Hilary makes food

Early autumn risotto (with chicken, roasted cherry tomatoes and rosemary)

~ Hilary ~ 6 Comments

It is near impossible for me to write a blog title without including parentheses. Can someone please hold an intervention for me?

–

Last week it got particularly fall-like in Sudbury. The temperature dipped to a chilly 12 degrees in the morning, making my tug my sleeves over my knuckles as I biked to work. My new autumn jacket, jeans and eternity scarf were officially broken in. And if I closed my eyes while biking, it was almost as though I was zooming down Sunnyside Avenue in Ottawa on my way to an 8:30 a.m. journalism class in St. Pat’s.

My first taste of autumn was filled with nostalgia and a slight tinge of sadness. Brisk weather makes me want to wear Toms and big sweaters. It makes me crave the feeling of walking across campus with a tumbler full of tea. It makes me want to wait in line at the bookstore and hug warm, freshly-printed syllabi. This upcoming season will be a strange one, I can feel it already, and last week was simply a prelude to that emotion. As if I wasn’t already writing enough personal “reflective 20-something-year-old” essays, I sense a landslide more to come.

Right, the food. I generally associate risotto with chillier weather and, if risotto were a piece of clothing, it would most certainly be one of my big, grandpa-style knit sweaters. It’s warm and versatile enough that it can be for casual dinners or fancy affairs, dressed up or dressed down.

I still had a few cherry tomatoes leftover from my friend’s garden, and wanted to use them before they went to waste. Oh, just so you know, spontaneously squishing freshly-roasted cherry tomatoes with a fork is a good way to get burning tomato juice in your eye. Don’t try this at home, kids.

I saw a delicious looking recipe for a barley salad with grouse on the interwebs and was inspired to create a simpler, sister dish. As much as I would love to use all that spare grouse I have hanging around my kitchen (…), chicken breasts were a tad easier.

The only criticism I had of this risotto was that I went overboard with the rosemary.

Fresh herbs can be one of those things where I think “oh hey, it can’t actually produce that strong a flavour, let’s just add more for photography sake!” Incorrect. I got too sprinkle happy and it was obvious. I have adjusted the recipe you see below these photos to take into account my mistake (but the pictures look nice, right?).

So, anyone else yearning for a fresh box of black pens or the smell of new textbooks? How about stepping on crunchy leaves? (this last item is truly a universal love, if ever I did encounter one)

Continue reading →

Greek bruschetta (baguette and hummus for dinner)

~ Hilary ~ 6 Comments

Two very, very dangerous things happened last night.

1. I learned how easy it is to make hummus.
2. I made the best bruschetta I’ve ever had (and this is saying something, because there is this restaurant in Sudbury that makes a TRULY delicious mushroom and goat cheese bruschetta…Please know that I do not take this title lightly)

As many meals are, this one was unexpected. After getting off work late Thursday night, I popped over to the grocery store with full intention to only purchase sugary ingredients to use in the caramel sea salt brownies (WOAH good, those are being blogged about next) that I was making for today’s newsroom treat.

When I arrived, it was 7:30 and past my usual dinner time, meaning that a walk through the grocery store was like a walk down temptation lane. I couldn’t just go straight to the baking aisle. I needed to buy dinner items.

I decided my meal would be based around the cherry tomatoes I got from a friend when he returned one of my many Mason jars (these jars are even better when they contain garden-fresh veggies!).

Since my mom had made a very delicious, Greek-style salad the other night and since it has been a year since I was in Greece, I decided on Greek bruschetta. This was one of my better life decisions. In the end, I didn’t actually have to buy that much – just a baguette, in fact. I did, after all, have leftover hummus ingredients to use.

So right, let’s talk hummus. I knew in theory that hummus was very easy to make, but I think I just thought that in application that must be a lie. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Super easy. I had tahini left from my last blog post, as well as a Tupperware of leftover chick peas. Add a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of cayenne and we’re in business.

While waiting for baguette to toast, and in between chopping each of the bruschetta toppings, I ate huge slices of the remaining baguette and hummus. One piece, another, another…just one more. It’s a downward spiral, really. Making homemade tahini was my gateway snacking food.

