Chicken and Avocado Salad

It's summer! ... and what do we all like to eat in summer? Bright and colourful salads! This one is no exception. It's great for BBQs, balancing out all that meat, potato and macaroni salad we all typically love.
I found this recipe on Pintrest (a site I am totally obsessed with and will eventually apply the icon link for my posts - if I can figure it out). The only change I made was not adding corn and the dressing I used was different. I thought a fruity flavour may let this salad sparkle even more than it already does, and boy was I right! Or you be the judge ;). I used a raspberry vinagrette (not homemade, sorry). The combination of flavours made my summer heart sing!

I didn't get a photo of the salad in it's original form (typical me!), but I had a little leftover and wanted to make a meal out of what was left the next day so I combined it with some penne, left off the raspberry vinagrette, and instead sprinkled with a bit of sea salt, squeeze of lemon juice and splash of olive oil. Yum!!!

So as you can see this salad is quite versatile. You can truly make it yours own :)

This makes about 8 servings as a side salad or 4 as a meal salad.

8 cups baby spinach (1 bag)
1 cup halved cherry or pear tomatoes
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken (I used a ready rotisserie chicken)
1 large avocado, sliced
1/3 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
5-6 tbsp Raspberry vinaigrette

Instructions:
Toss all ingredients together.
(To make it look pretty when making this salad without pasta, toss half the toppings with the spinach, then roughy layer the remaining on top of the spinach in this order: chicken, feta, avocado, tomatoes, pine nuts)

Suggestion: do not add the dressing until you are about to serve. No one likes soggy salad! Or better yet, have everyone add the dressing to their own liking.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Grilled Asparagus topped with a Tarragon Hollandaise Sauce

 If you're having a dinner party, have little time but want to serve something impressive this is a great dish! This meal presents a most beautiful display. It's colourful, elegant, and best of all, the taste is wonderful! It's the sauce that truly makes this dish. Well, it usually is the sauce that pulls any meal together, but this sauce, in particular, is to die for! And wouldn't you know, the friends (including the birthday girl and photographer of these photos, Monique Napier) I made this for, raved about the cherry tomato garnish too! I have to admit I was very proud of that. The bright red and deep green makes the rest of the dish come to life, esthetically.

The Tarragon Hollandaise Sauce can be made first.
 What you need:
Hollandaise Sauce (Follow the link for the basic hollandaise sauce recipe.)
2 Tbsp fresh tarragon

Follow the steps for the hollandaise sauce, but add the tarragon at the end with the season.
Set aside while preparing the rest of the meal. This sauce can be made ahead up to 2 hours. (Keep it warm by leaving the bowl in the warm water of the 'bain marie')

For the Salmon, I used a tradtional method of cooking in a foil bag in the oven. Perhaps I should have taken photos to show you how to prepare the foil bag. But for those who do not know, I have found a good step by step instruction here.
What you need:
Foil
4 small salmon fillets
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup
Seasoning of your choice (I just used salt and pepper this time, but a bit of parsley too would be nice)

Rub the olive oil all over the fish fillets then sprinkle with seasoning. Once the bag was made, but before folding the last seal, I pour about 1/4 cup of dry white wine into the bag with the fish. This is if you'd like the fish steamed rather than baked. I place the bag on a cookie sheet and cooked in for about 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.

For the Grilled Asparagus, after trimming the asparagus, I simply tossed the asparagus in olive oil.
Place the asparagus, small bunches at a time (you want each spear, touching your hot grill pan). Turn them around once they start charring. This should only take about 5-10 minutes per bunch (depending on how thick the spears are). You'll know they're ready if you can easily get a fork through.
TIP: a fool proof method of trimming asapargus is just by using your hands. No knife needed! :) Hold the asparagus at each end and bend. It will break at the right spot. Check here for a more detailed explination, if you're new to trimming, or even cooking, asparagus.

To garnish I grilled some cherry tomatoes left on the vine. They were on the grilled for about 2-3 minutes. Just until they were charring and softened.

Trust me, you will feel pride when plating up this elegant dish!

Bon Apetit!

Quinoa Salad

I've been meaning to get into the whole quinoa frenzy, but hadn't quite gotten to it. Pronounced keen-wah, for a long time I was even pronouncing it completely wrong! kwi-no-ah. How embarassing! Haha!

