Cucumber Salad

My Mom dropped off a container of strawberries today - quite ripe and needing to be used. Off to Pinterest! I found nothing I wanted or could make using the strawberries, but was reminded of this simple sounding recipe for a spicy cucumber salad. Had a few Thai chilis leftover from the guacamole, most of a cucumber in the crisper plus a good hunk of red onion needing to be used so I was good to go.

Glad I did, too - I could easily eat an entire cucumber made into this salad. It's really good: light, fresh, crunchy, and the dressing is perfect. Yum.

*be cautious with hot chilis - the capsaicin can transfer to your skin and cause burning irritation; wear gloves while preparing the peppers if you feel it necessary*

Cucumber Salad
Kayotic Kitchen

1 cucumber, sliced lengthwise and seeds mostly removed
1 small red onion
1-2 Thai chilis (fewer the seeds, lesser the heat)
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
few drops sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Chop cucumber, red onion and chili into a dish. Whisk together honey, rice vinegar, spices, oils, and salt. Dress salad and chill 15 minutes before serving.
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Beef and Broccoli

I made something epic for dinner last night. And I swear, my stomach just growled in thinking about it.

Don't over cook the broccoli! The slight crunch contrasts beautifully with the tender beef.

Beef and Broccoli
Rainy Day Gal
Serves 4

marinade for beef:
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 lbs steak, sliced thinly

for the sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
2 heads broccoli crowns

Whisk together marinade ingredients and toss with sliced steak. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, water, brown sugar, garlic, and flour until smooth. Set aside.

In a large wok or saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Add broccoli and diced onion and quickly saute 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove to a plate.

Cautiously add remaining oil to the hot pan. Add marinated meat and half the sauce mixture and saute 3-4 minutes, stirring often, until the meat is no longer pink. Add broccoli and onion to the pan with remaining sauce, and saute 1 minute till heated through.

Serve over rice, if desired.

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Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I spotted Tracy's post about broccoli-cheddar soup (with mustardy croutons!!) and decided to give it a try for dinner a few nights ago.

This isn't an unhealthy soup, I promise. There's all of that broccoli of course, and to thicken? Just a couple of potatoes. A few healthy glugs of chicken broth, a fistful of cheddar, a good grainy mustard to season and combined with the usual onion and garlic suspects...soup! Next time I'll try a bit less garlic as we found it overpowered the flavor of the broccoli, but overall a delicious recipe.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Shutterbean
Serves 4-6

croutons:
6 ounces whole wheat bread torn into pieces, about 3 cups worth
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
sea salt

soup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
pinch salt
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and diced small
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
32 ounces chicken or vegetable broth
1 large head broccoli, chopped into florets
3/4 cup freshly grated aged cheddar
2 teaspoons whole grain mustard
paprika, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, mix melted butter with olive oil and mustard. Stir well and add bread. Mix until all bread chunks are coated. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt and bake till croutons are nicely browned, about 10-15 minutes. Stir the croutons once or twice during baking.

In a large stock pot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and saute the onions and shallots with a pinch of salt until translucent and softened. Add the potato and continue cooking another 4 minutes. Cover the pot. Add the garlic and broth and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add broccoli and cook another 4-5 minutes until broccoli is tender.

Remove soup from the heat and puree with a blender or immersion blender. Add half of the shredded cheddar cheese as well as the mustard. Continue blending and add remaining cheese. Serve soup in bowls garnished with cheddar, croutons and a sprinkling of paprika.

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Whiskey Glazed Carrots

We held a small (belated) 'house-iversary' dinner for our parents and Matt's brother and sister in law a few weekends ago, to thank them for their help and support in the purchase of our home. We're very grateful for our families, and realize that not everyone has as close-knit a family such as ours.

So what better way to say thank you than with food?

I made tourtiere, a traditional Quebecois meat pie. Really ought to post about that, too...

A sweeter side dish is recommended with tourtiere so we served whiskey glazed carrots. They were spectacular although the glaze could have reduced more than the recommended five minutes - next time I'll trust my instincts instead of rigidly following the recipe, and let it reduce longer.

