Link Love – Happy Friday!

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Happy Friday! I hope you all had a fantastic week. Mine was great – filled with excellent live music and meeting lots of new people. On Tuesday, I went to see one of my favourite bands – Hey Ocean! They are an energetic and insanely talented band from British Colombia. Their new single Big Blue Wave is beyond catchy. Be sure to check it out :) Wednesday, I attended the first Manitoba Food Bloggers meet & greet. I met some wonderful people including Elaina from Flavour Food & Wine and Natasha from VIMWAC (Vegetarian in Winnipeg Without A Clue). Be sure to check out their blogs for fantastic recipes and photography.


Also this week, I discovered that a truly lovely individual nominated The Fig Tree for a Homie for best food photography on a blog. I want to thank this person – you made my week! I also want to thank everyone who voted for me. I believe voting ends at midnight tonight. So, if you have a moment & the inclination, please vote for me here. 

And finally, this week I would like to share a blog I’ve been loving lately. Allison at Live It.Love It. Blog It recently went to Antarctica and blogged about all of her adventures whilst there. I enjoyed reading about her trip so much. The photos are beyond stunning and her stories so full of passion and energy. Her posts on all her travels are truly inspiring. Reading about her tales of 10 days in the Antarctic has made me reconsider the dreams I had written off as impossible or improbable. I also really love reading her updates on her “30 Before 30” list. I love reading about other people’s goals & the progress they are making. Be sure to check out her posts on her trip to Antarctica. You will not be disappointed! She got to play with baby penguins in the wild. Enough said! :)  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! What are your plans? I’ll be back on Sunday with a post on a delicious blueberry almond tart I made this past week. 

Italian Green Bean Casserole

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Tonight, I attended the first Manitoba Food Bloggers event at Elements Restaurant. It was a great time! I got to meet some wonderful local bloggers I had already been chatting with online. And I got to meet a lot of new people – all of different backgrounds and reasons for blogging. We got to sample some delicious food such as sun dried tomatoes with micro arugula on parmesan crisps. Yum! And we sampled local beer from Half Pints Brewery and wine provided by The Tipsy Thief. It was a really wonderful event and I am very much looking forward to our next meeting scheduled for April.

Today, I want to share one of my very favourite recipes – Italian Green Bean Casserole. My mom makes this for me all of the time and I never get sick of it. It’s my favourite side dish. Every time my mom makes this for me, I request to take ALL of the left overs home. I’m too greedy to share this with others. It’s that tasty. Even if you are not a fan of green beans, this casserole is sure to impress.

Ingredients
  • 1.5 pounds of fresh green beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
  • 3 cups of cherry tomatoes; cut in half
  • 1/2 pound of bocconcini cheese (I use a container of bocconcini pearls)
  • 4 to 6 leaves of fresh basil
  • 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Note: I use less butter and olive oil when I make this casserole. I also use a little less bread crumbs. Add butter, olive oil and bread crumbs to your taste.

Method

1. Arrange rack on top half of the oven. Preheat oven to 375’F.

2. Put a large pot of water on to boil.

3. Add the green beans, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, uncover the beans and cook for 10 minutes on medium (until the beans are just tender).

4. Drain the green beans and then toss them with 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.

5. Cut tomatoes and cheese into bite size pieces. Chop the basil.

6. Add the tomatoes, cheese and basil to the cooled beans. Drizzle the mixture with oil and remaining salt. Toss to combine.

7. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of bread crumbs into the bean mixture and toss. Place mixture in a casserole dish. 

8. Mix the remaining bread crumbs with the parmesan cheese. Sprinkle the mixture a top the casserole.

9. Cut the butter into pieces and sprinkle on top of the bread crumbs. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the casserole dish and then bake another 10 minutes. The casserole is ready once the top is golden brown. If the top is not browning, bake for another 5 minutes at 400’F.

Source: my mom;  original recipe source unknown

Chocolat Peanut Butter Fun Cake

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And now for something completely unhealthy…but very much worth it if you can schedule in a “cheat day”. The chocolate cake is incredibly moist and may become my go-to recipe for chocolate cake. First of all, it’s a one-bowl batter cake recipe. Love those! Saves on cleaning many dishes! Also, this cake does not use any eggs. Once in a while I will use eggs when baking, but on average, I like to stick to recipes without eggs. They always give me tummy aches – therefore, we are not friends. *hah* The peanut butter icing was also very simple and had a ton of delicious peanut-buttery flavour. I brought this cake to my book club meeting on Wednesday, and I believe everyone really enjoyed it. I found this cake to be extremely rich, and therefore, definitely needs to be enjoyed with a mug of tea or coffee. This cake was a really delicious treat and I’ll definitely make it again sooner than later :)

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Mine was quite busy, but a lot of fun. I got to see some friends for dinner on Friday and I got a lovely surprise phone call from one of my besties in Vancouver. Saturday, I checked out our local winter festival (Festival du Voyageur) with some friends. Today was a lot of cleaning & cooking. I have a blueberry almond tart in the oven as I type. Smells delicious!

Cake Ingredients

  • 1 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 3/4 cup of natural unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/4 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup of finely chopped semisweet chocolate (3.5 ounces)

Frosting Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter (or Earth’s Balance vegan butter)
  • 2 cups of icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar
  • 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup of chopped semisweet chocolate (1.5 ounces)

Method


1. Preheat oven to 350’F. Coat the bottom and the sides of an 8 x 8 pan with non stick spray; line the bottom with parchment paper. 


2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Add oil, vanilla, and 1 and 1/4 cups of water. Whisk until smooth. Fold in the 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate.


3. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 35 minutes). Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before icing the cake.


Note: If you don’t want to ice the cake the same day, make sure to wrap the cake in plastic wrap and then tightly with some tin foil. Leave on the counter for up to a day. I find this really keeps the cake moist.


4. For the frosting, beat the butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter and beat until well incorporated. Add the salt and vanilla; beat for another minute. Add the icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time until all of the icing sugar is well incorporated & you have a nice smooth, fluffy icing.


5. Frost the cooled cake and top with 1/4 cup of chopped semisweet chocolate. You can also garnish with chopped peanuts.


Serves: 16 


Source: adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine – March edition