A little retro

Early in December The Canadian Living Christmas Book was the go to book for an easy festive evening.  Published in 1993,  Canadian Living products (magazines and books) could always be relied on for good recipes that were easy to make, with ingredients you could find and (almost) always turned out.  Same way with their crafts.  Because of that I have about a 1/2 dozen or so of their cookbooks.

I also had a subscription to Canadian Living for over 30 years,  but I must admit that I have not enjoyed the magazine as much the last decade or so and have dropped my subscription.  I still occasionally look through the magazine,  but have not found a reason to subscribe again.

Unlike a number of people, I don't like to write in my books, whether it was textbooks, a novel or cookbook there is little to tell I was there before.  In a cookbook, the only way you could tell if I tried a recipe before was if there was a cooking stain on that page!  Sometimes I remember, when I start making a recipe but I can't be sure if it was that exact recipe or one similar.   It has been awhile since I pulled this book off the shelf and it wasn't until I started making some of the recipes that I remembered making them before.

I have learned, doing this cookbook review, is to make notes and comments on recipes I tried.  I often like to make changes when I make things,  after all recipes are just a guide to follow!  As I am getting older 😊  the only way I am going to remember what I did is to mark it down.

I was looking for a quick easy meal that could be ready fairly quickly.  Thanks to some prep work in advance,  we were able to eat soon after we arrived home.

I started off a little retro with a jelly salad!  Growing up any special occasion featured a jellied salad at the meal.  My mom had several that she made,  the number of different kinds depended on how many people were coming to dinner.  There was a molded green (or orange - depending on the jelly powder used) salad and a corn beef salad mold that was a regular feature, there were others in her repertoire    Though jellied salad I made for this meal would never have been on the table growing up - mainly because avocados were difficult to find in New Brunswick until recent.

Guacamole Pate with Salsa with some tortilla chips made a nice light start to the meal.  I didn't use the cilantro because I am one of those people who don't like the taste of it.  As the saying goes you either love it or hate cilantro.  Do  you love Cilantro or hate it?  Despite the retro feel it was a tasty dish.

We moved onto Spaghetti with Meatballs, the meatballs were simple and could be done ahead.  I usually have spaghetti with a meat sauce, rather than meatballs, but this allowed those who didn't want meat to have just the sauce which contained lots of veggies.  The recipe was in a section called Christmas is for Kids,  so the sauce was very plain, I added some extra seasoning (oregano, more garlic, basil) to brighten it up

I finished the meal with assorted sweets,  I made two out of this cookbook.   Unfortunately one did not turn out.  I tried the recipe for EggNog Fudge, as I was making it I remember making the recipes before.  This time despite having reached the appropriate temperature and initially setting it end up a soupy mess when cut.  I don't really recall how it turned out last time, but I  suspect it didn't turn out that great otherwise I would probably have made it every Christmas (when I find a Christmas recipe I like I tend to make it almost every year)

The second sweet out of the book was called SugarPlums,  a mixture of dried apricots and crystallized ginger.  It has little resemblance to the Sugar Plums referred to in T'was a Night Before Christmas,  but it is fun to tell people you have SugarPlums, which were actually a big hit and will probably be repeated.

Now with visions of SugarPlums dancing in my head I think I will go off to make a cup a tea and enjoy the few that are left.  Happy dreaming everyone.

Christmas Cookbooks

It is that lull in the Holiday season when you are not sure what day of the week it is.  You are so stuffed from Turkey and trimmings that you could not possibly eat another thing, yet can't resist a shortbread cookie.

The holiday season is a busy time when we gather with family and friends to celebrate the season which so often involves food.  Many of our favourite foods we only have during the holidays.  Without these foods, the holidays may loose some of their shine.

We each have our own family food traditions during the holidays.  Many are almost universal or symbols of the season,  like Turkey for Christmas dinner,  shortbread cookies, and candy canes. Others are unique to an area or a family,  certain areas of Nova Scotia on Christmas Eve features fresh lobster for supper!  Some families have Chinese food every Christmas Eve.  Whatever the food, it is part of the traditions that make the season special.

My Dad, growing up in the 1920's and 1930's in rural New Brunswick, said Roast Goose was the main part of Christmas Dinner as almost every farm had some geese, but rarely did they have turkeys in their flock.  When I was growing up we altered between goose and turkey for Christmas Dinner because of this.

For me one of the signs the holidays are coming is when I make Ribbon Cookies.  Ribbon cookies were a feature on the holiday cookie tray when I was young; and because it was a favourite of mine it was the first "Christmas" cookie I learned to make and I have made them every year since.  To me this cookie mean Christmas.

(ready to go into the oven)

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and cookbooks are one of my favourite things so it makes sense that over the years I have acquired a collection of Christmas themed cookbooks.  You don't realize how many you have until you try to put them all in one place. (and they still didn't all end up in the picture)

 During the month I have selected and prepare menus from 3 of them. With the holiday business I just have not had a chance to write about them.  I hope over the next week I will catch up.   

We will start with The Canadian Living Christmas Book,  then Canadian Living The Complete Christmas Book and finish up with Christmas Teas of Comfort and Joy.  

Stay tuned.

Cookie Failure!

Last year at this time I was in the Netherlands.  We had arrived just after Sinterklass had been there. The Netherlands celebrate Saint Nicholas on December 5/6 each year by putting out their shoes in hopes they will be filled with treats and gifts for the children.

