Dejah

Found Scottish Boned Kippers at local Safeway! Made for a lovely brunch with scrambled eggs, canned tomatoes.

This is the old knife rack. It sits on the window sill above my counter and sink. The new one will be longer - 18" and also two tiers.

One pane of glass broke in my two tiered knife rack, and it was made (by a kind friend) in such a way that I couldn't slide it out to replace or to clean. Another retired friend, needing a project to work on in his shop, offered to make me a new one. He made me TWO! I still need to treat the wood, then get glass inserts. Might have to buy some more knives to fill both racks! 😉 My friend wouldn't take any money, not even for the oak he used. Do I made him Cantonese Chow Mein to take home for supper. I made a double batch, so we also had it for supper.

It's called apple crisp, but not made with the usual suspects of oat meal, brown sugar, etc Here's the recipe. I used apples from a neighbor's tree. They had a bumper crop, so I was the happy recipient . Canadian Cheddar Cheese Apple Crisp - from E.D. Smith Pie Filling Recipe Basic Recipe: 6 portions 1 - 19 oz. E.D. Smith apple pie filling or your own pie filling 1 - cup all purpose flour ¼ cup sugar 1 ½ tsp. baking POWDER ½ tsp. salt 1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese ( I use old cheddar) 1/3 cup melted butter ¼ cup milk Combine and sift all dry ingredients Mix in cheese Mix together the melted butter and milk. Add to the above mixture Mix gently with a fork until all the flour is incorporated Spoon apple pie filling into a shallow 1 quart / 1 litre baking dish Drop flour/cheese mixture by forkful to evenly cover the entire dish. Don’t press down! Use the fork to spread the dough if lumpy Bake in pre-heated oven at 375F for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown The recipe calls for a shallow 1quart dish. I used an 8” x 11” Pyrex glass dish. I made 1.5 times the topping recipe but 2 cans filling Great with ice cream or by itself.

Shrimp and Grits with field greens salad (drizzled with toasted sesame dressing), and sauteed Shanghai Bok Choy Dessert was Canadian Cheddar Cheese Apple Crisp - fresh from the oven. Someone couldn't wait!

@patti: My husband prefers Hoisin based BBQ sauce on ribs. I also use Hoisin for my Char Siu - so easy to do on the BBQ.

Snow! Definitely a chill in the air. Made up another recipe from the WW Cook Up Comfort cookbook. I have made the multi-steps Moussaka often, but this one was all done in one skillet then browned under the broiler. Picked up lovely spinach at the Chinese grocery. Sauteed them and roasted carrot fries. Kitchen was toasty!

My friend Linda who gifted me with a tagine, is French Canadian. She offered to bring me one of her tourtières the next day, and she did. I duly put it in the oven to re-heat for our dinner. I could smell cinnamon, which is a common spice in tourtieres. Half way into the heating, I stuck a knife into the middle to see if it was heating through. Out came a slice of apple! OK. She did mention that every family has its own recipe. Left the pie to continue heating. After an appropriate time, and the sides were ready, I took the pie out. When I sliced into it, it WAS an APPLE PIE! 😄 Her husband was sent to the freezer to grab a torutiere, but it turned out to be apple pie. Guess she found out the tourtieres were all gone. So, Linda made more this past weekend, and dropped one off on Sunday. It was so heavy - 3" of meat filling. I did smell cinnamon again, but this time, it was indeed tourtiere. I also wanted chips, memories of meals like this from our trips to England. Salsa was great with the meal too! Last night, I made Chicken and Brown Rice Fajita bowls. This was perfect, from a WW cookbook. It was rather fun eating in a bowl.

My sister-in-law dropped something off that she made. I've never seen this before, and it was too cold to chat outside, so I didn't find out where she got the idea/recipe from. I sliced it, warmed it up a bit, and ate it with a conglomeration of the lamb and the chicken tagine leftovers, a little mix of basmati rice and corn. I guess I can call it Rice and Sausage Bun? The dough was slightly sweet. The sausage was wrapped with cooked sticky rice, and the whole thing steamed. All served us well for supper after our trek out to the farm house. It was windy and cold today, with a light snow flurry. 😒

You can always make Nor Mai Gai. Cook sticky rice with diced meats, mushrooms, then wrap with lotus leaf and steam. This is just a stock photo from the Internet.

