So Now That's Done ...

I'm finished school.  Excellent.  And there's no point in even thinking about jobs for a week or so, thus I get to do more fun things now!
We just came back from a lovely holiday and all I want to do is spend time in the kitchen and garden (I want to talk about the garden separately because I need to devote some time to it ;) ).  First up, BBQ sauce.  It is super hot and muggy here and we bought ribs yesterday for some friends coming over for dinner and I was inspired.

The Barbeque Sauce recipe came from a quick search on Tastespotting, and I will definitely be adding that blog to my frequently surfed.  It is totally delicious, even after a few dicey substitutions:

• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• 1/2 a finely chopped onion
• 1/2 a minced jalapeños
• 3 smoked garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic scape salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup homemade ketchup
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

I cooked everything up according to her instructions, and used one of the most exciting purchases from my trip - smoked baby garlic.  

Having not made anything without this wonderful product, I'm not sure about what difference it made to the flavour, but I would like to think a lot since my whole kitchen reeks of the stuff ;)

The other wonderful ingredient that I have access to is garlic scape salt.  

This stuff is gold - it can turn the most boring dish into something fantastic.  Get some if you can!!

We're also talking a lot about sugar content in our house right now, being not super healthy people, but wanting to be.  So I subbed out the brown sugar for honey, the apricot preserves for fresh blueberries, and I made my own ketchup.  Again with mods:

• 13 oz can of tomato paste
• 2 cups of water
• 4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp of Grade A maple syrup
• 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 2 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1/2 tsp garlic scape salt

This is settling in the fridge right now - it might need some more maple syrup.  I halved the quantity ... 

Anywho - that was the first day home in my kitchen and it was wonderful!

An Apple a Day

At the beginning of the year, we started having SPUD delivering our produce and milk once a week.  It's pretty awesome.  Our deliveries are every Thursday and this means by Wednesday I'm looking to finish up the stuff from last week.  We have had some definite flops ... for example we will never put parsnips and beets in the same stir fry again :P

But last week I had a surprising success!

Firstly, please don't judge the colour of my cheese - I'm finishing up the last few boxes of Annie's mac and cheese that Lukie likes.  I would prefer if the focus is on what is added to it and the potential I feel this has if I made it properly!

The idea started with a recipe posted by Naturally Ella, and was changed based on my leftover SPUD veggies:

1. Sautée some onions and garlic together in EVOO on medium heat until the onions were translucent, then add a medium, peeled sliced up sweet potato.  Cook that until the sweet potato is soft, but not finished then add 1-2 sliced (not peeled) apples.  Finish of this concoction by adding 2 de-cased chorizo and continue leave on the heat until the sausages are cooked.
2. At the same time get your mac and cheese going, whether it be from a box or from scratch.
3. Get a bigger serving dish and mix the contents of both pots together, and lastly mix in a couple of generous handfuls of kale until it is wilted.

I only used kale because that's what I had, and I feel that it wilts just as nicely as spinach.  I added the chorizo because it's hard to sell Lukie on a vegetarian dinner (and who doesn't love chorizo ;) ) and the apple was added as an after thought because it was to soft to eat on its own but I really liked the combination!!

I think what I really love about this dinner is that very shorty it will be something that the whole family will be able to enjoy!  It's always at the back of my mind when I cook now - the more often there's only one dinner to prepare, the more successful I can be at getting us all fed!

The Pickiest of Green Eaters

I've been with Lukie for a *very* long time, known him for longer, and for the first few years of our relationship I watched him dislike vegetables and not eat a lot of fruit.  We were young enough that it was not my problem to care, but when we started eating (non take out) meals together on a regular basis, I had to change something.  We started small ... literally.  If he couldn't see it, I could *probably* get away with it ;)

The first sizeable chunk of anything I fed him was coloured peppers.  Nice and easy.  Then came green onions, broccoli, etc. and as he got used to the flavours, I could increase the size of the particle I was feeding him.

I'm happy to say that I now have a salad that he not only eats on a regular basis, but asks for more than once a week.  I feel like I've won.  A bed of baby kale, sliced carrots, apple, cucumber, and pecans with a handful of crasins.  Pair that with maple balsamic dressing and I've pumped him full of 2-3 servings of vegetables :D

The other night, I paired it with honey mustard chicken drumsticks and an mildly adapted version of these cakes.

I didn't have any fresh parsley, and couldn't find any that was appropriately sourced, so I had to find something equally as tasty.  My answer to this problem is usually cheese.  Here's what I did:

~ 1 cup of cooked (as directed) couscous

~ 0.25 cups of chopped white onion
~ 3 cloves of chopped garlic
~ 0.50 cups of rinsed, chopped garbanzo beans
~ 0.25 cups of crumbled feta with Mediterranean herbs from Trader Joe's

Mix this all together, then into the couscous.

~ 2 eggs
~ lemon zest

Mix this in next.

~ olive oil

Warm up the oil in a frying pan, then use your 0.25 measuring cup to scoop the mixture to the size of the cake (smaller if you want them smaller ...).  Drop them in the frying pan and smoosh down to desired width and fry until golden brown.  Flip and repeat.

Lukie ate his plain, but I dipped mine in ranch dressing - both ways are pretty delicious!

Favorite Dinner

My parents got back from a spring break trip early yesterday morning, so since they had to work in the morning and I have lots of time on my hands, we brought dinner there last night.  It's one of our favorites, but it always takes me by surprise how much time it takes to prepare!

These are the makings for Vietnamese Spring Rolls (minus the rice paper): homemade peanut sauce, baked prawns, radishes, cucumber, carrots, fresh cilantro, and rice noodles.  That's it.  Yet somehow we were an hour later than I intended.

On top of taking a long time to prepare I learned a few things that I probably should have known about myself:

1. My kitchen is very dark and there is really only one spot at all conducive to photography.  Right there on my stove
2. This means my stove must be clean :P

Since baby clearly can't eat that, she had her standard squash, zucchini, long grain brown rice mixture, 9% MF Greek Yoghurt with blueberries we froze last year, Cheerios, and her favorite cookie (the first recipe on the page).  

Up for tonight?  Chicken drumsticks, couscous cakes, and our new favorite salad :)