Folks Gotta Eat

Garden plannin'

2012-03-08T11:00:00Z

]]> These are just my purchases from the last weekend - I'm still waiting on a mail order of chile seeds and then there is all the seed l saved from last season.

Yikes! I think maybe I've overdone it a bit?

I don't start any seedlings in our house - we don't have an area or space near a window with good light where I could do this. Eventually I'd like to set up a little grow light and seedling station in the basement laundry room but until then I direct sow everything in the garden and buy things like tomatoes as plants.

It's not too late to check out a Seedy Saturday (or Sunday) event yourself.

Here are the rest of the Toronto events:

Toronto East, Evergreen Brickworks

550 Bayview Avenue, Saturday, March 10th 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Scarborough, Heron Park Recreation Centre

292 Manse Road, Saturday March 17th 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.

North York , Lawerence Heights Community Centre

5 Replin Avenue, Sunday March 25th 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Not in Toronto? Click here for a listing of Seedy events across Canada.

I'm now deep in planning for next season. I'm doing research on crop rotation, there are catalogues to study and fold over page corners in and I'm drawing terribly not to scale maps of the yard and our garden beds in a notebook.

I've been going through my photos from last summer and making notes on things I should change up this season. Here is the garden in late August. I really need to take these photos from the bathroom window on the second floor - you can't see the full scope of the yard and all the containers on the patio.

My first goal for this year is to get some real tomato cages. The wimpy bamboo stakes I used last year crumpled under the weight of the fruit. Plus I need to do a better job pruning said tomato plants. I also need find more opportunities to take advantage of vertical space as space is at such a premium in our yard. I'll need to make at least one other trellis and train more things to grow up the fence.

What are you planning for your garden this season? Got advice on crop rotation? Will you be heading to a Seedy Saturday/Sunday event? Let us know in the comments below.

Some of my favourite seed suppliers:

Cubits Organics - a great local seed company

Solana Seeds - a Quebec seed company that has the best variety of hot pepper and chile seeds I've found - I will have an amazing variety of peppers this year!

Urban Harvest - another great local Toronto seed company, they also sell plants and seedlings at farmers markets around the city in the spring. I buy all my tomato seedlings from them.

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Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

2012-03-03T11:00:00Z

Pinterest awhile back. I'm a visual person and so being able to pin images on a virtual bulletin board is so much easier than bookmarking page after page and not remembering what any of them are. This was one of the first recipes I pinned. Green beans are one of my favourite vegetables. Plus the Hubs and I have taken to having Sunday afternoon dates and one of our favourite activities is seeing a film at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and then having an early supper at their Canteen restaurant (yes we're practically seniors). One of our favourite things on the menu is the parmesan frites that come with the steak or burger. That tiny dusting of freshly grated parmesan is just magic.

]]> This is a super quick and easy side dish that tastes amazing. Maybe even better than the parmesan frites - maybe. They are a great accompaniment to a grilled steak or along side a shredded braised tomato pot roast served over polenta. I can't wait for summer when we've got fresh beans in the garden because they'll taste even better.

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Adapted from Skinny Taste (I use more cheese and oil so I'm guessing mine are not exactly diet food)

About a pound of green beans, trimmed and dry (or else the oil and seasonings won't stick)

1 tablespoon olive oil

fresh ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons fresh grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy clean-up because you are lazy and never do the dishes but you like to be nice to the Hubs who does all the clean up because you do all the cooking.

Toss green beans in oil and season with pepper and garlic powder.

Spread beans out on the cookie sheet so that they all lay flat and place on the top rack of your oven. Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn beans over; bake another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated parmesan.

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Cure it yourself

2012-02-26T12:00:00Z

Porknography dinner as part of the Rusholme Park Supper Club people have asking where they could find Guanciale. The truth is I live in Corso Italia and I'll be damned if I can find it in any of our neighbourhood shops. I think the easiest way to get your hands on some would be to cure it yourself. But if you're having a hard time finding pork cheeks pancetta makes a great substitution. Back in the early days of Folks Gotta Eat I did a series of posts on making pancetta at home. Home-curing is seriously easy and I've been making my own pancetta on a regular basis ever since.

]]> Having a stash of pancetta in the fridge or freezer is a great staple. With some eggs and cheese you can make pasta carbonara in the same time it would take to order a pizza. I use cubes of pancetta to start my tomato sauces, to saute with kale and garlic, and to start lentil, white bean and minestrone soups.

So let's start from the beginning:

Pancetta: home-cured goodness

Early proof that the Hubs is insanely long suffering. Plus proof that Silence of the Lambs and scary serial killers are comedic gold.

Get your pancetta on

Instructions for making your own cure, sourcing ingredients, wet curing, rolling and hanging your pork bellies. A link to a great video showing you how to roll your pancetta and information about nitrates - to use pink salt or not?

Shana's big pancetta reveal

Your pancetta is ready - now what? Plus a fantastic recipe for a spinach and mushroom salad with a warm pancetta dressing.

So now that I've got pancetta mastered who's interested in trying another home cured meat with me? What should be next - the elusive Guanciale? Or maybe a nice Bresaola? Let me know in the comments and let's cure together!

