Easy Chicken

This is the simplest chicken dish you will ever make. Put chicken breasts in a casserole and pour Kraft Sundried Tomato and Oregano dressing over them. Put in the oven uncovered at 350 for approximately one hour depending on the size of the breast. Serve with a salad and some hot sauce. Super easy and very tasty.

Halibut With Tomato Salsa

After seeing Brian's halibut dish, I decided I would make some for dinner. This really tasted great. The tomato salsa was excellent.

Halibut with Tomato Salsa

■5 cocktail sized on the vine tomatoes, some cut in half and some cut in quarters

■2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
■1/2 of a lemon
■1 tsp finely chopped fresh red chili pepper
■pinch of dried thyme
■two splashes of white wine
■salt and pepper (to season the fish)
■olive oil

The Method

For the Salsa:

1.Heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat in a non stick frying pan.

2.Add the garlic and sautee for a minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the tomatoes, chili pepper and juice of half a lemon and sautee for another 4 minutes.
3.Add the thyme and stir.
4.Add the wine and stir until wine is reduced to about 1/4 of the volume, about another 3 minutes.

For the Halibut

1.Rinse the filet, and pat it dry with paper towels. Get it as dry as possible.

2.Season the flesh side with salt and pepper.
3.Heat a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat in a non stick frying pan.
4.When the oil is hot, add the halibut, skin side down.
5.Let it cook skin side down for 6 minutes. Now, the key is not to move the filet, just let it cook. It will look like it’s sticking to the pan, but when it’s ready to flip it will release from the pan very easily.
6.After 6 minutes, lower the heat to medium, flip the halibut and let it cook flesh side down for about 4 minutes (again, don’t move it until it moves easily).
7.Depending on how thick your filet is, you may need another few minutes at this point. If you do, flip the fish back onto its skin side for the remainder of the time. I gave mine another 2 minutes. When the fish is completely opaque and flakes easily it is ready.
8.Plate the fish, skin side down, squeeze some more lemon juice on it and spoon the tomato salsa over it.
9.Serve.

BBQ Challenge Held at Home and Trade Show

It certainly has been a long time since my last post. I have been very busy with a couple of other websites but I am going to turn my attention back to this blog. I attended the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce BBQ Challenge on the weekend. Two of my cooking friends entered the challenge. Sylvain cooked an outstanding quail dish and Brian an equally outstanding halibut dish. You can see how great these looked in the photos below. Neither Brian nor Sylvain placed. Brian was defeated from the beginning. Two of the three judges were allergic to white fish. Go figure. Also strange was that a rib dish placed second. The rules were 20 minute preparation and 20 minute cooking time. Ya can't cook ribs in 20 minutes. The ribs were falling off the bone. They had been cooked for many hours prior to the competition. Seems a little unfair. First place was jerk chicken. I even wonder how chicken with bone in could cook in 20 minutes. Anyhow it was a good event. Hopefully next year the rules will be a little clearer.

Pheasant

I have never tried pheasant but my friend Sylvain from "The Arrogant Chef" invited me and my wife for a pheasant supper. This was a truly outstanding meal. The sauce was incredible and I hope to post the recipe soon. For now here are some photos from this outstanding meal.

I have never tried pheasant but my friend Sylvain from "The Arrogant Chef" invited me and my wife for a pheasant supper. This was a truly outstanding meal. The sauce was incredible and I hope to post the recipe soon. For now here are some photos from this outstanding meal.

Carrot Cake Success

I am happy to report that my first carrot cake turned out great thanks to Lisa's recipe. The cake was very moist and the icing was fantastic. I will definitely be making this again.

Lisa's Famous Carrot Cake

This is without a doubt the best carrot cake on the planet. I hope I can do it justice. I will be making this for the first time this afternoon. I am not much of a baker. I tend to limit my sweet tooth cooking to pies. But after Dave brought some of Lisa's carrot cake to work, I knew I was going to have to give this a try someday and today is the day. Here is the recipe. I will let you know how it turned out.

Lisa’s Famous Carrot Cake

2 cups of flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 ¼ cups oil

2 cups white sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups coconut

1 cup crushed pineapple including juice

2 cups grated carrots

1.       Stir together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda and set aside.

2.       Beat eggs, add oil the sugar.

3.       Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture.

4.       Blend well, add coconut, pineapple, juice and carrots

5.       Pour into buttered waxed paper 9 x 13in. pan.

6.       Bake just above centre in 350F oven for 50 minutes or until done.

7.       Let set in pan 10 minutes before removing to rack

Icing

½ cup butter

2 4oz. packages of cream cheese

3 cups icing sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1.       Cream butter and cheese together. Add vanilla then the icing sugar.

2.       Blend well, spread over cake.

Antigonish Meat Pie (Tortiere)

This is my father's recipe for tortiere. It isn't traditional but it is damn good. The crust has sort of been a family secret but I am about to print it so that is does not just disappear. I think I will make that my Christmas present to all you bloggers out there and my friends at Serious Eats.

Meat Pies

3 lbs minced pork

2 lbs lean ground beef

salt and pepper to taste (adjust as it cooks)

3 or 4 chopped fried onions

flour and water to thicken up (about 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup flower

Italian Seasoning to taste (adjust as it cooks.

Brown meat in large pot add fried onions, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Cook until meat is cooked through. Add water and flour to thicken. Add mixture to pie shells and cook in oven at 350 until crusts are golden brown. The Italian seasoning is the secret ingredient in these pies. You adjust to taste as it cooks.