mummy dinosaur

around our house this week

2012-02-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

It's been grey and rainy a lot lately. By mid-week we were decidedly grumpy and the weather wasn't helping. I was tired of grey, tired of damp and my soul was longing for a bit of sunshine. I have these in the kitchen

and living room, which help with the idea that spring is on it's way. We had a house guest, who wasn't much trouble over the last weekend but who didn't do much.

He ate lots of vegetables and hay and entertained our boy.

We've had some lovely meals - this polenta and artichoke tart from the Wednesday Chef (thanks Luisa)

and this celeriac soup from Dana Treat accompanied by delicious yogurt biscuits from Super Natural Every Day.

And a couple of days ago, the sun came out. Everyone seems happier. We went for a walk yesterday afternoon to a bay full of nostalgia for my husband's family and introduced our boy to it.

Today we have plans, to go skating, build some Lego creations

and play in the park with a friend.

making it green

2012-01-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

For our boy's 6th birthday party, he'd originally requested a locomotive cake. I do have a book on making kid cakes but it didn't have a locomotive cake that he was happy having, so I went over to youtube for some help. And while scrolling through several videos of train cakes (mostly Thomas the Tank Engine), up popped a tank cake on the side bar. Well, he was enchanted. "I want that", he said. And it looked easier than a locomotive cake, especially the way our boy was thinking it should be. And actually assembling the tank cake is easy. I'm here to tell you that the hardest part is getting the frosting the colour you want it, at least it was for me.

Now I took the easy way out with the cakes. As a couple of the crowd have wheat issues, I went with Glutino's Gluten Free Chocolate Cake mix - 3 of them. I whipped them up and baked 2 cakes, 1 in a 9x13 pan and 1 in an 8x8 pan. In retrospect I could have made the tank using just the 9x13 cake, making it a bit smaller.

Once baked, I cut a round out of the large cake and evened off the edge. I placed this cake on a foil covered stiff cardboard I used for the cake board. I trimmed the 8x8 cake and placed it on top of the larger rectangle and the round cut out went on the top.

To glue everything together, I used a crumb coat of frosting. I made the crumb coat using food colouring in liquid drops and even using all the green I had, I still only got a bright shamrock green. I set up the layers and covered the cake with this frosting and put it in the fridge to set up.

And then went off to the craft store for gel food colouring - in Moss Green. I had to use quite a bit of gel to get the olive green colour I was going for, but it worked! I frosted the entire cake in the olive green frosting, then added a chocolate roll wafer cookie for the gun, and used chocolate buttons (large) for the wheel rollers with a bit of black frosting gel to outline for the treads.

Add candles and lego people and the cake was ready for the party. It was a hit and fed a lot of kids and adults.

lego and a tank cake

2012-01-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

If you'd looked up the word apprehension in the dictionnary last week, there might have been a photo of myself and my husband. We were building up to panic through the week, at the prospect of 18 of our boy's 5 and 6 year old friends invading our house for a couple of hours. Yes, we'd invited them, but still, the prospect was daunting. We kept saying "it is only for 2 hours". It seems that kindergarden is a big year for birthdays and a few of our boy's friends have had parties for the whole class. Our boy really wanted to do that as well. I looked into various options for entertainment and venues but in the end I came up with this - a party at our house with entertainment for the children. I hired a fantastic guy who came with a ton of lego and a friend to help him to play with the kids for most of the time. (I'm not linking to his site mainly because he isn't currently booking parties but if you live in the Vancouver, BC area and are interested just leave me a comment and I can forward you details.) I also begged some mum friends to stay while their kids played (ok, I also plied them with wine to make it more palatable).

So, the party has come and gone. Everyone seemed to have fun, no-one got hurt and my husband only had to use a bit of carpet cleaner solution afterwards. I think it also helped that I've learned a few things and applied them to this party. When I started planning the party, I was initially only going to ask the boys. But in speaking to a few mums about the idea of a lego party, they all seemed enthusiastic and it did seem a bit mean to not ask the girls in our boy's class as well. Especially, as my husband pointed out, that our boy had been to several of their parties. But I did think that I would set up a place where the girls could go if they go legoed out, with a roll of art paper and crayons. And as we moved the furniture in the living room mostly into the dining room to make a clear space for the lego to be, we had a big seating area in the dining room - very squashed but cosy. I kept it simple with the party food with things that had worked well at other kid parties - crackers (I went with the ever popular Cheese Bunnies), a veggie tray with dip, sliced fruit (melon, apple, strawberries and grapes), homemade bagel bites and a bowlful of yogurt tubes. I'd never seen yogurt served at a kids party before but it is one of our boy's favorite foods and I thought it might be a good idea as it is a self contained serving. They were very popular, especially with kids who'd never had them before.

The lego guys arrived early, and set up quickly with all kinds of fantastic lego creations - I'd requested the City set with airport and space add ons. They had lego apartment building, hospital, bank, police station, pizzeria, airport, airplanes, stations, a huge crane as well as all kinds of lego vehicles, people and an array of space plants, stations and robots. They also set up a lego train set with a set of controls and had trays of block for the children to build things with. It was quite an impressive set up.

I did wonder how all the children would fit in but they all did. And after the initial excitement on seeing it all, the kids settled down to a dull roar. They played with the lego, some came and snacked and some made their way upstairs. The girls did a giant birthday card for our boy with the paper and crayons and some found a game to play.

The parents who stayed perched around and had wine and snacks and chatted. It was great. When the lego time was up, the kids moved to wash their hands and then onto the snacks. It was very crowded in our dining room but no-one seemd to mind. Once everyone was done with hand washing, I lit the cake candles and our boy (with the help of some of his friends) blew them out and the kids had cake.

And then it was time to go. They all got a balloon and a goodie bag and off they went.

Afterwards, we cleaned up, moved the furniture back to where it normally is and had a supper of mostly leftover veggies and fruit. One of our favorite moments from the party was when some of the boys (including mine) decided to put all the Lego girls in jail and one of the girls found out about it. "We have to rescue them!" and the girls all banded together and trooped in to rescue the Lego girls from the police jail.

now we are six

2012-01-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

Our boy is six today. He isn't very excited as he only spent about 30 minutes yesterday bouncing on his bed, yelling, tomorrow is my birthday, tomorrow is my birthday. And it snowed overnight so he is just in heaven. All week there has been snow in the forecast and we (thankfully from my perspective) have only had the merest dusting but for a boy who longs to be able to clear the driveway of snow with his trucks, it has been very disappointing. So today, at kid's club, he'll get to play in snow and play hockey with his pals until the rain kicks in later on today. And there will be chocolate cupcakes for supper. And his party tomorrow.

It's hard to believe that six years ago right now, I was in labour and starting to wonder if this boy would ever be born. I'd been induced on the Wednesday evening and as the contractions that started were only baby ones, they sent me home to sleep. I returned the next morning and was hooked up to a pitocin drop to try and move things along. Things didn't progress so I had another round of induction medication and more pitocin and laboured along all afternoon and evening with no progress. Around 11 pm they sent my husband and support friend home. I woke up in heavy labour around 5 am and paced the hallways of the labour and delivery ward until my husband arrived after 8, after which I either paced the hallways or perched on a birthing ball in the hallway outside my cubicle in the antenatal area. As I never progressed to 4cm dilated, I was never moved inside Labour and Delivery. My little cubby was so small, when my husband sat in the visitor's chair his knees threatened to take out the side of the bed. And a birthing ball definitely wasn't going to fit in that space so we parked it at the end of the bed, in the hallway and I perched on it while my husband and friend E took turns massaging my back. Periodically I would have to move to the bed so the fetal monitors could be read (he's doing fabulously well) but my back labour rarely registered on the contraction monitor which was pissing me off and I found lying down agony. At 10:30AM the OB came and checked my progress and we talked about options. I was in increasing distress, and making no progress. I could either have one more round of induction meds or proceed to the OR for a c-section. I went with the OR option and I'm glad I did. While I was being prepped, my blood pressure spiked and I needed a quick dose of hypertension meds and my bronchitis kicked in causing me to cough and cough so I was put on an inhaler as well. Then I was moved to the OR, given an epidural (oh the relief) and then draped. A few tugs later and there was our boy - with a chin just like his dad's. The OB told me later that our boy was so comfy inside me, that she really had to tug to get him out! He and I were moved to recovery where he told me all about his journey - he "talked" non-stop the whole time I was in recovery "ack, ack, ack...ack, ack". My nurse was laughing, saying "wow, you've got a talker there!"

And now he is six! Our funny, smart, social, lego loving, truck loving boy. He's the best thing I've ever done and I can't imagine my life without him. I look at him now and he seems so grown up. He's lean and lanky like his dad (my husband's mini me) and there are no signs of the baby he was except when he is sleeping. Happy Birthday, my dear boy!

stuffing acorns

2012-01-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Is it my imagination or are the squirrels absolutely huge this winter? I know our fence is in rough shape but when some of the neighbourhood squirrels run along it lately it seems to bend. I guess it really is time to get a new fence. And the construction project would maybe distract our boy from his current obsession – the Titanic. He built a lego version of it last week, has been reading one of my husband’s books on the ship and been talking about it non-stop. Last night he was in tears because he “missed the Titanic and will never see it ‘cause it sank”. Oh dear. Never mind that he wants to listen to the “Titanic song” – My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion over and over and then sing it with me when I put him in bed.

But onto something else – I really came here to tell you about a stuffed squash recipe I came up with. I do have to say that I was watching a cooking show on our local PBS station a few weeks ago and a woman did something similar to this although I didn’t get the recipe or really pay attention to what she put in hers. My version is vegetarian but you could make it vegan by leaving out the butter and cheese or add some chopped leftover ham or bacon if you have a die-hard meat eater in the house. You can either stuff halved squash and bake them or peel the squash and mash it into the bottom of a casserole dish and layer the stuffing over the top and bake.

Baked Stuffed Squash
2 acorn squash
1 c cooked brown rice (I used a brown rice/wild rice blend)
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, sliced (optional, I didn't use it the second time I made this)
8-10 mushrooms, sliced
1-1 /2 apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 big handful toasted pinenuts
¼ tsp sage
Grating of fresh nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 c grated cheese (choices are gruyere, sharp cheddar, smoked cheddar, etc)

Microwave the squash for about 10 minutes. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and place in a baking dish.

Meantime, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions (if using), mushrooms and apples and cook until tender and slightly brown, ~ 10 minutes adding the sage, some salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg about halfway through the cooking time. When tender, add the pinenuts and rice and stir well to blend. Add most of the grated cheese and mix again.

Season the squash with pepper and a grating of nutmeg, then stuff the rice mixture into the squash centers, mounding the filling. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.

Bake at 350 deg for 40-60 minutes, until the squash is fork tender.

OR

Baked Squash and Rice Casserole

Prepare the squash and filling as above. Scrape the squash pulp off the squash peel and mash into the bottom of a 9x13 greased casserole dish and season with pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Layer the stuffing over the squash and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the dish.

Bake at 350 deg for 40-60 minutes.

unbaked casserole

green potatoes and ham

2012-01-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Green potatoes and ham is what I came up with for dinner last night. And apologies to Dr. Sueuss for the name, which came to me while I mixed everything up. Friday night supper is always a bit of a minefield as the end of the week usually finds me tired and not inspired to cook and on the night prior to our weekly shop, somewhat lacking in ingredients or imagination. So faced with making a dinner out of some leftover ham, a couple of leeks, some mushrooms and a bag of spinach, I did this. If I'd had the time, it would have been stuffed baked potatoes but I was hungry. So I boiled the potatoes, made a spinach pesto just using spinach, a bit of minced garlic and enough olive oil to whiz the spinach into a pesto.

While the potatoes drained, I sauted the mushrooms and leeks until tender, add the ham and potatoes.

Then I mashed the potatoes into the vegetables and mixed in the spinach pesto and a bit of sour cream to blend. And recalling this recipe, added a dollop of dijon mustard and parmesan cheese. Dinner done. And it was good. And gave my guys time after dinner to complete the lego destroyer they were working on.

2012

2012-01-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome new year and all the best to all of you in this new year. I have been accumulating pictures and recipes to share but for now I'll just do a quick list of things that have become favorites around here.

Cookies from here, gingerbread shorties and thumbprints

Yogurt biscuits from Heidi Swanson's book, Super Natural Every Day (I must bake a batch at least once every two weeks, they are easy, adaptable, quick and everyone loves them)

Our boy is currently in love with this

Reading about all the books Tea chose for her 10 days of books

leftover sausage stuffing from Christmas (all gone now, sniff)

That we can find snow very close to where we live here, where there is sledding and tubing!

here is our boy climbing up after a wild ride down

Cheers to all!

learning to give

2011-12-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

It's a busy time for our almost 6 year old. There are parties and concerts and cookies and visits to a jolly elf. Today was a chock a block day for our boy. We had notices home yesterday about all the goings on and what would be required so we sent our lad off today with money in hand, dressed in pajamas, clutching a carry bag and his hot chocolate mug. For today was Santa's workshop at his school. I didn't really understand the concept until today - a few weeks ago we were asked to donate things that could be used as gifts, with the proviso that you wouldn't mind getting it back yourself as a gift. And if you had extra, please to donate wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, etc. It is a fundraiser for the school's sister school, for books and teachers, etc. The children go to Santa's workshop, where items are laid out in tables - gifts for Mom, gifts for Dad and gifts for brothers and sisters, old and young. The children each buy an item for mom and dad and any siblings for the price of $2 per item. The process starts with the K classes and they are helped with the wrapping of the gifts by their school buddies (Grade 6/7 students who are with them all year for concerts and special events). Afterwards they got to exchange handmade cards with their buddies and have hot chocolate and treats with them (hence the need for the mug). The pajamas were just as it was deemed to be Pajama Day at school.

After swimming, we picked up our boy and his presents for us, all wrapped.

My man's was a huge bag and barely 15 seconds after our boy was with his Dad he told him, "I got you a pirate ship". Getting into the car, holding a birdhouse shaped package, our boy told me "I got you a house for small animals, Mummy." Once we arrived home, our boy wanted us to open our gifts. We tried to talk him out of it, to save them for Christmas but it was fruitless. So my husband went first. Based on the size of the bag and the "pirate ship" description we both thought it was going to be some kind of toy pirate ship. But it wasn't. It was a model of the HMS Endeavour, complete with stand, rigging, anchor, etc. Wow.

My present, not surprisingly, is a birdhouse. Rustic but perfect for our garden.

He did well, our boy. And he loved choosing gifts for us and having us open them. Now, if we can just get him to wait until Christmas.

a bit sticky

2011-12-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the cover of the December issue of Bon Appetit? I have that cookie fest issue and after having baked a few dozen of our favourite cookies the other day, I was left with 4 medium egg whites. And a requirement to bake gluten-free (preferably) cookies for a Kindergarden Christmas party. So I thought I would whip up some of these peppermint meringues.

