PEROGIES!

Today I did something that I've been meaning to do for ages.  Made homemade perogies!

I found what looked like a simple and well-rated recipe on All Recipes.com, a site that I've been using for years... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmas-Polish-Perogies/Detail.aspx 

I made a couple of small changes to the recipe in an attempt to de-process it.  I ommited the 'cheese whiz' sauce, doubled the shredded cheddar (and I used extra old Pine River white cheddar - from Kincardine, ON), and used onion powder rather than it's highly processed cousin onion salt.  Onion powder is simply pulverized dehydrated onion, the only ingredient is onion.  This is a great recipe to use it in if you want a nice smooth filling, and want to save yourself the time of pureeing an onion. 

I had just enough dough and potato filling, with very little waste.  I used ontario grown russet potatoes too of course!

The photo was taken before I popped them in the freezer.  I'm taking all 6 dozen of them to our friend's cottage this weekend, and we're going to serve them with sausage and peppers for dinner! mmm...

From start to finish, this took about 3 hours - the whole thing was very easy, just time consuming.

I'll be bringing my camera to the cottage and will try to remember to get photos of the finished product!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Yum! and Not-so-yum!

Hello food friends!!!

Ah, it feels good to be cooking again after a holiday of processed, food science driven fare!

The following few meals don't contain a HUGE amount of the produce that I received in my FDO box last week, but we had some stuff kicking around the house that needed to be used up, and I HATE waste!

 

Saturday night I had a great little girls night with a couple of my besties Amy and Joanne - a yummy dinner and FEW too many glasses of vino eventually led to a 3:00am chat about our varying philosophies on life, and an impromptu sleep over party!  It all started with great food though...

 

To start...prosciutto wrapped honeydew.  YUM!  Food styling courtesy of Amy

This melon was a non-organic non-local leftover from the week before last...Rory did the grocery shopping, and he's not as..sensitive... as I am about where my food comes from :)  Is it sort of sinful of me not to mind this?... if it means he's going to come home with a big deliciously juicy melon in the middle of winter, when all I've had are so-so apples and pears for three months? shhh...

This appy didn't exactly 'go' with the rest of dinner - but the whole theme idea gets thrown out the window when there's a melon to be used up!

 

Our main was...

Honey Orange Glazed, Miso Marinated Acrtic Char, Ginger Whipped Sweet Potatoes, and Braised Kale

 

Arctic Char was a first for me - I've always heard it's delicious, but it's usually expensive when I see it - Loblaw's had a sale!  This is Farmed, Iceland Arctic Char - A sustainable choice!  Arctic char is a pink fleshed fish - tastes a lot like trout, maybe not as strong...very yummy.

The recipe is a take on the following: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226373

I didn't have mirin so I used rice wine vinegar, and I didn't have limes so I used fresh squeezed OJ.

This was also my first experience cooking with miso - it won't be my last!

 

For the ginger whipped sweet potatoes - peel and slice a few sweet potatoes, peel and mince a tablespoon-ish of fresh ginger - boil them or steam them together til nice and soft...and use a hand blender, a little chicken stock or cream or both, and whip 'em up until they're smooth and to your liking.  Don't forget to season well with salt!  An excellent combo and a great gingery compliment to the fish!

 

The kale (FDO) was cleaned chopped and cooked in heavy bottomed sauce pan with 1/3 c of chicken stock, steamed for 2 minutes with the lid on, then removed the lid until the stock evaporated, and seasoned with s&p.  I haven't cooked Kale before, but it's got the heartiness of cabbage, and the girls agreed the flavour is a mix between brocolli and green cabbage - not bitter at all, which is what I expected. 

 

Overall, a GREAT meal - I would cook all of these items again solo or in combo!

 

 

This meal was inspired by leftovers!  I had walnuts that needed to be used, two slices of proscuitto, an almost empty box of couscous, and a bag of cranberries starting to get shrively...

 

Proscuitto wrapped arugula-walnut pesto chicken over whole wheat couscous, served with homemade cranberry jam with a side of live leaf lettuce with lemon vinaigrette.

 

 

This meal was a show stopper! and SO SO easy!

 

Arugula Walnut Pesto:

• 2-3 c. packed arugula leaves
• 1/3 cup of shelled walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 c EVOO
• s&p to taste

Whip the first four ingredients up in a food processor - slowly add the oil at the end until it becomes a pesto-like consistency (this is open to interpretation!), add s&p until it tastes like you want it to.

