I'm putting Red Fife Flour into everything these days.  When I tried it the first time around I was hesitant.  I used it in bread and that was about it.  This time around I'm just putting it in with regular flour and mixing it all up in just about anything (except for the chocolate cookies that I made recently) and hoping for the best.  The coolest part is that things are turning out wonderfully.  I made a quick bread.  I made this.  I made another tart using half red fife and half all purpose... all of it was great.  Am I healthier for it?  Don't have a clue.  I know that I've said this before but when it comes to me and cooking - it's the challenge.  And not the challenge in the way you might think of a cooking challenge.  I couldn't give a rats ass if it's fancy or has the right combination of crunchy/smooth or whatever.  I want to see if I can make something taste good.  That's pretty much it.  Can I take something that nobody cares about anymore, or something that is good for you and make it into something that's great. Red Fife is like that for me.

Challenges can be funny things.  D and I are pretty driven people.  D has taken up running since shortly after I started and with my foot in the shape he's been doing much harder and longer runs than me.  I bike - a lot.  He works out regularly.  We're active.  I'm always doing crazy stuff in the kitchen - like I never stop really.  He's always jigging around with our computers/internet/tv settings and set up and all that crap that is completely foreign to me.  What's interesting to me though is that we don't challenge ourselves or feel driven in any serious way toward things.  Ex.  We've been in our house for just over ten years.  Sure it's a little small but it works for us and we've got no real plans to go anywhere for a while.  We've hardly done anything around the house - I don't know if we've even painted.  I've created a garden in the back but there's a serious pay-off for me in that.  In short, we're not terribly house proud nor are we aspiring toward the bigger house.

This is what our front hall looks like at the moment - pretty much at any moment... yikes.

Same with our car.  Same with... most stuff. We love being able to purchase art from our artist friends (serious artist friends).  We couldn't survive without music in our house and on our ipods.  But it just seems strange to me that I can care so little about some things and so much about others.  It strikes me that a true type A person would be just going for it in everything.  Probably giving themselves a stroke in the process.  D was telling me that he was lamenting the fact that he hadn't been practising in a while and hadn't done something or other around the house that he was supposed to do... 'it's sheer laziness' he was saying to himself.  Then he realized that he was having this inner conversation while he was totally killing a 14k run.  Nope.  Not lazy.  Something else I guess... we just don't know what yet.
So as I'm thinking about what drives and challenges me I keep coming back to the kitchen and how this stupid little bag of red fife flour has been occupying my consciousness lately.  I've been thinking of what else to do with it to see if it works.  To see how it would taste.  Maybe it's about curiosity, I wonder.  Either way this galette recipe lent itself beautifully to red fife flour and the stinging nettles were awesome.  I loved being able to stick to something seasonal and come out with such a great meal at the end of it.


Nettles and Mushroom, Red Fife Galette adapted from 'Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' - Deborah Madison
serves 2 very hungry or 4 moderately hungry people

Galette Dough

1 cup Red Fife flour (use whole wheat pastry flour if you don't have red fife)
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
11/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup ice water
1/4 cup plain yogurt

Filling

4 - 5 cups stinging nettles or other green, stemmed and finely chopped
1 cup onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups mushrooms (I used fresh shitake but something else would work too)
1 boullion cube dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp herbs - I used a combination of fresh (mint/chives/parsley/oreg) but dried herbs are fine too (basil, oreg/parsley) you get the idea. 
1 1/2 tsp salt
1  tsp pepper sauce (optional)
2 tbsp cream
1/2 - 2/3 cup strong cheese (I used aged cheddar)
1/2 - 2/3 cup goat cheese chevre

Crust:
Combine the flours, butter,salt and sugar together in a bowl.  Using a pastry cutter or a couple of knives start to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it's combined enough to look pretty crumbly. Add the water and the plain yogurt and mix until it forms a dough ball.  Refridgerate for about 15 minutes. 
Cover a baking pan (I use a cookie sheet or a pizza pan) with parchment or a non-stick baking mat.  Set aside.
On a barely floured surface roll out the dough to somewhere around 1/4 of an inch thickness.  I should be in a rough circular shape.  Carefully fold it up and move it to the baking pan to unfold it.  Set aside.