Whiskey Glazed Carrots
The Pioneer Woman
Serves 8

1/2 cup butter, divided
2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1/2 cup whiskey
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add carrots in two or three batches, cooking for 60-90 seconds each batch. Remove from skillet.

Add whiskey to skillet and allow to evaporate 30 seconds. Reduce heat to medium and add remaining butter. When butter melts, sprinkle brown sugar over top and stir together.

Add all carrots to skillet. Cover and continue cooking 5 minutes. Remove lid and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until carrots are done and glaze is thick, about 5 minutes. Pour on platter and serve.

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Shepherd's (or Cottage) Pie

It's not very often that we are missing something from the list of ingredients for Shepherd's Pie Cottage Pie (Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb, Cottage Pie is made with beef but I've always called it Shepherd's Pie no matter the meat).

For some reason, Shepherd's Pie rarely makes it on the menu but I'm aiming to change that. Winter is the season for hearty comfort foods such as this!

What's your favorite comfort food?

Shepherd's Pie
Simply Recipes
Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 - 2 cups vegetables (carrots, corn, peas, etc)
1 1/2 - 2 pounds potatoes (about 3 large)
1/2 cup butter, divided
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

Peel and quarter the potatoes; boil in salted water until fork-tender. While potatoes are cooking, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large frying pan. Saute the onions over medium heat until soft and nearly translucent. Add vegetables according to how long they'll take to cook - carrots in first, corn and peas nearer to the end of cooking time. Add the beef and saute until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 cup of beef broth; cook uncovered over low heat for 10 minutes, adding remaining beef broth gradually, as needed.

Mash potatoes in a bowl with remaining 4 tablespoons butter and season to taste. Distribute beef mixture in a baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 400F until browned, about 30 minutes. Broil in last few minutes of baking, if necessary, to complete browning of potatoes.

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Potato Chowder

Southern BC is currently going through a cold front - we had our first snow a few days ago and it's been severely windy and cold since. I don't mind the cold but that wind! Straight to the bones. Broke out the crock pot for this potato chowder.

I've always thought of clam or corn as being 'the chowders' but after doing some research learned that "chowder is any of a variety of soups, enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour or more traditionally with crushed ship biscuit or saltine crackers, and milk; however, the most accepted etymology for the word chowder comes from the cooking pot in which it is cooked, known in French as a chaudière."

So, potato chowder. It's definitely thick (could even be eaten with a fork), extremely creamy and rich from cream cheese. I've made it with the bacon and onions sauteed together and stirred directly into the crock pot but this time left it quite plain, garnishing simply with cooked and crumbled bacon, no onions.

I usually make double the recipe shown below and freeze half; it is easily reheated over low heat with a bit of milk or cream added to loosen things up.

Crock Pot Potato Chowder
Food.com
Serves 4

1/4 pound bacon, diced
8 ounces chicken broth
1/2 can cream of chicken soup
4 cups diced potatoes
4 ounces cream cheese, softened and cubed
salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon till crisp. Let cool then crumble and set aside.

Combine chicken broth, soup, and potatoes in crock pot. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours or until potatoes are fork tender. Mash till mostly smooth and add cubed cream cheese; stir to melt and combine. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with crumbled bacon.


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Pumpkin Pie

Why is it that pumpkin pie is typically served only in the fall, for Thanksgiving and Christmas? It doesn't seem fair, really. Matt, the Bear and I all love pumpkin pie and this is one of the best recipes I've found so far. We've brought it along to several family events already this year and never have we returned home with leftovers.

There's not much to say about this pumpkin pie. Not that that's a bad thing - it's just a good pie! I've made this filling with both a graham crumb crust and a pastry crust, both of which are delicious. The spices are well proportioned and the evaporated milk gives the pie a mousse-like texture. There are recipes that use heavy cream instead of evaporated milk, and I've found that works just as well so go ahead and substitute if necessary.

