Author: Hilary

Zucchini, yellow squash and ricotta galette

~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

Remember how much I love zucchini? How about how much I love open-faced tarts? This was made for me.

I’m always wary of grocery shopping in Sudbury when my list involves an item that is even slightly out of the ordinary. In the past, I’ve walked five kilometres for a blood orange substitute and have searched high and low for red cabbage. Sudbury is a working class city, meaning that it isn’t even slightly logical for the grocery store to carry a product that 95% of the population probably doesn’t give a hoot about.

What I’m trying to get at here is that, my usual optimism aside, I was absolutely positively sure that I would not be able to find a yellow squash anywhere within the city limits. I love it when I prove myself wrong.

I was standing in the produce aisle at the grocery store, looking forlornly at the pile of butternut squash sitting in the designated squash section. Then something in the zucchini pile caught my eye. Beneath the dark green exterior of my cylindrical favourite food was the bright yellow flesh of, could it be – yes! – a single, medium-sized yellow squash (also known as yellow zucchini, apparently). Excitement!

As it happens, I love yellow zucchini even more than its green-with-envy companion. Like a squash, it’s a little more dense and less seedy, and still has that fresh flavour and bright colour of normal zucchini.

One of my favourite things about zucchini (and eggplant, for that matter) is that it’s not afraid to sweat. That’s right, you heard me. I love vegetables that perspire. Using a precision that can only be described as neurotic, I arranged the zucchini slices on piece of paper towel, creating a pattern that was so pretty it became the background on my iPhone. A sprinkle of salt and voila…half an hour later those slices looked like they had just come back from a day at the beach. I dabbed their forehead with more paper towel and sent them on their way.

I like making galette because the finished product is guaranteed to look rustic and low maintenance. Plus open-faced tarts always cut beautifully and they trick me into thinking I’m eating pie. The summer flavours of the zucchini matched with the creamy consistency of the ricotta was an excellent combination.

Pre-oven galette lovin’ (galetteagram)

I ate my two very large pieces of galette out on our back porch. The sweltering heat of the day had subsided and what was left was an extremely pleasant warmth that wrapped around my body like the lightest of summer sweaters. The folks in the house at the bottom of our backyard cliff were having an outdoor dinner party, and I sat back and relaxed as the music (it was the type of tune you’d play in a restaurant that Frasier would visit) and voices murmured in the distance.

I topped it all off with a refreshing glass of lemon Perrier water. Which I was going to mix with gin until I realized that mineral water is rather different than tonic water (spoiler: I did it anyways). Thanks Internets. Rookie mistake.

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Happy Pride Week, Sudbury! Homemade rainbow Oreo cookies

~ Hilary ~ 10 Comments

Please allow me to present the coolest and most colourful cookies I’ve ever made.

I’m sure by this point most of you have seen that phenomenal Oreo cookie meme that the company put out back in June.

Corporate cookie ploy aside, I knew I wanted to recreate a version of these Oreos at home (I can’t believe some other blogger hasn’t already done it). This past week was Pride Week in Sudbury, so I figured what better time to make these than now.

In terms of the online Oreo cookie photo, it was interesting to watch the public backlash. I read some of the comments left on the Facebook photo, before stopping because there were so many ignorant and offensive statements. People said they didn’t like that Nabisco was politicizing the Oreo, but you know what, I don’t like that people are homophobic, either. I am completely fine with people having their own values – and that includes those who may have traditional views on marriage and what constitutes love – but please do not use those values to outwardly try to limit or discriminate against others. Some of the most beautiful and nurturing relationships I have seen are between two men or two women.

ANYWAYS. I thought these homemade Oreos turned out super well and was so excited that you were able to see all the icing colours, even after cookie sandwich squishing occurred. The cookies even had that same, slightly-dry/slightly-crunchy texture that store-bought Oreos possess.

Warning: a cavity was born with each bite, so these are not for the faint of heart. You will be wanting to brush your teeth after these (or at the very least, drink a litre of milk).

Happy Pride Week, Sudbury! And to everyone else out there, I love you, no matter who you love.

