Garden Harvest

This was our harvest from the garden yesterday.

We have had lots of cherry tomatoes, and lots of peas while we were on holidays were harvested by our garden waterer, but this is our biggest pea crop so far.

So, while dinner was cooking we sat down and had a little snack!

It was really fun to see the kids so interested in fresh vegetables, and really, who could not like fresh peas from the garden?

Lobster

I am not sure about you and your kids, but every time we go to the grocery store, we have to walk by the lobster / crab tank to say “hi”.


So when my parents recently came back from a vacation to the Maritimes, and brought us a lobster I was not too sure how the kids would react to eating it.

I pulled both kids into the kitchen to show them the lobster – they were thrilled and excited (it was already dead).

They both wanted to touch him, Anderson was saying “he’s so cute, he’s so cute”; Jackie was thrilled to be shown how his claws worked.

As he was sitting on a cutting board, Jackie started playing with him; Anderson then pulls up and starts talking to him – “Hi lobster...”

So I tell them that we are going to put him in water, cook him and eat him (I really don’t want tears when we crack him apart) Jackie says: “I WANT TO EAT HIS FACE!!”

Okay, I have to admit, I was a little shocked at that response, no tears, just an overly eager child to eat a lobster face. She followed it up with telling us she wants to eat his eyes. Really? Who is this kid?

Mushroom Farro

Mushroom Farro

6 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock

1 1/2 cups farro
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 pound cremini mushrooms or wild mushrooms (or a mixture of the two), cleaned, trimmed and sliced
2 large garlic cloves, green shoots removed, minced
1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 to1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt if needed

Place the farro in a bowl, and pour on enough hot water to cover by an inch. Let soak while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Drain.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about three minutes. Add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until they begin to soften and sweat. Add salt to taste, the garlic and rosemary. Continue to cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms are tender, about five minutes. Add the farro, cook, stirring, until the grains of farro are separate and beginning to crackle, about two minutes. Stir in the wine and cook, stirring until the wine has been absorbed. Add all but about 1 cup of the stock, and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 50 minutes or until the farro is tender; some of the grains will be beginning to splay. Remove the lid, and stir vigorously from time to time. Taste and adjust seasoning. There should be some liquid remaining in the pot but not too much. If the farro is submerged in stock, raise the heat and cook until there is just enough to moisten the grains, like a sauce. If there is not, stir in the remaining stock. If not serving right away, cover and let stand. Just before serving, bring back to a simmer, add the Parmesan, parsley and pepper, and stir together. Remove from the heat and serve.

Yield: Serves six.
Source: Modified from New York Times online

Note on Farro: if you live in Calgary, the only place I have found it is Lina's Italian Market on Centre Street North. If anyone knows somewhere else they sell Farro, I would love to hear about it.

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

1 large butternut squash, halved and seeded
1 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2.5 L chicken broth
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sherry
1 cup half and half cream
sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Pour a thin layer of water in a baking dish or cookie sheet with sides. Place the squash halves cut side down on the dish. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a fork can easily pierce the flesh. Cool slightly, then remove the peel. Set aside.

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots, saute for a fe minutes then add the garlic, being careful not to let the garlic burn. Pour the chicken broth into the pot. Add the potatoes, and bring to a boil. Cook for about 20 mintues, or until the vegetables are soft. Add the squash, stir to incorporate. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or transfer to a blender or food processor in batches and puree until smooth. Return to pot.
Season the soup with cayenne pepper, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, salt and pepper, then stir in the sherry and half-and-half cream. Heat through, but do not boil.

Ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream.

Enjoy!

Rosemary Cheese Bread

Rosemary Cheese Bread

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 3 ounces)
1 cup grated provolone (about 1/4 pound)
2 red bell peppers, roasted (procedure follows) and chopped fine

In a large bowl proof the yeast in 1 1/3 cups warm water for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is foamy. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of the flour, the salt, the rosemary, garlic, the pepper, the oil, the cheeses, and the bell peppers and stir the mixture until it is combined well.

