Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

This is Chef Michael Smith's famous Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry.  Now I know why it is one of his favourites.  Not only is it easy to make but you don't have to serve meat with it.  Or at least if it was me eating it I wouldn't have to, but tonight the 3 boys are home so I served a Jamaican Jerkin Chicken.  The other wonderful part of this meal is the aroma is amazing so when the boys walked in the door there was lots of "wows and heys, that smells awesome".  

Not only is it flavourful, but the colours are amazing

Is there anything better than the smell of onions and garlic sizzling.

And then you add in the ginger and Thai curry paste.  Voila the flavours jump up another notch

Every thing is sizzling away

Just before serving the spinach and cilantro go in.  You will notice the peas aren't in yet.  What is it about boys and peas.  The nice thing is you can add them in to the people who love peas, like me.  

Ingredients

a splash of vegetable oil

1 large onion, diced

3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped

a small knob of giner

1 teaspoon Thai curry paste (I added 3)

2 sweet potatoes, cubed (I added 3 good sized ones)

1 - 19 ounce can chickpeas

1 - 14 ounce can coconut milk

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup peanut butter or any other nut butter

a sprinkle of sea salt

1 cup frozen green peas

several handfuls of baby spinach

a bunch of cilantro

Add a splash or two of vegetable oil to a stockpot over medium-high heat.  Toss in the onion and garlic and saute them until they are lightly browned, about 5 minutes or so.

Grate the ginger into the pan with a microplane grater or standard box grater and add the Thai curry paste.  Continue cooking until the spices are heated through and fragrant, another few minutes.

Add the sweet potatoes, chickpeas, coconut milk, orange juice and peanut butter and salt.  Bring to a simmer, lower the heat and continue simmering until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.  

Serve over rice.  

Thanks Chef Michael, this will definitely be a Carlson family favourite.  

Roasted Squash Soup with Apple and Brie

This is one of our favourites soups and is from the "The Rest of the Best and more" one of my favourite Best of Bridge Books.  

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash

1 carrot

1 medium onion

1 leek, white portion only

2 tbsp butter

8 cups chicken broth (if it is a smaller squash then don't add as much chicken broth)

1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1 Bay Leaf

1 tsp sugar

salt & freshly ground pepper

8 oz brie cheese

Snipped Chives 

Chopped onion and carrots

Chopped apples

1. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds.  Place cut-side down on pan and bake at 350F until tender, about 45 minutes (or microwave cut-side down in a small amount of water, covered, about 10 minutes).  
2. Chop carrot, onion and leek into 1 pieces and place in a large pot.  
3. Gently saute in butter, do not brown.
4. Mash squash and add to vegetables.
5. Add broth and bring to a boil.
6. Add apples, bay leaf and sugar, simmer, uncovered for 40 minutes.
7. Remove bay leave and puree soup in batches.
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Slice of rind of brie and cut brie into 1/2 pieces  Place cheese in bottom of soup bowls and fill with hot soup.
10. Garnish with chives and serve.   Ooops didn't have chives, but I do love thyme :)

One of my favourite soups served with my favourite wholewheat flax seed bread.  

One of the best presents Jim has ever received from me was a bread machine.  He now gets fresh pizza dough every Friday and fresh bread every Saturday.  This recipe is from the "300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes" by Donna Washburn & Heather Butt.  

Whole Wheat Flaxseed Bread

Ingredients:

For a 1.5 lb loaf

1-1/4 cups water

1/4 cup skim milk power

1-1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup flaxseed, cracked

1 tsp bread machine or instant yeast.  

Put all the ingredients in the bread machine order they are given.  

Select Whole Wheat Cycle

I also do light crust.

And wait for the amazing aroma of fresh baked bread to fill your house.  How did they manage without bread machines

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Stilton & Herb Cream

Gnocchi + Sweet Potato + Whipped Cream + Stilton Cheese = Heaven, oh don't forget a nice glass of Chianti.  

The Gnocchi 

This is an LCBO Food & Drink Recipe from Holiday 2010 and one of our favourites.  From start to finish only an hour to do (depending on how many glasses of cooking wine you have).  And kudos to Jim for chopping and tidying as we went along.  

Ingredients:

3 Sweet Potatoes

1 Egg

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting

1 or 2 tbsp butter

1 small sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 cups Whipped Cream (don't cheat and use anything but 35% cream)

2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme

1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

2 oz blue or white Stilton, crumbled (we used at least 1/2 cup)

Jim's job chopping

The Sauce

The Finished Product

1. Preheat oven to 400.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  (I didn't do the foil thing)
2. Scrub sweet potatoes and pierce all over with a fork.  Bake for about 1 hour or until tender (depends on size of potatoes).  Transfer to a bowl, cover and let cool completely.  Peel off skin and mash sweet potatoes and measure 1-1/2 cups.  Place mashed potatoes in a large bowl.  
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with flour.
4. Stir egg, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper into mashed potatoes.  Stir in 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at a time to make a soft dough.  Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour until dough forms a ball and is just slightly loose ( it will still be a little sticky).
5. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and, with floured hands, knead a few times until smooth.  Divide into 6 portions.  Keeping work surface and hands floured just enough to prevent sticking, roll each portion into a 1/2 inch thick log.  Cut into 1 inch lengths with a floured paring knive.  If desired for a traditional gnocchi shape, dip tines of a fork into flour, press down across gnocchi and drag fork toward you, letting dough curl around end of fork ( I didn't do this).  Place gnocchi on floured baking sheets making sure they don't touch each other.  Gnocchi can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 day or frozen for up to 3 months.  
6. Just before serving, bring a large pot of water to a boil to cook gnocchi.  Salt the water.  Meantime melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add onion and garlic and saute for 8 minutes or until starting to turn golden.  Pour in cream and bring to a boil, stirring.  Stir in thyme and rosemary. Reduce heat and boil for 1 minute or until slightly reduced.  Remove from heat.  Working in batches, add about 15 gnocchi to boiling water and cook, stirring often to keep water moving, for about 3 minutes or until gnocchi float to the surface.  Use a slotted spoon to drain gnocchi well and add to skillet with cream sauce.  Repeat until all gnocchi are cooked.  Return skillet to medium heat and heat, stirring gently, until sauce is bubbling.  Remote from heat and fold in Stilton.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  
7. Serve immediately with that bottle of Chianti, green beans and homemade herb garlic bread

