The Daily Struggles of the Domestic Un-Goddess

winter seafood dinner party

2012-01-22T20:38:00.002-05:00

Before I get into this dinner party menu, just wanted to show you my snazzy new facebook page - just adding another way for you to keep up. I also add some content on there that you don't get on the blog or via twitter. More snark and links and that kind of thing. So it's toooooooooooootally worth liking. :)

I'll apologize in advance for the cruddiness of these photos - my camera battery (all four camera batteries, actually....) was, of course, toast when I went to take prep pictures (so there are none of those). And that's when the light was actually good.

So unfortunately, these pics are a result of overhead kitchen light. But I swear the food is just as delicious as normal, so read on......

I was having some friends over for dinner, and I wasn't really sure what to make - the only restrictions I had were no peanuts, and that one of the diners was not a fan of big bloody masses of meat. Fine by me anyway, as I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be steering clear of steak tartare these days.

So I went with a seafood theme, and tried to stay a little bit seasonal (not that you can really eat *seasonal* food in Ottawa in January...).

For an appetizer, I opted to make some coconut shrimp - I was inspired from a recipe in the Kraft What's Cooking holiday magazine (I know...heinous, but I was inspired, what can I say?). So I took out the Shake and Bake, and the pre-made sauce, and made my own version with panko and a sour cream sauce. It was really delicious, but the shrimp are best right out of the oven, so they are nice and crispy.

I did find that the panko adhered well and really gave a nice crunch to the shrimp, which is unusual in a non-deep-fried appie. I served these with some venison pepperettes (courtesy of my bro), and some red and green pepper strips. I like to keep appetizers relatively light, and not too filling, because I just want to get people geared up for some gooooood eatin' later in the evening.

Coconut-Panko Shrimp
makes about two dozen

1 lb large shrimp (26/lb), peeled and deveined. Take off the tails, nobody eats them and they leave a mess
1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut, toasted (toast in a frying pan for 5-6 minutes on medium, stirring often and watching like a hawk)
1 cup panko
1 t curry powder

1 t garlic powder
dash cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c low-fat sour cream
2 T indian curry paste
1/4 c chopped cilantro

1. (If you are baking right after assembling, preheat your oven to 400F).

2. Combine coconut, panko and seasonings in a shallow bowl.

3. Dip shrimp in egg (I actually just tossed the whole batch of shrimp in with the egg because I'm lazy like that).

4. Coat shrimp in coconut-panko mixture until evenly coated. TIP: have one 'wet hand' and one 'dry hand' - use one hand to grab the slimy eggy shrimp and use the other to help toss/pretty the coating mixture. The coating will adhere better and you won't end up covered in eggy coconut goo.

5. Lay each shrimp on a baking sheet. Don't let them touch. I baked mine on a silpat.

6. Bake at 400F for 10-12 minutes. Mine were perfect after 10 minutes (just pick one and cut through to make sure it's pink and opaque the whole way through).

7. While shrimp is baking, mix together sour cream, curry paste and cilantro.

Enjoy! It's awesome and pretty easy to put together.

I came across a really intriguing roasted cauliflower salad recipe on epicurious, and pretty much followed the recipe exactly (though I halved it because it was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge recipe).

Half of the recipe was just about perfect for 6 appetizer servings. I'm sharing my version below, but I've linked to the original. I figure most people are likely to need 4-6 servings of salad, rather than 12ish.

You can do all of the components in advance (i.e., the cauliflower, chopping the lettuce). I dressed each salad individually and this worked well.

Roasted Cauliflower and Radicchio Salad

stolen and slightly modified from epicurious

1 small head cauliflower cut into 1-inch-wide florets
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup white-wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
9 large leaves of romaine, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
1 small head radicchio, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

parmesan cheese for grating on top

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.

2. Toss cauliflower with 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Spread in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and roast, turning over with tongs halfway through roasting, until tender and golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes total. Cool in pan on a rack, then transfer to large bowl.

3. Whisk together vinegar, shallot, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl, then add remaining 5 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified. (FYI - this does not emulsify...just whisk before drizzling)

4. Add romaine, radicchio, parsley and dressing to cauliflower and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with nuts and parmesan.

I loved the richness of the nuts and cheese with the deep roasted flavour of the cauliflower. The acidity of the dressing really made it fabulous. Great salad. It's a bit labour-intensive, but I think it's wonderful for fall/winter and would make a great meal with a grilled chicken breast or something.

For soup, I went back to seafood.....I've made this mussel-fennel bisque before. I'm not going to re-post the recipe here, because I make it pretty much EXACTLY as written.

The only changes I recommend is just including all of the fennel in the soup itself, and skipping the browned fennel cubes (too much work). I think you could also reduce the cream by half. The seafood broth with rice is so rich on its own that I don't think 1 c of heavy cream is fully necessary. It's so yummy though. I love this soup. It's rich and delicious and really just the perfect seafoody-indulgence. With bread and salad, it would make a great meal.

For the main, I had some salmon hanging around in my freezer and so that's where I started. I ended up with another epicurious winner, this salmon fillet recipe with a creamy horseradish sauce. I just made a few small changes (I baked my salmon at 400F for 12 minutes, because I"m lazy and because my bbq is under about a metre of snow and ice. Baking is great for dinner parties, because you just pop the dish in the oven, and then go back to your guests - no fuss! I marinated the salmon for about two hours, which was great.

I can also attest that the leftovers are PHENOMENAL made into a salmon salad - I just combined my leftover salmon with the leftover sauce, added some minced onion/green pepper/celery and it was perfection in a sammich. YUM. I'd make this again - it's super easy and quick to come together and the sauce was delicious.

I served the salmon with this butternut squash dish - it's simple squash wedges, roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with pepitas and mint. It was a simple dish, but I really liked it as well. I think the serving estimate is a bit low (4 people ate most of the squash), but I also baked my squash over an hour to get it nice and soft and caramelized.

That said, I have a squash PSA. WEAR GLOVES WHEN CHOPPING BUTTERNUT SQUASH. The internets have not come to a consensus on why this is, but with some squash and some people, skin will react. After I chopped the squash, the fingers on my right hand started feeling numb. Then they started feeling tight. And swollen. It really kinda freaked me out. And then the skin that was feeling tight cracked in about a million places (sorry, I know that's gross). It seems it's like some sort of chemical coming from the squash that did it to me. Anyway, the moral of the story is....wear your damn gloves when you chop that squash. And then you can avoid freaking out about your bizarre reaction. #learnfrommyfail

Last, I wanted to finish with something pretty simple, and on the lighter side of desserts. I've made passionfruit pavlova before, so I just made a variation of it this time and it was sooooooooo fabulous.

I followed a different meringue recipe this time, and I think the oven temperature was too high....my meringues really did brown quite a bit. But they were still yummy, so I don't think it was a big deal. Also, rather than filling with whipped cream, I opted to fill with the most decadently delicious coconut yogurt in the world. Even at nearly 10% fat, I figured it was a lighter choice than the 35% whipping cream. And man, it's sooooooooooo good. Instead of a simple passionfruit drizzle, I added some pureed mango (just 3/4 of a large mango, a bit of superfine sugar, and a splash of water, pureed together) to amp up the volume. Passionfruits are $3/each and don't really give a whole lotta pulp each. It was a great balance and the tropical flavour of the passionfruit really came through nicely. I would make this again and again. Perfect easy dessert.

So that's my menu....I wanted to keep it on the simpler side, and not ultra-indulgent. I thought it balanced really well and the flavours were really good. YUM. Any of these recipes would be great as part of another menu as well.

Thanks for reading - and don't forget to check out DNM on facebook!

ringing in the new year with chickpeas and dark leafy greens

2012-01-02T22:15:00.004-05:00

If you guys are anything at all like me, you probably tend to start out the new year with all sorts of healthy eating resolutions. For me, it's not even really about the idea that it's a "NEW YEAR" and thus I must resolve to renew myself and become somehow better. Mostly, it's that I've just come through an orgy of unhealthy (yet oh so delicious) food and celebration and that I think it's time for a little more restraint.

Also, it doesn't hurt that I'm six months pregnant and would prefer not to gain 10 zillion pounds. Not that I did that last time or anything *cough.*

Veggies are good for me.

Hubs is less than thrilled. In fact, he pronounced that tonight's creation tasted like "New Year's resolution food." Not sure that's the most ringing endorsement. At any rate, I thought it was tasty, and if you crave something a little more indulgent, these wraps are easily doctored to include such toppings as cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc. Really, they can be as indulgent as you want them to be. For all I know or care, you could douse them in gobs of butter and a few slabs of bacon.

But you won't do that, right?

Because it's ALL about the healthy...2012 means more swiss chard and kale.....

I doctored this recipe pretty substantially in terms of flavourings. I could tell from reading the original in the Jan/Feb issue of Clean Eating that some flavour was going to be needed.

I started with these guys and went from there (hence adding curry powder, etc.).

I'm all for eating healthy, but food still needs to have a certain amount of flavour and taste to be yummy. I simplified the instructions as well, because I'm all about keeping things as easy as possible. :)

Chickpea-swiss chard veggie wraps

(adapted from Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Clean Eating)

1 t olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas)

1 zucchini, chopped

2 c frozen corn

1 bell pepper, chopped (red or green.....your choice)

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped (use 2 if they are small)

1 bunch swiss chard, chopped (smaller bunch is probably best)

***Note - spice measurements are approximate. Taste and adjust as necessary.

1 t turmeric

1 t garlic powder (or use fresh if you are feeling less lazy)

1 t cumin

1/4 t cinnamon

2 t curry powder

1/2 t salt

pepper to taste

1 T vinegar

tortillas

cilantro, chopped

tomatoes, chopped

sri racha hot sauce, because it is awesome.

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, pepper, zucchini and carrot.

Once they have sautéed for a couple of minutes, add in the corn. It's okay if it's still frozen (you can see Lil Z likes to steal it while it's still frozen....)

Cook until veggies are softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Add in dry spices (turmeric, garlic powder, cinnamon, cumin, curry powder). Combine well. Throw swiss chard over top.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes, until the greens have wilted down. Add salt and pepper and vinegar. Taste - adjust as needed.

I found this mix could take a lot of spice and I may have even used more than I call for above. Since this forms the bulk of your filling, you will want this to be pretty flavourful.

3. While chard is cooking, chop your tomatoes and cilantro. Combine if you want. I think fresh lettuce (or something else with crunch) would be a great addition to this.

4. Top each tortilla with about 1/2 cup of filling (I had huge tortillas, so I used about 3/4 c) and a good sprinkling of tomato/cilantro. Top with a nice amount of sri racha....as much as you can handle. :)

I think it's a great way to start off the year. The spice of the sri racha really gives the bite that this dish needs. I think the filling would also be a great side dish with fish or chicken. Hubs is really not as thrilled about it, but has promised me that he will in fact eat his leftovers tomorrow for lunch...

Perfect to start the new year with a meatless Monday.

spooky spiderweb cupcakes

2011-10-30T23:26:00.003-04:00

They really aren't that spooky - more cute than anything!

This is just going to be a quick post, but thought I would share.

I made double chocolate cupcakes, using this cake recipe I've used millions of times before (it makes 36 cupcakes, if you use a 1/4 c measure to scoop the cupcakes). Bake at 300F for about 21 minutes (don't overbake, or they will be dry). At some point, I'd kinda like to experiment in making this recipe a tiny bit less sweet (maybe less sugar, or using unsweetened chocolate instead of dark chocolate....)...otherwise, it's sheer chocolate perfection. It's nice and soft, and moist and deeply chocolatey. OMNOMNOM.

I tried a different icing technique - I'd recently read about icings that involved a cooked milk/flour mixture incorporated into whipped sugar and butter. I used this whipped vanilla buttercream recipe from Epicurious. I was intrigued for a couple of reasons....first, the flour/milk would cut the pure buttery sweetness of a classic buttercream, and second, I had hopes that the use of granulated sugar would avoid that powdery blech taste of regular buttercream too. I wasn't disappointed. I made this recipe, doubled it, and added the zest of an orange, along with enough orange gel colour to make them a bit more Halloweeney. The icing is delicious - it has a wonderfully soft texture and isn't as dead sweet as most. I'll try this technique again!

Last, I topped them with white chocolate spiderwebs. I was actually shocked at how easy they were to make - I just purchased some white chocolate pastilles, melted them, and piped them from a ziploc bag (with the teeeniest snip ever in the corner). I drew a freehand template with a sharpie, and just piped onto waxed paper overtop of the template.

For good measure, I piped a few freehand ghosts too (had too much chocolate left, and was not convinced that any of my spiderwebs would make it off the paper). I used currants for eyes, and sprinkled with a little bit of black glittery sugar.

It was super easy to do (even for me, who is COMPLETELY talentless at piping/decorating) and they came off the wax paper pretty easily too (no need to chill in the fridge). You'll see that Geek Sweets has a beautiful photo walkthrough of these spiderwebs. Check it out!

Coming up soon - a post about my $50 Food Day dinner party (four courses AND bread for $5/person), and a phenomenal braised chicken cashew curry. I have a new toy.....isn't it beautiful? Look forward to lots of braising in the near future. ;)

Oh, and last but not least, mini-foodie two is on the way....coming sometime in April. Should be good times...

Cheers, and thanks for reading!

falling in love with fall comfort food

2011-10-02T20:53:00.005-04:00

I have both the fortune and misfortune to live in a country where the weather is pretty much unpleasant for at least half the year. As a result, I'm surrounded by people who are completely devoted to and consumed by all things Summer and sun, and are all about taking advantage of everything the warm weather has to offer.

I am not one of those people. I actually don't like hot weather.

I love the Fall. I love cool crisp mornings, I love fiery bright forests, and I absolutely love Fall comfort food. Like obsessively love it. For the last month, I'll I've been able to think about is stew, roast, pot pie and root vegetables. I've actually been a bit gleeful that it's finally getting cold (kay, maybe I was not so gleeful to greet a cold, rainy, gray morning today...but I digress).

Mmmmmmmmmmm.....potatoes. I could live on potatoes.

So I'm indulging myself. I hope you enjoy some of these treats as much as I have been. I've been in a cooking frenzy this weekend. On top of the wonderful feast I'm about to share, I also made a batch of baked beans today (from October's Clean Eating - on shelves now) (for tomorrow's dinner, to be gobbled up accompanied by cheddar garlic biscuits). For tonight, I made a bolognese sauce that Lil Z and I enjoyed with farfalle. YUM. PS - If you make that bolognese, add a can of tomato paste and a good palmful (2T) of italian herbs).

For Saturday's dinner, I wanted to use seasonal ingredients, so that basically gave me a harvest theme. I started the meal with my favourite curried parsnip fries, with yogourt curry dip. Love these guys - they are so easy to make and they usually go flying off the table. 1lb of parsnips feeds 3ish people, and 2lb of parsnips is best for a crowd. If people are dieting, then probably best to stick with 1lb of parsnips (I had some dieters in the crowd, and hence lots of leftovers).

I followed the parsnip fries with the most decadent roasted tomato soup. I have recently discovered that Costco (in Canada, at least) carries these amazing San Marzano style tomatoes (no, not controlled origin, but they are San Marzano type of tomatoes, grown in that region of Italy....just no AOC-type label).

They are delicious and for the price, I'm totally cool with the lack of formal pedigree. I found the recipe on SmittenKitchen (who in turn, had adapted it from America's Test Kitchen). At this point, I don't care who came up with it - it is genius, and I totally agree with the simplified processed instituted by Deb at SK, because there's no need to strain your soup. Not for a fall feast. Perhaps if the Queen were coming, but that wasn't happening for me, so I didn't strain either.

Now, I confess that I had *intended* on serving my soup with no-knead spelt bread. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of those ideas that was fabulous in my head, and utter failure in reality. The night before the dinner, I had mixed my flour, yeast, water and salt. I waited the requisite 18 hours. But when I went to try to 'fold' my dough, I discovered that the water and the flour had not actually merged. It was strange. So I pitched it. Ergo, there was no bread with the soup. But it's just was well, because frankly, the soup is robust enough to stand on its own.

As a main, I served a centre-cut pork loin (I know, it's been four months since I posted, and I"m writing about pork AGAIN...sorry!), along with wine-poached plums. I accompanied this with sage-roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes, and sauteed spinach with garlic (spinach+garlic + splash of soy). It made for a colourful plate, with nicely balanced flavours. It would have been improved had I not (again...oops) overcooked the pork. In my defence, the thermometer went from 150F (not done enough for this particular dinner) to 170F in about five minutes. Zoinks. It was a little dry, but enough of the wine poaching liquid and it was very salvageable. :) Note to self: next time, take the damn roast out at 150F and let'er rest. Lesson learned. Again.

For dessert, I finished it off with a chocolate spelt cake. Why the spelt obsession, you ask? My guest of honour has a wheat intolerance, and spelt is often well-tolerated by those with wheat sensitivities. That said, it's important to note that spelt is NOT okay for someone who has celiac disease, because it does have some gluten in it.

All that said, after my epic spelt bread failure, I was a little dubious of this chocolate cake actually being any good. It was a wholegrain chocolate cake, made only with cocoa (no actual chocolate) and filled with dates. I was definitely skeptical. I needn't have been though - it was actually pretty fabulous! You have to be careful not to overbake (take the cake out of the oven before any toothpick comes out dry....once the cake is set and mostly baked, take it out. It's delicious and even though you can see the odd date bit, but you really can't tell they are in there. And that means a lot, coming from me, because I maintain (and always have) that dates look like cockroaches.

