FauxPas

I love this soup on cool days. It (or variations of it) help clean out leftover produce, also. Sauté onions, garlic in some olive oil. Add 'curry-type' seasonings or blends - sometimes I make it a bit hot with extra cayenne or red pepper flakes. Add chickpeas (I often have some in the freezer), chicken or veggie stock, fresh or canned tomatoes. Possibly carrots. Spinach or beet greens (this one had both). Possibly a bit of tomato paste.

You won't use up a ton of summer squash with this Early Summer Risotto recipe from Simple Bites, but I thought it was so lovely. You could, of course, increase the squash and decrease the other veggies. I love the squash blossoms! Picture is from (and recipe is at) Simple Bites: http://www.simplebites.net/early-summer-risotto-with-new-garden-vegetables/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+SimpleBites+(Simple+Bites)

Keep a cold pitcher of water in the fridge with lots of sliced cucumber in it. One of my favourite summertime drinks. Well, until cocktail hour, that is. But there are cucumber cocktails also, like this one: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Cucumber-Gin-Cooler Also, you can invite the girls over for British Tea one afternoon and make classic cucumber tea sandwiches or use cucumber + prawn, cucumber + cream cheese + red pepper, etc.

It is - both Scotland and Canada use the 'whisky' spelling. (and maybe Japan?) The rest of the world is just wrong. Here is one explanation: http://www.thekitchn.com/whiskey-vs-whisky-whats-the-di-100476

I haven't read all the way to the end of the current comments so not sure if anyone else has said this, but if it's whiskey it's not Canadian (whisky). Edited to add the smiley, to look less like an annoying dweeb.

FrogPrincesse (thanks!) got me started on this one - it contains peaches and golden beets, along with butter lettuce, Walla Walla onion, sweet red pepper and goat cheese. Almost everything is local or from nearby. Dressing was comprised of olive oil, white wine vinegar, fresh squeezed orange juice, a touch of honey, basil and pepper.

I have a One Touch opener as well. I love it because I am left-handed and manual openers are backwards for me. I've had the One Touch for at least a few years and had no problems with it. It does require a couple of AA batteries and it seems to go through them a bit faster than I would have expected, though nothing outrageous. It's fairly compact and fits in a drawer easily. It's not super easy to clean but it's not impossible either. I like the idea of that rechargeable one, andiesenji, would you recommend it?

I was thinking that if you really want the taste of dry-roasted veggies, then adding steam won't give you what you want. However, I would have loved to know how that chicken and orange dish would have worked in the Steam-Bake mode. I have cooked rice in the Cuisinart, then kept it warm while I steam-roasted some protein.

Anna (and weinoo), I have to say that I find the Steam-Broil function the least useful of the Cuisi functions for my purposes. I find that veggies or fish or whatever are usually better done with either Steam-Bake or Steam only. I tried salmon on Steam-Broil and it was not as good as the other functions. I do use steam-bake for several types of veggies and especially for potatoes. Right now, we get lovely little nugget potatoes locally and they are heavenly when steam-baked. No foil needed. 350F to 400F or so.

I have the Cuisinart steam oven so I steam-bake the beets in it w/o any foil. Here is a salad I make frequently at this time of year when we get the fresh local nugget potatoes and local green beans and the tomatoes are good (though not always local). Warm potato salad - steam or steam-bake those lovely little nugget potatoes then add green beans to steam a bit more, some kind of chopped onion and mix together while still hot with some chopped tomatoes and the onion. A bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and top with feta cheese and maybe some green onions. This alone can be dinner.

What do you like to put in your meatloaf? Is that carrot I see? Or red pepper? I like to add grated onion (always), maybe some grated carrot or some chopped spinach or beet greens. Maybe grated apple if I use a bit more ground pork in the meat mix than usual.

I was joking somewhat. Though we really do crave the Bick's burger relish every now and again. The very best relishes are the ones I make, of course! Ahem. And no fluorescent green in those!

So true and one reason why I never buy the stuff. I either use fresh or canned tomatoes and maybe a bit of paste here and there. And occasionally if I need a plain tomato sauce, I just add water to tomato paste.

