Baby greens and herbs with balsamic vinaigrette

I love salad. Not because its healthy but because I really just like salad. Give me some nice, light lettuce with some crunchy veggies and maybe some cheese of some kind, with a dressing that makes your lips pucker (none of those sweet creamy ones for me thank you) and I could eat the whole bowl. When we were kids we always had homemade vinaigrettes with our salads. One of my brothers would wait until everyone had taken their portion, then he would hold up the bowl and ask if anyone wanted any more and hardly waiting to hear the answer he would take his fork and polish off whatever was left. We are a family of salad lovers. Perhaps it is the French influence? Who knows. Whatever it is, thank you to my parents for instilling it :)

These days I love to go to the garden and grab a couple handfuls of various colours of lettuce and greens, some herbs and throw it all together for a quick side salad to whatever we're eating. Lettuce grows well when its cool and tends to get bitter quickly once the weather warms up, so I am hoping to take advantage of this prime lettuce weather while it lasts. Here are some pics from my garden of what went into the salad, with the recipe for my go-to vinaigrette. I just picked a bunch of baby lettuce, baby chard, basil and parsley, and tore up the herbs a bit to spread out the flavour.

Variety of baby lettuce 

Rainbow chard!

Basil and Italian parsley flourishing on the deck

Getting to the plate

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Balsamic vinaigrette

This recipe packs some flavour punch. If you like a milder dressing, add more oil and less garlic.  Feel free to dress it up differently with some chopped shallots or whatever herbs are in season - mint complements nicely!

Ingredients

2/3 cups good quality olive oil

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, grated or finely chopped

Directions

Simply combine in a pourable, storable jar or container and shake it up!  Use to taste with any salad, with greens or another favourite - quinoa salad. 

Lunch: baby greens with vinaigrette, chicken soup from my mom, cheese and Sophie's leftover granola bar.

Homemade granola and yogurt

Yesterday, in what can only be a fit of insanity after my wonderful toddler opted to scream for an hour instead of nap, I decided to hit the kitchen and make not one but four recipes, granola, chocolate oat drop cookies, granola bars and homemade yogurt. On the heels of three days of sweeping out closets, spot cleaning the kitchen floor, cleaning windowsills and a weird trip to the grocery store where I found myself stocking up on Kraft dinner, tuna and licorice, I think we can safely say that at 37 weeks of pregnancy I am in that stage they call "nesting"... Even though the baby's room is only half-finished with walls that need a second coat of paint and, well... a floor, Baby #2 could arrive any time and we'll have a full pantry at least!

One of my favourite breakfasts is granola, yogurt and fresh fruit. It also makes a great healthy snack! The store-bought versions of granola tend to be full of sugar and fillers of all kinds. Even with some sweetener added, homemade granola is full of nutritious goodness when packed with whole grains, seeds and nuts,and makes for a hearty breakfast that stays with you until lunch. Granola is actually very forgiving; using oats as the base you can add your own combination of nuts, seeds, bran/coconut/dried fruit depending on your taste and what you have in your cupboard.

Granola

I usually halve this recipe from Allrecipes.ca, with a few tweaks based on what I have on hand, but this recipe is the simplified version that I use as a base when I make granola now. You just need to keep the approximate proportion of dry ingredients to sweet/wet to help it stick together. Flax and chia seeds both add to the stickiness factor when soaked in an equivalent amount of water for 10 minutes before adding to the mix.

Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups nuts and/or seeds
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup wheat bran or crushed bran cereal
2 tbsp oil
6 tbsp liquid sweetener (honey, maple syrup, agave syrup)
1-2 tsp ground spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom)
5 tbsp ground or whole flaxseed (and/or chia seeds) soaked in 5 tbsp water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup dried fruit (raisins, chopped apricots, dried cranberries or blueberries...)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Toss all the dry ingredients EXCEPT dried fruit in a large bowl, the top with the wet ingredients and flavourings. Combine well and spread evenly on a baking sheet. Use a silicone baking sheet if you have it! It's my new favourite kitchen thing - it makes cleaning pans SO much easier. Bake for about 30-40 mins, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set somewhere to cool. Wait until it has cooled before you stir it, that way you'll have those nice crunchy chunks. Stir in dried fruit and store in an airtight container or bag.

The Yogurt

It's not as hard as you think! You can use a yogurt maker, but here is what I do almost weekly. You can use a lower fat milk, but it makes for a thinner yogurt. Embrace the fat!  Also feel free to multiply the recipe if you feel you'll use it up. You can use homemade yogurt as a starter for the next batch, but it will only work a few times before the bacteria seem to weaken or something. Fresh yogurt is the best starter.

