edamame and corn chowder

I don't know how long I've put off making this recipe. I always have a few dinner ideas that I keep on stand-by as fillers because they don't use any fresh produce and Edamame Corn Chowder is an example of one. Everything in this soup is pantry and fridge/freezer staples.

I made this on Friday night and it really was unbelievably good. It's crazy I've put off making this for so long because it was a big payoff. Very simple to make, inexpensive and lasts 2 dinners and lunches. I might just add crab next time I make this.

great storage solution

I love our home but I don't always take the time to appreciate how cute it is until we add a new piece of furniture. Nuno and I bought these Cubicals on sale at Target this week and the fabric containers came in the perfect shades in the playroom and living room.

They not only look great, but are super useful.

We had major issues with all of Owen's tiny little blocks, finger puppets, plush food and books scattered on the floor with no real place to keep them. Our home was starting to look like a hurricane ran through it and after stepping on all these tiny toys I felt we needed some sort of solution. These are perfect for containing these toys and the soles of my feet have never been so thankful.

egg in a sombrero

Ever since I first blogged about the egg in a hole recipe, Nuno's been modifying the recipe based on what we have around the house and how he feels. He's been telling me all about his latest invention which is Egg in a Sombrero and made one for me this Saturday morning.

Talk about delicious! The tortilla gets nice and golden & crisp in olive oil and the egg was perfectly cooked to my taste. There is a ring of sliced avocado and garnish of tobasco sauce. I think it really does look like a sombrero except I went so heavy with hot sauce that mine ended up looking like the sombrero of someone who had a run-in with the Mexican drug cartel.

slow cooker green chili and pork & cabbage slaw burritos

Nuno came home one night with a huge pork shoulder that he bought on sale. It took him quite a lot of time to remove the skin, bone and excess fat, but once complete we ended up with lots of pork. He first made my dad's slow cooker pulled pork. Then we ground a couple pounds.

The last of the meat was used in Slow Cooker Green Chili from Everyday Food's October 2010 issue.

There aren't too many ingredients that go into this recipe, but one key ingredient is Poblano or Anaheim peppers. I guess these two peppers aren't a part of anyone in Niagara's diet because they aren't available here. I had my parents bring me 6 Anaheim peppers from the U.S. at Wegmans in order to make this dinner.

This recipe is positively delicious!  The whole family loved it, even Owen. I truly think this is one of the best recipes I've ever come across for a slow cooker. Everything that goes into this recipe is very inexpensive and lasts two meals (and a couple lunches). I made a side of Cilantro Lime Rice which made this dinner go even further.

The next night the left-over chili is used in Pork and Cabbage Slaw Burritos. Although the recipe doesn't call for it, I added the rest of the Cilantro Lime Rice from the day before. Again, so delicious! I usually dollop tons of sour cream and salsa on burritos because they tend to be a little dry for me, but the cabbage slaw really helped make these perfect! There is just something about cilantro - lime flavour combo that is a real pick-me-up in the middle of winter. Fantastic meal I'll be sure to make again very soon.

quinoa and roast beef, cabbage, butternut squash & carrots

I've been rifling through the four most recently published Everyday Food magazines and bookmarking a few interesting recipes. I missed out on a lot of recipes by focusing on cooking through the book most of the 2010 issues really got overlooked.

I decided to cook up some quinoa this weekend. With my batch I first made a Mixed Grain and Herb Salad (from Jan/Feb 2011) which used up some fresh herbs I had left over from last week's dinner (basil & parsley), olive oil and salt and pepper. It was so good and I think I'm liking quinoa better than bulgar wheat. It's an awesome way of using up fresh herbs that might otherwise end up in compost.

I then decided to use the rest in a batch of Quinoa Cakes. This recipe was easy and light (as in - low fat & calorie). But, wow, did these cook fast! So fast that I burned the entire first batch. Once I got the hang of it I popped these out in mere minutes. Since this recipe doesn't call for sugar (only a couple tablespoons of maple syrup) these were delicious with some of the jams I made from the summer which included strawberry/rhubarb, apricot and my mom's black currant.

