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2009 was unexpected. Boy howdy was it ever.

Best Restaurant Moment

Easy. San Francisco Four Seasons with Alex. Amazing conversation/companionship. Fabulous meal with the most enticing, dancing but subtle flavours. Lovely setting. Decadent dessert. Everything a good meal with a long distance BFF should be.

Trip

Gwen Bell’s Best of Blog Challenge for 09 has got me off my butt (or whatever the sitting at a computer equivalent is to that, I guess stuck on my butt but clicking around in new and exciting ways?) and endeavouring to be back into the groove of blogging.

First topic: favourite trip of 09.

Taken just a few short weeks ago. A trip to Tofino in November for my birthday. Just Martin and I (and a 6 month pregnant belly). Wild wind. Crazy, chaotic ocean. Driving rain. A cabin. A jacuzzi tub on the deck. Books. Blankets. Candles. Birthday cake. New rain boots. Wool hats. Perfection.

7 Days of Zucchini. Day two: Zucchini & Ricotta Cannelloni

So there are two general approaches to zucchini cannelloni. One involves using actual thin sliced zucchini instead of noodles (a great gluten free choice, and totally possible with the large zucchini we've got hanging around as they'd make great wide "pasta" sheets). The other is to put zucchini *in* the cannelloni. I went for the latter.

I used this recipe as a guideline and used Heidi's recipe for tomato sauce from her Thousand Layer Lasagne as it is a great light, fresh sauce with a hint of lemon in it which I thought would go well with the lighter flavoured cannelloni filling. Like most of my baked pasta recipes I made a whole whack of this so that some portions could be frozen. I ended up with 12 individual cannelloni and divided that into 3 meals of 4 cannelloni each, to be served with a big fresh salad.

Homemade Zucchini & Ricotta Cannelloni
1 recipe of tomato sauce from here (or your personal fave)
1 package (1 lb) of fresh lasagne sheets
500g of ricotta
1 large zucchini grated, salted and drained
2 cloves of garlic
handful of chard leaves washed and chopped (I also have an abundance of these in my yard, not necessary but a nice addition)
one bunch of fresh basil sliced (reserve about 2 tbsp)
zest of half a lemon
olive oil to saute with
salt
pepper

breadcrumbs (1 cup)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
1/4 cup of pinenuts
reserved freshly chopped basil from above
salt
pepper

Make your tomato sauce, defrost some or use your favourite pre-made sauce. You'll need about 3 cups of it.

Heat the olive oil and saute your garlic with a pinch of salt. When it becomes aromatic add the grated zucchini and saute until it starts to soften. You don't want to over cook it as it will still bake for a while. Add the chard just before it is done and saute to wilt. Let cool a bit.

Empty your ricotta container into a bowl, add the sauted veggies, fresh basil (reserving a bit for a topping), lemon zest and a pinch of salt and a few good grinds of fresh pepper. Stir to combine.

Cut your lasagne sheets in half down the middle (not long ways but to make two smaller rectangles/almost squares out of the one long sheet). Take your baking pan (a lasagne pan works well or I used three smaller pyrex baking pans to freeze) and cover the bottom with sauce. Take a lasagne square and add filling along one side and roll into a tube shape. Place in the pan. Keep doing this until you're done. Add the remaining sauce on top to cover.

Mix the breadcrumbs, crushed garlic, salt, some pepper, pinenuts and the fresh basil with about 2 tbsp olive oil (more if necessary). Spread on top of your cannelloni pan.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350 for between 35-45 minutes. Remove the foil top and let the breadcrumbs brown for another 5-10 minutes (depending on how hot your oven is).

A week of cooking Zucchini. Day One: Chili

If you've got zucchini growing in your garden, know someone who does or have ever had a zucchini plant you will know that a time comes along every season where one feels a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of squash one is faced with consuming. We are at that point. Specifically we're at the point where we could pick a smallish zucchini every other day, and if we forget about them for more than 3 days in the backyard we suddenly have a baseball bat sized squash. (Though we consider ourselves not nearly as overwhelmed as friends who have 20 of these suckers).

