Meat sauce

As every month's batch of meat seems to have at least two pounds of ground beef, I needed to do something a bit different from what we've been doing so far: meatballs, meatloaf, tacos...and while this recipe isn't much of a departure from the norm, it's easy to do on a weeknight, and takes only a few ingredients, most of which are already in the kitchen cabinet.

I served this with a small amount of pasta - about 1/2 a pound to the whole recipe, and the recipe yields 4 servings. This is not a very saucy pasta sauce. I could see adding some zucchini to the mix with the tomatoes if they were laying about, but since this isn't zucchini season, that's not likely to happen. Eggplant would be a possibility, too, as would substituting sausage for the ground beef. To increase the volume, one could also add a second can of tomatoes; in that case, also increase the garlic, salt, and oregano to taste.

Weeknight Meat Sauce
Serves 4

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
1 lb ground beef (medium or lean)
3 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes, or pureed tomatoes - whatever is on hand)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried oregano

Heat olive oil in wide pan. Once hot, add the onions; stir briefly, then add the beef. Break up the meat into small pieces. Saute the meat and onions until meat is browned and onions are softened. Add garlic; cook until fragrant. Add can of tomatoes. If using whole tomatoes, cut up the tomatoes into small pieces (I do this in the can with a pair of scissors). Add salt and oregano. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the excess liquid has evaporated. Cover and keep warm until pasta is ready. Taste; the mixture may need more salt. Season to taste.

Turkey pot pie

While I love Thanksgiving, I could completely leave out the turkey and be entirely content. The sides are where it's at for me - the spoon bread, the corn pudding, the stuffing...a plate full of side dishes would still be a perfect Thanksgiving. What keeps me coming back to the turkey, though - besides the expectation of its presence at the table - is the turkey pot pie I make afterward.

After the first Thanksgiving I held myself when I moved to Canada, I had a lot of leftover turkey. E, another graduate student in my lab at the time, passed along this recipe. For the super-lazy, just use pre-made pie crust; this couldn't be simpler, and it freezes well. I usually end up with two pies, since there is always lots of dark meat hiding where my less-than-stellar butchering skills can't find it when dinner is originally served.

Turkey Pot Pie
(makes 1 9" pie - double for two pies)

2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup onion
2 stalks sliced celery
2 Tbsp leftover gravy
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of milk
2 cups chopped turkey
2 - 3 cups of frozen vegetables*
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Saute onions and celery in butter until tender. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Put in two-crust pie. Bake at 425 degrees of 28 minutes.

*The original recipe calls for 1/2 a bag of frozen veggies, like peas, carrots, and corn. However, often these bags are enormous - and without lots of freezer space or the tendency to eat these otherwise, I use a combination of frozen peas and corn, and cut up a carrot into small pieces and throw that in, too. Use whatever you like in a pot pie.

Black forest cake

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog. Not for lack of cooking - we've been using our delicious meat share faithfully, and I've made some very good things. There's something about the lack of natural light by the time we eat dinner, though, that makes picture taking difficult - and makes going to bed much more appealing than writing a blog post.

In any case, last Saturday we made Black Forest cake in my baking class. We each made two 7" cakes; not knowing what, exactly, to do with two cakes, I brought one into work. One of the women I work with, F, thought it was so good that she asked me to make one for her daughter's birthday party this Saturday. Since the only real reason I don't bake as much as I'd like is because there aren't enough people to eat all of it, I was happy to do it - what a great excuse to try out my new skills!

Here's a photo of the results - beautifully positioned in my refrigerator. (Judge the other contents if you must.) It's since been transferred to its cake carrier and back into the fridge so the whipped cream on the outside stays fresh. This cake is better the day after it's been made, and was still equally good the day after, so it should still be excellent on Saturday for the party. The only downside of making a cake, though, is that you can't test it to make sure it's good - people definitely notice if a slice has been taken out of it!

Short rib and cabbage soup

This month has been very busy for work - which has meant little time for cooking, and even less time for blogging. I even forgot to pick up our last box in the vegetable CSA - the fact that it was a Tuesday that day completely escaped me.

I did manage, though, to make good use this week of the pot roast and the short ribs we got with our meat CSA. Working at home helped with that - otherwise, there would have been no time to turn the pot roast over every 30 minutes for the 3 or so hours it was in the oven. I made Donna's soup at the same time.

Sure, cabbage soup sounds not so exciting. I admit, when the research assistant extraordinaire first brought some in to the lab for me to try, I was skeptical. Instead of being just boring cabbage soup, though, this soup was amazing. Meaty, and filling, and slightly sweet; the cabbage was perfectly tender. I loved this soup. Donna wrote the recipe down for me from memory, but I couldn't find the short ribs she described in my grocery store - so when they arrived in the first meat delivery, they were earmarked for that purpose immediately.

I used the quantity of short ribs I was given - 4 really meaty strips - and had to leave out a can of tomatoes because the pot I was using just wasn't big enough to hold it all - and it was still delicious. To be true to Donna's original and amazing recipe, though, here it is! (Thankfully, this freezes well, since it makes a ton of soup.)

Donna's Short Rib and Cabbage Soup

8 sets of short ribs
4 beef soup bones
1 head green cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 cans tomatoes - no salt or herbs added
1 can tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup - 1/2 cup brown sugar

In the biggest pot you have, cover the short ribs with cold water. Bring to boil. Boil for 30 minutes, skimming the scum that rises to the top off while boiling.

Add remaining ingredients, erring on the low side for the sugar and salt (you can always add more later to taste). Cook on low for several hours, or until the cabbage is tender. Remove the bones from the soup, and cut the remaining meat into bite-sized pieces; return to soup.

Soup is better the second day, and freezes very well. Top with Parmesan cheese for extra deliciousness.

New CSA?

As the vegetable CSA winds down, I told myself I wouldn't sign up for another one. Despite the vegetables being amazing, and the opportunity to challenge myself to try new recipes and experiment with vegetables I wouldn't normally buy, the box's arrival on Tuesday created two stresses that became worse with a 9-to-5 job: picking up the box added a hour to my commute (downtown and back), and coming up with a plan for the week's meals in the middle of the week.

However, I'm a sucker for local food, and a recent trip to the local grocery store reminded me why I was so excited about getting the boxes in the first place: the produce varies in quality, and it adds another step to think about where it comes from. And while I do indulge in berries flown in from around the world on my morning cereal, I like to try to buy seasonally otherwise. I like the close contact with the source of the food.

So when I saw that Culinarium is offering a winter CSA, I was curious. The bi-monthly boxes would include typical winter vegetables, some hot-house produce, and other local fare (maple syrup, etc.) One plus: they offer delivery for a nominal fee. The downside? Delivery is at noon on Thursdays, which just won't work for us. And the box's arrival is still mid-week. I'm disappointed, but I recognize that it just won't be feasible for us this winter. Instead, I'll try to head down to Culinarium on a regular basis to stock up on what they've got on hand on the weekends. I encourage anyone in the Toronto area to check out this winter CSA, though - I wish we could do it.

The bright spot in this is that the meat CSA is working out very well. It's more manageable because it arrives only once a month, and the fact that the meat is frozen gives a great deal more flexibility with meal planning. I'm already looking forward to my Thanksgiving turkey...

