FNCCC - Nigella Lawson

This weeks Food Network host for the FNCCC is Nigella Lawson, a favorite of mine. I've cooked a ton of her recipes and loved almost all of them.

I was looking for something easy to cook for Sunday lunch and remembered that Nigella's book Forever Summer has a lot of simple recipes that I haven't tried yet. I chose her Rigatoni Al Pomodoro E Prezzemolo - tomato and garlic sauce.

Delicious and easy!

Visit Sarah at I Thank My Mother to see what other Nigella recipes were made.

Rigatoni Al Pomodoro E Prezzemolo
Nigella Lawson

6 Tb extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, cut into thin slivers
1 3/4 cups (14 oz) canned chopped tomatos
1/2 cup vegetable stock
bunch fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
1 pound rigatoni

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil for the pasta.
Heat the oil and gently fry the garlic over low to medium heat. When it begins to take on a golden color add the tomatos and turn up the heat. Stir in the stock and let it bubble away, reducing the sauce until it becomes quite lumpy and oily; this should take no more than about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and (just before serving) add the parsley. Taste for seasoning.
Meanwhile, cook the rigatoni following the instructions on the package then then toss the pasta into the sauce in the pan. Combine everything well and serve straightaway.

A soup kind of day

We have had an incredibly mild winter this year - very few cold days, hardly any snow.....quite frankly it's been a dream season for us and the baby. No worrying about having to take him out in freezing cold temperatures. No driving on snow and ice covered roads. No major snowstorms to shovel out of while pregnant or recovering from surgery. I'm sure we're in for a bad summer with such low snow levels and that sucks but still. It was good for us.
Which was why yesterday morning was such a shock when we got a 2 inch snow dump in just a few short hours. It was cold (well, below zero) and by the time I was done shoveling I was exhausted and my back was screaming in pain. Out of practice, I guess.

Early last year, or maybe even in 2008 we saw an episode of a Jamie Oliver show where he cooked a leek and chickpea soup. I made a note in one of my notebooks about it -

leek chickpea soup
jamie oliver

leek
dry cpeas
potato
broth
puree
parm

I'd recently stocked up on canned beans at a grocery store sale so I picked up a couple of fat leeks late last week. Yesterday was definitely a soup kind of day.

I didn't follow his recipe exactly; here's what I did:

Leek and Chickpea Soup

2 tb oil
2 large leeks
4 cloves garlic
1 medium or large potato
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups water
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 cup or more grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Cut the roots and the dark green ends off the leeks, and cut them down the middle lengthwise. Rinse very very well under running water to get rid of all the dirt. Shake off excess water and roughly chop. Add to the pot, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes, until the leeks are soft and just start to color. Chop the garlic and add to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes. Dice the potato and add to the pot along with the chickpeas, water and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or so, until the potatos are tender. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender. Stir in the cheese and let melt, then taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and more cheese if desired.

Ma Po Tofu

This is by far my favorite recipe I've tried so far out of my new Mark Bittman cookbook. I've made it 3 times since getting the book last month. Dishes like these keep me happy enough to almost forget that I've had Vietnamese food only once in the past 2+ years. Almost.

I love this because it's simple, fast and delicious. You don't really need to measure the ingredients, just eyeball and add to taste. The recipe in the book calls for 1/4 lb of ground pork (the recipe in the link below calls for 1/4-1/2) and I've never made it with that little amount - Scott could eat 1/4 lb of meat by himself easily. I made it again 2 nights ago with a full pound of meat and have been enjoying leftovers for lunch ever since.

I've been trying to work on my time management skills, meaning that when the baby naps instead of collapsing into a heap in front of the tv or computer, I try to get cleaning or laundry or cooking done. I started this in the afternoon while the baby was sleeping but only got to adding the green onions and water before he woke up, but it was actually a perfect place to make ahead to. That night when the rice was almost done, all I had to do was bring the pork back to a simmer and add the tofu and soy sauce. I also like to add a little bit of hoisin to my bowl, but I am addicted to that stuff.


