Wifi, Squash Pie Anyone, Roast Taties,

Wednesday morning  the tech guy comes to change my modem. When he leaves I have wifi. In the afternoon I don't have wifi. Call my ISP and they make me do some password changes so I end up with wifi. Hour or two later I pick up my laptop and I don't have wifi. Get in touch, online, with my ISP and they take over my laptop which I have now hard wired into the modem. I have to use the hard wire from my desktop so I had no internet access at all last night. The tech who was working on my laptop left a note saying I seemed to have a problem with my modem and should change it!!!!!! Er????

Well here's a shocker, coming up to Thanksgiving (here in Canada this weekend) celebrations and here is an article in Food and Wine saying that canned pumpkin is NOT pumpkin. It is, in fact, a blend of winter squashes because real pumpkin tends to be too stringy. It is, according to the article, perfectly legal to call this mixture pumpkin?? I used, always, to use a pumpkin for my soups, but then I was in a hurry one time and bought a can of pumpkin, as I thought, and decided it worked very well so as we found pumpkins so very hard to cut into these days, I carried on with the canned variety. So I guess I have been making squash soup and many of you have been making squash pies. Staggers me that these people are allowed to put 100% pumpkin on the cans when it isn't pumpkin at all.

It seems odd to me that with the influx of English into North America, I have never come across

anywhere or anyone who can make English style roast potatoes which are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. I have a friend who, when we make them for her, will not stop eating them she loves them so much. We use yellow potatoes which we peel, cut into smaller pieces and parboil in salted water until they are just beginning to soften on the outside. Drain them and allow them to cool. We then use a fork and score the potatoes to make them extra crispy then they are put into hot oil (vegetable oil for preference) and roasted in a hot oven (arouud 400°F)  for at least an hour, turning once to ensure the whole potato is crisped. Serve as soon as possible once removed from the oven. Great with any roast meats. I bought a duck this week, they were on special at $14 odd, and will be roasting it on Saturday with all the trimmings. Actually we won't be making roast potatoes because I don't eat potato much and Matt enjoys a baked potato with lashings of butter. I asked him what he wanted and that was his choice. Guess who normally makes the roast potatoes? Just as well really, as I would have eaten some. I can't resist them totally.

Don't often think of buying tilapia, but it is a good fish and I believe not as expensive as some fish. This recipe sounded good and I keep Tapenade anyway. Oh, and by the way, tapenade is nowhere near the jarred olives in my store, it is in the deli department.

Tilapia With Tomato-Olive Sauce

Top tilapia fillets with a savory tomato-olive sauce that comes together in just 5 minutes. Look for

tapenade near jarred olives in the supermarket. Serve with sautéed broccolini and farro tossed with toasted almonds.

1 1/4 lbs tilapia
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved if large
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbs olive tapenade

1. Sprinkle tilapia with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook (in two batches if necessary), turning once halfway through, until golden brown and just opaque in the center, 4 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the fish to a serving platter; tent with foil to keep warm.

2. Off the heat, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, tomatoes, wine and garlic to the pan. Return to medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of tomatoes are broken down, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in olive tapenade and cook for 1 minute more. Serve the fish with the sauce.

Servings: 4

Author: EatingWell.com
Source: WebMD

Have a great day
 

Friday, Cooking, Oktoberfest.

I decided to make some soup for this evening. I ended up with beans (black and white) with spinach and tomatoes and chucked in a handful of basil. Obviously onions, garlic and chicken bouillon were in the mix. It tastes very good. Maybe not totally appropriate for the weather, but…. Matt says if it’s too warm we can turn on the air, true I guess. We certainly have been getting some lovely weather. Later: The soup was very good. Now have some in the freezer.

Whilst waiting for the soup to cook I looked at my email and found a flyer from Zehrs, our local grocery

store. Lo and behold, beef rib roasts at half price. I couldn’t go out so Matt went down and got a couple of nice looking roasts which we double wrapped and put in the freezer. Just what I need for my new horseradish. Won't be eating either of them for a while though, turkey first.

The dicky bird (turkey breast) is out and defrosting  I always cook it in an oven bag - so much easier. I have never cooked a whole turkey in an oven bag, but done a few turkey breasts and they turn out very well. Maybe not as brown as if cooked the regular way. I guess I could unbag it and brown it off in the oven for a while, but I have never bothered. Under normal circumstances we would have roast potatoes, but I don’t really want to bust my diet that much and Matt is just as happy with a baked potato with butter in it. We make our roast potatoes by parboiling peeled potatoes, draining them, and then cooking them in the oven in hot fat. If you scratch the potatoes with a fork before roasting, they come out extra crispy.
For those of you seriously thinking about making bread sauce, there is a better description of how to make it in this blog.
Our radio is blaring out polkas today, it’s the beginning of Oktoberfest and they “tapped the keg” in downtown Kitchener this afternoon. This music will be played a lot during the next week and Matt hates it so he is going to be out of luck. Something we have always avoided. Neither of us is good with crowds. I have mentioned before that this is the biggest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Munich. Many Germans settled in this area which gave impetus to the occasion at the beginning.

I thought this pudding looked delicious and it will certainly be on my menu in the near future. I found it at Cooking.com

Buttermilk Puddings with Mango Sauce

Source: Dessert - The Grand Finale
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
Puddings
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/6 oz gelatine
1 tablespoon water
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup buttermilk
Mango Sauce
1 mango, peeled and pitted
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS
Puddings:
Combine 1/4 cup of the cream with the sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boiling point. Remove from heat.
Dissolve the gelatine in the water. Stir into the cream mixture and mix well. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the buttermilk. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pudding. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Whip the remaining 3 tablespoons of the cream and fold into the mixture. Pour into 2 lightly oiled 1-cup metal moulds. Fill each mould right to the top. Wrap with plastic; refrigerate for 2 hours.
Mango Sauce:
Place the mango flesh and sugar in a food processor. Puree. Strain through a sieve. Unmould each pudding and serve with Mango Sauce.

Have a great holiday weekend – well it is for Canadians. I should say Gemütlichkeit.