The Week in Pictures (May 6-13)

A picture is worth a thousand words...

How adorable is this little guy?  He's a little camera-shy though!

Fiddlehead picking in the forest on a drizzly Tuesday

Perfect for the picking!

Fiddlehead season is over, but not at our house!  We trimmed,washed, boiled and froze
the fiddleheads for yummy meals to come!

Do you know what these are?

The white trillium  - the emblem and official flower of the province of Ontario
I was overjoyed to find an entire field of them alongside the highway

Our crabapple tree in full bloom

Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe for baked eggplant

My first attempt at Victoria Sponge

Saturday, getting ready for a Mother's day celebratory lunch

Lunch at Red Lobster Seafood Restaurant

Sunday - Mother's Day - in my parents' pretty yard with my Mom and my girls


I hope everyone enjoyed this past week as much as I did.  Here, in Barrie, it looks like yet another beautiful weather week to come.  I feel blessed and thankful.  How was your week? 



Plenty of Inspiration

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday!  Today, I want to share with you my latest cookbook find...

This is the book Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi - a famous London chef, restaurant owner, and food columnist for the Guardian newspaper in London, UK.

I first heard about Yotam Ottolenghi from my dear friend, Rachel, who lives in England.  I know how much she adores Ottolenghi and his recipes, so when I saw this book for sale in the reprinted American edition, I had to have it! 

This cookbook contains 120 vegetarian recipes.  Although I am not a vegetarian, I do enjoy vegetarian dishes, so there is much inspiration here, even for meat lovers! 

Let me share some of what I've experimented with thus far...

Sweet Potato Wedges, pg. 26

Okay, seriously, these are to die for!  I've tried sweet potatoes all sorts of ways - baked, fried, mashed, cubed, etc., but this recipe is my favourite.  It is melt-in-your-mouth delicious!  Ottolenghi provides a recipe for a dipping sauce to go with these...I didn't have all the ingredients, so I used plain old mayonnaise and served them with oven-roasted back ribs.  YUM!

This is me preparing to roast aubergine (eggplant) in the oven according to Ottolenghi's instructions on page 110.  The Maldon sea salt I used for this recipe was a gift from another dear friend of mine.

Aubergine with buttermilk sauce pg. 110
I served these as an appetizer - before our main course.
I must say, Nuno (my husband) and I have never been too fond of aubergine in the past. 
Ottolenghi's recipe turned out delicious!  I am a newly converted fan of the eggplant!

I decided to roast eggplant again another night using Ottolenghi's method, but this time I turned this vegetarian dish into a meat-lover's dream...

I made my meaty tomato sauce to go with it and grated some fresh parmesan cheese over top.

Vegetarian meets meat-lover!

I am looking forward to experimenting with many other recipes in this new cookbook!  It is filled with PLENTY of inspiration! 

I will leave you with this photo of my backyard early this morning...

It's Spring here, but it hardly looks that way.  I am crossing my fingers that the sun comes out and melts all of this away.  Sending warm thoughts to you.  I hope the sun is shining wherever you are!  Enjoy the rest of the week!  xoxo