Waiting for summer-

The warm weather this week has me dreaming of spring.. and summer.. and local veggies..

I'm tired of tomatoes from Mexico and grapes from Chili. I want a tomato that hasn't travelled across the continent to get to my kitchen. However, when I saw these beauties I was swayed. Local they're not, but I rationalized that California is closer than Mexico. I know, whatever helps me sleep at night. Anyway, what's bought must be eaten and Finn and I are putting a good dent into our "'matoes." I put together one of my favourite summer staples this weekend-

Greek Salad-

Veggies (I'll tell you what I did, you can vary the amounts according to how much salad you can eat and what your favourites are. This makes a good-sized batch). Dice the following (not too big, not too small):

3 or 4 medium-sized tomatoes

1 cucumber, peeled

1 red onion (this may be too much if you aren't a huge onion fan)

1 yellow pepper

1 green pepper

olives -some may consider this optional but I don't. If you really hate olives could you please just pick them out for the sake of the rest of us? I'll leave the amount and the type to your discretion.

Feta cheese - as much as you've got. Well, maybe a cup of crumbled cheese. See what that looks like and, with my blessing, add more if you feel thus led.

Dressing, combine the following:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice (you could use wine vinegar instead)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 T fresh if you have it)

1 tsp sugar (optional, but just to take the edge off the lemon)

That's it. stir it all together. And voila, you've got a great side-dish to your chicken souvlaki and enough left for lunch tomorrow.

With or Without Ice Cream

Dense chocolate, sugar, and butter is what I had in mind, a brownie to lose yourself in. The recipe was romantically titled "Audrey Hepburn's Brownies." I pictured her baking between shoots, showing up on the set in a cocktail dress and a tiara with a platter of brownies on one cocked arm. Does every women want to be Audrey Hepburn? I think so.

Eight ounces of chocolate, I began to break up the baker's bar, drop it in the pot. My hand may have trembled--eight ounces--my pulse may have raced, either way, I couldn't do it. Nor the half cup butter. My healthy instincts refused.

So I hummed and hawed, trimmed, cut, and added to create a rich, but less calorie and fat laden brownie. I served it for dessert the next evening. My company, a distinguished couple in their seventies, approved, although they didn't know what to make of the licorice ice cream on the side.

This is a dense, double chocolate brownie. You may serve it with ice cream if there's some hanging around in the freezer but it is rich enough to stand alone and makes a perfect dessert after a filling dinner. We can't all be Audrey but, heck, my husband didn't know the difference.

Wanna Be Audrey Hepburn Brownies

2 ounces chocolate, chopped in eight pieces
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg white
2 eggs
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Spray 9 or 8 inch pan with oil, line with parchment or tin foil and spray bottom again.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

When the chocolate mixture has melted, keep on the heat and sprinkle cocoa over top. Mix in the cocoa and keep on the heat for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and let cool a little. Mixing well after each addition, use a wooden or flat spoon to add the egg white and eggs one at a time. Beat in the sugar and vanilla. Mix in the applesauce. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Set 8x9 pan in a larger pan; this will ensure even baking and a smooth, dense brownie. Bake for 20 to 25 min, or until the edges of the brownie are just beginning to pull away from the pan and the middle is just set or nearly set. An inserted tester should not come out clean. Do not over bake; better to error on the under-baked side as the brownies will continue to set after you pull them from the oven.

Let cool 5-10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack, then tip from the pan onto rack to cool completely.


Variation: Add nuts if that's your brownie style

Nude Chicken Noodle

Chicken noodle soup can be quite good, especially when you make your own stock. Although this is not essential, it is satisfying. You can buy a decent stock and in a carton and use that. This saves time. And chicken noodle soup is made to be lazy, simply luxurious. Like a good chair. Or a hot bath. I made mine from Nigel Slater’s recipe, found in his “The Kitchen Diaries” cookbook in his January 19^th entry. The book reads like a diary, a recipe for each day written nestled between practical advice and simple musings. He seems dreamy, this Nigel Slater. Apparently he’s a top British food writer, but I’ve only just discovered him. I might have a crush. My variation on Nigel’s (can I call him Nigel?) soup was delicious, simple yet made fresh by mint leaves and lemon juice.

Hats off to you Nigel.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Dried egg noodles- about 50g or a little less

I leek, chopped

Half a carrot, chopped in half-moon slices

1 tsp salt

Chicken broth- 1 litre

Cooked chicken- 200g (I roasted a large bone-in breast in the oven), chopped (not too small)

Chopped mint leaves, about a small handful

Chopped thyme leaves, a slightly smaller handful

The juice of a lemon

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add the noodles and boil for a couple minutes until tender. Drain. Rinse them in cold water and leave them to soak in bowl of cold water.

Put a shot of oil in the pot. Add the leek and carrot. Let tenderize for a few moments. Add salt. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and add the chicken, the mint, the thyme, and the lemon juice. Simmer for 3 to 10 minutes, depending on your schedule. Make sure the carrots are tender. Add the noodles. Add salt and/or pepper if need be. Simmer for one minute.

