Category Archives: Canada

Grilled Salmon, Fresh Off the Line

Until just a couple of days ago, the best salmon I have ever had was grilled up by Dave’s dad, Joe, at their cabin. I should say that pretty much whenever Joe is grilling salmon, that’s my favorite. It’s amazing. That was the truth until a couple days ago when Dave grilled up some Lemon Garlic Salmon. This fish was incredibly tender, almost creamy in texture, but not mushy. There wasn’t a hint of fishiness anywhere, and if you associate salmon with a fishy taste that probably means that you’ve been eating farm raised salmon. Yuck. Wild caught salmon from the Pacific Northwest has a fresh taste that has absolutely nothing in comparison to the muddy, fishy flavor of farm raised salmon.

The Lemon Garlic Salmon that Dave grilled up wasn’t just wild caught, it was caught by a cousin who just happened to be coming to our home for Dave’s graduation party (recipes from that party will be appearing next week). This wonderful cousin, of whom poets should sing, showed up at the party with a large, red cooler. He plunked it down in our kitchen and called Dave over. As he lifted the white plastic lid I think I heard angels singing, because inside were two enormous sides of the most beautiful pink salmon I’ve ever seen. I had learned early in our relationship that one of the benefits of marrying a west coast Canadian boy was that this got me into closer proximity to some of the best salmon in the world. I had no idea that this would also grant me family who showed up bearing gifts of fresh caught salmon.

We tightly wrapped and froze much of the salmon, but Dave saved out a large portion for the grill. Then he went into research mode, trying to figure out the flavor profile he wanted. In the end he chose a beautifully simple combination of lemon and garlic with just enough seasoning to highlight the amazing flavor of the salmon. Dave adapted this recipe from an Essence of Emeril recipe tweaking it a bit here and there. You could also use another firm fleshed fish like halibut or cod, but just be careful with the cooking time if you go for a smaller fish size. The perfect accompaniments for the Lemon Salmon are the Cabin Grilled Potatoes and a fresh green salad… especially if it is served with a glass of wine. In true style of not wanting to let anything go to waste, we toasted the salmon with glasses of sparkling wine leftover from the graduation party that had gone slightly flat. As luck would have it, the sparkling wine was so good that even the slightly flat version was still crisp with a slight effervescence that was amazing with the salmon. It was a perfect meal on the deck with my two amazing boys.

Note: When Garlic Turns Blue…

The salmon smelled fantastic. We brought the packet to the table and Dave did the big reveal, peeling the foil back, the delicious steam poured out revealing the perfectly cooked salmon layered with the beautiful golden lemons and studded with… cyanide blue garlic? What on earth had happened? Was the salmon safe to eat? And why on earth had turned the garlic turquoise blue? A bit of quick internet research later and I learned that it is an interesting, but non-toxic, effect that sometimes happens with young garlic, especially when it comes in contact with other acids like lemon, onion or wine, and low heat. So please enjoy the lovely turquoise hue of the garlic in our pictures and know that it tasted delicious. If you are curious about the glories of blue-green garlic, here’s a NY Times article on the subject.

Lemon Garlic Salmon
Ingredients:
1 side of salmon, skin on
2 tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. white pepper
2 tsp. fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil, divided

Directions:

Preheat your grill or oven to 450 degrees.
Rinse the salmon under cold running water and then pat dry.
Lay a long piece of foil down on the work surface. The foil should be twice the length of your salmon, or use two pieces to be sure to cover your salmon completely.
Butter the foil, leaving a couple inch border around the edges for sealing later on. Drizzle a little olive oil over the foil, and then lay the salmon onto the foil skin side down. Sprinkle with the salt and white pepper.
In a small bowl mix the minced garlic with a little olive oil and salt, smashing the garlic against the side of the bowl with a spoon to make it a loose paste. Smear the garlic paste all over the salmon, and sprinkle the fresh rosemary over top.
Layer the lemon slices over the salmon, covering as much of the surface as you can. Then sprinkle the onions over the lemon slices, and drizzle the entire packet with the remaining olive oil.
Fold the foil edges up to seal the salmon tightly on all sides in the packet. Place the foil packet on the grill and monitor it closely. The salmon should steam inside the packet, retaining all the amazing moisture and flavor of the lemon, garlic and onions.
Cook the salmon packet for 15-20 minutes, or until just cooked through but still moist. The cooking time will vary based on the thickness of your salmon, thinner pieces cooking faster than thicker ones.
Remove the packet to a serving plate and bring it to the table to serve from the foil. If your salmon had pin bones be careful to remove them carefully as you go, warning all diners that there could be pin bones in their portion. Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the Lemon Garlic Salmon recipe.

