Kendra's Pickled Asparagus, Prosciutto, and Cream Cheese Appetizer

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What could be easier, but look so gourmet?

 

You may have thought that with her Italian Sausage Jalapeno Poppers she was a one-trick pony, but this is another great appetizer from my friend Kendra.

The recipe is simple too, with just three ingredients and no chopping, mixing, heating, baking, or cooking, making it the perfect last minute appetizer when you need to throw together something in a hurry.  Or, even when you have time to fuss, because basically for me, anything with cheese in it is always good.  I've used the Sunshine Farms brand of store-bought pickled asparagus for this recipe, which can be found near the pickles and olives in your supermarket.  I can't wait to try making this appy again once I have canned some homemade pickled asparagus this spring, hopefully without risk of botulism this time.  

Turkey Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

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Happy new year everyone!  Also happy November and December, seeing as it's been awhile since my last post.  The reason for that...well, I'm going to blame our Netflix subscription.  I've become super well acquainted with Emily and Daniel from Revenge, Jess and Nick from New Girl, Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project, and seriously, why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Grey's Anatomy is like ten years ago?  I'm now hopelessly addicted to it, and have a long haul of ten 27-episode seasons (quick math: 10 x 27 = 270 episodes) to catch up on, and apparently I've given myself a deadline of about four weeks to do this at the rate I have been going at.  No one tell me, but are McDreamy and Meredith going to stay together forever?  Because I seriously can't handle it if they don't.  And no one tell me, but what's going to happen with Addison and McSteamy, and with Izzie and Alex?  They can't get back together, can they?  So many questions, so little time for anything but getting all of the answers!

So, things that have happened in the real world for me in the past few months, at least food wise...

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cheesecake

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Good news - The Hubby bought me a camera for Christmas, so hopefully you've seen the last of dark, blurry photos like this one.  Hopefully...but I wouldn't hold my breath.

As I mentioned in my last post, for Christmas dinner this year on my family's side my contribution was dessert, and I made two different desserts.  I was only going to make one, this White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake, but then my mom reminded me that my brother doesn't really like cheesecake ever since that 'bad cheesecake that he tried when he was a kid.'  I already had my heart set on the cheesecake, so instead of changing course I decided to add a second dessert, my mom's Mocha Chocolate Roll.  Because why not - two desserts are better than one dessert anyway.  

Chocolate Mocha Roll

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Chocolate Mocha Roll

Christmas holidays!  In my family this is synonymous with food and booze.  It's January 3 and I now weigh the most I ever have in my entire life, which is not awesome because my clothes are way tighter than desired.  How does this always happen?!  Argh - why do I love food so much?!  I need a quick fix, which is why I am kickstarting my weight loss regime with a January of no alcohol.  Can this be done?  Not sure...it's never been attempted by me before, but we are two days in and so far so good.

But for some context on how I got to this state - for Christmas dinner this year on my family's side, my contribution was dessert.  I made two different desserts.  I was only going to make one, a White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake, but then my mom reminded me that my brother doesn't really like cheesecake ever since that 'bad cheesecake that he tried when he was a kid.'  I already had my heart set on the cheesecake, so instead of changing course I decided to add a second dessert, my mom's Mocha Chocolate Roll.  Because why not - two desserts are better than one dessert anyway.

Healthy Southwest Chicken and Rice Bake

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What's in your freezer?

 

So, it's just The Hubby and me in our house, but in looking at our freezer you would think differently.  Here is what I saw when I reluctantly did a freezer clean recently:

• 8 chicken breasts, 1 beef tenderloin log, 1 whole chicken, 2 packs bacon, 2 steaks, 2 bags prawns, 6 salmon fillets
• 7 or more partially used bags of peas or corn or pea/corn combo
• 3 tubs partially-consumed vanilla ice cream with an inch of icy freezer crust on top
• 8 bags of sliced bread with only two pieces of crust remaining per bag (never to be eaten)
• 1,000,000 black bananas
• other, other, other x 100

My inventory of our pantry yielded similar (non-frozen) results.  8 cans of black beans, 7 boxes of pasta, 2,000,000 granola bars, too much uneaten food.  So I threw out the old ice cream, downsized my banana collection, and told The Hubby that we had to try to go a month without buying any new food except dairy products and fresh fruit and vegetables.  We're on about Day 14 now, our freezer is halfway emptied, and our pantry is slowly depleting in stock.  It takes a bit of planning and creativity, and so far almost every meal has included frozen peas or canned black beans, but it's been kind of a fun challenge at the same time.  For instance, I came home from work last night and The Hubby had prepared a chicken, pea, and pasta casserole...and after a long day at work it was exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner, and all that I could think was that I had married some kind of Top Chef or something. That is, until we flicked to Top Chef on tv while we ate dinner!

