When I'm not at Work

Rice, Rice, Rice

Oh Man! I really hate it when I don't have the ingredients that I need. I haven't been doing a big grocery shop lately. I've been relying on the food box (I can get stuff other than just veggies and fruit - thank God!) and stopping in at the local 'Valu-Mart' on the way home from work. So far, it's worked fine... You know... a dozen eggs here, some milk on the way home, bread in the food box once a week. But you know things are really slipping when you run out of rice and forget to replace it! So, what happens is I get 3/4 of the way through this recipe and discover that I don't have rice.

I'm stunned.

I take a moment to regroup.

Okay, I can use pasta and turn this into a pasta sauce thing. Thinking...

No, I don't want to do that. I want rice.

Ok. Put a lid on the pot and keep it 'til tomorrow, at which point I will have bought rice and ... done.

That is precisely what I do. Come home from work the next day with a bag of rice in hand and get'r'done.

This dish is a great way to use up leftover rice - or veggies that you want to use up - and you could substitute any other interesting sausage in there too. I called this post 'Rice, Rice, Rice' because I truly don't know what to call this recipe. It's kind of a kitchen sink thing. Tomato, veggies, hot sausage, smoked paprika. I don't know... call it whatever you want but don't call it tasteless because that would be a lie!

Rice/Tomato/Sausage/Veggie Dish (shoulder shrug)

serves 6

1 onion, diced small

2 ribs celery, diced small

1 small to medium sized zucchini, sliced small

1 bunch spinach, washed and sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

6 hot italian sausage, cooked and sliced thin

4 cups of rice (I cooked the rice until it was about 3/4 cooked and then added it to the dish)

6 - 7 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce

4 dashes of Bitters (optional)

1/4 cup fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, parsley works well)

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 tsp salt (to taste)

dash of pepper sauce

1 large can of diced tomato

I used organic chicken bouillion cubes as well which will alter the amount of salt needed - so if you choose to use bouillion I would wait to add salt until after this so that you can adjust the taste.

(If you don't have leftover rice - In a medium sized pot, boil some water to get the rice started. Once boiling add 2 cups of rice and cook until about 3/4 cooked.) On another element, heat a large dutch oven. Once heated add some oil (about 2 - 3 tbsp or so) and begin to saute the vegetables. Once the onions have become limp and transparent add in the cooked, sliced sausages. Saute for a few minutes together. Begin to add the spices (holding off on the salt if necessary. Add in the worcestershire, bitters and pepper sauce. Add the canned tomato and then the rice. Allow everything to cook until the rice is done. Check the seasonings and adjust as necessary.

Orange Cookies

Today I went with my daughter and the Eco-Club at my school to City Hall. We were staying there for lunch and visiting the new Green Roof that has just opened recently. We also got to meet with the Deputy Mayor - Joe Pantalone - who was instrumental in getting the green roof installed. We were also celebrating our schools success at getting 'Silver' Eco School Certification. We sat in the rooftop garden and ate our lunch (litterless, of course ;-). The weather was perfect. I was able to bring my daughter with me and we had a great time.

This all, fortunately, coincided with my baking day (usually either Sunday or Monday). So, I was able to share these fantastic cookies with some of my colleagues. We thoroughly enjoyed them. I'm not kidding when I tell you fantastic. I can't even tell you exactly what makes these cookies work but man, do they work! Do not skip the frosting (as I briefly considered) on these babies. It would be tragic.

Caroline over at 'Whipped' wrote that these cookies could change the world. Ah... if only it were so easy. However, I think that we could at least get a few minutes of world peace with these ones....

Orange Frosted Cookies

1 cup shortening (or butter - I used unsalted at room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 - 3 tbsp fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)
1 tbsp orange zest
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:

3 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 - 3 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 -2 tbsp grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside. In a larger bowl mix together the butter and sugar and mix/whip until fluffy. Add the egg and orange juice and mix well. Add in the orange zest until mixed in. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. Place in smallish spoons on a lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 - 12 minutes.
Allow them to cool completely.

