Need a killer Veggie Pate?

This dip is wonderful as a vegetable dip, serve with crackers or even as a sandwich spread. Delicious!


Toasted Walnut Pate

You will need:

1 hand full of fresh oregano
60g of Feta cheese
1 lemon
4 cloves of garlic (less is fine if you don’t want it too garlicky)
1.5c toasted walnuts
(to toast, put in a dry frying pan over low heat until you can smell them toasting. They burn easily so toss them intermittently).
1 can of tomato paste
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
A hint of smoked paprika
Fresh pepper to taste.

In a food processor, toss in your garlic cloves and feta. Run until smooth. Add your toasted walnuts, then run the processor again. You will have a grainy paste after this. Take your fresh oregano and chop it slightly. Get rid of any stems or woody parts and throw it in with your can of tomato paste, apple cider vinegar,lemon juice, paprika, salt and pepper. Run one last time in the processor until you have a smooth paste.

~Enjoy~

Secrets that comfort on cold winter days

I am totally giving away my secrets with this one... well not really! This is the comfort of comfort food with a couple twists. I have made this in many ways, but this week? This is my fave!


My way Mac ‘n’ Cheese w/ Sesame Seeds

You will need:

Some fresh Thyme (chopped fine)
Some fresh or dried Marjoram (use oregano if you don’t have marjoram)
Whole wheat/kamut/spelt macaroni (the white just don’t cut it in my house)
1.5 cups Monterey Jack cheese (grated)
1c milk
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tbsp of butter
1 small bunch of broccoli (stem and all)
1 chopped leek
1 lemon juiced
1/4c of sesame seeds
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.Boil water for pasta and add some salt to the water. Get out a sauce pan and place your butter in over medium heat. Soon as your butter melts, add your flour and cook the flour until all the butter is absorbed. Add you milk very slowly and heat through, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add half your cheese, stir in with your leeks, salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat. Chop up your broccoli into bite size chunks. Add your broccoli to your pasta water about 2 minutes before you strain your pasta. Just until it is nice and green. Don’t over cook your pasta because it still has a trip to the oven to make. Put your strained pasta and broccoli into your pot, pour your cheezy sauce over it all and toss until the sauce is covering every ounce of macaroni. Squeeze your lemon in there, chopped herbs, salt and pepper, then toss one last time. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and place the pot, with a lid, in the oven for 1/2 hour. Done!

~Enjoy~

**Tip** You can add any green, red, orange or blue veggie you want to this dish. If you don’t have sesame seeds? Go with sunflower seeds. Toast them a bit first to really bring out the flavor.

~Them naughty legumes.... ppp Peanuts~

I dunno about the rest of you... but I love Peanut butter!

I know I know peanuts are 'bad' and big, crappy false food companies use their 'no peanut' strategy to sell terrible, chemical laden food to honest folk! I am not of the mind to buy such things though... and if you have an allergy to peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, or anything related to nuts... DON'T EAT IN MY KITCHEN.

I'm very sorry! I sympathize deeply with those that are allergic to nuts or peanuts!

I couldn't imagine my life without nuts/peanuts in it.

I have a few problems though with the mistreatment of peanuts. First of all, they are not nuts! They are legumes! Banning peanuts from schools is understandable if there deathly allergic kids. I understand that. But all nuts???? Man oh man! In this day and age where people are eating less and less meat, we have to look at this issue in a different way.



Anyways, on that note... here's how to make peanut butter!!!

2 cups of roasted peanuts
1 x food processor.

(no a blender will not work for this).


Put your peanuts in the food processor and turn it on!

Let the food processor run until you have the most perfect, amazing, wonderful, fresh peanut butter.


If you like your peanut butter a bit salty? Add some sea salt to it. If you like your peanut butter sweet, add a drizzle of maple syrup or honey and run the food processor until smooth. If you like chunky peanut butter, add some pre chopped peanuts at the end of this process and stir them in.
Place in jars and repeat.

Tips: Don't make more than 2 cups at a time otherwise the peanut butter doesn't come out smooth before your motor on your food processor gets over heated. Trust me... been there!

You don't have to use peanuts, you can use pecans or macadamia nuts too. These nuts are as high or higher in oils than peanuts so they work great!

