A Birthday Dinner for a Young Gal

Christopher's parents came over to our place for dinner yesterday, as it was Christopher's mom's birthday, and we wanted to celebrate by treating her to an Italian meal.

It was the most beautiful day, so we started out in the backyard.  We popped some bubbly:

And then enjoyed one of our new favourite dishes, crispy polenta, with fried eggplant, a homemade sauce, and smoked cheddar:

There are so many fresh flavours in this dish, from the rosemary crusted onto the polenta, to the garlic, basil, vine-ripened tomatoes, and red wine in the sauce.

Next up our little friend made an appearance, and we snacked on some meats, cheeses, olives, etc..

We moved into the house for cauliflower soup.

The main course was stuffed pasta shells, served with garlic bread and Caprese salad skewers.

I made a classic cheesecake for dessert.

With a Saskatoon berry sauce for topping.

An extra special piece for my mother-in-law Leisa.

We had a wonderful evening celebrating her birthday, and it was the perfect way to end off a fabulous weekend at home.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Weekend Things

I hope you're having a lovely weekend!  We're livin' it up!

Pretty much all week I had toast for breakfast:

We had grilled tofu for dinner one night, with carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms:

And deer sausage another evening, with brussels sprouts and turnip:

We sat out in the backyard and snacked:

Yesterday it was raining, so I whipped up a pot of chili for when Christopher came home at lunch:

Our dinner was a smoked meat poutine:

It feels like this is the first weekend we've been at home in for-ev-er.  Christopher was so excited to make breakfast at home this weekend (and I was pretty pumped too):

We spent the day prepping for the dinner we're having tomorrow, and relaxing in the backyard.  We made king crab legs with corn for dinner.

And tonight ... tonight we're watching the last Tragically Hip concert, like I'm assuming most Canadians are - enjoy my friends!

What are you up to this weekend?

Galette - Winging It

On Sunday evening when we got home from Saskatoon, we BBQd some salmon, and a potato/ beet/ bacon mixture.  On the side, we had Greek salad.  We had chopped the raw bacon up and put it into the tinfoil with the chopped potatoes and beets.  The bacon fat cooking in with the veggies made everything so flavourful.

Yesterday morning I toasted some homemade bread for breakfast.

I spent the rest of the day going for a long walk ...

Making ginger, peanut noodles with chicken for lunch ...

And finishing a book in the back yard.



I also made a galette for the first time ...

Earlier this summer when I made peach pie, I had a bit of leftover pie dough.  I didn't know what to do with it.  My mom used to always make cinnamon twists with her leftover pie dough, but I don't have her recipe (if anyone knows about these, and has the recipe, I'd love it). 

I hate to admit it, but I have thrown out leftover pie dough before *gasp!

I ended up wrapping the dough tightly in plastic wrap and freezing it.  Yesterday I thawed it out, and decided to just wing it and make a galette.  I got about a cupful of frozen Saskatoon berries, and sprinkled about 2 T of sugar over that, about 1 tsp of cornstarch (to thicken), and about 1 tsp of tapioca pearls (to soak up some of the excess liquid).  I put about 1/2 tsp of lemon juice, and about 3/4 tsp of vanilla, and tossed this all together.  Again, I was just making this up as I went along, so none of the measurements are exact. 

I rolled the dough out, piled the berries into the middle, and folded the sides up like so ... 

I brushed the top with an egg/ water mixture, and then put it into a pre-heated oven (400 F).  I didn't know how long it would take, so I just checked it every 10 minutes or so, until it looked perfectly golden and bubbly.  It probably took around 35-40 minutes.

When Christopher got home from work he dove right into this, just picking it up and eating it like a hand-pie.  He promptly told me that I am not allowed to throw leftover pie dough away again ... haha, yes dear ;-)  It was a hit, and made enough for 2-3 servings.

Have you ever had a galette?  Made one?  What do you do with leftover pie dough?

Weekend Away

We spent the weekend in Saskatoon visiting my mom.  When we arrived on Friday evening we got dressed up and went out to a newer restaurant, Little Grouse on the Prairie.  This is a finer dining Italian restaurant, opened by Dale MacKay (first winner of Top Chef Canada), and his crew from Ayden (a top 100 restaurant in Canada).

We were planning on doing the tasting menu, but were pretty tired, and not as hungry as we expected to be, so we decided to save that for another time.  Instead, we shared two appetizers, and two pastas.  All the portions are very small, so it's a place where you should definitely order multiple dishes.  Also, don't be surprised, it is quite pricey for the portion sizes, so if you're all about quantity, this might not be the place for you.  It's definitely a place for quality, however.

We started with the mushrooms and scallops (about $17 each for reference):

Both were really good, fresh, and used high quality ingredients.

We then shared the pasta special (puttanesca sauce), and a beet root filled pasta.

Both were superb, and it was very evident that the noodles were made fresh, from scratch.  Most pastas run about $24 dollars at this restaurant, but as I mentioned, you are paying for quality, not quantity.  We would definitely order each of these dishes again.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel room and crashed for the night.  On Saturday morning we ended up eating a Ukrainian plate of food for a late breakfast.  We were picking up perogies for my mom from Baba's Perogies, and shared a big messy plate ourselves before going to see her for the day.

We had a late lunch, sharing a sushi roll and bowl of ramen at Fuzion.  The ramen was really good, and probably the best we've had in Saskatoon.  This was our first time eating at this little, casual, Asian bubble-tea/ sushi bar, but we'll be back.

We spent the evening in our hotel, and grabbed a late dinner at Aroma. 

We took our leftover pizza and a slice of peanut butter, pretzel cheesecake to-go, and went back up to our room for the evening. 

On Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast before spending the day with my mom, and then hitting the road home.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

A Day of Eats

The breakfast that I made yesterday morning was one of the most delicious breakfasts I've had in a while. 

Bacon topped, three-cheese grits, topped with crushed, roasted tomatoes, and green onion:

I cannot get enough cheesy grits; they are so amazing. 

When Christopher came home for lunch, I had some pasta ready - Alfredo shells with black olives, baked with a bit of cheese.

And, if the day wasn't tasty enough already, we made fried chicken for dinner.  Fried in duck fat.  Extra fowl.

The batter was super crispy and flavourful, and the chicken was juicy. 

We like to cut chicken breasts into halves or thirds before battering and frying it, so there is more surface area of delicious batter, and the chicken cooks quickly and evenly, ensuring that the meat is not overdone.

On the side we had roasted zucchini and potatoes (from my Farmers' market trip last week). 

This morning I used the leftover potatoes and zucchini in a little baked egg skillet.  Then for lunch, we had the leftover fried chicken sliced up in sandwiches with mayo and lettuce.

So much better than KFC!  Mmmmmmm.

What did you cook this week?

What are you up to this weekend?