Ingredients

1 L whole milk 

1 tbsp new plain yogurt (I use Balkan style)

Directions

Scald the milk gently in a medium sized saucepan. Set the timer for about 15 mins at a time so you don't forget about it. Let the milk cool until its still warm/hot but you can still stick your finger in for up to 20 seconds without it being too hot (about 115° if you have a thermometer).  Stir in a spoonful of new plain yogurt and pour into a jar or container. Cover and let sit in a warm place for about 8 hours. I put it in the oven with the light on, or you can also put it in a cooler with a hot water bottle. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Note: If you use the oven-with-light-on method, make sure to mark the oven somehow so that you won't turn the oven on to preheat for something else and have the high heat subsequently ruin the yogurt and/or container with a plastic lid... I learned this the hard way. (About 4 times - hello pregnancy brain!) Word to the wise - hang something on the dial or a noticeable equivalent that will stop you in your tracks and make you take out said yogurt before ruination occurs. 

Here are two other places that explain how to do it:

David Lebovitz

Chocolate and Zucchini

Today's breakfast - Granola with yogurt and nectarines.

German Apple Pie

This isn't really a pie, and I'm not sure what makes it German, but this is what it's called!  It's a quick and easy hot breakfast for those mornings when you want more than toast or cereal but don't want to slave over a hot griddle. It makes enough for three, or two plus leftovers. Growing up my dad would make this all the time, and doubling the recipe would feed all 6 of us no problem. Hubby loves it and our toddler likes it if she's not being a diva...

Ingredients: 
1/4 cup butter/margarine
2 apples, peeled and sliced
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk

Optional (depending if you're feeling like sweet or savory)
1/2 cup sharp cheddar, grated
or
1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tbsp sugar

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400°.

Melt butter in pie plate in the microwave, then layer the apple slices on top. 

Whisk together eggs, milk and flour. You can add your optional flavourings now, or sprinkle over the top later. 

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top of the apples. You will see little pools of butter on the edges - works wonders towards a crunchy and delicious crust! 

If you opted to wait to sprinkle cheese or cinnamon/sugar on top, now is the time!

Bake for 20-25 minutes, and enjoy while it's smoking hot! We were halfway through this one before I remembered to take a photo of the finished product... 

Add this one to the regular breakfast rotation - especially on chilly gray mornings!

Lime ginger crème brulée

We are a part of a supper club which consists of 4 couples and meets every couple months, and the theme for the last one was "Taste of the Orient". I was in charge of dessert and really wanted to make crème brulée, so this version adds a twist to the classic crème by adding the Asian flavour combo of lime and ginger. The flavours were subtle and the dessert was delicious.

Crème brulée is my favourite dessert. It's a creamy, deceptively light little custard that has a satisfying sweet crunch of the burnt sugar done either with a small blowtorch or under the broiler.  The name "crème brulée" is actually a misnomer... we should probably call them "sucres brulée".  I guess it doesn't have the same ring to it... This dessert has gotten a bit of a reputation for being difficult, temperamental shall we say, the diva of desserts.  Cooking custard can be tricky since you have to cook the egg mixture just so, often carefully stirring over a double-boiler until just the right texture which is vaguely described as "coating a spoon".  What does that really mean? Coat a spoon. Anything coats a spoon.  I love this recipe because I don't have to stir and watch and stir some more and try to judge whether the darn cream stuff is coating my spoon only to discover that I basically have a pot of sweet 'n' creamy scrambled eggs, which is what happens if you don't cook it right. This recipe heats the cream, combines the rest of the ingredients and finishes the cooking in the oven in a "bain-marie", or a water bath. Not sure where that name came from, but it means to place your container in water while it cooks, which makes it cook gently and evenly, perfect for diva custard! 

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

6 egg yolks 

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup white sugar

Zest from 1 1/2 limes

Juice from 1 lime (squeeze the other half into a glass of water!)

1 tbsp grated ginger

1/2 cup brown/white sugar mix

If you want to go classic, simply omit the lime and ginger.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and put the kettle on to boil. It's not for tea, just wait and see...

Grate the ginger and lime zest.  

Pour the cream into a medium sized pot and add the vanilla.  Whisk zest and ginger into the cream mixture. Place on medium-high heat until just boiling. When bubbles are forming at the edges, turn off the heat and take the pot off the element. Let sit for 5 min or so to let the flavours meld. 

Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.  

Tempering:  This is where it gets fun, but its really the only tricky part. Two things are happening in this step: The first is that you are straining the zest and ginger out of the cream, and the second is that you are tempering the egg so that it doesn't turn to scrambled egg cream.  Which is what will happen if you just dump hot cream into the egg mixture. Do not do this. Capiche?

You may need an extra pair of hands so borrow a friend or relative or rig up something that means you can do it yourself. You basically need to slowly pour some of the hot cream mixture through a strainer into the egg yolk mixture, all while whisking. As, you can see in the photo I clearly got some help since I don't have three hands... Pour in a few tablespoons' worth, whisking well, then pour the rest in slowly while whisking furiously.   

Set 8 ramekins on a deep-set cookie sheet.  Once the mixture is well whisked, pour into individual ramekins, about 2/3 of the way full.