Serve in big bowls. Nigel seems to think it serves two. I’d say at least three but I think I added about 400 grams of chicken.

Moderately Healthy

Mike loves his spuds - bake 'em, boil 'em, fry 'em.. Better yet smother them with cheese and bacon! While this appy looks like it might shave some minutes off your life, it is actually moderately healthy. Now by my way of reckoning, "moderately healthy" is a label that applies to those foods that should not be consumed excessively at every meal, but when stacked up next to their gut-busting, artery- clogging "real" counterparts, look like water and celery sticks.

Home-made, as compared to your pub variety potato skins are a good example. Instead of deep frying I baked these beauties. I even tested my version with low fat cheese. I could devote a whole other blog entry to low fat cheese. I typically use Cracker Barrel Old Light cheese for day to day cheese use - for sandwiches, bran muffins and such. I am more reluctant to melt it. However, for these potato skins the low fat cheese worked like a dream.

Haley's Potato Skins-

1) Bake some potatoes. I chucked four potatoes into a 400 degree oven and left them there for about an hour and a half. I think that an hour should do it though (Finn and I had an accidental siesta upstairs so I'm lucky that the potatoes even made it!).

2) Take your potatoes out of the oven and let them cook for a bit. When you can handle them (first deal with your and their emotional baggage), cut them lengthwise in half, and then each half in half again - so that the potato is in four length-wise quarters. Now scoop out the potato so that there is just a bit left, maybe a quarter of an inch. Save the "innards" for baked potato soup or mash them up for tomorrow's dinner.

3) Brush some olive oil on your potato skins and season with salt and pepper. Next put on some sort of sauce - I had leftover pureed tomatoes so I mixed a quarter cup of that with the same amount of barbecue sauce. You could also use straight barbecue sauce, salsa, or tomato sauce. Then load your skins with toppings. I use homemade bacon bits (organic-happy-pig bacon.. doesn't that somehow negate the fat??), lots of chopped green onion, and cheese. You could get creative with your own toppings. I was thinking that sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, feta and shrimp might be a nice switch up.

4) Take out of the oven and serve with sour cream or spicy yogurt and then eat quickly.. well, at least load up your plate so that Mikeyc doesn't oust you from your rightful share.

The wood grain of my desk has gone incognito, obliterated by a bomb of binders, sticky notes, memos, and schedules. A hot dog day order form, a basketball team roster, an IEP, another IEP, a stack of photocopying, a giant pair of dice, a bell, a recipe for brownies – ah, there, the recipe for brownies, now I can pedal home.

A pink sky, a dry road, and the whir of a freshly lubed chain follow me up Hillside Road. I wonder about dinner. Walnuts, I remember, and stop at Fairways. The store’s bulk section is ho hum. Lately I’ve shopped for nuts, grains, spices, and interesting flours at the health food store in Sidney. I found dried lavender and the surprisingly elusive whole-wheat pastry flour.

My bag is heavy with the nuts and all the other bits and tins I suddenly remember upon entering a grocery store. I dismount at the top of the hill and watch birds fly from the crooked deck. I love our neighbourhood with its mismatched houses and quiet streets tucked between busy throughways, and, of course, the slightly dodgy Quadra Street Village, home to the excellent Caffe Fantastico and James’ Caribbean Café. I love that I’ve finished with children and chalk for the day. In my apartment, on a shelf, a mass of inflated dough waits for me to push it down, turn it onto a floured board, and knead walnuts into its sticky skin before patting it into two round loaves for the final rise.

Kneading bread at six thirty a.m. before beginning a day teaching middle school may very well be a symptom of insanity. But there I am, hazy with flour and sleep, rising with the yeast (clever, huh?). I leave the dough to lift while I spend my day at school. Later, five o’clock p.m., I feed it walnuts and give it one last squeeze. The final rise finishes at six. Into the oven and at seven o’clock we have fresh bread. Life is good.

This is Flo Bracker’s recipe. I haven’t changed it. Haven’t even tried cutting the fat. It’s just that perfect.

Walnut Bread

1 package active dry yeast
pinch sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup walnut oil (I use olive)
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp salt
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup walnut pieces, toasted
cornmeal
kosher salt

Sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of sugar over the hot water in a large bowl. I test the water on my wrist, it should feel quite warm. Set aside for 15 min to proof. It should be a bit bubbly when done.

Add the lukewarm water (it should feel a bit cooler than your wrist), sugar, oild, unbleached flour, and salt to the yeast mixture; mix until wall blended. Add the whole wheat flour. Do this bit by bit. You may need more or less. It depends on the dough and the day. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about fifteen minutes. My rule is you can never over-knead. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning it to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 to 4 hours. On the aformentioned day, I left my dough to rise for over eight hours. I left it at a low room temperature, probably about 17 or 18 degrees celcius. Typically, for the regular rise, I put the dough in the over, after I've warmed it just a little.

After the dough has doubled in bulk, punch down. Work briefly and gently with your hands to press out bubbles and deflate it. On that floured board, knead in the walnuts until evenly distributed.

