VH Chinese New Year Blog Tour - Recipes and Giveaway!

I like to keep a cooking mindset that food should not be boring.  We love to try food from other cultures and 'theme it up' once in a while for different celebrations; pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, Roast Lamb for Easter and most recently, a Chinese Feast for Chinese New Year!
When we were living in Toronto, we were most fortunate to have become friends with a pair of sisters who were originally from Hong Kong.  One of our most treasured memories was being their guests at an authentic Hong Kong Chinese Dim Sum.  We were the only table in the room with non-Chinese guests at it.  Our hosts ordered for us as the menu was only in Chinese.  The food was fantastic and I've had a longing to recreate those dishes now that we live elsewhere.

(our family at Dim Sum in Toronto last summer)

While I've never been able to recreate those recipes (yet) - we still do enjoy creating our our Canadian Chinese food at home.  That is why I was so happy to be asked to join the VH Chinese New Year Blog Tour.  What better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon than to have a family feast?  

Whenever dining Chinese it always strikes me how family and friend oriented the meal is.  At a Dim Sum restaurant, the tables are usually round so there is no head.  Dishes are served in large portions so to be shared with the entire table.  We all partake in the meal together.  Chinese tea is often featured, traditionally, you do not pour your own tea, someone else at the table serves you, just as you would serve them.  It is a great reminder of friendship, family and community.

At home, we try to remember this act of family dining by creating many large dishes to share.  Having small children (ages 7, 4 and 2), we also try to find food that will please their choosy palates, while still satisfying our own need for unique and tasty dishes.  The menu we came up with for this Chinese New Year was greatly assisted by the sauces to try out from VH.  We feasted on: Sweet and Sour Shrimp, Pineapple Chicken, Mushroom Chow Mein, Beef & Broccoli and Steamed Rice.

The Giveaway!

Thanks to the generosity of VH and Mom Central Canada you, I invite you to join in on the fun of having your own Chinese New Year Celebration!  Leave a comment below telling your favorite Chinese Dish and you will be entered to win a Chinese New Year Gift Pack valued at $60! Giveaway is open to Canadian residents only.  One name will be drawn at random at the end of the day, February 10th.  Please include your name and contact info (email address) in your comment so I can reach you should you win.  Readers may enter this giveaway on multiple blogs, but may only win one prize.  Prizes will be sent out from Mom Central Canada on behalf of Crafty Kris.

The Recipes!

Mushroom Chow Mein

drizzle of canola oil - heat in large frying pan or wok - add:

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

cook over medium heat until heated through and just beginning to soften - add:

a couple of Tbsp of VH Hoisin Sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp chicken stock powder

1/4 C water

stir it all in together and turn heat up to medium high to get everything really hot! - add:

 4 oz chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup sugar snap peas

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 can bamboo shoots, drained

a generous drizzling of soya sauce

1 cup bean sprouts

2 cups of chow mein noodles, uncooked

mix it all together, add a bit more water to get some steam going in the wok (1/2 cup).  Cover and allow noodles to steam cook.  This cooks fast so check often and keep stirring to prevent sticking.  Top with green onion slices for garnish when serving.

 *on a happy eating side note - my picky eating boys both ate the noodles (and unknowingly the bean sprouts) from this dish as well as tried the bamboo and water chestnuts and thought it was pretty good!

Pineapple Chicken
By far the easiest of the dishes I made!

drizzle of canola oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp flour
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 jar VH pineapple chicken sauce
1/2 can pineapple tidbits

Heat oil in medium cooking pot - medium heat.  Toss the chicken pieces with the flour to coat the chicken.  Put coated chicken and red peppper in the cooking pot, stir frequently.  Add the jar of sauce.  Continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce starts to bubble.  Add the pineapple.  Continue to cook until the pineapple is heated.

*my kids loved this dish 

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

My husband's contribution to our feast.  He used a Buttermilk Batter recipe from Food.com (originally intended for onion rings).  

16 shrimp (tails on) - he let the shrimp marinate a little bit in a mix of a little bit of Thai Fish Sauce with a pinch of salt before battering

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups buttermilk

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

canola oil

VH Sweet and Sour Sauce - to serve over the shrimp once cooked.

Whisk together the flour, buttermilk, sugar, baking powder and salt until smooth.  Pour oil to a depth of 2 inches in a dutch oven.  Heat to 375*.  Dip shrimp in batter, coating well.  Fry a few shrimp at a time until golden.  Drain - (my husband uses a 2 step draining process, first in a metal strainer, then onto paper towels.)  Repeat with remaining shrimp.  *We had enough batter to fry up some onion rings as well, which isn't very Chinese Food-ish, but still delicious with the sweet and sour sauce.

