i like to cook

Presto Pasta - Thai-ish Beef and Broccoli Noodles

2008-07-06T09:01:00.002-03:00

I've really been craving Asian food lately - rice, noodles. I found a recipe to try the other night, but much like my last pasta dish for Ruth's Presto Pasta Night I struck out when I went to the grocery store for ingredients. I couldn't find the right noodles, the right sauce ingredients. By the time I was done, what I ended up with had little in common with the recipe I started out with. It's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far.

Thai-ish Beef and Broccoli Noodles

serves 4

200g lean beef, cut into thin strips
2 tb oil
1/4 lb wun tun noodles (or noodles of your choice)
400 g broccoli, chopped into smallish bite sized pieces
1 tb (or to taste) black bean garlic sauce
1 tb oyster sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1 cup water

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the beef, and cook until the meat is about half cooked. Add the broccoli, black bean sauce, and oyster sauce. Stir the cornstarch into the water. Add to the pan, and cook until the sauce is thickened, and the broccoli is tender crisp. While the beef is cooking, cook the noodles, drain, and place on your serving dish. When the broccoli is ready, pour the beef and broccoli mixture over the noodles. Serve straight away.

Lighter Eggs Benedict

2008-07-05T12:00:00.000-03:00

I tried out this recipe last weekend as a healthier "decadent" weekend breakfast.

The last recipe I tried from the Podleski sisters didn't turn out so well. But I have a weakness for Eggs Benny, so I gave it a try. The sauce is made with mayo and sour cream (both low fat) and lemon juice and mustard, instead of butter and egg yolks. You are not going to fool anyone into thinking this is a "real" benny, but it's pretty good. The mustard and lemon juice give it a nice tang, and of course the sour cream and mayo make it creamy. Scott liked this more than I thought he would, although he would still choose a "real one" over this every time.

"Benaddicted to Eggs"
from Crazy Plates by Janet and Great Podleski

serves 4

8 slices back bacon (Canadian bacon)
4 eggs
1/4 cup low fat mayonnaise (I used fat free)
1/4 cup low fat sour cream (I used fat free)
1 tb honey mustard
1 tb lemon juice
pinch salt
pinch cayenne pepper
2 english muffins, split and toasted

Lightly brown bacon on both sides. Remove from skillet and keep warm. Cook your eggs (poached for real Eggs Benedict, although I only like scrambled). While your eggs are cooking, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, and lemon juice in a small pan. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. Heat over low heat until warm. Do not let the mixture boil. Place 1 muffin half on each plate. Top with 2 pieces of back bacon each. Place one egg on top, then top with the sauce. Serve straight away.

Wordless Recipe - Grilled Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus

2008-07-04T12:00:00.000-03:00

Wednesday/Thursday

2008-07-03T22:59:00.002-03:00

Last night I made something for dinner that I wanted to make for years and years but at the same time has scared me - Watermelon and Feta salad.

I pared down Nigella Lawson's recipe a little - cubes of watermelon, smaller cubes of feta, chopped black olives from the deli, and thinly sliced red onion marinated for 15 or 20 minutes in fresh lime juice.

It was great, of course. Really great. Sweet, salty and rich. And fast. I can see myself making this a lot over the summer.

___________________________________________________________

Tonight for dinner we stopped by the Wok Box, which opened a week or so ago. We took our order of coconut shrimp, wontons, and a Mongolian stirfry to go. I have become a fan of coconut shrimp, and these were pretty darn good, especially for take out. The sauce - "spicy coconut curry" was pretty bland and not that interesting. The wontons were fine, but their sauce - "spicy chile garlic" was atomically hot. Too hot. The stir fry was alright, but there was wayyyyyy more rice than veggies and tofu. The tofu was weird; chewy and stiff. Fortunately there wasn't much of it. The menu lists snow peas, celery, carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts and baby corn as the veggies in that particular stir fry. There were maybe 3 snow pea pods, no celery, no water chestnuts, and one small piece of baby corn. It was all carrot. Which was ok. The sauce was nice, and the dish filled us up. I'll go back one or two more times at least, and hopefully it will get a little better as time goes by.