Normally I write a rough version of my blog posts while eating, but I just couldn’t do that with this bruschetta. I was too busy double fisting the delicately topped baguette, like a savage who hadn’t seen food for ten million years. It was so delicious. Really, really great. The flavours worked together so well…the oilyness of the artichokes, the crunch of the toasted baguette, the juicy sweetness of the tomatoes and the sharp edge of the feta. Food teamwork at its best. Like most bruschetta (or food consumed by me in general), this meal was exceptionally messy. The remaining platter was scattered with tiny chunks of feta and a few slices of red onion that were waywardly cast aside during my barbaric eating session. As it rested on my keyboard, my right hand was slightly oily, a residue that I think must have been marinated artichoke oil.

Speaking of that…it’s not a real dinner with Hilary until a piece of technology and/or technology accessory gets some sort of food on it. My poor iPad case was subject to a bath of this marinated artichoke juice. I’m a disgusting human being, really.

I’m so happy I decided on this rectangular, white serving platter. Thank heavens it was easy to find – wedged in my closet between my saxophone and chest of drawers, underneath my three-tiered cupcake carrier. Typical.

I ended up writing this blog post while hanging out with my baby brother (who is off to university next week!!) and transferring 1,500 iPhone photos from his Macbook to mine via Dropbox. Don’t ask.

PS: NEW 50mm f.18 LENS!!!!! Can you tell!? Will give more info later.

Continue reading →

Hummus-in-a-bowl

~ Hilary ~ 9 Comments

A big thank you to my dear friend Gord who directed me to the recipe that inspired this meal! Also: Gord has started blogging again! Check it out!! In fact, he may be blogging about this exact recipe, which he told me he was making last night.

–

When Gord posted this recipe on my wall, he captioned it with a statement regarding my tendency to inhale hummus. It’s a problem. The frequency with which I bought pita dippers with hummus on campus last year should have been recognized by some sort of award.

There were a few ingredients switch outs that made my recipe different than the original. Details:

(A) The grocery store was out of arugula (my own fault considering my time of visit – 6:45 p.m. on a Friday evening) and so I substituted that spicy green for another one of my favourites. KALE. Unpredictable, right?

(B) Tahini = not a thing in Sudbury. So I made my own out of sesame seeds and olive oil.

The finished product

I was in a daze whilst lightly toasting the sesame seeds (toasting is truly one of the world’s most mind-numbing tasks), and decided to keep myself entertained by writing my name in sesame seed swirls. I got to H-I-L before realizing I was nearly burning the seeds and should probably pay more attention to cooking my food rather than playing with it.

(C) Since I use pre-minced, jarred garlic (to avoid sticky fingers, a la Pioneer Woman Cooks), I don’t quite know how much one clove is equivalent to. I know the answer to my question is just a Google search away, but that’s no fun. And so I keep guestimating the amount of garlic for every recipe. I have a sneaking suspicion that I always add too much. But I happen to really like garlic. Besides, there’s nothing like a meal whose primary ingredient produces stinky breath to scare off any potential bus beheaders (I brought the leftovers on the midnight Greyhound to Ottawa where I spent the most lovely weekend).

Rainy day photo shoot

Oh yes, and did I mention that this was a three-course meal? Appetizer: dark chocolate with sea salt. Dessert: the same. I like walking through the grocery store aisles with a thin, 100 gram gourmet chocolate bar in hand, pretending it’s a brochure for some exotic destination. I like tearing back the crinkly silver paper and pretending that I’m Charlie Bucket about to win a trip to the land of my dreams. I also liking eating it. That’s a win-win situation, if I do say so myself.

PS: I’m really sorry for only cooking with kale, quinoa and sweet potato lately. Enough of that. I’ll make a meat-based meal soon, I swear.

Continue reading →

Sweet potato burgers, revisited (this time with quinoa! And picnics! And blueberry avocado salsa!)

~ Hilary ~ 7 Comments

You know I try to avoid recipe duplication at all cost, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.

Not only did I sort of copy the original sweet potato burger recipe that I cooked up back in March, but I also made this recipe TWICE. Do the math folks, that’s THREE sweet potato burger meals. I must be losing my touch.

The first batch of these sweet potato quinoa burgers was made for a lovely Sunday night picnic I had this past weekend. Every week there are concerts held at Bell Park, the large-ish green space near my Sudbury house. Since it was a nice evening and food always tastes better when it’s being shared, I decided to plan a picnic. After all, the only thing better than listening to live music is listening to live music while stuffing your face.

