Cooking, one week into the new year
Jan. 9th, 2013 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siglinde99The cooking challenge is amazing, so far. Tonight I made Rainbow trout with garlic-dill sauce, from a March 2009 issue of Chatelaine. It took about 10 minutes to prepare, and was quite tasty. I halved the recipe (designed for 2) and still have enough for lunch tomorrow.
I also made a Ginger Butternut Squash Soup from a cookbook called "Recipes from Smokey Tom's", a 2009 cookbook from Saint Thomas's Church in Toronto. The church is known as Smokey Tom's because of the clouds of incense that feature in its services. I like the introduction because it talks about the importance of the Eucharist in Christian workship, and the history of food and hospitality in this parish. Cookbooks put together as fundraisers by churches and small communities are among my favourites; I tend to use them a lot because the recipes are usually relatively simple, and they have been well tested (barring typos!). They often reflect the ethnic heritage of the community (this particular book is heavy on Indonesian, but there are Korean, Indian, Italian, Greek, Ukranian, Cornish, and many other recipes - often with stories about the contributors' immigrant parents, or experiences while working abroad). There are also modern recipes created by, or in honour of, well-known Canadians, and the recipe for oyster stew that was served on the CPR railway on the way to its inauguration in Cragellachie, published in a newspaper in 1967, and a staple New Year's eve recipe in the contributor's family for many years after that. So far, I have made at least 5 recipes from the book and there are many more I want to try. I'm not at all sure that the oyster stew will be among them, as I hated canned clams the last time I had them, and I don't know whether I can manage preparing a pint of fresh raw oysters (though I suppose I could learn, or invite a friend from Nova Scotia to help cook).
My third recipe of the night was Polenta with Tomato Sauce. I'm not quite sure where I found this recipe, but it has been in my binder of recipes to try/recipes worth keeping for at least a year. It was a good way to use up the cornmeal that otherwise is used only to keep my pizzas from sticking to the pan.
My final recipe came from a fun book "Wartime Recipes from the Maritimes, 1939-1945". This little book has some social history, nice historical artwork, and some truly funky recipes. This is the same book where I found the excellent Spiced Molasses Cake I made just before Christmas. Tonight's experiment was Hamburger Muffins - basically two layers of hamburger meat with a bread crumb stuffing in the middle, cooked in a muffin tin. It made 8 good-sized muffins with 1 lb of ground beef, so it is definitely economical!
I also made a Ginger Butternut Squash Soup from a cookbook called "Recipes from Smokey Tom's", a 2009 cookbook from Saint Thomas's Church in Toronto. The church is known as Smokey Tom's because of the clouds of incense that feature in its services. I like the introduction because it talks about the importance of the Eucharist in Christian workship, and the history of food and hospitality in this parish. Cookbooks put together as fundraisers by churches and small communities are among my favourites; I tend to use them a lot because the recipes are usually relatively simple, and they have been well tested (barring typos!). They often reflect the ethnic heritage of the community (this particular book is heavy on Indonesian, but there are Korean, Indian, Italian, Greek, Ukranian, Cornish, and many other recipes - often with stories about the contributors' immigrant parents, or experiences while working abroad). There are also modern recipes created by, or in honour of, well-known Canadians, and the recipe for oyster stew that was served on the CPR railway on the way to its inauguration in Cragellachie, published in a newspaper in 1967, and a staple New Year's eve recipe in the contributor's family for many years after that. So far, I have made at least 5 recipes from the book and there are many more I want to try. I'm not at all sure that the oyster stew will be among them, as I hated canned clams the last time I had them, and I don't know whether I can manage preparing a pint of fresh raw oysters (though I suppose I could learn, or invite a friend from Nova Scotia to help cook).
My third recipe of the night was Polenta with Tomato Sauce. I'm not quite sure where I found this recipe, but it has been in my binder of recipes to try/recipes worth keeping for at least a year. It was a good way to use up the cornmeal that otherwise is used only to keep my pizzas from sticking to the pan.
My final recipe came from a fun book "Wartime Recipes from the Maritimes, 1939-1945". This little book has some social history, nice historical artwork, and some truly funky recipes. This is the same book where I found the excellent Spiced Molasses Cake I made just before Christmas. Tonight's experiment was Hamburger Muffins - basically two layers of hamburger meat with a bread crumb stuffing in the middle, cooked in a muffin tin. It made 8 good-sized muffins with 1 lb of ground beef, so it is definitely economical!
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Date: 2013-01-10 03:40 pm (UTC)My first introduction to that church was when I was at St. Mildred's College (boarding school) only a few blocks away on Walmer Road and St. Thomas's was the parish church where we went on Sundays and for special services. The school is no longer there (there's an apartment building on that lot now), having amalgamated with its sister school in Oakville. The fact that this happened the year after I was there had nothing to do with me, I assure you! :)
The second time St. Thomas's and I crossed paths was for the wedding of a friend's son in the early 80's. He married a Chinese girl and the wedding and reception were highly steeped in those traditions, so I can well believe that your cookbook reflects the current ethnicity of the parish. That area is somewhat of a melting pot of cultures.
Edit: If you're interested in how people managed during the war years, you might like to investigate the Wartime Farm series. I thought I knew (in a vague sort of way) the trials and tribulations that people endured during the war, but this series really brought it home and made it so clear just how much the people in England sacrificed when the war and German blockades forced them to find alternatives and make use of every scrap. The ingenuity and "all for one/one for all" spirit was truly amazing and leads one to believe the war might well have been lost if not for that spirit of pulling together! I don't think the need was quite so intense on this side of the pond, but there was still rationing and people had to find ways to economize and make do with less. If you do watch the WF series and enjoy it, that same group of people has done several others reaching back to Tudor times. I've watched them all and enjoyed them.
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Date: 2013-01-12 12:16 am (UTC)I hadn't heard of that particular series. though I have heard others talk about Tales from a Green Valley. Most of my stories from that era come from my mom, who grew up on a farm in Alberta during the 30's and 40's. They had big draft horses, just like in the TV series. I used to work with an old fellow who first came to Canada from Belgium as a child during the Depression. His father brought percherons or Belgians as foreign aid for the poverty-stricken farmers on the Prairies. It is possible that the horses on my mom's farm were descendants of those donations.
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Date: 2013-01-13 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-11 01:23 pm (UTC)Not that it sounds like you need more recipes to look at. :D
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Date: 2013-01-11 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-12 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-12 03:05 am (UTC)