A call for the re-privatization of the liquor stores

Do you ever wonder if we got ahead when the government decided to privatize the liquor stories in Alberta? Is liquor more accessible at all hours of the day night? (yes) Did the prices go lower? (Maybe) Did we lose the chance to get a government subsidized cookbook issued quarterly that rocks? (definitely). Enter the LCBO "Food and Drink" cookbook that can arguably be deemed one of the most interesting cooking rags Canada has to offer. Ontario's liquor control board has worked hard to create this little treasure and it is a shame that one can't subscribe. So if you have a friend who happens to live in the centre of the universe (i.e., Toronto) or anywhere in the Ontario area, get them to pick one of these up for you 4 times a year. It might be worth your first born.

Chicken Pot Pie

I don't recall having chicken pot pie very often at mom and dad's house but we often had Fricaseed Chicken on Toast (i.e., creamed chicken on toast). So my recipe for Chicken Pot Pie essentially builds on that but just adds some pastry to the top of it.

Cook approximately 3 cups cubed chicken (or used leftovers from roast chicken) in a deep frying pan. Add one cup chopped onions and one cup sliced mushrooms. Saute until onions are translucent and mushrooms are reduced in size. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoonfuls of flour and continue to saute for a minute. Sprinkle with half a teaspoon of dried thyme. Add one can of cream of mushroom soup. Stir then add some chicken broth until a thick gravy-like consistency (about half a cup or so). stir in 3/4 of a cup of cooked green peas, and one cup cooked sliced carrots. Let simmer on low for a minute or so, while you are rolling out half a package of tenderflake puffed pastry to fit a 9x9 pan or nice oval casserole dish. Fill casserole with chicken mixture then place pastry on top sealing to the sides of the pan. With a sharp knife make some slits on top of the pastry to let the steam escape. as a final touch to make the pastry shiny beautiful, brush with some beaten egg. Place in a 375degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and puffy.

Interestingly, every time I serve this to Nathan, he exclaims that he does not like it, then he realizes it is chicken pot pie and dives in saying, "it is his favorite!"

Power to the Potato

After I left home I didn't eat potatoes for about 2 or 3 years.

Why, you ask?

We had potatoes almost every night (okay, maybe every OTHER night) for dinners. Home made French fries, silver dollars, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato cakes, shredded potatoes, taters, scalloped potatoes...you name it. I still have to think about working potatoes into my current menus because I have somehow banished them from my mind. They turned into one of those food items that just made me sigh.

This week I found myself tackling one of the staples from our home dinners: Scalloped Potatoes. Mum always did them pretty plain old jane style, because "your father likes them that way". I couldn't resist adding a twist to the dish with capers and hard white cheddar to infuse at least a bit flavour into it.

4 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, sliced and then quartered
2 heaping tbsp flour with S&P for seasoning
2 tbsp butter or margarine
milk (skim OK and then finish off with cream!)

Butter casserole dish with 1 tbsp butter. Put a layer of potatoes, then layer of onions, sprinkle with 1 tbsp of flour mixture. Do another layer of potatoes, then layer of onions, and sprinkle with remaining flour mixture. Top off with one thin layers of potatoes. Dot with butter. Add milk almost to top level, but not quite.

Cover and microwave on high for 15-20 mins. You could also bake at 375 for 45-60 mins. Watch out for bubbling over. It makes a generous amount (serves about 6).


For a twist, I added a wee bit of dried thyme flakes to the flour mixture, a few capers and about ½ a cup of sharp white cheddar cheese in the onion layers. It was fabulous. Great texture, flavourful, and quite easy to make. It probably helped that I had my Rotato Express :-)

It's definitely nice to get to know this dish the second time around. Power to the potato.

Frisper by Oliso, keeping things fresh and crispy

Meet my Frisper:

(image courtesy of www.oliso.com)

He is new to my kitchen implements and is keeping things fresh and crispy by vacuum sealing various food items at Chez Haney. I bought it this summer at the market at Vancouver’s exhibition. It was an impromptu purchase because we saw it, liked it, and then because it was the end of the night, haggled the guy to see what else he could do to “incentivize” the purchase (we got an extra set of bags).

The great thing about the frisper is that it packs a lot of punch in terms of power, it’s super easy to use, and it’s small, about the size of my outstretched hand. The bags that come with it are easy to clean (dishwasher safe) and reusable up to about 20 times or more each.

