Author: Lynn

Gluten-Free Breakfast – Poached Eggs with Spinach & Home Fries

~ Lynn ~ 19 Comments

Earlier today we celebrated Sasha’s second birthday. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of fun I had at a child’s party. Turns out toys are fun for grown ups too. I have to tell you I am incredibly proud of myself for not breaking my sugar-free/gluten-free fast. Turning down the birthday cake was a lot easier with a gluten-free buddy, and I discovered that another party goer was in the process of eliminating gluten to test for intolerance. We both agreed that snacks and breakfast are the toughest meals of the day. She’s tackling the situation the way I did the first time I eliminated gluten, by replacing her usual foods with gluten-free versions. Although that works it is very expensive; a small loaf of bread is anywhere from 5 to 7 dollars in Montreal.


(I love the spots on organic eggs)

This time I decided to tackle the situation by actually changing the way I eat. Gluten free bread is a poor substitute for the real thing, so I see no point in eating it. The question then becomes, what to eat for breakfast? This meal is one of my solutions. I was inspired by Janice’s Bistro Style Egg Sandwich, but replaced the English muffin with oven baked home fries. This breakfast is great for a Saturday morning. It’s filling and delicious and pretty easy to make if you have a little time. I used a poach pod to poach my egg as none of the traditional methods ever work for me.

Poached Eggs With sautéed Spinach and Mushrooms and Home Fries.

  • Potatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1-2 mushrooms per person
  • A large handful of baby spinach per person
  • Eggs

For the Potatoes:

  1. Slice the potatoes in half and peel them.
  2. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes. Potatoes should be slightly less than cooked through.
  3. Cube the potatoes and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight if you are planning ahead (this step is important, it leads to crispy fries)
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
  5. Toss the chilled potatoes with olive oil to coat and salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Bake for 20- 30 minutes, flipping the potatoes at least twice so that the are properly browned.

For the Spinach and Mushrooms

  1. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Cook the sliced mushrooms until browned.
  2. Add the spinach and cook until wilted.

For the Eggs

  1. Crack an egg into a lightly greased poach pod.
  2. Fill a medium pot with about 2 inches of water. Heat until simmering. Gently place the poach pod in the simmering water. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer and cover.
  3. Cook the eggs for 4 to 7 minutes, depending on the desired doneness (that might not be a word).

Place the spinach and potatoes on a plate, and top the spinach with the poached egg. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Daring Bakers Go Nuts for Doughnuts!

~ Lynn ~ 15 Comments

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I was really excited by this challenge. I’ve been meaning to make Polish doughnuts, or Paczki (pronounced ponchkee), for a while and since the challenge allowed us to use any recipe we wanted I decided now is the time. If you’ve never had Paczki, they are yeast doughnuts filled with jam (often plum) and topped with a sugar glaze and sometimes candied orange peel. They are light and fluffy and oh so delicious.

You know what makes them so good? Booze. That’s right, booze.

I got to work on the doughnuts sure that everything would come together perfectly. I believed that my half Polish self must have an innate knowledge of how to make beautifully golden and fluffy doughnuts. I was mistaken.

All of the recipes I saw called for a range of flour rather than a specific amount. It is to be added until the dough “blisters”. I thought my dough was blistering, but in hindsight I think it was still too wet. The dough is then to rise until doubled in bulk, be punched down and risen again. After an hour my dough had barely moved. I took it out of the bowl, kneaded some more flour in and tried again. On the second rise it increased a little more, but nowhere near double. No matter, I cut out the doughnuts out anyway. I brought the oil up to 350 degrees and dropped 4 or five doughnuts in, let them brown on one side then flipped them over. Except the wouldn’t stay flipped! I frantically tried to re-flip each of the doughnuts but there were too many in the pot to manage. So my first few doughnuts ended up burnt on one side and undercooked on the other. I learned my lesson and put fewer doughnuts in the oil for the second round, but in the mean time my oil had increased in temperature and these burnt immediately, although the inside was still raw. I lowered the oil temp and got a couple of decent doughnuts made. The oil temperature dropped too much though, and the last few doughnuts I made looked beautifully golden on the outside but where once again raw inside.

