Archive for the 'leftovers' Category
Allison took pity on my cranky, overtired self and made a home delivery of finger cakes made with puff pastry, fig jam and bitter orange. They were still warm. Having made eccles cakes for fathers’ day she had leftover puff pastry, and decided to roll it and spread it with fig jam, then bitter orange peel, and fold it over thus. Brilliant, no? It goes to show there is a whole world of eccles cake possibilities out there, and you can cut them into any shape you want. I may or may not have shared.
She even took a picture as she made them and emailed it to me. Aw.
A warning: I may be brief and perhaps uninspired when it comes to recipes this week. (In fact, I may have been sparse the past two weeks already. Sorry ’bout that.) My lack of time management skills means I a) never get things done while I’m away, and 2) seriously underestimated how much cooking (and prepping and cleaning and serving) for 30 space/horror celebs would require (even with Wade‘s generous help, on fathers’ day even), and although it was great fun, it sucked up my entire weekend. Which I kind of needed to finish the work I didn’t get done while we were away. And so I’m scrambling – I’m on BT every morning this week (searching for Calgary’s best pizza! a tough job, but somebody’s gotta), and the final (FINAL!) edits of Spilling the Beans are due, plus the index. I have CBC two mornings and a dinner tomorrow night and a class on Thursday night, and a post a day to write for Babble, and stories due for Swerve and Parents Canada and Apple, and about a half dozen food photos, and I was called in to cover CBC traffic this afternoon, so chances are good it may happen again. And that’s just this week, and I’m not keeping up. Quelle surprise.
Of course every time I bow out and say I need to disappear for a bit, I don’t. So we’ll see. Also, I have Disneyland to tell you about, and Elvira. We hung out and talked about food yesterday! Really. She wants me to send her the recipe for Elna Edgar’s marinated asparagus. And she told me about a roasted cauliflower pasta she makes, with olive oil and garlic and anchovies and breadcrumbs. Which of course I have to make, not only because it sounds fab but because Elvira shared it with me. (!!!)
June 20 2011 | leftovers | 4 Comments »
Those of you who don’t follow me on twitter may not realize I’m in Austin, Texas right now. I am. At the IACP conference. It’s almost a hundred degrees, and I’m the only one not wearing strappy sandals. Since I arrived yesterday afternoon, it’s been nonstop. I think I may have slept for a bit in the middle there somewhere.
So yesterday? at food camp? I met Dorie Greenspan. Who was absolutely lovely and friendly and exactly like the Dorie I had in my mind, once I filled in all the gaps.
And then I went to a party at the museum Kalyn, and Eliese, and Jaden, and so many people I have a bag full of cards and a brain full of good conversations. And Kalyn and I went to La Condesa for margaritas and a late nibble, which were stupendous.
And this morning, at food camp? I met Shauna. (Finally.) And Dan, and Gaby. And we walked in the wet heat to the Taco Shack and ate tacos for breakfast, with guava juice and iced coffee.
And then there was a lot of other stuff, and tonight, at another shindig, Dorie saw me through the crowd and came over to ask me how my day was. And then Jacques Pépin came over to say hi – to Dorie, that is, but yes for a few fleeting minutes I was just hanging and chatting with Dorie and Jacques, and it could be that I just fell asleep and didn’t notice, but if that’s the case I’d like to continue on with this dream, please. Glee – I get it now.
Dinner, by the way, was amazing barbecue at Lamberts with Shauna, Danny and Lu, and Lisa, Gaby and Lillian. After a midnight food styling session (you know you’re hard-core when…) I’m going to bed – never so happily exhausted and invigorated at the same time.
June 02 2011 | leftovers | 14 Comments »
We did it! We had ourselves a potluck! People came! Even the sun showed up. It was a potluck miracle. I’m still a little breathless about it. I don’t know where to start.
How about at the beginning, when I hopped in the shower just as the doorbell rang? Turns out I told some people 2, and others 3. My mind, of course, was set for 3. I was so unusually completely on the ball. But then again not. So I got to meet everyone with sopping wet – and then varying degrees of dry-ish hair. Somehow it seemed appropriate.
