Food for Thought

The subject of children and their eating habits is a touchy one.  Each of us seem to have our own opinions on how best to provide a robust food education to our children.  What we can agree on is that our early year experiences sets us on the course of who we end up as later in life, so modelling a healthy relationship with food from the beginning is something that shouldn't be taken too lightly.

Our family's food philosophy has evolved over time, through research, trial-and-error, and advice from other parents.  Compared to other families, we put less importance on what the children eat, and more importance on the pleasure and social culture of eating.  It goes something like this:

1. Eating is a shared, communal experience.
   We eat together, as a family.  Eating happens at the table, not in a car, stroller, or while running around.  The only company we keep is each other; no toys, TV, or phones during mealtime.  Everyone eats the same food, and only what's offered at that meal.
2. Snacking is reserved for social events, and only when other children are also snacking (e.g. birthday parties, play dates).
   The kids get 2-3 snacks a day at daycare.  But when they are with us, we don't provide any snacks, as it often ruins mealtime appetites.  If the kids are truly hungry between meals, they can have a glass of milk, and a reminder to eat when food is available, which is only at mealtimes.
3. Food is never to be used as a reward or punishment.
   Nobody is coerced into eating anything, but everyone is encouraged to try new foods or things they claim not to like.
4. Food should be treated with respect.
   No playing with food.  No throwing food.  No "hiding" vegetables in sauces or smoothies.  All foods should be appreciated for what they are, and if the child isn't interested in trying it, we'll just offer it again another time.

Our kids are still kids.  They would rather have cookies over a bowl of soup any day.  Sometimes they only get in a couple of bites before wanting to run off and play.  Other times there are tears because vegetables are mixed right into the pasta, or the food is too hot.  But they also love picking clams our of their shells, munching on leafy greens right off the plant, and going to town on a bone-in chicken leg.  The girls act silly and there are lots of giggles, and we chat about our how our day went and upcoming weekend plans.  And when mealtime is over and the clean-up is done, there's always another meal to look forward to only a few hours away.

Grilled Spinach and Cheese Sandwiches

Makes 4 sandwiches.

These little sandwiches are quick to make, especially if you prepare the filling in advance and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to assemble your sandwiches.

1 bunch of spinach, trimmed and washed

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

50 g (1/4 package) cream cheese

A pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper, to taste

8 slices of bread

4 slices of Emmentaler Swiss cheese

Softened butter or mayonnaise

Blanch spinach by immersing in boiling water for 30 seconds.  Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.  Squeeze the spinach with your hands to remove as much water as you can, and roughly chop into small pieces.

Heat the olive oil on a skillet on medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, and cook until the onion softens, about 2-3 minutes.  Add cream cheese, and mix until the cream cheese melts and there are no large lumps.  Stir in spinach, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and scoop into a bowl.  Clean out the skillet in preparation for sandwich grilling.

Assembling the sandwiches: lay down a slice of bread.  Spread a thick layer of spinach-cream cheese, and cover with a slice of swiss cheese.  Sandwich with another slice of bread.  Repeat with the remaining 6 slices of bread, to make 4 sandwiches altogether.

Cooking the sandwich: heat the skillet on medium heat.  While it is heating up, spread butter or mayonnaise (my preference) on both sides of the sandwich.  Place on the skillet and heat until golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes.  Carefully flip the sandwich, and brown the other side the same way.  Remove from heat, and repeat with the remaining sandwiches.  Slice into quarters, and serve warm.

Breakfast At Home

Before I had kids, one of my favourite indulgences was weekend brunch.  I loved going to those small, hip brunch spots with my friends, so we could chat about this and that, while eating a greasy plate of eggs and home fries.  After brunch, I would usually talk a leisurely walk around the neighborhood for some good ol' people watching and to poke my head into a few shops.  It all felt so footloose and fancy free.

These days, going out for brunch poses some interesting challenges: getting the kids ready and out the door, finding a neighborhood place with good food and no line-up, and scoring a big table that will seat ourselves and our friends.  That's why I'm quite happy having breakfast at home.  If we do a bit of advance planning, we can cook and serve up a good breakfast before 9am (hangry hour).  Unplanned breakfast is usually toast, sunny side up eggs, and a banana.  Nothing too exciting.  But when we put in some time and thought the night before, breakfast can be great, even on a time-crunched weekday.  Like this family favourite: an apple crisp baked the night before.  It has only a touch of sweetness and a ton of fruit so it still feels healthy, but it's sweet enough to keep everyone asking for more.

Breakfast Apple Crisp
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.  Makes 4-6 servings.

Fruit crisps are very forgiving; you can easily substitute the ingredients and it will still turn out delicious.  Berries for apples, whole wheat flour for ground almonds, milk for orange juice, butter for coconut oil, maple syrup for brown sugar, pecans for sunflower seeds... I can go on forever.  I've made this breakfast crisp over a dozen times last year, and the below permutation is my favourite.  I like to leave the skin on the apples; it lends a nice texture, colour, and a bit of extra fibre.

This crisp just happens to be gluten-free and vegan.

Filling:
6 medium tart apples, such as Cortland, cored and cut into thin chunks (approx. 2 lbs)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp brown sugar

Topping:
3 tbsp (45 g) coconut oil, warmed slightly to liquefy
3 tbsp (45 g) olive oil
3 tbsp (40 g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (50 g) ground almonds
2 cups (180 g) large-flake oats
1/4 cup (20 g) unsweetened flaked dried coconut
1/4 cup  (35 g) raw sunflower seeds
1 tsp whole brown flax seeds
1 generous pinch of kosher salt
Juice and zest of 1/2 an orange

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Grease an 8x8" square glass baking dish with coconut oil.  Put the apples in a large bowl, and add the other filling ingredients on top.  Toss together, and dump into the baking dish evenly.  Set aside.

In another large bowl, use a wooden spoon to mix the liquid coconut oil, olive oil, brown sugar, and ground almonds into a slurry.  Stir in the oats, coconut, seeds, and salt.  Pour in the juice and zest, and mix well.  Spread the topping over the apples, pressing it lightly and smoothing it out to ensure even browning.

At this point, you can cover with plastic wrap, and keep it overnight in the fridge to be baked in the morning.  Or, you can bake it straight away - at 400F for 30 minutes, or until the apples are bubbling and the top is golden brown.  Serve warm, or do what I do: cool to room temperature and cover with plastic wrap, and store it in the fridge until the next morning.  Pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, and serve with a scoop of plain yogurt.

