Foodie Christmas Gift

Tags

Breakfast, vintage

One of the gifts that I received this Christmas from The Man With Whom I Keep Company was a lovely little vintage Hankscraft Automatic Electric Egg Cooker. These egg cookers were manufactured from the 1920s to the 1950s and are both beautiful and simple in design.

It will cook up to 4 eggs soft, medium or hard boiled depending on how much water you put into the unit.

For a soft-boiled egg, put in 2 tbsp. of water, and plug it in. It shuts itself off when the water boils away, and that also means it’s done.

There you go – a perfect breakfast!

Meals on Wheels

Tags

Meals on Wheels

Jean Poutine and I answered Edmonton’s Meals on Wheels call to Food Bloggers on Monday. We were greeted by Meals on Wheels Manager for Marketing and Fund Development, Kerryn North, who provided us with some background on the organization. All the staff and volunteers who we met along the way were friendly and genuinely dedicated to the cause. And cheerful – especially for a Monday!

Along with our fellow food bloggers/kitchen compatriots, the Edmonton Journal’s Liane Faulder of Eat My Words, Maki of In My Element, and Marianne and Charles of Loosen Your Belt, we helped the good people of Meals on Wheels prepare some of the meals of the day in their bright and bustling industrial kitchen.

L to R: Charles, Marianne, and Maki on the hot food assembly line.

Anyone remember the I Love Lucy conveyor belt scene? Don’t worry, it wasn’t like that. The Meals on Wheels people were very nice and we actually managed to keep up with the action on the conveyor belt without having to stuff any food down our shirts.

Monsieur Poutine and I were at the head of the line adding the cold food items to the delivery boxes and making sure that the right things went into the right boxes before the hot food items were added by our team-mates. There are a lot of things to consider: one meal or two, medical conditions, food allergies, pre-cut, soft food, etc.  Fortunately our Meals on Wheels trainer, Cook Rachelle Semnovitch, was gently guiding us at the front of the line, and Chef Glen Francis was doing the quality control checking at the end of the line.

Jean Poutine and Truly Scrumptious at the head of the food line.

We ended up as the featured photo in Liane Faulder’s Eat My Words blog post about the event. We feel that it was because we looked the cutest in our hair nets.

There were many activities that the Food Bloggers were involved in for the day. Here are a few:

Liane Faulder measuring flour for blueberry muffins with Cook Rachelle in the back, keeping an eye on things.

Truly and Jean cutting up bread for turkey stuffing.

Marianne and Charles packaging desserts. Note Charles' fashion-forward beard net.

Meals on Wheels makes all their food on-site with fresh ingredients – no processed food! They follow Canada’s Food Guide (to my surprise I discovered that I need to eat 2 to 3 more daily servings of vegetables. I’ll get right on that - the vegetable family is one of my favorite highly functional families).

Meals on Wheels is an amazing organization that offers a valuable service to people who are housebound or can’t prepare their own meals. They depend on volunteer help and cash donations for much of what they do. Check out their Annual Christmas Fundraising Campaign on now until the end of December.

Merry Christmas from the Meals on Wheels Food Blogging elves!

Photographs by Katherine Dalusong and Liane Faulder

 

May Contain Spam

Not this kind

which can be quite delicious (in a guilty pleasure kind of way), but this decidedly less appetizing kind:

Yes, that’s 921 spam comments in about a month since the last time I cleared it.  It’s not happening on any of my other WordPress blogs, just this one. I suppose it may have something to do with the six month “hiatus” we took – you know, like squatters moving into a vacant house – but we’re back now and posting (somewhat) frequently and it hasn’t abated. Is anyone else being bombarded by comment spam? Luckily we’re able to set our spam filters so none of it actually makes it to the site.

How does my garden grow without me?

Tags

cold rooms, edible flowers, harvest

I planted my garden in the spring, watched it start to grow, and then abandoned it for three months for a trip across Canada. Well, not totally abandoned – a friend was taking care of it. But I missed a lot of it from August through October. Some of it did pretty well without me, and some of it didn’t.

I have a plethora of store mannequins (more on that story for another time). So I decided to use a couple of them for bean and pea trellises, with the addition of willow-branch cages around them. I think my neighbors were a bit worried about me for a while, especially before the peas and beans started to grow:

The sugar snap peas grew faster:

But the pole beans made the nicest mannequin dress:

And after the vines died off, one yellow bean remained as an earring for the mannequin:

I planted nasturtiums between the trellis mannequins as well as around a mannequin torso on the deck and in the vegetable garden:

Fresh nasturtium flowers, leaves and seeds are edible. They have a tangy, peppery flavour and are delicious in salads and look very pretty. Nasturtiums also help to keep some bugs out of the garden. I harvest the nasturtium seeds every fall and replant them in the spring. I leave them in a flat container to dry completely before storing them for the winter:

I also harvest and dry marigold and calendula seeds and petals. Their fresh flowers are also edible. The petals have a stronger flavour, so I use them more sparingly in salads. Calendula officinalus (a particular type of calendula) tea can be made from the dried petals, and has many health benefits. Steep 2 teaspoons of dried calendula petals in a cup of boiling water and let steep for 10 minutes.