Seriously yummy!  The Sweet and Sour is our favorite VH Sauce to use!

Beef & Broccoli

 

This recipe comes from Stephen Yan's Cookbook on Chinese Cooking from the late 70's or early 80's.  He was the charismatic host of Wok With Yan - a Canadian Chinese cooking program that ran for 15 years or more.  This recipe is simple and very tasty.  

 

1 pound of fresh broccoli, sliced into bite sized pieces

1/2 pound beef flank steak, sliced thinly across the grain

1 tbsp light soy sauce

dash of pepper

1 tbsp tapioca starch or cornstarch

a few drops of sesame oil

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

4 tbsp sesame or peanut oil

Marinate the beef with light soy sauce, pepper, few drops sesame oil and starch for 15 minutes.  In a wok or skillet, help up 2 tbsp of oil until smoke begins to rise.  Put in broccoli, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of water.  Mix and cover with lid.  Cook with high heat for 4 minutes, until steam escapes from the edge of the lid.  Remove to a plate.  Use high heat and 2 tbsp of oil; when hot, brown garlic for a minute.  Then add beef, stir fry until the color of the meat changes.  Return broccoli and mix.  Serve hot.

A sprinkle of sesame seeds on top makes a nice garnish!

*This was the first time we used our new rice cooker and I'm in love with it - super easy and perfect rice!  I highly recommend you get one too.

Still in the mood for Chinese, but not so much up to cooking tonight?  Look out for VH Steamers in the freezer section of your local grocery store. 

Disclosure – I am participating in the VH Chinese New Year Celebration program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of VH.  I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Best Beef Dip! - for a slow cooker

Beef Dip is one of those recipes that I always order at a diner.  I love it.  It's a treat when made well, but I've never thought to make it myself.  Rewind to two weeks ago, I was browsing at one of my favorite recipe sites, food.com, and found this recipe.  It had very high ratings (4 1/2 stars out of 5) and a lot of positive reviews.  The ingredients were simple and staples in our home.  It looked super easy (and it was) and honestly, I couldn't believe how delicious this really was.  My husband has not stopped talking about it ever since.  He has asked a number of our friends if they have slow cookers and told them to get this recipe off of me.  That's high praise :)  The original posting is found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/french-dip-roast-beef-for-the-crock-pot-103403.

• 3 1/2-4 lbs boneless chuck roast
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 -4 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 12 French rolls , split - (even better when toasted and then spread with a little mayo before adding the meat)

Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients.  Pour over roast.  Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.  Cook, covered, on LOW for 7 hours or until very tender.  Remove roast, reserving broth.  You may shred roast with a fork and serve on sandwich rolls with the broth on the side for dipping.

Sliders

You see sliders everywhere now. They are so popular and it's no wonder. They are tasty little burgers. And they are a great size if you have kids. I'd like to thank Donna from My Tasty Treasures for posting her technique of making these burgers. Mine are made the same way, but I have a different recipe for my burger part.

2 pounds ground beef
1 onion - chopped finely
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
16 cheese slices
16 mini rolls - I use dinner rolls and they work well, but you can use whatever
Ketchup
Mayonnaise

Heat oven to 425* (my oven is not hot so 425* works well for us, probably 350* would do well for a hotter oven).
Mix ground beef, chopped onion, bread crumbs, Dijon, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix everything in well (one of those times you want to use your (clean) hands for mixing).
Put the beef mixture on a baking sheet and press it flat, right out to the corners so it covers the sheet completely.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
Drain the grease by tipping the tray slightly over your grease catcher (coffee can or whatever you use). Make sure to hold on to the beef with an oven mitt to keep it from sliding off the tray. The beef will have shrunk a bit in size.
Spread the cheese slices over the beef to cover it completely.
(Here's the trust me, it sounds tricky but it makes sense part) Put the tops of the buns face down on the beef/cheese, leaving no gaps between buns.
Then, put the bottoms of the buns on top of the tops, face UP!
Put the baking sheet back into the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and heat the buns.
Remove from the oven.
Get the mayo and ketchup ready. As you remove each bun bottom, spread a little mayo and squirt a little ketchup on each. Set aside on a plate for a few minutes.
Take a knife and cut out each burger on the tray. You basically have to just run it down and across in between each burger. Use a spatula to lift each burger out and place onto a bottom part. That's it. It sounds trickier than it actually is. (Check out Donna's site for pictures if you need them). Serve with onion rings or crispy fries (or both) and a homemade milkshake for extra goodness!

