Allison's Food and Otherwise

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes with Fresh Oregano, Basil, Lemon and Garlic

2011-02-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

I had a day off yesterday; my days off are usually spent running errands and catching up on things I don't have time to do on days I'm working. But yesterday I spent nearly all day at home, aside from running to the grocery store to pick up items for this lovely dish.

It's been so long since I've updated this blog (nearly six months!), but yesterday I finally felt like browsing the internet for an interesting recipe and spending the day bringing it to fruition. I spent quite a while picking out something to make. I'd had my heart set on red-wine braised beef short ribs, but since my pregnant sister was coming to dinner, I decided that wine-braised meat might not be the best idea, even if most of the alcohol cooks off (congratulations Priscilla!!!).

I stumbled upon this recipe, and was intrigued by the use of fresh oregano, as well as by the concept of slow-roasting tomatoes, which is something I'd always wanted to try.

The recipe calls for six plum tomatoes (about a pound), but after reading comments about the recipe (everyone seemed to share the sentiment that the tomatoes were outrageously good), I decided to double the amount.

I usually avoid buying tomatoes at the grocery store, unless I'm buying grape tomatoes for a salad, because especially in the dead of winter, they just look so awful. Even when I was buying the plum tomatoes for this recipe, knowing I was going to slather them with olive oil, a bit of sugar, and spices, I have to admit I was looking at them rather doubtfully. They were a shade I wouldn't even classify as red, and their flesh was not yielding at all.

The preparation was pretty easy...you just wash the tomatoes, dry them, cut them in half, toss them with 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar, a teaspoon of salt, and a half teaspoon of pepper. Then you prepare the cooking oil, heating together 2/3 cup of olive oil, 4 cloves of garlic (the recipe says finely chopped, but I grated them because my knife skills leave much to be desired and I hate trying to finely chop tiny little cloves of garlic), 20 torn basil leaves, and 24 fresh oregano leaves. You pour this fragrant oil over the tomatoes, which have been prettily arranged cut-side down on a shallow baking sheet, and bake for 2 1/2 hours at 250 degrees.

In the oven, the flavors reduce and concentrate, and the tomatoes become wonderfully shriveled and a much more deep, intense red. When they're finished baking, you lift them onto a plate, strain the oil in which they were baking, and add to it three more tablespoons of fresh, chopped oregano, two tablespoons of lemon juice, two teaspoons of grated lemon zest, and a bit more salt and pepper, to taste. You can then pour the oil back over the tomatoes and also over whichever meat you choose to serve with them--I went with the recipe and chose salmon. I think you could also use grilled chicken with great results. They'd even be great atop salad greens with a sprinkling of feta cheese.

Anyway, I thought the tomatoes were fantastic. They were no longer the dubious-looking tomatoes I had seen in the grocery store, but were instead soft, wrinkly, bright, intensely-flavored morsels.

Toasted Kasha Pilaf with Pancetta, Rapini, and Mushrooms

2010-09-01T07:31:00.002-06:00

I made a great pasta once with pancetta (which is salt-cured, unsmoked pork belly) and rapini; the rich, meaty flavor of pancetta and the bitterness of the rapini really complement each other.

Recently I decided to make a whole grain version by adding these ingredients to kasha, which is a cereal comprised of buckwheat groats. It's commonly eaten in Eastern Europe; in fact, I had my first taste of kasha this summer at a birthday dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. I found it had a really unique, complex, nutty flavor and I've also read it's healthy: it's gluten-free, high in fiber, and lowers your cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups uncooked kasha
4 cups boiling water or stock (I used chicken stock)
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp. butter
1 chopped onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used 16 oz., which was probably more than what it called for, but the mushrooms are great in this dish, so I think the more the better)
1 large bunch rapini
6 ounces pancetta, diced or cubed
2 tsp. smoked Hungarian paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

First clean the rapini, trim the bottoms by about an inch, and then cut it into 2 inch pieces. Boil the rapini in a large pot for about 5 minutes, shock it with some cold water, then gently squeeze the liquid out so no unnecessary liquid will be added to the pilaf.

Next, dice the pancetta. I had a 6 ounce package of sliced pancetta. I would have preferred to cube a whole 6 oz. slab of pancetta, but it wasn't available. If you can find it, I think it would be better. I've also seen hot (spicy) pancetta, which is great, but if you use it, reduce the amount of cayenne pepper you add.

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the onions and mushrooms in the butter until soft and a little browned. Once the mushrooms and onions are almost finished cooking, add the pancetta, allowing it to crisp up, and then the rapini. Stir in the paprika and cayenne pepper and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the uncooked kasha with the beaten eggs. Stir until the kasha is coated in egg. In a large skillet over medium high heat, toast the kasha until the egg has dried and the grains are separated. Be careful not to burn the kasha--it's easy to do, just like nuts. Once the grains are toasted, quickly add the boiling water/stock and stir. Reduce heat to low. Cover tightly and allow to cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed.

Once the kasha is cooked, add the skillet of sauteed vegetables and pancetta and mix well. Taste and season with salt, pepper, and more cayenne pepper and paprika if you so choose.

This recipe makes about 8-10 generous servings, and you could easily halve the recipe.

Fiddlehead Ferns and Gnocchi in Celery Broth with Parmesan and Lemon Zest

2010-05-18T21:09:00.003-06:00

Like I noted in last year's post about my feelings towards fiddlehead ferns, their flavor is nothing all that special. They taste a little like asparagus.

It's their novelty that really attracts me to them. I love how they are baby ferns, but kind of look like little rolled-up green snakes, and I'm not sure whether to coo at them or be revolted by them. So I eat them.

I also love how elusive they are; fiddlehead ferns are only available for about two weeks in any one locale. In Western Canada, that's usually around mid to late May. Shopping at the local farmers' market this past Saturday, I was lucky enough to find some. Only one vendor was selling them (along with some exotic mushrooms and ramps, which were already sold out) and there were only two half-pound bags left. I snapped them up and began to scour the internet for ideas about how to use them this year.

Last year, I made a very simple preparation of boiled fiddlehead ferns and roasted cherry tomatoes in a lemon, anchovy paste, and olive oil dressing. This year, I wanted to do something more elaborate. Inspired by this recipe posting, I decided to boil the ferns, toss them with some oil, garlic, tomatoes, and gnocchi, and arrange the mixture over some celery broth. To do this, I used:

-1/2 lb. fiddlehead ferns
-250 grams mini gnocchi
-3 stalks of celery
-3 roma tomatoes
-2 cloves of garlic
-olive oil
-the zest and juice of one lemon
-grated parmesan cheese
-salt and pepper

I started by bringing a pot of water to boil for the ferns. Apparently some dirty ferns can be toxic so it's important to boil them well before eating. As the water comes to a boil, you can trim the brown ends of the ferns with a knife. I boiled the ferns for about 15 minutes.

I also used the same pot of boiling water to remove the skins from my tomatoes. If you score a small x at one end of the tomato and drop it in boiling water for about 30 seconds, the skins will come off quite easily. I removed the skins from all three tomatoes, and seeded and diced them.

Once the ferns had cooked, I drained them and immediately rinsed them in cold water to keep their green color. Then I made the celery broth. I refilled my pot with about 2 1/2 cups of water and 3 stalks of celery cut in half, or as small as needed to fit in the pot. I boiled these items, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until I could smell the celery in the air. After straining the liquid, I added plenty of salt and pepper (add it to taste) and the juice of half a lemon. It's important to go ahead and taste the broth and season it appropriately. It should be delicately flavored but it definitely needs salt to bring out the celery flavor.

After setting the celery broth aside and covering it to stay warm, I refilled for a third time my pot with water so I could cook the gnocchi. Cooking gnocchi is a no brainer, you just cook it in salted, boiling water until it rises to the top of the cooking liquid.

As the water was coming to a boil, I put about three tablespoons of olive oil in a medium/large skillet, added two chopped garlic cloves, and let the garlic cook a bit. Once it started to brown slightly, I added the chopped tomatoes and the ferns. As the gnocchi became cooked, I removed them from the water with a slotted spoon and added them to the mix. I also seasoned the mixture with plenty of salt.

Finally, I plated the meal by ladling about 3/4 cup of the broth onto a lipped plate (a shallow bowl would be even better, but I didn't have one). I carefully spooned into the broth half the fiddlehead fern and gnocchi mixture and topped it with plenty of parmesan cheese and lemon zest. This will serve 2.

It's a light dish, and I would recommend serving it alone. I ate my gnocchi and ferns with pork, which overwhelmed a bit. The delicate broth, those mild ferns, the pillows of potato gnocchi--these flavors aren't very assertive, they whisper in your ear. I found this a very colorful, understated, and springlike dish.

Oven-Stewed Rhubarb with White Wine and Vanilla

2010-04-11T16:40:00.000-06:00

It's Spring, in most parts of the world--certainly not Edmonton. Last week we had snow and today, the temperature's hovering right around the freezing point.

I miss Spring. But at least I can still have rhubarb imported from British Columbia or somewhere where spring exists.

This recipe has you stew rhubarb in the oven with the addition of crisp, citrusy white wine and mellow vanilla bean. You can read the original recipe here, but the method's really pretty simple. In an oven-safe pot, combine 2 lbs. rhubarb, cut into 3-inch lengths, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup white wine (I recommend sauvignon blanc), and a split vanilla bean. Roast at 350 degrees until the rhubarb is soft, around 30 minutes. I think I roasted mine around 45 minutes because I wanted it to be thicker and really falling apart.

I served this cold as part of an Easter brunch. It was a rhubarb lover's dream and really beautiful with the opaque white backdrop of plain yogurt.

Bamboo Rice Pudding

2010-03-14T19:17:00.002-06:00

Last week I flew home to Louisville, Kentucky to spend some time with my family. My sister works at this upscale grocery store there called The Fresh Market. Once, while waiting for her shift to end, I was browsing the aisles and came across a selection of exotic rices. There were all sorts of rices I'd never seen before, but the most intriguing was bamboo rice.

Bamboo rice is a short-grain Chinese rice described as being fresh, vibrant, and floral. It gets its striking jade green coloring from bamboo juice and is supposed to echo the flavor of jasmine green tea.

The packaging instructed me to use the bamboo rice in any style of Asian cooking, so I started by eating it with chicken and vegetables stir fried with ginger and garlic. It wasn't the best choice--I quickly realized that any kind of delicate floral flavor the rice may have had was drowned out by the intense flavors of the ginger, garlic, and sesame oil that I used. Besides, the most fantastic thing about bamboo rice is its color, which was obstructed when I dumped stir fry on top of it.

I decided the best way to showcase the vibrant color and faint flavor the bamboo rice had was to make a delicately spiced rice pudding. I decided to use this recipe, switching out the regular rice for bamboo rice, the lemon zest for orange zest, and the raisins for chopped, dried papaya. It was really good and certainly beautiful. I might even go further to the Asian side next time, switching out cardamom for the cinnamon and coconut milk for the regular milk.

Even with this second recipe, I didn't end up tasting much of the alleged jasmine green tea flavor of bamboo rice. However, the unusual color is more than enough to convince me to use bamboo rice again.

Vanilla Souffle

2010-02-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I made the vanilla souffle recipe from I Know How to Cook. It was really fun!

It was really my first time using a real, whole vanilla bean. I split it down the middle, added it to a pan of milk (1 3/4 c.) and sugar (1/2 c.), and brought it just to a boil. After the sugar dissolved into the milk, I got to scrape the vanilla beans out of the pod and into the hot liquid. It was neat seeing the tiny black specks spread out in the milk.

Once the milk was thoroughly flavored with vanilla, I stirred in a scant half cup of flour and half cup butter, ensuring I whisked enough that there were no floury lumps. I took the pan off the heat and waited a few minutes. By then the milk's cool enough to add 5 egg yolks, which thickens and richens the mixture.

I got Georg to beat with an electric mixer the 5 remaining egg whites while I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and greased individual ramekins with butter. I've heard that using an upward motion when greasing the ramekins will allow the souffles to rise even higher. Once Georg had whipped the egg whites into stiff peaks, I gently folded them into the egg and milk mixture, and spooned it into the ramekins.

I think the individual souffles baked for about 15 minutes--although the time would depend on the size of your baking dish. I monitored them very closely and removed them from the oven when they were browned and just set on the top. It's important not to overbake them; overbaking can cause the air bubbles from the beaten egg whites to bust and the souffle to fall.

Immediately after the souffles come out of the oven, they must be served. I unfortunately waited a few minutes and the souffles fell partially before we could eat them. Apparently every souffle falls sooner or later, and you just have to eat it right out of the oven for it to be its fluffiest. As this great article on souffles says, "The nature of an airy souffle is to rise and fall, sort of like ancient Rome." You wait for the souffle, not the souffle for you. I will definitely follow that advice next time I bake a souffle.

Still, the souffle tasted like a wonderful vanilla cloud. The sensation of putting the hot, perfumed fluff into my mouth was awesome. I'm very excited about my souffle experience because now I can't wait to make all sorts of different souffles. Chocolate souffle, lemon souffle...even savory carrot souffle. I will keep my readers updated on my souffle adventures!

Mar-a-Lago Key Lime Pie

2010-01-27T21:43:00.001-07:00

Donald Trump has a club in Palm Beach, Florida called Mar-a-Lago. This key lime pie is the club's most requested dessert. It was recently celebrated on Oprah and ended up on her website, which is where I found the recipe. Key lime pies evoke feelings of warmth, summer, and Florida, so they can be nice in the middle of a dreary winter when you need a bright, tart little pie in your life.

As it turns out, key lime pie is pretty easy to make, especially if you just use regular limes (not those tiny, labor intensive key limes). It cuts down on the time it takes to juice 2/3 cup of lime juice and I've heard that you can't really taste the difference in the limes in the finished product. I ended up needing about 5 juicy limes. I always pick fruits that seem to be heavy for their size as this seems to indicate an extra juicy fruit.

To make the pie, you first have to make a graham cracker crust. This is done by mixing 3/4 pound graham cracker crumbs (which can be bought or made by mashing and grinding graham crackers with the end of a drinking glass) with 4 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, and two sticks of butter. I must caution you that 2 sticks of butter ended up to be excessive, at least for me when I was making the recipe; I'd add the butter bit by bit and stop when you've added enough butter for the crumbs to just stick together. Otherwise the excess butter will prevent a crisp crust. After pressing the crumbs into the bottom and sides of a pie or tart pan, you bake the crust in a low oven (325 degrees) for ten minutes.