It was so great to meet so many of you in person, and to have you all meet each other! I’m so glad you all were up to coming to a house full of people you had never met – at the house of someone you had never met. We were all kind of in the same boat. The Prosecco helped. My only regret is that I didn’t talk to everyone nearly as much as I wanted to.
The food was amazing. Unreal. It just kept coming in the door, each dish completely different from the last. The Other Al was first, with blueberry loaf. (I made more eccles cakes!)
AJ brought butter tarts. (Which were, it must be said – SUBLIME. I am particular when it comes to butter tarts. My grandma made them about as perfectly as they come. AJ – you nailed it! I tried to hoard them for myself without success.)
This strawberry-rhubarb punch, served with ginger ale, was a total hit. Look at that colour!
Colleen brought beet hummus with cumin, which she spooned onto rounds of cucumber, and then had a Barney purple index finger all afternoon. I loved that so many of you came in with baking sheets and tools and were cooking in my kitchen. LOVED IT.
Cathy brought a big rice salad, with dried cherries, oranges, grapes and pecans, in a royal blue bowl for me to keep. (Eee!)
And there was another big salad.. with avocado! I started to fall behind on my photos quickly.
These beans! Were fantastic.
I’m not sure at what point Mike figured out I had invited the internet over to our house. He got right into it, acting as Name Tag Police, insisting everyone identify themselves. I kept track of who brought what for awhile, but then fell behind on my photo taking and list making, and then I think the list got recycled. And I know I missed a few shots – Ulla, your veggie quiche! I may have to go back through my photo files. One night soon when I don’t have to get up at 4 to cover traffic in the morning.
And the asparagus, decorated with edible flowers! These came from Corrine and Darrel Winter – I thought it was funny that they didn’t bring turkey. This asparagus came straight from their garden.
So did the daffodils.
There were babies in my garden.
And pizzas.
There was fresh bread, baked then wrapped in tea towels and whisked over so that it may as well have just come out of the oven. When Lisa walked in I wondered if I had put bread in to bake at some point and forgotten? It smelled as if it was still baking, right there in her bag.
(And more babies.)
The mini watermelon you see above went uncut. W named it Chickadee and kept it on the couch, under a blanket, and wouldn’t allow a knife near it.
There was only one quinoa salad, after all! Avery made it, a copycat Earl’s west coast prawn salad with citrus honey vinaigrette made by this recipe. Totally divine. (Note: I didn’t get to it fast enough, and wound up snapping the very dregs of the bowl. It did look far better than this before everyone swan-dived into it.)
Jane and Erica brought – oh yes they did – an enormous Mac & Cheese TOPPED WITH BACON. How have I not thought of this??
Fareen brought shrimp puffs!
And dhokra, made with wheatlets.
At one point Ulla asked me what I had made, and I remembered that there was a roast beef slow-roasting in the oven. I forgot. There was so much food we just left it there.
There was cranberry date squares.
There was cake! Colleen’s rum cake.
And Donna’s son made apple cake.
And amazing cookies – with oatmeal and chocolate and other good things.
And I know I missed some – I missed the tzatziki, and the hummus. And the grilled veg, and macaroni salad, and two kinds of marinated asparagus. Sorry. It was all so great, but I was so focused on meeting everyone – I didn’t want to spend all afternoon looking through my camera when I had so many of you there in person! – I’m thinking we should have more of these.
May 29 2011 | leftovers | 72 Comments »
I went to W’s school this morning and built a potato condo with his kindergarten class. I highly recommend doing this if your kids’ teacher lets you – I brought a copy of Two Old Potatoes and Me to read beforehand, then the kids got to scoop dirt and plant potatoes, and all thought it was very cool. I love that the knowledge of how to grow their own potatoes is now somewhere in their wee brainpans. Maybe some of them will go home and ask their parents to grow their own potatoes in their own backyards or on their balconies. Maybe they’ll teach their kids how to grow potatoes. And so on.
We made our own last week, which once you drill holes in the bottom of your garbage bin takes all of about five minutes. I keep eluding to it on twitter, and people keep asking what the hell I’m talking about. So let me explain the concept of a potato condo, and how to make one, even if you’re not a gardener nor have space for a full-on garden. If you have room for a garbage bin, you have enough to grow a good-sized crop of potatoes your very own self.
