Serenity Now! A High Tea Baby Shower For My Sister R2.0

My sister, R2.0 (because she also has a name that starts with R and is younger than me) is having her second baby boy.  Following the latest trend of "Baby Sprinkles", I decided to throw her a Sprinkle to celebrate.  R2.0 and I love high tea so we decided to do a high tea theme.  And thus, I embarked on my journey.

Sunday-I go over some ideas for the high tea with R2.0 and my Mom.  R2.0 decides that she will buy a cake.  My Mom suggests that I get a sandwich tray to make life easier for myself.  I scoff at this idea because I believe I can do a better job of making sandwiches.  R2.0 and Mom say I shouldn't take on too much for myself because I'll just get stressed out and go crazy.  I remain determined.

Monday-I come up with the following menu:

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Chicken Club Sandwiches

Cold Roast Beef Sandwich with Onion Jam

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Cherry Scones

 Raspberry Breakfast Bars

Rice Krispies Treats

Pistachio Shortbread  Chocolate Sandwiches

I decide to work on the Pistachio Shortbread Cookies first.  Rather than typing out the whole recipe, click here.  I essentially did Martha Stewart's recipe and rather than using jam, I planned to dip them in semi-sweet chocolate (mmmmmmmmm pistachios and chocolate).

I bought unshelled pistachios.  I began un-shelling them when I realized I was going to be late for my gym date with my friend.  Got home and continued shelling them after a shower and dinner.  Never again will I sit there and un-shell damn pistachios.  I tripled the recipe and I tell you that was a lot of cookie dough to mix.  By the time I finished shelling those damn pistachios and mixing up that damn cookie dough, I was ready to pass out.  Granted, I did work out beforehand to the point where I felt light headed and nauseous, thus adding to my fatigue.  When it came time to roll the pistachios into logs, I didn't give a crap what they looked like.  I just wanted to finish.  They looked like awkward sausages.  I quickly wrapped them in saran wrap and threw them into the freezer.

Tuesday- I make strawberry vanilla jam as gift give aways.  Please see previous post on my jam making experience.  This time though, I was super careful.  I also asked P to help.  As per usual, he takes over the project.  I tell him that I am going to hot water process the jam so that it lasts for a year.  P says I am crazy and not to bother hot water process the jam and just write on the label a best before date.  I stand firm that I will hot process the jam because I don't want the guests to feel pressured to eat the jam in three weeks.  I want them to eat the jam when they're ready.  P again reiterates I am crazy.  I begin to think I am.  I begin to curse myself for taking too much on...as usual.

Wednesday-Went to a bread making class and didn't have time to make anything for the tea party.  Admit to myself that maybe I have taken too much on.

Thursday-A day off from work!  I finish off the rest of the jam.  I start cleaning the apartment like a mad woman.  Need a bit of music to motivate me.  My music of choice: 90's hip hop and R & B obviously.  Belt out some K-Ci and Jojo while scrubbing the toilet.  Living the dream baby!

After my mad cleaning, head over to R2.0 to help my Mom babysit Put-Put.  Decide to start on making the paper pom poms.  My sister in law has a few of them she uses to decorate for her parties, so I wanted to make them too. 

Here's what they're supposed to look like:

Image taken from marthastewart.com

Beautiful.  This is what mine looked like on the first try:

I throw it in frustration and Put-Put comes by and adds more insult to injury by stepping on it.  I begin to curse party planning.

Originally I had planned to make a Banh Mi sandwich, but realize that it's cray cray to even think about making a meat sandwich from scratch with the bazillion things I already have on the go.  Get angst-y about buying roast beef from the deli, but think if I jazz it up with some nice condiments, maybe I could get away with it.  I always liked the taste of carmelized onions with beef as well as horseradish and beef.  Decide to throw all these things together into a sandwich.

In the evening, I start the French Onion Marmalade. 


Friday-It's crunch time.  I am in denial that there's a lot to do and take my time shopping at H& M.  I head over to Target and leisurely buy the rest of my ingredients. I head home and I quickly make Rice Krispies Squares (won't post the recipe.  Buy a box of Rice Krispies and the recipe is on the box).  I am laughing inside.  I can do this!  I eat my take out dinner (no way in hell was I going to cook dinner on top of baking) and move onto egg salad.

