Meatballs (not the movie)

Even though I haven't been writing much about food lately, I have been cooking. One of the best recipes I've made lately is from this book, which just happens to be my book club pick for next season. I'm not quite sure the other ladies in my club will dig it, but I loved it! The book's a collection of stories that all relate to food somehow and the corresponding recipes. One of the recipes is for some pretty yummy chicken meatballs.

Here they are in progress, a mixture of pine nuts, thyme (subsituted for the corriander), raisins, breadcrumbs and cumin. All that's missing is the ground chicken.

And here they are all finished. I admit the picture doesn't do them justice, but they're tasty little things — especially paired with the yoghurt dipping sauce.

I'm sure they would also be good made with ground lamb. And you could substitue anything you like for the filling. Next time I'm going to try pistachios ('cuz damn, pine nuts are expensive!) and dried apricots or cranberries.

The meatballs are good warm, or cold for lunch the next day. They're easy to make for company, because you can form and cook in advance, and just keep warm, covered in foil, in the oven.

I served these meaty balls at two recent dinner parties, once with a tomato peach and basil salad, an easy chick pea salad (I'll post that recipe another time), a green salad, and some amazing date and fennel bread from True Loaf bakery.

Chicken Meatballs with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts

1 lb. ground chicken

small yellow onion, minced (or a couple of shallots)

1 egg

¼ cup finely chopped cilantro (or thyme or parsley)

½ cup toasted pine nuts (or other nuts)

½ cup golden raisins (chopped if they’re large)

½ cup fine bread crumbs

A few pinches ground cumin

½ tsp salt

A few pinches freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

Mix all ingredients except olive oil together in a bowl, preferably using your hands. You don’t want to overwork the meat—that would make your final product tough — but you do want all ingredients to be evenly mixed. Form the mixture into balls of whatever size you like. Heat a thin film of olive oil in a heavy skillet over moderate heat, and sauté the meatballs in batches, so as not to crowd them. As they begin to color, turn them regularly so that they are golden on all sides. They should be done when they are evenly browned and feel medium firm — but not hard — to the touch. Place on a paper towel to catch excess oil. Serve hot, warm, or cold with yoghurt sauce.

Lemon and Cumin Yoghurt Sauce

1 c. plain yoghurt

2 tbsp. (or more) lemon juice

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Ground cumin (1/2 tsp. or so)

Ground chili (pinch)

Salt (to taste)

Pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and chill until ready to serve.

Vermont = vert

It's true! Everything in Vermont is very green. Green and mountainy and outdoorsy. In fact, if you're not a biker, hiker, runner, skiier or general wilderness enthusiast, you might feel out of place in this tiny state. No matter, it's still a nice place to visit. Especially with views like this...

The mountains are very pretty. They're fun to drive in as well, provided you don't run over one of the aforementioned bikers or hikers, or get hit by a runaway deer (which almost happened!).

Stowe's also home to the Von Trapp family lodge. Of course we had to take a visit and I may or may not have practised my Austrian accent or sung a few lines of Edelweiss along the way.

But there's more to Stowe than musical and fertile Austrians! There are also farmers, selling things at markets. We stumbled across one on Sunday morning, full of healthy looking folks in Birkenstocks and Teva sandals.

Lots of blueberries and maple syrup for sale, but check out the gorgeous display of heriloom tomatoes.

If the sight of those are too healthy for you to contemplate, consider Vermont's sweetest export: ice cream! We stopped at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury for a cone, and it was the place to be. The parking lot was full and the wait in line was about 20 minutes. It was worth it though for the coconut cream concoction we enjoyed. Tres yummy.


But the best food of the trip was certainly here. We just happened to spot the sign on the way to Montpellier and returned for dinner. We ordered the table d'hote, which turned out to be an excellent decision.

First up was roasted corn soup with chili and maybe mint? Can't remember, but it was amazingly good.

Main was skillet chicken with crispy onions on an heirloom tomato salad. I have to say the chicken was just average, but the tomatoes were succulent. Best I've had this summer for sure.

The best was saved for last, however. Check out the chocolate torte with almond ice cream and roasted apricot sauce, and the panna cotta with summer cherries. Heaven! I had to dig in before I even snapped a picture.

Panna cotta, if you haven't had it before, is super simple, but so addictive. Just the right creamy texture without being cloyingly sweet.

Hopefully it won't be another 20 years 'til I'm back in Vermont!

Away we Stowe!

I took a roadtrip to Stowe, Vermont this past weekend and had a great time. Vermont is only about four and a half hours (give and take traffic hell in Montreal) from Ottawa, so it makes a convenient location for a getaway.

I hadn't been to Vermont since I was a teenager, and it was just as green and pretty as I remembered. The weather was pretty muggy, but overall we missed out on the rain and enjoyed pretty fair, though overcast, days.

We stayed here, a relatively new, and still under construction resort just outside of Stowe on the mountain highway. The room was probably one of the nicest I've ever stayed in, and the decor was woodsy and rustice without being cutesy.



Bed had feather duvets and pillows and bamboo sheets. Nice! Check out the gas fireplace too! Note the DVDs spread out on the bed which we didn't watch. Too much choice on HBO and Food Network to bother.


