Summer Starts Now

The ending of a good barbecue requires a fresh citrusy dessert. So this weekend ended with Key Lime Pie, the recipe from Toronto’s own e11even. I found it while browsing the pages of my favourite magazine House and Home. You can find it too, in the May 2012 issue.

This luscious, creamy, dream of a pie is perfect topped with freshly whipped cream. I also added a load of fresh berries just because I had them. I couldn’t find key limes this past Saturday, so I used regular limes. I am sure it would have had better flavour from the real thing (maybe a touch sweeter?), but the regular limes worked in a pinch.

And in tribute to one of our favourites, Ashley Judd we had a piece for breakfast.

Patio Days Have Arrived

After a few weeks of a heavy workload, planning a major event and the follow-up, I was looking forward to this long weekend and ready for a much-needed break. Relaxing, sharing time with friends, cooking and cocktails was what I had planned.

I love the patios of local restaurants, the people watching, great beverages, music, but there is one patio I like best and of course that is the one in my own backyard. We spent a several hours preparing it for the weekend (not done yet), and I must admit it looked well, fabulous.

We put Roberta Flack on and my good man made lovely fruity martinis. Ruby Reds he called them, ruby-red grapefruit juice, melon liqueur, and Stoli. It was hard to drink them slow.

Then we decided to do something we had been meaning to do for quite some time, grill pizza. Everyone I know has done it, I have read about it for eons. So we did it.

Adrian is the pizza maker in the house, even down to his own dough. He has slathered on bechamel and sliced thin pieces of potato, used the best cheese and unusual ingredients, but tonight he chose to make the good old-fashioned kind. He used Greek pita as the crust and a variety of fresh veggies, ham and mozzarella. Turned the barbecue on low and grilled them each for about 15-20 minutes. Wow, I never expected them to taste so divine! This adds a whole new flavour to pizza. Smoky and hot, now I know why this has become so popular. The veggies don’t over cook they are still full of flavour, each standing out on its own. The crust was perfect (I guess depending on your crust preference), a crunchy layer on the outside and soft and doughy inside still.

It was easy and quick, we will do this again soon. Enjoy the first of the summer long weekends!

The Veggie Grill

I just spent a wonderful week in Cooperstown, New York watching my 13 year-old nephew play baseball. I spent time with my own family, my brother and older nephew, my nieces, sister and brother-in-law and my parents.

Something we all do very well together is eat. I had great plans to create all these fabulous meals during this trip. While we did eat some good food together (and not in the local restaurants), we were on the move a lot watching two games a day, so my creative was kept at a minimum.

One thing I did cook for everyone is a veggie grill to go with some chicken breasts I marinated. A combination of chunks of peppers, thinly sliced potatoes, purple onion, feta or goat cheese, olive oil and fresh herbs wrapped in foil ( don’t forget to puncture the foil wrap with a fork) and cooked on the barbecue is always a huge hit. I wing it every time and just guess the amounts based on how many guests I have.

Try it, they’ll love it.