Author Amy Pennigton provides her ideas on what should make up one’s pantry essentials, taking into consideration the limited space apartment dwellers face, and the needs of a home cook to be able to whip up fast, tasty suppers, or entertain at a moment’s notice. Recipes highlight her pantry staples, including several grain-based salads that are economical but inspired.

I think I will also eventually find her chapter on small-batch canning helpful, when I decide to travel down that path. Her recipes for pickles and fruit in particular seem creative and straightforward, perfect for an amateur like me.

In the last few weeks, I’ve tried two of Urban Pantry’s recipes, and enjoyed them both, which bodes well for the rest of the book!

Baked Eggs with Swiss Chard

A recipe for baked eggs with kale was a one-skillet dish if there ever was one! We substituted swiss chard for the kale, which cut down our cooking time a bit, but other than that, we stayed true to her recipe – sauteed onions and greens with garlic and red pepper flakes, eggs cracked into pockets made inside the greens, baked, then topped with crumbled bacon (from Irvings, of course!).

Baked eggs with swiss chard

I left the skillet in the oven a touch too long, so lost the yolky goodness that would have elevated the dish that much more. But still, served alongside some fresh ficelle loaves from Dauphine (my go-to bread as of late), it was almost like having breakfast for dinner!

Onion-Thyme Tart

The book came in handy when I was looking to spice up a beef stew I would be serving my family for dinner (with only a day’s notice, I was fortunate that I had several packages of First Natures Farms stew meat in the freezer, and given we would be out most of the day, the slow cooker was a lifesaver!).

I had never thought to make a gremolata before, but really, there wasn’t anything to it – citrus zest, parsley and garlic. It added a nice fresh finish to the stewed meat.

Beef stew with orange-parsley gremolata

But to accompany the stew, for a “pre-dinner nibble”, as Amy calls it, the onion-thyme tart was great. All it took was some caramelized onions, fresh thyme and thawed puff pastry. It was the first time I’d ever taken the time to really cook down the onions (about forty minutes), and by the end, I realized I should have started with larger onions! There was nearly not enough to spread around the tart.

Onion-thyme tart

Cut into squares, it was a buttery, slightly sweet way to start dinner, and is something I will make again!

Although we’re only halfway through January, I’m off to a good start! One batch of brown lentils led to two different recipes, plus some to store away. We’ll see how the rest of the year plays out!

Lentil & Mushroom Bourguignon

Spilling the Beans, a cookbook from prolific blogger Julie van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan, provides a great introduction to how someone can seamlessly incorporate legumes into every day meals. I’ve already bookmarked quite a few recipes to try – the first was their lentil & mushroom bourguignon, which was, according to the sidebar, a recipe that their “carnivorous husbands” loved.

Though it’s not much to look at (especially because I didn’t have pearl onions on hand to liven it up – we just sauteed two onions at the start instead), the mushrooms melted down into the sauce, while the lentils still had a bite to them. Served over egg noodles, we enjoyed the dish as an enlightened alternative to the usual tomato-based pasta accompaniment. And yes, Mack can testify to the fact that he didn’t miss the meat at all!

Lentil & mushroom bourguignon

Lentil Cookies

The next night, I used a cup of the brown lentils in Bal Arneson’s recipe for lentil cookies, which I had wanted to try for some time. The even measurements make it quick to pull together (the only change I made was substituting dried cranberries for the slivered almonds, because of Mack’s allergy).

Sure, there is quite a bit of butter and sugar in the cookies, but between the lentils, pumpkin seeds, rolled oats, cranberries and whole wheat flour, these were easily the healthiest cookies I have ever made. They were nutty and crispy, loaded with different textures and with the chocolate chips, really satisfying.

Lentil cookies

I brought part of the batch to a work meeting the next morning, and several of my coworkers asked for the recipe right away, particularly after I told them that they featured lentils as an ingredient. If you’re looking for a healthier snack, or breakfast for the road, these cookies would be perfect.