 

Use the pesto in pasta, on top of chicken, fish, seafood, whatever you think it would be good with!  I gave samples to Andrea and Dara, two of my foodie coworkers, and they used it in a shrimp pasta, and on top of fish :)

 

The cranberry jam a bag of fresh cranberries, a cup of cugar, and a cup of water...simmered until thickened. 15-20 minutes..that's it!

 

The live lettuce was from the FDO box - it was from the same provider as the live lettuce I got from my organic GFB...it was crisp and fresh and a little sweet, with a mixture of lemon juice EVOO a 1/2 tsp of mustard and s&p for dressing

 

The couscous - read the package! Made mine with chicken stock :)

 

A great meal - rory swooned over it! I can't wait to eat arugula walnut pesto again - and it's way less expensive than basil/pine nut pesto to boot.

 

This final meal is the loser of the bunch - A Michael Smith recipe from his Chef at Home cookbook.

I think it's a GREAT cookbook, and this has been the only disappointment so far.  I think it may be that he's not very specific with the ingredient list, and that can be tricky...turns out for this recipe, the juice and zest from 1 lemon was much too lemony!

 

Penne with Smoked Salmon and Dilled Cream Cheese Sauce

 

 

I won't go on with the details of this recipe.  I was really hoping for a creamy smokey heavenly dish, and it was a disappointment - by no means awful, but really just edible.  The basic sauce recipe included cream cheese, lemon, green onion, dill, dijon mustard, capers...i left out the capers, and added a pint of roasted grape tomatoes, s&p..sounds good right?  I won't give up on a creamy smoked salmon pasta though... I've had delicious ones!  I'll just give up on this one :)

 

I hope some of you are able to make use of a couple of this post's recipes... really worth it!

 

I'm off to finish up my contribution to tomorrow's work potluck...vegetarian thai coconut curry (with sweet potatoes brocolli red peppers and chick peas)...

 

Can't wait to share more food soon!

 

 

A new era begins!

The Front Door Organics era!

Delivery number one was a success! I arrived home around 5:30pm on Monday night, and the blue Tupperware container was sitting at my front door - the answer to Rory's "what if it's 20 below outside?" question remains unanswered, as it was a balmy 4 degrees that day.  The perfect fridge temperature!

The contents of the box were beautiful - other than a couple of not-so-hard onions (not so bad they had to be tossed though).  With the produce, I received a 'welcome' letter, which included information on how to store produce appropriately - very useful!  I also received the weekly newsletter informing me of an upcoming organic food conference, the specials of the week (other organic groceries), and 3 recipes - vegetable stew with cobbler topping, goat cheese souflee with kale (fancy dancy!), and apple onion and cheese gratin.

Now I'd be lying if I said the contents of the box surprised me.  I received an email 3 days before delivery informing me what was coming!  Had I known another bag of potatoes was coming, I likely would have changed my order to replace the potatoes with something else.

Fresh Box™ Contents Jan. 18 - 22:

1 each Squash, Dumpling - ON
1 2 pound Onions, Yellow - Bag - ON
1 unit (1 or 2) Rutabaga - ON 
1 2 pound Carrots - Bag
1 bunch Broccoli
1 each Grapefruit
4 each Oranges, Navel
5 each Apples, Mixed Variety - ON
2 each Pears, Bosc
5 each Bananas - Fair Trade
1 each Mango
1 bunch Kale, Green

1 unit Lettuce, ‘Summer Mix’ - ON

Today, I received a follow up email asking me how my first delivery was, and how often I would like to continue receiving the box.  While there is slightly less produce in this box than the GFB boxes (and less local produce!), I decided to do biweekly - I may just have to supplement more from the supermarket.

Monday night, I made the following deliciousness...

Maple-mustard baked steelhead trout, creamy polenta, and sauteed baby spinach.  I had some spinach sitting in the fridge that needed to be used up, so the only FB (fresh box) item I used was onions!

Maple Mustard baked steelhead trout

• Preheat oven to 400 degree F
• Mix 1 part maple syrup with one part of your fave mustard - mine was a mix of dijon and yellow.  You need enough to cover your fish and wee bit extra for a little sauciness.
  
• season trout with S&P, pour sauce over fish
  
• Bake for 10-12 minutes depending on fish thickness.
  

...out comes moist, sweet and savoury perfection!

