the Last Supper

Whomever coined the phrase "all good things in life must come to an end", really knew it all.

Here is a healthy, delicious supper that C and I enjoyed on our last night together in Edmonton.  I am not going to go on and on about C leaving... I really don't want to get a  teary and sad.

So instead I will go on and on about the food instead.

I have this cookbook called frame>by>frame - quick and easy by Parragon Books.  It has beautiful photographs - which is imperative to a great cookbook.  And the recipes are all photographic, quick and easy with simple and healthy ingredients.  The recipe that gave me the inspiration for our Last Supper was the steamed chicken with chile & cilantro butter.  Of course the recipe was only an inspiration or a guide and we therefore made it our own with what we had on hand.

We have this enormous tub of dried wild mushrooms, and seeing that C loves mushrooms...
For a side we made a pilaf from a blend of brown and wild rice with the usual onion, garlic and these wild mushrooms.  It was actually really good!    The rice needed about 55 minutes so we enjoyed foie gras on crackers and a great heart to heart visit.

Once the rice was done we started the main.  While C sautéed the mushrooms, onion and garlic I started prepping the chile and cilantro butter and the chicken.  This recipe requires a bit of fussing but trust me.  The end result is great.

Start by mashing together; minced garlic, minced cilantro, minced red chile (or a healthy pinch of chile flakes) and a pinch of salt in a few tablespoons of softened butter.  Allow this to sit for a few minutes for the flavours to develop.

Prepare your steaming pan.  I used a metal vegetable steamer in a large straight sided saute pan with aluminum foil for a lid.  Pour enough water into the pan so it will not boil dry but it is not covering the bottom of the vegetable steamer.  Allow the water to come to a boil.

Slice a pocket in the thickest part of each chicken breast and fill with the butter mixture.  Place each stuffed chicken breast in a parchment bag or wrap in parchment paper.  If you are wrapping in parchment paper, be sure to close tightly as there will be a little bit of sauce at the end of cooking that you don't want to lose.

Arrange each packet on the vegetable steamer over the boiling water and cover with foil.  Steam for 18-22 minutes.  Try to keep the foil (or lid if you have one that fits) on tight through this time, as the more steam escapes the longer the chicken will need to cook.

For our vegetable sides we had baby carrots and a fresh green salad (not shown) with homemade dressing.

All was simple and perfect.

This dinner really marked the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.  I am so very thankful to have had so many wonderful moments with C (& B too), I will remember and treasure each and every one of them.

C - at least we will have facetime, emails and airplanes.  :)



That's all for now.  See you in the kitchen.

Mmmm..... Affogato

Canadian maple gelato with essssspresssoooo!

Amazing is what I call it.

Edmonton's Tres Carnales Taqueria

Are you wondering about that last photo I posted on the go?

Well... wonder no more.  There is this tiny little restaurant downtown that we went to on Saturday night.  Tres Carnales Taqueria is (and I will quote their website) "an authentic street food joint" with tons of personality, flair, great food and of course, cold Coronas!

If you are looking for a quiet dinner experience ... this is not the place BUT... if you are looking for a super fun and unique dinner experience this IS the place.

I had the Al Pastor - 4 little tacos of marinated slow roasted pork.  You may think 4 little tacos... but honestly with the amazing Guac and house made chips it is a complete meal that you and your jeans can feel good about.  Perfect portion sizes and as I mentioned before, cold Coronas. The photo attached here is the paper cone that the house made chips are in. Such a cool looking stamp.

I can't forget to mention the hospitality.  As it was a Saturday night there was a line up but who minds waiting for this kind of food and especially when you are treated as well as we were in line!?!
Thanks Tres Carnales!

This is a bit of a weird tangent for me... raving about a restaurant but really it was that good.  :)  Maybe this will spark a habit...?  I still really love cooking and blogging about my cooking.
Who knows.  We'll have to see.



I am now buried deep under my cookbooks searching for the perfect Christmas cookie recipe.
See you in the kitchen.

A taco massacre

Taqueria tres carnales

Chia Seeds

On Pinterest I saw these delicious looking energy balls (Originally posted on Pinterest by Smashed Peas and Carrots blog) and I thought... I can make those with my own twist!

Yes, even snack foods get to be served in Sophie.

So here is my twist; because someone (you know who you are... B!) doesn't like coconut I had to replace it with something.  And something healthy too, why not try Chia Seeds!  Healthy and a great source of omega 3s, maybe even better than coconut.

Here is my version of the recipe.
1 1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients together, heat peanut butter, honey and vanilla until it is almost runny.
Combine wet onto dry and mix well.  Form into 1" balls and chill.

They are a tasty little snack that gives us a bit of energy to get through the last part of the work day.
Tomorrow I will be trying this at 2pm!

One Day of Harvest

Seeing that snow is starting to come into the forecast I thought it would be nice to see one last bit of summer. 

This year was amazing for our tomato crop. I have no idea how or why but this was the tomato year and we are not complaining! Just eating lots of tomatoes. 

And I am still trying to find new and exciting recipes for our bumper crop of tomatoes. 

The tiny ones in the smaller bowl are called Red Currant Tomatoes, they are the size of a large pea and have more flavour than any tomato I have ever tasted.  A bit of a pain to pick as the plant was laden with hundreds of tiny tomatoes.  The Yellow Pear tomatoes that are shown in the larger bowl are sweet with a thin tender skin, wonderful in salads.  In that same bowl there are the Honey Bee yellow tomatoes, these are the sweetest tomatoes that I have ever tasted.  A thicker skin than the Yellow Pear but even sweeter.  They are amazing slow roasted as the sugars caramelize and the juices run out to make a beautiful sauce.  As well there are a few orange ones they are the Sweet Orange tomatoes, and their name is exactly what they are.  One of the best things about having so many small tomatoes is that when you are out to water or just to check the garden there are always a handful of tomatoes to snack on.  They are the ultimate healthy snack! 


A question you may have is... what do I use as a fertilizer?  None.  The only reason for this is I never remember to actually fertilize. I have a good tomato fertilizer but the garden hose or a bucket dipped in the rain barrel is so much more convenient.  We do have a great compost bin that creates beautiful 'black gold' that we put on the garden in the spring as we are turning the soil over to prepare for planting but other than that it is just daily watering and talking to the plants.  I know that does sound a little crazy but it works as you can see. :)  


Enough tomato talk for now, I need to look for more garden fresh tomato recipes!

Green Beauties

Would you just look at these green tomatoes... amazing is what I would call them.

Recently on GOOP (www.GOOP.com) there was a recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes.  (Thanks C!)

It was quite an adventure, a little messy but well worth it.

Here is the battering station.  I refuse to deep fry in the house so we put the side burner on the BBQ to good use.

Start with seasoned flour.  Move on to egg and buttermilk and the last step is a mixture of cornmeal and panko bread crumbs.

Cornmeal and Panko bread crumbs give a great crust with lots of satisfying crunch.

The end result was a great new way to have tomatoes.  There was a slight 'lemony' flavour but there was no lemon in the recipe.  Weird... I know.  It's just the bright, acidic flavours of the unripe tomatoes.  Delicious is what I call it. 

Something fun and different to try.  And don't knock it until you actually try it.  You could be surprised.

That's all for now!

E