Adopt A Blogger #4 and Sugar Bush

Kristen from Dine and Dish started an annual event called Adopt A Blogger. We're now in our 4th year (time flies doesn't it) and Psychgrad and I are happy to participate in this event again.

Psychgrad already introduced you to our adoptive blogger, Ed, and his tasty chili recipe here. Now, I'd like to take my turn to formally introduce you to our adoptive blogger. Ed of Detroit Eats is an accomplished chef so I'm already gathering that we'll have more to learn than to mentor. If you haven't yet visited his blog, please do so; you'll find it both educational and inviting. I guess the name Detroit Eats gives away where Ed's from. It's nice to have a blogger friend whose location is reasonably close to me - about a 4 hour drive and we both live around the Great Lakes.

Ed and I wanted to collaborate on something we have in common as well as something that one might consider unique. Given the time of year, sugar bush was not only timely, but fun. You may have seen our previous posts about sugar bush from both Quebec and Ontario As far as I know, maple syrup production is only found in Canada and the U.S. around the Great Lakes. We've both decided to write similar posts about maple syrup, where it comes from and some ways to use it.

While at Sugar Bush my friend "S" snapped this shot and I loved it so begged to include it in this post. (well...didn't really have to beg too much).


This year we went back to the same farm we previously visited (i.e. the one from Ontario). Can you imagine the smell of a wood burning fire coupled with the sweet smell of maple sugar. It's pretty hard to resist.

I had to get a light amber and a darker amber. The difference is in the boiling. Although the sweet factor is the same, the depth of maple flavour is more pronounced in the darker amber.

Either one is especially delicious when someone is making pancakes for you and adding a cup of maple coffee to the mix.

I had some Canadian salmon at home and what better way to celebrate sugar bush than to make a maple glazed salmon dish. The recipe is for approximately 1 lb (.5k) of fish - I halved mine.

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light soya sauce
1/4 cup dark rum
3-4 Tbsp Maple Syrup (some use 1 1/2 - I like more)
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
salt and pepper to taste (I eliminate the salt)

1. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil
2. Marinate the fish for 2 hours.


3. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes


For those interested in seeing some of what it takes to bottle maple syrup - enjoy.

Chili

I recently had the opportunity to meet Don from foodiePrints, a local foodblogger. I've been following his blog for a while now and it has been a great source of information about food and the food scene in Ottawa.

It's ironic that I met him, since I was just thinking about his recent post on the "6 Classic Dishes Everyone Should Know How to Make", which orginated on Style Caster.

1.Chicken Noodle Soup
2.Meat Lasagna
3.Beef Stew
4.Roast Chicken
5.Chili
6.Chocolate Cake

I immediately started to think about my poor chili-making skills. Despite having resolved to include more beans in my diet, I still haven't developed a taste for beans (head hanging from defeat).

Then...things started to turn around. I got involved in Adopt-a-Blogger 4 (a hugely successful initiative by Kristen and Dine and Dish) and met my new adopted blogger!


Let me introduce you to Ed at Detroit Eats. Ed is a chef in Detroit who is passionate about good food. He recently started foodblogging and has hit the ground running.

Ed recently posted a Vegetarian Chili recipe that sounded interesting and seem like a good push for me to cook with beans.

Detroit Eat's Vegetarian Chili (or not so vegetarian if you add beef)


1 medium onion diced
2 stalks of celery diced
1 carrot diced
1 tablespoon on minced garlic
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoon Chili Powder
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 can diced tomato (14.5 oz)
3 cups vegetable stock or water
salt to taste
1 can kidney beans,drained and rinsed
1 can black beans,drained and rinsed
1 square bittersweet chocolate
3-4 tablespoon cornmeal


Sauté Onion,Celery,Carrot and garlic in vegetable oil for approx 2 minutes
Add Chili powder,cumin and Italian seasoning and continue sautéing until vegetable become translucent.
Add diced tomato, vegetable stock and bring to a boil.Then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Add both cans of bean and simmer for 15 minute longer.
Add chocolate square (for depth of flavour) and stir until melted.
Sprinkle cornmeal on the top of the Chili and then stir in well (used as a thickener and adds flavour).
Allow to simmer until thickened.
Serve with your favorite topping

PG's notes: I altered the recipe by adding 1 lb of ground beef. I also decided to use fresh beans rather than canned. I figure, go big or go home on the bean exploration. So, I soaked my beans overnight.


The chocolate does make for an interesting addition. Never would have thought of it.


Verdict: Good flavour, I probably will need to cook the beans longer next time. I'd like to try making this recipe again.

Pleast take a minute and go visit Ed to welcome him to the foodblogging community.

