Strawberries with Lemon Sugar

This may be the one of the easiest and best desserts you will ever make.

I know, that is a lofty claim. I pulled this together in about 3 minutes, and it took about the same time for it to disappear. I'd say that backs it up, no?

I finished work Saturday and hit the grocery store, thinking that I'd get home, get the groceries put away, and head over to Tyler's cousin's place for a BBQ. It tuns out the party had been moved to our place. Okay... Now what?

Luckily the boys had dinner already planned out and ready to go so I didn't have to do any cooking. Cleaning up was another story, but that's what happens when there is a ratio of 2 women to 6 men I suppose, despite this being 2013 and not 1952.

The last thing I wanted to do was come home and make a dessert (especially since it was a toss up between popping a drink or jumping in the pool for the first thing I wanted to do). So I zested a couple of lemons, added some sugar, washed the berries and headed out to the pool. With a drink.

One Year Ago: Battenburg Cake

Two Years Ago: DIY Tex-Mex Shredded Cheese

Three Years Ago: Bran Flax Muffins

STRAWBERRIES WITH LEMON SUGAR

• 2 pounds strawberries
• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

Wash and dry strawberries. Zest lemons into a bowl using a Microplane* or other fine zester. Add sugar, rub sugar and zest together to with your fingertips to combine. To serve, dip strawberries in sour cream (or yogurt) and then in lemon sugar.

*If you don't have a Microplane, use the side of a cheese grater with the small holes and then pulse the zest together with the sugar in a food processor.

And this week in food...

Ok guys, week two of sharing my meal plan. Somehow a couple of meals got shifted to this week from last week. What did we eat in place of those two meals? One night we went to a barbqeue at my father-in-law's, the other...? I honestly couldn't tell you. How is it even possible that I don't remember making a random meal after work?

• Chicken Stew with Sweet Potato Biscuits from last week

• Pork Roast with Braised Green Onions and Couscous also from last week

• Souvlaki with Greek Orzo Pasta Salad I'll post the pasta salad recipe later in the week

• Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

• something vegetarian with chickpeas maybe. We've been eating a lot of meat lately which is kind of weird for us.

• Chicken Korma

So, the burgers. I was going to make these burgers from Skinny Taste but they took another direction. They turned out to be about half meat and half veg since I kept just finding stuff in my fridge and chucking it in the bowl. Left over chopped up peppers? In they go. There was some cucumber in with the peppers, so that got mixed in. I have a giant tub of baby spinach and since it's usually up to just me to eat about a kilo of spinach since nobody else will touch it, I thought I'd sneak some of that in too. A hunk of feta cheese was found lurking in the fridge too. Ok... I have a theme now... Greek Turkey Burgers! Genius. Some dill, parsley, and garlic powder rounds these bad boys out.

Tyler barbequed the burgers since I am banned from the barbeque. This is a recent development that occurred when I set a spatchcocked chicken on fire. And I wasn't paying attention so it probably burned for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Whoops. But you know what? I may be on to something here. That chicken cooked through in 15 minutes and was wonderfully juicy and smoky. Once you dig through the char of course.

Where there are burgers, there are baked sweet potato wedges. In my house anyway. I've told you how I make sweet potato fries before, right? Hmmm... a search of Four Seasons Kitchens says no. "Recipe" below as well.

GREEK TURKEY BURGERS

Serves 4

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 sweet pepper, finely chopped (roasted red peppers would be good too- use a couple whole ones)
• big handful baby spinach, chopped
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• salt and pepper (go easy on the salt since you've got feta in there, big up on the pepper)
• buns, tomatoes, condiments (including Sriracha- turkey burgers always need Sriracha!) to serve

Preheat grill to high heat- 500 degrees F. Place turkey and remaining ingredients through to salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix to combine (your hands are the best tool here). Divide mixture and shape into 4 patties. Grill over direct heat for 6 to 7 minutes per side or until cooked through.

BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into wedges. Pile on baking sheet lined with foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat potatoes. Spread potatoes into one layer. Bake 10-15 minutes on middle rack. Flip wedges, bake another 8-10 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Bookmarked

Photo: Cooking Light

When it rains it pours, right? I didn't write any posts for over two months and now this is the third this week. Did I forget how much I love food? Yes, I think I suffered from some temporary insanity for those two uninspired months. But I'm back!

Speaking of food, this weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year... it's Kitchener Multiculteral Festival weekend! Tons of food vendors representing countries from all over the world in one place. I can't wait to stuff my face with amazing food! El Savadorian pupsas are a must, samosas from a few vendors- just to compare and make sure we try the best ones, and hopefully they have the curry chickpeas that rocked my world last year again. So. Stoked.

101 Sandwiches via Cooking Light I love having a sandwich and a salad for dinner on the deck in the summer. The Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches are going to have to happen next week I think.

Sweet Potato and Leek Soup via My Invisible Crown This will have to wait for fall, but it looks delish.

Cavetelli with Asiago Oat Crumbs via Food52 Interesting

Waffled Chocolate Cakes with Cocoa Nibs via Waffleizer This is a whole blog about "waffleizing" things other than waffles. Awesome

Chicken Korma via Jamie Oliver Forums I have been craving Indian food since that Top Chef Canada episode with Vikram Vij (I just looked Googled this episode... that was a month ago. That is far too long to have a craving. This needs to happen next week too)

DIY Larabars via Donuts, Dresses, and Dirt These look great, healthy, and easy. Plus, I love the name of this blog! 

What Are We Eating

I shared in my last post how the daily grind of weeknight meals is sapping my cooking motivation. I'm going to try something new here. I always plan our weeknight meals anyway, so I will post what we my meal plan for the week. Hopefully this will inspire me to be more creative and share some ideas with everyone else as well. Please share in the comments your quick dinners as well... sharing is caring folks.

Here is the plan for this upcoming week.

• Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake via Pinterest

• Mini Tacos via Pinterest (I made these last night. They were cute and really good. I sneaked about a 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree in to up the veg factor)

• Slow Cooker Thai Chicken with brown rice I'll use almond butter rather than peanut butter though as Parker is allergic of course. I've been meaning to use my slow cooker more, especially because I got a small appliance switch for my Rogers Smart Home Monitoring system specifically to be able to turn the slow cooker on/off from work (from my iPhone...that is so cool, right?!? George Orwell couldn't even conceptualize that technological breakthrough)

• Perogies with some kind of side vegetable, probably peas and corn thawed in the microwave. No, I'm not making perogies from scratch. This is my lazy meal for that inevitable day that I don't want to cook anything.

• Roasted Pork Loin with Braised Scallions and Couscous

• Chicken Stew with Sweet Potato Biscuits The chicken stew is from my freezer. I have no idea what's in it or what the recipe is. All I know is it is labelled "Chicken Stew Feb 2013" so we'd better eat it.

One Year Ago: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Two Years Ago:  Panini Bar

Three Years Ago: Aloha Pork Kebabs
 

Greek Potato Salad

Wow it's been a while since I have posted anything. I know, not at peep from me lately. In the 3+ years I've been writing this blog I think this is longest I've gone between posts, and that includes when I was pregnant and food turned my stomach. What gives?

I don't know, really. I've been back to work full time a year now and I think the daily grind of pumping out quick meals when I get home from work has sapped my creativity. I also find I'm eating more for health than pure enjoyment lately. 'Cause let's be honest, avocado chocolate pudding is good, but it's no butter-laden chocolate chip cookie people.

I think that's enough excuses now, non? Let's get to the food.

I have made this potato salad twice in the last few weeks. It is a nice fresh twist on the regular old potluck potato salad (or the one in the plastic container from the grocery store Tyler likes... UGH). My Greek Potato Salad is loaded with more veg that you will usually find in potato salad, plus lemon zest makes everything better. Make this for your next BBQ and you'll be asked for the recipe, guaranteed. I should have prettied it up for the photo with some chopped parsley sprinkled on top or something, but whatever. Trust me, it is delish.