It might be interesting to make individual pumpkin tarts using a mini quiche pan or regular sized muffin tin - I might have to try that for the next family dinner I'm asked to bring pie to...

Pumpkin Pie
Food.com
Serves 8

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 large eggs, beaten
15 ounces pure, solid pack pumpkin
12 ounces evaporated milk
9 inch pie pastry or graham cracker crumb crust

Preheat oven to 425F.

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a large bowl. Add eggs and pumpkin. Stir in evaporated milk.

Pour into crust and bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 40-50 minutes or until a thin knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours then serve or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream if desired.

This pie is best baked the day of serving; if necessary to bake ahead of time, heat pie for 5-10 minutes in 350F oven to revive the crust.

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Oven Roasted Potatoes

So, roasted potatoes. I've never been able to make really delicious roasted potatoes - you know the ones: a bit crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside and absolutely ridiculously good in the flavor department.

Last week we barbecued a couple of steaks that my mother in law had slipped into our freezer. Somehow it felt wrong not to up the fancy factor of the side dishes considering that it might be the last barbecue of the season.

I broke out a few cups of the summer sweet corn I'd frozen not too long ago (which I tend to hoard throughout the winter) and then, (duh duh dummmm) The Potato Dish.

Thankfully we have fantastic resource websites out there like Food.Com and AllRecipes - both of which allow a person to sort the recipes by rating - ratings which are given by regular people in their home kitchens feeding their families and friends. If 703 of Jane Doe's say that a particular recipe is 4+ stars, its worth a try, in my opinion.

And you know what? They were fabulous. Utterly ridiculous deliciousness. I'm contemplating making them again today, just because. I might even make them with breakfast, because how good would tasty roast potatoes all flavored up with herbs like marjoram and oregano and thyme and garlic be when chopped up into hashbrowns? Goodness.

Oven Roasted Potatoes
AllRecipes
Serves 4-6

olive oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 potatoes, peeled if desired and chopped into large dice

Preheat oven to 475F.

Toss potatoes with oil and herbs; arrange in single layer on parchment covered baking sheet. Bake approximately 30 minutes or until a thin sharp knife passes easily through potato indicating it is baked through.

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Pasta Bolognese

My Mom clipped an article for me, out of a grocery store's magazine, probably late last summer. It was a reader submission section, where one could write a short piece sharing a food related memory. She suggested that I write something and send it in - why not, she said.

It's taken me this long to get around to it. I can be such a fabulous procrastinator when I want to, yes?

Anyway.

I've finally written a piece. And because I waited so long, it doesn't look like the magazine has this reader submitted section anymore. So I'm feeling rather like a balloon that's lost it's air.

Will you read my article? It's about the Bear, and an exciting milestone he conquered just the other day, and it was all because of some pasta bolognese...

"My son is two and a half years old. He's what some might call 'special needs' or 'challenged'; his main issue is hypopituitarism, which means his body does not produce certain necessary chemicals like yours and mine do.

Due to this deficiency, his development has been somewhat slower than typical kids his age so every milestone is celebrated because it's been achieved, rather than when he achieves it.

When he was born, all the doctors and specialists at the children's hospital insinuated that he would be extremely dependent. Possibly never walking or talking, blindness was a strong possibility and consuming anything other than pureed food wasn't even brought up because it was so far fetched, at that time.

Turns out the specialists were wrong.

Bear is progressing well. Very well, in fact. Yes, he's delayed. We're just fine with that - because he is progressing.

A few days ago the Bear hit a pretty big milestone, in our opinions, anyway. He ate his entire dinner, by himself, with his fingers.

Previously he'd point at his spoon, then at either myself or my husband, communicating that he wanted us to feed him.Not this time. He dug in with both hands and pasta bolognese spread far and wide.

I couldn't have been more excited to see bits of carrot and ground pork on my newly installed hardwood - not to mention every square inch of Bear's face, hair and (thankfully) his dark colored t shirt. I was cheering him on with every meaty handful. He was terribly encouraged by this and joined me in arms-raised excitement.