Continuing with tagine cooking : Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Dried Fruits for supper last night with air-fryer chips

Had some friends over who wanted to learn how to make joongzi / sticky rice in bamboo leaves. Together, we put together 170 packets. Batches of 24 were boiled on a turkey fryer burner outside for 2.5 hours. Some packets were prettier than other, but they all; tasted delicious! Used only sticky rice instead of my other combos of long grain jasmine and short grain sweet rice. These were so silky! Filling was Chinese sausage, mushrooms, dried shrimp, peanuts, salt pork, salted egg yolk. My cousin brought some smoked duck breast and they were great! Another cousin made something I've never had before. I think it is a Toisanese / Guangdong type of savoury "cake". Her Mom called it Tay-Tay. It's tapioca and ground pork, then steamed.

It's been a busy time prepping for fall and winter. Outside work is done and temperatures are now in the single digits dipping to minus at night. A new adventure in cooking came along just in time. I was gifted with a tagine from a friend whose husband is from Algeria! I have made tagine recipes in my cast iron casserole, but this was a lot of fun using the real deal. My kids had gifted me 6 months of Cratejoy (a waste of money but a great gift for a Mom who loves to cook). It so happened that this month's box was Morocco, and it came with a small bag of Ras-al- hanout. After proper seasoning process, I cook Lamb Tagine with Preserved Lemons. I had put up the lemons months ago, and this was the first time I've used any! Lamb shoulder, onion, garlic and spices set to simmer. 4 hours later

THIS really caught my attention! I assume these were giant meatballs perhaps made from ground Roo meat and not really from a neutered kangaroo!

Temperatures are really cooling off by supper time, single digits with frost a couple of nights. Time for some "stoking up the internal furnace" kinda meals: Finally found pearl onions, so made Beef Bourguignon, eaten with egg noodles. Carrots tossed in at the end for additional veg. Memories of my Mom's cooking - Chicken, Mung Bean Noodles, Lap Cheung, napa cabbage, and Salted Fish ( Ham Yu) in clay pot. Love Romano beans! Good fresh clams and mussels are hard to come by, but I've been able to get pretty good frozen cooked mussels at Safeway, and frozen clams from our local Chinese grocery. With these in the freezer, it was easy to have paella whenever we want! Haven't made this recipe for a long time - Chicken and Dates Tagine. Used a heavy casserole as I don't have a tagine...YET It's coming in October from a friend. Threw in some white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a red onion along with the casserole in the oven.

Here are the two kinds of dried shrimp I have on hand. Used the larger ones for Joongzi last month. Can't remember what my niece paid for the shrimp meat. She was shocked at the price, but for her favourite auntie, any price 😉 The large pieces were bulk, so no label. The smaller ones listed water, salt, sulfite Size comparison.

My hubby would say DEFINITELY!

Not sure how to describe the difference. I think the little ones may have been dried with their shells and so are a little bit crunchy if eaten out of hand? These are definitely peeled then dried. I can eat these like jerky! Splurged on a couple of Cornish game hens, stuffed with wild rice pilaf. Sides were local corn and sauteed water spinach Had a chicken breast and a few shrimp to use up. Coated with fine Panko crumbs and pan fried. More of the lovely local corn and new taters. Had sliced my pinky earlier on one of the inserts for the spiralizator, easy prep was required.

We were under yet another tornado warning today! Luckily, it didn't fully develop. The air was stifling outside, so no playing in the dirt today. I cranked up the a/c, turned on the fans, and had another day in the kitchen making something from my Mom's recipes. Daughter and s-i-l are home, so I made one of her childhood favourites: Char Siu Baos Marinated 5 lbs of County style pork ribs and cook them up on the BBQ. Diced along with onion and sauteed in hoisin sauce. Made up 24 steamed baos! My Mom's recipe made exactly 24! Daughter's other favourite dishes that I cooked up and sent back to the city: Black Bean Garlic Beef with Bitter Melon and Ho Fun My sister sent out a lb of dried shrimp meat. I've always used Har Mai (dried little shrimp) but these are the more expensive version. Stir-fried with Napa cabbage and Mung Bean Noodles The kids have a cottage on Lake Winnipeg. They brought back some Smoked Winnipeg Goldeye! Had some leftover rice from paella, fresh peas and beans. and quick marinated cucumber = supper! The extreme weather warning is off. Just a few drops of rain and the power only flicked off a couple of times. Kids have left for the city with a filled cooler.

There was not taste to the baby abalone. I was yearning for the larger baby ones we enjoyed in Seoul a couple of years ago. They were amazing! But the little shells will make a pretty wind chime.

