Cooking
I had a pretty busy work week so I didn’t feel like doing much intensive cooking in the evenings. BBQ’d up some sausages from my butcher (pork and fennel), sweet potato packets (sliced sweet potato tossed in olive oil, paprika, curry powder, garlic powder, salt n pep), and made my favourite honey mustard which is grainy mustard + honey + fresh mint. Perfect weekday meal with an acidic salad (arugula with lemon juice and olive oil, salt n lots of pep):
Other things I cooked:
Half Baked Harvest Honey Ginger Sesame Noodles: I only had regular soy sauce so I would recommend using less if that’s all you have (I just replaced half with water), but otherwise this was super tasty. I made tofu on the sheet pan with my nuts (used almonds since I didn’t have cashews). Made for easy leftover lunches! When I reheated I topped it with some fresh lime juice and an extra dollop of peanut butter to make it a bit saucier.
Sliders with bacon jam: made the burgers super simple, just shaped the patties with the ground beef and then crusted the outside with salt and pepper. For the bacon jam, I cooked diced bacon in a pan and removed it so it wouldn’t burn, then cooked a sliced onion and two cloves of garlic in the bacon fat. Added in apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and maple syrup, adding back in the bacon, and simmered on low until it thickened to a sticky, sweet jam! I will work on ratios for a future posted recipe!
Grilled asparagus with lemon: tossed asparagus and quartered lemon with a little canola oil, salt and pepper. BBQ’d in a non-stick vegetable basket on the BBQ over medium-high heat until charred and tender.
Salmon packets with mint sauce: one of my fav ways to eat fish - grilled in a tinfoil packet! I just put down a little oil, then the fish portion, top with salt and pepper, and sliced lemon. Doesn’t take long to cook! I whizzed together fresh mint, some capers, one clove of garlic, and lemon juice with neutral oil in my blender to make a bright mint sauce to top the salmon with.
Scallops w bacon jam: seared scallops and served them with leftover bacon jam!
Drinking
Quinta da Aveleda Vinho Verde - this Portugese find is my fav summer white wine. Super light, crisp, and refreshing. And less than $15!
Following
@gatherandfeast - I have her “one-pan smokey chicken, halloumi and peaches bake” saved for once it’s peaches season in Ontario.
Listening
Throwing it back to some old Wintersleep, I've been listening to The Great Detachment album a lot lately. Amerika on regular rotation.
Using
My lemon squeezer. I always thought lemon squeezers were a useless tool, mostly because I found them ineffective. But this style works great: seeds never poke through and it’s heavy-duty enough to get good pressure to squeeze as much juice as possible!
Thinking
About how nice it is to be able to sit somewhere surrounded by strangers and feel safe and relaxed. I’ve been feeling some extra loneliness lately (a symptom of living alone in a city that’s been in lockdown forever), and Friday night was the first time we could go to a patio since last year (minus the weird blip in March when our gov opened patios for 2 weeks during the third wave). I soaked in the night drinking delicious wine with my bestie and feeling the energy of being near people - people! What a concept! Being in the presence of other humans was so wonderful. Going into this new week with a refreshed spirit; this extrovert is energized!
Laughing
Have a great week!
Kaleigh