Hanna Is Hungry

Green Peppers + Sadness

2010-07-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hey look! I grew this! We are also eating lots of fresh basil and have just started on the lettuce (I've been happily helping my landlady with her lettuce overabundance, very nice as mine is puny). I will be eating chard and kale soon and the tomatoes and zucchini are just around the corner.

The sadness is that I finally got out to the store where I like to get eggs and learned that it is apparently now illegal for stores to sell farm fresh eggs unless the farm has been inspected and approved and so on. I was so mad I actually cried a bit. It's bad enough that it's hard to get good meat and illegal to get fresh milk but I thought I would at least be able to enjoy fresh eggs. I am so tired of having a government who feels it's okay to sell us cigarettes and aspartame but heaven forbid we get some eggs with actual nutrition in them. Thanks so much, for saving me from healthy eggs. It's so hard to feed my family well. I get so very very frustrated. And I wish I didn't feel so alone about it.

Recipe | Potato Salad with Yogurt Dressing

2010-07-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

I cannot lie, I made this off the top of my head and now I'm trying to remember it. So hopefully I get the proportions right! It would be local if it weren't for the lemon juice. Lemons kill me, why can't I get them here! Oh right, I live in Canada.

Serves 4-6 people. Ish.

Dressing:
1 cup plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
chopped fresh basil, maybe 1/4 cup. (dill would also work great)
3 Tbs whole grain mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp of paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Salad:
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
4 waxy potatoes, chopped and boiled with a glug of vinegar and a bit of salt (try not to over boil or they fall apart in the salad)

Mix with dressing! Eat. Mmmm. Hey look, the baby woke up. See you all later :)

Gardening | the plan

2010-07-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here's my garden, and here's how it's doing so far.
*** = Thriving
** = Surviving
* = Fail

Side A = Full Sun
Side B = Lots of Sun
Side C = A very little Sun

1 - Green Pepper ***
2 - Jalapeno **
3 - Scarlet King Pepper ***
4 - Gold King Pepper ***
5 - Parsley ***
6 - Basil ***
7 - Rosemary ***
8 - Lemon Boy Tomato ***
9 - Pink Cherry Tomato ***
10 - Stupice Tomato **
11 - Marigolds ***
12 - Roses **
13 - Zucchini - ***
14 - Carrots - ***
15 - Snow Peas - ***
16 - Beans - ***
17 - Chives - **
18 - Lettuce - **
19 - Shallots - *
20 - Swiss Chard - **
21 - Kale - **
22 - Arugula/Cilantro - *
23 - Impatients - **
24 - Hosta - **

Notes:
- Side A & B have a buried soaker hose. Side C had a sprinkler hose but it was leaking into the basement. So I hand water it.

- The shallots looked awesome and then all died. No idea why.

- The lettuce next to the beans was not as happy as the other row. When I thinned I replanted some to take over the shallot spot.

- The cilantro bolted before it hit the garden. The Arugula bolted before becoming edible.

- The pot of oregano was happy until I left and it went without water for 5 days.

- The hosta was happy in the spring but angry when the hot weather came.

- A bunch of seedlings on side c were killed by rain pouring off the roof. Need to fix the eavestroughs.

Bread Fail

2010-06-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I've been successfully baking bread for some time now with my vital wheat gluten method. You'd think that would be enough, but the purist in me wants to figure out how to do it without. I know it must be possible. I love the recipes I've tried from my Christmas present "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart, so I decided to steal my mom's copy of "Whole Grain Breads". She was happy enough to see it go as she hasn't been able to get his method to work. I however, am determined!

This is his basic master recipe, using my sourdough start to make the starter.
So, fail number 1. Here's what worked:
- The first proof went well, it rose nicely in the bowl.
- I achieved the best window pane ever with only 3 minutes of kneading.
- It tastes amazing!

And what didn't:
- Well it kind of puddled out instead of rising up the second time. If you ever want a yummy bread puddle, I can bake one for you.
- Maybe slightly crumbly. Or maybe my toast just broke because it was eight inches long and only one inch tall.

I think that the main problem was that the dough was way too wet, especially the sourdough portion. I will try again later this week!

Gardening | All set

2010-05-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

So we finally got most of the garden planted today. May long weekend is when most people plant here so hopefully it's safe for my leafy little ones to be out in the dirt now. Most of the cilantro bolted before I could plant it so there's just a little scraggly one out there. Guess I'm cooking with cilantro this week!

I still need to pick up some supports for the beans and peas and I need to steal some oregano from my parents. It was great having Craig's parents here to help out and little S napped through the whole thing!

My Kitchen | Save the Produce!

2010-05-15T09:47:00.001-07:00

Raise your hand if you forget what produce is lurking in your fridge and then it rots. So tragic. The theory is that I will always know what I have (and how much) by looking at the list on the whiteboard. We'll see if it continues to amuse me as much as it did this week.

Gardening | Greenhouse fun!

2010-05-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Just back from a week in Creston hanging out with the family. Good times, lots of fun food. Asparagus season is here! If you have too much asparagus (as if it's possible) check out my previous recipes for asparagus soup and asparagus fajitas. Came back to see my greens just barely up and some of my shallots poking their little heads up into the world!

So today we went to the greenhouse to get the bedding plants:
Herbs
Basil x 4
Rosemary
Chives
Parsley
Cilantro
(getting oregano from my parents)

Veggies:
3 bell peppers (red, yellow and green)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 cherry tomato
1 low acid tomato (I have another one from my aunt)

Also:
marigolds and inpatients (to sprinkle among the veggies, for funzies)

So I still need to hunt down a summer squash plant and get seeds for beans, peas and carrots. Yum.

And lilacs coming soon!

Menu Plan

2010-04-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

Monday Quinoa Black Bean Salad (46 Whitewater Cooks)
Tuesday Schezuan Ground beef and green beans (183 New Light Cooking)
WednesdayLentil Curry Wraps (132 New Light Cooking)(Didn't get around to this last week. Had waffles that night instead)
ThursdayTabbouleh Chickpea Salad (43 Whitewater Cooks)
Friday - Salmon Casserole
Saturday Pita Pizzas
SundaySausage and Perogies

Baking Bran Muffins with dates (Erin Cooks - these are the best muffins on earth, I use plain yogurt and add chopped dried dates to them)

Best thing last week? Bombay Wraps, soooo yummy. Also the first BBQ of the season was very much enjoyed.

Gardening | A fresh start

2010-04-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, I'm typing one handed while holding a baby, so please excuse any typos!

Well, it's a new house with a new yard. I will be a better gardener this year! I will not kill all the plants. I will not let the weeds turn it into a feral mess (why don't weeds need watering?). Why will I be better? Because I am not pregnant this summer (knock wood). I just need to figure out how to garden while holding a baby who refuses to be put down even to nap. Right.

So here's the tour. The flower beds haven't been properly cared for in 10 years. They are dug up now, but these are "before" pictures.

Front of the house. Something pretty will be going on by the door. I have planted lettuce, shallots, swiss chard, kale and arugula. Not sure if the shallots will be happy being planted so late, but it's worth a shot as I love shallots. This side is almost always shady.

Putting a tepee here for beans

Side of the house. The rosebushes have had a severe haircut. They have also attacked both Craig and I. Evil! This side is getting peas (on a trellis) carrots and zucchini.

And finally the back of the house. Full on sunny. Herbs and peppers and tomatoes. Also some marigolds methinks.

What are you planting this spring?

I have returned!

2010-04-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? So now that I am done being pregnant and done with the crazy first six weeks of mommyhood, I find that my thoughts turn again to food. Sooooo good to be able to eat normally again! Here are my goals for food as I get back into the swing of things:

- Menu plan. I will go shopping once a week for food. That's it, no picking up something midweek. Partly because it's easier (we live out of town, and have a baby and blah blah blah) and partly because I am trying to stick to a budget of $100 a week. That might seem like a lot still, but for me it would be a big improvement.

- Cut down on the refined food. In hopes of cutting down on the baby tummy. I let this slip with the puking and the sleeping and the not sleeping. Time to refocus.

- To keep my garden alive. I will not be a bad garden mommy like last year!

- To continue to eat as locally as I can. I've been doing well at this actually. Still not buying produce from out of country and all my meat and eggs are very local. Some of my dairy. My oats and lentils and WW flour are all from a local CSA.

So here's this weeks menu plan, even though the week is almost over. I hope these will be fun to read and give you ideas, even if you don't have my cook books.

Monday Big Barn Bowties (pg 181 Rebar)
Tuesday Bombay Rollup (Rebar)
Wednesday Hamburgers & Apples
Thursday Sushi Salad with wild BC prawns
Friday Pita Pizzas
Saturday Lentil Wraps (132 New Light Cooking)
Sunday Ratatouille (made and frozen last summer)

Oh, if you aren't a reader of my other blog...here's the adorable reason for my absence:

Hiatus

2009-09-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

In case you had not noticed, this blog is on Hiatus. I kept thinking that next week I would have more energy surely and next week I would blog more. Next week keeps not coming. The truth is that between the fact that the baby is sucking the life out of me (adorable, right?) and I'm working full time from 1-9 most weekdays I just don't have it in me to run two blogs right now. I can barely handle one. Also, if I manage to have the energy to cook a fun meal, it has run out before I can blog about it. So here's a summer recap, and after that you should wander over to my other blog if you want updates. I'll try and make it back here...sometime.

The good:
- I froze lots of fruit this year, 25 lbs of strawberries, 30 lbs of blackberries, 3 lbs of huckleberries (although 2 of them were a gift) and about 30 lbs of peaches. I somehow missed raspberries, which is tragic.
- I canned 6 jars of peaches, 24 jars of asparagus pickles and 18 jars of asparagus broth.
- I also froze maybe 10 lbs of asparagus, 5 lbs of green beans and 10 or so lbs of summer squash.
- I made apricot jam (which turned super solid...apparently the pectin was overkill) and am going to make blackberry and strawberry.
- Next week I am going to can soup and tomato sauce with my mom.

Okay I actually feel better after typing that. I didn't do as much as I had hoped, but that's not too bad.

The bad:
- I have been eating way more processed food then I like to admit. Although I think I am past the frozen burrito stage. There has been a lot of triskets and breakfast cereal and some instant thai noodle lunches. This makes me sad but between having zero energry and needing to eat constantly to avoid puking or passing out, well...that's how it goes. I have been trying to aim for mostly healthy/whole grain. Also I have been buying bread, which makes me super sad (and also means I eat a lot less sandwiches). Not much for sweets though, I don't really crave them (apart from icecream...and chocolate milk) and store bought cake and cookies actually makes me throw up.

The ugly:
- My garden is the ugly. It has gone back to the wild. Plus the land lady doesn't water much...and not all her water hits my whole garden. I have been eating some peppers and tomatoes and zuchinni. Oh and the rosemary bush is pretty good. The rest is either dead or just so scrawny as to not yet be edible. This fills me with sadness. Maybe next year I will be able to do something once the baby is not on the inside anymore. But I didn't know I would be pregnant when I planted and I never guessed that I would be so sick and drained so...I try not to feel too guilty. Craig does sometimes still catch me staring at the planters crying "I'm a bad garden mommy!" and he tells me to stop it and come inside.

Ah well, I am not a perfect person, such is life! And that's my summer. Hope yours was full of fun in the sun and yummy in the tummy :)

Gardening | Tastes like sunshine

2009-08-07T12:01:00.001-07:00

These are the tiny little low acid tomatoes from my Tumble Tim plant. They are sooo sweet and yummy. However they still give me heartburn...booo!

Links | Cake Wrecks

2009-08-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

I have spent about two hours today laughing at Cake Wrecks (wow...it's my day off, okay!). She posts brutal cakes all week and then really cool ones on Sundays. It is a comedic masterpiece. My tummy hurts from the laughing (also the baby...it is aaaangry today...I keep hoping the cakes will cheer it up as well)

So when I have the baby...please no one make me this cake:

And a few more of my favourites:

Happy Mothers Day...

Cupcake Hello Kitty (which reminds me...I haven't been to Hello Kitty Hell in aaages)

Everyone's favourite literary masterpiece

A happy birthday horse head

And for the win, construction worker mermaid!

Recipe | Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

2009-07-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all, sorry about the absence. I've mostly been eating crackers and trying not to vomit (and only sometimes succeeding). Doesn't make for great food blogging. But I made this cake last week to take camping and it turned out great so I had to share!

This is based on a great Raspberry cake recipe which I will include below. I had huckleberries however. Huckleberries grow wild around here and are easily my favourite berry. They a related to blueberries but smaller and more flavourful. Tarter and darker. So very yummy. In fact I'm not really a fan of blueberries as they mostly taste like obese bland huckleberries to me. I changed the original recipe quite a bit with what I had on hand. It was my first full cake done with whole wheat pastry flour and I was very pleased with the result. It had an excellent light texture and didn't feel in the slightest with like a health food compromise. You could also make this with blackberries I think, it has to be a tart berry to work.

Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake Ingredients
2 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 bar dark chocolate
1 cup huckleberries (fresh or frozen)

Streusel:
1/3 quarter cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds toasted
1/4 cup coconut toasted

Directions
1. Combine ingredients for the streusel and cut up the chocolate bar into little bits.

2. Combine all batter ingredients in a bowl, beat on low for 30 seconds then on high for two minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Grease a 9x9 pan and set the oven to 350.

4. In pan layer 1/2 the batter, then half the chocolate, half the berries and half the struesel. Repeat.

5) Bake for 50 minutes.

Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Streusel Topping:
1/3 c flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup slivered almonds

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup whole raspberries

And just follow the directions as above!

I'm growing more than vegetables here...

2009-07-15T12:01:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don't know (or haven't guessed) we are pregnant over here! I just got back from my first ultrasound and all looks well so I thought I'd let you guys in on it. I think it's about the size of that baby tomato at the moment (second tomato from my garden by the way, and first zuchinni).

Why have I been crap at posting? A) I mostly just sleep when I am home. B) Baby still hasn't caught on to this whole food thing. I can't remember the last time I was so uninterested in food. It's wierd. I don't like it. But hopefully I will be back to my foodie self in a month or so. In the meantime, bear with me please! Growing people is hard work!

My Kitchen | Updates

2009-07-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am the worst food blogger ever these days, I knoooow. I do have a reason, I'll tell you guys later. But in the meantime here's some updates:

- I went to Creston last weekend to pick strawberries and picked 25 lbs! They are only 1.60 a pound at the U-pick place and you can make sure that every berry is fully ripe and not moldy. I'm definitely doing it again next year. It took me about an hour to fill a big bucket and I did it two days. One day with my cousin and her friends in the pouring rain and the next day with my gramma. They are all frozen now for shakes and fun. And jam. I meant to save some to eat fresh but I went to work and Craig misheard my directions. Thus there is a casserole dish full of the very nicest strawberries...in the freezer. Ah well.