If you want to make almond butter, follow the same instructions but you will need to add a drizzle of almond oil (or grape seed) to smooth it out while the food processor is running. Almonds don't have as much oil as peanuts.

***Note*** I buy raw peanuts cuz I'm spoiled. I then roast my own on a low temperature for a while to make them uber delish'us. I find peanuts that are pre roasted are full of unnecessary oils. Just a hint for those that are interested!

Me and my monkey talkin' about kitchen Multi tasking!

Sunday's are more often than not completely dedicated to cooking/baking/cleaning/prepping/saucing/dishing/drying/canning and MUZAK!

My kitchen is often a flurry of activity from mid morning till bedtime. I love to cook... but who has the time? Its dedicated, hard work to feed ourselves somewhat nutritionally all week on a budget! An organized pantry, fridge, freezer and spice rack, are extremely important when trying to kitchen multi task. So I dunno how the heck I pull it off every week, cuz none of things apply to my kitchen. My fridge is a precarious Jenga game of sequentially aging food like substances. But hey, I rotate and over the years I have systematically adapted my creative chaos to work for me.

Preparing food for ourselves is such a journey of trial and error. I am sure most people who love to cook won't tell you they were born with it. But they can tell you who taught them and what they loved about those peoples cooking.

In our family, the kitchen is the hub. In my grandma's kitchen, you often had 3 generations of family members cooking, prepping and laughing together. Now that tradition has passed to my mothers kitchen.

One of my fondest, child hood memories are the times Mom was away and Dad cooked. My Dad made the best homemade pizza ever.. and chili! My Mom hates beans, so the only time in my childhood I ate them was when Mom was away and Dad made chili.

Pumpin' Pumpkin Pipin' HaWt

Family Friday Nite!

Gotta make recipes for the radio that are pumpkin'lish'ious.

The adventures of 2 sugar pie pumpkins...

Quarter 2 sugar pie pumpkins, spread with a drizzle of olive oil, touch of sea salt and place upside down with a dose of h2o.

Pop in the oven @ 4oo degrees or so, until the flesh is mushy. Peel off the skin, when cooled, and set aside in a mixing bowl.

Wash and de'muck'ify your seeds. Wash 'em good (don't fret over a bit of pumpkin muck, your gonna dehydrate them anyways).
Let the seeds drip dry in a colander for a bit.

Place the seeds in a bowl, coat with a bit of olive oil, some chili powder, smoked paprika and a touch of sea salt. Coat 'em good and place on either your dehydrator screen evenly, or on a cookie sheet with parchment on it. Spread really nice and evenly. Place the seeds in the dehydrator and run for 8 hours or so on 115 degrees or so. In the oven, 200 degrees for about an hour or 2 maybe? Check it often.


Sunday Nite Potluck!

Pumpkin Walnut Artichoke Orzo

I haven’t used orzo too much. I know it makes a tasty greek pasta salad. But I needed to use pumpkin in something... this worked. I saw something similiar with squash... Pumpkins squash right?

1/2 sugar pie pumpkin roasted and diced
1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic diced
1/2 cup of chickpeas
1 cup chopped kale
1 med. grated carrot
1/2 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup lightly toasted walnuts whole
1 cup feta cheese cubed
1 small jar of marinated artichokes, chopped (keep some of the oil)
1/4 red onion diced
A light sprinkle of chili powder
A squirt or two of white wine vinegar to taste
Fresh ground pepper & sea salt to taste


To cook your pasta, season the water (sea salt and olive oil) cook according to your personal pasta rules. Drain and set aside.

I pretty much chopped everything else up and lightly sauteed it with the vinegar, chili powder... while its hot, toss it in to your pasta, add the feta and walnuts...done. This way is hot... but its yummy cold too.

You can even add all your veggies raw to the hot pasta. Toss everything together, then once cooled, add your cheese.

More to come....Still got a whole pumpkin roasted that needs a life!

Not gonna lie? Might be pumpkin soup... Im thinkin' for the spice/curry fans... I feel something brewin' along that vein... Send ideas and Stay tuned!!

Pleasant plant pleasures Abroad?!... Well in Alberta*

This morning I had the pleasure of browsing the Downtown Edmonton Farmers Market. The last one of the season. Of course with this weekend bringing the promise of much anticipated stomach stretching, it was a busy, bustling hub of delicate masses of food.

