Beef Pot Roast with Root Vegetables

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This is my first ever pot roast.

Ta-Da!

 

Ok, so The Hubby said this is the best thing he has eaten in 2013.  Jackpot!  He seems to make this type of comment only once per year, usually pretty early into the year.  I remember last year when he said the same type of thing in February about Martha Stewart's Tomato and Italian Sausage Risotto.  He knows what he likes this guy.

Souper Sunday #13: Shrimp Bisque

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Bonjour and ooh la la!

What is a bisque?  Well, it's delicious, I know that.  But as for what differentiates a bisque from any other soup, I didn't really know...so I looked it up.  According to the internet, a bisque is a rich, cream soup of French origin, usually made with shellfish and thickened with pureed rice.  That sounds pretty much exactly like the soup that I made this afternoon - a shrimp bisque.  I felt kind of, I dunno, fancy-pants classy making and eating this today.  Like, because I knew what a bisque was today and I didn't know what a bisque was yesterday, and because it was French cuisine which always seems upscale to me.

Souper Sunday #12: Spicy Chorizo Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup

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This one came highly recommended by my sister-in-law.

 

And I can see why!  The smoky, garlicky taste of the chorizo sausage, the plethora of healthy vegetables, the delicious curry aroma.

Spinach Quinoa Salad with Grapefruit and Avocado

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I absolutely love quinoa, and in a salad is my favourite way to eat it.

 

This was a quick and easy weeknight dinner for me this past week on a night when The Hubby wasn't home.  It took me about 25 minutes to prepare, start to finish, and then about 1.5 minutes to eat it.  

Souper Sunday #11: Classic Beef Stew

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Classic.

 

Baby, it's (still) cold outside, and this stew felt like the perfect supper today.  Is this a soup?  No, but in my books it's close enough to qualify for Souper Sunday status!

What a great weekend I've had!  Yesterday my awesome mother treated me to lunch and a spa day as a birthday present.  We got facials,  and then I got a massage while she was getting a manicure.  It was so, so nice, and such a treat since the two of us are not really spa types normally.  The spa that we went to was in the mall, so we popped into a few stores, including the bathing suit store for a total of two whole minutes...after just having had a lunch (with wine) and spa day everything in there just looked really...tight.  I'm going to Las Vegas with some friends at the end of this month (And. I. Can't. Freaking. Wait.), so the time came today to go back to the bathing suit store from yesterday and pick out a new bikini.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Arugula

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The Hubby is starting to call Playing With My Food my 'soup blog,' so I guess it's time to post something not so liquidy (another new word!).  

Butternut squash is my new wonder vegetable (actually it's technically a fruit, but that's like saying that Pluto is not a planet or something.  Details!)  It can be mashed, pureed, roasted, served in a soup, and also used as a delicious base for a risotto.  You can now buy it already peeled and pre-cut in a 2-pound package at Costco, or in a smaller packages at most grocery stores.  Since Costco is my favourite store in the world, I bought it there.  I first made the Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Winter Soup (yum!) that I posted last week, and then this risotto.  

Souper Sunday #10: Creamy Roasted Garlic, Caramelized Onion, and Bacon Soup

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Last night I attended something called the Vancouver International Wine Festival, so I'm actually really impressed with myself that I did anything today other than complain about my raging headache all day, let alone make this soup.

 

How was Winefest you ask?

Well, it was like Disneyland for adults.