The Family Table

onion chutney & ripping off ideas and why that's ok (says me)

2013-02-04T15:47:00.003-05:00

The Table vegetarian restaurant in Ottawa, Canada.

Sorry I haven't been around, the hubs and I have been on tour...Vegetarian Restaurant Tour 2013! Rock on. Lately, I've been interested in cooking and eating vegetarian. Since my hubby generously leaves the restaurant picks up to me, we've been to a couple very cool vegetarian places. Most notably this place! It's vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, sugar free, organic, and sited as being one of the healthiest restaurants in Canada.

The service is cafeteria style, with dozens of entrees, sauces, desserts, and salads. Each dish has a card above it detailing the ingredients. This added feature is helpful if you have a food allergy and even more helpful if you want to rip off the recipe at home. One of my favorite samplings was the organic tofu fritters with onion chutney, which I stealthily recorded with my iphone.

super helpful ingredients card

Ripping off dishes seems to be a theme in the food industry. I recently read an article by a vegetarian chef in Europe who gets her 'inspiration' surfing the net, reading menus from like minded restaurants around the world. I say, what the hell, good for her! If you're a decent cook, the ingredients and an image is really all you need, your imagination will tell you how it's put together. It's such a challenge to change up your diet, everyone get sick of the same dishes hitting the table too often. The Table restaurant offered both a delicious dinner and many new ideas.

So the ingredients card gave me inspiration to make this crazy yummy side at home:

5 red onions, thinly sliced in rings
1/4 cup molasses
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt (start lightly and adjust to taste)
1/2 cup water

In a thick bottom frying pan, over medium heat melt coconut oil and saute the onions until soft. Add molasses, ginger, maple syrup, vinegar, chili powder and salt. Stir until incorporated. Add water, and continue to saute. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust. Transfer to a glass mason jar, refrigerate and serve as a side to anything! Ripped off to perfection.

Montreal, Quebec

2012-11-10T11:44:00.001-05:00

Maison Publique is Jamie Oliver's first North American restaurant. He opened a little over a month ago in partnership with famous Montreal chef Derek Dammann (shown).


We were first in line when the doors opened at 6 pm, as there are no reservations. The place is full in 20 minutes and averages three seating's a night on the weekends.

The food is as unpretentious as the decor (and the chef for that matter!). This place is a vegan's nightmare, heavy on the pork and fish, with emphasis on local, organic, good ole' French Canadian food. We sat at the bar and were immediately greeted by the chef who entertained us all evening. We enjoyed fois gras (shown), maple pea soup, pork chops, quail, gingerbread cake and peanut butter & vanilla soft ice cream. There are no menus, rather, a wall at the back of the restaurant has the day's dishes pinned to it for diners to stand and review, with the assistance of the helpful staff. Many of the dishes are sharing plates, served on platters.

The small restaurant is pub style, with a long bar that seats about 12 and table seating along the windows. It's causal, cozy and relaxed. Our seats gave us a front row view of the open kitchen. To enjoy your meal while watching world class chefs at work is the best show in town.

supastar fennel salad

2012-11-02T10:58:00.000-04:00

1 fennel bulb, washed & trimmed, core removed
half a lemon, washed
a handful of flat leaf parsley & mint
olive oil
salt & pepper

Using your food processor with the blade at the top for shredding, cut the fennel into chunks large enough to put through the opening. Shred the raw fennel, including the feathery tops. Leave the skin and seeds in the lemon, cut half the lemon in half again and run it through the processor with the fennel. Transfer the contents into a bowl. Finely chop parsley and mint, mix in with the fennel and lemon. Lightly pour olive oil over the salad and sprinkle with salt, combine using clean hands. Remove any lemon seeds or large pieces. Taste and adjust. Serve & enjoy!

DAMN this is good! I served this as a side to paella. The fresh, crispy texture and lemon flavor was the perfect compliment/contrast to a rich and spicy meal. I'm on a fennel bender these days, not only is it delicious raw but the licorice aroma is intoxicating as it roasts in the oven. This Jamie Oliver creation is not his at all, but actually an old Tuscan salad recipe. The idea of running half a lemon, skin, seeds and all through the food processor seems...odd, but the result is incredible. No kidding this salad takes 5 minutes to prepare but looks and tastes much more 'involved' which makes you look like a supastar. Little work...lotta praise. You're welcome.

