Ok.
I've had a good day - sort of.
I had no kids waking me up at 6:30 - that was awesome.  They're back now though and that's awesome too.
I did some yoga and martial arts movement - that was awesome.
I tried to watch my Bollywood Freetime movie but we couldn't get the channel in evenly enough - that sucked 'cause it looked like a funny one.  (We have an antenna BTW and no satellite or cable fees - that's awesome)
Instead, I watched a cool doc about marijuana (use, history, medical research, political and legal aspects) called 'The Union' - that was awesome.
I joined this awesome looking website that aggregates (sounds cool!) for Can. food blogs and bloggers.  Dope!  It's called 'Beer and Butter Tarts'.  To be honest, the name was what drew me in before I even knew what it was all about.  Lush that I am!  Beer!  And Butter Tarts?!  Gotta check that out.  Found it on 'Brenda's Canadian Kitchen' (many thanks Brenda, if you're reading... which you probably aren't, because no one knows that I'm doing this which is exactly why I'm so stoked about having a website aggregate for me).  Beer and Butter Tarts looks cool and I'm going to keep you all filled in on what's happening on that front - as I learn more about it.
And... I made this stuff...


Until recently I didn't even know what to call this.  It isn't proper 'Bolognese' at all.  Then I found this term in one of the UK mag's that I picked up.  BOG. Didn't know what it was they were talking about and then I read an article and recipe.  It sounded and looked a hell of a lot like the stuff that I made.  Incidentally, it's also slang for a toilet.
I make this sauce about once a month easy and sometimes more.  I throw in a lot of veggies.  The first time I saw someone making this stuff, I was babysitting in Montreal during my University years.  It was an italian family and they had this huge pot on the stove simmering away.  It had been simmering for a few hours and it smelled unbelievably good.  There were crazy veggies in it.  There was some kind of meat mince - don't know what it was exactly but it was good.  I know that 'cause I put it in a bowl without any pasta and ate it like it was stew.  It was delish.


I've made this they way I like it and I won't apologize that it has some sugar in it because it makes a huge difference.  You can adapt and change and throw around things and this sauce will still come out well.  It's just that kind of food.  Am I saying that you can't wreck it?  No - 'cause I've done that too.  BUT, it's always been salvageable.
So, without further ado.... BOG.



My Bog
serves 6

1 lb minced beef, chicken or pork
1 med/sm onion, diced
1 med/sm zucchini, sliced
2 sm carrots, sliced
1 med red or green pepper, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 lg cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 beef bouillion cubes
2 tbsp mustard powder or dijon
1 - 2 tbsp each basil, oregano, marjoram
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 lg can crushed tomatoes or passata (no salt preferably)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp salt
pepper sauce to taste


In a lg pan.  Heat some oil and add in all the veggies except the garlic.  Cook for a few minutes.
Add in the garlic and the minced meat.  Cook that around for a few minutes.
Add in the Worcestershire and the bouillion cube.   Stir until everything is mixed in.
Add the mustard, herbs and sugar.  Mix well.
Add in the tomato and the tomato paste. Mix well.
Add in the salt and check the taste.  Add the pepper sauce.  Adjust the tastes as necessary and let the sauce simmer at low heat for about 45 min.
Serve over spaghetti, rotini, penne or whatever.  Trust me, they'll eat it.  Throw some parmesan cheese on the top and they'll love you forever.

Just when I think that my cycling is probably over for the season the weather surprises me.  We are at about 1 month before Christmas and, no word of a lie, I'm still biking.  It's cold mind you.  I'm piling on the layers.  But, once you get out there, moving in it, you feel fine.  You feel good.  In fact, you feel great.  It's kind of like you are beating the season - HaHa Winter.  I know you're there but I'm not going to let you keep me down.
Let's face it though, the riding is going to be over soon and I gotta fill the hole.  It's back to yoga in a serious way.  I start ramping up my running to 4 times a week as well.  You know, keeps your heart pumping and your brain clear.  Well, clearer!  I love that about exercise in general.  The stuff that you think about, the way that you motivate yourself, the focus.  Today, as I was running to work I started to think about words.

