Sassymonkey Eats

This blog has moved!!!

2006-04-26T20:58:00.000-04:00

I'm packing my bags and moving this blog!

You can catch up on what I'm eating here.

Please update your feeds, bookmarks, etc.

See you at the new blog!!!

Mmmmmmm pizza

2006-04-26T17:52:00.000-04:00

So there's this pizza from a takeout place I love. It's not at all a traditional pizza - no tomato sauce and not a lot of cheese. What kind of freaky pizza am I talking about???

Spinach pizza.

Yep. It may sound weird but it's oh so yummy. The pizza at the pizza place has a base of pesto sauce topped with spinach, diced tomato, red pepper and feta (I think that's all...that's all the stands out in my mind anyway). I've been thinking for awhile that I need to attempt to recreate it but I never seemed to have all the ingredients on hand at the same time. Then this whole veggie box came my way and presto! I had almost everything.

It really doesn't take more than 10-15 minutes to make this pizza dough and it makes enough for one decent sized pizza or two small personal sized ones. Please note that this if for a handmade dough. I don't use a food processor. I don't own a food processor. If you want to give me a food processor I'll gladly accept it though. ;-)

Basic Pizza Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour (if you want to have a whole-wheat or multigrain crust replace 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat or multigrain flour)
1 1/2 tsp quick-rising (instant) dry yeast
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup hot water (120F/50C)
2 tsp olive oil

In bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. With a wooden spoon, gradually stir in the water and olive oil (I add the olive oil to the water, it's just easier that way) until dough forms. At this point I normally toss the wooden spoon and use my hands. When I comes to dough I tend to be a "hands on" person.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic (mine was fine after about 5 minutes). You're going to want a stable surface. Personally I prefer countertops. When I knead I tend to put my weight behind it and, well, tables move.

When you've kneaded your dough, place it in a bowl greased with olive oil, turning the dough so that it's greased on all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. I like to place it on top of the stove and turn the oven on low so there's a steady warmth around the dough. But I live in a basement. If I had a kitchen that got sun I'd place it on the sunny countertop or table.

While the dough was rising I plotted the rest of my meal. I don't really like pesto. I know, somewhere out there someone just fell over. Sorry. I can't help it. But I needed something to get that basily, garlicky flavour in there.

*warning* The following section contains no actual measurements - the measurements are really just guestimations. When I cook I do not measure although measuring is essential for baking until you get really, really good at it (takes way longer than with cooking).

I poured about 1/4 cup of olive oil into a bowl. I then added about 1 tablespoon of dried basil and whisked it together. I minced 2 garlic cloves with some salt until they were almost a paste. I added this to the olive oil, stirred it all together with my mini-whisk and let it sit so the basil could rehydrate.***

I took stock of how much feta I had in the fridge and decided that it might not be enough. So I hoofed it to the grocery store to be greeted with my approximation of hell. For someone reason everyone and their children decided to go grocery shopping at the exact same time I did. And the store was short-staffed so there were only 3 cashiers. I wandered around and even though I had only come for feta, cereal (which I almost forgot to get) and some cleanser I ended up getting way more. I was hoping that by taking extra time the lines would magically disappear. They didn't. And there seemed to be a lot of shrieking children in line. When I got through the cashier I practically bolted out of the store (I actually thought about abandoning my groceries because I couldn't take the shrieking but I might need that feta!) .

By the time I got home and put away my goodies it was time to rescue the rising dough.

I turned the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneaded it for a minute or two to deflate it. Then I rolled it out (I couldn't get it to stretch on its own). When I got it to the size and shape that I wanted I placed it on a baking sheet and let it rest for 15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 500F.

During that 15 minutes I washed, dried and chopped the spinach. Maybe about a 1 cup of fresh spinach after it was chopped? I sort of guessed on how much it would take to cover my dough. I think next time I'll use a bit more. I seeded and chopped about 2 tablespoons of tomato and about an equal amount of red pepper.

The dough had sit for 15 minutes by the time. I spread the olive oil, basil, garlic mixture over the pizza dough with a pastry brush (I ended up not using all of the olive oil but I did use most of it). I spread the chopped spinach over the olive oil mixture, followed by the tomatoes and red pepper. Then I crumbled lots of feta over the top. I used lots of feta. Mmmmm It was ready to go.

I popped the pizza in my 500F oven and baked for 10 minutes. When I pulled it out I transferred the pizza to a cooling rack. My baking sheets tend to cause the bottom of everything to brown up a lot and I didn't want it to brown too much. I wish I had a camera so I could show how perfectly it came out. Oh well, use your imagination. It looked *good*.

Since it was on the cooling rack and I don't have a pizza cutter anyway so I cut my pizza with scissors. I ate two pieces and dipped my crusts in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And I have leftovers for tomorrow.

Perfect!

***If you actually like pesto instead of my olive oil base just spread it so that it lightly covers the dough. You don't want it to be too thick because they flavour could overpower the veggies. Also with pesto, the pizza as a whole is a wee bit drier than with the olive oil I used.

recipe, pizza

Pizza project

2006-04-26T16:16:00.000-04:00

There is a pizza experiment going on at Casa di Scimmia.

I will give details later. I have to run out for feta right now while the dough is rising.

I have a bigger problem than the beets...

2006-04-25T16:47:00.000-04:00

The veggies are here! The veggies are here!

It's kinda funny. I just got a rubbermaid container of veggies delivered to me. lol It strikes me as funny.

But I realized that I have a bigger problem than beets. Among this week's stash was a potted basil plant. Ummm I have a black thumb. I've been know to kill a cactus or 2 (or um 3...) in my time. How the heck am I going to remember/manage to keep a basil plant alive??? I've put it the sunniest of my unsunny windows. Unfortuanately that means i can't see it. Maybe we ought to start taking bets on how long before the Monkey kills the Basil???

Oh and the baby bokchoy is adorable. :)

organic vegetables, delivery service

Woohoo!

2006-04-24T18:55:00.000-04:00

I called Green Earth Organics today and it turns out my order did go through and it starts tomorrow. Yay!

Now I just gotta figure out what to do with those beets. I was looking at recipes today. The recipes with roasted beets were sounding the most appealing to me today.

New Food Frontiers

2006-04-22T17:11:00.000-04:00

I just did something that I'm both excited about and scared about. lol

Can you guess???? I bet you can't! Cause it's not something that I've ever really talked about here or anywhere else but it's been on my mind for *months*.

I just signed up for biweekly organic vegetable delivery!!!

I first heard of such services about 4 or 5 years ago when I was working at the McGill bookstore. (Wow! Has it really been that long???) One of my fellow cashiers, who happened to share my name (not Zoe - the other one, lol), was talking about how she and her roomies got a box of food from an organic farm delivered on a regular basis (I think their service may have been monthly but I'm not sure). At the time she was complaining because they had 3 heads of cabbage and no clue what to do with them. They made soup and that took up one head but had no idea what to do with the rest. I looked up some recipes for her and passed them along on our next shift together. And then I stopped thinking about it.

But never completely. Every now and then I would google organic food delivery services just to see what was out there. Generally speaking the services seems like too much food for me or were just too expensive for my budget at the time. Shortly after I ditched the Roomies From Hell and got my own place I was doing some google and I found this service - Green Earth Organics. Every couple of months I'll look it up and stare at the page. And hem and haw and then decide not to do it. The organic part of it wasn't positively vital to me but it is nice, I'll admit. I love organic apples.

Today I looked at it and really thought about it. And then I pinged some friends of mine that were online and asked them what they thought of it. And the overall verdict was go for it. So I did. I originally looked at getting the small box once a week but I was a bit wary about that. So I decided to opt for the family sized box biweekly (I figure I can always "upgrade" to a smaller weekly box after I see how it goes.)

Why did I do it now and not months ago? A number of factors. One is that I've been buying most of my fruits and veggies at the St. Lawrence Market (my local grocery store sucks). Don't get me wrong, I *love* the market. But with summer on the horizon I want to be able to not have to spend almost every Saturday lugging a backpack full of veggies back to my place on the streetcar. My local butcher does also sell organic veggies but I really think that this box is a better deal and it's probably a better bang for my buck than a trip to Whole Foods.

Secondly, work really has gotten busier lately. To the point where I've had to work a weekend here and there. And that means no veggie expeditions. Also since work has gotten busier I've been eating poorly. This past week hasn't been as bad as the previous two weeks but to be honest, that wouldn't be hard.

So I figured I have do something. So this is what I came up with. I figure it's best to start with a biweekly plan to a) see how well I'm able to incorporate these fruits and veggies into my diet and b) see how I deal with it financially. Personally I think around $100/month on fruits and veggies sounds about right.

I'm not sure if my delivery will start this week or next week. But if it starts this week I think the only question is this - what the hell am I gonna do with 1 lb of beets?????

