Im back!

Hello!

How do I start blogging again today after months of radio silence!?!? I suppose I should start by just jumping right in to the interwebs and expressing my thoughts!

Thoughts eh? Hmmm.

I got nothing at the moment.

But I suppose I can say where Ive been these past few months. For one, I became an Auntie to the cutest little munchkin known to this planet (I cannot confirm nor deny that there are cuter beings from other galaxies). Did I mention I became more nerdy?

IMG_9428I have been working. Alot.

And I havent been in the kitchen very much. Between my working hours and my boyfriends schedule, we barely share a meal together! But that is going to change. I miss the comfort of creating a meal, sitting at the table, and just talking. As opposed to our new routine of watching jeopordy episodes while eating pizza on the couch. (Hi Ry!)

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So it begins the new chapter of my blogging life. Second year of residency, the year of being an Auntie, and hopefully much more!!!

Stone Fruit Tart

IMG_9860Welcome to the girliest food I have ever made. The pinks, and reds in this dessert are just so fun that some people might say I cant even  (Note: I am not one of those people).

I know I am a little delayed in posting this summertime recipe up on the blog, but if youre living here in Montreal then you know that these past two weeks has been more of a summer than what we had a month ago! So, I guess this recipe is sort of fitting for the weather we are having, but maybe not the produce. Sorry!

fruit tartBut hey, if you dont have good peaches around, save this recipe and keep it somewhere safe because it is one of the easiest dessert recipes youll make, and its tasty and visually stunning. Looks like youve spent HOURS making this tart, when in reality it took a couple of minutes. WIN.

fruit tart

Stone Fruit Tart

Ingredients:

  • 1 puff pastry sheet
  • 3 cups stone fruit, sliced (peach, nectarine, plum, apricot)
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • dash of salt
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

  1. Pre- heat oven to 375 degrees F. .
  2. Place puff pastry on parchment paper in an attempt to make a rectangular tart
  3. In a bowl mix together the fruit, honey, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
  4. Place puff pastry and the parchment paper on a baking sheet. Pour fruit mixture on top.
  5. Brush the puff pastry border with lightly beaten egg and sprinkle raw sugar on the edges
  6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Once baked, remove form oven and place on wire rack to cool.

Slightly adapted from Bakers Royale

Easiest Turkey Bolognese

For the past 3 months or so ive been making a couple batches per month of this turkey bolognese. Why so much you ask? For one, its super easy and then it lasts all week. Ill eat it for dinner, Ill bring it for lunch, and it gives my boyfriend another meal asides from frozen pizza or cereal to eat during the week (and keeps him from complaining that there is nothing in the fridge).

Why turkey? Its healthier, easy to make and I prefer it over ground beef. But by all means use whichever meat you prefer ground beef, pork or chicken. Or why not just add more veggies or lentils for a veggie sauce. This is really such an easy sauce to make and oh so tasty that you have no excuse to not try and make it. If youre feeling healthy, throw it over some spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles. If youre feeling like a hearty bowl of pasta to warm your sad and cold heart (winter is coming) use a big bowl of noodles. Pasta makes everything better.

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Easiest Turkey Bolognese

Ingredients:

  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 3 carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 cup of mushrooms, diced
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1 can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 tsp dried basil
  • 1/4 tsp dried parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Prepare all veggies by hand or food processor dice garlic, onion, carrots and mushrooms into small pieces.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large saucepan over medium high heat and then add diced vegetables to pot. Sauté vegetables for 5-7 minutes
  3. Add the dry white wine to vegetables, continue stirring until wine dissolves.
  4. Mix in ground meat, and stir occasionally, until meat is cooked through (about 5 minutes)
  5. Add crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes and dried basil and parsley and mix well.
  6. Add in bay leaf, and simmer sauce for 30 minutes ( less if youre short on time) stirring occasionally.
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste

adapted from The Cant Cook Cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld

Hope you enjoy!

Maine in Pictures

This year we took a mini vacation to New Hampshire and Maine our first time in that area! I enjoyed MULTIPLE lobster rolls and clam chowder which was balanced off by us walking around the cute little beach towns we visited. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the places we visited. Note how there are no food pics I devoured my meals before I could take any nice pictures of themoopsie.

