2 x stroganoff

don't make this very often, but in the last 2 weeks, i've made stroganoff twice at home.



the first incident used buffalo meat. my sister and i call it 'buffalaganoff.' clever. we know. but it also used goat's yoghurt. if you've ever had any milk or cheese product from goat, you will know it has a distinct flavor. i call it 'goaty.' this was definitely goaty. not excessively, but enough that i had to eat slowly so as not to overload with the flavor and reap negative benefits from it. but for some reason i'm just weirdly sensitive with the strong/sharp flavors like goat. or brie, or blue cheese. i want so badly to have a mature palate and eat lots of cheeses like brie and blue cheese, but it may sadly take a long time for that to happen.



the second stroganoff occurred today, and i used mushrooms. just mushrooms. i have always (my mother will debate this) hated mushrooms, but recently have enjoyed some really amazing mushroomy eats. like a beef and mushroom soup at Roundel a few months ago, and a mushroom sauce on my steak somewhere else. so i decided to try the mushroom thing at home. last week i made some pizza and did mushrooms on half of it. meh... it was okay, but the other half of the pizza (artichokes and peppers) was much tastier. then today, in my need to be frugal and avoid my grocery-shopping-habit, i used up the rest of the mushrooms and made a stroganoff-type sauce with them. i really enjoyed it, but it would definitely be better with beef or bison WITH the mushrooms.



the basics of stroganoff (as i know it... which doesn't say much, since i've never really followed a recipe completely):
- fry your meat (beef strips, bison strips, or if you are vegetarian, skip this step) and set aside
- saute onions, garlic, mushrooms and brown them (mushrooms are optional. so is garlic i think, but i like garlic)
- add the meat back
- season with salt, pepper. additional options: nutmeg, coriander...
- add your broth or wine (both optional) and sour cream or yoghurt and simmer.
- serve warm on noodles. or rice.

soup explosions & other fun things in my new home

this is what my kitchen looked like the second full day after moving in:

yeah, 'awesome' was the first word i thought of too, after other choice words, of course. apparently pureeing a hot soup isn't always a fabulous idea. the salvageable bit of the soup (see the green bowl bottom left?) wasn't half bad, though. my sister gave me a 'soup' recipe book for my birthday last year and i am attempting to actually use them, and be intentional with my grocery shopping. why was i being so ambitious when i had barely just moved into my home? ... i'm not sure. i'm never sure.

enough of my negativity. wait, no, not yet. our smoke detector? yeah, it goes off almost every bloody time we make food that involves some heating. like frying eggs. or making toast. oh yes, and the alarm goes off upstairs in our landlords' apartment too. 'awesome' fits this situation also.

okay, now i can be positive and post pictures that are oozing with positivity and warm fuzzies.


these were taken our first night here. below is our commemorative meal, but most importantly: wine. a really yummy Riesling Gewurztraminer, to be specific (and only $10!)

again about the cupcakes

its the cupcake's fault. i'm off my wheat diet. i did the no-wheat thing for an entire month (yay!) except for the occasional slip-up (i had yam fries at Steamworks twice last month and only figured out the second time that they were breaded - who knew i was that dense?). a month is a long time. really. i'd been contemplating quitting, but needed a good reason. so when the cupcakes arrived at my work, i knew i'd found my reason for quitting. seriously, if i'm supposed to sell customers on the cupcake things, i need to try the damn things, right? right. enough said.

strawberry shortcake cupcakes

yum, seriously.

(photo is copyright of a.meadowlark & taken from here)

check out aleta's blog: the omnomicon
or specifically, her strawberry shortcake cupcakes

because everyone else is cupcaking it up

seeing as everyone else in the blogging world of food is posting about cupcakes and valentines-sappy foods, i thought i'd post a cupcake photo to fit in. one of my delightful friends had a birthday, and let me bake vegan cupcakes for her party. i had fun with it and now understand cupcake-obsessed women. or men (i've never come across one, please let me know if you have).

happy find

this page has a photo of mine on it. linking back to its flickr origins. this made me happy. :)

fish n chips

i'm starting to appreciate fish. my sis fried some last week and it didn't smell too 'fishy' or taste 'fishy.' and i understand, that, yes, fish is supposed to smell like fish, but not the rotting, i-want-to-puke kind of fish smell. but i digress.

i attempted to do the fish thing. i bought some cod from a local store that sells seafood and free-range meat. i dipped it in an egg/lemon whisked liquid and then into a mixture of flour with rosemary-lemon-pepper-salt. then fried in olive oil at a mid-to-high temperature. apparently fish is done when it flakes and when the inside is no longer translucent. which means that in my eagerness to not undercook the fish, i ended up with punctured, flaky fillets that teetered on the edge of being overcooked. and definitely weren't presentable for their glamor shots. but i brightened up the plate with beans & a lemony tahini sauce, and homemade potato & yam chips. which weren't really a success. but good enough. i was inspired (as always) by alicia from bread-and-honey, when she made these chips. i think my oven is hotter than most, cuz the chips either burned or were soggy. i will conquer the homemade potato chip someday...

yummy wheat-free vegan choc chip walnut cookies

as of the beginning of this week i have gone wheat-free for a while, for various health & personal reasons. i've experimented quite a bit over the last year with wheat-free baking, since my sister doesn't eat it, so at least i'm not starting off completely new to it. but now i have to plan my meals better, make or buy wheat-free bread, and stare at delicious baked wheat products all day in longing.

i'm not a huge cookie person, but i like to eat them once in a while, and it struck me that if i ever have a chocolate chip cookie craving, i can't just buy one at a cafe when the craving hits. so i decided to bake some yesterday. and they are delicious. it was a pretty small batch, so i will have to bake some more soon. that way i can freeze a whole bunch to satisfy my 'occasional' chocolate chip cookie craving.

i found this fantastic recipe and pretty much followed it somewhat closely, until i realised the next day that i accidentally ommited the sugar, and just put in the brown sugar. they tasted perfectly sweet to me, so i will leave the sugar part optional.

note: found out that you can make your own 'oat flour' by grinding oats in a blender or food processor.


ingredients:

• 1 & 3/4 cups flour (i used 1 cup oat flour, 3/4 cup brown rice flour. if you want it completely gluten-free, try substituting all rice flour or quinoa flour)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar (optional!)
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (not optional)
  
• 1/3 cup oil (olive or canola)
• 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseeds
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk (or rice milk or regular milk)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts)
  
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Add the vinegar to the soymilk, and set aside. (I think the vinegar is supposed to help the cookies puff up a bit)

If you haven't yet, grind the flax seeds and chop the walnuts ahead of time.

Sift/whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, salt)

In a separate bowl, whisk the ground flax with the soymilk. Then, add the oil, sugar, vanilla, and mix well.

Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and stir until combined. Add the chocolate and walnuts last.

Drop onto cookie sheet by the teaspoon or tablespoon, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe makes about 18-20 small cookies. They don't last long, so it might be good to double the recipe.