A Little Behind

I'm so thankful for my cousin buying me the slow cooker for my birthday. I already want more in different sizes so I can expand my newly growing repertoire. I've only done two dishes so far, mostly to money being tight these last two weeks and not being able to do my monthly stock up on meat products from Frigs.

Growing up I was never that into pork products, aside from bacon and pork tenderloin. I usually found Ham too salty and pork chops too tough and I just never really tasted anything like pulled pork until I was in my 20's. The first time I really remember having it was the summer of 2009 in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. Ryan and I were on vacation and staying with my dad's cousins and their neighbours invited us all for dinner one night. They had an amazing ceramic cooker called The Big Green Egg. The lid on that thing was so heavy I could barely lift it. They'd had tons of pork shoulder cooking since early that morning and was amazing. With homemade coleslaw and Serrano pepper hot sauce we piled our buns high and enjoyed the spicy spicy sandwiches with some premium beers. I dream of one day owning a Big Green Egg. Since then I've only made pulled pork a couple of times, and while it's always good, it's just not the same as my first earth-shattering experience.

Aside from the pulled pork, I've used the slow cooker to do up a nice little ham last weekend. I was a bit doubtful about the amount of apple cider vinegar the recipe I used called for, it was probably the best ham I've ever had. With 6 hours in the cooker, some green beans, and mashed sweet and creamer potatoes, it was one of the easiest meals I've made in ages.

And the final pork product that I've recently come back around to: pork chops. Growing up I don't think my mom ever brined our pork chops, and I always found them too tough and dry and just not very exciting. The world of brining has opened my eyes. Never again will I cook up a chop that hasn't been brined. Not only is the meat much more tender, but anything with ACV, honey, and mustard can't go wrong with pork chops.

So tonight my niece and a friend will be joining us for dinner of pork chops with honey glazed roasted tomatoes, green beans with lemon, sunflower seeds, garlic and butter, and mashed taters. So with no new recipes to offer, I'll leave it there and will hopefully return with something new in the next week.

Oh yeah, my mustard greens are looking amazing already!

Surprise!

Not exactly a week, but I've been busy since the last post. I'll have a longer one to follow in the next couple of days with some photos of my new endeavours.

First of all, the Kefir took a few runs to get it right. The first time I let it sit too long; the second time I didn't stir it enough; the third time it seemed just about right and then I went to bed and completely forgot about putting it in the fridge. But finally the fourth time I seemed to find that 7 hours, and hourly stirring after 2 hours is how I like it. I'm not a milk drinker to begin with, so I'm getting my fill with daily morning smoothies.

And last Monday I drove out to Sage Garden Herbs and purchased T5 grow lights, fertilizer, soil, and seeds. I came home, cleared some space on a shelf in the kitchen, drilled the lights on, made some makeshift seedling planters, and set everything up. This is the first time I've ever had a garden on my own so I'm taking it slow. Right now I've just got basil, catnip, oregano, endive, mustard greens, and lettuce. I'll see how those go and I may add more to the mix down the line. About a week after planting the mustard greens and endive are well on their way and sprouting up.

And finally, I was given a slow cooker for my birthday this year and I'd been wanting to try slow cooker pulled pork for ages. So I picked up a 4.5lb pork shoulder roast from Frigs and at 9AM on Saturday I woke up, made the sauce, and put it in for about 10 hours. I wasn't totally crazy about the sauce recipe I used, but either than that, it came out great. Some friends came over to share the food which was nicely capped off with sparkler cones from Sargent Sundae.

Now that Autumn is really in full force here, I'm looking forward to getting cooking with lots of root veggies, and soups, and stews. Time to start keeping warm.

Thanksgiving and Fresh Starts

As usual, months have gone by with feeling guilty for not updating the blog, and thinking about how I need to update the blog, and putting off updating the blog. But as all my travels for the year are complete, including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, UK, and various parts of Europe, and the summer has officially come to a close, I'm finding myself with a bit more free time and the motivation to really get back into the kitchen.

I'll keep it simple for my first post in 6 months. Oct 1st was my 26th birthday and I spent it in Toronto with my three best friends having a great birthday weekend and eating lots of delicious Toronto eats. I arrived home on Friday, and Saturday my parents had the family over for a feast of the usual; turkey, stuffing, veggies, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. We had a break on Sunday but Monday we were out at Ryan's aunts for our 2nd feast; all the usual plus ham that Ryan can never get enough of.

