Dill Grilled Salmon and Mini Potato Zucchini Latkes

August 24, 2010December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

With the clock quickly ticking on my friend Gord’s blogger challenge, I knew that last night was as good a time as any to complete my task. Just to remind you all, my challenge was to take one of Gord’s recipes and make it my own. This being said, I decided to take his “Cheddar Zucchini Patties” post and ditch the cheese in favour of a hefty amount of grated potato and chopped dill. I must admit, I can’t take total credit for this idea, and was inspired (as always) by the Canadian Living recipe for Mini Potato Zucchini Latkes. I first saw this recipe in the mini cookbook that accompanied September’s issue of the magazine, which my mom very dearly supplied me with when she visited last week. The only major alteration I made to the recipe was to add two tablespoons of finely chopped dill, to add some sort of consistent flavour to my meal. These latkes turned out pretty well, however I think I definitely could have benefitted from cooking them a bit longer, as the insides still had a bit of a munchy consistency. Overall, these latkes provided the perfect accompaniment to my salmon, completed a chellenge and were the best “dinner food that reminds me of a breakfast meal” that I’ve had in a while.

Alright, so the salmon! Let me tell you, Canadian Living has countless recipes containing three ingredients: lemon, dill and fish. It was quite the challenge to choose just one (I, of course, needed to use up the dill leftover from my potato and corn salad last week), but I eventually settled on the one called Dill Grilled Trout (yes, I realize I made salmon, but the recipe called for either!) This recipe saw the Glorious Return 2.0 of the beloved George Foreman grill, something which made me an extremely happy camper.

On an unrelated but otherwise interesting note: I have actually planned out my meals for the next week! I’m not sure where this sudden urge for organization is coming from, but I’m excited!

Dilled Potato and Corn Salad

August 19, 2010December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

I have finally decided to use the precious Prince Edward Island potatoes that my friend Emma brought me after her trip home to the island. Waiting for the ideal moment and ideal meal to cook these potatoes was difficult, considering that I place PEI potatoes in the same value category as things like “gold” and “seasons 1-6 of LOST.” That being said, my expectations were pretty high as I searched for a recipe worthy of their goodness.

This recipe came from the September issue of Canadian Living, which my mom kindly dropped off to me before leaving for Chicago. The recipe incorporated the potatoes nicely (they are so key they even got a special mention in the title!) as well as took advantage of the fact that it is now corn season! Since we don’t have a BBQ, I grilled the corn on the stove using a non-stick pan. How did this work out? Alright, I guess, but I am mourning over the absence of those photogenic grill lines that BBQ’s provide. I may have to do something drastic and make my own homemade griller…

An added bonus for this meal? It cost me a grand total of $3.56 to make. This minimal amount included: a large bottle of red wine vinegar (which I am not extremely fond of but I think the taste may grow on me), fresh dill, green onions and corn. Not too shabby for a filling dinner and leftover lunch. Also, I’m so glad I went with the fresh dill, it was so refreshing. New goal for the school year: plant and maintain my own spice garden.

The pictures turned out so well that I couldn’t select only two, so we have a hat trick of photos for your viewing pleasure! Next up: more birthday surprises and the completion of Gord’s challenge.

Grilled Chicken Barley Salad

August 12, 2010December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

I made this salad exactly one week ago to this day. The reason I am just posting it now can probably only be attributed to sheer laziness and my extreme backlog of blog posts. Get ready for some frequent (I’m talking maybe everyday) updates for the next week or so!

ANYWAYS, back to this Grilled Chicken Barley Salad. Surprisingly (or maybe not), this dish reminded me so much of the Mediterranean Barley Rice Salad I made back at the beginning of July. That being said, they were both delicious, and perhaps in the end the only similarities were my extremely poor palette and the fact that both dinners contained barley. Since I have been majorly lacking chicken in my diet lately (considering I ate plain chicken three times a week this school year – I’m in withdrawls), I decided I needed to find a recipe that incorporated both summer flavours and this favourite protein. Once again, Canadian Living pulled through for me, and this dish ended up being extremely easy to make as well as super effective as a work lunch for the next two days. Could a student ask for anything else?

