Reems Eats

Kitchen Challenge Take Two

2012-01-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

A rush of wildlife sightings have occurred of late in my neck of the woods. The deer were not deterred by the snow and continued to camp out under the evergreens at the edge of the yard. If you read my last post you know wildlife encounters are not always pleasant in these parts, but neither Caleb or I have been attacked or molested by a deer, anyways. I'm still keeping an eye out for the gray squirrel, who I neither trust nor encourage to roam freely about the property, which he does. I spotted him bounding along the roof of the cabin the other day and my blood ran cold.

Perhaps I'm hyper aware of the creatures around me due to the viewing of two nature embracing films. The first was The Cove, very chilling and sad and makes one wonder about sushi. The second was Winged Migration, quite the opposite, rather inspiring and beautiful in a boring sort of way. Although my opinion on nature documentaries is not to be trusted. In all honesty, I find Blue Planet ho hum. Look, not a popular point of view, I know, but the truth.

With winged migration in mind I was particularly impressed when upon walking up to Elk Lake on Victoria's single blissful snow day, hoards of duck and geese were winging in and out of the lake. The honk of the goose is quite chilling in the snow as wind whips across the lake. If only I could learn to imitate it. But some things are not meant to be.

It is with these wonderful creatures in mind that I propose the next challenge.

Haley: Prepare yourself. This will be wonderful. Consider the call of the goose, and prepare to prepare your:

duck, duck, duck Goose! duck.

Bimbibap

2012-01-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

I know that putting a fried egg on top of a bowl of pretty much anything is pretty trendy right now, a trend that I've embraced wholeheartedly in the past few years. I've been cracking eggs on risotto, on fried rice, I've even cracked a few on a pizza (I know you're skeptical, but it was good). I may be jumping on a foodie bandwagon, but full credit to this one goes to the Koreans. They've been cracking eggs on top of rice bowls for years.

It's Lunar New Year today, and to celebrate we had my first attempt at a traditional Korean dish - Bimbibap. Made from scratch it is a bit fussy, though according to Grace, in Korea this meal is made with leftover side-dishes, ones that are present with every Korean meal. This is Grace's dad's go to meal when her mom is away-

Campbell-Choi Bimbibap

Ingredients:

Veggies-
2 carrots, cut into thin strips
1 zuchinni, cut into thin strips
1 handful of sliced mushrooms (more if EVERYONE in your family likes mushrooms)
bean sprouts (handful per person)
spinach - I used aprox 3 cups fresh

ground beef, aprox 1 pound

eggs, 1 per person

Korean chili paste, found in your city's Korean grocery store, unless you live in Chilliwack.

Sesame oil, with a pinch of salt and pepper

Get Cooking:

1) Make some sticky rice - Korean rice has a stickier texture than Chines, from my Korean taste testers I have found that Calrose rice is the one that most approximates Korean rice texture.

2) Fry the ground beef. Grace reports that this should not be seasoned, as the seasoning comes later but I couldn't resist and added a shot of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar.

3) Cook your veggies. Now, in some of the recipes I saw online some of the veggies were sauteed in sesame oil, but we made Choi-style Bimbibap, which means that veggies were blanched in boiling water. I used one pot with salted boiling water and just rotated the different veggies through, pulling them out with a slotted spoon to a platter when the preceeding veg was cooked.

4) Fry the eggs, sunny-side up style

5) Assemble. On a bowl of rice add the veggies, the beef, a shot of sesame oil, a shot of chili paste, and finally an egg.

6) Mix! See the second photo of our lovely Korean model for the proper mixing technique. I offered to go get chop sticks but was informed that this meal is NOT eaten with chop sticks.

Rach - I'm still waiting on that reciprocal challenge. Guess you're just afraid with what I'm going to come back with. And you should be, afraid that is. Very afraid.

Turnip and Parsnip Latkes with Pomegranate Seeds

2012-01-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

It's been brought! If you read our last post, you know that Haley threw down the gauntlet and Rachel was to respond by crafting a dish combining the two seemingly contradictory ingredients, of turnips and pomegranate. Read on to discover the surprisingly delicious results.

Dearest Haley,
Yikes:
A massive squirrel is shimying down the tree outside my window. He's huge. Hmmm. Perhaps this nature sighting could prove insightful for the challenge I put forth to you. In France they eat pigeon...

Ever since Dad declared war on the grey squirrel dominating our neighbourhood and theiving from our cherry tree, I've found the rodents rather repulsive. They're so sneaky. And greedy. For instance, this squirrel in the tree outside my window, he's a big boy, like mondo, overweight, bottom heavy. Oh gross. He just pooed. Sorry.

Anyhow, turnips are a bit like gray squirrels with me. A tad repulsive. Sure, I'll toss one back in a stew and later mistake it for a potato, but I've never consciously thought, 'Mmmm. Turnips.' Have you? Well, after you challenged me to pair the frumpy turnip with the delicious pomegranate, I think I developed a new appreciation for that rather plain veggie. I discovered it has a little spice, a little more something-to-it than your potato. Nonetheless, it is happy to take the role of backdrop, providing a canvass, so to speak, for other showier veggies, fruits (in this case), or meats.

With this in mind, I created a dish composed of turnip latkes, topped with coconut curry sauce and a pomegranate salsa. I was so bold as to offer up this startling combination to dinner guests and, my goodness gracious, they loved it!
Turnip and Parsnip Latkes
4 medium potatoes, grated
2 turnips, grated
1 parsnip, peeled and grated
(2 pounds of vegetables in total)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine all the ingredient in a large bowl. Shape into small paddies and place on two greased cookie sheets. Bake at 370 for thirty minutes, flipping the latkes half way through baking time, or until golden brown.

Good toppings include: pomegranate seeds with balsamic vinegar, sour cream, butter, cheese, anything you'd like!

Kitchen Challenge

2012-01-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

Rach,

Channel yourself back to your grade 8 self.

You're at a slumber party, probably at the DeBoer's.

Truth or Dare? Do you pour your heart out, or prank call Caleb Speller? You chose the dare of course.

Now back to 2012, it's time for the first round of Reems Eats Truth or Dare. Truth would be fun, but let's save that for my visit at the end of the month. Here is your first dare: I'm going easy on you with my first foodie challenge, we have to gain momentum after all. All this requires is a quick jaunt down to your favourite Red Barn to shop for the following 2 items that you need to include in a single meal this week:

Go!

(I'm not sure why I thought that photographing myself would lend anything to this post - this particular shot was culled from a ridiculous amount of wasted memory card space - I tried to look tough, which resulted in a strange facial grimace; I tried to give a challenging stare, which brought out an astounding amount of wrinkles, including some odd ones in my neck. Trust me, my face behind paper was the best option)

Stollen worthy..

2011-12-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

The Chilliwack to Victoria Reems phone lines had a flurry of activity this week. Rachel and I logged in a record number of calls over a topic very dear to our hearts and stomachs, stollen. We came away from last year's stollen baking class with a wonderful, but cryptic recipe; so as we baked our stollen batches, in kitchens a ferry ride apart, much consultation was needed.

Important questions such as: Anise or no? How much simple syrup and rum to soak the dried fruit? To peel or not to peel? Is your sponge looking a tad dry? In response were wise insights, gems such as: Don't skimp on the almond paste. Organic citrus for the best zest...

It might take years before we nail down just the right steps to post a recipe for this wonderful bread. So instead I'll tease you with this lovely stollen photo. If you spend time with us these holidays and share a stollen, count yourself stollen-worthy. If not, there's always next year.

Merry Christmas!

Crockpot Cider

2011-12-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

Last night was Chilliwack's Santa Parade. Attending with Coby and Finn makes parade viewing secondary to the entertainment right next to me - little frosty fingers waving for the candy hand-outs, little bodies bobbing to jazzed up Christmas carols, saucer-eyes beaming at flat-beds decked out with lights. Finn's favourite- 'Mom that one has a gorilla AND a monkey.' Santa definitely took a back seat.

Coming back home to a crock pot full of apple cider is a lovely treat - something that I like to prepare a few times over the Christmas season. It's easy, feels special (particularly to a 4-year-old), and makes the house smell amazing. If you don't have a crock pot, or are staying home just let the cider simmer in a pot over low heat.

On low for at least two, but as many as four or five hours - Pour in one or two cartons of 100 percent apple juice (definitely use real apple cider if available) and add a teaspoon or so of whole cloves per carton, and few cinnamon sticks (I used two last night for one carton - I would count on one per child, they make a great stir stick). For extra pizazz add sliced apples or cranberries to the mixture.

Oatmeal French Toast

2011-11-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my dear friend asked me a personal question. We were at play. The curtain hadn't opened: okay there was no curtain. The lights hadn't yet dimmed and we were small talking, surrounded by people, and she asked me if I'd ever had a notebook moment.

A notebook moment?

Yeah, like in the Notebook, were it's all super romantic and they're intensely in love (she trails off).

I look around. This is a high-school play. The thirteen year-old girl on my right beams at me.

I Hiss: Yesss. Of course.

I look around.

She nods. I knew it, she says.

The night before, Thursday night, my husband gave an artist talk at the community college. In this talk he read poetry. Poetry. Of course I've had Notebook moment.

Although, I do believe things like lingering breakfasts of hot coffee and french toast with home-made jam make all the difference.

We love breakfast. And french toast. Now, I didn't come up with this recipe entirely on my own. Chef at Home definitely had something to do with it.

Oatmeal French Toast for Two

1/2 a cup of milk
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
a dash of vanilla
4 pieces of soft bread (I used a poppy seed lemon bread and it was a winner)
1/4 cup oatmeal, or more as needed

Whisk together the milk, eggs, salt, vanilla in a shallow bowl. Scatter the oatmeal on a large plate. Dip the bread in the egg mixture then dredge it through the oatmeal. Fry in a hot pan until crispy on both sides. Top with your favourite breakfast condiments.

Soup Sundays

2011-11-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

If you've been sitting in proximity of the Campbells at Heartland Fellowship on a Sunday this fall, you might have noticed a particular smell. It's not a bad smell, in fact in context it's lovely, but just not something that we're striving for in our daily hygiene. We smell like soup. From Mike and I, to our trendy Korean teenager, right down to baby, you can't miss that soupy scent. Ironically the soup-link is not from our name, Campbell; it is actually a side-effect of my Dutch heritage, and given the amount of Dutch blood in Chilliwack, I can guarantee we're not the only ones with this particular eau de cologne.

The love of soup is, along with the love of a good deal, in the Dutch DNA. A Sunday, just isn't a Sunday without a piping post-church bowl. When we first started scouting out Chilliwack as our future home, we were introduced to the soup of an expert soup chef, none other than my Dutch Soup-Nazi Uncle, Jan Van Wyk. It was at a post-church lunch that Finn first learned, from one of my triplet cousins (Mark), the art of slurping the final soup dredges from the side of the tipped bowl.

At our house Grace has labeled my beef-vegetable soup as Sunday Soup, alas, that recipe is difficult to transcribe as I have a different variation each Sunday depending on my vegetable crisper and particular whims. The soup that I have been feasting on lately is a simple lentil soup. The key to this soup is to combine your veggies, lentils, and broth and to let the whole mixture simmer for a few hours. This results in a thick and lovely soup, reminiscent of a dahl. This is actually a riff on my pea soup recipe, when I was out of split peas I substituted red lentils and added a shot of cumin. Delicious. There is no way to get an attractive picture of this soup, so I've included my little soup-eater in the shot. I made a batch of this soup on the weekend and have heating it up for lunches during the week.

Lentil Soup
(A flexible recipe, you can play with the quantities and types of veggies depending on your preferences and what you have on hand)

1 cup red lentils
3 chopped carrots
3 chopped stalks of celery
3 clove minced garlic
1 chopped onion
1/3 cup tomato paste OR several chopped tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock (I use Epicures chicken base)
1 tsp salt
good pinch pepper
1/2 tsp cumin

Combine ingredients, bring to a simmer and then simmer at low for as much time as you have - 2 - 3 hours is ideal. The soup should be nice and thick. Taste for seasoning, if it is a bit bland add salt, a pinch at a time until you get it right. Note that if you use chicken stock with sodium then I would decrease the amount of salt in the recipe.

Rice Pudding: My Cozy Food

2011-11-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been a few months. Things happened: I moved and acquired deer for neighbors. Became an Aunt eight times over. Learned to make pea soup with a ham hock. Befriended two giant poodles. Got a temp teaching computers.

Anyone who knows me is shocked by the last admition. It's true. I'm now a Word and Excel specialist.

I also ran a half marathon. If you read Haley's last post, you've seen me in my glory. That was weeks ago. I'm wearing a tank top. Now I'm wearing a Russel hoody--the hood is actually over my head. A blanket is tucked over my lap. Times have changed. The running has tapered. Okay, pretty much stopped. I'm starting to knit. I like hot chocolate at night. Comfort has become my mantra, which leads me to the rice pudding.

Rice pudding is mostly memory for me. An early memory of raisins and creamy whiteness, of a time when this delicious mush meant rice. Stir Fries had not yet made their debut in my mother's kitchen (which they would with a fury) and rice, in my mind, was in no way connected to vegetables. Therein lay it's beauty. Tonight I recovered this delicacy. I have no idea if this rice pudding is at all like the one my mom use to make. I think, most likely, it is not. This particular pudding starts on the stove and finishes in the oven, rendering it both simple to create and extremely creamily delicious.

The recipe is from Marion Cunningham's The Supper Book (which is a super book, by the way) and I only altered it slightly. Marion uses one cup of cream in her recipe, which I replaced with two percent milk. The reason being that Marion serves her pudding for dessert, whereas I was feasting on mine for dinner. You might consider using part half and half cream, but my rice pudding was plenty smooth, rich and delicious.

Rice Pudding (serves 6)

1 cup water
1/2 cup white, short grain rice
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk (here Marion uses heavy cream)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup plus 2Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350.

Bring the water to boil in a medium-sized pot. Add the rice. Cook on low for ten minutes. Add the milk and salt. Cook on low for ten to fifteen more minutes. The rice should be tender. Combine the remaining sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Remove the rice from the heat and add the egg mixture to the pot. Whisk to combine.
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Pour the mixture into a square baking pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon. Put the pan in a larger pan and fill the larger pan with boiling water one inch high. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until almost set. Let the pudding cool slightly, and firm up in doing so, before serving.

Half Marathon

2011-10-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

It's time to brag about Rachel again - yes my absentee-blogger sister- whom we cheered on in the Royal Victoria half marathon on Sunday. Just recovering from the flu, at one hour and 32 minutes, she still managed to pull in 51st place out of 3231 women. Though the biggest workout I got was the 3 block walk from the car, I got a bit uppity about the whole thing - '2 hours? Nice job coming out, but too bad we SMOKED you!' Ah, the royal we.

Since we were in Victoria I didn't do a lot of cooking, just a whole lot of eating. I've provided a few links to some of our old autum posts - I must say that we Reems girls do like our apples. Which is good as I have 2 big bags of Jonagolds from the Chilliwack Corn maze to deal with.

Acorn-Stuffed Squash
Apple Cake
Apple Walnut Bread
French Apple Cake
Roasted Veggies with Feta
Zucchini Pancakes

Birthday Pancakes

2011-09-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

I seem to be hurtling through a strange time warp, it doesn't seem like a whole year ago that we celebrated Coby's first birthday. Yet here we are, with our 2-year-old monkey. I am putting an argument forward that Coby actually hit the twos about a month ago, she now likes to add a bit of spice to our lives (code: she's a screamer). Favourite expressions include: 'Mine', 'Coby's____', 'I do it', and of course 'No!' Finn summed it up quite nicely a few weeks ago "Coby thinks that the whole world is hers."

She really is a sweetheart who likes to play with little people, likes to cart around her little people, gives near-suffocating hugs to her baby brother, and can't hear a tune without breaking into enthusiastic dance. In true Reems fashion, birthday celebrations revolve around good eats. We started the day off with banana chocolate chip pancakes, moved onto cupcakes, and rounded the whole day off the festivities with good friends at a wiener roast at the Chilliwack corn maze.

It's time I share a Reems classic, the Peter Pancake. This recipe comes from the Crazy Plates authors, Janet and Greta Podleski. I use the recipe as more of a guide. You can play with the ratio of white and whole wheat flours. I also like to add some oatmeal to the recipe (and with the oatmeal an extra shot of milk). I sometimes sub yogurt for part of the milk, I sometimes use maple syrup or brown sugar instead of the honey. For birthdays and special days, say a grumpy toddler morning, a handful of chocolate chips really brings them to a celebratory level.

Banana Pancakes (based on Crazy Plates' Peter Pancakes)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda and salt
1 3/4 cup buttermilk (I use regular milk and a shot of lemon juice)
2 T melted butter
1 egg
1 T honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup mashed banana

1) Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2) In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients

Cook pancakes in a skillet or griddle over medium high-heat in a pan coated with butter or non-stick spray. Best served with maple syrup.

Blackberry Cream Puffs

2011-08-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a busy 2 months. The blog break was unintentional, but after you miss a week or two it's hard to get back in the swing of blogging. It's a vicious cycle of guilt and avoidance- actually, fairly similar to life. Not that we don't have a nice list of valid excuses: Rachel has been busy moving and living the care-free life of a teacher on summer holidays. I've been busy having a baby and living the care-free life of the wife of a teacher on holidays.

If any of our readers are still out there, be rest assured that the the Reems girls are still eating. And cooking. And eating. Oh, and did I mention eating?

My latest offering is a west coast special- after 5 years in Calgary, far away from wild blackberry bushes, I am still reveling in the delight of these juicy morsels. Rachel and I come from a family of serious berry pickers. My earliest blackberry picking memories are with my grandfather; he knew all the off-the-map bushes and every summer produced ice cream buckets fully of black, juicy berries. His daughters, Joan and Wiena shared the picking gene, earning money picking strawberries at the neighbouring Slater's field. If I recall Reems folklore correctly, it was Guy (our dad) whose genes I share - he also tried his hand berry picking at Slater's one day, on a long ago summer - this ended badly, with he and his friends getting packed off after more eating than picking, and the final culmination of a berry throwing war. I can only imagine Joan and Wiena trying to distance themselves from such hooligans.

Finally, our picking dynasty falls to my sister and co-blogger, Rachel. She and our baby sister Carmen are both pickers of some repute, spending adolescent summers biking down the road post-paper route to pick raspberries on hot summer mornings. If my memory serves me it was Rachel who was the top picker in the field. Myself? I'm a liability to a picking party. I like to sample as I go, which makes for a delicious outing, but alas a slowly-filling bucket.

While I am taking credit for the divine inspiration to add blackberries to the whipped cream filling in cream puffs, I must aknowledge Dorrie Greenspan for the cream puff recipe found in her book, Around the French Table. And I must give credit to Rachel for tipping me off to Dorrie's latest book. I was initially intimidated by the mention of French in the title; however the recipes I've tried are do-able and delicious.

Blackberry Cream Puffs-
Makes about 24 medium-sized cream puffs

First make the Cream Puffs:

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 2 percent with a splash of half and half)

1/2 cup water

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Bring the milk, water, butter and salt to the boil in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan. When the mixture is boiling rapidly, add the flour all at once, reduce the heat to medium and, without a second's hesitation, start stirring the mixture like mad with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together very quickly and a slight crust will form on the bottom of the pan, but you have to keep stirring - vigorously - another 2 to 3 minutes to dry the dough. At the end of this time, the dough will be very smooth.

Turn the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or, if you've still got some elbow grease left, you can continue by hand. One by one, add the eggs to the dough, beating until each egg is thoroughly incorporated. Don't be discouraged - as soon as you add the first egg, your lovely dough will separate. Keep working and by the time you add the third egg it will start coming together again. When all the eggs are incorporated, the dough will be thick and shiny and, when you lift some of it up it will fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. The dough will still be warm - it's supposed to be - and now is the time to use it.

Using about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough for each puff, drop the dough from the spoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between each mound of dough.

Slide the baking sheets into the oven, bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the sheets from top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking until the puffs are golden and firm, another 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the cream puffs to a cooling rack.

Keeping: You can spoon out the dough and either bake it immediately or freeze it. To freeze, spoon the dough in mounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. When the dough is completely frozen, remove the balls from the baking sheets and wrap them airtight. They can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months and don't need to be defrosted before baking.

Finally, when cool fill cut each puff open and fill with a dollop of whipped cream. Place 4 or 5 juicy blackberries on top of the cream. These need to be eaten soon after they are assembled. Any unfilled puffs will last over night but will need to be re-crisped in the oven the day of use.

Greek Chicken Meal Plan

2011-06-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm in my final two months of pregnancy - with two cranky monkeys ready to greet me after a day of daycare excitement, the last thing I want to do after a day of work is cook a big meal. I realize I shouldn't be complaining - I only work half time, and today is my Friday. On Tuesdays I rarely rise beyond a quick stir fry, or calling in my back-up dinner strategy - Mike making tacos. Today may appear like an exception to that rule - but it's a trick. This is a quick and easy meal plan.

Greek Chicken Meal Plan

1) Walk in the door - instead of heading for couch you need to go directly to the kitchen. This will require husband back-up support for childcare, or in lieu of, a cartoon will due in a pinch.

2) Dump your chicken in a bowl and sprinkle on some salt and pepper, dried oregano, a few tablespoons of lemon juice, and if you have the energy, some minced garlic. You can use whatever chicken cuts you want, today I cooked little drumsticks, I can't tell you what weight - maybe 8 drumettes.

3) Put some rice onto cook. I add a scoop of msg-free powdered chicken base for some flavour. This is not a time for brown rice, we're talking about a time-factor.

4) Put chicken on the barbie

5) Take some asparagus and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt. When you go to flip your chicken over add the asparagus to the grill.

