Menu Plan Monday: April 30

Last week was interesting and had an effect on my menu plan. The first few days went very well, with new recipes that were eaten by everyone (Beef and Orange Stir Fry being the favorite.) A last minute change to our schedule on Wednesday resulted in picking up something quick for dinner on the way home, rather than making what I'd planned.

Then things got really crazy for a bit.

If you live in the Ottawa area, then you know about the massive wind storm that swept through on Thursday, knocking out power for many areas. In our area, we also lost water and ended up with a boil water order for several days, with the city health unit handing out drinking water at the community centre.

While the shingles of my roof were being spread out on our lawn, the trees of our neighbors yard crashed into hydro lines, and another neighbors fence flattened and broke off, we were some of the lucky people. I know of at least one house where the trees went through the roof.

At the time this was happening, I was over at Saunders Farm, cooking a roast beef dinner for 50 people. With no running water and no power. Thank goodness for propane and generators!

Carving roast beef by propane lamp.

Salad, assembled and eaten by candlelight.

We were fortunate that our power was restored late Thursday night, rather than the predicted Friday afternoon, but I still had to throw a few things out of my fridge. The chicken I had defrosted for Wednesday's dinner was quickly bbq'd before it could go bad in the fridge, and enjoyed on sandwiches for lunch Friday.

With all that excitement out of the way, we should be good for an uneventful week, following my menu plan.

Sunday: BBQ chicken Kabobs with corn on the cobb and bruschetta

Monday: Nachos

Tuesday: Spaghetti and meatballs

Wednesday: Sauteed Chicken with mushrooms and green beans, with baked French potatoes (left over from last week)

Thursday: Spinach, mushroom and sausage calzones with salad

Friday: Bacon, eggs, toast and hash browns, by request

That's my plan for the week, which I am sharing at Menu Plan Mondays.

Happy Halloween!

A few images from what I've been doing for the past month. Sadly, today was the last day the Farm was open until next year, and I will miss it and the people I've been working with.

Cortland apples, ready to be candied and carameled. Sorry, no pictures of caramel - they would disappear off the trays almost as fast as we could make them.

I love how the red candy apple drips and the blue candy apple drips co-mingled together. Such pretty colors.

Gourmet chocolate apples. These ones still needed a drizzle of white and dark chocolate before they were done.

Best seller this year, a combination I made up, Skor toffee bits with cinnamon chips, on milk chocolate, drizzled with white and dark.

Ever seen a blue candy apple before. Pretty.

Kettle corn, fresh from the kettle. Highly addictive stuff.

Chocolate dipped marshmallows. Very popular and alot of fun to make.

Pretty gourds. So many beautiful pumpkins and gourds at the farm. Now all covered in snow.

Ghosty sugar cookies, with royal icing. Probably could have done these for the September Daring Baker's Challenge, but waited until October instead.

More pretty pumpkins. Would they look so happy if they knew they were about to be devoured?

Pulled pork. Smoked with applewood chips on the bbq, long and low, pulled by hand and then tossed in a smokey bbq sauce before being served on a soft kaiser roll. Too bad you can't get them again until next October!

I made many more things over the last month: cinnamon buns, pumpkin cinnamon buns, maple pumpkin pies and tarts, pumpkin chocolate chip scones, pumpkin streusel muffins (notice a theme here?), but did not take as many pictures as I normally do. So fun to "work" at what I love doing, being in a kitchen and covered in flour.

PS Have you seen the newest Pamela Von Twilight video, Saunders Farm Monsters? Based on some of these pictures, can figure out where I am in it?

How I spent my Wednesday night

Tonight, I cooked dinner for the Ottawa Senators, their wives and their children.

You know, these guys here:

I love my job!

(And in case you are wondering, I did not come home with a single picture or autograph. I did come home with the compliment that I make amazing french fries from a few players though, and that works for me too.)

I'm not home right now....

Okay, right now I am. 8:30 on a Sunday night, I am home.

But I haven't been much this week, and won't be for the next four weeks.

If you are looking for me, you can find me here:

That's right - Haunting Season has started at Saunders Farm and I am right in the thick of things!

If you click on the links in either the daytime or evening parts and come across The Farmer's Table - fresh local foods, well that's me!