The mixing was easy. It was the piping that was my downfall. I even bought a piping bag and tip so it would be easier. I should have stayed with the Ziploc bag method. But I did learn a few things in this experiment. I learned that I need a BIG piping bag, not the tiny one I was trying to work with. And meringue in its uncooked state is sticky.

the first ones worked well

the second sheet was a bit messy and I had bits all over the place

I could say I was distracted by the construction of a warship and helicopter nearby but that isn't really the case.

But all is not for naught. I did end up with 3 trays of blobbish pink meringue dots. The early ones (when the piping bag thing was going well) are stripey.

The end ones are uniformly pink and may have to be drizzled with chocolate to tone down the Barbie effect.

It remains to be seen how well Kindergardeners like them. And how well meringue washes out of wool sweaters. (note - Kindergardeners loved these cookies. )

'tis the season

2011-12-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

The boy bounced out of bed this morning and wanted immediately to put up his "transformer" tree. So once I had opened my eyes and become vertical, I made my way to the (very cold) garage and rummaged around on the top shelf until I found said tree. Into the house it came and the boy did a Tigger bouncing impression until I untied the string and shook out the branches. So far, it is devoid of decorations except for a large, red, felt star atop it as I haven't found the rest of the tree decorations. I did find wreaths and stockings and door hangers - all of which are now dotted around the house. And the two advent calenders are up and the new one is a big hit, containing as it does, small pockets for daily treats.

At 10 AM, the boy bounced again, this time to announce it was time to go and see Santa. So we got dressed and organized and off we went to my work Kid's Christmas party. As our boy's been going since he was a baby, he knows the drill. His shoes were off almost before he made it into the party room and he was inside the bouncy castle. Once he'd bounced around there for a bit, it was time to zoom off to decorate his gingerbread man. I managed to get him in the face painting line where he was adorned with a truck and a tree prior to his eating his gingerbread. And then it was back to the bouncy castle. Occasionally he would run back to me and have a sip of apple juice or a nibble but then would race off again. Then it was time for Santa - the kids all lined up and sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and in came Santa. Our boy was terribly excited and waited fairly patiently for his turn with his list and Santa's gift in hand. He told me a couple of days ago that he wanted to bring Santa a present and he decided that Santa's present was 4 chocolate chip cookies ( bar cookies I made the other night from here). Santa received the cookies with delight - saying chocolate chip are his favorite - and our boy and Santa had a chat about listening to mummy and daddy and having a good Christmas and then it was present time. Our boy was the lucky recipient of a Bumblebee transformer and he and a new pal spent quite a bit of time playing with both the car versions and the robot versions before it was time to come home.

So I guess it is time for me to kick start myself into the season. Cookie baking, present wrapping, cards and parties. I do love it all, I just have to pace myself. And on that note, to all a good night!

i've been delayed

2011-11-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

I have been baking and cooking and crafting - I promise. But as our household has been somewhat poorly over the last couple of weeks - first the boy's bout with fever and cold which I tried to avoid but ended up with strep throat this week - so days of fever, headache and aching throat. It got me out of an hour in a cold, drenching rain on the soccer pitch but not much else in between my rounds of napping on the sofa under the duvet. I have plans - but for now they are on hold. I wanted to bake these cookies and these cookies as well. The guys are eating store bought chocolate wafers which they probably like just as much.

I've nearly finished the boy's advent calendar, (here in an earlier stage)

just needs some hanger tabs and it will be done - can I finish before Thursday? And occassionally I pick up my knitting needles to knit the boy a sweater - I finished one last week (in between illnesses) and it kept him snuggly during a stormy day this week.

So now I will retire to my "feeling poorly" spot on the sofa, pick out my felt pieces for the calendar and watch Lego car races.

catching up

2011-11-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry to have been away from here for so long. I've been cooking and crafting and general mum/work/life stuff.

a sunny day on the soccer field

But not writing here. And I've missed it. And I have so much to catch up on.

Did you all have a wonderful Hallowe'en? Ours was fairly low key. A couple of weeks prior to Hallowe'en our town had a pumpkin fest.

I entered the fares and wares competition with a couple of things - pickles and chutney and won a 2nd place ribbon for my peach chutney. The boy had fun looking at all the amazing carved pumpkins in that competition and eating chocolate ghouls.

My man isn't really into celebrating things like Hallowe'en but with a Kindergardener in the house we still had to do some decorating.I managed to make a paper skeleton with help from here. The boy got a pair of spooky glasses from his Auntie and wore them after swimming to scare people at the swimming pool.

And we carved a couple of pumpkins. Our boy visited a very muddy and wet pumpkin patch with his class and then carved a pumpkin at school which made a trio of jack'o'lanterns outside our front door. And our boy decided to go trick or treating as a tiger shark this year - so I got out his great white shark costume from last year, fixed a new tail on it, painted stripes on the back and head and changed the red gills for white gills and hey presto - a tiger shark costume.

And I made a batch of pear muffins from a recipe from tea and cookies. They are yummy and a lovely, portable snack for little goblin hands.

Pear Muffins (adapted from Tea and Cookies)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/4 cup spelt four
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pear apple sauce
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 c plain yogurt
3/4 cup agave
1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into a small dice
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c chocolate chips
Preheat over to 375°. Mix all the dry ingredients together (baking powder and soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, spelt flour and oats). Stir to blend and make a well in the middle.

Lightly beat the egg whites until they are foamy and hold a bit of their shape.

Add the yogurt, pear puree, and agave to the bowl with the flour mixture and sir to combine. Add the egg whites and gently fold into the batter. Add the diced pear, dried cranberries and chocolate chips. Mix briefly to incorporate.
Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. Top each muffin with a few slices of pear. Bake for 25-30 minutes. The tops of the muffins will brown slightly, but the insides will remain moist.

veggie drawer chowder

2011-10-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days away on the Oregon coast

for some sun, drenching rain, fog, mist and much digging on the beach.

After a few days away, our first day at home showed where our interests lie. My husband scooted off to work for a few hours, my son dug out his Lego box and started building new trucks and I went to my kitchen. I whipped up a batch of strawberry hazelnut crumb bars

and then, as it was chilly and damp I thought I would make some soup. I was inspired by a curried fish chowder I'd had while away. I unearthed the remainders of the vegetables from the fridge drawer and went to work. It turned out well so here is the recipe.

Veggie Drawer Chowder
3 organic carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 rib of celery, peeled and chopped
2 leeks, halved and chopped
3 slices of deli ham, thinly sliced (optional)
a handful of small purple potatoes, chopped
~ 1 c frozen corn
2 c vegetable broth
~ 1 c cream
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp garam masala
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne

In a stockpot or saucepan, melt a large knob of butter and add the carrots, onion, celery, leeks and ham if using. Saute the vegetables until they reduce down and are slightly tender. Add the potatoes and corn and stir well, cooking for about 5 minutes. Add the broth and cream and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the seasonings and taste, adjusting to taste. Thin the chowder with milk if it is too thick. Serve hot.

happy thanksgiving

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today is officially Canadian Thanksgiving. But to accomodate work schedules, etc we had our dinner yesterday. I chose to do Nigella's ginger glazed ham (from the Christmas book) as I've made it several times and it is a favorite with our family. To go along side I created a potato dish that was completely inspired by a menu item (which I didn't have) at a dinner with friends in Seattle on Friday night - potato, mushroom, leek and goat cheese gratin. Also I roasted some lovely market organic carrots,

vegetables waiting to be roasted

made spinach gunge and roasted a butternut squash. The original intention for the squash was just some cubes for the salad course - to go with market greens, thin pear slices, chopped pistachios and a tuscan style balsamic vinegrette.

salad ingredients

And I did that and it was lovely. But then I was scrolling through some blogs yesterday afternoon and came across this over at Sprouted Kitchen which sounded intriguing so I modified it a bit, using this recipe as inspiration as well and created a roasted squash with breadcrumbs dish that was delicious. For dessert there was plainjane apple pie

this week's plainjane apple pie (it browned too well!)

and a pumpkin pie I bought at the market.

Potato, Mushroom, Leek, Goat Cheese Gratin
6 small organic potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into 1/4" slices
3 small organic leeks, halved, washed and sliced into 1/4" slices
2 big handfuls of organic cremini mushrooms, sliced
a knob of butter
1 garlic clove, minced
3 stems oregano, leaves stripped off and chopped
1 cup mild goat cheese, grated
cream
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Melt the butter in a saute pan until melted, add the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until brown, add the garlic and a third of the oregano and stir. Set aside.
Into a greased baking dish, layer 2 of the potatoes to cover the bottom of the dish. Layer evenly with half of the mushrooms and then half the leeks. Season with salt and pepper and half of the remaining oregano. Cover with a sprinkling of goat cheese. Repeat. Add the last layer of potato, season with salt and pepper. Pour cream over the potatoes (~ 1 c of cream) and sprinkle the last of the goat cheese over the top. Bake for an hour or more until the top is golden brown and the potatoes are fork tender.

Butternut Squash Gratin (inspired by Sprouted Kitchen and 101cookbooks)
Roast a butternut squash in a 350 deg F oven for about 45 minutes until soft and starting to char slightly.
Remove from the oven and let cool. Cut in half and remove the skin, seeds and stingy bits. Dice the remaining flesh into small cubes. To the bowl of a food processor add ~ 1 1/2 c of coarse breadcrumbs, 1 clove minced garlic, 4 sprigs of oregano leaves, a pinch of cayenne. Pulse this until combined. In a saucepan add about 2 tbsp of butter and heat until slightly nutty brown. Add the breadcrumbs and toast, mixing well.
To a greased baking dish, add half of the diced squash and cover with about half of the breadcrumbs, adding a handful of grated parmesan to the crumbs before adding. Cover with the remaining squash and then the remaining breadcrumbs. Bake in a 350 deg F oven for 15-20 minutes until hot and golden brown.

butternut squash gratin waiting to be baked

variation on a theme

2011-10-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

After writing about summer squash casserole, I came up with a variation for cauliflower that I bought in abundance last week. We harvested lots of purple potatoes from the garden last weekend and I thought the colour combination of white cauliflower with purple potatoes would be interesting. I made a pesto-ish sauce using arugula from the garden as well. I was quite pleased with the results.

Cauliflower Potato Gratin (inspired by 101cookbooks)
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
8 small purple potatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 c arugula
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c butter
2 c whole wheat bread crumbs
3/4 c gruyere cheese, grated

Make the arugula pesto by adding the arugula to a food processor and whizzing until broken up into tiny pieces. Add the garlic and salt and whiz to blend. Slowly drizzle the olive oil in until incorporated and a pesto consistency is reached. Set aside. In a saucepan, melt the butter until browned and bubbly. Add the breadcrumbs and toast in the butter until brown.

Add the cauliflower and the potato to a greased 9x13 baking dish. Pour the pesto over the top and mix well

until all the potato and cauliflower have a pesto coating. Add half the breadcrumbs and mix. Add the cheese and mix. Pour the rest of the breadcrumbs over the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.

inspired by moussaka

2011-10-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

My local fruit stand featured eggplant this summer. So once a week or so, I would pick up a couple of eggplant, and some red peppers and make a dish I came up with based on a moussaka recipe I have. It isn't quite as time consuming as moussaka and doesn't have tomatoes in it (which works for my man) and is delicious. We have eaten it quite a few times.

Eggplant Pepper Casserole
2 eggplants, sliced or diced
2 pepper, sliced or diced
5-6 small to medium new potatoes, sliced or diced
1/2 medium onion, sliced (optional)
1 lb mild italian sausage (optional)

2 tbsp olive oil
25 g butter
60 g flour
400 ml milk
1 egg
60 g feta cheese, crumbled
60 g grated parmesan cheese

Slice or dice the eggplant, peppers and potatoes

(alternatively the potatoes can be sliced, boiled and layered at the bottom of the casserole, with the other vegetables and sausage layered over top), add onion if using, and roast, in a pan, in a hot oven ( 375 deg F) for about 20 minutes. Break up the sausage meat and add to the vegetables and cook another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and milk and whisk to form a sauce. Once the sauce is free of lumps, season with salt and pepper and let heat until the sauce bubbles. Turn down the heat and let cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Beat in the egg and add the cheese and stir until blended.

Pour the sauce over the vegetable and meat mixture, in as even a layer as you can manage. Bake this for 40 or so minutes until golden brown. Serve.

another market competition

2011-10-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today was Sunday, the first Sunday of the month which means the market was having another cooking competition. Todays was best pie. I decided to make an apple pie from here. I wanted to submit something that featured market fare and since I buy organic apples at the market this seemed a great start. I loved that it was just apples ( and some dough, butter and a touch of sugar). I didn't think it would win because it was so plain and I was right. The good news is that the winner, another apple pie, was made by someone new to the competition which would be encouraging to them and as I came a close second, I still got some bootle which is good for me. I do the competitions because I'm competitive, I love the market and want to support it and I love the challenge of finding recipes that will showcase market fare. The market organizer told me that my pie had several staunch supporters so I'll pass the recipe along. It's simple but charming all on its own.

Apple Pie (from Heirloom Apple Pie in Organic Gardening Magazine)
Dough

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp cider vinegar
5-6 tbsp cold water

Mix the flours, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and process until the butter is in small pieces through the flour. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk, vinegar and 4 tbsp of water. Add to the dough and process briefly. Add more water, by tbsp until the dough just holds together. Combine into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Makes enough for 2 pies.

Pie
half of the dough from above
5 small gala apples, cored, peeled and sliced into 1/8 " slices
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F. Roll out the dough into a 12" diameter circle. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Layer on the apples leaving a 1" rim on the outside. Once the apples are placed, fold the pastry over the edges, pleating the dough to fit. Brush the melted butter over the dough and apples, then sprinkle the sugar over the apples. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the apples are tender.

Note: I baked the pie for quite a bit longer than the specified 40 minutes - after 40 minutes at the top of my oven, the pastry was still pale. So I cooked it for another 5 minutes, and another, and another. In the end I must have baked it for another 30 minutes and it was still pale. So I popped it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown.
Here is a shot of my winnings today - a bunch of swiss chard (not pictured), radishes, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 jar salsa, 1 pair of earrings, 1 small ceramic planter, 1 vanilla cupcake with sprinkles, 3 chocolate cookies, apples. a small chocolate truffle, a tube of candy and a bag of quinoa pilaf mix.

more pickles

2011-10-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

When I received 6 pickling cucumbers and banana peppers in a market basket at the beginning of September I thought I would make pickes with both. Because of the number of cucumbers, I decided to try bread and butter pickles and found this recipe. For the banana peppers, I tried this recipe.

