Archive for the 'sandwiches' Category
Sorry, that’s Saturday morning breakfast, not Friday night dinner. Come to think of it, dinner was apple cider and Kinnikinick cookies at the very first Calgary Food Summit in honour of World Food Day, where I spoke a bit to the group of 130 and was involved in lively discussion/brainstorming session on the issues of food security and policy and everything related to creating a sustainable food system, trying my best not to touch anything or anyone and washing my hands so obsessively they now look like they should be attached to a 90 year old.
By the time I got home last night I felt on the verge of a full-on flu smackdown. (I couldn’t manage to hold myself upright at the computer, looking desperately around my cluttered office for something good to give away, and finally crawled into bed and called it Free Stuff Saturday mornings.) W is up and down, a little more feverish again last night and kept falling asleep throughout the day, and we spent another night with him twisted around me, hacking out a lung. Mike has gout again – there appears to be a connection with long car drives. Between us we’re a bit of a mess. (As I write this, W is trying to take Lou’s temperature – it’s a good thing he only knows the under-the-tongue technique.)
Since I was roused by phlegm and simultaneously pushed out the side of a king-sized bed at just slightly after 4 (!!) this morning, I decided I was in particular need of comfort food. Not scones, or a loaf, or oatmeal.. I needed something more. I needed a grilled cheese sandwich made with aged white cheddar on raisin bread. Guys, you have to try this.
The idea was still swimming around in my head after reading my Tell Simmer interview, in which I fessed up my most disgusting snack habit (it’s not the grilled cheese – you have to read it to find out). I answered all these questions in the motel in Salmon Arm en route back to Calgary the other night, drinking shiraz from a plastic Travelodge cup. At some point toward the end I managed to erase the whole thing (I blame the shiraz. And the cup) and I had to start over. (It would be interesting to see how I answered that same list of questions this morning, in an entirely new time and place!) Simmer till Done is on my short list of favourite, funniest food blogs. I have a ton of Marilyn’s recipes bookmarked to try. I wish I wasn’t still in a daze and could do it more justice with my description – suffice to say it’s well worth a read.
So for Free Stuff Saturday Mornings (we’ll resume our normal Friday programming schedule) would you take a new cookbook? I have a new, big chunky one from Readers’ Digest, which I’m sad is struggling (although the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing doesn’t apply to Reader’s Digest operations in Canada) – I’m hoping it isn’t at risk of going under along with Gourmet – news I’m still seriously stunned by.
It’s called Just 5 Things, because each recipe uses only 5 ingredients – seems like a good idea as we start to get into the busy season. It’s huge – 700 pages! – with a flexible hard cover, and EVERY RECIPE HAS A PHOTO. Each recipe is on its own page, and the facing page is a full-colour photo. It’s one of the best laid-out cookbooks I’ve seen.
So – I do want to know what everyone is eating – and you could in fact cheat and recount the best meal of the week – it doesn’t have to be last night! Do you have any 5 ingredient (and under) favourites?
October 17 2009 | sandwiches | 62 Comments »
A. brought tomatoes from her in-laws’ garden in BC. Mom brought a loaf of crusty sourdough. There was bacon in the freezer. We couldn’t rightly not have bacon and tomato sandwiches for dinner.
(Mike and I shared this – it’s enormous – I’m not a total glutton. Well, maybe a little bit.)
One Year Ago: Pulled Pork Pizza
August 27 2009 | sandwiches | 24 Comments »
And a new toilet. Mike and I installed one our very own selves. (Since then, Mike has been running around the house in slow-mo – arms in the air, singing We Are the Champions. We planned to do it at around dinnertime, knowing that our handy neighbours would be home around then in case we needed backup (we did, due to our 100 year old house’s extremely wonky floors).
After, we drank cold Strongbow with our friends/neighbours on the lawn as our assorted toddlers played with pushy things and W tormented one of their cats. And when we finally came inside it was pushing 8, so W had Raisin Bran and dried apricots, and I cooked up some bison bacon I had bought earlier specifically for the occasion of a perfectly ripe, buttery avocado, and turned both into sandwiches on toasted grainy bread. Bison bacon is very lean – much like back bacon, only leaner, and quite salty. A perfect pairing with soft avocado.
So – straight to Free Stuff Friday. To preface: I emceed Speak Out 2009 this afternoon, an event downtown in Olympic Plaza with celebrated the disabled, with a pride parade down Stephen Avenue. It was hot, and there was a great lunchtime turnout. W splashed in the enormous wading pool and flicked his feet in the fountains.
