24

No, not the super spy show. An intense 24 hours of foodie geek out with P, who let me invite myself over while I was out in his area. 11 dishes, 7 wines, 5 cheeses, 3 grocery stores, recipe blogs, technique websites, calorie evaluating software, magazines, gadget talk, ingredient tasting...it was an intensely satisfying time.

With my other foodie friends having left the city last summer, I was badly in need of a fix, and P came through in spades. When flight availability meant I would be there for another 5 hours, P's response was "I get to figure out another menu for you!"

We started it off with a really gorgeous bruschetta, with heirloom tomatoes, great bread and good parmesan. Simple ingredients at their prime. It was a beginning suggestive of all the deliciousness to follow.

P then moved on to his crispy pretzel crusted tilapia, served with

fresh greens in his reverse-engineered 'Sudbury Snowstorm' dressing. It was partnered with another sideline of his, alternatives to carb-y sides, in this case, spaghetti squash tossed with lemon juice and zest, resulting in one licked plate.

I'd been tapped to ante up some french toast for the morning, so in the interest of sleeping as long as possible, I prepped it before bed. P rounded out our decadent little breakfast with crisped pancetta and spiced rum macerated berries over lemon yogurt.

The biggest surprise in P's well stocked and smartly gadgeted kitchen was his use of - steady now - Becel. It was a butter-absent kitchen. Shocking, I know. A taste test revealed a very buttery flavour but there was still a hint that margariney texture, a hyper-smooth slickness on the tongue. P uses Becel as a heart-friendly reducer of saturated fat, which I can totally get behind but...I just can't get over it being margarine. I prefer to use the real deal when I want to taste rich buttery flavour - and use canola or olive oil when I simply need a fat. It's okay, P - we can agree to disagree.

My send off dinner was sensational - braised pork tenderloin with blackcurrant-mustard sauce, bok choy sauteed with garlic and green onion, and fauxtatoes. Yes, that creamy looking pile is

pureed cauliflower with roasted garlic which is astonishingly not cabbagey in flavour and has a smooth mouthfeel very like mashed potatoes. They were yummy - and again, a delicious carb alternative that I'll be using with my personal cheffing client.

Although my check in time was looming, we managed to enjoy dessert as well - a luscious poached pear, infused with vanilla and lemon peel with a lovely herbal note from rosemary. Drizzled with a hit of dark chocolate syrup, I savoured every bite. Try it for yourself: http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/RecipeController?language=EN&recipeType=1&action=recipe&recipeID=2834

Here's P's recipe for Fauxtatoes

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 Tbsp margarine (you know what kind he'll recommend; I'd use butter)

1/4 cup potato flakes (or white Veloutine to thicken)

1/4 cup 2% milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp roasted garlic (P uses the jarred version from President's Choice)

Steam cauliflower until completely cooked through but not mushy, about 10 minutes. In a food processor, add cauliflower and remaining ingredients. Puree only until smooth, adjusting consistency with a bit of extra milk or potato flakes. The potato flakes are optional to give more potato flavour.

These can be rewarmed in the microwave or oven.

Thanks, P. What an amazing day.

Pie is love

I was explaining to someone this week my food philosophy, coming back to that phrase I'd blurted out with my career counselor: 'food is love'.

And for me, that's true. I enjoy the act of creating a dish, it feels honouring to all the good stuff we have to work with - crisp vegetables, savoury meats, fresh herbs - an act of appreciation. I also am thinking of who will eat what I'm making, wanting them to enjoy, feel satisfied. It's a way of expressing my affection for my guest. And of course, the act of sharing food around a table becomes an invitation to community and even intimacy.

I was at my parents for a midweek lunch this week. My mom, who the day before had had another of the needles in the eye she requires as a treatment for macular degeneration, was feeling predictably wretched, as she always does for two days after each treatment. I hadn't known it was one of her post-injection days. We went out for lunch - good call - but after waking up barely strong enough to stand she had managed to put together a cream pie on graham crust for us to have for dessert. Part of me went - sheesh! Not necessary! Please sit down and put your feet up! But in it, you see the deep, giving love of a mom.

She sent home some for Hubby and I for supper, since she remembers he enjoys cream pie too. Love, I tell you. And it's clearly not original with me, as any passionate cook knows.

And more love this weekend as J and L get married. They're having a volunteer, outdoor wedding and, amongst other things, have asked for pies. I'm bringing two, both blueberry.

I use Edna Staebler's 'speedy pat-in pie crust', a good thing made even better, I think, by using brown sugar and buttermilk.

Here's my tweaked version:

1 1/2 scant cups of flour (our flour is very dry here in Calgary)

1 tbsp brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

Mix together the dry ingredients in the pie plate.

