Carrot Slaw (and the case of the missing tahini jar)

After spotting a recipe for tahini ginger slaw on kickpleat's (of Everybody Likes Sandwiches) blog, I immediately developed a hankering for some.

I knew that I had NO cabbage in my fridge, but I did have two jumbo carrots. And, I knew that I had an unopened jar of tahini, which my mother had brought back from Greece last year. The question was, where did I stash the tahini jar?

After spending 10 minutes peering into every possible cupboard and pantry in the kitchen, I came to the (premature) conclusion that my dear husband has thrown it out! Grrr! Now, don't get me wrong, my husband will ask first before he disposes of something, but on occasion he will toss something if he is convinced that (a) the item has gone bad or (b) we do not need it.

Months ago, when I had brought the jar of tahini home, J had questioned me about whether we needed such a large jar of tahini. Are we really going to consume all that tahini to warrant having it take up space in our cupboard. My answer was yes!

Well, here I was, with shredded carrots in a bowl and the lemon juice and ginger and oil in another bowl, eagerly waiting for the creamy tahini to bind it all together. There was NO tahini in sight.

I called J at work. He said he did not recall tossing out the jar of tahini. I pushed on...blaming him for my current distress at not being able to complete my salad recipe. "That is your style," I argued. You're always tossing things out without asking me first!"

I was livid and wasn't thinking straight. I was also PMS-ing.

To make a long story short, I found the tahini, 5 minutes after I got off the phone with my husband. It was in a place where it should not have been...stored in a pantry drawer with my selection of teas and hot chocolate mixes. How it got there, I do not recall. Perhaps I put it there in a haste and forgot all about it. That is probably the case.

I felt so horrible afterward for blaming my husband over the MIA tahini. I sent him three e-mails at work apologizing profusely and yes, of course I blamed PMS. Wouldn't you?

So, here is what I did differently from kickpleat.

I used only carrots.
I added a handful of golden raisins.
I made her tahini dressing without the sweetener since the raisins add sweetness.
(I got angry at my husband)

dressing (adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches)
1 T tahini
juice of half a lemon
1 t minced fresh ginger
1/4 c olive oil
salt & pepper, to taste

This carrot slaw was wonderfully ginger-y. If you enjoy the robustness of ginger then this salad offers the perfect balance by combining both the sweetness from the chewy raisins and the kick from the fresh ginger. The creamy tahini offers the slightest hint of sesame aroma. Quick, simple and flavourful!

pizza breakfast of champignons

Breakfast is one my favourite meals of the day but lately I've been getting quite bored with just the old standby: cereal, oatmeal or fried eggs. I was thinking what to make for breakfast one morning this week when I was inspired by a leftover tortilla I spotted lingering in my refrigerator.

At first, a traditional pizza came to mind...with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and some mushrooms. Simple enough, right? Well, I also felt that I needed something more breakfast-y to add to this dish. Something with a bit more protein other than just cheese. So I decided an egg would satisfy my quest .

I should also mention that the progression of this dish came to me as a flashback to a Jamie Oliver cooking episode where he made an authentic Italian pizza and cracked and egg (or two) onto the pizza, added some cheese, anchovies and capers called it a meal. Jamie's pizza seemed like an incredibly easy and tasty twist on traditional Western style pizza. I bet if smell-o-vision was available through my laptop, it would have smelled great too.

So that is basically what set the wheels in motion for me to make this "breakfast tortilla pizza".

Putting this dish together was very easy. The cheese was grated first and a well was formed in the middle of the "pizza" with the cheese, so that it would contain the raw egg without allowing it to run all over the place.

After this, it was just a matter of what kind of extras to add. I love mushrooms, so I knew they had to be present in this dish. Some spring onions were also added for a bit of colour and a flavour boost. And of course salt and pepper to taste.

Since I had the oven preheated, the "pizza" was ready in less than 15 minutes. The cheese had melted and the egg had firmed up. (No runny yolks for me, but feel free to bake your pizza for less time, if you like the runny yolk effect. Likewise, if you are bold and can handle anchovies at 9 a.m. then be my guest and add them to this dish as well.) The tortilla (my favourite part) was toasted and crispy and had developed a cracker-like crunch.

