no spiders were harmed in the making of this soup

My friend Linda and I have decided to have a Soup-Off at work this fall. We are taking turns, each Wednesday, to bring a home-made soup in to share at lunchtime. Whoever doesn't make soup that week has to bring two buns. Those are the rules.

For my first soup, a couple of weeks ago, I made The Pioneer Woman's Italian Meatball Soup. It was pretty yummy. The next week, Linda made Turkey Vegetable Soup, which was delicious! Last week it was my turn again. I had some of those wonderful organic carrots left, so I made Winter Warm Up. The recipe was published in The Vancouver Sun about 20 years ago. I have kept the newspaper clipping in a photo album of similarly clipped recipes. I make it 2 or 3 times every winter, it's such an old favourite at our house.

Before I get to the soup, I want to tell you about the spider.

It's spider season just now. There are webs everywhere, with all kinds of interesting looking spiders living in them. You have to watch where you walk when you go outdoors or you will be snagged with web, and perhaps carry a spider away with you. I have been watching this gorgeous spider for a few days. She lives on one end of our porch, near the rosemary plant (seen at the extreme left of the photo). It's pretty easy to avoid her web in daylight. You just look for the lowest strands and duck under. My challenge was that I made my Winter Warm Up Soup at about 6 in the morning last Wednesday, when it was still quite dark outside. The recipe calls for rosemary, and fresh is best. I turned on the porch light and looked outside. I could see Madam Spider, but it was just too dim to make out the path of the web. So I crawled along the porch floor, hoping I was low enough. When I got to the very edge of the porch, where the rosemary pot sits on the railing, I stood up, snipped off some rosemary, then dropped down and crawled back beneath the spider and her web. When I got back to the doorway I turned around to look. Phew! The spider was still there. I knew that if she was not still suspended above the porch, then she would be somewhere on me - in my hair, or on my pajamas. Did I mention I was cooking carrot soup in my pajamas? Oh well. Fortunately I was not giving that particular spider a ride that dark morning. It's possible I snagged another spider on my way, quite unknowingly, but probably not. I went back inside and added the rosemary to the soup. At lunchtime, Linda and I enjoyed it very much. I downplayed the spider part when I told her about making the soup. Linda really doesn't like spiders.

Anyway, here is the soup:

The recipe says to garnish it with crumbled bleu cheese, which is really, really, yummy. I didn't have any at home, so this is an ungarnished bowl, which is also really, really, yummy. Here's my adaptation of the recipe from the newspaper so many years ago:

(Spider Friendly) Winter Warm Up Soup

1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
6 large carrots, peeled and dice (or not peeled -just scrubbed- if they are really great carrots)
2 large onions, diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cumin
dash each tabasco, worcestershire and soy sauce
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary - mind the spiders!
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup whipping cream
crumbled bleu cheese or feta or some plain yogurt

Melt the butter. Add the two oils. Saute the carrots, onion and potato in your big stock pot, for about 10 minutes, until they are softened, but not browned. Stir in the herbs and spices and saute for a couple more minutes. Add the dashes of sauces and the stock. Stir it all up. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour until the veggies are all really soft. Use a food processor or immersion blender to puree the soup until it's smooth. Stir in the whipping cream. Serve and garnish with crumbled cheese or just a blob of yogurt.

This is a simple but very warming and filling soup, thanks to the earthiness of the vegetables, and the warmth of the spices.

The recipe makes about 12 cups of soup, so share it.

While you are gathering food or walking outdoors, be kind to spiders, and grateful for the good work they do, capturing and eating all kinds of insects. Where do you think all of the fruit flies go at the end of the summer? Yup, spider chow! When you come inside, if you see a spider, kindly escort it out to your porch or front walkway. Then go inside and make some really good soup.

wheat berries and Brussels sprouts without the sprouts

I have never been a fan of the English feast, nor the American TV dinner. Food that is compartmentalized, with protein blob here, veggie blog here, starchy blob there has never really appealed to me. My favourite foods are mixed-up combinations of bits of protein, veggies and grains. These foods are perfectly suited to the big bowl. They also fit the way I live. Whenever I have time, I love to take time to prepare and cook food. If I'm busy the next day, I can coast on leftovers, and I enjoy the absolutely best lunches of anyone at work. It's also a good thing, having food in the fridge for my husband and son to reheat whenever their schedules don't match mine.