In another bowl sift the icing sugar and then add the butter and about 1 or 2 tbsp of the orange juice. Mix well and add the last tbsp or so once it needs it (wait until things have gotten mixed a bit though). Once the mixture looks like it's the right consistency (ie. not too runny) add in the orange zest.
Spread about a tbsp full of icing onto the top of each completely cooled cookie.

Boring but delish comfort food

Up to now I have had a very small repertoire when it came to pasta sauce:

1. Something creamy

2. Something in a tomato sauce... which I had always referred to as Bolognese.

Recently though, I have discovered that Bolognese doesn't really involve tomato at all, at least not in the 'throw in a bottle of crushed tomato' kind of involvement. Also, Bolognese (so I'm told) can have butter in it - yeah... butter!

Well that revelation certainly peaked my interest. I'm all mixed up though because now I don't know what to call the tomato stuff (I'll do a post with that stuff though 'cause I like it - I've got it down to a science now), in the UK they call it 'bog' or 'bol'.

In any case, I was checking out this article in Saveur magazine a while ago and it's changed the way that I think about simple pasta sauces (we'll talk about Spaghetti alla Carbonara at some point) because this is just minced meat and some very simple additions. I love the milk/cream addition and now greatly appreciate how important good parmesan is to a recipe. I can't tell you how happy you will be if you spend a little extra on some good parmesan, generally of course, but especially here.

So, if like me, you have some short people bothering you constantly with 'Mommy... what's for dinner' and you are finding yourself in need of some easy, comforting food that you can make without serious effort or thought... you've found your recipe. Open a nice bottle of red and throw some green stuff on the side and you're good to go!

(Wanda's) Classic Bolognese

serves 4

1 lb of mince (beef or lamb would work nicely - both?)

good sized chunk of Pancetta (ok - definitely use a few slices of bacon in a pinch)

2 ribs celery, diced

1 small onion, sliced thin

1 small pepper, diced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 good dollops of butter

3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tbsp dijon mustard

oregano, basil (fresh or dried) to taste

4 tbsp sugar

3 tsp salt

dash pepper sauce (should you so desire)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

In a heated Dutch oven add the pancetta and the mince. Let it cook enough to release some of the fat. Once fat is in the pan add the veggies and cook together with the meat until the onions become limp and transparent (won't take too long - 4 min. maybe).

Add in the butter, Worcestershire and dijon. Cook together for a few minutes. Add in the herbs, sugar and salt. Cook together again for a few minutes. Add in the tomato paste and mix it into the liquid in the bottom of the pan. Once blended add in the cream, milk and parmesan. Cook at very low heat for about 30 hr.

Serve over pasta of choice - we like long ones for this recipe.

What to do when you don't know what to do.

Sometimes it's all about necessity. You don't want to, you probably don't have time to but it has to happen. It's like being dead tired and it's late and you just want to crawl into bed but you and your kids have no clean gitch (underwear in my sister's language) for the next day. So, you haul your ass (and your clothes basket) to the washing machine and make it happen.

This cake was kind of like that for me this week. As you all know, I'm trying my hand at doing it all (or as much of it as I can manage) by hand. That means not buying junk food, snack food, processed food - you know the drill. So, if I want to have something sweet and nibbly for our week then I have to make it. This time though, it was driven by necessity and a serious case of 'now or never'. Dying sour cream in the fridge, Sunday afternoon (and trust me, once the week starts this just won't happen) and it's gotta get done.

So, instead of the washing machine it was plunking my ass in front of the computer screen and checking out sour cream recipes at epicurious.com and this is what I ended on. The cake itself was a bit half-assed for me. You are supposed to use Maple Sugar - which I don't have and had no intention of going out to get (although I did have some mean organic maple syrup handy - nice, tidy, dark stuff) mostly because I haven't the foggiest about where to get it. I just used plain old brown - so it did affect the maple taste significantly. As a result, I found the cake a little on the sweet side so in future I would cut the brown sugar by a bit. I didn't make the glaze business either. The reasons for that were two-fold:

1. I was afraid that if it stayed on the cake for more than a day or so that the cake might get quite soggy (and also I would have to refridgerate the cake due to the sour cream)

2. Too damn lazy!

Poor cake - I'm not really selling it here but for all that it was quite nice. It did well by us for the week and I would definitely make it again.

