19 meals in 10 hours for 200 bucks

In our house, the witching hour begins at four pm. Perhaps you know the hour- when the pitch and volume of the kids' whining turns up a notch. When your spouse stomps about the house suddenly noticing the the mess. When you start slamming cupboard and fridge doors moaning, “How can the shelves be so full with nothing to eat?”

Welcome to “Low Blood Sugar Hour”. As a way to combat this time of day, and save some money, three of us gathered in my mom's kitchen to cook for a month. We surrounded ourselves with recipes, pots, and ingredients, and cooked from 10am to 10 pm with short breaks for lunch and supper.

Here's a review of the experiment that hopefully inspires you to try it too.

The Rating:

7/10: Success with room to improve

The Experiment:

On Thursday morning, my friend Katy Spane and I choose recipes and developed our shopping list. Instead of dictating a full month of recipes, like many cookbooks do, “Frozen Assets” provided cooking 'mini sessions' of 4 to 6 similar dishes. This allowed us more control over what we would be cooking and so more control over our budget. A quarter of the recipes we chose were chicken, another quarter were pasta recipes, and half were bean.

On Friday night, Katy and I shopped. We hit the Italian Centre, then Costco, then finally Superstore. Hands down, the Italian Centre offered the best deal on cans of tomatoes, cans of beans, pasta packages and vegetables. Not only were the prices the best, they packaged it all for us and packed the boxes into our car. At Costco we bought our chicken, Superstore we bought most of our cheese.  The total number of hours we spent shopping was just over 2- and the next hour was spent unloading it all!

Prep was quick with two food processors and six hands.

On Saturday at 10 am, Katy, my mom Terri, and I started chopping and slicing. Thanks to a friend's food processor, the 30 lbs (!!!) of onions cut with fewer tears and cabbage and cheese grated with ease. We hadn't realized how important our equipment would be. Since we were multiplying every recipe by 3- we used all of our largest pots to capacity. The food processor was a necessity and good knives were essential. Thankfully Terri had a number of extra large metal bowls which we filled with chopped ingredients, ready for measure into pots. Around noon we started to cook, each of us was responsible for one mini session of recipes which meant there were lots of hands and feet in the kitchen. We ate a Hollywood Pizza delivery supper and finished cooking around 9pm. It took an hour to clean up.

We cut and food process 30 lbs of onions.

The Stats:

-      12 hours = average time spent per person on planning, prep, cooking and shopping

-      19 = Recipes completed (multiplied each by 3)

-      120 = Servings made per family (each recipe served 6)

-      $200 = total cost per family

-      $1. 65 = cost per serving

Success:

-      Pulling out a tray of stuffed manicotti, stuffed florentine shells, chicken chili, spinach quiche and lime marinated chicken has cut some of the stress of the supper hour. We don't eat a frozen meal every night, but probably every third night. 

-      It is critical that the recipes have lots of variety, and our choices did.

-      I had frozen meals to share with friends who had babies.

Stuffing manicotti- was delish and served 8!

-      The cost per meal was exceptional for the variety. I cut our family's supper budget by at least a third- maybe even half.

-      There is lots of leftovers for lunch (and sometimes supper) the next day.

Room to Improve:

-      While many of the meals have been good, about a third haven't been to my taste. Next time we'll use a website that allows us to pick each recipe specifically then it collates the shopping list. This will cut down on our planning time and limit the food wastage.

-      We need better freezer methods. We used freezer bags for most things, but some casseroles were frozen in dishes that did not stand up to being stacked (and froze together in blocks!)

-      Some of the recipes didn't freeze as well. Macaroni from the freezer to the pot is rather nasty.

That is bean puree on the tortillas- I swear it. Mat was roped in at the end.

The benefits are many and the problems surmountable. We'll be doing this experiment again soon, perhaps buying less beans and more elk meat from Christine at the Alberta Avenue Farmers' Market.