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Cold weather comfort

2012-02-12T19:00:00Z

There is nothing better than gratin anything. A quick inventory of the kitchen and I discovered we still had a few of the potatoes we dug at my parents on Thanksgiving left. I had also gotten some gorgeous leeks from my favourite vendor, Highmark Farms, at the Wychwood Barns Farmers Market Saturday morning. Those Highmark boys are super charming and cute - so who am I to resist their leeks? I also found a fennel bulb in the fridge that was looking for a home. A quick internet search (potato, leek, fennel) and I had a recipe. We had some good aged Ontario cheddar in the cheese drawer and even some whipping cream I had bought to make dessert so I was good to go.

Potato Gratin with Caramelized Fennel and Leek

Recipe just barely adapted from Modern Beet

1 large fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and any bruised outer leaves removed sliced as thinly as possible

2 leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced thinly

1 tablespoon olive oil

butter for pan

4 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped

Fresh cracked pepper

1/2 cup grated old cheddar - I used Balderson's 3 year old.

1/2 cup grated parmesan

Approximately 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat then add the fennel and leek and stir to coat. Reduce heat to low and cook until fennel and leeks are caramelized, about 40 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent burning.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a baking dish (I use a medium sized oval pyrex that looks nice enough I can serve from it at the table). Grate and mix the two cheeses together.

When fennel and leeks are caramelized, assemble the gratin: layer 1/3 of the potatoes in the baking dish, overlapping slightly; sprinkle with pepper. Spoon half of the fennel and leek mixture over potatoes and spread evenly.

Cover with half the cheese and sprinkle with half the thyme.

Repeat for one more layer. Top with remaining potatoes.

Sprinkle remaining grated cheese over gratin, then pour in enough cream so that the liquid is at the same level as the top of the potatoes.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until top is golden and gratin is fork tender. Enjoy!

You'll notice the drips down the side of my pan, I'd recommend setting your pan on a cookie sheet to catch drips or else you'll have a heck of a mess on the floor of your oven, a bunch of smoke in the house and an opportunity to test your fire alarms like we did. Yeah it's always exciting here at Casa Hillman. The beagles are even giving me stink eye for waking them up from their post snow frolic.

What are you making on this cold and blustery weekend?

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Fantastic Quince

2012-01-31T03:07:02Z

I love quince, they're like uber floral pears. Or what I imagine the love child of a pear and a lychee would taste like. They can be a bear to find but Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck) is a reliable source and my predominately Portuguese/ Italian neighbourhood has them at many of the fruit markets in the late fall and early winter.

The quince tree is thought to originate from Iran and only grows in warm climates. Quince was once considered a symbol of love, fertility and as such was a ritual offering at weddings. The Romans appreciated its essential oils and used it to make perfume.

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They are most often used to make preserves and jellies now. The amazing Membrillo paste served with Manchego cheese in Spain is made from quince.

The flesh of the quince is generally too hard and astringent to eat raw and must be poached before it can be used. Seriously try a raw slice - it will be like some mythological creature just sucked all the moisture out of your mouth. But the sourness disappears with cooking and the fruit holds it's shape wonderfully.

I like to poach quince and keep them on hand to eat with yogurt or if I want to make a quick tart or tarte tatin. The slices are also wonderful mixed into a regular apple pie. It will be the best apple pie you've ever had and no one will quite be able to figure out why.

Like pears, quince ripen from the inside out, so you should look for quince that are still quite green and firm with a little fuzz. You can let them ripen in a bowl on the table - they'll fill the house with a wonderful smell and you'll know why the Romans liked them. When they are a light yellowish green they are perfect. If you wait until they are fully yellow like I did they'll poach really quickly and won't take on the stunning ruby red or pink colour. I was upset mine didn't turn pink so I pleased to find out via the intranets that they were still good - they just wouldn't be turning pink.

I also used up the last of my amazingly flavourful Ontario goldenrod honey I got at the Savour Stratford Festival. Since the honey is the only real flavouring I'm using this is where you want to use the best honey you can get your hands on.

Poached Quince

Recipe adapted - just barely from David Lebovitz

5 cups water

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup honey

1/2 lemon, quartered

4 large, or 6 medium, quince

Mix the water, sugar, honey and lemon in a large pot and turn it on to medium-to-high heat.

While the liquid is heating, quarter, peel, and remove the cores of the quince. Make sure to removed anything tough or fibrous, being very careful with the knife as quince are very hard. This is not the place to use a dull knife - a dull knife and a rock hard quince could spell disaster of the finger kind.

Simmer the quince (do not boil) for at least an hour, until the quince are cooked through.

Cooking time will vary, depending on the quince. They're done when they are cooked through, which you can verify by piercing one with the tip of a sharp knife. Mine cooked very quickly but as I said I'd let them ripen on the table a tad too long.

To store, pour the quince and their liquid into a large jar or container and refrigerate. Quince will last as long as they are submerged in the poaching liquid for a couple of weeks.

The honey/quince poaching liquid or syrup is also delicious drizzled over crepes or added to a glass of Prosecco.

