You know how when you open up Yahoo there's these little news (I use the term news very lightly here) stories. Well, this week there was one about making a grill cheese sandwich in the waffle maker. We quite like our grill cheese over here so I thought we'd try it. The girls loved it because it looked funny. But it really was very good. I used city rye bread, which is a light, airy rye and it made it kind of like a cheese bread.
Weekly MenuMonday: Stir Fry with Vermicelli Noodles
Tuesday: Bread Salad
Wednesday: Chickpea and Spinach Soup with Savory Waffles
Thursday: Grilled Fish with Mango Salsa, Asparagus and Potato Soup
Friday: Perogies and Coleslaw
Saturday: Veggie Dogs with Chili and Cheese
Sunday: Shrimp Pasta with Salad and Strawberry Shortcake
Weekly Pantry List
Balsamic Vinegar, soya sauce (I'm told Braggs is best), olive oil, fresh garlic(need 21 cloves), nutritional yeast, flour, baking powder, baking soda, marjoram, rosemary,thyme, lemon juice or vinegar, butter or margarine, 3 eggs, cumin, chili powder, pickles, mustard
Weekly Grocery List
parmesan cheese
veggie dogs
olives (1/4 cup)
sour cream
milk (need 2 cups)
cream cheese (need 1/3 cup)
fresh fish fillets (we had pike and white fish)
broccoli
cauliflower (need 1/2 small head)
1 bulb fennel (also called anise)
1 green pepper
8 mushrooms
3 avocados
cucumber
zucchini
5 stalks celery
4 large carrots
6 + 2 1/2 lbs red skinned potatoes ( bought a 10 lb bag and have leftovers)
1 tomato
spinach (5 oz)
7 baby sweet peppers (this was what they had when I went, you could use 3 large ones instead)
2 red onion
2 yellow onions
2 large white onion
2 lemons
1 lime
1 mango
pea pods (1-2 cups)
cilantro
fresh basil
edamame beans (frozen, 1 cup)
vermicelli Noodles
1 can artichoke hearts
1 19 oz can six bean medley
1 19 oz can of black beans
1 19 oz can of chickpeas
1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste
1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes
2 cartons of veggie stock
1 loaf crusty bread
hot dog buns
Stir Fry over Vermicelli Noodles
Plus 15C outside today. Time to start taking down the overgrowth in our yard, which is pretty well everywhere. I'm very inspired to clean it up. Since the gardening and lawn maintenance urge doesn't seem to strike very often around here I decided to strike while the iron was hot, or the sun was warm. Maybe this year will be different (I've said that every year for the past five years), perhaps we'll at least get rid of the overgrowth before we quit. Although, after taking down the first tree/bush thing my back is killing me and Harper fell asleep at 5:30 tonight so I have a feeling I may be up at 3 am. Can you cut down brush at 3 am? It's probably not a good idea. Dave tried to wake her up but it was really kind of sad, she skipped her nap today and spent three or four hours playing outside, hopefully she'll just sleep through and be well rested.
Recipe
I'm not sure how it happened but I had the perfect odds and ends to make a stir fry. My cousin had left me this dressing from a salad she had brought Saturday and I thought it would also make a good stir fry sauce, it did. Really, I love this sauce/salad dressing and was a little tempted to just drink it. These are the veggies I had but really you could use whatever you have left over in your fridge.
1 red onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, pressed1/2 small head of cauliflower
1 green pepper, cut in strips
3 large carrots, cut on the diagonal into rounds
3 stalks of celery, cut in inch size pieces
1 cup edamame beans
vermicelli noodles (I used two little nests), prepared as per package instructions
1 cup veggies stock
olive oil
Sauce
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 soya sauce (Braggs is best)
1 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Whirl up all the ingredients in the blender except for the oil, add that while rest the are whirling around.
Heat a little olive oil in the pan and saute the onions and garlic until softened then add the pepper, celery, carrots and saute until softened; finally add the broccoli, edamame beans and cauliflower. As it cooked I added a little stock here and there to prevent it from sticking. Once all the veggies are ready mix in the noodles and the sauce!
