Tag: food (page 7 of 10)

Homespun Pot Pie

Today we have both been off kilter. We are fighitng off colds and back to school tiredness and so a meal of true comfort was in order. So, tonight I made our first pot pie of the Fall season. It was delicious and Mr. Michie said it was the best I had ever made! We made a turkey pot pie and I decided this time that I would roast the turkey and the celery and carrots instead of my usual sautéing the vegetables and boiling the meat.

I tell you, it had the most wonderful flavours and the turkey was so moist. When I pulled my roasting pan out of the oven, I went to work on making a gravy and when it was almost ready I dumped the cut up meat and vegetables into it, stirring in some beautiful red onions that I had leftover from breakfast the day before and some frozen peas.

The house smelled so delicious. As it baked we worked on making some mashed potatoes which were a wonderful and homey accompaniment to dinner. They were mashed with my favourite French butter, spring onion and cracked black pepper cream cheese, fresh parsley and goat’s milk. They were sinfully divine.

To top it all off, we did something we don’t normally do, we sat on the couch and watched TV while we ate. This has been a long week and so we vegged out and caught up on NCIS. I can’t think of anything better tonight then turkey pot pie and watching the adorable Mark Harmon on TV! Delicious!

 

The Taste of Fall

Fall has many flavours and one of them is the warming taste of butternut squash soup. We made it this weekend and as I was slicing up some warm crusty bread, Mr. Michie ladled the soup in our bowls.

With this one, he somehow by magic ended up with a heart on the top that had a polka dot in the middle! That made it taste all the sweeter.

Greetings From the Road

greetings-from-pittsburgh-pennsylvaniaI have been doing a little travelling on my own at the moment. One of the places I ended up going to, is a personal favourite of mine: Pittsburgh, PA.

Soergel FarmsI checked in on some family I have there, went to Soergel’s Farm one of my most cherished places to go and see. I am a farm girl myself and I feel it is truly important to support your local farmers. Eat with each harvest and taste the best of the season. I drank some apple cider, picked up a pie from their bakery counter and had my picture taken on the wheel of an old Amish buggy.

GiGi WagonWheelIt was pretty hot while I was there visiting and one night after dinner we headed out for a drive and ended up going to Dairy Queen. There is nothing better than a Dairy Queen dipped cone. I prefer getting mine in a cup, that way you get more “dip”. I decided to get the cherry flavour, it matched my apron and is one of my favourites! It was delicious and definitely cooled me down.

GiGi at the Dairy QueenI also had the chance to do a little antiquing. I went to a store that I had been dying to visit and boy, did I have fun! I must have spent 3 hours in there wandering around. I came back with a few surprises, one in particular! I think she will fit right in to our little home. I will be introducing you soon, but at the moment, she is getting over her jet lag…

A Vintage Outing

Vintage Welcome

On Saturday we headed out with the Michie’s to the Vintage Fair in Southend. What a delightful day we had. GiGi & I spied the map as we were approaching and ran over to have a look. I knew for sure I wanted to go on the Carousel!

Foxy CarouselGiGi Queens WalkWe looked around from stall to stall. GiGi was on the hunt for a new kerchief, but she couldn’t find one she liked. I, as you know, love collecting all things “foxy” and spotted a great little plastic treasure. It was a vintage fox toy from the 60’s. So, I am adding him to my collection.

We got very hot walking around, all my fur didn’t help, so, we decided it would be best if we went for a stroll. Jennifer and GiGi wanted to go to Laduree, so happily, we men obliged them.  What a delightful event that was, I couldn’t wait to get through the door, I was licking my whiskers just thinking about it.

GG & Foxy LadureeGiGi had an iced chocolate and I enjoyed 2 lemon & thyme and 1 vanilla macaroon. They were to die for. After that we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery to take in the BP Portrait Awards and then home on the late afternoon train.  What a lovely day spent in good company!

