Gluten-free Eggs Benedict

Substitute sliced Polenta for the traditional English muffin,

don't skip on the Canadian bacon, 

top with perfectly poached eggs (3 minutes)

and finish with salsa sauce!

A perfect Sunday morning breakfast.  

Happy eating!  

Duck Fried Rice

Oh, what to do with left over roast duck? I usually make a fried rice dish when I have left over protein but I will have to say using duck is the best version of fried rice I think I have made.   

Sesame seed oil

Jasmine Rice

Celery, diced

Carrots, diced

Red bell pepper, diced

White onions, diced

Garlic, minced

Fresh ginger, diced

Roast duck, cut in bite-sized pieces

Gluten-free soya sauce

Retro Style Dinner

Last night's dinner was a retro throw-back with Duck a l'Orange and homemade gravy. I found the recipe over at Epicurious.com and goodness it is a keeper.  

The star of the evening was the duck. I found this bird over at the newly discovered Marcello's, a quaint little butcher shop in the neighbourhood.  

I did stray a wee bit from the recipe and doubled the spice rub and I added ground ginger to the mix.

For the gravy I followed the recipe with no tweaks and it turned out perfectly delicious. Cooking the sugar until it reached that golden caramel created a deep and rich gravy.  

Oh and braised cabbage! Instead of grated apples, I used 1/2 a jar of homemade apple sauce which I do believe I prefer much more.

I spent half the day in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up but my goodness it was worth it. I made this meal for the folks and they seemed please too. And that is what made it worth all the work.

Happy Eating!

Pesto Chicken Soup II

I discovered a little Italian market in the neighbourhood that sold some lemon chicken sausage and oh-my-goodness is it ever good. I prefer the lemon chicken sausage over using chicken breasts in this soup. I was planning on adding white beans to the soup but someone beat me to the beans and I didn't have any spinach on hand to add to this version. Still a work in progress....

Lemon Chicken Sausage (casing removed and cut into pieces)

Chicken Stock

Diced Carrots

Diced Celery

Parmesan Cheese rinds

Lemon grass

Pesto

For a light lunch I added a simple cucumber and cherry tomato salad drizzled with some balsamic reduction.  

Happy Eating!  

Lamb Korma

This lamb korma was cooking in the slow cooker while I was away at work today. It was nice to come home to a hot cooked meal.  

Lamb (shoulder) cut into pieces

Avocado oil

Mustard seeds

Turmeric

Ginger

Cayenne pepper

Water

Onions

Spinach

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Greek Yogurt

Balsmati rice

Chicken stock

Pesto Chicken Soup

I was inspired to make this soup after reading this blog post. I didn't follow the recipe that Rhonda posted using what ingredients I had on hand and using her post as a inspiration. I did have some homemade pesto sauce but I didn't have beans which would have been great in here too. 

In Rhonda's version, she used chicken sausage which I will have to try since DeLuca's makes a lovely chicken sausage that I think will work well. Even though I used what I had on hand, the pesto gave it some bright and fresh flavour.   

Chicken breast

Chicken stock

Spinach

Pesto

Carrots

Celery

Lemon Grass

Parmesan cheese rinds

Sea salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Untraditional, Yes!

This weekend we're celebrating Thanksgiving and I'm thankful that there is no turkey on the menu. Oh and I'm thankful for my family too.   

On the menu there was stuffed pork loin, mushroom gravy, roasted red and sweet potatoes with red onions and rosemary, green peas, caesar salad and gluten-free pumpkin pie from Lorenzo's. At Lorenzo's I was able to find gluten-free pumpernickel bread for the stuffing. They ran out by the time I got there but there was a mini-loaf that they let me have that worked out to be the perfect amount. Thank you!  

While the food was in the oven, there was time to set the table.

No croutons left over for the salad, de-lish non-the-less.  

Cheesey fall themed decorations for a simple centre piece.  

So thankful for so much. 

Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating this weekend.   

Filet Mignon Dinner

It is not often that this is what I would make for dinner but I'm now reading and trying out recipes from The Grain Brain Cookbook by Dr. David Perlmutter and I happened to find a good price on filet while at Costco this evening. So I thought why not.   

Filet mignon steak

extra-virgin olive oil

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Unsalted butter

Red wine

Basmati rice

Baby bok choy

Fennel

Fresh ginger

Red onion

Sesame seed oil