Sarabeth's

2012-10-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Sarabeth's came highly recommended as a breakfast spot so my hubby and I dined there on Sunday morning. This location sat half a block from our hotel on Madison Avenue in New York. The breakfast menu was gourmet all the way and the decor was upscale cozy.

We enjoyed Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and just to be a total glutton, I also ordered her pumpkin muffin. I don't eat muffins (too carby) but this one...eeeeekk, so good! As soon as I got home I googled the recipe and made them for my crew. Check out the recipe here.

Chef's are my rock stars, I'm in awe of them. The owner, Sarabeth Levine is a legend in the city, check her inspirational story out here.

Manhattan, New York

2012-10-29T13:48:00.000-04:00

My family spent some time in New York recently and stayed in this beautiful brownstone apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, half a block from Central Park. This is a city that loves Halloween, with their streets, shops and houses beautifully decorated throughout the city.

fall in the park

2012-10-23T12:08:00.000-04:00

mom's leftovers turkey soup & thanksgiving

2012-10-05T10:16:00.000-04:00

broth:
turkey carcass
6 cups water
1 carrot
1 onion, cut in half, skin on
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 celery stalk
1 bay leaf
3 thyme stems
handful of parsley

soup:
turkey broth (above)
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled & cubed
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
diced turkey (from the carcass)
1/2 cup brown rice
1 bay leaf
handful of parsley, finely chopped
3 thyme stems
salt & pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, on the stove top over medium heat, place the turkey carcass in water. Add the carrot, onion, garlic, celery, bay leaf, thyme and parsley. Simmer for three hours. Strain off the contents from the broth and set aside the broth. Remove the turkey meat from the carcass and reserve. Discard the remaining stewed items.

In a large soup pot, on the stove top over medium heat, saute the onion, celery and garlic in butter. Add the sweet potato and carrot and continue to saute. Add the brown rice, stir. Add the canned tomatoes, turkey meat and broth, stir. Add the bay leaf, parsley, and thyme, simmer for two hours until the rice is soft, stirring occasionally. Add more water if needed for desired consistency (I prefer my soup on the thick side, so I don't add additional water). Season with salt and pepper, remove bay leaf and serve.

This is a fantastic turkey soup and a great way to use the leftovers from Thanksgiving. Feel free to add whatever leftover veg you love to this soup, kale or spinach would be a great addition here. This coming weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving. The whole family gets together for a big turkey dinner and finishes with pumpkin pie (and apple pie and carrot cake - we're a big crowd).

Every year we start the meal with a prayer and everyone has to go around the table and say what they are thankful for. Even though we are family and completely comfortable with each other, it always seems to be an awkward event. Usually the first person to speak will say "I'm thankful for my family" (as we are all staring at them...good one!) and everyone else repeats that line...'ditto'...'yeah, me too, family'. It's a bit of a farce, but really it is important to have that internal dialogue...'what am I thankful for?' Because if you take the time to answer that question, maybe you will appreciate that more, value it and give it your time, energy and love. We are all buzzing through life sometimes like drones. Maybe we need to unplug, face the people we love and actually talk, spend time with and be thankful for them.

Anyhoo...I am thankful for my family. Really!

Montreal, Quebec

2012-10-03T12:15:00.003-04:00

We live about an hour and a half from Montreal, so close that we're there about half a dozen times a year. Last night was a beautiful fall evening and we found ourselves back in our favorite city for a concert.

We walked into Le Bremner, a cool little restaurant owned by celebrity chef, Chuck Hughes. We had been there before and enjoyed their fantastic sharing menu, full of seafood treats. Typical of Hughes, you have to know where you are going because neither of his restaurants are marked. This one simply says 'restaurant' with a steep walk down to the entrance.

We sat at the bar and shared this lobster pizza with a poached egg in the center. It was creamy, rich and delicious.

The interesting and unique twist to this place is their homemade drinks. On our previous visit our daughter enjoyed homemade root beer. This time, my hubby sampled their homemade apple cider infused with thyme and mixed with rum. They promote seasonal eating and the dinner and drink menu changes accordingly. There were several apple drinks and shooters served in frozen apple sauce shot glasses (oh yesssss it's all coming back to me...the complimentary shooters before we left, that explains things).

Le Bremner is dimly lit, cozy and rustic with the coolest play list. Anything goes as far as dress.

