This is one of my favourite dishes to eat but I am never satisfied with this dish when I order it at a restaurant as either the chicken isn’t very good or the pasta sauce is bland or the whole thing is just overcooked. I have attempted this dish several times but I believe this is my best effort to date. This is a very hearty meal so bring lots of appetite.
Overall the bread challenge has gone very well until this week. Week four.
The whole wheat bread I made in week two lasted for two weeks since I froze it all by half loaves. Our daughter is really enjoying my bread and is now always checking to make sure that what we are giving her is homemade bread which according to her makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches.
Back to week four. Matte is out of town for work and my dad is also out of town on course. So this week we are staying with my mom. I didn’t have a chance to make more bread before we came to stay here with my mom so that means I had to buy bread from the grocery store. I don’t really consider this a failure of my challenge, more of a temporary set back. And I haven’t actually eaten the bread I bought from the store so it may still not touch my lips as it is already Wednesday.
I am looking forward to Saturday – bread making day!
Thursday is almost Friday – but not quite. Its just close enough to the end of the week that you want something fancy for dinner, but completely lack the will to spend an hour on prep. This was our situation this past week.
Knowing that we had some frozen shrimp and scallops to use, we decided to put them to good use along with some Prosecco Sparkling Wine (unopened, from New Years Eve).
Prosecco Shrimp & Scallops w/Pasta
Ocean perch is a very versatile white fish which is light and flaky when cooked. One day, Matte saw this fish at the grocery store and called me at home to see if I had any ideas on what we could do with it. I adapted this very simple recipe from a few different recipes I found and now it is a family favourite.
For this past week we have had my first attempt at whole wheat bread with my very own recipe. I made the nerve-wracking decision to wing this and make up my own recipe which led to four hours of stressful anticipation.
Although Jenn and I love to cook, truth be told there are some nights that we just can’t be bothered to do anything too complex or time consuming. Those are the nights that we hope to god that there are good leftovers (rare), something frozen (more rare), or ridiculously simple meal.
Simple doesn’t mean bad unless you let it. We didn’t.
Pasta w/Homemade Tomato-Basil sauce
Note: This is a return to the “Poultry Stock” post but this recipe can be used to clarify any stock.
I spent some time researching what to do with my soupy looking stock and clarifying is the answer. The ingredients you use are really up to your personal preferences. The idea of clarifying is to infuse more flavour into the stock and draw out the impurities. Don’t be afraid, it turns out clarifying is fairly easy.
Homemade bread, Angus roast beef, spinach, and creamy havarti.
Well, we’ve reached the end of week one and a new batch of bread looms ahead.
My daughter told me this morning that she likes both my bread and store bought bread. Then she patted me on the arm and told me “but Mommy I like your bread better, ok?” in a very comforting way. Moral support from my six year old daughter was the least thing I was expecting at 8:30 am but it actually did make me feel like it is worth making another batch of bread.
Matte says the bread was “bready….toastable…loafable!”
Bread tomorrow…today cookies for my daughter’s music class party…
Cookin' In The Galley 
