Valentine’s Day Pesto Cracker Chips

Feb12

These tasty little things can pass as a chip or a cracker. Either way try them. These are super fast and easy to put together. These would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day lunchbox or as part of a cheese or charcuterie board to have with wine. You can change up the shape to suit whatever occasion you are celebrating.

Take a package of wonton wrappers and use a cookies cutter to cut out the shapes you want to use.

Place the shapes on a parchment lined baking sheet and brush with pesto and just a very light sprinkle of salt.

Bake in a 350F oven for about 8 minutes, until golden at the edges.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Lasts for a few days, but ours did not last to make it into a container.

As you can see, we tried a few tree shapes that we could use for Christmas and pumpkins for Halloween.

One note about the pesto, if you are putting in a lunchbox check the pesto for nuts. Both pesto types that I bought contained nuts. Our school is nut free so I couldn’t put them in the lunchbox. I have to find a nut free commercial pesto or make my own.

You could also just brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle of salt to make a plain cracker-chip. That is how I will use the rest of my wontons for the valentines lunchbox.

Roasted Almond Pumpkin Seed Butter

Aug26

We always make homemade peanut butter and it was the easiest thing ever. I really like almond butter, so had to give that a try too. It was just as easy and turned out really good.

I took a couple of large handfuls (about 1 cup) of raw almonds and one handful (about 1/2cup) of raw pumpkins seeds and roasted them for a few minutes in a 350F oven. Shake them around a bit and watch them carefully or they will burn! To make it easier you can just buy them already roasted. When you take them out you will hear the pumpkins seeds cracking and popping.

Let those cool a bit, just to room temperature. Put all of those into a food processor.

While blending drizzle in some avocado oil, or any flavour neutral cooking oil. Only 2-3 tbsp. Blend until smooth, drizzling in a little more oil as needed.

Drizzle in a tablespoon or two of honey, to taste and a generous pinch of salt.

Blend until smooth

Place in a jar and keep in fridge

We like it on toast or apple slices

Homemade Spinach Flatbread Paneer Fajitas

Feb21

It may sound like a strange fusion but it was sooo good and I ate so much it hurts to breathe. Evie ate as much as I did!

I took two different recipes and put them together for this meal and it worked. I used a bottled cilantro chutney to drizzle, which would have been even better if I had the time to make my own version.

For the paneer there really wasn’t a measured recipe so I just make a guess at amounts.

For the spinach flatbreads I pretty much used Jhuls recipe, but I used about 5-6 tbsp of water to get the dough to come together.

For the paneer I followed SJ’s instructions, used a mixure of about 1tsp of each, chilli powder, coriander, salt, cumin and a garam masala that I had in the cupboard. Basically combined spices them tossed the slices of paneer with the spices and a drizzle of canola oil then grilled.

Make onion and pepper mixture with some tomato to top.

Place all on flatbread and drizzle with cilantro chutney and tamarind sauce.

Lemon Caper Cod en Papillote

Jul10

Well that sounds fancy! Everything sounds fancier en francais, non?

This dish is very simple to put together and only about 15 minutes to bake and the result is impressive.

Only a few ingredients:

Cod (1 piece person, each piece a little larger than a deck of cards)

lemons ( about 4-5 thin slices per piece of cod)

2tbsp chopped capers

1-2 shallots, thinly sliced ( about 1/3-1/2 shallot per piece of cod)

salt to taste

cold butter cubed (about 1-2 tbsp per piece of cod)

Parchment to wrap

Take a large piece of parchement (about 4X the size of your cod) and place pats of butter, shallots capers and lemons on top of and around cod. Then wrap cod tightly in the parchement so it can steam.

Bake at 450F for about 15 minutes. I baked our little pieces for about 18 minutes, cause I like my fish well done. The time will depend on the size of the cod. When done you should insert a knife tip into the center of the fish for a few seconds and be hot when you take it out, and the fish should be white and flaky.

We served ours over basmati rice, but you can use anything that would go well with white fish and lemon.

