Recipe 5- Heaven on a Plate

Recipe 5- Heaven on a Plate

Tropical Fruit Crisp with Coconut Crusted Vanilla Ice Cream

To start off this blog post, I just wanted to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that has been following along with me. It has really brightened my day opening up my inbox and seeing notifications of 'tweets', emails and blog comments! You are all fantastic! 

So here we are at Recipe #5

I was watching "Chef at home" where Chef Michael prepares this recipe. I quickly snatched up my cookbook and was hoping that this recipe was in there. It looked so good and was a unique twist on the traditional 'apple crisp'.

I made my usual trek to the grocery store for my supplies. I needed 3 ripe mangos and 4 bananas.

I was really hoping the banana section was picked over and that there were going to be a few really ripe ones. For once all of the bananas at home were eaten before they were completely brown! 

Of course my produce section was FULL of green yellow bananas, so I was hoping for the best when I put this all together. I am not an expert on Mangos in the slightest, all I know is that they should be somewhat soft when they are ripe. I went over and gave the ONLY 3 mangos left a squeeze.

Perfect, perfect... HARD.

NUTS.

Again, I hoped for the best with my one hard mango. As you can see in the pic, you can really tell which one was not quite ready. 

So here comes my next snag... how do I cut a mango?
http://www.mango.org/how-cut-mango

Try the link above if you don't know how... I had to look it up too!

Next is the zest and the juice of one lime. Oh man did this ever smell good! I am secretly getting excited anytime I see a Chef Michael recipe that requires a citrus fruit :)
Now all the ingredients are together in the bowl and its time for some flour & brown sugar.
This was starting to smell really, really good!

The base layer is now put into a greased baking dish and we move on to the topping.
This is where I got really excited. Brown sugar & coconut in the topping?
ummm...YES PLEASE!

So in the bowl I made one brown sugar castle, does anyone else like doing this with packed brown sugar? Some butter and 1tsp of nutmeg...or one whole nut! I accidentally dropped this in while grating it! Now the topping gets evenly sprinkled over the fruit base. Then into the oven for 35-40 mins.

My recipe didn't specify if the lid of the baking dish needed to be 'on' or 'off', so I left it on until the last 15 mins and then took it off so the topping could get nice and crispy.
While my crisp was in the oven I started toasting my coconut for the ice cream.
Oh man... WONDERFUL SMELL # 1 million in this recipe!
Freshly toasted coconut is just drool worthy.

This is literally the easiest thing to do. I have no idea why I thought it would be complicated. In to a non stick pan I poured sweetened coconut. Turned my stove on to medium heat. Made a smiley face out of said coconut and then about 6 mins later... perfectly toasted coconut!

And 40 mins later, out came this beauty!
My kitchen smelled like a tropical paradise. And when I cut into the crisp with my spoon, you can see all the fruit perfectly held together. It was not gooey or runny, and all the fruit was nice and tender.
And the 'not so ripe' fruit may of been why everything held up so well.
I rolled some vanilla ice cream in the coconut and served up my first dish!

My mom got the honours of the first bite....
and all that came out of her mouth after that first bite was "YUMM"
Now if you have seen the "Julie&Julia" movie, its said that Julia Child would never say something is yummy... but guess what? THIS WAS YUMMY!

Let me just say...I savoured every last bite of this dessert. I think it would be great to serve this during the summer time. Its so fresh tasting! The flavours really complement each other and the "icing on the cake" is that delicious cold ice cream rolled in coconut and the warm crisp all together.
This truly is a slice of heaven!
Give this one a go, its gets a 5 star in my book.
Click the link below for the recipe & instructions on Chef Michael Smith's website:
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/tropical-fruit-crisp-with-coconut-crusted-ice-cream/12881/

Need I say more? 

As always my compliments to the Chef and to you, my friends! 

Enjoy

And tomorrow I will be doing my on camera audition for "Come Dine with Me Canada"

I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the progress, thank you to everyone for the well wishes and luck! 

Art work on my Kitchen Chalkboard!

Recipe 4- Call the fire dept, we had a fail! Pan Rushed Salmon & 3 Tomatoes

Recipe 4- Call the fire dept, we had a fail! 