We cabbed over to a small venue downtown Montreal to the Jack White concert. Montrealers are party animals. The crowd was so wild (click here), White played an extra long set to rave reviews. We were huge fans to begin with and left in awe...more awe...the awest. Dude can jam. As can his opening act. Good times were had.

apple cranberry stuffing & mommy's cooking

2012-10-01T12:27:00.001-04:00

1 loaf whole wheat bread, cubed
1 loaf French bread, cubed
1 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 celery stalks with leaves, diced
a handful of fresh cranberries
1/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 Cortland apple, peeled & diced
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/2 tbsp dried savory
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped
salt & pepper

In a large bowl, combine the bread, onion, garlic, celery, cranberries, and apple. Mix gently with clean hands. Add cranberry sauce, chicken stock, butter, savory, salt and pepper, again, mix with hands to combine. Fill the cavity of the turkey and roast. Remove the stuffing once the turkey has completed cooking and before the turkey has rested. Place in an oven proof casserole dish and into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until it has a golden crisp. Serve & enjoy!

This is my favorite stuffing because it has the flavors of the holidays and marries sweet and savory perfectly. My littlest one tells me all year round how much she loves my stuffing and can't wait for Thanksgiving/Christmas to have it. Mommy's food is always the best. My Mother's signature stuffing has dill and raisins (basically the above recipe, minus the cranberries and apple), which I am crazy for. Nobody cooks better than your Mother because she makes it just for you. I love everything my Mom makes and my kids are the same with me. Made with love!

ball, squirrel & treats

2012-09-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

Our four year old Jack Russell, Bella, is blind in one eye but that doesn't stop her from playing ball, obsessively. Like OCD. When we put the dogs out for a pee, Bella will often come back in the house with a ball in her mouth...what the?!? Where did you get that?!? She's ball crazy. Hubs and I work from home which means the dogs get lots of attention. Both of our dogs sleep on my feet under my desk during the day. Bella does so with her ball. When the mood strikes her, she puts her paws on my seat, standing beside my chair and pushes the ball on my lap, relentlessly. If after the 20th time I start ignoring her, she'll keep hitting the ball with her paw...I think she's thinking...maybe bosses wife don't see ball??? We'll do this 25 times until I have to put the ball up. Then she'll sit in the hall and stare at it on the shelf...oh the guilt. When I'm making meals in the kitchen I'll turn around this this face....pweeeease. I'll kick the ball but this only encourages her. Three words get a Jack Russell excited: ball, squirrel and treats. Any of the three and you've got yourself a new bestie.

rustic mushroom bruschetta & pen pals

2012-09-25T17:30:00.000-04:00


Mixed mushrooms & thyme.

Drizzle olive oil on the toasted bread and top with mushroom mixture.

3 portobello mushrooms, washed & thinly sliced
10 button mushrooms, washed & thinly sliced
1 slice of old fashioned thick bacon
1 clove garlic, minced
a pinch of lemon zest
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 tsp grainy Dijon mustard
butter
salt & pepper to taste
whole grain bread

In a frying pan on the stove top over medium heat, melt a knob of butter. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the bacon and mushrooms and stir occasionally. Add mustard, thyme, and lemon zest. Continue stirring until mushrooms are golden and bacon is fully cooked. Remove bacon and cut into small pieces. Return bacon to pan, season to taste with salt and pepper. Under the broiler, toast bread on both sides. Plate the bread, lightly drizzle with olive oil, top with mushroom mixture and serve. Enjoy!

This is a rustic appetizer or side that will please the mushroom lover in your life! For some reason, the more technologically advanced we become, the more we value simplicity. A rough cut slice of grainy bread topped with sauteed mushrooms is the uncomplicated comfort food that appeals to me these days. I really want more of the simple things in my life.

Like everyone, our computer receives hundreds of emails a day. It's very easy to miss something urgent and because of the volume, notes to friends and family are short and sweet. Much like texting, it's so easy and convenient that it's the way to communicate but it most definitely has its drawbacks. Tone can be misinterpreted, emails get lost in the shuffle or unknowingly allocated to junk mail and it tends to be down right sloppy.

A little over a year ago, I began writing letters to a friend of mine in Europe. Every few weeks we would exchange letters and cards with long, descriptive details of the happenings in our lives. We still emailed the urgent stuff, but saved the juicy news for letters. It's exciting to get a letter in the mail because who sends them anymore? When I collected the mail, I would stand over my table, sifting through...bill, bill, bill, junk mail, LETTER...drop the other crap, sit with coat and boots on, rip open the letter and read, immediately.