Tikka Kebabs

This was a fantastic recent find of mine.  I have a couple of amazing cookbooks by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.  They are a couple who travels in different parts of the world (mostly Asia) and learn to cook in villages by the locals.  They have the most wonderful recipes in beautiful books.  This recipe came from Mangoes and Curry Leaves:Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent.  It just so happened that this book was the end book on my cookbook shelf.  The back cover picture kept staring at me calling my name until I became determined to find out just what that dish was.  This is it.  As my husband said, this was the best marinade he's ever had.  And this is a man who is serious about eating good meat!
The recipe is supposed to be for lamb kebabs (not much in the way of beef recipes in India) but seeing as we do eat beef here and good lamb is harder to come by, I used beef instead of lamb when we did these up.  We've had them twice in the past 2 weeks, once without the yogurt in the marinade as I didn't have any on hand and once with.  Both versions were good.  I even managed to convince my husband to BBQ them for me in the snow - isn't he great?



Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder (I used stewing beef in substitution)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp minced garlic (or garlic mashed to a paste)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4-1/2 tsp ground black pepper (optional)
lime or lemon wedges

Trim the meat of any excess fat and cut into 3/4 inch cubes.  Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, coriander. oil, 1 tsp of the salt, the cayenne, and black pepper.  Pour over the meat.  Stir with a spoon or your hands to get all the meat surfaces coated with marinade.  Cover  and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for as long as 12 hours. 
Thread the meat onto metal skewers, without pressing them tightly together, grill over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until browned on the outside and pale pink in the centre (or all the way through if you prefer).
Just before serving, sprinkle about 1 tsp of salt over the meat.  Put out lime or lemon wedges so guests can squeeze on fresh juice.
Serve with flatbread.

Shepherd's Pie

I love this recipe for a cold winter's night.  It is the tastiest shepherd's pie I've ever had.  I use Jean Pare's recipe from Cooking for Two, but I double it each time.  Here are the measurements for a double recipe (which feeds my family of 5 nicely).  You can of course halve it to make the smaller 'for 2' dish.

2 tsp cooking oil
1 lb lean ground beef
2 1/2 cups chopped onion

2/3 cup water
4 tsp beef bouillon powder
2 medium carrots, sliced thinly or diced (I dice them)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
sprinkle each of salt and pepper

2/3 cup frozen peas

3 cups cooked mashed potatoes
2 tbsp milk (to mix into the mashed potato)
sprinkle of salt (to mix into the mashed potato)
sprinkle of paprika

Heat cooking oil in frying pan.  Add ground beef and onion.  Scramble-fry until beef is browned and onion is soft.  Drain.

Combine the next 7 ingredients in saucepan.  Stir.  Heat to boiling.  Cook slowly until carrot is tender.  Add peas.  Cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add ground beef mixture.  Stir.  Pack into a casserole dish. 

Cover with mashed potato.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Bake, uncovered in 350* oven for about 30 minutes, until very hot.

Authentic Tacos with Pico de Gallo

A classmate of my husband is from Texas.  He came home rather excited last week because he got it.  What did he get?  Her taco recipe.  We are not talking tacos with the package mix here.  We are talking real, good tacos.  The best tacos I've ever had, ever!  He was kind enough to write out the recipe for me to share with y'all too.  Here it is:

1 lb of Ground Beef

2 Jalapeno Peppers (For a medium heat. You can add more if you want more heat.)

2 Onions

4 Roma Tomatoes

½ Bunch of Cilantro

1 Lime

½ Red or Yellow Pepper

Iceberg Lettuce

¾ can of Whole or Diced Tomatoes w/ juice.

1 Tablespoon of Ground Cumin

1 Teaspoon of Oregano

a pinch of sugar

Beef Stock

Make Pico De Gallo:

Dice one onion, four Roma tomatoes, ½ a Jalapeno Pepper. Finely chop ½ bunch of Cilantro, and squeeze all the juice from the lime. (A trick for juicing a lime is to roll it along a surface, such as a cutting board, using the palm of your hand. Apply enough pressure onto the lime to break it up inside without breaking the skin. Then cut it open and squeeze the juice out into the bowl). Mix ingredients well and refrigerate. It is best to make the Pico de Gallo a few hours before you plan to serve the Tacos.