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A great and easy start to 2012

2011-12-31T01:00:00Z

It has been a lavish, fattening holiday season. I think I've eaten the better part of an entire glazed ham and I've just polished off tin of Cadbury chocolate finger biscuits while uploading my photos for this post.

January 2nd will be a day of reckoning but I do intend to end 2011 with a bang. A bang of the cheese fondue and champagne cocktail variety. Then I will spend New Years day lazing about the house watching marathons of Criminal Minds on A&E in my pajamas or maybe if we're feeling especially spry going to grab Dim Sum and then catching some blockbuster blow 'em up movie with lots of 3D and special effects. Nobody's resolutions actually start on New Years Day. That day is all about recovery and whatever will aid in that. Kale, brown rice and virtue can wait one more day don't you think?

]]> Growing up my mother and many of her friends all made the same breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. I think they all were reading the same magazine or got the recipe from the same person. It was layers of white bread, processed cheese slices and peameal bacon layered in a casserole with an egg and milk mixture poured over it all. It was prepared on Christmas Eve and refrigerated until morning. While us kids opened our stockings Mom would pop it in the oven and an hour later after the presents were opened and we'd struggled to assemble some new toy breakfast was ready with little muss and fuss. I don't remember the exact name but it was something terrible like "housewives helper" or similar*.

I've since borrowed mom's idea and used it to make several upscale breakfast casseroles or stratas. They are perfect for brunches and good for serving a crowd. A little bit of work the evening before and you've got a delicious almost effortless meal the next morning. I've done a goat cheese and asparagus version for a Mother's Day brunch and switching up the breads and cheeses can give you almost limitless options.

We live in Toronto's Corso Italia neighbourhood and all our local grocers are stacked with Panettone at this time of year. It's hard to resist these imported Italian sweet breads - they are often packaged beautifully and look like big presents. Filled with raisins and candied peel and meant to be served in slices with sweet wine to be honest I didn't see the appeal. Despite being lavish with eggs (panettone are made with whole eggs and even extra yolks for good measure!) and butter (to epitomize the richness and generosity of the season) they always seems a bit dry to me. Maybe it's because the ones we get were likely baked months ago, packed and then imported to Canada. Not wanting to waste these relatively expensive breads (we always seem to get at least one as a gift) I discovered they make a fantastic pain perdu or "lost bread" casserole in the style of my mother's old recipe.

I think they look like big mushrooms:

This version of the breakfast casserole is on the sweet side so I serve it with a fruit compote, a baked glazed ham and a green salad with lots of bitter greens for our family's Christmas brunch. It's now become a tradition of our own.

A breakfast casserole like this is are the perfect use for any panettone you have hanging around from the holidays that you don't know what to do with or want to rid yourself of before starting back to work after the holidays.

I think the smartest thing would be for me to whip one of these up before I start indulging on New Years Eve so the next morning I can have something comforting and delicious to nibble at and offer any strays who've crashed over at Casa Hillman the night before. Even in my foggiest state I'll still come across as the hostess with the mostess.

Shana's Panettone Pain Perdu

1 Panettone (cut into 1-2 inch cubes)

8 eggs beaten

1 ½ cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Butter for the pan and more for the top.

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Pack with panettone. Pour egg mixture over, cover with foil and refrigerate over night. In the morning pull out of fridge, dot with more butter (the amount will depend on how you feel), replace foil and bake for approximately 45 minutes until eggs are set up. Remove foil for the last 5-10 minutes to brown up the top. Allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. The eggs will continue cooking. Serve with syrup or a fruit compote. I used rhubarb berry compote I preserved up in the early summer and it was a tart and perfect pairing.

Enjoy your evening and here's to all sorts of delicious treats to come in 2012!

*I was just reminded of the name of the 1970s casserole over on facebook. It was called "Wifesaver Breakfast Casserole" which is funny as breakfast was usually my Dad's domain. I think the only time my mother ever darkened the kitchen in the mornings was to make this once a year dish.

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Pimping my Preserves!

2011-12-13T12:00:00Z

fig jam, 12 jars of crab apple jelly and 12 big jars of spicy dill pickles that I could give for gifts come the holiday season. Luckily I am now gainfully employed but really aren't handmade gifts better anyway? Plus preserves also make wonderful hostess gifts.

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To make my gift preserves extra special I also think it's important to decorate or doll up my jars. So I've been collecting bits and bobs of paper and ribbon all year and tucking them into my craft basket in anticipation (yes I'm that person who saves ribbon when you give me a gift).

Those who also know me know how competitive I can be - basically I make Monica from Friends look tame. So when the fantastic folks at Well Preserved announced they were bringing back their Pimp that Preserve contest I knew I had to enter. I then proceeded to twitter taunt friend and fellow blogger Laura from Cubits (she was a finalist last year) that I was going to beat her this year. I'm actually not sure what I like best - winning or the leading up smack talk....I think it might be the smack talk.

If you haven't read Well Preserved you should. Excellent, excellent preserving posts of all kinds - not just jams people but we're also talking fermenting, drying and all sorts of other ways to preserve your food. Plus there are good recipes and ongoing conversation about our food and where it comes from.

