Garfield's Favorite Food

The weather has turned cold and windy and snowy so I've been making good, hearty dishes that will keep us warm. Today's post is lacking a photo of the finished product since I was pressed for time and couldn't get a piece out without making a mess everywhere. But there are photos of Garfield's favorite food being made. I'll also note that I used boxed lasagna noodles this time, but I usually make it from my own homemade pasta.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground turkey

1 pound spicy sausage meat

1/2 medium-sized onion, diced

1 can (28 fl oz) crushed tomatoes

1 can (5.5 fl oz) tomato paste

1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

6 strips of lasagna noodles

1 ball of mozzarella cheese, finely sliced or grated

STEPS

• If using boxed noodles, boil water and pour it over the noodles to soften. If using fresh pasta, skip this step.
• In a skillet, cook the ground turkey, sausage meat and onions together over medium heat. Once the meat has browned, drain off the excess liquid.
• Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and basil and mix in well. Allow it to simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• To assemble lasagna, cover the bottom of a casserole dish with a very thin layer of sauce to prevent the noodles from sticking. Then place 3 strips of the pasta on top of the sauce.

• Then cover the pasta with half of the meat sauce.

• Cover the meat sauce with the cheese slices or grated cheese.
• Then cover the cheese layer with another layer of pasta followed by meat sauce and topped with cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until cheese has melted and the lasagna is bubbly.

Stuffed Pork Rib Roast

Ever get tired of eating the same kind of food over and over and over again? That's how we've been feeling lately since we've been having to eat meals that are quick and easy to prepare. We finally had a bit of time on our side and thought we'd try something a little different. We browsed the shelves at the grocery store and finally decided that we would make our own recipe. We chose to make a pork roast, marinated and stuffed with delicious flavors and roasted to perfection. Here's the recipe that we created together:

INGREDIENTS

1 2-pound pork rib roast

Marinade

3/4 cup white wine (you can use red if you prefer it)

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons peri peri rub (you can use any spicy rub that you have on hand)

Stuffing

1/2 pound spicy sausage meat

2 tablespoons diced onion

1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped (you can substitute 1 teaspoon dried sage)

1/2 Granny Smith apple, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

(In retrospect, it would've been good to add a slice or two of bread to the stuffing. Just chop it up finely and toss it in.)

Here's Riley making sure that I have the right ingredients for the marinade.

These are the ingredients for the stuffing.

STEPS

• In a large plastic zipper bag (like Ziploc), pour the wine, olive oil and spice rub in and swish it around to combine. Then put the pork roast in and massage it to help the marinade penetrate. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight if you can, turning once or twice to ensure that it is evenly marinaded.
• In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients for the stuffing. If you don't add the bread, it will look like the picture below, but I highly recommend adding the bread otherwise you'll end up with a big clump of meat inside the roast. It still tastes good, but the texture isn't quite right for a stuffing.

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• With a sharp, pointed knife, carefully make an incision in the centre of the roast to make a pocket to fit the stuffing.
• Insert the stuffing into the pork roast, packing it tightly. Place the pork on top of a rack inside a roasting pan. Cook in the preheated oven for approximately 1 1/2 hours or until internal temperature is 160 degrees F.
• When the roast is cooked, remove it from the oven and cover with foil for 10 to 15 minutes. This will make the meat even juicier. Then slice and serve with roasted vegetables, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes or a salad!
  

Spicy Hummus

I really enjoy eating dips, but I didn't want to make another one with sour cream and mayonnaise so I decided to make a hummus. Here's my version with a little kick to it since I like everything spicy!

**Sorry, for some reason, blogspot decided to do weird things to my photos, so the lemon got cut out of this photo. 

INGREDIENTS

1 can chick peas

1 roasted red pepper

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons sesame oil (add 1 first, if it's not enough, add another)

1 chipotle pepper (I used 3 because I like it spicy)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 to 1/2 cup water (only if needed to get food processor or blender to whip everything together smoothly)

STEPS

• Toss everything into a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Serve with bread, pitas, veggies or chips.

Orange Blueberry Muffins

Now that we're a few days into 2009, it means that we need to get back into the swing of things. For us, that means going back to work, thinking about what we can pack for breakfast and lunch and what we can put together quickly for dinner. Muffins have always been a great solution for a breakfast that you can pack up and eat at the office, but I haven't yet been able to find a recipe that I like. Instead of searching, I decided to try my own creation: Orange Blueberry Muffins.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

zest of 1 orange

juice of 1 orange

2/3 cup sour cream (I use fat free)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

STEPS

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• In a large bowl or a mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Then add the eggs, orange zest and orange juice. Blend until well mixed, then add the sour cream and vanilla extract and mix in thoroughly.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg together. Then fold it in to the wet mixture until just combined. Then stir in the blueberries. Do not overmix.
• Pour into a greased muffin tray or a tray lined with paper muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 22 minutes. Makes 12 standard sized muffins.

**Result: A really light, fluffy and tasty muffin. It has a nice, crispy outside and a very soft inside. There's just enough orange flavour that balances nicely with the blueberries. This is a winner! In the future, I'll modify the recipe to make different kinds of muffins like lemon cranberry, apple cinnamon or even carrot muffins.

Lobster Dinner!

Lobster is one of my favourite things to eat but I only get to eat it a few times when we visit Mike's family because they're not very fresh where we are and they're ridiculously expensive. Well, our local grocery store had them on sale for a very reasonable price and they just received a huge shipment in from Nova Scotia the day we went to get them, so it doesn't get much fresher than that (here anyway). So, we indulged a bit...