(Okay, I am also doing alot of the baking for Angela's Farm Fresh Bakery please go try my homemade cinnamon buns!)

For the next month you will be able to find me at The Farmer's Table, probably on the bbq cooking up lots of goodies.

If you happen to find yourself at Saunders, please, stop by and give me a shout out!

(Btw, this means I likely will not be blogging for awhile, again. I've been doing weddings and events at the Farm this summer, having so much fun, so I've been busy, busy, but now I'm going to be busy, busy, busy, busy, BUSY! And loving it! )

The ongoing computer trials

So after two attempts with two different Dell computers, I am now the owner of a MacBook.

Now how to figure out how to get all my stuff over to this computer!

(Yes, this means there will still be alot of quiet coming from me, while I continue to learn how to use this new computer.)

I'm off for the week!

And you'll never guess where I am!!!

I've gone back to school for the week, to college of all places (cause that's what you do when you take time off of work!)

Today was day one of Introduction to Baking and Pastry, the first course I will need to get my culinary certificate. For the next 4 days, I will be in a baking lab, wearing my chef's coat and little black hat, saying, "Yes Chef" and baking up a storm. I don't expect to learn alot (as there is nothing on the sylabus that I have not already made multiple times), but is sure is fun to be in such a huge kitchen, with mammoth ovens, multiple restaurant style dishwashers, and baking up a storm!

I'll be taking pictures as I can this week, so will do an update when I am all done.

Have a lovely week!

Down due to technical difficulties

Good difficulties, new computer kind, but still down for a bit.

Taking me awhile to move things from one pc to the other, and I will get there, but for now, not going to make this week's I Hearts Cooking Club, and may not make Menu Plan Monday either.

Have a lovely holiday weekend!

Menu Plan Monday: April 25, not yet finished

It was such a lovely weekend that I'm dreading it being over. The sun was out, the weather was lovely, and we spent time together as a family, went exploring, found a new park for the kids to play at and just had some laughs.

We live on the outside of Ottawa, and this area has lots of little villages around it, each with a church or two. At this time of the year, most of those churches are holding a church supper of some kind, a fundraising event for the church, but a tasty dinner option for us. We had several choices for Saturday night, both roast beef dinners, learned of a roast beef dinner we'd missed, and of an upcoming ham and turkey dinner. So many options!

If you've never been to a church supper, they can be a hit or miss type of experience. Everything is homemade, but nothing is made by the same person. The dishes are a collection of items that are volunteered by the congregation, as is the meal, including dessert. A family can go and depending on where you are in line, you can end up with two completely different meals.

Then there is the pie. The ladies of these churches turn out pie after pie after pie for dessert. The church we chose for our dinner had a take out booth set up, and when you went in to place your order, the counter was covered in different pies. There was coconut cream, apple, cherry cranberry, butterscotch, chocolate, lemon meringue, cherry, raisin, and my favorite, the strawberry rhubarb custard pie. Oh was it good!

Memories of a good weekend.... Back to Monday and my menu plan for Menu Plan Monday.

My week is going to be off slightly, so I haven't finished my menu plan, but here is what I have so far...

Sunday: Honey garlic chicken wings with potato skins and veggies and dip.

Monday: Turkey kabobs with corn on the cobb.

Tuesday: Beef noodle soup.

Wednesday: Undecided at this point.

Thursday: Pasta of some kind.

Friday: No idea.

Menu Plan Monday: How I did on the pantry challenge

I know this isn't the Menu Plan Monday banner (I put that below this time). I just wanted to put something different up, just because, and just for fun. This is my oldest son, being silly this past summer.

True story, rather funny, to tell about him and this past week's menu plan: Last week I planned that the boys were going to have club sandwiches using the left over turkey for dinner on Tuesday. I was going to be out here, enjoying myself, but expected to be able to have a sandwich when I got home, if I wanted one. Knowing we had all the ingredients on hand, I decided I wanted a BLT for breakfast the next morning and was going to gather them all together to make my morning a little less hectic the next day. No bacon to be found in the fridge. None in the freezer. Could they have eaten an entire pound of bacon in one night? Seemed unlikely. Hubby said no, there should be some in the fridge, our oldest had put it in a tupperware container. Checked again, fridge no, freezer no, just in case, pantry no. No bacon.

