November eats

It's November here in Vancouver. Most days have been grey and rainy, but some look like this:

By the end of summer, I am usually tired of grilled food and salads, and ready for some heartier dishes. Here's what I've been cooking:

Paula Deen's cinnamon rolls, first spotted here. I go easy on the sugar/butter filling because I like them to be a bit lighter. The coffee shop down the street makes theirs with mini blueberries. I tried a second batch that way and they were delicious.

These pancetta, white bean and chard pot pies may be the best things I have eaten this Fall. Creamy, salty, crunchy, bacony goodness. They're pretty rich, so I halved the dough recipe and drained some of the pancetta fat. I made them once with bacon and once with pancetta. Both were divine.

These meatballs were another Saveur winner.

This soup was hearty and healthy. I added a can of white beans, as some of the comments suggested.

What are your favourite recipes for this time of year?

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil

I've been hearing lots of buzz about coconut oil and it's many purposes, have you? 

I first heard about it from my hairdresser. She told me that it makes a great, chemical-free moisturizer, and she's right! It looks kind of like shaved ice, but when you rub a small glob between your palms it turns into a magical substance. I even use it on my face, and I am VERY sensitive about oily products on my face.

Apparently all the employees of the organic grocery store downstairs are gleefully adding globs to their food as a condiment. I may not go that far, but I did do a little experiment with coconut oil and chocolate chip cookies. To really test it out, I used my favourite recipe and substituted coconut oil for half the butter. The results? A success! My chocolate-loving test subjects (my boyfriend and two new moms) agree. Next time I'll go all the way with the coconut oil. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil, Whole Wheat Flour & Oats

Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp water

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup unbleached flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups of quick oats

1/2 cup of chocolate chips (replace some or all with craisins or raisins if you like)

Method

Mix the coconut oil, butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Make sure you smash out all the lumps in the coconut oil. Add the egg and water. 

In a second bowl, combine flours, baking soda, oats and chocolate chips. Add the dry to the wet. (When I am feeling lazy, I just scoop all the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and give the soda a little swirl.)

Shape into little mounds on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 16 minutes, or until the house smells like cookies.

January

My schedule changed this term, and while I used to linger in the mornings, I now have to get moving. This means I am STARVING by, oh, 9:30 am. This olive oil lemon loaf has been saving my life this week. I used 2/3 whole wheat flour and skipped the icing and it is delicious.

As always happens in January in Vancouver, the rain, it is a falling. However, when the sun does come out, the dog and I rush outside as soon as possible. Our favourite walk of late has been in the Victorian-era neighbourhood behind our apartment.

Moss on sidewalks, sugar and occasional sunny hours...
















... we will make it to Spring!

Happy Holidays!

I made it!

Through the term, through the marking (festive coffee helped here), and over the Strait of Georgia to my hometown on Vancouver Island. Ah, the Island, where everyone has backyards, no-one drives defensively, and six people can go out for beers and music trivia for a grand total of $39!

My grandma, before she passed away, used to make Ukrainian cabbage rolls every Christmas Eve. We've morphed the tradition into Greek food, and are trying this healthier but hopefully still tasty moussaka tonight. I'm also going to make this favourite at some point - a healthy and tasty spinach and artichoke dip.

Otherwise, we'll be taste-testing various butter tarts, watching the Queen, and taking long, slow walks around the block while the dog sniffs every ditch. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Apple Loaf

I have found the perfect apple loaf! 

It's not photogenic, but it's delicious. Hopefully, I can now avoid the lure of the 3 o'clock Tim Hortons chocolate chip muffin. (It's really more of a personal cake than a muffin, let's be honest.)

I used this recipe. Based partly on viewer suggestions, I used 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 cup of grated apple & 1 cup of grated pear, and 1/3 cup of canola oil instead of 1/2 cup of butter.

Fall Food: Eggs and Soup

Here in Vancouver, there's leaves on the ground and snow on the mountains. My boyfriend is out of town this week, so here's what I have been eating for lunch and dinner:

First: poached eggs on toast with spinach and goat cheese. I have graduated from cracking the eggs into a big spoon to cracking them right into the water. Progress!

