Bacon Gravy

If you love Snow Blowers, you're going to love my blog!

2011-11-28T20:12:00.000-04:00

Not really - but I'm shamelessly cashing in on my brother, aka The Blognostifier AKA, The Snow Blower Ad guy's internet fame.

So welcome! I'm Weh-Ming's sister! This is my baking blog. Sometimes I make tasty things and manage to put them up.

I'm also over here!

xoxo

Love is for Everyone

2011-09-02T09:53:00.000-03:00

Know what I love?

Cake.

Wait, no, I mean love! I love love!

Straight up love. The Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other Carrie Bradshaw love, the I'm comfortable enough to fart in front of you love, and especially the I know that I'm loved love. Seriously, it's the best and no one should have to hide who they are because of who they love.

I've grown up in a generation who believes that sexuality doesn't have much bearing on who you are as a person. Of course there are still wackos and crazies out there but not as many as the generations before me and hopefully there will be fewer in generations to come.

Five years ago today I stood for my dearest friends, Nick and The Ruggist. They are quite possible the most charming couple in the world. Down to earth, generous, kind and always game for a fun time. (They also enjoy naps, so you know, they are my kind of people.) Their ceremony was sweet, the Minister and congregation gave them both full support and the church ladies put out a fabulous spread. They also had the best wedding cake I've ever eaten: spongy, moist white cake topped with cream, white chocolate and blueberries. It was a very, very happy day.

Look at those cute cake toppers!

I love this photo taken after the ceremony. The boys led the processional of guests from the quaint country church to their house down the road for lunch and drinks. It was such a nice sight to see all the happy guests with the happy grooms at the front.

Happy anniversary my darling gentlemen! I'll never forget your happy day!

Being gay, bisexual, straight or any degree in between doesn't mean you are limited in what you can do, believe, achieve or love. Be yourself and be kind and help make the world a happy place!

Love,

Su-Li

PS: also, I looked hella cute that day:

Happy Canadian Long Weekend

2011-07-30T08:25:00.000-03:00

It's Natal Day Weekend here in Nova Scotia, (but I still think of it as New Brunswick Day). There are 80 million people driving towards Moncton for the Arcade Fire/U2 concert and I shall keep my notsowell feelings of general disinterest in the band to myself. My Facebook feed is slowly starting to fill up with people getting excited about the show and even my own flesh and blood is going. How could you, brother? How could you.

Anyway, it's been quiet here because I've been having a lazy summer. A good summer and a fun what, but oh so lazy.

So here is a July roundup...actually it's also a June one too.

My former boss turned 60 and we were invited to his surprise birthday party. He's a huge music buff and especially loves The Beatles. This was his fab cake! It was really tasty too!

David Myles showed up and played a set as a special birthday gift! I'm still a little smitten. He is totally enjoyable and a great musician. Plus, I mean, fella knows how to work those glasses.

My falafal plate at Tarboosh on Fenwick Street. Very tasty!

These are adirondack chairs my father in law makes. I love all the colours that he uses! His liberal use of signage delights us.

The berry poptarts I made from homemade puff pastry. Presentation really isn't my thing, but these were pretty tasty. Also, I will never attempt puff pastry again.

A very tasty dinner for cheddar stuffed meatloaf with sriracha, roasted sweet potatoes and green beans with garlic. Tasty!

Chicken cacciatore. So easy! I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw that I only had white rice left in the house. It was such a treat.

We saw some deer in Bayers Lake! Run away little deer!

We threw a baby shower at work for my friend and knowing her most favourite thing in the world (other than soontobehere baby) is ice cream. We splurged for this Cold Stone Creamery Strawberry Cake. Seriously, it was good. Thank you crack ice cream!

I took this early morning last Saturday on the way to the market around 7:30AM. I love where we live.

Some friends and I watched the Halifax Pride Parade last weekend. It was an absolute blast. Hooray for love! I think I will do an entire post on love, and rainbows.

We went to the Arcade Fire show in Dartmouth on Thursday and it was awesome. Seriously, one the best shows I've been too. Minus the crowd, minus the bullshit security, minus the packed like sardines ferry ride. It was the best. Their sound and energy is like no other. The billions of fans in Moncton tonight are in for a rocking treat.

I hope everyone has a great long weekend!

Mini Give Away!

2011-07-06T12:02:00.000-03:00

Dear Friends, Readers, Obligated Family Members, RSSers, Spambots,

As you know a few weeks ago Canada Post went on strike and thusly mail delivery stopped. It was inconvenient and I was slightly annoyed. It meant missing magazine subscriptions and waiting longer for my husband’s Amazon order. Mostly we just missed checking the mail - even though all we get are bills and pizza flyers (but I do love looking at menus).

When the strike ended I was quite glad people were going back to work and normal life would resume - mail wise. That day I received a postcard from my boss who is currently on vacation in Europe. While he was in Budapest he sent me a note to say hello and thank me for some things I did to make his travels a little bit smoother. It thrilled me to bits! I was also reminded that the mail delivery is still important. Sure it's very easy to send an email (my preferred method of communication for everything - even from people in the office next to me) but there is something about a personal note, a handwritten note. Something that says Hi! I'm thinking of you! It does wonders.

Who didn't love getting mail as a kid? I knew our mailman was coming because I would hear him whistling as he walked up our street. Sometimes there would be letters from friends I made at summer camp or little pen pals, or from my friend Nick, who always sent me notes on his summer, travels. Then a few years later there were letters from boyfriends (or I-wish-they-were-my boyfriends, rather). There is just something wonderful about a little envelope with your name on it.

A few months ago Joy the Baker put out the word that she was going to send a letter to anyone who wanted one. She got a million responses. I wanted to send her my address but was too timid. It gave me the idea that maybe you, my darling readers, would like some mail that is not bill related or flyer related.

If that is the case just leave something in the comments (i.e. not your address or SIN number). I'll pick one or two or all and you'll get something from me! It might be a note, a postcard, a recipe, stickers, or a half eaten cookie! (Okay, just cookie crumbs). You can also email me if you'd rather not comment.

And to address the "I'm not sending my address to a random crazy person" aspect: I’ve known me for 29 and a few years and I swear that I am only a little crazy and will only stalk you slightly on Facebook and Twitter. Wait, I wrote the quiet part loud....

The mail is an important service. It delivers a kind of happiness that you just don't get from email/social networks. Let's put it to good use!

Love,

S-L

Cocktail Buns

2011-07-04T13:36:00.000-03:00

Happy July 4th to all my American friends! I hope that you are enjoying a lovely long weekend with cook outs, sodas and mac and cheese! (Or BBQ's, pops and Kraft Dinner as we like to say up here, eh.)

Here's what I made yesterday:

This photo is not just a plate of a filling made with coconut, butter, egg yolk, and sugar. (It’s not scrambled eggs either).

And this photo is not just rolls of super soft sweet dough.

No these photos are of hopes, dreams, wishes and prayers of what they will become: Cocktail Buns.

Specifically Chinese coconut buns.

I had a little time over Canada Day weekend and after winning the wrestling match with my hips over whether or not we would allow all-purpose flour back into the pantry I wanted to bake something.

The dough was wonderfully warm and soft after 10 minutes of kneading. It rises for 1 hour and then you divide into 6, stretch out into an oblong shape, fill and then roll into soft doughy pillows.

Okay so they are more like huge sausage rolls. I might need to work on my shaping technique.

They rise again for an hour and are then baked for 15-20 minutes @350 until golden.

Let me start with the smell. In a word, these smell gorgeous. Almost ethereal. If I were a cartoon I would have floated through the apartment and then into the oven for these.

The taste. I didn’t wait until they cooled or even until they sat until warm. I cut into one immediately. It was piping hot. The bread burned my tongue. The filling burned the rest of my mouth. I cared not.

The Verdict

They were tasty and aaaaaaaalmost like what you get in a Chinese bakery. However, the bread was not eggy enough nor was it soft enough. I think the addition of another egg (or two) and more (More! More!) butter would take care of that.

The filling was rather spot on taste wise, but could have used a touch more sweetness and honestly a bit of salt.

The recipe I followed called for six. However I think this would have been better suited for 12 portions. As I said, these are very large rolls. Tasty, but large. I don’t know why they are called cocktail buns when you need a luncheon or dinner sized plate to eat them.

Then I went back and re-read the directions and realized that I confused two recipes up. The one I was thinking of using made 6 and then one I actually made called for 16 (!). So – um – yeah. Directions and attention to detail have never been my forte. You can ask all of my teachers or read all of my report cards.

I’ll have to go back to these at some point and tweak the recipe a little (and to portion it properly). However, for a first time try they lived up to my big expectations.

Cocktail Buns
Dough recipe
Filling recipe

Congratulations to Adrian and Lissa!

2011-06-18T20:38:00.001-03:00

I would like take this opportunity to wish Bacon Gravy contributor Adrian and his very lovely wife, Lissa many congratulations. They had a baby last Saturday!

All the best to you guys! Yay babies!!!!!

Toronto!

2011-06-18T10:35:00.000-03:00

Hi Everyone!

Here are some photos/recaps of my mini break trip to Toronto with Melissa aka, Randomsmirk! (The Mexico recap is still in the works, just still napping in the hammock)

‘Aight. There was a three-fold purpose to this trip.

The NKOTBSB concert
Shopping
Eating

I’ll start with my beloved Bean Town boys. I make no bones about my love for them. It is as 100% true and solid as the first day I listened to Hangin’ Tough in 1989. While we were standing outside of some tour buses at the Air Canada Centre along with a small group of girls hoping for a glimpse of our imaginary boyfriends I realized there was no other place I would rather be. Shopping, touring, even eating (!) could wait.

I can’t explain to you how awesome it is to see these guys in concert. They are as wonderful and entertaining (read: cute) as they were when I first started listening to them. Plus being so close to the stage was amazing. I started weeping as soon as we found our seats and saw that we were only 10 feet away from the stage. Then again when they came on stage, and again during I’ll Be Loving You Forever. When I wasn’t snapping photos, jumping up and down, clapping or cheering I was holding my hands to my chest to try to keep my heart from spilling out all over the place. That’s cheesy and silly but for a few hours on June 9 it was all I could do mainly because of this man.

And this guy

Okay for all these guys.

Love you boys forever!

Shopping

Of course we went to the Eaton Centre! That’s what east coast girls do when they go to Toronto! Plus it was practically beside our hotel. I was going to pick up these cute Star Wars cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma after the wonderful Star Wars party JustJENN did, but then I remembered that those movies are forever ruined for my husband and not even a cookie would soothe over the atrocities that were done in the first three episodes.

Instead I picked up this apple pocket pie mold. I wanted to bring back every single cake pan, cast iron oven, baking mix, kitchen gadget and linen in the store but alas my suitcase and wallet were just too small.

I bought four dresses from H&M my favourite of which is this one.

We went to Sephora to look at expensive makeup. Since I don't wear it I mainly go into Sephora to pretend that I know how to make myself look pretty and to cover myself with free sparkles.

On the list of our TO to-do list was get ourselves to Ikea. Some of you might poo poo it but I love Ikea. Cheap decorative stuff, fun prints and adorable things. Some of it is a bit wacky though. Like a 10 x 4 loaf pan. Come on Sweden, no one needs that. I got a few lamps and I sincerely hope that "L"s and "G"s are actual types of light bulbs available in Canada. I also scored well in clearance section and got some nice material

On Saturday morning we walked over to Chinatown and Kensington Market. This was our favourite shopping experience. Cheap stuff, crazy good smelling shops mixed with some really foul smelling stores. A store dedicated to Mexican spices and on the next block on dedicated to dried shrimp (that store was only three walls but the fourth was made of stink)! I love browsing in Asian markets for all the cool noodles, candies, crackers and frozen food. What is all that stuff!? I wanted to stick it all in my already overflowing suitcase.

EATING

As usual I didn't take enough photos of what went into my mouth. But let me break it down for you.

There were delicious nibblies at the hotel club lounge
There was a tasty falafal pita from one of The Path Food Courts
A yummy breakfast at Shopsys with some of the herbiest hollandaise and most disinterested waitress around.
A great big carton of Lebanese food which I ate for 15 minutes straight and couldn't put a dent in. For 9 bucks I got two salads, rice, beans, chicken, hummus and pita.
Melissa helped me discover that the feta and spinach breakfast wraps at Starbucks are really fantastic. We ate them on our journey to Chinatown while scalding our mouths on hot coffee.

On Friday night, after a full day of shopping, we needed dinner. We needed it to be tasty but most of all we needed it to be close to the hotel and Little Anthony's Italian Restorante fit the bill. (that link has music)

I ordered the oxtail ragu with gnocchi and it was a life changing dish.

The meat was rich, full of flavour and altogether out of this world. The pasta like soft pillows that angels use to sleep on. It was the kind of dish that when you have a mouthful you put your fork down immediately and have a moment. How could I have gone so long and not tasted this?

Melissa had the butternut squash ravioli which was just as tasty as my dinner (I know because I also ate some of hers).

The best way to see Chinatown is to eat your way around. There are tons of noodle shops, dumpling houses and these BBQ places. Does anyone know what makes those squids orange? I was too timid to try it.

However, what I was really seeking out were the bakeries. The filled buns, the soft breads, the elaborate fruit-topped cakes. Most bakeries use the tray system. You get a lunch tray and pair of tongs and select all the pastries you want from the display cases. Then you take your selections up to the counter for wrapping and payment.

I only had eyes for the coconut buns though (or "bums" as all the signs said. ENGRISH FTW!)

Inside the soft, eggy bread is a rich and sweet coconut filling. I was so glad that we sat down to enjoy our selections because this knocked me off my feet and back to when I was nine in the bakery my Great Aunt took me too in Taipei. (I may have cried a little). I am going to learn how to make these - even if it means gaining back a few pounds. These will be mine!

Other stuff that made our trip great:

Toronto Airport Express: $36 (if you book online) will buy you a round trip ticket from Pearson airport (Exit C) to many downtown hotels. The bus is clean, air conditioned and even has free wifi. Give yourself about an hour each way for traffic and drop-offs, but it’s a good deal if you don’t have pre-arranged transport.

The Sheraton Centre. Great hotel and booked on HotWire for a good rate. Plus the very nice check-in guy, Brian upgraded us to Club status for free. This gave us access to the club lounge with free refreshments and breakfast and altogether made us feel special. (Thank you Brian!) We were on the 30^th floor and had a nice view of City Hall and the skyline.

The hotel is connected underground via The Path to lots of shops, food courts and other buildings, namely the Eaton Centre. It's very easy to get lost down there though - luckily I had Melissa with me as she is the master of maps (to a point). I would not have been able to find my way around anywhere without her!

After three days of non-stop eating, shopping, walking we were ready to make our way back home. It was sad to part ways at the airport but we're making plans to do it again next year (New Kids or not)!

Hey There! (PS: Tickets for Sale)

2011-06-06T11:26:00.001-03:00

Hi - I haven't been writing because I'm in a don't-want-to-write/dry spell and the CDWU dinner has been the bane of my existence for the last three weeks. I was considering shutting the blog down so that I wouldn't have to do it, but I'll try to get something up. As well as pics from Mexico which feels like a long, long time ago.

Now to some business:

I've Tweeted, Facebooked, Kijijied, Craig's Listed this and now I'm going to blog about it so that I can say that I did everything I could before I resort to dealing with shady characters outside of the Air Canada Centre.

I have two concert tickets for a show on Thursday...in Toronto. It's for the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys mash up tour. I would love, love, love to give someone who can use them the opportunity to live out their girlhood fantasy of seeing these boy bands. Maybe you live in the city and think it'll be a laugh - or maybe you know someone in Toronto who is a long time fan of the bands and didn't get tickets. These are in the upper bowl, but they are in the section beside the stage so I think they are rather good.

My only dilemma is.... oh how do I say that I actually want money for the tickets without sounding like a dick?

Oh right, well there you go. Let me know if you or someone you know might be interested! Comment here, on my Twitter or email: HelloBaconGravy (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank you!

Come Dine With Us: May Announcement!

2011-05-10T22:20:00.001-03:00

Hooray! It's here! The Come Dine With Us May announcement! Who's on the edge of their seat? You are!

Aren't you?

