Christmas Bread!

The winter is a perfect time of the year to try new bread recipes. Some of the flavour that inspire Winter cooking go perfectly when they are embedded in bread recipes. This is a classic white bread loaf recipe but we decided to combine the tanginess of dried cranberries with the aromatic characteristics of thyme. The bread certainly turned amazing!

A twist on a classic!

The idea was simple: to make a nice Ceasar salad for dinner. We decided it would add a nice touch if we grill the Romaine letture to give it a smoky flavour and it did work very well.

An afternoon tea

We put some of our baking into a very good use with this afternoon tea.

Minty Mojitos

With so much mint in our garden, we decided to have a Mojitos party with friends. The essential ingredient is mint but we also got a good Cuban rum. 

Herb Butters

Inspired by a friend and the fresh herbs from our CSA farm, Jen decided to put into practice her culinary skills and prepared a delicious set of herb butters.

The first step was basically to find and think of flavour combinations.

Fleur de sel added a nice touch to the butters.

Honey and mint...
Lemon balm and dill...
Thyme and oregano...

And the finished product... a delicious assortment of herb butters.

~Luc

Branding our homemade jams

We explained in an earlier post about our homemade jams. In this picture we just wanted to show you our "branding" but don't worry... we are not hitting the market yet...
.
In this picture: Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam & Rhubarb Chutney.
.
~Jen-Luc

Father's Day - Gourmet breakfast & Lunch

I cannot think of a better way to start father's day with a nice, homemade high quality breakfast. This was Jen's surprise to me on this special day.

We had lemon dill bread (from a local bakery in Paris, Ontario), dark-roasted, fair trade coffee, a parfait made with our own natural yogurt and fresh berries, orange low-acid tomatoes from a local farm sprinkled with herbs from our garden and sizzled with olive oil and a truffle omelet (we bought "a" truffle when we visited France a few months ago).

Since our breakfast was plentiful and we had a big dinner ahead of us, we decided to take it easy for lunch and we came up with this idea: a bbq pizza. We decided to use all our fresh produce from the market and our CSA farm to create this pizza. We wanted a Mediterranean flavour. The secret: brushing the dough with a mixture of olive oil, garlic and anchovies paste (anchovies need a public image work - most people have them in a Caesar's salad dressing but at the same time most would not dare speak the poor fish's name!).
.
~Luc

CSA - Some veggies for the week

Out latest visit to our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm was very exciting. As the season continues, the quality and quantity of produce both increase.

.

This week we got some cabbage, peas, carrots, brocoli, cucumbers, kholbi, spinach, swiss chard, green onions, kale, musclun greens and our regular assortment of fresh herbs and fresh cut flowers.

.

This great assortment of fresh, organic and locally-grown produce comes as a great inspiration for our week's menu.

.

If you are interested in learning more abour our CSA Farm, visit their blog:

http://www.orchardhillblog.blogspot.com/

.

~Jen-Luc

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

When a friend of ours told us about this project we didn't hesitate to get on board. Having shares on the crops of a local organic farm would not only mean we make a tiny contribution to supporting a cause we believe in but it would also mean that we could have a good amount of fresh herbs, flowers and organic produce every week for many months.

Having fresh herbs and produce triggers our imagination to use them during our menu planning system. Part of the fun is never knowing exactly what we are getting each weekend.

Currently, five households got together to alternate our pick-ups. The farm is roughly 45 minutes away from London so we thought it would make sense to do this throghout the season. When we get there, we have a list of the amount of produce we are allowed to take each week. It's a very well organized system and the produce looks fantastic.

One of the favourites features of our CSA share is the amount of fresh herbs we get to bring home every week. There are some herbs we were familiar with (mint, basil, cilantro) as well as others that we never heard of or we didn't know what to do with them (chive blossoms, lemon balm, lovage).
Flowers are also available. There is a "cut flowers" section where we are allowed to get as many flowers are we want.
One of the first produce to be available was rhubarb. It is interesting to see how much nicer the rhubarb gets from week to week.

~Luc

Rhubarb Crisp

We had to put our rhubarb to a good use and Jen had a great idea: Rhubarb crisp. The first week she made it was still a little cool. We had it warmed and we had it with an ice cream scoop on top. Delicious! The dish combines the sweetness of the crust with the tanginess of the rhubarb.

~Luc

Crispy Chicken w/ Organic spinach-mandarin salad

We didn't think we'd be the "menu planning" type of people. But we tried a menu plan system and it has been working very well for us. We are trying to be creative with our dishes, but we usually leave the creative side for weekend. Weekdays are getting busy and we still want to enjoy homemade food so this was a "compromise" that has proven very convenient so far.

The feature of this recipe is the organic spinach we received from our CSA shares. The leaves were tender and tasty, almost too good to be spinach!

~Luc

Rhubarb-Strawberry Jam

After a long time without entering culinary news in our blog, we are back! It's been busy but we didn't forget about good eating and the pleasure of cooking homemade foods.


Summer is almost here! As part of our membership to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project, we have been getting organic rhubarb from a local farm (We'll write more about CSA in a new entry soon).



In the begining it didn't seem we had many choices for rhubarb but it was only a matter of time until we started coming with ideas. One classic idea is the rhubarb-strawberry jam. Unfortunately, we couldn't use local strawberries yet but the ones we got were decent enough to try this recipe.



While we made homemade jams before, we had a new challenge this time: we wanted to preserve our jam in jars. If properly done, it can keep up to 12 months! We couldn't wait to try and even though we didn't have all the proper equipment for canning, things turned out to be perfect. We thought it would be so exciting to have this jam in the fall.



There are many ideas on how to use this jam best: jam on our homemade rhubarb muffins, filling for a torte (following European baking traditions), or in crepes.



~Luc

Warm watercress escargot salad & Organic pork chops

BBQ season is on! Last Saturday we went to Trails End Farmers Market just outside London. We like to get our fresh meats there, from a Menonite family that sells hormone-free pork, beef, sausages, etc. We got a few amazing thick pork chops that taste amazing and juicy when cooked on the bbq. Before putting them on the bbq, we brush the chops with some olive oil, dill and white pepper.

Jen was inspired by Ricardo's recipe for the salad. Watercress is a crunchy type of green that goes very well in a salad, especially a warm salad that also has French schallots, white potatoes, escargots (sounds fancier than snails!), dill, Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

Trails End Farmers Market website: http://www.plainbiz.com/London_Sales_Arena/

For Ricardo's recipe, visit http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8759

~Lucas

Dulce de leche liqueur

Dulce de leche liqueur - Now, Argentina has a love for dulce de leche (milk caramel) and lately there has been some buzz about it in Canada and the U.S. Loblaws has their own PC dulce de leche now too (usually found in the spreads section or with the ice cream section). Here is a bottle of home-made dulce de leche liqueur. It is smooth, a bit thick, and taste like a dessert with an alcohol kick. Reminds me of irish cream texture and I can think it will taste great with coffee or cake. We bought a bottle of commercial grade (didn't want to risk any customs problems) and enjoyed it with my family when we returned home. I think this is something we should import and enjoy.

~ Jen

Sweetbreads - a part of the cow that tastes like chicken

Hmmm. There is a good and a bad side to my post regarding sweetbreads. I have to be cautious because I would encourage people to still try them. But let's just say you have to be in the right mindset to have them. Luc can explain all the plusses for sweetbreads because he grew up eating them. But for me, it was my second time and I hope that in the future I can have it often.
***

If you are unfamiliar with sweetbreads, they are the glands--thymus and pancreas--from the cow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread


We ordered eight pounds of these mollejas and Luc separated the good glands from the bad glands. Since they are two different types of glands (like different cuts of meat), they will have a different taste and texture. Luc's brother then seasoned it and grilled it with the rest of the asado (Argentinian barbecue). We had it with a variety of salad greens, arugula, beet and carrot salad, grissinis, and of course, wine.