Even though we had missed Sinterklass, we were still able to indulge in one of the special cookies that Sinterlass pass out - Pepernoten.  They are like a small nugget of gingerbread.  The hotel we stayed at the first night gave us a dish full.

While there I picked up a couple of cook books "Stuff Dutch People Eat"  is a bit of a tourist book but it did contain recipes for some of the items we had tried, and it was available in English.  It wasn't until I got back home, when I was looking more closely at the book that I discovered it was actually written by a Canadian that moved to the Netherlands!

I have tried a couple of recipes since but I waited to make the Pepernoten until now to celebrate Sinterklass.  Unfortunately they did not turn out at all.  I even made the recipe a second time with the same results.  They are supposed to be like a crunchy small nugget or marble.  Instead they flattened in the oven and became a hard inedible cookie.  Not sure what happened.  A quick internet search produced a recipe similar to what was in the book.  I do find when using European recipes there is some challenges,  as ingredients may not always be the same in Canada.  The recipe did call for self-rising flour, which is not commonly used in Canada.   Maybe next year I will give the recipe another shot.

After spending time in a small village north of Amsterdam - Makkum and then Amsterdam we went on a Rhine River Cruise and spent many afternoons at  various European Christmas Markets - a lovely way to spend the lead up to Christmas.  During our stop in Alsace, France I also picked up the second book in the picture.  I have a couple of recipes picked to make for Christmas, but have not prepared anything yet.  Hopefully I will have better success than the Pepernoten.

To start my Dutch meal,  I made Tomatensoep (Tomato Soup),  I left it a bit chunky and added some green onions, but it made for a quick tasty tomato Soup.

The main course was Hutspot met Klapstuk (Potato carrot stamppot).  The cookbook describes a hutspot as a traditional Dutch dish made by cooking and mashing potatoes together with carrots and onions, which is then served with a side of meat.  In this case meat and vegetables are all cooked in the same pot so the flavours blend.    The Dutch do seem to like to mash their food.  The cookbook describes it as one of the 3 ways the Dutch like to prepare food and/or vegetables.  It says they like to
1. mash the hell out of something
2. boil the shit out of something
3. deep-fry the life out of something.

We did have several lovely meals while in the Netherlands,  we ate at a pancake house one night - which we would describe as crepes,  another night of Dutch specialities - many of which were deep fried, but my favourite was the breakfast treat of chocolate sprinkles that were liberally put on toast or bread and considered breakfast - any excuse to have chocolate for breakfast works for me.

Remembering December 6

The date December 6 initially does not trigger anything for me, but as soon as someone says, Polytechnique, I am back at a small town Nova Scotia university.   Busy studying for exams and looking forward to going home for Christmas break;  when the shattering news came that people were shot at a Canadian university.

Living in residence, an all female dorm, we migrated to the lounge to hear more.  In the days when mass shootings were a rarity the news was heard to believe.  As details trickled in that all the victims were female and they were targeted because they were female.  Innocence was lost. University was supposed to be a safe place and even though we were over a 1,000 km away from Montreal we also felt violated.

Little was said,  what could be said,  as we sat numb by the news.  Oh many of us had already been targeted because we were female.  The nasty comment from a man when you rejected them,  various forms of sexual violence,  all the things we were told, as females, to keep quiet about, or taught it was normal. But this, the shooting at Polytechnique was beyond comprehension.

The next night, at the dining hall Christmas Dinner, a moment of silence to acknowledge what happened.  A nervous laughter filtered through the room.  I think, as females, we really wanted to scream or cry, but since you were not allowed to show your real emotions,  nervous laughter escaped to cover up the other emotions.

I wish I could say 30 years later, that the world was a better place for females.  That there was true equality.  Yes, there has been progress,  though it does feel that there has been some regression the last few years.

I have been fortunate,  I have not faced any overt sexual discrimination, but there has been subtle signs.  Just there in the background, the "old boys club" at work.  A male boss who really had no clue how to manage a group of high performing females, who ignored us, unless something went wrong and then you could felt the knife in your back.

My hope, as I reflect back 30 years ago, which sometimes just seems like yesterday, is that my 5 year old great-niece with her big bright personality never has that brightness diminished just because she is female.

A Special Cookbook

Last week (I am a little behind in posting!) I pulled out a very special cookbook.  It is a cookbook that many people have, but each one is different from the other.

It is my "Mom's Cookbook"!  The recipes she collected over the years from friends and family.  From potlucks and church socials.  From tv shows and copied from magazines.  Many of the recipes in this cookbook were made frequently.  Others would be popular for awhile until they were replaced by a new popular recipe.  A few made their way into the book, probably obtained at a potluck, never to be made (that I recall!)

I pulled it out because my brother was looking for a particular recipe.  Sadly, many of the dishes that my mom was known for - her meat pies, her bread and biscuits and her baked beans were never written down.  They were kept in her head, made so many times,  she no longer needed a written recipes.  Including the Lemon Snow recipe that my brother was looking for. (Though we did find it in an old cookbook)

With her meat pies, she just adjusted the seasoning and the ingredients based on the amount of meat she had - it was never a set amount.  My mom was an old school cook, she often measured ingredients in her hand.  As a kid I would try to follow along, she had portioned the salt in her hand for whatever she was making; when I asked how much salt she was using?  She told me 1 teaspoon, not believing her,  I questioned the amount in her hand.  She found a measuring spoon, poured the salt that was in her hand into the spoon.  It measured exactly 1 teaspoon - not one crystal over!  I have spent the last few years trying to recreate her meat pie, I've almost got it, but I know it will never be the same as my Mom's.  A common refrain from anyone who tries to recreate their mother's (or grandmother's or father's or who ever) recipe.

