market day at McGill

I bought so many beets. I'm very excited.

Salmon-y lunch

GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYS IM SO EXCITED

We have finally moved in everything and I can actually cook with my things instead of the in between, and I am just ecstatic! Just wanted to quickly share my lunch which I was looking forward to au max! Simple, delicious, and tbh I even enjoyed doing dishes after LOL!

I made a very simple guac for the salmon, just half an avocado, 

half a lemon squeezed, and a tbsp of roasted onion hummus. So creamy.

With the salmon, a quick side salad: a small tomato and half cucumber from my aunts garden with 

some fresh basil leaves and half an avocado. Quick marinade made from o.o. and lemon juice from the other half of the lemon, along with some chili flakes.

The salmon fillet was really easy prep, it was already spiced from the fish mongers, a spicy thai paste made with hot peppers, garlic, spices, etc. Just plopped it in foil and in the oven for 25 mns and it was perfect. What a delicious meal!! 

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole

Is in the oven... It smells so good!

1 spaghetti squash, roasted (did that before work today), peeled, seeded and drained (it needn't be dry, just drained of excess liquid)
8 eggs
About a cup of mixed grated cheeses - ours was parmesan heavy
Parsley, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper
1/2 c to 1 c tomato sauce

Mix it all in a bowl, slide into a buttered lasagna pan and bake at 425 F for an hour or something (not sure yet how long it takes, but from about 15 minutes in it will start to smell amazing).

Easy grain-free vegetarian meal for work days... Done.

Family birthdays

Both my mom and step-father have their birthdays in September, a few days apart form each other. So for the sake of simplicity, we have one supper to celebrate all three events, hosted by me. The weather and leaves being so beautiful, I decided to carry the autumn theme inside as well, and my sister and I worked together to create an autumnal feast for our parents.

 

My sister worked hard on the decorations while I took care of the food. I printed out a menu and she basically did the rest, down to making little individual place cards. It was quite charming and I just loved working in tandem with her, usually were so busy in our respective lives our interactions seem to be like a gust in the wind, strong but unexpected and quickly over. It was really nice to be able to work with her towards a common goal as simple as making supper for our folks.

 

For the menu, this is what I made: Roasted butternut squash/apple/sweet potato soup, roast beef with garlic/peppercorn crust, mashed potatoes/carrots, and steamed vegetables. For desert I made a carrot/apple/raisin cake with a caramel rhum sauce topped with slivered almonds and thin apple slices. Im going to share the soup recipe, it is the easiest thing to do ever, gluten/dairy free, and paleo approved.

 

I roasted a medium butternut squash, three medium sweet potato and two onions at 350 for 1.5 hours. To do so simply cut the squash and taters in half and lay face down on a pan that has a couple of teaspoons of e.v.o.o. criss crossed on it. I added the onions 45 mns before done time. The squash and potatoes are done when you can stick a fork easily in them without any force. Let cool, then scrape into a blender with a cup of vegetable broth. Blend until smooth.

 

I added the puree into veggie stock, maybe 1.5-2ltrs of it, as well as 1 cup of applesauce I made. It was too liquidy so I cooked it down until it was the desired thickness. Added some cinnamon and powdered ginger (Im sorry I didn't measure).

 

Then right before serving, I grated some nutmeg on the top. It was very fragrant and delicious, and perfectly autumnal.

zucchini lasagna!

Omnom! I precooked the slices (made with a mandoline) until soft and lightly browned, just straight in a cast iron pan, no fat needed. I kind of forgot that lasagna usually involves a creamy layer, so we just forewent that. SO GOOD! I bought and sliced way more zucchini than we ended up needing, so I froze a bunch for next time. I've requested lasagna for my birthday, so I also made a ton of sauce to freeze some for that occasion. I have rice lasagna noodles ready for the occasion, but I will definitely do zucchini again! Yum!

lately in the kitchen...

Making rejuvelac! It's so cute, it's started to bubble just like tibicos! I'm making it as step one to...

Making nut-based cheese! Julia lent me this book when she last came over; I was so fascinated I started soaking my rice right then and there. A product that combined sprouting, fermentation, cheese-like products and cruelty-free alternatives? Yes please!

