October 31st: pumpkinny oatmeal + pumpkin biscotti + Tuscan chicken & pasta

Verdict:
Try Again: oatmeal, biscotti and chicken and pasta

I love Halloween. Maybe my favourite of all the holidays. Candy. Costumes. No pressure. Love it.

We started our day with the first snow fall of the year! Olivia was so excited when she saw the snow: "Snow on my deck. Snow on my BBQ. Snow on the trees. Snow on the ground." (It went much, much longer.)

Then: "I need my snow suit." So, before breakfast, still in pajamas, into her snowsuit she went and outside to have some fun. Meanwhile, I needed to get to work on a Liam-inspired recipe. Another one from Cooking With My Kid: Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal. Based on Liam's advice, I upped the amount of liquid (milk) and flavour (ground ginger, ground cloves, walnuts and raisins), all of which contributed to a delicious (though late) breakfast. While it baked, we had to eat breakfast, so when it was done we were actually not hungry. It was good though.

One of Liam's problems with this recipe was that the pumpkin flesh didn't cook enough. Trying to remedy that, I filled the pumpkin with water and put it in the oven as the oven preheated and as I prepared the filling. I don't know if it made a difference, but thought I should mention it.

We have a lot of leftovers; we'll see how those taste. The flesh at the bottom of the pumpkin cooked quite well. I chunked up some of the leftover flesh that was a little harder, tossed it back in the oven with some water, and used it to make, from October 2010's Chatelaine: Pumpkin-Spice Biscotti. This is very good stuff, and makes a lot. To work with me tomorrow it shall go.

After trick-or-treat-ing, we had for supper the last recipe I am trying from October 2010's Chatelaine: Tuscan Chicken with fresh pasta. The recipe calls for turkey but I used chicken. It also calls for scallopini and I used breasts (which increased the cooking time). And finally, it calls for wine and I used chicken broth. The fresh pasta nests (and I just bought PC brand, nothing fancy) were amazing! I think it was the buttery sauce. I thought the chicken was just okay but Greg loved it. Olivia was not digging the sage leaves.

We'll try all of these recipes again, except, maybe, the oatmeal. We'll see how those leftovers taste and then decide. A good weekend, a good day, and a good night. :)




October 28th: Lentil, Barley and Sweet Potato Soup with Cheddar Cornbread Tops

Verdict:
Toss: soup & biscuits

Tonight I made the last two recipes I wanted to try out of October 2010's Today's Parent: Lentil, Barley and Sweet Potato Soup and Cheddar Cornbread Tops. Another vegetarian night, except I didn't have vegetable soup broth so I used chicken, but I didn't have enough of that, so I also used beef. I liked the soup but didn't love it, so I am tossing the recipe. Although the lentils were good, I still prefer my barley soup to be beef and barley. The biscuits were just okay. To be fair, I have a cold this week (sloppy wet on the mouth 2 year old kisses lead to colds) so my taste buds are not as sharp as I would like, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the biscuits anyway. Maybe if they had more cheese in them. Olivia loved them; no surprise there. She's a bread girl. I am not.

NEW AND IMPROVED!

Did you notice? I have learned how to make my links open a new browser window rather than navigate away from my blog page. Yay! I am writing HTML code. NO, I did not ask Greg. I read it on Moms Who Blog, a no longer active blogger site. I've become a bit of a blog follower in the last two months.

October 27th: Lemony pork scallopini

Short and sweet: tonight's meal was from the keeper book, a perennial favourite: from April 2006's Chatelaine: Lemony pork scallopini. You'll notice the recipe calls for fast-fry chops, but I use thicker chops all the time and it turns out just fine. If you don't like a little pink in your pork (it's safe to eat), just increase the cooking time a bit. The recipe also has all these time-consuming instructions, like cut out the bone and flatten the meat. I say, skip all that!

Side note: I love brussels sprouts, and I especially enjoy them dipped in vinegar. I put a dipping bowl of vinegar to the side of my plate and do extensive dunking prior to eating. I got Olivia doing this tonight with hers; her reaction was hilarious (scrunched up face), but she kept going back for more!