When my friend Sue shared a link to a cooking blog called Oh My Veggies, I was delighted to find lots of recipes that I can't wait to try. This one appealed to me especially. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Brussels sprouts at the veggie store or the grocery store. What is that about? I know they are a favourite Thanksgiving vegetable, so maybe it's a bit early? But they are wonderful any time, and I know they are grown in the late summer.

I was disappointed, but not defeated. I roamed around the veggie store and bought a butternut squash because it tastes good in just about everything. I also picked up some crimini mushrooms (for the same reason). Then a lady at work gave me a big bag of muddy but radiant organic home-grown carrots. I put them together with some kale and beet greens and some cherry tomatoes that I already had at home, and decided this:

squash + mushrooms + greens + carrots + tomatoes = Brussels sprouts

Do not ask me to prove this equation. Just try the recipe. I think you will discover that it's good with just about any veggie combination. Here's a picture of how it turned out in my kitchen:

The lemon juice and lemon zest in the dressing make it really, especially good. Alex loved it so much he filled his bowl up twice.

When you are cooking, don't be discouraged if you are missing an ingredient. Improvise, take a risk. You will likely make a delicious new discovery. I am glad I did. And I can't wait to try it with Brussels sprouts!

Fill your bowl with what you find beautiful and delicious around you today.

roots, leaves and legumes - the new sticks and twigs

I remember, when I was a little girl, I used to laugh at TV advertisements for Grape Nuts Cereal. There was this author named Euell Gibbons who most famously said, "Did you know you can eat a pine tree? Most parts are edible." I couldn't find that ad online but here's another classic. Whenever I cook something that is full of really healthy ingredients, I can hear an echo of Euell Gibbons saying, "Its naturally delicious taste reminds me of wild hickory nuts."

That's what I thought about a recipe in the Whitewater Cooks with Friends Cookbook for Quinoa, Chickpea and Roasted Yam Salad. Doesn't that just sound too nutritious to possibly taste good? WRONG! If Euell Gibbons was still alive, I am sure he would be extolling the virtues of this recipe.

AND it is really delicious.

I won't copy a published recipe into my blog, so you'll have to go buy the book. Buy it! This is just one of dozens of scrumptious, and coincidentally healthy, recipes. Much better than a pine tree, and not even vaguely reminiscent of wild hickory nuts.

Gather sticks, twigs and berries. Make something yummy. Remember Euell.

tastes like home

I took a week's vacation with my parents recently. We stayed in a nice hotel, with one of those big breakfast rooms with a hot breakfast provided: pastries, eggs, sausages, make-your-own-waffles... The only thing wrong with it was the porridge. They had those packs of instant oatmeal that you mix with hot milk or water. It looked like porridge but it didn't taste like the porridge I love.

One morning, instead of having breakfast at the hotel, we went out to a fancy brunch place. They had french toast, omelets, eggs benny... Guess what I ordered?

Yup! and guess what my Dad ordered? YUP! They had steel cut oatmeal, cooked properly. It was like heaven to eat this delicious, substantial, and nourishing bowl. I make it at home all the time. At the brunch place, I opted for grilled bananas on top, which was rather fancy and quite delicious. At home, I throw in a handful of dried cranberries and mix them through. My favourite topping is unsweetened coconut, toasted pumpkin seeds and chia seeds. I don't put milk or cream on my oatmeal. If I want to be really decadent, I put a wee bit of real butter right into the middle of the bowl and slowly discover its buttery goodness as I eat. Most days though, it's just the oats and the crunchy, nutty toppings and sweet berries inside.

