Nature's Bounty

Lately the skies have been dark and brooding, illuminating the fact that soon winter jackets and toques will have to make a reappearance. It hasn't been cold, but gloomy looking, and it really saps your energy. Today the sun came out for the first time in a week, and it feels like summer it just about to come again.

With the gathering darkness though, I started to keep a fresh eye out on our garden in the backyard. As a gardening novice, I am not sure how the weather will affect our zucchini and potatoes, but I know that frost usually wipes out anything above ground. So it was harvest time in the backyard as I wanted to bring in a good stash of vegetables before we lost them all. 

Figuring the potatoes would be safe below the ground (And they will be as per motherly advice), I pulled off all the zucchini's that were of good size and any remaining flowers that stuck around. For those wondering why I would bring in the flowers, they should look at the Stuffed Zucchini Flowers recipe. Pretty tasty stuff! And its better than simply letting them go to waste. 

So here is the current haul from our garden served a la Frisbee, which was on hand to help bring in the produce. 

Who knew that Zucchini's grew so fast once they got going? The one Zucchini was simply massive and is destined to be made into a Chocolate Zucchini Cake that I've been holding off on making. Bringing them in with the flowers and a few potatoes for dinner and I had to feel somewhat proud of our gardening accomplishment.

Our garden was quite a challenge from the beginning. Overgrown with weeds and a noticeable lack of care for the past several years created quite the blockade. We had to clear away the refuse so we could get in there. Fighting off ants, thorns and tough soil we managed to create a small garden. And with the end result now visible, it made the whole thing worth it. 

Im already planning the expansion of our garden next year to include some heads of lettuce for some fresh garden salads, and hopefully a spot for some raspberry or strawberry plants. I'll have to do some research on those before I get too excited though. 

Here's hoping that next year will provide more fresh food from our garden!

Burger Temptation

Its been about a week now and I finally could not wait a second longer. I simply had to cook myself a burger. Its been everywhere around me! I have seen burgers on commercials, billboards and other food blogs. I was watching an episode of Man Vs Food (A great tv show on OLN) and he was served a massive burger that got my stomach rumbling. I had to get away and find something else! So I was flipping channels again, and then... the Food Network struck again. Diners, Drive-ins and and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri was on.

What was I thinking? Of course there would be a burger in a show like that. Of course it had to be the show that was devoted to the best burgers ever. Burgers slathered in sauces, smothered in bacon and onions and completely tantalizing.

So first thing this morning, out came the ground beef. I had to wrestle with how to prepare them. I didn't know if I should stick with the traditional recipe that I have always loved or if I should try something new and exotic? In the end, nothing really beats a tried and true tested recipe.

Damn the rainy night and cold outside! Screw the difficulties that I have been having with my propane tank! So what if one of the three remaining hamburger buns had mold! Tonight... I was making burgers! Despite the difficulties, it all came together (I swear the two buns didn't have mold on them). And in the end, they were exactly what my taste buds and stomach needed!


The Ultimate Jeff Burger
*Now I just eyeball the amounts myself, so these are only approximations, but still pretty on. Judge how you want your burgers however.

Ground Beef - 1 package (makes about 6-8)
Worcestershire - 2 tbsps
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsps
Saltine Crackers - handful, smashed
Salt & Pepper - healthy pinch
Garlic Salt - healthy pinch
Egg - 1

Fairly simply stuff, you thaw out the beef before hand. Add all the other ingredients to a large mixing bowl. I find that saltine crackers are the best, but any kind of cracker, chip or bread will work. Just crush it in your hand before adding to the bowl.

Knead the meat with your hand until everything is well mixed in. Take a small piece and roll into a small ball in the palm of your hand, just a bit smaller than a tennis ball. Flatten it until it's a desirable height and width of meat.

Head out to the BBQ and leave on until cooked, about 5 minutes a side. Make sure to have one burger as a tester for the meat to be cooked through. Add cheese or BBQ sauce if desired.

After that, the chose of what to add is up to you. You can also add onions ( about 1/2, chopped) to the burger concoction if you wish, but sometimes I prefer them sauteed on the side and added afterwards. Add whatever burger favourites you have, but to make the ultimate Jeff Burger, you need to have -

Ketchup, Dijon mustard, pickles, lettuce, sauteed onions, bacon and cheddar cheese melted on top. Jalapenoes are a game-time decision for me. Just remember that it's your burger, so your creation. Enjoy!