1/2 cup canola oil

3 tbsp buttermilk

Beat together with a fork until creamy. Pour all of the wet mix over the dry, and combine with a fork until all the flour is dampened. Press evenly up the sides and bottom of the pie plate. Proceed as with any pie crust.

I filled the shells with blueberries and then made a custard for each pie; one was raspberry cream cheese; the other was strawberry yogurt - simply because I had those things in the fridge. I pureed each creamy ingredient with a tbsp of flour and an egg; added a dash of cinnamon to the raspberry and nutmeg to the strawberry and poured each over the berries.

Topped with a brown sugar, butter and flour streusel, they look pretty edible. They'll be warmed on Saturday before they're eaten, and then we'll all toast to love.

My very first bread pudding

Why have I always avoided bread pudding? I think because it's so redolent of leftovers...in the worst way. Stale bread becomes dessert? C'mon.

But here I am, happily and thriftily making french toast out of that same stale bread, and enjoying it immensely. I read recently that bread pudding is french toast perfected and I heard that day old baguette in the fridge calling out, "you can make something delicious out of me". Okay, fine.

A search of a half dozen recipes led me to this one: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rum-Caramel-and-Banana-Bread-Pudding-351558 which hits my buttons - bananas foster flavours, yum.

So the baguette was sliced, the bananas sauteed and assembly completed. The bain-marie was made and the pud baked. Looks...okay. Cuts about like I'd expect - crispish top, soft underneath. Seems a little dense - that'd be the banana. I drizzled each slice with caramel and served up to Hubby and I. He's happy, very happy. Would like a few raisins, but I don't do raisins, so it's as good as it can be in this house. I find it... heavy (the bananas are definitely a detriment in the texture department) and it mostly just tastes sweet, which is okay but that texture. The bread isn't fluffy like my french toast, it's not hot - served warm, as recommended - it's kind of...yucky.

Hmmm. I've always avoided this dessert in restaurants but maybe I need to taste the real thing and find out whether mine is off or whether I just don't like bread pudding.

Or...I get Hubby to order it and I only have to have a bite. Yeah. That's it.

What Hubby ate in Texas

He had BBQ beef ribs, brisket, pork and sausages. Several times. I've never had Texas bbq. He had crawfish - crawfish! without me! - and catfish on a 'sea'food platter. I've only read about crawfish and I long to make their better acquaintence.

Someday, I am going on a bbq and blues tour of the Southeast, taking a slow drive from Virginia down to the gulf, and then west, feeding on soul food and soulful music. I want to eat southern fried chicken, gumbo, collard greens and dirty rice. I want to compare the sauce served with the long and smokily cooked pork as it changes from vinegary to tomatoey as I travel through the bbq states. I want to eat beignet in a cafe in New Orleans, maybe even the famous Cafe du Monde, and have a cup of their chicory coffee alongside. I want to eat bbq when it becomes a beef feast in Texas.

I want to listen to blues and gospel music in the land where it comes from, a welling up of feeling and experience and the place itself. I want to eat a Georgia peach and have pecan pie where they grow pecans.

Yes, and I want to do it during warm days, in a convertible with Hubby, and taste a piece of the world that I know something about but don't understand.

I'm not Snow White - "someday my prince will come" - my prince is already here. So maybe, possibly, if that someday came true, perhaps someday... I will get to eat shrimp and grits made by someone who knows how in the deep south.

In the meanwhile, Hubby comes home today and I will happily start cooking again since love is in the house.

Bridget Jonesish list

Today: glass of milk, oatmeal with banana and a spoon full of peanut butter (breakfast, could there be anything healthier?); meatloaf sandwich (v. good balanced lunch); caprese salad and biscuit (supper, not bad)

Yesterday: glass of milk (my standard breakfast); apple scone, orange and small mocha (lunch); baguette and butter (supper. hmmm.)

Day before: glass of milk, oatmeal with berries (breakfast - and me a former oatmeal hater!); green salad with viniagrette (lunch); half bowl of sweet pea soup (supper, leftovers from freezer); dark chocolate (midnight snack)

I sense a pattern. No cooking. I am home alone and scavenging rather than foraging. I haven't even been to buy milk even though I'm out now. But after a full day of standing at work I'm tired, and the thought of heading out again, even if just for a jug, much less another hour on my feet making dinner, is daunting.

Okay, that's all true, as far as it goes. But it also makes such a difference not having someone to cook for, and I'm also feeling less hungry because I'm lonely. I'm one of those kinds of people (of the two kinds in the world) who eat little when I'm stressed. However, I'm intending to break my stoveless streak tomorrow and make myself a real meal because I'm tired of being pathetic.

Salmon with olive tapenade, with fresh Hotchkiss beans on the side. Sounds like real food.

Mmmm...biscuits

As much as I'm into whole grains for rice, and now pasta, I've been reluctant to use whole wheat flour for baking, even savoury items. Those unfortunate, leaden whole wheat products of my youth must have left a scar.