Here's the recipe:

Steel Cut Oat Porridge

1/2 cup steel cut oats (the real kind, not quick-cooking)
just a little less than 2 cups cold water
slim little pinch of salt
small handful of dried cranberries
unsweetened coconut
toasted pumpkin seeds
chia seeds

Put the oats and the water into a bigger saucepan than you think. This stuff likes to boil over. Throw in the salt. Turn the heat onto high and bring it to a boil with the lid off. Turn the heat down and stir the porridge. When you are really, truly sure that it has settled down, you can put a lid on, just a bit askew because it's less likely to boil over if the steam can escape. Cook it over low heat, so it's just bubbling lightly, for about 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. It's done when the oats are mostly tender, and most of the liquid has absorbed into the porridge. Throw in the cranberries and take the pot away from the heat. Plop the lid on tightly and let it sit, off the heat, for 5 minutes. This gives the cranberries time to plump, and somehow counteracts the tendency of the porridge to stick to the bottom of the pot, so it's much easier to scoop the porridge out, and easier to clean the pot after breakfast. Serve the porridge up into a bowl and top it with the coconut, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds. Pour on cream or milk if you prefer it that way. Do that thing with the butter if you are feeling buttery.

This makes one generous serving, or 2 dainty servings. To make porridge for more people, just scale it up.

Wherever you are, try to find a taste of home. If you are home, take the time to cook real things for yourself. Nothing much good comes out of a small paper package. The real porridge will always be worth the wait.

when I cook just for myself...

I like to cook varied and nutritious meals, and don't like to be in a rut. I feel fortunate that my family eats all kinds of food. There are a few exceptions to this rule of course - foods that I love, but nobody else will eat.

Eggplant and tofu are on the list of "exceptions." I think both of these foods are delicious, and get a bad rap from people who may not even have tasted them before pronouncing them inedible. Luckily, one of my favourite dishes makes use of both tofu and eggplant, and it's super easy to fix. So while my husband and son were both out on Saturday night, I prepared this delicious meal:

Sauteed Eggplant and Tofu with Sweet Chili Sauce

1 pound medium firm tofu - cut into small cubes
1 Japanese eggplant - cut into 1/4 inch slices, then halve the slices to make half-moons
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
2 cloves fresh garlic, also minced
vegetable oil
soy sauce
sweet chili sauce

In a non-stick frying pan, saute the tofu with a bit of oil, until it is golden brown and crisp on the outside. Set it aside. Saute the garlic and ginger briefly, in the pan that you used for the tofu, then add the eggplant slices. Cook until the eggplant softens. You may add a few sprinkles of water to make a bit of steam to help the cooking. When the eggplant is cooked (about 5 minutes), add the tofu. Season with a couple of splashes of soy sauce and enough sweet chili sauce to coat everything lightly.

Serve with brown rice, because not everybody prefers brown rice, but maybe you do!

You know the nice thing about cooking something that nobody else wants to eat? You get the leftovers all to yourself!

Remember to cook the things that you enjoy. Cooking for yourself is a good thing.

warm pork salad with apples, cranberries, and apricots

I slow-roasted a pork shoulder the other night. It was very good. There was lots of meat left over, and also potatoes, brussels sprouts, and stewed apples. When almost all of the pork was consumed,  and the other fixings were long gone, I took the last bits of meat, and made a yummy meal-size salad for myself for supper.

Warm Pork Salad with Apples, Cranberries and Apricots

3/4 cup of leftover roasted pork, shredded
1 small apple, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
small handful of dried cranberries
4 dried apricots, cut into strips
knob of butter
drizzle of maple syrup
squeeze of lemon juice
baby kale
baby romaine
snap peas
cucumber
balsamic vinegar/olive oil/salt & pepper

Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan and saute the apple slices until they are soft and golden. Stir in the dried apricots and cranberries and the pork. Mix them all together over a medium burner, until they are all warm. Drizzle just a bit of maple syrup over the mixture and mix in. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over it all, and remove it from the heat. 

Put your lettuce and kale and peas and cucumber into a bowl. Top them with the meat and fruit mixture. Dress lightly with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil that you have shaken up in a small container. You can set the dressing proportions. I like 3 parts oil, one part vinegar.

Eat it right away. Think about how sometimes the last bit of something (like a pork roast) is truly the best bit, especially when you mix it up into a concoction like this.

lunch, supper, and breakfast (two from the internet, one from my head)

My Great Aunt Grace was a wonderful cook. She made tasty home-cooked meals that were always delightful. I especially remember a warm potato salad that she made, with red potatoes, green beans, slices of ham, and a vinaigrette dressing. It was lovely. Whenever I asked my Aunt Grace for the recipe she would say, "Oh now, I don't have a recipe for that. I made it out of my head." and I would always laugh, because I pictured Aunt Grace using her head as a soup pot, popping open the lid, salting and stirring. It was actually a pretty gruesome picture, but there's no accounting for what makes people laugh.

