Short & Sweet Sunday - Apple Butter Snack

In honour of Family Day weekend, this is so short and sweet it is barely even a recipe. It requires no cooking and very little effort but it makes a delicious, healthy, low-calorie snack.

While we were eating healthy I found this to be a nice snack or quick breakfast.  Take two rice cakes.

And some apple butter

This is just apples, no sugar added but it makes a yummy spread.

Spread the apple butter over the rice cakes

Then top with almond butter. You could also use peanut butter but almond butter has such a nice flavour and texture.

 It may not look pretty but it tastes surprisingly great!

Celeriac Puree

Look at this ugly fella...

Who'd believe it could turn into a silky, creamy white puree that is delicious and nutritious?

Celeriac or celery root is actually from the carrot family. It looks ugly on the outside but has a tasty white flesh that is a great substitute for potatoes.  It is also good mixed and mashed with potatoes.  

Peel the tough, knobby skin from the celeriac and chop it into cubes.

Cover with cold water and toss in a peeled garlic clove and plenty of kosher salt.

Simmer for about 25 minutes until the celeriac is tender.  Drain and remove the garlic clove, then add butter, salt, pepper and milk to the pot.

Then puree the celeriac with a hand blender. You could also use a food processor or a potato masher.  

This creamy, delicious puree is great served with hoisin glazed short ribs or as a replacement for mashed potatoes.  

Hoisin Short Ribs

This Eat, Write, Retreat contest from Canadian Beef has really inspired me to cook more beef this week!  I found some well-priced beef short ribs at the grocery store and decided to create an Asian style glaze to braise them in.  I found a stewing/braising lesson at www.beefinfo.org and used that to create my recipe.  

Hoisin sauce is a thick, sweet soy-based sauce that was the main ingredient in my braise.

Along with orange juice, soy sauce, beef stock, onions, garlic and ginger.  

I cut the short ribs into sections and browned them in a mix of olive oil and sesame oil. 

I used my beloved enameled cast iron pot to brown the ribs, giving them a nice brown crust.

I removed the ribs and added the onions, garlic and ginger to the pot.

I sauted the onions garlic and ginger until softened, then added the beef stock to deglaze the pan.

Then I added the soy sauce, orange juice and hoisin sauce, creating enough liquid to submerge the ribs.  

Add the delicious browned ribs back into the braising liquid.

Then cover the pot and place in a 350 degree oven for about 2 hours until the ribs are wonderfully tender.  

Skim the fat from the top of the braise before serving, or you can even place the pot into the refrigerator over night, then remove the fat and rewarm the ribs. 

I served the ribs over mashed celeriac, sprinkled with chopped scallions and with steamed sugar snap peas on the side.  This was an easy and delicious meal and the sauce tasted incredible.  

Greek Pasta Salad

This is a very tasty and easy salad for lunch, a side dish for a barbecue or to bring to a potluck.

I am not a great fan of raw tomatoes, bell peppers and olives, but this was to feed a group so I added in all the appropriate tastes.  I used a bottled Greek viniagrette to make things very easy, and tri-colour fusilli for a nice, bright, colourful salad.

While the pasta cooked, I chopped the bell peppers, red onion, cucumbers and feta cheese and halved the pitted kalamata olives and grape tomatoes.


I added the cooked, cooled pasta and poured the dressing over, then mixed it together and let it sit overnight for the flavours to mix together.  

Delicious, easy, hearty, and very well received at the pot luck!

Tandoori Chicken

We love the flavours of India. We eat curries often and particularly love delicious naan.  This recipe replicates tender, flavourful tandoori chicken by marinating the meat in yogurt and cooking it over a very hot grill.  I used this recipe from Serious Eats as a guide.  

Start early in the day, preparing the yogurt marinade.  6 to 8 hours in the marinade is enough, you don't want to leave it too long or the yogurt can start cooking the meat.

I removed the skin from the chicken legs (paper towels make this a simple job) and cut some slits into the meat for the marinade to penetrate.