This month we're going to play a game. A game that Melissa and I have played for many years, a game which my husband now obliges me when I ask him to play and a game so easy that everyone can play. This game is also called "The Game" for lack of a better title, actually it's because we're so lazy we never gave it a name. All you need to play is a cookbook. One person calls out a number and what ever recipe is on that page IS YOUR RECIPE!!! Sometimes it's a winner and will be something you like, but sometimes it's gross but sorry, that's your recipe, the one that defines you as a person, that cookbook said so, Deviled Ham Toast (James Beard, American Cookery, page 450).

...and so on and so forth. Hey, I didn't say that it was a super fun or even intelligent game. It's just something we like to do.

So for CDWU: May, your challenge is to take one of your cookbooks off the shelf and either have someone call out a page number, pick a number from a hat, have a cat sit on comically large construction paper numbers or have your kid think of the biggest number he or she can and then cook that recipe! It will be fun! And if you've got no one to play with then you can use the very handy Random Number Generator or use any or all of these numbers:

19, 82, 292, 333 and 1013.

okay, so one of those numbers isn't random, but it's my favourite number and my blog so there!

You can make a meal using this system for all your courses or you can pick one random recipe and create a fun meal around it. Random rules!

Posts will go up on May 28th!

Have fun!

Edit: Of course you can use multiple cookbooks! Use what ever number-picking system you like to make your lottery meal!

StillTasty is super keen; also, neat-o

2011-05-06T11:03:00.013-03:00

Hi there,

Well, it's been a busy week, and it's coming up on a busier week-end so I thought I'd just draw attention to a neat resource I've used in the past rather than actually writing , you know, a post. It's not all that obscure, but useful none the less.

StillTasty is an online guide to determining the viability of eating that dusty box 'o' stuff you found in the back of your cupboard. It offers a simple search, category browsing and a forum to answer any burning questions you might have as to whether those leftovers will later cause a, well..., burning sensation.

It's a good site that I've used many times (especially after any holidays), and it has a decent pedigree too. It was co-founded in 2009 by Janice Revell, a New York-based journalist, and her mother Jeannie Revell, a P.E.I. resident and former food safety specialist (with 40 years of experience for the Canadian government).

Check it out if you have nagging questions about those Easter ham leftovers

Adrian

Fake cheese? Really? Tell me more...

2011-05-02T10:50:00.016-03:00

So S-L wandered off somewhere muttering something about coconut drinks and the difficulty in finding decent help, so I thought I'd post something to hold the blog over until either we can find her or she comes back of her own volition. Warning; if you see her, do not approach unless you carry a drink with either an umbrella or bacon in it. Remember kids, we are semi-professionals here.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a quick note here to talk about something that's so brilliant I'm amazed that life on this planet can continue without it being common knowledge. Are you ready for it? Okay here it is; Cashew Cheese (here's another recipe). That's right, fake cheese made from delicious cashew nuts. Over the week-end two friends (thanks J and B ) told me about it, and I've been fascinated since.

Now, maybe some of you have heard of this stuff (and for those who have, why didn't you tell me earlier?), but it's a vegan replacement for cheese that is common knowledge among those circles. Why am I so excited about this? Well, I'm a lover of meat; in fact, I like to eat pretty much anything provided that it's prepared well. I will bore an audience about the delicate joy in a good bit organ meat, I will ramble on at length about how tongue has gotten a bad rap, and I will annoy people with self-evident stuff, like how great a piece of slow cooked meat candy ... er pork, can be. But all that said, I've also been increasingly aware as to the health complications that can arise from eating too much meat, and this has only heightened with the impending onset of childmagedon: the poop-ering.

So I've played around with vegetarian and vegan cooking, but one of the things that has kept me from really exploring is, at the end of the day, the simple pleasure that can be derived from munching on a piece of fat. Now that fat could be as straight-forward as lardo, as scrumptious as a nice bbq, or as wonderful as a cream sauce. Either way, there's something deeply satisfying about chowing down on it and vegan food only really had avocados as their source of fatty goodness (yes there are others, but this is what it seemed like to me).

But this changes everything; I can make a lighter version to swap out for cream, or even make a thicker consistency and mold it in a log to resemble a nice chevre (for salads, natch). I can make a vegan Alfredo!

So that's been my recent revelation, has anyone else recently had a game-changing moment out there regarding food?

Adrian

Election Day

2011-05-02T09:00:00.002-03:00

This post is to urge any and all of the Canadian readers out there to please, please, please go out and vote today. The political protests in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and many others show that the ability to voice your say your country's leaders is something to be cherished and something worth fighting for.

Please use your vote today to show that you care about your right to vote and remember what people will do to have such a right.

Thank you!

I'm Back Baby!

2011-04-29T16:41:00.000-03:00

Or maybe you didn't know I was gone?

Let's just say I didn't know how much I adored my own blog and record of tasty things until Blogger flagged it as spam and took it away.

Now the mistake has been corrected and they put it back online! I'm thrilled!

Now I'm going on vacation - see you in a week!

S-L

Come Dine With Us: Ham Throw Down

2011-04-26T21:33:00.005-03:00

Ugh,

Seriously you guys, I am all hammed out. After Saturday's Come Dine With Us: Ham Throwdown I can't look at ham. Even for my family of big eaters, two hams is waaaay too much. But we'll have so many left overs! Is what you're thinking and is what I thought too when we were discussing this meal. But after eating it for all our Sunday meals I cannot stand to even think about sliced ham. The only way you could get me to eat ham right now was if it was Jon Hamm's John Ham served by Jon Hamm at the Hamm and Bubbly restaurant.

(click for more Hamm handsomeness)

In hindsight I should have conceded that Melissa would make the better ham to avoid this hamover but really I don't because....

MY HAM WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME!

With all due respect to my wonderful sister in law, who made a deliciously moist and juicy Easter ham, mine was, well, spectacular. I had a not-so-secret ingredient which even I was rather dubious about. It was basically covered in sugar and the taste. O mon Dieu zee taste! Was, how you say, hamtastique? I don't even like ham that much, but I liked this one.

In the interest of getting this post up and to truly get all the ham out of my system, I used Nigella Lawson's Ham in Coca Cola recipe taken from her website and her book, How To Eat (gifted to me by the lovely Melissa). You should really read it - the writing is as lovely as Nigella. I did not use cloves because, eww, and instead of black treacle and demerera sugar which are a delight to say, I used molasses and brown sugar which are pretty comparable.

Boil the ham in coca cola. I only used a litre, despite having the full 2kg ham called for in her recipe. I knew that some people would have to have a little taste of pop, which, in our house, is found rarely. After simmering for two hours, transfer the ham to a foil lined baking pan and cover with molasses, mustard powder and brown sugar.

Tip: Use two layers of tin foil in your pan to ensure that none of the sugar slips underneath and attaches itself to the pan. That stuff doesn't come off easy.

Cook at 425 for 15 minutes or until the edges look caramelized and crispy. Slice and serve! (Big thanks to my big brother who sliced both our hams. I had no idea how I was going to do it).

Since I wanted to get a leg up on our judges, my two nieces, I garnished mine with marshmallows. Hey - it's already got Coke, molasses and brown sugar - and...we didn't have any Skittles.

The verdict:

Both hams were eaten equally and tasted great. Melissa's was ten times as juicy as mine so I think she gets points that way but mine was cooked in pop so I get points as well. Actually I was really surprised at how mine turned out, which was to say that it was edible. Everyone enjoyed both hams and about an hour after supper, my four year niece asked when we were going to have the ham contest and my two year niece was looking for more marshmallows to nibble on.

Kids are adorable!

To go with our throw-down we also had:

Green salad with beans lightly dressed with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper

Green bean casserole heavily dressed with French's Fried Onions

Roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Corn scallop

Mashed potatoes

And if you want to know if that's enough food for six adults...it is...very much so. We were so very, very full but the little girlies were desperate for dessert and I think you can see why:

White cake with coconut boiled icing and Peeps by Melissa. It was delicious.

At the end of the day it was decided that the biggest hams were Melissa and I only to have our crowns usurped immediately by our hammier judges, Audrey and Holly.

Come Dine With Us - Easter Eggsraviganza - Adrian

2011-04-26T12:00:00.005-03:00

Easter is a special time to me, it always was growing up (and I suppose that's natural for the child of an Italian immigrant). Easter was always a big deal, and it's always held a special place in my heart. Rolling eggs boiled with onion skins (to make them a mottled reddish brown colour) is something that I remember getting really excited about (related: why yes; I did grow up in a small town, why do you ask?). My sister and I would find a flat surface (usually the floor) and roll two of these eggs against each other. The loser (whose egg cracked; and yes, sometimes there were two losers) would have to eat their egg.

Since I've grown up, and started a family of my own, I've not celebrated Easter as my parents and grandparents did. The issue is that Lissa's and my own experiences with the holiday couldn't really diverge more. So, this holiday sort of fell by the wayside; but now I have a chance to celebrate as my Nonna (grandmother) / foggy memories of growing up, used to do. To that end I decided to go traditional Italian for my parts of this meal. Lissa decided that she would like to do the main and sides (mixing it up from our normal behaviour), leaving the starting course and dessert to me.

To Lissa this holiday evokes memories of chocolate easter eggs and matzo (if passover fell at roughly the same time). So she decided that since we have a Rabbit in the freezer that would constitute the core of the main course. After a bit of back and forth this is what we came up with.

1. Minestra di pasqua (traditional soup - and I haven't made it in ages)
2. Beet Salad (a la Lissa)
3. Green Salad (not covered, since, well... 'cause)
4. Hasenpfeffer (What? We both like Bugs Bunny...)
5. Spätzle
6. Pan seared carrots with ginger
7. Colomba (traditional; Italian almond bread), with a runny custard and jam

Now on to the recipes!

Pork meat balls (made up)
Stuff needed:
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon minced rosemary
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 diced medium onion
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 egg
breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Mix the ingredients, adding breadcrumbs until the mixture clings together. Fry until cooked.

First up; Adrian's Minestra di Pasqua (Easter soup)
Stuff needed:
Pork meat balls
10 cups rich clarified stock (at least)
1 tablespoon rosemary
a little Marjoram to taste
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 medium sized onion, diced
1 peeled carrot, grated
1 tablespoon thyme
2 tablespoons diced parsley
1 pound leafy greens (rapini greens, beet greens, spinach, etc.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Heat the olive oil in a pot, and then add the onions and tomato paste and cook until the onions are translucent Add the stock, meatballs, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and carrot and bring to a boil. Add the greens, salt and pepper, and cook until the greens are wilted. Add the parsley and serve with grated Parmesan and toasted crusty bread.

After that we brought out the salad course, as I mentioned above I won't bother with covering the green salad.

Simple Vinaigrette
Stuff needed:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon vinegar (I prefer balsamic)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

To do:
Whisk together in a small bowl until emulsified.

Lissa's Beet Salad (made up)
Stuff needed:
Roast Beets (say a pound)
Two oranges
Simple vinaigrette
Fennel
Toasted pine nuts
Some arugula as desired
Fennel fronds to make it look pretty

To do:
Roast off and skin the beets, slice the smaller ones into rounds, and cut the larger ones into large cubes capable of easily being picked up by a fork. Place them into a bowl and toss with the simple vinaigrette Now arrange the rounds on a plate, and place the cubes on top. Thinly slice the fennel against the grain, and arrange on top along with the arugola. Segment the oranges and arrange on top of the fennel. Top with the fennel fronds and pine nuts.

And now, on to the main course:

Hasenpfeffer (from the “Recipes: the cooking of Germany” from the Time Life's “Foods of the world” series)
Stuff needed:
½ pound bacon, finely chopped
6 pound fresh rabbit cut into serving pieces (video here)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup flour
½ cup chopped shallots (or onion)
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon current jelly (we used my mom's)
2 tablespoons brandy
1 small bay leaf
1 teaspoon minced rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoon lemon juice

To do:
In a heavy large pot with a tight lid, cook off the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon to drain on a couple sheets of paper towel. Keep the bacon fat in the pot.

Wash the rabbit quickly under cold water and pat it dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then dip them in the flour (shaking off any excess). Heat the bacon fat up over high heat until it splutters. Add the rabbit a few pieces at a time, browning on all sides. Once done transfer the rabbit to a plate. Pour off all by two tablespoons of the fat, and then cook the shallots and garlic in it until translucent, but not brown. Pour in the wine and the stock, and bring to a biol over high heat while scraping any brown bits clinging to the bottom or sides of the pan. Stir in the brandy, currant jelly, by leaf, rosemary, and thyme, and return the rabbit (and any juices collected around them) to the pan. Add the drained bacon, and cover the pot tightly simmering over a low heat for 1 ½ hours.

Pick out the bay leaf, and stir in the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Serve the rabbit with the sauce it cooked in available to be poured over it.

Spätzle (from the same book and series as the Hasenpfeffer)
Stuff needed:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 stick butter

To do:
In a large bowl combine the flour, ½ teaspoon of the salt and the nutmeg. Break up the eggs with a fork and beat them into the flour mixture. Pour in the milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly with a large spoon and continue to stir until the dough is smooth. I've found it to always be a really sticky dough.

Bring a large pot of water up to a build, and force the dough (a couple teaspoons at a time) though something with large holes (I used a grater, and a plastic dough scraper for this).

They're done when they float to the top of the boiling water, at this point you could eat them as is, but we opted to fry them in a bit of butter just before serving (to reheat, and render more awesome).

Honey ginger carrots (no idea where I learned this one)
Stuff needed:
5 peeled carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
½ cup water
2 tablespoons honey
1 inch peeled and minced ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
Diced parsley to make it looks nice.

To do:
Mix the honey, and water until the honey is dissolved. Add the ginger to the mixture. In a pan with a tight lid put the carrots in and add the honey mixture, closing the lid and bringing the mixture up to a boil. Boil the carrots until tender, but still with a crunch (about five minutes) and then remove the top to allow the honey mixture to boil off. Add the parsley, salt, and pepper and serve.

And now onto dessert:

Colomba di Pasqua (from here)

This made a version of the dish that would make my Nonna happy (and I'm ridiculously proud of that). In the interests of not getting carpal tunnel syndrome I'm not going to enter this one in, but instead show what it looked like with runny custard and a bit of jam.

At this point we had a bit of a surprise, as Mike (one of the guests) owns a cheese shop (facebook page here) and brought a huge amount of cheese, bread, charcuterie, and tapinad over as his contribution for the evening. It was awesome. Seriously, we're lucky to have friends like this.

All in all I thought it went very well, and I hope that everyone else had a great Come Dine With Me: Easter edition,

Adrian

Come Dine With Us: Eat Halifax!

2011-04-15T09:26:00.001-03:00

Today I have a special post to share with you guys! It comes from a fellow Haligonian food blogger, Eat Halifax. Kathy and her friends made a superb meal for March's Healthy Edition Theme and I really encourage you go to go to her site to check it out!

http://eathalifax.blogspot.com/2011/04/healthy-challenge.html

While you're there check out the awesome lasagna, Vietnamese Pho and a very proper Bluenoser Lobster dinner!

I love that all of the participants for this theme made Mediterranean inspired dishes and I think that it certainly makes the point that healthy food can be delicious like salads, dips, vegetables, cheeses and meats which are packed with flavour It's not all sticks, barks and tofu mousses!

Thanks to all our participants! Again, please feel free to do any of the CDWU themes at any time!

January: Comfort Food

February: Chinese New Year

March: Healthy Edition

April: Ham

And if you have a suggestion for a monthly theme let me know!

HAM HAM HAMMITY HAM!

2011-04-13T11:07:00.001-03:00

April's theme for Come Dine With Us is EASTER!!! Hooray for chocolates and candies and egg hunts and most importantly...

THE CDWU: HAM THROWDOWN!

It was only a matter of time before Melissa and I rolled up our sleeves, tightened our frilly apron strings and stepped into the ring. The ham ring, that is!

What started out innocently as planning the menu for Easter Dinner (which my dad instructed we cook), we were discussed what we could make that would go with the ubiquitous Easter ham. Suddenly I got a ham showdown thrown in my face and I had to oblige lest my family's honour be disgraced. So we're both going to make our own hams and let our family decide who will reign supreme and who will have ham and eggs on their face (hopefully me because I would dearly love a fatty breakfast).

Everyone is welcome to join in on the Throwdown of course.

