Do you dare?

C'mon...tell me this isn't the freakiest vegetable you've ever seen.

 

 

I caught sight of these monsters while grocery shopping at Loblaw's today. What the heck? I did a little research and turns out, they're from India (which would explain why they were too expensive to even consider buying). They're called "bitter gourds" (actually, they're called Kakara Kaya, but I didn't think that would have any meaning to you or help you understand what they taste like). A little more research uncovered their primary use.....CHIPS!

 

 

Cool eh? Indian veggie chips. Maybe I'll try them someday.

 

Ok, that's all for now...busy week!! I promise to get back into posting soon, though!

Sorry for disappearing

Sorry for disappearing, but I've been busy trying to get Adam better from surgery. Be back soon!

This week's focus: Cooking for toothless people....

Ok, not really toothless, but cooking for people who can't use their teeth. Many of you may know that Adam is having his wisdom teeth out today (actually, I'm writing this while waiting for him to emerge from surgery).

I'm trying to think up recipes I can make for him in the coming days, as he eases his way back into solid foods. If I remember correctly (from my own surgery), he should have use of some of this front teeth, which means he should be able to handle soft foods.

Sooo...I have the perfect dish in mind....Sheppard's Pie! The ground beef is easy to down with little chewing the corn and carrots and peas are like mush and the mashed potatoes are totally soft. Perfect!!

We laughed about how Adam, my meat-loving man, would have to eat nothing but dairy for the next few days, which he wasn't looking forward to. But now, I'll get to surprise him with beef when he gets home!

Other things I'm planning to make:

-Pureed vegetable soup
-Yoghurt and fruit milkshakes
-Ice cream!!

I'll let you know how recovery is going.

It's really nothing to be so embarassed about!

As many of you know, I'm very new to Ottawa. As somewhat fewer of you may know, I'm completely useless when it comes to finding my way around cities and learning directions. I was rather embarassed today when I, driving through Ottawa, took what seemed to be one small wrong turn and ended up on a highway (and not JUST a highway....a highway with NO EXITS for 15 minutes) that led me all the way, deep into our neighbouring province...Quebec. I was so far into unknown territory that even my knight in shining armour and personal mapquest maven - Adam - didn't even know where to start looking to get me back into Ontario. I was frantically yelling into the phone "What do you mean you don't know the residential streets in Gatineau and St. Laurent off by heart?!?!?

 

Anyway, it all ended well when I finally exited the highway, randomly picked and new direction and saw a sign indicating the route toward the last city I had passed through (which would, of course, mean I was heading back from whence I came...)

 

I was feeling pretty silly about this whole thing until I read this...

 

BANGKOK - Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A woman who boarded the wrong bus on an attempted shopping trip from Thailand to Malaysia has returned home after 25 years.

Jaeyana Beuraheng told her eight children she accidentally boarded a bus bound for Bangkok instead of Malaysia, and once there she boarded a second incorrect bus because she could not read or speak Thai or English...

...Beuraheng, who speaks only the Yawi dialect used by Muslims in southern Thailand, said the noise and traffic of the big city confused and disoriented her, leading her to board the second wrong bus to Chiang Mai, near the border with Burma.

The woman said she spent five years begging on the street in the city and was often mistaken for a member of a hill tribe because of her dark skin tone.

However, last month, three students from her home village arrived at the hostel for training, and they were able to communicate with Beuraheng and help her find her way home.

C'mon! No seriously. How unresourceful do you have to be to get lost and not find your way home for TWENTY FIVE YEARS!?!?!

 

Something about this story is fishy, no?

Crockpot recipe: Thai Chicken Thighs

One of my best friends, named Dave, recently told me that he got a new crockpot (his first) and needed some good recipes. I had intended on getting him started with some very simple recipes like chili, but I got inspired to try something a little more advanced tonight, so I'll post this recipe:



Spicy Thai Crockpot Chicken

Now Dave, I know you're a beginner, but I just finished making this dish and I assure you that there is nothing difficult involved. The only thing that might scare some people away is that some of the ingredients are a little unknown. Dave, I promise you that if you try this recipe, you'll totally impress your girlfriend and you'll have absolutely NO trouble with it whatsoever. Have faith!

Ingredients:

10 boneless skinless chicken thighs (I bought with skin and removed it myself)
1 red pepper sliced in thin slices
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 scallions (green onions), sliced thinly
1/2 bottle (about 1 cup) of peanut sauce (or 1 cup of real peanut butter)
1 cup chicken stock (I used water and chicken powder....yeah yeah...the fake stuff!)
1 skinny red chili pepper, diced finely
2 stalks of lemongrass, hard outer skin and bottom 2 inches of white bulb removed and minced finely (don't kill yourself with this, just do your best)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of good soy sauce (not the cheap American stuff...invest in a good bottle for $1.50 extra!)
2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, minced

Method:

1. Place chicken thighs in the crockpot,

2. Mix all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and stir together, then pour on top of chicken,

3. Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours.

That's right, ONLY 2 EASY STEPS, AND THEN TURN ON THE CROCKPOT!!!

If you really want to impress, sprinkle chopped peanuts and chopped cilantro (just a little of each) on each plate once served, and serve with wedges of lime. This can be served with steamed rice of Asian noodles.

