#HotSummerEats: Panko-Crusted Tilapia Sticks with Dipping Sauce

So.

I don't think fish sticks are something that we often think of when it comes to summer food.  But here's where I'm coming from:  on the Victoria Day weekend, J and I went to visit Toledo and see friends.  On the Sunday night of said weekend, we had no plans; and so were left to our own devices. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and we went and played mini golf.  Then J asked what I wanted for dinner.
It was hot, and I was tired, and I told him that I would love to go somewhere and sit on a patio for dinner with a couple of nice drinks and scenery.  He suggested Webber's, a restaurant that his parents had loved, that was on the banks of the Maumee River, not far from the shores of Lake Erie.  So that is where we ended up.
The patio was lovely - we looked out over the water, I had some delicious berry sangria, and J was thrilled that the Lake Erie yellow perch was as good as he remembered.  He just wished that he'd ordered the shrimp cocktail as well - we could smell the cocktail sauce as they went by.
Fast forward to opening my box from the Sauceology Group:  one of the items included was Caribeque's Island Thyme spice mix.  One smell, and I knew what I wanted to make - fish sticks!
So, for those of us who can't sit on a deck overlooking the Maumee and eat perch, might I suggest these little beauties?
I present to you now from the May 2007 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Panko-Crusted Tilapia sticks with Dipping Sauce:

#HotSummerEats: Honey-Lime Chili Grilled Chicken

So.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that the lovely folks at Gourmet Garden sent me a fantastic box of goodies for participating in #HotSummerEats.  Little Bowls of lightly dried herbs and tubes of herbs currently grace my fridge and my food. I have to admit, Gourmet Garden may have somewhat spoiled me for preparing my own herbs.  It's so quick to squeeze and stir for a marinade or sprinkle over a pizza.
When I opened my April newsletter from the Looneyspoons gals, I found this recipe for grilled chicken.  With my brand new bag of tricks from Gourmet Garden, I was inspired to adapt the recipe for two and for the herbs that I had.  Grilled chicken.  It's perfect for summer.  And this marinade was delicious and fresh.  It's even Looneyspoons, so it's healthy!  What else can I say?
From the Looneyspoons April 2015 newsletter, I present to you now Honey-Lime Chili Grilled Chicken:

#HotSummerEats: Butter Tarts

So.

Welcome to the first day of #HotSummerEats!  A week of foods to get you in the summer mood.  I've been having so much fun getting ready for this event, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is bringing to the party.
For the kickoff, I decided that I needed to make something typically Canadian:  Butter Tarts.  With only a month until the end of school and the celebration of Canada Day, what better thing to make than a quintessentially Canadian dessert?
According to Wikipedia, Butter Tarts are a Canadian dessert that is often made in English-speaking Canada, making it different from the Tarte au Sucre in Quebec.  It also lists a variety of ingredients that can be added to the filling including raisins, walnuts, coconut or chocolate chips.  Everyone has an opinion, including myself:  anything other than raisins are sacrilege.  Trust me.
I wasn't really thinking about making Butter Tarts (I haven't made them in years), but then I was cruising Sid's Sea Palm Cooking and saw them.  Seeing as it's Secret Recipe Club Day, and I needed something that was for summer, these fit the bill.  I even made them to take to the first BBQ potluck of the summer!
I present to you now from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking Butter Tarts:

Secret Recipe Club: Chicken Fried Chicken Salad with Semi-Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

So.
It's time for another episode of the Secret Recipe Club!  When last we left our heroine, she was in a carb coma from amazing scones in May.  Will she solider on?  Or will she fall asleep?
Thankfully, I didn't fall asleep.  Otherwise, I would have missed out on the deliciousness that was this month's assignment!  My monthly email sent me to Sid's Sea Palm Cooking.
Sid is a Dane who loves things spicy.  I spent a long time poking around to find something that looked delicious and that we would enjoy around here.  There were cookies, and Danish specialties which all sounded delicious.  I finally settled on 2 recipes that sounded lovely.  The second is my kick-off post for #HotSummerEats, so you'll have to come back after 9AM EST to see that sweet treat, but I found this yummy looking salad that I wanted to make.
I love fried chicken.  J likes his chicken boneless.  This was the best of both worlds, plus I hadn't tried frying like this before.  I don't recommend it regularly.  There's a smell that hangs around afterwards - even if you use your hood.  Also, there's the whole pesky calorie thing.  But that's why we put it on top of vegetables.  Right?
I present to you now Sid's Sea Palm Cooking's Chicken Fried Chicken Salad with Semi-Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing:

#HotSummerEats: The Giveaway!

