All posts filed under: Dinner

Two Delicious Pizzas for National Pizza Day + Homemade Pizza Dough

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To me, nothing beats the taste of homemade pizza. Made with fresh toppings, cheese, and dough from scratch, you just can’t go wrong. And with a food this popular, you must celebrate it with it’s very own national food holiday! That’s right… it’s National Pizza Day! And I have two delicious pizza recipes to share with you: a Traditional Margherita Pizza and a fresh Spring Veggie Pizza. My Traditional Margherita Pizza – a true pizza classic! My pizza dough is much fluffier and thicker than what you may be accustomed to, but everyone always loves it! It’s more of a Roman style pizza dough that’s thicker and loaded with olive oil– kind of like a thin focaccia. It is really sturdy and holds up the toppings really well. Plus, Roman style pizza is rectangular shaped, and since those are the only pans I have, then that’s what I went for! Once you have the basic dough recipe down, you can add whatever toppings you like. For a Traditional Margherita Pizza, use some tomato sauce, mozzarella …

Artichoke & Asiago Turnovers

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I am kicking off my #AppyHolidays series on my blog with this recipe for Artichoke & Asiago Turnovers. This festive appetizer is a play on Artichoke and Asiago Dip—and effectively removes the risk of double-dipping! My inspiration for this recipe came from seeing lots of pre-made Artichoke and Asiago Dips at my local grocery store. While these dips are tasty and convenient, they can be full of lots of additives and preservatives that we don’t need. For this reason, I decided to make my own homemade recipe for this classic dip and just for fun, I decided to put the filling inside of some puff pastry. Asiago is an Italian cow’s milk cheese that is pungent and flavourful and comes in multiple varieties. Asiago varies tremendously in flavour depending on the length of time it has been aged. For instance, the fresh variety is much less pungent than an asiago that has been aged for 2+ years. I admit that the flavour is strong and it may take some getting used to for some, but …

Traditional Italian Meatballs

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I would love to say this these aren’t your Nonnas meatballs, but that is exactly what these are! Delicious ground beef and ground pork come together (with a few other key Italian ingredients) to make the perfect and most comforting meatball recipe you have ever had! I like to make these meatballs whenever I am missing home. I adore that homey feeling when there is a big pot of meatballs bubbling away on the stove all Sunday, with wafts of tomato and garlic and basil travelling though the home and warming your home and heart as it goes. I think that many people of Italian decent know what I’m talking about here… it’s all about family and tradition and COMFORT (perfect for the fall months)! Now each family recipe for meatballs is unique. Some family recipes use a combination of beef and pork, some use all beef, and some use beef, pork and veal. Others add Parmesan or basil or parsley or chili flakes to their meatballs. Some add milk to the meatballs instead of …

Oktoberfest Recipes: Spaetzle & Pork Schnitzel/Jägerschnitzel

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I am very happy that fall has finally arrived! By far, fall is definitely my favourite season of them all since it comes with warm drinks, cozy sweaters, and new delicious produce (think apples, cruciferous veggies, squash, pears) that make the perfect cozy and warming comfort foods. It also means that since it cooler and you are wearing warmer sweaters, there is a greater opportunity to make a bit of extra room for some tasty desserts! Haha 🙂 As I alluded to, fall is all about hearty, soul-filling comfort foods for me. Everyone has them—that special dish that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. For me, this includes hearty soups and stews, meatballs that have simmered all day in a big pot of tomato sauce, mac and cheese (and other carby casseroles), spiced cakes and sweet desserts. The list could literally go on and on….and trust me it does. The list is so long that I have enough recipes to share with you for the next 3-4 years, so it’s safe to …

Blueberry Stuffed Chicken

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Blueberries are getting the royal treatment today on the blog with this elegant recipe for Blueberry Stuffed Chicken! We are in the fourth day of #BCBlueberryWeek here on the blog and I am excited to reveal this recipe to you. Not only did I work really hard on the food styling (I feel so professional) but I also worked hard on the recipe too! It had many similar components as my Blueberry and Grilled Chicken Salad that I posted a few days ago- chicken, goat cheese and blueberries (of course)- but these flavours just go so well together! The only thing that’s different is how I prepared and presented them! Stuffed chicken breasts are a mid-week favourite around here. I stuff chicken with spinach and cheese, sundried tomatoes, cheese and ham, rice and spinach- you name it! But I particularly love stuffed chicken breasts because they are so versatile! You can take them from a humble mid-week meal to a star main course at a dinner party in no time! I definitely think that stuffing …

