We've been out and about lately.
We've been living it up at the beach...


At my friend C's place, meeting her chickens....


Generally enjoying the freedom of getting up when we like and getting started when we like and all that goes along with not scheduling ourselves into oblivion during the summer.  Being at C's place is always great for me.  It speaks to my longing to 'get out'.  I feel almost jealous.  We had a great talk although it was too short.  Even though I had the kids with me they are now at an age where C and I can scoot out for a while and have some unfettered time to chat.
We talk a lot about food.  Because we both love food.  I always take food up when I go.  It's not because I feel like I need to or anything but just because I know that C is someone who loves food as much as I do - we can enjoy sharing the food together.


Our lunch together was some of my Eggplant and Tomato Pizza, 2 kinds of homemade pickles (I was in heaven), whole grain toast, hummus, cold eggplant curry, yellow cherry tomatoes from the garden and locally sourced cheese made from raw milk (again in heaven and the blue cheese was to die for... I almost asked for some honey to go along with it).  How about that for a fantastic lunch.
C and her partner B are constantly adding to their garden space and are really slowly morphing into a farm.  Their commitment to living life differently never ceases to awe me.  They have added a generous number of fruit trees to their land and even use the word 'orchard'... cool.  The nut trees are doing well. Their blackberries have had a rough go with the dry summer this year but damn they tasted good.  It would just take forever to pick a significant amount because they're so small.


The big addition to the family this year are the 9 chickens (Bantam's I believe but don't quote me on that... I'll deny it) that now have a lovely home in the back.  I've been thinking about chickens a lot after reading this book - Joel suggests that everyone should at least consider having a few chickens roaming around... for all kinds of good reasons.  It was great to see it happening for real with C.  All of the chickens have a name (yes, even though they know that these beauties won't be around forever... so to speak) and they wander around happily, cooing and pecking at whatever they can get at.  They have a little outdoor haven under the big pine tree close to their coop.  Their coop was hand crafted by B and it's a fortress.  Of course they had some set backs, an aggressive rooster and a chicken pecker that had to be *ahem* dealt with but for the most part these girls are happy to coo together and eat the kitchen scraps that get fed to them.  They haven't started laying yet but they are starting to brood inside the coop so it must be coming soon.  My kids are in love.  They want chickens.  Kid #2 nearly cried when he found out that we couldn't actually bring some of the chickens home with us.
What I did come home with though was a huge jar of honey (that I have to send C some money for - thanks for the reminder) made by one of their neighbours, some local corn, blueberries and 2 butter tarts.  Next time I head up I'm going to organize ahead of time with C to get some of that locally sourced cheese because it was amazing.  I dreamt about the cheese last night... that's how bad it's gotten for me.  When I get that cheese I'm going to share with all my friends and make sure that I have some of these with me.


I don't buy crackers any more because it takes so damn long for us to get through them.  This recipe makes the perfect amount and the taste is fantastic.  Just the right amount of butter and oats.  Perfect for blue cheese with a little honey on top... damn.



Seed and Oat, Red Fife Crackers adapted from BBC GoodFood website
makes about 2 dozen crackers depending on the size you go for


1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup red fife flour
2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt and red pepper flakes
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp poppy seeds
10 or so tbsp of water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the oats, flours, baking soda, salt and mix.  - I divided my flour mixture in half at this point and placed them in separate bowls - Add in the red pepper flakes, sesame and poppy seeds and mix.
Add in the butter and mix well.  Add in just enough water so that it forms a firm dough ball.
Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick or so.  Using a cookie cutter or a knife cut the dough sheet into whatever shapes you want.
Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until the crackers are just beginning to turn golden.  Remove and place the crackers on a cooling rack.  Cool completely before eating or packaging to give away.

It's variations on a theme in my kitchen these days.  I know that I just posted this great looking tomato galette with goat cheese and this looks a whole lot like the same thing.  It is a little different though.  I promise.  Even though it does look similar.  This one is... pizza.  Kinda.  Jeez.  Who cares... it looks great, it smells out of this world and it tastes fantastic.
I was originally inspired by these crazy things.