The next morning I ask him. He checks the fridge. He knows he put it in a container, but where did he put it? Checks the freezer. Next thing you know, there are three of rummaging through the fridge and freezer, where did he put this bacon!

Lightbulb goes off above my head - I checked the tupperware cupboard and voila! Bacon!

No, I did not have a BLT for breakfast that morning. Not with bacon that had been out all night.

So the pantry challenge.... It went pretty well. We had a few hiccups this week, the first being diner on Monday, the beef and broccoli stir fry I made. While the stir fry part was fine, for some reason the rice tasted odd to everyone at the table, and had a subtle, but again odd, texture to it. We ended up not finishing out meal that night and had an "emergency" chip run. But even with the chips added in, I still finished the two weeks with $2 left in my $100 budget.

My second little "bump in the road" didn't happen until Friday, when we did end up having take out for dinner, but it had less to do with the pantry challenge and more to do with my having worked a 12 hour the day before (open to close), followed by opening the next morning, and I was exhausted. This isn't likely to happen again, it was unusual circumstances, but it made me realize I am not as resilient as I used to be.

This week I've decided to continue with the freezer challenge, but had to restock several items in my pantry. I'd run out of canned tomatoes, which are a staple, and my stock of cereal, a very in demand item in this house, was completely depleted. The boys, big and small, could still find something for breakfast with what we had left, but I'm much pickier when it comes to cereal and we had not had anything I considered edible for the entire two weeks. Breakfast has been a bit rough on me, no cereal and no BLT's.

On to the menu!

Sunday: Turkey soup with biscuits (I took pictures and hope to post about this later this week.)

Monday: Chicken Korma with rice. Carry over from last week.

Tuesday: Sheppard's Pie.

Wednesday: Grilled steak with Caesar salad.

Thursday: Lasagna, from the freezer.

Friday: It's birthday time around here today, combination of my oldest son and my mother-in-law, as well as my father-in-law from the day before, so we will be out celebrating with them.

Ottawa Food Bloggers, Urban Element and the Chicken Farmers of Canada

Any where else, other than a gathering of food bloggers, this would seem odd. But when a bunch of food bloggers congregated together at the Urban Element on Tuesday, February 2nd, this was the norm. Amazingly, the staff didn't even bat an eye when asked to "pose" with the various hors-d'oeuvres!

We were all there at the invitation of Chicken Farmers of Canada, for a social gathering of Ottawa Food bloggers, with appetizers, cocktails, a cooking demonstration and to hear Ron Eade give a talk on sodium and writing about food.

Ron didn't spend his entire evening talking about salt, but touched on alot of little things about food writing: the time it takes not only to write a blog, but to read and comment on others, the passion that comes through in some blogs, picture size, links and recipes. And one I've been guilty of lately - frequency of blogging. (I owe my blog a big apology for the neglect it's seen over the last few months.)

Pulled pork with smoked tomato jam

Cod cakes

Mini chicken pot pies

Sundried tomato strata with C'est Bon goat cheese

Chicken dumplings with peanut sauce

Caramelized onion tarts and pear tarts with Bleu Bénédictine

I am allergic to penicillin, so fortunately I only took one small nibble of this tart, without any cheese, when I realized it had blue cheese on it and I really should not be eating it.

In-house pork rillette with Rochon farm zucchini relish

The food made for us by the staff was not only beautiful to look at, but pretty darn good too. I did find it ironic that an event hosted by chicken farmers had cod and pork as part of the appetizers, though the cooking demonstration for the evening was centered around chicken: chicken liver pate, made for us by Chef Candice Butler.

Not being a fan of anything involving liver, I pretended I didn't hear that part of the recipe and tried the pate anyways. It was tasty but quite rich, I had a difficult time finishing my piece.


The highlight of the evening, for me, was getting an opportunity to meet some local food bloggers. I admit, I had not known about all of them, or that there were quite so many in Ottawa, but it was a pleasure to be included in their company. Some, like Shari of Whisk: A Food Blog, I had been reading for ages and had exchanged emails with. While others, like Don of foodPrints, Rachelle of Rachelle Eats Food, Eva of Eva's Food World and Pearl of Eaten Up, I hope to make part of my regular reading and meet again at future events (which means I better stop neglecting my blog!)

