Dinner on Murray

We didn't have to dirty any dishes tonight, we were treated to dinner. Brittany and Ivan had soup and herb & garlic pita on the table for us when we arrived. The pita was covered in fennel seeds, garlic, an herb blend and toasted.

A spicy rice noodle shrimp stir-fry was up next. Ivan and I were basking in the sriracha heat, while Steve and Brittany felt the burn. It is always so hard to judge spice level when you love the heat yourself. The stir fry had everything I love, baby corn, broccoli and water chestnuts.

Sharing food with friends feels good. The feeling is imprinted somewhere deep down in our genetic blueprint. Meal times are meant to be savoured, and when others are around, meant to be spent together, gathered. Whether conversation flows, or quiet enjoyment lingers, a meal spent with friends is nothing short of a gift. Then we had dessert!

ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICHES

I thought long and hard about what to bring for dessert. I always stop and ask myself "What do I 'feel' like eating" whenever I am preparing to cook something. And this time I wasn't sure what I would want for dessert, not knowing what I was having for dinner. So I brought what I knew we all LOVE.

The cookie was a Vegan Mexican Hot Chocolate Snicker Doodle with Vanilla Soy Ice cream.

We ate the whole batch, 4 of us, it is slightly embarrassing, but who cares they were incredible!

seednut burger night

If you've got eggs and breadcrumbs... you've got burgers. If johnny cash could write another song, he'd write it about all the kinds of burgers he's eaten.

You can make anything into a burger. It is the ultimate quick and easy dinner. One night I ended up with the most amazing burger.

This is what I saw when I opened the fridge, half a bag of frozen shelled edamame, 1 fillet frozen salmon, eggs, bread crumbs, cilantro, garlic. All this became the most amazing burger.

Tonight I just saw a whole lot of nuts and seeds. It isn't always the protein source we go to, but nuts and seeds are cheap and store well. A pantry must!

I have a 3/4 cup food processor. That is barely enough volume to fill the palm of my hand, but in that small amount of seeds and nuts I ended up with 4 decent sized burgers. We had them over a bed of soba noodles topped with homemade tomato sauce and a chiffonade of spinach.

Seednut Burgers
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup cashews, raw unsalted
2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 eggs
1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs
garlic powder
onion powder
salt and pepper
vegetable oil for frying

• Put all the seeds and nuts into the food processor and chop until the nuts are the size of peanut toppings on an ice cream sundae. This size really made the burgers have a good texture.
  
• Dump ground seednut mixture into a bowl, add remaining ingredients and stir well until the mixture comes together into sticky patties that you can mold by hand. Don't make them too thick, or they will take longer to cook.
  
• Drop patties onto a hot oiled frying pan (i used a cast iron pan)
  
• You don't need alot of oil, just enough so they don't stick and brown nicely.
• They only take a few minuted per side. To check if they are done, press the middle of the patty with your finger, if it feels firm its good to go. You are just cooking the egg, so it doesn't take long.
  

Enjoy on a burger or sliced onto a bed of noodles, or in a stir fry. They have a really nice texture and are very filling!

Burgers in the cast iron pan, tomato sauce and soba on the go!

my own strawberries

I went to "Seedy Saturday" on the weekend, and scored these strawberry plants and a great selection of seeds. Seedy Saturday events come from an idea germinated by Seeds of Diversity. They are spring events that take place in cities and towns all over the world bringing people together to swap and buy seeds and gardening supplies, network with other gardening enthusiasts, and participate in workshops and demonstration.

5 dormant strawberry plants in a plastic bag for $6.00. I call that a deal! With a little green thumb and time, I could be swimming in strawberries come July. I have never grown strawberries before. Well that's a lie, I did try to start them from seeds last year. Do you know how small strawberry seeds are? You end up fishing them out of your teeth after you eat a strawberry? Well they sprout into green leaves that are not much bigger. Needless to say they didn't survive very long.

This is my food plan. Growing my own. I am at a point in my life where I question the prices of vegetables on the shelf, I question their nutrient value and I question the future of the food industry, to a point where I want to be self sufficient. When I see gardeners I envy them, I want to be like them, so I am starting here. Last year I had a community garden plot. This year I have deck and space in a friends garden. By the time I have my own yard, I am going to be well on my way to growing my own food supply.

I like the idea of only going to the grocery store once or twice a month. Living on my own sprouts, and a pantry filled with dry goods. I guess its my country roots digging their heels in. But its simple, I will not submit to higher produce prices just because gas prices went up. Seeds, soil, sun and water still cost the same.

Invest your time in your health. If you can't grow your own food, at least try to skip the middle man and buy your produce from road side farm stands and local markets. Go for a drive to the Niagara region and tour the fruit belt. Southern Ontario is an amazing climate for growing food!

sesame butter cookies

I used a peanut butter cookie recipe from my trusty Joy of Cooking. When you have this book, there is really no need to surf the Internet. It even teaches me how to do things I never ever want to do, like how to skin a squirrel and then cook it.

I had a jar and a half of Tahini and a hankering for Halvah, so I swapped out the peanut butter for sesame seed butter. I also ran out of sugar, so I used raw honey instead. And I added a pinch of sea salt, since I was using unsalted nut butter. But I am always surprised when I find any recipe without the inclusion of salt, I feel it is totally necessary when using sugar in a recipe.

This is my work surface.

It is pretty amazing the amount of deliciousness I can create with about 1 square foot of counter space. So if you ever say to me that you don't cook because your kitchen is too small, I will laugh and then invite you over to cook with me! You may notice that the cabinet up there has NO DOORS on it. They were the first things to go. I wanted to be able to reach everything easily and not have to worry about the clutter of doors in the way. Plus, I can see all my beautiful bowls and cups all the time.