These, my dear friends, are the eggplants that came in my food box this week.  Their awesome, weird, quirky and beautiful.  Right.  They are also small - at least for eggplant.  The traditional thing that we call eggplant.  I considered many options for these specialties.  It started as a focaccia, morphed into a pie and then transformed into this final product... cornmeal crust pizza.  Let's face it, who wants to fuss too much right now?  Summer is in full swing and I'm all about doing as little as possible in the kitchen ...until maybe next week when my canning gets into full swing... anyone up for canning 3 bushels of tomatoes with me?


I'm feeling remarkably unfettered these days.  My garden hasn't produced nearly as well as I'd hoped but I have zucchini and somehow that's making up for my dud tomatoes.  I'm not depressed about it at all.  I'm valuing highly being able to sit at the park and read while Kid #2 rolls down the hill and swings off a bar like a monkey.  It's been amazing being able to bbsit for KT while she gets some medical attention - it's things like this that I can't do any other time of year without serious time crunching.  Today we went down to the beach and Kids #1 and #2 just played in sand and threw rocks into the water and algae at each other.  I watched in blissful quiet.  It won't last long, I know.  Already the sand in the summer hourglass is running low.  I'm determined to savour it.  To live in the moment I've got and be thankful... while I drink my beer on the back deck.  Sure the kids are probably eating way too much ice cream than should be legal.  Sure, weekly movie night now has an 's' on the end.  But it's important to have the balance in life.  I was talking to a friend recently who didn't want to hear anything bad or negative.  I understand the sentiment - it's not easy nor is it enjoyable to have sadness around you.  To talk about it or dwell on it.  But it does help me better appreciate joy.  It gives the good times depth - I need the sad to fully understand the happy... to put it simply.  It's the same for me with quiet.  I know what would happen if everyday life were like this for me.  All too easily I would start to take the quiet for granted and then it would become boredom.  Boredom which I would soon start to resent.  It would be completely lost on me if I weren't functioning on the knowledge that this is only for a time.  Even canning, though a time consuming job, is calming and soothing when you can take it at your own pace.  These things can even be comforting.  Soon the busy will be back and hopefully I'll be able to appreciate the structure and security that it gives me.  For now, I'm sitting back and listening to birds calling to each other, to the kids crying next door, staring up at an full blue sky... hearing the grass grow as they say.


So, here's to easy, delicious food that gives us all a little time to stop and smell the zucchini flowers.


Roasted tomato and eggplant polenta crust pizza adapted from 'BrownEyedBaker' and Lucid Food by Louisa Shafia
serves 6

Crust:
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1 tsp salt

Topping:
1 med/small Eggplant, thinly slice (1/4 - 1/8th of an inch)
1 - 2 med/small tomatoes, sliced the same thickness as the eggplant (relatively)
salt to taste
olive oil to drizzle
a few leaves of basil and oregano roughly ripped up
1/2 cup (ish) goat cheese
1/2 cup (ish) parmesan cheese - freshly grated is ideal here

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
slice the eggplant to about 1/4 - 1/8th of an inch thickness.  Sprinkle with salt and toss with olive oil.  Place each piece side by side on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 15 min on each side.  Remove from the oven and let the pieces cool
Bring the milk and veggie broth to a simmer.  Add in the cornmeal and whisk until dissolved into the liquid.  Turn the heat down a little and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until the cornmeal thickens to the consistency of thick porridge.  Remove from heat and cool for about 10 minutes.
Turn onto a lined baking sheet and press out to about 1/4 inch thickness in any shape you want.
Bake for about 15 minutes just to brown the crust a little.
Remove from oven
Add the sliced tomato and the roasted eggplant alternately, overlapping them just a bit, over top of the crust.  Sprinkle with salt and just a little olive oil.  Add little dabs of goat cheese here and there.  Tuck in little bits of basil and oregano around as well.  Sprinkle the parmesan over the whole thing and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until the cheese is just golden and the tomato is looking 'cooked'.
Cool for about 15 minutes before cutting.

I promised you an update on my very very little trip to Montreal.   D was in Germany and Kid #1 and #2 were kinda needing a little change.  I decided at the last minute to drive us down to Montreal and kick around for a day.  We got to visit family... D has family who live on a lovely, quiet island just north west of the island of Montreal.  Dinner was at 6:30 every evening, wine was opened and 4 generations were at the table.  That is pretty amazing.  We took a walk after our dinner, just around the island or through the extensive gardens.  We happened upon this little guy wandering through the greens - looking for a snack no doubt.