See? Pile of cockroaches. ;)

Parsnip fries with curry dip

1 lb parsnips

1-2 T thai red curry paste

2 T vegetable oil

1 c plain yogourt

2 T indian curry paste (mild or hot, depending on your taste buds)

2 T honey/maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Peel parsnips and cut into 'fries'. Look at these babies in all of their root vegetable-ey goodness.

2. Combine thai curry paste and vegetable oil.

Toss parsnips in oil/curry paste mixture.

3. Spread out parsnips on baking sheet (I line with parchment paper) and bake for about 30 minutes. You can go as long as 45, just watch the little bits for signs of burning.

4. Meanwhile, combine yogourt, indian curry paste and honey/syrup. Taste and adjust to your taste (i.e., if it's too hot, add yogourt. If it's too boring, add more curry paste. Add more sweetener if that is to your taste).

5. Enjoy parsnip fries with dip! It's that easy.

Roasted Tomato Soup

(from Smitten Kitchen and America's Test Kitchen)

2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice, drained, 3 cups juice reserved (I used San Marzanos)
1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large shallots, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Pinch ground allspice
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups chicken stock, homemade or canned low-sodium
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons brandy or dry sherry (I used marsala)
Salt and cayenne pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. With fingers, carefully open whole tomatoes over strainer set in bowl and push out seeds, allowing juices to fall through strainer into bowl. I had help for this part. ;)

Spread seeded tomatoes in single layer on foil. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar (I forgot to sprinkle with sugar....I just mixed it into the soup....I'm pretty sure it was almost as good!).

Bake until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color, about 30 minutes. Let tomatoes cool slightly, then peel them off foil; transfer to small bowl and set aside.

2. Heat butter over medium heat in large saucepan until foaming. Add shallots, tomato paste and allspice. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, 7 to 10 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Gradually add chicken stock, whisking constantly to combine; stir in reserved tomato juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors, about 10 minutes.

3. Blend with the pulverizer of your choice (for me: immersion blender....no extra pots to clean!). Add cream and warm over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in brandy and season with salt and cayenne. Serve immediately. I didn't find that extra salt was really needed, but to each his/her own.

This soup was what canned tomato soup only wished it could be....sophisticated, rich, delicious and SO perfect for a cold rainy day. It WOULD be perfect with grilled cheese. Yum. I had grandiose plans of swirling some more on top of the soup, but it really doesn't need a thing....so it doesn't look fancy, but it's YUM. Make it.

Roasted Pork Loin with Poached Plums
stolen and slightly modified from Epicurious.com
makes 6 servings

6 sweet firm red or black plums (such as Burgundies, Satsumas, or El Dorados; about 2 pounds), quartered, pitted
2 cups Pinot Gris or Viognier
1 cup dry red wine
2 whole star anise
cinnamon stick
1/4 cup plus 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar, divided
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
5 fresh thyme sprigs plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme, divided

2 tablespoons chopped shallot

Pork
2 1 1/4-pound pork tenderloins (I used 1 centre-cut loin roast, about 2.5 lbs)
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
Chopped fresh chives

For Plums:
1. Combine first 5 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan; bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; simmer until plums are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer plums to platter. Strain wine mixture.

Star anise is pretty.

2. Return strained liquid to same saucepan. Add broth, thyme sprigs, and shallot. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 cup, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce; stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar and chopped thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

For Pork:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush pork with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper.

2. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until brown on all sides, turning often, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven, and roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 160F, about 20 minutes (I cooked mine for 40 minutes because center loins are much thicker than tenderloins....when in doubt, use a thermometer).

3. Remove skillet from oven and let pork stand 10 minutes. Cut pork crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Serve with poached plums and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped chives.

Chocolate Espresso Spelt Cake

from epicurious.com

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for pan
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder plus additional for dusting pan and cake (I confess to not knowing whether my cocoa is dutch process or not...it was Fry's...I think it is)
1 cup boiling-hot water
1 1/2 tablespoons instant-espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 lb Medjool dates (12 to 14), pitted and coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs

Special equipment: a 9-inch springform pan

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter springform pan, then lightly dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess. I actually lined the bottom of my pan with parchment, just to be doubly sure, AND I baked it on a lined baking pan (I always do this because I do not trust liquidy substances in springform pans....learn from my mistakes)

2. Stir together boiling-hot water, espresso powder, vanilla, and baking soda in a bowl, then add dates, mashing lightly with a fork, and steep until liquid cools to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

3. Whisk together spelt flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. I'm told it's important to spoon spelt lightly into the measuring cup...so that's what I did.

4. In yet another bowl (yes, by this point, your counter will be covered....), beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until just combined.

5. Beat in date mixture (batter will look curdled), then reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. The batter is pretty thick.

6. Spoon batter into springform pan, smoothing top, and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center comes out with just a few crumbs....do NOT overbake....start checking at 40 minutes (the recipe says about 50 minutes to 1 hour).

7. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then remove side of pan and cool cake on rack.

I decided to top my cake with a simple ganache - 4 oz whipping cream (35%), 4 oz dark chocolate (I used 70% Callebaut dark chocolate). Melt together in the microwave on 50% power. Stir until smooth. Pour over cake.....I cheated and used my ganache to fill in the slightly sunken middle of my cake. :)

It was a great finish to the meal. Highly recommend it, especially if you or someone you know has issues with wheat. This would also be easy to make dairy-free (use vegan margarine or oil in lieu of butter) and I'm *told* (although cannot attest) that you can also use egg replacer in it. If someone tries that out, lemme know....

Thanks for reading!

bbq tastes of summer

2011-06-12T22:15:00.003-04:00

One of the many things to love about summer is that you just can't go wrong when you invite people over for a barbecue. Nobody expects anything fancy (most are content with burgers and hot dogs), and anything you do that's a bit outside of the box looks extra fancy as a result.

For example, tonight's dinner was nothing crazy - bbq'd pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, salad and dessert - but having a little fun with the execution of the dinner made it super delicious.

Of course, things would have been helped had hubs not practically petrified the pork on the grill (you know that memo from the FDA last week, where they said it was safe to cook pork to 145F? hubs burned it). I was surprised that despite it's inner temperature reading of 180F (no, not joking), some parts of the pork were still not bad.....definitely not juice, but still edible. The thinner parts were chewy and hard (yuck), but the thicker middle parts were workable.

I'm so obsessed with cooking magazines that I took the chance to use two of my latest - June 2011 Clean Eating and Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink - they absolutely did not disappoint, and you'll see the recipes for southwestern cheddar potato wedges, salad with endive, feta, avocado and mint, and passionfruit pavlova following. They were all such delicious twists on ordinary...I felt compelled to share them.

For the main, I opted for an asian-inspired (more pan-asian than any specific geographic location, hehe) pork tenderloin. Aside from charring, I thought the recipe would have benefited from longer marinating. I marinated about 3 hours, but I think that the flavours would have better permeated the pork with an overnight marinade. It was good though...I mean really, when there are meat and fire....it's hard for anything to be especially bad.

A little tip, when you are entertaining, make sure you have all of your garnishes ready to go before company arrives. In this instance, I had crumbled feta, cilantro, glaze for meat, grated cheddar and minced red peppers ready to go for last minute additions. It makes you look more organized and makes the whole meal flow a lot better.

Honey-lime dressed salad with avocado, endive, mint and feta

from Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink (will be online here soon)

As soon as I saw this combination of flavours, I knew it would be delicious. It's light and yummy and fresh...the mint adds that little bit of something extra, and it's all wonderfully balanced with the rich avocado, bright mind, sharp feta and yummy honey lime dressing all playing off each other. Can't go wrong with this. I'm sure it would be fine without the endive though - it was good, but you wouldn't be missing anything if you felt like not buying endives)

DRESSING:

1/4 c olive oil

3 T lime juice

1 T honey

2 t dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper

SALAD:

1 large belgian endive (optional, I think)

1/2 cup mint leaves

8 cups greens (I used red leaf lettuce, baby spinach or mixed greens would work well)

1 large ripe but firm avocado, sliced

4 oz feta, crumbled

1. Combine dressing ingredients. Set aside (can be made in advance and fridgified)

2. Slice endive in half lengthwise. Cut out and discard core. Thinly slice. Coarsely tear mint leaves.

3. Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss. Add dressing. Toss. Eat immediately (will not keep).

Delicious. I think it would be great with a grilled chicken breast on top, or with a nice piece of fish, if you wanted to make the salad into a meal on its own).

Southwestern Cheddar Steak Fries

stolen and lightly modified from the June 2011 issue of Clean Eating

Potatoes are inherently yummy, so it's hard to go wrong, but this is like the love child of a potato skin and a roasted potato....and it's actually not too bad for you. YUM. I reduced teh amount of smoked paprika (and subbed sweet spanish paprika) because I find that smoked paprika tends to completely dominate all recipes. A little bit goes a long way. If you don't have smoked paprika, you could get some smokiness by using smoked salt, a drop of liquid smoke or some chipotle powder. I think they would be good even without the smoke though.

1 lb red or yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut lengthwise into wedges

1 T olive oil

1/2 t smoked paprika (I used bittersweet)

1.5 t sweet spanish paprika (not the cheap grocery store stuff)

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 t sea salt

1 oz finely shredded aged cheddar

1/3 c finely chopped red pepper

2 t minced cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper/silpat. In a large bowl, combine oil with paprika, cumin, garlic and salt. Toss potatoes with spice mixture. Place potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet.

2. Bake in centre of oven for 10 minutes. Flip and stir potatoes, and bake for another 10 minutes.

3. Remove potatoes from oven and sprinkle with cheese and red peppers. Bake another 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve immediately.

Asian-inspired grilled pork tenderloin

stolen from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry

I've changed this recipe a little bit, because I like to marinate my pork to infuse the flavours a little more. I would marinate this overnight for maximum yum factor.

1/4 c hoisin sauce

2 T lemon juice

1 T dijon mustard

1 T honey

1 T toasted sesame oil

1 T low-sodium soy sauce

1 T grated ginger

1 T minced garlic

[1 t lemon zest....I omited because I juiced my lemons and was too lazy to zest them after]

2 pork tenderloins

1. To make marinade/glaze, combine all ingredients except pork in a bowl. Mix. Pour 2/3 of marinade over pork. Reserve the rest of the marinade to use as a glaze/sauce.

2. Let pork marinate 24 hours (I say this is crucial...mine only marinated for 4 hours and the flavours were not permeated enough).

3. Grill pork to desired doneness (FDA recommends a temperature of 145F, with a rest time of at least three minutes). Brush pork generously with marinade during laste five minutes of cooking. As mentioned above, hubs grilled to a temp of 180F. I let it rest for 10 minutes....it was still edible, but I think anything over 160F is really kinda overdone. Slice into thin slices and serve.

You could use this same recipe with either pork chops or chicken pieces and I think it would be equally great. The leftovers are awesom in stir fry, or in wraps or on salads. I was lucky enough to find pork tenderloin at half price today, so we royally stocked up.

Passionfruit pavlova

from Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink (will be online here soon)

I've written about pavlova before....for the uninitiated, it is a dessert consisting of a baked meringue, whipped cream and fruit. This is a relatively simple pavlova, and I think it's incredibly delicious. That said, I also found it too sweet, so I'm providing a recipe NOT based on what I actually made, but tweaked slightly to proportions that I am confident would yield a more balanced dessert.

Overall though, this is amazing...passionfruit is one of the most wonderful flavours in the entire planet - it's so intoxicatingly tropical....if you've never tried if before, this would be a most decadent initiation.

MERINGUE:

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1/2 t cream of tartar

3/4 c superfine sugar (just take regular and whiz it in the food processor)

1 t cornstarch

1 t white vinegar

CREAM & FRUIT

1 c whipping cream

2 T sugar

1 t lemon zest

1 T lemon juice

2 ripe passion fruit

1. Preheat the oven to 250F (120C).

2. Trace an 8-inch circle onto a piece of parchment paper using a marker. Line a baking tray with the parchment paper, marker-side down (so the marker does not get on your meringue).

3. Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until they are foamy. Slowly pour in the sugar while whipping and continue whipping on high speed until the whites hold a stiff peak and the sugar is dissolved (no longer feels gritty between your fingers). Fold in the cornstarch and vinegar.

This is the point where I'm thankful to have my beautiful Kitchenaid mixer:

4. Spoon the whites onto the parchment paper and try to make them look snazzy with a spatula. I tried and failed, - you can see.

5. Bake the meringue for 75-90 minutes, until the exterior is dry, cracking the oven door if the merinque starts showing signs of browning (I think mine browned a bit....it was still delish). Once out of the oven and cooled, the meringue should feel dry on the outside and peel away from the parchment paper easily. If still a little soft, return to the 250F oven for about 10-20 minutes. Cool the meringue on the tray before removing.

6. Whip the cream into soft peaks and beat in the sugar, lemon zest, juice and chill.

7. Just before serving, spoon the whipped cream over the meringue, and spoon the passion fruit seeds over the meringue - all you have to do is cut the fruit in half, stir the seeds with a spoon, and drizzle over top.

Voila. Tropical perfection. Slice and serve like a cake - serves 8.

One final tip, given that this is a bbq-themed post. You can bbq bacon. Go do it and thank me later.

That is all.

something seriously good for meatless monday - lentil tacos and chocolate chickpea cake

2011-05-16T21:05:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure why it is, but there's something about the combination of a crunchy shell, spicy filling, rich cheese, and bright notes of cilantro that just call to my soul. You can cobble together pretty much anything vaguely Mexican/South American/Tex-Mex/South-Western, and I will probably like it.

I grew up with Old El Paso Taco kits (as I'm sure did a large portion of my readership...if not, you can read about them here - essentially a box containing taco shells, taco mix and some sort of taco sauce. Just add meat, lettuce and cheese and voila.). I liked them as a kid, but when I was a teenager, our family discovered fajitas, and frankly, there was no looking back. We raced ahead with our soft tortillas, grilled chicken and steak, and the lowly crunchy taco of our youth was forgotten in some cobweb-ridden corner of our minds.

Ever the nutritionally obsessed, I actually always thought that the soft shells were better for you than the tantalizingly crispy hard corn shells. (For my American readers, you have to understand that corn tortillas are few and far between in most parts of Canada). In recent years, I've made sure that my shells were 100% whole grain, usually opting for the Dempsters Ancient Grains type. A small tortilla (7 inches - you know you're going to eat at least two!) has about 100 calories, and features such stellar ingredients as whole wheat flour, flax, millet, spelt, kamut, barley, etc. It also features such not-so-stellar ingredients as glucose-fructose (that's Canadian for high-fructose corn syrup), sodium acid pyrophosphate, potassium sorbate, sodium propionate, monoglyceries, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, fumaric acid, cellulose gum, carrageenan, maltodextrin. And maybe sulfites.

Even if most of those ingredients aren't actually BAD, I just don't think so many ingredients are NECESSARY. I like shorter ingredient lists, most because I feel the food is then closer to what I could make at home. :) They also have 230 mg of sodium, so if you eat two (and seriously, you will), you've got 520 mg of sodium before you've even put anything in your fajita.

So I decided to go for a blast from the past (for me, at least) and try out hard taco shells. I was pleasantly surprised by a few things...first, the ingredient list was relatively short - corn flour, palm oil, salt, water and calcium hydroxide.

Even though there is palm oil, two stand n stuff shells (bigger than classic shells) have 130 calories, 6 g fat (2.5 g sat fat), 115 mg of sodium and 1 g fibre. The soft tortillas do getter on fibre and a bit better on fat, but 130 calories vs. 200 calories, and 115 mg sodium vs. 520 mg sodium...this makes the shells a solid contender. They certainly aren't any hard-core sort of health food, but they certainly aren't too bad either. I'm in.

Especially when you fill them with the most delicious filling of spiced lentils.

Yes, I realize this is madness.

Do lentils really belong in tacos? Can they really hold their own against the meaty deliciousness of seasoned ground beef?

And surprisingly....they can. YUM. If you've a hankering for something meatless and wonderful, this meal is perfect. THe lentils are warm and delicious, and the spicy chipotle sour cream is the perfect creamy yet spicy foil. I've modified the recipe quite a bit from the epicurious original, but I think the end result is pretty darn delicious.

Make it now!!!

spiced lentil tacos

stolen and modified from epicurious.com/SELF magazine

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried brown or green lentils, rinsed
1 T chili powder

1 t cumin

1 t ground coriander

1 t paprika (sweet, not smoked)

pinch cinnamon
2 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, finely chopped***

2 teaspoons adobo sauce

8-10 taco shells
1 1/4 cups shredded lettuce/greens (I used cilantro)
1 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup shredded cheddar

***What to do with leftover chipotle in adobo (which, unless you are a sword-swallowing fire-breather, you probably cannot down in one sitting)? I dump the contents of can into a freezer bag, and freeze it all flattened out. Next time you make this recipe (cuz there will, naturally, be a next time), just break off a pepper and off you go!

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onion, garlic and salt until onion begins to soften, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add lentils and spices.

Cook until spices are fragrant and lentils are dry, about 1 minute. Add water; bring to a boil.

3. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, Mix sour cream, chile and adobo sauce in a bowl.

Uncover lentils and cook until mixture thickens, 6 to 8 minutes.

Spoon 1/4 cup lentil mixture into each taco shell (my taco shells needed 5 minutes in a 350F oven. Check the label on yours to see if they do too!). Top with 2 heaping teaspoons sour cream mixture, greens, tomato and cheese.

YUM. So good.

That said, I thought that these stand n stuff taco shells would be a good idea. Alas, the broader base exponentially increases the amount of filling that goes blasting out as you take your first bite. Behold:

Stick with the normal shells - less mess, fewer calories. And as long as you don't go running around taking pictures of your dinner like a ~~crazy person~~ food blogger, you should be fine.