I make cherry scones and my Dad comes by to pick them up and put them in their freezer (I've run out of room in mine at that point).  However, I flub up and add waaaaaaay too much buttermilk.  I decide to make it again, but P stops me saying I have officially gone insane and nobody gives a poop about the scones.  People will just be grateful to eat.  I decide to move on.

I start to work on decorations and cleaning up.  Finish that up and move onto the cookies.  I melt the chocolate for the pistachio cookie sandwiches and begin dipping.  It's now 11:00 at night.  I turn on Breakfast at Tiffany's on Netflix to keep my motivated.  I take stock of the things I still needed to do and start to get nervous.  I pull up my recipe for raspberry breakfast bars and think screw it, I am buying desserts for tomorrow.  I recall watching Laura Calder of Food Network Canada's French Food at Home and how she said French women have no shame in buying store bought desserts and in fact take pride in knowing where to buy the best desserts.  I decide to adopt this attitude.

Saturday:

It's hammer time!  Mom and I head to Costco bright and early to avoid the lineup.  Made no difference.  It was lined up like a hot night club.  I'm on a mission and walk with purpose.   Pick up salmon and enough bread to feed an army along with others niceties.

Head home and begin making sandwiches.  I won't put exact recipes, but I will tell you the gist of  the filling for each sandwich with.

Egg salad:

Eggs
Green Onions
Celery Salt (my secret ingredient...not so secret anymore)
Fresh cracked black pepper
White bread

Chicken Club
Bacon
Chicken breasts seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and basil
Spring Mix
Mayo
(Kept it simple for the kids.  What kid doesn't love chicken or bacon)
Demi Ciabatta loaf

Salmon Sandwich
Actually followed the Barefoot Contessa's Grilled Salmon Sandwich recipe

Roast Beef with Onion Jam
Deli roast beef
Onion Jam
Mayo
Horseradish mustard
French baguette

So those were the sandwiches.  We were in the process of making cucumber sandwiches, but at this point I was flustered and exhausted, so we said screw it and didn't make them.  Mom and Dad also forgot to bring the scones I made.  I try to get my Dad to go back to their place and bring the scones over, but I get talked out of it.  Thank goodness!

Since it was High Tea, I served English Breakfast Tea.  But, I'm not a huge hot tea drinker myself, so I made Ina Garten's Iced Tea.  They didn't have Red Zinger tea, so I made it with President's Choice Raspberry Pomegranate tea.  I think you could make this tea with any tea that has Red Hibiscus as their main ingredient.  Red Hibiscus tea is so refreshing!

R2.0 and Dad were designated decorators while Mom and I made sandwiches like nobody's business.  Had everything ready and waiting by 1230.  

Mission accomplished.

Some photos from the Baby Sprinkle:

Jam for one and all!

Some success with the pom pom

Okay...I bought one bite brownies.  So what!

R2.0's cake with chicken club sandwich in the background

Put Put partakes of some tea as well (no not really...It's empty.  Hot liquids and squiggly, squirmy babies don't mix)

The set up

Top to bottom: Salmon sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, chicken club sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches

DIY Baby Onesies

Another pic of the set up

Yes, I could've ordered a sandwich tray and made life easier for myself or had it at place that actually hosts high tea, but I really wanted to put in the effort and show myself that I could do this.  The praise and thank you's everyone gave me at the end made the blood (not really), sweat, and tears worth it and only confirmed that I should keep on with my cooking.

Update: This baby shower happened a month ago (yes I am majorly late in posting).  My sister had Put-Put 2.0, a healthy baby boy, on June 10.

Pump Up the Jam...Pump it Up

During the May Long Weekend, most people were out of town except little ol' me.  With nowhere to go, I decided to start a jam project.  Strawberries were on sale at Superstore at a 2lb container at $2.50 if you buy in multiples of 2.  Picked some up yesterday on the way home from work.  Then headed to Canadian Tire for the rest of my canning equipment.  Picked up a funnel, magnetic wand to help me fish out the jar lids out of boiling water, and a jar lifter, and a dozen 250 mL jars.

So I've got all my material, let's pump out the jam!  Saturday was the day because P was heading out so he won't get in the way trying to take over the whole project.

All week I've been browsing recipes, but one recipe I knew I had to try was Strawberry Vanilla jam.  I still had leftover vanilla beans and the recipe described it as tasting like strawberries and cream.  Well that did it for me.