While the crust is baking you can whip together the filling. The filling is simply 4 egg yolks, 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk, 2/3 cup lime juice, and the zest of a lime. First you beat the egg yolks and zest with an electric mixer for five minutes until they're fluffy, then you beat in the condensed milk, and then finally, slowly, the juice. Pour into the baked pie shell, and bake for 15 minutes until done.

After the pie had cooled, it was really pretty to sprinkle some additional lime zest on top. I opted not to make the vanilla whipped cream contained in the recipe; for me, whipped cream distracts from the tart pleasure of desserts like this.

I loved a couple of things about this pie. First, I loved the crust. I usually avoid graham cracker crust desserts precisely because of the thin, overly crisp, preservative laden taste of commercially produced graham cracker crusts. This crust was fresh, slightly sweet, a little salty, and rich with the flavor of butter. It was able to form a thick, perfect bed for the tart custard. The custard was also everything I'd dreamed it would be--it had a smooth, light, sparkling lime flavor.

Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette

2010-01-17T16:02:00.002-07:00

I want to share this quinoa salad with you because not only was it delicious, but it's also really healthy. Quinoa has been around since 3000 BC, but mainstream society seems to have just now discovered the health benefits of this little pseudo-grain.

Quinoa is native to South America, and is actually the seed of a plant related to such leafy greens as beets and spinach. Since quinoa is a seed and seeds store all the nutrients they need to survive and grow on their own, quinoa is rich in protein and contains all of the essential amino acids. In fact, it's such a superfood that it's been developed into a cereal to feed undernourished children, and is also being researched by NASA as one of the crops they should try to grow in space since it is such a complete food. Pretty amazing for a tiny little seed!

I think I first heard about quinoa about 3 or 4 years ago, and now you can find it in regular grocery stores. While I am really glad that it has become more available, there isn't a great wealth of recipes out there using quinoa, which is probably the only reason why I don't cook with it more often.

Recently I did stumble on a recipe that intrigued a coriander, cumin, and lemon lover like me: Deborah Madison's Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon-Cumin Vinaigrette. It can be found here on Fine Cooking's website. Besides being excited by the spices and lemon, I also really liked the idea of nutty quinoa with buttery texture of avocado and the chewy tartness of dried fruit. In addition, the salad contains avocado and almonds, two other "superfoods" that health experts are always recommending that we eat.

I followed the recipe exactly, except I substituted the raisins and dried apricots for dried cranberries and dried apples (the fruits I had on hand). The flavor of the salad exceeded my already-high expectations, and I felt really good about eating so many things that are good for me all at once! I imagine this would also be good over mild salad greens for a complete (or rather, more voluminous) meal.

An Attempt at Brioche

2010-01-12T22:10:00.013-07:00

For Christmas, Georg got me Ginette Mathiot's translated, updated, classic French cookbook Je sais cuisiner (I Know How to Cook). It's a brick of a book which contains nearly 1500 simply-written (but not simplistic) recipes that any French home cook should have in his/her repertoire. Interestingly, it was translated into English and updated to suit the modern cook by Clotilde Dusoulier, the Parisian author of the food blog Chocolate and Zucchini.

I like the book...many of the recipes are beautifully photographed and the illustrations are interesting and eye-catching. I also find it well organized and there really does seem to be a recipe for almost anything you'd want to make. The writing doesn't get too superfluous, which I appreciate. In the index lie several special treats...my favorite being menus and corresponding recipes written by famous chefs all over the world that you can use when you want to throw an impressive dinner party.

I usually find myself drawn to unusual recipes, but this cookbook has gotten me thinking about cooking French classics: vanilla souffle, green beans nicoise, baked eggs. As a special first recipe to immerse myself into the world of French home cooking, I selected the I Know How to Cook recipe for Brioche.

Brioche is a dense, rich, buttery bread I've had on a few occasions. It's soft and slightly sweet, and makes great French toast. The dough contains yeast, sugar, milk, flour, and three eggs. After this combination has had a chance to rise, you knead in a whole stick of butter to add to the richness.

The dough turned out to be quite difficult to work with. At first it was far too dry, and after I added a bit more milk it was sticky and stiff. It was really difficult to knead. I was worried, but my fears were assuaged when the rested dough rose to a big, yeasty pouf.

I proceeded to knead in a whole stick of room temperature butter. The book said to add the butter a lump at a time, and to knead until each lump disappeared. I followed the instructions faithfully, but in the end I didn't feel like I had the smooth, elastic dough I was supposed to have created. I let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight, and the next evening shaped the dough into one large and one small boule, which I then stacked on top of each other (this is a classic French shape for brioche). I let the shaped dough come to room temperature and I even allowed it an hour or so of final rising time (which was generous, as the book didn't suggest rising any rising time). When I felt like enough was enough (I had started the bread the previous day's morning) I brushed it with egg yolk, and then baked the brioche.

On the plus side, it turned out shiny and nicely browned. On the minus side, it turned out a much more rough and crunchy on the outside than I knew brioche was supposed to be. The flavor is good--it's got the rich taste of eggs and butter, and you can't beat the fresh, yeasty flavor of bread that's just popped out of the oven. But the texture is a little off. Brioche is dense, but this bread didn't rise much after I took it out of the refrigerator and is almost heavy.

A sampling I took from the brioche boule

I am still perfectly happy to slather the brioche with even more butter and some marmalade and eat it before I've even left the kitchen at completely unscheduled moments in the day. I am looking forward to trying the brioche recipe again--I think I have to just be more assertive with the dough and knead it more thoroughly into submission. I will probably also avoid refrigerating it for nearly 24 hours before baking; I wouldn't be surprised if the extended chill forced the yeast into dormancy.

Since I got I Know How to Cook, I also tried a delightful, layered, garlicky tomato and eggplant dish that turned out perfectly. My next conquest will be vanilla souffle...stay tuned!

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

2009-12-25T21:54:00.002-07:00

I was really lucky at the beginning of this month to get to see a part of the world that not many people get to see...the Canadian North.

It's funny, because when I was in college I randomly met this guy, and somewhat by chance, he got a job in Edmonton. We moved to Edmonton and then, completely by chance, I got a job that I hadn't really been trained for at all, and through that job, I ended up traveling to this beautiful, remote part of the world called Yellowknife, where buffalo roam and the sky is in a constant state of sunrise and sunset.

Yellowknife was beautiful to visit and a place that I feel blessed to get to see. While there, I bought caribou jerky, went dogsledding, and saw the Northern Lights. It was awesome.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T21:20:00.003-07:00

A beautiful centerpiece

A great bottle of wine

A festive salad

Traditional trout

Plenty of presents

and an Abundance of tickets

A wonderful Christmas do make.

Merry Christmas!

Vanillekipferl

2009-12-25T16:00:00.005-07:00

Vanillekipferl are classic Austrian Christmas cookies. They're small, delicate, crescent-shaped, and flavored with vanilla and almonds.

The perfect vanillekipferl has a most delicate texture that crumbles almost instantly when you put it in your mouth. Last time I tried to make vanillekipferl (a few years ago) with a recipe I found on the internet, it was a total disaster. They were hard as rocks! This year, Georg's mother emailed me the recipe she uses, and it worked really, really well.

You need:

150 grams butter

2 egg yolks

80 grams sugar

1 package of vanilla sugar

200 grams flour

100 grams ground almonds

50 grams powdered sugar

2 additional packages of vanilla sugar

To make:

Cream the butter and sugars together, beat in the egg yolks. Stir in the ground almonds and finally the flour to form a crumbly dough. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Form the dough into 2 inch long ropes, then shape into crescents. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, or until cookies are done (the length of time will depend on the size and thickness of the crescent shapes). While the cookies are baking, mix together the powdered sugar and the packets of vanilla sugar in a pie dish. When the cookies come out of the oven, allow them to cool just slightly (or else they will break when you try to dredge them in the sugar). While the cookies are still quite warm, carefully place them in the plate and coat them well with the sugar. Shake off the excess sugar, and then place on a plate and allow to cool fully.

Piparkoogid and a Christmas Tree with Georg and Laura

2009-12-25T15:15:00.008-07:00

My friend Laura has some Estonian heritage and makes Piparkoogid (Estonian spice cookies) with her family during the holiday season. This year, she decided to share her recipe and make Piparkoogid with me!

Laura's recipe comes from a recipe book that her grandmother put together, which features not only recipes, but also helpful tips, drawings, and some of her favorite sayings. It was really fun to look though it.

The dough is flavored with a spice syrup, which you make by warming golden syrup with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and cardamom. Laura informed us that the dough tastes even better than the baked cookies, so we ate a lot of dough before we started baking. The flavor of the dough and eventually the cookies was very good--a very complex warmth from the spices and butter.

Piparkoogid are decorated before baking, by applying colored sugar and almonds to the dough which has been made slightly sticky with a brushing of beaten egg. I think they are typically cut into Chrismas shapes (gingerbread persons, stars, and trees) but we didn't have any Christmas cookie cutters, so we had to make do.

We didn't end up doing a very elegant job of decorating the cookies, as you can probably see from looking at the rather sad Christmas tree to the right. As we found out, it is really hard to sprinkle colored sugar precisely!

We ended up making kind of a joke out of it, and most of the cookies ended up looking totally bizarre. We took them to work and everyone ate them though!

The same day, Laura was gracious enough to drive us to get a Christmas tree so we wouldn't have to convince some cab or bus driver to let us take it in their vehicle. We ended up getting the most beautiful, symmetrical, densely-needled Christmas tree I think I've ever had!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chestnuts and Sage Butter

2009-11-29T21:17:00.004-07:00

This was my second time making gnocchi. Oddly enough, the last time I made gnocchi, I made it with butternut squash, which means I must only be up to making gnocchi when it contains a non-traditional ingredient. Sometime I should try making plain gnocchi--gnocchi, after all, is a delicious and cost-effective dish that deserves to be made in its most plain state anytime!

I picked this particular recipe because it is so fall-like. I baked sweet and regular baking potatoes in the oven until they were tender, peeled the potatoes, and then blended them with a bit of egg, flour, cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Every time I watch someone making gnocchi on TV, I hear that it's so hard to make and so easy to mess up. That's not necessarily true--my gnocchi came out perfectly pillowy and delicious. I just think the preparation requires a couple of hints. I think it's important not to overmix the dough mixture after the flour has been added. This just makes scientific sense--mixing the dough forms strings of gluten and renders the gnocchi chewy and rubbery. I think it's also important to know how to form the dough--if you don't know, and are endlessly fooling with the dough to get it into its proper shape, it's also going to get overworked and chewy. But these are the basic things you need to know. It's not impossible to make decent gnocchi at home.

Some recipes, such as the one I used, will instruct you to simply press a fork into a piece of cut gnocchi dough. This is not the way to do it. Texturizing the gnocchi is a good idea, since more surface area means more space to which delicious sauce can cling. But just pressing a fork into the dough and leaving it at that will yield a flatly shaped gnocchi. Rather, you have to use your thumb to not only impress the fork upon the gnocchi, but to roll it up slightly from the fork into an oval shape. It takes a little bit of practice, but becomes easy after you've done ten or so.

To cook the gnocchi, you slide them into boiling, salted water, and cook until they rise to the top of the cooking liquid. Then you transfer them to a pan of whatever kind of good sauce you have waiting. I have had excellent gnocchi in plain marinara sauce, in bleu cheese-tomato sauce, in wild mushroom sauce, and more, but this time the recipe called for a sage-brown butter sauce. Basically, I cooked some olive oil and butter with sage until the butter was browned, then tossed the gnocchi and some chopped chestnuts in it. It was very delicious and seasonal dish.

Salt and Pepper Shakers: Georg's Gift to Me on our 5th Anniversary

2009-11-29T20:08:00.002-07:00

For the fifth anniversary of Georg's and my fated meeting, Georg gave me these cute, loving salt and pepper shakers (among other things). They are awfully cute hugging, but can also be posed in lots of other adorable positions. I love them! Thanks Georgie!

A Moment in Life

2009-11-29T19:48:00.001-07:00

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

2009-11-15T10:31:00.003-07:00

When the weather starts getting cold, I find myself wanting to eat winter squashes all the time. It just seems like the right thing to do. I like spaghetti squash with herbs and butter, acorn squash with butter and a bit of maple syrup (and a splash of pumpkin seed oil if I have it), and butternut squash, roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt, and a bit of spice.

This recipe takes spiced, roasted butternut squash (I used cinnamon and cumin) and combines it with chickpeas, onions, garlic, cilantro, and a lemony, nutty dressing. I thought it was an interesting, new preparation for my beloved winter squash.

The salad is delicious warm, and though I ate it for lunch yesterday by itself, I could imagine it being very good and very beautiful on a bed of arugula. I loved the dressing--the tart lemon and rich tahini are perfect for each other. The raw garlic and onion in the dressing was a bit intense. If I did it again, I'd roast the onions and garlic along with the squash to mellow them out a bit.

This preparation of butternut squash has traveled quite extensively throughout the food blogosphere; you can find the recipe here and here.

Pastry Cutouts

2009-11-14T12:46:00.003-07:00

This is kind of a fun thing for pies--pastry cutouts! Instead of throwing away extra dough you might have, you can create a design for the top. I wish I'd had some leaf cutters, leaves would have looked much more at home on a pumpkin pie, but hearts are cute too.

Beef Rouladen

2009-11-01T20:51:00.009-07:00

A few days ago, Georg was requesting a dish from childhood: Rouladen, a dish with its origins in the German-speaking world. I had no clue how to make them and it was fun to learn!

I found this recipe on Food Network Canada, which seemed pretty reliable. You take thin beef steaks, smear them with dijon mustard, and roll them up with bacon, pickles, and onion (I used some garlic instead to accommodate Georg). Then you sear them, deglaze the pan with red wine, add some beef stock, and simmer the Rouladen for a couple of hours. After the meat is really tender, you remove it and thicken the cooking liquid with a cornstarch and water mixture.

The Rouladen were delicious. The meat was tender, the resulting gravy was richly flavored, and the bacon, pickles, and other fillings were an interesting addition. I have to admit that I felt odd about rolling pickles up in beef. In fact, as I was doing it, I was talking on the phone to my sister. I was explaining the process, expressing that I found the pickles odd, and she said, "just sounds like the ingredients in a really good hamburger!" That rationalization of the ingredients made me feel better.

Kraft's Vegemite iSnack 2.0

2009-11-01T19:47:00.007-07:00

While in Australia, I saw a familiar jar in the grocery store. The label had the look of Vegemite spread, but when I looked closely, it said, "Name me!"

I soon learned that this was a new spread conceived by Kraft made creamer and tangier than the original Vegemite by the introduction of cream cheese. It was launched in July 2009 with no name because to drum up publicity for the product, Kraft held a nationwide contest in Australia to find a name for this "deliciously different Vegemite experience."