 

The polenta was a take on Michael Smith's recipe for polenta from his The Best of Chef at Home cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cornmeal
• 1 Tbsp canola or veg oil
• 1 onion, minced (FB)
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 cups milk (i used skim)
• 2 - 3 cups of chicken broth
• 1 parmesan cheese rind (or 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese)
• S&P to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp butter

Instructions:

1. Heat oil over med heat
2. Sautee onion and garlic for 2 minutes, or until translucent
3. Add milk and 2 cups chicken stock, bring to a simmer
4. In a slow steady stream, while whisking, add cornmeal (this will prevent lumps as the cornmeal grains quickly swell)
5. Once cornmeal is whisked in, turn heat to low, and stir regularly with a solid spoon (not the whisk) for for 15-20 minutes over low heat.  Add chicken stock along the way if it is getting too dry - I ended up having to add a full extra cup
6. Add parmesan rind and continue cooking over low heat for another 5-10 minutes...taste-test it! the texture should be nice and smooth, not grainy when it's done. (if you're using parmesan cheese, wait until the end to add).
7. Season generously with S&P...again, taste-test it!
8. Right at the end of cooking add butter before removing from heat.
9. Serve immediately (if you wait, the polenta will start to solidify on your plate as it cools) 

Now, I've made polenta once before - about 5 years ago or so - and it turned out terrible - grainy and tasteless - so I've been scared to try it again.  I had some cornmeal in the cupboard leftover from cornbread I made a few months back, and decided to give it another shot - am I EVER glad I did.  It was rich, creamy, and SO satisfying on a chilly winter night! It was a great savory compliment to the sweetness of the fish, and the slight bitterness in the spinach (btw the sauteed spinach, was sauteed onion and garlic in EVOO over med heat, throw in the spinach, add a small dash of water, a couple tsp at most, sautee for a couple of minutes until wilted and season with S&P - a very useful way to use that slightly wilted baby spinach that can no longer go in a salad).

Overall this meal was a stunner! Try all of it! On top of being delish, it was also well rounded nutrionally...cornmeal don't forget is ground up dried corn kernel - a whole grain!

As I finish with this post, I am off for the evening to eat! Let's hope my next meal is as blog worthy as this one!

Happy Eating!

Too much for one post!

Before I start on the deets of my new delivery, I have a few random thoughts, photos and recipes to share.

Check out those CARROTS! aren't they beautiful!?  These are photos I took when I opened a bag of carrots from my organic GFB to discover they were yellow, and stunning!  I made excellent use of them in a decadant carrot cake (sorry, no photo!) - courtesy of Alton Brown http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/carrot-cake-recipe/index.html.  The cake itself was easy, moist, and full of heart warming flavours - the cream cheese icing was subpar in my opinion, but not terrible.  The cake I would repeat - with a different icing.

     Below is a pre-christmas photo of some asian inspired pork ribs I did in the slow cooker - unforuntely, I can't for the life of me remember what exactly went in to this recipe - this is why people who decide to write food blogs about their own recipes need to blog on a regular basis! Let this be a lesson to me!  What I can tell you is this dish included an unkown amount of soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sriracha chili sauce, and brown sugar.  Damn me for not writing it down! What I do remember is how delicious they were... I toasted those little sesame seeds before I added them too.

As a non-food related side note - this is a shout out to our good friends Erin and Andy, who as a house warming gift (many months ago!), bought us a very nice bottle of champagne, and two gorgeous green flutes  - they'll be proud to know we finally popped the top on that crystal the night Rory proposed :) It was perfectly perfect.  Yup, I'm almost officially taken - just one last quick trip to Vegas in May first ;)

I've also decided that I need to start posting any interesting non-food-box related food stuff - especially if I am given a gift of food!  Thanks to my good friend Michelle, who brought Rory and I back a generous helping of Austrian chocolate from her impromptu European getaway!  Where else can you find chocolate marzipan Mozart balls?!

I'm going to bring this post to a close, and start a fresh new one to go over my new delivery! I hope you enjoyed reading the rather schizophrenic variety this post had to offer!

a final note - I've added a photo of the green bean casserole that I talked about in my last post - I hope it is as mouthwatering and nostalgic for you as it is for me :)

Happy New(ish) Year!!!

