Up until about a year ago Merrin was a very good eater. She had her favourite foods (broccoli) and then the things she would not touch (meat), but overall she ate decent amounts of good food. She’s always had this annoying habit of wanting to eat food separately – so instead of eating chicken & vegetable fried rice she’ll eat chicken and peas and carrots and rice. It drives me nuts as 1) it takes extra effort to prep the food separately even though the ingredients are the same as what we’re making, and 2) there’s just no friggin’ need of it, I mean COME ON!

Lately Merrin has been eating less food overall; some days she’s hungrier and eats more than others but on average she’s eating less food. I try not to make too big a deal of it, and am mindful not to give her too much to snack on before/between meals, and am chaulking it up to that’s she’s growing older and doesn’t need to eat quite as much food as she did when she was a busily sprouting toddler.

So far Elsa has been a great eater too. AND she doesn’t require her food to be prepared separately – she’s fine to eat mixed fried rice or a casserole or chili or even spaghetti with sauce on it (yes, nowadays Merrin only wants ‘plain’ spagetti).

But lately Elsa has been also eating less at home. Not every day, just every now and again. Reports from daycare strongly suggest that she has a healthy appetite while there. This morning I dropped her at the daycare and it wasn’t her regular daycare provider that was there to greet her. I let her know that Elsa didn’t eat much for breakfast so if she became hungry earlier in the morning that day why, and to let her eat more and/or earlier snack. The woman exclaimed, “Well, she doesn’t have a problem eating that’s for sure!” Laughing at the thought of Elsa refusing food, I’m sure.

Tonight for supper Cory made an excellent pasta dish: spinach fettucini with a white lemon-herb sauce (white chives, garlic chives, oregano, basil) tossed with grape tomatoes, yellow & orange peppers and onion. It went some good with a glass of Dad’s bakeapple wine (for me) and a Dos Equis beer (for Cory)! Yum-mers!

As required, Cory made a separate dish for the girls. They got: spinach fettucini, tomato, peas, bacon rashers (homemade ‘bits’), fried egg whites (Cory used some in the sauce for our dish).

Elsa demolished her egg and bacon and ate a few pieces of fettucini while Merrin picked at hers. Elsa then began demanding more egg. We told her she had to eat some peas first, or tomato (which Elsa hates), before getting more egg. She kept up asking for more egg, shutting her mouth and turning her head to refuse the spoons of peas I was waving in front of her.

I gave in and let her have *just one piece* of eggwhite that Merrin wasn’t eating (surprise surprise) as long as she’d eat some peas afterwards. Guess what happened? She gobbled up the egg and then refused the spoon of peas while simultaneously demanding more egg. Another big surprise.

Merrin, who by now was scarfing down the fettucini because it was made with spinach – “I LOVE spinach mom!” (yes, a recent development) – and peas – likely because they were the same colour as the spinach pasta – was watching this all unfold and herself began prodding Elsa to eat her peas.

“Elsa, you just have to eat one or two spoons of peas to get more egg. You want more egg? Or bacon? Just eat some peas, that’s all. Just one spoon is good. Or two. Just try it.”

Elsa was listening and was nodding her head in agreement. As she does anytime Merrin is talking to her. Receiving some encouragement Merrin spooned some peas onto her spoon, gets up from her chair and walks to the other side of the table where Elsa is seated in her highchair, and then puts the entire spoonful of peas in Elsa’s open and willing mouth.

And then goes back to get more peas, to once again feed to a happy and hungry Elsa.

This played out several times more while Cory and I looked at each other, trying not to laugh, and taking sips of our drinks between chuckles.

I’ve been wanting to write a food post for a while. For some reason – time, energy, patience, whatever – I haven’t done it. But things have been busy. And I’ve been distracted.

But we’ve been eating well. And eating some crap, but mostly eating well. The girls eat well too, Elsa usually eating slightly more than Merrin at most meals.

We’ve cooked a couple of new recipes in the past month or two, and most of them have been good. I’ve also cooked a couple of meals that we’ve made before but haven’t had in a long, long time. Tonight we had a James Barber, the Urban Peasant, dish of broccoli, sausages, black bean and tomatoes – I love it. The whole family loves it really. A couple of weeks ago I made a Martha Stewart chicken pot pie with a homemade roux, chicken breast, carrots, peas and phyllo pastry. We actually had Job & Penny up the night we made that and they helped us devour it.