We had been religiously communicating this way for a while and then one thing and another led us both to stop. I was thinking this week that I missed hearing from her and receiving her letters in the mail...I must have 'put it out to the universe' (like the new agers say) because guess what? A letter arrived in the mail today. I immediately emailed her, a letter is coming your way!

campfires & names

2012-09-23T09:23:00.000-04:00

Nothing beats a campfire in the fall. The cool air makes everyone lean in a little closer. On the weekends we have campfires in our backyard. The kids roast marshmallows and I make them s'mores, then they're off to bed and the adults stay up to the wee hours. We solve the problems of the world, stare at the fire, watch the stars and sing along to the music - it beats the shit out of tv. I've mentioned my refound love of Bob Dylan with his new CD Tempest. Dylan's my son's namesake...kinda.

When I was a teenager one of my many jobs was working at an after school childcare program. One of the kids who attended was a 9 year-old boy who stood out from the rest. He had shaggy hair, wore a jean jacket and was a little philosopher. He didn't want to play with the kids he wanted to talk with me about life and such. One day I asked him, so Dylan, where did your parents get that name? This was waaaay before the name was trendy. Turns out they were hippies and they named him after Bob Dylan. It fit him perfectly. On my last day of work, I told him, you are the coolest kid I've ever met and if I have a boy I'm naming him after you. He smiled. Six years later my son Dylan was born. Must be inherent in the name because he's a freakin cool kid too!

So last night the song Tin Angel came on and the night turned hauntingly beautiful. Could be the perfect campfire music.

matcha latte & gettin' down with meditation

2012-09-22T15:06:00.000-04:00


Matcha tea as it looks in the tin.


Add water to the matcha & whisk...

...until smooth.

Add almond milk & stevia to the bowl, whisk and transfer to a cup...this is my Grandmother's tea cup from her china set.

1 tbsp of high grade organic matcha
2 tbsp warm water
2 packets of stevia
2 cups sugar free warm almond milk

On the stove top, over medium heat, slowly warm almond milk. In a bowl, add matcha and water. With a bamboo matcha whisk, whip the matcha for a minute until the lumps are gone and it forms a smooth paste. Add stevia. Whisk warmed almond milk until frothy and add to the matcha paste. Gently stir with whisk and transfer to a cup. Enjoy!

Matcha is delicious, super nutritious...and everywhere lately! Save yourself the $5 and make yourself a latte at home. This beats the coffee shop version in my opinion because it's dairy and sugar free. If you aren't familiar with matcha, read up on this power house here. I like to sip on this while I'm cooking on the weekends, it's the perfect relaxing drink. It's actually perfectly suited for relaxing, as the non-latte version tea was enjoyed by monks for meditation.

Speaking of meditation, a while back I decided I was going to give meditation a go. I read an article about the health benefits of daily meditation and thought it would be the ideal way to start the day. 5 minutes a day, sit and chill and think about nothing, super relaxing. So I sat on my yoga mat in my room and closed my eyes...clearing my mind of all thought...'cept that itch on my back, so annoying...BEEEP ahhh the wash is done, gotta throw on another load of towels after, man the kids use a lot of towels...what should I wear today, think it's gonna get hot later, but it's kinda cool right now, hmmm...one eye open - ONE MINUTE - that's it??? Total ADD.

It wasn't until I was in the middle of a serious all day cooking sesh listening to music that I had an epiphany...this is meditation. My mind is totally void of thought, I'm completely focused at the task at hand and relaxed. Zen. Dare I say...nir-freakin-vana. The music is super important part of the equation though, it's gotta be the right tunes, for you. My latest and greatest is Jack White. Don't know him? Have a listen here and here. He gives me goosebumps.

Like everything in life, you have to find what works for you. What you love to do is probably your meditation. Make sure you do that often.

Wakefield, Quebec

2012-09-20T07:51:00.000-04:00

Lately, we've been taking off on Wednesday evenings for 'adventure' (makes the week less monotonous). Wakefield, Quebec is a small village that's about a 25 minute drive from Ottawa. It's host to gourmet restaurants, artists and stunning nature. The Village House is a gem of a restaurant run by husband and wife owners. They specialize in gourmet comfort food and focus on high quality local and Canadian products. Many of their dishes will change ever so slightly from visit to visit as they incorporate local seasonal foods.

