Celebrations, Appetizers and Doggie Birthday! :)

I've mentioned before that Alex and I don't go out too much and when we celebrate holidays and events, it always revolves around delicious meals that we share together. For Canada Day, I decided to have a day of appetizers! For lunch, I made Mini Croque Monsieurs, mini pizzas (red and white!) and Mini Quiches. The quiches were ham and Cheddar; and tomato and Feta. The Croque Monsieurs are DIVINE. For the pizzas, I made my usual thin crust Basic Pan Pizza Dough, and after pre-cooking it for a minute or so, used a cookie cutter to form the circles. The topping is just pizza sauce, fresh Mozzarella, a little Parm and some basil.

It was pouring rain on Canada Day, so we stayed indoors. I don't know what we were thinking...but we decided to give all four dogs a bath. This is the aftermath! They even pulled down the shower curtain lol...sore backs prevailed. But now they all smell like oranges until they dirty themselves all up again!

We definitely deserved a cocktail after that! Alex made some cherry Old Fashioned's with Canadian Whisky. I bought a bag of fresh sweet cherries with the intention of doing some kind of drink, and he came up with this one. It was so good! I got the idea originally from this recipe: Bourbon Cherry Old Fashioned's. But we wanted to try Canadian whisky (Canada Day of course!) and Alex added different bitters and sweeteners...very tasty!

With our cocktails, we had more appetizers before dinner. I made Fried Stuffed Olives, the recipe called for "deep fried"...I fried them in a pan with butter, so they didn't get that full-on deep fry look, but they were delicious!

I stuffed each olive with Blue cheese. Wow is all I can say!

"Meat and potatoes" for dinner in the form of chicken bites (the ones I used in my Tomato and Bread Salad); and Roasted Baby Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Creme Fraiche. Alex made his secret rum barbecue sauce for dipping.

How could I resist a red and white dessert? :) The strawberries are fresh, sweet and local, so I made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Doing a day of appetizers is a lot of work, but I really had a lot of fun in the kitchen. 

Yesterday morning I made a broccoli quiche for brunch. (It's the same recipe as my Asparagus and Cheddar Quiche, but with broccoli instead). 

This is another "keeper" recipe, it was delicious! Check out my pie lifter. I got it as an "add on" item when I made a purchase through Amazon last month. Add on simply means it's a real deal but you have to spend the minimum $35 for an order to get it so cheap. The idea of this pie lifter is that you bake it under the crust so that the first slice comes out perfectly. I haven't tried that yet, but it still works pretty well, though the handle could be longer.

We've started a new tradition for the pets. :) Yesterday it was 2 years since we adopted Charlie. Each year on their adoption dates, we're going to celebrate the pet's birthdays. :) We don't really know all of their ages, but it's fun! I made Charlie a Spoiled Dog Cake and decorated it with Pupperonis and liver treats, doesn't that sound delicious? :)

I had the other three dogs on leash while Alex gave the birthday girl her cake.

She DEVOURED it! We had to stop her about a quarter in because she was loving it too much! We shared the rest of the cake with the other dogs. Next birthdays are all three cats together in August.

Keeping with the canine theme so to speak, we had what we call "European Hot Dogs" for dinner. :) This is Alex's dish. He cooks Italian sausages, layers them on toasted buns with melted Swiss cheese, then tops them with caramelized onions and mushrooms, sliced olives and a homemade honey mustard sauce. Delicious!

I made my Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream too! It was SO chocolaty...my only comment would be to make sure to really strain the ice cream very well before putting it in the ice cream maker. There were "crumbs" of chocolate, which was okay, but if you want a very creamy ice cream, double strain to get the little chocolate bits out. I'm sure Alex and I have gained weight during the last few rainy days what with me keeping busy in the kitchen lol...but this morning, we're FINALLY getting some sunshine! I hope my garden starts to grow again, it's been stalling for the last few weeks because of the rainy weather.

Our cute little house guest Pavlov will be with us at least another week! :) His owner is having apartment trouble in Montreal, to that I say, no surprise. Montreal can have nice areas, but most apartments are crap and landlords don't care. When he saw the place it looked great. When the previous tenant moved out, there was water damage on the floor, holes in walls and mold. Poor guy, he has to get work done before he can enjoy his new home. I'm glad my city days and apartment days are over!