What's cooking Wednesday

At the grocery store last week there was a big bin of pickling cucumbers, and I remembered seeing a recipe for Refrigerator pickles. They are simpler than canned pickles, but they also can't sit on a shelf for a year - they have to be kept in the fridge. That's fine with me, since I don't have space to keep a dozen jars of pickles.

Refrigerator Pickles

6 c water
2 c vinegar
1/2 c canning salt
1/2 tsp alum (optional)
4-5 lbs cucumbers
1 large bunch fresh dill
1 large onion
2 whole cloves
2 tsp. sliced garlic

Bring ingredients to a boil. Wash 4-5 lbs of small cucumbers. Layer whole, unpeeled cucumbers, onion, cloves, garlic and dill. Pour vinegar solution over top and let set on counter for 3 or 4 hours. Refrigerate. They will be ready to eat in 2-4 days.

OK, so I didn't follow this very closely. I only made one jar, so I scaled back the solution, although I kept the ratios the same. I used sea salt instead of canning salt, but I have no idea if that makes a difference. I didn't use onion or cloves, but I put in a few cloves (whole) of garlic and also some celery seed with the dill.

They turned out very yummy. They don't taste like store bought, but they are good. Very fresh tasting, with a nice crunch. I might try a combination of apple cider vinegar with white vinegar next time. One nice thing is that as long as cucumbers are available, I can make a jar at a time. I have another empty jar now, so I'll make another batch next week.

(no photo. it's just a jar of pickles, anyway)

What's Cooking Wednesday

Last week I made my first batch of homemade yogurt. I came the realization earlier in the summer how much money we spend on yogurt and I'd heard it was easy to do. The directions are quite simple and involve scalding milk to make sure any bugs in there are dead, and then cooling to incubation temperature, adding live cultures (a few tablespoons of yogurt) and keeping warm until it gets thick and yummy.

Mine turned out well, although too runny. I'll try next time to incubate it at a lower temperature, which is supposed to make it thicker. I'll also try to remove more of the whey when it separates. I removed some, but the rest I just stirred in. I'll try another batch this weekend.

What's Cooking Wednesday

Today I made some dried fruit and nut snacks for Kate. These things are delicious. I'm going to have to limit myself to one a day. They would make good snacks for any kids or adults. Seriously yummy.

Dried fruit and nut snacks (from Super Baby Food)
1/2 c dried fruit (I used cherries, blueberries, cranberries and apricots)
1/2 c seeds and nuts (I used sunflower seeds and pecans)
1 c nut butter (I used 3/4 c of cashew butter)

Put nuts and fruit in food processor and process until finely chopped. Add nut butter and pulse until well mixed. Form into balls and roll in coconut or wheat germ. Keep refrigerated since they are a bit sticky.

What's Cooking Wednesday

I haven't felt like cooking much the last few weeks. Last week, especially. We went out for dinner twice plus we had bacon and eggs for dinner one night. Definitely a sign that I'm not doing much in the kitchen. And now this week Graeme is away, which usually means I eat cereal for dinner. I've been doing a bit better than that this week though. Since Graeme was going to be away, I stocked up on lots of veggies for me to enjoy while he was gone. Including cauliflower, which I seldom buy. And to be honest, after eating a whole head in two nights, I don't think it's a great idea for Kate or I. But it sure was yummy.

I took a photo, but I can't find the card reader, so use your imagination.

Roasted Curried Cauliflower
Trim and cut a head of cauliflower into mid-sized pieces. Wash and set aside.
Mix together 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp cumin. (these are all estimates of how much I used)
Pour mixture over cauliflower and stir well to coat completely.
Roast in 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Cover for first half. Stir once or twice.

Really yummy with tziziki or just plain.

What's Cooking Wednesday

I was going to do a food theme today, but I feel like you need three things to establish a theme, and I didn't quite make it to the third. So, it's not a theme. The theme was going to be purple food, but the missing thing was the raw beet salad I was going to make. I'll make it later in the week.

