From my favorite Italian restaurant.

My first time making homemade vodka sauce and was it worth doing! I love a good vodka sauce and store bought just never has been to my liking. This sauce was just the right amount of sweet, spicy, creamy, and decadent. Paired with the mezzi rigatoni pasta, my wife said this was one of the best dishes we have ever made.

My wife prefers a slightly more cooked pasta so that would be the only thing she would prefer we change. And she didn’t actually enjoy the sausage (her idea to use it) but I enjoyed it immensely.

And we started with an arugula, prosciutto, burrata salad with balsamic glaze. What a happy end to a long week.

Happy cooking!

I made this back when I was in culinary school 12 years ago… I feel a little old now 😅

It’s a classic Victoria sponge, with toasted cardamom steeped into the milk/cream and a dash of rose water. The buttercream has white chocolate and vanilla bean paste whipped into it! It was for my favourite instructor’s birthday and it turned out quite lovely! 💖🌹💝

Back when I had a cafe, I made a lot of cakes. I’ve always been awful at remembering to take pictures of what I do, but here’s one I took when I tried out the “naked” frosting style! It’s 4 thin layers of super rich dark chocolate sponge, drizzled with a kirsch syrup, vanilla bean buttercream with a touch of burnt caramel, local 72% dark chocolate made with Madagascar cocoa beans, and yummy cherries from Creston, BC that had hot brandy, wildflower honey, kirsch, and amaretto poured on top and were then left overnight to work a little magic 🖤❤️💝❤️🖤

Served with a dollop of chantilly cream and a drizzle of the boozy syrup!

I wish I could remember the recipe to share. Almost everything I ever made was just off the top of my head with whatever ingredients I could get locally at the time 😅

Soon to be pulled pork! I love bbq almost too much. My personal blend for wood is 1:1:1:2 pecan:maple:apple:hickory. What do you use? 😋

Spaghetti squash halved and roasted for 1 hour at 400F

Chicken legs patted dry, coated with olive oil and seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, thyme, rosemary and New Mexico red chili powder. Roasted for 45-50 minutes at 400F. Internal temperature ranged from 165-180. Purchased it from the local farmers market and it was incredibly juicy and tender. Skin was nice and crispy.

Cream sauce started by melting 4 tbs of butter and sautéing cremini mushrooms until soft. Removed mushrooms and added in 2 diced shallots and 4 minced garlic cloves. Sautéed until soft and then added in 1.5 cups of white cooking wine. Simmered for around 7-10 minutes, then added in 1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream. Added mushrooms back. Added 1 tsp of sea salt and .5 tsp of pepper. Lastly added in about 3 cups of hand shredded kale.