I would hold off on the Stilton until just as you serve or else leave the chunks a good size.  We do love our blue cheese in this house.

Nothing better on a winter day than sharing a kitchen with your hubby.  Now if I could just get him to be a teatotaler.

Words can't express the thrill of watching your daughter pick her Wedding Dress

The birth of a daughter sets the world spinning from the minute the Doctor says "you have a daughter".  Tears of joy, Tears of horror - "oh my goodness what will I do with her hair".  (I was banned from doing hair when she turned 8 - my ponytail was never centred lol).  Having 2 boys first our house was filled with ninja turtles, mini sticks, trucks, these had to make room for barbies, ferbies, barrettes, hair ties, dresses, ruffles.  There were times I'm sure the boys had to try on her headbands, and I'm sure Donatello was dating Barbie at one point in time.  All these stages of their lives moved so fast.  Kindergarten graduation, grade 8 prom, 1st date, 1st kiss (I'm sure she waited for Jay), Captain Morgan made an appearance in her bedroom and then University.  The years flew by.  I thought I was prepared for everything and then came the day they bought a condo and my daughter moved out.  Another few days of tears of happiness and sadness

Life is fairly settled.  Andrew and I are heading off to the Carlson Christmas (without Jim as he is in Buffalo for the Bills game) on Sunday, November 30.  To say we are running a little late would be an understatement.  Just stopping at the LCBO when the phone goes.  It's Rachel.

"Hi Mom, can you pop into the Fyfe's on your way over?

No, sorry honey, we are running way too late.

Well I really think you should!!!

Not going to happen today, we are 30 minutes late already.  What's the big deal?  (oh oh)  Do we have to?

Yes you have to  - JAY PROPOSED TO ME WHEN WE WERE CUTTING DOWN OUR CHRISTMAS TREE"

Yes the trip through the LCBO  was filled with OMG, OMG, tears were flowing and Andrew was staying as far away from me as he could.  Yes Jim already knew, he had had lunch with Jay on the Wednesday and little sneak hadn't told me anything.  We pick up David at the Go Train and off we go.

Anyone who knows Rachel knows that when she has a project to organize, it gets organized and we all follow her lead.  Date was picked, venue was booked all before Christmas.  Cake, flowers, etc all started to fill up her calendar.  January 29 was booked for the DRESS.  So excited.  Rachel booked 2 appointments one for "Sash & Bustle" at 11 am and the famous Kleinfeld at the Bay.  2 totally different experiences.

Jay gladly left to spend the day with his dad.  

I pick up Rachel and Becky and Amy (Jay's mom and sister) and off we head.  Did I mention I was running just a little late :)

Sash and Bustle is a lovely intimate little shop in Leslieville.  Not much bigger than my kitchen and family room with around 100 dresses.  Room for 2 brides and their entourage.  Our consultant was Andrea Dineen one of 2 sisters who own this absolutely charming quaint little boutique filled with lovely little finishing touches.  

Andrea Dineen - absolutely lovely to work with.  She made Rachel's job very easy.  

oh my - tears flowed as I had my first glance at the gown she eventually picked.  

Basically the process works like this, try on 6 to 10 dresses, pick your top 3 or 4, try them on again, pick your top 2.  We then headed to lunch at Joy Bistro on Queen St, a little champagne and then we headed up to Kleinfeld at the Bay.  The New York Kleinfeld is used in the show "Say Yes to the Dress".  

Talk about 2 opposite ends of the spectrum.  Small and intimate to large and bright.  2 brides at a time at Sash and Bustle to what looked like 20 at Kleinfield (with the mirrors making it look like they were everywhere lol).   Dresses ranged from around $1,000 to $15,000++.  Rachel's consultant asked her a few questions before we got started, like her budget, what style she was thinking and then we went out to look through the 700 dresses (only 1/4 of the dresses they have).  

There was a dressing room the size of my family room and then a sitting area with a couch for her cheerleaders :)

Is it an omen, Six is her lucky number.

Klenfield had oodles of accessories to go with all their dresses.  

Drawers and drawers of bling.  Something for everyone.

2 totally different experiences.  Rachel walked out of here with a list of her 3 favourite dresses.  Now to decide.  A long day, exciting, emotional and a little tiring but we had a few hours left in us to go through my 300 pictures.  Yes there was one dress that Rachel kept going back to, zooming in - zooming out.  A quick dinner at Amsterdam Brewery another look at the pictures and she was off to bed by 10.  Did I say earlier how when my daughter has something to do she likes to just do it.  She was on the phone by 8 am trying to get an appointment back at Sash and Bustle to try on her favourite dress.  Even though it is totally the opposite of the dress she had been thinking about for the past year, we knew as soon as we saw her in this one, this was it.  It's first showing will be October 24, 2015 - can't wait.  

One more thing off the list.  Thank you Rachel for letting me share in this wonderful day.  I love you honey.  xoxoxoxo