Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

As opposed to Homecoming Queen. I’m typing this out wearing the dress I made on Saturday (which I got oodles of compliments for today) and realizing that I’m living my granny’s ideal - I can cook, sew, clean the house (ok, not so strong on this one), do my own makeup, and land a nice man.

If you take history back 50 years, these were the requirements for being a woman. Mostly because there were single income families where the woman’s role in the household is to keep it running by cutting corners - cooking every meal, sewing half the clothes (suits have to be tailored, hey), and get darn near orgasmic by the sight of a modern washing machine. Nowadays, we all have jobs. Do the dishes? The machine’s got it. The laundry? The maid came by on Sunday. The cooking? We’re ordering in. Sewing? You kidding me? We have third world labour to do that for us. Land a man? Who needs a man? It is no longer the obligation of the woman to "land" a man. They’re LUCKY to find a wife (i.e. woman willing to settle down and have children instead of pursuing her own career) let alone one who can serve 5 course dinners.

Now consider this: if we delegate sewing and cooking - two previously "necessary" household skills - into hobbies, and love doing it regardless of whether we have to or not, think of the money you’d save! If you choose to cook every meal, whether via a slowcooker that you dump raw food and seasonings into in the morning, or a quick stirfry the moment you get home, you’re saving the cost of eating out ($8) (pack leftovers into lunch and save another $5), let’s say you only do this during the weekdays. That’s $13 x 5 (workdays) x 4 (weeks) = $260. Now instead of buying that simple pouf "designer" dress for $300, make it yourself with fabric that costs $40 and a pattern that costs $20. It’d fit perfectly (since you did fit it, didn’t you?), costs less, probably made of better material (silk instead of rayon) and if you enjoy sewing (I love sewing. I hate cutting out patterns) the workmanshop should be pretty comparable. The dress I’m wearing would’ve cost me $60 - without lining. Mine costs $6 including the zipper, and it’s lined.

What to do with the extra money you save by cutting corners? What we always want to do with extra money. Shoe shopping!

Like most office drones, I find myself eating at my desk a whole lot. To cut down on the unhealthy intake of junk (hey, I save my calories for dinners) I have, lately, been trying to eat healthier junk. Here are a few ideas of snacks to keep at work:

• Beef jerky. High in protein, low in fat and carbs. Won’t give you a sugar rush, but do keep in mind that it’s also mucho high in sodium.
• Cottage cheese and your choice of fresh jam. Cottage cheese is high in protein, low in fat. The addition of a sweet fresh jam makes it feel more like a treat than health food.
• Cherries are in season right now. They give me a nice sugar jolt in the morning.
• Danone Creamy Yogurt. The vanilla one tastes like pudding. Sometimes I squirt a bit of cocoa syrup (the kind you use to make chocolate milk) into it. Mmmm. Instant healthy chocolate pudding.
• Unsalted seeds and nuts, toasted.
• Homemade granola. Get your ingredients at a bulk foods store and you’ll end up paying a lot less than buying it prepackaged.
• Homemade trail mix. Buy cereal when it’s on sale (Stu always wonder why I buy 7 boxes of cereal at a time) and mix it with your choice of dried fruits and seeds from the bulk barn.

Never snack on high sugar foods at work. You’ll just end up tired out by mid-morning and binging at lunch. High fat foods make you sluggish, so that’s no good either. Snack on the right foods throughout the day and you’d probably see an increase in your energy level right away.

Ripe, juicy beefsteak tomatoes. Portabellas meaty enough to be a burger. Dark cherries glistening in the sun. Natural smoked meats in one stall, while a butcher serve up grilled meats in another. Unpasteurised fresh honey comb goes for $3, maple syrup goes for $10 for the bottle. Fresh ears of corn, $5 a dozen. So fresh you could just eat it after pulling off the husk. Last month, strawberries were in prime season. This month, the rasberries and cherries. Next month it’d be the reign of the blueberries.

I just live for the farmer’s market. In Toronto, we run farmer’s markets from the end of June until October, going from oranges to pumpkins. Even at the heart of town you can take the subway out to one. Makes you wonder why people even bother visiting the supermarket during the market season - prices are better, the produce is fresher, and you’re supporting local farmers.

I bought a couple of portabellos that smelled like grilled steak, a basket of cherry tomatoes that are bursting with flavour, corn, bell peppers ($2 for 4, orange sweet peppers) and ran out of time at the smoked meat stall. Tonight I’ll whip up a portobello recipe, but right now, I’m enjoying a great fresh tomato salad. When cherry tomatoes are this good, you won’t need much more than salt and pepper.

Carve up a handful of cherry tomatoes into halves, toss with a pinch of salt, fresh ground pepper, and a touch of olive oil. If you have some feta cheese handy, toss it in. Leave at room temperature for 20 minutes. Tomatoes are at their best normally when bought green and left to ripen on the windowsill in the sun, but farm fresh ones picked ripe are the best.

So what are you waiting for? Google one of your local farmer’s markets and go shopping!