Bread Salad
Harper was not up until morning...well, my kids are always up during the night but she was not up for the day until morning. So there was no early morning yard work, you're welcome my neighbors. We were out in the yard today and it is glorious with the warmth and the sunshine. I don't want to complain about the spring because I do love it so much, but I am having a little trouble with the mud. Part of the backyard is dry but the rest is not at all. I want my kids to be able to play in the mud, it's so much fun, I want to be zen with the mud and I am, while it's outside but when it's time to come in I have issues. Seriously, what's a little mud? I'm trying really hard to be O.K. with it, it cleans up, it's not that my house is totally spotless or anything, but my kids are seriously covered - they pretty much bath in it. I can put them right into the tub no big deal but it's the clothes and boots that are covered that stress me out (and their need to touch everything on their way to the bathroom). Oh, well I suppose soon it will all be dry and I'll find something else to complain about. In the meantime I am enjoying watching and listening to them make mud pies and run around the yard screaming in delight!
Recipe
I believe I took the idea for this salad from Moosewood Cooks at Home but I don't really follow any recipe and neither should you. There are a couple ingredients that I find to be key, the artichokes, the beans, the olives, the bread of course and some sort of cheese. Other than than those ingredients, I use whatever I have on hand and dress it all with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
1 can bean medley, rinsed and drained
1 large tomato, chopped
3 baby sweet peppers, chopped
1/4 cup olives
1/3 cup grated cheese such as parmesan, feta or whatever you prefer
1 cup pea pods, chopped
1/2 cup cucumber, chopped
1 1/2 avocados, chopped
2 stalks celery
1/3 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1/3 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1 1/2 lemons, juiced
1 loaf of crusty bread (I use one that has olives baked in it, but anything will work)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients except for the bread in a bowl and top with lemon juice and a really good glugg of olive oil (I would guess about 1/3 cup), salt and pepper and stir, taste and adjust if needed. Set aside.
Slice your loaf in 1 inch thick slices and brush both sides with olive oil. Toast the bread on a hot grill or in the oven on broil, flipping until both sides are nice and toasty. Once bread is done, chop it or rip it into little pieces. You can either add it to the large bowl all together or toss some in each bowl and top with salad (I like to do it this way so that if there are leftovers the bread can stay crispy instead of getting soggy).
Chickpea and Spinach Soup with Savory Waffles
The other day we bought a car and then that night found a leak in the roof. Today we brought said car home and the washing machine broke...do you think it's a sign? Are we being punished for our consumerism? Don't these things come in three's, what's going to be next? All in all it's not actually as bad as it seems. We think/hope the roof may be a minor repair and my brilliant husband took the washer apart and found the problem to be a $30 part (again, hopefully, as I am going to purchase the part tomorrow).
While Dave had the washing machine apart and the laptop open nearby we were discussing our dads. I came from a house, and so did he, of do it yourselfers. I don't ever remember seeing a repairman in our house. Possibly, one of my uncles may come by and help my dad work through a problem but never were the yellow pages brought out and used to call someone. What is lucky is that I married someone who came from the same kind of family, because its somehow ingrained in my blood that the yellow pages, for the most part, are used to order pizza. What is amazing though is that there was no Internet when we were younger. Tonight Dave had the washing machine apart while we read forums and looked at diagrams on the Internet to figure out what the problem may be and if we could fix it. When my dad would have had his washing machine apart it was a series of blind trial and errors until he found the problem, and he always did.
This also brings me to another thought about kids and risk taking. It seems that one of the major goals of teaching these days is teaching kids that it's good to take risks (by risks I mean ideas and theories, not illicit drugs and craziness). I don't remember this being something that needed to be encouraged when I was a student. Does access to resources like the Internet provide so much information that we are creating a culture where we're scared to try anything without first referencing a source? Or does it provide information that then encourages people to try things that they may never of considered trying before? I suppose it's maybe not the tool but how it's used.
Recipe
I was going to make a bread to go with this soup but we had to go pick up the new vehicle and it just didn't work out timing wise. So instead I made waffles, there is this wonderful waffle recipe that I wanted to make from Catherine Newman's blog but they need to rise overnight and so I will have to maybe make them on the weekend. I would suggest these if you think of it in advance. I think if you're having them for dinner you could probably prep them in the morning to cook them that night. Her description of them being yeasty goodness is bang on.
If you don't have the time this is the recipe that we use, it has been copied onto a recipe card for a long time and I can no longer remember where it came from.
