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Recipe #30: a versatile quinoa salad

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  Today I will show you how to make a versatile  quinoa salad. Ingredients: The list of ingredients is irrelevant because you can add almost anything to this salad and it will be fine. There’s quinoa, of course, but the remaining ingredients can be whatever you have on hand. Someone gifted me the package of Veggie Sticks Salad Topper, so in they go. We had cucumbers in the garden, so giddy up. I forgot to put feta cheese in this photo, but it makes an appearance because I thought of it later. And so on. Ignore the defrosting tofu burger sitting on top of the toaster oven. That’s not in the salad but will be eaten on the side. But who’s to say it couldn’t go in the salad too? Who’s to say?? Directions: First, we make the quinoa, and we make it pasta-style by boiling a big pot of water. We also start, simultaneously, by boiling a little pot of water for the frozen shelled edamame: Simultaneously, we roast up some frozen corn kernels in the toaster oven on fairly high heat for as long as
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Recipe #29: potato soup

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  This is a very basic and delicious potato soup that was introduced to me in my young adulthood. One summer, my roommate’s boyfriend Scott spent a lot of time staying at our place, but he was such a delight we didn’t mind. In fact, he was like a 5th housemate. Except he didn’t pay rent.  But he did make us this soup. I can still picture the bunch of us sitting around, listening to tunes, bantering, and peeling potatoes for this soup. I remember Scott made it for us in the late summer when there was just the touch of a chill in the air. It was perfection. Good ole Scott. I wonder where he is today? Ingredients: Directions: Peel some potatoes, chop into cubes, and boil in salty water: Until fork tender: Then drain: Melt a good sized chunk of butter in the pot: Chop an onion into thin slices and add to the pot: And sauté until softened but not browned: Add milk to the pot and heat without boiling: Then return the cooked potato cubes to the pot: Heat through and, without boiling, cook a f
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Recipe #28: chicken tacos for a party

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  Let’s make chicken tacos for a small dinner party! Olé! Ingredients: Directions: Cut up the chicken breasts into strips like so: That’s a lot of chicken, but it is  for a party. Slice up two onions, retaining some slices for taco garnish: Heat up some canola oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat and sauté the onions: Sauté the onions until browning: Then add the chicken slices to the pan: Sauté the chicken-onion combo until the chicken sears all over: That chicken doesn’t look seared because there’s too much chicken crowded in my pan and it’s steaming instead of searing. Shame. Add the spices to the pan: a generous amount of chili powder, chipotle powder and ground cumin: Stir and sauté, and maybe you need more chilli powder: Now lower the heat to medium and put a lid on to ensure fully cooked chicken: Meanwhile, warm your tortillas in a cloth napkin or tea towel in the microwave, 1-2 minutes or so: Set your party table with everything: the cooked chicken, the warm tortilla
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Recipe #27: leftover kebabs-cum-nachos

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  Do you ever have friends over for dinner, prepare some nice appetizers and a main, only to be left with a fridge full of bits and bobs of leftovers?  Well today I’m going to show you how to turn your leftover BBQ kebabs and nacho chips and dips appetizer into nachos that are reminiscent of 1990s “Mexican” restaurant fajitas! Ingredients: Directions: First, we’re going to donate the mushrooms to another meal. Luckily I have someone nearby who wanted them for a pasta dish. Next, chop up the leftover cold kebab beef, onions, and red peppers into bite-sized pieces: The fact that the beef is too rare for my liking becomes irrelevant in the process of recooking that follows, and is, in fact, an advantage. Heat some neutral flavoured oil in a nonstick pan and add the chopped kebab pieces when hot, then stir fry until nicely reheated and browned up: Meanwhile, get your nacho chips ready and lay them out on a parchment paper-lined tray. I’m making a serving for one, so using the toaster oven,
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Recipe #26: another not quite, but closer, salade niçoise

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  This is the closest thing I make to a real salade niçoise, and although it’s much more effort than the other, faker versions (see recipes #15 and #20) (and still not authentic), it’s well worth it! Ingredients: Directions: I’m going to make my hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot because I have one and it makes perfect hard boiled eggs (as well as cool fun-house reflections on the mirrored interior), but you can certainly make them the old fashioned way on the stove top: Boil up some fresh baby new potatoes and green or yellow beans: The potatoes take longer than the beans, which are really just quick cooked to al dente or barely cooked, then plunged into cold water to stop them from overcooking, then drained well. The potatoes are cooked until a fork can easily pierce them, then drained well but kept warm. Chop all the raw vegetables and put into the salad bowl: Then add the canned tuna with oil, chopped hard boiled eggs, drained beans, drained (and still warm) diced potatoes, and a
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