A rainy weekend is perfect for doing not much at all. This morning my Corporate Challenge event was cancelled due to the poor weather, so I got to head home to make a tasty brunch for myself. I found a recipe a while ago on Chowhound (but failed to keep a link to the original post) and while I personally thought these were a bit too vanilla-y and sugary, they were a hit with everyone else who tried them. Who am I to judge?
Pecan Scones (makes 8):
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup cold whole cream
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried fruit (I used PC Mixed Dried Berries)
Preheat oven to 375F/190C. In a food processor, quickly blitz the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and butter. Mix together the egg, vanilla, and cream, then add slowly to the mixture in the food processor. Pulse until just blended, then mix in the nuts and fruit. The mixture will be very dry, so just dump everything out and form into a circle about 1 inch high. Cut into eighths and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 17 minutes.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Pecan Scones for a Chilly Spring Weekend
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Asparagus Tart
As a stay at home mom, I have been doing more than the usual amount of ladies lunches and brunches. With the spring influx of asparagus, I decided to make an asparagus tart. It was very easy since I never make my own pastry. It's the kind of thing you can make that will make your guest feel special, but that won't take you all day to make.
Asparagus Tart:
One box of puff pastry (rolled out)
One bunch of Asparagus
5-6 good sized mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs, beaten
A wedge of brie
Chives, salt and pepper to taste
Start by baking the asparagus and sliced mushrooms for 5 minutes at 425F in olive oil salt and pepper. This just makes sure they will be cooked through even if the asparagus is thick.
Take the puff pastry and roll up the edges a bit. Poke some holes in it with a fork or knife so that it doesn't bubble up while cooking. Lay out the asparagus and mushrooms to cover. Brush the edges of the pastry with the egg, and then pour the remaining egg over the tart. Cover with slices of the brie and chives and bake for 20-30 minutes (until pastry is brown). The second time I made this I added some slivers of onion, which added some nice flavour. Yum!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Mango & Papya Salad
Summer weather calls for easy summer flavours. The other day I read an article indicating that North Americans get most of their "phytonutrients" from sources that are not as rich as they could be. One of the switches they recommended was to eat more papya instead of oranges, so last time I was at the store I went and bought me a papya. What to do with a papya though.... Well, mangos were on sale as well, and I regularly get avocado and feta, and that's all this salad takes! It tastes so tropical and fresh, and the saltiness of the feta keeps it from being too sweet. This is the way summer should taste, and this is the amount of time summer cooking should take. I plan to have this with fish next time I BBQ.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Creamy Mushroom Soup
After the overindulgences at Christmas, I don't really feel like cooking a lot. (And even the thought of sweets makes me slightly ill!) This is an easy, homey dinner that makes great leftovers as well. You could easily omit the dried mushrooms, but they seem to give the soup an even richer depth of flavour... along with the cognac, which is my new "secret" ingredient in almost everything. I like to keep the texture of this quite rustic, rather than making it a puree.
Mushroom Soup (serves 4):
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock 
1 litre water
1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
24 oz button mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1 leek, finely chopped
salt & pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1/4 cup cream
3 tbsp cognac
Bring the stock, water, and dried mushrooms up to a boil in a large soup pot. While that is heating, fry the butter, leeks, and mushrooms until softened and browned. Dump that to the hot water and cook for about 1 hour, adding salt, pepper, and thyme to season. Pulse with an immersion blender until it's to your desired consistency, then add the the cream and cognac and bring it back up nearly to a boil.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ratatouille Tarte
As mentioned last week, I took the Ratatouille I made, and used some of it in a tarte. Really, a tarte is pretty much the same as a quiche for all intents and purposes. In this case I threw some goat cheese in with it because who doesn't love goat cheese with roasted veggies? I served it up with a nice little spinach, bacon, pine nut and goat cheese salad for lunch when my mom came over. Isn't this such a girls lunch?
