Category Archives: the Mélange

the Mélange

the Mélange: October 2010

theMelange-parsley

What?! – Yeah, I dropped the monthly mélange for a while – the whole summer, in fact! The last one I did was in April. It’s OK, though – it’s not like I’ve been slacking on posts, I just had more fun stuff to post about. Maybe time to bring this one back to life.

Better Make Some Room…
I’m going through another phase where I’m trying to clear out some of the things in my freezer, to make room for new stuff. After seeing the crazy old freezer burn choked food that managed to move to the new apartment with us, I decided to do my best to use frozen food while it’s still edible. In the last week or so, I’ve used up some spaghetti squash, peanut sauce, paneer and broth that I had frozen in the last year. Not bad!

I Made This!
As usual, the Daring Cooks’ Challenges have given me some new things to try making. This month, I made cabbage rolls, as well as something I can’t post about yet. J says that my squash soup (to be posted soon!) is one of the best things I’ve made this month.

Party in My Mouth
The latest addiction has been butter tarts and single malt Scotch. Seriously. I got some amazing pecan butter tarts from the farmer’s market at Nathan Phillips’ Square, and found that they paired PERFECTLY with the Scotch. I wasn’t much of a Scotch person until a few months ago, and only recently have I started to drink it on its own.

Monthly Spice
This month, I’ve been using the thyme and oregano from my garden. As Fall sinks in, I’m wanting more woody flavours, and herbs like thyme, rosemary, lavender and sage are perfect for this. I’ve started digging into the herbes de Provence again! Obsessed!

Mystery Ingredient
Granny Smith apples, baby!

Missing You…
No surprise, I’m missing summer and the flood of fruits and veggies. I miss the Wednesday lunch hours at the farmer’s market at Nathan Phillips Square, where I would pick out 7 ears of corn, pack tomatoes into containers I brought from home (so I don’t get squashed tomato juice all over my skirt again), buy a mixed basket of yummy fruit, try new things like the Elephant Heart Plum. Sniff. Until next year, my dear.

S

Challenges, the Mélange

Monthly Mélange: April 2010

Noodles!!

APRIL CHALLENGE : NO REPEATS! – WRAP-UP
Just to sum up my last week of the April challenge, “No Repeats” — LAME! Ahahaha, not the food, just me. I really only had two nights where I could cook this last week, and we opted for a ‘spread’ meal on Thursday. You’ll learn more about “spread” meals soon, but let’s just say that it doesn’t necessarily involve any cooking… The other meal I made was pretty darn good – Miso Vegetables & Tofu (from 101 Cookbooks).

To sum up the whole month, this has been a great challenge. I wanted variety in my cooking, and I got it!! I took the opportunity to dig into my cookbooks a little more, and made peace with the fact that they aren’t the kind of cookbooks I need (so I don’t feel bad not reaching for them all the time). Seriously, how many vegetarians actually make all of the “loaves” that are in some of these books? Argh!!

Just say ‘No’ to Food Waste!
I think I’m going to make this a regular entry in my rundown. Just because the official challenge is over doesn’t mean it isn’t still a part of my life! After collecting cutoffs from my veggies for over a month (think mushroom stems, herb stems, onion ends, other veggie ends that you don’t feel like eating but aren’t gross), I used my bag of frozen bits and bobs to make broth. I didn’t follow a long recipe, just sautéed some onions first, then the frozen stuff, topped it off with a ton of water and simmered for a nice long time. The broth was fantastic!! Who says veggie broth has to be watery… 🙂 I have continued to collect the ‘veg bits’, as well as shrimp shells, and have used both (and another special ingredient) to make an incredible broth for an upcoming post… tee hee hee.

One small ‘boo’ to add to this… I lost a half a bag of frozen veg bits to my own exuberance. I had added some new bits to the bag, had zipped it closed, and shook it a little bit too hard… the zipper popped open and my bits got strewn across the floor. 🙁 Le sigh. Let’s take a minute of silence for the poor lost bits.

I Made This!
The (New) Brunswick Stew was a huge success. Technically, I made it at the end of March, but I wasn’t allowed to post about it until April because it was the Daring Cooks challenge for April. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this stew, because I wasn’t really in the mood for stew when the challenge was first posted. Once I finished all of the leftovers, however, I kinda wished I had made the batch for 12 instead of cutting it down to 4. Next time.

Party in My Mouth
Aww, come on! You know what this is about — cupcakes! April was an amazing month for the sweet treats… On the other hand, I picked up a Jelly Belly “problem” and am now self-rehabilitating. I’m trying to cut down on sugar, in general, so that’s new…

Monthly Spice
Paprika. I put that s**t on everything! Seriously, I think I pick recipes just because they call for a buttload of paprika. Sweet paprika, smoked paprika… and the other day I ventured into the spice store in Kensington Market and found their stash of around 20 different kinds of paprika. I feel a blog post coming on!! First, I need to research the difference between Spanish and Hungarian paprika.