Lazy Sunday

Today we have had a quiet lazy Sunday in and around the house. I have caught up on laundry, read a little and listened to music. While, Mr. Michie has done a little reading himself, worked on writing a paper and a new blog post. What could be better than a quiet day to just be?

We made tomato salad for lunch on grilled bread:

We played in the garden and made sure everything was happy:

We made ice-cream sundaes and watched the afternoon thunderstorm from our couch:

Happy Sunday!

Harry Potter Fever

Harry Potter

We’ve caught the “Harry Potter Bug”. I loved reading the Harry Potter books. I remember when the last book came out, armed with a flask of hot chocolate and a blanket, I waited patiently for the bookstore to open its doors at midnight for the Harry Potter Party, where my pre-ordered book was waiting to jump into my hands.

Foxy, wasn’t so sure about Harry Potter at first, he felt that they might be a little too childish for him, but I convinced him to give them a go and sure enough he was hooked. We have seen all the movies as well and couldn’t wait to see the final one together.

We celebrated the opening of the new film on Friday night, by watching “The Deathly Hallows Part 1”, ordering a huge cheese pizza, popping a big bowl of popcorn and eating peanut M&Ms. So, when Saturday came we were more than ready to see the final installment of this wonderful series.

If we were going to see it, I was going in costume! I made a wand and a hat and Harry Potter glasses for Foxy and I to wear. We waited patiently in line to collect our tickets and then stuffed ourselves with hot dogs, popcorn and coke. We laughed, we cried, we held our breath even though we knew how it would end. There were moments when I was on the edge of my seat, Foxy just used his paw to gently push me back. It was a magical movie and a magical day out!

Sprinkles Bakes

If you don’t read Sprinkles Bakes, then you should! It is simply a blog of food happiness! Just going through Heather’s site, makes my mouth water and I am always excited to see her name come up in my GoogleReader, because that means there will be a delicious post waiting for me to read!

This video makes me smile and this cake is just pinky-pinky gorgeous. After the day I have had, I could use a giant slice of this heavenly pink confection right now!

I especially love her baking assistants!

Ice-Cream Swirls

Foxy and Smarties Ice Cream

It has been hot off and on here this week. However, there were one or two rainy days that made the temperature drop exceedingly and all I wanted to do was watch Christmas movies and eat popcorn. There is that American tradition of “Christmas in July”, you know…

But, it has gotten warmer again and today my fur has truly heated up as I basked in the sunshine to take a nap. I knew the only way, I was going to cool off was to eat some ice-cream. Lucky for me, Jennifer was on her way to run some errands and kindly agreed to pick up a tub of something cool and ambrosial for me to delve into.

She came back with a tub of whipped vanilla ice-cream that was covered in Smarties. There is nothing better than ice-cream with a little candy on top. I just jumped right in, whiskers first and it was delicious!

I don’t even think I will eat dinner tonight, I just want more ice-cream. But, maybe this time with some chocolate syrup and sprinkles! Heaven!

Is there any S’More?

I love S’Mores. They hold within those cookie walls the best of Sumertime nights. The freedom of being little, running through the grass barefoot, eating grilled hot dogs, chasing lighting bugs and roasting s’mores over the open grill.

For those of you who are not familiar with a s’more, it is a toasted marshmallow that is laid upon a piece of chocolate and they are both sandwiched between two graham cracker cookies.  We didn’t always use graham crackers in my house though, my Mom would buy the Keebler chocolate covered cookies and we would mush our roasty toasty marshmallows in between those! HEAVEN!

Unfortunately, our little cottage does not have a space that allows us to grill, but that doesn’t stop Mr. Michie and myself. We simply spread our ingredients out on the coffee table and light a candle, which acts as our “grill”. So, you too can even make delicious s’mores indoors as well as out!

Here are a few S’more recipes or variations on the theme that I came across as I was blog reading this week, so they must be a hot topic! Click on the name to be taken to the recipe:

 

(all images copyright their respective blogs)