Fluffy Wild Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

"It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!! It's so fluffy!!!"  

 -  says the little girl, Agnes, from the animated film Despicable Me. 

And I repeated that when I took my first bite of these pancakes.  It's SOOO fluffy!!!  Wild blueberries were in season so we put a few handfuls of that into the batter, but with or without fruit....these are definitely a winner for me.  I will never need another pancake batter recipe.  It generously feeds 6 very hungry people.

Fluffy Wild Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Serves: 6 very hungry people

approx prep time: 15 min

approx cook time: 45 min

INGREDIENTS: 

- 4 cups of all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons of white sugar
- 4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 4 cups (1 liter) of buttermilk
- 2/3 cups of milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of butter, melted
- 2 cups of wild blueberries, or normal blueberries, whatever you wish (optional)


HOW TO MAKE IT:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs, and melted butter.  Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.
- Heat a non stick pan over medium high heat
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, add blueberries now, and stir until just blended together.  Do not over stir.
- Ladle batter onto the hot pan (to whatever size you prefer, we like small pancakes), once the batter has bubbled for a bit, flip the pancake onto the otherside and cook both sides to a golden brown.  
- Serve hot, with fruit, berries, syrup, whipped cream, eggs and bacon, whatever you desire!

Fresh Peach Pie

Nothing says summer like a fresh pie.  We prefer using local Ontario peaches that have best flavour...not just sweet and sandy, but tangy, sweet and juicy.  This recipe is as simple as it comes....just sugar, flour, and butter.   There's no spices to complicate the flavour of fresh peaches.  :-)  It also only takes almost no time to make as it's just so simple.  :-)  The pie, since it has so little ingredients, depends solely on the quality of the peaches.

Nick loves pie.  Whether it's Pumpkin Pie, raspberry, apple, blueberry or cherry, there just needs to be a pie each week or he's just not a happy camper.

Peach Pie

approx prep time: 15 min

approx cook time: 45 min

INGREDIENTS: 

-10 medium peaches, pitted and sliced
-1/3 cup of flour
-1/4 cup of butter
- 3/4 cup to 1 cup of sugar (depends on how sweet the peaches are)
- 1 tablespoon of coarse sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
- 1 Tenderflake deep dish double pie crust (thaw @ room temperature for 10 minutes)

HOW TO MAKE IT:
- Set oven to 450 Degrees F.
- Mix flour, sugar and butter into a crumb stage
- Mix crumb topping with sliced peaches
- Pour peach mixture into 1 of the Tenderflake pie crusts and arrange accordingly so that the 2nd pie crust will be able to fit over it.
- Wet the rim of both pie crusts with water
- Top the 2nd pie crust over the filled pie crust, press down the edges a bit so the 2 crusts seal, then flute the edges with a fork
- Bake at 450 F for the first 15 mins, take out of the oven and sprinkle with some coarse cane sugar
- Put it back in the oven for 350F for 30mins.
- When the pie is done, turn off the oven and leave the pie in oven to cool and set for at least 2 hours.  I usually let it set overnight.

Steak and Veggie stir fry

Always a simple dish that's really quick to make and loaded with veggies.  There's always a reason to insert steak into a meal.  :-D

STEAK AND VEGGIE STIR FRY

Serves: 2

approx prep time: 10min

approx cook time: 10min

INGREDIENTS: 
- 1 medium size steak
- 1 Red Pepper
- 1/2 a head of Broccoli
- 1 Zucchini
- 1 stalk of celery
- 3 green onions
- 1 or 2 large handfuls of bean sprouts
- 1.5 tbsp Roast red pepper and garlic seasoning
       (substitute vegetable seasoning and extra garlic if you can't get this)
- Montreal Steak Spice
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil

HOW TO MAKE IT:
- Chop vegetables into large chunks and set aside (excluding bean sprouts).
- Chop green onion into small (1cm) chunks and set aside.
- Mince Garlic and set aside.
- Thinly slice steak, lightly season all the pieces with Montreal steak spice, and set aside.
- In a non-stick pan, over medium heat, warm oil, and when hot add Green onion and garlic.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the steak.
- Cook until browned, then add remaining veggies (excluding bean sprouts), and Roast Red Pepper seasoning.
-  Cook partly covered for 5-10min until vegetables have reached desired tenderness, stirring often.
- Add bean sprouts, cover and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Bumpkin South Kensington- London, UK