I had been home one day and my parents raspberries started. Seriously, there were no raspberries the day before. Where is the justice!?

- My garden is healthy but not huge, I suspect this is because my upstairs neighbours care more about keeping the new grass alive then the garden. Ah well. I have one almost ripe tomato! Maybe I will eat it tomorrow.

And that is all. Exciting, eh?

Gardening | Update

2009-07-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hmm...I wonder when I can eat these...I think they have to turn yellow

Lettuce! So pretty! Who needs flowers?

updated container garden (please note parsley and basil have replaced the spinach)

And apparently the basil in the garden isn't dead. Maybe I will eat some tomorrow...

Also, this plant had no leaves left. Now it has about five tiny leaves and this little pepper grows more every day. Weird. I guess cayenne likes the abuse.

Summer Squash! Coming soon! Maybe I will eat blossoms? But there only seems to ever be one at a time, and that's not really exciting.

my parsley is a bush. So of course I planted more? They came with the basil, I couldn't help it!

The healthiest pepper plant.

carrots!

swiss chard! Or beets...I can't honestly remember. (I mean the picture, I know in the garden)

Weed much? But there are so many and they are sooooo tiny. I can't be bothered at the moment.

My Kitchen | Garlic Scapes

2009-06-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

So scapes are the green tops of garlic. Apparently you cut them off in spring so that the garlic can put all it's effort into growing the bulb. This is strange to me, but I'm certainly no garlic growing expert.

Garlic scapes are another random thing I've never eaten but with this seasonal eating thing I was very excited to give them a try. I picked up a bundle at the Nelson farmer's market last week. I love their twirly swirly ways.

I had heard that they can be pretty strong, but I didn't find that to be the case. I thought they were garlicy in a pretty mellow way. I did two meals with them, one was scapes pan fried with butter, oregano, yellow zucchini and the last of my spinach served over little cheese raviolis. It was to die for good. I also did some sort of rice concoction with chickpeas.

The scapes add a light garlicky flavour and a nice bit of colour without the bitterness you sometimes get with garlic. Some people make pesto out of them which I think would be excellent.

Go forth and experiment!

Gardening | First Harvest

2009-06-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well the mountain spinach I did in the planter was a great success. It grew like crazy and was pretty tasty. Sadly it only lasted for about three meals...seems almost anticlimactic. I'm planning on buying a bunch of spinach and freezing it this year, I found I couldn't buy Canadian spinach of any kind last year and I really missed it.

The planter is now replanted with basil and parsley. They're looking a bit sad at the moment but they probably just need to get settled in.

Oh, and the whole time we ate spinach I kept saying to Craig "I grew this! It was seeds and now it is foood! I grew it all by myself!"

Links | For Amusement

2009-06-26T08:39:00.001-07:00

From the blogosphere:

Want to make crackers shaped like sheep? Cause I do. (Design*Sponge)

How about Kitsune Fortune Cookies? (via the Kitchn)

Would you like to express yourself in red peppers? (via sfgirlbybay)

Next time someone goes to Ikea please pick me up some Forest Animal Cookie Cutters! I don't know what I've done without them for so long...(via the Kitchn)

Recipes | Coconuty Raised Doughnuts

2009-06-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I had an urge to make doughnuts the other night. At about 8:30pm. Craig looked at me sleepily and said "Really? Okay" and took a nap on the couch. I've never made doughnuts. I've hardly ever even eaten homemade doughnuts. But lately I've been finding store bought doughnuts very unsatisfying (sorry Timmie Ho's) and mostly I wanted to make something sweet and hot and my oven is still out of commission (my own fault. It drives me mad not having an oven, but somehow I keep forgetting to order the part).

So doughnuts it was. Raised doughnuts. Cake doughnuts are fine, but they aren't really doughnuts in my mind. I used Coconut oil to fry them up as it is apparently wonderfully good for you, and handles heat well (you should never never deep fry in vegetable oil, it breaks down badly and goes vaguely toxic). Besides, it smells fantastic.

I adapted the recipe from Erin Cooks, who adapted it from Betty Crocker. Such is the life of a recipe. She said that it made an insane amount, I halved it and it made about 10. But it didn't rise amazingly (cold day, no oven light) so probably it does make about 2 dozen in it's original form. I'm gonna give you the recipe in a form that should make 12. There's no point in eating them when they are more than a few hours old, so think carefully before you bust out 4 dozen.

Also, I rolled mine in sugar, but I think I'll honey glaze next time.

Coconuty Raised Doughnuts
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
almost 1 cup (3/4 cup + 2Tbsp if you want to be picky) very warm milk (120º to 130º)
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 eggs

Coconut oil
Sugar

Directions
1) Mix 1 cup of flour, the sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl.
2) Add milk, oil and egg. Beat on low for a minute to combine, then on medium until smooth, another minute (my beater is dead, I just whisked it until it seemed smooth).
3) Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and mix until smooth.
4) Cover and let rise until doubled (about an hour)
5) Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll with a floured rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thick.
5) If you have a doughnut cutter cut them out. I used a glass for the big circle and an empty bottle for the small. I also made the scraps into doughnut holes with the bottle. You can roll the scraps out once to cut again.
6) Transfer the doughnuts to a floured cookie sheet as you go, then cover and let rise for about 1/2 hour, until doubled. Don't worry if they aren't huge, they puff up in the oil.
7) If you are cheap like me, you can use a very small saucepan and fry them one a time. If you an a hurry, use more oil and a dutch oven. Preheat the oil to about 350. A candy thermometer is nice, but you'll be able to tell if it's ready by putting a pinch of dough in a seeing if it starts bubbling. There should be at least a half inch of oil, enough so that the doughnuts can float.
8) Fry doughnuts until golden on both sides (flipping carefully, obviously).
9) When done drain on paper down or old tea towel. Roll in some sugar while still warm.
10) Try not to eat them all while your husband is still napping.

Book Review | Too Many Cooks

2009-06-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

So this post is all thanks to Erin Cooks. She had a giveaway for this book on her blog and I won!

Too Many Cooks is written by Emily Franklin about a year of food life. She is a mother of four (8, 6, 3 and a baby) and wants to introduce her kids to new food. Every chapter has stories about their adventures and how food is a part of their lives, then there are recipes at the end of the chapter.

Her kids aren't terribly picky but they have very vocal opinions. My favourite quote would be in regards to a fish dish she made where one of her sons says "If you are trying to kill me, and you obviously are, this is the worst way to die".

Also her husband won't eat any fruit that ends in "Y". Or is cooked.

It's a super fun read and was very light compared to the foodie books I've been reading lately. She's not gonna lecture you about how you should eat and why, but most of her recipes are reasonably seasonal and contain whole ingredients.

I would really recommend this book to anyone wondering what approach to take when introducing new foods to kids, or anyone that just likes reading about funny kids and kitchen adventures.

The only downside to me, is that I don't know that I will remember to refer back to the recipes, like I would with a cookbook. There is an index of recipes in the back though.

My Kitchen | Updates

2009-06-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Final asparagus tally:
24 jars pickled asparagus
20 jars asparagus broth
2.5 large ziplocks fulls of frozen chopped asparagus

Where will it all live?! It's only June! I'm already sending canning to my parents cellar, on the theory that I will visit them sometime in the next...6 months. Also I now have canning behing my computer on the ground. Where else can I fit some? I feel like a squirrel hiding nuts for winter.

No jokes about the nuts part.

Garden Update:
Spinach - gorgeous, ready to bolt. I have to cut it all off and eat it. But I feel so sad doing it! Aaaaah!
All the other containers are happy as well.
Tomatoes - 2 are happy. 1 is being eaten by something. Bugs? Slugs? Birds? Deer? I have no idea.
Zuchinni - happy days! It has like 5 babies going. I am sooo excited to eat them!
Herbs - Booo! Basil was being eaten as well. Then bolted. Stupid basil. I might buy more and plant them in the spinach container. Cilantro - bolted! For goodness sake. Parsley seems fine.
Peppers - Cayenne=also eaten! I think it's gonna die. The other peppers are being nibbled on but seem to be pulling through.
Rows - all are up! Beans are looking great and the others aren't being show offs, but they are there.

I go down to the garden every morning and just stare at them. Maybe next year I'll actually learn how to keep bugs away...

In other news my oven is broken. The element exploded in a shower of sparks and fire. No one in town carries the part, I need to order it in. Bah! I have been buying bread. I have not been excited about sandwiches.

BBQ days are here! And there was much rejoicing! I will post about BBQed pizza soon.

So how are your late spring endevours going? Tell!

Recipes | Stir Fry Basics

2009-06-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is not so much a recipe as a formula for how I make stir fry. Stir fry gets a lot of love over here because I can make it in the afternoon, divide it into 6 containers and take one to work for supper. Which is what I did today. I like reheated rice fine as long as it's saucy :)

I don't claim to be remotely authentic here, but I make yummy fake Asian food.

Tip #1 - get everything ready to go before you start
Chop all the veggies, make the sauce...have everything in place. Not only is this more efficient, but it means you won't be overcooking your meat while you finish chopping the broccoli.

Tip #2 - Cook things separately
I usually start with toasting nuts if I'm doing so. In the dry pan. Then I put them aside, add a bit of oil and do the eggs. Put aside. Then I add more oil and do the meat. If the meat is marinaded this is great, or you can add some garlic and red pepper flakes in with them. When the meat is cooked I take it out and throw in the veggies, after a bit I throw in the sauce. When the veggies are almost done I put the meat back in just enough to warm it (sometimes I don't, we don't really care if it's hot...also it's usually going to be reheated anyway).

Cooking this way means that nothing gets overcooked and that everything has it's own yummy flavour.

Tip #3 - Flavoured Rice
If I'm dong a dish that really spicy (mmm Thai sweet chili sauce...) I often cook the rice in chicken stock and use less sauce. This is super yummy. Normal rice makes me bored.

Tip #4 - Fun toppings
We looove toasted nuts on our stir fry. The crunch is delightful. Almonds and peanuts are nice choices. I often do eggs as well. Whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl. Heat your pan with a bit of oil then add the eggs but don't scramble. Make a little pancake thing. Flip it so it gets golden on both sides. Cut into thin strips and top each serving with a couple of them.

How to make a basic sauce:
1 tbsp honey
Equal parts Shoyu (nice soya sauce) and stock (chicken or asparagus is best). About 1/2 cup each...it depends on how much you're making.
1 clove of garlic, crushed or microplaned.

Want to make it Thai-ish? Add 1 tsp each of lime juice and fish sauce.

Want to make it spicy? Add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

Want to make it more like teriyaki? Add a bit more honey and some mirin (or apple juice...or sherry)

Want it to be thicker? Add 1 tbsp cornstarch.

Always mix up the sauce separately and only add as much as looks good. Too much sauce is just silly.

Hope that was educational. Comment if you have stir frying questions!

(Pictured is a thai sauce stir fry with brown/wild rice with a handful of red lentils cooked in. There's no meat or eggs in this one. I fried up shallots, yellow zucchini, asparagus and kale and topped it off with toasted almonds. Mmmmmm.)

Gardening | Markers

2009-06-09T12:18:00.001-07:00

Garden markers! These are painted on the rocks with a little brush and some craft paint. Then I'm going to give them a spray of clear coat and out they go!

Gardening | Sprouting!

2009-06-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the week of not posting! Had a very busy week somehow. But look! My beans are up! The other seeds are barely poking their little heads up but they're there. They would like osme rain please though, they haven't had any yet! The bedding plants continue to survive (and in the zuchinnis case, thrive)

Up by the house my spinach is growing like a mad thing and the lettuce is starting to show it's head.

And look at the Tumble Tim! Two baby tomatoes! I cannot wait to eat them!

Gardening | This is the way the garden grows

2009-06-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

In the sweltering heat. With not enough water. Hmmm....

So we got it all put in on Tuesday. And have not had a hint of rain yet. It's been warm, summer warm. Low 30's warm. That's 90's I think in americaland? Either way it is yuck. Our land lady has half the garden, and the lawn sprinklers hit her half. We were trying to water with the hose, but it wasn't working so well. When I talked to her yesterday she asked how the garden was doing and I mentioned that we were thinking of gettting a soaker hose for the rows. Then I went off to Canadian Tire to buy it. And left my wallet at home in a Hanna moment. By the time I got it and drove back again it was too late.

When I got home my land lady ran into me again and said "I hope you haven't gone and bought that soaker hose, we found a better sprinkler in the back and it's on right now, turn it off in an hour".

What nice people they are. So my garden is happier...the plants are getting over the initial shock and I think the peppers and squash are actually pretty happy about the heat. The herbs and tomatoes are iffy but they should pull through. Don't know about the rows though.

Containers are happy and the spinach container is growing well. The lettuce mix has been taking it's sweet time but is sprouting.

How about you guys? How's the gardens? It's not too late to get started!

Recipe | Spring Greens with Brown Sushi Rice

2009-05-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of those recipes that I invented because it's what I felt like eating today. Those are the days that Craig says "what's for dinner?" and I answer "a concoction!" 95% of the time my concoctions are better than anything I make from a recipe. The other 5% are brutal bad. I find that to be acceptable odds.

So last week I was in Nelson for family time (and had suuuch good food at my Aunt's house, as usual...mmmm Ethiopian goodness) and we stopped by the Kootenay Co-op. This is my all time favourite food store. It's all organic healthy goodness and they carry as much local and in season goodness as possible. I was very excited to find spinach (fiiinnally, spinach! It's been a long winter.) as well as fiddle heads. I've been reading about fiddle heads in the food blogs I read, but had never tried them. One of the advantages about being in a colder climate is that you get to see all the recipes about upcoming produce before you can get it. I tell myself that that's an advantage anyway. Long story shorter...er I bought both (as well as three bars of chocolate mmmm) and brought them home.

Fiddle heads are the tops of young ostrich ferns. Apparently that is the only kind that is edible, so don't go running around eating ferns. Also you have to make sure they are thoroughly cooked or else they are apparently toxic and bitter. Mmmmmm toxic plants.

Also, I am totally guessing at the amounts here, but it's pretty foolproof. Just throw in whatever amounts feel right.