 The bread is from a local chain where I can stick my head in the door and call out my order while keeping the dog company on the sidewalk. (I'd tie him up, but he'd pull over their sign... he knows how to throw his 6 pounds around.)

Second: easy Fall/Winter soup, adapted from the Rebar's Chunky Winter Vegetable Soup. I will never make this kind of soup (or chili) again without beer. (All the alcohol evaporates, so it's appropriate for work and pregnant friends alike.)

Ingredients

1/2 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
a selection of seasonal veggies: squash, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, savoy cabbage, etc.
some kind of bean or grain, like 1/3 cup quinoa or a can of white beans
oregano and/or fresh thyme
red chili flakes
a splash of apple cider vinegar
one bottle of dark beer
1 carton of low-sodium vegetable broth

Directions

Saute the onion, garlic, carrot and celery for a few minutes. Add the other veggies, bean/grain and spices. Saute for a few more minutes. Add vinegar, beer and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Serve with crackers and cheese or cheese toast. (The Rebar suggests blue cheese on pumpernickel, but cheddar on whole wheat is also delicious.)

I foresee this will be an excellent antidote to holiday over-eating!

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

By the end of the summer, I was tired of grilling and salads. 

Now that Fall is here, I can start making soup!

This soup is from the excellent cookbook of the apparently now defunct Tomato. It's filling and freezes well. I usually make a half recipe and just throw it in whatever I happen to have that day, like sweet potatoes and extra spices.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil or unsalted butter
5-6 small potatoes, diced (I use sweet potatoes)
2 stalks of celery
2-3 medium carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp fresh oregano
1 1/2 tsp salt (I skip the salt)
1 tsp pepper
2 cups dry split green peas, rinsed
1 bay leaf
8-10 cups of vegetable stock or water (I use low-sodium veggie stock)

Process

Saute the onions until soft in oil/butter in a large pot on medium heat. Add the veggies and spices (save bay leaf) and saute for 10 minutes. Add split peas, bay leaf and stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 + minutes until the peas are soft. Skim the foam from time to time and stir frequently. Add extra water if it gets too thick. Goes well with toast and grilled cheese sandwiches.

The best whole wheat pizza crust ever

How have I never made pizza until now?

This pizza crust rocks. Canadian celebrity chef (is that an oxymoron?) Rob Feenie even cooks his on the barbeque to impress his Italian friends. Because our barbeque wasn't big enough, our pizza wasn't this pretty, but it tasted delicious... and moderately healthy.

Laura Leyshon for the Globe and Mail

There's an error in the recipe and I changed a few things, so here's what I did. It makes 4 personal pizzas.

Dough:
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp dry yeast (I used one packet)
- 4 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb whole wheat flour (about 3.5 cups)
- 1 tsp salt

Combine water, yeast, honey and olive oil. Wait for yeast to activate. Mine took about 7 minutes. It gets foamy; you will definitely know. Mix flour and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add wet to dry and combine with a wooden spoon. The dough will form a ball and release from the side of the bowl. One time, mine was a bit dry, and one time, it was a bit wet. Both were fantastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a damp towel. Let rest for 1 hour. Punch down dough (this was fun!) and knead for 1 minute on lightly floured surface. Separate dough into four balls. Leave them in the bowl until you are ready for them.

Sauce:
1 398-gram can of plum tomatoes, crushed with your hands (I used half a glass jar of strained tomatoes because apparently there's nasty things in cans)
2.5 tbsp of olive oil
1 bunch of fresh basil
Salt to taste
(I added 1 clove of garlic and 1 pinch of red chili flakes)

Cut the basil into thin ribbons (it's called "chiffonade," apparently). Cook basil in olive oil for 30 seconds and then add everything else. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Building the pizza:
The suggested hand stretching of the dough was difficult, so I alternated hand stretching with rolling with a Costco travel mug. Classy. Spread the sauce almost to the edge of the dough. One time, I didn't do this and the toppings "shunk" towards the centre. Add any toppings you like. Rob recommends proscuitto, basil and bocconcini. He barbeques his pizza for 5 minutes at 350. I baked mine in the oven at 425 for 20 minutes and then broiled it for a few minutes to crisp the crust and the cheese.