My brother got me a little GF recipe book for Christmas, and despite its reliance on xanthan and guar gum (which, as I've mentioned here before, I boycott), it has some nice recipes. Banana, date & walnut bread is a favourite; with all the banana in it, the bread holds nicely, not like other GF breads, which tend toward crumbliness.

I'm still really into waffles. These were made with white rice flour and flax seeds and coconut oil (we ran out of butter). I really want to switch to using only brown rice flour, but it's so hard to find! I should check Aubut... Maybe it can be ordered.

Presently in the oven: cabbage "noodles"; sliced wedges with leftover canned tomatoes (the juice was mostly used for braising meatballs last night), salt, pepper, powdered garlic, parsley and oregano, with bacon fat (you could use olive oil as well obviously). I am not sure what protein I'll use, I might ask Tony to pick up some chicken. We ordered a half pig from Rheintal about a month ago, so we're very porky lately. We only eat other meat when our parents cook it for us, basically. We love pork but it is a bit... repetetive. Maybe when we're really wealthy and have six kids we can get a second freezer and buy a half cow and half pig AT THE SAME TIME! Oh, the luxury of variety! Anyway so I feel a little bit bad about contemplating getting non-pastured meat, but I guess I figure... it's all a work in progress.

I don't have pictures for these, but we've been buying milk from Les Fermes Groleau, a dairy company that pastures the cows during the summer, and let me tell you, the milk is incomparable to what you buy at most stores, organic or not. It is really a taste sensation. I have been buying it from A Votre Sante, which is far-ish for us, so we get a few at a time, pour them into mason jars and freeze them (though as I write this, it occurs to me that I may be enoying a phantom memory of Groleau products at Au Branche d'Olivier, which is much, much closer - I'll have to check!). Because it's pricier I've been more mindful of my consumption, trying to use a lot less, but we still go through it FAST because Ambrose is drinking milk like never before - it's that good!

The other tidbit is that my sugar bag is quite low, and we've continued to cut down on high glycemic index items. I keep kicking around draft lists of occasions that justify sugar and enjoying the fantasy of really just not eating sugar regularly. Fancy that! It's terribly radical! During Lent we just had sugar on Sundays, and kept with that for a good while, and have started phasing even that out, though I don't keep it strictly to Sundays. We've gotten used to it. I only remember how radical it is when we visit family. EVERYTHING has sugar! Golly, they get that you don't want dessert, but there's sugar in the yogurt, in the ketchup, in the meat, in the crackers, in the soup, seriously in all packaged products ever, it seems. And gluten-free prepackaged stuff is certainly not exempt, so aside from having the funny gums and starch "flours" up the wazoo there's usually loads of sugar in there, too. It's very kind of relatives to buy these things for us, but quite unecessary. (Mary's crackers, I should say, have no sugar, hooray!) Anyway... we are getting low on sugar... and I am thinking I'll just buy small amounts on an as-need basis. Radical!!

leek geekdom for breakfast a la Jacques Pepin

oh my!

I found this stunning leek at the local market. I took it home with me.

And, of course, I had to share it with the world.

I've recently been obsessed with honing my omelet technique, thanks to monsieur Jacques Pepin. Last week, one of my students chose this video of Jacques Pepin demonstrating techniques on how to make a country omelet and a classic French omelet as part of his weekly Youtube transcription to practice sentence stress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57afEWn-QDg

Probably not the example of choice to demonstrate Standard North American English sentence stress (lol), but Jacques Pepin is AWESOME, because for years I'd wondered how omelets were made, and could never make one properly myself. They would come out dry, crispy, in tatters, like overly-cooked failed scrambled eggs. How do restaurants make them come out so juicy and lovely? What is the secret? I would wonder wistfully as I poured condiments on my cardboardy eggs to make them edible.

If you've ever felt the same way, WATCH the video. Even if you think you know everything about omelets, watch it anyway, just because Jacques Pepin is super adorable.

Merci monsieur Pepin!!!

tomatoes in winter (well, technically spring I guess!)

Sometimes, you just need the taste of sunshine in your mouth!

