Pizza Stone Pizza

Its sort of sad that I have an equal number of pizza recipes as I do salads. But heck, when it comes to homemade pizza, there really isn't any point in arguing because it just tastes so darn good.

I recently procured a pizza stone, a concept that I was never really sure about. I mean, its just a big stone that your pizza sits on? Whats the big deal about it anyway? I just liked whipping up the dough and being done with it! So really, what difference does a stone make?

It turns out, a fair bit. A pizza stone really does change the crust a fair bit. The dough before the stone was softer and took longer to cook. Any pineapple that we placed on it would just soak into the crust and would add to cooking time. However, after adding the rock to the oven, the crusts became firmer, the pizza became much easier to hold over a plate. I would need a fork before, or some excellent hand dexterity in order to keep the whole thing from falling apart.


Now I've only experimented with the stone once or twice, so I don't really have all the tricks down yet, but here are some basics.

• You have to buy some cornmeal to place on the bottom of the stone. It helps with peeling the pizza off the stone. I also find it adds a good bit of texture

• Let the stone preheat in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Adding it straight to the oven can cause it to crack.

• Don't wash with soap! It will soak into the stone and leave a bad taste. Just soak and wash in warm water. It might stain, but apparently that's a natural thing to happen. And it adds character! 

And that's basically it! The stone helps cook the crust cook quickly and all the way through. I cant wait to try out some more things with it! 

And as a side note, I heard a helpful tip about pizza dough the other day. Apparently If you let the dough rise another two hours, it helps the dough taste even better! After it rises for the first time, you should knead it a couple of times, then place back in the bowl for another couple of hours. I  haven't tried it myself, and I don't know if I have the patience for it, but maybe one day I'll give it a shot. Let me know if you give it a go!

Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Grits

For me, Grits are a little bit exotic simply because I really had no idea what they were. And who names a food item grits? Not the most appetizing name... This particular item seems to be prominent in the South Eastern United States, and it was something I was always curious about. So when my eyes fell upon them in the grocery store, it was just an item that I needed to grab.

So what the heck are grits you ask? Grits are corn, ground-up into small particles. For those that have had polenta, its similar in its shape and consistency. Now I have always believed that grits needed to be cooked with something to make them a tasty meal, but after some research, I guess they are a good side dish all on their own.

However, I already broke the norm for eating grits as I wanted to make it for dinner, while it seems that they are more commonly served alongside breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon and ... grits. It still doesn't sound all that appetizing to me!!!

Ah well, something new to try anyway. Although taking the first bite took a second of courage or so. Im so glad I took the plunge though! On their own, grits are kind of boring. They would definitely not be the first thing I would add to my plate at a buffet. They just dont have an exotic exciting flavour. Its a good thing then, that you can add things to serve with your grits.

I found a good recipe for Lemon and Garlic Grits on The Food Network, and the flavour combination turned out great! And it even tastes better left over once the sauce melds together a bit. The grits will definitely fill you up fast, so dont worry about overloading your plate with them. Serve with a salad on the side and you should have a pretty good meal! Enjoy!


Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Grits

Grits - 3/4 cup
Salt and Pepper - Pinch
Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup
Butter - 3 tbsps

Shrimp - 2 cups
Garlic - 2 cloves minced
Cayenne Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes - a healthy pinch
Lemon Juice - 1/4 cup (ish)
Basil - a healthy pinch

In a small pot, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Whisk in the grits and the salt and pepper before covering the pot. Reduce the heat to a medium low and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes. Stir in the parmesan and one tbsp of butter. Set aside the pot away from the heat but keep covered. Season with salt and pepper. And the grits part of this operation is complete.

In a medium sized skillet, melt in the remaining 2 tbsp's of butter. And the frozen shrimp, garlic and spices. Wait until the shrimp and thawed and pink before adding the lemon juice and about 2 tbsp's of water. Remove from the heat.

In a shallow bowl, add a helping of grits. Now with a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp from the frying pan and place on top. Feel free to drizzle some of the sauce over the top for that added flavour.

The shrimp have a really great flavour and kick which is well accented by the grits. On their own, they just dont seem to have the same success. Better together! I hope you give it a shot!

Balsamic Maple Dressing

I know its a big blogger no-no when you write about the same item twice in a row. Salads are just my thing these days! I just have a certain desire to munch on some leafy greens, and who can deny the taste? I have been trying out a few dressing recipes in an attempt to eat healthy and to cook more at home.

So I assembled the basics of a salad and was about to look for another dressing recipe when I realized that I am not just a slave to recipes, but also a cook in the kitchen! I know what ingredients work (usually), and I know how to do a basic salad dressing! So away went the cookbooks, and I gave a good hard look at the pantry in order to decide what sort of salad dressing I would make.

I was pondering what sort of vinegar I would use for my very own recipe. An Asian rice-wine vinegar? A red-wine vinegar combination? But my lovely girlfriend suggested that I should bust out the oft not used balsamic vinegar.