Here is where the boiling water comes in. (No, its not to make crème brulée soup. Gross. Why would you think that?)  Place the pan in the oven and pour the boiling water into the pan until it reaches about halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

They are done when it looks cooked but the middles jiggle slightly when you wiggle the ramekin.  Like how I worked jiggle and wiggle into the same sentence?
Chill in the fridge for a few hours before you are ready to eat. A few minutes before dessert, combine the brown and white sugar in a small bowl. Top each ramekin with a layer of sugars (sorry there is no picture, there were impatient supper-clubers waiting!) and pop under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. When the tops look melted and slightly burnt, remove from under the heat.  Tip: you may need to rotate the pan to burn evenly. Other tip: PUT THE TIMER ON or else you will forget them and they will burn - and not the good kind! You will literally have burnt creams. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

Allow to cool for a couple minutes so your guests don't burn themselves.

Like Amélie, I take great satisfaction in gently cracking the sugar crust with a spoon before scooping up the cream with just enough burnt sugar... mmm I think I have to go make some of this right now.

Enjoy!

Chicago-style deep dish pizza

I have actually had real Chicago deep dish pizza. In Chicago. I kid you not it was pretty incredibly delicious.  Take all your favourite pizza toppings and stack them on top of one another and you get deep-dish pizza.  It's literally a pizza pie. Easy-peasy when done in a cast iron frying pan because you can fry all your ingredients, then just roll out the dough, layer the ingredients and pop the whole thing in the oven.  You essentially need about 3 cups of pizza toppings total, but you can use any combination of your favourite ingredients. My brother is an apprentice butcher in Halifax and brought me some amazing bacon that just made this pizza into the legend it was meant to be. Here is what I did. 

Ingredients: 

1 batch of your favourite pizza dough recipe 

1 cup pizza sauce

1 1/2 portobello mushroom cap, cubed

1 onion

1 cup back bacon, cubed (use locally made bacon if you can, it just tastes so much smokier, saltier and just baconier)

1 fresh tomato

1/2 cup old cheddar cheese

Directions: 

First, prep your ingredients. Pre-cook the bacon in the pan, set aside, then brown the onions in the fat (don't let any of that good stuff go to waste), set them aside and throw in the portobello for a quick 5 min cooking. 

Once that is done, let the pan cool while you grate cheese, chop any other veggies you want to use and roll out the dough. Make sure you use a little oil so it doesn't stick to the counter or the rolling pin. 

       

Once its rolled out, gently lift the dough into the oiled pan and shape it as best you can. If the pan is warm it will help the dough to puff slightly. 

I'm a little distracted by a little ball of cuteness tugging at my legs...

She's my girl.

Back to the pizza. Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the pan.

Add a smattering of the mushrooms and onions...

Then the bacon. Lovely, lovely bacon. 

I decided to make this a double-decker pizza with a bit of pizza dough I had leftover. Roll out a thin sheet of dough to add some dimension to your pizza pie. Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes just to cook it enough so that it's not doughy.

This is to show you that I added tomato before the second layer of dough. It is critical to the structural integrity of the deep-dish pizza. Not really, it just tastes good.

Splatter on the rest of the sauce, then the rest of the ingredients. Don't forget the cheese just because I forgot to take a picture with the cheese!  Then pop the whole thing in the 350 oven for about 20 mins. 

While the pizza is cooking, go play outside. Like we did.

 Be sure to enjoy this bad boy with friends, it's just too good to keep to yourself. And it's way to much pizza for two people to eat safely.

Mmmm.... the smokiness of the bacon somehow permeated the whole thing. It was amazing. I would pay big bucks for this. Good thing I didn't have to. 

Enjoy! And think of Chicago.

Homemade pesto

Basil harvest!
I love basil. Nothing smells like summer to me more than basil. I have several bush-like plants that I am hoping to winter over in the house, but I know it won't fare very well because I don't have a lot of direct sunlight. So I've opted to make pesto.
Pesto is a great way to preserve that lovely flavour for the winter. You can enjoy it on pasta (with sour cream and Parmesan), spread on a sandwich or wrap, or in a soup or casserole to add a pop of flavour.
Traditionally pesto is made with basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and a hard cheese such as parmesan or romano. I used walnuts because they work just as well as pine nuts... (and they're way cheaper).  I used roasted garlic because I prefer a more muted garlic flavour, but if you like that sharp fresh garlic flavour, go for it.                                                                  
Be prepared for what seems like a huge amount of basil to reduce to about 2 cups of pesto.

Ingredients:
7 cups loosely-packed basil leaves
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
2-4 cloves of garlic

Slow-roast the walnuts in a cast-iron pan or in the oven until browned.

Throw the whole lot in the food processor and pulse a few times to get it going then blend until smooth.  Add  more oil if you want a smoother texture. 

Scoop into jars and try not to eat it all at once. 

                                          Cover with a slick of olive oil, it should help prevent browning. 

It will keep in the fridge for a couple weeks, or in the freezer for months.