Bread and Butter Pickles (adapted from here)
~ 1 lb pickling cucumbers
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp pickling salt
water
1 c apple cider vinegar
1 c sugar
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp tumeric

Slice the cucumbers and onions very thin and layer in a bowl with the salt. Nearly cover with ice cold water and set aside in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

Drain, rinse well and drain again. Prepare canning jars.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. As soon as it boils, add the cucumber mix and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and spoon into the prepared jars allowing for 3/4-1" headspace. Pour the liquid over evenly distributing the seeds. Cap and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 1 + pints.

Sweet Banana Pepper Pickles (from here)

1/2 lb banana peppers, seede and sliced into rings
2 c. white vinegar
2/3 c white sugar
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds

Prepare jars. Bring brine ingredients to a boil. Place the peppers in the jars. Pour the hot pickling juice into the jars up to 1/2" of the top. Clean the jar top and cap. Process for 15 minutes in a canning water bath.

sweet banana pepper pickles (and applesauce)

peach crumb bars

2011-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I had just finished canning a huge box of peaches a couple of weekends ago and I came across this recipe.

So I had to run out to the fruit stand and buy more peaches. But it was a couple of days between getting the peaches and making the bars and when I looked in the fruit bowl, a couple of the peaches had been eaten. What to do? Well, a couple of the remaining peaches were huge and I found some strawberries lingering from the last box we got from the fruit stand so I mixed the 2 together for this recipe.

Peach Strawberry Hazelnut Crumb Bars (adapted from Cooking Canuck)
3 large peaches, pitted and diced
a couple of handfuls of strawberries, hulled and quartered
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 c sugar
4 tsp tapioca starch (I didn't have any corn starch)

1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c butter, cut into pieces
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 c chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.

Cut the peaches into a chunky dice. Add the quartered strawberries, lemon juice, sugar and starch. Mix together and set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pulse until blended. Add the butter and pulse until blended and crumbly. Add the egg and hazelnuts and pulse until blended. Pour half into the baking dish and press together into a crust. Pour the fruit over the base and even out. Pour the rest of the crumb mixture over the top and spread as evenly as possible. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until light brown. Place on a rack to cool, refrigerate until firm and cut into bars.

by default

2011-09-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit embarrased by the market riches that adorned my counter a few weeks ago.

I've written before about our farmer's market cooking competitions - this year I've participated in all of them. I did a rhubarb crumb cake for Best Cake (didn't win), Zucchini Loaf for Best Sweet Loaf (won), Banana Oatmeal Macaroons for Best Cookie (won) and a couple of weeks ago I took Summer Squash Casserole for the Best Casserole contest. I won by default as there were no other entrants. But the dish was well received. The leftovers were being guarded by the market organizer for her afternoon snack. I did get my dish towel back that I'd wrapped the casserole in to keep it warm as I dropped it off early in order to get my eggs (they sell out early in good weather - come the rain and eggs are available into the afternoon).

I'd been trying to come up with a recipe to submit for this contest and finally settled on this one after made it from the squash in my last winning market basket a few weeks prior. I found the recipe on Heidi's 101cookbooks and it is delicious. And I loved that it featured things that I routinely get from the market (cheese, parsley) and from my garden (zucchini, oregano) and my own pantry (bread). I was given a huge zucchini from a co-worker a few days before the contest and that sealed the deal.

The boy was covered in a mystery rash that morning and I was going to take him to the clinic once it opened but by the time we headed that way, the rash was getting better and the boy was vociferous in his desire to not see the doctor.

In my winning basket I received tomatoes, beets, zucchini (ironic!), eggplant, banana peppers, garlic, cherry tomatoes, a large hydrangea, strawberry preserves, pineapple salsa, a gorgeous orchid fridge magnet, two huge cinnamon buns, some coconut snack bites and a bunch of pickling cucumbers.

Summer Squash Casserole (adapted from 101cookbooks)
zest of one lemon
1 1/2 pounds summer squash or zucchini, cut into 1/6th-inch slices
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups fresh whole bread crumbs
1/2 pound waxy potatoes, sliced transparently thin
3/4 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese, grated on a box grater

Preheat oven to 400F degrees and place a rack in the middle. Rub a 9x9 pan with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with lemon zest, and set aside.

Place the zucchini slices into a colander placed over a sink, toss with the sea salt and set aside for 10-15 minutes (to drain a bit). Make the sauce by pureeing the oregano, parsley, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, red pepper flakes, and olive oil in a food processor.

Make the breadcrumbs by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until the butter is wonderfully fragrant, and has turned brown. Wait two minutes, then stir the breadcrumbs into the browned butter.

Transfer the squash to a large mixing bowl. Add the potatoes and the oregano sauce. Toss until everything is well coated. Add the cheese and half of the bread crumbs and toss again.

Transfer the squash to the lemon-zested pan, top with the remaining crumbs, and bake for somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes.

canning weekend

2011-09-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

So last time, I mentioned that its been a bit busy around here. And last weekend, I added more onto my plate in the interests of preserving summer. I bought a huge box of peaches, big, beautiful Okanagan peaches.

And I had plans to can the whole box. And I did. Over two days I made canned peach slices,

peach sauce, peach jam and peach chutney. And if that wasn't enough, while the canner was boiling away, I made some tomato jam and more dill pickles. The dill pickles was a last minute addition. The ones I made about last month have been sampled and 3 quarts have been consumed already and another 2 quarts have been given away. So I panicked a bit about my dwindling stocks and with the end of summer looming, I bought 15 lbs of organic cukes and added that to my canning weekend. On Friday night, waiting for my husband to come home, I put up 5 lbs of the cukes into dill pickle spears.

The following morning I started the tomato jam before soccer

and then after soccer came the peach chutney

and canning peach slices and I started peaches in the slow cooker for sauce.

Sunday I canned the peach sauce, made peach jam and pickled 10 lbs of cukes into dill pickles. Phew! But I get an enormous sense of satisfaction from my cupboard filled with jars full of summer goodness.

Peach Sauce

8 large peaches, washed, pitted and sliced

1/4 c water

Put the peaches and water in a slow cooker and cook on low until the peaches are soft enough to go through a food mill. Process the peaches until relatively smooth. Add 1 lemon's worth of juice to the peach sauce. Pack into sterilized jars, cap and process in a canning bath for 10 minutes.

Peach Chutney (from Canadian Living)

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 c chopped onions

1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes

1/4 tsp pepper

8 c sliced peaches

2-1/2 c granulated sugar

1 c golden raisins

1 c cider vinegar

In a large dutch oven, saute the onions in the oil and add the mustard seeds, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cloves, pepper flakes and pepper. Once the onions are softened, add the peaches, sugar, raisins and vinegar. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered for about 1 hours, until the mixture mounds on a spoon. Pour into sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/2" headspace and seal. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Peach Jam (adapted from Tea and Cookies)

5 lbs diced peaches
1 lb 3 1/2 oz sugar
juice of 2 1/2 lemons

Place the peaches, sugar and lemon juice in a dutch oven. Stir to a simmer over heat until a jam state is reached, skimming off any scum that forms on the service. Pour into sterilized jars and process in a canning bath for 10 minutes.

so exciting

2011-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy busy month around here at mummy dinosaur what with our boy starting Kindergarden and me becoming a school mum. The forms alone are a killer. (and I can hear all those experienced school mums snickering). In addition in a mad moment I volunteered to be team manager for our boy's soccer team - guess what - more forms. And uniform pick-ups and hand-outs, raffle tickets to organize and snack schedules to create, etc. All amidst a very busy time at work. And of course, when life is busy what do I do - give myself even more to do but that's for another post. So into my crazy September life came a little sunshine yesterday. This wonderful book. Weekend Handmade by Kelly Wilkinson.

If you don't know Kelly, well let me tell you about her. She has a wonderful blog over at makegrowgather.com and makes all manner of wonderful things - things to eat and drink, things to wear, things for kids to play with and things to decorate your house with. And she has put lots of those things and instructions on how to make them, in this book. In the interests of fairness, I should say that I am very lucky to be vaguely related by marriage to Kelly and her wonderful sisters. She is as amazing in person as she comes across in her book - so if you are at all feeling like you should craft something, pick up this book and start crafting. I'm just trying to decide what to make first. With the rain falling tonight and the gorgeous pictures I'm feeling lots of love towards the felted flower cowl in the make section.

starting kindergarden

2011-09-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

The days are getting shorter and the nights are growing cooler and the leaves on my beans are turning yellow. (Just when I was starting to get more than a couple of beans at a time as well).

Last week, our boy started Kindergarden. Mummies and Daddies got to stay on the first day. The children sang (Bonjour Mes Amis) and we heard the story of Pete the Cat ("I love my white shoes" is now stuck in my head). We all got to explore the classroom which is new this year and look at the new games and toys. Our boy made a beeline for the enormous floor construction equipment puzzle. And soon enough it was time for another song (Au Revoir Mes Amis) and time to go. The first day was only 30 minutes. Our boy is attending K in French Immersion and seems to be enjoying his class and new friends and playing on the playground. After a summer of adventures, the last 5 weeks at summer camp with beach picnics, learning to skateboard, trips to Science World, the Zoo, a local Museum, a Conservatory and lots of playing in water, it is time to settle into a new routine. And a new season of kid soccer starts this week and in a few more weeks, it will be time for swimming lessons again. This time our boy will move up to Ogopogos from Sharks. He's getting the hang of swimming (and kicking) which is great. He seems to be growing up in front of our eyes. He's already a head taller than he was at the beginning of the summer.

swing spinning at the park

But some struggles still remain. He still is fairly limited in what he will eat and what he will try and eat. He still fights bedtime with every fiber of his being, although once we get him there since Kindergarden started he does fall asleep much faster. And, as he has been around older children this summer, other issues have come to the fore. There has been some retreating on behaviours that we thought were done and gone. So our reserves of patience have been stretched thin (too thin sometimes) and we find ourselves feeling awful about things we've said or ways we've reacted. But our boy keeps on going - alternatively loving and charming ("I love you forever") or frustrated (I don't want to live here anymore) or cheeky (how about we make a deal?). He certainly keeps us on our toes. And to be fair - he's mostly a lovely, funny, smart boy but he does occasionally make me wonder "who is this child?". Maybe he wonders "who is this mummy?". And we make a deal - we want him to do his best everyday and we have to do our best as well, everyday. It's only fair.

summer on a stick

2011-08-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

Last summer, I made one batch of this - as I didn't have popsicle molds, despite searching everywhere for them - I froze the mixture in a pyrex dish and served it up as ice cream. My husband raved about it and I ended up freezing bags containing 1 lb bags of strawberries (the everlasting ones from the fruit stand). But I only made the ice cream once more during the fall and come spring, I turned most of the bags into this, my husband's other favorite dessert. But when big baskets of strawberries came back to the fruit stand, I searched again for the recipe and made some again. I think I was confused the first time I made it and added too much milk as the flavour and colour weren't the same as I remember even though the result was good. I made a double batch last week as I had gone crazy and bought piles of day old strawberries. This time I read the recipe properly and the colour and flavour were exactly as I remember from last year. Try them - either as popsicles or ice cream - Roasted Strawberry Popsicles or Ice Cream. With balsamic vinegar and vanilla - it is seriously good.

Roasted Strawberry Popsicles (Ice Cream) from Sarah via makegrowgather
1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 1/2 tsps balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c heavy cream
1/2 c milk

Toss the strawberries, with the sugar,

vanilla and balsamic vinegar and pour into a baking pan. Roast for 2 hours at 275 deg F. Let cool for 15 minutes or more. Pour all the berries and any juice into a food processor and blitz for 30 seconds before adding the milk and cream. Blitz until relatively smooth. Pour into popsicle molds or into a pyrex dish. Freeze until hard (at least 4 hours).

rocket ship shaped popsicles

cucumbers + dill = pickles (hopefully)

2011-08-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last year, at our fruit stand, I saw a woman buy a big box of cucumbers and huge bunches of dill. "Don't forget to make your pickles right away so the cucumbers stay crunchy" was the advice from the fruit stand guy. So this year, I thought I would try making pickles myself. So a couple of weeks ago, I asked the fruit stand guy to put my name down for a box of cucumbers and dill. And last week I got a message from him saying I would get my box on Monday. So I found a recipe, got out my jars and lids, bought vinegar and pickling salt and on Monday, the boy and I stopped and bought the box of cucumbers and dill. And I got the "make them right away so the cucumbers stay crunchy and wash them really well" advice.

So I washed and sorted cucumbers for about an hour - all 10 pounds of them.

I washed the jars and lids, boiled the water in the canning pot and made the brine. Then I stuffed the jars with dill,

mustard seed, black pepper corns and the cucumbers and topped them up with the brine solution. Into the canning bath for 20 minutes and now they are put away in the cupboard to "cure".

They look like pickles, so I'm hoping they taste like pickles.

Here's how I did it:

Dill Pickles (based on blue ribbon dill pickles from food.com)

9 wide mouth jar, with lids and seals
10 lbs cucumbers, washed and sorted by size
fresh dill, flowers and a few inches of stem
mustard seeds
pepper corns

17 c water
4 1/2 c white vinegar
1 c pickling salt

Wash the jars and keep hot, either in a canning bath or from the dishwasher. Place the lids and seals into a saucepan, cover with water and simmer. Shake the dill flowers and sprigs to remove any bugs. Fill the canning bath half full of water and set to boil on the stove.

Make the brine by adding the water, vinegar and salt to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat to low until ready.

When everything is ready, begin to fill the hot jars, one at a time. Place a few dill flowers in the bottom of each jar, add 5 peppercorns, a few mustard seeds and fill the jar with cucumbers, fitting the cucumbers in tightly up to the neck of the jars. Pour the brine in the jars, leaving 1/2" head space. Add a tiny sprig of dill to the top and cap with the lid and seal. Place the jars in the canning bath. Process for 15 minutes. Remove from the bath onto a clean towel and let cool, covered with another towel for 24 hours. Place in a dark, dry area for storage.

memories of maine

2011-08-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Lately it seems everyone has been talking about lobster (lobsta) rolls. I even came across an article in the paper about a food truck in Montreal that does them. And while we do have awesome shrimp and crab here on the west coast, we don't have lobster shacks a short drive away like say, the coast of Maine.

The best lobster I ever had wasn't from a lobster shack though - it was eaten on beaches, beside campfires, with corn and melted butter. With this coastal schooner anchored not far away.

But all this talk of lobster rolls is making me hungry for some lobster. I may have to go find some.

postcards from home

2011-08-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, on a solitary evening walk, I came across a gem of a view.

It’s close to our house, about 6 blocks, as the crow flies. A tiny signpost pointed the way through the woods or I never would have found it.

