Cookbook Challenge: comfort foods for the winter that wasn't

With apologies to the rest of Canada,  (who hate us west-coasters at the best of times),  this winter has been more like spring.  BBQ has seen more action than the slow-cooker.  As a skier, I am brazen enough to complain about the warm winter we had, which doesn't tend to get a lot of sympathy from anyone.  If only we could ship some snow from the Maritimes onto the top of Whistler.

Skiing with Rich in Feb

This is what the hill normally looks like in April or May, not February!

But even in a comfortable winter, I love comfort foods.  Winter is the best time to indulge in soups and stews.  I didn't get this when I was little, and would beg my mom to make lasagna and meatloaf in July.

Cookbook Challenge 25: South Indian Lentils & Vegetables from The Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Shehzad Husain and Rafi Fernandez

That is a bit of a mouthful.  This is a big book which I brought home from India with me in 1997 as a gift for my mom.  I have conveniently forgotten how heavy my backpack was, but I'm sure if this was my idea of a good souvenir, it was a seriously heavy bag!

After owning it for awhile & not using it, my mom gave it to me and occasionally asks me to make Indian food.  I have not been very adventurous, but the book actually has lots of great looking recipes.

The one I chose was hardy and yummy and easy to make.  Also, Finley liked it, which is a huge score these days.  It's one of those kitchen sink kind of meals where you can throw in whichever veggies you happen to have on hand.

Cookbook Challenge 26: French Onion Soup from Heartsmart cooking for Family and Friends by Bonnie Stern

I don't know where this book came from.  Other than Jaime Oliver, I think Bonnie Stern is the cookbook author most represented on my shelf.  Her stuff is always reliable - tastes good, easy to prepare and healthy.

I've never been into French Onion Soup, but Derek and my in-laws are serious connoisseurs.  I made this especially for Derek.  I mostly just liked the cheesy bread on top!

Cookbook Challenge 27: Chicken Pot Pie from "Dinner: A love story", by Jenny Rosenstrach

This wonderful book was a gift from my sister Briana.  It's part cookbook, part journal, part guide on how to bring your family & besties together to eat, drink and be merry.  This idea really strikes a chord with me - growing up, we ate dinner together pretty much every night.  The whole family, and often boyfriends and friends too.  It was so great to all sit down & catch up on our day, laugh & joke and eat good food.  Not to get super geeky here, but research shows that the benefits of families eating together are huge - improved communication, relationship building, more nutritious food, modelling manners.  Obviously that is pretty much why my siblings and I are models of healthy, polite and communicative human beings!

Anyway, back to the book.  It's great.  She also has a blog:  http://www.dinneralovestory.com.  Thanks Briana for introducing me to this great book & blog.

Chicken pot pie is comfort food through and through.  It was delicious!

At our house, Finley is not quite on the same eating schedule as us, but we have most breakfasts together and dinner a few times a week.  Sometimes a guy likes to be independent at his own little table though: 

Cookbook Challenge 28: Indonesian Chicken from Whitewater Cooks with Passion, by Shelley Adams

This is cookbook author who is the third most represented on my shelf (I think this is incorrect grammar, but I can't seem to figure out the right way to say it).  I got this book for Christmas.  As compared to the first three whitewater books, my initial flip through this book didn't light me on fire.  The recipes looked good, but nothing special.    Finally I had to just jump in.  I made the Havana Chicken, but I won't blog about that one as it was only OK, it was burned, and I got a bad burn and did an F-bomb dance on the back porch while BBQing it.  

My friend recommended the Indonesian chicken.  It was easy and delicious and no sensitive ears were harmed in the making of this dinner.  

Here's what I've been doing instead of skiing this "winter": LOVING my new bike!

Fall Firsts

There is lots to love about fall.  Here are just a few of the things that I enjoy about the season:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Cozy sweaters
3. Beautiful colours in the forest
4. Halloween
5. Ski season is around the corner!

We've had a great autumn so far.  Actually, with the weather we've been having, it was starting to feel like an extended summer.  But not to worry, the rain is here, and it's here in a big way!