After dinner, I made the most random cake recipe. I came across this chocolate chickpea cake recipe while browsing on Serious Eats (SUCH an awesome site). It was just so weird....chickpeas, chocolate, no flour, no oil...how could this be possible?

And I'm no stranger to incorporating legumes into my baking (witness: the bean cookie) This was just too weird not to make. Even better, I actually had all the ingredients on hand (hubs tucked some yummy 85% dark chocolate from Laura Secord into my Mother's Day gift...smart, smart man).

The cake is uber easy to throw together. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, and whizz the rest of the ingredients through the food processor. The best part was not having to use flour...I swear, every single time I take out my flour, it's like some evil little flour gnome has run up inside and carefully placed a whole bunch in the rolled-up top of the bag, just perfectly positioned to explode onto my [black] counter top in a white, powdery testament to my kitchen failures. Meh.

This was so easy. I baked the recipe for 50 minutes instead of 60 (though my oven was on convection). I think I'd check it at 45 minutes next time. Also, because I had no butter and was too lazy to 'flour' my pan with cocoa [relying instead on a brush of canola oil] my cake stuck a bit. You could eliminate this problem entirely by baking in a parchment paper lining. Alas, I was too lazy.

The results are a really delicious chocolate loaf...I wouldn't serve it for dessert on its own, I don't think (although topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce, with raspberry coulis, it would probably pretty fantastic). It's a great nibbling cake. The chocolate flavour (from mostly 85% cocoa, with a small handful of chips and one small square of 70%) is rich and deep and the cake is not too sweet. It lacks the soft squishy richness of a classic shortening/white flour loaf, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

I think I will be having cake for breakfast. :)

chocolate chickpea cake

(stolen and marginally modified from Serious Eats)

1 tablespoon butter, softened (or oil)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (skipped it)
5 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips (I used 3.8 oz 85%, 1 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips and 0.5 oz 70%)
1 (19-ounce) can chickpeas beans, rinsed and drained
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease interior of 1 pound loaf pan with flour, then dust all surfaces with cocoa, tapping out extra.

2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate by microwaving in 45-second intervals, at 50% power, stirring with a rubber spatula each time until melted. Alternatively, heat, stirring constantly, over double boiler until melted.

3. Puree beans, eggs and vanilla in a food processor (or using an immersion blender) until smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar, baking powder and salt and blend to combine, about 20 seconds.

4. Add melted chocolate and blend to combine, scraping down sides of bowl well as necessary. Batter will have a thick, pudding-like consistency.

Transfer batter into prepared pan and bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

5. Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes on wire cooling rack before inverting onto serving platter. Cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar just before serving. Mine only stuck a little bit! (this is an achievement for me).

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in more meatless monday ideas, check out the Meatless Monday website.

PS - sorry for the cruddy low-light photos. Sadly, I blog in the real world and thus far, the sun has not yet listened to my pleas to hold off setting until I've finished cooking. ;)

melty savoury goodness - tuna melts

2011-04-30T10:55:00.002-04:00

I may occasionally have the palate of a pre-schooler, but I just absolutely love tuna melts. It's one of my favourite treats to make - the perfect lunch for a rainy afternoon, or a quick easy dinner on a day when I don't feel like cooking.

One of my favourite things about these sandwiches is they are super versatile and forgiving; you can make them work no matter what you have in the house. As long as you have bread + tuna + cheese, you can probably figure something out.

I like to add some saltiness and crunch to mine, so I tend to put in whatever chopped up veggies I can wrangle up (in this case, gherkins and onion, on other cases, celery, green pepper, shallots, sundried tomatoes, capers). And last, you just need some sort of binding agent. I usually use a mixture of light miracle whip and dijon mustard, but I've done it with yogourt, sour cream and even a simple vinaigrette. So you really can always figure something out.

You can whip these sandwiches together in about 10 minutes. Do it now, and thank me later.

easy-peasy tuna melts

(can be infinitely varied to suit your needs and audience)

3 English muffins (my favourite bread...buns and sliced bread work too)

2 cans low-salt light tuna

1/3 c finely chopped onion (or shallot)

1/3 c finely chopped pickles (or other veggies --> celery, green pepper, sundried tomato, etc)

3 T light miracle whip

2 T dijon mustard

pepper

cheese (I think I used cheddar and parmesan, but any cheese that melts reasonably well will work)

1. Spread your English muffins out on a foil-lined baking sheet (there will inevitably be cheese melting carnage...save yourself the scrubbing!). Preheat your broiler.

2. Toast the English muffins under the broiler (about 6 inches from the heat source) for 2 minutes or so. Keep a close watch on them!

3. Meanwhile, combine the tuna salad ingredients. Taste - and season accordingly. If the mix is too dry to hold together, add a little more miracle whip/dijon.

4. Top each toasted English muffin with tuna salad mix (I like to heap mine pretty generously, so two cans seems to be about perfect for six English muffin halves).

5. Top with cheese - I used slices of cheddar and grated parmesan. Any mix of grated/sliced would work.

6. Cook under broiler for 3-4 minutes (checking every minute) until cheese is nice and melted and slightly brown.

7. Let cool slightly.

Enjoy! OMNOMNOMNOMNOM. These are so yummy. Very retro, very easy to make and just a fabulous lunch.

some housekeeping...

2011-04-27T22:18:00.004-04:00

...and goodness knows, my house could use it!

You may have noticed a few changes around here lately...part of the problem of starting your blog in 2006, is that in 2011....it looks like you have a blog from 2006. :p

Now, I'm no designer, and I certainly am not about to hire one, so you'll just have to deal with my little tweaks as I bring this blog up to date....so here's what's goin' on:

1) I changed the colour scheme (a couple of weeks ago). No more burgundy. I'm sure your burning eyeballs are thanking me.

2) I've added some easy options for you to subscribe. In addition to Google Friend Connect, I've also added RSS and email subscriptions via feedburner. (second widget from the top right). Now you don't have to remember to go through your bookmarks and physically come to the site - you can get new post notifications right in your email inbox.

3) I've started adding printable versions of my recipes. It's not fancy, like you'll see over at some other blogs, or on the pro-cooking sites, but if you want a photo-free, quick black and white print, it should do the trick.

4) New email address - leslie at definitelynotmartha dot com (sorry, gotta make the spammers work if they're going to invade my inbox). Hate mail, love letters, recipe ideas, whatever - I'm happy to hear it and I do my best to respond (I usually do!). If I don't respond, it's not because I'm a stuck-up diva...it's mostly because trying to balance full-time work, part-time work, parenthood, wifedom and blogging sometimes leave me in a bit of a tizzy. No hard feelings?

5) As the new email address indicates, I've got my own domain now! You can change your bookmarks to http://definitelynotmartha.com . Eventually this change will be reflected in the address bar, but I'm just not enough of a tech genius to make it happen quickly.

6) I briefly pondered adding a 'jump' to my post, but a short-lived poll overwhelmingly showed that readers do not like this. I don't like it either. So I won't be doing it. BUT, in order for the homepage to be a little less pic-heavy, I'm shortening it to five posts instead of 10. *I* don't need the jump, because one thing that won't be changing is that I still don't run ads on my blog. Unless I miraculously become so super famous that it would be ridiculous not to have ads, I'm just not willing to do it for a teeny amount of income that would just mess up my taxes. I hate forms and I hate taxes and I also hate ads. So none of that here.

7) Comment moderation - not on new posts, but I've had to add this to older posts (older than a month, right now) because I kept getting aphrodisiac-hawking douchebags filling the comments with spammy linky garbage. I won't censor anything but spam, and I do try to moderate one or twice a day, so there isn't a long wait to be part of a discussion. I do get emails of comments on my old posts, so if you have a question, don't hesitate to ask!

8) Layout....this will slowly evolve soon. I'm going to have to enlist hubs' help because my crowning design achievement was figuring out how to make my main column 500 pixels wide to accommodate my photos. I want to add a third column, but this has thus far eluded me. Stay tuned.

Anyway, feel free to check out the new feed features, print new recipes (eventually I would like to add printable versions of the older recipes, but oy...that's a big laborious job....).

So there you have it. Oh, also I ordered pizza for dinner tonight. Cooking fail. :p

brunch: sweet, savoury, rich and healthy

2011-04-25T12:21:00.003-04:00

To me, sweet, savoury, rich and healthy are the essential building blocks of a delicious brunch. I really love making brunch, because it gives you the chance to something a sweet and indulgent (like cinnamon buns, pastries, scones, croissants) and balance it with savoury flavours, either healthful (slimmed-down broccoli cheddar quiche) or not so much... (quiche lorraine). I like to finish brunch with a nice fruit salad.

For my morning-after Easter brunch, I had the challenge of having made a (last-minute) big dinner the night before, so I didn't have any time to prep anything in advance. I chose everything in the menu because it could be thrown together relatively quickly, and would also hold quite well.

I'm a huge fan of quiche and strata-type dishes because you can mix them together in advance, bake them, and then they stay good for quite a while. I actually will sometimes mix one up at the beginning of the week and then nuke it for a quick breakfast later on. When it comes to quiche, I am utterly and completely sold on the crustless variety. It's not just because I am really terrible at making pastry, but I find that I like the filling SO much better and the crust really doesn't bring anything to the table (refined flour, fat and salt...none of which we really need). I prefer to limit my indulgence to the filling. :)

These types of dishes are also great because you can really make them super healthy, or make them more indulgent. For this brunch, I decided to make a broccoli cheddar crustless quiche. This was a healthier recipe from Cooking Light, though I didn't really follow it to the letter (I don't believe in throwing out egg yolks!). For the more indulgent recipe, I found an absolutely exquisite crustless quiche lorraine recipe on epicurious. I do recommend a couple of tweaks, as I found the resulting quiche could have benefited from an extra egg (it was a little watery....but still yummy).

The sweetness of the meal came from what one of my guests dubbed "the love-child of a timbit and a cinnamon bun" - monkey bread with caramel glaze.

I've been hearing about monkey bread for a few months now, and it seems this 50s mainstay has made a comeback of late. I couldn't find a recipe that was quite what I wanted, so I've taken inspiration from a few different versions and come up with my own - a half-whole wheat, spiced version covered in an exquisite caramel glaze (the glaze being a last minute addition because I felt the bread looked a little drier).

To round out the meal, I served a tropical fruit salad - the key to a pretty fruit salad (rather than a sad-looking bowl of browned apples and squashed bananas) is to try to include fruits in bright colours, and make sure they won't brown (apples and pears brown quickly. I hate bananas and find they overpower fruit salads, so I never use them). Oranges work well, as long as you're willing to take the time to suprême them. Nobody likes an errant membrane in their fruit salad. Blech. I have a tropical fruit weakness, which is, I realize, TERRIBLE for my carbon footprint....

tropical fruit salad

1 mango, diced

1 kiwi, diced

1/4 pineapple, diced

2 cups diced strawberries

1 cup blackberries

1. Chop fruit.

2. Combine. No need to add anything more. This is a delicious, healthy addition to any meal.

Crustless Broccoli and Cheese Quiche

stolen and lightly modified from Cooking Light

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup vertically sliced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
5 cups broccoli florets
Cooking spray
1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 large eggs lightly beaten
1 tablespoon grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 1 1/2 minutes. Add broccoli; sauté 1 minute. Spread broccoli mixture into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Combine milk and next 8 ingredients (milk through eggs) in a large bowl. Pour milk mixture over broccoli mixture; sprinkle with Parmesan.

3. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until top is golden and a knife inserted in center comes out clean; let stand 5 minutes.

This quiche is very tasty and super easy to throw together. I cut mine into eight pieces, because I was serving two quiches to seven guests (this way, everyone can have a piece of each!). If it's all you're serving, you'd probably want to cut in six pieces.

Crustless Quiche Lorraine

stolen and lightly modified from epicurious.com

Makes 4-6 servings
Active Time: 10 min
Total Time: 30 min (not including cooling)

1 1/2 tablespoons fine dry plain bread crumbs
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup diced cooked ham (1/4 pound)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 (8-ounce) package shredded Swiss cheese (2 cups)
5 large eggs (original recipe calls for four...use five!!!!)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

2. Butter 9-10 inch pie plate/quiche dish, then sprinkle all over with bread crumbs.

3. Cook onions with ham in butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 5 minutes. Spread in dish, then evenly sprinkle cheese on top.

4. Whisk together eggs, cream, milk, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and pour over cheese.

Bake until top is golden and custard is set in center, 35-40 minutes***

5. Cool slightly before cutting into wedges.

***Note that the initial recipe called for cooking at 425F for 20-25 minutes. I had two other things to bake that necessitated a 350F oven, so I just modified. I liked the results. Also, I love the convection function on my oven - even with two quiches and a batch of monkey bread, everything ended up evenly and perfectly cooked. Score!

half whole-wheat monkey bread with the ultimate salted caramel glaze

PRINTABLE VERSION HERE: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/half-whole-wheat-monkey-bread-with-salted-caramel-glaze

dough:

**you could substitute any dough - frozen, refrigerated, or any dough recipe of your choosing

1 1/2 c all purpose/bread flour

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 package quick yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

2 t pumpkin pie spice (or combo of cinnamon/cloves/allspice/ginger)

1/2 c milk

1/2 c water

4 T sugar

1 T oil

1 egg

1/2 t salt

1. In a stand mixer, combine flours, yeast, pie spice and salt.

2. In a small saucepan (or in the microwave) heat milk, water, oil and sugar until a thermometer reads 110-120F (warm but not burning) and sugar is dissolved.

3. Add milk mixture and the egg to the flours and process with dough hook (or stir with strong arm!). Once everything is all combined, you should have a soft dough - it should be a tiny bit sticky, but not ridiculously so. If there is too much flour, add a little more milk. If the dough is a liquid, sticky mess (more likely), add more flour, about 2 T at a time. Knead/process dough for a couple of minutes.

4. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, turn to cover with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place somewhere warm to rise for an hour. I like to put mine in the oven with the light on. Out of the way, and nice and warm.

5. Sprinkle work surface with flour (I like to cover mine with waxed paper so I'm not stuck scrubbing dough bits off the counter). Spread dough out into a large rectangle.

6. Cut into 70-ish pieces - about 1 inch diameter...this is not an exact science though.

I just use a butcher knife. I leave my pieces mostly rectangular...you could try to make them more ball-like, but if you just plump the sides of the dough rectangles, they get round enough for me.

glaze for dough balls

1/2 cup butter (unsalted), melted and cool enough to get your fingers in.

1 1/2 c brown sugar (I used dark brown)

2 t cinnamon

1. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Take a tube/bundt pan and butter/grease it.

2. Dip each dough ball into butter. Let excess run off (you can try using a fork for this...it's a messy process no matter how you do it.

3. Cover dough in brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place in tube pan. Continue. I found that most of the way through, my brown sugar was reduced to a buttery paste. Whatever. It still worked.

4. Continue layering dough balls around your tube pan until you run out.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise for another hour.

5. If your monkey bread was rising in the oven, remove from oven. Preheat oven to 350F. Remove plastic wrap. Bake 35ish minutes at 350F. Let sit in pan for five minutes, and then remove from pan.

At this point, I was pretty pleased with myself, but thought that the resulting monkey bread looked less gooey and more dry than I wanted. This is where the ultimate glaze comes in.....

ultimate salted caramel glaze

1/4 cup butter (salted or not)

1/4 c dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 c white sugar

1/2 c whipping cream

(1/4 t sea salt, if using unsalted butter)

1 t cinnamon

1. In a sauce pan, melt the butter with the two sugars. Bring to a boil and let the sugars dissolve.

2. Add the whipping cream (there will be serious bubbles going on). Cook together. Add cinnamon and salt (if needed) and continue cooking until thickened slightly.

3. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes. Slowly pour over still-warm (but not too hot) monkey bread.

This is the ultimate. I would be lying if I said that six people did not polish this off in one fell swoop. It's really freaking good. Like my guest said - love child of a timbit and a cinnamon bun. MAKE IT NOW.

You know what would also be good though? A savoury version, with herbed dough, dipped in garlic butter, then rolled in parmesan. And served with either a marinara sauce, or an herbed garlic butter glaze. The mind, it boggles, and the possibilities are infinite.

i feel like a round stuffed easter egg

2011-04-24T21:25:00.003-04:00

When I spent Thursday evening loafing instead of grocery shopping and menu planning (which, ofcourse, relegated me to spending Good Friday doing nothing, because grocery stores, etc. are not open on Good Friday)....I didn't really have high expectations of the food this weekend.

For Easter, we were entertaining hubs' parents, as well as hubs' sister and her hubs (and newborn! yep, the same newborn who was the subject of much merriment back in Feb). It wasn't really a full house, but I still wanted to have some fun with the menu and put on a good spread.

After some brainstorming Friday night, and some frantic (and crazy) grocery shopping on Saturday....I didn't even get down to cooking/starting ANYTHING until 1 pm. If you're at all familiar with my modus operandi, this is not normal. I like to be prepping the day before. Not midday the day of.

I had decided on an Easter dinner menu of crown roast of pork with onion stuffing, (because it makes sense to cook 10 lbs of meat for 7 people...), potato gratin, anise-roasted asparagus and pea salad with feta and spinach. Dessert was a three-nut maple tart with maple cream.

When tackling a menu like this, it's really important to have a plan. When you make your list of recipes, at the same time, note a few things:

1. Where the recipes are (i.e., epicurious, cookbook, magazine). Make sure to note page numbers and issue numbers (for print) or to create a favourites bookmark folder (for online). This will avoid last minute panic.