It’s a special place to our family because it’s where my husband’s siblings spent some of their childhood, in the days when there was a marina in the bay. I’ll take our boy there for a picnic soon so he’ll know it too.

summer days

2011-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

We spent some time in the woods and at the beach last week. Catching up with family and just getting away from our daily routines. The weather co-operated so we got in a lot of summer fun stuff - beach time

making sand castles, stick castles, rock castles

and sand crocodiles covered with seaweed,

looking at fossils and lungfish at a local museum, go carts, mini golf, ice cream, looking at old airplanes,

hiking around a swamp and a marsh,

riding a steam train and looking at old logging equipment and construction trucks

and having dinner with family. And two rides on a ferry.

I hope you are all having an awesome summer.

musings on a saturday

2011-07-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up early this morning, before the boy and enjoyed a quiet moment with a favorite book. And when the boy came in he cuddled up beside me, snuggling into my "fuzzy" as he calls it (chenielle dressing gown). We got to snuggle for a few quiet minutes in what my guys call a mummy sandwich (Daddy on one side and boy on the other). I got to marvel at how big he's getting and smell his hair (wierd mummy stuff) before I heard "mummy, when are you getting up"? So my quiet time was over.

But - it was sunny today. And warm. Like summer. Which is nice seeing as it's July.

I enjoyed the sunshine in the garden- looked at what's growing. I started to harvest some of my lavender flowers but the bees were out in force

so I left them to it after I picked enough for one bunch. I picked zucchini and radishes.

And found evidence of the phantom zucchini chewer.

And some ripening tomatoes.

The boy and I had a snack and a drink outside in the sun. And then I got to watch the boy try and master his new-to-him supersoaker water gun. And build his road - which after the supersoaker action caused an avalanche which I had to go inspect along with the worm that the backhoe bucket dug up.

And supper was zucchini fritters, braised radishes, roasted new potato wedges along with a baby kale and arugula salad.

I've got apricots preparing to be put into a galette tomorrow and a cake baking in the oven (this one with raspberries) so the house smells all jammy.

Once again the news reminds me of how lucky we are. My thoughts are with the people of Norway, especially those who've lost a loved one in the horrific acts of violence yesterday.

I got carried away

2011-07-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

It started with the chutney. I think. Actually it started with the green tomatoes that I froze last summer intending to make this pie again before my beloved’s stomach started acting up. So I put away thoughts of green tomatoes and sausage melded into a pie. But said tomatoes got tired of being put aside and for the past couple of weeks, would regularly fall out of the freezer onto my bare toes. Quite frankly, I was getting a tad annoyed about them. And then I read this. So Sunday morning found me stirring a vinegary batch of green tomato and apple chutney. It never did get to a jammy chutney consistency which I blame entirely on my reducing the recipe to fit the amount of green tomatoes I had and the various substitutions I did. I did the math in my head, which is always dangerous but never mind. Consistency issues aside, it is lovely. I’m planning to eat it with some sharp cheddar and farmhouse bread for lunch in the near future as my attempt at a plowman’s lunch.

But reading about chutney and Indian spices, made me look for a new daal recipe as a previous attempt had turned out soupy and somewhat flavourless. I found this recipe on Heidi’s site and decided to make it. I went and scavenged the last of my garden spinach and chard, used red lentils instead of ivory and curry powder in place of turmeric and away I went. I did heed one of the commenter’s advice which was to add much less water than the recipe indicated and it worked a treat.

It being a grey day, I was more motivated to stay in the kitchen than the garden, so thoughts turned to making a curry using this recipe as the jumping off point, subbing baby cauliflower and broccoli for the beef. At the market, I’d picked up some rapini so that went into the mix as well. Served over brown rice, it was delicious alongside the daal and the chutney. And of course, either the daal or the curry would have been sufficient for us for supper with leftovers aplenty. Ah well. It’s all enough for a week’s worth of lunches for my man which is a good thing.

Green Tomato and Apple Chutney (adapted from David Lebovitz)

10 ½ oz green tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks

1 apple, cored, and cut into chunks

1/3 c peeled and diced shallots

pinch of hot red new Mexican chili powder

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1/3 c apple cider vinegar

1/3 c dark brown sugar

1 tbsp black mustard seeds

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

zest of one lemon

Mix together all the ingredients in a large, non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low boil and cook, stirring frequently, for 45 minutes, until the mixture is thick and jam-like. Once finished, ladle the chutney into clean jars.

chutney cooking

Palak Daal (adapted from Heidi Swanson at 101Cookbooks)

1 c red lentils, picked over and rinsed

2 1/2 c water

1/2 pound spinach and chard, washed and finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 large pinch of hot red new Mexican chili powder

2 tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp pure red chile powder

more salt to taste

juice of 1/2 a lemon

In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the daal and water. Bring to a boil, then add the spinach, ginger, curry powder, chili powder, and all of the tomatoes. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the lentils are extremely soft. You may need to add a bit more water during the cooking process to keep the lentils soupy. After an hour and a half, stir in the salt.

In a separate pan, heat the butter and cumin and fry until the cumin seeds start to pop. Now add the red chile powder and fry for another 30 seconds. Add this butter mixture to the lentils and allow to cook for another five minutes. Add the lemon juice and taste, adding more salt if needed.

a steaming bowl of daal

Cauliflower and Broccoli Curry with Rapini (based on the Cooking Canuck)

1 tsp sunflower oil
1 gala apple, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 1/2 oz. jarred mild curry paste (I used Patak’s)

1 small cauliflower, cut into florets

1 small broccoli, cut into florets

1 bunch rapini, stemmed and chopped (the vegetables should be about 1 ½ lbs together)

1/2 c water

7 oz greek style plain yogurt with 3 oz water added

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp garam masala

2 tbsp water

4 small potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add apple, onion, and ginger to the saucepan. Sauté until the onions are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add curry paste and garlic. Lower the heat to low, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the cauliflower and broccoli and 1/2 cup water. Increase the heat to medium to medium-high and cook for about 10 minutes. Pour in the yogurt and water mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat to low.

In a small bowl, combine ground coriander, cumin, and garam masala, along with about 2 tablespoons water. Stir to make a paste. Add the paste and potatoes to the beef mixture. Stir, cover the pot, with the lid ajar, and simmer for approximately 2 hours. After about 30 minutes, add the rapini. Add more water as needed to keep the dish moist. Serve over rice.

vegetable curry with rice and chutney

a whole lot of green

2011-07-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Our summer weather, such as it was, has packed up and left. In its’ wake we have grey, cloudy skies and a lot of rain. I tell myself it is better than the sweltering heat that has enveloped most of the rest of North America and it is. And I don’t have to water my plants every day except for the tomatoes that are under cover so they don’t get blight because of all the rain. But our souls are longing for a bit of summer sunshine. And I would think my garden is too but there is much evidence to the contrary. The zucchini are growing – maybe not the zucchini bats I would have in sunshine but lots, enough so that every weekend supper featured zucchini in some form. The radishes have huge greens, the beans are leaping upwards, the potato vines are enormous and the tomatoes are ripening. And the chard and spinach were flowing boxes of green until they were ravaged by me over a couple of days to make a couple of suppers. One supper was chard (and some spinach) fritters. I found the recipe in Ottolenghi’s on-line column and thought they looked interesting. And I knew I had a bunch of chard from the market in the fridge and some growing in my garden.

It takes a lot of chard – 400g in total. So after picking and weighing a few times, I decided to throw some spinach in as well. More picking and weighing until I had a huge mountain of green on my counter.

But really, that was the hardest part of this recipe. And while they may not look very pretty, they are lovely to eat. I made a sauce for them using some greek-style yogurt, lemon juice, a squeeze of honey and some dill. Delicious.

Chard (and Spinach) Fritters (adapted from Ottolenghi’s recipe)

400g Swiss chard and spinach, leaves only
a big handful of oregano, basil and thyme from the garden, chopped

1½ tsp grated nutmeg

½ tsp sugar

3 tbsp flour

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 free-range eggs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

80g feta, broken into small pieces

60ml olive oil

Bring a pan of salted water to a boil, and simmer the chard for five minutes. Drain, squeeze dry, then whizz in a food processor with the herbs, nutmeg, sugar, flour, garlic, eggs, a third of a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Fold in the feta by hand.

Pour a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat and spoon in three heaped tablespoons of the mix, one per fritter. Press down gently to shape into fritters, and cook for three to four minutes, turning once, until they take on some colour. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and repeat with the remaining fritter mix and oil. Serve hot.

more strawberries

2011-07-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

Strawberry season is done for now. Sniff. I had some stragglers left the other day, which had been cast aside in favour of new raspberries and cherries. Still, I couldn't abandon the strawberries so I made this cake. I made a previous version using yogurt instead of milk as for some reason I was out of milk. That version was delicious but I'd slightly overbaked it. The second one is still being eaten by my man. Mmmmmpf he says through the crumbs.

Strawberry Summer Cake (adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen)

6 tbsp butter
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7/8 c plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch springform pan.
Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack.

strawberry pancakes for canada day

2011-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

July 1st is a holiday in these parts - to celebrate Canada Day. On a whim, I made a batch of pancakes from our family recipe, something we used to have about once a month as children and something my father was in charge of cooking. The recipe comes from a book - The Canadian Cookbook - and the family copy of the book has many calculations along side the recipe, multiplications or divisions of the original recipe to adjust the number of servings. When my brother took over the pancake duties from our Dad, he would add "surprises" - usually raisins to the batter. Now, he and his family regularly have pancakes and my English nephews love maple syrup. When we visit we pack our suitcases full of bottles of Canadian maple syrup for their pancakes. It's always eagerly anticipated and usually means pancakes soon after our arrival. My brother does say that English flour does not produce fluffy pancakes. Apparently for fluffy pancakes, Canadian flour is required.

Pancakes (from The Canadian Cookbook)

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
2 beaten eggs
3 tbsp melted butter
1-1 1/4 cups of milk

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Beat egg, add milk and butter. Combine to make a batter. Cook the pancakes.

I added sliced strawberries to the batter, once the pancakes were in the pan, cooking - as I had a flat of strawberries sitting on the counter. The inspiration came from here. And then it struck me that I had made strawberry pancakes for Canada Day. They are delicious served with warm maple syrup.

more felt fun

2011-07-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

A friend gave birth to a little girl about a month ago so I made a little felt sheep and yesterday, sat out in the sunshine to make a dress to complete the sheep (along with a tooth fairy pocket).

I found some pieces and made a patchwork kind of dress as I didn't have a full piece big enough to make the dress but I thought this was cuter than a single colour.

A few weeks ago, I got a blackberry for work and I noticed that the screen was getting a bit bashed around so thought about getting a case for it. Then I thought, why not make one from felt? So I did and I like it. And if I leave it behind, everyone will know it's mine.

market inspired Sunday supper

2011-07-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I pulled chicken out of the freezer for dinner. I was going to make Luisa's mustard chicken but I usually do it with chicken thighs and I'd pulled out a pack of chicken breasts. And in my prize basket, I found a small jar of Mexican spice rub and a jar of mango salsa so I thought I would make chicken tacos. I cut the chicken into strips, seasoned with salt, pepper and the spice rub. Then I marinated it for 45 minutes in plain yogurt and lime zest. To finish, I sauted it until cooked.

The tacos were made by adding grated sharp cheddar, chicken, mango salsa, spicy arugula (from the market) and a bit of sour cream to small flour tortillas. These were yummy served with roasted new nugget potatoes and braised radishes.

I bought a couple of bunches of radishes at the market, half remembering this recipe. It was so easy to make and deliciously different. This one is a keeper.

For dessert, I served strawberry mini pavlovas with local strawberries.

little savory cakes

2011-07-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve been trying to incorporate different grains into our eating lately and quinoa is one of them. The first recipe I tried with it turned out dry and not so tempting so I was a bit leary of trying more quinoa. But I kept reading lovely recipes on line. When I came across this blog post from Tara, with the mouthwatering pictures, I decided to give this recipe a go.

It worked, we liked it and it went into the file to make again. And following advice from Dana, I cooked extra quinoa the first time I made them, so last night, I just pulled a bag out of the freezer so one step was already done.

Quinoa cakes (from Tara at sevenspoons, from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day)

2 1/2 c cooked quinoa, at room temperature (I used red quinoa)

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp fine-grain sea salt

1/3 c finely chopped fresh chives

1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped

1/3 c g freshly grated Gruyère cheese

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 c whole grain bread crumbs, plus more if needed

1 tbsp olive oil

Combine the quinoa, eggs, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the chives, onion, cheese, and garlic. Add the bread crumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes sot that the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. At this point, you should have a mixture you can easily form into patties. I’ve used a cookie batter scoop and my quarter cup measuring cup to form patties and both worked and form about 12 patties.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat, add 6 patties, if they'll fit with some room between each, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms are deeply browned. Carefully flip the patties with a spatula and cook the second sides for 7 minutes, or until golden.

We had the patties over pea puree (inspired by this recipe) last night served alongside roasted asparagus and lemony hollandaise.

Leftover patties can be reheated and enjoyed as a lunch or snack.

they liked this one

2011-07-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Another month and another cooking competition at the market. The month's was best sweet loaf. Now one of my quirks is that because this is a market competition I try and use recipes that feature things from the market. I looked through lots of loaf recipes, and almost every other one was for some kind of lemon loaf. I figured there would be at least one lemon loaf competitor (I was right) and wanted something different. Initially I thought I would do one of our favorite loaves but pumpkin didn't really seem summery enough for July. In the end, inspiration came from my garden and the multitude of zucchini growing. So the other day I harvested the biggest three zucchini

and made this zucchini bread. The recipe is very similar to the pumpkin loaf. I made two loaves, one for the market and one for us. The one for us featured a big handful of chocolate chips stirred through it and is a big hit with the boy and the man.

Zucchini Bread (from Smitten Kitchen)

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

~ 1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease two loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips. Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

PS - I won. Pictured below is my prize basket which included local strawberries, mixed greens, peas, baby turnips, a jar of hot mango salsa, a jar of spice rub, a brown bag filled with cookies, a bottle of ginger beer and a neck pillow.

feet painting

2011-07-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

When we got home from running our errands today, I was looking forward to spending some time outside in the garden, hoping to read a bit. The boy announced he wanted to do some painting and appeared with his giant roll of art paper and started looking for his paints. We found paints and a brush and the paint water cup and as it was beautiful, warm and sunny outside, I suggested he paint outside. He wasn't sure about that idea but we set up outside. Then a bug walked across the paper and some dirt flew on the paper and he really wasn't too sure about the whole idea. He wanted to do a green skeltine (skeleton) but changed his mind. He ended up doing a feet painting. He painted the picture

and then ran across it and around the patio and back across the painting and so on and so on.