Ketchup, fermenting with kefir whey - the recipe is a mix between that of Beautiful Babies and The Joy of Cooking - strained tomatoes, kefir whey, apple cider vinger, diced red pepper and onion, ground mustard powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, crushed chillis, a dash of ground cloves, a bit of ground cinnamon, a bit of smoked paprika... excited! Last time I tried fermented ketchup it was the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, which includes fish sauce, and it just got fishier and fishier, ew. I have high hopes for this one, it smells fabulous! It will stay out several days to ferment then go in the fridge.

Cherry tomatoes were on sale, so I have some tomato-basil foccacia rising for my dear Tony.

we love cabbage

Ambrose actually has been the instigator of my cabbage love from beginning to end. I know you're supposed to expand your kids' horizons and get them into veggies and whatnot, and we do try to do that, but in reality it's been him who's pushed me a few ways. PURPLE CABBAGE is one of them! Yes, he ate that entire plate, minus those scraps, I did not help him for the picture! He squeals for it cutely whenever he sees it at the store. So I now have purple cabbage in my life. Look at it! It's gorgeous! Like stained glass!

My favourite ways to eat cabbage are simple and twofold: one, red cabbage simmered with a bit of water in a cast iron skillet, then fried with bacon fat (and meat if you're feeling festive!), and apple pieces, and a bit of red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper, OH GOSH, I got that recipe from The Catholic Cookbook - some saint day, heaven help us but I can't recall which. Anyway, the second way is roasted. Oh be still my heart. So simple. See it done here.

So what you see above is roasted, Ambrose has it straight, with oil, salt, pepper & garlic powder; I cut out the triangle-shaped cores from those wedges, leaving the lovely long strips (like paleo noodles!). Mine is served with Jamie Oliver's cowboy meatballs, leftover and having been frozen from our last party (but without cheese or breadcrumbs). Basically omnomnomnomnomnomnom.

Purple cabbage is definitely one of God's most beautiful works of art as far as I'm concerned right now.

Coconut-Eggplant Sauté

PSYCHE YOSELVES FOOS...

because I just invented a new comfort food. 

I've been craving a decent eggplant dish since I got here. Middle Eastern cusines is crammed with eggplant deliciousness--stuffed eggplant, grilled eggplant, pickled eggplant, fried eggplant, eggplant casserole, eggplant dip....c'est bon, ça!!


Eggplant is a delicate, yet versatile vegetable sure to please any picky eater, and I was so ready for my fix. Last week, I found a medium-small organic eggplant for $0.99 at my local hippie grocer--score! I had to pick it up!

But it's been lonely in my fridge, because I have zero idea how to make any of the aforementioned dishes...so, I improvised. And what resulted was, surprisingly, mind-blowingly amazing. I'm sure this recipe would also work well if you're trying to clean out your fridge! Feel free to add carrots, sliced peppers. etc. YUM!

What You'll Need

-1 small-medium eggplant, sliced

-1.5 cups minced beef

-1 cup light coconut milk

-1 large red onion, sliced lengthwise

-2 tbsp olive oil (or omit if your beef is fatty)

-10-15 cherry or grape tomatoes (or any sweet tomato will do), sliced lengthwise

-2 handfuls or more baby spinach, roughly chopped

-salt and pepper to taste

You're Ready Now To...

1) Slice eggplant into long fingers. Place on paper towels, and sprinkle with 1 tsp of salt. This reduces the typical bitter taste of eggplant.

2) Heat oil in a skillet and add sliced red onion on medium heat. Sauté for 5 min.

3) Add minced beef, cherry tomatoes, and eggplant, stirring until meat is almost entirely cooked.

4) Add coconut milk and stir. Reduce heat and cover.

5) Simmer until coconut milk thickens, eggplant is dark, and the cherry tomatoes creamy. Add the spinach, and turn off heat. Keep cover on for an additional 3-5 minutes.

6) Serve over rice or small shell pasta.

Feel free to add spices or fresh herbs--I didn't have any on hand, so I just added salt and pepper and it was still incredible. Matt was passing by and I served him a small cupful. He looked skeptical but obliged anyway...and ended up asking for MORE! I felt vain all day after that ;)

harvest, treats, & a gluten update

In an effort to control our sugar consumption, I've been doing sugary baking just once a week, on Saturdays, and that has to last us all week. It's been good! Last week was double-doubles, the week before what my GF chocolate cake, this week was ginger cookies, as per Ambrose's request. I did his name with leftover dough - we mainly did angels and gingerbread men.

