Part-time prevaricator
I don’t know about you, but for me, lasagna[1]Especially the lasagna Florentine my dad taught me to cook. is the perfect comfort food. When it’s in the house I will happily eat it at every meal till it’s gone.
This time I snapped a photo or two before I devoured it all.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Especially the lasagna Florentine my dad taught me to cook. |
|---|
This is where the long-ass story goes, right? The one you scroll past, muttering Just show me the freakin’ recipe! under your breath.
It was cold outside yesterday. I had lots of CSA (community supported agriculture) veggies in the house.
OK, story’s over. Here’s the recipe, such as it was:
1 large golden beet
2 onions
4 small potatoes
2 carrots
2 bell peppers
1 middlin’ zucchini
1 large patty-pan squash
1/2 carton of leftover vegetable broth from the back of the fridge
1 block of ice frozen in the vegetable broth carton (my fridge gets cold at the very back, apparently)
1/2 carton of leftover beef broth
1 cup of water
So here’s what I did: chopped up all the veggies, into cubes or slices about 1″ thick. Roasted them at 425°F for various times, till they were all nice and softened. The beet took about 45 minutes, all told; the potatoes, onions, and carrots took 30 minutes; the peppers and squash, about 15.
Then I pulsed ’em all in the food processor, till they were smooth but still a bit, well, rustic. I spooned the veggie pâté into a stock pot over medium heat, and stirred in the broths, the chunk of ice, and the water. Heated till it started to boil lightly, stirring every so often.
Served with cheddar-onion fougasse and finished off with a delicious slice of pumpkin pie, both from Chez Angela.
Today I sent away a story, previously published, to a podcasting site in the hopes they’ll want to make it an audio story. Not sure if they’ll bite — I really don’t know if it’ll translate well to the audio format — but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Then we went over to our friends’ place and made supper there. We had planned to make it at home, but they were going to be putting up their Christmas tree, so we brought over the ingredients and used their kitchen instead. Mmmm, homemade chicken pot pie.
The Recipe:
(from Chatelaine, Feb. 2006)
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 red or green pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
2cups (500 mL) small broccoli florets
1/2cup (125 mL) frozen peas
vegetable oil
3tbsp (45 mL) butter
1/4cup (50 mL) all-purpose flour
1 1/2cups (375 mL) milk
1tbsp (15 mL) dried thyme leaves or rosemary or 3 tbsp (45 mL) finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
1tsp (5 mL) salt
1/2 397‑g pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Cut chicken into 1‑inch (2.5‑cm) pieces. Prepare vegetables and measure out peas. Lightly coat a large frying pan with oil and set over medium-high heat. Add chicken. Stir often until lightly golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add carrot, pepper, celery and onion. Stir often until onion begins to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove chicken and vegetables to a bowl.
2. Return pan to burner and reduce heat to medium. Add butter. When melted, gradually whisk in flour until evenly mixed and bubbly, 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk. Whisk until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add broccoli, peas, 1 tsp (5 mL) dried or 1 tbsp (15 mL) fresh thyme and salt. Return chicken and onion mixture to pan. Stir to evenly coat. Mixture will be very thick. Turn into an 8‑inch (2‑L) square baking dish or dish that will hold 8 cups (2 L) and place on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Cut pastry in half to form two small pieces. To cover 8‑inch square dish, on a lightly floured surface roll each piece into a 10-inch (25-cm) square. It’s OK if edges are uneven. Brush one square with egg, then sprinkle remaining 2 tsp (10 mL) dried or 2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh thyme overtop. Cover with remaining square. Press together.
4. Carefully pick up pastry and lay over filling. Tuck in any overhanging edges. Press edges of pastry onto rim of dish. With a knife tip, pierce middle of pastry in 3 or 4 places to allow steam to escape. Lightly brush top with egg. Bake in centre of preheated oven until golden and filling is bubbly, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sauce will thicken as it sits.
It’s really forgiving — we used almost twice the veggies, made a bit more sauce, and put it in a rectangular casserole dish, and it was f‑i-n‑e.
Then, after supper and tree, we watched the tail end of Home Alone on YTV, and then we came home.
My first stop-motion video:
Mmmm, trifle…
Update!
Because Doug demanded it, here’s the recipe.
You’ll want to do this in a trifle bowl, a tall, wide, cylindrical bowl, usually on a stand. I found mine at Wal-Mart for about $8.
Bottom layer: Take an angel food cake and tear it into bits. Put it into the trifle bowl. Cover with about one or two cans’ worth of mandarin segments. Mix up some red Jell‑O (I use strawberry) and pour slowly over all. You don’t want everything to float to the top, which is what I find happens if you pour too quickly. Put in the fridge till the Jell‑O sets.
Middle layer: Mix up some Bird’s custard according to the package directions for custard dessert (not custard sauce). Let it cool to about room temp (you’ll want to put plastic wrap on it so it doesn’t form a skin). Pour onto the Jell‑O layer. Refrigerate till the custard is cool.
Top layer: Whipped cream. Garnish with fruit (I used left-over mandarin segments; my grandma always uses Maraschino cherries; sliced strawberries would probably be good too).
Enjoy!
Every year at Christmas, one of the family treats is a sweet li’l treat that we’ve always known simply as “Jewish pastry”. This year I decided I’d like to take a crack at making it, and faced my first obstacle: How do you google a treat that you know by such a generic (and certainly incorrect) name?
So I punched “jewish pastry” into Google’s helpful little box, and got however many thousands of returns. Canny critter that I am, I had a look at the image search results. Turns out the proper name for “Jewish pastry” is rugelach.
Armed with that knowledge, I tried hunting for rugelach in Google. And discovered that there are as many recipes for rugelach as there are Jewish grandmothers. Hmmm.
So I emailed my mom, and got our iteration of the recipe from her. It came from my great-aunt Olga, who is on the Ukrainian side of the family.
Right now the dough’s chilling in the fridge. Soon I’ll be dabbing strawberry jam onto triangles of dough and rolling them up and baking them. Hopefully it turns out.
Wish me luck!
Yummy!
So the Co-op had a sale on case lots of mangoes. Ten mangoes in a box for five bucks. I couldn’t resist, especially considering that I have a recipe (from a Co-op flyer, in fact) for mango salsa.
Recipe below: