I have just returned from a work trip to Newfoundland. Newfoundland is a wonderful place... that I do not want to ever permanently inhabit. Beautiful, expansive, sparse, rugged and ceaselessly windy - it's no wonder the people are so wonderful. When I say wonderful I really do mean wonderful. Warm, open and friendly to a fault. So much so that I almost got tired of saying hello or good day to passersby. Fortunately, I didn't have much time to interact with locals due to the fact that I was in St John's with about 140 of my favourite students - singing in St John's and many more remote locales on the island.

Some of my favourites

Some more of my favourites

Lighthouse at the eastern edge of north america

Beautiful window

My brain is still in the tour bubble a little - such a hard thing to describe. Let's just say that going home after a long day at work seems like a faraway luxury when you are on tour. Going back to a room that is not your home, taping kids in each night, getting woken up by a sick kid (homesick or otherwise), waking them all up the next morning, dealing with spats and drama, organizing rehearsals and concerts, getting back on the bus... again and getting left behind, soaking wet, when the ferry rolls out... is all nothing like going home after a hard, long day at work (please don't feel for one second that I am minimizing a long, hard day at work) It was wonderful and terrible and I am happy I was there and so happy that it's over.

Basilica of St John the Baptist

Gotta get some 5 pin bowling in... cause bowling

Signal Hill - cause you have to do Signal Hill

Here are a few of the 400 kids assembled for one of our concert rehearsals

Who doesn't love a selfie - some of the fantastic kids that we performed with in St John's

Soaking wet and left behind - we were obviously the best chaperones.

I'm back in Toronto now where it's relatively warm and essentially gust free (my hair is thankful). My kids are thankful and we've fallen immediately back into our routine. Even though it's in desperate need of a cleaning (aren't we all really?) I love my couch to bits. I love being able to drink a beer on that same couch and I love being in contact with the actual skin of another human being.
I made this cake before I left to mediocre fanfare. I'm not sure what to feed everyone at home anymore. D is not a big sweets person outside of ice cream. I have perfected my chocolate ice cream recipe just for him but now he seems to be getting more and more lactose intolerant - lactaid to the rescue I guess. Kids seem to be favouring anything that is either all chocolate - entirely 120% chocolate, all nutella (isn't that really just chocolate?) or not made by me. I think that microwave popcorn is at the top of the most-eaten list these days.
I want to care but really don't.
That said, this cake had a lovely crumb and both of my parents enjoyed it - at least that's what they said but it's possible they were just being nice cause they knew I made it.



Sour cream coffee cake with chocolate adapted from food52

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp (heaping) sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup (approx) walnuts, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 egg whites or two lg eggs

1 cup sour cream
1 cup dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F
Butter and flour a bundt or angel food cake pan and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
Combine the 2 tbsp sugar, cinnamon and nuts together. Mix and set aside.
Combine the 1 1/2 cups sugar and butter. Beat together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until fluffy and/or frothy and liquid.
Add the flour and sour cream alternately in three additions - begin and end with the flour. The batter should be smooth and easy to stir.
Sprinkle half of the walnut mixture into the bottom of the baking pan. Add half of the cake batter to the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the rest of the walnut mixture over the batter. Sprinkle all of the chocolate evenly over the batter. Add the remaining cake batter to the pan and spread evenly.
Bake for about 40 min. or until the cake is golden on top and pulling away from the sides of the pan.
Cool for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a serving dish.

The banana convention in my freezer is slowly but surely coming to a close.  This banana thing is starting to feel a little bit like the thanksgiving turkey episode... the never ending story.  The one difference between banana's and turkey being that with banana's you can add chocolate and/or icing.  This difference means that it will most definitely get eaten as opposed to the maybe it might get eaten but I'm not really sure.
I'm hoping that there are a few of you out there who are glad and maybe even grateful for the banana recipes.  For the rest of you (us - 'cause I'm kinda sick of them too) I would like to take a moment to explain why I do what I do here.
Sometimes (ie. almost never) I plan a recipe specifically for this blog.  The other 99% of the time what I post on this blog happens to be what I was inspired to make based on what needs to get cooked or baked or some kind of special occasion.  I guess that still makes this a food blog but not a 'special' food blog - or maybe it is.  You get what we eat.  I'm not fancying things up for the blog, sometimes we get fancy and sometimes we don't.  I like to think, in my more optimistic moments, that simple and homey is great and maybe even what people want.  They want to see what you are eating and that's why they check the blog out. In my more pessimistic moments, I feel a little depressed because I have so little time to put things for this blog together.  I wonder who eats everything that other bloggers post (every day/every other day!!) and how they find time to make it, take the pictures and write something coherent before sending it out into the big wide web world.  Sometimes getting one post out feels like I had to bank time for an entire week and even then I'm juggling lego being shoved into my face and a 13 yr old constantly asking for something that inevitably involves money and going somewhere.  So yeah, you see what we eat.  That being said, we have eaten more than banana bread and birthday cake around here - although nothing would make my kids happier.  I haven't gotten around to taking pictures (especially when it's dark by 4:45) and writing down recipes.


