chickpeas and crêpes.....why not?

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I'm back.

I never really went anywhere, I just needed a little break. But I'm good now, relaxed and I'm HUNGRY for more bloggin'. I'm not sure about you guys, but I just go through stages of laziness, apathy and general distaste for all things domestic (and trust me, my house is a true testament to this lack of inner fortitude).

I do, however, have a full slate of food to make this week. Hubs and I are back into eating healthy (apparently, me eating dill pickle popcorn for dinner is not an acceptable form of nutrition....who knew?), homemade foods that are easy on the pocketbook.

Tonight we were actually supposed to be eating rice and dal (perennial fave), but when I sent the week's plan to hubs, he immediatedly zoned in on Thursday's dinner and asked if we might be able to have the mushroom crêpes chasseur for dins tonight.

This didn't seem to immediately present a problem (I'm never averse to switching around dinners), except that we hadn't actually purchased any groceries yet. SO, I worked until five, met hubs at 6, finally got home at 7 and then tackled this recipe. Which happened to be a mite bit more complex than my regular crêpe recipe. I mean, the crêpe part was pretty much the same, except I had to soak dried mushrooms, make up this mushroom mixture, then make a sauce with the initial mushroom soaking liquid. The crêpe recipe is a little odd - I was somewhat perplexed by the use of chickpea flour, but dutifully picked some up on my way home. Funny enough, at the bulk store, I had to tell the cashier what the heck it was, and that prompted the people in front of me to inquire as to what exactly one might do with chickpea flour.

I could have told the truth and told them I'd never used it before and was merely hoping for the best. But I decided to be an obnoxious know-it-all and informed them that it was excellent in crêpes.

Thankfully, I'm not a liar. Part of the healthy eating plan for hubs and I is to also reduce wine consumption (perhaps this could also be slated under the tightening purse strings plan too)...so hubs insisted that I cork the bottle of wine needed for this recipe and hide it on him. So I did. It's behind the flour, so he'll definitely never find it. Unless he reads this. But he probably won't (more likelihood of him looking behind the flour). So the wine should be safe. For a day or two, until I decide I want it.

Upshot of this is that I don't recommend this recipe for a weeknight. It's a little time consuming. Not difficult, just long. I would definitely turn it into a little vegetarian french dinner for two though - pair it with a nice salade verte, some onion soup and a nice little pastry-type thing to polish it off. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Mushroom Crêpes Chasseur
(chasseur refers to the red wine sauce. It's good)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Cooking spray
4 cups vegetable broth (don't slay me vegetarians, I used homemade chicken stock that I martha'd up myself)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms (about 1/2 ounce) (couldn't buy porcini, so I used chanterelles)
3/4 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 (8-ounce) packages button mushrooms, coarsely chopped
8 ounces shiitake mushroom caps, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Add 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons oil, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Let stand 20 minutes.


2. Heat an 8-inch crepe pan or nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Dip a paper towel in a small bowl of olive oil and lightly brush the skillet to grease it. Use a scant 1/4 cup of batter per crepe, and flip as soon as the top starts to appear dry. They look a little strange...


3. Place crepe on a towel; cool. Repeat procedure until all of the batter is used to make 12 crepes. Stack crepes between single layers of wax paper to prevent sticking.

4. Bring broth and 1/2 cup water to a boil in medium saucepan; remove from heat, stir in porcini. Let stand 30 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve into a bowl; reserve broth mixture and porcini. Add red wine and honey; set aside.

5. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add reserved porcini; sauté 1 minute. Add button and shiitake mushrooms; cook 4 minutes or until mushrooms release moisture, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium, stir in pepper, nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and garlic. Cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add 3/4 cup broth mixture; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.


6. Bring remaining broth mixture to a boil; cook until reduced to 1 1/2 cups (about 12 minutes). Combine 2 tablespoons water and cornstarch, stirring with a whisk. Stir cornstarch mixture into broth mixture. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until sauce thickens. (I used more cornstarch, and I also added 1 T of butter to make it a bit richer).