2. After choosing your recipe, carefully read through each recipe. Make a categorized grocery list (i.e., sort by produce, deli, dairy, meat, grocery).

3. While making your grocery list, make note of all components that need to be made (i.e., for a salad, you need to prep veggies and make dressing. For a tart, you need to make crust, make filling and bake). While noting all of these components, make sure you write down baking times (i.e., make pork - 3 hours oven, make tart crush - 30 min rest, 30 min oven).

4. Make a game plan. I take a look at my component list (i.e., the dressings, crusts, seasonings, dishes) and figure out what HAS to be done (i.e., pork need to go into oven by four, in order to serve dinner at 7:30), and what needs to work around that (i.e., tart needs to bake before pork...MUST FINISH TART BY 4). From here, I am able to make a 'work order'. In this dinner, I started by making tart crust. While the crust was resting, I made the pork stuffing. While the crust baked I made the tart filling. While the tart baked, I prepped the pork. While the pork baked, I made the potato gratin. Things like veggies can (and are usually best) be left to the last minute.

5. It seems a little haphazard, but I find that having a plan makes me feel more confident and ready to get a meal (and a complicated one like this) on the table on time. I also find that having a list of components is SUPER helpful when you have family coming, because you can assign and eager, early and willing family member to a component (i.e., make salad dressing, prep asparagus, chop onions, make breadcrumbs). I wouldn't do that for a fancy dinner party, but we all know it's different and more casual with (most?) families.

Dinner was on the table by 7:45. Not bad for making a tart, a roast, stuffing, gravy, potato gratin, roasted asparagus and a salad. And entertaining. And having fun. :)

I rocked it out pretty good...not gonna lie.

crown roast of pork with onion and bread-crumb stuffing

stolen and modified from epicurious.com

PRINTABLE VERSION HERE: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/crown-roast-of-pork

Yield: Makes 10 to 12 servings
Active Time: 1 1/2 hr
Total Time: 4 1/4 hr

For stuffing
2 lb onions, finely chopped (6 cups)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram (dried is fine)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (1-lb) piece fresh Pullman loaf, pain de mie, or country loaf, cut into 1-inch cubes, then pulsed to coarse crumbs in a food processor (I used a multi-grain wheat country loaf)
3/4 lb sausage (something garlicky)
1 cup finely chopped celery

For roast
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh marjoram or thyme (dried = fine)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 (9- to 10-lb) crown roast of pork, rib ends frenched (so my butcher, whom I love dearly, did not to the best job on this part....it ended up looking fine in the end!)
1 1/2 cups water

For sauce
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Special equipment: an instant-read thermometer

Make stuffing:
1. Cook onions with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in 3/4 stick butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add celery and continue to cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until onions are pale golden, about 10 minutes more. Add sage, marjoram, and pepper and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add vinegar and wine and boil, stirring occasionally, until liquid is evaporated, then remove from heat.

2. Melt the remaining 3/4 stick of butter and pour over bread crumbs. Remove sausage from casings, break apart, and cook in a skillet over medium heat until nicely browned.

3. Reserve 1 cup onion mixture, covered and chilled, for sauce. Transfer remaining mixture to a large bowl and combine with crumbs.

Cook roast and stuffing:

1. Put 1 oven rack in lower third of oven and another on bottom of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Stir together sage, marjoram, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then rub over outside and bottom of roast. Put roast in a small flameproof roasting pan and mound 2 cups stuffing loosely in center, then add water (I used chicken brown) to pan. Transfer remaining stuffing to a buttered 2-quart baking dish and chill until ready to bake.

3. Roast pork in lower third of oven, covering stuffing and tips of ribs with a sheet of foil after about 30 minutes and adding more water if pan becomes dry, until thermometer inserted 2 inches into center of meat (do not touch bones) registers 155°F, 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours total. (If your guests are skittish about pink pork, as mine were, you'll want to cook your roast to a point where a thermometer inserted in the thinner side of the roast reads closer to 170F. The thicker side of the roast will still be juicy and delicious, but this way, you have some classically 'well-done' (*cough* overdone *cough*) pork for the squeamish. That said, pink pork is fine to eat.

Transfer pork to a platter and let stand 30 minutes. Bake stuffing for 30-45 minutes, until heated through (as long as your sausage is well-cooked, you don't need to worry about reaching a certain temperature for this dish).

****NOTE: If you've let your pork rest, and you've cut into it and are completely skeeved by pinkness, just pan-sear the dinosaur-sized pork chops to your desired doneness, in a bit of olive oil and butter. But I swear, pink pork is deeeeeelish. Just don't serve it to the immuno-compromised (young kids, pregnant women, etc.).

Make sauce while pork stands:
1. Transfer pan juices from roasting pan to a gravy separator or a glass measure and skim off fat.

2. Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add wine to pan and boil over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until reduced by about half, about 5 minutes. Add reserved onion mixture, broth, pan juices, and any juices on platter from roast and bring to a simmer. Restir cornstarch mixture and add to pan, whisking, then simmer 2 minutes. Add butter and swirl pan until incorporated. Season with salt and pepper.

Carve pork and serve with stuffing and sauce.

This is pretty good. Like I said, I found that parts of mine were (to my taste) overdone and a little dry, but parts will still juicy and delicious...so there's a little something for everyone with this dish. When in doubt, take some advice from my employer and get thyself a digital food thermometer and know how to use it.

Potato Gratin

from the Spring 2011 edition of Food and Drink - will be online in a month or two here: http://www.lcbo.com/fooddrink/index.shtml

1/2 c milk

1 c whipping cream

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 t dried thyme

1 T chopped fresh rosemary

2 lbs potatoes ~~peeled and~~ thinly sliced - mandoline = your friend

salt and pepper

1/2 c (or more, mebbe) grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Combine milk, cream, garlic, thyme and rosemary in a wide pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add potatoes and stir together. Season well with salt and pepper.

3. Grease a gratin dish large enough to hold the potatoes (I increase the potato amount, so I just used a 9x13). Arrange a layer of potato slices in your dish. Cover with a thin layer of parmesan. Repeat until you run out of potatoes, adding some fresh grated parmesan between each layer.

4. Pour remaining liquid over top. Add more parmesan.

5. Bake for 50 minutes- 1 hour, until potatoes are tender and liquid is absorbed.

This is basically potatoes alfredo.....and it's pretty tasty. I think I would almost like it more with only milk, because I felt like the cream was just over the top. Not that that's a bad thing....BTW, I made mine in advance, and some of the raw potatoes were exposed to the air for a while...they got a little dark, and this is a bit unattractive. :p It's not harmful though...just a little ugly.

I'm not going to post the recipes for my sides, because you can get them both on epicurious. They were yummy though, and provided some great colour and nutritional balance to the meal.

Roasted Asparagus with Anise Seeds

recipe available on epicurious.com: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Asparagus-with-Anise-Seeds-12025

(only change I made is that I didn't cut my asparagus up)

Pea Salad with Radishes and Feta Cheese

recipe available on epicurious.com: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pea-Salad-with-Radishes-and-Feta-Cheese-237895

(only change I made is to use caraway in lieu of cumin because I had a cumin-hating guest). Also, I did not have pea tendrils...not really sure where to find them).

And for the finale, I made this delicious and sophisticated take on a pecan pie - a three-nut maple tart from the Spring 2011 issue of Food and Drink. I liked the incorporation of the pine nuts, and this gave me a great opportunity to showcase some of my uncle's amazing maple syrup (it is SO flavourful).

As tarts go, this is not complicated. There is pastry...which I hate making....but this one turned out not too horrific.). The filling is very easy - toast (and don't burn) nuts, and top with a maple-egg filling. YUM. If you have nut/caramel/buttertart lovers, this is great.

Three Nut Pie with Maple Cream

from Spring 2011 Food and Drink (should be online in a month here: http://www.lcbo.com/fooddrink/index.shtml )

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/three-nut-pie-with-maple-cream

CRUST:

1 1/2 c flour (I used cake and pastry)

2 T granulated sugar

1/2 c COLD butter, cut into cubes

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

ice water

FILLING:

1 cup pecan halves

1 cup walnut halves

1/3 c pine nuts

3 eggs

3/4 c maple syrup (DO NOT USE FAKE STUFF. JUST DON'T. IF YOU DO, I WILL NOT BE YOUR FRIEND. EVER.)

1/3 c packed brown sugar or maple sugar

2 T butter, melted

2 t vanilla

MAPLE CREAM:

1/2 c whipping cream

1-2 T maple syrup

Make pastry:

1. Combine flour and sugar in food processor. Add in butter. Pulse a couple of times. Whisk together egg and vanilla in a measuring cup. Add enough ice water to make 1/2 c.

2. Drizzle egg mixture over flour. Process until it forms a ball.

3. Shape ball into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze for 15 minutes (or refrigerate for 30....I was in a hurry!).

4. Roll pastry out on a lightly floured surface (I like wax paper because it is cheap and stuff doesn't stick to it. I only own one tart pan - 11 inches. The initial recipe is for a 10-inch pan, but the crust was just fine for 11 inches, and I just increased the nuts a bit. Roll the pastry to fit your tart pan. Press into pan, trim edges and prick lightly with a fork. Freeze for 15 minutes. This is probably one of my better pastry efforts. Yes, I am aware it still looks like poop. :p

5. Preheat oven to 375F. Line tart shell with foil, and fill with rice/beans (or pastry weights) to weigh pastry down. Place a baking sheet on the bottom rack in the oven, and bake the tart shell on the midde rack for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are dry.

6. Remove paper and bake for 5-10 minutes more, until starting to turn golden brown and firm. Let cool (but leave oven on).

7. Spread pecans and walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and stir. Toast for 3 more minutes. You could try to brown them a little more, but they will burn SUPER quickly...so I wouldn't. Scatter slightly-cooled toasty nuts in the baked tart shell.

8. Reduce oven temperature to 325F.

9. Whisk eggs, syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla until well-blended. Pour over nuts. For expediency and sanity's sakes, place your tart pan on a foil-lined pizza pan. Mine did not really leak, but tart pans can and DO leak, and you really don't want a burnt maple mess on the bottom of your oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until filling is puffed in the centre and just set around the edges.

10. Just before serving, whip cream in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Add in syrup. Serve with tart.

Yummy. This would be a great fall recipe, but maple syrup is a spring thing, so I'm calling spring on it. A great finish to a delectable meal.

pork and muffins. not at the same time.

2011-04-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

In terms of food budgeting, today was medium.

It was GOOD because I brought and English muffin and toasted it at work (and topped with some peanut butter, which I keep in a jar at my desk. And which I do not ever eat with a spoon.)

Okay, that last sentence was a lie. :p I don't do it often though. And I don't double dip.

It was also good, because I brought my lunch and ate all of it. But then I was staaaaaarving partway through the afternoon. And when I reached into my lunch bag to grab the apple I totally thought I had brought....I came up empty-handed.

So of course I ended up at the caf and bought a boiled egg (0.55), a piece of cheese (1.00) and a medium coffee (1.50). Meh. It wasn't the craziest of snacks, but when I think that I can buy a DOZEN eggs for $3 (and water is almost free), I feel like a bit of a heel.

To be fair though, there was a strong possibility of going out for lunch, and I didn't go for it.

But Hubs is rubbing in the fact that not only did he not spend any extra $$ on food today, but he didn't really do so last week either. Meh. :p

In terms of cooking, the planned meal for tonight was pulled pork on multi-grain toast with provolone, accompanied with a quick coleslaw. I really did a lot of mods to the pulled-pork recipe, so I can't fairly evaluate the Clean Eating version. But my version was good. And super easy.

Slow-cooker pulled pork with toast and coleslaw

***NEW - PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/home/pulled-pork-sandwiches-with-coleslaw

1.5 pounds pork (I used a centre-cut roast - you could use tenderloin, chops, or a more traditional cut like shoulder or butt)

1 cup broth

sea salt, black pepper and thyme

1. In the morning, put the pork in the slow cooker on low. Put it fat side up, to keep it moist. The fat will render slightly during cooking and keep the pork from drying out. Pour broth around the pork, and sprinkle with salt, black pepper and a good bit of thyme.

(sorry, no pics...was too crazy with Monday morning madness to take photos)

2. When you get home, take the pork out of the slow cooker (I used a 2.5 qt cooker. This recipe is best suited to a small slow cooker. If you don't have a slow cooker, you could braise the meat in the oven - at about 275F - for 4ish hours). Don't try to quick cook your pork, or it won't shred.

My pork cooked from 8 am to 6 pm. This worked for me. The fat had rendered a little bit, but when I took the pork out, I was actually able to scrape most of the fat off. It's win-win, because, as mentioned, the fat keeps the meat moist, but then you can scrape it off, so you aren't stuck eating it.

3. Shred the pork with two forks. If it doesn't shred, you've probably either a) cooked it not long enough, or b) cooked it at too high a temperature. DO NOT COOK ON HIGH.

4. Strain the juices from the slow cooker. If there is fat, skim it off the top. You can see here that there was very little fat in mine. ***I'm assuming that if you read my blog, you're probably trying to eat healthy. If I am mistaken, leave the fat in. It will only make things better. ;)

5. Pour the juices in a pan, and boil to reduce by half. I added about 3 T cider vinegar, 1/4 c of sherry (it was hanging out in the cupboard...nobody here drinks that crap). I also added about 1/2 t chipotle powder, to add spice and smoke.

6. Mix the juices with the shredded pork. Taste. This is a pretty 'clean' version --> in order to be to your taste, you may need to add some sweetness (ketchup, bbq sauce, honey), some acidity (vinegar), some salt (worcestershire sauce, salt), or some heat (sri racha, cayenne). I added a little bbq sauce, and then drizzled some over top of our sammies.

Coleslaw

1/4 head of cabbage, chopped

1 large carrot, grated

1 tiny onion, chopped

1/2 t mustard seeds

1/2 t celery seeds

2 T cider vinegar

1 T dijon mustard

1 T olive oil

1. Mix cabbage, carrot and onion.

2. Make dressing from mustard seeds, celery seeds (you can omit these if you don't have 'em), cider vinegar, dijon mustard and olive oil.

3. Toss dressing with veggies. Taste and adjust accordingly (again, this is a clean recipe; you may be used to something sweeter and/or saltier).

Sammiches

multi-grain bread

reduced-fat provolone cheese slices

pulled pork

coleslaw

1. Toast bread. Top with cheese slice while still hot. Top with approximately 3 oz of pulled pork. Serve with coleslaw. I drizzled mine with bbq sauce.

Voila. This was awesome. Hubs devoured his (and then ate a plate of just pork, mixed with bbq sauce and sri racha). Lil Z thought it rocked and pounded it back.

After dinner, I cleaned up (unplanned visitors coming tomorrow) and then had to re-jig the week's menu. We're going to have company tomorrow, so rather than serve the ginger chicken soup (which only serves four and would be tight, leaving us with no lunches for Wednesday), I'm going to make a shrimp pasta carbonara dish. I have loads of frozen shrimp, a pound of bacon and some pasta. I think I"ll do a creamy sauce using shallots, garlic, evaporated skim milk and fresh-grated parmesan. It may end up short on veggies, but I think it will be good. And it will keep me on budget. :)

Last, I mixed up a batch of muffins. YES, in case you were wondering I did spend my entire evening physically in the kitchen tonight. I don't mind....it's one of my favourite places. Plus, hubs is monopolizing the TV (playoff hockey, *sigh*) so it's not like I have anything better to do anyway. :p

These muffins are from the April/May 2011 issue of Clean Eating. Pretty straightforward to make. I made a couple of modifications (shown in brackets).

Mango Spice Muffins

***NEW - printable recipe available here: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/mango-spice-muffins

from April/May 2011 issue of Clean Eating

2 c whole wheat flour

1/2 c evaporated cane juice (or sugar...they are essentially the same)

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

1/2 t sea salt

(2 T ground chia seeds (optional - they have fibre and omega 3s. I decided to add some))

(2 T ground flax seeds)

1 egg

1/4 c oil (I used canola, CE recommends safflower)

1 c nonfat greek yogourt (I used non-fat regular yogourt that was 1 week past its due date. It smelled fine...)

1/3 c milk (1/2 c milk if using the flax and/or chia as they soak up liquid)

1 t vanilla

1 large mango, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice. Mine actually made about 1 1/4 c, just like the recipe said it would. (For anyone who does not know how to wrangle a mango, I've posted a how-to for you)

1/4 c raisins (I used walnuts instead. Lil Z gobbled all of my raisins)

2 T unsweetened flaked/shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin with papers (or spray if you are a masochist, and enjoy scouring muffin tins). In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cane juice, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cloves and salt (and chia/flax). In a separate large bowl, beat egg. Add oil, yogourt, milk and vanilla. Whisk to combine.

Dry ingredients:

2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir gently until flour is moist.

Fold in mango and ~~raisins~~ walnuts.

Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle each muffin with 1/2 t coconut.

3. Bake until edges are light golden brown and a tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a muffin...about 16-18 minutes. Let cool in pan for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Voila! Brekkie for the next couple of days. The rubber duckies are a bonus. ;)

Last, I wanted to leave you with a cheap night-time snack idea. Hubs is pretty much the king of night-time snacking...and going out to pick up a $3 bag of chips at the local convenience store/pharmacy can really add up. One thing that we've found awesome for those late night cravings (besides willpower....) is popcorn. Not the scary orange microwaved sludge, but simple air-popped popcorn with a bit of butter and salt. I have also been known to mist my popcorn with a bit of canola in a pinch. This is super tasty because it's all natural (no weird chemicals) and you can control how much salt and butter you end up putting on your popcorn. Popped corn is also a good source of fibre, and you can get kernels for dirt-cheap at bulk stores. Here is hubs in action.....

