November 30

The last few days have been: early darkness, full of laughter and dutch, the smell of turkey all night long, warm hugs and cranberries

Italy

Tonight we visited Italy and it was delicious! We had ideas to go to Portugal but lacked the forethought, so that will have to wait till next week. This lasagna came out so good, much much better than it looks in the picture. I'd never made lasagna before, the main reason being that all the stellar recipes called for ricotta and it happens to be $6.50 for just over a cup at the store. Because I had the time and patience today I made the ricotta myself and saved a lot of money. Ricotta is very simple to make but takes some time.

To make the ricotta I took 2 L of 2% milk (next time I'll use whole milk) and 6 T of vinegar with 1 1/2t salt. I stirred it until it reached 140F then let it heat itself to 180F. Immediately I took it off and strained it into a colander lined with three layers of cheesecloth. I hung the cheesecloth from a cupboard for 40 minutes and then it was done. From the two litres, however I only got 6 oz of ricotta, so it should be noted that the waste is huge. I couldn't figure out what the byproduct of the process was (whey?) so I threw it out.

The lasagna was great. The ricotta was the only cheese except for a little parmesan, it provided a good creamy, cheesy flavour but without the grease and heaviness of most cheesy lasagnas. The meat was a mixture of spicy italian sausage and ground beef which was essential to the success of this recipe. The only thing missing for me was some of the tomato flavour, but Shane said he didn't miss it.

For dessert I made vanilla panna cotta and had with it some of the strawberries I preserved in syrup this spring. It was not flavourful enough unfortunately and to heavy. The portion sizes were to big as well, overall not a successful dessert. I had used the recipe from David Lebovitz. On it's plus side it was not to jelly as some panna cotta are and did have a nice creaminess to it. Next time I'll replace some of the cream with milk.

Lasagna

Serves 3-4

Adapted from Osteria by Rick Tramonto

Meat sauce:

1 1/2 T olive oil

1/4 large yellow onion

1 T minced garlic

500g ground spicy italian sausage

500 g ground beef

1/4 c white wine

14 oz crushed tomatoes

1/2 T ground fennel seeds

1 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 t dried oregano

Cheese filling:

500g ricotta cheese

1/2 beaten egg

1/4 c freshly grated parmesan cheese

kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

Lasagna:

500g lasagna sheets (about 8)

1/2 c freshly grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 F

To prepare filling heat oil in large saute pan on medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook 2-3 minutes until softened but not colored. Add the sausage and ground beef and cook 10-12 minutes until cooked through. With a slotted spoon scoop the meat and vegetables onto a plate and drain the fat left in the pan.

Add the wine and cook over medium-high, stirring with a wooden spoon to release any brown bits. Let the wine simmer for about 2 minutes or until the pan is dry. Add the spices and meat mixture back in. Add the tomatoes and let simmer together for at least 5 minutes.

To make cheese filling combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together very well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside until needed.

To prepare lasagna bring to boil a large amount of salted water. Cook for about 8 minutes until the pasta is cooked 75% through. Drain the pasta and work quickly to assemble so they don't get sticky.

To assemble take a 9x5 pan and spoon about 1/4 a of meat sauce in bottom. Trim two lasagna noodles to fit the pan. Top the noodles with 1/3 of the cheese mixture and 1/3 of the meat mixture and 1/3 of the parmesan cheese. Add more sheets of pasta and repeat layering, finishing with the parm. Bake for 1 hour until bubbling around the edges. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

One week

We've been busy. Hardly time for a breath. Not all of it good.

I started the week buying a craft table I've been wanting for a long time now. It finally came to doing because we have company coming over next week and I wanted that room the be finished. Now it is, it's my craft room and I love it. The table and two chairs came from a MCC I decided to stop into on a whim on my way to Costco (to buy a more expensive table.) This one fit perfectly and the added seating makes enough to host a dinner! To celebrate our table Shane and I painted canvas (to finish off the dining room). We had a blast doing it too!

We saw the new Harry Potter movie in our new movie theatre here in Chilliwack. It was SOO awesome! We loved it. I happen to be a HP finatic so I was super pumped for it.

I had a Christmas card class I attended on Wednesday where I picked up a few neat tricks and techniques I can't wait to use on my Christmas cards, hello night shift! I also finished a set of napkins for this holiday season.

I went to Vancouver to see Natasha and Erin. We went to Granville Island to stock up on goodies and had a great dinner Tash made us.

Today we had a funeral, we shed a lot of tears, all of us. It's time for a good sleep.

Dutch Night

Yesterday I woke up early and put on a batch of Sunday soup. Four hours later Natasha came over and we were in heaven. This soup comes straight out of our childhood. Every Sunday for 13 years I had this meal with my uncles, my dad, sisters and grandparents after church. Before I made it however, I never really thought about how to make it. Two years ago I attempted it and failed miserably. I didn't know the secrets, the time honed ways. Always yellow potatoes, and always cooked the night before. A marrow bone and stew beef simmered together in a pot of water for three hours. Meatballs with gehakt spice, milk, no eggs and breadcrumbs. After my first attempt I asked my Oma (the master of this craft, she's been doing this for over forty years) what went wrong. She was happy to tell me. I wrote it down and used her guide. This time was perfect.

To have the traditional Wilbrink (and maybe other people?) Sunday Soup you must have:

Sunday soup

Fried potatoes with dutch mayonnaise

Vanilla ice cream with homemade blackberry sauce.