Taco Beef:

Dice the other onion, ½ red or yellow pepper, and finely dice 1 ½ Jalapeno Peppers. (Be careful when cutting or grating Jalapeno peppers by hand as the oils on your hands can will cause a burning sensation when anything your hands come into contact with (eyes, nose, face, etc.) Saute the ground beef with the onions and peppers, until the beef is almost browned. Add the canned tomatoes, Cumin, Oregano, sugar and beef stock. (I mix the beef stock with water and just add 1 tablespoon of liquid.) Bring mixture to a boil, and then turn down and allow it to simmer for 20 min.

Fixins:

Serve the taco meat with shredded iceberg lettuce, grated cheese (we like sharp cheddar), Pico de Gallo, sour cream, warmed taco shells. Enjoy!

DIY Beefaroni

This is an extremely kid-friendly, fall yummy sort of meal.  It is also super-easy.

1lb beef
1/2 onion chopped finely
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 large can tomato sauce (we used our homemade stuff.)
1 can (small) tomato paste
1-2 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 cups uncooked macaroni
Mozzerella cheese (grated)

Cook macaroni according to package directions.  While macaroni is cooking, saute the beef in a large frying pan with the garlic, onions and Italian seasoning.  Once the beef is browned add the tomato sauce and paste.  Mix everything together well.  Drain the macaroni and add to the mixture.  Add as much grated cheese as you desire (about 1/2 cup - 1 cup works well).  Mix everything together to melt the cheese in.  Serve and enjoy!

The Best Chili!

For the first few years of our marriage, I'd make chili and my husband would eat it, but not enjoy it. The problem is that he really, really loves chili, but I couldn't seem to find a recipe that he liked. So I stopped making chili altogether. That was it. If I wanted chili, I'd get a bowl from Tim Horton's or Wendy's. Now that the fall weather is here, I was craving chili again. I thought I would scour my favorite blogs and recipe sites until I found the perfect recipe and make it. My friends, I have found that recipe. This was the perfect chili. And yes, my husband enjoyed it too. This is my keeper. I found it on food.com (formerly Recipezaar.com) and it is delicious. The only differences that I did with this recipe was use our homemade tomato sauce instead of canned, increased the onion to half an onion, and added a finely chopped green pepper to the mix. Other than that I made it according to her directions. So enjoy, the perfect chili.

Seasoning Mix

* 4 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together seasoning mix.
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

* 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
* 1 tablespoon minced onion (I used half and onion instead, I also added a chopped green pepper)
* 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans


-In a skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink.
-Drain.
-Add onion and 3 tsp of seasoning mix.
-In Crock-Pot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, one can of beans (drain and rinse the beans) and two more teaspoons of seasoning mix.
-Place the other can of beans (drain and rinse the beans first) in a blender and process until smooth.
-Add beans and meat to the crock pot.
-Stir together.
-Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Beef Stroganoff

This is super tasty fall comfort food. I adapted a recipe I found for a venison stroganoff, using stewing beef instead of venison, mini-portabellos and a crock pot. The result was absolute yum.

1 pound stewing beef - chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound fresh mushroom, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup water
1 tbsp instant beef bouillon
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup sour cream

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Mix the flour and paprika together in a medium mixing bowl. Add beef and coat. Once the beef is coated, sear it in the heated olive oil. Remove from heat once all sides of the cubes are done. (throw away the excess flour)
Spray a crockpot with non-stick spray. Throw in the beef and the remaining ingredients except the sour cream and mix well. Cook at low heat for 6-8 hours. Add the sour cream at the end, mixing it in. Serve over egg noodles or rice.

Jamie Oliver's Lasagna

I am very much in love with this cookbook. I have yet to find a bad recipe in the lot. I find with cookbooks you have to like the author's style of cooking or it's of no use to you. I own probably 20-25 cookbooks but use 5 on a regular basis. This is now part of my regular rotation. What I like about it is that it is simple enough for beginning cooks to use, but interesting enough for those of us who are comfortable in a kitchen to enjoy.

Sauce
*the original recipe uses smoked bacon in it (2 slices), I have a pork intolerance so I left it out
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
olive oil
2 heaped tsp dried oregano
1 pound ground beef
2 x 14 oz cans of tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of fresh basil
2 oz parmesan cheese


For the Lasagna

8 oz dried egg lasagna sheets
2 cups creme fraiche or 2 cups thick sour cream (I used the sour cream)
4 oz parmesan cheese
1 large ripe tomato, sliced

Making the sauce

Peel and chop the veggies.  Use a large casserole type pan on medium to high heat.  Add 2 lugs of olive oil and the oregano.  Add the veggies and stir around the pan until veggies are softened.  Stir in the beef and the canned tomatoes.  Fill one of the empty cans with water and add to the pan.  Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper.  Pick the basil leaves and place in the fridge for later.  Finely chop the basil stalks and stir into the pan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring every now and again to stop it catching.