When I arrived in Australia, the new name had just been picked and announced. They named it iSnack 2.0. I don't believe there was any voting involved--I think the crowd just submitted names and the executives at Kraft picked one they felt best suited the product.

Simon Talbot from Kraft Foods said: "The name Vegemite iSnack2.0 was chosen based on its personal call to action, relevance to snacking and clear identification of a new and different Vegemite to the original. We believe these three components completely encapsulate the new brand."

That's an interesting viewpoint, but the public hated the name, absolutely hated it, and it's easy to see why--Vegemite is a nearly hundred-old, beloved Australian food product, and just because it's been mixed with some cream cheese doesn't mean it needs to be completely severed from its origins with a name like iSnack 2.0. I mean, iPod... iTunes...these refer to new, trendy technologies, not classic food products, and for iSnack 2.0 to refer to a Vegemite variant is just really odd and completely irrelevant. Besides, the whole ieverything thing is tired, boring, and is starting to get annoying.

So it's funny that the Kraft executives chose the name. But the Kraft executives can't be stupid; I'm sure they had a team of marketing experts carefully analyzing which name would be the right one to represent the product. Instead, they seem to have picked the name that would most outrageously misrepresent the product, inspiring public rage.

Smart! You should have seen all the newspaper articles and people on TV talking about how terrible the name iSnack 2.0 is. People talked about it much more than they would have talked about a nice name. The marketing team at Kraft must have known it would have been much more sensational to pick the wrong name for their beloved Vegemite than the right one.

Kraft let the drama fester for a short while, and then decided to dump the name. I haven't heard what the new one is. Meanwhile, the new Vegemite spread has sold more than 3 million jars in Australia, which is impressive for a country with a population of only about 20 million.

Anyway, I like the spread--the jar I brought back from Australia has lasted me less than a month. It's creamy and savory and a bit cheesy, and I really like a thin layer on a bagel in the morning.

Oh, and here's a fun website dedicated to iSnack 2.0 that I believe truly exhibits the level of public interest surrounding this whole ordeal:
http://isnack2.com/

Georg's Birthday

2009-10-25T21:28:00.013-06:00

Georg's thirty-somethingth birthday was on September 27th! Unfortunately we were apart on his birthday (I was in Edmonton and he was in Sydney) but I was sure to throw him a fine celebration as soon as we got home. I made a beef roast, cayenne and maple syrup mashed sweet potatoes, lemon roasted cauliflower, and a special raspberry-cream cheese cake.

With dinner we drank a Gruener Veltliner from Austria that Georg's dad brought us when he visited this summer.

The cake turned out a bit feminine but Georg loved it nonetheless. As my friends on Facebook have noted, real men eat pink cake!

Happy Birthday, my Georgie!

Australia in 30 Pictures

2009-10-25T12:00:00.042-06:00

Wow, it's been over a month since I've updated my blog! One of the reasons I've been so busy over the past month was because of a trip Georg and I took to Sydney, Australia. It was a lot of fun! Here's 30 photos detailing my trip.

The Harbour Bridge

These tall, Dr. Seuss-like flowers were everywhere! They were so neat!

Walking on the left side of everything was definitely tedious.

The Sydney Opera House

The flowers were really exotic.

A parrot simply perched in a tree.

Ibises were everywhere too!

Instant pavlova...pavlova being the national dessert.

The amazing El Alamein fountain, not too far from where one of our hotels was.

Manly Beach

On a ferry on the way to the zoo!

A pastoral scene...sheep lounging under orange trees.

Kangaroos in the wild!!

The vineyards of Hunter Valley.

Australian sunset

Roasted Beet Salad with Caraway Seeds, Cloves, and Horseradish

2009-09-20T15:24:00.006-06:00

A colleague of mine brought a whole basket full of delicious, fresh beets to work last week and I helped myself to several large ones. I thought a while about how to creatively cook them, and settled on this German-style salad.

First I pierced the beets with a fork and wrapped them individually in aluminum foil. After roasting them for an hour and a half or so (beets vary in size so you just have to roast until they're tender), I peeled and sliced them.

Then, I dressed them in a vinaigrette I made that contained cider vinegar (1/4 cup), ground cloves (1/4 tsp.), caraway seeds (2 tsp.), prepared horseradish (2 tsp.), salt and pepper, and just a touch of sugar (1 tsp.) and oil (2 tbsp.).

The resulting salad was a complex mixture of sweet, spicy, and earthy flavors.

The Best Grapes in the World

2009-09-20T15:16:00.003-06:00

These are Okanagan Coronation grapes...I discovered them today. They're the most wonderful grapes I've ever had. Their skin! The most regal shade of frosted indigo. Their flavor! A burst of tart, grapey sweetness. Their flesh! Firm and with no distracting seeds. These come from the Okanagan Valley in BC, and I'm not sure they're available outside of Canada, but if you see, them, get them, I can't believe how perfect they are.

Edmonton Eskimos Game

2009-09-20T15:03:00.010-06:00

Last weekend we went to an Edmonton Eskimos game with our friends Jason and Laura. I am not a particular fan of football, but it was fun. The Eskimos lost :(

Gwyneth Paltrow's Roast Chicken

2009-09-20T14:37:00.007-06:00

I'll admit it--I love Gwyneth Paltrow. I know I'm in the minority--most people find her annoying and haughty, but I think she's beautiful, interesting, well-spoken, poised, and wonderful. I can't help it.

She has a blog called GOOP and even though a lot of people call it POOP, I love her blog too. She discusses fashion, traveling, cooking, shopping, and I guess whatever else suits her fancy. A few weeks ago she posted a video of herself cooking what she called a "quick, homemade dinner," roast chicken, fingerling potatoes, and a salad.

I watched the video and wanted to try her recipe for roast chicken--she takes the back and thigh bones out and steams/roasts the chicken in the oven with aluminum foil covering the chicken for the first half of the cooking time. Immediately, it seemed, everyone on the internet did a collective eye roll, taking issue with the fact that she called roast chicken "fast food."

Well, I tried the recipe, and I know I'm a bit biased, but it was truly a good and quick way of making a whole chicken. Taking the back and thigh bones out of the chicken was a little work, but it cuts the cooking time in half. Plus, by the third time I made the chicken I had mastered it enough to be able to do it while talking with my mom on the phone, which I think shows it can't be that difficult. After you de-bone the chicken and spice it up with some lemon and herbs (I also used some red pepper flakes), you put it in a hot oven with aluminum foil over top for 20 minutes. The liquid from the lemon, I imagine, steams the chicken, cooking it quickly. Then you remove the aluminum foil for the remaining 20 minutes and let the skin crisp up and the chicken finish cooking.

I've made the chicken three times now, and each time I've been impressed with the quickness, ease, and deliciousness of the chicken. It's awesome to be able to eat a scrumptious whole roasted chicken after only 40 minutes of cooking time. To the critics that scoff at her saying it's her version of fast food, scoff away, but I think she demonstrated an economical, healthy, quick, and easy way to feed one's family.

Here's a link to her video and recipe: http://goop.com/newsletter/44/en/

The High Cost of Cheap Food

2009-09-08T21:21:00.005-06:00

Browsing for some magazines to read by the pool a few weeks ago, the cover of Time magazine caught my eye: a picture of a packaged pound of ground beef and the words

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

This issue has been interesting and important to me for a while--ever since I took a class in university about environmental justice--and it was nice to see it getting attention on the cover of Time.

Read the article (click on the title above)!

I think the article does a good job of clearly explaining the problem: food producers, wanting to produce cheap food that appeals to consumers, have created a food production system that exploits the environment, and ultimately we who live in it. Unfortunately, the article doesn't offer very many helpful solutions...

According to the author, the solution to the problem is an individual commitment to buying organic food: "Whether that happens will ultimately come down to all of us, since we have the chance to choose better food three times a day (or more often, if we're particularly hungry)."

The notion that we all have the choice to eat less meat and purchase organic ingredients is problematic: a large percentage of us don't have the choice to purchase organic meat and produce for twice the price. Even further, for the percentage of us who could make that financial commitment, organic, locally-grown food isn't exactly readily available, especially in grocery stores in inner-city, low-income areas (where it can sometimes be difficult to find whole grain bread or low-fat coffee creamer, as I know from personal experience). The article brings up both these obstacles to making good personal eating choices, but doesn't really explain how they can be remedied.

According to me, America's corporate food producers can't be trusted to and individuals shouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility for promoting and supporting a healthy, sustainable way of producing food: that's what regulations and the government are for. If the problem is as far-reaching and as devastating as the article says, which I believe it is, it's disheartening that the American government hasn't done more to protect our environment and people.

Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette

2009-08-31T20:44:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago, I bought a bunch of really cute, small, fresh carrots from the farmers' market. They were sold by the "basket" and still had a lot of dirt on them, so I couldn't resist. They were the most wonderful carrots I'd ever seen!

I love roasting carrots, so I decided to try this roasted carrot salad from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. It was actually a recipe I'd tried before, but I wanted to try it again because last time the cumin I'd put on the carrots before roasting ended up burning in the oven.

This time, I added the flavoring ingredients (including the cumin) after roasting, which I think produced a much better salad. I carefully cleaned the delicate carrots, coated them in some oil, and roasted at 425 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes (it really depends on the thickness of your carrots). After roasting, I combined the carrots with sliced avocado and poured over a vinaigrette made of the juice of a lime, about 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, salt & pepper, and more oil.

Delicious, bright, interesting, and great textures! It was also very summery and would make a great light, hot-weather meal served with some white fish.

Fresh Corn Fritters

2009-08-25T22:31:00.006-06:00

My friend Arnie from work brought me some corn he bought at a roadside stand--it's a little hard for me to get to a roadside stand with no car to get out on the road with. So nice of him, thanks Arnie! Since then, I've had boiled corn (boiled with a bit of sugar and no salt, according to the instructions of Aimee, another work friend), but I wanted to try eating fresh corn in a delicious pancake, or fritter.

Searching for a recipe was a bit of a lengthy process, because many of the recipes called for canned, creamed corn, which is lovely, but not in August when you have fresh corn at your disposal. I finally found this Food Network Canada recipe, which calls for nothing but fresh corn, cornmeal, egg, flour, and salt & pepper. Actually it also called for green onions and cheese, but I left those ingredients out in order to let the corn be the star. I added 1/4 teaspoon or so of cayenne pepper for a little heat and interest.

These fritters were really easy to make--you basically just mix all the ingredients together. The recipe is also really to adjust, quantity wise--if you look, most everything is in threes, so you can easily make 1/3 or 2/3 of the recipe depending on how much corn you have. I made 2/3 of the recipe and it was the perfect amount for two or three hungry people.

Since fresh corn cut right off the cob is used, the corn doesn't get overcooked. In addition, corn is truly the main ingredient here--everything else is just for subtle flavor and binding purposes, making this fritter the perfect vehicle to showcase fresh corn. It'd be great for people who don't like to go to the effort to eat corn right off the cob, or for those who are simply tired of corn on the cob. We ate the fritters with some lemon- and parsley-stuffed rainbow trout and some boiled potatoes.

We Are Runners

2009-08-24T22:28:00.008-06:00

Georg and I certainly support each other's goals, but rarely do we share the same goal. A few weekends ago, we shared the common goal of running in the Edmonton road race series. I ran the 10k and Georg the half marathon. It was so fun to talk about running together in the weeks prior to the race!

My only hope was to finish the 10k without stopping running, which I managed to do. Georg wanted to improve his time, and that he certainly did--he finished the half marathon in an hour and thirty six minutes. That's an awesome time! It was a big improvement over his last half marathon time.

Below are some pictures from our races!

Fava Beans with Lemon, Parsley, and Asiago Cheese

2009-08-24T21:16:00.006-06:00

I found fresh fava beans at the farmer's market last Saturday! Having never cooked with fava beans, I bought some with which to experiment.

Fava beans have a reputation for being a little creepy and weird. First of all, they're a dish Hannibal Lecter enjoys with fresh human liver and a nice chianti. Second of all, they're strange to prepare--you have to pry them first from their pods and then from their whitish, waxy outer membrane. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Some recipes recommend taking the outer membrane off the beans before cooking of any kind. Apparently some of the cooking gasses released by the beans can distort their bright green color if trapped by the membrane. I boiled the beans for 5 minutes, plunged them into ice water, and then slipped them out of their membranes. The beans were still vibrant green, as you can see above. I'd recommend boiling before trying to remove the membranes; it makes it a lot easier to slip them off in the end.

Once I'd done the basic preparation of the fava beans, I had to choose a recipe. There were a lot of them that looked good...fava bean puree with mint, spicy fava bean fritters, pasta with fava beans. But in the end I wanted something simple that wouldn't obstruct the true taste and texture of the fava beans, especially since this was the first time I would taste them and I wanted to be able to judge them properly. Besides, if I was going to invest the time and effort to wrangle the beans from their pods and carefully peel off their membranes, I was not going to puree them, fry them, and make them into glorified falafel.

So, I chose to make a simple salad of the beans, some lemon, parsley, and cheese. The original recipe called for manchego cheese, and I also understand pecorino to be a classic pairing with fava beans, but I couldn't find either of those cheeses at Safeway, so I settled on asiago. The recipe was simple: boil the beans for 4 or 5 minutes, plunge them in ice water, slip off the membranes, mix them with lemon zest, lemon juice, chopped parsley, oil, and salt and pepper and serve. I did not add the fresh garlic the recipe called for--I usually find fresh garlic to be a bit overpowering.

I was happy with the salad. It tasted really fresh, as just about anything with lemon and parsley does. The fava beans were neat--such a bright green color, and they weren't mushy in the middle like a lot of beans. They had a firm, smooth, rich texture that I don't think I've experienced in other legumes before.

And so, one more of my food curiosities explored.

Parental Visit to Edmonton

2009-08-12T22:02:00.006-06:00

Last week, my parents drove into town for a little visit! They drove here all the way from Indiana. I'm sure it was strange for the Albertans here to see an Indiana license plate. Our visit was so nice. We went to all of the Edmonton attractions: the legislature building (see above), city hall, the river valley, Heritage Trail and the Chinese garden, Fort Edmonton, and more.

Doug contemplates the architecture of City Hall.

Mom and Georg

Doug, Georg, and I overlooking the River Valley.

Mom and Doug being a cute couple!

It was so nice to have them here. When you only see your parents a couple of times a year, you really treasure it. It was such a nice, stress-free visit. Thanks for coming to Edmonton, Mom and Doug!