So that's my day. And now it's really late, so I'm out. Thanks for reading!

prickly pears and mangoes....a how-to

2011-04-18T23:40:00.002-04:00

Just in case you've never played with these two fruits. This is what you do.

I bought two prickly pears this week. They were on sale. I'd never had prickly pear before, so I gave it a try. Should you too be so curious, here's what to do.

1. Behold pear in all its prickly goodness. Be careful when handling. I was not careful. I got to spend a little time picking out the picky little 'pricks' of the pear from my fingers.

2. Cut the ends off. Oooo...pretty.

3. Make a slit the length of the pear.

4. Peel off skin.

5. Chop as needed. The pear is full of small edible seeds. It's got an interesting flavour...dunno if I'll go for it again, but surely all that fun fuschia colour means it's full of vitamins and antioxidants, right?

Mangoes...how to get the most out of your mango...

I'm not sure if this is the be-all and end-all of mango cutting methods, but it works for me.

1. Stand your mango on end, and cut down one side, along the seed. The photo does a good job of showing the kind of cut you'll make....when you're cutting, you should kinda 'feel' the pit of the mango along one side of your knife. If your knife gets stuck at any point, you're too close to the pit.

2. Do the same on the other side of the mango.

3. Take one of the mango slices and place it, cut-side down, on your cutting board. Cut off the skin of the mango. *there are other ways to do this. I just try to minimize the simultaneity of holding both a slippery fruit and a super sharp knife. Repeat this on the other side.

4. Chop as needed. You should also run your knife along the pit. You should be able to get a long piece from each side of the pit. Cut the skin off of it as well.

So there you have it. Your fruit education of the day.

fish and chips...all homemade-like

2011-04-17T19:35:00.002-04:00

I think I blew my kid's mind tonight.

I already shared my meal plan for the week and in order to decide what we were going to have for dinner today, I got Lil Z to pick the meal from the photos in the magazine (one of the advantages of planning from a beautifully-photographed magazine). She picked the fish and chips, which I found interesting, because I don't usually serve food like that at home. Maybe it's something she eats at daycare?

At any rate, I'm pretty sure her mind was completely blown when she learned today that fish sticks are made from pieces of fish (at least mine are) and that chips are made from potatoes. Woah.

As mentioned before, this week's meal plan is from the May/April issue of Clean Eating (my fave magazine in the whole world right now). Lil Z honed in on the tilapia fish sticks, with dill potato chips and coleslaw. The recipe had an optional tartar sauce that is pretty much the best thing I've ever had. Wow. It was not at all like a normal tartar sauce (i.e., uber sweet, cloying and crazy processed). This was sophisticated, tangy and delicious. And the beauty of using the menu from Clean Eating is that the ingredient that tend to go bad before being used up (in my fridge at least) are used for multiple recipes - cabbage, cottage cheese, etc. I like that, because I hardly ever go through a whole head of cabbage.

Of course, given the cabbage's gaseous properties on one's digestive system, I may like this less as the week goes on. ;)

tilapia sticks with potato chips and coleslaw
stolen and slightly modified from Clean Eating (April/May 2011)

***NEW - printable version here: https://sites.google.com/site/definitelynotmartha/fish-and-chips )

1 slice whole grain bread
1/2 lb yellow potatoes, scrubbed
2 T olive oil, divided
1/2 t sea salt
1 t dried dill

1/4 head cabbage, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
(1 large apple, cut into matchsticks - I omitted because I knew it would brown)
1 1/2 t cider vinegar
1/2 t ground mustard
1 egg
3/4 lb boneless, skinless tilapia fillet
1/2 t dried garlic
1/2 t thyme

Sauce:
1/2 c 1% cottage cheese
2 t fresh lemon juice
1 T water
2 t capers, drained
1/2 t dried dill
1/4 c minced celery
fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a food processor, process bread into crumbs. Set aside.

2. Slice potatoes as thinly as possible (I used a mandoline).

The fruits of my labours:

Spread out evenly on baking sheet. Drizzle with oil (I was lazy and spayed with my Misto). Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. As soon as they come out of the oven, sprinkle with dill and lightly toss to comine.

3. Prepare slaw: In a large bowl, combine cabbage, carrot, radishes and (apple). In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, mustard and 1 T oil. Toss with cabbage mixture.

4. Prepare fish sticks. I processed the tilapia briefly in my food processor (it was already dirty from the breadcrumbs).

You can also chop very finely. Add chopped tilapia to egg and 1/4 c bread crumbs. Add 1/2 t dried garlic and 1/2 t thyme, as well as a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Use hands (or a silicone spatula) to thoroughly combine.

5. Divide fish mixture into eight equal portions, shaping each into a rectangular stick about 2.5 inches long. Pour the remaining bread crumbs onto a deep plate. Dredge each stick in bread crumbs, pressing lightly to coat each side.

6. (The original recipe said to saute. I am lazy - I baked. It worked great). Prehead oven to 400F. Arrange fish sticks on parchment paper (I re-used the same stuff from the potatoes). Spray fish sticks lightly with olive oil. Bake for about 16 minutes. I then broiled for two minutes to ensure optimum crunch.

7. While the fish sticks are in the oven, mix together the cottage cheese, lemon juice and water in a blender/food processor (I used an immersion blender). Then add the capers, dill, celery and pepper.

Voila! Enjoy.

food prices, hunger and budgeting

2011-04-17T11:10:00.003-04:00

So apparently food prices are set to go all bananas on us (I thought about linking to a similar New York Times article, but given that their content may not be accessible to all....due to their lovely paywall....I'm sticking with content everyone will be able to see).

We're definitely a little insulated from this in North America. In Canada, we spend an average of 10.2% of our income on food. In the US, it's about 10.1% (I took the food spending as a percentage of pre-tax income, so it would be comparable to the Canadian stats.). While there certainly is no shortage of food-insecure populations (i.e., people for whom the ability to buy food would be greatly affected by an increase in price), for a lot of us, we'll just do a little belt tightening and we'll be fine.

The Financial Times has an entire section dedicated to rising food prices. In poorer nations, the President of the World Bank warns that poor nations risk "losing a generation." I don't know about you, but that is pretty darn terrifying to me. The United Nations World Food Programme even has a Q&A on their site about how rising food prices may affect their ability to help the world's poorest.

When you look at how some developing countries could be facing mass starvation, it really does start to seem a bit petty to be whining about our own plight (OMG MIGHT HAVE TO CANCEL MY PREMIUM CABLE SO I CAN EAT ROAST BEEF). So I do want to let it be clear that I am in no way making light of the food situation, either here in Canada/North America, or abroad.

I donate monthly to my local food bank (which, btw, is much more effective than donating food.) Food banks can leverage your dollar FAR more than they can leverage the food you donate. I.e., if you donate $20 worth of food (at retail cost) it isn't nearly as much as if you donated $20 cash, that the food bank could then leverage at wholesale/donation prices to get more food (and feed more people) for the same amount of money. My local food bank says that every dollar donated distributes $5 worth of food in the community. A worthy investment indeed.

So I don't donate food to the food bank anymore....just $$. As the founders of the Ottawa Food Bank said, "hunger erodes human dignity, lessens human energy and impairs potential."

All this to say I thought it might be interesting to talk a bit more about the cost of food, groceries and how meal planning can help ease the pain of rising grocery prices (a much more microeconomic view of rising food prices than, say, the FT food prices section).

I was pretty lazy this week and took my meal plan straight from Clean Eating's Money-Saver Menu for April/May (sorry the only online content at this point is the shopping list). They listed the cost of the food items in question at $50. Mine rang in at $57.46...not bad considering the different in egg/dairy/meat prices between here and the states. To be clear though, that is NOT the weekly grocery budget, simply because I need to eat more than just dinner! We also had fruits, snacks, etc., that were not on the Clean Eating list.

So I'm going to share my grocery bill and plan for the week, and every day, I'll post about how well I did in my quest NOT to spend more money on food (have I ever mentioned my lazy lunch habit? ugh).

Fruit/Veg

- 5 lb russet potatoes - 2.47

- cabbage (1.77 kg) - 2.30

- 2lb carrots - 1.77

- 3 red mangoes - 2.64

- butternut squash (2.3 kg...it's a monster) - 6.51

- celery - 1.47

- bananas (1.36 kg) - 2.06

- pineapple - 1.67

- royal gala apples (9) - 3.40

- radishes - 1.47

- cantaloupe - 0.99

- green beans (1 lb) - 1.78

- 2 cactus pears - 1.00

Dairy/Meat

- 1% cottage cheese - 2.79

- r-f sliced provolone - 3.99

- 1 dozen eggs - 2.37

- pork loin roast (1.8 kg) - 16.00 (I'm going to cut this into small pieces)*

- sirloin steak medallions - 0.5 kg - 10.79*

- tilapia fillets - 0.65 kg - 10.35*

Grains

- whole wheat English muffins - 1.69

- whole wheat pitas - 1.29

- ancient grains bread - 2.99

- whole wheat tortillas - 1.50

- select bread (not sure what this is?) - 1.29

Grocery

- whole wheat pasta - 3 boxes @ 1.49 - 4.47

- Cheerios - 4.49

- light flake tuna - 6 cans @ 0.69 - 4.14

- corn meal - 0.99

- box of l-s chicken broth - 1.67

- ryvita crackers (to keep me from snacking at work) - 2.49

Non-Food

- plastic wrap - 0.99

- aluminum foil - 0.99

GRAND TOTAL: 105.07

*It's worth mentioning that I am picky about meat and will only buy it from the premium store where I have more confidence as to its origins. I generally no longer buy pre-ground meats (hoorah for my Kitchenaid Food grinder) as I prefer to know exactly what's in my food. I usually look for cuts that are on special, even if they aren't exactly what my recipes call for (the centre loin pork roast was on for $8.80 per kg, while the pork tenderloin was $15something per kilo).

It's also worth mentioning that I already had some staples - like milk - and if I run out, I'll pick up more later this week. I hate my fridge with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, as its layout does not offer a lot of room for things like milk (for the record, if you are considering the Kitchenaid KSRP22F, DON'T DO IT. This layout is super narrow. You can't fit a baking pan in the fridge side, and you can't fit a frozen pizza (yes, I know I hate them...most of the time) on the freezer side. It looks fancy, but it is horrible. And it came with my house, so I'm stuck with it until it dies.)

So the meal plan for this week is:

- pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw

- gingered chicken soup with sweet potato dumplings, carrots and green beans (I already had chicken in the freezer, hence why it's not on the list)

- cornmeal dusted pork cutlets with balsamic drenched raisins and maple squash (my squash is easily 3x the size necessary. I will likely use the rest for soup or freeze it)

- tilapia fish sticks with dill potato chips and mustard slaw

- roasted sirloin steaks with twice-baked potatoes and roasted veggies

All of these meals will make enough for lunch for hubs and I for the next day. Lil Z gets fed at daycare, so I don't need to worry about her for lunch.

In terms of other foods, this week, I'll be making a batch of whole wheat mango muffins (from Clean Eating) and a tofu-egg breakfast casserole (I have tofu in the freezer). For snacks, we have things like tortillas, fruit, veggies, hard-boiled eggs, tuna, yogourt (already had it).

So, aside from the two 99 cent bags of chips hubs insisted on buying last night, it's a pretty balanced, healthy menu, on a reasonable budget. Do I think you (I?) could spend less? Absolutely. This is the start of an experiment. Next week, I'm going to try to design the least expensive, most nutritious meals I can...you can expect waaaay more legumes in that menu.

This is my plan for the week....I'm going to try to post and share every day, though I may not always have time for elaborate write-ups and photos.

eat your leafy greens, dammit

2011-04-09T13:10:00.003-04:00

I can't even count the number of times I've read/heard the phrase "eat more dark green leafy vegetables."

It's everywhere. They form part of Canada's Food Guide. My favourite magazine, Clean Eating, is always touting their benefits. Most lists of so-called 'superfoods' (in quotation marks because this is not a licensed or regulated term, so always take it with a grain of salt) have spinach featured pretty prominently too.

It's a good thing.

BUT, there are a few issues that can come up with spinach (and other leafy greens).

First off, when eaten raw, it's hard to eat enough of these vegetables to really benefit from their nutrients. For example, 1 cup of raw spinach has 7 calories, 1 g fibre. It's a great source of Vitamin A (56% daily value) and Vitamin K (181% daily value). That's pretty good. When you compare with 1 cup of cooked spinach, you get 41 calories, 4 g fibre, 5 g protein (who knew???), and the news gets better with some of the other nutrients - 24% daily value for calcium, 36% daily value for iron [make sure you consume with a vitamin C source to optimize your absorption]. PLUS, 1 cup of cooked spinach is a pretty good sized serving. You won't feel at all satisfied with 1 cup of raw spinach, but the same size serving of cooked spinach will definitely help fill you up.

My other problem with spinach is that I end up buying a big plastic tub of it, and if I'm not cooking it, it ends up going bad, because we can't get through it quick enough. Cooking decreases spinach's volume by nearly 90%, so if you have slightly-sketchy spinach, just cook 'er up, eat it and you're good.

And this brings me to my last point about why cooked spinach is better...y'all might think that processed hamburgers might be one of the number one sources for e.coli....but spinach has also been the source of a surprising number of outbreaks. There are some tips here on how to safely handle spinach, but the reality is that you can't wash off e.coli. You can kill it by cooking though.

One other quick tip about spinach - it has been named as one of the 'dirty dozen' most contaminated vegetables. So if you can find organic spinach, it's probably a better choice. You can see the whole list of the most and least contaminated veg/fruit on the Organic.org website. Just something to think about.

So....now that we've got all of the pleasantries (???) out of the way, let me tell you about dinner. Hubs and I didn't end up eating until 11 last night (Lil Z got some leftover beef stew, made from this Clean Eating recipe). I had *thought* we would be eating around 10, so my chicken was a little dry, and my parsnips a little tough....but they were still tasty, and the recipes are absolutely yummy, so I'm sharing, even though you can clearly see the dried-out execution of the meal on the plates (pics don't lie).

Just don't trust your hubs when he says he'll be home from hockey at 9:45. ;)

This chicken recipe is from (surprise, surprise) Clean Eating. A couple of small mods due to availability, but overall, the taste is great. I think the roasted pepper sauce would be amazing on pasta.

stuffed chicken with spicy roasted red pepper sauce

serves 2 (I made 3....this easily scales up)

3 red bell peppers (mine were very small, so I added a yellow and orange for good measure)

1 T olive oil

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 c low-sodium chicken broth (I absolutely love the Kitchen Basics no-sodium-added one)

2-3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4-1/2 jalapeno pepper (I just used a good pinch of red pepper flakes)

1/2 t italian seasoning (I used herbes de provence)

sea salt and black pepper, to taste

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 T goat cheese (didn't have any and I hate it...I used finely grated 3 year-aged cheddar...next time I'll go for light laughing cow because it doesn't melt out of the chicken!)

2 asparagus spears per chicken breast, trimmed

1. Preheat broiler. Cut peppers in half, and arrange, cut side down, on a baking sheet.

Place as close to the broiler as you can (don't be scared!). Broil for 10-ish minutes. You want them completely burnt. Start checking after 7 minutes. Once they start smoking, then they are probably ready. Immediately put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let them steam themselves for about 10 minutes....this makes it easier to remove the skin. (NOTE: if you don't burn the heck of the peppers, the skin will be near-impossible to remove and you will hate me. So burn the peppers, k?).

2. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin. It's okay if there's still a little black on 'em though. That makes it yummier. (NOTE: If you are lucky enough to have a gas stove, you can do this stove top. Or you can do it on the bbq. Or you can use jarred peppers....really doesn't matter to me!).

3. Take 2-3 peppers and put them in the blender (as mentioned, my peppers were small, so I used 3 small peppers in the sauce. If yours are big, you'll only need two). At any rate, keep one pepper behind to use to stuff your chicken.

4. In the blender, add the oil, vinegar, broth, garlic and hot pepper. Blend until smooth. Put sauce in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, add italian seasoning and black pepper (and salt to taste) and cook for about 10 minutes. This will take the edge off your raw garlic.

5. Meanwhile, lay the chicken on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife and with the palm of 1 hand holding the chicken, cut each breast in half horizontally (knife should be parallel to cutting board), so it opens like a book. Lay chicken breasts open and spread cheese onto half of each breast. Add asparagus spears, as well as red pepper strips. I used 2 spears per breast, along with 3-4 pepper strips. Close chicken by folding top half back over, sandwiching filling.

6. Carefully transfer stuffed chicken breasts to casserole dish. Pour about 1/2 c roasted red pepper sauce over chicken breasts and bake for 35-40 minutes (at about 375F) until chicken is cooked through. (I turned my oven waaaay down once I learned of hubs' tardiness, but mine still dried out, so check your chicken after 35 minutes and go from there).

7. Serve chicken, and pour additional warm red pepper sauce over chicken.

Clean Eating nutritional info (per 1 breast and 1/4 cup sauce) - 323 calories, 13 g fat, 16 g carbs, 5 g fibre, 10 g sugar, 34g protein, 512 mg sodium, 77 mg cholesterol.

I served this chicken with spiced parsnip fries. Parsnips are one of the most under-appreciated veggies. I think they are SO delicious...and this is one of my favourite ways to cook them. It's easy and you can serve it as a side dish, or as an appetizer (they always disappear). My mom first made this recipe for my brothers and I when we were teenagers, and I'm pretty sure it lasted about 2 minutes on the table. It's really that good.

spiced parsnip fries

1 lb parsnips

2 T canola oil

1 T thai red curry paste

1/2 c light sour cream

2 T indian curry paste

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Peel parsnips and slice into 'fries.'

