• Cooking everyday meals for the family, fancy dinnerparties for friends, and everything in-between, trying not to break the bank and making the most of what's in season.

  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Pie-fest

Pies ready for the oven

Pies ready for the oven

Son #1 turned 13 in early December and as is tradition, the birthday boy selects the day’s menu. It was a pie-fest! Steak and Guinness pie, chicken pot pie, minted peas — all recipes from Jamie Oliver. Dessert was apple pie and blueberry tart, generously made and brought by two of the guests. Another guest brought a large green salad and I was grateful for the help. We needed some serious re-arranging to fit all 15 around the table.

Steak and Guinness pie

Steak and Guinnes pie

Our house is small, but the kitchen’s the biggest room, so with an extra table and moving of shoes and other kids’ paraphernalia, it worked. Needless to say, I don’t have dinner sets for 15, but mis-matched silver and inherited china looked pretty good even though the table cloth didn’t quite cover the length of the makeshift table. What was important were the people around it.

Birthday meal

Birthday meal

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 18, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Beef, Chicken, Dinner, Holiday, Main
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 18, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/18/pie-fest/

Everyday family classic

Ground beef’s always handy to have in the freezer and I usually pick up bottles of Passata whenever they’re on special as they make a much nicer tomato sauce than the canned variety. With a few onions, some herbs and spices, a carrot or two, a splash of red wine, and a good long simmer, dinner’s pretty simple.

Wholewheat spaghetti with meat sauce

Wholewheat spaghetti with meat sauce

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 15, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Beef, Dinner, Everyday, Main, Pasta
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 15, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/15/everyday-family-classic/

Cheezy odds and ends = Meatless Monday

I wasn’t planning on the no meat thing (bacon sure would have kicked this up a notch), but needed to use up a bunch of cheese ends and figured that would be protein enough. Sautéed leeks, fennel tops, celery and a carrot, then threw in leftover peas from the pie-fest (will post details) and some cheese, them baked it in the oven with more cheese on top (think it was jarlsberg, mozzarella and parmesan). Served it with spicy mushrooms and a glass of red.

Easier to rinse the leeks after they’re cut

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 13, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Dinner, Everyday, Side, Vegetable
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 13, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/13/cheezy-odds-and-ends-meatless-monday/

There’s something about salmon

Atlantic salmon, beautiful colour, great taste

Atlantic salmon, beautiful colour, great taste

Found half a side of Atlantic salmon filet in the freezer the other night. And the veggie store had fennel on special and spinach at a decent price too. A meal of favourites was enjoyed by all.

Sliced the fennel and sautéed it in olive oil with some salt and pepper for a good long time. The 8-year-old went back for thirds.

The spinach I simply blanched with some garlic, then heated up some heavy cream with a pinch of nutmeg. Mixed it together, sprinkled some parmesan on top and let it cozy up in the oven until bubbly.

Fish like butter

Fish like butter

Sliced the salmon into individual portions and dipped it in a mixture of melted butter, fennel sprigs, salt, pepper, parmesan and panko, then panfried it in olive oil and butter over high heat for a minute per side.

Made us all feel good!

A trio of favourites

A trio of favourites

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 8, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Dinner, Everyday, Fish, Main, Side, Vegetable
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 8, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/08/theres-something-about-salmon/

15 minutes and dinner’s ready

Normally, I prefer to quietly enjoy the cooking process, but there are days when life gets in the way and everybody needs something to eat quickly.

Like tonight. I rushed home from a showing, put water to boil, chopped onions while on the phone, opened a couple of jars of artichokes in oil (pantry staple), heated that oil in a sauté pan while adding pasta and salt to the boiling water (would have prefered dry pasta for a firmer texture, but the cupboards yielded gnocchi), added the onions, chopped the artichokes and they joined the onions, poured over a bit of white wine, chopped red and yellow pepper and added to the pan, drained the pasta, mixed in some crème fraîche (always handy to have in the fridge), poured in the veg, stirred in some parmesan and presto! Dinner’s served.

Just in time to leave for another showing. Let’s hope the boys saved me some for when I get back home!

Quick and steamy

Quick and steamy

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 5, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Dinner, Everyday, Main, One-pot, Pasta, Quick
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 5, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/05/15-minutes-and-dinners-ready/

First foodblogpost ever — many more to come

After months (years?) of posting pictures of food on Facebook, time has come to expand to blogging. Sharing my love of cooking and obsession with food through photos, a few words and the occasional recipe. Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Everyday meal

Salmon: an everyday favourite

Leave a Comment
by mainlyfood on December 5, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Fish
Tagged , , ,

Posted by mainlyfood on December 5, 2011

http://mainlyfood.com/2011/12/05/hello-world/

Newer Posts »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.