Cabin Grilled Potatoes
Ingredients:
6 medium red skinned potatoes
1 medium onion, halved
6 tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat your grill or oven to 450 degrees.
Thinly slice your potatoes and set them aside. Thinly slice your onions and set them aside.
Place a baking sheet on your work station and cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil that overlaps each side by an inch or two. Generously butter the foil, leaving a couple inches of border all around for when you close the packets.
Layer half of the potatoes across the foil, overlapping them slightly and leaving enough foil around the edges that the packet can be sealed for the grill or oven. Dot the potatoes with thin slices of half of the butter.
Layer half of the onions over top of the potatoes, and sprinkle the entire packet with salt and pepper.
Layer the remaining potatoes over the onions, and dot the potatoes with thin slices of the remaining butter.
Layer the remaining onions on top of the potatoes, and sprinkle the entire packet with salt and pepper.
Place a second piece of foil over top of the potatoes and onions, and fold the edges up to seal the packet on all sides.
Place the packet into your grill and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Monitor the heat during the cooking, adjusting as necessary. The sealed packet will steam the potatoes, but the heat should also create a golden crust on the bottom. Be careful that the bottom layer doesn’t “over caramelize” (aka burn).
Remove the packet to a serving plate and bring it to the table. Rip open the foil to let the aroma of browned buttery potatoes and onions float across the table. Serve family style. Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the Cabin Grilled Potatoes recipe.

Magic Garden Songs, First Strawberries and Kids in the Garden

4 Replies

A week into our gardening season and I haven’t killed anything yet. Yet. I count that as a success.

As a professor that studies food politics and who has worked with community supported agricuture (CSAs in the States) and small farmers for years, it is funny to be on this end of the food production scale. This is the first place that we’ve lived where I have been able to have real garden space, not just containers. I am also, however, surrounded by gardens tended by expert gardeners who have been at it for years. I am relying heavily on their knowledge, picking their brains about everything from how to prune tomato plants to the best time to water plants and which plants grow better in compost versus manure-based soils.

I also find myself comparing my funky garden to their amazing plots. Due to the construction of our garden space, I didn’t get my seeds planted until a bit late in the season, and most were seeds sown into the ground rather than seedlings. So my neighbors have a few weeks of a head start on me, and their gardens look like magic. They look like a sort of Magician’s Apprentice version of gardening. These staid Canadians must go out to their gardens in the cool morning mist, and sing a song conjuring their plants to rise as they slowly lift their arms. Green shoots obligingly spring from the earth at their command, quickly growing into full fledged fruiting plants. Or so it seems.

I find myself greedily staring at the dark brown soil every morning, looking for new green shoots that will hopefully provide my table with gorgeous (or at least delicious) veges in the not too distant future. Little Man’s favorite thing to do in the evenings before dinner is to go to the green house and play with the strawberries. He moves from plant to plant, carefully holding each berry in his little hand before moving on to the next.

The other day the first strawberry was finally ripe, and I plucked it from the plant to share it with him. I took a bite of one of the warmest, sweetest strawberries I’ve ever had and held the other half out to Little Man to sample. I thought this would be a wonderful moment, sharing with him the first fruit of the season. He, on the other hand, looked at me in horror that I would eat one of his small red toys that just happened to be growing on a plant in the greenhouse. At that moment I thought of all the blogs, web pages, farmers market people, etc. who talk about how meaningful it can be for little kids to grow their own food, how for many kids this helps them start eating more vegetables, and how angels sing whenever a young child helps tend a garden. Apparently we are going to need a bit more help in this area…

Adventures in Gardening: AKA Pig Manure and June Bugs

1 Reply

I’m back from my forced technology hiatus! I’ve missed sharing things on the blog and am glad to be up and running again. Let’s just sum up my recent silence with the worlds “mother board” and “fried.” Enough said.

