Weekend Herb Blogging - Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

Scott made this fabulous salad for dinner on Monday night; a quick meal before I left for school. It was very fast to put together and was so flavorful. If we loved it this much in the winter I can only imagine how great it will be on a hot summers night.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons

4 to 6 garlic cloves

1 cup chopped and loosely packed cilantro

1/2 jalapeno or other fresh hot pepper, chopped (optional)

3 TB sugar

1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)

3 TB Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce, OR 1 tsp salt

12 oz dried rice vermicelli

2 carrots peeled and cut into a thin julienne or grated

1 english cucumber halved, seeded and cut into thin slices

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

4 (we used much more) Napa cabbage leaves (optional)

1/4 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped

mint for garnish

Place the garlic, cilantro and hot pepper in a food processor, process until coarsely chopped. Add the sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce or salt and blend again. Let sit while you chop the vegetables and cook the noodles.

Cook the rice noodles until just tender in boiling water. Drain and rinse with cold water until the noodles are cool. Place in a large bowl.

Toss the noodles with the vegetables and dressing. Garnish each serving with peanuts and additional mint.

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My fellow Babe and just all-around lovely person Astrid of Paulchens Food Blog is hosting this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, so I must send this salad full of cilantro and mint for her to include in the round up! See more details here.

Cooking Book 5

I was planning on giving you an exhaustive list of all the recipes in my Book 5 - what I'm going to cook, what I've already cooked, what I'm skipping.

Meh. Do any of us care that much? No, I didn't think so.

I've still got quite a list of recipes to try. So far this has been fun and I'm glad I'm doing it.

Here we go:

Zucchini Tart with Bacon, adapted from The Best Recipes In The World

I don't know how much this differs from the original but hot damn this was good. This was GOOD.

Pizza dough (I use my new favorite from Canadian Living's Vegetarian Cookbook)

3-4 small zucchini, shredded

3-4 slices bacon, chopped

3 cloves garlic

brie cheese (or other as desired)

Fry the bacon in a pan over medium heat until cooked but not too well done. Saute the zucchini and garlic in the bacon fat until golden.

Prebake the pizza dough until firm but not done. Top with the zucchini and bacon and sprinkle lightly with cheese. Bake until the crust is brown and cheese is melted.

Red Beans with Cheese, Martha Stewart

This was a fast, tasty dinner. Versatile too; I spooned the beans over half a baked potato. Scott rolled his in a tortilla with lettuce and tomato. The baby smeared his into his hair. Recipe here.

Black Bean and Corn Tacos, Vegetarian Times

Another keeper. Recipe here.

This was a not very good sweet and sour chicken recipe.  Enough said.

Vegetable Linguine, Vegetarian Times

This was pretty gross.  Asparagus and zucchini sliced with a vegetable peeler and cut into "noodles".  Which is good!  The problem is the recipe tells you to cook them in boiling water for 2 minutes, which is at least 1 minute too long.  These were mushy and unappetizing.  We fed them to the baby.

Spiced Shredded Pork, Martha Stewart

I think one of the best things about this project is rediscovering Martha. I've made some pretty kick ass MS recipes from this book. This one was super good. Recipe here. This is a good make ahead one too, I cooked and shredded the pork, then refrigerated it with the butter and oil and salt and pepper mixed in. The next night all I had to do was broil the pork while I cut the veggies. So fast.

Udon Lunch

Udon lunch at the Japanese Cultural Centre, 160 Vernon Ave. Next lunch February 25. Reservations 250-376-9629 to reserve or for information.

spaghetti squash with sauce

This is a simple to make dish perfect for winter. Cook a spaghetti squash (in the microwave ((PIERCE IT FIRST!)) or oven or steamer) and scrape the flesh from the skin. Rub an oven safe dish with butter and garlic and spoon a little pasta sauce on the bottom of the dish to cover. Season your squash lightly with salt and pepper and add to the dish. Then cover with more sauce, top with some grated cheese (mozza is our favorite) and bake until hot and bubbly.

Serve with salad and bread to mop up the leftover sauce.

Little Stuffed Pumpkins

Close to the end of market season here one of the vendors was selling the most adorable wee pumpkins. I thought they were decoration only, but the seller told me that they were perfect for baking so I bought a few to play with.

You can see how teeny they were in comparison to the ruler.

I hollowed them out and made a stuffing of white and wild rice, mushroom, garlic, and the little bit of pumpkin I carved out. I seasoned it with s&p and parsley.

I sprinkled on a little parmesan and baked them until they were soft and the cheese was brown.  I popped the lids on before I took the photo.

Spicy Pork and Tofu Soup

We were in Vancouver in the Spring and ate at a little noodle shop, the name of which I forgot to write down, unfortunately. I had spicy tofu and noodle soup, which had pork and corn and green onions in it and it was so wonderful. I think about it fondly.