Preheat the oven to 375*.  Remove the sauce from the heat.  Grate the 2 oz of parm into the sauce.  Tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later.

Make the lasagna

Grate the 4 oz of cheese.  Boil some water in a large pot.  Add all of the lasagna sheets with a drizzle of oil and blanch for about 3-4 minutes.  Drain the sheets in a colander and pat them dry.  Spoon a third of the sauce into the bottom of a lasagna pan.  Follow with a layer of lasagna sheets.  Dollop a third of the sour cream or creme fraiche and smooth it out over the lasagna sheets. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper and 1/3 of the grated parm.  Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with the layer of sour cream and cheese.  Top with some slices of tomato and scatter the basil leaves over top.  Drizzle with a little olive oil.  Cover with aluminum foil, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and cook for a further 35 minutes until the lasagna is bubbling and golden.  (Total cooking time 55 minutes).

(You'll notice from my picture that I used dried basil instead of fresh, it still tasted good, but fresh basil would have been even better)

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger - post 2

As requested from comments in my previous post, here is a picture of Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger.  This is the reheated version (as are the home fries - I know they don't look great, but they taste good).  Even re-heated my husband was raving about this burger, it's just that good!
After much contemplation I did decide to post the recipe.  It goes along with the premise of the book.   He wrote it with the intention of getting people to cook again.  The recipes are easy to follow and have picture tutorials throughout.  He also wants people to pay it forward with cooking. Well I recently moved and don't know anyone out here well enough to tutor them in cooking so my blog will have to do it for me.  Here's the recipe:

12 cream or plain crackers
8 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1 pound ground beef
1 large egg
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Wrap the crackers in a kitchen towel and smash up until fine, breaking up any big bits with your hands, and put them in a large bowl.  Finely chop the parsley, including the stalks.  Add the parsley, mustard, and ground beef into the bowl.  Crack the egg and add a good pinch of salt and pepper.  With clean hands, scrunch and mix everything up well.  Divide into 6 and pat and mold each piece into a roundish shape about 3/4 inch thick.  Drizzle the burgers with oil, put on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator until needed (this helps firm them up).

We BBQ-ed them and melted cheddar on top.  Jamie reccommends using a grill pan as well to cook the burgers.  Place into a toasted bun and top with your favorite burger toppings.  Enjoy!

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger

I posted a few days back how I'd bought 3 new cookbooks that have re-energized my cooking efforts. I had so much fun grocery shopping today as I looked towards the next couple of weeks of meals. But now I'm hit with a quandary. Here's what happened.
We had friends over for dinner tonight. We rolled out the old BBQ and I prepped Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger from his Food Revolution cookbook. Along with it I served a Cesar salad and my own special home fries. One bite of this burger and was hooked. YUM! much tastier (I think) than the home burgers I've been making. The rest of the table enjoyed them too. So here's my question: I generally don't post recipes as is found in a cookbook. I will post them if I have made my own taste changes and note them appropriately. I just don't want to get into any copyright issues; therefore, no picture as there was no intention to post. This cookbook was designed, however, for the purpose of sharing the recipes with friends, teaching them to them to add to their repetoire (the pay it forward notion of cooking). So what do I do? I'm planning I think 4 of his recipes over the next 2 weeks. If these burgers are any indication then I know already how good the other food is. Do I post the recipes? Review the recipes? Help me out here foodie friends! What do you do with published recipes? I'd really like to know.

