Before I get into the featured recipe, I wanted to introduce you to our newest addition to the family. I have had my eye on a sleek entry-level DSLR camera for quite some time. As I am quite loyal to the Canon brand of cameras, the EOS Rebel T3i was an easy choice. Therefore, from this moment on all my photos will be captured by this beauty. I hope you enjoy! Moving on…
This featured salad is my all-time favourite. It’s super light and simple to make. Plus the colours are gorgeous. My boyfriend makes this salad regularly for potlucks and it’s always a huge hit. Tomato, cucumber, onion and parsley. Perfect use of all your garden vegetables!
I frequent food blogs a lot. Some people zone out in front of the television after a long day at work. I zone out in front of my computer reading my favourite websites. Other people’s creations almost always inspire me to experiment in the kitchen. (more…)
I love pastry, especially dense ones like coffee cake. This time of year, I especially love berries. There is nothing better than baking with fresh berries that are in season. This recipe is not a Claudia classic, but one that I felt was worth blogging about. It is adapted from Cooks Illustrated. The dense, lemon flavored cake mixed with delicious plump blueberries is a great dessert to feature in the hot summer months. It’s also extremely simple to make.
It’s been 1 year since the start of our blog. We would like to thank each and every one of our readers for sticking around and supporting us. Your comments and blog, Facebook and Twitter visits mean the world to us. Here is to many more years of cooking with Claudia and sharing her recipes to the world.
…And of course it wouldn’t have been a true celebration without Claudia’s Skor Cake 🙂
The original goal of this blog when it was first conceived was for me to learn and document all the amazing recipes that Claudia had in her cookbook. This blog recently turned 1 year old, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job at showcasing some of her best work. However, every now and then Claudia and I come across some fantastic recipes from others that we feel require some showcasing as well. My boyfriend’s Mom is also an amazing baker. There are countless recipes of hers I would love to get my hands on and feature. However, I’ve been told by her that the only way that will happen is if I marry her son. Fair trade off, right?
This Chocolate Zucchini Cake is one of my boyfriend’s favourite recipes from his Mom. He loves this cake so much that he requests that I bake it for him each year for his birthday. I can’t complain…it’s absolutely delicious. If it wasn’t for Claudia’s beloved Skor Cake, I’d be requesting Chocolate Zucchini Cake for my birthday as well.
Like most people, summer is my favourite time of the year. The weather (for the most part) is warm and restaurant patios are a buzz with tons of people in great moods. I particularly love summer because of the selection of fruit in season. Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries are in abundance in grocery stores, farmers markets are open, and U-pick fruit farms are everywhere. Some of my favourite summer memories growing up were when Claudia would take me and my brother to U-pick farms outside the city and we’d pick pails and pails of strawberries (and fill our bellies just the same).
I also find baking to be much more enjoyable with fresh in-season fruit. One of my favourites to bake in the early summer is Strawberry Rhubarb Cake. This recipe is another gem of Claudia’s. There are a lot of strawberry rhubarb recipes out there. This one is more like a cake, but still has the same delicious flavour as a crisp.
I am not a vegetable person. I never have been. I probably never will be. Any time while growing up when I would complain to Claudia that I was hungry, her immediate response was “have a carrot”, or “have a cucumber”. This infuriated me, as I clearly wanted a cookie…or cookie dough (see image top right of the blog). I would react by pouting. I did a lot this as a child. Broccoli and cauliflower were my two veggie enemies. I despised them. Even to this day, I am not a part of their fan club. However, if integrated correctly, such as cauliflower in Claudia’s Curryflower Soup, or broccoli in this Broccoli Salad recipe, I could eat veggies all day.
This dish is the ultimate summer salad. I’ve already had this salad about 5 times in the past 2 months, and it isn’t even summer yet. Perfect for potlucks, BBQ’s and even lunch. There are many variations to Broccoli Salad. I find this one of Claudia’s is by far my favourite.
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.
We had the good fortune of being featured by fellow blogger and foodie, “The Media Chef” Kathryne Grisim in the Spring 2011 issue of Dish Magazine. Kathryne reached out to us a few months ago in the dead of winter to tell readers what foods/meals remind us of spring. Immediately, I thought of Joey Restaurant’s Viva Salad. If you haven’t had the good fortune to try it, I cannot say enough great things about it. Delicious!
Grab your copy of Dish Magazine today at any MLCC location and check us out on page 16!
Happy belated Easter! We hope yours was as fun and food-filled as ours! We sincerely apologize for our lack of posts over the past month. With Claudia vacationing in Arizona and my work schedule becoming a little more hectic these days, we simply lost track of time. But enough excuses…we’re back and it feels great!
With all the snow gone in Winnipeg (hopefully for good this time) and the grass beginning to turn green, we decided it was time to feature a lighter dish with this post. We receive a lot of comments on our postings, mainly on the delicious, gooey desserts that we love to feature. A huge thank you goes out to each and every one of you who have taken the time to comment and try our recipes! However, we received a particular request from my dear friend Richard in Ottawa who wanted us to feature a delicious yet healthy recipe. So Richard, this post for Million Dollar Salad is for you!
This salad is pretty much the easiest thing you could possibly make. The hardest part is chopping some lettuce and onion. The rest is pretty basic. You even get a workout shaking the salad dressing. This salad is simple but definitely does not hold back on any flavour. The fruit is sweet and the dressing is tart. It’s the perfect combination.
