Mandarin Desserts #FoodPicFriday

Our favourite Chinese buffet is Mandarin. We affectionately call it Mandy, and a trip there means you don't have to eat for the next twenty hours or so. There are so many different and wonderful food items to choose from, and everything smells delicious. I have many favourite dishes there (I really enjoy the surimi salad from the salad bar), but I always need to save room for dessert. It's like being a kid in a candy store, there are so many options.

For the month of July, Mandarin celebrated Canada Day with some Canadian style dishes. Mom and I went to check them out and one of the dessert options was chocolate dipped bacon! I had never tried it before, and it was surprisingly good.

This photo depicts my dessert plate from our visit. If I remember all these wonderful flavours correctly, I had: chocolate dipped bacon, maple cheesecake, coconut cream pie (a must have), a honey twist, a bear paw (with added whipped cream and smarties), and a butter tart. Delicious.

Corn Field: May vs. August

I've been walking regularly, so throughout the summer I have seen the surrounding farmer's fields come to life. During the 30x30 challenge in May, I took a photo of a newly planted corn field. Now it's August and the corn is fully grown. Beautiful visual of the passage of time.

May:

August: 

Pride Week Cupcakes

Simcoe County celebrated Pride Week from July 31- Aug 8th, with many municipalities raising the rainbow flag to celebrate. We live in Tiny Township, and even though Simcoe Pride has been around for a few years, this was the first time our municipality participated. We went over to the township office to watch them raise the Pride flag, and I was very proud that our small town was celebrating diversity.

A fair amount of people showed up for the event, which was wonderful to see, and I made and shared cupcakes with the crowd to celebrate.

Making rainbow cupcakes is one of my favourite things so I always love an opportunity to bake them. The recipe for rainbow cupcakes can be found here. I also made some rainbow cupcake toppers, which I have previously posted about here.

Summer BBQ Supper #FoodPicFriday

There's been a bit of heat wave here this week so oven cooking is off limits. BBQ only! We picked up some fresh farmer corn and new potatoes, and grilled them alongside some hamburgers and hot dogs. Love a good BBQ on a hot day. Wonderful!

Achievement Unlocked: Cutting Up a Whole Chicken

My farmer brother raised chickens again this year, and last week we bought four of them. Each of the chickens weighed between five and five and a half pounds, so perfect for roasting. Even though roast chicken dinner is fantastic, I decided I wanted more meal options from all these birds. I took to Google and set out to learn how to cut up a whole chicken. It seemed easier than I thought, so I was really excited to try it.

I learned how to divide chicken by watching this short YouTube video. I watched it about five times before I took to work on my chickens.

On chicken day, I successfully parted three chickens. The first one took about twenty minutes (maybe longer), as I figured out how the joints worked and the correct angle for the knife. I had the YouTube video called up on my iPod, so I could learn step by step as I worked (while frequently washing my hands). My first attempt wasn't perfect, but it helped me learn for the next one. The second chicken was far easier to part, taking about half the time as I got the hang of it. By the third chicken I was full speed and the breast pieces looked like they were from the grocery store. I was so happy and so proud of myself! Kitchen skills!

From my three chickens I got the following for the freezer:

2-pack of chicken legs x 3

2-pack of chicken breasts x 3

12 (split) chicken wings

3 chicken backs for soup stock

I also kept one of my chickens whole, so we can have a roast chicken one night too. Very excited.