It's was impossible for me to imagine before kids entered my life just how difficult it would be to accomplish anything with them around.
Last weekend, for example, I made candies (fun times... ugh), cooked and did the laundry.  Maybe I got a clean bathroom in there too.  That's it though... for the whole weekend.  It sounds like so little and my house is a constant reminder of just how little it is.
Today was different.  Today was a sunny day.  Not only a sunny day but also a warm day.  Not only was it warm and sunny but it was the first day that I've had without kids (both of them) for more than a couple of house in months.
The reason is simple.  My Mother-in-law has returned.  My Mom-in-law returns to Trinidad (home for her) for 3 months every year.  Because she is a very wise woman she is in the Caribbean for Jan/Feb/Mar.   And why not.  Wouldn't we all choose to be somewhere else (read: warm) for those months if we had the choice?  Maybe not all of you I realize but I certainly wouldn't refuse it if it were available.  My Mom-in-law, when she is in T.O.  insists on taking Kid #1 and Kid #2 for an overnight every weekend.  We grudgingly accept and in turn get a night to ourselves once in a while.
Today was her first weekend back.
As a result of the absence of my two lovely children, my accomplishments since 3 p.m. this afternoon go something like this:

 - made this orzo crap


- made apple bread to give to somebody (as yet undecided)
- washed all my windows inside and out, on both floors (I'm not kidding)
- swept the floors and stairways
- gotten the laundry ready to go for tomorrow
- made date squares

I'm having trouble believing it too, even as I'm typing it out it looks ludicrous.  And there, my friends, is at least part of the reason why my house feels like a complete disaster.  I don't feel as guilty as I did just a day ago.  Now, I'm getting ready to go out for a while with D.  It feels weird after 3 months but we'll manage.

So, onto the food.  Orzo is kinda in between pasta and rice although it's classified as pasta.  I kinda made this up because we finished the last of the squash crap yesterday and well, we need to eat... and my window of opportunity isn't always as big as I'd like it to be.  So, it tastes good, it's creamy and has lots of veggies in it.  Make it veggie or carnivorous, the choice is yours...


Creamy Lemon Orzo with veggies and sausage
serves 6

1 lb sausage (I used organic herbed lamb - yum)
1 small onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 small zucchini in small slices
3 cups button mushrooms cut into thick slices
3 cups broccoli cut into florets
1 1/2 cups orzo
3 cups veggie broth
1/2 cup (plus a little extra) cream or milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup (or so) cream cheese
juice from 1/2 a lemon (about a tbsp or so)
1 tbsp honey
salt to taste

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Place the sausage on a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until just beginning to cook through.  Remove from the oven and cool slightly
Cook the orzo and the veggie broth together for about 5 minutes and set aside.
Saute the veggies together with some oil or grease just until the veggies are soft, about 5 - 7 minutes or so over med/low heat.
Place the veggies into a large baking dish.
Slice the sausage into 1/2 inch slices and add to the veggies.
To the orzo mixture add the cream, cream cheese, lemon juice, honey, salt (pepper sauce if you fancy ;-) and most of the parmesan (save some for sprinkling on the top - or screw it and use more).  Mix it all together until it's all a nice creamy saucy thing.
Pour the saucy orzo over the veggie/sausage thing.  Mix it all together well.  Sprinkle with the remaining (or additional) parmesan.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until nice and bubbly around the edges.
Cool for about 10 minutes before digging in.

Last week's food box contained a bag of turnip.  Let me just say that again.  A BAG OF TURNIP.

