Risotto Tuesday and Marilyn Monroe

I am really loving risottos right now, with the change in weather turning cooler. Even if you enjoy meat, or chicken or seafood, the basics are the basics - so add what you want.

Risotto Tuesdays have become a "thing" in our house. It is a great antedote to the proverbial question "what's for dinner".

Mushroom risotto was on the menu last week, but yesterday I had some beautiful red peppers and some red onions. Harrison wanted to help (mostly to make 'tofu calamari', but I talked him into helping with both) which was great.

I always find it cute to see newbies holding knives. Harrison has been able to hold a knife - and I mean a "that's a nIIIIIIfe" knife (insert Australian accent here) - since he was young. I want him to respect the sharpness and the safety issues for sure, but I also trust him and want him to be comfortable around cooking utensils. (A person I know actually locks up their cheese grater for fear that one of their little people in the house will scrape themselves. Really? When I was a kid, I didn't go around accidentally grating my fingers, but I digress...)

So he slowly took apart a red pepper, discarding the stem and seeds after slicing the whole thing in half. Then he took down the onion, taking off the top and bottom, peeling off the outer layer and cubing both into manageable chunks (the size of toonies). We added some olive oil to a big soup pot instead of a shallower pan.

When I cook with my son, I do like to build in some splatter protection when working with hot oil, hence the deeper pan.

We sauteed both till soft after salting them slightly, and then blended the mushy mixture in the magic bullet blender with some water.

Olive oil goes back in the pan, with some ARBORIO rice, enough oil to coat the kernels. Then add stock in batches, and stir with a flat utensil of some kind, slowly adding stock for about 18 minutes.

After the rice was getting nice and creamy, after approximately 10 minutes, I added the red pepper and onion mixture back into the pan.

Finished the cooking/stirring process for the next 8 muinutes, grabbed plates, some Frank's Red Hot and some sea salt.

Checked the risotto to see how it tasted, and as Julia Child would say "corrected" the seasoning. All this means is that you check to see if it needs more salt;)

When Bill walked in the door, I was on the couch, happily watching Chef At Home. Harrison was at the island nibbling his potato chip crusted fried tofu, which he thinks are better than Calamari, dunked in toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and hot sauce, and watching Spongebob.

I was able to hand him a red pepper risotto for dinner after a long hard day at the office...

Marilyn Monroe said once that she didn't mind being in a man's world, as long as she could be a woman in it. Truth be told, and as non-PC as this may sound, I LIKE being able to pull a satisfying dinner together for him, EVEN if I have worked as many hours as he has that day.

Whether dinner was easy or not is our little secret....

IKEA risotto in plain language instructions...

We are very close to finishing our IKEA closets - and MAN are they gorgeous. However, we've had to contend with two broken panels on the last door, and that means that the entire unfinished project is spread all over our closet. I literally had to move a hammer, a fat orange screwdriver and a set of IKEA instructions just to get to the keyboard.

And it makes me think again about tools.

You need the right tools to put things together, of course. But sometimes you just need some instructions that have easy to follow pictures. IKEA's instructions do not even have words. They are all visual instructions, with just arrows, guides and pictures. It is genius.

Why don't they make a cookbook for guys like this? Seriously - this is my inspired thought for the evening. IKEA needs to get into the cookbook business. Now that I think about it, it's not just the guys. We could ALL use a cookbook like this.

When I get into the office (that is if I remember, if I can still locate my other computer because I've never loaded the scanner info onto my new laptop, if I can find the magazine page, and IF I get in early....) I would like to scan in a magazine article that food network magazine runs. It isn't a recipe, actually but a collection of pictures! It will show a picture of 3 eggs, a picture of a tablespoon of oil, a picture of 15 spears of asparagus...

This idea is really smart for people who are just learning, because often the combinations of food and flavours are intimidating.

