Ribs & Lobster - a christmas tradition?

Ribs have been a bit of a family standard for holidays for a while now. My mother has been swearing she will never make turkey again, but every year she feel funny about not doing it- and we have turnkey of some sort. This year however she decided to really do no turnkey and chose to do lobster tails! Trust me i wasn't complaining.

I was in charge of the tails. They were originally frozen, and they suggested you thaw them for at least 8 hours before preparing.

There were so many means of making them, and i had made them once on a bbq - which i liked, but as my parents had a number of feet of snow, i thought it might not be the best idea. I ended up opting to steam them, using white wine instead of water or stock. I had also read that they curl up so its best to skewer them to prevent this.

Steamed Lobster

There were also a number of veggie sides of course. There was a baked cauliflower dish, that had cheese and tomatoes. Almost like a mac and cheese but with cauliflower. There were also these really great green beans that my mother had blanched earlier and then tossed in some sauteed shallots and butter. The beans were perfect!

Caprese Salad and Lemons for the Lobster


Twice baked potatoes - regular and sweet.

Ribs, Lobster and Champers???

(how fancy)

A frozen lemon meringue pie - i think this one was a Bonnie Stern - it had a neat decoration of frozen grapes. I actually didn't try this - i have a limited sweet tooth.

And here was the breakfast offerings the next day. We were all pretty full, so my parents had scones and croissants, fruit plate, and some xmas candy!!!!!

Squash Enchiladas - Potluck specialty

I know - i know, i've been terrible. To be honest i've been eating terrible things and am rarely home during meal times. I am going to try and cook more for myself, because i have honestly been terrible. Luckily i had a few meals over the holiday that i can throw in - but i promise i'll do a little better. On an interesting note- this is one year for me! (kinda cool)

So i had my company's United Way potluck, and even though i am at school most of the time, i had no classes so i thought i would go. I didn't really have a plan until the day before when i decided to make squash enchiladas - i had never made them the day before and i was a little worried how to heat them (we have no oven) and how well the corn tortilla would stand up. But i did it anyway.

So here is my recipe for butternut squash enchiladas:

Ingredients

First i peel and cut into similar size cubes the squash. I also roughly chop a sweet onion. I tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and some cumin. I always line my pans with parchment paper - it keeps all the juices in, and is super easy to clean up. Into the oven at 450.

Here they are out of the oven. A little brown and easy to pierce with a fork. I also did a head of garlic separately in a ramekin.

For the filling, just squash is kinda repetitive, so i mix mine with cream cheese (light),chipotle sauce, the garlic, salsa, and just because i had a can, and they keep falling out of the cupboards and nearly knocking me out - tomatillos.

One hint, make sure you hold back some of the squash, so you can make it thicker if you've put too much liquid like i did with the tomatillos.


Once the squash filling was finished, i then did the rest of the ingredients for the tortillas. Green onions, lettuce tomatoes, jalapenos and extra old white cheddar.

Here are all the ingredients ready for the assembly. Making this dish is kinda repetitive, so for efficiency its best to have everything ready before you start to put the dish together.

In a dry non-stick hot pan i heated up the tortillas, turning often.

Here is my assembly line

Tortillas

Squash Filling

Other Fillings

Enchilada Pan

I coated the bottom of the enchilada pan with some of the filling, some salsa and a few green onions and tomatoes. I then began to make each tortilla role by adding all of the ingredients assembled.

Role it tightly and lay in the pan seam down. Repeat until the pan is full, then coat with remainder of squash (you might have a little extra) veggies and cheese. Bake covered until bubbling, then remove foil and allow to brown a little.


I ended up cooking them half way - then the day of doing them again. They were okay - i know they can be a lot better - so perhaps not a night before things. Also i though i was gentle with the spicing, but a few people thought it had a lot of kick. Something to remember when cooking for pot lucks - not everyone likes it hot.

Fancy(ish) Friday Breakfast for One

Okay, i'm in the middle of essay hell - hence the lack of posts. This one was from just before the hell, i actually can barely remembering sitting down to eating a real meal or eating anything that isn't subway or ramen noodles. So here is probably one of my last decent meals. Hopefully i will get through this soon and be back to cooking and blogging!

Looking at this - well this looks like everything in my fridge - i see spinach, rapini... english muffins, red peppers... eggs, and looks like cheese on top.

Sauteeing the rapini and spinach

Right, right now i remember - i made hollandaise!!! Talk about fancy

I also over-poached the egg apparently. (and made home fries)

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.

Lentil Salad and a bonus salad

Amaretto Sours and homemade pizza

As a new feature i've decided to add a drink to this menu. Eric and i were having a lazy friday - in part due to thursday's apartment football game. We were both kinda lazy and broke, but still wanted to do something so i thought i would make cocktails and pizza - so civilized.

I have a special Amaretto sour recipe that i took inspiration from the Paddock at Queen and Bathurst. What makes it different is using lemon rather than cheap bar lime, along with vodka and orange juice.

As for the pizzas, they were good, but pretty standard. We were going to make them on real dough, but the grocery store didn't have any. We used whole wheat nan instead.

One of the more unique toppings we used was rapini. I still had a bunch left from the cod, so it was pretty good, i put a little olive oil on mine to keep it from burning.

Eric made one, i made another, and the third was a collaboration.

(mine's the one with out the sauce)

Here we are ready to pounce!

Tuna School Lunch - fish week continued

This is a really simple tuna and white bean lunch, that i'm sure i've made before for this blog, but you're getting it again. I like it because its cheap and i usually have the ingredients in the pantry. As for the veggies- that really depends on what i have on hand. This time it was carrots, onions and peppers.


For the dressing i usually mix mayo and mustard and if i have any add a little kick of ranch dressing since it compliments everything really well.

The only issue you i have with this meal is that it makes pretty much a week's worth of lunches and by the fourth day you are really sick of eating it. I served it this time on spinach, but its actually better on arugula or that spinach arugula mix.

lunch

Sushi in Markham

This saturday we had a an unofficial field trip to Markham - lead by my school friend Natasha. We did Pacific Mall and historic Unionville - ending our trip with all you can eat sushi. As my second round at all you can eat, i'm not the greatest judge. Things came out kinda irregularly, but everything we ate was very good.

Here are a few of the highlights - we also had sushi and sushi pizza - but these were the most memorable. We ended the meal with green tea ice cream and fried bananas (i just had the banana)

Steak - this was actually really nice.

Sushi lights at night

Bi-lingual

Some chicken dish i didn't try

Eel pancake

(limit one per table)

Miso eggplant - this was so tender we had two

Soba noodles in a light broth