The River Valley

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

Really Good Sangria

I made this Sangria for the marriage/graduation party I previously mentioned. It was such a big hit! Several people said it was the best Sangria they've had. It wasn't nearly as sweet as other Sangrias I've tried, it was fruity and pleasantly tart. And I'm proud to share the recipe with you, because it is my own! What ended up happening is that I found a Sangria recipe on the internet that used orange juice and sliced oranges but since one of my guests is allergic to oranges, I wanted to substitute some of the ingredients so it would be safe for her to drink. Here is the recipe, and this easily serves a party of about 25 people. You can obviously double or halve it depending on how many people you're serving.

1 gallon dry red wine (I used boxed wine, since it is cheap)
1/2 cup whiskey
1/4 cup Triple Sec
1 quart cranberry juice (I used the made-up frozen concentrate kind)
1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 quart chilled club soda
3 grapefruit, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 lemons, thinly sliced

I just chilled all the ingredients very well and mixed them together. It turns out very pretty--an intense red from the wine and cranberry juice. You can be lenient with the sugar and lemon juice measurements--depending on the dryness of the wine and tartness of the cranberry juice and fruit, you may need less or more. I recommend just continually tasting it (and get imput from others--I used my stepfather Doug as my guinea pig, because after a while of Sangria tasting sometimes you lose your ability to tell what tastes best). You can serve the Sangria over ice if you prefer it or want a more watered-down version.

Georg's Ph.D. cake (aka Orange Cake with Caramel-Cream Cheese Frosting)

The cake before frosting
Sliced

Georg officially graduated from IU with two Ph.D.s on July 31st, 2008! To celebrate our marriage and his graduation, we had a little party for family and friends, and I made this special cake as one of the desserts. You can find the recipe here. I followed the recipe exactly, and even though it's a very labor-intensive cake, if you follow the directions and give yourself plenty of time, it's not too bad. I did use one less block of cream cheese and more powdered sugar in the frosting than called for; I wanted an icing that was less gooey and more under control. I decorated the sides with sliced almonds, lined the top with sliced strawberries, covered the top in toasted coconut, and made the lettering with Twizzler Pull 'n Peels, which just happened to exactly match the strawberries. It was very intensely orange flavored, and very rich...you only need a tiny slice, which is why the recipe says it'll serve so many people. It was very good though, especially if you like orange, and very pretty.

Edmonton

Our beautiful balcony view!
My new kitchen!
Dining area/entertainment center
Sitting area
the Saskatchewan River



City Hall square flowers
Georg in front of the city hall, a glass pyramid-shaped building complete with fountains and a wading pool.


Well, we have arrived in Edmonton. The past few weeks that I have not been updating have been extremely busy: Georg successfully defended his dissertation, we packed up a huge truck, flew to Edmonton, lived in motels, found an apartment, and even slept on an air mattress for a few nights before our furniture arrived. It seems kind of crazy to move to a place you've never even been before, but I think we relatively successfully pulled it off. Our things are unpacked, we've gotten a general idea of how the city lies, and now I'd just really like to find a good job. I'm working on it. However, in between going to interviews, writing cover letters, and giving myself mental pep-talks, I finally have time to update this blog!