Our purple food is Blueberry Lemon Loaf, from a recipe I found on All Recipes. It's pretty tasty, although I put in extra juice and zest, and I would reduce the zest to the amount called for the in recipe.


The second purple food are mulberries. There are mulberry trees all over our neighbourhood, and the one closest to us has some ripe berries. There are others that aren't quite ripe yet, so we'll have mulberries for a few weeks. Of course, we sang 'Here we go round the mulberry bush' multiple times while picking them. We might even have a mulberry pie in the next week or so. It's very fun to forage in the city. If only rhubarb grew here, I bet Rhubarb-Mulberry pie would be delicious.

What's Cooking Wednesday

It's kale season! We got some in our local organic veggie delivery. I've made creamed kale (which was really yummy) and I've wilted it with onions. It was time for something new.

Pasta with Kale and Tomatoes
Heat olive oil in pan then add chopped shallots. Wash kale very well and slice as thinly as possible. Add to shallots and cook until wilted. Add broth (whatever kind you've got on hand) and turn down heat. Cook for about 20 minutes until kale is soft. Meanwhile, cook whole wheat pasta. Add cooked pasta to kale, add grape tomatoes and goat cheese. Cook until heated through. Add whatever fresh herbs you have available.

Yum.

What's cooking Wednesday

The theme for today's meal is yellow. It wasn't really planned that way, but clearly that's what happened. Tilapia, gold beets and sweet potato oven fries. Even the sauces are yellow.


The sauce on the fish is from this month's cookbook, Crazy Plates. They had it over baked sole, but I pan fried tilapia instead. And cooked it perfectly, I might add.

Heart and Sole

1/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c of chicken or veggie broth
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp each cornstarch and grated gingerroot
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to boil and cook until thickened and bubbly. Serve over fish.

Verdict: It was good, lots of flavour, but was lacking. It's a low fat cookbook, and sometimes that doesn't work. I added a couple of tablespoons of butter and the sauce was much improved. It is potent, this is four servings. Use sparingly or it could overpower the fish.

What's cooking Wednesday - two meal bonus edition

Tonight you're getting a two for one WCW. I bought a rotisserie chicken on Monday, and made two meals out of it. The first, which we had tonight, came from this month's cookbook Crazy Plates. It's one of my regular books, but I used it tonight because I found a recipe for which I had all the ingredients.

One Flew over the Couscous Nest

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp ground gingerroot
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup each chopped onions and chopped red bell pepper
1 tsp each ground coriander and curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c chicken broth
3 c peeled, cubed sweet potatoes
1 c couscous
2 tbsp orange juice concentrate
3/4 c light coconut milk
2 tbsp each cornstarch and chopped fresh cilantro

Heat olive oil and add chicken, ginger and garlic. Cook and stir until chicken is no longer pink (Since I used cooked chicken, I just sauteed the garlic and ginger with the onions). Add onions and pepper and cook 3 minutes. Stir in spices and cook for 1 more minute. Add broth and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, prepare couscous per directions, but add orange juice concentrate to couscous before adding water.

Combine coconut milk and cornstarch until smooth. Add to chicken and veggies along with cilantro. Increase heat and cook until thickened. Serve over fluffed couscous.



Verdict: I didn't make the couscous. I thought I had some, but then remembered it went out with the last canned food drive that came by. So, we had it with pita. It was good, but needed a bit of salt, and wasn't quite as flavourful as expected. Graeme didn't think much of it and is in the process of heating up some chowder.


Bonus WCW meal!! Whenever we have a rotisserie chicken, I make my 'not so heavy chicken enchiladas'. I can't call them 'light' because they aren't exactly low calorie. But they aren't as dense or heavy feeling as enchiladas usually are. And they are easy.

