When I'm not at Work

So many Green Beans.

Ok, Ok, I'm now feeling it. A little more inspired. A little more rested and a little more alive. Feeling like I'm not just breathing deeply when I inhale but also letting a big sigh when I exhale. I've actually managed to get a couple of things done. There is fresh corn in the freezer and also some wild blueberries. All ready for winter to come and remind me of the tasty bounty of summer. I might even can some peaches!!

I've been reading some interesting books this summer. The Stieg Larsson trilogy is almost done now and what a ride! Another book that I picked called 'Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations' has proven to be very interesting so far. I'm not very far into the book but the author's have done a great job thus far of documenting how historically food has had much to do with whether or not civilizations not just survive but thrive. What will be interesting is how they apply that history to our own present food industry situation. I'll keep you all posted. I'm really enjoying beans and peas this season.

I've been growing some lovely specimens on my back deck with decent success and I've also been getting some great stuff from the food box. In short, I've got a lot of green beans. I've been putting beans in everything and they kind of just mix in. This recipe, however, features beans front and centre. It could be a side dish I suppose but we've just been eating it with some rice and calling that supper. The spices that I used are a bit of a mishmash but I liked it. Feel free to adapt to your own tastes. I actually found this really tasty although - just thinking out loud here - fried tofu would be great too.

Spicy Green Beans and Sausage

serves 4 (or so)

3 cups of green beans

3 LARGE hot italian sausage (feel free to use another sausage if you wish), cut into large chunks

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup sliced mushroom

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp chipotle powder (or something spicy)

small handful of basil, minced

salt to taste

splash of water, wine or stock.

Heat a large pot on top of the stove. Throw in a bit of oil for sauteing and add in the onion, green beans and mushrooms. Saute for about 5 minutes or so. Add in the chunks of Italian Sausage. Saute for another 7 minutes. Add in the spices and mix well. Lower the heat slightly and continue to cook for another five minutes. Add a splash of liquid as needed. Check the tastes and adjust if necessary.

Serve over rice.

It's too early for stuffing.

I'm already feeling it. It's only the middle of August my peeps but I'm already anticipating it.

The beginning of school.

I work at a school as a Vocal Coach which means that unlike most of you, I get the summer off. From September through June though I work like a dog. I teach at the school and then come home and teach privately in my home studio. It's a hustle and, to be honest, I'm not anticipating the September through June hustle at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and am not complaining about it ('cause I know what all'ya are thinking ya know). Still, my baby (kid #2) is off to JK in September and I'll miss his first day of school - softly muffled crying in the background. It's only just now that I'm beginning to feel rested and things are about to get crazy again! Meh, let's look on the bright side right? Just around the corner will be great apples and pears and beautifully coloured leaves, cool nights AND the half marathon that I'm training for.

So here I am thinking about stuffing things already. Stuffing isn't supposed to be happening until October, I know. I'm just, well, already looking ahead I guess. Whatevah, I'm stuffing these things. I don't even like stuffed turkey anyway - this looks a whole lot more interesting to me. Let's be honest though, this stuff isn't going to change your life. This is stuff that gets you through the week. It tastes good. It doesn't take forever. It's got lots of vegetables. It's not fancy.

Works for me.

Stuffed Veggies

Serves 4 as a main course

3 medium sized zucchini

4 medium sized Peppers (any colour)

3 cups of cooked rice

1 lb minced beef (could use pork, lamb or turkey)

1/2 cup minced onion (I used green onion)

1 rib of celery, diced small

2 cups of mushrooms, chopped

2 - 3 cups of spinach, chopped

insides of the zucchini once they've been scooped out, chopped small

8 dashes of Worcestershire sauce

2 dashes Soy Sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar or honey

1 tbsp oregano

dash of chipotle powder

salt to taste

1/2 cup (or so) of cheddar, shredded

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Halve the peppers and cut out any insides. Scoop out the Zucchini's and reserve the insides. In large heated pot, saute the veggies in 2 tbsp of oil (your choice). Once the veggies are softened add in the minced beef and mix well. Let it cook for a few minutes. Turn the heat down a bit and add in the Worcestershire, Soy Sauce, Sugar and spices. Mix well. Remove from the heat and add in the cooked rice. Mix well. Check the taste and adjust as necessary.

Stuff each Pepper and Zucchini as much as you can (You might still have some rice leftover). Bake for about 20 min. Remove from oven and add the cheese to the top of each stuffed veggie. Bake for another 15 - 20 min.

