Retreat Weekend

Recreating my blog, from food which I still love, to fabric. As Cynthia F says " Fabric + Art = Heaven. So this weekend, I got to go to a crafty retreat weekend at camp Squeah(which means place of Refuge)near Hope B.C. We got snow slush and big trucks throwing walls of water on us on the way up. Christine and I decided not to go back to Hope for dinner because of the snowy roads. So we stopped at the Truck stop for take out dinner. The diner is empty and freezing cold when we walk in, but we order and I go into the adjoining store to see if they have snacks.I leave my purse with Christine and when I come back, the purses are there and the table is empty. I immediately think oh bad horror movie, the friend goes missing in the middle of nowhere. Christine is of course standing up looking at the pictures in the corner of the room Can you say over active imagination?? Good Grief woman get a grip! So the weekend had great things like quilting,food,snacks, more food, more food, movies, walks by the river in the sunshine on Sunday and interesting woman working on a variety of projects. I was so busy I forget to take photos, I only used my camera to help Josie check out her quilt.Will post some photos sometime soon.

Dressing for the Mizuna and Plum Salad

Always in search of a new dressing to brighten a salad, I tried the dressing for the mizuna and plum salad listed on page 15 of the Rebar cookbook. It involves reducing fresh citrus juices and star anise over heat and then blending the result with some honey, ginger and oil. The result is a lovely pale orange colour which could probably be even cooler if you used pink or ruby grapefruit.

The dressing doesn't really taste like much by itself but its very subtle licorice flavour is a nice surprise when it dresses a salad. I didn't go on a great hunt for the recommended salad ingredients. Instead, I just used some stuff I had on hand....mesclun, avocado, romaine, sunflower seeds, kiwi, grapes. Very nice indeed! I recommend this if you are the sort of person who, like me, likes to make her own salad dressings.

Lemony Lentil Soup WWC p 31

I love red lentils and made this the other week when my mom in law was visiting.
She had never had red lentils and liked the soup so much she took a copy of the recipe home. Other than doing a bit less rosemary I used the spice amounts listed and found it
great. The chili flakes gave it a bit of a bite. I find rosemary is lovely but can be over powering and I wanted more lemon flavour to emerge. I did use dried rosemary from
my garden. One of the few homegrown spices I have.
I also added more carrots, more veggies.

Kim's Mom"s Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

When I served this for a birthday one of the 13year olds heard me say Oatmeal???
and the expression on her face was hilarious. She did say she loves oatmeal and eats it every morning. She also loved the cake
The second time I made this cake it was more moist and delicious than the first.
I had issues with my spring form pan and worried that it might leak I had a cooking sheet underneath. The second time I just used a bit of foil and hence had a moister cake
I had to adjust my cooking time as my heart shaped spring form had less volume so it was a higher denser batter. It worked well.
This is a keeper recipe, easy to do and well worth it.

Kim

Thai Marinade for Lamb or Chicken P 78 WWC

I made this dish for company on Monday, It was well receive.Being the mother of a spice shy family I made a couple of adjustments. I only used one tbsp of the red Thai curry paste,missed the cilantro and fresh mint as I had none on hand.
My coconut milk was actually coconut cream or so the can said and was maybe a bit richer than some milks.
I used chicken breasts,large ones cut into halves and it worked well
I did not marinate the full amount to time as I decided at lunch to make the dish.
I would make this again and I think I might try it in a crock pot with a roaster chicken. Not sure how the coconut milk would stand up, however I think it is worth a
try. The spice level was flavorful but not too much for the family.
I served this with hot roasted veggies, parsnips, turnips, yams, potatoes, garlic,
onions done in the oven with olive oil and spices.
I also did Pad Thai noodles, with I confess a bottled sauce as we were on at time line and I needed it done fast. It all worked well.

Grilled Steak with Oven roasted tomatoes, Blue Cheese and Red Wine Demi-glace

Last but not least . . . again EXCELLENT....I used packaged demi-glace and followed the recipe exactly but found the sauce thickened quite a bit. I think i would have liked a thinner sauce and next time I will strain it for a better presentation. I found the sauce a little "rustic". I didn't add flower to the sauce, just the butter at the end but it was still very thick.
The tomatoes were delicious . . . I used olive oil, salt and pepper and substituted raw sugar for for regular sugar.
With the Steaks the last substitution I made was goat cheese with cranberry/cinnamon instead of the blue cheese. I didn't have blue cheese on hand and still turned out fabulous. My steaks looked just like the picture including the sprig or rosemary for garnish.
WOW . . . this was a huge dinner to take on considering I wasn't familiar with the recipe's but we enjoyed the dinner greatly.

I didn't have time for desert nor did I want to even attempt another dish so I picked up Coconut cupcakes and hand dipped chocolate Strawberries at "Sweet" on Dewdney for desert . . . I personally only had a couple of the Strawberries and funnily enough Ron ate all the Cupcakes . . . not even a crumb for me.
That's all for now . . . I have to gather my strength for my next cooking extravaganza!

