Ugly Pizzas

My friend Vanessa may have created a monster by introducing me to the 101 Tastes of Ottawa List from Ottawa Magazine. I don't plan to try the whole list (I'm not going to pay for a whole meal at The Whalesbone Oyster House on the off-chance that they will serve browned butter, which I can make at home.) and a lot of it is stupid (Kale?!) but it's a handy guide for narrowing down a lot of things to those worth trying.

Meanwhile, my friend Lucia recently gifted me some smoked ricotta that her parents brought back from Italy.

Sooooo delicious.

Number 92 on the 101 Tastes list is Pingue's Prosciutto (not from Ottawa, but whatever) that can be purchased at a great deli/butcher/grocer/baker called The Piggy Market in Westboro.

I don't know about you, but to me ingredients as delicious as these scream "Pizza!"

Tri tip with chimichurri

I was feeling like a little something fancy on Friday night and decided Argentinian-inspired was the name of the game when I saw a tri tip steak at the butcher. I've had steak with chimichurri in the back of my mind as a possibility for a while now.

I couldn't find a recipe that worked for me, so I took what I know about Argentinian flavours (I know some but not all of the things) and went with it. I made a rub for the meat from garlic, salt, thyme, cumin, pepper, and oregano and my own rendition of chimichurri to top it.

Apple & Cranberry Breakfast Quinoa

Since the weather's gotten colder I've been digging hot breakfast. This happens every year.

Last year I was all about the cream wheat, but since I found pantry moths in mine a few weeks back I've sort of lost my appetite for it. I love oatmeal, but I love oatmeal buried in brown sugar and milk - great as a treat but not the healthiest way to start the day. Enter: quinoa.

Mexican corn

Corn season has wrapped up, but the off-season stuff has gotten a lot better in the past few years, and darnit, I'm not ready to stop using the barbecue yet.

I've had a recipe like this one kicking around for a while and had been meaning to try it, but I like to use corn as a healthy starch with summery meals, and slathering mayo, sour cream, and cheese all over corn does not seem like the healthiest way to serve it. And is it really Mexican? I don't actually know.

What it is for sure is really, really good.

Easy White Chili

Chili is a fall/winter staple, of course, but it's good to have a variety to mix things up. I've been making white chili in the slow cooker for the past few years, but last night I decided to throw something similar together on the stove. Matt took a bite and declared it the best white chili I've made, so I figured I'd better write down what I did while I still remember.

Baked green tomatoes

Another depressingly short growing season has come to an end in Ottawa, but there is an upside: green tomatoes. When the weather is good I can't bring myself to pick them (since I only get a few red ones over the summer), but once all hope of that has been abandoned I'm ready for them.

Come to me, pretties...

I love the American south. The people are damn friendly and the food is damn good. I especially love fried green tomatoes with house- or home-made pimento cheese. I've even found somewhere you can get them in Ottawa.

Unfortunately I do not possess the metabolism required to eat as many fried green tomatoes as I'd like without consequences, so I've been trying for for a couple of years to come up with a healthy but still delicious approximation.

That day has come.

#kitchncure Day 3: Gadgets and appliances

Gadgets and appliances. They are not my biggest problem - but there was room to improve because I know that a lot of the stuff I have I've been keeping out of guilt.

First up: drawers. They were already divided, roughly, into small stuff, big stuff, bigger stuff, and stuff under the stove. (I know, the cookie sheet on top of the "under stove" pile looks bad... but its purpose in life is to catch drippings under smoking meat, so don't fear.)

        

       

#kitchncure Day 2: Pantry edition

I saw the topic for day two of #kitchncure: the pantry. I let out a deep breath. As great as I felt about the fridge and freezer, I was hoping for a reprieve before we dove into dry goods. Because... well...