I had to change up my menu a little bit from my usual routine.  Appetizers were not something that made it into Mom's Cookbook, so I just made a main course and dessert this time.

The main course is a dish I don't really recall - I think it was one that ended up in the category "never to be made again "  It was simple called "Ham & Potato Casserole".  Not sure if some ingredients were missed when copied over because it seemed to be missing something.

The dessert was a very popular, frequently made recipe. The name in Mom's Cookbook is "Confetti Squares" I have also heard them called "Tweedie Squares".  They are a very nostalgic square.  I brought them into work and one person was in heaven, as she was overcome with childhood memories of eating the square at her grandmother's at Christmas.   She told a story that her grandmother would hide the squares in hopes of saving them for Christmas day, but she was always able to sniff them out!

I noticed the writing on some of the pages has started to fad. I will have to do some work to preserve the book.  It is not enough just to type up the recipes.  It is not the same thing as looking at perfectly types recipe on the computer, as leafing through a book in your mother's own handwriting, stained with bits of food showing which recipes was most popular.
My mom has been gone 11 years, but looking at her recipes brings her just a little bit closer to me.

Celebrating Canadian Food

If you have never tried a recipe from a Marilyn Smith's cookbook, now is the time!
One of Marilyn's claims to fame is she is the only Professional Home Economist who is also an alumnus of the Second City Comedy Troupe!  She is also the self-appointed Queen of Fibre who is on a mission to show how enjoyable pulses, legumes and lentils can be and they add fibre to the diet.

The side effect of the added fibre - farting; just shows you have a healthy colon.  Things Marilyn explains every chance she can,  particularly on National Farting Day!  Yes there is a National Farting Day: March 1 annually.

As the Queen of Fibre she titled her latest cookbook with her tagline Peace, Love and Fibre as she continues to reign over her fibre queendom.

I have picked one of her older cookbooks to review,  actually Facebook picked it for me! A picture of HOMEGROWN Celebrating the Canadian Foods We Grow, Raise and produce With 160 Recipes popped up as my Facebook memory of the day.  Don't recall why I would have posted the picture, I am guessing I had either just got the book or was making something from it.  Whatever the reason, it seemed like a good reason to pull it off the shelf again.

Homegrown is a compilation of recipes from members of the Ontario Home Economics Assocation which celebrates great Canadian food.  It sometimes seem Canadian Food has an identity crisis.  If you say you are going out for Italian Food or Thai Food - certain flavours and images come to mind.  If you say you are eating "Canadian" tonight - people would give you a blank stare and ask so what exactly are you eating.

We need more cookbooks that celebrate all the wonderful food that is grown and produced right here in Canada - Maple Syrup, cranberries, pulses, legumes, oats, barley, beef.  I could go on and many of these items are prized around the world.  When you think local ingredients - this is the book to help you create with them.  

I started tonights meal with a very simple yet elegant first course - Baked Goat Cheese with Cranberry Compote (there was also an alternate with Pear Compote) 

The sweet tart flavours of the cranberries, with a little saltiness from the prosciutto combines nicely with the creaminess of the goat cheese rolled in walnuts for a little crunch.

I followed that with Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry served with Creamy Herbed Polenta 
I love polenta but hate making it, in this version you cook the polenta in the oven.  Such an easy way that make a delicious creamy polenta.  I will certainly be adding this recipe to my repertoire.  

When I think of curries I think of something creamy and yellow.  I know there are a whole variety of curries out there but that is the first image I have when I think of curry.  That this curry is tomato based and rather than using a pre-made curry powder,  it has you create your own curry powder mixture is why I choose the recipe.  At first you think really all those spices, but you end up with a flavourful curry with a nice hint of heat in just over 1/2 hour.

I finished off with Oat Barley Cookies.  A cookie you can almost feel good about eating as it is a source of soluble fibre.  It contains Barley Flour which was a new ingredient for me, but I found it easily enough at my local bulk food store.
The cookie provides you the satisfaction of having something sweet after a meal without being a full size dessert.

Like always I have several more recipes earmarked to try,  not sure I will get to them all before I select my next cookbook.  For now, I think I will go have another cookie with a cup of Tea.  Till next time Enjoy.

Fundraising Cookbooks

It is the season when various service groups and church are holding fall/harvest suppers to raise funds.  There have been advertisements for various dinners around my local areas.  There is the usual Turkey and Roast Beef dinners, but one place was serving beef stew and another lasagna.

In the days before Pinterest or a quick google search for a recipe, many of these organizations also published Cookbooks.  Community members contributed their "best" recipes to the endeavour,  someone would type them up or maybe they would have the Cookbook professionally designed.  Either way they were usually a good fundraising initiative as it often include popular recipes from community gatherings that the owner hadn't shared before the book was published.