Another of the same 'cause he's just so cute.

Sprouts, ready to harvest! (You saw them just as they started to germinate last weekend.) We like using little bits in a green salad rather than using them as a salad base.

My mom and I decides yesterday that we'd go to Chez Cora this morning, so, mindful of our family's usual waffle tradition on Saturdays, and not wanting Tony to feel deprived, I made him a blueberry twist yesterday for his breakfast today, with some bread dough we'd had in the fridge.

Baked & sticky. The shape looks fancy but it's very simple to create - see photo tutorial, here. The filling I used was about 2-3 tbsp butter, 1/4 c sugar or a bit more, and two handfuls of (frozen) blueberries, all squished together. The elongated twist is a shape I really like working with; I find in circular form (whether in a twistedround bread or as cinnamon rolls), you almost always have that underbaked middle thing, or a too-dry or maybe slightly-burned exterior, whereas the logs bake much more evenly (though a wreath would also work).

This isn't exactly food-related, but aren't these little baby daffofils adorable?? I got them at Loblaws today, indending to buy cut flowers, but finding these irresistible!

My gluten update has no picture, but basically the flare-ups have started again. In case you're new to the whole saga, I'd been off gluten since before Christmas, and then about two weeks ago I decided to indulge in a bit of pizza and see how long it took for the flare-up to occur (when I was eating gluten more regularly, I could tell within an hour or two if something had gluten in it based on my skin and tummy aches). But no reaction! Anyway nothing happened, it was exciting. Slowly though my skin started to get tingly, then I got a distinctly painful tummy ache after making non-organic pasta on Tuesday (prior to that all my ingestion had been organic stuff made at home), and it's been downhill since then. Yesterday we had a lovely pizza (since we're going out tonight, our usual pizza night) with mushrooms and onions which was made sort of like a foccacia, rolled, topped, and risen for a few hours before baking, and to be honest it was amazing, but by the end of the evening I was quite red and had cuts on the backs of my hands. Sucks! So it's been interesting - the gluten fasting seemed to cleanse me, as my body was able to deal with it better than before, judging by the slow response time, but it's back on the GF train I go. Sad! I might cheat with pizza once a week though. I've not yet decided what to do on that front.

Another random little update that has no picture is that I've been precooking Sunday food on Saturdays. So far that's meant making a quiche and preparing a roast the day before. It really is so much nicer to know we can come home from Mass, enjoy instant quality food, and spend the day lazing - with a clean kitchen! 

Happy weekending!

GETTING KRACKING N KRAFTY WITH KALE

photo credit: everybodylikessandwiches.com

Oh, camera.

My DSLR has been missing since my dad's birthday in April 2012.

My phone camera is not focusing properly.

I want to post.

So. Badly.

So I just will.

I've been trying to incorporate more veggies into my diet in general, and I've noticed that breakfast has been bereft of any legumes délicieux. I'm not terribly crazy about omelets these days (runny yolks ftw, folks), and sauteeing spinach as a side dish gets old.

So, friends, I turned to kale. But kale? Really? That crunchy, chewy stuff that's annoying to eat?

Yes. And it's heavenly. And super easy.

What You'll Need: 

-1 pack good quality sausage (I highly recommend Rheintal)
-1 bunch kale, rinsed well, cleaned of stems, and chopped into 2-3 inch sections)
-1-2 cups chopped leek (I like the leafy part of the leek)
-cracked black pepper (optional)
-a pan with a lid

Do It: 

1) Slice sausage into coins.

2) Let sausage sautée on medium to low heat, and watch it release bacon-fatty goodness. Om.

3) Add leeks. Lower the heat maybe 1 notch. Watch leeks carefully as they burn quickly! Let them slow cook for a bit--it's worth the wait. Your kitchen will smell divine. My dad always knows when there's leek cooking!

4) Top the sausage and leek with kale. Cover pan with lid. Let the steam cook the kale, about 3 minutes. Then mix the kale into the sausage and leek. Cover again, and let cook 1 minute or so.