October 26th: Red Bean Veggie Burgers

Verdict:
Try Again: veggie bean burgers

Have you heard about this Meat Free Monday thing Paul McCartney is promoting? Well, I say, good on you, P, but you're years behind David Suzuki. I took on the David Suzuki Nature Challenge sometime between 2002 and 2004 (I just remember I was living on Dundee Avenue), and one of my goals has always been to eat 1-2 vegetarian meals and 1 fish meal per week. Okay, so I don't always meet the goal, as this blog clearly demonstrates, but the intent is there and the follow through is occasional. (Side note: my lunches are very often vegetarian. Just sayin.)

Tonight, we ate, in Greg's words, "the best vegetarian meal ever." High praise. From October 2010's Today's Parent: Red Bean Veggie Burgers, which, blast it, they don't have online. Okay, here goes:

Red Bean Veggie Burgers

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) red kidney beans,* mashed smooth
1 cup (250 mL) grated sweet potato
1 cup (250 mL) grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (125 mL) quick oats**
1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped red onion
1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped fresh cilantro***
1 tsp (5 mL) each salt, cumin and chili powder
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil

In a large bowl, combine beans, potato, cheese, oats, red onion, cilantro, salt, cumin and chili powder. Add the egg, mix and form 6 patties. Heat oil in a large frying pan, cooking patties 5 minutes per side, or until heated through and golden brown.

*Beans: I used dried beans, soaked for a day, boiled for two hours, and then mashed. If you use canned, you may want to rinse them to remove the salt, as you are adding salt in the recipe.
**Oats: I used large flake (15-20) minute oats, turned out fine.
***Cilantro: added to half the burgers only. See October 19th post for commentary on Greg's hate for cilantro.

The recipe didn't say what to do with the burgers once they were cooked. Based on the spices involved, I opted for a bun-free assembly (ie, no assembly), topped with salsa and sour cream. Delicious! Two burgers and a small salad and I was stuffed.

October 24th: chicken divan, peekaboo muffins, cheesecake bars

Verdict:
Try Again: chicken, muffins, cheesecake

Sunday usually finds me cooking and baking up a storm, and Olivia likes to help out. Liam brought this Cooking With My Kid blog to my attention, and I saw a recipe I wanted to try out: Peekaboo Jam Muffins. Mini muffins with jam in the middle; what more could a kid want? Olivia's jobs, when baking, include dumping/pouring ingredients into bowls, sometimes stirring (can be disastrous!) and, her favourite, putting paper liners in the muffin pan.

I stuffed the muffins with three different types of jam/jelly, and the best kind was some raspberry jelly that Grandma gave me when we visited this past summer.

The jelly had the strongest flavour, which stood out the best in the completed muffins.

For supper tonight, I went real fancy and cooked up a Campbell's Soup recipe: Easy Chicken and Broccoli Divan. Shannon may recall cooking this for us last year when she lived with us temporarily (come back!). We had this with some tri-colour fusilli and salad. This is a pretty good recipe, but I would make one change: no need to cook the broccoli in advance; it just ends up mushy. I'm wondering if you could get away with not cooking the chicken in advance either. It's not clear to me why it needs to be done.

Finally, my treat for the week: from October 2010's Chatelaine: Pumpkin & chocolate cheesecake bars. I ate one of these tonight while they were still warmish, and I liked it. We'll see how they are tomorrow after firming up in the refrigerator. The candied ginger (love it!) in the crust is the most powerful flavour in these; if you're not a ginger fan, leave it out!

October 23rd: creamy mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and cinnamon-apple pork

Verdict:
Already keepers: potatoes & onions, pork

Saturday night's supper came from our keeper book and included two of our favourite recipes. The first one could convert potato-haters and/or onion-haters in your household: from October 2004's Chatelaine: Creamy mashed potatoes with caramelized onions. These are rich potatoes smothered in sweet rich onions. As you can see by the picture below, the potatoes are glaringly white, due to the abundance of cream cheese mixed in with them.

To accompany the yummy taters I made another keeper: from January 2003's Chatelaine: Cinnamon-apple pork medallions. Pork + apple juice + whipping cream = sweet rich goodness. Delicious. Olivia was most excited when she saw me opening the can of apple juice and received an affirmative answer to the question of whether she could have some to drink. Watered-down apple juice to drink with supper is a real treat in her world.

Feeling like we should have something simple to go along with all the richness, I dug around the fridge and found some old carrots to toss on the side.

