D and I know that fish are some of the most nutritious food products that you can eat because they are high in protein and in omega-3 fatty acids (good cholesterol). Studies show that eating fish at least twice a week can significantly reduce the risk of hypertension, heart disease, rheumatism, and dementia, among others.  Since I have recently received my first high blood pressure reading, I am researching natural ways to get my readings back into the normal range.

We know that we are not the only ones, many are not eating enough fish on a regular basis, because fish cuisines are generally difficult to prepare. The best way I have discovered is with the use of a microwave. The trusty and versatile cooking appliances can be utilized to cook healthy fish recipes in an instant. Here are two quick recipes that I am going to try.

Garlic Cod

Get a small piece of cod that is about eight ounces in weight and carefully place it on a microwaveable dish, cover. Set the mic on full power and cook the cod for two minutes.

Take the fish from the microwave and allow it to simmer. Add a knob of butter and crush about three to four cloves of garlic and scatter them over the fish (you can add more garlic if you want). Put the fish back into the mic and put it back on full power to cook the remaining ingredients. Put some lime juice, salt, and pepper and voila your garlic cod is ready to serve!

Chili Lime and Tuna

Place a small piece of tuna that is about eight ounces in weight on a microwaveable dish, cover. Set the microwave on full power and cook the tuna for three minutes. Remove it and allow it to simmer. While at it, you can put some chilli powder and lime juice to add the zest that you want. Check the fish and make sure that it is fully cooked before serving.

As you can see, cooking healthy fish recipes is quick and easy with the use of microwaves. With these recipes, you can prepare fish cuisines that have healthy levels of omega-3 fatty acids and protein without taking too much of your time.

Kath’s quote: “In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.” Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Love-that is all.

Sister #3 missed out on our family Thanksgiving dinner.  She helps D and I take care of the kids when we host our Young Families’ group.  I had abundant left overs and instead of getting tired of them during the days following the Thanksgiving, I repanned everything and put it all in the freezer to feed another large group.  There are approximately 20 of us in the Young Families Group including toddlers and babies, so this seemed like a good time.  I decided that a baked ham would do the trick to adequately feed everybody and that the ham would pair well with my leftovers of sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and roasted garlic potatoes and baked squash and quinoa.  The supper was a success, but then I was left with a new challenge-what to do with the leftover ham?

I dug out an old recipe that I know that my family loves but was amazed at how much fat it contained.  By the time I had finished modifying it, I had written an entirely new recipe.

The recipe indicates using three different potatoes but this is only because I had three varieties in my fridge.  We have loved all the assortment of potatoes in our garden share basket this season.  I used the array of pink and blue (looked more like dark purple to me) ones for this dish.  I would recommend though that at least one variety be a sweet potato because they have different nutrient values that regular potatoes.  In addition, the combination of the sweetness of the sweet potato and the saltiness of the ham, is one of my favourite taste combinations.  Add the tartness from the sour cream and the sharpness of the old cheddar cheese and we are really onto something here….

Since I was using more than one kind of potato, I had a hard time judging how many pounds I was using.  D eyeballed it at five pounds but I thought closer to ten, so I doubled the “moisture” , that is sour cream and cream soup.

Under normal circumstances, I would have put the second casserole in the freezer but I love to send our kids home with leftovers after mandatory Sunday suppers, so I did so and now we have enough left for supper tonight!

Kath’s quote: “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.” –Calvin Trillin

Love-that is all.

Stratford, Ontario with its old-world culture and charm has long been on our “must-visit” list.  As we have family and good friends in Toronto, we are often in the area and yet had never set aside a couple of extra days to head to this gorgeous destination.

We arrived a bit too early for lunch so headed to Revel Café.  After getting our bearings, we visited our first of many fabulous places to grab a bite.  We took our Grub-to-Go packages (recommended by our B&B hosts) and walked through the Shakepearean Gardens until we found a picnic table to plunk down at.  The gardens are adjacent to the Avon river and opened in 1936 and are filled with the many plant varieties mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays. Violets are cited 18 times!  The original roses in the garden were provided by Queen Mary who also did so for the Stratford on Avon garden in England.

Our B&B dubbed Breaking Bread is perfectly located to stroll the quaint downtown area and many green spaces or if you are more adventurous, even make the trek to the Festival Theatre on foot.

I swear the bed which we shared in the Birmingham Room was the most comfortable one I have ever slept in.  We have a double at home and this was an oversized King (actually two twins attached together).  The high thread count sheets and duvet covering felt luxurious.  The en suite bathroom was sparkling clean and very conveniently located just steps from the bed.  In fact, the entire space at Breaking Bread glistens with freshness.  We understand that B&B owner and host Doug is responsible for the impeccable house cleaning.

The main floor entrance was always equipped with bottles of water to set by the bed or take out for a walk.  The living and dining space is wide open and light floods the space from early morning.  Perfectly brewed coffee (D prefers a stronger, dark roast that I can’t stand) is served as of 7 am and after my one allocated cup, I switched to Scottish Breakfast tea.

Breakfasts were an absolute delight.  The first morning we enjoyed a parfait of Greek yoghurt with peaches and almonds and

then an apple pancake and thick cuts of pea meal back bacon. Host Holly has sent me her coveted apple pancake recipe.  If you are interested in my posting it, leave a comment and I will do so in a future post.

