Shepherd's Pie

First: the pies
Then: the incident.

When we moved to Toronto, J and I decided that we should try to cook from home as much as possible and this includes one night a week where each of us just makes something with no 'what're we going to eat?' 'I don't know, what do you want?'

The problem is that he's a carnivore and I'm a herbivore who has never cooked meat before. It's icky, and there are limits to what I'll do (I can't cut up raw meat or beat it with a hammer or anything) but I've always promised to be an easygoing vegetarian and not impose my diet on others so I want to be able to cook for him. Ground beef / chicken is the one thing I feel semi-comfortable with because I can see when it's done and I don't have to rub anything into it. J is also a very good cook so it's hard to present him with a meal that I know he could have made ten times better. Shepherd's pie is something that I felt pretty confident would go well and it's so basic and hearty that it's bound to be awesome no matter who makes it. So I made it.

I made two - one with fake meat and one with the real stuff. The framework for what I did came from For the Love of Cooking but I changed a lot. It was most useful for how to cook the beef.

I served it with gravy (beef for him, mushroom for me) and it was soooo delicious. And the best part is: there are leftovers!

Now.... I am a walking disaster. The pies came out fine, so of course something else had to happen. And it was a doozy.

Last night J decreed that the top shelf of the fridge would be for drinks only because it's too hard to shuffle things around when you're trying to get the milk from the back. A good decree. I had a mostly full can of beef broth and foolishly thought it counted as a drink, and put it on the top shelf. Mere moments later, I went to put the milk back and while holding a full glass of it in my other hand. I had to shuffle to get around the beef broth and it went flying, coating the entire fridge with beef fluid as well as the floor within a two foot radius. It's... it's all over everything. I mopped it up as best I could but I have a feeling that everything I eat for the next few weeks is going to taste strangely beefy....

Applesauce

I've been wanting to make applesauce for years and haven't mustered the guts. My mom even found me an apple smasher on ebay last year, but the whole idea seemed so intimidating. It turns out it's so easy and I'm never going to stop doing it.

I used Spartan apples for this inaugural batch and it's quite tasty. It's going to be a good winter.

My favourite part is how plainly natural it is. Just apples and cinnamon. Mmmmmmmmmm

Bowl  courtesy of Jackie Seton

Fathers Day Bumblebee Cake

Tada!

Summer Dinner

I bought a potted basil plant today and wanted to use it with something, so I just rummaged around the cupboards and fridge until this meal appeared. It's got chick peas, pasta, green beans, spinach, garlic, green onions, parmesan, pepper and olive oil.

The plate was made by the talented Lana Filippone - you can get one at Distill in Toronto, and at Harbourfront come September.

Lasagna Rolls

I saw this idea on thefoodaddicts.com. It's exactly the kind of thing I need - with one devoted carnivore and one strict vegetarian, there are very few meals we can really eat together. But this way, instead of making an entire lasagna that's a compromise for both of us, we can personalize it. I made four rolls: two had spinach and two had ground beef. Same pan, same effort... just brilliant. It was really delicious and actually pretty low-cal if you use low-fat cheese.

You cook your noodles until just soft, then lay them out on a cutting board. Add ricotta cheese, sauce, spinach (or whatever other ingredients), grated old cheddar and mozzarella. Then just roll them up - it's a little slippery. Put them in a baking pan, and top with sauce and cheese. They bake at 400F for around half an hour (or until the cheese is all browned and bubbly).

Before serving, I added some chopped fresh basil.

Beautiful Breakfast

I didn't do anything fancy with this, but I was really excited about it. Just scrambled eggs wth spinach, toast and jam, strawberries, and a coffee in my Scott Barnim mug.

Fajita Burritos!

We had a fun tex mex kind of night! At the grocery store J and I thought about doing tacos, but they're always so much more trouble than they're worth with the crunching and the falling apart.... but soft shells... that's just good sense.

Included is a strange ingredient that I would never serve to anyone. However - it was delicious and I regret nothing. Mine had fake ground beef, taco spices, cheddar cheese, boston lettuce, tomatoes and... um...  .. leftover white KD. Jeremy's was more like a burrito - real ground beef, tomato sauce, cheese, lettuce.

Excellent.

Quinoa and Lentils

 

I set out to make the old family standard Rice and Lentils, but discovered (slightly too late) that there was no usable rice in the house. I did have a package of quinoa that had been waiting for me to muster some courage, so I just subbed it in for the rice. 

It goes like this:

1c.quinoa

1/2c. lentils

1 can cream of mushroom soup (287mL)

1 1/2 cups water

a few green onions

salt and pepper

Empty soup into a medium pot. Add quinoa and lentils, then water. Cover and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes (ish) or until the liquid is pretty much absorbed. Add chopped green onion, salt and pepper to taste, and let sit covered for 5-10 minutes. Fluff and serve. 

4 Cheese Lasagna with Fake Beef and Spinach

As part of the very slow-moving campaign to become a functioning human, I'm trying to use the things in my home more. I have a coffee maker in full working order, but I never use it and buy my coffee every day instead. No more! It's not hard, and I like using my own mugs. In that spirit, I'm hoping to save some money and be healthier by bringing lunches, making dinners, and all that jazz.

So I made a lasagna. It should last through the week, and as a bonus, I think it'll be something I can bring to a pot luck.




I used 12 no-cook noodles, a big can of pasta sauce, a package of frozen whole leaf spinach, a 475g tub of low-fat ricotta, a 250g thing of cottage cheese, 3/4 of a big brick of mozzarella, grated, a cup or something of parmesan, and about half a package of fake ground beef. Also, some salt and pepper and a little ground basil.
It was in a 9x11 pan.
Just layer, starting with a little sauce and 4 noodles. Then 1/2 of the ricotta, cottage cheese, spinach, and spices (all mixed in advance), then sauce, then mozzarella, then noodles. Repeat! End with: noodles, sauce, parmesan, and top with mozzarella.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes covered with aluminum foil, then 15 more minutes uncovered. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.