My friend Melanie said once that people always make a recipe look so easy because they LIE about what is in there. They say "Oh, I just added this, and this and a bit of that and some this" but what they don't tell you is that there are 10 other things that they added and don't tell you about. And she may be right.

Tonight, I just "threw together" a risotto for Harrison and I.

So here - in exhaustive detail - is his favourite mushroom risotto recipe. And I will try to put it into realistic terms for fun.

Take a saucepan (the size of a hubcap )
Turn one large burner onto the number 6 (already this is harder than I thought...)
Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil (one shot glass... yes, I just measured it:)
Take a half cup of ARBORIO rice
Cut up half an onion (the size of a baseball) into little pieces (about the size of dice?)
Pulverize one clove of garlic into tiny pieces (the size of a nail head).
MIx all this in the pan until the oil coats everything including the rice, garlic and onions and keep stirring everything around.

Get a FLAT spatula so that you can scrape the entire bottom of the pan or something is going to start burning (the very blackish brown colour... NOT GOOD!)

Once you have this oily coated oniony-garlicky-rice, you can add some vegetable stock.

Vegetable stock comes in tetra-paks in the soup aisle. It can also come in a can, but it can be concentrated, so read the directions on the can. It can also come in a cube, or a packet. Make the entire packaged recipe before you start. It does not need to be hot - you can leave it cold.

[The cheapest and best way to get vegetable stock is to make your own from a large chopped up carrot (the size of a big orange screwdriver) and an equal amount of chopped up celery and one chopped up (baseball sized) onion that you have peeled to get rid of the papery surrounding layers, and just keep the wet crisp part. Cut off the hairy bearded part and the pointy top too. Add 1 teaspoon of salt (1/4 of a shot glass) and some pepper. Add 4 cups of water and leave it on the stove with the burner on 4 for 40 minutes until the veggies are soft. Since I really believe in waste not, want not, I would put the whole thing into the blender to use all the veggies....]

OK - back to our risotto.....

You will need about 6 cups of the stock OR 6 cups of liquid of some kind. If you are adventurous, you could add 1/2 cup of wine. If you have a leftover soup from the day before, you could add that. OR you could just add water.

As the oily rice is sitting there frying, grab a soup ladle and add two ladlefuls of liquid. It will sizzle and steam up.

Use the flat spoon or spatula to keep stirring everything. You will need to keep stirring for the next 18 minutes.

IT IS WORTH IT.

Let everything keep evapourating as you stir every 30 seconds to a minute and a half.

Grab a pack of whole mushrooms. (The size of golf balls)

Rinse them in a clean sink.

Cut them into slices with a knife. (The slices should be the size of a head of a wrench that says 3/4 on the head....Yes, I just looked this up too.)

Add another two spoonfulls of liquid. Add however many mushrooms you have managed to cut up.

Keep doing this every 45 seconds - 1.5 minutes or until all the mushrooms are added to the risotto.

OK. This part is for Melanie.

Add some grainy dijon mustard. (To measure this, use a big spoon you would use to eat soup with.)

Add some fresh rosemary if you have it. (One twig)

If you have laughed at the thought of fresh rosemary being in your house, smack your forehead and do not pass go, because you really should. It is delicious.

However, you could use one half of a coffee spoon of dried rosemary from your cupboard.

Use one half of the same coffee spoon to add some steak spice because STEAK SPICE GOES BEAUTIFULLY WITH MUSHROOMS.

Are you still stirring? Stirring this way is what makes risotto, risotto. It is what encourages that creamy starchy deliciousness to come out and play!

By now (I'll assume you've had about 10-15 mushrooms and have added liquid and stirring about the same number of times...) it will be thickening up, smelling delicious and making you feel pretty darn proud of yourself now.

Almost done...

Take a bite of one of the rice kernels using the spoon you were using to measure out the spices. Is it smushy, or is is still hard? It should be smushy when you stop adding liquid.

If you have used up all the stock, water is just perfectly fine at this point. There is a lot of flavour in the pan, and you are just now trying to cook the rice through.

