Well I guess my luck leek soup wasn’t that lucky after all, because my sweet little girl has come down with this crappie bug going around, and so tonight when she requested mac and cheese, I couldn’t say no… especially after torturing her all day with oregano oil, and other cold fighting witchery.

There must be something in my DNA which I unknowingly passed down to her,  that has a deep routed LOVE for carbs covered in melted cheesy sauce. I must admit it’s hard for me to say to this request ever, as I am just about always up for mac ‘n cheese. HOWEVER over the years I have come to adjust my mom’s golden gratin recipe full of butter and cream to my homestead healthy versions.. often using gluten free pastas and flours, lots of veggies (sometimes even pureed and hidden all together), I have even made a few delicious vegan versions.

It’s funny as I was enjoying this dish I did a quick surf through all the recipes I have posted which resemble these mac ‘n cheese spin offs… here are 8 of the ones I have loved before.

garlic-parm-kale-gnocchi

pumpkin-parmesan-penne

squash-and-feta-stuffed-ravioli

grana-garlic-gnocchi

lemon-ricotta-and-red-kale-rice-gnocchi’s

gooey-gluten-free-gouda-mac-n-cheese

goat-cheese-please

no-dip-artichoke-spinach-tortellini

As for tonight’s meal I used this lovely organic cottage cheese made fairly locally, along with a dollop of cream cheese and a smudge of butter, no flour and no gluten. I actually used a new organic spiral noodle that is corn and rice… it took forever to cook and yielded the standard rice noodle snot water, but they were pretty good! And this simple cheese sauce was way easier to throw together than the aforementioned moms roux recipe.

While cooking your favourite gluten free pasta get a frying pan going for the sauce.

Using a small pad of butter brown 2 garlic cloves chopped up fine

season with:

S+P

fresh grated nutmeg (a good pinch)

once the garlic starts to brown add and stir in 3 tbsp organic cream cheese

along with a splash of whole farm fresh milk

toss in a handful of chopped parsley

stir gently

then add 1 cup of nice cottage cheese (the beautiful organic stuff I used was closer to ricotta than standard cottage cheese)

add a dollop of nice grainy mustard

and grate a wee amount of parm into the suace

strain pasta and reserve about 2 tbsp of gloopy water, toss the lot (pasta, sauce and gloopy water) and serve!

mmm comfort food for a cold!

Hey fellow foodies and food advocates here is some really exciting news!

The makers of Fresh the movie, are offering free online viewings of their movie for 1 week only! (Today – Feb 1)

Just click below, sign up and start streaming!

Watch Fresh the Movie 

I truly believe that everyone, everyone, everyone who shops at groceries stores for their food needs to watch this movie!

I have been really keyed into what the makers of Fresh have been doing over the past 3 years, as when it was first released I bought the rights, and hosted a 20+person movie screening in my basement, we served local food, donated by my many great farmer and organic grocer friends, and the night ended with lively conversation and inspiration.

The best this about Fresh, is that it didn’t end at the launch of this great documentary, they are very active at keeping folks up to date on the latest legislation around GMO food / fisheries / and failures in the industrial food system. They have created many petition and letter writing campaigns to fight the likes of Monsantos, and are and all round super SOLE food advocates!

I LOVE THIS MOVIE.. you will too!

Just look at these picture perfect dried leek rings! I grew about 60 leeks this past summer and lovingly chopped and dried pounds of them, and just the other day I found my stash in my endlessly deep dried herb cabinet, and I set to work right away with the slow cooker to make a super batch of immunity boosting very garlic laden “cream” of  potato leek soup. The soup was just what the doctor ordered, as my sweetie was getting sniffly, and I fought off his bug with about  a dozen dosses of oregano oil,  vitamin C, resishi mushroom and anti viral shooters, followed up with a full of love + garlic soup!

I have been stocking my freezer with large wide mouth mason jars of all the yummy big batches of soups I am cranking out these days. After each batch I usually have a few servings of leftovers as well as 1-2 L of soup ready to freeze down. 3 meals from one pot is a pretty great use of my time.

Why is this soup so lucky? Lucky for my sweetie this soup helps kick the bug. Lucky for my daughter the very thing she was craving all day is exactly what her Moma made for diner.  Lucky for me this soup batch made many future meals.

In a slow cooker on high assemble

6 cups of potatoes chopped into small cubes

2 cups of dried or fresh leek rings

1 bay leaf

along with just enough water to cover them.

season with:

S+P

and a good handful of dried: parsley, oregano and sage.

In a small frying pan brown in oil:

1 large yellow onion chopped fine

and one whole bulb of garlic, all cloves chopped down into fine bits

and a good amount of fresh ginger grated.