Spring Greens Stir Fry Ingredients
1/2 lb fiddle head ferns
1/4 lb spinach
1/2 lb asparagus
1 shallot minced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 T lemon juice
butter
salt
pepper

Directions
1) Clean fiddle heads, all the brown fluff needs to come off, and cut the brown ends off. We found this easiest to do in a sink of cold water.
2) Snap the ends off the asparagus and snap in half or thirds.
3) Blanch fiddle heads and asparagus in boiling water, just until they turn bright green. Then immediately throw in a ice water bath to prevent overcooking.
4) In a bit of butter, fry the shallot and garlic until fragrant.
5) Throw in the drained fiddle heads and asparagus, cook until tender.
6) Add a splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, as well as more butter in you want (I wanted). Throw the spinach in as well.
7) Stir it all up and cook just until the spinach wilts.

Brown Sushi Rice
1 cup short grain brown rice.
1 T sugar
2 T rice wine vinegar (I can't find mirin in this town, but this works)

Directions
1) Rinse rice and if you have time let is soak for an hour.
2) Cook rice, I use the rice cooker. Like with all brown rice I find it takes a bit more water then they say.
3) When rice is cooked stir in the sugar and vinegar.

Mmmm, you can obviously make these separately and use them for things like...sushi...but I liked the combination!

Preserves | Asparagus Pickles

2009-05-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from my other blog from last year. Craig and I are making more pickles today and I'm wishing that I had found this post sooner...because I would have bought more asparagus! It is my intention to make over 20 jars this year as we looooove these pickles. I highly recommend making them with the skinnies because then you can put them on sandwiches without having to slice them. I'm all about the laziness.

Pickled Asparagus

10 pounds of asparagus makes 6 quarts of pickles.

First each jar gets 1 clump of dill, 4 cloves of garlic and 1 small jalapeno.

Then you pack as much asparagus in as you can manage. We put a mark on the cutting board to make it easier to cut the asparagus to the right length.

While you are doing this, you should have a pot on the stove with your brine boiling in it. The brine includes 4 cups of vinegar , 10 cups of water and 1 cup pickling salt.

Once your jar is full of asparagus, pour the brine in until it is full up to the top of the body of the jar. Then make sure the top of the jar is completely clean (or it won't seal) and put the lid on. The lids should be in a small pot of boiling water to soften the seals. Once the lid is on and screwed shut with a ring the jars go into the canner.

The canner needs to have enough water to cover all the jars (we can fit 7 quart jars in ours). Bring the water to a roiling boil and let it boil for a few minutes (5 or so). Then remove the jars and wait to hear the pops as the jars seal. They should pop in the first few minutes, but a couple of ours took their time.

Huzzah, spicy asparagus pickles for all! You should give them a try, they are very yummy and a fun addition to the ho hum pickle dish.

Recipes | Asparagus Soup

2009-05-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

I invented this last year when Mom and I were making pickled asparagus and found that we had way too much dill. You could make this with veggie or chicken broth in a pinch, but if you really want asparagus soup, make asparagus broth.

Asparagus Broth
- Save all the woody ends of your asparagus. I just keep a bag in the freezer and chuck them in every time I cook asparagus.
- Get a head start by using water you've already blanched asparagus in. Then fill the pot with asparagus ends, with enough water to cover. Cook for about half and hour. Pull the ends out and put a new batch of ends in the same water. Cook for another half hour. This makes the broth more flavourful.
- Either pressure can or freeze your broth. I often add a splash of olive oil and a clove of garlic to each jar.
- This is obviously great for the following soup, but also is awesome for risotto!

Asparagus Soup Ingredients (serves 4)
1 large shallot (or two small), minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb asparagus, ends snapped off and diced
1/4 cup dill
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese
sour cream

Directions
1) In a large saucepan cook the shallot and garlic in the olive oil, until fragrant and soft, but not yet brown.

2) In a separate pot, cover the asparagus with water and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

3) In a blender or food processor, blend 3/4 of the asparagus with a little bit of the water you cooked it in to help it along.

4) Add the broth, blended asparagus and chopped asparagus to the pot with the shallot mixture. Bring to a boil.

5) Add the dill. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

6) Serve garnish with fresh grated Parmesan and a dollop of sour cream in each bowl.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Tips | Freezing Asparagus

2009-05-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

Asparagus is wonderful but the season is tragically not that long. And out of season asparagus, in my humble opinion, tastes like wood. So how do we keep the yumminess? One way is pickles, which I'll get into more another day (although I will be making some today I hope) but the easiest way is to freeze them. Here's how I go about it:

Frozen Asparagus Directions

1) Wash your asparagus and snap the ends. Keep the ends! More on this later.

2) Chop into one inch pieces. This is the most useful size in my experience, great for pasta, omelets, pizza, and all sorts of good things.

3) Heat some water up in a large pot. Bring it to a boil.

4) Blanch the asparagus in small batches. Leave them in the water just until they turn a nice bright green. Then immediately submerge in ice water. It's easiest to blanch in a colander.

5) Spread the cooled pieces on a cookie sheet and freeze overnight.

6) Once frozen they will store nicely in a large freezer bag. Then you can just grab a handful out whenever you want!

Recipes | Chocolate Chip Cake

2009-05-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is the classic birthday cake in my family. It's from an old copy of Betty Crocker and we all love it. Try it, you'll never go back to vanilla cake with frosting, I promise you.

It was my mom's (on the left) birthday On Friday and my Aunt's is coming soon so they celebrated together...and I brought cake!

Chocolate Chip Cake Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or one bar good dark chocolate chopped)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions
1) Beat all ingredients at low speed for 30 seconds, then at high speed for 3 minutes.
2) Pour into two greased and floured round pans. (or a 9x13...if you must)
3) Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.
4) When cool assemble cakes with butterscotch filling in between and top with the chocolate glaze.

Butterscotch Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

1 tbsp butter

Directions
1) In a small saucepan mix sugar, cornstach, salt and water.
2) Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
3) Boil and stir for one minute.
4) Remove from heat and stir in butter.

(Gramma's favourite too!)

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients
1/2 cup chocolate chips, or one chocolate bar, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp corn syrup (or maple...if like me you don't keep corn syrup around)

Directions
Melt all ingredients in a saucepan or double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly until chocolate is melted.

(Gramma and me!)

Gardening | Containers Ahoy!

2009-05-21T14:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my container garden. It contains (ahaha) my Tumble Tom Tomato, rosemary, mountain spinach and gourmet lettuce mix. I may have marked the lettuce and spinach wrong, because I already forgot which planter is which. Dang it.

They will soon be joined by a pot of oregano when my parents come up this weekend. They have oregano growing like a weed all over their gardens (thus my keeping it in a pot) and thought they could spare me some. Also, the white plastic ugly like a bum planters were free! Hooray for my Aquafit ladies giving me things!

After some reading here's how I planted my containers:
1) Made sure the pots were nice and clean.
2) Covered the drainage holes with newspaper to prevent clogging.
3) Put in layers of moisture soil mix, veg and herb soil mix and dirt from the garden. (The options for organic potting soil were slim so I made my own recipe. I am not an expert, so we shall see what happens. Craig wanted me to just stop harassing the poor garden centre guy at Canadian Tire...but I want to do it right!)
4) Plant the plants/seeds and cover with a bit more soil, pressing it down so that it's not all fluffy and loose.
5) Put the containers on bricks or bits of wood so they can drain better (happily I hadn't thrown out that broken cd rack yet...)
6) Water until the water just starts to come out the bottom.

So fingers crossed! Look, my first tomato flower!
And here's the beauty shot. These are the garden plants. Crying. They are out for a field trip because apparently they don't like the sewing desk. They are going in by Saturday at the latest. Don't cry little plants!

Tips | Sun Tea

2009-05-19T21:19:00.001-07:00

As soon as it gets sunny out it's Sun Tea time around here! Why not just make normal iced tea? Here's why:

1) I am lazy. And sun tea is the easiest thing ever.

2) It never gets bitter because it warms up slowly and doesn't boil, so it takes less sweetening.

3) Did I mention that I'm lazy?

Here's what you do. Get a big 1 gallon jar. I think mine was a pickle jar. I don't remember where I got it. Maybe my mom got it? Maybe I harassed someone at a sandwich shop? I don't know. Anyway, get your jar and add 4 tea bags. Any kind you like, that's the fun part. This batch was half peppermint and half jasmine. Fill the jar with water and set it in the sun for...a couple hours maybe. You can't over steep it, so just leave it for a bit. Then when you bring it in, remove the teabags and add some melted honey, to taste. We dont like it super sweet, but we like a bit of honey. Mix it all up and stick it in the fridge to cool.

Voila, perfect summer drink! Makes me think of picnics and BBQ's. Or just just everyday, because that's how much we drink it.

As a side note, it was sunny today but I didn't make tea. Because it was pouring rain at the same time. Pretty!

Links | From my Bookmarks

2009-05-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here's some yummy looking recipes from the foodblogosphere that I have bookmarked to try:

Jian Bing (Chinese Breakfast Crepes)

Rosemary Olive Oil Crackers

Japanese Pizza

Ricotta Lasanga with Handmade Spinach Pasta

Soft Pretzels (I have been seeing these everywhere lately, I really want to make them...even though I can't remember if I've ever actually had a soft pretzel...)

So go forth! Be inspired! Spend the rest of the long weekend cooking!

Recipes | Asparagus Fajitas

2009-05-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

Asparagus Fajitas are something I learned from my mom. Sooo yummy. If you have a favourite way of making fajitas then do it your way, just swap the peppers out for asparagus. If you want to try my way, here's something I came up with last week. I doubt it's even remotely authentic, but it is delicious!

Serves two. If they are very hungry. I made my soft corn tortillas for them.

Marinade a medium steak for at least an hour in:
3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp-1tbsp hot chili sauce

Snap the ends off about a pound of asparagus.

Fry the steak up with a dash of olive oil.. I am not at all a steak expert but I sear them first, then turn the heat down a bit and stick the lid on. Someday I will learn to cook steak properly.

While this is happening add to marinade:
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp flour or corn starch (I like my sauce to be think enough to stick to the asparagus)
1 tsp salt
whisk together

When the steak is done to your liking remove it and add the asparagus to the pan with a dash more oil if needed. Once they are a nice bright green add the marinade mixture. Continue cooking until they are as done as you like (I like a bit of firmness but some like them dead).

Slice the steak into thin slices and serve in the tortilla with asparagus, cheese and sour cream.

Eat while sighing with delight.

Gardening | Getting Started

2009-05-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

So we are very excited to start gardening this year, especially as we didn't think we would be able to. But it seems that we will be staying here for the summer and also that our land lady is more than happy to share her garden space as she was only going to use half anyways!

Here it is, now that we've gotten all the millions of weeds off. You can see that half of it was tarped, but apparently they had given up on the other half, so it was quite a bit of work to get ready. There's a rhubarb and a chive plant in the corner that I hope we can raid.

Then today we went to Family Tree Gardening in Thrums. Because word on the street said that they were a good place to hang out. We got most of the bedding plants we were looking for and they now live on my sewing desk. So much for sewing until the weather warms up enough to plant!

Here's what we picked up:

Herbs:
4 basil plants (should I have gotten more? Eeee)
1 cilantro
1 parsley
1 rosemary

Peppers:
1 cayenne pepper. For funsies.
(these three are Bells, I hope...)
1 Gloria pepper
1 Bell Boy pepper
1 Early California pepper

Tomatoes:
1 Lemon Boy (large low acid)
1 Tumble Tom (cherry sized low acid)
1 Sub Artic (early salad sized tomatoe)

I still want to get a summer squash but they didn't have any, so I will try another green house. I am also planning on getting an oregano transplant from my parents as they have a ton of it. I will pick up some seeds and whatnot later this week hopfully.

My Kitchen | Updates

2009-05-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting you guys, and I am sorry. Here's the excitement in my foodie world lately:

- Asparagus Season is here! The local asparagus farm starting selling yumminess last Wednesday when we were down at my parents and I came home with 12 pounds. That would be both my crispers full to the brim. So expect lots of asparagusy yummy posts this month!

- We are going to garden this summer! Craig does not yet have a job (booo!) so were are staying where we are for now. Luckily where we are is very nice and our upstairs neighbours are only using half of their garden. They haven't used the other half recently so we (and more Craig than me) have been spending a lot of time pulling weeds. Well it's more like removing sod, actually. Apparently May long weekend is supposed to be planting time in these here parts so we'll be out to the greenhouse later this week. I'm very excited.

- The Aquafit class I teach was cancelled for the summer, and some of the lovely ladies in my class gave me the Whitewater At Home cookbook which I have been drooling over since it came out a couple months ago. Soooo pretty. I'll post a review when I've done more cooking from it.

What has been going on in you foodie world? Any new projects? Any gardens? Tell!

My Kitchen | Vintage Pyrex

2009-05-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting this week! My cousin and I had a girly shopping trip down south and while I was mostly after clothes, I couldn't resist these two additions to my little kitchen.

Hooray for vintage pyrex!

Contest Link!

2009-05-05T09:26:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know about a contest over at ErinCooks. She's giving away a copy of a book that's been catching my eye around the foodblogosphere...Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon. Wander over to her blog to enter.

Kitchen Cure 2009 | Update #2

2009-05-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

More organizing fun!

So this cupboard was a big pain before, just a lot of random stuff. To start with I actually bought a proper compost container. It's ceramic and is suposed to not smell? It was the only non plastic one I could find. I also bought a shelf and put a bunch of little things (appliance attachtments and such) in a container under it. I made a really cute bag keeper (photos to come) so the random bags are gone. Much less ucky under there now.

I decided that if I keep ending up with appliances out here I should just stop fighting it and make some room for them (except my crock pot...because as it turns out I hate it). Ditto with the teapot that kept ending up on top of the fridge instead of being put away properly on it's very high shelf. I sorted my cookbooks and put some in another room as well as the canning which is in other bookcases. This will be a problem when I start canning again, it all barely fits now that I did chicken soup recently. Where will pickled asparagus go? No one knows.

Recipe | Curried Chicken Crepes

2009-05-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is a super yummy supper dish. If you are short on time you can do these up with tortillas, but they are yummier with crepes. With my seasonal cooking I couldn't use celery this time of year so I seasoned it with some celery salt.

Filling Ingredients:
2 tsp butter
1/2 medium onion
1/2 cup diced celery

1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (more if you want, taste it)
1/4 tsp salt (ditto)
1/2 cup chicken stock

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 plain yogurt

Directions:
1) Cook butter, onion and celery until soft.
2) Whisk in flour, curry and salt. Stir for one minute.
3) Add chicken stock. Simmer for two minutes.
4) Remove from heat, add chicken, sour cream and yogurt (you can use all yogurt or all sour cream if that's what you have in the house).

Crepe Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 tbsp melted butter
2 large eggs

Directions:
1) Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
2) Add wet ingredients, beat until smooth.
3) Lightly butter an 8 inch skillet
4) Pour 1/2 cup of batter in at a time and immediately rotate the skillet to coat the pan.
5) Cook until it's drying out on top, then flip. Cook until other side is lightly browned.

