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.