Like Aunt Grace, I do a lot of cooking "out of my head," but also some from recipes. I like cookbooks, but I also like the internet, which has a never-ending variety of ways to do things. Often I cook with my iPad propped up on the kitchen counter.

Today I have big bowl photos of recent meals cooked from my head and from the internet. I'll give you the links to the recipes, and the ingredient list from my head.

1. Lunch (from my head)
Pommy-Nutty-Feta Salad

This yummy salad was my lunch yesterday. It featured:
spring mix
cucumber
pomegranate
red pepper
walnuts
feta cheese
balsamic and olive oil dressing (not shown, as I dressed the salad after I photographed it, so you could enjoy the beautiful white feta without balsamic spots). I have some Persian style feta which is creamy soft and not as salty as other types. If you get a chance, try some of that. It's good.

2. Supper (from the internet)
Tomato Soup - Jamie Oliver's Version

Here's the link. I love this one because it uses several different vegetables which gives it depth of flavour, and because it's easy and very satisfying. I am a pushover for most tomato soups, and I was really craving some last night. I'm glad I found this version, and I've bookmarked the recipe so I can make it again (and again, and again).

3. Breakfast (from the internet)
Vanilla Scones - Canadian Living Recipes

You'll notice right away when you use this link, that the recipe is for raisin scones. I adapted it to make vanilla scones. I skipped the raisins, and added 2 tsp of vanilla extract to the eggs and milk before combining with the dry ingredients. Instead of rolling and cutting the scones with a cutter, I patted the dough into 2 rounds and cut each into 6 wedges. When the scones had baked and cooled, I glazed them with a mixture of:
icing sugar
vanilla
cream (you could use milk, but I had some cream on hand)

I served some to Andy and Alex, then took some to church for our cafe worship this morning. They were a hit. By the way, I doubled the recipe so I wouldn't have to take all of the scones away after breakfast. That would be mean!

Whether you cook from a book, or from the internet, or from your head, cook something good today.

red green and blue salad

This week in the big bowl: an utterly delicious salad that you can fix up in no time. I could eat this salad every day for a couple of weeks, I think. It's that delicious.

Red Green and Blue Salad

red and green salad greens - this time I used a spring mix with some red and some green leaves
chopped cucumber
snap peas
pea shoots
fresh strawberries - sliced
blue cheese
your favourite dressing - a nice balsamic vinaigrette, or the glory bowl dressing works fine

Assemble the ingredients into single servings or a family-sized salad to share. If someone doesn't like blue cheese, you can serve it on the side. But then, for that person, it will not be red green and blue salad. It will just be red and green. So maybe that person could add some blueberries, or think about liking blue cheese after all.

I realised after I made, photographed, and devoured this salad, that I forgot to add walnuts. They are not red, green or blue, but they are allowed in the salad because they go perfectly with the blue cheese. Oh well, next time.

This is a highly adaptable salad recipe. Whatever you take out or add in, you may adjust the colour description in order to title your salad appropriately.

Enjoy hearty salads with exciting textures and flavours all through the year. The big bowl says this is good, and so it is.

Bonus: Here's the recipe for Glory Bowl, posted online with permission by Canadian Living. See my post below for my own riff on this delicious recipe. The dressing recipe makes a large amount. You can easily halve the proportions to make a manageable size batch. It's good on all of your salads.

the wonderbreads and the granolas

When I was in high school, I dreaded physical education. I dreaded it for many reasons, but mostly because I dislike participating in sports. It is just the opposite of fun for me. Our PE teachers were mostly athletes who assumed that everyone liked sports. Physical education consisted of one week of square dancing plus 39 weeks of assorted miserable awful sports. Most of these were team sports, because what other kinds of sports are there that you can do with 30 fifteen year old girls in an aging gymnasium and a soggy uneven playing field?

