Carottes Amoureuses

I was at the farmer's market last week and bought some lovely, sweet, baby carrots. When I got them home I noticed these two babies, all curled around each other. They just look so happy that I can't actually bring myself to eat them.

Everyone should have someone who fits with them as well as these two fit together. They just don't make sense when they're apart. That is true love.

Strawberry Fields Forever

It feels like winter here right now. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but only mildly. It actually feels like winter in the South of France, which is cold. It's gray and cloudy, very windy, and the temperature is about 12C! I know I spend a lot of time complaining about the weather, but when you live in this city, that's what you do. People talk about the weather constantly, and not in the "I don't know what to talk to you about so let's just talk about the weather" kind of way, but in a detailed and analytical kind of way. We also feel that since we live through such brutally cold and long winters that we deserve hot and sunny summers, but Mother nature doesn't always reward us accordingly.

A wordy introduction to tell you that I have been waiting impatiently for strawberries this year, another thing that many Manitobans think they deserve.  It is a late year for everything here because of a late and cool spring. But, astonishingly, the berries grew. And ripened. And my Mom and I, as has become our yearly tradition, went to pick some. 

They were small little berries, but juicy and full of flavour. I made jam, sorbet, and ate strawberries for days. I tried some new jam recipes this year, Apricot Strawberry (very good), Strawberry Vanilla (ditto), and plain Strawberry, and as always, Freezer jam. So now when winter actually comes I can open a jar and fondly remember our freezing cold and rainy summer. Maybe it will make winter seem not so bad!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

In response to my post about goats, I thought I should think of a good recipe using goat cheese. I have no shortage of goat cheese recipe ideas, but I especially love it when it's warmed in some way. This quiche is a delicious combination of creamy goat cheese, eggy custard, and gorgeous green herbs from my garden that just seem to get slipped in to everything I make lately. Please use this as a guideline and add whatever herbs you like and more or less cheese to your taste. Quiche is such a simple thing to make, I never measure, if you add 4 eggs instead of 3 or yogurt instead of milk or parsley instead of sage, it will still taste delicious!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

1 roll frozen puff pastry

3 eggs

a nice piece of soft goat cheese (I used about the size of a golf ball)

3/4 cup milk

a good bunch of herbs, I used basil, chives, summer savoury and sage, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

Thaw the puff pastry either overnight in the fridge or on the counter for an hour or

two. Once thawed. place it in a pie dish with the parchment on the bottom and press

into the sides. Give it a few pricks with a fork.

Beat the eggs, then add the milk, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the chopped herbs over the pastry, then add the cheese, breaking it up with

your fingers. Pour the egg mixture over top and put the quiche in the oven for about

45 minutes or until golden and puffed up. If you're not sure whether it's done, put a

knife in the middle and make sure it comes out clean.

Let cool and serve warm or at room temperature. We even it it fridge cold the next day

for lunch. Serve with a green salad and a crisp white wine for a beautiful summer lunch.

Goats

For some time I have had the somewhat odd dream of wanting to be a goat farmer. I would have an old house in the countryside (this you have probably heard me talk about already) and a whole bunch of really funny goats with lots of character. Early each morning I would wander over to the goats, bleary eyed and tired, and then the goats would do such funny things that I would perk up and have a great day milking them and making fresh cheeses covered with home grown herbs, vegetable ash and sea salt. I do realize that this is my dream sequence and probably not at all the life of a real goat farmer, but a girl's gotta dream!

Last week, in the Okanagan with L, we went to a goat cheese farm and the goats were just as I imagined. Full of character, each one doing a funnier thing than the next. They just seem like such funny animals to be around every day. And the cheese, well, it was incredible. Full of that earthy, barnyard flavour that is so characteristic of goat's cheeses. They also had homemade gelato that was so creamy and rich, but light at the same time. I was in heaven!

Here is a quirky photo of those goats to replace a recipe, which I don't have time for today. If you look at what the goats are doing it is such a funny scene. The one standing on the box just stood like that the whole time, there is a goat in the middle who was scratching her back with her horns, and the one sleeping in the food trough made me laugh. If these goats don't brighten your day, nothing will.

Pizza Dough!