Cookies about to go in my Cookie Jar

Many moons ago a friend of mine was getting rid of some things, and gave this cookie jar to me. The eyes are turned up looking at a little fly that landed on his head. I love it to no end.

Find things that you love and put them in your kitchen. A kitchen is a creative space, like an art stuido, treat it with child like wonder, and have fun in your kitchen! The kitchen is my favourite place to be. Out of all the rooms in my house, I spend the most time in it. Sometimes I just crack a cider and hang out in my kitchen, looking through cook books, creating mini masterpieces in my head.

Flourless Chocolate Tart

Easy Chocolate Almond Tart, with a funny little drawing, is what I saw when my finger landed on a random page in my little black cook book. This is by default Gluten Free, because it is based on 3 simple ingredients sugar, eggs and ground almonds. I don't know where I got this recipe but I glued it in and labelled it for good reason. Its easy and incredibly rewarding. The texture is fluffy and yet brownie like. When pulled out of the oven, it has a pale cookie colour, but once you slice into it, the speckled rich chocolate colour makes you think brownie. I don't know why its called a "tart".

I used a photo of the zest, because if you like orange and chocolate, you DO NOT want to leave this ingredient out. As soon as you bite into this treat you taste the orange. It isn't completely chocolate, it is more like tiny tiny chocolate chips.

The ground almonds I used were from Bob's Red Mill. I had them leftover from some "big cookie plans" at Christmas, but I never made all the cookies I wanted to, so here the bag kept taking up room in my freezer.

TIP: I keep all my seeds and nuts in the freezer in glass jars to keep them fresh longer.



3/4 chocolate chips, i used PC Decadent
3/4 cup brown sugar, not packed
4 eggs
zest of 1 orange, chopped up finely
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups + 2 Tbsp ground almonds
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

• Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F (190C) Grease and line the bottom of a 10" spring form cake pan.
  
• Pulse chocolate chips and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor to grind finely but not melt.
• Whip remaining sugar with eggs, zest, and vanilla until pale and thick, about 5 mins. Use a hand blender or stand mixer for this, if you can.
• Fold in chocolate, ground almonds and melted butter just until combined.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-50 mins, until a tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan, then slice and serve.

Vegetable Kichari

This is Steve's baby, he found the recipe, alerted the world of facebook that he would have a warm bowl of Kichari for his wife when she got home, and he didn't disappoint! Steve had to do some google searches to translate mung dhal and masoor dhal and he even improvised.

Sitting on our couch, watching The Big Bang Theory, my food is comforting and nourishing, just the way I like it. It is not overly spicy, it is like a creamy stew and the cilantro is refreshing. If we added more water it could have been a soup, if we added less water, it could easily be a filling for a burrito.

In no way should this recipe be anything but easy, toss in any veggies and be free and wild about what rice you use. This is a jumping point, take it where ever it may, add chili spice, garnish with avocado and serve with tortilla chips, the possibilities are endless.

SIDE NOTE: I added Franks Red Hot sauce to mine, well, because I put that *5#@ on everything... except waffles, that would just be gross.

Thank you for dinner Steve!

If you want the real Indian recipe check it out at Maharishi Ayurveda

TRY THIS

Vegetable Kichari
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup yellow split peas
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup green lentils
3 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter) you can use oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp coriander powder
salt to taste, we used around 2 tsp (added when the lentils are fully cooked)
2-3 cups veggies , we used black kale, carrots, celery and red pepper
3-4 cups of water depending on desired consistency
Cilantro for garnish

• Wash all the grains in a large mesh colander, this gets rid of all the dust and particles on the grains which can alter the taste
  
• In a large soup pot heat ghee or oil over medium heat
• Add cumin seeds and cook until they pop
• Add ginger and cook until lightly browned
• Add tomato and remaining spices and cook for 2 -3 mins, stirring occasionally
• Add the grains, stir thoroughly and cover for 3 mins
• stir again, add veggies and water then cover. Stir every few minutes.
• Cook until the grains are tender, approximately 30-45 mins.
• Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

I think you could save time and toss everything, except the salt, into a crock pot and get the same results.

Dinner @ Earth to Table

Dinner was easy tonight. We bundled up and walked the 2 blocks to this special restaurant. Focused entirely on eating local, in season foods. Owning shares in a local farm and sourcing their own Red Fife wheat, I can't say enough about this place, Earth to Table

We walked in to a packed house, rubbing elbows with the patrons next to us, but laughing about our close quarters with each other. We are all just happy to have a place to sit. This place is ALWAYS busy and once you eat here you'll know why. Just a simple narrow sheet of paper lists their menu items. A few remarkable salads, several pizza options and an incredible dessert menu.

We ordered the Arugula & Fennel salad with sunflower seeds and a mild yet zippy lemon dressing and a Roasted wild mushroom & thyme Pizza. The drink special of the evening, a gin Mojito for me.

We ended the meal with a Brownie and a Blondie in a paper bag to go.

Due to technical difficulties, I managed to delete all the photos of the pizza so i haven't killed the mystery.

EARTH TO TABLE, Locke Street, Hamilton.
SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS

Black Kale

What is that?
Is that Kale?
Oh that looks good!
Oh that feels good!

I reached up and pulled it out of the produce case at my local health food store. It was black kale, lush and deep green. I bought it and ate it for the next couple days, sauteed into stir-frys, sliced into salads, it just felt good to eat it.

Then I made this soup. I had leftover black rice and quinoa, some random veggies, miso paste, red curry paste, veggie broth cubes, garlic.

An impromptu lunch on my day off. Steve loved it, and we ate it for the next few days.