Ryan's aunt is a great cook and a fellow foody - although far more experienced than I. Ages ago she started up a kefir culture that she's kept going and has offered us many times. In my usual procrastin-atory fashion, I kept putting it off until she managed to get it into my hands today.

So, using some of her grains, I've got my own kefir finally on it's way. For those who don't know, kefir is a cultured and microbialrich food that is amazing for our bodies. With beneficial yeast and bacteria, it has antibiotic properties. Using kefir grains and good quality milk, you mix them together, allow it to culture for 12-48 hours, then stick it in your fridge and use it as a type of milk product or to make other dairy products like yogurt, creme freche, cream cheese, or cream. Every time a batch is finished, you strain the grains, put the kefir liquid in a fresh jar in the fridge, and re-culture another batch of milk with the grains in a new jar. You either need to immediately re-use the grains or store them in the fridge or freezer.
*If you plan to start making you're own kefir, please seek out more exact instructions such as http://www.kefir.org/kefir_manual.htm

Aside from just thinking about getting things moving here again in blogland, I've also been slowly collecting new and wonderful kitchen toys - some hand me downs, but I'm not complaining. And finally, I'm hoping that within the week I'll have the majority of my supplies purchased for starting my indoor garden - my birthday present from my folks. This will be the first time I've ever attempted an indoor set-up so I'm expecting a slow start and plan to begin with some easy herbs and hopefully move up to a salsa and salad garden. Hopefully in my next post I can show off my new set up.

And Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians!

One summer when I was working as a camp counsellor at Camp Briardale, a camp for kids with diabetes, I had the most adorable, petite, squeeky-voiced little 7 year old in my cabin. She was a very sweet kid who was obviously nervous about being away from home for a week for the first time but I admired her ability to try anything new.

At diabetes camp, the kids are required to write down what they're eating before they go up to get their meals. The reason being that type 1 diabetics (mostly) count carbohydrates and give themselves a corresponding ratio of insulin. Whatever it was we were eating one particular night, my little camper assumed she wouldn't like. But on her meal planner she'd written "Try it!". And she did - and she didn't like it. But when I asked her about it she replied, "my mom told me to try everything once because I might find out I like it". Where most kids balk at the idea of trying new foods, she fully embraced it - even if it meant putting something in her mouth she ended up not liking.

I try to take this philosophy in my food life too. All my life there's been a few foods I have never liked - mushrooms, milk, raw peppers, shellfish - and tomatoes. Over the years I've occasionally eaten one of these foods to test myself. Tomatoes have probably been most successfully introduced into my diet. I've learned that I still don't really like raw tomatoes, especially by themselves. But I've also learned I LOVE chunky salsa, the occasional bruscetta, and a great many dishes with tomatoes mixed in.

And so I'm attempting to get a little more adventurous with those foods I've typically left off the menu. Monday was one of those adventurous days. I recently picked up some centre cut pork chops from Frigs and decided to whip 'em up for Monday dinner. While we cook a lot of pork in this kitchen, pork chops aren't something I'm terribly familiar with. Growing up, I was never a big fan of the tough meat and it seemed pretty...welll...boring (sorry mom!). Recently I've been reading about the wonders of brining and decided that I might as well give it a go.

Using a recipe from Alton Brown's cookbook, I whipped up a brine. While I was mixing it the vinegar burned my eyes so much I was weeping and I accidentally used coarse salt instead of kosher and the entire apartment smelled like the vinegar - so to say the least, I was a bit nervous about entrusting my pork to this brine but I figured, "what the hell", and let the chops sit for 2 hours before cooking. After that, I basically raided the fridge for whatever looked tasty, fresh, and colourful.

Goat Cheese Honey-Glazed Pork Chops

• 2 bone-in pork chops (I used centre cut)


• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 1 tsp oregano


• 2 red potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces


• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces


• the juice of half a lemon


• Salt and pepper for taste


• 2 tbsp goat cheese (I added parsley and basil to mine)


• 4 -6 slices honey-glazed tomatoes (recipe below)
  

*The brine recipe I used was included in a recipe for stuffed pork - I halfed the brine and omitted the rest of the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 400. After brining your pork, rinse and then pat dry your chops with a paper towel. In a bowl, combine all ingredients until potatoes and pork are well covered. On a baking sheet or dish, put all the potatoes and place the pork chops in top. Cook for 40 minutes and check - the pork should be at 170. Mine was cooked perfectly after 40 minutes.

