I called my mum the other day because I missed the meatballs she used to make when we were kids. I was hounding her for the recipe because I’ve never been able to make them the way she does. I got the ingredients right and they taste great, but they’re never as good as my mum’s. Here is the basic way to make them. Feel free to add your own spices and herbs to personalize them to your taste.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, in Cypriot they’re called keftethes.

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, finely grated
1 med. potato, finely grated
1 cup of chopped fresh parsley
1 cup of breadcrumbs
2 eggs, lightly beated
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Lots of salt
Pepper to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
Vegetable oil, for frying

First, you need to prepare all of the ingredients – grate the onion and potato and chop the parsley. When you grate the potatoes, put them in a sieve and, using your hands push the water out. Add all of the ingredients into one large mixing bowl.

With your hands, mix everything until thoroughly combined.

Take about a tablespoon of the mixture and make small round balls with your hands.

Shallow fry the meatballs in hot oil until they’re golden brown. Top with salt, if needed and the lemon juice.

Serve with salad and Greek yogurt. Kids love it with ketchup. You can also serve with tzatziki, houmous or barbecue sauce.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 package fresh rotini (any short pasta will do; I prefer fresh because it cooks faster)
1 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package sausage, casings removed (usually comes with 4 sausages)
1 bunch kale, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
salt, to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste

Start by melting the butter in the pan and sauteing the onions. After a few minutes when the onions begin to get soft, add the sausage meat to the pan (I use a potato masher to separate the meat). At this point turn on the water for the pasta and make sure you season the water with salt. Once the sausage is fully cooked, add the kale and chicken broth, then cover the pan to let the kale cook.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it from the water and add the pasta to the pan with the sausage and kale, then mix together. Add salt to taste and red pepper flakes, depending on your family’s preferences. After the pasta is mixed together, you can determine if you want to add more broth or butter to the pan to make sure the pasta is coated evenly. Then serve!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

One bunch asparagus, cut into 1” pieces
3” piece of pancetta, cut into bite size pieces
One shallot, sliced
Half of one onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 slices of prosciutto, cut into 2” pieces
Pasta of your choice
Olive oil
Butter
Parmesan Cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste

Boil a pot of water for the pasta, make sure you salt the water!

In a pan, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and start to cook the onion, shallot, garlic, pancetta and asparagus. Sprinkle with salt and allow to cook until the onions are clear. (Put the pasta in the boiling water.)

Add a bit of water and cover the pan with a lid to allow the asparagus to cook through, monitoring and stirring it to make sure that there is enough liquid in the pan at all times until the asparagus is cooked. Remove the lid and add the sliced bits of prosciutto, cooking for a minute or two.

Drain the pasta (saving a bit of the starchy water), and add it to the pan. Slice some butter to coat the pasta and sprinkle with the desired amount of Parmesan cheese. Stir and enjoy!

I love this recipe because once you put it in the oven, you can pretty much forget about it (if you can ignore the smell) plus with the leftovers you can make sandwiches, wraps, or even use the chicken to top a salad!

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Start with your vegetables. I have used these in different combinations: regular and sweet potatoes, onions, garlic cloves, celery, carrots, mushrooms, brussel sprouts and celery root. Prepare the vegetables: peel, if necessary, and chop to bite sized pieces. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil, to coat, and season with salt and pepper.

Get one whole chicken, around 4 pounds. Remove any innards, rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry. Season the inside with herbs of your choice (I usually use 2-3 garlic cloves, sage leaves, a lemon half, salt and pepper). Coat the outside with room temperature butter and season with salt. I also add butter under the skin by the breasts and legs.

Put the vegetables around the outside of a greased roasting pan, and place the chicken (on the rack) in the pan. Pop the chicken in the oven.

The chicken should need about 50-60 minutes to cook, but be sure it’s cooked by inserting a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. The thermometer should read 160 degrees. Let chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Enjoy!

Oh, and trust me with the cinnamon. It makes the dish!

