Nice weather we're having...

I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada which means I expect my winter to start in November and go until at least April. This year that has not happened. It is March 19th and I am currently in my room with all the windows open because it's so nice out. With this nice weather obviously comes patio season which I love. I also have a great enclosed porch on my house that we often have dinner in.

I was looking through my pictures and came across one that really made me feel like eating outside in a field in the country somewhere. I also made me want to actually go on picnics this summer.

Give me some ideas on food that is perfect for picnics or any kind of outdoor dining.

Marielle

Mobile Uploads

I am a huge fan of Facebook and often like to look at my friends pictures that they send from their phones. I find most of these pictures are either of cats or of food. Well at least in my case they are. So I decided today to share the pictures I've sent to Facebook from my phone.

 This is a sandwich I made one night with leftover steak, onions and avocado.

 When I worked at a local restaurant called Fude they had a pork tenderloin with rhubarb chutney. It was fantastic!

 This is also from Fude. It's a steak with blue cheese sauce and red wine onions on top.

 I have a student from Korea living with me and she needed to make cupcakes for her school so we did some cute little heart designs on them.

 For dessert one night we made meringues, cut them in half and put whipped cream and strawberries in them. It was pretty simple and tasted great!

 I have this old Japanese cook book which I like to dip into from time to time. The other night for dinner I decided to make a sunomono salad and domburi. It was so easy and tasted great!

 I have a really odd eating schedule. I usually snack a lot and have two dinners haha Here is one of my dinners. A simple salad, corn on the cob and a fried egg sandwich.

 Another one of my snacks.

 This is a "paella" that I made from a Tyler Florence cook book... I'm not sure I'd agree that it's a paella but it was still good!

 This is my go to meal when I don't really have anything in the house to eat. I use what ever kind of pasta I have around but this one looks the best I think. I also use any vegetables I have but usually I like to use zucchini, mushrooms, carrots and onions. I cook the vegetables with garlic and then I add about a teaspoon of red curry paste and a bunch of peanut butter. Then I toss in the noodles and mix it up. I garnished it with green onions and sesame seeds this time but I don't usually garnish if I'm just eating at home.

 This is a sandwich I made one night with steak, onions and melted cheese on top.

 I live with three other people and we often like to make meals and enjoy them together. On this night we decided to all make our own pizza's. This is the one I made for myself. Everything on there is peso sauce, tomatoes, asparagus, goat cheese and a bit of salt and pepper. YUM!

 I went through a phase where I LOVED eating salads. Not because they're healthy but just because they're so good! This salad was made of a bunch of left overs I had in the fridge. Carrots, corn and beets.

 This is probably one of my favorite salads. My auntie Maureen made it once and we've been making it ever since. The original salad has blue cheese, toasted almonds and apples with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. I didn't have all the right ingredients so I used blue cheese, apples, toasted pumpkin seeds and I even added mint to it which proved to make it even more amazing then it already was.

There is a restaurant in Toronto that my uncle Chris always takes me to when I'm in town that makes stuffed french toast. I decided to try it out. I put cream cheese and strawberries in them and we happened to have clotted cream so I put some on top. This is clearly not a low fat meal.

This is my cat Gravy! What a cutie!

Do any of you post pictures of your food on Facebook? If you don't, you should!

Marielle

SUSHI!

When I was 18 I got the opportunity to work at a really great Japanese restaurant in Winnipeg. I started off by making sushi boxes for local grocery stores and then graduated to working sushi bar at one of their two locations. It was a great experience and I learnt a lot.

I make sushi for my family or friends at least once a month and I have also made platters for family parties and for friends as well. Here are some pictures of what I've done.

 Photo reprinted with permission from Danielle Gzebb

 Photo reprinted with permission from Danielle Gzebb

 Photo reprinted with permission from Danielle Gzebb

 Me hard at work when I was a sushi chef. Photo by my auntie Sandy

This is a roll that I always do at home. It's cheap, easy and tastes great. Yam, cucumber and avocado.

I often use vegetables for my sushi because you don't have to make a special trip to get sushi grade fish every time you want to make sushi. Here are some fillings that I often use:

-Yam, cucumber and avocado

-Beets and cream cheese

-Asparagus with goma ea sauce(sweet sesame sauce)and thinly sliced seared beef on top

-Grilled peppers and zucchini

Sometimes when I have a bunch of stuff I put anything I think will taste good but the ones I listed are the most popular and they're very easy to do. Do you have any favorite fillings you like to use? Let me know and I'll try them out!

Marielle

Mmmm birds!

On one of my days off I decided to put on the Food Network and watch Chucks Day Off. Chuck Hughes is my future husband. Not really. I wish. The episode I watched was great because he was cooking for his kitchen staff. One thing I know is that if I'm making something for my kitchen staff, I want to make it amazing. So Chuck being his bad self decided to make TURDUCKEN! This is something I've only ever talked about making and dreamed about.

When I worked at a local restaurant we would have Christmas potlucks so I decided one year to make The Legendary Turducken. A turkey, with a duck in it and a chicken in that duck. I called Miller's Meat Market and ordered all three birds deboned. It was just a little over $100 which I think is pretty decent. 

I didn't follow the recipe exactly but I never do. I do have to stress that you should use the cornbread stuffing. It made everything so much more amazing. We didn't use the oysters and instead of Morteau sausage we used some elk sausage we had on hand. 

Here are some pictures of us putting the bird together. 

 The birds laid out and the fixings for our stuffing portioned and ready to go.

Adding a layer of cornbread stuffing between each layer of bird.

Stitching up the final product is a two person job.

Me being proud of my master piece.

The finished product!
All photos taken by Helena Nicholson

I suggest everyone try making a turducken at least once in their life. It is something you can clearly blog about.

Marielle

Happy birthday!

Around this time of year more than 5 people in my family celebrate their birthdays. My grandparents, two aunties, an uncle, my mom and my sister. Which made me think about my birthday(July 16th)and what I love the most about it... getting to eat all my favorite foods.
It's always hard answering a question like "what is your favorite kind of food" but I have decided to take on this question as best as I can! Here it goes...

Beets: This is like the candy of root vegetables for me. When I make sushi at home I love to put it in a roll with cream cheese. I got the idea from my favorite local restaurant Wasabi. I also put it in salads and of course, borscht.

Pasta: I found a pasta machine in my basement one day and went nuts making home made pasta one. It's an easy and fun activity to do with your friends. Depending on how much you make, it is a two person job.

Corn: The one thing I look forward to the most in summer is making corn on the cob. I found this great idea on the internet one day where you soak the corn for 15min in water, shuck it back a little, brush on garlic butter and then put the leaves back and throw it on the BBQ. Sounds amazing right? It really was!

Bread and eggs: I know this sounds so simple and basic but making an egg in a basket is probably my go to meal when I have nothing else to eat at home. We've been making a lot of bacon recently so I keep the bacon fat and brush it on one side of my bread before putting it in the pan. Probably the best idea I've come up with in a long time. This picture is actually my own. I used a shot glass to make the perfect circles.

Bison: Bison meat isn't easy to get everywhere but we do have it in Manitoba. It's more expensive but well worth  the money. Fude had(has?) a great bacon wrapped stuffed bison with maple BBQ sauce. I have dreams about this meat.

I realize I could probably get carried away with this so I will stop myself here. What are your favorite foods? What do you CRAVE?!

Marielle

PS. This food gives me....