It’s been great to page through so far, with a coloured photo that accompanies every recipe. Moreover, the book is chock full of serving and plating ideas, visually appealing but more practical and less stylized than Donna Hay’s tips.

Soon after we returned to Edmonton, I tried out two of the soup recipes so that we would have lots of leftovers for work lunches and convenient suppers.

Chicken-Wild Rice Soup

The chicken-wild rice soup appealed to me primarily because we’ve had a bag of wild rice from MoNa Food sitting in our pantry for some time, having only been touched once. And although I am not a fan of wild rice on its own, I thought incorporating it in a soup would be easier to take, and also mean I’d have less of a chance of undercooking it! (This is a similar recipe, but simplifies the thickening step.)

Chicken-wild rice soup

This wasn’t a low-fat soup, with the incorporation of what was essentially a gravy (with heavy cream!) to thicken it towards the end. But chock full of vegetables and a variety of textures, Mack and I ended up really liking this soup (even the wild rice!).

Italian Sausage Soup

The use of orzo was the attraction of the Italian sausage soup, cooked with and not separate from the dish. Besides that, the ingredients were similar to many other tomato-based soups that we’ve made in the past.

Italian sausage soup

Mack particularly liked the orzo, and noticed that the soup really deepened after a few days in the fridge.

We’re happy that both of the recipes we tried from the book turned out really well, and will be trying out more in the next few months.

We had some ground beef (remnants of our cowshare) in the fridge, so hit the internet in search of recipes. We came upon a goldmine put together by a blogger whose children love all incarnations of Hamburger Helper. Since that day, we’ve tried two of her recipes.

Homemade Chili Cheese Hamburger Helper

Given how easy this was to pull together, I had to wonder why people would turn to the boxed version at all. With basic pantry ingredients and a few spices, we had a satisfying lunch ready in half an hour (and yes, it did hit the spot for Mack!). It’s amazing what corn starch can do as a thickener.

Homemade chili cheese hamburger helper

Homemade Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Helper

Of the two, this was my favourite. Two full cups of mushrooms melted away during the cooking time, and the egg noodles worked well enveloped in the creamy sauce. And by using non-fat milk, it resulted in a dish that didn’t taste all that heavy.

Homemade beef stroganoff hamburger helper

As the blogger mentions, these aren’t “inventive gourmet meals.” But for picky eaters (or to satisfy random cravings), they are great to turn to in a pinch!

Asian Slaw

My team was once again responsible for treating the rest of the staff at the office to lunch to celebrate the holiday season. With turkey, bread and root vegetables taken care of by my colleagues, I knew I wanted to contribute some sort of salad that could be served cold (so I could avoid the reheating rush).

Paging through cookbooks desperate for inspiration, I came across Trish Magwood’s recipe for Asian slaw in Dish, the colourful, eye-catching cover shot. I had always wanted an opportunity to give it a try, and this seemed like the perfect time to do so (a similar recipe can be found here).

I’m not sure why I haven’t yet learned my lesson about starting new recipes early for good measure, but I really didn’t think it would take me as long to prep the vegetables as it did (surprisingly, it was cleaning the bean sprouts that took the most time).

Asian slaw

A rainbow combination of julienned carrots, sliced red cabbage, bell peppers and green onions, slivered baby bok choy and chopped cilantro and peanuts (I omitted the mango), with a spicy-tangy vinaigrette of chili sauce, fish sauce, sugar and vegetable oil, it was a vibrant, crunchy counterpoint to some of the other foods on the table. I particularly like that it is a salad that can be prepared nearly year-round primarily with locally-sourced vegetables. It’s definitely a dish that I will make again!

Cake Pops

For some reason, when thinking about what I wanted to make for my work colleagues this year, I latched on to the idea of cake pops. These dainty cake bites served on sticks have been popular enough to appear in the pastry case at Starbucks, and the queen of cake pops herself, Bakerella, released her first cookbook this year.