Filling:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Heat a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add in about 2 - 3 tbsp of the oil of your choice.  Add in the onion and turn the heat down just a little.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Add in the garlic and nettles.  Cook together just until the nettles have begun to wilt.  Add in the water mixed with boullion.  Cook for another minute.  Remove from the heat.  Add in the rest of the ingredients.  Check the taste and adjust if necessary. 
Scoop the filling into the centre of the dough circle.  Spread the filling out so that only about 3 inches or so of dough is left free all around the edge.  Fold the dough over the filling, overlapping where necessary and leaving some space in the centre for just the filling. 
Bake for about 35- 40 minutes or until the dough is just nicely browned. 
Remove and cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

It's getting to be that time.  I'm starting to think a little less about how I can stretch the turnip, rutabaga and cabbage and a little more about the new, fresh stuff starting to roll in.
The food box is shelling out stinging nettles and wild leeks.  I couldn't help myself - I ordered both.  Two weeks in a row.  Who knows how long this stuff will be around right.  Now I've still got some parsnips and carrots that need finishing up but other than that... oh and a little corn and green bean still left in the freezer... but other than that we're moving onward and upward my friends.  Onwards and upwards.  To... Wild Leek Pasta.


I must admit to you that I'm going to kind of miss my winter veg.  I've grown quite fond of celeriac, cabbage and beets.  I'm already missing my beet pickles and I think that roasted beet greens are just as good as anything else I've ever eaten.  I don't know why we don't serve more of this stuff in restaurants.  Is it that no one will eat it?
I was reading an article in Toronto's 'Now' Magazine in which the writer was lamenting that Steven Spielberg has bought the story to the Quebecois film 'Starbuck'.  That's right... he didn't buy distributing rights to the film he bought the story rights and is going to remake it.  The writer thought that the better thing to do would be to purchase the distribution rights and distribute the Quebecois film in the U.S.  It's a wonderful film and why mess with it?  'Cause that's what Hollywood does?  Do bad remakes of wonderful films.  Turns out that statistically less than 50% of Americans ever leave their country.  Seems that rather than watching 'Shall We Dance' in it's original Japanese (with subtitles) most audiences were much more interested in seeing the mediocre American remake.  Don't even talk to me about 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.  The subtitles... it feels hoity-toity.  It feels 'foreign' and therefor artsy and artsy is... bad(?).  I don't understand it but I think a similar thing only in reverse happens in restaurants.
I would love to see what a chef could do with celeriac or rutabaga or beets or locally farmed goat or whatever.  You've gotta search pretty hard for restaurants like that because it's a hard sell.  That kind of food feels like country food.  Food that poor, unsophisticated country folk might serve.  Something your grandmother forced you to swallow when what you really wanted to eat was chef boy-ar-dee ravioli (or maybe that was just me) and you looked forward to the day when you didn't have to eat boiled turnip anymore if you didn't want to.  You told yourself that when you grew up you could eat McDonalds every day if you wanted to.  And then you grew up and decided that McD's actually made you want to puke but you still never reconsidered those crazy, weird turnips and parsnips.  Yeah, it's like hoity-toity in reverse.


Having said all that, I was still pretty happy to see these locally grown leeks starring up at me from my food box.  I did though, feel a little twinge of sadness too.  I'd say that all in all this dish was a great way to kick off the spring growing season and send off the winter season with a big 'mwaaah'.   Goodbye my winter lovelies and hello my spring lovies.


Wild Leek and Sausage Pasta (I threw this one together myself)
serves 4 (generously) - 6 (appetizer... but who does that?)

