Foodie PenPals: July Reveal

Happy Foodie PenPal day to you my loves!

side note: I am extremely hungry right now. Like, famished and panicking hungry. Note to self: rice crispies are not an adequate breakfast. Wait a second! I know what to do!...hang on...

.....YES!

Okay, so, I rarely buy snack foods. I just am not that much of a snacker. But I sure am a happy chicken when they are in the house. And I have my July foodie penpal to thank for that!

This month I was assigned to Becks @ Crunchy Can Feel Good. You can also find her on facebook as well as Twitter. Lucky for me, she sent me some pretty fantastic snacks... which I am mowing right now. Mow mow mow mow mow!

Much to my surprise and giddy delight, Becks lives in Victoria too. And we go to the same University. And love apple cider vinegar. And Italy. Small world, yes?

I kind of thought she might just save herself the postage and drop my package off herself but like a true lady - and non-stalker - she marched herself down to the post office and mailed the thing. 

Her philosophy around food is apparent on her blog and her mantra is a way of life. Or at least it should be. She's all about "doing" and I dig that. For reals. Speaking of doing, I should get a move on!

This month Becks sent me:

• A box of Annie's Bunny "Approved" Pasta.
• Untamed Feast Wild Mushroom Gravy Mix - I've used their dried mushroom products before, they are fabulous. Holla!
• Vancouver Island Salt Company's Roasted Garlic Sea Salt. I use their regular salt in my every day cooking - very excited to try a flavoured one.
• Hemp Hearts. Curious about these...
• Somersault Snack Co's Santa fe Salsa (crunchy nuggets baked with sunflower seeds and toasted grains).
• Prana's Gluten-Free, Organic Almond-goji-cranberry Snack Mix.

Thank you Becks - that pasta will come in handy the next time I drink too much vino. Mmmm vino. Speaking of which, it's lunch time.

To see what I sent Lisa, click here and go over to J(and)Me - Cooking Jamie.

Technical Stuff:
 

The way Foodie PenPals works is simple: On the 5th of every month you are assigned a fellow blogger and his/her/their blog. You then have 72 hours to contact that person to find out their address, dietary restrictions, etc... By the 15th of the month you need to have your package to them in the mail. On the last day of the month, you post the reveal and link up @ The Lean Green Bean!

Boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!  

This project is open to Canadian, US and UK bloggers as well as blog readers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you simply write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 

If you’re interested in participating for the month of August, please click here to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. You must submit your information by August 4th as pairings will be emailed on the 5th!

July SRC Reveal: Artichoke Prosciutto Gratin Dip

Happy SRC reveal day my darling munchkin readers!

It's true, another month has passed and it's time again for the Secret Recipe Club. Good LORD where does the Summer go? It seems like just yesterday I was hiking up my tights and buttoning my cardigan against the bitter West coast cold.. Which let's face it, really isn't that bitter.

Speaking of tights, have you ever noticed how friggin high they come up your waist?? Perhaps your legs are of a normative length but I'm only 5'4" and I find that my tights really do come all the way up to my bra. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm buying the right size and I'm fairly confident my bra isn't hanging around my waist...at least I hope not. I'm not 80 yet - despite what my 9 o'clock bedtime might dictate. But seriously, why are they so fucking long?? And regardless of the length, I often find I'm still pulling on them all day, making sure they aren't falling down around my knees. They should either come up with a length that is suitable for a 5'4" sized woman or manufacture some kind of bra-tight garter contraption that keeps the buggers up where they stretch to. Okay, obviously I'm getting way off topic here.

Focus! Right! SRC!

This month for SRC I was given Kelley @ The Culinary Enthusiast. You can also find her on facebook, twitter, or pinterest. Kelley loves cooking food, thinking about food, talking about food, and of course, eating it. Obviously we have a few things in common. Let's be friends, Kelley. 