An Everyday Salad

The past harvest season for our small backyard vegetable garden was our first, and much more plentiful than I expected.  We had a steady supply of tomatoes and herbs for most of the summer, and a few bumper crops of lettuce and arugula.  And parsley.  Way too much parsley.

I'm not one to let all this parsley go to waste, so I turned to my trusty Ottolenghi cookbook and find an herb salad recipe, described as "astonishingly fresh" and "one of the most gratifying dishes you can possibly make".  I'd like to add that eating an herb salad is much like consuming the sun's energy directly through your mouth.  Good for you, and good to eat: I liked it so much that I started to eat it as a meal on its own, and then I tweaked it here and there to make it easier to prepare.  No measuring, no chopping.  Just a series of coordinated, quick movements around the kitchen, and you'll be treating your body to a glorious parsley salad in no time.

Parsley Salad with Toasted Sunflower Seeds and Currants

Makes 1 large meal-sized salad.

Consider having this salad with an open-faced tomato sandwich, when tomatoes are in season.  Or, consider wiping up the browned butter left in your skillet with a big chunk of crusty, chewy bread.

1 large handful of flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup unsalted, raw, hulled sunflower seeds
2 generous pinches of sea salt, divided

juice of 1/2 small lemon
a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup dried currants

Wash parsley well, and shake off excess water.  Pick off leaves and place into a large mixing bowl.

Heat the butter over medium heat in a frying pan, until it melts and starts to bubble.  Add sunflower seeds and a pinch of salt, and stir constantly until the seeds are golden brown, about 2 minutes.  They will burn quickly if unwatched.  Pour seeds and hot butter on top of parsley leaves.  Add lemon juice, olive oil, another pinch of salt, and currants.  Toss gently, and serve.

A Sour Cherry Summer

Our one and only family car hasn't been so dependable lately.  I'm not a mechanic or car expert, but I'm pretty sure that this much stalling, shaking, and questionable brake functioning is not normal.  Neither is the scared-for-my-life feeling I get every time I have to take it for a drive.  So when my close pal asked me if I was interested in going fruit picking at a farm outside the city, I had to decline because I had no way to get there.  Bah.

Then again, my close pal is my close pal for a reason.  A week later, she offered to split a 4.5 kg pail of fresh, pitted Montmorency cherries with me.  Sour cherry preserves, sour cherry sodas, sour cherry-topped cheesecake, and sour cherry all-day snacking are on my to-do list.  So are these not-too-sweet sour cherry ice pops, which are every bit indulgent and creamy as they are free of big icy shards that makes homemade popsicles painful to love.

Sour Cherry Creamsicles
Makes ten 3 oz popsicles.  Half of the recipe makes eight kid-sized 2 oz popsicles (as shown in photo).

I like to leave the cherries in halves, as it gives these popsicles a striking look and adds a fun texture.  If you don't care for the icy crunch, and would prefer a smoother, creamier popsicle, you can substitute for chopped or pureed cherries.

2 cups sour cherries, pitted and halved
6 tbsp (70 g) sugar
2 tsp lime juice (about 1/2 of a small lime)
1 package (250 g) cream cheese
1/2 cup plain greek-style yogurt

In a small saucepan, heat the sour cherries and sugar on medium until the sugar has dissolved.  Mix in lime juice and cream cheese, and beat out as many lumps as you have patience for with a wooden spoon.  Stir in the yogurt and mix well.  Pour into popsicle molds, insert sticks, and freeze for at least 4 hours or until solid.

Priorities

In 2012, after returning from a year of travelling and with my head still in the clouds, I decided to start this blog.  It was my dream to immerse myself into a crafty life, and document and share it here.  Three years later my toes have barely dipped in, and I look back with mild disappointment that this blog never realized its potential.  At this time, I have decided it would be best to let go of my www.craftbandit.ca url and aim to write here once every few weeks, so I can reshift my focus on other things.  I feel a little sad, but I know it's the right thing for right now.

A new priority popped into my life in January, when our little family of three became four.  This new little baby had me wrapped around her tiny pinky finger the moment I first saw her, and the weeks that followed were a blur of excitement and emotion.  Not to mention hunger.  Oh, the hunger!  I could never find enough time (or food) to eat my fill between catnaps, appointments, and marathon breastfeeding sessions.  I was fortunate to have friends and family that brought over meals for us so we didn't have to cook.  And when those meals were all eaten up, I was fortunate to have lots of granola around to feed my endless hunger.

Granola is serious power food for a new mother.  Not only is it energy dense, but the oats in the granola help boost milk supply and iron levels.  I craved granola so much that I couldn't even keep a full bowl around long enough to take a decent photo (which looks mostly like sliced bananas than granola).  Often I was wolfing down granola while washing dishes, talking on the phone, or doing laundry, so forget trying to get my camera out and getting the best angle and light.  Since discovering how much my postpartum self loved granola, I have made and gave jars of granola to other new mothers.

True, the world does not need another granola recipe.  But because there are so many good ones out there, I have to pick and choose my favourite.  I like my granola full of nuts, fruits and seeds, and just barely sweetened with brown sugar, instead of honey or maple syrup.  I can always add honey or maple syrup straight into the bowl later on where I'll be better able to taste it right upfront.  I also use orange juice in place of some of the olive oil, to keep it on the lighter side.

One last tip: try your granola with a sprinkle of nigella seeds (also known as kalonji or black caraway seeds, found in your local Indian grocery store).  The bitter, smoky flavour of those tiny black seeds will make for a more grown-up taste.

Mama's Power Granola
Makes 2 L, enough for 2 weeks of between-meal snacks for a hungry mama.

5 cups (425 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened dried flaked coconut
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (85 g) brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup orange juice (or the juice of 1 medium orange)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1 cup pitted dried dates, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a half-pan baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place the oats, coconut, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Stir to mix, and set aside.

Combine the brown sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan, and heat on medium to dissolve the sugar.  Add the olive oil, and stir.  Pour over the oat mixture, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Dump the contents of the bowl onto the baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven, stir to ensure even browning, and put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven, stir again, and put it back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.  Remove from the oven when the granola looks golden brown, and leave it in the pan to cool completely, at least 1 hour.  Pour it into a large bowl, and mix in the cranberries and dates.  Store in airtight glass jars for up to 1 month.

