I've been dying to blog about Lococo's Market for some time now. I don't get there very often because it's in Niagara Falls, but if it's up to me to buy choice cuts of meat, well, this is my first choice. Lococo's has been around for a very long time and is a staple of Niagara's markets. It's located on Victoria Ave and Bridge St. They carry very few boxed and pantry goods. What you'll find there is farm-fresh produce and butcher quality meats in a cold room style shopping environment.I can't walk past their selection of steaks without having every urge and temptation to pick up their priciest steaks.
Yes, they aren't cheap, but so, so worth it! Keep in mind these three steaks fed Nuno and myself for two dinners as well as Owen's 2 baby portions.This is some high quality meat! Nuno grilled these on the BBQ for no more than 6 minutes. The fat rendered huge flames that cooked the outside quickly and kept the inside medium-rare (how we both like it).
Owen comes by the meat eating honestly. Yep, baby got rib eye steak too, only his was steamed. This time around he had a seasoned portion of meat (garlic, olive oil and thyme) and a seasoned portion of green beans pureed. And in true Owen eating fashion, he chowed down and loved it!
I can't let all this meat talk deter from the tomatoes. Of all seasonal produce, tomatoes in August are my absolute favourite. Since college, I spend all of August and September eating toasted tomato sandwiches for lunch. I keep a toaster at the office just for tomato season. My favourite way to enjoy tomatoes is with salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll switch it up with a little olive oil, fresh mozzarella and basil. But this recipe is killer as well and will be another option for my late summer tomato indulgences.
Yesterday we ate what I consider to be the perfect summer dinner.
It all started picking up the produce at Inn the Pines and Nokara Farms. Both of these farm stands are located in north end of St. Catharines at 7th Street exit.
The Grilled Fish Kebabs were a combination of tilapia and salmon. The corn for the Sauteed Corn with Bacon and Scallions was freshly sliced off the cob. I always pass when it comes to eating corn straight off the cob, but I've discovered the pleasure of fresh corn in salads and relishes. I feel like I'm finally able to enjoy summer corn! The Grilled Eggplant with Yogurt Sauce is a somewhat deconstructed baba ganoush with elements of tzatziki. There is quite a bit of this sauce left over so I'm looking forward to veggie dipping off it over the next couple days. Owen's dinner was a concoction based on a few elements of this meal. I steamed a portion of salmon and tilapia for him and then added the yogurt dressing (yogurt, parsley, lemon and cucumber) to the fish. I know it sounds odd, but it tasted great. The true test was seeing Owen's reaction. I gave him a bite and he absolutely loved it! Combining salmon and tilapia tastes really good. It really brings out a whole different flavour which is quite unexpected but more pleasant than each fish on its own. I'm starting to feel like a baby chef over here.
If that wasn't enough, I also made a summery dessert. This stemmed from trying to deal with all the peaches I blogged about earlier this week. I was quite undecided what to do with them all and found myself unable to work through them fast enough. I also discovered that cooking peaches can sometimes make them taste like canned, which is a complete waste. So I started to stress when I noticed some starting to go bad. I then remembered seeing a recipe for a no-bake Fresh Peach Pie that my mom made when we were kids. I quickly went ahead and made two pies.
Wow, seriously, as simple as this is, it's so great. Because most of the peaches are sliced and uncooked, they taste so fresh (as the recipe name suggests). I have to share this one with you all!
Glazed Fresh Peach Pie (Mom) 4 c sliced peaches ½ c water ¾ c sugar 3 tbsp cornstarch 1 tbsp butter 1 baked 9” pie shell Crush enough peaches to make one cup leaving the rest. Combine 1 c crushed peaches with water, sugar and cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Cook over low heat until clear (2-3 min) stirring constantly. Add butter & cool. Spread sliced peaches into pie shell, then pour cooked mixture over them making sure they are all covered. Chill for 2 hours. Top with whipped cream and serve.
I had a couple tweaks on my pie. I used a store bought graham cracker crust, added lemon (to prevent browning) and a bit of Peach Schnapps (for extra flavour) and deducted the extra liquid from the water measurement. I also pureed the cooked peach mixture for a creamier texture.