So the rules of Pimp that Preserve are simple - embellish, package or otherwise 'dress up' your favourite jar of preserves with anything you like as long as it doesn't damage the contents or break the seal. All photos of entries are shown on the Well Preserved facebook page. So head on over and "Like" them and then have a look at the pictures. You need to "Like" Well Preserved in order to vote but I bet you'll enjoy their community so much it won't be an imposition. There are some awesome ideas from the other contestants - for the preserves and the decorating. I am in wonder at the creativity in the community!

You can vote for me and my pimped preserves by "liking" my photos - there are two. Here is some info on my entries and photos so you know what to look for.

I like to do gift themes each year. Like a couple of years ago almost everyone in my life got a scarf. They came from all over and were all sorts of designs and materials but having chosen the same item for everyone made it life much easier, when shopping I just had to look for scarves and it narrowed down my hunting quite a bit.

This year many of the ladies in my life are getting brooches and such for Christmas - everything from lovely handmade things from local artists and craft shows to vintage sparklers from flea markets and vintage stores.

Plus I had my stash of preserves I'd made for holiday giving so for Pimp That Preserve I've done my fig preserves with red Japanese paper from the Paper Place and these amazing ceramic flower pins that I picked up from artist Julie Moon at the City of Craft event this past weekend. I think her flower pins look almost like the flowers in so many of the Japanese papers and I only wish now I'd bought one for myself!

Then so the boys wouldn't feel left out I got a bunch of these stag buttons from Kid Icarus and packaged up pickled hot peppers from our garden for them with brown paper and some printed masking tape (also from the Paper Place). I think they look very Scandinavian next to the Japanese paper don't you think?

Then to be super glam (because pickles are glamourous!) I did up my spicy garlic dill pickles with leftover yellow wallpaper from our dining room and silver satin ribbon, this one has a vintage bee pin. Insect jewellery was especially popular during the Victorian age and then regained popularity in the 1930-1940s and those later ones are quite reasonable at some of Toronto's antique and vintage shops.

So there we go - it's a handmade Christmas! Now head on over to the Well Preserved facebook page and give one of these photos a like!

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Is it December already?!

2011-12-11T22:21:52Z

Then I decided to turn my attentions here to the blog! So here we go - a wee bit of a report of what we've been cooking and doing lately and recipes we can't wait to bust out for the holidays.

Crooked Ginger

Ever want to make a gingerbread house but building and architecture ain't your thing? For the month of December local Toronto bakery Madeleines, Cherry Pie and Ice Cream has gingerbread houses all ready assembled that you and the kids can decorate for $25. They provide the royal icing, tables and tables of candy and instruction. Best of all they also do the clean up! Now if you don't have kids shop owner and baker Kayla offers a special adult night called Crooked Ginger where for an extra fee on top of the gingerbread house you are treated to some dangerous holiday martinis and savoury canapes!

Talk about getting into the spirit(s)! Check out my delicious espresso martini. Three of these and I really found my artistic side.

Thanks so much to my good friend Kyra for turning me on to Madeleines and this fantastic event. Here we are with our awesome houses all packed up and ready to take home. I think we just made a new holiday tradition.

Recipes for the Season

You all know how much I enjoy crisps and crumbles. So when I saw this gorgeous pear, cranberry and gingersnap crumble on Smitten Kitchen I knew I had to make a variation of it. Pears and cranberries are such a fantastic combination and I happened to have a package of my favourite Shasha brand spelt ginger snaps in the house. I also threw in a couple local Empire apples in order to get two pans worth.

I make my crisp topping in the food processor because it's super easy, I can grind my nuts in the same bowl and it blends the butter without getting it all over my fingers. Throw 1/2 cup of unblanched (skin on) almonds into the food processor. Pulse until finely ground. Add 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of broken up ginger cookies (I used about 16 of the little Shasha heart shaped cookies), 1/4 cup flour, one teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of ground ginger, one quarter teaspoon of ground cloves and one cup dark brown sugar. Pulse to combine. Add 3/4 cup butter and pulse until combined and crumbly. Loosely pack your crisp topping over your fruit.

Bake at 350 degrees celsius for about 45 minutes or an hour (or while you're eating dinner, it can cool while you clear the dishes). Each pan will serve around four people and is excellent topped with vanilla ice cream or some fresh whipped cream to cut the sweetness.

Leftovers are really fantastic cold over thick Greek yogurt and really how different is it from eating granola, fruit and yogurt right? That's what I told myself when I took this in a jar to work all week for my breakfast.....

I also thought I'd link back to some of my past holiday recipe posts that might come in handy as we gear up for Christmas.

Orange, Ginger Cranberry Sauce

With it's orange zest and fresh ginger this cranberry sauce is a really nice bright flavour for the holiday table. And since cranberries are so high in pectin they also preserve up like a treat. I actually made bunch of this after thanksgiving when cranberries were on sale and canned it up for Christmas. I followed Bernardin's instructions and timing for canning whole cranberry sauce and it worked out really well.

Pear Upside Down Gingerbread Cake

I know, I know I obviously have a thing for pears and ginger in general, eh? This cake has become a tradition for our family. It's dark, moist and spicy and the upside down topping is almost like a toffee sauce. I originally got the recipe from the late Gourmet Magazine (sniff sniff) but luckily Epicurious posts many old recipes from Gourmet.

