Butternut Squash and caramelized leek soup

Butternut squash soup is the ultimate comfort food. And why not? It's scrumptious, easy to make, deceptively impressive and wholeheartedly satisfying - all while ensuring your daily dose of vitamin C, what more can you ask for as winter gallops closer? Butternut squash soup is a little overdone, I'll admit, but this slight spin on an old classic revamps it and adds a certain je ne sais quoi that's enough to cause me to fall in love all over again. Simple leeks do the trick. My friend Anais is a butternut squash aficionado and even she conceded that this one was a keeper. Try this and I promise, your appreciation for butternut squash will never be the same again...

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Leek Soup

• 1 medium/large butternut squash
• 1 medium onion
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 2-4 tbs olive oil
• a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary
• 4 leeks
• approx 2 cups white wine
• approx 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• salt
• pepper
• Tabasco
• nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F. Cut off stem and base of squash and halve squash lengthwise (careful not to cut yourself! It slips...). Scoop out seeds.

Peel and halve onion, crush garlic and peel. Place on baking pan and rub inner flesh of squash with 1-2 tbs olive oil, some salt and pepper, and remove thyme or rosemary leaves from sprigs and sprinkle over inside of squash. Place half of onion and a few cloves of garlic in each inner bulb (where the seeds were), turn squash over, and bake 45-60 minutes or until very soft when pierced with a knife.

Cut off the stem 

Cut it down the centre (as evenly as possible) - Sometimes I give it a nice THWACK! against the counter to make it easier, careful not to cut yourself!

Scoop out seeds/guts

Halved onion and coarsely chopped garlic

Butternut squash with onion, garlic, oil, lemon thyme, salt and pepper (flip them to be cut-side-cown while baking)

While squash is baking, cut white and light green portions of leeks in 3-4 mm disks. Heat 1-2 tbs of olive oil in a pot and add leeks, cooking until browned (keep at a lowish heat to caramelize!). Add about 1/3 cup of white wine after about 7 minutes, scraping up brown bits, and allow leeks to cook at low heat for several more minutes until soft and fragrant.

Leeks - use white and very light green portions

Cook leeks and olive oil over medium or medium-low heat until caramelized and soft

Deglaze pan with white wine and cook down

 Scoop out squash, garlic and onions adding to pot. Add about 1 cup of stock, and puree in food processor in batches, or with handheld mixer in pot until smooth (if using handheld mixer, you might need to add a bit more stock).

Scoop out soft squash, onions and garlic

Scooped goods back in pot 

Return soup to pot. Add remaining 3 cups of stock, about 1-1 1/2 cups of wine, a splash of Tabasco and about 1/4 -1/2 tsp of nutmeg. Stir, and let cook until alcohol evaporates and soup is warmed through, about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pureed soup returned to pot. Adding the good stuff (wine!)

Of course, SALT!

 Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro. Serve! Always delish with a fresh baguette and stinky Quebecois or French cheeses.

Finished product with a garnish of parsley

Two (drastically different), addictive videos

Lady Gags and Tony Bennett? A classic already.

Ridiculous colors, Rihanna's hotness, and a pump-up jam? Classic in its own right.

Tipping etiquette

It's always a dilemma - how much to tip at restaurants? It can make or break a meal. Great date but the guy tips 12%? Sorry, can't go out with you again. I have yet to try waitressing, but as a hostess I witnessed poor tipping firsthand and was sometimes even the victim of it. Most often the culprits were gaggles of European tourists - strollers and twelve massive 5th Avenue shopping bags in tow - who  checked their cumbersome bags and never deigned to tip even a buck. I often embarrassingly turn away when my dad makes calculations, subtracting the wine and the tax from the overall total, but also never know if 20% is way too far overboard. And what about in Quebec where the tax is already sky-high? I don't need my $15 dollar salad to be double its price with tax and tip, thankyouverymuch! Bon Appetit's Foodist outlines some tipping protocol. For the full article, click on this link: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/10/foodist_tipping

If you just want the essential summary, here you go! My favourite is #5. So true...