Two hauls!

Excuse my laxness in putting up any new posts - this month has been a very busy one. P's grandfather (100 years old!) passed away, then P and I went to London for a week, and then his parents visited for a long weekend. On top of that, work has been ramping up progressively, all with good things - but cooking and taking pictures and posting has been low on the list of activities, after sleeping, patting our cat, and trying to keep up with the laundry.

In any case, the two new CSA portions were picked up yesterday. The penultimate vegetable box, and another big bag of meat. Here's what was in the vegetable box:

A big pile of red potatoes
2 carrots
3 beets
A bunch of Mizuna greens
A Delicata squash
2 onions
A green bell pepper
A Sicilian eggplant
A Tiger baby watermelon

I've amassed a serious squash collection in my cabinet - I don't think I've used any of the squashes we've received yet because I find them a bit of a pain to use, since they can be so difficult to peel and slice up. They also go bad the slowest, so I have more flexibility in when I use them. The next few weeks, though, will be squash-tastic - if you have any squash recipe suggestions, please pass them along.

As for the meat, I'm very excited about using it all. I can't rattle it all off from memory, but there was osso buco in there, and pork sausage, a beef roast I can make a pot roast with, T-bone steaks, and a rack of lamb...the list goes on, but those are definitely my highlights. I think with the beef roast and the assorted root vegetables I've gotten in the last little while, a pot roast is definitely on the list of future posts.

Swiss Chard & Potato Soup

In this week's box (which I realize I never posted about), we got a bunch of Swiss chard. Since the weather has now definitely turned toward fall, it seemed like a good time for some soup. Here's an easy recipe for a hearty, comforting soup that makes a nice centerpiece for a delicious meal. If you're not a fan of bacon, just use a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Swiss Chard and Potato Soup

2 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces
1 leek, sliced thin crosswise and washed thoroughly
1 cup carrot, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 cups new potato, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
6 cups chicken stock
1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon in large saucepan until crisp. Remove bacon from pan; put on paper towel-lined plate. Saute leek in remaining fat until softened; add salt. Add carrot and potato to pot; stir. Add chicken stock, and simmer until the potatoes and carrots are cooked through. Add Swiss chard to pot, and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add bacon back to pot. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Baking class - finally!

Today was the first session of the baking class I'm taking through the Continuing Education program at George Brown College. Months after going for a tour there, going through the whole rigamarole of not getting in because I didn't apply early enough (What? You need my high school transcripts, too?), and ultimately finding a day job that keeps me happy doing what I already know how to do pretty well, the day of the first class finally arrived.

First day's class: pie dough and uniforms. Our instructor gave us a tour through some of the equipment we would need. Unsurprising to those who have seen my kitchen, I own about 95% of what's on the list already. However, that will not stop me from visiting Cayne's tomorrow to get better versions of what I have (my scraper isn't bendy enough!), and to fill in the gaps.

Then we traipsed down to the bookstore and picked up our uniforms. It is required we wear them in class, and they were included in the cost of the class. I'm guessing this is a bonus of the fact that the sizes were made for men, but...I'm a size XXXS. In pants and the top. It just made the kitchen even more of a fantasy land of gumdrops and rainbows than it was before!

After we all had our uniforms, our instructor demonstrated how to make pie dough, and then sent us to our stations to follow through. After this, I think I'm no longer afraid of pie dough - finally, someone checked over my shoulder to tell me that yes, the pea-sized blobs of shortening were the right size, and yes, I had mixed in the water-sugar-salt mixture enough. Ina Garten just can't do that from your television set. Now I, the timid pie-baker, want to practice this week making pie. If that's not already my money's worth on this class, I don't know what is.

Next week: we use that dough to make apple pie. I'll have pictures to show off our results!

Panzanella

I have a hard time thinking a meal is complete without bread. So to make bread an integral part of the main course? Perfection.

This panzanella, or Italian bread salad, was an delicious way to showcase the fresh tomatoes from the CSA, as well as the milkweed pods we had picked up a week or so ago. The recipe originated in the Mark Bittman book, Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less, that I've been writing so much about. I decided to just go on memory for the components from last time. To substitute for capers, I used the milkweed pods, which are brined, but are larger and squishier than capers. The rest was a jumble of tomatoes, bread, basil, parsley, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. While I'm sure I left out a few traditional parts, the result was delicious. Thank goodness for half-baguettes - any larger, and I would have just kept eating the bowl of salad until it was gone...

Tomato, goat cheese, and basil pizza

This pizza was inspired by my friend L - her dad had made a ravioli with similar ingredients last week. The pizza has fresh tomatoes from the CSA, goat cheese, and fresh basil from the balcony garden. The base was the pizza dough I've made before. Very simple, and it was great cold for lunch the next day.

An entirely CSA meal

With the addition of the meat CSA, we can now have all of the major elements of our meals be from Ontario - a truly exciting event. Our first meal with the CSA meat? Lamb chops, grilled on the stovetop, with boiled potatoes and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, green pepper, and red onion. Super simple, but everything was so fresh it all tasted amazing with very little effort.

It seems silly to include a recipe, since neither of the cooked elements were even deserving of one. They can each be captured in one sentence:

Lamb chops: Sprinkle with salt and pepper; cook on grill pan heated to very hot on each side until it reaches the desired doneness.

Potatoes: Boil cut potatoes in salted water; drain and mix with butter and salt to taste.

So simple, and so good. This meat CSA is going to be fun to work our way through - 16 pounds of meat sounds like a lot, but I think we'll make our way through handily; if not, look out for dinner invitations!

Two hauls!

I picked up this week's vegetable box from Culinarium, and this month's bag-o-meat from Twin Creeks Farm at the Trinity Bellwoods Farmer's Market. So much amazing local food! Here's the list:

- a small watermelon
- a huge red pepper
- an eggplant (very round and very purple)
- a large turnip
- a bunch of beets, plus the greens
- a head of lettuce
- some red potatoes
- a red onion
- a dumpling squash
- two tomatoes

And, just to show how little I really know about cuts of meat, I can't even really give an accurate list; here's the gist:

- some pork sausages
- a smoked ham steak
- two pounds of ground beef
- some beef short ribs (I think that's what they're called - this may require some looking into)
- some lamb
- some beef

Very accurate, I know. I'm really looking forward to using it. Gerald, the owner of the farm, said that the beef had just been butchered today. The color of the meat is amazing - a deep purpley-red that is just begging to be eaten (sorry, vegetarians). I'll have to do some serious thinking about what gets frozen - some already is, but some wasn't - since there's no way we can or should eat everything that isn't frozen in the next few days. I'm thinking meatballs...

Lest you thought this would end in October...

On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend the Harvest Wednesdays Tasting event at the Gladstone Hotel, courtesy of Taste TO. So I wouldn't attend alone - and because he loves this stuff as much as I do - P bought himself a ticket and downtown we went. There were lots of vendors of locally-made and locally-farmed products; I was a veritable pig in sh*t.