Honey-Glazed Tomatoes

• 1/4 cup butter


• 1 tbsp honey


• 1 tbsp brown sugar


• a pinch of salt


• 1/2 to 1 whole tomato, sliced thinly

Melt your butter in a medium saucepan at about medium heat. Add the honey, sugar, and salt and stir. Turn the heat down slightly and add the tomato slices. Put the lid on and let them cook for 2-4 minutes, flip, and cook another 2-4 minutes. You should still have lots of liquid left in the pan.

Final Assembly

When you're ready to serve, place the pork chop on the plate and spread 1/2 tbsp of goat cheese over top. Place the honey-glazed tomatoes on top of the pork, and drizzle the leftover glaze over the chops and/or potatoes.

Not my best photo, but I was starving. Ryan says this may be the best meal I've ever made. :) Served with garlic green beans and toasted pine nuts and fried apples.

Pea Soup

Since I've been on a continuous pantry-raid for the last two weeks, I've finally made some new dishes with some of the ingredients I've been meaning to use...since I bought them months and months and months ago. Seeing as how it's winter in Winnipeg and we've settled into some pretty chilly temperatures, hearty soups have been on my mind a lot.

Pea soup is one of my favourite soups but one that I had never made before. There are few soups that make me think of staying cozy in Winnipeg more than pea soup. Maybe it's because the taste is so homey or maybe it's because it always makes me think of the Festival Du Voyageur (kicking off in just over two weeks) and their Pea Soup contest - whatever the reason, it's always been one of my comfort foods.

So finally, after buying dried split peas last winter and storing them safely in our ice box (not the freezer but the literal original ice box we use as a cupboard in our kitchen) I pulled them out last week and decided to try my hand at my first ever pea soup. Now I know traditionally ham and pea soup go hand in hand, but to be honest, I've never been a fan of this. I took the much less traditional route of using chicken stock - because I had a bunch homemade in my freezer - but you can use any type of stock you want. I actually ran out of chicken stock and had to use a bit of a veggie bouillon cube but it all worked out.

Split Pea Soup

• 2 cups dried split peas
• 2 carrots, diced
  
• 2 celery stocks, diced
  
• 1 small-med onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 quarts stock (chicken, veggie)
• 1 tbsp thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and celery and saute until translucent and soft. Add garlic, stir for 1-2 minutes without browning. Add carrots, peas, thyme, stock, and salt and pepper to taste (I had forgotten to salt my stock when I made it so I had to use a lot of salt - add a bit and taste and adjust as necessary). Bring stock to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 40-60 minutes, until veggies and peas are soft.

Now, I'm one of those who says that pea soup MUST be blended, thick, and creamy. I'm always slightly disappointed when I order a pea soup that hasn't been blended as a last step and instead is more of a broth pea soup. Luckily for me, I was given a handy-dandy immersion blender for Christmas! Once my soup was cooked I just immersion-blended it to my consistency and let it sit another 10 minutes.

If you don't have an immersion blender you can go one of 3 ways here:
1) Potato masher - won't be as smooth but gives you more consistency.
2) Let the soup cool (very important!) and put it in either a counter-top blender or a food processor.
3) Skip the blending and keep it as a more brothy pea soup (blasphemy!)

This soup lasted us all through the week and made about...6 servings. Frankly, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did because it was divine.

Triumphant Return

As you can probably guess I decided to take an informal break from blogging for a few months. The main reason was personal stress and really needing to take some time for myself, and only for myself. Things have been pretty much normalized in my life for the last month or two but it's really only in the last few weeks that I've felt worthy of returning to the blogsphere. Between personal reasons, balancing two positions at work with no regular hours, and a very busy December of visiting, snacking, and preparing for the holidays, I just couldn't get into the kitchen more than one night a week.

But now I'm officially working one position, I have a regular weekly work schedule, and I'm feeling oh-so-inspired in the kitchen and at home. Lately I've started re-prioritizing food and overall healthy living. I think when Ryan and I moved in together and I started talking about the ways I wanted to eat and how I wanted to keep moving away from pre-packaged foods, toxins, and chemicals and closer to an organic/local/sustainable life he didn't exactly know what to think. Now he's definitely feeling a lot more comfortable with the way we live and to be honest, I think he gets a bit excited about it all too, even if he wouldn't admit it.

