Hello everyone,

So John and I made the most splendid Sunday dinner last night. The menu was completely a spur of the moment decision, and the ideas were just kind of thrown together last minute. But once we had cooked everything and were ready to eat, we realized that what made this dinner so special was the degree to which all courses were homemade, invented, or even home-grown.

1. The feature meat: Steak

John made his own rub for this steak. A take on Montreal steak spice, ingredients included peppercorns, coarse salt, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and dried dill. The difference is that John pulverized all of the ingredients In our magic bullet, which we think allowed the spice to penetrate the meat a little better.  The result was possibly the best stake we have had all year. We chose our favourite cut (rib-eye) which John grilled to a perfect medium-rare Chicago style with his homemade rub on his charcoal grill.

2.The steak topper:  Peppercorn Mushroom Sauce

The idea behind my steak topper was to combine a peppercorn sauce recipe with a mushroom sauce. In a pan I sautéed mushrooms in butter, and added coarse pepper flakes, a dash of brandy, fresh thyme leaves and a little cream. Yum!

The vegetable: Grilled Veggies

Our grilled gypsy peppers and zucchini slices were marinated in a homemade sweet and sour sauce. This sauce just happened to be a by-product of a homemade BBQ sauce that John and I had created and canned a few months ago. What made these vegetables extra-special is that they were taken from our garden. The zucchini was one of the monsters featured in my last edition, and the greenish-yellow peppers are called gypsy peppers. This gypsy peppers are just delicious,  combining a little bit of sweetness of a red pepper with a little bit of the zing that green peppers have to offer.

4. The carb: Dill Stuffed Baked Potatoes – our recipe of the week.

These russet potatoes were stuffed with dill, green onion and garlic, and topped with John’s smoked cheddar. Just fantastic.

Tips:
– Select the largest russet potatoes you can find. This will make them easier to scoop out.
– Before baking, stab potatoes with fork several times, brush with oil and wrap in tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees for well over an hour.
– When scooping the flesh out of the potatoes, make sure they are well cooked, otherwise you will have problems performing this task. We found we needed about 1 hour 20 mins to get the potatoes to the point where they were easy to prepare.  Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and using a spoon or paring knife, scoop flesh into a bowl, while keeping the skins intact.
– Try adding other ingredients to your filling – I would suggest trying feta!
– The more dill the merrier!

5. The dessert:

John had a craving for crepes, so we made blueberry crepes. I made the batter, but John did the cooking. John skillfully flipped the crapes on the pan, with a flair for the dramatic. The filling was simpl, blueberries cooked in a pot with no other ingredients added. After rolling the crepes, we sprinkled them with icing sugar.
It’s nice to put in a little extra effort to spoil ourselves on Sunday night, before everyone works the next day. John and I were proud as we created a meal where every dish was made extra special, the reason why I chose to feature an entire meal this edition. Although the recipe of the week would be great with many meals, John and I felt that all the dishes in the meal complimented each other so nicely.

Bon appetit,

Julie

Click here to view recipe:
Dill Stuffed Baked Potatoes