The Weekend Homemaker

It's fall.  And that means it's time for . . .

Chicken 

Noodle

Soup

The Weekend Homemaker

I think I spent about 80% of last weekend in the kitchen. My box of fruit and veggies had arrived on Thursday and needed dealing with. It contained: lettuce, carrots, parsnips, rainbow chard, sunflower sprouts, a lemon, apples, pears, potatoes, onions and beets. I also acquired spinach, basil and white wine (and cheese!) after a pizza night with the girls on Friday. I had to get to work and convert all of my colourful goodness to something edible (and freezable) as soon as possible!

Our pizza night started off with a lovely green salad with lettuce, sprouts, shredded carrots, shredded beets and pumpkins seeds. I always have trouble eating up my lettuce fast enough so I was glad for help! On Saturday morning, I roasted up my favourite Vanilla Pears and then I got to work on the rest:

The Rainbow Chard became . . .

Balsamic Chard.

The potatoes where chopped, boiled, tossed in lemon oil, oregano, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven. I don't eat a huge amount of potatoes, but this is my absolute favourite way to eat them when I do!

I used carrots and onion slices as a "rack" to roast a chicken on. Handy and delicious!

The final plate of goodness for dinner on Saturday night: roasted chicken, roast carrots and onions, balsamic chard and roasted potatoes.

On Sunday, I baked buns. This recipe has taken over as my favourite. All yeast bread recipes are pretty much the same so I don't know why this one is so good. It just is. I replaced one cup of white flour with whole wheat flour.

I also made Apple-Parnip Soup (taking care of most of the apples and all of the parsnips).

And I made basil pesto with the leftover pizza basil. This went directly into the freezer.

Last, but not least, I made two chicken casseroles using the leftover chicken from the roast. I made it the first time with spinach (also using up leftover wine and onions) and, it turned out so well, that I made it again with broccoli. This recipe is easy, tasty and super flexible.

At the time, I was wondering if spending almost my whole weekend in the kitchen was really worth it. But now, having spent a week without having to prepare meals, I know that it is. With the addition of frozen borsht and perogies, a few eggs and a couple of bowls of yogurt, I had plenty of food for last week, next week and maybe more.

This weekend? Shopping!

From Market to Table

Now that the weather is cooler (and wetter), I am back in soup mode. I don't remember seasonal eating as a child, or at least my mother never mentioned a desire to match meals to the season, but now I rarely eat soup between May and October.

I also rarely eat tomatoes outside of the late summer or fall unless they are canned. I bought this pile of beautiful a couple of weekends ago at the farmer's market.

I oven rosted them to make the base for one of my favourite soups, Caramelized Red Onion Soup, from the ever-popular Rebar Cookbook.

This soup reminds me very much of French Onion soup, but without a beef stock base. Instead, rosemary roasted tomatoes give depth to the flavour.

I top each bowl of soup with parmesan toasts. And, despite the fact that this soup makes my apartment smell like onions for days, it is worth all of the effort.

I thought that this batch would last a couple of months once frozen (it makes about 10 servings), but I went through it in two weeks. It is delicious!

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!