Review: Haute Dogs by Russell Van Kraayenburg

Hot Dogs- it's tough to find a person who doesn't love a juicy hot dog sandwiched between buns! They are the classic street food, and the classic BBQ food. Usually, people just serve them with the classic sides- mustard, relish, ketchup, pickles, onions, sauerkraut, etc. Russell Van Kraayenburg on the other hand, decided to spice things up a little...

Haute Dogs: Recipes for Delicious Hot Dogs, Buns, and Condiments

When I first heard about this book I immediately knew I had to have it. I absolutely LOVE hot dogs and I'm starting to get tired of my classic ketchup + mustard or mustard + sauerkraut. I wanted something exciting to put on my hot dog and this book provides just that- excitement!

The book is divided into 3 mains sections: Introduction, The Haute Dogs and From-Scratch Ingredients. Each of these sections together produce a wide variety of hot dogs for you to try. Each of the hot dogs has a different taste and you will definitely find something to suit every taste!

In the introduction section, Russell discusses the history of hot dogs and the basics (ingredients, cooking methods and assembly). I really appreciated that the cooking methods were provided- typically I only boil my hot dogs, or if the weather is nice then I'll do them on the BBQ. I never even thought of deep-frying them or roasting them. Definitely going to try some of these other methods in the future.

The Haute Dogs section has 4 different "areas" of types of hot dog toppings to try- American Classics, Modern American Dogs, South and Central American Dogs, and European, African, and Asian Dogs. There is a wide variety of toppings that you are bound to find at least a few that will please everyone. Some of the toppings are very interesting and not something I would think to put on a hot dog- for example: The Swedish Shrimp Dog has flat bread, mashed potatoes, pickle mayonnaise, shrimp salad, onion, lettuce, ketchup and mustard. So far I have only tried a few of the hot dogs and I really liked them! I'm excited for warmer weather to come so that I can barbeque the hot dogs and try more of the toppings.

The final section is the From Scratch Ingredients section where Russell walks you through how to make several of the toppings. I was flipping through this section and thought some of the condiments and toppings sounded heavenly and I cannot wait to make them.

Overall I really liked this book and cannot wait to try more of the hot dogs. So far I have only had the French Fry Dog and The New York Style Hot Dog (the sautéed onions were SO yummy!). I really enjoyed both of these dogs and thought that the flavor combination on the New York Style dog was really good. I also really like the pictures that are included throughout the book- they really make your mouth water and make you want to try each of the hot dogs.

If you enjoy hot dogs then I definitely recommend trying this cookbook! You can't go wrong with having a wide variety of options to top your next dog with!

I give this book:

4.5/5 Forks :)

Thanks to Quirk Books for sending this book to me for review!

Recipe Review: Baked Potato Soup

On Thursday nights a lot of people in my house come home super late so its hard to have a family dinner. We always crowd around the dining room table when the last person comes home, and usually everyone is nibbly, so we make a soup on those nights. This past week I had some potatoes lying around and debated about making a Vichyssoise. I didn't have all of the ingredients and wasn't able to get to the store so I searched online for a better recipe. I found one for Baked Potato Soup. It sounded awesome so I figured I might as well give it a try.

Thirsty Thursdays: London Fog Tea Latte

It wasn't until recently (okay a year and a half ago) that I discovered the best tea latte ever- the London Fog. I was in university and so like most university students helped to keep the local Tim Horton's and Starbucks in business. I drank coffee like it was going out of style. I started to develop headaches after drinking certain coffees and so decided to switch to tea. Usually I just got a Green Tea with milk and sugar (or honey). That is until one day my friend ordered a London Fog and then exclaimed "OMG this tastes like a Fruit Loop!". I decided that the next time I was at Starbucks I would order a London Fog and taste this Fruit Loop drink. Ever since then I have been hooked!

Recipe Review: Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes from Michael Smith

My husband and I have become addicted to watching The Food Network. We love watching the chef's and cooks make amazing food and then plate it really nicely. My husband was not much of a cook before he met me, but now both of us love finding new and interesting recipes and cooking them together. We have an insane number of cookbooks and still scour the internet for more recipes.