Edit: There appears to be a problem with their online sign-up so my order didn't go through. I left a message on their machine today so hopefully they will get back to me tomorrow morning. If not I'll call them again in the afternoon. Since delivery day for my area is Tuesday I'm not sure I'll make it for this week.

organic vegetables, delivery service

Proof

2006-04-21T18:24:00.000-04:00

Have you ever suspected that Kraft Dinner (or Kraft Mac n Cheese for you weird Americans) didn't really contain cheese? I may have proof.

Piper - the cheese goddess - refuses to touch it. She turns her nose up at it. She will eat Cheesewiz. She'll eat that weird cheese jalapeno dip that Tostitos makes. She'll eat every cheese know to man from goat cheese, to triple cream Brie, to stilton with cranberries, to Cracker Barrel cheddar. But Kraft Dinner??? No way. Not gonna happen. She'll look at you condescendingly as if you say "You can't fool me!" and walk away. Her verdict is that it is not cheese.

I think I'll take her word on it.

(Yes, I'll give the Piper/cheese posting a rest for awhile after this, lol.)

Meal Assembly Services (again)

2006-04-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

I originally posted about a meal assembly service I saw in the news back in February (clicky). Elaine Magee, aka the Healthy Recipe Doctor, just posted this article on the assembly services popping up in the US. She also has provided nutritional information where available (I still can't find nutritional info on the Supperworks site).

I still don't think that this is a good idea for me for a variety of reasons. The serving sizes aren't geared towards the single person (I'm really not their target demographic). I think it's too expensive for me (12 entrees [each entrée serves 4-6 people] = $279.00 [$3.88 per serving based on six servings per entrée] and they charge $15* to split the 12 entrees into 24 that serve 2-3 people [still too much food for me]). And I don't have enough freezer space. Plus I really am able to make most of the dishes they offer and I don't see the need to pay other people to do it for me. If I were working at my old job and we were in our busy season and dinners were not provided it might be tempting even with all the above going against it.

Supperworks seems to gaining popularity. They opened in November and have gone from 35 to 300 clients a month. According to their website they are planning to open up locations in Newmarket, Toronto, Etobicoke, Ottawa, Kitchener/Waterloo and London (I also saw an Alberta based company was planning to expand into London). They also now offer gift certificates which I think could be a great gift for new or expecting moms.

* I misquoted the first time and said $40.

Honey We're Killing the Kids

2006-04-16T15:35:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that I felt horrible on Monday, having worked with a migraine and having a really stressful day overall, I stayed up long enough to watch Honey, We're Killing the Kids on TLC. A brief description from the show's website says:

Honey We're Killing the Kids! offers a startling look at the causes of America's childhood obesity epidemic and issues a critical wake-up call for parents. In the series, nutrition expert Dr. Lisa Hark shows how everyday choices can have long-term impacts on children, and offers both the motivation and the know-how to help turn these families’ lives around.

I had to let this sit for a few days while I digested it. I think at the foremost I think that three weeks is really too short of a time to tell if the family is really going to stick with it. How many people do you know that have done diets for a few weeks and then totally dropped off of them?

Secondly - in regards to the episode last Monday - I think that having them make tofu for dinner on the very first night of their new meal plan was just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I know adults who won't touch the stuff (see Kyle's comment here about a tofu recipe that I posted). Expecting three kids who are used to eating total junk to dive into a plate of tofu stirfry is a stretch.

Thirdly - at no time during the three weeks when she was giving the family their weekly tasks did the expert recommend/prescribe/whatever exercise for the kids or the parents! Yes, the mother did join a gym but it was her choice to do it for her "down" time.

Fourthly - I'm not really sure what I think about leaving all the junk food that they pulled from the snack cupboard in easy access (and I can't believe how much junk food they had!). I get the whole learning to resist bad food thing and learning to make good food decisions but part of me feels like they were just setting the kids up to get in trouble.

Finally - I didn't like to host. It didn't seem as though she was very involved. On one hand that's probably a good thing because the family really is responsible for their actions and activities. They really did seem to be mostly doing things on their own. But on the other hand, it really didn't seem like she had a connection with the family other than walking into the house for 10 minutes a week and telling them what to do. And I just didn't like her. She just seemed very cold.

I'll be very interested in seeing them do a follow up show.

honey we/'re killing the kids

Note to self...

2006-04-16T12:42:00.000-04:00

I have to go to the dollar store at some point this week and buy aluminum pans with covers. I'm craving casseroles. Craving casseroles is an odd thing for me although it does happen from time to time. I did not grow up eating casseroles. Did anyone just fall down??? You see, my family ate meat and potatoes (along with a vegetable) almost every night. Or some variation of meat and potatoes - sometimes it was fish and chips, lol. It was very rare that the pattern was changed. Sometimes my mother would make a big batch of pasta sauce (err until I got older and started doing it better than she did). On nights like that she and I would eat pasta and my stepfather would eat meat and potatoes (he really didn't like anything other than meat and potatoes). Sometimes on the weekends I would make pizza. My mother might eat part of it but mostly it was just me. (I'm very thankful that my mother did let me experiment in the kitchen when I was younger - I like meat and potatoes but not every day.)

I don't think I ever tried a casserole until I was in my early teens (honestly! We didn't even make shepards pie at my house!). By then my older sister had moved out and had embraced them. To be honest, I wasn't crazy about them. And I'm still not a huge fan of them. I'm really not used to using canned ingredients. Almost everything at home was made from scratch.

Through the years I have found a few casseroles I like, especially hashbrown casserole (also called Cheesy Potatoes by Calleen). But there's still a problem - casseroles make too darned much food for one person! So my solution? Split it between several aluminum pans (buy the ones with covers) and freeze them. That way I get casserole without having to eat the whole darned thing. ;-)

So I'm thinking that next weekend I may stock up on ingredients and make a couple of casseroles to pop in the freezer. Or maybe I'll give one to my friend who can't cook to save his life.

And now I'm going to go back to trolling for recipes on the iVillage message boards. I haven't done that in *ages* and I've already found a few I want to try in the next few weeks.

So many recipes...so little time...

huh???

2006-04-13T17:06:00.000-04:00

So I was wandering today and decided to stop for lunch. For some very strange reason I felt compelled to order the crabcakes. Actually as soon as I saw them on the menu I knew I had to order them.

I don't like crab.

But I ordered them. They were ok. There was a strange sort of mayonnaisey taste to them. The crabbiness actually wasn't too bad.

But I still don't really like crab.

Why on earth was it that as soon as I saw the crabcakes I *had* to have them????

Situation Resolved

2006-04-11T16:39:00.000-04:00

Piper has cheese.

I just haven't told her yet. ;-)

The situation is dire...

2006-04-10T16:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, brace yourself people...

THERE'S NO CHEESE IN THE HOUSE FOR PIPER!!!!

I knowwwwwwwwwwww. It's awful.

There is cheese. I have 1.5 small blocks of Cabot cheddar that I've been hording. But one of them has jalapenos (not good for kitties although Piper still tries) and one has Habanero (very bad for kitties and I refuse to let her near it - if a shred of it drops on the floor there's a fight to see who gets to it first).

No cheese for Piper. Poor kitty. I don't remember the last time this happened.

Everyone keep you fingers crossed that tomorrow goes better than today - meaning no yucky migraines and work will go well and I can actually go to the grocery store and get my poor deprieved cat some cheese!

(And if there are any lurkers out there who want to say that dairy is bad for cats - I dare you to tell Piper that...)

Oh for a home cooked meal...

2006-04-09T17:35:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I was sick. This weekend I've been busy working and I've been busy with work and other stuff in the evenings last week. I would just about KILL for a homecooked meal. There's been a lot of take out (most of it tasty) and a lot of eating from my pantry. But my fridge is *bare*.

I seriously need to go shopping for groceries. But first I need time to shop for groceries. And time to cook them. I was supposed to take this weekend to take stock of what I have and do some serious food planning. But I had to work most of the weekend.

Does it sound like I'm whining about work? Well I am! Work sucked this week. I'm really looking forward to next week. It's only 4 days (or depending on how things go I might take an extra day make it only three days!).

I think I'd kill someone for mashed potatoes right about now.

Not cooking tonight. Going out for Mikey's birthday dinner. :) Yay Mikey!

Tofu-Chickpea Curry

2006-03-31T10:13:00.000-05:00

Kyle's complaining so here's a quick post. I've actually been trying a number of new recipes lately. Here's one that I tried last week. I'm linking and pasting the recipe here because even though I had book marked the page it was on, it didn't lead me back there. I'll post my changes at the bottom.