Post your pictures of your fun Easter meal or treats that you made or perhaps the lovely Easter basket you made for the kids and I'll share it here. If you do not celebrate Easter I do welcome you to send me any pictures of any big or special meals that you made for April. I love seeing all the great food you make!

Posts will go up sometime the week of April 25!

PS - does anyone have a killer ham recipe I could steal, er I mean look at?

March Leftovers

2011-03-31T09:50:00.000-03:00

It's been almost three weeks now that my husband and I have started making healthier choices in what we eat. I don't have an exact plan, system, calorie counter or goal but here is what we are trying to do:

Eat more vegetables, fruits, legumes and nuts
Eat less fatty meat (and eventually less meat altogether)
Eating whole grains when ever possible
Low fat dairy

It hasn't been joyful 100% of the time and I shocked a table of friends one evening describing my desperation to smear onion rings on my face just to feel some fat and in the hopes that some bits would fall in my mouth. I would call that a "low moment". I also prepared butter chicken in a trance-like state when I realized I still had some heavy cream in the fridge. That was delicious.

So there have been more than a few lapses: a cupcake here (which was worth it) and a french fry there (just one!) but if you're going to do jump into the deep end of the healthy pool you need a fatty flotation device every now and then to help you tread water. You need some wiggle room and you have to be easy on yourself. I'm learning that I don't need to feel guilty for enjoying something like a piece of chocolate, just as long as it's not too often and I've also eaten loads of other good things. Besides, a square of dark chocolate is a nice way to say thanks to your spirit during what can be an emotional time.

I'm just trying to eat three full meals and three good snacks of the right kinds of food. That way my body is continually processing and working to break everything down and, ideally, helps to combat hunger. When I'm hungry in between snacks I just eat more fruit and hope for the best...but like I said - it's not 100% foolproof. I still want that onion ring facial.

Here's a typical day and a few meals:

Breakfast.

I'm really into steel-cut oats right now. It is delicious, super filling and you can dress it up loads of ways. It takes a bit of time to cook but you can make a big batch one evening or weekend and reheat it over the next few days. You should really try it!

I'll either have that or yogurt with fruit and berries and granola:

Admittedly this is a large bowl, and halfway through I put it in the fridge and it was my morning snack as well. I'm trying not to have any more caffeine then I need to so this morning cup is like pure sunny gold.

Lunch:

Unless I pack all the fixings to make a fresh sandwich, lunch is always leftovers from the night before. I love leftovers!

This was leftover pork/tzatziki from Sunday's CDWU dinner. I also took the remaining filling from the cold rolls (peppers, sugar snap peas, sprouts, avocado), put them over salad greens and served with some homemade whole wheat pita bread. Yum.

Supper

Here are some suppers we've had this week:

Green salad with Parmesan shave which is currently my favourite way to have greens (just some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper). Roasted sweet potatoes and chili-garlic chicken. This plate was mostly for presentation - I set half the chicken aside for the next day's lunch and had double green salad.

Taco pita pizzas (lean ground beef, cumin, chili powder, garlic, low-fat cheddar) with pico de gallo (onions, jalapeno, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, olive oil and fresh lime juice). I also added some diced avocado to mine because I do love it so.

Whole wheat rotini pasta with roasted butternut squash, zucchini, shallots and leftover diced chili-garlic chicken. Served with salad. This was really good. I had never cooked butternut squash before and roasting it brought out lots of nice natural caramel flavours complementing the sharp zucchini and delicate shallots.

I don't know how well these foods are in helping me lose weight but I am enjoying eating them as they are tasty, filling and nutritious. While it's not a true estimate of my progress I have gone down 5 pounds since I first weighed myself last Monday. It's mostly water weight but I will take what I can get!

Here's to looking forward to an even healthier and slimmer April!

Hello, I'm a big dummy that doesn't know how to use a keyboard

2011-03-21T21:22:00.000-03:00

This post was supposed to be Adrian's Come Dine With Us: Healthy Edition. You'll remember him from the Chinese New Year meal he posted last month here on the blog and I am so happy that he made a meal for this month's challenge. I even set him up as a real guest blogger to put his post up directly to the site.

But.

See, I wanted to see it for myself first. Not because I didn't trust him, but because I wanted to enjoy it first before you guys saw. I'm selfish like that.

And it is AWESOME. I was gasping and ohhing and aahing and virtual highfiving him for all the great pictures, recipes and everyone good.

Then I deleted it.

Because it was just too good for you to see...and because my ham hands punched in a series of keys that made it go poof. Seriously, I don't know what I did.

Anyway - he's now in the process of putting it back on the site but I wanted to offer my sincere apologies to him for doing that and thank him for all the work. You guys are going to love this meal, trust me!

Come dine with me - Healthy Spring edition - Adrian

2011-03-21T19:54:00.034-03:00

So before we start with everything let me confess something; Lissa and I, we cheated on three of the dishes. They aren't low fat. This came about due to a mix of confusion and desperation. Let me tell you what happened.

We started this month's challenge by trying to figure out dishes of when we thought of spring. This brought up images of ramps, asparagus, fiddle heads (oh, such a wonderful fern), radishes, peas, and green beans (you might notice a theme there). As you may have guessed we decided to go vegetarian for this meal. Out came the cookbooks; we picked and we chose, but we couldn't come to a consensus about what to make, as nothing seemed to say spring to both of us at once, and "Spring" technically still had official arrived...

Despondent, we decided to start from "Spring" ingredients, and work from there. We bounced ideas, brainstormed and thought back to random Iron Chef episodes we had watched. This worked fantastically, and we divided the meal with Lissa taking the soup, dessert, and bread on, while I took on the rest of the main course and a random green salad (not covered). After a bit more back and forth we decided on a menu that consisted of:

1. Asparagus soup
2. “Not so Bucco” (daikon radish filled with Mushroom Risotto assembled to resemble a bone)
3. Pan fried green beans
4. A fennel and apple salad
5. Quick fried cherry tomatoes with garlic
6. A Cucumber and dill salad
7. Corn bread
8. A blueberry buckle

It all started out on a smooth note; the guest list was drawn up, the people contacted and confirmed, and the pre-cooking started. I made a big batch of vegetable broth, and based on that Lissa made her asparagus soup, I made a mushroom risotto. Satisfied we looked forward to an easy bit of cooking on the Friday ahead.

... And then Friday hit, when the guest list suddenly expanded; Lissa's mother wanted to come and visit, and other friends who we wanted to see suddenly were looking for something to do. The newly invited guests prompted a quick back and forth to expand the menu as we were both worried we didn't have enough food. Lissa sprang into action on cornbread and the buckle, both made slightly “chunkier” to stretch the portions.

Hastily added to the menu we included:

1. White bean and roasted garlic shmeer
2. Sweet peas and mint
3. Serve the rest of the Risotto too (low fat goes out the window here as initially is was supposed to only be a small amount for stuffing rather than part of the course)
4. and a Persian Rice Pilaf called Sabzi Polo

Now with the table expanded and the guests arriving soon we started into the rest of the cooking.

First up, Lissa's Asparagus Soup (She made this up).

Stuff needed:
Asparagus (3 bunches)
Veggie stock
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
Thyme to taste
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil

To do:
Fry the onion in the oil until translucent over medium heat (about 5 minutes), add roughly chopped garlic and asparagus and cook for a few minutes more. Now add stock and walk away until everything is mushy. Puree, add thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.

To garnish the soup, and in a nod to the “Not so Bucco” that formed the base of the next course, we put together a quick Gremolata:

Tarragon Gremolata (from somewhere in my childhood)

Stuff needed:
Equal parts of crushed garlic, fresh lemon zest, and finely diced fresh tarragon.

To do:
Mix

After the soup course We started into the main. In this case it was more of a large collection of small dishes served and nibbled on as desired.

The intended core of the course was the “Not so Bucco”. This was a complete experiment, and I have to say it looked great, but didn't turn out as tasty as intended. Take this one as a base that will needs to be tweaked.

Mushroom Risotto (from my childhood)

Stuff needed (approx):
4 cups broth (Vegetable in this case)
2 cups fresh mushrooms sliced
1 cup dried mushrooms (soaking water reserved)
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (yes, that is a cop out; but I just can't imagine Risotto without cheese)
1 diced onion
1 tablespoon olive oil

To do:
Soak the dried mushrooms in enough very hot water to cover. Leave for an hour or so.

After the mushrooms have soaked, reserve the soaking liquid and slice the refreshed mushrooms. Put a put on the stove and pour in the olive oil and turn to a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, place in the fresh mushrooms and cook them down stirring occasionally (approx 15 minutes or so). Now add the onions and the formerly dried mushrooms, cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is translucent (around 5 minutes). Now add the rice and stir it, mixing with the other contents for about five minutes. At this point add a the reserved mushroom liquid, and stir the mixture until the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding the stock a ladle at a time and stirring until absorbed (if you run out of stock add water instead). Continue doing this until the rice tastes cooked, and is nice and plump. Finally, add the cheese and stir to mix salt and pepper to taste, removing the risotto from the heat.

“Not so Bucco” (we saw something like this somewhere, but don't recall where)

Stuff needed:
A couple diakon radishes peeled and cut into enough pieces for everyone
Mushroom Risotto
A power drill

To do:
Drill a hole through the Daikon radish segments to resemble a bone (I used a ¾” woodworking bit for this).

After the hole is drilled, steam the daikon cylinders until tender (about a half hour). Then stuff with the risotto, and steam for another 15 minutes. Serve with Gremolata from above.

Fennel and apple salad (from somewhere random in my head)

Stuff you need:
2 bulbs fennel
3 apples
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
Whatever fennel fronds are available from the bulbs

To do:
Shave the fennel against the fibres. Peel, core and and thinly slice the apple. Mix the apple and the fennel with the lemon juice olive oil salt and pepper. Sprinkle the fennel frond on top.

Cucumber salad with dill (also from somewhere growing up)

Stuff you need:
A cucumber
1 tablespoon plain yoghurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped dill
Salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Wash the cucumber and shave it thinly. Emulsify the yoghurt, oil, salt and pepper and pour over the cucumber, and add the dill. Mix and serve.

Quick fry tomatoes and garlic (again - childhood. This is probably my favourite way to have cherry tomatoes excluding fresh off the vine)

Stuff you need:
1 pkg cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Heat up the oil to medium heat, add the tomatoes and shift the pan to coat. Once the tomatoes start to split add the garlic and cook until the garlic is translucent. Add the parsley and toss. Serve.

Janne Owen's Corn Bread (Lissa made this, it's almost identical to, but adapted from James Beard's American Cookery – this is also a bit of a cop out)

Stuff you need:
½ cup sifted flour
1 ½ cups yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup milk
¼ cup cream
1/3 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons chopped chives
1 and ½ cups of cheddar, shredded

To do:
Sift all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and the milk and beat with a wooden spoon. Beat in the cream and the melted butter, followed by the cheddar and the chives. Pour into an 8 ½ by 11 inch well buttered pan, and bake at 400 degrees for approximately 15 to 18 minutes.

Pan fried green beans (made up as as a variant of countless numbers of these things)

Stuff we need:
1 pound green beans
2 diced frogs legs shallots
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 handful parsley, diced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Put the oil in a pan and heat over a middle high heat. Add the beans and cook covered for 2 minutes or so. Add the shallots and fry for another minute or two, now add the vinegar and cook it off coating the contents of the pan. Add the salt and pepper and the parsley.

From here are in are all these are all the panic recipes added on to the planned menu based on the slightly higher than expected guests.

White bean shmeer (a variant on humus)

Stuff needed:
2 heads roasted garlic
1 can white beans
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Blend

Peas and mint (from where ever)
Stuff needed:
2 tablespoons mint
2 cups shelled peas
Salt and pepper to taste

To do:
Blanch the peas, shock them in cold water. Then add the mint, salt and pepper.

Sabzi Polo (From here: http://www.whats4eats.com/grains/sabzi-polo-recipe )

Stuff needed:
3 cups cooked basmati rice
1 cup each of dices dill, parsley, green onions, and coriander
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups veggie broth

To do:
Oil the pot, spread 1/3 rice on the bottom. Spread ½ herb mix on top, then another layer rice, another layer of herb mix, and finally the last of the rice, and smooth the surface of the last layer. Pour the 2 cups of stock in, and then poke 4 or 5 holes in rice with the handle of a wooden spoon. Cover the pot tightly and set over medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce to low, and simmer fir 30 to 40 minutes. Take off the heat and let it rest for 15 minutes. Gently mix the rice.

And now onto dessert. This didn't meet the low fat definition.

Island Blueberry buckle (Lissa found this in “Anita Stewart's Canada”)

Stuff you need:
Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chilled butter

Batter:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
2 cups blueberries

To do:
Topping combine all, and cut in the butter until crumbly with the consistency of cornmeal.

Batter:
Beat butter until light in colour; whip in sugar, eggs, and milk. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Spread in a lightly oiled 9 by 13 inch pan. Spread the blueberries evenly over the base.

Sprinkle the topping on top and bake, uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden and crusted.

We also made som "Berry Water" a drink I love over Spring and Summer. It's only some frozen berries, crushed mint, and soda water mixed with a squeeze of lemon.

Well that's the meal and the panic add-ons. Here's hoping it went well for everyone else out there too.

Adrian

A Little Link Love

2011-03-21T13:11:00.000-03:00

Today I would like to draw your attention to DinnerTool.com, a neat site for recipe searches, meal planning, making grocery lists, articles, how-to videos and a lot more. They asked to do a link exchange with me which I am happy to oblige to since it looks like it could come in handy for a lot of folks. I do love planning out my meals for the week to make myself feel a tad bit organized and I'm always up for looking for new recipes and the site looks very easy to use. Take a look sometime and see if might be something you like.

Grocery List

If you're visiting me from that page for the first time, welcome!

Thanks to Nicole for contacting me! :)

Come Dine With Us: To Your Good Health

2011-03-20T22:06:00.000-03:00

Hooray! It's Spring, like officially! It's outside RIGHT NOW! Time to kick off the sweaters and quit wearing winter boots on principle! We're going to eat ourselves thin starting now!

This healthy theme comes courtesy of RandomSmirk’s Mom. Who, after we posted our first installment of CDWU: Comfort Food meals, left the following comment:

“Ooh, you girls know yummy. Oh, what marvelous Moms you must have....BUT --I challenge you to something yummy and HEALTHY. you can do it!”

And she is right on both counts: we do have awesome Moms and we both can cook healthy and tasty meals. It was luck that Melissa was in the city this week to give us a chance to do what we do best: brainstorm about meals most dreamy and drink a nice glass of wine. We are both doing our own slimming regime so much of the conversation was on what we should eat vs. what we want to eat. (It is only now that I write this that I missed out of a perfect opportunity for a chance for the two of us to cook together. Zounds!)

So this month’s challenge goes out to all the Mom’s who encourage their children to eat healthy and make healthful choices. We love you Moms! I would also like to give a very friendly wave to Mr. Reid, a family friend and reader! He has given me a lot of blog pat on the backs when we run into each other at the farmers market on Saturday mornings and I wanted to say thanks!

It’s not hard to eat healthy things but it can be a struggle. I wanted this meal to be vibrant both in colour and flavour so I picked out some of my favourite tastes: citrus, spicy, tangy and...porky to jumble up into a meal and hope for the best. The menu:

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Fresh Salad Rolls

Greek Pork Tenderloin Pita and Tabbouleh Salad

Silk Chocolate Mousse

I should also make note of the fact that IANAN/IANYN (I am not a nutritionist/I am not your nutritionist) so I don't know the exact caloric or vitamin value of this meal but I do know that it's made of things I like and consider healthy. So no hate letters or candygrams please. Wait, please send candygrams.

Appetizer Course: Fresh Rolls with Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

You've probably had cold or fresh rolls at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants. They are always tasty and fresh and great combination of textures and flavours. The crunchy vegetables, the peppery sprouts and then that big punch of flavour from the herbs. Unfortunately the herb of choice is usually cilantro and for me, cilantro is the devil - if the devil is a soap flavoured green demon, that is. However, the last time we had them at Talay Thai they used mint instead and it was very, very tasty.

Here is my little assembly line. On the right is a dish of warm water, a cutting board to assemble the rolls, a dish of fillings and a nice platter to serve them on. Note on the platter: I used to have a larger size of the same design and between my various moves and parties I've lost it - do you have it?