Here's some of my recent initiatives:

1) Sticking to our food budget no matter what. In May we're taking a trip overseas so finances are a little tight. We stick to a strict $100 a week food budget but when we need to do a big stock up (TP, cat litter, cat food, vinegar, milk, eggs, cheese, meat, etc) it's pretty easy to go over budget. In the past we've been pretty loose with this budget but now we're sticking to it as closely as we can and really watching our pennies. Of course, this has turned into a fun personal challenge for me. We only have $30 to last us until Feb 4th so I've been having fun going through our cupboards being as imaginative as possible. Which brings me to my next initiative.

2) As little food waste as possible. This sounds pretty basic, I know, but it takes practice to figure out how to use all the little leftovers that end up in the fridge. I know composting is all fine and dandy but I'd rather see my food get eaten instead of thrown into the bin. Maintaining as little food waste as possible also means being extremely conscious of what ingredients we have in the kitchen. Growing up, our cupboards were always stocked and while it made it easy to think of something to make, it also meant a lot of stuff sat in the cupboard for months or years without being touched. Partially due to our small cupboard space and partially due to my insistence on using what we have (hopefully we won't be experiencing an Apocalypse soon) we're moving through a lot of dried foods that I purchased last winter and then just let sit there.

Cooking to my ingredients is a lot of fun for me - I love to improvise in the kitchen, which is one of the reasons it's difficult for me to post recipes some times. Often I have leftover dips, sauces, or dressings that need to be used up fairly quickly. I feel like planning strategically is a skill that has really developed in the year+ that I moved out of my folks place. The way I'm able to throw ingredients together now is such a difference and I have to say I feel pretty proud about the whole thing.

3) Composting. As I mentioned before, composting is great - if you have a place to drop it off. For the past year+ I've been collecting or compost in the window during the winter and in our freezer during the summer. I've been dropping it off at my parents place because they have 3 or 4 large composters in their backyard - but they're starting to get pretty full at this point.

I'm happy to report that my workplace has started composting through a company in my city. Because they're an industrial composting site, they're able to accept things that a normal backyard composter wouldn't be able to handle - things like meat, bones, dairy products. I work in a very small workplace so the giant bin we were given is barely half full when they pick it up every week so I consulted with other staff and now I'll be dropping our compost in their once a week. I'm still trying to get used to keeping virtually all our food scraps.

4) Reducing toxins, plastics, and chemicals in our food and life. I admit, the various plastic-free blogs have caught my interest in a big way. A few off the top of my head:

• http://myplasticfreelife.com/
• http://plasticmanners.wordpress.com/
• http://www.lifewithoutplasticblog.com/

But it's not just reducing my plastic that I'm concerned with, it's also reducing the toxins in my everyday routine. I've also been spending a lot of time exploring The David Suzuki Foundation site.

I've already been trying to do this for quite a while. In my own routine, I usually use a mixture of honey and yogurt to wash my face and when it's not -35 and super dry, I like to use coconut oil as a moisturizer. I also use Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Soap as my face wash too.

For cleaning we really only using baking soda, vinegar, water, and occasionally bleach. For clothes we've been using a "environmentally friendly" detergent (whatever that means) and for dishes we use regular old dish soap. For ages I've been wanting to try Soap Nuts but never remembered while I was out. Ryan's sister gave me a small sample bag for Christmas and we tested them out a few weeks ago. So far, we love 'em. I like them because there's no scent, they get our clothes clean, and they come out nice and soft without that starchy feeling. Ryan was extremely skeptical but he's behind them now - we picked up a large bag of soap nuts to last us a while.

The best part about soap nuts (besides the fact that they're actually berries)? Once they're used they can be boiled to make an multi-purpose cleaning solution, and after that they can be composted! The nuts can be used multiple times so we feel that they were a good deal. Right now we're collecting the used ones to make the cleaner.

5) Re-commitment to organic and/or local food. This was easier last year because we could split our FOOD Box with our friends. Since they're not in the city anymore, we decided it wasn't practical to get the box by ourselves. Up until a few weeks ago, I was being pretty lazy with where we were getting our food. After doing some research, we've settled into doing most of our fresh shopping from Organic Planet Worker Co-Op. They're very small, and while there is a much larger organic food store closer to us, I've found that Organic Planet tends to have fresher and better quality produce.

