Easy to Do, Delicious to Eat - Some Stress-Free Recipes

Like everyone I know, I'm trying to find some balance between work and family,while trying to eat well, and somehow reduce the stress of juggling so many balls at the same time.   So I thought I'd share some recipes I've made of late that make things a little easier and use local ingredients from my friends at the farmers markets

Eating Local... Well, Mostly Local From Lamb to Rhubarb

If you've been visiting here before, you know I'm all about supporting local producers and eating in season... not to mention making dishes that are simple and quick.  That said, I'm occasionally caught under the spell of some gorgeous... not-yet-in-season-here ingredient.... like these blueberries.   But let me back up a bit....

Meat, Meat & More Meat

It's been weeks since I've been to the farmers' market on a Saturday morning.  I feel I've probably missed some of my favorite firsts - ramp, baby leeks, fiddleheads, Spring salad greens...But sometimes we can't control life.

Lucky for me, several producers are there throughout the week.   And we are in desperate need... carnivores that we are... to stock up the freezer with some Getaway Farm Beef.   That's Ben the Butcher doing his magic...

Still Savoring Jewish High Holidays

Somehow, in all the rush, I never did get to formally wish my Jewish friends a Shana Tova - loosely translated - a "Good Year".   For the Jewish High Holidays, we serve sweet dishes, starting with simply dipping apples in honey and challahs shaped in a circle, rather than braided and kneaded with raisins.  To all my friends of every culture and religion, I wish you a year ahead filled with peace, prosperity, good health and much joy.

This year, my role was to mostly play Grandma while my daughter and others cooked the traditional dishes of chicken soup with matzo balls, roasted brisket, bow ties & kasha, potato kugel, and more.  For Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), the table groans with at least four courses.  Guests squeeze around tables (sometimes more than one, end to end) to share in the celebratory feasting.

And then there's Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement which is a day of fasting that begins before the sun sets and ends the following day... also after sunset.  The Breaking of the Fast is yet another feast, in our family it is usually dairy.  Bagels, lox & cream cheese, several salads, a soup and something hot like a sweet kugel or lasagna.  Another delicious meal!  That said...

Traditionally, the evening (or should I say afternoon) meal before fasting is a bland meal, eaten in a rush sometime around 4PM to make sure we get to the synagogue or temple before the sun sets. Bland so that we won't get thirsty - even water is included in the fast.  Hurried, because we all want to get to temple before sunset.  As a child, it was always a quick meal, usually some of the boiled chicken from the chicken soup and.... I don't even remember, but it was not my mother's best meal either,  not like any other holiday meal and I would never use the word "feast" to describe it.  In fact, this was not a meal we ever invited anyone to - just immediate family... in a hurry.  In other words, my least favorite meal to prepare.   Until this year.   (and now for my usual digression...)

I just received a copy of Claudia Rosen's latest cookbook - The Food of Spain last week.  I love Claudia Rosen - her recipes and her comprehensive research plus her wonderful story-telling.   You'll hear more about it in the next few weeks, but it did make me take The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, an earlier Claudia Rosen classic... Don't you love the title - so romantic and exotic... off my shelf and savor some tales and some tasty treats from Jewish kitchens throughout time and around the world... like the Lamb with Dried Fruit & Toasted Almonds that I adapted and served over a variation of one of my favorite couscous dishes - Couscous with Currants, Barberries & Mint to sop up the thick gravy of honey, ginger & cinnamon.

And, because couscous is a pasta, this is my sweet, yet savory entry for this week's Presto Pasta Night, hosted by Kirsten of From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours.  Create a dish, write a post, mention and link to Presto Pasta Nights and From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours and send an email to kirstenmlindquist (at) gmail (dot) com and cc me ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com by Thursday to make it into Friday's roundup.

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.

A Perfect Sunday

Actually, my perfect Sunday started on Saturday... I was too lazy to get out of bed at the crack of dawn to go to the market (naturally I'm regretting that now... with a mostly empty vegetable bin and other market staples... oh well, there's always next week and perhaps I can find what I need at Local Source Market that carries lots of fresh local produce). But I digress.... we got to do our other Saturday ritual... breakfast at The Canadiana Restaurant - diner, family style cooking with a big aquarium and a DVD store attached to entertain the boys while we grown ups chat.
Later, my Honey and I took advantage of decent weather and wandered around downtown Halifax, checking out new shops and found The World Tea House where, since I couldn't decide between the two ... picked up some Spring Jasmine tea as well as Blueberry Jasmine Green tea. Brewing a pot of loose tea is my favorite pastime, especially on a dreary afternoon. I don't remember where I read the quote, but I loved it...