Due to my paranoia of botulism, I first soaked my strawberries for a few minutes in water mixed with a little bit of vinegar.  I then rinsed the strawberries with plain water.  I learned about this trick awhile back and read that it kills off mold and other nasties.  I did find the strawberries I bought earlier in the week have lasted longer after I did this trick.

 The recipe:

Quick Strawberry Vanilla Jam

(Adapted from Put 'em Up: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling by Sherri Brooks Vinton)

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon Pomona's Universal Pectin

4 cups strawberries, hulled

1 tsp calcium water (this is found in the Pomona's box.  Follow the directions)

1/4 cup bottled lemon

1 vanilla bean

1. In a huge pot, get a large amount of water boiling.  There has to be enough water to cover the jars and then some when it comes time to processing.  Put in your jars with no lids to sterilize.  At the same time, get some water boiling in a smaller saucepan and put your lids and screw caps in to sterilize. 

2.  Mix the sugar and pectin in a bowl and set aside.

3.  In a non-reactive pot, put your strawberries in and put on medium heat.  Start mashing the strawberries with a potato masher.  Too poor to afford a masher, I used a whisk to mash (which can't be good for the whisk) which resulted in some big chunks which I like anyhow.  Once they're starting to look a bit cooked down and mushy is when I added the vanilla seeds (slit pod and scrape out the seeds).  Continue to mush a bit more, dump in the vanilla pod.  Add your lemon juice and calcium water.  Stir.  Then add your sugar and pectin and stir.  Let it come to a boil.

Calcium water.  The calcium comes in the box of Pomona's.

4.Turn off heat and stir for 5 minutes to release any air and skim off any foam.

5. Take out sterilized jars and put on a tea towel.  Take funnel and pour jam into jar.  Leave about 1/4 inch headspace.  

6.  Take magnetic wand and fish out lids and rims.  Screw onto jar.  You don't have to tighten it to the point where you have to ask your partner has to open it for you (oh how sexist...my apologies).   Screw on the lid as tight as you can make it and as tight as you will be able to open it later on unassisted.

7.  Now you can do one of two things.  You can either not process it and eat the jam within 3 weeks or you can process it in a hot water bath.  Knowing P and I, we will not eat 4 jars of jam in 3 weeks.  If you process it, put covered jars back into large pot of boiling water and process for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn off heat and let sit for another 5 minutes.

8. Take jars out with jar holder.  Let them sit on the counter.  You should hear pops as the jam cools indicating the jar has created a vacuum seal as the air seeps out. 


This recipe is supposed to make 4 jars but I increased it by 1 1/2 with the intention of making 6 jars however didn't quite work out that way.   Because I increased the sugar 1.5 times but possibly did not accurately measure the strawberries, the jam is a touch on the too sweet side.

I had enough to make 5 jars, however due to my klutziness, I spilled one of them while trying to pour the jam into another jar.  After dropping a few f-bombs, I scooped up the spilled jam on my (thank godness) just scrubbed hard and cleaned stove and put them into a jar that would not be processed that P and I would eat for the next three weeks (that's how long it's good for without processing).  I am reminded of my nephew Put-Put (obviously not his real name) and the time my Mom and I were watching him go down the slide awkwardly.  My Mom then comments that he is klutzy and awkward like me.  Poor kid. I call P and tell him I made jam but spilled one of the jars.  He asks me if I cleaned it up.  I sarcastically remark no I left it sitting on the stove and all over the floor.  Honestly!

I process the jam.  Meanwile, like a kid, I treat myself to licking the cooled jam left in the pot.  It tastes like jam, but has that je ne sais quoi which I assume is the vanilla bean.  It's subtle and you can miss it if you're not paying attention.

 After this, I went and sat down on the couch to relax, waiting to hear the pops while watching TV.  I counted the pops, but only heard 3.  I start to curse myself and my inadequacies in cooking.  Then I start to talk myself up saying maybe the TV is too loud and blocked out the sounds of the pops.  I went between angst and encouragement for an hour.  I went back into the kitchen to check my jars and they had all sealed (you can tell if you press down in the centre of the lid and it doesn't pop back at you)!  Hooray!

I did the peanut butter and jam test on a cracker (I made this test up) with my "stove jam" and it passed with flying colors.

I'd like to end this post on a very relevant song;

Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote...Everybody!

