The Carver's Knife, Coconut Basmati Rice, and Berry Ice Cream

Ryan surprised me earlier this week by bringing me home some of my favourite flowers - daisies. They look very summery in front of our living room window. Considering our apartment gets no direct sunlight, I'm impressed they're still looking so nice.

After being sick last week, my parents had us over for dinner on Saturday. And what did we have? Fondue! It was a bit perilous, as 7 people trying to dip raw meat into hot oil can be, but we had fun. I'm bugging my mom to do a couple of guest blog posts.

We decided to switch from a bi-weekly produce box to the weekly option this week. So on Wednesday I picked up our second box. Because there was a big snowstorm here on Monday, some of our items didn't get through so we ended up with extra beets and lettuce and no carrots this week. We're trying not to buy any produce from the grocery stores and stick only to the box and so far that's working fairly well. Here's what this weeks box looked like, pre-splitting for Shawna and Dylan.

From Monday-Wednesday I don't usually cook too much because either both or one of us is out for the evening. But on Thursday when I got home from work I knew I wanted some real food so I whipped this up.

Bison smokies that are from the past summers farmers market, and roasted sweet potato, beets, potatoes, and onions. Not very green but very tasty. We've been getting lots of beets in the box and I'm never really sure what to do with them but Shawna mentioned she loves them roasted. They were good but I think I have to experiment a little more. The only other time I really have beets is julienned in a salad.

Yesterday we also ventured out to The Carver's Knife. They had lots of great products and I picked up a frozen chicken to cook later, but we both agreed that we prefered Frigs. I liked that at Frigs they would tell you on most of the packaging where the meet was from, if it was made in store, and that it didn't include any gluten, dairy, hormones or anti-biotics and all deli meat was made in store. They also had a really nice selection of fresh bison, while The Carver's Knife only had frozen. The Carver's Knife seemed to focus a lot more on "local" while Frigs seems to focus a lot more on "local, natural". Since the prices are fairly on par, I think we'll probably do most of our shopping at Frigs when it comes to meat.

But we didn't come away empty handed. We bought pork buttons, pork tenderloin, a chicken, and some deli meat. We had some of the pork buttons last night. Ryan's mom gave him a tasty sweet bbq sauce so I just smothered the pork buttons in that and put them in the oven at 375 for 35 minutes.

I took this opportunity to use up some of our fresh veggies and fruits. I love having fried apples with pretty much any meal so I added pears and red chard stalk and fried them up in butter and coconut oil with cinnamon and nutmeg (and a bit of brown sugar). They were tasty but I'm still figuring out what do with red chard. And lastly, coconut basmati rice.

Coconut Basmati Rice

• 1 cup basmati rice, rinsed serveral times in cold water to remove starch
• 1-2 tbsp butter
  
• 1 1/4-1 3/4 cups coconut milk (depending on how hard or soft you want your rice)
• 1/3 cup craisins
• 1/4 cup honey spiced almonds or raw almonds
• leaves of 2-3 chard stalks or fresh spinach

1) In a large saucepan or pot melt the butter or low-medium heat and add rice, stirring for 2 minutes.
2) Add coconut milk and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low and cook, covered, undisturbed for about 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, let stand for 5 minutes, and fluff with a fork. Add chard or spinach, almonds, and craisins and mix. Cover and let sit for 2-3 minutes before serving.

And because it's been a whole week since a post, I'll also give you my current favourite ice cream recipe. The inspiration from the post definitely came from The Whole Kitchen's Peach Ginger ice Cream recipe. I like really tart flavours and I'm trying to reduce my white sugar intake so I played around until I came up with this winner.


Mixed Berry Coconut Ice Cream

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2.5 cups frozen berries (I used blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp ginger
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
  

Put all ingredients except the ginger in a blender and mix well. Jenn suggests chilling the mixture thoroughly before putting in your ice cream maker, but because I used frozen berries and the mixture was still quite thick, I just put it straight into my ice cream maker.

Pour the mixture into the ice cream mixer base and add the grated ginger as it mixes. Let run for as long as your mixer should take (usually 30-40 minutes) and put in a container in the freezer. This stuff doesn't last long in our house. It's tart, fresh, and tastes amazingly creamy. A nice reminder of summer.

Fruit Smoothie

I've really been wanting to post the last few days but I've been sick. In fact, I've spent the last two days in my pj's. I had all these grand plans for the next post because Shawna, her husband, Ryan and I all decided we wanted to try out Fresh Option Organic Delivery (F.O.O.D). Except instead of getting it delivered I decided I would just pick it up on Wednesday mornings because I'm often in the area and we save $3.