Grease a large baking sheet (I simply cover one with parchment paper) and sprinkle it with cormeal. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a round loaf. Plach the loafs on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with kosher salt and a little cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 45 minutes. The loaves should be light brown and sound like a hollow tree when you knock their bottoms.

At Least I Know Where He's Been

Cookies pitted with walnuts, knots of cranberries and oats; bran muffins and a fat chicken are the focus of my afternoon. We must have cookies, the bran muffin mix is waiting impatiently in the fridge, and the chicken is still fresh. Only days ago he ran, free of range, on a Cowichan farm. I can almost see him with a plume of green and gold, head snapping to attention at every quick step. He stops – a worm – pecks, and carries on. Now he’s breast up, naked in my skillet. At least I know where he’s been.

The second half of Sunday is a prickly day. Poke, work tomorrow, ouch. Monday begins week four. “How’s it going?” my co-teachers inquire. The look so knowingly, “week three,” smile.

Baking brings its calm. Flour and snow, white and blank, they lull me. But Sunday’s promised snow never showed. Not that I mind.

As for the chicken, poor plucked thing, I’m not letting him slide in nude. After a massage of olive oil, loosening the skin over the breast to slide my fingers under, I sprinkle him with dill, a pinch of salt, and stuff him with four quarters of an orange and a handful of garlic cloves. Look where the free range got him, into the oven at 350 for a good hour and a half. Dinner consists of the bird and a cutting board of fresh spinach, mushrooms, grated carrot, sliced cheese, and a lump of new hummus. Dessert is cookies. Breakfast will be muffins.

Cooking is the simplest way of saying “I love you.” That may sound as pretentious as hell, but if you accept it as essential, your cooking will improve – and so will your love life.

James Barber

Moist Bran Muffins (King Arthur’s Flour Whole Grains Cookbook)
¾ cup boiling water
1 ¼ cup bran cereal, divided
¾ cup raisins
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup veggie oil
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup orange juice

Pour boiling water over ¾ cup of the bran in a small mixing bowl. Add the raisins, brown sugar and oil.

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Beat the eggs with the buttermilk and orange juice in a large measuring cup. Add to the dry ingredients. Stir in the rest of the bran plus the raisin mixture. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight. Batter will last up to one week in the fridge before baking.

The morning, wipe the sleep from your eyes before preheating the overn to 375 and filling your muffin tins two-thirds before (after spraying each cup with a non-stick spray, of course). Bake 23 to 26 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick emerges crumbless. Let the muffins cool for five minutes in the pan before inverting onto a wire rack. Tad Da!

The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t have to bake the muffins all at once but can keep the batter in the fridge and bake up fresh muffins as you crave them. (Come on, who doesn’t get serious cravings for bran muffins?)

Spicy Yogurt

Early on in our relationship, Mike and I would shove aside the Big Gulp cups, hop into his Fiero, and head out for romantic drives up-island. After an intense mini golf match we would head to the island's premiere dining destination - Nanaimo's Cactus Club. We never needed to open the menu, their rice bowls were that good. We found out later that it was the spicy yogurt sauce that made their rice bowls so tasty. My mom tracked down the recipe for me a few years back and I finally gave it a go. I have to hit up the Cactus Club again to see what veggies are in the original, but this attempt garnered two thumbs up by my taste-testing panel.

Haley's Rice Bowl with Spicy Yogurt

Step 1 - Chop 3 cloves of garlic and some veggies. I did my usual fridge rummage and came up with red onion, broccoli, carrot, orange pepper, mushrooms, and zuchinni

Step-2- Chop up as much chicken breast as you want. I used one large breast for two people and a toddler. I love using my trusty kitchen shears for this job. Next I sauteed the chicken in some sesame oil with about a third of thegarlic. I added a shot of soy sauce and chili sauce to the chicken.

Step 3- Set the chicken aside and in the same pan saute the rest of the garlic and the veggies until soft. Add the chicken, and about 1/2 a cup of cashews (I give them a bit of a crush with my vice-like grip as I sprinkle them into the pan).

Step 4- Next add your favourite terryaki sauce or do what I did-
3 T soy sauce,
3 T hoisin sauce,
3 T sweet chili sauce,
1 T corn starch mixed in 1/4 cup water,
1/2 cup water.

Let simmer for 5 minutes or so.

(Note: An asian-style stir fry sauce is forgiving - You need a nice balance of salty with a bit of sweet. If you don't have hoisin sauce substitute oyster sauce, or soy sauce combined with some orange juice, ginger, garlic and a spoon of honey).

Step 5- Make your spicy yogurt sauce. Combine-
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellman's low fat)
1 T lemon juice
2 T ranch dressing (it is supposed to be 2 T of powdered ranch mix)
1/4 tsp cayenne (more to taste)
1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 shot of Franks Red Hot or other hot sauce (optional)

Step 6- Put it together- in each bowl, on top of a mound of rice, generously ladle on the stir fry, and then dollop some spicy yogurt on top. Garnish with green onions and some more cashews.

Mix the spicy yogurt into your bowl and enjoy!