Final Directions:
1) Fill 6-8 (depending on their size) crepes with the filling, roll up and put in a greased pan seam side down. I use a glass 9x13 for this.
2) Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
3) Serve with toasted almonds or peanuts on top.

Kitchen Cure 2009 | Update #1

2009-04-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

I'm still doing the AT Kitchen Cure, although I keep kind of jumping around instead of doing it in the order they are. Whatever, I'm almost done and thought I'd start updating you on my progress. Because you care. In case you forgot. I would probably be further along if I did something other than watch Battlestar Galactica on the couch with Craig every day. Details.

Look how much happier my freezer is! I put a few things in mason jars so that they can sit happier in the freezer door. As in, they don't fall out on me. Also I finally got around to buying a shelf. Oh, and I ground all my bread crusts into crumbs and put them in the bread crumb jar. They take up less space that way.

The top of my fridge had been collecting items that live on very high shelves. Clearly these items need to be in reach so I found other homes for them and put different things on the very high shelves. Hopefully these things don't end up on top of the fridge...

This is my corner cupboard. As famously (or infamously) seen on The Kitchn. I got rid of a bunch of things I didn't really use, and stacked things in a way that I have high hopes of working better.

More to come soon! Can you wait?

Links | Pressure Canning

2009-04-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

(this is my mom explaining pressure canning to my cousin)

I've always been slightly afraid of pressure canners. Because they can explode. I know this because when I was a teenager my mom asked me to watch the pressure canner for a bit. And because I was a teenager I didn't actually watch it at all. And it blew the top off.

Oops.

(I wasn't really paying attention)

However much like my fear of sturgeons, it was time to put my fear of pressure canning behind me. Because there's only so much soup that will fit in my freezer. So I borrowed my mom's canner for a bit and guess what? So far no explosions. Finger's crossed.

(Because I was totally distracted by my nephew. Hi Baby!)

Pressure canning is pretty cool because it allows you to can things with less acid, like beans and soup. I however am no expert at this, so I will refer you over to my parent's food blog where my mom wrote a great article about pressure canning. Because she is the expert. Click Here.

Ginger Pear Crostatas

2009-04-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

This is a yummy and not too sweet dessert. It's especially good with vanilla ice cream :) This recipe makes four little crostatas which are perfect for 2-4 people (depending on how big of pieces you want?). I like to freeze them before baking so that I always have a treat waiting to be baked up for snuggly movie nights.

Pecan Pastry Dough
2/3 cup pecans
3.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut up
4 tablespoons sugar
2 egg
2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
4 tablespoons ice water
Extra flour (for sprinkling)

Filling
4 pears, peeled, quartered and diced
1/2 cup candied ginger, minced
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar

Topping:
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons raw sugar

Directions:
1) Toast the pecans lightly in a dry skillet until fragrant. Chop finely or grind in the blender.
2) Combine pecans, flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl or food processor.
3) Cut in butter and sugar until mixture resembles crumbs.
4) Add eggs, vinegar and water, mix until the dough makes a ball.
5) Combine filling ingredients in a separate bowl.
6) Split dough into four balls. Roll each out into a circle with the dough about a 1/2 cm thick. If you break the pastry just squish it back together, it's very forgiving.
7) Put a quarter of the filling on the center of each pastry circle and fold the edges of the dough up to hold it in.
8) If you are freezing some, freeze them at this stage on a cookie sheet, then when solidly frozen, store in a zip lock.
9) Paint the top of the pastry crust with whole milk, then sprinkle with sugar.
10) Bake at 400 until the pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Book Review | Supernatural Cooking

2009-04-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

I love this book and it's on my to buy list. She's given me hope that I can make amazing food without compromising taste and texture while using great natural ingredients.

Here's the website.

Here's a blurb by salon.com:

"Can this woman make quinoa sexy?" -
"...In Super Natural Cooking, Swanson not only goes a long way toward helping "whole" foods shed their stale, hippie stigma but also makes a strong case for putting natural foods at the center of an emerging, modern, global cuisine. Her seductive recipes, like lime-bathed peanut salad and an updated (almost guilt-free) take on the classic Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, reach out to cooks who want to eat smart but still do it in style. Without preaching, Swanson playfully shows readers five simple steps -- including building a natural pantry, embracing grains, and cooking with an eye on color and super-foods -- that should form the foundation of healthy habits. The result is enough to make any closet Cheetos muncher think we're lucky to be living in times when food that is good for you can actually taste good too."

The five sections of the book mentioned above are all started by a great resource on how to use the ingredients, for example she goes through all the natural sweeteners available and explains what they are, what they taste like, what they go well with, how they will react in recipes. It's fantastic.

Heidi Swanson started off as a photographer and it's obvious by how gorgeous this book is. It makes you hungry when you look through it.

Happily, Heidi also has a great food blog which I follow called 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes here are also very healthy and yummy looking. I've tried her maple sryup scones, and they were fantastic, as well as the cherry choconut ice cream.

Go check it out, see if you get urges to buy strange food. I now have whole wheat pastry flour, millet and maple sryup in my everyday cooking and it's all her fault.

Recipes | Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-04-25T22:59:00.001-07:00

This is my Mennonite Gramma's Chicken Noodle Soup and it is pretty much liquid gold. It bears no resemblance to the sad stuff you get in a can. It's the only thing I love when I'm sick and I swear I feel better just inhaling the steam. It's the most comforting food I know. This is also one of the only recipes I have that I don't mess with. My mom does. And her soup is excellent. But it's not my Gramma's. There's just something about this soup...

Ingredients
1 whole chicken

10-12 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 pieces star anise

1 small onion, minced
3-4 sprigs parsley

Salt

3/4 cup broad egg noodles

Directions:
1) Cook the chicken down into broth, I describe in more detail here. You need the strained broth with the meat shredded into it. You could use store bought broth and chicken pieces, but it won't be nearly as good.

2) Put peppercorns, bay leaf and star anise into a spice ball or cheesecloth. Add the spices, onion and parsley to the broth.

3) Simmer for 1-2 hours. Salt to taste. Taste and see if you need to add a bit of water, depending on how concentrated your broth became.

4) Boil noodles separately. I made homemade egg noodles for this, it's pretty easy and makes the soup even more amazing.

5) To serve, put some noodles in the bottom of each bowl, then pour the soup over top.

Best eaten with warm cheesy biscuits. Mmmmm.

I'm so glad that I make my own now, when I was stealing from my mom I would have to ration it, so that I would always have some when I was sick. Feels good to have 9 more jars in my pantry where this one came from!

Thoughts | Earth Day

2009-04-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

It was Earth Day yesterday and we went to release some sturgeon. I'm not so secretly afraid of sturgeons (as they can grow to be 20 feet long and look like prehistoric monsters...because they are) but they are actually quite cute as babies, like most animals.

I hope you remembered Earth Day and took some time to think about how you live your life. Our planet is on the verge of collapse with our current way of life. I know a lot of people don't like to think about it, it's overwhelming and it's depressing and we hope someone else will fix it.

Here's something to think about. You are everyone else's "someone else". You have the same responsibility as the other 6 billion of us, and it's going to take all of us trying to change to make a difference. And no, you can't make 6 billion people change how they think. But you can change. And that's a start.

So think a bit about your lifestyle, think about what could be improved. Strive to live simply and lightly on this planet. Don't just drift along through life, make an effort to do what you know to be right. Your children and grandchildren will thank you, and your life will be richer for it.

Recipes | Chewy Chocolate Cookies

2009-04-21T17:29:00.000-07:00

These are guaranteed to cure your chocolate cravings! I used half white half WW pastry flour and they turned out great.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cups cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1) Cream wet ingredients, mix in dry.
2) Make 1 inch balls, give them lots of space on the cookie sheet, they really spread.
3) Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes
4) Let cool slightly before removing for cookie sheet.

My Kitchen | Sandwiches are beautiful...

2009-04-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've been eating a lot more sandwiches these days. Since I started making my own bread that is. I used to be very "meh" about sandwiches but something about my bread and the nice quality cheese and some real butter...apparently it wasn't the sandwiches that were to fault, it was the ingredients. So now I wander around singing Raffi songs about them.

I have convinced Craig that sandwiches don't need meat. This one has some yummy cucumbers, some peppercorn gouda, some almost tomatoey tomatoes (oh summer, come and bring me my veggies!) and of course butter and mayo.

Perfect for a picnic on the lawn.

By which I mean we just sat on the ground and ate our sandwiches, because it was too sunny to sit inside.

Tips | Chicken Feet and other Broth Adventures

2009-04-19T09:47:00.001-07:00

I love to have broth on hand at all times. It's great for making soup, but also wonderful to have to cook rice in, add to stir fry sauce, mash into veggies. Broth is a great way to add some subtle flavour to all my cooking. Vegetable broth and chicken broth are my favourites, and today we are going to talk about chicken. Because seriously? I still have a freezer full of them.

I've posted this link before, but it's a great read on how to get the most out of meat based broths: Broth is Beautiful by Sally Fallon.

Here are some quick brothy tips:

- You can make broth using a whole frozen chicken. Just put the frozen chicken into a large pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer. When it's finished you have to pull the chicken out (in many pieces by this point), strain the broth and seperate the meat from the carcass. Either throw the meat back in for soup or use it seperatly.

- You can also make broth with a roasted chicken, including the pre-cooked roitisery style ones. This is really easy it you have one of those big stock pots with the couldendar that fits inside. First remove the meat, if you want to have it in the soup put it in the bottom of the pot, then put the carcass in the colendar and set it in the pot. Fill with water and simmer. When you are finished you can just pull the colendar out, carcass and all and you're done. Easy Peasy.

- Cook your chicken broth for at least 8 hours, this allows the gelatin and goodness to fully come out of the bones. I simmer it overnight. Some people like slow cookers for this.

- Add a small slosh of vinegar, this allows the calcium to be more fully extracted. It doesn't affect the taste.

- If you are making broth to cook with, it's nice to add some veggies while you are cooking. Onions, carrots, celery and parsley are traditional. Just strain them out when you are done because they will be fully dead. I don't do this for soup however, I'll share my soup recipe with you all tomorrow.

- Always skim the impurities off the top and/or strain through cheesecloth. No yuckies in my broth, thanks!

- If you are able to get the neck and feet, throw them in too. The feet add a lot of gelatiny goodness to the broth.

What? Chicken feet?

That's right, I went there.

See I had already read Broth is Beautiful before we did up the chickens last weekend. While I was not totally convinced that chicken feet should count as food (because...ew!), it just seemed like a waste to throw them out. I mean there they were, in all their chicken feety glory...so I decided to give it a try. I convinced Barb to join in my with the experiment although our mothers both remain unconvinced.

So if you are feeling brave, and can get some chicken feet (ask your butcher apparently...) here's what you do with them.

- First they get a pedicure. Wash them with a salt rub to get the gross off. Then cut off the toenails. Barb found that kitchen shears were best for this although a knife workds. Not toenail clippers, in case that crossed your mind.

- Then in small batches, one at a time even, blanch the feet in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then when you pull them out quickly peel the skin off. It's pretty easy.

- Either make chicken foot soup...or stewed chicken feet...or just throw two per chicken in with your carcass to make broth and strain them out with the bones later. I did the latter. Because I am chicken.

My Kitchen | Mozza Love

2009-04-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

I guess technically this was my parent's kitchen. I have been wanting to make cheese ever since reading Animal Vegetable Miracle last year. My parents caught the bug too and ordered a starter kit that they got just before Easter. We decided to try 30 Minute Mozzarella for our first experiment because it looked pretty easy. Mom took the photos, so you get to see me at work :P.

First you have to warm the milk and add citric acid, and then later the rennet. This is me looking for curds. I am not finding any because Mom decided to wing it (cheese making is apparently more science than art form) and we found that no, citric acid is not equivilant to lemon juice.

We then cooled the milk, reheated it and added a lot more lemon juice (after I looked up the conversions) and a bit more rennet. And we got curds!

Then I pressed the whey out.

We microwaved the curds for a few seconds at a time, pressing out the whey and kneading the very hot curds in between. We added salt after the second heating.

This is Dad trying to stretch a bit like taffy, but we never quite got there.

Kneading the curds is for people with hands of steel. Or gloves. I had neither.

When the curds had become a fairly glossy cheeseness we rolled them into little mozza balls. Very yummy!

These were a lot of fun, but to me didn't taste as good as the mozza in the store. There is another recipe that has a culture added that would probably match what my tastebuds were looking for.

Kitchen Cure 2009 | Meet My Kitchen

2009-04-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

So this is the starting point for my Kitchen Cure. (Barb and Kait are both signed up and you still can too!). Skip this post if you don't care what's in my cupboards. Otherwise it will be fun, like watching Cribs...kind of....

Overview:

Here's the problems. My kitchen? She is small. There is not a lot of storage and what there is is mostly too high to reach without a stool. Some is too high to reach without a chair. (thus the things stacked on the fridge, because I can reach them). The cupboards are too weak to hold up canning and there are no plug-ins that are on a wall and by a counter (Thus the appliances on the floor). That's a bucket of flour beside the garbage.

Cold Storage:

My fridge is messy...because I need to clean it. My freezer is messy because it is not working for me! My big freezer lives in my living room (sexy) to keep it from the bear. It's organized fine, it's just sad as an endtable.

Upper Cupboards:

The first one is over the fridge. And I can't reach it. The second is over the stove. I can reach the front of it. The third is over the sink. I just rearranged it and I like it. The last is my only full sized cupboard. I have no idea what's on the top shelf because again, I can't reach it.

Lower Cupboards:

These are scary. SCARY. But you can see that.

Drawers:

Nice Drawer
Nice Drawer
Nice Drawer
DRAWER OF DEEEEATH (where plastic bags live)

Bonus Round:

I have a row of Ikea canisters on my counter (as well as some vintage tin ones on top of the fridge). I have canning on the bottom of all my bookcases. 6 of them. I have a pantry in my bathroom. Because there is a little ledge. It is open to my kitchen and easier to reach than my stupid cupboards.

I also have a canner and some other things stored in the bedroom closet. The only closet.

Suggestions anyone?

Thoughts | On being a meat eater.

2009-04-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

(If you are a vegetarian...maybe ignore the photos...I did my best not to get gory but I don't know what you feelings will be...sadly this means there are no pictures of Craig today)

When people don't know me very well they sometimes assume I'm a vegetarian. Apparently with the obsessive healthy and local and organic vibe I give off I just "seem like the type". I am not the type. My parents are farmers and I do eat meat. I just care more about where it comes from. I have a real problem with squeamish meat eaters. The ones who love their beef every dinner but can't face up to the fact that it came from an animal. I truely believe that if you are going to eat meat you need to be honest and respectful about it. You took something's life to feed you. That's the simple truth of it.

