Food Mamma

Food | Travel | Family | Life

blog

a night at NOtaBLE

By Leave a Comment

My husband has a new job.  For the past few years, hubby has been a construction project manager, working on office buildings, supermarkets and large box stores.  I am excited about his new venture with LUX Group where he will be in charge of building restaurants and coffee shops.  Yes, food establishments.  Hooray!

Hubby’s new boss B and his girlfriend M (who it turns out I went to high school with!) were kind enough to take us out for dinner at NOtaBLE, Michael Noble’s restaurant located on Bowness Road.  I had heard and read great things about the restaurant and was excited to check it out.

We weren’t able to make reservations for the day we went and the restaurant was busy – we did have to wait about 30 minutes for a table.  We were quite hungry by the time we were seated and went straight for the main course.  I ordered the char-grilled and braised lamb shank served with chanterelle mushroom and asiago risotto.  It was a great choice.  The lamb was moist and the risotto was creamy and delicious.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Hubby ordered the whole grilled sea bream with lemon, thyme, and red wine butter sauce.  Our server offered to debone the fish for him, although he didn’t take her up on the offer.  The fish was moist and very tasty.

There weren’t a lot of vegetarian options for M but the kitchen was kind enough to make her gnocci with assorted veggies which she seemed to enjoy.  B ordered the New York steak which looked juicy and tender.

We had to of course order dessert.  The double baked chocolate cake was served warm with a scoop of chocolate sorbet and was delicious!  B ordered the stilton cheesecake and enjoyed it even though he didn’t like blue cheese.  The cheesecake was served with a rhubarb compote.

Michael Noble worked with B on the menu for Kayne’s so I did get an introduction after our meal.  He was even kind enough to take a picture with me.  We had a great time at NOtaBLE – great food and great company.

NOtaBLE on Urbanspoon

guest blogger: sweety’s quinoa and veggie salad

By Leave a Comment

I’m so happy to have a good friend of mine guest blog today.  Sweety Sull Tumber is a wonderful mother to two gorgeous kids, J and S.

It’s a snow day today and I was feeling hungry.  Too lazy to run out in the blistering weather to purchase some groceries, I decided to test my culinary skills and come up with something to eat with existing ingredients in my pantry.  For months now, I had been intentionally ignoring the jar of quinoa that I purchased on one of my ‘today is the day that I will eat healthy and instantly lose a million pounds’ type outings.  So I thought… Maybe I should learn how to prepare this, how bad could it taste? I’ll just jazz it up with some fresh veggies and lemon.  On a side note, up until today I really had no idea what quinoa even was! Well, after some snooping around in my fridge and throwing some simple veggies together,  I enjoyed the most healthiest, tastiest and filling salad ever! Quinoa is an amazing grain full of fiber and all nine amino acids.  It’s also a complete protein making this an excellent choice for those who are trying to lower their weekly meat intake.  It’s also gluten free.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. My 2 year old sure did.

Quinoa and Veggie Salad

1 cup dry quinoa , cooked and drained
1 long english cucumber, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 cup of diced celery
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
5 green onions, diced
2 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
1/4 cup parsley
2 cups of canned cooked chickpeas, rinse well
2-4 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
I also added 2 tablespoons of low fat italian dressing that I found in my fridge just for fun

Toss together and enjoy!

celebrating baby’s upcoming arrival with cookies

By Leave a Comment

We are so thrilled that our dear friends will be having their first baby in a few weeks.  We celebrated Baby L’s upcoming arrival with a small dinner out with close friends.  Even though we weren’t really doing a shower, I wanted to do something to make the night out special.  Of course, the idea that came to mind had to do with food!  I had purchased a gingerbread man cookie cutter a month ago and never did get a chance to use it over Christmas.  Using a sugar cookie recipe and the cookie cutter, the sugar ‘baby’ was created. 

Roll-out Cookies
Adapted from Wilton

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 1 cup at at a time, mixing after each addition.  Divide dough into 2 balls.  On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle, approximately 1/8 inches thick and cut out cookies in the shape that you want.  Bake cookies on an ungreased sheet for 7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.  Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

pizza party!!

