Date Cake

March 20, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

I love a good sticky toffee pudding, don’t you? This date cake evolved from a sticky toffee pudding with a few substitutions. This is a recipe that we have worked on since our last family get-together (Family supper club). It is wonderfully moist and spongey with a familiar toffee flavour. We like it best served warm with vanilla ice cream, but it’s also great served plain as an afternoon treat for coffee (or tea) time. Feel free to omit the asian inclusions if you don’t have them on hand, but we thought they made a really nice pairing.

Pasta “Carbonara” with Onions, Peas and Mushrooms

March 13, 2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

The word Carbonara is in quotations here because I don’t want any nonnas or pasta aficionados coming after me. We know it’s not authentic – an actual carbonara pasta, would have guanciale, two types of cheese (pecorino romano and parmigiano reggiano), eggs and pepper…But we wanted to make something similar, with ingredients that can be easily found in any supermarket.

Our Go-To Meatballs

March 5, 2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

When Nicholas started eating solids, (and I mean real food, not the purees that I had been making him), one of the first things I wanted to make him was spaghetti and meatballs. It was one of my favourite comfort foods when I was younger and I still really enjoy it.

Roasted Eggplant with Sesame and Green Onion

February 27, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

This dish evolved from an eggplant recipe that we made from one of the Ottolenghi cookbooks. It basically called for steaming the crap out of a sliced eggplant, and then seasoning it with a Japanese-style dressing. We made it (or some variation of it) quite a few times because it was tasty, easy to put together. It made for a nice side dish for dinner (e.g. along with rice and pickled vegetables) and leftovers were a good addition to lunch the next day. Lately though, we’ve been using our oven a lot for meal prep and it only made sense to recreate this dish with roasted eggplant. We also ended up making some adjustments to the dressing to suit our preference and married it a Chinese-style ginger-scallion sauce.

Super Chocolate Cake

February 21, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

At work, I have been coming across more and more co-workers that are choosing not to have gluten for dietary reasons. And as some of you may know, dealing with teenagers on a daily basis can be a challenge sometimes, and sometimes a slice of cake is just what you need to sweeten up the day. The kids and I were able to come up with a recipe that is gluten free for some teachers/staff with (and without) gluten allergies to enjoy. This is an official version of the cake that we originally made for last year’s super birthday.