Stuffed Zucchini Au Gratin

Here's what's up: melting cheese on things. It's a well-known fact that melted cheese can make almost anything better. Just try and think of one thing that some kind of cheese is not good with. My love of cheese is what fueled yet another recipe. This week, I decided to take a standard stir-fry mélange of ingredients and put them inside a zucchini, then melt cheese on top. Thus: stuffed zucchini au gratin.

What I used:
3 zucchinis (Hillcrest Farm)
2 maple sage pork sausages (Getaway Meat Mongers)
1 diced tomato (Noggins Corner)
1 diced onion (Noggins Corner)
1 large hunk of cranberry cheddar (Foxhill Cheeses)
1 large sprig rosemary (Hillcrest Farm)

How I made it:

I began by boiling the pork sausages until the casings turned white, so that the meat would stay intact when I cut them into small cubes. It took a lot of will-power not to eat them right off the bat, as I have a very dangerous love-triangle involving pork and maple. After an epic inward struggle, I managed to pre-heat the oven to 350 and got started on the zucchini. First, I washed and trimmed them. Then I scooped the soft seeded middle out with a spoon, setting the zucchini shells aside on a baking sheet. I then diced the insides and put them in a bowl. Into the bowl went the onion, tomato, rosemary and sausage. I gave that a good mix, then piled it high into the zucchini shells. Then I put the wonderful little mounds of goodness into the oven for about 25 minutes. I then removed them from the oven just long enough to cover them with a thick blanket of grated cranberry cheddar. Back into the oven they went, for about 3 minutes. I then took them out of the oven, let them cool for a minute too and mowed down. Om nom nom.

Creamy Harvest Soup

If there's one thing that screams "Autumn" to me, it's pumpkins. As soon as I see them, I know it's time to start making preserves and cooking up some nice hearty soups to be frozen. So here is my fall season's first hearty soup that is sure to keep me warm throughout the cold season.

What I used:

1 pound sweet potato (washed, peeled and diced)

5 carrots (w, p, d)

1 small pumpkin (w, p, d)

1 green onion

1 litre chicken stock

2 splashes of Keith's IPA

Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

In a large, heavy pot, boil the sweet potato, carrots and pumpkin chunks  in water with a pinch of salt until all of them are tender and sweet. This should take about 10-15 minutes Drain and set them aside. Rinse the pot and put it back on the heat, with a fine drizzle of olive oil in the bottom. Finely dice the green onion and add it to he oil. Stir constantly until it is cooked. Add the already cooked vegetables back into the pot, and add the chicken stock on top. Bring all this to a boil, then take it down to a simmer for about 30-45 minutes. Take the pot off the heat, and run the whole soup through a food processor or blender. When serving, finish it with a little bit of cream and a little bit of fresh grated nutmeg. Om nom nom.

Warm Dandelion and Blackberry Salad

The leaves are finally changing colour announcing the coming of fall, and I'm immediately drawn to wilder places than the city. So where's the perfect place to go? Point Pleasant Park of course! So off I mosy into the winding paths. Suddenly it strikes me: there is so much in this park that is edible! A dandelion puff here, a wild blackberry there, so I got down to foraging. Here's what I came up with the ingredients I found:

What I collected in the park:
Dandelion Greens
Clover Flowers
Blackberries

How I made it:
Washed the greens and blackberries thoroughly. Got a pot of water on the boil with a little sea salt, and threw the greens in for about 10 minutes so that they got nice and tender. While those were on the boil, fried up a quarter of a diced onion with a little garlic in some olive oil. When the greens were done cooking, strained them and added them in the pan with the onion, and seasoned with some sea salt and pepper. When everything was nice and mixed together, plated them and grated a generous amount of Gruyere cheese (from the market of course) on top, placed a heaping pile of wild blackberries on top and garnished with a clover flower (which is 100% edible, yum). Om nom nom.

Back-To-School Quinoa Salad!

When I was a kid, opening up my lunchbox to see what kind of tasty things my mom had prepared and packed was one of my favourite parts of the school day. I loved the fresh and tasty creations she cooked up for me, and was always impressed with her creativity and ability to make new and interesting things every day. Now, living away from home, I'm responsible for my own lunches, but as classes are starting again, at first it seemed like a daunting task to emulate her wonderful lunchboxes. However, with a little thought I've come up with a fast, tasty and healthy portable lunch that's perfect for parents packing lunches or students grabbing something for between classes. The best part is that you can find all these ingredients right here at the farmer's market, which makes for a fresher taste and a cleaner conscience.

