• oil
• mixture of spices (I used garlic powder, salt, indian masala spice, italian seasoning)
• 1 Acorn Squash

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
2. Cut the Acorn Squash into fairly thick slices and add it to a mixing bowl
3. In the bowl, add some oil (enough for the spices to stick to the squash), and add whatever spices you like to give the acorn squash flavour.
4. Put the slices on a pan and leave them in the oven for about 40-45 minutes or until tender
5. Enjoy~

• oil
• 1 sliced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt
• pepper
• spinach
• 1/2 lb of mushrooms

1. Add some oil to a frying pan. After heating the oil, add the onions and minced garlic.
2. Once the onions are translucent, add the mushrooms and saute for 5-7 minutes.
3. When the mushrooms have turned darker and shrunk, turn off the heat and add a pinch of salt, pepper and spinach.
4. toss the spinach with the mushroom mix until wilted. Then it’s ready to serve

Until next plate.

Last month, I (Rachel), was in the midst of my exam period. During one of my breaks, I skyped with Andrew and he came up with this game. We each took turns saying a word and for each word we had to say the first word that we associated with it. For example, I said the word “camping”. Andrew associated it with “Algonquin” and I associated it with “Constellations”.

Then Andrew took all our word associations and put them into Wordle. The site creates a fun image with all the words you enter. You can change the colour scheme and the direction of the words if you so choose. The words are placed randomly. The image above was the first version of our word associations.

Note the placement of my name and Andrew’s name. Is wordle a fortune teller?

The Waffles were made today. They were supposed to be for breakfast, but we both slept in and instead made them after breakfast. My family got a waffle maker for christmas this year and…

I had been eager to use it for the first time. I couldn’t leave for Ottawa before giving it a shot.  Along the waffle-making way, I modified the recipe by adding a splash of Vanilla Extract and several pinches of Cinnamon. Andy and I agreed, that next time, more cinnamon should be added. It is quite a subtle flavour. Maybe we could add apples in the future too! mmmm. apple cinnamon. I can dream for another day of great breakfast.

After finishing the last of the batter, Andrew and I enjoyed a waffle after breakfast dessert. We topped them with Maple Syrup, Freshly cut strawberries and cantaloupe and french vanilla ice cream.

This summer my work colleagues and I came up with a brilliant idea one week to do a potluck for lunch. That was probably the second week on the job. Since then we have made it a weekly ritual. Everyone brings food on Thursday for a communal lunch and leftovers are eaten the next day. This past week we celebrated Canada Day (a long weekend), so we didn’t have a potluck. For our last potluck, I wanted to use up some ricotta cheese I had lying around. After consulting with Andrew, I came up with the idea to make pizza with ricotta cheese. After a short web search, I found a workable recipe with the ingredients I had in my fridge at the time.

I liked that there was no tomato sauce with a not-so-typical list of toppings. As soon as I saw the ingredients, I knew it was my kind of recipe. The pizza was a great success with my co-workers. Everyone wouldn’t stop raving about it all through lunch. A sure sign was that there was no pizza leftovers for Friday lunch.

Ricotta and Onion Pizza

Dough

• 1 cup water
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1/2 tsp dry basil, garlic powder

1. Put all the ingredients in the order listed into a Bread machine pan
2. Hit Start for the dough cycle
3. When it’s done, rub a baking pan with some olive oil, then roll out the pizza on it. I turned the pizza over in the pan to ensure the side facing up had oil on it.

• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 cups sliced onions
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• pinch of dry red chili flakes (like the kind you can find at Pizza Hut)
• coarse sea salt
• Roasted vegetables mix
• Tomatos
• 1 cup ricotta cheese

1. Pre-heat the oven for 440F
2. Heat 1tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add onions and sugar. Cook them for 15 minutes or so, until they are dark brown. Don’t forget to stir from time to time.
3. Mix in vinegar and chili pepper. Cook for another couple minutes.

Put it Together

1. Evenly distribute the onion mixture to the dough
2. Sprinkle some sea salt
3. Add some roasted vegetables, tomatos – what ever veggies you have in your fridge that are on the verge of being tossed, cooking does a veggie good. (sometimes)
4. Finally add the ricotta over the veggie layer
5. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes – until the onions caramelize and the dough is crusty

mmm. Amazing pizza. Definitely a make-again kind of pizza. My rating 10/10. The wait for the dough was so worth it! Plus I had enough dough left over for another full pizza, which I happily made and brought in to work the next day for our ‘leftover potluck’. And there was still some leftover for Andrew to try.

I went home for the weekend in May and raided my family’s fridge. I came away with a few zucchini’s and a bunch of carrots. The current cookbook I am using for new recipes is ordered by vegetable. I checked under ‘Z’ for zucchini and the first recipe caught my attention. My mum used to make zucchini pancakes for our family in my childhood. I remember not being a huge fan. But then again, I wasn’t a huge fan of most vegetables when I was young.

Now I don’t think I could live without vegetables. So many wonderful dishes to be made with vegetables. Zucchini and Carrots are a great combination. This recipe added some oomph to the recipe my mum recited to me off the top of her head a few months ago. – She is not a cook by the book lady. I am a cook by the book to the extent that I have all the ingredients. Don’t be deceived by the look of these savoury latkes. They taste great!

Zucchini & Carrot Latkes

• 1 grated zucchini – 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 grated carrots (I used the matchstick carrots I took from home)
• 1/2 a diced onion
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp oil, give or take

1. Mix zucchini with salt, set aside for 15 minutes
2. mix egg with carrots, onion and garlic
3. After 15 minutes have passed, squeeze out as much water out of the zucchini as you can and add it to the carrot mixture
4. Add the flour, salt and pepper
5. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Take a heaping spoonful of mixture and spread it on the pan in a circular shape. Cook them until golden coloured on each side – about 2-3 minutes/side. Add some extra oil, as you add a new batch to the pan.

The recipe told me it would make 8 latkes, but I think I made about 12-15 of them, so use that 2 tbsp of oil sparingly :)

My rating 8/10 – I still think these latke’s could be oomph’ed up a bit more.