Now, one feature of this blog which I like to offer my readers, is a list of the ingredients that I believe can be left out altogether without completely ruining the recipe. Some people may be happy to know that, for this recipe, some of the more 'scary' (read: unknown) ingredients are the ones that are somewhat optional. In this case, I'd say you could still make a really great dish if you left out the lemongrass and red chili (in fact, you SHOULD leave this out if you don't like spicy food).

What about possible additions? I think I might try this recipe again and use fresh mushrooms, green pepper, broccoli florets, coconut milk and/or cashews.

Dave, call me if you need any help, oh, and make sure you have a good knife to do all the cutting!

New Cookbook Alert!!

YAY! I love Didi Emmons and, after owning her first cookbook for nearly two years, still find myself as excited about it as the first day I owned it. Now I own her second cookbook!

 

 

The only thing that worries me, though, is that she looks as if she's aged about 30 years (seriously) since the publication of her last book only a few short years ago. I'm wondering whether all these veggie-friendly recipes might have some kind of bizarro aging effect....hmmmm

Piiiiiizzzzaaaa!

Well, today I had the bright idea of having a fun and healthy pizza dinner with Adam.

 

It was great (see photos below). The pizzas were smaller than they appear in the photos, so we made one each.

In an effort to reduce our carb intake, we bought these very very thin pitas (about 8" wide) and used them as crusts. We then smothered them with tomato paste and put our favorite vegetables all over.

 

I was much more adventurous than Adam, who opted only for tomatoes, onions, olives and mushrooms. I, on the other hand, had all these things but also added garlic, zuchinnis, eggplant and nutritional yeast. We then topped it all off with oregano, pepper, salt and basil and finished it with a sprinkling of skim milk cheese (very low fat).

 

Delish!!

 

Pomellos

I discovered a new fruit!

I mean...I didn't "discover" it, but I tried (and enjoyed) it for the first time. The Pomello. I had always wondered about that grapefruit-like citrus that was comparable in size to my head. I wondered what it tasted like and where it grew. Well, I was THIS close to buying one on Friday but then chickened out. Luckily for me, though, our Shabbat dinner guests were nice enough to bring over a basket of fruit for us and, wouldn't you know it, a Pomello was one of the fruits they bought!

So here's the deal with the Pomello....

- It has an incredibly thik rind (see photo below)

- It tastes like a sweeter, milder grapefruit

- It's far too large to consume alone

- The membrane on each of the segments is VERY thick and needs to be removed before eating (yes, that's right...you actually peel the pomello and then peel each individual segment)

-The membrane on each segment is so thick that you can actually separate the segments and save some in the fridge for later,

- 2-3 segments are about enough for a mid-day snack (that's what I'm having today).





So, don't be a scaredy cat like me. Next time you see one in the store, don't shy away from it...buy one!

Some of the dishes prepared for shabbos

 

This is the salmon platter.

 

 

 

This is the Tu B'shvat platter. Definitely the prettiest platter of the day!

 

 

And here's the famous spicy olive chicken...

Hmm...good chicken, lousy picture...

Tu B'shvat

Soooo...for those of you who don't know, this week is the celebration of Tu B'shvat. It's basically a celebration of the land/trees/nature, etc.

We celebrate (eat) a variety of different 'species', all of which I've decided to include in tonight's shabbat meal.

 

Here are the fruits/species and how they'll be used (some of them in more creative ways than others):

 

Wheat: Whole wheat challah & Whole wheat flour chocolate chip cookies

 

Pomegranate: We're just going to eat the seeds of a pomegranate with dessert

 

Almonds: Plain almonds served with appetizer

 

Olives: Spicy mixed olive chicken

 

Figs & Dates: Served dried with dessert

 

Grapes: Wine and seedless green grapes for dessert

 

Barley: BEER!

 

Not to get overly spiritual/religious here, but this is kind of interesting. I hadn't even thought about doing a Tu B'shvat meal before this morning, and yet when it occurred to me that it might be a nice idea, I realized that I had already coincidently incorporated 5 out of 8 species into the meal I had planned. Cool!

 

 

 

SHABBAT SHALOM! And Chag Sameach to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday/Thursday/Shabbat!

Well, we got busy with things, and Adam actually cooked dinner!

 

Wednesday he BBQ'd chicken thighs and they were FABULOUS! They were WAY too salty, but otherwise they were so incredible. Apparently he got a hold of my kosher salt shaker and didn't know how potent the stuff really was. He then proceeded to pour the salt on the chicken....in the dark! Anyway, that's besides the point. I quizzed him like a suspect to find out if he could recall exactly what he put on the chicken and in what quantity, because it was just so good. He thinks he might remember....We'll have to try that recipe again later.

 

Last night I marinated a dinosaur-sized beef rib for both of us. It was so huge that we shared the rib and were both stuffed afterwards. I like red meat, but I'm not crazy about things like ribs. I get turned off by the fat and the and chewy stuff, I get turned off if it's not well done and I just don't enjoy it as much as Adam. He always gives me a nice huge piece, and I invariably end up taking two bites and plunking the rest onto his place. Oh well...we'll just leave this stuff as his favorite.

 

Now. what about tonight (Friday)?

