tomato tots

What if the tots moved?

2010-11-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

We are going through some pretty serious changes around here and one of those changes is move. I was explaining to tot B as he was asking about geographical location (he always wants to know where we are in relation to where we were) that our upcoming move was taking us from one city to another that was nothing like where we are. We are moving to a small town, to another country and to a completely different geography. How crazy is that...? They (the tots) think of Vancouver as home even though we are currently calling a small gulf island our temporary home. They know the play groups, the recreation, the space and have internalized a map of landmarks that tells them this is home.

We are moving and to simplify that move I will no longer post on the Tomatotots. Instead I will be concentrating my efforts on my Kitsch in the Kitchen blog, where I will continue to talk food and family but will also talk shop and art. This started off as a food blog to fullfil my need to have more of an identity but has turned into so much more. So please if you follow me here, follow me there! We are moving and I feel the need to pack a part of my life into a nice little box and label it The Me Box.

Cheers and have a good night.
I will keep this blog live for a while but transfer some of my favorite links, pics and awards to Kitsch in the Kitchen.

Thank you for following me.

The Spaghetti in Squash

2010-09-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I did some pretty intense travelling. First my family and I camped out in a hotel in Vancouver in order for me to get a medical examination (I am in the process of applying for a green card so my husband can work in the States for a few years: Did I mention he got a job at Harvard?). Then I had to fly to Montreal for an immigration interview. For those of you in know, yes there is a consulate in Vancouver and yes that is where I first applied. Go figure, it has to be done that way so that is the way I did it. All the while eating a pretty heavy diet punctuated by some awesome meals.

Tofu hollowed out with shredded carrot, wrapped in

nori, encrusted with panko crumbs on a bed of red and soy beans in an orange sugar glaze at

Accords In Montreal

First in Vancouver my husband and I went to Vij's with a dear friend, then in Montreal after my interview I found a nice quiet restaurant to dine alone Accords and then again in Vancouver before the tots and I headed back to Pender Island I hit up another quiet spot Gaia.

Roasted Garlic Polenta filled with goat cheese, honey, pear and arugula, served with a side salad of mixed organic greens at Gaia in Vancouver

It is no surprise today that I walked by a Spaghetti Squash and said to myself I must have that. I was in an all veggie mood and inspired by the spaghetti in Spaghetti Squash I decided to make myself a nice vegetarian dish. This can be made vegan by altering the simple tomato sauce recipe (use olive oil instead of butter) and leaving the parmesan cheese garnish off and replace with some crispy mushrooms (do the same, use all neutral oil instead of butter). For the squash I sliced it in half removed the seeds, guts and rubbed a bit of olive on the firm flesh then roasted it in a low oven for an hour. Then scooped out the insides trying to keep the integrity of the spaghetti like strands. I then put the flesh in a bowl covered with tinfoil to steam back in the warm oven*.

When the sauce was done I ladled it over the Spaghetti Squash and garnished with grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

The ease and slow cooking of this recipe/method allowed me to undo one weeks of dirty laundry!

photos by me.

*Turn it off or keep on low depending on how long until you use it.

Cooking at Gramma's House

2010-09-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

It has been some time that I have made something just for the fun of it. We have mostly been in survival mode since moving to my father's and adopting a rather unorthodox schedule. My husband commutes 5 hrs plus door to door one to two times a week, leaving me on 24hr twin tot duty for days at a time and my new 'at home' sewing business.... (anyone want an apron) have completely monopolized my time. Remember time? This is not a new struggle for me... As crazy as it may seem and as much as I bitch about it, this schedule makes me happy.... slightly crazy yes (but that is half the fun) but happy none the less. It helps me appreciate times like now, when we get to spend a few quieter days at gramma's house just hanging out.

The tot's gramma loves cooking and all things food, so when I announced that I was going to make quick pickles at her house and asked her "what old vegetables did she have?", she started handing them over with reckless abandonment. She like most cooks get one, two, five, ten recipes worth of ingredients in their fridge and like most, run out of time to make them all before the ingredients go off.

Quick Pickles

this is an adapted recipe from someone?

that I just kinda winged on the fly

because I couldn't remember, who, where or when I had read it....

One to One water/vinegar- I used 1 litre water to to 800ml white vinegar/200 ml apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp course salt
1 tbsp pickling spices (whole cloves, mustard seed, cinnamon, pepper, bay leaf)
hefty amount of vegetables, clean, peeled and sliced or quartered- I used 3 medium carrots peeled and cut into sticks, one and a half red peppers sliced, half a head of cauliflower in florets, sliced fennel bulb, one large white onion sliced, one medium zucchini (which is what started the whole thing because gramma's pea patch had yield tonnes of them and they were going slightly off) or anything else you can find.

Put water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pickling spices in a large pot and bring to a boil. Once at a boil taste mixture for sweet, salt, sour balance and adjust for your liking- I found I had to add a bit more sugar.

Start adding in vegetables depending on cooking time for a total of about 15 mins. All are done when onion and zucchini are transparent. To keep the some crunch of of the veg remove from the warm liquid right away and allow them to cool separately, you can combine them later to store in the refrigerator.

Shucking corn by the Tots...

2010-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

A simple little look into how they mimic me. They know that I peel the husks back but they don't know why or how but they get that it needs to be done. This was a fun and simple way to include them in the dinner process even if I had to finish it it off. Their favourite way of eating the corn is on the cob and our favourite preparation is on the bbq with the silks removed incased in the husks, baked until black and kernels are kissed with colour. Butter, salt, and pepper for the tots and ground up dried chili powder for my husband and I.... Nothing beats corn in the late summer months.

Prague Street Vendors

2010-09-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Not quite home yet, but here are some pretty pictures from my trip.

PS in my absence something happened with one of the blog search engines that I had affiliated with my site. I have since removed the offending site and hope that there will be no more problems...

photos by me.

Brutally honest.

2010-08-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

I was determined to make a proper meal for my tots this evening...that was the plan... I even declared it in my blog. I set an intention.

Why do intentions have a way of getting derailed? Today has been one of those days. Tot A refused to get dressed and that hour long fight cost us a trip to the grocery store to get real ingredients for a real meal. Tot B refused to leave the library (I had to return books before my trip) that cost us a trip to the park. We ended up going out for lunch because as I had planned to run my errands, take them to the park and grocery shop all before noon we had only completed one of the errands before 1pm. So getting home at 2 pm I decided to sew and finish prepping for my big sale at our local Fall Fair, what should have taken a couple hours of uninterrupted work (I know silly me) is still not done. Thanks to the mother of all fights between Tot A and I (Tot B just went along for the ride) we did not eat until 6:30.

This bring to the the bulk of my post. As a mother I am completely saddened by my daughter, I love her, I gave birth to her but (and maybe I am projecting) I can see us in the future. She is so willful, pressing my buttons, pressing her brother's, mostly she is a daddy's girl but he is away often and thus her acting out is directed towards me. I use to think I was a cool parent, pretty lax, communicative, I didn't ask much of them and give them free reign but lately little things are escalating into terse tense situations that I don't know how to control. I am starting to sound like one of those mothers.

I have tried positive re-enforcement and praise, leading by example, empowerment, making light of situations, joking about them but of late I am turning to discipline and anger. I DO NOT LIKE IT. It has always been hard with them but for the most part I had it under control. Even if I was having a tough day (and I had my fair share) I was there for them but now I feel like I am taking it out on them.

I am so sad I am feeling this way. I feel so bad because I am the adult and I know better....

I did pull off dinner, even if it was late... I had some gorgeous free run eggs from a friend and I have been dying to use them. We had scrambled eggs...

eggs by marisa's chickens
photo by me.

It has been some time since I...

2010-08-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well that is a pretty bold statement and there are a lot of things that I haven't done in some time but my biggest concern is the family food situation. Since moving to my father's both my husband and myself have just not been making inspiring meals. We thought that our island life would be quaint and quiet. Though nightfall brings absolute stillness and darkness our days have been anything but. I am sewing like a madwoman (working on Kitsch in the Kitchen), children are exploring their new environment and my husband is commuting back and forth between mainland and our island sanctuary, a 5 hr trip door to door.

Tonight is one of those calms before the storm- Tomorrow I have the fall fair where I am going to hawk my sewn wares. Sunday I am driving and literally ferrying my children to the washington coast to spend time with the Aunties and Uncle. Monday heading to the big smoke to have dinner, date, birthday celebration for my husband.... and..... Tuesday going to Prague for a week (baby free vacation). Oh but it doesn't end there, because we have to do most of that in reverse to get back to our island... This is not busy work, most of it (if not all) is self inflicted but when I write it out like this, it appears to be slightly daunting...

So tonight I will cook a quality meal for my children and I!

having children

2010-08-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

means that nothing is sacred anymore....

Beg, Borrow & Steal

2010-08-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

My computer situation has been quite dire since moving to an island... Mine broke the day before I left making blogging pretty difficult. I have been getting by with limited use of my husband's laptop and my father's ancient PC... My computer is going to be returned to me in a couple days... Beware... I have a lot to say.

Until then enjoy a couple beautiful evening shots from our island paradise!

photos by my husband

Braising...Vegetables

2010-07-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here I am in my yard with nothing much to do... we are having a yard sale, I kinda just have to sit here and wait. We don't live on a busy street and I only started advertising the day before, sadly for my things anticipating new homes this combination does not make for a swift sale. It does however give me time to catch up on my blogs, this moving thing has totally killed my momentum.

I originally wanted to post a recipe for corn muffins from the last issue of Gourmet Magazine (RIP), but where that magazine has gone I don't know (my only hope is that it found its way into a book box and it is safely and securely stored). So instead this is a garlic Scape recipe... What? Yes I know Scape season is long gone, but here is the good news, this is actually a braising recipe and you can use leeks, carrots, turnips, onions, and more instead- MB suggest endive and romain lettuce.

Earlier this June we went to an outlaying farm and came home with all sorts of goodies. Baby Bok Choy, little golden nuggety potatoes, various fresh herbs, strawberries and garlic Scapes. Neither my husband nor I had ever cooked with Scape, thinking that was weird we then thought "have we ever actually eaten a Scape?" It seems like we should have, we are both big food people and will try *just* about anything, but to our best recollection our answer was a resounding no. So what the hell, we'd give it a go.

Bombing around the internet led us to several Scape pesto recipes that sounded very good but my husband and I did not want to eat a whole bunch of raw garlic no matter what the consensus was. So we turned to our friend Mark Bittman (OK in my head he is our friend) for a solution. We have always had good luck with his braising recipes and in particular leeks so why not apply that to the scape?

Braised Vegetables (Scape)

adapted from The Best Recipes in the World

Mark Bittman

2 tbsp butter or extra virgin Olive Oil
8-10 Garlic Scapes, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces.
handful of cherry tomatoes, leave whole
Salt & Pepper to taste
3/4 cups of stock, vegetable, chicken or water (if I am using water I like to use 1/4 cup of vermouth)
Fresh Lemon juice, to taste.

Melt the butter or oil over medium heat in a (oven proof) sauce pan that has a lid. Add Scapes, cherry tomatoes, salt & pepper, and stock to cover, bring to a boil, reduce to a bare simmer. Cover with a lid and cook on low heat until very tender about 30- 40 minutes. Checking the liquid occasionally. Each combination of vegetables will have slightly different cooking times. And if stove top space is an issue, the whole thing can be transferred and cooked in a 350F oven after it is brought to the boil.

Serve with freshly squeezed lemon juice.

The end results were deeply rich brown caramelized stalks that melted in the mouth and tomatoes that popped as you bit into them. The Scapes had a mellow garlicky taste without the bite and tomatoes gave a nice splash of acidity. Come Scape season next year, I will re-visit this recipe.

photos by me.

2010-07-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

wild bc spot prawn dinner

on Pender Island

I usually have so much to blog about and I still do but my thoughts reflect my unorganized home. We are moving. First to Pender Island where my dad lives and then onto Boston MA where my husband will be taking his first Post doctoral positon at Harvard MGH. We will go from being West coasters (both of us born and raised) to East coasters. So much transition. The first move to my dad's is pretty minor- we will basically be moving in our clothes, some kitchen stuff, espresso machine, knives and my sewing stuff. In the meantime I am packing up all of our worldly possessions (yes even the kitchen aid, food processor and all) and saying good bye to them for several months, possibly half a year or longer.

I will occasionally post about my updates, progress and special going ons so stay tuned and forgive my tardiness.

You can find my first Guest post Over at the Housewife Bliss.

pins pins and more pins

Happy a Happy Summer and I'll be seing you around on your blogs, with less sewing and cooking I will have more time to read and comment on yours!

cheers,

Megan

I'm just sayin'.

2010-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

It has been over a week... and I have an awesome recipe to share from the last issue of Gourmet magazine no less. Here is a preview but you may just have to wait a wee bit longer for the actual recipe. We Are Moving! And that means packing, so my time is divided.

Fourth of July Weekend Journey

2010-07-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

My Canadian family drove south for the fourth of July to visit the American family. Granted we live in Vancouver and they live in Bellingham WA and it is a mere hour door to door but none the less when an international border is in between it takes on a whole new context. Plus we were going down a beautiful saturday morning just prior to a country wide party. We would never attempt such a silly feat if we didn't have NEXUS passes and urge anyone that ever travels across the border (there are an equivalent US/MEXICO and air programs as well) to get one - or don't and wait in the 3hr line up next to me.

Before the tots we didn't travel south as much and we always planned around outrages border lineups, but the first year they were born we went down one too many times with screaming infants in the car while we waited next to smoke blowing jalopy's on the right and the rusted out lemon's to the left.

Our crossing was 10 mins.
We actually expected a much longer wait ourselves, there is always one or more cars that get into the line up either by honest mistake or by trying to skip the other lineup all together and this unfortunately can add a half an hour or more to a relatively smooth operation... any way I digress... I just wanted add this in here as one of those things parents should definitely think about if they cross the border often. Trust me, $50 per person for 5 years is so worth it when there are kids are in the car.

We got the beach early, cleaned up the house and the beach front made some pre-meal things, then went into town to go shopping and peruse the the farmer's market.

Here are some snaps from our weekend... hope you all had a good time too...

One of our adventures was taking the tiny (18-20 cars) Watcom Ferry over to Lummi island, thinking that we would get off drive around the island and catch the next ferry back... Low and behold we missed that ferry by 3 cars so decided to kill the hour wait time in a local Beach Store Cafe a few minutes walk from the dock.

We grabbed some very good grub, their motto was "everyday food for everybody" (or something like that). My husband had a kick as streak sandwich with monster golden onion rings and I had very simply done fish tacos using locally caught ling cod.

