Reminising and the Long Weekend

Sunday: Grilled Halibut with Eggplant and Bok Choy

Monday: Leftover Pasta

Tuesday: Out at a BBQ (Grilled Portobellos with Burger Fixings)
Wednesday: Open Faced Quesadillas
Thursday: Out to Dinner and a Movie
Friday: Chana Masala and Naan with Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Saturday: Veggie Burgers and Salads
Sunday: Grilled Prawns, Greek Salad, Roasted Potato and Carrots and Beans from the Garden

We drove out to the lake this morning, Dave will drive back tonight and I’ll stay out with the girls until Tuesday. The whole way out in the car Harper would talk or ask a question such as, “What is my dad doing?” Dave would answer and she would yell, “I talk’n to my Mama!” I think the surprise night away at the hospital had a little bit of an effect on her, poor little one (big one, as she always corrects me).

Recipe

I cut it short last week so that I could get it out before leaving for the lake. I did want to share this recipe that we had for dinner Sunday night, it was very easy and very yummy. We had halibut, which we’ve all decided is a little pricey but just so good. The recipe is from epicurious.

4 Tbsp olive oil, divided

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 ½ tsp minced chili

1/3 cup soy sauce

¼ cup (packed) dark brown sugar

3 Tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar

3 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp sesame oil

8 baby bok choy, halved lengthwise

4 medium-size Japanese eggplants, trimmed, halved lengthwise

4 6- to 7-ounce halibut fillets (each about 1 inch thick)

2 green onions, thinly sliced

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and chili; sauté until fragrant and light golden, about 3 minutes. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and 3 tablespoons water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until mixture is reduced to 3/4 cup, about 5 minutes (sauce will be thin). Remove barbecue sauce from heat; whisk in sesame oil. Transfer 1/4 cup barbecue sauce to small bowl and reserve for serving.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Combine bok choy and eggplant halves in large bowl. Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil over and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush fish with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill vegetables and fish until vegetables are tender and slightly charred and fish is just opaque in center, turning occasionally and brushing with sauce, about 10 minutes total for vegetables and 7 minutes total for fish. Transfer vegetables and fish to plates; sprinkle with green onions. Drizzle with reserved sauce and serve.

We had these with grilled potatoes on the BBQ, (slice into ¼ “ rounds, toss with olive oil and grill, flipping once until cooked), bread, a beautiful salad with garden lettuce and tomatoes and grilled veggies (combination of peppers, mushrooms, onions and corn on the cob tossed with olive and roasted in the oven). We topped it all off with some yummy leftover chocolate cake!

Leftover Pasta

There’s something about blueberry picking. There’s this blueberry picking gene that runs in my family on my Dad’s side. Almost every year my dad’s sister and family come in from Toronto and as many of us who can, head out to the lake. Inevitably there is always a blueberry picking expedition involved at some point and I never go. Somehow the blueberry picking gene skipped me, I’ve never like standing in the bush with ants crawling all over me, picking little tiny berries for hours to barely fill a bowl which, often, I would trip and spill on the way home anyway. That is, until this year. Somehow the blueberry gene had been dormant and was awaken this year. My sister and I took the girls; Hannah has the gene for sure, to a small patch near our cottage and suddenly I was overcome with this obsession to fill my bowl to the top. Three little ones in tow, it didn’t happen but I’m planning to go on my own, well without children, next weekend – that gene is running strong.

Recipe  

I’m sure I’ve mentioned my obsession with using up leftovers, and when you use them all up and it turns out delicious (like almost everybody goes for seconds) it’s even better. We had a bunch of odds and ends leftover from last night’s dinner (lots of the roasted veggies and eggplant bok choy with sauce) and so we mixed them all together added some shrimp, a jar of marinated artichokes (with the oil), a little olive oil and a bit of the cooking water from the pasta and mixed it in with some spaghettini.

Blueberry Pancakes and a BBQ

Harper was up at 3:30 this morning.  I know, WHAT? THREE THIRTY? She didn’t go back to sleep until much later in the day. I didn’t handle it well, luckily I had help and we all ate blueberry pancakes in the morning. They were delicious. I don’t really want to focus on Harper’s non sleeping because it was also a very exciting day for Hannah, one that I unfortunately wasn’t able to fully appreciate because I was so cranky and tired. She went fishing with her uncle and cousin and she caught a pickerel and then Ruby netted it. This is the first time that she has caught a fish that she could eat. As we were packing up they watched it be filleted (very intently) and then we packed it up to bring home for lunch. Once we got home I let Hannah walk down to my parents (which is 5 or 6 houses away) alone for the first time. I watched her stop at the end of the driveway and look for traffic before she crossed the street and then walk down to my parents. I have never seen such a high head or wide stride on her. You could see her pride shine through in every step she took the whole way.