We forgoed the ice cream (even though we had the sauce) for a lack luster butterscotch pudding. Very disappointing. Other than dessert this dinner brought us right back to our childhood. Full of flavour, salty and loaded with delicious fat.

We hope we can find a soup just like this when we are visiting relatives in Holland in 146 days!

Sunday Soup:

I forgot about the gehakt seasoning, so I didn't have any on hand. I did mix together coriander, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, chili and oregano, in roughly equal parts and it tasted just like it should.

1 marrow bone, veal or beef

1 lb stewing beef, seared

1 package Groentesoep season mix (Honig brand)

1 recipe meatballs (follows)

spagettini noodles crushed with your hands into 1 inch pieces

maggi, saltine crackers (optional, but not in our house)

Meatballs:

1 lb ground beef

1/4 c fresh breadcrumbs

1/4 c milk

1 T gehakt seasoning

Place marrow bone and seared stewing beef in a large pot and bring to a boil with 8 or so cups of water. Simmer for three hours. Mix meatballs and roll into 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Add in meatballs and one package of seasoning mix and simmer for 50 minutes. In last ten minutes of cooking add noodles. Serve piping hot with crackers crushed in and maggi sprinkled on top.

A taste of winter

Today was sweet and salty toffee, frozen breath on a long walk, christmas carols and dinner planning for the holidays.

Nov 19

Oh what have I been up to you ask? Well...

I've been driving a lot, all over the place really. I spend far to much time in my car.

I had a wonderful evening with my two besties (even though one of them is my sister) going to the Christmas craft fair in Vancouver and eating at Nuba (yummm turkish coffee!).

I made a birthday cake for an 11 year old. (Which he didn't like! Worst sister ever. That's me.)

Made eggnog cookies, failed in a sourdough attempt and have a batch of yogurt incubating.

Went for a few walks with my dog of doom.

Ate a few of these

Right Now

Time: 5:04pm

In my mug: I had an eggnog latte on my drive

On the stereo: Peter Bradley Adams

In my belly: an apple most recently, but a yummy oatmeal coconut cookie tash gave me before that

In the fridge: eggnog and perogies

Last thing on the laptop: looking up stuff about greece

On my wish list: A really big wood cutting board

Looking forward to: Tonight with Tash and Erin at the Christmas Craft Market here in Vancouver followed by dinner at Nuba(hopefully) and Hunter's birthday tomorrow!

On the nightstand: Baking for all occasions by Dorie Greenspan

Recently satisfied: Getting a great price on flights

Polish Night

We did it! We booked the flights It took a really long time on hold and an extra $600 but we fly into Paris April 18th and fly out of Brussels July 18th! I can hardly believe it. So to celebrate we decided food was in order. I made a list of the countries we are planning to see (I've been planning these countries 12 months already!) and a food associated with each country. Yesterday we started with perogies from Poland. We want to go to Krakow and side trip at least one day in Auschwitz. It's going to be an insense few days full of perogies, vodka (ew) and saurkraut.

Sorry about the quality of the photos, I hate photographing dinner but I want to remember all these meals.

Shane did an awesome job, they were so good! He made this dough recipe. We filled some of them with potato and cheese, and some with potato, cheese, sausage and thyme. After we boiled them we fried them with bacon, onions and topped them with sour cream.

November 15

Spent yesterday going out for lunch to Rowena's with Shane, which was a very enjoyable expierence. On our way there we checked out the hazelnut farm, which I'll have to tell you about some day soon because their products are phenomenal. We also went to the honey farm to stock up. To finish the night we made perogies and watched travel videos after we finally changed out fights to europe.

Today I decorated for Christmas and argued with Shane wether or not to listen to Christmas music! Anyway the decorating is coming along slowly. Already its better than I've ever done. Go me.

Music!

I just wanted to tell my future self (since I'm the only one who read this!) that this is an awesome song. I've listened to it for at least a year now. But just so I don't forget and for your listening pleasure.

Don't mind the dumb video just listen.

November 9

I’m a weird-o don’t ya know?

Fact: I love to clean

Fact: Travel dvds make me insanely happy

Fact: I plan everything, except when I don’t want to, this usually lets everyone down

Fact: I’m starting to conquer my dead-stop-on-the-highway-road rage

Fact: It makes me really sad when the street lights turn on at 4:30pm (today)

Fact: Salt makes my husband insanely happy, in fact sometimes I catch him dipping a wet finger into the salt bag (also our citric acid bag). So I make him these.

leaves everywhere

Fall-y Fall

Right now

Time: 12:04pm

In my mug: lukewarm coffee

On the stereo: I was listening to Madison Violet before Shane complained about country music. Hahah!

In my belly: cinnamon squares so good!

In the fridge: braised duck tacos, nanaimo bars

Last thing on the laptop: looking up birthday cakes for an upcoming birthday

On my wish list: Baking by Dorie Greenspan, 2 sets of new wine glasses white and red.

Looking forward to: my three day weekend and a lot of real cooking

On the nightstand: My name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

Recently satisfied: A beautiful morning walk with my husband and dog. My cinnamon squares were more than I thought they’d be! Proud of myself for not calling in sick this week no matter how much I wanted to

Nov 2

work work work

and lots of it

Christmas is a comin'!