Diner Breakfast & Double Dinner Duty Ingredients Potatoes & Bacon

I used to make my own pizza dough, and now that my cast is off, I should knead dough just for the exercise. That said, for lazy days, or days when my hand and arm are throbbing from doing ... whatever I've been doing all day, it's much simpler to buy baked pizza crusts (we like thin ones) and just add our favorite toppings, bake on a heated pizza stone in a super hot oven (450F/220C) for 10-12 minutes and you're done. This version has pesto & olive oil as a base and tons of shrimps with a sprinkling of red chili pepper flakes and some grated cheese.  But I've been hankering diner breakfast food. - eggs & bacon and hash browns, so...

Fall Market Score

Yesterday started early and didn't stop until dinner so none of my usual Market Score photos.  I went to two farmers markets, starting off with the Historic Brewery Market or as we all call it ... the Old Market and bought humungous garlic and giant spears of rosemary... not as easy to come by as you think.   Stopped by my favorite "lamb guy" in Halifax - Bill of Wood 'n Hart Farms and got not only some delicious lamb sausages that will be part of a pasta dish this week, and some lamb stewing meat for.... not sure, but it will be delicious, whatever I decide.

 I also got some wonderful eggs that made the delicious scramble (along with some of the chopped rosemary leaves) which is what we enjoyed for breakfast this morning - Potato Pancetta & Rosemary Scramble.

Onward to the Seaport Farmers Market (how lucky am I to have two superb farmers markets) where I knew I'd be heading over to The Fish Shop at Pier 20 (open all week) for some scallops to skewer on those glorious rosemary sprigs... at $1 each for the rosemary you know I'd have to put something wonderful on them.  Grilled Scallop Rosemary Skewers... nothing could be simpler or easier to fix... a quick 15 minutes (just long enough to heat up the BBQ) to marinate in some lemon juice, chopped rosemary, garlic...and you're ready to rock and roll.

More delicious things from various farmers - beets and new potatoes (with more garlic and rosemary) rounded out dinner - Rosemary Potato & Beet Rosti.   Another simple dish, thanks to a food processor and everything ready at the same time with minimal cleanup - double bonus!

Lots more purchases, including some awesome looking beef short ribs, that Graeme of Getaway Farm (also open all week) cut to the thickness I wanted (this time about 1 1/2 inches thick to make some sort of fantastic beef stew... Fall is coming even if the temperature seems like summer today.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying a diner style breakfast with kids and grandkids, more fun all afternoon with little boys. Rain outside didn't stop us from enjoying each other.

But the real purpose of writing this diary style entry is to spark you to enjoy local food, family and friends.  What's your favorite way to spend the weekend?  I hope it includes lots of the above.

Nostalgic Trip to Fall Harvest Festivals

Just a short post... but I couldn't resist sharing tonights supper. Usually, people in the middle of freezing, blizzardy weather think of Spring or wish for Summer. Somehow my dinner reminded me of trips to St Jacobs, Ontario in the Fall where you can still see Mennonite farmers on their buggies, eat the most wonderful sausages, and pick up beautiful Brussels sprouts, beets and every other Autumn harvest treat at the farmers market.

Instead of St Jacobs market, my stash of Brussels sprouts, beets and the Sweet Turkey Fennel Sausages came from last week's trip to the Halifax Seaport Market. The Beet & Potato Hash comes from Mango Cheeks at Allotment 2 Kitchen - I've been dreaming about it for two weeks and finally got around to making it. It tastes even better than it looks and will be on my menu often. The Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Pecans is an old standby.

Taking Steak & Potatoes to a Whole New Level

The truth is my Honey and I really love steak and potatoes... We would probably be happy eating some at least a couple of times a week. If you are like us... carnivore supreme, then "steak and potatoes" usually means a grilled rib eye, sirloin, filet mignon or strip loin, grilled to perfection with just a hint of salt & pepper to season it... and served with mashed, baked or fries.
This very interesting combination of more unusual recipes is the result of me browsing through more of my favorite cookbooks for Monday's post about coffee table cookbooks. Somehow, I forgot to add Anita Stewarts Canada to my must have coffee table list. It is an amazing book. So amazing, it led me to chatting with her and writing about that too.

Not Your Average Fried Potatoes

This recipe really demonstrates the ethnic diversity of Canada and the cooking results are fantastic. Gefu Wang Pruski was born in NE China, is married to Kris who is Polish Canadian. They met in Edmonton and moved to Nova Scotia where she (at the time of the book writing at least) is a potato researcher at NS Agricultural College.

This Grilled Flank Steak with Jeanne's Secret Marinade from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden ..., (read why I love it) definitely takes "steak" to a whole new level. The secret ingredient is ... shhhh.... pomegranate molasses and it's awesome.

So what is your "steak & potatoes"? Even if you're vegetarian, I'm sure the notion triggers some dish or other.

Happy Hanukkah

Tonight is the beginning of Hanukkah, the lighting of the first candle (we celebrate for eight nights, but this article in the L A Times tells the story much better than I can), and the eating of potato latkes.

The article, also has recipes for not only the undisputed star of latkes....the potato, but also olive latkes and beet latkes. It got me thinking about my earlier Hanukkah efforts to broaden my family's latke repertoire.