I have frispered (yes, it has been verbed) a lot of things like coffee, nuts, and shrimp – the latter which seem to get freezer burned quite easily when they are left loose in the bag.

It’s a good Christmas 2009 gift for the foodies out there!

Christmas Cocktail 2009

I know it’s early, BUT…

Do you fancy a cocktail for Christmas that is warm in essence but hot in the flavor department?

Vanilla vodka (try Smirnoff), ginger ale (try Canada Dry), and some pomegranate seeds for garnish (one could also use cranberries).

It’s a cousin to the "Snadra Special" summer concoction comprised of vanilla vodka and coke.

Deck the halls!

Voodoo Doughnut Burger in Portland

Read more details on it here or here. Would you do it?

I ♥ Portland Restaurants

Husband and I went on a road trip to California this fall. On our way back up to Canada we stopped in Portland and we happily surrendered to the food mecca that it is. I had never been even though it is only a few hours away from Vancouver. It's pretty cool. Do they ever know how to eat! And drink! (their happy hours put Vancouver’s to shame)

Some highlights were:

The Original – a “dinerant” where husband ate a peanut butter and jam Monte Cristo and I had a fried bologna sandwich served with carmelized onions, mortadella and smoked gouda (drool). They also feature a burger served on a doughnut (yes, you read that correctly). Neither of us dared to do it. Intriguing, but a little gaggy. They also serve homemade pop tarts during happy hour for $1. HELLO?!? Please come to Vancouver.

Pazzo – We were skeptical because it would appear to be a popular tourist Italian joint on a main drag, but I had THE MOST terrific roasted beet insalata with cucumber with a marscapone horseradish dressing. This salad by far surpassed any salad that I have had at a restaurant. My pasta: amazing. Fabulous service. Plus, the portions were healthy.

The Saucebox – Killer happy hour where an eclectic range of asian-fusion eats could be had for only mere dollars a dish with amazing cocktails to boot.

Departure Restaurant and Lounge – Crave sushi? Crave hot people and good views? I give this an honorable mention, because we just went here for a late night snack and drinks. It is located at the top of the luxurious hotel we indulged in called the Nines.

Byways Café – A solid breakfast diner. Need I say more?

Battle Spinach!

It was Iron Chef time again as Sandy came for a visit to Edmonton. In an effort to ensure the secrecy of the ingredient, I was forced to let my coworkers know about the Iron Chef gameplay so that they could come up with a secret ingredient that would be truly secret. When it was time for the reveal, Sandy opened up the envelope and there it was: SPINACH!

There was much swearing (and from Jason a plea to "Change the ingredient") but we spent our 15 minutes quickly coming up with recipe ideas.

Despite Jason's almost consistent whining about the fact that "spinach has no taste" and that he was a "one-trick pony" with respect to his cooking technique (read: only cooks asian food)and that "spinach just doesn't lend itself well to that style of cooking' - he WON. (55 out a possible 60 marks). His 2 dishes - lobster kabobs stuffed with spinach and served with spinach dip and spinach soup shooter - we by far the best of the night. The soup shooter had wanter chestnuts within and was topped with fried onion bits -so good!

Sandy made spinach and chicken canneloni with a spinach cream sauce and spinach salad. I made spinach, asiago and artichoke stuffed mushroom caps for an appetizer. For the main, it was chicken stuffed with spinach, dill, feta and pinenuts served on spinach pasta. We both scored around 45 of 60 - and though our dishes tasted good, they just did not have the panache and originality that Jason's did.

Better with Boursin?

Well, it was a quite Monday afternoon with weather reports of a soaring "high" of 13 tomorrow so what could be nicer on a cool day but soup? Nevermind that it is supposed to be a Spring soup but I am sure that it will warm the toes by Thursday when the weather guys are claiming we could get SNOW!

I started the recipe in a manner similar to Sandy but diverged a bit from there. I sauteed one onion in about 4-5 tbsp of butter until carmelized. Next came 4 level tbsps of flour to make the roux. I cooked this until ever so slightly browned so that the soup would not taste gummy. Then I added 3 cups of skim milk and cooked until thickened- then 3/4 cup of whipping cream. I had steamed one pound of asparagus and chopped them up (saving some tips)nd tossed them into the soup. The handy hand blender came out and I pureed the soup until relatively smooth but with a few rustic chunks. I thought it was still just a tad too thick so I put in 1 cup of the cooking liquid from the asparagus to lighten it up a bit. The piece de resistance was the addition of 1 package of Boursin cheese (the original herb flavour). Wow. Amazing. Never have I added cheese to an asparagus soup but with the Boursin, I may never go back.

