Pear and Blood Orange Salad

One blood orange - peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

One mini cucumber - scraped and sliced

One Bosc pear - cored and sliced

Three green onions - white and some green bits - sliced

Three or four handfuls of salad mix - we used the one with herbs

Renee's Pear and Blue Cheese salad dressing

Next time I am going to add some lightly toasted, chopped pecans or some crumbled blue cheese or some fresh, crispy fennel ...

As it was, it was deeee-lish!!!!

The salad served two - but with some left over.

It will go with the fresh basil/Compari tomato/mushroom/3 cheese pizza from last night's dinner.

Banana Cake with Broiled Caramel Topping (Neighbour Cake)

This recipe is from The Complete Harrowsmith Cookbook (Best Ever Banana Cake.) Our neighbour, who otherwise eschews sweets, likes it so much we now call it Neighbour Cake.

INGREDIENTS:

Cake
1/2 C Butter
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 C (plus) mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C buttermilk

Caramel Topping (This is 1.5 times the amount called for in the original recipe.)
1/2 C chopped pecans (or shredded coconut)
4 1/2 Tbsp melted butter (no substitutions)
3/4 C brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and white sugar together, then beat in eggs, bananas and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Bake in greased and floured 9"x9" pan at 350 F for 50 to 60 minutes. (I check it after 40 minutes - it's usually done, maybe because I often bake it in two smaller foil pans.) I once got this far reading one of my aunt's recipes where it said, "Remove from oven."Your call.

Meanwhile, combine topping ingredients. Spread over warm cake in pan and brown under broiler until bubbling. If you think you might start clean-up while the cake is under the broiler, I would advise against it. The nuts can burn very, very quickly. Besides, it's kind of fun to watch those bubbles appear. I've made this countless times and I can attest that the longer you can broil it without burning, the better. I keep rotating and moving the pan around for a couple of minutes, watching the nuts for signs of burning with an eagle eye. Eagle eye not included in recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

These muffins taste best when prepared barefoot on a sunny Sunday afternoon in February, windows open to let in the unseasonably warm air, while you are singing Mozart and Handel arias at the top of your lungs, scaring your cats and disturbing the neighbours. But you can alter the recipe as you see fit.

I got this recipe from Epicurious.com, my new favourite iPhone app, but you can also visit the website: www.epicurious.com.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (I substituted a bit of whole wheat flour)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 or 4 medium)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used smooth and added a handful of crushed roasted almonds and cashews)
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I don't use vegetable oil so I added 1/4 cup of olive oil instead; I figured the peanut butter would have enough oil in it)
  
• 1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar and it was fine)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin papers. Sift first 4 ingredients into a small bowl to blend and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat bananas, honey, peanut butter, eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla to blend. Beat in flour mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack; cool. Makes 12 large muffins, or 24 small-ish muffins which fit into mason jars and look super cute on the kitchen counter.

Enjoy!

New Year's Eve Baked Seafood Fettucine

Watch this space. Recipe soon and photos to be organized!

Scalloped Creamy Corny Potatoes

After all that rich, buttery, creamy food at Christmas and on New Year's Eve and Day, what better way to go than to continue that diet for one more day?

We invited our friends George and Marjorie for a long-overdue visit and dinner. Baked ham was on the menu, so naturally I had to make scalloped potatoes to go with it. After reading a few recipes on the internet and imagining the flavour I wanted to create, I came up with this:

6 medium potatoes - peeled and thinly sliced - I used a mix of Russets and Yukon Gold

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground Chipolte Pepper

fresh ground black pepper

2 1/2 c milk (or cream!)

1 finely-chopped small onion

1 clove minced garlic

1 1/2 c frozen corn

1 c grated cheese

Preheat oven to 325 deg. F

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat; blend in flour, garlic and spices; stir until smooth then gradually blend in the milk or cream and boil and stir for about a minute.

Arrange 1/3 of the potatoes in a greased skillet; add 1/3 of the onions, corn and sauce. Repeat two more times. Sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Cover and bake until the potatoes are tender - about one hour. Remove the cover and broil the cheese until crispy, cheesy, bubby! Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.