This combination plate of squid and shrimp was served as an entree at Ristorante L’Approdo on the water’s edge in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily.  And here are the Garlic Prawns and Calamari recipes mentioned in Part 1.

Garlic Prawns

29 large prawns

1/4 c olive oil

3 oz butter

1/2 red chili, finely chopped (red pepper flakes to taste)

10 garlic cloves, crushed-yep I said 10!

1/4 c white wine

3 T chopped parsley

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving the tails intact (if you wish).  Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the butter, chili and half the garlic.  Cook, stirring for 3 minutes.  Add the prawns and remaining garlic.  Cook for 3 more minutes or until prawns are pink.  Turn the prawns, add the wine and cook for another 4 minutes.  Add the parsley, season well with salt and pepper and serve with fresh bread to dip into remaining garlic butter.

Calamari in padella con limone e pangrattato (From Jamie’s Italy)

olive oil

1-2 fresh red chiles, pricked (once again I used chili flakes to taste)

6 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

2 large handfuls breadcrumbs

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 small package frozen calamari rings (defrosted as per package instructions)

1/2 lemon, very thinly sliced

a handful of flat leaf parsley, sliced

To make pangrattato, put 6 T olive oil into a think-bottomed pan.  Add chili, garlic and breadcrumbs and stir for a couple of minutes, until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  Remove and set aside.

Wipe the pan with paper towels and put it back on a high heat.  Add another splash of olive oil then season the rings and lay them gently in the hot pan with the lemon slices.  If you can’t fit everything in, do them in 2 batches.-you don’t want them cramped together.  Fry for a minute or so, until golden, then turn over and fry for the same amount of time on the other side.  The lemons will colour and need to be turned more quickly than the calamari, so just remove them from the pan and put to one side.  Take off the heat and divide the calamari and the lemon slices between your plates.  Scatter the pangrattato and the finely sliced parsley over top.  Serve immediately as they cool off quickly.

Kath’s quote:  “Do not overcook this dish. Most seafoods…should be simply threatened with heat and then celebrated with joy.” –Jeff Smith

I wanted to serve a very light lunch on the evening that we had made arrangements to go out for all you can eat pickerel.  Since I had just been to the Farmer’s market, I had all the fixings available for this salad that I have intended to try for many years.  I chose Julia Child’s version and this is what she has to say about Salade Niçoise:

“Of all main-course salads, the Niçoise is my all-time favorite, with its fresh butter-lettuce foundation; its carefully cooked, beautifully green green beans; its colorful contrast of halved hard-boiled eggs, ripe red tomatoes, and black olives; all fortified by chunks of tunafish and freshly opened anchovies.  It’s a perfect luncheon dish, to my mind, winter, summer, spring, and fall — an inspired combination that pleases everyone.”

1 large head Boston-lettuce leaves, washed and dried
1 pound green beans, cooked and refreshed
1-1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
1/2 to 2/3 cup basic vinaigrette
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 or 4 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved)
3 or 4 “boiling” potatoes, peeled, sliced, and cooked
Two 3-ounce cans chunk tuna, preferably oil-packed
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 freshly opened can of flat anchovy fillets
1/3 cup small black Niçoise-type olives
2 to 3 tablespoons capers
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter or in a shallow bowl.  Shortly before serving, toss the beans with the shallots, spoonfuls of vinaigrette, and salt and pepper.  Baste the tomatoes with a spoonful of vinaigrette.  Place the potatoes in the center of the platter and arrange a mound of beans at either end, with tomatoes and small mounds of tuna at strategic intervals.  Ring the platter with halves of hard-boiled eggs, sunny side up, and curl an anchovy on top of each.  Spoon more vinaigrette over all; scatter on olives, capers, and parsley, and serve.  Serves 6.

I had to substitute the Boston lettuce with with romaine, shallots with red onion, green beans with yellow and leave off the capers and it was still outstanding.  So good in fact, that D felt compelled to crack a bottle of Chardonnay to celebrate.

The 2007 VQA Chateau Des Chaimes from Niagara on the Lake was a crisp and certain complement.  The bottle had been a hospitality gift from Daughter #2’s boyfriend, which he had purchased on a recent trip to Ottawa.