In the meantime, the most exciting thing going on here is that we FINALLY have our garden started. This is my first ever “real” garden, and I’ve had to hold myself back so that I don’t try everything at once. It was hard to practice restraint since I’ve never had this chance before, but I have to remind myself that I’ll have another chance next year. So I’ve tried to give myself the permission to experiment, to learn at the trowel’s edge (that’s for my archaeo friends), and to try things that may not turn out as I’d hoped. Chalk it up to trial, error and then more error. Since the garden bed wasn’t completed until this last weekend, and since most of my planting was from seed, it will still be awhile before we see any fruits of our labors. We’ll see what happens…

Our farmer landlords have been working hard to prepare what was our backyard for a massive gardening space. Where once was a sketchy storage shack now stands the beginning of a greenhouse. The rest of the space has been scraped of turf, massive piles of black gold (aka pig manure-compost) roto-tilled in, and multiple garden beds laid out.

Glorious pig manure compost getting raked and leveled into a garden plot.

The rest of our day was spent raking and leveling our square garden bed, then shaping it into the quadrants we would plant. There is nothing like being coated with pig manure dust and being attacked by the cock roach like June bugs of the island. Much squealing and dancing occurred to the intense delight of Little Man. In opposition to what my brother suggested, I am very glad that he hasn’t been trained to video me in embarrassing moments. Once the bugs were removed from the back of my neck, my hair and my t-shirt, we were able to get back to the garden. The plot is over 20 square feet, so I’ve just now gone from a sometimes successful container gardener to a plot gardener with enough seed and good intentions to cause a lot of trouble. It’s hard to imagine what the flat garden plot will look like once the seeds have sprouted, forget about what it will look like with full fledged plants.

Dave leveling our plot with the in-process greenhouse behind him.

I divided our plot into quadrants with a small hill for squash in the center. I had a few seedlings for kale, basil, celery and nasturtiums. Other seeds planted around our plot include lots of greens (kales and chard), scarlet runner beans, carrots, radishes, bush beans and beets. That’s not to mention all of the amazing plants that our farmer landlords have planted in such abundance that they’ve offered us carte blanche to the fruits of their labors in exchange for help maintaining the plants in the many garden plots.

Little Man helps out by picking up rocks and transporting them with the blue bucket to Daisy the tractor. According to Little Man, Daisy likes rocks better than stones for lunch.

Now we’re into dirt watching mode, and trying to find the perfect location and angle for our mobile sprinklers so that we water the garden without wasting too much water as we head into what could be a long, hot, dry summer. I’ll keep you up to date with garden happenings, and if anyone has any recipes or ideas for things to preserve garden produce I’d love to see them! 🙂

Our mostly planted garden plot. Bamboo bean teepees will be set up in the back right quadrant, but for now this is a good start.

And spoiler alert, we have a big party coming up to celebrate Dave’s recent doctoral graduation. Keep your eyes peeled for some great recipes from the party!

The center squash hill planted with Little Man’s sprouted pumpkin seeds from an Easter festival in Nanaimo. We’ve also planted zuchinni on the north side and sunburst squash on the south. A bit of squash overkill? We’ll see…

The celery square with nasturtiums planted at the point. Radishes and carrots will round out this area once they sprout.

The Long May Weekend – A Year Later

5 Replies

To be honest, I don’t know a lot about Queen Victoria whom the long May weekend commemorates. We still feel repercussions from the Victorian era, such as white wedding gowns and a penchant for prudery. The Queen also plays a memorable role in “The Pirates! Band Of Misfits” in which she wields a mean scimitar. I hadn’t even been aware that she had her own day in Canada until last year when I flew out to Vancouver Island on the long weekend to look for a place for our family. I had only this one weekend and some substantial internet house browsing in which to find the home we would move to in a few short months.