Recipe: Mark Bittman's Ma Po Tofu

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day

I love to be in the kitchen. I love to cook and I've really enjoyed working on bread baking the past couple of years. In fact, before I went on maternity leave I informed Scott that we would no longer be buying bread from the store; I would be making bread a couple of times a week. He agreed that was a wonderful idea but talked me out of buying the 25lb bag of flour from Costco. More worried I think, about me trying to haul it home myself while 8 months pregnant. (Of course I am not baking bread a couple of times a week. I was a fool to think I could. A FOOL!)

But! Perhaps you've heard of a little book that came out a couple of years ago called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It exploded off the shelves with rave reviews and made it simple to bake great tasting bread. And now Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg have followed up with a second book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They've turned their skills to healthy breads this time around - whole grain, gluten free, and more.

So what is the secret to their system? A large batch of dough is mixed up and left in the fridge. When you're ready to bake a loaf all you need to do is cut off the correct sized piece, shape it, let it rise, and bake it. And you've got practically effortless bread.

There is a ton of variety in the book - 100 recipes - covering everything from a basic whole wheat loaf to fancier specialty breads like pumpernickel and brown rice. You can make a loaf, baguettes, or buns, and there are even recipes to turn some doughs into doughnuts, muffins or crescent rolls. Savory, sweet, traditional and innovative..... more breads than you could imagine.

Before jumping in, make sure you read the first four chapters which cover techniques and advice, ingredients and equipment. This is all both fascinating and of course extremely helpful. Then wade into the various bread chapters and start making the tough decision of what to make first.

I started off with the basic whole grain dough. The recipe makes enough dough for 4 one lb loaves, and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 14 days. The recipe turned out lovely, hearty loaves and it really did require minimum effort. In addition to loaves, I also made buns and garlic knots, delicious as well. The longer the dough sits in your fridge, the more of a sour tang it will acquire. I made 2 batches of this one, as the first did not last long enough to see how the dough lasted. The last bread I made with dough that had sat for 14 days had a great taste but hardly rose at all, in contrast to other loaves from that batch. But dough is so tempermental who knows what the cause may have been.

I also tried the Pumpkin Pie Brioche. The ingredient list was longer but the dough was still easy and smelled incredible. Sadly though we didn't think that much of it once baked. The texture and rise of the dough were fantastic, but the flavor fell way flat. Another piece of the dough was turned into crescents filled with sugar and more spice, which were fine, but the last piece was tossed as this dough was only good in the fridge for 5 days.

The 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil was also delicious, but with enough dough to make 4 one pound loaves but only with a fridge life of 7 days, we also lost a piece of this one.

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone of any bread baking ability. While the equipment list in the book is a little long and perhaps intimidating, the only 2 "special" pieces of equipment you really need are vital wheat gluten (available at natural food stores) for the dough, and a container large enough to hold the dough in your fridge. The recipes are very well written with delicious introductions and all instructions are clear.

If you're a single or small family and feel intimidated by the large amounts of dough these recipes produce, fear not; most recipes can be halved for smaller more manageable amounts of dough.

Next up for me: the Avocado Guacamole Bread!

Visit Zoe and Jeff's website at Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

the kindness of strangers and my mighty life list

I received the most amazing email yesterday.

Jen, a lovely soul and the author of Chaotic Chef and waiting is fullness, had come across my Mighty Life List. On my list (#75) is to have a header designed for my blog.
Jen made a header for my blog. How kind is that?

I still can't believe it. Isn't it beautiful? I LOVE it and am beyond thrilled.

I am touched by her generosity more than I can say. Thank you again Jen.

Please head over to her post here where she makes designing a header sound so easy.

First thing crossed off my list!

Mighty Life List - 3 things for March

The other day Maggie from Mighty Girl added a few more items to her Life List. I had a few more things on paper that I hadn't added to the list, thinking that the list couldn't have more than 100 things on it which is silly. It's my list, I can add as much as I want! So I've added a few more. You can visit my list here if you'd like.

And then today Maggie announced she'll be crossing off 3 more items from her list this month and challenged us to do the same.