Ingredients:

Ground chicken (3 ground chicken breasts at the butcher)
1 whole (mild) chorizo, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup corn
1 can kidney beans
1 can romano beans
1 can black beans
1 can Heinz baked beans
½ tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
large pinch cinnamon
3 cloves garlic
½ – 1 cup wine
1 lg can plum tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Here’s what to do…

Chop the onions, sauté with canola oil until transparent. Add garlic halfway through cooking onions.

Add ground chicken, stir often to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan.

Add the chopped chorizo, tomatoes and wine. Let simmer for five minutes to burn off the alcohol.

Add the beans and spices to taste.

Bring to a boil, and let simmer until serving.

Delicious add ons: sour cream, greek yogurt, shredded cheese, parsley. We like serving our chili with rice.

Enjoy!

What I also learned early on was how painful it is to bruise your buttocks on a jet ski in Muskoka, but I will save that story for another day.

One of my best mates and his family finally came to visit me this summer. After 15 years of me telling him to come over he finally braved the flight with his wife and two kids. Realistically, he should have come over pre-kids, but whatever.

It is summer so I naturally asked them if they wanted to go to the cottage. (My wife’s cousin’s cottage that is.) Now when you tell a bunch of Brits that we’re going to a cottage they think it’s a quaint little house somewhere in the woods and I’ll bet they don’t really get why we want them to go there.

What you should say when speaking to Brits is, “Want to go to a cabin by the lake?”

There are some major differences between a Canadian and an English Summer. First off no one really goes to the beach in England. And if they do it’s not a two hour drive from their house, it’s a short flight to Marbella, Algarve, Tenerife, Mallorca… I think you get my drift. There is no cottage by a beach back in jolly old England, when we go to the beach, there really isn’t a lot of sand, but pebbles. We don’t swim at the beach and we usually go in a caravan (trailer), tent or stay in a B & B — and guess what? It rains.

So my mate and his family were pleasantly surprised. The beach had sand! The water was clean! They could swim! They also kept calling it the sea, but it’s a freshwater bay… I guess they just figured that something so vast must be a sea!

I’m happy to say that I gave them a true Canadian experience.

I go to the cottage almost every weekend in the summer even though my wife doesn’t love it, my kids do. What I loved about this particular cottage trip is that I was able to drive a Honda Crosstour instead of my mini van (that my wife still cries over).

Driving the Honda was a real treat. I much prefer driving it to my mini van.

It was a really smooth drive, the cruise control worked well, it had loads of trunk space.

The seating was comfortable and when you signal you can see your blind spots on the screen on the dash. I loved it for the way it drove and for how comfortable it was. My kids on the other hand loved that the windows rolled down (as the back windows in my van don’t) and were over the moon about the sun roof. They also loved that they could share an arm rest that had two drink holders in it.

My only problem now is that my wife is really trying to get me to buy one.

I took some pics of this car, but I much prefer this one.

*Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. Honda did allow me to borrow the Crosstour and graciously gave me a break from my minivan for the weekend.

You can make this with lamb or beef instead of chicken, or omit all meats to make a vegetarian and vegan meal. You can also add potatoes to make it a bit thicker.

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
3 – 3 1/2 lb chicken, cut into portions
2 lb runner beans, stringed (I used a mixture of green beans and Italian green beans because that’s what I had in the garden)
1 large onion, sliced
3-4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato puree
425 ml water
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

If you use fresh tomatoes (instead of canned), place the tomatoes in a pot and pour boiling water over them (this will make removing the skin super easy). Leave for a few minutes, until the water is less hot, remove the skins and discard. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes. (You can use the same method to make a fresh tomato sauce for pasta. Spice accordingly and let the tomatoes simmer for longer.)

Heat the oil in a large pan. Carefully place the chicken portions into the pan and fry for 15-20 minutes, or until browned on all sides. Meanwhile, halve the beans.

Remove the chicken and set aside. Next, fry the onions until golden brown (if you’re going to include potatoes, brown them before cooking the onions) followed by the chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree. Add the beans to the pan and continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan followed by a seasoning of salt and pepper. Pour in the water and give it a stir. Bring to the boil and then add the lemon juice. Cover with a lid and simmer for 35-40 minutes or until tender, adding the parsley 5 minutes before cooking has completed.

