Best of Bridge: Sunday Suppers

When I think of Sunday supper, I think of home, comfort, and sitting at the table with family.  I think of warmth, inviting aromas, and dishes made with so much love.

Best of Bridge: Sunday Suppers is a cookbook full of traditional Sunday supper recipes, such as classic roast chicken, pot roast, and meat loaf, as well as dishes that could potentially become new Sunday favourites, such as grilled steak bibimbap, beet risotto, and roasted squash coconut curry.

It's an all-purpose cookbook, great for a beginner cook, but also intriguing enough for someone who is experienced in the kitchen.  We wanted to get a feel for the recipes, so we made five of them over the past week (we found them all quick and easy enough to make during the week, so they are not just for Sundays).

The beef and Guinness pie that we made on Sunday was from this book:

It was really good, and even better the next day.  Also, the pie crust was delicious; I'm looking forward to trying it out with a sweet pie.

The next recipe we tried was the kale Caesar salad.  We liked that we had all the ingredients for the dressing on hand.  We topped it with roasted chicken to make it a meal.

On Thursday evening we made two recipes from Best of Bridge: Sunday Suppers, including Corn Flake-crusted pork chops, and sticky carrots.

We served the pork and carrots with a side of mac and cheese.

Tonight we made Best of Bridge's classic scalloped potatoes:

These were a perfect side with smoked pork shoulder.

All the recipes in this book are clearly laid out, easy to follow, simple and fool-proof.  I also like that the book is coil-bound and can lay flat.

You can buy this cookbook here (in Canada), or here (in USA), or wherever else you like to buy books.  All of the recipes we made, we'd make again, and we've already tabbed a bunch more that we are definitely wanting to try within the next few weeks.

What have you been cooking lately?

How was your week?  How is your weekend going?

What will you be making for Sunday supper?

This review copy was provided to me free of charge from Robert Rose.  All opinions are my own.

Mary Macleod's Shortbread - Review

The kind people at Mary Macleod's Shortbread offered to send me some goodies to try, including a 4" round of their most popular shortbread cookie, Chocolate Crunch, and a bag of Shortbread Butterscotch Crumbs.  Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to try these goodies.

Mary Macleod founded the Canadian company in 1981, and her shortbread took off.  The company is based in Toronto, and was the first in Canada dedicated to making shortbread.  The all-butter shortbread cookies are made in small batches with high-quality ingredients.  There are numerous flavours to try, and they come in all different sizes and types of packages.  Check out the different packages here.

I loved the addition of chocolate in the shortbread cookies, which I had never had before.  It definitely does give them a nice added texture.  I also absolutely love that these cookies were bite-sized.  I don't eat a lot of sweets, but popping one of these in my mouth after dinner is just the perfect little treat. 

Shortbread are one of my favourite types of cookies, but I've only ever made the traditional type myself.  I look forward to trying Mary Macleod's Espresso Dark Chocolate and Rolled Coconut shortbread one day - they sound so good. 

When I saw the Butterscotch Shortbread Crumbs, I knew exactly what I was going to use them for - an over-the-top topping for an apple crisp.

I made apple crisp, used the regular oatmeal-based topping, and then, because the crispy part of apple crisp is the best part, I added a good couple of handfuls of the Butterscotch Shortbread Crumbs as well.  Ooooooh my!

The addition of the shortbread crumbs totally took the apple crisp over the edge.  The butterscotch flavour is pure perfection with the apple.  I don't think I'll make an apple crisp without the addition of these crumbs from now on.  You could just use them as the crisp part, without your usual topping ... or you could be wild like me and just double up on the crunchy stuff.

I don't like following the rules, if breaking the rules is tastier.

This apple crisp did not last long in our house; I'm already planning on making another.

Do you like shortbread?  Have you tried Mary Macleod's shortbread?

You can check out the website, or order some here.  

Full Disclosure:  The cookies and crumbs were provided to me free of charge.  All opinions are my own.