"Tea is to procrastination as coffee is to work"

But back to my perfect Sunday....yesterday we ended up going on an adventure with our two little grandsons - Boaz & Dov, 4 1/2 & 2 1/2, respectively, giving both my son-in-law and my daughter a day of rest to recuperate from her cold and a great excuse for a play date with the boys.

One of the best things about Nova Scotia is the easy access to awesome beaches within minutes from our door. We chose Cleveland Beach, along the Lighthouse Route (winding roads pass fishing villages, coves and beaches from Peggy's Cove all the way south along the Atlantic coast side of Nova Scotia). Just check out the fine, white sand on this pristine beach that seems to go forever (top of post).

Finally starving, we landed in Lunenburg for lunch. It's a quaint town, home of the famous Blue Nose II Sailing Ship and typical Nova Scotian houses.
One of the boys' highlights was playing at the Lunenburg playground before we headed home.
Needless to say, Poppa & Grandma were pooped out by the time we got home. Good thing I prepared most of dinner the night before. All I needed to do was have my Honey fire up the BBQ for the kebabs, take the coleslaw out of the fridge, and whip up the chickpea salad, which took less time than grilling the lamb.

Indian Lamb Kebabs

Indian - Spiced Coleslaw

Chickpea Salad with Lemon, Parmesan & Fresh Herbs

I may have missed out on the market this week, but the lamb is from Wood 'n Hart Farms via my freezer, the Kashmiri garam masala is from Epices de Cru, the herbs from River View Herbs - pots sit on my window sill.

How did you spend your weekend? I hope you had as much fun as we did.

Foodie Fun on iPads & iPhones

It's been a couple of weeks since I got my fantastic Apple iPad and I'm having a great time downloading foodie apps and checking them out. Sitting in my living room, I just pick one... do a search for any ingredient... and in an instant have a list of recipe options with tabs to create a shopping list that can get sent to my iPhone, notes I can add to make changes, write comments or change ingredients... like I usually do in the margins of my paper cookbooks. It's all very exciting.

But I have a confession... I'm one of those cooks that enjoys leaving a trail of fingerprints, ingredient splatters and notes on cookbook pages. Many people over the years have bought me those plexiglass stands to preserve the condition of my cookbooks. I scoff at them! Those marks add character... not to mention a very quick flip to have the book itself stop at a well loved recipe.

So, I've been stalling when it came to actually take my iPad into the kitchen. The last thing I want is to "decorate" it with gobs of oil or gravy! So I made one dish... more in a minute, wiping my hands every 30 seconds (or so it seemed) and telling my Honey that I had to find some sort of protective cover for it. He found this great idea with something I always have on had .... Just put the iPad into a gallon size ziplock baggie (the extra large size) with the labelling on the back, zip it up and you have the perfect protection without interfering with functionality.

So now that I'm not scared to death of messing it up, there's the other big challenge... which app do I start with.


In honor of Alex of A Moderate Life's cool Tackling Bittman Recipe Hop, I thought I'd find a lovely lamb stew recipe from my How To Cook Everything iPad app (I have the free iPhone version too).

I need a great comfort dish for the blustery winter weather we're having . If you look closely at the photo at the top of the page, you'll see a lovely dinner plate starring my iPad dinner of Mellow Lamb Curry.

I modified it a bit... but then that's exactly what Bittman is all about. Given my Honey's sore throat, I left out the cayenne pepper. I also used a different curry blend of spices, combining the last of the Sri Lankan Black Curry & the Singapore Curry blends to make my own curry blend.



Plus it's a great Hearth 'n Soul entry too, I think. A partner in crime to Alex, is GirliChef, but you can get to Hearth 'n Soul through either of these ladies (plus a number of others).

Now it's time to check out some more foodie iPad apps to download. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Two For Tuesday's Real Food Blog Hop

And what, you might be asking is Two for Tuesdays!? My friend Heather, the Girlichef, and a few of her other friends, Alex A Moderate Life and actual genius behind the idea, Michelle, Health Food Lover , and Beth Stedman thought of a great weekly event that starts today. You can check here for all the details on how to join, and explains exactly what they mean by REAL FOOD, but the bottom line... write a post where you share an anecdote, or better still (at least for me) a recipe that focuses on REAL FOOD.

The second question you might be asking is...what exactly is real food? And the term conjures up a number of things to me:

• Lovingly made at home just like my mother and her mother before her did and like I see my girls doing too - the memories alone are worth the effort;
• Using the freshest ingredients you can find because the closer you are to the farm, the fresher the flavor - besides, you'll feel better knowing you're supporting local farmers and artisan cheese and bread makers, I know I do;
• Having the pantry and fridge loaded with ingredients you can "throw together" when those unexpected, but always welcome guests show up;
• That said, having a jar of pasta sauce and other ready made things, are perfectly acceptable in my world, as long as you add a little love while you're whipping it up.