Such began an epic weekend of rental house hunting with my mother-in-law, Ruth, and my sister-in-law, Erin. We would learn quickly that house hunting online is much like online dating… Everyone lies. The pictures are all glamor shots from years if not decades earlier, the houses all looked much cleaner online, and in the case of a couple of our visits the picture can’t quite convey the… shall we say scent… of the actual building.

We called ourselves Little Man’s Angels, an all woman team who were finally answerable to my toddler son. Even though he was back in the States during our adventure, Little Man became our litmus test for whether or not a property was even worth considering. Unfortunately most of the places that we visited were not viable. In fact, right after visiting one more decrepit, dirty property in a long line of decrepit, dirty properties with questionable potential for child safety I was starting to wonder if I was being too picky. I must have mumbled something positive about the house when Ruth looked me in the eye and stated that while Dave and I were welcome to live in that house, her grandson would certainly not. I almost cried from relief.

The houses we toured in the greater Nanaimo area over the course of the weekend were memorable. One was so small that it should have housed dolls, not real people. Another reeked of stale tobacco and we later learned a man had been violently killed on a nearby street a few months earlier. Another had a blind driveway that led onto a busy street, not to mention a pile of human feces on the back porch. Another had strange fabric draped from the ceiling, holes punched in the walls, and boasted that it came with an outdoor plastic play house… mind you the playhouse had been used as a chicken coop for three years, but that’s nothing that a little spray bleach can’t take care of right? Right… The one thing that all of the properties shared was that online they looked and sounded amazing. I started to panic about our prospects.

Then we saw the property on the farm and I think I heard angels sing as a single ray of sun broke through the clouds and lit the house. The building itself is nice, but the biggest draw was the farm itself and the surrounding landscape. The idea of Little Man’s first long term memories being shaped here feeding chickens, petting horses, being chased by sheep… The three of us looked at each other and had to resist the urge to rush into a jumping group hug.

Later we would begin the pattern that would haunt us for the rest of the move. Just as things would start to look up, something would come crashing down. No sooner had we called to secure our rental of the farm house then the great situation fell apart almost instantly. We almost lost the house when its occupants at the time lost the home they were bidding on, and in fact it was only a few weeks before the actual move to Canada that we learned we’d be able to move in. Other things would happen as well, but for the purposes of this post, it wasn’t until when Dave and his dad pulled up to the house with the moving van filled with all of our belongings and pulling our car with the cats that I truly let myself believe that things would work out.

The farm house is not perfect, but it has turned out to be a great decision. Almost a year later Little Man still asks to go back to our blue house in Iowa, but I don’t think he misses the house as much as he does the proximity to his favorite zoo and his child care provider. We’re making friends, we live in a beautiful place, and are finding favorite places that we like to go back to over and over again.

Now that we are at this Long May Weekend one year later the main thing that keeps coming to mind is gratitude. I’m grateful for the hilarious memories from our house hunt. Grateful that Ruth and Erin were able to take the time (and insanity) of that visit with me. Grateful that we live on such a beautiful island; in such a great home; close to the sheep, pigs, Little Man’s Ladies (aka the chickens), and horses; in a place full of potential for more fantastic adventures and memories.

With the thought of gratitude in mind, I planned a simple meal for the barbeque. My goal was for something that wouldn’t take much time, leaving more time to be with Dave and LIttle Man, but also something full of flavor that Little Man would devour without us having to focus on getting him to eat his dinner. Thankfully I was successful. Little Man gobbled everything up and we were all able to have a nice family dinner full of laughs and stories. It was a perfect commemoration of the House Hunt Long Weekend. I hope that one or more of these recipes can give you a similar experience with your family or friends.

Menu: Mumbai Grilled Drumsticks, Mustard Seed Rice, Simple Grilled Zucchini and Mushrooms, and Mango Lassi.

Mumbai Grilled Drumsticks
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. Tandoori paste
¼ cup plain, fat free yogurt
3-4 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. canola oil
10 chicken drumsticks

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients except for the chicken in a large bowl.
The marinade ingredients.