Tofu-Chickpea Curry

Tofu-Chickpea Curry

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 block regular tofu (frozen and thawed if you like the texture)
1 can chickpeas
curry powder (I used S&B golden curry mix, found it at the grocery store)
2.5 cups water
A few tablespoons oil for frying

Directions:

Add finely chopped onion to medium pot with oil (I used olive). Fry at medium heat until tender. Add finely chopped garlic cloves and fry until the onion starts to brown, make sure heat is low enough not to burn the garlic. Add tofu cut into strips. I used thawed tofu to give it a chewier texture and to ensure it wouldnt fall apart in the curry (my sister had tried tofu recently and thought the texture was too mushy, so I wanted to show her that she could prepare it in different ways). Fry the tofu strips and onion/garlic mixture until the tofu starts to brown. Add 2 1/2 cups water and 1 can of drained chickpeas. Bring to a boil. Once at boil, reduce heat, cover pot, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add curry spices/mix. Simmer, stirring constantly for 5 minutes--this is the time when your tofu and chickpeas will absorb the curry flavor, so you dont want to rush this stage.

Serve over rice. If the curry is spicy, serve with a green salad and plenty of cucumbers.

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Sassymonkey's Notes

I didn't use vegan versions of anything. I'm not vegan.

Instead of water I used a can of diced tomatoes. I highly recommend this. Sooo good and reminded me a bit of a lentil dish I sometimes get as part of the thali I order from the little Indian place I love (but can never remember the name of the place - they have awesome samosas though and they are cheap).

This makes a lot. Which means you have lots of leftovers. The leftovers are yummy because the curry flavour infuses more.

I served it over brown rice and really, really wished I had naan.

Strata for one

2006-03-21T18:22:00.000-05:00

So the other day I read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (you can read what I thought about it here). If nothing else it got me thinking that I really ought to start trying trying more new recipes. But I'm a cooking one type person that I limits my choices. I do have my collection of Cooking for One recipes though. So I figured while I may not work my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking I can at least make an effort to try a few new recipes right? Cause to be honest, with the exception of the Tuna crusted in wasabi peas I've been in a bit of a rut lately.

So today, when I had a bit of down time while waiting for some stuff to load, I walked over to my cupboard and hauled out my Cooking for One book (the joys of working from home, I can do laundry and cook yummy things). Right there on the first page is a recipe that Foody Julia posted and I have a note beside it that says "Julia's favourite". (Perhaps because of the intro I really ought to point out that Foody Julia is not Julia Child...). I've been meaning to try it for years and just never got around to it. The recipe is strata for one. It's a very simple recipe.

Strata for One (from Foody Julia)

1-2 slices french bread (hearty white does in a pinch, it can be crustless if you want)
1 tsp butter or margarine
1/3 cup grated cheese (cheddar, muenster, your fave)
1 large egg (go with 2 if you're using thick slices or more than one slice of bread.
2-3 tbs white wine
Splash of tabasco sauce
(secret ingredient, 1/2 pinch of nutmeg)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a ramekin or small baking dish. The dish should allow the bread to rest against all sides - this will cause the strata to puff up slightly. Spread the bread slice with butter and lay in the dish. Layer the on top (I realllllly like muenster or whide cheddar for this) and set aside. In a mixing bowl beat the egg, wine, nutmeg and tabasco sauce together. Pour over the cheese. (At this point you can refrigerate it...I would prep it in the morning, cover and refrigerate it and when I got would would just toss it into the oven.) Pop it into the oven for 25-30 minutes until puffy and barely browned. Serve with fresh tomato wedges, a glass of the same white wine, and a spinach salad.

The flavour will change dramatically depending on the type of cheese you use. Some folks will make this without the wine, but I think it loses a lot of depth. Avoid red wine for this dish - it isn't pretty at all. LOL

All the notes above are Foody Julia's. Here are mine. First of all, I didn't have the wine. I'm sure it would have added some depth to this. And it needed depth. It felt like something was lacking. I will have to try it again sometime with the wine. Or maybe with a wee bit of dijon...so some reason I'm really digging the idea of a wee bit of dijon in this). Secondly, I didn't have a good white bread. But I did have a good wholegrain bread. Unfortunately I got it pre-sliced at the bakery and I think it would have been better if it were a bit thicker. I did slice the crusts off though. Thirdly, the cheese I used was pretty mild. I think that this really needs a sharper cheese. If I had some of the Seriously Sharp Cabot Cheddar cheese I think it would be yummy (I *do* have some Cabot cheese in my fridge...some jalapeno cheddar and maybe some habanero cheddar...).

Now all of that withstanding, this came out of the oven looking *awesome*. It puffed up and browned up (or barely browned if you will) beautifully. What happens is that that egg soaks through the bread so you kinda have a layer of egg, then bread, then cheese. Yum! My ramekins were to small for this so I used one of the mini casserole dishes that my mom bought me from Princess House years ago (yes I have crystal mini-casserole dishes - more than half my plates, mugs, bowls and drinking glasses are from Princess House). I just checked their site and they don't have them anymore. It's a shame because while there were a bit expensive they are so worth and it and use them a lot. This only took a few minutes to throw together.

Yes, I will try this again but next time with the wine and sharper cheese.

What happened?

2006-03-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

So when I moved to Toronto a year ago I had a *lot* of time on my hands, especially before I discovered the library. And I spent a good chunk of that time watching Food Network Canada. But lately...lately I haven't been watching it too much. I do not really enjoy "Restaurant Makeover" or "Behind the Bash". I like shows that are about, you know, people cooking. And I avoid Rachel Ray like she's the plague (cause, really I think she might be...).

I just took a look at a few of the new upcoming shows. And I can't say I'm overly impressed...

Food Jammers - "Meet the masterminds of creativity and construction as Food Jammers explores the lives and creations of three everyday guys coming up with ingenious designs for their own culinary contraptions." No thanks.

Jamie's Great Italian Escape - "In Jamie’s Great Italian Escape, Jamie Oliver heads to Italy in his camper van in search of the country's gastronomic heart." Maybe. I like Italian food. Although I'll be most inclined to watch this because the last series his I watched, the one where he was working in the public school, is the only show that I've seen on the Food Network that comes with an explicit content warning. He swears a lot. I find this endearing.

Just One Bite - "For some families, meal time is a hassle, stressful or just plain boring but it doesn’t have to be. Just One Bite is a brand new Canadian series for parents who are tired of eating chicken nuggets every night because that’s what their kids want." Meh. I foresee children having temper tantrums on this show. It sounds like something I'd want to avoid. I'm really not their demographic.

Kylie Kwong: Simply Magic - "This new series sees Kylie traveling to China for inspiration for her cooking, to the boomtown city of Shanghai and the former British colony of Hong Kong, where she meets many who share her passion for food." This has potential. It sounds interesting and I'd learn stuff. But I'm not familiar with Kylie Kwong so there is the potential she could annoy me with would negate any interesting content.

And in the returning series...
Iron Chef America - I have to keep a close eye on this because I want to see the episode with Susur Lee (I think he takes on Bobby Flay but I'm not positive). I had the opportunity to eat at Susur and it was fanfreakingtastic.

License to Grill - the food looks good but I don't have a grill therefore won't try anything.

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - I'll pass.

So yeah...not really anything to get excited about. What happened to the Food Network as it existed even a year ago????

Mmmm pie...

2006-03-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

According to Denise
and Slashfood it is Pi(e) Day. Apparently one of the clubs at U of T is also selling pie today as well (for $3.14 you get 1/6 of a pie).

Pie always makes me think of my mother. There were two baked goods they were almost always present in our house they were biscuits and pie. Most often apple pie because my stepfather liked apple pie (with a slice of cheddar cheese on the side - very important). I've always been more of a berry girl. When I was younger it was blueberry pie. Now it's strawberry pie. Mmmmmmm berries. We all had our own pies that we favoured. I was on a pie lemon meringue pie kick for years (minus the meringue). My sister M also like the strawberry pie. One of my brothers liked coconut cream pie, another liked banana cream pie. Yet another brother would only eat pumpkin pie if it didn't have any spices in it (yes, I'm aware that he's weird). There was a lot of pie in our house.

I remember one type of pie that I don't recall anyone else making - cranberry, apple and raisin pie. It's very tasty. I tend to call it "Harvest Pie" because it just sounds (and tastes) autumny.

My mother made all these pies. But she's not only known for her desserts. My mother makes the *BEST* turkey pot pies ever. She makes them individually sized. Everything is made from scratch. The turkey is roasted and we have a meal off of it. Then everything gets thrown into her big "jam pot" (so called because it's mostly used when making jam). Lots of turkey and potatoes and turnip and carrots and lots of chicken stock. It all simmers down into a thick stew or as it tends to be called in our house - the gravy (why? just cause). While the stew is stewing we roll out the pie dough and line the individual sized disposable pie plates (tart dishes?). Then we fill them up with the "gravy", top them off with more pie crust, trim the edges and them put in the freezer to flash freeze. The end result? A few dozen absolutely delicious individual turkey pot pies. I haven't had one of these in years. One of the real downsides of living so far away is that I rarely get such goodies. My former brother-in-law was addicted to these things. He'd get in the middle of the night and put one or two of them in the oven for a midnight snack. These things took 30-45 minutes to bake. That's some real dedication to midnight snacking if you ask me.

