Great Resource Sites - A Work In Progress

Kitchen Equipment

• Culinary Direct
• Quisinart - has recipes
• Weber BBQ - also has great recipes

Magazines & Newspapers

• Bon Appetit
• Epicurious - my favorite recipe site
• Gourmet - virtual magazine only these days
• Donna Hay
• Food & Wine
• Waitrose
• LCBO's Food & Drink
• Food Network Canada - you can even find some of my recipes & articles here
• The Telegraph - UK
• LA Times
• NY Times
• San Francisco Chronicle

General Cooking Resources

• CosmoPages
• Indian Herb & Spice Guide
• Herbs, Spices & Seasonings - great lexicon
• The Spice Trader - great spices from around the world
• Hot Smoke BBQ - lots of great bbq tips & goodies
• Easy Dinner Recipes & Guide
• InfoMonkey.net - follows all things great in Halifax (I especially like the foodie section)
• Kozlik's Mustard - Toronto based
• Tangled Garden - herb jellies, oils, vinegars and liqueurs
• Williams Sonoma
• Food Blog Diary - great roundups & other food blog events
• Food 52
• StillTasty - let's you know how long is toooooo long to keep food fresh.
• Another Herb & Spice Guide

Some of My Favorite Cooks & Cookbook Authors

• Jacques Pepin
• Gourmania - Norene Gilletz is one of my favorite Canadian cookbook authors
• Jamie Oliver - what else is there to say
• Nigella Lawson
• Donna Hay
• Mark Bittman

Great foodie apps for iPad & iPhones

• epi (from Epicurious)
• How to Cook Everything (from Mark Bittman)

Some of my favorite blogs

• A Moderate Life
• Equal Opportunity Kitchen
• Eats Well With Others
• GirliChef
• More Than Burnt Toast
• The Food Blog Diary
• Thyme for Cooking
• Two Lazy Gourmets

We're Moving...What To Do With All Those Magazines?

It's official. We're moving this summer...not sure where in Halifax yet, but it's time to move on.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a fabulous three years living in a converted convent, overlooking the harbor, so close to the Naval Base that I get to hear O Canada every morning at 8 AM and only a block from a foodie heaven - The Hydrostone Market. Great appliances to play with in the kitchen (particularly awesome for one who loves to cook), a fantastic landlady. Really, it's hard to budge, but I really have been missing a BBQ and a little patch of green to grow some herbs at least.

Of course the thought of ACTUALLY moving, packing up all our stuff...I'm tired just thinking about what to keep and ...dare I say it...what needs to go. I decided to start with all those cooking magazines I've had from the mid to late '90's (I got rid of earlier issues before moving from Toronto).

Fortunately for me, I started with Cooking Light Magazine (taking up half a shelf). They have this wonderful partnership with myrecipes where they store recipes on line and you can create your own recipe box to refer to whenever - and wherever you wish - even creating folders for appetizers, soups. or whatever works for you. It's awesome! I'm hoping that the other magazines do something similar.

Apple Horseradish Glazed Salmon

I'm also trying to use what I have on hand, so this salmon dish really got my attention. I used some of my favorite local jelly from Tangled Garden, probably my most favorite Nova Scotia place to visit. And fortunately for me, Beverley brings some of her awesome herb jellies, vinegars and oils to the Saturday Farmers Market, because I used up all of my apple sage jelly and probably should pick up her horseradish jelly too. Dinner was delicious.

As for tonight's dinner...the chicken with sherry vinegar sauce sounds great too.

Too Many Pasta Choices

Everyone knows I love pasta and the other night I made a delicious and deceptively easy pasta for Presto Pasta Nights, this week hosted by the wonderful Aqua of Served with Love. It's Pasta with Goat Cheese, Garlic and Basil and it's from Ken Kostick's latest book - he's authored 15! This one is called The $10 Gourmet and you can find out more about what I think of it right here.
And right after that delicious dinner, while relaxing in front of the TV, I opened my latest issue of Fine Cooking with this glorious cover...

In case you're unaware, I've started to share my pasta recipes from my favorite magazines over at Presto Pasta Night. From Delicious - UK & Australia, to LCBO's Food & Drink (my favorite Canadian - and possibly world-wide mag), Saveur, even the defunct Gourmet (web site is still up and awesome)....there are even more, so take a peak.