Overall, quinoa pancakes are a thumbs down. It's like when people try and make cake using whole wheat flour or sugar substitutes - it isn't the same. If you're going to indulge, do it right. And if you subsitute, you better be pretty damn good at it.

One final recipe I tried for the first time was from Everyday Food's November 2010 issue Roast Beef, Cabbage, Squash and Carrots. It worked out great, but tasted too traditional and a little boring. It lasted a couple meals, which was really great, but I doubt I'll make it again.

roasted beet, arugula and clementine salad

I often blog about what we eat for dinner, which is always something different months at a time, but my lunches are always the same - for weeks and weeks. I get hooked on something and drive it right into the ground and this salad is my current go-to salad. I love it because it's hard to eat seasonal in the winter and this  is what I consider to be a perfect salad for December and January. It's Orange, Roasted Beet & Arugula Salad which I originally discovered through Everyday Food, Fresh Flavor Fast (a variation was published in Everyday Food's October issue).

It was between these two recipes and what I had on hand that I've been enjoying this salad which uses clementines, roasted beets, arugula and pecorino romono shavings. The dressing is a mixture of dijon, orange juice, white wine vinegar (balsamic also works great), olive oil, s&p.

banana strusel muffins

I asked for the SoNo Bakery Cookbook for Christmas this year.

This cookbook was created by John Barricelli who, for those familiar with Everyday Food, is a longstanding contributor to the magazine and host on the Everyday Food / Everyday Baking television shows. Lucky for me I received a copy of his book over the holidays and this weekend was my first opportunity to make something from it. 

To kick it off it could only be but these Banana Strusel Muffins. As a longtime banana baking vetran, I thought these might just as well be banana bread muffins, but boy was I wrong. Regular banana bread is quite dense and heavy, but these muffins are so incredibly light, moist and tender - almost cake-like. I'm baffled as to how that happened without cake flour or leavening flour. I guess this was achieved by the equal amount of baking soda and baking powder. Everything about these muffins is balanced and so beyond a home baking taste - they really taste bakery quality. 

This is one recipe I wish I'd invented. And if I did, I'd bask in the glory of having created the perfect banana baked good. But we have John Barricelli to thank for what will now be a staple breakfast and dessert in our home from now on.

slow cooker bacon jam

This weekend was designated indulgent bacon weekend for us. I've been dying to try this Slow-Cooker Bacon Jam from December's issue of Everyday Food and decided to make it this Saturday. Just the title may make you feel slightly squeamish or you may just think I'm kidding - but in all seriousness this is the most delicious way I've ever tasted bacon. Even if you aren't sure if bacon is really your thing this bacon jam will make you a total convert.

This was so much fun to make. All ingredients are household staples, so you really just need an afternoon to make it. I had Nuno pick up good quality bacon from Lakeshore Meats. Then along with the bacon you add onions, garlic, cider vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, coffee (I used leftover Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut coffee from the morning). It's hard to let it sit in the slow-cooker with the cover off (!) for 3 hours and not dive in, but keep in mind it's well worth your wait even with its irresistible aroma filling your home. This recipe makes a lot, so it's great to share with others since it only lasts a week in the fridge.

See! It's very fragrant and deep in flavour and presented on these melba toasts would make a sophisticated canape. But I had way bigger ideas for this condiment. Here are some of the endless possibilities this jam could be used in. Of course, I'm having it daily in a grilled cheese sandwich, but it would be delicious in pretty much any sandwich. I might try it with a roasted tomato sandwich later this week. It would be a great topping on waffles with maple syrup. I could see it working well as a garnish on meat or fish as well as on soup such as Manhattan Fish Chowder or French Onion Soup. Top this on your veggies such as roasted potatoes or steamed green beans and I'm sure they'd go down easy. Eat it straight up with potato chips (or blend it with French Onion Dip). You could mix it with oil and vinegar as a salad dressing. 

I even took this too far by topping it on a Reese Peanut Butter Cup and I'm not kidding, bacon and peanut butter is total heaven.  I enjoyed my bacon jam late into the night last night watching Marie Antoinette and it really felt like a decadent and over the top food & movie match made in heaven.

sushi and peanut butter

Sushi and peanut butter are two highly contested foods for children which I chose to have Owen try this past weekend. 

