Lately, my favourite activity on a Saturday has been to visit Wychwood Farmers’ Market  (601 Christie St – Bathurst and St. Clair) and then head home to start cooking a storm.

Seriously, you are never going to find produce like this at your local grocery store.

In between chopping, I will be honest – I spend some time on Pinterest. Click here to see my Food Board which has over 350 ideas!

I’m now going to share with you what I served for Saturday night. As much as I like going out to restaurants – I really do enjoy the simple pleasure of cooking and eating in!

Here’s what was served:

Roasted Carrots with Curried Chickpeas and Creamy Citrus Dressing (original recipe found here). 

Side note: I’ve made roasted chickpeas before and they didn’t come out. I’m convinced this time the recipe turned out as I followed an important step to take them out out of their shells. Trust me, it wasn’t fun and it was time consuming but it was worth it.

Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce (original recipe can be found here) ps bought the chicken at Sanagans and we think it was worth it.

Squash Stuffed with Candied Walnuts (sorry, no recipe..just made it up).

A Simple Salad made with veggies I bought at the Farmer’s Market.

As you can see, dinner was delicious.

Happy Cooking!!

When I saw this recipe on the internet, I knew I wanted to make it.  It looked stunning and it didn’t require a million ingredients. Plus I knew it would be the perfect side dish for my salmon.

Here’s the recipe for a Zucchini  Rose Tart (adapted from www.Buonappa.net)

Ingredients:
1 roll puff pastry

Filling:

1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
a lot of  fresh oregano, fresh rosemary or fresh thyme!

Decoration:
4 multi color carrots (purple, orange and yellow)
2 zucchini

Instructions:

1. Roll out the puff pastry and place it in the bottom of a greased oven proof baking dish. However,  I was using this recipe for Passover so I covered the bottom of my serving dish with Matza.

If you are using puff pastry, bake in the oven (with weights) at 350 for 20 minutes. Lets cool

2. Mix together in a bowl: eggs, ricotta cheese, parmesan, mozzarella cheese, and fresh herbs (this made all the difference, I promise you).

3. Spread the mixture over the puff pastry (or matzo in my case)

3. For the vegetables: peel the carrots and split in half. Then take your peeler and peel long ribbons. Do the same with the zucchini but don’t peel them. Then place all the ribbons in 2 cups of water and put them in the microwave for 5 minutes. DRAIN.

4. Now for the fun. Roll up each ribbon and then place into the filling (which will acts as a “cement). This take TIME. Make sure you have enough TIME and enough RIBBONS. It took more time and more ribbons than I thought but it was SO worth it.

5. Brush with olive oil (which I forgot to do. Oops)

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes

Full disclosure: I swore a few times while making this but I will make it again. It was really worth it.

FINAL

I served this dish along with:

-Salmon with balsamic onions

-Roasted Cauliflower with a Tahini Glaze

– Beet salad with mint/feta cheese

-Spinach salad with blood orange and pecans

Happy Cooking!

I hosted a Shabbat Tweet up on Friday night and wanted to make something that I hadn’t made in along time that I knew would be a hit. I was right – there was only one piece left by the end of the night!!

The first ingredient (frozen fish loaf) might not be available in many grocery stores but I can assure you that you can find it at any grocery store from Bathurst/Lawrence to Bathurst and Rutherford.

Here’s the recipe: There’s 4 ingredients you really need. That’s it.

Three Coloured Fish Loaf (taken from Gatherings…A project by the parents of Netivot Hatorah Day School)

1 1/2 lbs frozen fish loaf, defrosted….otherwise known as GEFILTE FISH

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp salt (I omitted this)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder (I omitted this too)

pepper to taste

1 box (300g) chopped spinach, defrosted and drained

3 medium sized carrots, cooked and mashed. (I used my Cuisinart for this step).

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. In a large blow, combine defrosted fish with egg, sugar, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and onion.

2. Divide mixture in half

3. Press one half into a loaf pan (I used Pam on the loaf pan to ensure it came out easily)

4. Divide the remaining mixture into half

5. Mix spinach with one half of the mixture

6. Mix mashed carrots with the other half of the mixture

7. Spread the spinach mixture over plain fish in loaf pan

8. Then spread the carrot mixture over the spinach mixture.

Bake uncovered for an hour. Slice and serve!!

FINAL PRODUCT:

ps. Next time I would spread more carrot mixture on the loaf. I held back. I don’t know why. I realized that the more you use, the thicker the layer will be.

Happy Cooking!!

Entertaining Made Easy…According to momwhoruns:

a) select a date and then invite the guests

b) decide on the menu. I generally do one main course, 3 sides, one dessert. The internet saves me. You can find all the recipes by clicking on the item. I’m pretty sure I found all of them on tastespotting.

c) buy groceries and begin to cook. (often I do this in stages vs. doing it all at once).

d) buy flowers and set the table.

e) ENJOY the good food and the great company.

Here’s what I served to guests a few weeks ago:

Roasted Carrot Cumin Dip

Quinoa and Smashed Herb Salad (sorry no photo – had a senior moment)

Barefoot Contessa’s Basil Mashed Potatotes

Baked Salmon with Kale and Dill with Harissa

www.tastefoodblog.com

Strawberry Raspberry Crisp. (recipe to follow in another blog post)

Another fav. part of having company over is to set the table and buy the right flowers. What do you think?

I cant wait to entertain next month.

I love vegetables..can you tell?

More goodness…

More…

And the winning dish…Fig, Acorn, Squash and Goat Cheese Pizza.

Happy Cooking!!