Switch off the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

They are easy to make and they freeze well. They’re quick to cook because of their smaller size and I love them as leftovers for lunch the next day. Here is my favourite recipe for full sized burgers or for sliders…

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork*
1 lb ground beef*
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs or panko
Splash of soya sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp bbq sauce
2 slices raw bacon, chopped
1/2 onion grated into the mixture
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder (or fresh garlic, crushed if you like)
salt & pepper to taste

*Use whatever meat you like. We like this combination because we find that pork is a little juicier.

Step 1: Mix the meat with the spices by hand. Note: Try to not over mix. The longer you mix, the more fat will start to melt and will make a tougher burger.

Step 2: Form combined meat into small hamburgers.

Tip: Putting a thumb-sized hole in the middle will prevent it from doming and help it cook more evenly.

Tip: If you have your buns on hand, make your burger a quarter of an inch bigger than the bun so after it’s cooked it fits perfectly.

Step 3: Grill until cooked to your preference. I prefer medium-rare, pink and warm in the middle or 130°F. (I grilled the sliders but you can also cook in a pan inside.)

Step 4: Add your favourite condiments to your bun and enjoy!

Personally, I doubt that the frozen fish fingers actually have any fish in them so this recipe was great. I felt good about feeding these fish fingers to my kids, and (bonus) they loved them!

This familiar family favorite is fresh, simple, and tasty. The fish stays moist and succulent inside its crispy coating, while the tartar sauce adds a little bit of crunchy tang.

prep 15 mins  cook 10 mins ❉ freezable

Serves 4

1 1/2 lb (675g) thick white fish fillets (loin works best), such as haddock, sustainable cod, or pollack, skinned
1–2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs, toasted
2oz (60g) Parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp tartar sauce
1 tsp capers, rinsed, drained, and chopped
3 gherkins, drained and finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Cut the fish fillets into thick, even strips about 1in (2.5cm) wide; you should end up with about 20 fingers of fish.

2. Pour the flour and egg onto separate plates. Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish in the flour, then dip in the egg to coat. Use the bread crumb mixture to coat each of the fish fingers. Make sure that you coat them well, as it protects the fish while it’s cooking.

3. Sit the fish fingers on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for 5–8 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through. (Alternatively, you can shallow-fry them in a little sunflower or vegetable oil if you prefer.)

4. Pour the tartar sauce into a bowl and stir in the capers and gherkins. Serve immediately with the hot fish fingers.

Excerpted from Cooking Season by Season – copyright 2013 DK Publishing

Ingredients:

3 – 3 ½ pound whole Chicken
Water
Juice of 2 lemons
4 eggs
1 Cup of long-grain white rice, rinsed
Chicken stock cube
Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash the chicken and place it in a large pot. Fill up the pot with water and bring to a boil. Remove any froth, which may form as it begins to boil. Cover and simmer for about one one and a half hour to two hours. While boiling make sure to top up the pot with water, the chicken should always be covered.

Once chicken is cooked, remove and let cool. Spoon off any excess fat from the stock. Add more water to the pot (depending on how many people you want to feed). Dissolve the stock cubes in a little of the stock in a bowl and return to the pan. Add the rinsed rice and bring back to a boil. Cook rice according to package. Once rice is cooked, turn off the heat.

While the rice is cooking, juice lemons and make sure there are no pits. Crack four eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Once eggs are whisked, slowly add lemon juice so it doesn’t curdle. For a creamier soup use a whisk.

In order for the egg and lemon not to curdle, you must slowly add one ladle of the stock in to the bowl of egg, beating constantly to avoid curdling. Repeat with a further two ladles of soup, remembering to beat the mixture continuously. Return the egg mixture to the remaining soup in the pan. Adjust the seasoning with some salt and pepper.

Depending on your preference, as this is a Greek soup many Greeks don’t put the chicken in the soup but my kids love it. Cut up the chicken into pieces and add it into the soup. This is a great way to add pieces of the chicken the kids might not eat.

Serve!

Enjoy!