I've got a few other ideas and recipes up my sleeve for the coming weeks so stay tuned. Shana's back in business! In the meantime I'd love to hear about some of your go-to holiday recipes or traditions in the comments below!

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Girls and Guns

2011-11-19T01:49:08Z

]]> Our host Sari Colt put together a really interesting group. Besides me there was Andrea Toole aka Canadian Foodie Girl, Adam Waxman from Dine Magazine, and the lovely and poised Jennifer Gee. Suddenly I was nervous. These were people with magazines and people who know every foodie/blogger and chef in the city and here I am mucking around in the garden and taking pictures of my dinner with a little point and shoot camera.

We filmed our first episode at the end of August and I was a bundle of nerves. I didn't tell anyone in advance and even afterward hesitated sharing it. The camera really magnifies all your little quirks! But in the interest of sharing here it is people - all 45 glorious minutes - watch and see if you notice my eye twitching:

Chew On This with Sari Colt from David Grossman on Vimeo.

It took while to coordinate our busy schedules to film a second episode but we finally got it together in early November. Sadly Adam wasn't available this time around but us girls had fun! Surprisingly, with our all girl panel, this episode featured heavily on hunting, gathering and meat eating. We jokingly referred to it as Girls and Guns (I'm sure this will garner us some interesting internet fans).

It's also worth mentioning that I've always made it a point to never the refer to the Hubs by name here at Folks Gotta Eat. This is to spare him any potential embarrassment to the people of the internet. But I somehow forgot that fact when we were live streaming...sorry hon!

With our giggles this episode might not be as polished as our first one but it was a hell of a lot of fun:

Chew on This with Sari Colt Ep. 2 from David Grossman on Vimeo.

Andrea is fantastic at blogging in a timely fashion, and even better at sharing links to all of the restaurants, chefs, books, events and causes we talk about on the show.

You should check out her posts here:

Chew on This: My Internet TV debut

Chew on This, episode 2: Giggles, Girls, Guns and Glenn

We are already planning our next episode and I'm so glad I've gotten to meet these wonderful, interesting people. Even if the only person watching is Glenn...I mean Hubs....oh just...never mind.

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Fall garden adventures

2011-11-05T01:00:00Z

]]> Fall is also a perfect time to plant garlic here in Toronto. My friend scored a community garden plot (they are serious business here in Toronto with long waiting lists) and having not gardened since she was a child in her parents yard asked for some tips and tricks. I said I'd be happy to try my best, share my seeds and tools provided I could get a bit of space in a corner as my yard is full up. After reading this great article in the Globe and Mail we decided to plant some garlic now for harvest next fall and I set about finding us a variety of heirloom hard-necked varieties.

I chose about 6 varieties from the farmers market in Peterborough over Canadian Thanksgiving but stupidly threw them all in the same brown bag and promptly wasn't able to remember which type was which. Whoops! I suppose it will be a nice guessing game next year when we harvest.

Here are the gorgeous Garrison Creek Community Gardens, a great use of hydro corridors to create a community space. I can't wait to help out there and get to know the other gardeners.

Here is Katharine's little plot, you'll see it's close in style to the ones I built for our yard.

Splitting up our garlic bulbs into cloves for planting. I can guess the middle one is the Red Russian variety!

In other news, remember when I bought a tiny 3-inch tall $2.49 artichoke plant and tucked it into my perennial herb garden in the front yard? This is it a few weeks ago looking like something from Little Shop of Horrors. I kept waiting for something to happen with it but besides looking like something from a prehistoric world nothing ever did. I was going to hack it down but Halloween was coming and well Hubs said I should leave it in as "it's pretty scary looking". Nice.

Also notice the fantastically huge pineapple sage in full red flower to the right of the beast. It also smells wonderful, exactly like a pineapple.

Anyway I left the artichoke in the yard another month and was just about to chop it down and add it to the compost heap when I noticed this:

And then this little baby artichoke hiding in the leaves:

In the end here is the big harvest from my man eating monster plant, 3 artichokes which I'll be steaming tomorrow:

I will certainly appreciate the jars of artichoke hearts I use to make hot artichoke and cheese dip with a whole lot more now! Wow what a lot of work for so little pay off. But it was still an interesting experiment and only cost me $2.49 and the disapproving glances of my traditional neighbours who thought I'd lost my mind with my somewhat unconventional landscape design.

Now I've got a few months to research and plan for my gardens next year and pore over seed catalogues and websites.

What are you doing to prepare your gardens for fall? Planting anything now for next year? What's the weirdest thing you've ever grown? Let me know in the comments area below!

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October in pictures

2011-10-25T11:00:00Z

So here we go....

We ripped out the tomato plants in the garden and were flooded with Green tomatoes.

I made 24 jars of salsa verde for our winter enchiladas and pickled all the green cherry tomatoes with dill. I figured they'd be good skewered on a toothpick in a Bloody Caesar.

