Over the past few years I have spent some time talking to Millennials about food, their cooking (or often more accurately) ordering-in and dining out habits.  And it seems to me that there are two distinct camps. The smaller group of the two, are the foodies.  Perhaps they grew up in a house where cooking was a family affair, or maybe they took full advantage of growing up with access to food network and endless food blogs and YouTube videos to teach themselves how to cook.  On the complete opposite end is the majority of young people who, for whatever reason, didn’t have the same exposure or interest in learning to cook.  

A few years ago I did a cooking class for four such young women.  All of them had very limited experience in the kitchen but were keen to learn and overcome the intimidation they felt.  All were interested in home cooked food that was budget conscious and didn’t take a lot of time.  One of the things we made was sheet pan pork tenderloin with bean and potatoes. See the “recipe” below.   

So here is my advice to the new cook.  
1) Start with the basics.  Learn how to make really good scrambled eggs. It’s a dish you are likely going to eat a lot in your life, so make the most delicious version you can.  The technique is simple and demonstrates that by doing a few things differently; you can take your food from alright to really yummy. Most of us tend to cook our eggs on too high a heat; we often forget to season them well. You can find a good tutorial on YouTube  

2) Cook in big batches. You may only be cooking for yourself or the two of you, but why not make a lot and prepare portions to enjoy for lunch, dinner the next night, or stick it in the freezer for down the road.

3) Master 5 or 6 dishes.  You likely don’t entertain the same people over and over again.  So why not learn to make a dish well and then serve it to each group of friends once.  Then, learn another and repeat. I would recommend recipes by Jamie Oliver, the Barefoot Contessa, or Food Wishes.  They all have videos you can follow.  

4) Not everything needs to be from scratch.  It’s OK to take short cuts.  Not everyone needs to make their own pie crusts.  A pizza made on store bought Naan bread can be as good as one made with homemade dough. If time is important to you, take the shortcut.

5) Never try a new recipe if you are having guests that you want to impress.  It is a good idea to practice first to make sure it is a dish you will be proud to serve.  Also keep in mind that if it is a flop, it may not be you, it could be the recipe.   

6) Simple food is the bomb!  In my opinion nothing beats a roast chicken with roast potatoes and veggies.  Making the fanciest food is not the be-all-end-all.  It takes time and patience to master complicated recipes.

Pork Tenderloin Sheet Pan Dinner

Ingredients
2 1 pound pork tenderloins, trimmed

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1 pound green beans, stems trimmed

1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes cut in half lengthwise

4 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

non stick cooking spray

Method
Position oven rack to middle lower position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray heavy duty baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.  In a large bowl, combine green beans with 2 tablespoons of olive oil,
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper. Arrange green beans in center of baking sheet. 

In the same bowl, toss potatoes with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper. Transfer to baking sheet and arrange cut side down on either side of green beans.

Remove silver skins from tenderloin.  Here is a great video of how this is done. https://youtu.be/ZclwXpf455s?si=WFotqlrUuPUjO8SE 

Next slather with hoisin sauce, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Lay on top of the beans and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, or until thickest part of tenderloins reaches 140 degrees on a meat thermometer. 

Feeds 4 – 6 people

Kath’s quote: “People find cooking therapeutic. You get to make use of all of your senses, and that’s what makes this activity worthwhile. Cooking is a highly diverse subject, but what makes it unique is that it connects people from all over the world, regardless of their race, religion, or ethnicity. The vast variety of cuisines represent people and their cultures ever so beautifully. Most people find that cooking uplifts their mood. After all, good food is directly proportional to a good mood!” 

Love never fails.

Growing up, many of my friends, like me, had stay-at-home Moms. Considering my mother had six children and cared for her two little brothers and a sick dad when her first few children were little , it was no surprise that she needed to stay home. As a result my mom made almost everything we ate from scratch. She made jams, pickles, perogies, cabbage rolls, soups, stews, chili, casseroles, pizza, egg rolls and pies-she was always cooking. 