Knead the dough on a floured surface, incorporating as much of the remaining 1 cup flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic,  (using a stand mixer, knead for the same time, I found I needed at least a 1/2 cup more flour), transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, turning it to coat it with the oil, and let it rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it is double in bulk.

Punch down the dough, halve it, and shape each piece into a loaf, about 14 inches long. Transfer the loaves to a lightly oiled baking sheet and let them rise, covered with a kitchen towel, for 45 minutes, or until they are almost double in bulk.

Bake the loaves in the middle of a preheated 400°F. oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until they are golden, transfer them to a rack, and let them cool.  Turn oven down to 350 F if they are getting too brown.

To roast peppers:

Using a long-handled fork char the peppers over an open flame, turning them, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the skins are blackened. (Or broil the peppers on the rack of a broiler pan under a preheated broiler about 2 inches from the heat, turning them every 5 minutes, for 15 to 25 minutes, or until the skins are blistered and charred.) Transfer the peppers to a bowl and let them steam, covered, until they are cool enough to handle. Keeping the peppers whole, peel them starting at the blossom end, cut off the tops, and discard the seeds and ribs.

Yield: 2 loaves

Quick and Easy Spiced Coucsous

I have been making this recipe for years, it is super easy and we love it beside jsut about anything.

Quick and Easy Spiced Couscous

2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups couscous
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt (depending on how salty your chicken stock is)
1 TBSP butter
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1 roma tomato, finely diced
12 TBSP fresh chopped basil (or parsley)

In a saucepan, bring chicken stock to a boil, stir in couscous, pepper, allspice, cinnamon and salt.
Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork, stir in butter, almonds, tomato and basil.

Enjoy!

I did not have any fresh or dried basil, so I used fresh parsley, it worked great, just not quite the same flavour.

Source: Anne Lindsay's Light Kitchen

Tomato, Lime and Cilantro Salsa

Adam discovered this recipe in one of my cook books a little while ago, since then it has become a staple in our house.
We serve it with chicken and on top of rice, it is a great way to take a borring meal and make it just a little bit more special.

Tomato, Lime and Cilanto Salsa

4 roma tomatoes, finely diced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 lime
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together tomatoes, green onions and cilantro.  Zest and juice the lime and add both to the tomato mixture.  Add in sugar and salt.  Stir well, and set aside for 10-15 minutes.

Serve on top of cooked chicken and along side rice.

Product Review: French Onion Soup

Adam LOVES French Onion Soup!
So for Christmas this year, he got some Epicure French Onion Soup Mix packages in his stocking (last year he got the bowls for Christmas).
You see sometimes I just do not have the time to make it, and he is not so inclined either, so for a quick fix, I thought this would do the trick.

Product review #1

Product: Epicure's French Onion Soup Mix.
Source: Friend's Epicure party
Servings: 4
Cost: $3.95

I thought it would be great, I love everything Epicure does.

Here is where I should have paid attention:

Off their website:
French onion soup in restaurants can contain as much as 1450 mg of sodium per serving. Save almost 690 mg sodium per serving with Epicure’s version, PLUS there’s no hydrogenated fats in the mix!

Adam will eat ANYTHING!  But this - he actually dumped it down the sink!  Before it even made it to the bowl.  As we were cooking it - and tasting, we quickly realized this was horrible.  And when I say horrible, I mean HORRIBLE.
It tasted like there was no salt what-so-ever! 

My rating: 0 out of 5.
So that failed.

Product review #2

(note: the above picture is not the box I bought, the box from Costco looks a little bit different and has 6 servings instead of 2)

Product: Plats du Chef French Onion Soup
Source: Costco
Servings: 6
Cost: $12.95

I picked this up based on a recommendation from a co-worker.  These are cook from frozen.  They have instructions for cooking in the microwave or the conventional oven.  My co-worker told me the microwave method turned out sub-par results.

