You might be an overly poshy food blogger when, whilst making deviled eggs during a global pandemic, you think “oooh, I may have stashed smoked salmon in the freezer for an emergency!”
For the record, there is no such thing as a smoked salmon emergency. Ever. No matter how delish it is.
But, the deviled eggs are yummy. And my chives survived the winter.
Ever since I’ve been back from Quebec, I’ve been on a little bit of a kick to find more French Canadian foods that I like. I wanted to make a tourtiere, which I have done before with mixed results and when doing research, I found there are about as many recipes for tourtiere as there are people in the entire province of Quebec, so I just went with my own. The one pictured is actually only a half-recipe one because I am a singleton. The recipe is for a full-sized one though. My flavor profile is traditional meat-pie filling with ground beef and some veg and gravy, and the spices lean to the pepper and paprika side of things. I did find some recipes with cinnamon and clove but that isn’t my thing for meat pies. Happy with the result and *really* happy on how flaky the crust came out.
Here is another “Superbowl Weekend” food adventure: Hot Wings! Did you know that Americans eat 1.6 BILLION chicken wings on average, on Superbowl weekend? Crazy, right? These are with a homemade Berbere paste, which is an Ethiopian spice. Plus roasted peppers, onions, garlic and other spices. The wing sauce from that has a little bit of honey in it, so while they are spicy, they aren’t “blow your head off” spicy. The paste can also be used for meats (beef, pork, chicken or even fish) or a little bit could be put in a vinaigrette. Pleased with the result!
It’s Superbowl Sunday Weekend, so one of the very “traditional” things to make is Chili. This year, I am actually entering my chili in a Chili Cook off — first time that I have ever entered a “good contest” of any sort. I decided against a ground beef (hamburger style) Chili and instead minced 5 pounds a chuck beef myself (ok, I cheated by using the food processor). Lots of variations of peppers/chilis and my not-so-secret ingredient (espresso powder). It’s got a great, building heat and isn’t too overpowering. While I don’t think that it will win or even place, I am happy that I endeavored to make it. Yum.