Just Orange

Have you been watching Saturday Night Live lately? Sarah Palin and Obama imitations aside (freakin' hilarious!) on Weekend Update they have a new segment called, "Oh My God, Are you Serious?" I've been saying that a lot lately when it comes to the Monster's food preferences.

Orange is one of my favourite colours. It favours heavily in the decorating in our house, I use it liberally in many quilt designs, and my favourite mug and second favourite purse are bold displays of the citrus tone. Apparently it is also one of the Monster's favourite. She, however, displays her propensity for the colour by only eating orange cheese. Oh my God, are you serious?

Our suspicions about this were confirmed a few weeks ago when she boldly stated that the cheddar on her plate for snack would not do because it was not, as she said, "lellow cheese." I knew that she wouldn't eat a hunk of mozza, nor a Babybel round, having defiantly turned her nose at these for months. But that aged cheddar was fantastic, plus she'd already eaten it in a quesadilla.

Still, I thought I would try an unscientific experiment on her, a cheese plate taste test if you will. At the market last week I stocked up on some gouda from Sylvan Star, a whisky cheddar from The Village Cheese Company, and some fantastic Honeycrisp apples and Bartlett pears. Along with some supermarket marble cheese, dried apricots, and a few bagel crisps my mom left behind we had ourselves a snack.

She went straight for the fruit. Okay, so maybe including the fruit skewed the experiment. But just a plate of cheese didn't seem like a good snack, plus I have to groom her for a trip to France...one day. It should be noted that the first fruit she ate were the dried apricots, shockingly orange.

The volume of choices did her excited, not overwhelmed. Everything was picked up, and usually licked. Oh my God, are you serious? And all was put down, except the supermarket marble cheese. She almost took a bite of the crackled whiskey cheddar, but thought better of it. Brown is not orange.

Seeing as this wasn't a formal focus group and I resisted the urge to question her choices I can only come to one conclusion: she's weird. That, or she's just a toddler.

I did leave out her favourite cheese - feta. A salty sheep's feta is her hands down cheese of choice. If that is an option she will eat nothing else. Knowing that, I left it out so as to avoid skewing the results. Feta is white, or at best, cream. Oh my god, are you serious?

Sources:
Sylvan Star Cheese
Village Cheese Company

Taste Adventure - Figs

Call me boring, weird, or simply odd, but I hate Fig Newtons. Nothing about them is good. They are dry, pasty, and boring. And the fig filling? Just gross. But like most commercial food based on a real food, I figured the taste of the real thing would be enough to make me wonder how they can even put said fruit's name on the commercial product. Nope, I now think figs are gross too. And the Monster agreed with me.

It rather surprises me that I've never had a fig before, at least consciously. There had to be some snuck into salads at high end restaurants, or in a tagine. Nope, not that I can recall. And I am thankful for that. Otherwise I would have had a spoiled meal and not discovered some damn tasty frozen yogurt.

After we cut up a fig to try the other day and both spat it out in disgust I had to figure something out. I'd paid money for the damn things, I wasn't throwing them out. Then I remembered a old issue of City Palate that had a feature on figs (Julie?) and I'd actually pulled some recipes to try. Because I am a firm believer that roasting makes almost everything taste better I went with the recipe for Roasted Fig Fro-Yo. I did end up halving the recipe because that was how much yogurt I had in the house.

Huge success! The fro-yo was rich and sweet and oh so creamy. Did it taste like figs? Not the gross ones we had, but it definitely tasted like more than plain fro-yo. The Monster happily ate hers with a glass of pear nectar for a post-dogwalk snack. For me, it was the perfect accompaniment to the last of the apple pie my mom made for us on the weekend.

Roasted Fig Fro-Yo
(adapted from City Palate July/August 2008)

500 grams thick plain yogurt (Liberté Mediterranée)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 fresh figs, stemmed and halved
1 tsp canola oil
2 tsp honey

1. Drain the yogurt in a cheesecloth lined sieve set over a bowl for at least a few hours, preferably overnights.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the figs in a single layer in a small baking dish, drizzle with the oil and honey. Roast for 20 minutes, or until soft. Press through a sieve and discard the skins. Set in the fridge to cool.
3. Once the fig mixture is cool stir it into the drained yogurt. Freeze in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's directions.