The Fillings: starting at the top left we have watercress, sugar snap peas, basil, mint, avocado, red bell pepper and shallots. At the very top of the photo are the alfalfa sprouts. I wanted to grow my own sprouts for this but after a raised eyebrow from my husband and reading some food safety articles on the web I decided it was best not to grow food in my closet. I still haven't completely ruled it out though!

If you haven't used rice paper before it comes in small and large circular sheets like tortillas found in the "International" or "Oriental" section depending on which grocery store chain you're at. Place a sheet of rice paper in the warm water for 10-15 seconds until pliable - it will be very slippery, delicate and translucent.

Working quickly, place a small amount of each ingredient onto the centre of the paper.

Fold the bottom half over the filling, bring the sides over and then finish rolling up. It's like a see through burrito! Then proceed to make lots more (these take some time - especially if you're like me and ate a few along the way).

They taste like little parcels of freshness. With a little drizzle of some chili oil, these were perfect.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

I've been on a large chickpea kick lately. Because they are super healthy and pretty versatile. You add them to salads for extra fiber, whiz them up in the food processor for hummus or you can roast them into a crunchy snack! Yay chickpeas!

Start with a can or two cups of chickpeas that you have soaked, cooked and cooled. Rinse and dry them on a towel laid over a cookie sheet.

Once they are dry preheat your oven to 425 and cook them for 10 minutes (note, please remove the towel before placing it in the oven!). Stir/shake them up and roast for another 10 minutes.

In a bowl mix 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a dash of cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp of cumin and a sprinkle of salt.

Put them back into the oven for another 5 minutes and continue to cook until they are super crunchy.

Main Course: Greek Pork Pitas with Tabbouleh Salad

Pork souvlaki is my desert island meal. I could eat it every day and during 1998-2001 you could find my brother and I at the Boyce Famers' Market stuffing one in our mouths every Saturday morning. Souvlaki for breakfast you ask? Only after you eat your sausage roll and container of Chinese noodles! For dessert: samosas. My point is (other than I can eat of lot of gross food) is that I love Greek and Mediterranean food.

We don't own a grill and I'm not sure if eating loads of charred meat is all that great for your system so I had to think of way to get nice and flavourful meat without imparting extra fat. Then I heard my slowcooker clear its throat. Of course! Slow cooking the meat will keep the pork moist not to mention the fact that it takes the least amount of effort to make.

I used pork tenderloin because that seemed to be the leanest cut. That went into the slow cooker in the morning with two roughly chopped onions and carrots, 3 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and dried oregano. Pour in water until it comes up to the meat and cook on low for 7-8 hours. While that's cooking you can go about your business like catch up on TV, play a few video games, go for a walk and then lie down. I do love a lazy Sunday afternoon.

You can buy store-made tzatziki which is always tasty but in order to control the fat content I made my own.

1 cup of plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 of a cucumber seeded and diced finely
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp fresh dill
salt and pepper

This is better if you drain your yogurt in a linen cloth or cheesecloth for 8 hours to get rid of excess moisture, but I went took the easy route and just mixed all the ingredients together and let it chill for a few hours.

Now we are ready to go to plate! Put some shredded some pork on a whole wheat pita, top it with diced onion, tomato, light feta cheese and spoon over some of the tzatziki sauce.

Tabbouleh salad is a house favourite here. Bulgar wheat, cucumber, mint, tomato, garlic, lemon, olive oil and parsley. Yum!

After lamenting with my friend last week over the state of strawberries and their watery flavour I made this super-refreshing-tastes-like-Summer drink to accompany the meal. It's just cold tap water with sliced strawberries, cucumber and a few springs of mint and it's so tasty!

Dessert Course: Silk Chocolate Mousse

Okay, we've had lots of veggies, good fats, and whole grains so far I think that we can allow ourselves to indulge just a teeny bit. And what better way than with some silk chocolate mousse. Why does she keep saying silk? I think she's hiding something.

Now don't run away, turn the channel or mark this entry as read but...this is made from tofu.

WHAT?!!!

I know! I didn't believe it either. I first had this dessert at work when one of the office health nutters made it for a potluck. Who brings tofu to a potluck anyway? Loads of people turned their noses up and you couldn't give it away, but I tried it and I really enjoyed it so there you go.

It's well known that tofu is a great flavour sponge. It'll taste like what ever you marinate it with - it doesn't work with pizza though, I've tried. Since coffee always boosts the flavour of chocolate I poured in about a 1/4 cup cooled coffee onto the tofu and let it sit for four hours. The result was pretty good in that you can't taste the tofu (but you sort of know something is up with this dessert). Strictly speaking we're not supposed to eat chocolate chips, but if you're eating a dessert comprised mainly of tofu, you need something in there to make it fun.

Chocolate Tofu Mousse

500ml silken tofu. You want silken because it's the easiest to blend up
1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips.
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 Tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup of cooled coffee (pour this over the tofu and let it marinate 4 hours)
(forget the milk in the picture above - I didn't use it).

In a standing mixer, hand mixer, blender or food processor blend the coffee flavoured tofu, cocoa powder and honey until smooth. Meanwhile melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla to the tofu mixture and whip for another 30 seconds or until completed blended. Pour into a bowl and chill over night. It tastes surprisingly like regular chocolate mousse. I think that you might be able to fool your children with it or unsuspecting husband.

So there you have it - proof that I can actually cook and will eat healthy things. It's not all cream sauces and chili fries here at the Bacon Gravy house (sigh!). This meal was pretty easy to put together and I believe that it was nutritionally complete since it fits with our current diet system. We felt satisfyingly full without feeling stuffed.

And now I have to tell you the truth about this meal: this was actually two meals. I made the fresh rolls for lunch because that is just way too much food for two people to eat at one sitting. Even I know that it wouldn't be healthy to cram that all in no matter how many vegetables there are. Also? That is more work than I'm willing to spend on one meal. Also, also? It gave me an excuse to have two pork pitas at supper time. teehee!

Thanks for reading my March installment for Come Dine With Us. As always, if you've made something using any of the CDWU themes just send it to me and I'll post it here. I love seeing what you've all made!

Speaking of which, let's see what Melissa and Mare made!

Bacon Gravy Diet Edition: It's Not Easy Cooking Lean

2011-03-14T14:26:00.001-03:00

The main reason for March's CDWU "healthy" theme is that I'm trying to slim down a bit. There are few things coming up that I wood like to wear cute summery things to and you know, be kinder to my body and all that jazz. As I start down this terrifying, ugly and difficult road that is paved with better choices, whole grains and yearning for chips I need to recognize my faults. I hate diets, I hate controlling my portions and I love to lay down and watch tv. Like love it in an unnatural way.

The more I think about resolving to eat healthy the more I want to cram fistfuls of onion rings into my face. The longest I lasted on Weight Watchers was 3 hours and it did not coincide with meal hours. The thought of being restricted to portions sizes or certain things made me cry and forget all that point counting. Despite having a handy little tool to figure out the points I couldn't get my head around it. I can't even do math when I'm at my full fat capacity there's no way I could do it when I'm hungry (read: angry). I know that the system works and is very sensible, but it's not for me.

Waaaay back in 2006 I lost a lot of weight from eating a healthy diet and exercising, maintained it for a while and then gained it all back. Before my 4th chin appears I think that it's time to do something about all this excess baggage. I've decided to return once again to the food philosophy which really worked for me: high fibre foods, lean meats and lower fat dairy products. My only goal is to be happy when I look in the mirror as opposed to just satisfied - or roughly 20-30 pounds (and I'm being generous here. I'm sharing this with you because perhaps if I write it here it might help me stick to it.

Don't worry: I'm going to allow myself to be a little indulgent here and there in order to post all things buttery for you and I could never turn my back on bacon, no matter how many chins I have.

Stuff n' Such & Come Dine With Us: March!

2011-03-09T12:44:00.000-04:00

This is just a smattering of random items plus the all important Come Dine With Us March announcement which I hope some of you have been waiting for.

1. We had an absolutely brilliant time seeing Ron Sexsmith at The Carleton last night. If you ever have the chance to see him you should take it because he is such a lovely writer/performer/musician. I always get so smitten when I see him! Plus you could not ask for a better venue. 100 people all enjoying music, dinner and drinks. The food is excellent (I had the artichoke dip and the fish&chips - YUM!) and the servers were all so nice! There isn't a bad seat in there but we were about 10 feet away from the stage and all had stars in our eyes. The whole night was perfect.

2. I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Fort Lauderdale and had a lot of fun shopping and eating. My favourite thing was shopping in the grocery stores which is like shopping in every single television, movie and commercial that you've ever seen. All the nutty ingredients that I see on cooking shows where there: ancho chilli powder, quince paste, Ro-tel tomatoes! I wish I had purchased more food but I wasn't sure about how the TSA felt about those things and cleaning up a suitcase of fine spice didn't appeal to me very much.

3. Spring is almost here! A nice mild day mixed with some heavy rain washed a lot of that dirty snow away. Those black snow banks in March resemble nothing of the Winter Wonderland we sing about in December. I'm ready for it to skedaddle. (I know that it's -13 today with the wind-chill, but I still have hope that Spring is coming).

4. Even though the nice weather won't hit us until mid April I'm running with the Spring theme for Come Dine With Us . Fresh air, flowers, extra sunlight - it's all coming our way! So I thought it would be nice to translate that into a meal. That's right, we're going to try to cook and eat something healthy! In honour of the season that is yet to come the meal should be something fresh and vibrant and evoke the feeling of twirling in the alps and bursting into song. Okay - that's a stretch, so hows abouts a no butter or heavy cream and easy on the sugar/salt rule? Posts will go up on March 20th so we've got a week and a half to think of a menu! Feel free to send me your pics or posts if you would like to participate!

Have a super day!

February Round Up

2011-02-28T18:26:00.000-04:00

I have almost subcumbed to the Winter blahs and in an effort to hang on to the glimmer of summery hope which still remains I'm going to post a few pictures I took this month to remind me of what's to come because right now it looks like this outside:

Soon I will be able to fill this thermos with icy cold lemonade, sit on my deck and enjoy the sun.

Soon the flowers will bloom and everything will smell fresh.

Soon I will be able to hang his shirts on the line and let the breeze do some of the ironing.

Soon there will be and abundance of fresh local berries at the market.

There are lots of great days coming our way and we only have to put up with our unbearably cold days, slippery roads and shoveling snow for a few more weeks. Until then, let's all get cozy inside with a nice cup of hot tea and perhaps a slice or two of chocolate peanut butter cake.

Come Dine With Us: Adrian

2011-02-15T11:29:00.000-04:00

As a special treat for you today we have a guest post! Our friend Adrian sent the Come Dine With Us dinner he and his very adorable wife cooked for their friends. Honestly, this dinner blew me away - this is an incredible and ambitious menu that looks so delicious. Enjoy everyone!
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To start off I took a look through the freezer downstairs and noticed that there was a cheap duck that I'd purchased with no particular purpose in mind. On seeing the duck I decided to make Peking Duck and build the meal around that. From there, Lissa decided that she would like me to make my winter melon soup, and she decided that she wanted to make dumplings, specifically Jiaozi.

Armed with a connection to the internet and a copy of "The Chinese Cookbook" (by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee) held together with duct tape and hope we started looking up recipes. Some of them came from the book, some we made up, some were adaptions of things found on the internet. We also had to be careful with some of the ingredients as my wife is pregnant (so no lovely dried Chinese sweet sausage for us). After discussing what we found, we settled on the following menu:

1) Winter melon soup

2) Jiaozi

3) Peking Duck served with sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf, and a couple veggie dishes of whatever looked good at the market.

4) Melon Gelato with orange chocolate spring rolls

Armed with this menu we assembled a shopping list and set to town. Based on what we saw at the market we decided to make the two veggie slots eggplant with basil, and Szechuan style long beans. All that said without further ado here are the dishes we made.

First up, since we couldn't find any five spice powder I decided to make my own:

Home-made Chinese five spice powder

Stuff needed:

1 teaspoon each of:

Cinnamon

Star Anise

Fennel seeds

Szechuan pepper

And one half teaspoon of cloves

To do:

Toast the pepper and the cinnamon until fragrant. Grind all spices and combine.

Winter melon soup (ala me)

Stuff Needed:

Winter melon

Stock (made from rib bones and clarified by me)

1 medium onion

1 bunch watercress (to taste)

1 bunch cilantro (to taste)

To do:

Skin the melon and cut out the seeds, cutting the remaining flesh into pieces approximately 2cm square pieces. Cut the onion into what I call Chinese cut (hard to describe, but I found a video here)

Bring the stock to a boil and add the cut melon and onion, keep the soup simmering and cook for a half hour.

Just before serving add the remaining ingredients and stir to leave nice green bits showing.

Jiaozi (recipe from here)

(makes 60 dumplings)

Stuff needed:

4 cups flour

1 1/4 cup water (warm)

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound shrimp (shelled, de-veined and coarsely chopped)

2 large napa cabbage leaves (salted, drained, rinsed and finely diced)

2 green onions (finely sliced)

2 tablespoons bamboo shoot (finely diced)

2 tablespoons ginger (finely diced)

1 tablespoon garlic (finely diced)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons cornstarch

To do:

Wrappers (we were lazy and bought these freshly pre-made at our local Chinese food mart. However, if you are more active than us, here’s how you could do it):

Mix the flour and water in a food processor until incorporates. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Cover the dough with a damp cloth while you let it rest for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into long cylinders about 1 1/2 inches thick and cut the cylinders into 1/2 inch pieces. Flatted the pieces with the palm of your hand forming discs and then rolled them out to about 2 inch diameter.

Assembly:

Mix the pork, shrimp, cabbage, green onions, bamboo shoots, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Now place a small spoonful of the filling in the centre of the wrapper, fold the two sides over the centre and pleat the edges to seal the filling in.

And since we opted for fired dumplings, here's how to cook them:

Heat some oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, add the dumplings and fry until their bottoms are golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover and steam until the water has disappeared, about 3-5 minutes. Uncover had cook for another 2 minutes over medium low heat.

And since those dumplings needed sauce we decided to make a hot and a not so hot one to use as preferred:

Garlic Chili Sauce (recipe from here)
(makes 1/4 cup - ish)
Stuff needed:
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 birds eye chili (thinly sliced)
1 green onion (thinly sliced)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili oil

To do:
Mix everything.

The second sauce was adapted out of cookbook mentioned above:
Sauce
Stuff needed:
2 tablespoons garlic (minced)
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
8 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons ginger
1 green onion (thinly sliced)

To do:
Mix everything.

Now on to the main course (and sides), what I call duck tacos. I do this for primarily as I find that the generic, white flour wraps that are sold in the supermarket make really good replacement for the pancakes traditionally used to wrap the pieces of duck.

Szechuan Longbeans (heavily modified from the book mentioned above)
Stuff needed:
1 pound longbeans
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
2 green onions
1/2 teaspoon chili paste
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil for stir-frying

To do:
Wash the longbeans and trim the tops and the bottoms. Now cut the longbeans into slices of about 2 inches long (give or take). Now chop the the garlic, ginger and green onion.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the longbeans and stir-fry until they start to pucker a bit and turn brown (around 5 - 7 minutes). Remove the long beans and drain on paper towels.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the wok on high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions. Stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the chili paste and stir-fry for a few more seconds until aromatic. Add the longbeans and the remaining ingredients. Mix together and serve.

Eggplant (this was made up whole cloth)
Stuff needed:
1 medium Asian style eggplant
1 teaspoon finely-chopped fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 teaspoon finely-chopped fresh ginger
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 bunch roughly diced Asian basil

To do:
Cut the eggplant lengthwise into pieces about the size of a finger. Lay a couple pieces of paper towel on a plate. salt the newly cut sides of the eggplant and lay them on the paper. Cover this layer with another two pieces of paper towel (and continue building a tower alternating between salted eggplant and paper towel as needed -just make sure that paper towel is always the last layer). Leave the eggplant for 20 minutes. Finally, place the eggplant into a colander and rinse the salt off.

Now heat a tablespoon of oil or so in a frying pan and add the garlic and ginger when hot. After stir frying for a couple seconds add the eggplant and continue to stir fry for a few minutes, until the eggplant looks cooked (lets say 4 minutes).