While my name might lead you to believe otherwise, I'm not Jewish. But thanks to some friends in university I was invited home to quite a few holiday dinners and was a very enthusiastic house guest! Honey cake, eaten to celebrate Jewish New Year and encourage a sweet New Year is one of my absolute favourites. This recipe from Smitten Kitchen is amazing. It's dark, spicy and moist and the flavour actually intensifies in the second and third day. It's good anytime of year and especially good with the amazing goldenrod honey we got at the Savour Stratford Festival.

A friend got a community garden plot for next summer and as a novice gardener asked for my help planning. Being the crafty sort I said sure - provided I am able to plant some garlic there. My gardens are fully spoken for and I was desperate for extra space. I got us a selection of hard necked heirloom varieties for planting.

The markets are over following with great squashes. We've been trying all sorts of different ones and I'm saving seeds from our favourites to plant next summer. I especially like hubbarb squashes and this blue grey one was excellent.

We went up north to visit my parents for Thanksgiving and it might have been the warmest Thanksgiving on record. We spent the entire weekend outside and luckily the boat was still in the water so we were able to take a quick trip across to Viamede resort for lunch. When I was in university we used to go drinking at their Boathouse Pub. It was the spot on a Friday or Saturday night. It's now under new management with a renewed interest in the local food movement. Through the miracle that is twitter I've been exchanging tweets and recipes with them all summer.

They've even got a little hobby farm on the grounds these days. These pigs were so amazing and on November 5th they'll be the featured guests at a charity hog roast. Hubs was a bit turned off by this but I argue if we're going to eat meat we better know exactly where it's coming from, treat it right while it's alive and use every last bit of it once we kill it. And yes I went directly from here to the pub and ordered their poutine topped with pulled pork.

After lunch we did some touring in the boat. Seriously this is not usual Thanksgiving weather some years it's snowed on Thanksgiving.

I dream of having a place like this one day. Solar panels, off the grid and accessible only by boat. Check out the adorable bunkie on it's own island and it's little bridge.

I also took the time up north to try some new recipes. I roasted off this Long Island Cheese Pumpkin for pumpkin gnocchi.

They were a ton of work. I wish I could say they were amazing but they were super underwhelming and flavourless, even covered in a ton of browned butter and crispy fried sage. Points for trying though.

Luckily all the meals weren't a bust. I roasted my first wild turkey and boy was it a treat. Despite wild turkeys being rampant in the area (we saw 12 chilling on the side of the road on the drive up) my Dad goes turkey hunting with his buddies in Pennsylvania every year. It's his yearly guys vacation but my Mother didn't hesitate to point out with the cost of his travel, accommodation and entertainment she figured each of his turkeys cost about $600. I'd never tried wild turkey before and it was darker, more flavourful (even nutty tasting - Dad swears it's all the acorns they eat) and made the best gravy and stock I'd ever had. It's a pretty gangly looking bird - huge legs and wings and lacking the heavy over inflated breast of it's Butterball cousins but once you wrestle it into a roasting pan it's all smooth sailing from there! I cooked it low and slow and only uncovered it for the last hour to crisp up it's skin.

Best. Gravy. Ever.

Have you been reaping the rewards of the harvest? Do you have a no fail gnocchi recipe or have you cooked a wild turkey? Let me know in the comments below.

And in the meantime - Happy Fall!

See, everyone had a great time:

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Potluck anxieties

2011-10-22T13:11:51Z

]]> It's a great organization filled with smart and inspiring women. It's also a United Way member organization. Every year the United Way supports a network of 200 membership agencies providing vital social services to hundreds of thousands of people throughout Toronto. To show how much they appreciate the support of the United Way every year YW staff launch a United Way campaign of their own. To kick off the 2011 staff campaign they held their Annual Managers Potluck, with the food being prepared and served by the managers and directors of the organization.

I joined the organization a mere five days prior to the kickoff event and potluck. However, I was sold on the idea as I've long been a believer that food has the power to bring people together and create community. Good ideas are often born over shared food and for that reason I just love a potluck.

I had some pressure going in, my Director had revealed in my introductory email to our department that in addition to my work background, in my spare time I contribute recipes and articles here. Suddenly everyone was asking what I was planning to bring and saying they couldn't wait to taste what I brought. Epp! No pressure or anything.

I had a fine line to walk. I wanted to bring something delicious and impressive for my new coworkers but at the same time didn't want to be "that girl" who went over the top and busted out a brûlée torch at the staff potluck - at least not yet (my kray kray can be properly unleashed around the holidays!) I can honestly say having that staff potluck in my first week meant I focused all my anxiety over starting a new job on what dish I would bring rather than on the job itself which, in hindsight, was fantastic.

I decided to focus on some tried and true recipes that never fail me, with an eye on using local and seasonal produce. I also knew I wanted to highlight, if possible, some items from my own garden and find recipes that were easy to make in advance and affordable for people to replicate.

I decided a must-have would be my famous Rhubarb Lunar Cake. It's the most shared recipe here on FGE and this spring I froze quite a bit of the rhubarb from the yard so we could enjoy the cakes into the fall and winter. I've substituted other fruits, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries over the years, but only the tartness of rhubarb (or maybe fresh cranberries at this time of year when they are everywhere) really stands up to the sugary topping.