4 - 5 cups pasta (like rotini or penne) cooked al dente and drained
1 lg bunch of wild leeks (about 20 altogether) - the whites sliced small and the greens sliced thickly
1 1/2 lbs (about 4 med sized) sausage - I used Garlic and Honey but Italian would be fine too - sliced into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/3 cup goat cheese chèvre
1 veggie bouillion cube dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper sauce
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp paprika

Heat a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add a couple of tbsp's of oil or butter.  Turn the heat down a little and add in the diced leek whites.  Saute just a couple of minutes and then add in the sausage slices and cook together until the sausage is cooked through (about 5 - 6 minutes).  Add in the leek greens and cook together for another couple of minutes.
Turn the heat down a little more again.
Add in the water/boullion cube mixture.  Cool together for a minute.  Add in the cream and stir well.  Let the cream warm in the pot for a couple of minutes.
Add in the parmesan and the goat cheese once the cream is warm.  Stir until the cheeses are melted in.
Add in the salt, pepper sauce (a little cayenne in a pinch), nutmeg and paprika.
Check the taste and adjust if necessary.
Gently toss the sauce with the cooked pasta.
Serve.

It came over me like a fit.  I just saw the picture of these things and new immediately that I needed to make them.  It's such a weird things because I honestly can't think of any time in my life when I have craved a bran muffin.  My weirdest/funniest bran muffin memory - my sister is going to kill me - happened while I was living in Montreal.  I was ridiculously young and had only been living there for a few months when my Mom and my sister came to visit for a weekend.  I was super excited and planned a full itinerary of events, which fortunately included sleeping, that I thought we would all enjoy.  I had just discovered these restaurant/cafe thingies that focussed on serving desserts.  Great desserts.  And there was one of the best within walking distance (a good walk) from where I lived.  I was so excited to drag them to this dessert place.  The specialty was cheesecake and you could go to the showcase and check out what you wanted to order.  Awesome.  My sister was pretty young at the time  - she's ten years younger than me - probably about 10 or so.  It had been a pretty big day and she was feeling kinda out of it.  Either way when the server came to take our order I excitedly ordered my raspberry mousse cheesecake and a decaf cappuccino.  My Mom gave her order... something similar.  My sister was last and she ordered... a bran muffin.  Stop.  What.  A BRAN MUFFIN.  I couldn't believe it.  Nearly fell off my chair.  I brought my sister all this way to this awesome dessert place and she orders.... a bran muffin.  I got over the shock and I learned to appreciate that my sister and I could do weird things together (she was addicted to 'The Monkeys' and we watched 'Desperately Seeking Susan' so many times that she started watching it while hanging upside down just so that she could see what it looked like) and that in fact, she got a lot of her weirdness from me.


It still makes me laugh though.  I've kinda had this thing against bran muffins ever since and it honestly wasn't until I saw these bran muffins that I realised that its changed.  I no longer blame bran muffins for stealing my sisters opportunity to enjoy absolutely wonderful desserts.


What's cool about these muffins is that they're almost eggless and sugarless and you don't miss it at all.  They're really moist and tasty.  I LOVED that these muffins included dates instead of raisins.  Raisins aren't my thing.  I'm not a fan of the texture and how they get all weird when they're baked... whatever. Dates are hot.
So, I think that this bran muffin recipe marks a cool new time in my life.  One where bran muffins no longer represent what I'm missing out on - cool, awesome, light, mousse, dessert things - and are something that I kinda like... maybe my sister had it right all along.


Bran and Date Muffins adapted from Good Things Grow
makes about 9 medium sized muffins

1 cup dates, pitted and diced very fine
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used organic greek yogurt)
2 generous tbsp honey or molasses
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Line about 9 muffin cups with liners.
Combine the warm water and the finely diced dates.  Set aside for about 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 75 degrees F.
Combine the wheat bran, both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.  Mix and set aside.
Combine the yogurt, honey, melted butter and egg together and mix well.
Add the softened dates and water to the yogurt mixture.  Mix well.
Add the flour mixture to the yogurt mixture.  Stir until everything is just combined and all ingredients are wet.
Spoon batter just to the top of each muffin tin.
Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until the muffins feel kinda firm to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool completely (or break them open warm and slather with something wonderful - think butter or cream cheese).  Store well covered or freeze for later use.

Work is not a job... that's a different thing entirely.
A job is what I did in high school.  The fast food restaurant, the book store,
I've been thinking lately a lot about work and life and how they go together.  I've always thought that they should be separated, compartmentalized from each other.  'Work is life/Life is work' being either a relic of our religious work ethic past or something that people who happily work 80 hr work weeks for ridiculous sums of money are fond of reciting off to us lesser individuals.  I'm becoming less sure though.
More and more I'm thinking that work is just a subset of life.  Albeit a large subset - probably one of our biggest.  These days we work for a paycheque but it used to be that we worked literally to subsist.  We farmed, we foraged, we made, we grew, we preserved and we did it all so that we could live.  It was work.  It was the only work that made sense.  And it was both our life and what gave us life.  The concept of leisure time is something that is quite recent in the history of human society.
You see I'm thinking more and more that life is work just as much as it is anything else we do.  I'm even starting to think that the whole idea of leisure and doing 'nothing' is a joke.  Like it's some kind of hugely successful propaganda campaign by governments and corporations to keep us on the treadmill, safely occupied.  But I only think that stuff in my 'super-tired-paranoid-conspiracy-theorist-but-probably-the-most-sane' moments.
What I'm trying to say - rather unsuccessfully I fear - is that I'm starting to feel like work and life need to and are meshing together more in my life. Work is something I've been feeling good about.  I've been feeling fed by it.  Work exists for me right now because of personal friendships (thanks KT ;-) and many of my work friends have become personal friends.  It all blends.  And this is where this post will now tie into the squares that you see floating around here.


My friend lost her father last week.  This is someone that I wouldn't have met if it weren't for work.  As time has gone by we've discovered that we work pretty well together and we like each other.  It all blends.  I wanted to make stuff for her family right away after hearing about my friend losing her father but they were heading out of town for the funeral so it would have been wasted.  When they got back I was in the thick of doing craziness like this and going to hear these guys and drinking a bit of this.  So I finally settled down enough to make these squares which I'm still disappointed about not because the squares sucked but because they weren't accompanied by the two or three other dishes that I had hoped for.  I dropped them off with some bran muffins (recipe to come) for her and her family.


I'm not quite sure how to end this post and I think it's mostly because I really haven't completely worked through my thoughts about work.  Either way, these squares were good.  I tried two before they were sent off.  I added a little more butter to the topping because when I made it to the original specs it just wasn't enough crumble.  It does make a big pan so it's a great one to share.



Pear and Apple Pie Squares adapted from Technicolor Kitchen
makes 1 9x13 pan of squares


5 pears (I used home canned bartlett pears), sliced and then diced
2 apples (good cooking apples), sliced and then diced

Crust
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Topping
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cover a 9x13 inch baking dish with foil leaving the foil folded over the edges.  Butter the foil and set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
For the Crust:
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Set aside.
Beat together the butter and brown sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Add in the vanilla and the egg.  Mix together until fluffy and well incorporated.
Add the flour slowly, stirring continuously.
Once combined well pour into the foil lined baking dish.  Press the batter down a bit.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until turning golden and pulling from the pan at the edges.
turn the oven down to 350 degrees F.
Cover immediately with the diced fruit.
Topping:
combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix until just blended.
Add in the cubed butter and cut together using two knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture is a crumbly texture.
Sprinkle evenly over the fruit layer.
Bake for 25 minutes or so.  The topping should be kind of melted together and kind of blended with the fruit a little.  It will be a little golden as well.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cutting into bars.

I'm getting the soap box out.
I'm getting up on the soap box... steady... and up.
And now...

D went to a birthday party recently.  The party was for a former church friend.  I haven't seen this person in a long time.  We used to do service music together.  D happened to be in the area and decided to swing by and catch up a bit.  In talking, I came up and D got them up to speed on what I've been up to.  Upon hearing what's been happening for me lately at home and at work our friend replied that my success is a sign of God's favour.
D told me about the conversation and to be honest I didn't think anything much about it at first.  However, after a couple of days passed I began to get mad.  After another day or two passed I got even angrier.  Now don't get me wrong, I totally understand where that statement came from and that it was intended as a positive thing rather than negative.  So what was it exactly that had my blood boiling.
Here it is - by telling me that where I've gotten to and my successes are God's favour it feels like my own efforts had nothing to do with it.  To be honest, it felt like an insult and trivialisation of the blood, sweat and tears that have brought me to this place in my life.
Labouring through years of an undergrad degree, broke and struggling the entire time.
Working dumb jobs until I stumbled on this one, which I love.  Working like crazy to make that job my own.  Mothering two children while working.  Learning the game of politics and not being afraid to play it.  Look, anyone whose gotten anywhere in their life has worked hard. Damn hard.  If that's what one might call the favour of God then I certainly don't see it.  If the favour of God takes that much toil on my part then I'd hate to see the opposite.   As I've gotten older I've learned to see opportunities for what they are and take the best advantage of them that I can.  It's called growing up and getting smart.  When someone gives takes my hard-earned contentment and puts it in someone else's name it feels like it's been stolen.  So in short I think it's bull and it makes me seethe to think that someone would credit God with all my hard work.
And... down I get from the soap box.


This, as you may have guessed by now, has nothing to do with bread.  It's just that while spending a little quiet time kneading this bread my brain had a chance to put all of this together.  I love Red Fife flour.  It's a beautiful thing.  I got mine from local granaries but I'm told that it's also available at the Bulk Barn here in Canada.  If you find it please pick it up and give it a try.  If you don't have red fife flour then by all means substitute away - try rye or pumpernickel or... whatever.  This bread worked out really nicely.  I thought it tasted good.  Quite good.  So if you find some Red fife flour and you've got a few minutes to knead some dough and work out some issues then go for it.  Give this stuff a try.  You won't be sorry.


Multigrain Red Fife Bread  adapted from King Arthur Flour
makes 1 loaf

1 1/3 cups warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup red fife flour (or a combination of cornmeal and pumpernickel flour)
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup  - less 2 tsp - brown sugar
1/4 cup dry milk powder

Combine the warm water, dry yeast and 2 tsp's of the brown sugar together and set aside in a draft free spot for 10 minutes to proof.  The mixture should have doubled in size and be bubbly and foamy.
Combine the flour's, salt, the rest of the brown sugar and dry milk powder.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour.  Stir until it forms enough to turn out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead for 8 - 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth almost silky.
Place the dough into a buttered stainless steel bowl.
Cover with a clean cloth and place in a warm, draft free spot for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Reshape the dough into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan.  Cover with a clean cloth and set in a warm, draft free spot to rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has risen about 1 inch over the rim of the loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Brush the top of the loaf with a little melted butter if desired.
Bake for 35 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown on the top and you can knock on it and it sounds hollow on the inside.

These brownies were a delicious disaster.  The problem... you could taste the cherries.  I couldn't even find them in the brownies.  Maybe it's because they're weren't enough in the recipe.  Maybe it's because they were home canned and therefor a little too squishy.  Maybe because I chopped them too small.  I think that one I might have chewed one but I'm not even sure.  So from the let's-get-all-experimental-by-using-canned-cherries-and-be-super-cool it was a grand failure.  Going by taste alone you would never know that these brownies contained cherries.