Pancetta: Tortiglioni vs. Orcheiette

Remember the Italian store? The one that started off as a place R didn't want to go into and would wait outside, in frustration... Next step was R coming in the store with me. Week after that, I heard he stopped in while I was out of town (visiting Giz) because it was on his way. Since then, it has been his weekly weekend walk. He makes the 1 hours walk (there and back) to buy buns and lunchmeat for his lunches for the week. Lately, he has been getting pancetta. You can see another pancetta recipes here.

These TWO recipes contain many of the same ingredients, but vary whether it is white wine- or tomato-based. One recipe includes crushed tomatoes and the other chopped. Play with these ingredients, adding herbs and other veggies as you see fit. It makes for a great meal (and leftovers).

Ingredients

2.5 inches pancetta (spicy)
500 g Orcheiette (or any pasta of your choosing)
1 cup of white wine
16 oz crushed tomato
3-4 tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 shallots, finely chopped
tomatoes, chopped
pepper, parsley, basil, oregano (fresh or dried), chopped
parmesan cheese, to taste

Chop the pancetta into small cube shapes. Pan fry them (careful to not burn them). Once pancetta cubes are close to being done, remove and place in papertowel to absorb the fat (that's what I do). In the same pan, fry the garlic and onion, mixing continously. After a minute or so, add the wine and let reduce some. Add the remainder of your ingredients. Once a few minutes from completion, return the pancetta to the pan. Add the herbs. Plate with shredded parmesan cheese over top.

Here's the crushed tomato base:

Tortiglioni Pancetta

Here's the white wine base:

Orcheiette Pancetta

This dish is being sent to Katie at One Little Corner of the World. I've been following Katie's blog for a while now (not in a stalkerish kind of way). Definitely check out her site! Katie is hosting this week's Presto Pasta Night!

So -Which dish would you prefer???

Note: the top picture of tomatoes comes from Tomato Mania.

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I also wanted to take a second to help spread the word about the third round of Adopt a Blogger.

Kristen at Dine and Dish, who blogs about her recipes, family, daily experiences and the pregnancy of her 4th child, is taking the time to host the third Adopt a Blogger event. We've participated in the first two as a newbie blogger, paired with Redacted Recipes and as a veteran blogger, paired with Hopie's Kitchen.

We're excited to receive a new adoptive blog. Hopie - are you ready for an adoptive sibling?

As you can imagine, there are many newbie bloggers. But there is still need for more veteran foodbloggers. If you're interested in being paired with a new food blogger, let Kristen know. It's a nice way of getting to know other people in the community.

Hopie's Apple Walnut Muffins

File this one under...Better Late Than Never. Actually, this post has been in the works for a while, because I had a lot to say.

You've probably read us mention Hopie's Kitchen before, but I wanted to take some more time to tell you about our adopted blog. I first started reading Hopie's blog around the beginning of summer and as luck should have it, we ended up paired in the Adopt-a-Blogger program, the brainchild of Kristen from Dish and Dine.

Hopie originates from the USA, but currently lives and works in Paris, France. She blogs about her fantastic recipes in both English and French. I've seen other bilingual (French-English) blogs, but never ones written by an American in Paris.


The short story, according to Hopie (profile picture, above), is:

In 2006, I moved to Paris to become an actress, because I majored in French in college and, honestly, what else was I going to do with that degree? Now I spend my time going to auditions, discovering Paris, and learning all the traditional French cooking I can get my hands on!

She has a bunch of really great recipes, both baked and cooked goods.

During my recent visit with Giz (we have a post about that coming up), we decided to make some of Hopie's muffins together. Giz managed to stick me with peeling the apples while she took out ingredients. You can find the original inspiration at Hopie's blog. These are them:

Apple Walnut Muffins

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1½ cups coarsely grated or finely chopped, peeled apples

1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
scant ½ tsp salt

5 Tbsp melted unsalted butter
½ cup coarsely-chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400oF.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Stir in the apples and set aside for 10 minutes. This allows the apples to render their juices with the sugar and eggs and makes for moist muffins.


In the meantime, in a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt). Melt the butter on the stove and chop the walnuts.

Once the apple mixture is done sitting, stir in the melted butter and walnuts. Add the flour mixture and fold in until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Be careful not to overmix. Pour batter into greased (or lined) muffin cups.


Bake 14-16 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Let sit 3-5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan and letting cool on a cooling rack, or eating immediately.




Both Giz and I were happy that we included larger chunks of apples. The flavour and texture is really nice with them. I also subsituted raisins for walnuts. Giz is convinced that I'm still a really fussy eater. The truth is that I like a range of foods. But am pretty particular about my combinations. Sweet desserts with nuts are not my thing. But raisins, well - you know I come from Raisin Planet.
Overall, the muffins were very nice. Apple, raisin and cinnamon is a flavour combo from heaven.