The BA Foodist's Tipping Rules

• RULE NO. 1: Unless the server is rude, condescending, and/or completely absent, tip between 18 and 20 percent.
• RULE NO. 2: Never tip on tax. Tip based on the subtotal. And if you're calculating your tip simply by doubling the tax, stop it—you're being cheap.
• RULE NO. 3: Unless you drink like Dean Martin or have a taste for expensive wines (i.e., $40 or more, depending on your budget), it's best to include booze when calculating a tip. Bartenders expect a dollar tip per drink (which is usually about 20 percent of the drink's price), and it's no different with waiters.
• RULE NO. 4: Never turn a blind eye when others are tipping—especially if they're unfamiliar with our tipping culture (i.e., Europeans). If you think your tablemate is lowballing the service, it's best to hand the waiter a few bills on the way out.
• RULE NO. 5: If a few dollars here and there really matter that much to your bank account, perhaps you shouldn't be going out to eat in the first place.

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/10/foodist_tipping#ixzz1bR8DRGYQ

An Ode to Mike Spiak: Crack Bread

I don't know why I'm giving away this recipe so early in the game. It (the recipe) might be the only reason why I have friends. No matter who I make it for, it's always a huge success (and I don't get it, because it's so easy!). But it's one of my favourites, and definitely not to be missed, so here you go!


Normally things entitled "crack" connote not-so-good things: a cracked mirror (bad luck), a cracked/broken heart (never fun), and the drug crack (enough said). Why is this recipe called "Crack Bread??" Well, it didn't used to always be the case. At one point in time I referred to it as "Chocolate Chip Banana Bread," and prior to that, Martha was even credited when I called it "Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread." But over the years I've made my own permutations and adjustments, and it no longer looks like Martha's (do I dare assert that, gasp! maybe it's BETTER?). I decided to tackle making it in Zambia with the most fragrant, luscious bananas straight from the trees, unlike the cardboard, starchy versions we get here, and my friends always quickly demolished it. Inevitably, there was always a pathetic inch-by-inch square lazily covered in plastic wrap since no one ever wanted to be the final decimator. The cockroaches were the last ones to greedily pick at the crumbs. Hopefully when you make it cockroaches won't even be in the picture. 


Here's a haiku in honour (for you, I'll even write honor) of Spiak:


Oh, Michael Spiak
How you devoured Crack Bread
In Zambian heat.


Far away from home
I am a good Jewish mother
So you made me feel.


No more excuses
Add it to your repertoire
Pizza bread, chicken.


Crack Bread (aka Chocolate Chip Banana Bread)

Makes 1 loaf

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan

3/4 to 1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour (can also be a mixture of whole wheat and white)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (reduce to 1/2 if using salted butter)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (sometimes I make it 2!)

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas

1/2 cup sour cream (or thick, plain yogurt)

1 teaspoon vanilla (or 2...)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

One package of semi-sweet chocolate chips!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand with a fork! Or with electric beaters! Or with old-school egg beaters!) cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (note: if you're not using an electric mixer, melt the butter almost fully in the microwave. Your bread won't have quite as much volume but it will taste the same). Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.

Creamed butter and sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined.

I like to use a sifter when available, but it's not imperative

Add bananas, sour cream or yogurt, and vanilla; mix to combine. Scrape down sides if extra unmixed batter sticks there.

Yummmm baby food

Stir it up!

Pushing down sides

Stir in nuts if using, and chocolate chips! Pour into prepared pan.

With chocolate chips and nuts

In pan!

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs), about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Note: This bread freezes really well! If you live alone, feel free to bake it, cut it in half, and eat part now while wrapping the second half tightly in plastic wrap.

In my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of the final product! I know, what a ditz. But here are two friends, Alla and Steve (and Jamie overlooking them) eating crack bread while waiting for our flight to Tanzania. Don't they look happy?

Cheese or font? It's harder than you think...