5) Make your yogurt sauce. This is a flexible sauce, you can add or subtract ingredients as you like. Today mine included: about 1 cup yogurt, 1 T lemon juice, 1 T olive oil, 1 chopped fresh dill, 1 T chopped chives, a sprig of fresh oregano, and aprox 1/4 cup crumbled feta. Finally add salt and pepper to taste. Chop extra fresh herbs (if using) to sprinkle on your rice. You could also take this time to make a quick salad if you have the inclination.

6) When your chicken is grilled almost to perfection take half the sauce and put a tablespoon or so on each piece. Leave on the grill for a last few minutes and then using your brand new silicon tongs (sorry, that was me), pile your chicken and asparagus on a platter.

7) Sprinkle the remaining chopped herbs on your rice and serve along with the chicken, asparagus, reserved half of the sauce, and your salad. I like to add a scoop of sauce onto my rice, though you can also give your chicken an extra douse.

The chicken was so good that after 6 months of abstaining, Coby rekindled a love for poultry.

You might correctly surmised that my herb garden has been planted; you can substitute dried herbs, but I love fresh dill in the sauce.

Brown Rice Yam Rolls

2011-05-26T18:16:00.001-07:00

Well, I am a deep-fry virgin no longer. I dunked my battered yams into that sizzling oil like a seasoned veteran. Somewhere mid-fry, I realized the irony of trying to increase the health of the sushi with brown rice, while stuffing it full of yam tempura. The yam rolls were delicious - however, due to the extra fiddling I think that tempura will be making only special appearances in my sushi roll line-up. The brown rice sushi was great - health notwithstanding, I loved the flavour and texture, and will definitely be making this swap in the future (I forgot to tell Mike about the brown rice and I don't think he noticed).

I do have a thanks to give: a big shout out goes to my elastic-waist maternity pants- I think I ate the baby's weight in sushi tonight. Of course, you can't make yam tempura without some sampling.

Brown Rice Sushi

I don't have a recipe per se, there are many guides to making sushi a la google. However, here are some tips.

I used this method to make the yam tempura.

For the brown sushi rice I cooked 2 cups of calrose brown rice, which I find has a stickier grain, and added sushi vinegar and salt to taste (sushi vinegar is just rice vinegar, sugar, and salt).

Just before you roll your sushi it's time to cut up your other filling options. Tonight I sliced avocado and cucumber to go along with the yam. For other sushi dinners I mix and match lots of different fillings: matchsticks of carrot, egg omelet cut into strips, crab, shrimp, smoked salmon, thinly julienned red peppers - you can be as creative as you want. I have to confess I have never used raw fish, I love it at restaurants but I'm too nervous at home.

Again, if you've never made sushi before just google the directions for how to put it all together, there are lots of good step-by-step photographs out there. Here's what I do:

It's time to roll baby! Place your nori sheet on the mat, then spread over enough rice to cover the sheet up to about an inch from one edge. Press the rice onto the nori with water-moistened fingers, and also wet the rice-less edge. Put your fillings a few inches up from the bottom of the mat and roll up toward the moistened edge. You want to be give the mat a good squeeze as you go so that your sushi is nice and compact. Next slice. I like to keep my pieces thin - particularly as we have small mouths around the table. I have a fabulous serrated bread knife that Mike gifted me a few years ago and it slices a clean piece of sushi.

Finally serve with soy sauce to dip. I love pickled ginger on the side, and it lasts forever in your fridge. If you like wasabi it will also last indefinitely in the fridge - you can also buy it in powdered form and add water to make a paste as you need it.

One final question for all those more experienced deep-fryers - how to dispose of the leftover oil?

Grape Nuts Cereal

2011-05-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

I love cereal; not only for it's sweetness, crunch, or thirst-quenching milk, I also dig the strange variety, the oddity of shapes and colours. Is this food? I've wondered upon seeing a string of various coloured Fruit Loops around a child's neck. My Fruit Loop necklaces never lasted long. I was invariably left with a soggy string. As a kid, I also dug the boxes. At breakfast, you could barricade your face, and suck back cereal while reading about magnifying glasses that could be ordered with box tops, or the specs of a sports hero who ate Corn Flakes EVERY day.

The trouble is, cereal isn't really very good for you. The list of ingredients is typically populated by words I cannot pronounce or define. Plus, cereal never tastes as good as I remember. Perhaps it's the additives or the long-shelf life, but the flavor is...off. Fortunately, I found out you can make cereal. Actually cereal. Not just granola. I found this recipe for cereal in the More With Less Cookbook. I love the Mennonites.

This cereal is actually delicious. It's crunchy and a little bit sweet and made with all whole-wheat flour. We devoured it.

Grape Nuts Cereal (Adapted from the More with Less Cookbook)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the ingredients together in a large bowl. Grease two cookie sheets and spread half of the mixture over each sheet. You want to spread it out as much as possible.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let the giant crackers cool of ten minutes, then brake them into irregular pieces (large shards is good). Then bake them again, lowering the heat to 250 degrees for another 20 minutes or until they are crisp.

Let cool and then whir the pieces in a food processor.

Enjoy with milk.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake

2011-05-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

First off, for the curious, yes I did wake up at 2:30 am to watch the festivities and hats last week. I didn't stay up for the whole wedding, just long enough to see the bride make it the altar, from there I trusted Prince William to take care of the rest. And yes I did enjoy a scone at 3 am, and then at 7 am and then later at... those Royal scones were delicious. I'm not going to wait for another royal event to make another batch.

Quinoa has been nagging me for awhile. I've been hearing the buzz about quinoa - the health benefits and high protein content, but I hadn't gone out and tried any recipes myself. Well, Joan took care of that by gifting me with the quinoa cookbook. I started off with the quinoa pizza dough and then attempted the chocolate cake, which Joan has been giving rave reviews.

According to my fellow blogger, Rachel, the quinoa chocolate cake has been making the rounds in Victoria, ever since this recipe was featured in the Times Colonist. I felt it was my duty as a proud Chilliwack-ian to see what we were missing (note to those in the 'Wack - while I haven't looked around for quinoa at other grocery stores, Superstore carries it bulk in the natural foods aisle).

Kylie and Ty, some of my regular Reems Eats taste-testers was over for tea, and it was time to try out the chocolate cake. I made it in two 9 inch pans, though it was supposed to be in 8 inch, because that's what I had, so it resulted in a slightly lower cake, but it was lovely and moist.

This is a gluten-free recipe

Moist Chocolate Cake
from Quinoa 365, the Everyday Superfood by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming

2/3 cup white or golden quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two 8-inch round or square cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.

Combine the milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor. Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and the butter and continue to blend until smooth.

Combine sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add the contents of the blender and mix well. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake on the centre rack for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before serving. Frost if desired.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week or freeze for up to a month.

Special Thanks to my neighbour Laura for coming up with the remainder of the cocoa after I realized mid-recipe that I was a half cup short.

Royal Oat Currant Scones

2011-04-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not ruling out a 3am tryst with Will and Kate tomorrow morning - I'm not setting my alarm, but if I happen to wake up during the wee hours, I might just have to get a quick sneak peak in. What I can guarantee is a more timely wedding recap over leftover oat currant scones with raspberry jam and tea for breakfast.

Without an ounce of English blood in me, I have still always been a royals fan, or more specifically a Princess Diana fan. Many royal weddings were staged through my childhood - Rachel, you'll recall the dress-up box dress that was my bridal couture - white polyester with a red v-neck collar. Poor Brent was forced to marry his big sister on multiple occasions.

So in honour of this Royal occasion, I give you a good British tea treat- oat and currant scones. These are indeed 'fab' and need only a good smear of butter, but the raspberry jam took them over the top. I had pictured a slightly more serene lunch of scones and tea today - however, Coby received her second time out this week, and unfortunately it occurred mid-scone. After devouring her piece of cheese, she had moved onto her brother's. His refusal was met with a firm chomp of his finger. Definitely not royal behaviour.

Oat and Currant Scones
adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

1) Combine:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour, regular or white whole wheat (I used white whole wheat)
1/4 cup sugar (I used brown)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup salt

2) Cut in (until resembles bread crumbs):
1/2 cup butter

3) Add:
1/3 cup currants (or raisins)
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats

4) Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and then add to the dry ingredients:
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (I added 1/2 T lemon juice to regular milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract

5) When the dough is evenly moistened (I needed to add an extra tablespoon of milk to my dough as it was a tad dry), pat the dough into a large circle and cut into 8 wedges. These make a good sized breakfast scone, you could also divide the dough in half and make two circles, each with 6 wedges for a smaller tea-sized scone. Ensure the scones are aprox 1 inch apart on your baking sheet.

6) Brush the tops with milk or cream and sprinkle with course sugar.

7) Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown, take a few minutes off for smaller scones.

These are best warm, though I can assure you I will be enjoying my scone leftovers while watching the pageantry tomorrow morning.

Basil Tomato Sauce with Meatballs and Pasta

2011-04-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

When Mooch and I was kids, we loved foil-wrapped Easter eggs, the ones that are three parts wax, one part chocolate. The parents threw them about the house before we woke with the sun on Easter morning. Neon straw baskets in hand, we combatively hunted eggs. Racing our three siblings, jostling for position, we attacked the eggs, all the while stalking the big one: The bunny. Dang, those hollow, food-colouring scalloped bunnies were good.

This story is meant as a sidetrack. I dangle the chocolate bunny as a distraction. I didn't cook with whole grains this week. Not one lousy thing. (Haley and I are on mission to cook with whole grains and post our recipes during the months of May and June). I made chocolate hot cross buns. I poached a chicken. Bulgar, barley, couscous and kumet played hooky from my plate.

I did make meatballs and tomato sauce. (Mooch will remember that I abhorred this dish as a child but have seen the error of my ways, reformed, and embrace it adoringly.)

Basil Tomato Sauce with Meatballs and Pasta

For the sauce

one and a half cups finely chopped onions

5 garlic cloves, minced (more if you'd like)

1 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)

2 large cans of whole tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

a handful of chopped basil

a spoon of sugar

a shot of red wine (not necessary but dang good)

salt and pepper to taste

Put a glug of olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. When the oil warms, add the onions, garlic, and hot red pepper flakes and lower the heat. Cook over low, stirring occasionally for ten minutes. Add the tomatoes, paste, and basil. Use a wooden spoon or a potato masher to break up the tomatoes so they are no longer whole but sauce-like. Add the wine and a little sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes and the meatballs. Simmer for one to two hours. You can get away with forty five minutes. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

For the Meatballs

1 piece of bread

1/2 a cup milk

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup minced onions
2 cloves of garlic, minced

a handful of parsley, minced (you can sub green onions or a herb of your choice)

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.

Soak the bread in the milk. Wring it out a place it in a wide bowl. Add the beef, onions, garlic, parsley and salt and pepper. Mix until just combined (over-mixing will create dry meatballs). Place the meatballs in roaster or on a cookie sheet and bake for ten minutes.

Cook your noodles according to the package directions. I often use shells or linguine.

Monday Salad

2011-04-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Oh Monday, how I wish we could just get along. You don't make it easy to bounce out of bed and wrestle clothes onto two little monkeys. You don't make going to work very fun when I haven't had a chance to read the paper, or even make a cup of coffee. Oh Monday, the best thing we have going for us is our shared love of chocolate, and crawling into bed at 8pm with a book and a big pile of pillows. I guess we're meeting half way.

One thing that makes Mondays a little friendlier is a lovely salad waiting for your lunch. A salad that was lovingly prepared on the weekend and will allow you an extra piece of leftover chocolate cake for dessert. This salad is great because it lasts in your fridge for a few days and tastes delicious and virtuous every time.

Haley's Barley Salad
This could be made using quinoa, or any other type of grain in place of the barley.

1) Cook 2/3 cup pot or pearl barley- cook in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Cover, bring to a boil. Then stir and turn down to low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the grains still have a slight 'chew'. Set aside to cool before adding the rest of your ingredients

2) Chop veggie add-ins of your choice: For this particular salad I used red pepper, green onion, and olives. Tomatoes, avocado, or cucumber are options, but should be added just before eating, not if you plan to save this salad for a few days like I do.

3) Other add ins: I add chick peas and crumbled feta cheese or chevre. Fresh herbs such as basil and cilantro are also nice additions, but I admit I usually just have them on hand in the summer.

4) Toss the barley and additions with your vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette: I combine 4 T olive oil (or canola) with 4 T wine vinegar and 1 tsp dijon mustard. Then add salt and pepper to taste. You may need more or less vinaigrette depending on your veggie quantities.

Spelt Carrot Muffins

2011-04-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Poor Haley! (Read the sad story that is Haley's last post)

I'm confused. Haley's not supposed to fall ill. She is unfailingly hearty. While I sniffled my way through childhood, often home with an upset tummy or a cough, Haley maintained a flawless attendance record. She poo-pooed colds. She never got cramps. Childbirth? 'Sure it hurts...' she said.

Poor Haley. Get better Haley!

And hearty thanks to all her friends in the Wack who are bringing her casseroles and minding her babies.

Anyways, it's whole-grain month. I made carrot muffins. These muffins are from Kim Boyce's book, "Good to the Grain," and taste exactly like muffins should. Not too sweet but wholesomely delicious. Confession: I replaced some of the sugar with agave syrup.

Spelt Carrot Muffins

Topping (this is half the amount of topping Kim uses. I thought it sufficient.)

1/4 cup spelt flour

1.5 Tbsp brown sugar

pinch kosher salt

1.5 Tbsp butter

Dry 1 cup spelt

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup oat bran

1/4 cup natural cane sugar

1 tsp all spice

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups corsely grated carrot (use the food processor:)

Wet

1/4 cup melted and cooled butter

1/4 cup agave syrup

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

For the topping: Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

For the muffins: Sift the dry together. Mix the wet together and fold into the dry. Scoop into a greased muffin tin (makes nine). Top with the topping, pressing the topping gently into the batter.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

La!

Invalids and Moon Cakes

2011-04-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

Where have we been for the past month? While Rachel took her annual sojourn down to the Baja as a missions-cook, my absence started off with a bad chicken salad sandwich. What started as a lovely lunch out with my children and in-laws, spiraled downwards as all but one of our party came down with a nasty case of salmonella poisoning (Chief/Grandpa wisely stayed away from the chicken salad, opting for the safer and consequence-free pastrami). Of course, it took us a week of symptoms, indescribable on a food-blog, for us to realize that this was not a common GI bug. And of course, Mike was off to Belize with a plane-full of high-school students leaving me solo with two sick little monkeys. We breathed a sigh of relief as health seemed to re-appear in our household, only for me to be struck down by the after-effects of a case of salmonella, onto round 2. It took one excruciatingly painful swollen knee, several ER drainings, and a total inability to weight-bear before I was diagnosed with Reactive Arthritis. With the miracle of modern medicine, aka a cortisone injection, I seem to be on the road to recovery.

Now, this has had two consequences: The first is that Mike has become more aware of my local rock star status, well amongst the 80 + crowd. As an occupational therapist, most people, including my husband aren't totally sure of what it is I do. Despite a few stabs at explanations, most people find it easier to file away in their minds that I'm a nurse. Finn knows that I work at the hospital, but I'm honest with myself: When Mike asks me how my day was, my family doesn't really care that 92 year-old Violet can once again use the toilet independently; or that Reginald thinks that the microwave is a washing machine (actually, Finn would like that). So when Mike took my doctors script into the Red Cross to get me a pair of crutches he was unprepared for the reaction that greeted this request-

Haley Campbell?

THE Haley Campbell, the OT?

These crutches are for Haley Campbell?

Hey guys! - Haley Campbell needs crutches (chuckles all around).

Yes, I am the queen of raised toilet seats and safety frames.

The other consequence of being an invalid for a few days, is the realization of our community. Suddenly we have a freezer full of casseroles and childcare offers. Auntie Wiena spent a morning cleaning my floors. It's a good feeling that after living in Chilliwack for two and a half years we have friends and a church community that quickly steps up and provides us support when we need it.

So while I'm getting back into the kitchen, and gearing up to pepper you with our next exciting food theme (whole grains), I am going to leave you with this recipe from Anne, who made us a lovely meal this week with these cupcakes for dessert. Mike, who professes to not be a sweets guy, was quite firm in his insistence that I get this recipe!

A huge thank you for all of you who brought us meals or who watched our kiddies last week!

Moon Cupcakes
(She didn't specify how many this makes, but I'm guessing 1 dozen)

Beat Well: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/3 c sugar, dash salt
Add 1 c mini choc chips

Separate Bowl: 1 1/2 c flour,1 c sugar, 1/4 c cocoa, 1 t. baking soda, 1 c cold water, 1/3 c oil, 1 t. vinegar

Use mixer and beat- don't over beat.

Put this mixture in bottom of cupcake liner.

Fill to 1/3 level.

Then put cream cheese mixture over this in liner.

Bake 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Sweet Potato Waffles

2011-03-13T12:06:00.001-07:00

Time change Sunday is always marked by an air of confusion for the Chilliwack Campbells. Mike and I spend the early morning of the change debating whether to ignore the children bouncing on top of us, and to lounge just another 5 minutes, or whether to adopt the new time and Carpe Diem. We generally opt for the ignoring of children (well, as long as possible), and the rest of the day is spent questioning the correct time.

Today the choice was made for us by our brilliant new clock radio. Unbeknownst to us, it was very much aware of the time change - so while we thought we were still on old time, we were actually on the correct new time. Mike and I were both stumbling around, feeling bleary for about an hour or so, before we realized that the time change had been made for us. I fully expect to arrive home tomorrow and find this clock radio folding my laundry, or maybe plotting global domination. Anyway, the silver lining was the gift of an extra hour we had planned to have lost to sleep - an hour used to make waffles, eat waffles, make coffee, drink coffee, make messes, make more messes - you get the idea.

This waffle recipe comes from A Real American Breakfast. The authors, the Jamisons, and I have reconciled, and while I took a few liberties, the results were delicious. These were sweet potato waffles - a recipe not for the faint of dishwasher. Many bowls were dirtied in the process of making these waffles. The upside was that they tasted fabulous, and I was able to trick Coby into eating a vegetable besides a tomato or avacado (both of whose vegetable status is under debate).

Sweet Potato Waffles
Adapted from A Real American Breakfast, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison

Serves 4 - I doubled this recipe and it made enough waffles for several days of breakfasts!

11/3 cup all purpose flour - I used whole wheat pastry flour and they were light and airy
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 cups mashed, cooked sweet potato (2 small, or 1 lrg potato)
2/3 cup sour cream - I used 3 % yogurt with good results
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup veg oil or melted butter
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup brown sugar

Stir the dry ingredients together. In another bowl stir the sweet potatoes, sour cream, milk, oil, egg yolks and brown sugar. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just to combine. The batter should be thick but spoonable. If it seems too thick add a bit of milk - waffles are forgiving.

Beat the egg whites with a mixer in ANOTHER bowl until stiff and then fold into the batter.

Cook the waffles on your preheated waffle iron. The directions say to grease your iron, but mine is non-stick and they turned out fine without the greasing.

Cook until brown and crisp. Serve with maple syrup and butter.

Apple sauce is another nice accompaniment - I find I can trick my youngsters into thinking they have loads of syrup on pancakes and waffles with the addition of apple sauce or blueberry sauce.

Ginger Rhubarb Compote

2011-03-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

For the last two weeks I've pretended to be a body builder. Every morning I log onto his computer and nod to his body builder wife. In the screen saver she flexes her bicep (or tricep?). Every morning, I'm sufficiently impressed.

The body builder is an English teacher. He is huge and bald and realllly nice. The kids don't know this. They live in awe and fear of his presence. He stands over their desks, flexes, and they work.

While impersonating the body builder, I tried this. Flex: nothing. A snicker.

The body builder runs a ship-shape ship. I wondered if he had a sense of humor as a teacher. The students weren't sure. He does in real life. You see, I know the body builder. In addition to being realllly nice, he's kinda funny.

I liked being the body builder--reading All Quiet on the Western Front, drilling students on expository writing, expounding on the use of the semi-colon. I'm not sure I measured up to his standard. "It seems so empty in here" a grade twelve boy said, looking over me. But I had fun trying.

Somewhere between the papers and the lectures I made rhubarb ginger compote. This was just as worthwhile as pretending to be the body builder.

Ginger Rhubarb Compote

Adapted from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book

4 cups rhubarb chopped in 1 inch pieces

1 inch piece ginger

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

Put the rhubarb, ginger, and 1/4 cup water in a pot. Simmer over medium heat until the rhubarb is just tender. This should only take a few minutes. Be careful as you don't want the rhubarb turning mushy and breaking up.

Remove the rhubarb from the pot and set aside.

Combine the sugar and remaining water in the pot. Simmer over medium until the sugar is dissolved. Add the rhubarb and cook for two minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool before serving.

This is really tasty over oatmeal and topped with yogurt.

Apple Blueberry Crisp for Breakfast..

2011-03-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well, the Jamisons and I are on the outs. I have had a recent string of flops from A Real American Breakfast. After my first sub-par waffle results I attributed the fault to myself; however, after a lack-luster bran muffin recipe, I'm putting part of the blame with the authors, the lovely, yet sweet-goods challenged Jamisons. On both occasions I should have gone with my cook's intuition. Both recipes had some steps that I protested as I baked, but being the dutiful cookbook reviewer that I am, I followed the directions as a holy grail. That's not to say the book is a bust. I just think that I need to stick with their more savory dishes.

The blogging timing for such disasters, however, was serendipitous. I had just made my go-to dessert for the Heartland Book Clubbers, and my friend Louise requested a Reems Eats post. How could I refuse the woman who arrived early and helped me in a last-minute toy and shoe clean-up effort? The same woman who claims to enjoy making pipe cleaner crafts with my 3-year-old? I couldn't, so here is my all-purpose crisp recipe.

I've posted a version of this before. I have to confess that I don't follow a recipe for the dessert that Reems's affectionately refer to simply as 'crisp.' So I did make a second crisp this week, in part, but not just because I wanted to nail down accurate ingredient quantities. No, you can never have enough crisp. My favourite bowl of crisp? The leftover breakfast bowl that I always manage to hide for myself.

