Roasted Tomato, Onion and Penne Fritatta

I'm baaaaaaaack! It takes an extra effort to cook with a newborn on hand, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I saw a recipe for fritatta on the Food Network's, Giada at Home, so I thought I'd give it a try with my own spin of course!


Ingredients
5 large eggs
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled penne pasta
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 onion cut into thin wedges
2 cloves garlic minced
handful fresh parsley chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Toss grape tomatoes and onions in olive oil, salt and garlic and roast in the oven on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Allow to cool.
Boil and drain penne pasta and leave to cool.
Beat eggs with milk, herbs, salt pepper. When pasta has cooled, add to egg mixture along with cooled roasted tomato and onion mixture.
Heat a skillet on medium heat and pour in egg pasta mixture. After 10 minutes when the egg has almost set and bottom is golden brown, use a plate to flip and cook the other side for about 5 minutes.
Serve warm or cool with a salad.

Surprise! Margherita pizza.. kind of... :)

Steve was playing soccer and so I thought it would be a nice surprise to have some homemade pizza waiting for him. :) I thought this would be easy because I had some Pilsbury dough in the freezer. So the night before, I took it out and thawed it out in the fridge.

When Steve left, I was very excited to make the pizza. I put on the radio, took out the dough and looked at it. Expired.

Oh.

Ummmm..

I guess I'll just have to make my own.
Kind of ambitious for someone who has never made dough before. So I googled the ingredients and got the yeast, oil, water, salt, sugar and flour together.
But I only had about 1 cup of flour left.

Great. The main ingredient, I barely had.

I was almost ready to give up and just order some pizza until I decided to use cornmeal as a substitute for the flour. Pretty bold at first but then I just became curious as to how this would turn out.

I made the dough, let it rest and then made a version of margherita pizza. I put sliced tomatoes, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, parmesan and feta.
Turned out well, although I think the dough was a little bland but nevertheless still worked out.

I bought more flour and will try it again.

Turkey, feta, spinach and roasted red pepper wrap

We always have sandwiches on weekends but they are generally the same: toasted bun with an assortment of cold cuts, cheeses and vegetables. Not bad but getting a little boring. So I decided to change things up and make a wrap.

I used tortillas and laid 4 slices of turkey down the middle. I covered with spinach and sprinkled with feta. I sliced 2 long strips of roasted red pepper and put one on each side of the turkey. I tightly rolled the tortilla and sliced horizontal down the middle and voila!

Grilled Octopus

Hello World!

Sorry I have been M.I.A. Lots of great and amazing things have been happening but, unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to cook as much as I've wanted too. I will start to post about my other new hobby soon. This will be incorporated into many of these upcoming posts (I hope). :)

When we were in Greece three years ago, I tried octopus for the first time. It didn't look that appetizing as it was hanging to dry. In fact, I was mortified. But I didn't want to disappoint and tried it anyways.

Grilled octopus is now one of my favorites. I love it when it's grilled, with a little olive oil, salt and oregano. Octopus is crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. Trust me, it's very good.

So we tried making it at home.

We bought two baby octopus (already tenderized - be sure to ask your fish market). There are different ways to clean it, but we just kept the tentacles on. Then we boiled it in hot water for about 30 minutes to get it most tender. After, we threw the octopus on the grill, five minutes on each side and tossed it with olive oil, oregano, salt and some lemon. Paired with white wine, we were pretty much in Greece.

Delmonico potatoes

One of the best things about being back home is the home cooking of course! Nothing soothes the soul (or prepares your for childbirth) quite like mom's cooking. What could be more comforting than meatloaf and potatoes? My mom's Delmonico potatoes are comfort food at its finest. They're basically potatoes with mac & cheese sauce. YUM!!