The marinade ingredients combined.
Add the drumsticks to the bowl and toss until they are evenly coated. Use your hands here to really spread the marinade over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate the chicken for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Tossing the chicken in the marinade is best done with your hands. It’s a bit messy, but roll up your sleeves and dive on in.
Preheat your grill or grill pan over medium/medium high heat. The marinade is predominately yogurt based, so you may need to grease your grill to make sure the chicken doesn’t stick. Grill the chicken over medium heat for approximately 45 minutes or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Serve and enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe for Mumbai Grilled Drumsticks.

Mustard Seed Rice
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp. canola oil
1 ½ cups white basmati rice
3 cups hot water
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Gently heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Cover the pan when the seeds start to pop, and shake it periodically to keep the seeds moving. Be careful not to burn them. When the seeds stop popping, about 30 seconds, add the rice and stir to combine. Stir the rice every now and then to let it just start to brown. This should take just a couple of minutes.
Sizzling the mustard seeds in the oil. When they start popping, cover the pan to prevent a mess on your stove.

Popping mustard seeds.

Sauteing the basmati rice with the mustard seeds and oil.

Browning the rice.
Carefully add the hot water to the pan. The pan is already hot so it will sputter and steam when you add the water.
Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pan. Simmer the rice for 15 minutes, and then remove it from the heat. Let the rice sit with the lid on for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Spoon the rice into a serving bowl and enjoy.

Click here for a printable version of the recipe for Mustard Seed Rice.

Simple Grilled Zucchini and Mushrooms
Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1 ½ inch thick half moons
5 cremini mushrooms, cut into pieces roughly the same size as the zucchini
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
Salt and Pepper
Directions:

This recipe is more a method than anything else. Use whatever vegetables that you have at hand. I chose zucchini and mushroom because they taste great with a bit of the grill’s smokiness.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss until the vegetables are evenly coated.
Skewer all of the zucchini on one or two metal skewers, leaving a little bit of room between the pieces so they can cook evenly. Set these aside on a baking sheet. Do the same with the mushrooms. Set them aside with the zucchini and drizzle any remaining marinade over them all. Let them sit for 15-20 minutes.
Grill over medium to medium high heat until the vegetables start to char and are cooked through.
Remove the vegetables from the skewers, being careful of the hot metal. Toss the vegetables together in a bowl and serve. Enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of the recipe for Simple Grilled Vegetables.

Mango Lassi
Ingredients:
2 cups plain, fat free yogurt
2 cups frozen mango pieces
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. honey

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
Taste to see if it needs more mango or honey. Adjust seasoning, blend again, and serve. Enjoy!

Click to get a printable recipe for Mango Lassi.

Our Victoria Day bbq dinner: Mumbai Grilled Drumsticks, Mustard Seed Rice and Simple Grilled Zucchini and Mushrooms. Little Man already made off with his Mango Lassi, so it wasn’t available for a glamor shot.

A Week on Our Own: The End

2 Replies

I am so glad to have gotten to the end of this week! It was a great week all together, full of fantastic accomplishments, reuniting with good friends, and some awesome Mommy/Toddler time. It was, however, also a long week of single parenthood (Much love to all the single parents out there! You’re amazing and don’t ever forget it!), a week of feeling like I should be somewhere else, and a lot of laundry… a lot of laundry.

Day 6 for Dave was spent jaunting from one airport to the next, each one a bit more disappointing than the last. For Little Man and I the morning was spent at the Hazelwood Herb Farm in Cedar, and then a lot of cleaning… a lot of cleaning.

The Herb Farm was by far the bright spot for both of our day, and it’s finally convinced me that I’m trying to rush Spring along a bit too quickly for Vancouver Island. The minute the temperatures got into the high teens in Celsius (that’s 60s… I think… in Fahrenheit…) I feel like I should be out in the garden planting something. Except that it’s still pretty cold at night, and the ground is still pretty cold, and nothing that I want to plant (peppers, basil, etc.) is ready for that type of temperature. This became very clear to me at the herb farm where they sell the types of plants that currently do good at this time of year. Little Man and I came away with some great herbs (oregano, thyme, chives, and sage), as well as celery. I’ve never tried celery in my garden (or container box) before, but I thought that it might look like a great dinosaur forest for Little Man. So like for most things, including parenting and gardening, I’m learning that a little patience goes a long way. But right about now, I’m really impatient for Dave to be home!!!

