We were gifted the Abel and Cole: Easy, Seasonal and Organic cookbook a couple of months ago and with local produce in full swing here, it was time to crack out some of their recipes.

First, we were inspired by the grilled aubergines (eggplant) with buffalo mozzarella. Well, we had some nice Canadian zucchini (courgettes) on hand, so we swapped the aubergines for our courgettes. Why can’t we all just agree on one name for these veggies? I prefer the Euro terms - wouldn’t you rather eat an aubergine than an eggplant? The result was delicious no matter what the name.

A Sunday trip to the Bottega netted us a tub of buffalo mozzarella and a fresh loaf of Art-is-in rosemary/garlic bread. When you have ingredients like these, there’s no way your sandwich can suck. After tossing the zucchini in some oil and balsamic oil, we grilled them all up in the panini pan. One word: YUM. Buffalo mozzarella is totally worth the splurge. Loved it.

Then for dessert, I made the baked strawberries with whipped cream. This was interesting, but I’m not really a warm, mushy fruit kind of person… unless it’s in a pie. It looked great, it smelled great, but when I went to serve it… the strawberries were too hot and the whipped cream melted. Next time, I’d just cut up the strawberries and serve them with whipped cream. Raw berries just taste better to me.

I’m not sure this book is available in Canada yet, but you can find lots of recipes on the Abel and Cole website.

After installing the new cupboard last week and organizing our collection of Australian spices, I thought it would be a good idea to make use of some of them. We’ve been using them sparingly since well… things like wattleseed and sea parsley don’t exactly turn up in very many (ie: none) of our North American recipes.

Google helped me find this recipe for Wattleseed Oatmeal and Coconut cookies. What a simple cookie recipe - there was no fussing and waiting 36 hours, the ingredient list was pretty short and, best of all, they had a quick cooking time. (Very important when you need cookies… NOW.  Correction - because the baby needs cookies!  Yes!  Scapegoat!) You just need some access to wattleseed - which could be the achilles heel of this recipe if you’re in Canada. I’m not sure if any of the gourmet shops here in Ottawa carry it. (My mother-in-law in Australia sent us ours.)

They browned up nicely on my Paderno cookie sheet. I loooove this cookie sheet - the cookies just slide off when they’re done! (See here!) I sampled three.. one for me, one for baby and another one for me. Delicious!

Boyfriendly rating: 5/5 (Rated by three boys who installed the new washer/dryer set.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Wattleseed
• 1 large Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon Lime Zest
• 1 teaspoon Lime Juice
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking Oats
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dried shredded Coconut

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the wattleseed and stir to combine. Add the egg, lime zest and lime juice and stir to combine. Fold in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Add the oats and coconut, and stir until well combined. Drop cookies, 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons each, on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake until the edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Currently enjoying this:  Cake Wrecks.  (Thanks Tamara!)

I am a major pickle fiend - even before being pregnant - I loved pickles.  You name it, my mom’s mustard pickles, 7-day pickles, gherkins, dill pickles, pickled asparagus….  things just taste better in a pickle-ly brine.  When I was grocery shopping the other day and happened upon Ontario tomatoes at our local grocer (seriously, miracle!) flashes of pickled tomatoes danced in my head.  Best of all, they were green tomatoes!  I think buying five pounds of unripe tomatoes confused the cashier, but that didn’t matter - I was hell bent on making pickles.

The next day, I returned to the grocery store for the rest of the canning supplies: jars, labels and a canning kit which included tongs, a funnel, and a magnetic stick to get the lids out of hot water.

Here’s the scene:

(Note: I really didn’t need to buy so much salt.  What am I going to do with this ridiculously huge bag of salt??)

Then I washed all the jars and lids in hot soapy water and popped them in hot water to sterilize them.  The instructions say to heat them at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Then, after all the tomatoes were sliced into large chunks - I simmered them in the pickle mixture for 10 minutes.  I based my version on this recipe, but ended up making a few substitutions.

Then, it was time to fill up the jars.  I was a little worried that the canning kit would be a bit of a waste of money, but I completely recommend buying one now.  The tools made it very easy for this newbie to deal with hot jars, lids and pouring (I can be a bit splashy).

