Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese and Edemame and Corn Salad

Edemame and Corn Salad

Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp herb seasoning mix (I used a Mrs. Dash type one)
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup frozen edemame beans (the shelled kind)
Handful of cherry/grape tomatoes
Thin slices of red onion
Pinch of salt to taste
2 tsp olive oil

Boil corn and edemame on stove for a couple of minutes until thawed. Dunk in ice water immediately to halt cooking, keep the veggies bright, and to cool them off.

Meanwhile, mix lemon and seasoning in a medium bowl and let reconstitute a few minutes. Throw in onion, tomatoes and cooled corn and beans, season with salt to taste and put in fridge until needed.

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese

(makes 1 sandwich)

2 jalapenos
2 slices sourdough bread
Couple tblsp cream cheese (room temperature)
Butter
1/4 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded
Crushed up tortilla chips

ETA: If the idea of roasting and skinning the pepper is keeping you from trying this delicious sandwich, just use the canned jalapenos. It's the same basic idea.

(it's tough to give measurements for this...my sourdough slices were from the centre of a circular sourdough loaf, so they were huge...and you might like more of one thing and less of another, so it's up to you how much you use)

Set oven rack to top position and turn on the broiler. Cut the jalapenos in half and scrape out the seeds and ribs (you might want to use a fork to hold the pepper, wear gloves, or put a plastic bag on your hand for this step). Put peppers cut side down on baking sheet and pop under broiler until the skins are blackened (maybe 15 minutes?). Pull them out and place them in a bag or container and seal, allowing steam to help loosen the skins and cool the peppers off.

Once cooled (around 20 minutes) enough to handle, pinch off the skins and discard.

Begin warming a skillet on the stovetop. You could probably also grill this.

Lightly butter one side of the bread. Flip it over and smear on some cream cheese, place the skinned jalapenos on the cream cheese, sprinkle with crushed tortilla chips and top with shredded cheese.

Butter the second piece of bread and put on top of the goodies you've just piled up (butter side out of course...I'm sure you've all made grilled cheese before!). Place in heated skillet and cook on medium-high until bread is toasty and cheese inside is melty.

Yummy Summer Avocado Wrap

This is a vegan recipe that I found on Pinterest and tracked it down here.



To make 2 wraps:

2 extra large wraps
1/2 an avocado
1 roma tomato, thickly sliced
1/4 Vidalia onion, sliced
4 tblsp fresh lime juice
1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
2 tblsp olive oil
2 tsp maple syrup (the real stuff, obviously)
6 tblsp spicy hummus
1 cup matchstick carrots
Freshly ground black pepper

Slice avocado into strips. Coat in lime juice and some salt and pepper. Throw some lime juice on the remaining half, cover, and store in fridge for another use.

Place onion and tomato slices in bowl and toss with olive oil, maple syrup, a splash of lime juice, and apple cider vinegar.

Warm tortilla in oven (or microwave) until soft. Spread spicy hummus on wrap, top with slices of avocado, some tomato and onion, matchstick carrots and a grind of pepper. Drizzle a little of the tomato and onion marinade on top.

Roll up your wrap and slice. Wrapping a piece of waxed paper around the wrap will make it easier to both slice and eat.

Mix the remaining tomato and onion marinade with some mayo (or sour cream) to make a dipping sauce if you like! I served it with Caprese salad on the side.

Blog Pimpin'

My friend (and fellow foodie) Pam has a food blog and I wanted to share the link. The blog lists a ton of incredible recipes that I am just itching to try.

Check, check, check, check it out!

Wedding Advice for my Girls

A couple of great friends are getting married shortly (not to each other, just to be clear, and on different days), and it made me think about the excitement (and complete scatterbrained-ness) in the days leading up to the Big Day.

There are three bits of advice that I would like to pass along to Dawn and Tanya:

First, take lots of "mental snapshots". I had an incredible photographer, but even she couldn't capture all of those moments that only I could see and feel. Take a moment to breathe it all in. Watch everyone enjoying your day with you.

I have used this with other important days as well, including watching Quinn grow.

Second, I'm a planner. Anyone who knows me is laughing because I'm pretty sure if there was an "Extreme Micromanaging Planner" reality show, I'd be the star. Not that I'm saying either of my friends are that type of person, but it's easy to get caught up in the details and expecations.

I handed all my vendors their lists (see?!?) and once the wedding began, I just let whatever happened happen. I planned and prepared for everything I could think of, but had to remember that it was my day and however it ended up, it would be perfect.

The DJ played the wrong version of the Hockey Night in Canada theme (I wanted the Shuffle Demons version, I got the TV version) as we walked into the reception. What could I do? No one knew...no one cared. I didn't either.