So we tried these on the weekend, in the oven it takes 40 minutes at 400 F.  A little on the long side, but still no where near as long as making French Onion Soup from scratch.

These were quite good.  A little too salty for me, but when is FOS not salty?
This is a great option for anyone craving a nice hot bowl of French Onion Soup, but not willing or able to put the effort in to making it from scratch yourself.

My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5.

NOTE:  I paid for both items and was not asked to review by either company.

Recipes

I finally put together a page listing all the recipes I have published here on my blog.

You will notice everyone of them is linked to take you directly to the recipe.

You will find this on the right hand side of this blog - listed under Pages.

Beef and Cheese Manicotti

Beef with Snow Peas

Beef with Snow Peas

• 1-½ pound flank steak, trimmed of fat and sliced very thin against the grain

• ½ cups soy sauce
• 3 TBSP sherry
• 2 TBSP brown sugar
• 2 TBSP cornstarch
• 1 TBSP minced fresh ginger
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 8 ounces fresh snow peas, ends trimmed
• 5 whole scallions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons peanut or olive oil
• Cooked rice
• Toasted sesame seeds

In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, cornstarch, ginger and crushed pepper flakes. Add sliced meat to bowl and toss. Set aside, or allow to marinate in the fridge for a few hours.

Heat oil in a heavy skillet or wok over high heat. Add snow peas and stir for 45 seconds. Remove to a separate plate, set aside.

Allow pan to get very hot again. With tongs, add half the meat mixture, leaving most of the marinade still in the bowl. Spread out meat as you add it to pan, but do not stir for a good minute. (You want the meat to get as brown as possible in as short amount a time as possible.) Turn meat to the other side and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove to a clean plate.

Repeat with other half of meat, allowing pan to get very hot again first. After turning it, add the first plateful of meat, the rest of the marinade, the snow peas and half the scallions. Stir over high heat for 30 seconds; then turn off heat. Check seasonings and add salt only if it needs it. Mixture will thicken as it sits.

Serve immediately over rice. Top with the remaining scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Source: My lovely sister Amy posted this recipe on her blog not too long ago.  I made it on the weekend for my family with a few modifications.  The recipe above is how I made it.

Winter Smoked Tomato Bisque

Winter Smoked Tomato Bisque

Olive oil
Salt & pepper
8 large Roma tomatoes, cored and halved
1 red pepper, cored and halved
1 large onion, peeled and halved
2 celery stocks, large dice
1 carrot, large dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp dry oregano
½ tsp dry thyme
½ cup white rice
2 litres chicken stock
½ cup chopped fresh basil
½ cup whole cream
White wine (optional)
1 tsp liquid smoke

Place, tomatoes, red pepper and onion on a large baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and roast in the oven on broil setting for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cooling slightly then dice and set aside.
While vegetables are cooling, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat, add celery, carrot, garlic, oregano and thyme and sauté until soft.
Add the roasted vegetables to the pot along with the rice and chicken stock and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 25 – 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
Using a hand blender, puree the soup then add cream, fresh basil white wine and liquid smoke, adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.

Source:
If you do not know already I work at Trail Appliances where we have a full time chef on staff. 
He is not a chef for making staff lunches and food, rather he is a chef to help the customers make the right decision about what they need to buy for their kitchen, and once that happens he also will help them learn how to use a their new oven.

He also puts out a monthly newsletter that includes recipes, I do all his recipe editing and work very closely with him.

This is his recipe, as I was editing it, I knew this was one I had to make.

Adam LOVED it, Anderson LOVED it, Jackie, I know she will like it, she was just being picky that day.
Oh, and I LOVED it too!

