The Slaw that Changed my Life

I'm on a roll, and my latest Rebar recipe is Vegetable Slaw with Jalepeno-Lime dressing (p. 29). I bought a cabbage last week at the market for spring rolls, and used a tiny bit, so there was plenty to get used in something else. I first made soup, and used 7 cups, but still had an awful lot of cabbage left, so I cracked open Rebar, remembering that Sim'n'Nic blogged a 'slaw a few months ago. Well, across the page from the one that they made last spring, I found a winner. There are two options for dressing - creamy or oil-based. I like oil-based coleslaw better, so that's the one I made, but I bet the creamy would be tasty too, if that's your thing. I made it with all red cabbage, because that's what we had. We also, after some discussion, left out the jalapeños. I think that a tiny amount of bite in the dressing would enhance the experience, but the 2 peppers called for in the recipe would probably be too much - I'll have to consider whether I want to try some pepper in the next batch. And there will be a next batch, because this coleslaw is really good. Seriously. I think it's the lime, but whatever it is, wow. I made it mid-afternoon Saturday and was distracted by the yummy smell for several hours before we ate it for dinner, and the tasts was a good as the smell. As long as you have a food processor for cutting the cabbage, this is easy, so I would give it 1 bar and 4 stars.

Cranberry Hazelnut Granola

Many months after identifying the recipe (the pesky showing of the house/move got in my way), I finally made Rebar granola. Once I had the ingredients and got around to making it, it was not at all hard. As I always do with granola, I made it in the roasting pan, instead of on 2 cookie sheets, so it was easy to stir while it was baking without spilling over the edges. It's good granola, the dried cranberries and blueberries and hazelnuts definitely make it tasty, but I don't think it's generally better than my usual recipe, passed down from mom. I think I would save this recipe for special breakfast occassions, when I want something a bit more decadent (and would use all maple syrup next time - I did half and half maple and honey), but it has not convinved me to forsake the granola of my youth. This is 1 bar, and 2 stars.

Pad Thai for the Parental Units

Now that I am living in Chinatown, I figure I better get up to date on my Asian cooking – so I made the Rebar Pad Thai for the folks and aunt and uncle on Saturday. I substitutes chicken and shrimp for the tofu, left out the sambal, in deference to the non-spicy palates of my guests, and left out the cilantro in deference to my own non-soap-loving palate... It was relatively easy to make – there are a few steps, so you kind of have to do all your prep and make sure you’ve read the whole recipe before you proceed, but there’s nothing “hard”. I appreciated the instruction that said “the noodles will all clump together. That’s ok. This is where most people give up, but keep going.” I don’t think it’s the best pad Thai I’ve ever tasted, but it was quite satisfying, and probably the best I’ve ever made (not that I’ve made a whole bunch). When I was making it, the molasses in the sauce seemed overpowering, but it blended nicely with the other ingredients in the final product. I might dabble in other pad thai recipes, if another was recommended to me, but I would definitely make this one again. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the camera out, so no pics, but there was barely any left, so it seemed to go over well (as did the rice paper spring rolls that I served along with it – despite the fact that we all need practice rolling, people like to make their own food!). Probably 3 stars and 3 bars for finickyness.

Back on the Bandwagon with Three Sister Burritos

I am not sure if anyone has blogged the three sister burritos. I know Sim and Nic have made them before, but I think pre-2010, and they’re new to ME, so I figure they count…. They were the first proper dish I made in the new place, so this post is long overdue, and I am trying to cast my mind back to what I thought. I made the filling a few days in advance of when I actually made the burritos, and then threw them together when I actually wanted to serve them, and that seemed to work well. This is one of those “trust rebar” recipes – you wouldn’t think that squash in burritos would necessarily be good, but they were quite tasty with the lime and chile and maple syrup combo, and the squash gave a good texture contrast to the beans and corn. I had a lot of leftover filling that I ended up throwing in the freezer, so we’ll see how it comes out. If it defrosts weird, it might end up in soup …. I would give them 3 stars and 2 bars.

Potato Pizza with artichoke, lemon, and herbs

This was divine! I made this recipe over two days to accompany a knitting session with my friend Sarah. The first day I made the pesto (a large batch so I could freeze some) and started the pizza dough. I have recently fallen in love with spelt crusts, and having spelt grain and a grain mill means I can make the crust with fresh flour. One quirk of this recipe is that olives are not listed on the ingredient list, but one of the steps calls for adding the olives (which I did not have).
Three stars and three bars (due mostly to the large number of ingredients).
...
After posting this blog I ate some left-over slices, and decided to up the rating to four stars. It really is incredible!