I picked up the first box on Wednesday (I wanted to take a picture of everything in it but I didn't bring my camera with me) and got to meet a few of the folks who work at F.O.O.D. Everyone was really nice and they had some good recipes and organic/local food literature that they kindly offered. I had to wait a few minutes while they finished assembling the box and then I was off, all my produce groceries in tow. By Wednesday I was already feeling sick so I divided up the box as evenly as I could (for example, I gave them the avocado and lemon because I had some at home and took the roma tomato). I ended up doing it at work and dropping their stuff off later that night. When I got home I just wanted to put everything away and totally forgot about taking a picture. Then we started eating it and now a picture of 1/4 of the food that was originally in the box just doesn't seem as impressive. But if you want to know what we ate/are eating you can just have a look at this week's box on the website.

So far, I've been really happy with all the food. It's nice knowing that some of it is local and all of it is organic - and it's also a bit of a challenge thinking up how to use some of the more unusual foods. In the next two days, when I'm hopefully feeling better, I'm planning a stir fry, salt and vinegar cucumber slices, and salsa. Because this is the first time using this service, we decided to try it bi-weekly. It's costing us $47 a week (or bi-weekly for us) which, because Ryan and I split the bills, works out to 11.75 a week per person. I don't know how Shawna and Dylan are finding using up the produce, but I think I could definitely do once a week instead. Further discussions will follow I'm sure.

Either than my excitement about our F.O.O.D. box, I haven't really had much to post because cooking turns into a chore when I'm sick. I keep boxes of Knorr soup in the house just for when I'm sick and that's what I ate yesterday. Soup and potato chips. I still don't feel like cooking today so even though I'm still feeling sick, when my mom invited us to dinner it sounded like a pretty decent deal. However, I did make one thing today. My fruit smoothie! I have this almost every weekday morning before work because it's an easy way to get in some milk and fruit at the start of my day. It's also great for when I'm feeling queezy and sick because it's almost a meal in itself. It's really thick, smooth, and creamy and best of all, no need to add sugar or juice.

Fruit Smoothie

• 1/2 banana
• 1 cup frozen fruit (I like frozen berries but anything you like will do)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp coconut oil for taste and nutrition (optional)
• 1 tbsp unpasturized honey
  

Put all ingredients in a blender (if you have a cheaper blender you may want to defrost the frozen fruit for a while - I just put it in totally frozen). Pulse until well blended, then blend for 30 seconds to 1 minute until completely smooth. Grab a straw and enjoy!

Good Intentions

I had every intention of posting the last two days but life is busy. The weekend kept me busy with a soccer game and then my niece stayed the night with us. We watched The Last Unicorn and I made us some popcorn. We don't have an air popper or a microwave (not that I would want to eat the congealed slime that passes for "butter" in microwave popcorn) so I always make it on the stove. I don't think people realize how easy it is. I'm not going to bother posting a recipe because if you just go buy a bag of popcorn kernels you can read how to do it on the back. Make sure to use a lid that fits well though. On my second or third date with Ryan I was making popcorn in my mom's wok with a lid that didn't ft. A hot, oily kernel jumped down my low-cut top and badly burned me. That was a year and a half ago and I still have a scar.

We had no such mishaps on Friday though. My niece, Amaya, got up at a decent time on Saturday and she helped me make Gluten Free Pancakes, recipe courtesy of Four Chickens - my go-to place for all things gluten free baking. We also used the handy grill that Amaya and her dad got us for Christmas to cook up some of the bacon we got at Frigs. It was all delicious. I threw some frozen berries in a pan with 1/2 a tbsp of sugar and slowly heated it on the stove and I always have Honey Butter on my pancakes now instead of syrup - it's also local.


After breakfast we went skating on the river behind the apartment and were served free hot chocolate by volunteers from the Festival du'Voyageur and free kettle corn too. It was a good day.

After Amaya left it was back to more cooking. We'd already decided we were going to have a nice dinner and cook up the sirloin steak we picked up at Frigs. I always feel like I eat a decent amount of red meat but I realized this is actually the first meal I've made with red meat since we moved here. I always marinade my steak the same way - about 1/4 cup soy sauce (gluten free - I like the China Lily brand), the juice of half a lemon, and 2 tbsp olive oil and anywhere from all day to 1/2 hour is fine. I had assumed I would cook the sirloin on the countertop grill but then I started looking up sirloin steak recipes. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Alton Brown, but I love him - he always has the answer I'm looking for - Sirloin Steak Recipe. I've heard of cooking steak under a broiler before, but never like this. But be warned, open all your windows because the steak will blacken (which is good) and the fire alarm went off in our place. I had to get Ryan to stand by it waving a towel for 5 minutes while it finished cooking.

I also picked up some green beans and just did them up simply - boiled 'em for 5 minutes - I like them crunchy - and then put them in a frying pan on med-low with a chopped up garlic clove and enough butter to cover 'em. I also did my salad. This is probably my favourite salad and the one I make the most. Ryan loves it too.