At this point add the dark soy sauce and continue to fry until the sauce evaporates. Remove from heat, mix in the basil, and serve.

Nor My Gai (Sticky rice in a lotus leaf) (No idea where this one comes from, my mom taught me this)
Stuff needed:
1 1/2 cups short grain rice of some sort
6 Chinese dried black mushrooms mushrooms
1 cups boiling-hot water
2 bunches scallions
1/2 cup bamboo shoots
1 leaves napa cabbage – diced
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 dried lotus leaves
1/2 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
1/4 cup pine nuts (1 ounce)
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled ginger

To do:
Cover rice generously with cold water in a large bowl and soak at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours. Drain in a medium-mesh sieve and rinse well under cold running water.

Soak mushrooms in boiling-hot water in a medium bowl, turning mushrooms over occasionally, until softened, about 1 hour. Lift out the mushrooms, squeezing excess liquid back into bowl. Cut out and discard stems, then thinly slice caps. Reserve 1 cup mushroom-soaking liquid and discard remainder.

Chop scallions, keeping pale green and white parts separate from dark green parts. Dice cabbage and cup bamboo shoots into thin slices

Stir together reserved mushroom-soaking liquid, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 five spice powder in a bowl until sugar has dissolved.

Fill sink with hot water and soak a lotus leaf until softened, about 15 minutes. Pat lotus leaf dry. Cut out centre stem and arrange leaf in pie plate (there will be a lot of overhang), overlapping leaf slightly to cover gap in centre.

Heat wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates instantly, and then add the oil. Add pale-green and white parts of scallion, pine nuts, and ginger and stir-fry until pine nuts are golden, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and stir-fry until mushrooms are golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cabbage and bamboo and stir fry for 1 minute. Add rice and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add liquid mixture and bring to a boil, then cook, stirring gently, until liquid has been absorbed, about 2 minutes. Transfer rice mixture to pie plate with without lotus-leaf-lining and smooth top. Fold over sides of leaf to cover, then tie the package together with string.

Set a steamer rack inside cleaned wok and add enough water to reach just below steamer rack, then bring to a boil. Steam leaf wrapped bundles, covered with lid, 45 minutes (replenish water as necessary). Remove wok from heat and let stand, covered, 10 minutes, then carefully remove from steamer with oven mitts. Untie and open leaf package, then stir in scallion greens. Fold leaf over to keep warm.

NOTE: I forgot the sugar (like an idiot) and the rice was not nearly as sticky as it would otherwise have been. Don’t forget the sugar!

Peking Duck (drawn and adapted from the book mentioned above)
Stuff needed:
1 duck
1 cup red wine vinegar
10 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Chinese Five Spice (above)
6 green onions (green tops only)
A bunch of coriander (to taste)

To do:
Mix all the red wine, honey and Chinese Five Spice together, as we will be painting the duck with it shortly.

First make sure that there's nothing in the duck and rip out any excess fat from the cavity. Now, using butchers twine (rough, white cotton twine) and a needle sew the opening to the cavity , and the neck (assuming that the duck has no head) closed.

Slip a straw into the neck cavity between the skin and the fat layer. To the end of the straw that is sticking out attach a bicycle pump (or a mattress pump), and pump air into there (pinching and plucking at the skin as needed) until the skin is mostly separated from the fat layer. All in all it will balloon to about one and a half its size in this process. Let the air out.

Now place the duck into the sink, breast side down, and boil a kettle full of water. Pour this boiling water over the duck, wait for a few seconds, and do it again. Then flip the duck over and repeat the procedure (this is to seal the pores on the duck, so fat will not seep out through the skin while cooking).

Now suspend the duck in a cool dry room (we used out mud room in the back) and paint the duck with the above mentioned mixture. Keep painting the duck every hour or so until you run out. You should let the duck dry in the cool place for at least 10 hours to dry out the skin.

When you're ready to cook the duck pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the duck backside down and put it into the oven, immediately turning the oven down to 350. Roast the duck for at least an hour, turning it over every 15 minutes until the duck is a dark and even brown colour.

Meanwhile, cut the green onion tops into about 5 cm lengths. shred the tips of each length of green onion and drop them into cold water to cover. Let it stand until the ends curl. When ready to serve, drain them.

To serve the duck carve off it's skin, leaving as little meat and fat attached to it as possible, in rectangles about 8 cm by 2.5 cm to 4 cm in width, and place all skin on a platter, along with the meat in two separate piles. Let each guest serve themselves by placing a white flour taco on a plate, smearing it with the duck sauce, and adding the curled green onions and coriander as wanted. Fold it all like a taco and enjoy.

Peking Duck Sauce
Stuff needed:
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon sesame oil

To do:
Mix

Finally we get to the desert (the fortune cookies were brought and added by a guest):

Melon Gelato (Lissa made this a couple days in advance)
(adapted, but based on this)
Stuff Needed:
1 3/4 whipping cream
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/2 a green melon
1 squeeze lemon juice
1 squeeze mandarin juice

To do:
Put the cream in to a small pot and add the salt, sugar, and honey and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it boils, turn off the heat cover, and let it sit for 10 or so minutes.

Place the flesh of the melon into a blender and add the mandarin and lemon juice and liquefy it all. Strain the cream mixture into the a container, add the melon mixture and mix, then place the container into the fridge to cool for at least 8 hours.

After it has cooled place the mixture into an ice cream maker and process as per the instructions of that machine.

Chocolate Tangerine Spring Rolls (almost identical too, and adapted from a recipe here)
Stuff needed:
3 Tangerines, cut into 1/4-inch slices and seeded, juices reserved
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon ( 4 1/2 ounces/127 grams) heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon of salt
8 1/4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
10 8-inch spring roll wrappers, quartered
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Canola, vegetable, or other neutral oil for deep-frying

To do (copied almost word for word from the recipe linked above):
Put the tangerine slices and their juices into a small saucepan, add the cream and salt, and warm over medium heat just until bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Remove from the heat.

Put the chocolate into the bowl of a food processor and pour the hot tangerine cream over it. Let sit for 2 minutes, then process until the mixture becomes smooth and shiny. Add the egg yolk, Grand Marnier, and butter and process to combine.

Line an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan and transfer to the freezer. Freeze, uncovered, until completely hard.

Unmold the chocolate bar and peel off the plastic wrap. Cut the bar lengthwise in half, then cut each half crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. You should have 36 chocolate bars.

Lightly brush the entire surface of a spring roll wrapper with a bit of the beaten egg. Turn the wrapper so that you see a diamond, and lay a chocolate bar across the end closest to you so that the ends of the bar meet the edges of the wrapper to form a triangle. Take the corner of the wrapper closest to you and wrap it around the chocolate, then roll the chocolate away from you one full rotation. Tightly fold the sides in toward the center, then continue to roll up to the end of the wrapper, making sure the end is tightly sealed. Set on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate. Freeze the spring rolls for at least 10 minutes or up to 2 days; take them out only when you are ready to fry them.

Fill a saucepan with oil to a depth of 2 inches and heat to 350°F. When the oil is ready (a tiny pinch of flour will sizzle), add a few spring rolls, taking care to not crowd the pan, and cook, turning occasionally and adjusting the heat as necessary to maintain 350°F, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels and cook the remaining rolls. Serve warm.

We also made some lovely from-powder bubble tea to serve to our guests and placate my wife (who can't drink at the moment given her swollen belly filled with my, no doubt, perfect child).

Well - that's it, let me know what you think,

Adrian

Well Adrian, I'll tell you what I think. I think that you've turned Come Dine With Us up to 11! Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and recipes. I look forward to more meals from you and Lissa and congratulations to you both!

La-La Means I Like You on Facebook

2011-02-14T12:14:00.000-04:00

Wishing you all a very lovely Valentine's Day or, if you aren't into that, a happy Monday!

Come Dine with Us: Chinese New Year

2011-02-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my Come Dine With Us: Chinese New Year Dinner! Creating a menu for our February theme was easy. I just made my favourite things! Scallion pancakes, egg rolls, spicy chicken stir fry and dessert of some kind (that little ant-like squiggle up there is supposed to be a bunny by the way. Hey, I'm a lover, not a drawerer).

Let's begin!

This dinner was heavy in the prep department. I took most of the morning to chop and dice which left me a little time in the afternoon to do some decorating:

Finally, a use for this $3.00 thermos!

Even the wine bottles came dressed for the occasion!

My plan for the evening was cook a little, eat a lot, rinse and repeat. It gave us lots of time to catch up with our friend and made sure that we everything Chinese style - which is to say straight out of the pan hot hot hot hot hot hot hot burningly hot. Each course took about an hour to cook, eat and then digest enough to move on to the next.

First course was the scallion pancakes and the recipe came from Momofukufor2. It's easy: flour, water, salt and green onions. The taste and texture of them was excellent. Crispy on the outside with loads of chewy layers on the inside. A sprinkling of sea salt after they come out of the pan makes a nice crunch and we dipped them in a little soy sauce and sesame oil - yum!

The next course was egg rolls. I'm sorry, but I can't give you the recipe for egg rolls. It's a family secret that my father swore us all to secrecy - actually that's not true - he has yet to actually give us his recipe. We all make an almost-version of his egg roll/dumpling filling but it's never quite bang on. I can tell you that it has ground beef, cabbage, carrots, onion, ginger, garlic and a few other things.

I made them small because this was still technically an appetizer course. So that our apartment didn't smell like a chip shop I just gave them a quick fry in about 3 tablespoons of oil. We served them with sweet chili and sriracha sauce.

Main course: Hot numbing chicken and regular chicken stir fry. Our dinner guest wasn't big on spicy food so I divided the chicken and vegetables up and made two dishes.

That's the hot numbing chicken on the right - a recipe we're still trying to get right. It's okay but we have a ways to go still before we perfectly replicate it.

After this course we collapsed in the living room to digest, refresh our glasses of wine and do what we do best: watch silly/nerdy/goofy/blue television shows. After an episode of Archer, Party Down, Childrens' Hospital as well as the first 10 minutes of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, the incredible Syfy movie starring Deborah Gibson, we moved onto dessert.

There really aren't a lot of Chinese desserts and generally at the end of the meal fruit is served. What desserts are served are just lightly sweetened such as sesame dumplings or taro cakes. One dessert my mom used to make for us is almond jelly served with fruit cocktail. It's a lot like almond flavoured panne cotte (milk, sugar, gelatine, water and almond flavouring) and compliments fruit quite nicely. I cut up some melon, strawberries and pineapple and spooned those over the jelly.

To go with this light and refreshing dessert I put together a little box of crispy treats for us to snack on.

Some strawberry wafers, honey twist snacks and fortune cookies. I know that on the real Come Dine With Me show the guests get really uppity if the cook serves pre-made food, but let me tell you, I tried to make fortune cookies and after destroying three and scorching my fingers I gave up. It's too much work with not enough return in the satisfaction department.

That's my CDWU dinner for February. It was a fun evening of cooking, noshing and lounging. When you host a little dinner make things easy on yourself and don't go too over the top. Make sure your guests are taken care but also make sure you're having fun too.

Go see what Melissa made. Mare also made a lovely Chinese New Year dinner on the actual new year - it looked like a lot of fun! Remember to send me your pics or links to the CDWU food you've made and I'll post it here!

Apple Crisp Valentine Pie

2011-02-11T08:59:00.000-04:00

While the boys and the haters get their respective panties in a twist I like to gush about Valentine’s Day. I love all the hearts, the pinks, the reds, and the fact that you can be as cheesy as you want without too much eye rolling.

Just to get you all in the mood here is a little Valentine teaser for you of a dessert I made which combines an apple pie and an apple crisp. I threw it together when I had some extra pastry dough to use up but not enough for a full double crust pie. However, I was really in the mood for apple crisp because it’s a) delicious and b) a dessert you can also eat at breakfast.

So I just rolled out the pie dough, put in the apple crisp filling and sprinkled the crumble on top. I couldn't resist making a little heart out of the scrap dough. Pies and crisps and hearts oh my!

I'm gearing up for the Come Dine With Us: Chinese New Year dinner this weekend and pretty excited about the menu. If I am able to pull everything off it will be a miracle: a tasty, tasty miracle. Does anyone know if lychees are in season right now?

Meatless Monday!

2011-02-07T19:42:00.000-04:00

(Pepperoni pizza not shown)

I would make a terrible vegetarian because meat is so delicious! Meat drippings! Meat gravy! Meat! Meat! Meat! But tonight I did feel like not cooking anything heavy (and all the meat was in the freezer). I had all the fixings to make my all-time favourite salad, fatoosh and while it is a very satisfying meal on it's own at the last minute I decided to get some protein in there with some curried chick peas.

This was a delicious, filling and all around satisfying meal. I ate this big plate and am thinking of going back for seconds and took about 15 minutes to put together...okay maybe 18.

Greek Fatoosh Salad

3 pita breads

1 garlic clove minced

2 diced tomatoes

1 small onion diced

green and red pepper diced (about half of each)

1 cucumber diced

feta cheese

a nice big hand full of salad greens

juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

fresh mint, parsley and oregano (or a mix of your favourite herbs)

Preheat oven to 350

Bake pita breads until toasted about 4 minutes per side. Break them into small pieces and set aside.

In a large bowl combine the vegetables, feta, lemon juice, olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Add the the pita shards leaving a few for garnish.

Curried Chick Peas

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced small

1 tsp ginger minced

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1/4 cayenne pepper

1 teeny tiny pinch of cinnamon

1 can chickpeas, drained

1/4 cup plain yogurt

Heat oil in a skillet and add onion. Cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, cayenne and cinnamon and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add in chickpeas and cook until warmed through. Stir in yogurt and simmer a few minutes longer.

Serve with extra pita bread and tzatziki - so yummy!

Nutella Egg Rolls

2011-02-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

Finally a food day celebration I can really get behind!

Happy World Nutella Day!

I still remember the first time I was given Nutella. It was spread thinly on toast and I near lost my mind that there existed in the world a product of chocolaty spread and, more importantly, that we were allowed to have it. We weren't totally depraved as kids, it's just that while other kids had pudding snacks, fruit rolls ups and yogurt (what ever that was)in their lunches, we had to eat homemade cookies and brownies and fruit. We also had "sugar free" Tuesdays and if there was pop at supper that was considered dessert. So when my mother brought Nutella into the house, it was something special.

I still treat it with respect and only buy it occasionally but in preparation of World Nutella Day I've been liberally spreading and putting it on everything: Nutella and banana toast sandwiches, Nutella on ice cream, Nutella on rice pudding, Nutella on a spoon - it's all yummy! Today I was dreaming up some nice desserts to make for this very special nutty day. Like a moist chocolate cupcake filled with nutella and topped with some nutella buttercream icing and chopped hazelnuts. Then I looked in my fridge and saw I only had 4 tablespoons of butter so that plan was out the door.

Then, while rummaging around in there I saw the egg roll wrappers and a deep fried light bulb went off in my head: Nutella egg rolls!

The recipe is easy: nutella + won ton wrappers + oil

To make them mini I cut the large wrappers into quarters and spooned about 1 teaspoon of nutella in each. Seal and pinch the edges together and shallow fry in oil until crispy. You could certainly deep fry them, but I am very timid at that sort of thing. I used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of my coveted butter.

I also made some dumplings since it's still Chinese New Year and all....

These were pretty good (as most deep fried things are) and they don't need anything to dip in because inside the crispy shell is lovely, velvety melted Nutella.

Did you guys celebrate World Nutella Day? Let me know if you made something delicious - even if that means eating it straight from the jar sans spoon - I won't judge!

Are You Guys Ready For Some Comedy??!!!

2011-02-03T19:49:00.002-04:00

Or how's abouts: are you ready to help someone break into comedy???

Well, here's your chance! My brother, AKA The Blognositfier, has entered into the CBC Comedy Open Mic Comedy Contest. The participants that get to perform are based on those who get the most votes! It would be so awesome if you guys went to the page, listened to his bit and voted for him. (Or, just blindly vote for him, that is completely cool too.)

The voting ends tomorrow at noon AST so please vote for Weh-Ming right now!

Please and Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

EDIT: He tied for first place! Thanks for voting everyone! I love you guys.