Blueberry Apple Crisp was a good accompaniment to our discussion of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, not quite as appropriate as a potato peel pie might have been, but I'm fairly sure it was tastier.

Blueberry Apple Crisp
(for a 9 inch dish or similar casserole - I usually double this for reasons I've already discussed)

Combine filling ingredients in 9 inch pyrex dish or casserole:

4 apples - peel and sliced thinly (for an all apple version, double this number)
2 cups blueberries
2 T flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar (could also use honey or maple syrup)

In a separate bowl combine the topping ingredients:

1/3 melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (2/3 if you have a really sweet tooth)
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup quick oats
2/3 cup old fashioned oats (could just double the quick oats and leave these out, but I like the texture from the two varieties)

If you use unsalted butter add a pinch of salt.

Combine the topping ingredients until crumbly.

Sprinkle evenly on top of fruit filling.

Bake crisp for 40 min at 350 degrees.

Top with vanilla ice cream for your warm dessert crisp. For your next morning breakfast crisp, a cup of tea alongside will do nicely.

OK, I feel that I should apologize for the photos - my only hope for half-way decent food photos is to take them in natural light, but alas this was an evening job.

Breakfast BLT

2011-02-26T20:22:00.001-08:00

My thick Alberta skin has been officially shed, now in our third year back on the coast, I greet any temperature near zero as a reason to hunker down with hot cocoa and a stack of books. However, times have changed, what with my busy schedule of kick-the-balloon-with-your-foot-pass with Finn, and dog-watching at the window with Coby, reading-time is now snatched in furtive bites. I spent a portion of today trying to be invisible, fearing that even breathing might remind nicely playing children that I was a present and available mother. Yes, attachment parenting at its finest.

We were sampling the Breakfast Sandwiches chapter of A Real American Breakfast on this chilly Saturday, and I am now declaring these sandwiches mandatory to assuage any longings for Spring.

Breakfast BLT
Adapted from A Real American Breakfast, by Cheryl and Bill Jamison

Herb Mayo:
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 minced fresh chives, basil, or a combination (instead I used a few teaspoons of leftover pesto)

4 english muffins
12 thick slices of bacon, halved and cooked crisp
4 thick slices red-ripe beefsteak tomato
salt to taste
4 fried eggs.

Prepare the mayo by mixing together the ingredients.
Split and toast the English muffins. Spread each half with a liberal T of the mayo. Arrange the lettuce on top of the muffin bottoms. Pile on equal portions of tomato and bacon. Top with fried eggs and crown with remaining muffin tops.
Confession: Coby spent the day in her PJs.

Maple Custard

2011-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Morning people write breakfast cookbooks, I've decided. People who pop like toast out of bed. People who sing before they brush their teeth. People who don't hide behind the newspaper or the cereal box but are capable of carrying a conversation before draining the first cup of coffee.

I am often mistaken for a morning person. With good reason, too, for I am that annoying soul you see running past your window on a drizzly Saturday morning just after seven. Or my feet are hitting the carpet at eight and I'm thinking of bran muffins...I'm reaching for the bowl.

The truth is, for all the mornings I am Jekyll, I am Hyde.

Hyde growls in the morning. He paws through the house, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. His brain is sore and blurry as he brews coffee, forgetting to add the beans, or puts the milk in the cupboard. And his shirt is on inside out. He hasn't noticed. But a colleague will at ten o'clock in the staff room.

One morning, he left for work at seven thirty and the door wide open behind him. It was winter. The spouse was not impressed.

Hyde still likes breakfast.

Maple custard is the perfect Hyde breakfast. It's smooth, warm, comforting, and delicious. Let's just say it calms the beast.

Maple Custard

four servings

from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book

1 cup milk (or half cream, half milk)

4 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup

Butter four custard cups. Put a shallow baking pan, half filled with water, in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the ingredients together and divide between the four cups. Put the cups in the hot water bath and bake for 20 minutes, or until the custard is barely set. Serve in the cup, or run a knife around the edges of the cups and turn the custards out.

Oatmeal Cake

2011-02-20T16:40:00.001-08:00

Well, I don't have any food porn to offer - honestly Rach, I became a tad flushed when I read your last post; and I swear that since then, my heart beats a bit faster when I reach for the egg carton.

This post comes belated, Mike and I just returned from another weekend away in Seattle, this was in part to attend his belated birthday Decemberists concert, as well as an effort to pack in some time away before baby dictates our schedule (translate: 'my' schedule). The concert was good, the sleep-ins were good, the food was good, and the unusual Seattle sunshine all made for a lovely weekend. On return to our little monkeys, the happiness continued when I found a few pieces of oatmeal cake left in the fridge.

This is a cake that can be eaten at breakfast time, or can be nibbled on with a cup of tea to get you over that mid-afternoon slump. I can't claim that this cake was a revelation to me. I have a similar Lazy Daisy recipe that I make courtesy of More With Less. However, I liked the sound of nut-coconut-oatmeal topping for this particular cake. While tasty, I don't think this new cake differed dramatically from my original recipe, though the topping was a nice variation from my usual straight coconut variation.

Oatmeal Cake
(Source: A Real American Breakfast, by Cheryl Jamison & Bill Jamison)

Cake:
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/4 cup boiling water
11/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 baking soda
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1/2 cup evaporated milk (I used regular milk with great results)
4 T butter (I used 3 T, it was all I had left, and the topping still tasted great)
1/2 cup brown sugar (1/3 for the less sweet tooth)
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cups shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I skipped the walnuts and doubled the pecans)

Pour the boiling water over the oats. Set aside. Stir together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. With an electric mixer cream together the butter and the sugars. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Alternately beat in the flour and the oat mixture in thirds. Beat until only just combined. Spoon the batter into a prepared pan.

Bake for 32 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then run a knife around the edge and unlatch the springform rim. Transfer the cake (still on the springform base) to a baking sheet. While I followed these directions, next time I will just leave the cake in the springform and put the topping directly on.

Prepare the topping by combining the milk, the butter, and the sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. I heated these ingredients together in the microwave Remove from the heat and stir in the oatmeal, nuts, and coconut.

Spoon the topping evenly over the top of the cake. Heat the broiler. Broil the cake on the baking sheet several inches below the heat source for about two minutes, until the topping darkens a shade or two and gets a bit brown and crunchy in spots. Watch it carefully so that you crisp it but don't burn it.

Eggs Benny Loves Bea

2011-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

Psssssst. Love.

Huh?

Love.

What?

Love.

Who??

LOVE.

How?

Like This:

Two eggs slipped into a bubble bath. Towel dried. Enrobed in silky sauce. Bedded on toast. Bite by bite—Hold it. Stop right there. That’s all you need to know. And yes, it was very romantic.

My bruh ha ha (guy, lover, main squeeze) loves bennies. L-O-V-E-S bennies., but only eats them in restaurants. Why? Because I don’t make bennies. And I still don’t. But this Valentines I introduced him to a new chick, Eggs Beatrice.

She’s swanky, Beatrice is. A little simpler than Ben with her base of toast, but comfortable with a few pieces of ham nestled beneath her goods.

I found this recipe for Eggs Beatrice in my study of Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book. Marion describes Eggs Beatrice as a “lighter and more delicate version of Eggs Benedict” (p.146). Her description is apt, of course. Marion has a simple way of stating things perfectly and honestly.

The recipe involves three main steps:

1. Making the hollandaise

2. Toasting the bread and ham

3. Poaching the Eggs

Eggs Beatrice for Two

Modified from Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book

Making the Hollandaise

You can make this sauce in the blender. I don’t have a blender. I have a food processor. The bowl of a food processor is too big for this sauce. Instead, I used an immersion blender and a narrow bowl with high sides. If you are horrified by the richness of this sauce, remember, you only use a portion of it for your Eggs Bea. I put 2 Tbsps of sauce on each Eggs Bea.

1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp boiling water

½ cup butter, melted and hot

2 Tbsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

Put the yolk in the bowl. Blend it with an immersion blender (or make the sauce in your blender). Add the water and blend. Then, very slowly, dribble by dribble, add the hot butter while blending. Add the lemon juice and some salt. Taste and season.

Cover the bowl. Don’t worry if it cools a little. No one will notice as your eggs will be nice and hot.

Toasting Eggs and Ham, I am

Put 2 pieces of bread in the toaster and the ham in a pan on low. The ham should just warm up a little.

Poaching the Eggs

I love Marion’s tip for poaching eggs! Marion says to boil the eggs in shell for thirty seconds before poaching. This causes the yolks to cook a little so the eggs hold together perfectly when entering the pan. Although, I still insist on cracking the eggs into a small vessel such as a cup or ladle and sliding them into the hot water. Brave Marion just cracks them right into the pan.

2 eggs

1-2 tsp cider vinegar

In a smaller saucepan, heat enough water to cover the eggs. When the water boils, add the eggs for thirty seconds. Remove.

In a wide sauce pan, or deep frying pan, heat the vinegar and enough water to cover the eggs. Bring the water to a boil then reduce the heat so that the boil slows to just barely a simmer. Crack one egg into a cup or a ladle and slip it into the water. Repeat with remaining egg. Let the eggs poach for 2 minutes and you should have a firm white with a runny yolk inside. Keep an eye on the pan as you may need to increase the heat to keep the slow simmer consistent.

Remove from the water with a slotted spoon.

Assemble:

Put one toast on a plate. Cover with ham top with egg. Cover with 2-3 Tbsp of hollandaise sauce. Repeat.

Note: For big eaters, poach two eggs per toast.

Brown-Butter Scramble with Avocado

2011-02-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

I approached our latest challenge with some trepidation; the idea of tackling one cookbook had excited me when Rachel proposed our new blog challenge, but the actual reality of selecting and executing a recipe was surprisingly scary. I'm still grappling with the root cause of this fear- I have a big, beautiful cookbook, The American Breakfast, full of glossy photos and yummy-sounding recipes, but still the anxiety was there.

While my breakfast philosophy aligns more with Rachel and Marion (see previous post), the Jamisons have dug their heels in and share the whole range of American breakfast tradition. My latest self analysis (staying safely in the zone of food neuroses) has made me realize that I have a definite breakfast comfort zone - a daily bowl of oatmeal and blueberries, getting a little crazier on the weekends with pancakes, scones, and muffins. These are baked goods that I can produce with only one eye open, usually with the help of a scattering a handful of dried cereal on baby's highchair tray to keep her hunger at bay. This demand for new recipe creativity - exotic sausages and complicated hollandaise sauces- at such an early hour seemed daunting.

So I need to confess, my first contribution was made as a lunchtime enterprise. No, actually, that's not true. My first try was a breakfast attempt - but I have deemed it not postable, I tried making the Jamison's variation of a Dutch Baby pancake - hoping for glorious airy deliciousness. The pancake was suitably puffy, but had the taste and texture closer to an omelet than a pancake. I don't blame this entirely on their recipe, I am going to give it one more attempt. But in the meantime I needed to produce a post-worthy creation. My next attempt, the brown-buttered eggs and avocado were scrumptious. Browning butter, swirling in eggs - adding copious amounts of avocado - just easy enough, and exotic enough, for me to tackle before nap time.

Brown-Butter Scramble With Avocado
(Source: A Real American Breakfast, Cheryl Alters Jamison & Bill Jamison)

6 large eggs
3 T whipping cream or half and half (I used half and half)
2 minced garlic cloves, roasted in a dry skillet until soft
Splash of hot sauce (Optional)
Salt and freshly milled black pepper to taste
4 T unsalted butter
2 medium avocados, cut into bite-sized chunks

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the cream, garlic, hot sauce (if desired), and salt and pepper. Whisk just long enough to combine, you should still see large bubbles. Set aside.

Warm the butter in an 8 to 10 inch skillet over medium-low heat. Cook until the butter turns from pale yellow to light nutty brown, about 5 minutes. Immediately pour in the egg mixture. Cook, frequently stirring up from the bottom with a spatula, until the eggs form soft curds and are lightly set but still look a little runny, 3 to 4 minutes. Do not overcook. Fold in the avocados and remove from the heat. Stir an additional time or two to cook through before serving immediately.

Options: You can add 2 to 3 slices crumbled bacon, or perhaps some grated cheese.

Crumpets and Coffee

2011-02-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

Marion Cunningham is a morning person. If you’re not sure who Marion Cunningham is, allow me to introduce her.

Marion is wholesome.

Her picture tells me this. Imagine: side part over a broad forehead,bibbed dress, braided necklace, smile that crinkles the eyes. Here recipes also tell me this. Consider: oatmeal custard, welsh rabbit with beer, cinnamon butter puffs, Creek Bank potatoes, date raisin condiment. Those are just a few.

Marion Cunningham is kind. She bakes for people. Period.

Marion Cunningham is my guru. She will remain my guru for the next two months.

Haley and I have decided to explore various ingredients, cooking styles, flavours, and meals as we blog. For the months of February and March, we will focus on breakfast. Our study goes this way: Haley will jump, leap, dive (actually) into the big beautiful book titled, “A Real American Breakfast.” I will wander through a slimmer volume, Marion Cunningham’s “The Breakfast Book.” As you can imagine, I’m already quite taken with Marion. I also like her opinions on breakfast.

Here are a few:

Breakfast…involves no alcohol and usually consists of grains, dairy products, fruits, and maybe eggs or a little meat or fish.
I agree. Alcohol at breakfast? Marion and I perish the thought.

Gathering at the table for breakfast allows us to weave our lives with others--and that should be a daily pleasure.
Very nice.

I…love eggs…I can only eat one hard-boiled egg, but if I’m soft-boiling them I do it by twos, mash them up in a bowl, sprinkle salt over them and a little bit of pepper, and eat them with toast--and that suffices for hours.
Marion knows her mind, which I love. And pays intense attention to detail, another excellent trait in a guru. Besides, I could use a breakfast that suffices for hours. I'm usually starving by nine.

Lead, Marion I will follow.

Crumpets is the first place Marion led. I thought, I want to try the English Muffins! But Marion explained that crumpets were the ones with all those nice little holes. This is because of the baking soda.

Marion also says that you must split and toast the muffins, even hot off the griddle, and spread them with butter or jam or honey.

Marion was right. Yum.

Crumpets
Interpreted from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book
one dozen round crumpets

1 package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 ½ cups milk, warmed
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup warm water

Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a large bowl. Add the sugar, stir, and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the milk, flour, and salt. Beat until smooth. Cover the bowl and let stand for one hour. Stir down. Dissolve the baking soda in the remaining ¼ cup water and stir into the batter. Cover and let rest for 30 min.

Heat a pan, or two pans, (I used a large griddle) and grease some 3 inch rings (Marion says you can use tuna tins with the tops and bottoms removed. I used 2-inch high canning jar lids.) When the griddle is hot, place the rings on it and fill each with three tablespoons of batter. Lower the heat and cook slowly until the crumpets have lost their shine, and are dull and holey. This takes about ten minutes. (Marion says not to flip the crumpets over but to just cook them on one side. I did flip my crumpets and I thought it finished them nicely.)

Toast, slather, and eat.

Banana Pops

2011-01-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Rach -

It's only a matter of time before we develop webbed feet and gills over here in Chillwack. As the rain comes down the kiddies and I have turned to kitchen pursuits, dance parties, and indoor playgroups to maintain our sanity. Yesterday we made your latest bread offering, and I am already adding it to our regular rotation. I was out of maple syrup so I swapped honey with fabulous results.

Finn and I have developed a new treat - banana pops. This is a child-friendly, though definitely not mess-free, activity.

To make 4 pops:
(this only makes enough for 2 people - it's impossible to have only one each)

1) Cut 2 bananas in half. Insert a popsicle stick or a popsicle holder into the cut sides.

2) Melt 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of natural peanut butter together in the microwave.

3) Dip/spread bananas in the chocolate-peanut butter mixture.

4) Roll in coconut (could also use chopped nuts or crushed cereal)

5) Freeze on parchment - I use silicon liners.

6) Barricade the freezer from yourself and any little ones - better yet, spend 20 minutes getting everyone in to rain gear, 15 minutes splashing in puddles, and another 10 minutes changing into dry socks and pants. The pops won't be quite frozen solid yet but at that this point you won't care.

Right, Rach, talking about myself again. I'm sure Caleb can get on his own rain gear.

Back to Food..

2011-01-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

Rach-

Sorry about the long absence. As you know, December, typically a favourite month of mine, was a rough time. Food lost its appeal. Smells hit me with a staggeringly nauseating force. Chocolates and treats remained untouched- an entire box of Purdys is languishing in our pantry. As you know, I'm pregnant again. Fortunately, food and I are reconnecting. We're both playing coy - I'm being a bit fussy, and my pantry is still sending out some pouty neglect vibes - but no one said that the road to reconciliation was easy.

With the worst behind me, and finally after an ultrasound yesterday, a due date confirmed (August 1), I'm ready to get back to some normalcy. I'm back in the kitchen. This week was the week of the chicken enchilada. I made a giant batch on a Tuesday, and Finn munched through that Pyrex dish for multiple meals afterward. Chicken Enchiladas are another recipe that I can't actually provide you with a recipe for. No, this is another 'method' meal. My filling is never the same, and my sauce is rarely either, but they never fail to taste fabulous. The photo doesn't convey the true glory of this meal. I've made a few blog-worthy dishes in the past few weeks but somehow managing to get a photo is another story. This shot was captured mid-devour.

1 - You need chicken. For a 9 by 13 casserole dish, which I can squeeze about 8 good sized enchiladas into, you need to have about two to three cups of shredded or finely chopped chicken. You can use leftover roast chicken or just cook up a few chicken breasts. I like save time and make this dinner with leftover chicken, so I usually just plan a chicken meal and cook extras earlier in the week. You can use a bit more chicken if you want just chicken in your filling, or less if you like to add lots of extras.

2 - Filling time. Next, you need to look through your fridge and see what veggies you have on hand. On this occasion I finely chopped: one good sized onion, one red pepper, and a few cloves of garlic. I sauteed these over medium heat in a tsp of canola oil and then when they were cooked I added a cup of leftover rice, the shredded chicken and a cup of salsa. I added salt and pepper, a dash of cumin and a dash of chipolte powder (chili powder would work too). I also added about 3 ounces of cream cheese (optional) and stirred this over the medium heat until the cream cheese was melted. I then added aprox 1/3 cup of water to keep the mixture moist. Black beans, corn, and olives would be other filling ideas.

3-Prepare the enchilada sauce. I combined one cup of salsa, one cup of tomato sauce, one cup of chicken stock (water would substitute) and one cup of sour cream. I seasoned with another dash of cumin, and chipotle. The sour cream is optional. Basically you want a tomato sauce with a runny consistency. This is going to soften up your tortillas and make them melt in your mouth. Pour enough sauce into a large baking casserole to cover the bottom.

4- Assembly time - Put about half a cup of filling onto one tortilla with a sprinkle of shredded cheese. Roll each tortilla and place seam-side down in the sauce. When all your tortilla rolls are nice and snug in your dish then pour over your remaining sauce. Cover the pan and then bake these for 45 min at 300 degrees. Take the cover off for the last 10 minutes and then sprinkle them with shredded cheese.

5 - Enjoy! Serve with sour cream, salsa, and or guacamole.

Sorry to those friends who I should have informed personally about our latest addition - Third child neglect is already becoming a reality..

2010-12-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hi Haley,

I felt The Guilt last night. That weight of responsibility to a sister, particularly to one who is younger than you, is a hefty thing. Particularly when you slip up.

Like I did when I told Crach Friday was ours and downtown would be our oyster.

The next day I made a series of small mistakes: I invited two of my friends. I made plans for lunch at a particular restaurant at a particular time. I accepted a shift for Friday morning.

In none of these did I consult Crach. Rather, I dumped the plans on her last night on a car ride home and then got snippy when she wasn't thrilled. Relationships can be so tricky. An action rarely leads to the conclusion you hoped for. Around Christmas these intimacies seemed to be even more riddled with puddles and pot holes. Our expectations are so high. Time is so short. Life is so busy.

Now I want to say that bread is the boon:constant, comforting, simple. Although, that isn't real true. In a way, bread is just bread. But I like it. And yesterday I was happy to make it and it felt simple, comforting, and constant.

This is Maple Oat Bread is really good. It's sweet, but brown, whole-wheaty, and soft.

Maple Oat Bread (Adapted from Beth Hensberg's Honey Whole Wheat Bread)
1 cup warm water
pinch sugar
2 packages yeast (4 and 1/2 tsp)
1 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cups oats
3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 Tbsp salt

Combine water, sugar, yeast and wait ten minutes for the yeast to foam.

Warm the buttermilk to take off the chill. Melt the butter and combine the two, along with the maple syrup.

In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, oats, and salt. Add the buttermilk mixture and the yeast mixture. Mix smooth. Add the remaining flour half a cup at a time, mixing smooth after each addition. Knead 7-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough will be a bit sticky, just be patient and add Tbsps of flour to your counter top as you knead.

Form the dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let rest for one to one and a half hours, until doubled.

On a floured counter top, divide the dough in two, shape and place in greased bread pans, and let rise another 45min, or until doubled.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40-50 min.

Savory Shortbread

2010-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath, wondering, whose going to win this year's Reems Eats Christmas draw? While this is exciting, I want to draw (pun-ha ha) your attention to a new Christmas treat that you too could be serving to adoring guests, or toting to froofy cocktail parties. (If you go to froofy cocktail parties. I have (bragging) actually been invited to one. I'm twenty-seven; I think it's high time I attend an event titled, 'cocktail party.')

While I have a sweet tooth (all Reems' do) at Christmas I actually (shocking) become overloaded with chocolate, almond, cinnamon, and sugar. That's not to say I stop eating, no, no, no, but it is nice to bring in an alternative (in addition to the ever popular spinach dip). This recipe for lemon and thyme shortbread comes from the cookbook, Savoury Baking and its wonderful. It tastes a lot like a cracker, but with a little more weight. The lemon is subtle, the thyme interesting, and the sprinkle of coarse salt gives the cookies a nice finish.