Thai-Style Ground Beef

Thai-Style Ground Beef

1 cup thinly sliced leek (2-3 whole leeks depending on their size)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lean ground beef
1 tsp red curry paste (such as Thai Kitchen)
1 398 ml can tomato sauce
1 398 ml can coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 tbsp Asian fish sauce
Cooked rice
Iceberg lettuce, sliced
Lime wedges

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the ground beef, when about half done, add the leeks and continue cooking, once the leeks and ground beef are almost done, add the minced garlic. Cook one minute longer, then add curry paste and tomato sauce, cook until half the liquid is evaporated (about 2 minutes). Add coconut milk, brown sugar, lime zest, lime juice and Asian fish sauce, stir and continue cooking.
Reduce heat and simmer until sauce starts to thicken.
Remove from heat and serve with rice, lettuce and live wedges.

Yield: 4 servings
Source: adapted from Cooking Light

Blog Watch - Smitten Kitchen

Smitten Kitchen

I love this blog.  Deb, the author lives with her family in New York City and is very well known in the food blogging world.  She takes amazing pictures and I am always floored to see what she can produce in her small kitchen (42 square feet).  And I complain about mine, with my huge basement for storage...

Here are a few photos I pulled from her blog.

Lobster Rolls

Onion Soup

Mom's Famous Curry Chicken

This recipe is famous in my family.  Mom makes it all the time and I requested it when she came to stay with us after each child was born.

Curry Chicken

1 lb bone-in chicken pieces

2 medium onions, diced

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP ground tumeric

1 TBSP chili powder

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

1 TBSP ground corriander

1 TBSP garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 large container plain yogurt (600 - 700 ml)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat, add onion cook until starting to brown.
Add spices, stirring and cook 2 minutes.
Add yogurt.  Taste and add more spices if needed.
Add raw chicken pieces.  Lower the tempurture to medium low, cover and cook for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.  Stirring occasionally - cook until the chicken is done.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Homemade Bread

This weekend I decided to make some bread.  It has been a long time since I have made bread at home and I realized how much I miss it.

The bread turned out great, but the recipe I used was weird.  The timing on everything was way off compared to the recipe, so I will wait to share it with you all until I make it again and can nail down the timing.

Jackie helping with the punch down.

What amazes me is the ingredient list, take a look at what is in my regular store bought brown bread and compare it to my ingredient list.
Store bought bread ingredient list:
Whole grain whole wheat flour, water, yeast, sugar, glucose-fructose, wheat gluten, canola or soybean oil, salt, vinegar, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and digycerides, calcium propionate, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, monoglycerides, sorbic acid.

My bread ingredient list:
Whole wheat flour, water, powdered milk, brown sugar, canola oil, yeast, salt

I am not planning on making all our bread now, but I am going to make an effort to make more of our own bread, especially now that it is winter and we are inside so much more - besides - who does not like the smell of bread baking?

Blog Watch - Pinch My Salt

Pinch My Salt is a blog I found a long time ago.  I fell in love with not only the food but the amazing photography too.

Here are a few photos from her site and the links to that post.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Rosemary Garlic Sweet Potato Fries

Cupcakes

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes for Anderson's birthday party. Then they were both topped with the best buttercream icing in the world!

I found this recipe with my sister in Thomas Keller's ad hoc cookbook.

It is a little bit of work - but oh so worth it. Everyone really liked this icing because it was not so super sweet (it allows for a big fancy pile of it on top of a cupcake).

Here is the recipe for the icing (the cupcakes were also from the came cookbook and were great - but nothing super special).

The Best Buttercream Icing Ever

3/4 cup egg whites

2 cups white sugar

1 3/4 - 2 cups butter, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla

Place the bowl of a stand mixer over a large pot of boiling water, put in the egg white and sugar, and whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved.

Remove the bowl and immediately place in the stand mixer and using the whisk attachment, whisk until stiff peaks form (about 10-12 minutes).

Switch to the paddle attachment at medium speed, slowly add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, making sure it is fully incorporated before adding more.

The icing will change consistency at the very end of the butter, if it does not change, add a little bit more butter.

Add vanilla, and beat until incorporated.