Spicy Rice Noodle Salad

Pan fried Atlantic Salmon with Spicy Noodle Rice Salad

 For this recipe, soften rice noodles in warm water

Mix noodles in the following dressing

Dressing

minced garlic- 1 -3
brown sugar -1 teaspoon
chili paste- 1/2 - 1 tablespoon
rice vinegar- 1/3 c
fish sauce- 2 -3 T

Add Chopped Herbs ( Cilantro, and/or Mint and/or basil) and julienned vegetables .. I used a carrot, zucchini, green onions out of the garden and sweet pea pods.

I proudly used my new julienned matchstick slicer and was pleased with the results!

Drizzle  a little of sesame seed oil.  Garnish with peanuts, chopped green onion and chopped herbs.

Since I had soften too many rice noodles, I only added the vegetables to some of the noodles.. I left the rest of the noodles for another night!  Leaving out the vegetables gives you a fresher salad the next day when you mix in new vegetables .

Grandma's Raisin Nut Oatmeal Cookies

Couple of days ago, I had a delightful message on the telephone requesting the oatmeal cookies I had made while babysitting my grandchildren.  The messages talked about me making the " best cookies"!  

I had made a classic old recipe of my Mom's, Chocolate Chip cookies.. However, I could not find Chocolate Chips or Raisins at the time I had started the recipe, so I used what I found in the cupboard.   

I used chopped up mixed dried fruit (apples, apricots, cranberries) with walnuts to make 2 cups of mixed fruit and nuts.  

My granddaughter loved them!  Since I had reduced the amount of sugar due to all the sugar in the dried fruit, these cookies were a healthy snack.  

I was delighted with the message as I am not a big cookie maker, I used to find it most discouraging to have plates of cookies disappear soon after being baked.  However, my Mom made cookies frequently with an Oatmeal base.  She also reduce the amount of sugar as felt the amount of sugar in the recipes was unnecessary.  

south west road trip from Calgary, Travel Alberta

The inspiration for our little road trip was in the  Travel Alberta magazine, Summer, 2013.  The article talked of towns and local interests but didn't really plan out a driving route. When we lived in Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Free Press would feature day trips from Winnipeg with local interests and a road map along with driving times.  We enjoyed these day trips very much and certainly learned a lot about southern Manitoba.  After studying a map we headed off to High River on Highway 2, where we stopped at Peavy Market as it is the closes to us living in Calgary.

On to Nanton on Highway 2 to find Big D Burger Shack, which we found on Trip Advisor. The reviews did not disappoint. 

The shack was a brightly painted food truck parked in a large vacant lot on 20th avenue

My husband ordered a Cowboy burger which was a 6 oz homemade fully dressed burger with cheese and bacon, mine was a fully dressed burger with a 3 oz patty... the burgers and onion rings were delicious!

Nanton is truly packed with antique stores as the article mentioned.  But we were off to the Ultimate Trains store.  The store was filled with G gage train sets and plenty of accessories.  We learned from the daughter of the owner that her father was Swiss and always loved trains as a youngster.

A picture taken of Thomas the train through the window,

 He opened the shop 12 years ago at the age of 59.  His wife and him developed this garden railway where children could ride on the train.  The unfortunate thing was that one could not view this garden from inside or outside unless you paid an admission fee. The shop was dusty and dark and did not suggest an impressive garden. The poster below suggested  otherwise.

 My suggestion was not well received and as we left the store, a young couple was seen peeking through a knot hole in the fence, trying to see the train which you could hear!

After Nanton, on to Highway 533 then to Highway 22 which took us into Black Diamond on Government Road to Centre Street.

Here we walked into Marv's 50s style diner.  The outside decor certainly did not provide for what one would see in Marv's diner.  Once you got around a display, you walked into a 50 style diner which was decorated in pink and black.  The booth seats were covered in these colors too.  The waitress were dressed in pink with black trim and black aprons. The floors were oiled hardwood.  50s music playing from the table top jukebox that I remember so well!

The nostalgic place did need some cleaning and although chocolate malt from old fashion was suggested from the old fashion soda fountain, we settle for hard ice-cream in waffle cones.

Although this was not one of the points of interest, we went back down the hill to Vale's Greenhouse.  We were disappointed that their beautiful garden were not opened as as everywhere in Alberta, their pots were still empty. The place was buzzing with patrons, so we left shopping here for another time!

We ended the perfect day, at our neighbourhood pub, Dixons for 10 cent wings and happy hour prices!

A perfect way to celebrate Victoria Day!

Spinach Crepes

This is an interesting recipe I came across on the net and decided to make today as since Mother's Day , I am a proud owner of a new Cuisinart Blender. 

Into the blender throw in

1/2 cup of Spinach

3 eggs

1 T oil

1 cup of flour

11/2 cup milk

Whisk in blender and refrig for 30 minutes.

The colour of the crepes is spectacular.  The recipe made 10- 8 inch crepes and I have 4 crepes left over for appetizers tonight!  

For the breakfast Burritos, I made a filling of scrambled eggs, grated cheese, cooked sausage meat, green onions and spinach not used in the batter. I then baked the  crepes for 10 to 15 minutes until warm.. A white sauce with cheese would have been a great addition! Next time!

