Grilled vegetables – love them, and this is one of my favorites – a little olive oil. balsamic vinegar and garlic and it is good to go on the grill.  Mmm

Favorite Grilled vegetable!

Ronald McDonald House and McHappy Day

I have been blessed, and had the good fortune not to have had a child hospitalized for any reason.  Unfortunately, not so many families are as lucky, but Ronald McDonald House provides  support and the much needed comfort of a home-away-from-home for out-of-town families with seriously ill children who are being treated at nearby children’s hospitals.

Wednesday May 2^nd, 2012 is McHappy Day, on that day Restaurant employees across Canada will be joined by local sports and media personalities, politicians, community leaders, and entertainers celebrating the 19^th annual McHappy  Day.

Along with being served your order by a  local celebrity,  one dollar from every Big Mac, Happy Meal, Coffee & Tea sold goes to local children’s charities across the country such as Ronald McDonald House in support of children and their families  in need.

McDonald’s Canada covers all of RMHC Canada’s administrative and operating costs, making it possible for 100 per cent of every directly donated dollar to go to Ronald McDonald Houses and their programs. For more information on RMHC Canada, visit: www.rmhc.ca.

So on May 2, 2012, I will be going in to support my local McDonald’s and purchasing a coffee since it one of the things I can have as it is gluten free. Please drop into your local McDonald’s and support McHappy Day, if you can’t  make it,  you can still support by  texting MCHAPPY to 30333 to make a $5 donation* to RMHC of Canada and by “Liking” McDonald’s Canada on Facebook

You an also follow McDonald’s Canada on Twitter.

Enjoy your #McHappyDay!

Have you discovered Pinterest?  This platform is the latest craze – it is amazing how fast it has caught on with everyone! If you haven’t heard of it, Pinterest is basically a virtual book marking site, but instead of having to search through topics, you get a seemingly never-ending visual display of boards from people you follow; I find that I can spend hours there and not realize it – there are so many wonderful things to see and pin!

The boards are visual explosions of food, clothing, books, and places to visit- the list is endless.  Just going through all the food boards makes me incredibly hungry!

If you aren’t craving something before you get on, you certainly will be in a short amount of time!

I also love some of the style boards around, makes putting together outfits so easy, I have even learned to 100 ways to wear a scarf as well as how to turn a t-shirt into a pretty cool looking vest! ! There are some amazing DIY boards, I spend a lot of time ‘surfing’ but having all this in one place makes it so easy, I come across things I would probably never thought of searching, but as I go through the boards, so many things catch my eye – makes it really  difficult for my ADD brain. So much stimulation!  But I love it!

Click on the pin, and if it has been pinned correctly from the source, you will be taken to the site so that you can get more information.

Lately, I have had an obsession with really funky treehouses- something I would never have thought to search for – seeing the visual pins made me want to see more, so now that is one of my new faves!

I truly believe that one of the developers had a secret passion for food and food photography, the food pins are so visually stimulating, you can’t help but want to pin them or click on them to follow them back to the original source, to get the recipe and try it out for yourself.  I am sure that they rank among the top topics pinned!

So many yummy things!

So intriguing and beautiul!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Happy Pinning!

Do you have a garden in the summer where you grow your own vegetables?  We try to have one every year, but sometimes our crop leaves a lot to be desired! Some years we have such an abundance that I have to give some out to almost anyone who comes to our door! Other years, like last year our garden has produced such a poor crop that I pray that it  will hold out to the beginning of Sept, let alone have any to roast or make into sundried tomatoes.

Over the years, we have changed what we plant depending on how well we did with the crop the year before.  One year we tried corn, the soil seemed fine,but it just wasn’t  nutritionally dense enough I guess, it didn’t even make it to a foot in height!   We were hoping to have a really good crop like we did one year when we were out inVancouver. I remember how lovely it was to be abe to go out to the garden and pick a couple of fresh ears of corn for dinner, and oh was it soo good!