There's no need to be afraid of lobsters. If you pick them up by the center of the body and hold on tight, they can't get you. They're also very easy to cook. The trickiest part about them is eating them without getting too messy, but don't worry too much about that. Clothes can be put in the washing machine, kitchens can be wiped down and, well, you can have a shower! There are many different ways to cook a lobster, but we boil ours, so the following recipe will explain how to boil a lobster.

Lobster

INGREDIENTS

2 lobsters (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds each) - The smaller the lobster, the sweeter and tastier the meat will be

STEPS

• Half fill a large pot with hot water and bring it to a boil on the stove. Once boiling, put the lobsters directly into the water being careful not to splash hot water on yourself.

• Place the lid back on top of the pot . Once the water returns to a boil, allow the lobsters to cook for another 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the meal. In our case, we set the table, make a salad and pour some beer :)
• Oh, we also make garlic butter. In a small bowl (per person), mince a clove of garlic, add 1 tablespoon of butter and microwave until the butter has melted.

• While we patiently wait for the lobsters to cook, the kitties also wait patiently. They know that they always get a little treat when we have lobster. Generally just a few scraps of claw or knuckle meat. They love it!

• When the lobsters are cooked, they will turn bright orange.

• Carefully remove them from the pot using a slotted spoon and place them on a plate.

• Using kitchen scissors, cut off the elastic bands that are holding the pincers shut. Then flip the lobster on its back and insert the tip of the scissors into the thin shell just below the tail fins. Cut the shell all the way up to the belly to make it easier to remove the tail meat.

• Then, flip them back over and get out the crackers, tear those bad boys apart and dip the meat into the garlic butter. Don't forget to put lots of paper towel on the table. You're going to need it!
• Oh, and don't forget to call the kitties for their share!

• Note, this recipe can be adjusted for more lobsters. You can easily do 4 lobsters in a large pot but you may need to add a bit more water. Cooking time remains the same.

Holiday Feasting!

We're back from spending a good part of the holiday season with family in the Maritimes. What did we do? Well, we did some cross country skiing, enjoyed each other's company, played lots of games and, of course, we ate a lot food!

Here's some of the food that we enjoyed for our Christmas dinner. The wonderful, organic turkey was done by my father-in-law. He also made the stuffing which is a recipe that came from my side of the family. My mother-in-law made the cranberry sauce. It's the best cranberry sauce I've had and I'm still trying to get her to give me the recipe! Maybe if we ask her nicely, she'll provide a guest post for us all...hint** hint**

Here's a picture of the scrumptious stuffing that I talked about earlier. The recipe will follow...

The rest of Christmas dinner involved some sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes along with some really tasty gravy. Mmmm!

And, of course, who can forget dessert?!

This wonderful yule log came from Gourmandises Avenue in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia.

They make fantastic, professional French pastries and chocolates. They also do wedding cakes.

It was a chocolate yule log with a raspberry filling and it was absolutely delicious.

Great food, great family...that's what the holiday season is all about.

Oh, and it's not over yet...this week, we visit my family.

Now, as promised, here's the stuffing recipe:

Turkey Stuffing

INGREDIENTS

1 loaf French or Italian bread, chopped

2 cups mashed potatoes

1 package (500 grams) sausage meat (we use Maple Leaf uncooked sausage meat)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1 large onion, diced

1 teaspoon dried thyme (if using fresh thyme, use about 1 tablespoon or the leaves of 6 sprigs)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

STEPS

• Place all ingredients into a very large bowl and mix together with hands until well blended. Insert stuffing into the neck cavity and the chest cavity of the bird. Extra stuffing may be baked in a casserole dish while the turkey is cooking.

Merry Christmas!

Alright, I know I said I was going to take a break for a few days, but I just couldn't resist this one. After this, I promise, it will be a few days until I post again.

This is my gingerbread Christmas tree. Make sure you have some time on your hands before you make this. It takes a little while to put it all together, but it's well worth the time and it's a lot of fun.

Gingerbread Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg yolk (reserve the white for icing)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

STEPS

• In a mixer bowl or a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Then stir in the molasses and egg yolk.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Slowly fold it into the butter mixture in three batches. Mix until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into stars using cookie cutters. You will need different sized cookie cutters. Cut two cookies of each size. Place cookies two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Try to put similar sized cookies on the sheet so that they bake evenly.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the sheet for a minute or two before removing to a wire rack. Decorate when completely cool.

Royal Icing

INGREDIENTS

2 egg whites

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (you can substitute vanilla extract or lemon extract)

STEPS

• Whip egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl until foamy. Gradually add the sugar and almond extract. Beat on high until thickened. Icing is ready when it forms stiff peaks. Keep covered if not in use, otherwise it will dry out and harden.

Assembly

• In a separate bowl, add a few drops of yellow food colouring to a spoonful of icing. Use this to cover the smallest star.
• Reserve about 1/4 cup of the icing for use as snow. Keep covered.
• Add green food colouring to the rest of the icing until it has reached the desired shade of green. Cover the remaining cookies with the icing and allow it to dry and harden.
• Once the cookies have been frosted, starting with the largest star, place a dab of icing in the centre and stack the next cookie on top so that the points of the top star are over the spaces of the bottom star. Continue until all green cookies are stacked.
• Using the green icing, place 2 small dabs of icing on top of the top-most cookie to secure the yellow star on top, standing up. (See photo)
• Using the white icing, drizzle icing on the tips of each star, adding a mini M&M candy to the top of the drizzle as an ornament.
• Allow to fully dry before transporting or eating.