Solstice Dinner, Part 2, and Christmas Eve Dinner

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays this fine Boxing Day morning, and that you are all not too hung over from last night's festivities! I am just relieved this trying time in my life is over and that life can now return to normal.

Which includes posting here!

Let me just briefly finish my round-up of the Solstice meal I served on Monday (though the dessert will be Monday's Magazine Monday post so, really, I'm only covering the side dishes right now).

So, in addition to the sausage-stuff, bacon-latticed pork loin roast I served, I made three sides.

One was very simple, and that was steamed yellow beans from my garden, which I took the time to blanch and freeze immediately after picking in August. I was a little concerned about how they would turn out because when I removed them from the freezer, they looked odd...Not freezer burnt, but kind of translucent and splotchy. But, they steamed up just fine and were great!

I also made the same Brussels sprouts recipe I used last year. You can see that here. Really simple dish, even if slicing all the sprouts is a pain in the ass. Instead of the pine nuts, though, I used some of the pecans that came in the package from Jodi, and let me tell you, they totally elevated this dish to a new level! And once again, when I added these to the heat of the pan, they had an out-of-this-world aroma! Brilliant!
And then, finally, everyone's favourite, the Caramelized Onion & Brie Bread Pudding. Again, this was a smashing hit. I think a lot of people get potatoed-out over the holidays, and this is a great idea for a starch in your meal. In addition to using brie, and party because of the exorbitant cost of brie in these parts, I had a bunch of mozzarella left over from the pork loin, so I cubed it up and put it in, too. It was awesome and everyone was really happy with it.

So, apart from dessert, which as I said I'll post about on Monday, that's a wrap for Solstice 2009!
Now, onto Christmas Eve, which happens to be my father's birthday. We always have a big family get-together for this and my SIL does most of the cooking. Usually, Dad gets his favourite, steak & kidney pie, which is quite disgusting. This year, though, Shan decided to make another of Dad's perennial favourites, Beef Wellington.

But before we get to the main course, let's talk about the appies! Because we always have appies! First of all, Shan's aunt brought some West Coast prawns her brother had caught himself over the summer. These were to die for! There is absolutely no comparison between these prawns and the ones you buy frozen at the grocery store. They taste way richer, for one thing, and they have a much more tender texture and a more subtle colour. In the dish Shan's aunt brought, she paired the prawns with a sour cream mixture, cocktail sauce, and then topped with the prawns. We ate this with crackers and it was so good! Shan's aunt also makes a wonderful crab dip that has sambal olek in it. It was gone very quickly, I can tell you that. And finally, because my dad doesn't touch seafood with a 10-foot pole, Shan made him some stuffed mushroom cups, which were also excellent.
So, if you don't know what Beef Wellington is, basically, it's fillet mignon wrapped in puff pastry with shallots & mushrooms. Shan added gorgonzola this time, though not for me as I cannot stand moldy cheese. She did an outstanding job and everyone in attendance was thrilled to bits.For side dishes, we had steamed asparagus and green beans, salad, roasted butternut squash, and a risotto made with aged Asiago cheese.
This was a meal you'd pay a lot of money for in a restaurant, let me tell you! It was incredibly impressive. Thanks to Shan for all your hard work!

And yes, there was dessert. But that deserves a post of it's own, so you'll have to be patient with me!

Garden Bounty 2009: Lemon Balm

I do love herbs. I have always wanted a herb garden, and I even had a dream of becoming a herbalist and herbal healer back when I was much younger. Culinary herbs are more my bag now, and this year I grew cilantro (let's not go there, OK?), basil (and we all know how well that turned out, don't we?), chives (which did nothing - I think I planted them too close to the neighbouring peony and they didn't get enough sun) and something wonderful called lemon balm.

Part of the mint family, lemon balm gives off a wonderful, lemony scent. I was surprised to find seeds for this at my local purveyor of cheap gardening crap, Wally World, and when I did, I was delighted and didn't hesitate to purchase a package.

Again, I made a huge error when I planted the seeds: I misjudged how large the neighbouring plants would grow. In this case, the neighbouring plants were my bean plants, and if you recall, these were so out of control and I got so many beans I couldn't give them all away - and I froze nearly 3lbs. This is a big problem for me; I have no concept of spacing when it comes to my garden. It doesn't help that the garden itself is small and narrow, and as such I do take some care in where I plant things. But I feel the need to utilize the space as best I can and this has led to some errors in judgment - like with the chives. And this was the case with the lemon balm.