Sour Cherry Pie

2009-08-10T21:49:00.014-06:00

I have been looking for sour cherries all summer! The dark, sweet cherries seem to show up in profusion, but I hadn't seen a single sour cherry until I went to the downtown Edmonton farmers' market last weekend.

In my opinion, sweet cherries are great for eating out of hand, but too sweet for baking. You need something tart to contrast with the sweetness and richness of a baked good.

There are lots of different types of sour cherries, but there are two main types: the Morello cherry, which is more plentiful in Europe, and the Montmorency cherry, which is the most popular sour cherry in the United States and Canada. Montmorency cherries are lighter than Morello cherries: a bold, intense red. They made for a pretty pie!

I had never made a sour cherry pie before, so I looked on the internet for measurements of sugar and thickeners. Most recipes suggested 4-5 cups of fresh, pitted cherries, a cup of sugar, and three tablespoons of a thickening agent (like cornstarch or instant tapioca). I went with about 4 cups of fresh cherries, a cup of plain white sugar, the juice of half a lemon (because I think lemon goes with everything, also to guard against the pie being too sweet), a teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extracts (how could that hurt?) and three tablespoons of instant tapioca. I went with the tapioca because sometimes I can taste added cornstarch in pies and I didn't want anything clouding the clear taste of my tart, beautiful, elusive sour cherries.

The pie turned out well. The three tablespoons of instant tapioca were a bit much; they soaked up most of the cherry liquid and hid it, slightly congealed among the cherries. I would have preferred a more juicy pie, but the extra tapioca didn't detract in a major way (and at least the pie wasn't watery, that's the worst).

The sour cherry flavor was a special treat. I like sweet cherries, but I feel sometimes that they don't adequately capture the quintessential cherry flavor we're all looking for. I think the flavor actually resides in the sweetened sour cherry; it resides in this pie.

If you'd like to try it and you find some sour cherries (Morello, Montmorency, or other), I based my recipe mostly off this recipe from Epicurious. I would recommend reducing the amount of instant tapioca by 3/4 of a tablespoon or so and adding the almond extract if you have it.

Seared Lime-Curry Sirloin Steak with Melon-Cucumber Salad

2009-07-27T18:55:00.004-06:00

I love mixing savory items and fruit in the summer--as if fruit is so fresh and so in-season that it only makes sense to go wild and pair it with everything. I was on the internet one night bookmarking "summer" recipes and after I'd finished I realized all the recipes were similar: tomato and watermelon salad with avocado, pork with fresh cherry chutney. It's not necessary to pair fruit with a savory dish every night, so I chose the most interesting of all the recipes I'd found.

For this dish, beef is marinated in lime juice and curry powder and grilled (I, not owning a grill, was forced to sear in a pan). On the side is a salad (the recipe called it a chutney, but there was very little that was chutney-like about it) comprised of honeydew melon, cucumbers, lime juice, minced jalapeno peppers, cilantro, coriander, and cumin.

The pairing of fruit and meat was indeed interesting and summery, and melon and cucumber salad was truly refreshing. I served it over brown basmati rice, which turned out to be a good choice.

If I made this again, I'd probably cut the meat into smaller chunks and arrange them atop the rice (for some reason I think this would be prettier). If I had a grill I'd certainly cut the meat into chunks and grill them on skewers--I think that'd be the ultimate in presentation with this dish.

I found the recipe via Epicurious; you can find it here.

Vancouver Pictures

2009-07-26T10:36:00.023-06:00

This picture was taken right outside Kamloops. The scenery between Edmonton and Vancouver was awesome.

I love this picture because Georg looks so friendly and sensible and I look like a goof!

We pulled over at a rest stop and saw a sign for "Bridal Falls," walked 15 minutes into the woods and happened upon this waterfall! It was beautiful. Kind of amazing that you can just take a short hike from a rest stop and find something as amazing as this.

This was a public market in North Vancouver we went to on a Monday. They had lots of fresh fish, fruits, and vegetables (see below).

Here's a view of downtown Vancouver from Canada place.

Here's a face from a "story pole" outside the Capilano bridge area, celebrating the history of the native people who inhabited the area.

An aerial view of Vancouver from a Grouse mountain gondola.

A view of the bay from West Vancouver.

A festive Canadian doll!

The entrance to the Classical Chinese Gardens. Below, the yin-yang stone floors of the garden.

A really bizarre creature at the Vancouver aquarium!

Alliums, one of my favorite flowers!

Dinner at C Restaurant in Vancouver

2009-07-20T20:29:00.015-06:00

At the beginning of this month, Georg and I drove to Vancouver to meet Georg's dad (who flew in from Austria) and show him around western Canada. We started out on a Saturday, arrived on Sunday, and Georg's dad didn't arrive until Monday evening, so we had a few romantic hours to spend by ourselves in Vancouver. Sunday evening we walked along the waterfront closest to our hotel and found a restaurant with a view of the harbor in which to eat. We chose C Restaurant, an "experimental seafood" restaurant. It was definitely one of my more memorable dining experiences. The food was so interesting--each dish providing me with a little wave of delight.

I started off with a Manhattan, definitely the best one I've had in Canada, which isn't saying much! Served just the way I like it, up with cherries! Georg, I think, got a gin martini. I always love it when he orders those because I just hate the taste of gin and I like to watch him appreciate something I cannot.

After we got our drinks, a woman came around with a huge basket of bread. She offered us rye, sourdough, and.....seaweed scones! Can you imagine my delight? The breads came with a little dish of rich butter topped with a coarse, lavender-colored salt.

Before our appetizers arrived we were brought an amuse bouche, and even though I forgot to take a picture of it before we ate, I'm still displaying my picture here because I've never been offered an amuse bouche before at a restaurant! It was a little piece of salmon belly and a shot of gazpacho.

My appetizer consisted of a large baked sardine and a breaded sablefish croquette with a fennel salad and basil puree. I've never been a big sardine eater, I always thought of them as gross, canned things, but it was really good. The skin was crispy and the bones fragile enough to crush along with the meat. The fronds of the fennel were fried to a crisp, so that added interesting texture too.

Georg's appetizer was a smoked trout salad. It was served with all kind of interesting little greens and herbs, and had some of the fried fennel fronds on top.

My main course! Potato-crusted scallops, roasted root vegetables, a tarragon-butter sauce with shrimp and chorizo. Some kind of smoky foam was spread across the top, that was fun.

Georg's main course consisted of a piece of sablefish resting on shredded beef shortrib, surrounded by wild mushrooms, beets, and a watercress broth.

We were too full to order dessert, but they did bring us these tiny little raspberry cakes and chocolate truffles!

The view proceeded to get more beautiful as we ate. It got a bit cold, but luckily the patio was equipped with heat lamps, and the wait staff even offered blankets to all of the women sitting on the patio (I guess men don't get cold). Funny thing was, I had worn a light sweater, and all Georg had was a short sleeved shirt, so he was the one in need of a blanket, but he wouldn't take one, haha.

Chicken Cutlets & Ginger Mango Barbecue Sauce on a Bed of Arugula with Fresh Corn

2009-06-25T21:58:00.003-06:00

Following the disappointment of my burned tart, I made this delicious mango barbecue sauce!

Here's the recipe:

2 cloves garlic, minced
a drizzle of olive oil
1 mango, peeled and chopped
the zest and juice of one orange
the zest and juice of one lime
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
4 tbsp. steak sauce (like A1)
4 tbsp. water

Heat up the oil in a small skilled and add the garlic. Let the garlic fry for a bit and then add the rest of the ingredients. Allow the sauce to reduce over medium heat for 2o minutes or so, or until thick.

This sauce turned out fruity (but not overly sweet) and zesty. It was perfect over chicken. I laid chicken cutlets atop baby arugula and spread over the sauce. The corn was just boiled, cut off the cob, and salted...it was a perfect complement to the chicken and sauce.

Burned Brown Butter Raspberry Tart

2009-06-25T21:41:00.006-06:00

This entry is a tragic story of multiple acts of burning.

To make the filling for this tart, you arrange raspberries in a concentric pattern inside a baked tart shell, and then pour over a batter made mostly of browned butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, etc. When making the browned butter (you cook the butter in a small skillet over medium heat until it's browned and nutty) the first time, I totally burned it. I just walked away and when I came back to the stove it was black butter. Luckily, I had more butter to brown and this time I kept an eye on it.

To make the crust, which is kind of a cookie crust, you mix melted butter with flour, sugar, and vanilla and press it into the pan. You blind bake it for ten minutes or so, and then add the raspberries and filling batter and bake it again.

I followed the recipe directions exactly, but didn't check on the tart until it was supposed to be fully baked, and when I opened the oven at the time specified by the recipe, the tart crust was completely burned. I later read the reviews of the recipe online and learned this was a common problem with the recipe.

We still ate the tart. But still, I feel that even if the tart had not been burned, I would not consider it one of my great culinary achievements. The filling was good enough and tasted of raspberries, but it was nothing special. I was a little disappointed because this recipe was just featured in the June 2009 edition of Bon Appetit and for some reason I had really high expectations that it would taste fresh and wonderful and bursting with summer flavors.

Anyway, here's the link to the recipe if you're still inclined to make this burned, mediocre tart.

Summer Rainbows

2009-06-21T22:45:00.004-06:00

Crispy Roast Duck with Gingered Rhubarb Confit

2009-06-21T22:00:00.008-06:00

Last week Georg was in Indiana for a whole week! I really missed him, so the day after he got home I decided to bake him a wonderful roast duck as a decadent homecoming meal.

I was pretty anxious about how it was going to turn out because I've never cooked duck before in any form. I also know duck is pretty fatty and I was worried that the fat would be gummy rather than crispy if I didn't cook it properly.

According to my recipe, in order for the duck skin to become really crispy, it has to be dry. To ensure this, the recipe said to remove the duck from its covering, rinse it, dry it well with paper towels, and then put it uncovered on a plate in the fridge for 24 hours to let the skin fully dry out.

This technique worked pretty well, and by the time I was ready to cook the duck, the skin was almost leathery. I made tiny holes in the duck skin all over like the recipe said, sprinkled some salt and pepper on the duck, and preheated the oven to 450 degrees.

I popped the little duck in the oven, and waited. I had a while to wait....it was supposed to cook for 1 hour and 50 minutes. After a few minutes, I heard a LOT of crackling inside the oven and soon I saw some smoke rising from under the electric burners on my oven. Oh no! The duck's fat was getting hot, liquefying, and popping all over the oven.

I was really afraid I'd start a grease fire but I wasn't really sure what to do about it. I didn't want to just quit cooking my duck and ruin the meal I'd been planning for a whole week! I thought about reducing the oven temperature, but I was afraid then that the skin wouldn't get as crispy as I had been daydreaming about! I decided to keep a watchful eye on it and see what happened.

The crackling noise got louder and louder, the smoke more and more detectable, and eventually the fire alarm went off. I just couldn't take the drama anymore so I ended up taking the duck out of the oven, letting it cool off a bit, and putting it back into a less hot oven, at around 375 degrees instead of 450. This helped a lot and I was able to keep cooking the duck without worrying so much.

I did wonder though, if the duck would need longer to cook and if the skin would get as crisp. I decided to cook the duck for 15 extra minutes to compensate for the temperature difference. When I opened the oven door at the time I'd planned, I was pleasantly surprised. The duck was crispy, golden brown, and beautiful. Success!

About an hour into the cooking time of the duck, I made the confit by cutting up about a pound of rhubarb, grating about a tablespoon of fresh ginger, and simmering these ingredients with some cider vinegar, hard pear cider, and sugar. The confit was super easy to make and smelled delicious. I was excited to see how it'd pair with the duck.

Georg and I were both really impressed by the dish once put together! The duck skin was impossibly crispy, the flesh beneath was juicy. As a foil to the rich, fattiness of the duck, the rhubarb and ginger confit really shone. Yes, I'd recommend this recipe, but make sure you've got a full can of oven cleaner on hand for the next day!

Edmonton Sky

2009-06-20T11:23:00.008-06:00

Friday, June 19, 2009

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Bloomed Delphinium

2009-06-20T11:18:00.004-06:00

Tarragon & Orange Olive Oil Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

2009-06-17T21:09:00.008-06:00

I am a little bit obsessed about herb and sweet combinations. A few weeks ago to celebrate the French Open tennis men's final, I made this orange olive oil cake, simmering the milk with two tablespoons of dried tarragon before adding it to the batter because I love orange and tarragon together. As I was straining the tarragon out of the milk, some of the tarragon slipped out of the strainer and back into the milk, which was fine because I don't like to add flavors to dishes without giving any visual indication that I've done so.

To top off the cake, I made some strawberry rhubarb compote, cooking sliced strawberries and rhubarb along with a bit of sugar and vanilla. I saved some of the sliced strawberries and added them at the end to add texture. It turned out brightly colored and brightly flavored.

I loved this olive oil cake...it rose beautifully and had a very delicate crumb. Plus, the flavors I'd mixed worked out really well. Since I used olive oil to make it instead of butter, I deemed it virtuous enough to eat for breakfast!

My Balcony Garden

2009-06-16T20:27:00.013-06:00

This summer I've started something I've always wanted to have--my very own balcony garden! I began only a few weeks ago, and it was a lot of work, but I am already enjoying all my efforts! Above is my blue delphinium plant. I wanted to grow them because I had these flowers at my wedding and I love them. Since I took this photo, the plant has gotten really tall and has developed buds which are just beginning to acquire a blue tinge. It's so exciting!

Above are my herbs. I tried to transplant the herbs I had in my Aerogarden, but it didn't work very well. The roots just weren't developed to reap nutrients from soil, so they wilted and died pretty quickly. For some reason though, the parsley managed to survive and is doing well. I replaced the rest of the herbs with new thyme and mint plants as well as rosemary and lavender.

I wanted to have some kind of plant that produced edible fruits, but there's not a lot of space, so I opted for a basket of cherry tomatoes. Originally it was a hanging basket, but I figured if I hung the basket it would get too windy and blow right away! Instead, I decided to cut the hangers off the basket and put it on a stand. It's doing well and has produced two ripe tomatoes since I took this picture.

On the ground in a corner I have a Japanese lilac plant. It's just starting to bloom and smells really nice.

On the table, I have some ivy. The leafy tendrils look lovely spread out on the tabletop.

Finally, I have some moss roses. They were a really good choice for a windy, high-altitude balcony--they grow really low and can withstand the conditions. Right now they're blooming like crazy, and it seems that as soon as one of the blooms wilts, three more blooms replace it!

And here's a wider shot of my balcony garden! In the balcony railing box to the left, I have some assorted flower seeds growing. I can't remember which ones--I guess I'll find out when they bloom!