Ratatouille Tarte:
Buy or make a pie crust (I buy, I am crap at pastry)
Add your fillings (ratatouille and goat cheese) so that they cover a good deal of the bottom of the tarte, but don't pile up above the rim of the crust.
Mix up eggs and cream at a ratio of two eggs per quarter cup of cream so that you get a consistency that isn't quite the same as an omelet. Give it a good whip so that it comes out light and fluffy. The amount you need will depend on the size of crust you use - I made two at once (and froze one after baking), and used seven eggs in total.
Bake in a 400 F oven until it is set (about 40 minutes). I cover it in foil for the first half and then uncover it to brown for the second half.
Throwing an extra in the freezer after they are done baking is a great way to have a little snack on hand for when you get surprise lunch guests, and all you need to do when you are ready for it is throw it in the oven covered in foil at 350 until it is reheated.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Not Your Grandma's Grilled Cheese
I know, I can hear you all now "Court, why are you so obsessed with pairing brie, mango, onion and peppers?" I don't know, and I know it is a problem, but a delicious problem that I munch up and then it is gone. Does that even make sense?
Anyhow, this sandwich is the latest in a string of variations on these ingredients that have previously shown up as a flatbread and an appetizer in my previous posts. Where will they pop up next? I am pregnant, so "on peanut butter toast" or "as an ice cream topping" are distinct possibilities.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Zucchini Salad - From Ground to Plate
There is something so satisfying about this time of year. I can have zero plans for dinner, and then go out and pick my own dinner straight from the garden and be eating 15 minutes later. This zucchini, basil and goat cheese salad is a great example of that!
I find that once zucchini plants start producing, you really go from famine to feast in the course of a few days. All of a sudden, you just can't make enough zucchini bread to keep up! Knowing that I was going to book club after dinner, and would be fed well again there, I wanted to just have a quick dinner that got a few extra greens into my tummy.
Zucchini Salad:
1 medium zucchini
3 basil leaves
Goat cheese - the more the better
1 cherry tomato as a garnish/to add color
oil and vinegar to dress
salt and pepper to taste
All I did was slice the zucchini lengthwise in widths as close to even as I could manage, brush them with oil oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss them on the BBQ for a couple of minutes a side. They cook quickly, and I find that nothing makes food look more appetizing than some pretty grill marks.
Once cooked, arrange on a plate and top with crumbled goat cheese, basil leaves and tomato garnish (I only had one little ripe one), and dress with oil and vinegar. So quick, easy and delicious and a great way to make sure you are using the zucchini that are popping up like crazy!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Lunch Wrap
In making the mushroom bruschetta for our 100 mile themed book club evening, it is almost impossible to judge how much of the mushroom mixture you will need to top the baguette slices. I always error on the side of having too much, knowing that I won't have any trouble using the mushroom mixture for lunch later (like with my creamy mushroom tarts where I spread the filling on toast - yum!). I used a number of the other ingredients I picked up to have a nice "local" lunch, and then I added in some not local at all avocado because I love it.
Wrap:
One large pita (I picked this one up at Elsalfi Bros. Mediteranian market - a fantastic independant grocery! and the pita is made in Edmonton at a restaurant on the South side)
One bunch of spinach picked from garden and washed
Fairwinds Farm goat cheese - as much as you can!
Half an avocado sliced (not local, but delicious)
Left over mushroom mixture
I threw the above all together and it made a great pita to eat on a sunny afternoon on my patio. It feels so much easier to eat healthy when the sun is shining doesn't it?
Monday, June 22, 2009
A Modified Greek Salad
When my brother Norm (Court's husband) told me he had been making Greek salad with celery instead of cucumber, I was sceptical to say the least. But he has definitely won me over with this, and I've made it for lunch at least three times in the last week. The celery gives it a delicious crunch and it feels extra fresh. And check out my adorable mini-beer! It's only 135ml - just enough to accompany my light summer meal.