7. Spoon 1/3 cup mushroom mixture in center of each crepe; fold sides and ends over, and place, seam side down, on a plate. Repeat procedure with remaining mushroom mixture and crepes, placing 2 crepes on each of 6 plates. Top each serving with about 1/4 cup sauce; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons parsley.

I only ate one though.


I skipped the parsley because I hate it. This was really tasty. I want more.

Thanks for reading and thanks for stickin' with me. I promise you it's worth it.

kick your butt chicken caesar salad

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I know I know.....I haven't posted. And this post doesn't even have a picture. So I officially suck right now. Work has been draining lately and weekends have been quite busy. Last weekend, actually, I didn't even cook ONCE! On the Friday night, hubs and I made a little impromptu visit to our favourite haunt, Absinthe Café and ate like kings. Then on Saturday, we lunched with friends (who made amazing eggs benedict with homemade hollandaise....I am in AWE). And then we had dinner with other friends (who made an amazing italian feast, complete with guiness cake at the end! yum!). And then Sunday, we had pizza (go Gabriel's). And then this week, I did cook a few things, but had zero energy or creativity left in me.

But last night we did have a kick ass dinner. I didn't think it would be that good, so I didn't take any photos....but don't let the lack of photographic evidence discourage you from trying this out, because it was AWESOME.

Last night was actually a perfect evening.....I'm such a homebody....or perhaps I'm finally moving beyond the pseudo-student mentality....I'd much rather have a quiet evening in (or out at a friend's place) than go to a bar, pub or other such social mecca. I am officially lame.

But we started out with shrimp and cocktail sauce (Hubs was astonished to discover that rather than buying cocktail sauce, I've just been pulling the old mix-ketchup-with-horseradish-and-call-it-a-day trick.....he didn't believe that's what he had been eating). This was yummy. I paired it with a lovely bottle of bubbly - a 2002 Méthode Classique from Jackson-Triggs Grand Réserve (about $25 and a fabulous alternative to the real deal).

The main attraction was the most decadent chicken caesar salad - you don't need to have the chicken, or even the bacon, because this dressing is so fabulous, you could practically eat it with a spoon. It's brutal for you, but don't let that deter you. You want decadence, you shall find it right here. The dressing recipe is from epicurious and you should all make it now. Because it's THAT good. I think the bubbly would have been a nice compliment to this, but we'd already consumed it all (winos!) so I had it with an Inniskillin Méritage (LOVELY wine, not the best food match).

Caesar Salad Dressing (slightly cheating version)
3 garlic cloves, crushed/minced
3/4 cup mayonnaise (not miracle whip/whipped salad dressing)
1 t anchovy paste
2 T chopped capers
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
fresh black pepper

1. Combine all these ingredients (can use blender or food processor, but by hand is fine if you don't mind a less-smooth dressing). This dressin makes enough for 4 main-course salads, or 8 side salads.

To make caesar salad:
- romaine lettuce
- croutons
- bacon (5-6 slices, cooked and crumbled)
- parmesan cheese

1. Wash and tear romaine lettuce, add bacon and parmesan cheese. Don't add croutons until the last second, or they can get soggy.
2. Add a small amount of dressing and toss to coat (start with a smaller amount than you think you'll need, and add more until you are satisfied. This dressing is intense and you don't want your salad to be sopping in it. Three cloves of garlic is quite strong; if you're making this for company, 1.5-2 cloves might be more prudent!
3. Top with BBQ'd or grilled chicken (as always, I brine my chicken in 1/4 c. kosher salt, 2 T sugar, dissolved in about 2L of water for 30 minutes or so - the chicken ends up juicier at the end).
4. Add more grated parmesan and pepper to taste.

