February comforts

I didn't quite realize it until I uploaded my photos, that this week's menu was all about the warm and fuzzies - comfort food!

First up - Mixed up Mac and Cheese

We had a few odds and ends of cheese in our fridge begging to be consumed...i can't, won't, and don't resist cheese...ever!!!  If I were religious, it would be against my religion.

This is a loose representation of the 'recipe' because I didn't measure a thing for it.

• 1lb-ish of macaroni
• about 3-4 cups of mixed cheeses for the sauce - I had old cheddar, asiago, and 1/2 a package of cream cheese (room temperature)
• 2 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp butter
• 3 cups of milk
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan (the real deal only!)
• 1/2-3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tsp each onion powder, garlic powder
• s&p to taste

1. Cook macaroni as per directions in a large pot of salted water, and pre-heat your over to 375 F
2. In a seperate sauce pan, melt 2 Tsbp butter over med-low heat, add flour, stir out all the lumps and let it cook for about a minute (this will help dissolve the flour in the fat, and make it taste less flour-y tasting)
3. Slowly whisk in milk, ensuring there are no lumps, continue stiring until milk starts to thicken.
4. When the milk is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, turn off the heat and throw in all your cheese, stirring until it's all melted and cheezy and perfect....mmm cheese.
5. Add your cheese sauce to the cooked Mac and make sure all the noodles get a good little cheese bath (you can add s&p here to taste)
6. Transfer to an over safe dish
7. In a seperate bowl combine bread crumbs, parmesan, garlic and onion powder, and 1 Tbsp melted butter. Crumble this mixture over top of the Mac and Cheese
8. Bake for 30 mins until bubbly around the edges, and golden brown on top.

The Mac and Cheese was AMAZING fresh out of the oven - not so amazing heated up as leftovers, but still tasty - the noodles really absorb that extra cheeze sauce moisture if you let it sit too long, so it's not nearly as gooey and creamy if it's not fresh.  I'm really in to onion powder these days - it gave a great punch of flavour to the breadcrumb topping!  I'll likely never create this recipe exactly again - but I see many many variations of it in my future.

Next up, a classic E.Mills soup - Roasted butternut squash.  Many moons ago, this was one of the first things I ever ventured to cook  - it's still a go-to for guests.  Rory's aunt came for an impromptu visit this past weekend. Lunch was served: soup and sandwich - foodie style!

• 1 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 large leek, trimmed, washed and sliced (to wash, cut off the dark green bits, and the very end of the white root, then slice the stalk in half - run each half under water, seperating the layers one at a time to make sure you get ALL the dirt out)
• 1-2 Tbsp butter or EVOO or both!
• about 4 cups stock (chicken, veg, or both in my case!)
• 1/2 cup cream (I used 5%, if you use a higher MF% cream, you can get away with less for sure)
• s&p to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 400 F
2. Toss the b-nut squash with canola oil, and a few shakes/grinds of s&p - spread on a lined cookie sheet and pop 'er in the over for 40 mins-ish, stirring about halfway through.  The squash should be browning on the edges and taste caramelized and sweet.
3. When the squash is nearly done, melt butter/EVOO over med heat in a pot big enough for all the ingredients - add sliced leeks, and sautee for 3-4 minutes until soft
4. Add squash and stock, and simmer over low heat for 5-10 mins.
5. Turn the heat off, and puree the soup in the pot with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender)
6. Once nice and smooth, add cream, and s&p to taste.

Serve this amazingly simple and delicious soup with your sandwich of choice...my choice was BLTAs on toasted Focacia.  The live lettuce and avocado came from my last FDO delivery.  The avocado was perfectly ripe when I used it...It was Rory's aunt's first time trying one too! One of my fave things to experience is watching people try new foods and love them! This was one of those times!

Last night's dinner...

Porcini-crusted Black Angus sirloin, served atop a celeriac puree, with sauteed swiss chard.

The stars of the show...(except I didn't use the leek)

never judge a vegetable by it's cover!

 Porcini crusted heaven

I had never cooked or eaten celeriac...and really, who can blame me for passing it by in the produce aisle with a mug like that!  daaaamn, it's UGLY!  I will say though,  it's rough and wart-like exterior are easily cut away to reveal a nice little treat!  Wikipedia tells me it's a kind of celery, grown as a root vegetable for its large and bulbous hypocotyl (??) rather than for its stem and leaves. Sure thing!   My preparation of it was as follows: chopped into cubes, steamed in chicken stock until tender (about 15 mins of lowish heat) then pureed with some of the steaming liquid, a couple Tbsp of sour cream (14%!) and s&p to taste. 
It was different, but tasty...it's texture was similar to whipped cauliflower - it's not nearly as starchy as other roots veggies - that's why I added sour cream, it needed some oomph!  It's definitely got a celery like flavour, but a bit more muted than a plain old celery stick.  I think it would be phenomenal roasted :)
The steak was prepared by sprinkling with s&p and grinding (in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle) about 0.5oz of dried porcini mushrooms for a crust (as above).  It was seared on med-high heat with a little canola oil - med-high on my stove was too hot, and the mushrooms burned unfortunately...but the steak wasn't entirely ruined, it was still tasty, and cooked to med/med-rare.
The chard was cleaned, chopped, and sauteed in a touch of chicken stock, and seasoned with s&p...can't go wrong there!
Overall, the meal was good.  Three outta five stars.  It did have potential to be great though! This is my second go at a porcini mushroom crusted steak - my first attempt, I used filet, and cooked it perfectly - it was also served with an herb butter...to this day, Rory tells me it was the best steak he's ever had! Hard to top that I guess!