My last post being December 16th makes it a whole month without updates! what kind of blogger am I!?!  I'm anxious to get back to it - and I'm sure those who follow have been foaming at the mouth for new mouthwatering recipes and photos ;)
I placed my deliveries on hold for the holidays - or at least tried to.  My final delivery of the Good Food Box was meant to be December 8th, as I planned on cancelling the Dec 22nd delivery.  However, my procrastination gene (what?!) forced me to wait until December 17th to call - and I was a few hours late.  When you want to cancel or make a change to a GFB delivery, you call your local coordinator (your pick up location), who in turn must call Foodshare to make the change - a rather inefficient system in my opinion.  Being the holidays, I assume there were likely lots of people trying to cancel delivery at the last minute, and therefore I forgive Foodshare for their strict cut-off time. 
Another large box of organic produce made it's way home just in time for Christmas - most of it came with Rory and I to Windsor for Christmas dinner.  The box had very similar contents to the previous boxes - and yes, yet another bag of potatoes.  I did notice this batch wasn't of the best quality though - there were 3 or 4 rotting onions in a bag, the squash I received was starting to mold on the outer skin, and the apples looked worse for wear.  Too bad, this was my last GFB delivery and I had such good quality in the rest of the boxes. 

I don't have many photos to share this time around unfortunately - but i used a lot of the produce in a very traditionally way so use your imaginations...

• green beans went in to a green bean casserole a la campell's soup with french fried onions http://www.campbellkitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=24099&ref=%2fSearchRecipesResult.aspx%3fSearchType%3d1%26q%3dgreen%2bbean - I couldn't resist.  As I cook more, I become less of a believer in using processed anything in my cooking, but there are a few key items that just make me feel like a million bucks - this is one of them.

• organic GFB mashed potatoes - with CREAM AND BUTTER!
• 2-squash bake with caramelized onions - see my recipe for sweet potatoes on my last post - substitute the sweet potatoes for two organic GFB squash (one hubbard, one buttercup)...the hit of Christmas dinner.  Along with the pre-stuffed cooked-from-frozen Butterball turkey which was juicy and flavouful - that's some freaky food science.
• organic GFB brocolli - steamed to tender/crisp, tossed with butter and S&P.
• organic GFB leaf lettuce salad - with sunflower seeds/ dried apricots/ red onions/ (recipe provided by Carmelle Mills) - good combo Mum!
• A good looking bunch of organic GFB swiss chard was left behind with the Mills' when Rory and I left Windsor, and my pops cooked it up for him and my mum - Neither of them had cooked it or tasted it before... how brave!  they both really liked it!!! And fortunately, it's on the 'highly beneficial' list for blood type A (insert exaggerated eye roll here). 

I also have some yet to be uploaded photos of a few other items - carrot cake, short ribs, a thai coconut curry - that I will share in my next post.

As of Monday, I will be starting up with a new produce box company.  Front Door Organics (http://www.frontdoororganics.com/) is a family business now in operation for over 12 years.  Their philosophy includes:

• Building and maintaining relationships with local farms and offering local products whenever possible
• Becoming involved and supporting community
• Fair wages and benefits for employees
• Timely and fair payments to farmers and suppliers
• Gender parity
• Environmental sustainability

In reading the website details, I get a strong sense that this is a company very committed to it's business plan - as long as that plan continues to fit within their philosophy of social responsibility.  How refreshing!

Front Door organics delivers directly to your door.  To sign up, you can fill in an online form, or call the company directly. Either way, you will have to speak with an agent on the phone before you get your first delivery.  There are set delivery days for specific areas of the city.  I will receive my delivery between noon and 10pm, and I had the choice of whether or not I wanted the delivery person to knock on the door (I opted for no-knock service - we likely won't be home anyway).  Rory asked a valid question - what if it's 20 below outside, and we don't pick it up for 5 hours? Hmm, don't know.  We will see I guess!
I pre-paid by credit card over the phone (this is the only option for your first delivery), and a $10 deposit will also be charged for the Rubbermaid box that my produce gets delivered in.

There are two options for boxes- The Basic Box contains 10-15 organic choices.  The Custom Box contains the same - but you can replace any or all items in the box, with other items available that week - which are all listed online.  I chose the Basic Box, but was informed that I could change my mind and switch to the custom box online up until the day before delivery - impressive!

In addition to the flexibility with the box, you can buy other organic grocery items online and add them to your delivery -  either as a one time addition, or a standing order every week or every other week - from canned/dry goods, dairy products, household cleaners and even clothing and gifts!

Right off the bat, there are several advantages to this service over the GFB: it's a delivery right to my door, I can know in advance what's going to be in my box, and I can customize it (thereby avoiding mounds of potatoes!)
Down side - price.  Basic box is $35.  Custom box is $40.  The amount of produce sounds comparable to what I was getting in the GFB box, so hopefully it will last for 2 weeks.  We will know soon enough!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - and that any extra pounds that snuck on were well worth it!

I'll be back with new recipes and photos in no time!