Often there's more gravy then there are pie shells so we'll take what is left and put it in a small roasting pan. Then it will be topped with biscuit dough and put in the oven for an extra special pot pie. Actually this type of pie reminds me of my grandmother because she used to do it quite often with beef. But oh so yummy.

Pie. PEI. Home. My mother's kitchen. My grandmother's kitchen. Pie.

Pie Day

Meal plan

2006-03-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

Trying this again. I haven't been doing so well with this resolution. And I honestly can't say what the heck I ate for dinner last week. I really don't remember the last time I ate breakfast either. So here is my plan for next week. Again, this is not necessarily *everything* I eat but an outline of my basic meals. The bread for toast is multi-grain and the bread for sandwiches is more the yummy cranberry pumpkin seed bread. And the noodles in the lasagna are whole wheat.

Monday
B: toast + peanut butter, coffee
L: turkey sandwich
D: clean out the fridge dinner

Tuesday
B: cereal, coffee
L: turkey sandwich
D: veggie lasagna

Wednesday
B: toast + peanut butter, coffee
L: turkey sandwich
D: black bean burritos

Thursday
B: cereal, coffee
L: turkey sandwich
D: crockpot ham + potatoes, veggies

Friday
B: ham omelet, toast, coffee
L: turkey sandwich
D: leftovers

meal planning

My Sandwich, My Love

2006-03-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

You all must have figured out that I have a slight addiction to the wares of the St. Lawrence Market. I made a new discovery at my favourite bakery there, the Stonemill Bakehouse. This place is often a mob house. It tell you it's *crazy* on Saturday mornings. It's the reason I've started going there earlier and earlier in the day. If you get there too late you are often SOL when it comes to the truly yummy stuff.

As I mentioned before I'm really not into sweets. And that includes pastries. Every now and then I'll get a craving for either. But my real love is bread. I love good bread. The smell of bread baking is one of the best smells in the world. It reminds me of the infrequent occasions when I was a kid and my mother actually had the time to bake bread.

As much as I love bread I've never been a big fan of sandwiches. I hated taking sandwiches in my lunch (they were sent with me in the mornings and returned with me at night - eventually my mother gave up as it was a waste of food and money). And especially of sandwiches that were made of bread that had stuff in it. Flax seeds, grains, etc are ok but nothing that had raisins or fruits or large nuts. I just never liked it.

But for some reason I felt compelled to pick up some Cranberry Pumpkin Seed bread this past Saturday. It just looked yummy. And it sounded very Thanksgivingy. What else could I do but buy some smoked turkey to go along with it from Scheffler's Deli? And what kind of sandwich doesn't have cheese? And what goes better with turkey than Swiss cheese? So some Emmental cheese was added to my order as well.

I came home and stuck the bread in the fridge so that it would go mouldy on me. My apartment tends to be overly warm by times drastically decreasing the shelf life of bread. Plus it was bakery bread so it generally has a shorter shelf life anyway.

Somehow I managed to wait until Monday before diving into the bread. The loaf was little so I ended up cutting off about 1/3 of it and slicing it in half horizontally. While I was pulling the turkey and the Emmental from the fridge I suddenly remembered I had a bottle of Kozlik's Clobbered Cranberry Mustard that I had bought awhile ago and not used yet. Could there ever be a better reason to crack the seal? I think not!

So I assembled the sandwich, slathering both slices of bread with the mustard, putting turkey on both and then the cheese in the middle. I then cut it in half and popped it into the microwave for 25 seconds to warm it up a bit. I didn't want it to be all melty, just slightly warmed.

There it was. A sandwich made completely with stuff purchased from the market.

It was time for the first bite.

Sheer perfection.

If it's possible to be head over heels in love with a sandwich I'm ready to elope with this one.

Butchers have big breasts

2006-03-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

I'm new to this whole butcher thing. Where I grew up we didn't have butchers who ran their own businesses. The grocery store had people who worked in the meat department but we never really thought of them as butchers and being poor we bought the meat the was on sale, not the stuff you had to request. The closest we came to a butcher was when my brother would order a half a cow and a whole pig to put in his freezer and then share some of his bounty with us (mmm ham steak).

But since moving to this apartment I've caught the butcher bug. It's in no small part due to the fact that the meat in my local grocery store sucks. The grocery store is called "No Frills" and let me tell ya, they aren't kidding. This place doesn't even have a store butcher. The meat comes to the store already placed in styrofoam and industrial grade saran wrap. And it really does suck. I will occasionally buy ground beef there but aside from deli meat (nope, no deli there but they carry prepackaged stuff) and bacon (my father worked for the company that packages the bacon for years so I trust it) that's it. Every other meat, be it steak, chicken or pork, that I've bought that has made a quick trip to the trash can. The meat "department" there scares me. So I turned to butchers to fulfill my meat needs.

There are two butchers I frequent. One is my "local" butcher (it's not exactly around the corner but a respectful walking distance) called "Meat on the Beach". No, I'm not joking. That's really what it's called. They do some great marinades. But the last time I ate the chicken I cooked from there I was *ill*. (Disclaimer - I totally do not blame the quality of the meat AT ALL. My stomach is very finicky when it comes to chicken and the chicken was fine the first night but my body did not appreciate the leftovers at all. Meat on the Beach has no blame in my getting sick unless you count that their totally irresistible mango poppy seed marinated chicken breasts were too tempting to leave without adding to my order.)

The other place I go to is at the St. Lawrence Market. It's called Witteveen Meats. They also have very tempting marinades. I soooooo highly recommend any of the beef that had been marinated in bourbon. It is very good. And there's also the thing where they tend to employ rather cute young men. It's a rather irresistible combination. (Yes I'm a sucker for cute men, sue me.)

I've bought chicken breasts from both of these places and it has to be said - butchers have really big breasts. Honestly, they are HUGE! And it muddles the heck out of me because I've been brought up on these tiny grocery store chicken breasts. But the breasts from the butcher are easily twice the size! I swear there are some Hollywood starlets (and countless wannabe starlets) that would KILL to be able to upgrade their breasts like I have. Yes I know that grocery store breasts are probably just as big but they split them so that we get two. Whatever. The butcher breasts are still freaking huge.

Now these breasts, they are good. Great quality. Take longer to cook than most recipes call for. Today I went through an entire episode (sans commercials because I'm watching on DVD) of Sex and the City and the suckers still weren't finished. They mess up the serving yield. I'm making chicken salad and you figure two people, plus wanting leftovers, equals two breasts right? But no, not these breasts. Not the super-sized butcher breasts. Two chicken breasts later and I'm really, really hoping that my guest tonight really likes TW's chicken salad so I can hoist some off on them when they leave. Total miscalculation on my part. Two grocery store chicken breasts would have been the right amount. But since it's been about two months since I had butcher breasts I grossly under estimated how much food two of their big breasts would yield.

So be warned - butchers have big breasts.

Oh yum!!!

2006-03-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

So about a week ago I saw this recipe for Tuna Crusted with Wasabi Peas on Stephen Cooks. It intrigued me. So when I was making my list for the St. Lawrence Market on Friday night I added tuna and wasabi peas to my list.

Yesterday when I was at the Market I bought some sushi grade tuna from Mike's Fish Market. It wasn't cheap. I don't normally spend $13 on fish for myself for a single meal and I picked out on of the smallest pieces of tuna they had! But was it ever worth it! (And I must say this is a looonng way from the days where I had a strict $4 limit on meat for meals - if it cost more than $4/serving it was totally out of my price range - as much as I hate money, sometimes it's really nice to earn a decent salary). And really, $13 isn't all that bad when you stop and think how much I'd probably have to pay for this in a restaurant.

Crushing the wasabi peas was fun because I had received a mortar and pestle for Christmas and this was my first chance to use it. Piper was fascinated for a whole two seconds until she realized that was I was doing had absolutely nothing to do with cheese. She did freak when I took the tuna out the fridge. I love my cat but not enough to share that yummy tuna with her.

I have to say that tuna was absolutely delicious. The peas were a nice crispy coating and the tuna absolutely melted in my mouth. It was the best, splurgiest thing I've made in a long time. I did not make the dipping sauce because I didn't have sake or mirin. But I will definately have to pick some up because I *will* be making this again.

Sooooooooo good.

Sunday, Sunday

2006-02-25T19:23:00.000-05:00

Yes I know it's not Sunday yet. But I have plans for Sunday. On Sunday I will make pasta sauce. Then I will make lasagna. Maybe I'll make breadsticks or biscuits. But that may take more ambition than I have (more than likely).