Weekend Cookbook Challenge Roundup

2008-07-02T12:25:00.003-03:00

Greek Salad from Lisa at An Apron A Day.

Thanks to my friend Mike for hosting the Weekend Cookbook Challenge in July. His roundup is here, please go read about all sorts of tasty salads.

July's challenge is being hosted by WCC regular Michelle from Je Mange la Ville, and she has chosen
Farmers Markets
as her theme.

Please get your posts to her by July 27. Michelle's email address is mlb AT jammed DOT com.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-01T08:00:00.001-03:00

I am the champion......of the worllllllllllld! Danish Braid

2008-06-29T14:00:00.000-03:00

Whoooooo, lordy it's hot here! Summer has arrived with a vengeance. We've gone from low 20's to high 30's practically overnight. As I write this on Sunday afternoon we are just a couple of degrees away from 40'C, which for you Fahrenheit people is 104'.

So my post on this months Daring Baker challenge is going to be short on words and heavy on photos. It's just too hot to think, and I am on Day Two of a Four Day Weekend (Woot!) and don't wanna be sitting at the computer.

Our hosts this month are Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking?. Our challenge was “Danish Braid” from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking.

This is a two day recipe, and for the first time I made Laminated Dough - dough with layers of butter in between (like a baby version of Croissants). It was interesting and messy.
I guess maybe my butter was too soft or my dough needed more chilling time (although I followed the recipe) but the butter just squished everywhere on my first rolling. I threw it in the freezer for a while and the rest of the turn and rolls went much more smoothly.

The apple filling was to-die-for. If I'd been alone in the kitchen I might have eaten it all with a spoon.

I was absolutely thrilled with this recipe. It was straightforward, and other than sore hands from rolling the dough I had no problems. It tasted wonderful and I was very very happy with the look of it as well.

Recipe: Danish Braid

Thank you Kelly and Ben for such an enjoyable challenge this month!

Mmmmmm Canada

2008-06-29T01:29:00.001-03:00

At the beginning of June Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Jennifer The Domestic Goddess asked us Canadians and wanna-be's: What foods do you think make Canada, Canada?

This was a real head scratcher for me. Canada is such a melting pot of countries and traditions. Should I write about a food I remember my Mom making when I was little? Maybe something from England, in honor of my relatives who emigrated to Canada? Or an ingredient grown locally? I have spent weeks thinking about this. To the point I almost gave up. Should I write about salmon? Scallops? Berries? Rhubarb again? Kraft Dinner? Argh.

So I approached it from a different angle. What's my favorite thing about Canada in the summer? Going to the farmers markets. And what do I buy every week at the market? Bannock.

Bannock was adopted by the North American Aboriginal people from recipes brought over from Scotland. Originally bannock was made from oatmeal; in North America it was made from corn meal, nut meal and flour from ground bulbs. Today bannock is made with white or wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt as the main ingredients. Some recipes call for eggs or lard. Others use milk instead of water. Some nuts or berries too. These days there are 3 main cooking methods of bannock - oven baking, pan frying and deep frying. The bannock we buy for our breakfast every Saturday morning is deep fried. I found a fantastic recipe, plus the above information here.

After frying and draining the puffy bread we had to decide how to top it. At the market you have two choices - with jam or with cheese. We always go with jam, so we shredded some of the smoked Gouda cheese we bought from Gort's Gouda Cheese. It was delicious.

For the next piece I borrowed from Jasmine and made a fast version of her blueberry maple syrup. Bannock, blueberries, and maple syrup are truly made for each other.
And lastly I couldn't resist trying out some of my homemade bannock with raspberry jam, just like I have every Saturday morning. Not quite as wonderful as theirs, but pretty darn fine.

Thanks to Jasmine and Jennifer for putting on Mmmmm Canada! Have a happy and safe Canada Day!