Feel Good Food

A friend of mine recently came over to my house with a hearty vegan stew for lunch, and reminded me how nourishing and satisfying these simple whole foods can be.  Ever since then, I have been dreaming of fresh, less processed food.  The kind that fills your belly, but makes you feel light and happy for the rest of the day.

Bircher muesli is just that.  A few choice ingredients, uncooked and cold soaked for a few hours, melding their flavours and textures together in a subtle way.  It makes for a lovely breakfast meal, but I've been really enjoying it as a mid-afternoon or evening snack when I'm craving something sweet.

Bircher Muesli
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson.  Serves 1 (see note below).

The original recipe suggests the amounts below would serve one, however I'm always wanting more after I've eaten a single portion, so I always double it.  This is my personal favourite combination, but of course you are free to substitute the nuts, seeds, dairy, and fruit for any sort you like.  Don't skip out on the dates, though: they melt into the liquid overnight, giving up a sweet soft texture that really makes this muesli shine.

1/2 cup (50 g) old-fashioned oats
1 tbsp (10 g) hulled raw sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp flax seeds
3 dried dates, each chopped into 4-6 pieces
1/4 cup greek-style plain yogurt
1 tsp maple syrup, or more to taste
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Place all ingredients, except the apple, into a bowl.  Add 1/2 cup of water, and mix well.  The consistency should be fairly runny.  Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or better yet, overnight.  Stir again, and enjoy with an extra drizzle of maple syrup if you're in the mood.

Walnuts

Thinking back when I was a kid, my mother ate a lot of walnuts.  She kept a grocery bag of walnuts under the kitchen sink, and from time-to-time, would take some out and crack them with her silver nutcracker to expose the brain-shaped nutmeat inside.  In fact, she told me walnuts were a brain food of sorts, which is why she ate them so often.  I never particularly enjoyed eating walnuts, but then again, I never tried crunchy candied walnuts flecked with sesame seeds until this week.

I made this walnut recipe as a part of a snack-set for Chinese New Year, along with chewy cubes of baked new year cake and buttery sesame sable cookies.  The walnuts disappeared within minutes of being served.  I bet they would also go nicely alongside a cheese plate, or crumbled atop a salad.

Candied Sesame Walnuts
Adapted from All Recipes.  Makes a small snack for 2.

1-1/4 cups (100g) shelled walnut halves
vegetable oil for deep-frying, enough for 2 inches of oil in a small sauce pot
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp raw sesame seeds, toasted for 5 mins at 350F
a pinch or two of kosher salt

Fill a small pot with a few inches of water, and bring to a boil.  Add walnuts, and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain walnuts using a strainer, and place in a medium-sized bowl.  While the walnuts are still hot, toss with sugar to coat.

Clean the small pot, and wipe dry.  Fill with 2 inches of vegetable oil, and turn up to medium-high heat.  Wait until the temperature reaches 350F; alternatively if you don't have a candy thermometer to check the temperature, put one walnut into the oil as a test.  If the oil is hot enough, it will bubble furiously when the test walnut is added.  When the oil is hot enough, place the nuts into the oil, being careful not to splash the hot oil.  Wait 3 minutes, and then check the colour of the walnuts for doneness.  If the walnuts are just turning a medium brown colour, they are ready.  If they still look pale, keep them in for another minute or two, checking constantly to avoid burning.

Once the walnuts are nicely browned, remove them with a slotted spoon and place into a clean strainer over a bowl.  Shake for a few seconds to remove excess oil, and pour the walnuts into a separate clean bowl.  Toss with salt and sesame seeds while they are still hot.  Cool completely before serving.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

The Year Ahead

 When January rolls around, I usually like to do a little reflection on the past year, and also my hopes for the upcoming year.  I feel like it's a nice little grounding exercise to gage where you're at with everything, feel good about what you've done, and pick out a few things that you'd like to see change.  I'm working on keeping things simple for this year: focus on a few things, but doing those few things well.

Gardening.  This is the first year I'll be able to plant seeds into the ground, instead of a pot.  Our garden space gets lots of sun (hurrah!), but also lots of foraging animals (boo).  I'm looking forward to planting lots of edibles, and learning what works and what doesn't.

House.  Continue to build our new home into a happy, useful, beautiful space for our little family.

Craft.  Start an heirloom recipe collection.  We have a number of recipes we use all the time (Alice Waters' Roast Chicken! Smitten Kitchen's crepes! Jim Lahey's pizza dough!), and I'd love to write them down, store them well, and share them with my kids and their kids.  Also, I'd like to try to improve and develop recipes I've tried, instead of always using new ones every time.

Photos.  Learn to take better photos by taking more photos.

Family.  Set aside weekly 1-on-1 time for each person, including myself.  Speaking of which, I've been really enjoying my new mid-morning ritual of tea and snack.  More on that another time.

These pecan sables are the last thing I'm going to bake until the baby arrives.  I made milk chocolate chip sables over Christmas for gift giving, and at first I was unimpressed at how bland they tasted.  But over time, they became my favourite cookie of the lot, and I've made lemon sables and pecan sables since.  I've quite grown to appreciate their simplicity: a tender crumb of butter, flour and sugar, blended in harmonic proportions.  Seems like a fitting edible mascot for my 2015 resolutions.

Pecan Sables
Adapted from Orangette and A Taste of Home.  Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
a pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup (130 g) all-purpose flour - I like to use half whole wheat, half white
1/4 cup pecans, toasted (350F for 5 mins), cooled and finely chopped

In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together with a wooden spoon until well combined and smooth.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  Add pecans and mix until just combined.  The dough will look crumbly, but if you squish it between your fingers, it will stick together nicely.

Dump the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, at least 16" long.  Form the dough into a log shape as best you can, using the wrap to help ensure the dough is packed tightly and dense.  The cookies don't spread much, so your log diameter should be the size you want your cookies to be.  I usually like my cookies about 1-1/2", and so my log ends up being about 10" long, but you can go larger or smaller if you like.  Just make sure you adjust your baking time accordingly.  Wrap the dough log in the plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for at least an hour, and up to a week.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F.  Remove the dough from the fridge, and slice into 1/2"-thick rounds with a very sharp knife.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake for 10-12 minutes, until their bottoms are golden brown and the edges are turning slightly brown.  Remove from oven, and move onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week, or wrapped in the freezer for up to a month.