Roast Beef Dinner and Updates

Happy end of November everyone! I had a nice little message from Ingrid of 3 B's today asking how things were going, so I thought it was time to update a little. Truth be told, I look back at November and think, once! That's it? I posted only one recipe? How is that possible?
Well, then I started to think about November and go "oh yeah, that's what happened to it" and December isn't likely to produce much more looking ahead.
I started off November sick. Although completely unconfimed I have suspicions that I had H1N1. The symptoms were there, fever, cough, sore throat, lack of energy - never mind working at 2 schools where there were confirmed cases and lots and lots of sick students and staff. So I had very little energy for about two weeks there. (I did recieve the vaccine, but the symptoms showed up before the 10 waiting days were over).
I recovered nicely in time for my birthday. I had a lovely, lovely dinner out with my husband and a few close friends. We went to Suwanna, which is my favorite restaurant in town. It is a Thai restaurant and luckily my friends think like we do, order 6 dishes and pass around to share. We had Pad Thai (of coure, 2 orders of it), Matsaman Curry (my pick, so delicious), Bamboo Shoots (tres spicy!), a beef stir fry (yummy) and I know there was one more dish, I'm just not remembering what it was now. We also had some Thai carrot/cabbage salad, which is so delicious and curry puffs as an appetizer. I'm going to miss this restaurant when we move away. I did take pictures of the evening, unfortunately, my photo card got accidentally erased before we downloaded anything.
The next part of the month has been dedicated to work, work and more work. Pretty much from Thanksgiving on till Christmas, my job kicks it up a notch (Canadian Thanksgiving - 2nd Monday in October). I teach music so I'm involved in getting performance groups ready for Remembrance Day ceremonies (Nov. 11th), the Empty Stocking Fund telecast (last weekend-a 70+ year old local telethon benefitting families that need help at Christmas time), the Santa Claus Parade (very strange to sit on a float, you can't believe the number of people that watch that thing!), and currently Christmas Concerts. As I said I work at 2 schools, so most of this is x2 work. Never mind that report cards fall into the middle of all this and parent teacher interviews (marks for 600 kids). So yes, work has kept me busy.
And through all this I've found myself right into my 3rd trimester. Yay! Of course 3rd trimester means less energy and I've definately seen myself slowing down a bit. I've started to teach sitting on a chair, instead of sitting on the floor with the kids. I also discovered that there are certain songs I cannot participate in with the kids. I had to laugh at myself when I was teaching this one song to kindergarten classes that involves getting down on all 4's and then jumping up and jumping up and down - I couldn't do it. Talk about changing your lesson plan on the fly! (I teach 4 kindergarten classes in a row, so that just wasn't going to work!).
My own little guys are doing well. They and my husband take up the rest of my energy really. I have done more cooking this month than my blogging shows for, but my pregnant brain often fails to remember to take a picture.
So here's a doozy of a blog post for you all. One of my favorite comfort meals of fall and winter, a pot roast beef dinner. Oh it is so yummy, I want to make it again right now. This dinner had the beef, gravy, yorkshire pudding (my Auntie Sue's Recipe), whipped potatoes, peas and a carrot bake (Katy's recipe of Food for a Hungry Soul).

Pot Roast

1 roast
1 tsp salt
ground pepper (have ready to grind)
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp cooking oil
1 1/2 cups each BBQ sauce, and beef broth
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic (crushed and minced)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp lime juice

I like to cook my roasts in a crock pot, it just makes the meat so tender. I put this all on in the morning and let it cook for 8-10 hours. Prepare your crock pot by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
Sprinkle roast lightly on all sides with salt, pepper and flour. Heat oil in a frying pan (med-high heat). Add roast and brown on all sides. Once it is browned/seared, place roast into the crock pot.
Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over roast. Cover, put crock pot on low heat and cook for 8-10 hours. (You can also make this on high heat for 4-5 hours).

Roast gravy

Once roast is finished, remove it from the crock pot and cover with foil to keep hot. Drain the juices over a seive and into a saucepan. Add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp beef boullion powder and 1/4 cup + flour. Whisk everything together over med. heat, whisking constantly until gravy is heated thouroughly and thickens.

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

My Auntie Sue is one of my very favorite people. She isn't really my aunt, but a good family friend that I've known my whole life. I grew up with her home being my second home and our families spending a lot of Sunday dinners and Holidays together. She is a wonderful cook. I'm glad my mom snagged this recipe of hers for me.

3 eggs
1 C flour
1 C milk
1 tsp butter
dash of salt.

Whisk eggs. Add rest of ingredients and whisk together. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 425* until done (about 10 minutes or so) - the puddings should puff up nicely and brown. My mom says this works best if the ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the oven is heating. My English husband insists it works best if you let the ingredients sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour or so before baking. I've done it both ways and both ways turn out well.

