summer grilling and jamming!

We now have loads of local seasonal foods upon us!
I received my second delivery from Green Earth Organics this week - the newsletter that came with my delivery tells me that my box is 72% local.  This week, I also received replacements for the poor quality bok choy and lettuce that I complained about with my last delivery. I received bananas, spinach (local), red leaf lettuce (local), red radishes (local), english cucumber, hot house tomato, carrots (local), peaches, nectarines, sweet potatoes (local), apples.

This first little number was our father's day dinner in Port Elgin.  Just on the edge of town off the highway, there's a great farm stand (which has become quite the tourist attraction unfortunately), that sells amazing quality produce and that you can see being picked just before you buy it.  In season now, are local lettuces, new potatoes, peas, scapes, strawberries, radishes.

I picked up a little bit of almost everything, and made a stop at the town grocery store to pick up some additional Ontario food items for an excellent local focused meal.

Father's Day Menu

Leaf lettuce, hot house ontario cucumber and yellow tomato salad with toasted almonds and white balsamic vinaigrette.

Sauteed potatoes, peas, scapes and shallots

Grilled filet of beef

Strawberry Angelfood shortcakes

Such a lovely meal! So so fresh, and simple. This is an ideal meal for me, and really no recipes required! 

The salad was flavourful, and the dressing tangy and sweet (1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar, 3 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp mustard, 1 tsp white sugar or honey, s&p to taste)

The potatoes I cleaned, sliced in half and steamed for about 7-8 minutes, then sauteed a chopped shallot and 2 chopped scapes in a Tbsp of good wholesome butter.  Finally I added a big handful (3/4 cup-ish) of freshly shelled peas and s&p to taste.

They were the highlight of the meal for me! New potatoes have the thinnest, most delicate skin that  starts to peel off while washing them.  They don't take long to cook, their texture is so creamy, and their flavour slightly sweet. They would've been delicious if I'd stopped after steaming them, with a touch of s&p.

The grilled filet of beef, was as simple as that.  I like my beef seasoned with s&p and cooked rare.  The boys were really wanting the Montreal steak spice for a little extra somethin'.  Rory, master of the grill, wowed me again with three beautifully cooked steaks - on the rare side of medium rare.

Dessert couldn't have been simpler.  As my followers already know, I'm not much of a baker...so store bought angel food cake it was! Topped with local strawberries cleaned, halved, and macerated in a Tbsp of sugar for a couple of hours (maceration is just softening the fruit in a liquid - when you add sugar, it's the fruit's own liquid), and real whipped cream.

MMMMMM!!!! 

This meal was made up on the spot, using leftover thai soup.  

Thai Chicken, Chick Pea, and Spinach Medley with greens and asian flavoured vinaigrette.

The night before, we ordered a 'dinner for two' meal at a local thai restaurant which included enough food for 2 dinners, 2 lunches, and a partial dinner the following night.  One of the leftovers was a large container of coconut chicken soup, which consisted of a chicken broth/coconut milk base infused with flavours of garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilies, and loads of chicken and sliced mushrooms.

I wanted to use some of the leafy greens from my delivery, which tend to get wilted fairly quickly if they're not used.  I cleaned and steamed a large bunch of spinach in the water that clung to its leaves after washing it.  It only needs a minute or two to wilt down.  

In the meantime, I strained the soup to remove the chicken and mushrooms, and used the broth as the cooking liquid for 1/3 part basmati rice.  

  When the rice was cooked, it was nice and saucy! I added the spinach, 1/2 can of chick peas leftover in the fridge and the chicken and mushroom from the soup, and cooked over the stove until just heated through.

I know no one can repeat this recipe, but I hope it serves as inspiration to start cooking sans recipe one in a while! Look how yummers it can turn out!

Finally, I undertook a big arse project this past week! I made 90 4oz jars of Ontario strawberry jam! 

Reason being: wedding favours! How fun are personalized wedding favours?

Ontario Strawberry Jam

Check out those beautiful berries!

Ok, so I was not about to make up a recipe for this project! Too risky!  I used the recipe in my Certo liquid pectic packages - and get this, I followed it to a T! And get this - it worked perfectly! who knew?!

Do you people KNOW how much sugar is in jam?! like, yikes.  I won't tell you, except that it's a lot! Enough for me to say that I wouldn't include this jam in any 'fruit and vegetable' category! 

Each 'batch' makes 15 - 4 oz jars, and contained 2 pints of strawberries, a huge amount a white death...i mean sugar, a little lemon juice, and some pectin (which ensures the jam will set).

Try preserving something this summer ok?!  I've got another couple of batch to makes this week to meet my wedding favour quota, and I'm hoping to branch out to peach and blueberry jams later in the season.