*Feb 25/15 UPDATE: Sesame Sable variation - substitute pecans for 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds, and vanilla for 1 tsp toasted sesame oil.  Before slicing the dough, brush 2 tsp milk all over the outside of the log, and sprinkle 2 tsp raw sesame seeds on top.

An Elderflower Drink

Funny how the new Ikea catalog arrived at our door just when we moved into our new house.  Were they thinking of us?  But really, the beauty of Ikea is that it's not just for furniture-poor; their affordable and modern Scandinavian wares are nearly impossible to resist.  On a recent visit, we racked up a few hundred dollars worth of this-and-that, mostly practical household items and the odd piece of furniture.  But the most exciting thing we bought that day was a bottle of elderflower juice concentrate.

The last time I had an elderflower drink was in Copenhagen.  We were there for two weeks during an unseasonably gorgeous spell of weather, and had no particular plans to do anything.  Copenhagen seems to be the perfect place to be when you don't have to really be anywhere, because somehow you're already exactly where you want to be.  Every part of the city is colourful, relaxed, interesting, and artistic.  We fell under its spell in no time.

We were visiting a friend, and she took us to a sweet little bar where we ordered elderflower ginger gin cocktails.  Later that day, we went to the neighborhood supermarket where she picked up a bottle of elderflower cordial with our groceries, and we ended up making elderflower drinks in her home.  All that to say that those tiny little white flowers have a special place in my heart.

If you were so inclined and knew of a nearby elder bush that was in bloom, you could make your own elderflower cordial in place of the store-bought concentrate.  Either way, I'm not sure I can think of any other drink that pairs better with a lazy, sunny afternoon.

Elderflower Ginger Fizz
Makes 8 drinks.

4" piece of ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
1 bottle of saft fläder (Ikea's elderflower drink concentrate), or other elderflower cordial
2L bottle of carbonated water
ice cubes

To make the ginger concentrate: place the sliced ginger into a saucepan and add enough water to cover the ginger well.  Place the saucepan on high heat, and once it boils, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring every so often, until the liquid turns yellow and cloudy.  Remove from heat and cool for at least an hour.  Strain and discard ginger pieces.  Pour the ginger concentrate into a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

To make the drink: fill a tall glass with ice.  Add 1 part ginger concentrate and 1 part elderflower concentrate to 5 parts carbonated water.  Stir well, and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Keeping It Simple

A couple of weeks back, our family packed our car to the ceiling and headed north for a week of folk music festival going, camping, and cottaging.  It was a simple itinerary: 2 days of folk music with 3 nights of camping, and the rest of the week at a family cottage.  We spent our time out there unplugged and disconnected to the world, and more connected and in-tune with our surroundings.  Funny how that works.

We had a lovely time, despite the rain.  Not much actually happened, but then again, so many things happened.  We especially enjoyed exposing our little one to the outdoor life.  She now loves being in a kayak and eating wild raspberries.  She attended her first music festival, had her first nights sleeping in a tent, and saw her first deer, loon, great blue heron, beaver, black bear, and very cool looking striped caterpillar. As for me, I feel more or less like the same person, only notably fresher and renewed.  I've said this before, but I should really start a daily meditation practice, it would do me so much good.

Summer Fruit Crisp

Makes 6-8 servings.

This recipe was written as a head-nod to in-season peaches and raspberries, so I kept it as simple as possible as to highlight the bright flavours of those fruits.  But really, the best part about fruit crisp is how relaxed it all is. All kinds of fruits will work: apple, pear, plums, berries, mango, even banana. The proportions are very forgiving, and I've never had any problems scaling up or down using very approximate math.  Feel free to toss the fruit in a couple of spoons of flour to thicken their juices, or add 1/4 cup of rolled oats or chopped nuts into the topping to make things interesting.

4 ripe peaches, washed and patted dry, peeled (optional) and sliced into 10 pieces

1 cup of raspberries

1/2 cup (70 g) flour

1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar, lightly packed

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

4 tbsp (60 g) cold unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Lightly grease a 7x7" (or so) square baking pan that is at least 2" deep.  Place the fruit into the prepared pan, and tap it a few times to fill any large gaps.  The fruit should cover the bottom and come up the sides about 2".

In a separate bowl, mix the remaining ingredients together by hand, just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and retains its shape when you squeeze a handful in your fist.  Scatter evenly over the fruit; it should cover the fruit nicely.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling through and the topping is golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.  Serve it warm as-is or as you like it, say, with a dollop of thick yogurt and a swirl of maple syrup.

Preserving Time

I just got back from a week in cottage country!  More on that later.  I meant to post the below before I left town, but I ran short on time.  How relevant....

Time feels short these days.  I never have enough time... time to finish my work, time to relax, time to spend with friends and family, time to make dinner, time to enjoy the summer.  The more I reflect about my time and how I'm spending it, the more it convinces me that I need to somehow be better about saving time here and there.  Figuring out those little shortcuts to achieve the same result, or do two or three things at once.  But in the end, doing those things always leaves me feeling more burnt out and exhausted, no matter how accomplished and eventful the day went.  I'm thinking more and more that there's something to that 'be in the moment' philosophy.  No need to rush onto the next thing.  Just focus on the thing you're doing right now and enjoy it.

On a whim, we went blueberry picking on a Monday morning.  It would have been nice to go early in the morning, and bring a nice picnic lunch.  We could have enjoyed the playground and the farm animals, and gone for a hay ride with the other families.  Instead, we were in-and-outta there in 45 minutes, with 6 pounds of berries in our baskets and even more in our bellies.  It was a quickie, but we loved every minute of it.

Blueberry Fig Fridge Preserves

Makes 1-1/2 cups.

Refrigerator jam is a great way to make a basket of fresh fruit last a little longer, without going through the fuss of full-on canning.  This recipe is the simplest refrigerator preserve of all, made only from summer blueberries and figs.  Add honey and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste, if you like.

2 pints of fresh blueberries, stems removed and washed

1 pint of fresh figs, stems removed and cut into slices

Place fruit into a medium saucepan, and set on medium heat.  Stir every so often, until the fruit starts bubbling and breaking down.  Turn the heat down to a simmer.  Continue to stir every few minutes, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until desired thickness is reached.  Pour preserves into a glass jar, seal with a lid, and leave at room temperature until it cools.  Store in fridge for up to a month.