I can't lie, I've been feeling pretty blue the past while and can't seem to shake it. It's a variety of things, some logical and some not. A couple of times last month I re-read my Life List, thinking why did I bother, that many of the items most likely won't ever get crossed off. And while it's true that some of them are long shots, that's no way to think. And live. So I'm taking Maggie up on her challenge.

In March I will cross off the following 3 items off my Mighty Life List -

14 Give blood Update - I am not able to give blood until the summer, says Red Cross
62 Learn to make towel animals
75 Have a header made for my blog - Done! March 6, thanks to Jen.
103 Make paper

I will update as they get crossed off.

How about you? What's on your list? What will you cross off this month?

Some more meals we've had

I have been doing a lot of cooking - a lot of new recipes. I haven't been taking many photos though. Not that that is much of a loss on this blog, most aren't great anyway.

Paxton will be 3 months old on Sunday and this thought delights and shocks me. Shocked because 3 MONTHS! It's gone by at a crawl and in a flash. And just like so many people predicted, I barely remember life before him. He's turned into quite a little personality, a charmer and flirt with anyone who comes into his life, and a bossy little guy for me and Scott, telling us in no uncertain terms when he doesn't whatever injustice we may be subjecting him to, such as a clean outfit, or a new diaper. The nerve of us!

A big lesson I'm still trying to learn is time management. Time didn't really matter BP (before Paxton) - if a dinner recipe was going to take 2 hours to make and dirty most dishes in the kitchen, no big deal. Laundry can be put off for another day. The dishes can sit a while.

Not anymore, unless we want to eat at 9pm (which still sometimes happens) and stay up all night cleaning. I'm trying to choose simpler recipes and also ones that can be prepped or made in advance.

This is something I've been reading about for a long time over at The Cookbook Junkie. Paula is a whiz at choosing recipes that can be made partially or all the way in advance, and reheated when it's time to eat. I'm working on this, using her advice to have a head start on dinners at least a couple of times a week.

A couple of days ago I made Paulas Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs. I'd bought a big pack of thighs and broken them up into groups of 4-5 and frozen them. The day before, I moved a pack from the freezer to fridge, and the morning of, I rubbed the thighs (ooooo!) with the spice mixture and broiled them. This took no time at all and I got it done during one of the baby's catnaps. Then that night all I had to do was mix up the glaze and then toss the thighs back under the broiler for a minute or 2 to reheat before adding the glaze. They were wonderful and super easy. Even if you didn't start these in advance, this is still a fast dinner.

__________________________________


This is a Rachael Ray recipe called Turkey Cordon Bleu Crisp. I made this with some leftover chicken instead of turkey, and some ham I had in the freezer.


It's a savory bread pudding, and there's nothing wrong with that. I liked the flavors of the chicken, ham and swiss cheese. The recipe calls for you to drizzle with maple syrup before you eat, which I meant to do, but forgot. The next morning we had some of the leftovers for breakfast. I didn't think this reheated particularly well; for me it was a one meal recipe. I did remember to add some maple syrup and really liked that.
Turkey Cordon Bleu Crisp.

____________________________________

Another Rachael Ray recipe - Browned Butter Sauce. A very fast pasta sauce. Get your pasta in the water to cook before you make this. All it is is butter, salt, sage, parmesan and cream.

I loved this - similar to the pasta with myzithra I love so much. I used sage I hung up and dried from the garden in the fall, because I didn't want to buy a pack of fresh sage when I only needed 1 teaspoon.
Browned Butter Sauce.

_____________________________________

I am a huge Bobby Flay fan, although I have not made many of his recipes. I found this one for vegetable meatloaf in the Food Network Magazine. I made 2 small ones instead of one big one so I could freeze one for later.