Kid #1 and #2 got into some serious adventures on the tree house - named 'Washington' by our hosts grandson.



We, of course, found our way to Amelio's for pizza.  Fortunately, we met up with some friends there.  That meant that when I order 3 whole pizza's for the 3 of us (me, kid #1 (11yr) and kid #2 (6 yr) that the table didn't look disgustingly lopsided - we have happily eaten Amelio's pizza leftovers for  days now.

I was, unfortunately, taking the picture (although you may have noticed I'm not a fan of getting my picture taken)

We also came home with copious amounts of beer (amazing Quebec micro brews) and bagels.

Before the harvest...

Once I got home I decided it was time to get to the potatoes.  I essentially don't know what I'm doing here.  I've gotten some advice from a friend who grew up on a farm and mostly knows what he's doing (thanks T).  That helped a lot.  He's the one who told me that I could always dig things up and then put them back in again if there are really small potatoes that still need to grow.  Alright then.
So this is my first harvest.  I'm happy with what I've pulled out so far.  I figure that I'll let some of these start to get eyes on them and then I'll throw them back in the ground too... why not.

After the harvest, with replanted potato plants.

Sorry, the pic capital 'S' Sucks

On the blog front I've been getting a lot more traffic lately.  I joined tasteologie and this canadian site called recipes.ca (a very nice commentor left that recommendation for me and I took her advice).  I don't know if that's what's causing the traffic or not but it's kinda freakin' me out.  I guess in a good way.
Last but not nearly least... the zucchini plant paint brush sex worked... first harvest of zucchini's.  It's a good day.

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.

You know me and my books.  I've got hang-ups about reading my books in the order that I get them.  It's just a thing.  I don't know why but it's my thing.  My BFF KT tells me that I read serious books a lot.  History, Politics, Environmental whathaveyou. For the record, I do read fun books sometimes too.  I've read all the Harry Potter books.  I've read 'Game of Thrones'.  Among some of my recent 'fun book' favourites is this series.  The accents read perfectly and Vish Puri is a fantastic character.
However, I've also been reading this book recently.  It's quite light in comparison to this book which made me want to build a bunker in the woods and wait for impending doom.  Joel's book, though light, has an edge.  This is no slouch.  This is a man who is a farmer as a vocation.  It's a calling.  He loves farming.  He loves the soil.  He loves the animals and he loves the life it provides him.  You feel that love in each page he writes.  You can also feel the depth of his frustration and his desperation to see the system, the system that we now call 'the food industry', change.


One chapter that has challenged me more than any other yet (I'm not finished reading it of course) is the one about energy.  He writes in depth about how cheap oil has changed how we think about expended energy.  When you can afford to pay for gas or oil.  When you don't have to think about where to get that gas or oil.  When you don't have to wonder if your horses can make it up that hill with their load or through the snow or whatever it is... well, that changes how we feel about energy in general.  We don't wonder about the energy that it takes to get from here to there, to make those plastic containers, to make our garbage disappear, to feed cattle in a factory farm all that shipped in grain... etc.
I decided that I'm going to make an even deeper effort to stop using the car.  Now I don't use it for much but I know that there are quite a few instances over the course of say a month where I could easily hop on my bike to run that errand or get the kids wherever.  We've got a bike trailer and Kid #1 is old enough now to keep up with me on her own bike.  So... off we go.


Our first trip of the year together on our bikes is downtown.  We're going to the bookstore and then to my BFF's house to watch the Olympic opening ceremony... and bring her some belated birthday cupcakes.  Just in case you were wondering, bike trailers don't have shocks per se.  They don't absorb the bumps like a car would so when you want to transport the lovely cupcakes with fresh raspberry cream icing you might also want to consider a better mode of carrying them than your tupperware cupcake holder.
FYI -  it doesn't work.  And you get very stressed out.
FYI #2 - your cupcakes will be completely sideways and/or upside down before you are anywhere near your destination.
FYI #3 - if you put them in the fridge after that the icing will stick to the tupperware and not back on the upside down cupcake.
FYI #4 - just go ahead and listen to your gut in the first place and carry the icing separately and ice them when you get there
FYI #5 - fortunately none of this affects the taste of the icing one little bit.
Another life lessons learned.