Pan Rushed Salmon with 3 Tomatoes

I know what you are thinking... That doesn't look like a fail?

Don't worry I will tell you my second kitchen fail that had my smoke alarms going crazy! 

So as you will see in this recipe, there are only 2 filets shown. This Friday, "Come Dine with me Canada" will be coming to my home to film my on camera audition for the show.

I will be using the other 2 filets on Friday, I wanted to try out the recipe first.

I am required to "cook a dish in under 30 min"

No soup, salad or pizza... In less then 30 mins?

That's how I chose this recipe. Nothing cooks quicker then some filets of fish.

Chef Michael Smiths recipe makes a quick dinner into something restaurant quality. 

I was shocked when I dug into this dish, it tasted like something you would choose while dining out. And was made in less then 30 mins! 

Thats quicker then a frozen pizza.

To start off this recipe, I took a quick trip to Zehrs to pick up some salmon filets.

While at the fish counter, I got chatting with a woman that was originally from out east. I told her that today was my first time buying fresh fish. She told me once you make fresh fish yourself, anything else will boring. 

So into my cart went some Fresh Atlantic Salmon filets.

They were pretty pricey, but as I later found out.. very worth the extra! 

So I rounded up all of the pots and pans that I would need, along with all my ingredients. On top of cooking this recipe today for blog purposes, I also needed to time myself to see how long this recipe would take me. 

I started off by heating up my pan. This recipe calls to 'sear' your filets first and then the cooking process finishes in the pan with your tomatoes.

Well this is where my fail shortly comes in. I have never 'seared' anything, so when it says that the pan needs to be medium to high heat for this to happen, I turned my dial to 8. Next I added in my oil.

Everything was going great. The filets had a nice sizzle when they hit the pan. Just like Chef Michael says. The filets looked great! 

And now is when I realize that I have not thought about my new 'copper bottom pan' distributing heat maybe TOO well  and all that now... VERY HOT OIL sitting in the pan.

The filets come out and the chopped onion and garlic go in.....

AND SOUND THE ALARMS! 

By this time my pan was WAY TOO HOT! I threw in my garlic and onions and seconds later I got this...

Yup, this is some BLACK BURNT onions and garlic. Our home is equipped with a direct line to our local fire dept, I am sure they were shaking their heads as I sounded the alarm 4 more times trying to get the grey smoke out of my kitchen. 

At this point I was doubting my ability to make this ON CAMERA in less the 30 minutes, let alone completing this dish without burning my kitchen down.

So I started over with my onions and garlic. 

And I must say, with the amount of onions  and garlic I have chopped over the last week.. I am getting really good at mincing. I have all my finger tips to prove it! 

knock on wood.

Next go in the beautiful tomatoes. I was sure to pick the freshest and most fragrant cherry tomatoes that my Zehrs carried. They were a little more pricey then the 'grape tomatoes', but again, well worth the extra. Into my garlic and onion mixture went some canned tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes. Now this recipe calls for 'dried tomatoes'. I obviously have heard of sun dried, as thats what I used, but when I used google for this, it says that you can dry tomatoes yourself?

Have any of you ever dried your own tomatoes? Also do stores sell just  dried tomatoes? 

Let me know! 

So all of my tomatoes are simmering and in the pan goes some dry oregano. A quick stir and back into the pan go my beautifully seared salmon. 

A lid and 5 minutes of your patience delivers the BEST salmon dish I have had to date. 

To finish off this recipe, it calls for fresh chopped oregano as a topping.

I have not been able to find this again in my grocery store. This has inspired me to soon build my own indoor herb garden. I think it would be great to have fresh herbs at hand! 

So for my husbands 31st birthday he patiently waited while I burned down our kitchen, wafted grey smoke and delivered one of the best salmon dishes he or I had ever had. 

It was delicious! 

I paired this dish with a bed of fresh made pasta. If you are interested, see my blog post on how I made the pasta. 

Try this recipe for a quick meal through the week! 

As always my compliments to the chef, my apology to the fire dept and cheers to you, my friends! 

Enjoy

Here is a link to Chef Michael Smiths Web page with ingredients and instructions on this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/pan-rushed-salmon-with-three-tomatoes/12868/

Weekend Recipe- Making Homemade Pasta

Weekend Recipe- Homemade Pasta

This weekend I sat down to pick out 2 more recipes from Chef Michael Smith's Book.

