What's for dinner

A simple salad of roasted golden beets, red pickled beets, ricotta salata and dressed with balsamic pearls and olive oil.

This is an ode to Jamie Oliver, a roasted chicken glazed with my own BBQ sauce made with guajillo chili (or as I call it the dream chili, since it induces psychedelic dreams)

The veg of carrots, red potatoes, onions and garlic scapes were thrown into the pan in the last hour to roast and soak up all the juices, there was also some red wine added to the roasted vegetables.

roasted chicken

The composed (rustic) plate

roasted chicken and vegetables

A simple frittata with oven roasted grape tomatoes, grilled zucchini, parsley, onions and red potato. Very easy to prepare, great warm or cold.

vegetable frittata

The before shot:

Vegetable Frittata

My wife finally gave in and let me make a Hawaiian Pizza, not surprisingly, she really liked it.

Hawaiian Pizza

Hawaiian Pizza

After getting a molecular gastronomy kit, I made some balsamic vinegar pearls (which is pretty easy to do.) Some of my other attempts at creating other  creations have failed. The pearls are served on buffalo di mozzarella with grape tomatoes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Visually the dish is quite stunning.

Balsamic Pearsl

Eggs Benedict Italian style, the base is roasted polenta, topped with sliced strip loin, grape tomatoes and arugula with lemon vinaigrette, a poached egg and finally a roasted red pepper sauce, and some hash browns.

Eggs Benedict'o

A Spanish influenced salad, made with Serrano ham, the bowl is made from the ham baked in the oven wrapped around a ring mold. The salad of arugula, red peppers is dressed with a lemon vinaigrette and topped with Manchego cheese and some of the raw Serrano ham.

The steak is a simple Canadian AAA strip grilled and served with lemon roasted potatoes and maple syrup baby squash.

Braised ox tail with balsamic vinegar and tossed with bucatini, a perfect winter dish.

I think I’m going to like this wine…

This is pretty tasty as sodas go, and is also great as a braising liquid.

Birch Root Beer

This isn’t super creative, store bought roasted chicken, Knor chicken bouillon cube, some fresh vegetables and the special ingredient, my wife’s garlic chive noodles, I took the liberty to deep fry a bunch of the noodles which made the garlic chives totally pop. Very tasty, the thinner the noodle the better they are to eat and the longer they last.

Some deep fried noodles…