You don't regret making this salad dressing....it is AMAZING and totally worth your time....even if I don't have any pictures. :)

Thanks for reading and I promise, I WILL be back again soon!

pizza perfection

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I loves me a good pizza. This is one food that I seem to obsess over, relish and cherish in just about any format. I love thin crust, delicate Italian pizza. I love thick crust, greasy, Americanized pizza. I love anything in between. I'll eat almost anything on pizza (barring pineapple - sorry, just doesn't go).

But I always love trying something a little different....a little off the beaten track. Something so plain and boring, that somehow it seems exotic and fascinating. While pizza here in Canada seems to be a little over-cheesed, over-sauced and overly meaty, other countries have such interesting takes on this classic pie.

When I lived on my own in France, ordering a pizza was an indulgence for me. Cooking for one got old REALLY quick (particularly when your kitchen consists of a hot plate and bar fridge!), so it was a great treat to order (and devour!) an entire pizza. Yeah, I know...bad. Anyway, in doing so, I got a chance to explore some rather different pizza combos......one of my favourites was the reine pizza, festooned with the simplicity of mushrooms and ham (can't go wrong there!), but I discovered a truly amazing piece of pizza awesomeness.

It was the pizza dauphinoise from Allo-Pizza. I initially ordered it because it was cheap, but then I continued to order it because of its sumptuous yumminess. The toppings are simple - oregano, potatoes, cheese, persillade and crème fraîche.

My foray into persillade last week reminded me that it had been nearly five years since I last tasted this wonderful delicacy. So I hung on to the last vestiges of my persillade and started to plot....

And awesome pizza was had by all. Even hubs, who normally eschews my vegetarian pizzas for pepperoni-laden monstrosities, dove into this, having seconds and then thirds. Really yummy.

On a very sad note though, it is an RIP for my Silpat. I left my hungry hubby unsupervised and he CUT THROUGH IT with a butter knife while trying to get himself more pizza. I'm crushed.

;) He promised he'd get me a new one though.

Pizza dauphinoise

Crust (adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, a book that any budding chef should aspire to own!)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 c cornmeal
2 t fleur de sel
1-1 1/4 cups warm water
2 T plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

1. Combine the yeast, flour, cornmeal and salt in the container of a food processor.


2. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and 2 T olive oil through the feed tube. Process for about 30 secs,m adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a sticky ball. If it's too try, add another tablespoon of water (if too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour).

3. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface (I like parchment paper) and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball.

(it's smooth-ish, alright????)

4. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let rise in a warm draft-free area for about 1 hour (I think my yeast is toast because mine never really rose that much).

5. At this point, you can make pizza, or freeze your dough for up to a month. May I suggest pizza? I used this to make one large rectangular pizza (about 11x17 inches).

Pizza
1 recipe pizza crust
1-2 small cooked potatoes, sliced (I nuked mine while I was waiting for the dough to rise)
1 onion, minced
1 small can pizza sauce (about 1 cup - you could go all martha on me and make your own, but seriously, I think if you make your own dough and persillade, you've totally earned the right to canneriffic sauce!)
5-6 ounces grated mozzarella
1-2 ounces grated manchego (or use cheddar)
1-2 ounces grated parmesan
2-3 tablespoons persillade (blended mix of evoo, flat-leaf parsley, garlic, salt and lemon zest)
1/4 c crème fraîche (I just used low-fat sour cream)
italian seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Spread out your pizza crust on a greased rectangular cookie sheet (if you're lucky enough to have a baking stone or pizza peel, use that and adjust accordingly - I presume if you have one, you should know how to use it....if you don't, feel free to pass it along! hahahahaha). Use patience to get the dough to spread. The gluten needs to relax, so give it a few tries.

2. Brush your crust with olive oil. Then top with sauce.

3. Sprinkle cheese over pizza - I grate my mozzarella coarsely, and use a fine grated for the additional cheeses. I like a blend of cheese, but you could forgo the others in lieu of just mozza if that's to your taste.