Grab a plate, not a bowl. I prefer a plate because of how hot this risotto will be when you try to eat it.

*Believe me on this one - it will be hot - you will want to start devouring it - so use a plate.*

Grab a ladle, and finally dunk it into the risotto. Give yourself 3 good scoops on your plate.

Grab some sea salt and pinch it between your fingers, and then sprinkle it over the risotto to finish it.

Grab the olive oil and another dessert spoon and pour some olive oil onto the spoon.

Spoon the olive oil over the salted risotto. This is the good, uncooked olive oil application which is good for your heart, and adds a delicious olive-y flavour. Don't skip this step because of the fat. There is no meat in this dish, so a bit of flavour and fat will make you feel rewarded, satisfied and full.

Eat what you made.
Congratulations!

A Quickie...and reincarnated veggies.

Quickly ran into the grocery store yesterday to grab a quick dinner. The fresh pasta (yesterday is was Spaghettini) is always such a time-saver for me. I also grabbed a can of San Marzano-Style (Canadian) tomatoes and a can of navy beans.

As many of you know, Harrison loves fresh tuna, so I also picked up some sushi for him as a treat. They actually had the spicy albacore tuna, so I was hoping to impress him.

In a pan on medium I put a bit of olive oil and chopped up a clove of garlic. I also chopped up about a quarter of a white onion into tiny pieces. Dumped the can of tomatoes in, dumped in the rinsed white beans, sprinkled some salt and pepper and finished it with a few splashes of white Balsamic vinegar, which is a trick I learned in Venice. Then I put the lid on, heated the pasta water and dinner was essentially D O N E.

Carissa and Abby were going to come by for a quick bite. I took the sauce and threw a few ladlefuls in the Magic Bullet to puree the white beans and tomatoes over her pasta.

There were a few sad veggies left over from Thanksgiving, a few red peppers, some yellow ones, and a bit of steamed bok choy. So, I chopped them into bite-size pieces and plopped them into the now bubbling sauce.

I do this veggie scouting a lot when I have a sauce or stew or chili on the go. I just eyeball what's in my fridge and then dump it in. Sometimes veggies have lost their youthful glow, but they can still make a wonderful counterpart to an accompanying sauce. Especially if they are already cooked. I almost never waste vegetables, preferring to just recycle them into a new form. Like reincarnation!

I even had enough to invite Carissa and Abby for dinner, fed the three of us, AND have a container of leftovers for lunch.

Harrison, on realizing that I got him tuna sushi, burst out with a version of a Katy Perry song:

California Rolls
They're unforgettable
Tasty treats
With rice on the top...

Love this kid.

A quick note about the Thanksgiving "Sweets"

If Thanksgiving is the Oscars, and the Turkey is best actor, then sweet potatoes have to rank as best supporting actress. They're sweet, colourful, healthy and irresistable.

But some people make them far too sweet (remember that kid who won best supporting with that hideous hat?- TOO SWEET to the point where it's a turn off). I feel the same way about that hat as I do when people douse their dinner sweet potatoes in marshmallows and sugar and maple syrup. It's too much!

So, instead of overstyling a cute kid, I think sweet potatoes belong on the savoury and spicy side. My sweet potatoes are more like Queen Latifah in Chicago.

I shredded them and then baked them in the oven with some water. Could have used a stock, but I didn't have any. When they were out, I mashed them slightly, added a generous cranking of Indian spices from a grinder, a tiny bit of brown sugar, some cinnamon and grated in some fresh ginger.

Scott - who is unabashed in his love of all meaty things - loved these. He also thought a lot of a chili I threw together so I thought I'd post it here too.

1 can of Bravo tomato sauce
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of white kidney beans
1-2 tablespoons chili powder. (Check out my Gold Medal Chili for a more complex version, February 2010)

Math, the Single Guy and Snakeskin...

Even though my blog is aimed mainly at women, I am excited to learn that quite a few of my readers are guys. And that is an extra challenge since some men have still been programmed with the "I can't really cook" messaging.