Rebar Linguine

A very simple and tasty meal, but I would have appreciated some suggestions on how more protein could have been added (we added pepitas). This recipe is a nice way to celebrate the new produce available at the farmers market. Yeah summer!
1 bar. 2 stars.

Bircher Muesli- a breakfast of champions!

Some of you may know about my addiction to oatmeal, which I have to admit, has now been a refined to an addition to bircher muesli. Yes, I've eaten this breakfast every morning since I first made it, last week. Although some may consider oats boring and predictable, this wholesome bowl of goodness is what I crave every morning now. I mix it up by adding different fruits and nuts (local Saskatoon berries are especially good, but also walnuts from my yard and ground flax). I have recently learnt about the health benefits of soaking oats overnight and combining oats with yoghourt to help digestion and increase uptake of nutrients (Sally Fallon, Nuriting Traditions), so I was pleased to see those steps included in this recipe. According to Wikipedia, birchermüsli was invented by the Swiss Germans' (as so many good things are like Toblerone, cheese fondu, and yodeling), and they even eat a version of this for supper: Birchermüsli complet with butterbrot and milk coffee! Think about it, Rebar. If I could give a staple 4 stars I would, but 4 stars are reserved for special indulgences like chocolate cake, so 3 stars and 1 bar.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with apricots and walnuts

I baked these cookies as treats for my Bike-To-Work-Week Team, and they loved them. In fact non-bikers were asking how they could also get one. Perhaps my team would be even larger if I advertised these cookies before hand! Although very popular with the group, I found them a bit too sweet, but they did grow on me with multiple tastings.
2 stars, 1 bar.

Mushroom Pecan (Walnut) Burgers

These were a tasty and filling alternative to commercial veggie-burgers, which are often bland and leave me hungry. The one trick is keeping them together when cooking. Putting them in the fridge to cool before cooking may have helped (as the recipe suggested), but hunger and a lack of pre-planning resulted in my omission of that step. I substituted walnuts (due to my plentiful supply), which worked well as I think pecan would have been too rich. 2 stars, 2 bars (but 3 bars for me because I (Rob) had to crack of all the walnuts).

A Star is Born: Perogie-gut Tarts

After 2 relatively unsuccessful attempts at making the Sweet Potato and Smoked Gouda perogies, I still had filling, but no desire to mess around with the dough again. So, for a wine and cheese that I hosted for my work colleagues last month, I took the filling, added in a few egg whites (I conveniently had them in the freezer after making the perogies, which call for yolks only in the dough ....), dolloped the mixture into little tart shells, and voila, had a very successful new appetizer. These also freeze well, so we'll be bringing the remainder to a bbq we're going to next week. I think that I will make these again before making the perogies - they captured the flavour without the fuss of the crumbly dough. I also did baked brie with caramelized pears and thyme (one of my favourite LCBO recipes), blueberry/lemon/ricotta cupcakes (using what remained of the runny lemon ricotta filling from the Rebar blintzes), caramelized onion/pesto/goat cheese pizza, and cherry tomato/basil/bocconcini skewers, along with nuts, dried apricots, grapes, etc. I think it's one of the best spreads I've ever put together: it made me want to throw parties every week!

Rebar Caesar Salad (p. 18)

I've been a bit off the Rebar band wagon, because cooking large complicated meals and showing your house to sell don't necessarily go together .... BUT, when we rented a cottage last weekend, I decided I could at least make a Rebar salad to go with our steak. Like Carrie, I didn't think about the problems of cabins and blenders (there WAS power, but no blender or food processor), so my dressing was fork-mashed and not as uniform as it probably should have been. This salad was good, but it didn't become a new instant, maybe because even Rebar can't dress up plain romaine enough to make it stellar. I didn't do the home-made croutons, and I wonder if they would have brought it up a notch. The dressing might be good with a spring mix/ lots of veggies salad, so I might put it in the dressing rotation, but I don't know that I would make the caesar for a meal again. 1.5 stars and 1 bar (I had slight more effort since I had to mince my capers and garlic in the absence of a blender, but it was really quite simple).