I loved this too, in fact I love meatloaf of almost any kind. Turkey meatloaf is not something I've made a lot of, but I will from now on.
Vegetable Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

____________________________________________

I was sure I'd taken a picture of the Sauerbraten and Spaetzle I'd made, but I can't find any. This was another Food Network Magazine recipe. Sauerbraten is a German dish, like a pot roast. This one is marinated with broth, vinegar, onions, cloves and juniper berries. I couldn't find any juniper berries, but I don't think the dish suffered for it. If you make this, DON'T skip adding the gingersnaps to the sauce at the end. That is what makes it delicious. I had some trouble with the spaetzle, the consistency wasn't right I think, and by the time I had enough for the two of us I was exhausted, the kitchen was a disaster, and I had a couple of nasty steam burns. They were delicious though.
Sauerbraten
Spaetzle

FNCCC - Melissa D'Arabian

This week for the Food Network Cooking Club Challenge we had our choice from 3 hosts - Mary Nolan, Masaharu Morimoto, and Melissa d'Arabian. I chose Melissa not only because I watched her win the Next Food Network Star show (they showed it on foodtv here in Canada at the end of last year) and I enjoy that many of her recipes are quick and easy. These words have been showing up A LOT on my blog lately. QUICK. EASY.

I love scalloped potatos but have never made them from scratch, I always buy the boxed mixes and we have both been fine with those. I saw Melissa's recipe for 5-Minute Individual Potato Gratins and they appealed to me not only because I love potatos but also I had every single ingredient needed in my kitchen.


These are pretty quick, all you have to do is thinly slice some potatos, chop some green onion and shred some swiss cheese. I didn't bother to measure out the cheese or cream, I don't think you need to.

The gratins were delicious and took no longer to make and bake than scalloped potatos from a package! We will definitely being having these a lot in the future.



5-Minute Individual Potato Gratins
Melissa D'Arabian

Vegetable spray
2 large russet potatoes, roughly peeled and thinly sliced (I used red potatos and didn't peel them)
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese (I didn't measure, just sprinkled between the potatos and on top)
2 green onions, finely chopped (I used 4)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream (I didn't measure, just poured some on)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 8 muffin tins with vegetable spray. Layer potato slices, cheese, and onions into each muffin cup. Season with salt and pepper and top each gratin with 1 or 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, removing the foil halfway through cooking time. Invert gratins onto plate and serve.

Bread Baking Babes - Ensaïmadas

Yippee! I am happy to say that this month I got my act together and baked the January BBB bread. This months Kitchen Babe is KAREN (not Lynn, sorry Karen!!!) at Bake My Day, and we traveled to Spain to bake Ensaimadas, an inconspicious looking pastry-like bun which will reveal it's little secret once cut (or bitten into)(In the words of Karen).

These delicious little buns take relatively little time to make. The dough is made with milk and eggs, making it a little bit rich.


Once the dough has risen, circles are thinly rolled and spread with pork fat. I didn't have any on hand, so I used butter.


Roll the circles into cylinders


And coil into a little bun. At this point the buns may rise for 1 hour and up to over night. Mine rose just over 1 hour.

Once baked, sprinkle the buns with powdered sugar.


These were very lovely. I really enjoyed them split and toasted, then spread with some homemade strawberry jam I found in the freezer.


Scott spread one with smoked salmon flavored cream cheese instead of butter, and declared it delicious. I wouldn't know, I hate salmon.

Visit Karen's site for the recipe, and please visit all the Babes (listed over to the right) to see their Ensaimadas. If you'd like to join us as a Bread Baking Buddy, you've got until Feb 25 to get your links to Karen.

Ole!

FNCCC - Mario Batali

He was less than enthused when he read the recipe I'd picked from Mario Batali for the FNCCC.

"There's no sauce!"

Scott is an easygoing guy and is normally fine with whatever I want to cook. But he was not happy about this no sauce thing. But I knew he'd love it once he tasted it. He loves onions, he loves cheese. He loves pancetta. It would be ok.


And it was more than ok. This pasta is terrific, absolutely wonderful. I love it because it's simple and delicious. So few ingredients make huge flavors.

I scaled down the recipe - original is here so I would have little, if any leftovers.
But I had to up the amount of onion and garlic because the amounts in the original seemed too small.

