Sweet Potato Casserole - Gluten Free!

This was a Thanksgiving gamble.  I wanted to add another veggie dish to our menus - following my Auntie's example of Thanksgivings past and I happened to have sweet potatoes on hand.  The recipe I found was not originally gluten free, I made my own adaptations to make it work for us.  If our guest's reaction was any indication, this was a success.  She had seconds and raved about it so much that I gave her the recipe.  She has since made it for a dinner party and looks forward to making it again.

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 cup coconut sugar  - (you could use brown sugar, I'm just on a coconut sugar kick right now)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter.
•  
• Topping
•  1/2 cup coconut sugar - or brown sugar
• 1/3 cup gluten free flour
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup chopped pecans - I didn't have any on hand, so I used slivered almonds in its place, it worked!

Preparation:

Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned.
Serves 6 to 8.

Sweet Potato Curry Puffs

This little side dish was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants, Suwanna in Saint John.  They are kind of a Thai/Samosa type side.  I served it alongside a Red Thai Curry Beef.  So yummy!  I know these aren't exact measurements, but I was making it up and winging it.  You get the idea.

Here's what I did.  I boiled a few sweet potatoes and then drained and mashed them with a little bit of butter.  In a frying pan, I sauteed some diced shallots, grated ginger, and pressed garlic with a teaspoon or so of curry powder.  I added the sweet potato and mixed up together, allowing the flavors to work together.

I then took some filo dough, brushed a little melted butter over top.  I cut the dough into strips and put a spoonful of potato mix on each at the end.  I then folded up the puffs into triangles (like samosas or spanikopitas).  I brushed a little more melted butter on top of them and baked them at 425* for about 10 minutes.  

They worked out better even better than I hoped and can't wait to make them again.

A Feast of Indian Food

I don't think there's a week that goes by in our house without me making one kind of curry or another. All of these recipes came from 2 of my favorite cookbooks. I became so addicted the the Bhajis, I made them again the following week. So tasty (and probably terrible for you, but great with a glass of beer)

Jamie Oliver's Vegetable Bhajis
One of my favorite discoveries this year.

2 large carrots (I used sweet potato instead the second time I made these and they were just as good)
a 4 inch piece of ginger root
2 medium red onions (I substituted the equivalent in shallots)
2-3 red chilies (I didn't have these so I used jalapenos instead)
a large bunch of fresh cilantro
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp tumeric
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp sea salt
1 heaped cup self rising flour (I don't carry this on hand, I used one cup all purpose flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
1 quart vegetable oil
a piece of potato (to test oil heat)
juice of 1 lemon
2 limes (optional)

Prep
Peel and grate or shred the carrots, ginger and red onions and put them into a large bowl. Finely chop the chiles and add to the bowl. Roughly chop the cilantro. Add the mustard seeds, tumeric, cumin seeds, salt and chopped cilantro to the bowl, Add the flour, plus 1/2 cup of cold water and scrunch together using your hands. The mixture will be messy and thick.

Cooking
Use a deep fat fryer if you have one, which I don't. I used a large cooking pot. Add the oil. Drop in a piece of potato - when it floats to the surface and begins to sizzle, the oil is ready. Remove the potato using a slotted spoon. Pick up a tbsp of the bhaji mixture, press it together and carefully lower it into the hot oil. Repeat so you are cooking several at once. Cook for 5 minutes until they are crispy and golden. Remove using the slotted spoon and put them on some paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with a little salt and squeeze of lemon juice (I skipped that part). Repeat with other bhajis.
Serve with lime wedges.

*Bhajis can be made with all sorts of vegetables, just keep the onions the same.

Jamie Oliver's Vindaloo

2 medium onions
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 red chiles (I left this out, I knew the vindaloo paste would make it hot enough for me without)
a thumb sized piece of ginger
a small bunch of fresh cilantro
4 ripe tomatoes (I didn't have on hand so I used 4 canned tomatoes instead)
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1 3/4 pounds meat (he suggests pork shoulder, I used chicken)
1/2 cup vindaloo or hot curry paste (Patak's is the best)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 cup plain yogurt
1 lemon

Prep
Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Finely slice the chile. Pee and finely slice the ginger. Pick the cilantro leaves and finely chop the stalks. Cut the tomatoes into quarters.

