Now Jordon can’t/won’t crack or eat a whole lobster but in case you don’t have me to do it for you, Apartment Therapy is here to help.

Ingredients

• 1 kg glazed sausages
• 2 50 g bags of corn chips, lightly crushed
• 1 237 ml tomato salsa
• 2/3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Start cooking your sausages.  When done, slit each sausage almost completely through.  Open slit, sprinkling in some of the corn chip pieces, spoon in a generous amount of salsa, and top with grated cheese.  Return to the barbecue grill plate.  Prop up so as not to spill filling.
2. Cover with lid or hood and cook until cheese melts, about 1 minute.

Source: Now You’re Cookin’: Barbecue

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 small red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 500 g boneless, skinless chicken breast fillet, thinly sliced.
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 115 g baby corn, halved on the diagonal
• 425 g baby bok choy (pak choy), trimmed and quartered lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons chicken stock

Directions

1. Combine half the cornflour with the ginger, crushed garlic, chilli, sesame oil, and 2 tablespoons soy sauce in a large bowl.  Add the chicken, toss until well coated and marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Heat a wok over high heat, add the peanut oil and swirl to coat.  Stir-fry the onion for 2 minutes, or until soft and golden.  Add the chicken in two batches and stir-fry for 5 minutes until almost cooked through.  Add  the baby corn and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes, then add the bok choy and cook for 2 minutes, or until wilted,
3. Mix the remaining soy sauce and cornflour with the oyster sauce and chicken sauce in a small bowl, add to the wok and stir-fry 1-2 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened to coating consistency and the chicken in cooked.  Serve immediately with steamed rice or noodles.

Source: 30 Minute Meals: A Commonsense Guide

Perfect as a vegetable dip.  Serve with fresh vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of salad dressing or mayonnaise 
• Onion flakes
• Prepared horseradish
• Curry powder
• Salt
• Milk

Directions

1. Mix all six ingredients in a small bowl.  Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp margarine
• 1/2 cup onion finely mixed
• 1 lb carrots, shredded
• 1 lb potatoes, shredded
• 6 cups of chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1-2 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

1. In a large pot sauté onion in margarine. 
2. Add all ingredients except milk and cheese. 
3. Simmer until vegetables are tender. 
4. Add milk. 
5. When serving, spoon cheese over top of soup. 

Source: Tasty Treasures from the Beach

• Think of no one as “them”
• Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
• Talk to strangers
• Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
• Listen to music you don’t understand
• Dance to it
• Act locally
• Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
• Question consumption
• Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
• Look for fair trade and union labels
• Help build economies from the bottom up
• Acquire few needs
• Learn a second (or third) language
• Visit people, places and cultures — not tourist attractions
• Learn people’s history
• Re-define progress
• Know physical and political geography
• Play games from other cultures
• Watch films with subtitles
• Know your heritage
• Honour everyone’s holidays
• Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too
• Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water
• Know where your bank banks
• Never believe you have a right to anyone else’s resources
• Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
• Question military/corporate connections
• Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
• Have a pen/email pal
• Honour indigenous cultures
• Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
• Be sceptical about what you read
• Eat adventurously
• Enjoy vegetables, beans and grains in your diet
• Choose curiosity over certainty
• Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
• Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
• Think South, Central and North — there are many Americans
• Assume that many others share your dreams
• Know that no one is silent though many are not heard.
• Work to change this.

via

• Turn off your TV
• Know your neighbours
• Look up when you are walking
• Greet people
• Sit on your stoop
• Plant flowers
• Use your library
• Play together
• Buy from local merchants
• Share what you have
• Help a lost dog
• Take children to the park
• Garden together
• Support neighbourhood schools
• Fix it even if you didn’t break it
• Have pot lucks
• Honour elders
• Pick up litter
• Read stories aloud
• Dance in the street
• Talk to the mail carrier
• Listen to the birds
• Put up a swing
• Help carry something heavy
• Barter for your goods
• Start a tradition
• Ask a question-hire young people for odd jobs
• Organize a block party
• Bake extra and share
• Ask for help when you need it
• Open your shades
• Sing together
• Share your skills
• Take back the night
• Turn up the music
• Turn down the music
• Listen before you react to anger
• Mediate a conflict
• Seek to understand
• Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
• Know that no one is silent though many are not heard.
• Work to change this.

via

Ingredients

• 30 square wonton skins
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp finely chopped scallion, to serve
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves, to garnish

Filling

• 175 g or ground pork, not too lean
• 225 g raw shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped
• 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh gingerroot
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 2 tsp finely chopped scallion
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of white pepper
• dash of sesame oil

Soup

• 2 litres of chicken stock
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Directions

1. Mix together the filling ingredients and stir well until the texture is thick and pasty. Set aside for for at least 20 minutes.
2. To make the wontons, place of teaspoon of the filling in the centre of a skin.  Brush the edges with a little egg white.  Bring the opposite points toward each other and press the edges together, creating a flower-like and shape.  Repeat with the remaining skins and filling.
3. To make the soup, bring the stock to a boil and add the salt and pepper.  Boil the wontons in the stock for about 5 minutes, or until skins begin to wrinkle around the filling.
4. To serve, put the scallion in individual bowl, the spoon in the wontons and soup and top with the cilantro.