Thinking Outside of the Can

The other day I was making Lazy Cabbage Rolls. I was in search of a substitute for the Campbell’s canned tomato soup that is used in the recipe.

Why you might ask?

MSG, preservatives, lots o’ salt, a bunch of ingredients I can’t pronounce. Not that I am against Campbell’s because I have used it a lot in the past, BUT I am looking for a change.…and I think I found it. I tried Pacific Foods Organic Creamy Tomato and Amy’s Organic Cream of Tomato Soup. The winner was:

Amy's was more tomatoey and better texture. I added just a bit of tomato paste to thicken it up. Of course, it has a much different consistency, but worked well for how it is used in the Lazy Rolls. The Pacific Foods tomato soup is an excellent substitute if you are looking for a cream of tomato soup version that you would get from Campbell’s. It is not; however, suitable for any Lazy Rolls. I realize our mothers in the 70's and 80's were a slave to the markets. Campbell's was probably all that was available, but nowadays we have plenty other options to check out.

Lazy Cabbage Rolls - Sooooo Easy!!!

1 lb. ground beef
3-4 cups cooked long grain white rice
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 or 2 cans tomato soup

Cook rice. Brown ground beef. Cook onion 3-4 mins in oil or butter with a pinch of salt. Add cabbage and continue cooking over medium heat until it wilts, but no browning, and onions are translucent. Add the ground beef to the rice (this works well if done in a large, shallow bowl). Butter a casserole dish. Add rice mixture, followed by cabbage mixture, and top off with 1 or 2 cans of tomato soup depending on how much "sauce" you want. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

You can also use tomato sauce if you prefer a stronger tomato flavour and omit the ground beef if you want to do a vegetarian version. You can also try other options, like sausage (which Car did a long time ago).

It's Spring! Cream of Asparagus Soup

Birds are singing, cherry blossoms have bloomed (finally!), and it's getting warmer. All good signs towards Spring. Spring is a great time for asparagus -- I picked a bunch up to make for a steak dinner and with the leftovers I made this yummy, creamy, asparagus soup.

Because of these leftovers I inadvertently ending up doing a family recipe test. I guess that makes it less of a Pass the Perogies test, but it's still kinda the same because I was winging it from what I remember Mum made except I don't think she used cheese...

1 pound asparagus
1 large yellow onion

2-3 tbsp butter

5-6 tbsp flour

2 cups (or more) skim milk

1/4-1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup grated cheese (hard, old white cheddar works well)
salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion and cook in crockpot in butter over medium heat until translucent (no brown) for about 7-10 mins. In the interim, cut off ends of asparagus and steam for about 8-10 mins (?) until cooked through then let cool slightly. Add flour to the onions to make a roux. Whisk in the milk and cream and bring to a boil until bubbly and thickening. Chop the asparagus and add to the soup mixture, reserving some of the chopped mixture until the end (tips preferred). Blend soup using blender or hand blender to combine the flavours. Add cheese and let melt. Add more milk or cream until desired consistency and whisk thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper and stir in reserved chopped asparagus.

Lot's of questions marksand estimates, I know. Hopefully when Car recipe tests she can fine tune the details.

Even though this is a cream soup, it tastes quite light. Great with salad or crusty bread (no pictures from this one, but sis can attest since she had some on here visit to Vancouver!)

Hobo Bread

As I write this post, I am happily feasting on two slices of the rich-tasting Hobo Bread slathered in butter with a cuppa joe. Not quite like the dude in this picture (note the coffee can, which is supposed to be used to cook the bread): (image courtesy of the-iss.com)

MY quest to make hobo bread began last night. Since I was improvising with this recipe (ie: no coffee cans!) all I had to do was start with soaking the raisins overnight and not worry about drinking three pounds worth of coffee in advance, like Car did. The recipe ended up working well by dividing the batter between two loaf pans.