For something so popular, however, it was difficult to locate a start-to-finish cake pop recipe. Although the guidelines are straightforward (crumble a cake, mix in some icing to bind the crumbs, roll into balls, chill, secure on a stick, dip in chocolate and decorate), I was hoping to be able to follow something more concrete the first time around (especially with regards to how many pops I would end up with). However, at least I was able to determine, between Bakerella’s video and the FAQ on Vernoica’s Cornucopia, what not to do.

On the web, it seemed most people used cake mix and prepared icing for their cake pops, but I decided to make both from scratch. I made Ina Garten’s pound cake for the base, and a quarter of Magnolia’s recipe for frosting. I used one loaf for the cake pops, saving the other one to gift on its own. This recipe made 20 medium-sized cake pops.

Pound cake

The upside of using pound cake as the base is that it wasn’t very sweet to begin with, so the addition of icing as a binder wouldn’t make it too sweet. That said, because the cake was comprised of a drier crumb, we probably needed to incorporate more icing than other cake recipes to ensure the balls would form easily. Mack was a great help in forming the cake balls – he had to be firmer with them to make sure they could hold together. After fifteen minutes in the freezer, we pierced each ball with a lollipop stick.

Cake balls

We melted the chocolate wafers using a double boiler. We probably could have been less stingy with the amount, as we didn’t quite have enough depth in the bowl to make dipping an easy task (we had to do more swirling than recommended to fully coat the balls). Immediately after dipping, we dressed the balls with festive sprinkles and stuck it in a piece of styrofoam placed in the fridge to harden.

Dipping

In the fridge

The next day, I wrapped them up individually with some cellophane and ribbon – given it was our first experiment with cake pops, I was really happy with the results! They were pretty sweet, though this mostly had to do with the chocolate coating and sprinkles, rather than the cake itself.

Cake pops

It’s really neat to see what’s possible with cake pops (just take a look here). Though it’s not likely I’ll tackle any of the more complicated designs, I’d definitely consider making them again for a special occasion again in the future. Thanks again to Mack for all of his help with this project!

Polenta with Mushrooms and Goat’s Cheese

I clearly haven’t mastered the ratio of water to corn meal yet, as I learned from making a recipe for polenta with mushrooms and goat’s cheese. Instead of the desired creamy consistency, I hadn’t included enough water, so the polenta turned out almost solid in nature.

Thankfully, topped with some sautéed portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and Smoky Valley St. Maure goat cheese, my poorly-made polenta was made somewhat more bearable.

Polenta with mushrooms and goat’s cheese

Still, both Mack and I were left wanting something else – either an additional textural element, or another protein of some kind.

Fennel-crusted Pork

We had better luck with the fennel-crusted pork. We used an Irvings Farm Fresh tenderloin (Mack thinks the word is much more amusing than it should be), sprinkled with fennel, rosemary, salt and pepper and seared until cooked through.

To accompany the pork was some shredded Kuhlmann’s cabbage and green apple cooked with butter, white wine vinegar and brown sugar.

Fennel-crusted pork with cabbage and apple

We really enjoyed the dish – the pork remained perfectly moist and the fennel, as expected, complimented the flavours well. The cabbage was also surprisingly tasty from such quick preparation, and is definitely something we’ll make again, even apart from the pork. On any other day, I would have also added a starch of some kind – potatoes or a side of rice – but that night, I knew we would be heading out to the carb-laden Christmas fete at the Queen of Tarts, so the meat and vegetables were enough.

Thanks to Donna Hay for rarely letting me down!

Spiced Paneer with Spinach, Tomatoes and Potatoes

Although mutter paneer is one of my favourite dishes at Indian restaurants, I’ve never tried cooking with paneer at home. When I saw Michelle’s easy recipe for spiced paneer with spinach, tomatoes and potatoes, there seemed like no better way to start.

I had thought paneer would be available at Superstore, but that wasn’t the case (we ended up picking up a package at Spice Centre, our go-to Indian grocer). The package and white block reminded me very much of tofu, but of course, it is much more dense and firm in texture.