Last night we had Asparagus, Snap Pea and Avocado Pasta. This was published in Everyday Food magazine in June 2006. I've been meaning to try it and with the markets full of fresh asparagus, snow peas and basil I figured now was a great time to try this one out.
What was so great about this recipe, other than how absolutely delicious it is, is how great it was to create a dinner for Owen from the ingredients. I first gave him a couple bow tie pastas to eat/play with. Then boiled a few spears of asparagus and snap peas slightly longer than the rest. It was then blitzed in the food processor with 1/4 avocado, a few more farafalle and some of the pasta water. It was the perfect baby food texture and Owen happily gobbled up his entire portion.
If Everyday Food were to make a third book, this recipe should be published in it. We really enjoyed it and it will become a future dinner staple for sure!
I've come across a couple great sites for recipes that I'm so excited to share!
The first is Kraft Canada's 'What's Cooking' magazine online. Dating back to their early issues in 2000, Kraft has compiled all their recipes they published in What's Cooking and organized them according to issue. I'm hoping to spend a bit more time browsing around, but here is the link.
The second is Everyday Food's Online Recipe Index. I've never seen anything like this on the internet before. It's set up like a digital magazine recipe index.
They have published a couple digest recipe indexes before and I use mine all the time! It really helps maximize the use of all the Everyday Food back issues. But to have one now online, well, this one is so far superior to the printed copies. It is sorted alphabetically by keyword and if the recipe is online links are provided.I could spend hours browsing this index because not only is it full of recipes, the back pages provide their How-To's.With both hard and online copies I use it mostly for searching by key ingredients. The clever catch here is that in order to access it you must be an Everyday Food magazine subscriber. I highly recommend checking this site if you can get on it. Here's the link.
I'm not sure why, but these two recipes took a long time to make. I don't think I really took much time to coordinate them and jumped right into things without taking any of the timing into account. But everything turned out and it wasn't too bad of a meal. I don't think I'll make the Flank Steak w/ Parsley Sauce again only because the sauce was so pungent I tasted it all night due to the raw garlic flavour. It was so yummy at the time, but not so great at 4am. The Bulgar Pilaf was quite delicious and like most other salads and side dishes in this book, it lasts for a couple days (even improves in flavour after one day). I really enjoyed it the next day for lunch.
I get so sick of grilled veggies come the end of July that I typically say I don't like kebabs - period. I hope it's not because this is the first recipe to crank up the barbeque for, but I'll go so far as to say this recipe has changed my mind.It's so delicious I want to make it again - like now! The side of Mint-Feta Sauce is so creamy and a perfect match to the chicken and vegetables. This was such a great Friday night dinner.
I made dill pickles! I'm still in shock with how easy it is. I think I'll be making them fresh from now on to cut down on the clutter in the fridge. The pork club has left over pork tenderloin, bacon, scallion mayonnaise and swiss cheese. The recipe calls for alfalfa sprouts, which I love, but I'm not sure they are the safest thing to be eating so I used Boston lettuce we had on hand. The quinoa salad is a perfect summer salad consisting of quinoa, English cucumber, parsley and seasoning. This is a very portable dinner, so we met up at Happy Rolph's last night and had a family picnic outside.
I've decided to make some advances with Owen's feeding. Up until this point he's been eating pureed meats and cereals. But yesterday I ended up at a gal's house who was speaking about Baby Led Weaning. I'm still grasping the idea, but I decided to apply what I learned from the concept to how Owen eats. Basically you are giving the baby handful sized portion of soft food and letting them hand feed themselves. I decided this meal was a great opportunity to give it a shot. Owen had a long slice of cucumber, whole wheat toast stick and slices of avocado. Since everything he plays with goes in his mouth, he knew exactly what to do with them. We saw several bites and a big mess, but it really feels like this is a better way for babies to learn to eat rather than obsessively mashing all their food and feeding them from a spoon. So we'll see if we stick with it. I plan on still offering all meats, vegetables and fruits pureed as an option, but we'll start him out with his milk, then whole pieces of food and finally a spoon-fed puree.