Back to bananas:
Now that the freezer convention has been whittled down to 4 from the previous 15 this recipe should mark the close of the banana marathon for a while at least.  I'm saying 'should' which gives me an out because you never know.  Kid #1 has completed her high school auditions and has gotten into her first choice for the music program.  This may mean that some kind of celebration is in order and the celebration may mean cake.  If there is some way to throw those last few bananas into cake then I'll go for it.  Then there is the dinner we are invited to next weekend where they said not to bring anything but who really means that?  Of course you have to bring something.  It could include wine but it could also include something involving bananas.


Double Chocolate Banana Loaf adapted from Martha Stewart
makes 1 loaf

1 2/3 cup less 3 tbsp unbleached, all purpose flour
3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup egg whites or two eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 med, overripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 tbsp whipping cream or sour cream
5 oz dark chocolate, chopped


Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder together and set aside.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes or so. Add in the egg and continue to beat for another 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla and banana and beat together for another minute or until everything is completely incorporated.
Fold in the cream until incorporated.
Add the flour mixture and whisk in by hand until completely incorporated together.
Fold in the chopped chocolate just until evenly distributed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Do a little drop onto the counter top to get out the air bubbles.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out of the middle clean.
Cool for about 15 minutes in the pan before removing to cool on a rack.

I wrote in one of my recent posts about how difficult it was for me to talk about myself.  The immense trust that I need to feel in order to open up and how much easier it is to listen to other people and sympathize, offer advice or just simply listen.  I was struck again this week with it all when I received a request from a website called recipes.ca.
Recipes.ca is a site dedicated to canadians and their recipes.  You can join and add your own recipes, search for others and review the ones you've tried.  I add all of my recipes to the site and have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it and even having my recipes featured.  Last week they contacted me about being a featured cook, a 'foodstar' in fact.  Being the diva that I am [not], I said 'yes' and 'thank you' and 'flattered' and got handed [read: sent] a list of questions that I had to fill out.  Frozen.  In my tracks.  I am completely and utterly paralyzed.
I read the questions and to be honest they are pretty standard.  But I might want to be funny here and there or think of something super cool or come up with something truly unique... like... what?  What's my favourite kitchen gadget?  What?  I don't know.  My perfect meal?  god, really?  I haven't ever thought about that.  Should the answer be Mother Theresa or something?  I feel like maybe there's a magic answer that I'm missing.
I haven't even started to type out my answers.  I have to send them a message and tell them I'm still working on it.  That I haven't forgotten about them.  Here's the kicker though - after I've typed out all my super awesome, insightful, witty, intelligent answers then I have to submit my favourite recipe.  Like I have a favourite recipe.  My favourite recipe is whatever one I'm making today.  Seriously.  I need to retool that in my brain as my 'go-to' recipe or something.  It's just not going to make sense for me otherwise and then I'll get totally stuck on that too.


This is segueing rather awkwardly to this stroganoff recipe.  In fact, the recipe has nothing to do with any of the recipes.ca stuff except I made it today.  You might know me well enough by now to know that I have a habit of loading veggies where they might not otherwise be.  Hence the addition of beets.  The beets should be golden or chiogga beets unless you want the stroganoff to be a deep red instead of a lovely dark orange colour.  I did not add tomato to this recipe because once I tasted it without the tomato paste I thought it was more than fine without it.  The lemon was essential for me and we all thought that having the stroganoff with crusty garlic bread was a novelty [read: kid #2 pretty much only ate the garlic bread].