Cool slightly before eating or enjoy at room temperature.

Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Well here it goes. My big confession. I'm not a fan of the oldies. Nope. Not at all. I don't love fifties music. I'm not gaga over the Beatles. As a forty year old white woman, this is quite declaration, I realise. However, on the weekend kid #1 was performing in a huge street festival that takes place here in Toronto, 'Taste of the Danforth'. She was dancing hip-hop, jazz... that kind of thing. Before her first performance, she and some of her class friends were telling me that they were dancing to some 'oldies'. Now when I think of oldies it's fifties music that comes to mind. However, when they got up to dance here is what was playing:

Fresh Prince of Bel Air (!)

Can't Touch this

I've got the Power (proper name is 'The Power')

Girls just wanna have fun... and even a piece by 'New Radicals' called 'You get what you Give'

OLDIES!!! What the What??? To be fair, I think that they meant 'Old School' but whatever - I felt like a complete antique.

Now Lemon Loaf is an oldie - no doubt about it. This is one oldie that I love. Anything lemon is most welcome in my belly truth be told. However when I saw this ... YES, in the UK Delicious Magazine, it was just enough of a twist on the old classic as to grab my interest. Here's the thing. It's not just the regular 'add lemon zest and lemon juice' business. With this recipe you through the whole lemon (2 lemons to be exact) in a blender or food processor and whiz the things into oblivion. Cool.

Finally tried the recipe and it's turned out very tasty. It's VERY lemony - yeah!!! I had to bake mine for a bit longer than the recipe indicated and although the edges are a bit dark it was none the worse for wear. I also changed up the icing a little bit because when I made it to the recipe it was just too runny. The crumb is very nice too, it's a little bit coarser in texture because the whole lemon stuff is in the loaf. It works though.

Lemon Drizzle Cake (adapted from Delicious Magazine UK)

serves 8 - 110

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 lemons

300 g self raising flour*

440 sugar

4 large eggs

icing:

40 g butter

400 g icing sugar, sifted

juice of half an orange (or mix with lemon juice)

* to make self-raising flour, combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and a dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour a large (2 litre) loaf pan.

Chop up the lemons and whiz in the blender or food processor until finely chopped (take out any seeds). Add the butter, sugar and eggs and whiz until smooth. Mix with the flour and pour into loaf pan. Bake about 1 hr or until a cake tester comes out clean (I was about 8 minutes over or so). Remove from oven and cool completely (turn onto a cooling rack once it's cooled just a little).

Icing: Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until it's the desired consistency. If it's too runny add more icing sugar little by little. Ice the loaf once it has cooled completely.

Smoked Salmon... Pasta for Guests

We actually didn't have any guests but this dish would definitely be guest appropriate. Something I've discovered recently is that there just aren't a whole lot of recipes out there which include smoked salmon.

It's a strange thing, I think. I really like smoked salmon. It's delicate but can totally change a dish, which is really cool. I got a whole lot of it sitting in the frigo slowly dying - now that our Montreal Bagels are officially finished :-( So, I've gotta get some creative and think something up myself. This poses a problem however because I'm feeling totally UNcreative of late. Burnt out maybe. It's a complete drag though because I was really looking forward to cooking all kinds of crap over the summer. You know, no time restrictions, great weather, sleeping in therefore lots of energy and farmer's market bounty. And yet - here I am feeling dry, tired and thoughtless. Truth be told, I've been living on these Montreal bagels for the past week and a half (which ain't a half bad life, I won't lie) and avoiding the kitchen like nobody's business.

I guess that it's all gotta change though. Can't keep this listlessness in the kitchen up forever. We have to eat and I need to find some energy.

My food box helped just a little bit this week by bringing me a whole big batch of fresh basil. So, after a quick pesto was whipped up in the blender the rest of the dish took shape. Pasta, Cream Fraiche (sounds hard but it's easy and worth it), green beans, smoked salmon. Do what you like with the green beans. If they're not your thing then try fresh peas or just add more spinach. Totally tasty AND, after a nice plateful, I feel just a little bit more inspired.