Here's the kitchenette, complete with a gas hob, Cuisinart pots, pans and toaster, and a fancy espresso machine. It even came equipped with wine glasses and measuring spoons.


The bathroom was gorgeous -- tile floor and a deep soaker tub with separate shower.


And here's the view from the balcony. The best hotel view ever (minus the construction of course). Not one but two hottubs, and you can't beat the mountain view.

More on Stowe and surrounding locales later. Must sleep!

Rising from the dust

Apologies for the dramatic headline. This week has been somewhat crappy, and things didn't improve on Tuesday night when I arrived home to a dusty apartment. Now those who know me, know my housekeeping leaves a little to be desired, and there's always a fair bit of dust kicking around the old place. But Tuesday night was crazy, thick with dust. Like I opened the door and I could see a haze lingering in the air. When I wiped my hand over my bookshelves they were covered in a yellowy powder and I could literally see my footsteps on the floor when I walked.

When I went out to my balcony to investigate, it looked like it had suffered a freak August snowstorm. Everything, and I mean everything from the tiniest basil leaf to the cushions on my chairs, were covered in a thick, nasty layer of dust. Added to the mess were bits of concrete chunks, some peeling paint chips and a few cigarette butts for good measure.

Turns out, my building premises crew had decided to do a bit of brickwork repair right outside my unit -- removing a solid row of bricks about four inches from my bedroom window! Apparently the day had yielded a marathon of grinding, sawing and sanding, creating a desert full of dust that was looking for a location to land. And what better place than my home! 'Cause guess who went to work without closing her windows? This gal. Needless to say, several profanities and about four hours of cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, laundry and more swearing later, I sleepily crawled into bed dreaming of cutting down the scaffolding wires in the morning with a breadknife, sending those evil bricklayers to their crushing demise!!!

Not that I'm bitter. And I'm sure the building maitenance woman would agree with that sentiment, following a 9 a.m. phone call to the rental office where I tore a strip off of just about anyone within earshot of the telephone. They were, natrually, apologetic and explained that the building super had delivered notices to the apartments on either side of me, informing the tenants of the planned work, but neglected mine in the process. Lucky me! An offer of vaccuming was made, and an apology issued. I was too tired from my late-night cleaning binge to argue for much more, so I hung up the phone and hoped somehow my apartment wouldn't be quite a disaster zone when I returned home that night.

When I anxiously turned the key on Wednesday, I found that the building super (or secret cleaning gnomes) had in fact entered my apartment to re-vacuum my place, and they also cleaned my kitchen floor, why I'm not exactly sure, but I'm not complaining because it was due for a bit of a scrub. And while my balcony wasn't perfect, at least most of the dust was gone, and there was nary a cigarette butt in sight. My plants still look a bit worse for the wear, but given the weather so far this summer, I figure we're due for a massive rainstorm any second now that ought to clean them right off.

My inspection also happened to reveal a pretty new bloom peeking out of one of my geranium pots. For the longest time, I've been watching this stem grow, suspecting it was a weed, but also curious to see if it wasn't. Turns out it wasn't -- or at least it's the prettiest damn weed I've seen in a while. I snipped it off and brought it inside (giving it a quick bath to rid it of any traces of dust) and plunked it in a vase. It'll serve as a nice reminder that things always get better.

Lemony zucchini goat cheese pizza

The zucchini and summer squash I bought at the market sat in my fridge for almost an entire week and were dangerously close to becoming shrivelled up versions of their former selves, so it was time to act. I decided to turn them into a pizza, inspired by a recipe here.

I started out making the pizza dough from scratch, and added in a half cup of whole wheat flour. This really was a simple recipe, as it only required a couple minutes of kneading and one rise.

Once the dough had doubled in size and had time to rest, I smeared on the goat cheese, mixed with lemon juice and topped with basil from my herb pot. On went handfuls of sliced zucchini. The different sizes prevented me from arranging them in artful concentric circles, but it still looked pretty good.

Ready for the oven.

I was a bit skeptical about how much the lemon flavour would shine through, but it really did. This is a nice, light summmertime pizza.

Really Simple Pizza Dough

Makes enough for one small, thin crust pizza.

1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it — one-bowl recipe! — dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.

Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature. Roll out the pizza, toss on whatever topping and seasonings you like. Bake it for about 10 minutes until it’s lightly blistered and impossible to resist.

Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza

1 batch Simplest Pizza Dough
1 lemon
4 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
Few leaves of fresh basil, cut into thin slivers
1/2 medium yellow zucchini, sliced as thinly as you can
1/2 medium green zucchini, sliced as the same as above (or combination of whatever you have)
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Roll your pizza dough into a thin 12-inch circle, or rectangle to fit your baking tray, and lay it on a tray.

In a small bowl, stir together the goat cheese with the juice of half your lemon. Season it with salt and freshly ground pepper, and spread it over your pizza dough. Scatter fresh basil slivers over the cheese.

Arrange your zucchini coins in concentric circles over the goat cheese spread, overlapping them slightly. Squeeze the juice of the second half of your lemon on top of you zucchini, then drizzle with olive oil and finish with more salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes (your baking time will vary, so please watch carefully), or until the edges of your pizza are golden brown and the zucchini looks roasted and a little curled up at the edges. Serve with a green or even simple tomato salad and a glass of crisp white wine.