This past Saturday I visited the local Farmers Market - nothing unusual about that...I go every chance I get for the freshest eggs, fish, mussels, free range &/or organic chicken, beef and lamb. And what I realized this weekend...I'm slow, so it never dawned on me before...

I'm always ready for the season ahead...way before the season ahead is actually ready to show up! Just like clothes...come hot, muggy August, I'm craving big bulky sweaters and boots and by February, I'm longingly looking at shorts and skirts and sandals....I'm the same with food. By February I'm yearning for fiddleheads and asparagus and by August I'm aching for the day when I'll be able to make some fragrant slow cooking soups, stews and braises.

When we lived in Toronto, the BBQ was just outside the sliding patio doors off the dining room and we used it all year round. True, it didn't quite get as hot as I wanted in the dead of Winter, but we cooked out there anyway.
For the last three years (You've heard the whine before, I know), no BBQ but that will change at the end of July when we move to an apartment with a large balcony. That said, we still have more than a month and a half to go, so we bribed Joanna & Ezra with homemade lamb burgers if we could come over and have Ezra grill them for us.

To many people, when you say burgers, the image conjures up greasy, skinny fast food offerings, but you'll find some awesome recipes here for any number of things you can do with a pound of ground. This time I wanted to bring a little Mediterranean to the table.

In fact, I woke up that morning with lamb burgers on the brain. So without looking at my favorite recipe until after the fact....I made my Greek style Lamb Burgers with fresh ground lamb from my favorite lamb producer Wood 'n Hart and added some wonderful fresh parsley & oregano from from Hutten Family Farm and some fresh mint from Riverview Herbs. I left out the feta (Joanna doesn't mix dairy and meat at home), but everything else is pretty much the same.
Oh, and Boaz (3 1/2 year old) did inform us that he didn't want a LAMB burger, he wanted a HAMburger. Good thing his mother had a batch in the freezer.

Dieting is Never Hard with Fresh Local Ingredients

Last weekend, I shared my great score from the Halifax Farmers Market, so I thought I'd share some of my tasty, easy to do meals. And the emphasis is on "EASY". When you use fresh ingredients - and I'm talking, within a day from purchase, it's amazing how intense the flavor is. It's also amazing fresh they are even later in the week. Normally, after a couple of days in the fridge, the greens are wilting and, I'm ready to start craving...well...just about anything else!

But fresh mixed greens and herbs from my friends at the market, mean that every bite is fantastic and unique and needs so little to make each mouthful pop. The salad above, served with grilled lamb steak (this recipe has been a standard here since before I first posted it in 2005) from Wood 'n Hart, was just drizzled with a little good olive oil, a spritz of lemon juice, some freshly ground pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.
These seared scallops, served over the wonderful sauteed flowering mustard greens from Ted Hutton Family Farm, (just a little oil and some chopped green garlic) was all drizzled with Citrus-Balsamic Glaze, which may not be totally South Beach Diet friendly, but a little bit goes a long way and it's packed with flavor. So good, in fact, I used it as a baste for roasted salmon served with roasted cherry tomatoes and asparagus.

Oh...the skirt steak...gobbled up within hours of my last visit. I'm already counting down to this Saturday to see what I can find.

A Whole New Perspective on Curry

Truth...I'm embarrased to say, the first time I ever tasted curry was in London, England when I travelled there for the first time at the ripe old age of twenty one. Somehow, it never made it into my mother's repertoire and even when I was boss of my own kitchen, I didn't make it very often.

My take...curry = Indian; the more Southern the hotter the dish; lots of work to prepare (of course it is when you make a giant feast and invite the world), so best eaten out.

Gradually my horizons expanded (through restaurants at first) Pad Thai, Singapore Noodles, Jamaican goat curry roti,...plus now you find curry dishes on just about every menu of every restaurant.

That said, I'm still learning and the latest in my treasure trove of cookbooks is Curry Cuisine which does an awesome job of explaining which countries cook which curries, what spices each uses and tons of other interesting info (like Japan first started cooking with curry through their British connections in the mid 19th Century. Check out my review for the whole scoop.

And, how uninformed of me to lump "curry" with India...Northern India and its many regions, Southern India and Pakistan are all so varied in their use of spices and cooking methods, not to mention Vietnam, Laos, Caribbean....

