Sunday Things

The ghost pepper, cilantro sauce that Christopher made last weekend is already long gone.  We bought some more cilantro today, so we could make another batch.  We both devoured it on pretty much everything we ate all week.  It really isn't too hot; I'd say sriracha is hotter.

Monday was a holiday, and we enjoyed a cozy day at home, with spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

On Tuesday we had a big warm salad, and also snacked on some of these cute little guys:

They look like baby watermelons, but they're actually little cucumbers - cute!  We picked them up at the Farmers' market along with some adorable little carrots.  The cucumbers are quite sour though, and not very good.  I don't think we'll buy them again.

Other recent eats include pizza:

And dak galbi:

Tonight we made bee bim bop (we're feeling Korean these days).

We had a wonderful weekend, and now we have a busy, fun week ahead.

How was your weekend? 

Have you ever tried those miniature cucumbers?

Just Right Ghost Pepper, Cilantro Sauce

Our friend Mike's parents grew a bunch of peppers (along with other delicious veggies) this summer, and sent us home with some of the peppers on Saturday evening.  Christopher was super excited to make a ghost pepper sauce, but one that didn't assault the taste buds. 

On Sunday afternoon he couldn't wait to get into the kitchen to start on his sauce.  It turned out perfectly.  The flavours in the sauce don't get masked by heat; you get a little bit of everything.  If you don't like cilantro, however, then this sauce is not the one for you.  Our friend Mike asked if the ghost pepper masks the "soapy" taste of the cilantro ... nope, it doesn't. 

Just Right Ghost Pepper, Cilantro Sauce

1 ghost pepper (ribs and seeds removed; wear plastic gloves)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 large garlic clove
juice of half a lime
1 medium tomato
half a bunch of cilantro

Blend everything together until smooth (he used the Vita-Mix).  Put into a pot, and bring to a boil.  Simmer 10-15 minutes. Cool, bottle and enjoy.

We both covered our eggs with this sauce this morning.  It was perfect.  It's not too hot at all; we've both had way hotter sauces.  It's delicious with a nice bit of heat, which is exactly what we were hoping for.  You could always add another ghost pepper if you really want a punch of heat.

Do you like spicy foods?  Have you tried ghost peppers?

Busy Week

Wow - this past week went by quickly, but was pretty hectic.  I went back to work, and this time of year is always the busiest for me.  It takes a couple weeks to really get into the swing of things, and feel completely organized and with-it again.  Added to the busyness, Christopher and I did not sleep well all week, and felt very zombie-like.  We're still trying to catch up on sleep.

Over the past week we enjoyed some miso soup, which we made using the beef broth I had made.



We roasted a turkey ...



Then used the bones to make a stock to freeze, and ate the meat all week in sandwiches.

We fried up some beet perogies:



And BBQd salmon with cilantro potatoes and mushrooms:



My breakfasts all week were yogurt bowls:



Sometimes with a side of avocado toast:



On Thursday evening we celebrated our niece Charlotte's 2nd birthday, and then ducked out of the party early to go to Christopher's bands' show at a local cafe.  It was a loooong (but fun) Thursday.

We're so happy that it's a long weekend this weekend.  Yesterday morning we were up by 7:00 a.m., and out the door not long after.  We picked up tea and breakfast, and went to watch our nephew Giovanni's football games.  It was pretty chilly out, making us think that Fall is definitely on the way.  His team won both of their games.  After the games, we headed downtown to pick up veggies from the farmers' market.  We also snagged this poppy seed roll.



It was pretty dry.  Next time, I'll just do the baking around here ;-)

Christopher's parents were in England recently, and they brought us back these chips, that Christopher loooooved when he was in England many years ago.  I got to try them yesterday, and they are delicious:



We shared a club sandwich for lunch yesterday before heading to our buddy Mike's house to celebrate his birthday.



This morning we were up bright and early again.  We enjoyed a big breakfast with French toast, French toast flavoured sausage, and scrambled eggs.



Yesterday was our day to do stuff, but now we're not doing anything for the next two days, except chillin' out and relaxing together at home. 

