Ham, Sausage and Shrimp Jambalaya

Nothing says the holidays better than a big pot of Jambalaya

lard from spare ribs

white onions

celery

shallots

red bell peppers

homemade sausage and reserved cooking liquid

ham

tomatoes

beef broth

jasmine rice

sea salt

freshly cracked pepper

cayenne pepper

green onions

shrimp, peeled and deveined

Happy New Year and Good Eats!  

Chicken Lemon Pesto Soup (Recipe tweaked)

I can't get enough of this soup! I loved the taste of the Chicken Lemon sausage that I picked up at Marcello's Meats. At $12.50 for three sausages, it is a little rich for my budget (but it was oh so delicious!). I decided to take inspiration from Marcello's chicken lemon sausages and this is what I did. I made mini-chicken lemon meatballs. Our local grocery store sells ground chicken so I started there.  

Ground chicken

Gluten-free bread crumbs

Milk

Grated lemon zest

Lemon juice

Gluten-free Montreal Chicken spice blend

Gluten-free garlic spice blend

Thyme

Chicken Lemon mini-meatballs

Chicken broth

Carrots

Celery

Leeks

Garlic

Baby Spinach

Green Onions

Pesto

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

White kidney beans

Parmesan cheese rinds

French Toast

There is nothing like starting the weekend with a good breakfast. French toast drizzled with maple syrup and cup of coffee.  

Day old gluten-free baguette 

(I used gluten-free hot dog buns from Lorenzo's)

Eggs

Milk

Cinnamon sugar

Butter

Slice the day old baguette about 1/2" thick.  Dip in egg and milk mixture and fry in a frying pan with butter. Easy Peasy!  

When the bread is a light golden colour turn over and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.   

This is a lovely maple syrup that I recently found at Costco.  

And coffee. Now why do people say they don't have time for breakfast?  

Happy eats!  

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

Borscht

Gotta love autumn for all the food gifts that find its way to the table. These are organic beets that someone found in their organic food delivery box but didn't know that to do with them.  

I thought I would give a try at making borscht.  I used a recipe that I found in Classic Home Cooking by Mary Berry and Marlena Spieler.  

Red cabbage

Beets

Carrots

Red onions

Tomatoes

Red potatoes

Chicken stock

Dried dill

Dried Celery

Red wine vinegar

Organic coconut cane sugar

Sea salt

Black pepper

I know it is a popular soup but I think it needs something.  I added back bacon and that helped. I think it could use more seasoning, cumin perhaps? I do like cumin.  

Coconut Chicken Fingers and Asian Coleslaw

The recipe for the Coconut Chicken Fingers was inspired by the "Caribbean Chicken" recipe found in The Uncommon Gourmet's All-Occasion Cookbook. I just tweaked the recipe to make it gluten-free and changed the cooking method.  

Chicken tenders

Coconut flour

Sea Salt

Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

Egg

Young dried coconut (this is a gluten-free product available at Costco)

Butter

Dip chicken in seasoned flour, then egg and then chopped young coconut. Chill for about 30 minutes before cooking.  

Bake in 350 degree (F) oven for about thirty-five minutes.

The coleslaw was modified from the "Nat's King Coleslaw" recipe in The Looneyspoons Collection. I just changed a couple of items according to what I had at home and ingredients that I needed to substitute for gluten-free versions.

Sliced red cabbage

Thinly sliced red peppers

2 small grated apples

Grated ginger

Maple syrup

Sesame seed oil

Gluten-free Soya sauce

Rice vinegar

Corn and Crab Chowder

Olive Oil

Unsalted butter

Diced celery

Diced white onion

Minced garlic

Diced bell yellow bell pepper

Diced red potatoes

Vegetable or Chicken stock 

Cayenne Pepper

Gluten-free Creole Spice

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Milk

Gluten-free all-purpose flour

Corn

Crab meat

Green onions

Gluten-free Waffles with...

Lorenzo's Bakery makes these wonderful cinnamon gluten-free waffles. They are a real treat!  

I'm not one to drown good gluten-free eats with a store bought pancake syrup ingredient list that includes

CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WATER, CELLULOSE GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, SALT, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SODIUM BENZOATE AND SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVES), SODIUM HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE.

For one, artificial flavouring is not gluten-free and high fructose corn syrup is not know to be the healthiest thing you could put in your body. Instead I heat up equal amounts of unsalted butter and homemade raspberry jam as topping for waffles.  

How about you--how do you like to eat your waffles?  

