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The term 'Grinder' is a regional name for a stuffed to the max submarine sandwich. I love to use this term when eating a huge American sandwich. I first became aware of grinders when I had to work on some ads for sub shops in Maryland. Then a couple years ago Nuno and I were in Boston and Nuno's cousin asked us if we'd ever had a "Grindah". I looked at him and repeated, "Grind-ah?" back to him in the Boston accent. It took a couple back and forths before I realized he was talking about Grinder sandwiches. It was hilarious and embarrassing. Here a photo of my very first Boston Grinder I had with Nuno's cousin.
Yesterday at Wegman's I saw that all the locals were lining up for deli fresh sandwiches in the Take-Out section of the store. I was curious to see what it was all about so I bought a Grinder! Actually, it's really just a turkey ranch variation on the grinder. But man, this is a small, and I could only eat half. But Wegman's sandwiches are fantastic.
It boosted my love for this store ten fold. I'm telling you, if I had known about these grinders when I was pregnant with those sub cravings, I don't know what I would have done. Probably ended up going into labour over there.
a.k.a - Junk Food Re-up. I talk about eating freshly prepared foods and home cooking often but I'm not beyond casual indulgences. I love food and even junk food is perfectly OK. In moderation of course.
As any Canadian knows, there are some grocery items that don't see the light of day up here but they somehow make it onto our radar. Living in Niagara has a real benefit of cross-border shopping for these items. I happened to need to do a couple exchanges at Target, so to maximize my time in the US, I decided to stop by Wegman's Grocery Store. I love shopping here but will typically spend only 10 minutes grabbing a couple things and then fleeing. But being on mat leave affords me a little more time to spend shopping for groceries. Since I spent a little more time at Wegman's yesterday and am now very familiar with their grocery selection, I figured I'd grab a frequent shopper's card while there. Looks like I've started a new habit.
For over a month now I've been keeping a mental list of items I can't seem to find in Canada. I somehow managed to find everything I was after at Wegman's. I'm very pleased to have found, hands down, the most difficult to find grocery item from Everyday Food. Spinach linguine! I'm not sure why, but even at the most stocked Italian markets it wasn't anywhere to be found. Not even in the fresh pasta sections of every grocery store (including Whole Foods). Also, I hope these M&M's Pretzels make it up here to Canada. I can't stand M&M's but the pretzel version is awesome!
Here is last night's Prosciutto & Fig Jam Sandwich.
This is a quick and easy dinner. The only real work was making the fig jam from scratch, but that is almost laugh-able at how easy it was. It made an entire pint of jam and can be stored in the fridge for up to a month, so I'm pleased about that. It'll be great on crackers with a slice of asiago.
I decided to check out Portage Bakery in Niagara Falls yesterday on a whim. It is a very authentic Italian bakery where as a kid, my dad would often pick up their sliced white bread. This bread is delicious and quite renowned around Niagara. I've never had any bread like it since. I didn't end up buying a loaf because I try and steer clear of processed white bread, but I did end up buying the ingredients for the Prosciutto Fig-Jam Sandwich (the loaf, fresh sliced prosciutto and asiago cheese). Oh, and I indulged in a couple baked goods - a pear & ricotta dessert and a pizzelle. Best pizzelle I've ever had and the pear & ricotta square was also quite good because it wasn't doused in sugar - it was exactly what I was looking for.
It was here that I thought I might start blogging about shopping for food. There are many markets, farm stands, bakeries and wineries in Niagara that I'd like to keep track of. I kinda feel like Anna Olson in her show, Fresh with how I journey out for fresh ingredients to use in my home baking and cooking. I'm still fairly new at learning what is in season and when, so I'm looking forward to this summer of experimenting with local and seasonal food. And a little extra boost is to shop for organic produce for Owen. It should be a fun summer.
With the left over flank steak I made Spicy Beef Fajitas.
This meal is what Nuno and I ate quite regularly before cooking through Everyday Food. The only revision to this recipe was the addition of jalapeno monterey jack cheese we had to use up. It's been ages since I've worked with a jalapeno and any time before this I usually carefully grated it. This recipe indicated to remove the seeds and ribs and I used my bare hands and fingernails to do this because I was so distracted talking to Nuno about his day. I then touched my lip to discover the most intense burning sensation and was pretty mad at myself for being so careless. What was I going to do about Owen? Well, I'm still nursing with rubber gloves one day later! But it was a great dinner despite my burning fingers as I blog this entry.
This is Flank Steak with Parsley Sauce and Bulgar Pilaf with Dried Cranberries.
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.
On Father's Day I suggested we grab some ice cream at Anderson's. I kept carrying on and on about how delicious this custard ice cream in WNY is (I guess they are renowned for it kinda like Buffalo Wings, Beef on Weck & Peanut Stick). When I was there last time I saw they make a sugar free custard soft serve so that sealed the deal for Nuno. Lucky for me, the Anderson's closest to the Lake Effect Diner had Banana as their flavour on Father's Day. Not only that, every dad recieves a free Kit Kat Arctic Swirl (like a DQ Blizzard).
