The sun is out! Well the sun is out and I am now a little sick. I’m totally muddy in the head, have a sore throat, and feel totally rough. Ooph, not the way I wanted to start the heat of summer! I took a bunch of oregano oil, and drank an insane amount of water, and alternated between overheating and freezing. So here’s hoping this ritual will kick this cold’s butt before it truly settles in. For breakfast I made a super easy batch of Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs.
My husband brought home a big box of live mussels on Thursday and I started planning the best way to cook them up this weekend. When I went to open them I noticed that their expiry date was the same day that Gen had bought them, two days before. Well, in an ignorant and hopeful moment, I opened the container and tested the mussels for liveliness. Unsuccessful. Time of confirmed death, 5:00pm. Gen immediately called Costco about the possibility of an exchange for mussels that haven’t already expired and they agreed! Problem: they close at 6:00pm. So, my wonderful husband who was desperate for some mussely goodness hustled his butt down to Costco, they took in our dead mussels and gave us a brand new batch and I went to work preparing them three ways! This was a delicious treat for us and we happily have some leftovers to munch on today (pluck the leftover mussels out of their shells, seal in a tupperware and eat cold, or just warmed the next day. They can get quite hard if you heat them too much the next day). The Butter & Garlic batch has a little kick from some apple cider vinegar, Gen went WILD for these, possibly because they were the first batch. He slurped back the sauce from his bowl, my bowl, and the pot. The Curry & Kale mussels are simple and tasty. The kale soaks up the curry flavours wonderfully. The Spicy Coconut version was the big winner. Coconut milk enhances the sweetness of the mussels while the chili flakes and chilis add a kick to balance it out. Winner, winner, mussel dinner.
I’ve put the recipes and a special mussel eating tip behind the jump so that my front page is manageable to scroll!
You know when you want to make something for a long time but you don’t have all the ingredients and then your husband just happens to bring home almost the ingredients you need and you make it from what you’ve got? Well, that is the story of these Scotch Eggs. I call them …kinda Scotch Eggs because they are not breaded nor deep fried. Still, these are delicious and could easily be the centre piece of a meal. They are the size of a baseball… though this could be because I had a heck of a time rolling the meat around my soft boiled eggs (important, so as not to have a rock-hard yolk after baking), breaking the first yolk ruined meat-rolling my confidence (the rest were perfect though). And feel free to use actual sausage meat, though I really enjoyed adding the spices myself.
Yikes, this is delicious. The dry rub is powerful and I will be using it many times in the future, on chicken, beef, pork, etc. Like I said use the rub sparingly, you don’t want to overwhelm your meat. I bought a big pack of pork tenderloins at Costco and dry rubbed each of them before freezing them, just a spoon and a half each did the trick.
The prosciutto kept the pork from drying out (Heidi, I do a service to you every time I want to write moist, I work really hard to find other language!) and it added a saltiness that I didn’t want too much of in the rub, to prevent the rub from over-salting a meal that I would rather salt while cooking. I served this with fluffy and creamy mashed cauliflower that I will be posting tomorrow, yes it is good enough for its own post! I also sautéed some baby bok choy with butter and garlic for some greens. Get on this meal!
This is the least phallic of the photos I took.
Wrapped and ready to roast!
I love making my own spice mixes. Ever since discovering that curry spice combo I’ve been looking for other ways to make my own spice blends. Tacos are not a favourite of mine but Gen loves them. I had intended to make fresh corn tortillas and do a tutorial for those (they are infinitely better than any store-bought ones) but horrifyingly I found that some bugs had made it into my Masa Harina and I had to chuck the batch. I am guessing they bunked down on the move from Calgary to Vancouver, but either way it was a bummer.
Plan B was taco salad. Gen has turned me into a cabbage eater. We never have lettuce with our tacos; the cabbage is crisp and cold and everything that lettuce is but more! It stands up well to the other ingredients and offers it’s own subtle bite. Anyway, I made this awesome taco seasoning and put the rest out for us to make delicious salads!
I forgot to take pictures with all the spices out. This is the leftover spice mix.
Meat all ready for the salads.
Ready to make some salads. Greek yogurt all the things!