Woodsy Wild Mushroom Soup

This was spectacular! I am rating it very highly in part because of the uncommon mix of flavours (mushroom, lemon, cream, wine) which is refreshing, but mostly because it tastes really good. I made this soup while at Rob's cabin on Shack Island, which seemed fitting because of the outdoorsy, wild setting. I realized my mistake when I got to the last step of the recipe which called for blending all ingredients, a difficult task without power. I tried my best to mash the ingredients with a fork, but had to wait until I could use my trusty blender at home before finishing it. The unblended version tasted almost as good, but looked much more rustic. I substituted chanterelle mushrooms (thanks to Norma and her husband) for the porcini mushrooms, but will try this recipe again when the porcini mushroom season comes up (anyone know when that is?).
4 stars and 2 bars

Thai 3 Cabbage Slaw - Page 28

We had a dinner party for the people that Nic works with and decided to make a south-east asian meal. We started out with this coleslaw. I'm surprised that we hadn't made this before, since we get a lot of cabbage from our farmer in the summer. But we hadn't. We will definitely make it again. The dressing was very tasty. I left out the chile and likely used a bit less curry paste than it called for (and I think we had yellow curry paste rather than red), but it made a very tasty salad. We used one full red cabbage and one full sui choy and one recipe was just the right amount for that much cabbage... quite a lot as you can see from the picture. We thought this salad was very pretty since it had a lot of colour with the purple cabbage and the orange carrots, etc.

One bar, three stars

The rest of our meal consisted of Chicken Satay, Beef Randang Curry and Rebar Monk's curry (Page 184) - we have made the Monk's curry lots of times before (it's one of the few Curry's that I really enjoy and actually request!), so it doesn't officially get included in the count of recipes for this year's Rebar challenge, but I thought I'd post a photo of the big plate of curry that we made for our meal. We finished the evening off with fried bananas and homemade vanilla icecream.... so decadent! and sooo good. If you haven't made Monk's curry, I recommend it. I'd give it three stars and two bars (again, that's just a guess as it's one of Nic's specialties!).



Well, that's my backlog of recipes, I'll have to get a little better at posting as we make these so that it's not quite so overwhelming when I actually get to posting!

Apple Danish Squares - Page 213

These apple squares are kind of like apple pie that you can eat with your fingers. I was impressed with how well the pastry worked and I followed the directions to the letter, not being a super confident pastry baker like Nic. I didn't use shortening (since I never use it) and instead used all butter. It might have been a bit flakier if I'd used the shortening, but I was pleased enough with the pastry. We put these in the freezer and are trying to ration them a bit better than we did with the raspberry squares. Another super tasty and fun to make dessert. These also take a bit of time because of all the refrigeration of the pastry as you went along. I also make these on a day off when I could go do other things while I waited for the pastry to cool, etc.

Two stars, two bars.

Enchiladas Con Calabacitas - Page 201

Nic wanted to make these enchiladas but realized that we'd need to serve them to other people, so when Matt's parents were in town we made them for Matt and Sarah and Mr. and Mrs Horne. I think Esther might have come over as well.

I didn't get a photo of the finished product but you can see the work in progress here. These were tasty little creations. Mesa red sauce is a good addition to any meal (but you have to remember that it's another recipe that needs to be made, adding to the cooking time).

I think that these were a bit of work so I'd say they were three stars and three bars. A good meal to make for friends, probably not one that you'd want to make after work, both because it makes so much and it does take a while to put it all together.

Perfect Jasmine Rice - Page 194

I need to devote a separate post to the "perfect jasmine rice" that is on the same page as the cashew stirfry from the previous post. Our rice maker mysteriously bit the dust about a month ago so we were happy to see this recipe for rice as we re-educated ourselves on how to make rice in a pan. We agree that this rice is perfect. The recipe works just as well with brown Jasmine rice as white and we've made it five or six times since we made the stirfry. It has definitely become a new staple which we have enjoyed. I'm pretty sure that it all comes down to the butter - but whatever it is, we give "Perfect Jasmine Rice" four stars and one bar... I don't think we'll ever make rice any other way again.

Tomato Tofu and Cashew Stirfry (Page 194)

This recipe is definitely more for the lovers of Indian food. Nic really really liked it and I thought it was "fine". Nic gave it three stars, like Carrie did and I would say for me it's only a two star recipe, just because it definitely didn't have my favourite flavours. Nic made this one as well (are you sensing a trend here), so again I'm not sure how hard it was to make. He enjoyed the meal and was happy to eat the left overs while I ate the leftovers from the pasta from the previous post.

Spring Fettucine (Page 173)

I'm a sucker for anything with a cream sauce, so when I saw this recipe and noticed that it was asparagus season I figured that I should try it. I left out the smoked salmon, because I'm not entirely clear if I should be eating it, but I think it would be an excellent addition to the meal.

