Marinated Bacon-wrapped Scallops

These were really good. Nothing tastes better than something wrapped in bacon.

Marinated Bacon-wrapped Scallops

Ingredients
8 fresh scallops
8 pieces of bacon
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard
8 tooth picks

Directions
1. Mix maple syrup, soy and dijon. Marinate scallops for an hour in the fridge.

2. Heat oven to 350 F. Lay strips of bacon flat on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. The bacon should still be pliable. 


3. Wrap scallops in bacon and secure with a toothpick. Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes. 


4. Allow to cool, and then dive in!

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage and Vegetable Sauce

I miss pasta. I really do. Unfortunately, Paul won't eat it so there isn't much point in making it for dinner. Sure, I can have it out at a restaurant if I want to, but there are usually so many other delicious things on a menu that pasta isn't ever what I choose. 

I got the idea somewhere to make spaghetti sauce.. which, get this, turns out like spaghetti when you cook it. So I got Paul to roast the squash while I was on my way home from work and then whipped up some home made pasta sauce when I got home. Turned out really well! The squash is a lot crunchier than pasta and I don't feel like a fat sack after eating a pile of it, so all in all, I'd say its a success.

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage and Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash, roasted and shredded with a fork
4 Italian sausages, grilled 
1 zucchini, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 green pepper, diced
12 green beans, snapped in half
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato puree
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes


Directions
1. Heat large pot to medium-hot. Sautee onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil

2. Throw in vegetables, sautee until tender crisp. Maybe 6 minutes.


3. Add diced tomatoes, tomato puree and seasonings


4. Simmer for 45 minutes on LOW HEAT. If your heat is high, your veggies will get soggy

5. Serve on top of spaghetti squash and eat like pasta

Steak Salad

Dear Readers,

So sorry I've forsaken you again. I just haven't been cooking anything lately. Thankfully, Paul is there to pick up where I left off, so I haven't been starving.

The other day we had steak salad. It went a little something like this: spinach, cherry tomato, bacon, red onion, green beans, blue cheese, steak and sauteed mushrooms. It was absolutely delicious.

 

I haven't forgotten you.

Dear Readers,

I promise I haven't forgotten you. I honestly haven't cooked anything all week. Hopefully this will change on the weekend.

Love,
Kim

Tomato Peach Chutney

Today is an experimental sort of day. I took ground pork out of the freezer this morning intending to make Curry Pork Burgers. I have made these before and follow the recipe in that link pretty much to the letter. I don't usually make the spicy ketchup, though it's not bad. Usually I make a 'tandoori bbq-sauce' to baste the burgers with on the grill. I'm using quotes around that term because it's basically just tandoori paste and ketchup. 

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to top the burgers with a chutney. I found a recipe for tomato peach chutney, which I THOUGHT I followed, but I just discovered I used cumin instead of curry powder. I think I'll refer to this as a fusion-style chutney, where the mysteriously fragrant sauces of India meet a good old fashioned Mexican salsa. It's actually not that bad. It sort of tastes like chutney, but not exactly. I'm going to post the recipe as I made it, but feel free to substitute curry powder for cumin if you're into a more standard chutney. 


If you made large quantities of this, you could can it. I only made a small amount because I fear canning, as I fear diseases such as botulism.

This chutney would taste good on chicken or pork, or even on top of cream cheese on a cracker. 

Tomato Peach Chutney

Ingredients
2 fresh peaches, peeled and chopped 
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground ginger


Directions
1. Mix everything in a pot

2. Bring to a boil, simmer until thickened (about 30 min


3. Allow to cool before serving

 

Berry Brown Sugar Gratin

Smitten Kitchen posted a rather interesting looking dessert. Since Paul's diet precludes a lot of the more standard desserts out there, I thought I'd give this one a try. Smitten Kitchen spoke pretty highly of it, and I can't say I blame her. This was delicious.

It reminds me of a dessert my Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Dwayne and cousin Jennifer made me try. They dip fresh strawberries in sour cream and then in brown sugar. I was pretty skeptical the first time I tried it, but the sour cream really balances out the brown sugar, resulting in a decadent mouthful that is just the right amount of sweet.

Ken and Silje, our neighbours, invited us over to watch UFC tonight so I quickly whipped up four desserts so we could experiment on them at the same time. I think everyone enjoyed the dessert. I will definitely be making it again. You could really use just about any kind of berry, and like Smitten Kitchen suggest, I might try creme fraiche next time instead of the sour cream.

For this recipe, I've used parts instead of specific measurements because its really going to depend on the size of your dish. I used four individual rammekins, so I used about a 1/4 cup for each part. 

Berry Brown Sugar Gratin 

Ingredients
1 part blueberries and sliced strawberries
1 part sour cream
1 part brown sugar

Directions
1. Gently fold the berries and sour cream together.

2. Place in oven-proof baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar.

3. Broil on low until sugar just begins to caramelize. Eat immediately.

...and just for good measure, here is what we had for dinner. Roast beef, roasted yams, kale and beet greens.

Fresh Tomato & White Bean Salsa

I really like fresh salsa. It's delightfully tasty, sharp and bright on the tongue. Normal salsa is okay, but it can be so bland and packaged-tasting. I think canned salsa is the 'instant coffee' of the salsa world, whereas a good fresh salsa is the 'espresso'.

This one I kind of just made up on my own. I was looking for black beans to make black bean and mango salsa, but I found white beans instead. This is what I came up with.

Fresh Tomato & White Bean Salsa

Ingredients
1 cup white kidney beans, rinsed
1 big tomato, diced
2 green onions, diced
1/3 red pepper, diced
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/5 habanero pepper, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
salt & pepper

I'm not even going to type out the directions. Mix everything in a bowl and let it sit for an hour. I used it to top a chicken fajita, along with some cheese. Since I'm feeling kind of mopey today, I washed the meal down with a blended watermelon-raspberry-grapefruit vodka drink. I made my own tortilla (no sense in having a package since I'm the only one eats them, and rarely) with corn flour, water, salt and lime juice. Turned out a bit dry, but it still tasted good. This time I tried flavouring it with a bit of chili powder. I think it would have turned out better if I had a tortilla press.

Anyways, the salsa was really good. Give it a try!