Greek Salad for One:
2 sticks celery, chopped
1/2 red or orange pepper, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
1/4 small red onion, chopped
30g feta, cubed
drizzle of olive oil & balsamic vinegar
pepper
Friday, June 19, 2009
Mushroom Bruschetta
This is another dish from my local snacks book club menu. I discovered that Prairie Mushrooms grows mushrooms in Sherwood Park, a suburb of the city, so I felt like I had to take advantage of this and include a mushroom themed dish. Mushrooms are one of the few vegetables that you just don't see often at farmer's markets, and I had assumed that a local 100 mile diet would mean doing without. Not the case! For this recipe I chose to go with portabella and crimini mushrooms because I love the former, and have never cooked with the latter. They were easy to find at the Italian Center Shop , and I have been told they are also at Costco, some Sobey's and I saw them at Elsalfi Brothers as well.
Mushroom Bruschetta:
One Baguette (mine was from the Treestone Bakery on 99 st. that makes bread with local ingredients)
A small knob of butter (I used Dairyland, since they use Alberta milk to create their dairy products)
One portabella mushroom
One small container crimini mushrooms
A tsp. each of chopped parsley and chives (from my garden)
One small container of goat cheese
Cut the baguette into rounds and lay flat on a baking sheet. Spread each round with a generous pat of goat cheese, and set aside.
Chop up the mushrooms a little larger than the size you want them to be in the end, so that you allow for shrinkage in cooking. Saute the mushrooms in the butter until they brown, and throw in the herb about 30 seconds before finishing.
Scoop the mushroom mixture on top of the baguette slices and pop in the oven at 350 F until they are warm (10 minutes). Serve warm so that the cheese is nice and gooey.
It is worth mentioning that the goat cheese I used was from Fairwinds Farms out of Fort Macleod, AB. That is totally not within 100 miles of Edmonton, but that factored into our discussion of why "local" in the book was defined by a 100 mile radius (extra strange since in Canada we usually refer to distances in kilometers).
Friday, June 12, 2009
Grilled Peach & Feta Salad
It feels like summer is just around the corner, and with summer my appetite for salads has returned in full force. I seem to hardly eat salad at all in the winter months, but lately I have found myself often having them for 2 meals a day. It doesn't hurt that almost any combination of greens & fruit works, especially with the addition of cheese.
Grilled Peach & Feta Salad (serves 1):
2 handfuls spinach or other greens
1 peach, sliced
red onion
40-50g feta or chevre
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pepper, chopped mint
Warm peaches are extra delicious, so I grilled the slices on the hob for a couple of minutes and then tossed them into the salad and seasoned with pepper and fresh mint from my balcony garden.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Creamy Courgette and Brie Soup
With the horrible weather over the weekend, and the fact that my apartment was freeeezing, I decided to make soup for lunch. We have mentioned the Fresh Food Fast cookbook before, and this is another recipe from that book. This was my first go at making it after hearing Court rave about it a couple of years ago, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The creaminess comes from delicious melted brie - so I'm pretty happy I made a full pot and have the leftovers all to myself.
Courgette & Brie Soup (serves 4-5):
2 knobs/25g butter
1 medium/250g onion
3 smallish/200g potatoes
1 garlic clove
1/8-1/4 cup white wine
300ml vegetable stock
2 medium/500g zucchini
200ml milk or cream
125-200g brie
1 tbsp fresh basil, or to taste
salt & pepper
Melt the butter and then add the finely chopped onion. Soften for 5-7 minutes, then add the cubed potato, minced garlic, and wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the stock and zucchini and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is cooked (around 25 minutes). Add in the milk and brie and heat until the cheese has melted, then add the basil and heat through.
If you want to reduce the calories, this was actually quite good even without the milk and brie - just as a broth with vegetables.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Eggs and Soldiers
Breakfast in less than 10 minutes! A soft boiled egg, 5 spears of asparagus, and a slice of toast: this is a nice sit-down breakfast that is also quick and healthy. I cut my toast into dip-able spears as well so I wouldn't miss out on any of that liquid yellow heaven.