When I was a kid, I always told myself "I'm not good at math". I was also told this by one of the nuns who taught Math in grade school, as well as Mr. DiMaio who had to suffer through my attempts in high school. But even he used to say that I had it in me to be good at math, but I was just sabotaging myself by saying that I couldn't.

Fast forward to University where I just got sick of telling myself I was bad at math. So I took a stats course. I do believe in facing your fears... and I figured that I would take down the "FEAR OF MATH"...

I tried.

I practiced.

Eventually I relaxed and saw the patterns, the rythms, and the repetition.

My final grade was my only A+ in University.

One of my friends is newly single. So much of adjusting to a new lifestyle has to do with the LITTLE stuff, not the big issues. Of course this is made impossibly challenging because his female counterpart was responsible for daily dinners.

My response to this is SO WHAT?!?!

If you both are miserable, a daily salad and bad casserole is no reason to stay!

(Plus it probably came with dish duty and was capped off with some form of nagging about not loading the diswasher properly - so were you really farther ahead? My vote is NO.)

But what's a single guy to do when he finds himself on his own, and finally gets sick of the prepared roasted chickens at Zehrs?

Let's complicate the mix even more... Add in the fact that you're carrying around a lot of extra weight that is slowing you down, perhaps creating a health problem or two.

Add in the fact that you are probably eating a LOT more "convenience" food - which will never ever provide the smooth fuel your body craves to handle stress.

And finally, add in the extra financial pressure of the uncertainties of separating.

Hate to say it, because it just reveals my vegangelical self again, but there are some great options here for all of the above.

So, buddy, this is for you:

You NEED proper tools. Think of your motorcycle guys and your car-obsessed friends. Would you EVER go into a garage with one or two tools? NO! You need em' all!! (check out my older post Shop Talk, July 2009)

1. Get a slow cooker.

2. Get a rice cooker.

3. Get a good deep non-stick pan.

4. Have a "Date Night" - with yourself.

Even though you have to be repulsed by the idea of dating, you should make a date with yourself that is regular to grocery shop. One particularly lonely single man told me once that routine is comforting, and he was probably right.

5. Lose the inner dialogue that you can't do this. You can. Suck it up.

You may find yourself with some quiet nights that you either fill with TV or a book. One of those nights, think about your weekly "routine" from a food perspective.

Do you have breakfast with the guys after hockey? Do you grab something fast on Tuesdays? Where do you go? What do you order? And most of all... WHAT DO YOU SPEND? (eg: Ours used to be quarter chicken dinners at Swiss Chalet on Sundays.)

On one of these quiet nights, figure out what your REGULAR weekly routine costs. Also try to hone in on where some of your worst food choices happen. I'm willing to bet you a can of beans that it is also an expensive food choice for relatively little nutrition.

so 6. is Figure out what your weekly food budget has been.

Finally, 7. is to trust me. First, I can tell you I've been there. As a busy lawyer, who was single most of the time I was married anyway, I know what it's like to feel the quiet. To stare into a fridge thinking "what the heck am I supposed to eat tonight?" and decide it was easier just to make popcorn.

Cooking dinner for yourself is EXACTLY what you need right now.

You will be spending time with your own thoughts, but not the over complicated ones. The good ones. Like asking yourself "WHAT DO I LIKE?" What do I want to eat tonight? Maybe you were with someone who didn't like olives, or nuts or cinnamon. You are free from all of that stuff now - just eat what you love.

You will also be putting some good healthy fuel into your body, and in times of stress, you need it.

I promise you, you will be saving money too - and that is always a good thing.

You will also be saving truckloads of junky, weighty calories which will result in a sleeker, healthier boday and outlook. You can finally ditch that hideous XL sweater she made you buy (which you hated, even on the day YOU bought it) because it won't fit you in two months.

