Judy's Potato Salad

If there is one thing I make every summer, it's my mom's recipe for potato salad. No barbecue is complete without it. I usually make a huge batch and then by the time it's finished I'm tapped out so I don't make it again until the next year. Why don't I just make smaller batches you ask? Because I don't. I make a huge batch or none at all. This recipe is very approximate because I usually just go by how it looks/tastes and adjust as needed. Maybe go easy on the ingredients so that you can always add more. You can't take too much of something away once it's mixed in! So here it is...

5 lb bag of red potatoes
8-10 hard boiled eggs
1-2 cups chopped pickles
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise (I may have added a little more sour cream/mayo, this is approximate. Either way, the amount of the sour cream and mayo are always the same)
2-3 Tablespoons yellow mustard
1/2 cup pickle juice
Salt, pepper, dill to taste

First! Boil the potatoes whole with the skin on. I usually do this the night before or well ahead of time (first thing in the morning if you're serving it in the evening). Once you can poke the potatoes easily with a fork, drain all the water and put the potatoes in a plastic shopping bag to sweat. Let them cool off COMPLETELY in the fridge and once they are cool you will be able to peel the potatoes very easily. The skin just comes right off. My mom gave me that handy little tip and I think she got it from my Grandma Elma if I'm not mistaken. Cut your potatoes into small uniformly sized cubes. One of my friends told me once that she liked my potato salad because all the pieces of potato were the same size. Oh and at some point you'll have to boil your eggs, cool them off, and peel them as well. So cut up all your potatoes, eggs, and pickles and chuck them in a big bowl...

Then add all of your seasonings and other stuff...

And mix it all together...

Voila. Best potato salad ever. I adjusted the ingredients a lot this time around as for whatever reason I couldn't get the flavor right after the initial addition of all the ingredients. So again, the amounts of the ingredients are approximate and you can always adjust to your taste. And thanks again to my awesome mum for letting me in on this recipe. And now all of my faithful readers as well ;)

- A

Sour Ginger Slaw

Last year was the first time I had ever been to the St. Norbert Farmers Market. I know, I've lived in Manitoba my whole life and last year was the first time. I'm ashamed and I have no excuse. If only I knew how awesome it was I might have gone earlier. When I was there last year I bought a bunch of vegetables just because they looked so amazing! I wasn't sure what in the world I was going to do with two GIGANTIC cucumbers and two GIGANTIC zucchini but I thought, what the heck, they're gigantic! With my arms full of cucumber and zucchini I spotted the most beautiful head of red cabbage I have ever seen. This baby was gorgeous. I had to take her home with me. I hate to let vegetables go to waste and though I regularly use zucchini and cucumbers in my cooking, I don't know if I had ever used red cabbage in anything before. Luckily, it's a pretty easy vegetable and I found this lovely recipe online (Family Feedbag Blog) for a Sour Ginger Slaw. Sour? Ginger? Slaw?? Three of my favorite things all combined into one beautiful summer salad. I made it for the first time last year and I made it again this year as I found myself with another beautiful head of red cabbage in my refrigerator. So here goes...

7 cups red cabbage
1/2 carrot, julienned
1/2 snow peas, julienned
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp ginger root, minced
1 tsp granulated white sugar

Chop (or julienne) all your vegetables and combine in a large bowl (I used the pre-julienned carrots in a bag this time, hee hee)...

That color combination is just ridiculous. In a good way. Then combine everything else (oil, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, sugar) in a bowl or tupperware contraption like I have...

Give it a good shake and then pour over your vegetables. I like to stick this in the fridge for a while and then serve this slaw nice and cold so the veggies are crisp. Ugh, so delicious!

The end result. Such a great summer vegetable dish and really good on pulled pork sandwiches!
Hopefully I'll be able to get another post on here in the next day or two as I'm on holidays and have been doing a lot of cooking (and painting)!