Because we're trying to eat locally, and I hate to see food go to waste, I've given myself a challenge: cook with zucchini at least one meal a day all week this week. We'll see how we do. I'm doing a "feed two birds with one seed" thing here and also using this as a way to try to get back into blogging on this long dormant sucker. We'll see how it goes. Today's recipe:

Corn, Zucchini and Bean Veggie Chili
I've modified this recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant: Low Fat Faves cookbook over the years to make it my own.

1 large onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic minced (or 2 small ones)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp corriander
2 tsp ancho chili powder (or chili powder of your choice)
1 tbsp chipotle chili puree (plus more to taste)*

2-3 diced peppers (red, green, yellow, up to you)
2-3 fresh cobs of corn/corn cut off
2-3 cans of beans drained and rinsed (I use a mix of black and pinto and decide how many cans to use based on how "beany" i want it, and how much chili I want to have
1 large zucchini diced (like a good 12-14" one) or 2 smaller ones
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes or approximately 3-4 cups of fresh tomatoes chopped

salt and pepper to taste
juice of two limes

Directions:
Take a large soup pot and add about 1/3 cup of water, bring to medium heat with the diced onions and garlic. Stir often and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the dried spices (cumin, corriander and chili powder) and cook for 1 more minute, stirring.

Add the peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and chipotle. Cook for about 5 minutes, still on medium heat. Add the beans (drained and rinsed). Let simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the corn along with the juice of two limes (I love adding lime juice to southwest/mexican spiced foods as I think it makes them zingy and fresh tasting, if you disagree, leave it out), also add a pinch of salt. Now you can basically let it cook as long as you like. Like a soup, the longer it cooks the more the flavours come together and it's great the next day. Taste it after the corn has been in there for 10 mins or so and see if you want to add more chipotle, depending on how spicy you like things I'd say up to 2 more tbsps. And add more salt if needed.

I serve this with some yogurt, sometimes grated cheese, freshly diced avocado, wedges of lime and fresh cilantro to garnish the top. But it doesn't really need any of that, it just makes it fancier.

Serve it with a big salad and homemade cornbread or warmed corn tortillas. This recipe has made enough for dinner for 6 adults and two lunches the next day.

Zucchini used up: 1 medium-large sized specimen. Could also use pattypan squash in there.

*About Chipotle Chili Paste: I got turned onto this stuff by the Rebar cookbook and L.O.V.E. love it. To make it, you buy a can of chipotle chilis in adobo sauce and stick the whole thing in a blender. Then I put it in a sterlized mason jar and keep in the fridge for 6-8 weeks. This is longer than is recommended, but I've never had a problem with it going moldy or off. There's a fair bit of sugar in there, so it preserves well.

Little Known Zucchini Fact:
Back in the old days of the internet when ecards were all the rage, there was actually an awesome ecard that just said "Happy leave a zucchini on your neighbour's porch season" with the illustration of a zucchini on a porch at night. Anyone else remember that? It cracked my then roommate and I up to no end, but we were raised around a lot of zucchini…

Looking for great tunic pattern recommendations

After a recent trip to San Francisco, where I did my fair share of window shopping but was very restrained on the spending front due to some big bills we're facing, I have been re-energized to sew again. It's been a long time since I've really sewn much, my time being much more devoted to work lately (where lately equals the past several years), but I'm really feeling the itch. I was particularly inspired by this Sunhee Moon tunic, which I LOVED but couldn't justify buying when I have a room filled with lovely fabrics languishing in the basement. So now I'm looking for great, simple tunic patterns. The one shown here, which I found at Sew Mama Sew, is a great one, but I'm wondering what else is out there. Anyone have a great, simple and flattering tunic pattern they'd just love to share?  I know several of you are rather handy with a needle and thread… (Oh and if you've sewn this Anna Maria dress, feel free to send on your thoughts as well).

