Camp Food!

We're getting ready to go camping this weekend for our traditional Labour Day in Algonquin Park. We were quite worried about the cold weather, but this week has been so warm (although quite rainy) so we're slightly more optimistic. I am purchasing a heater for our tent tomorrow though. I don't want to push it! It's going to be just the two of us, which I'm really looking forward to. We can do our own thing and spend some 'away' time. As much as I love being in this house, it sometimes seems like it is overtaking our lives. Most of it is stuff we want to do, but it's all we think about! We need to get away, for a couple of days at least.

I have the menu all planned out. We are going to be dining like kings! We arrive Saturday and probably will stick to a light lunch and have homemade burgers for dinner. I'm making potato salad, and a carrot and peanut salad that sounds gross but I am in love with! B.F. is not too crazy about it, nor were his not-very-food-adventerous friends I tried to serve it to last year, but I think it is simply divine and I make it just for me! :). I'm doing quite a bit of baking as well, so we don't get stuck buying the $6 bag of Chips Ahoy at the camping supply store at 10:00 at night.

So here's the menu:

SATURDAY
Lunch
No definite plans. Sausages, maybe?

Dinner
Hamburgers over an open fire
Potato salad w. bacon and celery
Carrot and Peanut salad

Snack
Homemade chocolate chunk banana bread
Nachos and cheese, wrapped in foil and placed near fire to heat through

SUNDAY
Breakfast
Bacon, eggs, hash browns, OJ

Lunch
? Chicken and veggie kebobs
Leftover salads

Dinner
Steak grilled over an open fire
Veggie packs
Baked potato

Dessert
Gooey banana boats (mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and caramel sauce spread over banana and wrapped with peel, then placed by the fire to melt.)

Snack
Homemade chewy granola bars w. coconut, chocolate and raisins

MONDAY

Breakfast
French toast
then
Get the hell outta Dodge, and back to civilization!

I did quite a few of the meals lat year, and found it to be excellently mobile. I love camping probably most for the food! When else do you get to eat like a pig and not feel guilty? Plenty of food and drink, all worked off from miles of hiking, canoeing and swimming. I can't wait!

No recipe with this post, but I'll see if I can pull something together in my review! For now, my menu will have to do.

Weekend Food

I've been off work, or rather "working from home" this last week, and had a chance to get a lot of stuff done that I've been putting off. Firstly, it was a week of getting together with friends, some of whom I haven't seen in -I'm ashamed to say- 8 months or so. It's great to be close by, and I always vow to try and slow my shit down and make more time for just getting together and having fun.

Not a lot of cooking, again. I guess I was just too busy! Pretty ironic, with all that time! I did manage to take advantage of my hardy basil stock, and made some fresh pesto, which B.F. and I devoured with some fresh (purchased) spaghetti noodles and a green salad with lots of fresh veggies. Pork chops and rice and mixed vegetables the next night. Sometimes I can't get enough of my George Foreman. It really is the simplest and fastest way to grill, and the weather's been so lousy lately that the BBQ hasn't been fired up in quite some time. This will be a priority for next week. Finally did some grocery shopping and cooked a fabulous Chinese dinner on Friday. Fried rice with egg, peas and carrot and a beef & broccoli/ mixed vegetable stir-fry. Fantastic! And who can tell it from take out?


Here's the beef & broccoli stir-fry recipe. I wrote it for an article I wrote for a local Asian magazine.


This recipe is simple, and tastes better than take-out! Try it and you’ll be convinced how easy it is to make popular restaurant items in your own kitchen.

Freeze the beef for 15 minutes or so to make it easier to cut.

You can substitute some or all of the broccoli with the same quantity of mixed vegetables. Try baby corn, onions, carrots, mushrooms, pea pods, bean sprouts, etc. The options are endless, and you get a nutritious, full-flavoured, hearty meal in no time.

Serve with rice or noodles for a natural, complementary side dish.

Chinese Beef and Broccoli

1 lb beef tenderloin or thinly sliced sirloin
1 Tbsp mushroom or other heavy soy sauce
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp shaoxing wine (rice wine)
2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 ½ lb broccoli (or 1 ½ lb mixed vegetables)
3 Tbsp peanut oil

SEASONINGS
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely minced
2 Tbsp fermented black beans, drained (optional)

SAUCE
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp shaoxing wine (rice wine)
1 Tbsp thin soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp dark sesame oil
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Cut beef in 1/4" thick slices, then cut each slice crosswise into 2" pieces. Combine mushroom soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil in bowl, then mix the beef into it, marinating for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Cut broccoli into spears, carrots into 1/4" thick rounds, mushrooms into quarters, onions into thin wedges. Mix vegetables together in a bowl or zip-lock bag and refrigerate until needed.

Place wok over high heat. Once very hot, add 2 Tbsp of the peanut oil and swirl around until it starts to give off some smoke, then add the beef. Stir-fry beef until no longer pink; slide onto a platter.