If you are in the Moncton area next week (i.e. Feb. 8) you should go to the show at the Pump House Brewery.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2011-02-03T10:01:00.000-04:00

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Even though it's been over 20 years since I spent Chinese New Year in Taiwan, I still remember our family trip there like it was yesterday: the food, the fireworks and the Lucky Money!

We grew up in a small NB town where there weren't a whole lot of Asians, as in there was my Dad, my brothers and I (well, half of us), and the folks that ran a Chinese Take Out Truck who we never saw - but figured they must be around somewhere. My parents always made the day special for my brothers and I to make sure we would learn about our heritage and the importance of the day. Sometimes it was trips or we got to take the day off of school and one year we went to Taiwan to visit all of our relatives and it was there I learned the true meaning of being spoiled. It was awesome!

Since we aren't able to get home to see my parents for actual New Year (darned snow!) we're going to have a little celebration of our own....In the form of me not cooking. On Chinese New Year you are supposed to eat dumplings and noodles which are symbols of good luck. The dumplings are like purses or sacks filled with money and the noodles represent the long life you will have. So I'm going to let a restaurant cook those things for me tonight and I'll do our dinner when I've got a little more time (and not so lazy).

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Come Dine With Us: Mare!

2011-02-02T10:47:00.000-04:00

I'm home today because of the snowstorm that it due to hit here around noon. Hooray for nice bosses that give me a snow-day!

This gives me a chance to catch up on some napping, baking and ~~cleaning~~ more napping. While I do that I would like to introduce you to Mare, our first Come Dine With Us dinner guest! Not only is she funny, quirky, crafty and shares our love for all things Coronation Street, but she's an amazing teacher too! Before Christmas she told her students if they raised enough money for the Empty Stocking Fund she would dye her gorgeous ginger locks blue. Well they met and exceeded that challenge so she had a blue, blue (haired) Christmas. I think that is incredible - well done Mare and your students!! Yay teachers!

Mare, Melissa and I have had many three way conversations via Twitter and Facebook regarding CDWU and she sent us her Comfort Food dinner which looks mouthwatering! I think that I'm going to have to make this for supper this weekend. I do admit that I laughed out loud when I saw her dessert. It was the perfect ending to a gorgeous meal.

Thank you for sending us your link Mare!

Just a reminder that you can participate in the CDWU: Chinese New Year dinner. Just send me your link or photo of what you made! We'll be doing our posts next weekend (12/13th). Which reminds me that today is Chinese New Year's Eve! This is the best day of the month long celebration. As a kid you get loads of money from relatives and you can buy a plethora of firecrackers (both legal and illegal) and THEN you are encouraged to shoot off as many as you can but only AFTER you've had your face stuffed with noodles, dumplings, soups, stews, candies, fruit and loads of other delicious things. It's like Halloween, Christmas and light juvenile delinquency all rolled into one!

Rice Pudding with Nutella and Granola

2011-01-29T13:41:00.001-04:00

Growing up we ate a lot of congee, or rice porridge (although probably not as much as my Dad would have liked). For those unfamiliar, congee is rice boiled, boiled and boiled some more until it becomes one with the water. It's starchy and gluey and the stepping off point for a lot of tasty breakfasts. My favourite toppings were a little soy sauce, some egg and dry shredded pork which is a cross between jerky and cotton candy - only pork flavoured. Yum!

It's one way to use up a lot of leftover rice without wasting because, as my dad says, Every grain of rice - 100 years of work! So quit wasting rice you guys!

Another way to use leftover rice is to make pudding. Which is sort of the same thing only it's made with milk and sugar and therefore you can put sweet things on top of it.

I'll be honest, I made this for the sole reason to have something to put Nutella on, but this is a nice homey treat eaten plain.

I used a 1:1 ratio of cooked rice and milk, a dash of cinnamon, a sprinkle of salt and a splash of vanilla and you're good to go. Just let it simmer until it reaches the consistency you want, stirring all the while.

Serve warm with a dusting of cinnamon or you can go the Nutella (and homemade granola) route - you won't regret that! Nutella on EVERYTHING!

Calling All Cooks!

2011-01-27T14:57:00.000-04:00

Randomsmirk and I are still coming down from the incredible success of our debut Come Dine With Us (CDWU) blogging project. We received such awesome feedback on our personal Facebook pages such as "X Likes your link" and "I will read this". Thank you all for your support – we love you all!

If you would like to take part in CDWU it is very easy! We invite you to make your theme dinner, snap a picture, add a blurb (recipes are always appreciated) and send it along. I will post it up here so that we can all see what you've made (and promptly steal your ideas). If you have a blog send me a link and I'll share it as well. Seeing how people interpret a theme is really cool and if there is a nice story to go along with it that is even better.

February's theme is Chinese New Year and our plan is to have something up by the 13th. So you've got lots of time left to make something yummy. If Chinese food isn't your thing you are more than welcome to use January's Comfort Food theme.

Send your pictures, ideas or post links to me at hellobacongravy (at) gmail dot com

Come be a part of this community cooking collaboration!

Cheers!

Happy Robbie Burns Day!

2011-01-25T19:55:00.000-04:00

Like most Canadians I can claim at least some of my heritage from Scotland (as small as it may be). However, my married name does start with "Mac" so I'm embracing this day by dusting off the Robbie Burns book of poetry, pouring a dram of whiskey and tucking into a large plate of haggis. Yay Stereotypes!

In 2008 my husband and I treated ourselves to a 30th birthday/honeymoon/epic vacation adventure to Scotland and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share some of those pictures with you. We ate haggis, oatmeal with cranachan, fish and chips as well as the best Indian food I've had in my life. We did lots of touristy things like Edinburgh Castle, Rossyln Chapel, Mary Kings Close, and walked and walked and walked and walked everywhere. It was so much fun and we were loathe to leave, but we dream of going back...oh yes, we will be back!

Our main reason for going to Glasgow was to see Elvis Costello play with the Symphony. One of the best concerts of my life and I was in tears a few times during the performance. We had two days to tour the city and cram in as much Glasgow life as possible. However, when we found out there was a science museum practically beside our hotel we spent the better part of a day in there having a great time. So most of my Glasgow pics are of us being silly and playing with displays. What can I say, I love a good science museum. For an extra cost you were able to go up in the observation tower which was solar or wind powered and from there I got some nice shots of the city:

We stayed at the Hotel Etap which is sort of one step up from a hostel only you get your own washroom and your door locks. It's pretty cheap and comes with a continental breakfast served in their lobby. It reminded me a lot of dorm living but it was perfect for what we wanted: a place to put our stuff, sleep and watch Hollyoaks.

Our impossibly small room that fits up to 3 people. But you better like the people you're sharing the room with because the shower is right beside the bed and that shower door is see-through. Thankfully the toilet has a door you can close (and not transparent).

This is Kelvingrove museum which I thought was going to be your standard, room exhibits, dishes, clothes etc. Well it was all that together with a huge display of taxidermy items including a giant stuffed elephant! We had to rush through it to make it back in time for the concert but I highly recommend a visit here - eat at the cafe as well very good fish and chips!

We took a train to Edinburgh where we spent the bulk of our trip visiting our friends. They were so awesome to let us stay with them, show us around the city and they really made our trip special.

There are so many gorgeous things to see in this city and we loved the vibe and people here.

The Scot Monument (we climbed to almost the top!)

A view from the Scot Monument looking across to the Royal Mile. I love this picture!

Balmoral hotel

Grey Friar's Bobby

Holy Rood House

Some of the buildings in the Royal Mile

And of course, Edinburgh Castle. Just. Look. At. It.

We had to stop for a drink at the Oxford Bar in honour of the Rebus books.

We had such a fantastic time on this vacation - I can't wait to go back!

My glass is just about empty...time for another wee dram.

January Leftovers

2011-01-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos of food I made over the last little bit but didn't blog about.

What we ate last night. Sliced roast beef warmed up in the oven with gravy, steamed rice, broccoli stirfry and Greek salad.

Lasagna! My first in years in fact! A simple tomato sauce with carrots, onions and beef layered with oven-ready noodles, spinach and topped with a bachemel sauce. Why didn't anyone tell me how easy and delicious bachemel is on lasagna? This was heaven.

Christmas brunch! Bacon, spicy home fries, scrambled eggs and hollandaise sauce. Croissant by Julien's.

Baked donuts - because I'm not 40 pounds overweight already, I need more donuts in my life. They were missing something, like the gentle caress of 350F oil instead of convection heat.

Christmas caramels! The recipe said "makes 60". But there are well over 150 in this container. They were a hit at work and we enjoyed eating them during the holidays. Sometime I'll make a proper post on them because they are truly deserving of the pedestle I'm putting them on.

Everything on justJENN recipes is awesome and I made her Hello Kitty Oreos back in September. They were sort of a lot of work, but the end result was worth it. Who could say no to Hello Kitty in cookie form?

Chicken Pizziola! I had intended to do a full blog post on this too but never got around to it. Chicken breast lightly coated in Parmesan cheese covered with peppers, onions and fresh mozzarella is baked in a tomato sauce and served over noodles. It's a great company dish and gets bonus points because you can make it all in one pot.

Come Dine With Us: Comfort Food

2011-01-23T21:50:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the first installment of our cook and blog project, Come Dine With Us, featuring yours truly and Randomsmirk, girl wonder. The rules are easy in that there are no rules and there is no prize on the line (although if someone wants to sponsor this I will graciously accept all manners of swag to dole out). We're just cooking a dinner and inviting you all to join us to see what we made!

Let's begin.

Websters dictionary defines Comfort Food as....JUST KIDDING!!! When we decided to select it as our first theme I immediately started mentally going through all the kinds of food that make me happy. Okay, it's a very long list so I narrowed it down to what food I have the fondest memories of and before me appeared a vision of a table laden with dishes of all sorts: rice noodles with pork, broccoli with bean sprouts, mashed potatoes, steamed rice, corn, roast beef.

Roast Beef! Of course! We had roast beef EVERY SUNDAY growing up. It is a great meal to feed a lot of people and as we grew older bringing the meal together became a well oiled machine. My brothers and I would get home from church first. We would turn on the veggies, set the table and wait to see who my Dad invited back home for lunch. Perhaps it's a small town church thing but if you look hungry or lonely rest assured that you'll get a lunch invite to the ministers house.

After the potatoes were mashed, the gravy made and the corn microwaved my Dad would set to work making one or two vegetable dishes: usually the aforementioned broccoli with bean sprouts, napa cabbage or what ever else was in the fridge. Because a full roast beef dinner isn't complete without an extra meal of Chinese food accompanying it!

(Okay - get to your dinner already!)

Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Garlic Green Beans with Red Wine and Mushroom Gravy

My array of America's Test Kitchen cookbooks are huge source of comfort to me. I know that in their pages rest thousands of recipes that won't let me down. I used their slow and low method for roasting beef (The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook, pp 130) and it turned out very tasty.

Use any cut of meat you like - for me that's the absolute cheapest. I bought a large top sirloin oven roast for $10.00 and since it was just the two of us for dinner I cut it in half and froze the rest. Rub the beef all over with coarse salt, wrap with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a few hours or over night.

In a skillet heat up 1 tablespoon of oil until smoking. Pat the meat dry and rub fresh ground pepper all over the sides. Sear on each side until dark brown - about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer to a wire rack over a baking sheet and put in a preheated 225F oven. Cook for 2 hours or until it reaches and internal temperature of 120F, turn off the oven and let it sit cook further for about 30-40 minutes or until it comes up to 140F. Take it out and let it rest 15 -20 minutes and slice. Your roast will be a very tender medium, quite possibly medium rare.

The only glaring fault I had with this recipe was that it did not make mention of gravy. Ain't no way I'm eating roast without gravy and please, don't give me that jus stuff. I want full bodied, thick and rich meaty gravy. That's when some divine intervention came to me through the cooking gods themselves, Chris Kimball and Bridget Lancaster. That's right, the stars of America's Test Kitchen came to me personally and guided me to greatness.

Well, at least their Cook's Country episode of Old Fashioned Roast Beef Dinner on PBS did. It just happened that on TV they were making the exact same recipe as I was and having the same conundrum. This cooking method does not create those caramelized bits to deglaze in a roasting pan. BUT!!! You have essentially done the same thing when you seared your meat in the skillet and THANKFULLY I had not cleaned any dishes yet. (Laziness 1: Dishes 0)

Heat that pan up again with another splash of oil, add some sliced mushrooms, a diced onion and cook until soft. Add chopped garlic and then 1/4C of flour, cook for 2-3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of red wine and scrape up everything off the bottom. Pour in 4 cups beef broth, salt and pepper and fresh time. Let it reduce until thickened, about 20 minutes.

Mushrooms + onion + flour +

red wine + beef stock = love

This is, as they say, what I am indeed talking about.

Is there anything better than mashed potatoes and gravy? No. No there is not. I won't lie, I cook meat just to have gravy and I totally had second and third helpings of just those two things.

For the green beans, steam or blanch them until tender but still crisp and then add them to a hot pan with 1 teaspoon of oil. Cook them until they start to brown a bit, add in 2 cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper and you're done!

The Dessert Course

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

Coming in next to mashed potatoes and gravy in the Bacon Gravy Pyramid of Greatness are warm chocolate chip cookies. We've all waited at the oven door for freshly baked cookies to be taken out and we've all burned our tongues on said cookies because we didn't heed our parent's warning that molten chocolate is...well....molten. Frankly at this point the inside of my mouth might as well be made from asbestos from moments like these and a lifetime of drinking church coffee, which is unequivocally the hottest substance on earth known to man.

I found this recipe via Tastespotting and it's from Sophistimom (go there for the recipe and gorgeous photos).

A cookie recipe made and baked in 1 pan? YES PLEASE!

As you can imagine, this was delicious. Warm, soft, chocolaty with a little salty crunch here and there. The ice cream really helps to cut the richness of the cookie and it was just the simplest thing to whip together. This could have easily been done ahead of time and popped into the oven while you're having supper.

I only get a chance to visit family once every month or two so I made my dinner based on the things that I associate most with them. Those memories are the most comforting to me and food is a wonderful way to experience them when you are so far away.

(aww)

Since this project is supposed to be loosely based on the series Come Dine With Me, and part of it includes revealing a tawdry and/or dark and/or crazy side of the host, I will share with you an embarrassing detail about myself (because I'm not ready to show you my scandalous underthings....yet).

I'm EXTRAORDINARILY gullible! Take for instance the newest Internet sensation, Ted Williams, or The Radio Voice Hobo. Ted Williams is a man praised for his silky gorgeous radio voice thanks to a viral video released earlier this month. I had read enough about him to know that he was A) a hobo and b) had a nice voice but I had never actually gone so far as to watch the video. I was waiting for the Gregory Brothers to bust out an auto-tune version as they did with Double Rainbow and Antoine Dobson.

A few days later I finally got a chance to hear him on The Soup:

THAT WAS HIS VOICE??!!! All the fuss about THAT voice??? That is freaking hilarious! I could not believe that he was making his 15 minutes of fame with an insane voice that would make even Gilbert Gottfried's seizure-inducing voice sound musical.

Then, last week - I learned that video was just a spoof. Because I will believe anything - especially when delivered by cute boys such as Joel McHale (call me!).

Here's Mr. Williams real voice (if you haven't heard it already)

Thanks for joining me for dinner! Check out what delicious things Randomsmirk made!

Oh Snap - I Just Got Dealt With!

2011-01-19T20:12:00.001-04:00

A while back I went through a Come Dine With Me phase and I would watch the omnibus on the weekends lying on the couch covered in chip crumbs and caramel wrappers. If you haven't seen this show the premise is that four or five strangers dine together through the week and at the end of the evening they give the host a score out of 10. The person with the highest score at the end of the week wins 1,000 pounds.

Most of the show centres on the failings, flailings and shortcomings of these home cooks who take liberties with food safety and make risky gambles on what their guests might like. Inexplicably part of each episode has the guests roaming and rummaging through their hosts house looking for kinky or strange things. Yes! Just like you normally do at a strangers house! However, when the host is preparing pork hocks in pineapple whilst wearing a town crier costume we don’t need any more evidence that we are dealing with a madman.

I do love these kooky cooks, their ungodly laughs and the horrible things that the guests say about each other...in their hosts house...in the next room. Even with $1,000 on the line I would keep my most dreadful comments about limp asparagus, dry duck and a boring syllabub to myself. What the heck is syllabub anyway? People in the UK are nuts for syllabub and I always mean to look it up, but I like to keep some mysteries of the universe a secret....and I'm so lazy you guys!