Apologies for the major delay in posting.  Have not been motivated to cook of late due to late work days and coming home to the horror of P cooking.  Just kidding.  P's cooking is not that bad.   Also obsessed with watching episodes of Lost on Netflix.  Never watched it when it was actually on but now P and I cannot tear ourselves away.  There's a lot of gasps, F bombs, and sounds of exasperation reasonating in our little apartment with every twist and turn...mostly from me.  Hard to cook when all you want to do is sit and watch.  But I'm back!

Today is BC elections day and after much research, I voted for the party which will most likely provide the funding needed so I can work more.  Having only a part time line at work, I was fortunate to be able to pick up extra shifts in order to work full time.  But unfortunately, I no longer have those extra shifts unless whichever government gets elected in has mercy and throws some more money towards health care.

Ergo, I am on a budget so tight that it reminds me of me trying to get into my pants I wore in my early twenties: no wiggle room. 

A few weeks ago my brother in law N made a tasty fish dish that involved basa fillets, capers, lemon, white wine, and parsley.  I have been wanting to try to replicate it myself, but am on a tight budget.  Thankfully, basa fillets aren't too expensive.  I had some leftover lemons from making lemon bars for P's nephew Milutke's birthday.  I bought No Name capers for $1.28.  I don't have an issue buying No Name products if they're going to be incorporated into a dish and are not the star of the show.  It's cheap and affordable and you can't tell the difference.  Only thing missing is the wine.  I know the caveat is if you won't drink it in a glass, it doesn't belong in your food.  But I'm not Burt Reynolds with money to burn.  I admit it!  I went and bought a cheap American Chardonnay called Flip Flop.  The price was attractive (a whooping $8.00 plus change) and what can go wrong with a wine named after my favorite shoe type.  I did drink it while making dinner and while eating dinner.  For $8 wine, it did its job.

I start to organize my ingredients and P, while rolling his R's to accentuate the Spanish pronounciation, hollers from the living room that he does not want to eat the dish I am cooking unless it involves the fish being put into a tortilla with salsa.  I don't blame him.  We had tasty fish tacos at a pub by Kits beach and we've been craving fish tacos since. 

Basa Fillets with White Wine, Lemon, and Capers sauce

Serves 2

2 basa fillets

salt and pepper

1 generous tablespoon flour (or more depending on how big fillets are)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion (I highly recommend a shallot but alas I only had a very large onion)

 juice of 1-2 lemons (depending on how juicy your lemon is)

1/2 to 3/4 wine glassful of white wine

3 tbsp capers drained and rinsed

a big ass pat of butter.  I'm guessing it's about 2 tbsps.

1/2 tbsp dried parsley.  If you have fresh, obviously use fresh.  I refused to buy fresh parsley because I knew I would never use all of it and it would just turn to yucky mush.

Chop up onion finely.

Heat pan on medium heat.  Pat basa fillets dry if needed.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Press the fillets lightly to push in salt and pepper into fillets.    

On a separate plate, put flour.  Coat fillets with flour.

Pour oil into pan and let heat briefly.  Put in fillets.  Brown fillets on both side (approx 3 minutes per side depending on size of fillet). If it's not quite done, don't fret.  Keep reading. 

Take fillets out of pan and put on a plate.  Add a little more oil if needed.  Put onions in the pan and cook until softened.  Add lemon juice and wine.  Reduce heat slightly and let reduce. 

Once reduced to about 1/2, add butter and swirl the pan.  Add parsley.  Return fish to pan and continue to let simmer for 3-5 minutes.  I had to do this because my fish fillets weren't quite yet cooked despite the browning.  If your fish is cooked (it's cooked when it flakes with a fork) skip the simmer step.  Swirl pan to coat fish with sauce.  

I served this with rice.  The fish was still juicy and the sauce was tangy with the lemon and capers, but somewhat rich due to the butter.  P liked it too, but said it would taste better, again rolling the R's, if it was in a tortilla with salsa.  Sigh.  That's for another day.

On a side note, in my early twenties, besides being able to fit in some cute jeans, I also had bad food poisoning from a fish fillet of some white fish I can't even remember.  As a result, I have not eaten white fish fillets since, but I am slowly trying to reintroduce them back into my life.  I can only eat so much salmon and I am too poor to afford delicious shellfish.  This was a nice little introduction back. 

Here's hoping the party voted in will do what's best for B.C. and give me some more work!