I know, potatoes are cheap – but the satisfaction of going out to your back yard, thrusting your hand into a container of dirt and pulling out clusters of wee new potatoes to rub clean and cook up for dinner is (nearly) free. As you probably know, potatoes grow underground, but grow up toward the surface, rather than down, like most root vegetables (picture a carrot, leaves growing up, root growing down), which is why they are generally planted in little hills, with provide extra dirt for them to grow up through. Make sense? A potato condo allows you to grow lots of potatoes vertically by adding more dirt as the potato plants grow to the surface. It’s also a great way to contain them, taking up little space in relation to the yield. The first (and probably most) potato condos were made out of wood, with new sides added on as the plants grew, but I’ve seen and heard of potato condos built out of old tires, milk crates and garbage bins. Last year we built one out of a galvanized steel bin I had initially tried to turn into a smoker. (Which, not surprisingly, didn’t work.) This year there are plenty of spare plastic garbage bins around as the city has supplied us all with their own black bins. I’d love to see those unused garbage pails growing food rather than filling landfills.
To grow potatoes you don’t start with seeds – you start with seed potatoes. Seed potatoes are potatoes which have been allowed to sprout eyes. I’m sure you’ve inadvertently produced your own seed potatoes in your own kitchens. The potatoes we used were from last year – mostly from our CSA farm – stored in a cool, dark place they practically turned into potato plants right there in the depths of my kitchen.
To make your potato condo, first drill a few holes in the bottom of your garbage bin to allow extra moisture out – this will prevent your potatoes from drowning and/or rotting. I put a few near the bottom but on the sides, so they can’t get blocked underneath.
Then put some dirt into the bottom of your condo. Cut your seed potatoes into chunks, making sure each piece has a sprouting eye. Place them in the dirt, with the eyes upward, and cover with about 6 inches more soil. That’s it. Water and sun. They’re pretty low maintenance, actually.
Once the leaves poke through the surface, add more dirt and compost. This encourages the plants to keep growing more potatoes, growing upward. Once it starts to flower, you can dip your hand into the dirt and feel around for new potatoes to pull out – just be careful you don’t disturb the root system.
Your full harvest won’t happen until the fall, when it grows chilly and the above-ground part of the plant withers and dies. Then you can tip over the bin and sift through the dirt to harvest your potatoes. You won’t believe how many you’ll get. If you build a potato condo, keep me posted!
Wait, I have a potluck update!
continue reading »
May 25 2011 | leftovers | 40 Comments »
Awhile ago I was auctioned off at a live auction – at a fundraiser for Neighbourlink Calgary – and so today I made dinner for 10 for the highest bidders. On the menu: potato, lentil and spinach samosas with fruit chutney, Gouda gougères, curried mango chicken in wonton cups. roasted tomato and red pepper soup, caramelized onion and cambozola flatbread, chicken tagine with spring vegetables and couscous, spinach salad with purple onion, oranges and pumpkin seeds, and roasted asparagus. For dessert, ginger crème brûlée with caramelized pears and brown sugar-vanilla shortbread.
Just got home. Am v. tired.
Luckily Sue was here this afternoon to be my artichoke wingman as this was my very first attempt at this particular tagine, which was made with skinless, boneless chicken thighs, onion, lemon, fennel and artichokes, trimmed and quartered and choked and bathed in lemon water as they waited to go into the pot. It was all very simple (once we navigated our way around the artichokes, which I’ve worked with before but not enough), yet slightly beyond my normal realm. I’m happy to have been forced into simmering loads of onions and garlic with lemon zest, ground coriander, paprika and handfuls of fresh parsley, dill and mint – a combo that would never occur to me. It worked out very well, simmered in a pot then transferred (as it cooked down) to a wide braiser, and fed 10 enormously, with plenty of leftovers. The recipe came from the April, 2003 issue of Bon Appétit. Ah, 2003.
I’ll share the ginger crème brûlée recipe soon – that was in fact my own dinner, at around 10pm – it elicited more yummy noises than the any other part of the meal. (Essentially I simmered slices of fresh ginger in cream, then strained it before going about making crème brûlée the usual way.)
Bed.
May 21 2011 | leftovers | 9 Comments »
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