I had to come up with my own version because who knows if or when I'll ever get back to that little shop again. This version, my first version, I left out the corn and replaced the noodles with rice. It was really delicious and satisfied my craving perfectly, although I think I'll still try to make one or two more variations.

2 tb vegetable oil

1 tb finely chopped fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic finely chopped

250 grams ground pork

1 tb (or more or less to taste) chili garlic paste

4 cups chicken stock

2 tb soy sauce

3 green onions, finely sliced plus more for garnish

1 pkg soft tofu, chopped or squished into small bits with your fingers

cooked rice

Heat the oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant and softening. Add the pork and cook until no longer pink. Stir in the chili garlic sauce and cook for 1 minute.

Add the stock and soy sauce, turn heat to high and bring to the boil. Add the green onions and the tofu. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon some rice into each bowl. Sprinkle with more green onion.

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Pineapple Coleslaw

This was one of my favorite things I ate in Hawaii when we were there in 2007, apart from anything from Maui Taco.

I vowed when we returned from our trip I would find a wonderful pineapple coleslaw recipe....but I guess I sort of forgot about it.  Until we were planning this meal and I knew it had to be added.  Luckily Paula at The Cookbook Junkie had the perfect recipe for Pineapple Coleslaw, from one of the Diners Drive Ins and Dives cookbooks.

My Mom made this and apparently we didn't take any photos, but it looks like...coleslaw, so I guess we'll all be ok. Anyhoo, my Mom said she increased the amount of carrot and decreased the sugar a bit. It was the best slaw I've ever ever had. Fo sho.

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Bacon Wrapped Pineapple

I have wanted to try bacon wrapped pineapple for years but it never happened.  In November when I was shopping for food for Pax's birthday dinner I decided to add an appetizer for the adults but couldn't think of anything.  Then I saw a pineapple and thought why not?  We had some at home, all I needed to buy was bacon.

They were delicious and so we added them as an appetizer to Christmas dinner.

Cut your pineapple into cubes, I was aiming for one good size mouthful. Cut your bacon strips in half lengthwise.

Preheat your oven to 400' and line a baking sheet with foil.

Wrap the pineapple in the bacon:

Place on the baking sheet and if you like, sprinkle with a little bit of brown sugar.

Bake until the bacon is crisp, 15-20 minutes. Start keeping an eye on them around 10, so they don't get too crispy.

These are so easy to make and so tasty!

Christmas Dinner 2010

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Kalua Pig

We had to have Kalua Pig as part of our Hawaiian Christmas dinner.  Fortunately I found a recipe that didn't require us to dig a pit in the backyard to cook it.

The recipe came from Ono Kine Grindz. Basically you take a pork butt (also known as shoulder), rub it with salt and liquid smoke, wrap it in banana or ti leaves and cook it in the oven or crock pot.

The dish turned out perfectly. The pork was so tender it fell apart when we looked at it. The only thing I would do differently is season it more aggressively with salt. The recipe calls for salt to taste and I went too light.

If/when I find a pork butt on sale I'm going to cook it the same way but without the leaves (which sadly I am out of now), and serve it with some good homemade bbq sauce, coleslaw, buns and beans.

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner 2010

Menu plan

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is off to a good start for you. My poor baby has been sort of sick so there's not much sleep happening over here for anyone.

Here's what we're going to be eating the next few days -

Monday (today!) ham leftovers from our New Years Day dinner.

Tuesday Ranch chicken

Wednesday Fish tacos

Thursday Mango Chicken salad

Friday Pasta with peas and ham

Saturday Mexican turkey

Sunday Jamaican beef patties

Monday Thai chicken wings

And the best part of all of this.....my shopping list for the week has 4 items* on it! I've got all the stuff I need in the freezer, pantry and fridge.

Go me!

*Note - this doesn't mean I will leave the grocery store with only 4 items.

2010-2011

One of my favorite things to do on New Years Day is get my new calendar ready to put up in the kitchen - to move all the important dates to the calendar, but also look back at what happened in the past year.

The last quarter of 2010 has been really bad for my family.  I am glad to see this year go and am struggling to hold on to hope that 2011 will be better.

I'm not doing that end of year "meme" (ugh) anymore, instead I thought I'd tell you about my resolutions and some other stuff.

Last year my resolutions were pretty much the same as the few years before; lose weight, not worry so much, be more organized.  Shockingly I did not succeed on any of them.

This year my resolutions/hopes are:

Be kind.  To myself. 
Everyone is their own worst critic, but I am incredibly, horribly hard on myself.  I have had a tough few months and my inner critic has made them even harder.  So I resolve to stop it.  And be nice. 
It will be interesting to see if I can do it.