Once golden brown, deglaze the pan with a little water and pour the works into the slow cooker.

Let everything cook for at least 4 hours

Then using an immersion blender zip up 70% of the soup (leaving just enough potato chunks to keep it interesting.

Add:

3 tbsp coconut milk powder (or half a can of coconut milk)

1 cup of almond milk

2 hearty tbsp of grainy mustard

1 hearty tbsp miso

handful of fresh parsley

and more S+P to taste

heat for another 30 minutes before serving.

Serve to your sniffling loved ones or just enjoy by the bowlfull!

This dish was born out of a bit of a “chef block” I was struggling with. I generally have too many cooking / baking ideas to even attempt to execute, but the past week I have been overrun with other ideas and plans and inspirations, and my culinary life took a little hit. I am happy to report I back on the wagon and these lentils were not nearly as dreary as my cooking mood, when I made them. And like all great soups and stew this huge batch was a million times better the next day. The family has been devouring them day after day, which is good news for a left over pusher like me!

Start by soaking:

1.5 cups of quinoa

1.5 cups of red lentils

.5 cups green lentils

In a large bowl of water for at least 2 hours (but overnight is OK too). When your ready to add them to the pan gently  drain lentils and any floating bits, then rinse and drain again before cooking.

In a large deep cast iron pan start by browing:

1 red onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced

2″ of ginger freshly grated

2 tbsp red curry paste

in a hearty amount of olive oil with a splash of sesame oil

once translucent add the lentils and quinoa

along with 4 cups of boiling water

season with:

S+P

a splash of lemon juice

1 dried lime leaf

Slowly simmer on low-medium heat for about 40 minutes stirring often

Add:

1/2 cup of coconut milk powder + 1 cup of water (or 1 can coconut milk) (more water if necessary)

1/2 cup of shredded coconut

and a drizzle of chilli oil

allow to simmer for another 20 minutes or so

Remove lime leaf and serve garnished with fresh cilantro or parsley. Toasted coconut would be perfect and if I wasn’t in the slump I was in I surely would have done that! Enjoy. It’s a big batch.. so keep enjoying!

All you need is a hot latte for dunking and your on route to white chocolate coconut hemp seed heaven!

I will confess these biscotti started life with the aspiration to be a blondie… but they demanded more from their lives… and their maker… after too long in the oven in too deep a pan this blondie in it’s under baked glory was sliced thin and re-toasted making some really yummy dunkers!

I have successfully made really nice brownies with this recipe in a 9×14 pan.. but I pushed the limits trying to cram all this goodness into a 9×9 deep square… so try this either way.

in a double boiler melt:

1 cup oil / butter

200 g white chocolate

along with a splash of real vanilla

In a seperate bowl mix:

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup organic cane sugar

2 cups of organic flour (white or spelt)

1 cup of hemp seeds

1/2 cup coconut

2 tbsp coconut milk powder

pinch of salt

combine with melted chocolate and pour into prepared pan:

9×13, bake at 325 for 35 minutes for a blondie

or

pour batter as I did into thicker smaller pan, then bake at 375 for 40 minutes, remove from oven cool 5 minutes, then slice into 1/2″ slices lay on cookie sheet and toast at 400 for 15 more minutes. If you have extra white chocolate a little drizzle would be peachy on your finished biscotti!

When life gives you lemons.. make coconut biscotti!

OMG, I think that I made the best meat sauce ever.. of all time, and it had the fortune of ending up in a rich meaty lasagne which was low in cheese but oh so high in taste.

This sauce stewed away for about 4 hours, and used up some beautiful flavours from my summer garden.

I started with the freshest farm gate ground meat from our friends dearly departed dairy cow (damn girl just wouldn’t get pregnant, but she was incredibly tasty)

In a huge ‘ol pot start by browning in a heatry amount of olive oil:

2 lbs of fresh organic local ground beef

2 medium onions diced fine

6 cloves of garlic chopped fine

8 cups of frozen whole garden tomatoes

and a pint of home made tomato sauce

season and simmer the lot with:

S+P

a handful each of dried garden herbs: parsley, oregano + thyme.

add a splash of red wine vinegar

and a hearty pinch each of smoked paprika and chilli flakes

Stir and simmer away for a couple hours, mashing the whole tomatoes down as you do. Over the course of these hours I added a total of 3 cups of hot water.

Before serving (or turning into delicious lasagne) add a handful of fresh parsley chopped finely, along with an extra splash of olive oil.  This sauce was so good… I couldn’t stop “tasting” it as it simmered away. Maybe it was the magic taste of summer tomatoes, maybe the never frozen ultra fresh pasture raised beef, maybe the lovely harvested, clipped, dried and packaged herbs… likely all of the above, but truly this is the best meat sauce I have ever tasted, let alone made!

