December 21st-23rd: the best of Christmas week cooking

If you can imagine, Christmas week has been on the hectic side, and there's been little time for cooking, let alone posting. Rather, there has been night after night of staying up til midnight prepping: painting, cooking (for later) and a bit of wrapping. With the culmination of the preparations over (AKA Christmas Eve eve party), I can now sit back and relax. Or cook some more, which is more likely.


As a retrospective, I'll just touch on some yummies this week:


Lemon Chicken Stew
From In Erika's Kitchen. I made this on Monday night and we ate it on Tuesday night. This is a simple chicken thigh-based stew and it's a slow cook (2 hours on the stove-top), but the meat falls apart with a fork when it is done. Lovely. It's really strong in lemon flavour, a bit more than I would like (and I love lemon!). I didn't add figs though (pure laziness, and note the above busy-ness of the week) and I didn't have as much meat as the recipe called for; those two items may have cut the sourness. The stew also has olives, which are soft and slip right off the pits. Have I mentioned my child's love for olives? She digs strong flavours. Greg gave her all of his.

Candied Pecans
From Cooking With My Kid. I made this for our Christmas Eve eve party, and received several compliments on them. These are really easy, just a slow cook again (1 hour). I didn't know what baker's sugar is, nor could I find it in the grocery store, so I used half icing sugar and half granulated. Worked out just fine.

Granola
From December 2010's Chatelaine. Pecan-Cranberry Granola. I also made this for our Christmas Eve eve party but had some with yogurt for breakfast for a few days in advance of the party. I don't think many people tried it but that's okay because I loved it and will eat it up myself.

People also loved the prosciutto-wrapped dates and Parmesan.

Top row L-R: salami + olives; salami + tomatoes
Middle row: prosciutto + dates + Parmesan
Bottom row: prosciutto + dates + Parmesan; salami + olives

This is not even close to the amount of food I've cooked this week, but why inundate you when I can highlight the best?


Merry Christmas to all. :)

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?!"