Is it a cheese, or is it a font? Test both your dairy and typographic knowledge with this fun (and challenging!) little game. At least I got bocconcini, but that's not saying much considering the others that were thrown up there...

http://cheeseorfont.com/

Spiced chickpea nibbles

Perhaps I'm on a new-snack-recipe kick, but the kale chips prompted me to do a little more fun-and-easy snack searching. My friends and I were going to the 10 PM special at Lemeac - a fantastic deal for anyone who hasn't yet discovered it (and one of my favourite restaurants in Montreal, deal or not, but I'll leave the review to Val's Bits and Bites) so I wanted to serve little munchies that go well with drinks, but nothing to take the place of the tantalizing tartares, soups, short ribs, and calamari to come. Kale chips were a go-to, especially since they were already on my mind, but what other deceivingly easy snacks could I come up with? Spiced chickpeas! Healthy (they're baked) and sassy (spices lend the usually-boring chickpea some zest), they're perfect pre-dinner nibbles.

Spiced Chickpeas

1 15 oz can of chickpeas

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

a total of about 3-4 teaspoons of mixed spices of your choice, but here is my suggestion:

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or less, for those who don't love spice)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Many spices! I didn't actually land up using them all

Preheat oven to 375 F. Drain chickpeas and rinse with cold water until there is no more foam. Place on paper towel and gently roll to dry with another paper towel.

Mix spices together in a small bowl (I skipped this step, but it's a good idea to ensure even distribution of spices over the chickpeas). Toss chickpeas with olive oil and spice mix. Spread in a single layer on baking sheet and bake for 40-50 minutes or until they are slightly browned, a touch crunchy, but not as hard as little pebbles! Serve warm or cooled.

Rolling chickpeas to dry

Spice mix, olive oil, and chickpeas

Toss to mix

Roasted chickpeas

A simple, easy, and yummy little amuse bouche!

Kale-i-fy your life

In no way do I mean do be condescending by starting off with relatively simple recipes but a) I'm studying for a physics midterm which kind of makes me want to bang my head against the wall and cry, b) I want to use the tail-end of summer's bounty before it disappears in the Houdini-esque manner that defines fall, and c) these babies are good! Plus, unless you're actively trying to find ways to burn your money, there's no reason to pay upwards of $5 a box for a pathetic amount of kale chips anyways (and we both know that when you do that, essentially you're paying for the plastic box they come in). So, kale chips! Perfect for snacking on with wine, a healthy fun-to-eat snack, and good nibbles while you're studying, in the kitchen, on long drives, or anywhere else where your adventures take you.

Kale Chips

- Kale (a bunch! However much you want)

- a few tablespoons of olive oil

- seasonings (salt, lemon or lime juice, lemon salt, garlic salt, chili powder, sugar...)

Preheat oven to 375ᶱF. Wash kale and pat dry (or spin, if you have a salad spinner). De-stem kale leaves by cutting out the thick, fibrous backbone. 

Washing and spinning kale

Cutting out stem (you would have a second hand there to help you cut, but alas, I needed to take a picture!)

Kale once de-stemmed

Wet hands with olive oil and moisten each individual leaf with oil. Note: do not cut corners and douse the leaves in olive oil – they will burn in the oven at this high a temperature! 

Kale leaves in olive oil

Moistened leaf, not too oily!

Place leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet. Do not over-pack or they won't crisp properly.

Season as desired! I like a hefty amount of salt (surprise, surprise), and a squeeze of lemon is good too. One of my good friends likes the mix of sweet and salty – a touch of sugar and a bit of salt. A smidgen of chili powder is always good with salt too...feel free to mix and match! Bake for about 10 minutes or until leaves are crisp, but not brown/burnt (keep an eye on it, everyone's oven is different). Remove from oven. Let cool slightly and arrange leaves in glass.

I went upstairs and my leaves are a little on the crispy side!

Yummmm! Perfect decorative munchies.

Sporcle!

You're all going to hate me. I've been introduced to a great, non-brainless procrastinating tool thanks to my good friend Alla. It's called Sporcle, and it's stupendous. The ideal postponing device, it has games with timers on them, so you feel as though your delay is legitimized since (apparently) there's an ending time. Of course, that's before you're 5 games deep and have whiled your afternoon away. No but really, feel like perfecting your Asian geography? There's a game for that. Think you know all the Harry Potter nitty-gritty details, Caitlin? There's a game for that too. Word jumbles, math quizzes, history and entertainment, it's all there. Try it, then tell me that I'm being ridiculous. www.sporcle.com...I dare you

Parkinson's and the Brain

Super interesting article (for all you science and athlete nerds out there) on forced exercise for Parkinson's patients and its effects on the brain and motor skills: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/what-parkinsons-teaches-us-about-the-brain/

Pumpkin Pie (booziness optional...but who doesn't like a bit of extra booze?)