Here it is in all it's glory.
Katie got a cone and couldn't finish it.
There was a Target right next door to Anderson's and they had ice cream machines on sale. So I snapped one right up. I've been wanting to make ice cream for weeks now which was brought on by all these plentiful strawberries. Even though I live a hop, skip and a jump away from Avondale Dairy Bar, I really don't like their ice cream. It's friggin' so expensive! I shutter when they WEIGH your treat to determine a price - which always works out to $7 on my most conservative orders. Anderson's is two bucks, richer and creamier. Arg! Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Anyways...
I started with Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. I had all the ingredients right away in my fridge to make it. The homemade ice cream guru right now is David Lebovitz who's taken the culinary literary world by storm with, many books, one of which is "Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas and Sweet Accompaniments". Through his blog I found the recipe I used to make this frozen yogurt.
Just a couple small revisions to this. I strained low fat yogurt and was left with only half a cup, so I made the rest with half & half. This worked perfectly because it supplied the fat that wasn't present in the yogurt. The strawberries are from Bry-Anne Farms at the St. Catharines Farmer's Market.
Here's my dessert for lunch today. My dad was around Niagara-On-The-Lake and brought around the first picking of cherries from a local stand. They aren't quite ready to be made into jam, but are nice for snacking.
Yesterday was the first day of summer so I made Pasta with Roasted Summer Vegetables and Basil.
All our vegetables were from the farmer's market and Harvest Barn. Although the recipe calls for summer squash, grape tomatoes, garlic and red onion I also added zucchini and asparagus into the mix. Not only did I stray from the type of pasta suggested and the vegetable selection, I also modified the cooking process. It was such a beautiful & warm day I couldn't bear to do as the instructions say on this recipe and heat the oven to 400 for 40 minutes. So I did as this similar recipe for Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables (and a favourite recipe of ours) indicates and pan fried on the stove top. I chose to use Scoobi-Do pasta because I figured Owen could munch on a few corkscrews. He didn't get too far with that, so I pureed this unseasoned pasta dish for him. He didn't jump on board with that. But can you blame him? This is a whole whack of new flavours. So he ended up with chicken and cereal.
But for us we really enjoyed this dish. The basil does it. I love how the fresh basil enhances the flavour of all the vegetables. So good, but not as good as the Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables recipe so I'll probably just stick with that one.
I knew we had to make Father's Day very special for Nuno since we were celebrating his first one ever! He awoke to a surprise of Owen in his I Heart Dad sleeper. Among his many gifts, Nuno is pictured here in his Goonies shirt and wearing his new belt and new wallet.
Since the plan was to go to the Lake Effect Diner for brunch, I made a light breakfast of a Banana-Oat Smoothies. This is so delicious, I think I'll make this many more times in the future. Again, this is a recipe that Owen could enjoy as well. I just prepped the smoothie without the honey (which babies are not to eat), took out his portion first and then added the honey for Nuno and my servings. This is very sweet and Owen didn't really seem to enjoy it. I decided to add his baby oatmeal to his smoothie to make it a little thicker and more palatable.
Then it as off to B-lo for some Lake Effect Diner delicous-ness. We saw a Diner's, Drive-In's & Dives episode at this location and were so impressed by the effort that goes into some of the food we just had to give it a shot. This is a true diner - it is a small cart from Pennsylvania transplanted onto Main Street Buffalo serving all-day breakfast, sandwiches and all the usual diner-style suspects.
I had a reuben sandwich while Nuno went for a breakfast which included eggs, corned beef, red-eye gravy, homemade sausage patties.
Although it was Father's Day, Nuno ended up having to do a bit of storyboard work at the end of the day. But the majority of the day was exactly how he wanted to spend it. We finished the day with a beautiful walk up the canal with Owen. I said it before and I'll say it again, Nuno is a loving dad and husband. We are so lucky to have him in our lives.
Saturday night was Orzo with Chicken and Green Beans and Shaved Beet Salad. There are several things about this meal that I really like. First off, it's a make ahead meal. Secondly, you can use left-over shredded chicken. So the only real effort that goes into this meal is to cook the orzo and green beans and then sautee garlic and corn. Everything is then mixed together and chilled (or served at room temperature). Nuno and I spend Saturday mornings shopping at the St. Catharines market for as much of our week's produce as possible. The green beans were from the market and there really wasn't anything in this recipe that wouldn't be great for Owen.
Since the seasoning is the very last step in this recipe, an unseasoned portion of Chicken and Orzo was pureed for Owen for dinner. This was a very light dinner, so in the future I'll probably just make this as a lunch.
Now on to my most hellish cooking experience of all time. Slicing beets! There is certainly a level of hell reserved for those who will spend eternity slicing beets on a mandolin with rubber gloves. Why is this such a horrible experience? Well, first off, after washing the beets you must peel them. Rubber gloves, slippery beets and their spherical shape all make for the most awkward cooking experience anyone could ever go through. I kept having the beets slip out of my hands and onto my light shirt, onto the floor, into the sink and all over the counter. It was not fun. I swear this one off. I will never again make Saved Beet Salad!
