Our the February/March 2010 newsletter is out! Subscribe here to get it in your mailbox now.

I like a good challenge and whenever I see those lovely food blogs with results from the Daring Bakers Challenge, I’m in awe and envy. When I finally got around to joining the group, I froze when I saw my first challenge for March 2009: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi Al Forno). I was expecting to make dessert or bake cakes — something for my insatiable sweet tooth…something easier. But no, it turns out my “initiation” into the Daring Bakers would be a very laborious one. I was as scared as I was decades ago when the swimming instructor asked us to jump into the pool at the 6″ feet mark on our first class. Are you serious? What did I get myself into?!

I started making this 4pm (for the pasta sheets) and we ate this at 11pm the next day. It’s no walk in the park, but I’m glad I did it! WHEW!!!!!!

I will post a PDF recipe tonight. :)

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Ever since I’ve finished reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food [I'll talk more about the book later, it's a real gem.], I can’t help but think of ways to eat organic and local. I’ve been doing my best to eat organic food for years now, but didn’t pay much attention to where they came from. By eating locally farmed food, not only do we get really fresh food, but it traveled less so the nutrients are more intact compared to (fresh food) that braved thousands of miles to get to our grocery stores. That’s one of the things I remember reading.

I actually picked up Pollan’s book when I got here in Vancouver. Was it such a coincidence that my frequent weekly stops — my friend’s spa and my chiropractor — are within the same vicinity as the Granville Island public market? It’s meant. :-) Last week, after having a facial that made my skin very happy and getting one of my last few therapies for my back, I headed down to the public market to shop for dinner. I picked some beautiful fresh sea scallops, fresh spinach linguine, rye sourdough bread [not in photos], pancetta [what a deal for $2.29 for 100 grams!], and rosemary.

And voila, dinner:

The scallops were to die for. They were so unbelievably fresh, sweet, and did I mention they were huge? I seared them on the same pan and oil where the pancetta was fried. I cooked the ’sauce’ on that pan as well, so it had all the nice flavors to go with the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. The scallops cooked darker than usual because of the whole wheat flour it was rolled in, but you can use white flour if you prefer. I placed the crispy pancetta one on top of another, then a little stem of rosemary (you’ll be using just one rosemary sprig divided into three for this recipe), and the hot scallop going on top. The heat brought out the nice aroma of the rosemary.

I’m still trying to learn to sear scallops. It looked so easy during our cooking class but alas, I couldn’t replicate them. Ugh. Here I go again, being the perfectionist. I hope it’s not going to be an obsession like those Cinnamon Rolls.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe [and almost step-by-step photos]:

Continue Reading

Pause. Breathe deep. And behold a remarkably rich and creamy mac n’ cheese that’ll have you smitten:

And the good thing is, we didn’t even have to lift a finger in preparing it! Dan’s mom, Mary Anne, baked it as part of Easter dinner at their house, and we took some home. Woohoo! What can I say — she spoils the family good. :-)

The recipe she used was from one of the finalists on Emeril’s Best Mac ‘n’ Cheese Ever Challenge, Princess Thompson, who described this as — ‘…the right mixture of love and cheese and once you taste you’ll want to Smack Yo Mamma and say, “Why didn’t you ever make macaroni and cheese like this?“‘

It was awesome. I still remember taking my first mouthful. Wow.

Go make ‘em before you get a smackin’ from your friends and family! Here’s the recipe: Continue Reading

The trend here in Casa de Gourmeted as of late is that the no-thought-to-it experimental recipes get the higher thumbs up from the other half. Could it be because the flavors are kept simple and there is no chance to overdo it?Hmmm.

I quickly put this together for lunch last week and had one serving left after I finished my big plate of it. Dan brought it to work the next day. That afternoon I got this message — “Your pasta was AWESOME.” You’re welcome, hon.

