Okanagancook

Pictures of my square foot gardening plot. The onions are doing well are my lettuces. Potatoes were planted this week. Should be picking some arugula next week. The humming birds are here too.

Pictures of the greenhouse with my tomato seedling, basil, lettuce, zucs, cucs, and some blackberry plants for our neighbours. They are little runners off our plants. $16 each at the local garden store. The vineyards are waking up. The earliest bud break EVER according to our local farmers. Feels like May long weekend. Going to 29 degrees F today. I was also told to mix up some miracle grow and spray it on our seedlings a couple of times a week to help them grow. So, we'll see how that works.

Smithy, the pepper salad is called "Ezme" Spicy Tomato & Pepper Dip. It's basically very finely chopped white onion, red and green peppers with chillies, parsley, sumac, pomegranate molasses, red wine vinegar, s and p. Drizzled with olive oil and a pinch of sumac to finish. AnnaN, the hummus and tahini sauce were from Aleppo but the others were from Persiana which is a wonderful book. I've made several recipes from it and they have all turned out flavourful without a ton of ingredients. I made the lunch for our little wood cutting crew who are taking out some old apricot trees for the farmer who is replanting in cherries. The wood is really dense and will make great firewood in a couple of years, once it dries out. They work from 9:30 until 1 pm and then I make everyone lunch. There are only 11 trees left so one more session. Next Monday. I think I'll make some Spanish food for them. The lunches I've made so far were: mac and cheese (it was a last minute "can you make the boyz lunch?"), that Indonesian meal for one of the crew members who is Dutch and hasn't had decent Indo food since immigrating to Canada and then yesterday was a meze table.

Meze, posted over in the Syrian Refugee Tea topic. The second dish shown was interesting: from Persiana Spicy Tomato and Pepper Dip served with pitas. Chopped tomatoes, onion, red and green pepper, parsley, sumac, pomegranate molasses, red wine vinegar, s and p and olive oil. Unexpectedly, it was the star of the lunch. The hummus was outstanding, from the Aleppo. Also made some chicken in saffron and rosemary, fattoush, pickled beets, tahini spread, lamb kofta, eggplant puree, homemade pitas, kibbee, and olives. One of the eaters brought lemon squares for dessert. Oh, and wine! Delicious. It was kinda like eating East Indian food....all of a sudden one felt very, very full.

Thanks deryn. The food was sooooo good. Hummus made with the skins of the chick peas removed is so silky smooth but the star was that pepper salad. The fattoush salad was also really nice, not too much Pita bread with a really lemony dressing. the family have a lot of challenges ahead and Naramata is a very small village, 2000 people, but people here have big hearts so it is a starting point for the family. They could not possibility afford to settle here as it is way too expensive but Penticton is much more affordable. we shall work to get them independent and learning English is the most important thing for them.

update: we have a family of four, two young children. Unfortunately the speak no english. I'm one of the 'core' volunteers so will know more after our meeting tomorrow. Had a meze lunch for the boyz (aka DH's) who got more wood for us from apricot trees that are being taken out to make way for more profitable cherry trees. Practising some dishes: a very interesting chopped onion, red and green pepper dish with loads of hot peppers and sumac; chicken breasts which were sous vide and then flash browned in a saffron/rosemary sauce; hummus; kibbee; lamb kofta; fattoush; yogurt and pitas. All the dishes were delicious and it was like an Indian meal.....it kinda snuck up on you and suddenly you were feeling very full.

Maybe put the sticky label on the top of your stirring hand!

Loblaws in Canada announced a major expansion. I'll bet we see some sort of meal kit area with these new stores and expansion/renovation of existing stores. Our local Save-On-Foods did a major renovation two years ago and put in a large prepared foods are along with a small area with tables and chairs.

I made the vegetable soup. Meh. Pretty ordinary. Also made the coleslaw and we did not like the lack of crunch that results from pre-salting the cabbage so the salad is not watery.

For those who have The Food Lab, there is a nice section on making vegetable soups. It just covers the best techniques for getting a nice 'bright' vegetable soup. What I learned from it was that I was overcooking my vegetables for pureed soups.

Got my book yesterday. Some interesting reading coming up. The potato salad description adding the vinegar, salt and sugar in the water is something I would like to try. I visited his website and there is an Erata section which I looked at and compared my book. I must have a second printing because all the errors were fixed EXCEPT for the quick waffles on page 157. According to the Erata page, it should be 1/2 cup buttermilk and not 1 1/2 cups.