Well, we have a very nice adult menu planned. I say adult because all my dishes seem to have very adult flavors...not something a kid would like. Here's the menu:

 

Smoked salmon rolls (capers, lemon wedges, etc.)
Marinated mushroom mix

Hummus

Warm almonds (for Tu B'shvat)
Challah

Chinese Chicken Soup

Spicy Olive & Artichoke Chicken
Black & white garlic rice mould
Steamed vegetables (not sure what)

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Fresh fruit salad

 

I made the chocolate chip cookies from the recipe that I posted a couple weeks back. They turned out really well again, except they look SO different this time! I made the same sized dough balls and everything, but this time they didn't spread out and become thin and crispy like last time. This time they baked up thick and a little harder. They're really delicious and, other than the fact that half of them are slightly too brown, they actually look professional! Anyway, I'll have to ask my sister-in-law why that might've happened. She's a bit of a baking whiz.

 

Oh...and another thing. You might notice a slight decrease in the number of pictures posts I take of my own food. That's because I just remembered that picture messages I take with my phone and send to my email actually cost money. Oops!

As promised....

Pictures of dinner...

 

 

Here's the lemon pepper chicken scallopini. Adam said "this is delicious!".

 

 

 

Oh...and we made a pile of the addictive kale 'chips' that Alysa wrote about a week or so ago.

Here's a picture of that. I should note that the kale is incredibly low fat, low cal and tasty! It's just leafy greens with a DROP of oil, vinegar and spices. Then you put it in the oven for 15 minutes until it dries and becomes crispy like thin chips. Yummy!

 

Dinner....

Chicken Scallopini with lemon pepper breading

 

Kale "chips"

 

Salad

 

Leftover Spinach Rice

 

...pictures to follow...

My grocery store

Here are some pictures of my grocery store: Produce Depot. For all of you who've heard the stories about our over-stuffed fridge, bursting with pounds and pounds of produce, now you'll be able to picture where I buy the stuff. Now, I don't actually pay full price for the pounds and pounds of produce....nor do I even want pounds and pounds of the stuff. The reason I get so much of it is because of PD's wonderful "Day olds" program, where they practically give away all the juicy, wonderful fruits and vegetables that were delivered and being sold at full price the morning before. Take look at these pictures (Captions provided below)





This is a picture I took at PD only a few short minutes ago.



This is the famous "day olds" cart, where they put bags and bags of freshly packaged produce and then sell it for almost nothing. The best part is that there really is a great variety of produce being sold cheaply, and not just tomatoes and zuchinnis, as you might expect. Today, for instance, I got a variety of squashes (5 different ones for $2.49) and even contemplated buying a humongous bag of mandarins (probably about 30) which was being sold for $1.49. They also had mixed apples (13 for $1.99) and 5 enormous grapefruits for $2.00. But really...it's just the two of us here, so I have to be discplined and let some of these great buys go...

For all you out there who just love your juicers, you'll get a real kick out of this: See that bag on the middle shelf at the far left? That was a bag of 1 dozen beautiful pomegranites.....price? $2.49


Absolute crazyness.

Boy, do I ever need a job.

Scary coincidence

Yesterday I was poking around the blogosphere when I came across a food-related blog called The Julia Project. For all of you who are too lazy to click the link and figure out what the Julia Project is....I applaud you! No use wasting your time when you know I'm going to be explaining it right here.

So...the Julia Project was one girl's quest to cook all 524 of Julia Child's recipes in one year. The girl, named Julie, kept an ongoing blog throughout the year (because apparently the cooking didn't keep her busy enough), and had a very devoted following. On the day when Julia Child passed away, she had a sweet (and finally hilarious) tribute to her:

Julia Child was ninety-one years old when she died, late yesterday, in her sleep. It’s the death that all of us want, after a life so full it would seem she was one of history’s true lucky souls, if only luck had had anything to do with it. She enriched the lives of thousands – my life she quite literally turned around. She died well-loved, and I hope she died well-fed. There is no tragedy here. It’s a day for remembrance, and celebration.

So why am I so f*%$ing sad?


Sorry kiddies, I know...family blog.

Anyway, that's NOT the point. The point is this. I was very interested in this project and thought it was a great (albeit insane) idea. I wanted to know more, but figured it would be a huge undertaking to go back and actually read the blog. Oh well.

Today, after yet another successful but fruitless interview, I went to my new favorite hangout - the main branch of the Ottawa public library - and headed straight for the "What's New" section. Before I continue, let me just explain, for those of you who haven't spoken to me recently, what a 'sucessful but fruitless interview' is, because I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn't.

A 'successful but fruitless interview' is one where I nail every question thrown at me (in English or French), where I don't trip and fall, spit on the interviewer while answering a particularly exciting question, or forget how to say key words in French. It also refers to an interview where the interviewer says things like:

"Wow....this was a great interview. No really, I mean it. You really impressed me with your answers. You really know your stuff! And you're biligual to boot! We should be making a decision about who to hire within the next 9 weeks or so, so we might get back to you. Thanks for coming out...the exit is just over there, to your left".

See that? successful but fruitless, all at once.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was at the library and...My eyes were still hazy from the sheer inhumanity of the cold outside, so I just grabbed the first book on the shelf, without even seeing what it was. And wouldn't you know it, THIS is what I picked up. Again, kudos to all of you who didn't bother clicking, because I'm not only going to tell you what THIS is, but I'm also going to post a picture:




That's right...she wrote a book! The girl actually wrote a book about her year-long adventure (Apparently it almost cost her her marriage, job and sanity! Note to self....)

Weird, eh? I had never even heard about this whole project before yesterday, and suddenly I find the website and stumble across the book within 24 hours! Wonders never cease to amaze me.