I think that some words are funny.  Not just words like 'twat', 'munter' or 'wanker' but everyday words like 'bloop' or 'splish' (yeah, I totally use that one on daily basis Wanda).  So, I also think that 'cauliflower' is a funny word.  I have no clue what a 'cauli' is - I should look it up... let me go do that....
Ok, thanks to Wikipedia I have just learned that it comes from the latin word 'caulis' which means cabbage and, well, 'flower' is pretty straight forward.  Ok, well that learned it's still a funny word.  It's a great nutritious veg though.  In the past I have made this adaptations of this curry with chick peas instead of daal or lentils.  Since D doesn't like chickpeas I have altered things a little.  I saw this recipe for this funny sounding veg in one of my mags and decided to give it a go - with my own little twists of course ;-).  Now do take note, D found that this wasn't quite strong enough in the curry department for him and would also have preferred a little more heat (which you can add after the fact so I don't know what he's on about there) so if you think that you might be in the same boat then adjust accordingly.  Add another tbsp of curry/cumin/garam masala and maybe a dash (or four) of pepper sauce.  I love this kind of stuff.  This is comfort food that keeps me going and feels good doing it.  Funny words and all!


Cauliflower, Lentil and Coconut Milk Curry adapted from Delicious UK
serves 4

1 cup (150 g) red lentils or daal (I used daal)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cardamom
2 tbsp curry paste (mild or hot)
3 tbsp grated ginger (less if using ground)
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 med cauliflower broken into florets (cut large ones in half)
2 tomatoes diced (I left this out although it would add some depth to the curry)
1 can of coconut milk
dash of salt

Put the lentils into a bowl with double the amount of water and simmer for about 20 min.  Until the lentils or daal become a thick puree.  Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the garam masala, turmeric, cumin, cardamom and curry paste.  Add a little water and make into a thick paste.  Set aside.

In a large pan, heat about 3 tbsp of oil and add the mustard and coriander seeds.  Cook just until they pop a little.  Add in the onion and cook for about 3 minutes.  Add in the garlic and cook for about 2 min.

Add the cauliflower to the pan and coat with the onion/spice mixture.  Cook for about 4 min.  Add in the spice paste and mix well.  Add a little water to mix it.  Add in the tomatoes and the lentils/daal (with the cooking water and all).  Mix well and cover for about 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is cooked through.  Check the tastes and add a dash of salt if needed.

Ok, Ok.  Let's face it.
Is this recipe drastically different then any of the other choc. chip recipes that I've tried?  No, of course not.
Do I care?  No, of course not.
The thing is that chocolate chip cookies are good, in fact, they're great.  They are probably the sole reason that I started making cookies.  They are also probably the reason that I never buy cookies from anywhere - grocery store, cafe, bakery.  Good, home-made chocolate chip cookies can change your life.
I love trying different chocolate chip cookie recipes.  It's fun.  It's amazing to see what little changes will come out of even the same recipe.
It's kind of like brownies.  I like trying different combinations and the differences look so minor but can be so big at the end of the day.
So, now that we've established that we're not trying to re-invent the wheel here, let's look at how these cookies turned out at the end of the day.


First, I used dark brown sugar so these babies turned out a little darker for me than they will for you.


Second, I used 55% chocolate.  You could easily choose milk chocolate or darker chocolate... even white chocolate.
Lastly, the taste was nice.  They had a little crunch to the texture and the chocolate was just the right amount.  These cookies aren't revolutionary but they are amazing just the same.


Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Delicious UK magazine)
makes about 2 dozen small cookies

125 g/ 1/2 cup unsalted butter
110 g/ 1 cup (lightly packed) brown sugar (I used dark but light is recommended)
55g/ 1/3 cup sugar
1 lg egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 g/ 1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g/ 1 full cup + a little bit extra, milk or dark chocolate (I used 55%)
70g chopped pecans or walnuts (I didn't add these)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 baking trays with baking mat or parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until smooth.
In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix together.  Add in the chocolate and nuts.  Mix lightly.  Combine the flour mixture with the butter mixture.  Mix well.
Drop by tablespoons onto the baking sheets, leave a little space in between.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until pale golden.
Cool briefly on the tray then remove to cooling racks.

I run.
I run a lot.  I run about 3 times a week.  A total of about 26 km.  Sometimes more.  Okay... I'm no olympic athlete or anything but I keep it goin'.
I also bike.  Not as much as running but I keep it moving too.  Times kinda running out for me and my bike though.  I've probably got about two weeks left before I put her away until the snow clears.  I'm good with cold.  I just psych myself up for it (and dress appropriately of course) and off we go, my bike and me.  Once the snow hits though that's when I've kinda had enough.  I don't trust the streets here in the winter.  Maybe I'm a chicken but that's how it is for me.