The outdoor dinner: complete with towels for placemats (everything else is in the laundry) and stroganoff on the right.  p.s. radishes do, in fact, taste pretty good with cheese and bread

Beef and Beet Stroganoff adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine
serves 4 - 6

1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 cups golden beets, ends cut off, peeled where necessary (where little roots are growing) and diced into 1 inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb Beef tips or stewing beef, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
4 cups mushrooms (I used button b/c that's what I had but cremini or wild would work well), thinly sliced
3 tbsp flour or corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp paprika
3/4 cup beef or vegetable broth (low sodium if possible)
1/4 cup sherry or white wine (optional: you can use extra broth instead)
1/4 cup cream
2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
squeeze of lemon juice

2 tbsp fresh dill, coarsely chopped
sour cream for dolloping
Crusty Bread

Heat a heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium heat.  Add about 2 - 3 tbsp of butter or oil.  Add the onion and beets and cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn the heat down to medium low and continue to cook for another 8 minutes or until the beets are just beginning to soften.
Add the garlic and continue to cook for another 3 - 4 minutes.  Add in the beef and mushrooms and continue to cook until the meet browns.
Add in the beef and mushrooms and continue to cook until the meat browns.
Add the flour or corn starch, salt, sugar and paprika and mix well.
Add in about a 1/4 cup broth to the pot to keep things from sticking.  Make sure the scrape the bottom of the pot so that everything that's sticking comes off and the flavour is retained.
Add the sherry, cream and Worcestershire. Stir well and check the taste.  Add the squeeze of lemon juice.  Simmer at very low heat for about 25 minutes or until the beets are completely soft.
Remove to a serving dish and sprinkle with fresh dill.
Dollop each serving with a little sour cream.
Serve with egg noodles or crusty garlic bread.

I feel like I've blown my wad in terms of what I have to say this week.  I even gave you pictures of this week's food box.  What that means is that a whole lot of potentially meaningless and definitely random thought paragraphs are coming right up...
I'm at the halfway point of my summer break.  I think that I've finally gotten work 90% out of the way and can spend the rest of the month without it eating away at the back of my brain.... mostly.  That helps me breath a little bit easier.
I realized the other night that I don't talk about myself very much at all.  There are very few people who I really talk to.  Mostly, I listen and offer my two cents worth of advice and/or perspective.  I wonder if people notice that I don't talk about me?  (They probably do) I wonder if it pisses them off that I don't talk more about myself. (don't know about that one) Most people seem perfectly happy to talk about themselves and don't return with terribly probing questions.  Definitely, no one has ever asked me about my lack of personal dishing, leading me to believe that no one notices.  It's not that I have nothing to say about myself, my life, my situation.  I do.  I feel like I have to be very careful about what I say because I'm kinda out there sometimes [a lot] and that doesn't always go over well.  Still, shouldn't I be looking for more people that I can really talk to... and I mean really.  Maybe it's not 'them' - Maybe it's me.
This blog is a place where I open up a whole lot more.  I think that the act of typing it out helps me work out what I'm truly thinking and feeling.  There have been many times when I've typed something out that I've gone back and deleted  - sometimes the whole thing and sometimes just significant portions.  This probably seems hard to believe because most of the time it reads like I don't even spell check.  [This, sadly, is true]

In other news:

We saw the Wolverine movie in the theatre yesterday and two hours later I had forgotten that I'd seen it.

I rented Trance the day before that and will never forget that I saw it.

Why is Blurred Lines so popular when this one exists - I must ask.

Lastly, please take a moment to be super impressed that I've posted three times in one week.  Three Times.


I took this very simple, very homey cake to a girls-night-in recently.  It was definitely one of those situations where I didn't say much about myself.  But I brought cake and that should cover my butt.  Besides, my friends had a lot to say.  The cake, despite it's humble appearance, has a lovely crumb, robust taste and comes together quickly and easily.



Banana Cardamom Cake adapted from 'Good to the Grain'
makes 1 9inch round cake

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup red fife or whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)

Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.  Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Set aside.
In another bowl combine the butter and sugar.  Beat until creamy (mine never quite got there).
Add the bananas and beat until well incorporated.
Add the eggs and beat until definitely creamy.
Add the yogurt and beat until well incorporated.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture.  Mix just until everything is wet and smooth.
Pour evenly into the prepared pan. Give it a little drop on the counter to get out the air bubbles.
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes but check after 50 - tester should come out clean from the middle of the cake.
Cool.