The seeds took forever to sprout and I didn't see any growth poke through my soil for weeks. They have a longer germination time, as I read on the seed package, but even so, these didn't start showing any signs of action for a long time after I expected them to. In the meantime, the wax bean plants took off as if they were on steroids (I used nothing on them, I swear!) and before long, the lemon balm was living in the shadow of the lush bean leaves. As a result, I got a very poor, very small, very stunted crop. When I yanked the bean plants at the end of August, which was when they started to dry up and stop producing (it was almost a relief, I was so overwhelmed with beans), I thought the lemon balm would have a fighting chance. How wrong I was; it never had a chance. Early frosts, blahx3, and I got next to nothing. I was disappointed and annoyed with myself.
I did get a very small amount, and I had to pick them and do something with them just so I could feel slightly less disappointed and annoyed. I decided to make some cookies. Initially, I thought I would make shortbread with lemon balm, but the idea evolved and I got over-ambitious. I also got a shitty result.

I won't even post the recipe because it's an adaptation I made and since it was just an abject failure I don't even want to spend the time typing it out. It was my own fault; I should have known better than to do what I did and I have no on to blame but myself.

So, what did I do with the cookies? I took them to my brother & SIL's place for our family dinner and left them there! Jem is like Mikey; he'll eat anything!

Thanksgiving Dinner - Again!

Tonight was my second Thanksgiving dinner of the week, as most of my family was away last weekend for our holiday last weekend. My SIL Shan had a 15lb turkey for 6 people so there were a ton of leftovers. As usual, this was a spectacular feast as only Shan can put on. On the menu:

• turkey
• stuffing
• mashed potatoes
• green beans & carrots sauteed in garlic, olive oil, and lemon
• Brussels sprouts
• spaghetti squash gratin, made by your favourite coyote
• gravy, cranberry sauce, buns
• no-bake pumpkin pie, also made by your favourite coyote
  

I did promise you recipes from this meal, did I not? Well, here is the spaghetti squash gratin recipe I used, that I totally made up on my own, using squash I grew in my garden this year. The squash were very, very small, fitting in the palm of my hand, but they tasted pretty good. I love spaghetti squash - it's the only squash I'll eat other than zucchini. Usually I just bake it and mix it with some butter, but I wanted to do something different with it (I have, actually, used spaghetti squash in place of pasta at times, and that's a great idea; it's a very versatile veggie). I got some very cheap ricotta cheese on my last cross-border shopping spree, and off I went!

Spaghetti Squash Gratin

• 2 1/2 cups roasted spaghetti squash (this turned out to be three of my smallest squashes)
• 1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup fine bread crumbs
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Combine squash, ricotta, seasonings, and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Place in a medium-sized, well-greased or parchment-lined casserole dish. Top with cheddar
2. In a skillet, melt butter until bubbly. Add breadcrumbs and garlic, and season with a little salt & pepper. Toast until the bread crumbs are toasty & golden.
3. Put breadcrumbs on top of casserole. Bake casserole at 375F until hot through & cheese has all melted.

This was a hit! It was great and everyone enjoyed it! I will definitely make this again!

Next post - the pumpkin pie. But let me rest a bit first, eh?

Garden Bounty 2009: Patty Pan Squash

I planted two kinds of squash this year, spaghetti and patty pan. The plants grew most excellently and in the case of the spaghetti squash, I got for small squash that fit in the palm of my hand. In the case of the patty pans, I got nearly didley freakin' squat. I did get lots of flowers, though, which was a nice consolation for an otherwise pathetic patty pan crop.

I don't know exactly what went wrong, but as I was reading a section in Earth to Table, I wondered if it was the plant: I seemed to have more male flowers than female flowers. A lot of flowers just dried up and died; very few of them produced any squash at all. I have no idea why this was or what I can do to remedy it, and I had to wonder at nature: surely these plants would have figured it out!

Anyway, I think I got about 5 patty pan squash out of a huge pile of plants. These plants took up a lot of room in my small plot, and I felt annoyed that I got so little product from them.

Though the flowers bloomed early, it was a while before any sign of squash showed up, and as we had a series of early frosts I had to harvest the little guys earlier than I wanted to. In the end, this is what I got:Yeah, these are SMALL, man! The smallest is less than 1cm in diameter. I was not impressed. I even had a recipe from Canadian Living for patty pan squash skewers that I wanted to make, but it wasn't going to happen. In the end, I tossed these with a bit of oil, salt & pepper, and roasted them off with the potatoes I cooked for my spatchcocked chicken meal. This is a very close up view of this "side dish:"Grrrrrr! I will not be growing these again next year. The spaghetti squash, on the other hand, is another story.