The running though I do year round.  That's has it's own challenges.  You see, I don't use a treadmill.  Partly because I don't like them that much and prefer to run outside and mostly because good ones are damn expensive (and big!) and I can't afford it.  I dream about owning one though.  About getting up early in the morning and having an hour to run while watching a movie or something, before everyone has gotten up.  As it is though, I leave for work early enough to give myself time to run there and clean myself up afterwards.  Challenge is that it's cold and dark and early and outside...  AND right now I psyching myself up for running to work tomorrow morning.


These kinds of recipes are ones that I like because they are a stew sort of thing but they have taste that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.  It's food that sticks to your ribs and tastes great on the way down.  You feel filled up and warm for a long time afterwards.  Just the stuff to keep you going on a cold, dark, early (ok, I don't eat this stuff for breakfast) running day.


Coconut Chicken adapted from BBC Good Food Magazine
serves 4 - 6

3 tbsp butter or oil
1 lg chicken cut into 9 or 10 pieces
2 onions coarsely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 green or red pepper, thickly sliced
Lg piece of ginger chopped or 2 tbsp ground ginger
3 tsp each coriander, cumin and cardamom
1 chicken bouillion cube
salt to taste
2 tbsp honey
1 lg can diced tomato with juice
1 tin coconut milk
1 bunch fresh basil leaves, chopped

Place the oil or butter in a large pan (I used a Dutch oven) and flash fry the chicken until browned.
Remove the chicken from the pot and add in the veggies.  Cook for a few minutes, until just starting to wilt and add in the chicken again.  Cook for a few minutes together.
Add in the ginger, coriander, cumin, cardamom and bouillion.  Cook together for a few minutes.  Add in the honey and mix well.  Add the tomato, coconut milk and salt.  Check the tastes and adjust as necessary (may want to add a little heat as well).  Throw in the basil.
Simmer at low heat for about 30 minutes.
Serve over basmati or steamed rice.

This whole time change thing has been putting a serious strain on my blogging.  It's the daylight really... or well, the lack of it.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time to make something and then get a good shot before the light is gone.  We're not even talking about sunlight here.  I know that would be completely unreasonable to expect.  Nope just plain old day, ie not night, ie not pitch black.
Yeah folks, it's serious gone by about 4:30 these days.  Now I know that there isn't long to go until the winter solstice and all that.  I know that once we pass that then things start to get a bit brighter.  But keep in mind that at that point we're talking about January and February.  Not exactly the happiest months of the year.


I don't have a light box for taking pictures of my food in.  I don't really want a light box either.  I like the natural light so that is going to mean getting crafty with some pictures in the near future.  For example, what I did today was make this cake in the middle of the day (weekend eh!).  I'm so much happier when I don't have to fiddle too much with the pictures.  These ones were actually fun ('cause I ate the cake while I was taking them ;-)


The cake itself.  Nice.  The Pioneer Woman says that it's the best coffee cake ever.  I think that she's pretty close to right about that.  Beware though, I used a pyrex baking dish and I ended up burning the edges and bottom of my cake ever so slightly.  Other than that... YUMMY.  I added apple to it because I needed to use them up and because kid #2 is refusing to eat apples these days.  I figured this way I could get apples into him without him seeing them.  Crafty I am!  It worked too....


Apple Coffee Cake (adapted only slightly from The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

Cake:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (scant) sugar
3 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk
3 lg egg whites, whipped until stiff
dash of vanilla

3 med to small apples, peeled and sliced thin

Topping:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup pecans (optional if you are using the apple)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together  in a bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add in the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, mixing well after each addition.  Begin and end with the flour.  Don't over mix.
Fold egg whites gently into batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Top with sliced apples.
Combine the topping ingredients until they are crumbly.  Sprinkle the topping over the cake and apples.
Bake for about 40 - 45 min.  The centre might still be a slight bit jiggly but that's ok.
Cool for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove from the pan.  Or just eat it straight out of the pan!

A girl can dream, right.  The girls on America's Next Top Model (ok, so yeah, I watch it - it's my weekly dose of the best trash tv out there and I'm not ashamed to admit it - I'm gay for Tyra Banks).  Well, I've been thinking about this blog.  How I'm approaching the one year mark.  I know, I know, there's still about a month to go but I'm just thinkin'.

I've learned a lot in this year.  I've done way more than I thought I could ever do on this blog.  I've had a lot of fun on-line journalling and chronicling all the stuff that I've been cooking and baking.  You guys have pushed me to try recipes that I probably would have put off - that's cool.