I'll tell you, there is nothing more satisfying like shedding your wardrobe, either. In 6 months, you will have a stronger, healthier happier body, maybe even a few new clothes that you look good in, and the old unhappy wardrobe will be lined up in garbage bags for St. Vincent de Paul. See? Even charities are going to benefit from this change!!!

If you've been through the dreaded separation, you've probably already been called a snake. But this isn't a bad thing. Think of snakes. They do what they do for a while, and then they move on.

They literally SHED their skin, and get back to their routine with a new skin.

So grab your slow cooker, your olives, that hideous sweater and a few garbage bags - because you have some cooking to get to...

Tangerine Countertop and Jalapeno Cornbread

We have a huge surprise for everyone in our new kitchen. It is being installed today, and most of the cupboards were in yesterday - enough to make my heart just pound with affection... It is a highly functional kitchen, and I have spent many hours just daydreaming about what it would be like to cook there.

I've thought about the way a pot would drip when pasta was done...

I've thought about where I want to grab plates when I'm ready to plate something from the stove...

Mused about what deliciousness would be served on what I hope will be a highly functional island (no sink, no cooktop, no raised areas - just smooth open prep space).

What everyone doesn't know is that, while the rest of the house has been kept supremely neutral, we have ordered a huge quartz countertop in tangerine!

The orange will give a gorgeous jumping off point for fabrics in the dining room, for accents in the kitchen space, and is the most obvious way Bill and I could think of to emphasize what everyone knows to be true.... The kitchen is where everyone gathers no matter how many rooms are in a house! Our kitchen even has seating for five within the space itself, three at the island and two in a window bench looking onto our gorgeous backyard.

It will be that beautiful citrus accent I am so fond of!!

We've been painting, and wiping, and sweeping to our heart's content this week, getting ready to move in. Harrison asked me on Wednesday, after helping with the second coat in the kitchen... "Mom, if our new house was a body, what would be its stomach?". I thought about it - stomach, digestion, processing.... and thought about the dishwashers? The laundry room, maybe?

He said "Mom, it's the kitchen!"

I said - "no, buddy, that's the heart!"

"You're soft!" was his immediate reply...

So this big, bold section of "tequila sunrise" quartz is going to be a true bullseye. It will be a beautiful conversation piece, and a nice spash of whimsical, fun, slightly-out-there wacky-ness.

Our first party there is going to celebrate our 100th birthday and our new home. The menu is going to be delicious, but did take a bit of extra time with the caterer to veganize most of it, while still keeping it highly edible for our non-vegan guests. It is funny to see foodies struggle with vegan - because we are so trained to do animal based food. It is so natural to just sprinkle cheese onto or into things. To grind up or shred or slice meat into the next thing... to crack eggs into other things... When you remove that as an option, it can flummox even the most ardent professor of food-loving.

I've relaxed a little and have some fish dishes on the menu, but am trying to stick with a delicious showcase of plant-based food. This time it's really not a big political statement of veganism... it's just how I really want to eat on our birthday! Next door, our neighbour is grilling burgers, etc...so that should take care of the carnivors - I hope. Actually, what I really hope is that no one even notices... they just taste the food and think it's great.

Now, on to FOOD.

Last week, I made an exceptional jalapeno cornbread. It went beautifully with a black bean chili, and I promised to put the recipe on here - so here it is...

6 - 8 ears of corn niblets (about 4 cups)
1 red pepper, cut up into 1/8 inch pieces
1 jalapeno, cut up even smaller than the red pepper!

Saute in some coconut oil or corn oil until the corn is lightly browned - this will bring out its natural sweetness to contrast with the spicy jalapeno.

1 can of coconut milk and 1/4 cup of cornstarch, whisked together until there are no lumps.

Add half of the corn mixture to a blender and pour the coconut/cornstarch on top. Pulse until blended. Pour into a bowl with the remaining corn/pepper mixture, and add half a cup of cornmeal (any colour) and a cup of chopped green onions, 2 tbsp of maple syrup and 2 tsp hot sauce or cayenne pepper. Salt to taste - probably about 1 tsp.