By Leave a Comment

Since my sister was in town, we celebrated the holidays with our cousins by having a pizza party!   Although I was hoping to make the dough, I ended up making my life a little easy and purchased pizza shells.  Everyone had the chance to top their pizzas with homemade pesto (nut-free for those with allergies) or tomato sauce and then tons of toppings.  Meat toppings included spicy chicken sausage, beef bacon, ground beef and beef pepperoni.  Veggies included peppers (green and red), onions (white, red, green), tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, pineapple, roasted garlic and basil.  Everyone had a great time being creative when topping their pizzas.  It was a fun idea and we will definitely be having another pizza party!

happy new year!

By Leave a Comment

Hard to believe a new year has begun.  Instead of starting the new year with resolutions I can’t keep (give up chocolate? no way!), I reflect.  Reflect upon what’s important and what the new year can offer.  What’s important is always the same – family.  When it comes to family, I am the luckiest girl in the world.  A loving husband, the sweetest little boy, amazing parents that I don’t know what I would do without, a great sister that I wish lived in the same country, if not city, wonderful in-laws and a close-knit family (uncles, aunts, cousins and their kids) that get together at least once a month.

This month’s lunch was at a local Chinese restaurant – 24 of us in total, 6 under the age of 5.  It was an afternoon filled with laughter, good conversation and a little bit of chaos.  So thankful that I have these wonderful people in my life.  Looking forward to a year filled with many family gatherings and celebrations!

christmas…and candy cane bark

By 1 Comment

It was a wonderful Christmas.  My sister who had been stuck in Europe because of all the flight cancellations finally made it here with her fiance.  Although time with them will be short, we are so lucky to be spending the next few days with them. 

Around here, a fave of ours during the holidays is candy cane bark.  With two layers of chocolate topped with crunchy candy canes, it’s a winning combination. 

Hope everyone’s Christmas was as sweet as ours!

Candy Cane Bark

1 cup dark chocolate
1 cup white chocolate
5 candy canes, crushed

Melt the dark chocolate and spread a layer on parchment placed on a cookie sheet.  Refrigerate until cooled.  Melt the white chocolate and place on top of the dark chocolate.  While still warm, sprinkle with crushed candy canes.  Once hardened, break into pieces.

sinful chocolate squares

By Leave a Comment

When we were younger, my sister and I loved it when my mom made desserts with condensed milk.  We couldn’t wait to get our share of the sweet liquid.  Sometimes we would open up a can and eat it like pudding.  One of my favorite things to do with condensed milk is to make these squares.  Very similar to Eagle Brand’s Magic Cookie Bars, these are even more sinful with a chocolate crust.

Sinful Chocolate Squares

1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (plus a little more for licking!)
1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup almonds

Combine the crumbs and margarine and and press into the bottom of an 8″ x 8″ dish.  Pour the condensed milk over the crumbs followed by the chocolate, coconut and almonds.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

whipped shortbread

By Leave a Comment

Baking continues with one of my favorites, whipped shortbread cookies. I’ve been making this recipe for years and can’t remember where it comes from.  It’s a simple recipe with only 3 ingredients!  Whipping the dough for 10 minutes makes it light and fluffy and the buttery cookies just melt in your mouth.  These cookies went fast and I know we’ll be making a couple more batches before the year is done.

Whipped Shortbread

1 cup butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 cup flour

Cream the butter and icing sugar together.  Add the flour and beat for 10 minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Makes 3 dozen small cookies.

palmiers

By Leave a Comment

Well, it’s that time of year.  Time for Christmas parties and tons of baked good.  We may not celebrate Christmas religiously but we do celebrate the holiday season with close friends and family.

Baking this year started off with the simplest of cookies.  Made with only 2 ingredients, Palmiers are puffs of buttery sugary dough baked until golden.  They look quite fancy, people will never guess they take only minutes to prepare.

Palmiers

1 box of puff pastry
Sugar

Unroll one sheet of puff pastry. Sprinkle generously with sugar. Roll the pastry from the horizontal ends into the middle. Refrigerate for 10 minutes and then cut the roll into pieces.  Sprinkle each piece with sugar and place on parchment paper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.