Enjoy with red wine and salad. Try to eat it all that night. You'll manage.

Royal Wedding Tea Party

The tea cups came out of storage. We watched the Royal Wedding on Saturday morning in a tea party, complete with egg salad sandwiches, pound cake and scones with jam and Devonshire cream.

We made it from Thursday night to Saturday morning with varying degrees of discipline. I lost. I saw the dress on the news and I saw the kiss on the front cover of the newspaper. Emily, off whom Mozart is mooching below, won. She saw nothing. 

My favourite part: the glance at each other when the bishop referred to "making a decision."

 I'd also like to take this opportunity to display to you one of my prized possessions: a Winston Churchill tea cup made during the Second World War to boost patriotism. Bottoms up!

The $340 Granola Recipe

1. Make granola from a recipe loosely based on this recipe and your sister's version: 3 cups of oats, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup apple sauce, splash of maple syrup, splash of canola oil, handful of diced apples, teaspoon of cinnamon, and a handful of raisins. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Cool.

2. Begin to transfer to a plastic container. While in complicated mid-pour, watch as a raisin falls on the floor and your dog darts into the kitchen and eats it. 

3. Google, "Are raisins poisonous to dogs?" Answer: yes.

4. Of course, the regular, very reasonably-priced vet has just closed for the evening. Decide not to fix the situation yourself by driving very quickly around the block in your friend's Mazda 3 with your dog in the back. 

Take dog to emergency vet clinic to induce vomiting. Total cost to you: $340.

How I Made My First Wedding Cake

32 eggs. 24 cups of grated carrot. 15 cups of icing sugar. Yes, I made my first (only?) amateur wedding cake last weekend.

It's based on an Epicurious carrot cake that the groom remembered from a potluck long ago. The recipe is very forgiving. I made minimal adaptations, adding 1/2 cup of coconut and subbing 1/2 cup of apple sauce for some of the oil. I also had to bake the bigger cakes for an hour in order to get the centre to cook.




The first cake went into the oven at 8:30 am. The last one came out at 7:50 pm (granted, I went to work for a few hours). The cakes finally went into the fridge at 11:30 pm in their little nests of paper boxes lined with garbage bags.

Keys to success / mental stability:

1. A long skinny spatula.

2. The help of my lovely boyfriend. Not only did his mother teach him how to iron as a teenager, she taught him how to ice a cake. She is awesome.

3. Lots of practice cakes, which were consumed by my charming co-workers.

4. Accepting that I am an amateur baker, and it will look like an amateur cake. Yes, there were a few little flecks of cake in the icing. C'est la vie.

These rain clouds have a silver lining

Why am I making stew in June? Because Vancouver is cold and rainy, my friends. Following the suggestions, I added garlic, lemon juice, and extra herbs. Delicious!

I am now excited about lunch for the rest of the week.

Improvisation

Four-thirty is my grumpy, hungry hour. God bless the Internet. Old tortillas + some salt + 350 for 12 minutes = chips and salsa! Crisis averted.

Weekend (Food) Warrior

I love weekends. It's amazing how much you can get done (read: eat) when you don't have to go to work!

Friday evening: First BBQ of the season.

Saturday: My first ever roast chicken. It was easy, especially with extra tips. I made stock with the bones, which gave my boyfriend a reason to stay up until 2:00 am playing online poker. Someone had to turn the stove off. Way to take one for the team, babe.

Sunday: Dinner party stand-bys, including Jamie Oliver's "Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham" (prosciutto), roasted veggies, and apple crisp.

Shockingly, I was still too full to eat breakfast this morning.

Looking for a date?

Wine Gum belly is particularly unpleasant to wake up to. It's like having a sugar hang-over. To minimize my Wine Gum consumption, I sought out a sweet but healthy snack and rediscovered date squares. I combined two recipes (here and here) plus the reader comments to come up with this hybrid recipe.

Combine 2 cups of chopped dates (I used a 375 g package) and 1 cup of water in a small pot. Boil, then simmer and stir for five minutes.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of oats, 1 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 tsp of baking soda and 1/4 tsp of salt in a bowl. Add 1/3 a cup of melted butter and 1 beaten egg. Mix.