The place is still one giantic mess.

I guess it’s the same everytime you move - for the first few weeks (if not months) you’ll still be living out of boxes and wondering where all the pens went. The only completely functional space in the apartment is the kitchen. The second would be the bathroom. Our bedroom has no storage whatsoever at the moment (we broke the dresser in the move) and we’re living out of these big bags on the floor.

I love my place though. Things to love:

• It’s in a lovely neighbourhood by the lake. 100 yards from a huge park. 5 minute walk to the water. It’s beautiful.
• We’re close to a traffic pitstop in the city - so technically, you can get anywhere from here.
• We’re far enough away from downtown that we never hear any sirens.
• The kitchen has great appliances for an apartment. The stove heats up right away, and it’s a huge fridge.
• The rent is CHEAP. $850 for a 2-bedroom? Woooo.
• The AC doesn’t need to be on even on a hot humid day, since we’re so close to the water…
• …and the apartment itself is perfect sized for the two of us.

Things to NOT love about the apartment:

• 2 bedrooms. 3 VERY VERY SMALL closets.
• The kitchen has 2 panels of countertops only, and a single sink. There’s NO ROOM.
• The kitchen cabinets are painted neon MINT. And there are so many coats of paint on them that some of them won’t close.
• The bathroom is the size of my old storage closet. And it has no storage.
• The bedrooms are carpeted in psychedelic patterns of brown and orange.
• All the caulking in the bathroom is old and needs replacing.
• The water system is OLD. When someone flushes the toilet NEXT DOOR my shower water runs hotter.

I still like it.

Tonight, we’re hitting Ikea. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves enough storage for the bedroom, the living room and the second bedroom. Hopefully, we’d also find a kitchen trolley that gives me a bit more counterspace to cook with. Wish me luck!

Homemade strawberry jam, to be exact. My boss’ mother owns a farm, and periodically sends produce. This time, it was baskets full of strawberries. Plump, picked ripe, in season, succulent strawberries with no whiteness on the tops. I was given six and a half quarts and instead of gorging ourselves silly, I proposed a night of jam making.

When a man is ready to make jam with you, he’s a keeper. Now, if he actually goes through with it, he’s officially settled down. Yours for good, basically.

There are MANY recipes for strawberry jam. It’s very, very simple, and you probably already have all the ingredients in the house aside from the massive quantity of strawberries. Store-bought strawberries tend to make a firmer jam (they have a higher concentration of pectin), and picked-ripe ones make a dribbly jam. You can use it on top of anything - frozen vanilla yoguart, waffles, breads. It also makes a great baking component; add fresh strawberries and rhubarb for a rhubarb pie filling.

After you’ve tasted this, you’ll never want to buy a jar off the shelf again.

Ingredients
Two and a half quarts of fresh strawberries
1/3 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups of sugar
1 TSP real vannila extract (optional)

A few jam jars, sterilized. (boil them in a water bath)

Instructions
Hull the strawberries. If you don’t have a strawberry huller, just pull off the stem, cut the fruit in half, and cut the fuzzy white middle bit out. Put it into a large saucepan or wide pot and mash them with a potato masher. Don’t overdo it! Think of each strawberry only needs to be mashed once to release the juices. Turn the heat to medium and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Add lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla (if using) and bring the heat up to boil. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent the sugar from burning. Afte boiling for 5 minutes, bring it back down to a simmer and cook until jam coats the spoon. Run your finger down the spoon after dipping it in the jam - the line should be clean and the jam shouldn’t run back together. Careful - it’s hot! The fruit should not spend more than 30 minutes in the pot.

Make sure your jars and lids are sterilized. I did this by boiling them as I was cooking the jam, but you can use the oven as well - 250f for 15 minutes. Fill your jars with your fresh strawberry jam, close the lid, and let it cool for a few hours before refridgerating. If you are using proper jamming jars with two-piece lids, there is no need to refridgerate until you open them.

The whole process took us a few hours, but we made 2 batches (about 12 1oz jars). They make great hostess gifts, and the only drawback? You probably wouldn’t want to look at a strawberry for a while after eating all the jam.

I rarely ever leave this alone for so long, but my kitchen has looked like a warzone (still does) since last week. Why? I’ve moved. If you’ve been following the blog, I was just apartment hunting a few weeks earlier. We’ve found just the thing - a two-bedroom apartment in the heart of New Toronto (that’s way, way southwest corner by Long Branch, if you live in TO) on a gorgeous little quiet street.

This morning I was awoken by birdsong. Dispite the fact that my whole place still looked like a tornado went through it, and moving down from my last apartment - a three-storey walk-up - was hell, it was worth it. Now, if only they didn’t wake me an hour earlier than I had to be up.

Once my kitchen is in order, I can start cooking again. But for now, you might hear more rambling from me about eating pizza. With anchovies on it. Who likes anchovies?

Made this last night. Was a huge hit. Unlike my other monster recipes, this one only serves four, or 2 comfortably with leftovers enough for lunch. I served this with a plain side of greens and steamed rice. Think jerk chicken with peanuts.

