Mom’s best smoke salmon pasta

My mom is a great cook, I often call her to get ideas, tricks or her recipes. It makes me feel more at home when I’m away.

We all love her smoke salmon pastas, and I found it a very useful recipe to jazz up left over fish.

Here is out it goes!

• First dice an onion and some garlic that you will cook in a pan for about 5 min on medium heat or until the onion is tender.
• Add 3/4 cup of white wine (because it is unavailable here I used powder chicken broth mixed with water). Let simmer to reduced the liquid in half.
• Add some veggies to the pan. The easiest is frozen peas and carrots, but any of your favorite veggies will do. This time I used about 1 cup of a frozen mix of veggies and we added extra fresh peppers at the end. We cooked the frozen veggies about 10min and the fresh ones during the last 5 min only
• The final touch is 1 cup of cream, salt and pepper.
• I was about to forget the fish. it all depends of what you have and how you like it. I love smoke salmon as is. So I add it in just at the very end, some people like it more cooked. Also when I dont have smoke salmon I sometimes use cooked salmon or arctic char for example, and because those were already cooked I add it only at the end.

If you use real fish, don’t forget to watch for bones!

Enjoy

 

 

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Best cookies for the plane

I’ve been in the arctic for over 6 weeks now. Mom sent me a care package not too long after I got here with mostly chocolate and a few ingredients hard to find or expensive here. She also sent a magazine and special ingredients to accomplish some recipes.

 

Last week I made those cookies. They are very delicious and a perfect snack to bring flying providing a lot of energy during those long flights.

First mix :

• 2 cups of oat meal
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• Salt

Wisk in a another bowl:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of maple sirup
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I just used normal and cheap yogurt)
• 1/2 cup of almond milk (I used normal milk)

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the liquids and add:

• 1/2 cup of pecans ( I didn’t have any so I used dark chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries (that mom placed in my care package)
• 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds (placed as well by mom in my care package)

Bake in big cookies at 350 F for about 18-20 min.

Thanks mom for this amazing idea!!!!

Field cooking : Chili

I am trying to cook meals that will last few days because time is often limited on long work days. We are lucky enough to have a slow cooker here. A great investment to make food while at work and come back to an amazing smell in the kitchen.

So yesterday I improvised some crockpot chili. I did not use a set recipe, grocery here is very expensive so I am limiting myself by using simple ingredients and the few spices I brought from home; chili and curry powder.

Here is what I did:

1. I cooked a pound and a half of ground beef in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil and a package of chili spice from the store.
2. I drained the excess of fat and place the meat in the slow cooker.
3. I cooked an onion and a few garlic cloves in the frying pan and place it in the slow cooker.
4. I added a can of small red bean I rinsed into the slow cooker.
5. Alsoţ, I added 2 cans of tomatoes and 1 cup of beef broth with about 1 tablespoon of chili powder in the slow cooker.
6. Cooked it on high setting for about 4hours.

It was pretty liquid, next time I will put a can of tomatoes and one of tomato sauce to thicken the sauce.

We made oven fries for side dish with potatoes, turnip and sweet potatoes! Pretty awesome mix with the chili !!!

 

Cooking in the field 101

Here is the deal; I have been living in crew houses for the past few months for this new exciting job. Sharing kitchen and living room with the work team. It is certainly better than hotel rooms because I can cook for myself and sometimes share with the others and make friends faster.

Although its not like cooking at home. There is often a lack of tools and  cookware and I have to  be very original in my way of cooking things. There is also difficulties with groceries because often things comes in big bag and I don’t always want to spend money for some ingredients  if I won’t use it all.

Here are my few tricks:

If I am to stay at  the same place for more than a couple weeks I like to get milk and eggs obviously but also flour and baking powder and butter/margarine or oil so I can make crêpes for breakfast or even dinner. Check my crêpes recipe here.

The other day I had 2 bananas in rough shape. I looked online to find a way to make banana bread with only the few ingredients I already had with me. After some thinking and converting quantities around I came up with this little recipe.

Improvised Banana Bread

• 1/3 cup of margarine
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 bananas
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 2 teaspoon of baking powder
• Salt

First, mix well the margarine and the sugar together. Add the egg and keep whisking. Add the mashed bananas. Aside mix all the dry ingredients together and mix it in with the first mix. Be careful not to over mix the dough at this point, it will help to keep it fluffy.

I baked my bread in tin foil I shaped myself into a cake pan because I didn’t  have anything else, at 350ºF for about 30-40 min.

Here a picture of the result!

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone !

 

Le meilleur Gâteau Froid de mamy

Mamy’s best cold cake!

Don’t ask me why we call it cold cake in french… but it is the direct translation!  Maybe you can help me, what would you call them in English?