The few doughnuts I made that turned out were delicious. I filled some with plum jam and others with apple sauce. My filling technique needs some work because all of them were filled on one side only, as you can see below.

The conclusion I came to after all this: I need to make Paczki more often to get the technique down, otherwise I’ll have to stop claiming to be Polish.

Paczki

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup room temperature butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 4 1/2  to 5 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup rum
  • 1 cup scalded 35% cream
  • Plum jam or apple sauce
  • oil for deep frying
  • Powdered sugar
  1. Beat the eggs and salt until the eggs are light yellow, about 5 minutes. Set aside/
  2. In a small bowl, combine the yeast and warm water. While the yeast is softening beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in an stand mixer. Beat the yeast into the butter.
  3. Add one cup of flour to the butter yeast mixture, mix till combined.
  4. Add the rum and half of the cream.
  5. Beat in another cup of the flour.
  6. Add the remaining cream.
  7. Beat in a third cup of flour and the egg mixture. Beat for two minutes.
  8. Add remaining flour slowly until the dough looks like it’s blistering.
  9. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover in plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk. Punch the dough down and let rise again.
  10. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough till it’s about 1 cm thick.  Cut out 2 inch circles, re-roll out the dough and cut circles again until all the dough is used.
  11. Heat oil to 350 in a deep fryer or a wide skillet. Fry 2-3 doughnuts at a time, when one side of the doughnut is golden flip it over and fry the other side. Drain on paper towels.
  12. Using a pastry bag fill the doughnuts with jam or applesauce.
  13. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Magazine Monday – Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

~ Lynn ~ 7 Comments

Last November I participated in a 30 day sugar free/gluten free challenge.  The challenge was difficult at first, because every single meal has to be planned, but once I got the hang of it things went very well. By the end of it I felt great. When it came time to implement what I had learned in every day life things kind of fell apart. I quickly went back to eating exactly the way I was eating before the challenge. A year later I feel like my diet needs a complete overhaul again, so I will be doing the challenge again starting tomorrow.

I was flipping through some magazines to plan next weeks menu when I came across this recipe for Summer Rolls with Sweet and Savory Dipping Sauce from Gourmet Quick Kitchen. I swapped out the tofu for shrimp, and used green pepper instead of cucumber because I had those on hand. The dipping sauce does not meet the sugar free rules, as it calls for some sugar, and hoisin sauce also has sugar in it. But since I’m starting the challenge tomorrow I decided to go ahead and make the sauce for today.

The quick pickled vegetables add a great flavour to the rolls. They are very tasty, and quick and easy to make. I probably should have rolled them a little tighter, but I was still able to pick them up and dip them in the sauce.

I’ll be submitting this post to Magazine Mondays. Head on over to Cream Puffs in Venice Mondays to see what people have been cooking up!

Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Makes 8 rolls

  • 2 oz dried bean thread noodles
  • 3 small carrots, cut into match sticks
  • 1 smell bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp & 3/4 tsp lime juice, divided
  • 8 rice paper rounds
  • 24 medium-large shrimp, cooked
  • 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp water
  1. Soak noodles in hot water for 10 minutes.
  2. While noodles are soaking, blanch carrots in boiling water for 45 seconds. Rinse under cold water then transfer to small bowl with peppers.  Toss vegetables with rice vinegar, 3 tbsp lime juice, salt. Let stand for 5 minutes.
  3. Reserve 2 tbsp of the vinegar mixture, and drain the vegetables.
  4. Drain the noodles, rinse them in cold water twice. Using kitchen shears, cut the noodles into smaller pieces. Toss with 3/4 tsp lime juice.
  5. Fill a shallow pan with warm water. Soak a rice paper round in the warm water for 30 seconds. Shake off excess water and place on a work surface. Place 3 shrimp, some vegetables, and some noodles on the bottome third of the round. Roll tightly around the filling, folding the sides in. Repeat with remaining rice paper rounds.
  6. Make the sauce; Mix reserved pickling liquid with hoisin sauce, peanut butter and water. Serve with rolls.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Hash

~ Lynn ~ 10 Comments

Part of our Thanksgiving tradition is the morning after brunch. My aunt and uncle make us a wonderful dinner, and the following morning the guests contribute to breakfast. The last two years I’ve brought a Sweet Potato Hash.