2. In a large bowl, use a whisk to blend the curry paste into the canola oil (the whisk is really the only way to get the dense curry paste to blend into the oil. This stuff is killer spicy, so you don't want clumps).

3. Bake parsnip fries for about 50 minutes, turning once. I like to put mine on parchment paper, because a) they don't stick, and b) I can toss it and I don't have to scrub a pan.

4. In the meantime, combine the curry paste and light sour cream. You can use any kind of curry paste - I used tikka this time, but I've used mild, hot, vindaloo...even curry powder, garlic and honey in a pinch.

5. Enjoy. Again, my fries are a little dried out and tough because of the extra 45 minutes in the oven. They are still yummy, but definitely better when you don't get a jaw workout eating them. :)

But hey, that's how you know this blog is real, right?

Last, here is the spinach recipe. This one is from Clean Eating and is deeelish.

garlicky spinach

(shamelessly stolen from Clean Eating)

2 t olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced (I used my slicer because it's fun and I like it)

12-oz spinach (300g or so)

1 cup basil leaves

pinch sea salt, black pepper

1. Heat a large sauté pan. Add oil, let oil heat up. Add garlic and onion and sauté until very slightly browned. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and toss for 2 mins (until spinach is wilted).

Voila. There you have it. This was a really yummy way to make spinach - the basil really brightened up the flavour and I'd highly recommend it. OMNOMNOM.

As a minor administrative note, I noticed that I've been getting some spam comments on the older blog posts....so I've instituted comment moderation on all posts older than a month. I'm not trying to censor anyone, I just don't really want my blog to become a spam haven....so if you comment that a 'recipe looks tasty,' but you link to a website hawking fake handbags or counterfeit viagra....sorry, that's not gonna happen. ;)

Other than that though...I do live and breathe for comments and feedback. :)

Thanks for reading!

fish, funk and a whole lotta cumin

2011-04-05T20:57:00.004-04:00

Hope you all got a bit of a giggle out of hubs' April 1st recipe....I'd say it was an April fools' prank...except that he really does bake hockey sticks. ALL.THE.TIME. ;) Last week, he even baked his brand new hockey skates (oven at 80C, turn off, then heat for 15-20 minutes....if anyone was curious). Apparently the skates are now exponentially more awesome than they once were.

I'll take his word for it.

I've been in a bit of a cooking funk lately, so we've really been exercising our 'finger cooking' muscles (oh except not from BP, because they don't deliver to our backwoods neighbourhood). I'm actually kinda sick of take-out, especially since there are only three places in my area that are even remotely decent (pizza delivery, greek delivery and the most scrumptious Indian take-out place in the ENTIRE world.) Not joking - their channa masala is legendary.

Lest I end up as a bloated, sodium-stuffed whale, I figure it's time to try to get out of my funk. My first course of action was to actually make dinner tonight. My second is to actually do all the dishes....but of course, rather than heading straight to that, I've decided to procrastinate and blog about dins. ;)

I didn't want to have to go get groceries, so I based my dinner around what I could find in my fridge....though a little random, it's surprisingly enjoyable and at least it's something I can feel good about eating.

I based the meal around some frozen tilapia I had in the freezer, finding a great papillote recipe on epicurious (of course, the recipe is for sea bass, but as with most fish recipes, it's no big deal to just substitute another white fish). If you've not tried papillote cooking, I'd highly recommend it....it's pretty simple, usually very healthy and gives you moist, delicious results. This recipe in particular, baked on a bed of lemon slices, and topped with a garlic/tomato/caper mixture, just reminded me of provence. And that made me all reminiscent and nostalgic about the amazing trip hubs and I took (back in October) to Europe (you can check out our trip blog, if you're interested in more deets). It's fresh and wonderful. You could definitely serve it to company, or just make it and enjoy...doesn't take too long to come together.

For a side, in my pantry I had ridiculous amounts of both quinoa and sweet potatoes...so I decided to seek out a recipe involving one or both of those ingredients. In my Clean Food cookbook, there was a tasty-sounding recipe involving quinoa, ~~currants~~ raisins and onions. I had to make a couple of substitutions based on availability, but it turned out fab. To round out the meal, I served with some *(only slightly sketchy!) asparagus and some sliced cucumber. I just cooked my asparagus in the microwave (lazy way!) and drizzled a tiny bit of balsamic on it. Very easy and super delish. I hate steaming veggies on the stove because you end up dirtying too many pots...I'm all about the nuked veggies. Just put them in a covered glass dish with a sprinkle of water. Unfortunately (as you'll see in the pics), my asparagus is a touch overdone, because my fish was a tiny bit frozen and took longer than expected to cook.

Imma say it now, whatever sick troll said you could just defrost food 'overnight in the refrigerator' is a DAMN LIAR. Has anyone ever put something in the fridge overnight, and come home the next day to anything but a rockhard brick of ice? GAH. My fish was still a little icy when I started dins tonight, and even the 45 minutes on the counter (before I was ready to throw it in the oven) seemed to do little for its crystalline plight.

That said, this meal was great. Lil Z (who helped out the entire way through....check out the pics if you don't believe me) proclaimed that it was "AWESOME AWESOME" and gobbled nearly an entire fillet of fish, as well as the sides. Have I ever mentioned that I just love this kid?

Tilapia en papillote

(stolen and modifed from epicurious)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4-5 pieces of fish
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 thin lemon slices (2 per fillet...make them very thin if you are using skinless fillets...unless you really like to pucker!)
8 sprigs fresh thyme (I used a hefty amount of herbes de provence - procured on our trip). I never buy thyme fresh)
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced (product placement - I sliced mine using this fun slicer from pampered chef...not necessary, but fun)

12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved (I had most of a pint left...I just sliced 'em all)
1 1/2 tablespoons drained bottled capers

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with heavy-duty foil, then drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil.

2. Arrange lemon slices in pairs (2 per fillet). Sprinkle lemon with sea salt, pepper and herbes de provence. Put fish on top off lemon. Add more sea salt, pepper and herbes de provence.

3. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté garlic, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 30 seconds.

4. Add tomatoes and a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are softened, about 1 minute. Stir in capers.

5. Spoon hot tomato mixture over fish, then cover with another sheet of foil, tenting it slightly over fish, and crimp edges together tightly to seal.

You can see my quality control officer here:

6. Bake until fish is just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes (depending on thickness of fish - my fishsicles took 20 minutes); check by removing from oven and carefully lifting up a corner of top sheet of foil (don't be dumb like me and stab the middle, then necessitating a complete re-cover in order to put back in the oven...steaming is the entire point of this cooking method, so you don't want the steam to escape!), pulling up sides of bottom sheet to keep liquid from running out. If fish is not cooked through, reseal foil and continue to bake, checking every 3 minutes.

7. Transfer fillets to plates (leave the lemon) using a spatula (be careful not to tear foil underneath) and spoon tomatoes and juices over top. Serve immediately.

Quinoa with ~~almonds and currants~~ raisins

stolen and modified from Clean Food

*When I make this as a side in the future, I will likely scale the quinoa down to 1 cup, but keep the seasonings the same....it's good, but it makes more than I needed to go with my fish)

1.5 c quinoa (I used a mix of red and white)...you can see my helper in the background

2.25 c water

1 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

1/4 t cinnamon (hmmm...in retrospect, I forgot the cinnamon...my bad)

3/4 t cumin (I think I forgot it because I was so preoccupied with grinding more cumin*)

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground coriander

1/8 t ground turmeric

3 T toasted sliced almonds (I skipped this...too lazy to slice and toast)

1/4 c ~~currants~~ raisins

1/4 c chopped parsley (I used cilantro because that's what I had...it was fab)

1. Rinse quinoa and place in a pot with water and a bit of salt. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer (covered) until all water is absorbed (about 15 mins).

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté onion and spices in oil until brown. I had some extra time, so I let my onion get a bit brown on the edges....yummy.

3. Combine onion, quinoa, (almonds), currants/raisins and fresh herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I topped mine with a tiny swirl of sri racha....LOVE that stuff. And I'm not alone. You should get some.

start tangent.....

* Why do I grind my own cumin you ask? Not because I want my house to reek of fresh curried armpits, or because I am righteously indignant at the idea of pre-ground spice....mostly because I have, over the years, bought WAAAAAAY too many bags of cumin seeds. More cumin seeds than a person could ever use in a lifetime. When I re-organized my pantry/spices a couple of months ago, I was shocked to see I could fill a four-cup mason jar with cumin seeds.....so until further notice, I have a special coffee grinder dedicated to the task of providing me with freshly-ground cumin.

See? That's a buttload of cumin.

The only problem is that when it comes time to put the cumin in the spice jar...I don't have a funnel....but really, even if I did...for some reason, cumin powder just clings to itself. I always make an enormous stanky mess when I try to get it in the jar.

I was actually a bit torn about posting this next photo...on the one hand....it just reminds me a little too much of the 'old-fashioned' in the South Park crème fraiche episode ...but on the other hand, it both shows you what a pain in the butt it is to try to pour cumin into a spice jar, AND what a fabulous manicure I am currently sporting (the colour is OPI's you don't know jacques....if you were curious). The manicure being the decadent take-away from a glorious spa day at Uxbridge Manor and Spa. *sigh*

/end random tangent.

So there you have it. Thanks for reading.

how to bake the perfect hockey stick

2011-04-01T01:10:00.011-04:00

It's been a solid six weeks since I last posted....so much for more frequent posts. :p

I've never had a guest blog post on this blog....and it seems it's the thing to do lately. So I then I thought...who better to have guest post on my blog, than the one person who figures most prominently in it...after yours truly - hubs!

Also, hubs has been bugging me to post. He's shared a recipe on here before (to ~~great~~ critical acclaim, I might add) so I figured it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for him to guest blog on here.

So I acquiesced...partially because I thought you'd enjoy hubs' offering....but mostly because I like the sound and spelling of the word 'acquiesce.' All those vowels make me happy. Enjoy.

---

When Leslie asked me to write a guest blog entry, I thought hmm… where does my true expertise in the kitchen really lie? What do I know and love that could manifest itself in a passionate blog post? What sort of unique, interesting “secret recipe” could I share with her devoted readers?

And then it came to me.

How to Bake the Perfect Hockey Stick

Stastny pattern, 6.0 lie, 95 flex. If this is Greek to you, go here.

I’m not sure if the wife has ever mentioned this on the blog, but I’m a little hockey-crazy. I’ve been playing nearly non-stop since I was four, and I’ve always been a little picky about my sticks. I can remember being 10 or 11 and holding my Sherwood hockey stick blade over a glowing hot stove element to heat it up so I could modify the curve to my liking. Since then I’ve been continuously fascinated with the various ways that some of the NHL’s elite players customize their sticks.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; a bit of a backgrounder might be necessary here for you “foodies.” As you are probably aware (or at least should be), hockey sticks come in all different shapes and sizes. They have traditionally been made of wood, but in recent years a new breed of composite sticks have supplanted their traditional counterparts and are now common at virtually all levels of hockey.

These new sticks are typically made out of materials such as kevlar, fiberglass, or carbon fiber. As such, these sticks do not warp or absorb moisture, and offer several benefits over wooden sticks such as better torque and more consistent flexibility.

Never Quite Right

Interestingly enough, despite the fact that most NHL players get sticks made to their exact specifications, there is a long history of players “tweaking” their sticks (and never being happy with them). For supplemental reading, see exhibit A, exhibit B, or exhibit C (jump to 0:30 mark).

Unfortunately, composite sticks are little trickier to customize than the old-fashioned wood sticks. Gone are the days when you could just grab a blowtorch, heat up the blade, and then bend it with your hand. Well, ok… technically sure, you can try this with a composite stick. But good luck. Composite sticks are notoriously brittle, and if not treated properly will simply fold like corrugated cardboard instead of curving.

So anyways, there’s the backgrounder. And now, my secret recipe.

Ingredients

1 hockey stick*
1 pair insulated work gloves (oven mitts will work too)
6-12 clamps of assorted sizes/shapes
custom mould for new blade curve**
3M Super 77 spray adhesive (or suitable substitute)
hockey tape

Serves: 1

* preferably cheap, because you don’t want to learn the hard way on a $140 stick. For best results, start with a pattern that is at least somewhat similar to the finished product you intend to create. In hockey terms, don’t use a stick with a pronounced down-show or “heel” curve if you intend on making a kick-ass up-shoe (“toe”) curve. Costco has been selling a great Sherwood composite lately for $39; Stastny pattern, 6.0 lie, 95 flex.

** This is crucial; don’t try to bend the blade manually with your hands (see notes about folding like cardboard above). I fashioned my mould from a chunk of 2x4, assorted saws/planes/sanders, and duct tape to smooth it out, fill it in, and get it just right.

tools of the trade

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 500F (225 C). That’s right, I said the oven. Save your blowtorches for crème brulée; when it comes to composite sticks it’s oven FTW.

2. Remove all oven racks except one, and place it in the lowest position.

3. Fill a nearby sink with cold water.

4. Turn on the exhaust fan and/or crack a nearby window to minimize fumes. I’m not a scientist but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the materials in composite sticks are carcinogenic (or at least bad for you) so I always try to keep the area well ventilated.

5. Insert stick blade-first into the oven and close the oven door as much as possible.

6. Bake for 5-8 minutes. Be careful because if you try the following steps too early, you may end up doing it twice (which will weaken the blade). When the blade is ready, the existing curve will begin to straighten, and your girlfriend/wife/mistress may start to complain of the smell. The blade will make a dull thudding sound when tapped on a hard surface, as opposed to the sharp tapping sound it would usually make. Exterior coating may swell or bubble slightly; this is normal. When overcooked, paint will begin peeling from the blade and/or shaft. As I say to the wife, it’s all about knowing when to pull out.

blade as seen a) with original curve, b) directly out of the oven, and c) with final modified curve

7. [OPTIONAL]. While the blade is heating, mist your mould with something like olive oil. This will prevent your mould from adhering to the heated blade (particularly if you’ve wrapped your mould in duct tape as I have). Note that you will have to wash the blade afterwards or your hockey tape won’t stick.

yes, that is a light mist of olive oil. I used the wife's misto.

8. When the stick is ready, use gloves or oven mitts to remove it from the oven. Immediately place mould into position and begin applying clamps. Start at the middle of the blade and quickly work towards the toe and heel. Do your best to place them in a manner than does not cause any severe bending along the length of the blade, or it may fold.

heated blade with mould and clamps in place

9. When happy with the curvature of the blade and positioning of the clamps, immerse the entire blade and clamps in the cold water you prepared in step 3 (as much as possible). Let it set for 10 minutes to give the blade a chance to cool completely.

10. Once the blade has cooled, remove clamps and wash if necessary (see step 7). Take a long hard look at it. Handle a puck with it on the kitchen floor. Is this the curve you want? If not, go to step 5. If, on the other hand, it’s freaking AWESOME, then turn off the oven (I typically forget this step).

11. Grab your 3M Super 77 and go outside. I don’t care if it’s cold; you don’t want to get spray adhesive on pretty much anything in your kitchen, or wife/girlfriend/mistress could get angry. Lightly coat both sides of the blade, paying special attention to the bottom.

Super 77: EXTREME DANGER, BITCHES.

12. Quickly go back inside and tape that sucker up while the spray adhesive is still tacky. Using the spray adhesive will extend the lifetime of your tape job, so you won’t find yourself doing this after every single game.

the final product, in all its unabashed glory

13. Smile. You are holding a thing of beauty.

Disclaimer: for all of the science behind their manufacturing, composite sticks are finicky things. Even under normal conditions some sticks will snap after only a game or two, while others will seemingly last forever. Your mileage may vary depending on how smoothly the curve-alteration process went, but I’ve found that it generally has a minimal effect on the lifespan of the stick.

That’s it folks! Thanks for reading.

showered with food

2011-02-17T23:09:00.004-05:00

So this post relates to my previous post, detailing all my monkey-themed baby shower craftiness. This is where you come for the menu.

The baby shower was at 11 am on a Sunday, so I went with a brunch theme. Dietary restrictions of the crowd included one vegetarian and one with a moderate intolerance to wheat (i.e., not celiac, but not piles and piles of flour everywhere either).

The Menu (recipes, or links to recipes, all below)

spinach cheese souffle (or not so souffle)

potato fennel hash

buckwheat oatmeal scones with preserves

fresh fruit skewers with chocolate drizzle

BLT skewers with dijon aioli

chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mint swiss meringue buttercream

non-alcoholic mojito punch

OJ, coffee, tea

Spinach-cheese soufflé

These were delicious little yummy ramekins of goodness. I took this recipe from epicurious and modified it to be crust-free mini-dishes.

1 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1b-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
8 ounce jarlsberg cheese, grated (or other cheese - mozza, cheddar, gruyere)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 large eggs, beaten to blend

1. Melt butter in skillet. Add onion and sauté until tender. Mix in spinach, salt pepper and nutmeg. Sauté until all liquid is gone.

2. Combine ricotta, jarlsberg, parmesan. Mix in eggs. Add (cooled) spinach mixture. Blend well.

3. Spoon into 12 ramekins (mine are small). You can make them up the day before.

To BAKE: preheat oven to 350F. Bake about 30-40 minutes, until filling is set in center and brown on top.

YUM!

Potato-fennel hash

(hash is at the bottom left of the picture. Scones are midway up the right side of the picture)

No creativity here - it's straight from epicurious. Get the recipe here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fennel-and-Potato-Hash-356731

It's a nice change from regular breakfast potatoes and because of the fennel, it's a bit lower in calories. I put mine together the night before and just heated it up with the souffles.