Garden Bounty 2009: Boring Pesto

Last week, I harvested my pitiful basil crop. We'd had two frosts and I figured it was time. Why was it pitiful? Well, for some reason, basil doesn't grow well for me. It's always stunted and pale, and this year, since it's been a bumper season for insects such as ear wigs, ants, and other nasty creatures, my basil was rather munched on and browned. I don't know if I'll grow it again; last year's wasn't stellar, either.

So, I salvaged what I could. I decided to make some pesto, since I really like having it on hand for things such as a quick pasta dish, a nice roasted chicken breast, sandwiches, and I've even put it in bread!

I got about a cup of basil leaves, which I bathed & patted dry. I stuck them in my food processor with lots of garlic, some Parmesan cheese, and a handful of pine nuts. As this whizzed away, I drizzled in olive oil until I got a nice, pesto-y consistency.

I tasted the pesto and it was good. Yet, later on that day, when I added it to some penne & shrimp, it was bland. My pesto lacked punch! WTF? Because my basil was pale - not a nice dark, lush green - I got a paler pesto. I suspect my basil was just lacking in punch in general, and hence my pesto was flat.

But, all is not lost! This will still be tasty on sandwiches and on chicken. I got about a cup of pesto in the end, and I will certainly be using it sparingly over the next little while.

Magazine Monday #46: Bean & Barley Salad

Before we get to my recipe selection for this week, answer me this simple question: which of these things is not like the other:Yeah, one of my 8 or 9 bean plants is producing green beans. They are tough and stringy and not very good - obviously the product of a bad seed. Hmph.

Anyhoo, let's get onto today's MM recipe. Since I have beans coming out of the old wazoo, I have to start getting creative with how I use them, or else I'll become bored very easily. So, I found this recipe in Canadian Living's July 2009 issue while looking for a side dish to serve with the huckleberry pork loin I made.

Recipe here.

I made a few substitutions. I used spinach instead of arugula and I used cider vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar. All in all, this was a great salad! Light, hearty, nourishing, nutritious - a huge hit. Definitely a keeper!

Also joining me this week:

Cathy of Accountants Can Cook? made a roasted cauliflower risotto from Canadian Living's most recent issue.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made an absolutely mouthwatering Chanterelle Carbonara from German magazine Essen & Trinken.

The Magical Fruit

This year is not only a bumper crop year for huckleberries, but my 8 bean plants appear to be on some kind of manic growing spree that is providing me with about 86 bazillion yellow wax beans. I am already sick of the sight of them. Yesterday alone I picked 1.25kg of the suckers, which is about 2.75lbs. It was the third picking - and there are so many more on the way.

The whole point of this garden is to help feed myself without depending on the grocery store, so obviously I had to do something to preserve my bean crop since becoming bored with them & letting them just rot on their stems would be counter-productive. So, I blanched & froze.

Bear in mind that I have no idea what I'm doing, OK?

Blanching involved boiling for a short period of time and then immediately plunging the veggie into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. The goal is to break down the cell walls of the veggie so that when the veggie is frozen, the water in the cells doesn't crystallize and expand, then rupture the cell walls, which is what causes a veggie to go mushy upon thawing.

So, here is what I did.

I washed the beans well & trimmed them. I then brought a large pot of water to a rolling boil and threw in a bunch of beans.After 2 - 3 minutes, I lifted the beans out & plunged them in an ice bath. (Yes, that is an ice pack; we have no cubes!)

Once the beans were completely cool... ...I packaged them up in small freezer bags, making sure to squeeze out as much air as possible, then I put the bags of beans in a larger freezer bag (double bagging like this helps prevent freezer burn). And into the freezer they went.

I suspect I'll be doing this a lot in the next few weeks...

Garden Bounty 2009: Surprise Fruit

I'm reading this really fascinating book right now called The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession by Adam Leith Gollner for a review I'm going to write sometime in the near future.

In chapter 1, I came across an interesting piece of information: spinach is a fruit-bearing plant. Once the plant flowers, it develops a "miniscule, often prickly, fruit capsule." Well, it just so happens that I have an abundance of flowering spinach in my garden, so I decided to go and investigate.

Lo and behold, I find my spinach bearing tiny berry-like fruits a few millimeters long.


If you're thinking this might be the next culinary find, think again: these are barely edible. Even at their size, they are really fibrous and difficult to chew. They taste vaguely of spinach, and vaguely of not much else.