Last week we tried a new cod recipe that I found by going through an old Fine Cooking magazine that I had. One of the comments on the online recipe was along the lines that it is a great way to cook cod in the winter as it makes a warm sauce to pour over it. It was a great meal, that similar to what another comment said, was it great with a glass of merlot. A nice warm winter fish dish for sure.

Cod with Mushroom, Garlic & Vermouth

You really should try it. It’s not that hard, it doesn’t take long, and it’s delicious. I swear you won’t be disappointed.

Food is important to us. Good food is even more important.

As I begin to type this entry I’m on the phone with Dad talking about eating well. He’s in Labrador and is given all kinds of good food – caribou, char, berries, salmon – and when we’re lucky (and he’s coming to town & has room) we receive the spoils of it too. In the fridge we have caribou jerky that I often nibble on when I’m snacky, caribou salami that is waiting to be paired with mozzarella on our next homemade pizza, and in the freezer a large smoked arctic char that I have to arrange a dinner party for – I can’t justify cooking up that bad boy just for me and Cory, I must invite somebody over to help us enjoy it. Any takers?

When I was pregnant with Merrin I remember wondering if having a baby, and eventually a kid, would mean that we wouldn’t have time to cook anymore. That we’d be relegated to a life of kraft dinner, emergency (frozen) pizza and take-out chinese. Now don’t get me wrong, we enjoy all these selections, just not all that often. Well except for the kids and their kraft dinner – we make about a box a week and save it leftovers to dole out bit by bit as side dishes on nights when they don’t really enjoy much of what we’re eating.

One of my proudest moments of the first day I brought Merrin home from the hospital was that once I walked in the door I went straight to the kitchen to make one of our favourite, and easiest, dishes: sausage, onion, broccoli & tomato stir fried with navy & black beans and rosemary. Although it probably had less to do with my desire to cook and more to do with my body seeking real food after the three day ’shock and awe’ that is hospital food. But I know it had something to do with my need to prove to myself that we could indeed cook real food and eat it as well, even if there was a time and energy sucking baby in the house now.

When Merrin was old enough to stand on a stool at the kitchen counter we began trying to incorporate her into our food preparation process. She enjoyed it for a while, maybe close to a year, and then her focus was sucked away by movies and toys and a baby sister. Every now and again she still wants to help in the kitchen, but more often than not she prefers to cook us food – or make us tea – with her wooden stove, metal pots and plastic food. I am proud of her when she does want to help us with the real food though, and happy because usually it means she will eat more, or be more adventurous in trying new food.

Tonight Elsa was inducted into the food preparation ritual. She is about at the same as now as Merrin was when she started standing on the stool, leaning against the counter. And we started Elsa off on the same things we did with Merrin – fresh mushrooms, the brush to get any dirt off, a cheese platter knife to cut them. Elsa loved it, and was a pro. At the cutting anyway, she had little interest in brushing them. Although she did brush a nearby lemon. Elsa’s mushroom cutting technique was to pull the stalk off, or at least most of it, then jam the cheese knife where the stalk used to be until it came through the cap on the other side, and finally to twist the cap and knife, one in each hand, until the mushroom broke in half. Or 1/4 & 3/4. Or at least broke into more than one piece somehow.

She was so proud of herself. And I was sure to tell her what an awesome job she did while I took the massacred mushrooms and finely chopped them for the the orzo risotto we were making. On a side note, I find that totally funny, because it’s risotto made with orzo, or Orzotto – hahaha! Okay, I guess it’s just me. Anyway….

Merrin, wondering what her sister was doing up on HER stool in the kitchen, also wanted to join in and help. So while Elsa and I stirred the broth into the orzo on the stovetop I had Merrin doing the most important risotto making job of all – preparing the flavour agents. Merrin’s job was to grate the lemon zest and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Which she did fairly well, though not nearly as well as she did in sneaking bits of the cheese with every couple of turns of the grater.

