A Little Bit of Sunshine

It's been freezing ass cold again this weekend. During the storm on Friday I decided to bake something for tea-time. This is a Friday afternoon tradition the Monster and I have. Usually we walk to a nearby coffee shop and she has a smoothie while I savour some carrot cake. Too damn cold this week. Instead, we baked.

Hmm, but what to bake? I have a decade worth of cooking magazines (Gourmet, Martha Stewart, Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light...) I also have about 40 cookbooks. Lately I've been turning to the Community cookbooks. You know the ones. The church, the hospital, or community association put together recipes from members and the same publisher puts them together in a coil-bound book with white paper and standard pictures to divide the Meats and Main Courses from the Desserts and Pastry. But these are always filled with people's go-to recipes. The daily eats, the ones that make them happy. Sure, we can make fancy stuff, but this is the stuff that gets made and eaten every day.

The one limitation to these cookbooks is that the recipes aren't usually written very well. The contributer assumes the cook just know what they are talking about. You really have to read and understand what you have to do before you start, especially as additional ingredients are often put in the directions, not the ingredients list. And once you decide whether you are for or against the amount of pre-packaged food that these recipes can often contain, you can mine the books for new favourites. This is definitely one of ours.

I strongly recommend the coconut and raisins. The Monster loves these, and will happily spend her tea-time destroying the muffin to selectively eat the raisins. Next time I'm putting in more.

Sunshine Muffins

1 orange

1/2 cup orange juice or milk

1/2 cup oil (I use canola - no trans fats)

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour (white or 50/50 white and whole wheat)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar (I always have vanilla or vanilla/orange sugar on hand - extra tasty)

1/2 coconut or nuts (optional)

1/2 cup raisins or cran-raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin papers.

2. Chop up orange, discarding stem thing (if attached). Puree entire orange, peel and all.

3. Mix together all wet ingredients.

4. Sift together dry ingredients, except coconut/raisins.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry, with coconut/raisins (if using). Stir until JUST blended. Overmixing will result in a tough muffin.

6. Pour into prepared pan and bake 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Dessert Options?

I grew up in a house that had Sunday dinner with dessert. Now, dessert usually meant tapioca pudding or cookies, but it was still dessert. I can fondly recall our small glass dessert bowls on their short pedestal sitting on the counter with hot pudding in them, a dollop of raspberry jam providing colour and a sheet of wax paper covering it all.

Hmm, maybe I should have made tapioca pudding today... Instead, inspired by Orangette I tried these butterscotch pots de creme. Maybe it was because I couldn't find muscovado sugar at the grocery store today, or it might have been the curse of the world's crappiest oven, but they were merely okay. Not nearly as creamy as I would have expected.

But I needed a change. I couldn't face my defaults of brownies or gingerbread cake. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderfully tasty, but I craved something different. Any easy Sunday dessert ideas out there?

I will, however, share this recipe. Remind me to tell you the best story about a fateful piece of this cake and a car fire...

Peterson Gingerbread Cake
(recipe from my sister-in-law)

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp dry ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup hot, hot water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 pan
2. Cream together butter and sugar.
3. Add egg. Beat until light and fluffy. Then add in the molasses.
4. Sift together the dry ingredients.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with 1/4 water. Beat until smooth after each addition.
6. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

My sister in law likes to serve it hot with Birds custard, but I prefer ice cream and caramel sauce. It is also good with carmelized apples or pears.

Grapefruits, key limes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and maple syrup

Could you live without these things? I, for one, could not. If I were to ascribe to the 100 Mile Diet I would have to forgoe these items. Okay, maybe someone in Alberta has a freakish sugar bush and could get me some maple syrup? Hmm, I doubt that. If I were to get really strict about it then I would also have to give up peaches, plums, grapes, melon, nectarines, wine (not made from fruit), chocolate, and so much more.

Why would anyone do this, you ask?