I was immediately drawn to the "Pan Rushed Salmon with 3 

tomatoes".

That recipe will be featured in its own blog post on Monday.

I was trying to think of a side dish that would pair nicely with all those tomatoes.

And what's better then some nice homemade pasta?

I hit google looking for some recipes and sure enough I found 1 million.

I love Google.

Now growing up I remember one or two times my mom making homemade noodles.

It was many many years ago now, but I can still remember that softness and taste of fresh pasta.

I think you need to at least once in your life make pasta at home.

First I arranged all of my ingredients... ALL 4 ingredients..

THATS IT!

To start off you make a well of flour. You mix everything on your counter top. I know... I thought the same thing... this is going to get MESSY!  Yes you are right, it will be messy, but hey you can clean up after! 

Ok, well I said it was going to get messy. But it got really messy, and my nice neat 'well' started out dinner plate size and ended up platter size haha! 

I started slowly incorporating everything with a fork like instructed and I started thinking.. 

"wow this doesn't look so good"

It looked lumpy and I was really second guessing myself.

In pic 3 this is where I was wondering how on earth this dough was going to come together. It eventually did with a lot of mixing, and then kneading. I scrolled down on the instructions to see what was next, and it said to knead the dough for 8-10min until smooth and elastic.
8-10min of kneading...YIKES... !
Out comes old faithful, my kitchen aid mixer. I put on the dough hook attachment and let it work the dough. And guess what...? In 9 minutes I had a nice smooth dough, that actually looked like it SHOULD.
In pic 4 above, the dough had only been hand kneaded. It was lumpy and not smooth at all. Look at the difference 8-10 min of kneading makes.

Next the dough gets wrapped in plastic wrap and sits to rest for 15min.

This was a great time to hang out with the little one.

My youngest daughter Emilie and I decided to use 15 minutes to take as many "selfies" as we could with my phone. These were quite cute and I thought  I would share them with you.

She loves watching herself in the reverse camera setting.

After 15 minutes of "selfies" and playing it was time to cut the dough. 

On the instructions list, it says to split your dough into 4 pieces just for the reason of the kitchen aid dough attachment. But it was nice to do this for the manual method. Smaller pieces of dough are much easier to roll out and work with. Be sure to keep them wrapped so the dough doesn't dry out.

I used a pizza roller to cut strips.

As I was cutting these strips, I came to realize how awesome the pasta attachment for my kitchen aid would be. 

I wanted to add, that this dough was amazingly easy to work with. Much different then I expected after seeing that lumpy ball I started out with. A little time and effort pays off. 

Now, this pasta doesn't require drying like some do.

But.... I piled my cut pasta in a bowl to set aside for later.

Not a wise idea. I had a tangled mess of noodles in my bowl. 

I spent the next 10 minutes laying my noodles out on parchment paper to dry slightly.

This is when I discovered how to make my noodles longer and thinner.

I stretched them a little and then twirled them like a 'skipping rope"

I ended up with nice long, thin noodles. 

These noodles were to be paired with my first 'recipe of the week', Pan Rushed Salmon with 3 tomatoes. While I was working on that recipe, I boiled some water and cooked my noodles.

These noodles were DELICIOUS! 

The texture was fantastic and they were not gluey or starchy tasting.

My kids gobbled down a whole plate at dinner. 

I reserved half of this noodle recipe in the fridge for friday when I will be doing my on film audition for "Come Dine with Me Canada"

This recipe would make enough pasta for at least 4-6 people.

Maybe even more if you used a pasta maker to make the dough thinner.

I really hope this post inspired you to do a "Weekend Recipe"just like I did.

It does require a little work, but the benefit of having fresh pasta is just to die for! 

Get your kids involved too, they will LOVE it.

Let me know if you tryout this recipe! 

Enjoy & Take Care

I have included the link below to the website I used for ingredients and instructions.

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/kelsey-nixon/fresh-pasta-dough.html

Recipe 3- The BEST true comfort food

Recipe 3- True Comfort Food 

Banana Rum Bread Pudding

So a lot of confusion swirled around this recipe with some friends and family. None of us are familiar with 'bread pudding'. This would be the first time any of us had eaten it.