My lastest FDO box delivery was also my last - as promised, I did not buy any additional fruit this week.  We will subsist on the apples (which were amazing this week - and not local :( ), pears, and oranges, for a little longer!  Other than the ingredients showcased above, I received a few potatoes (not an overwhelming amount though), beets, turnip, and a huge ugly squash that looks like a brown pumpkin...use of these items TBA!

I'll be away in sunny JAMAICA next week - I'm SO looking forward to sun, and sand and indulging on local tropical foods!!  If I don't get a chance to post before I get back - have a great week!  Spring is in the air - I saw some budding green grass this morning....EEE!!!

Happy Eating!!!

Happy Family Day!

It's been an extra lazy, extra long 4 day weekend for me. My lack of drive these last 4 days has been heavenly :)

Let's open this post with a whopper of a good meal...

Carrot ginger soup served with grilled old cheddar and jonagold apple (FDO) sandwich on rye.

Soup:

• 6-8 carrots (small-medium sized) peeled and chopped coarsely (FDO)
• 3-4 cups of vegetable stock, start with 3, add more if you need it (I used Campbell's. Homemade or chicken stock would be just fine too)
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 Tbsp grated ginger (I freeze mine, making grating easy...if yours isn't frozen, just chop if finely)
• 1/4 light cream (I used 5%; use 10%, 18% or 35% for all I care!)
• s&p to taste

1. Combine the first 4 ingredients in a pot suitable for soup, and simmer them until the carrots are tender (20 mins-ish)
2. Turn off the heat - Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, I had to add a little extra stock in at this point
3. Once blended, stir in your cream
4. add s&p to taste
5. dollop with sour cream and chives (optional!)

This was SO easy and exploding with flavour.  Ginger and carrot make really good friends in this soup - you can taste both, but together, they sing! This was a complete make-up-on-the-spot dish (I had about 4 lb of carrots in my fridge). Creative cooking that turns out well is so inspiring!

I decided to go the no-recipe route again with this next dish - and again, success!

This recipe is similar to one one I posted a couple of months back (Wicked Good Fusion Curry). This is part deux.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tsp canola oil
• 1 Tbsp curry powder (i have no name)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• juice from 1/2 lime
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1-2 tsp sambal oelek (asian chili sauce - hot!)
• 1 package of rice noodles (I used PC)
• veggies - I used a red pepper, yellow pepper, and brocolli (FDO)
• shrimp - thawed, peeled and deveined

1. heat oil over medium heat
2. add garlic, sautee for 1 minute
3. add curry powder, sautee for 1 minute
4. add coconut milk, peanut butter, fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, and hot sauce
5. turn heat to med low
6. meanwhile, follow preparation directions for rice noodles on the package (different brands have different instructions!)
7. Add veggies and simmer (not necessarily at the same time - some take long than others!) until tender/crisp
8. When your veg are just about done, add the shrimp - simmer until shrimp are pink and just curled (2-4 minutes at the most!)
9. Toss the noodles with your yummy curry, and serve ASAP!

I just love the richness peanut butter brings to this dish - almond butter would be amazing too. Rory and I both looved this one, we're already looking forward to my next batch! This is an easy weeknight 30 minute meal - and you could substitute the shrimp and veg for an endless number of things.

Finally, I must admit, I'm not much of a baker - following a recipe to the word really throws me for a loop - my creativity feels suppressed!! I gave this blueberry muffin recipe a go on Saturday morning - with a small recipe substitution of my own - and surprise! it didn't turn out disasterous :)

The basic recipe comes from Evelyn Raab's The Clueless Baker - Beautiful Buttermilk Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup buttermilk - i used plain 1% yogurt
•  3/4 white sugar
•  1/2 cup vegetable oil
•  2 eggs
•  1 tsp vanilla
•  2 cups all purpose flour
•  2 tsp baking powder
•  1/2 tsp baking soda
•  1/8 tsp salt
•  1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen - if frozen, don't thaw them!

