The Yum Yum Factor

So, it's supposedly summer. The fact that I spend my mornings wondering which coat I need to grab when I want to take my coffee on my front porch in the mornings tell me otherwise, but, whatever. In the spirit of pretending that it we are enjoying a balmy June, I give you a lighter, brighter version of one of our favourite soups, corn chowder.  I first published this recipe on NoReEats, the blog where three of us documented our year of never repeating a recipe, which, in retrospect, was insane, but this is a soup that I still often make during the summer when we are craving some corn chowder but don't want anything with heavy cream and bacon.  Thai Corn Chowder soup stock: 6 cups of chicken stock the cobs from 6 cobs of corn 2 stalks lemongrass, crushed 2 lime leaves handful of cilantro stalks Cut the corn from the cobs, put the corn in a bowl and set aside. The cobs will go into the stock pot. Bring the stock and the rest of the ingredients, along with ...

Oh Cinco de Mayo, how I love you because you are another excuse to throw a pork roast in the oven and make some tacos. Okay, I don't really need an excuse to do that but sometimes it's nice to be put yourself on the spot when you realize it's been ages since you have roasted up a big, old chunk of pig to wrap in stack of corn tortillas. Sometimes we all need a push. I like to use this David Chang recipe for pork sometimes because the meat comes out delicious, with crispy, crunchy bits but the flavour is neutral and I can use it for a ton of different things afterwards. A bit of ginger scallion sauce with some gochujang something or other and it's kind of Korean or add some smoky BBQ sauce and I have a pulled pork sandwich. Since this was a big 10 lb picnic pork roast, I wanted lots of leftover meat that could be repurposed. I am not even going to link to any one of the 100000 versions of this recipe that are out there because everyone makes it, everyone tweak...

We celebrated Easter a while ago and for us that means that there was a ham bone hanging around the house the next day. For a really long time I always made split pea soup but for the last few years I have been making black bean soup instead. I love split pea soup but the boys seem to prefer black bean so that is the route I have taking. I recently started adding the chipotle because my kid was a wimp before but now that he likes a bit of kick to his food, AT LAST, I can spice things up around here. I usually do a chipotle crema but this time the chipotle could go in the actual soup and since that makes it a bit hot, I needed something creamy and cool but that wasn't just a drizzle of plain yogurt or sour cream. While looking at some other black bean soups to get inspired, I found one with an avocado cream on Eats Well With Others and loved the sound of that.

We are still on our no carbs (read no wine, no fries, no sandwiches, no pizza or pasta prison diet) thing and I am really getting sick of chicken. On the plus side, Shack seems be back down to his fighting weight and I am finally showing some signs of improvement in and about the muffin top area so we are sticking to our guns - just please, no more chicken. It was clearly time to bust out some pork chops and although I love a good thick cut, bone in chop, these thinner centre cut loin chops are easier to cook and they are very lean. I took pity on The Kid and made him a bit of basmati rice since he actually needs his carbs now that he is 5'9" and still about 120 lbs and I worry that I am starving him as well. Mother's do worry. This was a tasty marinade and I think the buttermilk helps keep the meat nice and tender - it works for chicken so it must work for pork too, right? I left them overnight in the marinade which is always the best option if you can swing it. I at...

This week's Gastropost mission was to explore food on a stick. Everybody loves food on a stick and we have enjoyed some awesome examples of this in the last couple of weeks. They do deep fried breaded things like quail and pork at Gushi at Market 707   in Scadding Court - in fact, the word gushi means skewer in Japanese so if you want to try a bunch of deep fried things on a stick, get over there. pork on a stick from Gushi I also had an incredible grilled skewer of niagara peaches with scallops and a honey drizzle at the Supper Market  at Niagara on the Lake a couple of weeks ago. What I hadn't had all summer was a cocktail on a stick, one of my favourite things of all. Last week I made Shack some boozey watermelon lemonade with gin and recall thinking that they would make great booze pops at the time. I was out of lemons but lime goes even better with gin so I switched it up a bit and added some rosemary to the simple syrup - I figured the smell of rosema...

I like to bake at christmas time and up until recently it was pretty much the only time I baked all year and unless they are all lying to me, my friends and family seem to really enjoy the treats I make for them. I get special requests for specific things and I always like to throw one or two new things into the mix. This year I had decided I would do chocolate pecan toffee, chambord dark chocolate truffles, lime melt aways (my mother in law would probably stop talking to me if I didn't make these for her), the cardamom ginger cookies I made for the Great Blogger Cookie Exchange and a delicious Lemon Almond Meringue that I found on Joy the Baker. There was one small snag this year though. We decided on Wednesday night to book a week in Tulum, Mexico, leaving Saturday, which is fabulous, no? Except that when I woke up Thursday morning, I realized that if I was going to put together baking gift boxes for Little Shack's teachers, I was going to have to make all of those thin...

I bought a bag of key limes this week because one of my all time favourite desserts on earth is key lime pie. The problem is that with only two of us around,  if I make a key lime pie I will most likely eat most of that pie myself. That's not going to make a better person. Then I thought I would make a key lime creme brulee but that leaves me in the same predicament with another dessert that doesn't really keep for long and so it must be consumed asap and, let's be honest,  I don't need to be eating 4 or 5 servings of either of those desserts. After searching around I found a recipe for a frozen key lime pie and I realized that I was getting closer to something that I could make and enjoy in small amounts over a longer period of time but who am I kidding. A frozen pie is still a pie and I will eat the whole damned thing. I keep seeing these recipes for ice cream using whipping cream, condensed milk and whatever add ins you like that doesn't require any ...

This is one of my favourite soups and it is so simple, it almost feels silly to write out a recipe for it. I make this soup fairly often and it's always the day three meal after we buy a rotisserie chicken. For some reason, the stock that results from using the carcass and scraps from one of those things makes THE best broth for sopa de lima. I am pretty sure that Mexican cooks are not running out to get themselves a nice, grocery store bubble chicken to make theirs, but it sure does the trick for mine. You will need: Chicken stock or turkey stock (follow my directions, make your own or used good quality boxed) plum tomatoes cilantro red onion lime stale tortillas vegetable oil for deep frying I roasted a chicken this week so I used all the scraps, bones and skin leftover from that, threw in the backbone (I had spatchcocked that chicken), an onion, some carrot, a stalk of celery, a bay leaf, a handful of cilantro stalks and covered all of that with water. Cook t...

I have a wonderful friend, Kate and Kate has a wonderful mother , Helen. Kate and Helen do not cook. They don't just not cook, they really hate to cook. They like to eat but they hate to cook so I am a handy kind of friend to have, no? Kate doesn't cook but she is a terrific photographer so she can take pictures for me to share with you on my blog. She is also a handy kind of friend to have. Helen has to attend a cookie swap and was told, in no uncertain terms, that she could NOT bring store bought cookies to this event. As i said, Helen doesn't cook. I cook. See how these things work? We decided that I would make Martha Stewart's  Lime Meltaways  because all the old ladies I know love them and Helen is a fabulous old lady - my father in law would call her a great dame. I sent the recipe to Kate and had her buy the ingredients and bring them to my house and I would make them here. She would then take them home, package them up in some sort of pretty packaging and po...