Sweet potato and kale macaroni and cheese

July 4, 2012July 3, 2012 ~ Hilary ~ 10 Comments

Being at home alone means something different to everyone.

To me, it means absolute post-work freedom. Last night, that freedom took a variety of forms: going vegetarian for dinner, eating chickpeas and strawberries (not together) while making said meal, obsessing over episodes of my new favourite show (Girls on HBO), fantasizing about homemade Popsicle flavours, buying pasta that is shaped like tiny radiators, drinking my favourite craft beer brought back from Ottawa, and dancing to music in the kitchen while picking away parts of the roast chicken I bought at the grocery store.

homealone2 — Radiators, kitchen dancing, Girls (season one: finished), map-hanging, chicken eating

Yes sir, it was a good night.

There’s nothing like a dose of might-as-well-be-Monday macaroni and cheese to chase the post-long weekend blues away. I won’t whine, but I will say that I am always a little bit sad when I return from a few days in my old home, Ottawa. This weekend was absolutely brilliant, and filled with patio word games, human-chain crowd weaving and rental bike cruising. More on that later.

My Tuesday doubts were doused by this delectable dish.

The sweetness of the potato contrasted perfectly with the sharpness of cheddar. Both were balanced by the crunch of the breadcrumbs and the tender, chewy kale. The orange hue and crumby exterior made me feel like I was eating sweet potato tempura and, let’s face it, any healthy dinner that can be compared (visually or in taste) to a sinfully marvellous deep fried appetizer deserves to be applauded.

Also: let’s talk kale for a minute.

To me, kale was an unknown variable, the “x” in the equation that has yet to be solved. Tonight, I finally manned up and solved that problem and was most happy to discover that the answer was: x = awesome. I used a bag of frozen veggies packaged up by this Canadian company called Cookin’ Greens.

Their website says things like “the new fast food” and “from farm to freezer in six hours or less” … both of which seem pretty stellar to me as we continue to live in a society that doesn’t put enough value in local food or healthy eating. God knows we could all use some more dark and leafy greens in our life. The kale was the perfect supplement to this meal and I can’t wait to use my “designer mix” (spinach, collards, rapini, yellow beans and onion) later in the week.

Oh yes, and one more perk to being home alone? So many leftovers!!! Initiate lunchtime excitement.

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Father’s Day 2012: Mustard turkey burgers

June 21, 2012June 20, 2012 ~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

If there’s one thing my dad dislikes, it’s leftover holiday turkey. In fact, there is an infamous Duff family story involving my exasperated dad and a plate of turkey pot pie…but we won’t go there.

This context in mind, it was totally logical that I make him turkey burgers for father’s day, the one day of the year that is supposed to be all about him. Before you start crying injustice and boycotting my blog, let me explain. Because I love my dad, I want to expand his horizons. I intend to do that by presenting him with things – turkey burgers, say – of which he may be a little wary. By making dinner delicious and thus somewhat reversing his hatred of all things turkey-related, I’ve helped him out in my own special way. BAM – the gift of enlightenment. What did you guys get your dad..golf clubs? Pfft, whatever!

Even if these were turkey, they were still burgers which I thought fit into the theme of “dads” quite well. Plus, my dad taught me to barbeque a few weeks ago, so I thought he might appreciate me showing off this newfound ability.

When I saw the recipe for these burgers, it automatically reminded me of my dad, just because of the Dijon mustard use. Back story: there was a stint in grade seven or eight when I would make my dad a sandwich every night to bring to work the next day. This sandwich would always have the same innards – margarine, sliced ham and a generous spoonful of Dijon mustard. The smell, texture and taste of said condiment now reminds me of him. Go figure.

Oh right, and I also decided to make homemade sesame seed hamburger buns after seeing this beautiful recipe on the interwebs. We have a breadmaker at home, but I wanted to get all Betty Crocker and knead everything by hand. Plus I get to eat more dough that way…

Anyways, these ended up being a hit and I loved the avocado and roasted red pepper as toppings.

PS: if you haven’t already, go read this stellar personal essay by the Globe and Mail’s Ian Brown. It is father-themed, and therefore appropriate for this post. It made me cry like a baby and write an emotional letter to my dad, which I inappropriately called “The First Draft of your Eulogy.”

Oh god, I suck at father’s day, don’t I?

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Bacon and egg stuffed crepes (indulge, you know you want to)

June 19, 2012June 17, 2012 ~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

My parents were out of town this weekend, so naturally I made the most over-the-top breakfast I could think of. I love my family, but when it comes to eating, they are not patient. They cannot even begin to fathom why it may take longer than 30 minutes to prepare breakfast, when one can so easily opt for cereal or porridge.

Bacon and egg stuffed crepes5 — My brother, thrilled to be in my presence, clearly.

They would not have tolerated the hour-long preparation for these crepes – but I’m here to tell you why you should. The short answer? Because they were freakin’ awesome. And because if you love brunch even half as much as I do, then these will blow your mind (related: since moving away from Ottawa I am so brunch deprived!).

The over-the-top description is not just because of the time they took to make, either. Oh no. The ingredients were also of heart-stopping decadence. I might have made the crepes on a pan greased with…bacon fat.

Oh god. Still here? Good. Phew. I was sure you would have jumped up and gone running away from your computer shrieking “she has turned into a fat-loving, cholesterol-raising Paula Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen.” Or something like that.

If my dietician mom had been here on Saturday, she never, EVER would have let me serve these. She practically disowned me when I told her I fried potatoes in duck fat (STILL THE BEST THING EVER). But you know what? Indulging is okay every once in awhile. As my friend Christine put it over Facebook, this meal was “very eastern European of me.” I couldn’t help it. The bacon fat was just sitting on the counter, looking all forlorn in a little glass bowl. It brought a tear to my eye.

