In less than three weeks I will be heading south to the warmth of my home-away-from-home, Isla Mujeres Mexico.

I am so blessed that I get to spend a good portion of the winter in my happy place. You see, I HATE WINTER!  And unfortunately I was born in a place aptly nicknamed WINTERPEG. We have been very fortunate to have had a very mild winter so far, but the cold is now upon us. With the wind it’s -35 this morning. So today I’ll share the recipe for the most soul warming dish I know, chili. Funny name for a cozy dish.

The other night I was with my niece, and her two adorable children (my honorary grand babies) and she had made a crockpot of chili con carne. It was so delicious. The warm spices and the melting cheddar cheese on top. It reminded me that I should likely make a pot of my chili before I head off to Mexico. My house sitter is vegetarian and my favourite chili recipe happens to be vegan.

This dish was first made for me by my sweet friend Betty on a midwinter trip to the cabin. This dish has it all, it’s economical, nutritious, easy to make. And most importantly, it’s delicious. Stay warm and enjoy!

Out-of-this-world Vegan Chili

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil                    1 onion

1 carrot                                1 red pepper

3 cloves of garlic                 1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans                            1 can plum tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste                         1/4 cup salsa

2 tbsp chili powder                            1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano                      1 tsp basil

12 oz package Yves Veggie Ground Round (optional)

Method

Clean and dice onion, carrot, pepper and press garlic. Heat oil in a soup pot.  Add onion and cook till translucent, about 3 minutes. Add carrot, red pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.  Add beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa and spices. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium.  Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender.  Crumble and add the package of veggie ground round and heat through. I make mine without the meat substitute.  

Kath’s quote: “Tension translates to your guests. They’ll have a much better time having chili and baked potatoes than they would if you did roast duck with a wild cherry sauce and then had to lie down and cry for a while.”-Nigella Lawson

Love never fails.

Another beautiful, sunny and warm day in Brooklyn.

It was our last full day. I felt like we had seen the sights and I was content to stick around the apartment and “live” there for a day.

At lunch time, D found a great Jamaican Deli just around the corner from us. We ordered jerk chicken and D chose this as one of his sides. I am not sure it is Jamaican but I know that the locals often eat macaroni salad with soda biscuits in Mexico and it was a staple in his home, growing up.

We also discovered great shopping that was almost in our backyard. D stocked up on discounted Gap blue jeans.

When it was time for dinner, we decided that we would venture out to shop for some local ingredients and use the great kitchen in the apartment.

But the darkened skies coaxed us into staying home.

Instead, we knew that Junior’s was a famous deli in Brooklyn and there were still a couple of “Must eat while in NYC” items on our list. D ordered brisket on latkes.

I just wanted to latkes. But truth be told, I really only wanted New York style cheesecake so I ate one half of one of the three enormous latkes.

And savoured the cheesecake. We smugly thought we had dodged getting soaked in the rain, but we felt horrible when we realized our Uber Eats delivery person was on a bicycle.

Early the next morning, we were back in Toronto, where more eating adventures took place.

Kath’s quote: “We broke up because he ate a slice of my cheesecake!” ~ Unknown

Love never fails.

With this trip being our first time staying in Brooklyn (our previous locales were Gramercy Park, The Piers, Central Park, Garment District, Madison Square Gardens, Jersey City and Queens), we set out to explore DUMBO (aka Down Under the Metropolitan Bridge Overpass).

I imagine that travelers ordinally gravitated to the area to see the Manhattan skyline, but as you can see the fog had rolled in with the persistent rain.

Many people chose this street to get their selfies in front of the bridge (us included-please ignore my rained on hair). We did some browsing at the weekend flea market but were soon looking for sustenance. It turned out that resulting lunch, was my favourite meal of the entire trip!

D had discovered it just around the corner from the flea market. It was an inauspicious little place but as soon as the aroma wafted from the open door, we knew that we were in for a treat.

This magazine feature taped to the wall by our stools indicated the success that was had when Jeremy Dean flipped his vegan bodega into a noodle house!

This decadent starter was assembled from mixed mushrooms, black garlic and yu choy dumplings. Absolutely stellar!

This noodle dish was named after the restaurant and were the silkiest, I have ever eaten.

We also tucked into a fried rice dish in a cardboard take out container, just because we wanted to eat with chopsticks right out of the carton like everyone does in shows and movies about NYC!

We had a lengthy subway ride back to the Theatre District for a matinee that we had gotten tix for in the Broadway lottery, but we were too early for curtain. So we spent some time in our favourite Bryant Park, our destination with every trip to the Big Apple.

Here is a reflection of the Empire State Building. One of many lovely aspects of this trip was because we had already done all the touirsty things on previous trips, so we could relax and return to our favourite spots.

There is always a point when I have been in New York, that I crave home-not my city house so much as our lake house. This is why.

The best thing about the Broadway play that we saw, were our great seats. Otherwise, I won’t even mention it.

We had dinner reservations at a place called Becco on Restaurant Row which was close to the Theatre District, so we first enjoyed a tea and pastry in the hood and then happy hour beverages, when we were still too early. D would say that Becco was well worth the trouble.

Lidia Bastianich and her son Joe, both of Food Network fame, are collaborators of the restaurant, so my sights were pretty high. D said that his choice of Cesar salad was the best he had ever tasted.

I very much enjoyed the anti-pasto, sharing the nibbles with D. My favourite taste prior to dinner was skinny little breadsticks rolled in course salt.

I am guessing that the proximity to the theatre district must have created their pasta tasting menu. Piping hot selections were served from skillet pans delivered by wandering chefs/servers. One was of el dente broccoli in a light sauce and the above was torn sheets of pasta in a seafood sauce with little morsels of more seafood peppering the dish. D loved both and had to decide which dish to have seconds of because the pasta came around and around until you yelled “Uncle!”