Packed up and ready to be brought into work

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My life-long love affair with Popsicles

~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

When I was a toddler, my mom used to freeze fruit punch into Popsicle moulds in what I expect was a clever trick used to get me to shut my face.

Case in point, I’ve always been in love with Popsicles, with the exception of a short period of disenchantment at the age of eight when I tripped while running with a Creamsicle and scraped my knee (I tried to find a picture of toddler me eating a Popsicle, I really and truly did).

Before we go any further, let’s set the record straight. Contrary to popular belief, Popsicles aren’t just for summer weather. They’re also for wintertime tunnel walking and 1 a.m. snacking. Let me explain.

It’s January 2008, the winter of my first-year as a student at Carleton University. For a handful of my friends and me, it became almost a daily tradition to walk in the underground tunnels (yes, actually a thing at Carleton) in the middle of the night to go and buy Popsicles at the residence convenience store. Wearing our leggings, oversized sweaters and flip-flops, we’d snicker at outsmarting Mother Nature and her -30° weather pounding the outside walls while we ate our iced treats in the slightly stale warmth of our underground refuge.

One of my best friends, Ariel, and I would even make videos featuring our Popsicles (just watch the first five seconds). And come on, don’t even try and pretend that you didn’t do weird things in residence too.

Fast forward two years later and my love affair with Popsicles re-emerged. I wrote a story for the Ottawa Citizen in which I interviewed Erin Kennedy, who was making homemade Popsicles to sell on her pedal-powered freezer bike. Erin introduced me to the gourmet side of Popsicles (not to mention her adorable son) – flavour combinations and colours that I never knew could be combined in iced form.

Icicle Treats (pictures taken in May 2011)

Now, in summer 2012, my childhood love has come full circle. I am making my own Popsicles.

Some things change, some remain the same. I am, for example, still using that same set of Tupperware Popsicle moulds that we used when I was a toddler. They are in miraculously good shape (I thank my mom) and, for the purpose of these experiments, completely perfect.

This first batch of strawberry-orange yogurt Popsicles was inspired by Canadian Living’s August 2012 cover, in which five gorgeous Popsicles are arranged like models on display.

I ate two Popsicles while writing this post and, since they’re made with fresh fruit, low-fat yogurt, and sweetened with honey, I didn’t feel guilty at all. One more to make it a hat trick? Don’t mind if I do.

PS: a technicality that I believe should be cleared up – I use a capital “P” on Popsicle, because, just as Kleenex is a brand of tissue, Popsicles are a brand of ice pop (doesn’t this term make you feel like a jumper-wearing British child?). In these two instances, the brand name because some popular that it stole the identity (sneaky bugger) of these two products at-large. You know, just in case you were wondering.

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Dinner in a jiffy: Red quinoa and kale salad

~ Hilary ~ 7 Comments

As much as I love spending an hour in the kitchen preparing a meal (god I hate how disgustingly domestic/40-year-old I sound), there are days when you need a good meal fast.

For me, those days of the week are either Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on when my recreational baseball game is. In addition to feeding myself on these nights, I’ve also started bringing one of my CBC colleagues and fellow baseball team member, Martha, dinner at every game, since she doesn’t get off work until 6 p.m. (she is our superstar afternoon newsreader!) and has expressed baseball-induced hunger at one time or the other. Everyone needs supper. And trust me, our team needs all the extra energy it can get.

Food-wise, I feel like such a recipe copycat lately, but the Internet is such a good stomach to supper matchmaker that I can’t help but be inspired. This recipe came from Taste Food Blog, and was adapted a teensy bit by yours truly to fit my needs and serving size.

Since the term “jiffy” was an integral part of this slaw, I was pleased to have some leftover Cookin’ Greens kale to use up. You know, it’s that kale that I used for the sweet potato and kale mac and cheese a few posts back. In case you don’t remember, it comes pre-chopped and flash frozen, and was super easy to measure out, cook up on the stove and toss into this salad.

The refreshing zing of lemon vinaigrette plucked at my tastebuds and that tender chew of kale gets me every time. You can eat this salad warm (as I did for dinner), but it really is more delicious after a night of refrigeration to allow the flavours to sing.