What I used:
3 cups dried quinoa (The Grainery)
1 cup diced tomato
1 cup diced cucumber
1 large sprig of parsley

How to make it:
Soak quinoa for an hour. This is a good time to dice vegetables, make some phone calls, check the mail or finish that paper you've been putting off. Drain and rinse the quinoa, then place it in a pot with a 3:1 quinoa to water ratio. Heat the pot up on the stove to medium or medium-low. Stir frequently. When all the water has been evaporated or absorbed into the quinoa, remove it from the heat and place in a glass container to cool. When it has cooled, season the quinoa with equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste, if you have some at home. If not, make this quinoa your own! Its flavour is very versatile so get creative. Let it cool in the fridge overnight. In the morning, right before sending your kids to school, or heading to class yourself, stir in your diced vegetables, stick the mix in a portable container, and off it goes. It keeps well, tastes great and is easy and fast to prepare. Take a little stress out of your life and try this recipe! Om nom nom.

Frankenloaf!

Ever since I was a little girl, zucchini bread was by far my favourite way to eat my vegetables. Now that I'm on my own, it's still frequently being baked, but with new additions to the recipe each time. Most recently, there were so many new additions and alterations to the recipe that I could only call it Frankenloaf. Luckily, this monster of a zucchini loaf turned out to be much more lovable than Dr. Frankenstein's own creation. It was so lovable, in fact, that I thought I would share it with all of you. Enjoy!

What I used:

3 cups Speerville all-purpose unbleached flour
2 cups Noggin's Corner Farm zucchini (grated)
2 cups Millen's Farm frozen blueberries
1 cup multipurpose applesauce (see Sunday June 5th post)
3 eggs
1/2 cup Linda's Corner maple sugar
1/2 cup Cosman and Whidden Pure Nova Scotia honey
3 tablespoons Linda's Corner maple syrup
2 tablespoons homemade vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch salt

How I made it:
Preheat oven to 325 F and grease a bread pan. In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients, including the maple sugar. In a separate bowl, stir together eggs, applesauce, honey, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mix into the dry mix, stirring slowly. Stir in the zucchini and blueberries, and try not to om nom all the dough. At this point, the mixture should still be fairly liquid, so that the loaf stays moist after baking. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until your toothpick test comes clean. Let cool for 10 minutes after baking, then remove from pan and serve warm, with applesauce, jam or butter on top. Om nom nom.

The Acadian, Eh?

I have two confessions. The first is that I am French Canadian, and that, consequently, I love cheese and anything maple in a bad way. In fact, I am even known to combine the two in beautiful and sometimes alarmingly delicious combinations that make my mouth water even just thinking about them. Cheddar and maple crepes? Nom. Maple and cheese danishes? Been there. Maple grilled cheese? Yeah. That just happened. Here's how to make a kick-ass French Canadian grilled cheese.

What I used: 

Five-Grain Honey Bread from Mary's Bread Basket

Damafro Brie

One Noggins Corner Farm Macintosh apple

Linda's Corner maple syrup

Butter

How I did it:

Heat up a pan to medium and peel, core and slice your apple. Slather two slices of bread with butter. Apply one layer cheese, one layer apple, and one more layer cheese just to be safe on the unbuttered side of one of the bread slices. Put the other slice on top, buttered side facing out. Throw it in the pan and cook until bottom side is crispy and brown. Flip and repeat. Drizzle some maple syrup on top right before serving and eat that sucker up, eh? Om nom nom.

Berry Lemonade!

It's finally summer in Halifax! The rain is gone, for the most part, the tourists are getting off the giant cruise ships and the mist is burnt off by mid-morning! I'm currently writing from my sun-drenched balcony, listening to OK GO and enjoying the sunshine, sipping on some fancy lemonade. Going to the market this weekend was a great treat, because of the great weather and the fresh berries in season! All this great weather and sunshine calls for a lemonade recipe to help keep yourself cool so I'll share with the you the recipe for the one I'm drinking at this very minute!

What I used:

Trinity Gold homemade lemonade concentrate

Millens Farm frozen blueberries

Noggins Corner Farm strawberries

How I did it:

Filled a pitcher with with one part Trinity Gold and four parts cold water. Thought about replacing the water with iced tea, for a tasty Arnold Palmer, then got too impatient to make iced tea. Poured the mixed lemonade into tall glasses, replacing ice cubes with frozen blueberries (an awesome trick I borrowed from my mom) and garnished with slit strawberries. Drank it in the sun with Stu and a sense of well-being and happiness. Om nom nom.