My friend Yoshi and her boyfriend Derek were terrific company. We dined in the grass and I tried my hardest to get more salsa in my mouth than on my knees. Yoshi brought delicious figs, cashews (bless you!) and raspberries with honey, and some Japanese candy that I’m very excited to try. I also made a basic green salad and no-bake peach and blueberry cheesecakes which, in a very Pinterest move, I decided to serve in Mason jars. After all, a picnic without Mason jars is a picnic that I want no part in. (#masonjarsnob)

There was a problem, though. I didn’t take pictures. In my rush to shove everything into my purple backpack and peddle down to Bell Park as fast as my legs would take me, I forgot my camera. Seriously, blogger badge revoked, right?

I thought it wasn’t a big deal…I just wouldn’t blog about the burgers. But no, that would be a great loss, because these were good. Way better than the first sweet potato burgers I made. I needed to share, not just with Yoshi and Derek, but with the rest of you fantastic people, too.

So I made them again on Monday. Thank heavens for statutory holidays and my foresight to buy an extra sweet potato.

Then I spread out my family’s old wicker picnic mat on our kitchen table (don’t tell my mom, she hates it when dirty things touch that sacred surface) and had a little fake indoor picnic. Don’t worry, a Mason jar made an appearance.

Just in case you’re getting cold feet about the blueberry avocado salsa – don’t, please. It’s so good. The tangy burst of the blueberries is the perfect contrast to the sweet potato. It’s messy, but worth it.

Cooking notes: When making these sweet potato burgers, the resulting mixture (pre-patty) should look like a tiny Cheese Puff baby decided to puke everywhere.

Moulding these burgers is disgusting, ranked right up there with the “full moon” meat ridge that forms on your hands when shaping ground beef meatballs for Italian wedding soup. So be prepared to deal with a bit of mush, and remember to clean off the kitchen tap after rushing to wash your hands. Otherwise your kitchen will look like CSI, except with sweet potato smush instead of blood and guts. So anyways…still hungry?

Also: PRETZEL BUNS. YUM.

Continue reading →

Quinoa fried rice* with chocolate banana-avocado pudding**

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

*does not actually contain rice

**a dish best served while watching men’s synchronized diving and jumping around your kitchen pretending you’re a taekwondo champion

–

Nothing makes me want to eat healthy like watching the Olympics. Don’t get me wrong, I eat healthy food most of the time, but there’s nothing quite like muscular, Speedo-clad men to make me reconsider that tempting bowl of Dijon-doused potato salad. No, I’m not blushing. Stop that! Look away.

Last week, Wendy (remember, our food-loving web editor) kindly brought the newsroom in a selection of veggies from her lovely garden. Since she knows I love kale, she brought me a large Ziplock bag, packed to the re-sealable brim with the hearty green. The bag was puffed up like a pillow, and it took every last ounce of my will power to not doze off at lunch, head resting on a sack of sprouts.

I was lacking any sort of dinner inspiration last night (I blame the distractions on TV), and so I did as one always does when one is unmotivated – I cooked with quinoa. This turned out to be quite a successful course of action, and I thank this recipe for providing the basis of my meal.

And, since stuffing my face while watching incredibly fit athletes excel isn’t enough for me, I decided to make dessert.

One of the fondest memories I have of my old roommate Brittany is her penchant for creating desserts that were often more nutritious than my meals. Britt was the queen of homemade sorbets, and our Ottawa kitchen was frequently abuzz with the sound of her blending any combination of bananas and frozen berries. The result was normally consumed on our futon as we watched a movie in the dark. It’s been seven months since I last saw Britt, and so this dessert is dedicated to her.

I first discovered the chocolate-avocado combination when on my hunt for Ottawa’s best cupcake. Oh yes, for those of you just tuning in, that was a thing. I tried nearly 50 different kinds of cupcakes, one of which was a parsnip cupcake with dark chocolate and avocado frosting by Holly and Jackie at L’Oven. Since trying that cupcake, my mind occasionally flashes back to the silky smooth consistency of that icing – the melt-on-my-tongue texture. Last night, at long last, it was time to recreate it.

I know that this could have been a sugar free dessert, but frankly, I’m just starting to like unsweetened apple sauce and natural peanut butter. I needed a bit of sweet. Sugar-free evangelists be damned, please give me this – just leave me and my 1/2 tsp sugar at peace.

This pudding carries two aftertastes – it’s initially banana, which then fades out like a bad 80’s pop song into a wonderful avocado flavour. Since there’s no real added liquid, the pudding is nice and thick, which is perfect for the 10-year-old trapped in my body that likes to ooze the dessert out of my teeth. Gross, I know. I promise I’ll never do it in public.

Continue reading →