To make matters worse, we were allowed to pick our own teams so long as we did so quickly. All of the strong, athletic girls would go to one side of the gym, and the rest of us smart, fat, uncoordinated, artistic, creative, misfit, lovely, kind, interesting girls would go to the other side. Sometimes our teachers let us make up team names, other times they'd just call us "Jody's Team," after the sportiest of the sporty girls, and "The Other Team." I exaggerate here. I suspect they named the team after one of us "other" girls, but I can't remember. I have blocked that out. I do remember that I always called the teams (in my own mind) "The Wonderbreads" and "The Granolas." I was a granola.

Now we are all 52 and 53 years old, and we are all Granolas. Age has a way of doing that. What seemed like insurmountable differences to a 15 year old, exist no longer. Some of us have arthritis. Some of us are very fit. Some of us like sports. Some of us like art. Some of us like both. It really doesn't matter. In high school Phys Ed, it really mattered. The memories stick with me. One example: the vision of a Wonderbread Girl wearing blue shorts and a white t-shirt running hell bent for leather towards me, propelling a soccer ball before her, at a terrifying speed. It was all I could do to jump out of the way and let her score a goal on the poor girl who got elected goal-keeper for our team. At the time I interpreted her advance as a malevolent gesture. Now I think she was just playing soccer. It was a language that I did not understand.

This big bowl recipe is for all of the women who were girls with me in my grade 10 Phys Ed class. Granolas and Wonderbreads unite. Together we are members of one big humanity of people who get up in the morning, eat breakfast, care for families and friends, go to work, watch or play sports - or not. It doesn't matter.

Peanut butter and Almond Granola

5 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking, not steel cut)
1 cup whole, unblanched almonds
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup dried cranberries

Heat your oven to 350. Melt the peanut butter and honey in a saucepan until they are liquidy. Mix them together with the oats and almonds in a big bowl.

Spread the granola on a large cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, turning the granola over and moving the stuff in the centre out to the edges every 5 minutes or so, until all of the granola is toasty golden, but not dark brown. Your nose will tell you when it is done.

Add the cranberries to the still warm granola and stir them to distribute them thoroughly. Let the granola cool. Store it in an airtight container.

Enjoy this granola with yogurt and fruit. Enjoy your sports, your arts, your friends and loved ones. We are all Granolas. We are all Wonderbreads.

salad roll in my big bowl

I have been craving salad rolls recently, so much so that I have made them twice in the past week. I think it may be because I saw them being made on a cooking show on television. I have also been remembering some particularly delicious ones that my sister Barb made for us when we visited her in June. It's funny how a particular taste can haunt and beckon you. Salad rolls are like that for me, right now.

Salad Roll

1 bundle of thin rice vermicelli (I found some brown rice vermicelli, but any kind will do)
4 rice paper noodle rounds
lettuce - choose a kind with soft, medium-sized, curly leaves
pea shoots or bean sprouts (I like pea shoots for more flavor)
protein (I used some crab meat, but you could use shrimp, chicken, tofu - it should be cooked, and cut into small pieces)

Inside Sauce
1/2 tsp. fish sauce
1/2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
pinch of sugar to taste

Dipping Sauce
1 Tbs. hoisin sauce
1 Tbs. natural peanut butter
2 tsp. hot water

Put the kettle on to boil with a few cups of water. Put the dry vermicelli noodles in a big bowl.

While the water heats in the kettle, prepare the fillings for the rolls. Make sure everything is clean and cut up, ready to go. I used lettuce, vermicelli, pea shoots and crab. You could add in or substitute some other good vegetables like carrots, cucumber, bell pepper. Thin julienned strips work best. If you have a mandolin cutter it's a breeze, but you could also chop them by hand.

Then prepare the 2 sauces. The one that goes inside the salad roll is made of fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice and bit of sugar to balance the saltiness and sourness. You won't need much of it. Mix it together in a small cup. Set it aside and mix the hoisin, peanut butter and hot water in another cup. That's your dipping sauce.

By now the water in the kettle should be hot. It doesn't need to be boiling. Pour it over the vermicelli noodles in the big bowl, and push the vermicelli under the water. Let it sit for a minute or two. Test a noodle to make sure it's firm but biteable, then drain off the water.

