More from the kitchen

We haven't been eating out much lately, save a trip to Bua Thai earlier in the month and a late night post chocolate and coffee tasting falafel from La Shish this past weekend. I've got a post on the former soon, but I gobbled up that falafel so quickly that picture taking didn't stand a chance.

But back to the kitchen... I made three recipes recently that I thought were worth mentioning. Slow Cooked Carne Adovada from David Tanis' Heart of the Artichoke, Breton Buckwheat cake with Fleur de Sel from David Lebovitz's Sweet Life in Paris, and Buttermilk Roast Chicken from Smitten Kitchen.

Carne Adovada

The David Tanis recipe certainly needs some work, mostly due to his suggested cooking time and temperature - 350 degrees for 1.5 hours. I'm hoping a lower, slower cooking time will benefit the final tenderness of the pork shoulder. The chile paste/sauce, however, is perfect.

The pork shoulder. On sale earlier in the month from Serben.

We couldn't find the dried New Mexican red chiles at Paraiso Tropical, so we substituted Ancho chiles, as per Chowhound's suggestion. Removing the seeds from 6oz. of dried chiles is a tedious job (and we were finding seeds everywhere afterward), but it was worth it. The resulting sauce was smoky and slightly spicy, and worked beautifully in a taco and in a roll for lunch the next day.

Breton Buckwheat Cake

This past week my mum and Nanny hosted a mid-week lunch, and the Breton Buckwheat Cake was Rachel's answer to my dessert dilemma. Our main ended up being the kale and bean stew from Smitten Kitchen, which worked well for my vegetarian/Coeliac cousin, along with bannock made by my aunt. The super buttery, nutty buckwheat cake turned out to be a lovely finish to the hearty meal (and just in case you're wondering about the above mentioned Coeliac cousin, I brought her a couple peanut butter cups from the shop in lieu).

The final piece.

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

And finally, the buttermilk roast chicken. This recipe comes together in no time, with the chicken simply hanging out in the fridge for 24-48 hours. We ended up brining the chicken for just 24 hours, and the flavour was incredible. We enjoyed our chicken with some rice, spinach and a bottle of Brüton's sparkly Lilith for a quick mid-week meal. At the end of the night, even if you don't choose to use the tin foil to line the baking dish, clean up is easy.

We're still looking forward to checking out some new-to-us restaurants in Oliver, particularly Cibo, Bistro India, the newly located CoCoDi and Café Beirut. Until that happens, I'm happily making my way through some of EPL's cookbook collection and online recipes bookmarked long ago.

Meal Planning Saga: Week Thirteen

Well, I'm not sure what to say. The meal planning isn't really lasting through 'essay season'. Though we managed to get a few recipes in last week, this week has started badly - we're both tired, my nose is permanently in a book or in front of the computer and Charles' boss is away this week making for long days.

At any rate, I'm hoping to get things back on track as I enter exams, which I don't find nearly as involved time wise as papers. Fingers crossed of course...

On to the previous week (aka. Week Thirteen)!

Sunday - After spending the day in the library, I met Charles at Sugarbowl. I did the jerk chicken and avocado burger with Edelweiss whilst Charles did steak frites and Anchor Steam.

Sugarbowl on a Sunday with a tired Charles

Monday - Charles made mushroom soup from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. This was a great way to utilize the pound of mushrooms Charles grabbed at the market Saturday, though we both agreed it would have been extra great as a cream soup, which Bittman notes just below is easy enough to create.

Tuesday - Pulled Pork Sandwiches. We put a pork shoulder in the crock pot Monday night and let it go for about 8 hours. Charles stopped on the way home from work and grabbed some bbq sauce to throw in, along with buns and a few salads from the PO deli.

This sauce had a great salty-sweet flavour, though it wasn't nearly thick enough for pulled pork. Next time, molasses based, and hopefully, made at home.

Planet Organic deli salads - the yam salad was by far the best, with pecans throughout.

Charles also stopped and grabbed four cupcakes from Crave. The red velvet versions had cream cheese icing on them, which for some reason wasn't working for me. The chocolate, however, was excellent.

Wednesday - Leftover pulled pork sandwiches.

Thursday - Charles had grabbed some cod from Ocean Odyssey on Saturday, and pan fried it along with some steamed spinach for a late evening meal.

Friday - Steak with caramelized mushrooms and onions and leftover PO salads. I think I've sort-of mastered the steak grilling situation, which is great news for this summer!

Saturday - Charles was off to do some volunteering for a friend's work benefit, while I went to my parents, munched on a couple pieces of their Royal Pizza and worked on a paper.

As a small note, my application for graduation was approved today! Just nine more weeks and goodbye undergrad!

Enjoy the week everyone!