Day 7: Homecoming!!!

Dave finally made it home this morning. Little Man has been counting the number of breakfasts he had to get through before Daddy would be home, so this one he ate with relish and was constantly glancing at the door expecting Daddy to come waltzing in the minute his food was finished. Not quite… But after breakfast and the crazy dance of getting myself and my toddler ready for public appearances, we finally got the long awaited text that the ferry was pulling in, and then we were off to the car.

It’s always good that I give a buffer zone of time just for the process of getting the few meters (Canada-speak there… Did you catch it?) from our front door to our car. This time it was the two farm dogs that caught Little Man’s fancy, but then he had to go say “hi” to his lady friends, the chickens. At that point the little bitty “not dog,” as the farmer calls him, was running with him, Little Man took the opportunity to make a mad dash across the farm towards the sheep pen and his favorite hill at the back of the property. Eventually the dogs and the toddler were corralled and we got to the ferry terminal just before Dave made it out of the building.

The rest of the day was a blur of Daddy and Little Man cuddles, nap time for all, and much playing. You could almost hear the “reunited and it feels so good” chorus as the two of them raced around the yard, Little Man “cutting the grass” with his toy lawnmower and chasing his dad. I have a feeling that the upcoming week will be one of recovering from exhaustion and gearing up for more dissertation deadlines, but at least we’re all together and now there are two of us to clean up toddler messes. And there’s the awesome sign, too.

Checking the fluids to ensure the mower runs smoothly.

Lots of toddler cackling here…

A Week on Our Own: Days 4-5

A Week On Our Own: Day 2

3 Replies

Fairy Doors

Today we woke to a gorgeously sunny morning, something we haven’t seen in awhile. It’s still a cool Spring, but the sunshine makes all the difference. We also had a play date set up with one of Little Man’s friends (and mine too) to visit Neck Point. No errands today, just fun.

Our main goal for today was for Little Man and his friend to visit the Fairy Doors. The last time I wrote about Neck Point was for the first time we visited the park with Dave for a Surprise Day. We’ve been back many times, often with friends for sunny day play dates and a few times with family as well. It’s one of our favorite places to visit, and each time we are there we explore new paths and find new treasures.

Little Man’s favorite thing to do (other than throwing pebbles into the ocean) is to visit the Fairy Doors. Up until this point we’d only ever visited the main door where treasures can be found. I’m still learning the story of who made these doors, but from the parking lot if you take the path behind the washroom and head up and to the right you will find the first Fairy Door.

“Give a Little, Take a Little”

A small sign above the door states “Give a Little, Take a Little.” I’d been told about this door in advance, so I knew to bring a little treasure to leave behind and that Little Man could then choose a little treasure of his own from the fairy stash. Today I also brought a little extra treasure along for Little Man’s friend since this was their first visit to the doors. We generally pass on the dodgy candy, but each visit has a new selection of treasures to choose from. Little Man’s favorite so far is the penny, which is my personal favorite too since they aren’t even printed anymore. A real treasure if I’ve ever seen one.

If you continue straight on this path (no veering to right or left, no matter how tempting those paths are, at least for us today) you will come across a small grove of other fairy doors. I think we’ve counted nine in total, and there very well could be more scattered across other paths. We’re going to have to keep exploring to see if there are others. My friend said that she’d seen a picture of another, more ornate door… That should keep us searching up and down the paths for awhile.

Door 2

Door 3

Door 4

Door 5

Some of the doors are higher in the trees for those fast flying fairies.

Door 6

Door 7

Door 8

For today Little Man and his friend had a blast going up to every door they could find and knocking to see if any fairy were home. The only door that actually opens is on the treasure house door, so we explained that the other fairies must be out and about (or ooot and abooot). The kiddos sighed, and then rushed off to the next door they found.

Knock, knock… Any fairies home?

Lastly we came to another one of the pebble beaches and climbed around on the logs a bit. This beach, however, got a full blast of the cold ocean wind, so pretty quickly we went back to the paths and back tracked to our favorite pebble-throwing-in-the-ocean beach that is around the bend and protected from the wind. By this time the little legs were exhausted and it was getting close to lunch time. That means that the whining level went up considerably, and the tired toddlers were herded back to the cars and their respective homes for lunches and nap times. More exploring would have to wait for another day.