Years ago I used to be go-go-go, and rarely stayed home on weekends.  I was an extrovert to the max.  Then my Christopher came along and really changed this for me; my desire to go out diminished, and nothing was as fun as spending time at home.  He has always preferred his own company, and doesn't really like going out (but, one the other hand, he is outgoing).  He's an outgoing introvert.  His energy levels are drained when around people, but replenish at home.  I never thought I'd be a convert to the hermit life, but I am, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Unless we're out of town, we don't really want to leave our house (much) #sorrynotsorry.  This is probably hard for some people to understand, but I bet there are some that completely get it.

How was your week?  Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?  Is it a long weekend where you are?  What are you up to this weekend?

Weekend at Home

This past weekend was perfect.  We picked up supplies late Friday afternoon, and then didn't leave our house/yard all weekend.  On Friday evening we whipped up some homemade "fast food". 

We BBQd burgers, then topped them with cheese, kimchi, and mustard.

The fries were done in the oven, using our perfect fries recipe.

On Saturday we spent the entire day and most of the evening in the backyard.  We snacked, and snacked, and snacked.  We read, made a fire, listened to music, visited and laughed.  I didn't snap photos - I just kicked back and relaxed.

After breakfast on Sunday, we put some pork in the slow cooker, threw a can of 7-up over it, and left it to cook on low for about eight hours.  When we took it out of the liquid to pull it apart, it literally fell apart.  I used a spoon to break it up, into the most tender, juicy shreds.  We mixed in BBQ sauce, and threw together some pulled-pork sandwiches, topped with pickles and a homemade bacon, bourbon coleslaw.

We ate other yummy things on the weekend, like nachos, shrimp, etc., but mostly we soaked up the last of summer and relaxed.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Breakfasts

I had some delicious breakfasts last week, including avocado toast (one piece drizzled with balsamic, both topped with pink Himalayan sea salt):

Juicy nectarines from the farmers' market: 

And a chocolate oat parfait, with maple banana "soft serve". 

Chocolate "Overnight" Oats

1/3 cup raw quick oats
1 T chia seeds
1 T cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, or any milk-like drink

Mix everything together and let it sit about 10 minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight so it's even quicker in the morning.

Maple Banana "Soft Serve"

1 large frozen banana (or 1 1/2 small) broken into chunks
1 T pure maple syrup
Almond milk (or any milk) - start with a couple T and add more as needed

Throw the banana, syrup and milk into your blender or food processor, and mix until smooth and soft-serve ice-cream like.

Layer the oats and the soft-serve into your parfait dish, and dig in.

We spent the entire weekend at home, without leaving the house, which was great.  We had eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast on Saturday.

And then on Saturday evening we threw together a sausage-arugula breakfast strata, and tossed that in the fridge overnight, so it would be ready to pop in the oven this morning.

Sausage-Arugula Breakfast Strata

 

6 eggs
1 1/4 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chopped basil (or whatever herb you have on hand)
About 1/2 loaf of crusty bread, cubed (we used 200g rosemary focaccia)
1 lb (1 package) breakfast sausage rounds, cooked and cut into pieces
5-6 white mushrooms, quartered
1 cup arugula, torn or rough chop 
Olive oil (for roasting mushrooms)
1 cup of shredded cheese, whatever you like

Mix eggs, half and half, salt and pepper and basil.  Set aside.  Drizzle olive oil over the mushrooms, salt and pepper them, and roast @ 425F for about 20 min.  Once browned, remove and set them aside.  Spray your baking dish, then layer half the bread, half the mushrooms, half the sausage, half of the arugula, and half of the cheese.  Repeat with the other half of the ingredients.  Slowly pour the egg mixture over everything.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  The next morning take it out and leave at room temperature while you preheat the oven to 350 F.  Bake, covered, for 30-40 minutes, then uncover and bake another 20 minutes. 

This was a nice way to start out our morning.  More about our weekend in the next post.

What have you been eating for breakfasts lately?  

Have you ever made a strata?

Ramen

We're pretty much addicted to ramen. 

The problem is, our city is lacking a ramen restaurant (what we wouldn't give for a Ramen Isshin in town).  The only solution is to make our own delicious, noodle-y, flavourful soup.