I love Thanksgiving dinner. I never realized how much I loved it before I went to an American school; I just didn't get the point – why celebrate a season that marks the death of (or bedtime of) most plants? Why travel across the country to be with family for just a few days? Why eat at 3 in the afternoon? (I still don't really get that one, but you know Americans and their football...). But as I said, going to Bowdoin, a liberal arts school in Maine, changed my views – I now embrace the camaraderie that Thanksgiving engenders, I appreciate the family theme, or the idea that this event should commemorate and honour not only summer's bounty, but also fall's fleeting beauty, and winter's serene hibernation.

Quintessential fall in Vermont

Ironically, my first recipe post is for something that I like, but I don't love: pumpkin pie. I always think I like it, and I enjoy making it, but I think I'm more of a pecan pie aficionado, and I KNOW I relish pear or apple exponentially more. But still, nothing says “fall” and nothing says “Thanksgiving” like pumpkin pie, so here's my doctored recipe of a good ol' classic from epicurious.com. Enjoy!

Citrus Pumpkin Pie with Candied Pecans

Butter Pie Crust

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour (or mixture of white and whole wheat flour)

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter cut into ½-inch chunks

3 tablespoons (approx) ice water

Mix flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon in processor. Add butter; pulse until coarse meal forms. Gradually blend in enough ice water to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disc. Wrap in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight (you can also put in freezer for about 20 minutes, but it won't roll out as well).

Coarse meal-like mixture

Moist clumps

Citrus Pumpkin Pie (booziness optional...but who doesn't want a bit of extra booze?)

1 (15-oz) can PURE pumpkin

¾ cup packed golden brown sugar

1 to 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 to 1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

pinch of ground cloves

3 large eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1 to 2 teaspoons scotch whisky (optional)

Position rack in centre of oven; preheat to 375°F. Spray with nonstick spray or butter 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. Roll out dough on floured surface to a 13-inch round (if no rolling pin, cover a wine bottle in plastic wrap – it works wonders! Also, remember to roll in all directions so the dough is of even thickness! You can roll it out on floured wax paper to make it easier to lift for the next step). Transfer dough to prepared dish. Fold edges under and crimp, forming high border (moisten hands with water or milk to crimp edges and to seal parts that won't stick). Line crust with foil; fill with dried beans or rice (this is so it doesn't slide down or puff up). Bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans/rice. Bake until edges are light golden, pressing crust back with a fork if bubbles form, about 7 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Dough rolled out

Dough rolled, put into pie dish, and edges crimped

Puree pumpkin in processor. Min in next 6 ingredients. Add vanilla, then add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing after each addition. Gradually add cream, processing until just blended. Add lemon and orange peel, and if desired, scotch whisky. Process until blended, about 5 to 10 seconds longer.

Pureed pumpkin with spices

Adding eggs (clearly I forgot to do it one at a time...)

Adding cream

Adding zests

Pour filling into crust. Bake until edges are puffed and centre is set, about 1 hour. Cool on rack. Can be made up to 1 day ahead. Make pecans and decorate pie only several hours before serving.

Candied Pecans

½ tablespoon of unsalted butter

½ cup pecan halves

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon water

pinch of salt

Melt butter in saucepan over high heat. Add remaining ingredients. Stir about 4 minutes until a glossy coating forms on nuts. Cool on foil. WATCH OUT! Nuts will be hot. Yummmm, hot nuts...whoops!

Garnish pie with nuts once cooled (I like to make pretty designs...)

NOTE: These pecans are great for anything! Salads, snacks in a bowl, cheese plates...the possibilities are countless...

Title clarification

Last night's post was a little bit of word vomit (a la Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls...if you get my reference, I like you already); I kind of haphazardly made a blog and posted before I could turn back and regret it. I feel like I owe you all a little bit of an explanation regarding its title though - "Salt and Balsamic??" What the hell is that supposed to mean? There are stories that go with both elements of this title. There are some things a girl just can't live without. For my friend Val it might be a special moisturizer, for Jacq it's undoubtedly a "sick" pair of shoes, and for Kara it's that perfect chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven. My things? Salt and balsamic. Maybe dijon mustard too, but the first two win out.

