Feelin' Like...

...a juicy sandwich with lightly spiced pork loin, havarti and red onion jam dripping out of a georgian baguette.

Odds and Ends

The last eggs in the carton, the ends of the loaf of rye, and lox trimmings = eggs en cocotte.

Frenched, Toasted

This is the kind of French toast I grew up with. Quartered slices dipped in a mix of beaten eggs and sugar. No syrup. I love how vividly yellow these are from the orange yolks of free range eggs.

Breakfast of Champions

Awwwwwwww yeaaaah. Two perfectly soft-boiled eggs. Toasted multigrain bread slices rubbed with raw garlic and spread with anchovy butter. Baby, let's round this off with some fruit and a big cup of tea, shall we? And of course there's cream.

And More Fish

Fish is really the protein I forget to eat. It's not that I don't enjoy it--it's just that when I think of meat, I think of the rich hearty texture of beef, the tasty fat from pork, and let's face it, the ease of cooking chicken. Time to change my ways. I've had the Chopped Lemon Bagna Cauda recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook in the back of my mind for a long time, so I tried their suggestion of serving it with fish.

In the bagna cauda, I substituted anchovy paste for anchovy fillets. For the main, I grilled a fillet of snapper in a pan with olive oil, salt, pepper and fennel seeds. I also toasted some crostini as per the book's direction, and topped it with roasted tomatos, garlic and onion. Spoonfuls of the bagna cauda all over everything. Success! The bright lemoniness went well with the licorice taste of fennel, and the tomatos were sweet like the fish. I still had some of the sauce left over after the meal, which prompted me to quickly blanch some spindly asparagus, which I then used to eat up the rest of the bagna cauda.

Olive, Cheese & Arugula

I had a few olives left from making harissa spaghetti (see previous post) that I quickly needed to get rid of. This idea from The Kitchn came together in a delicious, cheesy way. As the comments suggested, I chopped up my half dozen olives with roughly a tablespoon of mayo (I imagine an olive tapenade would work even better). I put the spread on some purplish walnut bread with a thick slice of gruyere and some baby arugula, and grilled it. Mmm.

Eggs & Kale on Bread

I love eggs on bread. So when work dismissed us early due to the snowstorm today, I raced home to make one of my favorite lunches--eggs and boiled kale on bread. Taken from the always wonderful posts at Orangette, I indulgently made this as a late lunch for myself today. No shortcuts for this one--don't skip out any steps when making this relatively simple meal, because it's oh so worth it. My preferred bread for this is Country Rye. It's toothsome, chewy texture makes it also a great munching bread for dipping in oil and vinegar. In Vancouver, you can pick this up at Swiss Bakery on E. 3rd Ave and Main St.

Breakfast

Stuff on toast is the best. Fried some sausage, and with the bit of grease left in the pan, I threw in a handful of baby spinach (just the amount I needed to get rid of in my fridge), and a loosely beaten egg with some salt and pepper. Top the mix onto some pieces of toasted garlic-buttered rosemary & garlic bread.

Asparagus & Proscuitto Sandwich

Yum, two of my favorite things, now in a sandwich. I made David Leite's asparagus and proscuitto tea sandwich today, using garlic & herbs cream cheese instead of just plain whipped cream cheese. For the bread, I used two generous slices of Pan e Formaggio's Rosemary and Garlic. The sandwich was good, with a nice crunch from the asparagus. After I finished it, I had the wicked idea of frying the proscuitto-wrapped spears next time, before sandwiching them.

Soup's up

Mmmm, this is why I love autumn--it's soup season! Last week, I made French onion soup one night, spending over an hour caramelizing two yellow onions in butter. There's not too much more to it other than all natural low-sodium beef stock, a dash of thyme, pepper, and some toasted Gruyere croutons (actually loaf ends). I had it with some extra bread and a basic green salad with balsamic dressing.

Eggs on Toast

Lazy rainy day morning breakfast...scrambled eggs on buttered toast. Cup of coffee, bowl of cereal, and my news feeds.

Turkey Salad Sandwich

October 13th was Thanksgiving in Canada. As usual, my talented sister and I made Thanksgiving dinner, although it always seems more like her making the turkey and meal, and me helping out with the sides and prep.

So I'm polishing off the leftover turkey right now, turning the trimmings into turkey salad, substituting turkey in my usual chicken salad. Celery, mayo, toasted pine nuts, a dash of cumin, salt and pepper are added. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours (it's even better overnight), and I spread a little bit of dijon mustard onto both sides of some light country rye bread before spooning in the mix and toasting the sandwich. I always make a big bowl because I always end up eating forkfuls of this while making the sandwich.

Our Thanksgiving meal consisted of a 48-hour-brined turkey stuffed with herbs and oranges, celeriac mashed potatoes, gravy, fried fresh sweet corn cakes, turkey stuffing made with mushrooms and Italian sausage, cranberry sauce spiked with citrus zest, sauteed carrots, green salad with pear and pomegranate dressing, and my sister's dessert of fruit segments, cranberry and prosecco jellies.

If I had a Panini Press

This capicollo and fried eggplant sandwich would've been grilled perfection.

Chicken on Rye

The half of the chicken from Pizza Night left over, I turned into a Yogurt & Dill Chicken Salad for sandwiches at work and for general snacking. I finally finished the last of the salad this morning, making myself a sandwich with some delicious extra dark rye bread. The chewy, grainy bread's deep flavor paired well with the dill in the salad; bonus for me since I'll take any opportunity to eat a slice of rye.

Pumpernickel Mushroom Bread Salad

For dinner tonight I attempted the Pumpernickel, Watercress and Mushroom Bread Salad. This was one of those recipes that seemed so nonsensical at first that I just had to try it.

I made a few changes:

- I couldn't find any watercress at neither my neighbourhood Capers nor Safeway. No arugula either. So I tore up a few Romaine leaves and threw it in my regular Earthbound Farms salad mix.

- I forgoed (forwent?) the garlic in the recipe and simply used garlic butter. Yay!

- I used white mushrooms, dried porcini mushrooms, and the remainder of my oyster mushrooms.

- I had no idea where I could get Vidalia onions (I couldn't even find any fucking watercress...what, are they not in season? Do stuff like lettuce ever go out of season? Don't they just grow in greenhouses?). So I just used green onions. Close enough to leeks, maybe?

Anyways, it turned out delicious. At first glance I was like, all, Pumpernickel + Watercress + Mushroom + Bread + Salad = huh? But now it all makes delicious sense. The salad has a rich, earthy flavour and is surprisingly filling.

Saturday morning breakfast

So I said I would make my tomato & brie sandwich, but I decided to put a twist on it. Usually it's a generous slice of brie, a thick slice of tomato, mayo, lettuce and bacon. This morning I remembered I still had a little bit of cooked smoked salmon left over, so I replaced my usual salty bacon with the remainder of the salmon fillet.

1. Toast slices of french bread (I usually use whole wheat or dark rye)

2. Top one slice with brie and broil it until the cheese bubbles

3. Mayo, lettuce (I tore off a piece of Romaine today; ideally it would be butter lettuce), salmon and tomato.

This is my preferred order, as I want the mayo to adhere the lettuce to the sandwich, and the fresh tomato squishing up next to the hot, gooey cheese.

I nearly forgot to take a picture before it was all gone.