phyllo two ways

spanakopita and tsatziki
















apple and almond turnover

ode to joy

I am sort of a self-taught cook. My mother wasn't really interested in being behind a stove when I was a kid. We did belong to a food co-op and eat really healthy homemade food, but it wasn't her passion. It was a necessary task for her so she was always happy for any extra help from us. Her willingness to open up the kitchen is actually probably what helped me to find the joy. She did teach me the basics and would always let me bake whatever I wanted. She would tell us that she wouldn't buy cookies for us, but she'd buy the ingredients for us to make them. Eventually I suggested that I get to cook on some nights, she agreed. The only cookbook we had was The Joy of Cooking, which I still use as a reference. It was in The Joy where I got the culinary encouragement that I needed. I still remember something I read in the pie section about how "homemade food should look homemade, and not to worry if it isn't perfect. It's not about perfection."
Nowadays my Mum watches me in the kitchen as she reads, paints or plays with my children (her passion). She is happy to have the time with them to be creative in other ways, and I am happy to be in the kitchen on my own. I can see that my capability in the kitchen came from her in an odd way, and reminds me that I will need to let my own kids take the wheel when they are ready.

strawberries

I am so excited about the giant amount of strawberries we picked today, right out of the garden! The farm we get our share from sells theirs for $5/pint, which I would pay because I believe in supporting local, but backyard can't be beat.

re-inventing recipes

One of my favourite things to do with excess greens is to make Buraqs. The inspiration for these greens+ mint+ peas+feta snack bundles comes from a Muslim womens collective that serves up amazing food at a local farmer's market. They call these bundles Buraqs, which according to google is an Iranian food. I have not been able to find exactly what I'm looking for, and I have no deep frier, so I have been using the samosa dough recipe from Hollyhock as the pastry. The filling is inspired by what the womens collective is using, but I like to play with the ingredients depending on what is in season. For this batch I used spinach, chinese cabbage, chard, kale, parsley and green onions from my biodynamic organic farm share and mint from my own garden. In the dough I used Canadian organic spelt flour and my homemade yogurt. Served with green tomato chutney, of course!

greens

Our lovely rainy westcoast June is bringing up a green bounty! Lettuce, kale, spinach, chard, green onions, chinese cabbage... you name it, we are eating it.

plastic-less-ness

Thanks to a friend's plastic-less passion, I too have been bitten by the bug. I've made the easy adjustments, like taking bags into stores. And refusing plastic when I can. My favourite new plastic-less thing to do is make yogurt. With my old-school 70's yogurt maker we no longer buy yogurt in plastic single-use containers and the milk is even from glass-bottles. Sooooo satisfyingly easy and delicious.

veggie pot pie

I used to make a roasted vegetable pot pie before kids, with lots of fancy veg and a red wine sauce... now it's the popular potato, yam, carrot, pea and corn combo, that my kids love. Topped with a quick baking powder biscuit topping. The goodness comes from a nutritional yeast gravy.