Finding Balance

On Tuesday, I returned from a 48-hour business trip to New Jersey, and I feel rather sick.  I'm quite certain it was the food.  Every meal I ate there was very rich and , and it seemed there were no other options.  On the second night, determined to have something on the lighter side, I had it in my mind that I would order only a soup and vegetable side from the hotel steakhouse.  What I ate: creamy lobster bisque with deep fried ravioli, and a side of parmesan asparagus gratin.  Feeling heavy, I went back to my hotel room and slept for 2 hours.  Everything tastes better with butter, cream, and cheese?  I beg to differ.

Now that I'm home, I've been seeking a good counterbalance.  This light salad seems to do it for me.  It's a meal version one of my favourite simple summer salads (bocconcini, tomato and basil), and is the perfect accompaniment to picnics, barbeques, or otherwise hot days and nights.

Early Summer Bocconcini Salad 
Makes 2 small meal-sized or 4 side servings.

If you have the time, substitute the pasta for cubed bread sauteed lightly in oil, for a killer panzanella salad.

2 handfuls of fusilli pasta, uncooked
5 small bocconcini balls (100 g), sliced into medallions
1/4 cucumber, sliced and cut into quarters
1 small ear of corn, kernels removed
1 tomato, sliced into wedges and then halved
4 chives, snipped into small bits
2 bunches of basil, leaves removed and chiffonade
Juice of 1/2 lemon (or a lime, in a pinch)
1 good glug of good quality olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a nice big pinch of salt, and add uncooked pasta.  One minute before the pasta is al dente, add the corn kernels.  Drain, and rinse well in cold water.

In a large bowl, toss all ingredients together.  Serve immediately, or cover and chill in the fridge for an hour prior to serving.

Forever Winter

This winter has been an endless onslaught of snow and fiercely cold temperatures.  Spring will be officially starting this week, but judging by the snow and freezing rain in tomorrow's forecast, warm weather seems a lot farther off than that.  And yet there are places that are colder than Toronto.  Colder, and for longer.  Imagine that.  Egad.

About two years ago in November, I went trekking along the Annapurna circuit in Nepal.  At higher altitude levels, it was bone-chilling cold.  Cold like if you forgot to pee before you went to bed, you just held it until the next morning, because you would rather your bladder explode than make the trip to the outhouse and be exposed to a cold that would pierce your skin with a thousand needles.  It was in the cold that I learned the kindness of a bowl of warm garlic soup served with fried Tibetan bread.

Fried Tibetan Bread
Adapted from Food from the Road and Yowandu.  Makes four medium-sized rounds of flatbread, enough for 2 people.

This recipe, if made with white flour, whole milk and baking powder, will turn out a light, fluffy, rich-tasting bread.  Alternately, if made with half spelt, half white flour, water, and no baking powder, a flat, chewier bread will result.  Both breads were excellent, but the former was truer to the Nepalese version (pictured above).

2 cups (270 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of kosher salt
Oil for frying

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.  Add water, and stir until it comes together.  Dump the dough out onto a clean surface that has been dusted with flour.  It will be slightly sticky.  Knead for a few minutes, until dough is uniform and smooth.  Form the dough into a ball and place onto a lightly dusted surface.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel, and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

After dough has rested, cut it into 4 equal pieces.  On a dusted surface, form each piece into a ball and roll out to a 1/8" thick round with a rolling pin.  Score each round 2 or 3 times, cutting all the way through.

Add a generous amount of oil to a skillet, making sure the bottom is covered.  Heat the skillet on medium.  When it has become sufficiently hot (as in, when a drop of water will sizzle if added), add one round of dough to the skillet.  Fry for about 3 minutes, until it is golden brown all over.  Flip and brown the other side in the same manner.  Remove the fried bread from the skillet, and repeat with the 3 remaining rounds.  Serve the bread immediately while still warm.

Garlic Soup
Makes 2 small servings.

In a head-to-head competition against good ol' chicken soup for fighting off seasonal sickness, my bets are on garlic soup.  Better yet, this soup is easily made vegetarian or vegan by substituting the chicken broth for vegetable broth, and the butter for olive oil.

2 cups homemade chicken broth
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 a head of garlic, peeled and minced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp finely chopped chives (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic, and stir for 30 seconds, being careful not to brown the garlic.  Sprinkle in flour, and stir constantly for a few minutes, until the roux is homogenous and smooth.  Slowly add in broth, and stir well to minimize lumps.  Heat until bubbling and thick.  Add salt and pepper to taste, ladle into bowls, and top with chives if desired.

A Little Mouth To Feed

Thinking back to my pre-parenthood days, I'm quite certain that I maintained a steady diet of mostly vegetables, many home-cooked meals, and almost all whole foods.  After the birth of my daughter, it seemed even more important to stick with it, as we wanted her to learn the meaning of "real food" by immersion.  I was committed to the idea that making the right decisions at a very early age would help her foster a positive relationship with food, with the goal of raising a polite, mannerly child that enjoys trying new food, knowing where it comes from, and actively participating in family meals.

When the time was right, I did a fair amount of research on baby foods and eating habits.  I went ahead and introduced foods one at a time, selecting the best of the season and cooking each one lightly as to let its inherent flavour shine through.  In the beginning, she pretty much ate whatever I offered, and always wanted more.  But sometime before her first birthday, she started to show clear likes and dislikes.  She began to drop food on the floor, spit food out, and push away the spoon.  Coaxing, sneaking or hiding food, scolding, and praising, I tried it all with very little success.  Worst of all, mealtime was starting to feel like a losing battle.

The decision was clear.  Building the family meal ritual was much more important than making sure she finishes her broccoli.  Mealtime should be relaxed, social, and simple: a moment set aside each day for sharing food and enjoying company at the dinner table.  After all, real nourishment does not come from food alone.

It's still a work-in-progress, but I'm getting pretty excited thinking of all the family meals of the future.  After all, my little girl is growing up in a home that loves food.  What's there not to love about that?

P.S.  For more first-hand stories on the subject, you really must read this.  And as much as I enjoy the idea of being free-flowing and chill, these parent-child responsibilities appeal to my linear side.

Digestive Biscuits
Adapted from King Arthur Flour.  Makes 32 2-inch biscuits.

These whole-wheat biscuits only have a touch of sweetness to them, appealing to both toddlers and adults alike (even more so to the latter with a cup of tea and a dollop of jam).  I cut them into heart-shapes for Valentine's Day to give to my daughter's little buddies, but any shape works.  The cutting scraps can be re-rolled and cut again; the biscuits cut from the 3rd re-roll were just as good as the first.