One chef that my husband has absolutely fallen in love with is Michael Smith. I don't know if its because Michael likes to use bacon or because everything he cooks has tons of flavor. My husband is all about bacon and flavor. Whatever it is, I don't really care, because I have now fallen for Michael Smith also.

Recipe Review: Curtis Stone's Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken Cacciatore

Whenever my family wants something that will be quick to make but also tastes delicious we always gravitate towards chicken. We usually do simple things like chicken with garlic goat cheese sauce or shake and bake, but sometimes when we want to have a meal that is a little more "involved" we make Chicken Cacciatore. We've had a number of different versions of Chicken Cacciatore, but I have to admit, this one by Curtis Stone is actually really delicious! 

Recipe Review: Souvlaki-Style Pork Tenderloin with Mixed Vegetables

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I love cooking recipes out of the Canadian Living magazine. Generally the recipes are really delicious and so I was super excited to try the cover recipe: Souvlaki-Style Pork Tenderloin with Mixed Vegetables. The recipe is a "healthy spin on everyone's favourite Greek culinary staple: souvlaki" (Canadian Living). It only requires 25 minutes of hands-on time and 30 minutes of cook time. I love souvlaki and I needed something that was going to be quick and delicious for when my brother and his fiancée came over for dinner.

Recipe Review- Quick Salmon Kedegree

 

My mother has been a long time subscriber to Canadian Living and we often choose recipes that look good to try. The latest issue, March 2014, looked like it had some amazing recipes and so far we have tried two of them- Quick Salmon Kedgeree and Souvlaki-Style Pork Tenderloin with Mixed Vegetables. I'll do a review of the Quick Salmon Kedgeree today and will review the Souvlaki-Style Pork Tenderloin with Mixed Vegetables at a later date.

Opps...

So I know I keep saying this but I am going to get better at staying on top of blog posts. I have a friend who does book blogging and lives around the corner from me and we have decided that we are going to get together one night every week and do all of our blog posts for the upcoming week. I am determined to make this site a go and I feel like if I get together with my friend she will help me stay motivated! 

Stay tuned and I will have cookbook reviews, recipe reviews and restaurant reviews coming your way soon!!!! 

Grain Power by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming (Cookbook Review)

As I said in my previous post, I'm trying to start eating better and exercising more this year. I was happy when Penguin Canada asked me if I wanted to review Joyous Health and this book- Grain Power. Both books contain healthy recipes that I was hoping would be tasty.

Grain Power contains over 100 recipes that are not only gluten-free but that also use ancient grains. It was written by the same authors who wrote Quinoa Revolution (which has some really delicious recipes!). As soon as I received this book in the mail I flipped through it and was salivating over some of the photos- they look so delicious! The pizza on the cover is something I would totally devour!

One thing I really liked about this book was that the beginning portion goes through each of the grains used in the book and explains its flavor, texture, forms, how to cook with it, a nutrition guide, and general cooking instructions. I found this really beneficial because I don't usually cook with grains (except Quinoa) so I really had no idea what some of them were or how to cook them. The back of the book also contains troubleshooting tips and tricks for when you are cooking the grains. The rest of the book is divided into Breakfast; Appetizers, Snacks, Salads & Side Dishes; Soups & Stews; Meals; and Desserts & Baking.

As I mentioned the pictures looked delicious, but as I flipped through and read some of the recipes, they sounded even better. I even liked the fact that some of them had options that you could choose, for example- the Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet gave you the option of using beef sirloin tip, chicken, pork or salmon. They also gave you the option of using kaniwa, quinoa, amaranth, or teff instead of buckwheat. I really liked this because I know that some people in my family won't eat buckwheat and others won't eat beef. It was nice that I could still use that recipe and was told what else would taste good in it.

The recipes that I tried out were the Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet  mentioned above and the Mexican Chocolate Millet Pudding. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get pictures of either of these recipes.

The Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet was really tasty. I kept with the original recipe and did the beef skillet tip with the buckwheat. Unfortunately I overcooked the buckwheat and so it was a little mushy, but the recipe was still tasty. The orange flavor was really clear, unlike some orange flavored foods where you taste absolutely NO orange. The beef was cooked really well and everything tasted good together. This recipe got mixed reviews from my family but that was because they forgot to tell me that they don't like orange flavor in their meals and the other didn't like buckwheat.

