Archive: ‘Comfort Food’
Friday, January 13th, 2012
How is it that it’s January and here in Toronto we have no snow? And haven’t had any snow to speak of all winter? So weird. Not that I’m complaining – no snow makes my morning and evening commute so much less scary, I’ll totally take it. But I was hoping to go out snowboarding one of these weekends, so maybe it could snow just for that day…what do you think?
And you know what’s good after a long day of snowboarding? A super-easy, hearty meal that makes your house smell delicious would be just the thing! I love a good roast chicken – it’s one of our favourite meals. I’ve included my usual roast chicken recipe at the bottom because I know it by heart, but this one was equally as good and I love the built-in side dish of roasted potatoes and carrots. Add your favourite salad (or mine) to this, and it’s a lovely, fancy meal!
(more…)
Tags: carrots, chicken, French, potatoes
Posted in Comfort Food, French Fridays, Mains, Sides | 12 Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2012
Mmmm, butter. I’ve been hoping to try a buttery brioche dough for some time and this dough was lovely. But, yeah, there’s a lot of butter in this.
(more…)
Tags: bread, brioche, buns, French
Posted in Breads, Breakfast, Comfort Food, French Fridays, Snacks | 5 Comments »
Friday, December 30th, 2011
Where do I start? I could start with another anecdote about how I’m such a picky eater and that I’d never enjoyed lamb until the summer we went wine-touring with some friends in the Okanagan, British Columbia, and they’d brought along some lamb chops and lamb roasts from their own parents’ farm. They knew how to cook it to perfection and it was lovely and rich, not at all gamey and slightly nauseating the way I’d attempted to cook it myself, so I was completely won over.
(more…)
Tags: apples, braise, cardamom, curry, French, lamb, potatoes, stew
Posted in Comfort Food, French Fridays, Holiday, Mains | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 30th, 2011
In my frantic attempt to keep up with the food blog once I went back to work, I attempted two recipes in one evening. If memory serves, they were both relatively easy recipes and a huge hit with the darling husband. In fact, he just came in while I was working on this post and was all, “Oooh, is that the corn and bacon soup?! You can make that again! No really, YOU CAN MAKE THAT AGAIN!” He really appreciated the bacon on top…
(more…)
Tags: cheesy, corn, French, garlic, rice, spinach
Posted in Comfort Food, French Fridays, Mains, Sides, Soups | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
It’s been kind of a rough week. The last-standing Canadian hockey team lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins (tho I congratulate the Bruins because they played great!). Yesterday I backed our car into the bike leaning against the back of the garage, punching a hole in the exterior of the hatch door and causing more than $1000 damage. And on Saturday, my favourite band lost one of their brothers: Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band passed away.
(more…)
Tags: cookies, oatmeal, salty
Posted in Comfort Food, Sweets | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
When we lived in Calgary, it seemed like we went out for beer ‘n wings nearly every week. Which is a pretty bad habit to get into, let me tell ya. Thanks to Cook’s Illustrated‘s Buffalo Wing recipe, I discovered I could make pretty awesome wings myself using my KitchenAid enamel-coated cast iron pots and a deep-fry thermometer instead of a deep-fryer, I realized it was a very dangerous skill to acquire, not the least of the danger being me vs. the smoke detector. (But for real, if you’re not on the America’s Test Kitchen bandwagon, you have to check it out – almost every recipe I’ve tried in Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country has turned out perfectly, and perfectly good!)
(more…)
Tags: chicken
Posted in Comfort Food, Mains | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Story time:
Just over 2 years ago, my big sister eloped. A few months later, on Valentine’s Day, they held a little gathering for family and friends to celebrate their wedding. My parents, my younger sister & her fiancé, and Jon & I all came out to Boston to celebrate with them and meet all our new in-laws. My brother-in-law’s family is Italian, and his mother made an incredible pasta dish that we all practically inhaled, especially Jon.
(more…)
Tags: clams, Italian, pasta, seafood
Posted in Comfort Food, Mains | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
There is something about quick breads that is so comforting and appealing. Banana bread is my usual go-to favourite for breakfast, a snack, chopped up into large squares and drizzled with warm chocolate syrup or dunked in chocolate fondue for dessert. I don’t think I’ve ever made a savory quick bread before now, but what could be wrong about a cheesy, herb-y quick bread? Nuthin, I’d say. I used some Gruyère and orange old cheddar for the cheeses, and I had a bunch of herbs leftover from previous Dorie excursions, so I decided to forgo the suggested chives for some rosemary instead and left out the nuts altogether. (Because guess who is not a fan of nuts in bread? Yes, that would be my darling husband.)
(more…)
Tags: bread, cheese, French, herb-y
Posted in Breads, Comfort Food, French Fridays | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Yup, you read that right. And yes, it IS as good as it sounds. When it came to voting for this month’s recipes on French Fridays with Dorie, I didn’t even have to read the recipe before voting for this one. Is anyone sick of me saying, “It’s DELICIOUS!” yet? I’m trying to think of another way to put it, but it just WAS plain delicious!
I live very close to a really cool area in Toronto called Bloor West Village. When I first moved here in 1999, I moved in with my sister who had an apartment near the Village and we spent loads of time at the green grocers, cafés, bookshops and boutiques on this charming little section of Bloor Street. When we started cooking together, we discovered the Bloor Meat Market – a small little butcher shop with gorgeous cuts of meat on display and don’t forget to take a number when you get in the door!
Image from BlogTO.com
(more…)
Tags: beef, braise, French, ribs
Posted in Comfort Food, French Fridays, Mains | 13 Comments »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
How evil am I if I tell you my favourite thing to eat while watching The Biggest Loser every week is pizza? I’m going to hell, aren’t I?
(more…)
Tags: Italian, pizza
Posted in Comfort Food, Mains | 4 Comments »