Weekend Cookbook Challenge 29 - Salad

2008-06-27T00:01:00.000-03:00

Here's my second post for this month's Weekend Cookbook Challenge. It's being hosted by Mr. Mike. He has chosen Salad, and seriously, where he lives there must be actual summer, actual warm weather, cause we sure aren't having much of that here. But in theory, if I did live somewhere where it got warm, or even hot, I would want to eat a salad. Earlier this month I shared a yummy peaches and greens salad that would be soooooo wonderful on a hot day. And today I have a salad to share with you that comes from Jamie Oliver and was inspired by a trip to the Farmers Market.

I love going to the Farmers Market downtown every Saturday morning. It's one of the things I look forward to every week. I love going downtown and seeing the flowers in the park by the market. I like to see what everyone is selling. I like chatting with the vendors and hearing them talk up their wares. I love getting my weekly bannock fix. And I love filling up my bag with fresh local grub to eat during the week while I wait for the next market.

About two weeks ago a new stand appeared at the market, selling organic greens, herbs, sprouts and spices. I bought a bag of organic mixed greens, herbs and flowers. I remembered a salad I'd seen in Jamie Oliver's latest book Jamie At Home where he used a whole bunch of different lettuces, and I figured this would be perfect.

Walnut and Cheese Greens
adapted from Jamie At Home

I started by slicing 6 shallots as thinly as I could. I tossed them with my fingers to separate the rings, then marinated them for about 4 hours with 1 TB salt and 1/2 cup white wine vinegar.
When it was getting close to time to eat I made the dressing. I put 4 TB olive oil, 2 TB sour cream, 1 TB honey, 1 TB red wine vinegar, and some salt and pepper in a jar. And I shook it.
I washed and spun dry the greens from the market. It was a really interesting combination. Probably 4 different kinds of lettuce, edible flowers, dill, parsley.....who knows what else. I had about 6 cups of greens.
Then I added about 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, and 100 grams of this really cool cheese we found at the store - a blue brie cheese. I really liked it - both mildly stinky and creamy.
I removed the shallots from their brine and squeezed out the vinegar, and sprinkled the shallots over the salad.
Added the dressing.
Toss.

Delicious, delicious, delicious! The dressing and the cheese were heavenly. The salad mix was a little too heavy on the parsley for me, but I just picked out most of it and it was wonderful. 4 of us polished off almost the whole bowl. I will make this again and again and play with the greens every time.

Need a cool summer salad? Give this a try. Want to join us for WCC this month? Get your post to Mike by June 29.

Garlic Knots

2008-06-25T22:32:00.010-03:00

Our group of friends that we have christened "The Bakeanistas" tore up the IM again on Sunday. Starting at the unholy hour of 7 AM my time (most everyone else is out East) we began baking Garlic Knots from the King Arthur Flour blog Baker's Banter. Mary introduced me to the blog and I love it! I've bookmarked some other recipes to try ~~if my butt ever gets smaller~~ soon.

There were 45 9 of us baking that morning - me, Mary, Lis, Helen, Tanna, Kelly, John, Marce, and Chris. The jokes, advice and double entendres were flying fast and furious and somehow in the end I ended up with some pretty nice little garlic buns. Let's see how I got there, shall we?

The recipe called for a few ingredients I couldn't find. King Arthur products are not sold here, so I left out a couple of things (but only one on purpose, the other was by accident!) and used some ground italian spice instead of the Pizza Dough Flavor. I mixed up the dough and let it sit for an hour. Then I rolled it into a rectangle-ish sort of shape, and notched out my knot strips.
Forming the knots turned me into a mouth breathing, head scratching fool, but in the end most of them looked somewhat acceptable. It was time to let them rise again.
And so I did. And then it was time to put them in the oven.
While they were baking I ran out and took some pictures of my garden for Lisa. We didn't put in a proper garden this year, instead we planted our veggies in among the flowers in the existing garden. Here, would you like to see?
This recipe makes 16 knots. I did not want 16 little buttery garlicky knots temping me, so I took Mary's advice and removed half of them after 10 minutes of baking. I cooled them and froze them for later scarfing.
After another 5 or 6 minutes the others were done. I took them out of the oven and gave them a nice garlic butter bath.
OH MY GOD. Aren't they so pretty?
It was approximately 9:30 AM by this time. Scott and I showed incredible restraint and shared only one for breakfast. I'm not sure how we did it. Even more incredible, we later took some (well, 2) to my parents.
I really liked these, although I think Mary's second take with adding garlic right into the dough is brilliant. These are so easy to make but look pretty fancy. Give them a try, but have some mints handy for after dinner.