Thank goodness I had cash in my wallet, because I would have been heartbroken to miss out on buying some cinnamon honey (in a bear jar, no less!) and chai lip balm from Honey Pie Hives and Herbals, garlic and Cajun Ontario peanuts and smooth peanut butter from Kernal Peanuts, and some milkweed pods from Forbes Wild Foods.

Possibly the best moment of the evening, though, was finding a meat CSA that would fit P's and my needs. The one offered through Culinarium is just too big for the two of us, and it seemed too expensive. This one, though, has enough variety in the size of the shares and the types of meat to make it doable for two - and the price is right. For those in the Toronto area, check out Twin Creeks Organic Farm. They even have turkeys available - and for you who know of my love of the American Thanksgiving dinner, this is exciting stuff.

We also found a CSA that will be experimenting with doing vegetables in the winter: Kawartha Ecological Growers, which I'm considering signing up for. We might get sick of potatoes and squash, but I think it could be worth a shot.

Crab wonton soup

This post has nothing to do with something made from items in the CSA box. Instead, I just wanted to display a delicious soup that P made over the weekend. A crab-filled wonton soup from Asian, the cookbook I mentioned a few posts ago. My only contribution? The chicken broth that he spiked with ginger and garlic, and picking up the crab and green onions at the store. This was better than wonton soups that I've had in restaurants for as long as I can remember.

Roasted cauliflower, and sage and thyme roasted chicken

I like roasting things. Take any vegetable, and it's delicious roasted. It's the same with meat (no, not fish...I don't think). When in doubt, put some olive oil and salt on it and put it in the oven at 450 degrees. It might smoke up the kitchen a bit, but the outcome is usually good.

When we visited my mom this summer, she made us a sage-lemon-butter roasted chicken. In that spirit, I created a sage and thyme roasted chicken, and stuffed a quarter of a lemon in its cavity (it was a small chicken). Other than needing to shove butter, sage, and thyme under the skin, this could not be easier; just stick it in the oven until the meat reaches a safe temperature. For those who find the idea of poking around under chicken skin gross, just think: it makes the skin crispier and more delicious.

Since we did have a Romanesco cauliflower (a greenish-colored cauliflower that looks like a cross between cauliflower and broccoli), when the chicken was resting on the counter I put the florets into the hot oven. They were just coated with olive oil and salt, and cooked until tender. With a squirt of lemon juice to finish, the flavor was both bright and sweet.

No recipes here; just three guidelines: cook at 450 degrees (or, if you're brave, 500), don't be afraid of salt, and keep an eye on things; you don't want what you're roasting to burn. Depending on the layout of your kitchen and the sensitivity of your smoke detectors, you might also want to set up some fans to clear the smoke.

Sausage and pepper tomato sauce

I haven't been posting for lack of cooking. As a result, much of what was already in the haul last week was still in the fridge, but thankfully still edible. We seemed to have accumulated quite a few peppers over the course of a couple of weeks - a red one, a green one, a light green one, and a few small orange ones - and something had to be done with them before all of their crisp gorgeousness turned to brown mush in the crisper. We also had three tomatoes that were miraculously still firm and edible from last week, as well.

To use them all - and give us a few leftovers for the freezer, as I'm sure this new "going to work every day" thing is going to cut into my cooking time (not to mention that horrid commute home on the 401) - I made a large batch of sausage and pepper tomato sauce. It's a riff on sausage and peppers that, if I may say so, was delicious. Not necessarily a weeknight dish - it did take about 40 or so minutes to cook - but a great way to use up peppers. Here's what I threw together; feel free to change the proportions based on whatever you have on hand.

Sausage and Pepper Tomato Sauce
makes approximately 6 servings

1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large red pepper, sliced into long strips
1 large green pepper, sliced into long strips
1 large light green pepper, sliced into long strips
3 small orange peppers, sliced into long strips
1/2 large Spanish onion, sliced into strips
1 lb hot Italian sausage, cut into 1" pieces
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt to taste

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick saute pan. When the oil is hot, add the peppers and onions. Sprinkle with salt. Stir occasionally until they are soft and browned.

Meanwhile, add a dab of olive oil to a large stainless steel skillet. Cook the sausage pieces through, moving only occasionally so that they get nicely browned and a fond (little brown bits that aren't burned) develops in the pan. Remove when cooked through and put on a paper towel to drain. Pour out the remaining fat; return to heat. Add the garlic to the pan; cook 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the tomatoes. The juice in the tomatoes will allow you to deglaze the pan; scrape up the bits on the bottom of the pan. Add salt, and cook the tomatoes until they have broken down, stirring occasionally. Add the sausage back to the pan.

The peppers and onions will be done at approximately the same time as the tomato-sausage mixture. When they are suitably soft, add them to the pan with the tomatoes and sausage. Don't worry - they will have cooked down considerably, and it will all fit into the large skillet. Turn the heat to low, and continue to simmer while you cook the pasta. Add salt to taste.

This week's haul (late again!)

My apologies for the lateness of this post - this week has been busy with starting a new job. I'm not even 100% sure if I'm getting this list completely right, but the box has long been unpacked...

- four ears of corn
- a bunch of beets, with greens
- a bunch of white turnips, with greens
- a small watermelon
- two (or three?) tomatoes
- carrots
- peppers - one lighter green one, some smaller ones, some jalapenos
- potatoes (some purple!)

I think that's it, though there may have been a red onion that I'm missing that we've already used. My work with all of this so far? I've boiled the corn so that it doesn't go bad, and it's sitting (still on the cob) in the refrigerator. Only today have I gotten it together to make a list of what we're probably going to have with it all - I've even managed to think of a way to use the turnips! More to come this weekend.

Peach and blueberry cobbler with blueberry sour cream ice cream

Two things inspired this dessert:

- the fragrant baskets of Ontario freestone peaches at the grocery store

and

- the delectable lemon sour cream ice cream I had at Oliver & Bocacini Cafe Grill on Monday night

I have to be honest: I originally planned to make a pie. I always originally plan to make a pie. However, pie-making requires actually planning ahead: making the dough, letting it chill for at least an hour, and then having the counter space to roll it out. This is not always realistic, and since I still find pie dough making somewhat stressful, I tend to avoid it, despite my best intentions.

Instead, I had planned to do something halfway in-between; a cobbler with a pie-like crust, from The All-American Dessert Book. Fate, however, had other plans. I cut my thumb pretty badly while slicing the slippery peeled peaches. Now minus a hand, rolling out dough of any kind was out of the question. So I turned to Epicurious for some quick guidance.

I found one recipe that approximated what I wanted to do, and then changed it for my own purposes. And what is a warm fruit dessert without ice cream? Before the knife-slicing incident, I had managed to put together the Blueberry Sour Cream ice cream from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. P thinks this may be the best ice cream I've made yet - and it was so easy. No custard required; only a short cooking of the blueberries with sugar and lemon on the stovetop, and blending with the sour cream and heavy cream in a blender. The ease calls for experimenting with other flavors!