I have a few of those types of cookbooks in my collection and I selected one of them this week.  Country Cooking - A Canadian Collection of Favourite Home Tested Recipe it came out in 1996, but it does not say what group created the book.  I received it as a gift I don't know where it came from.

Looking at these types of cookbooks is always fun.  You can see what was popular at the time and the ingredients that were readily available.  Many of the recipes in this book rely on convenience foods like canned cream soup, cake mixes, or canned meats to create the dishes.  Many are based on trying to feed a lot of people quickly with little fuss.  The recipes also assume a certain amount of cooking skills.  The cookie recipe I made, had very simple instructions "cream sugar into butter, add the rest of the ingredients and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes".  That is why new cooks find these types of cookbooks frustrating.

Cookbook historians use these books as research on the evolution of a recipe, but also community evolution.  As I write this I am trying to recall a quote I heard about exchanging recipes at a funeral receptions being like trading gold - they were hot commodities.    If anyone knows the quote please share!

I usually try to pick a recipe that has an ingredient I have not tried before, or try a new technique.  This time I just randomly picked recipes that looked interesting.  The book opened to a page with various spreads and cheese balls - so I felt it was a hint that I should make one as my appetizer; but  I couldn't resist making a soup - cool weather and warm soup you can never go wrong, so we have two appetizers.

I started with Ham & Cheese Ball with Fresh Tomato Soup.  There is a little quote at the bottom of the soup recipe from the author saying it was the best fresh tomato soup she has ever tasted and she made it frequently.    I picked it because it included potatoes in the recipe which I thought was unusual for tomato soup. I found the taste too the soup to be a little lacking.   I think it is a case that the quality of the tomatoes make a big difference.  Grocery store tomatoes just don't have the same flavour as fresh from the garden!  Maybe I will try again when I have access to garden fresh tomatoes.    On the other hand the Ham & Cheese Ball would be worth a repeat performance as a party appetizer.

From there I moved onto Neopolitan Pot Roast served with Perogi Pie.  The Perogi pie was very rich and really meant to be eaten alone but it did work with the pot roast.  Baked in tomatoes, onions and seasoning it made for a very tender roast with a nice sauce.

With so many dessert options it was hard to narrow it down to one item.  In the end I decided to keep it simple with Orange Cookies.  If you like orange flavour this is a cookie for you.  Good orange flavour without being overwhelming.    Nice way to end the meal.

Though I am still debating about trying the 7-up Cake!  Yes it does have 7-up as an ingredient!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Rose Reisman has written 19 cookbooks. In 2002, she published The ART of Living Well - Light cooking and Eating to fit the way we Live.

The cookbook was a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and I had the opportunity to see Rose Reisman demonstrate several recipe during a fund raising event for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.  The price of admission to the event included a copy of the cookbook and a chance to meet Rose.

I do recall trying several recipes when I got the book including Yukon Gold Potato Soup and Rose's Famous Light Fettuccine Alfredo, but one recipe keeps me pulling the book off my shelf "Creamy Shrimp and Dill Spread"  A tasty shrimp dip that is a hit whenever I bring it somewhere.  Needing to bring an appetizer to an event - I reached for the trusty recipe.

It is rather ironic that I had reached for this book considering October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Also when you are female and turn 50 you get contacted to have a Mammogram, and today was the day.  Even though we have not found a cure for breast cancer (or cancer in general) the survival rate for early detection improves every day.  The friend that I attended the Rose Reisman fundraising event is a 20 year breast cancer survivor,  a cousin is almost a 30 year survivor.  As uncomfortable as the screening techniques may be - they help save lives.  Get it done!  It could save your life.

So what recipes did I try from The ART of Living Well............

To start I selected "Sweet Red and Yellow Pepper Soup", because it called for charing the peppers first. For some reason I was always worried that I would burn the peppers so I have never tried to char peppers before.  Charring peppers was not as hard as I thought!  I love pureed soups and this one had a great combination of flavours.  Warm soups are a great fall weather food especially on cooler rainy days.  I think we will see a repeat appearance of this soup soon.

I decided to make a bonus appetizer "Asparagus Prosciutto Cheese Tortilla Slices"  when I found some nice asparagus at a reasonable price and I had all the other ingredients already.  I had originally dismissed the idea of making this recipe because I didn't think I would find  asparagus.  Though I was a bit disappointed with the recipe - it seemed to lack flavour.  I think some additional herbs or seasoning would help if I make it again.

The next course was "Salmon Parcels Wrapped in Rice Paper" with "Japanese Curly Noodle Salad with Sesame Dressing".  I thought they would complement each other both having asian flavouring.

I find salmon, cooked right,  has such great flavour, that there is no need to add other flavours to compete with the salmon.  In this recipe you spread the salmon with hoisin sauce before wrapping it in rice paper to cook.  A sauce made with coconut milk is then served with it.   The salmon was juicy in its crisp rice paper wrap - an interesting way to serve salmon.

The salad was a nice fresh salad to serve with the salmon,  with crunch coming from toasted almonds and the dried noodles.   A great salad to bring to a potluck.

Hungry for chocolate (who isn't hungry for Chocolate!) I indulged with " Sour Cream Brownie Cheesecake".  A reduced fat version with all the great taste you would want from a cheesecake, with enough chocolate flavour to satisfy even the most die hard chocoholic.  I would certainly make again if I had to bring dessert somewhere.   The only problem is it does make a large cheesecake,  and even though it is low fat you should still be mindful of the amount to eat.  So I need some help eating up the cheesecake - anyone want some?