So some balsamic and olive oil mixed together is a pretty good base, but I needed something sweet to throw inside. So instead of just adding a pinch of sugar, I wanted to add some honey for some natural sweetness but after rummaging among the shelves, I came up short. So I thought that some maple syrup might add a nice touch as well! A little Dijon mustard just to keep the ingredients all together and I was golden!

It was surprisingly delicious, and I had chalked it up as another success, when I discovered that this recipe has been done before. Many times. By many different chefs. In fact, a simple search on Google revealed that this recipe is not quite as original as I had thought. How disappointing is that!


Balsamic Maple Dressing

Balsamic Vinegar - 1/4 cup
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup
Maple Syrup - 1 tbsp
Dijon Mustard - 1 tbsp
Salt and Pepper -  a pinch

Now because this recipe was just my own random ingredients, I didnt really use any measurements, so this was my best approximation.
The instructions are also very easy. Add them all together and give a good stir with a spoon until they are all mixed in well together. Drizzle over your salad and enjoy!

Classic Tomato Sauce

This is the best recipe that I have made for pasta. Everyone needs a basic tomato sauce in their recipe repertoire. Mine is a mixture of my family's recipe and the movie The Godfather. What better way to learn how to make a classic tomato sauce than by a classic Italian mafioso movie?

The movie is a little vague on exact amounts, but the recipe is still pretty basic for a pasta sauce. However, there were still some things missing that I felt needed to be added just to enhance the flavour.

I dont know the precise amounts of anything that I use, its all fairly random and the pasta sauce never quite tastes the exact same every time, but I usually get it very close. However, maybe you can experiment with it also and make it even better! I know I will continue to push it to make it better! Quite honestly, I never measure anything that goes into this sauce, I just toss in ingredients while it cooks. It makes me feel like I know what im doing in the kitchen as I just throw the odd handful of whatever inside.

This recipe is also the good base to other sauces. Just add some red peppers for a different flavour, or perhaps some ground beef for a bolognese sauce. With the right seasoning, this sauce could easily become taco or pizza oriented, spicy or sweet. It all depends on whatever you decide! Just get the basic sauce recipe down first.


Classic Tomato Sauce

Onion - 1/2 small diced
Garlic - 2 clove
Crushed Tomatoes - 1 can
Tomato Paste - 3 tbsps
Red Wine -  About a 1/2 cup *I usually have leftever open wine on the counter. I use it as my vinegar. However, if you lack wine, I would suggest about 3 tbsps of vinegar.

Basil - 1 tbsp
Oregano - 1 tbsp
Sugar - a healthy couple of pinches
Salt and Pepper -  a pinch

In a small pot, add some olive oil and bring to a medium heat. Add the onion and saute until it starts to soften, then add the garlic. Dont let the garlic burn, but just give it a few minutes inside until it becomes fragrant.

Add the remaining ingredients, and give it a healthy stir. Bring it to a boil and then lower to a simmer until the pasta noodles are done.

A pretty easy recipe,. but its one that you can continuously change and modify. I should warn you, that this recipe is sometimes the best pasta sauce I have ever made, and also the recipe that seems to be lacking just one ingredient. But give it a try, and hopefully it will work out for you! Dont be afraid to mix the spices up as well

Eggs Jalisco Style

Breakfasts can become very boring. Cereal occasionally, maybe some toast, and often some sort of egg dish. Occasionally though, you just want to mix up the flavours and have something a bit more exciting for breakfast. I got a Mexican cookbook this year for Christmas, and when I start getting the urge to cook, I start looking for some tasty meals.

This one stood out simply because I had most of the ingredients at home. A lot of the recipes offered were for lunch or dinner, but breakfast in Mexico seems to be fairly unimportant according to this cookbook. This was one of the only recipes in the whole thing that I felt stood a chance.

I lacked some of the key ingredients for this meal, and most of it was simply having the idea and going forth from there. Which is sort of what cooking is right? Getting an idea from something, whether it be an ingredient, a smell, a picture, and then basing your own creations off of it. This cookbook is called Everyday Mexican and has just some easy quick recipes, although im not sure if it completely captures the heart of Mexican dishes.

The jalisco style of this meal refers to the simplicity of the ingredients, which are normally pretty cheap and readily available. Its supposed to be fairly consistent from restaurant to restaurant, but in this case its just all up to my own imagination.


Eggs Jalisco Style

Tortilla -1
Salsa - a couple spoonfuls
Egg - 1
Onion - 1/2 diced
Avocado - 1/2 diced
Green Pepper - 1/4 diced
Lime Juice - a dash
Feta Cheese - 1/4 cup crumbled

In a large skillet, heat the tortilla's over low heat. At the same time, in a greased(with olive oil) smaller skillet, saute the onion and the green pepper. Once they have softened up a bit, move them over to the side of the frying pan and crack in an egg. Cook for the desired consistency of your egg (runny or not).

