Quality time

Sundays are for quality time. Time with family and friends, alone time – time to regenerate. That’s what Sunday dinner is all about. 

We had the perfect combination of quality and convenience this Sunday. A few slices of slow cooked prime rib reheated to perfection with some twice-cooked baby potatoes made for a decadent dinner with a bit of green salad. 

Good old fashioned meat and potatoes!

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Thankfully I had a wee bit of something meaty in the cellar (you have to love local talent) :

Spierhead Pursuit 2010 – a delicious #bcwine pairing with the beef

And that’s all. My time was spent offline today. It’s good to check out once in a while. Can we all toast to that?

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Easter is a wonderful occasion

There is so much about Easter that is beautiful. It is truly a turning point. Spring has sprung and there is new life bounding in the fields with baby animals and new plants. Lent has ended and Easter Sunday is a day of feasting, with chocolate and sweet breads and a groaning table of delicacies, shared with family and friends.

Here at Rabbit Hollow, family is over the mountains and most of our friends are across many miles (some are even on the other side of an ocean). As such, we give thanks for their love and toast their good health and happiness. We always have a feast of our own – this year our homemade “Lamb Jam” and garden beets pickled with star anise were well suited for the succulent lamb chops my hubbie prepared

Cheers to Cedar Creek Winery – their Platinum Malbec was delicious with the tangy plum chutney and beets that accompanied the lamb.

with roasted asparagus and market potato wedges. And then there are the extras…

• I wanted to do some baking, so bunny cookies were the order of the day. I used Anna Olsen’s cardamom sugar cookies as an inspiration. My tweaked version of her recipe will be added to the archives this week, under Easter Bunny Cookies.

• we were spoiled by a certain motherly figure who used modern technology to contact our favourite pastry chef, Sandrine. Dessert was the perfect end to the holiday weekend.

The background doesn’t do it justice but the Paris-Brest was divine, and the chocolate mousse cake was perfectly decadent

I have to admit, it was a bit lonely visiting the market by myself this weekend and baking cookies alone in the kitchen; not to mention hunting for chocolate eggs all by my lonesome self (well, except for Ella’s help). However, I am truly grateful to know I have such wonderful friends across the world. Thanks to technology I was able to chat online with many of them, and I hope to see them soon.

I hope you shared love as well as chocolate this weekend. Here’s to a new season, full of sunshine and good feelings.

Even Ella and her new stuffie were popped after a hard day of hunting and baking. There was nothing left to do but bask in the sun…

Be Flexible, and Committed

This morning, I remember thinking, “it’s a good day to be a worm”. As I walked with Ella this morning in the pouring rain, the only other creatures outside were the worms. It was then I decided that we should have stew for dinner. But then,  the sun came out at 1 pm.

Thankfully, I did my computer work early in the day, so when the skies lightened and the thermometer actually slipped into double digits I high-tailed it outside. The vitamin D did wonders for my mood and the look of the garden, after I finished trimming all the herbs.

I’m glad I had the ability to be so flexible in my day’s plans. Back in the days when I had an office job, I used to have to just pull the blinds up to soak in the rays. Today I even had time to stop and smell the flowers, hear the bees buzzing. Being self-employed has its advantages, especially in the shoulder season.

I did want to stay committed to dinner. I have a great cookbook for stew inspiration: Lobel’s Meat and Wine. It offers choices by meat type, with different themes based on recipes from various places in the world. Tonight I made a beef stew Provençale. The recipe is based on their Beef Stew Flavoured with Black Olives & Oranges, adapted for my tighter time schedule and ingredients on hand. We did still manage a nice local wine pairing.

I also got to chat with my brother today. We have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, running hot as great buddies or cold when we didn’t speak at all. These days, there is water under the bridge that doesn’t run smooth or clear, but we have found our way in the current and it feels good to have my oldest pal back. I suppose that speaks to the same theme of being flexible and committed, doesn’t it?

Life is about balance. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Porridge for Dinner? Definitely!

There is a new trend going around, called “brinner”. It’s all about having breakfast food for dinner. The latest variation in comfort food, if you ask me. But I’m not complaining. It wasn’t dinner but rather lunch when my mom would occasionally make apple pancakes on a cold winter day – one of my favourite childhood memories.

But back to today’s meal. We are lucky enough to have a freezer with some pretty awesome leftovers. Since hubbie’s specialty in summer is southern-style BBQ, we have portions of some of the best pulled pork ever stashed away. Tonight it sat atop a delicious mound of steaming soft polenta. Polenta is just an Italian word for porridge made from cornmeal. Granted, it was served savoury – gussied up with aged cheddar, chopped zucchini and some coriander. The pulled pork was heated with some sautéed peppers, onions and then Greg cilantro at the last moment. I pulled a Sangiovese from the cellar, and presto chango, we had a trendy meal. 

Thanks to Howard Soon for making local Sangiovese possible. #bcwine

Simple and elegant, just like a great breakfast. Or a good dinner. 

Here’s to your good health and happiness! I do hope you’re enjoying good food in good company. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner, it’s some of the best quality time you can have.