My kids were VERY confused, they didn't think it was a dessert...

Until they smelled it baking later in the oven. 

I picked this recipe, because as you can see in the above pic, I had some VERY ripe bananas that needed to be used up. This recipe calls for 4, but I thought I would wing it with 2.

Before I could even start this recipe, I had to send my loving husband out to buy some rum.

His first question was 'rum  for a dessert? ok!"

It states in the recipe it can be 'any kind', so I figured my husband could surprise me.

To begin, I started this recipe backwards.. I could not wait another second to make some of that lovely whip cream this recipe includes! 

I just happened to have a cup of hot chocolate on the go, and who can resist some freshly made whip cream to top it off?

I pretty much could of stopped here with my hot chocolate and whip cream because it was so tasty, but that bread pudding HAD to be made.

The ingredients for the whip cream were simple for this, but the flavour is just amazing! 

Look how great that whip cream whipped up! 

Perfect texture and just a slight bit of sweetness with a little added sugar.

And this only took 5 minutes in my mixer.

The recipe calls for 'sugar',  I added in brown sugar as I have seen Chef Michael use before, it was great! 

Now the 'secret' ingredient is some freshly grated nutmeg. 

This adds a whole new level to plain whip cream. It makes it so decadent and really pairs well with the bread pudding.

I have never used 'freshly' ground nutmeg before. The fragrance it releases when its grated is just nothing I can explain, you have to try it yourself! 

And how cool is the nutmeg on the inside?

Okay, let move on to the star of the show, the bread pudding! 

As always I got all of the my ingredients out and ready to go.

I used a day old french loaf for this recipe. 

To begin I chopped my loaf into cubes and set them aside.

Next, the recipe says to beat your eggs and add the milk, cream, rum, sugar and vanilla.

Here is where my FIRST fail of this journey happened. 

I was trying to take pictures as I went along... AND.... INTO THE EGGS GOES MY BRAND NEW IPHONE 5! 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OMG! OH MY... I CAN'T BREATHE! 

And for an added ingredient, next up.. Iphone5 into the eggs! 

Okay, lets calm down... I had a case on it, thank heavens! It only got a little egg on the screen! 

But STILL! I have now learned my lesson.

Moving along... I next add in my very ripe bananas and take out my above frustration with my whisk. Mashing the heck out of those bananas into the custard mixture.

By this time, I was back to a relaxed state and now its time for the bread to take a bath.

In goes my bread cubes and they hang out in the mixture until everything is soaked in nicely. 

After all the juice is soaked up, into a greased baking dish they go!

First thing I did after everything hit the baking dish... take a big sniff! 

It smelled amazing ALREADY!

Now this is not part of the recipe, I added a little touch of my own.

Since I had never eaten bread pudding, I was assuming with the amount of liquid the bread just soaked up, that it would be quite a soft texture.

I thought a slightly 'crunchy' topping would really compliment this.

In a bowl I mixed some raw sugar, cinnamon and some nutmeg.

I sprinkled this on the top, for a  crunchy cinnamon sugar topping.

And off to the oven we go.

The smell of this baking was such a comforting smell. The cinnamon and sugar, along with the bananas.. it smelled like a loaf of banana bread baking.

4o minutes later the bread pudding was perfectly baked and ready to come out of the oven.

Honestly, I couldn't wait for this to cool off before we dug in.

And here is the completed bread pudding with the delicious whip cream! 

After the first bite I restrained myself to take it all in and not gobble my plate.

This  truly is comfort food at its finest.

So warm and comforting.

Before I knew it my plate was empty and my kids were asking for seconds.

For some extra goodness, a fresh coffee pairs VERY well with this.

This was a hit in our house and hopefully you will be inspired to try this too! 

So your probably wondering.. so what happened with that extra rum?

Well.. I did drop a new iphone5 into eggs, so I will leave that one to your imagination! 

haha! 

Until next time, my compliments to the Chef, and cheers to all of you, my friends! 

Enjoy!