I don't have too much time, but I know if I don't do this now I won't find the time till next weekend. So I will hastily give you my recipe for my much tested pizza dough. I have had 2 requests in the past week for this (thanks for making me feel like a real chef by asking me for recipes B and L!) This recipe is really not a recipe at all, and it has evolved over time to include a bit of whole wheat flour. Now before you try to tell me how un-Italian that is, and how true pizza dough is made with Italian "00" flour, the suggestion to include a small amount of whole wheat flour came to me from a true Italian Mamma. So there. Try it, it's really good!

My Pizza Dough

4-5 cups of white flour as needed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 packet traditional yeast or a big chunk of fresh yeast (please don't use quick rise!!)

1-2 cups warm water, as needed

Dilute yeast in about 1/4 cup of warm (not hot) water in a small glass bowl. Set aside for about 10 minutes while you get on with the flour. 

Stir 4 cups of the white flour and the whole wheat flour with the salt together in a bowl. When the yeast is diluted, pour over the flour, then add the water a little bit at a time until you have a "shaggy mess" as Nigella would say. 

Then turn the dough out onto the counter and start kneading. As you go you will feel that the dough is either too wet and sticky or too dry and floury, just add more flour or water as needed as you knead. After about 5 or 10 minutes you should have a beautiful, elastic ball of dough. When you do, clean your bowl in hot water, give it a slick of oil and turn your dough around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp, warm, clean dish towel and put it aside in a warm and non-drafty spot in the kitchen.

After an hour it should be well risen. If you want to use it right away, go for it. If not, give it a punch and a couple of kneads and put it back in the bowl. If you want to make it a day ahead, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day leave it out for about 4 hours or until it comes to room temperature.

To use it, stretch it onto a cookie sheet that you have sprinkled with fine cornmeal, top with whatever you like and bake it for about 20 minutes at 400. These are guidelines only, you really need to know your oven to get the timing right, and it also depends how thick or thin you make your crust. Sometimes this amount gives me 2 cookie sheet sized pizzas and sometimes I just get one. Depends on my mood.

Buon Appetito!

Slow Food Manitoba

My life has gone from rather uneventful to a gong show in a matter of a month! It all started on a particularly quiet day. I had a break in the afternoon and was looking at a website that I had bookmarked, www.slowfood.com. I decided to contact Slow Food to see if we had a convivium in Manitoba, which we didn't. Then, a few emails were shot around and before I knew it I was co-founding a Slow Food Convivium here. Our first meeting was a huge success, over 35 people showed up to something we were planning to have in my living room. Luckily we had about 20 that rsvp'd and I decided at that point to move to a larger location. This city is really like a huge small town, word travels fast, and before we knew it my co-founder, N, and I were attending meetings for other food-related organizations, planning events for this summer and running a community garden that required a lot of weeding this past long weekend. I think I am more tired coming out of the long weekend than I was going in.

On top of all that I am still taking my writing course (which I am somewhat neglecting), trying to juggle two gardens in need of lots of love, reading a wonderful book that I must finish before book club (which I am hosting with a friend), and starting a new job on Thursday! Phew. Needless to say I have been completely neglecting this blog, which I promised myself I would keep updating. 

This weekend I will try to get a recipe up and take some photos. I promise!

Slowing Down

Sometimes it is important to slow down and take your time. Lately that is what I have been doing. I can't say I feel like I am getting much accomplished, but that will come with time I suppose. I have started a writing course, which I am very excited about. Also on my list of new things to do I am going to be starting up a Slow Food Convivium. Slow Food is an organization which promotes sustainable agriculture, fair pay for food growers and producers, culinary traditions around the world and much more related to good, clean and fair food. Slow Food was created to counteract the fast food phenomenon. 

I am hoping to organize outings to different local food producers to see where our food is coming from and to try change peoples habits when purchasing food. I also want to promote gardening and think it would be great to hold some gardening information sessions to learn about growing vegetables, composting, etc. Maybe we can even start up a community garden project!

I have a few people interested and I'm hoping more people will show some interest. If you are in my area and are interested, please send me an email or check out www.slowfood.com for more info.

Happy Easter weekend! Hope you have time to slow down and enjoy the sunshine!