I'm sending this post over to Ruth's Bookmarked Recipes "where anyone from anywhere can blog about a recipe they had bookmarked from a cook book, food magazine, food blog, food website, from TV etc, make it and submit it to a weekly roundup"


Hopie also tagged us to answer the following:

You can take five items and are allowed one sentence in which to justify your decision. Tag whoever you like and link back! You are on a desert island so assume a plentiful supply of exotic fish, coconuts and sea salt. Ignore any issues regarding storage. There happens to be a very large solar powered refrigerator washed up on the shore as well. Now, on to the list...

Well - let me start off by saying that I am thrilled that a large solar powered refrigerator also washed up on the shore. I'd be screwed otherwise.

1. Does a farm of chickens count? Chicken is a staple for me. Probably my favourite meat. (I'm not good with one line explanations, so I'll break the rules)

2. If fresh water weren't available, I would take a water purification system. Kind of dull, but I become a pretty miserable person when I'm dehydrated.

3. I would take a fruit tree. Something that can withstand the environment. Probably apples because their production is pretty plentiful and enduring. Plus, I love apple juice.

4. I would take a lot of chocolate bars. My favourite is probably Coffee Crisps. Apparently, they're available in the states now too. They're regulars in the convenient stores in Canada.


5. Last. Argh. How can I pick just one? Ok - I'll go with flour. I think I'd rather make breads than eat rice. But, maybe rice flour would work too.

Now - I need to tag 5 people to complete this.

I'm curious what Grace, Evil Chef Mom, Kat, Jaden (check out yesterday's post about her Chino-Latino Wings) and Baking Blondie.

Thank you to Hopie for the recent award.


We'd like to pass it on to a few fellow bloggers:

1. That Girl, who posts loyally about the food that she and That Boy eat.
2. Noble Pig who makes really appealing recipes and can tell a story like nobody's business.
3. Julia at Cook, Eat, Grow - whose brain I would love to pick for a year. Her knowledge of growing and cooking food is great.
4. Ben from What's Cooking - I have to remember to submit to his monthly Baking Event. I have an upcoming meal that was inspired by Ben's post. I'll share it with you soon.

Also, here's Giz to pass on the award we received by Ivy.


To continue the love toward Hopie, we'd like to pass this award on to our adoptive blog, Hopie's Kitchen. If you haven't already checked out her blog, this post will hopefully change that.

Courtney at Coco Cooks , a diehard blogger and incredible cook wins and deserves the "Yum Yum"

Lis, the soon to be Mrs. (or still Ms., if you prefer) of Cream Puffs in Venice charms me with her continuous flow of yummy dishes.

Barb at Winos and Foodies for enriching our food and wine awareness.

Ceylonta

I'm very excited to have found Dine and Dish's Adopt-a-Blog event. This event is pairing new food bloggers with more established food blogs for the purpose of encouraging new bloggers, supporting others with like minded interests, and building friendships within the food blogging community.

Equal Opportunity Kitchen has been paired with Redacted Recipes. Redacted Recipes is run by Ann and Jack. Their food blog has been around since 2005. Although, I'm not an expert in classifying food, I would say that many of their recipes feature a rustic style or Middle Eastern (or North African -- Moroccan) feel to them.

They've got some great seasonal recipes to try over at their blog. In particular, I'd like to try their Chicken Kebabs with Spicy Rice (perhaps when the BBQ is up and running again), the Moroccan Tomato Salsa, the Thai Beef Salsa, Linguine with Tomato and Basil, Apple Cake and Apple Cranberry Crisp. I also couldn't help but really want to get a Tagine after seeing theirs.

Seeing such a variety of dishes among all of the food blogs out there really makes me want to experiment more, both in and out of my own kitchen. Last night, we tried a Sri Lankan restaurant. My first foray into Sri Lankan (and South Indian) food. It was really good. I had to keep reminding myself to eat the food with my right hand as traditionally, Sri Lankan cuisine is eaten with the fingers of the right hand.

As an appetizer, the three of us (R, me and a friend) had Kadalai Vadai and a Vegetable Samosa. The dipping sauce was some sort of spicy cucumber type sauce that was really good. Please excuse the pictures - the restaurant was dark and R and my friend were not very patient with my picture taking (I'm always shocked that everyone in the restaurant isn't taking pictures of their food).



The main meal, kind of like Chinese food, are meant to be shared among everyone at the table. We went with two dishes that were safer bets:

Chicken Kothu



Curried Shrimp (which was awesome).



We kept ordering more nan to take full advantage of all of the curry sauce.



Our "riskier" dish was a Vegetable Thali - 6 separate vegetable dishes. In our case, the vegetable dishes were lentil, spinach, beets, eggplant, chickpea and beans.



Some of the vegetables were better than the others -- favourites were lentils and spinach.

We left full and happy.