Recipe 2- Tasty little pillows of Goodness

Recipe 2- Tasty little pillows of Goodness

Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Sage Butternut Squash Sauce 

Now to start off... this recipe was slightly intimidating to look at.

I am going to MAKE GNOCCHI?

Yes, yes you will and it will be much easier then you think! 

As I do with most recipes, I prepare most or all of my ingredients ahead of time. 

I secretly wish that I had someone that would  chop every ingredient for me and then place them ever so nicely into those little clear bowls. I will keep wishing for that moment :) 

I would love to learn some of the chef skills when it comes to chopping things finely. They make it look so easy and effortless.

When I am chopping, it doesn't look easy or effortless. Hopefully it will come in time along this journey. I would like to keep ALL of my fingers, so I won't be trying anything like I see on TV.

How vibrant is the colour of this Butternut Squash? Beautiful! 

Next I have my favourite skillet, and I like to call her "copper bottom"

because that's what she is. ( not sure why my pan is a 'she', but lets go with it) 

I have added some of my all time, hands down favourite butter. 

Cow's Creamery Butter from P.E.I

Please try this if you can find it, it will make your cooking, baking & eating that much better.

This butter made me love butter that much more.

No into the skillet go my 'expertly' chopped onions & garlic.

I think everyone can say they enjoy the smell of the onions and garlic coming together in a pan. You just know that this dish is going to be tasty. 

Next up, the butternut squash take a leap into the pan. 

Here they will come together with the onions & garlic in perfect harmony.

My husband came home not too long after these ingredients hit the pan.

He immediately said as the door opened " wow! something smells awesome in here"

 While my pan was happily simmering, I moved on to making the Gnocchi.

Out comes my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer. 

I assemble my ingredients once again and read through the instructions a million times.

 Chef Michael Smith has made this so straight forward and easy that I had to read it so many times to believe it was THAT EASY. 

In to my mixer goes the goat cheese & eggs.

Next we have some butter, parmesan cheese and salt. 

A few minutes of mixing you have a lovely fluffy mixture.

Here we add in flour and mix with a spoon.

After this you have a very soft soft, but not sticky piece of dough.

Here is where we begin shaping the Gnocchi.

I had lots of fun with this step. If you are like me as a child, then you loved making snakes out of play-dough. It took me back to my childhood just working with the dough and making these long snakes in preparation for cutting these tiny pillows of goodness. 

From here, our gnocchi will take a quick dip into a pot of boiling salty water.

Within a few minutes, you see the tiny pillows surfacing the water.

Now they are ready to unite in your pan of a amazing smelling squash.

To complete this dish, you add some fresh or dry sage.

It really brings everything together and makes this dish perfect for a cold winter day.

Its hearty and very tasty.

The gnocchi is very soft and rich. The goat cheese is not overwhelming and the texture is just perfect.

I think these would be great in a tomato based sauce as well. 

They really are delicious and my family and dear friend Jen enjoyed this tasty recipe! 

We complimented this dish with a side of Chef Michael Smith's Caesar Salad.

If you are interested in my experience making this salad, please check out Recipe Day 1

http://100recipesin52weeks.blogspot.ca/2014/01/recipe-1-not-just-caesar-salad.html

Until next time, my compliments to the chef and cheers to you my friends! 

Enjoy! 

Recipe 1- Not JUST a Caesar Salad

Recipe 1- Not JUST a Caesar Salad

My journey starts off with a classic and an at home staple, the caesar salad.

In our home caesar salad is one of our favourite sides to many, many meals. My method was to buy a bag of Romaine hearts, grab a jar of Renee's Caesar dressing and a bag of croutons. On a special occasion, the really good parmesan cheese. While all of these ingredients are perfectly okay for a quick throw together salad, Chef Michael Smith has made this a really amazing salad.  

Now to start off, when I saw this recipe in the book and its ingredient list, the first thing that jumped out at me was the ANCHOVY! WHAT!?! ANCHOVIES are in this!?! 

My good friend Emilie was chatting with me while I decided which recipe to make and she said "If you have had Caesar Salad, then you have eaten an Anchovy" 

True. Very True. 

However... I have never purchased one, let alone whirled one around in a blender to make a dressing. 

And so on my grocery trip to Zehrs, in the cart go the can of Anchovies and I am dreading opening that can later.