Oh, and the winner is...drum roll...Cautiousmum, congratulations.

The recipe can be found here, on the NPR site.

Christmas Cookies and Giveaways

2010-12-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

Rach -

How was the puff pastry course? I'm looking forward to my own private tutorial over the holidays.

Yesterday was our first foray into Christmas baking this year. Of course, despite my attempt to keep the halloween cookie cutters in the cupboard, Finn felt that bats and pumpkins would be a nice addition to the more traditional stars and angels. We made the dough, cut out the shapes, all with the intention of icing in the afternoon. A day later the cookies are still un-iced; after sampling half the dough I just wasn't sure that Finn's little body could handle the sugar consumption. Maybe tomorrow. I'm not going to provide a recipe, there are enough sugar cookie recipes online and in your dusty cookbooks.

Now for the giveaway. Leave a comment telling us your favourite Christmas treat and we'll announce the winner next week Wed (the 15th). The randomly drawn name will be shipped a specialty Reems stollen.

Here are a few other seasonal recipes I trolled from our archives:

Biscotti

Not-So-Traditional Christmas Cookie

Monster Cookies

And some Dutch selections:

Speculaas

Boeterkoek

Blueberry Buckle

2010-12-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

Rach-

The Reems Eats 2010 Conference was epic. Your post had me chuckling all over again. I was daydreaming today about our lovely little noodle shop, where after an hour at our counter perch, our pores breathing in the pork-tenderloin-infused-steam from vats and vats of broth, we both experienced the horror of standing shiny-faced in front of the singularly most unflattering mirror in all of Vancouver. Definitely not a first date kind of place. But wow- a great bowl of noodles.

Carmen, or Auntie Carmen is she known in these parts, has arrived. I warned her upon her arrival that if she wanted any respite at all, she needed to tone down the fun. Fun auntie = busy auntie. Well, she has not heeded my warning, she has already taught Finn a few classic Guy dance moves, and along with other unsuspecting visitors to the Campbell house, has run multiple 'races' around our main floor. Finn is just doing his part in trying to keep her youthful figure.

I had to post something delicious. Our freezer is full of blueberries, and I've been on a bit of a coffee cake binge lately; there is something about cold days and a cozy home makes anything streusel high on my list right now. Once again I've been turning to King Arthur, this time for their Blueberry Buckle The only change I made was using brown sugar instead of white in the topping. Blueberry buckle - if not because it's delicious, make it because of the name. I really have to get into the history of food names, I'm sure I'm not the only one with this curiosity. I'm adding Buckle to the list, somewhere after Bundt, Grunt, and Muffin (I know, muffin sounds normal but say it a few times).

I must log off, the fake fireplace is on, and Carmen needs a reading companion.

Readers, stay tuned for our first annual giveaway later this week.

Vancouver 2010 and Butternut Squash Soup

2010-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Haley,

Top Memories from the Vancouver 2010 ReemsEats Conference (Readers: Haley and I met in Vancouver to attend a Stollen and Panettone Baking Class on Granville Island)

Cold weather, snow fall, and the sunlight hitting the mountains, which provided a backdrop to Granville Island
Receiving a complementary facial at the noodle bar due to massive amounts of steam generated by boiling pots of noodles, pork, and broth.
Using an electric scale
Buying an electric scale
Laughing a bit too enthusiastically at the German Baking Instructor's 'stolen' jokes
"More butter is better"
Min panettone over two-for-one Starbucks
St. Sinclare
Scott removing her pants at Numbu (or whatever it's called)
Haley always laughing

Things I learned at the 2010 ReemsEats Conference

Never let Haley out of your sight or she might shame the entire ReemsEats corporation by lining her baking sheet with nearly ten pieces of parchment paper.
More butter is better (Don't worry, Joan, I haven't taken this adage to heart)
Using a kitchen scale is more accurate and faster than volume measurement.
Add baking powder to sweet yeasted dough for a shorter dough.
Take the time to go to Vancouver to hangout with Haley. The rewards are infinite.

Now, I know I was to post a Stollen recipe as a companion to this post BUT I have a better idea. Remember, on the way to the ferry, when we stopped on Granville, slipped into Williams and Sonoma and sampled apple cider and that amazing butternut squash soup?

Yes?

I made the soup. The recipe is online and you don't need to buy W.and S.'s bottled pureed squash, at the exorbitant price of thirty dollars a pop. Here is the recipe (the link is not showing up--but click on 'recipe'). It is hands down the best B.S. soup I have made. Be sure to use stock, not water.

(I'm very excited about our siblings Christmas dinner--look up Zambri's and tell me what you think. Too pricey?)

love, R.

Kitchen Mischief

2010-11-18T21:49:00.001-08:00

Rach-

Sorry, another post of your adorable niece and nephew - though it is kitchen related. I just wanted to send you some pics to let you know that Coby has stepped it up in the little monkey department. And Finn? He's becoming more helpful by the day. Now, if we could just work on his laundry folding skills..

Note to readers: Rachel's computer is down. I'm posting this tidbit of information to try and spur her and Caleb to their local Future Shop to meet their new laptop. Hurry please, there is way too much responsibility being the lone blogger..

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2010-11-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Rach-

Here it is- Reems Nostalgia Post #1. I know that I've romanticized the Reems banana chocolate chip muffin several times in the past, but humour me one more time. This muffin was a staple in the Reems snack cupboard, right up there with the chocolate chip square. My friend Suzanne still remembers the Reems bananana chocolate chip muffin - she recently reminisced about the pangs of jealousy she felt at the sight of me biting into a still warm, fresh-from-the-oven muffin each morning at school. Now, while I can definitely corroborate that I did eat a daily muffin, Suzanne's memory of a warm muffin, is proof that I am not the only one that has romanticized Reems muffin memories.

No, in the mid-90s, for a warm muffin you had to be at the Reems house around 10am on a Saturday morning. The coffee would be made, the muffins ready for sampling (though only one per child/adult, the rest would be cooling for recess consumption that week). Joan would have already buzzed the intercom multiple times to my room that morning, to ensure that I had cleaned the bathroom, and that I was cleaning my room. I would have assured her, multiple times, that yes I was working on it, and then would have returned to my novel. The only thing that would have torn me from my clothes-strewn lair would have been the smell of muffins and the promise of snack time.

This is one of the original Reems recipes I had copied down - the original recipe called for 1/2 cup butter, but I don't think that Joan, even in her pre-low fat days would have done the full 1/2 cup. I compromised and used 1/3. Now, in true Reems-fashion you should double the recipe and individually saran wrap most of them to freeze them for future lunches.

Banana Chocolate Muffins

Cream together:
1/3 cup soft butter (can sub canola oil)
1/2 cup sugar

Beat in:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed banana (2 large, 3 regular)

Add dry ingredients:
2 cups flour (can do part whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (can half this)
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix together. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. Makes 12 muffins. Double for the Reems quantity of choice, 24.

2010-11-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Rach- I know that you'll empathize with my struggle with Mondays - it's hard to go from weekend fun to hitting the grind. And there's never anything fun foodwise associated with Mondays - after work on Mondays, dinner preparation is a chore. I think it's time to change this; next Monday I am going to try to get something exciting happening in my kitchen.

To top my Monday off, with Mike at parent-teacher interviews and the couch my biggest plan- Finn napped at daycare today, resulting in a not-so-smooth-bedtime.

This was Coming out #6 or 7:

Finn: Mommy?
Me: Finn, why aren't you sleeping?
Finn: I just want to talk to you.
Me: Oh?
Finn: ACTUALLY, I forgot to have candy before I went to bed.
Me: Oh?
Finn: AND I wanted to ask you if you like to eat lollipops before you go to bed.
Me: Bed. Now.

All is quiet and Monday and I are now reconciling. I've settled for the next best thing to lollipops: leftover chocolate ganache, directly from the bowl.

Ghostly Cupcakes

2010-11-01T09:31:00.001-07:00

Hi Haley,

I think you could play pranks on Mike with those bloody fingers from your last post. Try leaving one beside his razor or curling another over the edge of his comforter. Hmmm. Reminds me of when Crach and I short sheeted your bed. Or when we thought it would be hilarious to fill Mom and Dad's bed with Rice Crispies. We were wrong.

On Friday I had the opportunity to cook dinner for over one hundred people down at Street Cafe, a ministry operated by the Mustard Seed Church. The dinner is for those down on their luck or living on the street. The food is served restaurant style: lights are dimmed, candles are lit, and live music is featured. Guests are offered the choice of two entrees. On Friday, we prepared hash brown casserole and teriyaki chicken. When seven o'clock rolled around, Tina and I swapped our cook's aprons for waitress's aprons and attended the tables. We had more than a little fun storming into the kitchen hollering, "I need a chick and two hash." Restaurant lingo is truly addicting.

I brought a few desserts to serve with dinner. These chocolate ghost cupcakes were made in the spirit of Halloween. The recipe is from Nick Malgieri's book, Perfect Light Desserts. The cupcakes are my very favourite chocolate cupcakes and are extremely good topped with a mocha whipped-cream (1 cup whipping cream plus 1 tsp instant coffee, 2 tsp cocoa, 1/4 cup sugar combined and then beaten). In the future I will try topping them with a chocolate sour-cream frosting or a white-chocolate butter cream.

Chocolate Ghost Cupcakes

For the cupcakes

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate coarsely chopped

1 cup boiling water or very hot coffee

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream (low fat is fine) or thick, Greek-style yogurt

Preheat your oven to 350 with a rack positioned in the center.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Measure and mix the sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda in one bowl.

Put the chocolate in a large bowl and pour the hot water or coffee over it. Let the chocolate stand for 2 to four minutes to let it melt, then whisk it into the liquid. Beating well after each addition, add the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sour cream one at a time. Be sure to whisk smooth after each ingredient.

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, mixing until the batter is just smooth.

Pour the batter into your lined muffin tin and bake for 20 to 25 min until the muffins are just done. An inserted tester should come out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool in the tins for 5 to 8 minutes then remove them to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the boiled icing

2 large egg whites

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup water

2 tsp vanilla

Fill half a saucepan with water and bring it to boil. Reduce the water to a simmer.

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk smooth.

Place the bowl over the water and whisk gently until the egg whites are hot (140 degrees_ and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. Beat with an electric beater until the icing is cooled, has increased in volume, and will hold soft peaks.

Use the icing immediately.

Store the cupcakes in the fridge. They can remain out for a few hours, any longer and the icing will harden (which some people prefer).

Bloody Fingers

2010-10-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Rach-

I'm in! Thanks for the wander down memory lane. I spent some time daydreaming about piggies in the blanket and various childhood treats. Here are some of my Reems food memories to add to the list:

Fluff - likely a Reems-only dessert, I certainly have never encountered the combo of yogurt and jello anywhere else.

Oh Henry bars - an oatmeal base and a chocolate peanut butter frosting. Yum.

Vinegar cookies - A white cookie, kind of like a sugar cookie. Granted, not the best name, but they did taste good.

Ooblis - Made by Grandma, mypersonal favourite - these were a popular birthday treat when I was in primary school. They were a Maria cookie kind of base with a mocha cream filling and dipped in chocolate.

Besasup - I have no clue how to spell this and am too lazy to google. This is another Grandma special, a Dutch raspberry sauce served over vanilla pudding.

I will be adding to this list. I can't wait to dive in. Now onto bloody fingers-

A few weeks back I spotted a recipe for Witches' Fingers in a Canadian Living cookbook. I ear-tagged them for haloween and Finn and I made them yesterday. Now, while they turned out nicely, or should I say bloody, it came to me as we were taking our first batch out of the oven , that maybe as a mother of a 3-year-old, I should have stuck to happy pumpkin faces. Oh well, Finn hasn't made the jam-blood connection yet, but maybe next year we'll work on those pumpkins.

Witches' Fingers - Adapted from The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book

(Canadian Living adheres the almonds to the fingers with decorators red icing after the cookies come out of the oven).

Beat together:
1 cup butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla

In separate bowl mix:
2 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Shape spoonfuls of dough into finger-like shapes, use a knife to make 3 scores for the knuckle. Place a dab of jam on one end and then press an almond fingernail on top of the jam. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remember Jello?

2010-10-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Halzey,

Remember Jello-jigglers? Is this a custom mothers still practice? There was a birthday-party game involving these precious cutouts of slime and a blindfold. Shudder.

Piggy's in a blanket? (Think hot dog wiener meets pastry) Macaroni Goulash? (I'm not even sure how to spell that--along with many other words, you're likely thinking) Rice de Bri? (Dutch for rice pudding).

I suppose our family, like most, had it's quirky traditions and favourites. Like hamburger Friday--VERY exciting--and Sunday-night ice-cream, which had to be scooped into a glass dessert bowl NOT a correlle cereal bowl. (Mom's method of portion-size control).

Then there are those treats and dishes that were beloved and are now missed, like Joan's chocolate-chip squares; Grandma's no-bake cheese cake with a graham-cracker crust, topped with cherry-pie filling; cornflake chicken; or coffee cake with the full-streusel topping (slowly over the years the volume of streusel sitting atop the cake depleted until only a thin dusting of cinnamon remained. Chalk it up to the nineties health-kick).

J and I took a walk on Dallas last week. (For non-Victorians: the road that runs parallel to the Pacific with a view of the snow-capped Olympic mountains. Yes, I'm bragging). It was then she suggested that our tastes might be linked to emotion and governed by our memories of past experiences. She recalled Sunday doughnut stops with her family and admitted she still adores Tim Hortons. I recalled C's infatuation with the doughnut and his love of Seattle's Top Pot.

I have my own fond memories of doughnuts: after the yearly Christmas concert Mom would have a box waiting downstairs in the cool laundry room. Carmen and I would run down to get it, first peeking beneath the lid at the snug rows of shiny doughnuts.

This wander down memory lane is leading toward a proposition: that we revisit our childhood foods by compiling a list of favourites foods and a list of strange foods we enjoyed in our past. We will then recreate the dishes either by following the original recipe, if it still exists, or re-interpreting the original for an up-to-date take.

Send me some of your fav.'s

Lovingly,
R.

Seattle Eats

2010-10-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Rach -

Seattle was great. The food was great. The Picasso exhibit was great. The concert was great. The football game? Well, the people watching was great. I know that you'll empathize with me, it's not that I dislike the actual football, it's just that there is so much standing around in between the moments of excitement. And it was wet and cold. Basically an NFL ticket is wasted on me - though there is something great and crazy about those nutty football fans - the spray-painted hair, the grandpas in full-face paint, the tail-gating - it's definitely a culture of its own. Poor Mike, he does try hard to nurture an appreciation of the game in his football-indifferent wife. I was a good sport though, and didn't even roll my eyes (well, outwardly) when he almost swooned at the excitement of owning a football helmet with various snack compartments (Please note to any Chilliwack football fans: There will be a Superbowl party at the Campbells' this year to warrant the purchase of said helmet, consider this your invitation).

OK, enough about football: the food. We didn't make it to your pizza joint yet, that's for our next visit. Mike has had the Swinery on his to-eat list for some time now, so we hit up West Seattle for an adventure in pork. I've included a photo of the man behind the barbecue, so that you won't miss the irony I was feeling in having a Hasidic-Jew lookalike prepare our pork products. Mike also took home a goodie bag of salamis and bacon-infused chocolates. The Danger fries were amazing, cooked in beef fat and topped with a bacon-infused bechamel sauce. They were voted top 5-heart-attack on a plate Seattle meals.

Other standouts included:

The Grand Central Bakery for breakfast - their cookbook is one of my frequent library favourites.

Lots and lots of coffee. Good coffee. Oh those Seattle-ans and their coffee.

I have to go. I'm recovering from the weekend and have to be at work tomorrow. It's time to attack a stack of library books (I have another novel by Muriel Barbury, author of Elegance of the Hedgehog - I haven't started it yet but the title, Gourmet Rhapsody, is promising ).

Here's a spoiler for my next post: It's spooky!

Matching Macaroni

2010-10-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Haley, Haley, Haley!

I feel as if it's been so long since we've talked. With you back at work and me shuttling between every high school in town, our communication has fallen to a bare minimum. (Note to readers: while we Reems girls are billed as 'hard workers' we find day jobs exhausting. By the end of the work week, no, make that mid work-week, we are reduced to lifeless, cranky slobs by the early evening hours. We CANNOT delay bedtime past ten o'clock. Really, we prefer nine, but our spouses protest. Plus, there's something shameful about tucking in at nine each night.) Yesterday I had the day off. Lovely. I rose at seven, as per usual, and awaited the ringing of the phone, and the mechanical voice of the dispatcher to send me out into the world of unknown schools, classrooms, and children--who look at me with such open distrust, 'who are you and what have you done with our teacher?'

The phone never rang. I made white-chocolate brownies. Balance was restored. I'm not going to give you the recipe. I'm saving it for a Christmas post.

Last week you made macaroni with winter squash, which was weird. Not the macaroni, that, I'm sure, was wonderful. But the fact that you made macaroni with winter squash and I had made the same thing the night before. Creepy. As strange as you and I arriving at events in matching outfits, planning cooking classes, and eating too many blondies, all simultaneously, without prior discussion. Clearly we are shorn from the same cloth.

Mine's from Martha.

3 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash

1 cup stock (I used water)

1 1/2 cups milk

pinch of nutmeg (I omitted)

A few splashes of hot sauce (my addition)

2 tsp grainy mustard (my addition)

pinch of cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp coarse salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 pound macaroni noodles

1 cup grated cheddar

4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (I omitted)

4 Tbsp fine bread crumbs

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup ricotta (I substituted yogurt)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the liquids and squash in a pot, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the squash is tender. This will take about 20 min. Remove the pot from the heat and blend the squash into the liquid using an immersion blender. Add the seasonings of your choice (cayenne, mustard, etc).

Meanwhile, cook the noodles. Add the noodles to the squash mixture.

Add the cheeses and yogurt to the pot. Mix well. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish that has been lightly oiled.

Mix the oil with the breadcrumbs and spread evenly over the macaroni.

Bake, covered, at 350, for 20 min. Uncover and bake 30 to 40 min more until browned and crisp on top.

Eggplant Parmesan

2010-10-13T19:26:00.001-07:00

Rach-

Your nephew had his first dentist appointment today. I had an attack of the giggles, the likes that haven' t hit since high-school. Finn was the model patient: he beamed a big grin at the appropriate times during the up and down chair demonstration; he opened his mouth wide, not even waiting to be asked (evidently over-coached by mommy and the Bernstein Bears); he made fishy lips around Mr. Vacuum during the cleaning. His only difficulty- and the reason for my giggle attack- tongue placement. That little tongue had a life of its own. However, since Finn won't be dating until he's 22, his tongue control will have some time to develop.

Oh yes, this is a food blog. Well, teeth do play an important roll in masticating one's food. Tonight's meal, Eggplant Parmesan was delicious, though the chewing was minimal, as it was a melt-in-my-mouth kind of meal. I had purchased a bag of eggplants at Costco with the plan of making one of my favourites - moussaka; however, making moussaka in one go has just felt to daunting the past few weeks.

Now, if you're looking at this recipe thinking that it looks way too fiddly, you're right, it is a bit fiddly, but it really didn't take too long to make, and the results were delicious. I mostly followed this recipe, but also crossed it with a few other recipes. I sliced the eggplant a bit thicker, I'd say 1.5 cm thick if you're looking for a number, and baked the dredged slices for 15 min per side instead of 5.

Oh, and yes, I am that mother that takes photos of everything. But this is definitely going in the baby book-
OK, I hope you find an internet connection soon. I'm needing some new recipe ideas.

Squash and Mac Attack

2010-10-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Sach-

Watching my kiddies frantically tearing at still-warm smoked salmon, fresh from our neighbour's smoker, was a tender moment for a food-loving mama. Maybe not as significant as a first step, or the first day of kindergarten might be, but still, a moment.

I stepped into the fray (selfishly) to save some for later; I was rewarded by smoked salmon gussying up a boring mac and cheese meal. I correct myself, a macaroni, squash and cheese meal. I have once again resorted to sneaky tactics. The addition of pureed squash was undetectable to the most discerning, Kraft-dinner tarnished, palate. The verdict from my noodle loving clan: wonderful.

(I don't need to tell you whose macaroni was not graced by smoked salmon).

I was deliberating whether or not to give you a recipe. Once again, I'll give you a method that you can play with.

Make a white sauce. Add a good shake of garlic powder (optional), grated cheese and a cup to two cups pureed squash. Toss with cooked noodles and top with more cheese. Bake for 20 minutes (optional). This is a quick and easy meal that can be made earlier in the day and baked before eating.

I usually make mac and cheese to appease the masses at my house; however despite the creamy texture, butter and cheesy-ness, I find it bland. The garlic powder has always helped somewhat, but the addition of smoked salmon was culinary genius; it put this meal into the gastronomic archives (as moderated by my taste buds).

Serve with a salad and you're done. Oh, and your children will love you; particularly your 16-year-old Korean daughter.

Rice-stuffed Acorn Squash

2010-10-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

Rach-

Well, we made it though back-to-work week. There were some low points: mostly involving stumbling out of bed and WAKING BABIES at 7am (sleeping babies were not made to be woken), but there were some high points: mostly involving adult conversation and a lunch hour ALONE. Meals at our house this week were also surprisingly well-organized. Planning has never been a strength of mine, so here's hoping that I can continue to keep on top of things. I know from experience, that it's when I have no plan that we start eating omelets and grilled cheese for dinner.

I have to 'fess up - acorn stuffed squash was not a work-day meal. While not difficult, the roasting does take a bit of time. The beauty of this dish is that the squash was so tender that I could spoon large chunks from my 'squash bowl' directly into Coby's greedy little paws.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Slice 2 squash lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and place flesh-side down on an oiled cookie sheet. Roast for 45 min to an hour (until soft).

Prepare the filling: You can be creative here.