He did two big paintings before this got old. Before he was allowed back in the house, we had to wash his feet off

- which naturally involved the hose and the sprinkler head and the boy getting absolutely soaked. Then it was off to build heavy haulers out of Lego with Daddy. And I got to clean the paint off the patio (thank goodness for washable paint).

ricotta gnocchi with asparagus and peas

2011-06-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

If you can remember to drain your ricotta in advance, then this dish is quick and easy to prepare. And you can say that you make your own gnocchi, which is one of those things that impresses people. Or course, you could make your own ricotta to start with and be over-the-top impressive. Or other people (ie one’s husband) can brag about your cooking and you can remain modestly in your kitchen.

The inspiration for this dish came from a 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. On the cover they had a gorgeous picture of fettucine with asparagus and peas. I’d made it last year, following the recipe pretty closely and it was good. But I wanted a tweak and came up with the idea of using the sauce with ricotta gnocchi. And since I had a bunch of chives I put chives in the gnocchi. The original recipe for the ricotta gnocchi comes from eat, make, read from a couple of years ago.

Ricotta Gnocchi (based on a recipe from eat,make,read)
1 tub (15 oz/ 296 mL) ricotta cheese, drained for at least 20 minutes
1 egg
Handful of chopped chives
1 clove garlic, minced
Pepper
1-1 ¼ c flour

In a bowl, add the ricotta, egg and seasonings and mix well. Add the flour ¼ c at a time and blend well. Keep adding flour until a dough can be formed with the flour and all the flour is incorporated into the dough – I used 1 c. Form the dough into a ball and cut the ball into 4 equal (ish) quarters. Roll each quarter into a log about 1” in diameter and about 12” long. Cut the log into 12 equal (ish) pieces. Press the tines of a fork over the top of each piece to make the “gnocchi” marks for the sauce to stick in.

Boil a pot of salted water and drop the gnocchi in. Cook until the gnocchi float to the surface of the water and drain well.

Asparagus and Pea Sauce (based on a recipe from Bon Appetit)

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed

1 c frozen peas

1 shallot, minced

4 rashers of bacon, sliced (optional)

4 garlic scapes, roasted and cut into 1” pieces OR 1 garlic clove minced

handful sliced mushrooms

1/3 c cream

½ c grated parmesan cheese

Roast the asparagus in a hot oven (400 deg F) for about 5 minutes or until slightly browned. Meanwhile sauté the shallot in a bit of olive oil or with the bacon slices if using. Add the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are cooked and browning a bit, add the peas. Once the asparagus is roasted, cut into 2” pieces and add to the pan. Add the cream and cheese to finish.

Add the drained gnocchi, toss gently to coat and serve.

We've eaten this a couple of times in as many weeks - it's a great recipe (see draining ricotta) for a weekday supper out of the ordinary.

it worked!

2011-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited. After reading Deb's account of making ricotta cheese, I was inspired by a commenter to make goat cheese.

I picked up some goat's milk, whipped out a saucepan and my candy thermometer (ok - so I had to dig through the miscellaneous kitchen drawer for a bit to find it) and squeezed a lemon and voila - a mild, goat cream cheese! Oh yeah - add in a colander, a bowl, cheese cloth and a wooden spoon as well. I have to say, I'm slightly chuffed with myself and a bit amazed.

Goat Cheese (from Serious Eats)

1 litre goat's milk

1/4 c lemon juice

Heat the milk to 180 deg F over medium heat. This should take about 15 minutes. Once it gets to temperature, take it off the heat and add the lemon juice. The mixture should form small chunks. If it doesn't, add a few more drops of lemon juice. Ladle the mixture into a colander, lined with 3-4 sheets of cheesecloth.

Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and let drip over a deep bowl for 1-2 hours.

Transfer the cheese into a small container, mix in herbs and salt to taste.

it smelled like christmas

2011-06-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

I made this dessert last week. A mini rhubarb compote pavlova. Meringue nest + rhubarb compote + vanilla whipped cream. My man thought this had ginger in it. It had a lovely, spicy, christmassy smell.

After a couple of attempts at roasting the rhubarb, I ended up using a recipe from the back of the most recent edition of Edible Vancouver. Much of this was inspired by Molly at remedial eating, Tara at seven spoons and Nigella (Lawson). My man thought it was delicious and spooned it up every night I served it - until I ran out of meringues.

Merigue nests (from remedial eating)

3 egg whites

3/4 c sugar

In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites to a soft peak stage. Slowly beat in the sugar until incorporated and keep beating until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. Spoon tablespoon fulls of the mixture onto parchment paper, using the spoon to form a circle with higher sides and a depression in the center - a meringue nest. Bake for about an hour to an hour and a half at 250 deg F. Turn off the oven and leave overnight to dry out.

Keep in an airtight container.

Rhubarb Compote (from Edible Vancouver - Choices ad)

6 c rhubarb, roughly chopped

3/4 c honey

1 strip lemon zest

1 whole vanilla bean

1/4 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg

water to cover

Put all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan, then pour in enough water to cover. Cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes.

Vanilla Whipped Cream - whip cream, vanilla and a smidge of sugar into soft peaks.

For each nest, place one merigue nest in a bowl. Cover the nest with rhubarb compote and top with a generous dollop of vanilla whipped cream. Eat. Make more. Eat more. (If you are me, take out pants as hips will have expanded...sigh).

from sad to delicious

2011-06-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

While rummaging through the fridge the other day, I came across a bag of wilted arugula I'd bought at the market. Fortunately I'd read Melissa Clark's suggestion on how to revive wilted greens. So I dunked the arugula in cold water and left it in the fridge overnight and yesterday it had bounced back. I made arugula pesto mixture with it and layered it onto sauted portobello mushrooms, added some goat cheese, added some thin buns spread with a thin coat of mayonaise and mustard and voila, Saturday night mushroom burgers.

Arugula pesto (inspired by a recipe from the Rebar Modern Cookbook)

1 c arugula leaves
1/4 c pine nuts
1/4 c parmeggiano regiano cheese, crumbled
1 garlic clove
pinch of kosher salt

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until a paste is formed.

Arugula Portobello Mushroom Burgers

Spread the arugula mix over grilled or sauted whole portobello mushrooms. Add a layer of goat cheese over the top and cook until the cheese is slightly softened. Lay the mushrooms between heated sliced bun halves, lightly spread with mayonaise and dijon mustard.

not everyone's favorite

2011-06-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

The market is back! Our local market is back and the boy and I have been visiting with our favorite vendors weekly. This past weekend, the sun shone and more people came out to support the people growing gorgeous things for us to grow and eat. And for this month's cooking competition I submit our new favorite cake - a rhubarb coffee cake. It came in a distant second of the two entries. But those who liked it, really liked it. And we really like it.

It comes from Bonnie Stern via the National Post. I've made it several times since the recipe appeared in the Weekend Post section in the Saturday Post.

Rhubarb Coffe Cake (adapted from Bonnie Sterns' recipe from here)
2½ c flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1⁄4 tsp kosher salt

¾ c butter

1 c packed brown sugar

2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c sour cream
2 c diced fresh rhubarb

Filling and topping:
¾ c packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp butter, melted

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, with a mixer, beat the butter with the sugar until blended and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. Stir in about 1⁄3 of the flour mixture, add ½ of the sour cream, another third of the flour, the remaining sour cream and then the remaining flour. Stir only until combined. Fold in the rhubarb.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon and melted butter until mixed. Spread half of the cake batter into the bottom of a 9 or 10 inch greased springform pan. Sprinkle about half of the topping/filling mixture evenly over the batter. Spread the remaining batter over the top and sprinkle all the remaining topping mixture evenly over the top.

Bake in a preheated 350 deg F oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the centre.

little things

2011-06-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Little things make you happy. Like a new book from a favorite author, or even better, two new books from favorite authors. And while I'm there, my apologies to the woman at the Starbucks the weekend before last who must have thought I was extremely rude as I unabashedly listened in on her conversation with a friend about this book, because I didn't know there was a new Susanna Kearsley out. I bought my copy the next day. And while I was in the bookstore, I found this book, by another favorite, Jennifer Weiner. So I had a lovely week of reading.

And one night we had a very green dinner. I've talked about spinach gunge, and I had a huge bag of pea greens in my vegetable drawer waiting to be made into supper so I made a gunge out of them, without the cheese and smeared it on portobello mushrooms that had been brushed with olive oil and roasted for 15 minutes.

I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top of the gunge mushrooms

and baked for about 10 more minutes until everything was hot and the cheese was melted. Served alongside a big salad of market spicy greens and arugula, it made for a very healthy and tasty supper.

Pea Greens Gunge (adapted from Bon Appetit, Fergus Henderson)

1 knob of butter
salt
1 1lb bag of pea greens
1 tsp mustard
1/4 c cream

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once melted, add the greens and heat until wilted. Add the mustard and cream and puree until smooth in a food processor. Add salt to taste.

building sites

2011-05-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

Great excitement in our house this week, at least for the smallest member. A backhoe moved into the empty lot across the street and was digging a huge hole and loading dump trucks with dirt. All very exciting for our boy. He's been inspired to build his own Lego creations - a very large container ship with dock and loading truck, then that was taken apart and a locomotive was created, then a garbage truck, then a wind turbine transporter ship and finally a cruise ship (complete with passenger doors, cargo doors and an icebreaker snow plow). In between we have train crashes on the wooden railway or the battery CAT train set.

the backhoe

building the lego container ship

The weather finally warmed up enough for us to brave the outdoors wearing summery type clothes - shorts and capris, albeit with sweatshirts over top and I finally have more plants in the garden - some containers of flowers as well as summer squash and herbs. It still needs to be a bit warmer for the tomatoes, beans and basil. The boy was helping me load soil into the containers, digging holes for the plants with his excavator and then watering everything with the help of his elephant watering can. But then he had to experiment making brown water (regular water with dirt added) and running his battery train set outside. But it was lovely to be outside.

And in honour of summer type weather, I changed up our Sunday supper. Served potato salad instead of oven roasted potatoes. And I made mayonaise myself to go in the potato salad. Yum.

Mayonaise (from Luisa at Wednesday Chef)
1 egg yolk
salt
1 garlic clove, minced
anchovy paste equivalent to 1 anchovy
1/4 lemon
1/3 cup sunflower oil
2 tbsp olive oil

Put the egg yolk into a wide mouth jar and whiz with an immersion blender for about 30 seconds. Add the salt, garlic, anchovy paste and juice of 1/4 lemon and whiz briefly. While whizzing slowly add the oil in a steady stream until the mixture is creamy and emulsified. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Potato Salad (adapted from the Tomato Fresh Cafe cookbook)
6 red potatoes, scrubbed and diced in large dice
salt
1/4 red onion, diced finely
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 large spoonful sour cream
2 large spoonfuls mayonaise
1 tbsp dill weed
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes in salted water until al dente. Drain and cool.

Meanwhile add the minced onion, mustard, sour cream, mayonaise and dill to a large bowl and mix together. Add the cooled potatoes and toss until coated. Taste and season with salt and pepper as required.

two ways to be green

2011-05-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Or rather to eat greens. Spinach greens that is. The first way to eat more spinach came from Heidi at 101Cookbooks, a lovely quick sauté of chopped spinach with spices and toasted coconut that I served with oven fries and poached eggs for a quick Saturday supper. (Never mind that we had Rhubarb Crumb Cake for dessert).

Spiced Spinach with Coconut (adapted from Heidi at 101Cookbooks)

170 g washed spinach, roughly chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
¼ tsp mustard seeds (I used black as it was what I had)
¼ tsp whole cumin seeds
Pinch of ground red chilis
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 ½ tbsp unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted

Mix the shallot, garlic and salt together and mash into a paste. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the seeds and let them toast. Add the chili powder, stir in the shallot/garlic paste and all the spinach. Keep stirring until the spinach softens a bit, about a minute. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the coconut and serve.

The second way appealed to me because of it’s name, Spinach Gunge, from this month’s Bon Appetit magazine. How can you resist something called gunge? My version was a bit cheesy as I added to much cheese for the amount of spinach I had, oops. That will teach me to do math in my head while cooking. It was still a lovely accompaniment for baked chicken and potato salad.

Spinach Gunge (from Fergus Henderson via Bon Appetit)
2 lbs spinach, washed
¼ c butter
¼ c cream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 ½ c parmesan cheese, grated
Kosher salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the spinach and wilt down. Pour in the cream, mustard and cheese and process the mixture with an immersion blender (or in a food processor or blender) until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (There's no picture of this one as I served it for a supper with other people and it was all eaten before I could snap a picture).

recipe serendipity, sort of

2011-05-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I read this post on Sprouted Kitchen. Sara had posted a recipe from Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbook’s latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day and it called for broccoli, avocado and orzo, all things I had on hand. It also called for pine nuts so instead of subbing in the almonds or hazelnuts that I had on hand, I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up pine nuts, along with a few other things and ended up with the very expensive but tasty pine nuts. I didn’t serve this as a salad as the recipe indicates, as my Skinny Man is not a big fan of pasta salad, but served it hot. It was very good. Worth the price of expensive pine nuts!

Broccoli Pesto Orzo
(Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson via Sprouted Kitchen)

1 c orzo
5 c broccoli, cut into small florets
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 cup pinenuts, toasted
1/3 c grated parmesan cheese
juice of one lemon
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c sour cream (as I didn’t have crème fraiche)
zest of one lemon
1 avocado, sliced

Cook the orzo in salted water according to the package instructions. In a separate pot, cook the broccoli for a couple of minutes until al dente. Drain the broccoli. Combine 2 cups of the cooked broccoli, garlic, most of the nuts, parmesan, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp. of the lemon juice and pulse in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and sour cream and pulse until smooth. Toss the orzo, remaining broccoli, pesto and lemon zest and season with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the avocado and top with the rest of the pine nuts and a bit more grated parmesan.

rain, rain go away

2011-05-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

It was raining again on Wednesday. And it just seemed as though every last person around was just sick of it. Maybe because the forecast for the week was supposed to (finally) be sunny and warm. Not so much. It is cold and wet and we want sunshine.

When I picked up the boy from daycare, the kids were all singing, “Rain, rain go away – come again – NEVER!” And both the boy and I were grumpy.

I was reading Ottolenghi's column and he had recipes for quick cooking polenta. While his recipes had a decidedly spring like bent, it reminded me of my oven baked polenta recipe. So I made polenta with sausage and vegetables. More of a wintery food but it seemed to be called for on a wet, chilly, grumpy Wednesday night. And I made lots so there would be filling leftovers for lunches.

Polenta (adapted from Alton Brown)
2 shallots, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
6 c vegetable broth
1 12/ c corn meal
¼ c parmesan cheese, grated

Heat the olive oil in an oven proof sauté pan. Add the shallots and heat until tender and slightly brown. Add the broth. Add the corn meal to the broth, whisking while adding. Let the mixture come to a boil. Put a lid on the pan and place in a 350 deg F oven. Bake for 40 minutes, whisking the mixture a couple of times in the baking process. Remove from the oven and mix in the cheese. Serve.