To start off the recipe, Chef Michael has you make your own Croutons. 

Personally I like croutons in my salad, but its never a must. Until now. 

You can use whatever bread you like, I chose a French bread.

His method of infusing some olive oil with garlic and then toasting to perfection has made me change my opinion on these tiny pieces of "toast" 

The texture and flavour just adds something to the salad. They are amazing and if you make this recipe, don't pass on this part, even if you are not a crouton lover. They may just change your mind.

Next we move on to the Pancetta Crisp.

Here is another ingredient I have never used before. I opened the package to find some delicately laid out thin pieces of meat. They looked just stunning. Can we even say that meat can look stunning ?! Haha, well it did. 

As I was laying these pieces out on my baking sheet, I could tell that I was making something really special. The smell of the pancetta is just really an experience, it has a rich smokey smell and while its cooking, you are waiting in anticipation to taste this little delicacy. To my surprise it tasted like the BEST BACON YOU HAVE EVER EVER HAD.

Before, During & After

 Now onto the dressing. I was really looking forward to this part. I have never made any homemade dressing and this step really intrigued me. 

My special purchase for this recipe was a new blender. I figured it would be a handy and well needed tool over the next year. 

I gathered my ingredients and began dumping them in.

As you can see here, I have not yet included our little "special" ingredient... The Anchovies!
Yes they made it in as my LAST ingredient, and I survived.
I will admit, my face would of said a million things if I had a picture of myself when I finally opened that can.

Don't be discouraged with this step. As I learned later, the anchovy gives and excellent flavour to this dressing. Just open the can quick, dump it in and then take a picture of your face after!

My next step was the lemons. Oh the LEMONS!
I don't know if I just got a good bunch, but man did these ever smell amazing!
I started by zesting away on my new gadget. I was slightly terrified that I may no longer have finger prints or tips while using this, but I was extra careful.
Squeezing the lemon juice was just the best part of this recipe. I have no idea why, but I got so much happiness from squeezing those lemons. The aroma and the colour were just amazing. And using a lemon like a stress ball really works!
However I will inserts a disclaimer here... Remember that paper cut you got yesterday, last week, last month, last year...? You will remember now. This technique of squeezing fresh lemons will promptly remind you of that paper cut! But if you like lemons as much as I do, the smell will distract you from the burning sensation haha!

One little tip I would like to add, this recipe calls for 3 lemons ( zest & juice)
If you are not a lemon lover, cut it back to taste. If you LOVE lemon..
proceed with the recipe!

And with that, we head over to the blender and then ladies and gentleman..
START YOUR ENGINES!
In a few quick pulses, you will have the most amazing caesar dressing you have ever tasted!
The freshness of this dressing is un-describable.

In TRUE Chef Michael Smith form- a mason jar for storage.

Now we finish off with some freshly washed Romaine lettuce and some Basil leaves. 

My last new gadget purchase was a salad spinner. I know.. who DOESN"T have a salad spinner.. .well this girl right here doesn't.. Until TODAY! 

I had a slight mishap in my glory of spinning that salad dry. The lid popped off and we had a nice dusting of Romaine lettuce on the kitchen floor and counter tops. My husband had a long laugh witnessing this. 

You can laugh too, because I know you are envisioning this happening. 

The basil really upped the freshness factor in this salad. Don't leave it out! 

It is something unique I have never had in a Caesar salad and it was very impressive.

Last but not least all of you efforts come together in one very beautiful salad. 

Its so fresh and tasty that I will never make a "store" caesar salad again. 

You are left with lots of dressing for more salads and even a dipping sauce for veggies if you would like. 

My family and myself eagerly dug into the salad and this was the first thing gone off of our plates. YES, even my kids could not get enough, and it went off to school with them today in their lunches, at their request!  

P.S Don't forget that delicately sliced Grana Padano Cheese, it is very very tasty and has a much nicer flavour with this salad then plain parmesan. 

Please head over to Chef Michael Smiths website for all of the ingredients and steps to make this salad. You will no be disappointed. 

Also, let me know if you do make this recipe and your thoughts! 

Until next time, my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you my friends! 

Enjoy

Link to Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/michael-smiths-caesars-salad/12940/