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Trail Mix Cookies

These trail mix cookies have everything in them and are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. THE BEST. Heres a little story of how these cookies arrived this fall into my cozy little kitchen, I swear its interesting. Well, maybe notbut like, these cookies are awesome so you should get to the recipe.

When cookies are lying around the house I tend to find crumbs in my hair, sheets and in between couch cushions. I live with someone who inhales cookies the minute he sees them and no, he is not blue and googely eyed (at least not around me!) he is my boyfriend.  And he likes cookies alot!

Since I prefer to not wake up with chocolate chips melted to my cheeks, I dont like to have fresh baked cookies in the house unless I have someone to bring them to.

And thats how these cookies came to be. I need to feed my nephew but he is currently living somewhere warm and toasty and unfortunately unreachable my sisters uterus. Therefore, I made these cookies for her to eat, which is kinda like him eating it too. Im strange, but Ive accepted it.

trail mix cookies - Sundays with Jennie

trail mix cookies - sundays with jennie

trail mix cookies - sundays with jennie

Trail Mix Cookies

Makes 24 large cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1- 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 TBSP shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1 cup add ins ex: 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 1/4 cup peanut m+ms

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees celcius and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Then beat in egg and vanilla until incorporated.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients; oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, coconut and add ins.
  4. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in 4 additions until blended. Cover and regrigerate for 30 minutes.
  5. Then shape dough using a heaping tablespoon into balls (about 24) which place them at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake in top and bottom thirds of the oven, switching them halfway through the baking time which is 12-15 minutes total. Cookies should be golden, with crisp edges and soft centres.
  6. Transfer to racks, and let cool.

Feeling Good with Jennie Week 3

I am finishing up a month in palliative care, which is a tough  place to work. Every morning Im unsure which patient will still be there, and to be honest, Im looking forward to moving on to my next rotation. In the meantime, I come home with a restless mind and try and decompress. That can mean cooking, or working out or just completely vegging out.

Here are some of my fave links that have perked me up a bit this week!

Picture 18 Watch: This video actually made me laugh out loud!! Im a sucker for 90s music, but this video is hysterical regardless!

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       Read: Nothing makes a gal feel better than seeing cats do hysterical things. I dont even like cats. Maybe thats why I find this so funny! Muahahha!

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   Wear: These pjs are just the bomb! They may seem totally uncool, but Ryan Gosling wears them sigh

Garlic Dill Pickles

Pickles are a thing (well, a vegetable) that I take for granted. I like them on burgers, in sandwiches  chopped up in tuna, and sometimes just straight out of the jar. They were never something I would have ever thought about making before. But then I had a lot of mason jars sitting around the house and I needed stuff to do with them. First, I made granola and gifted it to friends and family. Then I went to the local market and got some fresh fall flowers to decorate my home. And then, I made pickles.

garlic dill pickles

garlic dill picklesIt was a very exciting activity to do I am now a pickle maker extraordinaire. I just kind of threw things together hoping it would make a good pickle, and it worked! They were pretty spicy with the addition of red pepper flakes and big hunks of garlic, and I loved it!

garlic dill picklesgarlic dill pickles

 

Spicy Dill Pickles

Ingredients:

  • 1 500ml mason jar
  • 4 small cucumbers (persian or kirby)
  • 1 and 1/2 cup of water
  • 3 tbsp white vinegar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 big garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 3 heads of dill sprigs

Directions:

  1. Cut cucumbers in 1/4s or sliced horizontally. Fit as many cucumbers as you can into the mason jar without having to force them in.
  2. In a measuring cup, mix together the water, vinegar and salt. Stir until salt is dissolved.
  3. Pour liquid over cucumbers so that they are completely covered. (if a bit are sticking out, can add some more water).
  4. Top the cucumber with the dill, garlic and red pepper flakes and screw on the lids of the jar.
  5. Put in fridge and wait 48 hours before eating!

Feeling Good with Jennie Week 2

Another week has gone by, and more awkward moments have happened. The classic dropping your pager in a toilet, the sneeze into your elbow but oops theres some mucous now on your shirt and of course who can forget vomiting at the gym after 30 minutes of working out. And there you have it. Not suave.

This calls for some good old fashioned goodness from what my boyfriend calls the interweb. I think hes kidding when he says that isnt this the internet?