4. Sprinkle your cheesy pizza with italian seasoning.

5. Top with potato slices and minced onion, then add dabs of persillade and crème fraîche.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on your pizza and make sure the toppings are done to your liking (I like my cheese browned, some people prefer it runny).

Enjoy! I suggest wine. Actually, no, I command wine.

The meat and potatoes of it all....

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As much as I enjoy displays of scorn and derision toward unadventurous eaters...sometimes what you really need are good old-fashioned steak and potatoes. Friday night was such a night....richness, decadence and good old-fashioned red meat beckoned.....along with red wine, it was simple meal worthy of a feast.

As the recommendations of winemadeeasy, I hunted down the 2003 Cathedral Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon. And what a hunt it was - in super-sub-zero temperatures, I trekked well over a kilometre off my bus route to seek out this wine.

Totally worth it. I think it might be my new favourite wine to sip and enjoy alongside a hearty meal.

One of my favourite veggie side dishes is roasted potatoes. Just pure, fresh potato goodness, crispy from the oven and flavoured with nothing more than fresh rosemary, fleur de sel, olive oil, and garlic. No powder from a package, no over-processed dressing. Just pure goodness.....

Roasted Potatoes (PERFECT with steak)
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 t fleur de sel or sea salt
1 T fresh chopped rosemary (+1 T reserved)
1 clove garlic, minced
5-6 yukon gold potatoes, cut in small cubes (less than an inch)

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or a silpat).
2. In a large bowl, combine olive oil, salt, rosemary and garlic.


3. Add potatoes and stir well, making sure potatoes are well-coated.
4. Dump the mixture onto the baking sheet and pop in the oven.


5. Set the timer for 20 minutes, and then turn the potatoes. Set the timer for another 20 minutes.
6. Reduce the temperature to about 175F, add the extra rosemary and another sprinkle of salt and cook a further 30 minutes (the long, slow cooking time is key to getting the perfect texture to these guys - you can cook them at a higher temp, but they won't be as tasty!).

Wild Mushroom Indulgence (perfect for a VERY rich topping for steak)
2 T unsalted butter
12 oz mixed mushrooms (I had shitake, oyster and crimini) and cut them into tiny little pieces)
2 small shallots
1 t peppercorns, crushed
1.5 oz brandy or cognac
1 c broth (undiluted)
1 c whipping cream
2 T dijon mustard
2 T butter

1. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add mushrooms. Once the mushrooms start releasing their liquid (about 3-4 minutes), add the chopped shallots and the peppercorns.
2. Once most of the mushroom liquid is gone, add the brandy and boil until most of it has evaporated.
3. Add broth, cream and dijon. Boil the mixture over medium high heat until desired consistency is reached (probably about 15 minutes). Just before serving, stir in the extra butter. Yum.



For the steak, we used top sirloin, bbq'ed by a very brave hubby in the deep-freeze-like outdoors, with just montreal steak spice to season. His was cooked to medium, and mine to medium-rare. Served with a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette (1 T balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper, 3 T olive oil, 1 T dijon mustard and whisk away).



One of the best dinners we've had in a while....simple, decadent and AWESOME with the right bottle of red wine. Thanks for reading!

The best-laid plans…

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I had such grandiose visions of an incredible meal last night…but life being what it is, sometimes the best plans go a little bit awry.

No biggie though – we still had a great meal, somewhat according to plan, and we consumed so much tasty wine (and a little that wasn’t so tasty) that it really doesn’t matter.

The trip home was a mite more time consuming than anticipated….the snowy, rainy, pellet-ty insanity being what it was…..we finally sloshed our way through the door at close to seven.

Set to work on tidying the kitchen, but that lovely beet soup of which I spoke yesterday just didn’t quite appear…..I opened up the fridge to take out the beets (which I had been checking on regularly since I bought them a couple of months ago)….only to discover that they had finally come to their sad fuzzy end.  Had to throw that bag out, and with it went all my hopes of purple soup.