A few changes in the menu

Roasted maple acorn squash



Green garlic Manitoba wild rice



Spicy gefilte fish loaf



Chicken and dill soup




Tiny chocolate banana bread load



Keep in mind, none of this has been sliced, plated, decorate, etc. yet, so it doesn't look as pretty as it will in about 3 hours...In fact, some of these shots don't look good at all! But I've tasted everything...and it's actually all pretty good.

Not pictured: chicken diabolo, duck mousse, meditteranean salads, salad with maple walnut dressing, and challah....

The absolute height of retardedness...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/25/D8MSJNO83.html

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- Class, from now on there will be no talking at lunch.
A Roman Catholic elementary school adopted new lunchroom rules this week requiring students to remain silent while eating.

Why?

...if the lunchroom is loud, staff members cannot hear a child choking.

Of course, the children are finding it tough to keep things silent in the cafeteria because the bubble wrapped, fire retardant, bullet proof suits, which the school has also mandated they wear, pops every time they lift their arms to put their drug-tested, nut-free, non-GMO sandwiches in their mouths...

Shabbos Dinner Menu

Slightly less elaborate than last week (I'm working now....YAY!!!)

 

Starters:

Challah

Mediterranean salads

 

Fish course:

Spicy gefilte fish (went over so well last week, I thought I'd make it again)

 

Soup:

Chicken soup

 

Salad course:

Mixed greens with walnuts and sweet maple dressing

 

Main course:

Parve Scalloped potatoes

Chicken diabolo

Slow roasted garlic tomatoes

 

Dessert:

VERY ripe pineapple, OR

poached pears (undecided as of yet...depends how much work I have)

 

A nice, hot tofu stirfry for dinner

And the best part?? Adam admitted, without any prompting, that had I not told him it was tofu, he would've believed he was eating chicken! Score.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Being an adventurous foodie, I decided that I just had to try the local Hare Krishna restaurant called Govinda's. I'd been meaning to check it out since getting to Ottawa because there aren't any kosher restaurants in the city and the Hare Krishna place, which serves strictly vegan food, is about as close to a kosher meal as you'll get.

Anyway, I never thought Adam would step foot in that place, so last week I decided to go for lunch by myself and see what it was all about. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed when I arrived, so I had to turn around and try something else. Even more unfortunately was that I got lost in the car and had to call Adam for directions. As you might expect, his first question was "Where are you?" and his second was "Why are you in that area?". So, I was forced to tell him my secret....I wanted to go and eat at the Hare Krishna joint. To my surprise he replied "Babe...you didn't have to sneak there...I would've gone with you! In fact, I'd been meaning to try that restaurant for many years". I was very surprised, so I agreed we try it together sometime this week.

Tonight was the night we made our way to the famous "Govinda's"...and we'll surely never forget it. You should've seen the look on Adam's face as we opened the door and were hit with the smell of Indian incense that was so strong it could've knocked your socks off.....and that would've actually been very helpful since the restaurant had a strict barefoot policy (Adam's second major shock of the evening).

As the eerily kind restaurant owner motioned for us to remove our shoes and help ourselves to any food at the "buffet" (which was a table of bowls of food he had made), Adam smiled, leaned down and whispered "You're gonna pay for this. Don't ever say I don't do things you want to do". Of course, I reminded him that he admitted to wanting to try this place out. To be fair, though, I have no doubt that, had he been by himself, he would've turned right around and left the restaurant immediately. It was only because he knew I'd insist on it, that we stayed and actually ate their food.

For anyone who isn't familiar with our background, you should know that Adam is a Calgarian and is particularly fond of foods that:
a) come from animals, or
b) actually are animals, or
c) can be paired nicely as a side dish for....animals.

This place didn't seem to have anything that fit that bill. It's not that the basmati rice and yellow lentil curry didn't look appealing, it's just that the whole ambiance of the restaurant was just a little....creepy. I don't know if it was Hare Krishna statues everywhere, or the sickening smell of incense, or the restaurant owner who wouldn't stop grinning at us, or all the barefoot French Canadians eating around us....Whatever it was, though, we were too uncomfortable to stay very long. We ate, paid and ran out.

Truth be told, I'm glad I went. I'll never go again, but I'm glad I went once. If I hadn't gone, I'd be wondering what I was missing. Anyway, it's always fun to have experiences that you just know you'll tell your kids about some day!

Spicy olive chicken delight

Easy, delicious and impressive chicken dishes to serve guests are always in short supply, so I thought I'd post some of the recipes I've tried and had success with. This spicy olive chicken is a real keeper and has fed many hungry guests at my Shabbat table. One of the nice things about it is that the quantities of ingredients aren't very important. If you love olives, you can add twice the amount called for, and if you love white wine, you can double that too. Use the quantities as a guideline, but flavor to your own tastes.
You will need a pot that's large enough to hold an entire cut up chicken, with most pieces fitting in one layer on the bottom.

Ingredients:
1 chicken washed, skin removed, cut into pieces
1.5 cups white wine
2 cups chicken stock
3 tables spicy chili oil
1 small jar of capers (about 1.5 handfuls)
1 1/4 cups chopped green olives
1 1/4 cups chopped black olives
salt & pepper
3 cloves of garlic minced
bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

Chili oil can be made by heating 1 cup of olive oil in a saucepan, adding 2 heaping teaspoons of chili flakes and simmering for 10 minutes...DO NOT BURN the flakes! Store in airtight container once cooled.

