Hilary makes food

Cold Asian soba noodle salad (with edamame, mango, peanuts, cucumber & everything else that is good in the world)

~ Hilary ~ 6 Comments

Hello, I’m back. This past week I traded blogging efficiency for journalism efficiency. At this point in time, the two cannot be done in tandem, apparently, which is certainly something I am going to have to work on.

That being said, this salad was made a millennium ago. But it was so good that the need to blog about it transcends the boundaries of space and time laid out by The Internet.

One of the problems with blogging after the fact is that it is challenging to remember all the funny little narratives that accompany a meal. Like how I tried to make my brother pretend he was bowling with the purple cabbage (because really, doesn’t it look like those kid-friendly bowling balls you used to use at grade two birthday parties?) and then predict my fortune using the same cabbage as a crystal ball. Anyways, moral of the story here is that it is always best to simultaneously blog and cook. That way nothing goes forgotten.

Sad baby brother

I was nervous about this salad. Wendy, our fantastic web editor at CBC, is a fellow food-lover, and we usually extensively discuss my meals both before and after making them. Wendy had me on high-alert with this salad, flagging soba noodles as something of which she isn’t particularly fond. I cautiously proceeded.

One of the many things I enjoy about trying new foods is that I get to discover fun facts about them (someone needs to create a food trivia game, stat). All I knew about soba noodles prior to this meal was that they were the skinny opposite of those thick, tube-like, wheat-based udon noodles that I used to eat in really bad, 2 a.m. first-year-residence stir-frys. I promptly learned that soba noodles are made of buckwheat (soba is, in fact, the Japanese word for buckwheat) which is, WAIT FOR IT, in the same food family as…rhubarb. Neat, huh? Needless to say, Wendy and I spent 15 minutes before story meeting one morning Google imaging flowery fields of buckwheat.

When the opportunity presents, I really love sharing food, and this salad was the ideal dish to package up in Tupperware and transport throughout the downtown core. Wendy got some (good news: she changed her mind about soba noodles!), my friend Liz (of former outdoor picnic fame) had some delivered to her office, and my friend/owner of Café petit gâteau, Yoshi, also got some. Yoshi gave me a fresh herb and gruyere scone in exchange, which was one of the best things that happened to my day.

Special lunch deliveries

Anyways, in the end this salad had so many good things in it. I think it could be classified as a “kitchen sink” / “crisper clearer” dish, because of the oodles of leftover items it used. My health levels are reaching new peaks just thinking about it.

PS: frozen edamame beans = popcorn.

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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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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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Moroccan chicken salad (& my personal journey conquering couscous)

~ Hilary ~ 11 Comments

I know how to make quite a few different kinds of food, but couscous is not one of them.

Or at least it wasn’t up until Wednesday night. Yes, couscous is known as one of the most simple foods to cook. That is beside the point. And completely FALSE on my part.

In the past, my couscous has always turned out looking quite sad. Perhaps it was a poor water-to-couscous ratio causing drowned over-saturation or because I always “fluff” the resulting starch with a little too much enthusiasm.

See the picture below? What a nice little pile of mashed potatoes, right? WRONG WRONG WRONG. This is me when I was learning to cook two summers ago. The couscous resembled mashed potatoes and the pork “medallions” resembled chicken wings (fun fact: I have never even attempted to make chicken wings…summer mission?). I was so mortified by other similar experiences that I’ve put off trying to make couscous again for some time.

I held my breath when preparing the couscous this time around. And it worked! The couscous did what it was supposed to!! I meant to take a picture of the resulting fluffiness, but I was too hungry and ecstatic and forgot.

This recipe was inspired by one I saw in the most recent issue of Canadian Living. Remember that cooked rotisserie chicken I mentioned in my mac and cheese post? Well I bought it for this meal, and I figured I should probably use it up before I died because of chicken-snack consumption.

Wednesday evening was stiflingly hot, and this salad provided a great, non-cook meal. Though this weather makes you sweat as though you’re running a marathon with every step, it also provides me with a great challenge in the kitchen – get creative, taste fresh and stay cool. Dessert? Popsicles.

Oh yes! And leftovers were brought to a picnic I had in the park with my friend and former first-year roommate, Liz. She brought some delicious iced tea from tea & bloom and it was fun.

Meet Liz!

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