Not Just Any Other Guacamole Recipe

8 cups
100 calories per tablespoon

Guacamole is one of the worlds most popular dips, and the internet abounds with recipes for it.  So why, you may well ask, would I go to the trouble of posting another recipe for it?  First, with the obvious exception of the avocados, many of the fresh ingredients can be had from the market on Saturdays in the late summer.  Second, and perhaps most important, our guacamole is widely complimented by guacamole afficianados of our acquaintance.  All in all enough to make the effort, and hopefully you will agree.

Halve, remove the pits, and spoon into a bowl:
6 medium Haas avocados
Add:
Scant 1/2 cup of coarsly chopped cilantro
1 tbsp of mashed garlic
1/2 a jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (add more if you would like it spicier)
1/4 cup of fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
2 dashes of hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 tsps of salt
Mash with a potato masher until the avocado is coarsely broken down but still chunky.  Halve and remove the seeds and pulp from:

2 medium tomatoes 
and finely chop.  Stir in the tomatoes and:
1/2 cup of thinly sliced green onions

Serve with tortilla chips.  If you have access to Mexican tortilla chips they are a good option as they have far less salt than their Canadian counterparts.

Tip: Chop and prep all the ingredients in advance and this is a great recipe to prepare with your three year old.

Blasts from the Past

It looks like we're not entertaining for a week, so it's time to regroup and get caught up on the backlog.  A new water filter arrived from Phoenix today despite warnings that it might be delayed due to dust storms that would have kept Paul Atreides home at the sietch.  It's installed, and the self-clean is running on the oven, Suzy, Aija, and Nyls are all tucked in for the night, and I'm not far behind them. 

So, for now here's a handful of blasts from the past for your viewing pleasure!



Suzy's Castle Subtlety for Aija's Third Birthday Party




Aija's third birthday again. 
Real weiners from Fresh from the Farm, our local Mennonite butcher
are just the recipe for twelve three year olds sitting still and eating at the same time.




A Christmas subtlety for a potluck at my work. 
The star is 24K edible gold over a sugar cookie.  It was delicious :)



Another cake courtesy of Suzy.

Sometimes all you need is a little icing sugar and

a LOT of chocolate.



A little stack of tea sandwiches and scones. 



The Perfect Pot of Tea

Teapot by David Clarke of Glen Cross Pottery -
the best pouring teapot we've ever had...

Scarcely a day goes by without a pot of tea at the Hotel Cavell, and often two on weekends and holidays.  It's one of those rituals that helps bind the family together, warms you up on a blustery day, and gives the opportunities to explore the nearly infinite varieties of tea.

That said, we're talking about black teas, and occasional oolong here.  Tisanes or infusions lacking vital caffeine need not apply. Even then there are so many varieties and sources that I doubt we'll make our way through them in this lifetime, or possibly the next.  Our favourite sources are Tealish and the Mariage Freres.

We also strongly believes that you can't simply pour hot water over a couple of bags in a pot and call it tea.  It requires careful preparation and a bit of ritual.

In a large kettle bring:
Filtered water
to a full boil.  When boiling pour some into a good teapot, your mugs, and the infuser to warm them.  Swish the water around the pot an pour out.  Put:
1 level teaspoon of loose leaf black tea per cup
in the infuser, put in the pot and fill with boiling water, cover.  Turn the pot around three times clockwise for luck, and then steep for 3 minutes. Briefly stir the pot with the infuser to make sure the flavour is fully expressed.  Drain, and remove, and empty the warm cups of water and fill with tea.  Sweeten or flavour with:
Milk to taste
Sugar or honey to taste.

Suzy and Aija like milk and sugar, while I prefer a bit of honey.

Blood Sports

Some computer problems are standing in the way of my planned posting for the day, which leaves me free to ask, "what was I thinking?" when I invited some friends over for a barbeque four days after doing the same for Canada Day. 

Don't let the smile fool you... Suzy is plotting culinary mayhem!

