Grains

weekend picnic inspiration

September 3, 2010

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If you’re in need of some stay-at-home inspiration this Labor Day weekend then look no further!

For those lucky souls hitting the road for the holiday, check out the country’s most scenic farmers’ markets. Send us a postcard, won’t you?

Inevitably many of us will be staying close to home this long weekend and making the most of our home turf. Holidays at home don’t have to be boring though! No sirree. It’s pretty much the perfect time of year for a picnic, so grab a blanket and pack your basket.

First things first: you don’t need to go far! My ideal picnic spot would be a quiet patch by a lake or on the banks of the Mississippi. The local park would be ace too. So would my back yard, now that I come to think about it…

And, food?! I hear you cry? What about food, woman?! Well.

You’ll probably want to pack some garlic pita chips to snack on. Mmm, crunchy, garlicky goodness.

And then you’ll obviously need some hummus for dippage.

We can’t subsist on snacks alone though, can we? Oh no. You should probably put all those fresh, end-of-summer tomatoes to good use and make a big old bowl of pasta with cherry tomatoes and arugula. It’s just as delicious cold as it is warm and it travels well!

Not in the mood for pasta? Gosh. Picky, picky. Okay. What about lemon grain salad with asparagus, almonds and goat cheese? With some crusty bread on the side? You remembered the wine, didn’t you? Don’t forget the wine!

And if you aren’t feeling either of those options, how about just packing a baguette and some good cheese (don’t forget a good knife!) plus some olives for good measure. That is perfection on a stick to me.

Dessert! Don’t think I lost my mind and forgot dessert. I would never do that. For a picnic’s purpose, cookies are your friend. May I humbly suggest that you make some thick and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies? Or some fresh ginger cookies. I really think you’ll be happy you did.

Don’t forget a blanket, the crossword, a good book, and some great company. Annnnd you’re good to go!

Happy picnicking!

warm wheat berry and roasted vegetable salad

August 2, 2010


I am having warm fuzzies looking at these veggies right now. How was your weekend?! Mine was flipping fantastic! The husband and I headed up north to a resort here in Minnesowtarrr. It was a lot of fun. We went fishing!

I caught three fish. Three!

And I was let loose at the controls of this bad boy:


Check out that maniacal grin! That’s my “I just caught three fish” grin. Don’t worry, we put them back in the lake. Ahh resort life.

Another awesome weekend away. We are doing a pretty excellent job of escaping the city at the weekends this summer, if I do say so myself. Check out some of my other summer adventures:

> Madison, Wisconsin and my first ever half marathon
> Ashland, Wisconsin to our friend’s gorgeous cabin on Lake Superior

Gosh and I didn’t even blog about my adventures in Baltimore or fourth of july at another friend’s cabin. Sigh…summer.

Oh and city-life hasn’t exactly been too shabby what with Dan’s meaty birthday weekend and Rock the Garden.

Anyway, back to this weekend and the resort.

We also “played” tennis and ate a lot of fried food.


Yeah, that is a mike’s hard lemonade. What are you gonna do about it?!

Needless to say that upon my return I was somewhat craving freshness and veggies so I pretty much inhaled this after I made it.


I’m going out on a limb and saying you would inhale it too. I wasn’t sure about the cheese/balsamic combo but paired with the wheat berries it just lent it this awesome nutty flavour. I liked it a lot.


Warm Wheat Berry and Roasted Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
  • 1 cup grape tomatoes
  • 6-8 mushrooms, cut into small chunks
  • 1/2 cup broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
  • 1 small red onion, sliced
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 cup wheat berries
  • 2-3 ounces parmesan cheese (or gruyere, or gouda, or fontina…you get the picture), shaved
  • small handful of chopped parsley
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Combine the carrots, tomatoes, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms, and onion in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, and roast for 25 minutes, stirring once or twice.
  3. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the wheat berries. Bring 2 cups of water to boil, season with salt, and add the wheat berries. Cook for one hour, until soft but still chewy in the center. Drain.
  4. Combine the cooked wheat berries and vegetables, then add the cheese and basil. Whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the balsamic vinegar, seasoning with salt and pepper, and drizzle over the wheat berry mixture.


What has been the highlight of your summer so far?

moroccan chickpea couscous salad

July 21, 2010

Ahh July. I am loving the heat! How is your week going? Mine is going swimmingly. There’s been a happy hour at my favourite theatre/bar, a dinner with the extended family, lots of sunshine and heat, and some planning of upcoming travels. Happy days. Oh except for the pain beyond belief I am experiencing from strength training which I am trying to get back into. It hurts to sit down. And stand up. Oh, and to walk. Normal?

And here I am back with more grain salad action. It’s just necessary at the moment, okay?

We had a fridge/pantry cull and inventory when we got back from Ashland the other day. Highly recommended. We definitely found some questionable friends in the depths of our fridge! I won’t give you details. Trust me, you don’t want them. Now we know what we have and how we’re going to use it. Case in point: we have a lot of chickpeas and an unholy number of red onions. The result:

Moroccan Chickpea Couscous Salad
adapted from MediterrAsian Cooking

  • 1 cup quick-cooking couscous
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1 1/4 cups boiling chicken or vegetable stock
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • juice of 1 lime/lemon (lemon would actually probably work better but we had a lime on hand and it worked just dandily)
  • 1 clove garlic – minced
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 carrot – grated
  • 1/2 green or red pepper – finely diced
  • 1/4 red onion – finely diced
  • 1 cup chickpeas
  1. Mix the couscous with the raisins in a bowl and pour over the boiling stock.
  2. Cover with a lid and let sit for 5 minutes.
  3. Place the oil, lime juice, garlic, spices, and salt in a jar with a screw-top lid and shake to mix.
  4. Fluff the couscous with a fork to separate the grains and stir through the carrot, pepper, onion, and chickpeas.
  5. Pour over the dressing and toss together until well combined.

This makes a great dinner (plenty of protein from those chickpeas and grains) or a lovely side dish for whatever you’re grilling. Healthy and awesome!

The original recipe for this called for red pepper, not green. Well, I don’t know about you but it’s hard for me to swallow spending $6 a pound on red peppers. In fact, I think it’s outrageous! They’ve become a special treat so green it was…

And why is this Moroccan I hear you ask. The spices – cumin, ginger, coriander – are pretty standard fare in Moroccan dishes (along with cinnamon, mmmm).

This was a big win and a great compliment to the falafel and hummus we made the night before.

When was the last time you had a pantry inventory/cull? Were you surprised by what you found?

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