Cooking
Use a large casserole type pan. Put it on medium to high heat with a little oil and the butter. Add the onions, garlic, chile, ginger, and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden. Add the meat and the curry paste. Stir well to coat everything with the paste and season with a little salt and pepper. Add the tomoatoe, balsamic vinegar, honey and 1 2/3 cup water and stir again. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and let simmer for 45 minutes. Check and stir regularly to keep the meal from catching on the pan. Add extra water if you need it. Serve over rice (basamati is best for Indian curries)

Dal with Coconut Milk (from Mangoes and Curry Leaves)

This is a dish from Sri Lanka, and so tasty. Don't get over excited about the coconut milk like I did and add too much, stick with the measurements listed to make a nice, thick dal.

1 cup masur dal, washed (orange-red lentil)
5 cups water

1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp minced shallots or red onion
6-8 fresh or frozen curry leaves
2-3 dried red chiles
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
1 cup coconut milk

Put dal in a medium pot with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce the head to a low simmer and cook fo 20 minutes. Keep warm over low heat.
Heat a wok or heavy skillet over medium high heat and add the oil.. Toss in the garlic and shallots and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the curry leaves, chiles and ground coriander. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the salt and coconut milk. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the tempering mixture to the dal and simmer for a for minutes to blend the flavors. The thicker you simmer it the thicker it will get.

Onion Rings

This was given to me by a Weight Watchers leader, 4 servings, 4 points per serving

1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp salt
2 large onions, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 serving cooking spray, olive oil flavored to coat onions

Preheat oven to 400*.  Coat a large baking sheet with spray.  Combine dry ingredients, except crumbs.  Add onion and toss to coat.  Pour buttermilk into a bowl, add onions, toss to coat.  Place crumbs into a separate bowl or bag.  Add onions and toss to coat.  Bake until golden brown, 35 minutes.

Samosa Filling

4-5 potatoes, cooked and mashed
4 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup peas
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 chili, chopped
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
3 tbsp water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp lemon juice

Cook everything up together, use to fill samosas (can use filo as casing)

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

I may have posted this one before, I don't remember.

1C flour
1C milk
3 Eggs
1 tsp butter
dash of salt

Mix altogether.  Spray muffin tins with Pam.  Bake at 425* until done.  Works best if ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the over is heating.

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.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

I apologize for the terrible picture, trust me the food tastes much better than it looks! I first saw these done on Emeril years ago (at least 10). It was one of those "I saw him make it that day, I made it that night" recipes. I don't even know how true it is to the original anymore, but I really enjoy them. Just give yourself the time to make it.

Baking Potatoes
your favorite baked potato toppings (these ones were fairly plain, just butter, sour cream and cheese - you can also use chives, bacon bits or whatever you like)

Step 1 - scrub your potatoes clean and bake at 350* for close to an hour
Step 2 - Slice a little top off the potato lengthwise (save the top!)
Step 3 - Be really careful with this part! - scoop most of the potato out of the shell (I've broken the shell doing this, try not to do that :o)-one of the reasons the picture looks so wobbly!) - put all the potato filling into a medium bowl. Add your favorite potato toppings and mash everything together.
Step 4 - Stuff the shells with the potato mixture (you will have more mixture than will fit into the shells)
Step 5 - Set the Potatoes onto a baking sheet (or dish), cover with the little tops you set aside earlier - bake for another 15-20 minutes
Enjoy!

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!

Summer Greek Feast

This picture gives you the complete wrong impression that my son would actually eat all of this wonderful food. He won't. He'll eat the pita chips and hummus. The rest he will point at and say, 'no like this!'. 'sigh' - one day perhaps.
This Greek themed dinner included hummus, tzatziki, Greek Salad (all of which I've posted before), BBQ chicken skewers and pita chips.

