Holiday Stuffing

So Thanksgiving is long gone, and Christmas is still a month away. What better way to stay in the festive mood than to enjoy the delicious side dishes we all love more than the actual turkey? Technically this is dressing, since it's not cooked inside the body cavity of a large fowl. Either way, it's the best part of the meal and the easiest to play around with. I make it the way my mother has always made it (very English/Anglo/Canadian, I imagine) with a few changes.

Stuffing is basically bread, of course, which is probably why it's so comforting and delicious. I used white french bread this time, but I also like using whole wheat, or those fancy breads with pumpkin seeds. The night before, cut a large number of slices into cubes, place in a large bowl and cover generously with poultry seasoning. With delicious herbs like thyme, marjoram and sage, it's the quintessential Thanksgiving flavour. Leave it out on the counter overnight so the bread can dry out. For her stuffing, my mother buys tubes of ground pork. For mine, I usually go vegetarian, but this year I had bacon on hand so bacon it was!

I sliced 4 or 5 pieces of bacon and fried them in a large pan with one diced onion and two diced celery stalks for 6-7 minutes. Stir the veggies into the bread, and mix in whatever else you'd like. Usually seeds, nuts and fruit make a good mix. I used fresh cranberries, sunflower seeds and pecans. Place in a well-greased, large ceramic dish. Now, since this stuffing is not actually being stuffed into something, it needs some added moisture or it will just be toasted bread. Unlike my mother, I follow the classic food magazine recipes which call for chicken stock, but I don't add too much. I usually just pour it straight from the carton and do a couple turns around the dish, Rachael Ray-style.

My mother instead uses large spoonfuls of margarine on top. I do this too - just not as much, since I use stock as well. Any fruit you add will help add moisture too, like cranberries or sliced apple. Once you're done creating your masterpiece stuffing, place a cover on the dish and either microwave it or stick it in the oven. I used the oven, mostly because the dish was too large for the microwave. I baked it @350 for about 45 minutes, uncovering it for the last 15 minutes or so so it can get a little crispy on top. This is obviously meant to be a side dish but whether there is turkey or not, it's front and centre on my plate - a classic mix of soft and toasted bread, fried bacon, tart cranberries, crunchy nuts/seeds, and savoury vegetables. Why wait until it's a holiday to make stuffing? Perfect for any autumn meal, if you ask me!

Baked Eggs with Potato, Bacon & Tomato

I have a large collection of dinner recipes featuring eggs in tomato sauce. Hey, sometimes you have a dozen eggs in your fridge and you don't want frittata! I had tried Shakshuka already, so next up was a simple Baked Eggs with Potato, Bacon and Tomato recipe from the Sobeys flyer. Don't discount grocery store recipes, people, sometimes they are worth saving!

I had bought some soy pepperoni for a homemade pizza and had quite a few left, so first I sliced them and fried them up with olive oil. Good idea - they turned nice and crispy. Meanwhile, I microwaved four small white potatoes for about 2 minutes, then cut them into quarters. Another good idea - I didn't have to wait around for them to cook fully in the pan, which would have taken much longer. Throw the potatoes in the pan with some smoked paprika and let them get a little fried and crunchy, about 5 minutes.

Remove potatoes and pepperoni onto a plate, and put some more oil in the pan. Cook 1 diced onion for about 5 minutes, then stir in 1 can diced tomatoes, a couple of sliced peppers and a pinch of chili flakes. Simmer 15 minutes, or until most of the tomato liquid has evaporated. I also added some fresh rosemary since I had some in the fridge. I threw the potatoes and pepperoni back in, and then poured it all into a greased 9x13" pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Now the fun part - make some wells and break 8 eggs on top. Bake @375 22-25 minutes.

The smell of rosemary wafted out of the oven - yum! I filled a bowl with the potato, tomato and egg mixture and topped with diced avocado. Unlike the shakshuka, it wasn't liquidy, so I didn't need to eat it with bread - it was a full meal in a bowl. Everything came together in a bowl of warm, homey goodness. Perfect for catching up with TV shows while lounging on the couch.

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

One recipe I've been making for a long time is cannelloni - so cheesy and delicious. It takes a little work but, thanks to no-boil pasta tubes, it's pretty fun. It's actually quite easy - but it looks like more work than it actually is. Perfect for impressing people, which is why it's a potluck staple. I loosely follow the Broccoli and Ricotta Cannelloni recipe from my old copy of Best Ever Vegetarian. Mine is much more simplified, however.