To make my ragu into a mean and meaty lasagne:

I boiled 1 packaged of Italian egg noodle rectangle flat sheets of dough until still firm-ish (el dente). Then I layered a 9×14 pryex dish with a little oil along with a layer of noodles, then a thick layer of meat, followed by a noodle layer, then a thick layer of organic cottage cheese mixed with a whack of fresh spinach chopped coarsely, seasoned with lemon juice and S+P, then another layer of noodles, more meat sauce, followed by noodles and finally a thin layer of sauce  and a sprinkle of fresh organic cave aged cheese and a handful of fresh chopped parsley.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, or until it smells so good you want to chew your arm off. serve and enjoy the silence of true culinary appreciation of a delicious meal.

The really lovely thing about this lasagne is for the first time ever I didn’t drown it in layers of shredded cheese… it was all about the rich meaty sauce and perfect semolina egg noodles, and all of that summer in one plate!

Love seasoning salt, hate msg? I grew up dumping mountains of seasoning salt on just about everything I ever ate… now I don’t let my daughter touch the stuff.. but I still adore it! It finally dawned on me to make my own organic / wild crafted version.. and it’s hands down 100% better that the stuff I adored so as a kid!

It takes 5 minutes to whip up a batch… and the recipe is pretty straight forward, so give it a try, and play with the proportions you like.. we like it salty and garlicky!  below is a pictorial recipe guide showing the proportions I used. Most mounds are about 1 tbsp.

In order of volume I used:

Sea salt (both fine and course), paprika, parsley (homegrown and dried), garlic powder, onion granules (homegrown and dried), black pepper fresh ground, chilli flakes, and finally dried lemon rind. Cayanne is a nice addition too if you like more heat!

Mix and store in a glass jar, sprinkle it on anything, especially mac ‘n cheese!

Before moving to the Slocan Valley of BC, whenever I heard mention of borscht I immediately thought of beet soup, that bright deep pink concoction often served with a dollop of sour cream… which to be honest I avoided my whole life.  Well things are a little different out here in the valley. The Doukhobor population and culture is really rich here and I kept seeing this creamy orange soup everywhere… borscht they called it, and it was the exact opposite of what I expected. This Doukhobor borscht was bright and creamy, complex and hearty. I have enjoyed many a bowl, at community events and local cafes. I finally set out to try my hand at borscht making and I have to say the results were pretty damn good, considering I had no mama to teach me. I did however talk to many of my Doukhobor friends about how their mom’s made this soup, I also researched many recipes on line, and finall settled on one which I thought was most inline with the flavours I was after. Now making Borscht is NOT for the feint of heart. It is a multi pot multi hour process with many of the hearty root veggies being prepared two different way, in both cutting and cooking. It involves a whole lot of cream and butter, and some serious patience. And only now do I understand why someone might pay $15 / L for this soup, as I have seen it advertised often throughout my valley. Props to those Doukhobor Momas!

So if you are looking for a grand event of a soup making challenge, I urge you to try this out, I will post the recipe in it’s original form along with it’s source link, then below you will find the very few tweaks and thoughts I have from my borscht making adventure. This is one of those recipes I tried not to mess with too much, as it was all new territory for me!

Vegans beware… this is not for you.. however I think a nice olive oil in place of the butter and veggie stock in lue of the crazy amount of cream would net a really nice veggie soup… and I will certainly try my hand at a vegan version soon!

I will also note the book open in the background of this picture is The Third Crop by Rita Moir and it is a wonderful pictorial historical book on the history of my new home land, and we have really enjoyed reading all about the development of the Slocan Valley and the roll the Doukhobor people have played in making my valley what it is today!

but back to the borscht…

the recipe came from here ”Traditional Doukhobor recipes”

Doukhobor Borscht

3 qt. water
5 medium sized potatoes
3/4 cup (180 ml) butter
1/2 cup (125 ml) grated carrots
1 small beet
1 cup (250 ml) chopped onions
2 tbsp (30 ml) fresh chopped dill
1 cup (250 ml) diced potatoes
6 cups (1.5 L) shredded cabbage
1 tbsp (15 ml) salt
1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream
1/2 cup (125 ml) chopped carrots
4 cups (1L) canned tomatoes
3/4 cup (180 ml) green pepper
3/4 cup (180 ml) green onions
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped celery