I was going to exchange it for something else.  I had my finger over the mouse ready to push that button... and then I didn't.  I thought at the time that I could do this.  I could totally do this.  I wasn't afraid of turnips.  I wouldn't let them intimidate me any longer.
The truth is though that I am afraid of turnips.  Turnips are intimidating.  They're kind of ugly (except for that nice purple colour at the bottom).  The word turnip is even ugly.  They're not like the best tasting veg out there either.  There's this nip to them that is an acquired taste.  They also never die.  They can live in your bloody crisper forever.  Mostly though, I just don't know what to do with them.  There don't seem to be any recipes with the word turnip in them that sound sexy, mysterious or intriguing.  I got lucky with this stew (and I'm pleased as punch with my success) but I do consider it a fluke.
So, having not pressed the magic 'go-away-and-never-be-seen' button, I got a bag of turnip.  I can honestly tell you that now, at the end of this week's food box, we have used the last of the bag of turnip. I ate turnip, D ate turnip and Kid #1 and Kid #2 (complaining bitterly through each of his 4 bites) ate turnip.  It's a proud moment.  Wanda 1/Turnip 0.


Last Thanksgiving my Mom made this stuff.


It's like turnip cake.  That's the best word I've got to describe it.  Look, seriously, it's got flour and bakign powder in it... it's cake.  It complimented the turkey and ham beautifully and elevated the humble turnip to a previously unimagined place.  What's more is that it was beyond easy to make and it's flexible which is a quality that I appreciate in a recipe.  I ended up swapping some of the turnip for parsnip and sweet potato.

Turnip/Parsnip Puff Cake
serves 4 - 6 as a side dish

3 ( - 4!) cups mashed turnip, parsnip (and a sweet potato thrown in there for good measure) still hot
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 eggs beaten
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
dash of nutmeg and cinnamon
crumble for the top*

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Add the butter and beaten egg to the mashed veggies.  Mix well
In an small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together and mix.
Add the flour mixture to the mash and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a smallish baking dish (square, round oblong - doesn't really matter just not a 9x13 size).
Sprinkle the top with crumble (or buttered bread crumbs would do nicely as well)
Bake for about 25 minutes or until it's nicely browned on the top and edges.
Cool for about 20 minutes before eating.

Here is my predicament.  We need to eat.
But I'm finding myself challenged by the veggies that are in my fridge.  Here's the list:

1 pkg button mushrooms
1 lg bag of turnips
1 parsnip
1/2 cup of cabbage

My pantry has potatoes, 1 acorn squash, 2 sweet potatoes... and I'm stuck.  I've been combing the net today looking for inspiration and I gotta tell ya that when it comes to turnips the inspiration is pretty meagre.  If anything, my experience over the last few months with squash and parsnips and rutabaga and turnip have convinced that there is a niche in the whole cookbook market for these veggies.  It's hard to find stuff and I've had to get creative in a way that I haven't pushed myself before.  I guess that I'm kind of proud of myself.  Duh, I'm proud of myself for cooking with vegetables that just two generations ago were what you ate to get you through the winter...

Onward and upward, I've taken out the mushrooms, cabbage, turnip and parsnip.  Scratch the mushrooms and parsnips.  I've decided to leave them for something else.  So I'm going with the cabbage (what's left of it) and the turnip.


I saw an interesting idea with turnip and chickpeas and this spice paste thing.  It said that the spice paste was Ethiopian.  I dunno, it just tastes good with all that crap in there.  I thought briefly about throwing some coconut milk in there but stopped myself this time around.  I would do it next time though.  Might be a nice addition.


I used Lima beans because... I had them.  What can I say?  If you do swap out the beans just make sure that they are beans that aren't too soft (or you could go the other way and do a split pea/dahl kind of thing - stroke of genius right there!)


What came out was an interesting stew that was chock full of taste.  It's really cool that the weird, somewhat spicy turnip taste was really well complimented by all that spice stuff.  You could totally use potato or sweet potato here but I like to think of this as the Canadian version.  So, yeah... another turnip recipe under my belt.  I'm gonna start writing that cookbook ;-)



Somewhat Ethiopian Spiced Turnip and Lima Bean Stew
serves 4 - 6

1/2 cup cabbage sliced about 2 cm thick
1 onion sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups turnips, diced
2 cups (about 1 small can) Lima beans, drained and rinsed
1 veggie bouillion cube
1 cup water
Spice Paste (below)

Spice Paste:

1 tsp each:
   cardamom
   coriander
   cumin
   fenugreek (I didn't have it though)
   nutmeg
   cloves
   allspice
   cinnamon
   paprika
   turmeric
   ginger
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar or honey

Mix all the spices together in a bowl with the salt and sugar (if it's the honey then leave out just for a minute).  Add just enough water to form a paste (and add the honey once this is done).  Set aside.