Pour it into a baking dish or pie plate, and bake for 40 minutes at 350. Let it cool and set up for about 10 minutes before serving, if you can wait that long!

Good Eating begins with Good Shopping

I say this all the time to anyone who will listen. You can not eat well when life throws you curve balls if you have not properly shopped for the week. The food just won't be in your house, and will leave you with fewer options.

We are getting quite busy on the home front, trying to juggle extremely busy work lives, with lots of family events, trying to spend time with our kids and friends, and trying to see a renovation project through the final stages of completion before a really big birthday party / summer fest / housewarming party at the end of the summer. So our evenings have been really busy lately with painting, cleaning and picking things up.

Yesterday I wanted to make sure we ate before our evening chores began, so I grabbed four soft whole wheat tortillas, added a handful of spinach leaves to each one, heated up some of the black bean chili mixture (which I intend to turn into burgers this weekend) and spooned it on top of the spinach leaves. A grate or two of lime zest and some hot sauce and sea salt made for some delicious, substantial soft tacos.

If you haven't checked out my recipe for pizza dough yet, you should. Talk about a money saver - I doubled the recipe and had pizza on the weekend, once during the week and gave one to my mom and dad.

Pizza sauce is an easy one, too. On the weekend, Harrison and I made some roasted tomatoes. Cubed tomatoes, an onion cut into eights, some olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar was all it needed. Well, that and a roasting pan at 375 for an hour or so. When it was done, I pureed it down to a thick sauce, adding some fresh oregano which I got as a bridal shower favor, some fresh garlic, some chives and some fresh basil.

I had mentioned to Harrison the day before (I think when I was assembling the corn chowder) that in a professional kitchen, the number of things you have to "do" to a dish to send it out is called a "move". So, for example, my black bean taco thing would have had 6 moves. Taco, spinach, black bean, lime, hot sauce, sea salt.

Harrison was enjoying last weekend, and will help me in the kitchen if I ask him to. So when he kept raving about the corn chowder, I wanted to show him how easy it was to make a tomato soup with the same principle.

So I call out "hey Buddy, want to see how to make an easy tomato soup?"

When he shouted back "How many moves?" I just grinned.

The truth is, whether you're a hungry but curious 10 year old trying to get back to watching Spongebob Squarepants, a busy woman trying to get to everything you need to cover off in life until you fall into bed, exhausted, or every option in between, if you can keep a handful of recipies or principles in your back pocket with only a few moves, you CAN find time to get through your day with some good food.

Here are a few quick "moves" that I think elevate a dish with minimal effort:

*Use lemon, lime or orange zest to top off your dish, with a finish of sea salt.

*Use a George Foreman grill to add some softness and crispiness to a taco or wrap. They heat up almost instantly, and leave cute but delicious grill marks. The other night, I even did this with a veggie hot dog when I needed a snack!

*A plate is like a blank canvas. Look at the colour of your plates as you're putting them together:

*If your plate is mostly red (a chili, a tomato sauced dish, a casserole), sprinkle some chopped green onion or fresh herbs if you have them.

*If your plate is mostly yellow (pasta, curry) add some chopped red pepper or even a fresh chili to the top with some lime zest.

*If your plate is mostly green (salads, stir frys) shred some carrots or beets(or even use a vegetable peeler for long strands!) to wake up the colour and add some additional flavour. Nuts or dried cranberries also provide a nice contrast in taste and texture.

*Desserts can be elevated with a sprinkle of coconut, or some dark chocolate shavings, or some fresh berries. Lemon zest also works wonders here.

So, YES, you might have to add the following to your regular grocery list, but it will be worth it...

Lemon, Lime, Orange
Coconut Flakes
Green Onions
Fresh Basil
Slivered Almonds
Dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries

These few additions to your shopping list can make all the difference in a gorgeous plate of food that you really want to dive into.