September 28, 2012

Back Rib Dinner

Oven broiled ribs, how I love thee.
A single slab of ribs is perfect for our family of four adults. When they're on sale for dirt cheap ($2/lb!) I can't resist. I STOCK UP. My chest freezer is packed and it's awesome. When I can, I make these in the mini-oven, which saves a bit of energy and won't over heat the house which in my books, is a total win/win situation. :D 

The ribs were steam baked for about 2 hours at 350F (non-convection) and double broiled with lots of barbeque sauce. I made a simple yet ridiculously yummy creamy pasta salad with mix ins of whatever I had in the fridge. This included black olives and artichokes from my pizza making night, grated carrots, dill pickles and edamame beans which I found hidden in the back of the freezer. SO GOOD! I think that it was better than store bought. Actually, a lot of things are better than store bought. Don't ya think?

As for greens, we had steamed brussels sprouts with garlic butter. Super easy and totally yummy. I love garlic!

Right out of the oven! The best part is the little bits of charred caramelized goodness.

Pasta salad, not too creamy, just enough tang and zippy-ness, good pasta to add-ins ratio.

Totally fall off the bone, but not too much, moist and juicy and super tender and finger lick'n good!
Click to see how I make my ribs.

September 27, 2012

Canadian National Exhibition 2012: Part 1

I nearly forgot to share with you, my visit to the CNE (aka. The Ex)! I've been so absorbed with my food posts that I had skipped over this entire day. Richard and I went to the CNE on August 30th. Yep, nearly a month ago. We got there at around 5pm, because that's when the tickets are $5 instead of the regular $16. Yay! 
Without further ado, the photos. :)

I've always thought the toys were silly, but if I played and won...LOOK HOW CUTE THAT GIRAFFE IS!!

Yummy homemade fudge in many, many flavours
Midway games and food vendors

Ring toss! I've won playing this before and brought home a ginormous red dog!

Waffel boy!

A super short zip line

Seconds before the drop

Haha, their faces!

The Skyride

Bloom'n onion! My arteries are clogging just looking at it.

Grilled corn

I find it weird that they grill them with the husk on, so that it steams. I like my corn with charred kernels!

The Princes' Gates in the background and the CN tower behind it

Caramel apples! Love how it's inches away from cleaning agents.

Farris wheel and ticket booths in the foreground

September 25, 2012

$14 Worth of Books






I posted about an awesome deal on books about a month ago and my order arrived at the beginnign on September. I've ordered from bookcloseouts.ca before and have been extremely happy with their service so buying this deal was a no brainer. They sell cheap books! 

After using a coupon code, my gift certificate and adding on shipping costs, my out of pocket total was a mere $13.52. I bought eight books, two of which were second hand, the rest brand spank'n new. :)

Tank decided she would make books more appealing by lounging beside them. It worked. She's adorable.

PW's Roast Chicken

Whole roasted chicken

Stuffed with lemon and rosemary- a lovely combination for the senses

My favourite- chicken thigh!
Lemon and rosemary (from the garden, which I am proud to say is still thriving despite the cooling temperatures) roast chicken served with a medley of roasted vegetables. I had a bunch of veggies that needed to be used up so really, the easiest thing to do was dice them up, splash a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper along with crushed cloves of garlic and roast it in the oven with the bird. That sentence was a bit long, I know. For those who are curious, the vegetables used included: eggplant, cauliflower, carrots, onions, potatoes and a zucchini. All super yummy and delish! 

Having roasted the bird for about an hour and twenty minutes, there was a good amount of drippings left in the pan. I skimmed off some excess fat, made a quick roux and poured in whatever juices there were to make a sauce. A deliciously lemon-y and savory sauce with a touch of sweetness from a dollop of honey that I added.

The whole meal was very, very good. I totally recommend you make it dispite my poorly lit photos. :P This lack of day light thing is killing me. 

Recipe from: The Pioneer Woman. Full step by step photos included. :)

September 22, 2012

Food with Family

On Wednesday, my family and I had dinner with my dad's family to celebrate his brother's birthday. We chowed down on a lot, but my favourite was the Peking duck! Duck skin/meat, thinly sliced made into a wrap with spring onions, carrots, cucumbers and a smidgen of hoisin sauce. Mmm! We also had steamed lobster and bought a chestnut cake for dessert. :)






September 21, 2012

Rosh Hashanah Dinner

 I celebrated Rosh Hashanah with Rich's family and his mom made us a scrumptious dinner! The cake I made and wrote about in my last post was had for dessert and needless to say we were all stuffed at the end of it all! 

Rich's plate of sliced Crispin (Matsu) apple and honey maple syrup
Apples and honey for everyone else

CHOPPED LIVER! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AND COULD EAT IT EVERY MEAL. Yes, I am shouting. LOUD.
Top left, clockwise: Buttered green beans, roast beef, meatballs in a sweet and sour tomato sauce, aux jus, roasted potatoes.





The little ones being adorable at dinner! Look at their little teeeeeeth!!

Cake innards! Do you see how small my slice was? I asked for it to be like that, because that's how full I was after eating a hundred meatballs :D

Super moist! Maybe too moist? Delicious.
 ...and because it was Rich's dad's birthday we got him a present! He's a fan of Star Trek and I've been known to make an extra lump of pizza dough for him and Rich's mom when it's dough/pizza making time, so this was perfect!

Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise pizza cutter!

This thing is as shiny as it gets. Good weight on it too.

They're available at ThinkGeek.com
P.S. I might not have shown it, but Rich had food too. :)

September 20, 2012

From the Box: Birthday Cake!

 Continuing with the vegan baking theme that's been happening, I baked this cake for Rich's dad's birthday this past weekend. I'll admit, it was from a box but I did make it my own by doctoring it and the canned frosting!  So really, it's a boxed cake...made from scratch.  Shh!







Yep, look at that mess. Don't fret- I clean it all up. 
Did you know that there are egg-less, dairy-less cake mixes out there that won't cost you an arm and a leg? For this cake, I used  Betty Crocker's Rainbow Chip along with an extender (to fill my cake pans higher). I frosted this cake with Duncan Hines Home Style Chocolate Frosting, mixed with vegan chocolate butter cream. While there's nothing "home style" about Duncan Hines' frosting, it adds a certain chocolate-y-ness you can't get from regular vegan butter creams. It must be the shortening, corn syrup and other ingredients we don't want to read about or can't pronounce! Rich is fine with products that state "may contain" as long as it's not actually in the ingredients list. Make sure the vegan you're baking for is too if you're going to go the boxed/canned route! :)

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Hi, I'm Janetta from Toronto. I cook, bake and often veganize recipes. I photograph nearly everything and those photos will most likely end up being posted here. I've got a little black cat named Tank, who's really cute and a little bit nosy. You'll see a lot of photos of her too!

Contact me at: jubesandtank@gmail.com

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