Family favourites (old and new)
Don’t ask me what possessed me…the god of stupidity visited me in a dream and said “Gee…wouldn’t it be fun to try making home made Gnocchi?” Actually, I had seen a recipe on 101 Cookbooks called “How to make Gnocchi like an Italian Grandmother”. My …
You can use pie crust if you want but I’m lazy so I made a graham cracker crust. If you use regular pie crust you can use the recipe from the Healthy Green Kitchen recipe that I adapted to make this pie. For the graham …
As usual, I left getting the Halloween pumpkin to the last minute. I blame my kids. They weren’t keen to carve pumpkins this year…being 14 and 16 will do that to you. In any event, we happen to live on a street that gets loads of kids at Halloween so what’s a mom to do? Buy the last “clean” pumpkin in the display at Safeway, that’s what. However, in years gone by I have been known to go a bit overboard on Halloween so while looking for that last pumpkin I happened to spot a Kabocha and a Red Kuri Squash. Eureka! I’ll make alien pumpkins, I thought to myself. The fact they happened to be organic and outrageously expensive did not deter me (it probably should have). By the time I got home I was beyond it and ended up sticking a leftover Hallowe’en mask on the pumpkin and drawing eyeballs and a scary mouth. As the kids pointed out…”Kids only care if you have good candy Mom,” complete with eyeroll and a careful look at what I had on hand in that regard (yes it’s gone).
Anyway, it’s a week later and I needed to do something with the bloody squash. The Red Kuri is going into a pie at work tomorrow…Friday is “Pieday” at Skunkworks Creative Group – you can see past results on our Facebook page. My colleague Jeremy is the pie aficionado but I sometimes chip in (the boy makes one hell of a mess so I usually offer to do the chopping). I had already found an interesting pie recipe calling for baked Red Kuri Squash. I LOVE sweet potato pie and it’s along those lines so I will be doing that. This left the Kabocha…ah yes. Luckily for me others have trod this path before so I’m doing baked Kabocha with brown sugar and balsamic vinegar.
In short it’s dead simple. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cut the squash in quarters and remove the seeds. Whisk together 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp balsamic, 1 Tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt. Pour 1 Tbsp into each quarter and make sure all the cut edges are coated. Place on a foil lined cookie sheet, cover with more foil and bake for an hour or until soft (I ended up having to bake mine for 2). I suppose using maple syrup in place of the brown sugar might also have been nice but I only thought of it just now so too bad.
Ms Monica (pictured above) is one of the many committed dancers at Dance Co. Her mom Annemarie advises these cookies have received “The BEST cookies I’ve ever made”, seal of approval. That’s more than good enough for me! For reasons that will remain a mystery …
It’s a muffin kind of day. Two hours of raking leaves left me a bit hungry. This is an adaptation of a cranberry sauce muffin recipe I found online. I made the recipe and liked it but substituted yogurt for the sour cream. This time …
Arugula pasta toss is quick, easy, and delicious.
You will need:
Roasted tomatoes
4 cooked chicken breasts sliced (or leftovers from a roast chicken)
2 handfuls of arugula
1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 c. orzo (boil in salted water for 6 minutes and drain)
Freshly ground black pepper.
Toss the tomatoes, sliced chicken, arugula and cheese together. Cook the orzo, drain and toss with the other ingredients. Grind fresh pepper on top.
Yield 4 servings.
My friends Doris and Wilson brought some chayote squash into the office last week and I thought I’d give it a go cooking it up for lunch. The picture shows two squash cut into slices but you can see what a chayote squash looks like …
My friend Tracy Rowand is the beauty and brains behind A Taste to Savour catering here in Vancouver. Recently, she’s embarked on a gluten free adventure and has been posting recipes. One of them was for polenta with mushrooms that looked absolutely incredible – of …
My local veggie market (Young Brothers Produce on Broadway) had Campari Tomatoes on special this weekend so I ended up buying two packages. I like making pasta tosses and roasted tomatoes go well with just about any toss you can think up. Tomorrow I’m thinking about making the orzo and arugula salad from Love & Lemons (recipe here) and adding in the tomatoes for an extra bit of zip instead of sun dried. There’s also a spinach version from Dinner with Julie (recipe here) that looks good too. Decisions, decisions.
You will need:
2 packages Campari tomatoes washed and cut in half
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dried thyme
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
These keep for a couple days in the fridge but it’s best to use them at room temperature so the flavours come out.
Quinoa is perfect if you’ve got a kid who needs to eat gluten free. It’s now available at most grocery stores. Look for the organic, yellow one (it has a mild nutty flavour…without the nuts). This is a super easy recipe and you can pretty …