I dream sometimes about getting a call (or an email - it's 2010 right?) from a magazine or something like it.  The conversation would go something like this:
Mag: 'Hello Ms Wanda.  I am contacting you from PSPFOD magazine.'
Wanda: awkward silence.... 'Hello?'
Mag: 'Ms Wanda, we've been following your blog for some time now and we're so impressed with the work that you've been doing'
Wanda: 'Wow'
Mag: 'We were wondering if we could meet with you and discuss the possibility of hiring you as a contributing blogger on our website www.blahblinkduh.com.  We really think that you could add something to our online presence.  If you are interested, when might you be available to meet?'


... And you get the idea.  The reality is though, that although I've made things that I might not have made before I've also learned that simplicity in cooking is a wonderful thing.  There are some fundamentals and if you stick to them you are (mostly) guaranteed to get something good at the end of the day.  This recipe is one of those simplistic things that  fits right into that.  I could've thrown a lot into this dish and probably would have not too long ago.  This time though,  I pared it down.  Just mushroom, sundried tomato and spinach.  Simple (like duh simple) sauce and we had an easy dish that worked and made great leftovers as well.  Dreams are great... and necessary but sometimes reality can be just a good.


Spinach Parmesan Pasta
serves 4 - 6

4 cups rotini or penne pasta cooked al dente
1 large bunch of spinach (about 6 cups precooked) diced
4 cups button mushrooms, halved
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup broth, white wine or milk
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp dried basil (fresh would be nice too)
1 tsp nutmeg
dash of salt

In a large pan or pot add some oil or grease.  Add in the onion, mushrooms and spinach.  Cook over med/low heat until the spinach has wilted and the mushrooms are beginning to soften a bit.  Add in the cream, parmesan, basil, nutmeg and salt.  Add in the milk, broth or wine until the sauce is a good thickness for you.
Check the tastes and add in the pasta.  Toss the pasta and sauce together and serve.

I had two weekdays off this week.
Weekday #1 was because I was sick.  Ugh.  Stupid cold.  Thought that I had kicked it and then it came back with a vengeance and knocked me out for a day.  So, even though I was sick it was all kinds of awesome to be home during the day.  I listened to CBC radio.  Stayed in my PJ's for a long time and just generally took it easy.  Even better was that I didn't feel guilty about taking it easy because I was sick.
Weekday Off #2 was because we had a P.A. day at school.  It was across the entire school board and so a whole lot of us were off but I ain't complainin'  Feels like a vacation, truth be told.  This time though I didn't feel wretched.  I didn't stay in my PJ's all day.  I took some time to be lazy but I got some work done too.
Kid #1 and D went off to see a movie that was opening that day.  You might've heard of it before.  It's called 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.  I'm not jealous or anything.  They needed some bonding time and so off they went.  I stayed home with Kid #2 who alternated between asking when we could go to Granny's and when Kid #1 and Daddy were coming home, pretty much the whole time.  I'm not upset about that or anything.

Kid #2 insisted on the LEGO dude - in between question #1 and #2

Being home though, I got to eat lunch.  Like really eat lunch.  I hate eating lunch at work.  I don't know why, really I don't.  I don't even fight it anymore.   What I've taken to doing this school year is have tubs of my favourite yogurt at work and just scarf some of that down at some free 5 minute interval during the work day and then hightail it home at 2:30 and eat something then.  At that point though, it's late.  So, I don't usually eat a lunch, I'll just nibble on something.
Well, today I ate a proper lunch.  I made this.


Thank you's for the inspiration Food & Drink magazine.  I had a part of a cabbage that needed to be used and... well, I'm sure that you all know how I feel about sausage.  I use them all the time.  Perfect marriage.  And it was yummy.
Thank you's to the Toronto Catholic School Board for the day off.
Thank you's to the Sun for shining so that I could take great pictures IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY ON A FRIDAY.


Cabbage Dijonnaise adapted from Food & Drink magazine
serves 4

1/2 head green cabbage, sliced about 1 inch thick
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1/2 med sized onion, sliced
3 pork sausages, casings removed (I used hot italian sausage)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
splash of red wine vinegar
dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp honey (or brown sugar)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Boil the cabbage slices for about 7 min.  Drain and set aside.
Heat a large skillet.  Add in the oil or butter and saute the onions alone for a few minutes.  Add the sausage, crumbling them while you add them in.  Add in the garlic.  Cook together for about 4 minutes.  Add in the cabbage and combine well.  Continue cooking and add in the wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, dijon and chicken broth.  Mix well.  Add in the rest of the herbs, salt and honey.  Mix and simmer for about 20 min.


Serve with rice, mashed potato (Yum) or even butter egg noodles.

Kid #1 managed to eat a good lunch before venturing  out