Only the Dads and the children were supposed to cook for the Mother’s Day potluck hosted by one of our family friends. Thus, I offered to make a Red Grapefruit Chiffon Cake, a recipe requested by my Mum.

It was my first time experimenting with chiffon cake, noted for its light and airy quality, so when I ended up with some yolk in my egg whites, I was worried that it wouldn’t turn out. The final product seemed alright, albeit was a tad on the dry side. It would have been better served with a dollop of whipped cream and berries of some kind, in my opinion.

Inspired by the version made by Pizzeria Prego, Mack and I decided to try our hand at making a breakfast pizza, customizing it to our tastes.

Using a Giada de Laurentiis pizza dough recipe from the March 2007 edition of Bon Appetit, we had to wait an hour for the dough to rise. That gave us more than enough time to prepare our toppings – shredding mozzarella cheese, dicing tomatoes, slicing mushrooms, microwaving bacon, and scrambling eggs.

After kneading and forming the dough into a circle (okay, it turned out more like a heart), we piled on our toppings. We waited the recommended fifteen minutes, and took out our creation. It wasn’t bad, but for next time, I’d make sure the bacon was extra crispy (there is no opportunity for it to crisp up under the layers of additions), undercook the eggs slightly (they, on the other hand, would continue to cook in the oven), and to add the basil after the pizza is out of the oven. Cheddar would have also been a better cheese to pair with the smoky bacon.

In the end, though the idea of a breakfast pizza makes a great and unusual dinner (or brunch) dish, the execution never seems to do the individual items justice – this is one example where the sum isn’t greater than the parts.

I had spied an interesting recipe in the April/May edition of Taste of Home for Lemon Crumb Muffins, and thought they would make an ideal treat for my coworkers.

I started the recipe a little later than I originally intended, but with my Mum’s help, was able to get them in and out of the oven just after midnight. The crumb portion of the recipe didn’t work out (was I supposed to use brown and not granulated sugar?), so I ended up omitting the topping all together. The muffins came out a little paler than I was expecting, and not as lemony as I wanted however, so I’m not sure I’d make them again. My coworkers didn’t seem to mind the imperfections though!

Like picking the perfect restaurant for a special occasion, I agonized in a similar manner over what dish I should make for a dinner Mack’s Grandma was hosting.

Desserts to be served with berries (zabliogne, trifle) were out of the question due to the fruit being out of season, and heavier choices (chocolate cake) wouldn’t have paired well with the healthy salmon she was serving as a main course.

As a last resort, I browsed the Food Network Canada site (much more quick scan-friendly than the American version, in my opinion), and came across Anna Olson’s recipe for Apple Cranberry Crisp. It seemed the perfect spring dessert – warm, rustic, and light.

Using frozen cranberries and Granny Smith apples (Mack had fun with the apple corer), it was a cinch to pull together. We placed the fruit in a glass baking dish, topped it with the crumble, and snapped on a lid to transport it to Grandma Male’s house. We had to borrow her oven to heat it up, but the timing worked superbly; it finished baking in the time it took us to dine on the main dish.

We ended up serving the crisp with a scoop of Smarties ice cream (only $1 at Superstore’s “Dollar Days”!) instead of the vanilla we bought and absentmindedly left at my house, but the chocolate added some nice sweetness. The apples were lovely – warmed through and softened somewhat, accented with bursts of cranberry freshness and a citrus note reminiscent of summer days.

I highly recommend this dessert – it would be ideal served on an outdoor patio in the spring.

Though I typically try to bring either an appetizer or a main to potlucks, I thought if there was ever an occasion to break that rule, our lunch gathering at work on Wednesday was one such day.

Having experienced the sublime richness of a flourless chocolate torte at Culina last week, I was decidedly focused on recreating that cake with a Tyler Florence recipe. I had meant to pick up a jar of dulce de leche topping at Superstore, but ended up substituting whipped cream instead.

For anyone with high cholesterol, I would recommend staying far away from this cake – 9 separated eggs later, we were halfway to completion. Mack helped me whip the egg whites into stiff peaks while I melted the semi-sweet baking chocolate and butter over a double boiler. Unfortunately, a lack of instruction reading on my part meant that we ended up folding the chocolate mixture into the whites, instead of the other way around, though it didn’t result in a too-deflated cake at the end.

For whatever reason, the cake took more than double the recommended time in the oven, but seemed to turn out okay. Overall, it didn’t provide me with the Culina reminiscence I was looking for, but was a sweet treat that tasted like a cross between a chocolate cake and a brownie. The whipped cream provided some needed coolness, but I think this cake would work best chopped into pieces to top a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a sundae.

Bisquick is a life-saver.

For the second time this weekend, Mack and I turned to the dry mix to simplify a meal, this time using the off-the-box recipe for pancakes, supplementing them with a handful of chocolate chips. Mack finished his off with some sliced bananas and syrup.

Not difficult or a cooking accomplishment, Bisquick pancakes are still a great way to start off a morning!

For Jeanie and Chris’s housewarming/Jeanie’s birthday party, Mack and I made Better Butter Chicken, an Indian favorite from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry. I had helped with this recipe at May’s house last year, but for some reason, couldn’t really remember the steps involved.

I wasn’t sure if using a rotisserie chicken (as opposed to cooking raw chicken) would result in dry-tasting meat, but actually, it turned out fine. Mack did a great job de-boning the bird, flaking off large chunks of meat, while I prepped the ingredients for the base. We followed the instructions closely, with the exception of adding an entire ~750mL can of diced tomatoes. To Mack’s surprise, between the two of us, we were able to pull this recipe together in just over a half an hour.

While some of the guests complained that the dish wasn’t spicy enough, I personally prefer a milder version of butter chicken. Of course, with the ease of the recipe as a whole, it wouldn’t be difficult to incorporate chilies or more chili powder into the sauce to taste.

Thanks for inviting us to your house, Jeanie (and Chris)! And happy birthday!

Inspired by a food trend as reported in Cosmopolitan (yes, Cosmo), Mack and I decided to make Savoury Waffles for dinner.

Given that it was Friday and we were both lazy, we resorted to using Bisquick to make the waffle base. It was the first time either of us had used a waffle iron, so it took a bit of trial and error for us to know how much batter was needed for the “perfect” sized waffle (not too thin, etc.).

Once the waffles were done, we topped them with shredded turkey breast, sliced white mushrooms, and a generous handful of medium cheddar, and placed them under the broiler to melt the cheese. Five minutes later, the “pizza waffles”, as Mack called them, were done.

I chose to garnish mine with a bit of green onion, which provided a nice sharp bite, but really, any food item with that amount of cheese would taste satisfactory. Mack wanted to know how we might make the waffle portion taste less like a breakfast dish for next time, but I wasn’t sure.

The savoury waffles weren’t bad for a quick dinner fix, but they definitely weren’t the picture of healthy that we should have been going for.