What's Cooking Wednesday

Hello everyone!  Although, it isn't quite Fall yet, I can already feel it's presence all around me.  The temperatures have dropped, students are back at school, and my mood is changing.  I'm looking for the warm, cozy, comfort food only Fall can bring!  Here's a little taste of what's been cooking in my kitchen...

Beets are in season from Summer through to Fall.  This is a beet salad.  First, I roasted beets in the oven, sliced them and then added crumbled goat cheese, parsley, a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and freshly cracked pepper.  It is DELICIOUS!  Give a try...I think you'll like it (even if you don't love beets).

Crispy baked chicken drums together with fresh, Ontario bi-coloured corn, and mashed sweet potatoes (with a sprinkle of cinnamon & nutmeg)

Oven-roasted paprika chicken served with medley of white and sweet potatoes

My garden basil, pine nuts, shredded gruyere cheese, olive oil, ready to be made into pesto

Grilled chicken breast served with pesto Penne and grilled skewer shrimp.

A little inspiration for last night's dinner...

...Julia Child's french onion soup!

Farmer's market onions

 

Julia-inspired french onion soup, served with toasted french baguette, topped with melted Gruyere cheese

My Shiny New Toy

This past week, Nuno & I went out and bought our very first kitchen stove.  The one we owned previously, was used and given to us by a friend a few years ago, when we still lived in our first apartment.  It was a white, coil top electric range and was still in good shape, but I had been wanting to purchase a new stove, for quite some time.  At first, I wanted a gas range, but then decided against it, after weighing the pros and cons of owning a gas oven.  I opted for a new stainless steel smooth top range with convection oven. The glass top is smooth and so easy to clean and the convection baking seemed like the best way to go!  I'm certainly loving the new buttons and gadgets!  And I have 3 racks!  I only had one rack in the last oven! Can you believe it?!

This is the first thing I cooked on the range - corn on the cob & sweet potato fries.

On Saturday, I made pesto sauce for a pasta side dish.  It is so easy to make!  All you need is 2 cups of fresh basil leaves (from my herb garden), olive oil, minced garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and a little salt and pepper.

Throw it all into the food processor and pulse until it is smooth. 

This was our dinner on Saturday night - grilled pork and pesto pasta!  

Sunday, I wanted to experiment with the new convection bake mode in my oven.  So, I decided to bake some brownies.  I adapted a recipe from the book Baked, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  I played around with the recipe and made a few changes here and there.

Buttered a 9x13 inch glass baking dish

Melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Contrary to the authors' brownie wisdom, I DID add a teaspoon of baking powder and found that it gave the brownies a little height, but did NOT make them "cakey" in the least.

The brownies are baked to perfection and cooling on a wire rack

Here they are - chocolatey, rich, moist and chewy!  And perfect with a tall glass of milk!

I was very pleased with the way they turned out.  This recipe will definitely be in my cookbook.  I can't wait to share it with everyone.  Thank you again, for stopping in and spending some time in my kitchen!  Please leave a comment.  I love hearing from you!  Happy Tuesday! xo