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Picnic!

5 Oct

Picnics are always, always fun. For the first couple of years that J & I dated,  we planned picnics on several different occasions, only for the weather to take a turn for the worse. Finally, we decided that it didn’t necessarily need to be outside: we could have a perfectly good picnic indoors. In December. Off to the market we went, picking up all sorts of goodies. We spread out a blanket on the floor, arranged the various meats, cheeses, fruit, bread & infused olive oil that J created on the stove. We tucked in to a helluva good meal and have continued this tradition ever since.

For our anniversary this week, we decided this would be an excellent dinner. We had corned beef, sliced roast beef & Calabrese salami; St. Agur blue cheese, double-creme brie & jalapeno havarti; apples & grapes; a raisin & walnut ciabatta; and a garlic/basil/chili flake-infused olive oil that we kept warm with a little chocolate fondue pot.

It’s such a fun way to eat, experimenting with different flavour combinations and textures. The apple & brie were especially delicious, as was the bread-blue cheese-salami combo. Difficult to go wrong, though, when you’ve good ingredients, good wine and good company!

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New Family Traditions

16 Sep

Growing up, my parents always did the holiday dinners. My job was to be the helper: setting the table, peeling things, tidying up around the house, etc. Thanksgiving is always held up at the cottage and a few years ago, my mom decided that she no longer had the inclination to haul a turkey and all the accompanying dishes up north, so turkey was out and ham was in.

Now, there’s nothing *wrong* with ham, per se, but it’s just…it’s just not Thanksgiving. So, a couple of years ago, my brother and I took on T-giving duties. My side of the bargain: turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies. My brother does the stuffing and brings dessert; dad does the gravy; and mom’s in charge of cranberries. I was a little nervous makin’ up the bird for the first time, but I think we were all pleased at how it turned out! OK…so I was very proud. I didn’t poison anyone and I didn’t turn the white meat into sawdust! And  I had some fun chasing my brother around the cottage, threatening him with the turkey neck…

So, this year, there will be an herb-crusted turkey. And cornbread stuffing, courtesy of the awesome husband. There will be veggies and salad and mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberries and dessert. Most importantly, my family will be around the dinner table teasing each other, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. For all of this, there is much to be thankful.

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Why I’m Going To Miss My Parents’ Garden

13 Sep

My parents are moving from their three-bedroom, two-yard home into a condo in the coming months. (Make no mistake, though this is the home I grew up in, I’m very excited for the next chapter in their lives!) I will miss much about that house, especially the backyard with fruit trees, a raspberry bush and the garden. Every year, my dad plants all sorts of things – even corn. (Sadly, not much corn and no baseball players emerged.) A couple of years ago, J and I planted a few things including hot peppers and mint, the latter of which promptly took over the back half of the garden. Sorry, Dad.

What I will miss most, though, are the tomatoes. I always knew summer was winding down when the tomatoes came out in full force: little ones, big ones, red ones, yellow ones…all delicious in their own right, all practically falling off the vines, ready to be picked. Once you’ve had home grown fruit and vegetables, it’s hard to beat.

So, to all my dad’s hard work, I say thank you. To all the gardeners and farmers, keep up the amazing work. I, for one, appreciate it even more now that it won’t be in the back yard for us anymore.

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Comfort Food

10 Sep

Everyone’s got ’em. You know, those foods that you crave when you’re having one of THOSE days. Maybe they take you back to childhood or maybe they’re a more recent discovery; but, either way, they’re the foods that can make you literally sigh with relief.

For me, the list is fairly short: roasted chicken, soft chocolate chip cookies, matzoh ball or orange-ginger-lime soup, samosas, aaaaaaaaaaand….red wine.  No, it’s not food, but it’s verrah, verrah comforting after a long day. What all of these food(-like) items have in common is their ability to remove stress and replace it with happy memories. Even the making of these dishes can be therapeutic! A really good stress relief? Pounding cutlets with a pan or rolling pin. That feels goooooooooood.

How about you? What are your particular favourite comfort foods?

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Kitchen Disasters: Funnel Cakes

7 Sep

In the kitchen, not everything turns out the way it’s intended. When I first started cooking, I was really into desserts. For some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to learn how to make funnel cakes. How hard can it be to make and fry batter and open a can of filling?

I did some test runs with J’s supervision. I made up the batter. I heated up the oil, checking the temp with a wooden spoon.* I carefully piped out a long string of batter, criscrossing the pan. Naturally, I burnt the first one a little, but on subsequent batches, got the hang of it. They were delicious and I had something new in my repertoire!

Fast forward a month, and I’m at a girlfriend’s place having offered to make her funnel cakes. (Oh, and they were going to be dinner.) We had everything we needed: ingredients for batter, blueberry pie filling and vanilla ice cream. We were ready to pig out. I made up the batter, heated the oil and checked the temp. We seemed ready to go!

What I somehow failed to notice was that the oil wasn’t just hot, it was literally smoking. I added the batter to the oil and it…uh…crisped in seconds. Moments later, the entire kitchen was filled with smoke. We opened the window which, while helping to clear the smoke in the kitchen, was not especially effective at clearing the smoke that had completely taken over the two-story house.

Doors and windows were flung open; smoke detectors were temporarily removed; kitties were nonplussed. Twenty minutes later, we had pretty much cleared out the house and were ready to try again. I turned down the heat for the oil a smidge, kept two eagle eyes on the pot and tried again with my girlfriend ready to, once again, howl with laughter at me while ventilating the house. (It’s important to multitask.)  Round two? Success! We gorged on perfectly fried funnel cakes, topped with blueberry filling and ice cream.

And what did I learn from this lung-clogging experience?

1. Keep a very, very close eye on the oil.
2. Fried deliciousness is worth a second shot.

*To see if your oil is hot enough, put the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil. If bubbles form around it, you’re good to go.

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