Our first fall event happened before it was fall.  Every year there is a Fair in town - the Brackendale Fall Fair.  I had heard that it was great, but I'd never been.  This year we went to check it out & it was awesome.  There was live music, a petting zoo, lots of food vendors, a farmer's market & pretty much everyone in town was there.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!

Biking in fall is awesome - the crisp air, the colourful leaves littering the trail, the tacky dirt on the trail.  I got a new bike in July and it has been SO MUCH FUN!  It is like the One Ring of bikes - it performs well in all conditions.  I even took it to the bike park this weekend & it was perfect.

Last weekend Finley and I planted some new foliage on the decks to brighten things up.  I did most of the work, but Finley kept me company while he man-handled my decorative peppers.  My new approach to the potted garden is to use perennials and just add some colourful annuals around the edge according to the season.  I'm hoping it will be less work.  I can use my extra time to power-wash the deck!

Let's face it, it's not quite as easy to get out and about in the pouring rain.  Here we are are enjoying a rain-free day at the river.

Back at home, Finley is into all the classic games.  Hide and seek:

I wanted to brave a turkey this year, but I didn't stop to consider the details of that plan.  So when I went to order our free-range organic turkey and was told the smallest bird was 12lbs, I thought that might be a bit much for two adults and one baby.  It was a bit late to have other people over, so I decided to do a roast chicken instead.

You may remember that I'm not that good at roasts & I have an inexplicable fear of handling full carcasses of meat.  I am better now, having BBQed whole chickens.  Still, I wouldn't say that traditional meals are a strong suite of mine.

Sounds like time for a Cookbook Challenge!

Cookbook Challenge #25: Thanksgiving Dinner for Two from Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver

We got this wonderful book as a gift from Derek's Dad & Step-mom.  We - as in both of us - Derek and I got this book.  Notice Jamie says right on the front cover that we can rediscover how to cook simple, delicious, affordable meals.  I'm not sure if Bruce & Sharon thought that Derek might crack this book & try some new dishes, but I have to admit that I had that thought when I saw the book.  More of a fantasy, really.  I don't think Jamie has Derek convinced yet, but perhaps he just hasn't been hungry enough to try yet.  (Ask him about the first time he made his famous tomato soup, or stir-fry.... driven by hunger and wife MIA!)

Anyway, I thought Jamie could help me with my first roast chicken & the appropriate fixings for a transitional-ish Thanksgiving dinner.

"Perfect Roast Chicken":

"A consistently good gravy" (my first gravy!):

(tastes better than it looks, and I did strain out the veggies etc!)

"Baked Carrots in a Bag":

"Baked French Potatoes":

Everything turned out really well!  Jamie Oliver's cookbooks are usually pretty straight-foward and easy to follow, once you get used to his random measurements (dash of this, handful of that!)

Since only 50% of the dinner guests like Pumpkin Pie, but 100% of the guests love the Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake from Xocolatl, we had the latter.  With Pumpkin chocolates on it!

Southeast Asian Cookbook Challenge

One of the best parts about travelling is trying the new and interesting foods in other places.  I love to try the "local" specialities.  I've experienced some really amazing foods in my travels, so much so that it would be difficult to pick a favourite country for eating.  Italy was probably one of my favourites - in 3 weeks I can tell you that we had only 3 meals that were not amazing.  The rest was simply over the top.

My other favourite place to eat was South-east Asia, particularly Thailand.  I travelled to Thailand, Malaysia and Laos when I did my "world tour" with Throckmorton & my friend Mya in 1997-8.  The food in Thailand was incredibly fresh & flavourful.  In Laos it could be a bit hit & miss, but there were some interesting options for the adventurous eater (mostly involving unidentifiable meat products.)  The food was so spicy & they were not afraid to put a full measure of spice in to the "Farangi's" (their word for foreigner) meal.  This was the opposite to India, where the food was also great, but I suspect was often toned down for us.