Bread Baking Babes - Mary's Dark Onion Rye

2008-06-24T02:07:00.000-03:00

I thought this month's Bread Baking Babes recipe was especially exciting: the recipe we were baking came from the brain of our very own Mary. She asked us to try her recipe for Dark Onion Rye bread that she's developed. How cool is that!

We had to bring our starters out of hibernation. I was always worried that my starter Craterface wasn't quite up to snuff, by finally he looked like a starter should.

The starter was fed, and then part of it was mixed with flour (both white and rye) and water and left to ferment overnight.
The next morning the sponge (above) was mixed with the rest of the ingredients. Man, did that dough smell amazing!
And was left to rise. Here it is before the rising,
and here it is after. I left the dough to rise for about 6 hours, and it didn't rise much at all.
After a couple more hours for the second rise, which didn't do much either, I baked the bread.

It wasn't super fantastic, but it wasn't awful either. The bread lost most of the onion smell that the raw dough had, which was kind of disappointing. I didn't taste any onion either, but the rye flour and the sourness of Craterface was quite strong. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've eaten rye bread, so to others (like Scott) the taste was more pleasant than strong.
If you've read all the other BBB posts (they are listed in the right hand column) you'll see a lot of talk from people wayyyyyy more experienced than me with bread discussing all sorts of possibilities for why some of us had more success with the bread than others. I am nowhere near as bread-savvy as them, but I have two ideas why mine didn't rise as much as it could have. One is that I didn't spend enough time with my starter after taking it out of the fridge. Craterface is my first starter, and I think I misunderstood the feeding instructions, and I don't think he was as strong as he should have been. Good lord, I just called my starter a he. Second is I think I added too much flour. My dough was really really stiff. I am still working on getting over my very bad baking habit of adding all the flour to the dough. Sometimes you just don't need all that flour. I was hoping to try to make it again before our posting date, but man, the days just go by so fast lately. I'd like to try this again with the new modifications Mary has made to the recipe - please go here for Mary's recipe.
Thanks to Mary and the BBB's for another great month!

Saturday Market and Vermi-Composting

2008-06-22T13:33:00.012-03:00

The market was pretty busy yesterday. We went a little later than usual, and two stands were sold out of their produce by the time we got there! We'll have to move faster next week. This week we bought:
Kale (going in soup tonight), spinach, strawberries (from Vernon BC) and Italian Romaine (grown in Kamloops). We still have some rapini from last week and some beautiful asparagus from Armstrong BC left over too.

