What I bought Wednesday

In my last post I showed you a picture of what I bought while on my food adventures in Vancouver…so here is more of that…..

This cocoa powder is DA BOMB…it’s something I grew up on… has a perfect sweetness and dissolves amazingly well in cold milk…not like that Nesquick cocoa powder stuff that is all grainy in cold milk. 

I decided to try out a couple of new Truffle infused olive oils… one with Black Truffles and one with White Truffles…so excited to start using them.

These goat cheeses come from a beautiful island here on the West Coast called Salt Spring Island.  I can get these cheeses back home too, but they are quite a bit cheeper over here.  Can you notice a common theme of mine today?  More truffle infused foods..but how could I resist?  The one with the purple flower is just a regular goat’s cheese.

Some fresh mozzarella…hmm.

Vega Chocolate Smoothie mix..can’t wait to try it.  Anybody else enjoy Brendan Brazier’s products?  I love that they are plant based and focus on whole foods.

I thought this product was Gluten-Free, but when I got home I noticed it wasn’t. Oh well… still looks interesting and can’t wait to try this too.

Another truffle product…I bought a couple of these last year when I was visiting and it was AMAZING.

Pecorino and Truffle Sauce….more droooollllssss

Bosa Foods carries a wonderful selection of fresh pastas… I usually buy a couple of flavours when I go there and then freeze them in ziplock bags for when I go home. 

These cute orange Sacchetti’s are filled with a Smoked Gouda…one of my all-time favorites… I love how they look like little bags of money.

Don’t these remind you of pillows?  Striped Porcini Ravioli.

I only ever usually buy sausages when I visit Bosa… these are fresh Honey Garlic Sausages… my mom vacuum sealed them for me when we got home in bags of 2. 

I was so stoked to find this at Whole Foods…. I can’t find it anywhere else.  Any Canadian bloggers know of where we can get this north of the border? 

And Bosa also sells really cool plates and bowls and mugs… I really liked these bowls, so I bought two It’s been a really long time since I’ve bought any thing to do with dishes for the house.

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What do you look forward to buying when you go to Whole Foods Market? 

Anybody know where to buy So Delicious Milk in Canada? 

With Love

Bea

xoxo

Curried Pork Shepherd’s Pie

Hey guys,

So once again I surprised myself with another great creation in the kitchen.  But first, how did you like my GF DF and Vegan Chocolate Cake?  I’ve got some leftover cake in the fridge and a couple of Vanilla pods, so I think I’m going to try to make a Vanilla sauce to go with it..will see how much time I have tonight as I have some work to complete for tomorrow’s school day. 

So as I was saying, tonight’s creation was inspired by my leftover pork shoulder from Sunday night’s dinner.  I wanted to make some Chilli with it, but realised that I had no canned tomatoes in my pantry.  Well then came about Plan B…. Shepherd’s Pie.  But not just any pie… see for yourself. 

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Directions

First I boiled 3 medium sized Russet potatoes.  Instead of using water to boil, I used the left over broth from the Braised Pork Shoulder.  But water works too. 

While the potatoes were boiling, I cut up the left over pork meat and a couple of carrots. 

I also made a gravy to go with the pork meat.  First I melted 2 Tbsp of Earth Balance butter in a medium saucepan.  Then I whisked in 1 Tbsp of Sorghum Flour to make a Roux.  Make sure you get all of the lumps out.  I cooked this for a couple of minutes, then slowly added 2 cups of my broth from Sunday’s pork roast.  Then I added the pork and carrots to the gravy mixture. 

I also added a spring of thyme, 2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic, some salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of grated nutmeg, a dash of worstershire sauce, 1 Tbsp of Fish sauce and 1 Tbsp of Yellow Thai curry paste.  I set the meat mixture aside and prepared the mashed potatoes.

To make the mashed potatoes, I peeled them and then added 2 Tbsp of Earth Balance, a splash of milk, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.  Then I mashed the potatoes until they were nice and creamy.

Turn on your oven to 350F.  To assemble the Shepherd’s Pie, I layered a casserole dish with the pork mixture, then added the mashed potatoes on top.  Finally I covered the potatoes with about a cup of grated Dill Havarti cheese.  In to the oven everything went for about 10 minutes, covered.  Then I removed the lid and turned on the broiler  until the cheese became golden and bubbly. 

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That’s it for tonight.  It’s going to be a crazy rest of the week… in a nutshell it includes…doctor’s appointment, Bank appointment for RRSP crunch time and it’s report card writing time.  Plus all day this Saturday is my Lifeguarding recertification course at the local pool…I’m very nervous about it as it’s been 4 years since I worked as a lifeguard.  What will be will be I guess !

Any big plans this week? 

Beaglebea

xoxo

Herbed Potato Gratin

I usually make scalloped potatoes in the oven, but this one can be done on the stovetop, on low heat.  Then just finish it off under the broiler to get a nice golden topping. 