Spaghetti with Garlic, Onion and Pancetta

1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
pinch dried chile pepper flakes
100 grams pancetta, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 pound spaghetti
parmesan cheese

In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat. Add the pepper flakes and pancetta and cook until crisp. Remove the pancetta to a plate. Add the remaining oil, onion and garlic and cook gently until golden brown.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons salt. Cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until tender yet al dente. Drain the pasta and add to the saute pan with the onions. Add some cheese, toss to combine, then toss in the pancetta. Serve with extra cheese if desired.

Please visit I Blame My Mother to see more Mario recipes this week.

Mushroom and Orzo Risotto

I am surprising myself with how well I am doing with trying new recipes (#13 on my Mighty Life List) weekly. (I've decided this was an odd one to put on my list. When do I cross it off? In a year? Never?)
I got some money for Christmas with the instructions to spend it on myself - not bills, groceries, the baby etc. I waffled for a few minutes, then fired up Amazon and ordered myself some books, including Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York Times. I've made 4 dishes so far and they've all been fantastic. Love the book so far.
Last week I planned on making the orzo risotto but I wanted to add to it to make it our main dish. Mushrooms seemed the best way to go.

So I made the orzo risotto, which is super easy. Bring 2 cups of stock (I used chicken) to a boil, then add 1 cup of orzo. Cover and cook over medium low heat for 15 minutes, or until the orzo is cooked through and the liquid is absorbed.
While the orzo was cooking, I sauteed some chopped onion and garlic in a little olive oil, then added a few handfuls of roughly chopped mushrooms. When the mushrooms softened I added a couple of glugs of white wine and seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked until the liquid evaporated.
When the orzo was ready I stirred in a handful of parmesan cheese, then plated the pasta with a big dollop of mushrooms on top, and a little sprinkle of cheese. And look what we had:

This was so good I can't even tell you. And quick! Like less than 20 minutes, if you don't move too slow.

FNCCC - Jamie Oliver

I know, my last post I talked about eating healthy etc, and here I am with a photo of pancakes and bacon. I can't be blamed though, after a couple of nearly sleepless nights I decided to treat us with pancakes for Sunday breakfast. So really, it's the baby's fault.

But let's blame Sarah at I Blame My Mother as well, for having Jamie Oliver as this weeks Challenge host. I have long wanted to try Jamie's Pancakes USA Stylie. I love pancakes but it's so much easier to use pancake mix from the jumbo bag in the closet than to make them from scratch.

The recipe is pretty quick and easy and the cakes come out very light, as the eggs are separated and the whites beaten until stiff before being folded into the batter. And any recipe that suggests sprinkling bacon on/in a dish is ok with me.



Pancakes USA Stylie
Jamie Oliver

3 large eggs
scant 1 cup all purpose flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tb milk
a pinch of salt

First separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use.

Heat a good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. At this point sprinkle your chosen flavouring (see below) on to the uncooked side before loosening with a spatula and flipping the pancake over. Continue frying until both sides are golden.

You can make these pancakes large or small, to your liking. You can serve them simply doused in maple syrup and even with some butter or crème fraîche. Or if you choose to sprinkle with a flavouring, try one of these...

fresh corn from the cob
crispy bacon or pancetta
blueberries
banana
stewed apple
grated chocolate
anything else you can imagine...

Minestrone Soup

So. I'm trying to pull myself together, nutritionally. We don't eat really horribly, but there's always room for improvement. When the baby was born, I gave myself until January 1 to eat as I wanted, and then I'd get back in the saddle. But then I lost all the pregnancy weight in a ridiculously short amount of time (a combination of nerves and witchcraft, I believe) so I moved the deadline to February 1. I was hoping I'd have a better handle on some kind of schedule, and also hoped against hope my appetite might settle down. Sadly neither of those has happened. Paxton is a generally happy little guy but he has no sort of schedule at all. One day at 6pm he could be asleep and we'll be eating dinner, the next day he's furiously angry and dinner is congealing on the stove, if it got made at all. As for my appetite....let's not discuss that right now.

We have good intentions though, and a fridge full of veggies that are beginning to head south. It was the perfect time to make up a big pot of soup. Use up some veg and have some healthy food in the fridge that I could have for lunch, instead of salt and vinegar chips.