Enjoy piping hot! What I love about this recipe is that the kale comes out delicate and buttery, not at all chewy or hard like it may when cooked otherwise. I will often crack an egg in the middle and make some kind of breakfast skillet out of it. Alternatively, you can also fry a slice of yummy multigrain toast in the remaining bacon-fatty-(and now leek!)- goodness.

Yay breakfast veggies!!

How do you incorporate veggies into your morning meals? What are your favourite vegetables to cook with for breafkast?

Toasted Quinoa, Carrot, and Kale

I don't really know what to call this dish, because you can serve it as a whole hot meal, or chill overnight and serve as a salad the next day. Kind of magical, right?

Last week, I was hit with a wave of inexplicable depression (the sun setting as early 3:57 pm could do that to you), and I knew just what would cheer me up...LOBLAWS, WENCHES!

I blissfully stocked up on a colourful array of veggies and noticed some leafy greens on sale (kale, and collars, and chards, oh my!)...but it gets BETTER. When I got to the cash, the sale was not yet entered in the computers. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS: La loi d'exactitude des prix! I got a head of kale for FREE! I felt like an outlaw, first-class.

I marvelled, of course....immobilized and slightly hunched over in triumphant glee.

Then, I got home. My dad looked at me witheringly and said, "you better believe you're cooking some of that tonight, because the fridge is FULL." I set my jaw. Bring it, Dad.

I whizzed through several kale recipes, and this one looked the most appealing...and it's easy peasy.

What You'll Need:

-4-5 carrots, grated or coarsely chopped..whatever floats your boat, really

-1-2 cups quinoa, rinsed

-1/2 head yummy kale, chopped to bite-sized pieces

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1 cup leek (or onion)

-2-3 cloves garlic, minced

-1 tbsp grated ginger

-pepper, to taste

-1 cup water

What To Do:

1) Put a large frying pan on the stove at medium-high heat.

2) While the pan is heating up, rinse and chop your kale. Rinse your quinoa.

3) When the pan is hot, put the quinoa into the pan. TOAST for 10-15 minutes (trust me on this one) or until you see that the seeds turn a couple of shades darker and the kitchen is mm mm fragrant!

4) Once your quinoa is done toasting, pour in 1/2 cup water. Cover, keeping on medium heat. When the quinoa is almost cooked, reduce the heat, and move it to the edges of the pan and drizzle some olive oil in the free space, and toss the leek in. Sautée the leek gently--watch, because it burns easily! After 1-2 min, toss in minced ginger and your grated carrots. Cook for another minute or two, and serve HOT, with freshly ground pepper.

...Dayum!

Yields a lot of servings.

NB: The only thing I would change about this recipe is that it is admittedly, a little bland. Up the ginger, pepper, or think about adding red pepper flakes, sage, or some other spices you think would make a good combination.

KIMCHI

KIMCHI - you either love it or hate it. If you're like me, you LURRVE it! But if you are on a budget, the price of store bought kimchi can get expensive (especially when you have a hungry hungry hippo.... I mean husband). When I lived alone in downtown Ottawa, I used to buy a large tub of kimchi for $12.99 at the Korean grocery store which would last me a month, at T&T the smallest container (like one meal's worth) is roughly $5 bucks. Btw I have no idea how much kimchi costs in Montreal.

So what do I do? I make it... the easy way.

Chop two Napa cabbages into 2 inch pieces. Peel and chop one daikon (Lobok) radish into inch pieces. Put into a large pot. Mix one cup of water with a quarter cup of coarse sea salt. Pour over cabbage and radish. Let sit over night on counter. I usually put a plate on top of the cabbage then a lid.

The next day it looks like this.

Remove the salt water and set aside.

Chop 4-6 green onions into 2 inch lengths. Add to pot.

Add some minced ginger (2-3 tbs).

Add some fish sauce (2-3 tbs).

Add hot pepper flakes and lots of minced garlic (7+ cloves).
MIXY MIXY and.....

Put into jars. Pour reserved salt water on top.
Let sit on counter for 3 days, then put it into the fridge and to let it mature for a week.

This should last me a month. Happy Kimchi'ing! :)