One good thing to note.... If the ferry leaves cars behind, they will come back for you. We watched as they re-loaded the ferry and drove around our abandoned car... This apparently happens all the time and not to worry about if it happens to you. One never knows when they are going to throw caution to the wind and break with the schedule.

photos by me....

Just a reminder 2 more day to enter my children's smock giveaway over at my other blog! Kitsch in the Kitchen.

Yet again another Salsa recipe...

2010-07-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

I was at a wedding the other night and the first dance was a spicy hot salsa. I can't dance a salsa, I actually don't know any dances and the newly wed couple were beautiful, graceful as well as radiant making me rethink my lack of dancing knowledge. So this recipe is for them... Kinda, they are doing the honeymoon thing faraway.

This is a nice basic rule as suggested by Diane Kennedy the Mexican cuisine equivalent to Marcella Hazan. This is loosely based on a 3-2-1 concept. 3 parts tomatoes, 2 onion, 1 cilantro- salt, pepper, lime juice, and jalapeno (to the hotness you want, I like it hot).

Top photo by my husband (he was so impressed with the dance that I may just be able to drag him to a dance class or two)

photos by me.

Wordless Wednesday,Granville Island eats!

2010-06-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

Week 10 Pass it on: Delish Veggies! & A couple of winners!

2010-06-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Last saturday we spent the day farm hopping, and among a delicious assortment of fresh veggies we brought home a large bag of new potatoes. They had soft delicate skins, a buttery texture, colour and smelled like freshly tilled soil. My husband and I are huge potato fans who isn't? Right? Umm our tots.. they will only eat potatoes in the form of french fries or chips... no matter how we fancy them up, they just won't eat them... but then something happened, they ate these ones! And get this- Without Ketchup!! Probably because they were so simply prepared and were sweet without too much adornment.

This is how we served them:

Best Baby Potatoes

adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution

roughly 1 3/4 lbs of New Baby Potatoes- skins on or off. Larger ones cut up.
4-5 sprigs of mint, leave removed & finely chopped
3 pats of butter
salt & pepper
juice of 1 lemon

In a pot of salted water bring the potatoes to boil. Boil for roughly 10-15 minutes. While potatoes are boiling get butter, mint and lemon juice ready. Drain potatoes when they are tender but not falling apart, place in a bowl and toss with butter, salt & pepper, and mint. Squeeze lemon juice just before serving.

They were tangy, sweet and super tender..... The tots gobbled them up!

With the left overs the next day we fried them up with some onion, mustard seed, garam masala and fresh red chile.....

And now for the Winners! Andrea the fabulous Kitchen Witch and Michelle J another west coast gal! email me your address and I will get the divine BC foodie packages out to you after the crazy holidays!

meganhcarroll (at) gmail (dot) com

Summer is coming! Summer is coming.

2010-06-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

We woke up yesterday morning to a nice bright sky, zero plans and two rowdy (almost) four yr olds. How do we spend the day in the sun, be active and run the energy out of the tots? We slake on the sunscreen, pack up the kids and take them to a farm....

let the tots roam

put them to work

tee hee Billie wanted to wear her apron!

(you can find others at tomatotots on Etsy)

workers in the field

E- squeezing

B- checking for redness

really they should have weighed our tots before we went into the field

bounty

rest

Happy Summer!

PS remember to enter my BC bounty Giveaway!

PAY IT FORWARD

photos by me.

Week 9 Pass it On: Lentil and Spinach Soup

2010-06-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Make sure enter my giveaway for an awesome food package of Vancouver British Columbian treats Here!

This past week has been a bit gray, not quite rainy and not quite warm so I was inspired to make a soup from the Food Revolution's chapter Simple Soups. For those who are not familiar with the pass it on premises. I am making one recipe (sometimes two if it is a matching veg) from Jamie's Food Revolution. A cook book that focusses on delicious recipes that anyone from the the novice to the experienced home cook can make! The aim is to get more people cooking at home, eating better and learning about food. At the beginning of the book Jamie Oliver challenges his readers to make one recipe from each chapter and then pass it on. So I am passing it on to my food community. Enjoy, make & share!

I really enjoyed this soup, but I enjoyed it more the next day. The flavours had time to meld together and become more complex. Either immediately or later this is a warm hearty soup for less than stellar days. It also makes good use of staples and and fresh in season veggies (all you CSA people, who get a good share of spinach this one is for you).

Lentil and Spinach Soup

2 carrots, peeled & diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 medium onions, peeled & roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced
1 3/4 quarts stock, chicken or veg (2 litres)
olive oil
thumb size piece of ginger, peeled & finely chopped
1/2-1 fresh chile to taste, seeds removed & sliced
10 cherry tomatoes, cored & halved
2 cups red lentils (or another variety that prefer, but you may have to adjust cooking times)
7 cups fresh spinach, torn of large
1 whole lemon, juiced plus more to serve (not in Oliver's recipe but trust me!)
1 cup natural yoghurt

Get the first four ingredients ready, then in a separate pot bring your stock to a boil, keeping hot, set aside.

In a lage sauce pan on medium heat, warm approximately 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add carrot, celery, onions & garlic, cook with lid slightly skewed for about 10 mins or until the veg is soft but still holding together.

Meanwhile get ginger, chile and tomatoes ready.

Add boiling broth, lentils (I used whole red lentils that doubled my cooking time), ginger and chile to the sauce pan with the veg. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook with the lid on until the lentils are done.

Add the spinach cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt & pepper and the juice of one lemon.

You can either serve it as is or use an immersion blender to make it smoother. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, freshly diced chile and a wedge of lemon.

Serves 6-8 (as if, I will be eating it for weeks)

Pass it on to your friends and families.... and if you blog about it link it to my blog!

(hmm- not getting my link to work, check back for it)

photos by me.

Pay it Forward.

2010-06-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

I didn't make this, but I wish I had.

Last winter I was the lucky winner of a round of Pay it Forward hosted by Velva at Tomatoes on the Vine.... (I am a sucker for anything with a name Tomato in it). It is now time for me to Pay it Forward, I will host my own round.

How it works... This is all about participation, meeting new people and learning about each other's blogs. The winners (3) will each receive a food stuff care package from Vancouver BC and by entering will in return agree to host a Pay It Forward event within a year of their own win. Paying Forward their own food care package!

Rules:
1) enter a comment
2) agree to host a round a of Pay it Forward

I will randomly select 3 winners June 23rd 2010

Good luck & let the games begin!

Two more random Photos, Billie (Thing 1) demonstrates how to eat our local delicacies.

photos by me.

Laura's Taco Salad

2010-06-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share this quickly before it escapes me... We had a mexican inspired meal last night with friends and had a lot of left overs..So when I saw Laura's recipe from http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/ I knew what I was going to do with some of those left overs. Here is my quick simple using all leftovers:

TACO SALAD

About 3/4 cups of torn lettuce leaves
3/4 handfuls of tortilla chips lightly smashed
1/2 cup cooked black beans with onion and ground cumin
fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup grated mexican melting cheese
salt & pepper
1 large heirloom tomato (those suckers are big!) chopped
juice of one lime
finely chopped chili

What I did: I keep bags of fresh mixed greens in my fridge. (I buy a couple different heads of lettuce, clean them, tear them up and store them in bags- So I always have my own mixed greens). I put a bag of greens in a bowl added the tortilla chips, chopped tomatoes, black beans, lime juice, salt & pepper, fresh cilantro, and grated cheese. Toss. To serve add a bit more fresh cilantro, grated cheese and for those that can handle it fresh chili.

FYI- There will be a few more mexican inspired recipes- I observed so much on our vacation!

Here's a link to her recipe:

http://heywhatsfordinnermom.blogspot.com/2010/06/just-another-meatless-monday-15.html

Week 8: Time to Pass it on!

2010-06-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Weeks ago I started cooking one recipe from Jamie Oliver's most recent book Jamie's Food Revolution and as per his request of his readers I thought I would pass that recipe on to my community. This weeks recipe comes from Kick-Start Breakfasts at just the right time; we ran out of granola.

In our home granola is almost exclusively known as breakfast. There is no need to ask our 4 yr son "what do you want?", breakfast always is granola, yoghurt and milk. We spend nearly $12 a week on gourmet granola but recently we have been looking for ways to cut back. And things like Granola, Biscotti and Bread are simple enough, cheaper than and usually better than store bought. That is why this week's pass it on is:

Granola

2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup mixed nuts (I used, walnuts, pistachios, cashews & hazelnuts, all left over from other baking projects), large nuts coarsely chopped
1/4 cup mixed seeds (I used, sesame & pumpkin, also left over from other projects)
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (personally can't stand the stuff so I skipped it)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (I used cranberries & raisins but your imagination is the limit)
5 tbsp maple syrup or honey (75 ml)
5 tbsp olive oil (75 ml)
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F, gather the components. On a large baking sheet assemble the dry ingredients (excluding dried fruit), cinnamon, coconut, and pinch of salt. Drizzle maple syrup & olive oil over the dry mixture. Mix to combine everything evenly then spread out flat on the baking sheet. Bake for 5 minute intervals. Remove from oven, stir, mix and re-spread between each interval. Coarsely chop large dried fruit such as apricots while baking. Bake 25-35 mins. Mine took 25 minutes until a nice dry golden brown. Remove from oven and add the dried fruit. Let cool and pack into an air tight container.

By my estimate this is about $6 worth of granola that I made for less than half of that. I still buy my ingredients from the best sources that I can, so I can safely say that my son will still get his fancy schmancy gourmet granola.

As always if you make this recipe or share it, let me know about it and link your blog up to mine! I would love to see others pass it on. Or if you have another recipe that is simple delicious and will make others cook share that too.

For more meatless dishes go over to hey whats for dinner mom? for meatless monday ideas!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Going On Vacation.

2010-05-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with me, why the slacking? Other than my apron venture which is consuming way more time than I thought I have also been gearing up for vacation. That's right fam and I are getting on a plane and travelling to Mexico for a wedding. No, before you have visions of margarita's on the beach- we are taking the children.

Speaking of children- I just wanted to share this little tid bit. This is one of the way I get my tots to eat some less than exciting food. It is all about empowering them and one trick is to make it fun.

See you in a couple of weeks.

photos by me, models the tots!

Wordless Wednesday, Sunday drive

2010-05-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Week 7 Pass it On! Sweet Things.

2010-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

We had a BBQ the other night, the first of the year... Even though we have had mild temperatures all winter and spring long it hasn't exactly translated into glorious warm weather yet. It has been a tease, warm cloudy drizzly days and cool clear ones, not quite sitting outside weather. We have had a bit of turn around this week, clear weather, warmer temperatures and a visit from a friend... To honour that I made a dessert for this weeks pass it on from Jamie's chapter Sweet Things.

I had high hopes for this dessert, just like the weather all spring long it just didn't quite do what I expected. I would not say it was a flop completely but I will say that it didn't stand up to my expectations literally. It was a kinda a runny gooey mess that tasted fabulous!

Help! let us out!

Here is the recipe for this weeks pass it on, remember to try it, blog about it, pass it on to your family and friends and link it to my blog to if you do... Maybe you will have luck than me (but I have some helpful hints to ensure that you do)!

Each step took minutes to make, but there was a longer setting time between each, something to account for, making it a great recipe for a party. You can make the crust, do other things, you can make the filling do other things and when you have an extra minute make the topping! The total active time was about half an hour, minimum resting/setting time 2 hrs but more if you have the time.

Vanilla Cheesecake With a (Rasp)Berry Topping

(I used Strawberries, Adapted From Jamie's Food Revolution)

13 Tbsp, butter divided, plus extra for greasing
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
2 cups graham crackers crumbs
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp extract
3 X 8 oz bars of cream cheese
3/4 cup super fine (berry) sugar
1 lemon, zest & juice
1 orange, zest
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Berry Topping

1/2 cup super fine (berry) sugar
4 cups raspberries or other fruit, (roughly chopped)

A couple of important notes that I will start off right away, in my quest to do most things natural and local etc, etc and so on I used an organic cream cheese from a local producer, this cheese was too soft! And or the recipe called for too much cream, I have not figured out which. Also my local Whole Foods did not have graham cracker crumbs, or even regular crackers. The choices where store brand graham bears or gluten free crackers. As none of us eating had any specific allergies I opted for the bears. As for the berries I used Strawberries to keep things relatively affordable, california strawberries are coming north by the truck load as we have no local berries right now!

First things first if you were unable to find graham cracker crumbs, make them yourself by bashing, rolling or smashing them. It was slightly theraputic crushing the little bear crackers.

The base- Grease a 9 in springform pan with butter. Put a sauce pan on medium low heat and toast the rolled oats until they are darker in colour, turn down heat to (a bear) low, add your butter and cracker crumbs, stir until everything is mixed and butter is melted. Remove from heat, spoon the mixture into the base of the springform pan, pat down to create a level packed base and let cool for an hour in the refrigerator.

The Filling- I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract so I skipped this step but, cut your vanilla bean open length wise, scrape your knife along the inside to remove the seeds and put them in the bowl with your cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, juice and orange zest and combine. In a separate bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold half of the cream into the cream cheese mixture and then the other half. Once it all blended spoon over the base and let set for an hour (or more)

For the topping, macerate your berries along with the sugar, hands are best. The Strawberries I roughly chopped them first put them in a bowl dumped the sugar over top and then squished them through my hands.

To serve, remove the cheesecake from the springform pan by gently running a blade along the inside to loosen the cheese away from the pan. Open the pan and put it on a serving platter. Spread the berry mixture over top or spoon over individual servings.

My friends and family LOVED the flavour of this cheesecake even though I was disappointed in the outcome. My cheese was too soft making the thing too soft and it was kinda a flop... a big flop... I am still cleaning the melted cheese from the patio table.

photos by me.

Remember if you pass this recipe on or if you have another that you want to share just add your link below.

Wordless Wednesday, I know it is almost over!

2010-05-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed a New Award on my blog!

2010-05-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

I have sat on it since it was given to me by my friend Laura over at Hey What's For Dinner Mom? because I didn't know who to share it with....

I will play along....

Here are the The Kreativ Blogger Award Rules:

1. Post the award.

2. Thank and mention the person who gave you the award.

3. Pass the award on to seven blogs who you think embody the spirit of the Kreativ Blogger Award.

4. Name seven things about yourself that others don't know.

5. Don't forget to notify your seven Bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.

Really what scares me more than picking 7 seven people to pass the award onto is coming up with 7 things that others don't know about me. I try to be an open book so if I don't come up with 7 unique things don't shoot me.