Sausage and Vegetable Cheese Sauce ( a mummydinosaur staple)
1 small onion, sliced
½ lb mild Italian sausage meat
1 orange pepper, thinly sliced
1 c of sliced mushrooms
1 c frozen peas
1 c frozen corn
2 ½ tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
420 mL milk or stock (or mixture)
½ c grated cheddar cheese
Salt, pepper, cayenne, worchestershire sauce

In a sauté pan, heat the sausage meat and onions until the sausage is a bit browned. Add the peppers and mushrooms and continue to cook until soft. Add the peas and corn. In a separate pan, add the butter, flour and milk/stock and heat over medium high heat, whisking until all the ingredients are incorporated. Heat to boiling and then turn the heat down to simmer for 5 minutes. Add the seasonings to taste. Add the cheese and stir well to melt it into the sauce. Pour the sauce over the sausage and vegetable mix and stir well to incorporate all the ingredients.

To serve with the polenta, plop a couple of big serving spoonfuls of polenta in the bottom of a bowl and pour a similar amount of the sausage and vegetable sauce over the top. Serve hot with extra cheese if desired.

games we play

2011-05-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

I’ve mentioned before about our boy’s eating preferences. They are limited to say the least. We’ve been trying all kinds of things but still his preferred foods list is small and getting smaller. He announced a few weeks ago that he doesn’t like cheese anymore. Sigh. One of my big frustrations has been that he won’t even try new things. Or even things that he used to like and eat, for example green beans or corn. But a couple of months ago we came up with the Edward chart. As in Edward the Tank Engine, a friend of Thomas the Tank Engine. Our boy wants more train locomotives and carriages and freight cars and the wait for Christmas and his birthday is very long so we made a deal for him to work for Edward. Originally the deal was that he try 6 new foods for 6 weeks to get Edward. It seemed too much pressure on the boy to keep to the schedule without failing so we backed off a bit and made it try 36 new tastes to get Edward. Some days are good and we manage to tick more than one box. Other times a box doesn’t get ticked for days. But the end is in sight – three more new tastes and Edward is his. We haven’t made a lot of headway in expanding his preferred foods list but at least now he will take nibbles of more vegetables and some meat. He is resolute in his dislike of rice and pasta. He likes to take miniscule bites of things that barely touch his tongue and call it a bite. So we told him he has to take big mouse bites of things at least, or preferably a rat bite or even better, a bunny bite. Which has evolved over the weeks so now, almost every dinnertime, he will thrust a piece of his dinner at my husband and say “what animal bite?” So he’s learning all about animals, birds and fish and how big they are and what they eat and he’s eating his dinner. All good.

I’m not quite sure how the second game started but in order to try his new taste to get Edward points, our boy also wants his Dad to “talk like an Irishman”. So whenever a new food gets eaten, my husband talks like an Irishman for a minute. This is so funny to our boy he almost falls off his chair laughing. “Do it again, Daddy!” While I have to say that my man’s Irish brogue is far better than mine, the vocabulary is a bit limited and somewhat repetitious, not that a small boy notices.

A hopeful sign maybe, the other night our boy got a hold of my camera and shot a picture of his plate. I would say he's been watching me take pictures of dinners since starting this blog and copied me.

So here is a shot of his almost empty plate, proof that he does, sometimes, eat his dinner.

happy mother's day!

2011-05-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

It feels funny, still, being on the other side of Mother's Day, so to speak. For years, I was the one making the cards and cooking the breakfast in bed. My mum felt uncomfortable with the day, it must be said. She didn't really like the whole commercial aspect of the day and the cohersion of gift giving so to speak. She treasured all the kleenex flower cards and the handwritten menus for breakfast in bed ( they are still in a box in my dad's house). One menu reads "all bran with strawberries and milk, coffee and orange juice" so our cooking skills weren't really tested! But when we had outgrown all that, she didn't want gifts or cards unless they were handmade. After she died, I missed her on mother's day, tut tutting about its commercialism. She would so hate it now.

But now I am the recipient of gifts made for mom at preschool. This year's offering is a magnet and a card, which were already given to me on Friday because preschooler's can't wait to give presents. So here are my presents, on display on the fridge.

Please note the hearts on both the magnet (his cutout handprint) and the card, as well as the glitter, both of which my boy added just for me. I love it.

spring?

2011-05-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

It has been spring for a month and a half now, at least according to the calendar. But it has been cold and wet and unspringlike since the calendar announced it's arrival. There have been a few lovely days of sunshine. And I've planted my cold weather crops - the radish, chard, spinach and potatoes are peeking their way out of the ground. It is still too cold for tomatoes, zucchini and basil still. I bought basil a few weeks ago and it has already died. Sigh. To make it feel more springlike inside, we've had lots of field daffodils.

The flowers don't seem to mind the rain.

star magnolia in bloom

They are still showing their lovely colours

tulips in the back garden

tulips by the door

camelia

and the rain is sending cherry blossom snow across our backyard today. Everywhere the trees and shrubs are putting on their greenery and in a few months we will miss this green, when everything is parched in the summer sun (hopefully!).

Spring inspired supper a few nights ago. I pulled out some olive and feta ravioli and made a quick sauce using shallots, peas, roasted asparagus, parmesan, pasta water and a dash of cream.

And for dessert, I made a roasted rhubard and strawberry almond crumble. First I took an idea from here, roasting the rhubard with sugar and vanilla for an hour, before adding the strawberries and almonds

and then topping with a mix of brown sugar, flour, baking powder, butter and sliced almonds and baking for 30 minutes until brown and bubbly.

yellow sauce

2011-04-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, after a busy day of work and then a swimming lesson for the boy, I drove home half thinking I would swing by a local restaurant for supper for the two of us but even that sounded tiring. And I didn’t really feel up to anything more than breakfast for supper. This got me thinking about eggs Benedict. (It’s my go to thing to order on the rare occasions when we go out for breakfast).

So I thought I would make some at home. Now I have something to admit here. I only recently learned how to poach eggs. Or rather, only recently started poaching eggs. I mean it isn’t like it is rocket science – egg, boiling water, etc. And I had in my kitchen a couple of egg poachers things which were giveaways on something. So after seeing image after image of delicious things with poached eggs perched on top of them, I decided to start poaching my own. And in the month or so since I’ve been poaching eggs, I’ve eaten a lot of them. Poached eggs on toast has replaced my egg salad on lazy supper nights.

So I made poached eggs. And hollandaise sauce. The hollandaise sauce is a cut down version of one I found in a brunch cookbook I’ve had for years. And it’s probably been years since I made hollandaise. My mum made it regularly, whipping it up effortlessly in the blender so unlike some things (ie pastry and poached eggs) I wasn’t trepidacious in trying it. And it was delicious. And yellower than I remembered. A function of the eggs I use now, free range ones that have a dark yellow, almost orange, yolk compared to the battery eggs we used to use. This version is tangy and lemony and lovely. It made lovely eggs Benedict and was delicious warmed up the next night and poured over roasted asparagus.

Blender Hollandaise

3 large egg yolks
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ c melted butter

In a blender, whiz the egg yolks, mustard and lemon juice for a minute. Meanwhile, melt the butter. Drizzle the butter in a continuous slow stream into the blender while blending until the butter is all incorporated.

Season with salt and pepper and more lemon juice if needed. The sauce will keep, covered, in the fridge for a day or two. Reheat it gently over a water bath to keep it from separating.

baked endive

2011-04-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

I've not eaten a lot of endive in my life. But this recipe may change that. We've had this 3 times since Luisa posted the recipe. You can change up the type of ham, how many endive to cook, or the cheese for the top and it is delicious.

baked endive with cheddar cheese

Baked Endive with Ham (from Luisa at the Wednesday Chef)

4 endive, halved vertically

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 1/2 c milk

4 slices of ham, halved (black forest for example) or 8 smaller slices of ham (serrano for example)

2 oz of grated cheese (gruyere or cheddar)

Remove the tough outer leaves on the endive, half vertically and cut out the core. Place cut side down in a large saute pan. Once all the endive are prepared, pour the lemon juice over the endive. Season with salt and pepper and cover with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 15-20 minutes until the endive are tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, make the bechamel sauce by combining the butter, flour and milk in a saucepan over medium high heat. Whisk well until combined and heat for 5 minutes, until thick and bubbly. Season with salt and pepper and a touch of nutmeg if desired.

Wrap each endive with a piece of ham, and place into a greased baking dish large enough to hold all the endive in a single layer. Cover the endive with the sauce and sprinkle the grated cheese over the top.

Bake at 400 deg F for 15-20 minutes until slightly brown and bubbly.

baked endive with gruyere cheese

mmmm- cake

2011-04-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

I knew I had to make this cake as soon as I read Dana's description of it here - especially the part about having a bit of batter to go with your apples. I love apple desserts. Maybe because I'm a winter baby.

The hardest part of the cake is peeling and coring and dicing the apples. Seriously. And if you are lucky like me and have a stand mixer, the only workout you'll get is folding the apples into the batter.

If you love easy and delicious, make this. Really.

Apple Spice Cake (adapted, barely from Dana Treat, from Flour)

1 3/4 c flour

1½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1½ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened
2 eggs
4 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples (I used 5 Gala apples)
½ cup raisins

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 10-inch round springform pan.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Add the sugar and butter to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed for about 1 minute using a paddle attachment. Stop the mixer several times to scrape the paddle and the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the butter is mixed in. Add the eggs and mix on low speed for 10 to 15 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Then turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for about 1 minute, or until the batter is light and fluffy.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the apples, and raisins. The batter will be very stiff and thick. Scrape all of the batter into the prepared pan, and spread it evenly to fill the pan.

Bake for about 1 hour, or until the cake feels firm when you press it in the middle and the top is dark golden brown.

Dust the top with sifted confectioner's sugar.

The cake keeps well for a few days tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated.

chocolate meringue cookies

2011-04-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of egg whites left over the other day, from making a batch of almond cookies

and some leftover chocolate frosting (apparently I don't use as much frosting on things as I should?). So I did what most people would do - made chocolate meringue cookies. I googled chocolate meringue cookies but the recipes all seemed super complicated (or maybe it was just me). In the end I went back to basics - Delia Smith's meringue recipe with some added cocoa powder.

2 large egg whites

4 oz (110 g) white sugar

2 tbsp sifted cocoa powder

Using a mixer and a very clean bowl, beat the egg whites on low until foamy, then speed up the mixing until the peaks are stiff. Slowly add the sugar while beating until the peaks are stiff and glossy. Then add the cocoa powder and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy again. (You may want to slowly incorporate the cocoa powder into the mixture otherwise you may end up with a cocoa cloud in your kitchen - just saying!).

Drop the mixture by teaspoon onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 deg F.

After 10 minutes turn the oven off and leave the merigues to dry out for at least an hour and a half or overnight.

Match the cookies up by size and frost the underside of one cookie and attach the underside of a similar size cookie to from a biggish kiss cookie.

Eat. Thank me for suggesting this.

PS. The Easter bunny ate the cookies we left after supper.

accidents happen

2011-04-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

This particular phrase has a soundtrack in my head. It's a song on one of the Thomas the Tank Engine DVD's and features the trains in a variety of "oops" situations. It seemed apt to describe this situation in my kitchen the other morning.

Our boy decided to change up the location of his train crashes and had me video him driving the trains over the "broken" track into the sink. So for posterity, now we have 4 videos of trains crashing into the sink. I had a couple of stipulations - no water and no turning on the garbage disposal.

I was facing down this accident.

Last week, when making my bread, I couldn't find my regular bread tin and used another one instead. Even though I greased it well, the bread still tore apart when it came out of the pan. So while I was able to use half the loaf for toast and sandwiches, the other half didn't seem to want to meld itself back together. I thought of using it for breadcrumbs but my breadcrumb stash is still quite high. So I decided to make bread pudding, a savory version for supper.

Savory Bread Pudding

~ 6 slices of bread, cubed

4 eggs

2 1/2 c milk

salt, pepper, oregano and thyme

2 c grated cheddar cheese

~ 6 large button mushrooms

1 bunch chard, slices into ribbons

1 red pepper sliced

1 tbsp butter

Beat together the eggs and milk and pour over the bread cubes in a bowl. Let sit for about an hour. Meanwhile, saute the mushrooms, pepper and chard in the butter until the vegetables are slightly soft.

Pour the bread cube mixture into a greased 9x13 baking dish, spread the vegetables over the top, somewhat evenly and scatter all the cheese over the top. Bake at 350 deg F for about an hour or until the egg sets and the top is golden brown.

You can use any cheese or any vegetables you have lying around for this.

muffins for preschool

2011-04-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

When our boy is eating them, I make muffins for his snack at preschool. And my husband loves them as well, so if I bake them right before I leave for Pilates, chances are the dozen I baked will be significantly reduced by the time I get home. A friend asked for the recipe last week and doesn’t have a kitchen scale so when I made them the other night I weighed the ingredients into the measuring cup before putting them into the bowl.

Apple Banana Muffins (based on Nigella’s recipe from Nigella Express)
½ c plus 1 tsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 c applesauce, unsweetened (or pear sauce)
1 banana
1 ¾ c flour (250 g)
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar (80 g)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ c chocolate chips – optional (80g)

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. Mix the oil and eggs together and set aside. Mash the banana in a small bowl and mix in the applesauce. In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix. Add the oil/egg mixture and the fruit and stir until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips, if using. Spoon the batter into 12 regular sized greased (or lined with muffin papers) muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes until the tops spring back when pressed.

There are numerous variations for this recipe. The original recipe calls for 3 bananas instead of the 1c applesauce and 1 banana. Any pureed fruit can substitute for the applesauce but if it is sweetened you may want to cut back on the sugar a bit. I have used 1 c of pumpkin (or roasted squash or grated zucchini) for the applesauce and ½ c of applesauce for the fruit and added in ½ tsp of cinnamon and ¼ tsp of nutmeg and used raisins instead of chocolate chips. And toffee or white chocolate chips can be used instead of chocolate chips.

product testing

2011-04-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

Last week I got to do something a bit out of my comfort zone. It all started on Tuesday when I got an email from my beloved saying that the breakfast TV show was looking for women to test skin cream for a couple of days and then appear on the show and talk about the product. They were looking for someone from each decade from 20’s to 50’s and were having trouble finding a 40’s and a 50’s someone. So I volunteered. Testing the face cream was the easy part. Appearing on TV was something I have never done.