Raspberry Buttercream Icing adapted from 'SweetSavoryLife'
makes about 3 1/2 cups

1 cup butter (the higher the fat content the better) at room temperature
3 - 4 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup(ish) fresh raspberries, roughly mashed.

Beat the butter until it's a cream glob (just a minute or so).
Slowly add the icing sugar (if using a mixer turn down to 'low' speed) and once it's all added then mix more vigorously.
Add in the mashed raspberries.
Mix until everything is creamy, there are no lumps, and spreadable.
Spread or Pipe over a completely cooled cake or cupcakes.
Freeze whatever is leftover.

We're settling into something resembling a routine.  A very loose routine.  It's wonderful.  I'm enjoying it all.  It's great sweating each and every toxin out of my body (that probably some urban myth b.s. but it sounds like a great idea), wandering to the farmer's market, sleeping until 8 a.m. and staying up late.
The heat this summer, although wonderful - don't get me wrong, has kept me out of the kitchen a little more than I was expecting.


I have these wonderful fresh veggies to cook with but all I really want to eat are these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes with some homemade mayo.  Who would want to eat anything else?  What else even matters. However when you get something that looks as beautiful as this...


Well, you just have to cook it.
I could have stuffed it.  Lots of recipes out there for that.  Thought about it... ugh, too much work and it didn't look like it could feed us - ie. no leftovers.   Essential anytime of year but especially in the summer when it's hot.  I decided on a beautiful ratatouille.  Yes.  Ratatouille.  Rustic.  Simple.  So comforting.  Highlighting the summer veggies beautifully.  Problem.  Tomatoes.  I don't have any home canned tomatoes left.  I'm empty.  Broke.  Flat out.  They won't be ready to can for another month.  So what's a girl to do?
I cave in and off I go to buy canned tomatoes.  They're organic and everything else that's supposed to make me feel ok about buying that stuff.  So problem solved.  Wait... Next problem... I bought the wrong kind of tomatoes.  These are crushed tomatoes not diced.  Ahhhhh!  And I go off on my inner tirade:  This project is so doomed.  Why am I rushing through these things all the time.  Why can't I just have canned more damn tomatoes last year... etc.


I collect myself and decide to continue with an altered plan.  Stew.  Not ratatouille but stew.  It's not the same.  But as it turns out, it's actually just as good.


Ratatouille inspired Eggplant and PattyPan Stew adapted from 'The Silver Palate Cookbook'
serves 6

1 medium/lg eggplant in 1 - 1 1/2 inch chunks (I did not peel mine)
3 - 4 cups sliced pattypan (about 1/4 inch thick or so)
1/2 cup onion, diced
4 - 5 tbsp olive oil or grease of choice (I use lard when I can get it) - you might need a little more depending on the eggplant.
500 ml can crushed or diced tomatoes
4 cups sausage meat, cooked and diced or thinly sliced (I used honey garlic for this one)
2 veggie bouillion cubes
1/2 cup diced fresh herbs with a strong presence of basil
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
pepper or pepper sauce to taste

Heat a large heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat.
Add in the oil or grease.
Throw in the eggplant, pattypan and onion.  Cook together for about 10 - 12 minutes adding a little more oil/grease if necessary and cook together (stirring regularly) for another 10 minutes or so - turn the heat down a little if it's just too hot.
Throw in the rest of the ingredients adding just a little water if it looks too thick.
Cook together over low heat for another 40 minutes or so - the eggplant and the patty pan should be almost disintegrating.
Check the tastes and adjust if necessary.

NOTE:  You could also throw everything into a slow cooker once the onion, eggplant and pattypan have been browned.  Leave in the slow cooker on low for the day.