The Mexican Chocolate Millet Pudding on the other hand was a big hit. I didn't manage to grind the millet seeds fine enough and so the pudding wasn't smooth, but I've learned for next time. No one realized that this was a "healthy" pudding, they just enjoyed the chocolate pudding. They enjoyed it so much that each of their bowls was licked clean of it!

Overall, this book had some really good recipes and I'm excited to try more of them. I really would love to try the Mango, Cucumber & Red Pepper Quinoa Salad and the Thin Crust Vegetable Pizza with Fresh Basil. This cookbook has a wide variety of meals, with meat, fish and vegetables. I am amazed that you can do so much with ancient grains. Big thank you to Penguin Canada for sending me this book!!!

I give this book:

 out of

 

Joyous Health Cookbook Review

At the beginning of every year I tell myself "This is going to be the year when you eat healthy, exercise daily, and get yourself into amazing health!" and every year I last maybe 5 days, and then I fall into my bad habits again. This year started out much the same way. I try to eat healthy foods, but I eventually find them boring and tasteless. I try to be healthy and drink water, but it too gets boring and tasteless. It is just so much easier to give in to the temptation of having a nice juicy hamburger than to eat healthy. This changed a bit this year when I was asked to review Joyous Health by Joy McCarthy.

At first I thought this health cookbook was going to be very similar to the other health cookbooks I had, creating this dishes that looked amazing in the pages of a book, but tasted like cardboard. I flipped through the pages of the book and found some dishes that sounded good, but I was a little hesitant on making any of them. Finally, I was having a girls night and I decided I was just going to make two things out of the book and see if my friends could tell that it was healthy.

Before I get into what I made, I want to explain a little about the book. The beginning of the book talks about "the path to joyous health", how to get your "gut on track", various foods, supplements and habits that will lead to a joyous mood, the "joyous detox solutions", "superfoods and healthy lifestyle habits", and how to create a joyous kitchen. Each of these sections has various tips, tricks, and hints that help you to get to Joyous Health so that you can eat and live well without dieting. One of the tips I started to do was drinking a glass of lemon and water each morning. Joy states that doing this helps to cleanse the body and it helps to get you glowing. I've been doing this since I got the book and although I haven't noticed a significant difference, I feel good, so I am definitely going to keep doing this.

Be sure to go through the entire front section before the recipes, not only to pick up as many tips as you can, but also because there are recipes at the end of the chapters.

I really enjoyed reading Chapter 5- Superfoods and Healthy Lifestyle Habits for Joyous Health. I discussed what superfoods were and listed the top 12 superfoods. It then went into further detail about the different superfoods and how you can enjoy them. Another thing I really liked about the book were the Joyous Tips that are scattered throughout.

For girls night I needed two dishes that weren't going to be over the top to make and that were also going to be tasty. I finally settled on Beet Goat Cheese Dip and Chia Black Bean Brownies- my friends and I love goat cheese and lot chocolate, so I figured these two were good choices.

The Beet Goat Cheese Dip is made with beets, goat cheese, salt, and garlic. The actual recipe only calls for 1 clove of garlic, but my friends and I are addicted to garlic so I added in 3 cloves. The dip was so delicious. It comes with an Almond Flour Rosemary Cracker recipe, but I unfortunately didn't have time to make them. Instead I served the dip with crackers I had. If you like beets in any form you should definitely try out this recipe. The dip is creamy and is packed with flavor- you'd think that it was actually bad for you.

 

The Chia Black Bean Brownies were also really good. I didn't tell my friends that there were Black Beans in them and they ate them and really enjoyed them. I know my husband doesn't like dark chocolate so instead of using the dark chocolate chips (which are obviously healthier) I used semisweet chocolate chips instead. It turned out really well. I also goofed a little in the baking of them because we just got a new oven so I accidently turned it off when I thought I was just shutting off the timer, but it didn't affect them too badly.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It gave some really good tips to leading a healthier life that aren't that hard to actually do. It also had some really tasty recipes that were easy. I am definitely looking forward to doing more cooking from this book. I highly recommend you pick up a copy yourself and give it a try!

I give this book

 out of