How to Throw the Perfect Summer Picnic

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Warmer weather calls for some al fresco dining. Whether in the park, on a beach, or just in your backyard, packing the perfect picnic means having food that travels well and tastes delicious. I’m here to give you some great tips, recipes and a styling guide on how to host the perfect summer picnic. Equipment The Picnic Basket (and alternatives) Let’s start with the basic equipment that you need for throwing your summer picnic. First and foremost, you will need something to carry all of your food, drinks, dishes and servingware in. If you want to look sophisticated and have everything in one place, a fully-outfitted picnic basket is the way to go. I love the look of the traditional weaved straw basket, the leather handles and the hunter green fabric on our basket. I also love that it comes fully loaded with all the dishes, glassware and plates that we need for a picnic plus some bonus items like a wine cozy, a wine opener, and mini salt and pepper shakers! Of course, you …

Steak Salad with Roasted Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

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Summer is the best time of the year to eat the many varieties of tomatoes that are out there-whether they are cherry tomatoes, beefsteak, heirloom, zebra… the list goes on and on! Those sweet, juicy, plump colourful gems taste absolutely delicious after ripening outside under the sun. This gives them a deep and rich tomato flavour and makes them taste incredibly sweet. I also love the texture of tomatoes that have been grown in the summer as they are juicy and yet still firm and not ‘mealy’ like the tomatoes that you get during the winter! While I can go on and on about the reasons why I love tomatoes and tell you about all the different varieties that are available, I will save that for a later post. For now, I would like to share a delicious recipe that uses my favourite tomatoes of the season: cherry tomatoes. They pack an incredibly sweet punch (for a tomato, that is) and just burst open with flavourful juices once you pop them in your mouth. If …

Pork & Sambal Green Beans

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It has been a scorcher here in southern BC for the past few weeks and with a west-facing apartment, temperatures inside our cozy home have easily reached 100 degrees in the evening. Rather than avoiding turning on my stove and sticking to no-cook recipes like salads and sandwiches, I fired up the stove to make a hot dinner; hot in the sense that heat was used to cook the food, and hot in the sense of spice. I was drawn to make some spicy food during this heat wave to test the theory that eating spicy food when it’s hot outside actually helps to cool you down. I never really tested this theory before as I have lived in a cool Canadian climate my whole life (or have had air conditioning to compensate those few hot days we get up here); but I heard that this theory actually works and has worked for people who live in perpetually hot climates for hundreds of years. So since we were stuck in this heatwave and sans air …

What’s In Season: A Guide to Steak

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There’s nothing like chilling outside in the sun with an iced drink, listening to some funky music, and grilling up a fantastic meal. Luckily, as temperatures rise and the days get longer, we inch closer and closer to these days that I live for. I really enjoy this slow-paced, relaxed and somewhat primal form of cooking as it’s quite different from my every day kitchen-bound cooking. You get to hear different sounds, smell different mouth-watering smells, and feel different textures and sensations. Plus, barbequing is relatively effortless. All you really need is some good, high-quality ingredients to start out with and the grill will take care of all that intense flavour building. To kick off the start of barbeque season, I thought I would provide a thorough overview of how to make the most popular barbeque food: steak. There are so many ways to cook a steak, but in my opinion, grilling the steak is your best bet at getting that delicious, juicy, beefy steak flavour. But before we get into the cooking methodology, it’s …

Toum ~ Creamy Garlic Sauce

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You may not have known the proper name for this tasty sauce before reading this blog post, but I can guarantee that you have had this before if you eat a lot of Lebanese or Middle Eastern foods like shawarma or falafel. Toum is a traditional creamy (and dreamy) Lebanese garlic sauce that is often added to grilled meats or is served as a dip. In Lebanese, “toum” or “toom” translates directly to mean “garlic”. This sauce is aptly named as there is LOTS of garlic in this recipe- 30 cloves! Yeah, you read that right- 30 cloves of raw, fresh, mouth-tingling, gut-friendly garlic. Luckily, the garlic flavour is complimented by lots of clean tasting canola oil, tart lemon juice and some salt and mellows out the longer it sits in the fridge. This sauce has the same consistency as a homemade mayonnaise or aioli and is made in the exact same process of emulsifying the ingredients together very slowly to form a thick, stable, and creamy sauce. Now it took me a few tries …