I was quite nervous driving to the studio. I arrived earlier than scheduled and was let into the building by the security guard and shown to the green room. Immediately the make up woman popped in and asked me to sit in her chair where she proceeded to make me feel at ease and pampered by doing my makeup. And then she sat me in the hair chair and calmed my hair down. The producer came by and told me how the segment would go and what questions I would be asked. The sound guy came by and hooked me up with a mike pack and then I was taken into the studio. The rest of the testers were various producers, directors and on-air people from the station and they were all really nice. Our segment got pushed back until after the news so we stood around and waited. The camera people chatted to us and set up the testing products so they looked good on camera. And then it was time for our segment. There was a skin care expert off site talking about how best to treat skin for each decade but we couldn’t hear her and then each of us was asked in turn about the product we tested. Soon enough it was my turn to speak, so I looked at the on-air host as she asked me questions and I tried to answer and be me.

My review was “The product is nice. The cream is thick so a bit goes a long way. It smells a bit mediciny so it may be a bit off putting at night. The cream has a shimmer to it, so it makes you appear dewy and radiant. I like it and I’ll keep on using it but at $155 for the jar, I don’t think I’ll buy it myself”. And then it was over. The producer told me I did a good job and I was free to go. I kept the make up on as it made me feel special and pampered and I went on with my day.

My husband got our boy up in time to watch the segment on TV and our boy found it funny that mummy was “in” the TV. Then he got worried about whether I could get out of the TV and pick him up in the afternoon. After being reassured that yes, I would pick him up as usual he went on with his day as well. My husband reported that I was very “me” on my bit. Later in the day, I went online and found the clip on the TV show website so I could see for myself. Note to self, wear coloured lipstick or gloss next time.

So that was my TV adventure. And my oh so brief career as a product tester! I’m still using the cream and am waiting for all my lines to disappear but so far it hasn’t happened. I’m still hopeful though.

Ottolenghi’s stuffed peppers

2011-04-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

There are lots of recipes that catch my eye. I have a whole file folder full of printed out or cut out recipes that I’ve never made. Periodically I pull out the file and take out those I think I will never make and reviewing others makes me think – hmmm I wonder why I never made this. I printed this recipe in February and I found it a last week tucked into one of my recipe books and it intrigued me. An unusual mix of vegetables but it all sounded delicious. So I picked up a rutabaga (I still call it turnip in my head), peppers and gruyere cheese and away I went. Reading the instructions (for once) I realized that it would probably take a bit longer than my usual dinner prep time so I made it over two nights. The first night, I prepped and prebaked the peppers (I used medium sized ones so I baked them for 10 minutes at 400 deg F)

and cooked the swede (rutabaga) as directed. As that process took longer than written (50 minutes), I think my diced pieces were bigger than directed. My excuse is that I’ve never been all that good at math. The second night, I toasted the bread, diced the cheese, made the stuffing mixture and stuffed and cooked the peppers. I was fairly convinced at this point that the effort was not going to be worth it. But these peppers are definitely worth the effort and are even worthy of guests or a party. And while I read the instructions and the ingredient list, I didn’t actually read the amounts or at least the amount of butter didn’t sink in until I was making the dish – it is a lot of butter. And most of it is left in the pan at the end of cooking the swede (rutabaga). So I’ll be using it in my curried lentil dish next week. I think next time I’ll try slow roasting the rutabaga in the oven first rather than braising it in the butter just to see if it makes a difference in the flavour.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s stuffed peppers (adapted from Ottolenghi from the Guardian.co.uk)

2 medium orange peppers

2 medium yellow peppers
1 swede (rutabaga) ~ 600g, peeled, diced into ½” pieces
1 ½ sticks of butter ( ~150g )
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
200g oatmeal bread, diced into ½” pieces, toasted

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tsp capers
250g gruyère, cut into 1cm cubes

Cut the peppers in half lengthways, leaving the stalks on. Remove the seeds and white membrane, and place cut-side down on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Heat the oven to 425F. Bake the peppers for 10 minutes.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the rutabaga, thyme and some salt and pepper. Cook over very gentle heat, regularly spooning butter over the rutabaga so it cooks evenly, for about 30 minutes or so, until soft.

Once the rutabaga is cooked, remove from the pan, leaving behind any excess butter. Mix the rutabaga with the toasted breadcrumbs, garlic, capers and cheese, season with a little salt and pepper,

and stuff inside the peppers, piling it up well.

Roast for 10 minutes, until the peppers are charred at the edges, then turn down the oven to 350F, cover loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes more. The peppers need to be soft.

And if you have any left over, they make a delicious lunch the next day.

weekend baking

2011-04-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

When Sunday night rolled around this week, I didn’t feel like I’d done all my baking. Mainly because I hadn’t made my usual loaf of bread and that means I’ll have to make one sometime this week before we run out. But in all fairness, I did bake some. I made a dozen pear banana muffins on Saturday morning before I left for my Pilates class. By the time I got home after class, running errands and grocery shopping, only a few were left. Late in the afternoon, my guys went on a hike up the mountain so I made this apple cake for when they got home. They got back faster than I anticipated so it was still in the oven when they arrived home but it was lovely for dessert after turkey chili. On Sunday, after we did our gardening, I came inside and made strawberry almond crumble, in addition to the potato, leek and ham gratin that was supper, so we have a few treats to get us through the week.

Last weekend, on Saturday morning I made a loaf of bread, a dozen apple banana muffins and strawberry almond crumble. Maybe because I made it all at once it seemed like more.

While I was baking and cooking, I had to keep checking on the derailments occurring on our boy’s railway line. It seems that cars and trucks keep stalling on the crossings with disastrous results. And the results aren’t really disastrous until checked out by mummy. The soundtrack to the derailments has been either the boy’s version of “American Woman” – which in 5 year old language is “American wonton” (as in soup) or a somewhat garbled rendition of “my heart will go on” (from Titanic). Apparently they are learning “my heart will go on” in preschool music class.

Has anyone else seen this book, Knit your own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble? I think I should knit my man these for Christmas…he’d especially love the corgi.

digging at last

2011-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

The rain has started again. As it grows dark here, the raindrops are plinking against the window and I'm grateful, that although the raindrops threatened more than a few times in the last 2 days, the rain (showers?) held off until now. Today, after a run to the garden store for bags of soil and amender, I pulled out the potato grow bags and some cedar planters and we started digging. We filled the bags and planters with some composted soil from last fall and topped them up with the new amender and soil and I planted potatoes, spinach, chard and radishes. In the next couple of days, I hope to get the peas and sweet peas seeded as well. Also time to start the arugula and basil (indoors).

here are my helpers filling the bottom of a pot with styrofoam

Out in the front, the star magnolia is about to burst into bloom and the camelia has a few flowers peeking out and one lonely daffodil has poked up. Ah spring!

Crab Dip

2011-03-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

I read Ree’s post about crab dip and I’d forgotten how much I love it. And while I’m sure that her recipes are divine, I have a tried and true recipe of my own. It’s based on a lobster dip recipe from Dee Carstarphen’s book “Windjammer Cooking” (Pen and Ink Press 1989). If you don’t happen to have leftover steamed lobster lying around your house, as for some reason is usually (always) the case at my house, then canned crab meat makes an adequate substitute for the lobster in this dip recipe. Ideally, the dip needs to “age” a few hours in the fridge before eating, for the flavours to blend together but if you can make it without eating half of it before it ages, you are a better person than I am.

The first time I had this dip, the lobster version, was aboard the Maine schooner Lewis R French, one afternoon after the weekly lobster bake. In my journal I wrote: " The winds really picked up later in the afternoon, kicking spray over the side of the schooner and I had to put on all kinds of layers to keep warm in the wind. The appetizer was about 10 pounds of lobster dip. We had to tie the crackers down after they went flying and Captain Dan said he wasn't going to anchor until we'd finished all the dip. No problem. "

Crab Dip (adapted from Dee Carstarphen's Windjammer Cooking)
1 block light cream cheese, softened
1 can crab meat, drained (unless you have 3-4 oz of steamed, chopped lobster to use instead)
3 tbsp mayonnaise (I use Hellman’s)
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp horseradish
1 tbsp sherry
2-3 green onions, chopped
Dash of cayenne

Add all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until well blended. Adjust the seasonings to taste. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow the flavours to blend. Serve with crackers or vegetables.

us

2011-03-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

A little bit ago, I read David’s post about how to be a better blogger. And I’m taking some of the advice to heart so you’ll be seeing some changes here at mummydinosaur.

As I’ve had comments from some lovely people I don’t know personally but only through the blog world, I’m changing the way I refer to my family. My husband’s new moniker for blogging purposes is Skinny Man (SM). And I’ll refer to our son as either our boy, or our son. Because people who don’t know us won’t know who D or T refers to. (D is my husband, T is our boy for those of you reading older posts).

You might wonder how I came up with Skinny Man as a persona for my husband. Well, he’s been my Skinny Man since we met nearly 9 years ago. He’s long and lanky and much taller than I am. The nickname became official when I drew a comic of us entitled “Skinny Man and Sweater Girl go off on another adventure”. And the same comic was transformed to become part of our wedding invitation and some (lucky) friends and family got the caption – “Skinny Man and Sweater Girl are getting married”.

We had three captions for the invitations just to mix things up. You can do that when you are such a Bridezilla that you make your own invitations.

So now that I’ve admitted to the nickname Sweater Girl you might wonder why this blog is called mummy dinosaur. Well, around the time I started this blog, I would play dinosaurs with our boy and he was boy dinosaur and I was mummy dinosaur. I didn’t think it would be a blog name that was already taken and I was right. So I became mummy dinosaur. (It is also a reference that I’m an older mummy and sometimes feel like a dinosaur when among other mummies).

So that is us, our little family.

Strawberry almond crumble

2011-03-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

It is so easy to take good fortune for granted. There are times in all of our lives, when we live through trying times. Most people never experience the kind of massive devastation we’ve been seeing on the news from Japan, or on a smaller scale recently, Christchurch, NZ. I can only watch the suffering on the news and contribute to the Canadian Red Cross. It goes to show that at any moment, our lives can be thrown off course. By nature, illness, acts of violence, accidents or a phone call or doctor’s visit that turns lives upside down. Our little family remains so blessed in good fortune while some close to us have been thrown off course. So it’s been a bit unbalancing.

This week marked the anniversary of the death of my beloved mum. I still miss her so. My lovely man left me a sunny bouquet to cheer me on the day.

(Say it – awwwww). It made the heartache ease for a moment and gave me a smile. And I’ve been hit with the cold/flu thing going around so haven’t been my normal self – I’ve been snarky, short tempered and weepy – none of which I find attractive in myself which adds irritation to the underlying heartache. So it hasn’t been a stellar time. But to gain my balance a bit, I retreated to the kitchen. I've been inspired by these posts but didn't manage to cook those recipes yet. This week I managed to make a batch of low acid tomato sauce, a large vegetarian moussaka, a loaf of bread and strawberry almond crumble.

The strawberry almond crumble recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s newest book – Kitchen. I love the way Nigella writes, as if I were sitting in her kitchen and she was chatting away to me. And I love this recipe. So far I’ve made it with last year’s strawberries from the freezer, raspberries from the freezer, blueberries, my own canned peaches and the huge, somewhat woody version of strawberries that are in the stores currently.

Each version has been delicious. A sweet mix of cooked fruit, sugar, almonds and vanilla that warms the soul.

I think my man would eat it every day if he could.

a birthday dinner

2011-03-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

Last week was my husband's birthday and when I asked him what he would like for dinner, he replied "I don't suppose you could do that pasta with capers and olives and sundried tomatoes that you made for me the first time you made me dinner?" That sounded great except as I've noted before the first meal I ever made him was chicken and veggies in peanut sauce with wild and brown rice. So, wondering a bit where he'd eaten this caper olive pasta (and I have made them during our time together) I thought I would give it a try for dinner, using whatever ingredients I had in my kitchen. I found capers and some home oven dried tomatoes, some asparagus and mushrooms and some goat cheese. So I made a pasta dish. When my birthday husband ate it, he announced it was "fine". Not the ringing endorsement I had hoped for. But I thought it was good. But my man did eat his weight in the pasta that night so either he was very, very hungry or he did enjoy it more than he let on (and he wasn't in the best of moods that evening, having had some technology challenges earlier in the day which frustrated him no end).

Caper Oven-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta with Asparagus

3 tbsp butter

1 small onion, sliced

6 large button mushrooms

1 tbsp capers
1 small bunch asparagus (broken into ~ 3 pcs per stalk)
~ 1/2 c oven dried tomatoes, crushed or ground in a spice mill
8 oz goat cheese
basil, garlic, pepper
1 lb of whole wheat pasta - I used spagetti

In a large pot, cook the pasta to al dente. Drain and set aside the pasta water.

In a large skillet, melt the butter and heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the butter is a bit browned. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook for about 5-8 minutes until the mushrooms start to take on a bit of colour. Add the capers, asparagus and tomatoes and heat, stirring to keep from sticking. Stir in the goat cheese and add some of the pasta water, about a 1/4 c at a time to melt the cheese and meld everything together. Cover and simmer until the asparagus is mostly cooked. Toss the pasta into the sauce and add the seasonings to taste. Serve with grated parmesan.

And for dessert, I made peach almond crumble. This is my man's new favorite dessert.

ups and downs

2011-03-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

Are all 5 year olds as dramatic as mine? I wonder. We go from having the “bestest” day ever to having the “worstest” day ever. I’m either the best mummy in the world or the worst. It depends.

Last weekend was the final day of our boy’s street soccer. My Skinny Man and myself have been standing on the sidelines watching small boys run around after a soccer ball since last October, in all weathers (rain, howling wind, snow) because the only time the games were cancelled was when the field was actually covered in snow. Our boy started off slowly, in the beginning he was one of the kids digging holes in the grass or trying to dismantle the net but gradually, with lots of encouragement from us and the coaches, he started to participate. He’s not a great team contributor yet, but he’s out there running around every week, which is all I really want for him right now. As last Saturday was the last week of the season, the coaches all dressed up in funny clothes and played silly soccer games with the kids which they all enjoyed. And at the end of the hour, all the kids got a cupcake and a trophy. Our boy was so excited with his trophy. He took it out of the box on the car ride home and examined it. “Look mummy. It has stars on it. They must think I’m a superstar!”

But moments after getting home, our boy was crying his eyes out. It turns out, in his excitement to get his trophy to his room, he had tripped going up the stairs and the trophy was now broken. And our little boy was heartbroken. So Skinny Man and I got out the crazy glue and patched it back together. The trophy is now sitting in its’ box until the glue firms up enough – hopefully it holds.

