This one's for Maeggy

I've been having a lot of exciting, beautiful things come
into my life lately. 
Firstly, it's almost Hallowe'en (!), which doubles as my good friend
KChan's birthday (!!!), and she's twenty (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) this year. 
She's coming to Victoria to celebrate, and she's dressing up
like a 60s house wife.
If you know KChan, and understand her commitment to all
things cute and kitsch, you will understand how perfect that costume is for her.
Actually, all of my roommates have fantastic costumes this year:
Siz is being a house elf (from Harry Potter), 
Tsuki is being a garden gnome, 
and I am being Lambchops. 
Party Lambchops to be specific.

I'll look like that, but instead of an arm I'll be wearing black

men's pants with suspenders.

A few other exciting things? 

These boots. This month I've been hemorrhaging money, and these

boots did not help my situation. I'll be broke, but fabulous.

I got a job at a wonderful clothing boutique! See "hemorrhaging

money"–my discount is is too good to be true,

This website. I've renewed my commitment to my camera because

of her. Fortunately, my love for breakfast never wavered in the first place.

I'm excited about crafts again. I managed to get a sample of some

furry material, and I'm going to make earrings. And headbands.

I bought a little ($3.99/lb aaaaagghh) radicchio! I tried to grow

some over the summer, but lets just say the slugs ate well.

I tried anchovies. For what might be my first recognized time.

I mean, I've had anchovies in stuff before. I've been aware of their presence.
But frankly, I've been a bit squeemed out by the idea of a tiny little hairy
fish that i chop up and savor. Which is stupid, cause I love fish. I also needed
to use that afore mentioned (super cute and compact) radicchio.
So I ignored Siz's obvious disgust with the anchovies, and thought of
my sister Maegen, who's an amazing cook. She likes anchovies,
I thought. They must be at least interesting. But once the fry pan
started to sizzle and waft, all of anyone's doubt went away.

Pasta with Egg, Bagna Cauda, and Wilted Radicchio

Supposed to serve four, but I ate half by myself.

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
15 anchovy fillets(I used a generous squirting of anchovy paste,
because it was cheaper)
8 large garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
12 radicchio leaves, torn into bits
Grated zest and juice of half a lemon
S&P
8 ounces pasta (I used whole wheat spagettini)

To make the bagna cauda, heat a skillet over med-high.
Add the olive oil, anchovies (whatever medium you've chosen) and garlic to the pan.
Saute gently–don't let the garlic get much color on it, otherwise
it'll surely burn later. The key is to keep the tempurature loooow and
mellow. This helps the anchovy to break down into creamy salty
saucey goodness. Turn off heat, season with salt and pepper.

Cook your chosen pasta in boiling water until al dente. I find my
magic boiling time to be around 8 minutes, but I lessened it a bit
(approx. 6 min) for the spagettini cause it's so petit.

When your pasta is getting close to done, turn your
skillet of sauce back on, over high heat this time. Take an
egg and crack it into a cleared spot in the pan. You're almost
braising this egg in olive oil. So. Delicious.
If you're doing more
than one egg (ie: if you're making this dish for more than one person,
or you just love eggs a lot) let the first one's edges set before you crack the next.
Makes them easier to separate.
Cook until whites are set and the yolk is sunny/runny.

Drain the pasta and quickly toss it–still drippy–into the skillet
(but don't pierce your egg yolk!). Toss everything around,
cook for two more minutes. Turn off your heat. Divide the
pasta and each egg between plates. Sprinkle with parmesan
cheese. Crack the yolk.

A request: don't be weirded out by the egg.
I know you're thinking "Look, I'm alrady trying ANCHOVIES, okay?
Let me ease into this." And whatever, I mean,
go at your own pace.

BUT you'll really miss a luxury if you skip the eggs.
It's lucious and custardy and smooth and wholesome.
Try it, pleeeeeease!

Yammy

I'm always sort of reluctant to make something without looking at about one hundred parallel recipes first. Having some kind of reassurance that a recipe in the realm of what I want to make has worked before really bolsters my desire to actually do it, and increases my confidence that it will turn out after all. But pish posh on that, because really, checking out a million other recipes is simply a security blanket that I need to dump–at least when it comes to cooking.

My friend Maciel is an amazing cook, and a fellow eating enthusiast. We were discussing a friend's potential love interest when Maciel told me that she "harbored an innate distrust of people who don't eat". The girl in question had drank water all night. I agreed whole heartedly. I have similar confusion towards people who claim they forget to eat. But that's probably because I keep my body in an almost-constant state of full, eating once every twenty minutes or so.

