I have a friend who loves lemon in all desserts. Every time I do an engagement at his place, he has to have the taste of lemons in his dessert. I have this dessert – I think the secret to the extra lemony taste is the lemon zest in the crust. The crust itself is [...]
I've been really busy over the last few weeks with mid week and weekend Chef assignments. Some of it birthday celebrations and others just a reason for good friends to get together. The most popular items right now are hors d 'oeuvres. Those fast disappearing items that get walked around on platters or at stand alone stations. [...]
Yes… you can make these delicious cookies using the BKM – again, I cannot emphasize enough – 1 container to clean up convenience. I made two sizes – only because I had a helper and one ice cream scoop, so I used the spoon method. This was a Sunday night experiment and the more familiar [...]
My favorite comfort food is pasta with meat balls. It doesn’t have to be spaghetti, in fact my favorite pasta is penne. Something about the shape of the noodles, the way sauce sticks inside the tunnels, whether it is a meat sauce, tomato sauce or just pesto, it’s undeniably comfortable. Throw in meatballs, the kind [...]
Oh it's the first one relax, I'll get more adventurous as my familiarity with the machine builds. I wanted to try making something that even if I didn't follow the instructions for the machine, I'd still be able to salvage for dinner. So Mashed Sweet Potatoes it was. I followed the cooking instructions in the book - [...]
Well, fall is here! Although looking at the weather you’d never know it. But no complaints from my end, I love this weather – warm days and cool nights. In September, the PC Cooking School program took me from Georgetown to Queen’s Quay to Ajax and Newmarket and lots of places in the middle. I [...]
The box arrived by courier. I carefully sliced open the tape and took each piece out, laying it all in front of me. For the first time, looking at an instruction manual, wished my kids were here to help me! I can do this I thought, it's what Chefs do, - I'm trained, older, seasoned as they [...]
It's here!!! From my previous blog, I entered a contest to "test-cook" with the Bellini Kitchen Master. Well my entry was selected and it arrived - and what a package it is. It contains a stainless steel bowl, cooking basket, steam accessories, a mixer, chipping blade, stirring blade, and other pieces to make cooking life easier. It [...]
Yes that's right - Peach, Tomato and Caper salsa. This is a really great tasting salsa with a great combination of flavors. Peaches are every where and they are one of my favorite fruits so I'm always looking for new ways to serve them and to combine different flavors with it. I served this with salmon [...]
Here’s an easy fish recipe with three components – topping, the fish itself and crackling made from the skin. I used a salmon filet (or fillet) but you could really use any type of fish and either pieces or whole fish. What makes this dish is the really simple parsley topping and the salted crackling. [...]