Pat 3/4 of oat mixture into the bottom of a 9x9-inch baking pan. Top with dates. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the topping browns. Share to prevent over-consumption and to spread the love.

Cook Me

This has been my favourite cookbook for about 10 years, but I have never owned it until last Wednesday when two of my dear friends gave it to me for my birthday. It's published by the fabulous Rebar restaurant in Victoria, BC. How did I last without it for so long? I give it indiscriminately as gifts, and my roommates have always had it. I also stole it from friends and kept it for ages before sheepishly returning it. I am that girl. Put your names in your books. In ink.

My favourite recipes include peanut sauce, vegan brownies, Monk's Curry, Thai Dragon Bowl, and Chunky Winter Vegetable soup. Mmm.

Beach Baby

Beaches and food go together so well. Barbeque chicken skewers, roasted peppers, pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies. Mmm. Last Sunday was the birthday of one of my best friends. We celebrated in style at Jericho Beach, where this picture was taken. Another friend made the most disgustingly awesome birthday cake: a double layer of two-bite brownies cemented into a cake shape with chocolate frosting and decorated with, you guessed it, more chocolate. As the day wore on, it melted into a sinfully sweet goo in the sun. Someone's dog got into the cake around 8 pm, which was probably for the best (although not for the dog, I can imagine!).

 

Eating somewhat healthy for other meals may be a good option. My go-to breakfast drink: one banana, two strawberries, and half a cup to a cup of milk. Blend. I know two strawberries doesn't sound like a lot, but it keeps the banana flavour from disappearing. Extra hot day? Add ice.

Apple Crisp

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I took the proletariat chariot out to the suburb of White Rock for dinner with one of my university friends and her boyfriend. They made fab cedar plank salmon and I brought apple crisp. I think the salmon marinade was something along the lines of dill, garlic, lemon rind, and olive oil... I'll have to ask for details. Here is a picture of the apple crisp (before it was cooked), the recipe, and for good measure, a picture of their cat.

Apple Crisp

Place 4 cups of apples and/or other fruit, like berries or peaches, in a greased casserole dish.

Cover with a mixture of 2/3 a cup of brown sugar, 3/4 a cup of oats, half a cup of flour, and 1/2 a cup of butter. Bake for 45 minutes at 350. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream.

Salad Rolls

Miraculously, it has been sunny here in Vancouver for the past few weeks! That means I am not getting my veggies because 1) it’s too hot and beautiful too cook and 2) patios serving burgers and beer are beckoning.

 Here is an easy recipe for salad rolls that solves the first problem, at least. Serves 2.

 8-10 circular sheets of rice paper

About 150 grams (5 ounces) of rice noodles (about 1/3 of a package)

Two carrots, sliced

Half a cucumber, sliced

Half a bunch of cilantro, chopped

Half a head of spinach, washed, dried and chopped

1 avocado, halved and sliced

Fruit (optional but highly recommended!): mangoes or strawberries work well

A kettle full of boiling water

 
1.     Soak the rice noodles in boiling water for about 5 minutes while you prepare the veggies.

2.     When you are ready to start rolling, dip a piece of rice paper in a plate of hot water for about 30 seconds. I like to use a quiche dish for this. Pull it out, shake it like a Polaroid picture (okay, not that hard) and put it on your counter.

3.     Layer cilantro, spinach, rice noodles (a small handful), carrots, and other veggies and fruit in a line towards the closer end of the circle.

4.     Roll the filling over once, fold in the edges, and complete the roll. Basically, it’s like making a burrito. The rice paper is really sticky, so it will hold together nicely.

5.     Place the finished rolls on a plate with a bit of air space in between, or they may stick together and tear.

6.     Serve with peanut sauce (see below) or store-bought Thai sweet chili sauce.
 

Peanut Sauce: Combine in a bowl or food processor. 

1. Start with the basics:

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

2. Add any or all of the following: chopped cilantro, a splash of lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, ginger, garlic, or chili sauce.

 

Enjoy with a beer, glass of white wine, or some green tea and an episode of Rich Bride Poor Bride.