Carrying on, Maciel and I decided to create a mexican feast. She was going to make Tinga, a slow cooked pork shoulder with an array of delicious spices, for burritos and I was going to make some kind of vegetable dish, because I tend

to feel guilty if I don't have some veggies with dinner. I remembered that Bon Appetit had recently run a feature on Mexican food, but as I was mentally scrolling I decided that I was very boring and should really get a life and try to make something myself. So I picked up some yams, six poblanos and a can of chipotle peppers and scurried over to the kitchen to dump them all together.

This recipe ended up being deeply simple. Even my friend Grady, who boils pasta every night and eats it with hot sauce, thought he could make this! I don't know why I'm surprised. I should get a little confidence.

Chipotle Yam Stuffed Poblanos

6 poblano peppers, halved and seeded, piths cut out

2 yams, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces

2 canned chipotles, more if you like the heat, minced

About 2 tsp cinnamon (I just sort of tasted and added more as I went)

S&P, for seasoning

Butter and milk/cream (for creamy purposes)

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Peppers

Place the halved peppers round side up on a baking sheet and oil lightly with canola. You don't have to wait for the oven to heat up entirely. Just pop them in an keep an eye on them while you toss together the yams. When their skin appears crepe-y and charred n spots, take them out to cool.

(My Mom always taught me that after you take roasted peppers out of the oven, put them in a paper bag and twist the top. The skins come off easier that way. I don't ever have paper bags on hand, but it's a fun matrilineal tip, don't you think?)

Yams

Drop all pieces of yams into a salted pot of boiling water. Boil until each piece can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain water, turn off heat. Add the cinnamon, minced chipotle, plenty of salt and pepper, and butter and cream/milk to fulfill your creamy liking. I am an occasional lactose-intolerant, so I used milk. Whip everything around till it's got a nice smooth texture.

Peel the skins from the poblanos and lay them open-side up. Drop spoonfuls of the yam mixture into the poblano. The slight bitterness of the roasted poblano compliments the sweet and spicy yams really well, especially with some cold beer, or tequila if you're fancy. Or looking to get drunk.

And don't worry about those chipotles–they're not scalding by any stretch. Grady was eating them straight out of the can while I made this, and he could still taste dinner.

*Note: When I make this again, I definetly think I'll crumble a little queso cheese on top and then broil the whole mixture all together. Even though I was happy with the flavors, I might have liked a little crusty on the top, and then the velvety yams.

My piture taking has been down lately. So above is my roommate Andrea picking apples in our neighbor's yard.

Need a little protien in my life

Meatloaf has long been the poster child for by-product. My own mother never made our family the dish because her childhood experiences had scarred her so: meatloaf became the hole where soft tomatoes, barely-salvaged green peppers, vegetable steamed limp and watery, and any leftover that was deemed otherwise unsuitable for consumption–from stale pasta to chicken legs–went to die. Meatloaf was a menace that was only tolerable through a hearty mask of ketchup.

Fortunately, I will try anything once, and I thought that hit was especially weird that I hadn’t ever tried meatloaf. I figured that I like hamburger, so a meatloaf would sort of be like having a lot of a really good thing.

When I started researching recipes, however, it became clear that a huge tin of hamburger probably wasn’t going to be very appetizing. Especially if I was stuck eating it for a few days.

It is important to have at least a quarter of the ingredients be fresh. Their bright color helps just as much as the sprightly flavor. If you were to make a meatloaf using entirely cooked or canned ingredients, it will probably taste akin to rotting tires and have about the same consistency. Secondly, it is important to think about how “meatloaf” sounds, and steer your product away from that. Adding a starch–such as bread or potatoes–right into the batter not only stretches the finished product, it makes it light–all the better to pile masked potatoes on top of.

I made the following recipe in muffin tins. The smaller size is more portion friendly, cuter, and it cooks faster. I had none of that in mind when I made it, I simply couldn’t find my loaf tin. Happy accidents all around.

Turkey and Friends Meatloaf

I took a slightly more discerning “clean-the-fridge” attitude when I made this. If you look at this and feel intimidated b a list of ingredients you don’t have, don’t panic. No parsley? Use spinach or kale, or just leave it out. Don’t like mushrooms? Chunks of carrots or, if you’re fun, rutabaga, will be delicious as well. As long as you keep the ingredient in the same species as the one suggested, you will have good results. And if not, there is always ketchup.

1 package of ground turkey breast

2 eggs

¼ cup onion, minced

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups of stale bread, cubed

¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, diced

½ cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp parsley, minced

1 Tbsp thyme, minced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Soak the bread chunks in the chicken broth until all the broth is absorbed. Add all the other ingredients and mix with your hands until it is all loosely combined. Scoop fistfuls of batter into the muffin tins. If there are any empty muffin tins, fill them half way with water. This ensures that the other meat-cakes will bake evenly. Bake for 55 minutes. Make sure to check doneness (no pink or redness) before serving. If you are making this in a loaf pan, cook for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Also AMAZING in sandwiches! Especially grilled cheeeeeeeese with lots of KETCHUP. Sometimes it's really too bad that this meat loaf is tasty. My love for ketchup is so great that I really wouldn't mind drowning some mystery meat in it every once and a while.

