Cooking and Planting

So it's been a while since I've posted. I'd like to blame school but I can't really do that anymore since classes are over. I'm still writing my first draft for the the thesis, so that sort of counts. The nice things about classes and Bedford being over is the amount of real cooking I've been doing! It's been glorious.

This past week I made a dish involving several ingredients I either don't use a lot or have never tried to use. The results was pretty fantastic, and even the leftovers were good for days! I found the recipe in the Longos Experience Magazine, which can usually be found in the LCBO Food & Drink Magazine. I love honey crisp apples, but I've never really put them in much other than pies and crisps, and this was a great way to experiment with them in a main course for dinner!


Chicken and Apple Salad in Phyllo Cups
Makes 8 servings.
Ingredients
2 cups of diced cooked chicken
1 apple (Pink Lady, Honey Crisp or Cortland), cored and finely chopped
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/3 finely chopped radish
1/3 finely chopped celery
1/4 diced red onion
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon (I used a 1/4 tbsp of dried tarragon, and that was more than enough. It's pretty strong stuff)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1, 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Pinch or salt and pepper
1/4 -1/2 cup of melted butter
5 sheets of phyllo dough

Phyllo cups:
-Brush muffin pan with some of the melted butter and set aside.
-Place one sheet of phyllo on work surface and brush with melted butter. Top with another sheet of phyllo and brush with butter. Repeat with remaining sheets. Using a sharp knife, cut phyllo stack into 8 squares.
-Take each square and press into muffin pan. Bake at 350 F/ 180 C for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Note the lack of squares in this instance...

-Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine chicken, apple, yogurt, radish, celery, onion, mayonnaise, tarragon, mustard and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and divide amongst the baked phyllo cups.

I completely forgot to add the yogurt to this recipe and it tasted great anyway. The phyllo loses its crispiness in the fridge over night, but they still perfectly edible.


To celebrate the opening of gardening season here in Canada, and even though I can't get on my balcony yet due to the construction, I decided to break out the upside down tomato kit that my roommate gave me for my birthday this year.

It does seem to have a few problems, chiefly being that the "lid" that snaps on the top doesn't actually snap to anything. I taped the hell out of it for now, and once I turn it over that hopefully won't be a problem. We'll see. They're on the windowsill for now, and we'll check back in 2 weeks to see if they've sprouted.

Something evil this way grows....

I have a linear garden of purchased, inherited, gifted and grafted plants. Half of them are herbs and my forlorn tomato plant, the rest are a mix of decorative plants like my Mom's ficus and the giant fern. They all sit along my windowsill and my dining room table in the sunlight. However, recently I discovered that something had creeped into my indoor garden.

At first I had no idea what it was, it was just a random plant growing through my Rosemary. Both my roommate and I were baffled, and it decided to take advantage of us. As we were pulling the Rosemary aside to further inspect this invasive plant, it stung both of us. The sensation stayed in our fingers for a good half hour after the fact. This is what led me to believe that it was a stinging nettle. I found my heavy duty carpentry gloves to cut it out of the pot and dispose of it, once some pictures were taken to send to my Mom for confirmation of it's identity. She gardens and spent several years working part-time in a plant nursery.

The bit that really confuses me about the whole situation is that not only is my garden indoors and 14 stories up in the air, the soil I use is bagged and purchased from garden centres. Soil like that is usually sterilized before being put on sale, so random seeds shouldn't be an issue! My Mom more or less confirmed my suspicions about the evil plant being a stinging nettle, and also mentioned that seeds can lie dormant for large periods of time. They sit in soil, and when the conditions are right, they can then grow. I guess a warm, sunny window that get's a good watering regularly was absolutely perfect.

Evil!!