The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
I had such a nice weekend, meeting new people, hanging out and enjoying some yummy food! Saturday, we had a baby shower for my friend Lena whose due next month for their second baby:) We had lunch at the cheesecake factory. Sunday, Hubs and I joined our friend Chris for her farewell brunch (she’ll move to CA) at Maximilien (Pike place market). Delicious food and great company,now that’s my kind of weekend!
Our hotel was located on Robson Street, so Sis and I got to window shop during our stay in Vancouver. Robson is Vancouver’s most famous shopping street and I can spend the whole day in here shopping, eating/dine out, and people watching! Saturday morning, Hubby wanted to stay and sleep in the morning so that gives me and my sister time to do our own thing and we decided to just walk around Robson, have coffee and shop…
Our first night dinner in Vancouver was in this Japanese Sushi place. Hubby read good reviews about the resto and we really wanted to eat Japanese that night, so Oysi Oysi it is! It was also within walking distance from our hotel. That’s a big factor for me, no need to take a cab or walk a long way when I’m hungry(I’m cranky when hungry you know!). The place was decent, prices reasonable, not the best sushi for us but definitely not bad! The only disappointment for us was their soft shell crab, one tiny crab for $10, so not worthy!! Be warned, lots of pics in this post!
We are finally here in Vancouver after 4.5 hours in the car! The traffic was really bad, the 2.5 hours drive end up like forever…Goodness, we’ve been here before and we really like Vancouver, so I’m excited for the weekend:) I’m excited for our “window” shopping around Robson St., No budget for shopping for me!hehehe…I hope you guys had a fun weekend:)
We are going to be out of town this weekend so I didn’t do any grocery shopping this week! So I just raided the pantry and our freezer and came up with this meal! Steak and potatoes, two of my favorites and just perfect together :). My fave Ina Garten recipe as usual for the steak and blue cheese sauce. The Mini Twice Baked potato comes from just a random blog/website (http://laurasbestrecipes.com). It was really tasty and I will surely do this again in the future.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat a large, well-seasoned cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot, 5 to 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, pat the steaks dry with a paper towel and brush them lightly with vegetable oil. Combine the fleur de sel and cracked pepper on a plate and roll the steaks in the mixture, pressing lightly to evenly coat all sides.
When the skillet is ready, add the steaks and sear them evenly on all sides for about 2 minutes per side, for a total of 10 minutes.
Top each steak with a tablespoon of butter, if using, and place the skillet in the oven. Cook the steaks until they reach 120 degrees F for rare or 125 degrees F for medium-rare on an instant-read thermometer. (To test the steaks, insert the thermometer sideways to be sure you’re actually testing the middle of the steak.)
Remove the steaks to a serving platter, cover tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Serve hot with Roquefort Chive Sauce on the side.
Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook at a low boil, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has become thick and creamy, about 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the cheese, salt, pepper and chives and whisk rapidly until the cheese melts.
Yield: 4 servings
This is my go to recipe whenever I make chicken parmesan, it’s Tyler Florence’s and I got it from food network. The chicken is so moist and I put a lot of cheese (that makes it so perfect, If you ask me). We didn’t have any buffalo mozzarella cheese so I just used the regular mozzarella cheese ,it’s still tasty.
Coat a saute pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper.
Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large oven-proof skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once.
Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot with spaghetti.