Her recipes all look fantastic. Again, something we have in common... jk, jk everyone. And after great deliberation I chose one. Other posts up for consideration were:

• Quick Tomato Salads; 
• Berry Salad with Fried Goats Cheese;
• Pasta with Brussel Sprouts and Pine Nuts (pinned & reserved for Winter time!);
• Pear & Prosciutto Flat Bread;

So what did I end up selecting to make this month? Kelley's rendition of an artichoke prosciutto gratin. 

As always, I tried to stick to her recipe as much as possible. After all, it's "make something from another person's blog", not "be inspired by another person's blog and make up your own recipe". I did however, make a couple changes.

First, I followed her suggestion and chopped everything up rather than leave it whole.

Second, I substiuted cream cheese for whipping cream because that's what I had in the house. I also threw in a few sundried tomatoes and a bit of garlic. Otherwise, it's her ingredients all the way. And by all the way, I mean aaaaaaallllllllll the way. I gave it up. Because it was friggin incredible. And delectable. And probably one of the best dips I've ever made. It's not gonna flatter your waists, my darlings, but by god it'll flatter your taste buds.

Artichoke Prosciutto Gratin Dip
(printable recipe) - serves 6 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

20 Oz of Canned Artichoke Hearts, drained & roughly chopped.
50g of Thinly Cut Prosciutto, roughly chopped.
1 C Cream Cheese, room temperature.
1/2 C Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled.
1 C Grated Parmesan Cheese.
1/2 C Pine Nuts, lightly toasted.
1 Tsp Fresh Sage, roughly chopped.
2 Garlic Cloves, minced.4 - 6 Sundried Tomatoes, chopped.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.

As that heats, gently whip the cream cheese in a large bowl until soft and fluffy. Fold in the rest of the ingredients, save for 1/2 C of the parmesan. Mix well.

Pour into a lightly greased 9 X 9 baking dish and top with the remaining parmesan. Place in heated oven and bake until bubbling and golden on top - about 25 minutes. 

Serve with some of your favourite bread or crackers, or as Kelley suggests, with a fabulous grass-fed steak.

Eat.

Do you have issues with your tights? Know any good secrets to keeping those bad boys up?

The Wednesday Fresh Foods Blog Hop #4

Happy Wednesday to you all you my darlings!

Welcome to week numero 4 of the Wednesday Fresh Foods Blog Hop! It's been a busy week around here getting ready for the move out East but I still managed to find some pretty nifty features from last week, if I do say so myself:

Garden Pasta Salad: Eating Seasonally @ Simply Life

Homemade Peanut Butter @ A Little Nosh

Easy Roasted Beets @ Parsnip Love

Obviously there's some pretty wicked awesome stellar seasonal food going on around the blogosphere - there's also a ton around my neighborhood. Like, a TON! If I go one way away from my house, I find the Haultain Common. Essentially, a free, ripe for the picking vegetable garden that is open to anyone who wants it. There you can find everything listed on the sign below as well as other treasures like artichokes, a communal sitting area, and who knows what else!

...and if I go the other direction I find these:

I really do live in one of the most magical places on the planet! How fortunate I am to have free, fresh, organic vegetables year round and chickens right down the street!

The Serious Business:

This blog hop is to encourage fresh food production, consumption, activism, and awareness.

Please feel free to link up:

• CSA collections;
• Farmer's market treasures;
• Home grown/raised hauls;
• Recipes that feature fresh fruits and veggies that are seasonal to your area or feature local, sustainably farmed meats, eggs, and dairy;
• DIY projects and tutorials for: gardening, storing and/or preserving fresh foods, composting market scraps, raising chickens in your back yard, etc;
• Tips for local eating such as: tips for CSA members, how to find out what’s in season, how to make the most of your local produce, how to raise chickens, etc...

Please make sure anything you link up is something that is currently available in your area from a local farmer or things from Whole Foods with the giant “Local” sign on top (or similar).