We had a great time preparing supper, and an even better time eating it. Even though Merrin would not even try the risotto, at least Elsa lapped it up. Oh, and that the kids had Cory’s leftover ’superbowl’ chicken nuggets instead of the juicy local pork chops with cranberry glaze that we did. And don’t even mention the asparagus. Every now and again Merrin will eat a top of one, and Elsa will mash some into her mouth though I’m not really certain how much makes it down into her stomach – tonight they were having no part in eating asparagus.

Oh well, you can lead a horse to water…..

I’m having a lazy blah night. The kind where as soon as I got the kids to bed (on my own tonight thank you very much!) I sat on the couch with my laptop and didn’t look up until Cory came home after ten.

Then I felt guilty and in the next hour washed the dishes, packed Elsa’s lunch, packed my lunch. and made a cod au gratin to pop in the oven when we come home tomorrow after work.

And now I’m back to sitting on the couch again. Knowing I should go to bed, but I can’t seem to get up off the couch.

I want to write a blog entry but I don’t have enough energy to put in to writing a good entry about the kids. Or anything interesting enough about my life outside of them for that matter. And for those paying attention, my life outside of them is my work and exercise. And I’ve been doing very little of one of those lately.

I could take the ultra lazy route and demand that Cory get a picture for me to post. But I’ll save that for one of the next two days – I like the ‘Two for Tuesday’ and ‘Wordless Wednesday’ type entries. Cory doesn’t.

I could write an activism post about how I STILL received my handy dandy Go-Bag this week – but I haven’t followed it up with an email to the Telegram yet, so I won’t.

So what’s left folks? You got it – food! Another kinda lazy blog entry, perfectly suited to a night like tonight. And tonight I’m going super low key on ya – this will be written twitter style – each step in 140 characters or less.

Pizza with potato*

*inspiration courtesy of Jamie Oliver

1. Get pizza crust. Homemade or store bought pre-made. Pre-made is the key.

2. Spread pizza/tomato sauce on it.

3. Slice potato (1 small is good) into approximately 2-3 mm coins. Toss with rosemary, thyme & olive oil.

4. Spread potato over pizza. Add mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes.

I was skeptical of this recipe when I first saw it. I mean come on – potato on pizza! Give me a break! But it was like a brain worm that stayed in my head for days that turned into weeks that turned into months and when I couldn’t stop thinking about it I knew I had to make it.

But it tasted really good. The rosemary & thyme gave it a meaty flavour feel even though there wasn’t any on it. Mind you the potato also likely contributed to the whole ‘meat & potatoes’ feel of the pizza.

Anyway, it was a winner and I’ll definitely be making it again.

So what’s the weirdest pizza toppings/combination you’ve ever had – homemade or store-bought both count!

Seems like Friday nights aren’t a good night for my NaBloPoMo goals this year. As mentioned in last Saturdays post, I’ve already failed at NaBloPoMo this year as you are supposed to post a blog entry every day during the month of November and last Friday I fell asleep on the couch as soon as the girls went to bed.

But even though I couldn’t *really* complete NaBloPoMo this year – my first year not doing so since it’s inception in 2006 – I was still aiming to post every other remaining day in November.

And then last night Elsa wasn’t feeling herself and I spent pretty much the entire evening, from her supposed bedtime to my pretend-you-don’t-have-kids super late bedtime, holding her in my arms trying to get her to settle down. So no blog entry again last night.

But don’t worry, I will still get my ‘Friday during NaBloPoMo’ post in – you’re favourite, the recipe post! I can hear you screaming with joy now!

As mentioned in my last post we spent much of Remembrance Day with friends and family, enjoying each others company. Krista and her kids came over early in the morning and for days before I was dreaming of the breakfast I was going to make. And of course it was delicious. And really, not that hard to make.

It came from a Canadian Living magazine that Penny had given to me. She gave me a bunch of magazines to recycle for her and I picked out a few before I tossed them. This one Canadian Living magazine I’ve made close to a dozen recipes found in it – ALL DELICIOUS! I’ve only had the magazine for less than a month and I’ve poured over the recipes in it so much that it looks like it’s several years old, all dog-eared, wrinkly and tattered are the pages.

The recipe below was in the ‘quick & easy’ section so you don’t have to take my word for it when I say it wasn’t that hard to make.