Trim ALL fat off the chicken before you start - it will cause the sauce to separate later. I like the taste of the pepper oil better (it’s much, much more fiery than its "sauce" counterpart) but if your sauce will sit for a while, use a hot pepper sauce.

Ingredients
2 Chicken breasts, skin and bones removed (not those tiny chicken breast halves - if you’re using those, make it 4.)
2 TSP salt
2 TSP flour
2 TBSP sugar
1 TSP fresh ground pepper
1 TSP dried oregano

2 TSP Chinese hot pepper oil (the insanely fiery kind with the seeds in the bottom)
1 handful of shelled peanuts
2 TBSP mayo (optional: peanut butter instead)
1/2 CUP of chicken broth
1/2 CUP of chopped green onions for garnish

Instructions
Coat chicken breasts in the next five ingredients evenly. Brown on both sides. 6 minutes. Add the mayo, pepper oil, and peanuts on TOP of the chicken, turn the heat down to low, and cover for another 5 minutes while it cooks. Check for doneness. (Reduce both if you’re using halves, since they’re quite a lot thinner) Transfer chicken to a plate.

Carve the chicken and tent with a foil. Drain the juices back into the pan. Whisk chicken broth into the pan sauce until smooth, then pour onto the sliced chicken. Sprinkle the top with green onions. Enjoy!

Made this yesterday and got rave reviews. I used leftover meat sauce (with way too much meat and not nearly enough sauce) and a pack of frozen spinach. If you can’t find alfredo/tomato sauce, add 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of butter, and a good hunk of romano cheese to the tomato sauce you’re using.

Ingredients
Meat Sauce
    2 lbs lean ground beef
    1 TBSP seasalt
    1 TSP tabasco sauce
    1 TSP fresh ground pepper
    1 bottle of store bought tomato based alfredo sauce
    1 can of diced tomatoes
Other
    1/2 cup of cream cheese
    1 package of frozen spinach, cooked and drained

    1 package of ready-made dumpling wraps
    salt to taste

Instructions
Make the meat sauce. Brown meat with salt and some oil, then dump the rest of the ingredients in and cook until thick. Reserve about 2 cups for the dumplings and add a few pinches of salt. You can use pork and reduce it if you just want dumplings out of this, but lean ground beef is by far healthier.

Refridgerate the dumpling portion of the sauce until it can hold a shape when shaped with a spoon. Mix spinach and cream cheese together. Fill dumplings with both, careful not to MIX them.

Cook in a tomato based broth with chilli peppers lightly and serve with rice noodles.

If you’re used to North American beef jerky, you might be a fan of Big John’s. I am. I just ordered 4 lbs of it (4 lbs is A LOT of jerky, btw. $60 CDN worth, to be precise.) off their website, and once again I’m reminded of the differences. They might both be called jerkey, but jerkey gotten in Chinatown is completely different from something you get out of Dominion. Or Costco.

NA jerkey is often "hickory smoked" and additionally flavoured with spices. Chinese beef jerkey is thinner, marinated, air/heat dried, and then, uh, covered in grease. I’m beginning to see a trend here. Needless to say, Chinese beef jerky is higher in fat and sugar - it’s marinated in soy sauce, honey, and fresh garlic and pepper - but tastes infinitely better.

Here’s another reason to make a trip to Chinatown. Beef jerky. Maybe I’ll pick up some dried octopus strips and spicy fish sticks too…

In Canada, we have the steak, or the hamburger. In China, Hong Kong, and many other Chinese speaking places, we have the fried dace. It’s ubiquitous. It’s convenient food. It comes out of a can. It’s a heart attack packed in oil and salt. Few will admit they enjoy the stuff, but we all keep a couple of cans in the cupboard - in case of emergencies.

Well, my emergency stores has ran out, and upon inspection of Chinatown, my favorite brand of fried dace is GONE. Pearl River Fried Dace. Salty, fishy, soybeany goodness. The best of its kind. Savory yumminess packed in a can. No longer exported from China. Part of me wanted to scream "NOOOO" like Anakin Skywalker at the end of Episode III. Just drop down to the floor in the middle of the supermarket and express my horror at not having PR Fried Dace ever again. Then my Chinese conservative upbringing kicked in and I bought a can of wannabes. Same ingredients, really, just legal here for some reason.

Apparently, Pearl River Fried Dace has been fingered to contain a cancer-causing preservative. Nevermind that you’d have to eat the 290 kg of the stuff in a day to consume enough to cause harm - we’d just take it off the shelf now. Of course, consuming 290 kg of fried dace will likely land you in the hospital with a stroke AND a heart attack. The cancer will hit you post-mortem.

If you haven’t tried it yet, go over to your local Asian supermarket and pick up a can. If you’re lucky enough to find Pearl River Fried Dace with Black Beans, heat it in a fry pan and serve the whole thing over two bowls of rice. It’s enough for you to want to move to China.