Projects a Go Go

Due to the frustration of my week of failed vegetarian dinners (which I still do on and off here and there), I decided to do projects here and there.

Project #1 Homemade vanilla extract on a hectic, bad karma Sunday

Bruce Willis Vodka

Received vanilla beans for Christmas from my best friend Bud as per my request (yes, we do tell each other what we want for Christmas.  Does it take away the magic?  Yes.  Does it save us from the guilt of returning an awkward gift?  Yes.).  Used one in banana bread, but I don't make enough desserts so they sat in my cupboard for four months.

I bought a large bottle of No Name artifical vanilla extract eons ago and still use it.  But thought to make my own homemade vanilla extract for special desserts.  Home made vanilla extract requires vodka.  Being a 50% Polish little family OBVIOUSLY we have vodka sitting around.  In fact, we have two bottles:  Bruce Willis vodka (which is actually Sobieski, a Polish vodka.  Bruce Willis' picture was on the back of the bottle) and Grey Goose, a French vodka.  I asked P if I could use the Bruce Willis vodka because I felt weird using Grey Goose, an expensive vodka, for vanilla extract.  I don't think it makes a difference either way.  P graciously says yes I can use the Bruce Willis vodka.

It was a bad karma Sunday because that same day, P broke out in a bad allergic reaction, he forgot his keys at his BFF's house, and on the way to a friend's daughter's b-day party, our car died.  Okay it was more bad karma Sunday for P than me.

Project #2 Rhubarb jam...Maillardville represent!

Went to a jam making class at a rec centre in Vancouver after work on Monday.  It was taught by one of the mamas from Homesteading Mama's.  During introductions, we had to say what our favorite food out of a jar was.  People said strawberry jam, peaches, rhubarb jam, you know...obvious stuff.  I say bacon marmalade.  Yes, I chose a meat jam to be my favorite thing out of a jar.  Another guy said beer.  Ugh...I wish I was funny like that guy.

The jam we were making was rhubarb.  I never thought to make jam out of rhubarb, so was excited to try it.  Some great tips:

Bought at Homesteader's Emporium

1. You don't have to buy a canning kit.  If you have a very large stock pot, that should be sufficient.  The only accessories then you need to buy are the jars and a jar lifter (which comes in handy).  I will be scouring my favorite local boutique Village de Value (sounds fancier when you French it up).

2.  Pomona's Pectin is a great product to use instead of the usual pectin you buy at the store.  Pomona's relies on calcium instead of sugar to jell-ify the fruit.  The calcium comes with the packet.  By using Pomona's you can make sugar free jam.  Homesteading Mama says that by using regular pectin, you could be using up to 4 cups of sugar for 4 cups of fruit.  Yuck!

3.   It's not suggested you tinker around with measurements in a recipe.  Canning is a science.  Canning comes with the risk of botulism (botulism thrives in zero oxygen environments), so you want to follow a recipe to a tee.  The only thing that can perhaps be changed up is flavourings.  That's why we chose ginger for the Rhubarb jam.

But again...lonely heart.  There were two couples and one girl who was a friend of a couple.  Everyone made a connection with one another because they all lived in Vancouver and talked about all the neighbourhoods they lived in and how dynamic and lively their neighbourhoods were.  This lonely heart  was raised in Maillardville and resides in Pocompton on the wrong side of the tracks.  So yeah...I live near downtown too...Downton Pocompton What!   I don't have the cute fruit and vegetable shops down the street.  I have Coopers at the end of the street and the nerd shop at the end of the block (nerd shop being a video game store).  My sister in law M's car gotten broken into the last time she visited.  I felt like I was too thug to be in this class. 

All in all, a really interesting class and my interest has been piqued for canning.  P's BFF AM wants to do canning too.  I bought myself some jars, some Pomona's Pectin, and I have ordered the recommended book from Chapters and am now waiting for it so I can start my canning.  PUMPED!

As you can see from the photo, the rhubarb ginger jam has proven quite popular in our little home.  We're not big jam eaters, but we're almost done the jar.

Project #3 Making some cheese, preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

UBC Farm...so far and annoying to get to

Drove all the way out to UBC Farm on Saturday.  What a nightmare.  Honestly, Vancouverites do not know how to drive in the rain.  Was 1/2 an hour late for class.  Argh!