The view inside the restaurant is as delicious as the food and always sparks a conversation between my hub and me about retiring here...one day. The atmosphere is very relaxed and I'm thinking this is the trend in dining, relaxed gourmet food. I want to dine in a cozy environment, with cool music, enjoy high quality food...while wearing jeans. Forget stuffy silver service...fuggedaboutit.

My hubby enjoyed fall-off-the-bone beef. This is one of their signature dishes of maple syrup & herb braised beef short rib, mushrooms, gnocchi, with sauteed broccoli, carrots and kale.

The dessert is nothing short of art! Everything homemade by the chef. Apple pecan butter tart, with caramel ice cream, and bacon lardon. BACON...genius. With rock salt lightly sprinkled around the tart...also genius.

Wakefield is surprisingly an Anglophone community, you will not hear French spoken in the restaurants and stores, which is unexpected in Quebec. The tiny village produce store is a full of local, organic food. The first time we popped in quickly for milk I ended up trading my basket for a cart and stayed half an hour filling it with amazing finds.

The beautifully restored red covered walking bridge connects one side of the lake to the other.

Lanterns in the rafters light the bridge at night and diamond windows offer the most beautiful view of pristine nature.

Although I claim to be a city girl, really I love nature and serenity much more than hustle and bustle. My readers are from all over the world and I'm sure there's an interest in seeing this kind of Canadian landscape. Stay tuned and I'll show you pictures of Canada and our eats from season to season...

miss lily's Jamaican jerk chicken & a bit of Canadiana

2012-09-18T16:50:00.000-04:00

Easy baked jerk chicken, beans & rice with coleslaw.

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 green onions, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 oz fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp allspice
1/2 tbsp peeled ginger, chopped
1/4 tbsp cinnamon
salt & pepper
10 skinless chicken thighs

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Marinate the chicken overnight for maximum flavor or use immediately. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and bake in a covered dish for an hour and a half, flip the chicken over at the half way mark. Serve with beans & rice and coleslaw. Enjoy!

Why is a Canadian writing about Jamaican jerk chicken? Canada is a culturally diverse country and as a result, we enjoy every type of culinary experience you could imagine. Lately I've been experimenting with jerk chicken recipes and this one is tops! This recipe is missing 2 tbsp of white wine, that I opted not to add. It isn't the first Jamaican recipe I've posted, you may recall this delicious soup from my friend Milla.

Aside from being diverse, we are also a very humble people, which is unfortunate because there's so much to brag about. Allow me to do the very un-Canadian thing and fill you in on some Canadiana...

Baseball, hockey, lacrosse and basketball were invented by Canadians;
Apple pie & Superman...Canadian;
Our civil war was fought in a bar and lasted a little over an hour. We mostly get along and we're natural peacekeepers;
We also invented: standard time, ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro, zippers, insulin, penicillin, the telephone, and short wave radios; and
Canada sits among the top 5 greatest countries in the world in which to live according to the UN.

Impressive, non? We're alright I guess.

how's it goin' eh?

2012-09-14T06:34:00.002-04:00

I shared with you my short list of dislikes, now here's a few of my likes:

matcha almond milk latte: it's green tea on steriods and I'm totally addicted;
lychee martini: honestly I have a drink a handful of times a year but THIS! OMFREAKINGG!
sweet potato french fries with Dijon mustard: yuuuummmmm;
avocado: in any form but especially guacamole;
poached egg on lobster pizza: blame Chuck Hughes for this one, rich & creamy;
soup: any soup...all soup...luv soup;
fresh from the tree Cortland apples: Mmmmmmmm so good.

I could go on forever, I like everything. Add to that list, garden gnomes. Not to eat them, just to look at them. My hubby collects these and at first I was like, are you for real??? But, they've grown on me. This is party gnome. He's got his shades on and sipping a brew, clearly a laid back Canadian gnome. Eh.

zucchini kabobs & dislikes

2012-09-13T08:35:00.000-04:00

Chunky chopped veggies...

Skewer and marinade...

BBQ & serve as a side!

2 small zucchini, cut into large chunks
6 cherry tomatoes
1 red onion, peeled & quartered
1 orange pepper, cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
your favorite fresh herbs, chopped
1/2 a lemon, juiced
salt & pepper

Thread alternate veggies on the skewers. In a glass jar, add the olive oil, herbs and lemon, shake and pour over veggie kabobs. Season with salt and pepper. Lightly grill on the BBQ for 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side. Serve and enjoy!