The recipe calls for fresh breadcrumbs. I always skipped this and used the dry, store-bought kind. But lo and behold, I looked in my cupboard and my panko bag was empty! So I googled quite a few ways to quickly make your own. I ended up toasting four slices of french bread in the oven for 20 minutes @250, then putting them in my mini-chopper. I ended up with a mix of fine, dry crumbs and chunks of bread. Which worked fine, so all was well. Place them in a large bowl, and stir in 1/2 cup milk and 2 Tbsp olive oil. Stir until soft, then add 1 300g tub of ricotta cheese, 4 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

Meanwhile, defrost one package of frozen spinach in the microwave. Squeeze dry with your hands (you don't want all that green, foamy water in your filling...) and mix into the cheese. Try not to snack on it - I always end up sneaking some spoonfuls while I'm filling those little tubes. I usually make quite a mess, though, as I don't use the suggested piping bag. I found it works well if you put the tubes vertical then drop in small spoonfuls of cheese. Once they are filled, place them in a well-greased 9x13" pan - but add a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom first. Then drench those cannelloni in as much sauce as you have!

The no-boil cannelloni must be completely covered or they won't cook properly, so be liberal with the sauce. I used a sauce that already had cheese in it, so I didn't grate more on top - but you definitely can. Bake @350 for about 35 minutes - or until the pasta is cooked. Then try not to eat too many at one sitting - very difficult indeed! It's hard to beat the combination of pasta, tomato sauce and cheese. The filling is a bit sweet and fruity from the nutmeg and olive oil - it will work well with whatever sauce you use. Impress you friends at your next dinner party or just make a tray and keep it in the fridge for quick dinners.

Clam Chowder

With the colder weather comes soup-making season. To start it off this year, I decided to go all out and make something pretty decadent - clam chowder. I had never bought canned clams before, and was excited to make something rich, flavourful and different. It was early in the Thanksgiving weekend so turkey-mania hadn't started yet. I decided to go with Michael Smith's Maritime Clam Chowder because, hey, the guy's from PEI - he must know his stuff!

I got out my Dutch oven and started with the bacon - four slices, chopped in with scissors, with a splash of water. Cook until crispy, then get rid of most of the fat. Add in one onion, chopped, and two celery stalks, chopped, with another splash of water to get the brown bits loose from the bottom of the pan. Nothing like bacon to make the kitchen smell good! I skipped the splash of white wine (didn't have any) and added 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-and-half - heavy cream would've been so rich. I also added in about 1 cup of the liquid from the clam cans, as this was written in other recipes I saw online.

With the liquid went in the other ingredients - two 5-oz cans of clams, 1 large baking potato, unpeeled and coarsely grated (to thicken the chowder, baking potatoes are best), 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme. I think I may have added extra, because the thyme became the most powerful flavour - it smelled like Thanksgiving stuffing! Not a bad thing. Cook on low for twenty minutes, to cook the potatoes - but keep an eye on it, as I found it was still burning a little on the bottom, even though the element was on low.

Add 1 can of evaporated milk, and keep cooking for another few minutes. Garnish with salt, pepper, and parsley (if you have it) and voila - a rich, steaming bowl of clam chowder! Way better than opening a can. It tasted like cream and thyme, mostly, with soft grated potatoes and chewy clams. Very simple, with few ingredients - I highly suggest if you see canned clams on sale, grab them and keep them for a Maritime-themed night. Even better, do as they do in San Francisco and get some sourdough bread bowls - YUM

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

'Tis the season for all things pumpkin. I've just bought my third can of delicious orange pumpkiny mush... I can't stop. It's the fall weather - it screams "Make orange-coloured, spiced things!". But I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to try cheesecake. Also, it was my first time making cheesecake! I only got a springform pan last year, and making an entire cheesecake always seemed quite intimidating. I decided to go the easy route and make mini cheesecakes - super simple. After a dinner of Pumpkin-Peanut Curry Pasta, we needed more pumpkin! I followed this recipe from a lovely food blog called Pinch My Salt.

