Monthly Archives: September 2016

Steak Sandwich with Gorgonzola Spread

Evie got a new book, guess what, it involves cooking! She was so surprised to find this book, it is a kids book by Giada de Laurentis. There are two others in the series as well that we are keeping an eye out for. 

This is the book

There are two recipes in the back, one for pizelles and one for steak sandwiches. 

We made the sandwiches.

First of all you need to marinade the steak. We liked the flavour of the marinade and will try freezing steak in it sometime for a freezer meal.

You will need:

1/4cup balsamic vinegar 

1/4cup soy sauce

1/4cup Worcestershire sauce

1tbsp yellow mustard seeds cracked

4oz Gorgonzola crumbled

1/2cup sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

1 baguette

2cups lightly packed arugula

3 (12-14oz) ribeye steaks

Combine first five ingredients in a large resealable plastic bag, and the steaks and seal the bag. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Turn occasionally as they marinate. 

Remove steaks from bag and discard marinade. Grill steak to desired doneness. Let steaks rest on a plate for about 10 minutes then slice thinly across the grain.

Stir sour cream and Gorgonzola together with a sprinkle of salt and pepper to make a thick spread. 


Cut baguette lengthwise and scoop out a little of the bread. Smear the spread over both sides of the baguette halves.  Sorry, got carried away with making dinner and forgot to take pictures. Arrange arugula over bottom half of baguette then add warm steak slices on top. Sprinkle the steak slices with a little salt and pepper. Cover with baguette top. Cut sandwich crosswise into 3-4 equal parts.


Then Evie made these little sandwiches from the leftovers for her lunchbox the next day.

Just baguette,steak with a drizzle of balsamic and some arugula leaves.

Notes: we did not use ribeye steaks as the store that I went to had noe, so we just used another type of sandwich/grilling steak.

Also determined that neither Evie or I like Gorgonzola, we ate the sandwiches because they were very good, but Gorgonzola stinks! We can’t get over that so I will use the steak part again, maybe with a different less stinky spread!

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Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Sauce

These are lemony, light and airy pancakes. The egg whites give a slightly soufflé like texture and the ricotta gives extra protein. The sauce is quick to make while the pancakes are cooking, just maple syrup, seedless raspberry jam and frozen blueberries simmered to make a sauce.


Start off by seating a lemon, you will need 1 heaping TBSP of the zest.

In a large bowl whisk two egg yolks (save the whites), 1cup ricotta, 3tbsp sugar, 1/2 cup all purpose flour and zest

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until glossy peaks form.

Gently fold the ricotta mixture, a bit at a time, into the egg whites. Then slowly mix in 2tbsp melted butter.

Cook in hot fry pan or griddle 

For the sauce I placed 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam, 1/3 cup frozen wild blueberries and 1/3 cup maple syrup in a small saucepan and let simmer gently for a few minutes and then keep warm until ready to pour over pancakes.

Too with the blueberry maple sauce
Very light and fluffy and sooo good!

Apple Cheddar Muffins

Apple picking coinciding with back to school required apple lunchbox snacks. I saw this muffin recipe in a Canadian Parent magazine and had everything on hand so we made muffins. This is a versatile muffin because it isn’t very sweet and it can be for breakfast, snack or paired with a savoury meal.







Though we ate these for breakfast and morning snack, I think these would pair really well with chilli.

In My Kitchen September 2016

Welcome back IMK friends!  The IMK hiatus is over and we are back sharing what is going on in our kitchens. Summer is over, school is back in and schedules are busier than ever. Here are a few things that we have in our kitchen.

Olive oils and balsamic vinegars that we picked up while on vacation.

A new locally made maple and birch cutting board.

All of this pottery was made by Evie in her pottery camp, a jar,some little pinch pots and an owl in a nest.


My friend brought me this pie mound from a trip to England

We went apple picking and got cider and warm apple cider donuts as well.
Some of the apples was made into apple sauce, may get us through winter

And made some dill pickle relish to use on burgers.

Looking forward to visiting some of your kitchens.

Stewed Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Feta

I received a blog post in my inbox from Alexandra for this chickpea stewy dish and decided to try it because 1) Evie loves chickpeas 2) had a bowl full of cherry tomatoes from our garden and 3) needed a vegetarian meal. Perfect right? 

Before I forget here is the link to the recipe on Alexandra’s website,  https://www.alexandracooks.com/2016/08/30/stewy-chickpeas-tomatoes-feta/

First of all you need to sweat some garlic in olive oil, you do this slowly on low heat, I probably used 4-5 cloves sliced and roughly chopped. Just let the garlic cook down until soft. Then I stirred in 2 cans of chickpeas, probably about 4 cups.

Then I roughly chopped 3 regular medium sized tomatoes and about 2-3 cups halved cherry/grape tomatoes. 

Throw all of the tomatoes into the chickpeas. Stir. Then I added about 1/2-3/4 of a bottle of capers. And a large splash of balsamic vinegar. Turn up the heat to medium to get simmering and the tomatoes will start to release their juices. I sprinkled with little salt and black pepper. Once it is simmering and nice and stewy throw in a large handful or two of chopped fresh basil. 



When Evie walked into the kitchen she promptly stated that isn’t stew there is no broth, that is not enough broth. Right away she decided it was not going to be good. Until she tried then she gave me that look that says oh, actually I do like it.

Toast some crusty bread or baguette in a hot pan with olive oil to serve with the chickpeas.



Top chickpeas with crumbled feta and serve with toasted bread. It was delicious!

Fisherman’s Wharf

This is definitely a stop to make if you are in Victoria. 

We went solely to see if we could see any seals or otters swimming in the wild. We did! And went by everyday to see them, Evie loved it. 

The seals and otter are wild, but they are very smart because people get little fish pieces from the fish stand at the dock and throw to them, so they are use to people and very friendly.


This little usurper just came in and started stealing the fish heads that people were feeding the seals. 



They also have a very popular fish and chip place there and a floating ice cream shop! 

Favorite food spots in Victoria

These were the favourite spots where we ate while in Victoria. 

Jam Cafe. 

The first time we went here we were shocked at the line up down the side walk to get in. They had been featured on Food Network’s show ” you gotta eat here”, we saw that show.  We wanted to stay and try it.  We waited in line about 20 minutes and it was worth the wait. We went back again. Here is a sample of what we had

veggie bowl. hash browns, biscuit, mushroom gravy and egg. it was huge but delicious

kids pancakes with maple butter

Fruit salad french toast with lemon curd

eggs benedict

Huevos rancheros with cornbread


We also quite enjoyed a couple of visits to Frankie’s

frittata

Waffles with blueberries, lemon curd and whipped cream

kid’s french toast

oatmeal with blueberry compote, carmelized apples, granola and warm vanilla milk


Well that is a sample of some of the great food that we ate at Jam Cafe and Frankie’s Modern Diner.  We did eat at a few other places that were not bad but not worth the money or a second visit. I won’t go into detail on those places. However, if you are visiting and want to know the places that we were not impressed with either the food, service, or both, just email me and I will let you know. There are a few other places that I would recommend as well. 

We were not compensated in any way for this post. The above are the opinions of all three family members, in total agreement that we loved it!