October 22nd: Three-cheese pizza with sun dried tomatoes

Verdict:
Try Again: three cheese pizza

Friday night pizza! From October 2010's Chatelaine: Three-cheese pizza with sun dried tomatoes. The three cheeses in question were mozzarella, Parmesan and Provolone, which were a tasty combination.

I tried making the Chatelaine pizza dough again, this time subbing in one cup of whole wheat flour in place of the white, and it didn't rise properly. I think I need a lesson on the chemistry behind yeast and how it works. G is trying to convince me just making the pizza from scratch is healthier enough that I don't need to worry about all the white flour in our diet.

I mostly made the pizza recipe as per the original, but I threw some salami on top of mine, and pepperoni on Greg's. Also, upped the cheese. We've agreed the pizza sauce is good, but too thin and chunky. We're thinking, in future, purée it and really boil it down to thicken it up.

The sundried tomatoes were a yummy addition (though they burnt a bit) and it turns out O loves them too.

October 21st: FAVE chicken recipe: oven-roasted chicken

Tonight's blog features a long-time keeper from the annals of Kirsten's kitchen.

I'm getting a little tired of trying out recipes this month and I'm thinking for the next two months I will likely do a lot of recipes from my keeper book. I like to do this when I start to get stressed, like when I start to think about Christmas shopping, which is about now. To be clear, I start thinking about Christmas shopping round about now, though I won't actually start shopping for another six weeks or so. In the meantime, I'll get stressed, and need to bring simplicity into my life, like by cooking meals I know I love.

As a preview for that time, tonight I cooked one of my all-time fave recipes for chicken. I think this is not a particularly healthy recipe, which is likely why it tastes so darn good.  I found it on Epicurious years ago: Oven-Fried Chicken. Paired with home fries and more of the Napa-cabbage coleslaw we had Tuesday night, this is one yummy chicken meal. Greg didn't come home for supper tonight, and if I'd known in advance that was going to happen, I may just have eaten his serving too. Not that I would have needed it; it's just that good. Maybe if I'm lucky, he won't notice it in the fridge and I can eat his leftovers tomorrow. There. That's a sign for how good it is: I actually want the leftovers. Do you know how much I hate leftovers? 

WARNING: This picture does not do the recipe justice.

October 19th: healthy fish and chips + chocolate granola clusters

Verdict:
Try Again: granola
Toss: fish & chips and granola clusters

This is another one of those nights where Greg and I don't totally agree. Okay, we have a lot of those days and nights, and not necessarily as relates to food. Child-rearing, cable bills, work-life balance, oh, the debates we do have. But this is not the forum for that.

Supper tonight came from October 2010's Chatelaine's "Thinner Dinner" feature: Butternut-Squash fries, Thai Red-Curry Tilapia and Napa-Cabbage Coleslaw. I thought this meal had potential for improvement. The squash fries were surprisingly good--not as good as sweet potato fries, mind you--and a nice change of pace for us. I'm always looking to add in a vegetable or two we don't eat regularly. The fish was too spicy for us, but that could be tweaked, and I like tilapia; it holds up well to baking. Greg is a little anti-fish, not counting salmon, but on this topic he just has to suck it up, as fish is too tasty and healthy not to diversify. And finally, I loved the Asian flavours of the coleslaw. The napa cabbage is tender, so this is a coleslaw that can be eaten as soon as it is prepared, whereas when I make a green cabbage coleslaw, I find it tastes better after it has sat for a bit. Of course, my half of the coleslaw had the flavour-enhancing addition of cilantro, so Greg's problem with this is probably based on his missing out on a major flavour contributor. Cilantro tastes like soap, my a**. Sorry, Dad.

Chatelaine actually delivered on the timing on this one: I managed to prepare the meal in about half an hour, not counting the break I had to take to help out O with her potty use, but that's to be expected. In the end though, I will toss the recipe because (a) Greg didn't like it and (b) I didn't LOVE it, and that is the rule. One of us at least must love it.

On the weekend, I made granola from a recipe given me by my friend Carolyn. This is a good granola recipe and I want to share:

Maple Granola

5 cups (1.25 L) oats
1 cup (250 mL) unsweetened coconut
1 cup (250 mL) chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) pumpkin seeds*
1/2 cup (125 mL) vegetable oil
1/4 cup (50 mL) water
2/3 cup (150 mL) maple syrup**
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
3/4 cup (175 mL) dried cranberries
1 cup (250 mL) currants***

Combine the first five ingredients (oats through pumpkin seeds) in a large bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients (oil through vanilla) and pour over the oat mixture, stirring to incorporate.

