Fresh Spring Rolls

I watched a demonstration in the store and was inspired to try to make these Vietnamese fresh veggie spring rolls. They weren't as good as his, but it was a fun experience!

Just another burger and a salad

Salad: baby romaine, cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, pecans, and avocado topped with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette.

Burger: BBQ sauce, onion, ketchup, tomato and avocado on a home made beef patty.

A Very Berry Tart

I had never made a tart before, and maybe never even eaten one, but I stumbled across this recipe from the blog Cooking with my Kid, and was inspired to make it for a book club brunch I was hosting.

It was quite easy. I used fresh raspberries and frozen blueberries, and have decided that frozen works perfectly - just use frozen (don't thaw the berries first). I don't keep self-rising flour on hand, but here's a simple recipe to make it.

As I said, I'd never had a tart before, so I'll let you know it tasted like a cross between a cookie and a cake in terms of texture and density. Not overly sweet, with nice tart berry bursts.

Avocado-Tomato Salad and a Burger

A simple salad of diced fresh avocado and tomato (from my garden) with fresh-squeeze lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt.

The burger is topped with BBQ sauce, onion, a cheese blend including asiago, and ketchup on a home made patty.

When I make hamburgers patties, I usually use the following ingredient (but I don't measure - sorry!):

• ground beef (lean)
• Worcestershire sauce
• onion powder or puréed onion
• garlic powder or crushed garlic
• an egg, to bind them

For every pound of beef, I make three burgers, on average.

Roasted Chicken

First crack at roasting a whole chicken, and I wanted crispy crackling skin. I followed this recipe for Perfect Roast Chicken, which was FANTASTIC. I used butter instead of margarine, and my only complaint is that it needed far less butter than it called for, so I will half the quantity next time. It also cooked faster than expected, so make sure to take periodic temperature readings as you baste it.

Janice's Indian-Inspired Soup

5 large potatoes
5 large carrots
6 small stalks of celery
1 medium-large onion
1 cloves of garlic


Chop it all up. 
Boil in about 8 cups of beef broth (I think I used just slightly less). 
When veggies are very soft, stop boiling, blend it all until reasonably smooth. 
Pour back into pot and mix in 2 teaspoons each of cumin and curry, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, and 1 teaspoon of thyme.

Great when you're craving a low-cal version of Indian cuisine.

Serves 6. Each serving:

Calories: 86
Potassium: 415
Fat: 0
Carbs: 14
Fibre:2
Protein: 4

Baked Kale Chips

Three simple ingredients: kale, oil, salt.

I had never tried kale, except maybe mixed into a salad at a bistro, but recently, my colleague brought in some highly addictive tortilla chips purchased at Costco that include kale in the mix of "healthy" ingredients. Since I found them quite tasty, I got up the nerve to try a "crunchy granola" recipe: baked kale chips.

The verdict? Surprisingly edible - that mystery flavour I enjoyed in the tortilla chips has been identified, and am willing to try again some time. Admittedly, my spouse wasn't pleased with the smell of freshly baked kale, and refused to try any.