There will be some experimenting with the sauce/lasagna tomorrow. I'm adding zucchini. I just haven't decided how I'm going to incorporate it though. And my stupid (really, it's stupid) local grocery store did not have frozen spinach so I bought fresh and need to figure out how I want to incorporate that into the lasagna. I'm of two minds and I can't decide which I'm going to listen to. ;-)

If I can find a recipe for which I have supplies maybe I'll make a dessert from Small-Batch Baking. I checked it out from the library this week. I will eventually review it - you know after I read it and try something...(ie don't hold your breath).

Walkers Shortbread Stem Ginger Biscuits

2006-02-24T16:02:00.000-05:00

I"m on a hunt for these.

Walkers Shortbread Stem Ginger Biscuits

Since moving to Toronto I've found them in ONE store (a chain store but I only found them in one location) and they only had ONE box. And that one store is now closed. It seems that many places have the stupid shortbread but not the ginger biscuits.

I don't generally do cookies etc but I swear I could eat an entire box of these cookies in one afternoon.

I want some. But I can't find them anywhere. Just the stupid shortbread. I'm close to ordering some...

Hmmm

2006-02-20T18:24:00.000-05:00

I can't decide how I feel about this.

Supperworks

On one hand it's cheaper per person and healthier than hitting a drive thru or ordering pizza or "convenience foods". On the other hand it doesn't list the nutritional information so I'm not exactly sure how healthy it is (it does sound like the ingredients are pretty fresh though). It appears that you can control some things, like spicy vs mild for chicken enchiladas. The menu has a decent amount of variation but I know a number of families for which it wouldn't work so well.

As a society are we really that busy that we need services like this? Do we really not have time to go to the grocery store and actually cook? I mean, I realize that there are occasions where we really are that busy. I've had them. But to need to do something like this on a constant or regular basis? With all the recent reports on how people in my generation are turning out to be the "debt generation" shouldn't we be learning how to care for ourselves and teaching the future generations to be the same?

There's a show on the Canadian Food Network called Fixing Dinner. Basically each episode highlights a family that thinks that they don't have time to make dinner (although occasionally it's people who are stuck in a rut with what they make for dinner). By meal planning and assigning family members different tasks and meals and making shopping lists and showing the family how to prep in advance the host, a mother of 7 herself, shows the families how they *can* do it. They check in on "fright night" and then again a month later. Basically most of what the host does is organization and planning and they seem to be pretty successful at it.

Is that all that we are lacking? Are we too busy to organize ourselves? In the long run wouldn't it be cheaper to pay a meal planner to come into our homes and help us organize ourselves then to pay for "convenience" on a regular basis?

I'm a big believer in getting the whole family involved in the kitchen. I grew up helping my mom cook. I was allowed to experiment. I left high school without ever taking home-ec (it was optional and I chose not to opt) but fully capable of cooking healthy and sustaining meals for myself. Or at least when I had money to eat and even when I didn't I generally had a decently well stocked pantry and could fix something to eat even if it was far from balanced (um...like that week I had to survive on a loaf of bread, peanut butter and a stockpile of ramen but hey - I was able to feed myself that week).

I remember standing on chairs "helping" my mother bake before I was tall enough to even see the top of the counter. I remember grocery shopping with my parents. I remember when my sister was a single mother and on welfare we used to take her grocery shopping with a calculator because her budget was so limited. I think being involved in the grocery store and in the kitchen gave me a respect for food and for money.

Basically what it comes down to for me what my grandmother (a mother of 11) and mother (a mother of 7) would think. They both worked jobs and raised families. And I know they would both not be able to fathom this.

So in the end maybe my reaction is merely a result of how I was raised....

Misc.

2006-02-18T10:52:00.000-05:00

I know I've been really bad at keeping this blog up to date. I just feel like it would be better with photos. I *am* working on getting a digital camera. I have a savings account that I keep sticking money into. But I'm also working on knocking down some credit card payments so please be patient. I have found a place where I think I can get decent prices.

I have a lot of posts in my head for this blog that simply do not want to come out on paper (err the screen???). I actually think about this blog a lot. Possibly because I think about food a lot. And I like talking about food. I used to do it online every day back in the iVillage days. I do miss the Cooking for One board that used to exist. I don't miss my subsequent boards so much (too many convenience foods -blah).

I've been doing some research on small-batch baking. I do rather enjoy baking but my issue is that I don't like eating sweets that much. And when I get the occasional craving I often ignore it because there is no way I plan on wasting that much in terms of baked goods. It's not too bad if I know I'm going to meet up with the boys or something because I can always foist the food off on them. I actually *want* to be invited over to peoples places so I can bring dessert. lol I need guinea pigs. Any volunteers??? I make a mean key lime pie...

I *will* try to post on here more often. I have oodles of food posts in me...if I can just get them out.

Is it just me?

2006-02-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

I had posted awhile ago on my other blog that I hate Rachel Ray (clicky).

I've since decided that there are two different types of people - the ones who love her and the ones who don't.

For the most part I no longer feel the need to throw things at the TV when she's on but I still don't like her. And I think I've figured out why.

Has anyone else noticed that she talks to her audience like they are idiots? Or three-year olds? I've noticed this. And I think it's why I don't like her.

Rachel Ray
Food Network Canada

Clean out the fridge day

2006-02-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

I usually do this on Monday's but I thought that I would to it today. I had a few fresh veggies that were getting to the point where they were a wee bit past their prime. Luckily they were perfect for roast veggies. So in the oven I have an overly large baking dish of bite-sized carrots, celery, turnip, red onion and potato seasoned with sea salt, white pepper (my grinder sucks so there was no way I was going to stand there for three minutes grinding, yuck), and Mrs. Dash, and tossed with extra virgin olive oil. I'm cooking them at 375F. I'll check them after they've been in there for 30 minutes. I wasn't sure what I was going to eat with them but then I remembered that I have still have a pork chop in the fridge. Yay! I'll just have to heat it up in the microwave and dinner will be ready. :) Of course I'll have to figure out what to do with the leftover veggies. Maybe I'll make a frittata tomorrow...

Items in the fridge also asking to be used up are a block of asiago cheese, a package of silken tofu (I grabbed it accidentally instead of buying firm tofu darn it), various types of cheddar. In the freezer I have mixed veggies and a package of frozen asparagus. I have pasta in the cupboard.

I spent $30 at the grocery store last Sunday. I got frozen berries (I snack on them - a post to come on that some time) and tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa, tortillas, sour cream (I eat a lot of cheese quesadillas for lunch), some frozen fish fillets, tomatoes, cucumber, and potatoes. Oh and frozen pizza and a bag of lime tostitos. Since then I spent $7 on milk and bread. That's more than I spent the week before. I have plenty of food left in the freezer still. I shouldn't have to buy anything at all until next weekend. :)

I haven't really been doing a great job of food planning the last few weeks but I've been more conscious of what I'm buying and what I really need to buy when I go grocery shopping.

Pancakes!

2006-01-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

The Bisquick post was in thanks to my friend Vanda who was commenting that she was craving pancakes but could get Bisquick in the UK.

So here's my pancake recipe for her. It's from College Cuisine by Leila Peitosaari. It's really one of the better student cookbooks that I found. Common, easy to find, relatively inexpensive.

Pancakes

1 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking power
1 large egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil

In medium bowl, mix flour with sugar and baking powder. Make a well in the center for the dry ingredients and add egg, milk and oil in it. Stir with a wire whisk until batter is smooth. Heat nonstick frying pan over high heat for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium high and grease if necessary. Drop the batter in pan by large spoonfuls. Cook until golden brown underneath, flip over and cook the other side. Eat hot.

recipe, pancakes

Mystification

2006-01-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

I’ve always been mystified by the whole Bisquick thing. It’s not something we ever had in our house when I was growing up. I didn’t realize how popular it was until I started playing on the iVillage food channel.

And I have to say, I still don’t get it. Maybe it’s because we really didn’t use much in the line of “convenience” foods in our house. I think the closest we had was pudding mixes, Jello and French fries (and we still sometimes made homemade French fries – yum!!!!). We may have had pancake mix but I didn’t eat pancakes so I never really noticed. I had a bad experience where I ordered “the haystack” at Smitty’s and my aunt and uncle told me I had to eat the whole thing – I still am not a huge fan of pancakes. But I do have a good homemade pancake recipe, or so everyone who eats them tells me. I used to use them as a bribe to get my ex-boyfriend out of bed in the mornings.

And the other thing that Bisquick is well known for is, well biscuits. My mother always made her biscuits from scratch. As did my grandmother. And as do I. And I simply cannot imagine that stuff out of a box would taste as good.

So I don’t get it. Is it just the convenience? Do they actually taste good? Do they taste better than homemade? Cause really, it only takes me about 5 minutes to mix up a batch of biscuits (well not counting rolling and cutting) or pancakes (probably less that 5 minutes actually). Are people so busy that they can’t handle the 5 minutes it takes to make something simple from scratch?

