Lunches

Adam and I both leave the house at the same time now which I like because it is nice to have someone to talk to in the morning. I even like making his lunch. Here is a selection of his fruit which looks like a smiley face!

Granola

Margaret got me granola from Frangipan! It is no ordinary granola, it is chock full of almonds, pumpkin seeds and raisins and the granola is crispy and not too sweet. We only had it for a few days before it was gone. It inspired me to make my own gourmet granola with pumpkin seesds, almonds, coconut, walnuts and craisins. I burnt it a little which is why there is no picture.

Thai food at home

Adam made Thai (style) food at home. I could not believe all the effort he put into it. He made the broth, noodles, fish and veggie fixings all separately and we put it together at the table. It was hearty yet light and I love the spritz of lime. Not sure how authentic it is but it sure was delicious!

Dinner at Marg's

Margaret invited me over to dinner and she made risotto and Ben made the shrimp. I was so impressed with both of their dishes. If it was iron chef I would have to declare a tie.

Casual Dinner

We didn't feel like making a big dinner so we put together a dinner of fresh baguette, brie, dates, fresh figs and almonds. We added some wine to make it classy.

The Bounty of our Harvest

Coriander seeds from our cilantro plants. There is a lot of it. Adam said it is key in making your own curry mix and I heard from TV that, in large amounts, it has narcotic properties but I am still not sure what we are going to do with it all.
Tomato salad with basil - all from the garden. It was good too but it is kind of sad to think it will probably be our last big tomato harvest.
Tara kept talking about tomato sandwiches when we were at the gym one day so I had to have one. I picked one red and one yellow tomato for contrast but there was so much tomato that I had to do two open faced sandwiches.
By the way - we do have other stuff in the garden but when I see the tomatoes I just have to get the camera out!

Haddock and rose sauce

Need I say more?

Power's Out

We had a huge storm the other night and the power was out for about two hours. Thankfully for our gas powered stove we were able to cook by candle light. We had a fritatta. I like it when the power goes out - it feels like an adventure.

Impromtu Pizza

Tara, Alex, myself and Adam were craving a taste of Italy and planned to go to Queen Marghertita Pizza for dinner. They, it turns out, did not have any room (popular place!) and so we decided to make pizza at home. Tara and Alex brought their fancy pizza pan and we made a spicy salami, mushroom, cheese and fresh basil (from the garden) pizza. Adam opted to make the pizza sauce from scratch. It was really, really delicious. I worried that the crust would be too thick but the only place it was a little thick was on the edges and we took care of that by dipping the crust in fresh olive oil.

American Meal

I made dinner! Chicken Fingers of course with American Style salad (green leaf lettuce with tomatoes cut into wedges) and yellow beans with butter. There is plum sauce on the side.

Gnocchi Heaven

Adam decided he wanted to make gnocchi. The first attempt did not go so well - they all stuck to the pan but Adam is very stubborn and so the very next day he tried again. Thank goodness! This was fantastic! I have never had gnocchi so light and fluffy before. They are covered in olive oil and a home-made pasta sauce. Adam crumbled goats cheese and topped it all off with fried bacon. Sounds like overkill? It. was. not.

Sunday Morning

We harvested from the garden! I made this rhubarb compote. It is very easy - a bunch of chopped up rhubarb, a ton of sugar and the teensiest bit of water - but didn't know what to do with it so Adam made some pancakes. This picture was taken a while ago so I don't remember what the mangos and nutella for but I can't imagine it was bad.

Steak

T-Bones were on sale. This one has a garlic, lemon, parsley butter slathered all over it. If it looks excessive don't worry - Adam and I share :)

Hamburgers=Summer

...well, not quite summer. It was a little chilly to eat outside so we had to bring them indoors but it is still pretty exciting! We added broccoli to be healthy.

Sandwich Business

This is Adam with a sandwich he made. He calls it the ABC. It starts with some really nice thick cut bacon and he adds avacado and cucumber. We are thinking of opening up a sandwich shop where every sandwich features bacon and the all are named with acronyms.

MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I had lots of birthday celebrations this year. One the weekend before my birthday my dad made me ribs and lemon-raspberry layer cake (not pictured - I forgot my camera!) which was super yummy. On the Monday after Adam and I took the day off and did all sorts of fun stuff like going out for bruch and puttering around the garden. He also made my birthday dinner which was an asparagus soup starter. It was really tasty and I liked how the cut green chives and blobs of olive oil mimicked the green bowl the soup was in. Adam is a food artist.


Next we had braised beef with veggies and collard greens on top. I am really starting to like collard greens and its nice to have a change of pace in the leafy green selection because there is only so much spinach I can eat. For dessert: Chef pino from my mom! Thanks mom - Adam tried to make me eat them the day before my birthday celebration but I would not let him.