In case anyone who's reading this is thinking about starting a balcony garden, I'd like to offer a few tips for higher-altitude balcony gardening (I live on the 8th floor). I think it is a bit more of a challenge due to the windy conditions that seem to come along with being anywhere above the 4th floor of a building.

First, installing a "windbreaker" onto the rails of the balcony--some kind of physical barrier to cut down on the wind and protect the plants--is a good idea and wasn't too difficult or expensive. You can put it on all three sides of the balcony or just two, and you can use all sorts of different materials, like bamboo or wooden/plastic lattice. I decided to use bamboo blinds turned sideways, which blended in and weren't too obvious. To install them, I used lots of plastic zip ties--they've created a very stable connection between the railing and the bamboo blinds and you can't see them unless you look really closely.

Second, I'd recommend choosing plants that don't grow too tall. The wind will whip a tall plant around and may destroy it. The blue delphinium is probably a bit too tall to grow especially well on my balcony, but I've positioned it up against the bamboo windbreaker I've installed on the side railings so that it blows against that instead of straight off the balcony.

Third, if you're planning on hanging window boxes off the balcony railing, invest in sturdy, adjustable brackets from a place like Home Depot. My window boxes came with some really flimsy, non-adjustable brackets that barely fit and I am really glad that I upgraded, because I have much more peace of mind knowing the window boxes are being properly supported.

That's about it! My balcony gets a lot of sun, so I have to water them every day. I don't mind, though, because then I can go outside and note the progress the plants are making. They change so much every day! I love my garden!

Warm Tomato and Fiddlehead Fern Salad with Lemon & Anchovy Vinaigrette

2009-06-03T21:36:00.006-06:00

Fiddlehead ferns are something I'd always wanted to try but I feared I'd never have the opportunity because they're a highly regional, seasonal item. I saw some (for growing, not eating) at a garden shop with my friend Laura and she said she'd had them many times because they're harvested in BC where she's from. I was jealous that she has had the opportunity to liberally sample a culinary curiosity of mine. A few days later, I walked into my regular neighborhood grocery store and they were selling them in the produce department by the clamshell! They were a bit pricey ($6 or $7 for maybe a cup and a half of ferns), but it was a small price to pay for these elusive (to me) plant morsels.

Once I had made my purchase I had to decide what to do with them. On the package was a warning issued by the Canadian Department of Health or something to make sure to cook the ferns very thoroughly. Apparently there are toxins and food poisoning agents that need to be boiled away for safe consumption. I have to admit the warning attracted me to fiddlehead ferns even more.

In the end I decided to boil the ferns thoroughy (for 15 minutes or so) and then roast them in olive oil with some cherry tomatoes and a clove of garlic. I am glad I boiled the ferns because even though I rinsed them before boiling, the water was straight brown after the boiling, leading me to believe that they had a lot of dirt in them, which I guess is natural if they were collected from the forest.

I roasted the cherry tomatoes and fiddlehead ferns just long enough so that the ferns would crisp up a bit from their boiling and the tomatoes would soften (about 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven). As they cooked I whisked together the juice and zest of a lemon, a teaspoon of anchovy paste, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. Once the vegetables were out of the oven I coated them in this vinaigrette and Georg and I ate the salad immediately.

The fiddlehead ferns were sort of interesting, but sort of not...they had a texture similar to asparagus. The flavor was fine...actually I didn't notice anything all that unique about their flavor. It was pretty much like eating any other green veggie. I am still glad I tried them though. Georg was not fazed by the profusion of ferns on his plate; he ate everything right up without question.

The salad overall was excellent, though--although one could probably substitute asparagus or even zucchini with similar results. The lemon-anchovy dressing was fantastic and it was really delicious warm.

Spring Flowers

2009-06-03T12:20:00.011-06:00

It is spring at last here in Edmonton....about 2 months later than I am used to, which Georg and I have decided is actually really depressing. And the weather still isn't reliably warm. But nevertheless, here are some pictures of a spring flower walk we took on Sunday.

Georg's Trip to Ottawa

2009-06-03T11:17:00.023-06:00

Georg went to Ottawa last week to participate in the Canadian Philosophical Association's annual conference which took place at Carleton University in Ottawa this year. He was pretty busy giving talks, commenting on other philosopher's works, and toiling away in the cold dorm room he rented for the week, but on one nice afternoon he managed to take a city stroll and photograph the scenery.

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

2009-05-17T20:16:00.005-06:00

As much as I love rhubarb, I've never made a pie with just rhubarb inside, I've always paired it with berries. I love strawberry rhubarb pie and have also made blueberry rhubarb pie (not recommended). This time I decided to make a raspberry rhubarb pie but I do feel like it's time I made a rhubarb-only pie; perhaps that will be featured next.

Since I had never made this type of pie and wasn't sure how the raspberries would react during cooking, I decided to look up a recipe. There are lots of recipes online but for some reason I decided to go with this one...I guess the fact that it was called "the world's best pie" got me. The recipe was pretty much the same one I'd use if making a strawberry rhubarb pie, but with the addition of an egg. Since I always have a bit of trouble getting this type of pie to set up without adding tons of flour or corn starch, I thought it was worth trying (in the end I did not find that the egg made much of a difference).

The pie smelled delicious while baking but made a big mess with the fruit juices bubbling over. It's a really good idea to put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake the pie like this or you'd have a mess in your oven. When it was done it had to cool off and go in the refrigerator, since as much as I'd like to dig in immediately, the pie really is best when chilled.

The pie was very good--the raspberry flavors were very prominent and the filling was a pretty hot pink. I didn't feel like the raspberry complemented the rhubarb as well as strawberries...in fact, the raspberries upstaged the rhubarb a bit and I felt guilty that I failed to let the flavor of the rhubarb shine. But it was certainly still good, and certainly much better than blueberry rhubarb. I guess that the bottom line is that I would still prefer strawberry rhubarb but the raspberry was a fun and tasty experiment.

Ginger and Black Pepper Roasted Turkey Breast with Red Wine Sauce & Celery Root Puree

2009-05-05T21:13:00.012-06:00

This dish was inspired by this Wolfgang Puck roast salmon recipe. I altered the recipe a bit and made it tonight for dinner.

The meal is elegant and interesting but still accessible. I am a pretty average home cook and I managed to make it relatively easily on a weeknight after work. Timing was important--as long as you trim and boil the root vegetables first, prepare the meat, preheat the oven, start the sauce and let it reduce, and then cook the meat. Everything can be done simultaneously and finishes at about the same time. I must admit that I did not take the recipe’s suggestion to make my own chicken stock, which saved me a lot of time but may have sacrificed flavor.

I used turkey breast steaks rather than salmon here--and I think any meat would work rather well with it, even beef. Maybe especially beef. The turkey was good though. I did have to cook it 10-15 minutes longer than I would have for salmon since I had pretty thick turkey steaks. I also cooked them at a lower temperature because I'm pretty sure at 500 degrees, they would have gotten burned before they were done inside. I settled for 450 degrees and the turkey took about 20-25 minutes to reach a level of doneness I was comfortable with. Like I said, a variety of meats could be used here; it’s just important to adjust the cooking time and temperature to suit the particular meat.

There were a lot of interesting flavors going on with the celery root, ginger, and red wine. I never would have thought to put these ingredients together, but it worked. It's a really beautiful dish, especially when you drizzle the ruby sauce over the pale turkey and celery root puree. It made our average weeknight feel pretty special.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Cod and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Feta & Herbs

2009-05-04T20:33:00.004-06:00

I've been in the mood to cook more colorful, spring-like things--I guess due to the warmer weather this week. I would also like to lose the layer of blubber I acquired over the winter, which I justify because to survive an Edmonton winter with no car, I think you need an extra layer of warmth.

Wrapping cod in prosciutto actually makes it really interesting and tasty. It makes it crispier, more salty, and porky--elements most of us really appreciate in food.

It was a bit difficult to wrap the prosciutto around the huge slabs of cod I bought, so I had to piece it together, which worked out fine. Next time I would probably cut larger pieces of cod into more uniform, long rectangles so it would be easier to wrap the prosciutto.

I got the recipe--which is really more like an idea--from Ellie Krieger via the Food Network Website; you can find the recipe here. I'm sure this would work with other meats as well but I think it's particularly well-suited to fish because it cooks quickly and so does the prosciutto. I imagine if you wrapped it around a large chicken breast and tried to fry it, the prosciutto would burn far before the meat inside was cooked.

The roasted vegetable salad also comes from Ellie Krieger via the Food Network website. Actually, her vegetables are grilled but since I don't own a grill I just roasted them. I used eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and red pepper as the recipe suggests but left out the onion for Georg. When it came to the dressing, I decided that instead of mixing the oregano, oil, and feta cheese separately I'd just buy some feta cubes marinated in olive oil and Greek herbs. I simply added my fresh herbs (I used basil rather than mint) and red wine vinegar to the marinated cheese and the dressing was done.

Both items were delicious for Georg and I and even though I ate tons of fish and vegetables I don't really feel stuffed at all, which is a nice feeling for a change.

Orange-Glazed Rhubarb Tart & a Rhubarb and Basil Cocktail

2009-05-03T22:29:00.011-06:00

Oh, this tart was beautiful...and good...and easy. I recommend it and you can find the recipe here. One starts with store bought puff pastry (I tried to make my own once and it has inspired such nightmares since that I will be a devout puff pastry buyer for life), a few large stalks of rhubarb, two oranges, a lime, and some sugar. That's it. You cut the rhubarb very thinly on the diagonal and macerate it in the juices of the oranges, lime, and some sugar. After macerating, you strain the liquid into a pot and boil it until it's thick enough to make a glaze. With the fruit, you arrange it on the puff pastry very beautifully and bake it until the pastry is golden. You pour over the glaze, arrange some orange zest on top, and voila.

Before it bakes (see photo above), it's pretty, but once it's cooked and you've applied the glaze and orange zest, it's stunning. It's also delicious...the rhubarb and orange makes a very tart and fresh combination and the flaky pastry and yielding fruit are a great pair.

To go with the rhubarb tart, I made a rhubarb and basil cocktail inspired by this recipe from The Kitchn. This was a little bit more work...the rhubarb had to be cooked down with sugar and water, pureed, and then strained through a mesh sieve, which sounds easy but is kind of a lot of work. I chilled the puree, and then later in the day I combined a few tablespoons with ice, some basil from my (aero)garden, vodka, and finished it with Sprite.

We enjoyed them out on the balcony. I was wearing sunglasses but I also needed a light scarf.

Pasta in Almond Garlic Sauce

2009-05-03T22:27:00.002-06:00

I originally saw this recipe on The Kitchn website (which is a very nice website, by the way, for daily food inspiration--www.thekitchn.com) and the authors saw it in the April edition of Gourmet magazine.

The idea was kind of intriguing--creating a pasta sauce from pureed garlic, almonds, and liquid. It seemed hearty but not too much of a guilty indulgence. I also thought the combination of almonds, peas, basil, mint, and lemon was very appropriate for the season.

You can find the recipe here. I used dry white wine to make the sauce rather than water since I felt like that would add some extra zing. I also used lemon zest as well as lemon juice since it is so flavorful and I hate to waste the zest.

The result was good--maybe not incredible beyond my wildest dreams--but it was certainly an enjoyable Spring dish for a lovely warm day.

Chocolate-Earl Grey Tea Tarts

2009-04-03T18:11:00.005-06:00

I like to try new things, so last weekend I tried making a chocolate ganache tart in which you steep heavy cream and earl grey tea, and add it to bittersweet chocolate to make an earl grey-enriched ganache.

I really like earl grey tea so I thought it might be good. My recipe also included instructions for a lemon shortbread crust, which sounded like an intriguing combination to me.

How did it turn out? Well, the tarts were really easy to make. I find cookie crusts a lot easier to deal with than pastry crusts, and ganache is a snap to make. I was a little disappointed in the taste of the ganache though--I did not taste the flavor of the tea much and I think it only served to make the ganache more bitter than it already was with the bittersweet chocolate, which was too bitter for me. The crust, on the other hand, was great. The recipe has you use part rice flour, which makes for a crispier crust. The dough was flavored only with lemon zest, which made the crust taste fresh and not overly sweet. I enjoyed the crust so much that I used the left over dough to make shortbread cookies, and they were awesome.

Here's the recipe.

Rest in Peace, Muffin

2009-03-29T13:24:00.013-06:00

In Memoriam
MUFFIN
1997-2009

Yesterday our dear family pet Muffin had to be euthanized. She had been suffering from skin, ear, and eye problems for quite some time. It was pretty clear to my parents that she was in a lot of pain. Muffin will be cremated and we will scatter her remains in the woods behind our house when we are together in late April.

Muffin came to our family in 1997 (I was twelve), shortly after my mom and stepdad got married. My sister Priscilla and I had been pestering them for a dog for a long time. One day they left for a few hours and came back with her. I remember seeing her for the first time in the garage; she was nervous but so happy, and her skinny little body and tail were thumping against the cars. When Muffin was happy she couldn't contain it and her whole body wagged.

Mom and Doug got Muffin from a store in Louisville called EnviroPet, which looked like a pet shop but sold dogs and cats from the local animal shelter. I was always really glad that we adopted her from there and helped out a little animal in need. We never knew where Muffin came from or how she ended up at EnviroPet, but when she came to us she was pretty scraggly and malnourished looking. When we gave Muffin her first bowl of dog food, I never saw anything eat so fast!

Muffin quickly gained weight though, and became beautiful and healthy. Muffin had medium-length, wiry, golden-colored hair, which is why we named her after a baked good. She was very cute, and some people even suggested she go to Hollywood and try to be in the movies. We loved her too much to let her go, though.

As an adolescent dog, she developed some normal but annoying doggie behaviors so we decided it was time for Muffin to get her formal education. Mom and Doug sent her to Duffy's Dog Training Center where she learned basic obedience and self-composure. She did a little three-week long camp there and then when we came to pick her up she showed us all her new tricks! She could sit, stay, lie down, heel, and displayed a surprising amount of restraint when confronted with people food. We were so proud of her! Muffin retained the skills she had learned throughout her life and impressed a lot of people with her excellent manners. Just last week Muffin performed her tricks in the driveway for Priscilla and a new friend she'd brought to meet Muffin and our family.

Speaking of new friends, Muffin loved to meet new people. She would get so excited when anyone new came around and she loved to try to get close and lick people. She really liked to be around people in general. She especially loved to lie on the carpet while we watched TV in the living room and her favorite place to lie was on the cool concrete when my mom worked in the basement.