•In fry pan pour 4 cups (1L) of canned tomatoes and mash. Add 1 tbsp (15 ml) butter and 1/4 cup (60 ml) of onions and simmer until thick.
•Place 1/4 cup (60 ml) of butter, 3/4 cup (180 ml) chopped onions, 1/2 cup (125 ml) finely grated carrots and 1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped green pepper into a frying pan and sautee until transparent – do not brown.
•In a separate frying pan, place 2 cups (500 ml) of shredded cabbage and 1/4 cup (60 ml) of butter and sautee until tender – do not brown.
•Boil 3 qts (3L) of water in a pot, add 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 cup (125 ml) chopped carrots, 4 medium potatoes halved, 1 beet, 1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped celery, and add 1/2 of the simmered tomatoes from step 1, continue to boil ingredients in pot until potatoes are tender.
•Remove potatoes and mash with 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup (125 ml) cream, 1/4 cup (60 ml) green pepper, 1/4 cup (60 ml) green onions, 1 tbsp dill, then set aside.
•To the pot in step 4, add 1 cup (250 ml) of diced potatoes, 3 cups (750 ml) shredded cabbage, 1/2 cup ( 125 ml) cream and bring to boil.
•Pour the mashed potatoes back to pot in step 4, bring to boil.
•Remove pot from heat and add remainder of simmered tomatoes from step 1, fried onions and carrots from step 2, the fried cabbage from step 3, add 1/2 cup (125 ml) green onions, 1/4 cup (60 ml) green pepper, and 1 tbsp dill.
•Discard the whole beet. Season to taste with black pepper.
•Let sit for a few minutes before serving to allow flavours to mix. Serve hot

*** Whew that is a set of instructions and this is no one pot chili! I did a few things ever so slightly different that called for… I only had 1/2 green cabbage and half of a red cabbage.. so my soup was a little redder than I was hoping for.

I was dreaming of a Fominoff style borscht (from a local bakery: Fomi’s Bakery) Theirs is less creamy more yellowy orange and that is really what I was after… next time I will omit the boiling of the while beet and I will also only use green cabbage.. along with more carrot and less tomato, in exchange for a veggie stock… also less cream would suite me just fine.

Having said all of that.. this looks and tastes like many bowls of borscht I have enjoyed over the last couple years, and I am sure if you are up for the challenge, you will indeed enjoy the results!

And to my dear friend Tash out in the foothills of Alberta, who first introduced me to this style of Borscht as she was visiting us and reliving her honeymoon dinner (at the borscht hut in Castlegar on route to Rossland)… Thanks Lady! miss you all like crazy! xoxo

My family goes crazy for this easy fried rice dish, and my sweetie just loves that I used frozen mixed veg for the ultimate food court authenticity! I actually have run out of both corn and peas from my harvest (had a bad crop of both this year) and although I do have carrots, when I saw the mixed organic veggie bag in the freezer section of my local natural food store… I know these little babies were destine for a veggie fried rice dinner.. sans foam take out container.

Cook 2 cups of your favourite rice, or have 4 cups of cooked rice on hand.

In a deep iron pan or a wok start by frying: (Omit this step for vegan dish)

2 tbsp sesame oil

4 farm fresh eggs beat well with about 1/4 cold water

S+P

and a pinch of chilli flakes

cook until you have lovely fluffy scrambled eggs, remove from pan and set aside.

Add 4 tbsp of sesame oil back into hot pan / wok and brown:

1/2 yellow onion minced fine

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 celery stocks chopped

1 can of water chestnuts (each chopped in 6ths)

1 can of bamboo shoots chopped in 3rds

1/2 brick of firm tofu cubed into 1 cm pieces

2″ of freshly ground ginger

Once the tofu and onions are nicely browned add cooked rice, and allow it to gently brown (add more oil if necessary) and stirring often.

Once the rice fried season with:

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp chilli oil

S+P

1 cup of frozen veggies (peas, corn + carrots)

and the cooked egg

Stir and cook on medium for another 5 minutes.

Serve garnished with fresh cilantro and toasted sesame seeds

Simple, good and fast, also pretty low on the guilt scale (as far as gnocchi goes). I used gluten free gnocchi’s in this recipe and just enough kale to make you feel good about a potato dumpling dinner! You can make this meal in 10 minutes and the kale won’t scare away little ones, because it’s cut razor thin and is barely cooked, just ribbons of green goodness laced in crispy salty cheese and garlic, surrounded in pillows of potato!

In a frying pan coated with olive oil brown:

1/2 of a small yellow onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely minced

Meanwhile bring water to boil for gnocchi’s, cook and as soon as they start to float to the top remove them with a slotted spoon and gently put them into the frying pan, with the onion and garlic.

Season with black pepper and allow the gnocchi’s to just brown (let them sit for a couple minutes without stirring them around to much!)

Finely sliver 4 large leafs of kale (stock removed) into razor thin ribbons, and toss them into the pan, along with a good squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of hot chilli flakes.

Grate a good amount of fresh parmesan cheese on the works and quickly toss everything together.

Serve hot, and enjoy!