But nothing stood out quite as much (to me!) as the abundance of beautiful vegetables. I love visiting other towns and cities during harvest season, because you see what grows where and why we grow what we do at home. The growing season this year in Alberta was a bit....wet! Alberta (or some parts of it) have experienced an drought for the past 3 years. Until this summer!! It rained and rained and rained... leaving many gardens muddy and cold.

Some of the veggies that do well here in this region, dislike our heat at home and actually thrived in the gardens here this summer.

I'm talking about Brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips and cauliflower. Ohhhhhhhhh how I love thee... I wanted to bring a swack of stuff home for my own feast of giving this weekend.. alas tho.. I don't think they woulda let me on the plane..would they??

The one thing that jumped out for me tho mainly was this bizarre type of cauliflower I saw called Romanesco Cauliflower! WOW it was a trippy swack of fractals piled up on one another... It seriously made me think that I have to grow this magic madness veggie!

Anyways, I stole a picture off the internet for you all to enjoy.

Thanks for reading! From the Edmonton Airport, I wish you all happy stuffing your faces this weekend.

Cruciferus Crunching cabbage n' kale

It seems today that I wanted cabbage very badly. I began my day by preparing cabbage salad that my friend Enaunda taught me how to make. It is wonderful and I crave it often.

Slice up some cabbage, kale and whatever other vegetable you think would fit and you toss it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you wanna get fancy, add some feta. It lasts a couple days in the fridge at least! Infact, it gets yummier with age! Don't we all?

I probably could easily say that I almost always have cabbage on hand. Kale is a very close second... I love spinach, but I have a hard time with the plastic tub of spinach from the GStore...it gets all slimy in there and its stinks! Soo I tend to mostly eat spinach when I can get it fresh! Thank gawd it has a long growing season!

Kale, on the other hand, lasts FOREVER in the fridge! It tastes like crunchy spinach and it goes in everything!

Today it made its home in: My cabbage salad, salad rolls and my cabbage roll babies... mmmmmmmmm ~cabbage rolls~

My mom gave me a whack of vine ripe, splotchy, bountiful red tomatoes that seriously tasted like heaven. Some were just over ripe enough to make sauce. They sat patiently on my counter for a couple days until, tonite... chopped and roasted with garlic, fresh oregano and dill. Then buzzed with that wand thing. Fittingly called a 'buzz buzz'! I promptly stir in some lemon zest and check if it needs salt or not.

Hey, wanna know the trick to get the cabbage for cabbage rolls all nice and limp? (*snicker*)

Pop it in the freezer! Don't tell my mom I told anyone that tho... its a secret.

When you pull the cabbage out to unthaw, pop it in the sink with some water. It thaws quickly.

I made the filling with 1 cup rice and 1 cup pearl barley, a whack of fresh corn off the cob, zukes and kale from my garden. Coupla spoonfuls of greek yogurt (sour cream, normal yogurt, nothin' if you wanna skip the dairy), some nut yeast (aka nutritional yeast), chili powder and smoked paprika. Salt and pepper to taste of course. If I ever leave that part out about salt and/or pepper, assume its in there, cuz it is... I just gap out and forget to say that..... fresh ground pepper and sea salt to be exact!

Take some of that sauce and cover the whole bottom of a casserole dish. Preferably something with a lid.

Take your limp (*snicker*) cabbage and stuff it full of the rice stuff. Roll it loosely and place them in your casserole dish.

When you have placed all your rolls, douse them in the rest of your sauce. I like saucey rolls....! Yum!

Pop in the oven 350 degrees covered for about 40 minutes. Then take the lid off and let them brown up a touch on the top.

Voila! Serve with a salad..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I am pretty sure that cabbage rolls are one of those genetic things that telepathically got passed on from generation to generation. Cuz I don't ever recall actually learning how to make them... I just know how! Maybe its cuz my grandma made em all the time and my mom and my aunty... that it has become almost innate in our family genes!

None the less these lil' rolls of happiness are the best post summer meal and they freeze exceptionally well.

The only thing missing, is some toasted sunflower seeds! I am outta them and it drives me crazy. I use them in so much and I don't realize how much, until they are all gone. Oh well... Rancho season has begun and soon enough I will have more.

Lotsa love in the Kitchen tonite.