Big thanks to Ryan of Fat Canary Communications for inviting me, to the Chicken Farmers of Canada for hosting this little party, and to the staff at the Urban Element.

Conversations from my kitchen

Me: "You didn't eat all your Asian Pear for lunch today, how come?"

7 year old: "Well I couldn't eat my Asian Pear because it was Jicama, not Asian Pear."

Me: "No, I cut it, it's Asian Pear. The Jicama is still in the cupboard, see?"

Him: "Oh.... Asian Pear, I love Asian Pear!"..... as he inhales his pear.

Later on...

Him: "Mom, you know, you and I really like Asian foods. That's good. No one else in our family likes Asian foods as much as we do."

Think I'm raising a little Foodie?

Welcome to winter

I don't think I'll be using this clothesline for quite awhile.

Menu Plan Monday: I'm back!

Did you miss me?

I had a nice weekend in Toronto with my youngest child. Didn't do much of anything, completely forgot to call Cream Puff until I was almost at Toronto, so didn't see her, and did not eat anywhere that did not involve fast food, but still managed to have a good time.

My little one and I were going for the purpose of seeing my uncle, who is a testament to how important organ donation is - he would not be alive today without someone's foresight and generosity. If you haven't done so, sign your organ donor card today and talk to your family! Even if you sign your card, or have it on your medic bracelet the way I do, your family can overrule you, so let them know you want to be an organ donor!

I admit I did not make my menu plan for the week until sometime this afternoon. We got in last night after 6pm, and were both very tired. Today we tried sleeping in but it didn't work very well for us, so we packed up his brother and went shopping in the US. The price of butter alone makes the trip worth while for me, plus the boys like to pick out things they can't get here, like Goobers, a combination of peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. Ugh to me, but they love it.

Here we go, still a work in progress, but what I'm submitting for this week's Menu Plan Monday:

Sunday: Sheppard's Pie, made by the hubby.

Monday: Pizza and salad, a chicken pizza and a 5 cheese pizza, from Costco.

Tuesday: Steak fajitas

Wednesday: Crockpot chicken and cheesy potatoes.

Thursday: Happy Shrimp with rice. I think. Maybe. Oh, who knows!

Friday: Fish and chips, homemade.

Life is good when you can make a little boy deliriously happy simply by taking him on the subway. For him, life is over the top fabulous when a subway trip is combined with a trip on the GO train and then a walk up to see just how tall the CN tower really is. Especially when he can follow on a map and see how far he walked and what the next stop on the train is.

Btw, I think my youngest child is in love! It is a toss up between Potter Barn for Kids and Crate and Barrel!

Menu Plan Monday: More cow and some paint

Paint and a cow is not a combination you expect to see when it comes to a menu plan, but this week, that's what I've got. First, I picked up my 1/4 of a cow last night, with the "help" and company of my Little SC. Then my oldest helped me count out the various packages as I put them into the freezer.

I think it is safe to say I won't run out of ground beef any time soon - not with 54 lbs of it!

No roasts in my freezer, though, just 'summer cuts' in steaks and braising ribs. That's fine, we'll live with that.

Now the connection to paint....

We've lived in this house for almost a year now and living with the decorating choices of the former owner has been pulling me down. Budget wise, however, I had to. That and the total repaint of our old home before we sold it had my hands cramping up every time I even thought about picking up a roller.

I finally could not stand it anymore, the gold glazed wall in my kitchen, with the sponge painted underside of bulkheads above my cabinets. And, more importantly, my hubby 'volunteered' to paint! Goodbye gold, glazed sponge paint!

So my kitchen has not exactly been functioning the last few days, which means the plan of sausages with tomatoes and mashed potatoes from last night is likely to happen tonight, and last night became pick up pizza on the way home night.

And my kitchen is so much lighter and brighter, so that was well worth a few pizzas!

Sunday: Left overs (I had a work meeting and ate there.)

Monday: Pizza from the local bar, pretty good.

Tuesday: Sausages with tomatoes and mashed potatoes (or sausages on a bun with chips.)

Wednesday: Rib eye steaks with salad.

Thursday: Homemade hamburgers

Friday: I'm out of town with my little one, so my two "big boys" get to fend for themselves.

