Food Posts
Cranberry Jello (Dec. 15/23)
Cranberry sauce with turkey is great. The red berries add a festive splash of colour to a plate of turkey at any time. But you can dress up even your cranberry sauce for special times like Christmas. My mother-in-law always did. So here’s how she made cranberry jello squares that were just that extra bit pretty for Christmas…
Pal-o-Mine (June 27/22)
June was taken up with taste-testing Pal-o-Mine chocolate bars. It started with an item on Information Morning on Saint John CBC Radio. After an absence of several months, Pal-o-Mine bars were back on New Brunswick store shelves. But to the shock and horror of many, they were different…
Cold Plates (Nov. 23/21)
If you want to get some practice in at making cold plates, American Thanksgiving this Thursday gives you the opportunity. The essential ingredients are there: turkey, ham, dressing and potatoes. After Canadian Thanksgiving last month, I made my best ever cold plates…
Lady Ashburnham Pickle (Sep. 4/20)
A mustard relish, Lady Ashburnham pickle originated in New Brunswick. It is also called Lady Ashburn or Lady A relish. Whatever you call it, it’s the best mustard pickle ever… Here is its story and how to make it…
Coffee Pods (Apr. 15/19)
Keurig coffee – wonderful. The K-cup – not so much. Concern about the plastic coffee pods started almost as soon as the Keurig coffee maker came on the market. Each one is very small. But add up one household’s consumption, then another’s, in a week, a month. Doesn’t take long to have a mountain of them…
Pineapple Pizza (Feb. 28/17)
The other night, my husband said he was going to make pizza. What kind, he asked. Pineapple and ham, I said without hesitation. They’re small, he said, so anything else? Pepperoni and pineapple. That’s what Sam Panopoulos likes…
$40 Beets (Sept. 10/13)
Several years ago, my husband grew beets and decided to pickle and can them… He printed labels for the jars: $40 Beets. He said he’d calculated that is what each jar cost him in time spent…
Phoenix Eggs (Aug. 15/12)
These beautiful little eggs are from my great nephew’s Phoenix hens. They’re maybe half the size of a large supermarket egg. But they’re twice as flavourful. I think that has more to do with the fact that the hens live a normal chicken life instead of being in a small cage in a battery chicken farm…
Cooking: Basics (May 9/11)
I’m a self-taught cook, and not a great one. But I enjoy it, find it relaxing (usually) and like to experiment. I have cookbooks and use them, but also know you can take ingredients and come up with something delicious and all your own. When you do, write down what you did!..
Preserving: Basics (Aug. 17/10)
It’s not hard preserving food and doesn’t have to be especially time-consuming. You can freeze, can or dry foods for use later. It’s a good way to make use of harvest time when local foods are plentiful and cheap…
Helpful Hints – household and food hacks
Recipes
Biscuits and Gravy
A staple of Southern cooking, biscuits and gravy makes for a delicious breakfast. It also can be very easy. A tube of country biscuit dough and leftover pork gravy. Add eggs and sausage, and you’re good to go.
Apple Fritters
Before I ever went to Tim Hortons, I thought apples fritters were fried apple rings in a light batter. That’s what I had eaten somewhere, sometime long ago. I loved them and never forgot the taste. The crunch of apple with sweet crispy batter.
Frozen Burritos
My husband likes having a supply of frozen burritos. Make rice and veggies or salad, nuke the burritos and there’s a quick meal. But he couldn’t find any in our grocery stores. So he made his own. Easy to do, and tastier too.
Mac and Cheese Salad
When I first saw macaroni and cheese salad, I thought how odd. Either mac and cheese or pasta salad, but both in one? Eventually, I tried it. I changed my mind on that distinction between food types.
Moose and Potatoes
Canned moose meat that a friend in Newfoundland sent us. A pan of potatoes, carrots and turnip slow cooked the way my nephew in Alberta makes them. A coast to almost coast, and delicious, meal.
Fish with Chickpeas
Meia-Desfeita de bacalhau com grão is salt cod with chickpeas and hard boiled eggs. It is so good. It’s also good, I discovered, made with flaked smoked trout. It can be served hot or cold, for dinner or lunch.
Egg Foo Young
Not much in the fridge but eggs and bok choy. Egg foo young, maybe? No, you need bean sprouts, the Joy of Cooking and online recipes told me. Can I adapt it? More creative googling and voilà.
Beef in Brine
Husband comes home with groceries: “look what I found, beef 50% off.” Beef in brine, the package said. What’s that? Makings for the first Jigg’s dinner I’ve ever made. And on St. Patrick’s Day too!