For dinner we were invited to my aunt’s for a BBQ and had Portobello mushroom burgers. We just grilled them and topped them with regular burger fixings. They were good but not nearly as good as the curry apple coleslaw my aunt made (I’ll see if I can get the recipe later) and the chocolate chip cookie square that my other aunt makes (yes, I have a lot of aunts) that tastes like childhood to me. We use to go to her place after school as kids and get a piece of it in a little red bowl that we would eat while we watched Scooby Do with my cousins.

Open Face Fajitas

It’s hard to be the youngest sometimes. I think that maybe we often sympathize with our children that are in the same birth order as we are. Tonight Dave took Hannah to see the ballet in the park and Harper had to stay home with me. She was very sad to be left behind, and I can remember the feeling of injustice of not being able to do all that my older sister could do. Although, we’ve had many conversations lately about how there is really so much pressure on the oldest and it seems no matter how aware you are of this fact it does not seem to change. Harper stood in the doorway, looking at the floor with her little bottom lip sticking way out on the verge of tears (you know when you can see those big crocodile tears on the rim of their eyes, threatening to fall at any given moment) after Hannah and Dave left. I wanted to take her somewhere special but it was very close to bedtime. So, on a whim I decided to take her with me to go meet the neighbour’s fourteen year old daughter whom, we’re hoping to have start babysitting for us soon. She was very funny there; we had a nice little visit with her and her mom. Harper sat up on the couch very proud (like she was being let in on a secret) and by the end was even trying to venture down to their basement.

Recipe

These were a tiny bit dry but would have been perfect with a little salsa, really perfect with some salsa Verde. We’ve been back and forth to the lake lately that I haven’t really even had any groceries in the house and have been kind of flying by the seat of my pants.

MASA flour, make 8 tortillas according to package directions

2 cobs of corn, kernels removed

1 red pepper, chopped

2 baby yellow peppers, chopped

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 onion, chopped

½ tsp cumin

2 tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped

½ cup of cilantro chopped

olive oil

salt

1 cup Gouda cheese, grated

Preheat broiler.

Mix together tomatoes, cilantro and a little salt and set aside. In another bowl mix together corn, peppers and black beans with a little glugg of olive oil.

In a pan heat a little olive oil and sauté onion until almost soft, add the cumin and stir until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add in the veggies and beans and cook over medium low heat until the peppers a little soft and the beans are warm.

On a parchment lined backing sheet place your tortillas, top with bean mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and top with tomato mixture and I recommend salsa Verde.

Dinner and a Movie

We went out to dinner and movie tonight and my mom and dad watched the kids (we don’t quite have the babysitter in place yet). Dinner was good and very reasonably priced at Santa Ana Bistro on St. Mary’s and the movie, Harry Potter was exactly what I expected. I had to laugh when I got home and my mom was telling me about bed time. She was putting Harper down in her room and reading her first story and Hannah was in her room (I think quietly playing and waiting for my mom to be done with Harper). My mom started reading the first story and happened to skip the first page, realized but continued on – Harper didn’t notice or care, when she heard Hannah open her door and come down the hall, “Grandma that’s not where the story starts, you missed a page.” “Thanks, Hannah.” “You’re welcome Grandma” and she walked back to her room, quite proud I’m sure to have saved the story.

Chickpea Curry, Naan with Tomato and Cucumber Salad

I packed up to head out to the lake with the girls this morning and Dave drove out after work. I wanted to leave the house by ten, we left at 11:45. It was kind of like taking one step forward and two steps backwards all morning. It’s not that the girls were being really difficult or anything, it’s just that I put Harper’s pants on, she took off her shirt. I packed her bathing suite she packed everything else that was in that drawer. I took out the linens to bring and Hannah put them back in the cupboard, trying to help clean up so we could leave sooner. When we finally got out to the cottage I was very happy to make the kids some lunch and sit back and drink a beer.

Recipe

I made Chana Masala and Naan that you can find here. I quadrupled the recipe as it was for ten people but only added the liquid from two cans of chickpeas, which made it liquidy enough. I also chopped up some tomatoes, cucumbers and feta and mixed it all together for a salad with a little salt and pepper.

Veggies Burgers, Greek Potato Salad, Caesar Salad, Peanut Noodle Salad and Chocolate Ice Cream Cones

Waiting to run her race, that's her game

face.

