Preparing For the Zombie Apocalypse (I Mean Winter)

 Fresh veggies straight from the garden or farm are one of the best things about summer. Many times our snow peas don't even make it into the house (I need a Scare Hubby and Scare Teen, not a scare crow!)! Hubby brought home yesterday's CSA goodies and boy was it a great week! Rainbow carrots, cukes, zucchini, gold beets, green pepper, beans of every colour.....sooooo good.

We munched on a plate of fresh carrots, cukes, and green pepper paired with a homemade ranch style dip. I am proud to say the herbs for this one came from the garden!!

Ranch style dip

¼ cup mayo

2 tbsp sour cream

lemon juice (From one wedge)

2 – 4 tbsp buttermilk (enough to thin it to whatever consistency you want)

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tbsp chives, chopped

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tbsp dill, chopped

salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Taste and adjust seasonings or herbs as needed. If using as a salad dressing, add more buttermilk to thin out the dip.

Now onto preparing for the zombie apocalypse winter.  I started pickling today. (no,  I don't mean drinking, but sometimes it is tempting.) I mean pickling some of the fresh veggies for later use. Prairie living does require some prep and saving our summer bounty, especially back in the days of yore when people didn't have grocery stores full of produce. Canning your own garden or farmers' market buys is one way to ensure local food is an option all year round.

My mother in law and I made pickles once or twice. We bought a bunch of jars and went all out.  The we got out of the pickling game and those jars sat in the basement. Eventually I gave the jars to a friend who needed them.

I have bought some new jars and have even cleaned out all my old spices and dried herbs that I bought in mass quantities from a Mom's Pantry fundraiser years ago and placed in mason jars of varying sizes. I knew the herbs and spices were way to old to use but just never got around to tossing them.  I have jars a plenty, for now.

These old herbs are gone!!!

If you read my post from the other day, I have been reading my way through The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker which has inspired me to do some more traditional type of cooking, including pickling. I have quite a few beets in the garden and will soon be overrun with zucchini so why not give the pickling a go?

The on going joke around the Little Kitchen is I am really just learning skills to survive the zombie apocalypse when it occurs...The Boy tells me he never really thought about that side of it, just the killing the zombies part....he's so pretty.
I managed to get 4 jars of beets and 3 jars of zuchinni spears pickled today.  I'm not going to post the recipes today but I will. I want to take more pictures of the process, and this post is rambling on.

Plenty of room in the Little Kitchen for a canning setup!

Until next time, stay warm (avoid zombies) and eat well!

The Zucchini Season Begins: Zucchini Fritters

Our CSA pick up from Almost Urban Farms netted us some extra zucchini along with our other goodies this week. There was a bin filled with extras and a note inviting people to take an extra one. I know some of this extra zucchini will become a fabulous chocolate cake but I can only make (and eat) so much cake.  Last night with dinner, I made some zucchini fritters to go with the sliced roast beef I pulled out of the freezer. The fritters themselves are more like a potato pancake, without the potato. I have made these with grated potato before and they tasted wonderful but last night, I wanted to try these with all zucchini. The Boy has been eating the leftovers all day. (Because 16 year old boys eat pretty much all day)

Zucchini Fritters - printable recipe

4 cups zucchini, grated (I used half yellow, half green)
1 onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated on a micro plane, or crushed
2 green onions, chopped
handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
salt & pepper
Canola oil for frying

Heat up a large skillet over medium high heat with a small amount of canola oil in the bottom. This is a good time to line a baking sheet with foil, place a rack in the pan and plunk it in the oven. Set the oven to warm. This will help you fry all the fritters in batches and keep them warm.

Grate the zucchini, onion, and garlic into a large bowl and mix in the green onions, parsley, flour, salt & pepper and the egg.

Mix well to combine everything. It will look gummy and pasty, but will fry up a nice golden brown.

Once the oil is nice and hot (a drop of water will skip across) drop the batter by large spoonfuls and gently flatten them out.

Fry the fritters until golden brown on the edges and they start to dry out a bit on top then gently flip them over to finish cooking. (Be gentle so you don't splash the oil)

Transfer gold brown fritters to your pan in the oven to keep warm until the entire batch is cooked.

Last night these little gems were served up with hot roast beef sammies. Thank goodness for leftovers in the freezeer!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Our fabulous bounty this week!

Dips: It Takes One to Know One

So while walking with the class the other week, I turned my ankle and fell to the ground in grand fashion! We were only half way to our destination so I pried myself up off the concrete, looked around to see how many students saw and kept walking with the one student who happened to be walking with me.  It was slow going that last 1.5km.  We were heading to the movies.  There is a second run cheapie movie theatre a mere 3km from school so it is a popular spot for June field trips as we can easily walk there.  Once we made it to the mall, the student and I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some first aid supplies to clean up my knee then met the rest of the class to watch "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2" That movie was great. I truly enjoyed it!  One of the teachers was kind and drove me back to the school after.  Lots of ice, x-rays, and a couple of physiotherapy visits later, it is merely a really bad sprain....we're talking lower ankle, upper ankle, hurts from ankle to knee at times!!! ACK!! The best part (see the sarcasm) is the bruising.  I am fair skinned and bruises show up oh so nicely....it really does look way worse than it feels....I hope!

