I love when our little cottage is overflowing with family but I also savour the time alone here.  One of the reasons is that when I am on my own I throw out all my customary food rules.  Yesterday for example, I had sunflower seeds and a mango for lunch on the beach.  

I dislike wasting food and so I am very careful to eat left overs and invent recipes with fresh items in the fridge.  Shopping is limited here as is garbage collection, so we want to make every food decision to be a resourceful one.

I have a mixture of wild and white rice left over from the weekend and I came upon a soup recipe to put it to good use.  But as we are in the midst of a supposed heat wave, I’ve decided to mix all the ingredients together as a stir fry instead of a soup. 

1 T veggie oil

1 onion, chopped,

1 T freshly grated ginger

2 cloves minced garlic

1 carrot, peeled and chapped

1/4 c chopped cilantro leaves

left over wild rice mixture

boneless chicken breast

salt and pepper

I started by softening the veggies, then added the chicken and finally the leftover rice.

Wild rice is nutty in flavour and has a slightly chewy texture.  It is high in protein and fibre.  The ginger, garlic and cilantro also means that this dish is full of antioxidants.  The unusual combination was delicious. 

Kath’s quote:  Some people see hearts (read: love) in very unconventional places. –Me

It is surprising (even to me) that I am still blogging about my Mom’s Birthday Cocktail Party as it was months ago by this time. 

One of my assigned recipes were these easy and fun kebabs.  The prep was primarily about shopping at a high end Italian store for: spicy Italian olives, fine salami, an equally fine sausage and fresh cherry tomatoes.  I had cheese herb ravioli in the freezer that I added.  Simply assemble your chosen ingredients and spear onto a medium bamboo skewer.  It is a good idea to have a firm item at either end, in my case a tomato and large olive.  On the same plate I served prosciutto wrapped honeydew melon.

These turned out to be one of the hits of the evening and were definitely the simplest to prepare, plate, serve and consume.  There were other items served that would prompt my Mom to ask: “What do I do with this?”

Kath’s quote: “Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.”-Charles Pierre Monselet

I have spent the weekend with our son and his wife and have picked up some wonderful cooking ideas in a short time.  Just the fact that they are so willing to pitch in with meals at the cottage-makes my heart sing. 

The first taste treat was their spaghetti with Italian sausage.  I usually blanch the sausages and then let then soak up the pasta sauce.  They grill theirs until crunchy on the barbeque and add them to the sauce at the last minute-yum.

They shared a simple and yet fabulous recipe for pork.  My husband modified it for the barbeque instead of a sauté pan and it went like this: sear pork chops or pork tenderloin that has been liberally covered with salt and pepper on high heat.  Then move to a pan containing 1 part ice tea and one part balsamic vinegar.  Let the sauce reduce as pork continues cooking.  Serve at the doneness point of your liking (we like ours medium rare to medium well-but definitely not well done).  This proved to be a really interesting mixture of tastes-sweet and pungent and the sauce was also lovely on the wild rice pilaf that we also served.

Sister #2 is the expert omelet maker at the cottage but in her absence our son was willing to take a stab at it.  We also have a new electric griddle which put him at an extreme disadvantage.  The first batch was delicious but not thin and rolled like his Aunt’s.  The second batch though was pretty near perfection. 

Last night I tried two new tastes: carrot sticks dipped into red pepper humus at happy hour and another specialty while watching a movie.  They sprinkle nutritional yeast on buttered popcorn!  It was kind of a cross between toasted bread crumbs and a mild parmesan cheese and you feel healthy just eating it.

Of the many talents that our children possess, their enthusiasm for preparing food for loved ones and their gifts of hospitality are the ones that bless me the most.

She has our hearts

Sangria is perfect for hot summer days.  The basic recipe below can be altered any number of ways, but provides a good base for your own ideas and innovations.  Traditional sangrias are made with red wine but there are lots of options with white wine too.  Let your imagination run wild.  (I have to admit…after a few afternoon batches my recipes become quite unrestricted in terms of ingredients and ratios.  But no one seems to complain).

#1 Basic

1 bottle dry red wine

1 T sugar

Juice of 1 large orange

Juice of 1 large lemon

Large orange and lemon sliced thin

2 medium peaches – peeled, pitted and cut into chunks

1 cup club soda

Combine all ingredients except club soda and chill overnight.  Add club soda just before serving and serve ice cold.

#2  Spicy

1 bottle red wine (your preference but a Spanish Rioja is nice)

1 lime, lemon and orange cut into wedges

2 T sugar

2 t hot sauce

1 shot of rum

2 L bottle of citrus flavoured soda (I like Fresca, pink grapefruit etc.)

Pour wine into a pitcher and squeeze the juice from the fruit wedges into the wine.  Toss in the fruit and add rum, sugar and hot sauce.  Chill overnight.  Add soda just before serving.

Easy Sangria

Marinate 1 each sliced lemon, lime & orange overnight.  Add or substitute berries, grapes, melon, mangoes or pineapple if you like.  Upon serving, fill a tall glass with ice and mix half of the wine/fruit mixture with 7 up.

Kath’s quote: “Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”-Louis Pasteur

Sometimes I get inspired by my own blogging-how  self-centred is that?  My eggplant post of last week spawned two delicious meals.  The first was the same night as the post when I recreated the Sicilian grilled dinner.  We actually didn’t have any eggplant in the house and so my husband used the closest thing-zucchini.  This (along with grilled asparagus that we just cannot get enough of at this time of year) is one of our favourite barbeque staples.  We toss both in a plastic bag with olive oil and Clubhouse Vegetable Seasoning-so simple and so divine. 

Where was I? Ah yes.  The second meal became many dinners.  I took a single eggplant to make Eggplant Parmigiana and it fed my husband and I on Friday evening, Daughter #1 and I on Saturday evening and then she had leftovers for Sunday lunch and I had leftovers for Monday lunch.  Now that is cost effective meal planning!

I always thought that because the dish was called Parmigiana it would have Parmesan cheese in it but it is so named because of the city of Parma.  But because the recipe centres around the use of tomatoes and mozzarella, it is said to have originated in the south, not anywhere near Parma.  Confused? And to make matters worse-we like a lighter version of the classic and use Parmesan instead of mozzarella!

I cut the eggplant into discs so as not to have any piece on the edge that gets thrown away.  It is often soaked in salt at this stage to extract bitter juices but we like it just fine including these so called “bitter” juices.  Then I dipped it into a milk wash, a flour dusting, an egg wash and finally coat it with breadcrumbs (this is also the process that I use for pork cutlets, chicken fingers and many varieties of fish).  In the mean time, I make a sauce of  what ever fresh herbs I have on hand with a can of tomatoes and plenty of chopped garlic and onion.  While that is simmering I brown the eggplant in plenty of olive oil.  The assembly starts with a generous layer of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan.

Kath’s quote:“…in a well regulated kitchen nothing is ever wasted, but with careful preparation even the ‘rough ends’ of a beef steak may be made into a wholesome, tender and appetizing dish; that ‘stale bread’ may be used in the most delicious ‘desserts’ and ‘fancies,’ and ‘left-over’ food from the day before need not be thrown in the trash-box, but may be made into an endless variety of wholesome and nutritious dishes.”-The Pica Creole Cook Book (1901)