Peach & Blueberry Cobbler

for the fruit mixture:
5 - 6 cups of sliced, peeled peaches
1 cup of blueberries
2 tbsp cornstarch
juice from half a lemon
1 cup sugar

for the cobbler:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup of heavy cream (any milk will do, but the heavy cream is nice)
1 tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Mix the ingredients for the cobbler in a large bowl. Pour into a 2.5 quart oven-safe dish, or a baking dish that will comfortably fit the fruit. Bake fruit mixture for 10 - 15 minutes, or until just bubbling. It is a good idea to put a cookie sheet on a rack below the fruit, so that if there is overflow the oven stays clean.

While the fruit is baking, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using your hand or a pastry cutter, incorporate the butter into the flour until resembling a coarse meal. Add the heavy cream until it forms a dough; you may not need all of it.

When the fruit is bubbling, distribute the dough across the top of the cobbler. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cobbler. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the top is browned. Serve warm.

Sausage and potatoes, and roasted eggplant

I really like eggplant, but for some reason cooking it has a history of being touch-and-go for me. It got to the point in grad school that we'd always buy Japanese eggplants, because the flavor of the typical globe eggplants would be so unreliable when I cooked them. That's the glorious thing about getting these boxes of veggies, though - if there's a globe eggplant in the box, well, we have to do something with it.

Again I turned to Mark Bittman for inspiration. (For those thinking this is monotonous, you seriously should check out this cookbook. I'm in love - and a non-baking cookbook rarely holds my attention this long.) He suggested a broiled eggplant with miso-walnut vinaigrette. Since we don't have a broiler-safe pan, though, I was nervous about using my Pyrex pans - which clearly say "no broiler" on them. Instead, I cranked up the heat in the oven to 500 degrees, and followed Mr. Bittman's instructions.

Basically, here's what I did:

1) Cut an eggplant in half lengthwise. Rub it with vegetable oil and salt.
2) Roast at 500 degrees (or if you can, broil), cut side up, until browned on top.
3) While it's in the oven, whisk together some miso paste, soy sauce, and rice vinegar, using proportions to taste. Add in some chopped walnuts.
4) When the eggplant is done, make cut into it a bit (sort of like a baked potato), and apply the vinaigrette.

So easy, and so good. The eggplant was perfect - a definite for the repeat list.

On the side (or was the eggplant the side?): roasted lamb Merguez sausages with red onions, and some boiled sliced new potatoes mixed in. Another Bittman suggestion, substituting roasting for broiling. Seriously, check this cookbook out.

This week's haul

I forgot to post about what we got this week! Here's the list:

- one watermelon
- a red pepper and a green pepper
- several tomatoes (including a green stripey one)
- four ears of corn
- a bunch of radishes
- celery
- Romanesco cauliflower
- a red onion

My challenge this week: celery. Ants on a log is always good, but it's hard to eat a whole head of celery worth of it. I usually only use celery in soups, or to make chicken broth (or a few stalks tossed into recipes here and there). Any creative suggestions for ways to use celery? I've found some salad recipes on Epicurious so far, but haven't committed to one yet...

What to do with radishes, Part II

I'm embarrassed to admit that we didn't use the radishes we got last week - not for lack of interest, but they just got soft before I had a chance to use them. Happily, though, the little cucumbers from last week lasted longer, and were still fit to use last night.

My plan: a sweet radish and cucumber salad. On Epicurious, I came across a few uses for radishes and cucumbers that brined the vegetables. For dinner, I made a quick brine using cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper, and let it soak for 10 minutes. The recipe is found here. I think this use of radishes is the best yet - and it was excellent a day later for lunch. I plan to experiment a bit with the flavors of the brine, and possibly the vegetables the radishes are paired with. The salad would probably be just as delicious without any other vegetable at all!

On the side with the radish and cucumber salad: some pan-grilled steak, corn on the cob, and leftover potato salad from last week.

Singapore noodles

In addition to the cornbread cookbook (The Cornbread Gospels) I picked up on the visit to Connecticut, we also purchased a cookbook called Asian from the bargain table. Usually bargain table cookbooks are there for a reason, but this one stood out for the selection of Asian dishes we'd been meaning to try at home (like our favorites from the Banana Leaf, the best Malaysian restaurant in Vancouver.) We took a trip to T&T this weekend to pick up a few things we were missing, and dove into the book.

P - since he was the one who found the book - had the honor of choosing the first recipe we made. He selected Singapore noodles. When P and I started ordering Chinese food together, he introduced me to the wonderful world of this noodle dish. Chinese BBQ pork, shrimp, and tasty curry-flavored noodles. In the right hands, this is delicious; just spicy enough, with large pieces of pork and shrimp and lots of flavor. In the case of more disappointing Chinese delivery, it's greasy and sort of tasteless, with tiny bits of the added meats.

The result? Delicious. We're making our not-so-great Chinese delivery place obsolete. (Also a nice way to use the green beans from last week's box!)

Impromptu fish and vegetable stew

Again inspired by Mark Bittman, I used a tomato and the peppers from the CSA box and the Japanese eggplant from our balcony garden in a quick fish stew. I call it a stew because of the accumulation of pan juices when it's cooking; it's a bit too wet to be called something else (a saute? A stir-fry? Definitely not.)

Since moving to Ontario, we've eaten a lot less fish than we did while in Vancouver. Out there, it was easy: wild salmon was relatively cheap and always available. Here, it's not so clear-cut. The wild salmon is exorbitantly expensive, and doesn't always look so fresh. Not to mention that there are all sorts of complicated rules for what fish you should buy, what you shouldn't buy, what is bad for the environment, what has too much mercury...I just can't keep up. To be completely "right" all the time would require carrying a list of the "good" and "bad" fishes around in your wallet - a list that changes all the time - and I already have enough jammed in there. Instead, I have 3 general rules for buying fish:

1) It is preferably on sale. I'm cheap, and I rationalize this by thinking they have enough to put on sale, so it's probably fresh and "in season," whatever that is in fish-world. This may be entirely wrong, but the "I'm cheap" part of the reason wins out.

2) It looks fresh. The people behind the fish counter at my local Loblaws are not the types who love letting you smell the fish, so I go on sight. Does it look mushy? Does it look like its been unfrozen more than once? If either are true, I walk on by.

3) It's wild. Yes, I realize farmed fish is sometimes (often?) on the "good" fish list. But ever since my friend M (who did his dissertation work on salmon and has his PhD in zoology) said that farmed salmon don't really look like normal salmon when they're alive, I prefer to buy wild fish.

Now, these rules probably violate all sorts of proper fish shopping behavior. I accept that; I don't paint myself as someone who is 100% correct in how to buy fish or produce, or anything, for that matter. These are just my quick-and-dirty rules, and they seem to work well for me: we haven't bought bad fish yet. (Except for some mussels...but that's a different story. My rules probably do not apply to shellfish.)

Fish and summer vegetable stew
serves 2 generously (with leftovers)

1 tbsp olive oil
2 large shallots
3 - 4 small peppers, in various colors
1/2 lb firm white fish
1 Japanese eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1 large tomato, chopped
juice from half a lemon
1 - 2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large saute pan. Cook shallots and peppers on medium until slightly softened. Meanwhile, dry the fish, sprinkle salt and pepper on each side. Once softened, push the vegetables to the side of the pan and add fish. Sear slightly on each side. Add chopped tomato and eggplant; mix everything together. The fish will start to fall apart; this is all right. Cover and cook until the tomatoes and eggplant are soft and the fish is cooked through, 3 - 4 minutes. (If the pan you're using does not have a cover, use a piece of tin foil.) Remove cover and add lemon juice and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with good bread to sop up the juices.

