guacamole....

This is a great dip with raw veggies - double it for a good, party-food appetizer!
Guacamole
1 avocado. Cut in half, take out pit and discard.
Using paring knife, cut down into each half to slice through into a 1/8 inch cross hatch pattern to make a fine dice. Use tablespoon around edge to scoop out.
Mash lightly or not as desired - I like it still chunky.
2-3 shallots, finely minced about 3 Tbsp
1 tsp salt
9-10 grape tomatoes, finely sliced.
1 tsp tabasco (or to taste)
2 tsp fresh lime juice (half a lime)
Mush together and mix well.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate or serve immediately!
Great with fresh veggies or crackers. 

Tip: to ripen avocado, place in closed, brown paper bag for a day or two or three, depending on how hard it was...

To get more juice out of a lime, slice it lengthwise, end to end, in half and then in quarters, same way. Squeezing end to end is easier and you can get every drop!

Egg baked in tomato sauce plus...

I took my niece Wendy to lunch for her birthday a few weeks back. We ended up at the 'Nook' on Bay Street. I had been there once before with Danny and he had the 'baked eggs' and raved about them - he actually bought a couple of small clay pans to try recreate the dish at home. When he's cooking I try not to bother him. His result was good but very spicy - I don't mind a bit of spice but I do like to taste the rest of the stuff...anyway,  both Wendy and I ordered the baked eggs and half way through, Wendy looked at me, grinned her beautiful, dimpled smile and said, 'I would love to have this recipe.' 
Here is my version, Danny approved!
Baked Egg in Tomato                              
feeds 2 hungry people, anytime - great for brunch, lunch or supper!
3 spicy Italian pork sausages
6-7 small yellow potatoes, sliced 1/4 inch.
1 medium onion (red, sweet, whatever you have), chopped medium dice (1/4 in.)
1 tsp kosher salt
8 oz tomato puree (or MAO's homemade roasted tomatoes)
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 C chicken stock
In 9 inch skillet, cook sausages to browned on all sides - don't need to be cooked through. Remove and set aside - when cooled slightly, slice into 1/4 in. coins.
In same pan, sauté chopped onions until softened (sprinkle with the kosher salt part way through). Add sliced potatoes, tomatoes and remaining ingredients, not sausage. Let simmer 30 min to 1 hr. If you want to speed this up, parboil potatoes.
Add sliced sausage and mix to coat. Bring all to low simmer.
Preheat oven to 400F.
Place half of mixture in serving size pot or bowl. Make well in centre, leaving a small amount of tomato sauce in base. Crack egg(s) into hole.  
Put into oven for  10-12 min, just till you see egg whites slightly cooked. Don't wait too long, they finish off quickly and you want the yolk still runny at serving!
Sprinkle grated parmesan or asiago cheese on top and cook another 3-4 min just to melt cheese. Remove and add a bit of chopped parsley to make it look nice.
Make sure to have some toast or crostini!
I'm going to the market this weekend to see if they have any duck eggs - yum!



Here's my favourite Wendy-birthday photo from January 22, 1977 - it's her 5th birthday and cousin Rory is there, lending moral support, maybe?


Nope, looks like he had to make sure the job got done!

Chocolate Lava Cakes

(Rhiana's favourite dessert)
My almost-9-yr-old granddaughter FaceTime-d me the other day and asked if her family could come over for dinner 'if' I was making lava cakes for dessert because that was her favourite - LOL! Of course, I said yes!

slightly overdone

what you want

I first got the recipe for lava cakes from my friend Candy from California back in 2006. I had never heard of it/them but it was apparently all the rage in restaurants. Her recipe was quite good because they turned out first time with no problem but I always have to tweak things a bit. The biggest thing about lava cake is to not overcook them, because they are like a little chocolate muffin that is cake-like on the outside but still molten, lava-like, gooey in the centre. I made them for a while and then, you know how things go, something new comes along and you kind of forget and the recipe gets filed to the back of the box. Last fall, when I was looking for a simple chocolate dessert, I revived lava cake and wow, what a success - it became everyone's favourite! I came up with a gluten-free version - totally easy because there is so little flour in it and I even did a dairy-free, GF one that worked using coconut oil instead of the butter. The great thing is you can make it in the morning and leave it in the fridge all day, just ready to fill the muffin tins and pop in the oven just before you want to serve dessert.
Chocolate Lava Cakes                                         
Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Generously butter 5 to 6 regular muffin tin cups. Dust with cocoa powder and shake out excess.
In small bowl, place
6 oz (3/4 C) bittersweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp butter
Melt in ‘mike’ on med power (don't go full power because it will burn the chocolate) for a minute or two and stir to blend and melt chips. Whisk in
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp espresso powder (or instant coffee powder) (my secret ingredient - this really pumps up the volume of chocolate flavour and takes some of the sweetness down a bit)
Let cool slightly.
In medium mixing bowl, sift
1/4 C sugar - white (actually a little less)
1/4 tsp table salt
1.5 tbsp white flour - (for gluten free version, substitute King Arthur GF mix  or brown rice, tapioca and white rice flours - .5 tbsp each and 1/4 tsp xantham gum)
Add in the chocolate mixture  to this and using hand mixer, beat to combine. Add

uncooked, ready for oven

2 eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each egg before adding another - Beat at high speed for 4 min. Chill mixture. Can be made ahead to this point and left in fridge for 1 to 8 hrs.
Spoon very stiff mixture into muffin tins trying to keep them same size - I get 6 half full muffin tins - don't worry about shape or smoothing out - the heat of the oven will take care of that - just try to get them close to the same size.
Bake 11-12 min. Remove and serve immediately. Run knife blade around edge and quickly flip into dessert bowl, on top of softened ice cream!

NOTE: When Rhiana is coming, double the recipe, to make 10-12 muffins because leftovers can be taken home and re-heated in the microwave for 30 seconds and they are apparently just as good as fresh out of the oven!

Note: my cookware is not funded by the Food network - this muffin tin (I have 6 of them) is 45 years old! And still works great! I have a newer 12-hole one, but I use the 6s for this recipe because it is easier to handle and get them out of the smaller tins!