1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose white flour
1-1/2 cups (180 g) whole wheat flour, pastry or all-purpose
1 tsp baking powder
slightly heaped 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup (45 g) icing sugar
1/4 cup cold milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly grease with unsalted butter

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, and salt.  Add butter, and mix coarsely with a wooden spoon or your hands.  Stir in sugar and milk until it comes together.  The dough may feel sticky at first.

Turn dough out on a floured surface, and knead until smooth.  Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to just over 1/8" thickness.  Cut out desired shapes, and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing biscuits at least 1/2" apart.  Prick all over with a fork or skewer.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the edges just start to brown.  Remove from oven and leave on baking sheet to cool for 10 minutes.  Remove and cool completely on a rack.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or well-wrapped in plastic in the freezer for a month.

Tradition

Today's blog post was first written on a scrap piece of paper while riding the subway home from work.  As I was scribbling down my thoughts, I noticed the person sitting next to me was busy tapping away on a tablet device.  In fact, so was the person across from me.  My pen and paper suddenly feels isolating.

The recipe I'm sharing with you today is very special to me, because of scribblings on a piece of paper.  It is the only recipe my mother has ever written down and passed to me.  It was her friend's recipe, who first made it for our family over ten years ago, and we loved it.  My mother wrote down the instructions in English on a piece of computer paper ripped in half, shortly after her friend recited it to her in Cantonese.  I then took that recipe and wrote it down into my little recipe notebook, which kept no more than a dozen recipes that I had tried only once or twice.  That notebook was a well-intentioned project to document some of my favourite recipes, which now, a decade later, I have decided to re-instate with the purpose of publishing an heirloom recipe collection for my own daughter.  The only recipe from that old notebook that will live on through the generations is this one.

This is a recipe for a sweet Chinese New Year cake.  It's not the traditional steamed cake with the red date on top, but a richer, baked cake that deserves to be made more often than just once a year.  Although it is a new year cake, it's not a celebration cake as we would normally think of it.  No candles are lit, no song is sung.  Instead, it's a subtle cake with a memorable character that is shared with your guests, or brought into a home to be shared.  The glutinous rice flour gives a soft, chewy texture similar to mochi, but the baking process browns the edges to a firm, toothsome crumb.  It's lightly sweetened, enriched with eggs, perfectly scented with coconut milk, and has all the makings of a new annual tradition in my family.

Coconut Custard Mochi Cake
Makes 2 x 8" square cakes, 2 x 9" round cakes, 24 muffin-sized mini cakes, or 4 mini loaves

This recipe calls for 1 cup of coconut milk, which is just over half a can (400 mL).  Unfortunately, coconut milk doesn't keep well in the fridge once the can is opened; I find it is questionable after 2 days, unusable after 3 days.  The good news is that coconut milk freezes nicely.  Freeze the unused portion of the can right after you open it, unless you're planning to use it the next day or so.  Defrost frozen coconut milk in the fridge for 12-24 hours, and stir it well before adding it to the recipe.

1 cup coconut milk, full-fat
1 cup milk (skim, 2% or whole)
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-tasting vegetable oil, such as canola
1 package (400 g) glutinous rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
3 large eggs

Arrange one oven rack on the top third of the oven, and a second rack on the bottom third.  Skip this step if making 4 mini loaves, as all 4 pans will likely fit on one middle rack.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Generously grease pans with unsalted butter.

In a medium bowl, mix together coconut milk, milk, sugar, and vegetable oil until well-blended, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder and salt.  Pour in the milk mixture, and stir well.  Add one egg at a time, stirring in between, until the batter is smooth.  Divide the batter into the prepared pans, being careful not to fill right to the top to allow for rising.  The batter will puff up quite a bit while rising in the oven, but does stay relatively firm and likely won't overflow if you've left a little room.

Place one pan on the upper rack, and the other pan on the lower rack.  If making mini loaves, place all 4 pans on middle rack.  Bake for 30-35 minutes for muffin-sized cakes or mini loaves, or 35-40 minutes for 8" square cakes or 9" round cakes, switching pan positions and giving each pan a turn halfway through cooking time.  The cakes are done when a cake tester inserted into the middle of a cake comes out clean, and the tops are a lovely golden brown colour.  Remove from oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes on a cooling rack.  Carefully remove cakes from pans, cooling completely on rack.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Farewell Summer

Although the Labour Day long weekend doesn't officially mark the end of summer, it sort of is.  It certainly signals the start of school, and even now as a 30-something adult, this time of year still makes my stomach turn.  Don't get me wrong though, I love that autumn brings in cool weather, calm serenity and muted colours.  It's just hard not to love the summertime, when everything is alive and fun is so easy to come by.  But nothing lasts forever, and perhaps never having enough is exactly what makes it so good.

With the end of summer near, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make good on my promise of finishing my bakery map-guide.  Boo.  I'll likely be busying myself with canning and preserving in the coming days, and I've been talking big about cooking a half bushel of roma tomatoes into sauce.  I am over the moon for tomatoes right now.  Simple tomato salads piled sky high with fresh herbs are easily my new favourite dinners.  Panzanella with lots of basil if I have a good chewy bread to spare.  Tabbouleh when I'm in the mood for parsley and mint.  But on most nights, a huge village salad with a side of pasta or bread feels just right.

Heirloom Village Salad
Makes 2 meal-sized or 6 side servings.

If you can find them, use colourful heirloom tomatoes and purple bell peppers to make this salad really pop.  If using dried black olives, use only 1/4 cup as they tend to be saltier.  I find that the feta and olives lend enough salt to the salad, but if it's not enough, feel free to add salt to taste.

4 medium heirloom tomatoes, sliced and halved (or 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, halved)
1 large field cucumber, sliced in quarters lengthwise, deseeded, and cut 1" thick
1 purple bell pepper, cut into 1" chunks
1 small red onion, quartered and sliced thin
1/2 cup pitted and sliced black olives
1/2 cup crumbled or cubed feta cheese
30 large fresh basil leaves, julienned
4 long sprigs of fresh oregano, leaves only
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Toss the prepared tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onion pieces into a large bowl.  Scatter olives and feta over top, and pile the basil and oregano high in the centre.  Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice evenly, and finish with a generous sprinkle of black pepper.