Buckwheat Oatmeal Scones with preserves

These are based on this epicurious recipe, which I've made before, with great success. I wanted to try them with light buckwheat flour (not dark!). The result was surprisingly wonderful! If you can source gluten-free oats and buckwheat, this recipe can be suitable for celiac sufferers. Using the food processor will make your life easier, but it isn't crucial. You just need to otherwise use oat flour and a pastry blender.

1 2/3 cups buckwheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar plus additional for sprinkling (I used organic palm sugar)
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats (I used large flake oats)
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
Finely grated zest from 1 large navel orange
2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk plus additional for brushing

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Put flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and oats in a food processor. Pulse 15 times. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Stir together zest and buttermilk. Pour onto oat mixture, and stir just until you can get it to stick together in a ball. Divide dough into two balls.

3. Form each ball into a circle, about 1 inch thick. I don't use a rolling pin for this. Just my hands. Cut the circle into 8 pieces (like a pizza) and put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Do the same with the other half of the dough. So you now have 16 cute little scone triangles.

4. Brush the top of each triangle with more buttermilk, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the oven until golden brown (15-18 minutes) and transfer to a rack.

These are rich but light. Yum. Totally recommend.

Fruit Skewers

Pretty self explanatory. Put fruit that won't brown on a skewer. I used starfruit, canteloupe, strawberry, kiwi, pineapple and dragon fruit. Just avoid things like apples and pear, which go brown. For the drizzle, I tried to be fancy and mix mine with sour cream. Don't do it. Just melt your chocolate and drizzle using a zip loc with a teeny bit of the corner snipped off. My drizzle was a little awkward and not nearly as fine as I wanted. Ah well. It tasted good.

BLT skewers with dijon aioli

Another easy one. Cook bacon (I candied it in the oven like this recipe). Cut into pieces. Thread onto skewers with some romaine and a grape tomato. The sauce is simply 1/2 c mayonnaise, 1/4 dijon mustard, 1 minced clove garlic, pepper. Add a spoon of grainy mustard if you have some). Voila!

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-mint swiss meringue buttercream

OMFG I was proud of these. Don't they look amazing!!!!! Now, before you're too impressed with me, I absolutely did NOT make the monkey toppers. Those were made by my friend, who runs the amazing Sophie Bifield Cake Company. She is so super talented. If you're crafty and know how to do these sorts of things, there are great instructions for the monkeys on the Frosted Cake n Cookie. This is well outside my comfort zone, so HUGE thanks to Sophie for the help.

The cake part of the cupcake was from this epicurious recipe that I've used before with great success. It makes great cupcakes, just adjust the baking time to 18ish-20ish minutes. 1 cake recipe makes 36 decent sized-cupcakes.

The cake is good, but holy crap...the frosting has opened up my entire cupcake world to new possibilities.

I'd never made swiss meringue buttercream before...but it's so bloody wonderful. It's an enormous pain in the ass to make (it took an HOUR), but it's fabulous. Don't make it if you don't have a stand mixer. I used Martha Stewart's icing recipe. and beat in 4 oz of melted, cooled 70% cocoa chocolate, and 1 t of peppermint extract. The recipe makes enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes.

To ice the cupcakes, I used the Wilton 1C icing tip. I love the ruffly deep swirls it made. And if I can do it, so can you, because I suck at this kind of thing. I bought it at Bulk Barn and used a disposable piping bag. My bag was only 12 inches. Buy a bigger one. Mine was irritatingly small.

lime-mint mojito punch

I wasn't sure how this punch would go over....to the point that I yelled at hubs for stealing a glass of OJ the morning of the shower...but it was a HUGE hit! I'd make it again. It was refreshing and yummy and totally doesn't need the rum. Although rum wouldn't be a bad thing...as long as half of your guests aren't pregnant or nursing. ;)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

zest of 3 limes

1 cup lime juice

1.5 cups mint leaves, whole (give or take)

4-5 cans club soda

1. On the stove top, combine the sugar, water and lime zest. Heat until the sugar is totally dissolved. Cool.

2. To make punch, combine lime juice, sugar syrup and mint leaves. Add club soda. Taste - add more club soda, juice, sugar, mint depending on what you think.

Yummy!

And voila. That's what we ate. It was super yummy and everything disappeared off the table. So I'd recommend all of the recipes here.

so i'm definitely not martha...

2011-02-17T22:27:00.004-05:00

...but every once in a while I pull off something that does a pretty darn good Martha impression.

I had one such moment this past weekend. Most of you know I have a young kid (lil Z), but what most of you don't know is that I don't have a single niece or nephew. Not yet, anyway. ;)

So when my sis-in-law told us she was expecting, we were all SUPER stoked. I grew up having two younger brothers. We fought. A lot. Kay...maybe the word 'fought' is a little strong...but..hmmm..nah, it totally isn't. We so did not get along as kids. ;) I pretty much always wanted my mom to take them back and exchange them for a sister. Like a two-for-one trade deal.

Thankfully we all grew up, and now all get along. I love them to death....but they still aren't sisters.

It's kinda funny how things end up though, because now, 30 years on, I've gone from having zero sisters, to having four sisters (2 step-sisters and 2 sisters-in-law). Hubs' sis was the first of my four sisters to come along and she's always been such an amazing friend and so supportive of hubs and I (I cannot even count how much baby-sitting we owe them!).

She's the kind of woman who would do anything for a friend, and so I was just about beside myself with excitement to be able to repay the favour. While we wait for the wee little dude in her belly to make his grand entrance, it was the least I could do (and a whole lot off fun for me, I might add!) to throw a shower for her. I went with a monkey theme, with green and brown...before you go thinking I'm all creative, I stole this colour scheme and motif from my sis-in-law, who is using it in her nursery.

All of these crafts are completely do-able. Trust me - if I can do it, anyone can do it. Also, far smarter people than I have put step-by-step instructions on the internet, so that makes it so much easier.

Here's a pic of some of the decor:

So, first the diaper cake

I take no credit for the design. The fabulous monkey ribbon is from Michaels, and the monkeys on the top are from Chapters. There are detailed, very easy-to-follow instructions to make a three-layered diaper cake on Alphamom. Plus, there is a bottle of bubbly in the middle. Everything is better with bubbly. Can't go wrong here.

Hanging mobile

Stole this idea from Ms. Martha Stewart herself. The hoop is two coat hangers (thank hubs for shaping them) wrapped in ribbon. The circles are made from scrapbook paper. And it's all strung on fishing line. I'd also like to give a shout out to hubs' dad, who had the brilliant idea of stringing more fishing line from my curtain rod to the light fixture plate [I know....been in the house almost three years and still have no chandelier....I'm picky....what can I say]. It worked fabulously, because I got to have my mobiles hanging over the table, and there were no holes put in our stippled ceiling.

Wall hanging

I bought this frame from Umbra a year ago. And I never put anything in it, so it was just moldering away, up in one of our guest rooms. I had extra scrapbook paper, so I just cut it to size and popped it in. Gotta love it when you put $2 worth of paper in a $100 frame. You could emulate this idea with inexpensive ikea frames.

Alphabet garland

These alphabet cards were $5 in the Michaels discount section. I punched holes in them and strung them up with fishing line. Cheap and cheerful. Kickass. Plus, there's a darn cute monkey.

Floral decor and game

I have to say, I totally rocked out this floral arrangement. I have a hard time putting even pre-arranged bouquets in vases. I was pleased with this. Because this shower was the day before Valentine's Day, grocery store floral selection was at an all-time high. I just grabbed a few $5 bunches of flower and put them together.

The snarky baby shower bingo cards (a little cut off, sorry) were from Knock Knock. I got the idea of them from Morgan's fabulous blog and was fortunate enough to find them at Chapters. They were quite a hoot and exactly the right game for my sis-in-law....who is not the type to embrace having her belly size guessed, or eating mysterious smears of baby food out of diapers. This was much more her (and my!) speed.

Favours

These didn't turn out *quite* as cute as I would have liked. I totally fell for these adorable little green takeout boxes, but at $2/each, it was a little too hard to justify. The green bags were $4 for 12 at Michael's, and I filled them with green and brown candies from Bulk Barn. The monkeys on the front are from a foam sticker set.

Invites

I got these guys (pic from zazzle.ca) from Zazzle.ca, in a super fabulous and sparkly ice metallic paper. I thought they were awesome. A little overpriced, but whatever. Super cute. Service was pretty quick and quality good. The only complaint I have is that they have the designers name and zazzle.ca printed on the back...considering the invitations are not exactly cheap, I don't think I should have to cheapen my invites by advertising for their company! I would use them again for casual invites, but the ad on the back would make me hesitate for wedding invites.

Anyway, you don't come here for martha-esque triumphs....you come for the food. And you know what....I'm often really hard on myself when it comes to food (things are always 'too....something' [you name the adjective]. Too salty, too bland, too hard, too soft, too...whatever.

Everything I made turned out pretty great! This is a shocker.

I don't have step-by-steps of each recipe, but I will share what I've got in my next post, because this stuff all turned out great. YUM. Stay tuned....

crazy good vegan eats for meatless monday

2011-02-07T23:07:00.002-05:00

No, don't worry, I'm not a vegan, nor am I likely to become one. BUT, meatless Monday is a movement that has been gaining momentum over the last decade. The tenet is pretty simple - don't eat meat on Monday, and it's better for the planet than eating meat on Monday. ;)

I actually didn't plan to make this today, as it was a bit more time consuming than I was wanting for a weeknight dinner, but as circumstance would have it, I was at home today, tending to a sick little kiddo, and I had a lot more time for prep than normal. Before I delve into this mysterious recipe, I also wanted to share links to a couple of recipes that you should also check out. They aren't vegan though - sorry. ;)

First, I was at a Pampered chef party last week, and while I'm not normally gaga over magical kitchen gadgets that will change your life, I tasted a recipe that totally shocked me with its deliciousness....when the PC consultant started talking about cooking pasta in the microwave, I was full-on skeptical. I'm pretty picky when it comes to my pasta, and I really didn't think it would be possible to have decently-textured pasta from the microwave.

I was so so wrong. While I don't have ANY of the PC goodies that are supposedly needed to make the recipe, I will say that I got great results with good old-fashioned corningware, a potato masher (to squash the tomatoes) and a plain old knife for slicing the garlic. ;) Check it out - Grilled Chicken Penne al Fresco (btw, someone needs to tell them that al fresco simply means 'outside' and hence makes no sense in the title of the recipe).

Oh, and did I mention that I cooked a FROZEN CHICKEN IN A CROCKPOT and put some of that on top? This truly is an alternate universe. The chicken in a crockpot was pretty good - perfect for transforming a frozen chicken icecube long having lain forgotten in the freezer into something useful and edible. I wouldn't serve it as a main course, but for putting in pasta, pot pie, fried rice or burritos, it's perfect. And did I mention it was easy? Booyah.

Last couple of things I want to mention....while I know my fettucine alfredo has had my site listed on food porn aggregators and I do stand by the wonderful richness of occasional indulgence....I have an alternative for a delicious pasta carbonara that is absolutely delicious without being the least bit fake. It's still not super healthy, but it's a lot better for you than pure cream, butter and cheese. From Cooking Light, Spaghetti Carbonara with Leeks and Pancetta (I used shallots instead of leeks, along with whole wheat farfalle). It's awesome. You should make it. Also, since Z was feeling under the weather today and not really into eating anything, I made her a batch of this yummy vanilla rice pudding (made with coconut milk instead of heavy cream). It's super yum. Wish I could eat more of it - Z thought it was pretty tasty.

Grilled Mediterranean Pizza with Baba Ghanoush

This totally rocks. It's rich and delicious and smokey and fabulous. I completely and utterly cheated on the grilled factor here - I used a stove-top cast iron griddle (in a perfect world, I would have one of those super fancy stoves that has a grill right in the middle....but alas, what I have is a slightly wonky ceramic top stove and a non-working exhaust fan. Awesome.) But I made it work.

There are a couple of tricks to smokey-tasting non-grilling on your stove. The first trick is cast iron. You can't get the same results with non-stick. And really, you don't want to, because it means you're heating up chemicals to crazy high chemicals. Not my choice. The second trick is a bit of a cheat - I like to use smoked salt. My grocery store carries it, but I imagine you could also find it in a specialty shop or buy it online. You could also use smoked paprika, chipotle powder or liquid smoke.

* you can find the pizza dough recipe on the Clean Eating website - I made mine in my kitchenaid, (you could also use a breadmaker or just purchase dough)

Baba Ganoush 'sauce'

1 large eggplant (about 1 lb)

1/2 c flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped)

3 T tahini

3 T lemon juice (I just juiced a lemon)

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic

1/2 t salt (I used smoked salt)

1/4 t cumin (I also added a bit of chipotle powder)

1. [Original instructions said to grill the eggplant for 15-18 minutes - I had to cook mine in the oven] I cooked it at 400F for 45 minutes. Pierce it with a fork, toss it on a foil-lined baking sheet and cook it until it starts to almost collapse. I also broiled each side for a couple of minutes to get a bit more charring.

2. Once eggplant is coolish, you should be able to peel the skin off, drain the flesh in a colander and then plop it in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and whirl away. You could also use a blender, immersion blender or just mash it all with a fork.

Pizza

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 t chile powder

1/2 t each salt and pepper (I used smoked salt)

1/2 each red and orange pepper, cut in half, stem and seeds removed

1 red onion, peeled and sliced into 1/2" rings [I think you could use less onion]

1/2 each green and yellow zucchini, sliced lengthwise in 1/4" thick strips (I couldn't get yellow, so just used a whole zucchini)

1 lb whole wheat pizza dough

cooking spray

1. Mix together oil, 1 T water, minced garlic, chile powder, salt and pepper. Brush peppers, onion and zucchini with the mixture. Grill until charred and tender.

2. Remove veggies from heat and roughly chop.

3. Divide dough ball in half and roll until thin. This could take a while, as the gluten flour causes the dough to contract. You may have to fight with your dough for a little bit, but it will eventually roll out thin. Just be patient.

4. Spray one side of the dough with cooking spray. Place dough sprayed-side down on the grill [my stove top grill really only gets hot at one end, so I just cooked one at a time]. I also used a large (all metal) pot lid to trap some of the heat for a more bbq/oven like effect.

5. After 2-3 minutes (it really doesn't take long), spray the uncooked side of the dough and flip it. Spread the dough with about 1/3 c of babaganoush. Toss about 1 cup of roasted veggies on it (more if you like). I covered mine with a pot lid to help make sure the veggies and babaganoush would get warm. Once you start to smell a bit of burning, the crush is pretty much cooked.

And voila. There ya go - delicious indoor grilled pizza. Considering my bbq is under about 3 feet of snow, I'll take it.

According to Clean Eating, 1/4 of each pizza has 174 calories, 8 g fat (1 sat), 22 g carbs (5 g fibre), 5 g protein and 241 mg of sodium. Yummy.

NCC gets it wrong - the ethics of foie gras vs. the ethics of industrial food

2011-01-10T22:51:00.003-05:00

I have a rant. It's been a long time brewing.

Food consumption and preparation are my passion. I freaking looooooooooove food. I love variety, I love exoticism, I love localism....basically, I derive large amounts of pleasure from food.

But in the back of my mind, I am acutely aware that the polished facade of my grocery store is really just a fresh hide over the rancid underbelly of industrial food production. Modern, factory-scale food production, frankly, sucks. It sucks for the animals involved. It sucks for the people involved. It sucks for the land and environment involved. It's an energy-sucking behemoth rife with suffering and horror.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I don't know that it's possible to over-dramatize this. When you eat factory-farmed meat, you are eating pain and suffering. The cheaper the meat, the more likely the unfortunate animal involved led a short, pain-filled, manure-covered life. I realize this may bother some people, but it's the truth. And people need to know that.

I talked about this in 2007, and I'll talk about it again in 2011....the only way you can be assured that your meat led a relatively content, well-treated life is if you buy it from a farmer yourself. I.e., if you bought it at Costco, a grocery store or pretty much any chain food outlet (fast food or not), your meat was probably factory farmed.

SO...this brings me to the current target off my ire....the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. Every year in Ottawa, we make the best of our freezing winters and the city throws a huge party called Winterlude. It's awesome. Skating on the world's longest skating rink, beautiful crisp clear winter days, ice sculptures, warm comforting food, etc. It's a great time.

The short story is that the NCC invited renowned chef Martin Picard (of Au Pied de Cochon and Food Network Canada fame) to put on a gala dinner for 400-some people in Gatineau's spectacular Museum of Civilization. Tickets sold out in a matter of hours. That's how excited people were to try some of this chef's famous dishes (which often feature foie gras). Ottawa Citizen food editor Ron Eade cites that Martin Picard's Montreal restaurant is the number one consumer of foie gras in North America.

Essentially, this guy is known for foie gras and people want to eat it up. In fact, they clamoured to eat it up (me, I was not interested as a) I do not personally like the taste of foie gras, and b) I can't imagine that eating mass-prepared banquet food could possibly compare to actually eating chef-prepared food). Anyway, people were clearly excited. The demand was absolutely there.

A few days later, the NCC officially launched Winterlude on a snowy December day...I was lucky enough to be at the launch for a non-food-related work thing. In front of the Chateau Laurier (where the launch was held), were a few snowy protesters with big signs. Whatever. There are ALWAYS foie gras protestors in Ottawa. I encountered them about 18 months ago when I visited Canvas for my birthday. For the most part, they are respectful, but get their point across.

SO....you'd think that the overwhelming excitement of 400 near-instant sell-out tickets would drown out the weak mewls of these protestors. Right?