The instructor, David, showed us how cheese making on a small scale at home is really accessible and it really is!  He showed us how to make paneer, yogurt cheese (which he calls dream cheese because you pretty much start it the day before, go to sleep and the next day you have yogurt cheese), and the beginning of camembert.

I would post some useful tips I learned, but his website pretty much walks you through everything so better to hear it from the horse's mouth (not that he looks like a horse).

Paneer in the back, blue cheese in the front

One funny thing from the class is that he was using this cheese cloth that seemed just perfect for his yogurt cheese project.  After giving us his opinion on store bought cheese cloth (which he is not especially fond of), he let us in on a little secret about his cheese cloth.  His cheese cloth is...wait for it...a du-rag.  Yes, a du-rag he buys from a Jamaican hair place (but he says that Homesteaders Emporium on Hastings sells them now too upon his insistence).  His cheese has that extra bit of street cred and a taste of gangster.  One older person asks what a du-rag is and his reply is, "you know, what rappers wear on their head".  I pretty much die of laughter at this point and debated leaving the classroom just to call P (which I didn't because it was cramped in the classroom).

David gives us a drink of kefir.  It's essentially a tastier, carbonated fermented milk yogurty drink.  He then gives us each a clump of grains of kefir, which is essentially good yeast and bacteria.  I name mine P Jr.   

My shopping expedition at Homesteader's Emporium

I went to Homesteaders Emporium today and picked up some cheese making supplies: camembert cheese molds (not mold mold, but shape molds), a thermometer (which David says we don't need, but knowing myself and my hit or miss with cooking, better to err on the side of caution), rennet tabs and the blessed du-rug (I pick up two).  The cashier mentions there has been a surge in du-rag purchases since his cheese class.

My first project is the yogurt cheese.  Not having a deep enough pot, I improvise with the following until P gets home and figures something better (which he always does).

Yogurt cheese in a du-rag

Drainage system until we found an even bigger bowl

 I'm really digging these little projects that allow me to make things from scratch and let's me be self-sufficient.  I'm convinced when the Zombie Apocalypse hits, we'll have plenty of cheese, jam, and vanilla extract.

Project #4 Pancetta 2013 update

Something went weird with the pancetta.  It went moldy in the middle, but it's not green mold, but white mold like on salami.  I'm going to have to investigate this further.

So those are my projects on the go.  Will provide updates.

Vegetarian for a week...somewhat: An update

So my vegetarian for a week saga continues.  An update:

Thursday:

FAILURE!

I had every intention that day.  I was going to make a braised tofu dish, but the following happened:

1. I invited my parents over for dinner.  I warned them that we are eating vegetarian this week.  My mom in the same breath stated: "we'll eat whatever you put in front of us" and "what if we don't get full because all we ate were vegetables".  Filipinos love their food and it would be the ultimate faux pas if your guest leave hungry so I quickly call P and tell him to start defrosting some chicken.

2. I borrowed P's car to drive to work and left the lights on, thus the battery died.  I have the worse short term memory so I was not surprised I forgot to leave the lights on because P's car does not alert you when the lights are left on (it's an old Honda Civic).  I stand in the pouring rain for the next hour trying to find someone who has jumper cables.  I run out of patience and decide to call the taxi cab company to jump my car at the cost of $20.  Luckily enough, two IT (the guys that work with computers) nerds come to my rescue.  I finally start driving home an hour and a half after I finished work.  I am in no mood to cook at this point.

We end up trying the Thai restaurant by my house and we ate chicken pad thai and chicken pineapple fried rice.  I debate getting vegetarian pad thai, but P asserts "if you're going to order food in and pay for it, you might as well get some meat".  My rubber arm was easily twisted.  My parents and P liked it.  It was alright in my opinion.  The Thai place near my work is better.

Friday

FAILURE!

Hard to eat vegetarian when you're visiting someone else's house  and that someone is my sister.  Chasing after the other important man in my life, my nephew Put-Put (obviously a nickname), you work up an appetite and your resolve to be vegetarian is weak.  My brother in law N makes a really tasty dish with sole fillets covered in a lemon, parsley, wine, caper sauce.  I have an intense aversion to any white fish fillet after a bad run in with food poisoning from eating under cooked white fish.  But, I am slowly integrating it back into my life.  But this dish has slowly made me a convert.  It has inspired me to replicate it to see if I can make it.  That's for another post.

