The Yum Yum Factor

My son's school runs a  summer camp for kids who wouldn't otherwise have the chance to go to camp at all. We both volunteer our time at the camp and I am also on the fundraising committee. This year, it fell upon me to come up with the "signature drink" for our annual fundraising extravaganza which also happens to be tonight. I was going to do a strawberry rhubarb mojito but we realized that this was going to be too much work to make 50 or 60 of them and have them be able to sit out and still be tasty so my thoughts turned to something sangria like. I love the idea of sangria but I also love bubbles so I started looking for a sangria with prosecco and found this great recipe on If You Can Make That You Can Make This  . We were supposed to get together and let the committee taste a couple of different drinks and choose their favourite but we just couldn't get all together in time. At one point the only two of us who could make it considered testing it ourselv...

The Kid requested risotto for his birthday and he wanted just a plain, straight forward risotto so I chose a risotto Milanese with peas. Instead of white wine, I used prosecco which gives a nice, sharp edge that I really liked. Milanese calls for saffron, the most expensive spice in the world - actually, if you are talking the cost per pound, it's more expensive than gold. Luckily, you only use a pinch so even though it's a splurge, it's not going to break the bank but it will set you back about $10 for a tiny box. Be forewarned that you will most likely have to ask for it because most shops keep it behind the desk so that people won't steal it. Never mind dealing drugs, the real money is in dealing saffron. We had a hard time finding it at regular grocery stores and although we found an actual little bag of it for 99 cents (which means it was probably dandelions dyed red) we kept looking until we found proper saffron at a nice cheese shop for $9 . If someon...

The Kid turned 13 this week. Who could have imagined that my sweet baby boy could ever turn into this tall, lanky man child complete with a dirty mustache, hairy legs, sounding like Barry White with a cold but who still likes to curl up on the floor and coo baby talk to the dog. I have been feeling like this birthday really deserves a real event to mark it. For so many, 13 is a really important birthday for young men. Sweet 16 is a girl thing to me but 13 seems to be the magic number for the boys.  We aren't Jewish, so a bar mitzvah was out of the question although he was campaigning for one. I told him that in other cultures we would have sent him alone out in the wilderness and told him not to come back until he had killed something to mark his entrance into manhood but that is apparently illegal here and would probably get me arrested in Toronto. Canadians are so uptight. Instead, I am making him prosecco risotto, mussels and creme brûlée and we got him a watch. My ...

This is probably going to be my last big pot of soup until fall comes and it's a really great, simple soup to end the soup season with. Split pea soup is kind of like the Toyota Carolla of soups. Not super exiting, not the sexiest but dependable, well made and always delicious and it gets great mileage in the city. After I made the ham for Easter  , I was left with this big, beautiful  ham bone and nobody in their right mind can throw out a delicious ham bone. Basically, it  was either going to be black bean soup or split pea soup and since I have been all about the indian lentils lately,  split peas won out this time. I spent a few minutes thinking of all the things I could add and do to make it new and exiting but, in the end, I made a straight up, old fashioned split pea soup. The only thing I did that differed from the split soup I would have eaten growing up was to use half green split peas and half yellow and it was perfect. I really like yellow spl...

Oh Pizza Libretto, how do I love thee? Let me count how many times I have eaten in your hallowed halls in the last month... Okay, maybe I don't really want to see an actual count seeing that I have just come from enjoying a wonderful lunch at this establishment. We can start with the fact that my pants are presently all too tight and go from there. I have finally wised up and now I don't order myself a pizza every time anymore. I share a pizza with the boys or they each get one and I have a little slice of each and then I indulge in something else. Sometimes it's the spicy meatballs - all velvet textured and covered in a spicy bomba that actually gives the prerequisite kick that allows it to call itself spicy. I hate ordering something that claims to be spicy only to find myself asking for a bowl of chili flakes after the first bite but these little balls of meaty love deliver. Sometimes it's the arugula salad with pear and walnuts in all of it's refreshing,...

We always go to my sister's house for Easter and I usually cook a large part of the meal. I am so busy cooking a big turkey dinner with a ham and a million sides, I don't pay much attention to dessert. This year, after a difficult month, we are staying home and having dinner with The Neighbours and she is a bigger control freak than I am. She is letting me make brussels sprouts and dessert so for the first time in a long time, I can really turn my attention to something sweet.

The Compost Cookie   (<---click for the recipe) Okay, I have made a couple of slightly different versions of this cookie and they just keep getting better and better. Today I made them with blue corn tortillas, pretzels and roasted pumpkin seeds for the savoury and equal amounts of skor bits, milk chocolate chips and butterscotch chips for my sweet baking ingredients. I also used plain dark coffee grounds instead of the vanilla flavoured coffee I used for the first couple of batches. Although the vanilla coffee was fantastic in the cookie, using just a good, dark sumatra changed the game for me. You know, I don't like flavoured coffee to drink so I am not sure why I thought I would love it in a cookie but it's probably along the same lines as "only cook with wine you would also want to drink". While I am being real here, let's also call it like we see it. Sure, this cookie is heaven for all of us who love salty and sweet altogether but you know what thi...

The last couple of weeks have been a very trying time as we suffered a loss of a much loved family member. Not only did I not blog at all, I have only cooked one meal in all that time. We have eaten out or ordered in every night and now it's time for all of us to get back on track and , for me, that includes getting back in the kitchen.