BBQ Greek Chicken Skewers

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup Greek Seasoning

Chop the chicken into 1 inch cubes. Toss everything into a bowl, coating all your chicken pieces well with the seasoning. Thread the chicken cubes onto the skewers. BBQ until the meat is cooked through.



Seasoned Pita Chips

This recipe comes from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski. (Titled Bewedged)

1 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used the shaker, not grated, it was fine)
3 6 inch pita rounds (with pockets)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp each garlic powder and onion powder

Preheat oven to 350*. Crush the dried rosemary with your fingers and combine it with the Parmesan cheese in a small bowl. Set aside. Using a sharp knife or kithen scissors (I used a pizza cutter), cut each pita into 6 equal wedges (I thought these were too big so I cut them into 12). Peel back the layers so you end up with double the wedges. Place the wedges, rough side up, on a large baking sheet. Do not overlap (I ended up using 2 sheets). In another small bowl combine the melted butter and olive oil. Brush the olive oil mixture over all the wedges. Sprinkle wit the cheese/rosemary mixture. Bake on a middle oven rack for about 10 minutes. Watch that they don't burn! Excellent dipped in hummus!

Pierogy Lasagna with fried peperoni

This was something I had once at a potluck and always wondered about. I love pierogies. For those of you who don't know what they are, (and there are those of you out there, I know), they are a kind of dough filled dumpling, usually filled with a potato mixture. They can be boiled, and fried, sometimes baked too. You can find pierogies pretty easily in the potato section of your freezer section at your grocery store.
A pierogy lasagna has a similar idea, getting the flavour of the potato filling, but using lasagna noodles for the dumpling dough part. I didn't have a recipe to do this, so I made one up.

12 lasagna noodles, boiled as per box directions(this was the first time in a long time that I'd bought regular lasagna noodles instead of whole wheat - I didn't think whole wheat would give it that pierogy taste I was going for)
8-10 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks and boiled until soft
1 tbsp margarine
1 onion, diced
1 cup cheese (I used swiss in the filling, but any hard cheese would work)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cheese (I used cheddar for the topping) - grated

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Drain the boiled potatoes. Add margarine and mash thoughroughly. Add onion and grate the 1st cheese into the mixture. Mix well, so cheese melts in. Add salt and pepper and mix again.
Grease a lasagna pan with oil or margarine. Layer 1st layer with 4 noodles. Spread half the potato mixture over top. Layer next 4 noodles. Spread rest of potato mixture on. Layer last 4 noodles, grate cheese on top. Bake for about half an hour. Serve with sour cream.

Fried Peperoni

Cut a peperoni stick into medallions. Add a little bit of cooking oil to a frying pan (just a tsp really). Swish oil around to grease pan. Cook peperoni over low-medium heat, browning both sides.

Fiddle-dee-dee

This is my first post request! Chef E posted about fiddleheads a couple of weeks back. Knowing that fiddleheads were a local dish where I live (New Brunswick, Canada) she asked if I would write about them too. So here I go.
I will be honest, I had never heard of fiddleheads until I first came to visit my (then) fiance during his college Christmas Break. We were having a New Years Supper with some people that he had gotten to know and one of the ladies had made a dish from fiddleheads that she had frozen the spring previous. I liked them. Fiddleheads are a kind of fern that is edible. I've eaten them plain (as seen in this post) and cooked in a casserole in place of broccoli. They are available fresh in May, so you have to get them when you see them.

We often see fiddleheads growing wild around here. This picture was taken on a recent hike at the Nature Park. There are so many of them along the path.

This is the fiddlehead statue at the Saint John Arts Centre uptown. Kind of a neat local landmark celebrating both something local as well as something arty (an actual fiddle). This statue is right around the corner from the church my husband works at.
So how to cook fiddleheads? Well, pretty much the same as any other green veggie. Wash them first. Steam them. That's what a did this time around. Some people like to soak them first. I added a little butter and salt and pepper when they were cooked.
I served these with baked potatoes, corn and honey mustard chicken. (mix equal parts dijon mustard and honey - pour over boneless, skinless chicken breast, bake at 350* for 40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through). Nice meal altogether.