Method:

Wash chicken and remove skin. Pat dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Brown chicken in chili oil in a large pot on the stove for 5-7 minutes, adding more chili oil if necessary. Once chicken is browned, add chicken stock, white wine, olives, capers and minced garlic.

This should create a lot of liquid - enough to mostly cover the chicken. If there isn't enough liquid in the pot to actually boil the chicken, then add extra wine and stock.

Boil the chicken in the stock and wine mixture until chicken is cooked through. Add half the fresh parsley 5 minutes before you finish cooking the chicken.

Transfer chicken, sauce and all the olives and capers to a serving dish and sprinkle with remaining fresh parsley. Serve warm with rice.

This dish has very adult flavors. It's absolutely delicious, but kids at the table probably won't love it.

Spicy Gefilte Fish

Now this is what I call cheating. You can wow your guests with this original gefilte fish recipe without even trying very hard.

 

Here's how to make it:

 

Take one frozen UNGER'S brand gefilte fish and unwrap it. Place it immediately into an aluminum loaf pan (it should fit perfectly inside). Set aside.

 

In a saucepan, heat a couple tablespoons of oil and add a chopped onion. Brown the onions. Once browned, add 3 tablespoons of ketchup, 1 teaspoon of chili flakes or harissa, 5 tablespoons of tomato sauce or 1 can of tomato paste. Stir the mixture often, or you risk having the sugar from the ketchup burn. Reduce the whole mixture until it's nice and thick. Spread over the gefilte fish and cover with foil. Bake gefilte fish for 1.5 hours at 250 degree (check it occasionally to see if it's ready). Remove from oven, cool, slice and serve.

 

Voila!

Post-shabbat update

Well, Shabbat was great and the meal turned out splendidly.
The apricot chicken was a keeper (I'll post the recipe tomorrow, I promise), and it was even tastier the second day. The roasted vegetables, as previously mentioned, were divine! They were warm and caramelized on the outside, with slightly charred edges, and the insides were soft and buttery. Yum! The cookies and chocolate banana bread dessert were sooo yummy. I caught Adam with his head in the freezer, stealing extra cookies and cake, on more than one occasion! And the gefilte fish was really tasty...especially given how simple it is to make (another recipe I'll post tomorrow).

Of course, more importantly than any good food, the company was fantastic. My great friend Joanna and her boyfriend Mike joined us later in the evening and we chatted late into the night. They're such a great couple, and it was so nice to see them again after almost a year and a half! Here's a pic of the ever-perky Joanna...



Good eating, relaxing shabbos with lots of warm tea and great books to read....what more could one want?! Oh...I know....two hours at the gym to work off this ridiculous amount of food. Adam and I are spending the evening there!
Bye!

Post-gym Update: Ok, so we didn't spend 2 hours, only 1 hour and 20 minutes. But I did 40 minutes of hardcore elyptical and some ab work. 200 Calories burned on the elyptical...not bad! I should really be doing this more often.

Roasted root veggies!

Here's a picture of the roasted root vegetables I've made for shabbos dinner (still raw). I've included:

carrots
leeks
beets
celery root
sweet potato
red potato
celery
garlic
squash
parsnip



Does't it look pretty? I sprinkled it with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary. We'll see how it goes!

UPDATE: The veggies are roasted and they're incredible! I popped the in the oven for 1 hour at 425 degrees and stirred them once in the middle of their cooking time. WOW! What a hit! They're crispy and carmelized on the outside and soft as butter on the inside.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a confession to make. I can't bake. I can cook, but I can't bake. I take after my mother.

Having said that, I did find a chocolate chip cookie recipe that's oh-so-easy and incredibly good. I didn't screw it up at all!

Of course, we have to give credit where credit is due, so you should know that this is my sister in law's recipe. Apparently my husband's family has been using it for years (not surprising, since it's so great!).

Before I post the recipe, there are a couple of things to note:
1. These cookies spread out a lot. Give each cookie plenty of room on the baking sheet.
2. Don't form dough balls....but rather form a ball and flatten it a bit to help the cookie spread nice and thin.
3. These cookies will be delicate. The best way to store them is in the freezer (seriously). They're so thin that you can just pull a frozen one out of the freezer and eat it straight away. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine or butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 cup chocolate chips (to taste)

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugars.
2. Mix in vanilla and eggs.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingrediants and chocolate chips.
4. Blend all.
5. Form cookies and place on greased baking sheets.
6. Bake at 8-12 minutes at 350F degrees.

Makes about 25 cookies

It's that easy. Enjoy!

A brief introduction

Some of you may have noticed that the last two posts had the "alysa" signature on them, rather than "CapitalCook". That's because I've asked my best friend, Alysa, to start contributing to this blog. She's one of the best and most enthusiastic cooks I know, and I'm SO excited to have her sharing this webspace with me.
As you can tell from reading her posts, she's an absolute natural at this blogging stuff.

Enjoy Alysa's recipes!

BEWARE: this kale is addictive

This recipe is AMAZING!! Elana found it on recipezaar.com a few months ago and I have been making it almost every day since.

Kale is (in my humble opinion) the tastiest member of the cruciferous family and its health benefits are astonishing; it's high in antioxidants, calcium (15 times more than one of its rivals, spinach), magnesium, and much more. Plus, it's an excellent source of iron that your body can easily absorb. According to one of my sources, "Kale is a nutritional superstar, packed sky-high with vitamins"1.

