slightly pickled.
Posted: September 1, 2010 Filed under: carrots, peanuts, pickles, salad, zucchini Leave a comment
I love the idea of making pickles.
For me, pickling conjures up visions of charming country kitchens, steaming pots, banging screen doors, and faded Liberty print housedresses; row upon row of shiny jars packed with bright, tasty things to spice up the dreary winter ahead.
At this time of year especially, that vision of industry, tradition and simplicity has its appeal.
Of course, it’s totally a fantasy: despite my attempts at various other incarnations over the years, I am a city girl through and through, completely and happily entrenched in city life, not bound to tradition, and not terribly industrious either – especially when the task at hand involves the kind of repetition that home canning demands.
I am also not a fan of making things in bulk, so, much like life in that country kitchen, those rows upon rows of jars would drive me a little crazy after a very short time.
(And did I mention that I don’t even really love pickles?)
And yet – and yet! – the fantasy remains.
These two (delicious, bright, and easy) salads are the closest I will come this year, but they will, in my mind’s eye, almost get me there.
Slightly Pickled Carrot and Peanut Salad
I should warn you that neither of these salads keeps particularly well over night, so don’t plan for leftovers.
1/4c white wine vinegar
1/4c olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
6 medium carrots, thinly sliced
3/4c salted peanuts
Whisk together vinegar and oils in the bottom of a large non-reactive bowl (I use a Pyrex mixing bowl).
Add carrots and toss well. Leave 3-4 hours, if you can!
Add peanuts just before serving, and toss well.
Slightly More Pickled Zucchini Salad
4 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
1/2c white vinegar
1/4c brown sugar
2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
Place zucchini in a large non-reactive bowl (I use a Pyrex mixing bowl). Add 1/4c of the vinegar, 2 tbsp of the sugar, and 1 tsp of the salt, and toss well. Let sit at least an hour or two, then turn zucchini out into a colander and drain well.
Return zucchini to bowl and toss with remaining vinegar, sugar, and salt. Add chives and toss well.
Each salad serves 4-6, depending on what else is on offer. Faded housedress optional.
is this thing (still) on?
Posted: August 22, 2010 Filed under: birthdays, carrots, celebrating, cream cheese, cupcakes 1 Comment
I can’t go another minute without acknowledging my rather lengthy, and completely unplanned, absence from this blog.
The list of things that have conspired to keep me off the keys these past several weeks includes, but is not limited to:
Our move;
a lack of internet service (and an appalling lack of service from our internet provider, but you’ve all no doubt heard that story before) for more than a week following the move;
three family birthdays and twice that number of birthday parties;
many wonderful out of town house guests;
a broken camera;
and my husband’s travel schedule, which took him away from us for what felt like an eternity.
I have missed posting a great deal – in fact, I have missed cooking a great deal, since most of my meals this summer have centered around cheese and crackers and leftover birthday cake.
Still, there are at least a couple of weeks left of this glorious summer yet, and my kitchen, now that I have begun to settle into it, is awash in fresh local ingredients.
Which I plan to press into service.
Any minute now.
As soon as I finish this cupcake.
Carrot Cupcakes for a Momentous Day
adapted from Gourmet Today
It was my son’s first birthday on Saturday, and I made these cupcakes for the first of two parties we held for him over the weekend. They were a huge hit, and I’d make them again in a heartbeat.
For the Cupcakes:
1 1/2c light spelt pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
3/4c vegetable oil
1c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4c finely shredded carrots (I used 2 large ones)
1/3c finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2c sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
For the Icing:
3 1/2c icing sugar
250g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp vanilla
For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg in a bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in flour mixture until well combined. Gently fold in carrots, walnuts and coconut until just combined.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes, turning pan halfway through cooking time, until a tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Turn cupcakes out onto rack to cool completely.
For the Icing:
Place icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to remove any lumps. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth and thick. If icing is runny (as mine was on a highly humid Saturday morning), refrigerate it for an hour or so until firm enough to pipe onto the tops of the cupcakes.
Makes 12.
special delivery.
Posted: June 18, 2010 Filed under: baking, breakfast, cake, carrots 1 Comment
I have begun having my groceries delivered.
The passing mention of this new habit in a recent post did nothing to reveal how momentous a difference ordering food online, and its subsequent delivery, has wrought; so let me just say, unequivocally and on the record:
It has changed my life.
I have always loved shopping for food (and most other things, too), but lately it had been starting to feel like a bit of a chore.
We have several big household expenditures coming up, so we have been making an effort to be more frugal – which has meant less shopping at the pretty little jewel box-like shops along our strip in favour of trips to the vast, faceless and uninspiring (but ultimately more economical) supermarket at the outer fringe of our neighbourhood.
Because I find going to that store the worst kind of drudgery, my husband has been doing the grocery shopping of late – and although his is an errand of mercy and I should be grateful that he does it at all (and I am grateful, really!), I am not always pleased with what he comes home with.
It’s not that he’s a bad shopper – I’d just prefer to do it myself.
(For a while there, because of my control issues, we were making our trips to said giant grocery store en famille, and that was the worst kind of gong show:
Picture the four of us, largely disgruntled and at least one of us hungry, hurtling through the aisles in an attempt to make good choices and buy everything on our list before someone had a major meltdown and we were forced to leave without anything.)
Enter the life-altering on-line supermarket, where the aisles are empty, there is never a line at the checkout, and you don’t have to pay in cash or bag your own groceries.
Yesterday, I ordered everything on my list while nursing my baby and watching my daughter do a 300-piece puzzle.
And then this morning, before I had even finished making my coffee, there was a man at the door with four boxes of fresh food for my family and me.
I was so delighted by the whole thing, I made us a cake for breakfast to celebrate.
Spiced Carrot Breakfast Cake
The disadvantage of this over, say, muffins, is that it takes considerably more time to cook. That said, it also seems to go a lot further (don’t ask me why, since the ingredients are virtually the same), and the presentation is awfully pleasing. Besides, who can resist the notion of cake for breakfast?
1c wheat germ
1c buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2c applesauce (unsweetened)
1/3c oil (once again, I use coconut, but any vegetable oil will do)
1/2c agave nectar OR thawed apple juice concentrate
1 2/3c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
about 2c grated carrots (I grate 2 fairly big carrots – not enormous, but not medium-sized either)
1/2c chopped pitted dates
1/2c chopped almonds
1/2c craisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a tube pan.
Place wheat germ in a large mixing bowl.
Combine buttermilk, eggs, apple sauce, oil, and agave nectar in a large glass measuring cup and whisk until smooth. Pour over wheat germ in bowl and stir to combine.
In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. Stir in carrots, dates, almonds, and craisins.
Add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture and stir until just combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake about 40 minutes (check after 35), or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Cool 10-15 minutes in pan, then run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake and invert it onto a wire rack.
Serve immediately, or let it cool a little longer before serving.
Makes at least a dozen slices.
Annie Dishes 