u/LveeD

Our amazing Meatball just crossed the rainbow bridge after 12 fantastic years of living his best life ever. I can return his leftover unopened food to Chewy for a refund but I’d rather donate it to a local shelter. He was kind of a chonk so it’s Blue Buffalo Healthy weight food, both wet and dry! Would love your best recs that aren’t Broward Animal Care, because they are the worst.

Crispy ginger beef was invented at a restaurant called the Silver Inn in Calgary, Alberta. But it’s completely different everywhere else outside of Calgary. In Vancouver the sauce is darker. In Toronto there’s barely any sauce and the meat itself is sweet with extreme ginger flavor. I tried my best to stick true to the original and it was super tasty. I’ve never used Chinese red vinegar or plum sauce in a sauce before but it came out great. Link to recipe in comments!

This was absolutely fantastic!! But I will say, the recipe says 30 minutes. I’m going to put that as a “loose 30 minutes” at best. I’m not a chef by any means, but slicing/dicing 2lbs of mushroom is a lot. Plus the porcini/onion/garlic/anchovies. The prep step took me at best 30 minutes. Worth it in the end though. It was hard to find dried porcini but it really made the difference.

I honestly felt like I got lost in translation myself this week!! I had grand plans but it’s so damn hot I couldn’t be bothered with anything overly extensive. Plus mid year challenge angst and all that. So I stumbled upon the Welsh Rarebit. Which is very much the same as beer cheese, yet broiled and served over toast (with better aged cheese at that) Not a big toast fan, but then all the recipes I saw called for stout! Which made me think of Guinness, which made me think of bratwurst which made me think of sauerkraut! None of which are Welsh. Nor is the Irish cheese or the Guinness, nor the bratwurst at that! But it was sooo good. Side note I did serve it with some Suntory Japanese Whiskey, because according to the Lost in Translation movie “For relaxing times…make it Suntory time”. But definitely not the 17 year aged bottle because who can afford that!

100/10 amazing! So easy and delicious. The sausage you buy is super important like Nagi says! I got mine from the butcher so it was extra delicious. https://www.recipetineats.com/orecchiette-sausage-pasta-in-creamy-tomato-sauce/ If you’re looking for an easy weeknight yummy dish, this is definitely it!

When I saw the theme for this week I knew I had to recreate this ridiculous Caesar from Score on Davie in Vancouver. I think there’s other locations now too. I was surprised to find Clamato in the US. The legendary Canadian Caesar is like a Bloody Mary but it uses a clam/tomato juice instead of just tomato juice. You need that extra funk. I like mine extra muddy (more Worcestershire sauce) and extra spicy (more Tabasco) with a celery salt/tajin rim. Made corn dogs and the hamburger buns too. And I hate pickles so I added a fresh celery stem because that’s the best part of a Caesar! Last picture is what it looks like at the actual restaurant (not mine). Such a dumb gimmick but a super fun sports bar.

This was absolutely amazing and so easy! I’ve learned so much from the Food Lab by Kenji Alt Lopez over the years. But his reverse seared method is probably my favorite. Start low in the oven for 2 hours and then blast with high heat for extra crackling. In Kenji’s words, have you ever seen anything so beautiful! Link to recipe I used (not Kenji) and more thoughts in the comments.

Listen I applaud everyone out there who can handle Offal. But I’ve tried. I’ve tried tripe, I’ve tried chicken liver, chicken hearts, beef heart and even haggis. And I’m not against the taste but my stomach just can’t. So I went for the play on words instead. I also didn’t realize the puff pastry I bought only came with one sheet so I had to just half the recipe and only make two. Good thing there’s only two of us!! I air fried the chicken thighs first, made my go-to pot pie filling and then added some extra gelatin to really get it to set. Pretty tasty. But a lot of effort for just two hearts!

I was shocked when I went to the supermarket and this giant tomahawk was on sale, so I scooped it up! Perfectly grilled. I’ve never really made compound butter before but it’s delicious.