Amy's Lentil Soup Copycat Recipe

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Lentil Soup.  It's not not ugly...

But guys, remember Beauty and the Beast?  Looks aren't everything!!!  Behind that plain-looking mask is all of this deliciousness...

Side Note:  The Hubby refers to an Onion, Celery, and Carrot mixture as 'The Trifecta,' which stems from confusion over the cooking term, 'The Holy Trinity,' (which is Onion, Celery, and Bell Pepper), and this makes me laugh every single time.  Because he says it every single time.  It's funny.    

This soup is one of my new favourites, and here is why...

I'm so predictable with my lunches at work.  Four days out of five I will bring soup, whether it's homemade or out of a can.  It's so predictable and so boring, but it works for me.  My co-worker / friend Tyler says "Classic Megan" every single day when he sees me and my soup.  And if I'm eating a canned soup, nine times out of ten it will be Amy's Organic Lentil Soup.  The problem here is that Amy's Soups are expensive when you purchase them one by one, usually about $4 per can.  Now friends, at Costco you can get an 8-pack for about $12.25, which reduces it to about $1.50 each.  And what's even better is that one time (my other co-worker / friend Ashley will totally be rolling her eyes at this story because she's heard it about five times), I even picked up the 8-pack on sale for $8 (quick math = $1 per can!).  Ever since then I have been chasing the dragon, but the deal has never reappeared.  

Traditional Italian Sausage Lasagna

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While I'm on the Italian Sausage bandwagon...

This blog's tagline is The Kitchen Confessional of Megan McLeod...well, here's one for you.  All of the mozzarella cheese that went into this lasagna fell off the counter and onto the floor before I assembled the lasagna.  All of this precariously placed cheese, onto the non-swept floor...

Five second rule!

...and then into a lasagna.  Don't tell The Hubby!!

Second kitchen confessional is that I wear these onion goggles every single time that I cut onions.  They totally prevent my eyes from stinging and crying.  Plus they are obviously super stylish!

Hi 

So, our garage was broken into a couple of weeks ago.

Kendra's Italian Sausage and Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

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It's amazing how many times you can forget not to touch your eyes after handling jalapeños.  For me, like 12 times probably.

 

Which is enough to make me wonder for a moment whether I have short term memory loss or whether maybe I am just a really slow learner.  Kendra's public service announcement is that you may want to use disposable gloves for this recipe (especially if you wear contact lenses) to protect your eyes and skin from the spicy jalapeños.  Or like me, you can just...not...

Who is Kendra, creator of Jalapeno Poppers, you ask?  Well, Kendra and I have been friends for ten years now, she was one of my bridesmaids, and she's one of my besties.

Kenji and me.

We met while working together at Milestone's Restaurant back in the early 2000's, most likely while commiserating over waiting for 'campers' (restaurant guests who linger even after the restaurant is closed, for no apparent reason, and don't take a hint to leave even after the ugly lights have come on and two waitresses are staring them down awkwardly from the other side of the restaurant) to finally go home so that we could do the same (or - let's be honest since we were 20 years old and worked in a restaurant - go to the bar).

Healthy 'Everything' Cookies

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Coconut, seeds, fruit, nuts, dark chocolate, the works!

I'm back, and baking again.  I know!  I know!

Last year, as part of a Christmas gift from my cousin Samantha, she gave me a mason jar filled with all of the dry ingredients for these cookies, as well as the recipe to make them.

Beautiful!

I am always amazed by how good at beautiful, creative, crafty things some people can be.  And this person in particular is actually a member of my family!  The creative gene must have skipped me, along with the thick hair and blue eyes genes.  Sigh.

My cousin Samantha (left), my brother Braeden (top middle), me (right), and my cousin Darryl (bottom middle).
Clearly I am not in on the joke.  I hope it's not about my pyjamas.

Flourless Spicy Dark Chocolate Cake

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"This is the best cake I have ever eaten in my life." - The Hubby
"That is a quote that I will be using in the blog post about this cake." - Me

 

You may have concluded from the lack of desserts, cookies, cakes, pies, squares, brownies, and other sugary indulgences on this blog that I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and you're correct.  Except for ice cream.  OMG ice cream.  The best.  Ice cream is the best.

But, every once in awhile the mood strikes for something a little sugary, and that's why I decided to take on this Flour-less Spicy Dark Chocolate Cake.