Be more organized.
I completely fail at this every year and it is a source of stress for me.  I am going to try very very hard to fix this.  Supposedly I am a grown up, so I should act like one.

Watch better tv.
I don't watch much tv anymore, what with chasing a 13 month old boy around 24 hours a day, but many nights after the baby is asleep and the house is "clean" and I've done my exercise, I flop in front of the tv and watch whatever is on.  It's an alright way to pass a hour or so, but I'd rather feel enlightened or productive in that time.  I've recently started watching documentaries while I am on our elliptical machine and I am enjoying it.  I saw the first season of  Everest: Beyond the Limit on Netflix and was completely spellbound. These people who risk their lives and the lives of others to climb a mountain! I must admit it's led to a bit of an Everest obsession with me. (PS If anyone knows how I can see/buy seasons 2 and 3 (I think that's it?) of this PLEASE let me know. I can't find them anywhere.)

Read more.
It's hard to read when you have a small kid that you can't take your eyes off of because if you do he'll go stick his hands in the toilet or try to climb up the bookshelf or just fall over and bonk his head. It's been a long time since I've read a book and most of the time I don't even read the paper. I am trying to change that, and surprise surprise, I'm currently reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, which is about Everest.

Get in better shape (lose weight).
I am slooooooooowly working on this and that's all I'll say, because talking about it makes me feel more awkward and uncomfortable that I already am. But I am trying.

Learn stuff. Everyday.
This is a general, all purpose one. I want to watch shows that teach me and read books and websites that interest me. I want to find beauty and joy in life. I am excited to be taking a night class for the next couple of months and I hope that I can further my education after that, even if it's one course at a time.

Huh. That might be it. Well, let's call that it as this has taken me far longer than I thought it would and it's time to turn off the computer and get ready to push 2010 out the door and welcome 2011 with open arms.

I wish you and yours all the best tonight. Be safe.

Reverb 10, Day 26/Christmas Dinner

December 26 – Soul Food What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul? (Author: Elise Marie Collins)

Well I love food and I love most kinds but the best meal that sticks in my head right now is from last night, Christmas Dinner.

If you've read here for a while you know that I've convinced my family to have non-traditional Christmas dinners the past few years. We've had Swedish (2006), French Canadian (2007), Italian (2008), and last year we had Turducken.

This year we went Hawaiian.

Back in 2007 we went on a family holiday to Hawaii, one of the best trips of my life.  We went to a luau and ate at local restaurants when we ate out and really enjoyed the food.  So for our dinner this year I wanted to recreate some of the dishes we had on our trip.

We made Kalua Pig.

Kalua Pig is made with liquid smoke, Hawaiian salt and Ti or Banana leaves.  Bizarrely enough we had Hawaiian salt (from our trip) in the cupboard and banana leaves (from Calgary) in the freezer. 

We bought some decorations from the dollar store.

We started our dinner with Coconut Shrimp and Bacon Wrapped Pineapple.

We had Kalua Pig,

And Chicken Long Rice,

And Maui Ribs,

We also had rice, Cucumber Salad and Pineapple Coleslaw, but I can't find any photos of the salads.

For dessert my Mom made Pineapple Upside down Cake.

The food was all fantastic and over the next week I will share the recipes with you, but the best part was having a great dinner with my family. I am thankful I have them and thankful that they are nice enough to forgo a Turkey Dinner on Christmas Day to play along with me.

(Yep, we've already started on our menu for next year!)

Cheers!

A Happy Holidays to you all. I hope you have a wonderful time with your loved ones.

The Christmas Dinner Plan!

We are working on getting our dinner ready. This is probably the biggest dinner we've prepared. There will be 5 meats. Yeah, I said 5.

Peace and love. Stay safe!

Bread Baking Babe-aversary

The Bread Baking Babes anniversary is coming up in February and we'd like YOU to pick the Anniversary Bread recipe for February 2011.

* What's your favorite bread?
* What bread haven’t you ever been able to get to turn out the way you want?
* What bread scares you the most?
* What's the bread recipe you’ve baked the most?
* What bread do you dream about baking?
* What bread do you...?

Scour your bread-baking cookbooks, recipe boxes and bread-baking sites to make your choice. We’ll ask you to submit your desired recipe soon. And after we've narrowed the list down to a manageable number of choices, we’ll ask you to vote on one for us to bake and post for our anniversary in February.

Please email your bread recipe/link to me at iliketocook AT shaw DOT ca

Cheers!

Reverb 10, day 22

December 22 – Travel How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year? (Author: Tara Hunt)

Let's talk about my boy, who took plane(s), train(s), boats and automobiles this year.  We didn't go anywhere exotic, but we did have a good time.  