Then we drove out to the garden center on the highway. They were teaming up with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to sell Worm Composters. I've wanted to try composting for a while. I was pretty much ready to try it in Calgary, but then we decided to move, so there was no point. And where we live now there are bears. Not roaming all over the city constantly, but sightings in the area we live in are not uncommon. Perhaps it's silly and unfounded, but I was worried that a composter in the back yard might attract a hungry bear. I had read about worm composting, but had no idea where to start. So I was pretty excited to see the notice in the paper last week.
We were a little late getting to the garden centre and missed the seminar on worm composting, but the store staff and worm suppliers were happy to go over it with us. They even sold us the demo unit which was already put together. After paying and meeting up with the worm supplier in the parking lot to exchange money for worms we headed home, about 60 bucks lighter to get set up.
Here's the composter sitting in the kitchen.
The bottom layer is the base, the next layer is the collection tray (this is where any excess liquid will come out) and the top tray is our first stacking tray. The stacking tray has holes in the bottom. We put down a couple of layers of dry newspaper.
We rehydrated the coir (coconut fiber) and then squeezed out the excess moisture. The coir is mixed with compost (provided to us by the worm people) and shredded paper. Spread it in the tray.
Then add 2 cups of food in one corner. This was where the fun began - pulling all the yucky and old food out of the fridge and finely chopping it. The worms got apple, strawberries, cucumber and some spinach from that days market. It was mixed with coffee grounds, and for good measure we threw in the filter.
Then the worms were introduced to their new home. That's one pound of Red Wiggler worms, about 500. We tried to spread them around, but it didn't work so well (I was afraid to smoosh them or stress them out anymore), so we left them alone.
And covered them with a couple more layers of damp newspaper.
And put on the lid.
The manual suggests leaving them in a well lit place for the first week to force the worms down into their house. So the composter will sit on our kitchen table for a week or so. In 3 days we have to check on them to see how much food they have eaten. If they are crawling around in the food, we add more.
Because I was already on a roll, I chopped up the rest of the questionable food in the fridge in my food processor. The worms eat fruits, vegetables (except potato peels), starch, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper and cardboard. Don't give them meat, dairy, citrus peels, oil and salty food.
I chopped everything up and portioned it into small handfuls. Then I froze them on a baking sheet to store until needed. There's cabbage, raspberries, lettuce, green onion, pita bread, and red peppers in there. And I've put a bowl on the counter to remind us to save the organic waste and not throw it away.

So in a couple of months we'll have a tray full of compost, ready for the plants!
I'm pretty nervous about this, I'd feel terrible if I screwed up and killed my 500 little worms. I'm going to sit down with Google later today and try to answer the questions that the book has raised for me.
If anyone out there can recommend any websites, or has any advice for me, please let me know!

That Cookbook Thing. Cooking with friends and Julia Child.

2008-06-20T11:47:00.000-03:00

When you last saw That Cookbook Thing our group was wiping our collective mouths after eating great cheesy bowlfuls of Julia Childs Onion Soup. We've also added a couple of new members so this month I'm cooking with our fearless leader Mike, and Ruth, Mary, Deborah, Mary, Shaun, Elle and Kittie. This month's recipe was my pick, Sauce au Cari (Light Curry Sauce). I thought it might be fun to try a classic Julia sauce as one of our choices from the book. I don't have much experience with sauces past the usual gravy and tomato sauce. And I do love curry.

So you start by cooking 1/2 cup of finely diced onion in 4 TB butter over low heat. Sweat the onions for about 10 minutes.

Then add 2 to 3 TB of curry powder. I added 2 because the curry powder I have is pretty spicy. Cook for 2 minutes.
Then add 4 TB (which I think everyone agrees now is too much) and stir and stir for 3 more minutes.
Whisk in 2 cups of boiling milk, chicken stock, or fish stock. I used chicken. Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then whisk in 4 to 6 TB of heavy cream. My sauce was so thick I added almost double the cream. I would have added more stock, but I didn't have any extra. Season with salt and pepper and add lemon juice to taste. The stir in 1 or 2 TB butter.
Serve with chicken, fish, vegetables, turkey, or eggs. I served mine with chicken and crispy roasted potatos. The sauce was fantastic on both, but it was just too thick. Not only that, it made a ton! Even after eating the sauce every day with the leftover chicken and more potatos, I ended up throwing away more than half of it.

It was good though. I would make this again, but cut the recipe by at least half, maybe even a quarter, and would definitely make the sauce thinner with more stock and less flour.

So, sorry to those in our group who made the sauce and didn't like it. But hey, we tried. Please visit all the other bloggers in That Cookbook Thing, as listed above. And please make sure to visit Kittie's post - her take on the sauce is really something.

Cheers!

Saturday Market

2008-06-14T12:21:00.001-03:00

I've been lax on my market posts, but sadly it's because the market isn't really super yet this year. Just like everywhere else our cool wet spring has messed things up for the farmers, and there hasn't been much if any fresh produce. Three weeks ago we picked up a coffee for Scott and a juice for me and shared a piece of bannock for breakfast

All we bought that week were some enormous freak of nature green onions, a cherry tomato plant and a mint plant.