Bake on a sheet pan at 250°F (120°C) for 35 minutes, stirring twice.

Remove from oven and let cool. Add cranberries and currants.

For longer shelf life, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

*I used pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), which is, I assume, what they mean. 
**This is why I didn't have enough maple syrup left to make the maple-bacon icing properly.
***I intended to use currants, but found the only ones I had expired in 2009, so I tossed them in the compost and used raisins instead.

I've been eating this granola with yogurt for breakfast at work this week. It's good.

Tonight, after supper, O and I whipped up a treat using the above granola: from October 2010's Today's Parent: No-Bake Chocolate Granola Clusters. I didn't like these though; they were really sugary, and not in an attractive-to-my-tongue manner. Gone with you, recipe!

O, sticking the almonds on the top, sampling and wondering, "when do I get to eat one?!"

October 18th: spicy Thai chicken soup

Verdict:
Try Again: Thai chicken soup

Tonight was one of those rare occurrences where I was making a recipe that wasn't looking too promising, so I followed my gut and changed the whole plan on the spot, with delicious results.

The plan had been to make Tasty Thai Soup, from October 2010's Chatelaine. The recipe was simple enough. In process, I opted to add some rice noodles because I thought the soup needed some oomph, and I went digging through the freezer looking for shrimp to toss in, but alas, I had none. At the same time, I was frying up a couple of chicken breasts and re-heating the coconut curry peanut sauce I made last month and froze. At first, suppper looked like this:

At this point, the soup was spicy but without much flavour, and not very good. Then I got smart, chopped up the chicken, stirred it into the soup, and added heaps of the coconut curry sauce. That sauce is some kind of magic, I am telling you. The soup transformed to a delicious, just-spicy-enough meal. I ate two bowls in quick succession, and Greg did the same when he got home. His vote may be biased though, as he was out for a run in the bloody cold weather (where did winter come from?), and this is exactly what one would want, post-run.

There is no after picture, as I was too busy eating.

October 17th: Chicken watchamacallit and cupcakes with bacon

Verdict:
Keep: Cheesy Chicken Watchamacallit
Try Again Toss: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Bacon Icing

Seriously: cupcakes with bacon icing. Have you heard of chocolate-covered bacon? I have not tried this, but how could it not be good? In PEI this summer, Greg and I had chocolate-covered potato chips, which I think are comparable. It's that incredible blend of salt + sweet, and in this case, sugar + meat. What's not to like? But, to dessert in a minute.

First, supper. Tonight I repeated a recipe I made two years ago, when O was just a babe. Ah, memories.... Focus, Kirsten, focus. From October 2008's Today's Parent: Cheesy Chicken Watchamacallit. Kind of a ridiculous name, but basically it is a simple chicken + cheese + mushrooms + noodles + a tiny bit of spinach casserole. And it's really good. The recipe makes two pans, one to freeze for later, but I'm not much of a freeze for later girl, so I halved it and made one, for supper and several lunches. Yummy stuff, and we'll keep the recipe.

Paired with a salad, supper was done.

Then, dessert! From October 2010's Chatelaine: Pumpkin cupcakes with maple & bacon icing. Blast it, but I didn't have enough maple syrup for the icing, as I had used it all up in some granola I made in the afternoon. More on that later this week. So my icing is really just bacon icing, which is not so bad. It's actually a little disconcerting to bring a cupcake to your mouth and inhale the scent of cooked meat cold. Sorry if I'm grossing some of you out; I know you don't all eat bacon. Casey, can I expect a random visit from you tomorrow? I think I like these cupcakes. I ate one late tonight and I'll see over the next couple of days whether or not I want to try the recipe again.

P.S. 24 hours and three cupcakes later, it occurs to me that cupcakes with MEAT on them should probably be refrigerated. Doh! Will not be keeping this recipe after all. Too much of a headache to try to find room in the fridge.

