Category Archives: Crowd Pleasers

• Italian Style Sausage and Peppers

  Submitted by Katrina on Mon, 15/04/2013 - 8:55

  Tags:baked sausage and peppers, Cooking, italian sausage, italian sausage and peppers, quick and easy, recipe, sausage and peppers
  

  

  I’ve been making this dish for a while now, but it always felt like there was something missing in it. I had gone through a bunch of different recipes, but they were all variations of the same. It wasn’t until I got this great cookbook to review “Lidia’s Favorite Recipes by Lidia Bastianich” that it clicked, it wasn’t the ingredients that needed changing, it was the process. Her method of pre-sauteeing everything individually before putting it all in a roaster and into the oven for a final bake made all the difference. It’s now a dish so full of layered flavour, you can’t believe how easy it is to make.  Read more...

• Anniversary Chicken (or Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with a Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Cream Sauce)

  Submitted by Katrina on Mon, 01/04/2013 - 5:20

  Tags:chicken, Cooking, cream sauce, pan seared, recipe, roated red peppers, tomatos, vegetables
  

  

  It’s ironic really that I call this Anniversary chicken, seeing as I was supposed to make it for our anniversary and instead we ordered pizza at nine at night once the kids were in bed. Happy five years hunny! Three weeks later though, I finally got around to making it. On a Monday night. When I had the kids at a nursery rhyme pre-school thing all morning, and classes at the gym that night. What I’m trying to tell you is, this is not a meal to make on a busy night. This is a meal that takes a lot, and I mean a LOT, of prep time, but it’s worth every minute.  Read more...

• No Bake Berry Cheesecake

  Submitted by Katrina on Mon, 04/03/2013 - 9:01

  Tags:berries, cheese, cheesecake, Cooking, dessert, graham, graham crust, quick and easy, recipe
  

  

  Alright, I’ve got a ridiculously easy dessert here that tastes like summer. That’s all I could think digging into it last night, looking out the back window at all the snow. This is one of the most refreshing desserts I’ve every had, and it’s exactly the pick-me-up this house needed after a lazy weekend spent indoors. It’s just a bonus that it came together in all of 15 minutes (yes, 15 minutes), and that it’s easy to lighten up (I’ve been a slow starter with the new year resolution.. this week though, that changes).  Read more...

• Pork Florentine Casserole

  Submitted by Katrina on Tue, 08/01/2013 - 10:53

  Tags:cheese, Cooking, creamed spinach, dinner, one pot, pork, quick and easy, recipe, spinach
  

  

  Alright, all cards on the table: I hate spinach. I have never found a way to eat it where I didn’t think it tasted like old socks. Being the great wife that I am though, when I saw the picture of golden brown, Parmesan crusted pork chops nestled in a bed of creamed spinach, I knew it was something Bo would love, so I sucked it up an made it. Then I got one of the shocks of my life: I loved it. Not even a hint of old socks, so now I’m just convinced that whenever it had been made for me before, they were doing it wrong (sorry Mom and Nana). Honestly, maybe that’s part of the difference between using fresh instead of frozen, but I haven’t cooked it often enough to know for sure.  Read more...

• Cheese Triangles

  Submitted by Katrina on Fri, 04/01/2013 - 6:02

  Tags:appetizer, cheddar cheese, cheese, cheese spanakopita, cheese triangles, Cooking, feta cheese, freezer, make ahead, phyllo, phyllo pastry, recipe, Spanakopita, spanakopita triangles, stuffed pastry, stuffed phyllo
  

  

  This is hands down my favorite appetizer. My Mom used to make it all the time for holidays, and I asked her to for me for Christmas, but I just didn’t quite get my fill, so I whipped some up for New Years too. You may have already heard of them before, but probably as Spanakopita, a Greek pie of sorts, usually filled with spinach and cheese. Be brave with this recipe, if you like spinach, go ahead and add it. I’m not a huge spinach lover, so I choose not to. This is a pretty basic recipe for it, so you could pretty much add whatever you wanted to the filling, different cheeses, some spice, onion, whatever you can think of.  Read more...