Fajita Fiesta

This was a very adapted shared meal with my friend Jen's family. Originally this was to be just a meal for our family on Sunday. My oldest who is 4 really wanted to play with his best friend (Jen's son Josh). So I thought, why not? and invited them over for supper. The only drawback was realising that I only had one pack of wraps (6) and I was now feeding 8. I did NOT want to go to the grocery store on a Sunday. It's crazy! I had no desire to stand in a huge line up just for wraps. I stopped by the bread outlet instead and while they didn't have any wraps in, they did have pita bread, so we used that instead. It actually ended up working better for the kids as all the filling didn't fall out of their wraps (which is what usually happens.

Here's all the fixin's

Beef - I had cut a large piece of steak meat into strips the day before. I put the beef strips into a ziplock back. I then took a Fajita seasoning pack and sprinkled it all over the beef. I added about a half cup of water and mixed it all together. I sealed the bag and refrigerated it to use the next day. I just pan fried the beef until cooked through. I had wanted to BBQ grill it but it was pouring out.

Veggies - I cut a large onion and one and a half red peppers into thin strips. I used the leftover marinade from the beef to saute into the veggies. I cooked them until the veggies were softened.

Beans - 2 cans of beans in tomato sauce into a casserole dish. Hand blend it until relatively smooth. Grate 1/2 cup of cheese into it. Sprinkle in a few tbsp of Tex-Mex seasoning. Mix it all together and cook it in the microwave for 5 minutes. I usually use one can of beans and tomato sauce and one can of kidney beans (well drained and rinsed) but I didn't have kidney beans on hand. You can also sub in one packet of taco seasoning for the Tex-Mex seasoning.

Guacamole - I used my own recipe found here

Sour Cream

Salsa

Grated Cheese

Heated Whole Wheat wraps and pita bread

Multigrain tortilla chips

Thai inspired dinner with a good friend

I've been wanting to visit my favorite Thai restaurant, Suwanna for a while now. It's a nicer place to go and we usually reserve it for special occasions (the last time we were there was my birthday back in November. We were going to go there for Jonathan's birthday a couple of weeks ago but it was closed (they take a couple of week's holiday each year). So while we went elsewhere for dinner that night, my Thai craving didn't go away. While I make a decent Thai stir-fry, there are other dishes that I love eating but have never made myself. Tonight was the night to search and experiment. Can I make more than a stir-fry? Can I brave a carrot salad and succeed? How about Chicken Satay and peanut sauce?
I did some googling and found a few recipes for each. Some I followed as written, others I tweaked.
1st up was the carrot salad. Carrot salad is something I would never have ordered were it not for the encouragement of my friend Erin on her birthday at Suwanna one year. She raved about it. I thought how good could a pile of shredded carrot be? I am not a huge coleslaw fan to begin with, why would I order something resembling coleslaw at a fancy restaurant? I am so glad I did. This carrot salad was so delicious. I found a highly rated version at Group Recipes and gave it a go.

3 cups grated carrots
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 cup chopped peanuts
Finely chopped fresh mint for garnish (I didn't have fresh mint so I left this out)

Directions
In a food processor blend all the vinaigrette ingredients except peanuts and mint. (I used a hand blender to mix)
Wash the carrots with a brush and grate into a large bowl.
Add the dressing and marinate for 20 minutes before serving. (ours marinated for closer to an hour)
Garnish with chopped peanuts and mint.

The result was a lovely salad. All adults at the table loved it. I say adults because my kids took one look at their plate of salad, rice and chicken and kind of shook their head. Elijah ate the rice, tried the chicken and salad before rejecting it. Jeremy didn't even get that far. He immediately grabbed the salad into his hands and said, 'No like this' and started to pile it onto my husband's plate. At that point I figured it would be a lot easier (and quieter) to make them each a snack plate supper of cheese and crackers, yogurt cups and dried fruit. It worked!




Thai stir-fry and basamati rice I could probably make in my sleep by now. I made the stir-fry and curry sauce plain (no shrimp or anything) and added more veg than I would if I were making this with a meat. I halved the sauce from my usual as I had only half a can of coconut milk left over from the satay marinade.