I picked a stalk of spinach and brought it inside because I wanted to see the seeds. With the point of my knife, I plucked off a couple of the seed capsules and split them open. The seed is barely visible, but it's there:
Well, who'd've thunk it? The garden isn't a total loss - I am learning some new things. Did you know that arugula produces some very interesting flowers? Check these out:
Interesting, eh?

Garden Bounty 2009: Dill

My dill is doing very well this year. Last year, it did quite poorly; I got two plants, one small and one big, and both got infested with tiny, dill-coloured insects I couldn't be bothered to ID properly. This year, I have a nice row of lush-looking dill, and so far, no bugs. But time will tell with these things, as it usually does.

So, I harevested some dill last night and decided to make some BBQ shrimp with it. I always keep frozen, zipperback shrimp on hand because they are so convenient and quick. I marinated the shrimp in lemon juice, garlic, and the fresh dill. I put the shrimp on skeweres - wooden ones, after soaking them - and BBQed them. I served my meal with green beans and rice, something I'm doing a lot these days. It was delish!

Garden Bounty 2009: Rosemary

Last year, a co-worker gave me a rosemary bush that she didn't need anymore, and I planted it in my little garden patch. I like rosemary well enough, it grows great here, and on top of that, it requires very little of me - which is starting to become very important in my gardening life, I can tell you that.

This year, after my roommate pruned it back a bit, it's looking particularly wonderful and lush, so I decided to actually use it in something. That something happened to be a whole chicken - my favourite thing!

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

1 whole chicken
6 sprigs rosemary
1 whole lemon, cut into eighths
salt & pepper
garlic powder
1 vidalia or other sweet onion (optional)

Season chicken with salt & pepper. There is a very thin membrane between the skin and the flesh of the chicken; carefully, with a knife, separate the skin from the flesh and stick the rosemary sprigs right in there next to the skin, on the breast and on the legs. Slide in 4 or so lemon eighths. Use some more of the lemon to squeeze juice over the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the rest of the lemon, some more rosemary if you want, and the onion, if using. Sprinkle chicken with garlic powder.

Bake @ 400F until done and skin is crispy.

I must admit, that because I'm single and I don't care about the calories too much, I like to pick the crispy chicken skin right off the bird as soon as it comes out of the oven. Call me crazy, but it's the best part of the whole process, in my opinion.
And this skin was particularly delicious! It was an awesome meal, and the chicken smelled outstanding as it roasted. The rosemary flavour was subtle but definitely had something to say.

I served my chicken with some roasted fingerling potatoes and green beans. Nice, light dinner. The roasted vidalia onions were really tasty, too.
And of course I have a carcass to play around with in the future, too!

Panini Heaven

So, this is what I made with my herbed focaccia from the previous post:
OH. MY. GOD.

If I ever open my own cafe, this is a sandwich I will definitely be serving!

Coyote's Ultimate Panini!

Focaccia bread
lemon & garlic mayo
mozzarella cheese
bacon
arugula
caramelized onions
Assemble. Grill.Inhale.

Yeah, this ain't no pedestrian ham & cheese, lemme tell ya! Let's take another look, shall we?Totally fracking orgasmically out-of-this world amazing!

Garden Bounty 2009, Part 1: Arugula Meatballs

Last year's lettuce fiasco in my little garden plot resulted in a rethinking of my veggie plans for this year's garden. I decided not to grow leafy greens that grew in tight bunches, so I opted for arugula. I also had seen lots of arugula appearing in various blog posts amongst my regular food blog friends, and I thought it would be a good idea to try out some new things with it. One recipe that stood out to me was Bellini Valli's chicken & arugula meatballs, seen here. Tonight, after harvesting some young arugula, I made a bison version of this meatball.

I got some bison on special at the local overpriced grocery store. There might have been about a pound or so. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and about 1/2 cup of finely chopped arugula.
After mixing well, I got out one of my favourite and most-used kitchen gadgets: my #70 cookie scoop. I scooped out the meatballs and put them in a pan to brown.When they were nice and evenly browned, I added some homemade pasta sauce I whipped up last night using some of the tomatoes I canned last summer.I let the sauce and meatballs simmer until the meatballs were cooked through, then served them over pasta.
Arugula, especially if it's relatively young, has a pungent smell and is quite peppery. I have to say, however, that they didn't add much in terms of flavour to the meatballs. Perhaps I didn't add enough. Who knows. The bison might have been too strong a pairing, too. Still, it was an excellent meal.