July and August has been crazy times with the weather. We've had 3 devastating tornadoes very close to our city. There were many properties destroyed, but most tragic of all, was the one last week. Two teenagers were killed when their truck was thrown and tumbled into a field. This on top of the uncertainty of life with Covid-19 is weighing heavily on every one's mind. Our province, and specifically, our small city of around 48,000 people had 72 days of no cases of Covid, then this last 2 weeks, we've had 67! Many of us seniors have been living carefully within small bubbles, but we do miss having friends and families gathered for meals, etc. Cooking and gardening, however, has kept me busy, well-fed, safe and happy at home. Halibut steak and fresh veg from farmer's market Stove top grilled lamb chops and fresh mint sauce - mint from my herb pallet. Shitaki mushrooms stuffed with ground pork and shrimp. Steamed with oyster sauce and baby abalone. Not excited about the abalone, but the shells will make a pretty wind chime! This morning started off at 4:30 with a tremendous thunderstorm with high winds. The rain gauge showed 30 mm of rain in about 2 hours. I 've needed comfort food, so I pulled out my old steamer and bamboo basket handed down from my Mom. I made Dan Goh, Mom's recipe for steamed Chinese sponge cake. She used to make it for all her grandchildren, and so it was a walk down memory lane today. I had just finished making one cake when the emergency sirens went off. We were in for another tornado! I saw my neighbors out on our street looking up at the sky, so took pieces of the cake out to them and the kids. 10 minutes later, there was a woosh!, then tremendous torrential rain (14 mm in 30 minutes) and high wind. Lots of broken trees and flooded streets but the tornado did not touch down in the city. It did touch down outside city limits then dissipated without major property damage. So, the neighbor kids named the cake Tornado Cake! The power went off for about 10 minutes, but some areas of the city were without power for 4-6 hours because of downed power lines. But I manage to make supper and another cake for ourselves. My Mom's cake basket, probably 50 years old! My Mom's Dan Goh (Egg Cake) : Beat 6 eggs and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 20 minutes. Fold in 1 1/3 cup flour and steam in parchment-lined bamboo basket for 20 minutes. Perfect with tea or a glass of ice cold milk! Supper was a quick stir-fry of shrimp, cherry tomatoes, onion, in spicy ketsup! Expecting showers tomorrow, but hopefully, no more tornadoes!

What's happened to time? Stuck at home and the garden most days, and wow! I've been AWOL for a long spell. Am looking back on all the meals, and they are all super delicious! Actually, I've been afraid to log on as I end up spending wayyyy too much time looking at everyone's food. My kids gave me a 6 month subscription to Cratejoy for Mother's Day.. I am a hard person to shop for! The one they picked was Spice Madam. It's really a waste of money for what comes in the boxes: several small bags with a couple of tbsp of special spice blends, recipe cards for 4 or 5 dishes, and music that comes in an email - for a particular country. The first one was Brazil. I made the vegetarian feijoada, but added cubed pork, spicy chorizo. It's a simplified version of the traditional version that I made one weekend for my Brazilian exchange students. Picked up fresh produce at a regular vegetable stand yesterday. Had a seasoned turkey breast that I picked up at Safeway a couple of months back. It's Granny's brand and in cryovac. I coated it with Panko crumbs and cooked it in the Ninja Foodie Air-fryer. Enjoyed the crispy coating and tender juicy meat with baby carrots, beets and potatoes.

Cioppino - first time we enjoyed this was in San Francisco, many moons ago. Not as good making it at home with frozen seafood, but the broth was slurpingly delicious! Seared the scallops and topped the bowl. Didn't have baguette or garlic toast, but Chinese crullers filled in nicely. With this Covid-19, everyone is baking, so yeast has become a scarce commodity. I had an unopened jar in the dark recesses of my cupboard. Don't even remember why I bought it as I don't bake anything that requires yeast. Must have felt ambitious one day back in 2018. A good friend was desperate, so I opened the jar and made a test batch. It was definitely alive! Dropped the jar off at the friend's, then looked at the test bubbly goo. Didn't want to waste it, so I googled a cinnamon recipe.: Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Buns. Must be beginner's luck! They were great! Good thing I gave the yeast away, or I'll be making them all the time! We had some for dessert, and gave most away to next door neighbors. "Stronger Together", a salute by many Canadian artists to front-line workers fighting COVID-19 for a historic multi-platform concert, was on at supper time, so it was a quick Butter Chicken with brown Basmati rice, cauliflower and peas for supper in front of the TV.

Made chicken congee and loaded it up with favourites: Chinese crueller, Century egg, salted egg, very spicy peanuts, fuyu, and a dash of sesame oil. Made lazy-man pizza with lavash. Nice and crispy thin crust with squeezable pizza sauce, extra lean capocollo, fresh pineapple, feta cheese, and fresh basil. Something I haven't made for a long time - sushi! Filled it with lobster meat, cucumber, and red bell pepper. I love masago!