I was going to make a nice salad of chickpeas, feta and parsley with god knows what else.  That would have been nice.  I didn't make it.  I haven't made it.  Yet.  Maybe I will - I don't know - maybe the window has closed and the moment is gone.
I did make an orzo thing with fiddleheads and asparagus.  There was so much of it that I shared... and it didn't suck.  So that's nice too.  I didn't tell my sharee that I threw some dandelion leaves in there.  Plus it's always super nice to share a dish with asparagus in it because whoever eats it will get smelly pee and think of you every time they... well, every time they pee.  It's always nice to be remembered.  I feel like body smells - you know, the real ones and not the fake ones that involve perfume - remind you that you are alive.  Smelly pee falls into that category for me.

The Smelly Pee Givers in all of their Glory.

Let's take a moment to talk about what I did make.  Banana Bread.  Yup - I baked (not to be confused with 'I am baked' which means something completely different).  First time in two months and let me tell you, I was a bit scared.  It was like I hadn't ridden a bike for a while and I was a little shaky at first.  Best thing to do is just start at that point which is exactly what I did.  Then I had some anxiety about whether or not it was going to turn out.  Subsequently, had to have a discussion with myself about why it didn't even matter if it turned out or not - not like I'm selling it or anything. Next thing I knew it was in the oven and my waiting began.  I still have absolutely no interest in eating this bread but I'm pretty that my kids and co-workers will... so long as it doesn't suck.  I'm pretty sure that I've never experienced smelly pee after eating banana bread.

Over ripe bananas looked jacked.

It looks like Banana Bread...

I'm not sure if you've noticed my frenetic brain activity... if you've ever tried to write, read, listen to music or do anything requiring any focus at all with a 6 3/4 yr old beside you then you will understand completely.  I'm doing my damnedest to zone him out completely resulting in what is probably something utterly incoherent... it's not working though - he just told me that he punched his own junk and it hurt.  So nope, it's not working.  Also in my 'real life', it turns out that the bump on my shin which hurts a lot when I run is probably this thing called a stress fracture.  This will mean that my running needs to scale back and I need to ice the crap out of my shin multiple times a day because I totally have time for that.  Since I've just started to feel like my foot is fully back in shape I've just started to up my kilometre count.  I want to aim for another half marathon in the fall.  I'm going to drink some beer to prevent myself from getting too depressed and then I'll start booking biking dates with anyone I can.  If you're up for it just let me know.


Banana Bread with Buckwheat flour (but just a little bit) adapted from 'Mélanger: To Mix'
makes 1 medium sized loaf
serves 6 - 8

1 1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup (about 3) overripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F
Butter and flour a loaf pan (you know - butter it first and then put a tbsp or so of flour in their, toss it around to coat the butter and then dump out the leftover flour) and set aside.
Combine the all purpose flour, buckwheat flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together.  Mix well and set aside.
Combine the mashed banana, sugar, egg, melted butter and sour cream/yogurt together.  Mix well - until the ingredients are incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.
Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture.  Mix just until all of the flour has been combined and the mixture is wet.
Pour into the prepared baking pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely before slicing (so at least 4 minutes, give or take)

I'm going to Italy.  I don't think that I've mentioned this yet.  Maybe I have.  I am not in Italy presently.  I am not leaving for Italy tomorrow.  I will be gone in a couple of weeks.  I would love to tell you that I'd be idling around Florence and Rome for two weeks on the prowl for the best coffee and gelato but that is not the case.  I wish that I were telling you about the red Vespa that would transport through the narrow streets of Rome.  Nope - that's not happening either.  Although I'm not a big fan of biscotti in the afternoon, I am a fan of red wine in the afternoon but there won't be much of that happening either.  Instead, I'll be running around Florence and Rome with an entourage of about 250 of us most of whom are under the age of 18.  I will be one of the chaperones for these fine gentlemen - yes, they are all boys.  I will also be helping to prepare some of the soloists for the Mass that will be held at St Peter's with Pope Francis.  Hmmm - red wine in the afternoon with my red Vespa parked just off the terrace sounds much more fun.
With my trip only a couple of weeks away I am already thinking ahead for this blog.  I don't want to bore you all with two weeks straight of pictures from Italy and complaints about how many times 12 yr old boys complain about being hungry and needing to go to the bathroom.  I've spent the later part of this week and most of the weekend (well not most) cooking, baking and taking pictures.  I want to start getting ahead of things so that I've got some good stuff to give you when I'm away.  As a result of my kitchen plotting I didn't get my bike into the bike shop for it's tune-up.  That will be for next weekend.  I also didn't get around to getting my next tattoo arranged.  Maybe that's for next weekend too - I have been fawning over these one's though.  I'm not going to feel bad even for one minute about not cleaning my bathroom.