I toasted cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and paprika until fragrant and added them, along with raw minced ginger and garlic to the yogurt.

This will give you a yellow-ish marinade. For the deep red you'll find in Indian restaurants, you can add red food colouring.  I added a bit for a pinkish hue.

Pour the marinade over the chicken and refrigerate for about six hours.

Once the chicken is marinated, grill it over the highest heat you can manage for a nice char.

I served store-bought naan warmed in the oven...

... and some lentils

...and some lentils with curry powder and spinach.

I put some steamed broccoli on the side for a little more green.  Delicious!

Grinding Beef for Amazing Burgers

This is my second Canadian Beef post this week because I'm hoping to win this great contest from Canadian Beef that offers bloggers a chance to win a trip to Eat, Write, Retreat in Washington DC.  This time - one of the most amazing beef experiences I've ever had!


I love my KitchenAid stand mixer.  It is just the basic model, but I have some pretty neat attachments.  One of the best is the meat grinder which easily grinds beef for amazing burgers.


We love burgers, especially in the summer time.  It is well known that the less handling you subject ground beef to, the more tender and delicious your burgers will be.  We decided to test that by grinding our own meat, loosely packing it into burgers and grilling them.


We did some research and based our project on Alton Brown's Burger of the Gods recipe that calls only for beef and salt!

We used 250 grams each of chuck and sirloin. As you can see in the picture above, the chuck has great marbling while the sirloin is nice and lean.  We asked our local butcher for these cuts but they're often available in the grocery store.  

We cut the meat into cubes and trimmed some of the fat, then put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up.  When grinding meat, everything, including the equipment, should be as cold as possible.

We put the plastic grinding attachment and metal cutting discs in the freezer as well.  

We alternated cubes of chuck and sirloin pressing them through the grinder.  


Tip:  Once the meat was ground we stuffed a damp paper towel into the grinder to get all the meat and residue out for easier cleaning.

Look how beautiful!  This meat needs very little handling and seasoning.  

We gently shaped the beef into four loose 1/4 pound patties (and one mini-burger with the leftovers).


We sprinkled the outside of each burger with kosher salt and no other seasoning.  

We heated our gorgeous grill until nice and hot.

Then grilled the burgers until done.  See the lovely grill marks?  


Normally I cook burgers at home to well done, but with fresh ground beef we felt comfortable grilling them to medium-well with a touch of pink inside.  

For me, the bun is very important.  I love a nice, crusty fresh white roll for burgers, but whatever bun you choose, don't pile too many toppings on these burgers.  The fresh, delicious taste of the meat is all you need!


(Maybe a little lettuce, onion and cheese as well.)


Grinding our own beef for burgers was an amazing experience.  The taste was really worth it.  I'd highly recommend this technique for special occasion summer barbecues.  

Short & Sweet Sunday - Beef Barley Stew

I recently found out about a great contest from Canadian Beef that offers bloggers a chance to win a trip to Eat, Write, Retreat in Washington DC.  If anyone could use this opportunity to learn more about food blogging, photography and writing, it's me!

This is a Short & Sweet Sunday post, but this dish didn't turn out all that sweet.  My husband adores beer, especially dark beer, and loves the opportunity for cooking with beer. So how could we go wrong with beef, beer, barley, beets and horseradish?  


I think more simmering time and more balance would have helped.  


We browned the beef and then simmered it with onions, carrots, turnips, garlic and mushrooms in stout beer and beef stock.

We added tomato paste, thyme, bay leaves and barley and simmered for about 90 minutes.

It looked great but was missing something. It tasted bitter so I added more tomato paste, some worcestershire sauce and a bit of sugar.  This made an improvement but it could have used something else.

I topped the stew with chopped roasted beets, horseradish and parsley.  


This wasn't the most successful beef dish - or beef stew for that matter - I've ever made, but it was a simple, tasty dinner.

Tomorrow I'll share a dish that is one of the most successful beef dishes ever!