We took Owen to our favourite sushi restaurant Amakara Friday night. This restaurant is very tiny and the seating is very close together, which is risky for dining with a infant. But Owen loves to eat out and was so well behaved that one of the dining couples came over to tell us how sweet and well behaved he was. Here he is eating sushi and trying rice from chopsticks.

Now, when I say he ate sushi, he really ate vegetable maki rolls. Here he is eating a yam roll.

For years parents have been told to hold back on introducing foods with a high instance of allergic reaction such as peanuts. Although this is a commonly perpetuated ideal, it has been recently revealed that delaying introduction has made no difference whatsoever to the number of peanut allergies - if anything they continue to rise. So I felt that since Owen's over a year old, was home with us on the weekend and has no family history of peanut allergies he could try a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Was he ever in love with the taste of peanut butter, so much so that he was trying to use his fingers to remove the peanut butter from the sandwich.

everyday food app is a good thing!

This photo was taken grocery shopping with Owen on my new iPod Touch. This is my first experience with mobile wireless anything - so it's a big jump forward for me - and I LOVE IT! The reason I'm blogging about it is because I can now take advantage of apps! So the first one I downloaded was the Martha Stewart Everyday Food app. 

Where was this for the past 9 months?! My life could have been so much easier with this because a good portion of her recipes are available on it and it automatically creates grocery lists based on your chosen recipes. I don't know how many times I found myself running over to Fresh Co just to buy one single item because I hadn't coordinated my list properly. Furthermore, my handwritten lists were always on Hello Kitty note pads, so Nuno wasn't exactly enthusiastic to shop from them. 

I gave this app a test run this week and it was everything I imagined. My list was pretty much automatically generated when I chose my 3 Martha Stewart dinners this week. From there, I added a few extra items we needed. Then I went through and modified the list based on what we already had in the pantry and fridge - which was very quick and simple compared to my lists which get scratched and rewritten several times during the week. 

When it came time to shop I felt so techie walking up and down the aisles checking off each item. I don't know if people thought I was playing games and ignoring my baby in front of me while recklessly scooting around the store. Which brings me to the only drawback of this way of shopping - the iPod is particularly interesting to one year olds. Steering a grocery buggy with a curious boy and an iPod in hand is a disaster waiting to happen. Luckily I developed a technique of slipping it in my coat pocket between items, which sort of helped. 

This app is useful because it now changes the way I cook. I'm able to cook straight from the iPod instead of the magazine or book. I'm geeky, and I hate splashing food or creasing the seam of my books. I just have to be careful I don't drop the iPod down the chute of my food processor. It has also come in handy because it shows all of our dinners for the week and with photos it helps us decide what we want to eat based purely on what looks like something we'd like to eat for dinner.

I'm in the process of starting a ziplist.com account to further coordinate my lists because this app works with this site. I have yet to try the barcode scan feature but I like the idea of it. There is also a grocery store feature which locates the closest stores based on your location - but it's quite dated (it told me that there are several Commisso's near me - a now defunct chain). 

This app has made me curious to try other lifestyle apps. I might try out the Food Network app as well and compare it against MS's. If anyone out there has any recommendations of suggestions on apps please let me know.

christmas desserts

What a Christmas!

I think I'm still coming down off a total overindulgence of sweets with whom I can blame no one but myself for.  The reason - my holiday baking. I've gone way overboard in past years but this year I had to strategize quick cookies which work well on Owen's naps. 

Since my mom didn't bake cookies this year I decided to make several of my grandma's holiday recipes for the first time. That includes Christmas Hopscotch, Marble Squares, Butterscotch Squares & Peanut Chews. Then I made MS's Iced Hermits and Ritz Mints.

Several years ago I started my own Christmas tradition of making Tiramisu. I'm now having it requested as part of the holiday dessert table on Christmas Day. My Tirimisu includes 3 different liquors (Dark Rum, Kahlua and Marsala), marscapone cheese and sabayon base. It's one of my favourite desserts that could really only be eaten at Christmas in order to find enough people to eat an entire dish of this rich dessert.

happy holidays!