Maybe that's because you are steaming them. Over to you, weinoo!

I thought that the green relish was for hot dogs and that real Canadians used this (pic below) for burgers. Maybe with a bit of mayo. My husband and I get a craving for this stuff every now and again and we have not been able to find it in the parts of the US where we live/visit/stay. Next time we go down, we'll either take a jar with us or I'll have to find a recipe! Picture from the Bick's site: http://www.bicks.ca/products_sub.aspx?pid=39

The Mutti is a type of tomato paste, Just not sure whether double or triple concentrate is closest to North American.

If you have a can of tomato paste, you can use it as a substitute for tomato sauce. You can just add water - for a 156 mL can, I would add about 250 mL water or to your desired thickness. Then just add a bit of extra seasoning to the recipe. Or here are some more precise suggestions: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/dinner-food-facts/substitute-tomato-paste-for-tomato-sauce.htm You could also purée canned tomatoes to make sauce-like. Depends how fussy your recipe is, really.

River Café at Prince's Island Park used to be one of my favourites. I liked the location and I liked the way they sourced their food and wine. The in-house bakery. Seasonal menus. Here's the link to their menus: http://www.river-cafe.com/food_wine/menus/dinner

I really want to know what is in each of those containers! Looks lovely. Can't wait to hear more on this topic and others. Thank you for sharing!

it's great fun to go shopping with you! Is there a condiment/pickle type area? Curious to see that. How many varieties of mango do you get? Would this store be considered pricey or upscale?

When someone is acting, they say "break a leg" to encourage a good performance. I really am not sure about saying "break a tooth" to encourage a good food blog. Though perhaps the underlying sentiment is the same - you DON'T actually do the thing you are being told. All this is my long and tedious and confusing way of saying that maybe we should tell you to 'break a tooth' and then maybe you won't, next time, if you know what I mean.

I really enjoy seeing your posts on such a variety of topics and appreciate the time you take to do photos, make links, etc. Your Sundance link took me to a Kansas horse farm, though. I wonder if this is the right one?: http://www.sundancenaturalfoodscompany.com/ Citrus growing is interesting to me. We have a very good local grocery chain here on Vancouver Island which has contracted with Buck Brand organic citrus in California and now buys their entire crop. We are still getting some of their fruit but it feels in-between seasons to me. There are better grapefruit than oranges, currently, for example. I have grown some citrus at our place in southern Arizona - Ruby red grapefruit, Cara Cara orange and tangerine. But it's a bit tricky there - summers are so hot and winters can be cold. We lost some of our early trees. I know you grow herbs, maybe veggies, do you have fruit/nut trees yourself? Here in BC, I have a few hazelnut trees and it's a battle to get them before the deer and the raccoons do. Also, apple trees all around. All these things are wonderful in salads, as well as cooked dishes. And yes, that CSA box looks delish! We have several farm markets here, nothing is more than 10 mins away, so we go to them. But for urban living, your situation is heavenly! And once again, I love seeing your posts and all the wonderful things you do with the bounty you have available!

And make sure all your cherries and olives are pitted! :-)

There's not much cooking involved in it (and it's not a very sophisticated cocktail), but I did make the Rhubarb-Gin cocktail referenced in my earlier post. I'm not crazy about thyme, so used some fresh rosemary instead. The rhubarb salt is lovely though it took a long time to dry. And, to be honest, it just tastes like salt - there's not much rhubarb flavour to it. The finished cocktail is pretty, but again, not a lot of rhubarb flavour. Then again, the only rhubarb I could get was at the very end of the season so maybe fresher/younger would be tastier! I still have a few stalks of rhubarb left and I'm toying with the idea of trying a rhubarb-cherrry sauce, but I suspect the cherries would overwhelm the aging rhubarb. I do have some cherries to use up though, so might just make it for that reason. Cherry, onion, rhubarb, balsamic vinegar. Maybe served with a pork tenderloin.

Ha, looks like great fun! Did it pass the Kira taste test? And how is your tooth? Hope the dentist visit worked out well.