Not-so-heavy Chicken Enchilladas
About half the meat from a rotiserrie chicken, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1 c sour cream
1 tsp cumin
handful of cocktail tomatoes, halved
bunch of cilantro, chopped
grated cheese
salsa
tortillas

Combine chicken, onions, cilantro, sour cream, tomatoes and some of the grated cheese. Pour a bit of salsa into the bottom of a baking pan and spread around. Place a few tablespoons of chicken mixture into a tortilla and roll up, placing seam side down in baking dish. Continue until all chicken mixture is used. Pour additional salsa on top of tortillas and top with cheese. Bake in 350 oven until hot and melty.


These might suck made with totally inferior canadian tortillas. My only advice is to come to Texas and import real tortillas.

What's cooking Wednesday

Tonight was the last meal from the cookbook of the month, A Year of the Best. It is a recipe I flagged when I flipped through the book at the beginning of January. It's called Caramelized Onion and Potato Flan. It's kind of a scalloped potato thing, but with onions. There isn't much to it, but it was pretty yummy. We had it with grilled steelhead trout. Yum.

Saute 2 large onions, thinly sliced over low heat in butter about 20 minutes, until caramelized. Slice 6-8 medium potatoes thinly and grate a good amount of emmenthal or gruyere cheese. Grease a 9x13" baking dish and layer half the potato slices in a shingle fashion and season with salt and pepper. Top with half the onions and cheese. Repeat next layer, ending with cheese. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

I used only three large-ish potatoes and I think it could have used more onions. Next time I'll do four onions and the reduced number of potatoes. Would be really yummy with beef, but it went great with fish too.

What's cooking Wednesday

I really pulled out the big guns this time. Souffle. Souffle (I don't know how to get the accent on the e) has a reputation of being difficult, but it's not really. It is impressive though, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. They are a little bit time consuming, taking about 45 minutes to put together and then 45 minutes to bake. The directions seem involved, but if you know how to make bechamel sauce, then it's pretty straight forward. I'm not going to type them all out though, too much work.

The souffle I made was bacon, spinach and guyere. It was yum yum yummy.

Here is how to do it: Make a bechamel sauce with butter, flour and milk. It's nice to soften onions in the butter for awhile before adding the flour and then the milk. Once it's thick and smooth, remove from heat and stir in, one at a time, egg yokes. stir stir stir, and then cool the whole thing. While I was making the bechamel, I also cooked the bacon and wilted the spinach. Then you beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them with the cheese into the cooled egg yoke mixture.

Pour into souffle dish and cook. I cooked it the time suggested in the recipe, but it turned out to not be done in the center, so we scooped off the cooked yummy top part and popped it back in for another 10 or so minutes. Perfect. I'll adjust the cooking time for the next souffle adventure.

What's cooking Wednesday

I've continued to try new recipes this week, using a few of my cookbooks. I took advantage of a coupon this week and bought some bay scallops at Central Market for this week's feature meal. It turned out really well. I haven't cooked orzo before, yet I always like it when I have it at restaurants. Using orzo for the risotto makes it much easier than using arborio rice. Graeme declared that it tasted like fancy restaurant food. Scallops will do that. The recipe is from 'A Year of the Best'.

Seared Scallops with Orzo Risotto
1 2/3 c orzo
1 c diced mushrooms
1/3 c diced onion
1/3 c diced sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 c diced red pepper
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c grated parmesan chese
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 c whipping cream
1 lb scallops

(I cut the recipe in half, since this is for four people. Except I didn't cut the veggie amounts in half, and I didn't use mushrooms at all)
Cook orzo and set aside. In large pot, heat olive oil and saute veggies until soft. Add stock and bring to boil. Stir in orzo, parmesan and parsley (I used cilantro, since that's what I had). Add cream and simmer gently, stirring frequently, until mixture is creamy but not runny, about 20 minutes. Heat olive oil in very hot pan. Season scallops with salt and pepper and sear until brown on outside but just opaque in the middle. Sprinkle more parmesan over risotto and top with scallops.


I also made muffins today, since I remembered how nice it was to have muffins in the freezer after Jannie's visit in September. I found a recipe for Pecan-oatmeal muffins in 'The Enchanted Broccoli Forest'. They are quite yummy, not very sweet. I think they would be good with a bit of maple syrup added to the batter. No recipe for you, but a photo.