World Cup in our family is seriously no joke and is all about bragging rights! Our family has spread across the globe so we had representation from Canada (me), Netherlands (hubs), Germany (bro), Australia (SIL), Portugal (SIL), USA (we live here) and normally Italy (sorry suckers, sis). When we found out that the Netherlands and Canada would potentially going to knock each other out, we planned our meal of our favorite Dutch and Canadian snacks. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. And then Canada lost too so my butter tarts were more like bitter tarts in the end. Still delicious.

This was absolutely delicious!! So creamy considering there’s nothing but lime juice and water as the liquid. I did chicken out at the last minute after last week’s spice overload and opted not to use the chipotles in adobo. But I did use some chipotle powder to kick it up a notch. I also added Mexican oregano and upped the cumin like other comments suggested on the recipe. I’m not usually a canned bean fan but it came out perfect. The biggest surprise was the Late July Chia & Quinoa tortilla tips. I went for the extra fiber boost but was not expecting to enjoy them. Probably my new favorite tortilla chip. So light. Will definitely be adding this to the rotation.

Mango season in Florida is no joke! People steal mangoes. People trade mangoes for sourdough bread. Even a bakery was giving out free cakes in exchange for free mangoes. There's also an unwritten rule that if your neighbor's tree is hanging over your yard, then any fruit hanging on your side is fair game. I'm grateful that my neighbor is lovely so I didn't even have to steal, I just came home and there was a tupperware of fresh cut mangoes from her garden at my front door. Which was amazing because I don't garden and I have the blackest thumb around. And yes I realize that "harvesting" and "gardening" are not the same thing, but it did come from someone's garden! The hot sauce was HOT, which I expected but it was also gross. The jerk chicken did not turn out properly either. Maybe I shouldn't have tossed in a mango or two in the marinade but I just assumed it would work. NOPE. But that summer corn salad is the best new recipe I've made this year. Recipe links in comment.

It was my husbands birthday yesterday (Gemini) so I promised him I would make him his favorite cake from his favorite bakery in Amsterdam. That was a **choice** considering I don’t speak or read dutch but I tried my best! So many things went wrong, so **communication** was key. Couldn’t find hazelnuts anywhere so had to wait four hours to rush deliver them on Amazon. I can’t tell you how many eggs I wasted trying to separate the whites properly. So we kept having to delay and wait until the eggs came up to room temp before attempting again. The struggle was real. But I love him dearly and he deserves the world.

Wow this week got away from me! I love coffee. Like stick me in my veins love coffee. I really wanted to make Emeril’s coffee rubbed ribs but time got away. So i pivoted to no churn coffee ice cream! And then life happened and none of it was working out. So enter the Espresso Martini. Definitely needed after today. I didn’t have coffee beans so I’m annoyed that.there isn’t three of them representing the proper martini. But delicious all the same.

I really didn’t think I was going to enjoy this as much as I did, but I devoured it. I used Momofuku instant noodles which I thought would taste slightly better than just ramen and they might be my new favorite instant noodles. It hurt to throw out the spice packet but I enjoyed the nice inclusion of a pack of sesame seeds. 6 minutes and 30 seconds for the eggs, I started the noodles at the four minute mark and everything was ready in 13 minutes flat. Will definitely make again.

I’ve been trying to nail down Cantonese chow mein because growing up in Toronto it was my absolute favorite thing to eat. I still get it from my favorite place every time I head home for a visit. Chinese food in South Florida is the worst, and most places chow mein doesn’t even have the crispy noodles, or noodles at all. Which is just strange because chow mein literally means stir fried noodles!! This is the closest I’ve come so far to nailing the noodle cake and sauce.

I think bacon jam might be my new favorite condiment! Plus bacon was buy one get one free at Publix so I kinda felt like it was free bacon in case it didn’t work out. I loved the addition of the red pepper flakes because it gave a nice hint of spice counterpart to the salty bacon/sweet onion, honey, maple syrup and brown sugar. It was so hands off to unlike just caramelizing onions for two hours. Bonus obligatory cheesesteak pic I ate it with.

I love pizza night!! I didnt have time to make my own dough so I grabbed some fresh dough from the grocery store. I always make my sauce though because it’s so easy and so much better than a can. I prefer whole milk low moisture mozzarella that I grate myself over the fresh mozzarella option. So we always have to make two!