- A

Berry Cream Cheese Parfaits

I love dessert. There, I said it. Even if I am completely full after a good meal I will always find room for something sweet at the end.
I've always wanted to make parfaits but had never actually chosen a recipe for parfaits when planning a meal. Some friends  were coming over and I wanted to make a dessert but I didn't want to make a cake, or cheesecake, or something heavy and very time consuming. I wanted it to be fun and light(ish). So, I finally chose a recipe for parfaits that had been sitting in my recipe folder for months. I adapted it from a recipe I found on allrecipes.ca and I'll give you the original recipe as I halved the recipe to make two big parfaits instead of 8 small ones:

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese (softened)
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 3.4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip
24 Nilla wafers, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups mixed fresh berries (I used frozen berries as I didn't have any fresh on hand and I actually preferred that as when the berries thawed they left some juice which I used in the parfaits to pour over the nilla wafers)

First, beat cream cheese with a mixer until creamy. Then slowly beat in the milk. Add the dry pudding mix and beat with mixer until it turns into budding basically. Then fold in 1 cup of the Cool Whip.

Keep in mind that this picture is only half of the recipe (1/2 package of cream cheese, 3/4 cups milk, half package of vanilla pudding mix, 1/2 cup Cool Whip) so if you make the original recipe that serves 8 you will have twice as what is in the picture.
I chopped up some Nilla Wafers...

 And then started layering the parfaits in two large glasses...

I started with a little bit of the vanilla pudding/cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the glass. Then I added the wafers and then the berries. After the berries I added a little bit of Cool Whip and then started the layers over again (pudding mixture, wafers, berries, Cool Whip in that order). I let them sit in the fridge for a while so the wafers would get slightly soft (but not mushy!). When I made them for our friends I used the same proportions and made 4 smaller parfaits in martini glasses. Forgot to take a picture of those however.
There you have it! Also, happy July long weekend/Canada day everybody!

- A

SUSHI

My friend Danielle got back from a trip to Australia recently and while she was there she learned to make sushi. I have kind of been obsessed with sushi lately and thought hey, why not give that a try? So, one evening a couple weeks ago I had Danielle and another friend (Amanda) over for a girls night and we all made sushi together. The rice took a while to cool so we didn't end up eating until after 8 pm but whatevs, we had fun together and oh boy was that sushi delicious. What lies ahead is a documentation of our adventurous evening...

We started making the sushi rice (bought at a local Safeway) in my rice cooker. We first cleaned the rice very well, then chucked it in the slow cooker with equal parts (ish) water. When it was done, we mixed sushi vinegar, sugar, and salt together and mixed it up real good so that the sugar and salt would dissolve. Once we had it all mixed up I attempted the "cutting and folding" technique I had seen on youtube while Danielle fanned the rice...

We're by no means sushi experts but our hearts were in the right place.
Danielle judged when the rice had reached the desired consistency (since she was the only one who had done this before) and then we put it in the fridge to cool off. Didn't want to burn our fingers when it came time to assemble the sushi! Photo cred: Amanda :)
We then prepped all our veggies and the crab meat while we had some shrimp tempura in the oven.

 Veggies are prepped, now time to actually make the sushi. I have had sushi mats for a few years but  never knew how to actually use them until this day! You start by laying a piece of seaweed (nori) down on your mat, rough side up and then adding rice like so...

You want the lines in the seaweed to be parallel to the bamboo on the mat (or perpendicular to the string woven through the mat). You also want to leave about an inch of the seaweed exposed as that is what is going to help you seal the roll once you've filled it.
Fill the sushi with your favorite ingredients...

We used shrimp tempura, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, mayo and sprouts in this one. Then use the mat to roll the sushi really tight.

We layered the filling closer to the one end of the sushi so that on the first "roll" the filling would be covered.
Roll the seaweed over once...

Then squeeze tight to compact everything. Keep rolling until you have reached the end of the seaweed then squeeze tight again to seal it.

Hmm, not quite as in focus as I had thought. Oh well! So after the instruction I tried one for myself...

Ready to roll. Literally.

First attempt at sushi = Success!

We made enough rice for eight rolls of sushi. Wowzers. Good thing my husband Brenden was on hand to help us eat all this deliciousness.

One (of two) of our huge plates of homemade sushi. I'm so proud of us girls ;)

Served with more shrimp tempura, edamame beans and soy sauce (naturally). Our other roll had all of the same stuff as the shrimp tempura roll except we used crab pollock meat instead of the shrimp. A few weeks later my husband and I made sushi together and we made a roll that had blanched asparagus, roasted red pepper strips and cream cheese. Oh my word, so good. And with a little bit of wine, I'd say we had a successful girl's night. So there you have it! Until next time...

