The Yum Yum Factor

I love me some turkey scotch broth almost as much as I love a big turkey dinner. I have shared my usual method for making soup after turkey dinner here  , but, as much as I love it, what I HATE about making it is the process. I either have to find room in my fridge for the turkey carcass or I'm forced to make stock right after dinner. Once I clean up the disaster in the kitchen (my kitchen looks like a tornado went through it after a turkey dinner) and let it simmer for a few hours it's way past this woman's bed time. But that's not the end either because I have to stay awake long enough to let it cool down sufficiently to refrigerate it only to find that there is no room for it in there anyway. All that and I still have to make the actual soup! No wonder people buy Campbell's and call it a day. So, this Instant Pot that I have been given has changed the game people. Right after dinner I broke down the bones, shoved them in the pot, added in all of the ...

First of all, what is onigiri, you ask?

If you do a search of my blog, you will see that we appear to eat a lot of risotto. As soon as the weather turns colder, risotto gets bumped up to the regular weekly rotation. If you have some stock, a glass of white wine or a bottle of beer laying around, a handful of leftover meat or seafood, some vegetables or maybe some dried mushrooms, a little chunk of parmesan and a pat of butter lying around, you have dinner.

I was invited to an event at beautiful The St Lawrence Market Kitchen (upstairs at the market) to introduce me to Fresh Canteen  , a new dinner prep concept launched earlier this summer here in Toronto. It's a service that caters to people who want to cook fresh, delicious dinners in their own kitchens but are often just too busy to shop for all the ingredients they need. They are quite committed to using locally sourced products whenever possible and that appeals to me very much. I have used Supperworks in the past to stock up for those times that I am too busy to shop but you still have to put aside time to drive down there, put all of the stuff together and get it back home. You also have to remember to take those damned bags out of the freezer the night before so it will be thawed by dinner time so you can actually cook it which doesn't come easily to me.  I love the idea of everything for a dish being brought to my house for me by a handsome stranger. Okay, I just li...

Let me just say that going from 0 food blogs to 2 food blogs in just over two months is a bit daunting. If you don't know already, I have taken up a challenge to not repeat a dinner entree recipe for an entire year. Two friend have joined me in blogging about our trials and triumphs in a new blog,  no reEATS , Dianne (who is brand spanking new to blogging but who inspired this challenge by starting it up four months before on her own) and Jen, at Piccante Dolce. One of of my personal goals is to be less wasteful, use my cookbooks more and plan our meals a bit more efficiently. This has led to some meals that have been very tasty and that have consisted of food that would have probably been thrown out before. We are kind of terrible about leftovers and impulsive eating out. I used to take food out and prep it for dinner, only to have Shack call home and say "I feel like spaghetti bolognese at Gio's" and suddenly we were in the car and going out to dinner, my poor d...

You don't smell like Santa. Okay, you will smell like beef and cheese AFTER you eat one of these sandwiches.