Sometimes you get a message or a card or an email or whatever and it just kinda sets you off.  It's tipped you into something surprising or taking you somewhere that you weren't expecting.  Two such things happened to me this weekend.
The first thing was started by me texting my BFF on her birthday.  It's a big birthday.  It's not fifty but it's not thirty.  It's a big one and this culture has made these 'big' birthdays even bigger.  We've got expectations.  Needless to say my BFF took 3 month old and G with her to Halifax for what was supposed to be a wonderful, relaxing, birthday getaway and from the sounds of it has resulted in an inconsolable, screaming baby fest and a distracted G and a miserable BFF.  I've been texting her all weekend to make sure that she is ok.  I've been completely distracted with concern.  I suspect that the 3 month old is teething (Hello!  What! - Way too early but there are already one of two peaking through) and is therefor in complete misery.  It's just a suspicion.  Sometimes travelling with very small ones just sucks.  There it is.
The second thing was getting a message from my sister who lives very far away in Calgary.  She couldn't sleep last night and was watching a movie.  She kept thinking about how much fun we would have laughing at the goofy movie (I think it was Moonstruck - Yup!) together.  And then she missed me and decided to write me and tell me about it.
And there it is two people that I care about who are at other ends of the country and we're missing each other a lot and can't get together.  KT and I will be able to get together, hopefully over a couple of martini's and some yummy food, as soon as she gets back and settled.  It will help her being back in her own space.
My sister is another matter entirely.  We don't see each other for years at a time.  It bites.  Having family that far away just bites.  My brother is in Calgary too (damn oil companies) and so I have neices and nephews growing up and I'm not a part of their lives.  It bites.  My kids have cousins that they essentially don't know.  They have Aunties and Uncles who don't know them.  It bites.
I spent a lot of time this weekend wishing that I could be with people who need me and who I'm missing... and maybe feeling a little sorry for myself too - I'll admit it.  I'm not going to begin to venture into the whole debate around firearms here because I'm thinking that if you've read anything at all on this blog you could pretty much guess where I would land on that one.  However, I will say that there are a lot of friends and families in Aurora who said goodbye to friends or family and will now be missing them endlessly.  They are now very far away.  And so I sit back and appreciate the fact that I can still call, skype or email.  I feel thankful that our time apart is not permanent but we are still here together on this planet loving each other.  My heart breaks for those who tragically will not be able to bridge the distance between them and their loved one anymore.


In the midst of all of this my heart needed some comfort food.  This is as close as it's going to get around here anymore.  No store bought mayo.  No store bought soup.  Straight forward ingredients and  canned tuna from a reputable source (ie.  please check out whether the brand you buy is conscious here).  It's more time consuming sure but the taste....



Tuna Casserole put together after years of fiddling by me.
serves 6 - 8

1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cups mushroom, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups broccoli, broken into coarse florets
4 cups greens, coarsely chopped
1/2 cups Herbs, finely chopped (I use a mix from my garden - parsley, chive, oregano, mint, dill)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper sauce (optional)
1/2 - 3/4 cup Mayo (see here for recipe)
1 lg batch cream of mushroom soup replacer (got my recipe here - you can make this a day ahead)
1/2 - 3/4 cream/milk
2 cans tuna or salmon (keep the liquid)
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
6 cups cooked pasta (I usually use penne or something like it)

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a large baking dish - I use one that is at least 9x13 but even a little bigger will do well.

Heat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.  Add in about 3 tbsp of oil and sauté the onion for a couple of minutes then add in the broccoli.  Cook together for about 7 minutes turning the heat down a little if necessary.  Stir regularly so that the food doesn't stick or burn.  Add in the mushroom and the greens.  Feel free to add a little more oil if it gets too dry.  Cook together for another 5 minutes.
Add in the herbs, salt and pepper sauce.  Stir well.
Add in the Mayo, mushroom soup replacer and milk.  Stir well.
Add in the tuna or salmon with the liquid.  Stir well and turn the heat down if necessary - if it's bubbling too much.
Add in 1 cup of the cheddar and the cooked pasta.  Stir everything well.
Add a little more milk if it's not quite liquid enough.
Pour everything into the baking dish.  Cover with the rest of the cheddar.  Feel free to add any other desirables to the top as well.
Bake for about 30 - 35 minutes or until the top is turning golden brown and the sides are bubbling.
Remove from the oven and cool for about 15 minutes before serving.