Made ahead sidedish for a crowd

31 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in restuffed potatoes

Happy Saturday and happy party day!

Thanks so much to those of you who are kind enough to come here and share each week. We’re slowly building up a following thanks to you.

Our usual Saturday thing is to have friends over for dinner or go to their places instead. With small one it’s so much easier than trying to get a babysitting, the cost of the sitter…but I always want to make sure that I have enough time to actually chat with everyone and have the last minute clean-up down to the bare minimum.

What I usually do is make a big roast and then a couple of very easy side dishes. You already know from reading this blog that my favourite thing about a meal is a big horrah of a dessert at the end so everything truly needs to be maintenance free.

This is a favourite side dish around here as I’m able to make it early in the day (or even the day before) and simply reheat when everyone arrives.

Restuffed potatoes.

I start with baking one potato per person and adding a couple of extra ‘for the pot’. Here are measurements for enough filling to feed; one very hungry toddler and 6 adults.

I’ve got 1/4 cup ricotta cheese…

1 cup of sourcream, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup shredded cheddar, 1/4 cup chopped basil (or 2 tsp. dried) pepper and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg.

When my potatoes are baked I scoop out the yummy insides (add the potato flesh to your cheese mixture)and place them in a nice big baking dish that has been buttered.

Restuff the potatoes and top with another layer of cheese.

When your guest arrive reheat for 20 minutes.

I often even make extra and have these the next morning with eggs.

Equally delicious.

How was your week?
Any great plans for tonight?

Join up all of your fab ideas here. Please remember that: it’s awfully nice to follow your hosts and visit other folks.

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Photography 101: Class #2

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Hi again, it’s

I would like to thank you all for your positive feedback with my last assignment. I hope you had fun trying the tips out and ended up with some photos you will cherish.

Before I start on my next lesson, here’s another example of why you should watch what is in your background. Here’s a picture I took at my 16th Birthday party…notice anything strange? Poor Karen looks like she needs a haircut! My friends and I still laugh about this photo. ( See the girl with the white sweatshirt? That’s Janet, my model from my last post…doesn’t it look like she’s having the time of her life? :))

Today i’m going to talk about getting better pictures of children with one easy tip. Get down on their level. Instead of standing in front of them, make yourself at eye level with them and take the picture (i.e. have the camera at your subject’s eye level). I love the connection between the subject and the camera at this level…it creates a really personal feeling and eyes really pop!

For example, here is a photo I took of my kids and niece and nephew. As you can see from the camera angle, i’m standing above them. I think this photo is a lot of fun and I love that my nephew is trying to escape but….

Notice what happens with I get down to their eye level (after I get their attention by putting my lens cap in my eye and saying ARRR, i’m a pirate :))

You really notice all those beautiful eyes and smiles!

Kids are much shorter than us so don’t be afraid to get down on your hands and knees…

or even lay on the floor with them…

They don’t have to be looking at the camera or even have their eyes in the picture. For the next photo, I brought the camera down to my son’s hand level to show him building one of his lego sets…I think it tells a great story.

Just have fun with your kids at their level and you’ll get some amazing photographs! This tip works great on other subjects as well, check out these crocuses:

Hope you enjoyed this lesson! I would love to see what you come up with so feel free to upload them to the flickr group (or if you prefer, you can email me one at michelle@barbeau.net). I’ll showcase a few of my favourites in my next post.

Happy Shooting!
Michelle
xxoo

Food Waste Friday and no wasted cilantro for once C:

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in roasted squash salad

≈ 6 Comments

Grr…back to wasting milk. Small one would not drink milk this week for love nor money. Two litres of very expensive milk totally wasted. Grr…grr…part of the problem is that I can’t have regular milk so if small one doesn’t drink it I can’t really use it in our meals and still eat them.

I did however, use an entire bunch of cilantro with zero waste.

This is maybe the first time in my adult life I’ve not thrown at least part of a bunch into the compost.

Here’s where part of the bunch went.

We’ve been really heavy on the desserts this week but I think that I’m going to make up for it with this salad.

I’ve got a gorgeious buttercup squash about 9 inches in circumference ready for something fabulous.

I cut it into chunks and tossed with 1 T. of olive oil.

Roast until soft (350 for 20 minutes).

I love this salad for a lot of reasons, just one of them being I don’t have to peel my squash at all.

While you’re waiting on the roasting veg create a nice dressing of; 1/2 cup soy sauce, 2 T. sesame oil, 2 tsp. grated ginger, 2/3 cup VERY roughly chopped cilantro, 2 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. chilli garlic paste (or 1/2 tsp. crushed chilli flakes) and 3 T. rice vinegar.

Toss with the still warm squash and eat a room temperature.

Yumm…I love this dish with udon noodles for a light and quick lunch.

Mama Kats gets me to talk about coffee

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

I haven’t done one of these posts in a long time and honestly, I miss them. Just to remind you, Mama Kats comes up with amazing writing prompts each week to get you inspired.

This week’s is…

“How did your love affair with Coffee begin? (Or Diet Coke or Tea or whatever your beverage of choice might be.) (inspired by Buried With Children)”

Boy oh boy, does she know me or what?

Lent is almost over and I will soon be able to partake in my beloved coffee again.

It’s time to come clean…I’ve actually cheated three times and I’ll have to make Lent last longer for myself because of it, but still.

I’m a 10 cup of coffee (or espresso or latte or cappucino…)/day girl so maybe falling off the wagon 3x isn’t so terrible?

Cheating is still cheating though.

So how did it all begin?

When I was 17 I spent the summer as a Junior Ranger with the Ministry of Natural Resources way up North in Kirkland Lake.

We canoed, thinned trees, built culverts, cleaned campsites…all as a group of 25, 17 year old girls.

In other words we had a ball.

First time seriously away by myself.

First time away and pretending to be my own person.

The only catch was that we needed to get up VERY early every morning and it was usually cold.

The only fix?

Massive cups of coffee often taken with us to whatever job placement we had that day and later turned into ice coffee if we ever had any leftover.

The day that seriously hooked me though was the one where we were on a two week portage.

It was my day to get up and make breakfast for everyone and I meandered down to the lake just before I woke everyone up with my cup of coffee.

Rich, thick camp coffee.

I hunkered down in my work boots at the edge of the water with mist rising all around me from the cold night and the warm day colliding to share my cup with a heron that was enjoying his morning bath and a few fish that were silly enough not to stay clear of him.