Notes: This is easily multiplied by adding more fish and/or vegetables - watch the size of the pan when adding volume. Nearly any summer vegetable will do, but adding tomatoes is important because of the moisture they release and the texture they add to the dish.

Warm Corn & Ham Salad

We started the week out with 6 ears of corn. I really like corn - but have never really been in a position to use this much all at once. The last few weeks I've simply frozen the bounty, but this week was inspired to use all of it.

Rather than just eat in on the cob - which isn't so good if the corn sits in the refrigerator for days and days - I cooked all 6 ears at the same time when we ate corn earlier in the week, and cut them off the cob for last night's dinner. Again, I turned to Mark Bittman for ideas. He has a recipe for a warm corn and ham salad that sounded tasty, especially since P and I found a really good ham in the deli section of the local Loblaw's. This ham tastes like what you'd make at home - but without having to buy a whole ham.

For those who envision a mayonnaise-laden salad when hearing "ham salad," this is far from that. It's simply some onion and ham sauteed in a pan until browned (I added a jalapeno from the balcony garden), with some corn and frozen soy beans added to heat through. The dish is then finished with a bit of wine vinegar, parsley, and salt and pepper. Bittman originally called for lima beans, but since neither P nor I like them, we used soy beans; the only white wine vinegar I had on hand was champagne vinegar, which worked fine. This was a great way to use the corn and onion from the box, as well as one more jalapeno from the garden. It was equally delicious for lunch today.

As an accompaniment, P made onion rings with our new deep fryer. Though his recipe is still being perfected, I think freshly-made onion rings are probably more delicious than most you'll get in a restaurant - there's that fresh-from-the-fryer taste that is hard to get when moving the onions from the kitchen out to a restaurant table.

Lebanese potato and warm cabbage salads

Tonight's dinner was another go at making the vegetables more interesting - and in this case, having no meat as a main or side. The cabbage we got in the box a couple of weeks ago was still good, as were the potatoes from the week before, so I combed through my new favorite cookbook (Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less) for some interesting recipes.

Two recipes appealed to me, though they fell in the "wrong" seasons. Warm Cabbage Salad with Bacon was designated a winter recipe; Lebanese Potato Salad was apparently meant for the spring. Obviously, though, these are just suggestions - the primary vegetable players in both recipes are clearly in season now.

The Lebanese Potato Salad was delicious - I'm not sure what made it Lebanese, but it was still tasty. While Bittman called for sprinkling some coriander seeds in it, I got it mixed up with another recipe and threw in some mustard seeds instead. Still tasty, though the coriander might have been what made it Lebanese...in any case, I'd make it again.

As for the cabbage, I'm curious how it tastes cold. Warm, it was a bit like a sauerkraut with a bit of bacon. P thought it definitely needed more bacon to make even adding it worthwhile; it was hard to even notice it within the giant pile of cabbage and onion. Maybe with sausages on a cold winter night this would be a better fit - otherwise, I don't think this will reappear on the menu any time soon. When it's cold it might make a good slaw or sauerkraut substitute - we'll see.

With the salads, we had some fresh steamed corn, which was delicious. What was arguably the most successful part of the meal, though, was the cornbread I made. Yes, we had cornbread last week. Yes, I love cornbread, and I would eat it every day. P, however, does not. He thinks cornbread is just okay, and will usually only politely eat a bit of it. This cornbread, though, has been declared The Best Cornbread Ever.

Embarrassingly, the actual cornbread part of it comes from a mix. It is the best cornbread mix out there (Jiffy - I think only available in the U.S.), but still, it's a mix. P has eaten cornbread made from this mix on several occasions, though, so it's what's added that made the difference. The cornbread I made last week was a bit of inspiration.

The Best Cornbread Ever or
Almost-All-Homemade Jalapeno Cornbread

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup creamed corn
2 large jalapenos, diced
1 green onion, sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 inch pan.

Dump the dry mix into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix until just combined. Pour into pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I used a 9 x 9 inch pan; the directions on the box call for an 8 x 8 inch pan. Just watch when it's done, and the size change won't make any difference. Obviously, the smaller the pan, the thicker the cornbread. If you're using something other than Jiffy, my additions to the recipe on the box were the creamed corn, the jalapenos, and the green onion; otherwise, just follow the directions on the box.

This week's haul

Here's what was in this week's box:

- a butternut squash
- a head of garlic
- green beans
- an eggplant
- sweet peppers (orange and purple)
- radishes
- three tomatoes
- six ears of corn
- two cucumbers
- several carrots

So many possibilities! I also have 4 more jalapenos and one small Japanese eggplant from my balcony garden, so I'll be integrating those in this week, as well. Tomorrow's dinner will focus on using some of the things from previous weeks - potatoes and cabbage - but I think the corn has to make an appearance, as well, so we eat it at its best. An update will appear tomorrow...

Beet salad and tomatoes, beans, and bacon

Tonight, with P home, I made two more veggie-centric recipes, with the goal of keeping the meat as a side dish. I turned to Mark Bittman's newest cookbook, Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less. This cookbook is fantastic for quick and creative recipes that use seasonal veggies - perfect for trying to use lots of vegetables from the CSA box.

Tonight's dinner?

• A raw beet salad, which I added a couple of carrots to from an earlier week. I pulsed the beets and carrots in the food processor with a large shallot, and tossed with parsley from the balcony garden, olive oil, sherry vinegar, large grain Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper.
  
• Wax beans and tomatoes sauteed with bacon and onion. After cooking the onion and bacon until the bacon was crisp and the onion was soft, I sauteed the beans until they were crisp-tender, then cooked the tomatoes in the mix until they wilted a bit.
  
• Barbecue chicken. Just some roasted chicken legs with some store-bought barbecue sauce painted on.

The vegetables were definitely the star - and with some bread, it would have been enough for dinner without the chicken. So far, trying to put vegetables center-stage is a success!

Melon sorbet

I got what I thought was a cantaloupe - but I think is actually an Ontario muskmelon - in the CSA box this week. I'm not really a fan of orange melon; it's only recently that I'll even eat honeydew when it comes in a fruit salad. (Now watermelon - that I can get behind.) So rather than just eat it raw, I decided to make melon sorbet. I'll eat anything in ice cream form.

While I had high hopes for a dinner full of vegetables, the heat of the summer just took away my appetite. So I went for a walk and did some errands. When I got back, I was too hot and too tired to cook - but that sorbet waited for me in the freezer. Does it really count as dessert for dinner when it's mostly fruit?

Long story short, the melon sorbet was delicious. Smooth, cold, and sweet, with just enough melon flavor. Absent was that overly-super ripe-almost squash-like taste that comes too often with cantaloupe (muskmelon?). The vodka in the recipe kept the sorbet from becoming rock-hard in the freezer; I could scoop it easily from the container. And with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side, it became just a little bit like a melon creamsicle. Since I ate about a third of the recipe for dinner, I think I might be a little tipsy now - I'm a cheap drunk. I forgive myself by remembering that it was also the equivalent of eating a third of a melon...never mind the sugar.