Ingredients:

• 1 kg  large russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup  chicken stock
• 1/2 cup  dry white wine
• sprig fresh thyme, chopped
• sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• pinch of salt
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup  whipping cream
• 1/2 cup  Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup  Dill Havarti

To assemble:

Prepare your potatoes.  Peel and slice the taters thinly and layer evenly in a non-stick frying pan.  Make sure you spray your pan with some Pam first.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg. 

Layer with half the amount of Havarti and parmesan cheese.

In a medium saucepan, heat chicken stock, white wine, garlic, thyme and rosemary to a gentle boil and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in the cream.

Pour evenly over the potatoes and cheese.  Place frying pan on low heat and cover with lid.  Cook for about 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.  Just before serving, sprinkle with remaining cheese and place under broiler for a few minutes until cheese brown and bubbling. 

Dropping like flies

Well it was an interesting day at work, that’s for sure.  The day started off with another beautiful blue-sky and gorgeous sunrise.  (Now if only I didn’t forget my camera at home…doh) 

I even had my friend come for a visit this afternoon.  I love these gals… such quiet neighbours.

As for school, today’s big event was called “Battle of the Books”.  This is a fun event that happens each February for grades 3 to 6.  Students read a selection of books between October and February and today was competition day.  The grade 3 and 4’s read 10  books, the grade 5 and 6’s read a total of 8.  I think it’s awesome because it encourages reading, fosters friendly competition and nurtures the love of books in young people.  At the yearly Battle, teams of 2 or 3 students then have to answer 30 questions based on the books they read.  The winning team of each grade at our school then goes on to the District finals at a later date.  Many of my students participated in today’s event.  I’m so proud of them.  My students came in 2nd and 3rd place. 

Unfortunately in mid competition and in front of a full gym, I had one of my students throw up all over the floor.  I knew something was up because he was very quiet and lethargic ever since coming to school.  Poor guy.. he must have been so embarrassed.  Shortly thereafter, another one of my boys got sick too.  I tell you, these days the kids seem to be dropping like flies.  It seems everyone is sick these days…some sort of nasty gastrointestinal flu going around… I’ve loaded up on Echinacea and green monsters, so here’s to hoping I won’t get the bug too.  That’s the last thing I need right now. 

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BACON AND EGG POPPYSEED BAGEL

Nothing too interesting tonight.  Tomorrow will be another leftovers night, so I thought today I’d make myself a little bagel sandwich.  I bought some Gluten-Free Poppyseed Bagels at Walmart the other day and thought I’d give them a try.  Since all GF bread products are frozen, I find it’s best to heat them up when eating.  Except that I don’t own a toaster, so I had to stick it in the oven.  The bagel wasn’t bad, just a bit dry I thought. 

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That’s it for tonight.  Off to work on an art project for my class. 

Have a wonderful night.

Bea

xoxo

Where does your food come from?

You know what I love about living on the West Coast?  Our accessible farms.  I love the fact that I can head to our local farmers market or farm and pick up fresh produce that is grown locally.  I try to buy eggs that comes from local farms.  I will support our local farmers as much as possible and buy free-range chicken and pork whenever possible. And if you’ve been reading my blog for the last month or so, you know that I get a lot of wild meat like moose and deer from my dad and brother.  I cannot even recall the last time I bought beef from the supermarket. Most importantly, I try to inform myself about where my food comes from.  When I got home from work this afternoon, I happened to catch the Oprah Show.  Her topic today was “The Vegan Challenge”.  This meant no meat, no milk, no animal anything for her and her staffers for one week.  Her guests today were Michael Pollan, a best-selling author and food advocate and Kathy Freston, the “Veganist”.  I thought I’d highlight a few interesting facts I heard on today’s show.  Keep in mind that these facts are American, but I’m sure us Canadians aren’t much different.

  “ We have more access to food than ever before, but the American diet has become a catastrophe.  75% of our healthcare spending is on chronic diseases linked to diet”.

“It’s not just the high amount of calories we’re consuming that are hurting us.  It’s the types of foods we’re eating – like processed foods and refined carbohydrates.”

“Our diet has changed more in the last 100 years than in the last 10,000.”

“According to the USDA, Americans eat nearly 10 billion animals each year, including 33 million cows.  If you make the choice to eat meat, you should know how it’s produced.”

So what is the moral of the story?  Let’s try to eat less processed and refined foods, more natural foods, and be more conscious about where our food comes from.  If you have local farms in your area, support those farmers that are doing an awesome job.

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SPINACH AND CHEESE STUFFED RICE BALLS

I’ve craving these for some time now and I wish I could say they turned out the way I had hoped, but they did not.   My rice balls were not a complete failure, nor were they a complete success.  I am happy to report though that they tasted AWESOME. I’m going to have to think about how I can tweak this recipe so that they don’t fall apart during the cooking process.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups cooked rice (arborio or sushi rice)
• 4 eggs (seperated)
• about 2 cups grated cheese (Dill Havarti, Edam, sharp cheddar, smoked mozzarella…)
• about 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan
• 1/2 cup chopped baby spinach
• some fresh chopped thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 cups of GF breading ( I used GF Rice Crackers)

DIRECTIONS

The first thing you want to do is cook the rice and allow to cool.  You can prepare the cheese filling at this time.

