1 tbsp olive oil

150-200 grams sliced ham

1 small onion chopped

1/2 pepper chopped (any colour)

1 chopped carrot

sliced mushrooms would also be good to add

1/2 package frozen chopped spinach (way cheaper than fresh spinach), thawed and drained

250 grams spaghetti

3 small cans V8 juice

4 oz low fat cream cheese

grated parmesan

Heat oil in pot

Add onions, peppers, carrots and mushrooms (if using), fry for a few minutes

Once vegies are softish, add V8 and cream cheese to make a sauce

 

Easy chocolate chip scones

This recipe is super easy, quick and uses one bowl. I've used chocolate chips in it here, but you can just as easily substitute other stuff like 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, or 1/2 cup (or more) raisins, etc.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup margarine or butter

7/8 cups of milk

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Blend dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Cut in margarine with a pastry blender. 

Dump milk all at once into bowl and combine with a fork to form a ball. Turn out on a floured board, need a couple of times. Flatten with a rolling pin to make a circle about one inch thick. Score round into 8 or 10 pieces. Place onto a greased pan or use parchment.

Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean

Johanna's scrumptious speedy simple summer salad

This salad is really tasty and really quick. Johanna puts some finely sliced red onion into it. I do not.

Barb won't like it the way I made it because it has the dreaded goat feta cheese in it. If you don't like goat feta use the cow feta. I actually thought I had bought the cow feta but didn't read the package too closely and only realized when I got home that it was the goat feta. (Sorry about all the feta talk)

I don't give quantities because I have no idea of the quantities. Look at the picture and figure it out. Don't put in too much feta because it will be overpowering. Think of the olives and feta almost as a garnish.

I also added a very tiny splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe 1/4 or 1/2 of a teaspoon of each. Just to give it a bit of smoothness to the salad. Johanna doesn't add these two ingredients. (More feta talk)

Make it just before eating. I like the chopped tomatoes and cucumbers to be fairly small pieces, not crazy about big chunks.

1. Halved grape tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes)
2. English cucumber (diced small)
3. Crumbled Feta
4. Kalamata olives
5. Olive oil
6. Balsamic vinegar

Judy's comments. It's a take on the Mediterranean salad I make...I add black olives oregano & I use red vinegar with olive oil....its super delish!

Dad's kitchen sink cookies (my version of)

Saw this recipe in the National Post this past weekend: Dad's kitchen sink cookies from Eat What You Want for Father's Day by Gaby Dalkin.

It sounded interesting so I decided to make them. Upon reading the ingredient list I thought good grief these are sweet. So I cut back on the sugar which called for 1 cup brown and 1 cup white sugar. I used 3/4 cup brown and 1/2 cup white. I also cut out the M&Ms as there was also a cup of chocolate chips in them. The fruits were apricots and cranberries, which are also laden with sugar. That is a lot of sugar. One of my bugaboos about sugar is that gobs of of sugar does not make something taste better. For instance, I find most commercial cereals way too sweet. Which is why I make my own granola. Homemade also tastes way better. (Will post recipe next time I make it.)

So these cookies as I made them, still have 1 1/4 cups of sugar plus a cup of chocolate chips, 1 cup of apricots and 1 cup of sweetened cranberries. That's enough sugar. They were good but not spectacular. Now I also substituted the butter with margarine, which I realize reduces the buttery taste which I love. Next time I'll try exchanging the 3/4 butter with peanut butter. Will report back later once I try that.

UPDATE: For some reason these cookies taste better than when I first made them. I orginally thought they were kind of boring. I froze them, and thawed out they are actually pretty darned good. Still too sweet, so I think the sugar could be dropped by another 1/4 cup maybe.

Ingredients I used:

1 cup (225 g/2 sticks) unsalted butter margarine
1 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 3/4 cup (220 g) packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla extract
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups (225 g) old-fashioned oats, pulverized in a blender for 30 seconds until smooth
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
1 tsp (5 mL) kosher salt
1 cup (200 g) M&M’s
1 cup (175 g) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (140 g) dried cranberries
1 cup (130 g) chopped dried apricots

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2
In a large stand mixer (I used a hand mixer), cream together the butter and both sugars for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula in between additions. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.

I baked for about 12 minutes until they started to brown.

Rhubarb strawberry crisp

3 cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces
3 cups strawberries, cut into small pieces
1 cup sugar
1 1⁄3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oats
1⁄2 cup butter

In a large bowl combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, 1/3 cup flour and cinnamon. Put into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

In another bowl combine with brown sugar, oats. Cut butter into flour mixture. Sprinkle over rhubarb/strawberry mixture pat gently.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes in preheated oven.