I've got some gorgeous blueberry squares coming and some Trini food in the pipe as well.  I've got faint plans to do something with this cauliflower crust pizza thing before winter is completely over with.  I spied this cornmeal casserole thing that looks interesting too.  Chicken potstickers.  Yeah - there are a lot of plans floating around in my head.

Buckwheat flour has these dark specks  - so beautiful.

One of the first things that left the kitchen this week were these muffins.  They did not stick around for long but mostly because I shared.  It happened to be playdate day for both Kid #1 and #2 so I shared with each family involved.  I made these with orange juice and orange zest which I decided - once I tasted the zest in the batter - that I don't really like.  I would leave it out next time.  The recipe itself called for persimmon pulp which I didn't have so I just replaced it with buttermilk (and orange juice) and things turned out quite fine.  They are pretty chocolatey and rich so sharing was perfect here because a little goes a long way.  I'm going to point ever so gently to the sentance earlier in this paragraph where I mentioned 'playdate' and refer you to my previous post where I talk about my parenting philosophy.  We had an afternoon and evening of 'playdates' happening in the middle of our March Break week.  Both D and I felt like stellar parents and celebrated ourselves heartily afterwards... and we survived BTW.


Whole Grain Chocolate Muffins adapted from 'Good to the Grain'
makes about med/lg 13 - 15 muffins

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

3 oz unsalted butter, soft or almost room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
grated zest of 1 orange (optional)
2 cups total: use the juice of the zested orange and fill to 2 cups with buttermilk
7 oz dark chocolate (42  - 60%) coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Rub a muffin tin with butter or line with silicon  or paper cups.  Set aside.
Sift together the buckwheat and all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, salt and baking soda.  Mix and set aside.
In another bowl beat together the butter and both sugars until light and creamy coloured.  Add in the eggs and continue to beat until combined.
Add in the yogurt and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Mix well and gradually add the buttermilk/orange juice mixture.  The batter should be much thinner at this point.
Gently fold in the chopped chocolate and mix gently.
Scoop the batter into the prepared tins until the batter comes just over the top edge of the muffin cup.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until the muffin springs back or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool on a rack.
Eat warm or store for a couple of days.  Freezes well.

I meant to give you an update a couple of days ago.  Then things got crazy and by the end of the day I was so bagged that I couldn't think.
I wanted to give you a fantastic recipe for some of the fantastic food that I made this week... except I didn't make any.
I had thought that I could give you an entire post on planting garlic cloves in the fall and how they would turn into awesome garlic scapes and whole cloves of garlic next spring... but I didn't actually plant any.
The real kicker here is that I can't really figure out what I did.  I know what I didn't do but what the hell did I do?  Here's the rundown.  I met this wonderful lady this week.  She is fantastic and being able to work so closely with a Canadian Icon is an honour.  (I'm using present tense because I get to see her again this week)  She is coaching two of our boys who are soloing with the TSP next weekend.  I'm in the thick of that.  The concerts are piling up thick and fast over here.  Advent season is in full swing.
Truth is, as much as my heart was in the right place,  I wouldn't have known what to cook because my head was drowning in a sea of work.  I did manage to keep biking to work all week.  It's the time of year when each week that goes by and I'm still biking feels like a gift.  First of December and still going strong.
One of my friends and colleagues and I are going on a little adventure late next week.  We've decided to finally do something we've always wanted to do.  We've researched, we've sought out a venue and we've booked our time.  It's going to hurt a little but we'll be able to hold each others hand and eat chocolate together to dull the sting.  So that was a big part of my week too.
I've been fuelling my runs with this music... and some of this too.  It's amazing how some good music gets you through a hard-to-get-motivated run.  These guys came and did a workshop at our school a week or so ago and they totally got me into piano trios.  Especially this one.  BTW - they are the most generous people - the cellist stayed back after the school show and coached some of our gr 12 boys who have formed a string trio.  Genuine.


