Delightful dinners, Delightful Lady

A good friend of mine, aka Missyween.com, has a fun little portion of her blog devoted to dinner. I did a guest post over there a little bit ago. If you're interested in redeeming cauliflower and meatloaf, check it out. No more Haters!

Mo Pie...Mo Friends

Had the great pleasure of spending yesterday with some good friends. Rainy bus riding, tea sipping and pie making made for a full and delicious Monday.

I recently took a book out of the library called Savory Baking. If you think you'd like things like, Peppery Pear and Goat Cheese Scones, Spinach Feta Pie with Nuts or Peameal Bacon Bread Pudding then take this book out of your local library or buy it.

On this particular morning, the Spinach Feta Pie and the Curried Vegetable Potpie with Dried Fruit were sounding just right. We settled on the spinach one and went to work.

Here's the evidence.

The girl can cook! Perfect, flaky crust. Thanks Aban.

Sharing the finished product.

THE Lentil Salad

My lentil loving brother and I.

I have yet to meet someone who does not love this salad. The addition of creamy orzo and nutty brown rice will make even the most stout lentil avoider yield. Once we were in an Indian restaurant and the waitress asked my dad if he knew what curry was. He responded, It's a spice. No, she said it is a combination of many spices. We are very spoiled these days with vastly availabile multi-cultural culinary delights. In case you thought curry was simply a yellow powder that comes out of a glass cylinder, this dish allows you to make your own curry powder. And it's delicious.

Sprinkle a generous amount of currants, green onion and slivered toasted almonds on top and you're off to the races.

Curried Lentil, Rice and Orzo Salad

(Adapted from Canadian Living.ca)

1/2C brown rice

2/3C brown or green lentils

1/2C orzo

1/2C currants

1/4C chopped green onion

1/3C almonds, slivered and toasted

Dressing:

1/4C cider vinegar

1t groud cumin

1t grainy dijon mustard

1/2t sugar or honey

1/2t salt

1/2t ground coriander

1/4t turmeric, paprika, nutmeg

1pinch each cinnamon, cloves and cayenne

1/3C Olive oil

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cover and cook rice for 15mins. Add lentils; boil 20 mins. Add orzo; cook 5-10 more mins. Drain well and transfer to a large bowl. Add currents and onion.

In a mason jar or small bowl, shake/whisk together all dressing ingredients.

Pour over rice.

Add almonds just before serving.

Love it.

Busy Lady Chicken

Things have been pretty busy around here lately. Here's a chicken dish that I tend to pull out when I have a tray of chicken and not much time.

Honey Dijon Chicken

(A.k.a: Not Humdrumsticks from: Eat Shrink and Be Merry)

12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 2.5lbs

1/4C honey

2tbsp apple cider vinegar

2tbsp grainy dijon mustard

1tsp minced garlic

1tsp herb de provence

Salt and pepper

Mix sauce ingredients in a 9x13 baking dish.

Add chicken pieces and mix them together with the sauce.

Bake at 400 for 25-30mins. Basting a few times is a good idea.

A Very Fragrant Butternut Squash and Zucchini Chili

I have a very pretty little row of butternut squash in my kitchen that keeps getting longer. I thought I had a bumper crop of chard but my squash shocked me even more. Last night, I held a zucchini in one hand and a squash in the other and was trying to decide what to do with them. With a few simple ingredients and about 10 minutes of chopping and peeling I had a very delicious smelling chili simmering.

With the nights starting to get a little cooler and a large crop of squash and zucchini, I know this chili will be making several more appearances at our supper table.

Fragrant Butternut Squash and Zucchini Chili

(adapted from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Haven)

1T Olive oil

1.5C Chopped onion

1 t Salt

1 t cumin

1/4t cinnamon

4-5 cloves garlic, crushed

1T Chili powder

1C Vegetable stock

1 Butternut squash, peeled and chopped 1 inch dice or so

1-2 Zucchini, chopped 1 inch dice or so

-2 limes, juiced

1 28oz can beans (I used red kidney but I imagine any would be delicious)

1.Heat oil in a dutch oven or pot. Add onion, salt, cumin, cinnamon and chili powder. Cook over low heat until onions are soft. About 10 minutes. Stirring frequently.

2. Stir in garlic and cook another 5 mins.

3. Add stock and squash. Cook 15 mins covered at med low heat.

4. Add zucchini, lime juice, and beans. Cook for 5-10 more mins.

5. Taste and season to your liking with more salt and pepper.

*top with pumpkin seeds, marinated tofu, minced cilantro or whatever else sounds good.

Spell-T Animal Crackers

Fun...The N cutter is a face with a big Nose. Not what I would have thought of for the letter N but I think it is my favourite cutter.

This is what I did today...made about 80 animal crackers. The first batch are spelt and honey and the second are oatmeal spice. While my Gramma Hobbs was cleaning out her apartment to move she found these really cute little animal cracker cutters. We love alphabet noodles and alphabet cookies and such, so these are a welcome addition to our pantry. We also found these cutters very useful with Playdough.

Oatmeal Spice Animal Crackers
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup rolled oats or (spelt flakes)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup butter
2-3 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grind oats until fine using a blender or food processor. (I use my coffee grinder)
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the blended oats, flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until the butter lumps are smaller than peas. Stir in the buttermilk and honey to form a stiff dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes. Spell, eat. You could even top with cheddar cheese.
   

Lucy's New Threads

Sewing is just a different kind of recipe. In fact, I often mix up the terms and say I'm using a pattern for dinner and a recipe for sewing...
For Clara's third birthday she got a dolly from her Great Gramma Dorothy and named the dolly "Lucy". Gramma Dorothy is a wonderful seamstress and has always made beautiful things including doll clothes. I had a little spare time last night and was digging through my old patterns when I found a vintage pattern for doll clothes. I used some sweet fat quarters that my Mum-in-law bought me for my birthday and now Lucy has some cool new threads.