We made the broth as I described in this post.  After straining it we seasoned it to taste with some splashes of fish sauce, soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil, salt and pepper.  We made sure that it was under-salted.  This is important, because we had a lot of broth and weren't going to be using it all for one meal.  You always want to leave your broth unsalted, or very lightly salted until you're going to use it, because when you bring it to a boil, it reduces, and could easily become over-salted.  We minced some of the fat and meat that was on the bones, and whisked that vigorously into the soup to give it that creamy, gorgeous texture everyone loves in a good ramen.  We also minced ginger and added that.

We used brown rice noodles for our soup, which only take three minutes to cook, and are vegan, as well as gluten-free.  They only have two ingredients, organic brown rice flour, and organic millet.  They are from Costco, and we thought they were great.  They were curly, just like ramen noodles should be, and had a good texture.

After straining the noodles, we put them into ramen bowls, and topped them with raw green onion.

We topped that with thin rare beef.  The broth will cook the meat more, so it's good to barely cook it before putting it into the bowls.

Next, we ladled the hot broth over top of everything.

And topped it with a very soft poached egg (sunny-side would work too).

I forgot to snap a picture before stirring my egg up a bit; I was too excited!  We topped it with sriracha, because sriracha is amazing.  You can also add more salt at this point if your broth wasn't salted enough before.

We cooled the rest of the broth and put that in the fridge.  Today, I brought it to a boil, and added red miso for a new flavour of broth.  This is why it's a good thing that I didn't salt all the broth a lot before, because boiling it would have condensed that saltiness, and also, I was adding miso, which is very salty itself.

This was another great bowl of ramen, for another rainy day.

So comforting.

It looks like the gloomy days are on their way out, as the weekend forecast is beautiful.  We're hiding away in our backyard all weekend - bliss.

What are you up to this weekend?  Do you have a good ramen restaurant in your city?  If so, please share - we'd love to know where to visit if we're ever near there.

What's Up Wednesday

1)  Early Sunday morning before we started prepping for our Italian dinner, Christopher made breakfast - one of our most favourite parts of weekends at home.

2)  We had a lot of leftovers after dinner on Sunday, so we sent Christopher's parents home with some, and started our week off with some as well.  On Monday morning I had cauliflower soup for breakfast:

3)  Lunch was chili with some garlic bread re-heated in the oven.

4)  Monday's dinner was leftover stuffed pasta shells:

The last of the bread too ...

5)  I picked up some of these kombucha drinks at Costco, and absolutely loooooove them!  The ingredient list is great, and they have a nice fizz from the active cultures.

These will be a regular purchase around here.  The health benefits of kombucha are incredible (not to mention the health benefits of lemon and ginger).

6)  Yesterday I made an omelet for breakfast.  I filled it with olive tapenade, tomato, red onion, feta cheese and a bunch of cilantro.

 

7)  The omelet kept me fueled when I went for a really long walk with my friend Alissa and her little one, Vienna.  We walked for a couple hours and visited; it was so nice.  I'll miss this when I go back to work. 

8)  This morning I woke up to a cold, rainy, windy day - perfect for oatmeal.  Despite the bad weather, I hit the farmers' market after breakfast.  I grabbed a bunch of onions and garlic.

9)  I made pizza for lunch today (onion, yellow pepper, green olives, arugula, salami, three cheeses).

10)  It's been a perfect afternoon to make beef stock for tonight's homemade soup.  If you're using bones that haven't been cooked at all before, the trick to perfect broth is to boil them for about 10 minutes to release all the gunk that will float to the top. 

Photo taken pre-gunk, because the gunk is gross.

Skim it off, and then dump everything over a strainer in the sink and wash the bones.  This step will help give you a cleaner, lighter stock, which is perfect for the dish I'm making tonight.

Then, roast the bones at 425 F until they are well browned (I must have roasted them about 30 minutes - I didn't really keep track):

Once they are browned well, put them into a large stock pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil.

Throw onion and garlic into the oven and roast that for a while too:

Keep an eye on them, and take 'em out when they look all roasty and delicious, and that garlic is ready to burst.  Toss them into the pot and boil the bones, onions and garlic for a long time, covered.  I like to boil everything for at least eight hours or so.

Later I'll strain this into another pot, season it, and make soup - more on that in the next post.

11)  Today was also a good day to make coffee cake. 

Between the beef stock and this coffee cake, it's safe to say the house smells amazing.

How's your week going so far?  Do you ever make beef stock?

Do you like coffee cake?  Is it feeling like fall where you are?