Cream Soup
Cream soup makes a warm and hearty winter meal or cool and light for summer. Comfort food always. With warm bread or salad, it’s a meal in itself. Here’s a guide to making it.
Cream Cheese Spread
My mother-in-law made us a book of family recipes. One is her mother’s recipe for cream cheese, olives and nuts sandwich spread. I made it only recently. Oh, l regret those wasted years!
Swiss Steak
This recipe is Elizabeth (McDonald) Smock’s, written down by her daughter Marji Stewart (my late mother-in-law). It is Elizabeth’s grandson who is cooking the Swiss steak here.
Asparagus Casserole
This asparagus and cheese casserole is my mother-in-law’s recipe. It was one of her potluck favourites because it travels well and easily warms up in a microwave. And if it can’t be warmed up, it still tastes good.
Fish Cakes
A can of tuna and presto, you’ve got fish cakes. Quick and easy, they make a simple or dressed up dinner or lunch. Tuna, bread crumbs, an egg, and onion. That’s all you need.
Ratatouille
One thing I thank a long ago boyfriend for is introducing me to ratatouille. He used the Joy of Cooking recipe, but added ground beef and cumin. Both are equally, but differently, delicious.
Zucchini Noodles
When only a giant zucchini will do: to make zucchini noodles. Zoodles some call them. Use them the same way you use pasta. They taste great, and they are gluten free, wheat free and carb free.
Cheese Stuffed Zucchini
A zucchini that escaped, hiding under foliage in order to grow huge. Stuff it. With what? What about a cheese stuffing? Something light and summery. Light, soft cheese. Maybe egg too.
Fruit Cobbler
In my never-ending spring search for things to do with rhubarb, I found a Robin Hood Flour cobbler recipe in my recipe scrapbook. A cobbler has fruit on the bottom with a cake-like topping.
Avocado Time
Any time is avocado time, but sunny summer days especially. Here are two really easy side dishes. One maybe unfamiliar, one you know. Avocado half with oil and vinegar, and guacamole.
Beef Stew
Beef stew is one of the easiest things to make. Brown meat cubes, add veggies and liquid and let it cook slowly. Plan on a couple of hours of cooking time. A one-pot meal or served on rice or noodles.
Tamale Pie
With salad or garlic bread on the side, tamale pie makes a perfect winter’s night meal. It’s a Tex-Mex type of shepherd’s pie or baked polenta with tomato sauce.
Cauliflower Cheese
I made baked cauliflower cheese with cherry tomatoes for supper one night. It was so pretty that I had to take a picture. It tasted so good that I made it again right away while I could remember how I did it.
Basil Pesto
Basil is easy to grow, and each plant produces a lot. So make pesto with that abundance. On its own, it’s a light sauce for pasta or a topping for baked potatoes.
Fruit Crumble
Fruit Crumble is one of the easiest desserts to make – and very, very delicious. This one is rhubarb and black cherries. The recipe comes from the Joy of Cooking.
Guinea Fowl & Veggies
“Hi Dorothy… I also checked the part with the recipes and decided that one is missing.” A comment posted by a friend, with his recipe. Photos followed. Wunderbar!
Macaroni and Cheese
This stove-top macaroni and cheese recipe from James Thorne’s Simple Cooking is the best ever. I’ve made mac & cheese a lot of different ways, and love this one. It is easy and consistently good.
Zucchini Boats
Got huge zucchinis? Stuff them. Here is how my husband makes them using left-over spaghetti sauce. The quantities below are for one 10 in/25 cm zucchini.
Perfect Rice
The trick to fluffy steamed rice, with grains nicely separated, is wash it first. Put the amount of uncooked rice you want in a pot and add water.
DIY Kraft Dinner
KD is the ultimate comfort food/fast food, especially for Canadians (says Wikipedia) who have grown up on it since it came on the market in the 1930s.
Corned Beef Macaroni
My niece: I was making Gramma’s corned beef pasta stuff and couldn’t remember if potatoes went in! Me: I dunno. My niece, later: All is well, it turned out ok. 🙂 Me: How’d you do it?
Xylene’s Carrot Cake
My dog Jack loved carrots. For his 7th birthday, I made him a carrot cake from my mother-in-law’s recipe. He, and we, loved it. The cat too. While I was giving the birthday boy his cake, she was eating mine!
Tomato Macaroni
This is essentially homemade Beefaroni. This was what I liked best that Mom made. I’ve recreated this recipe from what Mom told me: “you cook macaroni and hamburg, pour in tomato juice and heat it.”
TVP Pasta Sauce
If you’re vegetarian or not, TVP is your friend. TVP is short for ‘textured vegetable protein’. It’s a soy product that looks like bacon bits or small cat kibble. You can buy it in most grocery or bulk food stores.
