Back at the end of February, social distancing was not part of our regular vocabulary, and gathering with others was normal; I had the opportunity to gather with a few of my cousins to spend a few days visiting, eating and quilting.
It is always lovely to spend time with extended family who you may not see often enough, catching up and sharing a hobby you have in common.
and I was in charge of Food! It gave me the chance to dig into several cookbooks that I had not looked at in awhile . I created the menus from several different cookbooks. I didn't feature one cookbook a meal but mixed them all up. I also threw in a few tried and true recipes (I had to have time to quilt!) and we even celebrated Christmas in February that included a traditional Turkey dinner and a snowstorm!
The next couple of blog posts will feature the different cookbooks, I will only feature one cookbook per post to make it less confusing.
The first cookbook is Mindful - over a 100 Delicious Recipes for Better Brain Health. by Carol Greenwood, PhD, Daphna Rabinovitch and Joanne Gryfe. An initiative of Baycrest Health Sciences, a globally respected academic health sciences centres focused on the needs of seniors and the aging population. It features recipes made with food that assist with brain health, it also includes many tips and tools to help maintain overall health.
I won the cookbook at a conference several years ago and I hate to admit this was the first time I made anything out the cookbook. I am not sure why it has sat on my shelf neglected because all the recipes turned out great and I have several more earmarked to try.
During the get together we had
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes with Ricotta Topping
Summer Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce
Squash, Spinach & Onion Lasagna
Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes
Our first day together was Shrove Tuesday or better know as Pancake Tuesday so of course the menu had to feature Pancakes.
Despite the fact that they contained both whole wheat flour and oatmeal, the Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes were light and fluffy, the Ricotta Cheese was not a typical topping for our group and even though it was tasty, the local Maple Syrup won the day! (the picture does not do them justice!)
The pancake recipe is my new go to recipe for pancakes, since it makes a more interesting pancake then the typical white flour variety.
Each afternoon was break time for show and tell and of course some treats!
On our second afternoon the Summer Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce was the featured treat of the day. Summer rolls are such a great way to include vegetables in a fun way in your diet (I know I am sounding like such a dietitian 😀). The real find with this recipe was the Thai Dipping Sauce. Until this point I had only ever had prepared Thai Dipping sauce, so when I first made the recipe I thought something was wrong because it wasn't the deep red color you typically see. That is when I realized how much food colouring must be added. It did eventually take on a pinkish orange hue from the dried red pepper flakes though. It surpassed my expectations and I will never go back to the prepared Thai Dipping Sauce again.
Supper our last night together featured the Squash, Spinach and Onion Lasagna. A tasty vegetarian lasagna that is unexpected in its contents with the addition of squash. Like all lasagnas it is a bit fussy to make but well worth the work. Lets just say there was no leftovers!
The Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes were intended for the get together, but I ended up taking them to work before I left - sorry cuz! The had a nice rich chocolate flavour and were very moist, no icing required; and no one knew they contained Avocados!
During our get together we did a mystery guilt. A mystery quilt means you are only told the amount of fabric you need, you don't see the pattern or instructions in advance. You are given the instructions a section at a time until you have a quilt top. I am sharing my mystery quilt. It still needs to be quilted but I think it turned out pretty good!
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