October 15th: Blue cheese and pear pizza

Verdict:
Toss: blue cheese and pear pizza

Since I started Friday night pizza night two weeks ago, I've been waiting for the question which finally came this week: When do we get to have pepperoni and cheese? Alas, my search for the perfect pizza recipe is not wholly appreciated by those who detest blue cheese. In my house, that is only Greg: O and I enjoy blue cheese, which I discovered has excellent melting properties. However, because I am an accommodating spouse, I made Greg's pizza with goat cheese instead of blue, however, goat cheese doesn't really melt, so he missed out.

The pizza I made came from October 2010's Chatelaine: Blue cheese pizza with pears and arugula. Olivia was hilarious as I prepared it: "What's this? I try some. What's this? I try some." And so she sampled blue cheese, goat cheese, arugula, pear, raw pizza dough, lemon juice, and mustard and lemon dipping sauce. She liked it all, except for the arugula. She ate up her piece of each pizza with gusto. In the end, even I found the blue cheese a bit too strong for my taste. It was nicely contrasted by the pear, and the strong lemon and mustard dipping sauce also muted the blue cheese a bit, but it was still a lot of intensity on my taste buds and so, into the recycling with you.

My intention this week was to make pizza dough from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry, but I hadn't noticed that the recipe calls for quick rise yeast, which I don't have, so in the end, I made the same pizza dough as last week, but added 3 tbsp ground flaxseed to the dry ingredients, as that was the biggest difference in the ESBM recipe. This was good. I shall continue to use this recipe in future.

October 14th: Chicken, corn & curry soup with homemade flatbread

Verdict:
Try Again: flatbread
Toss: soup

Somewhere in the vague recesses of my memory, I know I read a book in which there was a scene where a woman was making fresh soft tortillas on a hot dry griddle outside in a courtyard. This must have taken place in Mexico or South America. I've been scratching at my brain all evening trying to remember where to place this memory, but it remains inscrutable. Ever since reading that scene, I've hung on to that nugget of information that homemade tortillas are possible and possibly easy. That thought has been floating around the back and bottom of my head, under other more pressing information, for years I believe.

Tonight, I tried making tortillas for the first time. It was not a complete success, but there is definite potential. I'm going to try it again, and maybe make portobello fajitas to stuff into them. I made two recipes from October 2010's Today's Parent: Chicken and Baby Corn Curry Soup with Easy Flatbread. The chicken soup was good but neither G nor I were very excited by it. We felt bad for the recipe, as it didn't stand a chance when we were still full from our lunch at Town, a hot new restaurants in Ottawa and where we went as part of our movie-and-lunch-anniversary celebration. So, we'll toss the soup recipe. To go with the soup I made flatbreads, which are thinner than a Greek flatbread and more tortilla-like in consistency. Next time I intend to divide the dough up a bit more, really flatten it out and try to make thin tortillas with it.

October 13th: garlic + lemon + cilantro = yummy spinach and fish

Verdict:
Try Again: fish & squash recipes

I should work a two-day work week every week. Two productive days, sandwiched between two four-day weekends, makes for one happy Kirsten. Tonight, to celebrate: healthy, tasty foods from October 2010's Chatelaine: Seared trout and spinach salad with Sweet & spicy squash. Greg's on the fence about the fish and I'm on the fence about the squash, so I guess we'll keep both recipes and try them again. This is not how it's supposed to work. The criterion is simple: we both need to love the recipe in order to keep it. Sometimes we just can't agree though.

The fish recipe called for salmon but I subbed in trout. The dressing for the salad called for one clove garlic, but I upped it to four. Who doesn't love more garlic? There was enough garlic and lemon to mute the flavour of the cilantro, which Greg loathes, so everyone was happy to eat it. Olivia sampled fresh cilantro and parsley as I was herb-chopping, but she didn't dig them overly much. She did eat up her meal though, then cake, then a pickle, then cheese, then milk. Her appetite goes on and on.

The squash I was working with was not of the best quality, so it wasn't as easy to judge the squash recipe. That's part of the reason I want to try it again: the curry topping was good and I want to give it more of a fair shot.

October 12th: Chicken involtini and Brussels-sprout crumble

Verdict:
Try Again: Chicken involtini
Toss: Brussels-sprout crumble

Tuesday. Back to work after the long weekend. I skipped out of work early for an appointment and was home by 4:00 p.m. Starting supper earlier in the evening is much less stressful. Tonight's meal came from October 2010's Chatelaine: Chicken Involtini with Smoked Cheese and Brussels-Sprout Crumble.