I used Alton Brown's recipe for melon sorbet, and here's one from Anna Olson (thank you, L) for days when you're have a bit more time to invest in making it. Since the melon I used was slightly smaller than the weight called for in Alton's recipe, I used only a cup of sugar, but the same amount of lemon juice and vodka. Yum. Next time I'll try to use a bit less sugar, too - the melon was naturally sweet enough to carry the sorbet on its own.

Thinking Greek

My friend L's dad drove us into work on Monday. On the way, we talked about how using the CSA share was going. I said that it was hard to figure out ways to use all of the vegetables - clearly, P and I don't normally eat this much of them. L and her dad pointed out that in North American culture, there isn't much honoring of the vegetable on its own. Rather, it's a side dish, and if the vegetable is served plain, it's usually the least delicious thing on the plate. Greek food, however, showcases the vegetables. Possibly due to the frequent fast days required in the Greek Orthodox calendar, the Greeks have found delicious ways to make meals without meat. What it ultimately means is that they clearly know what to do with a vegetable - to make it the meal instead of the sad side portion of the meal.

I decided to take some inspiration from this and put the vegetables on center stage this week. As with other times P is away, I'm more tolerant of failure in the kitchen than when I'm feeding someone other than me. To start, tonight's dinner was a Greek (sort of) salad with toasted pita - perfect for a summer evening when it's really too hot to do any serious cooking. This first try was definitely not a failure!

Unfortunately, there's no photo - my resident photographer is away, and I was too hungry to bother.

Greek (sort of) salad
serves 1 as dinner; 2 for a substantive side dish

1 tomato
1/2 green pepper
1/2 cucumber
1/3 cup Kalamata olives
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp fresh oregano leaves
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Cut up the tomato, pepper, and cucumber into bite-sized pieces. Mix in bowl with the other ingredients. Serve with toasted pita.

This week's haul

This week's box contained...

- 1 cantaloupe
- 6 ears of corn
- 1 green pepper
- red and white new potatoes
- an onion
- wax beans
- 3 tomatoes

Tonight I'll quickly cook the corn and freeze it, and add it to the corn from last week. There's just no way I can eat all of this before it isn't so good to eat - P is away this week, so it's just me and all these veggies...

Tex-Mex chicken and jalapeno cornbread

I love, love, love cornbread - so when I saw the The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon, I had to buy it. A whole cookbook full of over 200 cornbread recipes? How could I resist?

Combine a new cornbread cookbook and a bunch of fresh jalapenos from our balcony garden, and the results are obvious: jalapeno cornbread. The recipe I used was Jane's Texas-via-Vermont Mexican Cornbread. And while I'd be happy just eating cornbread for an entire meal, we also made Tex-Mex Chicken with Chilis and Cheese, from the June/July 2009 issue of Fine Cooking. Both were delicious - and though there were four jalapenos between the two, neither were too spicy.

If you're in the market for a cooking magazine and can only have one, Fine Cooking should be it. There's always a set of quick weeknight recipes in the back that - unlike what Michael Pollen decries in his recent New York Times Magazine article - are actual cooking. The rest of the magazine has gorgeous photography and interesting recipes, and usually has one weekend project and a general recipe that can be modified many different ways (like ice cream flavors, or lasagna). (Now, if you can have two cooking magazines, I'd recommend Cook's Illustrated.)

There are still at least two more jalapenos on the plant, so I'll have to think about what to do with those. In the meantime, I'm having some cornbread for dessert.

Aloo gobi, and making my own garam masala

When we were in Connecticut, we stopped at Trader Joe's, which has to be one of my favorite food stores. (Three things I love that are missing from Canada: Trader Joe's, Target, and widely available unsweetened iced tea.) We picked up two of their Simmer Sauces - basically cheater sauces for weeknights: one for chicken masala, and one for chicken korma. They were still sitting on the counter, waiting to be put away, when I opened up this week's box of veggies - so Indian cuisine was already on my mind.

So, rather than just use one of the sauces, I thought "why not try to make aloo gobi?" Aloo gobi is one of my favorite dishes to order when out at an Indian restaurant - it's cauliflower, potatoes, and delicious Indian spices. (I'm sure I'm not giving it a thorough enough description. Honestly, I'm no expert in Indian food beyond knowing what I like to eat - so here's a link to a description of aloo gobi on Wikipedia.)

My first search for recipes turned up this one, which looked easy enough. However, I had no garam masala in the apartment. Rather than just give up, though, I remembered that a) garam masala is a spice mix, and b) I have quite a few whole spices in my spice cabinet that I've purchased for such a purpose. So I found a recipe for garam masala here. Is it the most authentic? I have no idea; I'm sure every Indian cook has their own blend that they prefer. All I know is that the apartment smelled like an Indian restaurant while the spices were toasting, and it smelled good.

The recipe turned out well, I think; P approved. It was spicier than when I've ordered out, but good with the rice and the store-bought naan (no, I didn't make my own naan last night, too - that's coming later, probably on a weekend night). I did add the garam masala before it was finished cooking; sprinkling ground spices on top of the vegetables didn't seem that appealing to me, but I leave whether that was correct or not to the experts. I now have a ton of garam masala left over, so expect more experimentation with Indian foods over the next few months...

Book review: Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, & Shakes

Unfortunately, Beer and Butter Tarts, the blog that I had started to write for, is not continuing - its creators just had too much to do between that and TasteTO, my favorite blog about food in Toronto. Happily, I'll be writing for TasteTO come September. Here's a review I wrote for Beer and Butter Tarts before it was decided it would not continue. I'll be posting links here to anything I submit to TasteTO.

Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, and Shakes

by Bobby Flay with Stephanie Banyan & Sally Jackson
Clarkson Potter, Copyright 2009, 159 pages, list price: $30.00

I don't know many people who don't enjoy a good burger, fries, and a milkshake. Why else would vegetarians endure those disgusting hockey pucks that so often pass as burgers? Bobby Flay's newest cookbook, Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes, appeals to that part of all of us who are tired of thinking about local, organic, healthy cooking, and just want a big plate of delicious fat, salt, and sugar for a meal. So long as it's done right, what's the harm?

This book delivers on the promise of many delicious sounding (and looking) recipes for all different types of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. The burger recipes, with the exception of the fish burgers, are all built on the same base: a meat-only burger with a soft bun of your choice. The toppings are where the excitement is: there are 28 beef (or turkey) burger recipes and 4 fish burger recipes to try. All have appealing taste combinations that are based principally on American regional cuisine (e.g. the Buffalo burger, inspired by Buffalo wings), though some venture into territory more international, but not so new (e.g. a Greek burger).

The advantages to this book are that it emphasizes simplicity and quality of ingredients, and suggests burger combinations that one might not have considered - it definitely moves beyond the concoctions you can create at Harvey's. The milkshake flavors, and how to create them from various ingredients, are inspired. (The lemon meringue milkshake? Yum!). There is also a section that talks about creating your own sauces and spice mixes - like chipotle ketchup and horseradish mustard mayonnaise - that would improve the offerings at any barbecue. Watch out for the heat level in his recipes, though - even my husband cut back on the quantity of chipotles in the ketchup, and he loves anything spicy.

