Somebody stop me

I roasted pumpkin seeds today for the first time in probably 4 years.

They turned out super well and now I can't stop eating them. I wish I had more. Lots more.

I sprinkled them with roasted salt and pepper which I always have in my cupboard. I love the smoky, salty, spiciness of it and it's excellent on pumpkin seeds. Can't wait until next year to make more.

We got Boo'd!

It's Paxton's first Halloween, and last summer before he was born, when we were in Calgary we bought a little pumpkin costume from a consignment shop. Last week Scott put him in it (those of you on my Facebook already know this) and I cried for 20 minutes. Where did my baby go? Who is this big 11 month old BOY? We got him back in the costume today for some photos (on facebook and flickr). Man, I got me a cute little one.

Here are our pumpkins this year. Scott did this very impressive Frankenstein:

I did this one, from an old Martha Stewart magazine, I think. I used a drill and drilled holes all over it:

Late this afternoon someone rang our doorbell and when Scott opened the door there was a bag of candy on the mat

We got Boo'd! I read about this a couple of years ago on Suburban Bliss.

I thought it was a fantastic idea but we don't know any of our neighbors but one, and they don't celebrate Halloween. But since whoever Boo'd us doesn't know us, it doesn't matter. I'll be doing this next year for sure.

But someone remind me, ok?

Zucchini Sticks with Hollandaise Sauce

I remember when I was a kid that my parents would have company over and sometimes my mom would make zucchini sticks with hollandaise sauce. I LIVED for these nights. Seriously, this dish would make it onto my last meal menu.

The zucchini sticks are basic - sliced zuke dunked in beaten egg, then tossed in seasoned flour and fried in an inch or 2 of oil until nice and brown. Drain briefly on paper towels so you don't burn your little mouth.

I make my hollandaise sauce from the recipe my Mom gave me, from Best of Bridge - here. The best, seriously.

If you're underweight and need to put on a few pounds fast, make up a big ole batch of this. If you're a pudge like me, make it once every 5 years and dream about it the rest of the time.

Bread Baking Babes - Portuguese Corn Bread

This month the bread for our Bread Baking Babes was chosen by Elizabeth from blog from OUR kitchen. She picked a Portuguese bread called "Broa". The bread is made with cornmeal and corn flour, with about a jillion, or maybe around 6 risings.

But it's a pretty straightforward bread. I was a little worried about how mine would turn out as my dough seemed a little more....solid than the recipe wrote. Elizabeth talked about sloppy dough, and having to use a scraper to move the dough, but mine was very.....doughy.

But it seemed to be behaving and rose well. I slashed the dough before I baked it, as I have become quite interested in slashing. The slashing came out not too bad, could have been worse, could have been better.  As for the bread itself - I liked it.  A nice crisp crust and a delicious, slightly corny interior. 

Wanna be a Bread Baking Buddy this month? Head over to Elizabeth's for the recipe and make the bread and send her a link by October 29.

Cheers!

Chicken Fries with Tatziki Dip

This was a fun dinner I made a few months ago, I was working on a bunch of "fries" posts that went nowhere. This was one of my favorites. (The carrot fries were awesome, but the photos and notes are missing, feared never to be seen again.)

I cut a chicken breast into strips, then tossed them with some greek seasoning. I made a tatziki dip with yogurt, shredded cucumber, diced tomato, lemon juice and more greek spice. Then I dunked the chicken into a tempura batter and cooked them in a couple of inches of oil.


Tempura batter
1 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup cold water

Whisk all ingredients together. Let stand 30 minutes before using.

Greek Chicken Wraps

I love meals that are easy. I love meals that produce leftovers (most of the time). And I love wraps.

There was a pack of chicken legs in the freezer and some greek seasoning in the cupboard. And some tortillas in the fridge. Greek wraps!


I set out bowls of chopped cucumber, lettuce, tomatos and olives, and crumbled feta cheese.


The chicken legs were doused in the greek spice, then grilled on the bbq. Once done, the meat was removed from the bone and chopped.


Layer the veggies, cheese and meat as you like on the tortilla, and dollop tatziki on top for good measure. Add a little hot sauce if you're feeling spicy. Roll up and devour.