Saturday: They are still on their own, I think they can handle it fine.

And that's my plan for the week, which I will be adding in to the plans from hundreds of others on Menu Plan Monday.

Pictures of my newly painted kitchen next week. Or after I find curtains for it.

We interupt this menu plan to purchase a cow

Yes, I said a cow.

Not a full cow. A quarter of a cow.

(And in answer to the Little Sous Chef's question, no, not a live cow.)

Turns out that someone I was working with at Saunders Farm during October has a working farm, and they just happened to have 1/4 of a cow available for purchase at a very good price.

In one shot I get to support a local farmer, support a new friend, and get a freezer full of fresh, local beef.

SOLD!

No menu plan until I've picked up my 1/4 of a cow (probably tomorrow), and see what exactly I have in the way of cuts of beef. Afterall, I don't want to plan for steaks and then find I only have roasts. Or vice versa.

I can tell you that I plan to make sausages in tomatoes with mashed potatoes for dinner tomorrow. Yummy!

Right after that, though, I'm going to go get my cow.

Saunders Farm: The best fries I'll never eat

If you live in Ottawa, you know what Saunders Farm is. For some it is a yearly tradition: go to the Farm, get your pants scared off you! (Or take the little ones during the day time for some Harvest fun and only a little spookiness, no pant scaring.)

If you don't live in Ottawa, but read this blog regularly, you know I've been working at Saunders Farm during the month of October, when the farm is open for Haunting Season.

You'd think with a name like Haunting Season, I'd be scaring people, right? Well, I'm not, I'm feeding them!


If you come out to the farm, follow the path under the arbor to the mazes and stop when you see this sign. The Farmer's Table is where you will find me, helping to make wonderful food from fresh and local ingredients. Gourmet burgers made with local, grain fed, hormone free, organic beef. Candy apples hand made with apples picked from a local orchard (the same one I took my children to for our own apple picking.) And more....


Meet Angela Grant Saunders, Director of Beauty, Teambuilding, and more importantly, Catering! Angela's love of good, local and fresh food, is highly contagious. Her enthusiasm shows when she talks about food, when she helps prepare food, when she enjoys her food. The Farmer's Table is Angela's baby, and her pride shows.

If you work at Saunders Farm and are part of one of the food booths, you are part of Team Angela! Go Team Angela!


Nestled in the trees, this is where you will find those fries I said I wasn't going to eat. I'm not going to, I don't eat fries, but I do make them, and I've had it from many, many, many tasters and eaters, that I make great fries.

Alright. I admit it. I ate one. One french fry. The only french fry I've eaten in 5 years! And yes, it was great!

Its hard not to make great fries when you start out with fresh potatoes, hand scrubbed and cut daily.

No freezing for these potatoes, from the cutter to the deep fryer.


First a slow and low fry, just to cook the potatoes gently (or as gently as you can be cooked in hot oil.) We don't want crispy fries yet, just softer potatoes. That takes time, have patience!


After a slow cook, then a rest, it is back into the hot oil for the fries. Really hot oil, not the same low temperature, where the fries will get crispy on the outside, but stay soft and tender on the inside. Golden brown in color, these are not the fries you will get at a fast food restaurant or will pull from a bag and put in you oven.


These freshly made fries come in two sizes, regular and family size, and they go fast! The smell of freshly cooked fries floats through the air around the Farmer's Table, making it hard to resist ordering a few for your family. Or a family size for yourself.

If you are interested in trying these fries, you better hurry, as the farm is only open until October 31st! Wait any longer and you'll have to wait a full year for the next Haunting Season.

And while you are there, don't forget to say hi to me. I'll be at the deep fryers, making mountains of fries that I am not going to eat.

RIP Marvin

Just a baby.

Do you remember Marvin? My beautiful and well loved sour dough starter, loved "nephew" of Aunty Sour Dough?

Unfortunately he has met with an unexpected end and I am sad.

As balls of homemade Timbits.

I had not baked with him in awhile, but that was okay, he was dormant in the back of my fridge. My instructions were to take him out every 6-8 weeks and give him a feeding, maybe bake with him. And this weekend, it was time to take him out and at least give him a little love in the form of warm water and flour.