Last week we went to the Friday market on the North Shore (2 raspberry bushes and more basil plants. The basil has already died.) but skipped Saturdays market. In unrelated news, check out our strawberry plant:

This weeks market was great. It was nice and busy and there were some new vendors there. And better yet there was produce!
We got rapini from my favorite vendor, who also tried to get us to buy some kale, but we've got lots of veggies in the fridge that need to be eaten first. Hopefully he'll have some next week. We bought some organic tomatos, clover honey, mixed beans and lentils and salad mix from a new organic stall, and a little head of lettuce. Definitely our best haul so far this year.

Then after the market we drove to Paul Lake and walked and sat. We saw loons and eagles and cranes. It was a lovely couple of hours and I was sorry when it was time to go.

Thanks for coming to visit, I hope to be back tomorrow with some garden pictures.

Wordless Recipe - Peanut Butter and Bacon Toast

2008-06-11T02:37:00.000-03:00

Presto Pasta Nights - Yummy pasta in less than 30 minutes

2008-06-06T01:16:00.004-03:00

For Presto Pasta Night this week apparently I am delusional. I have made a fast no cook pasta sauce perfect for those hot summer days when you just can't stand to be in the kitchen. Except. Except it's chilly....maybe even cold here right now. Who took the warm weather away? To have to wear socks and shoes and jeans and sweaters in June is just so wrong.

Last week I got my weekly email from Vegetarian Times with a link to some no cook, 30 minutes or less pasta sauces. Two caught my eye, and the other night I went shopping to pick up the ingredients for the first one - Strozzapreti with Cheese and Green Peppercorns. But I couldn't fine strozzapreti pasta, romano cheese or brined peppercorns. So I made some changes, came up with the delicious dish below and am so glad I made it anyway, instead of passing it by because of a couple of hard-to-find-here-ingredients.

Pasta with Zucchini Mint and Capers.

2 servings

1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 TB chopped fresh mint leaves
1 TB olive oil
1 tsp capers, drained
1 cup grated zucchini
1 garlic clove
5 oz dry pasta, i used penne

Place the cheese through garlic in a blender or mini chopper. Grind until everything is chopped up. Place in a bowl and mix with the zucchini. Season with salt and pepper.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the zucchini-cheese mixture. Serve.

Weekend Cookbook Challenge - Salads

2008-06-04T02:08:00.005-03:00

So it's June! When does the warm weather start?

Well that's not really fair. We've had some pretty scorching days, but then they are followed by cold, drizzly, windy days. I'm not entirely unhappy with the rain, my grass needs the water, that's for sure. But come on! Spring was late, almost non-existent. I need some sun. For my grass, my garden, for me. If you've got any, send it my way, please?

And back to the food. So ~~Urkle~~ Mike is our host for June. And because I guess where he lives there is actual warm weather, he has chosen Salad as the theme of the month.

I love salad, especially in the summer. We've been trying to work more of them into our meals, but for me, a plain green salad gets old real fast. I've been meaning to go through my books and look for inspiration but the days, where do they go?

On Saturday we were down at Fratelli Deli after the market and they had some nice looking peaches. Imported, of course. But they looked so good and smell like heaven. So I picked out four. Then I saw their beautiful heads of leaf lettuce. And I remembered a salad I'd made once that was soooooo delicious - Summer Greens and Nectarines Salad from the Rebar Cookbook, which is one of my favorites yet totally underused in my house.

We made this salad for dinner last night. It wasn't the sort of evening you'd like for a salad this yummy, too dark and cloudy and rainy, but wow. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I made it! Goat cheese is so great, especially in salads. Fruit in salads is something that we still don't do often, but this one is just. so. terrific. I made some changes from the last time I made it, and this this version is my new favorite.

Get your Salad entry to Mike by June 29!

Peach and Goat Cheese Salad
altered from Rebar Modern Food Cookbook
2 big servings

Salad:
4 cups torn lettuce of your choice (I think green or red leaf lettuce is the best)
50 g soft goat cheese
3 or 4 peaches, chopped. (I bought 4 but the cashier at the deli put my tins of tomatos on top of the peaches in the bag and squished the hell out of them, so by the time I cut off all the damaged parts I only had about 2 peaches worth of peach left. Damn her.)