Orangette’s A Homemade Life

I treated myself to a copy of Molly's new book A Homemade Life recently and devoured it with simple joy and delight within days of it arriving. It is, I have to say, the cookbook/food book I've often dreamed of writing (or one of them anyway). For me recipes are stories. And, I hope I don't come off as crazy by saying that there are many recipes that I cook while repeating a story in my head, almost as though I'm trying to ensure I don't forget its origin, retelling a tale in my head in the oral tradition. My handwritten recipe journal of scraps of paper printed out from the web, handwritten notes, recipes copies from and by friends and newspaper clippings often has notes along these lines as well. Everything from a recipe for black bean soup that came to me via a beloved friend I've now lost touch with (she got it from another friend of hers, who she knew in grad school and the recipe has side notes tracing its origin), to "Mom's souffle" recipe, to the recipe for carrot/cauliflower veloute that my parents had on their kind-of-a-honeymoon in Switzerland. The recipes I've created or acquired as an adult all have similar stories attached to them. Stories that for the most part I keep in my own head, repeating subconsciously each time I cook them to myself.

But this isn't about my neurosis, it's about Molly's lovely book, worthy of much praise. Her stories and life journey, held together with recipes and food meditations  offers the reader a little mental journey into someone's life. A life filled with the ups and downs of life, family, joy and tragedy, adventures in Paris, romance and the quotidienne of everyday life. Somewhat ridiculously, I can't speak to any of the recipes as I lent the book out to friend shortly after finishing it, but I regularly use many of Molly's recipes from Orangette (they feature heavily in my scraps of printed out and annotated recipes) and have always enjoyed reading her stories as I add her recipes to my own repetoire. (If you have never made any of Molly's recipes I suggest you start with her Chocolate Apricot Cookie recipe. I can almost guarantee it will win you over and you'll be back for more.)

Thinking about a new Spring bag

Etsy Buy Handmade domicile

Life is lots of work lately (though we’ve hired two delightful, smart and fabulous people who will be helping to lighten the load), some around-the-house work (mostly in the form of garden restructuring), and daydreaming about Spring finally arriving. I’m on the lookout for a new bag as my beloved AstroSatchel is getting a bit worn around the edges. I’ve been getting positively lost in Etsy bag searches lately and spending way too much late night time surfing through endlessly wonderful options.
In honour of having just finished Margaret Atwood’s Payback
and a desire for a new relationship to money I’m changing my approach to spending and actually saving for a bag before I buy one (how novel), so we’ll have to see what options are still around and how much I can squirrel away over the next while before I make a final decision. Anyone have a favourite they want to sway me towards?

Babycakes The Cookbook

I already posted about this over at the book site, but I can't resist spreading the goodness:

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It’s Here! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

How great was that? BabyCakes Book of Recipes comes out in May (but you can pre-order now and don’t forget to pick up another copy of The Boss of You while you’re there). Honestly, as fellow author, getting that first box of books before they hit shelves feels exactly like that (or it did for me).

Lovely Things & Thoughts of Spring

Some things that have made me smile on ye olde internets this week:

• The super awesome Megan and Scott are getting married! Read a bit about it here and read her thoughts on Prop 8 here.I could not be more sincere when I tell you I'm just thrilled for those crazy kids.
• Is there anything cuter than this? Ok, maybe this is.
• I'll admit I'm a bit (ok a lot) of a cynic when it comes to politics but man that Obama guy is chipping away at that steadily, and now the super fantastic Mayor Gregor Robertson here in Vancouver, along with his team of stars, is on its way to turning me into Pollyanna. What with the Community Garden planned for the lawn at City Hall and the plans to approve backyard chickens I'm falling in love with this city all over again.
• Speaking of love, I kind of love this dress. A lot. But I may be being unfairly swayed by the awesome shoes it is shown with and the fantasty of springtime dress and sandal wearing. And, on a more local shopping front (for me), the Smoking Lily gals already had me with the design of this dress, but the description? Sold. Read for yourself: "We are dreaming of being on a warm Italian seashore sipping
  lemoncello(sp?) right now instead of this extreme cold snap we are
  having. So we took our sweet seahorse top turned it into a dress, add a
  key hole, made it in a stretch cotton poplin and voila! Il sole è il
  tasto al mio cuore!"
• And speaking of Anthro-lovin', Alex has a lovely post up this week on negotiating technology in a balanced life. I happened to read that same passage in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
  this week and was equally struck by it. Speaking of which, I have a number of thoughts on that book that I plan to share here soon, along with some ruminations on this year's garden plans.