I sauteed:

2 cloves garlic

1 finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped mushrooms

To this I added:

1 cup cooked rice, (cooked in chicken broth - I just put in a T of Epicure chicken broth, it has no msg or sodium, veggie broth would be a good vegetarian option)

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (chopped pecans would be a good alternative)

1/4 cup water (or more if the mixture looks dry)

Season the filling:

salt and pepper (My chicken stock is sodium-free so I have to use an extra bit of salt, be careful if yours isn't)

1/2 tsp garlic powder (I know, I already added garlic cloves, Joan has passed on to me this irrational love of garlic powder)

1/3 tsp sage (or poultry seasoning)

I removed the filling from the heat and added some crumbled goat cheese.

I then filled the squash halves and baked the lot for about 20 min, again at 350.

And if you have a picky eater you could just fill his with rice and goats cheese. So boring, but who can understand the ways of the picky? Not I, I just enable.

This is linked to: Vegetarian Fridays

2010-09-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

Rach-

Just wanted to pass on a great memoir with some hilarious food-related content: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. She lists the top 5 Shame-Based Foods for Mennonite Youth Lunches, this took me back to my jealousy over my friend's Mr. Noodles, oreo cookies, and juice box lunches (the water fountain was the Reems' school beverage). While not Mennonite, but with not so distant Dutch immigrant roots, I now fondly appreciate the homemade goodies, and cheese and mustard sandwiches of my youth.

My favourite food moment in the book was her mother chugging the leftover 'tuna juice' from the can!

Monkey Cake for Monkey Baby

2010-09-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Rach -

Well, the pictures don't need a lot of explanation- here is confirmation that Coby has inherited the Reems sweet-tooth.

The princess is one. My how a year has flown by. It doesn't get any better than a big slobbery-monkey kiss from that little girl.

To make your own monkey cake go here (thanks for the idea Carolyn!).

Apples, Walnuts, Currants: Bread

2010-09-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Smoochy,

(If you are not familiar with Haley's various nicknames, they include the likes of Mooch, Moocho Babe, Achoomy Baab, Smoochy, Haley Bailey, and, not to be forgotten, Baby Baluga.)

Here I am, substituting in a computers class, trying to fill the hours until three o'clock. Basically I circulate through the room and ask the kids (teenagers) how their projects are progressing, they grunt, I lean in, look at their screens and murmur words of encouragement and approval, really having little to no idea what the numbers and lines indicate. Excel: one of the reasons I never took computer class.

It's warm. The computers are buzzing. One boy continues to giggle in a hicuppy sort of way.

So I thought I'd send you a little happiness in the form of an apple-walnut bread recipe.

This recipe is based on the one I made at your house exactly one-year ago, when I was similarly sporadically employed. (As a substitute teacher I find myself with a lot of spare time in September. In October the permanent staff start dropping like flies and I invariably get some work and some colds. Handling sick people's pens and pencils is a quick way to a chest infection).

The impetus for this recipe came from one of Beth Henspberger's books; I switched up the ingredients and the technique. Mine is quite a different beast, but a delicious beast.

Apple Walnut Bread

1 Tbsp yeast

2 Tbsp oil

1/4 cup milk (110 degrees - warm)

3/4 cups water (110 degrees)

1 cup oats
1 and 1/4 cups bran
1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

3 cups peeled, coarsely chopped apple

1/2 cup currants

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

3 plus 1/4 cups flour

Combine the oil, milk, water, yeast, and one cup all-purpose flour in a bowl. Mix well and then let it stand for one hour. It will be very bubbly and active after an hours rest.

Add all the remaining ingredients except for the flour. Mix. Add the flour 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring after each addition. Give the dough a good final stir. It should be sticky but it should come together in a big wet ball. Like this:

Now, cover it with a tea towel and let it rise until about double, one hour to one and a half hours.

After the dough has risen prepare your counter by either coating it with oil or flour. The dough will not stick to either surface. Use a spatula to pour the dough onto the counter. Prepare two round casserole dishes or pots, or two loaf pans by coating the vessels in oil.

Use a knife or bench scraper to divide the dough in two. Wet your hands (which prevents the dough from sticking to you) and shape the dough into two rounds or into two loafs. Put the dough into your pans of choice and let it rise for another hour.

Before the dough has finished rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaves for about 45minutes, or until nicely browned and hollow sounding when tapped.

A Million and one Zucchini

2010-09-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Haley,
Your salmon post inspired/made me really hungry, and I'm picking up some wild salmon this afternoon. I think it's going to be wild.

We might need to put our childhood-nostalgia-recipes project on hold for a few weeks as there are so many seasonal recipes to take advantage of right now. I'm having trouble squeezing in the time for those buttery kidhood favourites.

So this post is for you, as I imagine you've got a small army of zucchini (tricky to spelling, somehow) in the garden, but it's also for our cousin Sonya, who always grows a million and one zucchini, and always asks for new and original recipes, which we fail to supply. Whatever we suggest, Sonya's already tried it. So really, Sonya, if you've already made zucchini pancakes--not breakfast pancakes, but a sort of dinner fritter--then maybe you can just humour me, sooth my ego a little with a, 'looks good, rach, never thought of that!'

I've made these a couple times now, and they've been enjoyed by all who forked full. The recipe is pretty much a cinch, grated zuch, a couple scoops of flour and a couple eggs. The trick to success, is patience in the cooking process. These babies take time, so let them fry for a good eight minutes (ish) on each side, otherwise they will break up in your pan and you will needlessly curse my name aloud.

You can count on one pound of zucchini per 2 adults, and if you're math is as iffy as mine, I'll save you the brainpower: the following recipe feeds 4.

Zucchini Pancakes
2 pounds zucchini, weighed then grated--if you're two lazy to weigh, about 6 medium zuchs
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
salt (at least 1 tsp)
pepper

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Heat up 1-2 Tbsps olive oil on medium heat in a large pan--I use a big skillet. Spoon the mixture into pancakes in the pan, cooking about 4 at a time, and cook for about 8 minutes on each side, depending on your heat, the thickness of your pan, etc. But you want the pancakes to be cooked through or they will be slimy and will fall apart on you. So be very patient.

Top the pancake with one or more of the following (or invent your own topping):

corn and tomatoes
diced tomatoes with fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, a little olive oil, and coarse salt
sour cream
yogurt cheese
pesto mixed with yogurt

You get the idea.

No-Flip Barbecued Salmon

2010-09-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Rach (or Auntie Sach as you're known in these parts)-

First of all, we've often discussed our blog weakness - not our fabulous recipes and prowess in the kitchen, not our witty writing, nor our inflated egos - no, it is our photography skills, or lack thereof. However, we are getting better (if you disagree please go to our earliest posts). Your pics have reached the point where I've been secretly submitting some of your photos to the Foodgawking site. After a few were rejected I gave up; then I recently found out about Tastespotting and hoped that they would be friendlier to us amateurs. They were, and I am happy to report that you are no longer just a self-published food photographer you have made it to the fleeting world of food photography fame.

In Chilliwack, all anybody talks about is this year's record breaking Sockeye salmon run. I am feeling slightly nervous for the future of these mighty fish, for it seems that the entire Fraser Valley population is at the river with a fishing rod, or on the reserves getting a great deal. I was feeling that though a bit behind on the salmon mayhem, I needed to join in the excitement. So while Finn attended a 3-year old birthday party I made my inquiries. I felt that I had the right crowd - these were local Chilliwack-ians, the kind of people who would be able to direct me to my rock-bottom-priced, back-of-the-truck, fresh-off-the-river sockeye. The next thing I knew I was being given my party goody-bag, 3 nice packages of already filleted salmon from one of the next door neighbour's four stocked freezers.

You'll appreciate the thrill of free fish, and the added excitement of already filleted fish. While you and I, with the aid of Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking, have recently tackled a salmon filleting project, I was quite happy to turn this task over to Chilliwack's fishing elite.

I've made salmon a few times this summer, I was given some good advice from Julie, Mike's aunt, who uses a no-flip barbecuing method. I have always wanted to love salmon, but was never quite there. Julie's salmon changed this for me. I've tried this method a few times this summer with good success. I've deviated from her brown sugar marinade and used maple syrup, soy sauce and rosemary. The picture is a travesty, as it was taken earlier this summer with a poor old frozen Safeway special. The fish that graced our table last week was of a whole other caliber.

No-Flip Barbecued Salmon

You need at least 1 Salmon Fillet

Combine marinade (optional, you could just use lemon, salt, and pepper):
1 T chopped rosemary
1 T soy sauce
1 T (or so) maple syrup
pinch of pepper

Pour over salmon in dish. Cover and refrigerate for as much time as you have.

Put salmon on preheated (medium heat) barbecue grill, skin-side down. Cook with the lid down for 15 minutes.

Voila.

Stay tuned for another Krentenbroot update. We are in the midst of devouring our second loaf.

2010-09-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Rach - I'm loving our new look but am concerned that I'm the gingerbread man.

Haley- How fast are you?

Well, I've run away from a little old woman, and a little old man, -and though you're the runner in the family, given that scary rolling pin- you can't catch me because I'm the gingerbread man!

Getting Sauced

2010-09-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

Rach-

That got your attention didn't it? Apple sauced, that is. It's September, and we're deep into apples. I suspect that apple peeling is going to be annual photo shot. Just another way of sneaking kiddie photos into a food blog.

Here's last year's apple peeling pic. What a difference a year makes- from snoozing to sneaking apple peels -the little princess is turning one in a week today. And Finn is hard core into apple preparation (get it? core?). He asks me several times a day if he can peel apples, now if I could just channel that enthusiasm into laundry folding or toy pick-up..

The exciting (for me) difference between the two pictures is that I got smart and realized that the base of the peeler would suction onto my patio table. For indoor peeling I actually need to crank with one hand and hold the thing down with the other. We were seriously considering getting rid of the outdoor table and picking up a smaller table for the deck, but due to its secondary apple peeling function, the table has managed to stave off a purge.

I'm actually posting on cake, not sauce. Do you remember that mom had an almond apple cake recipe floating around the counter last year? I lost my old apple cake recipe and turned to the almond apple cake. Since I didn't have any ground or whole almonds I had to completely modify the recipe. In fact, I think that the only thing I kept the same was the topping. Which is good because I can't remember the original recipe source. It tasted great and in an effort to save this recipe for future repeats, I am blogging it.

For non-Reems-readers: Joan, our tiny little mom (she's small, I can almost fit her in my pocket), has a stack of various recipes newspaper clippings, torn magazine pages, and photocopied cookbook pages from work colleagues, all in a stack, usually on the counter by my parent's phone. I have a similar muddle of recipes in a basket at my house. I would hazard that 95 % of these recipes are never actually tried. However, it is great fun to browse through them - I often copy these recipes down and continue to not try them at my house.

Apple Cake

5 largish apples, peeled and sliced

Cake:

Mix together wet ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract (optional, could use vanilla)

Then add dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix the whole lot together with 2/3 cup butter milk (Or do as I do and use regular milk with just shy of 1 T lemon juice).

Layer half of the apples in a greased 9 inch springform. Spread over half the batter (will be a thin layer). Next layer the rest of the apples and top with final batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min

Then top with topping and bake for a final 10 min

Topping:

Combine:
2 T melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup toasted chopped pecans or slivered almonds

2010-09-15T20:45:00.001-07:00

Rach-
You've inspired me to make a batch of tomato sauce this September. I'm going to be needing some short cuts this winter; my baby is turning one next week, so it's back to work. it's only half time, which in theory should give me the other half of the week to make meals and organize our lives - but you know me- you're my sister, and beyond that, you've helped me organize my pantry. That might be an interesting psychology study: What does one's cupboards reveal about one's life? Well, at least mine would rule out any Obsessive Compulsive tendencies (well, besides the need to buy oatmeal..).

OK, I'm rambling. I just wanted to exclaim over your beautiful cans, and to marvel at the labels - which I'm assuming are Caleb's contribution to the Speller pantry.

Summer's End Tomato Sauce

2010-09-15T14:19:00.001-07:00

Hi Haley,

I was sorting through my pantry cupboard and thinking of you, and of last year when you and I tackled the job of reorganizing your kitchen…I’m getting sentimental, particularly when I think of those raisins strewn throughout your pantry. Pantry cleaning is very boring without you. My pantry doesn’t have nearly as many hilarious surprises (ten bags of half-finshed oats). Although, I did find a small bag of peanut butter chips. I don’t even like peanut butter chips, but I made the mistake of undoing the twist tie and suddenly they disappeared. You know what it’s like embarking upon a distasteful task; food is such a comfort.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to pass on to you my end-of-summer tomato sauce. I know we are supposed to be posting nostalgic recipes from childhood but this recipe just couldn't wait.

Your garden is likely overrun with tomatoes, whereas Caleb and I celebrated the growing of three single tomato plants this summer. We actually were really happy because in our absence these last two months, they didn’t receive a lick of water, except for what was sent from above, yet they managed to survive and bear fruit, but not enough for a pot of sauce. So I went down to SunWing farm and picked up a giant flat.

I like to can the sauce but you can also just toss it in your freezer. I jar it because I don’t have a large freezer, and I also like to have it right on hand, no defrosting necessary, so when I’m home from work and out of ideas for dinner, I can just toss it in a pot with some veggies.

The recipe calls for 5 pounds of tomatoes. I wouldn’t attempt doubling that unless you have a very large pot. Also, don’t use an aluminum pot or a cast-iron pot or your sauce will taste funny as tomatoes don’t do well in these materials.

And I think that’s all.

Except for the Sauce.

Basil Tomato Sauce

5 pounds tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
one handful fresh basil

Wash and quarter the tomatoes

Heat the oil in a large pot and add the tomatoes and basil.

Let simmer until the tomatoes are soft, about 30 min.

Pass the tomatoes through a food mill. (You can buy a food mill at any kitchen store or at a thrift shop. They have a handle that turns and pushes the food through a seive. This way, you end up with a suace and the tomato skin and seeds are left behind. You cannot use a blender in place of the food mill.)

Return the sauce to the pot, turn the heat up and reduce the sauce to the consistency of a thick juice. Voila, you are done.

If you would like to can the sauce, place clean jars in a canning pot as you make the sauce. You must boil them for 15 minutes to steralize the glass. Keep the jars hot before filling them with the sauce. Return the jars to the canner and process in boiling water for 30 minutes.

Oma's Krentenbrood Take 1

2010-09-13T10:15:00.001-07:00

Well Rach -

In our first childhood nostalgia challenge, I'm not ready to post my final recipe for Oma's Krentenbrood (Dutch for raisin bread). The first loaf was heading in the right direction, but it's not there yet. I have a few adjustments to try in order to replicate a true Oma loaf. I carefully followed her recipe (as dictated to me post-swim over coffee last year in the Commonwealth Pool cafe), but have to do some tinkering.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of a slice of Oma Krentenbrood, I'll give you a quick run down. Oma is past her baking days, but in her prime she was the queen of several recipes that she sporadically produced from her kitchen (Oma would rather read a book or go for a swim then spend an extended amount of time in the kitchen). She was infamous for showing up with her signature dense rectangular loaf, packed full of raisins and Christmas peel. This was not a light, airy bread, but you couldn't beat anything like a toasted slice of Oma's raisin bread slathered in butter (or of course, in our childhood home that would be margarine). Looking back, I feel that Oma was somewhat smug about her grandchildren's love for this bread, and knew that part of the appeal was the scarcity of supplied goods.

My issues were along the lines of texture and shape- I feel that an unusual pan shape is key to reaching the childhood long rectangular slices (no rising dome top to this bread)- maybe you should go have a rummage through her cupboards one more time to find the necessary loaf pan - definitely bigger than your average loaf pan, but I feel like it was smaller than a 9 inch square pan. I also think that I need my dough needs to be a bit wetter. I'm going to increase the liquid next time.

That said, we are down to our last two slices, the kids and I are fully indulging in our chock full of dried fruit, white flour deliciousness.

More Cheese

2010-09-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

Haley,
Love the camping nachos! I see great potential for our California surf/camp trip next summer, particularly as Southern Cal is the land of avocados--at farm market stands specializing in avocados,you can expect to find five or six varieties. Who knew such wonders lie south of the border? Arnold is not the the only state phenomena. (He once tried to pick up Caleb's mom, as a matter of fact. That's a little piece of Speller-family trivia for you).

Anyhow, I thought I'd better follow up on my cheese story. Otherwise, you'd think I failed miserably. When in fact, I experienced roaring success, and a small ovation from my dinner guests that evening. I ended up mixing the cheese with a little pesto and serving it as an appy. I sent my friends home with the recipe and their committed to experimenting with more cheese related products.

Okay, so I decided to make yogurt cheese because it's the easiest cheese to make. One doesn't actually have to do anything...Except buy a piece of cheese cloth, which is sold at ANY self-respecting grocery store. So, Haley, no trying to substitute a random piece of fabric you have floating around the house because you can't be bothered with going down to the store and ferreting out a proper piece of cheese cloth. Go. Buy it. No excuses.

Once you have your cheese cloth, you double it over a couple times and the place it in a colander. Then you scoop a lump of yogurt into the cheese cloth. Set the colander into a bowl. It's nice if you can get the colander to sort of hang on the edges of the bowl because the moisture from the yogurt is going to drip through the cheese cloth and the colander into the bowl, leaving you with extra thick yogurt the consistency of cream cheese. This will take six hours or more, so just pop the whole mess in your fridge and go tend to the young ones.

love,
R.

P.S. I can't wait to start our nostalgia cooking series. Readers--Haley and I will be featuring recipe favourites from our youth. Stay tuned.

Camping Nachos

2010-09-09T20:57:00.001-07:00

Well Rach,

While you were bread and cheesing your way across Europe, we were snuggled up in our Trillium. Yes, we've kicked up our camping a bit. No more tenting for the Campbell family, no we're a yuppy RV family now.. well, about as posh as a 1970s bowler with walled-carpeting (no, not wall-to-wall, carpet ON the walls). But isn't she a beauty?

Lately I've noticed that it seems to be trendy to make lists of awesomeness. And since I'm nothing if not trendy, I'm going to provide you with my list for today:

Uninterrupted Sleep: Wistfully Awesome
Uninterrupted Meals: Elusively Awesome
Washroom Privacy: Wouldn't that be nice Awesome
Personal Space: What's not to love about 2 small bodies permanently attached to your lap, hip, neck, leg kind of Awesome
Finn smearing his whole body with Old Spice deodorant: Hilariously Awesome
Finn referring to said deodorant as 'pit stick': Inappropriately Awesome
Nap time: Blissfully Awesome
Baby slobber kisses: Heart-meltingly Awesome
Roughing it with the Trillium: Retro-y and Cozily Awesome
Camping Nachos: Awesome

While planning a camping trip with the Vermettes this past August, we hadn't yet realized the brilliance of having a personal chef and handy man a short tent trailer away. After a few nights of camping- eating gourmet meals and sleeping in the luxury that is the Trillium- staying in a hotel, or even living in our own house, now feels a bit like we're slumming it.

If you don't have your own personal Jeff, then here are his directions for making your own camping nachos:

Before you go

-buy inexpensive non-stick cookie sheet

-modify sheet with drill by drilling 1/4 inch holes at 1 inch spacings

-use Dremel to remove burrs/sharp or rough edges left by drill

-NOTE: can also buy perforated non-stick cookie sheet - in the bbq section of local big box store. saw some at canadian tire. but of course it's way more fun to make your own

Camping Nachos

-preheat BBQ on highest setting for 10 minutes

-(can also be cooked over fire, so in that case - prepare coal base in fire pit (if no fire bans))

-spread out layer of nacho chips of choice on cookie sheet

-layer nacho ingredients of choice (we had - cooked italian sausage meat, tomatoes, olives, jalapeños(?), and of course, lots of cheese)

-repeat for 2 or 3 layers

-lower BBQ to medium, and cook nachos with lid on, about 10 minutes, till hot, and cheese is melted. Bottom chips will be slightly toasted, and any cheese that falls on the pan will be crispy bits (yum!)

-if cooking over fire, try to cover with something (foil?)

-serve with salsa, gauc, and sour cream

Gauc

-avocadoes

-fresh lime juice

-tomatoes - diced really small

-ground cumin

-S&P

As far as we can remember, that was it.

Of course any ingredients people like on nachos can be used, but this is what we had on hand camping. If we were more prepared, we may have brought along: banana peppers, red or green peppers, onions... (these are mostly items Jeff would add).

Other meat ideas: Cajun flavoured chicken breast, diced up small; ground beef cooked with taco seasoning...

Well Rach, there you have it. Camping nachos. Awesome.

Brote met Kaas

2010-09-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Dearest sister,

Our culinary experience in Europe can be summed up quite simply by three Dutch words: 'brote met kaas.' Translation: bread with cheese. In Germany, it came on pumpkin-seed buns slathered in butter then blanketed in thick wedges of soft cheese, followed by tomatoes and leafy lettuce. We found these sandwiches in train stations, bus stations, subway stations, neighbourhood bakeries, mall food-courts, and coffee shops.

In Holland, the quality of bread slipped marginally; the vegetables disappeared, and cheese was served with or without a generous portion of ham. Here, the gouda reigned supreme. A breakfast spread was not complete without a plate of sliced gouda, both plain and spiced, snuggled up against a selection of sliced meats. (Naturally, in Holland we were also treated to the likes of liverwurst, cheese pate, frites with mayo, olibollen, panekoek, croquettes, and raw herring.).

We crossed the border into France and were promptly handed a baguette lined with cheese and our choice of veggies. We each ate one, yes, a whole baguette, in a graffitied bunker in the rain, before resuming our bike journey to Paris. We quickly learned the meaning of the word 'fromagerie.' The prices were just as wonderful as the cheeses. In the south of France we ate fresh cheve, just delivered by the farmer to the bin. We tried stinky cheese, and grey cheese, but not bright orange cheese, which Caleb balked at. In Ireland there was cheddar and squash bread and scones, and those giant, weighty loaves they call soda bread.