There are a few other instances where this cookbook leaves a bit to be desired. For those who are unskilled or have no experience with deep-frying, this book will not tell you how to do it. Each recipe for fries and onion rings that calls for the food to be deep-fried includes a quantity of oil (usually one quart, or 0.95 liters), the temperature to bring it to, and instructions on how long to leave it in the oil for. These seemed to be sufficient instructions to me...until I used a pot where a quart of oil ends up being only an inch deep, so I topped it up with another quart. When I put the sweet potatoes in the heated oil, it boiled over all over the stovetop. A word to the wise: for those trying to do deep-frying on a stovetop for the first time, don't do it on a gas stove. (Thankfully, my failed experience was on was an induction cooktop, which made for relatively easy cleanup and an intact kitchen).

No matter what your deep-frying skill is, though, the quantity of oil suggested was too small for stovetop cooking - and was definitely too small for the deep fryer we bought the next day, which happened to be one that Flay endorsed in the book. Another quantity that seemed too small was the amount of liquid in the milkshakes: most of the recipes call for a mere 1/4 cup of milk to almost two cups of ice cream. Not only does this not actually produce milkshakes of the size promised (one 16-ounce milkshake) - it is a very, very thick shake. Which could be nice - but with the outcome as thick as it was, I wondered whether it would just be easier to have a bowl of ice cream with the toppings that went into the shake, and save cleaning the blender.

This cookbook is a cute little read, with some good ideas - but there isn't a whole lot of substance behind the beautiful photography and the celebrity chef name. If you're a big burger fan, or have been meaning to try different fry and onion ring recipes and some interesting spice blends and sauces, this might be worth a buy. Otherwise, I'd just flip through this at the bookstore or the library for some ideas for your next barbecue.

This week's haul

This week's box is full of things I'm very excited to use:

- 7 ears of corn
- 3 tomatoes
- a head of cauliflower
- a head of lettuce
- a cucumber
- 2 carrots

I'm really looking forward to the corn and tomatoes; I think those are the vegetables that evoke summer to me the most. Even if the weather isn't super summery, the food in my kitchen can be!

Our first harvest!

Okay, harvest might be too strong a word - but here is the first produce from our balcony garden! It's very exciting; I've progressed from someone who killed all of her houseplants to someone who can help plants produce fruit! (I think the first step was learning that plants and gardens don't just water themselves, as they seemed to when I lived at home.)

When we came back from Connecticut, the jalapenos had grown large enough to pick, one of the Japanese eggplants had grown, and small, green tomatoes were present on both of our tomato plants. Now I just have to think of what to do with all of these - these four are only the start of what's still growing on the plant. I'll probably end up drying some of them, and our food will be spicier over the next couple of weeks! P definitely won't mind that.

Rhode Island clam cakes, chowder, and coffee milk (and fried clams!)

I just got back from a trip to Connecticut to visit my family. It was a great visit - P and I got to see all of the regular cast of characters in the Nutmeg State. And in terms of culinary excitement? P got to experience classic Rhode Island dining for the very first time.

You see, my mom grew up in Pascoag, Rhode Island, and my 93-year-old grandmother still lives there. Every time I'm back in Connecticut, we go up there for a visit. P, however, hasn't had the opportunity to visit as often as I have in the last few years, and having grown up in Edmonton, hasn't had the chance to spend a whole lot of time in New England, period. On this visit, we ate lunch at Serio's, which is a gathering place for all of Pascoag every day for lunch. My mom ordered fried clams to share - and being Friday, we could order clam cakes and chowder. These are dishes I grew up eating in Rhode Island every so often, and every year at the Eastern States Exposition (or the Big E). To drink? Coffee milk.

For those unfamiliar with these foods, clam cakes are a deep fried ball of dough, studded with bits of clam. It's sort of like a savory clam donut - and it's debatable whether it's more authentic to have more/larger bits of clam in them or less/smaller. Clam chowder, for me, always has to be white - the traditional New England clam chowder, full of potatoes and clams, with a cream broth. And coffee milk? It's just like chocolate milk, but flavored with coffee syrup. This is hard, if not impossible, to find on a restaurant menu outside of Rhode Island.

The meal, pictured above, was delicious - and definitely something anyone visiting Rhode Island should seek out as an eating experience. And with our new deep fryer, the clam cakes and fried clams might be things I'll try to recreate - results will be posted here if I do!

Sour cherry pie

As promised, here's a picture of the cherry pie I made on Sunday. It's rough - P and I have to finish it before we leave for Connecticut tomorrow! I think that means pie for breakfast...

For those interested, I made this from a recipe in Baking Illustrated. I didn't make a lattice crust - I wasn't feeling that adventurous - but it was delicious nonetheless.

Cocoa zucchini bread

I'm the crazy person who decides to bake something the day before leaving for vacation, when there's already a long list of things to take care of. Why? Well, we had some zucchini left from last week's box, and I didn't want it languishing in our crisper for another week. I had visions of it being shriveled and moldy when we came back. As luck would have it, our friend Ginny had just emailed me a recipe for zucchini bread with cocoa that she'd been trying out with her zucchini down in Connecticut. How could I resist?

A quick word on quick breads: there's something about this type of "bread" that makes it seem easier to make on a weeknight when you're in a rush. This is considered a bread because it's traditionally baked in a loaf pan, and it's quick because it doesn't use yeast as a leavener - instead, it uses baking powder or baking soda (or in this case, both). For me, it feels quick because there's no butter in the recipe - I don't have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature to cream it, so there's no planning ahead involved.

My only change to the recipe? Rather than use a loaf pan I used an 8 x 8 Pyrex pan. My pet peeve with quick breads in loaf pans is that by the time the middle is cooked, the outside can be quite dry. It also takes longer to bake and to cool to room temperature when cooked in a loaf pan. My change of cooking vessel, I suppose, makes it less of a bread and more of a cake - but I like cake, and it has vegetables in it, so why complain?

This recipe came to Ginny courtesy of her fellow carillonneur Paul Butler. Thanks, Paul, for this recipe!

Champlain Valley Fair Blue Ribbon Zucchini Bread
source: Paul Butler

Note: making 1 1/2 times this recipe works well in a 9 x 12 pan

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (Paul uses white whole wheat)
(for chocolate zucchini bread, substitute 1/2 cup cocoa powder for the flour)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups white sugar (you can use 2)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium zucchini, grated (about 2 cups)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan, or 8 x 8 pan. Sift flour, baking soda, baking power, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. (If you're in too much of a rush to sift everything, just sift the cocoa; that can be lumpy.) In a medium bowl or the bowl of a mixer, whisk together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract until light and thick-looking. If using a mixer, switch to the paddle attachment. Add the dry ingredients and mix briefly enough to moisten. Add the zucchini and walnuts, if using. Stir to combine but do not over mix.

Bake about 1 hour until a cake tester comes out clean. If using a loaf pan, the pan will be very full but that's okay - put a cookie sheet beneath if you're concerned about spillage. If you're using an 8 x 8 pan, bake for approximately 40 - 45 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.