I tried this Pakistani Lamb & Tomato Curry, expecting lots of heat and was pleasantly surprised with its mild and mellow flavors.
I served it with another Pakistani dish - Chickpea & Rice Pilau, thinking I'd need it to counter the anticipated HEAT. It was gloriously aromatic and quite a lovely combination. Now I have to choose my next cultural curry...I wonder where I'll end up?

What's you latest food fixation? And which book explains it best?

Local Markets=Heaven on a Plate

Truly there is nothing more delicious than fresh produce, and I mean - right from the garden served with local Nova Scotian lamb. And having been to not one, but two markets this past Saturday...I really scored some tasty treats. Just check out last night's dinner - Marinated Grilled Lamb Chops with veggies, steamed and lightly sauteed.

The lamb (my favorite meat, especially when it's from Nova Scotia) chops, marinated and grilled (even if it is on my indoor grill) came from Wood 'n' Hart Farm in Tatamagouche. One of these days, I really must go and visit Bill Wood on his farm to have a more in-depth chat about all things lamb. Bill breeds his own lean sheep, and feeds them grain, hay and grass and is extremely popular with local chefs and Saturday Market goers. I know it's one of my favorite stalls at the Halifax Farmers Market.
I also couldn't resist these gorgeous yellow and purple beans at the Elmridge Farm stall or were they from my other favorite farmers over at the Hutten Family Farm stand. I knew, standing there exactly how I'd prepare them and started drooling (all before 9am!)

But how come the deep purple faded to such a dull colour? They sort of looked like my mother's mushy grey broccoli (sorry mom) from my childhood. Although they were crispy and tasty. If you have any ideas for keeping them purple, let me know.

And one of my new finds over at the Dartmouth Farmers' Market, where I met Anna and Ben Wall (mentioned yesterday) were these precious little tomatoes. I naturally couldn't resist popping one in my mouth when I got home - WOW!!! they are like candy! In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd swear they'd been injected with honey.

So I lightly steamed the beans with a sprig of fresh basil (also from Ben & Anna) while I was sauteing the tiny tomatoes, cut in half to allow their juices out, in a touch of olive oil and Olivina (instead of butter, which the rest of you should enjoy for me) (probably 2 minutes) and then added the steamed beans along with fresh mint, basil and garlic scapes, a little salt and pepper, toss and plate over the lamb chop. Fantastic!

Where do you shop for your favorite local food? If you're not eating local, you can't imagine what you're missing out on. And if you live in Canada, please check out EatRealEatLocal to find out how you can do more in your neck of the woods.

How Many Times Can I Say It....Love Food Magazines

I've already mentioned my latest batch of food magazines and I'm already Jonesing for more...how fickle I am. Don't get me wrong...I never throw old ones away and spend many a glorious hour flipping through them looking for the perfect recipe for... something or other.

The bottom two shelves of those bookcases are filled with great magazines and at the top of the photo (on the left) is my coveted Donna Hay Collection of cookbooks (5 so far) and magazines. There are actually two more shelves of cookbooks above, but this is a post about magazines.

There are certain times of the month when they all seem to appear on bookstore shelves and I can't resist. So, while watching mindless TV, I flip through them, turning down pages that look appetizing and, I admit, often put them aside for a time. That said...much more often, there will be one or two in a batch that just scream out to me every time I pass them by.

Bon Appetit March 2009 is just such an issue and it looks loved too...all wrinkly from when it fell into the bathtub (a perfect relaxing event...sweet smelling bubble baths and a glorious read of savory dishes). Thank goodness for the hair dryer! Usually only one recipe gets made immediately after purchase, but that issue won our hearts with four awesome meals:

Braised Short Ribs in Sherry

Lamb & Eggplant Shepherd's Pie

Moroccan-style Chicken Pie

Shrimp & Sausage Pie

But it was time to move on...and the latest Saveur(top of the pile on my table) has been making the most noise with those fantastic looking ribs on the cover...which, by the way, were everything I expected them to be and then some.

Hawaiian-style Kalbi

There are some lovely artichoke recipes that I'll be trying ...once we actually get some local artichokes. It is still very much winter here, remember. I think, however it's time to move on to the next magazine...

Donna Hay?...the roasted tomato, eggplant & haloumi burger has my mouth watering, as does the smoky chili chicken, chorizo and feta burger (it is getting on to lunch time here, although today we're eating out with the kids - two generations of them!) and the mint flat bread with green onion pesto is definitely a "must make soon".

The latest Bon Appetit (April, 2009)?...some very tasty looking dishes, but they really are more Spring friendly, so that one is on hold, except perhaps the halibut fillet on mashed fava beans with mint...that is if I can find the early spring fava beans here.

