CORN AND SWEET POTATO CHOWDER

In determining what kind of soup to make, I thought about some kind of corn chowder as there were four cobs of corn in the fridge that needed to be eaten.  I found this recipe in Mark Bittman's cookbook "The Food that Matters Cookbook".  I have written in previous posts about Mark Bittman and the wonderful way he cooks and how he keeps the ingredients simple.  Mark Bittman has his own website which includes an expansive number of recipes.  I made a few changes to his original recipe.  I used all of the 6 cups of cooking water in the soup.  Adding the cooking water from cooking the cobs of corn and sweet potato adds to the flavour of the soup.  I used regular milk and not cream or half and half.  Instead of garnishing the bowl with dill or parsley, I added frozen dill to the soup after the burner was turned off and I was going to ladle the soup into bowls.  I freeze fresh dill in small freezer bags during the summer and find it very handy to add to soups and other recipes during the non dill growing season.  This is a great soup and I plan to make it again.

HALIBUT ALMONDINE

I like using almonds in various recipes.  This recipe uses almonds with halibut fillets.  There are many recipes that incorporate almonds into a paste that is spread over the halibut.  Some have multiple ingredients and can be richer than the recipe I made.  Both the DH and I enjoyed this recipe and I will make it again.

The halibut is on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It is ready to go into the oven.

Plated and ready to eat.

SWEET AND SOUR TOFU WITH PINEAPPLE

I have always enjoyed sweet and sour dishes including those found in chinese food restaurants.  But what I didn't like was the excessive breading on the chicken, if the food had too much of an orange/red colour or if it was too gooey.  This recipe is not overly starchy, there are no foreign colours and is not excessively sweet.  Instead of tofu, you can use cubed chicken.  The DH did enjoy this dish without any protests as tofu was used.

PINTO BEAN GOULASH

This recipe is adapted from a recipe that Martha Rose Shulman wrote about in the October 10, 2011 edition of the New York Times.  I made a number of changes to suit my cooking style and tastes.  The goulash has paprika, garlic, sweet peppers, carrots and onions.  I presoaked the pinto beans overnight in a large pot of water.   I actually heated the water to a boil, then added the beans and turned the burner off.   I used 400 grams of beans which is almost a pound.  Because I used less than a pound of beans I added 7 cups of water  You can use other beans besides pinto beans.  I liked the flavour of this goulash.  It is also convenient to freeze 1/2 cup to one cup portions for when you don't have much time to prepare a meal.

SALMON WITH LEMON PICCATA SAUCE

I made this recipe for supper one Sunday night.  I adapted this recipe from one of the many recipes produced by Bonnie Stern.   This recipe is a play on lemon piccata chicken.  Instead of making chicken piccata, you can make salmon piccata or halibut piccata.  I like the flavours of lemon, butter and capers.  I served the salmon with brown rice and added a bit of lemon piccata sauce to the rice on my plate.  Simply delicious.

Lemon sauce being made.

Baked salmon just out of the oven.

Lemon piccata sauce spooned over the fish and served with rice.

GLUTEN FREE BANANA LOAF

With several bananas ripening faster than what we can consume on a daily basis, one of the popular options was to make a banana loaf.  I don't eat bananas on a daily basis but the DH and the dog do.  The dog whose life can be ruled by his stomach, loves bananas.  He will share a banana every morning with the DH.

I did some recipe surfing on the internet and the following recipe is very typical from the numerous sites I visited.   I did find that this gluten free loaf is more crumbly than a loaf made with wheat flour.   I added raisins to the batter and with the sugar, raisins and banana, the loaf was sweet enough.

STYLE AND IMAGE

A few weeks ago I attended a lecture on style and success presented by Joanne Blake.  She has a company Style for Success and she consults, gives presentations and provides coaching related to image, building confidence, dressing for success and how to sell yourself.   It was a very interesting presentation as she and the audience discussed the power of image, first impressions, how people perceive your image and situational dressing.

Joanne provides eight key decisions people will make of you within seconds of meeting:

1. Economic level
2. Intellectual ability
3. Reliability
4. Social position
5. Level of refinement
6. Moral standards
7. Level of success
8. Potential for success

FISH, VEGETABLES AND QUINOA

This recipe for a fish, vegetable and quinoa dish is very easy to make and you can use a variety of vegetables and an assortment of fish.  It all depends on your taste buds.  I find sometimes that I want to dress up a piece of cod or salmon and combine it with other foods.

Quinoa product that I buy at Costco.

GLUTEN FREE OAT BREAD

Before making this oat bread, I have never made gluten free bread before.   I decided to make this bread as the DH is following a gluten free diet.  I doubled the recipe and made two loaves.  The recipe calls for a bread machine but I used a food processor with a dough hook and cooked the loaves in large bread loaf pans.   This dough has the consistency of a thick cake batter versus a typical bread dough that I have made in the past.  It is stickier to handle especially getting it out of the mixing bowl and into the loaf pans.  The oat flour, Only Oats, is from a company called Avena Foods.  Avena Foods produces certified gluten free products.  The oat flour is one of many products they process/manufacture.  This recipe for oat bread is on their website.

The Dh and I enjoyed the oat bread and I plan to make it again.  The DH says it is much better than the bread he has tried from the grocery store.

Oat flour that I used to make the bread.