savory Archives - Page 2 of 4 - the lovely kitchen

Watermelon Salad

Friday, July 3, 2015 4 all recipes, salad, savory 0

Watermelon salad is so simple – it requires 5 ingredients, one of which you probably already have in your garden (fresh mint). Large chunks of watermelon are tossed with feta cheese and sliced fresh mint, and dressed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette (calling it a ‘dressing’ is generous – it’s just balsamic vinegar shaken with olive oil!).

Juicy watermelon is the prominent flavour in this salad – its high water content makes the salad so refreshing on a hot summer day. It’s great served alongside grilled chicken (or other meat of choice!), and is special enough to bring to a BBQ party.

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Garlic Scape Basil Pesto

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 0 all recipes, savory, snacks 0

Garlic scapes are beautiful, curly stands that look like they belong in a flowery bouquet rather than from an often-tossed part of the garlic plant. Garlic scapes are the green tops of a garlic bulb, and are almost never found in grocery stores, but they often turn up at early summer farmer’s markets. I’d never cooked with them before, so when they wound up in my first CSA box of the year, I was a little stumped as to what I should do with them!

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Pea Pesto Crostini with Goat Cheese

Tuesday, May 26, 2015 0 all recipes, savory, snacks 0

If I had to pick my favourite and most-used kitchen gadget, it would be my food processor, hands down. The first time I ever used it was to make hand pie crust dough, a task I usually found so tedious. After I’d added my ingredients into the food processor, pulsed a few times, and saw the dough come together all on its own, my life changed. It was a miracle!

Since then, I’ve used my food processor for more pie doughs than I can count, and crisp toppings, salsa, breadcrumbs… But my next life changing moment happened when I decided to make pesto for the first time ever. Two years ago, our first rooftop veggie garden was overflowing with more basil than we could ever use. “Let’s make pesto!” J said excitedly. I looked speculatively at our two voluptuous basil plants and we started the arduous process of pulling off ten thousand basil leaves. A splash of olive oil, a few pine nuts, and 1 minute later, we were rewarded with 10 jars of pesto. Best ever.

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Spicy Rosemary Cashews

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 1 all recipes, savory, snacks 0

Happy Cinco de Mayo! And this post is not Cinco de Mayo related at all (what a bad blogger!). But I promise you that J and I will be celebrating with a Mexican feast tonight – we’re going to try these Ancho shrimp tacos from Bev Cooks (check out her blog too, she is one hilarious lady!) and we’ll be serving up our favourite Lime Margaritas.

Instead, today I’m bringing you one of my favourite party tricks – these Spicy Rosemary Cashews are one of my go-to appetizers to share on the coffee table when we have guests over. They’re super simple to make and we always have fresh rosemary on hand in our garden. I love appetizer nibbles – in fact, one of my favourite things to do for dinner is have different crackers and cheeses and meats to nibble on, but the thing is, I often get carried away with huge appetizer spreads. And then I can’t eat my dinner.

I like making these spicy rosemary cashews for an appy, because even though they’re small, they pack a punch, and no one is going to go overboard eating handfuls and handfuls. Except maybe me ;) I promise your guests will gobble up these tasty morsels!

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Maple Dill Carrots & I’m not a runner

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 2 all recipes, mains, savory 0

Pan-fried carrots with maple and fresh dill

I am not a runner. Or so I’ve told myself for the past 20 years. I ran and competed in track in high school, but I was only good at the 100 meter sprint – anything long-distance I hated. And so, I decided I wasn’t a runner.

This January, a colleague of mine decided to put together a corporate team for a local 10km run. Her and I are friends and she asked me if I’d run. My first instinct was, “No way, I’m not a runner!” but then I stopped myself before those words left my mouth. And thought for a minute. No, I’ve never liked long-distance running before, but why not push myself into doing something I’m not good at? Why not try? Why not get better?

And so I said sure. Sure, I will do this thing that I think I am terrible at. Sure, I will risk making a fool of myself. Sure, I will push myself. Sure, I will try.

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Creamy Mushroom Risotto with Spinach

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 2 all recipes, mains, savory 0

Risotto, risotto, risotto, how I love thee.

Risotto is one of those dishes I don’t ever remember my parents making – it’s a food that I feel like J introduced me to (other notable foods he’s made me love are pork tenderloin and brussel sprouts). And I love risotto. It is one of those great one-pot meals, requiring a little TLC, a little extra love and attention, and then its warmth perfectly warms your belly on a cold day. Risotto is versatile and fairly forgiving, as long as you don’t neglect it!

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