On Monday, it was the last day of the current swimming lesson session. On the last day, the instructors do fun things with the kids, based on their swimming level and size. Our boy’s killer whale class got to go down the big red slide. None of the other kids in his class wanted to go down the slide, so our boy ended up going down a few times, to his great joy. And his instructor also went down it, making “the hugest splash!” At the end of the lesson, the report cards were handed out. Now our boy has done three rounds of killer whale lessons and so badly wanted to graduate to be a shark. I told him he needed to be able to swim on his front and his back so he’s been working really hard at kicking to get there. And he did it! He gets to be a shark in the next swim session. I don’t know who was happier with that result – our boy or me. When I thanked his instructor I was told “no worries. He’s been great to have in the class.” So I’m one proud mama.

And if that wasn’t enough, this was also the week we got our boy’s preschool evaluation. It was a good read as his mum. It confirms everything I’ve long thought about our boy. He’s fun, funny, bright, compassionate, and friendly as well as stubborn, strong willed and independent. The one thing they are trying to teach the boy (and we try at home as well) is to hold a pencil towards the tip, between the thumb and two fingers as opposed to his way which is at the end away from the tip with a fist. His way makes it very hard to write and draw which he finds frustrating but he’s not willing to take instruction in how to make things easier for himself. (see stubborn and strong willed) But I must admit, it warms my heart to see others appreciate my fun and funny child.

Amongst all this good stuff, are the daily battles. Eating dinner, going to bed, listening, dealing with frustrations, dealing with the incessant “I wants”. Inevitably I end up being the “worstest” mummy in the world. It normally doesn’t last long before I’m back to getting hugs and being the “bestest” mummy in the world. It all keeps me on my toes.

I wrote this earlier in the week and was waiting to get some pictures to post along with the text. Like the rest of the world we are shocked by the news from Japan over the last couple of days. My heart breaks for all those dealing with the devastation and loss there. I'm counting my blessings and keeping those I love close.

distracted

2011-02-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

I had one of those moments tonight. I got distracted unloading the dishwasher while microwaving some popcorn and before I knew it, the kitchen (and the whole house) was full of smoke. So I spent a good deal of time running around opening windows and trying to wave the smoke out of the house before the smoke detector went off and woke up our boy. Why is it that bad smells spread so quickly, while lovely smells such as roasting cheese or baking bread take much longer to fill the house and don't linger nearly so long? I've filled small bowls of vinegar to dot around the house to soak up the odour and hoping it works.

Life has seemed a bit full on lately. Cold and snow last week which is unusual on the wet coast, a cold lingering in our boy, characterized by a chesty cough and the sniffles, just the daily stuff of life. But there are golden moments. Our boy will finally graduate from killer whales this time around, his third try and achieve his ambition to be a shark in swimming lessons. I got a great compliment from someone I admire today. So why am I so upset by a bit of burnt corn? I guess the moral is don't get distracted while microwaving popcorn or even better, don't even eat microwave popcorn.

spa trip nachos

2011-02-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

It was our spa ladies annual spa weekend this past weekend. We visited here, and had a wonderful time. The weather was nippy but sunny, the company was stellar, the spa was divine and much food, wine, margaritas and daiquiries were enjoyed. And we left relaxed and buffed, kneaded, and with shiny toes. A newish tradition, now that we have condo type accomodations, with kitchens, is nacho night. We try our hand at making margaritas with the provided blender (not quite so successful this year as last for whatever reason - although in the end everyone pronounced the drinks good). Next year we might try and bribe the bartender in the restaurant to make us up bucketfuls and send them over to our suite, so we don't have to work so hard. We also make nachos. These are pretty basic so as to avoid various things that some members of the group don't like (jalepenos, green onions, olives, etc). So this year we used red and blue chips as the base (pretty), added some salsa, cooked ground beef and lots of cheese and cooked them until all melty. Served with sour cream they were delicious.

baking with mum

2011-02-24T21:12:00.000-08:00

A wierd thing happened the other day. A woman at work approached me and said "I found a cookie recipe on your blog, the one with coconut and banana, and I made it. My family loves the cookies. I made some more with walnuts, would you like to try one?" Of course I did. They were great with walnuts and I'm so happy someone is making one of my favorite cookies for her family and made the recipe their own by adding walnuts. We didn't usually add nuts to cookies as my Dad isn't a big nut in cookies fan. Says that walnuts squeak on his teeth.

So tonight, when faced with a blackish banana left from T's lunchbox, I made a batch of oatmeal macaroons (as they are called officially on the recipe from mum's recipe box). I used a big cookie scoop so the cookies are about triple the size they normally are and only yielded about 18 cookies.

But as I was mixing them up, I was back with my mum in our old family kitchen, with the brick wall and horrible 70's wallpaper (rust orange and brown) and the avocado appliances. And behind the ghost of my mum was the ghost of my gram, a big baker. So I hope one day, T will bake cookies and remember things we baked together and continue the tradition.

a valentine's supper

2011-02-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Completely out of character for me, I made a big (ish) deal out of Valentine's Day this year. Normally all those hearts and lovey-doviness is enough to turn my stomach (no offence to my beloved D) but smaltsy really isn't our scene. I blame it on having a preschooler in the house. At preschool they celebrate everything. So minutes after T was wandering around the house singing " a Chinese dragon has lots of feet" for Chinese New Year, his school and daycare were awash in pink and red hearts. We got a notice on the protocol for sending Valentines to preschool along with the sign-up sheet for the party treats. I sourced mini cupcake tins (thanks K!) and made dozens of tiny chocolate cupcakes with red sprinkles, bought Cars valentines for T to give to his friends and found a goofy card for D. Then I found this recipe for heart stuffed shells and thought why not make a valentine's dinner for D - artichoke hearts are one of his favorite foods. And it came to be - heart stuffed pasta shells, hearts of romaine salad (which sounds deliberate but was a total fluke) and peach crumble for dessert. It was pretty good if I do say so myself. Of course, being me, I lost my printout of the recipe and had to run back and forth from the computer to the kitchen and ended up missing some steps in the stuffed shells recipe but it all worked. I used less onion and more artichoke hearts, and as I couldn't find frozen artichoke hearts, I used canned marinated ones. Also I missed the step about adding the wine but we liked the result so I would make it again my way.

Heart Stuffed Shells
adapted from Deb Perelman's recipe at bon appetit.com

1/2 box large shell pasta (~32 shells from my box)

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cans marinated artichoke hearts, drained (~ 1 lb)

2 large egg yolks

1 c grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

4 tbsp butter

1/4 c flour

2 c milk

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 c ricotta cheese

2 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the shells and cook to al dente. Drain and set aside.

Melt 3 tbsp of butter over medium high heat until brown and bubbly, stirring in the solids as they separate. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and mix well, then add the onion and saute until they are light brown, about 5 minutes. Add the artichoke hearts and cook them until they are softened a bit, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add the lemon juice, cheese, egg yolks and salt and pepper and pulse until well mixed and chopped.

Meanwhile, melt 4 tbsp butter. Add the flour and milk and whisk well to blend. Add the garlic and bring to a boil. Once boiling and thickened, add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper and turn down the heat to medium.

Pour about half of the sauce into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish and spread evenly over the bottom. Stuff the shell with about 1 tbsp of the artichoke mixture and lay into the sauce. Continue until all the shells are filled and nestled into a single layer in the baking dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the filled shells.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with basil or parsley if desired and serve.

a season of cabbage

2011-02-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't use to like cabbage. But once upon a time, I came across a recipe that makes a thrifty dinner using bacon, onion, rice and cabbage and during my single days, when I was feeling poor in the winter, I would make it. The recipe made lots and was surprisingly good. So once in a while, during the long winter, when other root vegetables had lost their appeal and I'd spy lots of cabbages waiting to be chosen in the vegetable aisle, I would dig the recipe out of my memory and make it. Then last year I read Molly's "A Homemade Life" and her lovely cream braised cabbage recipe. I made it and we love the flavour but owing to clutziness on my part, I found the cabbage triangles hard to deal with. So I tried finely slicing the cabbage which worked well for us. I found it easier to handle in the pan and we liked the texture beter. Plus it cooks faster which is a bonus on nights when the time between arriving home and a starving family descending on the kitchen looking for supper is tight. Combining the recipes didn't occur to me until I had some sausage meat, a red cabbage and about 30 minutes to make supper in. Which didn't give me enough time to make a favorite braised red cabbage dish so I made up this recipe instead. And it is a hit in our house. So this winter we've been eating lots of cabbage. The braising in cream renders the cabbage melty soft and flavourful with none of the side effects normally associated with cabbage. And it works with both green and red cabbage (although red cabbage does turn sausage meat a bit of a bizarre colour).

Cream Braised Cabbage with Sausage
mummydinosaur original

1/2 lb (~ 250 g) of sausage meat (or diced pancetta or sliced bacon)
1 small or medium head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/4 c cream

In a saute pan, over medium high heat, brown the sausage (or bacon). Once brown, add the thinly sliced onion and cabbage and toss well in the pan to coat with the oil from the sausage. Saute until the cabbage starts to brown in places (5-10 minutes). If you are using pancetta, add it about halfway through this step. Add the cream and stir. Cover the pot and simmer over a medium low heat for 15-30 minutes or until the cabbage is soft. If there is a lot of liquid, remove the lid and cook down for a few minutes. Serve with baked potato wedges.

green cabbage with bacon

red cabbage with sausage and baked potato wedges

For a vegetarian version of this, leave out the sausage or bacon and saute the onion and cabbage in 1 tbsp of butter.

Potato and cauliflower gratin

2011-01-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

I made this a couple of weeks ago, and a week ago my brother-in-law was looking through the pics on my camera and came across it. “You take pictures of potatoes?” he cried. So I had to explain my weird blogger thing of taking pictures of my food and posting them to my blog.

For Sunday supper a few weeks ago I was planning to make creamy potatoes and I had a cauliflower that I was going to make a gratin with. Then it occurred to me (I’m a bit slow sometimes) that the potato dish and the cauliflower dish had basically the same ingredients and assembly so I should combine them into one bigger gratin. So I did. And while it is easier to combine them, it is also very tasty.

Potato and Cauliflower Gratin
Mummydinosaur original

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
8 small to medium red potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1 c cream (or ½ c cream and ½ c stock)
¾ c grated gruyere cheese
Pinch of grated nutmeg

Oil a roasting pan and toss the cauliflower florets into the pan and roast at 375 deg F until the tips are brown, ~ 15-20 minutes. In a greased baking dish, (I used a 9x13) add one layer of potato slices, spread about half of the florets over the potatoes evenly, season with salt and pepper, add another layer of potatoes and then the second layer of cauliflower. Top with the remaining potatoes. Mix the cream, cheese and nutmeg together and pour evenly over the top of the potatoes. Cover with tin foil and bake for 50 minutes at 350 deg F. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more or until the top is golden brown.

He’s Five

2011-01-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

Today my little boy turns 5. So I spent a good portion of last night baking. I made a wheat free chocolate cake with buttercream, sprinkles, gummy bears and smarties for his party at preschool this morning.

The children are probably eating cake right now as I write this. I’ve been promised pictures. And I baked chocolate cupcakes for dessert tonight and dessert for the family supper on Saturday. Those will be decorated tonight.

When we were talking about T’s cake yesterday he suddenly asked me, “when is your birthday mummy?” I replied that it had been a couple of weeks ago. “But we didn’t bake you a cake” he said, sounding a bit worried. “What kind of cake do you like? Chocolate or lemon?” I told him I liked both so he told me he would help me make a lemon cake for my birthday next year. “Cause you need cake on your birthday”.

This was my baby on his 1st birthday - he still loves cake this much!

don't like it

2011-01-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to think back, once you are a parent, to the days prior to, and trying to remember what you thought it would be like. I never imagined I would learn so much about trucks and construction equipment or even guess that my husband would start collecting machines just like our son. I never imagined conversations about death and love and cats and all manner of things that you have with a 4 year old. I didn’t know how close to the edge certain theme music could make you go (Bob the Builder……can we build it!). Or how much I would resort to bribery. Although I call it motivation and behaviour reinforcement rather than bribery. I didn’t know how important friends are in the world of a 4 year old.

Parenting is just what you do most days. You try and do a good job. If you are impatient or mean or inconsistent one day, you try and do better the next day. It’s a journey with no destination. You do the best you can. Because in the end that is all you can do. There is no pass/fail exam at the end. If one day you look and your kids are relatively social, smart, funny adults I think you might think you did a good job. It’s probably one of those situations where other people can see more easily that you can. I think my nephews are great kids and my brother and his wife are awesome parents. They probably only see what they think they aren’t doing right.

With my own boy, I think any faults he has are entirely my doing. I’m not training him well. A bit like what I once said about one of my employees – any deficits in his work are manager related (me not providing support/training/ clear expectations, etc). I see a lot of correlations between being a manager and being a parent. Unfortunately I can’t put co-workers in a time-out or take away their toys if they are not being a team player or sharing…

D and I laugh sometimes about the way we talk about our boy. Sometimes it must sound like we have a large dog that needs lots of fresh air and exercise. Because an active 4 year old does need lots of fresh air and exercise. And healthy food. And lots of sleep. And lots of love. I think I’m doing ok on the fresh air and exercise, definitely ok on the lots of love, doing better on the lots of sleep, it is the food that is the challenge in our house. People are often amazed by the fact that our boy doesn’t like chicken or pasta (what – no chicken nuggets or mac & cheese?). He’s not a meat eater, no potatoes, rice or pasta. His favorite foods are chocolate and French fries. (So now I have to take back all the nasty thoughts I ever had pre-kid about “my child would never eat…..”). He eats peanut butter sandwiches (and no other kind), cheese and crackers (according to the dentist cheese is great, crackers are bad, for teeth), oatmeal bars, bran muffins, all kinds of fruit, some vegetables (cucumber, carrots, peas, beans), yogurt….but I keep telling myself – if this is my biggest challenge I am so very blessed. I am.

But I’m getting tired of repeating myself. No, my child does not eat chicken or pasta or pizza. We went over to a friends for dinner last night and the other kids had bisgetti. Our boy won’t touch bisgetti so he had some sliced cucumber and crackers. Because the other thing is that if he doesn’t eat what’s for dinner, he doesn’t get a whole other cooked dinner. Partly because he wouldn’t eat the alternative anyway and partly because we are not short order cooks. If you are hungry you eat what is in front of you. If you don’t like it or don’t want it then you can have cheese and crackers and yogurt and fruit or you can go hungry. Your choice. But it’s hard to think that my child is hungry. Or now to face the comments about how thin he is. Because he takes after my husband, he is tall and thin, with skinny long legs. But he’s a stubborn boy. And he won’t eat what he doesn’t like. That is fine. But he also won’t eat anything he doesn’t think he’ll like. My biggest frustration is that he won’t even try things. Not even one little taste. On the rare occasion he will and discovers that he likes other things. Like radishes. We grew radishes in his garden this year so he tried one and liked it – not as much as cucumbers and carrots but still, a new vegetable for his plate. Yay!