Source: Chinese Cooking: A Collection of Easy & Elegant Recipes

• 3 cups new potatoes, cooked and chopped
  
• 1/2 cup Caesar Salad Dressing
  
• Parmesan Cheese
  
• 2 green onions, chopped
  
• 4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
  
• 4 slices  bacon, cooked

1. Toss potatoes with dressing and a few handfuls parmesan cheese.
   
2. Top with green onions, eggs and bacon.

Ingredients

• 250 g of dried medium Chinese egg noodles
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 280 g cooked chicken breasts, shredded
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
• 100 g shiitake mushrooms
• 6 scallions, sliced
• 100 g / 3/4 cups bean sprouts
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1. Place the egg noodles in a large bowl and break them up slightly.  Poor enough boiling water over the noodles to cover and let stand while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Preheat a wok over medium heat.  Add the sunflower oil and swirl it around to coat the sides of the wok.  When the oil is hot, add the shredded chicken, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, scallions, and bean sprouts to the wok and stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
3. Drain the noodles and thoroughly then add them to the wok, toss well, and stir-fry for an additional five minutes.  Drizzle over the soy sauce and sesame oil and toss until thoroughly combined.
4. Transfer to warmed serving bowls and serve immediately.

Source: Chinese Cooking: A Collection of Easy & Elegant Recipes

Ingredients

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. molasses
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 8 chicken thighs, skinless
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large baking dish, combine the lemon juice, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Wash and dry the chicken thighs; dip them thoroughly in the marinade. Cover the baking dish and set in the fridge to marinate for 1 hour.
2. To barbecue the chicken: Heat up a gas or charcoal grill. Remove the chicken thighs from their marinade; discard the marinade. Sprinkle the thighs with salt and pepper. Grill for about 8 to 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until the thighs are nicely charred on the outside and done on the inside.

We are a big fan of beer can chicken around here but as this New York Times writer found, it’s easier said than done.

I’m an ardent fan of roast chickens, and this seemed like the perfect way to cook a chicken on a hot day when I didn’t want to turn on the oven and heat up the house. The bird could cook outside with the mosquitoes while I stayed inside with the air-conditioner.

But my grilling skills back then were sorely lacking. My chicken ended up a pale, rubbery mess, probably a result of not adding enough coals as they burned down.

It was so disappointing that I might never have tried beer-can chicken again. But then I got a gas grill, which can provide consistent heat, making the recipe less prone to human error.

So I picked up a can of beer and a chicken, game for another round.

One of the other problems I had last time was a very dry bird. I tried to think of a way to avoid relying on the steam from the beer to keep the chicken moist. I decided to bring out the big guns — a tub of mayonnaise, perfect for preventing the flesh from drying out. It could also act as a vehicle for adding spices (and color).

I could have used any spice mix, either purchased or homemade, but chose Madras curry because I love its earthy, intense flavor. A squirt of hot sauce gave the mixture a happy jolt. I slathered it all over the bird, including inside the cavity, and plopped it on the grill.

A wonderful looking Buffalo Fajita recipe over at Culinate.

A great post over at Cooking with Amy.  She took in a taping of a segment of You’re Doing It All Wrong with Grace Young (author of Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, with Authentic Recipes and Stories)

Ingredients

1. 2 cups thinly sliced peeled potatoes (about 1/4-inch thick)
2. 1 cup  thinly sliced carrots
3. 1/2 cup water
4. 1/3 cup  plus 1 Tbsp. Parmesan grated cheese , divided
5. 1/3 cup mayonnaise 
6. 2 Tbsp.  chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Preheat barbecue to medium heat. Place potatoes and carrots in microwaveable bowl. Add water; cover. Microwave on HIGH 5 to 7 min. or until potatoes are crisp-tender; drain well. Meanwhile, mix 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese and the dressing. Add to potato mixture; mix lightly.
2. Spoon onto centre of 20-inch-long piece of heavy-duty foil sprayed with cooking spray. (Or, use a double layer of regular foil.) Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to seal packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place on top shelf of barbecue.
3. Grill 15 to 20 min. or until vegetables are tender. Cut slits in foil to release steam. Open packet. Sprinkle potato mixture with parsley and the 1 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients

• 4 cups torn fresh spinach
• 1-1/2 cups mozzarella-cheddar shredded cheese, divided
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 small  red onion, sliced, separated into rings
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 pkg.  (350 g) frozen peas
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup  light sour cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp.  bacon bits

Directions

1. Layer spinach, 1 cup cheese, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and peas in 3-L serving bowl.
2. Mix mayonnaise, sour cream and basil. Spread over salad, completely covering top. Refrigerate 5 hours.
3. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon just before serving.