Yesterday I popped into the grocery store for a few necessities. I stopped at the cheese fridge and nearly cried. Little scraps and squares marked eight dollars, or blocks of Kraft, dyed bright orange, for a more reasonable price.

Tomorrow I will make a pot of spreadable cheese. If I am successful, I will post images and a recipe. If my experiment goes awry, you will hear nothing more on the topic.

Your loving sister,
Rachel

Celebratory Trifle

2010-08-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

Rach - Welcome home! I am posting something delicious in order to celebrate your return and our newest nephew. Welcome to the newest little Reems (or not so little weighing in, 2 weeks before his due date, at over 9 pounds!) - Parker Brent Reems!

Mike and I have noticed a trifle trend in Chilliwack- trifles of various kinds seem to be the dessert of choice in this town. So who am I to stand in the way of local dessert preferences? If I'm trying to please my fellow Chilliwack-ians I guess I'll have to throw some deliciousness into a bowl, let it get nice and mushy together, and call it dessert.

Chocolate cake? Layered with chocolate pudding, whipping cream and raspberry sauce? Chocolate shavings? Well.. I guess.. if that's what everyone wants..

Oatmeal (Insert Fruit of Choice) Muffins

2010-08-27T16:22:00.001-07:00

R-

Blogging has been sparse as of late. It feels like a chore to hunker down with my laptop when the sun is shining and there are adventures to be had. Being married to a teacher (in addition to being sister to a teacher, sister-in-law to 2 teachers, and daughter to a teacher) has kept my world revolving around the school calendar. The laundry pile has grown, carpets have gone un-vacuumed, and my tupperware drawer has been systematically giving birth (but never to a matching set- oh I have countless lids, and unlimited containers, but never the twain shall match). But alas, our holidays could not go on forever, and when Mike left for school on Monday I saw the dusty piano with all the guilt that only a Dutch descendant can truly empathize with.

We grew up in a muffin household. Joan ensured a continual flow of banana chocolate chip muffins through the Reems household, these saw us through everything from highschool basketball practices, to early morning life guarding shifts. Lately I have been on the hunt for the perfect muffin balance - a muffin healthy enough that you can grab one for breakfast, or feed to your child and not feel that nagging bad-mother-white-flour twinge (yes I have guilt issues, that have only increased exponentially by the arrival of children into my life!). I'm still on that quest - here is the King Arthur Flour oatmeal muffin recipe that I have been using lately- I would definitely put the oatmeal version in the breakfast muffin category, though a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on top, or the addition of a bit of streusel certainly makes it a nice mid-morning coffee accompaniment.

Haley-variations and findings
I have been making the oatmeal version with the addition of rhubarb or blueberries this summer. I like to add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon and sometimes chopped pecans to the batter. I have made them with both oil and melted butter and haven't noticed a huge difference between the two. I use 1/3 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 white. Finally, the oatmeal version tastes great fresh, but I put all the leftovers in the freezer as they tend to dry out after a day or so.

OK Rach, you are about to board a plane and wing your way back to Canada. Yippee! I'm planning a trip to the island to see you soon!

What not to feed your baby..

2010-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Rach-

I have a few exciting food posts percolating; however, I need to get my promised baby post in before you return from your vacation. Though maybe you should pay close attention, since Mike and I will be dropping your niece and nephew off at your place for a few days mid-September.

Hee hee, just joking (though if you were interested...)

Due to something I am coming to refer to as 'second child syndrome,' this will not be a 'what to feed your baby' post. No, this is more of a 'what not to feed your baby.' While Coby has always had a healthy appetite, in the past month she has consumed the following non-baby-recommended items:

Dog food - I wish that I could say that this was an isolated incident, but my baby has managed to get to the dog food bowl several times.
Felt Marker - I actually tried to wipe off washable marker from her tongue. Blue marker. Please don't recall my recent discussion on feeding your child dye-free cheese.
Dirt - Lots and lots of dirt. And sand. Fortunately she discovered before our camping trip that dirt does not taste good.
Ice Cream- Daddy has given the princess the remainder of his cone on several occasions this summer.

The list goes on. Another symptom of second child syndrome is that baby #2 does not get special meal treatment but begins to partake in family meals at a much younger age (with or without teeth - yes my 11 month-old has no teeth). Mike and I have always been a bit lazy about spoon-feeding our babies - thus starting at an early age Coby, like her brother before her, eats a lot of finger food.

A friend introduced me to Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck. Nina emphasizes a diet of whole foods - lots of full fat dairy, veggies, and meat. Nina also supports my philosophy of not needing to fuss with a lot of additional food preparation for my older baby, but feeding babe food from the family table. This book also made me realize the importance of meat as an iron source for babies. I have to admit (sorry Nina), that I can't totally break away from the convenience of carbs, but I do try to stick to whole grains. The one thing that I have made the decision to stop using is just-add-water baby cereal, I stick to oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast, and ensure that my little monkey is getting iron from natural sources.

I have to run. Coby is into the dog food again.

Veggie Wars

2010-07-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Rach - I'm envisioning you and Caleb in a little French cafe -sipping cafe au lait, eating pastries, all while C plots where to find a French thrift store- if they in fact they exist- if they do I'm sure that Caleb will soon be sporting a 'new' circa 1970s Parisian cardigan. We are also holidaying right now. I use the term 'holidaying' because we really are living the good life - we are staying in the Okanogan in a 2 bedroom air conditioned cottage, on a golf course, with a plethora of pools. I have to confess a twinge of Dutch guilt that we aren't spending the week camping in our new 1976 Trillium, but Coby's addiction to consuming dirt, rocks and sand is making me thankful that our camping this summer will consist of a few days at Cultus in August.

Several days after posting my admittedly smug expose on what to feed your 3-year-old, the following conversation occurred between me and my 3-year-old -

Finn: I don't like vegetables
Me: Vegetables taste good
Finn: No, candy tastes good
Me: Vegetables make you grow strong
Finn: I am strong

At this point I conceded. Round 1 Champion: 3-year-old

Round 2

Fortunately, Finn's definition of a vegetable is still abstract. I leveraged this to my advantage in serving him (with no mention of the V-word) tomatoes and yam fries (with dip of course). He also pounded back a plate of gnocchi with pesto and broccoli for lunch today.

Round 2 Champion: Mommy

3-Year-Old Yam Fries

1) Peel, then thinly slice a yam into thin wedges. IMPORTANT: MUST LOOK LIKE FRENCH FRIES

2) I used an average sized yam and tossed it with about 2 tsp of olive oil and a good sprinkle of sea salt.

3) Roast at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes- stirring every 10 minutes or so. Make sure that you flip them all to get some crispiness.

These taste great with Spicy Yogurt, or Finn's condiment of choice: ketchup.

Feeding your 3 year old

2010-07-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well Rach-

While you're off frolicking on the continent, I am pulling my lone editorial weight and will be doing some parent-friendly posting. Today's post will be on feeding your 3-year old. Now, I've only actually been feeding a three year old for about a month, so I suppose a more apt title would be feeding your small child.

Now as I write this I realize that I am fortunate, no I am blessed, in having a 'Good Eater.' Sharing snack and mealtimes with a toddler is fraught with enough drama and mental energy, that if any readers have picky eaters my heart goes out to you. Here are some ideas that are working for me-

1) Dip. If you want your child to eat veggies, or pretty much anything, try incorporating a dip into the meal. Homemade tzatziki has been one of my favourites nutrition wise, but in a pinch ranch dressing is the answer. I often mix equal parts of ranch dressing and yogurt.

2) Cucumbers, especially cucumbers and dip. I've never been a huge cuke fan, but I'm coming around. They are the easiest veggie to give a quick rinse and slice. They are easy for kids to hold and eat. Lunch at our house almost always has a side of cucumbers.

3) Assume that your child likes things. They'll be quick to tell you if they don't like something, but if you present new things without a fuss they might surprise you - Finn's been eating sushi since he was one.

4) Melted cheese. Finn will eat almost anything that has melted cheese on it. I'm slowly trying to make the switch from orange cheddar to white cheddar, I keep hearing awful things about dyes. Pizza buns for lunch are a great way to sneak in some veggies.

4) Pancakes. You can put lots of things in pancakes - banana, squash, oatmeal, grains.. Even most picky eaters like pancakes. I top them with plain yogurt, nuked frozen blueberries, and a bit of maple syrup. I used to good ol' Aunt Jemima but have been coming around to using natural sweet sources in place of manufactured ones.

5) Popsicles. In the summer you can't go wrong with homemade juice popsicles. I have a confession. If I need 10 minutes to myself I send Finn onto the deck with an 'ice pop.'

6) Chop veggies fine and cook until soft - big chunks in stir fries, sauces, or stews are just begging to be taken out. If the texture is fairly consistent than Finn won't notice the veggies. If your child is picky you could take this a step further and puree veggies to add to sauces (yes, I have to do this for my husband).

7) This is a big one - and often a royal pain- but child participation in the food preparation goes a long way in their willingness to eat what they've helped to make. Finn helps with certain jobs: mixing, mashing bananas, even grinding my coffee beans. That said, having a 'helper' doubles or triples the time and mess involved, so I often stick to nap-time dinner prep if I'm pressed for time.

8) Fruit for snack - sweet and tasty. My children would eat fruit all day (and sit on the you-know-what-all-night) if I let them. If your child doesn't love fruit, maybe be a bit adventurous and try some new ones. I freeze blueberries in the summer and add them to porridge every morning, put them into yogurt and use them for baking. My friend makes her kids smoothies with fruit and yogurt and they get a lot of fruit in that way.

9) Homemade is best. I know that you know this, and if homemade isn't your thing don't hate me too much, but remember that packaged foods have lots of sodium, additives, sugar. From boxed cereals to granola bars to crackers. Now I feel mean - But even if you don't bake you can cut back on packaged food in-take - fruit and veggies are the ultimate non-packaged foods. Or trade with your best friend who loves to bake but hates to clean. I would totally trade a batch of cookies for a mopped floor.

10) Plain yogurt. You can ignore this one if you want, I know that those tubes of yogurt are awesome.. however (angel on shoulder admonishing you).. flavoured yogurt has lots of sugar. Lots. I like to control 'invisible' sugar intake and add jam or honey to sweeten it myself.

11) Play with food. Make sandwiches into faces. Finn and I like to put on Raffi's Banana Phone and have a little dance party whilst eating our bananas (yes, I am an embarrassing mother - Finn has started realizing this and has to at times remind me in public 'Don't Dance Mommy'. It's not my fault, all my best moves come from rocking the oldies with my dad or from Barbie Dance Party). Check out Pancake Dad if you really want some cool pancake ideas.

OK, that's all I have right now. This is one post that I would love to create some dialogue on - feeding your child is unfortunately not a formula, and I know that everyone reading this who is currently feeding, or has fed a small child, will have ideas for me and other readers. So please comment with any great strategies!

Stay tuned for: Feeding you baby. And maybe, if I can hide from Mike for a few days: Feeding your picky partner.

Allie's Lemon Coconut Dahl

2010-07-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

Rach-

I miss you! I wish that I'd paid a bit more attention to your itinerary- I would like to follow you biking along the canal, or scaling the Eiffel Tower - or standing on the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday in a sea of disgruntled oranje soccer fans. Anyway, if not in real time you're still a part of my imaginary holiday. Not that I'm needing an imaginary holiday; Mike has a busy summer laid out for us, complete with jaunts to the island, a week poolside in Vernon, a few days camping, concerts, a date to the Lion King musical.. we won't be bored. It's just that very occasionally I get a bit nostalgic for B.C. holidays (Before Children). When an overnight stay didn't involve a mini-van full of baby/child props and back-up clothes for the back-up clothes for the back-up clothes..

I am finally posting my go-to dahl recipe. I got this recipe from my friend Allie back in our Western days (University of Western Ontario that is, sorry folks, I'm not a cowgirl). I struggle with cooking Indian food - I love to eat it but can never get the flavours that I am striving for. Part of the problem is that in Calgary one of my colleagues and friends was Ismali, and after hearing about my love of Indian food she took to bringing me yogurt containers full of dahls and curries to sample. When I was pregnant with Finn Harsha thought that she was personally responsible for the health of my unborn babe. Anyway, over the years she tried to teach me her ways - she even took me to an Indian grocery store to stock me up with all the necessary spices- and while my spice-knowledge improved, alas I could never quite replicate her wizardry with a curry.

Back to Allie's dahl. This is the one Indian-'inspired' success I have every single time I make it. There is something about chucking a can of coconut milk into any recipe that guarantees awesomeness. Try it, think of a recipe, mentally add a can of coconut milk and tell me it wouldn't taste amazing. OK, I'm getting carried away (please don't put coconut milk into your spaghetti sauce). I was going to post this a few months ago, but after Heather commented on the unappealing photograph that was Broccoli Crepes, I realized that the dahl shot was way beyond unappetizing. So, here is my attempt to make the aesthetics of this dish congruent with the taste.

Allie's Lemon Coconut Dahl
This can be served as an appetizer or over a bed of rice.

Saute over a slow heat:
1 finely minced clove of garlic
1 minced onion
some grated ginger (amount not specified, I often sub aprox 1/2 tsp dried but fresh is best)
dash of cumin
dash of red pepper flakes (I've used a dash of hot sauce on occasion)

Then Add:
1-2 Tb curry paste (can use a powder mix as well)
1 cup red lentils
2 cups water

Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the lentils are cooked. Stir occasionally.

Add 1 cup coconut (I usually add 1 whole can), and let simmer for another 15-20 min, until thickened. Stir in 3 Tb lemon juice and 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (can skip the shredded coconut). Season with salt and pepper to taste. At this point I often leave the pot covered for a bit to let it thicken up.

To serve, top with a handful of slivered almonds.

OK, have a croissant for me, or maybe a wheel of cheese, or maybe a cone of gelato, or maybe a crepe, or maybe a glass of vino...

2010-07-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

Well Moochy, I'm off. The panniers are packed, the bike dismantled and shoved into a cardboard box, and the house as clean as it's ever been. No, the Asian family will not be coming to stay in my suite for the summer. Unfortunate to miss out on the extra cash, but best in the long run as they would likely have been scandalized by the other occupants of our building--and two adults and two kids in a one bedroom is a bit of a squeeze.

Anyhow, we're excited...looking forward to bratwurst in Germany and pannekoek in Holland. I checked out the Chocolate and Zucchini blog, wherein lies an edible guide to Paris. Very exciting. I will send you pictures.

In the meantime, we're less than thrilled by the new security measures which ban you from bringing food on international flights, leaving us vulnerable to whatever comes out on a plastic tray...
Goodbye my Mooch, keep posting. Sorry for my lapses. I loved the gift. I did call you about it but you were about to host a child's birthday party, which would have made a great post, actually.

R.

Grilled Asparagus

2010-06-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

Rach-

Less than a week until you and Caleb are Europe-bound! I am only slightly jealous..

We had a wonderful stay-at-home weekend - it was nice to do some puttering. Puttering is my catch-all for anything that involves not leaving the Campbell compound. In order to be in full putter-mode I need to be wearing sweat pants and slippers. When the weather warms up I concede and upgrade to yoga capris - but, I am very strict about this- they must have an elastic waist-band. My puttering this weekend consisted of: rhubarb oatmeal muffin baking, strawberry jam making (thanks for the pointers), biscuits to accompany jam, copious coffee drinking, newspaper reading, flyer perusing, van cleaning, mountain of laundry folding, Finn chasing, Coby chasing, ~~Mike chasing~~, and barbecuing.

My latest grilling breakthrough? Grilled asparagus. So easy but oh so tasty.Yum, yum, yummy, yum. Mike and I ate about half a bunch each.

Here's what I did:

I took a bunch of asparagus, placed in a ziplock with aprox 1 T olive oil, 2 T balsamic vinegar, a shake of sea salt, a few cranks of pepper, and some garlic powder/

I left this for an hour or two and then when the chicken and brats were grilling I put the asparagus on over med heat for about 8 minutes.

2010-06-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Rach - I'm in the middle of making dinner. Swiss chard, ricotta, and asparagus cannelloni, with the swiss chard from the garden, accompanied by a lettuce salad with a basil dressing, also from our little plot. Coby dove into my bowl of swiss chard and is happily munching and shredding while she watches (I'm trying to aspire my baby food philosophy to Real Food guru Nina Planck, but more on that later). Oh it's going to be tasty!

Mega Batch Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-06-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

I wrote this last night but never got to posting.. Please disregard any weather-grumpiness. The sun is shining! All is right with the world!

R-

That cake looks amazing, Thanks for joining me in the 'rocking-your-own-birthday-cake' club.

The fake fireplace is on, cookies cooling on the racks and we've been cuddled up with quilts and books for what seems like forever. It should be the season of grilling and exotic salad concoctions, yet the most popular dinner item at the Campbell table lately correlates directly with rain-fall: mashed potatoes.

I've always had problems with potatoes - after eating them almost exclusively at dinner for the first 10 years or so of my life (that would be 6 of yours)- Joan discovered the world of rice and pasta and potatoes were relegated to wedges with hamburgers, and maybe Christmas. Mike, of potato bar fame, loves potatoes. In the past, potatoes were my nemesis. I seemed incapable of cooking the perfect mashed potato- I could roast 'em, wedge 'em, and occasionally bake 'em but mash I could not. They always turned out a bit lumpy, never the mashed potato that I (or Mike) envisioned. Well, I've confronted the lowly spud and would smugly like to declare a new winner. So, with gloomy days, the yukon golds have been pumping through my kitchen - in part because princess Coby loves them- and she really does have us all wrapped around her perfectly-pudgy little finger.

But on to cookies - this is my day-to-day chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe. I rotate batches of these babies with batches of chocolate chip squares (blondies). All is not right with the world if there is not a tupperware container stocked with cookies in my snack cupboard. This is another throwback to our Reems childhood. I still remember the moment that Mom left the kitchen - all four us us, plus Guy*, would skulk into the kitchen for a cookie-snatching. This recipe is lower fat and sugar, note not low fat, the 'er' is key to that taste/health ratio. The oats and whole wheat flour are important for the illusion of health after you've hit the cookie jar a bit too hard.

This is my mega-version of the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from One Smart Cookie. You pointed me to this recipe when I fell in love with your white chocolate chunk cranberry version at Carmen's stagette. I've tinkered with amounts and ingredients that work for me. To dress these babies up I add pecans and swap the chocolate chips with Bernard Callebaut chunks. The most important part of this recipe is the cooking time. Er on the side of caution and UNDER-BAKE. They will firm up as they cool. Because we consume so many of these on a daily basis I use a combo of whole wheat and white flour, since they are a chunky, chewy cookie this seems to work, though they do dry out after a few days so I freeze most and take out of the freezer as needed.

Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies - The Mega Batch
Sorry, but if you want a smaller batch I'll let you do the math! I used to make all at once and freeze half of the batch- now I'm trying your method and freezing ziplocks of individual cookie dough balls to be baked when my cookie container is empty.

In your biggest mixing bowl cream:
1 cup butter (I can never remember to soften the butter ahead of time and always have to zap it in the microwave - I find this works well since the butter melts just enough to make it really easy to cream with the butter)
2 1/2 c brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Add:
3 eggs
3 T honey or maple syrup

Next add your dry ingredients (you can mix them together separately, I just mix in the same bowl):
3 1/2 cups flour (I use 2 cups all purpose and 1 1/2 c whole wheat)
3 cups old fashioned oats (you could try regular too)
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 generous cups chocolate chips
Other options: chopped pecans or walnuts, dried cranberries, raisins, white choc chunks....

It takes a bit to mix, just because there is a lot of stuff in the bowl.

Drop by spoons onto a cookie sheet, flatten each cookie and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until just brown and set on the bottom, the tops should still look doughy. Set your timer for 7 minutes just to be on the safe side.

These don't last long, thus the mega batch!

*Note to non-Reems readers: Guy is affectionate Reems-speak for Dad

27 Candles

2010-06-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the birthday wishes Finn,

I, too, hope we can get together soon. I would also appreciate some candy if you are able to catch a ferry boat in my direction. Although, you're looking pretty eastside in those shades...Everything alright? Are you making a bid for a 'new' kind of attention now that Coby's on the scene? I gotta tell you, I've been there...cute younger sister...time to go covert.

When the brownie buzz wears off, and you're in the mood for something really crazy, try this cake on for size. Atley dug it. Even if his dad did fork into half his piece. (That, he was not too pleased about).

The Recipe is from Perfect Baking, by Flo Braker (I bet she frequently laments that first 'r' in Braker)

Auntie Sach's 27th Birthday Cake

For the Sponge:
1 cup flour
7 Tbsp sugar PLUS (Flo's emphasis) 7 Tbsp sugar PLUS 1 Tbsp sugar
7 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cream of tarter

Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 300 degrees.

Get out a 9 (or 10 or 12--although decrease baking time slightly) springform pan. DO NOT grease the pan.

Sift together flour and 7 Tbsp sugar

Separate the eggs.

With a hand mixer, whip the yolks on high speed for 3 to 5 min. Add vanilla and whip another 15 seconds. Should be thick, pale yellow, and have increased in volume.

Whip the egg whites (Make sure your beater is absolutely clean) for 40 seconds (ish). Sprinkle on the cream of tarter and 1 Tbsp sugar. Whip again at medium speed for 5 min, or until the whites appear glossy and stiff, but not dry.

Add the yolks and fold in with a spatula.

Sprinkle on half of the remaining 7 Tbsp sugar and fold with a spatula to incorporate. Add the rest of the remaining sugar and fold again.

Add the flour/sugar mixture in thirds, folding after each addition.

Bake for 55 to 60 min, or until the top is golden.

Invert the pan on a wire rack to cool--so the cake is upside down. (Make sure the cake pan is resting on the rack, not the cake itself). Let cool for 2 hrs.

Cool another hour, right side up, on the counter.

Remove from the pan by sliding a thin metal spatula or knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the cake. I also had to slide my knife beneath the metal bottom, after removing the springform sides, to loosen off the bottom.