My brother's girlfriend also has a food blog, The Bookish Cook, and when we were over at their apartment for dinner one night she served this cake for dessert.  I think she is one of those people who can just, like, invent recipes and doesn't have to follow cookbooks (jealous), and this cake was her brainchild.  It's decadent.  The idea of it being flourless and therefore gluten free was also super appealing.  Because of the chilies, it kind of tastes like the Lindor Chili Chocolate Bar that I also crave on rare occasions.  It must have to do with the idea of a savoury thing being combined with a sweet thing.  I just love that sweet and savoury combo.

The Hubby freaking loved this cake though, even more than me.  He raved about it and its warm and super chocolately goodness with a bite of spice.  So I knew that I had to make it again when his parents came over to our place for dinner one night.

The Coconut Chronicles / My Dad's Teriyaki Salmon!

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Hi all!

Just writing to let you know about the spotlight on Playing With My Food over at the Coconut Chronicles blog.  Man, I think this is so cool!  

Coconut Chronicles was created in 2003 by the globe-trotting, spontaneous, cat-loving, opinionated (in a good way), and very funny Kristene Perron, as a weekly newsletter to help family and friends keep up with her while she was living with her hubby in the Caribbean.  It has turned into a smartly-written blog about whatever happens to be on Kristene's mind, from observations about human nature and life, to travel, to cats, to writing, and all sorts of interesting gems in between.

Kristene!

Kristene is a family friend and my former next-door neighbor.  In a past life she was a stunt-woman, and is now a published author of her first novel, Warpworld (www.warpworld.ca).  Warpworld is the first instalment in a five-part sci-fi book series, and if you like The Hunger Games you will love this book!

Jill's Fresh Cut Mango Salsa

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Every year The Hubby and I go to our friend Jill's family's cabin for a weekend at the lake, and every year I request that Jill make her mango salsa while we're there.  And every year she does.  And this is it.

 

And this is her making the salsa.

Drunken Vodka Gummy Worms

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Do this.



It's magic how it works.  You take a container of gummy worms, dump a mickey of vodka over top, close the lid and refrigerate for 24 - 48 hours, and - VOILA! - the gummy worms soak up the vodka and you have delicious vodka gummy worms.

I realized that I just used the word 'mickey' to describe how much vodka to use, and should probably define this 'Canadianism' for any non-Canadian readers.  A mickey is a Canadian term used to describe a small 13-ounce (375 mL) bottle of any hard alcohol.  Read all about it at this cool website that I saw that translates some common Canadian terms - America's Guide to Canadianisms.  Do you know what a 'chesterfield' is?  How about a 'toque?'  My mind was just blown when I learned that 'Kraft Dinner' is a Canadian term...they don't call it that anywhere else?!  My friend from San Francisco was razzing me for calling our new garburator just that, a 'garburator.'  Apparently they are called garbage disposals in other parts of the world.  We also don't say 'soda,' we say 'pop,' we don't say 'whole milk,' we say 'homo milk (the short term for homogenized, people!),' and we don't say 'candy bar,' we say 'chocolate bar.'  Also, our new 100-dollar bills smell like maple syrup.  I'm not even joking about that - Google it.  I personally think that they taste like chicken.

Heirloom Tomato Caesar Salad with Parmesan-Bacon Crisps

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Have you noticed that Heirloom Tomatoes are starting to 'crop up' everywhere these days?

Well, not everywhere as in at the gas station or library, but almost every produce store and supermarket seems to carry these beautiful fruits at a reasonable price, whereas in the past they seemed like something you would have to seek out at Whole Foods.  They come in all colours of the stoplight rainbow - bright yellow, striped red, lime green - and look absolutely mouth-wateringly beautiful in a salad.  The coolest thing about them is that all of the various types are so different from one another in terms of acidity, texture, sweetness, crunchiness, and of course, attractiveness, which makes a salad like this one so interesting.

Watermelon Salad with Feta and Fresh Mint

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I'm back baby! (said me, not the watermelon salad)

I know, I know -  I should have called, I should have written.  But it's rare that we get a summer this outstanding where I live, and so I let myself downward spiral away from this blog and cartwheel (imaginary cartwheel because I never learned how to do a real one) towards BBQs, beer, golf, friends, family, weekend trips, backyard parties, important celebrations, one very productive closet overhaul where I offloaded four garbage bags of old clothes, and one extremely shockingly productive weekend gardening-o-rama where The Hubby, my mom, and I did all of the sprucing up to my house's back and front yard that we have been meaning to do since we moved in four years ago.  Please excuse my run-on sentence, but that was a lot of stuff.