turducken before, I jumped at the chance.  We weren't around much in December, so we decided to save it for January.  For those who don't know, a turducken is chicken, stuffed inside of duck, stuffed inside of turkey!  It's craziness!  To take it over the top, the Echelon Foods turducken comes with stuffing inside of all of that, either chicken-apple sausage stuffing, or Italian sausage stuffing.  We opted to try the one with chicken-apple sausage stuffing.


The turducken is incredibly easy to cook.  You just thaw it (we did one day in cold water, and then one day in the fridge), and roast it uncovered slowly, according to the package directions.  It is pre-seasoned, but we sprinkled a bit of garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sage on top.  We put onion, celery, fresh thyme and white wine in the bottom of the roaster, and basted the meat twice. 


The aromas in the house on Sunday were incredible. 

Unlike roasting a whole turkey, duck, or chicken on their own, the turducken doesn't really render fat or drippings.  This made clean up a lot easier than it would had we roasted a regular bird on it's own, as carving it made no mess at all.  The lack of drippings does make gravy a difficult option for this roast - next time, we'd use cranberries, chutney, applesauce, or perhaps a cream sauce.


Other than in the legs and wings, there are no bones in the turducken.  It can be cut directly down the middle, and it's so easy to cut through.


We both loved the stuffing, and there was quite a bit of it. 


I think a turducken could be a fun change from the traditional dinner at Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It seemed like a whole different dish to us, not overly similar to a straight-up turkey.  Because it does not render much for fat, I'd suggest having turducken with nontraditional sides, instead of the usual mashed potatoes and gravy.


It was just the two of us eating this last night, and we have one container of leftovers that should last the week!  I love meals that stretch.

Have you tried turducken?  What did you think?
 
* The turducken was provided to me free of charge from Echelon foods; all opinions are my own.
* If you can't find a turducken in the store, you can order it online through Costco in Canada or the United States.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Currently

Reading -  I had a Chapters gift card, and got this book recently:


A.J. Jacobs is a great author.  His book The Know it All is one of my favourite books.  I have yet to start this new book, but Christopher has started it.  I'm also reading both the 3rd and 4th book in The Giver series at work (the third I've read before, but I'm reading it aloud now).  I mostly read non-fiction, but I'd really like to read a great adult fiction book soon.

Loving -  That it is raining.  In January.  In Saskatchewan.  This is crazy.


Thinking -  About how fortunate we really are ... to live in Canada ... to have good jobs ... etc..  According to the Global Rich List, I myself am in the top O.44% of the richest people in the world.  It really puts things into perspective.  Give it a try - just go to the website and enter your yearly income after deductions - you'll be surprised!  We really have so much to be thankful for. 

Frustrated -  That every Saturday morning I seem to wake up around 4:00 a.m., and am not able to fall back asleep, yet during the week I could sleep in forever, but can't.  Haha, figures! 

Feeling -  So, so happy.  Every day. 

Anticipating -  A great Saturday!  Christopher is getting poked with needles this afternoon, while I get a pedicure.  The rest of the day we're spending inside cooking, playing music, and just hanging out.  It should be a wonderful day and evening.


WatchingLost.  We're totally hooked on this show.  We both like Sayid the best.  Sayer is awesome too.  We cannot stand Jack and Kate. 

Sad -  That our nephew will be eight very soon.  I don't know how this happened.  I miss the toddler years so much.  He's a pretty darn cute, and amazing seven year old though. 

Working - Fifteen more days until we're on holidays for a week!

Grateful -  That we have sheets that fit our bed - finally.  For years we've had sheets that were very difficult to put on the mattress (I think a double sheet was mistakenly labelled as a queen).  It took both of us to get the fitted sheet on.  We aren't huge fans of shopping, or buying things, so it took three years to finally get new sheets.  We bought a pillow-top mattress cover and some gorgeous plum coloured sheets the other day, and I'm loving them!



Don't mind the wrinkles!  I would never waste time ironing sheets.

Listening -  We've listened to a lot of discs this morning already, including The Cranberries Roses disc, and Madonna's The Immaculate Collection

Wishing -  That there were leftovers from the food we ordered in last night. 


We are planning on cooking and eating some pretty great things this afternoon and evening though.