Heat a large pot and add some oil.  Turn the heat down to med/low.  Throw in the onion, turnip and cabbage.  Let that stuff cook in the oil for a good 7 minutes or so.  Mix frequently so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.  Add in the garlic and mix well.  Continue to cook for another 5 - 7 minutes.  Add in the lima beans and mix.
Add in the bouillion cube and the spice paste.  Mix well.  Add in the water and stir until everything is mixed well.  Simmer for another 10 - 15 minutes or until the turnip and cabbage are cooked through.
This tastes even better the next day so it's a great dish for leftovers or a make-ahead.

This might not have been the best project for the end of a long work week.
This is another one of those recipes in my 'Must Try It' file.  I was really looking forward to making this stuff.  End of.
The reality is that I  was kinda grouchy, kinda tired, kinda already stretched thin.  Truth is though that I needed to get my hands into something but I was out of sorts enough not to be able to settle on something.  Just in a funk.
I thought that maybe the mundane rolling and dipping of balls would be just the thing to settle my mind and put me in the right frame of mind.  What the project did though was just frustrate me from beginning to end.
The forming of the balls got tedious and Kid #1 and Kid #2 couldn't keep out of it


- which is fine really, it just means that there is a lot of questions and possibly bickering and then eating of unformed balls and...


Then came the chocolate.
I didn't have a full 12 ounces.  I used the 6 oz that I had and decided that I would finish the rest tomorrow.
And then there was the dipping of the balls in chocolate.  If there is anything more frustrating then trying not to drop and entire ball into chocolate and then lifting it out, letting it drip off (while leaving some of the ball untouched by chocolate), placing it beautifully on a piece of parchment without the ball looking like it got poked or scraped or just generally mucked up then I don't know about it.


What really irked me was that the damn things tasted better than the sum of their parts.  The peanut butter stuff on it's own wasn't a thrill ride and we all know that dark chocolate melted and all by itself isn't gonna make fireworks in your mouth.  Combine the two and something kinda nice happens.  It's rich mind and one or two will do you (not a bad thing though when it comes to sweets, eh?)

Would I do this again soon?  NO... Hell No!  Was it worth it?  Now that I've had a glass of something that the kids can't drink I can honestly say that yeah it was worth it (but it wasn't worth it as much as those Twix Bars were worth it - I'm still dreaming about those things!)  


Buckeyes from Dana Treat from Baked Explorations
makes a boat load - about 40

1/4 cup cream cheese, soft
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 9 crackers)
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
3/4 cups unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 oz dark chocolate, chopped

Combine the cream cheese and peanut butter together until it's well mixed.
Add in the graham cracker crumbs and mix well.
Add in half the melted butter and combine thoroughly.
Add in icing sugar and mix in thoroughly.
Add the rest of the butter and mix.
Let the mixture rest for a few minutes.
Form into balls by the tablespoons and place on some parchment or something.

Melt the chocolate (double boiler or microwave if you wish).
Let it cool just a little.
Take the peanut butter balls and use something brilliant to dip the balls into the chocolate without getting the whole ball covered (ie. leave some 'unchocolated').  Lift the ball and let the chocolate drip off a bit and then remove back to the parchment.
Let the beautiful chocolate balls harden or firm up or whatever...

I don't entertain very much.
It's a funny thing.  I write a food blog.  I enjoy cooking... a lot.  I love baking... a lot.  But I don't love entertaining.  Luisa said something about it here in this post.  She was able to articulate something that I have felt for a long time.  When I put a lot of effort into something, in the case of entertaining it is food, I don't want to indulge in it myself after the fact.  I can put a lot of time into putting together the main course, making the dessert and then when we all get down to the meal I would really be just as happy eating a salad and a pita (whole wheat of course).
I don't know why... even after Luisa's most articulate post I can't put finger on why exactly I have this reaction.  Maybe it's the strain, the doing and doing, the working to impress the guests with food and drink that cause them to leave your home feeling refreshed and filled.  Either way, I usually just eat because I feel like I have to and it tastes like chew and swallow fare to me.