Friday night I made Grilled Greek Chicken Kebabs with Mint-Feta Sauce and Lemon and Pine-Nut Rice.
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.
It sometimes feels as though our fridge is over-flowing with food. And I'm crazy about throwing any of it away. I feel an obligation to use up as much as we can because it's essentially throwing money out. It's also become a bit of a fun challenge to take a look at what we need to use up and devise a menu plan around it. That's how I invented my first ever dessert recipe.
Left over ricotta, cottage cheese, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Those ingredients brought to mind a real retro icebox cake! But I haven't ever made one before. So I pulled out Kraft's 'What's Cooking' free magazine collection I've had delivered for years. I've never tried anything from it because I always saw it as a bunch of recipes created to have you run out to your nearest WalMart and buy Kraft Singles and assemble a jazzed up grilled cheese sandwich. But this magazine does in fact have loads of ideas that you can use. So I applied what I read about icebox cake recipes to assemble my own take on it.
Strawberry Icebox Cheesecake
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 Jell-O Vanilla instant pudding
1/3 cup strawberry jam (from the jam I made last week)
1 tbsp lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon
10 strawberries, chopped
27 graham crackers
1/2 cup whipped cream
5-10 whole strawberries for garnish. Sliced or whole
In a food processor blitz ricotta & cottage cheese until very smooth. Transfer blended cheese mixture to a mixer with a paddle attachment. Begin slowly beating in 2 cups of milk taking time to scrape down sides of mixer bowl. Once well blended slowly add sugar and then vanilla pudding powder and beat for 1 minute further. Finally add strawberry jam and lemon juice & zest until incorporated. Stir in chopped strawberries. In a 9x9 baking dish layer graham crackers and pudding mixture in thirds. Spread whipped cream on top and whole (or sliced) strawberries. Refrigerate overnight to set.
It actually worked out amazingly!! My family enjoyed it so I'm really pleased. Next time I give this a go I might just end up using Cool Whip (which most icebox cakes seem to ask for) to help it set up a bit more firm. I've never bought Cool Whip before and the idea of it kinda grosses me out. So we'll see...
Here is last night's Brown-Rice Bowl with Shrimp, Snow Peas and Avocado.
This is one of Nuno and my all-time favourite dinners. We've been eating it since it was first published in 2008 and it's probably the Everyday Food recipe I've made most. It became a little hard to remember the title of the dinner, so I call it California Roll Bowl because that's exactly what it tastes like. I remember telling people about this dinner and most people think it's a very strange combination and it doesn't help that it's not the prettiest of dishes in a photo. But if you enjoy the shrimp & avocado combo, this meal is a must try. I'd say this is quick, which it is, but there are two mind-numbing tasks you have to get through for the pay off. Peeling shrimp and trimming the snow peas. I hate the monotony of it, and I don't recommend thinking you are taking a short-cut by buying pre-cooked and peeled shrimp. Just warning, they are hard as rocks and lack flavour.
Through making this dinner over the years I've made one small revision to it. The recipe indicates to cut ginger into small match sticks. I find the ginger flavour a little too overwhelming that way, so I grate the ginger. It's gives just a little spicy punch to the dinner without taking away from the shrimp and avocado flavour.
What was especially nice about this dinner was how it transitioned easy for Owen to enjoy. I scooped a bit of brown rice, steamed snow peas and half an avocado in the food processor and pureed. He seemed to enjoy it. I've already had him munching on avocado slices (which he squishes through his fingers, but we get a little in his mouth). I love the idea of Owen eating avocado - it's so healthy!
Here is our Chopped Salad with Pork and Buttermilk Dressing.
This is a very simple recipe, just basically an assembly of ingredients. It's a great way to use up leftover pork tenderloin. My favourite part of this salad is the cubes of pepper jack cheese. I probably won't end up making this again because Everyday Food had a killer recipe for a Chef's Salad with Turkey, Avocado and Jack Cheese which I much prefer to eat and recommend highly. I sometimes sub in turkey lunch meat instead of the real thing because don't enjoy fresh turkey as much as turkey cold cuts.
Here are three Everyday Food recipes in one meal. Roasted-Pork Club with Scallion Mayonnaise, Dill Pickle Spears & Quinoa and Cucumber Salad.
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.
Yesterday at Wegman's I saw that all the locals were lining up for deli fresh sandwiches in the Take-Out section of the store. I was curious to see what it was all about so I bought a Grinder! Actually, it's really just a turkey ranch variation on the grinder. But man, this is a small, and I could only eat half. But Wegman's sandwiches are fantastic.
It boosted my love for this store ten fold. I'm telling you, if I had known about these grinders when I was pregnant with those sub cravings, I don't know what I would have done. Probably ended up going into labour over there.