1.  preheat oven to 350. Grease 12 muffin pan, or use muffin paper like me :)
2. In a large bowl beat together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla (I used my amazing Kitchenaid Stand Mixer!)
3. In another bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder
4. Stir the dry mixture into the egg mixture in 2 or 3 additions, alternating with the yogurt - until combined
5. Stir in blueberries
6. Fill the muffin tin/papers nearly to the top
7. Bake for 20-25 mins (mine took 20 - i did the toothpick test).

A really good moist basic muffin recipe! end of story :)

My newest FDO box is due to arrive Wednesday (no delivery today because of the holiday)...it will be my last go with FDO - next up is Mama Earth Organics.  I made good use of the produce I got from FDO - I've still got a couple of grapefruit, some carrots and a squash left.  Overall, the quality and variety of fruit has been the most disappointing part - but it's difficult to put blame on FDO - I do realize it's the middle of winter! I've been cheating on my box a little more than I wanted to - this week I bought blueberries (obviously), a canteloupe, and a pineapple from the supermarket...for shame!!!

To repent, I vow to only consume the fruit that arrives in my deliery this week!

Enjoy the week ahead!! GO CANADA!!!

A Superb Owl.

Another busy week in the books...It's hard to believe that I've already been blogging for 3 months! I have so much more to give ;)

The Superbowl festivities were a success - there were punts, and field goals, and touchdowns, and Gatorade attacks....and most importantly, a group of friends getting together for some chow! (and beer and vodka infused Fresca!)

I thought pot-luck style would be the ticket, and invited guests to bring a treat along. From the Mills-MacGregor household (me!) came chili and potato skins. Candace and Brian brought some homemade guacamole, and flavourful navy bean dip for dipping Tostitos and warm pita triangles. Joanne brought a tex-mex style nacho dip, and the hit of the night - a blue cheese, buffalo wing dip. For dessert Erin, Andy and Pops Armitage brought some amazingly rich and surpringly low(er) fat Lucy Waverman brownies from her new cookbook  A Year in Lucy's Kitchen.  An amazing cookbook that inspires some wonderful seasonal cooking.  In fact, my favorite cookbook from my whole whopping collection is Lucy Waverman's last cookbook (of which I have a signed copy!) -  Lucy's Kitchen .

 

Joanne's Hot Chicken Wing Dip Recipe (sorry no photo!)

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot® or Frank's Buffalo)
• 1 cup Renee's chunky blue cheese dressing.
• 2 cups diced cooked chicken (this is optional, it was good with, but would've been good witout too!)
• 1 cup shredded old Cheddar cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese and hot pepper sauce until well blended. Mix in the Blue Cheese dressing, chicken and Cheddar cheese. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. If oil collects on the top (yikes), dab it off using a paper towel. Serve with tortilla chips, carrot and celery sticks.

Chili

 

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lb lean ground pork
• 2 cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
• 2 cans red kidney beans with brine
• 1 can white kidney beans rinsed
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2 jalepenos minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 large onion chopped (ON)
• 2 pints crimini mushrooms sliced (ON)
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup of Ketchup (trust me!)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown your meat in a large skillet, and drain about 80% of the fat
2. Transfer meat and remaining fat to a large pot
3. Add onions and garlic, sautee until translucent
4. Add everything else!

Simmer for as long as you can - ours simmered allll day - 7 hours, but anything over an hour would work.

This was a rich and flavourful (and even better leftover!) - we had sour cream and cheddar cheese to add as toppings too. This is going to be my basic go-to chili recipe from now on - Thanks to Erin for suggesting to not rinse the kidney beans, and to add the whole can brine and all to the pot!

 

Potato Skins

 

The potato skins were excellent! The recipe was adapted from All Recipes' Baked Potato Skins. I used small (ontario!) white potatoes that I had on hand, did not use parmesan, and brushed the potatoes with a mixture of canola oil, garlic powder, onion powder, s&p. I also dolloped a little 14% sour cream and sprinkle on chopped chives to finish them off.  Mmmmm....miniature 2-bite bowls of savoury goodness!

Dessert!

On to a few other weekday items...

 

This recipe features the rutabagas that I received in my last FDO box.  I sliced up both rutagabagas into little 'fries'and tossed them with a little canola oil, s&p, and a couple of Tbsp of birch syrup (think maple syrup from a birch tree).  The birch syrup was a gift from my brother Matt and his gf Mary for Christmas, and this was my first try using it. It's from a local producer in Thunder Bay http://www.birchsyrup.ca/.  Was it ever GOOD! It's sweet like maple syrup, but has an entirely different flavour - I want to describe is a caramel-floral flavour...if you can picture that!

Before I popped this in the oven to roast, I seared a S&P seasoned pork loin in some canola oil, placed it on top of the veg, and let 'er roast away for about an hour at 375.