Ingredients:
5-6 potatoes peeled, cooked and diced
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese
1/2 package saltine crackers crushed
salt and pepper

Directions
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat; stir in flour. Cook for 3 minutes, but do not brown. Stir in milk and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine potatoes, white sauce, salt, and pepper. Pour into a shallow glass baking dish. Sprinkle shredded cheese over potatoes the top with saltine cracker crumbs. Cook at 425° for about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Tomato and Cheese Sandwiches on Olive Bread

I had this sandwich at a baby shower and HAD to make it at home. It is so simple and satisfying!



Ingredients:
Olive bread (I bought mine at Loblaws)
Tomato slices
Buffalo mozzarella cheese, sliced
Pesto
Pizza sauce

Directions
Spread pizza sauce on one slice of bread and top with cheese.
Spread pesto sauce on the other slice of bread and top with tomato slices.
Place in the oven under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden.
Assemble sandwich and enjoy.

At the shower, these sandwiches were not melted, but I just can't resist melt-y gooey cheese! This would probably be good grilled in a grill pan as well.

Baking once a week

I have been in a real baking kick lately. I think this was inspired by my recent participation in a bake sale at work. I told the lady to price my cookies significantly lower due to my skills. Shockingly, the cookies sold and I gained some confidence in this.

I love how baking makes the house smell so wonderful and really "homey". Also, there is nothing to get a man's attention like baking. :) Steve loves when I bake, since this is so infrequent.

So in addition to my efforts to be conscious of what we eat, I have decided that I want to make/bake one snack per week.

Last week, I made banana nut muffins and today I made rice krispies squares. I'll feel better about snacks around the house, get extra love and the house will smell great!

Kahlua Cheesecake

I may be 9 months pregnant but it's still hard to keep me out of the kitchen!! For Sharl's and my mom's birthday, I decided to make a cheesecake. It was my first time baking a cheesecake, and I don't know why I was intimidated by it, it was rather easy! I got the recipe from my boss at work who brought this in for a potluck one time. So delicious! The next kitchen item I need to get for my new house is a springform pan!



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup caramel sauce (I used a jar of the best stuff I could find)
3 pkgs Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature (DO use this brand)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup Kahlua
6 squares melted Baker's semi-sweet chocolate

Directions
Mix Oreo crumbs with melted butter and press lightly into a 9-inch springform pan. Pour caramel sauce over top.
Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and mix until just blended. Stir in chocolate and Kahlua, and pour mixture into crust.
Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 F or until the cake is set and slightly wobbly in the centre. Cool completely and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Garnish with caramel sauce and whipped cream if you like.

Five ingredients! Tilapia with Cherry Tomatoes and Anchovie Sauce

I would have taken pictures of this dish but it looks much better in person. You'll have to try the recipe and post your pics. :)

This is one of Steve's favourite dishes, is so easy to make and has only 5 ingredients!

You'll need:

• Tilapia fillets
• Anchovies in the oil
• 1 full packet of cherry tomatoes
• 1 to 2 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp of olive oil

In a pan over very low heat, pour entire content of anchovies and oil. Let anchovies melt. This should take about 12 minutes or so. If you cook the anchovies at a high heat, it will splatter everywhere. Big mess! Stay low!

Throw in garlic, all cherry tomatoes and olive oil. You can toss these ingredients in while the anchovies are cooking.

Let entire sauce cook for a total of 20 minutes or so.

Put tilapia fillets in sauce and cook for about 10 minutes or until fully cooked through.

Serve cherry tomatoes on top of tilapia fillets. Drizzle with leftover sauce.

Steve loves having this dish with fresh bread to sop up the sauce.

So technically, this dish has six ingredients. :)

Happy Earth Day

2 Ways to celebrate in Toronto:

1. Free coffee at Starbucks if you bring in a travel mug.

2. Beginning at 1pm they are giving away FREE Brita pitchers at Yonge-Dundas Square. Quantities are limited to the first 3600 people.

Woohoo!
They were also handing out pine tree seedlings to pedestrians from Honda.