Reccomendation!

Yesterday I had SUCH a delicious brekkie that I had to come and share it with everybody. It was partly great because I got to go out for breakfast with my Mom and my sisters, and then it was secondly partly great because it was a place I'd never been before, and it was THIRDLY partly great because it was so GREAT. The host was cute and Australian (always a bonus), and we had LAVENDER lattes. I know. I just about fell off my seat too when I heard that. Stay tuned for my attempt at making lavender simple syrup, which I'm pretty sure was their secret.

So: if you're ever around Beatty street in downtown Vancouver, hit up the sweet, brick-fronted gem called Medina. It's between a cooking school called The Dirty Apron and the faithful Vancouver stand-by, Chambar. Those Chambar guys have got a good thing going. In addition to a block party thrown in the restaurant's honor earlier in the month (it was their 5 year anniversary!), they actually own Medina's and the cooking school. So don't knock em. They must know something.

Medina's is the sort of joint that I love because in addition to super cute decor and wait staff, they encourage healthful, huge helpings. Don't misunderstand- the dishes are portioned nicely; not at all intimidating. Those helpings that I mentioned come into play by their idea that one orders a main dish (most are egg-centric OH A CLEVER PUN), and once you've conquered that, you move on to a "dessert": a perfect little waffle, dusted with powdered sugar and served with your choice of sauce. You can get syrup if you're boring or a stout traditionalist. My Mom chose the raspberry caramel. There was also orange-coconut creme, and lavender milk chocolate. And about ten other amazing choices. Oh my god. I know. Aaaaah!

Me, I had the fricasse. I was feeling carnivorous. It came served in a cast iron skillet: bubbling at the bottom was a tousled layer of slow-cooked beef and caramelized onions. Cheddar puckered softly around chunks of apple and potato, adorned with fresh arugula and two perfect eggs, sunny side up.

Go now. Experience it and tell me what you think!

Me and the giant scone

Zucchini is rampant in Victoria these days, and cheap as a result. I'm pinching my twenties for a show on Friday so I can buy lots of drinks and get properly sauced and dance like a maniac with Coca. Earlier in the week, I stuffed a bunch of sausage and cheese and made a delicious boat out of said cheap zucchini. But then I had all these greeny guts lying around, and I didn't know what to do. So here's what happened:They sat in the fridge for a while.
I thought I'd make a loaf.
Andrea stole my idea.
She made a fish shaped loaf. How can I up a fish loaf?

I decided to make a free form loaf for rustic cred.

I became disappointed in the processing abilities of my magic bullet.

But I made a loaf! And it's charming in a wood cabin sort of a way. I again have the previous renters to thank for this creation. I should explain the four items they left behind:


Cucumber ranch dressing.
Three cheese ranch dressing.
Peppercorn ranch dressing.
Half a tub of margarine.
About a cup of plain yogurt.

I threw out the top two ranch dressings, because they sounded gross and didn't have much left. I did keep the peppercorn dressing though, and I don't care that it's weird. I used the margarine to grease my cookie sheet, and most importantly, I used the their leftover yogurt instead of my milk. This is what made the loaf free-stylin'.

Free-Form Zucchini Loaf

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar (more if you like a sweet loaf)

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black cardamom

1/2 ground ginger

1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter (I used oil, it was all I had on hand)

1 egg

1 1/4 cups plain yogurt

1 cup grated zucchini
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Whisk together egg, yogurt, oil. Combine wet ingredients with dry. Fold in the zucchini. The batter will look like scone dough.
Grease a cookie sheet. Turn the dough onto the sheet, and spread out so that it is a consistent thickness amongst all the surface area: about 1 1/4 inch.
Bake at 375º for 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

This loaf is subtly sweet, with a bonfire spicy-ness. If our indian summer has to end, this loaf will be my consolation. Extra best ripped off in pieces, spread with honey, and enjoyed late at night with good friends and tea.

Dandy

This weekend has been FRAUGHT with emotion and stress! And when I get stressed I like to eat my feelings and exclaim! We moved my brother in to his new dorm! My family was here! So was Chris, my main-lover-man! We had so much TOGETHERNESS time without ever really having a chance to sit and breathe and be calm! And other stuff was messed up and undecided and left hanging, but it all paled in comparison to this:

I know, right? I feel so much better too. Even though the rest of this post still sounds frantic. I guess I'm still coming down.

I've learned (from my Mom) that when I am having myself a pity party, the best way to break the slump is to bake something colorful like that and then take a cleansing walk to buy beer.

Plum-Pear Crisp

I meant for this to be a straight plum crisp. But I didn't have enough plums. And then forgot to add sugar to the filling. But in the end I think the addition of the pear unwittingly balanced what could have been an overwhelmingly tart dessert. I am very smart, unwittingly.