Luckily I had some graham cracker crumbs left over from another recipe for the crust. I mixed 1 cup crumbs, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp melted margarine, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. I added extra oil to the bowl as it seemed a little dry. I also learned a neat trick after googling how to soften up brown sugar that had hardened - place the sugar in a bowl with a damp paper towel, and microwave, covered, for 20 seconds. It really worked - and saved my butt. Thank God for the internet sometimes. Once it's all mixed, push into the bottom of a 12-cup muffin tray and push down with the back of a spoon.

Thankfully cream cheese softens quite quickly so you don't have to remember to take it out of the fridge the night before. In a large bowl, beat 1 rectangular package of (light) cream cheese, 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1 egg, 1 egg white, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice with a wooden spoon, and then a whisk to break up the chunks of cheese. Pour batter into muffin cups, and bake @375 for about 20 minutes. The recipe originally said 14, but they seemed quite raw still by that point. Cool, then keep in fridge until ready to serve.

They became quite soft after being left out so make sure to keep them in the fridge. We originally ate them unadorned, but the next day I put some Greek yogurt on top in place of the recipe's whipped cream topping, which was a nice compromise. These were a great dessert for a weeknight. The cheese was rich and sweet with a hint of spice. My cat even licked most of the cheese off the top of one while they were cooling - so I can officially say everyone in the house liked them!

Pretzels

There's nothing more decadent that creating an Oktoberfest feast - it's just large amounts of deliciously rich foods plus large amounts of German beer! We didn't do all the cooking ourselves, but I did make two of the side dishes: German-style potato salad and pretzels. The pretzel recipe is courtesy of my middle-school era Family Studies course and its teacher, Mrs. Miller-Nesbitt. I knew it would come in handy again! It's pretty similar to this Stefano Faita recipe if you'd like something more official.

Step 1: check to make sure yeast isn't expired (oops). Step 1a: Buy new yeast! Step 2: Pour 3/4 cup lukewarm water into a large bowl bowl and mix in 1.5 tsp sugar. Sprinkle 1.5 tsp yeast on top, and let stand until bubbly, 5-10 minutes. Add 1.5 c flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until blended and it forms a ball. Cover your counter with flour and dump the dough out - now you're ready to get out the day's stresses by kneading for about 5 minutes. If it's sticky, add up to 1/2 cup more flour.

Now the fun part! Divide the dough into four pieces, and roll each into long 'snakes' of dough - 1/2" thick and 15" long. This took a bit of work because the dough kept shrinking back whenever we rolled it out... but it ultimately stayed. Then we got to form our four pretzels. Brush each with an egg wash (1 egg and 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl) and sprinkle with coarse salt. We used sea salt on two and smoked Maldon salt on the other two. Bake for about 10 minutes @425 and cool on a wire rack.

The rest of our feast included sausages, saurkraut, and potato salad made with red onions with lots of oil and vinegar, inspired by this recipe. We had the pretzels with mustard and they were fabulous! Warm, bready... not as large and brown as ones you'd find in a Munich beer garden but just right for our feast. Proste!

Enlightened Pasta Salad

Nothing I like better than pasta. I've never been a big fan of those mayo-based pasta salads, though - I'm more into grain salads with vinaigrettes. But when it was warmer out, I decided to try this light version, aptly named Enlightened Pasta Salad from Rachael Ray magazine (July, 2013). Also, since Greek yogurt is the ingredient du jour, I figured I would try it out.

There isn't much simpler than making pasta salad. Rachael complicates it by making you puree all the ingredients together. Nope. For the dressing, I mixed 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup light mayonnaise, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. I just left out the garlic because as much as I love it, raw garlic is just too potent.

I cooked 10 oz of whole wheat penne and let it cool slightly. Then I mixed in the dressing with 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes, 1 diced red pepper and a couple small raw yellow zucchini. Finish with lots of fresh basil leaves and salt and pepper.

Garnish with even more basil and it's done! I would have added olives if I had had any. Oh well, I added a few capers instead for some tang. This was a lovely, simple, light summer pasta salad. You couldn't tell it was a mix of mayo and yogurt - or maybe you could, but it was still good. And a little less guilty. Make it for your next summer gathering.

Coconut Soba Noodles with Ginger Veggies

This Coconut Soba Noodles with Ginger Kale recipe from Vegetarian Times (Sept. 2013) pretty much had everything I love. Coconut milk? Check. Cilantro? Check. Soba noodles, lime, jalapeno, ginger? Check. I also liked it because it wasn't a curry - which is pretty much the only thing I make with coconut milk. I am also the proud owner of a (mini) food processor, so I can now make sauces that involve pureeing things! Fabulous.