This is the end of Zucchini-palooza, A-FREAKIN-MEN! Who's idea was this anyways???...You're fired! I'm sorry but zucchini's boring, next year I'm doing "apple-mania". This is an idea for a side dish using a veg that is plentiful right now. Half of the dinner battle is racking your brain as to what the heck your going to put on the table while driving home from work. Ideas are good. Zucchini on the other hand...meeeh. But that's just me.

My 8 year old doesn't like zucchini. She ate it the other night when I made Sinch-atouille because I told her they were pickles. Sometimes I encourage the kids to eat things they haven't tried but I never force them to eat anything they flat out don't like.

It's so politically correct these days to be uber positive. Don't get me wrong I'm naturally a positive person but there's plenty of things I don't like. It's seems like it's only cool to talk rainbows and sunshine but life just ain't that way. So let's buck the trend, here are a few culinary items I don't like:

walnuts: you're bitter and you make the inside of my mouth itchy;
pears: you're mushy and grainy, cooked your good, fresh fugeddaboutit;
liver: you stink (no offense) and your texture's gross;
macintosh apples: same as pears...mushy, grainy;
wild game: same as liver...stinky and wild tasting.

Everything else, I like. Even zucchini. It's not God's greatest gift to the earth but there's plenty of it and we should use it. Enjoy it even.

we luvs us some beavertail

2012-09-12T10:29:00.002-04:00

We've talked BeaverTails many times, I even gave you a recipe here and showed you a BeaverTail hut here sitting on the ice on the Rideau Canal during Ottawa's Winterlude. So how much do the peep's of Ottawa like their BeaverTails you ask? Here's a hot day in Ottawa's Byward Market with the BeaverTail stand out numbering the people at the ice cream stand directly beside it. Anyone for a deep fried doughy treat on a hot day? Get in line.

sinch-atouille & the kitchen party

2012-09-09T16:37:00.000-04:00

5 ingredients away from a tasty side.

All the ingredients thinly sliced.

Full of flavor & super sinchy.

3 small zucchini, ends cut off & thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 small tomatoes, washed, trimmed & thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
thyme & oregano
olive oil & butter
salt & pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. On the stove top on medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in a combo of butter and olive oil. After a couple of minutes, add zucchini and continue to saute. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Arrange tomatoes on top, sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, until zucchini is softened and tomatoes are slightly golden. Sprinkle with more fresh herbs before serving. Enjoy!

These were the ingredients I picked up from my little farmer's market today and the tomatoes were courtesy of my organic farmer friend. With very simple things you can make a delicious side in no time. Ratatouille is slightly different, in that it contains eggplant, but this is a sinchy version. As a variation, finely grated freshly ground parmesan on top of the tomatoes before going in the oven would be fab.

I usually cook with tunes going. It's very zen for me to listen to music while I cook and not unusual for me to spend an entire day in the kitchen. Our kitchen is usually lively and has seen a lot of dancing. We have a decent system and after a few drinks with friends over, that floor makes a pretty good dance floor. My hubby likes to spontaneously spin me around '70's style, the girls do a jivey kinda dance and ONCE we all witnessed my teenage son gettin' down (everyone stopped and stared - it was a rare sighting - we still talk about it). Tonight after dinner my hubby scrubbed up the dishes while the girls danced behind him to this AMAZINGBALL tune. I was in a Dylan mood tonight.

retro

2012-09-08T08:04:00.000-04:00

I have a thing for retro linen. A few months back we were visiting with family outside Toronto and my eldest daughter and I found the cutest vintage store with amazing things. This colorful tablecloth caught my eye immediately. I think it's from the 1950's.

It's not perfect, there's some color bleeding...still I bought it. They had everything you could imagine, and some of their merchandise was in the original packaging, unopened from the '50's!

I collect linen and usually come home with a suitcase full after a vacation. I go for table clothes, runners and pillowcases for some reason. Her prices were so good, I felt like the lady in the Ikea commercial who thinks the item is incorrectly marked too low and rushes through the purchase so they won't notice, yelling 'start the car' to make a getaway. A steal.

zucchini ribbons & organic food

2012-09-06T18:22:00.001-04:00

Uncooked zucchini ribbons easily peel from the small zucchini.

Delicate sauteed ribbons are a delicious side to any dish!