1) I read all the Twilight books one after the other in less than a week.
2) I don't have a favourite colour- but my wardrobe would suggest that I love red and white polka dots.
3) I have secretly always wanted a tiara- my husband thinks I am joking.
4) I once had to take a test to prove that I could speak english.
5) My oldest son is 15yrs old and I still don't know what I want to do with my life!
6) When I was 17yrs old I was in a car accident that left me in a coma for a few days- I had to relearn basic skills.
7) I procrastinate.

Bloggers who I am sharing the award with!

Christie at The Know it all Mom, a very honest mother.
Nastassia at Let me eat Cake, always a lot of fun!
Little T at Raw Adventures of an Army Wife- she's a little sad right now.
Jess at Sweet Amandine- one of the first bloggers that I started following.
Food On the Food, she has been very helpful sharing information about Boston, my family and I are moving there later this year.
Skip to Malou, fun blog, good food.
Dave at Dave's Kitchen Revolution, neat concept!

OK- I am off to let everyone know that I am sharing an award with them....

My Cinco De Mayo Table

2010-05-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

We didn't have a party, or even special activities, we just ate a lot (an ample amount for a small family of four) of Mexican inspired foods. This was a mostly vegetarian spread except for the token meat- a mild chorizo, and gyulai sausage. We had cheese and bean Quesadilla's, fresh avocado, stuffed peppers, and a red cabbage Pico De Gallo that was recommended to me by my friend Tehlia over at Raw Adventures of an Army Wife. Make sure you visit her blog to get the recipe! I served mine in warm corn tortillas, with sliced avocado, crumbled mexican style cheese and lime juice (Sorry T, I did the raw thing half way).

Everything else I just kinda winged.

When my tots were just beginning to eat real foods I discovered that simple easy quesadillas were great. They were convenient tiny packets that could be hand held that I could pack with a variety of left over foods. I could even make then ahead and slowly bake them while I did other things! For these I took two flour tortillas, lightly oil the outsides of each put one side down on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, Sprinkled Monterey Jack cheese and a few cooked black beans and covered with the other one. Put it into the oven and baked at 375f until melted and turned once so that it got crispy on both sides.

Then for the stuff peppers, I hollowed out four peppers, two bells (for the tots) and two poblano peppers (husband and myself). The tots version was simple, I filled them with a mexican style rice, a recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, frozen corn and baked at 450f. Ours was a little more involved. And oh, so yummy!

Poblano Stuff Peppers and Mexican Rice

(Rice adapted from A Mark Bittman Recipe in his book The Best recipes in the World)

1 large tomato, cored seeded, and cut in two
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly mashed
half an medium onion peeled and cut in two
1 cup of long grain rice, rinsed and dried.
salt and pepper
1/2cup water or stock
neutral oil

To make rice, take tomato, garlic and onion and place in a food processor or blender and puree. Heat oil on a medium high heat and saute rice for a couple minutes to coat with the oil. Add in tomato mixture, salt and half a cup of liquid. Turn down to lowest setting, cover with a lid and steam for 15 mins. Meanwhile prepare other ingredients for the peppers.

Cilantro leaves, small bunch, lightly chopped
2 tbsp chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
1/4 cup loosely packed mexican style crumbled cheese
1/3 cup black beans with out liquid
2-4 poblano peppers, tops, ribs and seeds removed

When rice is done cooking combine cilantro, chipotles, cheese and beans with rice in a bowl, stir to mix. Stuff peppers, and bake at 450f. For a cooking time sake we'll say for 30 mins but, really it is to heat the rice through, melt the cheese and turn the poblano peppers soft and black at the edges.

My husband confessed (probably due to the meyer lemon margarita) to me half way through the meal he had a dirty little secret... We have had other conversations that had started this way but I must admit this one did take me by surprise "I don't like poblanos". With that he took my hard worked, disassembled it, put the rice between a corn tortilla and threw out the pepper. WTF, husband? The tots on the other hand gleefully ate their novelty rice from the fun bowl!

photos by me.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

2010-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

We are going to Mexico at the end of the Month to celebrate my brother in law's wedding to his finance, in honour of that here are some previous Mexico photos to get us all in the mood for a fiesta.

Check out the bugs on this one- I hadn't noticed them before.

photos by my husband and myself, we fight over who took what constantly!

A little late...Pass it On Week 6

2010-05-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

OK OK, I know... I am late, don't yell at me! I know this post is several days overdue and we are nearly onto next week's pass it on, but I have been busy. I opened my etsy store. I won't bore you with all the details. We'll just say that the children have started staring longingly out the window, hoping someone will throw them scraps.

This weeks pass it on recipe comes from the chapter Easy Curries, be forewarned "easy" does not mean quick.

Vegetable Jalfrezi
I am passing this recipe on from Jamie's [Oliver] Food Revolution

1 medium onion, halved peeled and roughly chopped
1 fresh red chile, finely sliced
thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
small bunch of fresh cilantro, leaves picked off, and finely slice the stalks
2 red peppers, seeded and roughly chopped
1 cauliflower, remove green leaves, divide into florets, and roughly chop the stalk
3 ripe tomatoes, cored, and
1 small butternut squash, seeded, thick skin removed, and diced
1 x 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained
3-4 peanut/vegetable oil
pat of butter
1/2 cup of jalfrezi or other medium curry paste
1 x 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
2 lemons,
1 cup natural yoghurt

Have all of your ingredients on hand. To save time prepare the whole vegetables except for the cauliflower.

In a large dish, such as a dutch oven or heavy bottomed sauce pan on medium high heat add the peanut or vegetable oil, the onion, chile, ginger, cilantro. Cook for 10 minutes or until soft and nicely coloured.

Prepare the cauliflower while the first ingredients are cooking. Open your canned ingredients and drain the beans.

Next add peppers, squash, garbanzo beans, and curry paste. Stir and coat well. Then add cauliflower, fresh and canned tomatoes (no need to drain), vinegar and one can of water from the empty garbanzo beans. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer for 45 minutes. Check at 30 minutes to see if it is too liquid, leave the lid off for the remainder of the cooking time if it is. When the vegetables are tender taste and add just enough salt & pepper, being careful of over seasoning.

Garnish your curry with the cilantro leaves, serve with rice, a salad, some fresh naan bread, lemon wedges and the yoghurt.

It serves 8, and yes for once Jamie's portions are pretty accurate. I had tonnes left over and my children will no longer starve as I sew myself into oblivion!

Because it had such a long simmer I took that time to make a cucumber salad from the chapter Lovin Salads- These salads are so quick and delicious they really don't need a whole week to themselves. I will just had them in here and there.

Evolution Cucumber Salad.

My tots love cucumber, yoghurt and anything salty.

1 cucumber, peeled and or seeded (I partly peel- and leave the seeds in as we use the long English variety)
natural yoghurt
olive oil
lemon juice
salt & pepper
mint,chopped

Chop the cukes into bite sized pieces, add a dollap of yoghurt, a generous lug of oil, squeeze of fresh lemon juice, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Mix all things together.

The salad could be done there but because this is an evolving salad you can add some chopped mint (we did) some chopped black olives, and fresh red chile.

food photos by me except for the obvious one of me in an apron, that was done patiently by my husband.

A Fabulous Find and a little preview!

2010-04-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I found this item at our local grocery store while herb shopping. I had seen it a couple times and was highly suspicious and skeptical, but my curiosity got the better of me!

What is it? Well as you can see by the plethora of herbs it is a container for storing herbs in the fridge! Like I said I was skeptical, but these herbs are over a week old and still not showing any signs of deterioration. I usually cut the ends of my herbs put them in a jar and leave in a cool place, they last a few days, the water turns mucky, smelly and I end up throwing out 2/3's of them. I have thought about keeping them in the fridge, but an open jar and toddlers are never a good combination, not to mention absent mindlessly reaching for the milk and oops.... ce la vie.

As I can not grow enough herbs to sustain my cooking needs I thought I was doomed to buying $2 bunches every time a recipe called for some. But them after careful debate and throwing at least $5 a week of old used up herbs I thought I would give it a try, I bought the Cuisipro Herb Keeper and I am glad I did so. It works by suspending the herb ends just below the water line with in a closed container. When you want some you just pull up on the top and let the inner liner containing the herbs sit on a lip within the exterior liner. Like I said these particular herbs are going on a week old and I have been using them everyday.

One thing I used my herbs for was my pass it on recipe for the week:

The full recipe will be coming tomorrow! I am little behind on my blog writing. Check out Kitsch in the Kitchen to find out why!

Fabulous Nest Friday inspired by Housewife Bliss

and photos by me.

Hen House

2010-04-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday most of my sisters in law, myself and my husband's father's wife (yes it is confusing but aren't all families?) made an 10 hr drive roundtrip out to Eastern Washington to welcome the newest sister in law to the family. This is the first wedding shower I have ever been to. I didn't even have a Hen Party 12 years ago when I got married (what a bad call that was, you should've of seen the loot). We played games, we drank some wine, we ate some cake and then as a parting gift we were given some eggs.

I am going to call these eggs, Eggs On Steroids, which ironically they weren't. They are free range, naturally fed, mix breed, well loved and taken care of Chickens that made these eggs. What a difference an environment makes! The yokes are even more vibrant and larger than the organic, cage free ones I get in the supermarket (hmm, makes you wonder?). The colours of the shells were amazing, ranging from dark brown, light pink and varying shade of turquoise. I even got to meet the birds briefly (they were a little overwhelmed and a little shell shocked by the army of Carroll's touring their homestead).

What better way than to wrap up a celebration of new beginnings, with the ultimate symbol of new beginnings, new life and well (no pressure) fertility.

photos by me...

Getting home to my Nest. Motherhood discrimination.

2010-04-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

Dear bus driver, all the rude persons that pushed me out of the way so you could get on the bus first and especially the BITCH who complained loudly on her phone to her friend about my stroller. (I was standing right there) I am sorry if YOU "hate the inventor of strollers" right now, but that is just the way it is.

If it makes YOU feel any better I am not liking YOU very much either.

I have 3 1/2 yr old twins and for me that means a stroller. I will probably use it longer than most because I have two children at the same age and stage of development (neither listens to me right now- I thought language development would help with that, but instead it means they can talk back and say NO). One will run off into traffic and the other into a crowded mall.

I don't use a mountain buggy or a side by side but have found an objectively small folding stoller that sits one child up front and the other down below, akin to stadium seating. In the last 3 and half years I have discovered that the world is not set up for strollers let alone twins strollers and I have made my footprint as small as can be. So much so, my stroller is smaller than most single newborn strollers or people who use their off road running/bike strollers as their primary vehicle (come on you know you don't like those people as they bombard their way down the sidewalk taking out the sandwichboard signs and cafe seats as they swagger by). Using a stroller is my ONLY choice on longer outings when I am on my own.

This was going to a be a 'nice' posting about a family outing, but it's not. The outward journey was easy, until we tried to get home in time for nap. We left for the bus stop a little after 2pm just before the afternoon rush.

One bus came, after I let some of the knapsack/tote/laptop carrying persons get on first, it became full. We decided to wait for another bus, we would still get home in time for nap 2:30. A second bus came and throngs of boots, hightops, and heels shoved us aside and piled on, leaving no room for myself, my children or the elderly with walkers. A third bus came and again throngs of tweeners, hipsters and young business persons elbowed their way in. But this time as the bus was filling, I grabbed my stroller and started pushing my through. Yes I was kinda bitchy- you were actively pushing me aside. Why would you not expect that I would push back? Is it because I am mother? I have children? What would your mothers' have done? Nap time was nearing and my diaper-less children were squirming in their seats, should I have stood back and taken it? NO.

So once again, Bitch, you still got on the bus right? Stop complaining and I hope that when you have children and you need to take the bus and people are passing by you because they know you are unable to maneuver like them, that YOU will remember me and what I did to assert myself. To the bus driver, don't look at me like that. I have every right to be on the bus. And all those others people that had to get on the bus right then, I needed to get home to.

A bit of a plug for Phil & Teds, this is an awesome stroller fot twins, two children close to the same age or singles. The bottom seat comes off to become a 'regular' stroller (just incase one twin or tot # 2 decides to stay home with daddy). It is narrow and light weight. I originally bought it because of the dimensions, according to another bus driver my original stroller, a side by side was too wide to go on the bus (even though when I took it home and measured it, it was smaller than the dimensions he quoted me) but to save further hassle and awkwardness I decided to upgrade! And I was so glad I did. I can fit down most store aisles, through all standard doors, it gets on and off buses easily when they are not filled to the gills, and I can push it with one hand- yes that means I have a hand free for coffee or an umbrella!

Check out more Fabulous Nests at Housewife Bliss and her blog about all things home, family and diva!

photos by me.

Week 5, already? Jamie's Food Revolution: Pass it on.

2010-04-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

I think I am going to cheat (yes I know they are my rules, but I am not a rule follower) and present two recipes (well maybe three but one is related to the original recipe as stated by me on my facebook page... you follow me on facebook right?) for week 5 of pass it on.

Just a refresher: How it works is that each week I will be cooking one recipe from each chapter and passing it on to my friends, family and community (that is you). We started it off with Family Roast Dinners then Quick Pasta for my sister inlaw, Classic Fish, because it is easy and we eat a lot of it around here and then Homely ground Beef, strictly because this chapter scared me. Now we are on to Quick-cooking Meat & Fish and as a bonus Lovin' Salads.

My babies have been sick this week and I honestly didn't know if I was going to get a recipe done, but I wanted to carry on. It had to be quick and easy, something I could do during nap time and in between all the other stuff I have fallen behind on. This is what I chose:

Fish Baked in a Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto

The first part is two recipes in one:

2 handfuls of green beans (and peas in the pod*)
2 lemons
2 x 7 ounce chunky fillets, scaled and deboned of firm fish. Jamie calls for salmon but it is halibut season and local!
2 heaped tbsp of pesto (recipe #2)
olive oil, salt & pepper.

If you are like me and forgot that you can buy pesto conveniently pre-made at the store to save time, you must make it yourself using all the fresh basil from your garden.

Chopped Pesto

1 clove of garlic
lg bunch of basil, leaves & a few smaller stalks
sm handful almonds or pine nuts
lg handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon
sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Start mincing garlic, add the the leaves, a couple of stalks, nuts and continue chopping. Put into a bowl, add parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil and salt & pepper! Viola, tragedy adverted and now onto the rest of the recipe.

Tot's version.

Clean the green beans by chopping of the vine end, place on one yard of tin foil folded over to make two layers, place a fillet of fish over top, smear on some pesto, drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper, fold foil over to close, seal on top and at both ends.