The sauce base is a green paste made up of pureeing the following ingredients: 1 cup cilantro, 6 chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped jalapeno, 1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger, 1 tsp turmeric (I used curry powder) and 1 tsp oil. So easy - I have to make more recipes like this! Heat a small pot on the stove. Add the paste and saute for 30 seconds, then whisk in 1 can coconut milk and 1/2 cup water. Simmer 15 minutes without boiling. Then stir in 2 Tbsp lime juice and some salt and pepper.

Heat a large pan on the stove. Add 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger and 3 smashed garlic cloves, cook 1 minute. I added a handful of baby greens and one sliced red pepper (in place of the kale) with a dash of soy sauce and a dash of water. Cook until ready to eat! Meanwhile, cook 6 oz soba noodles. I found it easiest just to mix everything together in the pan by adding the noodles and sauce in with the kale. Remove the smashed garlic cloves first, though. Next time I'll probably just mince them up and throw them in - I like garlic!

Top with more cilantro and peanuts (or other roasted nuts) and voila - a giant bowl of thai comfort food. As the photo shows it was quite liquidy, since the coconut milk is really only heated through. It was more like a thai noodle soup. It was a little on the spicy side so if you're a wimp, only use 1/2 of the jalapeno. I would also throw in some tofu or something since it didn't have any protein. I still ate a very large amount of it though - slurping contentedly in front of the TV.

Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes

I have totally forgotten what I was planning to make with the two cans of artichoke hearts I bought. Not the marinated kind in small jars, but the ones just packed in water in cans. I must have had a reason, but then I found myself googling recipes to make with them... Luckily I found Ree Drummond's recipe for Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes. I only knew of the 'Pioneer Woman' from Food Network magazine, and had never paid much attention to her, but this pasta dish was super simple (especially when I cut out a few steps) and just what I needed on a weeknight home alone. Her commentary was funny too, and her pictures are so purdy...

First up: one glass of wine for the cook. Then, in a large pan with 2 Tbsp each olive oil and butter, cook one diced onion and three minced garlic cloves for about 3-4 minutes. Add in one can artichoke hearts, drained, squeezed dry and chopped up a little if they're whole, and one can diced tomatoes. Simmer 8-10 minutes. On low heat, stir in one cup cream (she uses heavy cream, I used half and half - and I thought that was decadent!).

Add a pinch of nutmeg and 1/2 cup white wine (she used stock, wine is so much classier) and let it cook for a few minutes. I was already drooling by this point, it looked so good! Add salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the pasta - I used whole wheat linguini. Once it was cooked, I tossed in a little olive oil and a very small sprinkling of parmesan before mixing in the sauce.

Mmm what a classy weeknight dinner! No protein, but oh well. The sauce was very good, rich-tasting thanks to the cream, but was quite liquidy, almost soupy. I can't imagine how decadent it would be with all the heavy cream and parmesan the original recipe called for! I also really liked the artichokes, I'd pretty much only bought the marinated ones before so this was new for me. For a dinner with so few ingredients, it was addictive. Good thing I still have one more can of artichokes in the cupboard...

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

I've been intrigued by the idea of using olive oil in baking - it always seemed a little decadent, to use (expensive) olive oil in a cake or cookie. Surely you wouldn't be able to tell it was in there? Surely the fruitiness of the oil couldn't come across in a baked good? I decided to find out, with this Citrus Olive Oil Cake recipe from Rachael Ray magazine (June, 2013). My test audience: a couple of friends over for game night. We learned how to play Puerto Rico after a heavy dinner of sausage and potato salad.

Sine this was a citrus cake, the first step was zesting one lemon and one orange. The recipe said 1 tsp of each, but more can't hurt, right? Then I whisked the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used the ol' vinegar in regular milk trick), 2 Tbsp each orange juice and lemon juice, and 1 tsp vanilla.