The first time I tried this dish was at an office breakfast. My friend JB brought it, and I loved it. I asked him for the recipe numerous times, and he eventually shared it with me. Turns out I could have just Googled it. What makes this hash great is the bacon, and the fact that everything else is cooked in bacon fat. Hey, it’s Thanksgiving.

The hash is really easy to make. The longest part is the prep work, having a good knife to cut the sweet potato is key. Once the chopping is done, the dish comes together very quickly. It’s a great make ahead dish as the flavours meld together well overnight. I’ve always had this dish as part of a brunch, but it would make a great side dish for a dinner.

Sweet Potato Hash

From the Oct 2007 issue of Gourmet

  • 1/2 pound sliced bacon, cut into 1/4-inch strips
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
  • 2 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  1. Cook the bacon in a large non stick skillet. Once cooked, remove the bacon pieces from the pan and drain on paper towels.
  2. Drain off some of the fat, leaving at least 2 tbsp behind. Add the onions, bell peppers, salt and pepper to the skillet. Cook until the vegetables have softened. Add the sweet potato to the skillet, then cover. Cook, stirring occasionally for 10 to 15 minutes, until sweet potato is softened. Stir in reserved bacon and thyme.
  3. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Mmm Mmm Good Mushroom Soup

~ Lynn ~ 14 Comments

My family and I spent the long weekend in Vermont. Every year my aunt and uncle invite us to their cottage for Thanksgiving dinner. They provide us with an incredible meal, and we bring the pie.

For years my parents rented a cottage that was just a few minutes away. The area is surrounded by water and woods. My mom would often come back with chanterelle mushrooms. This year I decided to go with her, and before we new it we had a whole foraging party.

Foraging for mushrooms is sort of like looking at those pictures that look like nothing, but if you cross your eyes a certain way an image pops out at you. (Does anyone remember what those are called?) At first it seems like there is nothing there, but the next thing you know there are mushrooms everywhere.

Unfortunately the chanterelles were not in abundance. We weren’t able to identify any of the mushrooms we did find, so nothing was kept. Mushrooms are not something to take chances with. Despite not finding anything useful, I still had a great time walking in the woods. I haven’t spent that much time in there since I was a kid.

I had hoped to find enough mushrooms to make a soup. Obviously that didn’t happen, so when I got back to Montreal I made my way to Atwater Market and picked up some chanterelles and criminis. It wasn’t quite the same as picking them myself but it was still delicious.

I used a recipe from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything. One of the good things about not having a computer for a couple of days was that it reminded me I actually own cookbooks.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

  • 2 ounces dried chanterelle mushrooms (optional)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 pound fresh mushrooms ( I used crimini and chanterelle), cleaned, trimmed and sliced (reserve a few slices for garnishing)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp minced shallots
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 3 cups stock
  • 1 cup cream (you can use heave cream or half and half)
  • Chives for garnish
  1. If using dried mushrooms, rehydrate them by covering them with hot water and soaking them for 15 minutes.
  2. Place the butter in a large deep saucepan on medium heat. Once the butter has melted add the mushrooms and increase the heat the medium high. Cook for about 10 minutes until the mushrooms start to brown. Drain the now soaked mushrooms (keep the liquid) and add them to the cooked mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for one minute. Add the stock and reserved soaking liquid. Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off the heat.
  4. Stir in cream. Garnish with chives and mushroom slices.