It's amazing how quickly one's brain can get sidelined.  I've been so focussed on how busy things are that I've talked myself out of making food.  It's too time consuming.  I don't have the ingredients.  I have no inspiration.  Screw it.  This took me about 15 minutes tonight.  It's tasty.  It's good for me and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than going out.  This isn't so much a recipe for you as an inspiration.  Add and subtract at will.


Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadilla's
serves 4(ish)

2 med sweet potato's, partially peeled and cubed into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (400ml) 1 1/2 cups black beans, rinsed and set aside
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of salt and pepper
shredded cheese (Monterey Jack, Cheddar, whatever you've got)
sour cream
salsa
greens (again, whatever you've got: spinach, lettuce, chard, etc) broken into small pieces
soft tortilla shells

Boil the sweet potato cubes in a small amount of water for about 5 minutes or just until soft but not mushy.  Drain and set aside.
Heat a large pot or skillet over medium heat.  Add a little oil or lard if you have.  Add the onion and cook until soft, stirring frequently.  Once the onion is softened add in the garlic.  Cook for about a minute and then add in the drained beans.  Stir constantly.  Add in the sweet potatoes and the spices.  Stir until everything is mixed well and things are pretty dry.
Remove from the heat.
Heat a heavy bottomed skillet (caste iron works really well here) over medium heat.  Add a little lard or oil but just a little.
Place 1 tortilla shell on the heated skillet.  Add about a half a cup of the bean/sweet potato mixture and spread it out evenly.  Add a good sprinkling of cheese and place another tortilla shell on the top.  Turn over once the bottomed looks slightly browned.  Heat until the cheese has melted.
Remove from heat.  Cut into quarters and add some sour cream and a generous tbsp of salsa on top of each piece.

It has come to my attention that there are a few of you out there who actually suspend your lives for a few minutes to look at my blog.  This is awesome and I love and appreciate you.
I have learned recently that there are others from this same group who not only stop on this blog for a few minutes to scroll through the pictures and see if sugar and chocolate are involved in the recipe but who take the time to read what I spew out in these paragraphs.  Just knowing this scares me.  You are the people who send shivers down my spine.
You see, I don't think about who is going to read any of this while I'm typing.  I'm not typing to a demographic.  I'm not typing in response to an expectation.  The way it usually works is that I think something and then start writing not.  I'm not even joking.  This post is a great example of my lack of planning.  I didn't even know what I was going to write literally as I started typing.  The first sentance just sounded good to me and I went with it.
I'm sure that this knowledge explains a lot about my writing to you.  It might explain the typo's (maybe - that's just not re-reading though).  It might explain the rambling.  It might help you understand why my paragraphs are so bloody short.  It doesn't, however,  explain why I keep doing it and this is the embarrassing part for me. I don't even know why I keep doing it.  Why does anyone keep doing something that they don't really want to do and think is lame?  Why do I keep telling myself that I can book that night out with a friend and then have to cancel every single time?  Why do I tell myself that I'll totally get to folding the laundry that's hanging on my hall railing this week and it still hangs there until Thursday or Friday... every single week.  Why do I keep ordering apples, telling myself that this week I will take them for lunch,  when I know that none of us really really like eating them and that they will probably go soft before we remember that they are there.
And that my friends is the real point of this post.
Apples.


I know it took a while and I bet your head is still spinning a little.  Don't try to figure it out just accept it.   Don't sit back and wonder why I wrote 4 paragraphs just to get to apples.  It's fruitless.  I couldn't give you a decent reason but either way apples were the point all along.  I buy them and them we both look at each other and think 'later'.  And then they're soft.  So last week I made apple crisp with honey and I felt so awesome for being all 'whole wheat and honey'.  This week I've added egg whites because when you make your own ice cream (and yeah, apple crisp  absolutely does NEED vanilla ice cream) you have a lot of egg whites slowly getting freezer burn.  So it's begun.  The mission to empty my freezer of egg whites and to use up this week's apples.
Just for the record, apples are coming with my food box again tomorrow.


