My Polish Feast

After spending Christmas with my parents, I retuned to home for my annual "week of nothing". I always intend to relax and rest during this week, but it usually ends up being a time for doing all those bits and pieces I usually don't have time to do . . . writing letters, painting doors, reorganizing closets and, this year, making a Polish feast.

My maternal grandfather was a Polish immigrant, but he died when my mom was young and she was raised by her very Scottish mother. I never really thought about this too much (in fact, I didn't even know I was part Polish until I was in my twenties), but I've become more interested in culture and food over the past few years. And, when one of my co-workers raved about her Hungarian Christmas Eve feast one day, I began to wonder what my family would have eaten, had Polish traditions been maintained. And so, I decided to give it a try and make myself a Polish dinner for New Year's Day.

I started with an unbelievably fuchsia coloured borsht. If anyone out there has vegetable adverse little girls, I think that this pink soup would be a hit!

Next, I made perogies. I was worried about the labour intensity of this task, but they were actually kind of fun to make.

First I made the dough.

Then I stuffed each pocket with a mixture of potato and cheese.

And then I ate them. Yum!

Lastly, I made makowiec, a sweet poppy seed cake. This recipe had quite a few steps, but it came together really nicely and I enjoyed the process.

To me, this dessert is more of a bread than a cake, but either way, it is delicious. I love poppy seeds and macowiec is certainly a way to get your fill!

I am not sure if I will make borscht again (I prefer my beets in their non-soup form), but I plan to keep homemade perogies and poppy seed cake in my repertoire. Food is so much more nourishing when it comes from a history and not from a box!

Happy Thanksgiving: One week later

My Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch. After spending most of last Saturday and Sunday cooking, I had almost everything prepared before my brother and his girlfriend arrived. I even pulled out my turkey napkins!

The brined turkey was lovely, I will certainly try that again, despite the fact that hauling around an 18 pound turkey and several litters of brine is no easy task!

Items slowly piled up on the counter as my brother carved the turkey - stuffing, mashed potatoes (with and without dairy), gravy, cranberry sauce, rosemary carrots . . .

. . . buns, creamed onions and sweet potato casserole.

Finally, it was all laid out on my counter and stove for serving (my table is too small for more than two people, never mind all the food). We heaped our plates and even went back for seconds. It was all delicious! I have now eaten turkey soup for a week and have my freezer stocked to the brim with leftovers. Plenty for a Thanksgiving redux in November :)

Hot Hot Heat

I chose the wrong night of the summer to make pizza. Although Victoria rarely gets very hot, 30 degrees is enough to turn me off cooking. But, I had made the pesto for the sauce the night before and had already pulled the dough out of the freezer to thaw. It had to be done.

I made the pesto with my very own home grown basil!

I topped the whole wheat pizza crust with my pesto, parboiled new potatoes, caramelized onions, buffalo mozzarella and parmesan.

It was delish! And, the best thing was, I didn't have to cook the next day, which was even hotter!

The Food Box Chronicles

I'm almost caught up with my Food Box Chronicles just in time for the next delivery!

In my most recent delivery, I received frozen blueberries, apples, onions, pea shoots, oranges, beets, lemons, pears, bananas, ginger, baby bok choy and red leaf lettuce. I also upgraded my order with a loaf of Anise Fig bread from Wild Fire Bakery.

Using the left over sweet potatoes from my last delivery and the ginger from this delivery, I made Sweet Potato Coconut Soup. I also made several great salads with the lettuce and pea shoots.

The next thing I made was a Beet and Brown Rice Salad with Goat Cheese. This salad sounds and looks a bit odd, but it is my favourite use for beets.

I also made up another batch of Vanilla Roasted Pears and two dozen "kitchen sink" muffins with the blueberries. However, my absolute best recipe find was Roasted Salmon with Thai Red Curry and Bok Choy. This delicious dish used up my baby bok choy and lemon and is absolutely company-worthy (I replaced the salmon with trout as I was able to get this fresh). Highly recommended!

The Food Box Chronicles

Ooops, I forgot to take a picture of my complete food box this time around and I can't remember everything I got. However, I am sure that it contained (at the very least) apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, turnips, onions, swiss chard, garlic and potatoes.

I had planned to make pasta with kale pesto, but when swiss chard arrived as a replacement, I ended up with swiss chard pesto instead. Definitely different than traditional basil pesto, but a good use for those greens!

I also made my ever-favourite Botanical Burgers. However, in this case, I replaced the beets with sweet potatoes. This worked out pretty well although I think I prefer the beet version for the texture the beets provide. Regardless, this recipe helped me to use up my sweet potatoes, turnips, onions and some potatoes. I added some baked potato fries on the side.

Lastly, my best new recipe find was Vanilla Roasted Pears from Smitten Kitchen (love this site!). These pears make a delicious dessert or healthy treat. I even used them on top of french toast for breakfast. I foresee myself making these with every pear delivery (in fact I've already made them again!). Yum!

Christmas Recovery Program

Oh dear, I seem to have gotten off track with my blogging. I've been cooking a lot and taking lots of pictures . . . but not making it as far as the final bloggy step. Life has been uncomfortably hectic lately for no apparent reason. I can't explain it, but I hope it stops.

In any case, the cooking part of life has been going well. I went home for Christmas and, while I NEED to be home for Christmas, it always takes a bit of recuperation after the fact. So, on New Year's weekend I had a major cleaning, cooking, baking fiesta of self care!

First, I made my last batch of Christmas cookies. It just had to be done:

Mmmm. Pecan Snowballs. Next, I baked some Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread. I just followed my standard whole wheat bread recipe, cut it into chunks after the first rise and tossed in about 1 cup of dill havarti. It turned out well, but I would add more cheese next time.

Finally, I made my absolute favourite soup: African Yam Peanut.

Self care complete!