Farmers and Their Markets

I usually, make that often, share my Saturday market scores - just to entice you to visit your local farmers markets.  In fact, if you can, drive out to meet a farmer, it will open your eyes to a whole new way of looking at food.  We're lucky here in Nova Scotia, we even have an official Open Farm Day that is province wide.  Not only can you check out the farms, you can share in some fun - great food and activities...  I digress...caught up in the moment.  Check out the photo and see if you can guess what this leafy green is.

A Lovely Broken Spaghetti Risotto for Presto Pasta Nights

Some recipes just fly off the page... or screen... and stay in your head for days before putting it together.   Some need to be recreated exactly as seen.  Others, like this one are great as a stand alone (the original recipe is on Allrecipes.com), but equally wonderful all dressed up.

Traditional risottos are made with Arborio rice, perfect for absorbing flavorful liquids, but thin spaghetti broken into 1 inch pieces, makes a wonderful base....kind of reminds me of  ... cue music...Rice O Roni...that San Francisco treat.

My addition of fresh purple kale, Barilla whole wheat pasta,  and a couple of pinches of Zaatar (mine from Epices de Cru) makes it a wonderfully heathy and flavorful option.

Broken Spaghetti Risotto with Shrimp &Kale

Since I'm hosting  Presto Pasta Night this week, I thought I'd spark your pasta creativity... What's your favorite additions to some basic pasta?  Or do you like to find a new recipe, and stick to it?  Or... do you have a wonderful favorite you make over and over?    Whatever your choice, I hope you share it with us this week.  Just write about it, mention Presto Pasta Nights and send me an email - ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com.  

If you'd like to host a PPN Roundup. Just drop me a line to pick a date. July 27 which is next week! as well as August 24 and beyond are available.  It's never to early to sign up and join the fun! 

Chicken & Kale Pasta - Inspired by Many

Where do I start?   So many places inspired this dish...

The Latest Bon Appetit Stars in a Busy Week

It's been a wonderful, insanely busy couple of weeks with little time for writing here. I've been developing a fantastic kids cooking program called Kidz Magic Cupboard for Feed Nova Scotia and I promise to write all about it soon. That said, I'm rushing out in a few minutes - it's week one of the pilot project and so far it's terrific.

But I did have time to make this awesome dinner ... just no time yet to write about it. So I thought I'd just link to the originals and share my spin at another time...

Lamb & Shrimp Kebabs

(I did them in a skillet and left the skewers for another time on the BBQ)

Carrot Cilantro & Chili Slaw

Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw

Yesterday was Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and many of us did our small part to make a difference. What nice thing did you do.... help a senior, babysit to give a frazzled mom some space, mow a neighbor's lawn? I'm happy to be a volunteer with Feed Nova Scotia.

New Kid on the Recipe Finding Block

I've mentioned before that I have a new iPad and, naturally have been finding new and cool foodie apps. I still promise to share my take on them but the reason for this post is to share a great new find of mine that looks like an app, works like an app but in fact, is not an app at all.

Foodily.com is a web site that acts like an app and I definitely like to play with it when I'm out or sitting on my couch away from my laptop (that usually sits plugged into a large monitor and external mouse & keyboard set up). It's a recipe search tool on steroids! The magic of it... it searches for recipes on websites and foodblogs so the sky's the limit. Like my epi and How to Cook Everything and Jamie Oliver's (just for iPhones), and Wholefoods... you can find recipes by doing a simple search. The coolest part is that you don't need fancy phones or iPads to get awesome results. Once you've chosen a recipe you can "like it" or "save it". You really should check it out.

Here's last night's story... I bought a bunch of dark magenta kale at the farmers market from Ted Hutten a couple of weeks ago and still hadn't gotten around to using it... good thing it's such a hardy plant. I always find kale tough and rubbery, but I do appreciate how good it is for me.
I typed the word "kale" in the main search...
...and got 1007 choices from the likes of Epicurious, NY Times, Simply Recipes, Elana's Pantry , Cook Sister (one of my favorite blogs that I forget to check out specific recipes when I'm hunting) and a thousand more including the one I went with - Whole Foods' Oven Roasted Kale .
Foodily gives a quick look at the ingredients and first steps with a link to the actual recipe on the actual site it originates from, so you can decide whether or not it's what you're looking for.
I served the crispy, melt in your mouth kale (it really was heavenly) with an adaptation of an adaptation...

Pear Chutney Chicken Breasts

I took a perfectly lovely recipe from Norene's Healthy Kitchen and used my homemade Pear Chutney. This time around, there wasn't enough chutney so I added some homemade Pear & Blackberry Jam (basically my Blueberry Jam recipe replacing the same volume of blueberries for pears & blackberries). As for the curry powder, I used Epices de Cru Aleppo Seven Spice Blend.

As for tonight's dinner... the mascarpone cheese (before it expires) and pasta (111 options and I'm going with a variation of Jamie Oliver's Tagliatelle with Spinach ) for Presto Pasta Night #200! Don't forget that Helen of Fuss Free Flavours is hosting the big event. Send your entries to helen (at) best-shaw (dot) com and cc ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com

Chicken, Kale & Sweet Potatoes - a Great Combo

My story really begins a few weeks ago. I saw a recipe...somewhere....to do something very interesting with kale. So I checked out the few grocery stores in my neighborhood...nothing. Then I checked again a week later...still nothing. Finally, I went to the Saturday Farmers Market, where I should have gone in the first place. I bought a beautiful bunch of kale, but naturally, I didn't remember the recipe. Was is soup? Was is some stir fry? Who knows and I'm sure that one day, when I'm looking for something totally different, I'll find it, and, yet again, I won't be able to find any kale...sigh. I do hate when that happens.

Then today, Heidi of 101 Cookbooks had a very tasty looking Kale Stir Fry (my version left out the chili pepper flakes) and I thought it would work perfectly with the sweet potatoes sitting on my shelf, whining for the last week or so to be cooked along with some chicken breasts I've had for quite some time in the freezer. I saw a fantastic recipe in Bonnie Stern's latest book - Friday Night Dinners (I wrote about it here) and did a little creative version of of my own...BBQ Chicken with Lemon Chipotle Baste.

What do you do when you buy some ingredients for a specific recipe, and then can't find the recipe?