Minestrone Soup

2 tb olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups vegetable broth (or chicken)
1 15oz can fire roasted diced tomatos (or regular if you can't get fire roasted)
1 15 oz can beans (kidney, romano etc) drained and rinsed
1 cup small pasta (I used tubetti)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 cups packed spinach, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the carrots, onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally until the veggies are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add the broth, tomatos, oregano, and beans. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and simmer, stirring, until the pasta is cooked, 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat, stir in the spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

This soup will thicken if it sit, so if you make it in advance or have leftovers, no big deal, just stir in some additional broth or water when you reheat.


The best and only photo I have cause guess who was yelling? Hint: not me.

Food Network Chefs Cooking Challenge

Sarah at I Thank My Mother hosts the FNCCC, where every week a different Food Network host/ess is picked and you are free to choose any of that persons recipes to cook and share.

This week is Ina Garten. The Food Network site has over 600 of her recipes, but it didn't take me long to find one to help me use up some potatos and leftover sausage that needed to be eaten - Country Hashed Browns



5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and 1/2-inch diced
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons minced scallions, white and green parts
1/2 pound smoked ham slices, 1/2-inch diced (I used some chopped up leftover sausage)

Melt the butter in a large (10 to 12-inch) saute pan. Add the potatoes, onions, salt, and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally with a flat spatula, until the potatoes are evenly browned and cooked through. (Allow the potatoes to cook for 5 minutes before turning.) Turn off the heat and add the parsley, scallions and ham. Reheat on top of the stove or over a hot charcoal grill.

This was very delicious - any dish full of potatos is a hit with me.
Thanks to Sarah for the challenge, and go check out her blog for the list of upcoming chefs and weeks.

Hot breakfast in less than 5 minutes

Life has changed for Scott and I. Understatement of the year when you have a kid, I know. Gone are the days when we could go to sleep and get up when we wanted, eat when we wanted, go out when we wanted. Now everything revolves around the baby. Things like sleeping, eating and going out can only happen when he's awake (or asleep), or happy, or at least not screaming. And I am not complaining! No, no, no! But man, it's all an adjustment.
The biggest adjustment for me is eating. During my pregnancy, nausea up to the 8th month helped me not gain a ton of weight, which was great since I did not stop myself from eating whatever I wanted. But now that I am nursing (too much information?) I am starving all the time. ALL THE TIME. And it sucks when I'm alone with the baby and he's eating or crying or drifting off to sleep in my arms and I can't put him down and get something to eat. No lie, a couple of times my stomach growling has actually woken him up.
This is a sandwich we've been making for years and it is perfect to make to eat on the go. It's also fast to make and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. Here we go:

For a basic breakfast sandwich I use an english muffin (or bagel), cheese, an egg and some deli ham.


You can change this up as you like - sometimes we use leftover bacon or sausage if we have it in place of the ham. Sometimes I leave out the ham and add tomato slices instead. I usually use a cheese slice, but sometimes slices of cheddar or mozza if I don't have cheese slices.

Mostly I don't add condiments, but you could use butter, mayo, mustard, ketchup, hot sauce, brown sauce - whatever combo appeals to you.

Split the english muffin and toast it. While it's toasting, crack the egg into a microwave safe ramekin. Season with salt and pepper if desired. I always scramble mine.


Microwave until the egg is just set (or to your liking). I nuke mine in 20 second intervals until done. Alternatively you could cook your egg in a pan on the stove.

Assemble your breakfast! English muffin on the plate. Condiments if you're using them. Then your egg, ham, and cheese on the muffin.


Eat, with some ketchup or brown sauce on the side for dipping, if you're so inclined.

dammit!

I can't believe it, I've missed baking with my Bread Baking Babes for the second month in a row.

But I have a very gorgeous excuse:


My apologies to all the ladies. Please visit their blogs (listed over on the right) to see the bread of the month - Naan.

Earthquake in Haiti - donate if you can

World Vision Canada

Unicef

Canadian Red Cross

American Red Cross

Yele Haiti

TEXT Yele TO 501501 AND $5 WILL BE CHARGED TO YOUR CEL PHONE BILL AND WILL GO TO HAITIAN RELIEF PROJECTS

TEXT Haiti TO 90999 AND $10 WILL BE CHARGED TO YOUR CEL PHONE BILL AND WILL GO TO THE RED CROSS.

