Mea Culpa

I realize that it has been a while since I updated last. I didn't really think anybody noticed, but then over the holidays I had a few friends ask about the blog and why I didn't update it more. There are a few reasons; busy times, blogger being slow, scrounging for material etc. I am going to try and be better about it, even if it is just once a week and even if it is just for those people I don't get to see very often who use the blog as a way of keeping up.

The above should really be dedicated to its own post, our girls trip to Las Vegas in November. The food was out of this world. We went to Bouchon, which was sort of a dream come true.

Also, I am looking at starting (or maybe transitioning) over to Tumblr, because Blogger really is kind of a drag to use. We'll see.

For now here is an image of us in the sun in Las Vegas. Soon...soon.

To All the Mothers

That is me and Jonathan St. Pierre, a nice and very sweaty man (I had to crop out poor Jenny who was making a very unfortunate face). I went to my first ever Argos game this past weekend with Jenny, Homer and Ian. After this photo was taken, Jenny had the brilliant idea to go to karaoke at the Fox and Fiddle, since Ian and Homer are sort of karaoke all stars. So in a cab we hopped, off to Bloor and Beverley. We had a couple of beers at the game and let's just say a few more drinks were consumed (maybe some doubles) and Ian, Tristan and Jenny each brought the house down with their respective numbers. We got home at 2:30am. I had people coming over the next afternoon, and had promised food, ouch.

Here is where the title comes from (well sort of, not to imply that all the mothers I know like going out to sing karaoke until all hours). Luckily I had already planned to make the easiest recipe of all time - Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos. These take 15 min to pull together (and that is if you make your own taco seasoning, which I did because I realized it was the one thing I had forgotten to buy). It is also great for working mom's (like the mom whose blog I got it from). Just throw the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning and bingo-bango.

You can see the full post where I found the recipe here. In it the author links to her preferred recipe for taco seasoning which I ended up using. I thought it was just enough - she would have used a little more. She mentions that you can even put the chicken in frozen, which I have done in the past, it just takes the full 8 hours on low to cook. This time I just put the chicken in uncooked and not frozen and it was done in about 6.

I had three good size chicken breasts and this (along with a small bag of frozen corn, on can of black beans and a small salsa) made enough to feed 4 adults with a TON of leftovers.

Great for lunches the next day, as a topper for salads or over rice.

I link the Friendly Butcher above, a shop new to the Danforth. Friendly as the name implies and helpful. I hope they last longer than the other butcher did.

A final note, you should visit my friend Avery's blog - she talks about our recent Jam making party and how you can host your own!

Email History

Like so many people of my generation, I have multiple email addresses. Three to be exact. The Oatmeal, has a great comic about what your email address says about you, but then again The Oatmeal has great things in general.

Indeed, my old Hotmail address still exists, though I rarely check it anymore, I keep it around in case it happens to be the only address someone has and they need to get in touch. Though I suppose they could just go one Facebook or Google me as one person did (not that I am famous, but there are not too many Toronto Hilary Green's out there). It is also where I get some e-blasts that I need to get but don't need to look at on a regular basis (CAEA I am looking at your E-Drive here) and where I have an extensive file of great emails from my university years.

Today when I was cleaning out the inbox I took a look in a folder I had labelled "I Like." Two things stuck out at me. I'll give you the sort of melancholy one first. It was an old email from a friend who passed away. For some reason in 2002 I circulated around with our friends that asked what the three songs would be at your funeral. My friend Bryce who passed away a few years later wrote:

Bad as they seem, Hayden
Motion Picture Soundtrack, Radiohead
Ice ice baby, Vanilla Ice... But all funeral attendees would have to replace the word "ice" with "Bryce"

And it made me think of him again.

Then I kept going and found this poem that my friend Kristopher wrote, it would have been when we were all (you know all of us right?) living together. I guess we were writing door poetry in the mornings for each other or something silly like that. And since it has to do with food I thought I would publish here (Kris don't sue me!)

HOT TEA?
maybe this tea won't be hot.
a quick sip tells me it is not.
a burning feeling, then to numb,
to think tea cool, that was dumb
my tongue now feeling thick and hurt,
the roof of my mouth raw and burnt
i slap my thigh in anger and scorn,
why do i do this every morn.

