September 2nd: Packet-baked mushrooms with thyme & Summer vegetable hash

Breakfast for supper!


I took a wee gander back in time to see if I had blogged about this recipe in the past and yes! I have. Not sure if I’ve made it in the intervening years but was ready to give it a go again. Sadie has become a mushroom lover, while Olivia, sadly, has turned away from the joy that is mushrooms. Perhaps she’ll work her way back. I do recall, as a child, I enjoyed canned mushrooms only. Disgusting.


Although my notes of years ago said not to bother eating this recipe with toast, (a) I decided to make this a full-on breakfast for supper meal (with no meat), and (b) Greg has been on a bread-making kick recently so I wanted to take advantage of his latest cheese bread. Good choice! Toasted cheese bread is a delicious accompaniment to this meal. I did take my years-ago advice and added pepper to the goat cheese coating. Good choice.


To round out the meal, I made eggs (over-hard [oops] for me & G, scrambled for Olivia, her favourite, presuming they are served with ketchup) and a vegetable hash. Sadie is my non-egg-eating child. I have tried every form of egg under the sun, with no luck. Even French toast, if it is at all eggy, will be turned away. She’ll eat most other things though, so I let her get away with this. No eggs for Sadie, no mushrooms for Olivia. When did my one-bite rule fall apart?!

I would make and eat both these recipes again tomorrow.


From September 2010's Chatelaine: Packet-baked mushrooms with thyme


3 228-g pkgs button or cremini mushrooms
130-g log soft goat cheese
4 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 tsp melted butter
8 slices country bread (or homemade cheese bread, should you have some handy)


Position rack in centre of oven. Preheat to 450F. Cut out 4 14-in. squares of parchment. Fold each square in half diagonally then open up and lay flat.


Slice mushrooms in half and divide among parchment squares. Fold each into a triangular-shaped packet. Fold and crimp edges and twist ends to seal. Place packets on baking sheet.

Bake until packets puff up, about 20 to 25 min.


Roll goat cheese in thyme and pepper to coat. Slice into 4 rounds. When mushrooms are done, snip open tops of packets. Drizzle mushrooms with butter and top with cheese. Serve with toast.


From August 2015's Chatelaine: Summer vegetable hash

Cook 1/2 red onion, finely chopped, in 2 tbsp butter in a large pan over medium until soft, 3 minutes. Add 1 finely diced zucchini and cook until tender, 3 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups corn kernels and continue cooking until warmed through, 1 minute more. Stir in 1/4 cup finely chopped basil.

February 27th: corn chowder

I've had this recipe kicking around for years. It is the perfect post-swimming lessons, cold Monday night supper.


Corn Chowder


6 cups cubed potatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp marjoram or thyme
3 cups water


 1 tbsp each olive oil and unsalted butter.
1 onion, chopped
4 slices bacon, diced, optional


1 can whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
1 can evaporated milk


Salt, freshly ground black pepper, curry powder and sour cream, for serving


Combine potatoes, salt, marjoram and water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until potatoes are just tender.


Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat oil and butter over medium. When bubbling, add onion and bacon and cook until is just softened and bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes.


Add onion mixture to potatoes, along with both cans of corn and evaporated milk. Heat through and serve, topped with salt, pepper, curry powder and sour cream, if desired.


Makes 4-6 servings.

August 15th: sausage and corn salad

Second time around, and we decided not to keep it, but it's not bad and a different way to eat sausage: from August 2010's Chatelaine: sausage and corn salad.

August 3rd: BBQ corn on the cob

Here is the trick to barbecuing corn on the cob: pre-soak the cobs in water. Also, my recommendation: pull off the husks. Looks cool with them on, but who wants to eat crispy husk bites? The corn takes about 10 minutes on the barbecue; turn a few times.

March 3rd: Corn and Black Bean Salad

I already have an amazing corn and black bean salad recipe, courtesy of Kelly, courtesy of her fitness instructor, courtesy of Women’s Health magazine. Here's my version:


Black Bean Salad
3 cups frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato vinaigrette
1 can (19 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 oz mozzarella, diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
2 avocados, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add corn and pan-roast, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.


In a large bowl, combine corn with remaining ingredients and toss together. Chill until ready to serve.


Makes 4-8 servings 


However, that salad makes a big bowl (perfect for a potluck). This week, I wanted a simple corn and black bean salad that I could take for lunch, and save myself the $5 I spend on corn and black bean salad at Green Rebel. Every time I eat one, I think, this can’t be that hard to make. It’s not, but it is a little time intensive; however, it's not too bad if you spread it over a couple of days, as I did. The genesis of the recipe came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, but I altered it slightly.

I started Tuesday night with 1 cup dried black beans. Boiled in an open pot for 2 minutes, covered and left to sit off heat for 2 hours, salted and then gentled simmered, partially covered until done, checking for doneness every 15 minutes (it took 30-45 in total). Once done, I measured out 1 ½ cups cooked beans for this recipe, then refrigerated the rest, in its own soaking water, for another purpose, yet to be determined. From there, on Wednesday night I made the salad:

Corn and Black Bean Salad

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

2 cups frozen corn, thawed (I left them sitting on the counter top for a couple of hours while I made supper, ate, and put O to bed)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1-4 garlic cloves, to taste, chopped

1 ½ cups cooked and cooled black beans

1 tomato, chopped (optional)

1-4 tsps minced jalapeno, to taste

2 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup finely chopped cilantro

1 avocado, diced

Heat oil in a large skillet over med-hi heat. Pan fry the corn, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, until it starts to get charred and crunchy to taste, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and stir for 1 more minute. Remove all to a large bowl.

To the bowl, add the beans, tomato, jalapeno and lime juice. Mix all and adjust seasoning to taste. I found I wanted more lime juice, 1 tbsp of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Gently stir in cilantro and, if serving immediately, avocado. Serve warm or at room temperature. If you do refrigerate it, try to allow time for it to come back to room temperature before eating.

Serves 1-4, depending on what else you might have on the go.

On Thursday, when I ate the salad for lunch, I diced up the avocado and stirred it in at the last minute. So yes, I ate this whole thing in one sitting, which I didn’t think would happen, but it was pretty good.

For future versions, I am thinking of adding diced sweet pepper and red or green onion. Of course, the more I add, the less likely I am to be able to eat it all in one go. Hm.

And, so sorry, but I didn't even think to take a picture. How about a picture of my beautiful kid playing with dried beans instead? These are old ones, from about a year ago:

March 2nd: Parmesan creamed spinach and corn, garlic butter roasted mushrooms

Liam got me onto yet another food blog: smitten kitchen. From this one, tonight I tried out garlic butter roasted mushrooms, which are just mushrooms baked with lots of garlic (I used more than called for!) and lots of butter and oil (I skipped the capers). Yum. Though, not quite as yummy as I had hoped; given the description on the website, my expectations were high and it didn't quite meet them. Still, yum.


Greg has become the bread-maker in the house of late, and all of his breads have turned out beautifully until today, when he had a failure on his hands. Too bad, because that buttery, garlicky oil would have made for good bread sopping.


Besides all the oil, we had cream too: from January 2011's Chatelaine: Parmesan creamed spinach and corn. Tasted a little bit of the frozen spinach, which of course is just not as good as fresh, but the overall effect wasn't too bad.

February 21st: Mexican chili soup

This is a bean and corn soup that tastes like a mild chili. It's even better than chili because it's not full of ground meat. We love this soup. All three of us. Also good for sicklings in this house this week. From February 1997's Today's Parent: Mexican Blizzard Soup. Soup's up!

Frying onions and spices.

Corn and beans waiting their turn to enter the pot.

SOUP!