Also, no matter how hard I try, I cannot bring myself to like raw tomatoes. I used grape tomatoes in this recipe, and I thought the sweetness of them would make me fall in love. How wrong I was. I will need to find another way to conquer this ever-expanding tomato hatred.

ALSO PART TWO: My friend Gord at the Savoury Starving Studenthas once again blog challenged me! This time, I need to make one of the recipes that he has posted on his site. Like a true journalism student, he gave me a deadline (August 26). I’ll keep you posted with what I choose, and will obviously post an absurd amount of pictures once the challenge is complete.

Pesto Onion Steak Sandwiches (AKA the most tasty sandwich ever)

August 10, 2010December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

Well, I most certainly wasn’t planning on making a nice dinner tonight. Recovering from what was a completely sugar-consumed weekend in Toronto (seriously, yesterday all I ate was funnel cake, oreos, chips and McDonalds…), I was thinking of taking it easy and making the standard toast, peanut butter and applesauce. Then it hit me – tonight was the finale of Hell’s Kitchen (GO HOLLI!). As an informal rule, whenever I watch some sort of culinary show, I am obligated to make something worthy to eat while watching it.

Adding to that rule was the fact that I haven’t had any sort of real protein in my diet for so long (besides chicken, but that only half counts), so I decided to go all out and eat the best of the best: steak! For the first time, I didn’t even buy the discounted will-go-bad-in-a-day steak, and bought my first meat purchase over $4. I’m moving up in the world!

Thisrecipe was from my Canadian Living Everyday Favourites cookbook, and involved some delicious teriyaki-dijon mustard marinated steak and red onions sautéed in pesto. Also, if I were to rank this sandwich on a messiness scale of one to 10, I would have to declare this one a solid 24. It’s a good thing that I firmly believe that the messier something is, the better it tastes. Bringing leftovers for lunch – the co-workers will be disgusted by my inability to eat cleanly. Will try my hardest.

Penne with Sweet Peppers and Two Cheeses (& Dinner Party Part II)

August 5, 2010December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ Leave a comment

Intro note: It is an extremely bad idea to type a post on your food blog right before dinner. Going to eat ice cream after this.

Last week, myself and a few of my fabulous co-workers trekked over to our local Value Village in search of an afternoon treasure hunt. Other than finding a fantastic red zig-zag blazer, I was disappointed in the clothing segment of the hunt, and thought that my Value Village purchases would remain minimal. Oh how wrong I was. Waiting for my friends to finish trying on their finds, I started eyeing up the book section of the store. Of course, I found the cookbooks, and OF COURSE I bought vintage Canadian Living cookbooks.

Here is my count so far:
Canadian Living cookbooks: 4
– Everyday Favourites
– Make it Tonight: Quick, Simple and Healthy Family Meals
– The Canadian Living Rush Hour Cookbook circa 1989
– Canadian Living’s Family Cookbook circa 1995

The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook? I AM COMING FOR YOU. As you can see, I am clearly out-of-control, and my addiction will soon lead to my own chubby demise (this as I now eat ice cream for dinner, gosh).

Deciding what to make for my dinner party’s main dish created this scene in my dining room (if you look closely you can see a sneak peek at what I made for dessert):

Anyways, I finally settled on a dish from the oldest of my cookbooks (the Rush Hour one). This “Penne with Sweet Peppers and Two Cheeses” recipe (since CL wasn’t online in 1989, I can’t find the recipe through google – will post in Recipes tab!) looked simple enough and reinforced the reason why I love cheese so much. The combination of swiss and parmesan was awesome, and peppers are slowly sneaking up to become one of my favourites foods (yes, a complete shocker I know, but they are just so good when they are soft!). I was originally hesitant to make this dish, with the cookbook being published in 1989 and all, and with no picture being provided for my visual pleasure. After much inner-conflict, however, I chose this recipe, and I am so glad I did! Even more proof that Canadian Living recipes are timeless (but lets be realistic, does a good recipe ever lose credibility?).