My actual birthday celebration was a bit of a surprise. Adam had an exam the next day and I figured he would be busy studying so I didn't make too much of it. Actually I went to the gym after work so I was so surprised and happy to see my birthday dinner when I got home. Adam made ribs (more ribs!) roasted cauliflower, potato wedges and, of course, collard greens. I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures but the highlight had to be the cupcakes Adam made. They were lemon almond sponge cake with strawberry icing. They were delicious and I think the most beautiful cupcakes I have ever seen.

Phew...I am lucky!

Healthy Snack

This is to show my mom that I don't only eat bad foods. Bad foods do tend to be more delicious than healthy foods but this pear was perfect and thus makes it into the blog. I also like the way pears look.

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry are historically one of my least favorite muffins but we had a lot of blueberries that were on the verge of going bad so Adam made up a batch of muffins to use them up. While he was making them we realized we did not have quite enough milk so we substituted whipping cream. We also had way too many blueberries but decided to put them all in so we would not waste them. I was a bit worried because I tend to follow recipes to the tee but these were good substitutions. They were rich but they were so full of sweet/tart blueberries that they were perfectly balanced. I still dream of these.

Eggs on stuff

I love eggs on stuff. In Paris they put egg on the pizza and it is delicious so when Adam made pasta and left a teeny tiny portion for me he fried a couple of eggs on top and it was fantastic. The pasta, by the way, was thinly sliced and fried sausage, asparagus and herbs. The whole thing was fried up so the pasta was a little crispy before the egg was added. Indulgent.

Books

Adam and Peter spent the evening playing video games so I found myself a comfy spot and thumbed through some of my favorite books. I don't normally re-read books but it was nice to pick one up, open to any page and read just what a I wanted to. Mom, the next book I will have to lend you will be the Time Travelers Wife. If I only had one book for the rest of my life, that would be it.

Easter Dinner

We hosted Easter Dinner this year! it was because April 2nd was Sophia's due date and Dan and Darlene did not want to be too far from the hospital but, as it turns out she was born a week early so we got to celebrate Easter and Dan's birthday with her! What a happy surprise!

Sophia was so good - she spent most of the dinner sleeping and being cute!

The birthday boy!
I thought this was a good picture of dad.

Mmmmm Dinner was super tasty. I have to admit, I was initially a little bummed that we were restricted to fish for our dinner. I like fish well enough but it does not really feel special to me. Well, this dinner changed my mind. We had a really nice roasted salmon and my mom made ceviche which was excellent. Tia brought sweet potato and squash mash which I am informed had an entire stick of butter in them (just the way I like it) and adam and I made potatoes (two ways - roasted and a warm potato and herb salad), asparagus with home-made hollandaise and a fresh green salad with candied walnuts, goats cheese and pear. Even tia liked the salad despite her aversion to walnuts (helped that they were covered in sugar). Adam and I were a little worried that there might not be enough food but as you can see from the picture - that was not a problem.

Dessert - so much dessert! Adam made a lemon tart. It was a really simple recipe - mostly cream, lemon juice, eggs and sugar. We actually calculated that the meal took about a dozen and a half eggs and over 20 lemons to make the whole dinner. The tart came out nicely and with the extra egg whites we made meringues. Margaret helped make the first batch which came out looking like little ice cream tops - mine didn't look as cute but were still tasty. I was worried that we might not have enough so we made an extra batch of meringues the morning of and I also asked my mom and dad to bring sweet bread and strawberries. It also turns out that tia brought a mango mousse cake that was meant for Dan and Darlene's birthday but they could not eat it so they brought it over for Easter dinner! Everyone knows you can't have too much dessert so I would consider the dinner a success!

Handsome

I found this picture of Adam on the camera when I was uploading some of our food pictures. It was so cute I had to share :)

A New Recipe

I tried out a new recipe the other day. A shrimp and corn chowder. It started with a fennel and leek base and I added some chicken stock, milk, potatoes, corn and shrimp. New recipe!

Philly Cheese Steaks!!!

My lovely mom sent us a bunch of groceries the other day - including several roasts. We wanted to try something a little different so we made Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Adam cut the roast up into really thin pieces and I fried up some mushrooms, red peppers and onions. I got fresh baguette that day so we piled the meat and toppings with a thick layer of mozzarella cheese and broiled it until the cheese melted. I don't know if would really be considered a Philly cheese steak because Adam says in Philly they use cheese whiz but this sandwich was soooooo gooooood that I don't really care.

Classic Nat

Home made chicken fingers is one of the first things I learned how to make (thanks to Liz who first taught me!). I usually make mashed potatoes with it but this time I took fingerling potatoes and cut them length-wise, tossed them in a little olive oil and baked them. They were really tasty, crispy and healthy(ish).

Omelet Time

Mmmmm...omelet. Adam made a super tasty omelet the other day with caramelized onions, ham and pepper.

