I love the weekends for more reasons than just the fact that I can sleep in and not have to drive 45 minutes to work in the dark. I also love weekends because it means I have more time to make something other than a smoothie for breakfast. Don’t get me wrong, I love smoothies. But they are a little hard to drink day in and day out when it’s winter and cold in the morning. (more…)
Friends, I’m obsessed. And this time it’s not with pumpkin. I’m obsessed with making this delicious and simple tomato jam. I had an abundance of tomatoes last week in my garden since our temperatures flirted with dipping below the freezing mark for the first time in months. (more…)
So-called “superfoods” intrigue me. In a mission to bake less and eat healthier, I decided to do some research on quinoa, which has been classified alongside such items as blueberries, turmeric and acai as a superfood.
It’s not everyday that somebody shows up at my door with a big wheel of cheese. Well, last week Claudia did. And she was proud. She had been wanting to make this appetizer since before Christmas. When she showed up at my door that cold Monday evening, her patience had clearly run out. She couldn’t take looking at the wheel of Brie cheese in her fridge anymore. The thought of it expiring before she had an opportunity to feature this recipe on this blog was too much for her to take. Therefore, she showed up and we made this beauty. It’s rich, buttery, cheesy, sweet and sour all at the same time. Did I mention Claudia also brought a Costco-sized box of crackers to go along with the wheel of cheese? She meant business. I couldn’t say no – and I’m glad I didn’t. This appetizer is absolutely delicious and perfect for any company you may be hosting. You can also cut this recipe in half if you don’t want to purchase a huge wheel of Brie cheese and make enough to feed a small army. But then that wouldn’t be as fun! Finally, a special thank you to Claudia’s coworker, Barb, who gave us this recipe. None of this could have been shared without her.
Yesterday Claudia showed up at my house with, what looked like, 17 recycle bags full of food. She wanted to cook. She wanted to cook BAD. After a few hours and painful cramps in my feet, we were able to crank out a few great recipes for the blog! This salad is a newer addition to Claudia’s rotation. She was very eager to share it with you all. Not only is it super pretty, but it’s super healthy, fresh and delicious.
For as long as I can remember, Claudia has been making Layered Taco Dip. Often when I was younger and my parents were entertaining friends at our house, she would making this snack. As a child, I encouraged my parents to have their friends over more often, as it meant I would be able to consume more of this amazing dip.
These days, this dip makes an appearance during football season. Tonight is the Grey Cup, and our Winnipeg Blue Bombers are playing in it. For those who don’t follow the CFL, it’s essentially the Canadian version of the Super Bowl. There are many different versions and customizations to this dip, so please feel free to use your favourite ingredients as layers. Claudia typically keeps it simple with a few main ingredient layers like ground beef, salsa and cheese. I’ve had other variations of this dip that include black olives, refried beans and guacamole. I have found Claudia’s simplicity to this dip to be the best.
With the temperatures slowly rising and summer not too far away, BBQ dinners are becoming a lot more frequent. In our family, BBQ dinners are pretty much every Sunday at my parents during the summer months. The standard fare of steak, chicken and ribs are the stars, with a variety of summer salads and potato dishes to round out the menu. This Killer Potatoes dish is a huge family favourite for us. Whether it’s for a BBQ or to accompany an indoor winter meal, these potatoes are a delicious change from the typical baked or mashed potato variety. Not to mention beyond simple to make.
Claudia not only cooks fantastic recipes that were passed down to her from her mother. She also has a great vault of recipes that she received from friends and coworkers. This recipe was given to Claudia a long time ago by her coworker (and my former boss) Barb. I’m not sure if this is a Barb original, or one that was passed along to her. Either way, it’s delicious enough that me and Claudia had to share it with you.
Now like most recipes featured on this blog, this isn’t necessarily the healthiest. There is a lot of cheese. I mean a LOT of cheese. However, you can make your own low-fat modifications on each ingredient to make it less artery clogging. We’ve used part skim cheese, whole wheat tortillas and low fat mushroom soup in this blog rendition. It still turned out amazing. We hope you give this one a try – even if it is on a “cheat day”.
Today is my Baba’s (Claudia’s Mom) 82nd birthday. There really isn’t a better way to celebrate her life (and Claudia’s essentially) than to post the staple of my Ukrainian childhood (and the best food she ever made) on this day. That being perogies. No one, and I do mean no one, can ever top my Baba’s perogies. They are simply the best. I know there are a lot of you who say the same thing about your own family recipe. But I kid you not, my Baba made and sold hundreds (if not thousands) of dozens of these little nuggets of gold for people just like yourselves after they realized they did not have the best family recipe. Trust me on this one. I grew up on this stuff after all!
Claudia and I spent all Saturday afternoon perfecting the dough and creating dozens of differently filled perogies. We finally came up with what we thought Baba would deem as worthy to share with friends. Perogies are the ultimate comfort food. I have never grown tired of them. My hope is that after trying these for yourself, you won’t either.
If you haven’t read the Inspiration section of this website prior to reading the rest of this post, I highly recommend you do. Mainly because it explains the copious amounts of sinful butter in this recipe. Well, it sort of does. It more or less justifies it as an essential in Ukrainian cuisine.
Nalysnyky (pronounced NAL-YES-NAH-KEH) is a staple on our family dinner table on all holidays. They are often made ahead of time and frozen until the day of the dinner event. I actually have never had them otherwise until I made this recipe with Claudia for the blog. I have to admit, if you can, eating them fresh is the way to go. Nalysnyky is essentially cheese filled crepes (slathered in butter of course and baked). This recipe takes a total of one hour from start to finish and truly is worth every minute.