Guest Post - BBQ by my "wonderful" Husband

This was largely an "impromptu" BBQ. I used to cook in Restaurants previously to Pastoring, Kris' Mom requested that I cook her a meal before she returned home to B.C. The meal is steak, with garlic prawns, sauteed veg. and a tortelini pasta salad.
The Steak was marinaded previously to grilling in an experiemental mixture of red wine and BBQ Sauce. I had been recommended by some friends a product which is available in Canada in the President's Choice line of products: Smokin' Habenero BBQ Sauce (it is made with habernero peppers and Tequila) YUM! I added about 1/4 cup of Red Wine (Cabernet Savignon) and about 1 cup of the BBQ Sauce. They steaks were marinaded for about 3 hours and during grilling I poured the unused marinade over the steaks. They were delicious.

The Sauteed Vegetables are simple. I chose some green and red peppers, carrots, snow peas, and onion and sauteed them lightly for 6-8 min. in a bit of oil. The carrots were cut very thin so that they were not super crunchy compared with the peppers. Avoid overcooking to bring out the most flavor.

The Tortelini Pasta Salad I made ahead of time. I bought some fresh cheese tortelini from our local supermarket and some fresh basil. Chop the fresh basil, add some ripe tomato, green onion,
olive oil, salt and pepper, and voila. The Tortelini was about 2 cups worth, 1-1/2 - 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil (keep all bits of stalk out), 1 whole medium tomato (ripe) you could also use a roma tomato, 1 sprig of green onion finely chopped, cover with olive oil, and a splash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Next the Garlic Prawns.
I always use prawns that are either fresh or IQF - Individually Quality Frozen. I avoid any
shrimp or prawns which have been cooked and peeled previous to frozen- I find they are the equivalent to eating pink rubber. The prawns I purchased were butterflied (a cut down the back of the prawns which allows for easy peeling when thawed.) When I cook with garlic - I want to taste garlic. For about 25 prawns I pressed 2-3 cloves of garlic and set them asside.
I am a big believer in timing the cooking so that each part of the meal is perfectly cooked and is ready at the same time. Sautee the prawns in 2 tablespoons of margerine, add the garlic, and prawns and add a splash of white wine or cooking wine, and cover. The prawns are done when they turn a nice pink color, do not overcook. I hope you enjoy these recipies. I really enjoyed cooking this meal, and would certainly use these recipies again.


This is me, "the chef". The meal was thoroughly enjoyed by my Mother in Law!

Kafta

We have this lovely restaurant in town called Vivaldi's. The name is a little misleading because I had thought it was an Italian place. It is, but it's also a Lebanese place. I know, I'd never heard of a combination like that before either! And I've actually never eaten any of the Italian food at Vivaldi's, for me, it's my Lebanese place. Mmmm, my mouth waters just thinking about it. The last time we were there (and by we I me just J & I - no kids, no playplace), I had Kafta. I love the flavours of Lebanese cuisine. So delicious. And I started to wonder if I could replicate this at home. So I did some looking. I found a recipe for the basic meat mixture at LebGuide, which is a guide to all things Lebanese. I figured that would be my best bet, who better than to get a Lebanese recipe from than the Lebanese themselves. Now, I don't have the skewers over charchoal authenticity of it, I did the as meatballs roasted in the oven version. I also had no idea (except my memory) of how to replicate the sauce that Vivaldi's serves. J was quite impressed with the end result, he said I got it pretty darn close.
Here's the recipe:
2 1/2 lbs finely ground lamb or beef (I used extra lean ground beef)
2 cups tighly packed washed and picked parsley (incredibly there was no fresh parsley at the market this week, so I substituted 1/2 cup of dry)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or 1 TBS dry mint leaves (I used fresh)
1 large onion, cut up for food processor
1 tsp Bhar Helou or 1/4 each ground cinammon, cloves, nutmeg (I used the cinamon, cloves and nutmeg version)
1 tsp salt, more to taste
1/2 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste

In a food processor, chop onion extremely fine. Add parsely and mint and until you have a fine - not liquified - homogeneous mixture. Put the meat in a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and spices to meat, combine and mix thoroughly with your hands.
I heated the oven to 400* degrees and formed the meat mixture into large meatballs. I put a little olive oil on my clay baker and then baked the meatballs (uncovered) in it for a good half hour. (Check the meatballs to make sure that the meat is cooked through.)

Now for the sauce:

1 bulb of garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion (chopped)
1 red pepper (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 can whole tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 tbsp beef beef stock mix
1 tsp cinnimon
1 tsp parsley flakes
fresh ground pepper to taste

Roast the garlic. I do this by taking the garlic apart into cloves and removing the skins. I put the cloves onto a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up the garlic into a little foil package. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes. When the garlic is done, puree it with a hand blender and set aside to use later.