Balls! Of Cake!

I'm sure you've all seen cake balls before, they've been floating around the internet for a couple of years now, most noticeably by Bakerella, who makes some phenomenal stuff.

This summer I was reading a parenting magazine that had an article about food on sticks for kids, and they had done cake pops, cake balls on sticks, with a sugar glaze instead of a dipped chocolate crust. I thought they looked fun and easy and it just happened that I needed to make a dessert for an upcoming family birthday.

I gave them a test run and while we enjoyed the cake balls, the glaze didn't work very well. Also, the dessert was going to have to travel to a different city and be stored overnight in a hotel fridge, so doing cake pops with sticks wasn't looking like a good idea. So we stuck with the balls.

Here is Bakerella's post on cake balls, if you'd like to see.

So you bake a cake. I made a box cake mix, I believe it was butter pecan. Bake it and let it cool. They break it up with your hands into fine crumbs.

Then you add frosting, again store bought. I used cream cheese frosting. Bakerella's tutorial uses a whole can and the magazine article used 1/2 a can. I used about 3/4's. Plop in the frosting and mix well until evenly incorporated and the cake will hold together in balls and you like the taste. Then form into balls. You could use a little scoop, but I just used my hands. I went fairly small, so the balls could be 1 or 2 bites. I got about 60.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. 

Then you've got to coat them in something, cause they aren't very cute naked. As I said the glaze (powdered sugar and milk) didn't work for me, so I bought some of those candy chips from Michaels to dip them in. I am not very good with finicky stuff, so they didn't come out smooth, and some didn't even get a very good coating, but they looked not bad. I stuck them in little candy papers. And chilled again in the fridge.

Because these were for a birthday, I set some aside plain and some we "decorated" with icing tubes to read "Happy Birthday".

The end result looked like the baby may have made them, but!  They tasted great and was a cute alternative to a traditional birthday cake.  These would be fun for any kind of party and super fun for kids.  I guess I'll have to work on my decorating skills for future kid birthday parties.....

Japadog

In the spring I visited Vancouver twice and it was my goal, my mission, to eat at Japa Dog at least once. And I did.

The hardest part was finding them, what with my very bad map reading skills. At the time they were working on opening their first store front on Robson St, which they've now done, and so I had to hunt down one of their carts. Finally I found one AND managed to be near it during operating hours!


After a brief wait, in which I could read the list of all the "famous" people who've eaten there (Today show people, Anthony Bourdain, Steven Segal) we got our dogs. I got the Terimayo, a hot dog with teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed.


Scott got what I think was the Oroshi dog, with grated radish, green onion, and "special" soy sauce.

Verdict - they were both pretty good. The seaweed was awkward to eat, as lots of the pieces blew off as we ate on the side of the road. But teryiaki and mayo can make stuff like that all better. The grated radish was very refreshing and delicious. If I was hungry and in the area, I would most likely go back.

bites

Last month at my fathers request I made him and my mom my pork skewers with almond butter sauce, the recipe I have entered in the Maple Leaf contest.

You still have time to vote for me! Go to facebook, and visit the Maple Leaf page. You have to "like" the page, and then click on the red box that says Vote Now, and then you can click on (MY) any recipe you like, and then click on the "like" button.

That'd be super. Thanks.

___________________________

I have some really excellent cookbook reviews coming up this month and next month, but I want to tell you right now about one that I bought myself - Balls!: Round the World Fare for All Occasions by Angela Murrills. I LOVE THIS BOOK. It has, as it states on the cover "Over 100 Ball-istic recipes" for every kind of meatball, fruitball, riceball, dessertball, fishball, and pretty much anything round that you could think of. We've tried the French Meatball and Onion Soup (which was amazing), the Gehaktballen (Dutch Meatballs) (very very nice), Boules Provencales (tasty), Bistro "Steak" with Oven Fries (delicious), and Grapes Glaces (refreshing). I've got many many more of the recipes marked, and when Fall arrives (it is so gorgeous right now! And how many parenthesis am I using here???) we'll give some more of them a try. Check out this book, you'll love it.

___________________________

Last month I crossed something off my Life List - I gave blood.

