Pizza - pesto, basil, capers and white cheddar

We made pizza tonight. My youngest daughter, aged ten, made the dough. After rising it, she worked it and stretched it to shape. Her topping choices were cheese and salami, with a bit of pesto. For the other pizza, we chose white cheddar cheese, pesto, capers and basil.

The dough was really good tonight. It may be due to using much less sauce than usual. Often we use more sauce and the middle of the pizza crust gets soggy. This time with less sauce it was much firmer, although next time I would add more toppings - maybe onion or a meat. The capers & basil pizza was good but a little bland. But still, not bad for a last-minute out-of-the-pantry meal. (By out of the pantry, I mean we did not plan ahead and get ingredients - we used whatever was in the cupboard, fridge & indoor herb garden).

Kabocha squash soup

Made with the leftover squash from christmas day dinner, and stock made from the chicken carcass. The soup was amazing! Sweet, thick and delicious. I added nothing but a bit of sea salt and a couple ounces of ginger tea. There are several sickies in the house right now - a cold/fluey thing and it seems to help them feel better.

The soup doesn't photograph well without fancy plating and a garnish, but it was one of the best soups I've made or eaten, and I've had soup so good it made me cry. (That was on my 30th birthday at a late lamented soup cafe run by two sisters and their mom in Kitsilano - anyone remember the name of it?)

Great leftover idea

I didn't photograph it, because it sort of looks like the dog's dinner (if you're unfamiliar with that phrase, think on this: dogs are notorious for "re-enjoying" their meals) but it was delicious, fast and easy. (I always resent that holiday mode doesn't extend to those who have to cook all the meals.)

We had leftovers from christmas dinner and after boxing day the kids' delight was starting to turn to grimaces as they saw the chicken being hauled out for a third time. So I got a bottle of Sherwood's Masala and dumped it on top of the deboned chicken, mixed it in with all the leftover vegetables in a large frying pan and simmered it for twenty minutes. Ha! The kids didn't know what they were eating - actually they did and still enjoyed it. Even the youngest, who is more sensitive to spice heat, gobbled it up and had seconds.

Because a bunch of us are sick, the spicings (and chicken and garlic) helped with our colds. On the side we had super-fresh whole wheat dinner rolls from a local bakery. (Greek Bakery, in Richmond - good breads & rolls, very fresh.)

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, pesto & caper omelet

The title says it all. What a way to greet the day!

Super-easy christmas dinner

We usually go out for lunch on christmas day, but just in case, I had a chicken brining in the fridge, and bought some winter vegetables. Sure enough, we couldn't muster up the energy to go out of the house, so I made the chicken.


The prep took maybe twenty minutes, including wine breaks. I had bought two bags of pre-washed mini-potatoes that were mixed in color; some yellow, some red and some purple. The potatoes were small enough to use whole without pre-boiling. I chopped some kabocha squash, a couple of beets, enoki & oyster mushrooms, onion, celery, carrot, and sweet potato, put them all in the bottom of a roasting pan and added a cup or so of chicken stock.

The chicken was stuffed only with seven garlic cloves and I patted a bunch of sea salt on the skin.

Cooked it at 450, rotated it after forty minutes and cooked another twenty. Meanwhile, we made red rice in the rice cooker. Easy peasy.

Plating the chicken, I sprinkled it with a touch of 5-spice. Oh man, what a great dinner. We couldn't eat fast enough. I love those meals that are so delicious they taste bad for you!For desert we had a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream (Haagen Dazs), with equal amounts vanilla yogurt, vanilla soy milk and eggnog. What a finish. Then we lay around for the rest of the evening, stuffed and happy.

ready to serve

the raw ingedients

Peanut brittle

Who knew peanut brittle was so easy to make? 2 cups of sugar, melted over low heat and stirred occasionally; 2 cups of peanuts stirred in. Then dump it on a greased cookie sheet, let cool and then smash and serve.

This year we made batches to give to friends along with shortbread, gingerbread men and christmas hippo cookies.

Jello ginger ale

When you're so sick that you had to postpone your 10th birthday party, what's the only thing that'll make you feel better? Jello ginger ale, of course.

Remember making jello when you were a kid? Remember always wanting to drink the liquid before it set? It was so sweet and so delicious.

In an effort to soothe the Sick One's sore throat and perhaps cheer her up a little, I invented jello ginger ale. I added the cup of boiling water to the jello powder, but not the cold water. I put about an ounce of that mix into a glass of ginger ale.

It's too, too sweet and very delicious. It even raised a hint of a smile.