Zen Forest

The Recital

Watching my daughter on stage for the first time - it was a moment, let me tell you.

 I couldn't be prouder of my little dancer.

She inherited her momma's love of the stage. That's my girl.

This Moment

From Soule Mama:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Our version:

What We Ate Wednesday

Last fall, we had some friends over for a traditional German meal.  Since the husband was cooking the main meal, he left it up to me and the kiddos to produce a dessert.  After digging around in our cupboards, this is what we came up with, using what was on hand.  Much of the prep was done by Stella, and so this has become 'her' dessert. It's inspired by the traditional German love of stewed fruit and 'crisped' desserts, but is definitely our own original recipe.

Stella's Apple and Cranberry Crisp

Ingredients

5-6 baking apples, peeled and sliced into bite sized pieces (we used Northern Spy apples, as we had recently bought a bushel of them at the farm stand)
1/2-3/4 cup of fruit jam (we used cranberry raspberry, as we had a bunch my mom made on hand and it complimented the crumble nicely, but you could use whatever you prefer)
2-3 tbs butter

For crisp:
1/2 - 3/4 cup of butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of oats
1/2-1 cup of brown sugar (depends on how much jam you used, and how sweet you like your desserts)
1/2 cup of dried cranberries
1/2 cup total of mixture of crushed walnuts and almonds

Directions

Place apples in large baking pan or pie plate. Melt jam and 2-3 tbsp of butter together until melted and liquidy. Pour over apples, coating well.

In a separate bowl, mix all ingredients for crisp together, and pour on top of apple mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes, or until apples are tender and crisp is crunchy. Allow to cool for at least an hour before serving.

 

And, in the true spirit if 'what we ate', I give you the best breakfast that has ever been:

Whole wheat pita with Crofter's Super Fruit, and an apple with almond butter.  Throw in some licorice root tea, and you've got one happy Manda! :)

Traditional Tuesdays

This morning I came across this blog hop and wanted to contribute.  Since most everything we make can be considered 'traditional', I wanted to find something really special.  As I combed back through my recipes, I kept coming back to this one. 

Vegetarian Borscht

I wrote this recipe while I was pregnant with my third child, and when I'm pregnant I'm always looking for ways to increase my good-vitamins-and-minerals consumption. As a homebirther, it's especially important to keep my hemoglobin levels up, and beets are a fantastic source of easily digested iron (and the greens are super rich in folate, something very important in early pregnancy!)

Along with the super-nutrition of beets, borscht is something that brings back memories of my university days. It's a cheap and delicious meal loaded with great things for you, and so appeared often on the meal rotation. Back then, I used to use bacon as a flavoring, but I honestly don't miss it at all in this version.

The veggies I used for this dinner all came from a local Mennonite farm and man there really is nothing like fresh produce! If you can find a local farmer willing to part with some of their crop it really is worth it.  Maybe you'll get a special deal if you offer to trade some of this finished product! ;)

Ingredients:

1/2 of a large onion (or one small), coarsely chopped
1 small carrot, coarsely chopped
1 rib of celery, coarsely chopped
8 small beets, or 4 large beets, cubed
2 medium potatoes, skin on, cubed
900ml of vegetable broth
1/2 head of red cabbage, finely chopped (like for coleslaw)
water to top up (about equal to 500ml)

Directions:

Heat a large soup pot on medium heat. Add a splash of olive oil, and saute onions until translucent. Add carrot and celery and saute until starting to become tender, about 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth, beets and potatoes, and bring to a boil. Boil until beets and potatoes are starting to tenderize (about 10 minutes), and add cabbage and continue to boil until beets and potatoes are cooked through (probably another 10-15 minutes, depending on size of your cubes). Make sure to add water to top it up, as some of the liquid gets boiled away.

Blend the soup with food processor or blender until smooth and no lumps remain.

Just before serving, add 1/2 tbsp of fresh dill, finely chopped, and stir well.

Ladle into bowls and top each with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and another pinch of fresh dill (do not leave out the dill - it's important!)

I served ours warm, with roasted broccoli & cauliflower, and the greens from the beets steamed with salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil, although 'traditionally' borscht is served cold.

Enjoy!

New Home

We put an offer on a house.  One of the reasons I hope to get it? This.

This Moment

From Soule Mama:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Our version:

Black-Out Mushrooms

 
We normally do 'unplugged Sunday', but this Tuesday our city experienced an unexpected power outage.  At about 2pm, all the power across the city went out - and STAYED out - until nearly 10pm.  This meant that the portabello mushroom caps we had been prepping for the broiler now had to be grilled on the bbq.  As a simple, no fuss side dish, I prepped a quick lentil and spinach salad, along with some hummus we already had ready in the fridge and some pitta warmed through on the grill.  It was an amazingly satisfying power-free meal that looked super impressive without really being a lot of work.

Try these the next time you have company over - I guarantee they'll think you did a lot more than you did to make these!

Mediterranean Stuffed Mushrooms 

The following should be enough for 8 large portabellos (should feed 2 or 3 people as a main), but it's easily doubled or tripled for larger crowds.

 For stuffing:

2 good handfuls of spinach

1 can of artichoke hearts, chopped

1 tbsp of chopped sundried tomatoes

1 green onion

sprinkling of fresh oregano, very finely chopped

For non-vegans, Mark says that adding goat cheese to the stuffing mix is also delicious.  I decided to forgo this, and it was still mighty delicious.

 Directions:

De-stem mushrooms and broil them, cap-side up for 5 mins.  Combine all ingredients in stuffing mixture and mound into broiled mushroom caps.  Put them back under the broiler or grill on bbq until stuffing mixture is well heated and spinach begins to wilt (or cheese is melted, if you've chosen this route). 

Voila! Super impressive and tasty, and so little effort!

This moment

From Soule Mama:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Our version:

Veg Recipes from the Husband

As I mentioned, the husband has taken up the veggie cause.  Since he's a chef, he can't just eat 'simply'... which means there's a whole lot more 'gourmet' veg food around here than I'm usually bothered to make.  Every night this week has been a celebration of wonderful, colourful, tasty, healthy food.  In honour of this revelation, I stole this recipe from my wonderful man.  I'm sure he won't mind. :) Enjoy!

Toasted Hazelnut Burgers with Tomato Relish and Balsamic Pickled Red Onions

For the burgers:

80 grams hazelnuts, toasted and ground
2 medium carrots, finely grated
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 green onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 tsp fresh sage, minced
1 tsp fresh parsley, minced
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 - 3 tbsp bread crumbs
1 tbsp light sour cream
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a large bowl until uniform. Form into patties on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for as long as it takes to make the pickled onions and relish (below).

For the Balsamic Pickled Red Onions:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp agave nectar (or sugar)
1 tbsp salt
11 caraway seeds
2 - red onions, sliced thinly into rings (1 - 2 mm)

Place onions in a heat-proof glass (important) containre. Bring remaining ingredients to a boil, then let simmer for 3 minutes. Pour over onions. Bring container down to room temperature in a cold water/ice bath, then refrigerate.

For the Tomato Relish:

1 plum tomato, quartered and seeded
6 cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
2" of cucumber, chopped
1 handful baby spinach
1 tsp honey Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it looks like salsa. Let sit, covered, at room temperature. Easy.

Cook the burgers in a preheated 350° F oven for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. Assemble on toasted hamburger buns or pitas.

 

Vegging

The husband has decided to eliminate meat from his diet, making us officially a veggie family.  Time to break out the cookbooks to get inspiration for some new and different veg dishes.

Even the kids are loving the beautiful flavours that daddy's been turning out lately!