But a half whole wheat pizza crust I made a few weeks ago was perfectly fine, and with my personal cheffing client looking for whole grains and low fat, I went on the hunt for a healthier biscuit recipe to go with the veggie-packed beef stew I made for her.

Dinner with Julie http://dinnerwithjulie.com/ had a promising looking recipe, (half)Whole Wheat Biscuits with Olive Oil, which I tried yesterday. A classic biscuit, it substitutes half the butter for oil, and bakes up as a crisp-edged, flaky and tender biscuit with delicious wheat and olive oil flavour. I'll definitely make these again.

I saved some for supper, and since the sky was spitting pellets of spring snow, I made Italian Tri-coloure soup to eat with them. I use Marcella Hazan's recipe but tweak it by roasting the veggies to caramelize them. The basic trifecta is carrot, celery and onion (the colours of the Italian flag) but I had a few stalks of kale, so I chopped those and added them at the end, which was a much better green for the flag anyway.

Here's the recipe for 2:

4 small potatoes, chopped in inch chunks. I leave them unpeeled, since so many of the nutrients in potatoes are just under the skin.

4 cups chicken broth

2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 small onion, chopped fine

(other veggies can also be used, I had a yellow pepper so I chopped that too, zucchini, sweet potato, eggplant, etc could be caramelized; frozen peas, swiss chard or chopped green onion could be added at the end)

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper

Hubby thinks this soup demonstrates some kind of magic because it's so simple and yet it tastes so comfortingly good. He's right - it is a kind of alchemy, and one within your grasp!

Put the chopped potatoes in a pot with the chicken broth. Simmer until the potatoes are soft. Mash the potatoes in the pot with the broth, leaving them a little lumpy.

Saute the chopped veggies in a frying pan with a little oil until soft and golden in places. Or, you can toss the veggies with a little oil and roast them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Put the veggies in the pot with the mashed potatoes; add the milk and more broth, if necessary, to make the soup the consistency you like. Add any other veggies that taste better fresh - kale, peas, etc. Heat through; taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Eat with fresh biscuits and enjoy a delicious homemade meal with the investment of about 20 minutes of work, an hour of time and under $5 in groceries. Yummm.

Messing around with milk

I recently read how easy making your own ricotta cheese is. Cool, I thought, and filed the idea away for testing at a later date. And then I was in Mercato, picked up a wee tub of ricotta and saw the price tag - $10. Okay, game on. On that same walk, I stopped and picked up a 4 litre jug of whole milk for $5 and change and got things started that evening.

Turns out, I should have started a little earlier in the day. But even still, I had a big bundle of curds in about 2 hours, with only about 15 minutes of that time requiring me to be busy.

First up - pour the jug of whole milk into a large pot, and over medium heat, warm the milk to 180 - 185 degress, just short of boiling. I used my meat thermometer, twist-tied to the pot handle to monitor temperature. Add a 1/4 tsp salt and stir occasionally, to ensure the milk doesn't scorch to the bottom of the pan. Once the milk reaches 180, remove from heat and add 1/3 cup white vinegar. Stir thoroughly to allow the acid to interact with the milk - it is this reaction that forms the curds. Let sit for 2 hours, or longer, if you can't get back to it quickly.

This is my 5 quart pot full of emerging curds - the vinegar was just on board. I was using the recipe from "Italian Food" http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0949.htm but "Italian Food Forever" talks about using a quart of buttermilk to create the reaction which I'll try another time.

Not having cheesecloth, I drained the curds in a dampened, clean tea towel, inside a strainer over a bowl, because I wanted to catch and use the whey.

I ended up squeezing the last of the whey out - it was late, I had to get to bed! - and I was afraid if I left it to drain all night, the ricotta would be too dry. Finished product: a 500 ml of fresh, home-made ricotta and about 3 litres of whey.

In photos: ricotta on left, whey on right.
The ricotta I used crumbled over sauteed kale and garlic; topping a meatball and tomato sauce pasta; and in a baked cheesecake topped with a rhubarb - orange compote. (mmm - rhubarb. I crave it every spring)

Whey substituted for water when making a half whole wheat version of no-knead bread dough for pizza; and I made corn muffins with it too. I also froze some by the cup in small freezer bags for future pancakes. It has the tang of buttermilk and can be used in its place.

Next time, I would add another teaspoon of salt at the point of adding the vinegar (the recipe gave this option if the curds wouldn't be used for dessert) as I found the ricotta bland. The curds were also firmer than I would have liked, so next time I'm going to try the buttermilk curdling option, which I think would be gentler, as well as letting them drain naturally instead of by brute force. If you have some time, it's definitely an easy way to create inexpensive ricotta.

I had fun, ate all the end result and will try it again. Experiment: successful.