New Cushion Covers for the New Year

I've been off line for most of the holidays- Happy New Year all! At the start of every year, a curious sensation of nesting overwhelms me. Like a pregnant woman, I franticly clear closets, wash cupboards, and organize anything without a 'place' into large and small rubbermaid containers. I fill many garbage, blue and  Bissell (thrift store) bags. After the dust settles, err is swept up, I usually attack a project that has sat woefully neglected. This year, I finally recovered our living room foot stools with Ikea fabric purchased (and forgotten) last year.  

Both the chairs and stools I found for a great price at Decade to Decade, an exceptional Edmonton furniture consignment store. 

I then moved on to cutting and sewing cushions for our chairs and couch. Next step, scotch guard- if you have a more natural solution to stain prevention--- please let me know!! In all, I've spent less than five hours and $10 to bring fresh colour to our living area.

These chairs are part of a set from Quebec, they are solid maple but in need of a general sanding and re-staining (stay tuned for that project--- probably next year as I'm slowing down!). They were purchased at a pawn shop on 118 Ave now closed. Mat was persistent, watching the set go from $950 to $650 to $500, finally he negotiated it for $350 cash.  If you are looking for unique antiques for cheap(ish), try Stan's pawn shop on 118 Ave and west of 95 Street across from hookah bar and divine Ethiopian restaurant, Habesha.

Here's the couch I refinished a couple New Year's ago (check out the blog post here) purchased from the Bissell Centre Thrift Shop (89 Street and 118 Ave) for $50. In 2011, it finally has cushions to match.

Cutting Corners Making Bread... And a Secret Recipe

Entering the house on frosty days like these, there's nothing like the assault of fresh bread on the nose. This is the best bread recipe I have- its flavour coveted by many.  And it comes care of a lady who babysat me on weekends my parents stole away. Grandma Blair is not my grandmother and probably not yours, but when you taste this bread you'll realize its how you imagine family to be. A little crusty on the edges, warm and soft on the inside, with many different kinds of seeds giving variety to each bite. 

As with all my bread recipes, I've cut out most of the traditional steps of punching down and waiting forever to bake it. If you are a real stickler, then follow the traditional bread methods with this dough. But if you are like me, lazy and impatient with delayed gratification, then feel free to cut corners with any of your recipes too. This is how I approach any and all bread recipes:

1. Put all the dry ingredients in bowl. Mix.

2. Put all the wet ingredients in.

3. Mix. Add extra flour if dough is too wet (though don't be deceived when using a mixer- the more whole wheat you use, the less likely the dough will gather in a ball on the hook!). If you are mixing by hand, this is where the dough will become too stiff to stir, so you will knead it with your hands. Depending on what you are making, the finished dough will have different texture: Bread and buns dough will be soft and wet, keeping its form but just barely. Pita, pizza and bagel dough will be stiffer- they use less liquid and more flour.

4. Leave dough to 'rest' for five minutes in mixing bowl.

5. Decide: Cook it now or later? Most recipes make two loaves, so you may want to only cook one loaf and save the other dough for later. 

6. TO COOK IT LATER: Place dough in a large bag/ container and place in the fridge (you can let it rise on the counter for up to 2 hours). This dough will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks, and the longer it 'cold rises' the more complex the flavour.

5. TO COOK IT NOW: Shape into forms- loaves, buns, twists, braids. 

A note about loaves- I exclusively use pie plates or cookie sheets to make bread. I shape the loaves in rounds, rings, or oval shapes. To give them that artisan look, use a serrated knife and slice them three times before they rise.

6. Let shaped dough rise for an hour on the counter (cover if you want). Experiment with the rise time,  you may not notice the difference between an hour rise and a half-hour in the finished product. If I'm in a hurry, I may form dough into buns and leave them only a half hour to rise - they then cook fast and are done within the hour. Dough will rise another quarter its size as it cooks.