Return the wok to high heat and add remaining 1 Tbsp peanut oil, garlic, ginger, and fermented black beans, if using.

Stir-fry for about 5 seconds, then add all the vegetables at once, stir-frying until crisp-tender, about 5-7 minutes. Don’t overcook or vegetables will be too soft. If needed, add a bit of rice wine to help steam the vegetables.

In the meantime, combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and add it to the wok, along with the beef. Toss until everything is glazed with the sauce. Place all on a heated platter.

Yield: 2-4 servings

Welcome

This weekend my boyfriend and I hosted a 'family' housewarming party. We moved into our house about two months ago and have been so busy unpacking and renovating and commuting (we moved an hour west of Toronto and continue to work there) that I haven't had a lot of time to cook or bake or even read the cooking magazines I subscribe to. It's sort of ironic, really. My old kitchen in the small one-bedroom bungalow my boyfriend and I shared in the city always had plenty of action. I had the tiniest 1950's gas stove & oven that barely fit the smallest sized cookie sheet I owned. I had about one foot of prep space, two if I moved my canisters and coffee maker off the counter. The fridge was apartment sized and condiments and tupperware full of goodies were constantly spilling out whenever the door was opened. A year or so before we had gotten rid of the kitchen table and chairs to make room for an oversized freezer (a Catch-22, to be sure. It allowed me to store all my baking supplies and frozen goods, and also doubled fantastically as additional prep space. However, we were designated to dinners on the coffee table in the living room - a huge pet peeve of mine).

So now I have all this room in our new kitchen and I've barely managed to plug in the microwave to pop some popcorn. The housewarming party was our first official welcome and showing to family members as we moved (back for me after 5 years) to the area I grew up in and where the majority of my family and friends still reside. I wanted this to be memorable for sure. I was never actually able to have my family over in Toronto because there wasn't a whole lot of room to entertain, so it was also my first time hosting a dinner to them, period. To most, I was still the dependant only child who had moved away on her own to go to college and who had her mom cook her meals on the weekends to last throughout the week. Yes, I'm embarrased to admit it, but this was often the case. When I ran out of that food, I started buying frozen meals at the grocery store. I shopped at Goodwill a lot and soon had a small collection of cookbooks that I pored through religiously. Eventually I started experimenting and very soon I was hooked! But I'm off track again.

I borrowed an ugly brown table from my parents and had the boy-toy set it on the grass by the garden. I threw a yellow tablecloth over it, arranged a bouquet of gladioli I had just bought off the side of the road (2 for $1!) in an oversized glass hurricane vase and set out small green glass candle holders. We arranged white iron chairs around and I must say, it looked really quite nice (Martha would've been proud;).

But I'm missing the most important part: The Food.

I had bought a black forest ham that I was readying to stud with cloves and glaze with a honey-dijon sauce. Then at the last minute, my cousin's family cancelled. 5 people eliminated instantly. Since my mother was already cooking the pork roast, I reluctantantly nixed the ham idea for fear of having WAY too much over an already overstocked menu. I proceeded with my other selections: thinly-sliced scalloped potatoes with a cheddar sauce and broiled in the oven; rice boiled in orange juice and mixed with pea pods and dried cranberries; and a mozzarella, parmesan & basil pizza with tomato sauce--divine. I had already made a parmesan and salami-prosciutto pasta salad with cherry tomatoes and black olives the night before, and as it was my boyfriend's birthday two days prior, a buttermilk bithday cake with Nigella's all-purpose chocolate frosting, and pecan-studded brownies. Yum. We had bought a box of a nice Cabarnet Sauvignon (10 bottles for $60; not bad), so I didn't feel too guilty whipping up a batch of sassy sangria. The recipe I have only requires it to sit for three hours, so that I prepared the day of. It was my first time making sangria; I am a devout lover of the pre-bottled version. Perhaps I had a couple of glasses of wine because I forgot about adding the soda when serving. It was way too strong (obviously!) so I quickly put it back in the fridge, where it sat until it dawned on me the day after that I had forgotten to add the soda. Mishaps are what I am all about!

So anyway, the party went perfectly and everyone was impressed with my hosting and cooking skills! As anticipated, there was way too much food and drink but it's better to be safe than sorry, in my book. Luckily, the day after, my cousin called to say they wanted to come see the new place and so we managed to eat up most of the leftovers. I didn't even have to cook a thing!

All-Purpose Chocolate Frosting
5 oz dark chocolate
3 oz unsalted butter
2 large eggs, beaten
20 oz (2.5 cups) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp dark rum or brandy

Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium pan. Beat in eggs, then sugar. Add vanilla and rum; leave to cool slightly before using.
Qty: Enough to cover a 20 cm cake and then some.

Source: Slightly varied from Nigella Lawson, How to be a Domestic Goddess