Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of those side dishes that I liked as a kid - though my parents rarely bought the grocery store deli counter or pre-packaged stuff. I just knew it was my pick over coleslaw (bleh). I don't know why I didn't think earlier to make it myself - perhaps the idea of potatoes and mayonnaise was too rich for every day cooking? Well, when I saw this recipe for Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles from Bon Appetit last summer I figured, what was I waiting for? It's summer and I want the pickles, the egg, everything!

First - potatoes. We don't really eat potatoes on a regular basis in this household - I think we both grew up with bland boiled potatoes as a side to chicken or steak or whatever. But now we do - the magic of summer picnic fare. I buy white mini potatoes and quarter them (they cook faster), then boil them until they're done. This time I used about 16.



Bon Appetit suggests you mix them with red onion and parsley, which sounds pretty good. This time I cut diced some red pepper - it's healthy and adds colour. I also diced two pickles and added them right in as well, because pickles are delicious. And don't forget two diced hard-boiled eggs. The magazine suggest only using the yolks - I don't want to be wasteful so I use the whites too.


The dressing, however, is the best part: 1/4 cup mayo, 1/8 cup pickle juice (right from the jar! So salty and sour!), 1 Tbsp Dijon for flavour, 1/2 tsp sugar, pepper and lots of paprika - any mix of sweet, hot and smoked, I have all three. But beware - I was a little too liberal this time and the salad took on a pinkish hue. Don't bother adding more salt - the pickles are salty enough.

And there you have it, the perfect side dish for (veggie) burgers! Be warned - this stuff is addictive. You won't be able to stop making it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here it is, guys: the gold standard of cookies. Seriously. They are thick and chewy and sweet and amazing. I'm not a big cookie maker but I am so glad I found Michael Smith's (ie Chef at Home's) Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe because it's unbelievably good and totally fool-proof. Unfortunately I've not made many things from my (*ahem* signed) copy of The Best of Chef at Home but this page is definitely a little greasy. That and the pancake page.

I made them this time for Easter to have with the lime-coconut bars I've already written about. Instead of my usual milk-chocolate chips, I used cut-up mini eggs to be festive. Mmm chocolate and crunchy candy shell! First sift the dry ingredients: 1.5 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.




In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar. I always do it by hand and it's not too difficult. Add 1 egg, 1 Tbsp corn syrup (I use honey), 1 tsp vanilla (I follow his own advice and double it). Stir in the flour mixture in three parts and then stir in 1 cup chocolate chips/M & M's/anything you want.

Roll the dough into balls and bake exactly as it says, @375 for 12 minutes for big, chewy, sugary cookies. It pretty consistently makes exactly 18 of them too. He's a genius!

Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup

This "elegant" butternut squash soup recipe comes from the awesome LCBO Food and Drink magazine (Holidays 2012). But if by "elegant" they mean ridiculously easy, well then, I agree! I chose this Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup recipe because I wanted to try out some of my new kitchen tools - my scale and immersion blender!

First up was weighing the ancient butternut squash I had lying around the kitchen floor. Good thing I had my trusty kitchen scale - turns out it was only about half the size as the recipe called for! Perhaps because it was on the wee side, or because it was so old the innards were a little shriveled. Either way I augmented the recipe with some turnips I had in the fridge.



In a large Dutch oven I melted 2 Tbsp butter, but also added 2 Tbsp olive oil - I find mixing the two works better. I threw in two chopped onions for about 5 minutes, then threw in the cubed/peeled/seeded butternut squash as well as three dicd turnips. The broth is made from one carton of chicken stock and one can of coconut milk (yummmm) so I added that and boiled it for about 20 minutes until everything was cooked.

So it's not the most complicated soup - no extra spices or anything. But it's rich and sweet. You can toast coconut flakes and sprinkle them on top for some texture and extra coconut flavour. And, if you're me, you can attempt to use your new immersion blender! It worked okay, I kept hitting the bottom of the pot and got a little worried, and there were still some big chunks left, but definitely easier than transferring hot soup to the blender and back. Less mess.

Chana Masala

Felt like comforting Indian food the other day. Also, I had just bought some new boxes of my favourite Indian spice mixes, this one for Chana Masala. The second ingredient is salt... no wonder I always liked these mixes! Chana Masala is pretty much the easiest thing to make, so I quickly got to work using this Canadian Living recipe as a guide.

First in the frying pan was two small chopped onions, 4 garlic cloves, and, after a few minutes, 2 Tbsp of the spice mix. Always good to toast your spices for a minute, stirring constantly so they don't burn, to get the most flavour. I then added 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1 tsp of brown sugar and one can of chickpeas.




Let that stew for 10-15 minutes so it gets nice and thick and tomato-ey. I made a rookie mistake, though - I wasn't totally sure how potent my spice mix was, and it turned out quite spicy! So I decided to tame it with some big spoonfuls of sour cream (yogurt would've also worked).

As you can guess, the sour cream made it rich and the spice mix made it salty and it was a delicious bowl of Indian deliciousness. I like living close to Little India, but I do buy those honey desserts too often...