Thanksgiving 2013

We hosted our Canadian Thanksgiving one week early this year. There were seven of us and just one Canadian (me!). Everyone was an honourary Canadian for the day. We all have so much to be thankful for. We wrote things we are thankful for on coloured leaves and stuck them up on the dining room mirror. Actually counting our blessings makes it so easy to be grateful.

The food was extensive - as it should be. We had one vegetarian and several veggie-friendly eaters. Here is the menu.

Dirty Dishes

The dirty dishes seem to be taking over my life. What you can see here is all of my counter space - really, that's all the countertop in my small Hong Kong kitchen. And it's all covered in dirty dishes.

Weekend Links #28

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--This lengthy and thorough article (from the New York Times) examines why junk food is so addictive and how it is marketed. Eye-opening.
--Twelve best food movies (chosen by Serious Eats). Which ones have you seen? (The comments on this post are brimming with controversy about which films should have been included.)
--The Guardian explains that sales of horsemeat in restaurants and butchers in the UK has risen dramatically. It's healthy and tasty, too.
--Can you train yourself to love healthy food? The Guardian gives thoughts.

snapshots around my kitchen

I will soon be leaving home to go on a four week trip. This will be a really long time away from my husband and my kitchen. I will be able to talk to my husband on the phone and Skype, but, sadly, you can't chat over Skype with your kitchen. I have realised that I will miss it--even though I frequently berate its tiny size and many limitations. Here are a few shots from around my kitchen.

lunchbox tips, part 2

This post is part two about planning for taking lunch to work. It takes a bit of preparation if you are determined to avoid the work canteen with its uninspiring options, but it's worth is for taste and health, usually. (If your work canteen has a salad bar you could eat there every day; I would be jealous!) Have a look at last week's lunchbox tips and then add some of your own in the comments below.


--One of the best lunch boxes is salad. But think beyond lettuce when it comes to salads. Salads based on sturdy vegetables like carrots, corn, and broccoli travel well. And using rice or beans as a base adds nutrition to salad. Otherwise I might not make it through the work day. And try to add a protein item each time: some grilled chicken, a hard boiled egg, or a handful of nuts. (Here's a whole other post about making salads into a real meal.)

lunchbox tips, part 1

The weekend has arrived. It's a good time to relax from a week of work and then to look forward to next week. It's a good time to talk about taking lunch to work. Packing your own lunch box is a really great way to get a healthy lunch each day, and it's cheaper than eating out or in the work canteen. But taking lunch to work can sometimes require a bit of forward planning. That's why the weekend is a good time to start thinking about it.

This post is the first of two; here is a selection of tips to help make sure you get a healthy lunch at work each day. Look for the other tips and ideas next weekend.

--Plan to take leftovers of last night's dinner. The easiest and tastiest lunch can also be the healthiest because you made it yourself. When you plan your week's meals, make an extra serving or two for lunches. Take the lunch box serving out of the pan first when plating dinner, then you know you won't eat all the food by accident!


--Cook ahead on the weekends. Make a pot of soup or a batch of whole wheat gems and store in individual portions. They can be taken to work throughout the week.

--Leave some lunch supplies at work: For example, take in a loaf of whole wheat bread if you like soup or salad with bread or toast. Leave a large pot of yogurt in the work fridge and eat from it each day (much cheaper than buying individual pots). And plain yogurt can be made interesting and different every day with nuts, oats, or fruit added on top. Buy bags of apples and oranges and keep them in your desk.


--Make meals special with some added extras. Keep some mixed nuts or seeds at work to add to salads or soups. Or how about a lemon or two to squeeze over your dish? (Also, nothing causes my colleagues to comment more than when they see me garnishing my lunch.)

--Grow basil on your desk. A friend of mine does this at her creative television job and no one even blinks! But I think even non-arty types can try it out, though. And fresh basil makes even less than pretty leftovers or cafeteria food taste great.

--Start a lunch club with colleagues. This can be just one other person or a small group who want to bring in healthy food and wouldn't mind making or bringing enough to share. Or your lunch club could even bring in salad or sandwich supplies bought (cheaply) from the grocery store and assemble lunch there. By sharing the cost of the raw ingredients you make a huge saving over buying a ready-made sandwich. You also get to control the ingredients, giving you better taste and nutrition.

I'm sure you have lunch tips to share too. What do you do for your work lunches?

[And here's part 2 of our lunchbox tips!]

avoiding waste

Fruit languishing in the bowl? A bunch of fresh thyme in the fridge wasting away? These are problems I face in my kitchen from time to time. I got a lot of ideas from this article about 50 ways to reduce kitchen waste. I really liked some of the suggestions, like freezing herbs in ice cube trays with a tiny bit of water for quick use when cooking later. I didn't know eggs could be frozen as well.