The whole meal was delicious. The steak was perfectly cooked and tasted just like it had been bbq'd and it wasn't too heavy at all with all the greans. And doesn't it look pretty? I'm sure there are hundreds of versions of this salad but this is mine.

Apple Walnut Goat Cheese Salad

• mixed green lettuce, enough for a salad - I did enough for two
  
• 1/4 cup craisins
• 1/4 cup candied walnuts (I was out, so I used sugared almonds in this one - I'll post a recipe another time)
• 3 radishes, sliced thinly
• 1 apple, cored and cubed
• 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp basil - I used dried, but in the summer fresh is the best

Mix all dressing ingredients with a spoon, or put in a jar and shake to mix. Combine all salad ingredients, add your desired amount of dressing, and toss. Put any leftover dressing in the fridge for later. I'll also say that you should really make the dressing to your taste - this is the ratio I like but you might like to change it up. Also, the longer you let it sit the better it will taste so make up enough for a few batches.

I'm excited for the next post but I'm not going to tell you why yet.

Frigs Natural Meats and Veggie Stock

When The Tallest Poppy first opened I read they got all their meat from a place called Frigs Natural Meats & More. At the time I really wanted to go but it was a bit far from my parents house and I didn't really want to go spend money on groceries while I lived there. I had completely forgotten about it until recently.

So today Ryan and I went on an expidition to East St. Paul to visit Frigs. I have to say, I was extremely impressed. Not only did they have a fabulous selection of Manitoban food that was nitrate, wheat, soy, and milk additive free, but the prices were pretty much on par with a big chain grocery store. We ended up leaving with $45 of merchandise including sirloin beef steak, beef and pork breakfast sausage, in-store made bacon, ground pork and beef, bison garlic sausage, and bison salami - plus organic extra virgin coconut oil that smells like coconut cookies and organic veggie broth cubes, which I like to keep on hand for a pinch. The staff was very nice too and we've already decided the Frigs will be our go-to meat place all year round. I was hoping to get a frozen local chicken but unfortunatlely they're out for the season so I'm considering getting a turkey at some point in the next few weeks instead. Stay tuned.

There are a lot of reasons that it's important to me to eat locally, organically, and chemical and hormone free. Firstly, my health. Starting about a 1-1.5 years ago I realized that I had a lot of stomach issues. It was something that came on so slowely that I didn't even realize until I was pretty sick to my stomach almost every day for 5 months between May-September 2009. My doctor and I suspected celiac disease but after some botched tests, we didn't have a conclusive answer. Part of the problem with diagnosing celiac disease is that you need to eat at least 2 pieces of bread every day for at least 2 months to get an accurate blood test result. Then you usually need to have a biopsy, but if you stop eating gluten then the results will all come back negatively. On September 3rd I decided enough was enough and I was going to cut all gluten from my diet. Frustratingly, it wasn't until near the end of October that I really started to feel better. Among other sensitities, I have to be careful with eggs, dairy, and any processed foods - I'll just say they make my tummy very angry.

Secondly, I do not like the idea of putting chemicals, hormones, or ill-treated animals in my body. I love Gordon Ramsey's show, "The F Word" because it shows how he raises his animals, cares for them with respect, and they are slaughtered humanely and with care. I feel that if I can't even watch an animal on TV be slaughtered this way, I probably shouldn't be eating meat. Because I believe in a more traditional diet I feel that for myself and my body, meat should be a part of my diet but I completely respect the choice to be a vegetarian - I actually was one myself a few years ago.

Thirdly, eating locally means I know exactly where my food has come from, how far it's travelled, and everything from what it was fed to how it was prepared. I'll be talking more about this in one of my next posts but related more to fruits and veggies.

Even though this post has been mostly meat related, I wanted to leave you with a vegetable broth recipe. To be honest, I rarely make veggie broth because I love the taste of chicken broth but both are extremely easy.

How to make Veggie Broth
A couple of notes on this recipe:

• you really can use pretty much any veggies you have lying around, another great way to use up leftovers or anything thats going bad in your fridge.
• this article suggests keeping the skin on carrots and root veggies. There's tons of nutritional value in this part of the veggies but make sure you wash them really well to get off any dirt, and if you don't know where they're coming from, to get off any possible chemicals or pesticides.
• when you're finished, let it cool and then throw it in a tupperwear or sealable container and store in the freezer. Use for soups, gravies, sauces, etc.

Since I don't have any of my own recipes to share today, I thought I'd share what we had for dinner tonight.

Gluten free bread, bison salami from Frigs, mayo, mustard, spinach, dark chocolate, and mini mandarins. Gluten free bread is nothing like regular bread but I actually really enjoy it, just in a different way. This is Kinnikinnick Foods brands. It was a nice early, energizing meal before my 6:30PM soccer game.

Ryan had rye toast, extra old cheddar cheese, free run eggs, fried onions, and bison salami. Mmmmm....