- A

Chicken Enchiladas and Cornbread

When we were making our weekly meal plan a few weeks ago I told my husband that I was in the mood to make chicken enchiladas and should I make cornbread to go with that? He gave me this look that said, "Uh, yes of course!" Well, okay. That was settled then. I'll start with the cornbread recipe. I found it on allrecipes.com and it's called Absolute Mexican Cornbread if anybody wants to search the recipe for themselves. As per usual, I've altered it slightly. Here goes:

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 (15 oz) can cream corn
1 can green chiles (drained)
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I usually use the New Bothwell jalapeno cheese but I didn't have any this time around)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I used marble here)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

So, I mixed up the butter and sugar in my trusty Kitchen Aid and once that was nicely mixed I left my mixer on and added the eggs, one at a time.

Butter and sugar together, before mixing and adding the eggs. I grated some cheese quickly...

And then added the cream corn, chiles and cheese to the butter and sugar in the mixer.

In a separate bowl I added all the dry ingredients together (flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt) and then added that to the corn mixture. I preheated the oven to 300 degrees Celsius, put the batter into a 9x13 baking dish...

 And baked for one hour. Once it's done it comes out looking like...

... this! So worth the wait. Too bad I didn't have any jalapeno cheese for that extra kick BUT it was still amazing. It's best served fresh on the day it was made but it does hold up well in the fridge for a couple of days.
So, while the cornbread was baking, I started whipping up the enchiladas. This recipe came from a cookbook that my work put together a couple of years ago and it's actually a recipe from a woman that I work with. I make it almost exactly to her specifications and they come out perfect every single time.

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
2 cups prepared salsa
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar or Monterey Jack,I used marble again because that is what I had in the house)
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken (I think I used 2 1/2 breasts)
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (I have used them frozen before - as I forgot to take them out ahead of time, oops - and it worked fine as well)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon dried Italian parsley (this was something I added)
salt and pepper to taste
4 green onions, thinly sliced
14 soft, round 6-8 inch tortillas (I used 9 here and made them a little more full)

First, I cooked the chicken in a pan with a little salt and pepper until cooked all the way through. Once they were done I set them on a cutting board to rest and cool off just a little bit. While the chicken was cooking I prepped the rest of my ingredients. I combined the cream cheese and sour cream until well mixed. Then I stirred in 1/2 cup of the salsa (the stuff that my mom and I made), and 1 cup of shredded cheese.

I then got to work shredding my chicken. The way that I shred chicken (or pork for pulled pork, same concept) is by taking two forks and tearing little layers off at a time.

Once the chicken was all shredded, I put it all in a bowl and added the corn kernels and all the spices (cumin, oregano, cayenne, Italian parsley, salt and pepper) and mixed that all up together.

I used about this much Italian parsley...

Here's a story about how I came to acquire this wonderful herb. A few weeks ago, a woman came into my work with this huge bag of Italian parsley that she had just got from her garden. She said she brought it in for all of us which was extremely thoughtful. At the end of the day only one other person had taken any and there was still a huge bunch left and since I hated to see it go to waste I just took it all home. Once I got home however I was unsure what to do with it. My wonderful mother saved the day and told me to chop it all up really nice and fine and then dry it out and then I would have all this wonderful Italian parsley to use. So that's what I did. I chopped it all up, put a paper towel on a baking sheet and put the parsley on the paper towel. It took a week or two until it was all dry and periodically I would just mix it all up so the stuff on the bottom would get dry as well and now I have this huge jar of fresh Italian parsley! Awesome! Anyway...
I mixed the chicken mixture with the sour cream/salsa mixture and warmed up my tortilla shells. I also pulled out a baking dish and put about a 1/2 cup of salsa on the bottom for some moisture. I started assembling my enchiladas by placing about 1/3 cup of filling onto the tortilla. I used a measuring cup to get it basically exact so each of my enchiladas would have about the same amount of filling.

I spread the filling out and rolled it up and placed them in the baking dish.

I then poured the remaining salsa over top (1 cup) and topped that with the rest of the shredded cheese (1 cup).