Also note: Prune plums are only available for a few weeks in September, so make this every night to capitalize on the season.

Filling

2 lbs prune plums, pitted and quartered

2 ripe pear, cored and chopped

Topping

1 cup oats

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, diced (ugh I forgot to buy butter, so i had to use some margarine left over by the last tenants...sketchy? Maybe. Worth it? Yes.)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

• For the filling: mix together the plums and pear in a cute, buttered baking dish.
• For the topping: mix everything together. Cut in butter until it is pea sized. I take two knives and sort of do the "chicken shred" to accomplish this: you know, pull them in opposite directions.
• Bake at 375ºF for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and toasty, and the plum juices gurgle at the sides.

What's extra nice about this is that it's not too sweet: it's soothing, but also kind of tingly. Like a sexy back rub, you know? It's lovely as dessert, but even better for BREAKFAST MMM.

I hope it turns around your day like it did mine.

It's morning time

My little brother used to yell that– IT'S MORNING TIME– from his crib when he was a baby. So the running morning joke of our family is to yell that ludicrously early and wake everyone up. But now I'm moved out for the school year, and nothing is around to wake meup. But I'm still awake a lot. A gradual insomniac, I guess. Staying up a little later, but waking up the the PING of my irritating 7:30AM internal alarm. Oh SIGH. So last night, anticipating being hte first one awake as usual, I prepared...

A DELICIOUS BREAKFAST! Yes! Huzzah! I LOVE special breakfasts! Especially for no good reason.

Now that I look at that photo, it just sort of looks like a bunch of peaches in a ramekin. Which is what it is. Essentially. Tsuki brought a ton of delicious Kelowna fruit with her when she moved in, but unfortunately, the peaches were so robust and ripe they've started to go a bit downhill a bit too fast. D couldn't let such delicious life end uneaten.

Ginger and Cardamom Spiced Peaches

3-4 super ripe peaches

1/4 tsp black cardamom

1/2 tsp ginger

1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar


Toss all of the above in a baking dish (or cute ramekins). I let mine sit covered in the fridge overnight so in the morning I could just harvest heat from the oven while they baked (and slurp up the juices that the extra time yields).
Bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes or so. They should look soft and huggly, and smell amazing.

Andrea made oatmeal to go with our peaches, but they'd be equally delicious with some yogurt (OR ICE CREAM YUM ICE CREAM BEFORE TEN AM IS THE ONLY WAY).

Time for something new (again)

The other day, I was taking a stroll through Chapters looking to pick up a book about rustic fruit desserts aptly titled Rustic Fruit Desserts. Browsing along the bottom shelf, I was taken aback by a woman who looked like Chyna the wrestler, except blond, pumping her fist from the front cover. BITCHIN' KITCHEN the titled blazed in a hailstorm of pink fire! LADIES RAWK THE KITCHEN AND LET THE BOYS CLEAN UP THE MESS.

You can see why I thought it necessary to change my blog title.

Oh, come on now, I'm not that superficial. I had been feeling for a while that "Bitch'n Kitchen" wasn't really reflective of my style of cooking. I certainly don't expect the boys to clean up after me, although I wouldn't ever say no. I also don't like how...hmm. What's the word. Brash I think. Yes, I come off as quite BRASH from the start, and I am brash, don't get me wrong, but not until you really get to know me do I start with the offensive jokes and scary pulled faces.

Scrounge is going to be a blog about surviving well. I am a student, and not a student of a lucrative business like MATH or ETHNO ECOLOGY or, I don't know, BRAIN SCIENCE. I'm a creative writing major with an interest in almost everything else. So this blog is my promise to myself that I will live well on no money for presumably at least the next ten years of my life, and probably beyond (although, Bon Appetit, if you are reading this, hello! I am very professional and efficient, and more importantly lots of fun).

We'll start tonight. I've mostly finished unpacking my things. Yesterday was a flurry of moving starting at 4:30AM and carrying on such activities as unpacking, arranging, fretting, and choosing until close to midnight. I'd eaten 14 cookies over the course of the day, and a nice bowl of french lentil soup (thanks Dad!), but that was about it. Until Tsuki and her nourishing lovely parents showed up and offered me some greek salad, made almost entirely with ingredients straight from their garden! Plus the creamiest, most luscious hummus on this earth. Tsuk is very earthy and minerally, and eating her beautiful food was like a combination energy cocktail and tonic. It's lovely how fresh vegetables taste after a few days without eating one. Anyways, the ramble of this is that last night we ate from tupperware and at 9pm, and then we ate chips and hummus on each pass through the kitchen. Tonight we hvae a proper, cooked meal, and I know just what to make. Green beans were on sale at Fairway the other day, and considering i don't like green beans, I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to give them a make over and make them yum yums.