Sausage & Potato Omelette

*original recipe here

INGREDIENTS:
2 hot italian sausages, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
dozen small tomatoes (grape, cherry – I used one’s I’d grown in the greenhouse)
1 potato, peeled and diced
6 eggs
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup packed fresh spinach
1 green onion
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In 9-inch cast-iron ovenproof skillet, brown sausages over medium heat. When cooked put on clean cloth (or paper napkin/towel if you must) lined plate. Drain fat from pan.
2. In same pan heat oil over medium heat then fry onion, tomatoes and potato. Stir occasionally until potato is tender, 12-15 minutes. Return sausage to skillet.
3. BUT READ AHEAD, and know that while the onion/tomato/potato mixture is cooking you should be whisking the eggs together with salt & pepper to suit your taste. Add the spinach and green onion to the egg mixture.
4. Pour egg mixture, now with spinach & green onion, into the skillet and stir. Sprinkle with mozzarella.
5. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until bottom and sides are firm but top is still runny, 10-12 minutes.
6. Put in the oven that’s now set on Broil (ours has Hi & Low, we choose Hi) until it’s golden & set (not runny anymore). About 3 minutes.
7. Cut into wedges, just like a pie!

We got 6 servings out of this though the original recipe says it’s only for 4. I think 1/6 of this omelette is enough for a meal if you are having fruit or a salad or a bowl of soup with it. It’s not just delicious, it’s filling too!

This weeks edition of ‘Phone Pics’ brings you some of the meals we’ve made and enjoyed. Most of them are from this summer, when it seems I was all about taking pictures using my phone. It was a new toy then after all.

Grilled chicken breast & asparagus with tomato pasta and a bean salad (& a beer!)

Grilled pork & veggies (on the picnic blanket!) with Merrin's carrot sticks & yogurt dip in the background

(You can barely see the) Veggie burger from a box with a homegrown salad, heavy on the edible flowers

Cory's Hot & Sour Soup - so thick full of veggies we had to eat it with a fork!

Well I’ve failed at NaBloPoMo. The fourth year of it’s existence & my fourth year taking part; my first time failing.

Last night wasn’t a total failure though. Merrin was at Job & Penny’s for the night and Cory put Elsa in her crib at 7:30. Which is exactly the time that I fell asleep on the couch. And then woke briefly after midnight to move from the couch to my bed. Where I lay peacefully until Elsa woke at 5am, soaking wet from a leaked diaper.

Nine and a half hours (pretty much) consecutive sleep was great. Just not for the committment to NaBloPoMo.

But another reason last night wasn’t a total failure was what we had for supper. Yesterday was another miserable day in town. We didn’t get the snow like many other places but what we did get – and almost always get – is worse in my opinion. Rain. Cold and wet and freezing and slushy rain. Along with the high cold winds it was a pretty chilly jaunt home in the evening. Which is why I asked Cory to make his signature hot & sour soup. I needed a nice warm bowl of soup that was chock full of veggies and protein that would warm me up and comfort my tired soul.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Thursday night, after the last blog entry, Cory and I each got just a couple hours of sleep that night. It was one of Elsa’s worse sleepless nights to date. So yeah, Cory’s soup helped make it all better the next day. It’s also something I ask him to make me when I’m sick or think I’m coming down with something. And then I add extra hot sauce to it before I eat it.

Hot & Sour Soup*

Soup Base:

2 cups of soup stock (chicken/beef/veg/mushroom/whatever)
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
1 clove of grated garlic
1 teaspoon of sambal olek (something spicy)
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon of grated lime rind

Bring base to a boil. Reduce heat to medium then add:

3 chopped mushrooms
whites of 3 green onions
12 shrimp
1/2 cup of cubed tofu
2 cups of cooked udon noodles

Cover and let simmer 3 minutes until shrimp are cooked then add:

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
Juice from 1 lime
1/2 julienne red pepper
1 julienne carrot
chopped green onion greens

Bring heat back up near boil and stir in one beaten egg a little
corstarch and water to thicken.

Serve garnished with cilantro, thin julienned ginger and lime wedge.