Mystery Ingredient
Love.

Shameful Secrets
No secret. I have now become a cupcake.

I’ve started to collect some herb plants for my balcony forest.  I really like the idea that I can just pop out there to grab some fresh herbs, green onion and eventually some tomatoes and salad greens. I am a little concerned that they will all die when I go on vacation, but what can I do?

S

the Mélange

Monthly Mélange: March 2010

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Noodles!!

March was a good month for food, some weeks being better than others for inspiring me to cook new things.

Here’s a rundown of some of my culinary highlights of March 2010. If there’s anyone out there reading my blog, feel free to comment with your own rundown of the month!

How did March 2010 taste?

Party in My Mouth
Chocolate. We’ve already discussed the spicy and decadent Soma “The Dark Fire” chocolate, but there are inexpensive options as well!! My latest find is the Côte d’Or Expériences Pistache Noir 70% (oddly, I couldn’t find it on the Canada website, so the page I’ve linked to is in French). This dark chocolate bar contains sugared pistachio, and a little extra pistachio “natural flavour”. It’s really tasty, and I’ve been a little addicted to it lately. It was on sale at Shopper’s this week, so I stocked up!

Monthly Spice
Chilhuacle Negro. This is a dried whole chili that I used in a recipe (to be posted in a couple of weeks). This was the first time I had bought dried, whole chilis. I loved the way they looked – the shape and colour, and the fine cracks in some sections. Like a piece of art!! They were great in my dish, too, and not too hot. Actually, I think I’ll use them WITH the seeds next time – I was being overly cautious the first time. So fun!!

Mystery Ingredient
Almond extract. I added a wee bit of this to my buttercream frosting (in place of 1/3 of the vanilla) and it was sooooo good. Can you tell I like the almond/pistachio kinds of flavours in things?

I Made This!
Hubs really liked the Mustard Trout. Not bad for wingin’ it! A close second would have to be the Malfatti that I just made, that I will be posting about later this week.

Shameful Secrets
I am out of unsalted butter. I have never in my life gone through as much butter as this, and I’m kind of embarrassed. What can I do? All of the cupcake recipes call for butter, and buttercream icing is *duh* primarily butter. Not to mention the importance of the lovely spiced butters used in Indian and Ethiopian food.

The days are now lasting longer… my herbs are starting to grow, and I have a slightly longer window of opportunity to take food pics. April will continue what we started with cupcakes, and I will likely have to go on a break from cupcakes for May. I may try to freeze one just to see if it’s still tasty 3 months later.

S

Challenges, the Mélange

Monthly Mélange: February 2010

Noodles!!

February was my first full month of blogging about food, and I packed it full of new cooking experiences. This has really helped to battle my usual winter blahs. I hope to keep things coming at the same frequency.

Here’s a rundown of some of my culinary highlights of February 2010. If there’s anyone out there reading my blog, feel free to comment with your own rundown of the month!

How did February 2010 taste?

Wrapping up the Waste
The 2010 Food Waste Reduction Challenge is now over, and I can say that it was interesting to see just how much edible stuff we throw out every month. I suppose it’s less of a wake-up call for me, because I’ve always tried to use up everything I can. There are still a few weak spots – frozen items moreso than fresh foods. I can do better there. Planning meals helps with this, and only buying the items you really need for the meals you have planned.

Monthly Spice
I would probably say Berbere, because it probably was my favourite of the month, but it already got its own post. While making a Cajun-inspired shrimp dish the other night, I realized I had misplaced my Cajun mixed spices and had to make some up on the fly! Seriously, I realized I couldn’t find it RIGHT when I needed to add it in. Internet to the rescue, I found a couple of recipes that outlined the herbs and spices to use, and the proportions, and I was all set. The dish turned out great, by the way.

Mystery Ingredient
Leafy, leafy greens. I’m usually pretty good about eating my spinach (bought into the whole Lie of Popeye), but I never knew what to do with things like kale. This month, I chose some recipes that not only used lots of spinach, but also kale and collard greens. Sometimes referred to as a ‘superfood’, leafy greens contain many important nutrients, such as vitamin C, iron, potassium, magnesium, lutein, beta-carotene, folic acid and are high in dietary fiber (among other things). They’re pretty tasty, too!

I Made This!
Hubs says the best stuff I made this month was my Indian assortment, which I should be posting soon. I made three really yummy dishes, and overall we were more satisfied with these three than the Ethiopian three dishes (the closest competition – I wasn’t as impressed with the yellow lentil dish, so it lost some points there!). My favourite of the three Indian dishes was definitely the Saag Paneer – this is one of my all-time favourite Indian dishes, and it came out just the way I like it!! Joe’s favourite was a chick pea dish. Yum.

Shameful Secrets
I am happy to say that I haven’t had any Skittles since my last post, and have limited my Jelly Belly intake to 10 beans per sitting. My stomach has been doing much better, which is important since I’ve been cooking so much

On to March, and hopefully some longer days so my food pics turn out better!!

S