Enjoy!

Good Old Fashioned Apple Pie

~ Lynn ~ 17 Comments

My laptop died about a week ago. For the first couple of days I felt completely cut off from the world, despite having a phone that gives me access to Facebook, Twitter and basically the entire internet. I don’t keep a lot of information on my computer, I’ve heard enough identity theft horror stories to know better. I do however keep pictures on it. Lots of them. And I never backed them up. My trips to San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, and a few random moments in life are all currently in limbo. I know, I know, I should have backed them up, I promise I’ll never make that mistake again. My brother says he might be able to salvage them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The loss of these momentos had me very stressed, but I realized there was more to my computer withdrawal than that. I missed blogging. I haven’t been doing this very long, but it seems it’s become an important part of my life. So I decided to pick up a pen and some loose leaf paper and start writing up posts to be retyped once everything was sorted out. I’m probably dating myself by saying this, but there is something very soothing about actually putting my thoughts on paper. I think better with a pen in my hand; I can chew on the cap when I’m stuck, cross things out, draw arrows linking thoughts. I think I might actually keep writing my posts this way. I know it’s a waste of time and paper, but I find it relaxing.

You know what else I find relaxing? Apple pie.

I love the feeling of the dough coming together in my hands, the sense of accomplishment when I roll it into something that resembles a circle, the meditative time spent peeling the apples, and putting my face up to the oven window to watch it brown and bubble. Don’t even get me started on the smell of cinnamon and apples. And the best part, the first bite of crispy flaky crust and the sweet yet tart filling.

Apple Pie

Crust

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups butter, cold
  • 1/4 cup shortening or lard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 6-10 tbsp milk, cold (more as needed)

Filling

  • 5 Cortland apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 cup cranberries
  1. Make the dough. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Using a box grater, grate the cold butter and shortening into the flour. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour until it has a crumbly texture. Stir in 5 tbsp of cold milk, keep adding milk until the dough comes together.
  2. Form dough into 2 disks, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  3. Once chilled, roll out one disk until about 1/4 inch thick. Fit the dough into a 9 inch pie plate. Chill.
  4. Make the filling. Toss the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, flour and cranberries. Pour into pie plate.
  5. Roll out second disk of dough. Place over the pie plate, cut off the excess overhang. Press the edges of the top and bottom crust together making sure the are sealed. Cut air vents into the top crust. Chill for 30 minutes.
  6. Heat the oven to 375. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Enjoy!

Hockey Night In Canada

~ Lynn ~ 1 Comment

Tonight the 2010-2011 NHL season begins. I’ll be watching the Habs take on the Leafs in Toronto, as will Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice. Unfortunately she’s rooting for the wrong team, but her blog is still wonderful.

Ivonne has asked that food bloggers and hockey fans post their favourite hockey meal in honour of the start of the new season. I would love to participate but my laptop seems to have died on me. Even if I don’t think I’ll get my post in by tomorrows midnight deadline, I can still promote the event. If you’re a food blogger and a hockey lover, check out Ivonne’s post for the details!

Go Habs Go!

Apple Picking

~ Lynn ~ 8 Comments

Is there any activity that says “fall” more than apple picking?  Janice, Vishya and I went to St Joseph du Lac Saturday, about 45 minutes north of Montreal. The sun was shinning and the air was crisp, perfect apple picking weather.

We went to an orchard called A La Croissée des Pommes. They had a good selection of apples, and their prices were the best in the area. I also appreciated that there was someone in the orchard available to tell us types of apples they had and what those apples were best for. She even explained the best right way to pick an apple; to properly pick an apple pull it up, if you twist it off the stem the bud will come off and no fruit will grow the following year.

There were Lobo, Empire, Cortland, and Macintosh available. Since we only had 20 lbs each we needed to sample all the apples before filling up the bags. They were all delicious, but in the end we went with Empire and Cortland.

Most of the lower branches had already been picked by the time we got there (the directions were confusing, I blame Google maps use of the word U-Turn). Janice took care of all the ladder work.