Seriously, what is it?

Bisquick

A dinner of sorts...

2006-01-25T16:11:00.000-05:00

So dinner last night ended up being a sort of snack fest. First I had a snack sized bag of popcorn. Then after that I was poking around in the fridge and realized I had some fresh raspberries and blueberries that had to be eaten asap. So I had those with some Special K Vanilla Almond. I suddenly seem to like cereal. I hated it for years. Then I had the last of my green seedless grapes. About half a bowl full. Then a few hours later I had some cheese and crackers.

So ummm tonight I'm going to try to eat real food. I believe it will be Indian food since I have to run to the library and I walk by at least three Indian places on the way there. And there's a good and fairly inexpensive place right across the street from the library. Oh and I need to stop and buy potatoes.

I might deviled eggs tonight...I have a craving.

Mean Planning...not quite

2006-01-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

So I was really all prepared to do meal planning again this week. But as I've mentioned on my other blog my back is really quite sore this week. I really, really don't want to have to lug home groceries on my back. It's only about a 10 minute walk each way but I know that my back isn't really up to it right now. So I'm going to try to make as much as I can out of my freezer/cupboard and see how I do. I have to run to the library sometime in the next couple of days and I should be able to pick up a couple of potatoes there and then I'll have something to eat with the pork chops in my freezer.

Yesterday...I don't think I ate breakfast. And I have no idea what I had for lunch (presumably I had something...). Dinner was spinach and ricotta ravioli with homemade marinara sauce. And then I went to the pub and had beer. Oh and I snacked on frozen berries.

Today - coffee for breakfast. Sandwich and an avacado for lunch. I have no idea what I'm having for dinner yet. I think I have enough stuff to make one cheese quesadilla...I may do that. Or soup. Or more pasta. Or fries and chicken fingers (although using the oven will likely cause my smoke detector to go off again like it does almost every time I use the damn oven).

Whatever day I go the library (where there are 4 more books waiting for me, sigh) I'll likely pick up some samosas and some other stuff as it is turning out to be my regular routine on library nights.

If I wanted to do a big meal I have a ham in the fridge I could throw in the crockpot.

Yep, so very clueless right now about how things are going to go this week. Meh.

Winner's Announced!

2006-01-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

The winner's of the Food Blog Awards have been announced.

Go here to see who won.

Since it seems to be keep popping up...

2006-01-18T17:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, this seems to be a rather frequent topic of conversation lately and apparently not something that many people knew about me. But now that more people have found out about it they seem to keep talking about it.

I don't really like chocolate.

Apparently this makes me weird.

Actually let me clarify - it's not that I don't like chocolate. Occasionally I really enjoy it. But the majority of the time if you give me the option of something that has chocolate and something that doesn't I'll take the thing that doesn't.

Example - a couple of months ago I was taken out for a yummy dinner at a nice little French bistro. The dessert course came round. Everyone else at the table got the flourless chocolate cake, which is a house specialty. Me? I got the homemade raspberry sorbet. It was excellent. But everyone thought I was nuts for not getting the cake.

Chocolate really doesn't tempt me. I can't explain why. I mean it's ok but I'd still take fruit over chocolate most days.

Maybe that makes me weird.

Fine then, I'm weird.

chocolate

No Meal Plan This Week

2006-01-15T09:16:00.000-05:00

No appetite. It will likely be a week of soup and smoothies and popcorn.

Meal Plan Week 2

2006-01-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

Seeing as garbage/recycling/green bin pick up day is Tuesdays (known as Tuesday Trashday) I am going to designate Monday nights as my clean out the fridge/use up leftovers night.

And you will notice - no chicken on the menu this week. lol

Week 2

Monday
B: scones + tea
L: bacon sandwich
D: clean out the fridge dinner (I’ll use up as many leftovers as I can).

Tuesday
B: cereal + coffee
L: pizza
D: pasta (or since I haven't had a samosa night in a long time, I may pick some up on my way back from the library)

Wednesday
B: English muffin + coffee
L: bacon sandwich
D: roasted turkey breast (marinated in cranberry mustard), potatoes and asparagus (I’m trying out turkey instead of chicken)

Thursday
B: cereal + coffee
L: soup
D: 2 small bacon wrapped filet mignons + salad

Friday
B: cereal + coffee
L: bacon sandwich
D: ?

Grocery List: salad greens, cucumber, milk, crackers, potatoes, freezer bags, soup, popcorn, paper towels

meal planning, grocery list

My new favourite food blog

2006-01-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

Of course I can't really say what my old favourite food blog was...I don't know that I had an actual favourite. I found this blog through theAccidental Hedonist and the food blog awards.

The blog is Marisa Baggett's My Sushi Life. It's nominated for the the best food blog by a chef. I really enjoy her blog. It's interesting and entertaining. It deals with food but food is kind of the backdrop for the stories of her life. The only problem is waiting for her to finish her stories that she writes in parts. ;-)

Read. Enjoy.

food blog, blog awards

Death by chicken

2006-01-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, not quite death. But far from health.

About 7 years ago I got a nasty case of salmonella from some chicken wings. It was one of those things where you don't feel good after eating and then you get violently ill. I should have gone to the hospital but I couldn't figure out how to get there without puking in the cab even though it was only about a 5 minute drive. And I wasn't going to call an ambulance because I didn't have $120 to pay for it (this was probably my poorest year as a student). Oh yeah, and I could barely move. So I suffered it out. About 14 hours later I stopped puking/retching. I made it to school the next day but only because I had to because I had a bio lab (the smell of a formaldehyde and the appearance of dead rats to dissect was NOT pleasant).

I did not eat chicken again for about a year.

To this day I have not touched another chicken wing. I have trouble eating chicken off of the bone. Psychological block on that one.

But even when I did start eating chicken, it often made me sick. And still does. But not always. It's very confusing. There doesn't seem to really be a pattern of when it will and when it won't. And it's not because there is something wrong with the chicken. I can take a chicken breast, cut it in two, give half to a friend and they'll be fine and I'll be sick. Sometimes chicken nuggets etc make me sick but I chalk that up to the grease as well.

Basically I have to cook the crap out of chicken in order to eat it. It has to be a dry rubbery mess. And who wants to eat chicken like that? So other night the chicken was cooked perfectly. Juices clear, proper temp (I have a thermometer), nice and juicy. I made quesadillas. I ate the quesadillas.

Ten minutes later I was sick. I proceeded to be sick for the next few hours and my digestive system was still pissed off at me the next day.

In theory I should probably give up chicken all together. But the problem lies in the fact that it doesn't *always* make me sick. You know? And it's pretty much the most popular meat out there. When's the last time a meat-eater told you that they don't eat chicken? It's just weird, right?

But I think maybe I should stop buying it. Between what I threw out and what made me sick I wasted about $14 worth of yummy chicken. Oh I haven't mentioned it but the chicken breasts were marinated in mango and poppy seed (and yes, I've had them before and no they didn't make me sick that time).

So yes, just another thing that makes me weird. I can't eat chicken...well sorta.

chicken, sick

Status report

2006-01-03T21:59:00.000-05:00

Meal planning is working well. Yes, it's been all of 1.5 days. But hey, it's working. lol

Well mostly working. I had a timing issue earlier today. The chicken was not done when I thought it would be. The potato and asparagus were. Oops. So I have the veggies and let the chicken cook. I was full when it was finished but I just put almost a half a breast in tortilla with some cheese and salsa for a snack (and these chicken breasts are HUGE). It was tasty.

Because of my own personal screw up earlier today I'm going to see if I can actually manage to not hit the grocery store this week (partly in punishment for my own stupidity, partly because I don't think I really need to go). With any luck my salad greens will still be fine tomorrow. If not I'll just cook some frozen veggies tomorrow and eat those with my quesadillas. I do need to run to the corner store and buy milk tomorrow morning though (I'm too lazy to right now). But I really think that's all I need to buy until the weekend. I may even be able to go until Monday.

meal planning

Shipper's Carrot Soup

2006-01-02T18:07:00.000-05:00

I got this recipe a few years ago from Shane the Shipper. I've made it a few times although it's been awhile because my blender died a year or so ago. It was old. My mother made my baby food in it (no, I was not a Gerber baby). It was death by margaritas. There are worse ways to die.

Anyway, this soup is yummy. It's a good basic recipe. All amounts are approximations that you can play with. I think I'm going to try to play with it at some time and try carrot ginger soup. This yields quite a bit. I have a liter in the freezer and about that much in the fridge.

Shipper's Carrot Soup

2 lbs carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped (I didn't have celery so I used celery seed, lol)
1-2 onions chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, smashed
1-2 tsp basil
1-2 tsp oregano
chicken broth (or OXO cubes as directed) or water
1 pint 15% cream
salt and pepper to taste

Put carrots, celery, onions and garlic in a large pot. Add enough chicken broth so it covers carrots plus a few inches. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender. Do not drain!