Un-official end of summer

Happy Labour Day! Un-officially, this marks the end of summer. Back to work tomorrow, it is nice that my summer lay-off is coming to an end--finally. And to celebrate, a burger.

Yup, I'm eating a burger with a bun.

I found this at my local grocery store when I was looking for polenta. Why is it so hard to find polenta? But I digress... 

I don't usually pick up hamburger buns, instead I use portabello mushrooms in place of a bun. I thought I would give these gluten-free buns a try. They are the closest thing that I have come across to a hamburger bun. I would recommend these. Less messy than using a mushroom!  

They are available at Superstore and Extra Foods.  

Phyllo Crust Apple Pie

This pie is not gluten-free. I made it for the folks who have an abundance of apples from the tree this year. I haven't make this in years but it used to be a favourite family contribution to family dinners. How could I say no? I'm not great at making pie crusts so this is easy way out of that task. And the fact that it is not gluten-free will be good at keeping me from indulging in dessert.  

I've seen gluten-free phyllo pastry in the freezer section at thelocal gluten-free specialty food shop. I haven't tried it yet. Maybe this season I'll try it out with this apple pie recipe.  

Apples

Dried cranberries

Cinnamon

Amaretto

Phyllo pastry

ground nuts (I used walnuts)

melted butter

Portuguese Lasagna

Okay, it is really not called Portuguese Lasagna. Just a little joke there. But it is delicious and that is no joke!  

Start with some sliced potatoes, par-boil them and layer the bottom of a baking sheet.  

You'll also need some cooked salt cod that has been broken into pieces.  

Some thinly sliced onions and shallots.  

Layer and top with diced tomatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil that has been dressed with homemade hot pepper paste, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic. Bake for 45 minutes in a pre-heated over (375 degrees).  

Enjoy!  

Braised Red Cabbage

Thinly sliced onions

minced garlic

fresh thyme

bacon drippings

chopped granny smith apple

apple sauce

apple juice with equal amounts of water

red wine vinegar

brown sugar

red cabbage

parsley

cooked diced gluten-free bacon

Braised Short Ribs

Bison Short Ribs

Fresh Thyme

Minced Garlic

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Fennel

Onions

Celery

Beef broth

Seared and then cooked slowly in a low oven for about four hours until the meat just falls off the bone...

Serve with braised red cabbage.  

Spiked Cookies

These are often referred to as Spiked Corn Cookies. In Portuguese they are called Espigas de Mihlo and they are delicious.  There are so many different versions of this recipe. This one found on the Food Network calls for wheat-based flour in the recipe. That is not how my Portuguese Mama makes these delicious cookies. It is all about white corn flour. It is not found in our local grocery store. Instead, we find white corn flour at the Portuguese or East Indian speciality markets. No wheat flour in these babies.

Filling up the glass cookie jar for later.  

This is a hand made cookie press made especially for these cookies. It came from Portugal. Here in North America you can use a pastry bag with a star shaped attachment to make these cookies.  

They are perfect dunking cookies.  

Happy Eats!  

Mmmm, summer time eats

Gluten-free hot dog buns from Lorenzo's

Gluten-free bison sausage from Costco

Gluten-free mustard from the Fork's Market

Zucchini Pancakes

Can you believe that these three (okay, 2 and 1/2) zucchinis amounted to 12 cups of shredded zucchini?  

What is a gal to do with that much shredded zucchini? Make pancakes, of course!

Zucchini pancakes freeze extremely well. Perfect to pop in the microwave for a quick breakfast when you are in a rush. Just top off with some home-made Apple Lemon Jam and you're set!

Spicy Italian Lasagna

Start with spicy Italian Sausage, remove casings and break into small pieces. In a saucepan, add sausage, white onions and garlic. Cook until no more pink remains.

May I recommend the best gluten-free noodles that I have worked with, Le Veneziane pasta sheets. Worth every penny. And these noodles freeze well too. Found at Lorenzo's Specialty Foods Ltd.

And the star of this lasagna, red basil.

Okay, back to the sauce. Add a large can of diced undrained tomatoes, basil, oregano and freshly cracked black pepper.  Simmer for about twenty minutes.

While the sauce is simmering away into delicious goodness get your cheeses ready, mozzarella and a ricotta, spinach and parmesan cheese.

Start layering with the sauce.

Did I mention that the lasagna noodles do not need to be pre-cooked?

Bake covered in a 375 degree oven.  Remove foil and finish uncovered for the last fifteen minutes.