The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I have been on the hunt for new and exciting sage recipes. I don’t know what it is with this herb but it sure does grows like a weed in my garden. I was looking through some pictures the other day, taken in May just after planting and realized how quickly I forgot about the savory, marjoram and dill I planted – all absorbed by my mutant sage bush. I have cut it back twice now, but this just seems to encourage new and stronger growth to the point where half of one of my vegetable beds is now all sage. I used to love sage but I have to say it is officially getting a little old.

I’ve made several varieties of sage pesto, sage anchovy fritters on 2 separate occasions for a crowd, stuffing, brown butter sage ravioli, crispy fried sage for topping salads, sage in every soup imaginable I even harvested large bundles for bouquets, this thing is unstoppable. I was considering dedicating a whole series of posts to good old sage but this guy thought otherwise and I am bound to obey. A series of posts, ha! You are crazy lady.

I decided to repost a recipe from my archives while I finish up a few new posts. This was originally posted a few years back and is still one of my favorite recipes. It’s so great for a party or even just a very indulgent weekend snack. It’s a bit of a time commitment but very much worth the effort. If you’re entertaining it’s unexpected and will even appeal to the most picky eaters. These chicken rillettes are fabulous with a good glass of chardonnay, throw a few cheeses on a board with some great bread and you’ve got an instant party. 

OK guys, after more than 6 months with my new camera and several BlogHer Food panels about food photography I decided to get proactive and actually start to read my camera manual in the hope that one day I may actually understand at least 2 of its functions. I haven’t started yet but the decision has been made, which is more than I could say for myself a few weeks ago.

My dear friend in San Francisco was kind enough to spend an hour or so with me on the weekend going over some of it’s basic functions. I’m proud to announce that I now know what shutter speed is and took my first pictures on the manual setting. Where are some examples you ask? Well lets just say they were taken while watching a band I enjoy perform at the Folsom Street Fair on Sunday and though I tried I just couldn’t find a way to work all that leather and nakedness into this site. Also, I didn’t want the people who organize leather pride week to hold me accountable. This event is definitely not the ideal place for a newbie behind a camera on manual setting for the first time. Overexposure just got taken to the next level. Not funny, I’ll stop.

These chanerelles were some of the dirtiest mushrooms I’ve ever purchased. If any of you are familiar with chanterelles you’ll know that they are not exactly the easiest variety of mushroom to clean. They have all kinds of groves almost like gills underneath the top that seem to be able to hold a plethora of dirt and grit, so they are definitely a mushroom variety that takes some extra time to clean up. I bought a whole bunch at the farmers market last week and it was like they came with the earth they grew in.

Once I did manage to clean them up, which took me a few days after purchasing, it was clear that these were going to be cooked simply. I think I must be going through an extremely lazy phase right now because a few dirty mushrooms never really caused me any cooking anxiety before. I had planned from the point of purchase to make a Mushroom Cheviche, inspired by the flavors common to traditional ceviche. Chanterells are truly one of the most delicately flavored mushrooms, they are quite rich and are perfect when they are simply sauteed in some butter. I thought a little bit of lime and cilantro would be just the thing. This is definitely not a mushroom you want to mix with a lot of strong flavors, they are best when kept simple. This recipe has only a few ingredients and is an absolute perfect appetizer for the season. We ate these for lunch and were  really happy that we didn’t have to share.

This is the easiest recipe in the world and I feel somewhat ridiculous even posting it. It’s really a no brainer but so perfect that you absolutely have to try it. We recently got into the habit of trying out all of the varieties of zucchini available at this time of year, which is a bit out of character for me because usually unless its baked with lots of sugar and chocolate (I’ll eat anything in loaf form!) I’m not the biggest zucchini fan. Well maybe I’m coming around to it a bit more in my old age, I’ve recently had my eye on a certain zucchini fritters recipe and baked zucchini sticks are one of my favourites, but as a kid I really couldn’t stand the stuff.

I’ve gone a little tomato crazy this year. I’m finding myself literally surrounded by tomatoes of all varieties and I only have myself to blame for it. As I may have mentioned before we receive more than we can eat in tomatoes each week from my mother-in-law and with many failed attempts at refusing her generous offers, because she really gives us way more than we could possibly eat, we gave up.

You would think that this constant supply of free tomatoes would extinguish any temptation to buy other available varieties in the market.

Nope, unlike most people who find themselves in an over abundance of any one thing, I don’t seem to know when to stop. You see, its tomato season in Vancouver and we have all kinds of amazing otherwise unavailable varieties like heirlooms and Okanagan Field tomatoes (still a few more weeks for these but I’m anticipating!). I wait all year for good Okanagan tomatoes I still think they’re the best in the world. How would it be possible for me to pass these up?