We went to friends for dinner recently and were very pleased to be presented with such a colourful and tasty meal, including the oh-so-healthy quinoa

It's similar to cous-cous in look, and somewhat in taste too. However quinoa is a grain derived from South America, where-as cous-cous is a form of pasta made from wheat and derived from Morocco. Quinoa can be considered a superfood because it is so high in protein and contains many essential amino acids :)

This salad was so yummy, and served with an equally delicious turkey loaf (sorry, no recipe for that). I am lucky enough to have been given the recipe for the quinoa salad and share it with you lovely folks!

Oven Roasted Vegetables recipe

What a great time of year for this colourful medley of veg! The amazing thing about roasting vegetables as your side dish is that you can use any vegetables you want. What are your favourite? Now mix these together, coat them in whatever your favourite flavouring is, whether it be plain olive oil or a chilli and cumin blend. It's all your choice. There are no rules!

Here is a simple recipe I made the other night

(Feeds 4 people as a side dish)

Vegetables:
1 yellow pepper - sliced into strips and halved
1 red pepper - sliced into strips
1/2 large onion - sliced and halved
1 zucchini - sliced and halved
1/2 eggplant (UK - aubergine) - sliced and quartered (please see NOTE on how to prepare egg plant)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 garlic bulb - cloves separated but left in shell
2 tbp fresh parsley- chopped

Flavour: Vinaigrette
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp mustard powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme

Instructions:
1. Whisk together all ingredients for the vinaigrette
2. Combine all vegetables, parsley and vinaigrette together is a roasting pan or baking dish. Toss until well combined
3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper
4. Place vegetables in a 450 F  (220 C) oven until vegetables are tender and starting to brown at the edges (about 35 min)

Once your vegetables are plated you'll be at the best part! Squeezing out all the lovely flesh from the garlic shells. Oh yeah!!

NOTE:  EGGPLANT TIP - To avoid your eggplant releasing too much water and from it tasting too bitter simply lay slices out flat, cover in some slat and let sit for about 30min to an hour. You will see beads of "sweat" all over, this is the bitter water being released. Now rinse the eggplant and you're ready to go!
Also if you don't like tough skin you can peel the eggplant, but it's not necessary, totally personal choice.

NOTE2: ADDING POTATO - If you're adding potato or a hard root vegetable such as squash to your roasted veg make sure to cut them bite size so they cook through. Then you have a couple cooking options
1. Turn your oven up a bit (about 475 F / 245 C). You may also need to leave them in for a few more minutes.
2. Or you can par boil the 'hard' vegetable before mixing into the rest of the vegetables.

Twice Baked Potato Deliciousness!

I wasn't a huge baked potato lover until I found this recipe. The moment I saw it I just had to try it! I am definitely now a 'twice baked potato' lover! Never turning back.

This recipe is adapted from Paula's Twice Baked Potato at "It's all gouda"
I made a few changes, using what I often may use if I were to make mashed potatoes. It really is a recipe to have fun with since you can really add any ingredients which may be your favourites

(Feeds 2 people)
2 large baking potatoes
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 strips of streaky bacon (cut into small pieces) - of course if you want vegetarian this can be omited and still be just as tasty! ;)
1 small red onions (chopped)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup fresh chives (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Baked the potatoes at 400F (gas mark 6) for about 1 hour or until soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.
(make sure to prick potatoes a few times with a fork to keep them from bursting during baking)
- Cook onion and bacon in a pan until onion are soft and bacon crispy
- Once potatoes are cooked slice in 2, scoop out the soft potato and place in a large bowl. set potato skin shells aside.
- mash the potato then add to the potato 1/2 of the cheddar and all remaining ingredients. Mix well
- Divide potato mash into all 4 potato skin shells. Sprinkle the remaining cheese equally onto each potato
- Place potatoes onto the baking sheet and grill in the over for about 10 minutes or until top is looking nicely melted and slightly browned.

These are quite filling so we had ours with a nice fresh side salad. A lovely spring lunch!
Or consider serving 1 of the potato halves with some veg and grilled chicken or steak for dinner. Yummmy!!

Thanks Paula!! :)

Pan Fried Plaice with a Lemon & Wine Sauce, Served with Onion & Artichoke Rice

Once again I have made a dish that did not turn out quite as planned but this time I think turned out even better! I got those wonderful "mmmm" and "aaahh" sounds a cook always loves to hear when someone is eating their dish.