Lets go pick some apples

When there is a nip in the air and the trees become more colourful we start to think of a popular fall activity -  Apple picking.  Many of us head out to orchards with friends and family to pick crisp, sweet apples to enjoy during the fall.

A group of colleagues and I made the annual track this weekend.  We have been doing this for over a decade.  A local orchard agrees to donate apples to a local food bank, we supply the labour and deliver the apples.    It sounds like a lot of work, picking a 150  bags of apples, but many hands make light work.  Afterwards we reward our hard work with a potluck picnic in the orchard!

With little planning we always seem to put together an amazing spread.  Food always seems to taste better when outdoors, and when you get to enjoy it with friends it is always better.

In honour of this fall tradition, this weeks cookbook pick is a theme cookbook - all about Apples!
The Apple a Day Cookbook by Janet Reeves entices readers to include apples in many dishes that they would not have thought an apple belonged in!

As you know my goal is to create a 3 course menu from the selected cookbook each week,  which I did this week, but I spread the dishes over 2 days.  The appetizer and dessert I brought to the picnic and the main course  was for supper the next day.  

This weeks menu included:

Curried Apple Soup

Chuckwagon Beef Stew

Pumpkin Apple Butter Pie

The curried apple soup was very easy to make with ingredients most of us have at home.  The warm soup was great to have on a cool day with just enough heat from the curry to make it interesting.  It will certainly be a soup I make again.  

Each year after we pick the donated apples we usually pick apples for our own use.  Most of the apples I pick get eaten fresh, but a few will find their way into Apple Jelly and Apple Butter.  A jar of Apple Butter left from last year was the reason I choose the Pumpkin Apple Butter Pie recipe.  A twist on the traditional pumpkin pie.  The addition of the apple butter made for a softer filling than a typical pumpkin pie, but provided an interesting hint of sweetness. 

The Chuckwagon Stew seems like a typical stew with the exception of apples.  I was concerned that the apples would overpower the stew or cause it to be too sweet.  I was pleasantly surprised the stew tasted delicious and you would hardly know apples where in it, as they pretty much dissolved into the stew.
A great way to add a little more fibre to your stew.

This week I will take some time to convert a few of those apples into Apple Jelly and Apple Butter but for now I think I will go eat an apple. 

A good day cooking!

 Roasting garlic, making pasta,  drinking wine! It was a good day!

The traditional Italian meal has multiple courses.  Which may make you groan at the thoughts of all that food!  The good thing is each course is a small portion so it never seems like an overwhelming amount of food.

Antipasto - We think of it as a platter of certain foods, but it is the Italian's way of luring you into the meal and can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like.

Primi - Is the first course, in which Pasta is the star.  You could serve pizza, but really this where Pasta is meant to be savoured.

Secondi with Contorni- the Main meal, meat or fish with a side of some kind - beans, grains, vegetables you name it.

Dolci - Dessert - fruit, simple cakes, gelato Yum!

From The Tuscan Sun Cookbook my menu included:

Antipasto

Baked Olives with Citrus Peel & Garlic

Roasted Garlic with Bruschetta

Primo

Potato Ravioli with Zucchini, Speck and Pecorino

Secondi with Contorni

Short Ribs Tuscan Style

Roasted Asparagus

Dolci

Peaches with Almond Cream

There was a lot of firsts with this menu, simple ones but still firsts!

Despite how easy it is I have never roasted garlic before.  Slice off the top of a head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, wrap in foil and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes!  The results are creamy caramelized goodness to spread over Bruschetta.  Funny thing we think of Bruschetta as the tomato topping over toasted bread, but really Bruschetta is the bread itself; toasted, spread with olive oil, you can eat as is or top with a variety of things.

While in Italy we spent an afternoon with a Nonna making pasta.  I have made pasta a couple of times since returning, each time with a different recipe, but I think I finally found the recipe that works for me.  A nice workable dough to turn into ravioli - another first! Making ravioli!  Up until now I have just made spaghetti or linguini noodles.  (PS: Speck is a smoked prosciutto, but you can use bacon).

I have cooked regular ribs and I have eaten short ribs, but I have not cooked short ribs before.  This slow roasted recipe makes a very flavourful dish with the meat practically falling off the bone; and with the short ribs there is actually some meat to savour, unlike regular ribs sometimes.

Tasty fresh peaches are still available there now, so that influenced my choice for dessert.  The almond cream contains mascarpone cheese,  which we often associate with a dessert item.  Our tour guide in Italy said fresh mascarpone cheese was one of his favourite breakfast foods!  This dish was a lush way to enjoy sweet fresh peaches.

I am so glad there are leftovers so I can enjoy the meal all again!

A trip down Italian Memory Lane

Two years ago at this time, I was on an amazing trip to Italy.  After a couple of days touring Rome on my own I meet up with friends for a wonderful wine and food tour of Tuscany.

Some of those friends are back in Italy again doing a food and wine tour of the Sicily area.  Thanks to the wonders of Social Media I am able to travel along with them through their facebooks posts,  I am also reminiscing as facebook memories pop up daily from my trip 2 years ago.

