dole plantation, oahu hawai'i (am I a dork? yes)

(Keeping these old blog archives up on this site because they serve as my own personal recipe box.  Yes, sorry, this means you will have to update your feeders).

find out when foodie suz relaunches on friday april 16th...

In the meantime, I’ll keep the archives up for this blog – mostly because I often search on them myself for recipe ideas.  Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year.

May you have warm words on a cool evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.  ~Irish Toast

gnocchi with browned butter and thyme

This is a Giada recipe.  I bought my gnocchi at the Italian Centre because I’m lazy and also afraid to make gnocchi.  My now-88 year old grandma had a very bad experience with it and it stuck with me.

Cook gnocchi in boiling salted water until it is floating.  In the meantime, melt 1/2 cup butter in a fry pan until brown (about two minutes after it is melted).  Add 1/4 cup chopped thyme.  Drain gnocchi.  Add to butter and toss.  Serve.

We ate it with roast chicken (stuff half a lemon up its bum, rub with olive oil and salt and cook at 400 until leg is jiggly), wilted spinach (cook in olive oil and minced garlic until wilted) and salad from a bag.

That’s how our family eats.  I guess you could term us as ‘homey’.  We eat at home a lot.  As Popeye said:  I yam what I yam. Thanks for reading everybody, and Happy New Year…

white bean and tuna salad

Tonight’s dinner is brought to you by Giada de Laurentiis. I received her Giada’s Everyday Italian cookbook for Christmas, went to the Italian Centre with my pastry chef Ella and created this meal:

• antipasto plate with salami, manchego, camembert and blue cheese
• white bean and tuna salad
• lemon spaghetti
• stuffed salmon (from Costco)
• toasted pound cake with mascarpone and amaretto (we could not find premade pound cake at the Italian Centre.  So Ella made her own, without the blueberries).

I have to say I was terribly pleased with this combination of food.  It was light but fulfilling, and the pound cake took the cake…warm and buttery with mascarpone cheese, apricot preserves with amaretto and toasted almonds?  Heaven.

antipasto

lemon pasta

pound cake with mascarpone and apricot amaretto

So here’s what happen when you have teenagers.  New Year’s Eve, you drive them back and forth to parties to make sure they get home safely.  You can have one glass of wine with dinner, but that’s it.  And you set your alarm for 1 am and get into a cold vehicle to pick them up in your yoga pants, pajama top and parka.

christmas at catbird ridge

My father-in-law and his wife own a gorgeous property in Summerland called Catbird Ridge.  It is a boutique hotel and very luxurious.  Normally we stop by in July and sleep on the floor in the den.  But this week, they had no guests, and we had the run of the place.  High thread count sheets and towels, satellite tv, roaring fireplace…pure luxury.

I cooked another Christmas dinner on the 28th.  I love planning menus.  This time we had:

• half a turkey (organic, courtesy of our hosts)
• Giada’s mashed potatoes
• dressing with dried cranberries, apples and pork sausage
• maple carrots
• dessert from the Bench Artisan Food Market in Penticton – decadent flourless chocolate cakes with caramel sauce and softly whipped cream

We love the Okanagan.  It is even beautiful with a light dusting of snow in the winter.

the view from catbird ridge

festive sammy

This was our Christmas dinner menu.  It was mostly an Ina Garten Christmas:

• Salad with warm goat cheese
• Prime rib
• Blue cheese sauce (I didn’t have gorgonzola as it calls for, but it turned out very well with the blue cheese)
• Popovers (#fail)
• Garlic mashed potatoes (add minced garlic, 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup butter to mashed potatoes)
• Roasted beets
• Brussel sprouts with pancetta
• Rustic maple pecan pie
• Gingerbread upside down cake

goat cheese cut by (mint) dental floss

blue cheese sauce

brussel sprouts

rustic maple pecan pie

gingerbread apple upside down cake

I botched the popovers and they ended up as burned hockey pucks.

BUT!  The blue cheese sauce with the prime rib was outta this world delicious.  I was the only one who ate the brussel sprouts, but I thought they were definitely the not-mushy version.  And I adored the Rustic maple pecan pie (thanks, Aimee)…mmmmm, all crunchy and sweet and nutty.  (Ella thankfully and skillfully made the desserts).

This feast took about five hours to prep and cook, but my kids did all the clean up afterwards while I napped on the couch, and also happily consumed their meal, so it was all worth it.

And just when you thought you could never eat again, we are going for dim sum with our neighbours this morning, as is our Boxing Day tradition…

Here’s what they tell me:

• Christmas Eve, everybody gets Santa jammies.  Santa stops at our house early to drop them off.
• We can open one present each on Christmas Eve, but not the big one from you guys.
• No waking Mom and Mike up before 7 am on Christmas morning.  They say we can open our stocking before that, but stay in our damn bedrooms!
• At the bottom of our stocking is a mandarin orange.  There are also usually Purdy Chocolates, socks, underwear, bath stuff, DVDs and books.
• Nothing happens as far as gift opening until Mom has her coffee.
• We open Christmas presents one at a time, starting with the youngest kid.
• Mom restrains herself and does not lift a finger to clean up the disaster that is the living room when we are opening presents.  She does, however, bark at us not to lose cheques or gift cards, and keeps track of who gave what in her scribbler so we can write thank you cards.
• We always phone Grandma and Grandpa in Parksville.
• Mom makes these weird cinnamon buns for breakfast.
• Then we snack all day on cheese and chocolates until the feast is served.  We also have pop, ripple chips and dip, which are rare treats.
• We can have ham, roast beef, lamb or turkey.  It just depends.
• There are always mashed potatoes.
• Ella does all the dessert baking because she’s our pastry chef.
• Mom always burns at least one pot.
• The dishwasher gets filled and started at least three times.
• Mike is in charge of cooking the meat.
• Mom makes us wait to eat so she can take pictures of the food.  Sometimes she takes pictures of raw food, because the lighting is better in the afternoon.
• We watch movies, play Wii, put together puzzles and play board games with Aaron.  If the weather is nice, we play hockey outside on the backyard rink.
• Boxing Day is all about dim sum with our neighbours, and then a movie.
• We love helping Mom and Mike with Santa stuff for our little brother.  He keeps the magic alive for everybody.