Vodka is not a staple in our drinks cabinet (I'm not sure that I've ever actually intentionally made a drink with vodka...) but we happened to have two small samplers of vodka that had come with other drinks at some point history... it was just about enough and I topped up the last little bit with some tequila which I'd bought to make another Rebar recipe about a year ago. The results were good and the sauce was creamy and lovely.

Two bars, two stars.

Raspberry Oat Bars (Page 217)

These bars were really really good. Make them! You won't regret it. I've been using my flex days for baking and these bars caught my eye. I bought a jar of "Bonne Maman" jam and used the entire thing. The bars were the perfect amount crunchy and with the raspberry jam they weren't too sweet. They did not last very long!

I'd give these four stars and two bars. They took a while to make because I had to bake the bottom first and then put on the jam and topping and bake the top. I was glad I was making them on a day off.

Chickpea-Cashew Hummous - Page 112

This is a not very artistic photo of very tasty hummous. I have been eating more vegetables as snacks and we wanted a dip that was tasty and healthy. The spices in this hummous- especially the cumin, give it a very unusual taste. it doesn't taste like conventional hummous, but it does taste very good. My only complaint was that the hummous was very dry and so it was a bit of a challenge to use it as a dip (it tended to crumble and fall off the veggie sticks!). If we made it again, we'd try to find a way to make it a bit more spreadable/dippable, maybe just adding some water would help - or maybe it needed a bit more oil.

2.5 stars and I'm guessing one bar... again, Nic made this, so I'm not sure how long it took him, but it didn't seem to be too onerous.

Bhangra Burrito - Page 202

After being fascinated by the recipe for a long time, Nic finally made Bhangra Burritos a few weeks ago. For the girl who doesn't LOVE curry, these were a pleasant surprise and we both really enjoyed the Burritos. We enjoyed these with a generous helping of our home made Mango chutney, but any chutney would add a lot to the recipe. You can see that Nic has also loaded his burrito up with cilantro. Things that have cilantro on the side generally work the best for us!

I didn't make these so I'm not sure how many bars they would be rated, but I'd give them 2.5 stars for taste.

Thai Dragon Bowl - Page 145

After a hiatus from using Rebar for a while, we have been back at it with a vengeance. A few weeks ago I made the Thai Dragon Bowl soup. It was very good, although I put in extra coconut milk which diluted the flavour somewhat. I wanted it to be a bit more coconut-y but I think that I would have been better off keeping to the recipe. However, it was a very good soup. We added bok choy and left out the cilantro.

I'd say two bars and two stars but this could likely be raised to three stars for taste by following the recipe a bit more closely. I'll be interested in your opinions if any of you make this soup.

Apple pecan (nut) bars with oat and rice flours

These are a wheat-free, dairy-free snack bar. While very tasty, I'm not sure it's worth omitting the wheat and eggs unless you're on a strict diet. The flax eggs worked wonderfully, and the brown rice and oats were well ground by my (new!) coffee grinder (reserved only for non-coffee items). Due to the milling flours and seeds, and shelling walnuts and hazelnuts (from my and Rob's yards, and replacing the pecans), this recipe took way longer than I thought it would. Although tasty, I'm not sure I'd make it again.
1 star, 3 bars

Yam and pepita quasedillas

These were fantastic, but with the added work of making the Honey Chipotle Sauce, Chipotle Chile Purée, and Flour Tortilla's, this was an immense amount of work for an evening. Although each recipe would have been easy on its own, combined, they were far too much work for such a relatively simple meal. While it's possible to buy your own tortillas to speed things up, I hate the excessive use of stabilizers and odd sounding chemicals in commercial tortillas that allow them keep on the grocery store shelf for eons. The Rebar tortillas were beautifully tender and tasty, and while "most of the time you'll spend on this recipe is dedicated to resting" that resting time is 2 hours, which still had me mixing, rolling, and frying for ~45 minutes.
2 stars and and 3 bars

Note on Lime-Honey Baked Yams. Yummy and easy to make, but difficult to take a photograph of. Like Carolyn, I have no picture. I would add more lime next time to accentuate the citrus zing!
2 stars, 1 bar

Banana Bread with Wheatgerm and Walnuts

I would agree with Carrie's assessment on the banana bread... it was good, but doesn't stand out above many other banana breads that I have made. I had trouble getting the big loaf to cook all the way through... maybe I should have used my two smaller loaf pans - or maybe I can blame the oven. The bread was a nice treat to have around for about a week.