I vividly remember one night eating Som Tum at a market on the Thai-Malaysian border.  Mya and I had travelled down there with our friend Shiela to renew of Thai visas.  All you needed to do was cross the border to get a 30 day renewal, so we went to Malaysia for the night.  By this time we had all become accustomed to the spice & took some pride in how hot we could handle.  Som Tum is Green Papaya Salad, which is widely available at markets & street vendors.  It's prepared fresh & served in a bag with a side of glutinous rice.  All three of us ordered ours "hot" and the vendor happily obliged.  I'm sure he was laughing as we sat there with sweat pouring down our face, tears in our eyes and smoke coming out of our ears, smiling & too proud to admit we'd finally gone a step too far!

In Thailand we did a cooking class in Chang Mai.  We went to the market with our class to buy the food & then we cooked and ate all day.  It was probably one of my top ten fullest days ever.  As in, full stomach.  It was worth it though, and to this day, I can still make a pretty mean Thai Curry (if I do say so myself!)

Cookbook Challenge # 23: Neu Naam Tok (Isaan Steak Salad) from Pok Pok by Andy Ricker

Pok Pok is a fabulous Thai restaurant in Portland, where my sister and her husband live.  It has a casual & slightly hectic atmosphere - sort of like Thailand!  When we were visiting a few years ago we had Steak Salad, which didn't sound like much on the menu, but holy doodle was it good.  Derek devoured it & got another order!

When my sister got me this book for Christmas, I knew I had to try to re-create the magic!

Special basket & pot for preparing sticky rice

Glutinous or "sticky" rice is often served with grilled food and salads.  It is cooked in this awesome basket & then served in cute little baskets (I didn't bring any home, which I still regret to this day!)  It is very sticky and amazingly fragrant.  You smush it into little balls & eat it with your fingers.  Delish.

Red curry with Chicken

I made a curry to go with the salad.  I usually make it from memory, but I decided to use this book for guidance.  (More on this book below!)  Their method was pretty much the same as what  I was taught in Chang Mai & it tasted authentic.  The secret is to separate the thick coconut milk from the thin.  The other secret is lime leaves.

Neither the sticky rice nor the steak salad were very photogenic.  Luckily they tasted great...

...as you can see!

Cookbook Challenge # 24: Som Tum from Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid

My mom gave me this book in 2000.  This and its predecessor "The Seduction of Rice" by the same authors, are the first cookbooks that I remember that were more than just cookbooks.  When I look at the classics - the Joy of Cooking, Best of Bridge etc - you basically have a recipe with a  brief description.  Then authors started telling little stories, such as: "I got this recipe from my good friend so & so who runs a fab restaurant in Timbuktu."  Now it seems that most books have gorgeous pictures of more than just the food, & page-long stories about who/when/what inspired the author.   For the most part I enjoy it, though sometimes I'm irritated that I have to read all about someone's college roommate and the cafe they loved the time they were lost on a road trip before I can get a sense of the food I'm about to make.

This book is a cookbook, a travelogue, and history & cultural lesson all rolled into one.  And the photos are absolutely stunning.  The food & stories featured are from Southeast Asia & remind me of my travels there.

I've been wanting to make Som Tum (Green Papaya Salad) for a while, but it's not easy to find a lot of the ingredients in Squamish.  I've got no shortage of recipes for it - both of the books above have versions.  In fact, the Pok Pok book has a picture of Som Tum on its cover.

I was in Victoria last week & it was easy to find the ingredients.  My mom had the book, so I took a stab at it.  I learned by perusing the net & the book that if you cannot find cooking/green papaya you can also use green beans, yard beans or even apple.

I was able to find green papaya in Chinatown & here's what it looked like:

Som Tum, Grilled Chicken & sticky rice

I made grilled chicken with sweet & spicy dipping sauce to go with it.  It's from the same book, is super easy & very very tasty!

Mom enjoying her meal on the deck

Little people need good eats too! (And big people need quick & easy eats!)