Nice. They are so easy to make without much in the way of clean up. Glad you liked them. Try different spices on them too.

First attempt at Bebek Betutu, a recipe from The Food of Bali and is a common dish. Don't know much about this regional cookery. A paste is made with shallots, garlic, lemongrass, lime leaves, candlenuts, ginger root, galangal, black pepper, chile, coriander trasi, salt and oil. Rub the paste inside and out of the duck. Wrap in leaves, I had banana, and foil then roast, low and slow. I used my Big Green Egg but had trouble getting the temperature to where I wanted it. Anyways, 4.5 hours at 250F. It was very, very nice. Mild in flavours but a good complexity.

Forgot where I got this recipe but the key is to soak the cut fries for at least 30 minutes before drying and baking at 450 convection for around 35 minutes flipping them over half way through. Could take a little longer and do not crowd them on the sheet pan. I also cut them quite skinny, like MacDonalds fries size. I try to use minimal fat, just to coat. Also, wash the starch off the cut fries then refill the container with fresh water for soaking. Mine were soaked over night because dinner plans changed and they were fine. I used russets. cheers

Oven baked fries, sautéed mushers, sous vide tri tip steak with Les Halles herb butter and a salad made with garden asparagus/lettuce topped with pistachios. The steak was a quite chewy....should have cooked it longer than 3 hours....more like 12 hours, it was work for the old jaw bone. The fries turned out great. Use the cut and soak for at least 4 hours method then tossed in a little duck fat and some of Ted Readers Bone Dust seasoning then into a 475F convection oven until crispy. Notice that we have half a plate full of those beauties....one russet, all be it a very large one.

Favourite bagel is cheddar cheese/jalapeño with lots of crusty cheese bits and preferably warm.

That is in the serious eats article.

This might be helpful http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/how-to-make-perfect-homemade-pita-bread.html i read somewhere about the resting for a good puff so have always done it. Humph, guess I do not need to. Will try the serious eats procedure next time. thanks

After rolling out the dough you must cover with a cloth and rest 15 to 20 minutes otherwise the puffing in the oven is not optimal.

Such a collection of different foods for breakfast. Mine are sadly boring so no posts from me. I live in envy.....DH is a cereal eater.

My wild asparagus plants are doing well, another week or so before I get my measly few stalks. The Armstrong asparagus will be in the stores later this week! Yippee. Armstrong is about 65 km's to the north here and the flow of asparagus usually lasts three weeks. I'm starting to look for ways to have them everyday. It has been a little cool here. We had a big rain yesterday, which we need. Mountain runoff hasn't started yet and the snow is still visible on the surrounding mountains which is why it is so cool. But, good for my lettuce plants and the arugula should be ready to eat in a week.

Fantastic looking meals everyone! Here are my lamb chops from the other night with Israeli couscous and roasted okra. I have never cooked this large style of couscous before and of course I over did them. DH said "life's too short to eat mushy Israeli couscous" so it went in the bind. Next time I watched it like a hawk and caught it just before it went over.....I immediately spread it out on a sheet pan and set it outside to cool quickly. Last night we had the crab and ricotta filled cannelloni. Some pictures of assembly but of course I forgot to take a picture of it plated with the dreamy tomato-butter sauce. I need a new camera.....the kind that will download pictures without having to take the memory card out each time. As appetizers we had some 'dahl patties'. Never made these before either: soak moong, chana and urad dahl overnight. Blend with water, coconut, spices and a little baking powder. Then deep fry. Weren't greasy at all and what a healthy appetizer. Served with Egullet tomato chutney and some coriander chutney.

Today was fresh spinach from the market made with a Cook's Illustrated recipe for wilted spinach salad with bacon dressing! I made a small crab/shrimp cake with the leftover crab we bought today. I spent most of the day making crab and ricotta cheese cannelloni with a tomato-butter sauce...hope to post that in the dinner thread. The wilted spinach salad is really easy to make and it would make a great salad for company because you can make almost the whole thing ahead and then just heat up the bacon dressing when ready to serve. Sorry no picture.

Those look very interesting. Better picture than on the dinner thread....a close up. I think I would like the textures and on English muffins for some crunch. Thanks.

Gravy and fries! OMG. r