Like the dominos, they are one of my weaknesses. A small bite of softness, melting in your mouth with a hint of coffee! I’m sure this is all they eat in heaven!

It is very easy to do, and it keeps well in the freezer while waiting a couple weeks for your guests!

Simply follow these few steps:

• Crush into crumbs 40 tea cookies by first placing all the cookies in a big ziploc bag,
• Gather some accumulated frustration and use a rolling pin as a tool to crumb the cookies,

Mix it all in a bowl with:

• 1 lbs of icing sugar… a little over 2 cups
• 3/4 of a cup of strong brewed coffee
• 1 yolk …. the yellow part of the egg
• 3 tablespoons of coco powder
• some butter… Mamy says has big as the yolk in size
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Push down into a large 9 X 9 Pirex container with the back of a spoon to compact well and give a smooth surface on top. Be patient, it will be sticking to the spoon!

Refrigerate at least an hour before attempting to cut it into squares or what ever shape you feel like!

Happy holidays! 

Mimi

Christmas Domino Squares

Some people call them Nanaimo bars but in my family we call them Dominos! Anyhow they are one of my favorite sweets and I have been making them since I was a little child! 

They are very easy to make, although they require some time as they have 3 separate layers. You can surely do them a few days or a couple weeks ahead and keep them in the freezer.

I love to play with food coloring for the middle to create some fantasy. I make them early before Christmas, store them in the freezer until I gather friends and family at home for a lovely dinner. 

Here how to make them:

For the bottom layer mix well together:

• 1/2 cup of melted butter,
• 1/4 cup of sugar,
• 1/3 of a cup of coco powder,
• 1 egg,
• 1 1/2 cup of crushed graham cookies and
• 1 cup of coconut. 

Push all the mixture down at the bottom of a 9 X 9 Pirex plate with the back of  spoon to flatten the surface. Place in the fridge at least 30 min to let it cool down.

While waiting, start the middle icing. Mix well together

• 1/4 cup of butter,
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla pudding mix powder and
• 2 cups of icing sugar

I add some food coloring to make it green in the middle, last year I made it red…  Just for fun because I am still very young in my heart!

Spread the icing on top of the first layer carefully no to make crumbs into the icing and replace in the fridge another 30 min. 

Finally, melt and spread the chocolate layer on top of the squares:

• 3 oz of chocolate chip with
• 1 tablespoon of butter

You can melt it slowly in the microwave at 50% intensity or on a very low temperature stove for a few minutes. Be careful it is very easy to burn chocolate, being patient is my best advice…. thrust me!

The harder part in my opinion is to cut those into small squares without the chocolate braking into pieces. Again use a sharp knife and maybe when the chocolate is well cooled down but still close to room temperature slowly cut them into small squares.

Happy holidays Folks!

Mimi

Flora -part 2

Here are more pictures I gathered through the summer

 

Voici encore quelques photo que j’ai accumulées cette été.

Mint-Menthe

Graminés rose

Feuilles 2 couleurs

Lavender-Lavande

Flora

Just sharing some pictures taken through the summer playing with the camera.

Voici quelques photos prises durant l’été en m’amusant avec ma caméra.

Bed of purple flowers

Orange heart

Yellow mellow

Small pink flowers

Strawberry week: Easy Peesy!

The last of this series and the easiest! 

Because strawberries won’t last t’il winter, one of the best options to preserve those amazing fruits is still to freeze them. During the cold months, it will be very easy to use a few strawberries into a smoothie, a milk shake or mixed with some yogurt and cereals for a delicious breakfast.

1. Remove the leafs and place the full strawberries or cut in pieces on a large plate or cookie sheet.
2. Freeze them as they are and try to make sure they do not touch each other too much or they will stick together.
3. The next morning, place the frozen fruits in plastic bags or containers and replace in the freezer.
4. Then only have to wait until the winter, or your next strawberry craving!

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***Français***

Le dernier de la série et le plus facile!

Malheureusement, nous savons tous que les fraises ne dureront pas jusqu’à l’hiver. Alors une des façon les plus simple pour les conserver est de les congeler. Ainsi, durant les froids mois d’hiver, il sera super facile d’utiliser les fraises dans les smoothies, milk shake ou encore mélangé avec du yogourt et des céréales pour une petit déjeuné santé!

1. Bien équeuter les fraises, et les placer sur une grande assiette ou lèche frite, ronde ou en morceaux (à votre choix).
2. Congeler l’assiette tel quel, laissez de la place entre les fraises pour qu’elle ne se touche pas trop sinon elle vont coller ensemble.
3. Le lendemain matin, placer les fruits congelés dans un sac en plastique ou dans un contenant et remettre au congélateur.
4. Ne reste plus qu’à attendre l’hiver ou votre prochaine envie de fraises!!!

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Strawberries on a cookie sheet