Once a month D, Sister #3 and I host an evening at our house where the Moms and Dads of babies, toddlers and young kids get to have a break and spend the evening with adults. They often look a bit harried as they arrive at our place with kids in tow. The number of kids range from two to four per family and when we have a full house there are ten adults and fourteen kids. We hustle the small fry into the dining room and we put down a quick supper. I say quick because the kids are always raring to get downstairs for a play with their buddies. In the mean time the adults fix a plate and head to the living room and tuck in at a more leisurely pace.

I try my best to fix a meal which will be pleasing to both children and adults and sometimes one group takes precedent over the other. But tonight I think that I may have a winner: Texan Pulled Pork with broccoli & kale slaw, ciabatta buns and one bite brownies for dessert.

I posted this picture on Instagram and have had a couple of requests for the recipe so here goes:

Kath’s quote:“Pulled pork jokes never get old”. -Joel Edgerton

Love never fails.

 

 

Even though D and I are empty-nesters, I still remember a time when this last week of summer holidays was so stressful. Not only were we running around purchasing jeans, sneakers and ballet tights, but I was dreading lunch making, let alone nutritious dinners. I would have loved a guide like the one the Wal-Mart has put out. The link is here.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of shopping, prepping and food styling for Katie the editor of Living Well magazine and the spokesperson for Wal-Mart when she touched-down in Winnipeg for appearances at both Global and CTV.

In both of these cases lunch and dinner can be prepped at the same time: deconstructed nachos & baked enchiladas and bacon salad & bacon & tomato wraps.

With the third recipe you get three meals-Hawaiian pizza, lunch kebabs and pineapple & granola yoghurt. There are even more recipes at the link above.

I truly wish that time did not march by so quickly. Next week the Wee One starts nursery school!

Kath’s quote: “Fussing over food was important. It gave a shape to the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner; beginning, middle, end.”  ― Robert Hellenga

Love never fails.

 

 

Our honourable hosts

Each year at approximately the same time, we join good friends from Toronto at the lake house that they retain at Willard lake. Designating a theme for each weekend we are together, happened quite by accident but has been one of the highlights of our time together. We were lucky this time as BIL David had gifted me with a real kimono when he traveled around the world a number of years back. D was able to find a judo uniform at Value Village so we were all set.

Saki Mojito Cocktails were served as we were perched on the floor.

This was after the entrance of another guest (check out the beard!)

We were assigned to the appetizer and dessert and D had done a dry run the weekend before so we would have a sense of timing and recipe difficulty. The recipe for Korean shrimp and green onion pancakes was suggested by Sister #3 who had a Korean student live with her for a year (recipe below).

Dinner stretched into the evening with prepping together and visiting our host as he barbequed double-boned pork chops that had been marinating all day.

The pancakes were a novelty and a big hit.

Next up was a simple salad of cellophane noodles and slivers or cucumber.

Our entree was the hearty pork chops, caramelized onions and roasted sweet potato halves.

We let ourselves rest a bit before we were in the kitchen again on dessert duty, preparing a Vietnamese dessert of battered and fried bananas with a sweet coconut milk dipping sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

The evening and rest of the weekend was picture perfect. We recounted our joys and sorrows of the year since we had last been together. Then we toasted the time together, the time past and the time ahead.

Kath’s quote: “They talked in the shorthand of old friends and shared memories.”
― Dee Henderson, Before I Wake    

 

As we opened fortune cookies over the weekend, they were taped to these antlers to be a permanent record of our time together.

Love never fails.

 

 

 

 

 

Pollo al Mattone is a method for grilling chicken under a brick to keep it juicy and crisp. Both the Tuscans and the Romans claim to have invented the method. The weight of the brick presses the meat into the grill for faster, more even cooking. It also works as a cover for the meat, keeping it moist. In Italy, pollo al mattone is often cooked over a wood fire.

I enjoyed this dish twice in one week. The first was the evening of my Mom’s Celebration of Life. I had driven back out to the lake from the city. Girlfriends of 35 years were staying with me that week. Nance handed me a glass of wine and Mary pulled the chicken off the grill to sit. What would I do without my friends?

Later that same week with Beep, Boo and the Frenchman joining us on the weekend, D tried his hand at the same recipe.

We had assembled in the gazebo as it looked as if it might rain. When the sky darkened we had to light candles to illuminate our meal. We didn’t mind a bit.

This was the finished product: chicken and ribs, new potatoes, squash and zucchini. Delicious food, cozy spot, good wine and family. Life is good.

Kath’s quote: “You know when you come across one of those empty shell people, and you think “What the hell happened to you?” Well there came a time in each one of those lives where they are standing at a crossroads… someplace where they had to decide whether to turn left or right. This is no time to be a chicken-shit, Frances“. -Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun

Love never fails.

 

Veg -centric dishes are often my choice when we dine at Winnipeg’s trendiest restaurants-Pizzeria Gusto, The Merchant Kitchen, Deer + Almond, Segovia and Enoteca.  These are dishes that focus on flavour. Being meatless is secondary. Proteins are still included, but they’re more of a flavour enhancer. We spotted many such dishes on Scott Bagshaw’s Enoteca menu and finally decided upon the Roasted Cauliflower utilizing “cave aged” gruyere to intensify the taste. Panade added moisture, rough cut almonds provided crunch, orange segments the acidity and capers the saltiness.

We’ve included more veg-centric dishes in our own repertoire at home so recently when Carly Peters the editor of Local Fare Magazine (published on behalf of the Manitoba Restaurant Association) contacted me to see if I had any cauliflower recipes in my repertoire, the answer was an immediate “yes”.

Our son and his wife (known as J1 and J2 in this space), were the first to introduce us to Buffalo Florets. We were all up at the beach house and they were on dinner duty. They served roasted cauliflower that had been tossed in Frank’s Hot Sauce and then roasted again, as an appetizer course. Loving Buffalo wings but not the calories and fat, we got a kick out of this alternate. When Carly and her photographer arrived to photograph this dish, I had prepared carrots and celery sticks to dip into blue cheese dressing to offset the fieriness of the hot sauce.

Curried Cauliflower is a take off on one of our families’ favourite casseroles-The Best of Bridge’s Classy Chicken. A mixture of mayonnaise, lemon juice, cheese and curry powder smothers a crown of cauliflower and then buttered panko flakes add some crunch.

Cauliflower Steaks were reminiscent of a classic Sicilian dish that we enjoyed while visiting friends in Castellammare del Golfo, near Palermo.

These recipes will be published in an upcoming edition, but if you would like a sneak peak at them, leave  a comment here.

Kath’s quote: “Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”-Mark Twain

Love never fails.