I have always loved fresh, organically grown vegetables, and that is one of the reasons we persevere.  There is also something therapeutic about working the earth and getting it ready for the seedlings and nurturing it along until you get to enjoy ‘the fruit of your labours’. So, even though our romaine wasn’t as good as in previous years, our tomato plants were less than healthy and our basil …well lt’s just say we didn’t get much pesto made, we will still have a garden this year .  My husband is already busy planning it all out!

There is nothing better than being able to walk out to your garden and pick a couple of beautiful sun-warmed tomatoes, and a few leaves of romaine to have for dinner! Can’t wait!

Some of last year's crop.

This weekend, Both Easter and Passover will be celebrated, but no matter which holiday you celebrate, there are many traditions that come with both.

 Food is an integral part of those traditions, but whether you are serving matzo & matzo ball soup and brisket, lamb or ham; it is a wonderful gathering and a time to enjoy family.

 Everyone has special memories surrounding certain foods, and this helps solidify all the relationships we have with each other. Easter and Passover  help to reinforce that.

 At our house, we celebrate Easter.  As a young girl, I remember going to church on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday, but most of all, I remember all the food & all the family together.  We have slightly different traditions now as we integrate them with my husband’s family, but we still have the food and. the family get-together

One tradition that will never change is making sure everyone gets chocolate!  When our daughter was little, the Easter egg hunt was the highlight of the morning [it usually took all morning for her to find all the eggs] over the years, she has become much better & faster at  finding them [ or I became predictable ] . Even though she is a teen, she has asked for us to do that again this year, without the usual notes from the Easter Bunny. Well, we stopped that a few years ago… when we had to tell her that we were the Easter Bunny as well as Santa and the tooth fairy.

But at our house even the adults get chocolate – it is only fair! We just don’t have to go looking for it!  

Hope that whether you are celebrating Easter or Passover , you embrace and enjoy family [and the food].

I would be very happy with this! Image courtesy of Purdy's Chocolate

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Having that great warm spell for a while was wonderful, although a bit of a tease . It has started to cool down again, with some hail and even wet snow in some areas around here. Definitely not what I wanted to see after those glorious warm sunny days! I guess the cold weather figured that we hadn’t had enough of the chilly air. Well, I decided that I would I would ward off some of that cool chill with a wonderful vegetable stew and pull out the crock pot. The great thing about this is that when you walk into the house after a long day, you are hit with an incredible aroma that starts your mouth watering instantly (well, it does me). I love using my slow/crock cooker, It makes getting dinner ready some nights very easy. You can actually use them for all kinds of things. Some people have even made cakes in them, although I haven’t tried this yet.

Vegetable stew

I put this on low and let it cook for about 6 hours

1 lrg can of ground tomatoes

200 g of elbow pasta

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 cubes

1 Lg can of low sodium chick peas, rinsed and drained or 2 cups of cooked chick peas

1 cup of carrots cut in to 1/2 chunks

1/2 cup chopped red or green peppers

1/2 cup chopped green beans

Oregano, basil and garlic to season to taste

Add everything but beans and , let cook for 5 hours then add the beans and peppers for the last hour. I also add cinnamon to taste, just to add in some extra flavour  [I like the combination of garlc and cinnamon- quite interesting]. Once done to your liking, serve in bowls along side some french/italian bread . Really is that easy! Enjoy!

I added corn to this batch

Refreshing Salads

When it starts to warm up and we are all rushing home from various activities, the last thing I want to have to think about is what to make for dinner.  Being able to barbeque is always so convenient and fastand it is also something that everyone loves to have.  I always have homemade burgers done up in the freezer, so I just grab a few  of those and throw them on the barbecue, add a  salad and dinner is ready. Nice, refreshing salads  go along really well with anything!

This  is a recipe I have used for years, it is fast and quite good.  You can even adjust lemon etc to your taste.