At first glance (I was going to write glands, oops!) the cooked sweetbread looked like a lumpy chicken breast. Upon cutting it, you can see that the texture of the meat retained its lumpy, almost cellulit-is look. It was white like pork and looked juicy. When I bit into, there was no resemblance to a beef taste at all. I have tried almost body parts of a cow, which tongue was the most adventurous that I tried (tasting like a juicy roast beef). In fact, it tasted like chicken. But it "felt" nothing like chicken. It almost melted in your mouth. Like fat. All I kept thinking was These are glands. What are glands supposed to taste like? I think psychologically, it was unfamiliar to me so I was trying to think back to my other experiences regarding meat. I once had sheep brain omelette but I didn't know it was sheep brain until someone told me. The same with "chocolate meat". My mom used to have me eat this meat with "chocolate" sauce until I found out it was cooked pig's blood. Anyway, how many times do we eat rump roast? Seriously, we are eating the butt of an animal right?

Anyway, like I said, I still have mixed feelings for the sweetbreads, but I think the more I have it, it will be part of my culinary repetoire.

~ Jen

Fifteen Feet Diet - Figs

If you are familiar with the "100-mile Diet", written by two freelance writers from Vancouver, BC, you will understand the premise of buying local and reducing your carbon footprint on Planet Earth. As part of blogging our culinary experience, we will try to get as local food as possible (although I admit, there is no way I can give up chocolate and coffee so I cannot undergo a full 100-mile diet). Since we are currently in Argentina, we will experiment with local foods here.

Figs. Yummy delicious fruit from the tree. Paired great with cheeses, cured hams such as prosciutto, or in desserts. In the neighbour's backyard, stands a beautiful tree of figs, ripe for picking. In Canada, where figs are usually imported, a pint of figs can cost you five or six dollars. I have seen figs sold in Canada for sixty-five cents each. In Argentina, we simply asked the neighbour for the excess of her figs and she generously gave us a full plastic bag of figs (I'm thinking we struck gold!). Another friend of the family offered to turn the figs into jam. The next day she returned with a litre of fig jam. The jam was sweet and creamy. Perfect for breakfast with criollos (light biscuits), fresh from the bakery three doors down.

~ Jen

Trip to Argentina: Fresh Milk from the farm

So we had our first local food experience. The day after we arrived in Argentina, we got two bottles of fresh milk from grandpa's farm, just hours after it was obtained. At home, we always liked to strain it first to avoid any "chunks" of milk-fat. After that, we just bring it to a boil and put it in the fridge. Although many locals don't like "farm milk" (some say you can notice a grassy aftertaste), we really enjoyed it. It is a creamier kind of milk, for sure. We all agree that this fresh farm milk would be perfect for baking or making coffee bevarages (although we have to say this is not a good coffee region!) and, of course, homemade dulce de leche - there is no way to find a better dulce than a homemade one with fresh creamy farm milk.

Welcome!

Jen and I wanted to welcome you to our new blog. In this space, we'd like to share our experience in the creation and enjoyment of food. Trying new foods and getting inspired to cook new receipes is a big part of our life as a family. It is true that sometimes preparing lunch or dinner can become a chore but we don't usually see it that way. For us, this is a way of put our creativity to work and let our imagination go wild.

You will find that sometimes we are so proud of our creations that we take photographs of the food so can show family and friends. We also enjoy shopping in farmers' markets and we particularly like to support local farmers.

We'll try to incorporate the recipes of some of the foods we create but our main purpose with this blog is to share other aspects of our "culinary experience", such as farmers' markets, local eating, sustainable production of food, etc.

Welcome once again and we hope you get inspired to start your own "culinary experience."

Luc