Every week she would make bread. A lot of bread. In her bedroom, the warmest room in the house, there were often large enamel basins of dough rising underneath tea towels. From that she would make loaves of bread, dinner rolls, and cinnamon buns.

I remember returning from my friend Elaine’s house, whose divorced mother worked full time, and asking my mom if we could buy the polka dot bread I had at her house: wonder bread. My mom gave me a little smirk and shook her head. I had no idea how good I had it. Later when my Mom was unwell and spent time in the hospital, my dad, who worked full-time and had four kids at home, would load us in the car and head to McDonalds a few times a week. I quickly discovered that processed food was not all I thought it would be and I would pine for my Mom’s home cooking. 

At culinary school, I was taught to make everything from scratch. And many things were worth the extra time and effort. When I started cooking professionally I discovered that most restaurants incorporate some short cuts into their recipes. 

So considering that I have the skill set and maybe even the time to cook from scratch, do I? Yes, and no. Let me explain. Do I always make my own stocks? If I have an abundance of vegetable scraps and a chicken carcass, then yes. But will I go out of my way to do so? No-that’s what Knorr Swiss is for.  Can I make puff pastry from scratch? Yes, but I can’t imagine doing so when I can pull a package from the freezer. I still mostly make my own pie dough, but on occasion I pick up a pre-made crust. I make tomato sauce when friends give me a ton of tomatoes, but my pantry is always stocked with a jar or two of spaghetti sauce. I think there is a balance to be had between what I buy and what I make. 

And then sometimes I’m able to find a middle ground. My Caesar salad dressing is an example of this. I’m not super fond of bottle Caesar dressing. It makes me a bit nervous that bottled salad dressings last so long in the fridge. I know how to make Caesar from scratch, beating egg yolks, lemon juice and slowly incorporating oil to make the perfect mayonnaise base, but you have to use it all up in a couple days to not risk making yourself sick. So instead I use store bought mayo and add all the rest of the ingredients to create a great dressing. Here’s my recipe. 

Almost from scratch Caesar dressing 

2 small garlic cloves, grated

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (I know you want to skip it, but don’t!) 

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together. Add some oil to thin it out if it gets too thick. I transfer it into a bottle. It will keep a couple of weeks in the fridge. 

Kath’s quote: ‘Scratch’ has been used since the 18th century as a sporting term for a boundary or starting point which was scratched on the ground. The first such scratch was the crease which is a boundary line for batsmen in cricket. John Nyren’s Young Cricketer’s Tutor, 1833 records this line from a 1778 work by Cotton: “Ye strikers… Stand firm to your scratch, let your bat be upright.”

Love never fails.

Remembrance day is a time I take very seriously. Growing up with a Dad who was a World War II veteran, I saw first hand the long term impact of the sacrifices he made as a young man. I remember hearing my dad wake almost every night yelling out in fear. Was it his sleep apnea, his night terrors, it’s hard to say?He had a hearing impairment as a result of flying 35 missions as a bomber with the Royal Canadian Airforce before his plane went down.

He was injured and eventually sent home. Both my Dad and his younger brother Tom enlisted voluntarily, eager to serve their new country as they had only moved to Canada from Czechoslovakia a decade earlier.

My uncle Tommy was stationed in London for his tour of duty in the Army, and after returning home, enlisted with the Airforce. Tragically he died in a training flight in Saskatchewan. The crash happens December 13th but the plane was not found until Christmas Day. He was 21 years old.

My dad didn’t talk about his time of service. I remember asking him to tell me about the war. My dad looked at me with kind eyes and replied “Susie, there is nothing romantic about war”. I never asked again.

So every Remembrance Day I think of my Dad and his brother, but when I see the Silver Cross Mother, my heart breaks for my Gramma Felicia having to say good bye to her boys as they headed off to war. She also welcomed them home, only to loose her youngest a short time later.