Two stars - one bar

Roasted Potato Pizza - Page 200

It's been a while since I've been here, and our Rebar cooking slowed down for a while... we're trying to get back on track and I thought I'd share a few things we've made over the past month.

This Pizza is REALLY good! I think we made a few substitutions, using half store pesto and half home made pesto, Nic forgot to buy pine nuts so the pesto was a bit improvised. We also decided to go all out on the greens and put on spinach, chard AND kale.

As you can see... I really enjoyed the pizza!
Four stars - three bars.

Lime sugar cookes with pumpkin seeds

This recipe came highly recommended by my pseudo roommate, Kendra, and it did not disappoint. The lime is light and refreshing and the pepitas add richness and nuttiness. They were eaten so fast, I could only get a picture of these last few. Three stars, one bar.

Tomato tofu and cashew stirfry with sui choy, Thai basil, and tamarind sauce

I made this recipe for my book club, and was feeling smug the night before when I had done all the shopping (including a google search for what sui choy really was; you can't trust the Nanaimo grocers to tell you!), and was about to prepare the tamarind sauce a day in advance. After a final skim of the recipe, I realized that I had skipped one critical item on the ingredient list when doing my shopping ("sesame baked tofu (p. 42)"). Not only was I missing the tofu, I had another whole recipe to prepare. Luckily both the stirfy and the baked tofu were prepared in less than an hour the day of the dinner (pheww). And the steps for "perfect jasmine rice" did actually produce perfect jasmine rice.

Many accolades were given for the meal at book club, and I too was very happy with how it turned out. Three stars and two bars.

Citrus poppyseed cake

This recipe, on the other hand, will impress. It is a divine triple layer, glazed, and iced, multi-citrus cake. Lemon, lime, and orange zest are used to flavour the cake, and cream cheese adds the rich-sour taste to the icing. One problem is, who has three round cake tins? Although it may be possible to put double the batter in one cake tin, and then split that layer in half, getting it to cook all the way through that double-thick batter is another issue. Instead I used a slightly smaller, flat-bottomed ceramic bowl to cook the third layer, which resulted in this topsy-tirvy looking creation. The icing was also a challenge to spread, but would have probably been much easier if the glaze had hardened on the top and sides of the cake first. Three stars, three bars.

Cracked wheat pilaf with vegetables and fresh herbs

Although healthy, this recipe lacked flavour (or so I have been informed by fellow samplers). I substituted sprouted wheat for cracked wheat, which I personally like though I realize sprouted wheat is not for everyone. Despite its high nutritional value, this recipe is not one that will impress your guests. One star, one bar.
PS Thanks for the help from Nic and Simone on this one.

Banana bread (with my own variations)

Rebar's version of banana bread is a good standard recipe, but is not as awe-inspiring as some other recipes. The wheat germ adds some depth of flavor to the batter, which is a nice touch. I substituted dried strawberries for walnuts, but they were lost among the bananas. I don't have a picture this time; the bread looked like most other banana breads I've made. Two stars, one bar.

lentil and split sea soup (p. 142)

I made the lentil and split pea soup this weekend - this included making, for the first time, the vegetable broth, instead of relying on my stock of turkey broth from the freezer. The broth turned out nice and coloured, and I have extra in the freezer. I had to go a bit off book on the spices, since I didn't have coriander or tumeric (so curry powder stood in). It turned out pretty well, but not as good as the Greek Red Lentil, which is one of my favourite soups! Also, I found that the lentils were well-cooked before the peas were - I think if I made it again I would soak the peas for longer than the lentils to get them more hydrated (the recipe says to soak and cook them together). All in all, a good hearty soup, but not what I usually expect from Rebar. Maybe with the Mint Mango Chutney (recipe in a side-bar on the page), it would be more exceptional? Perhaps I will add some apple chutney that is in the fridge to my next bowl ....

Mesculun and Fresh Pear Salad (p. 7)

To go with the chicken and yams, I did the fresh pear salad. This is partly because I didn't want to do a hot veg, and partly because I am a sucker for pear and brie combos. The dressing has a cup of blackberries, and is good and flavourful, while being fairly light (largely due to the high fruit to vinegar ratio, I think). I used blueberry vinegar, which worked well, though once that's gone, I guess I'll probably have to use white wine if I make this salad again. In typical Rebar fashion, there was way too much dressing for the actual amount of salad required for 6 people - we finished the large tub of mesculun over the week, and STILL have some dressing left over. I used walnuts and pumpkin seeds instead of hazel nuts, because I forgot to put hazel nuts on the grocery list, and they worked quite well. Since the salad was being served as a side along with the main meal, instead of ahead of it, I just did it in a big bowl, rather than plating it individually, as recommended in the recipe. I would definitely make this one again! Three stars and 1 bar.

