Slowcooker Pulled Pork and Coleslaw

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cabbage, Coleslaw, easy, Large Black pigs, Pork shoulder, Pulled pork, Recipes, Slow cooker, Upper Canada Heritage Meat

I’ve been having a cooking dry spell lately.  I’ve been busy.  I went to Lake Placid and ran a half marathon.  I’m taking a course on Food Policy which is more studying than I’ve done in eons and also requires writing, so it’s sapping much of my creative inspiration.  We’re between CSAs – the summer one we’ve signed up with doesn’t start for another week or so, and the farmer’s markets are still fairly barren of local vegetables and fruit.  All those things are true.  But really, those are just excuses and I’ve been feeling entirely uninspired in both the kitchen and writing departments.

Garden Update

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Chives, Gardening, Grow Food Not Lawns, Kiwi, Ottawa, Planting, Raised beds, Square foot gardening, Tomatoes, Urban gardening, Vegetables

We’re a little late getting the garden started.  In Eastern Ontario, the long weekend in May is traditionally considered the safe garden planting time.  With the warming climate, some say the average last frost date in our region is actually around May 6th, although it certainly wouldn’t have paid off to plant delicate plants that early this year.  While I do wish we would have had the plants in the ground earlier, we did A LOT of work on the garden so far this year. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing and Caramel Sauce

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Caramel sauce, Carrot cake, Carrots, Cream cheese icing, Decadent, Mother's Day, Recipe, Walnuts

Carrot cake was the grand finale for the Mother’s Day feast we hosted.  This is my favourite carrot cake – the recipe I use is actually called “Just Carrots Carrot Cake” which is exactly why I love it.  You can add bells and whistles if you like – I prefer to layer them on the top.  But no raisins.  Definitely, absolutely, no raisins.  Who wants to eat humiliated grapes? (Love that movie!)  Oh, and this time, I had the genius idea to add caramel sauce.  Wow.  Genius.  Note to self: find more recipes that use caramel sauce.  That is, if there is any left after I spoonful by spoonful eat all the leftover caramel sauce straight from the fridge (I wish I was kidding).

Crispy Baked Fries Take Two: Now With “Regular” Potatoes!

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Baked fries, Cilantro, Cumin, Food, Fries, garlic, Greek yogurt, Potatoes, Recipes, Snack

The Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries recipe I posted last week was so amazing, I made it again last night.  But I didn’t have any sweet potatoes.  I did have “regular” white potatoes.  I would tell you what kind of potatoes I used, but I have no idea.  It didn’t even say on the bag.  Is that weird?  Or am I just so used to buying local and from farmers where everything about the type and origin of the produce is celebrated that I’ve forgotten that “regular” vegetables in the grocery store don’t list this information?

Mother’s Day Feast: Buttermilk Brined Chicken and Panzanella

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Baguette, Brining chicken, Buttermilk brine, Chicken, Grilled chicken, Mother's Day, Panzanella, Recipes, Red wine vinaigrette, Roasted peppers, Salad, Salad Dressing, Tomatoes

Continuing what I’m hoping will become a tradition, we hosted Mother’s Day at our house for the second year in a row.  We had last year’s weather in mind while planning the menu: Buttermilk Brined Chicken grilled on the barbeque, Italian Panzanella, potato salad, grilled asparagus, all topped off with carrot cake for dessert (whew!). 

Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries With Chili Mayo

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Appetizer, Baked fries, Chili mayo, Recipe, Snack, Sweet potato, Sweet potato fries

I love sweet potato fries.  I’ve tried many recipes, searched for “tips to make the best sweet potato fries”, and pinned at least 10 variations on Pinterest that claim to be the best.  None of them worked.  I stopped short of parboiling first, which sounds like it may work, but two separate cooking processes for a vegetable?  No thanks, too much work. 

Redneck Beer Can Chicken With Peruvian Purple Potatoes

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BBQ, Beer, Beer can chicken, Chicken, dinner, Onion, Peruvian purple potatoes, Potatoes, Rosemary, Savoury

Last Friday was intended to be a BBQ night, as earlier in the week the weather called for a beautiful day, the warmest one of the year so far.  We had big plans to sit on our back deck, have a couple drinks, and fire up a delicious beer can chicken on the BBQ (I realized just now how completely redneck that sounds, hence the title of the recipe).  What we got were clouds, a lingering threat of rain, and temperatures dropping rather quickly towards the end of the day.  Let’s just say neither of us were in the mood to BBQ (Who am I kidding?  I am not the BBQer in the house.)  Instead, we made more or less the same recipe in the oven.

An Earth Day Poem From 12 Year Old Me

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Earth Day, environment, nature, Poetry

A poem for Earth Day, written when I was 12.  Simplistic and idealist words of a child, no doubt, but my thoughts towards environmentalism today haven’t changed and I can’t think of anything more perfect to say.  Sometimes things really are that simple.

A Better Place

If we could just change the way
We all live our lives today;
If we saved the birds and bees,
Protected the oceans, land and trees,
We’ll stop pollution and litter bugs.
We’ll take care of ourselves and won’t do drugs.
We’ll save the whales, the leopards too.
If we work together we’ll make it through.

The earth is our home, we only have one.
It might be too late, the damage is done.
But we have a chance and it is our last.
Look into the future, don’t dwell on the past.
If we try with all our might.
If we don’t give in, but put up a fight,
The world could be a better place
For the entire human race.

Healthy(er) Eggs Benedict with Sauteed Kale

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Breakfast, Eggs, Eggs Benedict, Greek yogurt, Ham, Havarti, Healthy, Healthy Hollandaise, Hollandaise, Kale, Sauce

When I go out for breakfast Eggs Benedict is one my favourite things to order.  I rarely make it at home, because I cannot fathom making something so fat-laden as Hollandaise sauce.  It’s delicious when someone else cooks and I don’t see what’s in it, but making it myself somehow dampens my enjoyment by knowing how much butter is used!  I found this recipe which uses fat free Greek yogurt instead.  It doesn’t have quite the same taste as traditional Hollandaise, but it’s really good and it gives the eggs that same decadent feel.  I served them with sauteed kale; we get kale almost all year long from our CSA because they grow it a greenhouse and it adds an extra health kick!

Red Fife Maple Walnut Pancakes with Sliced Strawberries

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Breakfast, Chives, Flax, Flax meal, Ice storm, Maple, Maple Syrup, Pancakes, Red Fife, snow, snowstorm, Strawberry, Tulips, Walnuts, Whole wheat

We’ve been hit by a snow/ice storm today, and I am lucky to have the option to work from home.  I take transit, so commuting to work wasn’t so much of a concern, but I did already put away my winter parka and boots, and I’m stubborn and don’t want to get them out again on principle.  Silly, I know!  I treated myself this gloomy morning to these delicious and healthy pancakes.  I’m generally not a fan of pancakes (I know, that’s sacrilegious to some) but I really liked these.  The Red Fife, flax and walnuts added lots of flavour and texture.  And I’ve had a thing for strawberries lately, my impatience for spring produce is growing!