Apple Spice Bread with Egg Whites adapted from 'Great Good Food' by Julee Rosso
makes 1 lg sized loaf

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat or red fife flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg, cardamom
zest of 1 small lemon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp plain yogurt or sour cream
juice half a small lemon (probably about 1 tbsp)
1 egg
2 - 3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups apples coarsely chopped but not necessarily peeled

Preheat oven to 350°
Grease and flour a loaf pan (I used a smaller one but should have used a large one) and set aside.
Combine both flours, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and lemon zest together.  Mix and set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, yogurt and lemon juice together and set aside.
In a large bowl whisk or beat the brown sugar together with the melted butter until there are no lumps and the butter is completely incorporated into the sugar.  Add in the egg and the egg whites.  Beat at a slightly higher speed until the mixture has increased in volume just a little.  It should feel like one big combined light paste.  Add in a bit of the flour and continue beating or whisking until it's all mixed in.  Add a little of the buttermilk mixture and beat until it's all mixed in.  Continue to alternate the two until everything is used up.  Try to end with the flour mixture.
Gently fold in the apple pieces and stir until they are well mixed into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool completely before cutting - although I couldn't quite accomplish this... Kid #1 and I shared a piece quite a bit sooner than 20 minutes... totally worth it.

I hate it when people apologize for not posting regularly.  And yet, here I am ... in the same position.  I haven't posted in a while.  A long while for me.  Let's not consider this an apology but merely an explanation.
I'll give you the full run-down shortly via it's own post but we spent the last few days travelling to/from and hanging in and around Montreal.  It's a favourite of mine.  I lived there for so many years it feels like home.  The kids and I decided to go because D was off to Germany to perform in a festival and we were back here kicking around.  It seemed like the right thing to do.  I was fully prepared to post while I was there.  I had the food prepared, I had the pictures ready... I was taking pictures.  However, I just assume that the matrix is always there, around us, easy to plug into and out of.  Not the case always.
Let's just say that if you're not in your own space, if you have two kids that aren't exactly ok with their parent sitting in an internet cafe for an hour at a time, if you are enjoying leisurely dinners with extended family, if you are taking walks around quiet little islands, if you are driving for 6 hours at a stretch... then getting a post out gets, well, challenging.  I did not rise to the challenge.

I hope that it doesn't happen again because I had so much to tell you.   Things like:

This is quite possibly the biggest tomato I have seen in my life.


This is most definitely the only tomato I've encountered that is multi-coloured on the inside.


Goat cheese is amazing stuff.  End of.


Too much tomato is never ever a bad thing.  It's uses are endless.  I could probably get a whole jar of salsa from this one tomato but I couldn't bear to do anything to it that would mess with it's beauty.  It is just simply beautiful.  The taste is incredible.  It was even better roasted, with some thick green onion and goat cheese nestled in there.  I would eat this warm or cold.  A beautiful lunch with some greens on the side.  A lovely picnic choice.  Or a fantastic seasonal 'thank you' gift to your hosts ;-)


Heirloom Tomato and Red Fife Galette adapted from '20somethingcupcakes'
serves 4 - 6

3 cups (or so) sliced fresh tomato (not too thick but keep the slices as uniform as possible)
1 cup chevre (goat cheese)
1/2 cup green onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, thinly chopped
salt
pepper
drizzle of olive oil

Crust:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup red fife flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt
2 - 4 tbsp cold water

Combine the flours and the salt.  Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or two knives until it forms crumbly looking little balls.  Add in the sour cream/yogurt and 2 tbsp of the water.  Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix enough for everything to form a cohesive ball.  If you need the extra water then add it in.  Chill if you need to (cover with clingfilm or something) but don't chill for long (15 - 20 minutes is more than enough) or give it lots of time out of the fridge before you roll it.
Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8th of an inch thickness uniformly.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet (I used a round pizza sheet) with parchment or some kind of non-stick thing.
place the rolled dough onto the parchment.
Using about half of the goat cheese place in little tsp sized amounts over the dough, leave about 2 inches free at the edges.
Place the tomato slices over the goat cheese, overlap the slices as needed.
Add the remaining goat cheese in little tsp sized amounts over the tomatoes.  Sprinkle with the green onion and fresh basil.
Fold up the edges of the dough just over the filling.  Crimp and overlap as needed but it should be rustic looking.  Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top.
Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes.  The dough should look slightly golden at the edges and the tomato should be nicely roasted.
Cool for about 15 minutes or eat at room temperature later... or eat cold.  Your choice.