Please do not link up:

• Any highly processed recipes or foods (i.e. white flour, white sugar);
• Recipes that don’t include any seasonal, local produce, meats, dairy, or eggs or that are only about specific diets and are not focused on growing or eating fresh food;
• Recipes that feature produce that isn’t available locally and in season (e.g. mangoes and avocados in the Northeast, fresh tomatoes in winter, etc); 
• Giveaways; Etsy Shops; Advertisements.

We don’t want to become the link police, and we want everyone to be able to participate; however, if you are in blatant violation of these rules, we will delete your link.

You may link up to 3 posts in a given week that you haven't shared here before by using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate or don't want to write a post specifically on something you'd like to share here, feel free to comment with any thoughts, ideas or suggestions. You can also participate via our flickr pool. Just send us an email @ freshfoodsbloghop (at) gmail (dot) com or request an invitation through the flickr group’s page. Deadlines for photo submissions is the Monday before the Wednesday post.

Feel free to leave a comment here, become my friend on the right, or click on any of the linked up posts and say hello by leaving a comment for your fellow fresh food communitarians!

And lastly, please include a simple text link back to this blog hop (the post, not the blog's main page) in the post(s) you link up or add a button:

<left><a href="http://www.gastronomicalsovereignty.com"/><img src="http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa411/gastronomicalsovereignty/DSC_0713-6-1.jpg"></a></left>

We want this blog hop to feature you as well as help each other come together to form a resource of good food ways for one another. In order to be featured on the weekly highlights - which includes a highlight on your post the following week as well as tweets, facebook page posting, and being added to our Fresh Foods pinterest board - you must have a link back or button displayed in your post or on your blog. Again, we don’t want to be the “blog hop police”, but if you don’t link back to this post we can’t feature you.

You can link up via Sam's blog @ Cooking My Way Through My CSA, as well as find her on her Pinterest site.

And of course, you can link up here and/or find me on twitter, facebook, Pinterest, and my sister site, Taste Buds.

If you have any questions about the blog hop in general, please email us at freshfoodsbloghop (at) gmail (dot) com.

Okay serious business over - let's have some fun! Link up!

 

Scratch Ricotta Gnudi with Fresh Fava Beans

Good morning lovelies!

Funny word: burpee.

...I promise this is related to the title recipe...

It was doing one of these a couple weeks ago that I managed to pop a bone out of place in my wrist and give myself tendonitis.

Something I haven't really mentioned to you is that I am working on getting more fit. I've been feeling sluggish, heavy, and generally poo-poo about my physical self lately so instead of whining that I can't fit into my old jeans - read: any pants that I own - I decided to do something about it. 

I started doing vinyasa yoga and working out to Jillian Michaels who is scary as shit but super funny and ripped and beautiful and wicked. I've also modified my diet slightly to ensure stellar weight loss and muscle tonage... And you know what? It's been working. 

Or it was working, anyhow. Right up until I decided to do a face plant in the living room while doing a burpee. What? You don't know what a burpee is? Look here.

Apparently I have zero hand, eye, foot, life coordination and as my arms were stretched right up in the air, while trying to be graceful and fluid, I kicked my legs back and essentially fell from 4 feet. I caught myself in a plank position (think kind of like a pushup) and thought I was pretty rad for not smashing my face into the hardwood floor... Until a couple days later and my wrist started to swell and become extremely painful.

After a trip to the doctor, I ended up this past Friday at a physiotherapy office only to find out I had jammed my wrist and elbow right out of a socket and flared up all the tendons. Oops. And as things seemed to get only worse and worse, ended up getting an X-ray to see if the area is fractured. No results yet.

They always say you should check with your doctor about starting a new fitness program - I think that's sound advice, given my current predicament. Oh yeah, and don't fall from four feet. Dummy.

Another funny word: Gnudi. 

...see I told you it was related.. kind of.

Gnudi is wonderful. It's like gnocchi but with ricotta cheese instead of potato and it has the exact properties of everything I love to eat - it's rich, savory, cheewy, soft, and best of all, cheesy.