I washed down dinner with a batch of homemade almond milk. One of my favourite bloggers (she’s Canadian, too!), Sarah from My New Roots, posted this beautiful and informative video a while ago and I have been trying to find time and an excuse to make it ever since. The resulting drink – let’s just call it “health juice,” shall we? – was refreshing and actually so easy to make. There’s something extremely badass about taking a solid and making it into a liquid (also, soaked almonds are just so cute and plump after they sit in water all night). It’s like grade five science glass all over again. Plus it made me feel like an accomplished hippie chick which, to be honest, is what I totally try to be sometimes.

The almond milk-making process

I took the pictures you see below after my baseball game was done, as the final slits of light from my favourite part of the day shone through the kitchen window. Who says straws can’t have halos?

I ate my leftovers (+ sandwich) on the patio of my favourite Sudbury bakery, Café Petit Gâteau, and watched as people enviously eyed my lunch from the YMCA across the street.

Foodstagram

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Pizza with pizazz (Spicy mango pizza with black beans and zucchini)

~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

I am so fortunate to have consumed some truly wonderful pizza this week.

Ever since deciding to disembark from the generic “pepperoni and cheese” pizza train, my taste buds have been consistently wow-ed by the incredible combination of pizza toppings that exist in this fine universe.

This week’s pizza bender started in Ottawa last Monday. For those who are familiar with the city, you’ll likely know about The Works and ZaZaZa Pizza, two Ottawa-born sweethearts in the food scene. The first – The Works – is home to some truly unique, gourmet burgers. My favourite involves four types of cheese, sliced avocado and an onion ring. Yes, on the burger. The second – ZaZaZa’s – has always been on my radar, but I never got a chance to visit when I lived in the Capital (the original location was across town from Carleton/my house). That’s why I was so excited to see that the Glebe (a close-to-downtown Ottawa neighbourhood) was getting its very own ZaZaZa’s. But malheureusement, it opened after I left.

Thank heavens my two lovely friends Freya and Tara were willing to try it out with me.

I could gush forever about these pizzas (really!), but I’ll keep it simple. I ordered the “Crazy Horse” pizza, with pesto oil, spinach, mozzarella, mushrooms, chicken, caramelized onions, pine nuts and goat cheese. How’s that for gourmet?

Equally as awesome were Freya and Tara’s pizzas, including toppings like brie, pear, eggplant and shrimp.

So that was gourmet pizza inspiration, take one.

Take two came in the form of the pizza pies from one of my favourite Sudbury haunts, The Laughing Buddha. Just a little hole-in-the-wall darling when I was back in high school (pizza orders used to take FOREVER because they only had two stone ovens), the Buddha has expanded to become the go-to spot in town for eclectic eats, a killer imported beer menu and a relaxed atmosphere (not to mention one of the only patios in the city). I didn’t take a picture of my pizza from Friday night, but please know that it was great, as per usual. If you live in Sudbury, go there now. If you’re from out of town, please come visit and stop by after you finish with your Big Nickel photos.

In other news, last night’s kitchen dance party was sponsored by the movie Dirty Dancing, which I curled up on the couch to watch in a tangled cocoon of blankets. It was also inspired by my hippie-esque trip to Sudbury’s Northern Lights Festival Boreal this weekend (I high-fived the members of one of my favourite Canadian band, Yukon Blonde!). What does this mean for my dance moves? Well there was a lot of hip action, pretend partner dancing and artistically flailed arms. I also acted like a wannabe member of Monica Bill Barnes and Company and conducted an orchestra with a rolling pin.

All I can say is that I hope none of my neighbours ever look into our kitchen window when supper is being prepared.

I was so excited to eat this pizza that I forgot to add the cilantro and green onion that I so finely chopped. Perhaps I’ll just have to make this again later in the week…?

Thank you to Kiersten of Oh My Veggies for this pizza recipe! It was brilliant. No. Beyond brilliant. I know it sounds like a weird combination of toppings, but trust me, it’s oh-so-good.

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