Smoked Salmon and Creamy Pesto Pasta

Serves 6 - 8

Penne or Rotini Pasta, boiled in salted water to al dente

1 large bunch of basil (about 2 1/2 cups)

1 cup of walnuts or pine nuts

1/2 cup of parmesan

1/2 cup olive oil (I used half olive oil and half water though)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 red onion sliced thin (green onion, leek or chive would work well too)

3 cups of green beans, cut in half

3 cups of spinach, cut up small

2 cups creme fraiche (literally mix 1 cup of heavy cream with 1 cup of sour cream and let it sit for a bit)

For the pesto:

Place the basil leaves, walnuts and olive oil in a blender and blend until pureed. Add the parmesan and salt and blend until mixed. Should make almost 2 cups or so.

In a large pot saute the onion and green beans just until soft and pliable. Add in the spinach and let it wilt. Turn the stove to low heat and add in the pesto. Mix well. Add in the creme fraiche little by little mixing well. That way you can decide how thick you want the sauce. Once it's at the thickness you like mix it in a large bowl with the cooked pasta and serve.

Chocolate Chip Again... with a twist.

Blah Blah... who wants to hear about yet another chocolate chip cookie right. Hear what. We're going on a road trip tomorrow. Please, I can't do these road trips where you stop at some fast food crap to do a 'chew and swallow'. Life is too short for no taste fast food. So, we've got fruit, corn chips (technically junk food... I know) and I'm making these cookies. We're on our way to Montreal so I don't want to fill up too much on the car stuff because we are going to be heading to our favouritest pizza joint in the whole world once we get settled into the hotel. Amelio's is our most favourite, bar none. So, if we eat too much then we won't have enough room for our pizza unless we make ourselves sick - which, believe me, is not out of the realm of possibility for us. It's also a weekend that will include consuming and bringing home copious amounts of Montreal Bagels.

Back to the cookies. I just jacked them up completely with some weird changes that blew my mind (not really but it sounded exciting there, didn't it?). I replaced some of the flour with some oats that I whizzed in the blender for a few minutes until it was like flour. That was cool. A little added texture without the whole big oatmeal cookie thing. I also used totally crazy amounts of chocolate and threw in some white chocolate too - I was feeling crazy today, what can I say. Chocolate stores are a bad place for me. Godiva had a special on recently and I got 3 3.5 oz bars of dark chocolate for $10. Not bad right? They came home with me. And then they went into the cookies.

Lastly I had some Macadamia nuts that were in the freezer and needed to be used up. Yup - they went in too. So, what started as plain old chocolate chip cookies ended up as dark chocolate chunk, white chocolate chunk, macadamia nut, oatmeal flour cookies. It was that kind of day.

Montreal road trip - here we come!

'Chunks of Chocolates' Cookies

makes about 3 1/2 doz. medium sized cookies

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup oatmeal, whizzed until it's flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

12 oz chocolate (I obviously used a mix ;-) feel free)

1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped Macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment or a non-stick something.

In a medium bowl mix together the flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a larger bowl mix the butter and sugars together until fluffy and well mixed. Add the eggs in and continue to beat until even fluffier. Add in the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and incorporate well but try not to over mix. Add in the chocolates and the nuts and make sure everything in mixed well.

Place in medium spoonfuls on a baking sheets (about 12 to a sheet). Bake for about 11 minutes but watch that the centre is still a little gooey (yum). Carefully remove to a cooling rack and eat once they are cool enough or you just can't resist any longer.

Leftovers and Shepherd's Pie

A beautiful evening breeze is blowing through the windows. D and Kid #1 are finishing up their epic read of 'The Lord of the Rings'. Kid #2 is in bed and asleep. All is peaceful and quiet. Believe me, the moment is not lost on me. I should by rights be outside enjoying the cool breeze on this summer night. But instead I am inside, writing this post. Because I love it, I guess. I love how doing this blog has inspired me to try new recipes. Things that I probably would not have considered previously or just wouldn't have given time or effort to. There's a real creativity to it - ya know. I enjoy and savour...

We had a nice BBQ the other day and D made his own burgers. It was a beautiful mix of meat and spices, done perfectly and served on my homemade buns. Yum. D BBQ'd a crazy amount though, which is good I guess because then we have leftovers. Boy, do we have leftovers. What do I do with all the leftovers? I ponder... chili, salisbury steak, stew... I can't decide.

However, I had potato in the cupboard and earlier in the day I had ridden off to one of the local Farmer's Markets and picked up a dozen ears of corn. This is just about perfect corn time and at our house it's sacred. We eat it for meals all by itself, boiled perfectly (just a few minutes in boiling, salted water) and with copious amounts of butter - is there any other way? I also cut some fresh off the cob and freeze bags of kernels for the winter months. Beautiful fresh corn in the middle of winter. That was it, I had to use some corn.

