... more of my favourite things!

Food is such an amazing journey, and lately I've been experimenting and discovering many new things in the kitchen! 

Last night I made my first rack of lamb, I was terrified but kept it simple and boy was it such a hit! All I remember hearing chef Ramsay's voice in my head and trying to avoid those mistakes that I've seen too many times on Hell's kitchen. The picture of him grabbing a flimsy lamb chop and throwing it around or asking "Come here! What is this?"  was playing over and over in my mind.   

Lately another favourite food of mine is Lebnah,with all that leftover yogurt in my fridge from Ramadan I whipped up a huge batch!  During ramadan yogurt was on sale and in the flyer almost every week so I stocked up and would prepare a yogurt drink of creamy plain balkan style yogurt mixed with water and seasoned with a sprinkling of salt.  This was the perfect drink to enjoy with a delicious date at sunset when we break the fast. 

If you want to prepare your own lebneh then head over to my other posts on the subject, here 

The perfect accompaniment with lebneh is a nice generous drizzle of good olive oil and every day of this week I've used a different (plain) olive oil from Olive That! ... Tunisian, Spanish, Mission... What an amazing canvas to showcase the olive oils.  All you need is a sweet mint tea, a piece of fresh bread for dipping and some nice juicy watermelon.  This is is my ideal breakfast and it reminds me of my childhood back in the Middle East.

A couple of weekends ago I also got lucky and found myself a frozen free range organic turkey at the most amazing price! Being the impulsive person I can be I put my money down and walked out of the store with a box of two huge frozen turkeys... one I've thawed immediately for the weekend and the other I stashed in my freezer for the coming Eid celebration which falls practically around the same time as this year's Canadian Thanksgiving!

First time I've grilled an entire turkey on the BBQ but it was delicious, I really love the taste of turkey and these organic ones are not dry at all, especially if you brine them beforehand. 

A couple of stuffed zucchinis I made back in Ramadan.  These zucchini boats were stuffed with a spiced ground beef (you could do lamb) and then smothered in a creamy bechamel sauce with a bit of cheese.  Baked to perfection! 

Balsamic fruits are another easy dessert idea, and if you're in Ontario I highly recommend heading over to Olive That not only their selection of fabulous and fresh olive oils but also their flavoured balsamics.  I picked up a big bottle of 18 year old balsamic vinegar and love adding it to fruit. Strawberries and cherries roasted in the oven with a splash of balsamic is so perfect to have around when you want to top ice cream or  pretty much any dessert!