Cooking for Finley has been a riot!  It's so fun to try new things & see how he takes to them.  I am truly amazed and sometimes a little disgusted by what he will eat.  I am thinking of contacting Chobani's to introduce a new line of yoghurt inspired by Finley: kale, butternut squash, egg yolk, tofu to name a few.  I'm sure they could be a hit!

Increasingly I am able to feed him what we have, sometimes with the odd modification.  If he's got his parents' palate he is probably ready for the spice, but I haven't been brave enough to chance it!

Eating one of my favourites: Quinoa, chickpea & roasted yam salad

But Finley needs his variety, it can't be Mommy's special yoghurt all the time.  So I decided it was time to put our baby book to the cookbook challenge.

Cookbook Challenge #21: Cheesy Broccoli Casserole from The Baby & Toddler Cookbook

An old friend of mine gave this to me now that her little man is almost 4.  It has a a few "duh" recipes, such as teaching me how to puree random fruit & vegetables.  But it also has a few actual recipes.  I decided to make a special meal for Finley.

He likes cheese, broccoli & rice, so this seemed like a good recipe.  It also called for mushrooms, which he hadn't had before, but I wasn't too worried as for the most part, he will eat ANYTHING.

Looks pretty tasty fresh out the oven.  

I wasn't home when he tried it for the first time, but I left it for our nanny to feed Finley at lunch.  She leaves us nice little notes about how Finley's day was.  I was so excited to see what he thought of this special dish.

Spat out!!!  What a little monkey!  It must've been the mushrooms.

I tried it myself and I thought it was pretty tasty.  So I fed it to him again the next day, and second time around it was much more to his liking.  He disappeared the entire ramekin!

Cookbook Challenge #22: Steamed Fresh Vegetables & Tofu with Soba Noodles and Miso-Almond Sauce, from Still Life with Menu Cookbook

The recipe is a mouthful (har-har, what a punster!), but the preparation is super easy.  This cookbook is by Mollie Katzen of Moosewood fame.  It is a vegetarian book with a great variety of recipes from around the world.  I like books like this that put recipes together into menus.  That way if I ever get a chance to entertain, I have a good sense of dishes that will go nicely together.

If you are really good with your timing, your veggies are steaming while the noodles are cooking and you are mixing up the miso-almond sauce.  So simple, so quick.  If you are not good with your timing, like me, some of your veggies are overdone while others are underdone... but no biggie!

Throw your veggies on the noodles, toss with your sauce & some chopped nuts & you have a healthy, hardy dinner.  And bonus - it's Finley friendly too!

Cookbook Challenge goes Greek

For Cookbook Challenge #20, I decided to try something that has long intimidated me: Spanakopita.  I think it's the filo pastry that has worried me.   Recently there was a huge long post on the local Mommy Facebook forum about easy meals and one of the moms posted that Spanakopita was easy.  So I decided to give it a try!

Cookbook Challenge #20: Spanakopita from Linda McCartney on Tour

This book was gifted to me by my mom when I was in university.  As I previously mentioned, I went through a vegetarian stint, and my roommates and I loved to try dishes from around the world.  Bingo!  Linda McCartney (Paul's first wife), a dedicated vegetarian, put together this colourful book full of exotic meat-free dishes.

I particularly like the photos of the meat-less chocolate soufflé and custard.
 It's such a relief to have vegetarian desert options.

As soon as I started putting the meal together, I discovered a critical error - I bought 1lb of spinach instead of 2!  Given that spinach is a pretty important ingredient in "Greek Spinach Pie", I debated delaying the meal for another night.  But things were already cooking, so I decided to forge ahead.

I was amazed at how much the spinach cooked down; I started to worry about my plan to use half the required amount.  I added some extra leeks & feta to make up for the missing spinach, crossed my fingers and popped it in the oven.

Short Spanakopita with Mediterranean Salad

Tada!  It worked!  I suppose it might have been taller if I had used the correct amount of spinach, but it was still delicious.  And I have to say, it was much easier than expected.  Hopefully next time I won't cook the edges quite as much.

I'm still not even half way through my cookbook challenge.  What book shall I chose next?

Finley likes his mommy's cooking!