Lemon Rice Soup

One of the things I worried about when we moved into our apartment was composting. A few years ago my mom and I attended a composting workshop at The Conservatory. My mom was an instant convert. Every year the city has a sale on compost bins and equipment and she bought four giant bins. You might think that's overkill, but my parents yard is huge with lots of gardening space and my family goes through a fair amount of food even though my older brother and I don't live at home anymore. For the last two or three years my mom and I have also created a new garden space in the yard for veggies. I love growing our own veggies in our own compost, there's an extra sense of accomplishment. Not to mention that the amount of garbage that was going out of the house was drastically reduced.

So for the first two or three weeks Ryan and I were living in the new place I was genuinly stressed about throwing out all that compostable food because we had no where to put it. We don't have a balcony and I would even hang a bucket outside our windows but there are screens on them we can't remove. I had completely forgotten that you can easily freeze compostable food and put it in the bin later - a fact I was reminded of when someone mentioned they do this in the winter. So I bought a 1.5 litre tupperware container and some small sized compostable bags from Dollarama - yes, they sell compostable bags at Dollarama. We keep it in the freezer and when the bag is full I take it out, tie it, and put it in the back of the freezer. I go to my folks once every week or two so I just throw them in a plastic bag and dumb them in the compost bins when I visit.

So if you're an apartment dweller who has no room to compost, consider if you have the freezer space and know anyway with a compost bin. It seems like we have half as much garbage to take out since we started composting two months ago.

Moving on, today I have a recipe to share. I was wondering what I should make for my first post so I figured I'd go back to an oldie but a goodie. I came up with this conconcotion a few years ago when I was searching for a good substitute for a Lemon Rice Chicken Soup from a local Greek restaurant. I think this tastes 10 times better. I usually use chicken stock to make it, but I omit any actual chicken because I just don't really like chicken pieces in my soup. I know, call me crazy.

This recipe is ridiculously easy and a great way to use up any celery, carrots, or various other veggies you may have lying around. For instance, tonight I had half a potato on hand so I grated it and threw it in. It's pretty impossible to screw this up because you really just need to make it to your taste. Some people might find the pairings of herbs odd but I love the taste they create.

Lemon Rice Soup

• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 small-medium yellow onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano
• juice of 1-2 lemons, depending on taste
  
• 1/2 cup rice
• 6 cups chicken or veggie stock*

1) In a large pot saute celery, carrots, potato, onion, and garlic in olive oil until onions soften.
2) Add the 6 cups of stock, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, juice of 1-2 lemons, and 1/2 a cup rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. Adjust seasoning to your taste and enjoy!

*I usually like to use homemade chicken stock or veggie stock, but I often use broth cubes or broth or stock in a carton when I don' thave any homemade on hand. Easy to do in a pinch.

A New Beginning

I really truly never thought I would have a blog.  I've tried to run one before on the topic of feminism, human rights, etc.  But sadly, I found it was just too hard to maintain.  I've always enjoyed writing but once my degree was finished in Spring 2008, it kind-of-maybe slipped by the wayside. 

But then Ryan and I moved in together in November!  I've always loved to cook but when I lived with my folks I didn't have nearly as much opportunity - the reason being, my mother also loves to cook, and it's kind of hard to resistant free, delicious, home-cooked meals when she's been cooking them all your life.  I'm sure kitchens were far from Ryan's mind when we were apartment hunting, but I was taking careful note in each of the places we viewed.  Since we've already decided our apartment is as awesome as could be, it follows that the kitchen in this apartment was also the nicest in all the ones we viewed.  It's not huge, but it is a long galley kitchen, which means there's enough room for a small bar table and an extra shelf for all our fancy appliances.  It does however, have almost no counter space.  But the counter space hasn't deterred me.  Luckily cooking for two means that you don't usually need much counter space anyway.

This happy little kitchen in this happy little apartment is the inspiration for the name of this blog - Riverside Kitchen.  While my kitchen window may not overlook the river (in fact it overlooks a street and an apartment building across said street) but our apartment building does.  I'll be honest, when I dreamed of moving out, I dreamed of living downtown, close to all things I consider 'cool' and 'trendy' and easy acess to the river and riverwalk means I always get in lots of running, biking, skating, and skiing.  Thus, I decided Riverside Kitchen was the perfect name.

I'm sorry to say I don't have a recipe or even a picture of food to go along with this first post.  Unfortunately I have to leave for work in twenty minutes and I'm not even dressed yet.  But I will say that even though this is mainly going to be a food blog I also want it to reflect (parts of) my life, my thoughts, and my opinions so I hope that some posts will delve into my food politics (whole, natural, traditional, organic, free-range) and probably my feminist and human rights politics.  Plus sillyness with friends, family, and no doubt my partner, Ryan.