I tried to do that in the spring, but because I'd given birth just a few months before I was not eligible. Then I got a little freaked out and avoided making an appointment for the rest of spring/all summer when I could have given. But they called me last month and I stopped being a weenie and went and did it.

It was a piece of cake. And I'll be doing it again and again for sure. Free cookies!

___________________________

If you happen to be in the BC area, here's 3 things you might like. First, in Vernon - Davison Orchard, about an hour away from Kamloops (where I live). We went last month for the first time and enjoyed it. Paxton is a little too young for the kid activities, but we had a nice walk and a delicious lunch which included apple pie and fresh apple juice, and the most delicious turkey and spinach sandwich. Then we bought a bunch of apples and tomatos and delicious rye bread and went home. Paxton enjoyed the tomato container.

Also last month we went with my parents to the annual autumn feast at Thistle Farms. It was a beautiful setting and the food was lovely. I hope to go back again.

And last, the Salmon Run has started up at Adams River. This is an annual occurrence, which I've mentioned before. This is the biggest run in about 100 years, with millions and millions of salmon swimming home to spawn before they die. We've seen them swimming up the Thompson River, right at the park downtown, which is something we haven't seen in other years. We haven't gone to Adams River yet, probably in a couple of weeks, but I'll share photos and more info with you then.

Happy Sunday!

Wordless Recipe - S'mores

Can You Cook Rachael Ray Recipes in 30 Minutes? Recipe 6 - Beans and Rice

Here's our last recipe for this wee project - Smoky Red Rice and Chorizo with Black Beans.

Basically 4 steps to this - cook the rice. Puree some roasted peppers and such and stir into the rice. Cook the chorizo. Cook together the tomatos, beans, onions and garlic. Oh, step 5 - assemble.


I had some thinly sliced chorizo in the freezer, cut like pepperoni for pizza, so I cut it into fourths and used that.  I used probably a third of what the recipe calls for, but because it was cut thin, there was a lot of it.  I drained the tomatos for the beans as per the instructions, but I wished I hadn't.  I would have liked that sauce to be a little juicer.

How long did it take?


A respectable 26 minutes. 

Well, I am pretty happy with the results of this. Out of 6 recipes, only 2 took longer than 30 minutes, and all 6 were very good meals that I would make again.

Now if I could get some less fun projects cleared off my plate.....

Can You Cook Rachael Ray Recipes in 30 Minutes? Recipe 5 - Soup

I chose this recipe specifically because I had some Italian sausage in the freezer.  Don't you love it when you can make a meal that doesn't require a trip to the store?  I do.

This is Pasta e Fagioli, our 5th recipe.

This was easy. Cook sausage, cook veggies, add broth, cook pasta. A terrific soup for a cool Fall night. Again, my only beef (hee!) with this recipe would be the amount of sausage. It just seems like an excessive amount of meat.

Unbelievably, this took the longest of any of the recipes so far, just over 38 minutes.

But you know what? This was excellent. Excellent, excellent. The best soup that I've made in a long time. Even though it took longer than 30, this would be at the top of my list.

Tomorrow, our last recipe.

Can You Cook Rachael Ray Recipes in 30 Minutes? Recipe 4 - Lettuce Wraps

The fourth recipe for CYCRRRI30M is........ Thai Glazed Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Again, not an overly difficult recipe. Chicken and veggies with a somewhat Asian-y sauce. The coleslaw mix I bought was quite a rough chop, so I added a bit of water and cooked it for a few extra minutes. And voila:


And again, this was good. I love lettuce wraps and eating with my fingers so I was more than happy. We shared this with my parents (gave them the leftovers) and they enjoyed it too.

How long did it take?


Even with the extra cooking time, a shockingly brief 21 minutes!

I used soy sauce instead of the fish sauce, and forgot about the cucumber. Neither had a negative impact on the dish.

So far out of the 4 30 Minute Recipes we've tried, 3 of them were easily done within the allotted time.

Can you cook Rachael Ray recipes in 30 minutes? Recipe 3 - Tostadas

Recipe number 3 in this project is Roasted Corn Tostadas.

