Chillin' At Home

After two days of exploring and other "running about" activities, we all needed a quiet day at home. Plus, I needed to use that delicious bounty I bought at the Market on Saturday.

We started the day yesterday (Monday) with a slight variation on our long-time tradition... French Toast seasoned with thyme and spritzed with Maple Syrup that my Honey and Sharron purchased on their travels from Montreal to Halifax back in March....I meant to write about their delicious food adventures through Quebec and New Brunswick. They did the "Cabane a Sucre" maple syrup and candy making (actually, they just did the eating and buying).

But I digress....back to the French Toast...I miss the challah (egg bread) we used to get so readily in Montreal and Toronto. So if anyone knows of a bakery in Halifax that sells it, please let me know. In the meantime we used some delicious nine grain bread from the baker beside the creperie at the market (I apologize for not knowing the name). The grains do give the dish a different, but lovely texture. Too bad we used up all the strawberries, they would have made a perfect pairing. Oh well.

After puttering about for a few hours, we all decided we were hungry, so for lunch I made more of the Mixed Greens & Mango salad I had whipped up on Saturday. Truthfully...I needed to take a photo for yesterday's post since I thought it would be rude to hold up the dinner Saturday night. I only do that to people I know well and in my own home. But back to Monday's lunch... we also had some of my new favorite bread from the same bakers -

Olive Rosemary (all those little black dots you see are delightful bits of black olives that just add so much flavor that there's no need for pesto, or any other spread one would normally add to it). It's perfect with some goat cheese (a brief stint under the broiler got it all melty - notice that when I talk about food, I often forget to use proper sentences. That's because I'm too busy drooling. In fact, I could go for some right now!).

More lounging about and watching an old video - Austin Powers and doing some baking. Afterall, I bought that gorgeous ruby red rhubarb. One of my favorite rhubarb dishes is strawberry rhubarb pie (actually, I never make it because the one time I tried years ago...it was a flop - at least compared to my Auntie Rita's) Every time I buy some, I always wish she lived a little closer than Nanaimo, British Columbia). Anyway my excuse for not making any this time...I used up all the strawberries! So I hunted on the internet and I found this recipe for Rhubarb Crumble that tasted great with vanilla ice cream.

Supper approached and we had different ideas about what to eat. I wanted a creamy, lemony pasta (I've been salivating over a picture in one of my magazines) and others wanted more protein (I had defrosted some boneless chicken breasts and they needed to be cooked - short window of cooking opportunities over the next few days). So naturally we had both.

The pasta is my entry for this week's Presto Pasta Night and please join in the fun. You'll be glad you did. It's my own adaptation to at least three different recipes in magazines and books strewn on the living room table.

Mascarpone, Herbs & Lemon Spaghetti. So good, but then how could a creamy, lemony pasta be anything but!

Since I had some leftover dressing from the salad we had at lunch, I just added more Hoisin sauce to it and let the chicken marinate in it for a while before grilling it all on the BBQ. Leftover chicken will be great for lunches over the next few days. Naturally, we had to have more of the rhubarb crumble for dessert.

All in all it was a wonderful lazy day filled with lots of good food and great company. I wonder what we'll do next weekend. And I wonder how much exercising I have to do to make up for it.

Related links:Food and Drink easy cooking pasta Food Blogging Event Presto Pasta Night chicken salad dessert