Cooking at Home: Canada Day Dinner with Corn & Blueberry Salad with Feta and Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sliders

My friends Chelsea and Braden invited me over to their house for a little pre-Canada Day dinner:

Corn and blueberry salad with feta

BBQ pulled pork

Grilled pineapple

Hawaiian pulled pork sliders

Not sure where they get their recipes, but this dinner was amazing. Sweet and savoury, fresh and refreshing — the perfect choices for a summer meal. We did agree that a second side like sweet potato fries would've made the dinner even better, but what calories and fat grams we saved on that went to dessert at Chocolate & Company (riding on the theme of summer, I got black currant sorbetto and coconut gelato, my new favourite combo), the perfect ending to an incredible dinner.

Cooking at Home: A Low-Key Birthday Dinner with Seafood Linguine and Carrot Cake

It was my friend Braden's 36th birthday and he just wanted a really low-key dinner, so he and Chelsea invited me over to their house for a quiet home-cooked meal:

Seafood linguine

His mom made one of his favourite dishes: linguine in a spiced tomato sauce with scallops, shrimp, asparagus, and basil — a light, delicious, aromatic pasta that, frankly, I could've eaten three portions of. It was paired with Caesar salad (with homemade dressing and croutons!) and slices of crusty baguette on the side. 

Carrot cake with cinnamon icing and pecans

For his birthday cake, Chelsea baked his favourite carrot cake with cinnamon icing (she had to make it gluten-free with egg replacement because she has a lot of allergies, but it was actually surprisingly tasty — denser than regular carrot cake, but still moist and flavourful). The three of us spent the rest of the night taking a long walk around their neighbourhood with their dog, just talking, joking, and sharing new music (which turned into a whole nostalgic conversation about our teenage years that ended up with us getting tickets to see Taking Back Sunday and Coheed and Cambria in August). Sometimes the best celebrations are spent quietly and, indeed, Braden seemed to be very happy.

Cooking at Home: Beef Stew Over Mashed Potatoes

Went over to Chelsea's to hang out, where the theme of the evening was COMFORT:

Beef stew with mashed potatoes

A hearty beef stew with carrots and parsnips over mashed potatoes for dinner, a long walk with her dog, lemon sorbet for dessert, several games of Uno, and a re-watch of 10 Things I Hate About You. A successful (and unexpectedly nostalgic) Saturday night in!

Cooking at Home: A BBQ Dinner of Farmer's Sausages, Cheeseburgers, and LA-Style Galbi

Another summer weekend means another outdoor BBQ session, this time back at Minji and Daniel's house:

Grilling action

Farmer's sausage in brioche bun

Angus beef burgers with Swiss

LA-style galbi

Seven of us dined on delicious farmer's sausages in comically tiny brioche buns, Angus beef cheeseburgers, some of the most incredible marinated galbi that Minji's mom had left at her house (bless Korean parents for always wanting to feed their children), plus watermelon and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Not as indulgent as our insane Canada Day feast, but still a truly delightful dinner. (And we didn't eat so much that we wanted to explode.) Bless friends with backyards and BBQ grills!

Cooking at Home: A BBQ Dinner of Cheeseburgers, Sweet Potato Fries, and Mexican-Style Corn

Went over to my friend Chelsea's this evening for a casual dinner:

Cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and Mexican-style corn

We were originally going to make enchiladas but decided to fire up the BBQ instead because the weather was really nice today, so we decided on beef burgers with Monterey Jack, arugula, tomatoes, and caramelized onions; sweet potato fries; and Mexican-style corn (elote, except grilled instead of boiled and feta instead of cotija because we couldn't find any at the supermarket). After our delicious dinner, we went to take a long walk with her dog and went to Chocolate & Company for gelato (dark chocolate with pear and cinnamon — an unexpectedly amazing combination). A perfect Saturday summer night!