What's cooking Wednesday

Bacon!

That's what's cooking. Tonight we are having the last of the bacon we have received from the bacon of the month club. Erika got us this last year for Christmas, and it may be the best present evah.

We have had six different bacons, and we think three were exceptional, while three were pretty average. But even bad bacon is good, so no one here is complaining. This bacon is one of the great ones. We usually have some of the bacon with periogies, and that is exactly what we're doing tonight.

Yum! Thanks, Erika.

What's cooking Wednesday

It's a miracle! I actually cooked dinner, except it took very little cooking. I made a pasta salad, so all I actually did was cook the pasta. I added tomatoes, red pepper and some chicken (rotiseree chicken, yay!). For the dressing, I combined equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil, added some fresh oregano from the garden, salt and pepper, and a bit of fresh lemon juice. Delicious.

What's cooking Wednesday

Graeme left this morning for a meeting in Virginia for a few days. We have emptied the fridge over the past few days, so I stopped by Central Market to get some food for myself - at least to hold me over until Saturday when I head to Seattle. I had planned to have my recent favourite dinner:

But I decided to check the prepared food section. I decided to get a twice baked potato and some veggies. The potato was huge, so I'll also have it for lunch tomorrow:

Nothing's cooking Wednesday

Nothing is cooking other days around here either. Actually, we had savoury pies for dinner (classic chicken for me, traditional beef for Graeme) from the Australia pie shop. They are delicious, but it's heating, not cooking. I haven't cooked a meal in awhile actually. Don't really remember when I last did. Unless you count the scrambled eggs I had both Monday and Tuesday nights. I have been pretty busy this week, and we haven't gotten groceries in awhile. I'll cook on the weekend, but for now I'm managing to eat well (protien every meal per midwife's instructions) without actually cooking.

What's cooking Wednesday

Nothing. Again. I had plans though, I really did. We got a few selections from the Soup Peddler - Zimbabwe Peanut Stew and Coq au Vin. The plan was to have the chicken. I was going to do something potato-ish on the side with a salad. But, after riding home from work, cleaning up the yard, mowing the lawn and walking the dog, and then finding that the potatoes in the fridge were bad, it all fell apart. Graeme cooked himself periogies, and I had mac&cheese (but it was the good Annie's shells and white cheddar). I did manage to cook a pot of rice to have with the peanut stew for lunch today.

Sheryl and Jonathan are coming over for dinner tonight, so I'm planning to make the Rockin' Moroccan stew that Karen posted a few weeks ago.

What's cooking Wednesday

We were out of fresh stuff - fruits, veggies and meat. We also had a coupon for $10 off steak. Yay! Beef. It's what's for dinner.

We also had a beautiful salad from the Soup Peddler. They called it Apricashew salad. It came with an amazing yogurt/herb vinegrette. Yum.

What's cooking Wednesday

Nothing! I just had a bowl of cereal for dinner. Graeme is having frozen chicken strips. I've been hungry a lot, but nothing is sounding at all appetizing. Certainly not appetizing enough to cook anything.

What's cooking Wednesday

Dinner was made from leftovers tonight. All beef Elgin sausage with onions and peppers on a bun. I put mayonnaise and Salt Lick sauce on mine. Graeme adds his sweet hot mustard, while I go for sliced pickles. We had a salad on the side.

I also made a batch of cupcakes for Friday night when we're hosting movie night. Of course, I had to try one to make sure they were ok. They are delicious.

What's cooking Wednesday

I didn't really feel like cooking tonight, but managed to scrape something together from the fridge. Pork tenderloin was on sale this week, and I got the Asian marinade. I didn't have a real plan for it, but it's generally either grill or cut into medallions. That's what I decided to do and cooked it until just done.


The laziness means I just had it with a bunch of veggies, rather than cooking rice and making a stirfry, which is what I would normally do. I was craving veggies, so it hit the spot.


I've been thinking a lot about the size/date discrepency that the midwife found, and I'll write about some of my thoughts tomorrow.