There was a certain nostalgia when prepping this recipe…a sweet, rich, "molasses-like" smell wafted from the soaking raisins that brought me back to childhood. It is such a warm, familiar smell.

Car’s note that the dough is “stiff” is an understatement – it is heavy, too, from all of the plumped raisins! Good news is that I suppose this is one recipe that could be considered “low fat” since it only uses 4 tbsp. of vegetable oil for two loaves (or three if you are using coffee cans). Overall: DELICIOUS!

Easy Peas-ey Split Pea Soup

It was just Easter and there was ham at the family dinner in Calgary. In the desperation to fulfill my cravings for split pea soup (which I made last Easter), I asked if I could take the bone home along with the other leftovers being forced on us! (well, not exactly forced...:-). Yes, packing the bone up in my suitcase, but it's a quick flight from Calgary to Vancouver. This soup has become only an annual thing because of Easter, but it would be just as easy to make this with ham hocks from the store. It's just delicious and I tried freezing it and it works well. I have decided this is an official recipe for the book! Must try the hobo bread in the next few days......

Three empty coffee cans

So my quest to make HOBO Bread started about 1 1/2 months ago when I had to start to empty 3 one pound coffee cans in order to create the containers to make the loaf. This is one of those loaves that remind me of childhood- and is really nice plain and with butter too. I am sure that 30 years ago the coffee tins were more abundant than now. In fact, with all of the "cheap" coffee in plastic tins and the fancy coffee in vacuum sealed bags, it might actually become more challenging to make this recipe. As it was, I was just happy that Timmies comes in small cans - because I can do Timmies. The recipe - and it really is worth drinking all of the coffee.

Wash one pound of raisins. Let stand overnight in 2 cups of boiling water and 4 tsp of baking soda. In the morning add 2 cups of white sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp veggie oil, 2 eggs (beaten) and 4 cups of flour. It is a bit of a stiff dough. Line 3 one-pound coffee tins with parchment - bottom and sides (you must do this). Fill the tins with equal portions of dough (a little over half each) and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool in tins. Freezes well.

Kitchen Therapy

Who needs retail therapy when they love cooking? On Sunday I cooked up a storm and made three big batches of meals, but none of them involved any recipe testing for this blog. Shame on me. I did; however, make some yummy eats that we had for Sunday dinner and froze the rest for lunches.

First I tackled a family lasgagna recipe that husband's cousin gave me. One time when she house-sat for us, she put this wonderful lasagna in our freezer to enjoy on the return from our trip. Super thoughtful and super yummy! The recipe is very simple - lot's of cheese, great sauce, same ol' lasgana layers, but is is just great.

I then made Scentilentil Journey from the Looney Spoons cookbook. Red lentils are the key ingredient in this one. It is a healthy, filling, and very flavorful casserole-type meal. Even better it doesn't have any meat, but husband still eats it! As he says, 'it looks a little bit like baby puke, but tastes really good' (terrible - I know! my biggest critic) - a winner for lunches!

Finally, I made Ina Garten's (the Barefoot Contessa) Italian Wedding Soup. It takes a lot of prep because of the little meatballs, but they make the dish. I think the meatballs from that recipe could be eaten just on their own! Anyhow, the soup was superb.

Car tells me that she just made Hobo Bread from the family recipe treasure trove. Hobo bread is probably one of my most nostalgic recipes from childhood. A hearty, sweet bread with molasses and raisins taking the spotlight and to top it off, it's cooked in an old coffee can. Pretty cool! I don't have the recipe, so she is going to post it and then I am dying to try it out. Stay tuned...

Mushrooms on Rice

It's been a number of months (well, over half a year!) since I've passed the perogies, but I am ready to stop the drought.

A few weekends ago, I was in dire need of some comfort food. It was cold, rainy, and life was generally "blah". I knew the last recipe test Car did on here was the "Mushrooms on Toast", so I did the Sandy-fied version: Mushrooms on Rice.

It's basically the same mushroom sauce recipe as in the previous post, except that mine is one step lazier: I use a can of mushrooms (instead of fresh). This recipe is especially perfect on comfort food nights, especially when moving seems like a chore. It is easy and filling and cosy. I love to serve the easy-to-prep mushroom sauce on top of hot cooked rice instead of buttered white bread that has been toasted, but both options hit the spot.

Seems like this mushroom sauce makes it way into a lot of recipes on here!