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Watch: I am a child. I laugh every single time I see this video, and I have seen it alot! Please do yourself the favor of watching it!

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     Read: Are you that awkward girl in the corner of the room with guacamole on her face? Do you think that is the worst moment ever? Then please, read this and just feel better!

Picture 9 Eat: I cant even use words to describe this unreal looking dessert. Or breakfast. You can always count on Joy the Baker to make something this good!

Picture 8 Listen: Whats been playing on my ipod lately is John Mayers Slow Dancing in  burning Room. An oldie, but a great song to belt out in the car with people staring at your hand gesturing. Dont Judge me.

Gazpacho

Its officially September, but I dont want to let go of summer food just yet. This summer has been filled with BBQs, grilled meats and veggies and it was always fresh and delicious. While I like fall for its comfortable temperatures and outfits (sidenote: I am at my trendiest in fall when I get to wear a leather jacket and boots. Throw on anything with that and its a quote unquote cool) I just love summertime tomatoes.

So I will just have to scoop up the remaining fresh farm tomatoes in the markets and make batches of this soup to enjoy for the next while. Cause its delicious.


gazpacho

gazpacho

While I have had gazpacho in many restaurants, this recipe from my mother is always my favorite. Its even better when she makes a batch and sends me home with a container full to last me a week! Thanks Mom!

Gazpacho

Ingredients:

  • 1 large english cucumber, peeled
  • 1 green bell pepper, seeded
  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 6 medium tomatoes, peeled
  • 4-6 garlic cloves (depending on how garlicky you like it 4 still makes it quite garlicky) minced
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 TBSP salt
  • 19-oz can tomato juice
  • Couple dashes of tabasco
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Cut cucumber, green pepper, onion and tomatoes into chunks
  2. In the food processor: process cucumber in pulses until finely chopped. Remove to a large bowl. Repeat with green pepper, onion and tomatoes, removing each one to the large bowl.
  3. Process together the minced garlic, lemon  juice, chili powder, basil, oregano, salt and 1/2 the tomato juice. Process until smooth.
  4. In the large bowl, add to this mixture to the chopped vegetables and the remaining tomato juice. Add salt and pepper and tabasco to taste.
  5. Chill for at least 4-6 hours. Serve with croutons and other additions (like cucumber, mint, basil)

Recipe adpated from The Food Processor Bible

Feeling Good with Jennie Week 1

Feeling good with Jennie sounds a bit awkward I think. Maybe a bit inappropriate. But this series is really based on one thing I feel really strongly about still smiling after a rough day. And it aint easy!

Exhibit A: The other day while visiting my parents with my boyfriend, I was sick with a cold, tired and totally cranky. I just was not in the mood for human interaction and it showed! As I was leaving the house with my boyfriend with what I assume must have been some form of a scowl on my face, my mother yelled to him  Tag! your it. No touch backs! I mean that is LOL worthy, but I think I just hissed at her (and him) and escaped into the night.

We all have moments in the day or week that just become a bit too much, and you can either implode with self misery or try and perk up! While I obviously have some evil moments (*cough they are rare cough*) I try and feel better by blasting music really loudly, dancing like a fool, singing at the top of my lungs, laughing loudly and even doing some retail therapy. And then I feel SO much better and less evil. Usually.

So I wanted to share the things on the interweb that can be therapeutic in healing  a tough day, or just tofeel good!

Picture 9 Eat: Fries. Hot Sauce. Cheese. What will make you feel better in that moment than these Crispy buffalo fries? Unless your the type to feel even worse if you eat this type of foodyou know who you are.

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    Read:  25 things that get harder after age 25. While they are all so true my fave is not being able to pull   off a graphic tee definitely too old to rock that  Rub my Belly for Good Luck t-shirt to work. It is a great read!

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 Wear: I am a Canadian girl and wearing Roots clothing brings 2 types of comfort: Nostalgia and cozziness. I grew up wearing these sweatshirts/sweatpants (even sporting a classy sweatsuit!) and theyve brought back their old school logos and cottony goodness. This has been my go to lazy day shirt.

Picture 18Watch: The most awesome video ever! Orthodox Jews perform a Rosh Hashana version of Daft Punks Get lucky. There is dancing. There is singing. And yes, there is a shofar! Tekiyah! Happy new year!