Baked Yams (p. 152)

Last Saturday, I had the rare experience of hosting an all non-vegetarian dinner party. I took advantage of the situation to roast my first ever chicken, accompanied by two Rebar sides. The first was baked yams with honey, lime, and butter (see the next post for the salad). This dish was super-easy, but it took a bit longer than the estimated time in the book to bake the yams. I used the hand blender to get them nice and smooth, which worked well. They made a nice veggie/starchy side and fit in with the winter comfort food vibe of the chicken. My one criticism was that they were a bit too rich - I think I would use less honey (or maybe more lime and pepper) next time. Two stars and one bar.

Corn Dance Cakes

I was inspired to make this, as it called for smoked salmon, something I have plenty of from my smoking efforts in the summer. The salt from the salmon was well balanced by the sweet corn. I was also lucky to have fresh eggs from my dear friend Karen, and freshly milled hard wheat to make the cakes. I'm not sure if it was the recipe, or the spectacular ingredients that I loved the best. My rating is three stars and one bar.

Eggs o' plenty

Inspired by Simone's post and fantastic picture, I set out on my own to make the Spinach and Apple Tart. I am now in possession of many, many eggs (from a friend with her own chickens), so was looking for ways to use them. Although I have much to learn in the art of making pie pastry, this turned out reasonably well. In retrospect, I would have weighted the pie shell down with rice or beans while it was cooking so that it would keep its shape. I also would have secured the edges of the pastry over the edges of the pie plate to avoid shrinkage. A moderate success nonetheless. The onion-rosemary confit (substituting rosemary for thyme) was quite simple, though was basically slow-roasted onions. I don't think it was necessary for the meal. As the picture of Simone's tart is a perfect example for this recipe, I will show only the confit. My rating is 3 stars and 2 bars.

My second egg recipe for the weekend was smoked salmon scramble, an excellent breakfast for a Sunday morning before a day of yard work (as was the case). The salmon, I smoked in the summer with wood ships from an apple tree, and was very excited to re-discover it in my freezer for this recipe. The cream cheese, partially melted, was an excellent addition to the scramble; fresh dill would have been much better than dried. My rating is 2 stars and 1 bar.

Apple and Spinach Tart (Page 72)

Nic went away and I had a few of the girls over for brunch and crafts. I decided to make this tart and it was not disappointing. I didn't bother making the onion-thyme confit but it was tasty enough on it's own. The recipe is bang on when it says that savory and sweet strike a nice balance in this tart. The apples and blue cheese were a super good combination. I did make the whole wheat pastry (pg 34) and was surprised how well it turned out. Nic usually makes the pastry so it was a big deal for me to make it on my own. I followed the recipe exactly (except used only butter instead of butter and shortening). But I did put ice in the water to make sure it was cold!

I made the tart the night before and it kept well overnight. I ate it for lunch for two days as well and it kept quite well.

I'd give it three stars for taste and two bars for effort.

Lasagna of Champions!

We made Lasagna Rio Grande (Page 180) and what can I say. It was some of the best lasagna I've ever tasted! We did wuss out on the pesto and bought a jar of basil pesto to use (I really don't like cilantro so that was out). We also used a mixture of chard, kale and spinach for the greens, just to be innovative! The lasagna was fantastic! Lasagna is always a bit labour intensive and this was no different. The recipe refers to three "sub-recipes" in excellent rebar fashion. Also, as usual, the quantities were way off. We ended up with two lasagnas! But I can't stress enough how tasty it was. We will definitely use this recipe for lasagna again, although we might cut down on the amount of filling we make (or else we need to buy a bigger lasagna pan!!

I'd give it four bars for taste and three for effort

Quinoa Corn Salad

This recipe packs a lot of punch. I went light on the raw jalapenos (1 instead of 2) and Tabasco sauce (1/4 tsp instead of a 1/2), but it was still was very flavourful. I served it at a potluck of discerning enviro-chefs, and it was gone before I could to have seconds. It's also very simple and quick to make. I give it two stars and one bar.

