Friday, March 11, 2011

fernie foodie friday

i have decided to dedicate friday's posts to food. hiphiphooray! here's the situation.  i cook a lot!  and i think i'm good at it, so i'm gonna share my talents with those of you who care to spend some time in my virtual kitchen.  now for the history behind the title of my post. 
this year the fernie women's resource centre published a cookbook of recipes created by locals.  for a few months the board debated over the title of the cookbook.  the most popular title tossed around was 'fernie foodies'  foodie ~ adj. one who is passionate about food.
i wanted to put a recipe in the book, but i didn't submit one in time...what is it about deadlines? ugh.
i really regret this...i'm very disappointed. so on friday's i will recap the food i've made in the week.  usually i make dinner monday to thursday nights and dan makes food on the weekends.  he works four ten hour days so he always has three day weekends. it's great. so here we go...

monday afternoon nesta invited is best friend jack over after school.  when i asked them what they wanted to eat jack suggested nachos...i thought that might be a great idea for dinner too. thanks jack!

so we had butternut squash soup and beef nachos. 
when i was a kid i remember asking my mum to teach me to cook.  i don't know how many lessons we had, but i do remember that she emphasised one thing..."no matter what you're making you always start with butter, onions, garlic, celery leaves, fresh ground pepper, and if appropriate ginger!"  she said that a lot.
thinking back i probably didn't need to ask for lessons, i was soaking a lot in just by being there.  i have only just recently perfected the art of dicing onions.  the way my mother does that is. 
that's squash, onions, garlic,celery leaves, ginger, and red peppers.  in the yogurt container is veggie broth i took out of the freezer that i made a couple of weeks ago.
mmmm...it was smooth like butta...buttanut!

when i looked up from stopping the blender i noticed there was a spy in the place...sneaky kid.
while the squash was cooking i started the nachos.  when i started dicing the tomatoes the spy had moved in...and snatched the goods! i guess i can't complain if he's eating veggies.  look how cute he is.
i had to get the rest of the nachos made before there was no ingredients left to cook with.  those boys are always hungry.

on sunday night dan made burgers, and there was one leftover, so i diced it up too and threw it on top!
i think that took about forty minutes, and everyone liked it.
on tuesday night i made pasta. rotinni with beef sauce. which i didn't bother documenting, but i will note that i put kale in the sauce and it gave it a fantastic texture and fresh flavour.  i was so nervous about my performance for women's day i could hardly eat it, but it did make for a great lunch on wednesday. speaking of which...we ate veggie shepard's pie on wednesday night.  you remember i visited the new organic market?...well i picked up some produce.
i think the best part about this meal was that i made it in 45 minutes.  here's the 5 minute version:
preheat oven to 350. chop and boil potatoes. ( i don't peel 'em 'cause it saves time and the skin is full of important nutrients...don't ask me which ones;)
chop the veggies for the base...this time i used kale, cauliflower, onions, garlic, ginger, red peppers & celery leaves.
cook it up! once the veggies start smelling really yummy, and the onions start turning translucent add your seasoning. this time i chose, salt, pepper, and garam masala.  then right before the veggies were done i added garbonzo beans.  the veggies don't bond the way ground beef does, so i scooped some of the water from my pot of boiling potatoes, added some potato starch to it, and poured it over the stir fry.
now for the layers...veggies, corn, mahed potatoes and cheddar.
every mama has her tricks for mashed potatoes.  i remember i used to be embarrassed at my lumpy potatoes at thanksgiving or other occasions when guest may be exposed to my laziness...i just can't be bothered to peel all those potatoes! but ...when i worked at the BLVD Grill in port alberni, the chef there use to serve mashed potatoes the same way i do!  he called them 'rustic roasted garlic mashed'  now if i don't have the time to peel, you know i don't roast no garlic for my spuds neither!  either way, after that i felt a lot better about my 'rustic' potatoes.  my recipe is the spuds, all the butter and mayo you can handle, milk, pepper and salt. simple.

while the pie baked i clean the asparagus and green beans and put 'em in the steamer with a heaping scoop of butter.
forty five minutes after i started...voila. organic dinner.
the boys loved it...

of course after dinner i realized the reason it was such a quick preparation time...

ooops.
now, in celebrating of fernie foodie friday, i want to post some photos that highlight some of the ways i prevent waste.  after all that whole food gets chopped, cooked, and eaten what's left?  scraps!
wait! don't compost that!  make broth.  mine boiled while the pie was baking and after dinner i processed it. then when you don't know what to make for dinner, and you see a beautiful butternut squash sitting in the window sill, you won't hesitate to think...soup! and you'll have homemade broth in the freezer.
it's so easy, and such a nice addition to soups, stews, roasts...anything really!
do you juice?  we are in love with our juicer around here!  if you have a juicer sitting in one of your cupboards pull it out and make some juice.  my favourite recipe is a beet, green apple, orange, carrot and ginger!  the best way to start a day if you ask me.  it tastes heavenly.  but what to do with this?

the pulp?  i thought i'd try muffins.  i have a cookbook called 'the family baker'  i improvised (cut the sugar in half and replaced with honey...i always do this when i bake. ie. 1 cup granulated sugar = 1/2 cup honey...and added dried cranberries) a recipe called morning glory muffins and it worked like magic!
mmmm...my juicer pulp muffins.  deeeeelish!  i hope you've enjoyed my first weekly edition of 'fernie foodie friday'

3 comments:

  1. I'm hungry now! When you had your Opening at Womb 2 Grow you made the MOST DELISH tomato/veg scroll thingy. I have wanted to recipe ever since. You should include it in your Foodie Friday blog so I can make it until my hearts content!

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  2. Love it! I'm always in need of ideas for dinner...I think I'll make that squash soup for the boys!
    Can't wait to see you guys on thursday! :)

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