WRONG. The NCC asked Martin Picard to omit foie gras from his menu. All seemed well.

Except it wasn't. Behind the scenes, Picard, like any chef/artist with a shred of credibility and character, bowed out. If Ottawa wasn't interested in his food, the way he wanted to make it, essentially, Picard wasn't really interested in Ottawa.

I don't blame the man.

But I do blame the NCC. It is RIDICULOUS that they let a few protestors alter the focus of Winterlude's marquee event. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

And now I'm going to get back to the point of my rant.....this article on Serious Eats about the physiology of ducks does a great job of explaining why gavage, the practice of tube-feeding ducks and geese to fatten up their livers, is not, in fact, the worst thing that can happen to an animal. The physiology of ducks is such that they can (and do) swallow enormous things. It would make me gag. It would make you gag. Really, it would make anyone but an accomplished porn star gag. But it doesn't make a duck gag and it doesn't make a goose gag...because they are not people. Ignoring a duck's unique physiology is nothing short of anthropomorphism.

I'm not saying all foie gras ducks and geese across the entirety of the globe are well-treated. I'm absolutely sure they are not. Especially in Europe, where there is more demand, and foie gras is less of an artisanal niche product, and more of a mass-consumed product.

But here in North America? Not so much. 90 per cent of our population does not even know what foie gras IS (okay, I made the stat up....but I'll stand by it!). We are not producing foie gras on an industrial scale. To bring things back to the example at hand, according to this article, Picard takes no small amount of care when selecting the source of his foie gras.

Bottom line, these foie gras protestors are barking up the wrong tree. If they are that serious about protecting the rights of mistreated animals, why not protest Pizza Pizza or Subway as major sponsors? With the caveat that I have not personally researched these food outlets, I'd be willing to bet money that there's a whole lot more cruelty in the pepperoni on your pizza, or the turkey breast on your sub than there is in the foie gras on the select plates of those who choose to consume it.

I just don't understand the focus on a small (mostly) artisanal product when the real problem is of a MASSIVE scale. As consumers, we absolutely should be asking more questions about the origins and treatment of our food. If a merchant cannot tell us, we should take our purchasing power elsewhere.

Current regulations in Canada require that all meat be processed in a federally-inspected facility. This sounds great....unless you're a small farmer who only has a small amount of livestock. And you don't live near a slaughterhouse. So now you have to transport your formerly content livestock to a far-away abattoir. And if you try to sell (or even give away) something you slaughtered yourself. Well, you just might find yourself arrested. And no, I'm not joking.

So this is a bit of a rambly rant. But my point is that I'm ticked off that the NCC caved because of a few protesters. Foie gras is not the problem. Industrial food production is the problem.

Some reading for ya:

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Beyond Factory Farming

Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

Some watching for ya:

The Meatrix (short, free, online)

And that's it for me tonight. Time to go to bed, but now that I've got this off my chest, I'll sleep well, especially knowing that I'll have some Bearbrook Farm buffalo braising in my crockpot for dinner tomorrow.

virtuous (almost) vegetarian food

2011-01-05T22:42:00.004-05:00

The last couple of days have totally served to remind me of WHY I've hardly blogged at all since I went back to work....holy crap....I get home at 6:30/7. Scramble to throw something on the table by 7:30/8. Then eat, tidy a bit. It's 9. Then I need to work out....by the time I'm done, it's usually 10:30, and I need a shower and I need to go to bed. Not a whole lot of time for loafing, photoshopping, photo-uploading and blogging. But dammit, I'm going to blog this year.

So it's 10:45, and I really should be showering and going to bed (damn you Chalean Extreme for kicking my butt everyday). But instead, I've parked myself in front of the computer, because I figure that probably at least half of my readers have perhaps made a resolution to eat healthier, and I've got a couple of recipes that could potentially be useful. And I took pictures of them.

And I promised I would share.

I've waxed poetic about cauliflower soup before, so when I encountered this recipe, while perusing my new Clean Start cookbook (a gift from family...not from a company), I was very intrigued. The combination of roasted cauliflower and roasted garlic seemed pretty much unassailable, so I figured I would give it a try. I served the soup with a chef salad and a yogurt-based green goddess dressing (recipe follows). The combo was great, and was also equally great at lunch today. This is a delicious simple recipe - easily kept vegan (though I used chicken stock, as that's what I had in the cupboard....as an aside, I do have a fantastic new method for vegetable stock that I hope to share shortly!).

My only beef with the Clean Start cookbook, which is full of gluten-free, vegan recipes (without being preachy, which is also awesome), is that there are no calorie calculations or nutrition information. While the book is not specifically a 'diet/weight loss' book, the recipes definitely form part of a healthy lifestyle...one that could lend itself well to weight loss. So that's the one thing I would change about this book....sure, I can easily plug a recipe into nutritiondata.com (and it's free!) and THEN plug the calorie information into fitday.com (also free!), but I'm lazy. So I wish it were in the book.

Roasted Cauliflower and (Roasted) Garlic Soup

stolen and lightly modified from Clean Start

2 heads cauliflower (about 10 cups chopped)

3 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit extra

1 garlic bulb/head (the whole thing)

1 cup diced sweet onion (I used vidalia)

2 T mirin (very very sweet rice wine check asian section of supermarket or sub half honey/syrup, half sherry/red wine)

(2 t sea salt) - I omitted this

4 cups stock or water (I used chicken stock - I would add the salt if you use water)

2 T fresh thyme leaves (I subbed about 1 t dried thyme)

1. Preheat oven to 450F (original recipe calls for 350F and 1 hour of roasting time...I was hungry and impatient).

2. Toss cauliflower with 1 T olive oil and spread out on a cookie sheet (I line with parchment paper to avoid sticking and scrubbing). Cut top off garlic, drizzle with olive oil and wrap loosely (but seal tightly) with foil. Place both cauliflower and garlic in oven and roast for about 30 minutes or so (stir the cauliflower every 10 minutes to prevent burning...if it starts to burn, turn the oven down a bit). Alternatively, if you have more time, use the lower temperature (350F) and roast for longer. Your choice. :)

3. Remove from oven and set aside. When garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze out roasted cloves, discard skin, and set aside.

4. In a large pot, saute onion in 1 T olive oil until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add roasted cauliflower and garlic, mirin, salt and stock/water (also add thyme at this point, if using dried). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes (or until cauliflower is REALLY soft).

5. Remove from heat and puree (either with immersion blender, normal blender or food processor...your choice. I prefer immersion blender.

6. If using fresh thyme, add it, and some fresh pepper. Feel free to garnish with thyme. Or be lazy like me, and just grind a little pepper over it.

Voila. You are done. The original recipe says to simmer for another 20 minutes, but I was really hungry and this turned out just fine. You could simmer for longer though. I think my cauliflower heads might have been a little on the large side, so I added a bit of water after pureeing to thin the texture a bit.

Yogurt Green-Goddess Dressing

1 cup (not chopped or packed) of mixed fresh herbs. I used equal parts dill, basil and cilantro. It was epic.

1 cup plain yogourt (greek/fat free/not so fat free/whatever)

1 T maple syrup

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2-3T?)

1-2 T olive oil

1 T dijon mustard

pepper

1 small minced clove of garlic

(salt) - I didn't add any as I'm trying to cut back

Combine ingredients, puree with kitchen gadget of choice. Mine was on the runny side (my herbs were still pretty wet from being washed), but the dressing was so flavourful, it didn't really bother me. I served this on spring mix, chopped veggies, 8 croutons (yes I counted....that's a serving...ugh) and 1/2 oz grated aged cheddar. It was a delicious salad.

I don't know the exact calorie count of this meal, but it was satisfying and tasty. I thought the garlic and cauliflower went really well together, and the salad gave some nice crunch and texture, and the little crouton and cheese bits gave me just enough sodium and unctuous deliciousness to make up for the relative vegginess of this meal. Two thumbs up. Hubs agrees.

a couple of food book reviews....

2011-01-03T10:01:00.005-05:00

Every once in a while, I get a goodie in the mail from Random House Canada....a new cooking/food book for me to review. I'm saying this up front, because I did not pay for these two books - they were sent to me, in hopes I might say something nice about them.

So one author is going to be happy, and the other authors...probably not so much. One of these books has been out for a few months (took a while for me to get through it), and the other just came out.....

The first book, one that I whole heartedly recommend to anyone who wants to learn a little bit more about how recipes work, and why certain recipes are more successful than others, is called "Keys to Good Cooking - A Guide to making the best of foods and recipes" by Harold McGee. I'm totally behind the 8-ball here - there are TONS of great reviews of this book already (check them out for yourself here: http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22keys+to+good+cooking%22+review+%22harold+mcgee%22 ) . This book is comprehensive and really informative. For example, I learned that I should NEVER let my braises boil, because as soon as meat's temperature goes over 80C, it's no good. Rather, I should cook my braises at a much lower temperature (55-60C) for a longer time to ensure a tender, delicious, melt-in-your mouth result. I find that useful.

This book is at a perfect level for the curious home cook - it explains things without being over the top and I actually really enjoyed reading it. I'm going to probably read it again a couple of times, and I'll likely be referring to it for the rest of my culinary life.

So I'd give this book a buy, particularly given that its steep sticker price ($42) has now been knocked down to $26 at Amazon.ca. This book is absolutely worth the shelf space in your kitchen.

And now for the other book......the premise is similar - "Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why they work" (by Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot), but the execution could not be more different. The reviews on the back are from some pretty impressive names - Grant Achatz (of Alinea fame), Michael Anthony (Gramercy Tavern) and Chris Cosentino. However, this is actually your first clue that this book is not for the average home cook.

I found this book GRUELING and frustrating to read. First, the book really does insist on the necessity of a circulating water bath, vacuum sealer, a pressure cooker and second, it advocates (though does not insist on) the use of a number of gelling additives that I prefer not to use at home (xanthan gum, carageenan, etc.). I don't know about you, but I consider myself pretty into food...I like cooking and I love to experiment. This book made me feel totally inadequate because I don't have $500 to lay down for a sous vide circulator (http://www.surlatable.com/product/sousvide+supreme+water+oven.do ), $150 for a vacuum sealer (http://www.surlatable.com/product/677492.do ) or the money for a home smoker, etc.

Even if I did have the $$, I'm not sure I'd want to sacrifice the space! Anyway, the book does use a fairly high level of language, and it's interesting, but frankly, most of what the book suggests (and most of the book's recipes) can't really be done in my own kitchen, as it stands now. And I thought I had a pretty well-equipped kitchen.

I will admit to a bit of bias while reading the book....I started reading it just prior to New Year's, when my resolutions were ringing strongly in my head (more natural food, less fat, less saturated fat, etc.) and so all of these additives and high fat/low fibre food were just not what I wanted to be reading about.

That said, the authors do have a blog, Ideas in Food, and there, you can go check out some of their creations for yourself. They are cool, if not entirely reproduce-able by the average kitchen...

Anyway, if you (or someone you know) is a crazy-ass foodie who likes to live at the edge of the culinary wave, this would be a cool gift. Or if someone you know is a chef and wants to incorporate new techniques into their repertoire, this would be quite useful. But for the rest of us....I'd put my money on Harold McGee's book, because it's really useful and informative and didn't make me feel inadequate. ;)

So that's my two cents for today. I still have one book I need to read for review - Meat: A Kitchen Education by James Peterson. Haven't even cracked it open yet, so no comments good or bad. Premise sounds intriguing....

Ciao for now....

'tis the season to resolve to not break resolutions

2011-01-02T23:47:00.003-05:00

It's day two of 2011 and so far I'm doing pretty well.

Not that my resolutions are anything special or different, or, really, even distinguishable from years past (eat less, exercise more, be less lazy, etc.).

But I'm going to try. And most importantly to you (or at least, I'm guessing this is likely to be the resolution with the most significant impact on YOUR life...given that you're reading this...) is that I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog more.

You wouldn't believe the pile of photos I have in archives, or the number of times I've set out to write something, only to be distracted and not finish it.

So here it is, 11:53 pm on January 2nd, and I'm going to post something this year, dammit. ;)

It will be no shock to any of you that the January recipes I post are likely to be healthy and full of veggies and all those good things. I'm going to start tonight with a couple of recipes I've made in the last few days. Sorry, no photos this time, but if you can hold on until next time....there will be photos. I swear. I'm working on a work/life balance issue that I hope to have rectified in the next few weeks, and at that point, I expect that two things will happen..... 1) I will spend 67% less time in transit (or, two fewer hours per day) and 2) I will spend significantly MORE time with my family, cooking, blogging...and maybe even housework...

Okay, maybe not that last one.

But whatever. You're here for the food, so here it is.

Steamed Mussels in White Wine Lemon Sauce

This is a great recipe. Mussels are pretty much just awesome. I love them. Not only are they absolutely yummy, but they are good for you, and compared to most seafood, they are pretty affordable (less than $3/lb here).

A few tips for preparing mussels, if you've never done it before (they are totally foolproof!!!): First, when you bring them home, they are alive. They NEED to be alive. When you rinse them off (not necessary, but a good opportunity for picking through), take out all of the mussels with broken shells, or the mussels that don't close when you run them under cold water (QUICK TIP: If the mussel doesn't close immediately after running it under water, set it on the counter for a minute or two while you continue to check the other mussels....if it STILL doesn't close, toss it). When in doubt, throw it out. Second, if you have purchased wild mussels (unlikely), they will have what's known as a "beard" - it is a mass of gross looking brown fibres. The mussels uses these to cling and attach itself to rocks. Pull it out - just give it a good yank, or clench it with a tea towel and pull if you are squeamish.

I think that of my 5 lb of mussels, maybe 3 individuals sported beards.

Last, after you have cooked the mussels, DO NOT eat any that have not opened. Again, when in doubt throw it out. They are cheap.

WIth all that aside, the prep of mussels is as easy as can be....

5 lb mussels

1 T olive oil

3 chopped shallots

2 cloves garlic, minced/pressed

1.5 cups white wine (give or take)

juice of 1 lemon (about 2-3T)

black pepper

chopped fresh parsley

1. In a 6 L pot (basically, a pasta pot) set on medium heat, heat the olive oil, and saute the shallots and garlic together until translucent.

2. Add the wine and lemon juice and bring it to a boil.

3. Toss in the mussels. Throw on a lid. Wait 5-6 minutes and open. If the mussels are all open, then you're done. If they're not, pop the lid back on and wait another couple of minutes.

4. Dump the mussels in a pretty serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley and make sure you put another big bowl on the table for shells. Enjoy!

YIELD: a bit difficult to quantify. I served this to 8 people as part of a meal. I would say this would serve 4 as a main or as a large appetizer. You can eat a LOT of mussels. This recipe is very very easily scaled up or down. The cooking time for the mussels will be about the same, just add less wine, lemon, garlic and shallot. Or don't... ;)

I served this with seared scallops (added a vanilla pod to my white wine pan sauce to keep things interesting) and a big tray of fresh dipping veggies.

If you love mussels and are interested in something a little more refined, try out this fennel mussel bisque from epicurious. I made it last month and for the seafood lover, it is AMAZING.

A couple of other recipes you need to try (I'm not going to repost them as I have no photos to add):

1) Garlicky Doused Shrimp - this is like a shrimp salad recipe, served as an appetizer. The shrimp is amazingly flavourful. This ended up being the highlight of my packed New Year's Eve buffet. Just make sure you don't overcook them before you make the salad. To make a meal, you could probably just put the shrimp salad over some nice greens, as the marinade would make a delicious vinaigrette.

2) Braised pork with fennel and orange - divine recipe that I made in the crockpot. Very unusual flavours, but they work amazingly with each other. YUM. You should make it.

Dinner tomorrow night is going to be relatively simple - Mark Bittman's homemade marinara sauce (with added tomato paste and white wine) served over olivieri nutri-wise tortelloni. I don't think that's really blog-worthy (although everyone should try throwing together a simple marinara sauce)...so no post tomorrow.

BUT, on Tuesday, I plan to make a roasted cauliflower and garlic soup, and if that turns out, I should be back here to share it.....

Thanks for reading - best wishes for 2011!!!!!!

apparently Ottawa does not have enough places to buy food...

2010-11-01T17:00:00.004-04:00

...because now "Canadian Tire is consistently working towards becoming a one-stop shopping destination for our customers" by expanding its food program to all Ottawa locations.

This, according a release I got in my inbox today. LOL.

The strategy here is, frankly weird. CT cares enough about promoting its food that it has procured the services of a PR firm to SPECIFICALLY promote food in its Ottawa stores to Ottawa food bloggers.

For those not in the know, CT is a Canadian icon, classically a tire/hardware/outdoors store, more recently popular for small appliances and housewares, and now seems to be attempting to turn itself into more of a Walmart than a friendly hardware store.

Anyway, CT is popular because of their frequent fabulous sales (think: 70% off expensive things like tools and pot sets). I'm not sure why they think they need food to get more people through the door.

Especially when I just checked out CT's online flyer, and it MENTIONS that there is food, but the only specific examples are sugar and chocolate. Which, *clearly* will motivate the average food buyer to run right out to Canadian Tire. Really, it's exactly what I'm seeking the day after Hallowe'en. More sugar and more chocolate. :p

So, while I may check out the food section of CT when I'm there, I seriously doubt that this is a move that's going to drive up traffic to their stores. Especially when the CT nearest me is located right across the street from a large grocery store, a medium-sized grocery store and a walmart. Also odd is there is no online version of the news release I was sent (trust me, you're not missing much). Weird, weird, weird.

With all that, welcome to NaBloPoMo. Where I attempt to dig myself out of my blogging funk. :p Thanks for reading! I swear I will share more recipes soon, bear with me.