I baked these in the oven at 325 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes until hot and bubbly. Once out of the oven, add the green onions to the top.

Voila, our Monday night Mexican fiesta.

And now, just because they're cute, here's a picture of my cats Bonkers and Thumper...

We got Thumper (the little guy) a few weeks ago so our cat Bonkers (the big girl) wouldn't be so lonely. So far they seem to like each other as they're cuddling after all :)

- A

Blast from the past

Two weekends ago I went and had a long overdue visit with my Grandpa. I only have one of my biological grandparents left and I want him to know how special he is to me! He still has all the photo albums that my Grandma put together and it's always so great looking at them and seeing what a stud my dad was growing up ;) My dad found a few pictures during our last visit that show how young I was when I wanted to hang out in the kitchen.

 First off, because I was just so darn cute, here's a picture of me as a little tyke helping my mum in the kitchen. She started training me young.

I maybe don't look so psyched here but I can guarantee that I am. I most likely just woke up from a nap. I'm in my Grandma's kitchen probably about to watch her whip up something unbelievable. I still can vividly remember her hands as they worked making wonderful food for her family.

And here is a picture of a woman that I miss every day. I wasn't even a teenager when my Grandma passed away so I never got the chance to learn from her the way I wish I had so I'm counting on genes to help me cook as well as she did.

- A

Ashley and Judy's homemade pineapple salsa

And other delicious creations...

I have the best mum. I just gotta say it. She's one of my best friends and she rocks. Last weekend my husband was away on a men's retreat with a bunch of guys from our church so after I spent Friday night with three of my best girls, I spent the Saturday cooking up a storm with my mum and we had so much fun. One thing we had always talked about making was salsa. When she was in California she brought home a jar of pineapple salsa for me and we decided that we would try and make our own. Mum tried to find recipes but after searching the internet and finding nothing we decided to make our own. We have already decided what we're going to do differently in our next batch but that's not to say that this one didn't turn out great. Because it did. I'm not going to give an entire recipe for this one as it needs some tweaking plus it's our secret recipe and it wouldn't be secret if I shared the whole thing ;)
Anyway, here goes...

We started with a bunch of tomatoes chopped up and processed until they looked like.....

... this. Same with the onions...

... and the limes.

Well I guess this picture doesn't show them all chopped up but I wanted to include it anyway.

Everything but the pineapple in the pot. We used red and orange peppers as well however they got way too fine in the food processor so for next time I am going to chop them by hand.

A full pot with the pineapple added. I chopped these by hand as they for sure would get waaayyyy too fine and runny in a food processor and we wanted there to be some chunks in the salsa.

Here's the salsa after it had been cooking in the pot for some time. We added salt, pepper, cumin, and maybe something else? I can't quite remember now and we were busy making a bunch of stuff that day so I forgot to write it down. Oh, we also added jalapenos for some spice. I'm not sure how long this stayed on the stove, a few hours at least, we kind of adjusted the heat as we saw fit so next time we'll get it down pat.

The finished product. We ended up with eight jars of salsa. Next time we're going to use my big soup pot thing as well and hopefully make twice as much. We only made this a week ago and I only have one out of four jars left!

Another thing my mum and I concocted. Well mostly my mum in this case. Some sort of Korean barbecued steak, oh my word, so good.

My mum told me that she needed more protein in her diet and quinoa is a very good source of protein. My one health tip so far on this blog. We added green onions, shredded carrots, salt, pepper, etc.

An amazing corn and zucchini bake. Mum adapted this from a Kraft recipe and then decided she was going to bake it with cheese on top. If I hadn't got married I probably never would have left home because she doesn't stop cooking with cheese!!

And one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten I'm pretty sure. A red onion, yellow pepper, beet and blue cheese salad. If there's one thing I love, it's beets. Because they taste like the ground. That really is my number one reason for liking them. I'm fairly certain this came out of my mum's brain all on it's own (Mum, correct me if I'm wrong) and I must say, she's a genius. I only hope that one day I'll be able to create wonderful dishes out of my brain just like she does. I'm like her in basically every way (except for my terrible sense of direction which I get from my dad and my love for birds which I also get from my dad) so hopefully that trait will start to manifest itself even more soon!
That's it for tonight folks. Until next time...

- A