The adventurers…

Day 2 of Operation Daddy Sign

Even better than paint splatting, Little Man LOVES stickers. Now, the problem can be that he wants the stickers to be toys rather than letting them stay on the paper. For Operation Daddy Sign, Little Man chose some sparkly start stickers and special gem stickers, both of which were left over from supplies for birthday crowns that we never got around to making.

Little Man putting star stickers on Daddy’s sign.

A close up of a star sticker constellation. Say “star sticker” five times fast…

Little Man got to put the stars and 4 gems on one by one, choosing the spots himself. He likes to group and line things up, so he made some nice constellations in a couple of spots.

The jewels…

The “little, little, little” purple jewel for Little Man’s treasure.

His favorite part of this was that at the end of putting on all the stickers, he got to choose one gem for his own to play with. He chose a “little, little, little” purple one, and has been playing with it ever since. He puts it on his golden plastic pirate coins, puts it on his real coins, carries it around to the dinner table and to brush his teeth before bed. He even “put it to sleep” on his changing table before story time. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the jewel to become lost in or under the couch. Any over/unders? Day 2 accomplished…

Operation Daddy Sign: Day 2 (Stickers accomplished)

A Week On Our Own

2 Replies

It was only after we’d dropped Dave off at the ferry to start his week-long adventure to New York to defend his dissertation that I realized I was going to be alone with Little Man for the first time in a foreign land. Canada doesn’t feel “foreign” very much any more, but for that moment driving the curvy, forested road back to our house on the farm it did.

This was going to be one of those weeks where the main goal was to make lemonade out of lemons… as fast as absolutely possible. A dissertation defense, for those who haven’t had to face this particular lion’s den, is a public presentation of your dissertation followed by a series of question and answer periods the first one open to the public and the second one only with your committee. This is where you “defend” your dissertation, the work you’ve done, what your work adds to the larger field of anthropology (no stress there), and basically why your committee should set you free. It’s a huge milestone towards the completion of your doctorate, and we weren’t going to be able to be there for Dave. Argh!

My goal for the week was to try to keep Little Man entertained and help him as he’d miss his daddy, as well as keeping myself sane as the sole caretaker of our energetic three year old. Towards that goal I hoped that writing about our adventures for the blog would both encourage me to find interesting things to do, as well as having a place to actually stop and put my thoughts together in the evenings after Little Man was asleep. This week will be a bit different for this blog since I’ll have entries for each day. So strap on in, here we go…

Day 1: A Sign for Daddy
The day was rainy, like both of our moods. We moved through our routine of breakfast and getting ready, running a few errands, but Little Man was not at his best and neither was I. After his afternoon nap things got noticeably better, partly thanks to a craft idea from my brain twin on the east coast. Jen is my doppleganger in spirit and it’s likely better for the world in general that we don’t live near each other anymore, but it’s hard to be split from someone who you share a brain with. Jen is also the mother to two adorable little girls, and she is a wealth of fun kiddo activities. When her husband was recently away for a week of training Jen helped her oldest make a sign to welcome Daddy home and each day they did something else to the sign. That’s what Little Man and I started today.

The best thing ever is splatting the brush onto the paper.

Our first day on Operation Daddy Sign consisted primarily of painting, me using my fingers and Little Man using a foam brush. His favorite part was to fly the brush-plane over the paper and drop it with a splatting noise and splatting paint on the paper. My job was to try to keep the brush splatting on the paper and not the floor or the cats, as well as keeping the cats from contributing their own paw art by running across the art work. All in all a good time was had by all, though I think the kitties would have liked a bit more artistic expression.

I kept rotating the paper so more splatting to cover more of the paper.

I kept rotating the paper so more splatting could cover more of the paper.