Midnight Pie

Wednesday evening, just after midnight.  My partner is fast asleep on the couch, with a belly half full of soup.  He's waiting for the main course of our dinner, a zucchini tart, to finish baking in the oven.  I'm puttering around in the kitchen, wondering how I ended up spending four hours making said tart.

A book about how the French eat is partly to blame.  This book impressed on me that in France, spending hours preparing and enjoying three-course meals is part of their daily life.  This romantic notion made me wonder if I, too, could craft a slow meal microculture in my family.

The neighborhood pie shop is the other culprit.  A friend bought one of their strawberry rhubarb pies to our house, and our expectations were quite high, considering it came from a shop that specializes in making pies.  Just pies, nothing else.  Oh sure, if you like your pies with a skimpy, pancake-thin layer of fruit, then these guys were bang on.  Otherwise, if you're like me, you would have been left feeling very unsatisfied, maybe even a little cheated, wondering when will be the next time you could make a pie to prove that better pies do exist.

A few days and a cup of coffee later, I plunged my hands into a large bowl of flour and butter, and formed the beginnings of a tart dough.  The clock reads 8:45pm, and the evening sky cools to a deep purplish grey hue.  I haven't eaten a thing since lunch, but I already feel contentedly indulged.

Zucchini and Cheese Tart
Adapted from Martha Stewart (dough) and Smitten Kitchen (filling).
Makes one 9" tart.

This summer vegetable tart is a real knockout, and would look perfect on a patio table beside a Greek salad and watermelon slices.  If you want to spread the preparation over several days, this can easily be done by 1) preparing the tart dough in advance and keeping it in the fridge or freezer, and 2) letting the raw dough (prior to blind baking) sit in the fridge overnight.

For the dough:

1-1/4 cup (170 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
ice cubes and cold water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar.  Mix in the butter with your hands, by smooching the butter across your fingers using your thumb, shaping the butter into thin slice-shapes.  Continue until the butter pieces are about the size of peas.

In a small bowl, stir a few ice cubes with 1/4 cup of cold water, and wait for 1 minute.  Remove 3 tablespoons of ice water, and add to the flour-butter mixture.  Blend it all together with a wooden spoon briefly until dough just starts to hold together.  Add a tablespoon or two more ice water if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface, and knead together just until a rough ball forms.  Flatten into a disc shape, and wrap in plastic.  Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.  At this point, the dough can also be stored in the freezer for up to a month.  It should be thawed in the fridge overnight before using.

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Remove dough from fridge, and leave at room temperature for 10 minutes.  Discard plastic, and place dough on a clean, floured surface.  Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a circle.  Be sure to turn and move the dough in between rolls to prevent it from sticking to the rolling surface.

Once your dough circle is at least 11" in diameter, carefully transfer it into the tart pan.  Push it down into the corners gently, and trim edges to fit.  Poke the bottom of the dough several times with a fork, and line the top with a piece of aluminum foil.  Fill with dried beans or pie weights, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is just barely browned.  Remove from oven, and remove foil and weights.  Using the same fork, re-poke the holes you made earlier, and cool the crust for at least 10 minutes before adding the filling.

For the filling:

1 large or 2 small zucchinis, sliced into 1/8"-thick rounds
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup soft chevre (though ricotta, cream cheese, or other soft mild cow/goat/sheep cheese should also work)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 to 2 tbsp milk, any type (such as skim, 2%, cream, even buttermilk)
1 tsp olive oil
1 to 2 tsp chopped fresh herbs (such as tarragon, basil, parsley, and/or dill)

Lay the zucchini slices out onto a clean tea towel.  Sprinkle salt evenly onto each slice, and wait 30 minutes.  Using another tea towel, blot away excess moisture and salt from the surface of the slices.

Preheat oven to 400°F.  In a small bowl, mix together garlic, ground pepper, chevre, parmesan, 1/4 cup mozzarella, and 1 tablespoon of milk.  If the mixture is too thick and not quite spreadable, mix in the second tablespoon of milk.  Spread onto the base of the crust as evenly as possible, using your fingers if needed.  Sprinkle on remaining 3/4 cup of mozzarella, and arrange the zucchini rounds on top.  Brush the zucchini lightly with olive oil.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until crust is deep golden brown.  Remove tart from oven, and immediately scatter fresh herbs on top.  Cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack, before slicing and serving.

Keeping Afloat

On Monday night, Toronto was hit with a severe and unforeseen thunderstorm.  Many people found themselves without electricity, stranded, or their homes flooded.  Cars were swept away in rushing water, people took shelter under the nearest roof, and emergency vehicles amassed in the quiet streets.

I was one of the lucky ones.  We ate a leisurely dinner at home while our baby slept through the storm.  She didn't even wake when the building's fire alarm shrieked intermittently for over an hour.  My parents were not so fortunate.  Their basement flooded with waist-high sewage water, floating furniture around like bumper cars in slow motion.  Their electricity and phone lines were restored the next day, but until now they have no hot water.  Most of the flood water has drained out, leaving an inch of thick black sludge that smells like gasoline.  Insurance, utility, and restoration companies are suddenly distant and unfriendly.  A lot of chaos over a mere few inches of rain.

Rewind to two weeks earlier.  An upstairs unit in my very close friend's apartment leaked air conditioner fluid down into her home, causing an immediate evacuation.  Fast forward to this morning.  A major fire burned down a corner grocery store in our neighborhood.  The sight of the charred remains was almost too much to bear.  Only a few days ago I was inside the shop, buying a bag of scallions.

It's funny how life can take such a sudden, sharp turn.  One small event can derail even the best laid plans.  When things turn upside down, we seek comfort in the people and things that we know we can rely on: family members, close friends, a favourite place, a familiar face.  We take them for granted, and yet they always give their support when you need them the most.  We are very blessed.

Sweet and Salty Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller and Sebastian Rouxel.
Makes 16 three-inch cookies.

These cookies are thick and generous.  They make great company on a rainy day, especially with a fat mug of warm milk and a wool blanket.  I am convinced that they would form the makings of a game-changing ice cream sandwich, though I haven't tried it out myself.  Though I did accidentally leave out the 1/4 cup of white sugar, which resulted in a not-too-sweet but still very noteworthy cookie that was more snack than treat.  Feel free to substitute the inclusions for your own favourite mix of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and candy pieces.