According to Wikipedia: "Involtini are thin slices of beef (or pork, or chicken) rolled with a filling of Parmesan cheese, eggs to to give consistency and whatever additional ingredients (other cheeses, ham, bread crumbs, mushrooms, onions, sausage, etc.) are available. Involtini (diminutive form of involti) means "little bundles". Each involtino [sic] is held together by a wooden toothpick, and the dish is usually served (in various sauces: red, white, etc.) as a second course. When cooked in tomato sauce, the sauce itself is used to toss the pasta for the first course, giving a consistent taste to the whole meal."

As per that definition, we did not really have involtini for supper, although we did have little bundles of chicken with applewood smoked Cheddar and green onions. The chicken was ever so tasty, and the peppers roasted alongside the chicken were yummy too. The Brussels-sprout crumble we had as a side dish was good, but not good enough to try again, and no where near as good as the Brussels sprouts on Saturday night.

October 11th: Beef Stroganoff

Verdict:
Try Again: Beef Stroganoff

This is a re-try from last year, from a Philedelphia cream cheese ad: Creamy Philly Beef Stroganoff. It is really good, and G&O voted for it to go in the keeper book. I wasn't entirely convinced, but decided it was because it is a pasta recipe; maybe with potatoes I would like it more. So I will try it again, maybe next year, and we will see then!

October 9th: (mostly) vegetarian Thanksgiving feast

Verdict:
Keepers: sweet potato mash and Brussels sprouts in cream sauce

Thanksgiving weekend calls for rich, homey comfort foods. The challenge: how to cook such a meal without including meat. Why, you ask? Why not! I've been looking forward since last year to re-trying two recipes from October 2009's Chatelaine: Sweet potato mash with crunchy pecan topping and Brussels sprouts in Parmesan cream. These two recipes combined are rich enough, and work enough, that no fancy meat is required for this meal. Accompanied by roasted beets, fried zucchini and boiled yellow beans, we had a fall harvest meal in the making!

We spent our Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend in the usual way: hike in Gatineau Park, ice cream at La Cigale and a rich feast to finish the day!

The Brussels sprouts recipe is not actually vegetarian, but could be altered to be so easily. The sweet potatoes taste like sweet potato pie minus the crust. The whole ensemble was so delicous I ate till I thought I would burst; I just could not stop! My only mistake was with the beans: I cooked them to a perfect tender-crisp state, drained them and set them back on the hot burner, which I forgot to turn off. By the time I realized my error, they were burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pot. We ate a few off the top and tossed the remainder. But really, what would Thanksgiving be without a mistake or two?

October 8th: potato pizza take 1

Verdict:
Toss: potato, carmelized onion, etc. pizza

Friday night family pizza night! Tonight I made pizza dough from Crazy Plates, which won out over the Chatelaine pizza dough I cooked last week. This is in large part due to the Crazy Plates dough giving the impression of being healthier. The pizza proper was from October 2010's Chatelaine: Potato pizza with carmelized onions and rosemary. I had some serious doubts about potatoes on pizza, but forged ahead. This recipe is hitting the toss pile, but not because of the potatoes, which were pretty tasty. The carmelized onions didn't really carmelize, which I attribute to not enough sugar in the pan; when I've made carmelized onions in the past, they've called for 8 times the amount of sugar in the sugar:onion ratio than this recipe calls for. Other than that, the pizza was just on the boring side. I ended up scraping the topping off the leftover pizza, and throwing it into an omelet on Sunday morning; that was quite tasty.

I have another potato-topped pizza recipe from Epicurious I plan to try on an as-yet-undefined  future family pizza night.

Here's the Crazy Plates pizza dough recipe:

No Business Like Dough Business

1 pkg active dry yeast (or 2-1/4 tsp)
1 cup warm water (105° to 115°)
1 tbsp honey
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp cornmeal (optional)

Pour yeast into a large bowl. Combine warm water and honey. Pour over yeast. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until mixture is foamy. Meanwhile, combine all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Set aside.

Add 1-1/2 tbsp olive oil and salt to yeast mixture. Mix well. Add 1 cup flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until smooth. Add a second cup of flour mixture and continue to stir until dough forms a soft and sticky mass and comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Flour the work surface and your hands with some of the remaining flour mixture. Turn dough out of bowl onto floured surface and knead in more flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Don't worry if you don't use up all of the flour. Shape dough into a ball. Pour 1 tsp olive oil into a large bowl. Add dough and roll it around so the whole surface gets lightly oiled. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes, until double in size.