7. TO USE DOUGH FROM THE FRIDGE: The cold rise experts say to remove dough from fridge and allow it to warm to room temperature before forming it. However, I form the dough immediately after removing it with no problems. In the case of cinnamon twists (a post for next week), I will often remove the dough, shape it, and put it straight in the oven. We're eating twists 20 minutes after removing the dough from the fridge. 

8. So, forget the rules and experiment! For more on this, check out this past post on the basic bread recipe. 

Grandma Blair Bread

Finally, the recipe... it can be made in the mixer or is small enough to easily mix by hand. Makes 2 loaves or 2 dozen buns.

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl:

   - 1/2 C Red River Cereal

   - 1/4 C each: Sunflower, poppy, flax seeds and millet

   - 1 T Yeast

   - 1 t Salt

   - 3 C White Flour

   - 3 C Brown Flour

   - 1/4 Brown Sugar

2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients:

   - 1/8 C molasses (or more to taste)

   - 1 egg, beaten

   - 1/4 C oil

   - 2 3/4 C warm water

3. Mix/knead until dough is soft and pliable (elastic is how it feels, but its hard to explain until you feel it!). Add flour if necessary. 

4. Let rest five minutes.

5. Form into bread or buns and let rise another hour OR place in bag for 'cold rise' in the fridge for up to two weeks.

6. Cook at 375 F. Bread for 45 minutes, Buns for 20-25. 

7. Slice, eat and enjoy.

I will be hosting a Bread Making Workshop on Sunday, January 23 in the afternoon. Max 4 people, so RSVP and pay early. Fee is $20.  You'll go home with 4 loaves of bread (2 Grandma Blair bread and two others), a dozen cinnamon twists, and a half dozen pitas/ or pizza dough.

Ode to Home in Time for the Season of Nostalgia

As a self-proclaimed Homesteader, I’ve given some thought to the role Home plays in my life. Homesteaders in the traditional sense are concerned about the very basics of survival: food production, food preparation, shelter from the elements, food preservation, and propagating more humans to consume said food resources. 

Surely Home is a lot more than the sum of these skeletal parts. Screws and 2x4s, trusses and shingles, cement and hardwood: a house this makes- but a home?

The word Home has an emotional dimension that, when I imagine it, is the ‘meat’ (err: flesh) on the skeleton. Relationships, memory, expectations, and exasperations stretch over the structure and add warmth like that of new love or old love or bacon wrapped tenderloin.

There are many words that start with ‘home’ which are full of emotional associations. Let’s explore a few.

Consider the word: “Homemade”. Its very mention conjures the image of a crackling hearth and wafting scent of chicken soup and fresh bread.  Strange that this word doesn’t bring to mind those biscuits I cleverly disguised as ‘biscotti’ or the smoke from the hearth pizza that assailed the fire alarm until it shrieked like a cat fight.

Consider the word “Homemaker”. As a generation Y-er, I have a hard time detaching this word from snide ‘bare foot and pregnant in the kitchen’ comments. But the homemakers I’ve met don’t look much like their caricature. Women and men, fathers and grandmothers, they are involved in more than giving a house that homespun feel. Regularly they fuel the fire that is community action.

Say it, “Home.” I hear: Crackling fire (I don’t have a fireplace) and crinkle of Christmas presents (one day a year).

The reality is, at times Home sounds like me screaming at the kids to stop crying while they scream at me to stop screaming. Thankfully these off notes join the tenors of other sounds: the piano thunking, the girls wrestling on squeaky couch springs, the screen slamming with Mat’s entry, the bath tap pouring, the oven door opening, the forks scraping, and boots booming across the living room floor. The music of home, the real soundtrack and not the one created by advertisers and nostalgic storytellers, is dissident and soothing in even measure. It is as complex as a master composition: something to be enjoyed thoughtfully on a cold, snowy December Day.

Yak and Jammin

The ever-violent game of 'spoons'.

Yak and Jammin'

Kitchen Party

 

Murder Mystery Birthday party

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Back Deck Barber Shop

Harvest 2010- Thank God for the Grocery Store

I know it's late to be posting an update on September's harvest, but I needed some time to come to terms with my meagre gleanings. It was a tough year this year. Everything started out looking so lovely and green, then...