Cooking at Home: Canada Day BBQ Feast

The BBQ madness continues as my friends Minji and Daniel hosted a Canada Day BBQ for seven of us today. I think this may win as the biggest, most epic BBQ I've ever been to:

Grilling Italian sausages, bratwursts, and baked potatoes

Baking Peri peri chicken and more baked potatoes

Grilling Angus beef burgers with cheddar

Grilling giant tiger shrimp

Grilling beef skewers, kohlrabi, and eggplant

Grilling mushroom caps and mixed veggies

Beef skewers with bell peppers and onions

Peri peri chicken

Corn on the cob

Smoked BBQ pork back ribs

Loaded baked potatoes

Grilled pineapple

Watermelon and pineapple

Sparklers!

I ate enough for three people. We started grilling at 4:00PM and just kept going until 9:00PM. That doesn't even include the ice cream sandwiches we had after we lit up 20 sparklers. Or the homemade peach sorbet (they just got an ice cream maker) we had while playing Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Basically, this was the best Canada Day, ever. 

Cooking at Home: First Backyard BBQ of Summer 2024

Canada Day weekend means barbeques, which started off with Korean BBQ yesterday and continues today with this summer's first backyard BBQ at my friend Chelsea's:

Grilled steak, corn on the cob, grilled bell peppers with feta, roast potatoes and mushrooms, and mixed green salad

Grilled steaks, corn on the cob, grilled bell peppers with feta, roast potatoes and mushrooms, and some mixed greens to keep it healthy(ish). Went for a long walk around her neighbourhood as the sun was setting and then we went to get giant ice cream waffle cones for dessert which totally negated the 10,000 steps I got in today, but it's okay because it's the long weekend which means cheat day will actually last until next Tuesday. 

Cooking at Home: Victoria Day Weekend Hot Pot

Seven of us went over to Minji and Daniel's house for edibles, hot pot, and playing Betrayal until 3:00AM.

Spicy broth and tomato broth for hot pot
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, winter melon, Chinese yam, kohlrabi, gluten puffs, tofu puffs, bean curd puffs, watercress, and dandelion greens
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, beef balls, and lamb slices
Spicy broth and mushroom broth for hot pot

And we got enough food to bring home for the next three meals because we bought enough groceries for a small army.

An excellent start to the long weekend!

Eating at Home: A Housewarming Potluck

My co-worker friends Daniel and Minji invited me and several of our other co-workers to their new house for a little housewarming potluck:

Garlic bread
Potato salad
Chicken wings
Beef bulgogi (served with rice)

There were also some tasty jalapeño chicken sliders that I didn't photograph for some reason (even though I ate three of them) and bubble tea from Chatime for everyone as well. As I hate cooking, my contribution to this dinner was an assortment of cake slices from Butter Baker:

Pink Velvet: Vanilla chiffon cake with soft cream cheese crème and house made raspberry jam
Blueberry & Yogurt: Vanilla chiffon cake with blueberry and black currant Chantilly cream, Greek yogurt cream, and house made blueberry jam
Matchamisu: Uji matcha chiffon cake with mascarpone vanilla crème and chocolate Chantilly cream
The Earl Grey: Vanilla chiffon cake with Earl Grey Chantilly cream, Earl Grey syrup, and house made raspberry jam

After a house tour and a lot of intermittent playtime with their four cats, the night ended with six intense rounds of Scattergories (one must challenge things like whether Willy Wonka constitutes as a "thing" for "a thing you don't want in your house" or if a ferris wheel is a vehicle). Suffice it to say, the party was a success (and their house is lovely!).

Eating at Home: End of Year Family Dinner

It's almost Chinese New Year, which means this week is all about the end-of-year family dinners. We're not super traditional since most of my relatives have lived in Canada for decades, but we do enjoy a good family gathering since we only have them a few times a year. So tonight, my Aunt Barbara hosted dinner at her house for 11 of us on my dad's side of the family:

Braised abalone with broccoli
Chinese roast duck
Sweet and sour shrimp
Shrimp-stuffed roast chicken
Braised pork hocks with lotus root

And for dessert, egg tarts and mandarin oranges (of course). No one in my family actually likes hosting dinner at home (cooking + people = a lot of effort and a lot of cleaning) so we usually go out to a restaurant for dinner, but it was really nice to hang out with my cousins at home and chat for hours. I actually can't remember the last time we did this (it might be over a decade ago), but I hope we can do it more often in the new year. You know, so long as someone else is willing to host. 