So.

Hot Summer Eats is here. Rallied by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, a talented group of 18 food bloggers will be posting recipes for a week. From June 1st through June 8th, we hope to inspire you for your summer grill dates and cookouts, provide you with ideas for your beach bonfires, and get you planning those ice cream socials and cocktail hours. Not only will you find over a hundred summery recipe posts, but you can enter to win our awesome giveaway, courtesy of some amazingly generous donations from sponsoring companies. See details below.

The Sponsors

(with links to their homepages, in alphabetical order)

BenBella Vegan

Caribeque

Casabella

Gourmet Garden

Intensity Academy

Not Ketchup

Out of the Weeds

Pirate Jonny's

Quirk Books

Spicely Organics

T.Lish

Voodoo Chef

The Prizes

BenBella Veganwill provide one winner with one print copy of each of their Spring 2015 releases:Love Fed, by Christina Ross (March 2015); PlantPure Nation Cookbook, by Kim Campbell (March 2015); Plant-Powered Families, by Dreena Burton (May 2015); Happy Herbivore Guide to Plant-Based Living, by Lindsay S. Nixon (May 2015); and China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook, by Del Sroufe (May 2015).

Casabellawill provide one winner with a trio of kitchen gadgets that are perfect for summer entertaining: a set of two large ice cube trays; a citrus juicer and reamer; and a cherry pitter.

Gourmet Gardenwill provide one winner with each of their stir-in pastes (basil, chili pepper, cilantro, dill, Italian herbs, garlic, chunky garlic, ginger, lemongrass, oregano, parsley, and Thai seasonings), each of their lightly dried herbs (basil, chili pepper, cilantro, ginger, and parsley), and two Gourmet Garden logo coolers.

Not Ketchupwill provide one winner with a prize pack of four fruit ketchups - Blueberry White Pepper, Cherry Chipotle, Spiced Fig, and Smoky Date.

Quirk Bookswill send one winner a copy of their cookbook Summer Cocktails by Maria Del Mar Sacasa, photography by Tara Striano.

Spicely Organicswill send one winner their Backyard Barbeque Gift Box.

T.Lishwill provide one winner with each of the three current flavors: Sweet Garlic, Asian Sesame, and Chipotle.

Members of the Sauceology Grouphave donated a summery prize pack that includes six delicious products. You will receive either the Calypso Kick or Island Thyme Spice Rub fromCaribeque, Garlic Goodness Hot Sauce and Chai Curry Chup fromIntensity Academy, Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette fromOut of the Weeds, Guava Girl Gourmet Grilling Sauce fromPirate Jonny's, and Southern Gold Barbeque Gold Sauce fromVoodoo Chef.

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclaimer - Thank you to #HotSummerEats sponsors BenBella Vegan, Caribeque, Casabella, Gourmet Garden, Intensity Academy, Not Ketchup, Out of the Weeds. Pirate Jonny's, Quirk Books, Spicely Organics, T.Lish , and Voodoo Cheffor providing the prizes free of charge. These companies also provided the bloggers with samples and product to use for#HotSummerEats without additional compensation.All opinions are my own.

Carrot Cake for Two

So.
You know what I love about carrot cake?  Everything.  You know what I don't like so much?  That it makes a 9x13" pan and I live in a household of 2 people.  I told my mother the other day that I'd made carrot cake, and her comment was, "I only make that when I'm having a crowd in."  I didn't tell her at first that this recipe for carrot cake made 2 servings, and J and I polished it off in 1 night.  I just told her it was really good, and once again from one of my favourite recipe sources, Budget Bytes.
This cake doesn't include any pineapple, but it's a buttery spice cake, and with the use of really good black walnuts, you don't need to worry about the missing fruit for deep flavour.  And when you're only making enough for 1 night, "moist" isn't something you need to worry about.  It even has real cream cheese icing.  How can that be bad?
I present to you Budget Bytes' Carrot Cake for Two:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Maple Cake

