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When Life Gives You Grapes...

Alls this needs is a tea to go with it Concord Grapes. What to do with concord grapes? I have a lone vine growing in my back yard. Last year, I harvested some of its fruit and ended up making jelly. It was thick, but fluid... a near-jelly that is best served with a spoon. This year, I have far more fruit to harvest! Why not try baking them into a scone? Turns out, they pair deliciously with the grape jelly. I'm going to have to get more jars for the 2019 harvest... and bake more of these scones! Of course, because these are grown in my back yard and not some giant farm somewhere, there are seeds. Lots of seeds. It took nearly 3 hours to pit a cup of these bad boys. Is theree some tool to make this faster? Mix ½ cup cooking/baking cream , 1 egg , and 1 egg yolk . Set Aside. Combine 2 ½ cups flour , ⅓ cup sugar , 1 tbsp baking powder , 1 tsp lemon zest , and ½ tsp kosher salt . Fold in 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter and cut until butter is pea-sized. M
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So Long, Chicago, and Thanks For All the Pizza

I feel the weight of this on my Big Shoulders, too Do you know why I love my wife? Because I say, "Let's go to Chicago for vacation. I will eat pizza every day," and she shrugs. Maybe she didn't believe me, like I'm the master of hyperbole. Maybe she wishes to help me accomplish all my goals, no matter how ridiculous. For the record, I had pizza four of the five days we were there. Boy, were they delicious! I had to try making my own, so I did. I used Sally's Baking Addiction 's recipe as a start. The crust was amazingly great! Laminating a dough sounds like the difficult realm of master patisseriers and patisserières – but I did it! My sauce turned out a bit spicy, but no biggie. Really, I needed more cheese. Take a look at some of the Cheese Pull images out there , man! This was my just being... conservative. Pile it on, man! So good!
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Cauliflower II: The Pizzaening

Not to shabby of a pizza. Even better on day 2. It's fun trying to sneak cauliflower everywhere and anywhere you can. This time, I tried pizza crust. My neighbour enjoys a gluten-free lifestyle, and she mentioned making her own cauliflower crusts when she and her partner do pizza nights. Made me wonder, "well, how hard could it be?" The hardest thing, it turns out, is trying to remove the moisture from the shredded cauliflower. Wow! Lessons learned: try to make it ahead of time so you can let it sit out and evaporate a little, haha. The end result wasn't as crispy as I would have liked. Again, blind-baking the crust, if I can call it a blind bake, for a longer time and maybe even flipping it part-way may have helped. Also, as soon as I tried to move it off the pan, it totally lost its shape. The pizza wasn't as beautiful as it was right here. Pulse 1 cauliflower head in a processor until fine. Steam a little and then remove moisture. And when you thin
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Summer Barbecue

Is it a burger bun without sesames? I never really thought to make my own buns, until my my good friend and maker-extraordinaire  Trevor  posted some of his very own brioche buns. I figured, if I'm hosting a barbecue, then making my own buns means that I control the stack! Burger-style, I baked them close so they baked up touching. There's something satisfying about the tactility of ripping them apart. The recipe I followed recommended eight servings per batch; I would recommend getting a few more and making them smaller. They're pretty, but it's a lot of bread competing with delicious burgers. Mmm... Bacon Bacon is a delicious addition to almost any burger. It would even kick up the veggie burgers that I made, with tofu, black beans, and quinoa. Whether this defeats the purpose depends on the eater I suppose... Grilled corn salad I didn't know what I would be serving at the barbecue, so I flipped though Bon Appétit's 67 Summer Recipes
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Do You Quiche Your Mom With That Mouth?

If you squint a little, it looks like the Moon A new vegetable that I've never cooked before appeared in this week's food box : callaloo. It's a hearty green from the Caribbean that seems to be not unlike spinach. But bigger. Stronger. More powerful. Jamaican Popeye are this to grow big and and attract women named after oils. Coco perhaps. Wanting to use it at its peak, I found a recipe for quiche . I've never made a quiche before. I don't even really eat quiches. Store-bought ones taste flat and are overpowered by onion. Homemade ones... I almost never come across. Until now! This was a Jamaican-inspired quiche. I guess what makes it so is the all-spice, another thing that's in the kitchen that I've never used. Interesting... I wouldn't be opposed to kicking up the spice in a future quiche, maybe with a scotch bonnet pepper to complete the theme. It was pretty savoury and paired well with a garden salad. Blind bake and cool a crust , whet
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Speedy Salad Saves Supper

Simple My wife, Melanie has just finished teaching a summer school course! She's tired. I'm tired. Dinner tonight was designed to be fast and to use up some ingredients that have been piling up in the fridge thanks to this week's Foster Family Farm food box (and last week's to be fair). We had two heads of lettuce this week, along with more beets, radishes, and carrots. Last week's cucumber was also looking to be used quickly. So why not blend everything with he last of the celery? Oh, celery! It's been anywhere between $5 and $8 all year, mirroring the olden days when it was so celebrated and exclusive that there were special celery vases that people would use to display them to flaunt to their envious dinner guests. True story. I jumped on a stalk when I saw them for $2.99. Yes, I was so excited that I took a picture I don't like radishes, but Melanie does. We have so many now that I may as well try to carve them into roses and other orn
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Oodles of Zoodles

It's got more bite than it appears What to do with oodles of zucchini? I bought some a week ago and I needed to use them straight away. My solution? Noodle them up! I don't have a fancy spiralizer, so I have to use this julienne attachment on my mandoline. Works ok! This dish was surprisingly easy and came together in very little time. I initially didn't make enough noodle concoction – zucchinis really do shrink when cooked. I've adjusted how I made this to make for 4 generous portions, or enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. This packed quite a bit of flavour and I didn't need a lot to feel full. It can easily be made without the chow mien noodles or flour, but they respectively add structure to the dish and a thickness to the sauce. A side of Chinese greens would probably balance out the plate! Season chicken thighs with Salt Pepper Poultry seasoning, and Harissa seasoning Grill on barbecue until cooked. While this is grilling away, sa
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