Sometimes, all the i’s are dotted, the t’s are crossed and the stars aligned just right so that fresh pea pods, corn on the cob and little grape tomatoes make an appearance at the market all on the same day! Usually peas are all done by the time corn arrives and sometimes those little tomatoes don’t appear until mid-August, but last week all was right with my world and peas, corn and tomatoes collided in my shopping bag.As soon as I got home I set to creating this perfect celebration of summer pasta dish. I decided to make it with Orecchiette. Orecchiette, originating in Puglia, are type of pasta shaped roughly like small ears, hence the name (orecchio, ear,orecchiette, little ears). They’re about 3/4 of an inch across, slightly domed, and their centers are thinner than their rims, a characteristic that gives them an interestingly variable texture, soft in the middle and somewhat more chewy outside. The little cup shape is perfect for cradling the peas and corn!Is it just me, or do they remind anyone else of little unrolled condoms. I guess neither reference, ears or condoms, is particularly appetizing, but trust me, this pasta is yummy.I decided to spice up some ground turkey with ground fennel seed, red pepper flakes and salt and added it to the dish for some zip.
This is a tale about celebrating gratitude and narrow escapes. Last week we had a little girl-time at my cottage. My friends Lynnie and Paula came for a visit. Monday and Tuesday were stinking hot and sunny. We all found our happy place, me on the hammock under a shady tree and they on the dock in the sun. With occasional dips in the lake to cool off we managed to pass two days without doing much of anything, just reading, talking and laughing.
I had checked the weather network before they came and saw rain in the forecast for Wednesday, so I suggested they bring their passports and we take a road trip to Syracuse. The last time I was in Syracuse was over 8 years ago when my daughter, her friend and I shopped at the Carousel Mall. Well times have changed and the Carousel Mall is no more. It has been renovated, expanded and rebranded as “Destiny USA.” Apparently it is now the 6th largest mall in the USA! Wikipedia tracks data this type of data, (of course they do!)
There is something about a road trip with your girlfriends that just makes you giddy and excited. I sort of envisioned us as Thelma and Louise (plus 1), but just a few years older and needing a few more bathroom stops along the way. We woke up early and were on the road by 8:00 am. With a stop in Watertown for fuel for both the car and us (caffeine!), we made it to Destiny USA by 11:15 a.m.
At over 2.4 million square feet, this is a behemoth of a mall. We covered it from one end to the other, leaving no stones unturned, no shoes untried, and no dressing rooms curtains unpulled. Our best bargains were found at Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th (outlet store), where everything was 40% off the already reduced prices and we were able to get an additional 10% off by becoming a “Friend of Saks.” Which basically means that Saks e-mails me everyday now! The BCBG Max Azria store was another favourite where everything on sale was an additional 50% off! I mean it was plain stupid not to buy. And so buy we did.
At Loft we all bought the same dress, which we have dubbed our “be-bop” dress, after a woman in the change room told us that the dress she was trying on was just perfect for “be-boping” around. We assumed that meant going to the grocery store and running errands, but maybe she meant something else!
Lord and Taylor had an amazing shoe department and we all found something on sale! We had lunch at Panera Bread and finally stopped at 7:00 pm for a great Mexican Dinner at Cantina Laredo. After a stop at the border to fill the coffers of the Canadian Government, we made it back to the cottage by 10:15, tired but happy.
When we got out of the car, it looked like a tree had thrown up all it’s bark over the entire driveway and lawn. Upon further investigation, we discovered that lightning had struck a huge oak tree, just beside the cottage. When we went inside we discovered that the phone lines were out, the internet was down, the satellite for the T.V. was not functioning, the fridge was not cooling, the fans were not turning and my computer would not turn on. Perhaps Thor, the God of Thunder, was sending me a message: “You’re at the cottage, unplug for goodness sake!”
I have since learned that lightning (an electrical current) passes from the trunk of the tree through the roots and dissipates in the ground. In the ground, buried right next to the tree were wires for all our communication services! Slowly the cleanup and repairs began and finally this week things are getting back to normal. Sadly we will have to have tree taken down. I think it is over 150 years old.
Despite the damage and minor inconveniences, we were really very lucky. The tree could have fallen on the cottage, the lightening could have started a fire and we could have been here during all of that destruction, so I am quite grateful that we were spared any catastrophe.
So to celebrate our good fortune, I decided to bake a Banana Coconut Cake. I had seen this cake in the LCBO magazine “Food and Drink”, and was enamoured with it’s petite size. They said it would serve 2, but it could easily serve 4.