So that's what's been happening around here. Other little projects are constantly in the back of my mind but I'm trying to take things one step at a time right now and work within my limits. I love doing research about topics of all kinds so I'm basically doing a lot of reading, blogging, and networking right now. But I'm looking forward to sharing what's happening in the kitchen in 2011.

Out and About: Hermanos in Winnipeg

August has been a busy month for dinner's and lunches out. My summers are usually packed with friend or family meet-ups at a nice patio or restaurant. Ryan and I have also decided to try and go to new restaurants almost every time we go out (we made an exception for Stella's though, because it's cheap, close, and we both LOVE it). So far we've only been to a few new places but we're really enjoying it. I've discovered a lot of places I didn't know existed and a few hidden gems. Next on my list is Saaadal Kherys Somali Restaurant on 164 Isabel Street. But that's for later.

This August has been particularly restaurant packed because of Ciao Magazine's Taste the World. In hindsight, I really should have posted this at the beginning of August, rather than on the last day so no one else can take part in it. I managed to take part in 3 menu's and all were excellent. I'm going to spend a couple of posts talking about this promotion (as well as others from Ciao), and the recent new restaurants we've visited - although not all Ciao inspired.

Last week I invited my mom and Nana out for lunch. We browsed the menu selection on the website and narrowed it down to a couple before deciding on Hermanos Restaurant and Wine Bar. Hermanos is located in Winnipeg's Theatre District. Had it been a nicer day we were planning on going to The Forks but it turned out to be rather chilly. However, Hermanos' close proximity to The Forks and the walkway on Waterfront Drive make it a nice date spot, in my opinion.

As it turned out, I had actually been to 179 Bannatyne when it was an East Indian restaurant. The atmosphere is really lovely, with a classic look of exposed brick walls, dark red walls, and black chairs and booths. They boast "South American cuisine at the most reasonable prices" and suggest communal meals, sharing tapas and main dishes together. Looking at the menu, that sounded like a fabulous suggestion for dinner out with friends, but my Nana, mom, and I decided to do our own individual lunches.

Despite choosing this restaurant for their Ciao $10 lunch menu, only my mom ended up getting the Ciao special of Salpicoa , a traditional Brazilian chicken salad with chicken breast, fire roasted corn, hearts of palm, peas, shredded carrots, garlic, onions, mayo and bacon served with fresh house baked bread, tomato and greens. I'm not really a fan of "chicken salads" most of the time but my mom loved it. I can't speak much to it because shamefully, I didn't even taste it.

My Nana decided on the Bianco Mejillones (mussels). Served with cachaca, cilantro oil, lime, garlic butter, cream, and bread, it was a simple but delicious dish. I have to admit, I didn't taste her mussels either. They looked and smelled fantastic, but mussels are something I haven't conquered yet. The idea of them is a little too weird but my Nana loved them. She practically licked her plate clean, first eating every single mussel and then sopping up leftover sauce with her bread. For $12 a pound we thought they were priced very reasonably.

Finally, I decided on a nice Tapas dish of Grilled Ribeye Skewers served with 4 skewers, 3 small dishes of bacon and port buttered mushrooms, a roasted veggie and oil salsa (not listed on the menu), and carmelized onion and black pepper aioli with homemade potato chips. I go in and out of stages where I like red meat. Lately I've been into it but a few weeks ago we picked up some steaks that I was really looking forward to. They ended up being the toughest most tasteless steaks I've ever eaten. So when I saw the grilled ribeye skewers at Hermanos a few days later I wanted something that would fill my red meat void. Oh...my...god...they were exactly what I was looking for and cooked medium rare, just the way I like it. The mushrooms, roasted veggie mix, and aioli were all fantastic and the chips came out crispy and crunchy and fresh.

The only leftovers we came away with was a bit of my mom's dish she couldn't manage to finish. We all want to go back at some point, but I think both my mom and I want to experience the dinner menu with a larger group. I like that Hermanos also offers options for 2-3 people and has a fairly diverse menu. All in all, I'll definitely be making a stop here again. For the 3 of us, lunch ended up being just over $50, after drinks, tax, and tips.

Coming up soon: Fusion Grill, La Bomba, Lovey's, Sydney's