Some of Muffin's other favorite things: paper products, peanut butter, pig ears, and cow hooves. Early on in Muffin's life we realized she had an affinity for tissues, napkins, and paper towels. I suppose it was because she always thought there would be something delicious wiped on it. But we noticed that even if we gave Muffin a clean tissue or paper towel, she would still love to rip it up and eat bits of it. Our neighbor once noticed this and said, "One of my favorite things to do is drop a napkin on the floor and watch Muffin just go at it!" Peanut butter was another of Muffin's favorite snacks, because we always hid her pills (Muffin had lifelong problems with her endocrine system) in a spoon of peanut butter. It was always big entertainment to watch Muffin lick the peanut butter off the spoon and then awkwardly try to eat the sticky stuff. Muffin also had an appreciation for the stinky things in life, like pig ears and cow hooves. She loved them, but we hated the smell. I bet if I smelled a freshly-chewed cow hoof now, though, it'd bring tears to my eyes with fond memories of Muffin.

Muffin had a wonderful life as a dog. Our whole family and even the neighbors and our friends doted on her, so I am sure she always felt loved, if a dog can feel such a thing. We moved in 1999 to Benchmark Drive, and our new house backed up to the Mount St. Francis nature preserve. We soon noticed that Muffin never really strayed too far from the house, and always came back at night, so Muffin enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam and sniff around in the woods for most of her life. She especially loved running alongside Doug in the woods or going on a hike with Mom, Doug, and Doug's grandchildren. I like to imagine Muffin had the best kind of life a domestic dog can hope for.

Muffin was such a source of love and enjoyment for my family and really brought us together. During the course of Muffin's life I have become an adult and have strayed pretty far from home at times. But even though I no longer share a house with my immediate family, we could still share the idea that Muffin was "ours." She was an important part of my notion of home. We have many other things that bind us together as a family, but nothing like Muffin. She will truly be missed.

Mango, Coconut, and Lime Tapioca Pudding

2009-03-24T22:14:00.009-06:00

I have a box of "Minit" Tapioca Pudding that I bought a bit ago to thicken things that need thickening in my slow cooker. Tapioca usually isn't my dessert of choice, but once when I was feeling very hungry and very lazy and there was nothing else in the house, I just made the tapioca pudding according to the recipe on the box. It's really easy. All you need is the tapioca, some milk, an egg, sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. You boil all of the ingredients up in a pan, let it sit, and it's ready.

Things that are really simple like that are also really fun to play with. For instance, say you didn't want the familiar, comforting flavors of vanilla, but instead the tropical flavors of mango and coconut with a tart twist of lime? I decided to replace the 2 3/4 cups of milk with a can of coconut milk* plus 3/4 cup of water (the can has roughly 2 cups of liquid inside), add a barely-ripe chopped mango (this is a good way to get the most out of barely-ripe fruits), and for tartness, I zested a lime and rendered its juice.

I still followed the basic recipe: I combined in a pan 2 3/4 cup liquid (in this case, coconut milk and water), 3 tbsp. minute tapioca pearls, one beaten egg, 1/4 cup sugar, plus all my tropical goodies (lime zest, juice, chopped mango). The ingredients must be stirred constantly to the point of boiling, then let to rest off the heat for 20 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

The results were delicious! A very well-balanced dessert, it was creamy, fresh, and zingy with the lime.

*I usually buy lite coconut milk, but I heard on the show Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bag (a great show, by the way) that lite coconut milk is basically just regular coconut milk mixed with water, so if you want to reduce calories, it's much more cost effective to just thin out the milk at home yourself. Going with this idea, I bought regular coconut milk for use today. When I tasted the regular, though, it was so much more coconutty and wonderful than the lite coconut milk that I will never go back.

Aerogarden Update

2009-03-24T21:49:00.003-06:00

Looking back, my herbs have gotten so much bigger since last time I posted about them! The mint, basil, and purple basil are so big and hearty that it seems like every time I harvest some of the leaves they grow back overnight. The parsley and dill are getting stronger everyday. The chives are doing fine. The thyme is still a bit sad and scraggly. I love thyme and use it often, so it's a shame. But if 6 of 7 of my herbs succeed, I will still deem this a success.

It is really nice to have the herbs around. I find myself using them for sort of random things--mint as a garnish for desserts and in curries, basil on goat cheese toast.

Georg's trip to Kelowna

2009-03-24T21:26:00.012-06:00

Last weekend Georg took a trip to Kelowna to give a talk at the University of British Columbia. We were pretty excited about it because neither of us have ever been there, but we heard it's really beautiful. The day Georg left, I graciously lent him my camera so that he could take a few pictures. Here they are.

Pictures from my week

2009-03-06T18:27:00.006-07:00

A beautiful sunset,
a Swiss chard tart with pine nuts,

some plump salmon steaks,
roasted cauliflower with feta cheese, black olives, and oregano,
and these flowers I found in the garbage can at work!

Austrian Pumpkin Seed Oil

2009-02-22T10:34:00.005-07:00

This morning we have been having an Austrian sort of morning. Georg played Andre Heller's latest 3-disc compendium and I made scrambled eggs with curly endive and pumpkin seed oil.

Pumpkin seed oil is a precious export in the Styrian region of Austria. They grow their own type of oil-pumpkins there, gently roast the seeds, and bottle the oil. When I was in Austria I ate it on pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto, as well as the Styrian beetlebean salad (see previous post).

Pumpkin seed oil is also supposed to be really good for you. It contains the nutrients vitamin A, E, Zinc, and Omega fatty acids. It regulates blood pressure and cholesterol, and also serves as some sort of anti-inflammatory, as it is known to help men with benign prostate enlargement.

I recently bought my own bottle and have been trying it on different things. Last week I put it on some boiled broccoli raab (rapini) and the nuttiness really complemented the bitter green. We ate the greens with maple barbecue marinated salmon and it was heavenly. In the future I'd like to make the classic Styrian pumpkin seed oil dressing (a mixture of pumpkin seed oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt) as a dip for beef kabobs. I've even heard the oil is really good on vanilla ice cream.

Georg's Cross Country Ski Race

2009-02-22T10:18:00.008-07:00

Last weekend Georg participated in the Canadian Birkebeiner ski race held outside of Edmonton. There were many race lengths one could complete; Georg did the 31 km race. He trained very diligently for a really long time and I am very proud of him.
The morning of the race it was very cold. It started in the Ukrainian Cultural Village, which provided an interesting background to the start of the race.

I ran about trying to stay warm and taking pictures. Georg finished in only 2 hours and 50 minutes, which was much faster than we expected. In fact, I barely got to see him cross the finish line.
After the race he was pretty beat up but I fed him some cheese and then he was ok. When everything was over we were so tired we went to bed and took a long nap, even though it was Valentine's Day and we should have been at some candle-lit restaurant drinking champagne and being generally romantic.

Blood Orange Puff Pastry Tart

2009-02-08T15:10:00.007-07:00

When cooked, this tart failed to taste like anything more than the sum of its parts. It was pretty though, which is why I suspect people make it when it's clear from the recipe it's just going to taste like oranges and pastry. Here's the recipe.

Aerogarden Update

2009-02-08T15:02:00.005-07:00

All of my Aerogarden Herbs have sprouted...

And are growing nicely! The thyme is the slowest to grow, and the basil and chives are the fastest.

Cheesymite Scrolls

2009-02-08T14:48:00.008-07:00

I have always been pretty fascinated by Vegemite spread, the Australian condiment that is in nine out of ten pantries there. I've never seen or tried it, but you hear about it a lot. I always hear about it every year during the Australian Open tennis tournament, during which Australia Day always falls. On Australia day there is always some televised feature about Australian culture and Vegemite is always mentioned.

In the United States, it's pretty hard to find Vegemite. It is manufactured by Kraft, an American food company, but is not widely distributed there. Here in Canada there are quite a lot of Australians so it's sold in some places. Today I spotted it in the grocery store and decided to experiment with it. I decided to go with Cheesymite Scrolls, a sort of cinnamon bun with cheese and Vegemite instead of cinnamon and icing. I've heard Vegemite is an acquired taste, so I figured mixing it with two familiar ingredients, cheddar cheese and bread, would be less risk.

I spread the Vegemite, which looks like dark chocolate peanut butter, onto some crescent roll dough, which I deliberately did not rip into triangles. Then Georg sprinkled on some grated cheddar cheese, and then I rolled them up and cut them into buns for the oven. They produced a nice beefy/cheesy smell while in the oven, and I was excited to taste them when they were done.

The verdict? Vegemite is truly an acquired taste...it has these beefy, salty, bitter flavors that are a bit weird at first and especially in large quantities (I put way too much Vegemite into my cheesymite scrolls; I would recommend just a very thin smear). But I think it's something I could learn to like.

Exploding Chocolate Cake

2009-02-08T14:44:00.003-07:00

I made some chocolate cake the other weekend, and I just now found this random picture on my camera. I had some left over batter so I decided to put it in a mini-springform pan to make a little cake, and I filled it way more than I should have and it practically exploded in the oven! I love how it looks like an evil little monster living in its oven-lair.

Ranunculus Bouquet

2009-01-16T18:39:00.007-07:00

I love them because they are flakey!

My New AeroGarden

2009-01-16T18:30:00.004-07:00

Just the other day, walking home in the cold, I was thinking about how nice it would be when it's warm again and I could start a balcony herb garden. It wouldn't be my first attempt; I've tried to grow a nice herb garden several times, and they have all died. As much as I wish I had a green thumb, I'm pretty sure after many failed attempts at growing things that it's brown. I have tried with cheap seeds, expensive seeds...I've even bought hardy-looking, already-grown ones and have had them die.

I got a package from my parents yesterday, and on the customs form on the outside of the box it said "herb garden." My heart kind of fell because as much as I'd love to have an herb garden it's never worked out and I'd hate to waste any more of mine or anyone else's money on trying to grow herbs.

But when I opened the package, it was an AeroGarden, a complete system that feeds, waters, and provides light and appropriate shelter for herbs. It's pretty much 100% guaranteed to grow! I love cooking with herbs so much but have always been let down so this was a perfect gift for me. I plan to document the growing of the herbs here on this blog.

Thanks Mom, Doug, Priscilla and Muffin!

Christmas

2009-01-04T18:33:00.011-07:00

Georg and I had such a nice Christmas eve celebration this year. It was just the two of us but still very special. Above's a picture of the Orange-Cranberry Cornmeal cake that's been making the internet rounds this holiday season....here's a link to the recipe. I didn't have a springform pan and didn't have the fortitude to go shopping on foot for one on Christmas eve in the cold, so I used a regular 9 1/2 x 13" pan...it worked fine.

Here's our beautiful Christmas centerpiece I got from work...it matched our table cloth and really got me in the mood for the holidays!

We went to so much effort to get this tree...they don't really sell fresh trees downtown so we pretty much had to drive around in our rental car we still had from our winter trip in the outskirts of downtown until we saw a vendor. Once there, it was so cold outside we nearly froze picking one out and paying for it. Then, after shoving it in the car, feet nearly numb, we had to pick out all the decorations and sneak it into our apartment since fresh trees are considered a fire hazard and not really allowed. The next day, on Christmas eve, after we had returned the rental car, Georg had to venture out on foot and find Christmas lights since we didn't buy enough the night before. What a hassle...it was nice having it though, it wouldn't really have been Christmas for us otherwise.

The Christmas table

Roasted trout and potatoes...a traditional Christmas eve meal for Georg. It's also a tradition I appreciate--trout take 30 or 40 minutes to cook as opposed to all day for a turkey or ham. I stuffed the trout with lemon slices and herbs and laid them atop some potatoes that had already been dressed in olive oil and salt. Pouring a little extra olive oil over the fish before going in the oven helps the skin get crisp, and the lemons inside keep the meat moist. Getting fresh fish is important; I asked to smell it before I bought it and it should smell like nothing, not a nasty, fishy mess.

Kale soup with hot pancetta and apples...not a beautiful soup, but so good. We topped it with plain yogurt but you could use heavy cream or mascarpone cheese. Really simple to make, too, I just rendered the fat from the pancetta, sauteed the kale in that, added a chopped apple and a quart of chicken stock, boiled for a bit, and then blended it with my immersion blender.

A salad of spinach, oranges, smoked almonds, and aged goat cheese dressed with pomegranate balsamic vinegar, orange juice, and olive oil.

Mushroom custards...another relatively easy dish. I chopped oyster, shittake, and cremini mushrooms and sauteed them with butter, parsley, and thyme. After dividing the mushroom mixture among ramekins, you add a cup of heavy cream mixed with egg, salt, and pepper and pour over, baking at 350 degrees in a water bath until set.

We had such a nice Christmas eve. It was very romantic just the two of us and we loved the gifts we received from each other as well as other members of our family.

Jasper Winter Holiday Pictures

2008-12-29T20:25:00.034-07:00

Gluehwein, Messy Roasted Chicken, Parsnip Fries

2008-12-14T21:31:00.006-07:00

Gluehwein's a warm, spiced red wine drink common in Austria and Germany over the holidays. I remember having a lot of it last year, it's sold on the street from little stands. I looked up a recipe for it...you combine 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup sugar, a cinnamon stick, the juice of an orange, and the rind of the orange studded with cloves and simmer for 30 minutes. Then you add a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz and let it get warm. Of course, I didn't have a cinnamon stick or whole cloves, so I just tossed some spices in there and hoped for the best. Also, Georg was sent for an orange and brought back a grapefruit (ha) so I used grapefruit juice instead of orange. It was still good though. I would just caution against overwarming the wine...if it's on the stove for a long time, it gets a little syrupy. I would probably cut back on the sugar next time as well; that might help eliminate the syrupyness too. I think this particular recipe could stand with just 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar rather than 3/4 cup.
Well--on to the dinner I made that night...roasted chicken and parsnip fries. The parsnip fries were really good. I cut them into sticks, tossed them in thyme, olive oil, and salt, and roasted them at a very high temperature (450-475 degrees) for 20-30 minutes. Cooking them at a high temperature is key; it makes them crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.
The roasted chicken was also really good...crispy skin, really moist meat. I used this recipe from one of my favorite blogs. This recipe, too, relies on a high oven temperature. Well, what worked on parsnips became a big mess when applied to chicken. Chicken fat exploded all over my oven. It popped and sizzled everywhere, including the heating coils, and once the fat hit the heating coils it created this awful smoke that burned my eyes. I am going to have to totally clean my oven before using it again after that chicken.
Our lantern-flower kitten says hello and...
Here is a nice little scene of Gluehwein and nuts that Georg set up and wanted me to take a picture of...what a little food stylist.

Georg and I leave on Friday for a trip to the Canadian Rockies for the holidays! I will surely have lots of pictures to show soon from our excursion!