In the end, this pizza addressed all of my breakfast needs and gave me just the right amount of energy to tie me over until lunch. A perfect pizza breakfast of champignons and champions!

Lemony Hummus Soup for the Big Baby

There is a cold bug going around and I plan to keep it at bay. My husband "J" came home early today from work saying that he wasn't feeling well.

Well, that solves the dilemma of what to make for dinner. Soup!!

The next question was what kind of soup? Well, it MUST have garlic in it. And also a good source of Vitamin C in the the form of lemon juice. And a of course a protein source like chickpeas. Perhaps a vegetable or two of some kind...onions, peppers. That's it folks! Aside from the veggie stock and the seasonings, this is the makings of a thick and creamy, lemony chickpea soup. Once you puree it, of course.

I don't know about you, but I like to have some crusty bread with my soup. I had part of a stale baguette on the kitchen counter, that I thought I would slice into little crostinis with which to scoop up the soup. I grabbed a serrated knife to slice through the very hard bread and ended up slicing my finger in the process. Ouch! I dropped what I was doing to see the wound. Once I inspected the cut and saw that it wasn't too serious, I wrapped up the finger and went back to slicing the hard bread.


At the dinner table, I dove into the soup hungrily. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the soup was good. Really good! Tasty with a pronounced lemony twang and a thick and creamy consistency and...well, really good! J agreed with me too. He quickly devoured the soup between sniffles. We decided to re-name the soup, "hummus soup" (original name being Chickpea Lemon Soup) because it was almost like eating a bowl of piping, hot hummus. In the process of talking about this soup, I had almost forgotten about my throbbing, sore finger.

And what about the bread, you ask? Well, I dunked the stale bread into the soup and allowed the steam and the heat from the soup to soften it up. Yum! I was quite content.

How could such a simple sounding soup, taste so good? I only used a short list of everyday common ingredients. Nothing fancy. And it was fast to make also. Aside from the sliced finger, I would say making this soup was a painless experience.

This is the perfect meal for a cold day, a impending cold, a finger boo-boo and a big baby. Who's the big baby? I'll let you figure that one out for yourself :)

Lemony Hummus Soup (taken from David and Rachelle Bronfman's cookbook "CalciYum!")

3 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 cans, rinsed and drained
3 cups vegetable stock
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 small onions, chopped (I used 1 large onion)
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf (I used 2 leaves)
3 tbs lemon juice (I added more lemon juice at the end)
2 tbs chopped parsley (I omitted the parsley)
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

1. In a large pot with a lid, combine all ingredients, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Remove bay leaf. In batches, with a blender or food processor, puree soup until smooth (or semi-smooth in my case), returning pureed soup to pot. Heat for another 5 minutes and serve.

It's a passion.

So, here we are. One of my favourite topics. Food!
Food and the practice of eating food always brings people together. No matter what language you speak or which country you are from, food is a universal language (yes, just like love).

So without further ado, let's talk food. And our love for it.



If you are a fan of sweet potatoes then you came to the right place. I love sweet potatoes! Mashed, fried, in a stew. Whichever way it is cooked, I'm game.

Imagine my surprise when my husband came home from picking up some groceries this afternoon and presented me with a bag of these:


Have you tried them? If not...Well, I think you should.

Crunchy and light tasting. Lightly salted and not at all greasy.

I found these sweet potato chips delicious just on their own. However, you can also try them with your favourite salsa - which I did - and they were just as tasty and crunchy without losing their sweet potato/corn flavour.

The company is called 'Food Should Taste Good' and boy do these folks deliver on taste.

There are several other flavours available for those who like to try new things:

Multigrain, Jalapeno, Olive, The Works!, Buffalo, and get this...Chocolate!!

If you are tired of traditional potato chips and nacho chips but are still looking for a crunchy, slighly salty, snack that's actually healthy and big on flavour...try these chips soon.

And if the great flavour alone wasn't going to convince you to cheat on your news year's resolution, perhaps these added benefits will:

gluten-free
kosher
non-GMO
lactose-free
no trans fats
no cholesteral
good source of fibre

I'm already thinking about which flavour to try next, although I am quite smitten with the sweet potato. By the way, the bag is now empty.