(me, scalding a chicken...makes them pluckable)
So, part of what I've been changing in our food aquiring practices is to do my best to not buy any meat of uncertain origin. I like to know where the animals come from. Were they raised ethically? Were they killed quickly and cleanly? Were they processed safely? Just because I eat animals doesn't mean I don't care about them. They are living creatures and I want them to be treated decently. Plus they make better food that way. For me this is made a lot easier by having parents who raise beef. I always have good homegrown, grass finished beef and they know where to get me other nice things such as lamb and sausage.

(Dad explaing where to chop to Blair)

My Easter Story begins about a month ago when my mom called me up and let me know that their neighbours, who do eggs, had about 30 chickens that they needed rid of. 30 chickens. For free. One catch. These chickens would still be fully alive. Yes yes, we would have to slaughter and process the birds ourselves. Eeeee.

(Plucking away)

Now, I was a farm girl when I was little. One time when I was about five, my dad was killing chickens. You know the saying, like a chicken with it's head cut off? Fully true. I thought is was hilarious (I know I know, but if you had been there...) I laughed so hard that I fell over. And a dead chicken ran me over. Covered in chicken blood.

That is my only memory of how chickens become food. So it's not like I was a hardened farm girl going into this.

(Barb, plucking)

It was my parent's mentoring myself, my husband, my cousin and her husband as we dealt with what turned out to be 40 chickens. Dad and the boys beheaded them, Barb and I did the majority of the plucking and the boys did most of the gutting. Mom has a bad back and was a baby watching soup maker. It was not fun, mostly, I mean I don't get to hang out with Barb enough and there were ceratinly some entertaining moments, mostly though it was hard work. And very very smelly. There is nothing like that smell. I could not even think of eating chicken until I got out of that environment.

(Chicken broth cooking away)

But we did it. We feel little more hardcore than we did before and we have a freezer full of chickens that will soon become delicious soup and chicken pot pies. We got to experience first hand where our meat came from and have a whole new perspective on the chickens in the supermarket.

Kitchen Cure 2009 | It begins.

2009-04-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

I decided (about 5 minutes ago) that I would sign up for Apartment Therapy's Kitchen Cure this year. It's kind of a big group Spring Cleaning/Reorganization deal. I may be moving soon but I may be staying here so I had been putting things off in the hopes of knowing soon. But The Cure starts today and my kitchen is sick.

I will post later this week with this week's assignment and photos, but in the meantime if you are interested in joining me in this endevour, here's the Kitchen Cure website and here's the sign-up link, and here's the blog running it (The Kitchn is a favourite daily read for me!)

My Kitchen | Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T23:00:00.001-07:00

(That would be me, my Dad, and my cousin Barb. And a couple not so lively chickens)

Hope you guys had a great Easter Weekend! It's a four day weekend up here (but in my world I got two and a half...better than average) and we went to my parent's farm in Creston. It was a very foodie weekend and it will take a few posts to catch you up but there was cheese making, pasta making, lamb and ribs and seafood eating but most notably there were 40 chickens who met their demise.

My friends said "But isn't Easter more for the baby chicks?". Um yes well that would certainly be cuter...but less good for soup. Anyway I'll post more tomorrow, but tonight I am just happy to be home and clean and off my feet. G'night!

Links | One Block Diet

2009-04-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I just found a very amusing blog to share with you all. Apparently Sunset Magazine decided to utilize their one block in California on which their offices are located to grow food. They seem to have many amusing foodie adventures and then have seasonal feasts. They have teams working in different areas such as chickens and bees and olives. Yes they have bees. The blog articles are written by various Sunset employees and a great fun. And you can read it here.

Maybe I can convince the pool to take over the rec centre grounds? Don't think they'd go for bees somehow...

Thoughts | Budgeting for Food

2009-04-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

(I would like to start by saying that my title is misleading. I don't actually budget in the traditional sense. I more just keep a general eye on the bank account. It works.)

A few years ago I was hanging out with some girlfriends and we got on the topic of how much we spend a month on food. I guessed $400. It was a vague and rather low guess (think it turned out that it was more like $500 when I counted it up). They were shocked. One of them said that she never spent more than $150 a month on food. (These were two person families, and if you are American...food costs more here.) To this day I am not sure what she ate. Rice? Ground beef? Ichiban? Kraft Dinner? It boggles the mind. So my first point is this: before you start worrying about spending too much on food, take a look at your priorities.

In In Defense of Food Micheal Pollen says that in most developed countries people spend about 25% of their income on food. In the states? 9%. I have no idea what the Canadian stats are as we don't seem to have a book on it. Which country has the highest obesity rate? Diabetes? Heart Disease? Yes you can spend almost nothing on food. But at what cost?

Buying good food will do more for you quality of life than any other thing you budget for. If you eat well you will be happy (from the yummy food) and you will be healthier. You will get sick less. You will be skinnier. You will have more energy. You will have the potential to live longer. It's nice to have a big house (or so I hear) and new clothes and all, but I really don't see the bang for your buck there. Some people have trouble with the idea of spending money on something that you just eat and then it's gone. IT IS NOT GONE! It is a part of you and making your body run properly (or improperly). Food should be a priority in your life.

That said, do I save money now that I cook more from scratch. Yes. And then I invest that money back into food. I think it's fair to say that if my paychecks are coming in decently I don't pay all that much less a month than I used to. I just looked it up for you in fact, last month was $394 (and I must admit that the savings are mostly due to my family giving me meat and flour). I just spend it differently. The money I save by cooking from scratch goes into organic produce and milk products. It goes into fair trade chocolate and coffee. It goes into honey and maple syrup. It goes into free range chickens and eggs. I try my best to spend my food dollars on nutrisious food that will make me healthier and support ethical food producers.

Now that I've told you how I don't save the money I save...here's a couple thoughts on how to pinch all you can from your food budget...so that you can put it back in. Also I do fully realize that some people have very tight budgets these days and want to be able to get the most they can out of it.

- Get a deep freeze (wait...that costs money? It's worth it). With a freezer you can get wonderful things like a side of beef from a local farmer for cheaper (and just better) than you would buying it a couple pounds at a time in the store.

- Garden. Seriously seeds cost a few cents. And then you water them which costs a bit more. And then you get amazingly happy local organic produce. Container garden if you have no room.

- Preserve food when it is season. I bought flats of fruit this summer and we are still eating some of it. My mom and I canned a ton of soup and sauces mainly from the garden. This costs a fraction of buying canned food and is sooo much better. Especially as we make really great soup. Also pickles and jam and all sorts of niceness.

- Get to know the food people in your area. Find out who sells free range eggs. Find out who has non-sprayed peach trees. Buying from the source is usually cheaper, and is far more trustworthy. I mean, if they sell you bad eggs...you know where they live.

- Buy things in bulk when they keep well and you use them regularly. Like flour and honey in my world.

- Buy things like beans and rice in their most basic dry form. Do the work yourself.

- Be thrifty. Don't throw things out until there is nothing left. Make broth with your bones, make bread crumbs with stale crusts, make soup with your limp veggies. Suck all the life out of your food before you let it go.

- Try not to let things go to waste. This was a big one for me. Have one night a week where you have to cook with whatever needs used up in the fridge. Keep the oldest things at the front of your fridge or cupboard and the newer things behind.

- I will throw out menu planning at you, even though in my case it's not that helpful. I mean it's helpful for my life and organization, but I don't actually tend to save money this way. I am more likely to buy strange things that don't normally live in my cupboards when I menu plan. It's good fun, but not a money saver. Many people are not like me however, and find it a great way to save.

So how about you guys? What are your money saving food tips? Is food a priority in your budget?

TV | 100 Mile Challenge

2009-04-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Did any of you tune into the first episode of 100 Mile Challenge on Food TV last Sunday? I happened to be watching food tv (as is so often the case) and caught it by accident. And I was happily intrigued. It is hosted by the authors of 100 Mile Diet and follows six families in Mission BC who eat food from within 100 miles for 100 days. If you are interested you can watch the first episode here.

I am always amused by this as we don't actually use miles. But 100 kilometers isn't as much territory I guess.

Anyway, I will be tuning in to the next 5 episodes in this miniseries and am very excited to have a local food show on, especially one that is in my general location. It is tragic to keep reading local seasonal blog that are all about the winter citrus. I miss lemons.

Moving on, the show have a blog which is fairly interesting as it highlights some Canadian food producers and seasonal recipes. They also have a local food map thing, which is not all that helpful as it is waaaay less than comprehensive. I am sure that there are more than three food producers in my area. In fact I have met more than three. Still it's a good idea, and I am fully in support of any and all local eating initiatives.

My Kitchen | Frozen Yogurt

2009-04-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Mmmm, it's a warm springy day in the Kootenays today, and I am soaking it all up. We went to church, had yummy veggie burgers for lunch, watched a documentary on Chile while I worked on binding my quilt and there is bread rising.

We recently got an ice cream maker and I'm very happy to see that you can just throw a container of yogurt into it and mix it up. Healthy? Check. Easy? Check. Yummy? Check.

What more can you ask for? (we used balkan style strawberry yogurt)

Local | Jerseyland Organics

2009-04-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

If you live in BC (and maybe other places, I don't know) you should check out Jerseyland Organics. They are a family owned and operated dairy farm out in Grand Forks. And their cheese is heaven.

They make great yogurt. It's non homogenized and doesn't have anything but milk and cultures (other than the flavours of course). The cream on the top is fun and mixes in nice. It has a great creamy flavour with just enough tang to be a yummy yogurt.

They have a bunch of different cheeses, my favourites so far are the Gouda with Carraway and Gouda with Peppercorn. Excellent sandwich cheese.

By their webpage (and excellent products) it seems that they care a lot about their cows and about delivering quality food. I want to stop in and see the dairy next time I'm out that direction!

Book Review | Real Food

2009-03-31T01:21:00.000-07:00

I recently read Real Food by Nina Planck. Here's the blurb:

Don't you find it odd that the experts blame butter and beef for heart disease, even though heart disease is new and traditional foods are old? Heart disease as we know it was first diagnosed by James Herrick in 1912; it is a 20th century disease. Meanwhile, we (or our ancestors) have been eating milk and butter for 10,000 to 30,000 years and beef for 2 or 3 million.

Don't you find it funny that the foods in many traditional diets - starting with breast milk and moving on to coconut oil, butter, eggs, and pork fat - are loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol, yet people who eat these traditional foods liberally don't get heart disease? Nor are they fat or diabetic.

I believe the conventional wisdom on traditional foods is mistaken. The so-called diseases of civilization - obesity, diabetes, heart disease - are not caused by real food. The diseases of industrialization - as I call them - are caused by the foods of industrialization.

What are industrial foods? In the triple epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, the three main villains are trans fats, corn oil, and sugar - not butter and eggs. White flour and other refined carbohydrates are also trouble.

In Real Food: What to Eat and Why, I explain why traditional foods such as butter are healthy and industrial foods are not. You'll learn how butter, lard, beef, cheese, eggs, and other foods we've been eating for thousands of years got a bad rap - and why it's a bad rap.

The book is full of good news about foods we love to eat. Perhaps you will feel liberated, and resume eating raw milk, cream, butter, egg yolks, and coconut oil with impunity, as I do. One other thing: the experts are right about fish, olive oil, and fresh fruit and vegetables - they're all good for you, too. I'll tell you why that is, too.

I have to say, this book was really helpful for me. I've been reading a lot about traditional vs industrial diets but this book explains it well. She gives nutritional backing for why you should eat traditional foods (butter instead of margarine etc) and doesn't get overly bogged down with the ethical and environmental reasoning. I care about that too, but I'm really interested in what foods are good for me and why. Real Food explains all that. While it's a lot of information to *ahem* digest, I found it very readable and finished it in about three days.

I highly recommend to anyone who cares about what you eat. And to those who wonder why they keep eating low fat food without becoming...lower in fat. Oh, and to people who are vegetarians. Because it might change your mind.

Vintage Love | Kitchen Tours

2009-03-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be a green tip...only then it got out of hand and turned into it's own series...oops.

So recently we've made a deal around here. When we need something new for the house we will first see if we can find it a)Used or b)Handmade. Only if we can't find either will we buy it new. This is working out pretty well so far as I'm a scavengar. I have a deep love for all my vintage kitchen items...in no small part because many of them are from my Gramma. I like to think of all the happy pies that have been rolled out with my rolling pin. Old things have more soul to them.

I've found that half the battle with starting to buy vintage is getting over the image of the items in your great aunt's tacky kitchen and imaging them in your obviously cool and hip kitchen. So to assist, here are some beautiful kitchens that have helped me make the mental jump from shiny and new to something a bit more fun. Most of them are from Design Sponge...which is a blog I loooove. I think the key is to keep it uncluttered, and go for colour.

Each link is to a full kitchen and/or house tour:

Black Apple's White Storybook Kitchen (love love love)

The Jewels of New York

Darling Clementine (love!)

Lisa Condong

Recipes | Tacos with Soft Corn Tortillas

2009-03-26T22:44:00.001-07:00

Mmmm, do we ever love taco night around here. I grew up eating my mom's soft corn tortillas and for me, nothing beats them. Flour tortillas are too...floury, too much starchiness. Hard corn tortillas are yummy, but they break when you try to eat them.

Soft corn tortillas are very easy to make. If you can make crepes than you'll breeze through this. If not...then it will be a fun adventure! Remember, the cook has to eat the broken ones! Mmmmmm....

Ingredients (about 12 shells):
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 cup flour*
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg

*all-purpose is what we usually use, but I tried WW pastry flour to whole grain it up, worked well. It had a bit of a more wheaty flavour and I had to add a bit more water, which made the tortillas just a touch more fragile. Still I will be doing it with the WW pastry flour from now on.

Directions:
1) Mix all ingredients together to form a smooth batter.

2) Heat an 8 inch skillet over medium heat until hot. Grease lightly (I used clarified butter and a pastry brush). It's best to have good crepe pan. I do not, I have a crap Teflon number. Oh well. I don't recommend using cast iron as it's too heavy.

3) Pour 1/4-1/2 cup batter into skillet. Immediately rotate the skillet so that the batter forms a thin tortilla, about six inches across. If it seems too thick, add some water to your batter.

4)Cook until the tortilla is dry around the edges (about 2 minutes)

5) Flip (carefully with a flipper, or just use your fingers...I usually do) and cook other side until golden (about 2 minutes)

(this is me trying to rotate the pan as fast as possible...which apparently makes me look like a crazy person)

Taco Meat:
1) Brown about 1 lb of ground meat.