Third, have an emergency kit handy, stashed under your table. In this basket of preparedness, have things like:

• Tylenol/Advil (in childproof bottles if you have a chance of kids getting at the basket...and kids are ALWAYS crawling under tables)
• A small baby powder (amazing for sprinkling on your white dress when you inevitably drop gravy on it)
• Tide Wipes (amazing for when your new husband gets schmutz on his shirt)
• Deoderant (seriously...someone is going to forget. Might even be you! Make sure it's not the sort that rubs off white, and this may sound weird but use it once (or rub it off) so you get all those flaky edges off...my Maid of Honor was the one that used my emergency deoderant and it flaked all over her black satin dress and black satin gloves)
• Tissues (duh)
• Hairspray
• Lip balm, touch up makeup, a little mirror
• Bandaids (for those new shoe blisters)
• Tums/Rolaids (take precautions if you have kids around)
• Mints/Breath Spray (probably not gum because that doesn't look too hot in photos)
• Tampons/Pads/Pantiliners (you never know who is going to need them)
• Contact lens solution and a spare pare if you have one (if you're a lens wearer)
• Nail file

I'm sure there are more things that I could add to this list, and there are probably going to be things that you may find useful that I wouldn't have thought of, but there's a start.

Don't forget your slippers/flops/flats (I wore my blue fuzzy slippers through the whole ordeal)!

So I hope that the weather in the Niagara region is perfect on my beautiful friends' Special Days. I'll be thinking about you girls and can't wait to see all the photos!

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

A wonderful friend (WENDY) turned me onto this recipe a week or so ago and I've been itching to try it. It's from a SparkPeople recipe, but I adjusted it a bit (go figure).



This served 3 of us, adjust as needed.

2 Tilapia fillets
2 Tblsp butter, softened
1/4 cup parmesan (don't go for that powdered stuff. Seriously)
1 Tblsp lemon juice
2 Tblsp mayonnaise
2 tsp PC Vegetable Seasoning Rub (I LOVE this stuff!)

Preheat broiler. Line baking pan with foil. Place tilapia fillets on the foil.

In a small bowl, mix up everything else, taste and adjust as needed for your taste, and put aside.

Pop fish under broiler for 2 or 3 minutes each side, until 95% cooked.

Pull it out and top with the parmesan stuff. Stick it back under the broiler to finish cooking and to melt and slightly brown the topping.

I served it up with browned butter brussels sprouts and some chopped tomato and cucumber salad (with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar) and a couple of black olives.

The President's Choice seasoning I'm talking about, I can't seem to find online, but it's a dry spice mixture of sea salt, brown sugar, roasted garlic, rosemary, black pepper, sage, lemon, parsley and bay. I found it beside the fish counter. It's not the kind with the spice grinder...it's a metal shaker canister. There was one for seafood as well, but it looked like they had very similar ingredients.



I had some key limes and ginger ale left over from Easter, and I'd bought 2 boxes of raspberries, so I thought I'd fix me a drink.

I threw the juice of 13 key limes, 25 raspberries, 2 Tblsp sugar and about 1/4 cup ginger ale into the blender and whirred it up. I filled half my glass with the juice and topped it off with ginger ale.

Quinn loved it. If only he ate his veggies that readily!

Cookie Dough Dip

When your dip is this good, you don't have to put it in a fancy bowl. NO ONE IS LOOKING AT THE BOWL!

To be honest, this tasted more like chocolate chip cheesecake, which makes it more awesome.

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 8oz block cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 mini chocolate chips

In a small saucepan, melt butter and add brown sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.

While that is cooling, cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth and light and fluffy. Mix in the slightly cooled butter/sugar mixture, bit by bit, until combined. Toss in chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.

Serve at room temperature with whatever you think would be good. I served mine up with Nilla wafers and graham crackers.

Key Lime Pie

Key limes. They rock. If you find these tiny gems in your supermarket, buy them. And make this.

Seriously.

The hardest part of this recipe is squeezing the limes. There are lots of tutorials and hints online. Some suggest microwaving for a few seconds, some suggest using a citrus reamer, some say the trick is a garlic press...I used our potato ricer (until I broke it) and then used the top of our plastic potato peeler and the raw power in my hands to get all the juice out.

These guys have seeds, so I juiced into a bowl and then strained into the measuring cup. I bought 2 - 1lb bags "just in case", and ended up using maybe 1 or 2 out of the second bag. I don't know that the juice from those extra couple of limes really made a difference, but whatever.

If you don't have key limes, you can use regular limes I'm sure...just don't use bottled lime juice. If you're going to do that, you might as well go ahead and buy yourself a frozen key lime pie. Just sayin'.



1 ready made graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
150 mL freshly squeezed lime juice (around 1/2 cup + 2 Tblsp)

Preheat oven to 350.

With a mixer, mix the sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks until light and creamy looking. Add lime juice and mix for about 3 minutes.

Carefully pour into crust and bake for about 15 mins. Chill for at least 8 hours. Filling will set as it cools.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.