In a large bowl, use an electric beater to mix 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups sugar (that's a lot!) for about five minutes on high. Then on medium speed, drizzle in 2/3 cup of the good stuff - olive oil. It gave the batter a lovely yellow hue. Mix in the fruit zests. On low speed, add half the flour mixture, then the buttermilk mixture, then the other half of the flour mixture. Scrape into a greased 9" springform pan - so excited for an excuse to use mine, I never do! Bake @350 for 1 hr 10 minutes.

Once it cooled I topped the cake with vanilla sugar (I had an old packet in the cupboard that I had bought in Europe, of all places...) and placed it in my new glass cake stand from Ikea, complete with decorative sheet on the bottom. Looks good, doesn't it! This cake was lovely, it rose quite a bit so it was dome-shaped, and it was a nice yellow colour. It was like a sweet pound cake, with a noticeable citrus flavour to it. But the real question - did we taste the olive oil? I think it came through. It seemed to have an extra richness to it, especially the aroma. I would definitely make it again - it would be a great coffee cake. It stayed moist for a good 2-3 days. Just gotta keep buying olive oil on sale!

Brown Rice and Beans with Ginger-Chile Salsa

I am in a Tex-Mex mood these days, it seems. This Bon Appetit recipe caught my eye, despite the fact that I usually shy away from recipes with multiple steps due to sheer laziness. Each step was easy enough, and it did make a delicious bowl of Mexican goodness. Try this Brown Rice and Beans with Ginger-Chile Salsa if you have a bit more time than usual to make dinner. Or just make everything ahead of time.

First up: the rice. I use parboiled rice so it only takes 10 minutes to cook, much easier than waiting for 45 minutes. Fry up 1/4 of an onion, diced, in the pan first for about 5 minutes. Once the rice (1 cup) is cooked and cooled a little, stir in 1/4 cup cilantro and some salt and pepper. In another pot, make the beans. Thrown in 1/3 of the remaining onion, diced, into some olive oil and cook 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp each coriander and cumin, cook 1 minute. Add 2 cans black beans and 1 cup stock/water, bring to a boil, and simmer 8-10 minutes, mashing every so often.

This will make a black bean slurry of sorts. Now make the salsa - I have a tiny food processor but the recipe says you can use a blender - good luck. Blend 2 jalapenos, seeded, 1 garlic clove, 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, 1 Tbsp lime zest, some salt and the remaining onion to make a chunky sauce. The second time I made it I used red onion - it all turned bright pink. Stick with yellow onions.

Now we get to assemble our delicious bowls! Obviously the rice and beans go in the bottom, topped with some salsa, which has a lovely limey taste with a little heat. Top with diced avocado, cheese (I used feta), more cilantro and lime wedges. My only advice would be to add some more heat or spices to the beans - they were a little bland. More onion, more cumin, maybe some cayenne, some garlic? Something to wake them up a little. Otherwise it's a big bowl of classic Mexican flavours - you really can't go wrong.

Nut Ribbon Cake

Turns out I haven't blogged about one of my favourite cookbooks, Swedish Cakes and Cookies, a classic first published in 1945 with multiple editions and now translated into English. I picked it up at the shop in Scandinavian House in New York, a lovely little store full of Scandinavian things. The book has a lot of yeast-based dough recipes, which I haven't tried, but also simpler things, like muffins, quickbreads and cookies. Here is the Nut Ribbon Cake (p. 70), definitely a treat but easy to make.

For the filling, mix 2/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbsp flour, and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or hazelnuts). Then stir in 3 Tbsp margarine, melted. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat 7 Tbsp/100g butter with 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time. Add 1/4 tsp almond extract. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with 1 cup (total) of sour cream. Beat well to make a thick batter. Pour half of the batter into an oiled loaf pan, then add the nut filling, and cover with the rest of the batter. Bake @350 for 45-50 minutes.

The cake was nice and fluffy, and the filling was sweet and crunchy. The cinnamon came through nicely, though the large amount of filling meant the pieces fell apart a little while serving. It was pretty rich, and it was a little hard to tell when it was cooked through - I think mine was a little underdone. This recipe wasn't particularly Scandinavian (no cardamom?!) but I'll try to get through a few more in the next while.

Sopa Seca with Beans

This is an interesting vegetarian pasta dish, a little different because it's Mexican-inspired instead of the normal Italian. I've made it a lot because I usually have most of the ingredients on hand, usually just need to get cilantro and a hot pepper. The Food Network magazine is getting better at having vegetarian recipes, and their Sopa Seca with Beans is easy and fast for a weeknight dinner.

