         
Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Monday, February 20th, 2012
I feel a little bad for always talking about the tornado, but… man, it’s really taken over our lives. In 2 days, it’ll be 9 months, and the repairs are still pretty far from over.
This, however, has been a great weekend! As my husband churned out new shelves for the cabinetry, I was able to start unpacking the kitchen stuff. Everything just sort of got thrown into the boxes after we surveyed the damage, so we could demolish the kitchen. 9 months of plastic cutlery and paper plates later… progress is wonderful. I swear I heard the hallelujah chorus when I unearthed the cutlery set at the bottom of one of the boxes!
| As is usually the case when I’m in a great mood, we had some fun in the kitchen yesterday. Homemade, fresh cheese for breakfast. Yes!
A couple weeks after the tornado, we attended a cheese workshop at a local brewing supply store, which is where we learned this basic technique. It was a weird thing to spend our time on, at the time.. But we needed to just get away from it all. We socked the knowledge away til now, and yes – it was worth the wait!
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This method takes less than an hour to do, start to finish. (About 30 minutes of “active” time), and doesn’t take much in the way of ingredients. You will need rennet and citric acid, which are available at specialty cooking stores, or home brewing / cheesemaking supply shops – and only cost a couple of dollars each.
I’ll be honest – I’d barely had my finished, still warm braid of cheese on the plate, before we ravenously tore into it. It was like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park or something – and I’m pretty sure at least one of us made raptor -like noises at each other while tearing away at our cheese with our bare hands.
Oh, and yes – the cheese was squeeky. SO good! You should definitely give this a try sometime!
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Posted in Cheese, Gluten Free, Recipes, Snacks and Appetizers | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
It’s Wednesday! Time for a guest post! Today’s recipe is courtesy of Lisa, one of my fellow Food Bloggers of Canada members.
Lisa writes One Cook, Two Kitchens blog, detailing her kitchen adventures between two different kitchens: a condo in downtown Toronto (She’s near the St Lawrence Market. I’m super jealous!), and her Lake House. She can also be found on twitter, at @onecook2kitchns, or on Facebook here.
A friend of mine, who loves to cook as much as I do, recently confided that she has never made mussels because she finds the idea of making them somewhat intimidating.
I get it. There is an elegant mystique about mussels to the uninitiated, particularly if you are from a part of the continent where shellfish is not readily available. Also, if you’ve ever had fishy tasting/smelling mussels, or tough, chewy mussels, you may be concerned that they are too easy to ruin.
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The reality is that mussels are one of easiest dishes going. Once they are cleaned, you can have them cooked in minutes. There are infinite ways to prepare them. You can have them in a marinara or cream sauce, in a Thai curry coconut broth, or done very simply with beer or wine.
Today, I’m showing you how to make them with beer and bacon. The combination of the hops from the beer, with the sweetness of the onion, creates and irresistible broth. The next day, cold leftover meat pulled from the shells makes a delectable salad when combined with a lightly dressed salad. There will still be the faintest hint of the beer.
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Posted in Budget Meals, Main Dishes, Recipes, Seafood, Spirited Baking | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
It’s a great time of year to purchase citrus fruits. Not only are most of them in season at the moment, but they provide a nice contrast to winter. Bright sunny colors and flavors go a long way to offset the “blah” outside.
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Once you’ve squeezed some lemon on your meal, zested some orange into your dessert, or put lime in your Coke…then what?
Well, how about homemade “Sour Mix”? Citrus sugar? Citrus SALT? Citrus infused spirits / liqueur? Cocktails!
Yes, there is a lot of boozy fun to be had with fresh citrus fruits! |
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Posted in Adults Only! (Boozy), Beverages, Cocktails & Bartending, Homemade Liqueur, Recipes | No Comments »
Monday, February 13th, 2012
Another weekend, another few steps towards a normal house/life!
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I’ll get more into what post tornado progress we made, after the recipe… but one thing we did this weekend was clear everything out from the fridge, completely wash it out, and then re-organize everything back into it. In doing so, I came across some veggies that were getting to the end of their life span… so I decided to cobble together a dish to use them up.
Of particular concern was a very old bag of radishes, a bag of baby carrots that had obviously seen better days, and some kale. I’d heard about roasting radishes fairly recently, but hadn’t gotten around to trying it. I decided to sort of base the dish around a salad I’d had at a food blogger event a couple months ago… but rough composition and kale are really the only common threads. Completely different veggies, nuts, and dressing.
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This turned out amazing. It all worked so well together, and it was really pretty as well!
Roasting radishes gets rid of all of the bite, leaving a tender, almost sweet vegetable. It worked really well with the sweetness of the carrots, earthiness of the squash, and heft of the kale. The toasted walnuts brought some crunch to the party, and the dressing ended up perfect. I’ve never come across a vinaigrette that I REALLY liked- so I wrote my own.
I swear, my husband was grinning and *glowing* as he ate this. It was sort of a funny scene, we were both in our grubbies, exhausted after a whole weekend of repair/rebuild/cleanup, feeling totally beat up. This meal felt really “fancypants”, so we had to laugh at the contrast. (more…)
Posted in Condiments, Farmer's Market, Gluten Free, Healthy, Main Dishes, Recipes, Side Dishes | 1 Comment »
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