After shopping at the farmer’s market on Thursday, I stopped at the Glebe Meat Market to pick up lamb for a Jamie Oliver recipe.  We’ve decided to try and stop buying our meat from the grocery store and throw our support (and a few extra dollars) towards smaller (and local) producers.  It seemed a bit of a waste of my time to have gone all.the.way. to the Glebe at 37 weeks pregnant only to buy one small bag of meat.  So, I thought I’d pick up a few extras and then figure out what to do with it once I got home.

The sausage counter caught my eye - so I picked up two links of Andouille (I had no idea what it was or what it would taste like, but it looked interesting) and two links of Chorizo.

I flipped on the computer at home and started typing in ingredients that I had in the fridge.  Tappa tappa tappa.  I realized the Andouille was definitely more of a soup sausage, but I didn’t feel like making soup.  It’s August!  Finally, I found an easy pasta recipe that also required carrots - I had lots of carrots left over from the Jamie Oliver carrot recipe from the night before and they were already prepared.  Awesome.

I just wish I had bothered to take a photo because the whole meal was really delicious.  And the fresh tarragon?  YUM.  I love tarragon.

Boyfriendly rating:  5/5  Boys don’t argue when it comes to sausage for dinner.

I had a couple of pattypan squash left over from our trip to the farmer’s market, so I thought I’d use them up in this sweet treat - a chocolate zucchini cake.  Because that’s what you do on the first day of maternity leave - bake a cake.  I found the recipe online and it’s super easy:

 Chocolate zucchini cake

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8×8” cake pan or 8” round spring form pan. In medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs and stir in canola oil. Beat dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with yogurt. Stir in vanilla, orange peel and zucchini. Pour batter in baking pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Orange Glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Mix together powdered sugar and butter. Stir in orange juice and grated peel.

It’s 9am and I’ve been cooking for about a half hour already - it’s a freezer-stuffing-party today. On the menu:

• Brown bread
• Brown rice and black bean burritos
• Bran muffins

Yes, I am only cooking foods that start with B today it seems.

Saturday: 7pm Update

Well, the bread and muffins got baked. And so did I. I picked a stupidly hot day to do marathon baking. The burritos are half-ish made - well, the brown rice is cooked. I was too pooped to go out and get groceries, so they will get made tomorrow.

Instead, I sat in front of the fridge and gave it a head-to-toe cleaning. Because that’s what insane pregnant people do. Clean. And do dishes. And laundry. And vacuuming.

Monday update:

Well, the burritos are a total hit. Ok, so we only managed to freeze two out of the six that we made, but the recipe was so much quicker than my usual sweet potato version. (They are totally worth the effort though.)  I think the key to the ease of this burrito recipe was cooking up the brown rice on Saturday morning while I did the housecleaning.  Having the rice prepared made for a speedy assembly of the burritos.  I did add one extra step, I put the rolled burritos in the oven for about 10 minutes so that the tortilla gets a little crisp.  Sadly, I only have this one slightly blurry photo of the meal, but I’ll be making another batch this week that will go straight to the freezer.  And the Neil Brothers salsa?  Delicious.

I saw this over at i like to cook but it originated over at Very Good Taste. It’s a list of 100 things that Very Good Taste thinks everyone should eat at least once in their life.   According to this list, I’m not quite the foodie that I thought I was.

Here’s what you do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

Here’s my results -

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - Rossignol winery blueberry wine
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda ??
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I ate a wichitty grub on a dare in Australia)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel - blarg.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I’m sure at some point…  though I can’t recall)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (but not a whole serving… blargh)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin - clay?  Probably, by accident.
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

We were gifted the Abel and Cole: Easy, Seasonal and Organic cookbook a couple of months ago and with local produce in full swing here, it was time to crack out some of their recipes.

First, we were inspired by the grilled aubergines (eggplant) with buffalo mozzarella. Well, we had some nice Canadian zucchini (courgettes) on hand, so we swapped the aubergines for our courgettes. Why can’t we all just agree on one name for these veggies? I prefer the Euro terms - wouldn’t you rather eat an aubergine than an eggplant? The result was delicious no matter what the name.

A Sunday trip to the Bottega netted us a tub of buffalo mozzarella and a fresh loaf of Art-is-in rosemary/garlic bread. When you have ingredients like these, there’s no way your sandwich can suck. After tossing the zucchini in some oil and balsamic oil, we grilled them all up in the panini pan. One word: YUM. Buffalo mozzarella is totally worth the splurge. Loved it.