That said, friends only come in from St. Johns every so often, and Suzy is wont to say that her idea of a blood sport is a dinner party for twelve on four hours notice.  Well, a month old baby, and plumbing problems that have expanded to include a defunct sink (fortunately in the master bathroom, not the kitchen), and blood sport it is!




So, to tantalize your tastebuds here is the menu for tomorrow:

Cocktails
Grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto
Potato and egg salad
Green Salad
Home made hamburgers with English bacon and a selection of cheeses
Individual strawberry shortcakes (courtesy of Mara Svenne)

All the ingredients are on hand, and the timer just beeped to say the eggs are done...  Time to get back to work!

Deja Vu - Times Two!

While I can't recall ever experiencing an episode of deja vu, were I prone today would have had me tripping on the feeling time after time.  Like last Saturday the order of the day was to pickle the asparagus we picked up at the market, only this time there were twenty-four pounds instead of twelve, plus the leftovers from Saturday's cancelled appetizer. 

With a job like that ahead, a solid breakfast was required, and I whipped up an asparagus, prosciutto, and green onion fritatta with olive-cilantro bread and the strawberries from the night before.  It's worth mentioning the source of our prosciutto at this point.  We get ours from the Masellis Supermarket on the Danforth.  It's a family run shop, and they make their own.  It has recently been written up in several places as the best prosciutto in Toronto, and we would have to agree.

After breakfast was over one of Suzy's friends, Jen, stopped by with her two daughters, and they headed into the back with Aija to play, and I set down to work.  Things went very much as described in Asparagus Anyone?, only this time there was almost twice as much asparagus.  It made fifteen jars of pickled asparagus, six quarts of cream of asparagus soup, and an awful lot of asparagus stock.  That said, there were a couple of small variations and incidents and variations worth mentioning.

First up, I had planned for twelve jars of spicy spicy pickled asparagus by adding a third of a seeded jalapeno pepper to each jar.  I was also using 750 ml jars so I could have longer spears, and differentiate the spicy and non-spicy jars easily.  Things went relatively smoothly except the jars took more asparagus than expected, and one jar chose to crack when I started to pack it, the first I can ever remember doing so.  Unfazed I switched gears and packed a fourth quart jar instead, as I had one on hand.

Revisiting the asparagus soup recipe also proved valuable, as I realized on review that I had made two small typos in transcribing the recipe - it cooks for ten minutes, not twenty, and it should have been tablespoons, not teaspoons of fresh tarragon.  I am correcting the recipe now.

So, all in all a very productive day despite having to hand wash everything, as it appears the dishwasher needs professional help.  I'm also starting to build up a bit of a backlog of recipes to post.  Stay tuned in and I'll get another out tomorrow, and more later in the week!

These Things Are Sent To Try Us

Ben Sosnicki

Dave at Haystrom Farm

Saturday morning started off with everyone tired from being out late the night before and a little muggy, but otherwise excellent.  Our first destination was the Withrow Park Farmers Market, which was as lovely as ever.  It being the last week we picked up 24 pounds of asparagus from Ben, peas and rhubarb from Dave at Haystrom Farms, green onions from Laurel, and a loaf of olive-cilantro bread from the St. John's Bakery.  I also had a lovely chat with Roberta, the market manager while Suzy, Aija, and Nyls hit the playground.

We returned home by a roundabout route, and I whipped up a quick breakfast of fried egg and prosciutto on a crumpet to set us up for the day ahead.  It was then that things started to go wrong.  First the water filter, which has served us well for six years, started spraying water instead of filtering.  Fortunately my brother-in-law John, a professional plumber, had stopped by with a flat of strawberries from the Stouffville Strawberry Festival for us.  After my failed attempt to diagnose the problem I had high hopes he could set it right...

They were quickly dashed when he showed me where the casing was irreperably cracked. 

With this setback fatigue caught up with me, and I took an afternoon nap for the first time in ages, and hoped that when I woke I would have the energy to carry on.  No such luck!  Further trouble ensued when I started to empty the dishwasher for washing the jars for the pickled asparagus, and found that it wasn't draining.  Didn't it know there were twenty-four pounds of asparagus that needed to be done?  Apparently not.