I figure no one wants to see ugly ankle pictures so let's get on with the grub!
In our venture to eat healthier we have become dippy with dip!  To be more specific, hummus and tzatziki!  Both hummus and tzatziki are such simple dips and a great way to add some flavour to your veggies, sandwiches, wraps, or whatever it is you want to use them on.  Keep a bin or a zippy top bag filled with cut and ready to go veggies in the fridge and you are set for lunches, snacks, even dinners!
I even made some fresh pita.  After reading this post here at A Little bit of everything, I just had to make it! I haven't made the roasted veggie dip yet, but I plan to!

A few simple ingredients is all it takes!!

Tzatziki (reminds me of my trip to Greece!)  Printable dip recipes

1/2 long English cucumber
1 cup Greek style plain yogurt
1 clove garlic (chopped fine or grated with a micro plane)
salt & pepper
1 tsp lemon zest (optional)

Grate the cucumber.  If your yogurt isn't very thick, squeeze out the excess liquid.  The PC Greek style yogurt at Superstore is so incredibly thick, I didn't drain the cucumber.

Grate in the garlic, lemon zest (if using), and add the salt and pepper.
Stir in the yogurt.  (Use your judgement here.  If the amount of yogurt doesn't cover all of the cucumber, then add more yogurt.  Consistency is really up to you!)

Let the tzatziki rest in the fridge for a while before eating...if you can wait.

Serve up with pitas, veggies, on sammies, in wraps, by the spoonful....

Hummus (unfortunately I can not find the pics I took of the hummus. I will post them when I find them, or make more and take new photos!)

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 to 2 tbsp tahini or peanut butter (optional)
cayenne (pinch or to taste)
1 jalapeno
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
water to thin out if you don't want to use too much oil

Toss everything but the olive oil and water into a blender or food processor.  With the machine running, drizzle in olive oil.  If you are skeptical about using too much olive oil, switch to drizzling in water.  Keep the machine and the liquid drizzling until you reach the consistency you want.  Some people prefer a thick dip and others prefer a thinner dip.
Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  (Remember, it is easier to add flavour and heat than it is to take it away!!)

Until next time, stay warm and eat well. (And stay on your feet!)

Summer Dreaming of Quinoa Salad

Well, my posting has slowed down a little lately. Life just gets busy sometimes!  I have had some photos tucked away on the hard drive for a while, but just haven't had a chance to write or post anything.  Lately I have been day dreaming of summer...warmer weather, sandals, sunshine, BBQs, fresh summer fruit & veggies...the list goes on.  This has been quite a cold winter, even in prairie terms. The other evening I found some Quinoa in the cupboard and I just knew it was time to make a quinoa salad, the perfect summer salad!!

Quinoa Salad
Print recipe

1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 green pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1/3 to 1/2 long English cucumber
1/2 medium white onion (or whichever colour you have on hand)
handful grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on size
big handful cilantro
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and drain the quinoa.  Place the quinoa in a a pot with 1 1/2 cups cold water.  Bring to a boil, put a lid on the pot, reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20  minutes, until water is absorbed (just like cooking rice).

Once the quinoa is done cooking, fluff it with a fork and let it cool.

While the quinoa is cooking, cut up the veggies into smallish bite size pieces, place in a bowl and set aside.

Rinse, dry and chop the cilantro.

Mix together the veggies, the cooled quinoa, the feta, and the cilantro.

Squeeze on the lemon juice, salt, and pepper....mix it again!

Enjoy!!

The real beauty of this salad is that you can used what ever veggies you have on hand...My favourite version of this salad includes the above veggies, but fresh from the garden or farmers' market!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

Saturday Night Stir Fry, If You Know What I mean....

 I don't know what that means but it sounded funny....

Hubby and I once again braved Saturday afternoon grocery shopping...what a zoo!! We did try to stick to our list and kept to the edges of the store, only venturing into the middle aisles to grab a couple of baking items!  I could see Hubby was coming up with an idea for dinner by what he was putting in the cart...bok choy, mushrooms, tofu, ginger root, steamed noodles... it turned out to be stir fry night in the Little Kitchen!  Stir Fry is one of those things that we really don't follow a recipe for.  If you like it, toss it in, if you don't like it, keep it out! Tonight Hubby and worked together in the kitchen to chop, stir, and fry our way to dinner!