Hubs was ecstatic. I was all set to make a potato leek soup instead, but he decided he didn’t actually want soup anyway. So I didn’t make soup (bought beets today, am making beet soup tonight – beets are in the oven as we speak…he doesn’t get off that easy).

We had shrimp ring instead….yum.

I did luck out at the store and they had Dungeness crabs in stock….it turns out that my shellfish squeamishness runs the gamut from lobster to crab (inclusively), so I gratefully took up the ‘fishmonger’ on the posted offer to pre-cook the little dudes (I just can’t handle killing my own food….you might make a veg out of me yet!). Anyway, we brought them home still warm. Cool.

Hubs kindly volunteered (or was he voluntold….) to crack and shell the crab (again a task I just cannot handle….) and I altered the recipe somewhat to suit our tastes. Rather than roasting crabs in shell, I made the sauce mostly as directed (it’s yummy – you should try!), and added the shelled crab meat right to it. I couldn’t find any fresh thyme at the grocery store, and so substituted marjoram, which was more than adequate. Yum! And last, we’re not big fans of orange flavour with any sort of savoury dish, so I just squeezed some lemon juice onto it. LOVED it!

This is what resulted


Hubs and I delighted in sharing this sweetly delicate dish over a round of sourdough bread. As is per our usual wine (mis)pairing, we enjoyed this dish with Jackson-Triggs Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc, a perennial favourite of ours. I think the taste was likely enhanced by the glasses, but it was awesome nonetheless. The subsequent bottle of Meritage from the same vintner was also excellent.

But onto the pièce de résistance…..the delicious chocolate pots de crème…..these were incredible. It is the richest, most decadent chocolate dessert you can imagine. I followed the directions pretty much to a tee (see previous post for link to recipe) and it was perfection. The ingredients are so simple, yet so insanely explosive in your mouth…..I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate bar, and would recommend a similar level of chocolatude to other fellow chocoholics.



It’s so rich that a small serving is more than enough (I made 3 pots instead of the 2 the recipe called for and could still only finish half of mine…reduced cooking time to 27 minutes and they were perfectly done). Whoever discovered chocolate must have envisioned that it would be worshipped in such a fashion. Yum. Looking forward to splitting the last little pot with hubs later tonight.



The last bottle of wine we opened (yeah, I know…2 people, 3 bottles….) was Naked Grape Cabernet….this was gross. After the other two bottles of J-T (which, while tasty, isn’t exactly pricey or overwhelming), this tasted like home-made half brewed piss. Gross. That’s how bad it was – after TWO bottles of wine (the point where you would normally bring out the plonk so that you don’t waste good stuff on drunkards), this still was unfit for MBR consumption. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I poured the rest of it down the drain this morning, after I enjoyed my MUCH deserved cup of dark roast. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.



Dinner tonight will be the infamous beet soup (will try to recreate the heart in the epicurious picture….hopefully it goes better than previous attempts….), and then a paprika pork goulash….slowcooked in the oven with shallot, carrots and potatoes. Will be accompanied with salad (which I also didn’t make yesterday) and wine.

Will update tomorrow with recipes, if food is worth sharing….

Thanks for reading! Love the comments…….. ;)

Also - Happy Birthday Dad! :)

Drunken Cookery

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This post could perhaps be a mistake, seeing as I'm working on glass 2 of a nice oaky chardonnay. Of all the white wines out there, I actually love a super duper oaky flavoured chardonnay. Perhaps this is because I am a red wine drinker, but nonetheless, this is tasty.

Sadly, we were out of red wine, and I had a real hankering for a nice glass to sip away at....I worked late tonight, fiddling with photoshop and all that fun, so I thought I deserved a nice break.

I also thought hubs deserved a lovely meal. You see, yesterday, I promised him a lovely meal, but sadly, failed to deliver on that promise. :( Yesterday, I got home from work, and my stomach just started to burn. I hadn't eaten much yesterday (very unusual) and I just spent the evening on the couch, groaning. Couldn't fathom eating or creating food.