Since I can't invite four strangers into my house for dinner I thought I would try to create my own blogger version of CDWM with my sister-in-law. We'll each cook the dinner that we would make for our “guests” and blog our results and hope that someone sends us 1,000£ (cuz, you know, that is a lot of CDN!). But here's our catch:

We have a theme!

Every month Randomsmirk and I are going to endeavor to present you with a great meal based on a theme. We’ve decided that January will be “Comfort Food” because there really isn’t anything to look forward to in January other than winter storms, icy roads and pretending to eat healthy. I had envisioned this as a friendly collaboration to see how we interpret a theme and share a few recipes at the same time. However, from her post yesterday it appears that friendly competition might be in there as well. So in response to her getting all Bobby Flay in my face and issuing a throw down.

It.

Is.

On!

New Cookbooks!

2011-01-13T21:39:00.000-04:00

Here are the new cookbooks which I welcomed into my couch collection over Christmas!

Vefa's Kitchen is all about Greek cooking and it's a great book. I love Greek food and while we have loads of excellent Greek restaurants in our city I can't wait to start to make them at home. One thing I do like about this book is the four page markers so you can refer to a few recipes at a time or mark ones you want to try.

James Beard American Cookery. Everyone needs a little Beard in their kitchen! I've made two recipes from this book, cream biscuits and meat loaf and they were both excellent.

Australia Women's Weekly Complete Modern Classics. My Sister-In-Law (who gave the book to me) and I sort of have a love affair with Australia. This one is heaps good and literally makes my mouth water when I look through it. There's a chocolate hazelnut pudding cake that is calling for me to try.

Classic Indian Cooking. I love Indian food! At least I love all the Indian food that I've tried so far. This book is for a more experienced cook. You know, the kind that will dig and fire up a tandoori oven in their back yard. But there are other interesting looking recipes that I want to try. On a related note, has anyone been watching the Gordon Ramsey documentary through India? It's nice to see him when he's not yelling and I think that everyone on Hell's Kitchen/Restaurant Nightmares/F Word loved watching him eat ground up ants. Take that Chef!

I think it's now time to get a proper bookshelf...or possibly a second couch.

Welcome to Bacon Gravy 2011!

2011-01-04T11:19:00.001-04:00

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, Christmas and New Year. I for one feel rejuvenated after almost two weeks off, sleeping in, watching TV marathons, video gaming and visiting with my family. Now I'm back to my old routine of being lazy, unorganized and procrastinating in almost every respect. Yay!!!!

I think that I started 2011 off in the best way possible with my family and loved ones all in the same room at midnight followed by the words from Ryan Seacrest, "Coming up! NKOTB at Times Square!" which jolted me from my red wine and snacks induced coma into a fit of screams and giggles. The next morning we all made breakfast together and my brother created the above platter of hammy deliciousness.

During that breakfast-turned-into-brunch, The Blognostifier, Random Smirk and I made a resolution to blog once a week. In our family we don't make pacts in blood nor do we use the unbreakable pinky swear. We make our oaths over something more solemn and sacred: gravy, and in this case it was the hollandaise sauce that covered well over 30% of our plates. So I will keep my part of the promise as they have too.

My other New Years resolution is to have one dinner party a month. One night where I can entertain in my comfort zone, plan a nice meal and perhaps showcase special. Or something that is incredibly simple yet so comforting that it will take my guests by surprise. Really though, it's an excuse to have my apartment clean once a month.

Another idea that transpired after New Years Brunch was a project that I'm going to work on with Random Smirk which I was going to tell you about here but I think I'll save that for next week's post!

If you have some resolutions for 2011 that you would like to share or need to reaffirm I would love to hear them!

Happy New Year to all!

Happy Christmas Eve!

2010-12-24T08:51:00.000-04:00

Wishing you all a very lovely, happy, merry and Joyful Christmas!

(And to my mother, if she is reading this: I miss you and will be home in a few days!!!)

Love,

S-L

PS: I've only been weepy once today - it's a Christmas miracle!

Everyone Likes a Bit of Cake

2010-12-06T19:26:00.001-04:00

It was my birthday yesterday – 29 three straight years in a row! I can hardly believe it either. I had a lovely day which included two main plans: make a birthday cake and watch Love Actually, one of my all time favourite movies.

When it comes to birthday cake I prefer something simple: just cake and frosting. It doesn’t have to have crazy fillings or elaborate decorations and if there is any writing at all I just want my name, spelled correctly.* I went with a buttery yellow cake (from America’s Test Kitchen) and, since it was my cake, pink icing. But not any pink icing, the Sprinkles Strawberry icing. Which through the magic of sugar, butter and pureed strawberries looks and tastes just like strawberry ice-cream. You must try it! The recipe says it makes enough for a dozen cupcakes, but I frosted a two layer cake with it so your mileage may vary.

Here is the finished and frosted cake. I made little bunting after falling madly in love with this Etsy shop. Wouldn't you just love to have a cake like the ones in those pictures??

A fluffy pink cake on a blue cake stand – it’s things like this that make me happy!

Happy Monday everyone!

*today at work my darling co-workers got me a delicious chocolate and cream mousse cake, with a ganache coating and white chocolate curls all around the sides. On the top? My name, in big pink letters. I totally love my work besties!

Happy December!

2010-12-01T19:13:00.000-04:00

I have always loved December for a number of reasons. It’s full of joy and excitement with lots of happy events that call for decorating, shopping, crafting and cooking. Yay!

There is a little occasion that I used to get REALLY excited for but in the past years I have become truly terrified of: my birthday. Don’t get me wrong, I love birthdays and I know age is just a number, but seriously, does the number have to be so high? I’ve been alternating between tinges of nostalgic excitement and tidal waves of anxiety that I’ll be a year older and this will quite possibly be the year my hair turns grey. However, I know that nothing will really change. Another year is not going to suddenly turn me into a well-organized machine of organization nor will it rob me of my effervescent spirit that delights in the little things (shiny things!). So my birthday can come so long as there is cake with my name spelled correctly on it and I get to spend it with my husband.

Then there is Christmas. I love Christmas! Shopping for people and thinking about what would make them happy, baking up treats and cooking up a big dinner, even if there are just two of us. The stores are always full of pretty papers and decorations and it’s the one month where our apartment can be adorned with all the sparkles I want. There are loads of holiday parties to go to which always have tasty nibbles and glasses of, ahem, holiday cheer. Sparkles, nibbles and wine – that’s all you need to make a festive party!

I hope that this month brings you lots of cheer and joy and that you are filled with love of family and friends and now would you please pass the cake!

American Thanksgiving: Cherpumple

2010-11-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

As promised on Saturday, I give you the most glorious of desserts: the Cherpumple.

Created by this kooky guy, the cherpumple combines your love of pie and cake in a one towering dessert. It’s a white cake stuffed with cherry pie; a yellow cake stuffed with pumpkin and a spice cake stuffed with apple pie. Cher-Pum-Ple!

Here’s a few pictures from baking day with my friend. Knick had baked up the pies the night before so all we had to do was to whip up the cake mixes – yes cake mix. Because when you’re stuffing cakes with pies you don’t need to drive yourself nuts over fussy recipes.

The pumpkin pie/yellow cake (frost left); apple pie/spice cake (right) and the cherry pie/white cake in the back. After they baked for an hour we left the cakes to cool over night in the spring form pans to prevent a "blowout" of filling while the cakes set. The last thing we wanted was an exploding cake...or did we?

And with the magic of the internet – voila! The frosted cake, or Pake, as it was affectionately christened.

The grand unveiling. Throughout the evening people wanted to know about the cake (wouldn’t you?) and we wanted to keep it a secret until it was cut. Look at how tall it is!!

Cherpumple anyone?

Three delicious layers of cakey pie goodness. It's everything good stuffed inside everything awesome and held together with love (and four cans of cream cheese icing).

The cherpumple's stability is a little bit wonky so you should enjoy it all right away. You and the 25 friends it will take to finish this beast. Even a slice like the above took two people to finish. It's certainly a fun and wacky dessert and now I want to make more things stuffed inside of things topped with frosting!

American Thanksgiving Sneak Peak

2010-11-27T17:22:00.000-04:00

Just a little teaser photo of the dessert my friend, "Knick" and I made yesterday. It's for a potluck tonight to celebrate American Thanksgiving with The Ruggist and friends. I'll show you want it is tomorrow...once I've recovered from my food coma.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T09:08:00.001-04:00

Just in case you're stopping by your computer for a quick tip on turkey roasting or making an excuse to take a break from relatives I wanted to wish any and all of you celebrating today a very Happy Thanksgiving! We were sick for Canadian Thanksgiving…and well, for the entire month of October actually, so I'm looking forward to celebrating with our American friends on the weekend. I'm bringing a rather ambitious dish to the potluck dinner and hoping that it goes as planned and since I haven't even purchased the turkey I'm already behind on my preparations. People can't tell the difference between chicken and turkey, right?

Right?

Have a lovely holiday everyone, and try not to elbow too many people in the stores tomorrow!

Cook the Books!

2010-11-20T11:38:00.001-04:00

Well, not in that way - accounting fraudulence is wrong you guys!

The above picture probably looks something like your cookbook repertoire minus it sitting on your couch. These are my new literature and texts. In university I had a shelf (read: milk crate) lined with loads of "fun" reading (Camus FTW!) which was then replaced with actual fun reading, (Harry Potter FT(even bigger)W!) and now I have these. Sadly, the milk crate has gone and I still have yet to get a proper shelf. T'was a good milk crate.

The very best thing my husband did for us while we were dating was get me the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. He saw that I had some potential to be a good cook but knew that my meals of French fry sandwiches and popcorn suppers weren't going to get me there. I was also a big fan of what I called my "One-Pot Dinners" which consisted of me frying hamburg, onions and whatever else was in my fridge and topping it with a very, VERY meager sprinkle of cheese. Hey, edible is a relative term right? From the ATK books I learned how to properly develop flavour up front for the best outcome. It's is a super wealth of cooking information and I'm not just saying that because they linked me on their Facebook page - honestly I'm not! All of their books truly helped me learn how to cook and bake.

Since that first cookbook gift he has grown our collection quite substantially in that he's purchase all but three in the above photo.

I won't go through all them one by one, but I do admit to having favourites. The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook and Cupcakes books are perfect for picture gazing and while I love her I haven't quite fallen in love with many of her recipes. I do adore Nigella Lawson for her evocative writing not to mention her huge, sumptuous...tracks of land. She knows how to do proper Sunday feasts but also allows room for trashy foods. I love the little bit at the end of her shows where she digs out a snack from her fridgee. Who doesn't love a lady that enjoys a turkey leg at midnight?

The Marcella Hazan Essentials of Italian Cooking is awesome, awesome, awesome! She gives loads of detailed instructions and you really feel that you are creating something that an Italian grandmother would make for you. Sometime I'll do a proper review of this one because most of the recipes in her book are incredibly simple and tasty. Chicken with two lemons? Holler.

I had always thought that the Joy of Cooking was for grannies and church ladies. Plus, there are hardly any pictures! Wha!? Who wants a cookbook without glossy gorgeous shots of the finished item? Now I know I was wrong-wrong-wrong about this book and, frankly, it doesn't need pictures because every recipe turns out great. I now consider my at-home cooking career to be in two parts, that which was pre-Joy of Cooking and now. It's that good of a book. My one gripe is that it only has 1 book marker - this is a huge text and sometimes I want to flip to a few recipes at a time.

Do you have recommendations for a must-have book I should try? Let me know!

Best Friday Ever!

2010-11-19T13:06:00.000-04:00

Today America's Test Kitchen linked my post on chicken en cocotte on their Facebook page!

What an honour for a small-time blogger like me. Thank you thank you thank you!

Also - if you're visiting for the first time from their page, Hello! More posts coming soon!

Happy Friday!

Old Timey Cookbooks

2010-11-11T12:33:00.002-04:00

I baked a lot with my mother growing up and my favourite thing to do was to pour over her old cookbooks looking for interesting recipes to make with the ingredients on hand. Loads of her books are a bit tattered and ripped from years of use and me flipping through them.

We all know this one. It's a standard to have in your collection. The back cover is missing and it's permanently open to the pancake recipe (for my mother's crepes, add extra milk!):

and her book somehow just wants you to find the sweet dough recipe (shape into buns and then slather with frosting when they've cooled!)

The pictures are great. People ate crazy food in the 70's:

Actually, she made this tea bread quite a lot and sometimes in lieu of birthday cakes.

I noticed that she had the reissued copy of the cook book, but it was not as well loved as the original. Besides, who want's a cookbook that doesn't sit open?

In the 80's we got a new fangled microwave to revolutionize the way we cooked. All our meals were going to be zapped in the box while we zipped around in flying cars. First thing first though, we had to figure out how to use the thing. My mother took a microwave cooking course and with this book:

she learned how to cook a roast in a microwave, how to poach fish in the microwave and how to make other grotesque things.

Mmm! Juicy roast turkey cooked entirely in your microwave! Just like Mom! (thankfully, not my mom).

...and what ever that yellow sauce is...

The two best things she ever made weren't even in the book: Raspberry Crumble Bars and brownies. They were also two things that I was allowed to make by myself as a kid. I had the brownie recipe committed to memory.

A great feature of this book was that if you flipped it over it was in French! Bilingual microwave cooking FTW!

After the course was over and we tried a few things like the divinity fudge which was hard as a rock on top and powder underneath, she quickly learned what the microwave was for: reheating food items and telling the time.

Wedding Flowers

2010-10-15T12:44:00.003-03:00

In the kitchen my usual mediums for creating things are butter and bacon but when I’m in the crafty mood I turn to paper and sparkles. I love working and making things out of paper and when it was wedding time for me (I mean us) I decided to make all my flowers out of tissue paper. They were a lot of work, but totally worth the effort and when they were all done I felt like had created something out of (almost) nothing. When you get married you get inundated with loads of pretty wrap and tissue paper so a lot of my materials came from gifts. Yay Upcycling!

This was my wedding bouquet of lovely pinks. My mother gave me a load of vintage buttons and pearls, which she had amassed over the years, and I loved being able to incorporate those kinds of details. The only real part was a cut of ivy from her original wedding bouquet.

Since then I’ve been able to create a few arrangements for friends to add a little whimsy to their day that is also easy on the budget.

Table centrepieces for a co-workers wedding. I love the look of the galvanized containers and delicate papers. Plus, I can’t help but be continually drawn to pink – I think that it’s just my own rosy nature. Tee hee!

Here’s a little arrangement I did while experimenting with oversized blooms. I mixed them with little sweet pea flowers which looks fun.

Two of our friends are getting married tomorrow and I created these little arrangements to accent their candy buffet table. The wedding colours are cream and brown but I could not find any brown paper anywhere. This copper paper mixed well with the cream paper giving the flowers a bit of sparkle. I covered the containers with the accent colour to finish off the look.

Happy Friday to all!

Chicken Soup for the French Woman's Soul

2010-10-14T20:15:00.000-03:00

While I was sick last week I received the most wonderful present. Not chicken soup, not a large cup of lemon tea and not a St. Bernard with a barrel of brandy. No, the absolute best possible thing any one could ask for to put spring in their step: a gift box of Laduree macarons.

They were a present from dear friends who had returned from Paris the night before. The gift itself starts with the beautiful ornate box that is paired gorgeously the pale green bag and then when you open them up….

Oh la la!

Lovely little macarons of chocolate, orange blossom, blackcurrant violet, rose, pistachio and vanilla. They were all dainty and a pure joy to eat. Like eating a little cloud of air that has been suspended in a delicate shell of sugar kissed with a hint of delectable flavours.

These are quite possibly the only dessert that makes you feel prettier just by being around them.

Merci Boucoup!

Sinfully Thin Pizza Dough

2010-10-07T19:34:00.000-03:00

Okay - I feel that I should give you a unicorn chaser after that gross post from yesterday so here’s something to cleanse your eyeballs...

Last month we were invited to celebrate with friends some very nice news and I can’t think of any better way to say “I’m so happy for you” than with a full fledged pizza party.