Well, now that the confessional is over…

Making crepes was an adventure. I’ve only ever sort-of made crepes before, back at the end of third year (two years ago, but who’s counting?) when my friend Alan (yes, the one mentioned in the recent pizza post) came to visit me in Ottawa. And by sort-of made, I mean that Alan totally made them, and I stood by the side of the stove in awe as the eggy mixture somehow formed into something that resembled a pancake.

It really wasn’t that bad, and so I will update my Twitter status in which I said that making crepes for the first time was “a terrifying experience.” Terrifying is not the right word, so I hereby revise it to instead say “exhilarating.”

Yes, crepe making is exhilarating. How do you guys get your thrills?

The first crepe was filled with unsure, jolty movements, burnt fingers and hesitation.

Bacon and egg stuffed crepes6 — Not too shabby

Then I learned – crepes are not delicate. No, no, no, crepes are tough cookies that can be flipped and turned in one fluid, not-too-graceful motion. Crepes almost have a sense of elasticity to them, and in mid-flip you can let the sides hang off the spatula and jiggle about before landing on the pan again. It’s all very exciting.

Anyways, these were completely unreal. Thanks to Pinterest and this recipe for the eggs-in-a-crepe basket inspiration. A major breakfast win.

Side note: I am very excited to have been able to achieve a semi-nice brown base for these photos. Thank you, upside down place mats.

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Gourmet pizza party (five ways)! And a visit from a friend!

June 9, 2012June 15, 2012 ~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

Hey all, sorry about the week-long hiatuses recently. I’m still trying to get into the groove of working full-time and living at home, and as such have been finding it hard to blog.

But anyways, this weekend dinner happened.

You know the drill, once in awhile you just need to have a pizza party. Saturday was one of those days. And, since I believe pizza parties are synonymous with socializing, it was perfect that my friend Alan was in town from Montreal to help prepare dinner.

Doesn’t he look like a piece of Microsoft clipart in that right-hand photo?

Now you should know that when it comes to food, I refuse to make the same thing twice (okay, except black bean burgers and other truly delicious concoctions). This kitchen motto especially applies to foods like pasta and pizza, where the traditional serving method of tomato and bread must (a) be avoided or (b) be creatively spiffed up in one way or the other. And so, the evening became a gourmet pizza party. Heck yes.

In addition to three types of cheese (a mozzarella ball, provolone and goat cheese – really, the most expensive part of any pizza), Alan and I had a whole pile of toppings to choose from.

With so many options available, I suggested we draw sketches of our pizza (I like visualizing food on paper), though this exercise quickly dissolved into a lesson about the components of DNA (seriously, don’t give a chemistry masters student the chance to draw diagrams), reminiscing about graduation after-parties and a conversation about Nunavut food prices (something that I’m actually reporting on tomorrow).

And so, when pizza making time finally came around, it was time to improvise.

We ended up making five different kinds:
1. White bean sauce with yellow/orange peppers, mozzarella, goat cheese, oregano and sliced Italian sausage (inspired by a white bean stew I saw on the Internet);
2. Tomato paste with peppers, shaved chicken and artichoke with mozzarella;
3. Alan’s “Italian style” pizza with tomato basil sauce, red onion, portobello mushrooms and Italian sausage;
4. Pesto with sautéed portobello mushrooms and red onions, inspired by this former Hilary Makes creation; AND our most creative and off-beat pizza of the evening…
5. A banana pizza with hot sauce, mozzarella and balsamic vinegar, the idea for which was snagged from Alan’s banana omelette recipe (yes, actually a thing). We weren’t originally going to make this one, but after my dad made such a fuss about not wanting banana on his pizza, we had no choice but to go against his will.

PS: I am typing this blog post on my new iPad!! Exciting, huh? The keyboard is pretty much the same size as the one on my MacBook, except there is less force required to tap the keys and my iPad doesn’t overheat on my thighs while I’m sitting on my bed. It also has autocorrect just like my iPhone, so that when I’m too lazy to capitalize words or add apostrophes to things, it fixes them for me. Correctly or incorrectly, I’ll never tell. Damn You Autocorrect, anyone?

Pad Thai-inspired rice wraps with peanut garlic sauce

May 29, 2012May 29, 2012 ~ Hilary ~ 5 Comments

~~Nothing says summer like fresh rice wraps.~~

Nothing SCREAMS summer like fresh rice wraps.

They’re cool, simultaneously light and filling, and beautifully colourful, which makes food photography a breeze. Yes sir, rice wraps are terrific things.

Lately I’ve noticed that my blog has been getting a lot of visits because of people pinning and re-pinning the fresh avocado spring rolls I made almost a year ago to this date. Apparently avocado, rice paper and a pretty wooden cutting board = Pinterest porn. I should never have let that cutting board go. Damn.

Anyways, inspired by this influx of visitors and wanting to fuel the fire even more, I decided to revive the rice wrap. I came upon Alison’s delicious looking vegan summer rolls recipe on Tastespotting, and decided to use it as a starting point for one of my own.

A year of chopping later, and this happened. It’s like one of those colour palette wheels they use on home interior shows. Yes, I’d like my accent wall to be radish red and I’ll take the throw pillows in cucumber green, please.

I decided to make Rice Wraps Round 2.0 pad thai themed because (a) let’s face it, you can never have too much pad thai, and (b) I have not had nearly enough pad thai in my life since I stopped visiting Old Ottawa South’s Siam Kitchen in second year. There was also mango tossed in there for good measure. It was like a thai-mango salad and pad thai all in one. Does it get much better than that, people?

The assembly of these rice wraps reminded me of a messier taco night; seconds of rice paper softening followed by attempts to rapidly stuff the resulting circular membrane with as much vegetables as it would hold.