Cream Filling
Whip 2 cups heavy cream with 1/4 tsp vanilla and 1 Tbsp sugar (more if you like it sweeter).

Melt 2 ounces chocolate. Put the chocolate in a bowl and add 1/2 a Tbsp water. Stir to a smooth paste. Add half of the whipped cream and stir with a spatula.

You know have both chocolate whipping cream and vanilla whipping cream to fill you cake.

Ganache
Heat 1/2 a cup whipping cream until it just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and pour over 4 ounces of chopped dark chocolate. Let cool and then use to spread.

I cut the cake into three layers, filled it, then topped it with ganache.

Over the top, I know, but heck, Finn, I was like, whatever.

Peace Out,

Auntie S.

Birthday Brownies

2010-06-03T13:12:00.001-07:00

Auntie Sach-
(Guest Post by Finn)

Happy Birthday. You are hilarious. We made Birthday brownies for you. But you're not here. So I will eat them. They are chocolatey. Come on the ferry boat and see me. Bring me candy.

I love you,
Finn

Buckwheat Waffles

2010-06-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Rach-

Finn is a little put out with you right now - he fully expects you to hop on the ferry on Thursday morning and pop over to Chilliwack for your birthday celebration. He was quite disconcerted to find out that the only participation he will have in your special day is card-making and well wishing. His almost-3-year-old egocentricity is in full-swing.

I still have a bag of buckwheat flour, just waiting to try your buckwheat bread recipe. In the meantime, I made buckwheat waffles. They turned out amazing, the best whole grain waffle I've made. I followed this recipe. My only changes (I couldn't resist a little tinkering) were to swap maple syrup with the sugar and to use whole wheat pastry flour in place of the all purpose. I doubled the recipe and served them with a raspberry sauce and more maple syrup. Yum.

My exciting find while making this recipe was a whim I had to use my hand-held immersion blender to beat the egg whites. My trusty soup puree-er and baby-food mashing side-kick came into use again. Inspired with this discovery, I successfully whipped up a cup of whipping cream later on in the day. One more piece in my lazy cook arsenal.

OK Rach, Have a great day on Thursday. Your card may make it to you next week, it might be a record. Might.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2010-05-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

Rach-

I have a bowl of flour and yeast sitting in my pantry waiting to be sourdough starter - Thanks for the post, I have been wanting to try sourdough for awhile but needed a push. Mike loves anything sourdough - I have to confess that I'm on the fence, but am hoping to be won over by a homemade product.

The rainy weather had me craving soup this week. Grey skies, combined with a bag of 5 avacados, and the cilantro growing like a weed in my little garden, pointed me in a Tex-Mex direction. This soup recipe is a template - it's very versatile and can be tailored for one's pantry. This was last night's version:

In a soup pot with maybe a tsp of canola oil I sauteed 1 roughly diced onion, 2 cloves garlic, and the tip of a jalapeno (optional). I also threw in half a sliced tomato (leftover) and 2 other roughly chopped tomatoes. I added in one large chicken breast. I stirred the vegetables and flipped the chicken breast once to brown.

Then I added approximately 2 litres of chicken stock (I use msg and salt-free powdered chicken soup base because it's easy to have in my cupboard - this chicken would taste great with homemade stock).

Seasoning (you could substitute taco seasoning instead of the following):

I added 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground pepper, and about 1/8 tsp of ground chipotle pepper (1 tsp ground chili pepper would work instead).

Oh, and I had about 1 cup of leftover tomato sauce so I added that too. I let this whole mixture simmer for about 45 minutes.

I then removed the chicken and shredded it. I used my hand-held blender to puree the vegetables (again, I do this because Mike hates any texture, you could chop the veggies finely and skip this). I seasoned the soup with more salt and pepper to taste, added a shot of garlic powder to boost the garlic flavour, and added the chicken, 2 cups of corn and 2 cups of cooked black beans.

To serve: This is the fun part, everyone can add their own topping according to preference. I even leave out the beans sometimes and let people add their own.
Toppings we like:

cilantro (you love it or hate it. I love it!)
shredded cheese
sour cream
tortilla or corn chips - I cut up strips of tortillas, brush with oil and broil them for a few minutes
sliced avacados- my favourite

Everyone around the table - even our littlest 8-month eater- loved this meal.

100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

2010-05-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Haley,

I have been a negligent sister of late, which is why I’m giving you a particularly juicy post. Don’t expect a lot of words, here. It’s 8:11 on my kitchen clock. It’s been some time since we’ve lived together but you might remember that I’m not exactly a barrel of sunshine in the wee hours. And when one starts one’s work day at 10:00 at the earliest, that makes 8:00 the equivalent of 6:00. So instead of feeling guilty for sitting here in a tattered green robe with no inclination of brushing my hair for at least another hour, I’m pleased by ---kettle boiling---my early rise and this industrious start to the day. Oh, and there’s Caleb, doing a monkey dance in purple underwear. This is my world.

Time for an Americano or two and a piece of toast.

This is my country whole wheat sourdough bread.

It’s nearly 100% whole wheat, save for the starter which is made from all purpose flour. It’s really good. The crust is crusty! The texture is open--it’s a very rustic bread with not much of a sour flavour to it; the starter is fairly mild and overrun by the flavour of whole wheat. You can use the starter to make other types of sourdough bread.

You need to take a week in advance to make the starter, which you can then keep indefinitely in your Frigidaire. You also need to be flexible and ready to pay attention to your intuition.

Starter:
1 and 3/4 cups flour
1 cup warm water
¼ tsp active dry yeast

Mix, then let stand at room temp until tripled in volume, 8 to 24 hrs. Refrigerate for three days.

Add:
½ cup water
¼ cup flour

Cover and refrigerate for three more days.

It’s ready to use. Every time you use it, you must feed it. To feed the starter, divide it in half. Half you will use for your recipe, and the other half you will feed and return to the fridge. After dividing add 1 cup flour and ½ cup water and return the starter to the fridge.

Bread:

Preferment:
½ your starter
½ cup water
1 cup flour
Combine these ingredients. Let the preferment sit at room temperature from 8 to 12 hours. It should be bubbly and have risen noticeably.

Add to the Preferment:
5 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp salt
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups water (you may need to add an extra ¼ cup water if dough is too stiff)

Mix using a wooden spoon. Then use your hands to lift and fold the dough over on itself. This is to ensure that all the ingredients get incorporated throughout the dough. The dough will be quite wet and sticky. It will get all over your hands. If you want to minimize the dough to hand stick, wet your hands before touching the dough.

First Rise: Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 8 to 10 hours. The dough will have risen but it doesn’t need to have doubled.

Flour your counter top then use a spatula to scrape the dough onto your counter. Use a knife to cut it in two. Flour your hands and shape each dough hunk into a boule (fancy word for ball). Flour two cotton tea towels and set each in a colander or bowl. This is where you will place your dough to rise. The bowl/colander will give the dough shape as it rises.

Second Rise: Let the boules rise for 2 to 2.5 hours. They will have risen noticeably and look sort of puffy. They will not necessarily double.

Baking: Half an hour before you plan to bake the dough (ie, when the dough has half an hour left of rising time), place two round casserole dishes or over-safe pots into your oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you don’t have round pots you can use square but round are much preferred.

After 20 minutes to half an hour of preheating time. Put on your oven mitts and remove the pots from the oven. Gently put your hands under one boule and tip it into a pot. Put the lid on top and place it gently in the oven. It will deflate a bit. Don’t bang the pot into the oven as you don’t want to add to the deflation. Repeat with the second boule. Bake the boules with the lids on the pots for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lids and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Let the bread cool completely before cutting in to it.

Mojito Monday

2010-05-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

Rach-
How was your long weekend?
Mine was great.
Mike and I capped it off with a pitcher of Mojitos ala Bryan. I added some raspberries to my glass, just because I'm like that.
Oh, and the mint leaves? They're growing in a pot on my sundeck. So yes, the Campbell deck is officially open for good times 2010.

2010-05-20T13:25:00.001-07:00

Rach- just needed to share my set-up for a blissful next hour:

1) 2 sleeping babes
2) 1 cup of tea
3) 1 homemade date square
3) 6 chapters into my latest library hold arrival - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (the first chapters are awesome if you are into who-dunnits)

OK, I can't waste anymore precious, precious 'nap' time.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2010-05-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Rach-

Inspired by Joy The Baker's sharing a 10-year ago card from her sister, I dug into my yahoo email archives to see what type of correspondence I was having with my siblings a decadish ago. I had some good laughs while reading old emails; I won't reprint my favourite - you debating the pros and cons of entering into a relationship with your bud Caleb.. There seem to be some extreme email personalities- Carmen and I were all pumped about email as a new medium for silliness, Brent's emails were almost always responses to mine, and I love the polite sense of response obligation that he brought to the task. Here's a few copy and pastes-

From:	carmen reems ... View Contact
To:	haleyree@yahoo.com

you are the butter icing on my cupcake, the moon rays that guide me through dark and stormy nights. How i could ever live without you, i just cannot fathom the notion. i think of you, my princess, labouring endlessly over your paper,and my thoughts rest with you, as i pray that peace and serenity will come to you. SERENITY NOW, my haley rebecca, SERENITY NOW

From: haley reems <haleyree@yahoo.com>
> > > > Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:21:58 -0800 (PST)
> > > >
To: Rachel Reems <sach@japan.com>
> > > > Subject: Re: hey there hot stuff..
> > > >
> > > > > hey rach. just so you know for future
> > reference,
> > > > mom
> > > > > does not peel cucumbers.

yahooooooooo

...

From:	Rachel Reems ... View Contact
To:	haleyree@yahoo.com

have a great thanksgiving Mooch, my turkey beats steadily for you and you
alone.

Re: to my dear brother..

...

From:	Brent Reems ... View Contact
To:	haley reems

thanks for the message mooch. Things are pretty good here, been playing a lot of frisbee, mostly ultimate. Its alright, not my favorite, but something that everyone - to some extent - can do together. Anyway, I will see you soon enough,

Love Brent

Ah, good times. In 10 years from now I'll post Reems Eats highlights.

I've always been someone who needs to eat breakfast - none of this 'I'll have a coffee and grab something mid-morning.' No, I wake up and say good morning to my stomach. When Finn was around one-year, I traded in my morning granola for porridge - oatmeal with blueberries, sliced banana and honey is our daily fuel. However, there are days when Finn and I wake up and we both know that this needs to be a pancake morning. Sometimes this is because we are both feeling awesome - the sun is shining, Squirrel Birrel is running along the back fence, and life is good. Sometimes this is because I have a grumpy almost-3 year old who needs to be brought back to life with some good ol' Mommy lovin'. And nothing says Mommy loves you like a banana, oatmeal, whole wheat pancake with blueberry sauce (seriously - these actually taste good- stop rolling your eyes!).

However, on a Saturday morning I don't even consider dishing up a bowl of oatmeal. No, Saturdays, in time-honoured Joan Reems tradition, are always pancake mornings. Because Mike is a part of Saturday morning breakfasts I usually scale down on the whole grains and definitely need to forget about slipping any mashed yams, bananas, or sweet potatoes into the batter. No these are all about enjoyment. This past weekend I had a cup of ricotta leftover in the fridge but no white flour. Instead of using half all purpose and half whole wheat I used all whole wheat pastry flour. The results tasted delicious, and I hereby declare that I will never put white flour into pancakes again.

Ricotta Lemon Pancakes - Makes a good sized batch
Combine-
1 cup ricotta cheese (I use the lowest fat one - I think it's 7%)
2 eggs
3 T maple syrup
2 T lemon juice (fresh or from a bottle - if you use a fresh lemon add 1 tsp of zest)
11/2 cup milk

Then add the dry ingredients:
21/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 T baking powder
pinch salt

Mix and then drop ladles onto a greased hot skillet. Flip when bubbles form on the surface of your pancake.

Serve with blueberry sauce, maple syrup, and if you really want to be in pancake nirvana make up some cream cheese syrup. I take about a third of a cup soft cream cheese, cream in a third cup maple or other breakfast syrup, and then add some milk until I have my desired thickness. Yum.

Potato Bar

2010-05-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

R-
I was treated to a Mothers Day Potato Bar tonight. I don't think that you've experienced the Potato Bar, although I'm sure that you've heard about Mike's specialty. It involves many stages and the results are always over-the-top delicious. Mike is very particular about how he bakes his potatoes - he doesn't let me in the kitchen during the preparation process, mostly due to the amount of oil used to get the perfect crispy skins to compliment the soft fluffy interiors. The potato bar consists of a multitude of toppings; in addition to your basic baked potato toppings he makes things such as asparagus sauteed with pine nuts and balsamic vinegar, various types of beans, cheeses, sauteed mushrooms, shrimp.. The list goes on. So now I'm in post-bar satiation; which necessitates a couch and the forgiving stretch of yoga pants.

Potato Pancakes

2010-05-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

Rach -

Brag away, I have to say those are beautiful buns. They're on my to-make list; I've been using your recipes - this weekend we devoured your chocolate blueberry cake and the eggplant skillet lasagna. Both were delicious.

And speaking of bumping social lives- Do you remember my solo date two weeks ago? Of course you do - since it was your husband that was ill and unable to attend the Victoria-Reems contingent's Belfry theatre night, and I scooped up his replacement ticket. The play/musical was hilarious and the company was top notch - my internal dialogue is nothing if not witty and self-indulgent. My only regret? You know what is coming next - I failed your dare. Yes, you know how I pride myself on meeting a challenge, yet at the last moment, as I stood in line at the intermission concession debating whether or not to follow through, I faltered, and instead of ordering the dared glass of wine I requested a bag of chocolate covered almonds. Next dare you give me- I'm on it.

Well, I've dated myself again, and yes, it was fabulous. The occasion? The Chilliwack library was hosting an evening with Gail Anderson-Dargatz. This had been marked on my calendar for many weeks. A lot of preparation (mostly mental) went into the evening: I'd worried about my babe not going to sleep without a pre-bedtime nurse; I bought a copy of The Cure for Death by Lightening at my local VV boutique; I'd plotted how early I was going to need to be there in order to get one of the 50 seats.. This was all unnecessary, as Mike had predicted, apparently Chilliwack is not a literary hot bed- about 25 of us were there, mostly white headed members of the library association. Gail was not put off by the intimate gathering and was suitably impressive - smart, funny, and personable. I was too nervous to ask a question, but was able to have a mini-chat later when I had her sign my book.

OK, lots of non-food related rambling going on, looks like a phone call may be overdue. Here's a quick and easy meal - Mike's favourite - potato pancakes. We never eat these with anything else like salad or bread. No, these are strictly for when you haven't planned dinner, but you do have a few potatoes and a husband that will make you queen for the evening if you keep these patties coming. This method makes enough for 3 people:

Grate:
3 yukon gold potatoes (or 2 large russets)
1 small yellow onion

Add:
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper

Fry - I use a non-stick griddle with only a bit of oil. I make sure that they are fairly flat so that there is no undercooked middle.

Eat - Mike likes them with a dollop of sour cream. Finn likes apple sauce.

Look What I Can Do!

2010-05-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Smoochy,

Do you remember that MAD tv skit, 'look what I can do!' Stuart, I think it was. Sigh. This is what I did this weekend, made a giant bun. You know your social life is bumping when...

Actually, what appears to be a giant bun, is in fact a small focaccia bread topped with herbs, cherry tomatoes and caramelized onions. Yum, For the first round, I split the beast and stuffed it with roasted veggies. For the second, I used a broccoli filling. The broccoli filling will work on any sandwich, or would make a nice filler for an omelet, savoury crepe or a wrap. I choose to share the recipe for the broccoli filling. If you want to make the focacci as well, see this previous post, and instead of making one focaccia, shape the dough into four rounds.

Broccoli Almond Filling

Head of broccoli, chopped into large pieces (what you might use for a veggie platter)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp almonds, toasted and chopped
a couple dashes of hot sauce (Tabasco or other)
2 Tbsp yogurt

Place the broccoli in a pan of boiling water and boil until just tender. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the garlic and saute a couple minutes. Add the broccoli. Fry for four minutes. Transfer the broccoli mixture to a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients.

Note, before you process, that you want the broccoli to retain its texture. Do not process into a sauce. The final product should be chunky. Okay, now press the pulse button until desired texture is achieved. Mix in additional salt and pepper and Tabasco sauce until it tastes right.

Use on a sandwich, wrap, or an omelet.

Grandma's Cake

2010-04-24T22:14:00.001-07:00

Hi Haley,

I miss having you in Victoria. Thanks for passing on the photo shoot of Grandma's B-day. I particularly like the one of Atley delivering cake. He's one of the better servers I've seen in action. When we open our restaurant we'll have to hire him. Right now he gets pretty excited over pennies and nickles to add to the leather man's wallet he totes around. I'm thinking his labour price could be right.

I won't give you the entire chocolate cake recipe, as there are a million and one good chocolate cake recipes out there. If you don't have one, use the six minute cake. It's actually one of my top chocolate cake recipes.

What I did in creating this towering cake, was use a bunt pan instead of 2 nine inch pans. I increased the baking time to about one hour. When the cake cooled, I sliced them horizontally into three pieces and spread them with blueberry jam (any flavour will do). Then I iced the outside of the cake in this most excellent frosting.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped (best to use good quality)
1/2 a pound cold butter, diced (use room temp butter if you don't have a stand mixer)
1 and 3/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp coffee liqueur (optional)

Melt the butter in a double boiler and in the meantime, beat the butter in a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Slowly add the chocolate and mix until combined. Stop the mixer, add the icing sugar, and mix on low until smooth. (If you mix on high you will be enveloped in a white cloud). Add the salt, vanilla, sour cream, and coffee liqueur and mix until very smooth.

Ice your cake!

Take a bite out of that-

2010-04-14T20:45:00.001-07:00

Rach-

Part of being on maternity leave is to give the impression that you're Super Mom - you know, stimulating the mind of your active almost-3 year old through carefully constructed teachable moments, nursing and fostering the cognitive, physical, and emotional development of your angel babe, keeping your house immaculate, appearing effortlessly gorgeous in your Mommy lulu lemon uniform, and always being a lovingly doting wife- all while masking any sleep deprivation (because that may take away Angel Babe's rock star status). I know that you're probably chuckling right now because yes, I am sometimes self-aware, and do acknowledge that I don't meet any number of those criteria.

This became painfully obvious when I was in Victoria last week fielding phone calls from a frantic Mike; he needed his passport to cross the border for a principals conference. After finally helping him locate the passport, he commented on the amount of 'junk drawers' that we have. Oh well, being Super Mom is overrated I'm sure. In order to compensate for my hidden messes I need to go above and beyond in the one Super Mom category that I am capable of achieving - ~~sneaking in a chapter or two of my novel while Finn plays quietly~~-that is making nutritious meals for my crew.

The latest on the dinner front? Whole wheat pitas from the original Moosewood. They turned out beautifully, puffing out nicely and just asking to be stuffed with deliciousness. For a filling I made: chicken patties with peanut sauce, sauteed onions and mushrooms, bean sprouts, avocado, feta, and tzaztiki sauce. A bit eclectic but tasted amazing.

Here is the Moosewood pita recipe (I made with 1/2 whole wheat flour):

PITA BREAD

Prep. time: about 2 hours (most of which is raising time) Yield: 6 larger (or 12 smaller) pocket breads

1 Cup wrist-temp. water

1 1/2 teaspoons ( half of a 1/4-oz. packet) active dry yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar or honey

1 teaspoon salt

about 3 1/2 cups of flour (1 cup of it can be whole wheat)

OPTIONAL: 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

a little oil for the dough extra flour for rolling out

oil or cornmeal, for the baking tray

1) Place the water in a medium-sized bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes-it will become foamy

2) Add sugar or honey and salt. Stir until everything dissolves.

3) Add three cups of flour, one cup at a time, mixing enthusiastically. As the dough thickens switch to your hand. Knead the dough in the bowl for a few minutes, adding up to 1/2 cup more flour, as needed, to combat stickiness. When the dough is smooth, oil both the bowl and the top surface of the dough. Cover with a clean tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

4) Punch down the dough and transfer it to a clean, floured surface. Knead it for about five minutes, then divide it into either 6 or 12 equal pieces I wanted smaller pitas so I did 12. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten the pieces into a thin circle (flour surface and sprinkle flour on dough). The diameter of each circle is unimportant, as long as it is no thicker than 1/8 inch. Let the circles rest for 30 minutes.

5) Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place a baking tray in the oven for a minute or two, to heat it. Then brush it with oil (I used cooking spray) - or dust it with corn meal. Place as many circles on the tray as will fit without touching, and bake for just 6-8 minutes, or until puffed up and very lightly browned. Hot oven is key.

6) Remove from the oven, and wrap the breads in a clean, slightly damp tea towel, then place in a brown paper bag, close up, for 15 minutes. This will keep the breads supple. I didn't have any paper bags so I just left them between two tea towels - worked beautifully.

I miss you - it was great hanging out last week!

Sunnyside-Up Over Rice-

2010-04-14T20:42:00.001-07:00

Rach -

Thanks for logging me onto your school computer - I'm living in a luddite world at the present, I'm computer-free at Mom and Guy's this week. I'm going to see if I can actually get to posting a recipe - it all depends on how long Guy can entertain Finn in the classroom next door. I'm looking forward to being on the island for a few more days, and yes, eating with you (all in the name of blog-material of course).

What is this food wonder? A fried egg on a brown rice risotto (my take on a Spanish Rice kind of risotto). Even if you don't follow my risotto method, all you really need to take away from this post is that: you need to put a fried egg on your next meatless rice dish. You'll love me even more, if possible, than you do right now.

Here's what I did (please realize that this the amounts listed here are very approximate- don't try this if you are someone who needs precise measurements - yes I often give this warning but this time I mean it):

First I sauteed over a long slow heat: 1 finely minced onion and 2 cloves garlic garlic.