Chocolate Walnut Chess Pie

2008-11-30T17:59:00.002-07:00

Funny, I made a lemon chess pie just about a year ago, and now a chocolate one. I hope this one will be just as much of a success as the last one.

I haven't been baking too much lately so I owed it to Georg and myself to make this. We have been subsisting on cheap blueberry pies you can buy at Safeway for $3.49 and that just isn't cutting it anymore.

I haven't actually cut into this pie yet (I'm saving it for dessert tonight), but it contains little more than chocolate, sugar, eggs, walnuts, and bourbon. How bad could that be?

Here's where you can find the recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Pecan-Chess-Pie-4504
(they use a frozen crust and pecans, but Georg likes walnuts and I like homemade crust!)

Christmas Decorations

2008-11-30T17:49:00.007-07:00

Well, it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which means it's officially permissible to start decorating for Christmas. Georg and I aren't spending it with either of our families this year, so I guess I feel like I have to create Christmas because it's not coming to me otherwise.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and went shopping for some Christmas decorations. We'll get a real tree later, but for now I've gotten a silver-spraypainted plastic one, sitting in a flowerpot with fake moss. I adorned it with globe-shaped white lights and am quite pleased with it. In the future when I can find some, I will further decorate it with some red ribbon.
I also got some Christmas-scented, red, white, and silver painted pinecones, nuts, and twig-balls, which I put in one of my wooden salad bowls. I set a small feather-poof of a bird ornament on top, as if the bowl is its nest. It's really cute.
See how cute?! Finally, I got a 97 cent Advent calendar...they had a really nice one at Starbucks filled with truffles, but it was 24 dollars, and who in their right mind would spend 24 dollars on an Advent calendar? I'm excited, because tomorrow is December 1st and Georg and I can open the first chocolate-filled window in the calendar!

Christmas Cactus, Bloomed

2008-11-15T10:19:00.003-07:00

My Christmas Cactus is blooming! I took a picture of it last weekend in the bright Saturday morning light. Did you know that during the week I never am actually in my apartment when it is light outside? That I never really see my dwelling in natural light except on weekends? I leave for work around 7:40 when it's still dark and get home around 5:30 and by then it's dark too. I guess that's the thing with having a real job--you can afford a nice apartment and nice little frills like Christmas cactii, but you never get to experience them in daylight.

Shrimp with Roasted Tomatoes, Feta, and Herbs

2008-11-15T09:45:00.004-07:00

I've been relying on this meal a lot lately...it's easy, doesn't require a lot of preparation work, and it tastes really good. One needs:

1 pkg. frozen shrimp (lately all I've been able to find affordably is peel-on, but peeled would make this a lot easier to eat)
1 pkg. cherry tomatoes
2 or 3 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt, pepper
1 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, preferably the kind with the herbs already in it
herbs (I've used both oregano and thyme)
pasta or rice

To prepare, halve the cherry tomatoes and mince the 2 or 3 (or more) garlic cloves and add to a roasting pan. Douse the tomatoes and garlic in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes or so, or until the tomatoes show signs of being cooked or until you're afraid the garlic is going to burn.

Then, take out the roasting pan and add the thawed shrimp, cheese, and any more herbs you wish to add (when I use the feta with herbs I don't add many extra herbs, but if I use plain feta I add maybe a half tablespoon of dried herbs). Put back into the oven until the shrimp are cooked through and pink, and the cheese is a bit browned on top.

Serve over pasta or rice.

Coconut, Cashew, and Ginger Bread Pudding

2008-11-09T21:23:00.005-07:00

Bread pudding with shredded coconut, toasted cashew nuts, and 1tbsp. minced ginger.

Red Beet and Feta Ravioli with Orange-Thyme Brown Butter Sauce

2008-11-09T20:01:00.004-07:00

I was grocery shopping the other day when I saw some wonton wrappers in the refrigerated section. I'd never used them before and kind of wanted to try them out to make ravioli. I've seen this technique on the Food Network--Giada DeLaurentiis is particularly fond of it. I've often wondered, though, if wonton wrappers can really serve as a substitute for fresh, rolled pasta dough.

I decided to make beet ravioli, something for which I've seen a lot of recipes online, but I couldn't remember the exact ingredients. When I got home and looked at one of the actual recipes, it called for ricotta cheese (I only had feta), salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs for the filling, all of which I luckily had on hand.

I roasted two beets and put those, cut up, in the food processor with a half cup of the cheese and salt and pepper. I formed the triangle-shaped ravioli by placing a rounded teaspoon of filling on each wonton-wrapper square and sealing with water.

The original recipe I was going off of suggested a butter-poppy seed sauce, but since I didn't have any poppy seeds, I decided to use orange zest and thyme instead. I boiled the raviolis, and then put a rather huge amount of butter, orange zest, and thyme in a skillet and allowed it to brown. Then I tossed the boiled ravioli in the butter sauce.

The wonton wrappers worked out ok...they had the same flavor, but the texture was off. They weren't dense and chewy but more smooth and delicate. Smooth and delicate is nice, but it's not really like ravioli. The wonton wrappers also had a difficult time holding the filling in, and it kept sticking to the skillet and tearing when I tried to toss it in the butter sauce.

Next time, I think I'll stick with traditional pasta ravioli, even if it is more work. But even though I was a little disappointed in the wonton wrappers, the ravioli were still excellent! The filling was earthy and a little tangy from the cheese, and the thyme, orange zest, and butter worked really well with it. In fact, I can't imagine a poppy seed and butter sauce being even near as good.

Also while at the store this weekend I bought my first Christmas cactus! I don't know why it took me so long to purchase one since they are cheap and pretty easy to take care of. They remind me of my Granny so much; she always seemed to have a few scraggly Christmas cacti hanging around. And I found a cute little pot to put it in. It looks really cute on our red table by the couch.

Globe Wine Decanter

2008-11-09T19:57:00.002-07:00

One of the gifts my parents got Georg for finishing his Ph.D. was this globe wine decanter. We brought it with us to Canada. Miraculously, it didn't break on the freight truck on the way to Edmonton! It is a delicate little thing, and very beautiful. We used it one night with white wine, but it'd probably be even prettier with red wine. Thanks Mom and Doug!

Georg's 10k race and Edmonton Fall pictures

2008-10-01T21:53:00.009-06:00

On Sunday, Georg ran a 10k race. He finished 5th! I was so proud of him. Yay Georg! After I took the above picture of him taking off, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the fall weather. It was a beautiful day and I was right by the river.

Georg's Birthday

2008-10-01T21:48:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday was my dear Georg's birthday! He was running a 10k race the day morning after, so we had to celebrate quite tamely. I made a bunch of pasta and fish (Georg needed to load up on carbohydrates) and we went to bed pretty early, resolving that we'd have the real celebration the next day after the race. Still, I wanted Georg to be able to blow out some candles on his birthday, so I bought two mini-cakes and put candles in them. This was the first year I haven't made Georg's birthday cake from scratch! I bought strawberry swirl cheesecake (cheesecake being his favorite) and a strawberry-mango mousse cake (strawberry and mango being some of his favorite fruits). The cakes were so good and Georg got to make a birthday wish!

Edmonton Oilers Game

2008-10-01T21:33:00.009-06:00

Last Thursday, Georg and I had the good fortune to be able to attend an Edmonton Oilers hockey game! I got tickets through my employer. We had great seats! The Edmonton Oilers team is famous for winning 5 Stanley Cup titles in the 80s, and for being led during that time period by, among others, Wayne Gretzky. In recent years they have not been able to repeat the success they had in the 80s, but they're still doing OK...in 2006 they made it to the NHL playoffs.

I was so excited to get to go to a professional hockey game! My exposure to hockey is quite limited. In fact, I like to joke with people that the only time I've seen hockey being played is on the tv show Full House, because Uncle Joey played hockey. Ha! Sad but true.
The Oilers play at home in Rexall place, a stadium on the North side of town.
Georg in front of Rexall Place. He was really excited about the game too!
A puff of fake smoke emitted at the beginning of the game.
The game in progress! Tonight the Oilers played against the Florida Panthers.
A hockey fight! I had always heard about the fights during hockey games, although I understand they've calmed down in recent years. Still, I was able to photograph this little skirmish.

In the end, the Oilers won in overtime, in a shootout. It was a good game to see since there was a fight, a close score, and a shootout in the end!

An Ant Update

2008-09-25T07:03:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I discussed the ant farm that my husband Georg has in his office. The photo I included was from right after we introduced the ants to their habitat, so I thought I'd make you an update showing you all the progress they've made!

The ants live in a gel that serves as their food, water, and also as the material with which they make their tunnels. When I saw the ants for the second time after we set the ant farm up (about 2 weeks later), they'd done a lot of tunneling! They bite the gel with their mandibles and carry these very small but uniform-looking pieces of it up to the top of the habitat. It creates tunnels with a very interesting icy-looking texture, and also creates a material not unlike snow on top of the gel, where the ants put the gel particles they've carried out of the tunnels.

Georg has noticed that only about a third of the ants work at any given time. The rest of them hang out in a home base located in the bottom right corner of the habitat. So in the pictures about 10 of the ants are working, whereas the other 20 are resting in the gel below.

An interesting thing about ants--they bury their dead. When an ant dies, Georg says that within 5 minutes the ants have sensed it and moved the dead and up to the top of the habitat, where they bury it in the snow-like bitten-off gel pieces they move out of the tunnels. Georg gets in the habitat with a pair of tweezers when he sees a buried dead ant needs removal.

The other day when I visited the ants, there was much more "snow" buildup than what you see in the pictures. It was almost up to the top of the habitat, so much so that the ants were standing on the top of it and trying to gnaw at the plastic lid of the habitat. We decided to refrigerate the ants for a bit to slow them down, then remove some of the snow. I think it looks much better in there and hopefully they will be more productive now that their habitat is cleared out.

Georg took these pictures, by the way! I really love how he positioned the rubber brain next to the habitat, nice touch Georg :) .

Fall Orange Chinese Lanterns!

2008-09-23T20:23:00.003-06:00

I can buy flowers at cost at my new job, so I am taking full advantage! Here is my first purchase, some orange Chinese lanterns. They came with leaves but I clipped them off so the lanterns would be fully showcased. I love flowers so I plan on buying many many more!

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese, and Lemon-Tarragon Vinaigrette

2008-09-23T20:22:00.003-06:00

I had a version of this salad for lunch at the North End Cafe in Louisville a few summers ago with my friend Jamie. It was so good that it's been in the back of my mind ever since, and a few nights ago I decided to recreate it.

The original salad had salad greens; roasted peppers, squash, and mushrooms; toasted sunflower seeds; goat cheese; and champagne vinaigrette.

My salad employed what I had on hand--broccoli, asparagus, and butternut squash roasted with salt and pepper; toasted walnuts; and some lemon-tarragon vinaigrette I bought on sale. I suppose you could make your own dressing by mixing together lemon juice, zest, dried or fresh tarragon, a little dijon mustard, and olive oil.

To make the salad:

2 handfuls herb salad greens (or any other salad green)
1 cup fresh broccoli florets
1/3 of a butternut squash, peeled, and then cut crosswise and into half-moons
1/3 lb. asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
salt & pepper
olive oil
1/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
lemon-tarragon dressing, prepared or homemade

Cut up the vegetables and place in a roasting dish with enough olive oil, salt and pepper to coat the vegetables. Roast at 375 degrees for half an hour or 45 minutes, or until squash is tender and lightly browned. Cool until just slightly warm.

To assemble: place a handful of greens on a plate. Arrange roasted vegetables on top of greens. Crumble goat cheese over top of vegetables, sprinkle on walnuts. Dress the salad with the lemon-tarragon dressing.

Serves 2.

Keeping Up with Georg

2008-09-14T22:58:00.004-06:00

I thought I'd make a brief post about what Georg is up to these days! He is really enjoying his post-doc position and making a lot of good progress! One of his main fascinations is this ant farm he set up in his office. It was given to him by one of his advisers at IU when he finished his dissertation. It is a special ant farm...instead of sand and water, the ants eat and drink from the special blue gel that you see here. Since the gel doesn't cave in as the ants tunnel (as sand would), you can very clearly see their movements and actions. Since Georg studies (among other things) collective intelligence, it is neat for him to have this in his office. The other faculty and students like to watch the ants' progress too!
Here is where Georg goes to work every day. It's called Assiniboia Hall, which I believe was named after a group of native peoples. The University of Alberta campus is really pretty; I'll have to post more pictures sometime.

The West Edmonton Mall

2008-09-14T22:50:00.007-06:00

One of the great tourist attractions in Edmonton is the West Edmonton Mall, which is one of North America's largest malls. It may be THE largest mall, but I can't keep up with these things very well so I'm not sure. Anyway, the mall features a huge skating rink...
...a water park with a wave pool...
...a trampolining facility...
...a pool with a live sea lion show...
...and an entire boulevard made to resemble the streets of Europe.

Pretty neat, although it was hard to do serious shopping in there because it was really crowded and all the people and attractions left me too overwhelmed to make important shopping decisions.

Ginger, Fig, Walnut, and Goat Cheese Baked Apples

2008-09-14T22:46:00.003-06:00

After a brief moment this afternoon examining my food-pairing preferences, I decided to make these apples. One of my favorite flavor pairings? Fig and ginger. One of my recent favorite snacks? Green apples with goat cheese. Here is the recipe:

4 granny smith apples, cored, and the top 1/3 of peel removed
half a lemon
4 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. goat cheese
1/3 cup dried black Mission figs, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
2 tsp. fresh ginger, minced

Place the prepared apples in a baking dish. Be sure to rub the exposed apple flesh with a lemon, or else they will turn brown. In a bowl, mash together with a fork the brown suger, butter, cheese, figs, walnuts, and ginger. Scoop this mixture carefully into the cavities of the apples. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Place apples on serving plates; spoon liquid from the baking dish over the apples. Serve warm.

These apples tasted almost exactly as I had imagined. My only complaint was that I couldn't really taste the goat cheese very well. It sort of dissolved and melted into the background. Next time, I think I'll mix the goat cheese with either some warm milk and lemon juice or the juices in the baking dish to thin it out. Then I'll pour it over the baked apples so I'll have a distinct goat cheese sauce.

Edmonton Sunset

2008-09-14T22:36:00.006-06:00

Tonight's sunset kept getting better and better...

The Omnivore's Hundred

2008-09-06T10:20:00.004-06:00

The Omnivore's Hundred is an eclectic and entirely subjective list of 100 items that Andrew Wheeler, co-author of the British food blog Very Good Taste, thinks every omnivore should try at least once in his life.

Andrew writes,

"Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers."