*Cory’s signature soup, as written by him

I’ve been coming down with something since last week. It started off as just a tickle in my throat, then progressed to an intermittent, dull cough and then seemed to culminate by Friday in just having low energy. Which also could have been attributed to the lack of sleep late last week as after Elsa fell out of the bathtub and then tried to beat her lip off she then decided that it was a good time to start teething again.

Yes, it seems that it never ends.

Anyway, at work on Friday I was feeling dragged out, couldn’t wait for the weekend. Of course I forgot that it is in fact less energy intensive to go to work during the weekdays than it is staying home on the weekends when you have young kids.

Sleep deprived or not when I woke on Saturday morning I felt pretty good, sickness-wise. Even though I still sounded like crap. But by Sunday morning I was feeling like death again. No energy, no patience and definitely no fun.

At 7am this morning when I had to begin kicking it into high gear to get myself and the kids dressed, bags packed and out the door I realized that I was in no shape to do all of that and decided to stay home today. I have several presentations to give this week and, well, kinda need my voice for that. Today I had no presentations booked – just a boat load of desk work – so I thought it was a wise decision to stay home and get this voice sounding better for the week to come.

We brought the kids to daycare at the normal (insane) time of 7:40am, then I came home and was back in bed by 8:30. And slept until 1pm. When I got up and made chicken vegetable soup*, and ate two huge bowls of it. By 3:30 I ate a chicken sandwich. Then for supper at 5:30 I had roast chicken, carrots and some mashed potato. And a small boatload of plum chutney.

I fed my cold, which I think is what that saying tells you to do right? I also drank lots of water, but should of probably drank a bunch of ginger tea too. I’ve also rested the last two days, not doing any exercise (I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately), the only real activity I’ve done was bundling up and going out back yesterday for 30 minutes pulling the near-dead plants from the greenhouse and pots and throwing it all in the compost.

I’m not feeling the greatest tonight but I feel 10 times better than I did yesterday and much of last week. I hope I, and my voice/throat, can get through the rest of the week without too much trouble or coughing.

*we roasted a chicken on Sunday but saved it to eat for tonights supper. Once Cory had picked the meat off the bones I threw the carcass in the big crock pot along with some vegetables and had it on the low setting all night. I woke up this morning to the smell of chicken broth and wanted chicken soup right away. Let me tell ya those two bowls of soup I had when I woke up after lunchtime was some good. Here’s to hoping the bowl I’m bringing for lunch tomorrow is just as good.

We try to eat local. We buy at the Farmer’s market and vegetable trucks. Fish trucks too. We manage to grow a few of our own vegetables and herbs in the summer & fall. We try to buy local eggs, seafood and meat. And in the winter we eat our fairshare of good old root vegetables carrot, turnip, parsnip – a Newfoundland staple.

So we thought we’d sign up for the Eat Atlantic challenge taking place on Sept.4th. That’s this Friday folks!

Here’s a blurb that was sent out from the Food Security Network NL:

—————————————————————————————————–
Eat Atlantic Challenge & Cross Talk on Local Food!

—————————————————————————————————

For the Eat Atlantic challenge on Friday we plan to make local sausages, yellow & green beans, potato, broccoli and if I can get my act together we’ll have a rhubarb and bakeapple dessert.

Now doesn’t that sound delisous?

So why wouldn’t you sign up to Eat Atlantic on Sept. 4th?

Thank GAWD Andrea had a birthday on Saturday because we got to eat at Pi! And of course, I can’t forget the wonderful grandparents who agreed to come to our house and babysit, ensuring that we could indeed go out – THANKS SO MUCH J & P!

Pi is the best pizza place in town. Ergo in the province. And maybe, just maybe, also the best beyond our provincial borders – but I can’t vouch for that. What I can say though is that it’s the best pizza I’ve ever ever bought*. Ever.

It’s gourmet thin crust pizza and they have some other menu items like pasta and stuff but I don’t pay attention to that stuff. I just get the pizza. And sometimes appetizers. But mostly I go for the pizza.

During our outing on Saturday night Cory ordered the Schezuan – it had chicken, pineapple, habanero peppers and onion. It was a decent pizza but it was nothing really to write on a blog about. It could have done with more peppers, or just more flavour in general. Definitely not the finest pizza there.