Now dance over to the cutting board and prepare the feta and avocado. And finally, the actual assemblage of the breakfast. Place some salsa on the top of the pita and smooth it over with a spoon, it doesn't have to be a very large portion. With a spatula, remove the egg from the one skillet and place onto the tortilla. Then place the onion and pepper mixture also on the tortilla, but to the side of the egg. Place the diced up feta and avocado also next to the egg.

Slide the whole mixture out of the frying pan and onto a plate and then give a healthy splash of  lime juice. I would even suggest placing a dollop of sour cream on top and maybe a couple dashes of hot sauce. To eat the whole shebang, you can either fold the tortilla and chow down on the whole thing, or dive into it with a knife and fork.

Red Wine Herb Vinaigrette

While the girlfriend has been away in Peru for the holidays, I have been living a pretty slovenly life. I've been eating pretty quick meals and haven't really been cooking. I may have also made some trips to some fast food joints to satisfy my lazy needs. Pretty bad behaviour for a food blogger!

It also means that lately I have been not taking in a regular dose of the daily fruits and vegetables. My mother will definitely be writing me a message after she reads this posting... However, I am blessed with a digestive system that craves veggies when I haven't eaten them for awhile, and a salad is usually a great way to meet those needs.

Luckily, I got a few cookbooks for Christmas that I could use to gain some knowledge towards dressings. What better way to bring in the New Years than to eat a healthy salad with a homemade dressing? Of course, this enthusiasm will only last a few days before giving way to my cravings for steak, so I'll take advantage of it while I'm here!

This particular recipe came from the book Chef at Home: Cooking With and Without a Recipe written by Michael Smith. Its really similar to his other cookbook The Best of Chef at Home, but it still has some original recipes in it as well. This particular salad dressing stood out with stuff that I actually had in my cupboard, so it was a fairly easy decision!

As a heads up, I cut this recipe down to a size that suited just myself, but I'll give you his full recipe. It makes about 2 cups of dressing.

Red Wine Vinegar - 1/2 cup
Olive Oil - 1 Cup
Dijon Mustard - 2 tbsps
Romano Cheese - about 3-4 tbsps (I used Parmesan instead)
Oregano - 1 tbsp
Basil - 1 tbsp
Salt and Pepper - A few pinches

Combine the whole thing in a small container or cup and stir together. Drizzle over the salad. I just had a salad of Romaine Lettuce, croutons, diced green peppers and onion and some crumbled feta cheese. I hope you enjoy it!

My top five recipes and the end of 2010

Holy smokes? Its the New Years already? When the heck did that happen? It seems like this month has just sped by the last couple of days. I really thought that I could get a good handle on some Christmas cooking this year. I had some baked goods that I had lined up, hopes of adding a pomegranate to something, and a delicious sounding eggnog recipe just waiting to go.

I didn't get around to any of them! I got caught up in the holidays and with work. Between trying to get organized with presents and with family, and with finishing off work before the holidays, my cooking took a dismal plunge.

It was interesting today, as I cleaned up after a quick fried egg sandwich, when I noticed my knives hiding inside of their drawer. It hit me that I hadn't used them in a long, long time. It was pretty depressing stuff! What a horrible way to end the year in terms of cooking! I have new respect for the ladies and gents that manage to get all their cooking done on top of work and shopping. I salute you!


Because this year has come to an end, I have decided to follow the trend set by  fellow food bloggers, and give a list of my top five recipes of 2010.

5.  Champion Bruschetta -  An awesome recipe developed by Canada's own Chef Michael Smith. Every bite made me feel as if I were dining in Italy. And rubbing garlic cloves onto bread? Genius!

4. Spicy Basa Creole - This recipe was a surprise. Only a few ingredients and I had a tasty hearty meal that satisfied my tongue and stomach all at once. Dont forget to serve with some rice to get the full benefit!

3. Fall Harvest Squash Soup - Pretty easy recipe with lots of flavour! And as soups tend to do, it tastes better as it ages over a few days.

2. Irish Steak Pie - Made during St Patrick's Day, this pie was my first in the meat pie department. Light and flaky pie crust comes along and meets the stuffing of steak and veggies smothered in a Guinness gravy. I may have to go and make this one tomorrow

And, the number one recipe of 2010 goes to....



1. The Breakfast Pepper - A recipe developed by yours truly, this recipe has some great flavours that meets all my stomach needs. Mushrooms and onions, goat cheese, ham and an egg all sitting on top of a roasted red pepper... This recipe has some zip and some heartiness that makes for a great breakfast.

Honourable mention goes to Montreal's Eggs Benedict made at the Restaurant Universal. I still dream about its awesomeness! To read about that particular adventure, just click ----> Montreal's Egg Benedict


I hope you all have a great 2011 and full of good eats!! Happy New Years.