Then for dessert, I made the baked strawberries with whipped cream. This was interesting, but I’m not really a warm, mushy fruit kind of person… unless it’s in a pie. It looked great, it smelled great, but when I went to serve it… the strawberries were too hot and the whipped cream melted. Next time, I’d just cut up the strawberries and serve them with whipped cream. Raw berries just taste better to me.

I’m not sure this book is available in Canada yet, but you can find lots of recipes on the Abel and Cole website.

After installing the new cupboard last week and organizing our collection of Australian spices, I thought it would be a good idea to make use of some of them. We’ve been using them sparingly since well… things like wattleseed and sea parsley don’t exactly turn up in very many (ie: none) of our North American recipes.

Google helped me find this recipe for Wattleseed Oatmeal and Coconut cookies. What a simple cookie recipe - there was no fussing and waiting 36 hours, the ingredient list was pretty short and, best of all, they had a quick cooking time. (Very important when you need cookies… NOW.  Correction - because the baby needs cookies!  Yes!  Scapegoat!) You just need some access to wattleseed - which could be the achilles heel of this recipe if you’re in Canada. I’m not sure if any of the gourmet shops here in Ottawa carry it. (My mother-in-law in Australia sent us ours.)

They browned up nicely on my Paderno cookie sheet. I loooove this cookie sheet - the cookies just slide off when they’re done! (See here!) I sampled three.. one for me, one for baby and another one for me. Delicious!

Boyfriendly rating: 5/5 (Rated by three boys who installed the new washer/dryer set.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Wattleseed
• 1 large Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon Lime Zest
• 1 teaspoon Lime Juice
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking Oats
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dried shredded Coconut

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the wattleseed and stir to combine. Add the egg, lime zest and lime juice and stir to combine. Fold in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Add the oats and coconut, and stir until well combined. Drop cookies, 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons each, on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake until the edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Currently enjoying this:  Cake Wrecks.  (Thanks Tamara!)

I am a major pickle fiend - even before being pregnant - I loved pickles.  You name it, my mom’s mustard pickles, 7-day pickles, gherkins, dill pickles, pickled asparagus….  things just taste better in a pickle-ly brine.  When I was grocery shopping the other day and happened upon Ontario tomatoes at our local grocer (seriously, miracle!) flashes of pickled tomatoes danced in my head.  Best of all, they were green tomatoes!  I think buying five pounds of unripe tomatoes confused the cashier, but that didn’t matter - I was hell bent on making pickles.

The next day, I returned to the grocery store for the rest of the canning supplies: jars, labels and a canning kit which included tongs, a funnel, and a magnetic stick to get the lids out of hot water.

Here’s the scene:

(Note: I really didn’t need to buy so much salt.  What am I going to do with this ridiculously huge bag of salt??)

Then I washed all the jars and lids in hot soapy water and popped them in hot water to sterilize them.  The instructions say to heat them at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Then, after all the tomatoes were sliced into large chunks - I simmered them in the pickle mixture for 10 minutes.  I based my version on this recipe, but ended up making a few substitutions.

Then, it was time to fill up the jars.  I was a little worried that the canning kit would be a bit of a waste of money, but I completely recommend buying one now.  The tools made it very easy for this newbie to deal with hot jars, lids and pouring (I can be a bit splashy).

And the end result from about five pounds of (mostly) green tomatoes: 5 x 500ml jars of tomato pickles!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups sugar (I used about 1 3/4 white, 1/4 brown sugar)
• 1 tbsp. mustard seed
• 1 tbsp. celery seed
• 2-ish? tbsp. pickling spice
• 1 tbsp. pickling salt
• 5 lbs. green tomatoes, washed, cored
• I omitted the onion as I couldn’t be bothered cutting it up.  I figured I had done enough work by this point!

I have to agree with the Foodie Bride, I didn’t really see what was so exceptional about the chocolate chip cookie recipe that was recently featured in the New York Times. Or maybe I’m just disappointed that after reading all these other blogs about this cookie recipe - they didn’t really shake my solar system.

For the record, normally I would never bake with so much butter and sugar. And that’s probably where this recipe started to derail for me. Super fatty and sugary foods just aren’t a normal part of what we consume, so maybe I was just having a bit of ’sugar shock’. They tasted ridiculously sweet to me. But then again, I’m pregnant and my sense of taste may be moot at this point.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re decent cookies - just not exceptional. Again, I swing more to the savoury flavours than sweet. If you swing to the sweet side, you’d probably enjoy these cookies. For me, they are no candied ginger cookie.