Here is Flank Steak and Arugula Salad and a delicious side of Horseradish Mashed Potatoes. This used the other half of yesterday's broiled flank steak. The dressing on this salad is probably the easiest dressing short of buying a bottle of prepared. Salsa & balsamic vinegar. It works! I'm totally hooked on arugula right now - I kept snacking on it all week that when it came time to make this recipe I had to disparately run out and buy another container. A note about balsamic vinegar - it goes so nicely with arugula as well as flank steak. I'm pretty much a total convert on flank steak. I can't believe I used to buy those small frying steaks. Well, never again! This dinner came together very quickly which was nice. Everyday Food's technique for mashing potatoes made for the best mash I've ever made.
Now for Owen's first steak. You heard me right, my baby ate Steak! I took some of the more cooked pieces of flank steak and cooked until there was no pink was left. Then blitzed in the food processor and created a smooth consistency with milk. I then took a couple pieces of potato and mashed together with the meat. So how did Owen enjoy mashed potato and flank steak for dinner? I expected a fuss and resistance as I fed him the first spoonful, but much to my surprise he loved it! Looks like Owen is a true man, he loves his meat and potatoes. Good thing I have Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn to help me feed the men in my life!
This is my first time buying Flank Steak and I chose to buy it at Goeman's Lakeshore Meats. They are a fantastic butcher in the north end of St. Catharines, where else, but on Lakeshore Rd. It's nice and close and they are very friendly and helpful there.
Once I started working with the meat it required me to butterfly the steak. This is my first time butterflying and it was a simple task that I suppose could go horribly wrong if you were to use the wrong knife. The stuffing consisted of spinach, parsley, garlic, capers, asiago & balsamic vinegar and is then spread over the meat which is then rolled and tied with butcher's twine. The recipe called for two packages of frozen spinach, but I opted to use just one and it turned out perfect (there was even stuffing left over).
The steak is broiled for several minutes under the oven's broiler. This is my new favourite way of cooking meat even though it's a little risky. I've always had it work out because if you stay close and keep an eye on it everything should be OK. A probe thermometer is a great way of keeping track of the done-ness of the meat. Both Nuno and I enjoy a very rare piece of steak with charred outside, but when I took the meat out of the oven and sliced the middle was still very rare. It was easy enough to fix, I just sliced the entire steak, placed all pieces back onto the baking sheet and broiled for a couple minutes more.
The White Bean Saute, well, there isn't a lot of explaining here other than it's fantastic. Somehow all the ingredients in this dish bring out a fresh flavour in the tomato.
I loved eating both these recipes and will surely make them again. It really is an awesome dinner that tastes restaurant quality and is quite a lot of fun to make.
I neglected to mention in my last entry that this week's dinner choices are brought to us by Nuno. He has some flavour-foresight because these first few meals he's chosen have been so crazy good.
This is Pork and Soba Noodle Salad. I made two pork tenderloins on Monday so that the second could be used in this salad. I've had trouble with soba noodles in the past. Last year I cooked them according to the package directions and they were complete mush! This time around I tasted after a minute of cooking and they were good to go. The seasoning in this recipe is so spot-on. I'll be making this one again for sure.
The leeks are looking great at the farmer's market right now, so I picked up a couple batches. Leeks have a very subdue onion flavour and this Leeks Vinaigretterecipe makes you feel like your not chowing down on a huge onion. It is really quite delicious and, again, seasoned really well.Since it was a really warm day and we haven't revved up the A/C yet this meal was a real bonus because both items are served cold.
It's been so beautiful outside, I'm just loving family walks. I can tell Owen loves them as well in his Baby Bjorn. He seems to believe he's walking right along as he kicks his little legs like crazy every time we're moving. We went to Happy Rolph's today and Owen got his first look at farm animals. He was completely fascinated. I loved it because we were one of the only families there. We had a beautiful lakeside stroll - just us and the chirping birds.