Today wasn't much better - I actually didn't eat until dinner (I think that was like 35 hours without eating......something that has never happened to me before, and probably will never happen again)....just sort of burned my way through work.

So I thought that my lovely patient hubby deserved a nice meal tonight. I actually wanted to go out for dinner (lazy me!), but a quick bank account check convinced me that wasn't really the brightest of ideas....he suggested a vegetarian night in. And then a little light flashed in my food-starved brain....a remembered a recipe that I'd seen a year ago (or so) for spinach walnut canneloni.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......all of a sudden food seemed appetizing again. Colourful, delicious, full of texture, silky nuttiness - what more could a gal ask for?????

So we had a quick stop at the grocery store (social conscience also kicked in - sent hubs around with a mission to buy groceries to put in the food bank bin) and I got all the things I needed. Of course, you know that I am incapable of following a recipe as written....instead of canneloni (which in the recipe is actually LASAGNA - not the same thing people!), I opted for jumbo shells.

For most people, I wouldn't really recommend this recipe for a weeknight (takes about 1.5 hours) but for the patient, I think it's well worth it. The recipe could use a little tweaking, but the idea is FAB. Walnuts and pasta were made to go together. I can still remember the decadent texture of the walnut pasta I tasted in Siena on our honeymoon........droooooooool. It was this luscious cream sauce (definitely not low-fat) and this beautiful al denta pasta....OMG amazing.

Anyway, I also had a small chunk of goat cheese left (from the stuffed potatoes) and threw that in. I also added wee dollops of tomato sauce too. My personal verdict is that this recipe needs more flavour. Some fresh herbs (basil?) would be nice, and I actually prefer tomato sauce to the cream sauce the recipe calls for. That said, hubs loved the recipe, but suggests more cheese on top. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, and the amazing scent that just perfumed our entire house was totally worth it. Yum. I'm the messiest cook ever, but still managed to snap a couple of photos for you. :)

Here is a photo of the stuffed shells (yup - messy cook!).


Stuffing shells isn't exactly my idea of fun, but it's easier than manicotti or canneloni (both of which are an absolute biatch to stuff! MEH). I, as always, got stuffing on the outside of the pasta, but no one notices this kind of thing....no worries! The beautiful thing about this recipe is the sheer amount of calcium it sneaks into me (I added a lot more milk to the sauce), and the fabulous amount of spinach. Can I just say how much fun I had chopping that stuff? Usually I'm lazy and use the frozen stuff, but this time I actually followed the recipe and wilted fresh spinach, and chopped away with my AWESOME chinese chopper. I feel super-duper pro-star when I use that knife.

Anyway, I topped the shells with a bit of tomato sauce and some grated mozza and parmigianno. Yum.



The tasty shells baked away, while I slaved away making another lazy caesar salad that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Anyway, that's all for today. I have class tomorrow so hubs is on his own, but we will have a nice romantic dinner Friday night, and if I can get away with it, I'll be sure to take pics.....of the dinner. No pics of romance, sorry. ;)

Thanks for reading - as always, I live for comments. :D

Bread, Cheese and Wine, oh MY!

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The rich goodness of French fermentation has struck again. Oh, and there was chocolate too. The female psyche is a rather delicate creature, subject to the whims and pulls of intense cravings for things that tend to make your behind look as wide as a mack truck. Hubs and I had the most deeeeeeeeeeeelicious dinner yesterday, and I have no one to blame but myself for what ensued.

Sitting at work, mildly bored, a craving struck me. I wanted cheese fondue, and I wanted it NOW. Visions of gooey, yummy swiss cheese danced through my head for the rest of the afternoon. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm….cheese. I checked out my old friend, www.epicurious.com for recipes that could guide me to a calcium-induced state of bliss…..but was left unsatisfied – the recipes seemed yummy, but the reviews spoke of stringy, separated wads of ick. No good at all.

