can't sleep

Since I can't sleep, I thought I would pop over here to leave you with a delicious, light summer soup.

Summer habits have kicked in; Ryan is sound asleep and I'm here on the couch catching up on pvr'd cooking shows. Giada just made an amazing caprese salad that I will definitely be sharing with you soon!
Lynn Ogryzlo's Broccoli Parmesan Soup

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
4 cups broccoli stems and florets
1 potato, peeled and chopped
6 cups canned chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half cream
4 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp table cream
seasoned croutons

In a heavy bottomed stockpot, melt the butter and cook the onion over medium heat until translucent (3 mins). Add broccoli and potatoes and cook for 5 mins. Add the chicken stock and simmer for approx. 10 mins. Return to pot, add cream and parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. When ready to serve, spoon soup into individual bowls. Mix sour cream and table cream together and drizzle over soup. Garnish with seasoned croutons and parmesan cheese.

If you have time slow roast some vegetables, slather a baguette with goats cheese and have a delicious sandwich too!



Enjoy!

kindred kind

Two weeks, two weeks! Can you believe that? We are already midway into July! I am enjoying my summer so much, I really don't want this season to go.

Friday I woke early, went to spin class, meandered around the farmers market (picking up spiced dill pickled carrots from hyhope, peaches, cherries, apricots and sugar plums), picked up our csa (romaine lettuce, raspberries, yellow and green beans, zucchini, broccoli, garlic, tomatoes and baby cucumber), came home made Gwenyth Paltrow’s peach bbq sauce (so good), went to a friends for lunch (more on this in a minute), went to the park with my niece, picked Ryan up at the train station, went out for sushi and to see Horrible Bosses – hilarious and lastly stopped to congratulate our friends Nicole and Owen on their engagement!

No work, no deadlines, no bells; just simple enjoyment of great friends, great family, amazing weather and delicious food.

I know this sounds like a busy day but the funny thing is, in there I had a 4 and ½ hour lunch. I met Nichole this year when I started teaching high school. She is one of those friends that you swear has known you your entire life simply because they “gets” the crazy that is in your head.

I had to drag myself away from her table but I could have easily sat there for another 4 and ½ hours and never run out of things to talk about…our last Starbucks visit lasted 6 hours. Friday we talked over tea, a summer salad and an amazing parmesan zucchini loaf with ricotta cheese. If you frequent this blog often you know I started a love affair with zuchinni last summer.

And, as I’ve posted before, if I leave a friend’s house with a recipe – I know they are a keeper! The picture above isn’t great quality; I took it on my iphone when I was at Nicole’s for lunch. But I think iphone pictures are real memories; no time to stop and find the perfect lighting or setting; they say this is so amazing I’ve just got to capture it!



This loaf is so good I had to make it yesterday with the zucchini from our csa so Ryan could try.
This is how mine turned out. I had to adjust the cooking time significantly – I added an extra ½ hour as the loaf was still very wet after 70min.

Martha Stewart’s Parmesan Zucchini Loaf

Ingredients

o 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
o 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
o 1/3 cup milk
o 2 large eggs
o 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 ounces)
o 2 teaspoons baking powder
o Coarse salt and ground pepper
o 1/2 pound (about 1 medium) zucchini, coarsely grated

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (6-cup capacity) with oil; dust with flour, and tap out excess.

2.In a small bowl, whisk oil, milk, and eggs. In a large bowl, whisk flour, Parmesan, baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; mix in zucchini, then egg mixture until just moistened (batter will be very thick, like biscuit dough).

3.Transfer batter to prepared pan; press in gently. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes (tent with foil if loaf starts to brown too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan; turn out loaf onto a rack to cool completely.

Pile it on

I found a new blog and I have been glued to it for days; Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks. The premise behind Heidi’s blog could not be better suited to me; a girl who has bought a ton of cookbooks and suddenly realizes it is time to stop buying and start cooking.

I love cook books. Taking a pile to the couch with a cup of tea and flipping for inspiration, in my opinion, is an ideal Saturday morning. Last week’s CSA included fresh zucchini. Last summer zucchini became one of my favourite things to cooks with. It is so versatile; sweet or savory, crispy or smooth, raw or cooked any way you slice it: simply delicious.

When I stumbled upon Heidi’s blog and found this recipe I hadn’t intended on writing a post but after I tried them, I just had to share.

I toasted an english muffin, spread some goat's cheese and topped with the zucchini pickles - so good!

Heidi Swanson’s Zucchini Pickles

3 medium zucchini (1 pound / 16 oz / 450 g), thinly sliced

1 medium white onion, thinly sliced

3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt
1/4 cup (small handful) fresh dill sprigs
1 small fresh red chile pepper, very thinly sliced – I substituted some dried red chillie peppers
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
3/4 cup / 180 ml cider vinegar

3/4 cup / 180 ml white wine vinegar

1/3 cup / 1.75 oz / 50g natural cane sugar – I used double regular sugar


Toss the zucchini, onion, shallots, and salt together in a colander and place over a bowl to catch the liquids. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Toss once or twice along the way. You're aiming to get as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible.
When you're finished draining the zucchini, shake off any water. At this point you want the zucchini as dry as possible. Place in a 1 liter / 1quart jar along with the dill, chile pepper, and mustard seeds.
Combine the ciders and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and continue to boil for a few minutes. Pour the liquid over the zucchini and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate. The pickles are good for a week or so.

life a fresh take turns 1

It all started a year ago today. We ate leftovers from last years Canada Day party and I timidly typed up a few thoughts with the recipe for you. Ironically, today's post does not include a recipe but instead a couple ideas for presents for you to celebrate our anniversary!

If you know me, you know Ryan and therefor you know he is pretty friking awesome. To celebrate the summer / my blogiversary he gave me a few things that I think are summer must haves; a zero gravity chair and Gwyneth Paltrow's new cook book.
We had our annual Canada Day party yesterday and celebrated with some fantastic friends. And today, we ate left over mini cherry pies.

I know we should be celebrating with cake but I prefer cheese! Above, is a current favourite; applewood smoked cheddar.

Thank you, without you dear reader this past year would have been very lonely.