While we were at the Moss Street Market this past weekend, I stumbled - and let's be honest, knowing my balance and coordination (as mentioned above), I did really stumble - upon fresh fava beans. I thought these little Spring treats would be long gone as the Summer months have been getting hotter and hotter but alas! there they were. Fresh, at one stand, and ripe for the picking. 

I quickly gathered up as many as my arms could hold and asked John to pay the man. And holy hell in a bucket - I am so glad he did. Fresh fava beans (aka broad beans) are simple enough to prepare but they are a lot of work. Kind of like exercise - it's not a ton of fun to do at the time, but it's so worth it in the end. 

And this time, paired up with some from scratch gnudi and fresh tomato sauce - I was a happy, happy lady.

Scratch Ricotta Gnudi with Fresh Fava Beans

(printable recipe) - serves 4.

Ingredients:

4 Lb Fresh Fava Beans (in their pods).

2 28 Oz. Cans of Diced Tomatoes or a few Lbs of Fresh Tomatoes, roughly chopped.

1 Large Carrot, finely chopped.

1 Onion, diced.

1 Large Stick of Celery, chopped.

3 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped.

Handful of Fresh Italian Herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley etc...), roughly torn or 1 Tbsp dried.

1/2 C Dry White Wine.

1 Lb (approx 1 C?) Fresh Ricotta Cheese, drained in a fine sieve for at least 30 minutes.

3/4 C Flour + Extra for dusting.

2 Large Pastured Eggs.

Handful of Finely Grated Parmesan Cheese.

Pinch of Nutmeg.

Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper to taste.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Butter.

What to Do:

Begin by making your tomato sauce - click here for instructions on how to do this.

Next, whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until frothy.

Add the ricotta and mix well. 

Now add the flour, parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper, combine, and then cover and allow dough to chill at least 1 hour.

As that chills, prepare the fava beans. This does take a bit of time but it's very easy. Snap off the top end of the bean and gently peel off the seam (like peas). Then gently wiggle your fingers inside to open the pod. Pop out the beans and discard the shells to the compost.

Now here's the time consuming part: the beans are tricky and have a second shell. You'll need to bring a large pot of water to a boil, dump the beans in, boil for about 30 seconds to loosen the second casing and then immediately drain and run cold water over the beans to stop the cooking process and maintain the brilliant green color. Now you can carefully made a tear in the outer coating near the "bum" of the bean (when you see them you'll know what I mean) and just gently pinch the bean out of it's casing. Tada! Bright green broad beans! Again, discard the shell. Set beautiful beans aside.

Once the dough is chilled, remove from the fridge and pour some flour into a bowl or rimmed baking sheet. Gently toss a 1-2" ball or log of dough in the flour to coat, shaking off the excess. As you do this, bring a pot of salted water to a low boil. 

Once the dough is tossed in the flour and the water is gently boiling, carefully place a slotted spoonful or two of balls into the water. Allow to simmer 3 to 4 minutes or until balls float to the top of the water. Remove with the slotted spoon and place on a plate to drain. 

Heat the olive oil or melt the butter over medium heat. Once hot, toss in the prepared fava beans along with the boiled gnudi and saute for a few minutes on each side until heated through.

Serve with some fresh tomato sauce.

Eat.

Please tell me your most embarrassing stories! My ego needs a boost... stupid burpees.

 

CSA Week #16 & Fresh Foods Blog Hop #3

Happy Wednesday to you all you wonderful food lovers!

It's week 3 and things just keep getting better and better! It just amazes me how creative you all are in your posts and how much happy, good food things we have going on! Features from last week include:

mustard potatoes straight from the garden @ NW Backyard Veggie Patch

How to Become a Better Locavore @ Frugal Foodie Mama

In the Box and On the Farm @ Far North Farmgirls

Personally, we got a stellar CSA box this week. You can really tell Summer has finally arrived here on Vancouver Island - no more turnips! This week we got:

 

• 1 Bag of beautiful, spicy arugula.
• 1 Bunch of baby beets - golden! & purple.
• 1 Bulb Fresh Garlic (first of the season! jump up and down happy dance!).
• 1 Big handful of Green Onions.
• 1 Giant head of lettuce.
• 1 Large red bell pepper.
• 1 Baggie Snap peas.
• 3 Small Summer squash (again, jump up and down bitches! so happy!).
• 1 Bunch of curly parsley.... have I told you about my loathe of curly parsley....?