For a soft boiled egg, 
bring a small pot of water to a simmer then add the egg and cook for 6 minutes. While the egg is cooking, make a slice of toast and with 3 minutes left on the egg drop the asparagus into the pot of simmering water to cook. When the timer goes, everything is ready to eat. Once done, drop the egg into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Remove & serve.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Asparagus and Goat Cheese Omelets
All I did was brush the asparagus with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and roast it for 3 minutes at 500 F. Then I folded them into the middle of an omelet with a sprinkling of goat cheese. I also topped the omelets with a bit of crumbled goat cheese because goat cheese is so tasty, that a little extra never hurts. Look at the little ends waving to me from inside, proud to have been the ones up early enough to be cut prior to the snow. I know, I need to move past this! 
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Crust-less Ricotta, Tomato & Basil Torte
Recently I've been looking for recipes that will make good picnic food - i.e. they taste good unheated and travel well. I found this recipe on Taste.com.au and the picture looked so good that I had to try it. This was very tasty, but not exactly what I was looking for. Because it has no crust (gluten free!), it seemed like not the easiest thing to be packing around though it was good even cold. I would definitely make this again though! Using the food processor made it super easy to make, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a tart basically made entirely of cheese.
Ricotta, Tomato & Basil Torte:
500g low-fat ricotta
100g feta, crumbled
3 eggs
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
350g grape tomatoes, halved
Add the ricotta, feta, eggs, garlic and basil to your food processor and whizz together until smooth. Pour into a 22cm/9" pan that has been greased with olive oil (or lined with parchment paper) and cook in a 375F/180C oven for 1 hour.
I didn't mess with the recipe at all this first time, but reduced it by 1/3 as my pan was smaller. I got lazy and only did one layer of tomatoes (about half what the recipe called for), but it would be very easy to tuck a second layer underneath first before adding the top layer. This was very, very cheese-y, so adding all the tomatoes would cut through the richness of the cheese.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Egg & Toast Salad
I really did not feel like cooking dinner last night, but I also didn't feel like having plain eggs & toast... which is about all I had in the house that was quick. I decided to make this boring weekday dinner into a salad - all the while thinking it was going to be horrible. It happened to be a great variation, and a good way to make dinner a little more seasonal.
Egg & Toast Salad:
3 poached quail eggs
2 large handfuls salad leaves
1/2 english muffin, toasted & brushed with olive oil
grated parmesan
Dressing:
whole grain dijon mustard
sea salt
red wine
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tofu & Wakame Miso Soup
Miso soup, I feel your loving... If you're confused, check this out. But I really do love miso soup, although I don't love paying the crazy prices they charge for it at Japanese restaurants. Once you start making it at home, you realize how cheap and easy it is to make - and there are endless variations on it.
Miso Soup:
1 cup dashi stock
wakame seaweed
soft tofu
1-2 tsp miso to taste
I normally draw the line at making my own stock, simply because I don't have the space to store it and there is only so much you can do from scratch. Since I have no problems with a little msg, dashi granules are fine with me. Also, bonito flakes are super expensive, so making dashi stock can be a little cost-prohibitive in Edmonton. For one cup of water, use 1/2 tsp dashi granules. Heat the stock to boiling over medium heat, and while this is heating toss in the wakame. Once it has come to the boil, remove from the heat and in a large spoon mix the miso with some of the hot stock to thin out the paste, then mix everything together. Add the tofu then return the pan to the heat until it is nearly boiling. Remove & serve immediately.
Alternately, instead of using dashi stock some miso has dashi already mixed in with it. If you check the ingredients on the back, it should say bonito or かつお.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Poached Beet Salad
I have been thinking about this salad for months now, since I tried a version of it in late January at Muse in Calgary. With the warmer weather here (hopefully to stay!), I am finally starting to crave salads rather than hearty winter fare. This salad kind of bridges the gap between the two; the beets give it a warm earthiness and the slight bitterness in the arugula somehow manages to keep it feeling light.