1 cup (135 g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1-1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup (145 g) light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
 2/3 cup (150 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (155 g) old fashioned oats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup mini pretzel twists, salted and broken into pieces
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup whole peanuts, roasted and salted
one generous pinch of flaky salt, such as Maldon

Position oven racks to upper and lower third.  Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line two half baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to beat the butter until fluffy and light.  Add both sugars and beat until light.  Mix in egg and vanilla until just combined.  Add in the flour mixture in two additions until just combined, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl between additions.  Mix in the oats, and then the coconut, pretzels, chocolate and peanuts, only just enough to bring it together.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop out balls of dough and form them with your hands into a thick round patty.  At this point, if you don't want to bake the whole batch, you can place the formed disks on a lined baking sheet for an hour in the freezer, then double wrap them in plastic and store in the freezer for up to a month.  Thaw overnight in the fridge, and leave them out at room temperature for an hour before baking.

To bake, place the raw cookies on the lined baking sheets, spacing them at least two inches apart.  Sprinkle a thin pinch of flaky salt on top of each cookie.  Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, reversing the positions of the pans halfway through cooking.  The cookies will be ready when the edges are lightly browned.  Remove from oven, and cool for 15 minutes before carefully moving them to a rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Picnic Propaganda

Now that it's officially patio season, many of us forget about the sunny afternoon pastime's much neglected poor cousin, the picnic.  And yet, picnics offer much of the same: warm sun, good company, some food, some drink, and a 360 degree view of the world whizzing around you.  But unlike patios, picnics build community and makes good use of shared public spaces.  A picnicked park is a loved park, and more picnics makes life better for everybody.

After the success of last year's epic picnic, I am happy to say that our picnic blanket has been thrown down five times this month, each time in a different park.  The best picnics had the right mix of people watching, cloud gazing, and good food.  The strangest picnic was when we hunkered down in a small patch of green space on a dead-quiet Sunday in the financial district.  Sitting among cigarette butts and sneaking beers sips away from security guards wasn't what we had in mind, but hey, sometimes you have to take what you can get.

Sometimes I daydream about the perfect picnic meal.  Right now, I'm thinking of build-your-own open-faced rye sandwiches, with a variety of cheeses, pickles, grilled vegetables, fresh herbs, sprouts, and homemade pestos.  Perhaps a simple side salad of seasonal vegetables, an intermission of fruit-nut crisps and crackers, a summer fruit pie to finish, and a crisp bubbly to wash it all down.  Then again, on a hot summer day, I might be just as happy with only a lemon popsicle and the shade of a large tree to keep me company.

Cranberry-Walnut Crisps
Adapted from Dinner with Julie.
Makes about 3 dozen.

These dairy and egg-free crisps are great on their own, or alongside cheeses, dips, and antipasto.  Feel free to use any or all dried fruits, nuts or seeds you prefer.

1 cup (135 g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
2 tbsp ground flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 9x5" loaf pan with vegetable oil.

In a small bowl, combine the almond milk and vinegar, and set aside.  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and salt.  Fold in the milk mixture until barely combined.  Add the cranberries, hazelnuts, walnuts and flax seeds, and stir until just blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove and cool on a wire rack.  Once the loaf is completed cooled, double wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 300°F.  Remove loaf from freezer, and use a sharp serrated knife to cut slices as thin as possible.  Place slices in a single layer on a baking pan, and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn each slice over.  Bake for another 20 minutes, or until crisps are golden brown and crunchy hard.  Cool completely before serving.  The crisps will keep for at least a week in an airtight container.

Survival Tactics

My partner just started a new job.  For us, that means time away from each other, a more regular daily schedule, and a bit more cash in our pockets.  Overall, I'm pleased and proud of him, but my days can get a bit lonely.

When he's at work, eating a balanced, home cooked meal while caring for a baby continues to be a challenge.  My new approach to cooking meals is to prepare food in quantity, and reheat when hungry.  It seems obvious, but doing so wasn't really necessary until now.  When meal planning is not well thought out, I often find myself in a situation where both a screaming baby and a crying stomach are equally demanding my immediate attention.  I will be the first to admit that sometimes the latter wins, though I would tend to reach for something super quick and junky.

This week, soba noodle bowls have been on my lunch menu almost every day.  The tofu and vegetables can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge, and the soba noodles on their own are very quick to make.  Once all of the tofu and vegetable preparation work is done, this one-bowl healthy meal takes less than 10 minutes to cook and put together.  Even though I added tofu, broccoli, carrots, sprouts, and green onions to my bowl, consider the near infinite vegetable-protein combinations you can come up with.  Or not.

Sesame Soba Noodle Bowl
Makes 1 serving.

The vegetable add-ins listed in the below recipe were what I had available at the moment.  Other options that would do nicely: roasted skin-on peanuts, pan-fried sliced shiitake mushrooms, minced raw garlic, juilienned red bell pepper, steamed baby bok choy, red chili flakes, and a sunny-side up fried egg.

1 single-serving bundle of dried soba noodles
1-1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp tahini
A small handful of simple tofu cubes (recipe below)
Vegetable add-ins: steamed broccoli florets, julienned carrots, daikon radish sprouts, and sliced green onion tops

Cook soba noodles according to the package, which should be something like 6-7 minutes in a large pot of boiling water.  Drain the noodles in a colander, and give them a quick stir while rinsing with a shot of cold water.  Slide the noodles into a bowl for serving.  Pour soy sauce and sesame oil over the noodles, along with the tahini, and give another stir to toss it all together.  Arrange the tofu cubes and vegetables on top of the noodles, and enjoy immediately.

Simple Tofu Cubes
Makes 4 servings.

1 block (397 g) extra-firm tofu
1-1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

Remove the tofu from the package and rinse with cold water.  Using a cheesecloth or clean dish towel, wrap the tofu block and set it on a plate.  Set an inverted plate on top of the tofu, and balance a heavy weighted object on top of the second plate.  Leave for 1 hour to squeeze out the excess water.  Remove the cheesecloth or towel, and cut into 3/4" cubes.  Place tofu into a lidded container, no more than half full.  Use two containers if necessary.

In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce and rice vinegar together, and pour over the tofu cubes.  Snap on the container lid, and shake the container lightly to ensure all of the cubes are covered with marinade.  Place in the fridge for an hour, and up to 5 days.  The tofu cubes can be eaten right out of the fridge, or if you prefer, seared on a hot oiled skillet for a few minutes on each side.