Just before dinner time preheat oven to 400f bake for 15-20 on a baking sheet, check 5 mins before you think fish is done. Let stand for a minute more before opening up! Done.

To serve, put each packet on a plate open up slowly to allow steam to release, have a couple pieces of grilled bread a slice of lemon and a salad on the side.

Part 2:

Jam Jar Yoghurt Dressing

I think I will throw a salad recipe in every now and a then, I don't think that Lovin' Salads needs it very own week.

Get a jam jar, put 1/3 cup of natural yoghurt, 2 tbsp of wine vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper and shake it up.

* I put peas in my tots packets along with a small amount of green beans. I wanted to include something familiar for them that they enjoy and will not complain about eating. Peas are always a big hit.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

My Fish cost my $25 (fresh halibut- it is in season!), maybe a bit much for what is essentially three servings (tots share a serving and a bit), but the beans about $3, pesto broke down to about $3 of ingredients and everything else was done with what I had at home. We are looking at about $32 for 3-4 servings or $8 a person. Time wise was faster than packing up the tots, getting in a car, picking up daddy from work and going "out" for dinner - Faster still if I had not made my own pesto- 5 mins, 2 mins to make the dressing (that is being generous), about 5 minutes to assemble packages and 21 mins to bake. While dinner was baking, I cleaned all of my cooking dishes (very little), grilled some bread, made a salad and set the table.

There you have it, fast, inexpensive and successful.

Just add your link to the list where it says you are next!

photos by me.

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Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Witch Inspiring meals for family Sanity.

2010-04-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

As it is friday and the theme of the day is following, I am playing along with Housewife Bliss's Blog Hop. I had considered writing a whole other post and sharing another blissful meal, but I already have the perfect Friday night meal here. What better way then to spend the night with your family around a warm hearth baking pizza and sharing a meal made with love. Top it off with a nice bottle of wine and set the tots in front a movie and just bask in the glow of family.... plus mummy and daddy may be allowed to have an entire conversation with out being interrupted.

In the meantime I will keep my children in the nest! OK it is not a nest but we were at the park the other day and some had built this fascinating structure from fallen twigs!

Housewife Bliss has many many more tips on all things domestic and diva!

http://housewifebliss.blogspot.com/

photos by me, image from housewife bliss!

This is not your Mother's...?

2010-04-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Each week I have been making one recipe from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Food Revolution and passing it on to my friends, family and fellow food bloggers. I have been asking them to pass it on to their friends, family and so on.... Hoping that we can get people cooking at home again. This week's recipe is a very home style meal.

First off I am a vegetarian... So this is an unusual meal for me to use as it highlights MEAT and is aptly named MEATLOAF. So why did I choose MEATLOAF?

First reason is because if I want to cook one meal from each chapter of his book I needed to address his chapter on Beef. Second just because I have a certain diet doesn't mean that my children should share the same view, they are almost 4, let them decide later on what they want. In the meantime I will cook a mostly vegetarian diet and give them the option to eat what they want. Third and the most fun, is because as a child I hated it (maybe the whole reason why I became a veggie in the first place). An insipid loaf of compressed ground meat, hastily mixed with dehydrated onion soup mix and saltines, baked and then slathered in a ketchupy tomato sauce. Yum, sounds good doesn't it? Veggie or not, it sounds down right blech.

The meatloaf dates back to 5th century, the romans had their own version of it, it is related to the Italian meatball and has a very practical application, it makes use of the meat that would normally be chucked. We know it as a convenience food that out parents would pre-make and order us to put in the oven an hour before they got home. This is something different....

Pot-Roast Meatloaf

from the chapter Homely Ground Beef

2 medium onions
olive oil
course salt & freshly ground pepper
1 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
12 plain crackers
2 tsp dried oregano
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1 lb ground beef- organic, grass fed etc, etc....
1 large egg
2 cloves garlic
1/2-1 fresh hot chile (optional)
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 15 oz can of chick peas, drained
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
12 slices bacon- organic, grass fed etc, etc...
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 lemon

You can prepare the meatloaf in advance, just put in the fridge covered until needed or if you are making right away preheat the oven to 475 F.

To make the loaf, finely dice one onion. Heat a pan over medium heat with 2 lugs (his words not mine) of olive oil, sauté onion, pinch of salt and pepper, cumin and coriander. Stir frequently. When soft and nicely golden (not crispy). Remove from heat, and put in a bowl to cool. Take the crackers and bash them up either in a towel or in a mortar and pestle. In the bowl add dried oregano, mustard ground beef, egg and crackers. Combine all ingredients, hands are best! Move to a cutting board and form into a log shape. Rub with more olive oil. Move to an oven safe dish, turn down oven to 400 F and bake for 30 mins.*

Meanwhile.

To make the sauce peel the second onion and large dice, peel and slice the garlic and finely chop the hot pepper (optional). Move to a large sauce pan on medium heat with 2 lugs (again his words) of olive oil. Cook for 7 mins, stirring frequently. Add Worcestershire sauce, paprika, chickpeas, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a boil and turn down and simmer for 10 mins. Check for seasoning. The loaf should almost be done!!!

Finishing up! Remove the needles from the rosemary and place in a bowl. Take the roast from the oven and remove from the dish. Pour the fat over the rosemary and mix up to coat. Put the roast back in the dish and ladle the tomato sauce over and around the roast, top with slices of bacon and sprinkle the rosemary. Put back in the oven and bake for an additional 15 mins until the bacon is crispy.**

While the meatloaf is finishing off make a nice green salad!

To serve, slice up the loaf, ladle on the sauce and add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Again Jamie Oliver says this will feed 4-6, a full loaf will feed at least six!

*I made the full recipe but divided it in two and froze half.

**I baked the loaf with bacon 10 mins and broiled for 5 and it was perfect- my cooking times were slightly altered because I was making a smaller loaf.

So once again if you blog about this recipe and pass it on to others, share your link with me, or if you have another recipe you wish to pass it on share a link. Leave your link in the comments and I will create a separate link in the body of the text!

photos by me!

PS.... Still a veg, I used the delicious yummy sauce & a veggie patty as my meatloaf....

The meat for this dish cost about $11 and I had everything else in my pantry. Again this recipe start to finish took about 45 mins- that was with making a salad and cleaning my cooking dishes.

Andrea the Kitchen Witch's version: http://andrea-thekitchenwitch.blogspot.com/2010/04/pass-it-on-week-3-not-your-mamas.html

Upping the Ratio of Veg on the Plate.

2010-04-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of eating of less than stellar foods at our house. You know the days where you are running, running, running, and suddenly it seems easier to feed the tots crackers (starch), cheese (protein & fat) and olives (veg) for dinner, until it is 3 am and one of them has an upset tummy.

Easy Grilled Salad

So easy that there isn't much of a recipe.

small bunch of asparagus, snap bottoms off and leave whole.
carrots, peel, cut length wise, so that they are long and flat, and cut into three equal pieces.*
bell peppers, cut in half, rib, seed and smaller strips if needed, so that they sit flat.*
half a head of curly green lettuce, torn.
lemon
olive oil,
salt & pepper
ricotta or feta crumbled.

Heat a grill pan or BBQ, toss vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper. Starting with the carrots because they take the longest add them to the grill pan and turning as they brown. Move them the cooler part of the pan and add asparagus and peppers. Turn them as they brown.

Meanwhile clean and shred your lettuce into a shallow bowl or large plate.

Remove the grilled vegetables from the pan, toss with lemon rind, then coarsely chop.

Put roasted vegetables over top the torn lettuce drizzle with olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon juice, crumble cheese and lightly salt & pepper and serve.

* basically you want your veg big enough that it won't fall through the slats of a grated grill but will cook evenly and fast.

photos by me.

Not leaving the house!

2010-04-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

OK, I may have gone to the neighbour's to "borrow" a bottle of wine.

My husband had to go on a work retreat, leaving me home alone with the tots to feed and entertain them. Entertainment was planting stuff in the garden, but feeding them was another issue. I didn't want to get in the car and go to the store just to buy a few missing ingredients for dinner. That would have meant dressing them up (they have taken to wearing their pijamas all day everyday), brushing teeth, hair and washing the morning's peanut butter and jam off their faces. Instead I turned my attention to what I did have.

In the freezer I had some chopped veg that I had been saving to make stock and in the fridge a bag of organic sweet bell peppers, (just like me) beginning to show their age. So I pulled the veg out of the freezer dumped some water on them, added a couple bay leaves, salt & pepper, fresh celery (it too was showing its age), some fresh parsley and simmered away! With the peppers, I washed them fired up the BBQ. And slowly roasted them!

hot n'sweaty

all fired up and ready to go
basking in the glory
a party in a bowl

A roasted Red Pepper kinda day Soup

6 capsicum peppers, wash and leave whole
1 med onion roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic crushed
4 tbsp olive oil
2 medium carrots, diced and chopped
2 medium stalks of celery, sliced an chopped
salt & pepper
1/4 cup red wine
1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid
6 cups stock, chicken or vegetable (preferably home made).
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
balsamic vinegar reduction & olive oil to drizzle (optional but really good)
grated parmesan cheese

First I made my veggie stock and roasted my peppers.

To roast the the peppers I grilled them on a medium BBQ, turning and rotating until black and brown on all sides. Set them in a bowl, covered with cling wrap and set aside to steam. Meanwhile chop and prepare the remaining ingredients. After 15-30 minutes (or as long as it takes to get other stuff done), slit the peppers, removing the seeds and ribs, peel the skin and roughly sliced. Set aside.

Heat the stock and keep warm.

In a stock pot heat the oil at a medium heat, add the onions and garlic and sweat with the lid on until tender and translucent. Add carrot and celery again sweat with the lid on until just barely soft. The goal is not to brown them, but some of the smaller bits may get some colour. Salt, add roasted peppers, stir and heat through, add red wine and scrape any bits that may have stuck to the bottom. Add tomatoes and liquid stir and bring to a boil.

Add in warm stock and return to the boil, once at a boil turn down and simmer for 30 mins or until everything is falling apart and the tomatoes are breaking up. Cool down and transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender and combine until smooth. Return to heat. Add in Balsamic vinegar and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed.

To serve Drizzle with the fancy shmancy olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar... as I did for the adult version or for the kids version microplane parmesan cheese on top! Or just do it all, slip and slurp crusty bread and have a fresh cucumber salad!

While I was taking my photos my daughter insisted I take on of her fork!

Kid version!

photos by me...

Pass it On:Week three.

2010-04-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

There has been some debate and a lot of articles over the merit of celebrity chefs driving a healthy food movement, I am not talking about the George Forman grill or celebrity endorsements for Weight Watchers, I am talking about real food, real diet and a real change.

The current subject is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and his TV show of the same same name. Oliver goes into and critiques a middle America's elementary school, the town's population, how they eat and how they feed their children. His premise is to teach the town's population to cook good meals, starting off with the school's lunch programme and then going into private homes. Of course the TV show is a little more than that- I have not seen it yet (I don't have cable TV and unless it comes out on DVD or itunes - I may miss it completely). But the idea is a simple one even with all of its critiques, (Oliver is not from the US, he is using big food as a sponsor, he's a celebrity, the chosen medium is television, etc, etc...) teach people to cook one good meal and have them pass it on.

And then I asked myself, inspired by someone else taking action, what can I do? I can pass it on, by being an example to my children, helping friends and inspiring others. My efforts feel small compared to Jamie Oliver's glitzy reality TV show but why not try?

For the past three weeks I have been cooking one recipe from each chapter of his book. I have chosen each recipe based on either what is in my fridge, or on suggestions or this week what I honestly think my family will eat. I have young children and I want them to be exposed to many different types foods and flavours but still have recognizable components. I involve them in the shopping, preparation and if time and safely allows, the cooking. This I feel prepares them for unexpected presentations and slightly different flavour combinations. This weeks selection is slightly unorthodox for the north American palate but hey, again it is simple, fast and flavourful.

ps- I am not happy with the photographs but for the sake of illustration they have been included.

Kedgeree

a meal for breakfast or dinner.*

coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
1 1/4 cups basmati rice.
3/4 lb white fish fillets for poaching, look for thick firm cuts (most fish mongers will debone and skin for you).
4 large eggs, free range or organic are best.
2 bay leaves (fresh or dried) small bunch of cilantro, and one fresh red pepper (I used a sweet variety)
1 medium onion, halved and peeled.
2 lemons
olive oil
2 tbsp of a favourite curry paste.
1/4 lb smoked fish such as trout, salmon, or whitefish, skinned removed.
handful of fresh or frozen peas.
natural yoghurt to serve.

To prepare: I like to rinse my rice and soak it before use. Bring two pots of salted water to the boil, one for your rice and one for the poaching, add the bay leaves to the poaching water. Meanwhile remove the leaves from the cilantro and save, roughly chop the stalks, finely slice the pepper if using, cut the onion in half and thinly slice. Cut one of the lemons in half.

Procede with cooking your rice as per your favourite method. I set the timer for 15 minutes for my rice, added the fillets and the eggs to the other pot and cooked for 7 minutes. Remove your fish with a slotted spoon, it will flake (remove any skin and or bones if necessary). Chill your eggs in cold water.** Set aside.

In a large pan heat olive oil over medium and cook your onion, cilantro stalks, peppers and curry paste for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Finish cooking your rice, flake the smoked fish, peel and quarter the hardboiled eggs.

Add the cooked rice, both types of fish and the frozen peas, to the curry paste mixture and combine. Turn down to a low heat, squeeze both halves of the lemon over the mixture, season with salt and pepper, stir once again top with quartered hardboiled eggs and cover with a lid.

Set your table with the yoghurt and quarter the remaining lemon. Serve in individual plates, sprinkle with the reserved cilantro leaves, yoghurt on the side and a generous squeeze of lemon juice.

Honestly do not know how much this dish cost, most of the components are from the pantry. The fish was the most expensive thing, costing about $11 for the fillets and smoked salmon. Again start to finish took about 42 minutes. Jamie Olivers says that this recipe serves 4, try 6-8. We have lots of leftovers, that I've already gotten into for breakfast and again for lunch.

*Kedgeree. A disputed dish of origin.

** Chilling your eggs immediately after they are cooked helps suction the membranes to the shells and peel easier.

photos sheepishly by me.

Please pass this recipe on, and if you blog about it share your link with me. Click the red writing below to add your link.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

Pass it On: Week Two - Macaroni & Cauliflower Cheese Bake

2010-04-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to Bellingham to see some of the Aunties. Sitting around the table at a our favourite Pizza joint (yes we go out for pizza, this place is special), one of my sisters' in law, was complaining how she doesn't know how to cook and was describing her diet to us- cheese sandwiches- all the time. As we were staring at her in abject horror imagining kraft single slices between wonderbread she clarified that her favourite cheese was Tillamook's cheddar, but didn't say a word about the bread. So this week's pass it on recipe is for my sister in law, one can not live off of bread and cheese alone (or can they?).

