Summer lovin’…Where’s my convertible?

Ahh…little sister may we bring on the summer holidays with a little diner, drive-ins and dives theme? I was thinking barby, burgers and beer. Your choice. Just make them juicy! Race you to the finish line.

Vote For The Lot!!!

 

Who had the best wonton soup?online surveys

Who had the best clucker caesar salad?online survey

Spanakopita showdown…who was it?survey software

Baba blah-noush! Big Sis

Well…my Baba Ganoush was my first epicurean failure since we have started this little experiment. Who knew that something so simple could throw a wrench in my score.  Of course, as it was a failure… it was also supposed to be for a work potluck the next day.  I had to duck out and go out and eat at a restaurant with the other culinary outcasts that didn’t join in on the potluck.  The place was slammed, we waited an hour for our food and my hot dog tasted like rubberized dog shit.  Yes, I ordered a hotdog at a restaurant.  We were late back to work and I will blame this all on two shiny, plump, purple eggplants.  I watched a lame you tube how-to on making baba ganoush.  Clearly, the guy wasn’t an authentic Grecian…my bad.  After my how-to I proceeded to cut the skin off my eggplants and roasted them in the oven with garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper.  Roast for 40 mins at 375 degrees. Sounds easy to me doesn’t it?  I flipped them once.  Once out of the oven…mash them with a fork with the roasted garlic.  At this point the basement dweller came upstairs from her slumber.  She asked me if I had soaked the eggplants in salt water. Huh? Grecian dude never said such things, so I shook her off.  What did she know? She just woke up from a nap.  Add some tahini and some salt and pepper…and some more salt and pepper and some more salt and pepper. We tasted it. It left a harsh burning sensation in the back of our throats.  More salt…still burning…I tried to rationalize that it must have to sit for a while before it tastes good.  Later, we tasted it again…blah! The basement dweller looked at me and said I should have soaked it.  I guess sometimes she is right.  I left it in the fridge for a week until hubby got home.  He was looking through the fridge and asked what it was. Garbage. Bin it.

the burn...the burn!

Wondrous Mouthwatering Wonton Soupiness

Wonton soup, piping hot served on a minus 22 day…I can’t think of anything more delicious.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I made this soup a few weeks ago when we had that shitty snowstorm that everyone couldn’t believe happened.  I think the residents of Alberta suffer from weather amnesia every year.  That would explain why we all still live here.  The skies parted and dumped a bunch of snow on us in May…Wonton Soul Soup on a Sunday afternoon was exactly what my taste buds were telling me.  I bundled up, scraped my car off and headed to the grocery store.  Wonton soup is really easy to make by the way…all you need is about four hours and a freak snowstorm to make the little buggers.

Wonton Soup Big Sis Style

1 lb. of ground pork

15 shrimp cooked deveined and cut up really small

chopped parsley

3 cloves chopped garlic

2 green onion

2 stalks of celery

salt

pepper

1 tbsp. siracha

1 tbsp. sesame oil

1tbsp. worchestshire

40 wonton wrappers

bowl of water to wet the sides of the wrappers

2 litres of free-range chicken broth

veggies of choice chopped up stir-fry style

First lay out your wrapper, place a dallop of the meat mixture in the center.  Fold into a little triangle. Wet the edges so the contents stay in. Then you must boil them in a pot of water until they float to the top.  Let them cool on a baking sheet covered in parchment and then freeze what you don’t want to eat.  The little wontons that are making your mouth water? Dump them in your pot of broth and veg and warm through….Dig in!  *Remember to sweep in all crevices of the kitchen after.  My cousin came over for supper a few nights later and was helping with the clean-up.  She was sweeping and I heard a “What the Fuck Is That?” yell from the kitchen…I guess dried up wontons look a little bit like dried up mice…heehee…who knew?

shrimp and pork celery medley

ready to roll

 

steaming bowl ready to go down the gullet

 

New Challenge…by lil sis

You love to say the name, but can you make it?  One of my favorite dips of all time.  Baba Ghanoush!  Happy mashing and chopping Big Sis!

Rat Brain Soup…lil sis

I used to work at this pub that was that was famous for Won Ton Soup on Fridays.  The kitchen staff called it Rat Brain Soup Day.   I remember the chef always yelling at us waitresses because we were forever stealing Won Ton’s out of the soup pot and high tailing it out of the kitchen before he really got mad and made us pay $5.00 for a single Won Ton.

Big sis keeps picking challenges where I have to roll stuff up in dough.  The bitch knows I am trying to stay off the carb train too.  The soup was simple enough, I just used a veggie stock out of a carton and then added as many veggies as I could into the pot.  Season the stock to your liking, I added a little fresh ginger, chili sauce, soya sauce.  Then add whatever veggies you have on hand!   I added: baby bok choy, celery, mushrooms, green onions, carrots, brocoli, bean sprouts, and fresh spinach.

For the Won Tons:

1 lb fresh, lean ground prk

1 can water chesnuts

2 green onions (chopped)

2 dashs of soya sauce

Chop the water chesnuts up as small possible.  Add all ingredients into a bowl and mash together.

Meat mash-up

Time for the Won Tons…these were easier than the other blogs said they would be.

Take one teaspoon of meat mixture and place it into middle of a wonton wrap.  Have a bowl of warm water on the counter for you to dip your hands in.  Wet the edges of the won tons and pinch them together so they resemble “Spike” from Degrassi.  Warning, don’t pinch too hard or they rip.

Wont Ton before they meet their end.

Won Ton Army

Veggies and rat brains coming together...

