The Hungry Squid

Despite being adept at cooking all sorts of dishes, Squid seems to have an aversion to making fish.  I have always assumed that this is because she is too polite to enjoy cooking and eating creatures from her neighbourhood.  Since I am not from the sea (and am considerably less polite) I have no problem with cooking fish or my neighbours.  However, I normally reserve these (mostly pescatarian) adventures for nights when I will be dining alone. This week, filets of fresh, delicious salmon were on sale at our local grocery store.  The slice of fish was way to large to consume by myself, so I convinced Squid to cross over to the dark side by offering to make dinner. After browsing the world wide web, I chose a recipe for roasted lemon-paprika salmon and roasted garlic green beans.  I served it with a side of baby potatoes.  The salmon turned out quite well.  Flavourful but light, and was great for leftovers.  I was not crazy about the beans for two reasons: first, I f

M loves chocolate, adores it in fact. He will always make a beeline for the chocolatiest dessert on the menu at dinner, and we always have some iteration of dark chocolate stashed away somewhere in the apartment. So, it seemed appropriate that his birthday cake request was as chocolately as birthday cakes get, in the best way of course. Home for the weekend, we spent a lovely, relaxed evening together, starting with a fantastic dinner at Brooklyn Warehouse, a low-key bistro in Halifax's North End; definitely a culinary gem in the city. Dessert was, of course, M's cake of choice; a luxuriously rich torte made with a sinful amount of dark chocolate and butter, bourbon syrup and just a touch of flour to hold the whole thing together. We paired it with a sweet-tart mixed berry-orange compote, scotch, and 'Blade Runner'. Bayou chocolate torte with bourbon and dark chocolate, with mixed berry-orange compote (recipe to follow) From 'Rebar Modern Food Cookbook&