In the largest pan you have, cook 1 sliced onion and 1 sliced hot pepper (poblano, or whatever you can find, I usually use jalapenos but this time I tried a Hungarian yellow pepper) in olive oil for a few minutes. Add 2 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, some cayenne and 1/2 tsp salt (yes, it does need more spices than it calls for) and cook another 2 minutes. Throw in 8 oz (my kitchen scale comes in handy!) broken up whole wheat spaghetti, and toast for 5 minutes. Now for this next bit, I actually had to transfer it to a large pot because my pan wasn't big enough!

I think it was because once I weighed the pasta, I found out I had been using only about half of what the recipe called for. Oops. So, once all the spaghetti and spices are in the pot, add 1 can diced tomatoes (I don't use fire-roasted... maybe they aren't common up here? I never see them) and simmer about 2 minutes so the liquid can be absorbed. Add 2 cups chicken broth (I cheat and use water sometimes, with added salt), bring to a boil and boil 1 minute. Reduce to medium-low, cover, simmer about 6 min to (almost) cook the pasta. Uncover, stir in 1 can red kidney beans and a bunch of chopped cilantro, and cook another few minutes to fully cook the pasta.

Ladle out the soupy, spiced pasta into bowls and cover with grated cheddar cheese and more cilantro. We put baby spinach on the bottom of our bowls for added veggies. In the past I've also thrown in carrots and red peppers while it's cooking. One tip: don't use a Hungarian yellow pepper. I didn't realize they are not spicy at all - stick with something with a little heat. Add more spices than it calls for as well - Food Network recipes can be bland. And don't leave out the cheese... delicious cheese.

Coffee Chocolate Banana Bread

Once I got back from my summer holiday the first thing I wanted to do was bake! Because clearly I hadn't eaten enough cakes and ice cream and general junk food while I was away... Either way, first up was this Coffee Toffee Banana Bread from the LCBO, because there were so many frozen bananas in my freezer. I didn't have toffee bits or banana chips, so I used chocolate chips instead. I just wanted to try the coffee part - I was intrigued.

The banana slurry was made in small bowl: 3 ripe (thawed) bananas mashed with 1/2 cup cool brewed coffee. In another bowl, the dry ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, pinch salt and nutmeg. In large bowl, stir 1/2 c melted margarine with 3/4 cup sugar. Stir in two eggs, one at a time.

Stir in 2 tsp vanilla and the banana/coffee slurry. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, and when it's almost incorporated, throw in 2/3 cup dark mini chocolate chips. Bake in an oiled loaf pan @350 for about 45 minutes. You can cover it with foil if it's getting too dark on top.

This was a perfectly respectable chocolatey banana bread, but the coffee did lend an odd undertone... I couldn't decide if I liked it, to be honest, though others did. This was also a somewhat 'healthier' version of this recipe, as it called for toffee chips in the batter, as well as on top (to melt into a sugary crust, I can only imagine). The banana chips on top would be a good idea to try. Maybe they helped balance the coffee taste in the bread? Perhaps. Either way, this was a lovely snack with which to continue my new tradition of afternoon tea - a great excuse to eat baked goods in the middle of the day without guilt.

Orzo Salad with Corn and Tomatoes

Now one kind of salad I do like are grain salads. This blog is full of one pot/bowl recipes, and surprise, here's another one. I originally saved this recipe because I wanted to try farro, which I had never cooked before, but here I use orzo. Clearly I hadn't been to the bulk store in awhile. This Farro and Corn Salad is so simple, though, I should try to highlight some rare grain with it. Next time. Next summer...

The recipe calls for 1 cup farro or barley, but for some reason I used up what orzo I had and it was probably closer to 2 cups. I guess I didn't think orzo would fluff up as much as other grains? Either way, it was a little too much. Stick with 1 or 1 1/2 cups. Rinse when it's done cooking, and toss with olive oil. In a large pan, cook 1 1/2 cups corn for 2-3 minutes so it can char. I didn't use fresh corn... frozen worked just fine. Then throw in one pint of halved cherry tomatoes and a few sliced green onions and cook for 2 min to warm.