TEXT Haiti TO 45678 AND$5 WILL BE CHARGED TO YOUR CEL PHONE BILL AND WILL GO TO SALVATION ARMY - THANKS tRASHY

food and links

If I could go back and change one thing from my pregnancy, it would be to cook and freeze a bunch of stuff for easy lunches and dinners for after the baby was born. Every book and magazine I read suggested freezing some lasagnas, casseroles, etc, and stocking up on basic necessities. We stocked up on kleenex and toilet paper, canned soup and cans of beans and tomatos. We bought pork tenderloins and ground beef and chicken, but instead of preparing stuff with them, we froze them as is. I figured, foolishly, that one of us would be able to whip up dinner while the other took care of the baby.

HA!
The first couple of weeks
crawled flew by in a haze of sleeplessness, pain (c-section), and new parent nerves. Most days I couldn't comb my hair, much less whip up dinner. Thank goodness for my parents, who shopped and provided us with food that first little while.
Since we got a (slight) grasp on our new situation, I've tried hard to make tasty, healthy meals that mostly can provide leftovers for other meals. Here's some stuff we've eaten that we enjoyed, and you might too:

This is Cincinnati Chili which is a combo of chili and spaghetti and is really quite wonderful. The sauce is slightly sweet and spicy from ingredients like cinnamon and chocolate, and there are beans! and cheese!


The recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef, but I used 1 lb of leftover Turducken from Christmas. I also mixed the beans right into the sauce, so I could freeze the leftovers, and used green onions to sprinkle on top instead of raw white onions. SO GOOD. I got enough sauce for 3 meals. We will make this on a regular basis.

__________

This one was so easy and also very good - chicken and waffles.
I have long wanted to try chicken and waffles, but believe me there are no restaurants around here that serve food like that. I don't really love frying at home, but this recipe shallow fries chicken tenders (I just sliced up a chicken breast). It also uses frozen waffles, which I always have in the house. We used the last of the excellent Turducken gravy for this, and that made it that much easier.


Whoever thought up this food combination is A GENIUS. This one doesn't really count as healthy though.
__________

I love sweet and sour meatballs, so I had to try these Mini Skillet Meatloaves for their sweet and sour glaze. They were very easy - I mixed up and formed the loaves in the morning and made the sauce, so we only had to cook them and heat up our side dishes at dinnertime. Paxton decided to have a screaming fit when dinner was ready, so there are no photos. But please, enjoy this one:

__________

Scott's favorite dish out of this group is this one, the Smokin' Chicken Burger. Ground chicken and mushroom patties topped with carmelized onions and a red wine sauce. We also added cheese because we could. Pow!


___________

I am still so enjoying reading Cookin' with Coolio and the next recipe I tried was for Karate Meat. Sliced steak cooked with onions, garlic, chile powder and 5 spice powder. I added a bell pepper cause I had one.


This book seriously is fantastic, and I was so happy to hear from 2 people who bought it after reading about it here. I hope they are enjoying it as much as I am. You should get it too!

Christmas Dinner 2009

For the past 3 holiday seasons we've branched out from the standard turkey and tried something new for Christmas dinner. Back in 2006 we went Swedish. 2007 was French Canadian, and last year we did Italian.
This year we didn't stray really too far from a traditional dinner - we had a Turducken.
A Turducken is a partially deboned turkey that's stuffed with a deboned duck that has been stuffed with a deboned chicken. And then the chicken is stuffed with stuffing. Sounds cool, doesn't it?
We were quite startled to find Turkucken in the grocery store here. I can't buy corn tortillas, but there's turducken?

Our Turducken was cajun style, stuffed with a sausage stuffing and in a spicy cajun rub. Here it is right before being tossed in the oven.

And here it is 4 hours later. Isn't it pretty? And very low maintenance. All we had to do was uncover it after 3 hours, and then take its temperature to make sure it's done.