4 small zucchini, ends cuts off & washed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
pinch of fresh thyme
salt & pepper to taste

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the zucchini into ribbons. On the stove top over medium-high heat, melt the butter and add the garlic. Saute the garlic for a minute, then add the zucchini and thyme, stirring occasionally for approximately 10 minutes. The zucchini is ready when the ribbons become slightly translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Serve as a side and enjoy!

This is a really easy, delicious and pretty side. It's so easy it's not really a recipe, more of an idea. If you're like us, the summer veg tastes so fantastic we eat most of it without much embellishing, which can also get boring. This spruces things up without much effort. I used thyme but of course your favorite herb would work too.

We value organic food but don't always eat it for one reason or another. A good friend of ours is an organic farmer and every now and then he drops off a goodie bag for us at the kitchen door. His vegetables are incredibly delicious, much more so than anything in the grocery store. It's nice to know that what we are eating is grown without the chemical crap that is sprayed on the grocery store variety. So to him and all the other organic farmers...keep it up, we need more like you!

if you plant it, it will grow...maybe

2012-09-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

This is our herb garden beside the kitchen door. These two pots on a small wooden stool give us loads of flavor. We have oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary and basil. I frequently use cilantro and dill, and we buy those fresh from the grocery store. Last year we had an herb garden that was a massive fail, aside from the chives that it seems to me would survive under a rock. I love planting but am not so good at the maintaining part. We blame the soil. It's too sandy (yeeeeah...that's it). Honestly, this has done us just as well as any herb garden. These babies are starting to get leggy, time's almost up.

street food

2012-09-04T08:43:00.000-04:00

We visited a festival on the weekend and stumbled upon this very cool Japanese dish in the food court. It's called Takoyaki, which is a round dumpling made out of crepe batter with octopus filling topped with Japanese mayonnaise, shaved katsuobushi (which is dried, fermented, and smoked tuna), and seaweed flakes. I had never heard of this before so the business owner filled us in. This is a very popular traditional Japanese street food that is starting to make its way to major cities around the world.

I had a friend visit from New York in the spring. On our tour of the city, she remarked how culturally diverse Ottawa is. Walking around the city you will see every nationality represented in our citizens. As a result, the food industry here is also multi-cultural.

It was very cool to watch the cook make these perfectly golden balls from batter poured into half shells. The filling was dropped into the centre of the uncooked batter. Once the batter cooked on the bottom, he quickly folded it onto itself with chopsticks and rolled the balls upside down, making perfectly golden dumplings.

The other interesting fact about Ottawa is that French and English are used interchangeably. This festival was in Quebec, where signs are only in French.

I ordered the first batch and gave everyone in my family a bite. My older daughter loved them and came back for her own. The wonderful advantage of living in a diverse city is that my children have grown up with sophisticated palates and are very broad minded as a result. Funny, I just noticed the Canadian maple syrup can on the serving table at this Japanese booth. We'll call it fusion.

UP

2012-09-03T10:15:00.001-04:00

Balloons beginning to inflate at the Gatineau Balloon Festival.

Spectators waiting for the show.

70+ hot air balloons floated down the Ottawa River to both land and boating spectators at sunset.

Just like that, summer floated by! Our last weekend felt bittersweet; although we love the fall, we had a wonderful summer and were sad to see it go. Our family went for ice cream and sat in a park at the water's edge and watched this beautiful air show. The Gatineau Balloon Festival is an annual event held on Labour Day weekend and is best seen not at the festival, but rather in one of Ottawa's many waterside parks. A free show!

Goodbye summer!

curried cream of coconut zucchini soup & zucchini-palooza

2012-08-31T13:59:00.001-04:00

2 tbsp butter
4 small zucchini, skin on, washed, ends removed & coarsely chopped
1 small red onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 tsp green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock (+ half a cup if needed)
salt & pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Add zucchini and celery and saute for a couple of minutes. Add green curry paste, coconut milk and chicken stock. Turn heat up to medium high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the zucchini has softened, approximately 15 minutes, transfer contents of the pot to a food processor. Puree the soup and return to the pot. Adjust thickness with additional chicken stock if needed and season with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!

This soup is super easy and loaded in flavor! You see, the zucchini is so much more than a bread filling or deep fried appetizer. It's plentiful these days so I'm trying some outside of the box recipes to spice up your fall. Last year I brought you "the pumpkin-fest-orama-athon", where I made multiple recipes from one pumpkin. This year I give you.....Zucchini-palooza! Stay tuned...