At one point, I was chatting with my Mom (who helped organize the event) and a volunteer, who had just been approached by a young boy who gave her six dollars. His grade 8 class was doing a “pay it forward” project; we later noticed that kids were wandering around handing out flowers and such. She was then supposed to pay it forward, so she gave the six dollars to my Mom. We kind of looked at each other and said, so.. what? This six dollars gets passed from person to person until someone finally pockets it? And why six dollars? It was a nice but slightly odd gesture; the volunteer was not visibly in need of financial help – there were certainly a few people around the downtown plaza who could have used a few dollars. But it seemed to me like an interesting opportunity to try to do something more. And it just so happened to occur on a Friday.
There have been a few suggestions to hold a tagline (or header art) contest here, with the prize being whatever I had on offer for Free Stuff Fridays – great idea. But this seems more important than a blog header.
So – what can be done with six dollars? I invite you all to make suggestions – you are a creative lot – and I will carry out the idea that seems most inventive or can do the most good. The winner will get the Free Stuff Fridays loot, which I am keeping secret. (Who knows – maybe more stuff will make its way into the loot bag as people pay it forward?) And I’d like to request that everyone reading this do something small to pay it forward in response to this young boy’s six dollars. If you do, post it here (so that would count as two entries – one comment for the idea, if you have one, and another for the good deed). Next week I’ll give the school principal a call, or write his teacher a letter, outlining all that came of the six dollars – it’s a great opportunity to illustrate to this grade 8 class how one action among strangers can create a domino effect in more directions than one. Don’t you think?
One Year Ago: Alphabet Wedding Soup
May 29 2009 | sandwiches | 41 Comments »
Made high tea today for donors attending the Family of Hope Tea at the Alberta Children’s Hospital; wee sandwiches with the crusts cut off, lemon scones with berry jam and cream, my Mom’s nut balls, vanilla bean meringues and lemon curd tartlets. I made it home (through rush hour) by 5, but after milling about with the neighbours out front it was suddenly 6, and so we had the last of the egg salad for dinner.
Egg salad, in my opinion, must be eaten on soft white bread, spread with soft butter. Crusty bread and rolls are the natural enemy of egg salad, causing it to squirt out the other end upon biting. All teas must have small sandwiches, and among them must be egg salad and cucumber (I did mine with chives and fresh mint from the garden), but plain old egg salad, though I love it, seemed dull. So along with the mayo I stirred in a bit of curry paste (powder would work as well), a handful of finely chopped red pepper, tore in some cilantro and snipped in some chives. It was pretty fine, if I do say so myself. Luckily, having made a batch using 18 eggs, there was enough left over.
For dessert – now here is an example of how a few sad leftovers quickly reassembled turned into something that when you describe it sounds downright fancy – I had a few extra lemon biscuits (or scones – pretty much the same thing – scones tend to be sweeter and denser, with an egg added, but these are sweet too – scones without the density and egg?) and a bit of whipped cream, but no berries save for frozen wild blueberries. So I thawed them with a drizzle of maple syrup and swirled that into the small dish of leftover cream, which had sort of deflated after several hours, and then got a bit watered down from the juicy berries and maple syrup, and made a kind of fool, albeit a sloppy one. A sloppy fool on a flaky bun. You are what you eat, I guess.
Large-Batch Lemon Biscuits/Scones
I used a small biscuit cutter to make mine, but the open end of a tomato paste can is perfect. Or for square scones, which look very cool, simply cut them into squares using a pastry cutter or knife. If you like, add fresh or frozen blueberries as you stir the milk into the dry ingredients – if they are frozen don’t thaw them, or they will turn your dough greenish and wet.
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2/3 cup butter, cut into chunks (I used roughly a third of a pound of butter for each of three batches – it doesn’t have to be exact)
1 cup milk, plus a little extra for brushing on top
coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
In the bowl of a food processor (or a large bowl), combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Add the butter and pulse or work with a pastry cutter, fork or your fingers until the mixture is well combined and crumbly, with bits of butter no bigger than a pea – you want to leave some larger bits, rather than blending it completely – the larger chunks are what will make them flaky.
If you used a food processor (this is my favourite way) – dump the mixture into a bowl. Add the milk and stir just until you have a soft dough (you may need to use your hands). Pat the dough out about 3/4″ thick and cut into small rounds with a biscuit cutter, glass or open can rim, or a knife. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray, spacing them an inch apart. If you like, brush the tops lightly with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 30-35 biscuits.