I chose a recipe based on simplicity and speed that would utilize her favourite ingredient. I also considered cost, quality and quantity (my prices are based on Canadian dollars).

Start to finish on the table eating it took 42 minutes (I may have lost some time when I sliced my thumb open with an inferior knife), I bought all of the ingredients but ended up halving the recipe.

Macaroni and Cauliflower Cheese Bake

This is the full recipe as he wrote it. I halved the pasta, the Parm, and
Sour Cream

1/2 a head of cauliflower ($2 for a whole one)
8 oz of Cheddar Cheese ($6.53 the good stuff)
4 oz of Parmesan Cheese (large block $16- about $2 worth)*
small bunch of fresh Italian parsley ($1.99- about .50 worth)
sea salt & fresh ground pepper
1 lb of dried macaroni pasta ($2.99 for organic 16 oz)
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream ($3.39 for the local brand sour cream)

Total spent at the store $32.90, what dinner cost: $15.67, $3.92 a head.**

This goes fast so get some salted water on to boil, make sure you are using a large pot that will fit both pasta and cauliflower and a heat proof bowl on top.

Remove outer leaves of the cauliflower, halve it and break into small florets (save the other half for another recipe!). Slicing the stalk thinly if you want. Set aside

Grate Cheddar and Parmesan into the heat proof bowl. Finely chop parsley, stalks and leaves set aside.

Gather remaining ingredients.

Add macaroni and cauliflower to boiling water and cook as per package directions. Turn the heat down (trust me). Immediately put the heat proof bowl with the cheese over the macaroni and cauliflower. Be aware of the rising steam coming from under the bowl and stir to melt your cheese. If the water boils up over the pot turn the heat down slightly.

Stir in the sour cream, add the chopped parsley stalks and all. Season with salt and pepper.

Carefully remove the bowl from the pot of water and set aside. (You read your pasta cooking instructions right? mine said 10-12 minutes.) Drain pasta and cauliflower, reserving some of the liquid. Put the macaroni and cauliflower back into the pot. Pour in the melted cheese, mix it all together. If it looks a bit dry add a splash of the reserved liquid.

You can now eat your Mac/Colflower (my family has an inability to say the word Cauli-Flower) & Cheese if you are starving. If you can wait 5-10 mins more, you can transfer to an oven proof dish and place under the broiler on high. Check every few minutes for a nice brown and crispy top. I used this extra time to make a simple salad, set the table and start on the dishes.

This was a very simple recipe to make and one that will provide left overs for a a few nights. Jamie says that his full recipe using 1 lb of pasta all the cheese and sour cream will feed 4-6. I used less and it still fed 4 people reasonably sized portions. Plus we have left overs.

*Jamie called for 4 ounces of parmesan cheese, I only used 2 oz and chose to use Padano instead as it is cheaper. (Tip) I keep both Parmesan Reggiana and Padano in my refrigerator, one for grating and the other for cooking. Padano is half the cost of reggiano but both go a long way.

**If you buy the full list and plus up the Cheddar cheese you will have enough for two recipes! You can freeze one.

As always if you pass it on let me know about, if you blog about leave a link bellow. Just click the Red writing to leave your link!

Lets play!

photos by me.

A response

2010-03-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

My response to Ragu inspired by this post: Hey what's for dinner Mom?: Dear Jamie Oliver, . I think this is a great blog and I respect all of her opinions as she adds valuable discourse to a hot topic in the food the community.

And now for a little silliness to lighten the mood.

Spaghetti by Shel Silverstein

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows-up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I'm terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they're all buried).

I told them, "Bring presents." I said, "Throw confetti."

I guess they heard wrong

'Cause they all threw spaghetti.

Here is a link for the best and easiest pasta sauce I know: http://tomatotots.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-simple-tomato-sauce-for-pasta.html.

Stinging Nettle and Ricotta Ravioli to die for.

2010-03-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Not to die for that would be little extreme but maybe just a little injury and or discomfort.

I am hoping that I was interpreting my husband's gesture as a sincere one and not a comment on my personality when he bought me some stinging nettles the other day.

He was so proud of what he had found at the market "The Wild foods guy was at the market today, look what I got for you!" He thrusts a large plastic bag of weeds at me. Apparently he (Wild foods guy, not my husband) had foraged an ample amount for the restaurant industry and there were plenty of leftovers. Which is good for me. I love nettles, this is an eager spring treat that I start fantasizing about in the depths of January.

Stinging nettle grows around the world in fertile soil, it is usually an indicator that spring is at hand and is featured in many different cuisines. As a flavouring in cheese, or on its own to create pestos, soups, and as a vegetable combined with various spices in India.

It can be used instead of spinach but where as many people say it tastes the same, I disagree. Nettles have sweeter more tender taste and texture. There is no heavy metallic after taste from nettles like there is if spinach is cooked too long. The cooking process is in fact what renders them edible (do not try eating them raw, just like handeling you will get stung and nobody wants to see that!).

I don't think different populations around the world would create nettle entrees, use it as a flavouring (think gouda), and drink its flowers if it had the same properties as spinach- why go through all that trouble, especially considering the pain it can cause if handled incorrectly?

This is my attempt at the recipe. Mostly we make this by the seat of our pants so feel free to interpret it any way you want and increase it to feed more mouths!

Stinging Nettle Ricotta Ravioli

If using homemade ricotta and pasta sheets, this can be a long preparation and I would caution you to start earlier in the day!

1/2 cup fresh ricotta (either homemade or store bought)
1/2 lb nettles (1/4 cup cooked) stalks removed, rinsed and picked through.
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1 tsp minced garlic
salt & pepper
a scant pinch of grated nutmeg and cinnamon
4 thin homemade pasta sheets approximately 5 X 12 inches or wonton wrappers (come in convenient packs and freeze well) * I don't think store bough fresh lasagne sheets would work well here, they are coated with an excess of flour and tend to be too thick.

A simple Sauce

unsalted butter
olive oil
2 garlic cloves lightly crushed
salt & pepper to taste
flat leaf (italian) parsley

*Please use heavy rubber gloves when handling the stinging nettle. Plastic bags are not good enough- no matter how careful you are!

If using homemade, make your ricotta, second make your fresh pasta dough. Allowing plenty of time to drain the cheese and rest the dough. After resting the dough for half an hour roll out your sheets for pasta a little thinner than you would a lasagne sheet. On my machine (kitchen aid) that is a 7. Making sure to lightly flour and keep each sheet well covered until ready to use.

The longer you leave the ricotta to drain the drier it will be but for this purpose a little drier is better.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Wearing heavy gloves, separate the nettle leaves from the stalks of the plant, give a couple of rinses (this is usually not factory cleaned) and boil for a few minutes until all the leaves are limp and bright (spring time) green. Drain, remove any obvious pieces of grass, twigs or other plant material, squeeze excess moisture out and set aside. Don't worry the nettle is now safe to touch!

Combine ricotta, parmesan cheese, minced garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg yoke and well drained nettle leaves in a bowl. Combine with a fork shredding the leaves and integrating all of the components.

Take your pasta sheets fold in half lengthwise to give your self a visual marker. Using a teaspoon place dollops of the cheese/nettle mixture in the centre of one half of the opened sheet, roughly an inch and a half apart. If your sheet is too long to handle, cut to a smaller more manageable length.

Fold the sheet back over its self, pressing down and creating seams between each pocket, making a pillow. Using a sharp knife cut the pillows into squares and apply pressure to the seams to ensure a tight seal. If using wonton wrappers put one dollop of mixture in the centre of one round and top with a second round (you may have to lightly dampen the edges), press edges together and trim any excess.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the ravioli. As the water is coming to a boil make the sauce (I didn't give any measurements for this) in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Heat equal parts butter and oil (perhaps a few tablespoons of each) in a pan, with the crushed garlic cloves, stir so that the butter gets a bit nutty and the garlic infuses. Meanwhile boil the ravioli until they float and look like nice fluffy pillows- 5 mins at the most! Drain, removing as much liquid as you can. Plate immediately, drizzle the simple sauce, salt and pepper to taste, garnish with flat leaf parsley and a grating of parmesan cheese if you wish.

Serves 2 as a single meal or a family of 4 with all the trimmings. Approximately twenty 2 inch square ravioli.

photos by me.

Mark Bittman has a smilar recipe using spinach that was probably my first inspiration.

A gift that stings...

2010-03-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Him: Here, the guy at the market was selling these.
Me: Thanks I will get my gloves.

My sweet husband has been utterly consumed by writing his thesis: PhD in Neuro Science, but that isn't necessarily what he does. Another one of those long stories. Regardless his brain has been very left sided lately. So it was kinda nice that when saw some stinging nettles he thought of me and not how the the stinging mechanism works.

To follow a Stinging Nettle & Ricotta Ravioli to die for: photos by me.

Pass it On:Week One

2010-03-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I bought Jamie Oliver's new book Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover how to cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. Maybe I am just a sucker for his accent and charming smile because I don't think of myself as someone that needs to rediscover cooking and by comparison I know cooking at home is a lot cheaper than going out. I have oodles of books already about simple & delicious some of them being his, so why add another book to collection? Because of what he says. I saw his TED acceptance speech and was overwhelmed by his passion and sentiments. I know many of us in the food blogging community echo his beliefs and also want to do something about the state of food in our own communities. I joined his pledge, but who would I pass it on to? I decided to pass it on to this community, the one that has been inspiring me to cook better meals and be more active with my own family. So each week I will cook one of his recipes from the Food Revolution book and pass it on to the each of you. I would appreciate that you take this recipe, make it yourselves and blog about it in your own words and then link it back to my site each week. The idea is to see how many people we can get to pass on each recipe to a larger global community.

Because I had a whole chicken in my fridge the first recipe was a no brainer.

Perfect Roast Chicken

1 chicken ( 3- 3 1/2 lbs) Jamie suggests that you use the best bird you can find ie, organic free range etc- A happy bird makes a better tasting meal.
2 medium carrots roughly cut
2 stalks celery roughly cut
2 medium onions
1-2 garlic bulbs
salt & fresh ground pepper (what a day for me to run out of pepper corns, had to use the reserve)
1 bunch of fresh herbs such as thyme or rosemary
1 lemon

A Consistently Good Gravy

vegetable trivet
1 heaping teaspoon of all purpose flour
1 cup of wine, sherry or vermouth
4 cups stock or water
salt & pepper

This recipe should be called "easy peasy roasted chook". The hardest part was making the gravy.

Take the bird out of the refrigerator, Jamie recommends that the chicken has half an hour to come to room temperature before it goes in the oven. I made the mistake of getting the chicken out of the fridge the same time as the rest of my vegetables... Preheat oven to 475F and get your vegetables. Dust of any dirt and remove any excess skins from the onion and garlic but other than that no need to rinse or clean. Roughly chop all the vegetables and lightly crush the garlic. Put the the vegetables in the roasting pan or dutch oven, drizzle with olive oil, salt and toss. Jamie calls this the vegetable trivet.... (ah now it makes sense).

Rinse and pat dry the chicken (I found other chefs recommended this, so you can skip this step if you want). Prick the lemon all over and microwave (if you don't have a microwave skip) for 30 seconds to soften it up. Stuff the cavity with the lemon and the herbs. Drizzle the chicken with more olive oil, and massage with seasonings and place it on top of the vegetable trivet.

At this point it took longer for my oven to come to temperature and my bird to hangout for half an hour. So I waited and calculated that my chicken cost me $13.50 for nearly three and a half pounds, my vegetables cost a couple of dollars and I was going to feed the family for about $4 a head if all four of us ate it. Truth be told I am vegetarian that loves to cook all things!

Put the roast in the oven and turn down to 400F- if you are making roasted vegetables prepare then now. I did but did not follow the recipe %100 so I am not including it here.

Bake for an 1hr 20 minutes, basting occasionally. Then remove from oven, cover with tinfoil and prepare gravy.

For gravy, tilt pan with vegetable trivet and remove as much fat as you can (Jamie says %90 but really who can tell?). Put pan on a medium high heat on the stove and add flour making a slurry of vegetables. Then mash all the veg and slurry as much as you can. Add the wine, stir and remove bits from the bottom of the pan. Then add stock or water. Once all stirred and mashed together drain through a fine mesh colander. Return gravy to stove, bring to a boil and simmer to ideal consistency, about 10 mins. Taste for seasoning and adjust or if you are like me and you use veggie stock because you are ill prepared, add a knob of butter- fat carries flavour.

To serve, carve your roast remove the wings and reserve for another use or you can rip them off when resting your roast and break them up to use in the gravy. Remove the the legs and cut down the breast bone removing each breast and then pick away at the extra meat.

I started cooking at 4pm and wanted dinner on the table at 5:30 and I was nearly on that mark. I made roasted chicken, some baked veg, a marinated grilled bread salad (I needed something) and gravy in an hour forty-five minutes. This was/is a very successful meal and I am happy to pass it on.

ps... just incase you noticed I roasted this particular chook upside down... what can I say? But my husband did exclaim it was the moistest breast (meat) he has ever had...

photos by me.

Please leave a comment & a link to your site describing this recipe! Wednesday night before I post the next recipe I will blog a recap of those that participated, Cheers.

I Apologize

2010-03-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

I spent hours working on my post to bring you my Pass it on recipe and it got eaten by well... the jaws of technology. It is almost dinner time and all of the housework I was avoiding by writing my post needs to get done before the tots get up from their nap. With that I will leave you with a light snack and the promise of the full course tomorrow.

My sincerest apologizes.

Jamie's Food Revolution.

2010-03-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about Jamie Oliver's latest project : Revolutionizing how American's eat one meal at a time. At first I was skeptical, Oliver has a bit of a pompous reputation, he talks the talk but does he walk the walk or does he flit about on his tiny scooter?

Most of got to know him as the ultra cool young bloke on The Naked Chef and through his first couple of best seller books. I for one bought them. My husband I were newly back to North America, setting up our own home and starting our love affair with food. We couldn't afford to eat out at the places we wanted to so we turned to home cooking and Jamie's approach meshed with our style. As the years progressed he transformed himself from fun loving guy with a Smeg refrigerator to a hard-nosed mentor to 15 troubled students learning to cook. We started to see his philosophy about food emerge and as it grew so did his persona. He continued to show us his fun side as well as the passionate driven entrepreneur.