Dinner at Home

It has been a busy couple of weeks over here in the Harder-Szaflarski household. Adam and I are out pretty well every weeknight and I was gone in St. Catharines over the weekend so it felt like we had not eaten a real meal at home in ages. This past Wednesday, however, Adam was on reading week so he could go to the gym early and I got home from my class earlier than usual so we ate a proper meal at home. Adam made sausage and chickpeas over top of potatoes. He also made collard greens for the first time. I tasted a little bit of the collard greens raw and did not think I would like it but, amazingly, I do like them when they are sauteed with tons of garlic, salt and, most importantly, butter.

Thank you Dalton!

Statutory Holidays are the best because Adam and I both have the day off. This Family Day we woke up late, ate pancakes for breakfast, watched the Olympics, went to Peter's, ate pizza and watched more Olympics. What more could you ask for in a Family Day?

Schrodinger!

The other weekend I decided I would spend the whole day at home watching episodes of my new favorite show - Friday Night Lights. It was a great day of sitting on the couch and I am embarrassed to say I completed the whole season in just one weekend! Pictured is my new Schrodinger mug. I stole it from Edy's work and it is the most fantastic mug: big enough for a substantial cup of tea and the handle fits my whole hand so I can also use it to keep me warm. The mug was actually meant to go to my mom and it still might - if I can ever part with it!

Nat cooks dinner

On occasion I do make dinner and this is one of the four things in my rotation: roast chicken. It is pretty good if I do say so myself. It has a really crispy skin and is tasty and juicy on the inside. The secret is getting the recipe from Real Simple.

Meat

Adam and I stopped by the grocery store and were drawn to this package of beautiful T-Bone steaks so we bought them, fried them up, topped them with home-made herb butter and ate them. Sometimes you just gotta have meat.

Breakfast for Dinner!

I got home from New York Sunday evening so I did not have the chance to do groceries or make dinner (I try to make dinner Sunday night at the very least since Adam does not get home till about eight). Since we needed to eat from the fridge and wanted something quick I suggested breakfast for dinner. I always secretly want breakfast for dinner but it is only on special occasions that Adam says yes and I suppose my return from NY warranted a yes in this case. I had made home-made baked beans the previous weekend so we had those with eggs, bacon, and steamed spinach. The baked beans were OK the day I made them but they had gotten even better after sitting the fridge for a few days and the bacon was super nice and crispy. We had to finish off some spinach and decided that steamed spinach should regularly accompany brunch as it was a really nice pairing to the heavy bacon, eggs and beans.

For dessert we had grapefruit. I am always a fan of grapefruit but having it pre-cut into nice pith free wedges for you is just heaven. One of my top three breakfasts of all time!

Family Dinner

My mom, dad, sister, Sandy, along with my mom's friends Gloria and Keith came over for dinner the other night. It was a lot of people but my mom brought with her the hugest piece of Salmon I have ever seen. My dad made it with tons of dill and olive oil and we ate it with salad, buttery potatoes and some asparagus in this really tasty butter herb sauce (lots of butter in this meal). We don't eat much fish at home because I don't feel like a I know how to pick it out so this was a nice change of pace and tasty to boot!

Kale, White Bean and Orzo soup

This soup came about after Adam made some really nice chicken stock. I had wanted to try this recipe but I was nervous to try it using Adams stock in case it came out gross but I went forth and it was actually really good and super easy. In addition to the standard onions and celery I added a bunch of Kale, a can of white beans and a cup or Orzo. It only took about 15 minutes to cook and we were ready for dinner. Not pictured are the cheesy garlic bread we made to go with it - yum!

Winter Fun

For Adam and me, most winter evenings are spent like this: watching some internet television kept cozy by pj's and slippers. This particular show is an episode of No Reservations which Adam likes because it is all about food.

The other night, however, we decided to head out of doors and burn our Christmas tree. Anna and Peter came over and we had some pizza and went out to burn the tree - it was so dry it burned really fast and made quite the show. Unfortunately we were missing the long slow fire needed to do marshmallow so I was only able to make a few before we called it a night. I really enjoyed it though and it made me appreciate the winter - just a little.

New Years!

I ussually choose to opt out of new years festivities (finding them too expensive and too cold) but this year Peter invited us to his place for a new years party. I was sold as soon as he said we could dress up! I brought out the feather headband and teal heels from Tara's wedding and we went on our way. Peters place is perfect for a party - big open space with an island for snacks and drinks. Margaret came along with Ben, Sandy and Stephy and at midnight we lit sparklers on his terrace. Fun! After the party we tried to find some food. We were hoping for McDonalds or some Asian food but had to settle for some sub-par Middle Eastern food. I was very happy to have it at the time though.
New Years day was spent watching 30 rock, trying to make meals out of the meager pantry stock and taking intermittent naps. An excellent start to the year, I'd say!