And although I've already written about fineCooking's pastas, I couldn't resist this issue that focuses on noodle dishes from soups to stir fries.

I do hope to see you at this week's PPN round up. Don't forget to send your entry to Aqua from Served with Love will do the honors. Send your entries to aquadaze (at) rediffmail(dot) com and cc me ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com

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.

Pantry Supplies

I recently bought a stash of magazines...Bon Appetit (even though I'm still working my way through the last one with all those glorious stews and pot pies), Delicious - Australia (with another gorgeous stew to hook me in), Saveur (the ribs on the cover got me instantly), EatingWell (for those asparagus - I'm craving Spring so badly) and the latest Donna Hay Magazine (just because I can never resist anything with her name on it.)...surprise, surprise!

I noticed that a couple of them had articles on pantry staples....so perfect for this time of year when at least the Northerners among us are often house bound due to winter weather. We've come a long way since I grew up when the only boxed anything in my mother's pantry was Kraft Dinner and canned...well we did have Campbell's chicken noodle soup and cream of mushroom that my mother used for her awesome Creamed Salmon on Toast. My mother really did have to make just about everything from scratch. I know, it was a different, slower time, but still... I want the home cooked flavor but faster!

And a couple of weeks ago I was sent a giant box full of goodies from the latest President's Choice and Blue Menu line to try and if I liked them, to share my thoughts with you.

Before I tell you about any of the products, let me state up front that:

1. I do not get paid for mentioning any of the items you read about anywhere on my site;
2. I am not a dietitian or nutrition expert, so I will never tell you how good something is for you, but like many an art lover, "I know what I like";
3. I remember the lessons my father and mother taught me - "If you have nothing good to say...say nothing" and "never tell a lie" (which in my mother's mind was the very worst offense because who knew what world of crime it would lead to);
4. I really only use this blog to write about things that make me happy, and frankly, I don't have enough time to even do that well;
5. I've loved and used President's Choice products for years, and, naturally was excited to have them contact me and ask me to sample their newest goodies. (An aside: When my daughter moved to Chile to teach English for a year or so, one of her first emails was to tell me how thrilled she was that there were PC products in the grocery stores there!);
6. Lastly, while I do love to cook (obviously), I also like to take short-cuts and thus having my fridge, pantry and freezer stocked with staples... (like those magazines suggest- like jars of marinara sauce, tapenade...) lets me experiment and play whenever the mood strikes me regardless of the weather or anything else that seems to get in the way of preparing a meal.

My latest favorite (not part of my new stash) is from their line of fresh pastas, imported from Italy...Trentino-alto-adige (Porcini Mushroom Tortelloni) that I made with a creamy sherry sauce(and more mushrooms, naturally). The only complaint was that I should have made more.

I am, however, sipping some very delicious Fair Trade medium roast 100% Arabica coffee from Africa that was in the package and enjoying every mouthful.

Yesterday was one of those days...feeling achy (but that's another and very uninteresting story) and not wanting to leave the house. Plus I was busy making tonight's dinner (another great slow braised short rib recipe from last month's Bon Appetit that needs overnight in the fridge before the final cooking) and a Cassata alla Siciliana . By suppertime, I had to scrounge around the kitchen. Okay, not totally true, I've been meaning to try the box of Barley & Mushrooms from the Blue Menu which the box says is high in fibre. (Note: All the Blue Menu items tell you what they're good for...like the Omega oil that's a good source of omega 3 & 6 polyunsaturates, and the On track plus protein cereal with 13g of protein per serving, but you do have to read the nutrition facts on the back - some have lots of sodium).

Back to last night's delicious dinner....the barley & mushrooms took about 30 minutes (one minute to dump the contents of the box and some liquid into a pot and the rest left to bubble on the stove to soften the barley). Although there was plenty of dehydrated mushrooms in the package, I can never have enough, so I sauteed some sliced cremini and shitake mushrooms in a little olive oil and added them to the mix just before serving. I also used low sodium chicken broth instead of water - just because, that's what I always do.

Sitting on top of the barley & mushrooms in the photo above, is what looks like potato latkes (pancakes), but are actually Quick Chicken Cutlets that were prepared in less time than it took for the barley to soften. In other words, a perfect dinner - delicious and very little effort.

Thank goodness for handy ready-to-use staples! What's your favorite time saver, always on hand staple?