A reflection on Everyday Food, Fresh Flavor Fast

I spent the majority of this year devoting our meals around the cookbook Everyday Food, Fresh Flavor Fast. That meant a commitment to searching out and buying ingredients and countless hours in the kitchen. Then another 10 - 15 minutes blogging all about it. All that time spent was a lot of fun. I learned so much about cooking, I'll carry this knowledge with me for the rest of my life. I also became a whole lot more diversified in my food experiences and palate. After trying 250 recipes in 9 months, I probably should give a bit of a reflection on the experience.

To start, one thing I never anticipated was to have Owen go from a breastfed baby to eating right along with us! It was so exciting to see that his first bites were healthy, freshly prepared & delicious food I made for him right from scratch. I always felt really happy that I had control over what he was eating and confident that it was the best food options for him.

We now find ourselves eating more locally farmed produce and meat than we ever have before. I learned all about what is seasonally available. It feels like a much better way to live.

I honestly can't praise this book enough. Now that it's all over I've spent quite a long time reflecting on how well planned it is. This book has it all - every type of meat, a variety of seafood and the best ways of cooking them. It has a great selection of vegetables and the most flavourful and simple ways to prepare them. There are interesting challenges which are fool-proof enough that once complete, you feel very accomplished. You get a huge cross section of culinary techniques so you really *do* learn to cook just about anything a home cook would need to know. I honestly couldn't make a suggestion as to how to improve this book. I feel as though there isn't anything missing, OK, maybe a recipe that includes bananas! But it really is a cookbook for everyone - any age or any ability, there is something in here to please everyone with minimal effort, time and cost and maximum flavour!

The absolute must try recipes in this book are:

Jam-Filled French Toast

Peach-Strawberry Smoothie (only when farm fresh peaches available)

Barley and Corn Risotto

Cheddar Corn Spoon Bread

Manhattan Fish Chowder

Sweet Potato Wedges

Leg of Lamb with Lemon Orzo

Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Leeks
Penne Alla Norma

Lemon Ricotta Tart
Both Chocolate Cakes - Flourless and Glazed
Mexican Wedding Cakes
Creamy Lemon Squares

The journey is over. I'm back to work and am now revisiting many of our favourite recipes and making them so much quicker after understanding how to prepare them. What's been really neat about this experience is going back on many of the recipes that I made 7-8 months ago and seeing Owen enjoy them for the first time. He's loved the Chicken & Dumplings, Quick Navy Bean Stew, Chicken Milanese, Asian Salmon Patties with Chinese Noodles w/ Sesame Dressing, Tex Mex Turkey and Bean Chili, Chicken, Edamame and Noodle Stir-Fry and Pasta with Peas and Ricotta. Cooking through this book has modified and diversified how we eat to a way I always wanted and can now achieve.

chocolate-peanut butter pie

Here it is, the final recipe left to complete of all 250 in Everyday Food, Fresh Flavour Fast. And what a way to go out with this Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pie. I've declared my love for all banana baked goods, but peanut butter rates a very close second and this pie is the epitome of pleasure.

One reason this one was held back was because it called for gelatin, which I'd never purchased before. I spent quite a few grocery store visits walking up and down the baking isle trying to find gelatin. Then it dawned on me to check the same area where you find Jell-O and, of course, there it was.

This is a pie for people who don't like to bake pies. No oven, just a food processor and fridge. Kinda like those icebox concoctions I became addicted to in the summer, this is a fancier variation on the same concept. 

The suggested garnish on this pie is crushed peanuts but I happened to pick up a new President's Choice treat - mini peanut butter cups which were perfect for this. Then, just to go out with a bang with this one, I bought a 'Big Cup' Reese Peanut Butter Cup for the centre. Love!

gingerbread waffles

Something I started doing since Owen began eating with us was treating the family to waffles every so often on a Saturday morning. It began with having Owen try crepes, then plain whole wheat waffles and then pumpkin waffles. Saturday I made Gingerbread Waffles.

These are quick and easy, with all ingredients already in the house.  They are so fragrant and filled the house with Christmas spice!

What I love about making waffles is that the batter makes so many that I freeze 3/4 of them in freezer bags and we then have waffles around for busy mornings. They freeze great and you can take them straight from frozen to your toaster or microwave.