The following morning started with a warm banana muffin and fruit salad and then we tucked into a crustless quiche and the most perfectly cooked thick-sliced bacon that I have ever enjoyed.

This was accompanied by toast from the local bakery and home made strawberry preserves.

Holly is the other half of the husband and wife B&B team and is the creative genius behind the menu and in the kitchen.  She also handles the reservations and general correspondence for their home.  Best of all though, she is a Shakespearean expert and avid Stratford Theatre attendee for decades.  Ask her anything, she will either have the answer or know where she can find it.

We enjoyed the easy banter that Holly and Doug promote around their breakfast table.  We got a big kick out of the dynamics between the two of them as husband and wife and business partners.  Their passion for the Festival and the community of Stratford is so apparent.  They love to share suggestions about their favourite places to dine and shop and every tip was bang on, in our estimation.

I am sure that there are many B&B options in Stratford so why would Breaking Bread get your booking?  If your priorities are convenient location, cleanliness, warm hospitality, luxurious beds and delicious, carefully prepared breakfasts, Breaking Bread is for you.

Kath’s quote:  “When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.”-Acts20-11.

Love-that is all.

My Mom is Queen of Cabbage Rolls.  Her recipe took years to perfect: getting the right proportions of ground beef and bacon, the correctly matured cabbage leaves, using tomato juice instead of sauce so that the acid in the juice would permeate the cabbage and add to its tenderness.  She has instructed me in all of these nuances but I have actually never made her cabbage rolls.  That is because, I will confess, I am a lazy cook.  My favourite dishes are big platters of delicious ingredients that you just kind of throw together at the end, stroll it into the dining room and have the family go-ahh!

So I am a “lazy” cook, but I am also a frugal one.  We have had beautiful cabbage in our garden share boxes this summer and I have made a couple of slaws to have as a salad or as a topping for pork sliders but I have not been able to keep up to the quantity.  So a couple of weeks ago, I took two complete cabbage heads and blanched them as I have seen my Mom do.  When they were tender, I cooled them and carefully removed the cabbage core, and placed the intact leaves between paper towel and placed them in the freezer for future use.

This week, now that my fall routine of teaching an evening class is upon me, I made up a couple of casseroles in the morning.  I say a “couple” because I find that these kind of meals are just as easy to cook up a double batch and then freeze one or drop it off at the home of a new Mom or elderly neighbour.  In this case, I delivered one to a family who has recently arrived from Great Britain.  I thought that they would get a kick out of tasting stick-to-your-ribs prairie food.

But because I am always trying to find ways to increase fibre and reduce fat in our meals, I modified the more traditional ingredients a bit by using brown rice instead of white, sliced lean ham instead of bacon and replaced the salt with extra garlic.  I think that the experiment was a success.

Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the finished product because, when I got home that evening, it was gone.  Must have been a hit!

Kath’s quote: “Cabbage as a food has problems. It is easy to grow, a useful source of greenery for much of the year. Yet as a vegetable it has original sin, and needs improvement. It can smell foul in the pot, linger through the house with pertinacity, and ruin a meal with its wet flab. Cabbage also has a nasty history of being good for you.”-Jane Grigson

Love-that is all.

You know the saying: “a watched pot, never boils”?  I think that is true of the way people grow and mature too.  The daughter on Sister #2 is more than my niece.  She is my Goddaughter but even more than that, our two families are intricately knit together.  Our unique connections go back to the time when she and her brother and our three offspring were all babies and toddlers.  The bond has been cemented over time with our two families sharing our little (500 square foot) beach house on Lake Winnipeg.  Close proximity, hormones, humidity, mosquitoes and heartache will do that.  Now, an exciting new time has begun for our families.  Sister #2’s family have moved to a new home that they are in the midst of building just a few doors away from us at the lake.  My niece has moved as well and not just out of their home, or across the province but to the other side of the world-Australia.  Were she to have stayed, I do not believe that I would have seen the osmosis in her.  She was always exquisitely beautiful and a talented artist and dancer.  But while she was away she also became this amazingly mature, knowledgeable, engaged, self-aware person.

This new person has brought knowledge to our family. She is exploring the complex wold of food science and raising provocative ideas amongst us. She has been with us for a wonderful summer and now she has gone back to her new home “down under”.  But not before we enjoyed one last Sunday meal together.

Mom and daughter planned the menu together.

Cedar Plank Salmon in a honey mustard sauce.

Brown and wild rice pilaf with celery and mushrooms.

Asparagus tossed in pesto.

Parsnips, carrots and parsley root with fresh dill.

Beets with walnuts and chevre.

I contributed this rustic caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes.

All these good things created a gorgeous palate of colour on our plates.

The piece de résistance was this amazing cake that crowned our time together. The recipe was not original so I cannot post it, but here is the link: http://nutritionstripped.com/chocolate-coconut-flour-cake-with-chocolate-mousse-frosting/#.UjfWOuDFVdg.

The surprizing cake recipe was made with dates for sweetness and the frosting was concocted from avocado!  You just have to try it for yourself to believe the tasty results.

My Mom with my Grandbaby. 

In addition to wishing my niece well before her departure, we all took the opportunity to snuggle with the Wee One and marvel at her growth and changes.

Kath’s quote: “Life is no brief candle to me.  It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.”- George Bernard Shaw

Love-that is all.