Oh, I just thought of one more excuse... I'm turning 30 in three weeks and I'm kinda FREAKING OUT. I used to think my Grannie was ridiculous saying she was 29 for twenty years straight, but now I get it. I may pull a Grannie. 29 forevah bitches (sorry for the swear Dad... it just fits).

One Year Ago: Let's just do this- here are the April 2012 and May 2012 archives

Two Years Ago: Super Quick Chicken Dish + Mushroom, Caramelized Onion, and Goat Cheese Quiche + Dog Cookies

Three Years Ago: Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta + Stuffed Shells + Casual Entertaining Menu + Heavenly Cheesecake

GREEK POTATO SALAD

Serves 4

This is one of those recipes I am so fond of that isn't really a recipe. Why measure a specific amount of cucumber- who cares how much goes in exactly? Just go with it. The potatoes are tossed with the dressing while still hot so that they absorb the dressing and become more delicious.

• 4 small to medium yellow fleshed potatoes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 a cucumber, roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup low fat mayo
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• splash red wine or white wine vinegar
• splash olive oil
• dash garlic powder
• bigger dash dried oregano
• handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• small handful fresh dill, chopped (or use dried dill to taste)
• salt and pepper (I like it with lots of pepper)

Cook the potatoes in the microwave or in a pot of water until just cooked through. Let cool a few minutes. While potatoes are cooling whisk together dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Using a sharp knife in order to keep the skin in tact, chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces and place in bowl with dressing. Mix gently (a spatula works well here) to coat potatoes. Refrigerate until cooled.

When cooled gently mix in remaining salad ingredients. Refrigerate until serving. Leftovers will keep a day, but after that things get fairly soggy.

I Made That! Ricotta Cheese

Homemade ricotta on toasted bread with basil and balsamic drizzle

I know you won't believe this, but it is super easy to make ricotta cheese at home. Can you boil a pot of milk? You can make ricotta cheese. I made ricotta cheese today in the time it took to make Kraft Dinner.

No seriously, I was making Kraft Dinner for lunch and decided to make ricotta with some extra milk I had (I know, who ever has "extra" milk? Well 2-litres and 3-litres of 2% milk was the exact same price so obviously I bought the 3L). The KD and the ricotta were done at the same time. I know there is a paradox at play here, but such is my life of a mother and lover of good food.

I did make this with 2% milk, but usually I make it with whole milk. You get a richer cheese that is, frankly, better. But lean ricotta is better than no ricotta, right?

I have a few recipes for ricotta bookmarked that I've referenced when making it before, but at the most basic level all you do is this:

1. Bring a litre (quart if you are outside of Canada) to a boil with 1/2 tsp kosher salt.

2. Turn off the heat and stir in the juice of 1 lemon or 3 tbsp of white vinegar

3. Milk will immediately separate into curds and whey. Line a colander with a few layers of cheesecloth, or alternatively use a clean piece of linen or cotton. If have a very fine mesh sieve you can use this rather than a lined colander (this is what I use). 

4. Pour contents of pot into colander or sieve, letting the curds drain briefly but don't let them drain completely dry- you want a creamy ricotta. Taste the cheese and add more salt if desired. If you find you have drained off too much whey some milk can be stirred in to moisten the ricotta.

Save the whey if you are super thrifty like me- it is high in protein and can be used in smoothies or whatnot.

Here are some actual recipes from my bookmarks on making ricotta for your perusal. Apparently I'm a little obsessed with homemade ricotta judging by how many recipes I have collected.

DIY Ricotta from The Kitchn
Fresh Ricotta Cheese from Bon Appetit
Jennie's Homemade Ricotta from Too Many Cooks This recipe uses milk and cream, and buttermilk for the acid rather than lemon or vinegar
Rich Homemade Ricotta from Smitten Kitchen
Homemade Mascarpone from Vegetarian Ventures Have you seen what a tub of mascarpone costs?!? Making it at home is the same as making ricotta only using all cream rather than milk

And finally, here are some recipes from my bookmarks in which to use your fantastic ricotta. Aside from eating it with a spoon with the fridge open. That's never happened.

