Calzones and more

Hello - My Sister and brother-in-law are coming today! Early this morning I made a basic pizza dough recipe, and after the first rise placed it in a plastic bag in the fridge. Then I made my Italian bread - next I made some hummus and cut up some red, green, yellow and orange peppers to serve with it. Then I made some calzone filling and cooked up some sausages as well...

made some dark chocolate mouse and am now taking a break - soon I will make a salad...
ended up making two kinds of salsas with some chips as a starter - calzones were amazing!
Saturday, I made belguim waffles and a great fruit salad for breakfast - then I can't remember lunch, oh yeah - we went and got an amazing little kitten and had fast food due to traffic and starvation - came home, went to the park for a cook-out, burgers and dogs, homemade coleslaw with my new food processor, watermelon etc
Sunday my husband made these incredible omlets, I made a fabulous pumpkin bread and more fruit salad - my sister and husband left. Easy dinner tonight, faijitas (steak and chicken) leftover salsa and chips - tired now...
Tomorrow I am making stuffed shells, a new salad I came up with but haven't yet tried and homemade chocolate ice cream!!
Oh, in honour of the kitten here is what my daughter did to my veggie platter

Skewer Picnic - so much fun...

Tonight after a long day, we went ahead and had a great a great picnic - all different types of skewers! I did caprese skewers, with Mozzarella
and basil and tomatoes; tortellini skewers with sun dried tomatoes and tropical fruit ones with mango, watermelon and kiwi - what fun!!

Jess played in the water and icy had fun too...

weekend recap

Sorry - so much going on its hard to blog - had friends for dinner on Saturday, wnet to the park on sunday and was disgusted with the bread so I made my own, check it out dinner Saturday was Beef Bourguignon with mashed potatoes and brocolli rade and panna catto i also dis some hummus and a veggie platter to start - why am i italics??
Anyway heres a picture of the main dish

Hot Dogs!!

Did you know that July is National Hot dog month?? I did not, but my daughter found out - so in honor of this, I made healthy pigs in a blanket for lunch today. I used organic, hormone free, nitrate/nitrite free all beef hot dogs and the dough I use for pizzas and calzones - so easy and she was so happy! I served them with some watermelon to complete the summer theme and some juicy bing cherries...enjoy!

Rice Triangles

These lovely little appetizers make a great start to any meal. They aren't all that difficult, but they are so attractive. They are quite popular in Japan and are called Oginiri. Basically you just cook some sushi rice and then while it is still warm shape it into triangles, i chose to encase some cucumber batons in a few of the triangles and then wrap those with a strip of nori. Then I mixed some poached and flaked salmon in with the rest of the rice, shaped and coated with black sesame seeds and some with white seeds. I served them with soy sauce and they were a big hit!

Dinner tonight - a picnic in the park!

Planning a picnic for tonight - made some yummy dinners over the past few days, yesterday went to a neighbors party and brought a platter of my savory Palmiers, a puff pastry swirl filled with mushrooms and bacon - really good. Recently made a wonderful chicken salad for dinner and another night did a pizza pocket calzone dish - will add a link to these soon...
off to the market to get some french bread, roast beef, provolone, really hoping to find a tomato that tastes like a tomato...some red onion, mayo, spicy mustard
and maybe some chips?
Had the picnic, it was great. I brought along a wedge of brie, a small cast iron skillet and a head of garlic wrapped in foil - we had roasted garlic and warm brie for appetizers - the day was beautiful - see the clouds in the water?

So very tired...

and alone

Floating Islands

Made the floating islands my daughter loved so much in Paris - lots of work, classic french cooking but oh! so very good - and a wonderful company dessert because you can do so much of it ahead. These are called Ile flottante in French, basically islands made of meringues float atop a classic creme anglaise (a vanilla custard like sauce)

Burgers and more in the park

Gorgeous day - went to a local state park and had a cook out. Carefully planned and took everything we needed, made a German potato salad, coleslaw - got some watermelon, marshmallows, oh and pre shaped organic ground beef patties, buns and fixings - it was great!

Pasta and meat sauce

Still exhausted from my trip - made a quick meat sauce with some pasta and a caprese salad with my gorgeous basil - sadly, the vegetable garden doesn't look so good - too much rain, too cold, not enough sun. The herbs look fabulous though - added some fresh oregano to my sauce, garnished with some fresh Italian parsley - oh and cats on the counter this morning...

Grilled cheese and a French salad

I am home!! Last night after all the wonderful food we had abroad, my daughter wanted
something comforting and familiar - so I went ahead and made her grilled cheese with
broiled tomatoes - I, however, wanted to try and replicate a delightful salad I had in Paris. Here's the picture of the one I made, and below it the picture of the one from France - what a wonderful vacation

Home again, after 8 days abroad

OK - So i really do miss Paris. I will share what I ate, and it was all beyond amazing. but right now I am exhausted. Tonight for dinner my wonderful mother-in-law made her version of Syrian chicken. I made panna cotta with two different fruit coulis...and a video for the blackberry one here are some pix and the video for the panna cotta and blackberry coulis

Vacation - day 1, here in London

What glorious weather - espresso machine in my room is amazing - went for a run, everyone else still sleeping - right near the river with a lovely view.
Can't wait to go exploring and will tell you about my food experiences here - off to Paris tomorrow, and no insult to the UK but that is where I am most looking forward to the food!!