Clearing the garden.

1. My onions were eaten by the onion fly (again!).

2. My broccoli and kale crawled with the cabbage moth's pre-winged worms.

3. My crab apple tree caught a fungus and dropped all its leaves in May.

4. Only half my potatoes grew.

5. The squash grew slowly.

6. The eggplant grew even slower. 

7. My four harvestable corn tasted... hmmm, like wood?

The corn sure looked promising-- before August when they stunted.

The aesthetic of these carrots is great but our general consensus was that the traditional orange tasted best.

 

Two eggplant struggled to palm size. Too much rain, too little heat.

Late season broccoli was the only thing that survived the cabbage fly's summer assault.

There were some real hits- like the arugula, borage and many of my Italian herbs (and of course mint) that produced like crazy. I tasted the first fruits of my honey berry bush while the strawberries exploded. All the strawberry spinach and wild strawberry seeds I planted grew happily. I harvested grapes! And my carrots did a nice job of growing sweet with funky colours. And cucumbers! Cucumbers finally flourished in my garden thanks to rain, rain, constant rain.

But its all got me thinking about food security. If I depended on my yard this year for food, well, I'd have some great flavoured Italian water-soup and nice tea with cucumber slices.

I often joke I'm a lot like Marie Antoinette with her Versailles' garden. She ran a little hobby farm. She dabbled in growing the palace food but she depended on a much broader source of food production to keep the castle happy and fed. Her wealth allowed her the opportunity to glean the spiritual benefits of getting her hands dirty without any physical consequences when nature had its way.

This about sums up my gardening experience this year. I harvest much joy and rhythm in my urban yard. But this year I'm thankful to live in a time and place of plenty- where my garden doesn't drive my decisions about vacations or my children's survival rates.

I like to think I keep a garden as a food source. But in truth, quite thankfully, I garden as a hobby.  

Alberta Avenue Farmers Market

It may be -14 and snowing- but there is a place you can buy chard, fresh greens and garden carrots today: The Alberta Avenue Farmers' Market. Located in the community league on 93 street and 118 Ave here in Edmonton, it is a relatively new (1.5 years old) year-round market working hard to connect producers with urban customers.

The prices are exceptional, though the selection is still pretty sparse. Today, I bought $3 eggs and grass fed hamburger for $3.50 lb from Ari. I bought a decent ring of garlic elk sausage for $5.50 and ground elk for $4.30 per lb from a producer in New Sereptia. There was fresh peach pie (she uses frozen, not canned peaches!) for $5 and a loaf of banana bread for $3.  From Green Eggs and Ham I bought a bag of carrots for $5- they will have fresh greens all year round, thanks to their greenhouse outside of Leduc.

There's a real need for a thriving year-round market in Edmonton, north of the river. But its more easily said than done: to get committed producers you need committed customers, but for committed customers you need committed producers. A new steering committee has been created to develop a plan for the market's sustainability, and since its in my community, I happily joined. In a neighbourhood where there is a diverse mix of people and growing revitalization, a market like this one can only enhance our networks and the vibrancy on the Avenue.

So, all you Edmontonians who have a grocery budget to spend and ten minutes on a Thursday (from 2- 7pm) to stop in to shop- please spend your dollars at a market that promises a lot more for our community than garden produce and baked goods!

November Flowers, Harvests and Buds in the Backyard

BUDS! In November?

Saskatoon has buds like this all over the tree.

I am fearing for the winter health of some of my berry bushes. There have been a significant number of frosts to date, but daytime weather has been generally mild. On roaming the back yard today I was shocked to find buds on my saskatoon- and my honeyberry was actually sprouting new leaves!?

Can you see the new leaves on the bottom right? There are others on the left.