The cake is mixed up and spread into an 8 inch square cake pan. The batter just barely covers the bottom of the cake pan and you may have some doubts at this point. Just proceed, it will all work out.Make the icing while the cake is cooling. In addition to butter and icing sugar, coconut milk gets added to this buttercream. You just skim the thick part off the top of the can, and leave the liquid behind. A third of the frosting gets some toasted coconut folded into it and the remaining icing gets tinted. I made mine green, in honour of our beloved oak tree.
The cake gets cut into 4 equal squares and then the toasted coconut icing is sandwiched between the layers. I made a little cardboard square, wrapped in foil to set the layers on so that it would be easy to move it to a cake plate later.I used a star tip and just piped straight lines to cover the cake.A sweet little cake to celebrate your good fortune. Moist banana cake, layered with toasted coconut buttercream and covered with a luscious coconut milk frosting. All is right with the world. Sadly the candle kept blowing out because we are on tornado watch today!
People lament, all the time, “Oh, I’m in such a rut”. Their gloomy tone implies that it’s a bad thing. But really, if you think about it carefully, being in a routine is not necessarily an unfavourable state.
Take me, for example. Every day, for the past two years I have eaten the exact same lunch of hummus (I am especially fond of the Fontaine Santé brand!), carrots and celery. Sometimes I throw caution to the wind and add some sugar snap peas and cucumbers, and when I’m really feeling wild, I might add a hard boiled egg, but pretty much it’s hummus, carrots and celery every day.
What I have come to realize is that by having my brain on auto-pilot at lunchtime, and not having to think about what to make for lunch, it frees up valuable space in my brain to contemplate other weighty matters. Such as, what to have for dinner or whether or not a two state solution is a viable option for peace in the Middle East. Recently most of my grey matter has been been heavily pre-occupied with how to annihilate the entire population of Deer Flies in Eastern Ontario. Has any body else noticed how fierce they are this year? They don’t just bite, they take a chunk out of you and it hurts!
So my mind was otherwise occupied when my daughter called me at lunchtime one day last month and burbled all excitedly about what she made for lunch that day. Diced watermelon, tomatoes, chopped fresh mint and a little bit of feta cheese crumbled on top. She boasted that it was a fantastic 2 point lunch on Weight Watchers, which we periodically follow. After we exchanged all the news, we said goodbye and as I looked at my sad little plate of carrot and celery sticks and bowl of hummus, I knew it was time for a change.
Lately my local fruit and vegetable store has been carrying these sweet golden tomatoes. Lush, intense and chock full of juice, their sweetness masks the acidity.Summer watermelon has been fantastic the past few weeks. That heavy dense flesh so refreshing and bursting with sweetness.There really is no recipe for this salad. Just slice the tomatoes and watermelon, chop up some fresh mint and sprinkle on some crumbled feta. The contrast of the sweet melon against the tangy tomatoes is intensely satisfying. The salt from the feta and the freshness of the mint add a final grace note that is quite addictive. In the interest of full disclosure here, I must be honest and admit that the above photos do not in any way resemble what my lunchtime salad looks like. I dice up everything in a stainless steel prep bowl and eat it standing over the sink. Just thought you should know!
About 10 years ago I noticed a new, well new for me, cut of steak appearing on restaurant menus. Suddenly it seemed that “hanger” steak was on every trendy bistro restaurant menu. Curious, I ordered it and discovered for myself how delicious it was. It had a full beefy flavour and richness that reminded me of skirt steak, but it was a bit more tender.
I began to do a little research and I discovered that until recently, butchers were hogging this cut all for themselves, hence the steak’s nickname, “Butcher’s Steak.” Now I have nothing against butchers, as a matter of fact, some of my favourite people happen to be butchers, but that seems kind of selfish to me, not sharing this amazing cut with the rest of us!
Upon further investigation, I discovered the geographical location of this cut on the cow. I found this great diagram on the the meat loving website chomposaurus. For all you carnivores out there, you must check it out!It comes from the plate section of the steer and it “hangs” off of the cow’s diaphragm, hence the name “Hanger” steak. It is a vaguely V-shaped pair of muscles with a long, inedible membrane down the middle. If you have a good butcher (and luckily I do!) who knows how to break this down properly, he or she will remove the connective tissue and silverskin surrounding it and break this down into two separate, well-trimmed steaks. Each one will be about 12 inches long and weigh in at about 8-12 ounces. That’s only 1 – 1 1/2 pounds of hanger steak from each cow! No wonder the butchers were hoarding it. There was hardly enough to share with the whole class.