Stir-fry

1 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped

Stir-fry all of the above over medium low heat until just soft, add the sauce (below) and allow to cook together to let the flavours blend into each other. Add some fresh chopped cilantro just before serving.

Curry Sauce (1/2)

1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 tsp red curry paste
few dashes of fish sauce

Boil altogether in a small saucepan, whisking well.



Chicken Satay

The chicken satay recipe I found at All Recipes.

1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (did not add)
1 tablespoon chopped unsalted peanuts (did not add)
12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 15 minutes (we just grilled the chicken without being on skewers)

In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut milk, ground coriander, curry powder, fish sauce, and chili oil. Add the chicken breast strips, and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
Preheat an indoor or outdoor grill for high heat. Thread the chicken strips onto skewers. Discard marinade.
Grill chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until no longer pink. Time will depend on how thick your strips are. Transfer to a serving plate, and garnish with cilantro and peanuts. Serve with peanut sauce for dipping.

*We didn't skewer it and I didn't add the cilantro and peanuts at the end because I already had a couple of dishes with both. Also, when I started the marinade I was out of ground corriander so I used 1 tsp thyme and 1/2 tsp parsley in it instead. I did have to make a grocery run for a couple of things (highly unusual for me, I know) and ended up picking up some ground coriander while I was there and adding it to the marinade when I got home. I think the chicken sat in the marindade for a good 3 hours before we grilled it on the BBQ. I also managed to convince my husband to BBQ in the rain for me for this, which I am very grateful.

This chicken was really tasty. I would definately make it again.



Peanut Sauce

The peanut sauce I had a harder time finding. I read a lot of peanut sauce recipes and never did find one that I thought would be really good. What I ended up doing was basing mine on a recipe I found at All Recipes and then adapting it based on the comments it had received. It made a lot more sauce than I was expecting, and I ended up cooking it in a small saucepan over low-medium heat in order to get the peanut butter to a really smooth consistancy.

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used smooth, natural)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar (I used brown sugar instead and increased it to 1 tbsp)
2 drops hot pepper sauce (I increased this quite a bit, probably 4 or 5 good shakes, not drops)
1 clove garlic, minced (I increased this to 2 cloves crushed)
1/2 cup water
*I added a little bit of chili oil and threw in some sesame seeds too

In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, hot pepper sauce and garlic until well mixed. Gradually stir in water until texture is smooth and creamy.
*These directions didn't work for me. I combined everything into a small saucepan and whisked it together over low-medium heat instead.

The results were quite tasty.

Dinner was followed by mango sorbet and chocolate chip cookies. Very tasty.

So a little while back, Mommy Gourmet challenged us to have a meal with a friend (or friends) and write about it. I really wanted to do this, not for the contest of it, but because I really enjoy spending time with my friends. Because of the chaos that is our lives at present I was starting to think that I wouldn't have the time to share an evening with everyone. We did have dinner with friends over the past month, but it's been dinner out, not dinner in.