Pretty straightforward. Corn roasted on the bbq, then cut off the cob. Tortillas toasted with beans and cheese, then topped with the corn and various other toppings. Delicious and fast, yes? Delicious, yes. Fast, surprisingly no!

I think it was our really really hot weather, but I was really rushing with this one. I chose to use the grill to cook the corn and warm the tortillas but I was warm and beginning to feel queasy. Even though the grill was super hot it took longer that the recipe stated to grill the corn. Then I grilled the tortillas, which I couldn't walk away from, so then they had to sit there and get congealed while I cut the corn, assembled, etc.


How long did it take?


A surprising 33 minutes. If I hadn't been rushing, I think it would have been in the 40's.

However, this was my favorite of the 3 recipes so far. If you replaced the grilled corn with some additional veggies or some sort of leftover, this would be a really quick dinner. I love tortillas and try to keep them on hand at all times. This would be something I would definitely make when I'm back at work.

HOWEVER, the chipolte cream was a disaster. The cream curdled and was so unappetizing looking I couldn't bear to put it on the tostadas. We went with salsa instead and I flushed the cream down the toilet.

2 out of 3 recipes have been made in 30 minutes or less. Tomorrow - chicken.

Can you cook Rachael Ray recipes in 30 minutes - Recipe 2 - Pasta

The second recipe for the CYCRRRI30M is a pasta dish, Napa Noodles.

I have a beef I must share with you. On her 30 minute show, when she makes pasta, she'll take a pot over to the sink to fill with water to boil the pasta, then she'll leave the water running and walk away to do something else. THEN she goes back to the sink, where the water is STILL running into the overflowing pot, turns off the water, and dumps out a bunch. Is this necessary? There is already so much food waste from cooking shows, does this have to happen? Can't the pot already have water in it and be sitting on the stove, waiting for her to turn it on? You may not, and probably don't, care about this. But it bothers me every single time I see it.

Anyhoo, this dish goes a little more smoothly than the burger. I work at a normal pace. I get all the ingredients prepped while the water is coming to a boil, and the veggies cooked while the noodles are cooking. I cooked the veg a little longer than the recipe states, so the cabbage seemed to dissolve. I used peas instead of edamame, and egg noodles instead of soba. There are green onions in there, but they are hiding in the photo below:

How long did it take?

27 minutes.

This is a really nice pasta dish, a nice way to use napa cabbage other than a straight stir fry. Scott loved it and ate nearly the whole dish by himself. I managed to get a couple of spoonfuls.

So far 2 of 2 recipes have cooked in less than 30 minutes!

Tomorrow - another vegetarian dish.

Can you cook Rachael Ray recipes in 30 minutes? Recipe 1 - Ham Burger

The first recipe I made for this project is Ham Burger.

Stopwatch started and go.

Right off the bat I break my first rule - no panicking. I feel like I'm in a race - I'm running around, grabbing what I need, hurrying. I make a mistake early on, I misread the recipe in my haste and add too much seasoning. Not the end of the world, but that makes me stop, take a breath and start moving at a more regular pace.

These burgers are very straightforward - mix the patty ingredients, form them, grill them and the pineapple and assemble.

We end up with this -


First off, this burger needs a new name, like the Super Awesome Burger, because it is. The pork and ham and maple syrup make a terrific patty. And I love anything with pineapple in it.
The patties are too big. There is 1 3/4 pounds of meat for 4 burgers. That is WAY too much meat for 4 people. I did make just 4 patties, but if I made these again I would either scale back the amounts, or make at least 6 patties.

I left off the chutney because the cheapest jar of mango chutney I could find was $5. The burgers didn't need it anyway.

How long did it take?

29 minutes.

Most of the time was spent waiting for the burgers to cook; they were super thick. But as I said, easy and delicious. I would make these again for sure.

Tomorrow, we make pasta!

Can you cook Rachael Ray recipes in 30 minutes? The beginning.....

I was perusing through my archives a couple of weeks ago looking for a certain recipe that I couldn't remember enough about to do a search on, and I came across a couple of posts from a few years back about Rachael Ray recipes I'd made, and how I was not able to get them made in 30 minutes. I must admit that RR has grown on me over the past while and when Paxton was a wee baby who would only sleep if he was in my arms, we watched a LOT of Rachael, both her cooking show and her talk show.