Going by taste alone though you would never classify these a failure because they were freaking delicious.  Five words:  YOU   MUST   MAKE   THIS   ICING.  There I said it.  I hate it when food bloggers do this.  'You gotta do X'.  'These are the awesomest thing ever'.  'You haven't lived until you've done x'.  'If you don't make these now you'r life is essentially void and without true meaning'.... whatever.  B.S. I say.  But this icing is amahzing.  Truly.  The icing made the brownies exceptional for me.
The brownies were made for a close family member who is not well at the moment.  He's just had surgery and is recuperating but having to deal with ongoing treatment (yup, it's that kind of thing) and with his life basically changing drastically and permanently.  He needs cheering up and he requested something sweet and homemade - which I happily made for him and then left them in the able hands of his nurse, my mother-in-law, to be doled out as she sees fit.  I had to oblige.  It's what I do.  True confession:  I kept some for myself.  It was a big pan and so I halved it.  Next true confession:  I'm contemplating making them again.


It's been 'Wanda Doing Acts of Cooking Kindness' lately and I'm feeling pretty damn good about myself just now.  I took some bread to KT and G for them to munch on whilst staying up all night with their foster newborn 'male-child'.  Brownies are off to my step-father-in-laws belly to lift his spirits.  I'm going to be making some food for my colleague and friend who just lost her father to cancer last weekend (she would have some stuff now but they're out of town for the funeral).
It's something that we've gotten out of the habit of doing and it's important.  Bringing something homespun or homemade to people who need it, when they need it.  It tells them that they are important. It tells them that eating is something that needs to be a priority even when it's not something you have the energy or desire to do.  It reminds them that eating can be an almost sacred part of our humanity and what connects us all.  We all eat.  It's nourishing.  It's community.  It's life.
You don't actually have to cook something for someone though if it's not your thing.  Make them a card.  This week I made a bristol board poster for my colleague.  All the boys at the school are signing it so that when she gets back she can read their prayers for her and her family.  The poster sucked.  I'm not a DIY kind of person but it felt good to do it and when I read what some of those boys wrote for her even  I was touched.  Whatever you can do will be so valuable and appreciated.  It's important and it's a good thing to do and it makes you feel just as special as the person receiving the stuff.  So definitely go ahead and make the icing - you'll thank me - but also think about doing something for somebody else too - you'll feel even better.


Cherry Brownies adapted from Cosmic Kitchen
makes 1 9x13 pan

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp water
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cherries (I used home canned)

Ganache Icing

1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter
7 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or higher), coarsely chopped


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan (or use parchment or foil) and set aside.
Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
In another bowl combine the sugar, brown sugar, melted butter and water.  Whisk until combined and kind of getting a little frothy.  Add in the eggs and whisk until a little more frothy.  Add the vanilla and whisk until combined thoroughly.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.  Mix until the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.  Add the cherries and stir just until mixed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 18 minutes (I turned my pan around half way through baking).  A cake tester may come out with some slightly wet crumbs on it but that's ok.  Let it cool.
Ganache:
In a double boiler add the cream and heat until little bubbles are forming on the side of the bowl.  Add the pinch of salt and stir together for a few minutes.  Using a wooden spoon or silicon whisk add the chocolate and butter and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and spreadable.
Pour over the mostly cooled brownies and spread evenly.
Feel free to add sprinkles.
Cut into squares once the ganache has cooled completely.

Oh Damn.  Three times.  That is the number of consecutive bread posts that I have put on this blog.  There must be some sort of rule about that kind of thing.  When I realised how crazy it had gotten I decided then and there to put something here that wasn't either sweets or bread.  Jeez, we do actually eat real food.


In fact, I've somehow gone and gotten these... both a bag of turnips and a bag of rutabaga's.  I don't know what I was thinking really.  It's that damn masochistic streak rearing it's ugly head again.  I also got some stinging nettles that found their way into a baked pasta dish and something else that I can't remember right now.  But this.  Well this found it's way into my kitchen via a couple of sources.  I've made Shepherd's Pie a bajillion times or so.  I've always seasoned it up like crazy but the addition of celeriac to the mash and the cider vinegar/dijon/molasses mix really intrigued me.  I liked the results.