It is a tough piece of meat that needs to be marinated and must be cut across the grain. This shortens the long grainy muscled fibers and preventing chewiness. It should be cooked to medium or medium rare (125-130°F). Using an instant read thermometer, guarantees you get it right every time! Anything above medium will result in a rubbery steak and anything less than medium rare, you will be eating a very mushy steak.I marinated mine in a mixture of red wine, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. At least 6 hours or up to an overnight soak in the marinade is ideal. Cook it on a medium-high heat. Let rest for about 5 minutes before carving.
I served it with a yummy grilled corn salad. I was very excited when I saw the first local corn of the season at the market. However, last night, reading the newspaper, I discovered that agency responsible for governing food labelling in Canada, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has greatly expanded its definition of local food. The old definition defined local as food that is produced within 50 kilometres of where it’s sold.However, under a new interim policy, they are expanding the definition to mean food produced in the same province in which it’s sold. What that means is that in Ottawa, I could be eating corn that has travelled over 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Lambton Ontario, and it could still be labelled local in Ottawa. Certainly gives new definition to the term local. The contrast between the rich tender steak and the crunchy, slightly spicy corn relish makes for a perfect bite! I made Mark Bittman’s spicy-sweet green beans to go along with the steak and corn.
Happy Canada Day! For my non-Canadian friends, July 1 is Canada’s Birthday. With local strawberries finally arriving at the market this week, I thought I’d be patriotic and make red, white and yellow ice pops. Yes, I know the Canadian flag is only red and white, but truth be told, sometimes I feel just a little bit anti-Canadian. Hence, the addition of yellow in my ice pops. Well, that and I just felt that the addition of golden ripe mangoes would be a great flavour complement to the snowy white coconut cream and the bright red strawberries.
We are spending Canada Day up at our cottage. in honour of Canada Day, our local lake association puts on a big fireworks extravaganza every year. They set everything up on an island in the middle of our lake and everyone piles the kids into their boats and heads out to the middle of the lake to watch the splendour. Well, everyone that is, but me. If sitting in a (not so) gently rocking boat, in the middle of the lake, drinking a warm Molson Canadian Ale, and getting feasted on by mosquitoes is being a true Canadian, then I firmly stand on the side of anti-Canadian. I watch the fireworks show from my mosquito-free screened porch, drinking a chilled glass of Prosecco. Clearly I must have some Italian blood in me.
Local strawberries are a thing of beauty. Every summer I am reminded that strawberries are supposed to be red inside, not white, like those giant winter pretenders. The strawberry layer is simply berries, a bit of sugar and some lemon juice. They get blitzed in the blender and then strained.
The mango layer is pureed mango flesh mixed with some cooled simple syrup. Mango peeling can be tricky if you don’t know what you are doing. Here is a video I created last year, demonstrating how to do it safely.
The coconut layer is cream of coconut or sometimes labelled coconut cream. This is not to be confused with coconut milk.
It is best to have all your flavours in containers with spouts for mess free pouring.I was a little impatient when pouring my layers, so I did not get nice straight lines, but in the end, I am much happier with the tie-dyed look! I poured the first layer (strawberry), and froze them for about 20 minutes. When I added the second layer (coconut) they bled into the first layer. I froze them for a second time for about 25 minutes and then added the third layer. Then the sticks went in and they spent the night in the freezer.
I found these twin ice pop molds at Bed Bath and Beyond, and the single ones (pictured top) at The Dollar Store.
Sometimes, all the i’s are dotted, the t’s are crossed and the stars aligned just right so that fresh pea pods, corn on the cob and little grape tomatoes make an appearance at the market all on the same day! Usually peas are all done by the time corn arrives and sometimes those little tomatoes don’t appear until mid-August, but last week all was right with my world and peas, corn and tomatoes collided in my shopping bag.
As soon as I got home I set to creating this perfect celebration of summer pasta dish. I decided to make it with Orecchiette. Orecchiette, originating in Puglia, are type of pasta shaped roughly like small ears, hence the name (orecchio, ear,orecchiette, little ears). They’re about 3/4 of an inch across, slightly domed, and their centers are thinner than their rims, a characteristic that gives them an interestingly variable texture, soft in the middle and somewhat more chewy outside. The little cup shape is perfect for cradling the peas and corn!
Is it just me, or do they remind anyone else of little unrolled condoms. I guess neither reference, ears or condoms, is particularly appetizing, but trust me, this pasta is yummy.
I decided to spice up some ground turkey with ground fennel seed, red pepper flakes and salt and added it to the dish for some zip.