As I can't be back to Italy right now I thought I would at least enjoy the flavours of Italy by enjoying a glass of Chianti Classico Riserva while I browse this week selection  - an Italian Cookbook of course!

I didn't't buy The Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances Maves and Edward Maves while in Italy,  I never bought any cookbooks there.  I guess I was too busy doing wine tasting (sometimes 3 a day!), visiting olive groves and seeing how pecorino cheese is made to buy cookbooks.

Shortly after I returned home I bought The Tuscan Sun Cookbook as an e-book.  This is only one of about 3 e-cookbooks I own.  A novel is fine as an e-book but a cookbook really is much better as a hard copy :)

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook is the cookbook companion to the book Under the Tuscan Sun which tells the story of American Professor and Poet Frances Mayes journey as she buys a 300 year old property in Tuscany and falls in love with the local cuisine.  The book would later be made into the movie Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane.  I didn't realize the connection between the movie when I bought the book.    I bought the Tuscan Sun Cookbook as it had items that reminded me of my trip to Tuscany, with great descriptions of the food as well.

The beauty of the food I had in Italy was simple local ingredients combined together with care to create flavourful creations.    This was authentic Tuscan food, but just like in Canada you can find mass produced flavourless food in Italy.  Fortunately most of what I saw was the traditional Tuscany food.  I got to see the whole process from where it was grown, to how it was prepared to make wonderful multi-course meals that left you satisfied but not stuffed. And of course there was plenty of wine!.

I am looking forward to getting out my pasta maker,  having the smells of garlic, olives, tomatoes  permeate the kitchen and enjoying another glass of Chianti!  Let's get cooking.

James Barber The Urban Peasants Cooking for Two

Cooking for Two not only provides recipes that serve two people, but the instructions were written as if two people are preparing the recipes.  Even though I was cooking by myself the recipes were all simple and easy to prepare.
In the introduction James Barber states the recipes in this book are "basically simple"  because his goal is to get people in the kitchen cooking to show them how easy is it to cook good food that is readily available and not expensive.

I made several recipes, my featured  meal was

Tomato and Bread Soup

Rye Chicken with Pan Haggerty with a Lovely Zucchini Sauté 

 Oranges with Grated Dark Chocolate

In addition, for a quick lunch I prepared Stracciatella Soup and when friends were dropping in for tea I tried the Raspberry Coffee Cake.

I chose the Tomato and Bread soup because I was the recipient of an abundant tomato crop that I needed to use up. Simple ingredients come together into a delicious soup.  It can be left chunky for a quick lunch or pureed for a fancy start to the meal.  (Sorry no picture - the soup was so good technology ate the picture!)

I have used alcohol in dessert items and wine in main entrees but never alcohol in a main course so the Rye Chicken intrigued me.  My concern that the rye would overpower the dish was unfounded.  The chicken had a nice sweet smokey flavour that a gave a depth of flavour I have never had before.  Paired with Pan Haggerty, which is described as a coal miner's supper from Northeast England, a yummy dish of potatoes, onions and cheese - how could you go wrong.

Another vegetable in abundance right now Zucchini was turned into a Lovely Zucchini Sauté, the few additional ingredients in the recipe (garlic, basil, good quality olive oil)  just helped the vegetable to blossom into a great a side dish

The Oranges with Grated Dark Chocolate is not so much a recipe but a reminder that food does not have to be complicated.  A couple of good quality ingredients  - an orange, dark chocolate and cinnamon, all things we probably already have in the house; carefully assembled can make an impressive end to the meal.

The Urban Peasant Cooking for Two was ahead of its time in reminding people that good quality simple ingredients can come together easily to make a satisfying meal that can be as elegant as you want to make it.  Cooking with what is in-season and available saves time from searching for obscure items that you may only use once.  If you can find this books I would highly recommended adding it to your collection.  

Canadian Television Chef before TV Chefs were cool!

James Barber hosted The Urban Peasant a Canadian television cooking show on CBC in the '90's.  This was before television cooking shows were a big thing.  His love of food led him to the culinary world.  He wasn't into pretence.  His goal was to get people back in the kitchen!

Born in the UK, he came to Canada in his late 1920's and still had a slight english accent when he did his cooking show.  His show, like his food, was straight forward, hardy food with an eye toward the budget.  Encouraging people to cook what was in season to save money.

I purchased his cookbook James Barber The Urban Peasant Cooking for Two as a gift for my mother.  Mom found it hard once she and Dad became empty nesters to scale down her cooking.  Mom was used to cooking for large crowds, having come from a large family and she always cooked extra in case some stopped in for a meal.  She was also a cook at the local school for years.

Mom did like trying new recipes, but mostly dessert items so I don't think she tried anything in the book and since I inherited Mom's cookbooks I must admit I probably haven't even looked at this book until now.

I remember watching James Barber's cooking show,  his aim was to show that anyone can cook and what good simple ingredients can become. He was a little ahead of his time encouraging people to get back in the kitchen and to cook from scratch which did not have complicated.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet we can still see clips of his show - check it out.  It is good basic cooking show that actually tries to show people how to cook.  Not an infotainment show like many of the cooking shows now.

The Urban Peasant Cooks for Two contains not only recipes for 2 people but the instructions assume that 2 people are preparing the recipes.  Instructions are provided for each person.  For example in his recipe for Sausage in Beans the instructions indicate "While you chop the onion, garlic, chili pepper and tomato, have someone slice the sausage into coins 1/2" thick"

He felt cooking together was a great way to introduce someone to the joys of food or just get the meal on the table faster!