Okay, The Serious Business:

This blog hop is to encourage fresh food production, consumption, activism, and awareness.

Please feel free to link up:

• CSA collections;
• Farmer's market treasures;
• Home grown/raised hauls;
• Recipes that feature fresh fruits and veggies that are seasonal to your area or feature local, sustainably farmed meats, eggs, and dairy;
• DIY projects and tutorials for: gardening, storing and/or preserving fresh foods, composting market scraps, raising chickens in your back yard, etc;
• Tips for local eating such as: tips for CSA members, how to find out what’s in season, how to make the most of your local produce, how to raise chickens, etc...

Please make sure anything you link up is something that is currently available in your area from a local farmer or things from Whole Foods with the giant “Local” sign on top (or similar).

Please do not link up:

• Any highly processed recipes or foods (i.e. white flour, white sugar);
• Recipes that don’t include any seasonal, local produce, meats, dairy, or eggs;
• Recipes that feature produce that isn’t available locally and in season (e.g. mangoes and avocados in the Northeast, fresh tomatoes in winter, etc);
• Giveaways;
• Etsy shops;
• Advertisements;
• Posts only about specific diets and not focused on growing or eating fresh food.

We don’t want to become the link police, and we want everyone to be able to participate; however, if you are in blatant violation of these rules, we will delete your link.

You may link up to 3 posts in a given week that you haven't shared here before by using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.

If you don't have a blog but still want to participate or don't want to write a post specifically on something you'd like to share here, feel free to comment with any thoughts, ideas or suggestions. You can also participate via our flickr pool. Just send us an email @ freshfoodsbloghop (at) gmail (dot) com or request an invitation through the flickr group’s page. Deadlines for photo submissions is the Monday before the Wednesday post.

Feel free to leave a comment here, join my site on the right, or click on any of the linked up posts and say hello by leaving a comment for your fellow fresh food communitarians!

And lastly, please include a simple text link back to this blog hop in the post(s) you link up or add a button:

<left><a href="http://www.gastronomicalsovereignty.com"/><img src="http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa411/gastronomicalsovereignty/DSC_0713-6-1.jpg"></a></left>

We want this blog hop to feature you as well as help each other come together to form a resource of good food ways for one another. In order to be featured on the weekly highlights - which includes a highlight on your post the following week as well as tweets, facebook page posting, and being added to our Fresh Foods pinterest board - you must have a link back or button displayed in your post or on your blog. Again, we don’t want to be the “blog hop police”, but if you don’t link back we can’t feature you.

You can link up via Sam's blog @ Cooking My Way Through My CSA, as well as find her on her Pinterest site.

And of course, you can link up here and/or find me on twitter, facebook, Pinterest, and my sister site, Taste Buds.

If you have any questions about the blog hop in general, please email us at freshfoodsbloghop (at) gmail (dot) com.

Okay serious business over - let's have some fun! Link up!

 

15 Things Every (New) Chef Should Have in Their Kitchen

Good morning my loves!

So I have this friend, see?

She's clever. Super hot - something we all look for in a good friend. Supportive. Wicked funny. Honest beyond words...seriously. You can just tell from her face or her body language exactly what she's thinking and she doesn't hide it. I love that about her.

She is everything I could ever want in a friend. Except for the fact that she maybe doesn't drink enough wine. Just kidding, just kidding.

We were talking a while back about blogging - yes she is a fellow blogger - and she digs my blog. But the thing is, she doesn't have all the tools necessary to make everything I post, despite the fact that she got married last year - apparently gift registries are out of fashion. Just giving you a hard time k because I heart you so much.