I loved the mushroom stuffed ravioli in an equally decadent mushroom cream sauce. We passed on desert and decided that a stroll through Times Square would be a great idea. D was doing some souvenir shopping for the kids and grandkids at home. He didn’t have the correct change for a t-shirt vendor, so the kind gentlemen said “Take the shirt and come back and pay me after you find an ATM”! We were so touched by his kindness.

Kath’s quote: “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it in five minutes as equally as five years.“-Tom Wolfe

Love never fails.

When my mom moved into a personal  care home, we went to work cleaning out her house and doing some renovations in preparation for sale. It was challenging because it was pretty full of stuff, and for me and some of my siblings it was the only home we had ever lived in as a family. There were so many memories created in that place and it was full of items that reminded us of those sweet times. I was very happy with how hard everyone worked and how smoothly the division of moms things went. Everyone was able to find items that were sentimental to them and there were no items that anyone bickered over. I had asked all my siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews if there was anything in particular they would like. Only one item was requested by two people, mom’s white chenille bedspread. But while sorting through the linen closet I discovered that she actually owned two of them. Problem solved!  

Mom wasn’t a hoarder or anything but having grown up during the depression she sometimes had a hard time parting with things she felt were of value. Also a product of growing up in poverty, she had a tendency to stock up on food items on sale and prepare lots of things for the freezer and pantry. Her deep freeze was full of meat and her homemade perogies, bread and cinnamon buns.

Her pantry was well stocked with dry goods, flour, cans of soup, tinned fruit and vegetables, and her homemade preserves. I have wonderful memories of making all kinds of jams and pickles with my mom but I have to confess that I have not since done any “canning” as mom would call it. Part of the reason is a dear friend of mine makes all kinds of things In jars and gifts me with her salsa, jalapeño jelly, cranberry jelly, and turmeric pickles every Christmas. 

The closest thing I do to preserves these days is escabeche, a delicious quick pickle of vegetables I first tasted in Mexico. Here’s my recipe for these super easy veggies.

3 x 16 ounce Mason jars (or any sealable glass jar)

1 cup carrots, sliced

2½ cups cauliflower florets

1 bunch radishes, sliced

2 jalapenos, sliced & seeds removed

6 garlic cloves

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon sugar

1¼ teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon peppercorns

1 cup white vinegar

2 cups water

Divide peppercorns and bay leaves between the three Mason jars. Peel garlic cloves but leave whole and divide between jars.* Layer carrots, cauliflower, radishes, and jalapenos in jars.

In a pot, combine vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil on the stovetop then simmer until the sugar has dissolved, about 30 seconds. Pour vinegar mixture over vegetables and allow to cool for one hour before sealing and refrigerating.

Escabeche is ready to eat as soon as it’s chilled but it’s best to allow the flavors to develop for a full day.

Escabeche will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

If you aren’t into spicy pickles, cut back or eliminate the jalapeños. Also know that the garlic can turn a funny blue colour, but it’s a completely normal reaction to the vinegar. 

Kath’s quote: “On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally’s cellar“. — Thomas Jefferson

Love never fails.

Since Covid, my Food Musings topics have drastically changed. We have a favourite restaurant that we visit often, but as far as other local dining experiences, the occurrences of visits are very rare. Living at the lake for six months a year, doesn’t help either.

J1 and J2 have a favourite place in their Wolseley neighbourhood that we have wanted to visit for a very long time. When they presented us with a Gift Card as thanks for watching the Wee Ones, we held on to it for a special occasion, that being our wedding anniversary.

We commenced with a refreshing beer from Low Life and a sublime glass of wine. I typically shy away from Tuscan wines as they are usually too robust for me, but this one that our server suggested from Montepulciano, where we once visited, was as smooth as silk.

Walnuts, fresh mint and pomegranate molasses sounded like a strange way to serve olives, but it absolutely worked in this appetizer in a jar, to get our juices flowing.

When I make meatballs at home I tend to make them from ground turkey as it is affordable and good for our heart health, so Bonnie Day’s combination of beef, pork and veal was a luscious treat. Their tomato sauce sparkled and smearing everything onto a toasted baguette was perfection.

J1 suggested we sample the kale Caesar salad but spying this deconstructed chicken salad on the menu, we couldn’t resist. The skin on the quarter chicken absolutely burst with flavour and it was very hard to resist a nibble of skin with every chicken morsel.

But the piece d’ resistance for us was the whipped feta pizza. J1 suggested we sample the whipped feta as an appetizer but we thought “why not go all the way?” with this delicious entre, and we were so glad we did. The pie was sauceless, which was a welcome thing as the cheese was so decadently delicious. After our other noshing and the richness of the feta, we could only manage a piece or so each. Two days later though, served as a cold snack, it was just as scrumptious as day one! I am a truffle lover and the promise of truffle oil on the pie really sparked my interest. My only complaint of the evening was the lack of that bold flavour on our entree.

This gorgeous wall paper adorned the front entrance of the restaurant and really made a statement of what to expect of the decor. It was vintage and yet trendy at the same time. I loved the mismatched china that they utilized as their dinnerware and now I know where I will donate my china when the time comes.

As we left that evening, we walked through the deserted patio. Every time we drive past the restaurant, the patio was always packed but on Sept 2, you may recall, a blast of hot, humid air made one last appearance to our prairie city. Much as Winnipeggers embrace the heat when it comes, the cool restaurant was very much appreciated by all the diners on this evening.

If you get a chance to visit Bonnie Day, do so. The service is educated and attentive which is not a surprise in the Wolseley neighbourhood.

Kath’s quote: “A little among neighbors is worth more than riches in a wilderness.”-Welsh Saying

Love never fails.