I think I will be grabbing this recipe book a little more often for a quick meal!  Stay tuned for this weeks meal.

  

Eat Delicious by Dennis the Prescott

It was a busy week and I did not get a chance to post this weeks cookbook selection before today!  So, this will be a longer post.

Eat Delicious is one of my newest cookbooks.  Received this past Christmas Gift it is still sitting on my coffee table with lots of tabs in it indicating the recipes I want to try.  Since the tabs were all there I just had to figure out a menu!

Written by Dennis the Prescott a native New Brunswicker, a musician who learned to cook, out of necessity, while on the road with the band.   He threw himself into the process, not only by developing his own recipes but also styling and photographing the food.  He became an Instagram sensation with his food photography on his account Eat Delicious, Dennis the Prescott which lead to the book.

Easy to prepare recipes from scratch, with his own unique instructional style.  He explains them as if he was having a conversation with you, for example in his recipe for English Muffins he tells you to "let the dough get nice and comfortable until it's double in size,"!
I was going to make the Homemade English Muffins, as I have not made English muffins before, but the week got away from me, but it is still on my to do list.  What I did make was;

Cured Salmon (page 20)

Cheesy Marinara Gnocchi Bake (page 98-100)

Tuscan-Style Panzanella Salad (page 292)

and for dessert, because there is an abundance of great apples out there:

Salted Caramel Apple Parfaits.  (page 315)

Smoked Salmon is a treat that I have at Christmas and my Birthday.  I have seen many recipes for Cured Salmon but have always been timid of trying.  Usually the recipes called for a large amount of salmon - what if it didn't turn out, what a waste. 

The recipe in the book is really very simple,  the only hard part was waiting the 48 hours before I could enjoy the results but it was worth the wait!  Silky smooth with just the right balance of flavours.  In addition to a dinner appetizer I have been enjoying the salmon with cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast the last few mornings - I am in heaven.   My Christmas treat just got better!

Gnocchi is something I frequently buy but rarely make - I am not sure why because Gnocchi is simple to make.  A fact I was reminded of when I decided to try the Cheesy Marinara Gnocchi Bake in the book.  The simple Marinara sauce with a little heat from the red pepper flakes was a great sauce to combine with the Gnocchi that went in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.   In my opinion, once you have made your own Marinara Sauce you will never go back to store bought and this Marinara Sauce will certainly be a go to sauce again and again. 

I paired the Gnocchi bake with the Tuscan-Style Panzanella Salad.  I must admit I haven't been using a lot of leafy greens in my salads lately.  Usually when I buy leafy greens they wilt or go bad before I have a chance to eat them all up.  With this salad there was not a leafy green in site.  Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Red Onions tossed in a flavourful vinaigrette.  Throw in some home made croutons and you have got a great salad that is almost a meal on its own. 

I ended the meal with Salted Caramel Apple Parfaits.  There seems to be a lot of steps to make  this dessert. The Salted Caramel Sauce, saute the apples, make the granola, whip the cream, but it really didn't take much time to bring together.  The caramel sauce had a nice hint of smokiness that balanced the sweet.  The granola had a satisfying crunch and the whole thing together made for a lip smacking finish to the meal.

Dennis the Prescott provides easy instructions to both traditional dishes (with a twist)  and new ones. Eat Delicious is still easy to find, so if you don't have it I would recommend adding it to your collection.

Though one thing I have learned from looking through this cookbook - I have to work on my food styling / photography!  Have a great week.  Off to pick out my next cook book.

Lunch Box Fun

In the spirit of back to school I had pulled two books from my shelf to review, both of which I purchased while in elementary school from Scholastic Book Service.

The Cookie Book by Eva Moore
Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book with Cartoons by Charles M. Schulz and recipes by June Dutton

Looking through the books provided a great trip down memory lane, reflecting on early school days but also thinking about some of my early attempts at cooking!

From the Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book I made

Lucy's Crabby Sandwich

Little Deviled Ham Sandwiches

April Fool Proof Potato Salad

Good Ol' Coleslaw

Miss Othmar's Tested Mayonnaise

It was the first time making home made mayonnaise which was then used in the crabby Sandwich and potato Salad.  It provided a nice complex flavour that you don't get from commercial mayonnaise. 

I choose the Lucy's Crabby Sandwich version with Avocado because I am sure as I kid I would have wondered what an Avocado was,  not something that was available in rural New Brunswick at that time.  Now I will admit with the exception of Tuna Salad Sandwich I don't eat many sandwiches made from canned protein,  nothing wrong with the canned products, especially if a Hurricane is coming and you need shelf stable protein options.  But as a regular sandwich filling I think I will stick with other available options. 

The salads were a different story the Good Ol' Coleslaw had lots of other vegetable with the cabbage and was made with a tangy oil and vinegar dressing.  This recipe is definitely a make again.  Actually I think I will make it later this week for a BBQ potluck I am attending.

Everyone has an idea what Potato Salad should taste like and they will judge any other Potato Salad by their ideal.  Well this one passed the test for me.   It very much seemed like most potato salads but I think it was the addition of chopped dill pickles that made the difference in taste. It will be also a recipe I will consider the next time I make potato salad. 