In batches, puree in a food processor or blender. Be careful! It's hot! Transfer the purees to another pot (I put them in a big bowl and then back in the pot when when I was finished with all the puree action).

When everything is pureed add the cream and herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If soup is too thick just as more chicken stock or water until desired consistency.

I added the full amount of cream but I think I prefer it with about half as much. It's a good basic recipe. Lots of ways to play with it.

recipe, carrot, soup

Meal Plan Week 1

2006-01-02T14:52:00.000-05:00

This is one of my New Year's resolutions - meal planning. I think it will help me keep my grocery budget (which is yet to be determined...) in line. This isn't really *everything* I'm going to eat. I'm not being that hardcore about it. And things may get moved around as I get cravings etc. I haven't filled in Friday dinner because Friday's are often unpredictable. It's not uncommon for dinner plans to suddenly pop up.

And there's so much carrot soup on the menu this week because a) I really like soup and b) I'm about to get off my lazy ass and make some homemade carrot soup seeing as last week I bought myself a BLENDER! Too bad I'm too lazy to also make some homemade bread (note to shelf: type out bread recipe before Lav's little sister kicks my butt).

Monday
B: smoothie (no lunch because breakfast was at lunch time)
D: pasta + small bowl of carrot soup

Tuesday
B: cereal + coffee
L: carrot soup
D: mango poppy-seed chicken breast, baked potato + asparagus

Wednesday
B: cereal + coffee
L: blt
D: chicken quesadillas + salad

Thursday
B: cereal + coffee
L: carrot soup
D: veggies + couscous with peanut sauce

Friday
B: cereal + coffee
L: carrot soup
D: ?

Grocery List: salad greens, cucumber, green pepper, milk, crackers

meal planning, grocery list

Oh yum!

2005-12-29T18:42:00.000-05:00

I just finished eating my dinner (I know - I ate early tonight!). My pork tenderloin was fanfreakingtastic. I wrapped it in tin foil, placed it on a baking sheet and cooked it at 350F for about 1 hour 10 minutes (the guy recommended 120 but my oven tends to cooks things fast...). I wasn't sure if it was really done because it looked kinda pink so I pulled out my trusty kitchen thermometer and it said it was cooked. I'm glad I did because when I cut into it, it was cooked perfectly. It tasted sooo good - the pork with the feta, spinach and bacon inside it and rosemary on the outside. mmmm

I decided against mashed potatoes. I wasn't in the mood. Instead I had mixed greens and tomato with oil and balasamic vinegar. Yum. I really have been craving tomatoes lately. Maybe that's why it tasted so good. ;-)

And later, for a snack, I can slice and toast some of the french bread, rub it with a garlic clove and top with bocconcini and tomato and maybe a itty bitty drizzle of balsamico. mmmmmmmm

The St. Lawrence Market is foodie heaven I'm telling ya!

Indulgence

2005-12-29T14:50:00.000-05:00

Since I'm not working and I've been stuck in the house for the last few days I decided to go out into the world. My chosen spot was yet again the St. Lawrence Market. Yes, I seriously love that place.

My first stop was Mike's Fish Market where I bought a 1/2 lb of baby scallops. I love scallops. The last time I went home for Chrismas (which was 5 years ago) one of my gifts was a pound of fresh scallops. Yummy.

After that I went next door to St. Lawrence Ice Cream and Pizza. They make their own pasta and pasta sauce and it's *yummy*. I bought their special sauce which is a mix of their tomato, alfredo and pesto sauce. It's all separate until you are ready to serve and then you mix it all together. It's sooooooo yummy. It costs about $7 but very much worth it.

Then I stopped at Future Bakery. It was rather late in the day so their selection wasn't great but I did manage to snare a loaf of yummy French bread.

After the bakery I went to Scheffler's Deli. It's one of my favourites at the Market. I bought stuffed grape leaves, fresh bruschetta and bocconcini. I was rather tempted but a great number of their other cheeses but since I couldn't decide I didn't buy any. They have soooo much there and it's all good. lol

My next stop was Family Foods for some tomatoes on the vine and fresh basil.

At this point I was about to leave when I decided to turn back and wander by Witteveen Meats Ltd. They always have yummy stuff and I figured that I did say I was going to cook myself a big yummy meal sometime this week. I had originally thought I would make a chicken but then I looked at their stuffed pork tenderloins. I bought a half tenderloin stuffed with spinach, feta and bacon. YUMMY! This was my one true splurge item of the day as it cost about $14. But hey, I figure I'm worth it. It's still cheaper than a turkey! I also bought a pound of fresh bacon. I was very tempted by their bourbon beef kabobs but there's always next time.

I somehow managed not to buy anything to eat while I was there. A rare event. I wasn't all that hungry at the time though.

Now I have to clean up the apartment and do laundry. In a few hours I'll put my tenderloin in the oven and make whipped potatoes to go with it (I still haven't bought a potato masher so whipped taters it is). I've already has some bruschetta and ate all of the vine leaves. ;-)

St Lawrence Market, Witteveen Meats

Stuffing the Sassymonkey way

2005-12-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

Which is, of course, the only right way to make it. It's the way my mother makes it, the way her mother made it, etc. Other stuffings may be made, and may even be edible. But they aren't real stuffing.

Stuffing the Sassymonkey way is very easy. You need bread. Preferably the yucky white bread (think Wonderbread) that I never buy because grainy bread is so much better for you. My mother used to keep a bag in the freezer and she'd just keep adding bread butts to it because no one would eat them. Works great for stuffing. Christmas morning always started with the opening of stockings. Then I'd help my mom rip up the bread for stuffing.

You need chopped onions. Technically, this is optional. I believe my mother used to have to make some on the side without onions for someone. I don't know who.

You need salt and pepper. Suit your own tastes.

You need a little bit of butter. Just a couple of pats. mix it in with the bread.

The most important ingredient - summer savory. It if doesn't have summer savory IT'S NOT STUFFING. No poultry seasoning is not the same thing.

And that is all that you need to make the best stuffing ever. You mix it all together. You stuff the bird as much as you can. If you have extra you cook it on the side for about the last 20 minutes or so.

My stuffing is yummy. It's the best stuffing. I've tried other stuffings. They are good. But they aren't RIGHT.

(Yes, I fully expect for people to try to tell me I'm wrong. I have a feeling TW has an opinion on this. But you are all wrong. I'm right about this one.)

Oh and I've decided that since I have the week off I'm going to give in to my indulgent cravings. I'm going to go to the St. Lawrence Market at some point this week and buy things like scallops and bacon wrapped filet mignon. Actually I plan to wrap some of the scallops in bacon and roast them. If I can get get baby ones I may have to make some of my scallop rose pasta sauce. mmm

stuffing

Christmas Eve Eats

2005-12-24T12:26:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that I'm generally bah humbuging Christmas for various reasons I'm still eating like it is Christmas time. I love food.

Right now I have turkey meatballs in the oven. Same basic recipe for the ground beef one below but I've added a bit of fresh minced ginger to them and not making the sweet and sour sauce. I've got them on a rack over a cookie sheet. They should be cooked through in about 25-30 minutes. Then I am going to dip them in President's Choice Peanut Sauce (mmmm so yummy).

I think I might make a cheese ball later. I'll split it in two and freeze the other half. I forgot to buy Breton crackers. I'll make due with my Stoned Wheat Thins.

Tonight I'm going to make the box of Chinese appetizers that I bought the other day at the grocery store. Yummy.

Edit: Meatballs weren't bad. I can't gobble them up quite the same way as the sweet and sour ones though.

About to make the cheese ball!

Sweet and sour meatballs

2005-12-21T19:08:00.000-05:00

I made these last week. Sooooo yummy. We often have them around Christmas time at home. One of my nephews especially likes them. I think he'd be happy if that was all that my mother made for Christmas dinner. lol Anyway, the other night I had a pound of lean ground beef in the fridge and didn't know what to do with it. I suddenly decided I wanted these. A quick trip to the corner store (which I soooooooooo still want to call a dep but then no one who reads this other than Ilan and Cat would know what the heck I was talking about) for vinegar and I was ready to go. Technically you can serve them over rice but that's just extra work. They are tasty just on their own.

Sweet and sour meatballs
1-1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 lg. egg
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs

Sweet 'N Sour Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tbsp. cornstarch (I skipped the cornstarch, I find is generally unnecessary)
1/4 cup lukewarm water

Directions:
Mix ground beef together with egg and breadcrumbs. Roll into balls (about 1-inch) and place in roaster. Set aside.

On stovetop, heat in pot ketchup, brown sugar and vinegar. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. In a cup, dissolve cornstarch in lukewarm water. Add to sauce and stir until sauce is thickened. Pour sauce over meatballs.Bake at 350°F for approximately 1-1/2 hours, until it bubbles thoughout.