Here's the inside. Doesn't that make your mouth water? I was expecting to be able to see the 3 layers of 3 birds, but you can't tell the chicken from the turkey from the duck. Or at least I can't. But doing a search shows that this is somewhat normal.

The thing, by the way was amazing. The meat was so moist and tender and the cajun seasoning was excellent.

Here's our Christmas feast. We had dinner at our house and my parents were fabulous enough to cook all the food but the Turducken which we cooked and bring it to our house. They are super. In addition to the Turducken we had regular stuffing, mashed potatos, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, roasted carrots and parsnips and of course gravy. The gravy was amazing. We also set out Christmas crackers, but didn't pull them for fear of waking the baby.


For dessert my parents made Louisiana Bread Pudding with Lemon Sauce and Chantilly Cream. No pictures, but ohmygod, you have to make this! Best bread pudding I've ever had and you can't skip the 2 sauces. Since I am typing this with one hand while I have the baby in the other, I won't write out the recipe, but here's a link to someone who's made it. The only difference I see in the recipe is that they've increased the raisins from 1/4 cup.
Bread Pudding, Lemon Sauce and Chantilly Cream recipes

2009

Well since I can't focus long enough to write anything about food I've made lately, here's the end of the year quiz that I also did in 2006 and 2007.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
I had a baby! We went to Alaska. We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Last years resolution was like so many years before, to drop some pounds and get in better shape. I made a start on it, but suffered from bad morning sickness from pretty much the second I got pregnant until about my 8th month. Not that I was hoping to lose weight while pregnant, but I was unable to do any sort of exercise except walking, and a lot of the time I couldn't even do that.
My other recurring resolution is to be more organized and I failed on that in 2009.
My resolutions for 2010 are the same - get more fit and become more organized.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! ME!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, Scotts Grandmother passed away in the summer, and in December a former work friend died.

5. What countries did you visit?
The U.S.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Here's what I said before - More confidence in myself; the ability to not worry so much about things I can't control; World Peace; some new clothes. And a smaller ass.
I would still like these things, along with more self discipline to do things that have to be done, not to put them off and off and off.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The night we found out I was pregnant. When we told our parents. The day Paxton was born. Our first Christmas as a family of 3.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Growing and birthing a baby.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Same as always. I haven't been very organized.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
After being induced and going through 32+ hours of labor, I had a c-section.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Baby gear, I guess?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Scott, for sure, and my Mom and Dad. They were all so wonderful and supportive during the pregnancy and since Paxton was born. I am so lucky to have such a great family.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The government. Lying liars who lie.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage. Getting ready for the baby.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The baby, of course.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Just Dance by Lady Gaga. On mornings I had really bad morning sickness and had to go to work, I would sing along in the car to pep myself up.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
Happier.
Shockingly I have already lost the weight I gained during pregnancy, so it's probably a draw.
Poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Being organized. Resting. Worrying less.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worring about things that don't matter in the "big picture".

20. How did you spend Christmas?
We spent it at our house. My parents came for dinner.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yup.


22. What was your favorite TV program?
Glee, baby!

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is such a strong word. But sadly yes, there is.

24. What was the best book you read?
I didn't keep my book list like I have the past couple of years, and my memory is non-existent now. I did re-read My Life in France by Julia Child.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I liked Lady Gaga, the Glee soundtrack. Anything I could sing along to.

26. What did you want and get?
A new member of the family.

27. What did you want and not get?
A new car, a winning lottery ticket.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Julie and Julia. LOVE Meryl Streep.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Scott took me out for dinner to my favorite restaurant in town and we shared a bunch of appetizers instead of entrees. Duck fat fries, I love you most of all.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Daily massages and weekly pedicures. And a winning lottery ticket.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
If it even remotely fits, wear it.

32. What kept you sane?
Scott.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still heart Miikka Kiprusoff.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Budget cuts, the HST. Damn you, Government.

35. Who did you miss?
It depends on my hormone level. Some days, everyone. Some days, no one.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
The baby! Best new person EVER.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Life is beautiful.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Don't stop belieeeeeeeeeeeving. Hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeeeling.