Yummy Food Recap - Vol. XIII

It's been a few weeks and it's time again for the thirteenth volume of Yummy Food Recap!  I remember when blogging used to be a big pain in the butt for me, but now it's more of a pleasure, I really look forward to it!  I'm trying out bigger pictures this time around, please give me your feedback on how it looks, and if you liked the smaller pictures more.  On that note: let's hop to it!:

Executive Summary:

Thursday, April 7^th – Montana’s (see Feature Restaurant entry)

Friday, April 8^th – Chicken with Wine

Saturday, April 9^th – Gander Trip: BBQ Burgers and Sausages

Sunday, April 10^th – Gander Trip: BBQ Salmon and Spanish Coffees

Tuesday, April 12^th – Breakfast on a Montreal Bagel

Wednesday, April 13^th – Salads and Hot Dogs

Thursday, April 14^th – Roast Supper

Friday, April 15^th – Salmon Two Ways

Saturday, April 16^th – McDonald's!

Sunday, April 17^th – Tortilla Soup and Stuffed Mushrooms

Monday, April 18^th – Pizza and Empanadas (see Feature Recipe entry)

Tuesday, April 19^th – Pork Burritos and Rice Krispie Squares

Wednesday, April 20^th – BBQ Steak

Thursday, April 21^st – Portabella Stirfry

Friday, April 22^nd – Good Friday!

Saturday, April 23^rd – Bridal Shower!

Sunday, April 24^th -  Happy Easter!

Friday, April 8^th

This meal gets special mention, because it’s one of the first meals my sister and I have made together.  I invited Emily over to help us cook supper because we had some extra chicken for a Rachel Ray recipe we wanted to make – Chicken with Wine.  I had my little brother over the previous weekend so I thought it would be nice to have her over for some Ashley and Josh time, too.  The recipe was simple enough, and can be found on Rachel Ray’s website here.  We surprised ourselves with how easy it was and how delicious it looked, smelled and of course tasted. 

The ingredients

Emily doing prep

It smelled so good!

Wow yum!  Thanks Rachael Ray!

Saturday, April 9^th

The next day we took a last minute drive to Gander for the weekend to visit Josh’s parents.  I love visiting Gander, I always have a great time and it’s so relaxing ... not to mention all the yummy food!  We had our usual sandwich for lunch when we arrived which is something I really enjoy because they usually have mayo and lettuce and tomato – which we don’t normally have with our sandwiches.  Then for supper we sat down to a BBQ of burgers, sausages, and salad.  The burgers were crusted with peppercorns and we used Presidents Choice Steak Sauce on them – my God they were so good!

Thanks Sheila!

Sunday, April 10^th

The next day, Josh’s Dad BBQ’d salmon for us with maple syrup they brought back from their trip to Montreal a few weeks beforehand.  It was some of the best salmon I’ve ever had.  We brought some Beer bread to Gander with us and Sheila made some of the best Garlic bread on it that I’ve ever had.  That paired with her delicious mashed potatoes we always have, grilled vegetables and a skewer of sweet Thai chilli shrimp and we had the best seafood grill ever!

Grilled Veg and Shrimp anyone?

Before...

...After!

Tuesday, April 12^th

We ended up scoring a lot of tasty food from the Abbott’s to bring home with us, which we always enjoy!  This time we received some wine, maple syrup and maple butter, pork tenderloin, steaks, chips and dip and ... Bagels from Montreal!  The very same kind that we enjoyed at Cafe Depot when we took our trip there last November – we were so excited that the first thing we did the morning after we got back from Gander was to try and replicate the tasty breakfast sandwich from Montreal on our bagels.

I miss Montreal

Wednesday, April 13^th

Taking a break from the rich food we’d been eating over the past few days, Josh and I decided that we’d make Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad sandwiches respectably for lunch that day.  I opted to eat mine on Melba rounds instead of bread.  For supper we were in the mood for something fast and easy, so we grilled up some hotdogs – YUM!

Tuna salad sandwich

Chicken salad on Melba rounds

Josh took this one, that's why it is mostly a coaster :)

Thursday, April 14^th

We wanted to make some room in our freezer so we took down a pot roast to have with some veggies.  I mixed in some jalapeno Philadelphia cream cheese dip with my mashed potato and just boiled the carrots.  Turnip is a favourite of both mine and Josh’s so that was a must. And my absolute favourite part of the meal would have to be the dressing.  When I was a kid, it was the only thing I ate with turkey or roast when Mom cooked Sunday dinner.  I do it differently than she does though.  Instead of Mount Scio savoury I use ground sage, and in addition to onions (the only other ingredient my Mom uses) I usually add dried cranberries, fresh ground black pepper, and crushed nuts (cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds and brazil nuts).

Pot Roast

Friday, April 15^th

Missing salmon from our trip to Gander, we picked up some to make ourselves.  I seasoned one fillet of the salmon with a seafood seasoning my old boss brought back from Hawaii for me – Thanks Wilma!  The other fillet was seasoned with a glaze made from maple syrup, soya sauce, and garlic – amazing!   We ate them on top of basmati rice with red and yellow peppers.

Hawaiian Spiced on the left, Maple Soya Sauce Garlic on the right

Saturday, April 16^th

McDonald’s was promoting their new 1/3 pound Angus burgers with a sale so we decided that McDonald’s was our choice for supper that day.  Josh had a Bacon Cheeseburger 1/3 lb Angus burger and I had a crispy south-western chicken sandwich.

Mmm, I love some me some greasy McD's

Sunday, April 17^th

We used another of our Epicure meal seasoning packs to make tortilla soup, which we enjoyed with a side of taquitos (which we ended up dipping in the soup!).  The soup mix had black beans, corn and assorted seasonings in it.  All we needed to add was a can of crushed tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes; it was very yummy but was even yummier the next day when we had some leftover soup for lunch.  Later that day we watched an episode of The F Word about Gordon’s top 10 recipes, after which we were really hungry from seeing all of that great food.  So I scraped together various yummy looking things and made stuffed mushrooms:  bacon, button mushrooms, chopped spinach, scotch bonnet hot peppers, cheese, and onion.

I really liked dipping the tacquitos into the soup!

Stuffed Mushroom Heaven

Monday, April 18^th

A recipe we picked out to make for supper was from Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” cookbook:  Pork Empanadas (see Feature Recipe for more).  They took so long to make that Josh and I were getting hungry, so we used one of the little dough rounds to make a mini pizza.  It was fun and silly and surprisingly delicious! 

Mini pizza on homemade dough that we baked in a small frying pan in the oven

Wow, so cute and tiny!

Me digging into my slice of pizza, it was actually really tasty!

Wednesday, April 20^th

It was a great day for grilling on April 20^th, so we fired up our crappy little BBQ grill for some steaks.  They were gigantic!  A little keg seasoning and some prime steak seasoning from Hawaii and they were ready to go.  We ate them with an alfredo sidekick, honey chipotle carrots with corn, and caramelized onions and mushrooms.  We enjoyed this amazing meal with a Corona with lime each 

Mammoth Steaks

We had to cut them off the bone to fit the sides on the same plate

Thursday, April 21^st

Another meal we had on our menu for the week was a portabella mushroom stir-fry.  We used 4 mushrooms, corn, carrot, celery, green pepper, and Brussels sprouts and ate the stir-fry on basmati rice.  I seasoned it with some soya sauce, honey garlic VH sauce, and some Asian 5-Spice seasoning from Epicure.

Veggie stir-fry

Friday, April 22^nd

Religious holidays always give us the best excuses to eat a lot of food (I’m thinking of Christmas here!), and Good Friday is no different.  We had supper at my Mom’s house, which consisted of fish and chips takeout from The Big “R” on Blackmarsh Road.  I had an omelette for lunch which was delicious.  I used hash browns, cheese, green pepper and pickled jalapenos.  See the Guest Blog tab for Josh’s take on his fishy delights from that day...

Omelette

 

That night I had my friend over to help me make a Bridal Shower cake for the wedding we are both standing in this summer.  I was really nervous so we bought some candies, cracked open some Chardonnay and got to work.  The end result was great, despite my freak-out about half way through that Krista pulled me out of :)

I baked the cakes the night before - French Vanilla flavor and Butter Pecan flavor

 

Steph's Bridal Shower Cake

Side View

Saturday, April 23^rd

This past Saturday I enjoyed a day filled with friends and food, two of my favourite things!  I was responsible for bringing wings, which I bought at Sobey’s in the Deli department.  They were fully cooked and breaded, and tasted a lot like Mary Brown’s chicken – YUM!  I ate a lot of them that day.  I additionally stuffed myself with salami, pepperoni and cheese from a platter, tonnes of cake, and lots of nachos.  I didn’t really have any meals that day, just a lot of food! 

Sunday, April 24^th

Happy Easter!  I tried to start the day off right with an egg (Easter themed? Lol!) but it came out crappy, so I ended up using up the last of our eggs making some scramble.  It ended up yummy.  For supper my Aunt Paula made Prime Rib roast with turnip, dressing, carrots, potato and Yorkshire puddings.  She makes amazing gravy and puddings, and the rest of the plate was equally as delicious.  I am sorry now that it was so good I didn’t even pause to take a picture for this blog.  Just take my word that it was yummy. 

I also had a slab of cake and butter cream icing left over from the Bridal Shower cake I made for Steph, so I made a quick Easter/Birthday cake from that for dessert.  Paula celebrated her birthday the day before, so I thought why not make a dual purpose cake.

Last minute cake!

That’s it for this edition of Yummy Food Recap.  Shout outs go out to Spanish Coffees, Cadbury Mini Eggs with popping candy in them, Corona’s with lime, Beer Bread, Mr. Krispie bunnies, Marshmallows, icing sugar, and Apple Cider Ice Wine!

Rice Krispie Eggs!

Ice Wine

Spanish Coffees