So.
For March Break, J and I spent our tax refund and went to Montreal for most of the week.  It was cold, but relaxing.  We relaxed in the most amazing spa, and ate in some fantastic restaurants.  We ate a lot.
I had some definite plans for food when we went to Montreal.  J wanted to go to a jazz club one night, and we did.  I wanted to eat raclette and relive my time in France.  We did that too.  We had poutine for lunch one day, and ate gigantic breakfasts.  It was lovely.  We do, however, need to go back.  I didn't make it to Leche Donuts, nor did we go to a deli for Montreal Smoked meat.  And there's always fondue.  We only had raclette.
Our last morning in Montreal, before catching the train home, I ordered crepes with maple syrup.  Inexplicably, the hotel was out of maple syrup.  In the province that produces the most maple syrup in Canada and is one of the leading producers in the world, there was no syrup for me.  Shocking, and sad.
Happily, I came home and made this cake.  You don't pour syrup over the cake, but I suppose you could.  The icing will probably keep you happy.  It's full of syrup too.
From the November 2006 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Maple Cake:

Souper Sunday: Southwestern Bean and Bacon Soup

So.
Cinco de Mayo was yesterday, and I didn't post anything.  Frankly, I'm not sure that this is "Mexican".  It's just really tasty.  Like, J and I loved it and were a little sorry it only made 4 servings.
J's favourite soup out of a can is Bean and Bacon.  I don't really know why...but it is.  I will sometimes buy him a can so he can make it for lunch, but not often.  Frankly, when I started looking at this soup, I wasn't thinking Bean and Bacon.  I was thinking Southwestern flavours, and didn't this sound interesting.
But upon eating, J was thrilled that I'd made one of his favourite soups with a little Southwestern twist.  All I know is that this soup didn't come from a can, and it's so yummy.
I present to you now Grace Nordang from Methow, Washington's Southwestern Bean and Bacon Soup:

Secret Recipe Club: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones (and scones a-plenty!!)

So.
My mother informed me today that she's been checking up on my blog and hasn't seen anything new recently.  It's not that I'm not cooking, I just seem to not be writing these days.  I'm hoping that will change in May, simply because there are some blogging events coming that I need to be writing and preparing for.
The first of these events is the May reveal day for the Secret Recipe Club.  Every month I so enjoy going and looking at a new blog and seeing the sorts of wonderful things that they make that I can try too.  I didn't know how thrilled I would be when I started poking about Kate's blog Kitchen Trial and Error.
Kate's journey to blogging is similar to my own, but she takes much prettier pictures.  I found so many things I wanted to make.  In fact, I went back today to write my post and discovered this Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin that is now on the menu for this coming week.  I also keep meaning to make this Gingerbread Deep Dish Apple Pancake that I've even bought the molasses to make...but it hasn't happened...yet.  Perhaps next weekend.  I settled on scones partially because they're one of Kate's favourite things, and partially because I'd never made them.  I actually made 3 different types all from Kate's blog - 2 types for a staff meeting (which were quickly gobbled up), and 1 type for J and myself to eat while watching Spring football one Saturday morning and then over the next couple of days for breakfast.
I had to decide which one to tell you about, and chose the one with my favourite flavour combination, but I also made the Coconut Lime Scones:

And the Cinnamon Scones (which are killer - especially the icing):

But this is another post all about the glory that is chocolate peanut butter.  I present to you now Kitchen Trial and Error's Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones:

Son of Magazine Challenge: May Planning

So.
I've been hideous at keeping up here.  It's not that I'm not cooking.  I'm just not writing these days.  Hopefully, the writing muse will return and all of my pictures will be used to show you the delicious things I've been up to.
Case in point:  the May 2007 issue of Everyday Food.  I have 1 recipe made already, and another on the menu for this week.  If I haven't blogged it, it's not marked as made.  I think there are 5 things made that I have yet to blog.  5!  At some point, I need to catch up.
But getting back to May, there's lots of good looking things.  Once again, this will be the first time I've made something from this issue.  Better late than never.
Here's what we're planning from May 2007:

• Artichoke Dip
• Spinach-Stuffed Flank Steak
• Lemon Sandwich Cookies
• Lemon Cream Pie
• Panko-Crusted Fish with Herb Dipping Sauce
• Rosemary Meatballs

Looks like a good month.