Well, you all will be happy to know that I've found the answer... make sure that you are eating so late that you (and of course your guests as well) are totally starving.  I now know this from experience.
Last night I had a little reunion of sorts with two friends from McGill.  The festivities started around 6:30 or so.  We were waiting for D to arrive home from a gig to begin to eat (Just for the record, we were serving Sweet and Sour meatballs, Mashed Potato and Celeriac, cauliflower and broccoli stir fried in sesame and tamari).  D thought that the very short gig would end around 7pm.
When 7:45 arrived and D still hadn't arrived home I texted him to see when he would be arriving.  Needless to say we finally all got to tuck into some food around 8:30 or so.  Let me tell you, I was hungry!  Not hungry enough to go nuts 'cause this is a dinner party that I've cooked for but at least I ate a plate and didn't feel ambivalent about it.  As for everyone else, let's just say that there were no leftovers.


Now onto the cake.  Maple syrup being the order of the day here after our sugar bush experience I settled on this layer cake from the Magnolia Cookbook.  The cake is light but substantial and the maple flavour is present in just the right kind of way.  I went with a cream cheese icing with just a hint of maple to that the whole thing wouldn't be too over powering.
I know what you all are wondering.... YES, I did eat the cake!


Maple Layer Cake (adapted from 'The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook')
makes 1 layer cake!

3 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 lg eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
3/4 (ish) cup hot water

Prepare two round cake tins by greasing and flouring them (you could use parchment or something if you wanted to as well).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together the flour and the ginger and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until light and fluffy (I love those two words) after each addition.  Add in the maple syrup and mix well.
Add the flour alternately with the hot water (make it about thirds or so - beginning and ending with the flour).  Mix until there are no lumps.
Divide the batter between the two prepared baking tins.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cakes are spongy on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tins.  Finish cooling the cakes on cooling racks.


Maple Cream Cheese Icing

1 pkg. cream cheese
3 - 3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp maple syrup

Cream together the cream cheese and the butter in a bowl.  Sift in the icing sugar in 1 cup increments.  Blend in the icing sugar after each addition.  As the icing begins to thicken add in the maple syrup and blend together.  Add as much icing sugar as you need to thicken the icing to the desired consistency.
Add a little less than half the icing to the top of the first layer of the cake.  Place the other cake layer on top and add the rest of the icing.

I got a surprise lately.  Apparently while I was in university I made a lasagna.  It was a veggie lasagna (my friends remember what they call my veggie phase with little or no fondness).  It was good.  It was made with nuts instead of meat.  Think of nuts as the meat replacer.  I'm saying 'apparently' because I have no recollection whatsoever of this dish.  It sounds good and both my friends remembered having it and remembered liking it a lot.  But me... I don't remember a thing.  I remember this zucchini dish that I made which I really liked.  I remember lending out the recipe book that contained the zucchini recipe.  I remember never getting that book back and not remembering the recipe with enough exactness to replicate it.  And I remember being sad about it.  I don't remember the nut lasagna.
In fact, to my mind nuts were never in my savoury dish repertoire.  They were quite present in the sweets/dessert genre but that's it.  It's cool to be reminded that at some point long long ago I used nuts in a dish that didn't contain large quantities of sugar.
Well, I wish that I had not forgotten how wonderful using nuts in savoury dishes can be.  The silver lining is that it's been like a whole new discovery over the last year or so.  I've used peanut sauce for chicken and stir fries.  I've put ground cashews in chicken tikka (my fam is still raving about that chicken recipe).  This pasta recipe is being added to the nut list and it was good, really good.


It's not really pesto.  I'm not sure why I called it that.  I guess that because I ground some stuff up in the blender and I used a nut (not a pine nut mind you) it brought pesto to mind.  However, if you had some fresh basil to throw into the nut/parmesan thing that would be awesome too.


