Mojito Monday

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

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

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

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

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

Hi Rach-

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

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

---

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



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

		yahooooooooo ... From: Rachel Reems ... View Contact To: haleyree@yahoo.com have a great thanksgiving Mooch, my turkey beats steadily for you and you alone. Re: to my dear brother.. ... From: Brent Reems ... View Contact To: haley reems thanks for the message mooch. Things are pretty good here, been playing a lot of frisbee, mostly ultimate. Its alright, not my favorite, but something that everyone - to some extent - can do together. Anyway, I will see you soon enough, Love Brent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Potato Bar

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

Potato Pancakes

Rach -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look What I Can Do!

Hey Smoochy,

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



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

Broccoli Almond Filling

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

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

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

Use on a sandwich, wrap, or an omelet.

Grandma's Cake

Hi Haley,

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

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

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

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

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

Ice your cake!