Location: 102 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London SW7 3RD

T 020 7341 0802, F 020 7835 0714

I've long asserted that London does not have good food.  The city is dirty, it's old, it's overpriced.  During the entire 2.5 week long Eurotrip, I've been dreading going to London.  I thought it would be super crowded and I would just have to endure it.  I was wrong.  While we were there, we stayed in Millennium hotel in South Kensington.  The area was quite nice, wonderfully kept row houses, mother with the babies in strollers out for a walk on a fortunately nice day, not crowded streets but not empty either.  South Kensington has a great cluster or restaurants and one of the things I've always wanted to have was an authentic Yorkshire Pudding.  As we were walking, we found Bumpkin.  Bumpkin is restaurant that serves country food to city people.  All of their ingredients are British, fresh, seasonal, homemade and natural.  We walked in to a upscale casual and slightly rustic interior, their customers were everyone!  From young to old, families with children, romantic dates....it was Sunday night and the restaurant was packed.

 
It was a Sunday so of course  there was a Sunday roast special...and guess what it had?  A Yorkshire Pudding!  It looked so good we both had to get this dish.

Sunday Roast - Medium cooked beef roast, potato, watercress, large Yorkshire pudding with gravy, and whipped horseradish sauce, roasted veg (a large leafy green, roasted parsnips and carrots, roasted cauliflower with cheese) for 18.95 pounds.   The hand cut chips (potato french fries) were 3.95 pounds.

Everything was simply delicious.  It was such a simple meal but such a good one at that.  The Yorkshire pudding was light and fluffy, the beef was tender and flavorful, the beef gravy ladled on top was so delicious.  Nick loved the gravy even though he usually never puts gravy on anything.  The roasted vegetables were incredible and I wish I knew how to make it at home.  The parsnips and carrots were just slightly caramelized, and roasted cauliflower with baked on cheese is simple, but just divine.  Even the roast potatoes were done to perfection.   The hand cut chips was crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.

This was definitely not a fancy meal, it's a hearty simple meal done to perfection.  There were so many things on the menu that looked delicious, such as the meat pies and duck legs....too bad we were just too full to try them all.

I would definitely make the trip to Bumpkin again the next time I stop in London.  This restaurant proved me wrong, there is indeed good food in London.  :-)

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

You know the saying "Tastes like chicken"?  Well....chicken doesn't honestly taste all that special, so what we really should have is a better saying like "Tastes like BACON"!  Bacon is special, bacon is also the chocolate of meat.  What better then to wrap really good bacon on some plain chicken thighs.  You can use any cut of chicken, but we prefer chicken thighs as they are more tender and smaller, so there's more bacon to chicken ratio.  We also prefer PC thick cut bacon, it's the best out there, and it makes EVERYTHING taste like bacon...and you can't go wrong there.

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN 

Serves: A many as you want!

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 15min

INGREDIENTS: 

- Bacon (1 strip per chicken thigh)
- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs (2-3 per person)
- Cheddar Cheese (extra old, or smoked works best), shredded or cut into strips.
- Italian Seasoning

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Open the chicken thighs up, so that they become a flat piece of chicken.
- Sprinkle the inside lightly with Italian seasoning
- Place a small pile of shredded cheese (or a strip of it, if cutting into strips) in the center of the chicken.
- Wrap the chicken around the cheese.
- Carefully wrap the chicken thigh with a single strip of bacon.
- Sprinkle the top with a tiny bit of shredded cheese.
- As you complete each one, lay them out flat on a non stick cookie sheet.
- Bake at 425 F for 25 minutes.
- Serve hot!

Stuffed Pasta Shells

What else can you do with jumbo sized pasta shells?  We like them stuffed with veggies and chicken!

