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Earlier this month, I was contacted to participate in the Hidden Valley Ranch Recipe Challenge.   This involves creating a recipe using the signature ranch dressing or the two new flavours, cheesy and spicy.  This contest is against 15 Canadian food bloggers and besides a prize of a Kitchen Aid mixer or gift certificates to Williams Sonoma, the winning recipe will be demoed live by Chef Ned Bell at the Calgary Stampede.  The Stampede is one of my favourite events so to win would be pretty awesome.

Over the next few days, I will be blogging about a few of my creations.  I would love to know what you think!

The first is fried pickles, completely inspired by my visit to Calgary’s second Smashburger location.  I loved them the first time I went there, and when I took Q to the newest location, he loved them more than I did.

Instead of dipping the pickles in eggs, I used the Cheesy Ranch dressing as the binder for the panko breading.  This added a great flavour and the dressing doubled as a dip for the crispy bites.

Cheesy Ranch Fried Pickles

4 large pickles, sliced
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Hidden Valley Ranch, cheddar flavour
1 cup panko

Place the sliced pickles between two pieces of paper towel and pat them dry.  Place the flour, dressing and panko in three separate bowls.  Dredge the pickles in flour, then the dressing and then panko.  Fry until golden brown. 

Culinary icon Julia Child would have turned 100 years old this year in August.  To honour her, a national campaign, JC100 was launched with bloggers, chefs and many others participating as part of a community and paying tribute to Julia.

Every week, a new recipe from Julia’s collection is released and redone by the JC100 community.  I have been meaning to participate but haven’t been able to until this week, with Sole Meuniere. 

Sole Meuniere was Julia’s first meal in Paris and inspired her love affair with food.  This is the perfect recipe outlining the French cooking philosophy of simplicity.  This dish was a hit in our house, especially with hubby.  It didn’t take long to make, was easy and tasted delicious!

Fillets of Sole Meuniere
(Fillets of sole sauteed in butter)
Excerpted from The Way to Cook by Julia Child. Copyright © 1989 by Julia Child. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

For 6 servings

6 skinless and boneless sole, 4 to 6 ounces each and 3/8″ thick
salt and pepper
1/2 cup or so flour in a plate
4 TB clarified butter
2 TB minced fresh parsley
4 to 6 TB unsalted butter
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Dust the fillets lightly on each side with salt and pepper.  The moment before sauteeing, rapidly drop each into the flour to coat both sides, and shake off the excess.  Set the frying pan over high heat and film with 1/16 inch of clarified butter.  When the butter is very hot but not browning, rapidly lay in as many fillets as will fit easitly, leaving a little space between each.  Saute a minute or two on each side.  The fish is done when just springy rather than squashy to the touch of your finger.  Immediately remove from the pan to warm plates or a platter.

Sprinkle each fillet with parsley.  Wipe the frying pan clean, set over high heath, and add the fresh butter; heat until bubbling and pour over the fillets – the parsley will bubble up nicely.  Decorate with lemon wedges, and serve at once.

With most of my cousins in town last week following my sister’s wedding in Vancouver, we decided to do a quick get together, sans kids.

Someone suggested Gravity Espresso and Wine Bar and after hearing all the great things on twitter and food blogs, I was happy to go check it out.

Located in Inglewood, this is a cute little place.  We went on a Thursday and found it quiet, perfect for the eleven of us to be a little rowdy.  The art on the wall was great, and inspired conversation.

Not really in the mood for coffee, I tried out the hot chocolate, made with chocolate from Papa Chocolat.  It was a good hot chocolate, not too sweet and decorated beautifully.

The best part of the night was the flourless chocolate cake.  Decadent, rich and so satisfying, I would go back just for that!

Other desserts that they had were the carrot cake and cheesecake in jars.  I was really hoping to try the coconut cake but they didn’t have any that day.

I loved that the owner, Andy, came over to make sure we were doing okay.  That personal touch is always appreciated.  His attention to detail in creating ambiance for the restaurant was noted when the quiet place that we had walked into filled with music after he arrived.

That chocolate cake?  I think it will be calling me back!

One of our favourite pizza places is Famoso Pizzeria.  We frequent the location in Mission often so I was really excited to check out their newest location in McKenzie Towne.  Hubby, Q and I checked out the place before their launch on May 31st.  Upon being seated, appetizers of Roasted Kalamata Olives were brought to the table.  I’m not a fan of olives but hubby really enjoyed these.  The olives were topped with feta cheese and a spicy olive oil.

So that we could try out a few different pizzas, we ordered pizzettas, which were half the size of their regular 11″ pizzas.  We knew that Q would love the San Andreas since it was topped with avocados and we were right!  The pizza was topped with chili-lime chicken, tomatoes, onions and those creamy avocados.  The drizzle of sour cream was the perfect touch.

Hubby’s favourite was the Sweet BBQ Chicken, one we had tried previously.  The pizza was topped with tomatoes and red onions and had a really nice sweet and tangy bbq sauce. 

My new favourite pizza at Famoso’s is the Smoked Salmon. This, along with the San Andreas is part of their Spring / Summer feature.  It’s the perfect summer dish with the fresh tasting salmon and the dill sauce.

The meal was amazing and just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, we had dessert.  We were all blown away by the Dolce and Banana.  The bananas were oven roasted and topped with caramel sauce, gelato and pecans.  Hubby doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth but he loved this dish and we polished it off.  Q loved his Fiasco Gelato, so much so that he didn’t want to share.  We also tried the nutella pizza – nutella in fresh pizza dough, so good!  We ended the meal with Affogato, a shot of espresso with a scoop of gelato.  I really enjoyed the contrast of the hot coffee with the cold gelato.

With all of the great offerings, I am sure that their newest location will be a hit!  Now if only I could get one closer to where I live…