in my kitchen this week...

I've had a lot of free time lately (read: time for cooking and reading). I can't keep up with posting all the recipes I've been trying out, so here's a nice list to peruse. Prepare yourself for an onslaught of links.

Thai Cold Salad Rolls with Tofu and Peanut Chicken: I love these - I make them constantly! All you need is rice paper rolls, an assortment of veggies, rice noodles, and a protein: Martha Stewart's Peanut Chicken for my friend, and Marinated Tofu for me. As a bonus - if you make extra peanut marinade from the Martha recipe, it doubles as a dipping sauce. And if you have leftover fillings, they make an awesome salad the next day (the only thing I actually photographed - I was too busy watching election results and drinking wine!) Here's two recipes for salad rolls with beautiful photos to get you inspired - Munchin with Munchkin and Citrus and Candy.

Acorn Squash, stuffed with Almond, Pomegranate and Couscous Salad:
I bought some beautiful pomegranates: the first one got eaten straight, but I thought I'd head the Morrocan direction with the second one, and look through Yotem Ottolenghi's cookbook, Plenty, for inspiration. I combined this recipe for Middle Eastern Bulgur Salad with 101 Cookbook's Bulgur, Celery and Pomegranate Salad. Then I stuffed it all in a roasted acorn squash. Why not? It's a bowl waiting to happen.

Pot Pie, Vegetable and Chicken: I make an awesome version of chicken pot pie with tons of cream, but I was already covering it with butter pastry, so do I really need to fatten myself up for winter? I'm not a bear. I swapped the cream for cannelli beans, pureed with some roasted garlic. We'll see if the boyfriend notices. Then there's carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, and white beans for me, poached chicken for him. I used these two recipes for inspiration: Easy Chicken Pot Pie from Epicurious and Healthy Vegetarian Pot Pie from Green Lemonade.

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies: My friend was over and wanted a gluten-free treat for dessert (and to soothe election nerves). A perfect excuse to break out my favourite cookie recipe from Veganomicon: Wheat-free Chocolate Chip Cookies. I threw in some chopped dark orange chocolate instead of chocolate chips. No photo. Too good. All gone.

Inside Out Apple Pies: I had leftover scraps from my Pot Pie recipe, and I'd run across this gorgeous post a few days ago: Baked Fruit over on A Beautiful Mess. I couldn't help myself from modifying - I added a pat of butter to the cavity on each apple, then rubbed them with a combination of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and lemon zest. They served up nicely with a scoop of yogurt and an episode of Downton Abbey.

Vegetarian Poutine: I made this at the cafe where I work. Pan fried potatoes, cheese curds and this recipe for Mushroom Gravy from Epicurious. So good, especially at 7AM on a Saturday, at the beginning of a long cooking shift.

recipe wishlist

The List grows longer everyday. Recipes get bumped off, others are pushed to the front, depending on market finds or passing cravings. Here's my latest list of recipes I'm dying to make. If you get around to them before I do, let me know how they worked out!

Whole wheat goldfish crackers - in adorable fish-shapes, of course.

Homemade ice cream bars - I'm dreaming of the flavour combinations from Ed's. Should I splurge and put a pint of Ed's Chocolate Banana Ice Cream in the middle? I might pass out when I taste the finished product.

Jim Lahey's Whole Wheat Bread - baked in a dutch oven, crispy and delicious smelling.

Glutenous Rice Balls - after eating package after package of frozen ones from T&T, it's about time I learn to make my own. In case you're not familiar, here's everything you ever needed to know about GRBs, or more properly referred to as, Tangyuan.

Baked Quinoa Patties - pictured, in Heidi's photo, next to my favourite recipe from her site, Split Pea Dumplings, featured on my post here.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake - this sounds like a cake mix my mom and I used to make. It came in a pink box, and it was delicious. Here it is, in real recipe form, with coffee added.

Looking back at this list, it has a complete lack of vegetables. What can I say? I swear I eat them. I'm just dreaming about baked goods, crackers and glutenous rice balls right now. I promise, as soon as those first asparagus and peas hit the farmers markets, it'll be vegetables, 24/7.

One can't cook all the time - there are distractions, like adorable cats, biking trips, and good books.



Meanwhile, another project I've been working on is a cooking scrapbook: 50+ food magazines from the last 10 years, turned into an organized, colourful cookbook. It's an ongoing project, saved for late night episodes of Colbert.

bookmark break

Weekend reading: one blog leads to another, following a link turns into two hours of wandering aimlessly around the internet, and I inadvertently end up with a plethora of bookmarks - recipes to make, videos to watch, books to read, projects to make. Here's my favourite (mostly food related) finds of last week:

Julia Child gets cooking with a very famous Indian Chef, Madhur Jaffrey,

this recipe is perfect for my lunch next week,

geometric artwork on my favourite art and design blog,

theydrawandcook has a sister website, theydrawandtravel! here's one of the toronto illustrations,

everything you've ever wanted to know about excellent eggs - an enlightenment by bon appetit magazine,

my favourite food podcast, with an awesome website to boot,

this map of the online food world,

and some squash and chocolate cupcakes from a new blog find.

I hope you find some new gems! The internet is a big, scary forest of extraordinarily bad and extremely good recipes. Happy hunting!

 (a little island time this week over on Hanlan's point... just waiting for summer and swimsuits!)