Poached Beet Salad with Chèvre:
5 small beets, peeled and quartered
1 1/2 cups red wine
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 large handfuls rocket
goat cheese
2 slices cooked bacon, cut into fifths (optional)
balsamic vinegar to dress
The only thing that takes any time at all is poaching the beets - this will take at least 40 minutes, but it's fine to do that a day ahead. Peel and quarter the beets (I wear plastic gloves to do this, else my hands would be pink for the next few days) and put them in a pan with the red wine and balsamic vinegar. Bring everything to a low simmer and keep an eye o
n it for the next 40 minutes. I was not paying attention, and about 3/4 of the way through the poaching I went in to check on them and the cooking liquid had thickened and burned - smelling awful and covering the beets in a thick black coating. Luckily, rinsing them off took away all the bad taste and I was able to clean out the pan, replace the cooking liquid, and keep going. While this is finishing up, cook the bacon strips if you are using them (I didn't this time) and then cut into 3cm pieces.
Let the beets cool, then plate and top with the arugula and bacon and dress with balsamic vinegar. (My photos were taken prior to adding the dressing.) I rolled my goat cheese in fresh ground pepper, but it definitely could just be crumbled into the salad. I really liked the cute little spheres though, and it only took a minute to make it look a lot prettier.
Later, with my leftovers, I tried making appetizers on top of pieces of croissant... AMAZING! There is no doubt that these will be making an appearance the next time I entertain.
Monday, March 9, 2009
A Grown-up Egg McMuffin
On Saturday morning I had a craving for an egg mcmuffin - but not the regular greasy (yum) kind. I wanted something a bit more grown up. Because it was snowing like crazy I definitely did not want to leave the house, so I just made do with what I had. It turned out to be perfect... and almost ridiculously delicious. I poached the egg instead of frying it, and added goat cheese, sage, and tomato. I am sure this one will be staying in my repertoire.
Egg McMuffin:
1 toasted english muffin
1 poached egg
goat cheese
sage
tomato
salt & pepper
This was my first time poaching an egg. I suppose I was always worried they wouldn't turn out, and didn't want to waste eggs (why yes, I am very cheap thrifty). It was a lot easier than I had thought. In a shallow pan, bring a few inches of water with salt to a simmer over high heat. Lower the heat to medium, add a splash of vinegar, and gently pour the egg into the water. Supposedly, the vinegar keeps the egg together. Cook 3-5 minutes with a lid on until it reaches your desired firmness of yolk. If you want to rinse off the vinegar taste, just drop the cooked egg into a bowl of cool water before serving.
While the egg is cooking, bash up the sage with some sea salt and mix with the goat cheese, and get the english muffin toasting. Spread the cheese on the toasted muffin and place a slice or two of tomato on the other side. When the egg is cooked, add it to the muffin and season with salt & pepper. Done!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
PC Blue Menu Steel Cut Oats
I had been hearing about steel cut oats for a long time without really knowing what they were, so when I saw them at Superstore a while ago I finally decided to give them a try. However, the long cooking time indicated on the packaging made me put off making it... and then I remembered that my rice cooker has a porridge setting. Yay! No effort required (that's my kind of breakfast).
Steel Cut Oats:
1/2 cup oats (rice cooker cups)
water to fill line
1/2 stick cinnamon
If you don't
have a rice cooker, just follow the package directions. But it is absolutely genius to be able to pop all the ingredients in the rice cooker in the evening, and set the timer to have my breakfast ready in the morning. This made enough for 2+ servings, and I just left the machine on Warming to keep breakfast ready for the second morning. It tasted just as good! On day one I topped it with brown sugar, 1/2 a chopped apple, and chopped walnuts, and on day two with dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, and a little sugar. Delicious both ways!