Now it's time to build the salad rolls. Put one rice paper noodle round on a cutting board. Dip your fingers in a bowl of warm water and wet the noodle round all over. Flip the round and wet the other side. Wait for about 30 seconds, and the noodle round will be soft. Put  lettuce leaf (or part of a leaf) over the middle of the noodle round. Arrange the vermicelli, veggies, and protein on top of the lettuce leaf in a horizontal sausage shape, leaving a margin of about and inch on either side of you pile of fillings, and lots of space for rolling above and below it. Sprinkle a few drops of the "inside sauce" (the one with fish sauce and soy) onto the noodles/veg/protein pile. Flip the sides of the noodle round over the fillings then roll up the round from the bottom to the top, catching all of the fillings inside. Play around with it. You will start out making messy rolls, but they will get tighter. If you make a mess or poke a hole in your rice paper noodle, don't despair. You can wet another noodle round, and wrap the messy one inside another layer of rice paper noodle. It will look much better and still be yummy.

Once you make your rolls, let them sit for a few minutes before serving them. They will firm up a bit.

Serve the salad rolls with the hoisin/peanut butter sauce for dipping.

I also made a little Asian-style slaw. I used bagged slaw mix from the veggie store, and whipped up a little dressing with vegetable oil, a dash of sesame oil, a bit of soy sauce and some fresh lime juice. It was a nice accompaniment.

These rolls can be stored tightly wrapped in the fridge for later, but they really are best freshly made and gobbled up right away.

I hope that you have the opportunity to cook and eat something you crave this week!

tuna for breakfast

Some people think that there are rules about which foods are suitable for breakfast. I disagree. I have eaten everything for breakfast: pizza, birthday cake, spaghetti with meat sauce and a glass of red wine (that only once, well - maybe twice). My point is, if you are a breakfast-eater, anything is okay for breakfast. If you are not a breakfast-eater, I understand that any food first thing in the morning is noxious, and that lunch and supper foods first thing in the morning are unthinkable. For everyone except the non-breakfast-eaters, please consider the delights of something non-traditional.

I give you the breakfast tuna melt, surely one of the most lovely breakfast concoctions around:

On Wednesday, I made tuna salad to take to work for my lunch break. I made a medium-sized batch, so that I could leave some in the fridge for Andy and Alex. They had some, but not all. On Thursday morning I decided to make the leftover tuna salad into my breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

Tuna Salad
1 or 2 cans of tuna, drained - One can makes 1.5 to 2 sandwiches, depending on how big. Two cans makes 3 or 4 sandwiches - or 5 if they are small sandwiches, but who wants a small sandwich?
chopped onion - You can use red onion or green onion or sweet onion.
chopped celery
mayonnaise - Use the real thing, not low-fat or "salad type dressing" if you want me to eat any of that tuna salad.
chopped pickles - Use sweet or dill pickles, or some green relish if you are in a hurry.
salt and pepper to taste

You can decide the proportions of the vegetables and mayonnaise depending on your preference. If you like, you may add other veggies, for a fresher, crunchier tuna mixture.

So that's the tuna for your sandwich or for on top of a green salad. You can put it in a wrap if you like, with some lettuce and cucumbers. I like to take it to work in a small container. When it's lunchtime I spread it on Ryvita crackers. It's crispy and creamy and good.

If you want to make a tuna melt, here's how:

Tuna Melt
1 slice of bread, or half a bun or bagel, or half of an English muffin
enough tuna salad to cover the bread all the way to the edges and heap up about 1/4 inch high (at least!)
grated cheese - Cheddar is classic, but mozzarella will work, or you could get creative with parmesan or goat cheese or whatever you like best.

Spread the tuna on the bread. Top it with the grated cheese. Put it into a 375 degree oven until the tuna is warm, the bread starts to crisp on the bottom and the cheese melts. Eat it carefully. It has an even higher mouth-burn potential than pizza because of the warm, creamy tuna mixture.

When I ran a home daycare, I served tuna melts every Thursday. That was the day I took all of the kids to music lessons in the morning. I would prepare all of the tuna melts and put them on a cookie sheet, ready to pop into the oven as soon as we got home. I remember the kids would ask me, "Is it tuna today?" as soon as their lessons were finished. I would always answer, "Of course." Then, they would ask if I had made sure to prepare each of their tuna melts according to their preferences. One child wanted no onions, no pickles, no celery, just tuna and mayo and bread and cheese. Another wanted no cheese. Another wanted no tuna! Yikes! That was a tuna-free tuna melt, with just melted cheese on a bun. Of course I always remembered what they wanted! They were my little fishies, and if I fed them well after they finished singing, they would have happy tummies and enjoy a restful afternoon.