Spicy Basa Creole

My girlfriend and I found a great deal for some Basa fillets at the grocery store and just had to get them. I have never cooked Basa before, or even heard of it, but it looked like a larger Tilapia. A quick look on my favourite information source, Wikipedia, reveals that Basa is a catfish native to Vietnam. Who knew? But now came an even more important question... what the heck to do with it now?

I was in the mood for something a bit spicier, and the night was a bit chillier, so I decided that some comfort type food was the way to go. There is nothing quite like a hot stew or chili, so that was the basis of my idea. I scouted some recipes and came up with a pretty good idea of what I would like to do.

What may surprise you, was how delicious and tasty this recipe was with such sparsely used ingredients. A lot of flavour without a lot of effort. It isn't the sexiest meal, but it definitely has some good satisfying qualities to it. Serve it with some rice on the side and you have a good healthy dinner.


Spicy Basa Creole

Basa Fillets - 2
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Red Pepper - 1 - sliced
Onion - 1/2 - sliced
Garlic Salt - 1 tsp
Cayenne Pepper - 2 tsps (Your choice, this was spicy already, so it depends on your heat tolerance)
Tomato - 1 diced
Tomato Sauce - 1 14oz can
Salt & Pepper - pinch

Heat a large frying pan at medium heat. Cut the fish into bite size pieces and drizzle the lemon juice over the top. Set aside.
Saute the onions and red peppers until they grow soft. Add the cayenne and garlic salt, then the fish, tomato and tomato sauce. I lacked a can of diced tomatoes, which would be an ideal substitute.

Bring the whole thing to a boil, then cover and simmer until the fish is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Serve with rice. I put some green onion on top to add a little colour to the whole mix, which was pretty red. So you can go with the fiery theme if you want, but I liked some more colour.  Good, healthy and a quick supper, especially when coming home from work or school. And any recipe that goes so quickly and tastes so good is fine by me.

Gnarly Gnocci

It seems today that everyone gets caught up in making easy and quick meals these days. Bread, pies, pizza, potatoes, pasta... all done quick and easy inside of the microwave so people can get on in their busy lives. And while I always enjoy a quick meal every now and then, there is something satisfying about cooking it yourself. 

Homemade pizza dough is the perfect example. You can always get a takeout pizza, buy a pre-made pizza shell, or just buy the already dressed up pizza that just needs to be put in the microwave or oven. And while I am sure that these are all quick and easy methods, they do lack a certain satisfaction upon the end of the meal.


When you put the effort and love into the food that you are cooking, the end result is much more satisfying that hearing the microwave timer go off. The construction of these giant feasts can result in sweat, blood (if you're not careful) and tears. But just like building a house, its sometimes better to put some serious effort into it to enjoy it more.


This gnocci recipe was a lot of work. Normally pasta meals are not complex. This time however the recipe changed simply because I went to make the pasta noodles myself. Unlike other pasta noodles, gnocci is made out of potatoes and has some intensive preparation. Once in awhile though, the desire to spend a night creating a delicious meal comes upon me and I dont mind spending that extra effort.


This entry shouldn't scare you from trying it out yourself. This recipe is not a difficult one and is pretty straight forward. This is nothing that an average cook could not do on their own. I hope some cooking fervour gets a hold of you as well! I got this recipe from an east coast cooking book called Flavours of Prince Edward Island. If you get the chance to add this cookbook to your collection, you should. Not only does it have several good recipes, but it also has an excellent collection of stories and tips that make a good cookbook amazing.

Gnocci


Russet Potatoes - 8-10 medium sized
Old White Cheddar Cheese - 1 cup
Flour - 2 1/2 cups
Eggs - 2
Salt - pinch


Butter - 3 tbsps
Mushrooms - Large handful
Dry White Wine - 1/2 cup
Green Peas - 1 cup
Black Pepper - a few healthy pinches
Basil - 1 bunch fresh
2% Milk - 1/2 cup
Heavy Cream - 1 cup


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.


Prick the potatoes with a fork and then place them in the oven for about 45 minutes. Turn off the oven. Break the potatoes in half and return to the oven to dry for 30 minutes more. Remove them from the oven and peel. Mash until no lumps and place in a large mixing bowl.


Prepare a large bowl of ice water. You will really need ice in this bowl as it will cool off the pasta. I suggest using one entire ice tray to start, and if it warms up, use a second.
Prepare a pot of bowling water.


