Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Incredible Spring Menus
I have to share two incredible menus with you (along with recipe links) because it’s been a veritable gorge-fest around our place lately what with Brian’s birthday and our BBQ.
First, there was Brian’s birthday dinner with friends at Lake Mesachie. Morning was cake-baking time, and then I spent a great part of the afternoon lazily making the two appetizers (served one, made the other – timing was beautiful) after which there was lots of time before the steaks went on the grill so no one was too full from the appies.
- Goat Cheese, Cranberry and Walnut Canapes
- Hazelnut and Turkey Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
- Spinach salad with almonds & strawberries – blue cheese dressing
- Grilling steaks – marinated for 10 hours with caramelized onions, mushrooms and blue cheese toppings
- Lemon Angel Food Cake with Lemon Cream
All of the linked recipes are really worth a try, and the lemon cream is unbelievable. As I mentioned in a previous post, I made the angel food cake twice because it fell and was undercooked the first time….. but second time was a charm.
This past weekend, we had a BBQ in honour of almost-summer. Of course, being Vancouver, it rained. But no matter because we have a studio, a tarp set-up and a hot tub which means anytime of year can be outside time! For this grand occasion we asked people to grill their own, and provided on the side:
- Beet, Potato and Walnut Salad
- Spinach Salad with Feta, Cranberries and Toasted Hazelnuts
- Double-bacon, maple-whiskey oven-baked beans
- Gin and tonic cake (pictured above)
- Bacon-beer cornbread
Those were pretty much all new recipes I’ve seen and wanted to try – which is the reason I invite people over in the first place since I can’t possibly justify something like gin and tonic cake otherwise. And by the way – the cake was nothing short of amazing and I have to thank How Sweet It Is for experimenting to discover such goodness in baking! I am currently soaking limes in gin (for the next four weeks or so) to kick it up one more notch (lime-gin and gin-soaked limes dredged in sugar!) the next time I make it, which will be as soon as I have an excuse to.
Lest you think I am a crazy eater – when not hosting people I tend to resort to eating things like the following (my favourite Friday night dinner):
- Lightly seared tuna steaks (by which I mean 10 seconds on each side, no more.)
- Asparagus sauteed in butter
- Shitake mushrooms cooked with garlic and red wine
- One square of dark chocolate
Which ain’t so shabby either!
A little wrecked.
This is going to sound ridiculous – but I’m kind of wrecked today from the long weekend of activities – and not of the partying sort. I had the weirdest night of non-sleep and sweats and aches, and now I’m home from work feeling groggy and strange. I chalk this up to overwork because I don’t think I have an actual illness (I have flu symptoms but it doesn’t actually feel like *the* flu) – which would square up with the fact that we spent the weekend at work on the house and suite, plus hosted friends on Sunday night for a BBQ that required much kitchen-time. While it was awesome to get so much done (it’s a little inconceivable to me that we managed to do most of our chores) , I am noting for future reference that my body is not an unstoppable machine – and I actually pay the price for hard work if I don’t rest properly.
In any case — wrecked — and I still have one more run of the steam-cleaner to do on the suite downstairs before I return that beastly machine to Safeway. I have a longer post to share about food later today when I am done my dreadful tasks and can lie on the couch for the afternoon, resting my sorry ass. Gah.
Recipe: Double-bacon, maple-whiskey, oven-baked beans.
Ridiculously long title, I know – but somehow there is no other way to ensure you are going to try these beans without telling you upfront that there is something really special about them: ie: double-bacon. This recipe is the result of a happy accident in following this recipe as well as the addition of whiskey, as well as an amended cooking time to ensure that the beans were actually the right consistency (the recipe I just linked to will only result in soupy, thin beans I’m afraid, I don’t know what they were thinking on the cooking time). And yes, I used a stock photo of baked beans (probably those canned Heinz beans) even though mine are far superior – because there was just no way for me to attractively photograph the beans I made last night.
Ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups great northern or other small white bean, soaked for 4 hours
- sea salt
- 18 thick slices of bacon, cut 9 slices into 1/4 inch strips
- 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 shots rye whiskey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup dark unsulfured molasses
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp. mustard powder
- Rinse your beans after soaking. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 2 hours; or just cook them however your normally do until they are done, but still a little firm. Drain the beans, reserving 4 cups of the cooking liquid. Rinse the beans in a colander. Transfer the beans to a large, deep baking dish. (If you want to do this step the night before, which I did – you can reheat the beans by plunging them into a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 375°. In you cast-iron fry pan, cook the 1/4 inch bacon strips over medium heat until they are cooked but not crisp – about five minutes. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft (if you want to go for caramelized, turn the heat down and go much longer). Stir in the apple cider vinegar, shots of whiskey, brown sugar, molasses, crushed red pepper, black pepper and 1 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt and heat through until the sugar is dissolved.