Tabouleh Salad

 1/2 cup uncooked bulgur wheat

1 c. hot water [approx]

1 lg. tomato

3 green scallions

1 lg. bunch parsley

Juice of 1 sm. lemon

1/4 – 1/2 c. olive oil

 sprinkle of mint

 salt & pepper to taste

Pour enough hot water on the bulgur wheat to cover and let stand approx 15 minutes.  Dice tomatoes, chop scallions and parsley very fine. Mix all together in a large bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt , pepper and mint. Drain excess water from wheat and add  into the mixture and mix well.  You can serve on lettuce leaves alongside the burgers . Enjoy!

 This is a  gluten free version of Tabouleh                

Barbeque Season

I love food – each season always seems to bring specific foods with it.

Spring seems to have pretty much arrived and along with it, barbeque season. Everyone has started to pull out the Barbeque and dust it off  for the upcoming summer season.  There is nothing [well at least to me] that smells better than something being grilled on the  barbecue.

Some people like to just throw the meat on the Barbeque, others prepare elaborate marinades and sauces for whatever they are throwing on the grill. It depends on what I am going to grill as to what I put on it.  Personally,  I like a steak as is; meaning I don’t really think that it is necessary to add anything to it – I like the taste of  the meat itself with out having to enhance it.  Although, certain marinades can make lesser cuts of meat much more palatable.

The great thing about cooking on the Barbeque is that you can cook so much more than meat!  I cook fries, pizza, polenta, grilled vegetables. I have even made a casserole on the grill.

We also have a side burner – funny thing is, I never actually used it until this past summer,  I always put everything over the grill.  It does allow you to do so much more!

What is your favorite dish to make on the BBQ?

I will be posting on this blog weekly, but  you can also come on over to my other blog http://www.beingglutenfree.ca, where I post gluten free recipes and check that out.

Happy grilling!

The most-used cookbook in my house?  Bisquick Impossibly Easy Pies.  Have you ever done these?  Talk about simple!  You throw all of your ingredients into a pie plate, pour the Bisquick mixture over everything, and bake.  When you pull the concoction out of the oven, the Bisquick “crust” has formed under and over the ingredients, creating a pie.  My kids will eat almost anything I make this way, especially if I give it a funny name to disguise what’s really in there.  In our regular rotation is Cheeseburger Pie and “Piggy Pie” (so-called because it’s made with ham, but they think I call it that because they can’t get enough of it).

So here’s my plan for all those Thanksgiving leftovers hanging out in the fridge:

TURKEY & STUFFING PIE
2 c. leftover turkey, cut up small
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 c. leftover bread stuffing
1/4 c. thinly sliced green onions
1/2 c. cooked green peas
1/2 c. Original Bisquick mix
1 c. milk
2 eggs
Leftover turkey gravy

Heat oven to 400.  Spray 9″ pie plate with cooking spray.  Spread turkey in pie plate, and sprinkle with seasoned salt.  Break stuffing into small pieces, and layer over turkey.  Top with onions and peas (in our case, I’m substituting corn for peas, because that’s what we have leftover).  Combine Bisquick mix, milk and eggs until well blended, and pour over mixture in pie plate.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let stand 5 minutes, and serve with gravy if desired.

There are tons more Bisquick recipes on the website.  Have fun!

My son turned 11 earlier this month, and we had the family over for a little pizza party.  We had made pumpkin cookies earlier in the week and still had a half can of pumpkin puree in the fridge, so we tried out this little libation:

PUMPKIN PIE PUNCH

1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz.)
1 c. packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 gallon apple cider
2 liters cold ginger ale

Whisk together pumpkin & spices, adding the cider and continuing to whisk until ingredients are smooth and sugar is completely dissolved.  Chill until ready to serve.  When ready, transfer to punch bowl and stir in ginger ale.  Serve over ice.

The above recipe is the kids’ version.  When serving adults, we added in an extra-special, grown-up ingredient:  a healthy splash of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum!  Oh man, was it good!

We’ve already decided that next time we will further customize our Pumpkin Pie Punch by hunting down some cinnamon ice cream for floats.