When she said that to me I was like, "mamma what!"

There are some things you can live without in a kitchen. Like this:

And then there are other things that if you're gonna be cooking, you just gotta have. So... Here is my top 14 things that every (new) chef should have in their kitchen. Why 14 you ask? Because those are the number of things I thought of. Right? Right! Here we go:

14. A Decent Vegetable Peeler. A good veggie peeler will take care of potatoes, carrots (though I don't recommend peeling those - all the nutrition is in the skin!), apples, and even allow you to create ribbons of zucchini, chocolate, and who knows what else!

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13. A Basic Mandoline. Need to slice or julienne something in very uniform thickness? So quick. So easy. So cheap. So easy to skim off the end of your finger - please make sure to use the hand guard! So something you should get. Look how beauty those zucchini slices are!

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12. Cheese Grater with multiple grating sizes. Often a regular grate size will do - but if you want something fine (ie melting parmesan over polenta), you'll want a finer grater. Do it all with one, keeping your drawer uncluttered.

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11. Cutting boards (2). When you're cooking, you don't want to have to worry about the transfer of uncooked meat bits to fresh veggies. Or if you're strictly a carnivore, fresh veggies to meat. Nor do you want to have to wash the cutting board every 10 minutes. So get yourself two decent sized chopping boards and you'll be good to chop baby chop!

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10. A Cast-Iron Pan/Skillet. You can use it on the stove, in the oven, and on the camp fire. You can cook meat in it, vegetables, sauces, breakfast, desserts, corn bread, and anything/everything your little heart desires. And evidently, use it as a recipe holder. Why wouldn't you want one of these?

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9. A Big stock pot. Preferably one with a rounded handle like this or two handles on either side - unlike mine which has been missing one for ages. Unsafe! 

One word: Soup. Another: Chili. One more: Rain drip catcher.

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8. A food processor. Honestly, this has to be one of the most used tools in my kitchen. From tomato sauce to guacamole to bread crumbs to just about everything else - I heart my food processor.

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7. A Good set of Mixing Bowls. Really, you don't need a ton of these but a good set with about 3 to 5 bowls is excellent. Shoot for high edges and deep bowls to help keep stuff inside when mixing, blending, beating, pureeing, mashing, etc... If they're too shallow you'll end up with more food stuffs on your counter than in the bowl. Which is great if you want to eat off the counter. But I'm guessing most of your don't.

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6. A whisk. No, not that whisk... and no one need know how close I am to this little guy.... shhhhh...

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6 - take two. A Whisk. Yes, this is better. You want air in those eggs? You wanna fluff that cream? You want those pancakes fluffy? This is your key to whisking away your diners with ease... Did I really just say that?

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5. Wooden Spoons. Maybe not this many. Or this fancy. But they sure are good for stirring sauces, soup, sauteing vegetables, or reductions. Plus they look cool. And if you absolutely don't use them in the kitchen, you can spank that brat for complaining about the grater slide.

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4. GOOD quality olive oil. Trust me. The stuff you generally get at the grocery store is a joke. Think about tomatoes and the ones you get in Winter from the grocer compared to the ones grown locally in the Summer. It's that kind of difference. And it's that difference that separates a decent dish from a great one.

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3. GOOD quality balsamic vinegar. See above.

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2. Wine. Obviously. Do we really need to go over this?

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1. A GOOD chopping knife. Keep it sharp. And you can do anything from julienne kohlrabi to dice apples to chop bread to dispense of that unwanted and annoying noisy neighbor. I didn't just say that. Seriously though - out of all the things on this list: Spend the money and get yourself the best chopping knife money can buy. I recommend this brand.

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What item do you absolutely need in your kitchen? What's the one thing you wish you had but didn't? What do you have that you find you have no need for? Do you agree with my list? Are there things you would omit from it? What gets you cookin'?

P.S. Go say hi to my friend. She's lovely.