All the while he had a plan, in addition to growing his empire, books, tv shows, blog, magazine, etc he was was starting a movement. He convinced the British Parliament to inject millions of pounds into the school lunch programme, his school/restaurant has churned out graduate after graduate of unlikely cooks and he started to teach people to cook for themselves at home with the theory if you could teach one person one recipe they could pass it on.

In Jamie's Words from his newest book Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals.

"I need you to get personally involved in pass it on by pledging to learn just one recipe from each chapter of the book. Master these in your own home first, and then pass it on by teaching at least two people (preferably four) how to cook them too...Then, most importantly, you need to get your [friends] to promise that they'll pass it on to more people and then get those people to pass it on and on and on.... It's easy"

I took this pledge, but instead of one person, two people/four I decided to share it on my blog one day a week for the next 14 weeks*, one recipe from each chapter of Food Revolution. I am hoping that if you take the pledge with me that you will pass it on, to your friends. I would like to start a link up of each other's blogs and comments about this experience (anybody have any ideas on how to do that let me know).

I am not going to do the recipes in any particular order and I will post the first one tomorrow... I already have a recipe picked out that I am familiar with!

Right then, lets get cooking.

*excluding vacation time, I have to go sit on the beach and drink Mai Tais in Mexico with the fam.

photos by me... watching my own empire grow,
image from jamieoliver.com.

Jour Du Macaron!

2010-03-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

My first experiences with macarons were of the North American variety, sickly sweet mounds of shaved coconut, which is good for some (like my husband) but not for me. So for years I ignored anything with the word macaron in it, thus missing out on a whole different treat.

Then one day I had an awe inspiring moment, the one where the clouds separated and the sun shines down on you. It happened in Napa Valley, my husband surprised me with a three day vacation to San Francisco, a first for me in so many regards. It was our first time in SF, my first time away from my young infants and the first time we had ever had a chance to go to California's wine country. It was during the wine touring that we stopped at a little place for lunch in Yountville- Bouchon, where I had one of the best meals of my life. Not wanting it to end we decided to grab a sweet treat from the Bouchon bakery next door. And that is when I saw my first real (yes, I used the word real, I don't know what came first, but I will never go back) Macarons. I was dumfounded, what were these sweet delectable cookies in intriguing colours? We bought several and fed them to each other as we drove through the surrounding country side, savouring every morsel of the ethereal delicacy.

Sadly I did not find out that it was Jour Du Macaron until two days before. I have been wanting to make them on my own (another first) and this would have been a good excuse, but it never came together. With a heavy heart I reconciled myself to a macaron-less day. However the same day I found out about Macaron day was the same day I found out that March 20th was also the date for a local Baker's Market- a farmers market for bakers! I didn't put the two and two together, and well I should have. Macron day was saved! There in the first case I saw were piles of raspberry, chocolate, vanilla, lemon and mint cookies. I literally 'B' lined to them dragging my young son with me where the vendor gave me kudos for knowing that it was Macaron day. Why wouldn't the world celebrate a day like this?

Thank you Sweet Thea for saving Jour Du Macaron for me. I bought 5, one each of the varieties in a cute little travel box that allowed them to make it home one one piece. Especially amazing considering my three year old insisted on carrying the box! They were sweet, flavourful and light. I have no idea why anyone would want to eat those leaden globs of coconut that call themselves macarons (maybe the spelling is different and that is why?).

photo by me.

Day of Green, pt 2....the greener side.

2010-03-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

For a day I didn't even think of a week ago, there was a lot of work and preparation that went into it.

First the tots and I made little felt leprechauns... this is the surviving, one, they ripped the beards, pipes and faces off of their own. And then we baked. The tots made a Green Soda Loaf with their babysitter as I ran off to get supplies for the truly sinful part of our Saint Patrick's Day dinner, Chocolate Cupcakes with Minty Green Icing. My babysitter comes once a week so I can have some baby free time to run errands and do yoga... She brings all sorts of activities for them such as this bread recipe.

Green Bread

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

1 3/4 cup of milk

1 lemon

1 egg

Green food coloring (optional)

Mix milk and the juice of one lemon and set aside to rest for 5 minutes. Mix flour, sugar, soda, and salt with dough attachment in Kitchenaid. Beat egg into milk and lemon mixture. While the mixer is going, slowly add in milk mixture, oil, and coloring. Let it knead in the mixer for a few minutes. Form into two balls, sprinkle on some sugar, cut an x into the tops. Bake for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until a knife comes out clean.

The milk and lemon mixture can be replaced with the more traditional buttermilk if you have it on hand.

For the cupcakes I used Mark Mittman's (yup, there he is again, maybe he is my own leprechaun... he keeps popping up) Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting: You will notice I do not spare the butter in my cooking and these recipes are no exception.

Chocolate Cupcakes*

8 tbsp softened butter (1 stick)
2 cups all purpose flour (or cake flour, optional)
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, seperated
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 F, grease muffin tins and line with paper cups* This is a great job for little hands while you are attending the chocolate.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler ove the stove on a low heat. Stirring until nearly melted, removed bowl from heat (the chocolate will finish melting on its own). Give a brief stir making the chocolate smooth and velvety.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add in one egg yoke at a time and continue beating. Add in vanilla and finally the chocolate. Combine in a separate bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture alternating with the milk.

Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks and then gently fold into the cake batter. Fill the lined tins and bake for 16-18 minutes or more depending on the size of the tins.

*This recipe made 36 mini cupcakes but will make two 9" layers (bake for 25-30 minutes).

For icing, also adapted from a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Minty Green Icing

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

8 tbsp softened butter (1 stick)
4 cups confectioner's sugar
4 tbsp milk (6 tbsp)
1 1/2 tsp mint extract (2 tsp vanilla extract)
green food colouring (optional)

Add the extract to the milk.

Beat butter in a mixer then add sugar alternating with the milk. Slowly one drop at a time add in food colouring until the desired colour of green.

Using a bag with a large tip, ice the cupcakes and hand out to all of your friends because you will have way to many to eat!

photos by me, there would be some of them icing but I had to help hold the bags!

thank you to our babysitter Michelle for the Soda bread recipe and my littler leprechauns for all of their hard work and taste testing.

A Day of Green. Pt 1: the healthy part.

2010-03-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was all about the Leprechaun, the naughty little trickster character who is rumoured to keep a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. First he destroyed my living room by flinging blankets and pillows everywhere, then my kitchen by smearing green icing from wall to floor to ceiling and then by hiding the tots' numerous toys causing mayhem and panic through out the entire house! Tried as we might, we could not catch him. We even made a meal in his honor but he only teased us with a glimpse... Ahh... maybe next year.

Truth be told I think our meal was not glutenous enough for the little fellow. Instead it reflected the amazingly beautiful day we had, starting our feast with a sweet salad.

Green & Orange Fruity Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette

head of curly lettuce, washed & torn up into small bite sized pieces
1/2 of peas in the pods, cleaned and cut into on the diagonal in 1in pieces
1 each apple & pear, sliced thinly
royal* one orange

Dressing

1tbsp minced shallot
1tbsp dijon mustard
three to one olive oil and sherry vinegar
pinch of salt and pepper

Combine lettuce, peas, apple, pear and orange in a serving bowl. For dressing, combine, shallot, mustard, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a blender and blend.

Serve dressing on the side in cute kid friendly vessels or dress at the table for the adult crowd.

* To royal an orange cut top and bottom off, remove outer skin and pith and slice wedges out between the ribs. This gets easier with practice, but make sure you use a sharp paring knife.

And then a veggie rich soup.

Mr Potatohead Leek soup

1/2 cup peeled & chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 half diced medium onion
3 cloves lightly mashed garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp unsalted butter*, divided
1 tsp dried thyme, less if you use fresh.
salt and pepper to taste (I very rarely give quantities for S&P unless it is for baking)
1/4 cup vermouth
4 cups leeks, cleaned diced, light green and white parts only.
1 1/2 lbs of potatoes** cleaned & peeled (optional) and chopped into cubes.
water or stock to cover, about 6 cups.

Sweat chopped vegetables thyme, salt and pepper, minus the potato, in a large sauce pan on medium low heat with 2 tbsp of butter and olive oil until soft with lid on.

After about 15 minutes and vegetables are soft add 1/4 cup vermouth, stir and add potatoes. Cover with water (or stock) bring to a boil and then turn down to a low. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are completely soft and falling apart on their own. Blend with an immersion blender or in batches using blender or food processor, remembering to cool first. If using a blender or processor return to pot, reheat and check for seasoning.

To serve add a knob of *butter to each bowl of soup if not using a fatty stock.

** I used starchy gnarly potatoes and had to remove the skins due to dirt and scars! Mr Potatohead was spared.

photos by me.... next up green bread and minty chocolate cupcakes!

Our Menu

2010-03-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

I've been getting into the St. Patrick's day thing this year. First it was because this will be fun, we can wear green, make green crafts, and eat green foods. Then it occurred to me, our last name is Carroll. There has been some family debate if there ever was an O in the front but regardless my husband's great Grandfather is of true blue(green) Irish heritage.

Tonights Menu:

Salad of Curly Lettuce, Pears, with a herbaceous Dressing.

Rustic Green Soda Bread.

Potato & Leek soup.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with minty green Icing!

recipes and mayhem to follow.

photo by me.

A photo album of what chaos looks like.

2010-03-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

As a parent I want to find more activities for my children to do. So a couple months ago I signed up for two meetup groups in my area. They send out invites and suggestions of places where parents can gather and let their children romp.

I must admit I have only attended one of these events. For some reason I just don't have the time, between laundry, meals, house cleaning et al I never get beyond my regular routine. But when I do it is very nice to enjoy good company and meet other parents like me.

Suzanne who is the trailblazer for Vancouver Toddlers and Parents specifically organizes a meetup for new members of her group at the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. This was just the push I needed to make the time to follow through with my commitment to meet new people and give my children the opportunity to play with other kids their age! As a bonus we got to eat fresh local food in a kid friendly atmosphere. Rocky Mountain has a great kids play area and believes in a sustainable menu.

Thank you Suzanne for creating and having the time to organize such a fabulous event. And Thank you to all the other mothers who made it a fun play date. The sangria helped *wink*!

Suzanne a.k.a the organizer lady!

photos by me. Logo for Suzanne's meetup group http://www.parentsandtoddlers.com.

Fermented Black Bean Drumsticks warning this post is NOT vegetarian friendly

2010-03-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

My children are carnivores at heart. I know this, I accept this, so I do the best I can with this. Such as buying local, hormone & antibiotic free, free run birds. We usually buy whole birds that way we can make stocks and have different cuts, but my children have been showing a preference for the drumsticks. They're easy to hold, they can eat them directly of the leg and are convenient little servings of protein. So I bought a family pack of 12 drumsticks, figuring that I was going to divide them up.... but I didn't and had to cook them all in one go. As it turns out that was fine. Organic birds are usually a bit smaller than their industrially force fed counterparts. So really 2 or 3 legs is a reasonable serving size for two hungry toddlers. The remaining meat can be cleaned of the bone and used for leftovers.

Fermented Black Bean Drumsticks

(or other chicken parts)

Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

1 1/2 tbsp peanut oil
12 drumsticks or about 3 lbs bone in chicken parts, rinsed and pat dry with paper towels
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fermented black beans, rehydrated in just enough water to cover and drained.
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup water
salt & pepper
juice of one lemon

While preparing all the ingredients, soak the black beans in water. Heat large lidded skillet on medium heat for a few minutes, add oil and coat. Add chicken brown quickly on each side. As this is being done drain black beans. *It took me about 3/4 minutes each side. Plenty of time to combine the drained black beans, soy sauce, honey and water in a bowl.

Turn skillet off and remove from the element. Remove the chicken parts and pour off all but a tablespoon of fat from the pan. Put the skillet back on the element and reheat to medium and add the garlic. Cook garlic until soft, about a minute.

Add chicken back in, pour combined soy sauce, water mixture over the chicken. Salt and pepper to taste, turn to coat drumsticks and cover with lid. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes, turning a couple times during the cooking process.

Make rice according to package instructions or your favourite method, this is mine (but I left out the onion and cumin seeds).

Serve over rice, drizzled with the black bean sauce and finish with lemon juice.

photos of carnage by me.

Recipe in Progress:Broth

2010-03-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Season's are changing! The dull bare tree limbs are showing the first signs of spring and in the case of the cherry trees, their blossoms are going wild. The ground is already dotted with the delicate fallen petals. In of couple weeks Vancouver's streets will look they they are snow lined. Here's to Spring's early arrival.

In the winter I love hearty soups, thickened with cream or pureed, but I was looking for something a little lighter, something that would highlight an assortment of vegetables. And this is what I came up with:

The Unsoup:Broth

2 tbsp olive oil
1 half of a medium onion chopped
2 whole peeled cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
1/2 bullion cube
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
3/4 lbs of nugget potatoes, skin on and cubed
1/4 cup vermouth
6 cups of water
1 bay leaf
4 whole peppercorns
and fresh vegetables to your hearts content!
dash of Worcestershire sauce
chili flakes

Heat olive oil in a large pot, saute onion and garlic until soft add bullion cube, salt and pepper. As it starts to stick to the bottom add vermouth and scrape off any of the caramelized bits from the pan. Add Potatoes, water, bay leaf and peppercorns. I also added diced carrots at this stage. Simmer on low heat for 15mins or until potatoes start showing doneness. Then start adding your choice of vegetables and greens and heat through.

Before serving add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and some chili flakes!

I know it is not very profound but it was a good way to extend the life of some vegetables.

photos by me.

Trussing the bird

2010-03-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

My husband laughs at me every time I truss a bird. He says it is because trussing is useless and doesn't do anything (he read that somewhere so now he is the authority) but I think it's because I don't eat meat. So really he is laughing at me manhandeling the fleshy pink rump of a bird and bindings it wings to its chest.

For the trussing I thought I would use Thomas Keller's instruction on 'How to' from his book Ad Hoc At Home. I slipped, twisted and tied, but my bird just did not look like his. So I flipped, bound and tightened again. Still did not look like his. I even got the aid of my three year old, who is an expert in 'reading' pictures.

But alas, I decided to try a new tactic, follow more instructions. This time from my very faithful and dependable mentor- Mark Bittman (he doesn't know this). Somehow his instructions make sense to me and... ta da, my bird looked like this.

Meanwhile on the couch I had another bird baking.

images by me.

A Dinner Party and you are invited.