My mom tells me stories of how as a 3-year-old I used to slurp the balsamic vinegar from my plate. You'll still see me drawing designs in the remnants of my salad dressing and licking my fingers. And when I'm alone? I do drink the leftover balsamic from my salad plate. But I reserve that for the comforts of my own home (imagine doing that in a nice restaurant or on a date? I'd be banned from the establishment and dumped in about 3.2 seconds!). But Bon Appetit recently ran an article about 5 simple, overlooked ingredients you can add to dishes to amplify and enhance flavour, and "acid" was one of them. No hardcore stuff you'd find in your chemistry lab, but add a little lime to your guac, squeeze a little lemon in your salad dressing, give your saucepan a generous splash of red wine vinegar, and all of a sudden your meal has depth! and tang! and zest! My favourite though, is balsamic vinegar, so that's where part A of the title comes from.

Part B? Well, anyone who knows me can attest to my salt addiction. I would try to cut back for health reasons, apart from the fact that my blood pressure is on the low end of the scale, and so I see no problem in adding a little salt to my soup, or my salad, or my butter, or (best of all) on some raisins, nuts and chocolate (weird, I know, but it hits the spot). Salt too, adds depth and flavour to a dish when it might not have been obvious before, and while I realize my appreciation for salt borders on fanatical, I do think that the average lay-healthy-eater needs to appreciate it more. Most of the massive amounts of sodium we consume comes from processed food, which has all kinds of preservatives and unpronounceable junk in it anyways. If you're a healthy, conscientious eater who doesn't eat much pre-packaged, frozen food, you should be pretty good in the sodium department. On top of that though, I love the ritual of it. You know those pompous, fancy restaurants that never have salt on the table? I always think, "What a shame!" First of all, people have different levels of salt preferences. Just as we like our meat prepared differently or how our spice levels vary, so too does the amount of salt we like differ. Also, adding salt to a meal includes the consumer (i.e. me, eating the dish) in the process of creating the dish (i.e. it makes me a chef for a fleeting instant). Suddenly, I'm not only a placid, lazy patron, but I'm part of the creation of this meal, putting the finishing flourishes on something I will then enjoy. 

So salt and balsamic, two things I would have a lot of trouble living without, are the title of my blog. And while they seem to be solely food related, in truth, they aren't. Balsamic reminds me of my childhood, of adding zest to life - a little something I hope this blog will help with. My salt tale is representative of participation, and of finding deliciousness, luxury and enjoyment in the simple things. Together, they are vital (for me, at least...I managed to find balsamic in Zambia, thank goodness). And thus I honour them here. 

The inaugural post

After spending 10 months in Zambia and blogging relatively frequently (www.maximeinafrica.blogger.com), I decided to take a brief blogging hiatus once I returned home. I figured, why should I write a blog if I'm not doing something fabulous and different? A number of my friends have suggested - dare I say, insisted - I write a blog about easy, yummy, student-oriented cooking, however I find that too narrow for my interests. I love to travel, yet unfortunately I won't get to be doing too much of that this semester, so instead I plan on daydreaming here, sharing some finds and insights with you, expanding my scope of what's available around me in Montreal, and maybe incorporating an interesting intellectual thing or two. Between you and me, I also want a procrastination tactic more productive than Facebook while studying for my MCATs. Yes, I probably already have too many things on my plate as it is; yes, I should probably be sleeping, or celebrating (I've been 24 years old for officially 6 minutes now!), or partaking in some raucous evening, or baking the pumpkin pie I promised I'd make for my sister-in-law's Thanksgiving linner (that's lunch/dinner) tomorrow, but instead I'm in my bed, serene in Vermont with the crisp fall air billowing through my window, writing this blogpost and trying to hammer down what precisely this blog will be about. And maybe that's where I'll leave you for now - blogging refining is for you to help me with!

Better get my beauty rest pre-Thanksgiving/Birthday celebrations. Pumpkin pie info to come...