Pax visited Vancouver and area, Sun Peaks, Salmon Arm, Calgary.......that might be it.

He saw the ocean.  He had his toes dipped in the lake.  He met my aunt and uncle (his great aunt and uncle).   He saw his Grandmother and his aunts, uncles and cousins.  He met some of his parents old friends.  Some of his grandparents friends too.  He wore his little tux onesie when his best auntie and uncle got married. 

We have no illusions of exciting trips in 2011.  I hope for at least 2 trips to Calgary to visit family, that's it.

3 recipes you should try

We had a pre-Christmas dinner at my parents house on the weekend, so we could all get our turkey fix before our nontraditional dinner on the 25th.  Of course I didn't take any photos, and I'm steamed about that because it was fantastic and delicious.  They made turkey, carrots cooked in mango juice (I think), brussel sprouts with bacon, mashed potatos and raisin bread stuffing.  And gravy.  The stuffing and the potatos were the best of a stellar bunch.  I found the recipes on Chatelaine.com:

Sausage and raisin stuffing

I'd never had stuffing with meat in it before, and didn't think it was very appealing, but this was really really good. The only think I personally would do differently would be to cut the sausages smaller.

Mashed potatoes with parmesan and scallions

Yum!

Also I squeezed in one more tasty treat after my 3 cookies I shared with you. I made Saltine Cracker Candy and it was amazing! Easy and delicious.

Nigella's Rapid Ragu-ish

I am in a new area of what kind of food I am cooking - it has to be cheap/I have most of the ingredients already, and it should be something that the baby can also eat. I thought I had a package of ground beef in the freezer so I marked Nigella's Rapid Ragu to make last week. I don't eat lamb, but I knew this would be tasty with beef. Turns out we didn't have any ground beef but there was some ground turkey, so I used that.

Also, you can't buy jarred caramelized onions here, so I just made my own from half an onion, and I didn't have green lentils but red. And I didn't use Marsala, or have cheddar cheese. But other than that it was just like hers!

It was really really good, all 3 of us liked it and I will make it again.  

Reverb 10, day 20

December 20 – Beyond Avoidance What should you have done this year but didn’t because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwise deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?) (Author: Jake Nickell)

I am in many areas of my life, horribly unorganized.  We have a little office at home where we keep the bills, paperwork, important stuff, etc.  I am mostly in charge of it and it always looks like a cyclone has just shot through the room.  Every once in a while I get it almost clean, almost completely put together but I just don't get is quite all done.  And then it all gets messy and crappy again.  It makes me tired.

Will I do it?  Keep it clean and tidy and organized in 2011 and beyond?  Let's hope so.

Reverb 10, Day 18

December 18 – Try What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it? (Author: Kaileen Elise)

I had started thinking in the summer that I'd like to take a class in....something, but wasn't sure exactly what.

I'm happy to say, as you've already read if you're following my reverb posts, that next month I am taking a night class at the university, and I hope to take another one in the early spring, if I can.  I am excited.

I was hoping to cross a few more things off my life list.  Although I know many of them are pipe dreams that will never happen (going to Spain, Italy, Churchill, etc), but here are a couple of things I hope to accomplish in 2011 that are either on my list or related to it.

Run the Terry Fox run in September.

Make a baby blanket for my will be born in May nephew

Make cheese

Take the Mondo Beyondo Class

What are YOU going to do in 2011?

Cooking Book 5 - Project Notebook.

5 more recipes from Book 5 -

Well this is annoying.  I'm not actually sure which recipe this is.  Until I figure it out, let's call this "Chicken".

Nope, not embarrassed about that all all.

Aha!  I know this dish - Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, Young Thailand Cookbook.

So very very delicious. This is a cookbook to be owned, people.

Chinese BBQ Drumsticks, source unknown

1/2 cup bbq sauce

2 tb hoisin sauce

1 tb sesame oil

12 chicken drumsticks

1 lime

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil.

In a bowl mix the bbq sauce, hoisin and oil. Add chicken and toss to coat.

Place chicken on baking sheet and drizzle with remaining sauce.

Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Squeeze lime over the chicken and serve.

Broccoli Cheese Soup, Me

1/2 small red onion, chopped

1 tb oil

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 bunch broccoli florets, chopped up

1/2 cup milk

170 g shredded cheddar cheese

saute the onion in the oil until soft.  add the broth and broccoli and simmer, covered, until the broccoli is tender.  puree with an immersion blender or a regular blender.  return to low heat and stir in the milk and cheese.  stir until the cheese is melted.  season with salt and pepper if desired. 

Thai Chicken Fried Rice, Young Thailand Cookbook

Just like the other fried rice recipe above from the same book, so good. My 2 new favorite ways to use up leftover rice.