What are you reading?  Loving?  Anticipating?

Friday, January 23, 2015

Five on Friday

1)  We had to have smoked meat poutine again the other day ... we couldn't help it.  We bought the smoked meat from Mike's Independent in a four-pack, and it's really, really good.


It was healthy because we had it with salad ... and we juiced.

2)  Speaking of salad, we've been really into Greek salad lately.  We're not huge fans of Greek food, but we love the salad!  We had it the other day with fish and bread.


3)  Breakfast this morning was a delicious yogurt mess.  I topped plain Greek yogurt with chia seeds, hemp seeds, bee pollen, strawberries, coconut, pecans, and a few chocolate chips.


4)  Christopher got home a little bit earlier than me today.  I came home to cleaned floors, a giant bowl of pico de gallo and other snacks, and a bunch of other chores around the house done.  That makes for a pretty nice little Friday evening!


5)  It has been a very, very long week.  We're ordering in Thai tonight.  It should be here in half an hour, and I'm not going to lie - we're pretty excited.

What are you up to this weekend?
When is the last time you ordered in?  What did you order?

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

An Old Favourite

Last night we had one of my favourite dinners, curried shrimp stuffed eggplant.  This is a recipe we came up with years ago, and we hadn't made in a long time.  It was as good as I remember.


You begin by emptying out an eggplant, and cutting up the inside (along with some other veggies).


You cook up the veggie mixture and curried shrimp separately ...


Then combine them inside the eggplant.


Top everything with grated Havarti cheese.  Havarti cheese is excellent with Indian flavours, as it is mild, melts beautifully, and really compliments the curry flavour.

 
This is definitely one of the best recipes we've created - the flavours are amazing!  You can find the recipe here.

Have you cooked eggplant before?
Have you stuffed an eggplant?
What did you eat for dinner last night?  Tonight?

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Taco Seasoning and Things

If you ever have leftover rice to use up, it's great tossed into a veggie stir-fry.  That was dinner on Sunday evening


Last week I made a bunch of snacks to take to work, as it was my week to bring snacks.  Christopher was sad to see all the goodies leave the house, and he wondered where his snacks were ...

So last night I made him cookies.  Soft, moist, oatmeal cookies.


Should last him a day or two ...

Dinner last night was a meal we hadn't had in a long time - haystacks!

Haystacks start with a layer of hot cooked rice.  Then you top the rice with taco fillings.  I usually start with cheese, and then the taco beef (which will melt the cheese), and then after that things like: black olives, green chilies, cilantro, crunched up tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream ...


I don't like to use packaged taco seasoning, so I made my own.

Taco Seasoning (for beef)

1 1/2 T cumin
1 T chipotle chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1/3 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper


I cooked some onions in olive oil first, until translucent.  I then added the beef, and cooked that on medium, adding half of the seasoning mixture.  Then I added about 1/4 cup of water, and cooked the meat the rest of the way through, and then added the rest of the seasoning.  I put a splash or two more water in, and heated it through.


What is your favourite taco-like dish?
What do you do with leftover rice?

Sunday, January 18, 2015

The Rest of our Weekend

Yesterday we caught up with a bunch of pals at our friends' house for their daughter's first birthday party.  We had a bunch of laughs, some cute baby snuggles, and delicious snacks.


We hung out all day, and they ordered pizza later on in the evening.  Late last night we picked up Christopher's parents from the airport, after their epic back-to-back cruises.

This morning we made a veggie frittata, bacon, and potatoes for breakfast.  We put some sriracha salt on the potatoes, mmmmm!


The rest of today will be spent with music, Netflix, snacks, and relaxation.  It's so nice to have the whole day with nothing to do, and no need to leave the house.  

How was your weekend?

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Weekend - Yay!

I love weekends.  Last night we met up with another couple at The Lobby for dinner and a visit.  I had the veggie pizza, but took half of it home - it should be a good snack late tonight.


This morning we made coconut crusted French toast for breakfast.  It's really easy; you can find my recipe for it here.


I had one and a half pieces ... the boy had about forty.


It had been a long time since we had French toast.

Do you like French toast?  
Which do you prefer, French toast, pancakes, or waffles?