I am pleased with my recent use of fridge and pantry items that were coming close to expiration. I had ricotta from last week and half a stick of cream cheese I didn't want to go to waste. So I decided to use them up and make Everyday Food's Lemon-Ricotta Tart again. I was only too pleased to make this a second time since I am continually dreaming about how much I enjoyed it this past Easter. I happened to have exactly half the required Nilla wafers, cream cheese and ricotta left over, so I halved the entire recipe and Voila! Lemon-Ricotta Bars!
Another detail that worked out amidst all odds was that I managed to bake these with that oven issue I mentioned last week. I did this by heating the broiler and keeping an eye on the temperature with the manual thermometer. I kept tin foil around as a fail-safe, but didn't end up needing it because as the oven slowly cooled the dessert baked perfectly.
I also made last night's dinner of Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Leeks under the broiler. I always knew pork and apples were a classic combination. I can remember growing up and eating pork chops with apple sauce. Well, I remember it clearly because I absolutely hated it.
The same way Swiss Chard with Raisins & Pine Nuts surprised me, this recipe is so surprisingly delicious I can't believe it. Every single ingredient compliments each other in a simple and most fantastic way. I will definitely make this again and probably serve it for a dinner party in the future. It's really that much of a show-stopper!
More banana desserts went down in my kitchen this week. I started out baking Banana Rum Coconut Cookies to find that the oven is broken. From what I can tell the heating element on the bottom has stopped working, so I had to turn the broiler on and watch my manual thermometer in an attempt to keep the oven at 350. Of course, it didn't work and some of the cookies got a little toasty on top.
You wouldn't believe it, but even with a slightly scorched top, it didn't effect the cookies taste at all. These cookies are very moist, cake-like and slightly chewy. And with raisins, coconut, walnuts and oats they remind me of trail mix but sweeter and spiked!
So now that the oven is out of commission you'd think it put the kibosh on sweets. Heh, no way. I decided to make Chocolate-Covered Bananas.I did a little experiment and made a few different kinds. First I decided to use an infant medical syringe and stuff the bananas (like an eclair) with President's Choice Banana Dulce De Leche Creme spread. I then covered them in Trader Joe's chocolate. One plain, one with chopped peanuts and one with butterscotch chips.
This is a great way to use up those bananas you just can't finish in time. I'll have to decide which combo is tastiest.
One more dessert I made was Easy Tiramisu. This recipe appears in the first Everyday Food book. I was prompted to make this when I saw ladyfingers at Casa Leone the other day. I made it this morning in the same time it took Nuno to make and eat his cereal. The only revision I made to this recipe was to half it and add some marsala wine (that's part of the flavour I enjoy in tiramisu). I have to admit that I'll probably continue to make this recipe from now on because the real version with mascarpone is expensive and a bit too decadent. This one uses light cream cheese, so you can't go wrong.
Here is Pan Bagnat! What? It's a Tuna Nicoise sandwich. Yes, in honour of the Cannes Film Festival, I thought it was appropriate to take a cue from that region of the world and make Pan Bagnat. This combo is something I'd never have thought to put together in a sandwich, so I placed full trust in the recipe to enlighten me.
I thought I'd try a different bakery in St. Catharines and went to Casa Leone Bakery on Hartzel Rd. I found the perfect loaves right away because I was drawn to the sight of an older man who was man-handling every single loaf by pulling them right out of the bags and inspecting them. Gross! Then Owen and I were almost T-boned when some jerk on a cell phone blew the red light as we were making our way through the intersection. Yeah, I won't be treking back to Merriton again anytime soon.
The best part of this recipe is that it can be made in advance. It actually needs to be made at least an hour before serving because it is a pressed sandwich.
I pressed the sandwich with my pizza stone and a pot filled with canned goods. It worked really well. I made it first thing in the morning, pressed for an hour and then refrigerated for the rest of the day while Owen and I hung out at the beach.
It was a perfect day, which really could have only been better if we ate this on the beach. Oh, I'll go further and say on the beaches of Nice, France. This sandwich is so portable all wrapped up in plastic it reminds me of something we could bring to a picnic. It is actually a sandwich I could see Nuno's family making with tuna, eggs, red onion and crusty-style bread.