In checking the potluck signup sheet I noticed a lot of desserts and at the last minute decided to also make a salad. I had scored a gorgeous romanesco cauliflower at the farmers market and it was destined to languish in our fridge unless I found a use for it. I decided to make one of my favourites, the marinated cauliflower salad from the famed Moosewood restaurant. The original Moosewood and the Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbooks were my bibles in university and so many of those recipes remain in our family's regular repertoire now decades later. I can honestly say I've never made a dish from either of those books that I didn't love. I doubled the recipe and used the bright green romanesco cauliflower alongside a conventional white cauliflower I grabbed on my way home from work. This salad is crunchy and refreshing and let me make use of the last of the parsley, basil and garlic from my garden as well. The cauliflower pieces are cooked directly in the marinade, then chilled and mixed with herbs and carrot right before serving. If you like pickled vegetables this is the salad for you.

The event was a smashing success. Between the potluck and raffle tickets the staff raised over $900 in just two hours for the United Way. Turns out I was right to feel pressure as there was a fantastic spread: jerk chicken, curried lentils, pigeon peas, Portuguese custard tarts and cod cakes (Pastéis de Bacalhau), vegetarian lasagna, corn bread with honey butter, noodles with vegetables, black bean chicken, coconut curry, quiche, ratatouille, vegan chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, spice cake and so so much more that I didn't even have room to try. Looks like my brûlée torch wouldn't have been too out of place among these culinary stars!

CHILLED MARINATED CAULIFLOWER

Adapted from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest first published in 1982

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup water

3 large cloves garlic minced

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white sugar

1 tsp whole peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1 medium cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets

1/2 cup finely minced red onion or shallot

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley (I used almost a whole bunch)

1/4 cup minced fresh basil (1 to 2 tsp, dried)

1 large carrot grated

1) Combine oil, vinegar, water, garlic, salt, sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves and cauliflower in large saucepan or a dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender but not too soft.

2) Transfer to a serving bowl. Cool to room temperature, then cover tightly and chill. This can even be done the night before.

3) Shortly before serving, fish out the bay leaves and then stir in the onion, parsley, basil and carrot. Mix well and serve.

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Making lemonade from lemons

2011-10-06T22:00:00Z

Food in Jars. I had a big crop of lemon boy and yellow cherry tomatoes (plus an extra brandwine that was hanging around) and I thought this would be a perfect little project to do on the side during my big salsa fest weekend where I put up 24 jars of salsa. I was likely being over ambitious. Our kitchen was trashed, my feet hurt and I hadn't eaten anything but salsa all day. Not exactly a good time to start a new canning project.]]>

But I soldiered on. I realize now that my first mistake was misreading the recipe and adding the lemon zest at the beginning of the cooking process instead of stirring it in at the end. This made the jam VERY lemony. So between all the lemon and sweet, sweet sugar you could barely tell it was a tomato jam. Luckily I didn't make the same mistake with the basil and stirred it in right at the end so it is as bright and fresh as it was straight from the garden but still then I was left with a sweet lemon basil jam. The final straw came after cooking the jam for almost an hour and doing numerous plate tests the jam wouldn't set.

I had the hot water bath going from the salsa so in my smartest moment of the day I had the foresight to hot process the jars even if they were going to be a bust.

Then I sat down, poured myself a big glass of tawny port (I had it for a recipe and it was closest at hand) and sat there looking at the six jars and thinking "Great. What a waste of 4 pounds of nice yellow tomatoes".

I absolutely hate wasting things. Food especially. I've been known to march into the living room and shake wilted vegetables and expired dairy products in the face of the Hubs. I channel my father and say things like "Geez honey next time we should just save time and throw a five dollar bill right in the trash". Oh yeah, I'm a REAL treat.

Anyway when I'm not busy turning into my parents I sometimes have some good saves. The original recipe mentioned the jam was a nice glaze for chicken so I had to try it out. I figured lemon chicken is one of my favourite dishes so this would be a good application. Chicken can't seem to get enough lemon.

This was another great opportunity to embrace the dark side and use some tasty and economical dark meat, bone-in chicken. I took a package of chicken drumsticks and covered them with almost a full jar of the jam and baked in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.

Something magical happened in the oven. With the juices from the chicken the jam was thinned out and much less cloying. Instead it created a sweet, lemony sauce with tons of fresh basil flavour.

I served the chicken and the fantastic sauce it had produced over a quinoa pilaf with spinach and dinner was a hit. With five more jars of the jam in the cupboard we can look forward to making this meal again and again. Seriously I couldn't have planned it better! But maybe that's just the port talking...

Have you had any canning disasters this year? Have you found ways to save or repurpose the preserves or did the whole thing wind up in the garbage? Let me know in the comments. Because misery loves company!

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A lazy girl's guide to preserving tomatoes

2011-10-04T11:00:00Z

salsa verde for the winter. I left another bunch of them nestled in crumpled newspaper in a box in the basement and they ripened up nicely. ]]>

I wanted to can up some tomato sauce for the winter but since most of my garden tomatoes are heirlooms they can be all over the map with acid levels and I didn't want to risk it. So instead I decided to slow roast up a bunch and freeze them in ziploc bags. Aka the lazy girl's method of tomato preserving!