In situations like these my mother would say, "these things are sent to try us," and then expect us to carry on despite.  So, I bailed out the dishwasher, cleared the trap, reset it, loaded it up, and it's running again now in hopes that the problem is solved...  Knock on wood.

Dinner was a hodge-podge of leftovers, and once Suzy, Aija, and Nyls were all off to bed I made one more stab at being productive, and the least I could do is prepare the strawberries and set them down to freeze.  Fortunately they were beautiful berries, and only a half-dozen out of six quarts were unusable, and even good parts of the sketchy ones only made a small batch for breakfast.  The rest were carefully laid out on a large tray so none were touching to ensure they freeze properly. 

The strawberries are down in the chest freezer now, and I've laid in a couple of big jugs of spring water for pickling tomorrow, and the asparagus and rhubarb are in water to keep them crisp and fresh.  It feels like progress, so I'm going to put the challenges of the day behind me and chalk it up as a win.

Good night!

Canada Day 2011

 It was a busy day on and off Cavell Avenue as friends and neighbours prepared to celebrate Canada's 144th birthday.  We were up a little earlier than usual, with Aija popping in just after 7am to see what was going on.  It was a good thing, as there was lots left to do to get ready for company in the afternoon.  Our first stop of the day was a treat; breakfast at Rahier, Toronto's finest french bakery.  I don't give that praise lightly, we've tried them all, and there's every reason to sing the praises of the quality of the food and service at this popular Bayview and Moore destination.  Aija had a pain au chocolate, Suzy a tortillion, and there was a bichon for me to set us up for the day. Delicious!

We also popped into Badali's Fruit Market (which is right across the street from the bakery) to pick up some local strawberries and some asparagus for a planned appetizer (that was later cancelled).

Next we popped up to Markham's Victory Fireworks, as how better to celebrate the birth of our nation than by blowing up a small piece of it?  Victory makes it all the more affordable by having all of your pyrotechnical needs on had at the best prices in the city.  A crate of barrages and cakes were soon loaded into the car, and then it was back down the Don Valley to the Hotel Cavell to finish getting ready. 

Aija was eager to help, and between the two of us we had a lot of things to get ready.  First we hulled the strawberries and made strawberry ice cubes to add a little of the old red and white to the drinks, and then it was time for a specialty of the house: guacamole.  Aija particularly loves avocados, and is always keen to have a hand in the making of a big bowl. 

By the time that was done we had a surprise visit from Suzy's dad, and then it was time for lunch, and the left over strawberries became strawberries and cream by adding some of the leftover cream for last weekend's soup.  Not long afterword Aija, Nyls, and Suzy all went off for a nap, and I carried on, whipping up a green salad and dressing, and set up the back yard and prepared the grill.

By five we had fourteen people from the ages of four weeks to forty-something in the back yard celebrating the hundred and forty-fourth.  The format was a potluck, and when all was said  all shaped up the menu looked like this:

Guacamole with red and white tortilla chips
Crostini with goat's cheese, roasted garlic, and arugala (courtesy of Jen and Doug Tooley)

A selection of sausages from the Friendly Butcher with home-made Tewkesbury mustard and Sauerkraut.
Thai noodle salad (coourtesy of my cousin Lee)
Green Salad

Shortbread
Mini cherry cheesecakes
Strawberry-rhubarb crumble (All deserts courtesy of Lisa Mallia)

Drinks were iced tea and lemonade and a selection of Canadian beverages courtesy of the LCBO:  Steam Whistle, Mill Street Organic, and William Cider.  The sole import was Innis and Gunn's, as this Scottish brewery produced a special Canada Day 2011 brew that was lovely.





Plenty of good conversation, eating, drinking, baby cuddling, and playing ensued, including emergency repairs of the play structure, trips to the park by the kids, and general merriment.  As the sun went down we repaired to Withrow Park, which was a beehive of activty as dozens of families and groups set off fireworks displays.  All in all it was a blast!