The item we seem to waste most often is old bread. Some weeks we eat loads of toast, other times it seems like last week's bread is sticking around to say hello to the new loaf. From now on I'll blitz the older bits into bread crumbs (to keep in the fridge) or freeze torn-up slices to be whizzed up when I need them.

The biggest way to reduce waste, I think, wasn't tackled in this article: Plan in advance and only buy what you really need and will use. When I'm planning the meals for the week the first step is to make a list of what I have on hand. I look through the fridge, freezer, and pantry, listing everything (well, almost everything). Then I sit down with some cookbooks and try to choose meals that will use up the ingredients I already have. When shopping, I try to buy the amount of meat or dairy that I know we will actually use. At dinner time, we make enough for exactly two meals, and the second meal we either freeze for a lazy night or pack into lunch boxes for each of us for the next day.

Ant and I are hoping to move soon, and one thing I want to start is composting a bit with a little wormery. That will be another way to cut waste and to feed my tubs of growing vegetables on the back patio.

chocolate cake for one & recipe books

Tonight I made this amazing chocolate cake for one in a mug--Ant's special dessert to celebrate the end of a hard work week. What a nice treat that only took moments to make!

Chocolate Cake for One
4 T flour
4 T sugar
2 T cocoa
1 egg
3 T milk
3 T oil (or half oil and half applesauce)
pinch salt

Grease the inside of a mug. Mix the dry ingredients in the mug. Combine the wet ingredients and then add them, mixing well.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a plate.

Ant was very impressed and so was I! And so I wrote it into my new recipe book. I really love it--Mum and Dad bought it for me from Paperchase when they were here. I filled my first cooking notebook (the pink one) a few months ago and wasn't sure what to do next. But this lovely lemon book solves my problem!


The only difference for this new notebook is that I am only going to write in recipes after I make them. I ended up with a few too many in the old book that were inspiration but that I never made.

On Dad's suggestion, here are the top recipes from "Sarah's Kitchen, Volume 1".

Ginger Noodle Soup
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Beans and Bacon Casserole
Cuban Black Bean Soup
Mushroom Paprikash
Sonya's Minted Lamb Burgers
Bacon Fried Greens
French Onion Soup
Roasted Onion and Parsnip Tarte Tatin
Spicy Red Lentil Soup

spice drawer

I have taken a huge step forward in the organisation of my kitchen. I labelled all my spice bottles on their tops and I have put them in the bottom drawer. Now every time I need one I can just reach down and see everything! The drawer seems good to me since I know that light is bad for spices.

After I took this picture I decided to roughly alphabetise them as well (I know, a bit nerdy). So they run alphabetical left to right, give or take. At least I know approximately where to look to find the cinnamon and where to put back the paprika.

planning in advance

I am so obsessed with food that I plan our week's meals in advance. I do this so that I can decide which recipes I want to cook and make sure I have all the ingredients on hand. Tonight I had planned two recipes to make from my new Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special cookbook.

The Tunisian pumpkin soup was delicious and came with a "spice swirl" (pictured below). The spice swirl is an essential part of the soup, I discovered. It was the tastiest little thing I have ever eaten! And I served the soup with a bulgur salad with artichoke hearts and a little feta. The steak on top is not part of the Moosewood recipe but is an addition to satisfy my carnivore husband.


My food obsession means that once I find a cookbook that fits my style I start working through it pretty regularly. I have been fortunate to get three new cookbooks in the last two months and I am using them to plan all our meals at the moment. On a quiet evening, I make a list of all the things currently in the cupboards, fridge and freezer. Then I pick recipes from my current favourite cookbooks that use up these ingredients. I add in a few more recipes and ingredients and order it all online. I keep the planning notes on the fridge so that when I get home from work I know can get to work without the dreadful feeling of having to think up what we are going to eat each night. We get to eat a lot of different things this way and I get to try out loads of new recipes.

Tunisian Pumpkin Soup
adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

2 c chopped onions
2 T olive oil
1/2 c sliced carrots
1/2 c sliced parsnips
1 1/2 t salt
2 1/2 c water or stock
1 1/4 c apple juice
1/2 c tomato juice
1 t cumin
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t paprika
1 3/4 c cooked pumpkin (=15 oz can)

Spice Swirl
2 T olive oil
1 t minced garlic
4 t coriander
1 t ground caraway seeds
1/4 t cayenne
2 T lemon juice
2 T chopped cilantro
1/8 t salt

In a large soup pot, saute the onions, then add the vegetables. Saute for five minutes, then add stock, juices, and spices. Cover and bring to the boil, simmer until veg is soft. Add pumpkin and then puree the soup until smooth.

To make the spice swirl, heat the oil in a small skillet and briefly saute the garlic. Add the spices and cook, stirring constantly. Remove from heat after two minutes and add the lemon juice, cilantro, and salt.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with some spice swirl.