Viola! Rat Brain Soup!

Even the hubby liked this challenge.  The only thing I didn’t really like was that there was a little too much won ton wrapper for the amount of meat I put in.  It tasted a little doughy.  The millions of veggies made up for it though!

Proper Chicken Caesar Salad

I went back to my old lover for my Caesar salad.  Jamie Oliver.  Sigh.  He is on my Freebie Five.  Any man who will name his child “Petal” is welcome to cook naked for me ANYTIME.

I have made this salad a few times and it is always a huge hit.  I love Caesar salad, and yes if you are someone who is a carb counter, it is actually something you can enjoy!  Big sis was pissed I let my diet restrictions interfere with the blog, whatever.  I have to wear a bikini in four weeks and if I have to suffer to get my ass back in shape, she can suck it up for one meal. (To all you assholes who are going to write and say Caesar salad is soooooo bad for you, save your time.  I do not want to hear it, Dr. Atkins says its ok and he is the one who zipped up my wedding dress, thank-you-very-much.)

Proper Chicken Caesar Salad

Roast chicken. Jamie says not to use disgusting, dried out chicken breast!

Panchetta..Mmmmm...maybe I like bacon more than I like Jamie.

Capers, Garlic, Anchovies.

Creme Fraiche (I had to google it find out what it was, basically just fresh creme).

VIOLA! Proper Chicken Caesar Salad.

Lil Sisters Spanakopita

Alright.  Hello again, I know it has been a long time since you have heard from me.  It is exactly as big sis said.  We are lazy.  My husband went to a photography conference and took the camera (I know that is no excuse), and the camera had my spanakopita photo’s on it and I refused to make anything with for blog since last time I posted without photo’s, I was rudely accused of lying about my Polenta.

Anyways, he has been back for 2 weeks and just became a very lazy blogger.  I cooked, I ate, I took pictures but I did not post them!  I apologize to my cyber friends.  Never again. The only good thing that has come of this is that the hubby took a food photography seminar while he was away.  Now he looks over my shoulder and tells me which way the sun should be shining on my plate and how each leaf of lettuce should be strategically placed before I shoot the photo…I was hoping he would just take the pictures for me.  I have now been getting a full photography lesson every time I boil and egg.  Fuck.

The spanakopita was actually very easy to make!  I found the challenge intimidating and was surprised and how fun and easy it was.  I promised Sheena the leftovers but they got soggy in the fridge overnight.  Not sure if this is a common problem with this greek treat?

I choose this website for the recipe because when I read it I imagined an old greek woman sitting on her porch in Corinth blogging about her spanakopita recipe that she has kept a secret from her nosy neighbours for years.

I served my spanakopita with a fresh salad of italian parsley and baby arugula with a lemon pepper dressing. I like my spinach pie with tzatziki but I didn’t have the staples to make some up so I made a yummy light sauce out of fat-free sour cream, lemon juice, crumbled feta and greek seasoning.  (I make this dressing a lot, it is so good on salad or even meat!)

Fresh spinach, I have a fear of frozen veggies.

Chopped spinach

The spinach, feta and onion mixture and the tricky phyllo...

A perfectly wrapped spinach pie!

Challenge Number…I have no idea!

Yes, it is my turn again. It may seem convoluted but I am playing by the rules.  Little sis’ last challenge was via the landline, so I am making sure that doesn’t happen again…We are like old alcoholics that missed a few AA meetings.  You will forgive us dear readers, won’t you?  We are back on the wagon…hiccup.

This week’s challenge is wonton soup…Don’t ask me why. I pick up the little wrappers in the store every time I go grocery shopping.  Petting them like a book at Chapter’s that I really want in hardcover but can’t justify spending the cash on.  Inevitably, the little squares are always ditched out of the cart at the last minute before going through the till.  Excuse me, miss are these your wonton wrappers? No, sorry. But could you pass me a copy of  the US Weekly…?

Blackened Cajun Chicken Caesar…WTF?

I guess I will post the next challenge that we didn’t post yet. When little sis phoned me to tell me last week’s challenge was a “Caesar Salad Your Way” due to the fact that she is on a no carb/low carb diet…I thought why the hell should the rest of us suffer?  Besides is it really worth sacrificing components of the grain family when it haunts you in your sleep? It also doesn’t help that the moment you give into your urge, like a junkie going for his needle,  your stomach inflates.  Thus, ending up three times as large as it was to begin with…But hey, by all means I am a good sport so comply, I did. I didn’t even use croutons!  By the way…Do not let your dietary restrictions alter my culinary experience ever again.

My caesar salad was not from the bag. But I did make it for my cousin that had the nerve to show up at a christmas party a few years ago with a bag caesar salad..with no dressing. So, I thought how fitting.

Chicken Caesar Salad My Way or the Highway

romaine hearts trimmed and rinsed

one small head of raddiccio  trimmed and rinsed

shaved parmesan cheese

thinly sliced red onion

2 chicken breasts cut up, pan fried with some olive oil, cajun seasoning, chili flakes and salt and pepper to taste

1/2 can of anchovies drained and cut up

1 tablespoon capers

dressing:

the juice from one lemon

1/4 cup of olive oil

inch of anchovy paste

1 raw egg

salt and pepper to taste

mix together add to salad and toss gently

Cousin said that it was the best salad she has ever eaten and that I should open up a soup, salad and sandwich shop. It was simple but good. Way better than a bag salad and creamy ranch…blech! She said she would bus the tables. Here is the finished product.

greens are ready to go

"bock, bock" cooking

damn good my way