This morning after church, my husband was chatting with a very good friend of ours, Debbie. As I joined them I kept getting the nudge to invite her over for dinner, so I did. (Hey, when God speaks, I've learned to listen). As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Jonathan said, "I was just thinking that, yes, you should come over for supper tonight." So she agreed.
It has been too long since we've had Debbie over. We don't live close to our family (life having taken us to the complete opposite side of Canada), but we've been fortunate enough to make some friendships here that truly have become more than friendship. I would count Debbie as someone who is more family to us. She is one of Jeremy's godparents. She is someone that we have travelled with. She is someone who has cared for our children when we've gone away (she looked after Elijah when I was labouring with Jeremy). She's one of the first people to know what's going on with us. She prays for us and with us. She's just a really lovely person. Her daughter, Christy is also very close to us and is the first person we call to take care of the boys when we want a night out. Christy was away tonight for the long weekend, so it was just Debbie, which was neat because we often don't get to see Debbie, just Debbie.
The boys were so excited to see her. She is one of their favorite people. You can always tell with the kids who they like and who they don't by how much they show off, and it was full force show off mode tonight.
Most of the night took place in the kitchen (because let's face it, I'm somewhat of a Maritmer now and that's what Maritimers do) and we just talked. We talked while I finished up supper. We talked while we ate. We talked while I cleaned up. We talked during dessert. And we talked over tea (Darjeeling - me) and coffee (Starbucks blend - Jonathan and Debbie) afterwards. Those are some of the best nights. You don't need to plan any entertainment (and really, a two year old running around in his diaper telling you he's naked is entertainment - and hey, there's always his four year old brother doing his best Elvis impersonation using a hockey stick as a guitar too). It's just friends being friends, catching up and being comfortable with each other. There's no pressure to be anyone in particular, just yourself.
Debbie loved the food. She fully admits to being a functional cook. She makes sure that there is always a nutritious meal set out (she and another friend of ours run a place called Jordan House, which boards women who need a place to stay), but she's not one to experiment with food. She had a good laugh that my kids would turn down this 'gourmet meal' for cheese and crackers. She thought the carrot salad was so tasty (never having had Suwanna's to compare to). She asked how I made the stir-fry (and had seconds, always a compliment to the cook). And just seemed to really enjoy the meal. She also had a giggle over me taking pictures of what we were eating, but was intregued enough to want to see the blog after supper.
I don't think you can ask for much more than that. Good friend, good food, good time.



Debbie with Elijah

Mexican Casserole

This is one of my mom's recipes. I am pretty sure she got it from Weight Watchers originally. You can serve it as a meal on it's own, but I know my husband well enough that he sees it as a side dish and would be looking for the meat if I tried to serve just this, so I added some Thai chicken wings. (Don't ask for the chicken wings recipe, they're PC brand from the Superstore). I like dishes like this an all in one kind of meal. I think I could have made it with shredded chicken or some scrambled ground beef and it would be fine. I also realised how much I miss living on the west coast where you can get all sorts of peppers and chilies. I used a can of green chilies in this but the kick from a fresh pepper was lacking. I was inspired by Girlichef's Chile Pepper contest as it jogged the memory to make this. So this will be my contribution for that. If you know a great way to use chili peppers check her contest out too! (And Heather, thank you for your chili post because I finally know the name of that wonderful Mexican cheese that they put in everything but I can't find up here in Canada, I wish we did get it, it's delicious! - oaxaca cheese)

So here's the recipe:

1 cup cooked rice
1 large onion, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 small zuchinni, diced
1 can green chilies (or sub in fresh chilies if you have them)
1 can kidney beanns, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen corn
1 can diced tomatoes, drained (I don't buy diced tomatoes, I squish whole tomatoes into everything instead)
1 tbsp sugar

My mom's directions read this way: Mix, cover and bake for 50 min. at 350*. Uncover and sprinkle with 3/4 cup grated cheese. Bake another 15 minutes.
Yesterday I added the cheese on top right away and baked uncovered for about an hour. I served it with sour cream.

Mother's Day BBQ

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day! I was so excited that we were able to BBQ tonight, our first BBQ of the season. I had bought a couple of steaks in hopes that we could do it soon, the weather here has been uncooperative so far (foggy, drizzly, chilly), but tonight the rain clouds let up for a few hours, like my own personal Mother's Day present. We went all out, I marinated the steaks, Jonathan marinated some chicken and we added a few hot dogs for the boys. Here's my own personal BBQ chef on duty.

Steak Marinade
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/4 cup steak sauce
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Spice
1 tbsp basalmic vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
Mix all together. Put the steaks and marinade in a strong ziplock bag and allow to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Chicken Marinade
Jonathan did this and just told me what he put in it, no measurements so take your best guess.
Olive Oil
Basalmic Vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
Greek Seasoning.
Mix all together. Pour over chicken (we used chicken breasts that had been slices into chicken strip size) in a strong ziplock bag and all to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

And what about the side dishes? The first was a Carrot Bake that I stumbled upon on Katy's blog(of Food For A Hungry Soul). It had been calling my name since I first saw it a few weeks back and I wasn't disappointed. It actually reminded me of a scallopped corn dish that I make and enjoy. I've quite often what I could do different with carrots seeing as J doesn't like glazed carrots and I really only know 3 other ways to cook them (boiled, stir fried, and mashed with turnip). So thank you Katy for something new to add to my repitoire!

