So many people feel like they have to fuss in the kitchen for hours in order to prepare an appropriate meal for company.  Recently I spent a weekend with a woman whose food personifies simple elegance.  She uses fresh, good quality ingredients but keeps it really simple.  Our breakfast of baked eggs were delicious.  Chopped green onion, parma ham and bits of brie topped with an egg and baked in ramekins for 20 minutes meant she was able to visit while we enjoyed our morning coffee.

Lunch was equally as easy to prepare. After breakfast she left out pre-cooked shrimp to thaw.  A few minutes before lunch boxed mixed greens were lightly dressed in a store bought champagne vinaigrette and topped with chunks of cantaloupe and the shrimp.  We picked nasturtiums (totally edible) from the potted flowers growing on the deck for a splash of colour.  Divine!

Kath’s quote:  “In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.”-Curnonsky

Wild strawberries, raspberries, saskatoon, pin and chokecherries and especially blueberries abound in the Belair Forest where our cottage is located.  I have made blueberry jam as well enjoying pancakes, crisps and bumble.  The trick to blueberry picking in this area is to go into the bush in twos and to watch out for bears.

I understand though that the most savoury of treats is also found on the wooded floor-chanterelle mushrooms.  After collection, they need to be clean and frozen in a food saver or a ziploc bag.  When ready to use they should be defrosted and rinsed.

Chanterelles can then be sauteed in butter with shallots and garlic.  These can be served over toast or on crostini or tossed into a rice pilaf.  Dry sherry and whipping can be added to produce a mushroom cream sauce which is a treat over pasta or baby potatoes.

Chanterelles are orange or yellow, meaty and funnel-shaped.   On the lower surface, underneath the smooth cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe, which tapers down seamlessly from the cap.   It has a fruity smell, reminiscent of apricots and a mildly peppery taste and is considered an excellent food mushroom. Chanterelles are relatively high in vitamin C, very high in potassium and among the richest sources of vitamin D.

Kath’s quote:  “Not being ambitious of martyrdom, even in the cause of gastronomical enterprise, especially if the instrument is to be a contemptible, rank-smelling fungus, I never eat or cook mushrooms.”-Marion Harland (1873) ‘Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery’

One of the churches in the area has co-ordinated a market on Fridays from 2-7 pm for August and September.  They set up at the community cub at Oak St. and Grosvenor Ave.  I had to pick up fresh produce to come up to the cottage and was happy to support the community initiative.

Even though I have finally planted my herb box at home, I was happy to find fresh basil for caprese salad and mint for rice rolls.  I was also pleased to find pickling cucs for cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and the tiniest little potatoes to boil and toss in butter and dill or for a salad.  They also had beautiful firm beets and turnips exactly the same size, that I intend to cook together for a different taste combination reminiscent of one of our favourite winter recipes.

Roasted Root Vegetables

2 T butter

3 T olive oil

4 carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 parsnips, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 large yellow turnip or 4 small (2 pounds), peeled, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

4 medium beets, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

4 medium red potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium sweet potato (yam), peeled, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

rock salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 t chopped fresh rosemary

1 t chopped fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Put a heavy roasting pan over 2 burners on the stove.   Heat the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat.   Add the veggies and brown, stirring occasionally,  about 5 minutes. Generously season the vegetables with salt and pepper to taste.   Add the rosemary and thyme and stir well to combine.  Roast the vegetables in the oven until soft when pierced and golden brown, about 1 hour.  Transfer to a large platter and serve.

Kath’s quote:  “The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.”-Tom Robbins

I mentioned in part 1 that all the dishes were already on the site with one exception, this one:  Classy Chicken.  This recipe is showing its age by its name and its inclusion of a can of cream of chicken soup.  In the 80’s when fast food was not quite as plentiful as today, food was made more quickly in our homes by the inclusion of short cuts like a “Cream of…” soup.

Now a day, my time in the kitchen is more leisurely, in addition to a common concern to reduce processed foods in our diet.  So the soup in this recipe can be replaced with the following: Melt 1 T of butter and whisk in 3 t of flour.  Stir constantly for 30+ seconds until the flour has had a chance to cook (but not brown).  Whisk in ½ c of chicken stock and ½ c milk.  Increase to a comfortable high heat and continue to stir constantly until the sauce is thick.

Classy Chicken

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

¼ t freshly ground pepper

Olive oil for sautéing

Approximately ½ lb. fresh asparagus or broccoli (frozen broccoli will suffice)

1 can of “Cream of” or substitution

½ c mayonnaise

1 t curry powder

1 t lemon juice

1 c grated cheddar

Cut chicken into cubes and sprinkle with pepper.  Sauté slowly in olive oil over medium heat until white and opaque about 5 minutes, drain.  Cook or defrost veggie until tender crisp.  Drain and arrange in the bottom of a buttered casserole.  Mix soup (sauce), mayo, curry and lemon juice together, add chicken and then pour over veggie.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and bake uncovered at 35 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Serve with a noodle or rice pilaf.  Serves 4.

Kath’s quote: No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”-Laurie Colwin

When I reflect on key food influencers in my life-my brother-in-law from Toronto ranks right up there.

He has exquisite taste in restaurants and introduced me to “Fred’s Not Here” in Toronto and Keith McNally’s “Pastis” and “Union Square Cafe” in Manhattan.

He is a great cook, especially grilled items, learning early as a teen aged Broiler Chef at the Keg Restaurants alongside my husband.   The last time he cooked for me, I went on and on about the grilled potatoes (potato aficionado that I am).  He shared that his secret ingredient was truffle oil that he had purchased on a trip to Italy. Of course I had to do the same and bought a beautiful bottle on the beach in Positano, Italy.  When it was snatched with our luggage on a train platform in La Spezia, we had to repurchase one in Monterosso al Mare.

Truffle oil is precious to begin with and this little bottle is placed on the table as a flavour to top a salad or a pasta course for very special guests.

I am prompted to write all this as my husband is staying with his brother this weekend.  As he was heading out the door to catch a flight to Toronto he reminded me that he was taking my camera.  Thankfully, I remembered that the memory card was in my laptop and quickly removed it for his departure but not in time to transfer all my current photos which were for my upcoming blog entries-drat.

Kath’s quote:  “There are two types of people who eat truffles: those who think truffles are good because they are dear and those who know they are dear because they are good.”-J.L. Vaudoyer