Felicia Pajak was born in Poland where she met Frantisek Kvapilik. They married and had three boys, Zeslaw (my Dad), Thomas, and Miloslav, who died as an infant. The family moved from Poland to the Tatra mountains in southern Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia). After the tragic loss of their workhorse, their major form of income, Frantisek decided to move to Canada in 1929 with Felicia and the two boys following a couple of years later. Their daughter Geraldine was born in Limerick Saskatchewan on the family farm in 1939.

My grandmother was an excellent cook. I have memories of her little kitchen with soup noodles drying on the back of every chair and countertop. Each of us kids has fond memories of favourite dishes and baking but we all remember her delicious fried chicken. Unfortunately, my grandmother never wrote down any of her recipes. They were all in her head. All we know for sure is that she coated her chicken in crumbs she made from her homemade bread and she fried the chicken in lard. No wonder it was amazing! I have never been able for find a similar recipe, so instead I have provided you with mine. It will never compare to my grammas, but it’s pretty good and I think of her whenever I make it.

Fried Chicken

Buttermilk Marinade
8 pieces chicken
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried mustard
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon dried sage
2 cups buttermilk

Flour Dredge

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoon garlic powder
1½ teaspoon paprika
1½ teaspoon dried basil
1½ teaspoon dried thyme
1½ teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Vegetable oil to be 1-2 inches deep in a deep frying pan or enough oil to fill deep fat fryer.

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl. Add salt, pepper, garlic, dried mustard, paprika, and sage. Stir to coat the chicken evenly. Pour the buttermilk over the seasoned chicken. Stir well to coat the chicken.

Refrigerate this mixture for at least 1 hour, but the longer you marinate, the more tender it will be. It may be left overnight as well.
In a shallow dish, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, garlic powder, paprika, basil, thyme, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.

Heat the oil to about 340°F. You want to be able to fry the outside to a crisp golden brown without burning while still cooking the chicken all the way through!

Remove each piece of chicken from the marinade, put it into the shallow dish with the flour mixture and toss. Make sure the whole surface of each piece of chicken is coated very well.

Place the chicken pieces into the oil. You may cook 4 or 5 pieces at a time, but don’t crowd the chicken. Turn as necessary and fry until golden brown. It will take about 15 minutes for each piece to cook. Make sure each piece is fully cooked – the internal temperature should be 170°F. I recommend keeping a candy thermometer in the oil as you cook, the temperature might crop some as you place in the cold chicken so you will need to adjust the heat according to stay around 340°F.
Allow the chicken to drain on a wire rack to help the chicken stay crispy.

Kath’s quote: “LEST WE FORGET“

Love never fails.

Over the years working as a caterer I have had lots of clients with dietary restrictions. I was once asked to make two desserts in honour of someone who was a gluten free vegan with a nut allergy. Wow, talk about a tough case.

It can be tough to cook for folks with dietary restrictions but I love a challenge.  In fact, I always strive to find dishes that can be enjoyed by everyone. I feel badly for folks who show up at a party and all they can eat are the rice crackers and raw veggies, without the dip. These days there are a variety of gluten free and vegan products available at your local grocer. 

Over the years I have found some amazing recipes that I likely would have never tried without it being necessary. Here’s one example. My favourite chocolate dessert that I first made for a gluten-free friend is now a regular in my repertoire. 

Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache 

For the cake:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

For the chocolate ganache:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

1/2 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8-Inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan. Place it in the bottom of the pan and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. 

To make the cake, put the chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl, and heat until the butter is melted and the chips are soft, about one minute. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. If you need to reheat, do for 10 seconds at a time and stir. 

Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and stir to combine. 

Add the eggs and stir until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and stir until just combined. Don’t over mix. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake the cake for 25 minutes or until the cake has a thin crust on the top and the center registers 200°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Let the cake cool on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the edges of the pan with a butter knife and carefully turn it upside down onto a cake plate or serving plate. The bottom of the cake will now be the top of the cake. Let the cake cool completely. 