As you can see by the poem above and image below (of Bryce and a lens) both these guys were a little bit silly, if they had ever met they probably would have got on like a house on fire.

It's been too hot again to cook, but here is a link to an easy salad to see you through.

The One Where I Talk about Quinoa

June was kind of nutty and I didn't cook so much, then July came and with the first of July comes this ones birthday:

And there was some champagne and good times. Then the G20 came and there were some really really bad times.

Then we went to the cottage and had some homemade wings and other delicious foods, and the good times returned. With views like this:

Before we left for the cottage my long awaited oilcloth order came and I got really into crafting and finished this (more on my oilcloth obsession in another post):

Then we went out and around and saw some things like this:

And this past weekend visited, among others, these lovely ladies:

So with all of that running around and eating on the road I thought it best this week to return to some healthy roots.

With that in mind I bring you a quinoa salad. Embarrassingly healthy and though you do have to turn on the oven it can be eaten cold, straight from the fridge, keeping for 3 days. Perfect for summer office lunches.

Curried Quinoa Salad

From the GI Diet Cookbook

Serves 6

*You can add some diced cooked chicken (as I did) or tofu to make this a complete meal.

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp + 1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped shallot

1 tsp curry powder (or more if you like it spicy)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

1/2 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots

1/4 cup chopped toasted cashews

2 tbsp chopped green onion

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1. In frying pan over medium heat, toast quinoa for 5 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to to pop. In small saucepan, bring 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt to boil. Add toasted quinoa; cover and simmer over medium head for 15 to 20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Scrap quinoa into a large bowl. Let cool.

2. Meanwhile, in a non-stick frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high eat; cook shallot for 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in curry powder and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper and pour over quinoa. Stir in reserved shallot mixture, carrot, red pepper, apricots, cashews, green onion and parsley.

Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit....

On Sunday we finally came out of the little cold snap we had been experiencing this May. This guy and his glare tells you how I feel about cold snaps. Dislike.

Needless to say when I was grocery shopping this weekend my mind was not on grilling and outdoor dining. It was on comfort food, which is why in the middle of May you are getting a chili recipe. I blogged earlier about vegetarian chili, both are equally tasty but this one is healthier (no re-fried beans and the added bonus of soy protein).

The recipe is from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, I've adapted it to use my favourite beans and a flavoured soy ground round. I only bought the flavoured kind because it was on sale, but I think the extra spices add a little extra kick to the mix.

If by the time you read this you are firing up the grill perhaps you could use this to make a veggie chili dog or as part of veggie nacho dip.

Or you could just file it until fall....

Spicy Veggie Chili

Adapted from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cup chopped red onions

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 cup chopped celery

2 tsp minced garlic

1 pkg Yves Meatless Ground Taco Stuffers (also called Tex-Mex Ground Round) 340g

1 1/2 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (19oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (19oz) lentils, drained and rinsed

1 can tomato sauce (14 oz)

1 cup vegetable broth

1/2 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar**

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Light Sour Cream (for serving)

** if using regular brown sugar use 1 tbsp.

1. Heat olive oil in a large, non-stick, pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

2. Add ground round, chili powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, red pepper flakes, and cinnamon. Mix well and cook for 1 more minute. Add tomatoes, beans, tomato sauce, broth, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with Sour Cream.

On Compromise

One of the biggest parts of any relationship is the aspect of compromise. I don't mean the big compromise, I mean the little everyday ones we do with all of the people in our lives. Everything from the way the toilet paper hangs to the kind of coffee in the office. Compromise keeps everyone playing nicely, and at some point if we are all doing it right everyone gets what they want.

One compromise I have made with Homer is the love of chicken wings and of the Habs. I never really liked chicken wings, something about eating meat off a bone doesn't appeal to me, it is the same reason I am not a rib lover. This is sort of odd since as a child I once tried to eat a chicken bone, but that is a story for another time.