What ended up happening? I made a Shepherd's Pie of course! Once the ingredients were in front of me it all made sense.

Leftover Shepherd's Pie

serves 4 - 6

Meat mixture

1/2 an onion, diced small

1 rib of celery, diced

3 cups of mushrooms, sliced

1 cup green beans, cut in half

2 cups of spinach, diced

4 - 5 leftover, cooked burgers (1 1/2 lbs ground meat), chopped small

2 - 3 cups of beef broth

couple of pinches of salt

spices to taste (I added some cinnamon, parsley, nutmeg, rosemary)

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cayenne (optional)

1/3 cup cornstarch made into a paste

2 cobs of corn (kernels cut off the cob)

Potato mixture

5 medium sized potato's cut up for mashing

1 - 2 cloves garlic

1/3 cup butter

1/4 cup milk or cream

cheese for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large pot of water boil the potato's and garlic cloves until they are soft and mashable.

In another pot (preferably oven proof so that you don't have to dirty an extra pot) saute the vegetables in some oil until they are soft - about 5 minutes. Add in the chopped burgers. Season with the spices, salt and sugar. Add in the broth and let the mixture come to a simmer. Add in the corn starch paste, make sure to add just enough to notice that it's thickening up. Check the taste and adjust as necessary.

Drain the potato and add the butter and milk. Mash the potato. Place the corn kernels on top of the meat mixture. Spoon the potato over the corn. Smooth out the potato and sprinkle with cheese. Bake the mixture for about 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let it set for about 10 minutes once it's out of the oven. Serve.

A new Favourite.

I have raved in a previous post about my favourite chocolate cake. However, I think that I know have to admit that I've got a second favourite. Does that negate having a favourite altogether?

I don't think so. I have two favourite pairs of jeans (well, I actually only have two pair), I have two favourite kids (no need to explain) - I only have one favourite husband though ;-(

Anyway, whatever it is - it's my new, second favourite AND it's also chocolate. Let's just talk about this cake for a bit. Now, I like me a brownie. I'm no expert but I know myself well enough to know that I prefer mine gooey to cakey. Being a purist, I like it best plain - no chocolate chips, no white chocolate, no nuts (I know!). However, I won't say no to any of the above if offered. Here's the next thing. You know that flourless chocolate cake that every chain resto has been offering lately (and it tastes like packaged chocolate pudding crap - too sweet, too syrupy - pet peeve)? Well, this cake really felt like the real thing. A much improved version of the chain-resto version (I do have a 'proper' recipe from Rob Freenie that I'm itching to try too).

Ok, Ok - I actually didn't find this recipe in the BBC Good Food magazine (try to contain your shock). I bought the Aussie 'Delicious' magazine whilst in a hurry this past week. I was a little disappointed that I made the mistake but what the hell, this recipe was in there. It is such a gem of a recipe that it's worth the price of the mistake as far as I'm concerned.

This cake wasn't tough to put together. I actually screwed it up a bit (no surprise). It calls for toasting the nuts - I didn't. It called for processing the nuts and chocolate in a food processor - I don't have one and the blender didn't do the job well at all. I didn't know if it would turn out after all that but it did. It was great. The egg whites make a huge difference and this cake is all gooey and light at the same time. This is worth a try - I don't think that You'll be disappointed. None of us were.

Torta Caprese (Delicious magazine AU)

serves 8 - 10

1 1/2 cups pecans (I used walnuts and almonds mixed) toasted

180 g good quality dark chocolate chopped small

4 eggs serparated

1 cup sugar

220 unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

cocoa, to dust

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C

Grease and flour a 24 cm springform pan.

Process the nuts and chocolate. Pulsing in short spurts - it's not supposed to be a paste, it should be almost a flour substitute. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat together the egg whites and sugar until it forms a thick foamy paste. Mix in the butter and vanilla and mix well. Add the nut mixture and combine well.

In another bowl, whip the egg whites until they are foamy and frothy. They shouldn't be too stiff. Whisk a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the rest until all incorporated.

Pour into the prepared pan. Jiggle slightly to get it to settle. Bake for about 50 min. I kept an eye on mine and made sure not to over bake it. That way the middle was still nice and gooey under the top crust - beautiful.

Cool for about 15 minutes before opening the springform. The cake will drop quite a bit after coming out of the oven.

Enjoy with a dusting of cocoa powder, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream... whatever... just enjoy it.