That pasta bolognese recipe is going down in the memory books as the meal that helped my son reach a long awaited milestone."

Oh! It tasted great too. Both Matt and I prefer pasta sauces with more of a nod to tomato-y flavor rather than sauces with too much tomato flavor. We feel the tomato sauce should be a binder for the other ingredients, rather than the star of the show. This ragu is perfect for us.

The only adaptation I made to the recipe itself was using cream instead of milk. We also cooled the sauce after its two hour simmer (but before adding the cream) and then refrigerated it overnight - the next day we reheated it slowly and added the cream shortly before serving. Why? The both of us regularly comment on how certain foods taste better the next day and pasta sauce is definitely one of them!

This recipe makes a lot of ragu. I halved the recipe and had enough sauce to make a big pot of pasta for our dinner, plus leftovers for the Bear and I as well as Matt's lunch the next day - and froze four cups for future meals.

Ragu alla Bolognese
Lemons & Anchovies

2 pounds ground pork
1 pound ground turkey
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 - 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup red wine or chicken stock, plus more if necessary
1/4 cup milk
grated Parmesan for serving
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Place celery, carrot and onion in a food processor and pulse till finely chopped. Saute the vegetables in olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan over medium heat for 6-7 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground meats. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, breaking up the meats as they cook.

When the meats become a light golden color (approximately 6-8 minutes), add the wine or chicken stock and scrape the bottom of the pan as it deglazes. Cook until the wine has almost reduced then add the tomato paste, tomatoes and more wine or stock if needed. Bring to a boil then simmer about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Add the milk during the last half hour of cooking.

At this time the sauce will be a medium thick consistency. If it's too dry, add more wine or stock. If it's not thick enough, allow to simmer longer to reduce and thicken.

Serve over your favorite pasta.
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Maple Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

We'd purchased a jar of real maple syrup for our we-three Christmas breakfast, as a treat. It's been used a few times since but I wanted to try it in a savory application as well, and this recipe prompted me to do just that.

We really enjoyed all of the contrasting flavors in this recipe. There is sweetness from the maple syrup, the woodsy scent and flavor of the fresh thyme, and coarsely ground sea salt and black pepper to round out the seasonings. The chicken itself is tender and, thanks to the maple syrup, covered in a roasted glaze. Not one of us - not even the Bear - left behind any onions or sweet potatoes; they had been roasted to an almost candy-like perfection.

Maple Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
Real Simple
Serves 4

3 1/2 to 4 pounds chicken pieces
1 yellow onion, chopped into 1 inch wedges
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
6 sprigs fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 400F.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Arrange chicken, onion and sweet potatoes in a baking dish and drizzle with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Drizzle with maple syrup and arrange thyme over top.

Roast, stirring the vegetables once, until chicken is cooked through - about and hour and 15 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.


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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Matt's Mom gifted us a bit of rhubarb from her garden and, after baking a strawberry rhubarb pie, we decided to try kickpleat's recipe for the best strawberry rhubarb crumble ever. I made three small dishes of it and gave away two - it didn't take us long to polish off the third!

I think the mark of a really good strawberry rhubarb recipe is one that isn't too sweet from the strawberries, or too tart from the rhubarb. There has to be a happy medium. This recipe is pretty dang close. You'll notice olive oil in the ingredients - I've never thought to include olive oil in a sweet recipe, but to be honest, didn't even notice it! Jeannette called for walnuts in her adaptation; I chose to use oats.

strawberry rhubarb crumble
everybody loves sandwiches adapted from smitten kitchen

4 stalks rhubarb, diced
3 cups strawberries, quartered
juice of one small lemon
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch nutmeg

topping:
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup oatmeal

Preheat oven to 375F. Add the rhubarb and strawberries to a casserole pan, tossing with the sugar, cornstarch and nutmeg. Squeeze in lemon juice and stir to combine. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine all the topping ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, stir everything until clumps form. Use your hands to scatter the topping evenly over the fruit.

Bake for 45 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit have created a bubbly sauce. Cool slightly and serve with ice cream.

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