GAZPACHO SHOOTERS

Super quick and easy Gazpacho shooters are a great treat to serve for gatherings where you are serving hors douvres and nibblers. I was roasting some peppers for another dish and decided to add the juices left in the roasting pan into the Gazpacho.

I just added the ingredients straight into this Mexican pitcher and chilled it down in the fridge. One dish cooking at its best!

First I add in the pepper juices.

Then prepare the rest of the ingredients. I used tomato, scallion, cucumber,roasted red pepper, garlic, shallot, V8 Juice, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, cumin, lime juice, cilantro, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Here I show the finely diced tomato, cucumber, roasted red pepper and scallion.

Add all of the ingredients into the pitcher and chill. It's that easy!

Serve in shooter glasses with a little sour cream, lime wedged and chopped chives. Slam dunk...it was a hit!

Gaspacho is a great vegetarian option for your guests and can be spiked with a drizzle of Tequilla, Vodka or Gin to make it a bit more sassy!

APPLE CRISP FOR MY CHILDREN

This post is primarily for my kids to look in on whenever they want to make apple crisp. It's one of their favorite desserts and they love the way I make it. To be honest, I don't have a recipe, just a process so I made this one for them and tracked the amounts. Well, kinda!

Peel and core 16 Granny Smith apples. Use Grannys because they stay firm and hold their shape after being baked unlike many other apples.

Slice apples into bite sized wedges into a mixing bowl.

Add 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp vanilla extract and the juice of one lemon. Mix thoroughly.

Add one cup of raisins and mix thoroughly.

Transfer apple mixture to a baking dish. I used a 12" x 12" pan.

For the crumble topping, combine 2 cups of quick cooking oats with 1 cup of flour. Mix well. Add 1 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt and mix well again. Add 1/2 lb of soft butter and knead into the dry mixture well.

Spread crumble mixture evenly over the apples in the pan and bake @ 350 degrees for about one hour.

Serve with French vanilla ice cream or Creme Anglaise.

A WEDDING TASTING......

Last week I did a wedding tasting for a bride whose wedding I catered a couple of days ago. Here are the plates

This is a salad of tropical fruits which includes banana, mango, papaya and kiwi. A creamy dressing made of coconut milk was served over top with toasted coconut as a garnish. Simple, light and refreshing for a summer wedding with an Island theme.

Steak was on the menu as a man course so we gave them a chili and sea salt rub and basted them with lime juice on the grill.

Salmon baked in phylo pastry is served with black bean and corn salsa and is sauced with citrus beurre blanc.

Seared breast of chicken is served with coconut rundown, a sauce which is made of coconut milk, cream and other ingredients and is reduced to a sweet cream sauce.

And dessert consisted of chocolate torte with mango sorbet.

PELEE ISLAND WINERY - GEWURZTRAMINER RESERVE

I have been drinking Pelee Island Gewurztraminer for months now, so I guess I must like it, huh? Well...I do because I find it to be a nice, fruity Gewurztraminer that is sweet enough and has just the right amount of zing on the end to make my mouth go "Wow!"

I like that!!

Pelee is the first Ontario wine I tried when I moved back to Toronto from the Okanagan, so it kind of has a special place in my heart. Isn't that nice? The fact is that I find it to be reasonably priced, highly enjoyable and an excellent wine for daily drinking.

Here I have tried the 2006 Reserve which I find just a little smoother than the regular Gewurztraminer. It is a nice fruity wine (just how I like them) with a hint of lychee and spice (as it should) and was easy to drink. The cost was under $15.00 at the LCBO.

I hope to visit this winery one day; it looks fantastic and I have got to see Pelee Island. Here's a link to Pelee's website: http://www.peleeisland.com/

If you haven't tried Pelee Island, get on it!

A GREAT WINE - FETZER VINEYARDS MERLOT

Well...I must say...it sure is nice when you find a wine that does it for you. And, for us, this is such a one!! FETZER VINEYARDS Merlot is simply fantastic and I highly recommend it to everyone.

This is a medium bodied wine with rich fruity flavors and a low tannin level. It is very smooth with plum and cherry notes. For me this is the perfect combination for my personal tastes. Actually, I have been drinking a lot of red Zinfandels lately and this Merlot has me thinking I may go off my Zin binge.

This wine is available @ the LCBO for $15.00 and I think it's nice for the price!!

FETZER is a California winery that has a pretty good selection of wines. For me the Merlot is a first, although Lola assures me we had the FETZER Zinfandel which we didn't care for. I can't remember.

Here is a link to FETZER'S web page: http://www.fetzer.com/fetzer/home.aspx

GAUCHO'S REVISITED

Do you ever have those nights when you come home after work and before you know it it's 8pm and you still haven't eaten and you don't feel like cooking? We all do. Last night was such an evening for us. Because we wanted to eat somewhere close by, we decided to hit Gaucho's because we know the food is good and that we would be happy afterwards.

I did a write up on Gaucho's a while ago, but I decided to take a few shots of the food we had last night. Here's a link to the write up I did on LIVINGSTON COOKS:

http://livingstoncooks.blogspot.com/2008/03/gaucho-bbq-restaurant.html

Above is the Picanha. What that is is marinated steak that is grilled. Gaucho's serves Picanha with sausage, rice, beans, fried manioc (flour) and cassava. It's a good portion of food if you're hungry and it costs a paltry $15.00!

Another shot of the same plate. Can you say, "Picanha?"

This is the crisp fried cassava which is served in place of fried potatoes. It is very goooood!

This is the manioc. It is a fried flour which is milled from....manioc! It's buttery and good!

Pepper, onion and tomato relish.

This is the spit roasted chicken served with fries.

Lola's favorite carrot salad made with pineapple and coconut.

These are the fries! Keep your eyes on your fries!!As usual, dinner was good and we were happy as usual. Thanks guys!!

CHRISTIAN MOUEIX MERLOT

We tried this Merlot last night by Christian Moueix. It is a French Merlot from Bordeaux. My first impression of the wine was that it was so-so. It didn't grab me at first sip, which is how I judge a wine. I don't want to have to think about it because after all it's just wine, right? But after a few sips (and perhaps a bit of time to open up in the glass) it tasted better. After a bite of some great Irish blue cheese, it tasted even better still.

I found this wine to be a little light in body, dry and peppery on the finish. My personal preference is to shy away from peppery wines, so I won't let that taint my perception of the wine. The fruit was more subtle than I like as well, but again, I like a fruitier tasting wine.

I did think that the wine was easy drinking and smooth and that I would like to try it again. I would recommend trying this Merlot.

Toronto life said of this wine: " This is a well-made Bordeaux merlot. A bit reserved but correct plum, cherry, spice and a herbal, tobacco scent. Mid-weight with good acidity and youthful, dry tannin."

Christian Moueix 2005 Merlot sells for $15.00 at the LCBO.