Zucchini Biscuit Quiche
This is a really easy, fast and light meal. Once, while a friend and I were talking, I had the veggies sliced, everything mixed and the dish in the oven before she even realized I’d started preparing dinner.
Caesar Salad
Years ago, a friend and I used to go the Newfoundland Hotel’s main dining room, the fancy one, for one thing. Caesar salad. The waiter would come with a trolley filled with the makings and create it at the table.
Meatloaf
This is my mother-in-law’s recipe and it’s the best meatloaf I have ever tasted. The addition of pork makes it juicier than those made with beef only. Marji used a cast iron skillet to bake it, I like a loaf pan.
Pickled Eggs
My sister told me an easy way to make pickled eggs. She uses a large jar with a regular style lid because they go through them quickly. If you figure you’ll have yours longer, use a jar with a sealer lid.
Preserving
Cucumber Relish
Green relish isn’t expensive or hard to find. So you may not feel it’s worth it to make your own. But when I buy a jar, it’s not nearly as good as mine. Here’s an easy recipe for basic cucumber relish.
Juicer Rhubarb
Bought a juicer. A Cuisinart, on sale. More precisely, it’s a juice extractor. Fruit or vegetables go in, spin around while little blades separate the pulp from the juice. First to go in is rhubarb.
Apple Chutney
Apples left over from a good crop this year from our trees. Maybe apple chutney? I found a recipe I liked, myheartbeets Instant Pot Indian Apple Chutney. I used a regular saucepan – perfect!
Salsa
An excellent medium tomato salsa. You can make it chunky or smooth, hot or mild. The tomato sauce and paste give it a nice, thick texture. You can make it to eat straight away or can it – or do both.
Dill Pickles
I’ve always liked dill pickles, but I didn’t like homemade ones. They just didn’t have the crunch. Then I tried dills that Helen Erskine made. Wow!
Bread and Butter Pickles
It’s hard to find a recipe for these pickles that doesn’t include sliced onion, even green pepper. I like only cucumber in them, like the store-bought kind. So I adapted a good recipe I found online.
Apple Jelly
Making apple jelly is like making any other fruit jelly except you don’t need to add pectin. Apples have loads of pectin. Basically, just add sugar and lemon juice to the apple juice and boil until it gels.
Apple Juice
It’s been a good year for our apple trees. Different kinds – red, yellow, crab and not. Why couldn’t I make apple juice? Cook and strain, just like I did for rhubarb juice.
Rhubarb Juice
Last summer, looking at my still flourishing rhubarb patch, a friend said “We used to make rhubarb juice.” Really? Just cook it down a bit and strain it, she said. It’s like pink lemonade, only better.
Grilled Zucchini
If God has blessed you with so much zucchini that even the chickens run away when they see you coming, here is one solution. Grill and freeze. It’s easy and is great in tomato sauce or casseroles.
Rhubarb
If you’ve been watching your rhubarb plant get bigger and bigger but you don’t feel like making a pie or jam, here’s what you can do. Just cook the rhubarb. Eat it as is, use it as a topping, can or freeze it.
Rhubarb Jelly
Making jelly is more time consuming than jam. I hadn’t done it in a long time and never with rhubarb. With this recipe from Bernardin, it is easy and the jelly is excellent.
Tomatoes
Freezing is probably the easiest way to prepare a supply of tomatoes. In season, buy a large quantity of them or grow your own. And look in the reduced food bin for bags of tomatoes priced for quick sale.
Entertaining with Ease – or not
Coleman Stove Stir Fry
Years ago when I knew something about cooking but not about dinner parties, I wanted to have one. We were renovating a house. The kitchen was ripped apart. We cooked on a two-burner Coleman stove.
Meal Plans
When you’re making a meal, buy the right parts and remember all of it. I cooked dinner for friends. Roast beef, potatoes and carrots roasted with it, gravy, green beans. I bought eye of round roast. No fat – good!
Don’t eat it? Don’t cook it
When I was young and foolish, I invited a young man I was trying to impress for dinner. He liked liver. I didn’t. But I decided to make liver for him, despite not even knowing how it should taste.
Entertaining with Ease
Author of Entertaining at Home With Ease, Dr. Marjorie Stewart (my late mother-in-law), says making dinner parties easy for yourself makes it easy for everyone. Prepare beforehand and involve guests.
Waifs & Strays Xmas
My partner and I were alone one Christmas. We realized a few of our friends would be too so we invited them for Christmas dinner – “bring anyone”. We thought probably eight total. Ha!