Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Steak & Cheese Mini Rolls



It's Christmas Eve 2014 and it's time to open the doors and let the neighbours in for a small party!
I've thrown together some inexpensive and easy appetizers to serve tonight. I have shrimp and shrimp cocktail sauce, store bought baked appetizers, store bought cookies, chocolates, nuts etc. The usual. My creation today is steak and cheese mini rolls. Easy to make and pretty delicious too.

2 Sirloin Steaks - least amount of fat as possible
Montreal Steak Spice
1 or 2 tablespoons of Butter and some olive oil
Cheese - I wanted to use Blue Cheese, however finding blue cheese on Christmas Eve day in a very small town was impossible. So I went with creamy herb Havarti.
Whole grain Mustard

Allow the steaks to come to room temp. Coat each steak with the Montreal Steak Spice and rub it in good. Let sit a few minutes. Heat your frying pan or iron skillet to hot as shit (that's a real chef term I think). Melt the butter and oil together. Put the steak into the pan and fry for 1 minute each side. This is going to sear all that delicious spice onto the steak. I like my steak blue rare - so that is why I only seared for 1 minute each side. Pull the steak from the pan and let it rest and cool for a little while.
Once the steak is cool, cut it as thinly as possible in strips - as long as you can. (I have crappy knives. So my slices are all different sizes and lengths. But I don't really care). Remove the fat while your cutting. Searing the steak as quickly as this doesn't render the fat at all and the fat ends up being gross. Just saying.
Once you have ok strips of rare delicious steak, place a small cube of the cheese on one end of a strip, roll up the steak and stick a toothpick in it. Done.
I used whole grain mustard as a dipping sauce. It depends completely on your preference. Horseradish would taste really good too (I didn't have any). If you use blue cheese - I wouldn't put any dipping sauce with it.
Merry Christmas!


Thursday, December 11, 2014

President's Choice Golden Mustard Barbecue Chicken Wings


My second post in 2 years and I'm posting about a frozen chicken wing product! Alright, there are 2 reasons for this: 1. This is what we had for dinner tonight and 2. Thursday night is my man's night to cook. This is what my man chose to cook. I'm not complaining because I didn't have to cook.
I decided to give you a review on this Golden Mustard Barbecue chicken wing product from President's Choice in lieu of posting nothing.
The box claims "Crisp and Crunchy". It lies. The breading is soggy as shit. Sorry President's Choice, but I've cooked these wings many many times and I can't get them crisp and crunchy in the oven. And I have tried. So ignore the Crisp and Crunchy lie and move on. The sauce, in this case, Golden Mustard Barbecue, is really tasty. I've had every flavour that President's Choice makes and so far, I've liked all of them. As promised, it's mustardy and bbq'y. Tangy and Delicious. I wish the breading actually stayed crunchy because these wings would be even better. The wing sizes are decent. You probably couldn't get better wings from your local pub, at least not the ones I've been to. They're not super cheap, but they are worth it. I choose the President's Choice wings over all the other boxes of wings in the frozen food isle. I've become a frozen food expert over the last few years and if you want a decent box of wings to serve yourself or guests, I would choose these. The flavours of the sauces are good, the wing sizes are decent but don't tell anyone that they were supposed to be "Crisp and Crunchy". Because that my friends, is a giant lie. If someone has been able to make these bitches crisp and crunchy - TELL ME HOW! Please!

And that is my review. Carry on with your life. :)



My Blog is Still Active?

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't realize that this blog was still active. I thought it had disappeared off the face of the internet. It's been 2 years since I posted anything and I have been actively thinking that it's time I started posting again.
So many things have changed in my personal and professional life in 2+ years. It would take a novel to detail all those changes. Let's just say that I am happy, healthy and cooking again. I stopped cooking for a long time. I ordered delivery, got take-out, ate prepared frozen meals. I forgot how to cook. I forgot about my love and passion for cooking. The last 8 months, I've been re-learning how to cook. It has not be a pretty - photo worthy - blog posting - journey. I feel like I started from zero again. I have had a string of absolute disasters. Over-cooked pork chops, steaks, potatoes, vegetables - you name it - I fucked it up. I am the foodie girl who forgot how to cook. Slowly and thru trial and error, cooking has been coming back to me. I still suck, but at least I'm having fun.
One more thing, I live, work and cook here now. You should be jealous.