For futher fro-yo adventures, check out this crazy video!

Taste Adventure - Gorgonzola Cheese

I'll save the suspense - the Monster didn't like it.

She happily stood by me on her chair to help cook dinner. She got rather excited at the prospect of pizza. She ate the end pieces of the pear while I put it together. She was quite curious about the sticky, brown onions. She eagerly took the piece of cheese I handed to her to try. She sucked on it for a second, opened her mouth to let it drop out, and pronounce, "I no like it." Simple and blunt with her declaration and no hissy fit. Fair enough.

So I made part of the pizza with feta, her favourite, instead of gorgonzola. The taste memory must have been imprinted for the night because she wouldn't touch that either. No feta? Then she wouldn't touch the rest of the pizza. She was lucky that her aunt and uncle called with rather exciting news and I was distracted enough to give her some leftovers and raisins.

Oh well, all the more for me, and damn, this was good pizza. Two onions - carmelized while I nursed the Babe - a ripe pear, a blue gorgonzola, and some fresh thyme sprinkled on top. She will learn to like it because I intend to make this a lot over the winter.

Taste Adventure - Capers and Artichokes

I have to make a confession. As much as I'd like to think I am a foodie, there are still a lot of foods I've never cooked for myself: Foie gras, creme brulee, gnochhi, and artichokes. When I saw the artichokes sitting amongst the organic imports at the market on Sunday I decided to do my own taste adventure. Sure, I've eaten my share of jarred artichoke hearts on pizza and pasta but I've never taken on the home cooking challenge of a fresh artichoke.

Artichokes are not at the peak of their season, and I knew that going in. But if I'd seen these California beauties in May I'm sure I would have had the courage then. I was already in line, keeping an eye on the Monster while Hubby bounced E in the Bjorn. I called to him across the stall, "Grab me a couple of those artichokes."
"A couple of the whosawhatzits?"
"The artichokes."
"What do they look like?" he asked
It seems Hubby should also be considered a backseat gourmet. After a verbal map ("To the left of the peppers") he grabbed a couple, we paid and we were on our way.

After a few days delay due to birthday parties and swing set erecting I got down to tackling the artichokes. Unfortunately, none of the recipes in my cookbook collection appealed to me. That meant stealing the laptop from the Monster to do some research. This is not a good idea when you are trying to make dinner because You Tube is the best invention ever. Daddy searches for videos of baby belugas, dolphins, and killer whales while I start dinner. That lasts until Mama starts chopping and she has to help. And help she did.

I found a recipe for grilled artichokes with a mint caper vinaigrette. Sounded yummy to me. As a plus, the barbeque was already on for the bison flank steak we were also having. I squeezed my lemon, chopped my garlic, picked my mint, and found the capers in the fridge. I pulled a couple of the capers out to start chopping.

"Beans!" The Monster exclaimed. I tried to explain to her that they weren't beans, but she insisted they were. Okay then, try one. Who would expect that these 'beans' would prove so tasty to a 2 year old? If only her fingers were long enough to reach into the jar.

Back to dinner. I trimmed the artichokes, set them to cook in lemon water, and hoped I was doing it right. When the steak went on the grill I also put on the artichokes. Meanwhile I boiled some potatoes and tossed them with cream and fresh dill. When everything was done grilling I tossed some greens with the mint caper vinaigrette and topped the artichokes with the same. At least I knew The Monster would like the vinaigrette.

After savagely working her way through all her steak and a good chunk of Daddy's she decided to try some of her artichoke. Before that it sat forelornly on her plate, a pale green chunk with a few pieces of garlic clinging to it. It was a good thing I still had some of mine left because she wanted more, and more.

Lessons learned - salty foods in brine should all be assumed as good; you need to either trim more off the artichoke before cooking or cook it longer so as not to waste as many leaves or buy it closer to the peak season; and buy more artichokes next time.

Mint Caper Vinaigrette

1 lemon, juiced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

3-4 leaves mint, finely chopped

1 tsp chopped capers

1/2 cup olive oil

Get your toddler to shake together all ingredients in a sealed jar. Stand close in case she decides she is done with her task mid-shake. Season to taste.

Sources:

California Artichoke Advisory Board

Grilled Baby Artichokes with Caper-Mint Sauce