Ever since I can remember August long weekend has been Poker Derby weekend (except for that one unfortunate time). As kids, we use to look forward to the Poker Derby all summer (as teens too). In the morning we would all pile in the boat, two to a seat to go down to the main beach and buy our poker hand, getting our first card and then going dock to dock to get each additional card to make up our hands and turning it in at the end to see if we had a chance of winning anything (I once won $50). It would then seem to take so long for it to be time to head down to the main beach for the picnic. When the time finally came the whole family would head down in boats and cars to buy hot dogs, soft drinks and beer. We would eat our hot dogs and wait to run the races, pick up the candy in the candy scramble and watch our parents play volleyball, tug-a-war and line up for the egg toss. When we were done we’d return back to the cottage for some swimming, water skiing, more snacks and maybe even some dinner before crashing into our bunk beds to only make it to C of the alphabet game. As the years have gone by it has changed, the cards are now in envelopes so that there’s not cheating for the poker hands, no one really wants to go in the boat anymore, except for the kids, and to be honest the time between the porker derby and the picnic seems to fly, but I still

Running her race!

look forward to it. I love to watch the kids line up for the races, a whole summer of pent up excitement let loose for the main event. I love watching the kids’ eyes light up while they watched the candy be thrown all over the field for the scramble. The girls got tattoos, played with the giant bubble makers and ate lots of candy. In the shoe toss Hannah kicked her shoe with all her strength and it flew up, hit her in the forehead and dropped right in front of her. She took it well since she already had a prize bag from the running and a hatful of candy. There seems to be more games for the kids these days and less for the adults and we no longer play in the volleyball or risk injuring ourselves in the tug-a-war. There is an egg toss for the kids now (as children we were always so sad to not be able to participate, yet so excited to watch our parents participate in something we deemed as fun), although it does send a mixed message. My niece, who has chickens at home from which she carefully helps collect the eggs, stood at the line across from Hannah being encouraged to throw the egg, when she finally threw it, it fell and broke right beside Hannah. That night when she was going to bed she said to my sister, “You know, you’re not supposed to throw eggs.” My sister explained that it was a game and maybe she’s like to try it again with Hannah in the morning, she responded with, “I would like to play with Hannah, but with a ball.”

 

Enjoying their spoils!

When the picnic was over we all returned to the cottage for a swim and then headed over to my aunts for supper with lots of adults, ten kids, four dogs and lots of food and fun.

Grilled Prawns, Roasted Potatoes and Carrots, Greek Salad and Garden Beans

Ahhhh, it was a hot day filled with lots of swimming and (I’m not going to lie) some sugar lows from yesterday. We've been going out to the cottage for about 30 years and from the ones I can remember there was always a boat. I'm not sure why, but they make me nervous. They never use to as a kid, but since I have become an adult (even before children) I'm a little uneasy around them. My parents and aunt and uncle share a boat and we've really avoided it for the most part over the past ten years. Dave will go for the odd ski or wakeboard (once or twice a year) and my Dad will take Hannah for a boat ride now and then when she thinks to ask but really for the most part, if there had been no boat I don't think life really would have changed much for us...until today. Hannah went for her first tube and (much to my chagrin, shh don't tell) she loved it. When I was her age there were no tubes, you tried skiing and if you weren't ready you were content to sit in the boat and spot. I remember when we got the knee board, that was a big hit because the little ones could lay on it and be slowly totted around the bay. I think that I was a teenager (or close to) when the tubes came out and you would see boats doing donuts out in the bay creating giant waves trying to knock off the tubers behind the boat (usually two at a time)....mmmm, maybe this is when my uneasiness with boats began. It's not as reckless as it sounds, and this was certainly not the tube ride that Hannah experienced, she sat on the tube with Dave and my brother in law and niece in the tube beside them and was pulled gently around the bay. This ride was apparently a little too slow for her (my niece is two years younger than Hannah) and she was then taken for a faster ride around the bay (great, a love of speed, that's soothing to a mom). It was fun to see the expression on her face and Dave said that she giggled the whole time.

Recipe
We gave the girls their dinner early and had an adult meal after they went to bed. It was very nice to be able to sit around the table and enjoy a meal without having to get up all the time as well as being able to linger around the table after. My sister cooked the prawns, I'm not sure what she coated them in, if I had to guess I would say a little garlic, olive oil and chili and then they were grilled on skewers.

The salad was lettuce from my mom's garden, with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, olives and dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

The potatoes, carrots and onions were cut in chunks, tossed in olive oil with some whole garlic cloves added (in their skin) and roasted in the oven, covered, at 400F for an hour, until cooked with crispy bits forming on the edges.

The beans were just steamed and delicious. There were some purple beans, which turn green once they're cooked - I'd never seen them before.

This post is up very late. The one thing about summer is the unpredictability and spontaneity of the days. We've been in and out of the house so much and back and forth to the cottage that weekends were starting to loose all definition. Dave's on holidays this week, my aunt and uncle and cousin are coming in for a visit and it is our last week with my sister and her family before they leave (it always goes too fast), so we are busy, busy, busy and I will not have time to post (or really have many recipes as we are eating out most nights). The following week will start to look normal again. In the meantime, I hope the sun shines down on you!