Deconstructed deconstructed lasagna

After many days of meaning to make the lasagna tart posted on 101 Cookbooks, I have given up trying to get up the wherewithal to make a tart. (Instead, I've made a sour cherry pie...I can always find the energy to make desserts!) Instead, I took the same ingredients, and made a free-form pasta dish with it. Call it my deconstructed deconstructed lasagna.

Deconstructed Deconstructed Lasagna

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1/2 onion, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 zucchinis, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 28 oz can tomatoes (whole, crushed, chopped; whatever)
1 cup (or more) ricotta cheese
2 Tbsp chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

1 pound of pasta (or less - it depends on how "saucy" you want your pasta.)

Boil water for the pasta. Salt the water well, and cook pasta according to directions on package to al dente.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large, shallow pan. Saute garlic and onion until soft and a bit browned. Add red pepper flakes (more if you like things hot; a pinch just makes things interesting). Add can of tomatoes. If they're whole, mush them up with the back of a spoon. Cook for 10 minutes on medium until bubbling and tomato-sauce looking. Add zucchini; cook through in sauce. Remove sauce from heat; stir in ricotta and basil. Serve with pasta.

This would probably be even more delicious if it were baked (making it a deconstructed-deconstructed-reconstructed lasagna). If I were going to do that, I would undercook the pasta a bit, mix with the "sauce", put in a greased pan, and top with grated mozzarella. Then I'd bake it at 350 degrees until the top was bubbly and brown.

Check this out!

My first piece for Beer and Butter Tarts has been posted! This is a new blog on food issues relevant to Canadians by the same people who do TasteTO, which is my favorite blog about food in Toronto. I've written a review of Mark Bittman's newest cookbook - check it out!

Cornmeal and Kale Spoon Bread

Every American Thanksgiving, my mom has made what is one of my favorite dishes: Spoon bread. Composed of cornmeal, butter, eggs, and milk, I've always thought of it as a denser, slightly wetter cornbread - and perfect as a side for all things Thanksgiving. I've seen it more eloquently described as a heavy souffle or a savoury pudding - it's a bit like polenta or cornbread in taste, but lighter in texture than both. As I love all things corn, this is something I could eat every day.

When I moved to Canada, my mom's spoon bread recipe was one of the ones I asked her to copy and mail to me so I could do my own American Thanksgiving in Canada. And for every year but the last - when there just wasn't room in my oven - I've made spoon bread at my American Thanksgiving. But why just relegate it to a holiday dish?

I had originally thought I'd make soup with the kale this week. My last week's kale attempt - boiled briefly, then generously salted and buttered - wasn't anything I wanted to make again. With the heat, though, hot soup is the last thing I want to eat. So I searched Epicurious for some alternative uses for kale.

The recipe I was most excited about was Cornmeal and Kale Spoon Bread. One of the people leaving comments on the site was right; this recipe does generate a lot of dirty dishes. I boiled the kale last night to save a step (and a pan) today, but tonight it still generated, oh...2 bowls, a frying pan, a saucepan, and the dish it's baked in.

As for the taste? You'd never really know there were vegetables in it - the flavors all blended together. The roasted red peppers and green onions just melted in, and I wish the cheese had been more assertive. It was a sharp cheddar, and even though we put in more than the recipe called for, the dish wasn't very cheesy. The spoon bread did poof up while cooking, like a good souffle (though not as high), so the texture was light.

Would I make it again? Possibly. I'm undecided if having a larger proportion of vegetables in it would make it better, or just like a strange vegetable casserole bound together with some corn mush. It was tasty, though, and inoffensive; it might be appropriate as a side dish if I'm at a loss for something to make later in the summer. As much as I love spoon bread, it might just be best in its purest form.

This week's haul

Here's what was in this week's box. For once, all are things I have a good idea of what to do with them - the challenge will be coming up with something interesting.

- a big head of broccoli
- a red potato and a white potato
- 2 more pickling cucumbers (now I have 4, since I didn't use them last week!)
- a green pepper
- a tomato
- red cabbage
- a giant head of lettuce
- green beans & purple beans
- carrots
- 2 zucchini
- a small box of pink currants

The one thing in here I've never cooked with are the currants (assuming the purple beans are like green beans - they similar, differing only in color). However, as pastry is my most favorite thing to try (as anyone looking at my shelf of cookbooks can attest), incorporating these into something shouldn't be a problem. At least I think so...

I still have the radishes from last week, and most of the cabbage and the zucchini. I have plans for the zucchini from last week, which I'll post tomorrow, since that's when we're having it for dinner!

Coffee cake

Does this recipe include things from the CSA share? Not necessarily...but it's fantastic and easy, and allows for a lot of creative freedom.

While I was growing up my stepmom would make a great coffee cake - but when I tried to make it a few years ago, it came out like a dry brick. I probably baked it too long; it seems that every apartment I have is cursed with an oven that runs hot. After the research assistant in my lab, Donna, brought in what was an incredibly tasty coffee cake, I had to try again. This is the kind of coffee cake you could eat many, many pieces of and just want to keep eating. I asked her for the recipe, and she knew it off the top of her head - clearly, this is a classic in her house.

I've played with the recipe a bit, but only in terms of the coffee cake flavoring. Cinnamon sugar is traditional (and delicious), but you can substitute other spices, or even fruit, between the layers of cake. The version in this picture? Rhubarb compote in the bottom filling layer, then a mixture of white and turbinado sugars and cinnamon in the top two layers. P says this one is the best one yet. Trust me: you'll want to lick the plate.

Donna's coffee cake

for the cake:
1 cup butter (2 sticks, or half a pound)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder

for the sugar/spice filling:
3/4 cups sugar (half white sugar and half brown works well)
2 tsp cinnamon (substitute any other of your favorite spices)
optional: 1/4 cup toasted chopped nuts

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Dissolve the baking soda into the sour cream. Add 1/3 of flour and baking powder to mixture, then half of sour cream mixture; alternate flour and sour cream, ending with flour and baking powder. Mix only until ingredients are just moistened after each addition - do not overbeat. Combine the sugar(s), spice(s), and nuts in a small bowl.

Pour 1/3 of the mixture into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. (A tube pan works better for getting the cake out and not losing any of the topping.) Sprinkle 1/3 of the sugar mixture over the batter. Layer the batter and sugar twice more, ending with a layer of sugar on top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 - 60 minutes. Be sure to watch it carefully - test the cake 10 minutes early to ensure you do not overbake.

Some possible alternatives:
- Cardamom instead of (or combined with) cinnamon; a dash of fresh-ground (always fresh-ground) nutmeg would be a tasty addition, as well.
- Try using sugar with larger crystals (such as Demerara) or darker color (like a dark-brown sugar), or even granulated maple sugar in the sugar filling.
- Toasted slivered almonds, with an additional 1/2 tsp of almond extract, makes for a more almond-flavored cake. Almond paste in one of the layers could also be a delicious addition.
- Berries, or compote, spread into one of the layers. Be sure it's not too wet - this will interfere with the cooking of the cake.