This is a very rustic sauce so I simply cut up the assorted tomatoes in wedges with the peels still on, topped them with some fresh thyme and a whole bulb of chopped Ontario garlic and put them in a low 300 degree oven.

Here they are after about an hour in the oven, the house is smelling great by now but they still need some more time.

Another hour later and they are looking really good.

Allow the tomatoes to cool and then load into large freezer bags.

Flatten, squeezing out all the air and then freeze on the cookie sheet, by freezing them flat they'll store nicely in the freezer and stack easily.

Now in the dark of winter I can simply thaw one, boil up some pasta and dinner is done and I barely broke a sweat! Sometimes I toast my laziness.

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Fig preserves redux

2011-09-13T12:00:00Z

fig preserves two ways? They were delicious, garnished many a cheese plate in the last year and made lovely hostess gifts during the holiday season. In their tiny 125 ml jars they were the perfect size to just open and pop on the cheese platter as is. Well I'm back at it. I figure if George Lucas can go back and reedit the Star Wars trilogy every couple of years I'm allowed to go back and improve on my fig preserves (I fully realize nerds everywhere will debate if George Lucas' changes are really improvements but in the case of my preserves they are!)

]]> I loved both our balsamic and black pepper and orange versions last year but discovered quite by accident that they were actually best when the two kinds were blended together. By accident I mean we'd opened one jar for Christmas Eve and one for Christmas Day and in an effort to save fridge space the dregs of both got combined into one jar.

I made one batch of this jam on the weekend and was so happy with it I went back and bought more figs today and did another 12 jars. Maybe next year when the special effects/jam technology progresses even further I'll go back in to the recipe again and make more improvements but as it stands so far it's pretty darn good!

All kidding aside (how will I show my face at Fan Expo next year?) this fig jam is excellent with aged and runny goats cheeses or as part of a grilled cheese with gouda or havarti or as I discovered tonight as a pizza with prosciutto and arugula.

Fig Preserves Special Edition, Rereleased (Greedo shoots first!)

24 figs (one of those little flats or a few small baskets)

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon orange zest (zest about half a large orange)

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1. Sterilize 12 clean 125 ml jars and lids in boiling water or run them through the dishwasher set to extra hot setting. Keep jars and sealing discs hot until ready to use.

2. In a large saucepan, combine figs, sugar, vinegar and orange zest.

3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until soft, about 10 minutes. Let cool slightly. Transfer to a food processor fitted with a metal blade or use an immersion hand blender and purée leaving it slightly chunky and rustic looking. Stir in black pepper.

4. Ladle hot preserves into a hot jar to within 1/4 inch of top of jar (headspace). Wipe jar rim with a clean dampened cloth to remove any drips or smears. Centre hot snap lid on clean jar rim. Screw band down "fingertip" tight. Place filled jars in your canner filled with boiling water - a pasta pot or asparagus pot also works if you don't have a canner pot or you can buy a universal round rack that fits in the bottom of most large stock pots - basically you don't want the jars touching the bottom of the pot - this could cause breakage. Repeat for remaining jam.

5. When canner is filled, ensure that all jars are covered by at least one inch of water. Cover canner and bring water to full rolling boil before starting to count processing time. Boil filled jars for 6 minutes.

6. When processing time is complete, turn stove off, remove canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars without tilting and place them upright on your counter on top of a towel (this is so your jars don't crack coming from a hot pot to a cold countertop). Cool upright, undisturbed 24 hours.

7. After cooling check jar seals. Sealed lids curve downward and do not move when pressed. Remove screw bands; wipe and dry bands and jars. Store screw bands separately or replace loosely on jars, as desired. Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate any unsealed jars and eat within a month.

Fig, prosciutto and arugula pizza

Adapted almost exactly from Pioneer Woman

When I first saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman I knew I had to make it. Today's jam adventure yielded 12 jars plus extra that just wasn't enough to fill a 13th jar. This was a perfect use for that extra jam! A tour through the fridge showed we also had both mozzarella and parmesan cheese, prosciutto and we always have arugula in the garden (it's our favourite salad green).

Now unlike the Pioneer Woman I don't make my own pizza dough. This is for two reasons, first, I live in Toronto's Corso Italia neigbourhood and all the local bakeries sell fresh pizza dough for about $1.50. I can't make dough that good for that little. Second, yeasted doughs scare me. I don't make breads or pizzas doughs because they include yeast and it's alive. It freaks me out and I admit is completely irrational.

It's super easy. Dough is spread with fig preserves, topped with mozzarella and baked off until golden in a 450 degree oven.

When it's pulled out of the oven it's topped with slices of prosciutto, arugula and some fresh grated parmesan.

It's heavenly, a perfect blend of sweet, savoury, cheesy and peppery from the arugula. What a easy and delicious dinner. This would also be good cut into small pieces as an appetizer or at a party.

So, do you use the same recipes for your canning every year? Or like old George can you just not leave well enough alone and keep tinkering? Do you bravely make your own pizza dough and yeast be damned? Let me know in the comments area below!

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