Delicious Magazine ?...February's issue has an awesome looking Spicy Prawn (shrimp in my neck of the woods) and chickpea curry that definitely is on the shortlist...not to mention the nutella mousse!

I guess it's time to hit the stores...not sure if it's for more magazines or ingredients for some of the above.

Which are your favorite cooking magazines? I'm always looking for new faves.

Shepherd's Pie - Solid Or Soupy?

I admit it, I love my shepherd's pie to really just be solid meatloaf of ground beef with a mashed potato topping. It's what I grew up with, and what I want when I'm craving comfort. My younger daughter has told me (more than once) that it's one of the few dishes of mine that is really not a favorite. She prefers her shepherd's pie soupy. She'll really love this one.

As promised, I'm on the second pot pie dish from this month's Bon Appetit And for those of you who come back here time after time, you know that I'm all about fast and easy, so be warned. This Lamb & Eggplant Shepherd's Pie is certainly not difficult, but I did spend much of the day preparing it yesterday.

The flavor and texture was worth the effort and, according to BA you can prepare the filling (think stew) ahead and then it's just time to boil the potatoes and do the final baking - 45 minutes. It's so different to my mother's - lamb cubes instead of ground beef, adding salty chewy cheese to the potato topping, eggplant and diced tomatoes really keep it unique...there's no need to even try to compare.

Another caution...well two....1) the recipe calls for a lasagna sized baking dish 13x9x2", and that's what I used, but had to ladle off a couple of huge spoonfuls of sauce before topping with the potatoes and good thing I put the dish on a lined rimmed cookie sheet as it overflowed; 2) this serves 8-10 and I didn't even try to figure out how to cut it in 4-lots of ingredients and I'm math challenged. So we'll be eating this for a while and I will probably freeze the filling as stew and perhaps can salvage the topping and make some potato pancakes.

All that whining aside...it was awesome! Go ahead, broaden your horizons...but first...really which shepherd's pie to do favor...solid or soupy?

Winter is Not Just for Soup

Don't get me wrong, I love soups and stews and the bazillion options are really what get me through the winter months. But this month's Bon Appetit magazine has added a new dimension to my winter cooking...the pot pie.

The photo at the top of the post, does not do The Shrimp & Seasoned Sausage Pot Pie justice...then again, without video how does one capture the heavenly moans around the table? I used local Lunenburg Lamb Sausages rather than the Andouille sausages the magazine recommended and so it was a milder, softer dish than the Cajun inspired BA version. One word....AWESOME!!!

Admittedly, I grew up on frozen St Hubert chicken pot pie and these days I swear there isn't a better store bought chicken pie anywhere than the one from Costco...it's worth the trip even if you don't get side tracked by everything else in the store. I'm ashamed to say, that the truth is...I've never made a chicken pot pie of my own. It always seemed like too much work, not to mention my intimidation at making pie crusts.

But something about the cover of this month's Bon Appetit - the comfort food issue (it's the Shepherd's Pie with Cheesy Potato Topping that's on tap for tonight) had me drooling before I even turned the pages.

If you're like me, you have some favorite magazines and even though you love them, there are some months when there aren't really a ton of dishes that you'd want to try. Then again, there are some months which are not long enough to cook everything that make you're mouth water.

So tonight we'll be having Lamb & Eggplant Shepherd's Pie and later this week, Moroccan Style Chicken Pie...not what I grew up with, but the phylo pastry and glorious Moroccan spices will definitely transport me far from winter.

Surprise Guests for Lunch

Yesterday I was visiting Joanna (my daughter) and flipped through one of her favorite books...
Burgers, by Paul Gayler and I definitely will head out this week to pick up a copy for here.

Last night I made these awesome Lebanese-style Kebbe Lamb Burgers served in Pita Pockets slathered with hummus using the freshly ground lamb I got at the market in the morning.

Today, while my Honey, better known as Poppa, and Bo were engrossed in Backyardigans shenanigans, I whipped up another tasty treat from the book and the market. These very tasty Salmon Pesto Burgers were so easy to do, we ate them at lunch with Bo's parents.

I'm a lucky grandma....Bo is sleeping over tonight and spending the day tomorrow, but that means I'll have to wait to do more burgers until later in the week when I can hit the bookstore.

Tomorrow night's dinner with mummy will be Mushroom Crusted, Garlic Prime Rib Roast from my own book, Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories. I used to make it often, now I make it when there's a terrific deal on Prime Rib. Too bad I don't have a decent sized freezer or I'd stock up.

If you had a freezer (lucky are you if you do already), what would you like to stock up on?