And without further ado, here it is..


1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (any vinegar you have will do just fine)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch kale, rinsed with stems removed
salt and pepper to taste

and for a sweet twist try sprinkling splenda onto it before cooking


1) Cut kale into 2 to 3 inch pieces.
2) Mix vinegar, oil, and salt in a large bowl then add kale and mix by hand. Try to get all the leaves covered.
3) Place on baking sheets and bake at 350 F until they are crispy.
4) After about 20 minutes, if it looks like they are not sizzling a bit or getting a little crispy, turn up the heat to 400°F.
Time for baking varies depending on the size of your chips and desired crispness.



READER(S) PLEASE BE ADVISED............
I must forewarn you that if you consume 3 or more kales before bedtime do not expect a restful night's sleep!! I learnt this lesson the hard way a few weeks ago and my digestive system hasn't been the same since. I have never experienced such gastric distress and wouldn't want any of you to have to go through the agony that I did.

Good luck!

1- Greey, Madelleine Get Fresh, Toronto: Macmillan Canada, 1999, p. 139-140.
(Please excuse my poor footnote, I'm unsure of the proper format for this kind of writing)

Crazy about chopped liver

I know, it's weird, I'm a 24 year old female and I'm totally infatuated with chopped liver. I just can't get enough of the stuff, I crave it all time. Unfortunately one tablesppon has 6 grams of fat. And although I have the same taste in food as most 80 year old men and I don't want the same cholesterol level as them. So the solution to my problem is simple: Vegetarian Chopped Liver. Here is the very easy and totally delicious recipe:

2 tbsp oil
2 chopped onions
3 hard boiled eggs
1 14 ounce can of green peas (drained)
1/4 cup of raw, unsalted almonds
salt and pepper to taste

1) saute the onions in the oil until brown
2) put all ingredients in food processor
3) turn food processor on until mixture resembles green chopped liver
4) Enjoy!!

Wowza! Chinese Chicken Soup

Ok, the Chinese chicken soup is a huge success! It's so delicious, if I may say so myself. I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago and this is the first time I made it on purpose, as opposed to by accident, which is how I discovered it. It's a very simple recipe, but it requires quite a few different vegetables/spices, so go visit your local fruit and veggie market and tell the grocer that Elana sent you.

Here's what you'll need:

Pot of water
1 Chicken carcass/bones
1 leek
1 small bunch of parsley
3-4 green (spring) onions
3 large bulbs of fresh ginger (not three massive pieces, just three balls/arms)
1 stalk of lemongrass
salt/pepper
3 tblsp chicken soup powder
3/4 cup white wine
splash of sherry (optional)

Method:
Start with a pot of cold water and add salt, chicken carcass and chicken soup powder. Bring those to a boil white you clean the other vegetables.

Split the leek down the center and then cut the whole leek width-wise in two, so that you have two long hunks of leek. Add to the pot.

Wash and chop parsley and green spring onions. Peel all chunks of ginger and cut into smaller chunks (about 3 chunks per bulb). Add to the pot.

Cut off ends of lemongrass and then bend the stalk several times all the way from one tip to the other. The point is to bruise the stalk of lemongrass and get the flavors moving. Cut stalk in 2-3 pieces and add to the pot.

Add pepper, white wine and splash of sherry

Allow soup to continue boiling at a simmer for about 70-90 minutes (until you feel it's REALLY tasty and ready), then remove from heat.

If you are serving the soup immediately, run a strainer through the soup (or strain the soup) and remove all the large particles. Then remove the chicken from the carcass in small pieces and add back to broth.

If you are serving the next day, put the pot of soup in your fridge. The next day, skim fat off top of soup and strain the large particles from the soup. Add chicken pieces from carcass into soup, reheat and serve!

** Note!** If you can't find one or two of the vegetables for the soup, don't freak. You can still make the soup using the rest. The key, though, is to make sure you have the ginger and at least 2 more of the onion-y type veggies in there.

There you have it, folks. This is the best chicken soup I've ever made. Yummy!

Shabbat Dinner Menu

Here's what I'll be making for shabbat dinner this week. I'll post some of the recipes later, based on what's good!

Starters:
Challah
Mekbouba (see post from last week)
Spicy Gefilte Fish

Soup:
Chinese Chicken Soup (my own invention)

Salad:
Mixed Greens with nuts, cherry tomatoes and enochi mushrooms
Balsamic, soy sauce and maple syrup salad dressing

Main Course:
Roasted root vegetables
Sesame green beans
Apricot and almond chicken

Dessert:
Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies
Pineapple
Banana Bread
Various fruit and dessert teas with honey




I'm having an old elementary school friend named Erynn over for dinner and an old friend from McGill is coming from Montreal, so it should be a really nice evening!

**NOTE: I'm going to the grocery store to pick up some missing ingredients for all this food. If the ingredients prove to be extremely expensive, I might strike some dishes off the list and choose some cheaper ones. In short...I have the right to change my shabbos menus!! :)

Red lentil curry!

Wow...who knew I could cook Indian food so well!


I wanted to try making something with red lentils today because I bought a bunch of red lentils from the bulk food store last week. I just picked the very first recipe that came up for red lentils when I did a search for that term on google, and the results were pretty good!