There is a tremendous amount of energy involved in the production - and the shipping - of food. Bananas don't grow in Canada! Being an inherent environmentalist and having the environment as a career means that I think about these things, and often. Hubby and I also do what we can to buy from local, rather than chain stores, Canadian rather than American suppliers, homemade or scratch rather than processed. These are social, environmental, and just plain taste decisions we make. No, I'm not some granola mom. I wear leather, I drive to work, and our computer is on all the time. But food, that is my thing and you better not mess with my food (or its budget)!

All of these things combined made me very excited when a colleague forwarded me a wonderful file - the 280 Mile diet for Calgary (where I live). Okay, so the author expanded the boundaries, but it means more fruit options than crabapples and saskatoon berries, wine, and even salt. And I could still have a great steak. Email me if you want to see the document, I haven't got posting docs down yet on Blogger.

It wouldn't be impossible to live on the 100 mile diet and eat well in Alberta. I found a great blog of people doing just that in my home town. I'm just not sure I could live without my peaches, olive oil... and oh, chocolate!

Hansel and Gretel

Okay, hands up. All those who have the Flour, Sugar, Coffee, and Tea canister set with matching bread box? I'll take those who grew up with a set too. Me? My parents still have their stainless set sitting on the counter in the house where I grew up.

My flours and sugars are in glass canisters, coffee is stored in the freezer, and tea gets its own cupboard. No room in my current, awkward kitchen for the breadbox. The weekly loaf or two are simply left on the counter by the toaster. Not pretty, but handy.

Between the nanny, my late night peanut butter and honey sandwichs, and my Monster's love for bread and butter the loaf is usually gone in a few days. But this week we cut out bread from the Monster's diet due to yeast issues. I now know just how much bread she actually eats! There was a lot of stale bread come Friday.

In my mom's house there was always an old baking pan in the bread box filled with stale bread, drying for future use as bread crumbs. Rather than dry things out I prefer to blitz the days old bread in a food processer or mini chopper. I get crumbs that are then stored in the freezer for use in many yummy ways. Sure, I could blitz a fresh piece of bread, or even buy the fancy panko crumbs that so many professionals rave about. Let's be honest, though, the average home cook - a mother with kids - doesn't have the time or energy for that. Sure, for special occasions or the right piece of trout I will gladly break out the wallet and splurge on panko. But for homemade macaroni and cheese topped with crumbs and melted butter, or binding lamb meatballs, I will gladly use my frozen multigrain crumbs - as i did when making food for the freezer this weekend.

Tonight I made comfort food. It was a snowy day, filled with swimming lessons, groceries, and gate building. We needed something to fill our bellies and put a smile on our face as we watched This Old House. It required meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and buttered brussel sprouts - one of my favourite meals of all time. Unfortunately the Monster hasn't fully learned to appreciate brussel sprouts so she had some steamed peas. But the meatloaf was the star.

Okay, no photo of the dinner itself. Plating is NOT my forte. Here it is right out of the oven.

This is my basic recipe. I use bison instead of beef or pork. The meat is much leaner and has a good flavour. If you don't have access to bison beef will work well. I add the minced veggies to bulk it up. Originally I did this because bison was more expensive and 1 pound made a small meatloaf, but now we like it this way. I've also used mushrooms and peppers as part of the veggies.


Bison Meatloaf

1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
2 stalks celery
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1 pound ground bison
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp ketchup
1/2 to 3/4 cup bread crumbs
A couple of good dashes of worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper
Glaze:
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp brown sugar
Dash of worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celcius.
2. Peel the carrot and onion. Cut the carrot, onion, and celery into 2-3 cm chunks. Mince, along with the garlic, in a food processor or mini chopper.
3. Cook the carrot, onion, celery, and garlic in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes. Most of the water should be evaporated. Set aside and let cool for 5 minutes.
4. Once cool, add to remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands. A spoon just won't do, you need to mush it all together with you hands. You don't want to overmix, so stop once it is incorporated.
5. Shape into a mound in a meatloaf pan, or pat into a loaf shape on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet.
6. Mix glaze ingredients together and spread on top.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Enjoy!