As promised, the recipe was very fast to pull together (we used Doef’s tomatoes and Greens, Eggs and Ham potatoes). I loved the wilted spinach, and the spice combination – great flavour, with just the right amount of heat for us. Next time, I’d likely include onions, and because I love tomatoes, I would double what the recipe calls for. Overall though, it’s a keeper!

Spiced paneer with spinach, tomatoes and potatoes (photo much less alluring than Michelle’s)

Thai Red Curry with Halibut

Trish Magwood’s Thai chicken curry is a rotating staple in our kitchen, but for whatever reason, we haven’t really used any other protein with that sauce and vegetable combination. Cream and Sugar’s recipe for Thai red curry with halibut was a good reminder that we should change it up.

We had some wild Alberta shallots from the Italian Centre, a bell pepper from Doef’s, and halibut from Ocean Odyssey, though we also threw in some green beans we had in the freezer. Similar to the dish above, this cooked up quickly, and had the by-product of scenting the condo with fragrant coconut milk.

We didn’t have fresh basil and cilantro on hand, unfortunate because I know it would have brightened up the dish considerably. Still, the curry was tasty – the halibut held up very well, and the vegetables cooked down to tender perfection.

Thai red curry with halibut (another photo that doesn’t even remotely compare to the original blog shot)

Which cooking blogs inspire you?

Ricotta Gnudi in Parmesan Broth

I’ve posted about many Giada de Laurentiis recipes before, and I will continue to do so. Part of that reason is because I have two of her cookbooks, but the other has to do with the fact that her recipes are accessible and straightforward. Her ricotta gnudi in parmesan broth is an example of this, especially because they worked out so much better than a very similar spinach and ricotta dumplings I made a few months back.

While the chicken stock simmered with parmesan, a bit of parmesan rind and pepper, I formed the gnudi. I probably ended up making them a little larger than she had originally intended, but they held together and cooked up nicely.

Forming the gnudi

I was worried that they wouldn’t end up at all light and moist, but they turned out pretty tasty, even if they weren’t picture perfect. Served with the spicy, concentrated broth, it was comforting and something I would make again – for us, or for company.

Ricotta gnudi in parmesan broth

Bolognese with Bacon & Stout

Mack and I had just been talking about bolognese when I flipped open the fall issue of Flavours magazine to a recipe for bolognese with bacon & stout. It seemed like fate.

Besides Guinness, which we don’t normally have on hand, the rest of the ingredients for the sauce were basic – ground beef from Nature’s Green Acres, bacon from Irvings, rosemary and onions from Kuhlmann’s and parsnips, celery and crushed tomatoes. It wasn’t the smartest recipe for a weeknight (between prep and cooking time, the sauce took over an hour and a half), but it would have been worth it if we enjoyed the final product.

Bolognese with bacon & stout

Mack disagrees with me on this, but the parsnips were off-putting, so sweet and almost candy-like in the sauce. Carrots would have worked so much better. The stout also didn’t give the sauce the depth that we thought it might; there is a good reason why tradition calls for red wine.

I don’t mind trying new recipes – but of course, I always hope for an outcome similar to the one we achieved with the ricotta gnudi. Better luck next time!

Roast Chicken, Green Beans with Bacon and Mushroom Pilaf

I don’t know why the idea of roasting a chicken seemed so intimidating to me. Granted, it’s not something my Mum did often when I was growing up, but that’s no excuse. Over the summer, Mack and I bit the bullet: we bought a whole chicken from Dreamin’ Green Farm and just did it.

Whole chicken from Dreamin’ Green (home of the happy chicken!)

We rubbed the chicken with a mixture of butter, sage from a coworker’s garden, and lemon. We didn’t truss the chicken (something we’d definitely try next time), but it still turned out fine, and was really not a big deal at all! Like most roasts, it ended up being quite a passive recipe, something thrown into the oven to be forgotten about. The skin crisped up nicely (thank you, butter!), and the meat was deliciously juicy. We had enough leftovers for days – shredded meat we seamlessly incorporated into salads and soups. It is something we will definitely make again.

Crispy chicken!