Yummy!!!

recipe, meatballs

Christmas dinner update

2005-12-21T18:56:00.000-05:00

I'm procrastinating/eating dinner so I thought I ought to update and address the Christmas dinner post.

If you read the comments, Lav (aka purple elf) has invited me to have dinner at her place. yay! Dinner there is always yummy, no matter which of the many people there are cooking. I'm not allowed to bring anything, unless I want to make some bread and bring it, which I will likely do. It depends on what time they want to eat.

Denise, had I stayed at home it just would have been me. Everyone else is out of town. And hearing you talk about hens and them being impressive is *funny*. heehee!

Kyle - roasted garlic mashed potatoes are yummy! If you ever want garlic mashed potatoes but don't have time to roast the garlic, just throw a clove or two (depending on how many taters and how garlicy you want it) in with the potatoes while they are boiling. You can then either remove it or mash it in with them. I've added garlic to pasta water before too.

Lee - both of those things are wrong, wrong, wrong!

Christmas dinner???

2005-12-13T11:14:00.000-05:00

Ok, I can't decide what to make for Christmas Dinner so you are all going to help me out. I've thought of many things ranging from cornish hens to homemade tourtiere. So you get to tell me what you think I *should* make.

Guidelines:
1. It must contain meat of some sort. I refuse to have a vegetarian Christmas dinner because a) I am not a vegetarian and b) I like meat.
2. Wine will be consumed in one form or another so recipes can contain wine. But not be something where you have to use like 12 year aged Scotch of something cause I there's no way in hell I'm shelling out the bucks for that.
3. I'd like it to be something that you/I wouldn't normally make - something with a bit of extra effort.
4. Dessert is probably not required as I'm not a big dessert person and trying to make dessert for one person is often a pain in the ass.

Now comment peoples.

Baking Powder Biscuits

2005-11-27T17:07:00.000-05:00

For Kit-Cat cause I know I'll never get around to mailing her biscuits and if she can make sugar cookies she can make these. This is not my mother's recipe and I'm not against sharing up but my mother uses a lot of appoximations and I am convinced the only reason I am able to correctly follow her recipe is because I watched her make biscuits about twice a week for about 15 years. It would not be the best recipe to share. This recipe is rather similar.

The important thing to remember about biscuits it to not handle the dough very much. Handle it and roll it as little as possible.

I have made this recipe before. I'm sure I made them for Cat or for my former office or both before I was actually able to get my mother to write out her recipe for me. It's from The Great Big Baking Book, by Carole Clements. I got it on the discount table years ago and it was an excellent buy as I also use it for my sourdough bread.

Baking Powder Biscuits
1 1/3 cups flour
2 tbs sugar
3tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
5 tbs cold butter, cut in pieces (my mother never made her biscuits with butter, we always use shortening because it's cheaper - never, ever substitute margarine).
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the over to 425F. Grease a baking sheet (I have *never* greased a baking sheet when making biscuits - just use a good nonstick one).
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (piff! You have built in pastry blenders called HANDS) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Por in the milk and stir with a fork to form a soft dough (fork??? again I say piff! Hands people, hands!).
5. Roll out the dough about 1/4 inch think. Stamp out circles with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter (if you don't have a cookie cutter use a glass).
6. Place on the prepared sheet and bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Serve hot or warm.

Makes about 8 biscuits (depending on your cookie cutter).

I'm a big advocate of using your hands to mix the dough. It's easy to tell exactly when the dough is mixed enough. And if you are afraid of making your hands messy you shouldn't be fooling around in the kitchen in the first place. ;-) And again I stress, don't mess around with the dough more than you need too.

I'm making stew (I'll post about it later) and serving it with fresh biscuits. Yummy!

recipe, biscuits

Maple Orange Pork Roast

2005-11-19T14:20:00.000-05:00

I made this a couple of days ago and it was sooooooooooo yummy that I made a total pig of myself, ate two big plates full of dinner and then couldn't move for the rest of the night. Very tasty. Again, from the Podleski sisters and Crazy Plates.

Maple Orange Pork Roast

1.5 lb pork tenderloin (my store didn't have tenderloins and I was too lazy to go to the butcher so I used a pork rib roast, it worked fine, just not as low fat)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (I put in a bit extra because my roast was a bit bigger)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (I used Kozlik's Amazing Maple Mustard instead- clicky here to find out about the best damn mustards ever)
2 tsp grated orange zest (I totally didn't measure, I just used the zest of one whole orange)
1.5 tsp curry powder
1.5 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced

Trim visible fat off the pork. Place the roast in a large ziplock plastic bag. Whisk together the rest of the ingredients. Pour into bag, and seal. Marinate in fridge for 1 hour.

Transfer pork and marinade to a small roasting pan or baking dish. Roast, uncovered, at 350F for 40 minutes. Pork should still be slightly pink in the middle.

Let pork stand for 10 minutes before slicing (seriously - I've been educated by the food network by this, let it STAND). Slice thinly and drizzle extra over slices before serving.

Serves 6.

Making this the other night was a sort of comedy of errors. First I went to put the roast in the oven and realized I had to take out the top rack. So I shut off the oven to take it out. Put the roast in and forgot to turn the freaking oven back ON. hmph. So yeah, the roast took me a bit longer than 40 minutes. lol I went to make mashed potatoes to go with it and after the taters were cooked I realized that I couldn't find my potato masher (I still can't find it). Luckily I own an electric mixer. My taters were more whipped than mashed but still very tasty. I also had carrots. mmm carrots. Over all, a really tasty meal. I recommend the pork. Just don't make a pig of yourself like I did...

pork, recipe, Kozlik's Mustard,

Brownies

2005-11-15T18:34:00.000-05:00

I went over to Mikey's on Thursday evening and I brought him brownies. I'm bribing him to stop talking about me. I'm not sure that it's completely working but at least I've stopped receiving indications that he's gossiping about me (and they say women are bad, sheesh!). I did a google search for brownie recipes and I think I got this one off of about.com

Brownies

1/2 cup butter melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used milk chocolate chips instead)

In a large mixing bowl, blend butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well with a spoon. In a smaller bowl, combin flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually blend dry ingredients into wet mixture. Stir in nuts (or chocolate chips!). Spread butter in a lightly greased and floured 8 or 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, or until brownies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Important note - DO NOT set your timer and then turn up your music really loud. Luckily I noticed the time and the brownies were saved from a horrible demise.

Using chocolate chips in this recipe instead of nuts made them really gooey. mmmmmmmm

brownies, recipe

Chicken and Rice Casserole

2005-11-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

This was my first attempt at cooking real food in my oven. You know, other than frozen pizza (I get desperate for lunch ideas sometime ok???).

I got the recipe from Crazy Plates but Janet & Greta Podleski. Their cookbooks amuse me.

1 can reduced-fat cream of celery soup
1 can reduced-fat cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1 1/4 cups uncooked brown rice
4 whole chicken legs, skin removed (I was able to find them like this in my grocery store - much easier)
1/2 envelope dry onion soup mix (i hate things that use half packages...grumble)

- spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with non-stick spray. Set aside
-In a medium bowl, whisk together celery soup, mushroom soup, and milk until smooth (I got to use my new whisk - woohoo!). Stir in rice. Pour rice mixture into baking dish. Arrange chicken legs over rice (I actually had 5 chicken legs cause that's how many came in my package and I wasn't going to freeze one chicken leg - that would be silly). Sprinkle the top of the rice and chicken with the onion soup mix.
- Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 1.5 hours. No peeking under the foil! Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

- I didn't spray the pan cause I don't have spray and I obviously didn't grease it well enough because A LOT of the rice stuck to it.
- I forgot to turn the oven temp down by 25F like my grandmother and mother always said to do while using glass baking dishes. This may have been part of the problem.
- It bubbled over. If I make it again I'm putting in the oven on top of a cookie sheet.

It was tasty. I might actually make it again. And I'm really not a big casserole fan.

This is is the recipe that I tried to make when I discovered my oven wasn't working and ended up ordering in pizza.

I have brownies in the oven right now. They smell YUMMY.

chicken, casserole, recipe

In the beginning...

2005-11-09T18:56:00.000-05:00

I figured I now have enough kitcheny stuff that I can really get back into cooking again. It's amazing what a difference mixing bowls and a functioning oven can make. And I don't want to clutter up my main blog with recipes. I need to get back into cooking again. I haven't been doing so well with it. This likely won't be just a cooking blog. I'll use it for general foodie stuff. Hmm maybe I should blog about the awesome olive oil a coworker gave me. Although I haven't tasted it yet. hmmm I think I'll have to buy some good bread this weekend so I can do that.

My dinner is in the oven for tonight. When I get around to getting a digital camera maybe I'll actually take pictures of some of the things I make.

In the near future expect posts about chicken and rice casserole, meal planning, and sourdough starter.