Cooking at Home: Lunar New Year 2023 Hot Pot

My co-worker Maria invited a few of us over to her house for a Lunar New Year hot pot dinner:

Hot pot at home
Hot pot at home
She went all out for us: homemade pork bone broth, beef slices, pork slices, fresh shrimp, salmon, fish balls, fish cakes, shimeji mushrooms, watercress, napa cabbage, daikon, winter melon, and an assortment of condiments to make our own dipping sauces. It was the perfect post-snow storm meal. (I love that we celebrate Lunar New Year for weeks after the new year starts. And that I have co-workers who love hosting hot pot at home!)

Cooking at Home: Honey-Dijon Pork Chops with Asparagus and Roasted Potatoes

Honey-dijon pork chops with asparagus and roasted potatoes
Today's much more satisfactory dinner from Hello Fresh: Honey-dijon pork chops with asparagus and roasted potatoes. I have officially become an expert air fryer cook because I made this entire dinner (except for the honey dijon sauce, whatever) in the air fryer and it came out PERFECTLY. The pork was juicy, the asparagus was tender, and the potatoes had a nice crispy exterior. And the honey dijon sauce balanced out the saltiness really well. Would make again, maybe with a horseradish sauce next time.

Cooking at Home: Fiery Hunanese-Style Pork with Green Onion-Ginger Rice

Fiery Hunanese-style pork with green onion-ginger rice
I thought I'd try something a little different this week and picked the fiery Hunanese-style pork with green onion-ginger rice from Hello Fresh. I normally don't go for the Asian kits from Hello Fresh because they're usually disappointing, and sadly, this was no exception. It wasn't terrible — there was a good aroma and the pork had a good texture — but it definitely wasn't great. First of all, they made the rookie mistake of including basmati rice instead of jasmine rice, so the grains were way too loose and it didn't absorb any of the sauce. Secondly, it is not spicy at all. I don't have some crazy spice tolerance or anything, but this was mild at best. Thirdly, it used too much oyster sauce, so it was just way too salty-sweet — almost sickly — especially combined with the soy sauce-mirin blend. (I mean, I know I should taste as I go, but these recipes are supposed to be fool-proof with their measurements.) And fourth, there wasn't nearly enough bok choy to add that crunch that this dish so desperately needed. So yeah, I've officially learned my lesson: no more Asian or Asian-inspired kits for me.

Cooking at Home: Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Pork Rigatoni

Creamy sun-dried tomato pesto and pork rigatoni
Back to cooking at home for dinner with the creamy sun-dried tomato pesto and pork rigatoni from Hello Fresh. I've said this before, but one complaint that I have about Hello Fresh in general is the lack of vegetables in each kit. I find that there's usually only enough veg for one serving in a kit meant for two. While this recipe came with spinach and zucchini, I still felt like it wasn't enough veg so I ended up adding an entire bell pepper to it to get some more nutrients. Other than that, though, this was really delicious and fast to make — and super easy to replicate, too. I used to prefer basil pesto, but this has totally changed my mind about tomato pesto. I think I'm going to pick some up next time I'm at the grocery store — it would be excellent on flatbreads, too.

Cooking at Home: Cinnamon Vanilla Pancakes with Strawberries

Cinnamon vanilla pancakes

I woke up with a random craving for pancakes, so I decided to make cinnamon vanilla ones for brunch. They turned out less fluffy than I'd have liked because I used almond milk instead of regular milk (I'm a bit lactose intolerant so I don't buy regular milk anymore) but they were still tasty. I also think they would've tasted better paired with bananas and maybe some walnuts or something, but alas, I only had strawberries. Although this was perhaps a better idea because my blood sugar levels would go through the roof...