As a side note, I've decided to scale back my tv watching to almost nothing again.  I go through these phases where things really jazz me and then these other phases where I feel dumber just being in the same room with tv.  I'm in the later phase at the moment.  Don't get your gitch all in a knot or anything, I'm still watching tv and I'm not going to pass judgement on you for watching it all day if you want to.  I do get that sometimes you just want to sit and completely veg.   I've just scaled my viewing back to maybe 3 hours per week or so.  I'm still surfing quite a bit and am buzzed that this guy is back in action - check out his comeback debut and just tell me that it's not totally inspiring to have this guy back - I'm just choosing my shows very carefully.  I do honestly wonder why we watch anything.  There is so much absolute drivel.  Like pure drivel.  I waste so much time sitting and doing nothing that I just began to get disgusted with the lack of intelligence in the programming and with myself for spending my time with it on in my house.  I swear it makes me stupider.  I've got no tangible evidence for that claim however.  I'll let you know if I start remembering things better and using better grammar.  In the short term though I can tell you that I get a whole lot more accomplished in an afternoon and evening.  The house is a lot more peaceful too and that's worth it's weight in gold as far as I'm concerned.


Back to the Pie.  Ground Pork and I have become pretty good friends lately.  In fact, pork has generally just been changing my life... in all it's wonderful forms.  You could use beef here but if you do I might throw in a little bit of bacon or something just to add some complexity to the flavour.  Honestly, this is a dish that the kids never get tired of and I've served Shepherd's Pie to more than a few dinner guests.  It's just one of those things.  Now I've gotten the celeriac figured out, I've gotta sit down and contend with the turnip and rutabaga situation.


Root Vegetable BBQ Shepherd's Pie adapted from Good Food UK and Better Homes and Gardens

3 - 4 med/lg (about 3 cups) potatoes, thickly cubed
3 sm/med (about 3 cups) celeriac, thickly cubed
4 tbsp butter
1/4 - 1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup (generous) cheddar, shredded
1 tsp salt

1 1/2 lbs ground pork
1 med/sm onion, diced
2 lg carrots, thickly diced
2 lg parsnips, thickly diced
2 cups mushrooms, thickly sliced
1/2 cup ketchup
1 bouillion cube
3 tbsp Worcestershire
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp dijon
3 tbsp molasses
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper sauce (optional)
2 cups green beans or green peas (I used frozen stuff from last years garden)

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add the potatoes and celeriac.  Boil together for about 15 minutes or until the celeriac is fully softened.  Drain the water off the veggies.  Add the butter and the milk.  Mash the potatoes - I used a potato masher but if you would like to used a food mill or a potato ricer that's quite fine.  Once they are mashed sufficiently to your taste then add in the cheddar and the salt.  Mix together and set aside - the cheese will melt in nicely.
In the meantime.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Have a large casserole dish ready.
Heat a lot pot or dutch oven over medium heat.  Add in about 2 - 3 tbsp of oil or lard.  Turn the heat down just slightly and add in the onion, carrots and parsnip.  Cook together for about 4 minutes.  Add in the ground pork and cook together another 3 - 4 minutes or until the ground pork is just browned.  Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the parsnip and carrots are reasonably softened.
Add the ketchup, bouillion cube, Worcestershire, cider vinegar, dijon and molasses.  Stir and cook together for another 5 minutes turning down the heat a little more if needed.   Add in the salt and the pepper sauce.  Check the taste and adjust if needed.
Pour the pork mixture into the baking dish.
Cover with the green beans or green peas (or a mixture).
Cover the entire thing by scooping the mashed potatoes over the top.  Spread the potato out evenly.  Sprinkle a little more cheddar over the top and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until the top is golden the sides are bubbling.
Let it set for about 12 minutes before serving.