Eventually (ie within a couple of months) I'll be working somewhere (hopefully somewhere much much MUCH better than the place I left in November)  and I wonder a lot how everything will get done. I know it will, it's not like I'm the first person to have a kid and work, but it seems so overwhelming right now. My to do list is long and painful, but I've added to it to find some good solid fast recipes that I can whip up after
work, recipes that won't keep me in the kitchen for hours with cooking or cleaning.

So I thought hey, I should give her 30 minute recipes another try. And this time, use a stopwatch to see how long it really takes me.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be posting 6 Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals, how long each one took, and what we thought.

The rules are:
- no panicking. By which I mean, just because I am timing myself I won't rush. I will cook at a normal pace.
- make the recipe as close to as written as possible. I rarely follow recipes to the letter, but in this case I will. however, I may
- make substitutions as necessary. If a recipe calls for boneless chicken but I have some bone-in in the freezer, I will use that. If a recipe calls for linguine and I have spaghetti, that's ok too.

I think this will be fun, y'all. See you tomorrow.

Corn!

I bought some more corn, about a week after that post. I decided this time I would grill the corn before I cut it off the cob and froze it.

I saved a few cobs from the freezer so we could try Summer Corn with Pappardelle, Brown Butter and Herbs from make grow gather.

Amazing. Nothing else to say.

Bread Baking Babes - Brunkans Langa

I will give you a direct quote from Gorel, our Babe of the Kitchen this month, on the bread she chose:
"Brunkan is a nickname for Brunkebergs bageri (the bakery of Brunkeberg, situated in Stockholm), and ”långa” means ”the long one”. When they bake this bread at the Brunkeberg bakery, it is more than two feet long – hence the name. The owner of this bakery is Heléne Johansson, an IT consultant who decided she needed a career change and thus started her own bakery in 2002. This proved to be very successful, and she has now started a second bakery and also taken on catering as a business. A true babe, isn’t she? This bread is from the book ”Bröd” (Bread) that Heléne published last year and which contains the most popular breads in her line."

Is that not a great and intriguing introduction to this months bread? Well then let me tell you more. Not only does the bread require a starter because it's a sourdough (yipee!), the starter is made with graham flour, which I've never used before. And shockingly, could actually get my hands on!

My story does not have a good beginning, however. I went to the 2 "largest" health/natural food stores here, which happen to be about a block away from each other. The first was closed, so we walked to the other. I scoured the flour aisle but could not see graham flour. A clerk asked me if I needed help and I told him what I was looking for. I followed him to a different aisle, where he waved his arm towards.....a bunch of cookies. No no, I said, I need graham flour. Just take the graham cookies and grind them up! he replied.

Even I knew that probably wasn't right.

The other store managed to open on a weekday and I found the flour there within seconds. Graham flour is actually a type of whole wheat flour, with both finely and coarsely ground components. And you thought I didn't know anything!

So, you make your starter, which takes at least 3 days. After which you can either store your starter and occasionally feed, or make the bread. But then when you mix the dough, it needs an overnight rise in the fridge. We had some last minute company who would be leaving the day the dough would be ready to bake, so I figured the day before I'd make the dough and then it could sit in the fridge until they left, at which time I'd bake it.

They decided that last morning that they'd stay another day if that was ok with us. It was, and I told myself that I was sure the dough would be ok in the fridge for another day. But then I opened the fridge.


The dough was massive! I was truly afraid that if I left it any longer it would end up stuck to the sides of the fridge. So I baked it that morning.


What a bread! The sourness was very light but lovely. If you wanted it stronger you could certainly leave the started longer before you bake, but I loved it just as it was. I gave one loaf to my parents and we motored thru that second loaf in less than 2 days. It was easy and lovely and very impressive.


A word of warning - this is a big dough. So unless you have a really big mixer (not a regular kitchenaid as that is what i have), mix this by hand!

Please visit Gorel for the recipe, and the rest of the Babes (listed over on the left) to see how their breads turned out. If you'd like to be a buddy, bake the bread and send a link to your post to Gorel by the 29th.

fish - vancouver