2010-03-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

After giving it some thought I have decided to give my Kitsch in the Kitchen project it's very own dining room. Please join me there to learn more about how the project is going. It will highlight my art and crafts for this project and more on my journey to becoming a better artist. Though my family will probably sneak into this new site it will mostly be about me. I know I may not end up updating it as often because really, as a mother who has time for 'me' with dinner's laundry and groceries to be done? Here is a sample of my progress: You can RSVP at Kitsch in the Kitschen.
Don't worry if you miss out I will still be creating meals and family memories here.

image by me.

Kitsch in the Kitchen: Planning, Progress & Procrastination.

2010-03-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

As one can see I am not very far on my challenge. This is just the first one. When I had originally challenged myself to create this series I had planned to do about one a week over a twelve week period. What I did not count on was illness, children and travel. Thus I have decided to give myself a break and extend my self imposed deadline by a month.

For those of you who wish to participate in my challenge, I would love suggestions for iconic childhood toys and or vintage food recipes.

Images by me.

Bake Bittman's Biscotti

2010-02-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

I have a small addiction, I can not start my day without a coffee and a biscotti. Often I can't even drink my coffee without having a biscotti to dip. I have been known to drive across town just to get my biscotti fix. I will even brave Saturday morning Granville Island traffic just to get some.

I get my fix from a place called Terra Breads in the GI public market. For the past almost 10 yrs I have been making a weekly treck to get the double baked cookies for my morning dunks. However the Olympics has thrown a wrench in this and I have been left high and dry as I do not want to contend with the crowds and restrictions imposed on the local market.

Also it has come to my attention, I have never really looked at the numbers before, I spend over $40 a month ($480 a year!!!!) on biscotti. Not necessarily the most costly habit, there are much worse, but it is still an expense that I can cut back on. We make our latte's at home why not make my biscotti at home as well?

The tots and I embarked on a baking adventure. Turns out they like a steamed milk and biscotti in the morning too. In the past I have tried several recipes with not much luck. I thought I would give Mark Bittman's from How To Cook Everything a try using chocolate chunks and anise seed additions.

Biscotti:

Great for dunking in coffee or dessert wine.

4 tbsp (1/2 stick or 1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the sheet.
3/4 cup eggs
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond
2 1/4 cups flour plus more for dusting the baking sheets.
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp anise seeds
3/4 chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375f. Ready two baking sheets by greasing and lightly flouring, tap out excess flour.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in one egg at a time. Mix all of the dry ingredients including the the anise seeds in a separate bowl. Leave chocolate chunks until the very end of the recipe. Combine the dry ingredients with the butter mixture a little bit at a time until a batter is formed. When fully combined add the chocolate chunks and mix through on a low speed for a couple of turns. You do not have to beat the batter, you just want the chunks evenly dispersed.

Turn dough out and form two logs about 2 inches wide, place one on each sheet and flatten the top slightly.

Bake for about 30 minutes on a middle shelf and no lower until the top of the logs crack and there is a golden brown colour on the sides and at the base. Remove from oven and lower the temperature to 250f. When logs are cool enough to handle gently cut (a serrated knife is best) on a diagonal into 1/2 inch slices.

Place the slices back on the sheets and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until dried out. Turn half way through. When done transfer to a cooling rack as soon as you can. But whatever you do, do not leave them unattended with a amped up not napping three year old in the vicinity!

I'm pretty happy with it, it will do until I can tweak it and make it my own.

photos by me.

Tuna Casserole

2010-02-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

I bought the Jan/Feb issue of Cooking Light magazine, I do that every now and then. There is usually something that grabs my eye in the lineup at the grocery store. First I am a sucker for food photography. I probably consume it like a 19 yr old male and a porn. Second and what promoted the purchase was an article featuring not one but two of my favorite cook book authors, Jamie Oliver and Mark Bittman.

Once home I do a couple more flip throughs (about three) that is when I start dog ear-ring recipes and articles to go back to make and read. My flip throughs probably take a day or two to do and in that time my husband will get his hands on in it and will do the same. We generally read in tandem and sometimes over each others shoulders, so it is not a coincidence that we will be intrigued by the same recipe. This time it was a Tuna Casserole. People that know us will probably say "huh?". That's not really our style and maybe that's what initially attracted us to it.

Now, I like CL, it has very reader friendly recipes, good tips and suggestions and I like the Inspired Vegetarian section, but what bugs me (entering the realm of food politics here) is the use of light, low fat, diet alternatives. Really?! It is my personal belief (backed by some science) that whole foods as close to as how they were intended to be used are better for you. ie. Butter is butter is butter and Cheese should be cheese. And fat carries flavour, why get rid of the good ones and replace them with synthetic ones and or un-namable fillers such as the mysterious "milk product"? What we should be worried about are the designer foods, the ones that are created in laborites, factories, and facilities. With simulated flavouring, may contain, and exaggerated health claims- if it to good to be true, it usually is. CL also has a section where they re-make a popular recipe into something that is lighter, so with that in mind I re-made one of their recipes into something (in my opinion) healthier!** CL version in red.

Tuna Casserole

8 oz wide egg noodles (or any type of pasta)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced * Not in the original recipe. I can't make anything with out garlic, so I added this ingredient.
2 medium carrots diced
2 celery stalks diced * Not in the original recipe.
2 tbsp all purposed unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk 2 3/4 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup cream cheese 1/2 cup, 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt
fresh ground pepper
1 cup grated Padrano approximately 2 oz *I used a micro plain grater so I get more volume and less weight, divided.
1 cup thawed peas * I didn't have any- but they would have been good too, anything to get more veg into the the tots.
1 2 (5 ounce) can whole albacore tuna, drained and flaked. * From a sustainable fishery, such as the pacific north west.
greased casserole dish.

Prepare onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Preheat broiler. Cook noodles as per package, rinse and drain set aside.

In a large sauce pan, add oil and cook veggies until they are soft and onion is translucent on a medium heat. Add salt and pepper, stir and then the 2 tbsp flour. Stir well and until it is slightly brown but not sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Add in milk a little bit at a time so the flour does not clump, stir well, add more milk and then more. Increase heat slightly. Sauce should be thick and creamy. When all the milk is added, add in the cream cheese and Dijon mustard, stirring for 2 more minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in half of the grated cheese, the tuna, (and the peas if you are using them). Transfer to the greased casserole dish, top with remaining cheese and bake under the broiler until lightly golden brown.

** Because I do not have dietary facilities here I can not tell you how much fat, calories etc are in my version, but what I can tell you is this. I used less milk, and tuna and by doing so probably reduced the amount of calories and fat naturally without using low/non fat products. Really what is in 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, how do they get that consistency? Also by using whole food ingredients, my serving size was one scant cup, less then their recommended serving size of 1 1/3 cup. I thought we would go back for seconds but it turned out we didn't need to, we were full.

Sorry about the food politics and feel free to disagree, everyone has their own diet that works for them. I provided the Cooking Light amounts in red if you wish to try their method (their photo also looked yummy and was the catalyst of Tuna Casserole makeover.

I still have not read the Jamie Oliver/Mark Bittman article.

photo by me.

The Almost Gumbo.

2010-02-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

Several people have been blogging about gumbo of late- something to do with a football game? Mardi Gras, maybe? So stuck for dinner last night I relied on my blogging buddies and one famous New York Times Columnist- Mark Bittman to inspire me.

I was mostly disappointed that I didn't have all of the ingredients to make a traditional gumbo, but not really, I did have enough goodies in my pantry to make a gumbo inspired stew. I started off with the roux base that I love. It makes me feel like I have mastered some great secret of cooking- the mother of all mother sauces and proceded from there in gumbo like fashion.

Based on a recipe from Mark Bittman's

Column The Minimalist

The Almost Gumbo

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white unbleached flour
1 medium onion diced
2 tsp minced garlic or to taste
2 stalks celery cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 medium carrots cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juices
1/8 tsp cayenne or more to taste* I this is the amount I can get away with for tots.
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
approximately 4 cups of stock, veggie, chicken or water
1 bay leaf
1 lb of peeled shrimp * I used what I had in the freezer, once shelled it was about 1/2 lb and that was plenty.
flat leaf italian parsley for garnish
rice

Combine butter and olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan (big enough to cook everything!), cook on no more than a medium heat. Once it starts to froth. Continually stir until mixture starts to turn brown (Mark Bittman has a nice video that demos this in his column). When it is a nice golden colour add in onion and garlic, increase heat to slightly and keep stirring. Stir until onion is translucent and garlic soft. Add in other vegetables and combine everything. May have to add in a couple tbsp of liquid at this point. Saute for a a few minutes longer.

Pour in tomatoes and their liquid, add in salt, pepper, oregano, thyme and cayenne. Start adding in your choice of stock, 2 cups and then more depending on how thick you want it. Add in bay leaf bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer for about 10 mins.

*At this point make rice. We added in frozen corn when almost done and mixed through, for an extra boost of veg for the tots.

After the 10 mins add in the prawns, stir through. Turn off the heat and put a lid on. The prawns will cook as the rice is finishing.

Pour stew over a bed of rice and garnish with parsley.

Thank you Chow and Chatter for the inspiration.

photos by me.

Picking your Battles: A convenience story.

2010-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

I don't really have fussy eaters, but like all kids they pick and choose what foods they like to eat and when. Sometimes it is nothing but PB and jelly sandwiches other times only bananas will do. On occasion Billie will eat nothing but the beans on her plate and leave the rice and vice versa. More often than not it is twin B, Elijah that is more particular. So today when the three of us were shopping to restock our refrigerator and shelves (we have been away for nearly two weeks) I was surprised when they requested hot dogs for lunch. They have only ever had them a handful of times in their three and a half years of life.

The hot dogs that they requested were veggie dogs. As someone who eats a mostly vegetarian diet I am not all that fussed on replacing my proteins with faux meat products. I sometimes have a block of tofu or veggie/nut burgers around but they are not a substantial part of my diet. I tried to explain to Billie and Elijah that they were not "hot dogs" but then quickly realized; why? Hot dogs come in fun little hand held packets of bread, you can dress them up anyway you want and can be tailored to suit individual needs. For a parent, what's not to love?

The best thing about making them at home is that I can control the quality, cooking and toppings.

Dogs in Pockets AKA the "Hot Dog"

The mummy version.

For best results, wieners the way you like them, fried, boiled, grilled in a lightly browned hot dog style bun, topped with condiments of your/their liking.

I used whole wheat buns, veggie dogs, ketchup, mustard (yellow & brown seed), relish, grated 1 yr old cheddar cheese and sprouts (for me).

As for the dog debate, real meat, meat replacement. I don't have the answer to that, just an opinion or two. I found a handy little comparison here, of course it is just one companies comparison so take it with a grain of salt. When I buy meat products for my family in general I look for sustainably raised, antibiotic free, hormone free and absolutely must not have the phrase "may contain". The latter goes for vegetarian "organic" convenience products as well. Most of all, all types of dogs are an occasional food in our house.

photos by me, greedily eaten by my children.

A delightful Breakfast.

2010-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I entered a give away on a blog that I frequently read and I won?! I never win these things, and what is funny I won another give away the same week from another blog (but that is a different story).

This give away is called Pay it Forward. As a recipient I received a package of foodie goodies from a current host of Pay it Forward, Velva of Tomatoes on the Vine. The game is simple, each winner will hold their own Pay it Forward give away and send three more food packages that reflect their region to the winners of their own round (I am going to Pay it Forward in a couple months time- I want my treasure chest to reflect sunnier days). This is what I won:

Dare Lemon Creme Cookies
Goya Guava Paste
Everglades Seasoning
House Autry Pork Bake
Connie's Ham Country Bean Soup
Chow Chow
Pecans
and some fun chocolate- York Peppermint Patties & Hershey Kisses.

In true fashion, my family and I nibbled on the chocolates first... but what to do with the rest of the bootie? Well as soon as I saw the Pecans a recipe immediately popped into mind, incidentally it was from Velva's blog. Here is the Praline French Toast Casserole that I made with Pecans and a recipe from Tomatoes on the Vine.

photos by me, inspiration from Tomatoes on the Vine.

Simple dessert that bears repeating.

2010-02-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend come over for dinner and being a weeknight affair we didn't want anything to heavy or involved for dessert. I found inspiration from another blog that I follow: A Taste of Savoie.

I had to tinker with the ingredients to reflect what was available to me...no fresh juniper berries and I like to drink my wine... but the rest of it was a snap. There is very litte preparation time involved and the lengthy bake time can be done while you are eating your dinner. All in all it is an easy solution for the what to serve for dessert on a weeknight.

Poached Pears in Wine, Vinegar and Orange Peel with Cloves

adapted from A Taste of Savoie.

4 hard pears,
8 fl oz dry red wine
8 fl oz organic cider vinegar
6 tbsp sugar or a shy 1/4 cup
1 tsp whole cloves
rind from one clean thick skinned orange
about 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Before baking preheat oven to 375F. To prepare pears peel and leave leave core and stem. Combine wine, vinegar, sugar, cloves and orange rind with a fresh squeeze of orange juice (about 2 tbsp worth) in a small sauce pan. Warm through to dissolve the sugar. Place pears, side down in a casserole dish*, pour in liquid, cover with a lid and bake at 375F for 30 minutes, rotate and bake another 30 minutes.

To serve put in a small bowl pour liquid over top of the pear. A dessert spoon or fork will easily cut through the flesh from the fruit.

The sauce can be made ahead of time but I recommend peeling the pears shortly before use, as they will turn brown and start to dry out.

*The casserole dish should be big enough to hold the pears but not too big. Ideally you want the liquid to come up the sides of the pears.

I cooked an extra pear the next day just so that I could cut it up and show a cross section of the slices. The colour from the wine that permeated the flesh was a beautiful crimson contrast to the juicy moist white fruit.

photos by me.

WTF Wednesday: The Price of Tomatoes: Food for Thought

2010-02-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

WTF Wednesday: The Price of Tomatoes was written for The Absence of Alternatives by Velva of Tomatoes on the Vine.

This article gives some insight into the workers that make it possible for produce to get to the grocery stores, bins, restaurants and our tables. I will go a step further and say by removing the humanity element and reducing them to slave like workers, the Food is being removed from our tables and replaced with empty insipid forms that lack essence and vitality.

I love tomatoes, they are the base for many of my family's meals, such as sauces, salads, soups, or completely on their own with a little seasoning and for that reason I search out my tomatoes elsewhere. I want them to taste like Food.

photo by me.

My name rhymes with Vegan.

2010-02-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my husband's cousin today; I guess by extension my cousin, and was telling her I eat a mostly vegetarian diet. She is a vegan, so she asked me if I had ever thought I should go vegan? I gave her two answers.

"The short answer to have I ever thought about it?: A lot of the meals I make for me lean towards vegan, but because of my name I could never have become one. The long: For me personally I try to eat a balanced healthy diet. Sometimes that includes dairy and eggs and bottom feeders (seafood). It was the diet that I developed for myself when I was 16 and it just kinda works for me. I know most of the arguments pro and cons and I have never been truly convinced that veganism is for me. I am a strong believer in the environment (as Jeff and I learn more we have even gotten a bit hippyish), animal rights, nutrition and local food. Even though Jeff and the babies eat meat, I make sure it is hormone and antibiotic free, as well as knowing the source and farm. I drive restaurants crazy because in this day and age I expect them to know where IT comes from. If they don't I don't order it. So that is part of the long answer. I know by definition this does not make me a vegetarian, that is usually why I say a mostly veg diet"

Here is a vegan recipe for my cousin.

Mark Bittman's Simplest Dal, with Celery Root

from "How to Everything Vegetarian"

1 cup dried red lentils, washed and picked through
2 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
4 cardamon pods (yes they made a huge difference)
2 cloves (also made a difference)
1 tbsp mustard seeds (I used dark)
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
roughly 1 1/2 cups peeled and 1/2" cubed celery root
salt
2 tbsp peanut oil (optional)
chopped fresh cilantro for garnish.
lime wedge

Put all the ingredients up until salt (salt goes in when done), in a sauce pan large enough to hold everything plus water to cover by an inch and a half. Simmer until Dal is soft about 30 minutes. Add salt and oil when done and check seasoning.

I serve it over cumin flavoured basmati rice, a hefty squeezed of lime juice and garnished with chopped cilantro leaves.

photos by me with help from my assistants, Billie & Elijah.

The Nirvana is in the first bite... a dough recipe.

2010-02-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

I was chanting as I was typing... dough, dough, dough.... dough.

I have done a lot of side by sides, experiments with different flours, and liquids. This is what I have so far for my dough recipe. It is completely subjective.

Pizza Dough

a personal meditation

3 cups unbleached all purpose Flour or a combination of Whole Wheat and all purpose. Exact quantities depend on humidity and protein content of flour. Right now I use 1/2 cup Hard Red Winter Wheat from a local grain CSA.
1/4-1/2-1 tsp of dry active Yeast. In my experience 1/4- 1/2 tsp is all that is needed if the flour is completely unbleached all purpose. Currently I use 3/4 tsp because of my particular w.w. flour, other wise it will rise very, very slowly. 1 tsp if you are not fermenting and needs a quick rise... Those handy little flieschmann packets are too much!
2 tsp corse Salt.
1 1/4 cup of cold water water (warm (not hot) if you don't want to ferment and are making the same day)*.
parchment paper rounds for desired number of pies.

In a mixer add, yeast, salt, water... No need to bloom. With a paddle attachment stir and add in flour slowly. I add my w.w. flour first and then the rest about a 1/2 cup at a time. Once you have a nice soupy mixture, change attachments and use dough hook until flour is combined and a dough is formed. Don't worry if you do not use all the flour. It changes day by day. Turn dough out of bowl and knead by hand adding in more flour until the dough is tacky and no longer sticky. Form into a round.

If freezing for another day (I have found it freezes well for up to a little more than a week) put into a greased ziplock bag and squeeze the air out. If using the next day or two (longer ferment the better) put dough into a greased bowl turning once so that there is a little oil on the top of the mound. Cover with plastic wrap and put into the fridge over night. I like two days for this process.

The day of use, remove from the fridge and let the yeast wake up, and leave out in a warm draft free area until the dough has risen to twice its size and gently punch down. Punching down as I learnt through trial and error is not forming a fist and clobbering the unsuspecting dough. It is using finger tips and gently indenting the dough and letting it naturally deflate. Let the dough rest again for at least another 20 minutes before forming into rounds. That is when I get the rest of my Pizza making apparatus, parchment paper rounds and toppings ready.

To form, evenly cut into desired amount of pies that you want. Form little balls and cover with plastic wrap, and working one at a time and on a floured surface, lightly press into a circular shape. I like using my hands the best, stretching a pulling. Throwing would be great but you need a high ceiling and patience, especially if you keep dropping it. The trick is centrical force. I am not adapt at this method so I don't do it. You can always use a rolling pin to form into nice circles. Start at the centre of your formed round and roll out on a 45 degree angle, pick dough up and turn 45 degrees and roll again. Repeat until you have desired thickness and size. Whatever forming method you use, you can get four medium sized pizzas or about 10-12 mini ones out of this recipe. Put each round onto a piece of parchment paper.

Dress with desired toppings.

To bake, preheat your oven to as hot as it will allow. I have a wimpy electric oven that on a good day will go to 550 F. I use pizza stones that I preheat at the same time as the oven. WARNING: This is not the best carbon foot print method... I preheat my oven for an hour or longer. The stones absorb and hold the heat which is great for a faster hotter bake but because of the thermal mass takes longer to get up to temperature. Put a Pizza pie into the oven on the parchment, bake for a few minutes until it is nicely firm and the parchment paper can be removed quickly with a pull. Like a tablecloth magic trick. Finishing baking until sufficiently golden brown and gooey, remove and put on a wire rack. Don't let it cool too much, you want it to be still hot and stringy. The nirvana is in the first bite. I think and I could be wrong by putting it on a cooling rack first the bottom doesn't get soggy. Cut and serve.

It really is simple. I have probably said too much and confused the heck out of a lot of people, but try it and practice it. Some people are about toppings, some about crust. I am about the crust first and use very simple toppings. My sauce is nothing more than crushed raw tomatoes (canned in the winter and fresh in the summer) pureed with salt and pepper and marinated with whole raw garlic.

One final tip, dough does not stick to wet hands, a good thing to know when removing it from the hook and cutting into pieces.

* the dough can be used the same day as it is made, just make sure you give it a good hour or more head start.

The perfect Pizza

2010-02-04T16:36:00.000-08:00

My husband and I are Pizza fanatics. We spend endless hours discussing, making and eating Pizza. If some one were to ask us what is your favourite Pizza the answer is always ours! Duh?! The best Pizza in the city? Ours, Duh?! Admittedly there are a couple of very close seconds (maybe ties) but they are not available in this city so our default pie, is indeed our own. Maybe I should be a little more modest, humble etc, but this after all is my blog and what I say here, goes. For some of my earlier musing on Pizza click here.

I love the celebration of food, how it brings people together. I love the ritual of cooking and food, how when it is served with love and care it can be the best meal that you have ever eaten. I love that my passion for this medium can be detected and savoured. And if you ask me why I think my Pizza is the best it is for all of these reasons.

It was during a family dinner that I discovered how fun mini Pizzas were. The babies loved them. They could make their own pizzas they way they like them and not fight over who got the bigger piece. I found that I could get more servings out of the same amount of dough, which meant that we were eating reasonable sized portions rather than gorging ourselves on every last sliced. And my biggest and possibly geekiest discovery of all was that the crust cooked better. The smaller cooking surface allowed it/them to cook faster (we already use as hot as oven as ours can handle including preheating with pizza stones). I got a charred bottom, golden melted cheese and , wait for it.... No sogginess! A nice stiff... um crust...

and good crumb!

photos by me.

Tomatoes on the Vine

2010-02-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

I would like to give a shout out and a big Thank You to Velva at Tomatoes on the Vine. She hosted a "pay it forward" contest and I was one of the lucky recipients. As soon as my care package arrives I will cook and post about my detectable and tantalizing treats! I will then pass on the yumminess and host my own "pay it forward" contest!

Cheers...

Creative Process: Kitsch in the Kitchen, day one.

2010-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

The very first thing my Creative Process instructor said to class on our very first day of art school was along the lines of "You will probably not like me very much and if you wish to transfer out of this class then do it now". And it was true, none of us liked him very much... at first... My very last class of my Emily Carr BFA education I chose him as my open studio instructor. His opinion at that school mattered most to me. Here I am now at the beginning of another first and here is my process. Thank you, John.

photos by me & Jeff.

Lottery Ticket.

2010-01-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

Daydreamer Desserts: Winner of All Cakes Considered Giveaway I am so excited to cook from this great looking book. Thank you Daydreamer Desserts!

image from amazon.com

Cooking Simply for a weeknight dinner Guest.

2010-01-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely dinner with a friend last night. A couple of weeks ago we ran into her and her boyfriend at a local restaurant. My husband and I had only known her casually through yoga, as some one you saw, recognized but did not speak to. The restaurant where we had our encounter was one that was dedicated to fresh, local, and sustainable food. This we thought was a sign. We loved food, they loved food, we loved yoga, they loved yoga, we are an American/Canadian couple, they are an American/Canadian couple, etc. So we made tentative plans for dinner. It turned out that he was leaving for a month and that she would be our only dinner guest this *time*. So we thought we would make it a simple affair (I am hoping that our screaming 3 yr olds who were in a form not seen since the days of Carol Anne in the movie Poltergeist last night did not scare her off).

We (I cut and chopped, husband cooked) made a winter minestrone from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food:Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. Here is the adapted recipe.

Winter Minestrone with Root vegetables and Cabbage

1 1/2 cups cannellini beans with 1 cup cooking liquid
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lg finely chopped onion
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1tsp dried thyme or 5 sprigs fresh
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt plus more for seasoning
3 cups of water
1 sm leek, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly cut, boiled in salt water until softened
3/4 lbs bite-sized diced turnips
1/2 lbs bite sized dice yellow potatoes
1 cup cooked small pasta, such as confetti (optional)* I made my own from the left over dough I had by cutting in strips and then making tiny squares (optional. Alice Waters' recipe does not call for it)
parsley leaves, grated parmesan cheese & olive oil for garnishing

In a large sauce pan or stock pot, heat olive oil, cook carrots, celery and onion until tender (sweating but not browning).

Add in garlic, thyme, bay leaf and salt, cook another five mintues. Add water and when at a boil add leek, turnips and potatoes, cook for 15 minutes and taste for salt.

If using, about 10 minutes from finish add dried pasta** (you may have to add some more liquid to make up for the absorption of the pasta).

Add cooked beans (and fresh pasta** if you are using) plus bean liquid. Cook for 5 more minutes. If soup is thick add more bean liquid.

Remove bay leaf, serve in individual bowls and garnish with, parsley, grated parmesan cheese and drizzled olive oil.

** We used fresh homemade pasta, so we briefly cooked it separately to remove excess flour and added it in towards the end.

photos by me.

Kitsch in the Kitchen

2010-01-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

I want to go back to school. Simple as that. Not today or even tomorrow but in the future. I still have a good year or so of intense stay at home mummy-hood. But I have started to think what can I do now to facilitate acceptance into a school and the program of my choice? No matter what I do, be it a regular MFA (Masters of Fine Art) or a MAT of A (Masters of Art Education), I will need a portfolio of recent work.

What better way to kick off a new year than with a new challenge - Do a series of 10 still life paintings combining childhood toy icons with vintage food recipes... duck l'orange anyone?

The parameters: Kitsch in the Kitchen

Given time constraints of my day and all of my other interests and the size of my house I have to work some what small. 13'X17".
Storage is an issue, every nook and cranny in my house is already filled with baby paraphernalia, cooking equipment, and other crap, so supplies are limited. I will use water colours. They don't take up a lot of room and I can put then away when I am done. My theme Kitsch, is considered low brow art and water colours have a similar (even if it is undeserved) reputation.
Cost. Vintage toys that are given to me or can be bought second hand and that I can then give away or back to their rightful owners.
Time- just because we all work better under pressure, 3 months from February 1st to ~~April 30th~~ May 31st.
I will blog my progress.

This little guy is a silver duck that my grandmother gave me when I was born...my first toy and the muse for this project. My sister in law wanted a duck painting for a wall above her staircase that is rather low (one has to duck under), so I volunteered my talents. While working on the drawing I started thinking about context and how would I represent the duck if the painting was for me? Could I put it on a platter with a bed of lettuce, place various vegetables around it and paint it as a roasted duck?

Now, if anyone has any fun suggestions, toys or recipes send them my way and in the meantime I will finish my sister in law's duck. If I deem any of my creations good, I just may do a give away when the project is completed and everything is documented.

images by me.

tomato tots

What if the tots moved?

The Spaghetti in Squash

Cooking at Gramma's House

Shucking corn by the Tots...

Prague Street Vendors

Brutally honest.

It has been some time since I...

having children

Beg, Borrow & Steal

Braising...Vegetables

I'm just sayin'.

Fourth of July Weekend Journey

Yet again another Salsa recipe...

Wordless Wednesday,Granville Island eats!

Week 10 Pass it on: Delish Veggies! & A couple of winners!

Summer is coming! Summer is coming.

Week 9 Pass it On: Lentil and Spinach Soup

Pay it Forward.

Laura's Taco Salad

Week 8: Time to Pass it on!

Wordless Wednesday

Going On Vacation.

Wordless Wednesday, Sunday drive

Week 7 Pass it On! Sweet Things.

Wordless Wednesday, I know it is almost over!

You may have noticed a New Award on my blog!

My Cinco De Mayo Table

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

A little late...Pass it On Week 6

A Fabulous Find and a little preview!

Hen House

Getting home to my Nest. Motherhood discrimination.

Week 5, already? Jamie's Food Revolution: Pass it on.

Wordless Wednesday

Kitchen Witch Inspiring meals for family Sanity.

This is not your Mother's...?

Upping the Ratio of Veg on the Plate.

Not leaving the house!

Pass it On:Week three.

Wordless Wednesday

Pass it On: Week Two - Macaroni & Cauliflower Cheese Bake

A response

Stinging Nettle and Ricotta Ravioli to die for.

A gift that stings...

Pass it On:Week One

I Apologize

Jamie's Food Revolution.

Jour Du Macaron!

Day of Green, pt 2....the greener side.

A Day of Green. Pt 1: the healthy part.

Our Menu

A photo album of what chaos looks like.

Fermented Black Bean Drumsticks *warning this post is NOT vegetarian friendly*

Recipe in Progress:Broth

Trussing the bird

A Dinner Party and you are invited.

Kitsch in the Kitchen: Planning, Progress & Procrastination.

Bake Bittman's Biscotti

Tuna Casserole

The Almost Gumbo.

Picking your Battles: A convenience story.

A delightful Breakfast.

Simple dessert that bears repeating.

WTF Wednesday: The Price of Tomatoes: Food for Thought

My name rhymes with Vegan.

The Nirvana is in the first bite... a dough recipe.

The perfect Pizza

Tomatoes on the Vine

Creative Process: Kitsch in the Kitchen, day one.

Lottery Ticket.

Cooking Simply for a weeknight dinner Guest.

Kitsch in the Kitchen

Fermented Black Bean Drumsticks warning this post is NOT vegetarian friendly