STUFFED PASTA SHELLS

Serves: 6-8

approx prep time: 20min

approx cook time: 30min

INGREDIENTS: 

- Large shell pasta
- 1-2 large boneless chicken breasts, or 3-5 boneless chicken thighs.
- 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
- 1 red pepper
- 1 zucchini
- 1 handful sugar snap peas
- 1 handful yellow string beans
- 1 small white onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2-3 green onions
- 1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2tbsp vegetable seasoning
- 1tbsp olive oil

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Chop vegetables into small (1cm) chunks.
- Mince garlic.
- Dice chicken into small (1cm chunks)
- In a large fry pan heat the olive oil over medium heat. When warm add onions, green onions and garlic. Saute until soft (approx 5 minutes).
- Add chicken, cook until done (approx 5 minutes).
- While the onion and chicken cook, cook the pasta to al dente per the instructions on the package.
- Once the chicken is cooked, add the remaining vegetables, and vegetable seasoning and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring often.
- Add approx 1 cup of pasta sauce, mix well, and simmer on low heat for 3-4 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Arrange pasta shells, face up, in a large oven safe dish.
- Carefully (or not so carefully, depending on how pretty you want your end result), spoon veggie mix into pasta shells.
- Drizzle with additional sauce
- Sprinkle with cheese
- Bake until cheese has melted and begins to bubble/brown. Approx 15 minutes.
- Serve fresh out of the oven!

Slow Roasted Beef Ribs

We love beef ribs, they are great in stew, but definitely awesome slow roasted.  This is a very simple recipe for nice tender beef ribs.  :-)  Have a happy and safe long weekend everyone!  Cheers!

SLOW ROASTED BEEF RIBS

Serves: 3

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 5 hours

INGREDIENTS: 

- 1 rack of beef ribs
- 1 bottle BBQ sauce of choice

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Preheat oven to 400F
- Fill the lower portion of the oven broiler pan with about 1/4 inch of water. If you're not using an oven broiler pan, any baking pan, with a wire rack for the ribs to rest on will work.
- Cut rack of ribs into 3 large pieces, evenly spaced between the bones. Each piece should be 3 or 4 bones wide.
- Brush BBQ sauce on all sides and place ribs on broiler pan.
- Using tinfoil, create a tent over the ribs. What you're doing here basically is creating a mini steamer out of the broiler pan. To keep the ribs moist and render, we're partly going to steam them while they cook.
- Bake at 400F for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, add more sauce and re-cover with tented tinfoil.
- Cook at 200F for 4 hours.
- Remove from oven, add more sauce, and return to oven uncovered.
- Cook at 400F again for 10-15 minutes to crisp up some of the sauce on the outside. Keep an eye on the ribs during this stage to make sure you don't burn them!
- When the sauce on the outside starts to crisp at the edges, remove from oven and serve!

Roasted Root Vegetables

This is a nice spin on roasted root vegetables, the Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and Italian seasoning gives the roasted veggies an extra kick in flavor.  We like to use large carrots rather then small carrots as they are much sweeter and more flavorful.  This is a great side to any dish. 

ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES

Serves: 4-5

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 45min

INGREDIENTS: 

- 1lbs Mini red skin potatoes
- 1 Large Sweet Potato
- 1 Large carrot
- 1/2 large white onion
- breadcrumbs
- fresh/hard Parmesan cheese
- Italian seasoning
- olive oil

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Preheat oven to 400F
- Peel sweet potato and chop into 1 inch cubes.
- Chop carrot and onion into 1 inch cubes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine red skin potatoes, and chopped sweet potato, onion and carrot.
- Sprinkle the vegetables lightly with olive oil, tossing a few times, until well coated. Add more oil if needed.
- Generously dust the vegetables with Italian seasoning, and breadcrumbs. Finely grate a light dusting of Parmesan cheese on as well.
- Toss/Mix vegetables until well coated in seasoning and crumbs, add more breadcrumbs, cheese and seasoning if desired.
- Dump the mixture onto a non-stick baking sheet, spread out evenly, and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Transfer mixture to a casserole dish, and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes, uncovered.
- Transfer mixture back to a baking sheet, and broil on high for 3-5 minutes until the edges of the onions start to crisp.