One of the benefits of keeping a food/cooking blog is that you get in the habit of keeping notes of what you make in the kitchen . If I hadn’t typed down the recipe last week, I probably wouldn’t be able to replicate this. The photos help me remember the procedure, too:

And here’s the recipe. Enjoy! Continue Reading

In case you missed anything the past week, I’m here to tell you what we had here:

• Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Cake Cones – Ice cream cones filled with homemade strawberry marshmallow, topped with devil’s food cake and dipped in Callebaut milk chocolate
• Sedona Sights — photos of pretty Sedona, AZ from our weekend trip
• Boiled Beef Soup — mommy’s Filipino recipe of her childhood favorite comfort food called “Nilagang Baka”. Made with beef soup bones, beef brisket, cabbage and spinach. Great for the cold winter days.
• Chocolate Covered Craving — We asked YOU what kind of chocolate you want. So far the Dark Chocolate camp has the majority of votes. You can still vote here.
• In Defense of Milk Chocolate – Milk chocolate has been neglected and have been dissed by chocolate purists for years, but it’s now making a comeback.
• Rotelli with Shrimp in Creamy Drunken Tomato Sauce – Pasta in tomato sauce with creme fraiche and a kick of white wine.

Here’s a peek at what we’ll be featuring this week:

• Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie
• Comfort Beef Stew
• Linguine with Beef and Mushroom Cream Sauce

Next week we are also going to have a weekly roundup of recipes and articles we like from other websites.

Are you having an Oscar’s Party tonight? What are you going to eat?! What’s a-cookin’ in your kitchen? We are going to make cinnamon rolls! Yipee!

How’s everyone this weekend? We hope you’re all having a good one and eating well. It’s sunny here, but still cool. I apologize for those who might be jealous looking at the picture. For someone who has suffered through years of Vancouver winters, it’s a nice change to see sunshine peering through the blinds in the middle of February. If you’re freezing out in the snow or counting the days until spring or summer, I’m bringing the sunshine to you.

We hit some hundred golf balls yesterday morning [again, don't hate us...hehe] and don’t you follow my example because I didn’t wear a glove. I was left with blisters on both hands and when we got back home for lunch, I was sore, cranky and the last thing my brain and body wanted to do was exert any more effort than the required minimum. As much as I’d like to stick to our new year’s goal of providing step-by-step visual guides for our recipes, it just didn’t work out yesterday. I initially thought that this What-would-you-like-to-eat-for-lunch-honey? -Oh-okay-I’ll-see-what-I-can-come-up-with-in-20-minutes dish won’t make it to the site so I didn’t bother taking photos while cooking.

Surprises of surprises, we both finished two platefuls of it and I was this-close to licking my plate clean. I mean…Wow. Loved it! How can I not share the recipe (as much as I can remember of it) after that?

I wanted a creamy sauce but we didn’t have heavy cream like we usually do, and honestly I am not going to make a supermarket run just for that. Instead, we had leftover crème fraîche that we bought for Dan’s Chocolate Pudding Pie [I made him promise to post about that soon!]. I’ve never used creme fraiche for a dish, but it’s still cream so it should work right? I chose my favorite go-to pasta tomato sauce base, Muir Glen Tomato Basil which doesn’t have any overpowering flavor that you can easily transform it into whatever you like, really. I had the last minute idea to add lemon juice along with the parsley at the end, which gave it a light refreshing kick. The overall result was more than I’ve ever hoped for — it was smooth and creamy, but not too much that you can’t eat a lot of it, and all the flavors just blended together so wonderfully. I hope you try it.

So without further ado, here’s the recipe: Continue Reading

I’ve never had a Valentine’s day Cook-In before, but rest assured this will not be the last. Dinner was wonderful. And instead of roses, Dan gave me lilies which I adore.

Recipes are coming soon, including chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallow cones and boiled beef soup (a Filipino dish). I tried to recreate my childhood favorite (junk) food, the mallow cones, which turned out into a whole different food project. I’ll tell you more about that this weekend. But for now, we’re off to Sedona.

Wish you all a great weekend! And you US government employees, you lucky chaps with your long weekend, enjoy! [You know who you are...you Vegas-bound peeps. :p]