Goodness, this sandwich is delicious. The basil flavour really comes through and it's probably my favourite element of the sandwich. I love it and would make it again indefinitely! My last Everyday Food recipe entry touched on one of my food concerns, I might as well mention another. Mercury in tuna. I have to stress, I wouldn't be such a concerned stickler for these sort of chemical related issues for adults, but as a recently pregnant and now nursing mother, I take great caution in how what I consume affects Owen. That will continue as he grows and I choose what he eats. Back to the point at hand. I've avoided tuna for way over a year now, but through the workshop I mentioned a week ago, I became aware that choosing smaller tuna such as Tongol and Skipjack is a safe option. I was thrilled with this bit of news and immediately found cans of Tongol by President's Choice to use in this recipe. I miss eating tuna since one of my all time favourite comfort foods is this Mediterranean Tuna Noodle.
Well this is a MAJOR improvement in comparison to the older recipe. It's easier to make and way more delicious. I'd rank this as one of the best recipes in the book. All the flavours blend so nicely and the addition of hot pepper flakes are a real bonus.
The one revision that anyone who makes this dish should consider is when to add the garlic. The book indicates to add it in the first step when cooking the onions. The garlic could so easily burn and become bitter if you were to add it then. I held back and added it along with the tomatoes and it prevented any disasters that way.
Soooooo tired. We got home from a wedding at 3am this morning and Owen was bright and chipper for the day at 7am. Being exhausted and having a baby who's a bundle of energy brings your spirits right up even when you're bleary-eyed. We were playing with Owen this morning and decided to capture his laughter in action with our video camera. Nuno has posted the video onto YouTube so I wanted to share it (clip at bottom of entry).
Since Hot Tot had to stay home while we were at the wedding, we felt like she deserved a treat. So we brought her to the annual Spring Fling Pug-a-Lug. She's always stayed close to us in the past, but this year she was running everywhere. She wouldn't even stay still long enough for us to get a photo of her and Owen together. They were both wearing their matching Dwell Studio guitar shirts.
It's funny, whenever we go out people stop us to tell us how adorable Owen is. I'm sure all parents of babies experience this. Wherever you go, even for a quick stop to grab a carton of milk, you hear how gorgeous your baby is and how fast they grow up. It's always very flattering and sometimes makes me a little sad to be reminded that this wonderful time will pass quickly.
Well, we found the one place where we were left alone to enjoy our time with Hot Tot. Yep, the dog obsessed Pug-a-Lug goers seem to have no in-your-face baby loving going down. haha Dog lovers united!
Yesterday, after dealing with car repair issues and a full day away from home, I wanted nothing more than to order in dinner. Or better yet, go out. We used to go out almost every Friday night and for the first time I missed being able to just go out to eat whenever we want to. But the plan was to have Curried Shrimp. Luckily, this was a quick prep recipe, so it all came together quickly. Once we tasted it it was just a good as going out for dinner. This was a very satisfying feeling to enjoy a dinner that tastes like we ordered in.
Nuno and I ate quite a bit of shrimp before I started cooking through Everyday Food, so it was nice to be able to enjoy a shrimp dish after a long stretch. This recipe called for a jalapeno pepper which I thought was really odd for an Indian recipe. But it works! One item I had never purchased before was Madras Curry powder. This was another item we picked up at Whole Foods last weekend. I'm pleased we went to the effort of buying a nice tin of it because this is the main flavour that comes through the meal and makes it taste like something you'd order at a restaurant. I never imagined I could make something like this on my own with simple, healthy and low fat ingredients. We'll definitely make this again in the future and possibly switch out shrimp for chicken thighs. I could even see this working out in a slow cooker.
I decided to start celebrating Cinco De Mayo this year. All that really means is that I have the chance to decorate the house with my 30th birthday party items and make Mexican food. I put a bunch of decorations around the house including a cardboard Mariachi man on the front door and pulled out Hot Tot's favourite costume.