While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate ganache. Combine the chocolate and cream in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and heat until the cream is very hot so it will melt the chocolate. I always start with 30 seconds and check it. It might take longer, it just depends on your microwave. Remove from the microwave, and stir until the the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. 

Spread the chocolate ganache glaze evenly over the cooled cake. Let the glaze set up for a few hours before cutting and serving the cake. I always put it in the refrigerator to speed up the process. 

Cut the cake into slices and serve with powdered sugar and raspberries, if desired. This cake is also great with whipped cream or ice cream.

Kath’s quote: I like to serve choclate cake, because it doesn’t show the dirt.” Phyllis Diller

Love never fails.

In 1998 I decided to give up apartment living and buy a house. My mom was helping me look and we hadn’t seen many places when we came across my house. On a lovely tree lined street in little Italy, its location was perfect.  I had lived most of my adult life in Osborne Village and wanted to stay central but also wanted a less transient neighbourhood with some history.

The house had good bones. Built in 1904 it had a solid foundation, level floors, and straight walls. But I had to look beyond the surface appearance to discover what the house truly had to offer. The fellow who lived in my house was a slob. The place was a mess. It had been on the market a while and he had obviously grown tired of putting in any effort in preparation for showings. The place reeked of cigarettes and cat pee. His furniture was sparse, tattered and covered in cat hair. Besides being dirty, the house was painted stark white and lacked decoration, so had absolutely no personality.

Worst of all there had an alter of plywood and cinder blocks in the upstairs box room, covered in items that indicated the owner was worshiping something that I would never invite into my house. I remember the look on my real estate agent’s face when we entered that room. I’m sure he thought he wasn’t making a sale that day.

But there was something about the place that showed me it was going to be my home. The pitch of the 3/4 story second floor ceilings felt like a cozy hug, the high fluted baseboards and door jams with their corner carved medallions showed that this house was built with love and pride of ownership. The large windows filled the place with so much light. I knew she had potential. So I put in an offer and got a great deal on the place.  

The day I took possession my friend and pastor, Merv met me at the house in order to walk from room to room, blessing it and ridding it if any spirits that may have been left behind. The owner hadn’t bothered to move most of his things out of the house, including his make shift alter.  Merv tore it all apart and hauled it to the garbage, cleansing my house so I could start to rebuild it on a new spiritual foundation, fill it with colour, and beautiful things, and restore its personality. 

Recently I hosted a dinner party and invited Pastor Merv, his wife Susan and another couple of our friends to my home for dinner. I wanted to celebrate 25 years in my home. I love my little house and all the memories she holds. All the celebrations, and sleepovers, all the deck visits over cups of tea. That night we had a lovely time reminiscing about my first day in the house.

Anyway, this is a food blog so here’s the recipe for the soup I served as my first course for our dinner party. Hope you enjoy. 

Butternut squash soup 

Makes two litres 

1 large butternut squash cubed approx. 8 cups

1 yellow onion cut into medium dice

2 large carrots peeled and cut into large dice

2 garlic cloves peeled

3 Tablespoons butter melted

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon curry powder

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ cup apple juice

3 ½ cups vegetable stock

6 oz cream

½ cup pumpkin puree

2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger pulp 

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Place butternut squash, onion, carrots, and garlic on a parchment lined sheet pan. Combine melted butter, olive oil, honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, curry powder, kosher salt and lemon juice in a small bowl. Drizzle it over the butternut squash mixture and toss until everything is coated. Roast at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.

Once cooked and cooled, spoon vegetables in batches into blender with enough apple juice and broth to process. 

Pour into large saucepan on medium heat. Add ½ cup pumpkin puree, any remaining juice or broth, ginger pulp and cream. Stir until well combined and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. Serve and enjoy.

Kath’s quote: “Our house is a very, very, very fine house. With two cats in the yard. Life used to be so hard.
Now everything is easy ’cause of you.”-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Love never fails.