Roasted Vegetable Strudel and Rebar Chocolate Cake

Inspired by my boyfriend's (belated) birthday dinner, I made two Rebar recipes: Roasted Vegetable Strudel and Rebar Chocolate Cake. Although I was initially intimidated by the reputation of the cake recipe (having heard some disaster stories from poor timing of steps), I was surprised how well it turned out. The strudel, however, was more difficult than I expected. I found the recipe not entirely clear about how to handle the phyllo sheets, causing some mistakes on my part. Pictures in the recipe would be helpful! I also found the strudel a little too rich (could have skipped the cheese perhaps?). Chocolate cake, on the other hand, can never be too rich (or chocolately). Four stars for the cake, and three bars. Two stars for the strudel and three bars.

a new entrant

Due to a technological mishap I am joining this blog competition a little late. I have been busy on the Rebar challenge, but unfortunately I have no pictures. You'll have to imagine my creations for now. As some of you already know, I created a star and bar rating scheme. Feel free to use it if you would like.

One star: Okay
Two stars: Tasty
Three stars: Mouthwateringly delicious
Four stars: Yum-orama! Wish I could make this again, but the competition must go on.

One bar: Easy and quick
Two bars: Moderately lengthy
Three bars: Requiring extensive effort
Four bars: RE-diculously time-consuming, using obscure ingredients

My creations have been.
Carrot Ginger soup: 2 stars and two bars
Border Paella: 3 stars and 1 bar (I used ghee instead of oil; sooooo good)
Raspberry Oat Bars: 2 stars and 1 bar (though a bit too sweet for me)
ChangMai Tofu Grill with Thai Basil Soy Tofu Marinade: 2.5 stars and 2 bars

Salad

Dear readers. Here is a salad we made to go with the soup on Sunday. Romaine lettuce with gala apples and spiced pecans. The pecans were a hit (and it helped that I put in 4 times as many as I was supposed to as a result of some careless reading), but unfortunately the dressing didn't work out (in another bit of carelessness, I bought milk instead of the required whipping cream). Overall though, a nice salad. I especially liked the gala apples, which didn't seem to brown in the salad, even a day later.

Poppyseed Papparadelle - an easy, tasty dinner (p 165)

I had a day off and thought I would extend our Rebar cooking streak by making a Rebar supper. This pasta was easy and tasty. Nic picked up the ingredients after work and we were eating by 7:00.

We used whole wheat rigatoni instead of Papparadelle and substituted white wine for red, but otherwise followed the recipe. I think it's always nice to find a new pasta sauce that isn't based on tomatoes or cream. The main ingredient was mushrooms but I thought that the sauce, which was made of wine, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar had a very nice flavour that wasn't overwhelmingly mushroomy- a great meal and one that's possible to make on a week day.

Smoky Green Split Pea Soup... without the smoke (P 119).

We hadn't seen Marc and Jacquie since before Christmas and decided to have them over for dinner on Sunday. Matt and Sarah joined us as well. We decided this was a good chance to try another soup. We had our eye on the green split pea soup last week and decided that this was a good chance to try it. The soup was pretty easy to make but it does require that the split peas be soaked overnight and a fairly long cooking time to get the peas soft enough. Therefore you do need to play ahead to make this soup and allow enough time to get it finished.



I was excited to use the vegetable stock I'd made the week before and it provided a nice tasty broth. Nic looked for liquid smoke at the store formally known as Dan-D-Mart and had no luck, so we left it out... there's something about "liquid smoke" that doesn't seem like it would be that healthy, so we didn't really mind. We also only had dried sage as all the sage that grows in our garden is dead at the moment. Finally, after last week's spicy soup fiasco I decided to forgo the chipotle altogether, although I did put in a few dashes of red chile flakes.

This is one of those classic Rebar recipes that refers you to another page for one of the ingredients. Luckily this time it was only Roasted Garlic (p 158). We roasted about one and a half bulbs (since that's what we had left) and added it to the soup when it was done.

The soup got great reviews from all of the dinner guests although I thought we could have cooked it a bit longer to get the peas a bit softer. It tasted great and was a much bigger success than last week's soup. I might put in a bit less garlic if I made it again, but that's just personal preference.

The recipe said it served 8-10. We served it as a main course for six, with salad and bread with dessert and had two jars of leftovers... perfect.

Lonestar minestrone soup - hot hot hot!

Last Sunday, we had a bonus day at home between our holiday at Tyaughton Lake and going back to work. After being outside for the previous few days, it seemed like a good day to hibernate at home. And what better food for hibernating than hearty minestrone soup? Rebar's minestrone is a little variation on the original - more "southwestern flavour". Sounded great.