And the end result from about five pounds of (mostly) green tomatoes: 5 x 500ml jars of tomato pickles!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups sugar (I used about 1 3/4 white, 1/4 brown sugar)
• 1 tbsp. mustard seed
• 1 tbsp. celery seed
• 2-ish? tbsp. pickling spice
• 1 tbsp. pickling salt
• 5 lbs. green tomatoes, washed, cored
• I omitted the onion as I couldn’t be bothered cutting it up.  I figured I had done enough work by this point!

I have to agree with the Foodie Bride, I didn’t really see what was so exceptional about the chocolate chip cookie recipe that was recently featured in the New York Times. Or maybe I’m just disappointed that after reading all these other blogs about this cookie recipe - they didn’t really shake my solar system.

For the record, normally I would never bake with so much butter and sugar. And that’s probably where this recipe started to derail for me. Super fatty and sugary foods just aren’t a normal part of what we consume, so maybe I was just having a bit of ’sugar shock’. They tasted ridiculously sweet to me. But then again, I’m pregnant and my sense of taste may be moot at this point.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re decent cookies - just not exceptional. Again, I swing more to the savoury flavours than sweet. If you swing to the sweet side, you’d probably enjoy these cookies. For me, they are no candied ginger cookie.

Is your significant other a “gastrosexual“?

Ever since my mother-in-law mentioned cake last week, all I have been able to think about are sweet delicious cupcakes and cake.

Brain: “cake cake cake cake cake cake”

Lana: Arrrgh!  Why are there no cupcake shops in Centretown?

I tried to fill the cake void with a Trudi’s chococolate chip and oatmeal cookie from the Herb & Spice.  And while I love these cookies, they were not cake.  And so my brain chugged along to it’s “cake cake cake cake” beat.

Finally I gave in and baked a single 9 inch yellow cake from this Martha Stewart recipe and iced a slice with vanilla Betty Crocker icing.  I know.  Icing from a can.  For shame, Lana.  Sometimes a girl just really needs cake.  The cake recipe was ridiculously easy and turned out perfectly.  I know I can improve this cake next time with a homemade frosting.  Next time.  Oh yes, there will be a next time.

Anna over at Morsels and Musings posted her recipe for mango frozen yogurt last week and as soon as I saw it, I knew I *needed* it.  Now.

You see, I love orange foods.  Take for example my most recent grocery shop: grapefruits and carrots.  Yum!  (Well, not together.. that would be gross).  The only problem I ran into was that Hartmans was out of plain old thick yogurt.  My fellow Centretownians have tweaked into the goodness that is Liberte Mediterranean Yogurt (tagline: happiness is creamy! - no joke) lately, so it’s hit or miss if you’ll find the flavour you’re after.  Since the plain flavour had been pillaged, I opted for the passionfruit/peach.  I seriously LOVE this flavour.

And while not a “food” - I do love my orange tabby, Orville.  And his crazy expressions.  I think he’s trying to give me the stink eye here or something.

Given that I swapped plain yogurt for a flavoured one, I decreased the amount of sugar quite drastically.  The recipe calls for a cup and half!  YIKES.  I added a generous 1/3 cup and I think that was just plenty.  The final result was delicious.  Definitely a keeper recipe.

MMMMM.

I’ve started writing out a little list of recipes to make and freeze ahead so that we have a few solid weeks of meals at the ready without too many trips to the grocery store.  Hartmans + newborn = blah.   Then again, that’s what husbands are for, right?  Either way, I figure we’ll both be a bit zonked so the less we need to think about, the better.

So far, I’m definitely going to whip up my tweaked-out version of lasagna from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry,  sweet potato burritos, and maybe some meatballs.  But I need more ideas.  I’ve never been a casserole baker and suddenly I feel the need to fill the freezer with casseroles.  Casserole is Italian for “meals moms freeze”, right?

So, a little Googling led me to this thread on Serious Eats about the best meals to freeze, but maybe you have better ideas.  Maybe even a favourite casserole recipe?  If so, let me know!  I’d love to get some of these meals made during this welcome cool weather spell in Ottawa… because I know that Ottawa + August = no cooking.

After a tasty udon soup at Cafe Miga last night, I’ve got it in my head to either a) find fresh udon noodles in Ottawa or b) make my own udon noodles.  I’m hoping the little Korean grocer on Bank will have either fresh noodles (fingers crossed!) or the udon flour.  I found a nice little online tutorial and I am looking forward to trying it out…  maybe tomorrow night for dinner??? Yes.