Ingredients

• 125 g cream cheese spread, softened
• 3 Tbsp. salsa
• 2 spinach-flavoured tortillas or wraps (10 inch)
• 1/2 cup  shredded cheddar cheese 
• chili powder

Directions

1. Mix cream cheese and salsa. Spread evenly onto tortillas; top with shredded cheese. Sprinkle lightly with chili powder. Roll up each tortilla tightly.
2. Cut each crosswise into nine slices. Arrange, cut-sides down, on serving platter.

Ingredients

• 2 boneless beef strip steaks (1 lb.)
• 1/2 cup  Bull's-Eye Steakhouse Barbecue Sauce, divided in half
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 cup  sliced fresh mushrooms
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup  brandy

Directions

1. Preheat barbecue to medium-high heat. Grill steaks 10 min. or until medium rare doneness, turning after 5 min. and brushing with 1/4 cup of the barbecue sauce.
2. Cook and stir onions and mushrooms in butter in large skillet on medium-high heat 2 to 3 min. or until vegetables are tender. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup barbecue sauce and the brandy. Reduce heat to low; cook an additional 5 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally.
3. Serve steaks topped with the barbecue sauce mixture.

Source

• 1 cup Balkan-style yogurt
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice
• 1 tablespoon of smoked sweet or regular paprika
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Combine all six ingredients in a medium bowl.  Store in refrigerator in airtight container for up to one week.  Makes about 1 1/4 cups

Source: Everyday Barbecuing by Jean Pare

An all purpose beef rub.

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Combine all 8 ingredients in a small cup.  Store in airtight container for up to 3 months.  Makes about 1/3 cup.

Source: Everyday Barbecuing by Jean Pare

Ingredients

• 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/4 cup of herb and garlic cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp of chopped fresh dill
• 6 medium Roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise, pulp and seeds removed.
• Salt, sprinkle
• Pepper, sprinkle
• Grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Combine first three ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle inside of each tomato half with salt and pepper.  Fill with vegetable mixture.  Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese.
3. Preheat barbecue to medium.  Please tomatoes on greased grill.  Close lid.  Cook for about 12 minutes until cheese in milted and vegetables are tender.  Makes 12 tomato cups.

Source: Everyday Barbecuing by Jean Pare

Also, Kraft Canada has a similar recipe.

All from the New York Times

84. Actual grilled cheese: Use good bread, good cheese, tomato slices and maybe a little mustard; brush with melted butter or olive oil and grill with a weight on top.

They are all that simple and delicious.

As many of you know, the Pillsbury Cook-Off is the mother of all cooking contests with over 4000 entrees.  The finalists have been posted and you can check out many of them here.

There are my personal favourites.

• Thai-Style Mexican Chicken Wraps

• Chili-Cheese Dog Pizza

• Blue Cheesy Prosciutto Appetizer Pizza

• Breakfast Quiches to Go

• Jalapeño Popper Cups

• Tomato-Basil Eggs Alfredo in Bread Baskets

Here is the million dollar winner.

The Cooking Blog now has a Facebook page and you can follow the blog over there as well as right here, via RSS, or on Twitter.

However you follow the site, I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy your Canada Day/Fourth of July long weekend!

• Can of beer (or non-alcoholic beer)
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of Montreal steak spice
• 1 1/2 pounds of Beef outside round steak, about inch think, cut into 4 pieces

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl
2. Please steaks into large re-sealable freezer bag.  Pour beer mixture over top.  Seal bag.  Turn until coated.  Marinate in refrigerator for at least six hours or overnight, turning occasionally.  Remove steaks.  Discard any remaining beer mixture.
3. Sprinkle steaks with second amount of steak spice.  Preheat barbecue to medium-high.  Place steaks on greased grill.  Close lid.  Cook for abut 5 minutes per side until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit (or 63 degrees Celsius) for medium rare or until steak reach desired doneness.  Transfer to large plate.  Cover with foil.  Makes 4 pub steaks.

Source: Everyday Barbecuing by Jean Pare