FLOWERS! Even after many many cold nights, my pinks, clematis and, of course, asters, are blooming. The purple coral bells offed rich counter point to all the yellow and orange leaves from the mountain ash.

This is the clematis' second year planted here.  It is zone 2 and native to the rockies.

These pinks have offered an explosion of colour all summer long- and now into the fall. Behind them is a lavender, zone 4, that has flourished at the base of the apple tree for four seasons.

Prolific Asters!

Iris' and coral bell at the base of the Saskatoon.

HARVESTS: We continue to enjoy parsley from the garden. Up to two weeks ago the strawberries were producing and I'm popping out into the yard for still fresh garlic chives, oregano, arugula and beautifully coloured kale.

Arugula still growing and blooming

Still-green strawberries front a Morden Rose

Green onion/garlic chives are still giving. I planted these from seed (from Salt Spring Island Seeds) and they promise to be a perennial that will continue passing on the love, labour free! Wild strawberry seeds blew into this bed, and the little guys seem happy with the onions- a pairing similar to their natural habitat in the mountain meadows I grew up exploring.

 

Four varieties of oregano peek out from the fallen leaves of our mountain ash. 

The kale turns purple when cold- but its still good to eat. These little guys suffered under the shade of a large tree and in drought like, nutrient poor conditions. They are survivors that I don't think I'll eat- for their sake.

This is a Silver Sage that I grew from seed last year. It is still producing new leaves from its centre- now that the slugs are slowing down- I guess it has to grow when it can! I've planted wild strawberries all along the path (at the bottom of the picture) and these should produce fruit next season. They are doing a great job of filling in as a ground cover. I bought the seeds on ebay from an Albertan company. These seeds were hard to find- but propagated very easily both inside and out. 

Carrots in the Washing machine?

Louise Froese, who taught me to cook beets, casually mentioned that she doesn't bother scrubbing her garden carrots.

I looked at her with some incredulity. Dirt isn't as bad for you as us sanitized parents like to think, but didn't dirt affect the flavour? Not to mention the texture.

Good thing I pursued it. Turns out, she lets her washing machine do the scrubbing for her.
 
I couldn't believe it would work so I headed home and threw about 5 pounds of carrots and turnips from the garden into the washer along with two large bath towels (I made sure to brush the excess dirt off the veggies).

I have a small front loader that boasts a lot of unused settings. Putting a tiny bit of soap in the reservoir, I set the machine on the lowest, shortest setting (hand dry) then watched the veggies whirl about. The towels lessoned the rattling which I imagined would assume the din of a tympani.

Outside of my skepticism, my main concern was for the machine. I asked Louise about wear and tear and she shrugged that it never had been a concern for her machine: a top loader that has washed many pounds of carrots over many years.

The buzzer announced the 20 minute cycle was up. I pulled the veggies out and, of course, they were as clean as if I'd spent 20 minutes scrubbing them. The odd one had a little dirt residue that came off with a scraping from my nail.

I think my next (and last- welcome winter) batch of carrots, I'm going to try in the top rack of my dishwasher. Will report back!

Dehydrators are a Dream

Next to cinnamon twists fresh out of the oven, there is nothing else that creates a buzz in the kitchen like apple fruit leather hot from the dehydrator.

Our community league sponsored the purchase of this dehydrator, for use by any Alberta Avenue community members (let me know if you'd like a turn!):

There are four drying trays, however you can stack them up to eight high, if you buy extra trays. Heat settings are clearly marked, and the dry time is mostly due to your preference.

 To make fruit leather, pureed fruit is smoothed on donut shaped trays. I've mixed strawberry and raspberry in with apple sauce for occasional variety, but I prefer straight up sour apple.  You'll need about a 3/4 - 1 Cup of sauce per tray.

After about 6- to 8 hours (depends on the thickness of your layer of sauce), voila, fruit leather like none other.

Generally, our family of four will eat the bounty from all four trays in the scope of 24 hours.

It's a good thing we have a ready supply of Grandma's homemade apple sauce waiting in the freezer!