- Pour your frying pan full of goodness over the beans along with the reserved bean cooking liquid. Cover the beans with foil and bake for 3 and a half hours, checking every 45 minutes or so on the consistency. Most of the liquid should be gone by the time they are baked like a bean should be.
- While you are baking the beans, mix the maple syrup, wine vinegar and mustard powder. Arrange the remaining 8 bacon slices on a rimmed baking sheet, and generously brush them with the maple syrup mixture. Bake the bacon in the same oven as the beans for about 25 minutes, basting 3 or 4 times and turning the bacon three times, until richly glazed. Transfer the bacon to a plate.
- Pour 1/3 cup of water onto the baking sheet and return it to the oven for about 3 minutes to dissolve the caramelized syrup. Uncover the beans and stir in the syrup.
- Cut the glazed bacon into pieces and stir them into the beans. Put the whole thing back in the oven to stay warm until ready to eat. Or eat them right away after letting them sit for fifteen minutes out of the oven. They are awesome.
Under Pressure!
I am a little embarrased to admit that more than a year ago, my co-worker “leant” me a pressure cooker which has remained under my desk all this time – manual, weight, and all. Now, my co-worker has downsized and since she hasn’t asked for it back (it’s one of those loan until I need it kindof things), I think this summer it is time to bring that sucker home. Because this is going to be my year of pressure-canning! At least, I hope it is.
See, I’ve been canning for about fifteen years – not long after moving to Vancouver I decided to make jam for gifts even though I didn’t have a very large pot, or any canning implements. For a few summers, that’s basically what I did – a little jam, perhaps some Chinese plum sauce (we had a plum tree in my first Vancouver house), and that was all. But increasingly, the canning bug grew and since meeting Brian (an earnest partner in food storage it turns out) I (we) process up to 300 pounds of fruit and veggies in the summer. We do a little at a time throughout the season (I will be doing rhubarb next week most likely), but late in August we take a few days off work and we really go at it all day and all night until it’s done.
As much as I get cranky about it mid-process (by day three usually I am asking why? why? would I bother to do this much work when a supermarket with canned goods exists just down the way) – I am positively in love with the larder that is always offering up what I need during the fall, winter and spring. Pickled beets, salsas, pie filling, jam, chutneys, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce – we use it all, and give lots away too (canned goods make a great hostess gift!). I could go on and on at how glad I am that this is a part of our practice.
But up until now, it’s been all boiling water canning – a method that requires no special gear, but also requires that everything be acidic in order to kill off any possibility of botulism. Fruit-bases are fine, but anything like vegetables, meats or legumes must be brined in order to be safe….. or…… Pressure canned!
I think this summer I am ready to go to the next level. Dried beans could be canned and ready for eating, fresh salmon can be chunked up and processed in its own oil, stews and soups can be cooked in the pressure-canner, ready to be heated and served. And what is the point exactly? Choosing one’s own ingredients, steering far clear of the food production industry, and keeping the chemical flavourings and colourings out of our food. Not to mention that it’s a lot cheaper than shelf-ready food – and it tastes more like you think it ought to.
So I’m on the lookout for anyone’s favourite pressure canning recipes – as I plan to make small batches of a number of things in hopes that I learn what I like and don’t like this year. I know from years of boiling water canning that sometimes you *do* throw out batches of things because they didn’t work, or for some other reason…. which I’m sure will be the case with learning to pressure can. So let me know if this is something you do and you have something to share!
Freelancin’
I’ve been working on my first freelance contract this week – a proposal-writing gig for a friend of mine in the US who runs a networking and IT-support company specializing in service to non-profits. Lucky me! I have a good friend who already trusts my ability to communicate, and both his regular proposal-writers were too busy to take the gig.
I agreed to give it a whirl even though I thought I had no idea what to do. I mean, write – yes. I can write. But the work is technical writing in a field I’m only partly familiar with, in a business environment totally different from my regular job. And on top of that? My friend has never submitted a proposal of this sort to a client, so he didn’t have much to show me by way of past work.
Now, I was hoping that freelancing would bring me newsletter articles, web copy, a bit of blogging for some local business – but instead I got some *hard* writing work right out of the gate – which has turned out to be the best thing for me. The proposal isn’t finished quite yet – tonight I’ve probably got a couple hours of wrestling with it to get it polished for the company client tomorrow morning – but I’m already declaring this first experience a success. My friend’s offer of work not only got me researching and writing in a new field – but because his proposal is for a service-bid, it stoked the competitive me which helped put more energy into the work. And after years in the same government job, it’s good to be reminded that 1) I have skills and 2) they are not so limited as my bosses (these days) would have me believe. Confidence-boosting for sure!
Red Cedar 