The Empanada Company and Girls Night

I had a girl's night and needed to bring some food, so i made a seven layer dip, but that afternoon i was Etobicoke and passed this place i'd always wanted to go to - The Empanada Company.

Pizza on the BBQ - new toppings

So operation new computer has finally been accomplished - of course i have a bunch of photos on my old one and i have to so some bribing to get these back. For now i had a few still on the computer. And yes, we are doing another pizza on the bbq. I don`t own my own bbq and this weather seems to be fading, so i`m taking advantage!

Also my mother had just bought a mandoline and we wanted to experiement. Verdit - great for tomatoes and onions, mushrooms... not so much

The meal

Ingredients (including heirloom tomatoes)

Assembly

Watermelon, feta and cucumber salad

Pizza number one - olives (on half) buffalo mozzarella, roasted red peppers

garlic and red onions

Number two - goat cheese, tomato sauce, asparagus (other things i can`t remember)

Cheese Dinner

In celebration of my finishing my final stats exam i spent the day wandering the city. We must have walked 7 km, but got to see a bunch of different neighbourhoods, plus we picked up things as we wandered. Bread from St. John's bakery - where we got the very last stuff (other than the olive bread). We went to the epicure shop on Parliament and got crackers, some sliced meats and these amazing spiced black olives.

It knew it was a special occasion so i also broke out a bottle of wine i had been saving that i purchased when we went to the Foreign Affairs/Treadwell wine/food tasting.

The cheeses came from a new spot in the Junction really close to me called Junction Fromagerie. I love cheese, and really enjoy supporting stores in my neighbourhood. We got a great blue cheese, a brie and a old cheddar that i found a little bland.

I also had some Branksome pickle and sundried tomato pesto, cheddar crackers and spinach dip.

Mahi mahi melts

When we were in Haliburton, the President's Choice mahi mahi was on sale, so we picked up a couple of them, knowing how much we like to eat fish. Although Fish Tacos were of course on the menu, i had been intending to make tuna melts at some point, i thought perhaps i would make it with mahi mahi instead.

This was also on the last day so we wanted to use up as many of the ingredients as we could. Eric made a greek salad as an accompaniment.

I bbq-ed the fish, and added many of the topping i would normally for a tuna melt; onions, jalapenos, green apples. I also put tomato and avocado on the sandwiches.

Once i had the mix done i added them to whole wheat baguettes and topped them with extra old cheddar. I will admit they were not as good as tuna melts - the fish was too mild, but i am not done with the challenge of fish sandwiches.

Toasty.

Mother's Day Brunch

Mother's Day Menu

Proscutto Wrapped Asparagus

Adam's Biscuts

Fruit Salad

Arugula Strawberry and Avocado Salad

Cantal Cheese Tart

Tuna Empanada

Bread Pudding

My mother always told me, never make something for the first time when you're having company. Of course the other thing she mentioned was that nothing will ever be as good as the first time you make it.... well i decided to go with the second rule and made an entire meal of things i really have not made before. Why not live dangerously, especially when you're hosting quite a few people for mother's day brunch???

I actually had some real assistance with this meal - my friend Adam was nice enough to make some delicious biscuits for the meal. I'm not a real bread baker so i was really impressed, as was my mom. (i was a little jealous of her reaction to the biscuits). I'm thinking of asking Adam for the recipe so i can recreate them.

James also helped me with the Praline for the bread pudding, and ran to the store for the million of things i forgot. He also calmed me down when i realized i had made a very substantial mistake when making the Tuna Empanada.

Three of these recipes were actually from Bon Appetite - and i would make them again.

Above: The mother's day spread!

The philo with the prosciutto

As i mentioned i was freaking out a little bit when i started making the Tuna Empanadas and realized that i had purchased phio pastry instead of puff pastry. Yes, these are both a pastry, but they are very different. I decided to make the dish as best i could and decide whether to serve it once it was out of the oven.

It wasn't too difficult a recipe - you sauteed onions, green peppers, garlic and seeded plum tomatoes. Once they were done you added a couple of tins of really good tuna in olive oil - allowing the mixture to cool. You then halved the pastry (which ever kind you bought) then lined the pastry with prosciutto and topped it with the tuna mix. Then you spread two sliced hard boiled eggs, and topped with the other half of the pastry. (if you actually bought they right kind, you'd want to fold the edges here) then brush with egg wash.

Cutting up the Tuna Empanada ingredients

I also made a cheese tart with cantal cheese, which you could replace with white cheddar, but i wanted to make it the authentic way. I went down to St. Lawence Market to a cheese monger to get this cheese. This recipe involved me actually making the pastry in my food processor - cooling it, and baking the crust before adding the decadent mixture of eggs and cheese. I made something of a mess with this one as my floors aren't even and the custard that i added overflowed a little. I would make this one again - and if you wanted a shortcut you could use pre-made pastry.

BBQ at my sisters

Last sunday my sister decided to have a bbq as a part of a celebration of her sister-in-law's new clothing store opening. I had been up north, and headed down in the afternoon to give her a hand with some of the chopping and such. She had an afternoon wine and cheese with some people and then we headed out to the store - Circa 1975 in the Beaches.

Michelle had some great clothes and there was an excellent turn out of friends and family, all trying on clothes, sipping wine and snacking. After a couple of hours, and many dollars spent, we headed back to my sister's house to finish off the cheese and snacks and start the bbq.

There were an assortment of burgers - meat, chicken and veggie - along with the usual toppings and a lovely salad my sister makes. It is a spinach salad with lots of fruit (various berries and pineapple) along with these amazing candied walnuts which are soooo addictive.

Overall it was quite a success!

Above:

Colourful salad (with wedding album)

The burgers

Burger toppings

Veggies and spinach dip

Cheese!!!!

Tuna melts - little bundles of joy

A lot of people have a very negative opinion about the tuna melt, this mainly stems from having really poorly made ones with too much mayo, little spice, hot dog buns for bread and plastic cheese. Some people on the other hand believe that cheese and fish do not go together - i would first of all like to challenge these people to a thumb war, then victorious i would make them my version of the tuna melt and accept their humble apologies.

When tuna melts are made well they are a great light lunch to make for a cottage crowd. People can simply help themselves to however many they want and even snack on them when they are cold. I like to use a good bread - this is essential to the tuna melt - i think that english muffins are great, and not too bready, but i also like Ace rosemary focatia triangles or their baguettes. Toast them a bit before you put the tuna and cheese on and back in the oven, this keeps them from getting soggy. (but not too much to make them break)

I tend to varry the main veggies/condiments, but i think that adding a lot of them takes away from the overwealming tuna and mayo content that some people don't enjoy. I always start with a base of low sodium high quality water packed tuna. My usual additions are:

Green onion or red onion
Granny smith apples (trust me on this one - diced, so crisp)
Diced carrots
Olives or sundried tomatoes (both make it too salty)
Pepper, hot sauce

The dressing varries on the moisture of the ingredients, but it is usally a mixture of mayo, dijon mustard and a little olive oil if necessary. Also i add a little of the cheese into the mix, which i think is a great addition.

Top the toasted bread with the tuna topping, add a slice of swiss and toast until golden and melted. The swiss doesn't tend to make a mess, and also keeps the tuna in place.

Above:

Tuna mixture
Ready for the oven
Tuna melts
A nice light meal (salad with humus and carrots)