Discovering Swiss Chard

As a house, we have been receiving what is called the "Good food box" which is really neat. It is all organic, and either locally grown or fairly traded. (To read more about fairly traded stuff, check out my friend's blog Just Consumers?). Anyways, each week we get a bunch of (usually) in season fruits and vegetables and we have to find our way to consume the abundance of amazing foods that we are given. Organic food goes bad a whole lot faster. It has made me think and question what I have been eating all these years. We are what we eat! I'm becoming more aware of the injustices and just wrong practices that society has become so accustomed to.. I keep thinking of the Steve Bell line in one of his songs: With much wisdom, comes much sorrow. (A little plug for Steve Bell - if you don't know who he is, check him out. He is a Christian singer/song writer that has been extremely influential in my life and I tend to quote him a lot on my blog of reflections).

So this is swiss chard. It turned the water a beautiful bright redish-pink colour. It is like spinach, and just with spinach and kale you shouldn't cook it for longer than it needs or else it will turn bitter.

This is the final product - a swiss chard back. It is filled with egg, milk, bread cubes and tons of cheese :) Yummy - my housemates said this one was a keeper.

Fall is here!

So it's been a little while since I've posted. I should share a little background of what has kept me busy and away from the computer (yet more immersed in the kitchen!). At the end of August (almost a month ago!), I moved to an intentional monastic community. I am living with five other adults, two 18mth old twins and my beloved cat Shalom. I have been involved in mission projects in the area including cooking for homeless and street involved people, hymn sing at a nursing home and showing hospitality. Each member of the house has a selected evening when they prepare dinner for the house. My day is Friday, a day that I have set aside as a Sabbath - of rest, reflection and re-creation. Since cooking is my favourite thing to do, it is a joy to set aside a good chunk of the day to meal prep.

I have to say that I was pretty excited the other day to realize that fall is here. I love fall with all it's colours, the cool breeze, and all the wonderful flavours of fall stews and soups and the harvest. I almost literally jumped for joy in the realization that I can use a new section of my cookbook Simply in Season - a book that sections recipes according to the seasonal fruits and vegetables (an awesome cookbook!). I had so much fun picking out recipes for the house.

Yesterday, I made a couple of salads and a kale potato soup (pictured below). The sweet potato salad had a tangy homemade honey mustard dressing while the autumn green salad with pears had a dijon dressing. The kale soup was so flavourful. I steamed it for just a few minutes making it soft, but not too much that it becomes bitter. The soup had only chicken stock and salt to flavour it, but the natural flavours were something else!

Sweet potato salad

Kale and Potato Soup

I also made a granola using up some of the dried fruits and grains in the house. I love homemade granola and it is the perfect topping for yoghurt!

Granola with raisins, cranberries, currants and pumpkin seeds

Last but not least, I made a caraway rye bread. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture so you will have to take my word that it both looked and tasted delicious. I could barely wait for it to cool off from the baking (do you know how hard it is to subject yourself to the smell of baking bread and then have to let it cool? patience has never been my virtue).