• Southern Style Corn from the freezer

  Submitted by Katrina on Mon, 01/10/2012 - 2:58

  Tags:bacon, Cooking, corn, corn kernels, corn side, corn with bacon, frozen corn, recipe, sides, vegetables
  

  

  Now, I don’t actually know if this is southern style corn. In fact, I would guess that it’s not. I just didn’t know what else to call this and southern sounded good (truth be told I was ok with bacon corn, but thought others might find it a little plain sounding…). Please don’t hate me southerners, I love you, I love your food, there are many days a month where I wish I could screw everything, pack up the family, and move to South Carolina. Hugs.

  That’s exactly what it is though. Bacon quickly fried crisp, some frozen corn tossed in, then everything seasoned with some salt, pepper, and paprika.  Read more...

• The hunt for the perfect pizza

  Submitted by Katrina on Thu, 13/09/2012 - 8:48

  Tags:bacon crumble, best pizza sauce, Cooking, pizza, pizza dough, pizza hut copy cat, pizza hut sauce recipe, pizza sauce, pizzeria style bacon, recipe, ultimate pizza sauce
  

  

  I’ve been trying for a few years now to figure out a way to make the perfect, pizzeria style pizza at home. I’m slowly getting closer. My first few dough’s were almost more focaccia like (not what I was looking for), and while this one is the closest yet to what I’m aiming for, it was a little sweeter than I wanted.

  What I have perfected though: the sauce. Man oh man did I find the sauce (and it tastes almost exactly like Pizza Huts sauce). And that part is sooo easy.  Read more...

• Sweet Dinner Rolls or Burger Buns

  Submitted by Katrina on Fri, 07/09/2012 - 8:27

  Tags:bread, buns, burger buns, Cooking, honey buns, honey butter rolls, honey rolls, recipe, sandwhich buns, sandwich rolls, sweet rolls
  

  

  I wasn’t really sure what to call these. I’m just starting to try to make different kinds of bread, and the ones that Bo really wanted me to figure out are the kind you get at Logan’s Roadhouse in the US. These did not turn out like those buns. What I have stumbled upon though is a fantastic burger and sandwich bun! Like, really fantastic. I’ve made them a few times now too, just to make sure that my screw up wasn’t a one off (it wasn’t, these are definitely dense like a burger bun and not light as air like those sweet rolls, a problem for another day).  Read more...

• Blueberry Cheesecake Tart with a Shortbread Crust

  Submitted by Katrina on Tue, 28/08/2012 - 11:53

  Tags:blueberries, blueberry cheesecake tart, blueberry tart, cheesecake tart, Cooking, fruit, fruit tart, recipe, shortbread, shortbread tart crust, tart
  

  

  Blueberries are delicious. Even more so when they’re in season and fresh from the fields. The berries I used were not. They were on sale at the grocery store and that’s enough of a reason for me to try and do something fabulous with them. Farm ones just would have been even better.

  This started because I felt like cheesecake, and shortbread cookies. I didn’t feel like making a cheesecake though, and I had blueberries. I also love making tarts, mainly because I love how pretty a tart shell looks (I have a lot of idiosyncrasies).  Read more...

• Steak au Poivre (steak in a cognac cream sauce) & Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

  Submitted by Katrina on Mon, 20/08/2012 - 10:28

  Tags:cognac cream sauce, cognac sauce, Cooking, cream sauce for steak, cream steak, garlic mash, garlic mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, recipe, roasted garlic, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, steak, steak au provire, steak sauce
  

  

  I got an email a few months ago telling me about the Courvoisier Collective Challange. Courvoisier Cognac was looking for people to create recipes using their cognac, and then post them up on their site. It’s open to culinary students, and home chefs, in Ontario.

  This is why I’m going to beg and plead for your help at the beginning of this post, before the recipe (but only for the next 3 days). Pretty pretty please, with a cherry on top, can you go to this website and vote. If you liked my steak, by all means, click away for me. If you didn’t, that’s ok too, because there are tons of fabulous recipes there that I’m sure will wet your appetite. You don’t need to make an account or anything, just enter your birthday (they need to make sure you’re older than 19), and click on your favorite recipe. That’s it.  Read more...