Brown Rice Pilaf

Excellent~ I will be adding this recipe to my culinary repertoire. I followed recipe as suggested however I found the thyme to be overpowering. Ron thought it was fine however I would suggest 1/2 tsp thyme or perhaps basil.

As always . . . . read the recipe and directions for the brown rice carefully. I started cooking at 4:00 and didn't finish up until well after 7:00. Cooking the brown rice takes close to 1 hour then the recipe calls for an addition 30 minutes in the oven when all other ingredients are added however, well worth the time and effort.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

Very good salad and dressing. As this is served at room temperature this makes a great dish to bring to a "pot luck". No need to heat up and little prep time to put it together. When I first made this for Valentine's dinner I obviously didn't cool all the vegetables to room temp as the beets turned the whole salad red (this was OK for Valentine's but not as attractive as the picture).
I made it again the next day (I am a sucker for punishment) for a dinner a friends and kept the beets separate from the rest of the salad until it was time for dinner and it did indeed look like the picture. The real key here is to make this in advance . . . allow vegetables to cool completely and assemble when ready to serve. The caramelization of the root vegetables and onions really made this outstanding. Also as mentioned at the bottom of the recipe this makes plenty of dressing . . . I had enough for both salads!

Prosciutto and Basil Wrapped Prawns

I made these for Valentine's Day Dinner . . . along with the: Roasted Vegetable Salad, Brown Rice Pilaf and last but not least Grilled Steak with Oven roasted Tomatoes Blue Cheese and Red Wine Demi-Glace . . . as you can see I am an "all or nothing" kind of gal! All of these recipes are of course from WWC.
But first . . . back to the Prawns . . . They were excellent and I would definitely make them again . . . I wouldn't change a thing. I prepared them the day in advance as suggested which also made the actual meal preparation for dinner slightly easier. I didn't have time to present them as pictured on a slice of lemon (it was only for Ron and I ) but when I make these for company I will certainly take the extra step. (didn't have time to take a picture . . . they were all gone)

BLUEBERRY ALMOND BARS

Last night, I made the Blueberry Almond Bars on page 142 of WWCAH. They make up quickly and easily, even for those of us who had no almonds in the pantry (do I sense a recurring theme here?) and used ground hazelnuts instead. I used frozen berries and they worked just fine. Mind you, I have a client who grows what must be the best spray free blueberries in the world so that adds to the quality of the experience. The bars are quite soft when just cooled but they firm up nicely overnight.

These are very a great variation on the old blueberry bar theme. There is almond extract added to the blueberry filling and this is a great flavour addition. It elevates the bars from pedestrian to special.

My only criticism of this recipe is that I think there is far too much sugar in the filling. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup. I think i/4 or possibly less would be just fine. Otherwise, this is a quick, tasty recipe and if you have blueberries in the freezer, you could whip this up quickly for an unexpected baking emergency.

MANGO CHUTNEY

Tonight's kitchen mess making project was the Mango Chutney from WWC, page 92. I love this chutney and have made it many times. The handwritten notes beside my recipe are as follows:

"This makes the whole house smell wonderful when its cooking. Seems a bit acerbic at first but once the flavours blend, its delicious."

This truly is a winner in the chutney department. I always substitute dried cranberries for raisins because I like them better and I also like the visual of the bits of red in the orangey coloured chutney. I once bought a bag of frozen mango chunks at the recommendation of a friend (no one on this Blog, thank goodness) and really didn't like them for just out of hand eating but they worked fine in this recipe. I use fresh mango but wanted to add that as I think the frozen chunks come on sale at a good price and they really are just fine for this. The chutney tastes great when freshly made but even better after it has had time to think for a day or two.

I like to add a good wodge of this stuff to curry as I like the contrast of hot and heat with cool and sweet. I think it would be very good if you whirled this into a smooth paste in the blender and then spread it thinly on top of crackers and topped that with thinly sliced aged cheddar or better yet, if you can find it, Stilton, and downed the whole mess with a very cold glass of crisp white wine. Nummy!

Cranberry Tree

Ok, I know it is on it's side. Timber,
so I was playing around at Christmas when I did
some baking and liked my artsy little tree.

Cranberry tree

 

Barbara Photo

 

Chicken Tortialla Soup

 

 

 

 

WHITEWATER BROWNIES

What's a girl to do when she's jonesing chocolate? Whitewater brownies, of course. This is my first go at these, found on page 113 of the original Whitewater Cooks book.

They are quite good. The crunch referred to in the recipe refers to the crunchy top, not anything on the inside. I checked them at 20 minutes and they seemed too gooey so I let them stay in the oven another five minutes as per the recipe directions which was, I reckon, about 3 minutes too long. Even so, they are quite moist and not bad without icing. Yes, Barbara....I did say without icing.

As per usual, I was missing something when I made these which was the sour cream. I used plain yogurt instead and they seem none the worse for it.

These are quite quick to put together as are most brownies. They tend to be more on the fudgey than the cakey side.