Here's the recipe I followed. My changes/omissions are listed below the recipe:


1 cup red lentils
1 cup onions, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon curry paste
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 (8 ounce) can tomato puree



Method:

1. Rinse the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear and then add lentils and enough water to cover to a saucepan and simmer until the lentils are tender (about 30 minutes or less if you use high heat). Add water if necessary. Lentils will be mushy at the end.

2. While the lentils are cooking, caramelize the onions in the vegetable oil in a large skillet.

3. Combine the curry paste, spices, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Mix well and add to the onions when they have finished browning. Cook mixture on high heat for 1-2 minutes, then add tomato puree and reduce heat to a simmer.

4. When the lentils are tender, drain off any excess water and add the lentils to the curry mixture. Combine thoroughly and serve immediately.



It's a VERY easy recipe and the results were really great! What I particularly liked about this recipe is that as soon as I mixed the spices together in my little bowl, a very authentic Indian smell hit me. This was not some watered-down North American Indian recipe. I don't mean "North American Indian" like the people, I mean....you know what I mean.


Ok, so here were my substitutions. I didn't have curry paste, only curry powder, so I just mixed curry powder with olive oil and some water. I also didn't have any turmeric, so I'll have to buy some and make this again to see how it tastes with it. Finally, I used cayenne pepper instead of chili powder, and I accidentally spilled about double the recommended amount in. Oops. Still, the taste of this dish is yummy! Perfect to be scooped up with pita or Naan bread, if you're cool enough to have some in your fridge. I'm not.



End result:

Tea

Now that it's fallen to minus 114 degrees celsius in Ottawa, I think it's a great time to talk about my favorite teas. I drink tea several times a day and love to try all sorts of different new flavors.

I'm not really into fruit teas much, I much prefer black teas or 'dessert' teas, which are herbal teas with flavors like almond, caramel, chocolate, etc.....dessert-type flavors.

Hands down, the two best companies (in order of greatness) for these types of teas are:

1. Stash Tea
2. Celestial Seasonings

Among my favorite teas that I'm drinking at the moment are:




If you, like me, are a tea lover, then I highly recommend going out and getting at least one of these teas. They'll just warm your insides on a cold night.

Quinoa....pronounced KEY-nwa

For all of you who have ever tossed and turned all night long, wondering about this mind-boggling question, I finally have the answer....Yes, my friends, quinoa can be made in your rice cooker!

 

Yesterday I made Adam, the husband, a quinoa salad in my tiny 9$ rice maker, and it turned our really well.

 

Here's how ya do it...

 

Rinse your quinoa very very well. You'll need one of those colanders with the absolutely tiny holes, so that the quinoa doesn't fall through.

 

Continue rinsing until water runs clear. Finish rinsing with hot water.

 

Transfer the quinoa to the rice maker (without adding water!) and turn the rice maker on so that the quinoa can brown.

 

When the quinoa starts to sizzle, stir it a little and allow it to come to a sizzle again.

 

Add twice the amount of water than you have quinoa, and season heavily.

 

I added:

 

-1 tablespoon of chicken soup powder

-salt/pepper

-dried vegetable flakes

-basil

-bay leaves

-dill

 

The flip the rice maker back on and let it work its magic.

 

 

Bon (and healthy) appetit!!

 

Man, are you ever ugly!

No, not you!...I'm talking about a new vegetable that I'm planning to use in our salad for tonight's dinner.



Celery root, also known as "celeriac", apparently has a celery-like flavor (go figure!) and is really light and refreshing. I found this (seemingly) great recipe online that I'm going to use, so I thought I'd post it on the blog for all of you (hi alysa) to try, if you're so daring.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 lb celery root - quartered, peeled, and coarsely grated just before mixing
1/2 tart green apple, peeled, cored, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper


Method:
Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice and parsley in a medium-sized bowl. Fold in the celery root and green apple chunks and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.



I should note that I don't intend on using a full 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, but will rather make a lighter dressing and allow the flavor of the celery root to come through more....I'm really interested to know what this stuff tastes like!

The next thing I'll try....Batata (first I've ever heard of it!) But I'll save that for another post.

Ciao!

Saucy weekend

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my long absence, but I was in Toronto for Shabbos (Jewish Sabbath), visiting my family. Of course, being in Toronto means that I get to go to all the kosher grocery stores and buy kosher products that I can't find in Ottawa. I bought a ton of stuff.

First, a bit of background information:

Last week my husband got some test results back from his doctor, indicating that he might have a slight, smidge of high cholesterol. It should be noted that the test was done at, what might possibly have been, the most stressful time in his entire life (wedding week!), but nevertheless, I'm taking the results seriously.

So here's the new plan: I'm going to be feeding my meat-loving, Calgary-raised cowboy tofu twice a week.

I went to Genesis, which is a great bulk food store in Thornhill (north of Toronto), which carries tons of kosher products. I bought hunks of SoSoya (Textured Vegetable Protein), which I'll flavour with all the cool Asian sauces that I bought, and serve them together as a stirfry.

Here are a few of the products I bought:

These are just some of the sauces that I bought for our upcoming stirfry dinners. Hopefully a few tablespoons of these sugar and garlic-laden sauces will mask the flavor of the tofu and make it palatable for him. I should note, though, I happen to love SoSoya and don't need to mask the flavor at all. Maybe he'll feel the same way...after all, I did get him to admit that he enjoyed tofu ground beef.