Moments later my neighbour across the street came over to offer up a kiddie pool and I can't imagine what she thought seeing the front door and Hot Tot dressed up! I mean, do people really observe Cinco De Mayo? My dad hadn't heard of it and had trouble understanding why I did this. Oh well, it was tons of fun we even got Owen into the action!
There are several Mexican recipes in Everyday Food and the one I was most concerned with was the Stuffed Poblanos. The reason for this was because, as far as I know, there doesn't seem to be a single store that sells them here in Niagara. But when Katie's party brought us out of the region it was a great opportunity to grab them at Whole Foods.
We started off with guacamole and tortilla chips (also from Whole Foods).
The Stuffed Poblanos were straight forward to make. They take a little more time than most of the other recipes in the book, but I didn't have any issue with that since this is the main course for a dinner party. On the side is Cilantro and Lime Rice which took minutes to make and a great side to the peppers. Both recipes turned out perfect and they tasted great. I would definitely make them again.
We both are unanimous about this recipe for Warm Spinach Salad with Poached Eggs. It's absolutely fantastic! I could probably eat this once a week and never tire of it. It is restaurant quality, very quick and very easy. I'm still glowing from how well received this was by Nuno. He even complimented me on my bacon frying skills. I made one minor adjustment to this recipe, which was to pour off half the bacon fat. This recipe is quite high in fat if you were to use all the leftover rendered fat. I left about a tablespoon of fat behind and it was the perfect amount for the dressing. Super tasty.
I'm totally geeking out on a huge sense of pride over successfully poaching eggs! I tried years ago and ended up with a disaster of murky egg white water and a floating yolk. Ever since then I've stuck to a contraption with egg moulds that steam your eggs into what look like poached eggs. I don't know if you've seen anyone on TV poach an egg in water before but even if you are successful the whites sometimes appear scraggly. But this recipe gave illustrated instructions on how to poach and I totally nailed them! Not one straggly edge - just poaching perfection. I forgot to time them, and I don't know how, but they were even perfectly done to my and Nuno's taste with a runny yolk. So good.
Like the previous recipe, this looks healthy and it is! High protein and low fat. I really enjoyed it and I think this will be my go-to detox meal if I find myself having a string of days indulging in too much alcohol and desserts.
Oh - my - god, this Salami - Olive Pizza is so yummy!
The last pizza I blogged about I had Nuno take care of the dough for me. Working with anything that includes yeast makes me nervous. But I took a chance and made this pizza all on my own and it worked out perfectly!
I didn't understand why this book would include a recipe for ingredients on a regular pizza. I mean, you really can't think much of salami, black olives and arugula. But, holy cow, taste them together and it really is an incredible combination of flavours that work so well together. This is not only a make again, I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is into making homemade pizzas. I love the combo so much I'm going to make a sandwich with the same ingredients only using an olive tapenade instead of sliced black olives. This week there is another upcoming arugula recipe and I can't wait to give it a go.
proving that it is possible to have a two parent 9-5 working family put a healthy homemade dinner on the table every single night.
email erin(at)hellokitty.com
Rib-eye with Garlic-Thyme Marinade, Green Beans and Almonds and Beefsteak Tomato Salad. Hands down, best steak I've ever eaten outside of a restaurant!
I've been dying to blog about Lococo's Market for some time now. I don't get there very often because it's in Niagara Falls, but if it's up to me to buy choice cuts of meat, well, this is my first choice. Lococo's has been around for a very long time and is a staple of Niagara's markets. It's located on Victoria Ave and Bridge St. They carry very few boxed and pantry goods. What you'll find there is farm-fresh produce and butcher quality meats in a cold room style shopping environment. I can't walk past their selection of steaks without having every urge and temptation to pick up their priciest steaks.
Yes, they aren't cheap, but so, so worth it! Keep in mind these three steaks fed Nuno and myself for two dinners as well as Owen's 2 baby portions. This is some high quality meat! Nuno grilled these on the BBQ for no more than 6 minutes. The fat rendered huge flames that cooked the outside quickly and kept the inside medium-rare (how we both like it). 