In a moment of panic, upon realization of my dilemma, I have come to the conclusion that we will be eating a lot of tomato based meals in the near future, at least until the Okanagan tomatoes are through. I’m OK with that for now. I promise I will exercise some restraint and not post exclusively tomato recipes for the rest of the summer.

I have been the laziest cook lately. For the last few weeks as this blog will attest I have had minimal time in the kitchen. Actually it hasn’t been intentional at all, I’ve just been so busy lately. We are desperately trying to find a house right now as we’ve out grown our one room apartment, so all of my free time has been spent doing this. Any of you Vancouverites who have been through this process recently will know how frustrating it is. I wont get started on the housing prices in Vancouver, they make me want to pull my hair out.

But hopefully we will find something soon because I’m sick of this and need more time to do the things I love again. AND my kitchen misses me. AND i just got a new set of amazing pots and pans. AND figs are in season!

I don’t know about you guys but I’m absolutely obsessed with figs. I wait not so patiently all year until its fig season. Once they start showing up we go absolutely fig crazy. Seriously we eat them on a daily basis. I thought I would share this extremely no brainer recipe quickly, its the first thing we do with figs each year and it may change the way you look at bruschetta forever.

Saturday lunch during the spring and summer months is my favorite meal of the week. It rivals even the prized boozy Sunday night dinners at my parents place. Though arguably lighter and without the wine parings these lunches are always pretty fantastic and inspired by the farmers market. They are also extremely simple, usually no more than just a few ingredients.

I had been meaning to write up one of these for some time now so I’m glad I’m finally getting to it. It might become a tradition, well see. This week, like most, I was drawn to the greens and decided to whip up a salad from a mix of pea shoots, pepper crest and another delicate green that I think was called something like Cresh. I’ll confirm that next week. Regardless though the result was pure perfection. The sweetness of the greens with the salt of the anchovies was amazing and surprisingly these greens though delicate were not overpowered by the anchovies. I was pretty happy with myself about that.

Here’s a recipe that will make you feel a little fancy on a Tuesday night. I almost can’t believe I’m writing a post about artichokes as they were one of my most feared food items as a child. I’m not quite sure why anymore, I think it had something to do with a period in my life where my mother made them a lot, beyond that I can’t remember any details.

A few years ago after seeing baby artichokes make there way into Vancouver markets, I decided it might be worth giving them another shot. They are small and seemed like the perfect entry level artichoke to tackle as a former artichoke hater. Plus I had them once being served as part of an amazing antipasti platter and I completely fell in love with the way they  complimented everything both aesthetically and with their woodsy flavor.

These artichokes apart from the cleaning process are extremely simple to prepare. Really it’s just a few tablespoons of olive oil, lemon and any variety of strong hard cheese you have on hand. They are a perfect snack or accompaniment. I served these roasted as is but I suspect they would be fabulous if you had some kind of simple sauce like an aioli to dip them in. My behind is starting to look like an Easter ham so I decided to skip that part at least this time around.

This salad was one of those unplanned surprises. I had intended on using up all of the asparagus I had purchased from the Farmers market in my chicken salad and was a bit alarmed when I realized I would only need about half. It was one of those weeks where I had planned almost every meal and I absolutely hate the possibility of having something go to waste.

Fortunately, being the over-eaters that we are, it wasn’t particularly difficult to find a way to add an additional course into one of our meals. Never is come to think about it. This might be the reason why I am not fitting into my jeans the way I used to and have been wearing leggings almost exclusively for the past month. I might have to look into that. Oh well! Never trust a skinny cook, right?

I’ve been seeing all kinds of shaved asparagus salads over the past month and so I was immediately drawn to this when trying to think of creative ways to use up the rest of mine. Seriously though, this salad is another one of those extremely easy ways to impress. Aesthetically its almost perfect and will take you about 10 minutes to prepare. Also, the taste of raw asparagus, thinly shaved may even have the power to win over those asparagus skeptics in your life. I know it did with mine.

After 2 weeks of eating white bread for almost every meal, I haven’t been able to eat anything but fresh vegetables since I got home. I know it seams a bit simple to be posting a recipe as basic as an heirloom tomato salad, but this is what I’ve been eating so tough! Ha! No in all seriousness there were some amazing looking heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market this morning and I just wasn’t strong enough to leave without a few of them. For the most part I’m powerless against these, when I see some good ones I just can’t walk away.

This salad is so simple and really needs nothing aside from some ripe heirloom tomatoes and maybe a bit of olive oil and some sea salt. I added in the pea shoots and thought the sweetness really complemented these amazing subtle tomatoes, but of course they aren’t necessary.