 

 

The pork was well seasoned, and beautifully juicy...the rutabaga and birch syrup were a tasty and unique partnership.  The rutabaga were a little unevenly cooked, even with a couple of stirs mid-roast, so next time I would cut them in to smaller, more even cubes.  I served this dish with a simple side salad - FDO live Boston leaf lettuce with a red wine vinaigrette (EVOO, red wne vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, s&p).

 

Finally, we have a healthy vegetarian dinner - a disappointment unforunately (Jen social worker - you are right to mock me in this instance). This dish was a take on Michael Smith's soba noodle miso soup recipe from The Best of Chef at Home...I didn't follow the recipe exactly, and since I was disappointed, didn't bother to write the details down. The basic receipe is:

• Miso broth (4 cups of water, 2-3 Tbsp Miso paste)
• Onion (FDO)
• Carrot (FDO)
• Brocolli (FDO)
• White Mushrooms (FDO)
• Nori (dried sheets of seaweed - I think it's universally available at supermarkets now)
• Soba Noodles (buckwheat noodles)
• Lime juice
• Sambal Olek (asian chili sauce)

I didn't love the flavour of the whole grain Soba noodles - they were too overpowering, and the soup turned out more like a stew because of all the starch from the noodles - I had a flavour profile in mind when I decided to make this dish - i was expecting a light flavourful broth, and that just wasn't how it turned out! But, you can't win 'em all :) and Rory liked it!

 

 

Thanks for reading!

I have a STELLAR carrot soup recipe to share next time!

 

 

 

"The Situation"

The Perogies turned out GREAT!!! I've been bragging about them all week - and they we're a big hit at the cottage...people said they could really taste the difference between the ho-hum frozen supermarket brand, and my full-of-local-flavour-and-love variety!

I didn't bring my good digital SLR camera to the cottage - I knew there was probably going to be one too many games of flippy/tippy cup going on (and I was soooo right), so the photos aren't phenomenal, but I'm posting them nontheless..we served the little bundles of tasty with sausages and peppers, which also turned out  great thanks to Damian's genius technique of scoring the sausages to make sure the juices ran down in to the roasting peppers....

These perogies were fried up on a flat surface pan that spanned two burners with some butter, onions, and bacon grease.  Damian had just fried up some bacon on the same pan for our appetizers...homemade jalepeno poppers! I can't believe I didn't get a photo of them - delicious, and he totally made up the recipe... my kinda cookin'!

The sausages (1 pan of honey garlic, 1 pan of mild italian) were scored and laid on top of a bed of bite-sized chopped bell peppers and sliced onions - which were tossed in EVOO and s&p -oven at 350 for 40 minutes-ish...I hate to admit to this, but I got the idea from watching Jersey Shore! yes, the MTV reality show about shirtless guidos selling get this, t-shirts. I'm calling this recipe... The Sausage "Situation"  (you closet JS fans know what I'm talkin' bout).

Cottage life is good! 

This week I got a new FDO fresh box...

My fave item is this nifty little squash, called a delicata

I still have quite a bit of produce left from the last box - a squash, carrots, 2 rutabagas, onion, and grapefruit, all holding up well even after 2 weeks...it's been a slow startup since the holidays (I know I know, it's Feb).  One thing I haven't mentioned is that I received a bunch of bananas from my first box that never ripened - for 2 whole weeks they stayed as green as the day they were delivered.  I've heard that if bananas are picked from the tree too early, this can happen.  I emailed FDO to let them know, and no questions asked they replied the same day with an apology and a promise that I would receive a better batch (or something of equal value if there were none) in my next box - and I did!  And of COURSE, my first batch of bananas started turning yellow on Monday! They are perfectly edible :)

Along with the produce I received a newsletter with a few new recipes (rather ambitions ones), and a notice of a price increase.  The basic box, will now be going up $2 to $37.  The explanation being "This price change is necessary for FDO to maintain itself as a sustainable business operating within our business philosophy - a philosophy encompassing environmental sustainability, fair wages and benefits for employees, timely and fair payments to farmers and suppliers, and community involvement.". 

This has been a wonderful service so far - and I've received some great customer service, and great quality organic produce...but I thought $35 was already steep.  Especially when I compare a basic (non-organic) Good Food Box for $17...this is now more than double the price.

Other food news of the week - it's Winterlicious! http://www.toronto.com/winterlicious 

I had a great experience on Monday with some fellow dietitians at Globe Bistro on the Danforth - Globe Bistro.  A beautiful space, and we had a great table overlooking the restaurant.  The food was very good, and the service was excellent (and no one ordered a single drink).  I neglected to bring my camera (ARG!) but you may be able to see the photos on my facebook page - I've linked Andrea's album to it: Globe Bistro photos

I've gotta get cooking over the next few days!  Superbowl Sunday is four days away, and I will be sure to post all about the evil smorgasbord I'm planning with friends!

In the meantime happy sustainable eating!