While Hubby chopped up some of the following veggies:

• 1 onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 red pepper
• 5 stalks (leaves) of bok choy, leaves and bottom parts
• 3 green onions
• a handful of mushrooms
• a handful of broccoli florets
• a few cloves of garlic, sliced
• a chunk of ginger, peeled and grated

 I patted the tofu dry with some paper towels and then diced up the tofu into bite size pieces!


Heat up a fry pan and add some canola oil.  To the oil I added:

• a few cloves of garlic, smashed
• a few coins of ginger, peeled
• a healthy pinch hot red pepper flakes
• a couple strips of lime peel

Once the oil was hot and fragrant, we fried the tofu pieces until crisp, transferring the done pieces to a bowl lined with paper towel.  Reserve the oil for your stir fry!

So we had a little help in the veggie department...tastes as good as ever!
When all of the tofu was cooked, it was time to heat up the pan for the stir fry!!

First I fried up the garlic, ginger, and onions.

Then added the mushrooms for a few minutes.  Next up, the rest of the veggies!

Put a large pot of water on to boil so you can cook your noodles.





Cook noodles according to package directions.

Transfer those noodles to the stir fry.

Add some fresh chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice!

Hooray for team work!!


Ready to eat!!!  Hooray!!  Now where are my light sabre chop sticks?

Ravin' Review: Mongos Grill

After tons of holiday cooking, baking, and eating it was time to let someone else do the work! Our lunch stop today was Mongos Grill. We do go here quite often these days. Mongos is a stir fry place. The veggies, meat, noodles, and sauces are laid out buffet style so you get to fill your bowl and create your own masterpiece. I can honestly say I have never had the same meal twice here!

Big ol' bowl of stir fr

When you go to Mongos, you have a choice of getting the 'one bowl' stir fry, the unlimited bowls stir fry, or the soup, salad bar, and stir fry. We have never done the soup and salad bar here, we always go for the stir fry. Mongos provides 25 various veggies for you to choose from which get replenished often. They also offer 10 different protein choices including tofu for you to choose from. Once you choose all of your veggies, meats, and noodles, you have a huge choice of sauces and seasonings to choose from. Mix and match to your heart's content. The choice of 16 sauces plus other seasonings makes sure you get all the flavour you want.

My 'working the grill' blurry shot....oops

There are many tricks to 'stacking' your bowl so you can maximize your one bowl experience:

Hubby likes to use the frozen sheets of beef to make a wall but today that proved a might difficult. The line up for the grill was long and when the frozen meat thaws, you risk an avalanche of tasty goodness!

Notice the drooping meat at the sides...everything settled. Also note noodles on the counter.

My son swears by using the potato slices for his extended wall. He says it works wonders.

Right here under the meat you can see his potato wall...working quite well today!

Today I went with the snow pea wall....first I use the tongs to pile on the snow peas, then take the time to insert them between the edge of the bowl and the food already in the bowl. This worked quite well. I only wish I had taken the time to do this all around as once the meat on the other side thawed.....I had a bowl breach!

Note the bowl breach on the right...the snow peas worked well tough!

Today was a very busy day at Mongos and the line up for the grill was long. It is neat to watch the staff 'work the grill' and cook so many stir fries at once! The waiting really is the hardest part though.

Once the lovely staff take your bowl for frying, you still get more choices!! They will ask you if you want rice and they will give you a bowl or they will mix it into your stir fry....not just rice though. You can choose from white, brown, or fried rice! You can also have an egg added to the mix if you would like. They even crack the egg and cook it along with your food! After the cooking is done, you can even have your stir fry wrapped up in a tortilla or a flavoured wrap if you'd like!

Hubby's stir fry with an egg cooking and rice waiting to be added!

Even though Mongos offers seafood and gluten items, they are very accomadating for allergies. Hubby has a fish/seafood allergy and they will clean the grill for him and give his food extra room on the grill. If you are looking for gluten free, they keep a list of their gluten free sauces on the wall as well as a list of their other gluten free items. The Mongos staff also offer to get you veggies and sauces from the back if you are worried about cross contamination with the buffet style of service. You can also find a list of nutritional information on their website.

Despite being super busy, the food was quite good. The waitress was very nice and pleasant but did seem to have trouble keeping up with tables who needed refills on their drinks. The wait (for us) at the grill wasn't all that bad either. It looked like it slowed down quite a bit after we sat down with our cooked food. That is the one thing with Mongos is you will have to wait in line with your full bowl for them to cook it on the grill.

I have heard people complain about the actual food at this place as well as the taste but this all depends on what you choose to put in your bowl. The veggies are fresh, the meat is fozen and sliced thin. I do think they need to send the clean up crew more often for the floor. People tend to overflow their bowls with sauces or hand landslides of noodles and this makes messy, and slippery on the floor. This is also a great place to feed a hungry teen!

And let's not forget my lightsabre chop sticks from home!