Basic Crepe/ Nalysniki recipe ,

My cousin Eleanor's blog always features a new recipe and tidbits on family life.   In a recent blog she wrote about my Mom and her entering the work field at a tender age of twelve.  My Mom's memories of working as a domestic helper at farm were most interesting...  She worked in the kitchen and helped with meals which were sent to the family via a dumb waiter.  She spoke of having to iron the linens for daily meals and for Sundays.  She was very appreciative of being loaned a horse to ride home at Easter  to see her family.
At sixteen, she worked in a Hospital run by the Felician sisters from Chicago.  Here she worked under a chef in the kitchen that was Cordon Bleu schooled.  Her culinary skills benefited greatly from this exposure, as her desserts and pastries were not only delicious but beautiful to look at!
One of my favourite if only Ukrainian dishes was Nalysniki, which I remember her making in her square electric frying pan.  The crepes which she lifted with her fingers when a golden brown colour were paper thin.
One of the few recipes that she actually hand wrote for me as she rarely measured and went by sight and feel!   After many tries of this recipe, I was finally successful when I increased the amount of flour and have the cast frying at a constant medium heat.  Constant heat and a lightly oiled cast iron pan is the secret in successfully making these crepes.


Basic Crepes: 
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1 pinch of salt 
2 large eggs 
1 1/2 cups milk 


The modified crepe recipe comes from Macheesmo's site

 These are Nalysniki made by my Aunt Marion for Ukrainian Christmas Eve 2012 at the age of 90.
The filling for her crepes is Home Made Cottage Cheese made by Mrs H. Marion pours heavy farm cream over the crepes to bake until hot before serving. Mom used doted butter on her crepes to keep from sticking as they bake.

These are the crepes I made this year for Christmas using a caste iron pan.

 The crepes can be made a head of time, rolled with a cottage cheese filling and frozen as a whole piece or cut in to 2 inches pieces and assembled in a casserole with butter.

These are the crepes my Aunt made this year for Ukrainian Christmas Eve 2013, so delicious! 

My Aunt Florence sent me this recipe that she says is her Mom's recipe for Crepes which she makes for Christmas Eve supper.. I know my mom never makes then for Christmas but did for Easter.. I am pretty sure that my Grandmother Anna never did either as the traditional Christmas Eve dinner was dairyless and meatless.. in other words pesnya!

Smoked Salmon Sushi Squares!

Some times the beauty and simplicity of a recipe just grabs your imagination and from the first time you make it, it becomes one of those recipes that you can see evolving and changing everytime you make it.  Such is this recipe for Sushi squares that I have been wanting to do it for some time.  Everyone got involved in making this recipe from my son who use to work in a Japanese Restaurant and my daughter in law who loves sushi!

Everything is assembled in a square cake pan that has been lines with saran wrap.

 This was our first attempt and garnished with sesame seeds and onion scallions

 Since the sushi is sandwiched between plastic wrap, it makes it very easy to pull out of the pan once chilled and easy to cut the sushi pieces.

 This was my second attempt, using day old sushi sticky rice and with less than 2 cups available, the pieces were not as firmly packed as when the rice is freshly made, so using lettuce as wraps became an interesting but delicious solution.. I had used sauté shrimp which also was difficult to pack firmly along with the slices of pineapple.. Fresh Pineapple and shrimp was most delicious. I would suggest using the shrimp after the pieces are cut as  garnish.

The carrots in this case were cut using a special tool to make thin strings or pasta of carrots.

My youngest grandchildren using chop stickes!

A Japanese friend was most appreciative for the squared sushi recipe and here are some of the ideas she shared:



Talking about Sushi
I usually buy Japanese rice(or Korean rice) at the Oriental section at grocery store. If you can't buy it, Italian rice is sticky too. (Calrose Rice or Short grain Rice)

You can cut Nori sheet in half size to make more variety of sushi.
Ideas to add layers... I can think of ...

-Smoke salmon, Cucumber and Cream cheese
- Baked Yam or Yam Tempura and Cucumber
- Crab, Avocado,Cucumber and Mayo
- Can Tuna, Mayo, (Spicy sauce), lettuce and Cucumber  
- Cooked Shrimp with Mayo or Shrimp Tempura and     Cucumber (with spicy sauce)
- Omelet, Crab, Avocado, Cucumber, lettuce and Mayo

So many variation you can do! You can put Ham, Chicken and Beef too. 

Here are her tips on cooking sushi

When I make Sushi rice, I put less water. Because you will add Sushi Vinegar to make little bit wet rice.

Making Rice( I do)
I put same amount of 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of water
(Just little less water)
Start high heart  to Boiling, turn down low heart 15-20 minutes. Do not stir and do not open lid until cooked

I make Sushi Vinegar my self.

Make 1Cup of Rice
-1 1/2 tbsp Rice vinegar
-1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt

Boiling all ingredient (just need to melt sugar and salt)
Pure in to hot rice


Cheers,

Glazed Pork Hocks in Beer with Sauerkraut

Glazed Pork Hocks in Beer with Sauerkraut 

This is a recipe that appeared in one of the early Canadian Living magazine, which was filled with recipes and crafts with little advertisement.. I had made this recipe when the magazine first came out and  was very pleased with the results.

I did remember that beer and brown sugar were part of the recipe but not that Tomato juice was also part of the recipe. I used my turkey roaster which was a big mistake as with all the incredible smells as the hocks cooked slowly in the beer and tomato juice, those that walked by the roaster would take a peak.  Because of this, the hocks were not as glazed as they were the last time I made this recipe and the hocks had slowly cooked in the oven. 

 A jar of sauerkraut was rinsed in cold water and added to the hocks with caraway seeds.  The hocks were eaten the next day after being heated up.  They were delicious!

Left over meat was stripped from the bones and heated.  It was served on top of toasted olive bread with grilled mozzarella cheese and pickled dill beans! The sweetness of the caramelized onions and sauerkraut was delicious!