The Hungry Squid

This past week, we said a fond farewell to a postdoc in our lab, and, in her honor (and also just for fun), a lab member held a very delicious dinner party. Though the gracious host told us just to bring ourselves, everyone felt compelled to contribute to the feast, which consisted of treats that ranged from homemade dumplings, scrumptious salads, babba ghanoush and hummus, as well as authentic Italian lasagne the best tiramisu I have ever tasted. Oh, and there was a lot of wine, which was especially exciting, as it was a Tuesday. My contribution to the table of treats was avocado bruscetta, a lovely recipe that I found in Vegetarian Times magazine (aka Squid Daily) a few years ago. Let me first say this: overall, I don't really care for avocado. The texture and flavour turn me off of it and, in general, I will opt not to top my salad with it. I do, however, love guacamole, but I am not sure if that counts....in any case, making this recipe was a strange departure for me, but I am ...

KD has had it's time. For many years (i.e. during my 4 years in undergrad), it was a mainstay in my cupboard, next to the box of Oreos and the the bag of candied ginger. It was the perfect remedy to late-hunger, afternoon lunch, early dinner, normal dinner...basically appropriate on any culinary occasion. But now, as I begin the venture into adulthood (which, by the way, is a concept that is as vague to me now as it was to me 4 years ago) I have been making a conscious effort to leave the relics of my youth behind. So it is with sadness, that I say goodbye to you, KD, and move towards human food. In honor of its bastard plastic cousin, I decided to make real macaroni and cheese, the right way. This recipe, from Epicurious(a website that, I am ashamed to say, have neglected over the past couple of weeks), was surprisingly easy to make - M and I had it ready in just under 1 and a half hours, most of which was baking time. We modified the recipe by adding pancetta, substituted pimien...

First of all, my apologies for the slow updates - classes and lab work are starting to pile up and home time = bedtime these days. However, I did take some time off on Friday night to hang out with M - we proceeded to very quickly finish a bottle of wine (which happens too often) and consume a delicious meal while watching a classic of modern cinema, Jaws (featuring the ever-sexy Richard Dreyfuss). What was the meal, you ask? I'll give you a few hints 1) requires 9 ingredients (5 main, the rest accessory) 2) consists of one dish 3) take 15 minutes (max) to prepare 4) is delicious. Give up? It's quiche! One of the easiest dishes you can make, and almost never goes wrong (provided you follow a few key steps and don't make a squishe). Here's recipe for Friday night's glorious dinner. Spinach and mushroom quiche 1 pie shell (I use the frozen ones kind) 1 packet of fresh spinach (16 oz) 1 package of pre-sliced cremini mushrooms (for ease) - otherwise, about 10 mushroo...

Last May, I travelled to Peru with one of my dearest friends for a fantastic llama-filled adventure down the southern coast of this beautiful country. It was love at first sight. The air, the sounds, the smells, the landscape - there was something about Peru that captured my imagination, and even 10 months later (has it really been that long?) I still dream about going back. One of my favourite things about Peru, apart from the freely-roaming, mountain-dwelling llamas (A, I am looking at you), was the food. As you know, I love food, and travelling to a different continent, where different produce was indigenous and where different methods of cooking were used, was, to say the least, very exciting. I am proud to say that I tried a llama steak while in Peru, in addition to quinoa soup, ceviche, pappa rellena, manjar (a type of caramel) and delicious snack foods, in particular empanadas (again, I'm looking at you, A). Now, back in the great white North, I've found myself being dr...

I am recovering from a weekend of gastronomic hedonism. Too much sushi, wine, 4 am pizza (incidentally, the best ever, even the next morning), poutine, more ethanol, maple syrupy French toast etc etc etc….so good, but 48 hours of indulgence leaves one feeling a bit….heavy. As would be expected, lethargy descended upon us on a cold and rainy spring Sunday night, and all I wanted to was to eat something filling, that was easy to make, and that was light . Because let’s face it, this squid’s diet can only take so much of a beating. So I turned to my old stand-by, Madhur Jaffrey, the queen of vegetarian and Indian, cooking. She hold a special place in my culinarily-inclined heart, ever since I discovered her classic cookbook in my mother’s cupboard a few years ago, “An Introduction to Indian Cooking”, which is unfortunately now out of print. Her’s is one of the only cookbooks that my mom has that is not annotated to death – it’s as though every recipe she writes has been tested to perfe...

Coming off of yesterday's spectacular kitchen fail, I started cooking today with the intention of making something that I know works. Trust me, I was not ready to spend another 2 hours trying to make dish after dish with the meagre contents of my fridge. Yesterday, not only did I try to be creative with my dinner, I tried to be creative by making coriander pesto! I'm not insane - the Food Network told me that it was possible and delicious, but they underestimated my ambitiousness. I replaced the almonds (which I didn't have) in the recipe with pistachios (which I had), and added a bit of parsley thinking that it would bring the flavour of the pesto out. It did not. It tasted like blended grass. With bits of pistachio. So today, nothing like that. I decided to make a really simple (and bonus, nutritious!) dish, from a recipe that I got from my dear friend H, who is the queen of healthy food. She is the person who first introduced me to quinoa, and I've never looked back...

Lately, my life has been filled with lemons. I recently bought a new Mac when my old (well, 2 ½ year old year) old computer died, only to the find that the hard drive needed to be replaced less than a month later. Also, thanks to someone with great taste, I have recently discovered Campari, which is excellent on the rocks with a slice of lemon in it; in a similar vein, gin with Fresca and lemon is my new drink of choice. And who can forget that lemonade season is fast approaching, which means that soon (but not soon enough), we can shed our winter coats and start getting some lemon-yellow sun! So to celebrate lemons, I decided to make a quick meal that featured – you guessed it- lemons. This recipe, courtesy of the inimitable Martha Stuart, would be even better on a grill, but was still pretty tasty baked in my stone-age oven. A few notes: if you choose to add tofu, make sure to use the extra-firm kind and to remove as much of the excess water as you can – I find that sandwiching the t...