First off, let me tell about our hosts’ house. You know when you were a little kid and you thought of all the awesome things you would want in your house? Like a fireman pole or a door hidden in a bookshelf? For me, I always wanted that dumbwaiter from Webster or the ride-on train set from Silverspoons. Hell, I would have even settled for one of those bouncy horses.

Now imagine what you might like in your house now?

A quiet place overlooking a lake?

A gorgeous kitchen with six-range stove, pin-drop quiet dishwasher and huge island work surface?

Three or more dedicated beer taps hooked up directly to your home microbrewery?

Car bed?

Well they have all those things (actually, not sure about the car bed but I wouldn’t be surprised!)

The best thing about their amazing kitchen is that it is used and when we walked into their home most of the stove was covered with pans of sausage frying, garlic roasting and shallots caramelizing. I brought some bacon as a little “hooray for you” gift and that went immediately into a pan – yay bacon!

Toppings! Yum!

Our chef for the evening, Nick, is prepping his work surface for this pizza crust recipe he painstakingly created and tweaked. It’s a thin crust that cooks up into an almost cracker-like crust.

mmmm I like that doughy action!

Two marghertia pizzas (my favourite) going in their gigantic 500F oven. I'm a bit jealous here - I can't even fit two baking sheets side by side and he's got two 20inch pizzas in there!

Let the drooling begin..

Upskirt shot of the char with an Bacon Gravy sized chomp out of the middle

And he kept making more and more!

Avocado, chicken, pesto and bacon!

Sausage, peppers, caramelized shallots!

Needless to say we were terrifically stuffed and had an excellent time pouring each other beers from the taps.

If you would like to make Nick's pizza dough - he has kindly given you the recipe! (Thanks!)

Sinfully Thin Pizza Dough By Nick

I'd like to think that I have this one all ironed out.
I have been working on this recipe for years now. Tweaking it here and there, changing to better brands etc... I am sticking with it this way!

Sinfully Thin Pizza Dough By Nick:
1 and 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour (I use store brand)
1/2 cup Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour (I use Speerville)
1/2 tsp Fine Sea Salt (I use the Costco stuff)
1/2 tsp Yeast (I use Fleschmans Bread Yeast)
3/4 cup water
3 Tbsp Good Olive Oil (I use Fillipo Berro)

Fill a cup with the water, warm but not hot. <30C. Add the yeast and give it a stir.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and add the yeast and water.
Mix with your hands until a ball forms.
Knead for 2-3 minutes by grabbing an edge and pushing it into the center of the ball with your fist. Be rough with it!

Put it into a lightly greased bowl and cover for 2 or so hours, until the ball doubles.

Flour a flat surface and gently cut the ball in half.
When all of the toppings are prepared and the oven is on, roll it into a circle with a pin the dough should be rolled thin. 1/8" or 3/16" thick. Pretty much as thin as you can get it without tearing it.
Sprinkle corn meal onto your peel so that the dough will slide (test it before you top it!).
You can use cardboard as a peel if you need to.

This is as crucial as the recipe...
Bake on a stone at 500* or as hot as your oven or BBQ will go!
Bake until done. At these temps, don't try and set a timer, you will just burn it.
In a real Pizza oven, it only takes 90 seconds! Of course it's 700 degrees.

When done right, it will be cracker thin and able to hold it's own loaded down with goodies.

Chicken Num Nums

2010-10-06T13:09:00.001-03:00

Source

By now you’ve both seen and been grossed out by this photo making the internet rounds over the last few days. You are looking at mechanically separated chicken parts an unreal shade of pink that is then turned into tasty fast food patties and nuggets through the magic of chemicals and branding.

Ugh. I don’t know if this is real nor why I'm so quick to believe the original poster, but this picture works. It’s absolutely disgusting that people out there have created this ‘product’ to serve to the public and that we (hopefully never after seeing it), order up with tasty fries and Cokes.

Up until now I knew that nothing good came out of restaurants but I considered the most disgusting thing at them to be the condiments. Mustard? Yucky! Relish? Ew. Mayo? No thanks (unless it’s spicy). I order chicken sandwiches and nuggets because it takes the least amount of time to tell them what I don’t want on it (“No mayo please”). But now I guess I’ll also have to ask for no pink goop please. We don’t frequent fast food places that often, mainly when we’re on road trips or we’ve had a bad day and just want to cram grease into our faces but I don’t think that I’ll ever get this image out of my head for a good long time.

This brings me to a video clip which came across my Facebook page from Jamie’s Food Revolution, a series that I only saw a little bit of when it aired. But when it was on it received a lot of acclaim. Jamie’s quest to bring the issue of nutrition to the forefront of schools and to get children thinking about their food choices is admirable. It’s so simple and easy to eat healthy but it’s even easier to eat junk.

Here Jamie demonstrates to kids what’s inside of those chicken patties they love so much. He separates a whole chicken showing them what is sellable (breast, legs, wings) and then shows them what happens to the rest by shredding the rest in a food processor. The chicken goop that he makes looks very similar to the picture above. He adds fillers and flavours and then makes them into patties and asks the kids if they would eat it.

These. Are. The. Stupidest. Kids. Ever.

Actually, no, they are just hungry - so hungry in fact that they would eat anything. But I feel that Jamie is missing something here.

Choice.

Why not give the kids a choice. Had Jamie processed the exact same chicken goop out of breast and leg meat I think the choice for the kids would be clear. You want to eat tasty things but they first need to come from the right source. He also should have shown the kids what chicken leftovers and carcases are good for: soup!

Anyhow – this is just a little food for thought and I apologize if I’ve ruined anyone’s lunch unless it came from mechanically separated meat and, if so, you're welcome.

Farmer's Market: October 2, 1010

2010-10-02T11:15:00.001-03:00

It's no secret that I both love and loathe the farmers markets. I love the produce, the vendors, the arts and crafts and the smells of baked bread, fresh cut flowers and herbs that waft through the air.

I hate the crowds.

Strolling through the market at 7:50am.

However, it's sort of rite of passage to manuvear through the waves of people, the strollers 3 children wide and the lookyloos. I'll liken it to getting close to the stage at a concert of your favourite band. You watch for openings of people swaying or looking down lighting cigarettes and you scooch in front of them - elbows at the ready. Who knew all those years of jumping up and down, fist pumping and cheering at shows would help me later in life when I wanted to buy fresh eggs.

Yet I go almost every week because the place just makes me happy. Everyone is so kind and happy to talk about what they're selling. It's a great way to try new things. For instance, today I bought leeks for the first time. I know, I know - it's just not something I really think about buying but I just learned recently (from Mark Bittman's book, How to Cook Everything) that leeks are in the same family as onions. ONIONS!

Anyhow, this entire post is to show you what I bought today so here it is:

1/2 lb Double smoked bacon

1/4 pound hot peppers

1 lb ground chuck

pork shoulder roast

carrots

leeks

free range eggs

pears

field tomatoes

1 steamed bun

1 cinnamon roll

There are lots of recipes that come to mind just looking at this photo. Spaghetti Bolognese, pork braised in milk, potato and leek soup, bacon and eggs and possibly my favourite recipe of all: stuffing a cinnamon roll in my face while watching Project Runway.

Beef Bourguignon

2010-09-29T13:37:00.002-03:00

Hi, my name is S-L! Do you love thick stews with fork tender meat? How about dipping a thick slice of bread into rich, dark gravy? If you do then you should really check out this recipe for Beef Bourguignon. It’s full of mind shattering flavour and is really, really easy to make but you don’t have to take my word for it!

Actually – you should. I’m sort of an (self-proclaimed) expert on these things (just like I know that the No-Name brand of Party Mix has the lowest pretzel to everything good ratio).

Let’s start with the basic ingredients.

Bacon, beef, onions, carrots, mushrooms, stock, wine, butter, flour. 10 ingredients (plus a few extra as noted in the recipe) and you probably have at least 5 or 6 of them in your kitchen right now. So what’s stopping you? Don’t let the name or it’s roots in French cooking fool you – it’s easy, wonderful and homey. It’s the food equivalent of sinking into a big soft bed with 5 bazillion thread count sheets and an ethereal down duvet to keep you the right temperature.

Anyway, back to the recipe. I used the Barefoot Contessa’s take on the Julia Child classic. There are basically four steps to the recipe which I will break down for you:

1. The Prep where you will create the base of your flavour with meat and aromatics.

2. The Braise where you don’t do anything.

3. The Onions which takes a teensy weensy bit of time.

4. The Finale. Where you finish off the dish with what makes it positively French: butter.

Beef Bourguignon (as adapted from Julia Child and Barefoot Contessa)
(serves 2 with generous leftovers)

8 ounces bacon (8 slices chopped)
1 pound of beef, cubed (1 small roast)
2 onions, diced
3-4 carrots, cut on the diagonal about ½ inch
3 cloves garlic
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 package of pearl onions
1 package of button mushrooms, sliced
2 T tomato paste
4 T butter
2 T of flour
1 bottle of red wine – something good but not too expensive. Anything will do
1 cup of beef stock

The Prep

With a few minutes of prepping your ingredients you will save yourself a teeny bit of time later. For me, cubing the meat takes up the most time. While it works just fine, I don’t particularly like getting chunks of stew meat so I would encourage you to get a nice roast. A cheap cut will do like chuck. I happened to use top sirloin because it was either that or prime rib. Don’t use prime rib unless you are serving off of gold plates in a palace of sorts.

Cube the meat. I prefer ¾ inch cubes because it’s manageable on a fork plus it makes the meat go further. Set it aside in a covered bowl in the fridge.

The prep step is also where you set the stage for explosive flavournoids. Therefore, the logical conclusion is to start with bacon.

Cook 8 slices in a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven until crisp and set aside. Pour the fat into a dish and add 1 tablespoon back into the pan. Pat the beef dry and season with salt and pepper. In batches, fry the beef until browned on all sides, but not cooked all the way through. Set aside in a bowl tented with foil. While the bacon or beef is frying chop up your vegetables.

Add another teaspoon of bacon fat to the pan and cook onions and carrots until soft, about 10 minutes. Add in chopped garlic and thyme, cook 1 minute.

The Braise

Pour in wine to just cover meat, add in stock, tomato paste and bacon. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook in the oven for 1 hour and a half.

The Onions (and mushrooms)

Frozen pearl onions would work just fine, but I wanted fresh. I also would have been happy to peel them by hand, but this method was pretty easy. (Actually – next time I will peel by hand because it seemed like a waste of water.)

In a skillet heat up the rest of the reserved bacon fat plus 2 T of the butter and cook onions until slightly browned. Add in the sliced mushrooms and cook until they release their moisture. Add onions and mushrooms to stew and continue to cook.

The Finale

Oh my – you’re almost at the finish line! After an hour and half of slow cooking your stew take it out and bring it to a simmer on the stove. Create a paste of butter and flour by pinching and kneading it together with your fingers. Drop it into the stew and stir. All the juices will turn into gorgeous silky gravy. Let it simmer another 15 minutes while you set your table, pour some wine and slice up a loaf of crusty French bread.

You can serve this with egg noodles, potatoes or even rice would be good. Personally, I pushed my egg noodles to the side and just used my bread as an extra tool to get every bit of that delicious gravy.

Trust me, it’s twice as good as you think it is and half as hard as it sounds. In total it took three hours from start to table but here’s a hint if you’re serving for guests. It tastes 10 times better the next day. So if you’re having a dinner party make this the day before and your guests are going to think you are Martha and Julia and Nigella all wrapped in one (or Batali and Bayless and Bittman as the case may be).

Bon appetit!

Storm's a comin' (I think)

2010-09-03T11:56:00.001-03:00

Before we can properly start this long weekend we've got to get one little thing out of the way: Hurricane Earl. In our parts we aren't used to huge storms that do not dump 30-50 centimetres of snow, close down schools and give you an excuse to stay the heck inside. A storm that's made of rain and wind? Pfff – no worries.

At least that's what we thought in 2003 before Hurricane Juan hit Nova Scotia directly with a category 2 storm. All Sunday they reported that we would have thunderstorms, wind and rain but no one paid that much attention. Then around 9 o'clock they said, Yeah, that storm? Turns out it's an actual hurricane and it's going to hit in 2 hours. Our bad!

And by that time there was nothing we could do but wait until morning to see the destruction from the storm.

If you ask anyone around here what was the worse thing about that storm we'll say two things:

1. No power. I was not prepared for losing power for more than a few hours. I was without it for three days and some much, much longer. I took freezing cold showers with very little water pressure in almost pitch-black darkness. I stayed at work longer just to use the internet and telephone. Gah – no power meant no phone? I did not even know that could happen.

Needless to say sitting alone in your dark apartment reading by candle light and being so bored from the quiet that you just fall asleep is not very fun. I could hear lots of people around me in nearby apartments and properties having BBQs and chatting with friends. However, I was not among them and it was probably one of the more isolating experiences I've had. Could I have just walked out and joined them? Maybe – but that's not my style. I was brought up never to invite oneself to anything. It stands out in my memory as the only time I wished that I knew who my neighbours were instead of hiding from them when I heard them in the hall.

More annoying that not having power were the folks that ran generators and flaunted their flood lit homes and loud stereos to all of us living in the dark. Jerks!

2. The freezer. Without power for more than 1 or 2 days the contents of your freezer will thaw and turn warm and create a big stink. It was annoying to lose a lot of good leftovers, meat and food that just went into the garbage.

My advice to anyone who is bracing for the storm is the following:

1. Stock up on some water (especially if you have a well).

2. Gather up some candles and books and things to pass the time.

3. Secure or bring in anything that might blow away.

4. Charge up your cells and laptops; and

5. Just enjoy the storm - the wind and lightning make for a pretty spectacular show.

Also, if you've got a neighbour just invite them over when you BBQ the contents of your freezer and refrigerator – I bet they would appreciate some company.

Stay safe and dry everyone! Happy Labour Day Weekend!

Farewell Hungry Chili!

2010-09-01T23:26:00.000-03:00

We had a few “last suppers” at the Hungry Chili in August. A few times with friends, once with family and many times just by ourselves. This past weekend we ate there three times and did not stray from our same basic order: spring rolls, hot numbing chicken and steamed rice. While we always, always, ALWAYS get the chicken, depending on our mood we might order a second dish of the Hot & Tangy Pork or Chili Beef.

One of our last hoorahs with friends.

Burningly hot spring rolls served in their signature hen baskets.

Hot & Tangy Pork

Oh Hot & Numbing Chicken, I will miss you the most!

On Sunday the restaurant closed it doors for one last time. From what I understand it was due to landlord/building issues and the owners are staying around town, at least for now.

This was our go-to restaurant. It was close to our apartment, cheap and had food that was impossible to get anywhere else in the city. So many restaurants in the city are hesitant to showcase spicy food and the Hungry Chili never disappointed. When we asked for it to be really hot our dish came loaded with fried chillies and pulsated an orange glow.

As we ate our last bites of chicken and pork on Sunday night I thought of all our visits over the last year and wondered where we would go next to fill the void. I suddenly realized that this place was connected to many happy events. This was the restaurant that we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. We ate there on a blustery Christmas Eve and watched snowflakes fall outside. We ate there on New Years Eve to close out 2009 properly. On those freezing winter days we would trudge through the snow to get warmed up from the inside out. When I didn’t feel like cooking we would make a mad dash for the restaurant. And, over the last 3-4 months almost every Friday night we would walk over and were always greeted with a cheerful smile by the owner, Mrs. Lee. It wasn’t hard for her to remember us or our order and after a few visits she always said “same thing?” as we walked into the door. I didn't want to even finish my meal because it was suddenly feeling so final. Of course, the food is too delicious not to eat and soon the plates were clean.

When we settled our bill I knew a goodbye was going to be imminent. I’m not good at them and I always place a lot of emotion in them even when the receiving party might not. We wished them well and hoped to see them again very soon (they are still trying to find a place to move to). Mrs. Lee pushed a small envelope in my hand and said “for your own recipe”. Inside were tiny Sichuan peppercorns which create the signature "numbing" that we love so much. Those readers that know me well (or even slightly) will know that I was very touched by this gesture. I thanked her for all the delicious meals and gave her a big hug. As we walked home that evening I wiped tears away with one hand while clutching the peppercorns in the other. I was sad that it was closing but I was happy to be taking home a little piece of the restaurant where we made so many great memories.

Thank you Hungry Chili! We hope to see you again soon!