I hope that you will try tuna for breakfast soon. If you like it, let me know, and tell me what kind of cheese you put on your tuna melt! Enjoy something out-of-the-ordinary, even if it's a familiar food, at an unfamiliar time of day. Everything is an adventure in the big bowl!

the big bowl is thinking about sunshine

Yesterday I was at the grocery buying ingredients for salad rolls (which I forgot to photograph in the bowl - du-oh!). I saw pretty primulas outside the entry door the the store. I couldn't resist.

I love to have flowers in the kitchen anytime. These primulas make me think of springtime just around the corner. The bowl is smiling beside them. Can you see it?

I think that deliciousness is as much a visual thing as it is about flavour and aroma. Real flowers, a nice placemat or cloth napkin, or a beautiful big bowl... all of these things make anything that you cook more appealing.

Take time this week to find something beautiful to grace your your kitchen, then cook something delicious to enjoy beside it!

two remarkable women painting bowls

Here is where the big bowl was created. That's Fiona painting it for me, while I am painting the smaller porridge bowl for her.

I think food tastes really good when somebody special makes a special bowl for you.

big bowl supports home made workday lunches

After a week's vacation at home, I headed back to work. The big bowl sat on the counter, and encouraged me to pack a bowl-worthy lunch. I told the bowl it would not be coming to work with me, but I thanked it for the inspiration.

Here's the recipe for a yummy lunch salad that helped me feel like going back to work was A-OK! The big bowl is giving the plastic container a hug before it gets its lid on. The lunch bag is a Christmas present from my friend Linda. Isn't it beautiful?

Greens and Nuts and Cheese Salad with Vinaigrette

spring mix - or your favourite greens of any kind
sliced cucumber
snap peas, halved
pomegranate bits (what do you call those bits?)
red grapes, halved
goat cheese
chopped toasted almonds
3 parts olive oil
1 part balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Put all of the veggies and fruits into a bowl. Put the oil, vinegar and seasonings into a small container with a tight lid. Pack them up and take them to work. When you are ready to eat, shake the dressing up to mix it, then pour it on and toss the salad. You can vary the amount of your ingredients to make a meal-size salad like mine, or a side salad to go along with another dish.

YUH-UM!

May you start the New Year with a spring (mix) in your step and a nourishing and delicious home-make lunch for break time at your work. You will save money, eat healthy food, and make the big bowl in your life so proud.

the glory/glorious bowl

The first time I tasted "Glorious Bowl" was at the Pedal and Tap Restaurant in Kimberley, BC. We were in Kimberley to visit Fiona while she worked for the summer at Kimberley Summer Theatre. We sat outside on the patio, overlooking the Platzl. (I love to say Platzl.) Fiona and I shared this delicious bowl, and loved it. The waiter told us that the recipe was from the Whitewater Cookbook. So of course I bought myself a copy of the Whitewater Cookbook at the Lotus Bookstore in Cranbrook. If I loved the Glorious Bowl at Pedal and Tap, I adore the Whitewater Cookbook.

In the cookbook, it's call "Glory Bowl." The Restaurant has made a few changes from the original recipe, but this is the kind of recipe you like to tinker with: It starts out lovely and simply delicious, and invites you to find what other veggies or nuts/seeds or base grain/legume might be good. In the picture, I have made it pretty much exactly as the cookbook specifies.

Except that I used quinoa instead of brown rice. This yummy bowl has quinoa and fresh greens, shredded beet and carrot, crispy sauteed tofu, chopped roasted almonds and a gorgeous salad dressing that is flavoured with nutritional yeast and tahini.

Whoa, I just read that description, and decided I could use it as a test to discern who is a fellow whole food enthusiast, and who thinks that I am a crazy person who eats twigs and leaves.

