Chicken and Blue Cheese Pasta

We had a couple of friends over for a games night, and I put together a charcuterie platter from some of my favourite shops on Granville Island. I had not been in probably a year, and it was great to get back to Oyama Sausage - which finally has a ticket system for taking your orders! I also visited Benton Brothers Cheese and asked the nice young man at the counter to suggest a couple of cheeses for a platter - a hard, a blue and a brie/camembert. The service was great, and he had me try each cheese before making a decision. I decided to go with a milder blue, as not everyone is a huge fan, and wanted something soft and creamy. His suggestion, a Saint Agur Blue, was perfect, so I bought a larger piece in order to have some leftover to cook with. This recipe came together nicely with ingredients I had on hand, and according to Brent was something he would be happy to have ordered in a restaurant.

Butter Tart Slice

I'll admit that I've never made butter tarts before, however I have made these many times before. This time they didn't turn out as well as in the past, and I think it may have been the sugar I used. The recipe calls for brown sugar, and I used yellow. The sugar itself is a little finer, and I think using regular brown sugar would have been better. Reviews from classmates and Brent say they are great, so I decided to post the recipe.

30 Days of Dinner - Challenge Complete

So we have reached the end of September, and with that the end of our 30 Days of Dinner Challenge. The last week (and two days) were fantastic. Some of the best recipes were waiting for us. This was extra great because of our experience last week. I won't lie, I'm glad the challenge is over, because I am excited to start creating meals again. I have never followed a recipe every day for this long, maybe once or twice a week, but for 30 days was tough. It was great having a plan, but every time we veered from it slightly I felt like I was cheating.

Here are my thoughts on the final days. I'm not going to blog our favourite recipe this week, because it was too hard to decide (although the scallops were a front runner). Who knows, maybe a few of these recipes will show back up after being adapted in the kitchen with Reebs one day!

Procrastination Cookies

So I've been baking a lot more, and I think it's because it's a new way to procrastinate, most specifically from Economics and Finance homework. Tonight I decided to make oatmeal cookies and I kind of spliced two recipes together (one had raisins, the other had chocolate chips). They were a little spicy, that's because in my tired state I mixed up the measurements for the vanilla and cinnamon. I was looking at the tablespoon of cinnamon and thinking 'wow, that's a lot of cinnamon', and as I dumped it in I re-checked the recipe. Woops. They still turned out great!

30 Days of Dinner - Week Three

I have to admit, week three was not great. There may have been other factors influencing this, in particular a trip to the dentist that left my teeth very sensitive for a few days, and therefore taking away a lot of my joy in eating. I was also feeling a little stifled with the pre-planned meals. There were days when I felt like making something different, but we stuck to the plan through and through. Here are my thoughts and our favourite recipe.

Fresh Apple Cookies

This is another great recipe with apples, and what better time of year than the fall to bake some apple cookies? I would recommend laying some wax paper down before glazing the cookies.

I'll be bringing these ones to my economics study group tomorrow, and can only hope my group will forgive me for not understanding the material!

Chewy Granola Bars

I've been meaning to make my own granola bars for years now, and whenever the urge strikes I seem to be missing one or two key ingredients. I finally decided to go out and buy what I needed, and see how hard it really was. These were super easy to make, and so good! The recipe I printed out a couple of years ago, and says they store for a week in an airtight container. I highly doubt these will last a week at the rate I keep snacking on them.