But then I had a brain wave – you can buy pre-made fondue. This, my friends, is the way to go. No running around the grocery store trying to find just the right block of emmental and gruyere to create an exquisite blend. No staring at the recipe and wondering what the heck kirsch is. No running to the liquor store to buy a bottle of white wine that you know you won’t drink so you can use it for a recipe.

It comes all in its pre-packaged glory. Brilliant. And even better, the ingredient list is relatively short and sweet - http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/pDetail.asp?i=3&p=767&s=1&price=8.99 – cheese, white wine and kirsch. I added a couple of cloves of garlic and a dash of nutmeg, but really, why bother with a coagulated blob when you can have creamy perfection right at your fingertips? Inspired by this fabulous find (also, at $7.99, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying gruyere, emmental, white wine and kirsch!), I also purchased a fresh warm round of bread, cubed it and used it to dip. Now, a friend of mine STILL has my fondue pot, but you’ll be happy to know that you really don’t need a fondue pot for a small cheese fondue. All you need is a heat-safe bowl, a microwave, metal rack and a tealight. :) Following the package instructions, I warmed the foil package in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes, then snipped the corner and put the cheese in a bowl. Crushed two cloves of garlic, cracked some pepper (and ‘dashed’ some nutmeg) and nuked it all for a few minutes. I took my handy-dandy cooling rack (used for baking) and set it on the table, putting a tea light underneath. It was so good. Dipping the warm bread into the cheese, letting it cool for just a few seconds (better texture to the cheese) and then savouring it……..and what better to pair with cheese than wine? All the swiss web sites recommend white wine (probably because they are stuck with the better part of a bottle leftover from making the fondue), but we prefer red.

Not wanting to open my bottle of ’99 Listrac-Médoc (Natalie MacLean writes: “CHÂTEAU FOURCAS HOSTEN 1999 AC Listrac-Médoc VC: A polished, supple wine that shows off the fine, traditional Listrac-Médoc style. The aromas suggest tobacco, mocha, dried currant, menthol and cedar. This complex wine is dry, complete and nicely balanced by resolved tannins. It is drinking very well now with a fine Angus beef steak, however it will also last for up to five more years. My note: Delicious. Old World-style with black fruit.”), we stuck with the 2005 Naked Grape Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s not bad at all – and was a nice complement to the cheese, though I think it could possibly have used something with a little more oomph (swiss cheese has a rather distinctive odour….).

Now, what could one possibly pair with this, the laziest of all suppers…..but chocolate. I finished the meal with several ounces of Lindt 70% dark chocolate. Mmmmmmmmm…..heaven……the only thing that could have made this meal better is if I had not been so lazy and had also made myself some espresso to accompany my rich, chocolate indulgence.

Note that there is not a vegetable in sight. Yikes. To round things out a bit though, my lunch yesterday was a spicy hoisin tofu veggie stir fry, and I had it with brown rice. Brown rice alone is certainly penance enough for indulgence. ;) Lunch today is poached Moroccan salmon and roasted potatoes, with green and red peppers. :) Dinner tonight….uh……fast food. *runs and hides* Wish me strength so I don’t cave and have a teen burger combo. (I’m rooting for sushi but we’ll see what strikes my fancy…..hahahaha).

For dinner tomorrow, hubs has mentioned taking me out for dinner (yay!) but if that falls through, there is a really yummy looking recipe that I’m dying to try - African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce from the new Cooking Light. I may even go really bold and attempt injera, so we can eat true Ethiopian style (injera is kinda like a bubbly, sourdough pancake – it’s used as a platter for your food, and you tear off the edges, pick up yummy food and eat it. Ottawa folks, I recommend checking out The Horn of Africa downtown – yummy, cheap, and Ethiopian food has the coolest flavour – full of heat, cardamom and all sorts of things.

And now, I’m counting down the minutes until lunchtime…..gah!

Thanks for reading.