Doesn't it look great in my big bowl though? This was, I think, about the second-to-last time that I used my bowl to share a meal with Fiona before she returned to university after winter break. Keeping this blog up will help me to share my cooking with Fiona while she is at school. If she can't taste it, at least she can see it and enjoy it vicariously. I will think of her whenever I enjoy the beautiful handcrafted bowl that she made for me. There's also a secret message that she wrote for me, on the outside bottom of the bowl, so when I wash it after the meal, I will think of her some more.

Glory or glorious, I am certain that this bowl of twigs and sticks is one of my favourite meals ever. Enjoy something nourishing today, with someone who nourishes you, even if that person is not with you at the moment.

an amazing pumpkin muffin

I was poking through the sometimes surprising space that is our refrigerator, and remembered that we had leftover canned pumpkin from Christmas supper. Fiona made an absolutely delectable pumpkin pie for that meal. Every time I buy a can of pumpkin, I forget how little you need to produce one pie. That filling has a lot of egg, sugar and milk included with the pumpkin. The trick is to remember to use the leftover pumpkin!

The leftover pumpkin looked and smelled still good, so I used the Whitewater Cooks with Friends book to make a dozen super gorgeous muffins. They are called Gail's Pumpkin Walnut Chocolate Chip Muffins, and they are very very good. I added some dried cranberries to make them even yummier. I was out of toasted pumpkin seeds, so I missed using these. Usually I press a handful into the top of each muffin before I bake them.

I won't copy published recipes into this blog. There are 3 Whitewater Cookbooks. All are very good, and easy to find.

The recipe is so easy and good that I have made it several times, so making it again was nothing new. I guess I could say that the new thing this time was incorporating the cranberries. That was a good choice. In fact, you might leave out the chocolate chips and use only cranberries, if you have someone at home who does not like chocolate.

I guess the only question is, "Who would eat a muffin out of a bowl?" But look at how the colour of the muffin coordinates with the colour of the polka-dots that Fiona painted. This is the perfect serving vessel for one very good muffin. These muffins are moist, and keep well. I just heated a day-old muffin for breakfast. It was good.

Have a happy, hearty, nutritious home-baked breakfast soon!

start at the very beginning

For my birthday, my daughter took me out for lunch and pottery painting. This happened about 3 weeks after my actual birthday, because she was away at university when my birthday took place. At the time, she sent me a handmade card with a promise of lunch. The pottery painting was a bonus.

We decided to paint bowls for one another, so that when she returned to university, we could eat from the special bowls, and feel close together, even when we were apart. I made her a small bowl for oatmeal, something that she enjoys most mornings in her residence room. She made me a big bowl for salads. We both love big salads. My daughter does not get to make these often in her res room, but we make them all the time at home.

I love my bowl. It's just the right size for large, main course salad. It's delightfully oversize for any other use. I am enjoying using it for lots of different foods.

I decided to start a new blog, based on the yummy foods that I put into my beautiful bowl. It's a way of sharing my enjoyment of cooking and eating, and a way to connect my daughter with our kitchen, even when she is far, far away.

So here is my first post, with a bowl full of goodness.

Ground Beef and Udon Noodle Stir Fry

I cooked this for my son last night. My husband was at work, and my daughter was out for supper with a friend. Alex and I just wanted to enjoy a quick, hearty supper and a beer while we watched The Big Bang Theory on TV. Here's how I made it:

1 lb lean ground beef
1 onion - chopped chunky
1 bunch broccoli - chopped
1 carrot - peeled and chopped
1 chayote squash - peeled and sliced
1 large clove garlic - sliced
2 packets fresh udon noodles
sesame oil
soy sauce
siracha

In a jumbo skillet, I sauteed the beef until it was starting to crisp a bit, then I set it aside, and sauteed the veggies. At the same time, I heated a big pot of water and cooked the noodles (they take about 5 minutes). When the veggies were nearly ready, I added the cooked meat, and seasoned with the 3 s-ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, siracha. I drained the steaming hot noodles and stirred them in. It was really good!

The new thing about this recipe was the chayote squash. I have never cooked with it before, but it looked so fresh and green at the produce store, and it has been featured on the TV show, Chopped a few times recently, so I wanted to try it. It was fresh and light and crispy - kind of like broccoli stems but a bit less dense.

It was so yummy I probably could have filled the bowl all the way up and eaten it all myself, but then what would Alex have eaten for supper?

Happy winter supper from the big bowl blog.