Here are the rules: 1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. 2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten 3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I am going to italisize). 4. Optional extra: post a comment on Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

1. Venison (dinner, Holland America Mexican Riviera Cruise 2007)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (last eaten for brunch the day Georg defended his dissertation)
4. Steak tartare (tuna tartare, yes, but not steak)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (if I eat freshwater fish, it's usually trout)
9. Borscht (I've made it at home and had it in a restaurant)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (rhubarb, blackberry)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (there was a foie gras dumpling on one of the canapes at our wedding)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (swirled in ice cream)
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (thanks Panera Bread)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (in the form of goat cheese)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (pufferfish)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (in sushi)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (I've had the cactus candies but that probably doesn't count)
52. Umeboshi (some sour Japanese fruit)
53. Abalone (sea snails)
54. Paneer (I love paneer and would like to try to make my own someday)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (by mistake once, remember Priscilla? I hate gin.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (Double Bastard Ale)
59. Poutine (I had this at the Fringe Festival a few weeks ago!)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (according to wikipedia this is some kind of clay...gross)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. ~~Roadkill~~
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (21st birthday dinner)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Total: 56/100

The River Valley

2008-08-26T18:10:00.006-06:00

About a block from our apartment is the beautiful river valley! Georg suggested I post some pictures of it here so everyone can see how nice it is. We are really lucky.

the Edmonton Valley Zoo

2008-08-26T17:50:00.009-06:00

As we all know, I love zoos. While the weather is still nice, Georg and I decided to go to Edmonton's zoo, the Valley Zoo. I guess zoos are a little sad, with all the animals locked up, but for some reason I manage to overlook that and enjoy myself anyway. I guess the only reasoning for zoos being ethical is that perhaps if people know more about animals and are able to relate to them, they'll think twice before destroying them or their environment. I like going to zoos to marvel at the exotic, but also because it reminds me how real they are, and how many commonalities animals and humans share.

The zoo was nice and the animals seemed well cared for. I guess my only complaint was that the zoo was quite child-oriented and was literally packed with children. I like children, but I was disappointed to see so few adults--Georg and I were practically the only adults there without children. I don't know why people seem to stop going to zoos as adults. You see many of the same animals every time you go, but for me, the fascination never really wears off.

Anyway, here are some of my best pictures of the zoo!

Old Strathcona Farmer's Market and the Edmonton Fringe Festival

2008-08-26T17:04:00.012-06:00

This past weekend Georg and I went over to the university-area to check out the Fringe Festival and visit the Old Strathcona farmer's market that I'd heard so much about.
The farmer's market was nice...there were many booths and since it's indoors, it can run all year long. I look forward to coming here in the winter to buy squashes and cabbages and other winter vegetables. They also seemed to have a good selection of organic meats and fish, which I'd like to try when I have a little more money to spend on food! I do, though, prefer farmer's markets outside, because in the summer I like to be in the sun, and it doesn't seem to get as crowded outdoors. For this reason, I might continue to go to the downtown farmer's market while the weather's still nice.

The Fringe Festival happens every year in Edmonton along Whyte Avenue by the university. This year it lasted about 10 days. Outside on the street there are food stands and street performers, and inside in certain buildings there are shows featuring many types of entertainment for which you buy tickets. Georg and I didn't get the chance buy tickets to see any of the indoor shows, but the Saturday before the Fringe Festival closed we decided to go to Whyte Avenue to see what we could see anyway.
It was a lot of fun! There were lots of street performers (doing mostly balancing acts), and the man above demonstrated riding on a really tall unicycle. They had food stands and beer tents, so when we got hungry we got greasy food and beer.
There was a section of the festival where freak shows and other "marvels" were situated, and as we walked through it I couldn't help but want to see the Weed Woman. I knew it would be a joke, but the way the guy outside the tent was promoting it, I couldn't refuse. The promotor used kind of an old-fashioned voice and kept making these grand statements about how awesome the Weed Woman was. He was so funny! Of course, two dollars later when I went in and saw her, it was just a woman dressed in a plant suit, but it was still fun.

Blueberries and Cream Pie with Crunchy Walnut Topping

2008-08-21T21:57:00.004-06:00

Georg called this "the perfect pie." I was pleased, because that's exactly what I was going for: Georg said he was craving pie, I had time for a baking project, so I spent the morning combing the internet for a pie recipe that would combine all of his favorite things. Aren't I a good wife. No, it's really just that I need a job and until I find the right one, I have lots of time on my hands to dream up perfect pies for Georg.

I found this pie on the Epicurious website, and I knew immediately that if it turned out right, Georg would love it. He loves blueberries, he loves tangy yogurts, creams, and cheeses, and he loves walnuts. I read a lot of the comments from people that had made the pie, and they were generally positive, so I decided to go for it.

The recipe included instructions for a pie crust dough, but I had been wanting to try out Alton Brown's pie crust recipe (his scientific approach seems to make me trust him more), so I decided to use that. I watched the episode of Good Eats on which this recipe was featured, and Brown promised the most wonderful, tender, flaky crust. I followed the food processor instructions. The crust did have excellent flavor, and it was tender, but it didn't quite have the flakiness I'd hoped for. In fact, it was a little flat, and it shrunk like crazy in the oven while baking. I might have added too much water or something like that--it seemed pretty easy to mess up the recipe's finicky instructions. I'll have to give it another chance sometime. I tend not to have the best luck with pastry. I will say that the best pie crust I've ever made was the one that went with this recipe for Piled-High Peach Pie. That was a good crust--I made it without a food processor, it was easy, and it was everything I feel a crust should be.

The filling of this pie is made with sour cream, which creates a nice, tangy flavor. It's sweetened with sugar, lightened with an egg, and further flavored with almond extract. I did increase the almond extract to double what the recipe called for--many of the reviewers of the recipe online recommended it. I thought the end result had a perfect amount of almond flavor.

The topping is made of butter cut into flour with sugar and nuts. When baked, it browned on top and created a crunchy layer which was a nice foil to the smooth blueberries and cream filling.

I highly recommend this pie, especially while the summer's blueberries are still in season! I can imagine this would be good with other fruits, too--raspberries, peaches, strawberries, etc. cut into small pieces.

Swiss Chard Fettucine with Pine Nuts and Olive Tapenade

2008-08-20T20:28:00.011-06:00

During my college years, I once made this Giada De Laurentiis recipe. Although I love Swiss chard and usually love Giada's recipes, something was off. The sauce tasted bland and watery, and kind of bitter if you ask me. Now that I look at the recipe again, I think it was the profusion of chard (she used two whole bunches) and the whole can of undrained tomatoes that made it watery, and the whole wheat spaghetti that tasted a little bitter. I do usually appreciate healthy substitutions and I think that whole grains are a good thing, but I think I've decided I like whole wheat in my bread, not in my pasta. It has a slightly bitter flavor and a texture that isn't quite as subtly chewy as regular pasta. It doesn't have that elastic quality that I didn't really notice until it was absent in the whole wheat pasta.

I saw some great-looking red chard in the grocery store, and I had an abundance of fettucine at home, so I decided to give the chard pasta combination another go. But this time, instead of a whole can of tomatoes with their juices, I just added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and some lemon juice. Instead of a few olives as a topping, I used black olive tapenade (you could also use pesto, homemade or store-bought) so that the flavor would go throughout. And to boost the texture, I decided to add in more toasted pine nuts.

I was very pleased with the results! It was not soupy in the least and had a lot of flavor and texture from the chard, slightly-chewy pasta, and nuts. In addition, the entire dish can be made in one big skillet. Here's the recipe:

8 oz. fettucine
1 bunch red Swiss chard, chopped or shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
the juice of half a lemon
4 tbsp. prepared black olive tapenade or olive pesto
2 tbsp. tomato paste
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 small pkg. pine nuts, toasted in the oven

Bring a big nonstick skillet filled halfway with water to a boil. Season liberally with salt, and add the pasta. Cook until almost done. Remove the pasta to a bowl and sprinkle it with a little olive oil so it stays loose. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, which should still be hot from cooking the pasta. Put it over medium high heat until the oil is hot. Add the Swiss chard and garlic, season it with salt and pepper, and add the wine and lemon juice. Cook it for a few minutes until it starts to become tender, stirring occasionally. Add the pasta back in, along with the tomato paste and the olive tapenade. Once everything has heated through, add the pine nuts and toss to combine.

Serves 4.

P.S. I couldn't help but post another photo I took last night of our beautiful view! I love our new balcony and the beautiful scenery here!

Honey-Garlic Sausages Roasted with Rutabaga

2008-08-19T23:00:00.007-06:00

I love rutabaga, and I saw a big pile of them in the grocery store last week. It was a huge pile actually. Canadians must love rutabaga, because back in the United States it's rare a person has ever even heard of it. I love the flavor--it's kind of smoothly textured like a squash, but it has a little bit of a spicy bite like a turnip. It's a pale yellow when raw, and turns a more medium yellow-orange when cooked.

My granny really liked to make rutabaga. Her cooking tendencies were decidedly Southern; I don't know if rutabaga is a Southern thing or whether she just liked the vegetable. She always boiled the rutabaga and put bacon bits in it. And from memory (and I could be wrong), she always added some maple syrup or brown sugar or something to it. It always tasted a bit sweet to me. Or maybe she only put sugar on acorn squash. I can't remember--Mom'll have to help me out a bit here. Mom are you out there?? Haha. Anyway, it doesn't matter, those are the flavors I like with rutabaga: porky and slightly sweet. I made rutabaga a couple of times in college with maple bacon, because rutabaga is a really economical vegetable choice. It sells for something like 68 cents a pound.

I bought a rutabaga from the big pile I saw in the Canadian grocery store last week. Only I didn't really know how I was going to use it, and it ended up sitting in my fridge for a few days. Then, when I went shopping later in the week, I saw these honey-garlic sausages for sale. I believe that they were the Johnsonville brand. I bought them, thinking they'd be perfect cooked with rutabaga--porky sweetness.

To make this combination for dinner, I peeled the rutabaga and cut it into 3/4" pieces. I put some olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish and added the rutabaga. After seasoning the rutabaga liberally with salt and pepper, I laid the honey-garlic sausages over top and drizzled the entire dish with a little bit more olive oil. I roasted the whole thing in the oven at 375 or 400 degrees for about an hour.

It was perfect! The honey-garlic sausages definitely had some sweetness, but not so much that it was overwhelming or gross, just enough to complement the rutabaga. In fact, the honey-garlic sausages were so good that I would eat them on their own even if I didn't need a sweet pork compliment. Some of the fat came out of the sausages, infusing the rutabaga with pork flavors. I served the rutabaga and sausages with some egg noodles, and it was a really satisfying meal. And it reminded me of my granny.

Roasted Cherry Rhubarb & Saskatoon Berry Frozen Yogurt and 100th Post Celebration!

2008-08-19T15:04:00.002-06:00

I was wandering around the downtown farmer's market this morning and an old woman wearing a scarf on her head beckoned me over to show me her Saskatoon berries. I'd never had them before, but when I tasted one it was a little like a sweet blueberry. Saskatoon berries are grown mainly in the western Canadian prairie lands, and were a major food source for the Aboriginal people here. They can be eaten raw, or made into jam, pie, or relish for meats. They are also very healthy--they have a higher antioxidant content than the popular blueberry.

I decided to pair the Saskatoon berry with rhubarb, one of my favorite fruits (actually a vegetable). I felt that the sweetness of the berry would pair well with the tartness of rhubarb. Finally, I decided to combine this fruit pairing with yogurt to make a frozen yogurt. I picked up some plain Liberte Mediterrane yogurt in a fancy market, because it's supposed to be very thick and I thought that would make for a good frozen yogurt.

Here's the recipe:

5-6 thin stalks cherry rhubarb, sliced thinly
2 cups Saskatoon berries, picked over for stems
2 large containers Greek or other thick yogurt, plain
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus about 1/2 cup more for roasting the fruit
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the fruits in a roasting dish and sprinkle sugar over (I used about 1/2 cup, but I'm sure you can use more or less according to your tastes). Toss with your hands, and roast at 375 degrees in the oven for about 45 minutes-1 hour, or until fruit is very soft and the rhubarb is breaking down. Put the roasted fruit in a bowl and let cool in the refrigerator. When cool, combine with the sugar, yogurt, and vanilla. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. Put the frozen mixture into an airtight, freezer-safe container and freeze until firm.

I must say that this was excellent. I would definitely recommend spending the extra money on good, thick yogurt--I think it really makes a big difference in flavor. To me, frozen yogurt is not a low cal, low fat version of ice cream, it has a distinct and wonderful flavor all its own. So I think it helps to use the highest quality, full fat yogurt you can find. The Liberte yogurt is really tangy and has a very pleasant mouth-feel. The Saskatoon berries were nice, too. The skin and seeds have more texture than blueberries, I believe, and they added texture to the frozen yogurt. They didn't totally break down in the roasting process as a blueberry might, so there were distinct Saskatoon berries throughout. The mixture of Saskatoon berries and rhubarb was very unique and enjoyable to both Georg and I. Perhaps what stood out most is that it was a wonderful balance between tangy and sweet.

This post, my friends, marks my 100th Allison's Food and Otherwise post! I am so proud. When I started this blog I didn't really know where it would go but I can say that I truly enjoy documenting the food that I eat, the places I've been, and the things that I've done in this blog. I love looking back over it and seeing all the things I've accomplished. In the year that I've been posting here, I've had over 1,000 unique visitors from all over the world, from Singapore to Iceland to the United States. Thanks for reading, and thanks for letting me share with you.

Gingered Pineapple Sorbet with Toasted Cashews

2008-08-16T13:17:00.005-06:00

my old-fashioned ice cream maker (with an electric crank!)
The ice/salt mixture must be perturbed every 10-15 minutes
Georg was my special helper

My best friend Jamie and her family gave Georg and I a special gift before we left for Canada...an ice cream maker! I made a few ice creams as a child and had always wanted to try it again. It's been really hot here in Edmonton so I decided to start with a nice refreshing sorbet. I tried to pick something Georg and I would both like, so I went with gingered pineapple sorbet. I saw a recipe online, but I modified it quite a bit, so I will post the recipe here:

2 cans crushed pineapple, or equivalent weight in fresh pineapple
4 tsp. finely minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups sugar
the zest of one lemon
cashews, toasted

Put all ingredients except for the cashews in a food processor and blitz until a puree forms. Freeze according to ice cream manufacturer's directions. Transfer to freezer-safe container and freeze overnight. Top with whole or chopped toasted cashews.

This was so refreshing! We ate it right after a long, hot hike along the river and it was so good. The ginger-pineapple flavor is just excellent. I definitely recommend it if you have an ice cream maker.