But Homer loves chicken wings, and he loves a restaurant called Wild Wings which has over 100 flavours of chicken wings (including Creamy Suicide and Rush Hour). Over the past year we have been there a few times, he even celebrated his 30th birthday there. And now, while they are not my meal of choice, I have come to appreciate the humble wing.

The Habs were a bit easier for me to get into (they require no extra calorie intake). And with playoff season here, TSN and Hockey Night in Canada are a regular fixture in our entertainment roster. Since we don't have cable when the games are on TSN we need to go a bar to watch them. This is all well and good as long as pace myself in the food and drink department, reminding myself that the playoffs come but once a year.

This round of games is on CBC which comes in crystal clear on our HD antenna so we can dine and view in the comfort of our own home. I wanted to make it a bit more festive so I whipped up some healthier chicken "wings" this weekend. At 56 calories a wing you can afford to have a few.

In honour of our friends at Wild Wings I'll name them Hal Gill. Enjoy!

Boneless Chicken "Wings"

*Hal Gill Flavour

Adapted from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry

12 large boneless, skinless lean chicken thighs (Blue Menu by Presidents Choice has these)

1/3 cup barbecue sauce (can be low cal)

2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp liquid honey

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp roasted garlic puree

1 tsp chili powder

5 dashes Sriracha Chili Sauce

1 tsp cornstarch

*Note if your barbecue sauce is already sweetened you may want to reduce the amount of liquid honey to 1 tbsp.

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with foil, spray with cooking spray and set aside.

2. Cut each thigh in half and place cut pieces in a single layer in prepared baking pan. Fold or roll them up to a bit so they resemble the shape of a chicken wing. They should just fit in the pan (3 rows of 8 "wings").

3.Whisk together all remaining ingredients. Spoon sauce evenly over chicken pieces.

4. Bake, uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is bubbly.

Serve!

Below a not so great iPhone photo of the "wings" in action.

The Little Things

Lately I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. Lots of changes are happening all around me, and I have been feel pressure to make some changes myself, and by gosh those changes better be the right ones.

If I had a dollar for the number of times I have been asked "What do you want?" or "What happens next for you?" in the last few months, I would be able to not have to worry about the answers to those questions. I would be able to sit by my hot tub and veg with a bottle of champagne.

Despite my mounting number of grey hairs I still don't feel like an adult or someone who needs to make important life decisions.

We babysat my co-workers daughter this past week and it dawned on my that I hadn't babysat since I was in my early teens. It felt a bit strange and I realized how little our house is equipped for children; not that it needs to be I guess. It also became apparent that I wasn't sure what kids liked to eat. Mostly she wanted the cookies, I relented with one only to have a chocolaty hand smear on my pants a moment later. Sadly, they weren't even homemade.

I remember a Friends episode where Monica talked about wanting to be the mom who made the perfect chocolate chip cookies. I think about that whenever the thought of children crosses my mind. I am terrible at making cookies and I am not sure why. My muffins can rival any bakeries, my cakes are generally tasty, I make a mean crumble, but successful cookies have always eluded me.

A few weeks ago after I finished making a particularly disappointing set of chocolate cookies I made silent promise to stop trying to make cookies for a while. One batch of muffins in the last three weeks, that is it. When I came across the below recipe I had a renewed sense of hope. No they are not cookies, but they are a sort of cookie bar. They are really easy (I assume something that is good if you are a mom) and quick and they keep for a week.

I'm not sure what is next for me or even what the right next step is. But I can now make a really good cookie bar. It's the little things that count.

Salted Toffee-Chocolate Squares

Adapted from Everyday Food May 2010

Makes 24 squares

13 graham crackers

1 bag of toffee bits (8oz or a little less)

1 1/2 cups finely chopped peanuts

1/2 cup sugar (yes the real stuff)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 tsp coarse salt

1. Preheat over to 350. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place graham crackers in a single layer on sheet, edges touching. Sprinkle toffee bits and peanuts over the graham crackers.

2. In a small saucepan, bring sugar and butter to a boil over medium-high. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is syrupy, 2 minutes. Immediately pour over graham crackers. Bake until sugar topping is bubbling, 12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate and salt over graham crackers. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut into 2 inch squares. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. (Store in an air tight container, up to 1 week)