1/2 large red onion, carmalized
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp butter or margarine melted
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; stir in milk, lemon juice or vinegar and melted butter. Stir in beaten egg then add the onion and cheese. Heat your waffle iron (mine is a 9.99 special from Superstore, if you are major into waffles I hear that it is worth investing in a good one), and cook up your waffles just before eating.
The soup was very easy and quick and a definite make again. It was from Cook's Own: Vegetarian Dishes.
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 potato, cut in chucks
4 cups veggie stock
2 Tbsp each minced fresh parsley and cilantro
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Half pkg of 10 oz/ 284g fresh spinach, trimmed and chopped
In a large heave saucepan, heat oil over medium-low heat; cook garlic and onions, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft.
Add potato; cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add stock, parsley, cilantro and marjoram; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until potato is very tender. Stir in chickpeas.
In food processor in batches or using hand blender in saucepan, puree just until chickpeas are coarse; return to pan. Add spinach; simmer for 5 minutes, adding 1/2 cup water if too thick.
Grilled Fish, Mango Salsa, Asparagus and Potato Soup
It really does come in threes. Dave called at lunch today and he was going to go to Midtown (a car wash where you step out and five people jump in your car and start cleaning it as it goes through a car wash) to get the car cleaned and it won't start (not the new one). I try not to be superstitious but, sometimes it's really hard. The car only had a loose wire and after the tow (or jump) it's a fairly inexpensive repair. So, even though things do come in threes I think we got lucky with the three we got, hopefully - we have yet to get the leak in the roof repaired.
See how short my thoughts were? I'm trying to make up for my long rant yesterday.
Recipe
We were actually going to have roasted potatoes with this meal but because of the car ordeal we needed to pick Dave up and so the cooking time for the potatoes wasn't going to work out. I had made some potato soup for lunch and so we had that instead.
For the fish I used fresh white fish and pike, drizzled it with a little olive oil and fresh lime juice and grilled it on the BBQ on high heat for about two or three minutes a side.
Mango salsa is a mixture of the following ingredients.
1 mango, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Asparagus was placed in an oven proof dish drizzled with a little olive oil and baked in a 350F oven for about 8 minutes.
Potato Soup
1/2 large white onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1/3 bulb fennel, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
5 medium size red skinned potatoes, chopped (skins left on)
1 carton of low sodium veggie stock
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried
1 tsp rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
In a soup pot heat a good glugg of olive oil and saute onions, garlic, carrot, fennel, celery, thyme and rosemary until soft. Add potatoes and stock and bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer and cook for 10 - 15 minutes until potatoes are tender. Puree with a hand blender or in batches in a food processor or blender. Return to pot to warm and add salt and pepper to taste.
Perogies
I have to say, I've been wanting to make perogies for a long time. I'm not sure why I have had this urge to make them but today we made them. They were delicious, but I'm pretty sure I will not make them again, they're a lot of work. If you don't live somewhere where you can easily get really good perogies, than it is definitely worth it. By good perogies I mean the ones where you can actually taste the tradition of grandmothers or babas teaching the younger generations how to make them. I picture it to be in a large kitchen with lots of women of at least three generations, maybe even a fourth in arms, with lots of laughter. I'm not saying this is how it is, I really have no idea, but that's how I picture it, and kind of what I taste. I do not mean the rubbery frozen variety that you can buy at any given grocery store. I am fortunate to live in a city with a large Ukrainian population where it is easy to buy really good perogies, that are probably better than the ones I made - although these were good. The only thing that may make me make them again is how much my little perogy maker loved doing it!
Recipe
This recipe is also from Cook's Own: Vegetarian Dishes.
8 cups of all purpose flour
4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
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| Our very first ones complete. |
1 1/3 cups sour cream
2 eggs
Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead for 1 minute or until smooth. Divide into quarters; wrap each in plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes, Makes enough for 7 1/2 dozen perogies.
Potato and Roasted Garlic Filling
2 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 Tbsp olive oil
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| Hannah teaching Harper. |
10 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
3/4 tsp each salt and pepper
In a large pot of boiling water, cover and cook potatoes for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain well and return to pot; mash with potato masher until smooth.
Meanwhile, in small saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and softened. Mash garlic and add to mashed potatoes along with milk, cream cheese, salt and pepper; stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature. (Filling can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 24 hours). Makes 4 cups, enough for 7 1/2 dozen perogies.