I also took the opportunity to make a batch of Whole Wheat Oatmeal bread, and the entire house smells of warm baking. I think that after putting Little Man down to bed my treat will be a slice of that bread with a little butter and some TV or maybe a good book. In the meantime, I have a little boy who is protesting that he isn’t tired and doesn’t want to go to bed yet, while at the same time rubbing his eyes and sighing tiredly. Time to wrap things up for Day 1.

A Meal for Sharing: Turkish Inspired Baked Eggs

A Green Persian Spring

3 Replies

This post is a little bit late, but may I wish you all a happy welcome to Spring and a happy Nowruz. The first day of Spring is also the first day of the new year according to Iranian tradition, hence “Nowruz.” Dear Iranian friends first introduced me to the holiday in southern California, and since then we always celebrate it at home. I also celebrate this holiday in my anthropology of food classes where we make our own version of the traditional Haft Seen table, or table of seven S’s that symbolize best wishes for the upcoming new year. It’s a great excuse to get people thinking good thoughts for everyone around them, as well as focusing on the upcoming greenery that is (hopefully) starting to peek out of the dirty snow banks and brown, crinkle grass yards and fields.

If I could pull it off, I would have a massive Persian feast on Nowruz, and in the past I’ve done that using it as an excuse to have friends over to celebrate over good food and new friends. However, as with many things in life with kids (or kid), I’ve scaled things down a bit. At least for this year. If there is ONE dish that I simply must have when this time of year comes around, it is Ghormeh Sabzi or Green Persian Stew. “Ghormeh” in Persian means stew and “Sabzi” is the word for green or in this case green, leafy vegetables. Ghormeh Sabzi is a rich, beef and bean stew with a sauce brimming with slowly simmered, finely chopped Springtime greenery. The slight citrus acidic kick cuts through the richness of the stew itself and ties everything together. Just writing about it makes me want to simmer up another batch, and in fact I might just do that this weekend. Hmmm… We are having guests…

But back to Ghormeh Sabzi… I know that the name is likely rather foreign to many of you, but as we make this transition from frozen, cold whiteness into the chilly freshness of Spring, this is the perfect stew whether the name sounds familiar or not. It bridges both the desire for comforting warmth and the desperate need for all things green and full of life. And frankly, what better time to try something new than a new year, whether or not you start the new year in January or March? I hope that you all have a fantastic Nowruz (new year) and a gorgeous Springtime.

Ghormeh Sabzi (Green Persian Stew)

Ingredients
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 leeks, split in half lengthwise and well washed
1 bunch cilantro, well washed
2 bunches parsley, well washed
1 lb. beef stew meat
1 tsp. tumeric
3 tsp. salt
1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 c. water
¼ c. lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Put the rough chopped onion in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Put the onion in a small bowl and set aside.
A roughly chopped onion ready to be sublimely and finely chopped.
Roughly chop the cleaned leeks and add them to the food processor. Pulse them until chopped finely, then put them in a medium bowl and set aside.
Halve the leeks lengthwise, keeping the root end intact. Then hold them under running water, fanning out the layers as you go, to rinse out all of the grit.

The rough chop waiting for the food processor magic.

I love my food processor. Finely chopped leeks, perfect for this stew.
Add the cilantro and parsley to the food processor and chop finely. Add them to the leek bowl and set aside.
Cilantro and parsley finely chopped in seconds.
Pour 1 tbsp. of olive oil into a Dutch oven and heat the pan over medium high. When the oil is hot add the onions and sauté until browned on the edges.
Browning the onions. I seem to have a number of “steamy” pictures for this recipe. Is there a special benefit to hot onion facials?
Add the stew meat to the pan and brown the pieces on all sides.
Adding the stew meat to the pot.
Add the turmeric and salt, and stir to combine.
Turmeric and salt ready to go.
Add the leeks, cilantro and parsley to the pan, along with the kidney beans, water, and lemon juice. Bring the stew to a simmer and let it bubble away gently for 1 ½ hours. Taste to adjust seasonings.
The amount of raw greenery can look daunting in your stew pot, but it will become something magical.

Adding the beans and remaining ingredients.

Everything looks a bit raw when first added to the pan, but after the long simmer…

After the long simmer, all of the flavors come together and this stew is the perfect cold Springtime dinner.
Serve over steamed basmati rice. Enjoy!