Header update: Thanks, really, for all your input. The cookies were a place holder really, I didn’t want to spend too much time on this if the consensus was a big thumbs-down. I thought I’d use this template and do up several with different images, and then add some sort of plug-in to make them automatically rotate. Or change it altogether. Or something.
Any thoughts on a different tag line? Some of you may have mentioned in passing that it’s stale and cookbooky, which is definitely not what I want to portray. You all know this site better than me even, being on the other side of the screen.
It’s difficult to encapsulate yourself in a graphic design format, particularly when a) you’re not a graphic designer and b) you can’t figure out this stupid new computer program. And yes, it had occurred to me to call an artist/graphic designer friend (and I’ve had some offers- thank you!) for help, but I wouldn’t want to presume that dinner might be a fair trade for their time and skill. Plus – graphic designers all have their own sense of style too. What if they don’t jive? I’ve worked with many (not friends!) that came up with things I just didn’t like, or that didn’t quite grasp what I wanted. Of course, I don’t even know what I want, except that it be hip/fun/current/usable as a header with elements that could be used on their own for a logo. Like a header transformer. I would hate to not like what they do, or be ultra high-maintenance and force them to do a dozen different things and then go back to the first, or change my mind and do something completely different. I don’t want to be one of those people.
One Year Ago: Tim’s Everything Bagel, Old Cheddar Cheese
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May 28 2009 | cookies & squares and eggs and sandwiches | 51 Comments »
I haven’t been fully awake since arriving in Tofino, but haven’t managed to sleep much either. I’ve been hanging on the edge of full consciousness, spaced out, feeling like I could curl up and sleep for two days. In this state I’ve had little interest in cooking despite the fresh air and open kitchen, and haven’t prepared anything beyond oatmeal for breakfast and toast with peanut butter. If my Mom wasn’t here, I’m sure I’d let myself live on eggs on toast and spoonfuls of peanut butter all week. I think I may have coming-home syndrome, something I’m not all too familiar with having spent the majority of my adult life in the same city as my parents, and as such not really ever having the opportunity to really come home to the house I grew up in to stay and sleep and be cooked for and taken care of, an experience I always envy when my friends go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. When I walked in the door here I almost (very unexpectedly) burst into tears of relief, partially because it was just me and my Mom and Dad (and W, of course… nothing against Mike or my sisters, brother in law, nieces and nephews – it was a riot spending a week here last year with all 13 of us, but you know how that kind of “vacation” can be) and partly because although it’s a brand-new house, not yet finished, it smelled exactly like my grandparents’ house on the Detroit river in Windsor, something my Mom could not detect and I still can’t explain.
Today, after coffee and muffins at the Earth Day festivities in the park and ice cream cones in town, we spent hours at Chesterman Beach, digging channels in the sand for water to run between tide pools and open ocean, walking in the wind, climbing on rocks, and came home too tired to bother with anything more than what we could scrounge around the kitchen. My mom made bacon sandwiches spread with guacamole left over from dinner out before we arrived. And more toast with peanut butter.
But this evening we were invited to the neighbour’s living room for a partial dress rehearsal of Annie, Get Your Gun, which said neighbours, who are in their late eighties, are performing in the upcoming talent show in two weeks. They promised popcorn and beer, but we decided to doctor up a wedge of brie to bring along. With limited pantry stores my Mom spread the brie with marmalade and topped it with chopped walnuts, which we (OK, she) toasted in a skillet with a little butter, salt and pepper. We popped it into the oven while changing into something a little less slovenly, and it was quite phenomenal.
And now here it is after 11 (midnight in Calgary) and the whole house is asleep; I should be too, but there is the small matter of this blog, and part of me really wants to sneak outside and lie on the deck and look at the stars. Then again, there was a rather large chew mark in the garbage bin this morning, that I’m quite sure was not managed by squirrels.
Hey, I’m not really one for horoscopes, but I met Georgia Nicols in the green room at Vicki Gabereau years ago (remember the Vicki Gabereau Show?) and I just really liked her a lot. The January after we met she emailed me my horoscope for the year, and it was surprisingly accurate, and not in the vague way so many horoscopes are, and so I subscribed to her weekly email-out. I just got it. Want to hear what she has to say for me (Scorpio) this week?
Before I say anything, get more sleep. The Sun is as far away from your sign as it gets all year, and the Sun is your source of energy. Your tush is dragging! Pamper yourself and get more rest…
That Georgia is so smart. I think I may just start living by my horoscope.
One Year Ago: PB Banana Wrap and a Latte
April 26 2009 | sandwiches | 17 Comments »
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