This is me, picking apples with my purse on my shoulder because I didn’t want to get it dirty. The girls just threw theirs on the ground and they were fine. Mine, although it never left my shoulder, ended up covered in mud.

And then there was the best part of the day. The beignets, made fresh in front of us. The only thing missing was a nice cup of coffee to go with them. Fun fact; Canadians eat the most doughnuts per capita.

Before heading home we checked out a small pie shop. They sold a variety of pies, apples and baked goods made with apples.

This sign says to come in and smell.

Once inside it smells wonderful. They were baking apple bread. Unfortunately I was forbidden from taking pictures. I think they were worried I was trying to discover their secret apple bread formula. I probably wouldn’t have tried to make it on my own, but since they acted all snooty I will be replicating their bread and sharing the recipe with the world. I’ve already had a few slices and I’m pretty sure its just white bread with apples and cinnamon swirled though it and some apple chunks on top. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve perfected the recipe.

Carrot and Lentil Salad

~ Lynn ~ 10 Comments

Have you ever eaten so much junk you feel like you need to eat vegetables all day to clean out your insides? Maybe that’s just me. I ate an awful lot of sugar cookies this weekend, on top of a delicious but probably not so healthy meal at the Dominian Square Tavern (loved the corn fritters and homemade ketchup), so I felt like I needed a healthy veggie based meal.

Enter this Carrot and Lentil Salad. I based it very loosely on a recipe from Food and Wine. When I say based I mean I remembered seeing a salad with carrots, tomatoes and chickpeas. I didn’t have any chickpeas on hand, so I substituted lentils.

Carrot and Lentil Salad

  • 1 cup french lentils
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4-5 carrots, shredded
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tbsps olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Cook the lentils: In a medium sized pot, sautee the onion until translucent. Add the lentils then cover with two cups of water. Add oregano, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil then simmer until the lentils are cooked. Drain any excess liquid.
  2. Toss the lentils with the carrots and tomatoes. Dress with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Daring Bakers: Decorated Sugar Cookies

~ Lynn ~ 10 Comments

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

The challenge this month was to decorate cookies with a September theme. September honestly doesn’t have any special significance to me. When I was in school it did, but I finished university 7 years ago and seem to have gotten past the urge to buy notebooks and agenda’s at this time of year (although the agendas do tempt me).  So what’s happening? I’m eating fall foods, watching the leaves change colour, and waiting impatiently for the hockey season to start. (Go Habs Go!)

I have zero decorating skills, so this challenge scared the bejezus out of me.  The smart thing to do would have been to start right away and decorate as many cookies as a possibly could until I got the hang of it. That is not what I did. I waited till two days before the challenge deadline to start working. I baked the cookies Saturday, “decorated” (ie dropped splotches of colours on said cookies) on Sunday afternoon, and started writing this post Sunday night.My attempt to make the Montreal Canadiens logo was very quickly abandoned and I moved on to simple apples and leaves.

It turns out royal icing is tricky. To use it properly you need to know what the consistency is supposed to be for the edges and for flooding the center of the cookies. I think what I used for the edges was probably a flooding consistency, but without more practice I really couldn’t tell you. When I forget about the food colouring stains on my fingers I might try again.

I used the recipe as given in the challenge, but found it much too dry to roll out so I added a couple of tablespoons of milk to it.

Basic Sugar Cookies

  • 1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 cups plus 3 tbsp all purpose flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp lemon zest
  1. In a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar until well combined. Beat in the egg and lemon zest.
  2. Add flour and salt. Mix until dough just comes together.
  3. Form two disks of dough, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick. Use cookie cutters or a sharp knife to cut out the desired shapes.
  5. Chill the cut dough for another 30 minutes, then bake at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes.
  6. Decorate with Royal Icing (I used the Joy of Baking recipe)

If your cookies are funny looking, don’t worry about it. Decorating and taste are not correlated.