I added: 2 diced tomatoes and after cooking for a few minutes I pureed the lot with my immersion blender (this is unnecessary for most, necessary if you live with a texture-phobe).

Then I added: 1 cup medium grain brown rice and 1/2 tsp or so salt, pepper, a sprinkle of garlic powder, and an MSG-free beef bouillon cube.

Still with me? Then I slowly added over med-high heat about 1 cup of water (if you have beef or chicken stock you can skip the bouillon and use that in place of the water), mixing frequently with the lid off. Everytime the water seemed absorbed I gave the mixture a stir, put the heat up a notch, added another 1/2 cup or so, stirred again and then put the heat low again to simmer. I don't know how much liquid I added, maybe 3 cups?, but time-wise I did this over about 45 minutes.

At this point the rice still had a slightly chewy texture -I ensured that the rice was 'loose' with a bit more liquid, and then put the lid on and turned the heat off.

I left the pot for about half an hour and then, when Mike phoned me to let me know he was en route home from school (giving me about 15 minutes), I turned the heat back on under my rice, adding another 1/3 or so cup liquid and 1 cup of peas.

About 10 minutes to eating time, I started frying the eggs - you could also do a poach if have the gift of poaching (I don't). I like a soft yolk for this dish, I'll leave this up to your preference.

Right before serving I did a final seasoning taste, then plated the risotto, and sprinkled with grated old cheddar (parmesan would be great but I didn't have any) and chives from my garden. The final step? Place your fried egg atop.

Next time I make this I am going to try simplifying it by just adding all the liquid at once pilaf-style.

The verdict? Even Mike and Grace, of the white-rice camp, declared this to be delicious.

OK, I better go see what Finn and Grandpa are up to. Oh, and I think that the chocolate cake you made for Grandma's 88th festivities this past Sunday was on par with, or possibly even surpassed, your coconut creation . Sorry, this is a shamless recipe request.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

2010-04-13T13:38:00.001-07:00

Rach-

After dinner, after I kiss my sweet babe to sleep, and while Mike cuddles into the car bed swapping 'Dream Stories' with Mr. Finn, I sneak out the back gate and do my four laps of the park. You can probably guess that while I pretend that this is for exercise, it's delicious to be alone - without my busy little sidekick, my sous chef -no it's just me and the mountains. This evening, on my way back into the yard, I found that my seeds had sprouted - tiny pea sprouts and delicate little Swiss chard leaves that I am already dreaming of devouring.

Once again, almost eerily, our ovens are baking in unison. This weekend I harvested my first rhubarb of the season; while you squared yours up I went the coffee cake route. This was a nice friendly cake - moist, with a lovely sugary topping. I merged a few different recipes to come up with this one, which I will be making, along with your squares, all spring and summer long.

First make your topping.

Combine:
2 T melted butter
1/3 brown sugar
1/4 flour
1 tsp cinnamon

Then make your cake.

First chop 2 cups of rhubarb. I sprinkled the rhubarb with 2 T sugar and then put the lot into the microwave for 2 minutes - next time I'm skipping this step, but I thought that the rhubarb looked a bit green.

Cream:
1/3 cup butter (or you could sub canola oil) with 3/4 cup brown sugar
Add:
2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla

Add the following, but don't stir until you have added all the dry ingredients (this should be done in a separate bowl, but I don't like to wash more dishes than I have to):

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together and add 1 cup buttermilk, or in my case 1 T lemon juice plus milk to equal 1 cup. Fold in the rhubarb. Pour into a 9 inch springform and sprinkle/dab the topping on top. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

To Rhubarb!

Bars and Binoculars

2010-04-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dearest O-Choo-Me(e) Ebab, (Haley's third nickname, Moocho Babe backwards, pronounced with a slight accent.)

To answer the questions posed in you last post, we ate the mango, although it was lying on the table for a day previous, not quite having made it into the fruit basket. I admit, I left it in the photo for purely aesthetic reasons. I think you can agree that I made the right choice. The binoculars are C's, not mine. He uses them for a variety of activities: one, squirrel monitoring (He's big, pesky and grey and digs up the neighbour's garden. I don't think they realize.) Two, humming bird watching. (Three humming birds visit the tree below our kitchen window. C. is interested and excited by their presence. I've lost interest.) Third, chem trail examinations. (Chem trails are the white clouds left by jets, for which C. has formed a mild obsession). So far, we have resisted the urge to train the lenses on the neighbour's window.

Now, for the food, as usual we are in the same head space. I also experimented with squares this weekend. I bought my first stocks of Rhubarb last week. Yes, very exciting. And went looking for a new recipe in which to use the bounty. This crumble bar recipe came from the Smitten Kitchen blog, although where she uses raspberries, I subbed rhubarb. With excellent results, I have to say. These bars are incredibly yummy. The one other itsy change I made was to cut out the second addition of butter. I'm not going to rewrite the recipe. Instead check it out on this mother of food blogs, Smitten Kitchen.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Squares

2010-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday Rach-

I love the picture in your last post. Were those the random items on your table? Was Caleb about to devour a mango and a cookie while peering out at Victoria through his binoculars, all after downing a beer and twirling a thingy-majig around his finger?Were you playing a memory game? Writing a story about a mango-eating peeping Tom?

Speaking of writing, I feel that most of our readers don't know that you are a published author - that several of your short stories have appeared in print. I tried to find your non-Reems Eats writing online and came across your short story for Room Magazine (the link from the link appears on the left-hand side of their page). All right, I'm done bragging, and need to move onto the topic on hand - peanut butter brownies.

After drooling over the recipe for about a year, this winter I finally tried, and was slightly disappointed with the Rebar Cookbook's Peanut Butter square. Now, after making Smitten Kitchen's peanut butter brownies, I know where Rebar wasn't working for me, and plan to meld the two into one square very soon. The Rebar square had a peanut butter-frosting which, using natural peanut butter, just wasn't the over-the-top kind of peanut butter square that I was looking for. Deb from Smitten Kitchen finished her brownie off with a chocolate ganache. This was it, the amazing chocolate finish that the squares needed. With the oatmeal-y, milk chocolate chunk Rebar base, and a chocolate finish I'm going to have one awesome square. I realize that this post is premature as this mystical, magical peanut butter chocolate square is very hypothetical at this point; however, the Smitten Kitchen squares are amazing and delicious as is, so I thought that you needed to know about them. You can imagine how much daydreaming time-and yes- much of it will happen as I happily drift off to sleep- will be devoted to the upcoming peanut butter square-recipe-morphing extravaganza.

I followed the recipe to the dot - I even, after much deliberation, added the extra egg yolk that I thought was unnecessary. In the future I will not be adding this additional yolk, but I am trying something crazy and unorthodox: I have decided that the first time I make a recipe I am going to follow the recipe exactly as stated. Then, if I like the recipe, I will administer my usual tinkering on subsequent attempts. I know, crazy things are brewing in my kitchen. With these great intentions, I did make slightly less of that ganache than the recipe called for- but I did add that egg yolk.

OK, Finn is out with Mike on their 'Saturday Morning Adventure' (Translation: I get to drink coffee, read the paper, and have a shower in glorious solitude) and I need to get back to the Travel Section for my vicarious vacation.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Peanut Butter Square

An Everyday Cookie

2010-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Haley!

A birthday cake is a heady thing. It's a licence, really, to enact your sugar fantasies. By the way, I've been enlisted to produce Grandma's eighty-eighth. Stay tuned. I for one, am not at all appalled to hear that you made your own cake, but that's because I know how much satisfaction it gave you, and how many nights you fell asleep mulling over which frosting, which combination of flavours. (I'm thinking three, maybe four nights).

But aside from birthdays, regular, non-sushi days chug on and I'm trying to cook less and clean more. This sounds wrong, I know. Maybe it is wrong... Key word remains: 'trying'. I wanted to ask you what the website was that dictates chores to errant house-wives. I'm not really a house wife, the breadwinner, actually, but I would like to make a pass at cleanliness. You see, the other day I reached for a big mixing bowl that I had stored up on top of my fridge. My fingers were instantly sticky upon contact with the invisible top of the fridge. I rinsed them off and that seemed to take care of the problem. Then I dropped a fork and it slid under the stove. Upon fishing for it, I made a few discoveries I'd rather not share lest Joan (for new readers, Joan is our saintly clean and disgustingly health-conscious mother) should happen to read this post. Anyways, I was out of rags...

Chocolate chip cookies are the cure for most problems. (See the blog on Grade Nine Blondies). This is a really nice every-day cookie recipe. It tastes a lot like a granola version of a choc chip cookie, which is why I like it. I'm sure you'll agree that there is something about oats... Anyways, this recipe is straight from one of Peter Reinhart's (I'm way to lazy to look up the correct spelling of his name but probably should) books.

Energy Cookies a la Peter Reinhart

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 sup sesame seeds

1 Tbsp flax seeds

2 cups flour

1/2 cup choc chips

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp salt

1/s tsp baking powder

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup raisins plumped in 1 cup hot water

Begin by toasting the seeds.

Combine the seeds in a bowl with the dry ingredients. Drain the raisins, reserve the water. Add the raisins and add to the bowl along with the honey and the oil. Mix!

Add water until you can mix it into a stiff batter.

Scoop the batter in mounds onto a prepared cookie sheet. Flatten the mounds with your hand as they won't spread when you bake them off.

Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.

Birthday Cake

2010-04-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

R-
Thanks for the birthday wishes. It's true, a Reems birthday is a big deal - and as a true Reems- March 30 is a day that I shamelessly look forward to. After having 31 special days, I still spend too much time deciding what the meal lineup on my birthday will look like - in the past it was what restaurant Mike would be taking me to, now it's what form of take-out will grace our table. For we have a new birthday champion that can no longer be excluded from a birthday dinner - Finn has taken on birthdays with all the excitement that an almost 3-year old can drum up. He has figured out that with birthdays comes presents, and cake, and balloons, and if he's really lucky- candy.

The highlight of Finn's young life was taking home a goodie bag from his friend Ben's third birthday party. This was a loot bag that I was not be able to first sneak into and 'censor' - no Finn was aware of all the glorious sugary contents. He devoured about half of the treats while sitting in the buggy on the way home, and then proceeded to lock himself into his bedroom to polish 'er off. Even though I had acknowledged that the treats were his, he still saw me as a potential roadblock to sugar nirvana.

This year, the dinner meal was decided on - Hana Sushi - followed by a cake made by myself and Finn. Grace was scandalized that I was going to be making my own birthday cake; however, I have learned that if you want something to taste amazing you need to make it yourself. Mike, like Caleb, had to be introduced to the all-out Reems birthday extravaganza. He plays along gamely and makes sure that I am sufficiently spoiled- from the start of our relationship he was always the ultimate gift buyer. Gifts are his love language and he does them well - the only part of the special day missing from his itinerary? The cake. Each year when this was pointed out, Mike obligingly whisked me off for a birthday blizzard, or selected a chocolate bar at the birthday movie - yet, I still felt the need for a cake. I finally had the eureka moment this year that if I wanted the perfect confection I was going to need to roll up my sleeves. Finn and I were up for the challenge and, in an attempt to replicate my all-time favourite cake- Victoria's Dutch Bakery Mocha Point- we rolled up our sleeves and got busy.

I made two 9-inch yellow cakes and then sliced them in half to be filled with a vanilla cream filling and mocha whipping cream. To be finished off with more mocha whipping cream. Finally, I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzled them on parchment and then broke them up randomly to be sprinkled on top (chocolate shavings would also be great but I didn't have a block of the good stuff). I'm not going to give the individual recipes but I am going to reveal my secret for an amazing whipped frosting.

Take 500 mL of whipped cream. Add 1 T instant coffee. Put in fridge for about an hour until the coffee is dissolved (real coffee would make your cream to watery, and the hour lets the coffee dissolve nicely). Then add 1/3 cup (or more if you have a sweet tooth) icing sugar (which has corn starch in it to make the cream a bit stiffer) and then whip that cream with your electric mixer. You could add 1/3 cup cocoa but I am trying to model the Dutch Bakery with a more strict coffee flavour.

OK, that might not be a secret, but it did taste amazing. Oh, and thanks for the Happy Birthday sung on the phone. You and Carmen get better every year -though in your case it may have been Caleb's lovely harmony.

Happy Birthday Haley

2010-04-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

(To wish Haley a Happy Birthday, please comment on this post!)

When C., my husband, entered our family circle, first as a boyfriend, later a hubbie, he was shocked by the gusto and intensity with which we tend to celebrate a birthday--in our twenties we still recieve hand-made banners, balloons, numerous phone calls, BBQs, our favourite cakes, etc. Plus birthday boy or girl gets to call all the shots throughout the day. The real kicker for C. was my Grandma's eighty-ith. Picture Mings, the slightly classy Chinese restaurant in downtown Victoria, a round table of elderly Dutchies (plus my immediate family), not yet prescribed hearing aids. One has to speak at a shout to be heard. And everyone wants to be heard. Ome Willam, in a red vest and bowties, black thick-rimmed glasses and a shock of white hair, is snapping at the not-so-young Chinese-Canadian waiter and calling him 'boy.' Ome Gerritt, much to the delight of Dad and B., is calling C. 'Gayleb,' a nickname which still surfaces today...I think Grandma had fun. She certainly was mad when we tried to slip the party just before nine o'clock. I think she said repeatedly, 'but it's my birthday.'

She was right. The birthday takes precedence. Which is why I'm a little ashamed that I failed to announce Moochie's birthday a few days ago. On the last day in March the beautiful Haley turned thirty-one. Wow...two babies, one Mike, still cooking, still looking hot. You've done good Mooch!

To wish Haley a Happy birthday please comment on this post.

Spinach Filo Quiche

2010-04-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

Rach -

Happy Easter. Finn just had the sweetest phone call from his cousin Atley- Please visualize, no, I need you to 'hear-ize' in a super cute 2-year old voice- 'HAPPY EASTER FINN!' Finn thinks it's so awesome that someone not a grandma wants to talk to him on the phone, that he starts laughing uncontrollably, and then moves onto yelling random nonsense words into the mouthpiece. Hopefully his social skills pick up before kindergarten.

The annual bun-fest was delicious as always. The overnight rising had us savouring hot-cross buns for a Good Friday breakfast, as opposed to the usual later coffee brunch-fest. I added one cup of finely chopped apple, but it almost absorbed into the dough, anyway we didn't even notice this addition.

I loved the look of your new hot cross bun recipe and I like the idea of the whole wheat - I need to point out though, that I found no evidence of any type of dried fruit in your recipe (must have been the sun in your eyes). What did you put in, how much, and when should I add said fruit? Waiting a whole other year for hot cross buns seems a little long so I might be a little wild this year and pull out, just for kicks, a Canada bun on July 1st (maybe with a maple syrup glaze?), or maybe a special Harvest Bun with cranberries for Thanksgiving? The possibilities are endless. I could rhapsodize about buns at length but had better move on to more exciting topics.

Such as spinach quiche. With filo. This is a post dedicated to those who want to be able to make a meal with 20 min or less prep time. It's also a dish that I like to have the ingredients in my freezer for, so that when I realize that my fresh veggie supply has dwindled, I can whip it up without having to make an impromptu grocery run. Finally, this is a great meal for you Rach - as less than a month since you posted pictures of a splayed brick chick, you and Caleb are now off meat.

What you need for this seriously easy dish is a box of filo and some frozen spinach in your freezer. Here's what I used:

4 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 package defrosted spinach drained, or the equivalent fresh pre-cooked spinach
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup or so chopped green onions
1/3 tsp salt and pepper
1 cup shredded cheese - I used aged cheddar
8 (or so) sheets of filo. Defrost this in your fridge overnight or on the counter for a few hours. You won't use all the sheets but I have successfully re-frozen the remainder of the filo for another day.

This is a flexible recipe. The filling is forgiving and you could easily saute some minced garlic and onion, or any carnivores out there could add some diced bacon or pancetta.

First, while the filo is still covered, make your filling. Combine the eggs, milk, spinach, green onions and cheese. I have to be honest, I don't actually measure the ingredients so you are making this with a leap of faith. I didn't have any feta left, but for a play on spanakopita this would be a great addition.

Next you need to layer your filo into your pie plate. I really took the fast route and used (close your eyes for a second Rach - or please don't judge me) a quick spray of Pam between the sheets. I know, the contents in a can of aerosol Pam can't be good for you. Brushing some olive oil or melted butter between the layers would be the more real food alternative. If the filo breaks a bit no worries. Leave the edges hanging over the pie plate until you've done the layers.

Then you need to pour your filling into the shell. Put the edges of the filo over the filling and bake in the oven for about 40 min at 350 degrees - or until the filling looks set and the crust is brown.

Let it set for 10 minutes or so, toss a salad and there you have it.

Hot Crosses

2010-04-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hey H.,

How did this morning's bun-fest go? Was the over-night-garage-rise method as trusty as always? I'm going to keep this blog brief as I'm huddled up against my kitchen window in order to maintain an Internet connection. A ray of sunlight is hitting me right in the eyes and bouncing off the computer screen. If this is full of typos it's because I can't see a thing.

We had M and M over for breakie. I think they were sufficiently impressed by our spread of eggs, fruit salad, and hot cross buns. Sigh, sad that so much of what you and I make is less about love and more about showing off. Look what I can do.

I made 100% whole wheat buns because I'm on one of those whole-grains kicks. Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book has become my new best friend. I'm loving the hippy-style, healthy approach the book takes to bread making. While these are nice and grainy, they're still fairly rich... Here's the basic recipe, although I made some fairly significant changes.

3 to 3.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 TBsp instant yeast
3/4 cups to 1 cup warm water
1 cup yogurt
1 egg
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter

Combine 1 cup of the flour with the yeast. Add the water. Stir smooth. Add the wet ingredients except for the butter. Add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time. The dough will be sticky. Add more flour by the spoonful if necessary. Wet your hands in order to keep the dough from sticking and knead for five minutes. Knead the butter in. The dough should be sticky but smooth. Let rise until doubled (one to two hours). Deflate the dough; reshape it into a ball and let it rise another 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, or until it is back to doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into buns. Let rise until doubled.

Mix one egg with 1 TBsp of water and brush over the buns before baking in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Meanwhile, mix 2 Tbsp honey with 1/2 Tbsp water and heat in a saucepan until boiling. Remove from heat.

When you take the buns out of the oven brush them with the honey glaze. You may add the decorative cross using an icing mixture but I omitted that step.

Serve them hot. If you plan to serve them later in the day, reheat the buns in a 350 degree oven.

Delish Baby

2010-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

Rach,

Thanks for making me feel better about my travel-departure struggles. Once again, this is just highlighting our shared genes.

Your Rebar Curry looks awesome. I also find the idea of making a curry paste daunting, but with your guidance I'm going to give it a go. When I saw cilantro on your list of ingredients I started to get excited. Every year around this time I get enthused about planting, and a good herb really gets me ready to dip my hands into the manure bag. Planting I can do- it's the weeding and upkeep that I struggle with. Fortunately for me I have found that Chilliwack is much more forgiving in the green thumb department than Calgary. In Alberta one needs to have that gardening gift (translation:diligence) in order to produce food for the table. In Chilliwack it takes some good soil, lots of watering, and a mother-in-law that manages a garden centre. Last year we had such a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes that even Mike, of the I-don't-eat- fruit-or-anything-that-might-resemble-a-fruit, was bragging. So yesterday, in anticipation of summer days, and summer eats, Finn and I planted our first seeds of the season, snap peas, regular peas, and Swiss chard.

I'm not actually giving a recipe today, though I have lots to impart - during nap times right now I am busy dipping into my stash of peanut butter brownies, and I made the worlds easiest filo spinach quiche for dinner tonight.. but more on those later. I just wanted to show off the more delicious offering that my house has to offer. Couldn't you just take a good nibble on those cheeks?

Oh, and yes, I will be making hot crossed buns. This year I am really going overboard and am planning on adding some diced apple to the dough. I'm also going to follow the overnight garage rising method - why you ask? Overnight guests of course! I'm not sure if Finn is more excited to see Grandma, Grandpa, or Josie. If any of our readers are still with me, I am including a link from last year's Hot Cross Buns.

Overnight Cinnamon Buns

2010-03-28T18:05:00.001-07:00

R-

My new food craze? Overnight cinnamon buns. This is a breakfast designed to impress your out-of-town guests, conveniently with all the prep completed the day before. Oh that's right, you and C live in a funky ONE bedroom apartment, and most of your family is within a 15 minute driving distance. Since we have a ferry or a mountain pass between many of our loved ones, Chilliwack, and Chateau Campbell, has become the place to visit. As you know we boast beautiful mountain views, lovely lakes, and Caleb's favourite - a plethora of cheap thrift stores. The newest attraction to the list? You got it, Sunday morning cinnamon bun breakfast.

I use this recipe with the following changes. I use only 1/4 sugar for the dough, I reduce the eggs from 3 to 2, and I use only 2 T butter. Last time, instead of making 12 buns I divided the dough into 14 buns to make them slightly smaller, mostly so that I can eat 2 for breakfast with a little less guilt. Oh, and instead of putting them in my already bursting fridge, I let them rise overnight in the cool garage (To clarify: 'Cool' as in temperature, please don't mistake this as a nod to Mike's NBA Jam video arcade game).

Since we have a household divide on raisins I do half with and half without - they are good without raisins too, but I have a hard time abstaining from food loves. So after I spread the filling on the dough I sprinkle half with raisins and leave half plain.

The final tweak is that I like to make a cream cheese glaze. I cream aprox 1/3 c cream cheese with 3/4 cup icing sugar and then add milk 1 T at a time until I have the desired consistency. I haven't tinkered with whole wheat flour yet, but might need to if I keep pumping these out of my oven at this rate.

OK, Rach nap time is ticking away and I have a new stack of library books!

Please note: While Mike and I love having overnight guests, we have ensured that our 'guest bed' (mattress on the floor), is only comfortable enough for about three nights, thus enabling good times and memories for both parties.