Throw the orzo and veggies into a large bowl and add the juice of one lemon, 1 tsp lemon zest and handfuls of baby arugula. 'Tis the season for cherry tomatoes and I've been having a mini love affair with arugula for the past few months so this was delicious. Bit too much pasta, as I mentioned above, so it wasn't as full of veggies as it was supposed to be. Also, no protein, so it wasn't the most balanced dinner - but that's me, eating side dishes as main meals. Will definitely try again with a more interesting grain.

Barbecue Tofu and Corn Salad

I'm not a huge fan of salads in general, and I rarely make them because it takes some effort to have every ingredient in the house and lettuce bores me. I've been buying more cartons of organic greens, however, and salads are a good way to use them up! I've moved beyond baby spinach to arugula, baby kale, and the lovely blends (Zen Blend is particularly good) that EarthBound Farms offers. This Barbecue Tofu and Corn Salad is a nice hearty dinner and it's quite versatile, which is always handy!

The first thing to do is fry tofu in BBQ sauce. We had mango curry BBQ sauce, which was a little sweet but had a nice kick. I also sometimes fry the tofu brushed with honey instead of sauce, which is quite delicious and makes the tofu a little crunchy. Then, in a large bowl, throw in the rest of the ingredients! This is the part I like about salads. I added mixed greens and arugula, 1/2 pint of halved cherry tomatoes, one can of mixed beans, 1 cup (thawed) corn, about 1/4 of a red onion, sliced, and some sliced red pepper.

The recipe calls for a more complicated citrus dressing, which is pureed. I don't bother with this. I mixed olive oil, lemon juice, a little sriracha, and one grated garlic clove. And lots of cilantro mixed in! The salad was quite good, very filling, but had one problem - it was so oniony! I only put a little red onion in but we ended up picking out most of it because it was overpowering. Maybe my slices were too big, or I should pickle it first in lemon juice, or I've heard soaking in ice water also helps tame them. Once the onion problem was under control the salad was quite good, but readers will know I love anything with cilantro in it. Even salad.

Coffee Chocolate Muffins

I was looking for a simple muffin recipe I could make with pantry staples to bring for an island outing - the Toronto islands, that is, not very tropical but always fabulous fun in the summer. We sit on the beach, gorge ourselves on snacks, play some cards and badminton... except for the wicked sunburn on part of my leg, it was lovely! Before I left, I filled a tin with some Coffee Chocolate Muffins, grabbed a few small jars of jam (strawberry and blackcurrant) and set out for the ferry docks. Note: I made the recipe a little differently because I was browsing through many different recipes for ideas.

Dry ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients: 1 egg, 1/2 cup oil, 1 cup strongly brewed coffee (at room temperature) and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Mix the two together, and when they're almost incorporated, add in 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips. This is to make sure you don't overmix. Never overmix your muffin batter! Mmm, this batter was a lovely brown colour and looked super chocolatey!

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. And voila - chocolate muffins just waiting to be eaten slathered with jam. You don't taste the coffee too much, it just helps the chocolate taste even better. To get coffee flavour you'd have to add instant coffee granules or coffee flavouring. These were simple, decadent and - most important for a picnic - portable! And they helped me use up some coffee beans that were too weak for my taste. Win-win.

Tunisia Meets Provence Salad

There's always at least one reader's recipe in Vegetarian Times, and they usually sound really good! I made this Tunisian/Provencal Salad because, while I spend most of the summer making couscous/quinoa/pasta salads since it's too hot to use the oven, I'd never made one with brown rice, and the different flavours intrigued me.

First, cook 1 cup brown rice. I buy the somewhat instant kind, and it only takes 10 minutes. Totally worth it. Now, the author would like you to salt the cucumbers and the onion, but I was lazy and didn't do it. I just mixed the ingredients in a large bowl: 1 sliced cucumber, 1 chopped green pepper, 1/2 chopped red pepper, 1 finely chopped apple, and some chopped black olives. I omitted the 1 1/2 cups onion (!) so I threw in some green onions. I also added in some chopped dried apricots. The dressing was 5 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. I omitted the dried mint because I didn't have any, and threw in some beans for added protein.

This wasn't the most successful recipe, partly my fault I think. It was just too sweet for me - with the apple, but also the apricot I added, it just didn't have enough bite. Maybe if I had put in all that onion it would have been more balanced. I enjoyed it the day I made it, but sitting in the fridge for a day or two didn't help. I'll try again with less apple, more veggies and more olives - the best part!