basil black pepper goat cheese and onion bread

I made this bread the first time fairly soon after Dana wrote about it. I remember we ate it quickly. And then, I forgot about it. Fast forward to last weekend, when I picked up a book from my overflowing shelves and found the recipe written on a scrap piece of paper. So I pulled up the post again and made the bread. This time I used black pepper and basil goat cheese from the market that was first to hand out of the cheese shelf. I was a bit haphazard with stacking and laying the dough in the loaf pan and ended up with a more layered effect but it still tastes wonderful.

Pull-Apart Cheesy Onion Bread (adapted from Dana Treat and Food &Wine)
Makes one 9-inch loaf

1½ sticks cold butter, 1 stick cubed
1 large onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup coarsely grated black pepper and basil goat cheese (3 ounces)
2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk (1 c milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice)

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Grease a large metal loaf pan. In a large skillet, melt the ½ stick of butter; pour 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a small bowl and reserve. Add the chopped onion to the skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until it is softened, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Scrape the onion mixture onto a plate and refrigerate for 5 minutes, until cooled slightly. Stir in the cheese.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, pulse the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the cubed butter and pulse until it is the size of small peas. Add the buttermilk and pulse 5 or 6 times, just until a soft dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and knead 2 or 3 times. Pat or roll the dough into a 2-by-24-inch rectangle. Spread the onion mixture on top. Cut the dough crosswise into 10 pieces. Stack 9 pieces onion side up, then top with the final piece, onion-side down. Carefully lay the stack in the prepared loaf pan and brush with the reserved butter.

Bake the loaf in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes, until it is golden and risen. Let the bread cool for at least 15 minutes before unmolding and serving.

warm asian salad with feta

This recipe was adapted from a Canadian cheese booklet of recipes I got somewhere, probably one of the grocery stores I frequent. This recipe caught my eye as I had substitutable ingredients and it sounds pretty good. And it was. It was meant (according to the recipe) to serve 4 but it barely served 2 for supper but maybe as I used mixed greens instead of spinach, it wasn't as chewy as it should have been.

Warm Asian Salad with Feta (adapted from All you need is cheese magazine)
1/3 c roasted cashews, in pieces
1/2 lb ground pork
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp ginger, minced
 2 tsp thai green curry paste
1 medium red pepper, diced

4 c mixed green salad leaves
1 c crumbled feta

To a saute pan, add ground pork, shallot, garlic and ginger and cook until the pork is cooked all the way through. Add a bit of water to the green curry paste and stir it into the mixture.

Add the red pepper and salad leaves to a large salad bowl. Add the pork mixture, cashews and sprinkle with feta. Serve immediately.

evening picnic at the park (and a rice salad)

Our boy's field hockey ended a week ago which meant the end of late afternoons sitting around a field chatting with friends watching the boys play. So I thought of inviting a few of them to have a picnic in the park at the beach just over the railway tracks from where the boys played hockey. It was a grey and drizzly day but there were patches of blue developing through the afternoon. By the time we all rolled into the park, it was mostly sunny and clear and warm enough to be pleasant. We snagged a couple of picnic tables, shooed off the birds, and laid out our shared meal. Some buns, deli meats, a roast chicken and a couple of salads.

The kids ran around playing war and dodgeball and my boy waded in the surf up to his armpits. We watched the new lifeguards in training and enjoyed the evening. This went by.

My contribution was this brown rice salad from Catherine at Ben and Birdy which was a big hit.

Brown Rice Salad with Asparagus, Feta and Lemon (adapted from Ben and Birdy)
2 c brown rice
1 large bunch of asparagus
1 shallot, minced
5 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 c crumbled feta
3/4 c chopped, toasted almonds

Add the rice to boiling water (cook it like pasta) and let cook for 25 minutes. Drain well and then add back to the pot, cover with a towel and the lid and let steam for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, lay out the asparagus on a baking sheet, and roast for about 5 minutes in a 375 deg F oven until the asparagus is slightly tender and slightly browned. Cut into 1" pieces.

Dry roast the almonds over medium high heat until the almonds are toasty brown.

Mix the lemon juice, shallots and olive oil in a small jar and shake to mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

For the picnic, I kept all the pieces separate - rice, asparagus, feta, almonds and dressing and then combined them all at the table. Lovely.

more baked eggs

The other night, another late home, starving, need dinner fast night I made a switched up version of the baked eggs I recently wrote about. I didn't have asparagus and leeks in my fridge but I did have mushrooms and spinach so that is what I used.

Baked Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms (adapted from Edible Vancouver)
4 oz bacon, sliced thinly
10 mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 bags (~14 oz) spinach
salt and pepper
1/2 c vegetable stock

1/4 c cream
1 tsp dried thyme
6 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. In a large saute pan, cook the bacon and mushrooms until the mushrooms are beginning to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add the spinach and let it start to wilt then add the stock and cream and stir to mix. Add in the thyme and then create 6 wells. Break the eggs into the wells and then put the pan into the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the eggs are set. I sprinkled some parmesan shavings over the top and served with some hot french bread.

magic sauce

I recently wrote about the addition of white fish to our diet. We have continued to eat fish (twice more this week) which is still shocking to me. I put it down to my magic sauce I serve with most of the fish. It is just my version of tartar sauce.

Fish Sauce
2 small dill pickles, chopped (from my pantry)
1 large soup spoon full of mayonaise
l large soup spoon full of plain greek yogurt
1 big squeeze of lime juice (or lemon juice if that is what you have)
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
3-4 shakes of dried dill

Chop the dill pickles and add to a small bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir until mixed. Serve with fish.

in the garden

It was rainy for most of yesterday but it cleared in the late afternoon. I wandered around my garden, looking at the progress of some seeds I planted and other things I had purchased and replanted and things are coming along. The Korean lilac is blooming and is a heady scent.

 I clipped some blossoms to make a small bouquet for the house. Wandering around between the plants,

peas

herb planter

giant aliums

potatoes

chard

spinach

I could smell the lilac and the lemony scent of the chicken wings baking in the oven (a Nigel Slater recipe - mustard, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and I subbed maple syrup for the called for honey).

chicken wings before baking

baked chicken wings - delicious

camouflage

I've been surrounded by camouflage material recently. Our boy needed a weighted vest to help him focus at school and I knew he likely wouldn't wear the style of vest available through the specialty website as he was reluctant to wear it even in the house when we got one to try out. So I thought I would try and make one he would like to wear. I lucked out a the fabric store and found a whole rack of camouflage type fabric and settled on the navy (navy) and brown (army) in the hopes that the camouflage would feed into his love of army and navy enough to encourage the vest use at school. I ordered the vest weights online

one weight lying on the inside pocket

weights inside the pocket

and waited so I could make the interior pockets the right size to hold them. I chose a basic vest with lining pattern, laid a piece of heavy cotton on the inside of the navy piece to hold the weights and sewed the vest following the pattern. I admit, I did have to unpick my work a few times but in the end I have a reversible vest, that holds 6 - 1/2 lb weights that looks cute and so far he likes to wear.

Early days yet, so I'm hopeful this will last.

And inspired by this post of Molly's I made a couple of camo outfits for his tooth fairy mice- which got to go to school for montre et raconte (show and tell).