Sour Cream Maple Cake (without the Lemon Glaze)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup and separately 1 1/3 cups brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

13 tbsp (WTF???), read 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 lg eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease and flour a bundt pan.

In one bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream and maple syrup.

In a third bowl mix together the nuts, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon.

In a fourth bowl (you're going to do lots of washing here!) cream the butter and 1 1/3 cups brown sugar until fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour in three additions (mixing well after each), alternating with 2 additions of the sour cream mixture.

Pour about 2/3 of of cake batter into the prepared pan. Cover with the nut/sugar mixture. Pour the remaining batter on top. Spread evenly.

Bake for about 50 - 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool about 10 - 15 min. before removing from pan to cool completely.

This is where I ended.

The Glaze though goes like this:

1 1/3 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Mix ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes. Add to the cake just before serving.

Curry in a beautiful basket.

When something looking like this comes into your life...

You have to write about it. I mean, look at those beautiful little baskets! 'What's in them?' You ask??? Well, spices, of course. Beautiful, organic curry leaves and turmeric. They are also Fair Trade and come in adorable little baskets!! These little beauties are on special all month from the company that brings my organic food box and believe me, I'm taking advantage of the special. Last months special was Cocoa Camino Chocolate and yeah... I took advantage of that one too.

Well, when these lovely little baskets emerged from my food box, I just knew that I would have to cook with them immediately. Fortunately I had some fresh veggies to work with.

As I've mentioned before, I've been diggin' veggie food lately and with fresh stuff to go with, who needs the meat?

Well, actually this curry would be just as nice with something red. Anyway, meat didn't make it into this one. I made a delish curry with mushrooms, spinach and coconut milk. The mushrooms really give your teeth something to sink into and the coconut milk is sweet, smooth and makes you feel all warm inside.

Spinach and Mushroom Curry

5 cups mushrooms, halved

1 bunch (about 4 cups or so) spinach, stems removed and sliced thin

1/2 onion, diced small

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp garam masala

3 - 4 curry leaves

2 tbsp cumin

2 tbsp turmeric

1 tsp each, coriander, ginger, cardamom

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 can coconut milk

In a large, heated Dutch oven saute mushrooms and onions over medium heat. Use whatever oil of choice (I like clarified butter or leftover meat fat). Once things get a little wilted add in the garlic and the spinach. As the spinach wilts, form a paste with all the spices (use a little bit of water for this). Add the paste into the vegetables, mix well. Add in the coconut milk and add extra water if needed. Turn the heat down and let it simmer gently for about a half hour. Check the taste and add salt if needed.

Serve over rice.

A Dedication... well it was supposed to be.

I really wanted to dedicate this blog post to my sister and my sister-in-law. You see they both have their own blogs too. My sister is kind of using her blog like it's a journal. We get to see inside some of her own inner-journey. My Sis' Mel has two gorgeous kids, works and has recently fallen in love with gardening. I love seeing the pics on her blog and these beauties (recently taken in my own garden) are dedicated to her. It means so much to me that she is doing her blog and I'm inspired by the honesty that she writes with.

My Sis-in-law is also an inspiration. She has a blog too. Her blog is about writing and yes... she is a writer. Her first novel was published about 2 years ago and she has been working ever since. She also works, has 3 gorgeous kids and is married to my brother (I won't comment ;-) I can't imagine how she juggles everything and still manages to keep up with a blog that is inspiring a lot of other people to write as well! My Sis-in-law is gaga about chocolate and this post was supposed to be about chocolate.

And it is.

Sort of.

There is chocolate in it.

To be honest, I just couldn't resist this ice cream. Thoughts of summer (I might be seeing them this summer - they all live in Calgary which is pretty far from T.O.) and the sounds of this recipe just caught me and I couldn't walk away. Who can resist caramel and chocolate. I won't lie to you, this recipe called for a little bit of fiddling. Really though, not only was the fiddling more time consuming than difficult, it was MORE than worth it. You must try this ice cream. I wish that I could send it out to my Sis-in-law and my Sis ('cause I think that she might also LOVE this one) so that we could all enjoy it together.

