This summer, I was lucky enough to attend a gorgeous wedding in Tuscany (you can see this wedding in all its splendor here). When M and I got home, we were pretty depressed...no more Italian food, no more Italian wine, no more made up Italian language (it'sa normal!). Until one night, on Commercial Drive, when fate decided to slap us in the face.
We were quietly drowning our sorrorws in some yummy belgian beer, so quietly in fact that it was very easy for me to overhear the converastion at the table right next to us...and imagine my delight when the woman next to us says "we've been home for weeks and I just can't stop talking in this ridiculous Italian accent!" It seems someone else had been afflicted with M's accent disease.
Anyway, I couldn't wait for my chance to interrupt their perfectly lovely dinner (blame Mum for this trait) to ask if they had also just returned from Italy, and of course they had. We were talking about our love affairs with bella Italia, where we had been in the country, and the woman gets a funny look on her face and asks if we had been at a small wedding in rural Tuscany...it turns out she sat next to our great friends C&G on the way home from Italy, and they really hit it off. Enough so that all of them, who normally speak to no one on the plane, wanted to exchange numbers but felt a bit socially awkward asking. Then bam! Fate puts this lady right in front of me. Turns out we are neighbours. It's just *too weird* to me, so many things had to happen for us to meet. We all felt it was meant to be, and decided we should all get together for an Italian meal to celebrate life's mysteries. Which we did, and this is not that story :)
It was M and I's turn to host last night. Our new friends and C&G all came over; there were 7 of us in total, which for me, is a lot for a weeknight. Luckily I prepared a lot of the food the day before to save myself the stress and the possibility of throwing a pot at M's head. Our new friends are vegan, so this was an experiment for me. I thought it would be simple, but it wasn't! Everything I thought of to make of vegetables that would be delicious included cheese or dairy (the things that make food delicious)...I was stumped. Until I came across this Smitten Kitchen recipe for Ratatouille. In the words of J last night "it looks sexy!". That is thanks to the mandolin I bought which sliced these veggies up perfectly and saved me tons of time! New fave kitchen gadget.
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| bellissima! |
To go with this, I made a great green salad that I found a recipe for in Canadian Living's Best Recipe's Ever Cookbook. This recipe is actually called An Especially Good Green Salad, and oh it was:
4 cups spinach
4 cups Butter lettuce
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup toasted pecans
3 oranges, peeled and sliced
Dressing:
1 tsp orange rind
2 tbsp oj
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp dijon
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
2 tbs olive oil
Shake up the dressing, toss it on the salad. Perfecto!
I also made a roasted tomato soup that was quite a hit....one of our vegan friends said it was the BEST tomato soup she's ever had (quite the compliment coming from a vegetable expert). It was very easy to make, and packed full of flavour. I can't wait to make this again, and freeze the leftovers:
16 Roma tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
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2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
6 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or more if you like it spicy!)
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28 oz can plum tomatoes
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
Toss the Roma tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 400 for 45 mins. While that's going on, saute the onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes until the onion begins to brown. Add the canned tomatoes (see note below), herbs, stock, and over roasted tomatoes. Boil, then simmer uncovered for about 40 minutes. Puree, enjoy!
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| San Marzano Tomatoes |
My friend that got married in Italy told me I must always use only San Marzano canned tomatoes - and even though she is most definitely not Italian, her boundless love of both Italy and good food makes me trust her, which was smart because wow these were good. Stock up if you see them!
A man in the kitchen, actually cooking, is a very sexy sight to me. M decided to help out and make dessert, and it was fantastic. We decided on lemon mint granita (another Smitten Kitchen recipe - if you have an expensive addiction to cookbooks like I do, you better check out this site and save yourself a couple bucks). We added limoncello that we'd brought home from Positano for a treat. It was crisp and clean and didn't leave us feeling like overstuffed turkeys. The presentation was awesome:
Dinner was a big success; vegan cooking wasn't scary, but I also realized that it really didn't matter what I made because our group just appreciates being together and having a night of big laughs and a lot of fun. We all truly feel serendipity swept in and brought us together for a reason, and we celebrate that each time we're in each other's company (non-dairy cheesy, but true).
Oh..........and then this happened.........
A good night for all, it seems!
Until next time,
Katy