My Daddy taught me many lessons but the most important was the value of hard work.  We have passed this trait along to our children.  This summer our youngest has held down 2 almost full time jobs and 2 part time jobs.  Needless to say, when she is not working, she is sleeping.  I sometimes see her before noon but only if she has received a long distance phone call from a special someone.  Well this morning that someone has arrived as our guest.  It is only 9 am and she is not only awake, she has already cooked a multi-coursed breakfast which is currently being consumed in the dining room.

In anticipation of this arrival, she also wanted to get some special meals in the freezer.  So this past weekend we cooked up a storm.

I’ve learned from my parents and now I am learning from my children.  I’ve thought a lot lately about the many benefits of batch cooking.  Not only is it a time, stress and money saver but it is an environmental saver as well:

you can purchase ingredients in larger quantities (i.e. less packaging) because you are cooking them all at once

you only heat up elements and the stove once instead of many times in a week

you use less dishes as a saute pan can be used for more than one item

you only do one large load of dishes, pots and pans, instead of many smaller loads during the week

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of all of this is that Daughter #2 made small dishes of everything to share with Daughter #1-that’s my girl!

Most of the dishes that we made have recipes previously posted on this site (with one exception) as they are family favourites.  Our list was:  Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce, Classy Chicken (curried chicken and broccoli), Chicken Enchiladas, Gourmet Mac and Cheese and Hamburger Soup.  Almost all these are from the Best of Bridge cookbook series-which includes convenient and kid-friendly recipes that we relied upon as our family was growing up.

Kath’s quote:  “In general, I think, human beings are happiest at table, when they are very young or very much in love.”-M.F.K. Fisher

Her first taste of chicken feet

Daughter #2 does not like change.  Seems an extraordinary notion when she has just spent last semester travelling in South Africa.  She stayed in a variety of people’s homes, caves and even a jail.  And yet when I try a new chicken enchilada recipe,  she reminds me that she does not like change.

The version that she is attached to is one from my trusty old Campbell’s Soup recipe book.  I am trying to eliminate as many processed foods in our diet as possible and was looking for a more authentic alternative.

For this recipe, sliced chicken breasts (or leftover chicken) are sauteed and then tossed in a 1/2 c of  enchilada sauce (purchased from El Izalco Market on Sargent Ave.).  This mixture is then rolled up in a tortilla-I used spinach ones.

A layer of the sauce was spooned into the bottom of a baking dish and the rolled tortillas were placed on top.  The rest of the sauce was spread on top and baked in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.  1/2 c of shredded mozzarella went on top before it was baked for another 15 minutes.

Daughter #2 declared they were okay but not as good as the Campbell Soup version.

Kath’s quote:  “Even while I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days…. It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better. But it is true that we have exchanged corpulence for starvation, and either one will kill us. The lines of change are down. We, or at least I, can have no conception of human life and human thought in a hundred years or fifty years. Perhaps my greatest wisdom is the knowledge that I do not know. “-John Steinbeck

I have a confession to make.  Perhaps some of you are saying-another one?  I love sweet and salty almond granola bars!  I know that they have as many calories and as much fat as a chocolate bar but I rarely indulge in a chocolate bars. 

Our son and his wife are very savvy about whole food/non additive cooking.  He pointed out that the issue with granola bars is that fat and sugary gunk hold the ingredients into a bar shape.  They pack these little jars up instead for lunch at work (and in his case and/or school).  The night that we had dinner at their home, we each had our own granola bar in a jar to pour over vanilla bean ice cream-oh my.  They keep the following ingredients in their pantry and then each assemble  their own concoction according to personal preference:

Pecans, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts,  walnuts  and/or other  favourite nuts.  Seeds like sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and poppy.  Dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, apricots , banana, mango, apple, etc.   Chocolate chips-milk chocolate chips cost a little more but are highly recommended. Making your own granola ensures that even less white sugar and additives  are consumed.  This process is adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix 2 c of oatmeal (not instant) with 1 t of cinnamon and ¼ c unsweetened coconut and spread onto a baking sheet.  Drizzle with  5 T of maple syrup or liquid honey and a little olive oil.  Stir well and then smooth out.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring and smoothing every 5 minutes.

Kath’s quote:  “My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass.”  ~Terri Guillemets