Ricotta Gnocchi from Four Seasons Kitchen If you plan in advance to make ricotta and use it for gnocchi let your ricotta drain more and you can skip right to mixing it with the other ingredients.
Vegetable Fusilli Bake with Ricotta Topping from LCBO Food and Drink
Roasted Squash and Ricotta Ravioli from Dinner with Julie
Roasted Fall Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza from Martha Stewart
Ricotta Blintzes with Lingonberry Syrup from Food and Wine
Whole Wheat Ricotta Blackberry Scones from 101 Cookbooks

My Grandma's Pancakes

Swedish pancakes, crepes, Grandpa's pancakes. It doesn't matter what you call them so long as you call them breakfast sometime very soon. It's a long weekend coming up. Perfect for spending a little extra time making something special for breakfast.

As kids we would go up to my Grandparents house on the lake almost every weekend. Us kids- my brother, cousins, and I- would get up early on Saturday and go with Grandpa on his morning walk to the "treat store" (when the grand kids weren't there I'm pretty sure he just called it the store where he got the newspaper). If you weren't up by the time Grandpa left for his walk you were left behind. We would get home and have some "crepes" that Grandma had started making at the butt-crack of dawn in order to feed the hordes.

I use quotations on "crepes" because these are not your dainty French crepes that are not to brown when cooking. These are big, spotty Swedish pancakes. Only Grandma is Estonian. They're not pancakes- those are fluffy and you put maple syrup on them- so we just called them crepes. We would get home from the treat store with our candy that we were not to eat until after breakfast and sit down to stuff our faces with crepes.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why we had to wait to eat our candy. Now that I think about it, the crepes probably weren't much better on the healthy scale. We always ate them with strawberries and whipped cream or applesauce with cinnamon sugar. When I was a bit older I also started to eat them with lemon juice (from a bottle but now I'm a snob and use fresh) and sugar. The crunch of the sugar with the tartness of the lemon is my favourite. Jam is good too. Or you could eat them like Grandma- standing at the counter after everyone had finished eating, holding a crepe smeared with lingonberry jam in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I wish I could say that this is Grandma's recipe, but she doesn't have a recipe. She's been making crepes so long that she just mixes stuff together, tastes the result, and tweaks it if needed. Perhaps one day I'll get there, but even recipes I know off by heart I still look up just to be sure. So I cobbled together a recipe from a bunch of different recipes for Swedish pancakes online. These are very close to Grandma's. If you're really good you can work two pans at once in order to crank them out faster like Grandma used to.

PS I wish I had taken made the crepe in the lead photo look nicer, like the one below. Or used a smaller plate at least. But I am digging the breakfast table setting so I went with that one. I guess I don't do my best food styling at 7:30 am. My apologies. 

One Year Ago: Mystery Box Dinner and The Reveal

Two Years Ago: Bulgar Salad + Three Corn Cornbread

Three Years Ago: n/a

GRANDMA'S CREPES

Serves 8 (2 crepes per person, although members of my family have been known to eat 5 in one sitting)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, divided (to grease the pan)

Toppings:

• Applesauce and cinnamon
• Jam
• Berries- thawed from frozen are good, then you get some nice berry juice
• Lemon and sugar

Heat an 8 to 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Whisk together milk and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour, sugar, salt and whisk until mostly smooth.

Once pan is heated add a small pat of butter and spread around the pan to coat. Add a soup ladle of batter while turning pan so that batter coats it evenly. You'll get a feel for how much batter to add for the next one on this first crepe- you don't want your crepe too thin or too thick. Even if they're not perfect, they'll be rolled up so don't sweat it. Flip once the crepe is golden on the bottom, about 45 seconds to a minute. Cook until browned on second side.

Transfer to a plate, stacking subsequent crepes on top. If crepes cool before eaten, warm one at a time (i.e. the one you're about to eat) in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread desired filling all over the crepe or just down the middle- everyone has their preference- and roll up.