Easy vegetarian chili

Make your own taco seasoning

Combine
4 tsp chili powder

1-1/2 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp seasoned salt (or less. If you don't have seasoned salt use 1/4 tsp salt)

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp ground coriander

¼ tsp onion powder

Chop one onion. Chop one green pepper and a couple of stalks of celery.

Fry veggies until soft in a tbsp of olive oil. Add some of the taco seasoning to taste. I used about 4 teaspoons.

Add

1 can drained black beans

1 can drained kidney beans

3 cups of canned tomatoes

Simmer for about 45 minutes

Put into a tortilla, add grated mozzarella. Roll up. Eat

Curried (pretend it's not) squash, lentil and coconut soup

I don't like squash. I have no idea why people eat it. But after a friend of ours graciously bought us some groceries after we returned from Victoria, there it was: an acorn squash. I looked at it. I put it in the fridge. The next day I looked in the fridge again. It was still there. I closed the fridge door. What to do with said squash?

Then I remembered my kids make squash soup. My kids like squash. They get those genes from Fred's family. Luckily my mother shielded me from squash growing up. Fred wasn't so lucky.

So I asked my girls for a recipe. Johanna sent me hers. She said it was great. I believed her. Except there was nothing in it to hide the squash taste. Except garlic. We don't eat garlic.

Then I thought. Curry. Coconut milk. Lentils. Okay maybe I can save this squash from an early death. I googled some recipes. Found a couple. Combined and modified the recipes. And voila. Curried lentil squash soup. The best part is. It's good. I am. Not. Kidding. I know you won't believe me. After all, it's still squash.

PS. I forgot to take a picture. Who posts a recipe on the Internet without a picture? Me apparently.

Curried squash, lentil and coconut soup

Olive oil
2 diced onions
1/2 tsp dried ginger

1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 acorn squash (halved and with seeds removed) roasted in oven with salt and pepper and olive oil, covered with aluminum foil for about 1 hour in 400 degree oven until soft. 

1 cup red lentils
2 cups can diced tomatoes with liquid
3 cups water
1 14-ounce can lite coconut milk
3/4 veggie large broth cube

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and curry powder, and garam masala; cook, stirring often, until the onion is starting to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Let squash cool, then scoop out flesh and add to pot.

Add lentils, tomatoes, water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer; cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are mostly broken down, about 20 minutes.

Add coconut milk and simmer until heated through, about 1 minute. Blend with hand blender.

Eat.

Dundee cake

300 degrees. Two small loaf pans or one round cake pan.

2/3 cup butter
7/8 cup brown sugar (I found this too sweet. Try 2/3 cup or maybe even 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup Seville orange marmalade
1 grated orange peel
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
400 grams sultana raisins (about 1 pound)
1/3 cup ground almonds
50 grams whole blanched almonds

I also added 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder, though recipe didn't call for that

• Cream butter and brown sugar. 
• Add eggs and beat well.
• Mix in marmalade and orange rind
• Stir in raisins

Put into pans. Press almonds into top of cake.

I baked two small loaf pans for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. A round cake should take about 1 3/4 to 2 hours.

Apple coffee cake

Haute Couture

Monkey bread

This recipe is a really good alternative to breakfast cereal. My version is (naturally) quite different from the one Johanna originally sent me. That original recipe also wants you to put it in a bowl and pour milk on it. But that would make it soggy, right? So don't do that. Unless you like soggy, mushy, grossitating breakfast with milk on it.

I eat them just as they are.

Mix in large bowl
3-4 mashed bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter (natural or not)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (I use skim)
1/2 cup brown sugar (use less if you want)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds

You can also add other nuts if you like (ie 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds and or 1/4 cup sunflower seeds)

Grease a 13 X 9 inch pan. Pour mixture into pan. Bake for about 45-50 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cut in squares and freeze, sizing portions to suit you. Makes a good on the run breakfast.

Updated recipe

High tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria

Today Fred and I had high tea in Victoria.

It was a surprise birthday present from my daughters, their husbands and children. So nice. And yummy.

We ate the scones before I remembered to take pictures. So they are absent from the pictures. With homemade Strawberry jam and clotted cream. Oh boy. Were they good.

So then we paused long enough to take some pictures.

And they really do serve cucumber sandwiches. Which were amazingly good.

The selection of teas was huge. I had a roobois, and Fred had a breakfast tea. Which he really liked. Which is surprising since Fred doesn't usually drink tea. They use tea lights under the tea, and this keeps the tea nice and hot.

It was a lovely experience.

Maude's shower for December baby

 

At the cottage

Jimmy eats bread and peanut butter with his butter