Lightly oil two 12-inch pizza pans and sprinkle lightly with cornmeal, if using. Punch down dough and return to work surface. Divide dough into 2 balls. Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball to a 12-inch circle. Place dough on pizza pan. Brush lightly with oil. Add your favourite toppings and bake at 450° for 13 to 14 minutes.

October 7th: butternut squash soup cook-off

Verdict: can't give it away! Read below...

October 2010's Today's Parent had a recipe for Butternut Squash soup that sounded like an appropriately warm and fall-like food. At the same time, I had been given a butternut squash soup recipe by my friend Janice. What's a girl to do? Clearly, slice the butternut squash in half, halve the two recipes, and have a cook-off! The magazine's recipe sounded like it would be more flavourful, with a variety of herbs thrown in. Janice's sounded almost too simple, with only an optional red apple to take the flavour up a notch, should one so desire.

So, what was the verdict? Drum roll please ... Janice's soup wins, hands down, with a vote of 3-0. G, O and I all loved Janice's soup, and we ended up pouring the leftover TP soup down the drain. Lesson learned: always trust your friends over the media!

Here's the winning soup recipe:

Butternut squash soup

1 small butternut squash, about 2 lbs (1kg), peeled, seeds removed, chopped
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp (1 mL) nutmeg
6 cups (1.5 L) chicken stock
1 red apple, peeled, cored, chopped
salt to taste

Prepare squash. In a large pot, melt butter. Add onion and nutmeg and cook 5-8 min. Add squash and stock. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes. With 10 minutes remaining on the timer, add chopped apple. Remove squash and apple pieces and purée in a blender in batches. Return to pot, warm if necessary, and add salt to taste.

Makes 6-8 servings.

TP soup: top and left; Janice's soup: right and bottom

October 6th: Faux fried chicken & a host of veggies

Verdict:
Keeper: Faux fried chicken
Try Again: Cinnamon sweetie fries

Tonight was a re-try from October 2009's Chatelaine: Faux fried chicken. Very good, and good enough to keep. The recipe suggested serving this with roasted tomatoes, and I had leftover grape tomatoes from Margherita pizza night, so I tossed these on the side of the pan with the chicken. October 2010's Today's Parent had a simple recipe for Cinnamon Sweetie Fries. (Note: the link is not the recipe I made, which is not online. It is exactly the same, but add in 2 tsps ground cinnamon.) We make sweet potato fries regularly, but usually with savoury spices or herbs, like a Cajun mix, or a salt and thyme combo. Tonight's recipe called for tossing the fries with cinnamon and baking, then salting to taste. These were good, but I like the savoury variety better. Surprise, surprise, Greg thought these were the best sweet potato fries he'd ever had. His review came after a run in the rain though, which I think might increase the likelihood that all food tastes good. One thing I did differently tonight was leave the skins on the sweet potatoes when I made the fries. I will continue to do this in future. Oh! I almost forgot; we also had delish yellow beans on the side, from the local farm, and they would have been more delish if I hadn't got caught up in cleaning the play room and over cooked them. Oops.

October 5th: Spaghetti bolognese

Verdict:
Toss: spaghetti bolognese

Because I just love pasta and questionable meat so much, I cooked it for two days in a row! Last night's chicken meatball miso soup noodles was not a winner, and tonight's recipe is getting tossed too. BUT. Tonight's meal was a re-try from last year; from October 2009's Chatelaine: Spaghetti bolognese. Last year I jotted, "V. Good" on the recipe, and this year I think I would say the same, but it is just not quite good enough to keep. Greg and Olivia may differ in opinion on this from me. It's on the spicy side as far as flavour goes, but without a lot of depth; no onions and garlic, and what is cooking with no onions and garlic? Especially where pasta is involved? Fairly easy in preparation, though you can't trust Chatelaine when they say things like, "Cook the meat for 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, chop veggies." Trust me: chop the veggies before embarking on meat-cooking. Oh, and the recipe says it makes four servings. You can easily feed more than four people with this recipe. Do we need to eat 1/4 lb of pasta each?

