Author: Hilary

Artichoke Dip

~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

Tonight, I am going to a Cranium/Appetizer party, where my brain will be tested and my body weight in food will be ingested (note: clever rhyme).  Never having played Cranium before nor having made an appetizer, I was 0/2 for the night’s adventures.  Starting out, I was originally going to make these pinwheel-like tortilla appetizer things, using a recipe given to me by Gord (even if I didn’t use his recipe, I still needed to shamelessly plug his blog here).  Still not trusting the broiler on our psychotic, overheating oven, I decided against making the tortilla treats, and instead settled on a happy alternative.

Making a rapid, panicked phone call to my mom earlier this morning, she decided that the best thing for me to make would be an artichoke dip: simple, yet (hopefully) delicious.  It actually took no time at all to make and, even though I sliced my finger while cutting the pita pieces, I think the result was pretty fantastic!  Now to get the artichoke dip to the party…OC Transpo, please be my friend this evening.  PS: artichoke hearts actually smell delicious, turns out my fear of artichokes prior to today was completely unmerited).

Cumin Chickpea Soup

~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

Having been inspired in the past few weeks by my friend Gord and his undying love of chickpeas, I decided that it was finally time for me to cook my first chickpea-centred meal.  Not really knowing what I was going to make, I eagerly grabbed the biggest can of chickpeas I could find in the grocery store, and carried it home in my metallic purple backpack.  Returning home from a 10 hour workday (it is convocation week at school – exhausting), I wanted something soothing, warm and light, since I had just gobbled down a delicious Carleton cupcake.

Like everything else I make, I got this recipe from Canadian Living.  This one wasn’t in my cookbook, but rather on their website.  I love typing in keywords and searching for new, scrumptious recipes such as this.  I only used up half my can of chickpeas on this soup, which means I will be searching the web again soon for another chickpea recipe…

I ate this soup with a few slices of 12-grain/fennel bread from Grace in the Kitchen, the friendly neighbourhood kitchen store that I mentioned in an earlier post.  Although it was the perfect companion to my soup, there was a little too much fennel and not enough grain; I may stick with my boring white loaf from now on.  Add some fresh lemon slices, and this meal was complete!  My first very-nearly vegetarian meal.  Now to substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock – I’ll get there one day!

Probably making chocolate chip cookies tonight for the Friday treat.  Since it’s convocation, I have to feed three times as many people as usual!  Pressure’s on.

Santa Fe Beef Fajitas

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

I said I wasn’t going to make a nice dinner for the rest of the week, but I had all the ingredients for this recipe, so I couldn’t resist!  With my improving cooking skills, I have started to rely less and less on actual recipes, and more on my Julie/Julia cooking instinct!  That being said, I still got the basis for these fajitis from my Canadian Living cookbook (I would post the link, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere online, apologies!).  Anyways, all the veggies for these fajitas – red pepper, orange pepper, red onion and corn – fried up really nicely, and there turned out to be an outstanding 2:1 veggie to beef ratio.  Two months ago, a ratio like that would have been a miracle, but now its almost the norm!  PS: corn is the best thing ever in fajitas…

Since we have lunch provided every day at work this week, I won’t be able to bring leftovers in, which means tomorrow’s supper will be fajita night, take two.  There are worse things in life then a fun fajita fiesta (again with the alliterations…)

This is completely unrelated, but I just wanted to post a picture of my backpack, to show off its awesome toiletry-holding abilities.

Buenas noches amigos!

Sunday Night Dinner (Spanish Chicken with Peppers and Wildberry Crumble)

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

I AM WATCHING A HARRY POTTER SPECIAL ON NBC AND LOVING LIFE.  Eleven-year-old Daniel Radcliffe is so cute!

</nerdy obsession> Now for the actual post…

Since I’ve been quite the shlump for the past 24 hours (I watched season six of Sex and the City in its entirety), I decided I should cook myself an actual meal.  While finding out about Carrie and her new, creepy Russian boyfriend Aleksandr, I flipped through my Canadian Living cookbook and found a recipe forSpanish Chicken with Peppers.  The recipe looked easy enough and gave me an excuse to go to one of my favourite stores,Grace in the Kitchen, located a short walk from my humble abode.  At the store, I bought the best bread ever, a simple white loaf to go with my meal (it has a more impressive name, I just forgot it…sorry!).  So the chicken turned out awesome, and I really liked that the sauce had ham in it – it added a nice unique contrast to the tomatoes and red peppers.

While I ate my scrumptious chicken, I had dessert cooking in the oven.  My Wildberry Crumble turned out amazingly, considering I had to create a single-serving recipe using approximate ingredient estimations.  Thank god for all the extra frozen berries we had in our freezer!  They were perfect for this after-supper treat.

I’m really busy this week, so I’m not sure how often I will be able to post on here.  By the end of the week, however, you can be sure that I will have gotten sick of soup noodles and will need a good meal…

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

I was feeling unmotivated last Thursday night, so I knew I wouldn’t be making as elaborate a Friday treat as I usually do.  I bought a can of evaporated milk earlier in the month, and knew that I finally had to use it.  Not knowing what else you can make with such an ingredient, I made the one thing I knew used it – chocolate fudge!  This entire recipe took me all of ten minutes to make, but I think it turned out rather well.  It’s not as photogenic as some of my other desserts, but I tried!  I still have some evaporated milk leftover, so I’m thinking of this recipe for next Friday’s treat…thoughts?