From the Cookie Book we have two cookie selections, because why make one batch of cookies when you can make two!

One of my goals of this endeavour was to not make a recipe I had made before from the cookbooks selected.  As I had mentioned I have made all the recipes in the Cookie Book but one (and I still don't like pineapple so I was still not going to make the recipe!), which meant I had to make some repeats.  Since I probably haven't made the recipes in this cookbook since I was about 12 years old - it was like making a new recipe! 

The cookbook is based on a cookie of the month, therefore in honour of September I made Snickerdoodles!  I also made Three-color Sugar Cookies because I made the recipe frequently as a kid. Both are classic recipes that are easy to whip for kids of all ages and both cookies lived up to my memory.  

Time to sign off because I think it is recess time I think I will go colour while I have some milk and cookies.   Or maybe I can find someone to play Jacks with?  Anyone want to play?   

Cook! Revisited

Post Tropical Storm Dorian is bearing down on the Maritimes today, fortunately I am in an area that it on the outer bands of the storm so the only impact has been heavy rain and some wind, certainly nothing like other areas of the Maritimes are receiving.

I did a quick trip to the Farmer's Market this morning and among things I picked up were some beets.  Growing up we always had a garden and there was always beets.  The majority of the beets were for pickled beets but for a brief window of time we had my absolute favourite vegetable "Buttered Beets"!

Buttered beets sound fancy but were simply cooked beets that are then sliced and heated with butter and salt & pepper.  I think what made them so special was we only had them a couple of times each summer.   Mom liked to make her pickled beets before the beets got too large and since cooking beets is so messy, as soon as the beets were ready they were made into pickles which left very little to make Buttered Beets.

I saved a few beets from todays purchase to make Buttered beets for supper but my intended use for them was to make Beet Jelly a recipe from Cook! It intrigued me when I saw the recipe a few weeks ago.    To me, it is more like a relish, with the taste of harvard beets.  It will be great with roasted meets this winter.

I also tried my hand at Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies also from Cook!.  This was one of Mary Sue Waisman's own recipe that she contributed to the compilation cookbook.  Mary Sue spoke of the cookies often and said she made them frequently particularly for special occassions.  When I first saw the recipe, many years ago,  I had no intention of making them  as I don't like lavender.   I find the smell of lavender overwhelming. If I go by a lavender plant or I am in a store with dried lavender I usually have to leave.

I recently attended a cooking class where we made Lavender Chicken.  I was skeptical but it turned out delicious and the smell of cooking lavender was not as over powering as I thought it would be.  I enjoyed the chicken so much that I  purchased some cooking lavender.  So when I saw the Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies I knew I had to make them.  The only reason I didn't make it as part of the original post was because I had to make lavender sugar - which takes about 2 weeks for the flavours to blend.

I can see why Mary Sue considered these a signature cookie.  Nice subtle flavour in a bite size morsel.  They would look lovely on a cookie tray.  I would certainly make them again.  Anyone want a cookie?

Remembering Scholastic Books

It is back to school week in my area of the world,  with kids big and small heading off with freshly sharpened pencils and crisp new scribblers for another year of learning.
I enjoyed heading back to school to see friends I had not seen all summer, buying new schools supplies and seeing who my teachers would be for that year.

One of the other things I liked about the school year was access to books,  I liked all kinds of books; not just cook books!  I don't know if anyone else remembers the Scholastics Books order form.  A couple of times a year a newsletter would arrive featuring different books that students could order.  Growing up in rural New Brunswick without easy access to a good bookstore this was often the way I got new books and  I was fortunate that I was usually able to order a book each time the newsletter came out.

This is actually how I obtained some of my first cookbooks! This week I am going to feature two  cookbooks because both are from Scholastic Books, but also if I want to make a "complete" menu I need to feature more than one cookbook!

I have no way of knowing exactly when I obtained the books but I am suspecting probably around Grade 3 or 4!

The Cookie Book is probably the only cookbook I own were I have made almost all the recipes.  The Cookie Book featured a cookie of the month (with some variations)  and each month I diligently made every single recipe except one "Tiny Timmies" because it had pineapple in it and I don't like pineapple! Written for young cooks as directions were provided in great detail, I also had my own notes about how the cookie turned out.  Several of the cookies became a regular feature in my house, because supper was not over unless dessert was served which was often a cookie or a small square.

The second book Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book I suspected I ordered because I liked the Peanuts Comic Strip more so than I wanted ideas for my lunch box!  It provided all kinds of suggestions for a lunch box, back in the day when there was no microwaves and the lunch box sat on a shelf until lunch time.  All the basic sandwich fillings were covered with variations on each one.  It also includes a recipe for home made bread, home made mayonnaise and salads that could be packed in your lunch.  I don't recall if I tried many of the recipes.  I am pretty sure I didn't try "Linus Loves Liverwurst Sandwich"  but I might have tried "Schroeder's Harmonious Ham Sandwich'  except for the variation that included Avocado - because Avocados in rural New Brunswick in the late 1970's would have been an unknown food.

Going through the books and thinking about back to school has certainly been a walk down memory lane. I hope you will come back later in the week when I will pack your lunch box with all kinds of goodies including a few cookies for you to enjoy!  Do you remember who was on your lunch box?  I had a Raggedy Ann and Andy lunch box one year.