Chocolate Chip Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 tbsp salted butter (I didn't have so I used unsalted butter and upped the salt content to 1 tsp)

scant 1/2 tsp sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel)

1 cup heavy cream

5 lg egg yolks

3/4 tsp vanilla

1 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Make an ice bath - fill a lg bowl 1/3 full with ice cubes and add enough water to make them float. In a smaller bowl pour 1 cup of milk and place on top of the ice cubes with a seive at the ready.

In a medium sized sauce pan (heavy bottomed) begin to cook the sugar over medium heat. As it begins to melt stir until it's dissolved. (the lumps will melt) Continue to stir occasionally until the mixture begins to go brown and starts to smell like it's going to burn. Remove from heat and add the butter and salt. Once butter is melted then add in the cream (slowly, stir as much as you can) and the rest of the milk. Return to the heat.

Whisk the yolks in a small bowl and gradually add to the caramel mixture (could just add some of the caramel mixture to the egg yolks first and then add the whole thing back into the pot on the stove) making sure that the yolks will not cook on contact. Stir the whole mixture constantly until it reaches about 170 degrees F (use the spoon trick - if the mixture doesn't come back together once you run your finger through it off the back of a spoon then it's pretty much ready)

Remove from the heat and pour through the seive into the bowl of chilled milk. Mix thoroughly and add the vanilla. Cover the mixture with cling-wrap (right on top of the custard so that a film doesn't form on the top) and continue to chill in the ice bath. Once it's cooled enough put it to refridgerate for about 8 hrs or until completely cooled.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and cool slightly.

Pour ice cream into ice cream maker and churn until it starts looking solid. Once it looks ready to put into freezer containers, add the melted chocolate and stir just enough to create a ripple.

Pour into freezer containers and freeze for about 4 hrs.

Thaw just a bit before scooping...

Toffee Packaging

Sometimes I do stupid things when it comes to shopping. For example, on numerous occasions I've had things to purchase in my hands, I'm in the line waiting to pay and while I'm there I reconsider, leave the line, put all my purchases back where I found them (that's the really crazy part... I know!!) and leave the store. Sometimes, I'll go back to check something out for months and still never buy it! I'll plan the purchase, budget it out in my head and then chicken out (yeah, it is chickening out... really). Except when it comes to food stuff. I don't shop unwisely but I will spend the money, especially if something looks interesting. So, a while back I picked up these toffee bits in the grocery store. I would love to give you some kind of nice speech about how they are organic, or made with sucanat or whatever... but I can't. These are the awful, processed, teeth rotting things that should make me cringe. BUT... they landed in my house none-the-less.

I didn't think to do anything with them for quite a while. I was waffling about what exactly to do with these things on their maiden voyage in my oven. Anyway, I had a good friend in university whose Grandma gave her great advice when it comes to baking, 'When in doubt, use the recipe on the back of the package'. So, I checked the package and sure enough this recipe is what I found.

It's kinda like a brownie. Sometimes, I find blondies a little too cakey. With this one I added a little more butter (never a bad thing right?) and it turned out more gooey - kinda just right! I think though that the toffee bits just kind of melted into the texture of the whole thing. I thought that they might be crunchier but I couldn't even taste where they were... still, what resulted was good, subtle and just right.

Chipits Toffee Crunch (mmK - mine had no crunch) Blondies

adapted from the back of the chipits package!

As it appears:

1. Beat 2/3 cup unsalted butter with 1 cup brown sugar and 2 eggs until well blended and fluffy.

2. In a bowl, mix together 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well.

3. Add flour to butter mixture

4. Stir in 1 cup toffee bits and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (really guys, chocolate of choice here)

5. Spread evenly in greased 13X9 baking pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean

7. (optional) Remove from oven and sprinkle with more toffee bits.

8. Cool and cut into bars...