Use a larger cooking pot. Heat the other tsp of olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, red & green peppers, and mix into the oil. Allow the vegetables to cook covered (but stirring them up every few minutes as to not burn or over cook). (I'm going to use one of my favorite cooking descriptions here) Allow the vegetables to sweat. (Don't you just love that description? I've been waiting to use it - it basically means they need to cook until soft and allow the natural liquid to come out of them). Take each tomato from the can and individually squeeze it in - set the remaining tomato juice aside, we're going to use it for something else. Add the can of tomato sauce. Mix in the seasonings (cinnimon, parsley, beef stock, pepper) and the roasted garlic puree. Bring to a little boil, stirring often. Then, reduce heat to low and allow the sauce to simmer.
*As with a lot of tomato sauces, the longer the simmer the better. I have a friend in Italy whose mother starts their tomato sauces in the morning and lets them simmer all day long.

The rice part:
You should have about a cup of tomato juice reserved from the can of tomatoes. Cook 1 cup of basamati rice with the tomato juice and a cup of water. (Measure to make sure, the ratio for cooking rice is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of liquid).

Serve the Kafta on top of the rice and pour the sauce over that. Delicious!

I definately want to make the Kafta again and experiment with it a bit. I would like to try it on the BBQ this summer, maybe as a kebab with some veggies.

I think this meal would have been even better if it had a side accompniament. Some hummus and pita or a tabouleh salad would have been the perfect contrasts.

My oldest son, Elijah, is fascinated that I take pictures of our food and put them on my website, he wanted to present the kafta to you all, so here is the shot of his hand. You also have to imagine a four year voice of dramatic authority accompanying it with, "Your dinner is served"

our favorite spaghetti sauce

I know, everyone has a spaghetti recipe. This is mine. Jonathan and I actually worked a lot to get a recipe that we really, really like. This is the one that I made at my parents house last year and my brother commented, wow, Kris is a really good cook.

1 bulb garlic
1 red pepper
1tbsp olive oil
1lb lean ground beef
1 small onion
2 tbsp italian seasoning (or sub in 1 tbsp basil, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp parsley flakes)
1 can pasta sauce (generic)
1 can tomatoes
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1 tbsp beef boulion

Preheat oven to 350*. Seed red pepper and cut into chunks. Take skins off all garlic cloves on you bulb. Reserve 1 clove to use later. On a sheet of aluminum foil, place your red pepper and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up into a little package and cook in your oven for about 40 minutes, or until contents are soft. (you'll be able to smell when it's ready).
In a large saucepot over low-medium heat, saute ground beef with onion and seasonings. Drain the grease off when there is no pink left in the beef. Return mixture to pot. Add pasta sauce and stir everything together. Take the tomatoes and squish them one by one into small chunks into your sauce (it's messy, but it's fun). Add cooking wine and beef stock. Stir.
Take your pepper/garlic package out of the oven. Carefully open up (don't burn yourself with the steam) and place everything into a food processor, or a small bowl if you have a hand blender. (Make sure all the oil drains in too). Blend contents into a puree and add to your sauce. Stir. Add more seasonings if you wish. Just before serving, press your reserved garlic clove into your sauce.
Serve over whole wheat spaghetti noodles.

Meatloaf

It's been a sit inside and eat soul food kind of week. This fit in nicely.

2 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1/2 cup dry oats
1/4 cup ketchup or BBQ sauce
1 tbsp dry parsley flakes
1 tsp dry basil flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup kechup or BBQ sauce (yes, a second 1/4 cup)

Heat oven to 350*.
Combine all ingredients (except the 2nd 1/4 cup or ketchup) into a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
Put mixture into a loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Pat down to form a loaf. Spread the remaining ketchup on the top of the loaf.
Bake for 1 hour.

Monday Meatballs (on a Tuesday)

1 lb of extra lean ground beef (you can use any ground beef or chicken you like, but that's what I use)
1 egg
several dashes of Worchester sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion (I used red onion today, but any kind of onion will do)
1/2 cup oats (or breadcrumbs)
a few dashes each of salt and pepper

Mix all of this together well.
Form 1 inch round meatballs and put on baking sheet.
Bake in 350* oven for about 20 minutes

You could serve these just as is and they'd be fine. Add some Italian seasoning to them for spagetti meatballs.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Make meatballs as directed above. While the meatballs are baking, mix 1 cup of crushed pineapple, 1-2 tbsp finely chopped onion and 1 jar of sweet and sour sauce together. Put everything, including the meatballs in a crockpot/slow cooker on low heat for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice (brown preferrably).