Category Archives: Friday Food

Friday Food: Rice Pilaf

Posted in Friday Food by

Sometimes, it’s not always about the main attraction. Sometimes, it’s about the little guy who hangs out on the side but is just as amazing. I’m talking side dishes, and I’m talking fillers!

Rice is probably one of my favourite sides, probably due to my Asianess, so I present to you an easy rice pilaf (or Peel Off, as my brother so lovingly calls it) dish that can be made just as fast as regular rice. It’s delicious!

Ingredients:

  • Half an onion, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • EVOO (Extra-Virgin Olive Oil)
  • Rice
  • Chicken broth
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Drizzle a large skillet with olive oil and sauté the onions and celery until fragrant. Add salt and pepper to taste! Add desired amount of rice and pour in chicken broth until rice is covered. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce to a simmer on low heat. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until rice is thoroughly cooked!

I paired mine up with BBQ’d chicken drizzled with Greek salad dressing and carrots. Yum yum!

My mom adds green pepper in with the celery and onion as well and that’s quite tasty too. There’s always room for experiments :)

Happy Weekend!

Friday Food: Jam-Buster Muffins

Posted in Friday Food, Growing Up, Memories by

When I was little, my Mom used to bake her face off. Cookies, muffins galore! One of my favourites were cornmeal “jam-buster” muffins! Oh, man were they good! Delicious muffins with a jammy surprise? Yes please!

And now, a taste of my childhood!

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups cornmeal
  • 1 ½ cups buttermilk
  • 2 ¼ cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¾ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • ¾ cup butter, melted
  • Strawberry jam

1. Combine cornmeal and buttermilk. (I’ve never used buttermilk before and didn’t realize how awful it smells!) Let stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda (which I forgot to add when I made them — Oops!) and salt. Blend in cornmeal mixture, eggs and melted butter, stirring just until moistened.

3. Spoon batter info muffin tins lined with paper baking cups, filling each just to the top of the paper liner. With a small spoon, shape a well in the centre of each muffin. fill each well with about 1 tsp of strawberry jam. Bake in 400° F oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes about 16 muffins!

Now, like I said, I accidentally forgot to add in the baking soda, and my wells were kinda lame, but they still turned out really good! Next time I may fill the cups half-way and add the jam, and then put another bit of batter on top. Also, I used raspberry jam instead of strawberry, since that’s what I had in the house. I encourage experimenting with your jams! I found 20 minutes was the perfect baking time, but my oven is the devil and runs a little hot.

Mine turned out nothing like the picture in the cookbook. Oh well!

Happy Friday ya’ll! :) I’ll have an exciting newsy update for ya’ll sometime next week too!

Also, a little self promoting: Check out my post at In it to Gym it!

Friday Food: WTF?

Posted in Fail, Friday Food, No way Jose, Web Images, WTF Friday by

So it’s almost 10pm on Thursday night and after not realizing I have yet to cook anything spectacular and have had no WTF moments, I got nothing for Friday’s post! I was going to make amazing cornmeal jam-buster muffins on Wednesday but a lame doctor’s visit (which I posted somewhat about yesterday) put that on hold. I’ll have something for you next week my pretties, I promise!

For now I present to you my least favourite foods. As in, I will probably vomit if I eat them, or at least protest the meal. We’ll call it a Friday Food/WTF Friday mash up!

So, number one on my list is calamari:

Image found here

I used to quite like it, until I went to a less-than-spectacular pub in town (it’s mediocre at best) and threw it all up later in the evening. (No, I wasn’t wasted!) Now those little tentacles and round little rings make me want to instahurl. Yuck. Moving on …

Number two is stew:

Image found here

Yeah, I know it’s suppose to be good ol’ stick to your ribs home cookin’, but I have never liked it. The veggies taste too much like veggies. The potatoes are too potatoey. The carrots too carroty. Your grandma could cook her prize-winning beef stew for me and I would probably still not like it. Sorry Grandma!

Number three is coleslaw:

Image found here

It’s cabbage. Yeah, dressing makes most things better, but not cold, uncooked cabbage. Or maybe it’s the dressing I don’t like. Hmm … maybe I’ll have to do some investigating in the future. For now, hold the slaw please!

Number four is cinnamon:

Image found here

I don’t hate it completely, but a strong smell of it makes me nauseous. It’s probably because of too much Fireball all at once back in the day. Now strong smells of cinnamon make me queezy. Unless it’s in the form of ooey-gooey cinnamon buns. Oh yes. *drool*

I suppose I’ll end on a high-note with visions of delicious cinnamon buns in  my head.

Happy weekend my homies, and tell me What makes your gut growl in anger?