Create a well in the middle of the potatoes and cover the entire mixture in the cheese and flour. In the still visible well, add the eggs and salt. Mix it all together. Start kneading the dough on a floured counter, it will take some muscle, but do so until it forms a ball that is dry to the touch. Divide this ball into four smaller balls, and roll them into long dowels. You can decide the size of your gnocci here, but I used it about the size of a thumb in length and width. Mark these pieces with a fork (So it can collect more sauce) and then add to the bowling water for about 2-3 minutes, but especially until they float. Add to the ice water to cool. I then added them to a tray with a towel for them to dry. The pasta portion is now down.


Heat a large skillet (And really big, its a lot of food) over medium heat. Add butter and saute the gnocci and mushrooms until mushrooms soft and the gnocci are browning. Add the white wine, peas, pepper, basil, milk and cream. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add salt to season, and add more shredded cheese if so desired.




As you can see, most of the time went into the actual making of the gnocci noodles. It makes a lot, so you may want to cut back on the recipe a bit. I also wondered if you could freeze some of them, I dont really know why not. I would also suggest that you save some for a different sauce, like a nice tomato sauce. Serve with some garlic bread and a salad and you have a great solid meal! I really hope you try this one out and offer any recommendations to make it better. Enjoy none the less!

Champion Bruschetta

Finally! I have found a bruschetta recipe that actually makes me feel like an Italian when I eat it! The multitude of cooking shows that are available always talk about how great fresh food tastes. Bruschetta is so readily available in grocery stores that people just purchase a container before a dinner party. They exchange the plastic container for a nice serving dish and pretend that the Bruschetta is a homemade product.

But you can taste the difference! There is no substitute for fresh ingredients in this case. There are just too many real flavours that come out in this recipe to fake it. The tomatoes, the garlic, the onion, the cheese... just so damn good!

I also learned a great cooking trade secret when trying this recipe out. Instead of mincing the garlic and just adding it to the tomato, you start with the garlic bread. I'll skip straight to the recipe just to get my excitement out!


Bruschetta

French Loaf - 4 thick slices
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 2 cloves
Tomatoes - 2-3 chopped
Green Onion - 2-3 stalks chopped
Mozzarella Cheese - shredded - 1 cup
Basil - handful - finely chopped
Salt and Pepper - dash

Brush the bread slices with olive oil. I wasn't sure about the best method to do so, so I ended up just pouring a splash in my hand and rubbing it on the bread. It would probably be easier to either spoon it on or pour the oil onto a plate and use a brush for the bread. Toast it under the broiler until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven.

Now, the trade secret! Take the garlic cloves and rub them directly on the bread. The garlic melts onto the bread and flavours the whole thing. So tasty! I was shocked and amazed for this. Normally I had to mix the butter and garlic together before placing on the bread.

Now, you can either place the shredded cheese right on the bread and toast again, or you can mix the cheese in with the rest of the ingredients. I like the cheese toasted, so I gave it another turn in the oven before adding the tomatoes, green onions and basil. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper and serve.


This recipe was from Chef Michael Smith's The Best of Chef at Home cookbook. I was sort of disappointed it wasn't from a classic Italian cookbook, but the recipe makes me feel as if im wandering through Venice or dinning in Rome. And if that's how the food makes me feel, then it deserves the championship title!

Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Once I saw this recipe In David Rocco's Dolce Vito I was hooked. It was one of those things that I simply had to cook. In his book, Rocco talks about how he acquired the flowers from the local grocer in Toronto. I would doubt that a trip to Safeway or Sobeys would have the same end result, so where would I find some zucchini blossoms?

The opportunity presented itself once my girlfriend and I moved into our new house. A spacious new backyard with a garden right outside! Of course it was overrun with weeds after years of disuse, but at least it was a possibility! So we decided to go ahead and plant some zucchini's, and then the wait was on!

After a few weeks, I began to question why people bother to garden at all! What a miserable chore to look forward to every week! Bending over in the hot heat, picking an endless supply of weeds that do NOT end! Why do people do this for fun?

However, we struggled through the endless weeds, the sweat and the dirt and came up with some great looking plants. A few more weeks of wait and they blossomed into some beautiful flowers. Time was of the essence! This was the first time that I wasn't able to cook something on my time, but was regulated by when the flowers were available. Once the flowers were ready, I had to be ready to cook. And the wait was over!