Saturday

Today P and I had portabello mushroom burgers.  One of the best burgers I have ever eaten was at a local pub and it was a portabello mushroom burger with pesto mayo.  Did not ask "where's the beef?" because it was that good.

I'm not even going to post a recipe because portabello burgers are just too easy.  I cleaned the portabellos (remove gills and give them a quick wash under water or wipe with a damp cloth), marinated them in bottled teriyaki sauce (to enhance the umami flavour), brushed on  the sauce and a sprinkle of thyme and pepper before I popped them on our George Foreman grill.  Cooked until they were tender (approx. 6-8 minute).  Served them on a kaiser bun with swiss cheese, tomato, lettuce, carmelized onions, mayo, and grainy mustard.  Served with French Fries (I cheated and used frozen fries).

Score:5  P loved them stating he doesn't miss the meat which shocks me because P is a MEAT EATER.  P is a burger aficianado as well.  I would definitely make this again and change up the marinade for the mushrooms.

So good I started chomping on it then remembered near the end to take the picture

  Being vegetarian just for dinner is starting to get on my nerves, although I do enjoy the challenge of preparing dishes without meat and eating them.  I'll keep trying, but not making anymore promises.  Stupid life getting in the way! :)

Wednesday's Everyone in the Pool Chickpea Stew (cheesy!)

Forgiveness please for the corny dish name.  Just thought of it on the fly.  I had a ton of vegetables that were just sitting in the fridge, begging to be in something, so this stew was a great way to dump them in the stew and use them up.  Let's get to the recipe:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion diced

2 tsp cumin

1 tbsp coriander seeds crushed

1-2 cups of sliced shitake mushrooms (or use regular button mushrooms)

1 19 oz can of chickpeas

1 cup water

1/2 cup yogurt (I used 2%)

1 tbsp soy sauce

a bunch of spinach

2 tbsp cilantro chopped

5 small to medium de-seeded tomatoes diced chunky (peel if you want to)

 super uber optional ingredient: heaping tsp of Dean and Deluca's Moroccan spice mix (if you're fortunate enough to have it.  Bought mine at an Italian china store in Victoria, B.C.)

Heat oil.  Add onions, 1 tsp cumin and coriander seed.  Cook until softened.  Add shitake mushrooms.  Cook until softened, stirring often (approx 10 minutes).

Drain chickpeas into a colander and rinse.  Add chickpeas, soy sauce and tomatoes.  Simmer on low-medium for 10-15 minutes covered.  Add water.  1 cup of water is suggested in the recipe, but depending on how much water the tomatoes release, adjust water accordingly.  You want a bit of a sauce, but not a soup.  It's a stew after all!  Add remaining tsp of cumin.  Add Moroccan spice mix if using.  Leave cover off until liquid is reduced and thickened somewhat (add a little bit more water if it's over reduced). Taste and adjust season accordingly (as in add more spices if you feel like it or season with more salt, etc).

Add spinach and allow to wilt.  Add 1/2 cup yogurt and stir.  Simmer for one or two more minutes.  Stir in cilantro.

It ain't pretty, but it's my dinner

Serve with basmati rice.

I meant to follow a recipe I found on a website for chickpea stew and this was the end result and looks nothing like the original recipe.  It's hard developing a recipe because when I'm in the moment, I don't keep track of time and measurements.  Cooking is my creative outlet and so I make up things as I go along.  So apologies if my measurements or timing seems off.  Definitely challenge yourself to trust your skills, judgement, and your sense when it comes to cooking.  Recipes are just a guidelines. 

Score:  (remember 1 being I am dying for meat and 5 I'm almost a vegetarian convert). 

5!  This isn't a hot spicy stew (though the addition of chili flakes would be quite nice), but it does not lack in flavour.  Seems weird adding soy sauce, but it adds that extra bit of savoury-ness.  The chickpeas are creamy and the mushrooms sucked up the flavour of the stew.  Did not miss the meat whatsoever.  P says this is the best thing I've cooked yet.  Feel happy but also think of all the cooking I've done these past four months since moving out and this is the best thing so far.  Hmph!

Pumped to try the next vegetarian dish!  Stay tuned!

A week of vegetarian dinners...Monday and Tuesday

I will admit that although I love all food, to totally bastardize and misuse a famous literary quote from  Animal farm, all food are equal, but some food are more equal than others (I am cringing inside that I even went there).  What I mean to say is that although I am game to try all food and love food in general, there is one thing that I honestly love less: vegetables.