For the sides I made a salad consisting of Sundog Organic green beans, Irvings bacon and a honey vinaigrette – Marilyn had made this side for dinner when we visited a few months ago, and the recipe stayed with me. The mushroom pilaf was easy to throw together, combining leftover rice with MoNa mushrooms and some chicken stock.

Roast chicken with green beans and mushroom pilaf

Of course, it tasted even better eaten outside.

Patio nights

Beef Tenderloin, Curried Couscous Salad and Grilled Corn

We had picked up some beef tenderloin steaks from Nature’s Green Acres. They were smaller in size than what one would normally think of for a “steak dinner”, but for us, it was perfect – the last time we had steaks (also from Nature’s Green Acres), we could barely finish the meat, let alone any accompanying sides!

While Mack readied the barbecue, I put together a curried couscous salad, featuring roasted Riverbend Gardens cauliflower, cucumber from Doef’s, dried cranberries and a dressing made from Bles-Wold yogurt. It was actually surprisingly tasty, with just enough heat balanced nicely with fresh vegetables, the sweetness of the fruit and a variety of textures. I replicated this dish for a potluck at work in the fall (made with vegetable stock so the vegetarians could enjoy it as well) and it was a hit!

Beef tenderloin, curried couscous salad and grilled corn

We also roasted corn (also from Riverbend Gardens) for the first time. Bobby Flay’s instructions (minus the flavourings) seemed simple enough, but possibly due to an inconsistent barbecue temperature, the corn didn’t cook through. We’ll have to try roasting corn again next year when it returns to the market.

Grilled corn

Although these well-rounded meals were a nice change, I will admit it is not something I am likely to do often; we’re not cut out for the “extra” dishes and effort on a nightly basis!

As such, I think one bowl suppers, like soups and stews, are always go-to “couch potato” accompaniments. We made a couple of new one bowl recipes last week.

Turkey and Cranberry Ravioli

I’d been wanting to make Giada’s turkey and cranberry ravioli for some time. In the recipe header, she describes it as a dish she would make for her husband and herself when they are “craving the flavours of Thanksgiving” but are not wanting to cook a whole turkey. We wanted to see if it lived up to that kind of holiday billing!

It was a straightforward recipe – I made cranberry sauce for the filling, combining it with Greens, Eggs and Ham ground turkey, Romano cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, eggs and salt and pepper. Then, while Mack put together the ravioli (using won ton wrappers), I made the very holiday-worthy gravy (between the butter and heavy cream, it’s definitely not for everyday consumption).

The ravioli only needed three minutes or so in the boiling water to cook, and drizzled with gravy and a bit of the leftover cranberry sauce, it really did taste like Thanksgiving in a bowl. The cranberry sauce in the ravioli filling was a bit lost in the mix, so the sweetness from the garnish really helped cut through the richness. We also would use fresh pasta sheets next time instead of won ton wrappers – they turned out to be a bit gummy from absorbing the cooking liquid.

Turkey and cranberry ravioli

As a whole though, I would make this dish again. At the very least, it’s an interesting take on a filled pasta!

Creamy Coconut Carrot Soup

Mack isn’t the biggest soup fan, but even he didn’t mind this one. For me, I liked that it was a recipe that used pantry staples in a different way – it’s always great to have those dishes on the backburner in the event the fridge is bare save for those basic items.

I had clipped a recipe for a creamy coconut carrot soup from See Magazine, which was printed to accompany an article on vegan diets. Packed with vegetables and fruit – carrots, sweet potato, onions, apples – it made up for the turkey ravioli the night before, but with the addition of red lentils and coconut milk, added a different dimension to it.

The balance of our soup ended up mostly being sweet potato, but that was fine – the earthiness and creaminess the pureed potato brought was very pleasant. The slight sweetness from the green apple was also appreciated.

Creamy coconut carrot soup

Eaten with a bit of bread I picked up at the Queen of Tarts, it made for a nice supper, and a decent lunch the next day as well.

Do you have a favourite TV dinner, too?