Oh dear, I sound quite negative. That's likely just because I am writing this when I should be sleeping and my alarm is set to go off in 5 hours. But no worries, I slept in Olivia's bed for 2 hours earlier tonight! Hopefully tomorrow night's meal is more pleasing to my palate: chicken and sweet potatoes!

October 4th: miso chicken soup and sugar cookies

Verdict:
Keeper: sugar cookies
Toss: soup


From October 2010's Chatelaine: Chicken miso noodle soup. I can't give a real review of this recipe, as I replaced the chicken with beef and the udon noodles with spaghetti. All I know is I used 1 1/2 times the amount of water called for and it was still like eating spaghetti and meatballs rather than a soup. Seeing as I don't like pasta or ground beef overly, it is no surprise I'm opting to toss it. O&G liked it; again, no surprise there!

Last night after O went to bed, I whipped up some sugar cookie dough and popped it into the fridge. Tonight after bedtime I pulled it out and whipped up cookies with one half of the dough and threw the other half into the freezer for another time. Half the baked cookies went into the freezer too, but who am I kidding, those won't stay in there for long! These sugar cookies are simple to make and if I kept a better eye on them in the oven and got them off the hot pan immediately, I probably wouldn't have as many burnt cookies. Even the burnt ones are good though. As per usual, I forgot to read my comments I jotted on the recipe the last time I made them, to try the spiced alternative they list at the end. I'll just have to make them again some time! From November 2005's Chatelaine: Christmas sugar cookie cut-outs.

October 3rd: French Onion Soup

Verdict:
Keeper: French Onion Soup

From October 2009's Chatelaine: Fabulous French onion soup. It really is fabu too. I made the mistake of making this in the past with sweet onions, which were not good. This time around I used one white and one red and those were good choices. I don't seem to have wine on hand for cooking much, so I just used more beef broth in place of the wine, which likely doesn't give it as much depth, but ah well. This is a good soup, and although it takes a bit of time for cooking, is relatively simple in its preparation.

October 2nd: Margherita Pizza

Verdict:
Try Again: Margherita Pizza

Did you know Margherita is Italian for daisy? The things Wikipedia teaches me!

For the month of October, and maybe beyond, I am planning a once-a-week family pizza night. This is a super challenge for me, because Greg and Olivia love pizza and I don't. My goal is simple: make pizza that we all love. Homemade crust, sauce and toppings are all part of the deal. First up on the menu: from October 2010's Chatelaine: pizza dough + pizza sauce = Margherita pizza on Saturday night. Greg was working so it was up to me and O to get the crust made, let it rise twice, simmer up some pizza sauce, chop toppings and then put the whole deal together. Relatively easy, in fact, but we did miss Saturday afternoon swimming at the pool because I didn't want to leave my rising dough unattended. Should have made up for that on Sunday but we went to the gym instead. Alas. Here is the work in progress:

Plus the sauce:

The pre-and post-cooked pizzas:

And the finished result:

So, what did we think? Essentially, this is a review of three recipes. The pizza dough I made exactly as the recipe directed. It turned out beautifully, and cooked up thin and crispy, just as I like dough. When Greg ate his pizza later in the night, he didn't realize I had made the dough and thought I had bought a pre-made crust. Needless to say, I was not impressed! I think he liked the crust, but he prefers a thicker crust than I do, so I'm not sure...

The pizza sauce I made as directed, but upped the amount of garlic. The only thing I would change is using 3/4 cup sauce on the pizzas rather than 1/2 cup; the crust was a little dry with the lesser amount. The pizza sauce was delicious and fresh-tasting. I could have eaten it out of the pot, and did, a little bit. I should note I don't like tomatoes, so that is high praise from me. Also note that the link for the pizza sauce above forgets to list fresh basil in the ingredients, but does call for it in the directions.

The pizza is called "modern" Margherita. "Modern," I think, because it replaces basil with mint, and Bocconcini with goat cheese. I used basil, not mint, but did use goat cheese, as I already had some open in the fridge I wanted to use up. Again, when Greg ate his, he didn't realize it was goat cheese and thought he was eating bland Bocconcini. !!?? I think his taste buds were off their game. I loved this pizza. I thought it tasted simple, fresh and all-around good. Definitely, I would make it again. Olivia ate hers, slowly, but in its entirety. Greg liked it, I think.