To assemble
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the quarters of dough at a time into a 17 inch circle. With a dry pastry brush, brush any access flour off dough. using 3 inch round cutter, cut dough into circles.
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| Harper got bored and wondered off, this is how I found her, after she called out, "Yust eating my nack Momma!" |
Meanwhile in a large heavy skillet melt a little butter over medium heat; cook some chopped onion until golden. In batches add perogies to skillet and cook, tossing to coat, for about 3 minutes or until lightly brown. Serve with sour cream.
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| Ready to serve and eat! |
We also had coleslaw, I was going cut up fresh veggies and find a homemade coleslaw recipe but to be totally honest, I was tired and so I threw a few things in a bowl and put some store bought coleslaw dressing over it.
Pre packaged coleslaw mix
1 green apple, chopped
part of a cucumber, choppedsome raisins
some pea pods, chopped
Here's my low down on veggie dogs. I don't really think that they are very good for you. I think that they are probably better for you than meat (?) dogs but are still very high in sodium and have ingredients that I've never heard of. The reality is that they don't taste very good. I know, you're thinking why on earth do you cook them? Well, I cook them for a couple of reasons. One reason is that Hannah loves them. The other reason is that no matter how many bad things that can be said about hot dogs I always liked them. It's not actually hot dogs but the experience of a hot dog that I like.When I was a kid we had hot dog day at school for hot lunch and we would get these bloated over boiled hot dogs with a milk and a little bag of chips...it was great. At the cottage there's a poker derby every year with a picnic after with games and hot dogs. They are easy to eat outside most everybody eats them, even if they don't all like to admit they like them.
So, I had this plan at the beginning of the week of how Saturday would go. It was suppose to be nice and Dave and I were going to spend the day in the yard playing with the kids and doing some yard work and then for supper I though we would fire up the BBQ and cook some hot dogs and eat them outside. It would be a little too cold but we wouldn't care, the first meal outside is always the best (and a little too cold). Well, we woke up to an inch of snow and so did not spend the day outside. We did have the veggie dogs but the BBQ ran out of gas and we had to finish cooking them in the oven. Hannah's excitement over having the first ones of the season, even though indoors was worth it.
Recipe
The key to making veggie dogs taste good is to load them with up with your favorite toppings, then you're not really getting the full taste of the veggie dog, but the full experience. We loaded these ones up with chili, fried onions, pickles, cheese and mustard.
Chili
1 onion
4 baby peppers
8 mushrooms
1/2 zucchini
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
2 Tbsp of chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
5.5 oz can tomato paste
28 oz can of plum tomatoes
In a large pot, heat olive oil and saute onions, garlic, cumin and chili until soft. Add the peppers, mushrooms and zucchini and continue to saute until soft (add a little water to keep it from sticking if you need). Mix in tomato paste and can of tomatoes, breaking up tomatoes as you stir. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for at least 30 minutes.
While chili is simmering prepare your toppings and veggies dogs. Slice the number of veggie dogs you need in half and BBQ using your favorite BBQ sauce. Slice pickles and buns and grate some cheese. Slice or chop onions and saute in a little olive oil until almost crispy.When all is ready load up your bun and enjoy!
Shrimp Pasta with Salad and Strawberry Shortcakes
Today Hannah and I went to see a movie at the IMAX theater. It was Born to Be Wild. As my cousin put it, it makes you want to move to Africa and help save animals. It was in 3D and Hannah wore her glasses the whole time and asked a myriad of questions throughout the movie along with lots of, "They look so close!" comments. I loved watching her little face light up while she watched the screen and ate her movie treats. Let's be honest, I think she was equally excited about the treats as she was about the movie.
Dave took Harper to the zoo today and although it was a little chilly she seemed to really enjoy it. Dave said they went back to look at the monkeys three times at Harper's request. She watched very intently as a Mommy and Daddy monkey seemed to be teaching a baby monkey how to swing from the ropes.
We ended our day at my Tant's for dinner. She made a wonderful pasta with a tomato sauce full of veggies, olives and shrimp. There was a delicious salad with mixed greens, grated cheese, red onion and artichoke hearts. She browned the artichokes first in a pan and then dressed the salad with balsamic and fresh lemon juice. For dessert she topped shortcakes with strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipping cream, how can you go wrong? It was delicious.
Here's wishing you all a wonderful week!
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