Zucchini Flowers

Yesterday night was an exciting night!  I really like trying new things, especially when they taste good!  These zucchini flowers are from the Ryerson farmers' market and were only $1 for 4!  Some of them even has baby zucchinis still attached to them.  I coated these bad boys in egg, then dipped them in spiced breadcrumbs and fried them up in a bit of canola oil.  Yum!

Broccoli & Chicken Casserole

This is a recipe from Campbell that probably dates back to the invention of their cream of mushroom soup.  I felt like an old fashioned housewife making this.  My friend has made it 2 times for me so far, but hers seems to taste better (she used curry in her recipe)!  The first time she made it we were in Calgary, so that is what this dish reminds me of. 
This is the recipe I used:
http://www.cookwithcampbells.ca/en-ca/Recipes/easychickenandbroccolidivan.aspx
I skipped the butter and used cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of broccoli.  I am thinking that my life needs more casseroles!

Apple Crisp

This recipe is all crinkly from being used so much.  I had a bunch of apples that were starting to go bad (they were actually a bit mushy to begin with) so I decided to bake them.  This recipe is adapted from my Betty Crocker cookbook. 

6 apples
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup butter softened (i think i left this out)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease large baking pan with butter.  Spread apples in pan.  In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients until well mixed.  Sprinkle over apples.  Bake about 30 minutes until topping is golden brown and apples are tender.  Serve warm with ice cream.

I did not serve this with ice cream as I often ate it for breakfast.  However, having it for breakfast does not mean you cannot eat it with ice cream. 

Fancy Pizza

This one was a team effort.  Longo's made the pizza dough, Aki cut up the ingredients, and I put it together.  The toppings are:  fresh basil, brie cheese, and pear.  That's it!  No sauce, no nonsense. 

Wanda's Peach Melba Pie

Peach season has arrived!!!  I bought a whole basket of peaches from Longos yesterday for $2.99!  I decided to make a peach melba pie from my Wanda's Pie in the Sky cookbook.  It was so delicious.  It is one of my favourite types of pie, along with sour cherry and strawberry rhubarb pie.  Please take the extra trouble to make the crust - this recipe is amazing and it is VERY worth it!  Here is the recipe (adapted to save time):

Crust
1.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cold water

In large bowl, combine flour, salt and butter.  Cut with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together.  Sprinkle with the cold water, let rest for 30 seconds, then cut with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter.  Form dough into a disk and wrap in plastic (but save a small ball of dough for the topping).  Chill for 20 minutes.  Roll out disk on a lightly floured surface, and transfer dough to pie plate.

Filling
4.5 cups sliced peaches
2 cups raspberries
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place peaches in a medium bowl and raspberries in a smaller bowl.  Add 1/2 cup of sugar to the peaches and rest to the raspberries.  Add 2 tbsp cornstarch to peaches and 1 tbsp to raspberries.  Add lemon juice, orange zest, and almond extract to peaches (don't leave out any of these ingredients!); mix well.  Place peaches onto pie plate, pushing them to the sides, leaving a hole in the middle.  Add raspberries to the centre of the plate.  Crumble the ball of dough you reserved onto the top of the pie.  Sprinkle with almonds.  Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees F, then for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Voila!  Homemade pie!  Impress your friends!

Stuffed Peppers

I decided to make a curry brown rice filling, with tomatoes, the tops of the peppers, green onion, and sausages.  I just threw all of the ingredients into the rice cooker.   (I made some extra rice to put into a tortilla for lunch the next day).

I then prepared the peppers (cut off the tops and hollowed them out).  When the rice was ready, I filled the peppers, topped them with cheese, and baked them for about 25 minutes until the peppers were cooked through.  That's it!

I also made some white asparagus since the oven was on anyways.  I just tossed them with a bit of olive oil and topped them with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, and baked for about 15 minutes.

Anniversary Dining

We started our day with a nice, healthy breakfast complete with hello kitty toast and mimosas.  Note the new cast iron pan!  Now every time bits of the pan come off I can be excited to get more iron instead of being worried about the toxins from teflon coating.  I gave the pan to Aki as a present (along with a vacuum - exciting presents, I know).  He then proceeded to accidentally light the pan on fire.  A big fire too - I thought I was going to have to get out the fire extinguisher. 

Next, we had some delicious wine we saved from our Niagara trip in June for this special day.  It is a Malivoire 2009 Courtney Gamay.

Finally, we ended the night at Bistro 990 and shared a baked alaska.  This was the first time I have had this and it was pretty good!