BUT PLEASE DON’T LET THIS STOP YOU FROM EVER EATING THERE!

I ordered the Fibonacci – it had carmelized pear, red onion and toasted walnuts. Oh yeah, a cheese blend, as did Cory’s. But *my* pizza was AWESOME! The pear was very sweet but there were only a couple of small bits of it on each piece so it wasn’t overpowering. And the flavour of the onion and walnuts toned down the sweetness of the pear anyway, a great compliment of ingredients.

For appetizers – you see, I got so excited and couldn’t wait to tell you about the pizza I forgot to mention our starters – we ordered a mushroom crustini and a roasted garlic dip. The crustini was lacking in a little, er, crustiness, but the flavour and texture was bang on. Lots and lots of mushrooms cooked perfectly (long & slow, most people undercook mushrooms, if they cook them at all) with some onion and parmesan. I tried to stay away from the roasted garlic dip – same old attempt to lose a couple more of the baby pounds before the summer hits – but the few times I did
imbibe in a bit of dip it was warm and cheesy and gooey. Yum yum!

And speaking of imbibing – THEY HAD STORM BREWING RASPBERRY WHEAT ALE!!! Storm Brewing is a very, very small microbrewery in town. You can’t get their beer everywhere and you can’t get each of their 5 kinds of beer year round. Raspberry Wheat Ale – to my knowledge (which could be limited) – is generally only available in the warmer months. And it is their BEST beer. You might be reading this and thinking “oh, but I don’t like beer” and/or “flavoured drinks”, and well, fair enough. But please, PUHleaze, give the Raspberry Wheat Ale a try before you knock it. It’s a very light tasting beer that has a slight hint of raspberry. And no aftertaste. So if you are every in a liquor/corner store or fine establishment that serves this beer, do yourself a favour and order it. And that goes for any of the Storm beers, okay?

I’ve blogged about Pi before. Not in depth as I did here, but I’ve paid homage. I’ve also blogged about Giovanni Cabot’s, the predecessor of Pi. And there’s one thing for sure, each place made a mean pizza. Where Giovanni Cabot’s failed was in the decor, atmosphere, and oftentimes in the customer service and most definitely in business savvy. Thankfully when Pi opened a year or so ago it was with a new co-owner (along with the pizza maker), one that knows what looks good and how to run a business successfully. I, and many others in town, are forever grateful and indebted to him for this.

I thought our customer service the other night was just fantastic. It could of had something to do with the two bottles of Raspberry Wheat Ale that I drank, but I’m pretty sure it was exemplary service. There were more than a dozen of us there, we didn’t come until 8:30, we must of ordered close to a dozen pizza’s, numerous appetizers and several cases of beer, and we were out of there before 11. And I didn’t feel rushed to get out. Though they did play Leonard Cohen’s “Closing Time” sometime just after 10:30.

My one complaint from the other night was the distraction caused late in the meal by some of the kitchen staff. As I’ve said/alluded to the food is fantastic, the decor is smart, the table service is helpful and efficient. And I know there are hard working people behind the scenes in the kitchen slaving over hot ovens and such making me such delicious pizza. But please PLEASE don’t be walking around in the front of your lovely, beautiful, chic restaurant in your grimey chef’s clothes with your dirty-after-a-hard-days-work hair. Please. I’m not trying to be rude but it did detract from my meal experience. And I’d like to think that I wouldn’t normally notice, or even care about, something like this. But it really stood out for me the other night. And of the dozen plus of us I’d estimate that more than half had never been there before. I’m pretty sure a great first impression was made to these potential future customers. But I’m not so sure the final, lasting, impression was as positive.

But all in all a great night out. I had a grand time, and I look forward to the next time I’m able to go out to eat good food with good company. Oh, and the beer too. Can’t forget the beer.

Two appetizers, two pizza’s (6 slices each), 3 beer, 2 coffee + tip was about a hundred dollars. We brought home two pieces of crustini and four slices of pizza that we divvied up and brought for lunch at work today. I think it was worth it. Totally.

*In order to stay on the good side of my live-in chef I must publicly declare that I have eaten better pizza at home. Yes. For sure. Love you babe!