Evie’s Chunky Chips

Jul1

Evie here and I am here to tell you how to make my chunky oven chips.

you will need

how ever many potatoes you need, cut into wedges (we used Russet it is a good baking potato)…Mom here with a little more detail, we used 3 large potatoes

2 tablespoons of olive oil (or more if you need it, toss around to coat)

a sprinkle of sea salt (to taste)

a sprinkle of ground black pepper (to taste)

Bake at 400F for about 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Happy Canada Day!

Now I am making a special Canada Day desert.

Pickled Jalapenos

Aug23

We used to make these every year when we got lots of jalapeños from our garden. Our garden does not give us many peppers anymore due to shade from a large building that went up next to us. I mentioned this recipe to Mimi when she said that she had a lot of jalapenos to use up from her garden and promised the share the recipe with her.

We use these on nachos and in any recipe that calls for a can of chopped green chilis, such as enchiladas, mexican rice, nachos or just on sandwiches.

These are easy to make and you can make as many jars as you like, even one if that is all the japans you have enough for. I bought 6 or 7 large jalapeños and got these two jam jars. You can easily double or triple this recipe if you need more.

Remember one of the most important rules of canning is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. You can never be to safe when preserving food. I also find it best to have everything prepped and ready to go in assembly line order. Put the water canner on to boil while you are getting everything else ready as it takes quite awhile to get that boiling. I sterilize the jars in there for at least 10 minutes boiling before canning. You can also sterile your jars in the oven, I have done that method as well. Please, if you are new to canning please do your research and get to know the process I recommend these websites which I have used for basic safety information The National Centre for Home Food Preservation, Government of Canada, and the Company that makes Mason Jars. There are other great resources too, but there is a lot of information on the internet that is not accurate so ensure that you are using a reputable website.

You will need:

1 cup vinegar

1cup water

1 bunch jalapeño peppers

for each jar: 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 bay leaf, 1clove garlic

Remove stem and seeds from the peppers then slice in rings.

Combine water and vinegar in a large saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Drop peppers in boiling liquid. Cook for 5 minutes.

While the peppers are boiling and once the jars have been sterilized, to each jar add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 a small bay leaf, 1clove garlic

Pack peppers into sterilized jars and fill with hot liquid, leaving about 1.5 inch headspace.

Add lids (which have been prepared as for any canning (by softening the rubber rings in simmering water bath for about 5 minutes) and rings (do not tighten the rings, (they should just be screwed on lightly, fingertip tight, air has to escape during boiling and for it to seal properly) process in a water canner for at least 10-15 minutes at a rolling boil with the lids covered in about 2 inches of water (please make sure you check proper processing time for preserving based on your altitude). Remove from water and let sit on counter undisturbed for 24 hours. The jars should seal as they cool, you will hear a little pop as they seal. The lid of the jar should be sucked down flat and if you push on it it should not pop.

These will last for a year in the cupboard and once opened store in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.

Fresh Homemade Salsa

Jun22

This is a nice fresh salsa, that can be mild to hot depending on how much jalapeño you put in. My version is mild to be more child friendly, but you can make to to suit your own taste. This is also really economical, you get a lot from a few very affordable ingredients. It is perfect for summer gatherings when you need a lot. It is also very quick to put together, it may look like a lot of steps but it isn’t, I was showing everything for this post.

1 – 28oz can of diced tomatoes

4 medium tomatoes, chopped

3/4 cup chopped red onion

2-3 Tbsp finely chopped jalapeno (or more if you want spicy)

1 tsp garlic powder (or garlic salt)

2 tsp fresh minced garlic

1 small can tomato paste

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

I blitz the canned tomatoes in the food processor to break them up a little more.

You can omit the food processor steps if you want it chunkier (I tailored my version of the recipe to suit Evie not wanting onion or jalapeño chunks)

Chop jalapeño and red onion

I blitz the jalapeño and onion together too

Give this a whirl to get it all finely chopped. I do this so the onion and jalapeño gets really incorporated into the tomatoes. Evie will not want to get a chunk of onion or jalapeño in her mouth, this takes care of that.