I love creamy pasta sauces and I love making them from scratch. My mom requested seafood fettucine alfredo for her birthday this year, so I’m sharing the fettuccine alfredo recipe that I used. If preferred, you could substitute chicken for the seafood, or serve the fettuccine alfredo plain.
Different versions of savoury pancakes are popular in Asian cuisine, including Korean pancakes, Japanese pancakes, and Chinese pancakes. My favourite is the Chinese scallion pancake that is believed to have originated in Shanghai. Considering these pancakes are made with flour and green onions, I have always found them to be overpriced in restaurants. Luckily, they are very easy to make. Although they are slightly time consuming to make, you can make a large batch and freeze them for quick and easy future meals. These make a great accompaniment to all sorts of dishes, but especially to stir fried Shanghai noodles (see recipe here) and sticky rice rolls with pork floss (see recipe here).
Cooking with Alison’s Grandma (Part 4 of 4)
‘Joong’ or Chinese rice dumplings have also been called Chinese tamales. My grandma makes the best joong in the world. I can’t eat other peoples’ or restaurants’ joong, because nothing comes close to grandma’s joong. So I was very happy when she agreed to teach me how to make them. It takes a lot of work and the preparation starts days in advance, but her recipe makes 32 and they can be frozen for future meals.
The first joong that I ever wrapped.
Sangria is a Spanish drink that consists of wine and fruit. I never knew that red sangria (made with red wine) could taste so smooth until my friends Yili and Kent made me their sangria with a secret ingredient. It may not be authentic, but I can drink this stuff like it’s juice. The recipe below provides guidelines for making a classic sangria, as well. Sangria is thought of as more of a summer drink, but I make it all year round. It’s a fun drink to serve at a Halloween or vampire themed party. I made two large pitchers for John’s housewarming party, and they were finished early in the night (I only had one small glass).
I have made this potato and green bean salad many times, because it’s flavourful, it can be served warm or cold, it’s quick and easy to make, it’s a one pot meal, it only requires 4 total ingredients, and it’s a great way to use up leftover cooked potatoes and/or green beans. I like to add tuna when I’m serving it for lunch or dinner. It’s also a great option for pot lucks as it is gluten free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegetarian, and vegan (as long as you don’t add the tuna).
My family and John love the taste and I love how easy it is to make. I should note though, that this salad does not keep well. So if you are serving it warm, it should be eaten soon after it was made. If you are serving it cold, be sure to cool all of the other ingredients first and then toss them with the dressing just prior to serving.
When I first saw McGuinness Glazed Donut liquor, I knew that I had to get it, because, as I’m sure you’ve heard, John has a thing for donuts (see the Donut Tour of Toronto here, and the Donut Pillow/Costume DIY here). I created a few donut-inspired signature drinks for John’s housewarming party. I served them as shots, but some of them would make delicious cocktails as well. They were very well received.
Chocolate Glazed Donut Shot Recipe
This is a simple recipe for a delicious split pea soup that you can easily turn into a meal in a jar and a great gift. (This soup is gluten free and can be made vegetarian, vegan, and dairy free.) I love giving meals in jars as hostess gifts and housewarming presents. For people that live in emergency-prone areas, canning meals in jars is essential to being prepared for anything. Some of the better food preservation methods require equipment such as pressure canners, vacuum packing machines, oxygen absorbers, and freeze dried foods, etc. You can find more information and meal in a jar recipes here. You won’t believe the range of meals that you can put in a jar with a shelf life of months to years.
This split pea soup recipe was inspired by The Bean Ladies’ Lickety Split Pea Soup. In December 2013, I had the opportunity of sampling two of The Bean Ladies’ products at The One of a Kind Show in Toronto, ON. Their bean soups were delicious, but, in my opinion, very overpriced. So I recreated their soup recipe for a fraction of the cost. See my recipe for Curried White Bean and Sweet Potato Soup, which was also inspired by The Bean Ladies (coming soon).
I made these baked brie crostinis for John’s housewarming party and they were one of the party favourites. They are very quick and easy to make, especially considering I was making enough to serve a large crowd.
Roasted prime rib (or standing rib roast) is one of my family’s favourite things to eat for special occasions and family gatherings. It’s a beautiful, tender, flavourful and expensive cut of meat that would be completely wasted if overcooked. Once you get the hang of achieving the right doneness, you’ll discover that it’s actually very easy to cook a prime rib roast. Below, I have shared my favourite way to cook a prime rib roast to rare. Note that I don’t normally pre-season my roasts, so the cooking methods would differ slightly if you wanted to use a flavour crust on the outside of your meat. I prefer to add high quality salt and freshly ground black pepper just prior to enjoying. My choice of salt pairings include: Hawaiian black lava salt, French finishing salt, black truffle salt, pink Himalayan salt, etc.
This peanut butter frosting recipe makes a lot of frosting. Luckily, the leftovers can be frozen. I first used it to make peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes. In fact, I’ve made these cupcakes and mini cupcakes for several different events, now. They were all very well received (recipe below). Recently, I was in a very popular cupcake bakery downtown Toronto, ON, and I noticed that their chocolate peanut butter cupcakes were decorated the exact same way that mine were! That was a nice reminder to share this recipe. Don’t forget to warn people that these contain nuts, in case of food allergies.
I’d also like to share three other uses for the leftovers of this delicious frosting. For a Canada Day BBQ, I used the peanut butter frosting as the filling for oatmeal cookie sandwiches. They were very popular. Then, for John’s housewarming party, I served the peanut butter frosting on graham crackers topped with fresh banana slices and drizzles of homemade dark chocolate sauce. I’ve also heard that frozen graham cracker and frosting sandwiches are delicious too. I’ll have to try that next time. I’d love to hear what you do with your leftover frosting!
I love macaroni and cheese and these mini macaroni and cheese bites turn a comforting pasta dish into finger food fit for any party. These can also be made gluten free! I used grown-up cheese and made two versions of macaroni and cheese bites for John’s housewarming party. If you only own one mini muffin pan, which I do, these can be tedious and time-consuming to make. But they can be made hours in advance and then reheated in the oven prior to serving. You could also bake these in a standard muffin pan and serve them as a side dish for a sit down meal. This recipe also happens to make the best baked macaroni and cheese dish I’ve ever had, especially cheese mixture #2. I used the leftover ingredients to make individual baked macaroni and cheese dishes as shown in the photo below.
I made caramelized onion and gorgonzola puff pastry tarts for John’s housewarming party. They were definitely one of the party favourites. They were also easy to prepare in advance. I cut them into small squares for finger food, but this tart would make a great first course, too. If you have the time and patience, you could turn these into round hors d’oeuvres instead. These would be cute and elegant for any event. Simply use a small, round cookie cutter to cut out rounds of the rolled out dough, follow the recipe as written, and place the filling onto each round of dough before baking.
Cooking with Alison 