Alas, poor Marvin, he was frozen solid.

Marvin made such beautiful loaves of bread.

I didn't send off a panicked email to his Aunty, but instead took him out to let him defrost and waited to see how he would do.

Poor Marvin, he never defrosted but instead stayed a block of very sour smelling and greenish-greyish looking ick.

His favorite way to shine, as a breakfast muffin.

You will be missed, Marvin!

Menu Plan Monday: And a little news

I'm giving myself alot of leeway this week when it comes to following my menu plan. Chances are at least once I am going to be picking something up for dinner, but it is for a good cause: my sanity!

Last week, I accepted a job offer and began working at IKEA in Ottawa. No, they did not hire me as their head chef, but I am working with food. And while I am supposed to be 3/4 time, for the next 5 days at least, I am working full time. I will have time in the morning to get the boys off to school, but it will be their dad meeting them off the bus and possibly starting dinner.

So taking advantage of the Sweedish Food Shop for a few things on the menu this week, here we go!

Sunday: Roast beef with roasted potatoes and gravy. Joint effort by the hubby and I.

Monday: Sausages with IKEA's scalloped potatoes.

Tuesday: Pasta with tomato sauce and garlic toast.

Wednesday: I'm out for the Omnivore Ottawa Supper Club with Beans and Caviar so the hubby will figure out dinner for himself and the boys!

Thursday: Hamburgers with chips and salad.

Friday: Bacon and eggs. I think. Maybe. Oh who knows, by then I might be ready to collapse!

Don't forget to add your own menu plan to Menu Plan Monday!

And forgive me if I'm really quiet for the next little while, either here at my blog, or leaving a comment on yours (I worked all weekend too, so have not yet had the chance to do my usual read/comments of fellow Tyler Florence Friday posts, sorry about that!) There will still be eating and cooking happening, just likely without a camera.

We interupt this regularly scheduled menu plan

Silly me, when I planned for the week, I forgot that I was going to be taking the boys to a local trout farm, Thistle Springs Trout Farm, to do some fishing with them on Tuesday. The rule at the farm is that you have to keep everything you catch, so fresh caught trout was going to be on the menu for dinner this week!


Boy my boys have been learning to fish from their Uncle B, who is a good fisherman. I'm not, so going to a trout farm, where you are basically guaranteed to catch something, is a good solution. My oldest boy was our fisherman expert, putting his own bobbers on the borrowed lines, helping to teach both myself and my girlfriend how to cast (Or trying, anyways - I caught a tree, the same tree, twice.)


My little guy quickly lost patience and decided to spend some time taking pictures with my DSLR instead. He is a very patient photographer, and a flexible one too, since he managed to take his own picture to show off his lovely new grin.


After no luck at a regular pond, we moved to a tank area where I managed to catch my first ever fish! He may be little, but the rule is, no throwing them back in, so home for dinner this little guy was destined.


When I called a halt to the fishing, my oldest and I had caught 5 between us. While I didn't catch the biggest fish in our bucket, I didn't catch the smallest one either.


And while I wasn't required to clean and gut our fish myself (Thistle Springs will do it for you for a small donation to the local children's hospital), it is a skill that I thought would be good for me to know, so they showed me how to do it and I cleaned the catch, while 3 boys (my two and their friend Bambam) looked on and Bambam's Mom took pictures.

Surprisingly, seeing the insides of the fish, its organs, did not bother the boys. Seeing the piece of corn the fish had eaten off the hook, that bothered them.


For their first trout, I decided to go with simple, pan frying them after coating them in a mixture of flour and cornmeal with some seasonings. Cooked with the heads and tails still on.

The boys were warned: Any fish we catch comes home with us and is dinner. This isn't catch and release like you do with Uncle B. You have to try the fish.

(Their Dad, who is not a fan of fish at all, and didn't come with us, was not held to this rule - he had a pork chop for dinner.)


It isn't a pretty dinner. But it is a tasty one. Both boys ate the fish, with my oldest, the fisherman among us, eating the smallest one, and my youngest, who didn't even catch anything, eating one and a half fish.

Before eating dinner last night, both boys wanted to go back when it was bit cooler and try to catch some larger fish. I think I'll wait a week or so before asking them if they still feel that way.