Dressing: - this will make more dressing than you need for 2 people, but it's so good.
2 TB honey
3 TB balsamic vinegar
1-2 TB finely chopped red onion
salt
pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk the honey, vinegar, onion and salt and pepper together. Drizzle in the oil while whisking. Set aside.
Place the greens in a large bowl. Crumble in the goat cheese and toss with the lettuce. Add the chopped peaches and toss again. Drizzle with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dressing to start and toss well. Add more dressing if desired. Serve straight away.

Weekend Cookbook Challenge 28 Round up - TV Cooks

2008-05-27T15:40:00.001-03:00

Hello out there, and thanks for coming to read the round up for Weekend Cookbook Challenge 28 - TV Cooks. I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who took part this month. There are literally a zillion food challenges out there, and I thank you for coming and taking part in mine.

Let's start this round up off with ME!, shall we?

After my original recipe choice turned out hideously, I tried a yummy summertime drink, Berry Smooth from the ever popular Sandra Lee.

Mike from Mel's Diner, who will be the host with the most for June's WCC, shares with us Crispy Fried Rhubarb Pork from Jamie Oliver.

Newlywed Michelle at Je Mange La Ville was inspired to make Provencal Vegetable Soup from Wolfgang Puck.

Fellow BC'er KC from Kits Chow joins us for her second WCC with this mighty tasty looking Kayaker's Wok Fried Mac from PBS.

Judy and Judy's Gross Eats share with us Super Nachos from Rachel Ray.

The wonderful Shaun of Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow has joined me again and came with a lovely Braised Pork Belly and Buttered Apples from Tyler Florence.

Another familiar face is Haalo and Cook Almost Anything Once, with some very pretty Goat Cheese and Red Capsicum Pancakes from Gary Rhodes.

Yay! Ruth has come for a visit at WCC with a two post dish over on Once Upon a Feast - Fermented Black Bean and Garlic Sauce and the finished dish Black Bean Chicken and Tofu Stirfy from Ming Tsai.

And yet another old friend, Pavani who urges me not to give up yet on Tempeh with this Tempeh Club Sandwich from Delicious TV.

Robin from Made with Love shares a decadant dessert, Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding Trifle from my girl Paula Deen.

Anne and Kitchen Bliss bring these great Wolfgang Puck Ginger and Lemongrass Grilled Shrimp to the round up.

Lisa and An Apron A Day have a kickin cheesecake from Emeril - Margarita Mama's Cheesecake.

Paula the Cookbook Junkie shares a dramatic Carrot Cake from The Young and the Restless. Slap!

BA Gourmet from the self titled blog whips up some Coconut Macaroons from Ina Garten.

Deb from Kahakai Kitchen in Hawaii (I'm officially sick with jealousy) whipped up a tropical Coconut Bread Pudding from Sam Choy.

Megan from My Baking Adventures got creative with Chocolate Covered Strawberries from Ina Garten.

Again, huge thanks to all of you who shared with us this month! I appreciate it so much.

June's WCC will be hosted by my man Mike of Mel's Diner. His theme is SALAD, so wow him with a fantastic salad and email your link to him at eatatmelsdiner AT gmail DOT com by June 29.

2 weeks of markets

2008-05-25T01:09:00.002-03:00

Lucky you, you're getting two weeks of market in one! Last weekend was a combo of being busy and lazy and there was just no time for posting.

I finally got a chance to visit Heartland Foods last Friday. Their store is small, but they offer an amazing array of locally produced fruits, veggies, flours, honeys, etc. They've also got locally raised meats - organic, free range which is awesome. They are only open Monday to Friday, but open until 6 on Wednesdays for your after work shopping. We picked up some tomatos, a cucumber and an organic chicken, not shown here but you'll see it soon.

Also last Friday we visited the first night of the new Farmers Market on the North Shore in Kamloops. It's being held at McDonald park every Friday night from 4 to 8 (I think). Being the first night the market was a little small, but all the vendors were super nice and very enthusiastic. We bought some stuff for our garden - basil, a pepper plant, a zucchini plant and some sage.

Then last Saturday we went to the downtown market. There's still not a ton of produce available. We shared some bannock spread with raspberry jam after Scott stood in line for ages, right now they are the most popular stall at the market - and came home with some celery plants, a watermelon plant, and a container of Wild Mushroom Curry powder from Forest to Fork.

The rest of Saturday was spent in the yard, sitting on the porch and enjoying the sun. Later we made beer can chicken with the organic bird we'd bought the day before.

Yesterday morning we headed downtown for the Saturday market. After sharing a bannock with jam for breakfast, we got to shopping. There were more vendors this week, but most of the new ones were selling plants. Still not a ton of fresh produce. My Dad, who went to the market later in the morning, asked one of the vendors who was selling plants when they would be selling veggies. He was told that the cooler weather we had has pushed most of the produce back to mid or late June.
Yesterday we bought: buns, sausages, spinach,
eggs,

and 2 lettuces and a parsley.

Beer Can Chicken. Wash and dry your chicken. Pick your favorite spice rub and rub it all over and inside the chicken. I used my lovely rub that Jasmine sent me a couple of months ago. Jasmine correct me if you read this, it is this recipe? Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. When the time has come, take the chicken out of the fridge, and heat your bbq. Get a can of beer, open it up, and drink (or have someone else drink) half of it. Take your chicken and beer to the bbq, along with a pair or two of tongs, and a washable oven mitt or kitchen towel.
Get your bbq ready - if your bbq has burners running vertically, turn off one side. That is the side you will put the chicken on. Our burners run horizontally, so I turn off the front burner, and turn the middle burner down to low. However you do it, you can turn the heat up or down as needed during cooking.
Push the chicken securely onto the beer can, and place on the grill. Move the chicken legs to stabilize the bird if necessary. Then go wash your hands. When your hands are clean, slather the chicken with bbq sauce, lower the cover and leave for 20 minutes. Check your heat, and adjust if you think you need to. Use the tongs and your kitchen mitt or towel and rotate the chicken by about 1/3 (so a new side of the chicken is facing the more direct heat). Slather with sauce again, close the lid and leave for another 20 minutes. Then rotate and slather again. After an hours cooking, give the chicken a check for doneness. If it's not ready, give it another turn and slather and check in another 20 minutes. When it is ready, turn off the bbq and have a plate or bowl standing by. Be very careful while you remove the can from the chicken. I do this at the bbq, so if I spill the beer can it's going to spill on the bbq, not in my kitchen. Grab the can firmly with one pair of tongs. With another pair of tongs or a kitchen towel, or both, grab the chicken. Gently twist and pull the chicken off the can. Put the chicken on a plate. Set the beer can aside to cool before tossing it out.

Cheesy Bread Bakers

2008-05-19T08:00:00.002-03:00

Back in November some fine ladies and I baked up some totally sinful cinnamon buns. I'm still not sure what was the best part, the long instant messaging chat we all had that day, or the excellent buns that were the end result.

We were to meet up again online this month to make a different sort of bun - an ooey gooey cheese bun. Who could say no?

Unfortunately I had a commitment I couldn't get out of and wasn't able to join the fun (and reportedly R rated) online chat, but I did get the buns baked.

These buns were SO easy to make and tasted just heavenly. The only downer for me was that 3 of the buns sort of toppled over in the cooking and looked like cheesy slugs rather than buns, but whatever, that's just me. They tasted super good and were sooooo cheesy. We gobbled one down right out of the oven, shared one for lunch the next day, toasted one up for breakfast another day, and graciously gave one to my parents. They turned theirs into sandwiches with ham and asparagus, but neglected to take a picture or share with me! The nerve.

Please visit Helen, Ivonne, Kelly, Laura Rebecca, Lisa, Mary, Sara, and Stephanie 's blogs to see more cheesy goodness.