It hot as hades here in Toronto.  Hot like July.  And dry.  Dry like... I don't know.  It doesn't often get this dry here.  All this hot, dry weather is making me feel like school should be done... like now.  It's making me feel like I need a sleep in the afternoon - yeah, I don't know why the summer makes me want to sleep in the afternoon.  The hot weather makes me want to run like crazy and get all my canning stuff out.  The problem is... it's May.
It's the end of May, I'll grant you that.  But it's still just May.  It's pretty early for 28 degrees.  It feels weird baking with rhubarb in 30 degree weather but here I am baking with rhubarb.  And it's 30 degrees.  Three.  Zero.
I'm not going to get into the whole scary/disturbing side of it being hot like crazy in May.  It's been hot before, right?  I'm not going to get into all the stuff that puts a knot in my stomach and makes me fear for my kids and especially my grandkids.  I'm not going to dwell on the notice that has come with the last two or three food boxes.  The notice that informs us all about this seasons tree crops or the lack thereof.
Needless to say, school is not over yet.  Not for a good little while.  I can't sleep in the afternoon because I have work to do or am in the middle of doing work.  Because of that work I can't just go and run like crazy, I have to be reasonable about the amount of time I spend doing fun things (yes, running is fun for me).  And, because it's May, I could get all my canning stuff out but there isn't a hell of a lot to can just yet.  Except for Rhubarb.


Rhubarb.  I got some in the food box this week because my own poor little rhubarb plant is being overtaken by the raspberries that I unwisely planted too close years ago.  It's struggling and I have to move it and I don't know where to move it to.  So while I'm pondering I decided to just go ahead and get some rhubarb in the foodbox.  Rhubarb is weird.  Rhubarb makes me wonder how anybody thought of eating it.  Rhubarb makes me think that it's a good thing it's a fruit/veg (?) that is best in the early spring because honestly if it had to compete with fruit later in the growing season it would be no contest.  It doesn't even taste that good unless you do something to it.  It's not like a fresh tomato or green bean that you can just pick and enjoy.  Rhubarb needs some TLC.  Once you do cook it, it's got this strange texture that only reminds me of rhubarb.  Nothing else.   Although the stuff made me want to gag as a kid, now I'm using it and eating it like it's my favourite.  I think that it's what rhubarb represents that makes me love it so much now.  A new season.  New growth, new planting and better things to come.  The start of a whole new cycle.  I've still got a couple more rhubarb recipes up my sleeve and I want to make sure that I've got a little in the freezer to mix with some strawberries for some kick ass jam.  Whenever strawberry season hits.  For now though I'm going to sweat it out in my kitchen.



Rhubarb and Sour Cream Cake adapted from 'Delicious Magazine UK'
1 8x8 square cake

Rhubarb:
3 cups fresh rhubarb, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp all-purpose flour

Mix the chopped rhubarb, sugar and flour together in a bowl and set aside.


Crumb Topping:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 generous tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup less 2 tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean with the vanilla scraped out
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt.

Melt together the butter and both sugars.  stir well over med/low heat until the butter is melted.  remove from the heat.  Add the vanilla bean scrapings and stir well.  In a separate bowl mix together the salt and flour.  Add the flour to the melted butter.  Mix together until it forms a crumbly texture.  Set aside.


Cake:
6 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt
1 lg egg + 1 yolk
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 3 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

Grease an 8x8 square baking pan.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla.  Whisk until everything is mixed together well.  Set aside.
Mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Add the butter and cream together until everything is well mixed and not dry anymore.  Add the egg/sour cream mixture.  Whisk together until light and fluffy.  The dough will be quite thick.  Spread into the prepared pan.
Using a slotted spoon, spoon the rhubarb onto the top of the cake batter.  Spread evenly.
Sprinkle the crumb topping on the whole mess.  I pressed it in just a little but you don't have to do that.
Bake for about 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean and the sides of the cake are just lightly browned.
Cool for about 10 minutes before cutting.