PARMESAN CHICKEN

The preparation IS minimal. All you need to add is a loaf of French bread and a green salad. While those tasteless barbecued chickens fly off the heated cart at dinner time and you are standing in the supermarket for waiting for the next batch to come out, consider taking home a tray of skinless chicken breasts and make this delicious Parmesan chicken. How much better is this, even if the idea comes from a mayonnaise site? If truth be told, brined or salted chicken breasts would be more tasty and succulent, check out Salting Meat, but considering you were ready to take a soggy skinned barbecued chicken home, throwing together this Parmesan chicken could be a huge improvement. 

PARMESAN CHICKEN

2 chicken breast pieces

salt and pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese 

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
• Place them in a medium bowl and coat evenly with the mayonnaise.
• Transfer the chicken breasts to a baking dish and sprinkle the tops evenly with Parmesan cheese.
• Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. 

CHERRY CREAM SLICE - CSERESZNYÉS KRÉMES

I made this beautiful dessert at the height of the cherry season. I gave the pan away and kept 3 slices. When I handed Jim the last slice I regretted not keeping one more for myself. Make it from fresh ingredients or from convenience products, either way the result will be an outstanding cream slice. The one thing I believe is essential is to make the cherry pie filling from scratch. Use fresh, frozen or canned pitted cherries. If you have to buy canned cherries 2 cans will suffice. One could always resort to commercial cherry pie filling, but the fake flavour and colour would in my opinion spoil the slice. Prepare the first three ingredients and let them cool down to room temperature or prepare them a day ahead. The cream should be whipped just before assembly. These slices are simpler to make than they appear.

CHERRY CREAM SLICE

1 batch of Hungarian Flaky Pastry

1 batch of Cherry Pie Filling

1 batch of Vanilla Bean Pudding

1-1/2 cups whipping cream

2 Tbsp icing sugar

icing sugar for dusting

Or

1 pkg of frozen puff pastry thawed overnight in the fridge

2 cups of homemade cherry pie filling

1 pkg of cooked vanilla cream pie filling

1-1/2 cups whipping cream

2 Tbsp icing sugar

icing sugar for dusting

• Bake two pastry sheets in a 9X12 baking pan.
• Cut the first sheet while still hot into 18 squares and set them aside. These will go on the top.
• Bake the second sheet and leave this in the pan. This will be the bottom. Follow the recipe, click on the link, or follow the instructions on the package if using commercial puff pastry. Remember not to stretch the puff pastry and roll it larger than the baking pan. Commercial puff pastry shrinks a lot during baking.  
• Next prepare the cherry pie filling. Click on the link for the recipe.
• Make a batch of vanilla bean pudding, click on the link, or follow package instructions. Cooked cream pie filling is better, but if using instant pudding mix, reduce milk in the recipe by 1/3.
• When everything has cooled to room temperature, spread the cherry pie filling on the bottom pastry.
• Spread the vanilla pudding over the cherry.
• Whip the cream to soft peaks, add 2 Tbsp icing sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.
• Spread the whipped cream over the vanilla layer and arrange the pastry squares on the top, pressing down on them lightly.
• Chill the pan for a couple of hours and dust the top with icing sugar before serving.

WILD OR FARMED SALMON

While salmon is often recommended as part of a healthy diet, there’s an ongoing debate about whether farmed salmon is actually good for you.

Fish farming has devastating consequences on our oceans and I won’t support the industry. Don’t be fooled by the organic label, farmed salmon has no dietary benefits. You might as well eat the packaging for all the good farmed salmon will do for you. Restaurants that advertise fresh, organic salmon are using farmed salmon. Otherwise the magic word would be "wild".

Farmed fish is bad for the water supply, and the oceans.  In British Columbia where the pacific salmon’s life cycle begins and ends, salmon is a vital part of the ecosystem, indeed the salmon is the sustenance of our forests. The salmon, the wildlife and the trees are all interdependent. 

nine reasons we want fish farms out of B.C. waters