Oh...and the first picture you see is of Walden House's sugar-free, fat-free, calorie-free alfredo sauce. Needless to say, this was purchased for pasta, not for stirfrys. I have no idea what this will taste like, but I was so intrigued by the possibility of alfredo sauce without sugar, calories or fat, that I just had to try it.

Other purchases I made from Sobey's and Genesis were quinoa, barley, Canadian wild rice, and whole wheat couscous. I'm hoping that introducing some of these cholesterol-lowering grains into our diet will help in hubby's "rehabilitation". I'm also hoping that they'll make for some interesting meal ideas for me to post.

Now I have to go and clean this apartment. Our bathroom was renovated while we were away in Toronto. What a mess!

Down and dirty!

Tonight I experimented without a net (read: recipe). As I had a few random veggies left, none of which were plentiful enough to actually make a whole meal out of, I decided to make dirty rice, which is a dish my husband claims to really enjoy.

The nice thing about dirty rice is that you can really switch up the ingredients, depending on what you have on hand, and still come out with something great. My meal didn't turn out exactly as I had expected, but we really enjoyed it anyway.

Here's what I used:

Turkey breast (boneless, skinless) cut into bite sized chunks
Brown rice
Celery
Green Pepper
Fresh parsley
Tomato
Green onions (spring onion)
Leeks
Onion
Salt/Pepper
Crushed pepper flakes (for heat, therefore optional)
Chicken stock
White wine
Cinammon
Garlic
Basil
Oregano
Margarine
1/2 can of tomato paste

Ouf! That's a lot of ingredients. But don't be scared away! I didn't even realize what a long list this was until I wrote it out, and you know why? Because I wasn't following a recipe and just threw in whatever I had available and thought would taste nice.

I began by browning all the veggies in the margarine until they became soft. Then I added in the chicken pieces, spices and tomato paste and allowed that to cook as I stirred for a few minutes. Next I put in a few cups of chicken stock, the white wine and the brown rice.
I covered the pot tightly and prayed that the rice would absorb the broth before the chicken became overcooked.

The next step was purely personal....I left the house to pick up my husband from work. When I came home 35 minutes later, the dirty rice was ready and the bottom of the bot was blackened and burned! Yikes! Luckily I just avoided the bottom of the pot as I scooped out large gobs of the dirty rice into bowls for us. It was delicious, very filling and real stick-to-the-bones comfort food. I'll definitely be making this again, although I'll watch the pot next time.

And now...off to wash the dishes in our BRAND NEW DISHWASHER!!

Mekbouba - as good tasting as it is funny to say

Tonight I'm making a big pot of mekbouba! My readership is still too small for me to be making assumptions such as "anyone will know what mekbouba is", but I can't help but be excited about this dish and punctuate every other line with exclamation points!!!

It's very good, very easy and very slow cooking.

Ingredients:

10 roma tomatoes or 6 of any larger variety of tomato
4-6 green peppers
2-4 red peppers
1 cubana hot pepper (the long, thin, dark green, hot peppers) or harissa (Optional)
olive oil about 1/3 of a cup
salt/pepper to taste
10 large cloves of garlic

Ok, so the thing to remember about this salad/dish is that the quantities of ingredients are pretty unimportant. You can really vary things and still end up with a perfectly good mekbouba. Seriously...if red peppers are on sale, then add more. If they're too expensive, then maybe just use one. Before we begin, here are a couple important things to know about mekbouba:

1. It's 100% Tunisian
2. My grandmother makes it best
3. It's full of yummy garlic
4. It's a tomato-based 'spread'/salad that's to be eaten cold or at room temperature and is best when shmeared on bread.
5. You can't entirely omit the oil...you really do need it
6. You can remove some of the oil before serving the salad

Ok, so this recipe is very easy, here are the steps:

1. Wash and cut up the tomatoes in quarters, then the peppers into chunky cubes (maybe one inch squares...but doesn't matter)
2. Peel garlic and cup into large chunks (cut each clove in half or in thirds)
3. Mix garlic, tomatoes and peppers in a pot and add olive oil, salt and pepper and then toss everything.
4. Turn element onto medium-high until the COVERED pot starts to boil, the veggies sweat and you get a soupy, watery mix in the pot. Once this occurs, give it about 5-10 minutes to boil like this, then turn the stove down to minimum/low and UNCOVER the pot.
5. Allow entire mixture to simmer for as long as necessary for it to reduce approximately 80%. Stir the pot 'gently' a few times while it's cooking.
6. When it's done, remove from heat, allow to cool and serve with slices of fresh bread.

If you begin with a massive stock pot full of veggies, you'll end up with about 3 cups of mekbouba. Not the most efficient salad...I know. When I make a huge pot of this, it usually takes about 5-6 hours of low simmering before it's ready. You're really looking for about 90% of the moisture to be gone. However, if you make a smaller batch, then your simmering time might be a lot less. You should definitely watch the mekbouba to see when it's ready.

Note: Mekbouba can easily keep for 7-10 days in the fridge when stored in an airtight container. I seriously doubt it will ever last that long, though.

Just a recap of the steps:
1. Cut all veggies and garlic into large chunks
2. Throw into pot with olive oil and seasonings
3. Simmer UNCOVERED several hours until salad has reduced almost entirely and all liquid has evaporated.

That's it!