Sunday Night Dinner - Market Ribs

What a full weekend! We hit up the new North Shore Green Market Friday night at the Shipbuilders Plaza before going to see Super 8. Saturday was work, a friends film preview, and watching Teen Wolf on TV while bbq'ing some steaks. Today was a whirlwind, highlights included a hike at Lynn Canyon Park, and dinner, put together from Farmer's Market finds. We had ribs courtesy of Gelderman Farms, picked up at the Main Street Market on Wednesday, mashed potatoes with new potatoes, and an awesome salad with fresh cucumbers, strawberries, and fabulous microgreens found on Friday night.

For the ribs we went with a super easy recipe, adapted from one of Michael Smith's. One of my favourite things about Michael Smith's recipes is the disclaimer:

A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like, try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour; you have to add your own!

Such good advice!

Oven-Baked Ribs

- 1 or 2 racks of pork baby back ribs

- 1 can tomato paste

- 1 cup orange juice

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 cup dijon mustard

- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

- 1/4 cup Tamari

- 2 heaping tbsp's chili powder

Cut ribs into 2-3 rib portions. Place in large roasting pan. Whisk together all ingredients and pour over ribs. Cover with foil and bake until ribs are tender, about 2 hours.

Nanaimo Bars

Now, I wasn't always a huge fan of Nanaimo Bars. I used to find them too rich, and a little artificial. However, once I started making them myself, that all changed. I've made a few different recipes, and they are usually pretty similar.

A couple of things I've noted over the years:

1 - make sure to take the butter out of the microwave right after you've melted it, or you might forget to add it!

2 - do not under any circumstance attempt to make these with margarine, the consistency is not the same.

These ones are courtesy of Canadian Living, and are fantastic. I cut them into bite-sized pieces for a party, although it's hard to eat just one!

Classic Nanaimo Bars

Base:

- 1 cup butter, melted

- 2/3 cup cocoa powder

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 2 eggs, lightly beaten

- 3 cups graham cracker crumbs

- 2 cups shredded coconut

- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Filling:

- 1/3 cup butter, melted

- 1/4 cup milk

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 4 cups icing sugar

*I also added 2 tbsp custard powder

Topping:

- 8 oz semisweet chocolate

- 2 tbsp butter

Grease 13x9 inch metal cake pan and line with parchment paper, leaving 1 inch extending over long edges for handles.

In large bowl, whisk together butter, cocoa powder, sugar and eggs; stir in cracker crumbs, coconut and walnuts. Press evenly into prepared pan. Bake in centre of 350˚F oven for 10 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack.

Filling: In large bowl, stir together butter, milk and vanilla; beat in sugar until thickened and smooth. Spread evenly over cooled base. Refrigerate for about 45 minutes or until firm.

Topping: Chop chocolate; in heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate and butter. Spread evenly over filling. Refrigerate until set. Using parchment paper handles, lift out of pan. Peel off paper and cut into bars.

The new kitchen

Here are a couple of pics of the new kitchen. Love it!!!

Kitchen Gadget

I've come across a lot of kitchen gadgets in the past few years. Some are great, others are destined for the recycling bin. This herb chopper is one that not only do I love, but have now also purchased as gifts for friends.

I know chopping herbs isn't the hardest thing on the planet, but if it were so easy why are there numerous special tools to help with it? The reason I love this one is that it chops everything evenly and quickly without bruising. It also has a great little part on the handle that can be used to pull rosemary and thyme through, pulling each of the leaves off.

It's the Fresh Herb Pro, and I received mine as a gift. I have seen them in cooking stores, Sears etc., and I believe it retails around $15-$20. Definitely worth the investment!

One Ingredient "Ice-Cream"

Recently, thanks again to Canadian Living, I have discovered this fabulous one ingredient 'ice-cream', that is not only a cool treat, but is also dairy free!

The ingredient you may be wondering is Banana's!

One of my favourite things about cooking and baking, is the scientific element to it. The way you measure ingredients, and certain ingredients react to other ingredients to create something completely different. Think about the way yeast makes dough rise, or when you whip egg whites to create meringues. How is it that our food does this? And more importantly, who was the first person to discover this?

I don't know who first discovered this banana treat, but we've had it a couple of times and each time it has been great. This is definitely going to be on the summer hit list, it's easy, affordable, and also good for you!

One Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

- Banana's

1 - Peel and slice banana's no thinner than 1/4 inch thick. Place on cookie sheet or plate and freeze about 6 hours or overnight.

2 - Place banana's in food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse.

3 - At first banana's will become granular, almost like astronaut ice cream. When this happens scrape down sides of bowl, continuing to scrape and pulse.

4 - Then the beautiful transformation takes place, and voila! The banana's begin to turn into a wonderful, creamy dessert.

If you'd like a soft-serve consistency, enjoy right away. For a harder 'ice-cream' texture, freeze and serve later (if you can wait!).

The first time we went with banana's only. The second time we decided to combo with strawberries. Make sure at least half the mixture is banana, and go ahead and experiment!

A look back

Where have I been? Well, I have been in the kitchen, but not the one from all of the past posts. So before I begin posting with new recipes and discoveries from my fabulous new kitchen, I thought I would take a moment to look back at some of the great dishes that came out of my tiny little kitchen.

Turkey dinners for 25

Easter Ham for 15

Homemade bread, pasta, crackers

Making jam!

First try at Ice Cream

Cocktails and Canape's

Cheesecake, Puddings and Truffles

The list goes on and on. More importantly, all of those meals, and many others, were executed in what I know refer to as my old tiny kitchen. And tiny it was, although packing it up did take 24 boxes!

I wanted to give everyone out there a real idea of how tiny my kitchen was, as a way to emphasize that you don't need a lot of space or fancy tools to make really great food.

Freezer - basically 1 foot square

Fridge - 3 ft high and 1 foot wide/deep

Stove - again, just over 1 foot square

Counter space - Overall I had two spaces - one was 3'8" x 2' and the other was 1' x 2', and it housed the dishrack most of the time!

So with barely any counter space, a small apartment size fridge and freezer, a single sink and no dishwasher, anything is possible!

There were definitely challenges, don't get me wrong. Having only one large burner, and not being able to really have two large pots on the stove was tough. Working with an oven that small, I was always gambling right before I'd put the turkey or the ham in (you'd think I would measure these things before buying the meat!). And don't get me started on having the wall directly beside the stovetop, or the carpet that went right up the kitchen on either side.

But for all of the trials and tribulations (making pasta with a hand crank machine was definitely trying), it was our kitchen, and the centre of our little apartment for 5 years. And for everything the kitchen lacked, it never disappointed.

Now that we have moved into our very first home, I thought I might feel nostalgic for that little kitchen. As I move around my new kitchen, with a regular size fridge and oven, two sinks (!) and a dishwasher, the nostalgic feeling is quickly fading, and being replaced with excitement about all of the great memories to be made in this new kitchen.