This particular recipe is actually a hybrid between two different cookbooks. David Rocco's Dolce Vita and Liz Franklin's The Organic Seasonal Cookbook both contain this recipe but with mild variations. The photography for Dolce Vita is amazing, and as I mentioned earlier is one of the main reasons I wanted to cook this recipe. I unfortunately lacked the anchovies that Rocco suggested, and I didn't have the white wine. So I turned to Franklin who uses water and baking powder. It would be interesting to see how the flavour would change with the different recipes. Anyway, here is my own variation, although I would highly suggest looking up Rocco's!


Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Zucchini Blossoms - 12
Old Cheddar - 12 pieces bite size  (Rocco used Mozza which would be a better Italian experience I think)
Flour - 1/2 cup flour
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Egg - 1
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Water - 3/4 cup
Olive Oil - For frying
Salt

The flowers were pretty delicate, so I rinsed them under the tap, using barely a drizzle to clean them off.

Mix the Flour and Baking powder together. Create a well and add the egg, the olive oil and the water. Eye-ball the amount of water depending on how thick you want it. I would suggest the same consistency as a heavy cream. Enough to coat the flowers and not come off. Whisk all together.

Fill a frying pan with about an inch worth of oil. The flowers need to be able to float inside of the pan. The better the oil, the better the flavour. You can reuse the oil another time for other deep frying experiences, about 3 times would be best. Have the oil hot (Medium high) so the flower doesn't absorb the oil. Take a bit of batter and drop into the pan when you're ready as a tester.

Stuff the flowers with cheese. At this point you can add anything you want to the flower as long as it isn't bursting. Fish and veggies would be the best. Dip the flower into the batter until well coated. Drop gently into the pan, cooking for about 2-4 minutes or until lightly golden. You may need to flip them once.

Remove and place on paper towel. Sprinkle on some salt before serving. You may also want to serve it with some lemon juice and diced red onion.


It is a real surprising snack or appetizer that im glad to have experienced. The picture might not be very sexy as it was a rush to get it on the table, but they were darn good. These were probably one of the riskiest things that I have ever cooked, but that's how you discover the tasty dishes!

Pasta Fresco

It is my grand return to the city of Lethbridge! I have returned for another year, but this one is quite different from my other years in Lethbridge. This is the first year that I will not be returning to take classes as I graduated last year.

This causes one key problem. I am no longer, a College Guy in the Kitchen. The blog name is false! I probably should have started this blog years ago so it would make sense, for now I am in a serious pickle. What should I rename the blog? It doesn't quite seem fitting to continue this blog under the same name when it is no longer true. I have been puzzling all summer, and once in awhile a good idea would hit me, but names would already be taken. How long can a blog stay active before it is deleted?

Because I finally managed to make it back to Lethbridge after the long summer, my girlfriend and I decided to head out for a nice romantic date. There is a nice restaurant just heading into the city called the Pasta Fresco. It started up very quietly at the beginning of the summer, and now that the students are returning, I expect that they will be much busier.

Its a nice looking restaurant with a good layout and colours. I was a little surprised to see that their staff was allowed to wear jeans as it seems a fairly fancy establishment, but perhaps there is a bit of small town mentality to it. The menu was okay, but nothing really seemed to jump off the page. There were several nice sounding dishes, but they didn't really make my mouth start watering just by reading them.

However, the food itself was actually pretty good. The calamari was a tasty appetizer that I would definitely be eating again. The Lobster and Shrimp Ravioli was delicious. There wasn't really anything that stood out from the meal, but the taste was still worth it. It was a little rich though, so I didn't eat the whole thing.
The Pollo Chicken Pizza was way better than the pasta! Some great flavours seemed to leap out from it. The crust was thin and perfect and some great ingredients were thrown on top.

All in all, a pretty good experience and worth going to at least one time to try it out. The menu could have been a bit sexier in it's presentation, but the food was pretty tasty. I dont know if it was really a restaurant that made me cry out "Its so good, I MUST go back!" but it had potential. Italian is just too easy to cook and pizza too easy to order so they need to do something to pull people back. The key is flavour, and this restaurant needs to push that farther than they have.

Conclusion. Good food and a good place, but they need to pull their pants up in order to be amazing. Still worth giving it a shot though if you're in the neighborhood.

Staff and Service: B+
Food and Flavours: B
Atmosphere: C+