The second side dish also has a story. I was on Pam's blog (For the Love of Cooking) and she had a teaser picture of a potato dish headed by the words: Need an easy side dish? And I was hooked. I wanted those potatoes now! Clicking that picture led me to a plethora of side dishes and I started to scroll, and scroll and scroll, until I finally found them. It turns out that she had found the recipe on thepioneerwoman.com. FYI they are called Crash Hot Potatoes and they are absolutely delcious and very easy to make.
Altogether with a glass of Diet Coke, not a bad Mother's Day meal. Have a wonderful day!

Samosas

These are in no way the authentic, wonderful samosas that I crave from time to time. These are the cheaters version and a great way to use up filo pastry sheets. They still go great with chicken tikka masala.

filling:
4-5 medium potatoes (boiled and mashed coarsely)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup slightly cooked peas
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp cayenne
a few shakes of hot pepper sauce
1 tbsp margarine

Pre-heat oven to 400*. Melt margarine in large skillet. Add all the above ingredients mix well and heat thoroughly.

to form into samosas:
Take a sheet of filo pastry. Use a butter knife to cut into 4 strips (width wise). Brush cooking oil overtop of the sheet. Put a spoonful of filling onto the end of each strip and fold up into a triangle, repeat the folds until you reach the top of the strip. Repeat with more filo and filling.
Place samosas onto a baking sheet (you should have enough to fill 2 baking sheets with 12 samosas when finished. Bake for about 8 minutes (filo will be slightly browned). Great when dipped into plum sauce.

Sweet Potato Medallions

1 large sweet potato
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp herbs of your choice (I used oregano and thyme last night, but this also works well with rosemary, tarragon and mixed Italian seasoning)
salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oven to 425*. Mix olive oil, herbs and salt and pepper together in a dish. Set aside. Wash sweet potato well. Slice into many medallions. Put medallions into a large ziplock bag. Pour the oil and herb mixture into the bag. Close it up and shake well (until all the sweet potato slices are coated). Lay medallions onto a baking sheet and bake. Turn after 10 minutes. Continue to bake and flip every 10 minutes until cooked to your preference (soft to crispy) - about 30 minutes.

Carrot-turnip mash

This is exactly what it sounds like.

1 turnip
4 carrots
spoonful of margarine (if desired)
dash of cinnimon (if desired)

Peel turnip and carrots. Cut both vegetables into large chunks. Boil together until both vegetables are soft. Drain. Mash together adding a little margarine (and a little cinnimon).

Chestnut Stuffing

This was my mother-in-law, Carole's recipe, much sought out by my husband. Apparently he and his mom were the only ones who really liked it. I don't know why, it's really delicious! I think the trick is to cook the chestnuts in the milk the day before you do the rest (and really let the chestnuts simmer). This was my big accomplishment of the Christmas dinner this year, not just making the dressing, but nailing it. Jonathan said it was the best he'd ever had that. This was the first time I've made one of his mom's recipe's where that was the response. And ladies you know how hard an admission that is :o)

1 lb Chestnuts
2 oz breadcrumbs
1 oz margarine
heap tsp sugar
salt to taste
egg to bind

Prick chestnuts and and boil in water for 5 minutes. Peel. (this is the tricky part, make sure you discard any nuts that look rotten). Place good nuts in pan and cover with milk. Boil until tender (really let it simmer until it looks like a big sticky paste.) Rub through sieve and cool (this just lets the nuts separate a bit but keep all the mixture, nuts and milk).
Add other ingredients.
Place wax paper to line a loaf pan (extra sticking out to cover the stuffing in a packet). Place stuffing mixture inside. Wrap into a packet and cover with foil. Bake at 350* for about half an hour. The trick is to let it cook long enough to bind together but not so long as to dry it out.