Combine grated cheeses, spinach and chopped thyme. 

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 egg, paprika, salt and pepper.  Add the egg mixture to the cheese and mix well to combine.

When the rice is cold, add 1 egg and mix well with rice.  Now you also want to prepare the coating.  I made my own breadcrumb mixture by using these GF Crackers.

 I put the crackers into my food processor and ground until fine crumbs. 

Now I created my assembly line.  In bowls from right to left are:  cheese filling, Sorghum Flour, 2 beaten eggs, cracker crumbs and of course the rice in the back. 

Now to create your rice balls.  Make sure you have your tap running slightly with cold water to prevent the rice from sticking to your hands. 

First, take a handful of rice and create a firm rice ball using the palm of the hand.  Make rice into balls, about 4 cm in diameter. (this pic was taken before I made the firm ball).

Shape each ball into a flattened disk.  Put a small amount of cheese filling into the center of each disk.  (I may have put too much into my balls, which could be the problem) 

Now wrap the rice around the filling. Squeeze into a tight ball.

 Once all the balls are made, roll in sorghum flour, pass through beaten egg, roll in crumbs and shake off excess.  Place on cookie sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I placed the cookie sheet in a preheated 350F oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. 

This is where things kind of fell apart.  I checked on my rice balls after about 6 minutes and noticed that they were beginning to split and the cheese started oozing out.  So I took them out and tried to pan fry a bit, but most of them still continued to crack. 

SO I PUT THE QUESTION OUT INTO THE BLOGISPHERE….WHAT WENT WRONG?  ANYBODY HAVE ANY INSIGHT? 

WERE THEY STUFFED TOO MUCH? SHOULD I HAVE USED MORE RICE? 

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Hope everyone had a good day.  Looking forward to hearing some suggestions because I want to make these again.  I think I’m going to add saffron to my next batch…I used it all up and forgot to write it on my grocery list last time.  It’s on there now though

Much love,

Bea

xoxo

Salmon and Maple

How was everyone’s day?  Mine was good.  If you live in BC, you surely heard of today’s big event:  The Great BC Shakeout. 

Over 460,000 people participated in this event by practicing the “Drop, Cover and Hold On” drill.  It was the largest earthquake drill in Canadian history and they want to make this a yearly event.  It took place at 10am.  My school unfortunately did not participate this morning as we had a scheduled theatrical presentation at 9am, but I will be running an earthquake drill in the near future with my class. 

One of the things I love about living on the West Coast is our accessibility to Salmon.  It’s my favourite fish, prepared in many ways…on the BBQ, baked in the oven, smoked.  Earlier this week I was surfing the blogging world and came across some Salmon patties.  (I don’t remember who’s blog this was, so please let me know if you do… kudos to you).  Reading that blog inspired me to create a little something with salmon since it’s been a while. 

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Salmon Patties with Maple Sprouts

The only complaint I had about the patties was that they were a bit too wet, so they kind of fell apart when I was browning them.  I guess I should have added breadcrumbs, but I didn’t have any around the house.  They still tasted really good.

First, chop up 1/2 onion, 1/2 red pepper, 8 button mushrooms and 1 carrot. 

Heat up 1 Tbsp olive oil in frying pan and add chopped vegetables.  Sauté until tender.  Also add a handful of chopped spinach.

Transfer mixture to bowl and add chopped cilantro, rosemary and thyme.  Add some salt and pepper, a dash of worstershire sauce, soy sauce, a Tbsp Chicken bouillon and paprika. 

Now some ripe brie cheese.

Also add one egg and canned salmon to mixture and mash together with a potato masher or your hands. If at this time you find your mixture is too wet, add some breadcrumbs until just right.

Now form patties. 

Brown your patties on both sides in a non-stick frying pan until brown and then place on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350F oven until fully cooked.  You will want to flip them too at some point. 

I served these patties with Maple Brussel Sprouts.  I found the recipe on Foodista website.

Maple Glazed Brussel Sprouts

The sauce was really yummy.. I love most things maple. 

• about 10 Brussel sprouts
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Bragg Soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

To prepare the Brussel sprouts, trim the stems and cut an X into the base, about 1/4 inch deep.

In a 3 – quart saucepan, combine the wine, water, maple syrup, and soy sauce and stir together. Add the Brussels sprouts. Stir together, then cook, covered, at a gentle simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes.  Dissolve the cornstarch in a small amount of water. Stir into the saucepan quickly, then cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a covered casserole dish to serve.

That’s all for the day.  I have some art work to complete for Friday’s class.

See you tomorrow.

Bea

xoxo