Root vegetables were another story. On the not-so-successful side, the beets did not fare well. Apparently the beet leaves were being enjoyed by some creepy crawlers who ignored the warnings of the nasturtiums, and the beet roots never really grew. The yield from the garlic was actually less than what I planted. How did that happen?

But the potatoes and carrots produced admirably. I just harvested the last of them and I have put them into moist sand in burlap-lined baskets in the cold room that I made in the basement. I insulated a small room that has one uninsulated concrete wall. The carrots will be put into a separate sandy container, and I will spread another layer of moist sand over both the potatoes and carrots so that they are covered completely. This is my first try at a cold room (other than the one I grew up with. It had salamanders that terrified me when I had to get potatoes for supper). I suspect there will be no salamanders in my cold room, and if there are, it will be worthy of some scientific investigation.

Happy harvest!

Tradition

Tags

cabbage, Christmas, Christmas food, Danish food, goose, potatoes, red cabbage, Thanksgiving

Hello my far-flung friends! How was your Thanksgiving? Here in Edmonton, the family and I had a traditional meal yesterday. That tradition, however, was not ours, and not Thanksgiving. We made a Danish Christmas meal. This is something we were planning to do last year at Christmas time but it got put off for various reasons and didn’t happen until now.

This is where the inspiration came from: The Time-Life Cooking of Scandinavia book, published in 1968. If you want the recipes, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding this book (or any of the Time-Life cookbooks) in just about any thrift store in the land.

The centrepiece of the meal is roast goose – something I’ve long wanted to try. The Bro-in-law has made goose before and knew what to do. He pricked the skin all over before roasting to allow the grease to stream freely. Goose is very fatty – there was a lot of grease in the roasting pan, which my sister poured off into a container to throw out. Doing some reading today, I discovered that goose fat is “culinary white gold” (for things like roasting potatoes), so I phoned her to see if it could be saved. Luckily it was still in the fridge – another victory for procrastination.

Goose is delicious – it’s all dark meat, which I love. The crispy skin was heavenly (and much coveted by my parents).

The bird was stuffed with apples, prunes and onions – all of which gets thrown out because it becomes drenched in grease. It’s there to impart flavour and moisture. Apples and prunes are part of the meal though.

Poached apple halves with prunes soaked in sherry (should be port, but sherry’s what I had in my cupboard).

Brunede kartofler (caramelized potatoes). You brought this to a party at my house once, Truly Scrumptious. Yours were better. For some reason the caramel didn’t adhere to the potatoes, so it was more like potatoes in toffee gravy. We’ll have to compare notes.

Also, peeling all those little spuds, while not difficult (the skins can mostly be pulled off with fingertips), sure is tedious.

The rødkaal (braised red cabbage) was much more successful. Even my sister (who’s unable to eat raw cabbage) loved it. Here’s the recipe:

Rødkaal

1 medium head red cabbage (2 to 2 1/2 lbs.)
4 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup red currant jelly
2 tbsp. grated apple

Wash the head of cabbage under cold running water, remove the tough outer leaves, and cut the cabbage in half from top to bottom. Lay the flat sides down on the chopping board, cut away the core and slice the cabbage very finely. There should be approximately 9 cups of shredded cabbage when you finish.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the butter, sugar, salt, water and vinegar in a heavy stainless steel or enameled 4 to 5 quart casserole. When it comes to a boil and the butter has melted, add the shredded cabbage and toss thoroughly with two wooden spoons or forks. Bring to a boil again, cover tightly and place in the centre of the oven to braise for 2 hours. There is little danger that the cabbage will dry out during the cooking, but it is a good idea to check on the liquid level occasionally. Add a little water if it seems necessary.

About 10 minutes before the cabbage is finished, stir in the jelly and grated apple, replace the cover and complete the cooking.

The piquant taste of red cabbage will improve if, after it has cooled, it is allowed to rest for a day in the refrigerator and then reheated either on top of the stove or in a 325 degree oven. In any case, serve hot, as an accompaniment to a stuffed loin of pork or goose to complete the traditional Danish Christmas dinner.

Dessert was something more traditionally Canadian:

While the guys made dinner, the ladies had a cat nap.

And what did you have for Thanksgiving?

Separated at Birth?

Alison Redford (Premier-designate of Alberta)

Laura Calder (French Cooking at Home)

Steamy kitchen nights

Tags

berries, jam

The windows of our Newfoundland vacation rental home have been steamed up pretty much every night lately. Yep, you guessed it, The Man With Whom I Keep Company and I have been making jam. This is our first attempt at jam making, and it has been highly successful. After a couple of tries that produced “sauce”, we landed on a formula that has produced beautiful, tasty, healthful blueberry jam. That’s not to say that the sauce isn’t pretty amazing too.

The Man With Whom I Keep Company caught Blueberry Madness soon after we arrived in Newfoundland, and has been picking buckets of blueberries from our property at Bacon Cove. It is an obsession that I have encouraged. Newfoundland’s acidic soil creates blueberry-growing heaven. You can sit in one spot and fill a bucket without having to do much more than turn around. There is a Newfoundland saying about blueberry picking: “Don’t pick the red ones – they’re green”.