When I started cooking though, things didn't smell so great. The problem came when I added in the two Jalepeno peppers called for by the recipe. Now I'm pretty tentative with chiles. Not so much because I don't like hot food - I quite like it - but because Simone can't stand it. So before adding the chiles to the pan, I tasted them - both the flesh and the seeds. I chewed them, touched them to my tongue, etc. All seemed good. I figured that if I could plop them straight into my mouth, then they'd hardly be noticed in a big pot of soup. How wrong I was. When they went into the pan, the air in our house filled with chili flavoured tear gas. Simone, who was on the phone with home at the time, broke into a choking fit for half an hour. I even had to stir the soup from outside on the back porch for a while. I thought that perhaps these chiles might be special airborne chiles, which release all their flavour into the air, but don't spice the food too much. I was wrong. The soup ended up tasting substantially of jalepenos. And unfortunately, it made about 6 litres of soup. Since Simone's is understandably reluctant to venture too close, that leaves me with about two and a half weeks worth of work lunches. I'm slowly working my way through.

Despite the heat, however, the soup is really good. Highly recommended winter weekend soup. Just go easy on the chiles.

Sweet Basil Goodness

Ok, Ok, I don't usually have double-Rebar days, but after the crepe-fest, I also made tomato sweet basil sauce (p. 45) for dinner. This is the second time I've made this sauce, and I think it's going to become a staple. It's flavourful and simple to make, especially compared to many Rebar recipes. The only problem is that it needs a while to simmer, so it's not quite a "get home from work and whip up a batch" recipe. We ate it with fresh spinach-cheese ravioli, and it was an excellent meal - kind of elegant comfort food.

Basic Vegetable Stock for Soups and Sauces - Page 35

Simone and Nic started out the year by deciding to go back to basics and make vegetable soup stock. We have made chicken stock from scratch before but usually use powdered stock for vegetarian soup recipes. It was easy to make and made enough for two or three soups. We used the pressure canner to can the extra for use in future soups.

We will definitely make the vegetable stock again when we have enough time.

Not-so Blintzy Blintzes

For me, "Will you come over for brunch" is code for "I want to see you while at the same time working on perfecting my sub-standard crepe-making skills." So, when I invited the girls over for brunch yesterday, it was a given that I was going to subject them to some less-than-round crepes. It wasn't too much of a leap to reach the decision that I should start off my Rebar challenge by serving sweet cheese blintz with summer berry compote (p. 80). In terms of a tasty meal that was enjoyed by all and looked good on the fine china (using the china more is a bit of a new year's resolution), it was a success. In terms of completely emulating what the recipe was supposed to produce, my achievement was, perhaps, a bit more qualified ....



As I alluded to above, I am lacking some serious crepe-pouring skills - they never come out round. I looked into some internet tutorials, and I think I know what to try for next time, though - I was always pouring at one edge of the pan, but perhaps I have to pour into the centre? Any tips from more successful crepe bakers would be appreciated. I also never seem to get the crepes nearly as thin as the recipes suggest they should be but, once again, maybe that will be improved by my pouring techniques (looks like I'll have to host another brunch before I forget all this ....). Nevertheless, the crepes, which I cooked on Friday night, worked out fine (despite not being particularly elegant looking).

The next step was the fruit compote. I used frozen strawberries and blueberries, and it worked out really well. I did add more maple syrup than the recipe called for, because it seemed a bit tart, but I think that was because I was too vigorous in juicing my lemon. Happily for me, there are leftovers to enjoy in my yogourt this week!

The final stage was the sweet cheese filling, and this is where things went somewhat awry. I hadn't had time to go on a special cheese-buying mission, so I substituted ricotta for the dry curd farmer's cheese in the recipe. I think it would have been ok, except that I made the mistake of taking the hand blender to it to try to work in some of the cream cheese that was stubbornly remaining in lumps. The cream cheese got well worked-in, but the whole thing turned quite runny. At this point, I abandoned any hope of making secure little packages and frying them up like blintzes. So, I stuck the crepes in the oven to warm them up, and just served them with some of the runny cheese in the middle and the fruit on top. The cheese filling still tasted good, though, and I am sure that our arteries will thank us for refraining from stuffing something with cheese and then frying it in butter. There was plenty of filling left, so it's gone into the freezer for the next time I do a more "free for all" crepe meal.

Welcome to 2010

The purpose of this blog is to record our progress in the Great Rebar cooking challenge of 2010!! when you make a recipe make a short post including what you made, and any comments on how it worked, tasted, who you made it for, etc. If you want to include photos, that's even better. Then we can keep track of who's making what and how we're doing on challenge.

We've got some vegetable soup stock in a pot on the stove right now... and it sure smells good.

Looking forward to many great meals in 2010!!