This aversion to vegetables isn't unique, however I don't like vegetables as much not because I don't like the taste but because I have no clue as to how to prepare vegetables creatively.  My go to is salad and even that starts to get old after a few days.  Another side dish I commonly serve is steamed veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Feel my angst!

Wanting to be healthier and integrate more vegetables in my life, I challenged me and P to eat vegetarian meals this week.  Eating vegetarian meals will require me to be creative or I will have a meltdown.

Each day I will prepare a vegetarian meal.  I will rate it from 1 to 5 with 1 being I am clawing at my face craving for meat and 5 being a dish that gets me on the verge of conversion.

Let's do this!

Monday:

FAILURE!

Too tired to cook, I went to T & T, the local Asian market, and picked up a few ingredients for vegetarian week.  I grabbed some cold sweet Thai chili sauce tofu (one of my favorite dishes at T & T) and this was going to be our dinner with some rice.  But as I was walking by the hot dishes section, I saw crab legs with oyster sauce, ginger and green onions.  Crab legs are one of my weaknesses so I had to have it. 

Get home and gorged on crab.  Sigh!

I will rate the cold spicy tofu though.

Score: 5.  Cold spicy sweet Thai chili sauce tofu from T & T is an old standby I could eat almost everyday.  So good!

Tuesday

SEMI-FAILURE!

Okay so this time I actually meant to eat vegetarian and prepared a vegetarian dish, but we still had a 4 crab legs so I nibbled on them while I cooked the vegetarian meal.  Hate wasting food.

Keep your fanciness to yourself. 

Today I prepared a childhood Filipino favorite of mine that my Mom makes: Filipino potato torta. Torta is similar to a frittata.  It is the ultimate poor man's dish.  It's potatoes, eggs, salt and pepper.  That is it.   My Mom makes this when she wants something fast and simple.  When my Mom makes it though, it is something truly magical.  The potatoes are soft and fluffy.  The eggs have some crispy parts, but it's also salty, eggy, and fluffy in some areas.  The omelette is always intact.  It's nothing fancy, but to me, very tasty.   When I make it, it's never as good.  Mind you, Mom's (any Mom's) cooking is always better.  One day my omelette will remain intact...one day. 

I don't really have a recipe for you because it's really about taste.  It's too simple a recipe to write out, but for all you who require instruction, I adapted this recipe from a blog post written by Ramona French titled "How to Cook a Filipino Torta without Beef".  Usually you do make torta with beef, but I'm not a fan.

Potato Torta

6 eggs

Salt and pepper

Oil

3-4 potatoes (my Mom usually uses Russet)

Cut potatoes into sticks like this:

You could peel the potato.  My Mom usually does, but the nutrients are in the skin so I always keep the skin on.  You could even chop them into smaller sticks, but I like the chunky cut.

Heat enough oil in a large pan to coat the bottom (I used approx 2 tbs canola).  Cook the potatoes until they are brown and soft.  

Meanwhile, beat your eggs.  I beat my eggs until air bubbles form.

Once the potatoes are done, put onto a plate.  Replenish oil if needed to cover the bottom of the pan.  Work in batches at this point.  Put a portion of the potato back into the pan.  Pour some of the egg, enough to cover the bottom if you lift the pan off the heat and rotate it.

When it comes time to flip (raw side is somewhat half cooked), take a plate and put on top of torta like so:

Take pan off heat.  With one hand on the plate, flip torta over so that raw cooked side is exposed when you lift pan up:

Cooked side up

With the help of a spatula, slide raw side into pan.  Continue to cook.  Take a peek after a few minutes and remove from pan once cooked.  Continue cooking in batches until all the potato and egg are used up.  Serve with rice and some salad.

Unfortunately, my omelette broke.  I was none to gentle slipping it onto a plate and it broke like crazy.  I was in a rush!  I usually eat my torta with ketchup (told you it wasn't fancy) and my secret little indulgence: a healthy squeeze of sriracha sauce on the ketchup.  

Score: 4.  I love potato torta, but like I said, I never make it as well as my Mom so I subtracted a point.  I didn't miss the meat, but I did miss my Mom.  I should go visit her sometime this week.

More on tomorrow's meal in the next post!