I read a handful of recipes for a lemony sauce to go with our fish for dinner but didn't write anything down beforehand. I just made it up as I went along. I added a tad too much lemon so my recipe below has adjusted this for you.
And I've used plaice fish but of course you can use any white fleshy fish (ie, cod, halibut, sole...)

(Feeds 2 people)
RICE:
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 large onion (chopped)
1/2 cup artichoke antipasto, without oil (chopped)
1 tbsp oil from artichoke jar
1/4 tsp salt

FISH:
2 plaice fillets
flour
sprinkles of salt
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil

SAUCE:
2 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs
1/2 tsp garlic powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

RICE -
- Cook rice as per instructions, but instead of using water you will be using the vegetable stock
- While rice is cooking saute onion in the artichoke oil until starting to brown a tiny bit (but not burning). Then add artichoke to the onion and lower the heat
(If rice is not yet cooked you can start preparing your fish with the flour, as per the first step below)
- Once rice is cooked add to the onion and artichoke mix and stir in with salt
- Transfer rice back to the pot which you cooked rice in and cover to keep warm

FISH -
- Cover each fillet with flour on both side and sprinkle each side of the fillets with salt
- Since Plaice fillets can be quite wide I cooked 1 fillet at a time...
- Melt 1 tbsp butter and heat tbsp oil together in a pan. Place a fillet in the pan and cook on each side for approximately 3 minutes, or until golden and cooked through
- Take rice from the pot and make a bed of rice on 2 plates
- Place fillet over top of bed of rice and keep warm at low tempurature in the oven
- Repeat process with 2nd fish fillet (keep both warm in the oven while you make your sauce)
- Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel as you will use this same pan for your sauce

SAUCE:
- Melt butter with oil in the pan on a low to medium heat. Sprinkle in half the flour and whisk with a fork, then stir in half the wine. Wait for liquid to reduce slightly then added remaining flour and whisk with fork again
- Stir in milk, the remaining wine, the lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs. Turn down heat and simmer until liquid has slightly reduced and sauce is smooth

- Take fish and rice out of the oven and spoon sauce over top of each dish


Yummy! Enjoy!

NOTE: From the ingredients and instructions of this meal it may seem time consuming but in fact it really isn't since many of the ingredients are repeated in each process. This meal took me about 30 minutes to prepare :)

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Being a Canadian I love anything with cheese, especially lovely oozing melted cheddar!
This is such an easy and super tasty side dish


(Feeds 4 people)
1 medium size head broccoli (stem cut off and florets separated)
1 medium size head cauliflower (stem cut out and florets separated)
1 cup milk
1 cup cubed strong (mature or vintage) Canadian cheddar
3 tbsp flour
2 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp dijon mustard (or 1/2 tsp mustard powder)
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
1 tsp paprika
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:
- Steam broccoli and cauliflower until al dente. You don't want them too soft or mushy. Put in a baking dish and keep aside

SAUCE:

A ROUX SAUCE FOR STARTERS.....
- Melt butter in a saucepan.
Keep temperature on a lower heat.
- Whisk in the flower until mixture turns into a ball (if a ball is not forming just add a tiny bit more flower)
- With a wooden spoon flatten ball and cook out the flower a bit (still on a lower heat).
- Turn up the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the milk until all is smooth (liquid will thicken with some time). Never allow sauce to boil or bubble

ADDING THE FLAVOUR FOR A CHEESY SAUCE.....
- Stir in the cheddar (reserve some for topping) and allow to melt in the white sauce, then add mustard
- Add nutmeg, chili flakes, paprika, stir
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Turn temperature back down between low and medium. Let sauce thicken.
Sauce is ready when it falls off the wooden spoon smoothly

- Pour cheese sauce over top of the broccoli and cauliflower and stir just a little bit, avoiding breaking the veggies more
- Bake in oven for approximately 25 min at Gas Mark 7 (425 F), or until cheesy top is golden (Top with the reserved cheddar for the last 10 min)


Serves great with any main of your choice, chicken, fish, or if you're a veggie it could serve nicely with stuffed aubergines or stuffed pepper

NOTE: Of course you can use any strong cheddar you want. Maybe it's all in my head and being a proud Canadian but I always seem to prefer the flavour that comes out of Canadian cheddar :)

Enjoy!