Cooking in Pajamas

1.5 c. Extra virgin olive oil 1/2 c. Wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar 2 tbsp Sugar 1 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Ground pepper 2 tbsp Tomato paste 2 tbsp Chinese garlic chili sauce 1/2 c. Parmesan or Romano cheese 1/2 tsp Oregano, dried 1 Sweet pepper, sliced 1/2 Onion, medium size, sliced Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Puree to desired consistency. Salad dressing can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 month. Serve with your favourite salad. (This dressing has a thicker consistency when it's cold. If you want it to be more liquidy, warm the dressing up to room temperature before serving.) My comments: This is my favourite salad dressing. It's healthy because there are no preservative. It's tastey because it uses all fresh ingredients. You can adjust the amount of spices to your own taste and it keeps very well in the fridge. I shared this recipe with a few of my friends and they all love it. The original recipe on Epicurious called for ...

1/2 c. Fresh raspberries 2-3 tsp Sugar Juice from 1/4 of a lemon Mash the raspberries with a fork. Add sugar and lemon juice to taste. This raspberry coulis is delicious with a slice of citrus pound cake . It can be stored for 3 days in the refrigerator. My comments: Raspberries were on sale this week and I bought 3 half-pint boxes. Unfortunately, the quality of these berries were poor and I already had to throw away one box because of mold. I needed to use up my raspberries very quickly or the rest of them will go to waste as well. Since I was making a pound cake for dessert anyway, I thought a raspberry sauce would go very nicely it! I found this raspberry coulis recipe on Epicurious . I was only making a small amount of sauce so I couldn't use my blender. I don't own a small handheld one nor do I have any sieve at home. Therefore, I decided to skip to purée part and make a "chunky" version of it. Also, I had just washed all the bakeware I used for the po...

I usually like to post the recipe first and then make my comments. However, I got this squash soup recipe from Leslie on her food blog and the soup turned out so well every time that I wouldn't change a thing. I've made this squash soup several times and it turned out absolutely delicious every single time. All my guests loved the soup and this is definitely a keeper in my recipe book. For this reason, I want to keep a copy of the recipe on my own blog which I often refer to when I re-make these dishes. 6 lbs Buttercup squash 4 tbsp Olive oil 2 tbsp (1/4 stick) Butter, unsalted 2-3 Onions, chopped 2 Cinnamon sticks, broken in half 2 Bay leaves, broken in half 1 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Ground black pepper 1.2 L Chicken stock (or vegetable stock) 1/2 c. Brandy 1 can (375 mL) Evaporated milk, fat free Brown sugar (to taste) 1/4 c. Sour cream, fat free 1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon Dash of Ground cumin Take 4 medium size butternut squashes , wash them and cut in half, lengthwise. Scoop o...