This little 'nut' experiment turned out to be a great mid-week dinner option.  I like that it's veggie.  I like that it's a great way to use kale in an out of the ordinary kind of way.  I like that it's pasta and it feels substantial.
Having been reminded of my nut lasagna I'm going searching tonight... for a nutty lasagna recipe... 'cause Damn, it sounds good.


Kale and Cashew Pesto Pasta Bake
serves 4 as a main course

2 cups cashews (or a mix or pinenut, walnut, cashew... whatever)
3/4 cups parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups cream
1/2 cup reserved pasta water
2 veggie bouillion cubes (dissolve in the reserved pasta water)
1/2 cup grated cheese (cheddar or something stronger if you wish)
4 cups cooked pasta (rotini or penne), reserve some of the pasta water
1 bunch Kale (diced to very fine, feathery bits)
1 small onion, sliced
1 rib celery, diced
1 lg clove garlic, crushed
2 cups button mushrooms (or mushroom of choice)
salt to taste
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
dash of pepper sauce (just cause)
1 tbsp of brown sugar (or honey)

Blend or puree together the cashews (or whatever), about 1/2 a cup of the parmesan and a little bit of the pasta water (enough to make a good paste).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Get a medium to large sized baking dish ready.
Saute the onion and celery on medium heat until the onions are becoming clear and the celery is browning just a little.  Add in the garlic and the mushrooms.  Saute for another 6 minutes or so.  Add in the Kale and cook until wilted.
Turning the heat down to low add the cashew puree, cream, bouillion cubes and grated cheese to the veggies and heat through.  Stir well so that nothing gets stuck to the pan.  Add the oregano, basil, sugar and pepper sauce (optional).  Check the taste and add salt if needed.
Toss the pasta into the veggie sauce.  Pour the whole thing into the baking dish.  Top with the remaining parmesan and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.
Cool for a few minutes before serving.

Stupid Snow.
Stupid Winter.
Stupid Spring.
Stupid Weather.
That feels better.  It needed to be said.
I know it could be worse my peeps, no needing to remind me.  But when you've already hauled out your bike, washed all the winter coats and snowpants etc., gotten rid of or stored snow boots, taken out jackets, cleaned your front hallway of all things salty and mucky...



this is definitely not a picture that you want to see out your window.

I was supposed to come home from work and have more students tonight.  A full night it would've been.  So, the silver lining to 10cm (ok... maybe just 8 cm) of snow at the end of March is that I got an unexpected night off.  All my students cancelled save one.


Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, I decided to make these with my time.  All of the homemade twix bars were done.  (Just and FYI here - you have to share those things when you make them... and you should make them... because even I couldn't resist those suckers)  We needed some comfort food.
What could be better and more simple and homey than vanilla cupcakes.  True confessions here.  I still don't truly know the difference between a muffin and a cupcake except that maybe the cupcake has icing.  AND I don't care if cupcake/muffins are passé.  Homemade cupcakes rock.  Little individual sized cakes with a little (or a LOT) icing to top it off.  I'm not a big fan of sprinkles so I kept Kid #1 and #2 from them until after the photos.



Magnolia Baker Vanilla Cupcakes
makes about 10 (I halved the recipe - feel free to double)

3/4 cup self raising flour (take 1 cup flour and add 1/4 tsp
3/4 cup (less 4 tbsp) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 lg eggs (ideally at room temperature)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Get a muffin tin ready with liners.
Combine both flours in a bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until they're light and fluffy ( just a few minutes)
Add in the eggs one at a time and beat well after each egg.
Add in the vanilla and mix well.
Add the flour alternately with the milk.  Mix well after each addition, beginning and ending with flour.
Divide into the muffin tins (I used about 10 for med/small cupcakes)


Bake for about 20 - 25 min. or until they are just spongy on top and a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely and ice as you would like.
I iced with chocolate mocha icing (the butter wasn't quite room temperature enough which is why you see these unsightly blotches of butter once in a while).