2) Add 1 small onion or one large shallot, diced, cook for a couple minutes.

3) Add: 1 can (or pint jar) black beans with juice, at least two gloves garlic minced and chili powder, cumin and salt to taste. I don't even know how to measure this, but it takes a fair bit of chili powder and a bit less cumin. Add a dash of cayenne if you are in the mood.

4) Let it cook down until all the juice is evaporated. If you are still making tortillas, add some more water and let it cook down some more.

(Note the manly hands, I can never get the pit out like that.)

We top our tacos with cheddar, sour cream, diced tomato, spinach or lettuce (lettuce this time of year, I can't get local spinach). And sometimes for a special treat, we get an avocado.

Tips | Cooking with Wine

2009-03-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

Don't be fooled, I am no wine expert. This post is for those of you who are also no wine experts but want a starting point for incorporating some wine into your cooking.

Some tips:

1) Don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink. So pretty much avoid the cooking wine. When you cook with wine it often reduces down and the flavour intensifies...so it helps if it has a good flavour.

2) Use wine you would drink with the dish you are cooking. So white wine goes well in seafood and risotto. Red wine with beef or wild meat. You get the idea. It also means that if you use part of a bottle to cook with and part of a bottle to drink it all goes together.

3) If you aren't big drinkers and can't get through a bottle in one or two meals (we rarely do) just throw the rest in a baggie in the freezer and cook with it later. This also goes for when you buy wine and find you don't really care for it, just cook with it later.

So we usually buy local wine from either Skimmerhorn or Columbia Gardens...it's so exciting to have wine from the Kootenays! My favourite is the Columbia Gardens' Gewürztraminer. Mmmmm.

My all time favourite things to throw wine in are mussels steamed in white wine and beef stew with red wine. I'll post recipes next time I make some up.

Links | Photograzing

2009-03-21T22:36:00.001-07:00

I have died and gone to foodie heaven.

There is a wonderful foodie community website called Serious Eats, and they have a photo sharing section called Photograzing. Pretty much you post your food photos and it links to the blog post. So you can just stare at pretty food photos until you drown in a puddle of your own saliva. Wait wait, that was gross, sorry. You know what I mean. I hope.

Here's some pretties that I found:

Cardamom Orange Teacake Cookies — Easy as 123

TomatoMania- Choosing Wisely

Coffee and Cookies

Baked Mozzarella

I was full I swear...but now I am seriously hungry. This site is dangerous.

Recipes | Cabbage and Sausage Stir Fry

2009-03-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is a super fast recipe that we love around here. It's very yummy with roasted potatoes...or if you are lazy bread and butter. Oh oh, or perogies! Mmmmmmm.

Ingredients:
Sausage - We like the raw ground Italian sausage but whatever you have is good. Something with some fat is good, because otherwise you just have to add oil, and oil doesn't taste as good as sausage juice now does it?
1 small cabbage Green or savoy. Whatever is your mood.
Caraway seed (optional)

Directions
1) Brown the sausage in a wok or large frying pan.

2) Add roughly chopped cabbage. Cook until tender. Add oil if it seems to want some.

3) Season to taste with caraway and salt.

Soooo easy. I grew up loving this and now that I know the value of a 15 minute meal of whole foody goodness, I love it even more. And I didn't tell you how much sausage to use because that's up to you. You want at least twice as much cabbage as sausage though, or it's just too rich.

Links | Fun with bowls

2009-03-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

Here are two fun edible bowls that I want to try out:

Chocolate Bowls from Dinner with Julie

And

Bread Bowls for Soups and Dips from Apple Pie, Patis & Pates

Gargh

2009-03-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

If you are American go find out what your government is up to now. I hate it when things in American politics make me crazy because they often end up setting a tone for how things go up here...and I can't do anything about it.

Protect Your Freedom to Eat Nourishing Food and Support Small Farmers (Against HR 875)

My Kitchen | Sharing

2009-03-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I got home from work at about 10:30pm, exhausted. A bit later Craig and I were curled up on the couch eating popcorn and watching TV when he mentioned that the freezer had been tipped funny when he left that morning. We have a small square deep freeze and it lives out on the patio due to our tiny basement suite. I was brain dead and I believe my reply was "huh..."

About 11:30 we heard a noise and turned on the patio light to see a big fat black bear tipping the freezer over. He pulled out a package of ground beef and might have gone for more but decided to cut his loses and take off when he saw us. He also took a ziplock of frozen basil but apparently didn't feel like herbs as he left it half eaten on the ground.

So we picked everything back up and took the freezer inside (it's now an endtable...very classy). Yeah I have to go through and wash the bear slobber (by the way, ew!) off my packages but all the lamb and the free range chickens are still there which is happy as those are harder to come by. Still, I don't like sharing.

He came back at 3 in the morning to root through my recycling (no food, just clean containers, very disapointing) and I opened the door and yelled at him before he took off. So I guess I need to deal with the recyling today.

This is so not cool by the way, as he wasn't nearly as wary of me as I would like. Going to be keeping an eye in the bushes when I get home after dark from now on...

Tips | Use for Cheese Rinds

2009-03-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

If you buy nice cheeses, you will find that many of them come with rinds. The rind is not so edible as you can't chew it and can't grate it. Still...it seems a waste to throw it out, right?

Save the rinds in a bag in the freezer. Then next time you are making a slow cooking stew or soup, chuck them in. The remaining cheese will melt off and add a hint of creamy goodness to your meal. Toss whatever is undissolved before eating.

I've got a couple decent rinds in tonight's stew :)

Recipes | Poached Egg Salad

2009-03-14T22:05:00.001-07:00

I invented this recipe this summer. It looks a bit strange, and you'll want to make sure the eggs are drained well so as to not be soupy...but it's so very yummy.

Fill a bowl with some salad greens. Choose something with some flavour like spinach, arugula or a herb salad mix. Top with two soft boiled eggs, grated cheese (parm or some other hardish and strong cheese) and salad dressing. Vinaigrettes are really nice especially ones with orange. This time I used the Glory Bowl dressing from the Whitewater Cookbook. Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

The salad will wilt down a bit from the warm eggs. Do not be afraid of the poached eggy salady goodness! This makes a great lunch with some nice whole grain toast...or just a fun side dish.

Book Review | Last Bite

2009-03-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Today's book is Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance by Nancy Verde Barr.

This is a chick lit romance for foodies, and thus I have much love for it. Nancy Verde Barr served for years as Executive Chef to Julia Child. She's written cookbooks, but this is her only novel. Which makes me sad.

Drawing directly on Nancy's experience as an executive tv chef, her main character, Casey Costello is the behind the scenes magic worker of a morning show with the big star of the cooking world. There is much good Italian food, both in her family and in a trip to Italy. Yes, there is European adventures, plus romance, mystery, spies...what more do you need? She also has a few of the recipes mentioned in the story in the back of the book. I'll let you know if I try some of them out, my mouth was pretty much watering for the whole book.

Any of you have fiction favourites that make you hungry while reading?

My Kitchen | Lunch

2009-03-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share my lunch with you:

Just because I cook from scratch doesn't mean I object to buying great quality food as a treat. I was in Nelson on Tuesday and got a great baguette from the French artisan's bakery (which I really need to take a camera to next time, it is adorable). I also picked up a gouda cheese with carraway by Jersery Land organics. Add a cute little organic gala apple and that's my lunch!

Green Kitchen | Part 1 Disposing of Disposables

2009-03-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's a new weekly series for you guys. I've been trying to green up my kitchen habits in the last few years. The purpose is to be better to the planet, better for our health and happily...better for the wallet (how else would I be able to support my fair trade chocolate habit?)

Today's mission? Cutting down on the trash. There's a few ways to do this but we're going to focus on things that are single use or replaced frequently.

Paper Towel:
I haven't bought paper towels for almost three years. And I haven't even noticed! For clean ups and spills I use rags (usually old dishcloths that aren't so pretty anymore). I keep a bucket to toss used rags into and throw it in the wash as needed. I also have a couple old tea towels that I use to put things like falafel and bacon to absorb the extra fat. Windows get a microfiber cloth.

Plastic Wrap: This was a bit trickier. For some things I use tinfoil, then I reuse the tinfoil a couple times and can recycle it in the end. For some things (like to cover a plate or bowl) I use grocery produce bags...I am planning on getting cloth ones at some point but for now I just try to wash and reuse them (I shake them out and then hang to dry from magnets on my range hood. Sexy). I used to use plastic wrap to cover my rising bread, now I use a damp teatowel. You can also use waxpaper for somethings, as it's compostable.

Plastic Containers: I know some people use old yogurt etc. containers for leftovers, but I have to be able to see what's in them or it dies slowly in the fridge/freezer. I used to use the gladware/ziplock dealies but they don't last forever and you have to worry about plastic and microwaving and whatnot. I have a set of glass containers (some pyrex and some anchorware) with BPA free plastic lids. I love these, they are microwave and oven safe. They don't stain or harbour smells. They're a good size for taking to work. They seal pretty well. Good times.

Cook from Scratch!: You can buy things in reusable bulk bags and things like natural honey come in nice glass jars. You end up throwing out waaay less packaging.

I also have reusable straws, cloth napkins and placemats. Not only are these reusable, they are way nicer and sooo cute!

What I can't seem to get rid of? Ziplocks! Any advice for me there? What disposable product are you addicted to?

Thoughts | My Cooking Journey Part 2

2009-03-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

Right, so last time I told you how I used to eat. Now I'll tell you why it started to change.

About two years ago: I (and a lot of other people) suddenly realized that I really should be trying to live in a more sustainable way. This is the point where I stopped using things like saran wrap and paper towel. I kind of realized that this should have something to do with food (eat less meat? Organic?) but there wasn't a lot I felt like I could do at that point.

September 2007: we moved from Lethbridge back to the Kootenays which is home to me. Also? There's a whole lot of gardening going on out here in the summers. I started thinking more about food security. I read Animal Vegetable Miracle, Echoholic and watched Jamie at Home. I became vaguely twitchy about the food industry. I found myself having a previously unheard of urge to garden. It was all very strange. Also I realized that I was a grown up now and should probably start canning my own food instead of just stealing it from my mom...

Last summer: We spent the summer at my parent's farm. Craig got a summer job in the area and I took the summer off to focus on my graphic design/illustration work. And we learned about the garden. I learned to make jam (easy!), can, pressure can (still frightening!) and remembered that fresh homemade bread is a nice thing to have around. We were so surrounded by excellent food that summer than I managed to can and freeze a ton. Still eating some of it. I learned that really? I can do this self sufficiency thing.

This fall: I read In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollen. This gave me an extra push and I started systematically cutting out processed food. Starting with margarine and fat free yogurt. Breakfast cereal. White rice. I wasn't necessarily changing my cooking habits oh so much but I was changing the basic ingredients. Free range eggs. We mostly just ate the beef my parent grow on the farm for meat. I immediatly noticed a difference, I had more energy and started to lose weight. I lost almost 10 lbs last fall. Mostly by eating more fat. Well, and whole grains. Curiouser and curiouser.

This Winter: This winter I came to a realization, the only way I could be sure of what was in our food, where it came from, and how it would affect our health, was by cooking as much of it from scratch as I could. I also decided to stop buying produce, dairy and meat from other countries. I think the globalization of food is a big problem, and while I can't fix it on my own, I decided to start walking the walk. This was a lot of work, but I had already made half the changes I needed to by putting up food over the summer.

I have never had so much fun with food. Not since I was a kid learning to make cookies. I'm experimenting with new vegetables (because I can't get peppers, but I can get celeriac!) new recipes. I had a quest to come up with the perfect whole wheat bread recipe. I'm learning to cook strange cuts of meat (well...to me roasts are strange), whole chickens. I'm learning to use more whole grains. I just learned to use dry beans. I can make ricotta. And crackers, and granola bars.

It's exciting.

So am I there yet? Not even close, this year I really want to get more into cheese making, yogurt, natural sweeteners. In the future? I hope we can get a place where we can garden. Get chickens. Maybe a goat...

So the moral of this story? Making little changes as you go is a good way to do things. Pay attention to what you are eating and why. Good food is always a journey, not a destination.

Thoughts | My Cooking Journey Part 1.

2009-03-06T10:52:00.001-08:00

Lest you think I just woke up one morning and starting cooking everything from scratch. Or maybe that I always have. Anyways here's a rough breakdown of how I got to the point I'm at now, and where I want to get:

Childhood: I was blessed to be raised in a house where soup came from jars in the cellar, all baking was from scratch and when we were hungry in the summer we were sent out to the garden to pull a carrot and wash it off with the hose.

I don't know when I started baking but I clearly remember that the oven scared me. I had to get over it one time because I had made cookies and my mom was out walking and I really wanted to put them in the oven. It was a big moment. I don't know how old I was, maybe mom remembers, but I would have been probably ten or eleven. My grade 7 year I home schooled for the second half and cooked my brother lunch every day when he came home from school. I'm pretty sure I also started making mac and cheese from scratch that year and the two of us could polish of what Betty Crocker thought would serve 6. Mmmmm.

Teenageness: When I was a teenager I did a lot of the cooking. Probably two or three days of supper a week and I made bread about half the time. I also started cooking random things just because I thought they would taste good. I was pretty healthy but addicted to sidekicks! I also gave up pop in Grade 12 when I realized that I didn't actually like it. I remember learning that people took longer to decompose than they used to due to all the preservatives we eat and that seriously twitched me out.

College age: When I left home I stopped baking sandwich bread. I wasn't a big bread eater and cooking for one (or two when I had friends/boyfriend/roommate around) meant that the bread went away. I still made foccacia and rolls sometimes. I ate more packaged food and more crap than at any other point in my life, just because it was such a hassle to cook for myself. I also had dorm food and whatnot, ate out too much. Long story short I was for a while underweight (due to being sick from work and not eating enough meat and fat) then gained the freshman 15 plus 5. Eeeeee.

Married life: Having someone to cook for again was great! Even before we got married we both lived with my parents for a bit and I cooked for everyone quite a bit. My dad teased me that it was all chicken and pasta. Fairly true. I wasn't paying that much attention to cooking from scratch but I still did for the most part. I switched to slim fast for breakfast and started dieting. I lost 15 lbs...gained 10, lost 5...you get the picture. When I was losing weight I felt lethargic and lightheaded because I have low blood pressure. We were eating healthier but with no regard for seasonal or local food. We were kind of coasting through life at that point and food was no exception. I view this as the starting point of the journey I'm on now.

What I cooked from scratch:
- Muffins, cookies, cakes etc. There was no store bought baking in my house.
- 75% of meals. Especially for guests, because that's the most fun.

What I bought:
- Whole grain bread/wraps/bagels etc
- Soup (although I stole from my mom still and occasionally made it.
- Pasta sauce/pasta
- Side dishes, you know packaged risotto, sidekicks that sort of thing.
- Frozen breaded chicken/fish when it was on sale
- Frozen juice
- Crackers, granola bars

Also:
- I bought into the whole low fat thing. Skim milk, margarine, fat free yogurt etc.
- I only used easy cuts of meat. Chicken breast, ground beef, quick fry pork chops.
- White rice, rice pasta, pasta pasta.

Doesn't sound so bad, does it? That's part of what I'm trying to say with this blog. I was eating in a way that was fairly convenient and that by the nutritional standards of the day was fairly good. So why did I change? This post is too long so tune in tomorrow!

Inspirations | Martha=Garden Envy

2009-03-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

I don't by the Martha Stewart Magazine every month, but I do enjoy it. This month had a great section on gardening, wouldn't you love to spend some time in these?

There's also a great article on a farm that does CSA (community supported agriculture). Check out these boxes waiting to go to CSA customers. I would love to sign up for one of those every week.

Now when will spring come?

Recipes | Peaches and Cream Steel Cut Oats

2009-03-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

I grew up fairly indifferent to oatmeal. Then after getting into backpacking I had a love for instant oatmeal (my mother is gagging right now). Peaches and cream being one of my favourite flavours. Well this morning we had peaches and cream oatmeal stepped up a notch.

Steel cut oats are oats that are just cut in half. To make rolled oats they steam and press them flat. This makes them faster to cook. To make them even faster they just repeat the process. Thus instant oatmeal is a whole grain. Technically, because the whole grain is there. Steel cut oats are however a much less processed whole grain. They take longer to cook and don't turn into a gluey mush. I've heard them compared to risotto and that's fairly accurate. There's something to chew.

I usually start them simmering and then go have a shower, when I'm done I throw in whatever I'm flavouring with and then cook for a couple more minutes (while getting dressed usually). Then we scoop them out and add some milk. They reheat amazingly well, so I always make lots and keep some in the fridge.

Here's what I made today:

Peaches and Cream Steel Cut Oats
1)In a medium pot bring 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats, 3 cups water and a couple pinches of salt to a boil.

2) Throw in a couple tablespoons of chopped candied ginger (optional...I just felt like ginger). Turn down to a simmer and let it go for 25 mintues (ish).

3) Add 1 cup chopped canned peaches and 1/2 cup of the peach juice. Continue cooking for 10 minutes or until you like the consistency (it's not rocket science, unless you scorch it you can't really overcook it).

4) Scoop into 4 bowls and top with chopped pecans and whole milk. You won't need sugar because the peaches sweeten it up.

My Kitchen | Tins

2009-03-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple things I picked up for my kitchen this weekend. First off I broke down and bought a third bread tin. My recipe makes three loaves. I only have two loaf pans. Well I also have a glass one but I very highly do not recommend making bread in a glass pan, at least if you ever want it out again. Mom has offered me a couple of hers...but I couldn't wait anymore (although I still wouldn't mind a 4th). So here she is, I'll let you know how it turns out, it's a stainless steel tin and I got it at Cottonwood Kitchens in Nelson, one of my favourite stores.

Ooooh, aaaaah.

And next, I wanted a decorative tin to keep crackers in. I went back and forth between thrifting and buying a pretty new one but in the end thrifting is a) more fun b) cheaper and c) more eco-friendly. So I found this baby for 99 cents. I rather love it. It has a photo of Lake Louise on the top and the sides are circled with little illustrations for each province of Canada. Delightful. Anyone know anything about McGavin's Princess Fruit Cake? I'm curious when it would have been sold orginally.

I'm going to try and find a couple more tins. But that is it. I am not a tin collector. Do not give me tins. I repeat, no buying boxes of tins for Hanna at garage sales!

Happy Monday!

2009-03-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hello all, hope you had a good weekend! I had to work Saturday but Sunday was a rare full day off and also our 6 year anniversary :) We spent some time in Nelson (bought a couple presents for my kitchen, I'll have to show you later) before heading over to Ainsworth Hotsprings for a soak and dinner. Ainsworth is a favourite spot of ours, it has a fun, natural horseshoe shaped cave adjoining the hotest pool and a very nice restaurant. We had mussels in some kind of cream sauce to start, then I had a rack of lamb with some sort of amazing sauce including juniper berries. I didn't know they were edible! A nice glass of Columbia Garden's Ge and creme brulee for desert. I loooove creme brulee. Mmmmmm....
People always think it's strange that we would rather have a really great dinner than presents, but we think of it as a shared memory. Seriously, we'll sit around a reminisce about our favourite meals. Doubtless one of the reasons our marriage is a happy one!

Anyway, back to real life today. It's homemade pizza night (pesto with sundried tomatoes, prosciutto, frozen spinach, mushrooms, goat feta and mozza) and here are some links I've come across lately for your reading pleasure:

Broth is beautiful - why you should make homemade broth
Put down that winter tomato! It was picked by a slave! - just in case you were enjoying your winter tomatoes...
Food Photography for Bloggers - some nice tips here
A big list of DIY recipes

Book Review | Whitewater Cooks

2009-02-27T09:04:00.001-08:00

Whitewater Cooks is the cookbook put out by Shelly Adams who runs the Fresh Tracks Cafe at Whitewater ski hill near Nelson, BC. It includes many recipes from the cafe as well a few others she's come up with. This is one of my all time favourite cookbooks for three reasons.

3) It's really pretty, great inspiring photos, nice layout. Makes you want to just sit around and look at it.

2) The food? It's really really good. As in I actually cook more than one or two recipes out of it.

1) The best thing about this cookbook is that it's local. Everyone I know who loves to cook in the area has this cookbook. Or at least really wants it. We sit around and talk about the muffins. The veggie burgers are legendary. It's part of the local food culture, and I love that.

If you can get your hands on this baby, here are my favourite recipes:

- The Glory Bowl - It's a rice/tofu/salad thing. Best dressing every. My supper tonight.
- Tabbouleh and Chickpea Salad.
- Whitewater Veggie Burger. We had this for dinner last night. I couldn't believe how good they are. We were in awe. Better than beef, and I do love beef.
- Whitewater Marvellous Muffins. My copy falls open to this one. I especially love making them with dried cherry, dark chocolate and pecans...mmmmm
- Whitewater Granola Bars. Best bar ever. Chewy toasted deliciousness.

So go get it! Buy it local if you are lucky enough to be a Kootenian, but otherwise you can get it on amazon. It's also a great cookbook if you're vegetarian, it has meat recipes, but a lot of meatless ones as well.

She has a new book coming out tomorrow, so I'm on the watch for it!

Thoughts | Busy Lives vs. Slow Food

2009-02-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

When I explain to people that I am making all my food from scratch (usually as I'm feeding them crackers or muffins. I'm a compulsive feeder...I'm channeling my Mennonite grandmother at an early age here.) they usually wonder how I make the time. Well the nice ones ask how I do it. Some people just say "Oh it must be nice to have time to bake your own bread!". This makes me craaaazy. I work full time, it's often 6 days a week. I do freelance illustration and graphic design at home. I don't just sit around cooking because I'm bored! But before I give you any time management things, here's two things you should know about me.

- Making good food is a priority for me. There is not a whole lot in my life that is more important to me than food. I love to eat it, and it is the fuel that makes my body run well. It makes my husband happy. When I end up working a ton I sometimes don't vacuum...or get to the laundry mat as soon as I'd like, but I do cook. It's just more important to me.

- I love to cook. Even when I'm tired, I just love to create food and eat it. I like the challenge. It's like being crafty/artistic...and it tastes good (99% of the time anyway).

Okay, so here's some tips:

- Meal plan. For me this helps a lot because I work funny hours. Sometimes I need a supper that I can make in 20 minutes. Sometimes I have all day. Sometimes I can prep in the morning. Often I make supper to take to work and leave Craig's in the fridge. You get the picture.

- When you have some free time, use it. If you know you have a day off (my days off are not the same every week) or a few hours at home, plan to bake your bread or roast a chicken or something else that will help you make it through to the next day off. Yes I often go a month or two without two days off in a row.

- Plan for leftovers. If you are making something that reheats well make 2 or 3 times what you need. I am all over left over stir fry (but I haaaate leftover pasta...uck) and I always make a ton. I serve us and at the same time put up to 4 servings in the fridge in containers. It's the same amount of work and you don't have to cook the next day. Ditto for pizza, steel cut oats...lots of things.

- Multi-task. I'm baking bread right now. I shower while I'm cooking steel cut oats. Most slow food in not labour intensive, you just need to kind of be hanging around.

- Have a few really fast meals tucked up your sleeve. There are meals that I can make in just a few minutes, with whole ingredients. I'll try and post some soon. Find a couple you like and keep the ingredients around for emergencies. My favourite right now is sausage and cabbage stir fry. Yum yum.

It's really just about being moderatly organize and just deciding that you're going to do it. Sometimes we are eating toast at 5:30 because supper just isn't happening until 8:00. But to us, real food is worth having to be flexible. I'm lucky to have a husband who is excellently supportive in my foodie endevours. :)

Do you guys have any tips on time management and speedy whole food cooking?

Omelettes for Everyone!

2009-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

You can thank my adorable Sister in law for this link. Man, I want me some backyard chickens. If only I had a backyard.

Recipes | Seedy Crackers

2009-02-25T10:47:00.001-08:00

One of the hardest things about cutting out processed foods is snack time. Granola bars and crackers were pretty much always in the cupboard until January. And while it might be healthier to just eat an apple...well sometimes you just want crackers! My favourite crackers are the Seed Celebration crackers from the Shoppers Organics line. So I decided to make something similar.

I started with the Parmesan Cream Crackers recipe from Bitten (you should watch the video where he makes these, it's very amusing). I made these once before using all-purpose flour. This time I used half AP flour and half WW pastry flour. They turned out really well, so next time I will use 100% WW pastry flour.

Ingredients:
1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons butter
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp poppyseeds
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup (plus maybe a bit more) cream

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 400. Get a cookie sheet ready and dust it with flour.

2) In food processor pulse flour, salt, cheese and seeds to combine. Add butter and pulse until it's crumbly. Add cream while running the machine at a low speed a bit at a time until it forms a ball.

3) Flour your counter and roll the dough out until it is very thin, 1/2 cm maybe.

4) Transfer to the baking sheet and score the dough into cracker sized rectangles.

5) Bake for about 10 minutes, until it's lightly browned. Let it cool and then snap apart into crakers.

6) Serve at room temperature or store in a sealed container or tin for a few days.

I also made a version with no seeds and Nostrala cheese. Mmmmmmm. We love us some crackers. This is a very quick and easy snack to make, and they keep decently well (as long as you don't eat them all the first day!

Pretties | Beautiful Bowls

2009-02-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

My kitchen would like to be friends with these bowls :)

1) Set of Four Small and Colorful Prep Bowls by Lynn Cardwell

2) White Porcelain Bowl with Lattice Design by Isabella Bramson

3) Small Bowl - Teal and Brown Pottery by Pate Ceramics

4) Simple Yellow Bowl by Simply Daisy

5) Olive Star Rice Bowl by Lure Arts

Tips | Winter Salad

2009-02-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

Eating seasonally and locally doesn't mean no salad in the winter! We can get hot house lettuce here and I top it with homegrown sprouts, grated raw beets and feta. With a green tea vinegrette tonight. The raw beets are sooo good on it, nice and crunchy and sweet.

I hear that some people get local hot house peppers in the winter. Our hot house peppers come from Mexico. Seriously? Can anyone explain that to me? Grocery stores are a mystery to me.

Recipes | Warming Winter Vegetable Soup

2009-02-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

If you are going to eat seasonally in this part of the world, it's best to try and love root vegetables. There's a wonderful variety and I'm been experimenting with all the ones I can get my hands on. This recipe came about when I came home with celeriac and didn't really know what to do with it. It has a mild celeryish flavour which is nice in soups when celery stalks are out of season.

This recipe is vaguely based off of Jane Spice's Spicy Parsnip Soup. It was my starting point at least.

Ingredients:
Carrots - 2 large or three medium
Parsnips - also 2 large or three smaller
1 medium Celeriac (also called celery root)
Olive Oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp whole coriander or 1/2 tsp ground*
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 quart (1 litre) chicken or vegetable broth.
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Peel and cube veggies. (cut the bottom of the celeriac off first if it's too tendrilly)

2) With a slosh of oil in the saucepan cook the shallot for a couple minutes until starting to go transparent. Add garlic and spices and cook for a minute or so until fragrant. **

3) Add vegetables and broth to pot and simmer until veggies are soft.

4) Puree or mash (I use an emersion blender). Salt and pepper to taste.

5) Enjoy! So good with biscuits or fresh bread. Serves 4.

* I really like whole coriander for some reason. I like the little pods. I grind them with the other spices with a mortar and pestle before I throw them in.

** I totally forgot to do this step this time around. I just chucked the shallots/garlic and spices in with the broth. Still very yummy.

Experiments | Paneer/Ricotta/Day Cheese?

2009-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

So today I made cheese. As I was a cheese making virgin I started with what is apparently the easiest cheese in the world. Which is pretend Ricotta. Apparently (and I know this from all the blog posts I've scouring to learn how to do this) real ricotta is made from the whey after you make mozza. I did not make mozza, so this is made out of straight milk.

Here's some excellent blog posts about how to make it:

Homemade goat milk ricotta by Kittbo (this is what I followed. Only I didn't milk a goat first.)

The Garden of Eating (hee hee) has excellent photos in her explaination.

Discovering Ricotta over at Bitten got me started on all this.

I used 2 litres of whole milk and two cups of buttermilk. That made maybe 2 cups of cheese. It really is as easy as they say, and really is that yummy. I will be making this from now on whenever a recipe calls for ricotta or cottage cheese.

We just ate half of it with jam. Mmmmm

Tips | fun rice in the cooker

2009-02-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight for dinner? Szechuan beef and beans over rice.

We don't eat white rice anymore. I tried to let it down easy and only have it for "emergencies" But it turns out that I had a lot of them and would just eat the white rice and never have time to make brown. So I just stopped buying it. And now I have to remember or else I just don't get rice. It's working out well.

I like to buy one bag of Lundberg Farms organic brown jasmine (so much yummier than brown long grain) and a small bag of Shaol Lake wild rice and mix them. It's more fun than straight brown.

I use the rice cooker and I've found that it needs a bit more water than white rice does, otherwise it turns out extra...chewy. I usually cook up 1 1/2 scoops of rice and fill it up to the 2 scoop line with water. So if it were stove top that would be 1/2 cups of rice to 4 cups water. And a bit of salt of course. It take a bit under 45 min I think (I'll time it for you next time I make some). This mix is fantastic in everything I use rice for.

Have fun with rice! Ditch the overprocessed whiteness! Save it for sushi.

Recipes | Breakfast Shake

2009-02-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

This is what I have for breakfast most mornings. I am so not a morning person. In fact it's pretty useless to try and have a conversation with me if I've been awake for less than an hour. A fact my husband is slowly realizing (you know...it's only been six years...). So making or eating food that early? Crazy talk. My tummy isn't awake enough yet. Yet somehow...it's still hungry.

I lived off slimfast chocolate royal shakes for 5 years, by the way. Then I decided to stop eating processed food. Then I decided to stop eating bananas (because really? They're not from here. Also, I want them to not become extinct). And everyone knows fruit shakes need bananas, right? Wrong. I know there are a million and one ways to make shakes and that really no one needs a recipe, but this is what I do:

In my magic bullet cup I add:

Maybe a half cup of yogurt. Usually Island Farms Raspberry. It's my favourite so I always have it around. Vanilla is good too. It has to have some milkfat to it and it has to be sweetened.

A handful of frozen fruit. This brings me almost 3/4 of the way up the cup. I froze peaches, raspberries and strawberries this summer and just ran out (boo!). So I'm buying frozen canadian strawberries at the moment. The frozenness is key here. This is what makes it nice and cold and nice and thick. So you don't miss the banana.

Fill it up with milk. I just upgraded to 1%. Will it make me fat? Only time will tell.

That's it. No extra sugar. Sometimes I add a splash of vanilla.

Blend. Best enjoyed with a straw.

Also, I did this before I got the Magic Bullet. But I always over-measured and ended up with a lot of shake.

Inspirations | Eleni's NYC

2009-02-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

Look at these sugar cookies by Eleni's NYC! I thought I was a half decent cookie decorator but obviously...there are levels I was unaware of.

(via Black*Eiffel)

Hi!

2009-02-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog! Cleverly disguised as an old blog by my moving posts from my other blog over. My food posts were threatening to take over my creative life blog. And my Twitter. And Facebook. Also I talk about food all day at work.

Clearly it was time to start a foodie blog.

My set-up is not the best for taking photos inside. In winter. At night. But so be it, you guys will just have to bear with me until more money/spring comes my way.

Blame Kait, she wanted to know how I live off root vegetables.

Pretties | Tea Towel Love?

2009-02-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

The Storque on Etsy has a fun article right now featuring handmade tea towels. Here. Here's my favourites:

Linen Tea Towel by Jewelweeds:

White Filigree design on Unbleached Linen Tea Towel by FlowerPress

Brown Fiddlehead Towel by Lotta Helleberg

Cabin Fever Tea Towel by Karen Has Cabin Fever

Recipes | Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2009-02-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my recipe for sandwich bread. I decided to start making my own sometime around Christmas and haven't bought bread since. I had some flops, but this version is working well and tastes great. I had some criteria for it:

- It had to be 100% whole wheat. A lot of sandwich bread recipes are half white. A lot of whole wheat bread flour is half white. I say no.

- It had to taste yummy. Obviously.

- It had to be moist and rise well. Many of my early attempts met the first two requirements but didn't rise much.

This is what I came up with. It's a variation of this recipe. I'm making this as detailed as possible, to give beginner bread makers confidence. I'll give you the how to first, and then explain it later. With footnotes. Eeeexcellent.

Ingredients:
3 cups warm water
2 packages or 4.4 tsp active dry yeast*
1/3 cup honey
6Tbs vital wheat gluten**
4 cups whole wheat flour***

3Tbs butter, melted (you can also use olive oil)
1/3 cup honey
1 tbs salt
3-5 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
1) Get a big bowl and add 3 cups of warm water. Not hot, you'll kill the yeast, feel it on your wrist. Add the yeast, 1/3 cup honey, 6 Tbsp of gluten and 4 cups of flour. Stir to combine. It will look something like this:

2) Cover it with a damp tea towel**** and let it rise in a warm place for about half an hour or until big and bubbly. My warm place is next to my radiator. You can also put it in the oven with the light on. If it's cold it'll take the yeast a longer time to get to work.

Big and bubbly:

3) Mix in the 3 tbsp melted butter 1/3 cup of honey and salt. Here's where it gets tricky if you've never worked with yeast. You need to add the right amount of flour. Start with 2 cups and start kneading it in. Keep adding flour a bit at a time as you go until it is still a bit moist but not too sticky. You will figure this out with a bit of practice. Some people turn the bread out onto a floured surface to knead. I don't know why. I just knead in the bowl. If you've never kneaded bread...I dunno, look it up on youtube? Pretty much you just keep pushing it around and folding it over. This might take...10 minutes? You will be done kneading when the bread feels smooth and elastic. So they say. You'll notice that it feels different.

Another way to tell is to take a bit of dough and stretch it into a square between your fingers. If you can make a little window transparent enough to see light through without the dough breaking, it's done. Try doing this with one hand and taking a picture with the other hand. I dare you.

4) Either wash your bowl or switch bowls at this point. Put a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl and grease it. Then put the dough in and give it a turn before flipping it over so the greased side is up. This helps prevent it getting a skin as it rises.

5) Cover with a warm, moist towel again and let it get back to rising. It rises until doubled. Or until you poke it with your finger and it the hole doesn't fill back in.

6) Divide into three equal parts. Take each part one at a time and throw it repeatedly onto the counter/table as hard as you can. This is good fun. And great for working out your anger issues. Oh, and for getting out air bubbles.

7) Preheat oven to 350.

8) Grease***** three loaf pans. Use steel. You'll hate yourself if you use glass. Trust me. Form three loafs. You kinda flatten the bread, then fold/roll the sides over to make a loaf shape. Pinch the bottom together and put it in the pan.

9)Cover and rise again, until the dough is about an inch over the top of the pan. If you over-rise at this point they can collapse in the oven.

10) Bake for 25-30 minutes until nice and brown. Also until the bread sounds hollow when you tap the bottom of the pan. I haven't mastered this. The hollow sound I mean, but that's what they say. (I hijaked a third to make cinnamon buns...there should be three loaves)

11) Turn the loafs out onto a cooling rack and wait until cool to slice. I always end up cutting the crusts off and eating them hot because I love them sooooo much. But if you wait it's easier to slice. Apparently cutting into it too early disrupts the loaf structure. So don't be like me (but it's soooo good).

12) Enjoy! I recommend pre-slicing and freezing two loafs as the shelf life is shorter than store bought bread. Because we didn't add any weird chemicals.

Footnotes:

* I buy my yeast in a jar and keep it in the freezer so that it stays good for longer.

** Vital wheat gluten is extra protein. Whole wheat flour has less protein than white. This is why it doesn't rise as well. The gluten helps the yeast along and makes it rise better. I get an inch more rise at least with the gluten and a fluffier texture. Cheating? Kind of. But so is yeast if you think about it. I buy mine at the health food store and keep it in the fridge. Add 2 Tbsp per loaf. My mom swears by using vinegar, by the way. I can't make it work...I've heard that it works better with sugar and I prefer honey.

*** Your flour is very important. As in, don't buy a huge bag until you know it works for you. It has to do with the grind, and the type of wheat and a bunch of things. Here is what I use and love. It's what my mom and gramma both swear by, and they are more knowledgeable than me by far in these matters. We get it from Cosco.

**** You should have a tea towel just for bread, cause it can get oil stained and such. Some people swear by potato sacks (which you can buy at Canadian tire...you don't need to get potatoes :P) and some people use plastic wrap. But I say boooo to plastic.

***** You can use Pam. But I think Pam is for weenies. It's only fat free if you spray for 1/3 of a second? And has propellant? Aerosol? Use olive oil with a pastry brush. Barely takes any. Or use your butter wrapper. That's what it's for.

That's all! (and maybe too much, but what can you do?) My main recommendation is not to be scared, just give it a go. If you fail...well...try to eat it while it's still warm. Even doorstop worthy bread is good with butter when it's still warm. Let me know if you try it!

Friday Night Pizza

2009-02-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

As you may have figured out by now. I'm big on food, and I'm big on making it from scratch. I've especially been focusing on perfecting bread recipes lately. I'll share my whole wheat sandwich bread recipe with you later, but tonight is Friday. And Friday night at my house is Pizza Night.

We love pizza. Craig would eat it everyday if I let him. When I started doing Pizza Night I often bought shells or used pita's just to save time. I started doing real dough in October sometime and while it was yummier, it took a long time. Like, two three hours to get to dinner, and that doesn't work every Friday.

Last week I found the perfect solution. I've been using the Homemade Thin Crust Pizza recipe from The Kitchn. I love this crust, it's really fast because it doesn't need to rise, and it's fairly foolproof. You don't need to understand yeast breads to pull it off. Most importantly it's super yummy and doesn't get soggy. Easy pieces to hold in your hand.

Tonight we had pizza with homemade pesto sauce, sundried tomatoes (courtesy of my mom), little panfried chicken bits, frozen spinach and farmer's cheese. I don't know exactly what farmer's cheese is, but it's replaced mozza as my favourite pizza cheese.

I usually whip up the crusts while Craig prepares all the toppings. It's a fun night in the kitchen. And now we must do dishes.

Inspired? Go forth! Make pizzas!

Thoughts | Missing the garden...

2009-01-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Missing the sunshine. Missing summer. Fall was amazing this year but winter...it's getting me down.

Anyway, I'm going to ramble about food for a bit. If you wonder why I'm so obsessed about local food, first read Animal Vegetable Miracle, then read In Defense of Food...and then google Monsanto. That's about all you need to know. Other than that I love food. A lot.

First off, my New Years resolution of eating Canadian produce only is going quite well (I know I know, it's only been 2 weeks...). Partly because as it turns out, I like all those vegetables. Wonder what's available in BC this winter?

- Squashes (and I could use some advice on butternut, because it always turns out dry for me...but I loooove spaghetti squash)
- Carrot, parsnips, beets, potatoes. Amazing roast veggie mix, let me tell you.
- Green leaf lettuce (greenhouse grown), sprouts. Makes a good salad, especially with a bit of feta crumbled on top.
- Cabbage. Good in stir fries (with carrots and parsnips :P). Fried up with sausage. Yep.
- Apples. I happily don't tire of apples.
- Mushrooms.

I miss bell peppers, but that's about it. Everything else tastes nasty this time of year anyone, so why bother?

Anyone think of something I didn't list? I'm buying American garlic and shallots, because I haven't found Canadian ones. I'd like to grow some...if I ever live in one place long enough. Oh to have a house and a garden and a root cellar... I'm counting veggies and fruits frozen in Canada, although I haven't bought any yet, because I still have my own.

Which brings me to my next update. How my food stored from the garden this summer is holding up:

I more than one years worth of:
-Pickles, asparagus and beet. I need to stop hording them and eat them more! But seriously I have tons.
-Pasta sauce. I'm mostly using it for pizza and that doesn't use a ton at a time. Next time I'm going to use smaller jars too.

I made just enough of (I think...):
- Jam, I made a lot and we're eating a lot. We love jam.
- Canned fruit. Like the pickles I need to stop hoarding so much. I'm just used to stealing from my mom, so I forget that I have lots.
- Frozen summer squash. I did quite a bit, and mostly use it for stir fry.
- Pesto. I have enough...I would eat more though...
- Frozen herbs. Although I'd like more dill...

Next year I'll do more of:
- Frozen fruit. I'm almost out. I've been having breakfast shakes pretty regularly. I need to double or triple the amount of fruit I do next year if I want to eat it all winter. And I do, it's soooo yummy and a good way to get your vitamins all winter.
- Asparagus, but I knew that, asparagus season ran away on my last year and I've been rationing.
- Ratatouille. I can't tell you how much I love this stuff. With sausage. I need to post the recipe. I only have one meal left of it and that makes me soooo sad.

And I'll run out of soup probably, but I can do more this winter.

What I didn't do and want to next year:
- Frozen green beans. I want some.
- Canned veggie broth. I made some asparagus broth, and it's great. I want to make a big batch of general veggie broth next year, so much cheaper and happier than buying organic chicken broth.
- Dried fruits and veggies and herbs. Stealing my parent's dehydrator for a bit if I live nearby.
- Apple juice. I just wanted juice when I was sick. And most juice gives me heartburn anyway. I miss home squished apple juice.
- More kinds of pickles...haha because I don't have any? But seriously, pickles are so fun! I want to do green beans...and maybe cauliflower.
- Maybe freeze some spinach. And Kale.

So how about you guys? Any of you do some preserving this year? How's it holding out? This local/sustainable eating thing would be a lot less fun without ratatouille and frozen raspberries, I'll tell you that!

I could talk about food all day long...but it's time to go eat!

Recipes | World's Best Artichoke Dip

2008-12-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

1 can artichoke hearts, drained (NOT marinated, just canned)
1 cup mayo (NOT miracle whip...it turns out nasty)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese (NOT the powdered kind, real cheese)
1 tube (500g) unripened goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, crushed (microplaned in my world)
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix together, bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Eat with crackers, chips or best of all toasted baguette rounds. Leave no leftovers, they don't reheat well. It won't be hard to leave no leftovers.

I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't love this. I would eat it every day, but then I'd be obese and Craig would have to roll down the street. Like the kid in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, only not blue. So it's only for Christmas.

You should make this for your next holiday party or movie night. Do it!

Inspirations | Kitchen Decor

2008-09-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hrm, someday I will have an awesome kitchen. In the meantime I'll keep collecting photos in my decofile...here's my favourites (click here for more)

Recipes | Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-09-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

(photo from stock.xchng)

For Kait, here is my chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's from my Betty Crocker Cookbook. It's the recipe my mom, my aunt and my cousin all swear by. In my mind, there is no other recipe. Barb makes them tiny and undercooks them just a touch for chewy goodness. I make them a touch bigger (but still small) and get them just brown on the bottom. I also add less chocolate then it calls for. These stay nice and soft, but don't melt into the bendy puddles that some cookies do.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Evah!
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

My adjustments are:
add 1 tsp vanilla
a bit more salt (I just prefer salty sweetness)
Instead of the chips I take a good bar of dark chocolate and chop it up. I love the bittersweetness and you don't need as much this way.

It makes about 4 dozen cookies they say. I sometimes eat a cookie or so worth of dough (bad I know, but I'd rather risk getting food poisoning someday for the years of yummy dough eating I have enjoyed). You bake for 10 min at 375.