I've made Potato & Pear latkes and

my traditional latke trilogy ...Potato, Zucchini & Curried Sweet Potato latkes that look festive on the table, especially when served with my BBQ Brisket (recipe is in my cookbook). Each type is delicious, but truthfully, I have to make at least twice as many potato as the other two combined. In fact, my daughter and I were discussing the need to make anything other than pure potato latkes for her Hanukkah party tonight, and both came to the same conclusion....NO NEED whatsoever!

We also had another debate... this one over how to grate the potatoes. The "traditional" way is to hand grate the potatoes using a box grater. Of course my grandmother didn't have a food processor option and I wonder if she would have pooh-poohed it if she had. I know my aunt still makes them the "old fashioned" way and my siblings still think they taste better.

Next up is using the food processor to grate the potatoes...but that actually is two DIFFERENT ways. My way makes latkes closer to my grandmother's version, but without the chance of scraping your knuckles until they bleed (my aunt actually puts band aids on her fingers to protect herself). I quarter the potatoes and feed them using the grater blade. My daughter and her mother-in-law take things a step further and use the steel blade in the bowl, pulsing them until the potatoes turn into an almost mashed potato consistency, which cooks up faster.

No matter which way you choose to grate them, here's a tip from my mother so your latkes look pure white rather than grey. Peel your potatoes and leave them in a large bowl of cold water while your processing them. Put the grated potatoes (box grater or food processor grater - I'm not sure about the finely mushed version) in more cold water so they stay pristine while waiting to be combined with the other ingredients for the actual latke making. Just drain and pat dry before adding eggs, etc.

Of course, if you're planning on having more than one real Hanukkah party, them making different versions keeps things interesting. My good friend Norene Gilletz makes a number of different kinds. This recipe is for mini vegetable latkes with smoked salmon & tzaziki. She even has a no-fry variety in her latest book, Norene's Healthy Kitchen.

Latkes make a great buffet dish or side to roasted chicken or meat, regardless of which holiday you celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. And in case you haven't figured out the menu yet, this article in the Sunday NY Times should help out.

I'm not really a turkey fan, but my Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken is easy to fix for a last minute dinner party....You only need about an hour and a half notice to put it all together.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Ginger Lime Thyme Jelly

Or you can just roast some Rosemary Potatoes and some Apricot Asparagus & Carrots.

And for dessert, there's nothing wrong with a store bought something or some ice cream topped with your favorite liqueur.

That Cookbook Thing II - Rapee Marvandelle

Here we are at round three of That Cookbook Thing II, conceived of by Mike of Mel's Diner and enthusiastically joined by Sara of I Like to Cook, Breadchick Marye, Deborah of What's in My Kitchen?, Mary of Cooking for Five, Elle of New England Kitchen, Shaun of Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow , Kittie of Kittens in the Kitchen and me, of course. I love this little Julia fest, because I'm cooking dishes I normally wouldn't...too time consuming or too fattening, or both, or just off my radar.

We made Julia Child's Soupe a l'ognion for Round One and it was awesome, although the amount of butter used still boggles my mind. Round Two was Poulet au Sauce Cari (chicken in a light curry) less than spectacular, in my house anyway.

And here we are at Round Three...Rapee Marvandelle, or for us Anglos...Gratin of Potato, Onion & Ham.

First, I must say that making this dish was both easy and hard for me. Nice Jewish girls make potato kugel often, certainly for Jewish holidays, so the grating was a breeze. Once you've grated 10 or 20 pounds of potatoes...what's three measly potatoes! The challenge though is combining the "kugel" with the cheese and ham. Now anyone who follows my blog knows I'm not kosher, but there are certain things that just don't seem to go together. It's not the cheese & ham...I make tons of salads with both, and my favorite Saturday lunch is Grilled Cheese and Ham or Italian Salami sandwiches made on my Griddler...it's the mixing those with the "kugel"...because, let's face it ...a rose by any other name...is still a kugel!

But I'm a trouper, and forced myself past that point. I wanted to follow the recipe and still add my own spin to it (especially since I wasn't too fond of the curry last time, following the recipe to the letter). So I wanted to use Tuscan or Rosemary cured ham...naturally I couldn't find any, so I went with Black Forest...can't go wrong there. On to the herbs...Julia recommended parsley and/or chives and chervil. Parsley was fine, but I'm not a chervil fan...I don't know why and I didn't have any chives on hand. If I had used the rosemary cured ham, I would have added some fresh rosemary, but instead, because this dish makes me think of Fall for some reason...again, don't ask me why...I added some fresh thyme leaves.

Julia's list of ingredients also included half clove of garlic...I mean HALF???? Subtlety is not my middle name, so I used an entire clove....probably too much in hind sight.

The rest was as recommended. Somehow, I was expecting a soupier dish...I guess the word "gratin" fooled me. In fact, it had the consistency of any potato kugel I've ever made...and very tasty if I do say so.

I can't wait to see what the others think of it. Mike will be posting a round up next week...check it out. And then there's Roundup Four...Poulet au Porto...the one I've really been waiting for!