Recipes

I picked the first of my bush beans this week (3 lbs.!!), and I'll be picking a lot more this weekend. The rows of beans were planted about 2 weeks apart, so I'll get a staggered, longer harvest. Fabulous, since I love fresh beans!

Last night I stir-fried the beans in a spicy mixture of garlic, ginger and chili paste. I used a slightly sweet Thai paste made of finely ground dried shrimp and dried chilis. You can use whatever chili paste you have on hand, adjusting the amounts to your liking.

The season of the monster zucchini has begun!! I got my first baseball bat sized zucchini this week and decided to do something with it before it started to take up too much space in the fridge.

Anything with roasted garlic is fine by me, so when I came across a recipe for a chutney using roasted garlic, I had to try it.

This is definitely my favourite chutney I've ever canned. The garlic is somewhat tamed, yet still pretty pungent. The sweet tartness of the chutney is a great backdrop for that garlicky punch. This would be great served with roast chicken, cold cuts or as part of an appetizer platter with cream cheese or brie.

This recipe is also great since it takes full advantage of fresh local peaches and apples.

Our visit yesterday to Cloverdale Farms is the inspiration for this recipe. It's hard not to think "CORN" when you're surrounded by walls of it for over an hour and a half...corn on the cob, corn chowder, corn bread, corn relish...!

When we rushed home to make this corn chowder last night, I found that it really didn't need much seasoning other than a bit of salt and pepper. The corn was so sweet and flavourful!

Going to a BBQ for a friend tonight! And the recipe is BBQ Mojo Pork which is marinated in a citrusy aromatic mix! Mmmm mmm!

UPDATE: Here's how it looked at Paul's Barbie:

As summer is beginning to wind down (at least the weather feels that way!), a lot of people are thinking of back to school lunch box ideas. This is a great muffin recipe that kids of all ages will love. Over ripe bananas are the most flavourful and the rolled oats add substance to this muffin.

I like to sprinkle chopped walnuts on the tops just before popping them in the oven.

One of my favourite "guilty secret" pleasures from Germany was eating Schupfnudeln. Schupfnudeln, at least the Swabish variant that I experienced in the Bodensee, were noodles made from potatoes similar to gnocchi (the Swabians are heavily into noodles like Spaetzle) with sauerkraut, and bits of fatty pork. It was available at every Fest and it was usually cooked in a large wok type device.

It sounds unappetizing, but it really hit the spot for a cheap, warm meal especially on those grey Bodensee days.

More interesting recipes from ViewFromTheHeart: Potato Gratin and Pan-cooked Peaches. Thanks, Al!

Small improvement suggestion to Al: Put your recipes in the navigation box and give them meaningful URLs by using the "Set a relative path for this message?" feature under the admin box after clicking on Discuss.

While I was in Calgary over the weekend, Kristin's Mom, Peggy, made these delectable cinnamon buns.

Here's how they look when they are done:

At the East Van Farmers' Market yesterday, I picked up some gorgeous, rosy apricots. I'm not so much of a fan of eating fresh apricots, but I love the flavour of cooked ones. With most of the apricots, I made another one of my favourite canning projects: apricot brandy preserves. The cooking process seems to really concentrate the apricot flavour and the colour of this preserve is golden and stunning!! The nice brandy kick is pretty tasty too!

I also baked an Apricot Coffee Cake (see the picture below)