Newfoundland blueberries hug the ground, so picking them can be a bit of a back-breaker. But if you get tired, you can just have a rest and take in the ocean views and fresh salt air.

We’ve had big bowls of blueberries in the fridge at all times and have eaten them fresh every day on cereal and ice cream, in yogurt, salads, sauces, muffins, pancakes, crumbles, you name it. I’m afraid that we may have developed an expensive habit that we will not be able to support when we get back to Edmonton, but we’ve been reveling in the free berries in Newfoundland while we have them.

We have also picked some partridge berries, but they are harder to find and tend to hide under club mosses and junipers. They are known elsewhere as lingonberries. They are a more tart tasting berry and are not so good raw, but make great jam.

While we’re at it, we’ve been picking a few rose hips too, and making tea out of those. The ones pictured below are pretty close in size to Alberta rose hips, but we have seen some that are as big as grapes. Earlier, the rose bushes were all heavy with rose blooms. Roses seem to love the salt air here too.

Unfortunately, we cannot haul fresh blueberries back with us, so jam seemed to be one way to bring home some of that goodness, anyway. The Man With Whom I Keep Company has been primarily involved in the Harvesting and Production Departments of our jam making enterprise. The house that we are staying at didn’t have any pots big enough for what we needed, so we borrowed some from friendly neighbors.

I have been primarily involved in the Quality Control Department: removing stems, leaves and insects from the berries (The Man With Whom I Keep Company advocates the catch-and-release program for live bugs, but I favour the down-the-drain program) and I also comprise the Design Department: high-art hand-made labels.

M&M Jams – a satisfying and yummy cottage industry.

Posted by Truly Scrumptious

Minor Miracle – One Pot Bread

Tags

bread

Since I retired, I have been wanting to bake bread, but my first experience years ago was so discouraging that I hadn’t worked up the courage to give it another go. (I had attempted a loaf of bread and some buns but what I produced was a door stop and some paper weights). All of that punching and kneading doesn’t appeal either, and yet the smell of bread baking in the oven appeals greatly. So I decided to do some research on the good old internet and I came across a no-knead one-pot bread by none other than a man who I greatly trust – Jacques Pepin. (The recipe comes after the Cheesy Breadsticks on the YouTube video).

The house that The Man With Whom I Keep Company and I are staying at in Harbour Main Newfoundland has a beautiful cast iron pot that I used. The bread is mixed, proofed and baked in the same pot. Easy clean-up! No kneading – just a bit of stirring after the first rise. Easy method! I used whole wheat flour for 1/3 of the flour in the recipe. I get the first part done in the evening and then bake the bread when I get up the next morning. Here is the bread after it has risen the second time in the fridge for 12 hours.

And here it is after baking at 425 degrees for 40 minutes.

After it cools, just loosen it around the edges with a knife and out it pops.

It makes a nice moist loaf with a good crunchy crust.

And here it is toasted with some home-made blueberry jam (watch for the blueberry jam post coming soon!)

A true  minor miracle. Thanks Jacques!

Posted by Truly Scrumptious

Newfoundland home away from home

Tags

kitchens

The Man With Whom I Keep Company and I have been staying in a beautiful heritage vacation house, Terry’s Bayside Getaway, in Harbour Main, Newfoundland for the month of September. The house was built in 1927 and is attached to what was the family’s store (on the right in the photo) which is now closed.

The kitchen here is huge. Especially compared to our cute little kitchen back in Edmonton. This photo shows the main part of the kitchen with a view of the pantry (door on the left) and a separate room with the sink, dishwasher &  prep space (door on the right). 

Here is a view of the sink/prep area. The counter goes farther to the right. Those are some rose hips that I am drying on the counter.

And here is a view of the cooking area. We’ve been getting our exercise walking back and forth between the kitchen areas. At home we can be sitting at the kitchen table and we can pretty much reach the oven, fridge and kitchen drawers without even having to get up. Advantages can be found in every situation.

Upcoming posts will show what we have produced in this kitchen!

Posted by Truly Scrumptious.

The Real Black Gold

Tags

blackberries, chanterelles

In Alberta when they refer to “Black Gold” they are referring to oil, but here in BC this is what I call “Black Gold,”

Blackberries! And they grow free everywhere. They are my favourite invasive weed. These are in my sister’s backyard. I stopped by to drop some things off at her house the other day and she wasn’t home. I decided to wait in the backyard and within minutes I started picking the berries.

Within a few more minutes I had picked an entire container.

These would’ve cost me a fortune in Alberta. Husband was also there, but he only picked enough to fill his belly. The only downside to blackberry picking is…

 

the black, sticky hand. A small price to pay for my favourite berries. On another note you may remember my interest in mushroom picking. This last weekend I was too zonked after the wedding to go with my parents, but they managed to pick 10 pounds of chanterelles in 20 minutes at our secret mushroom spot. Here is a sample of one:

The rest is already in my belly.

Posted by King Crabby