A Quick Picnic

Summer is picnic season and we had our first family picnic last night (at It's Your Festival, a weekend-long Canada Day celebration).

Many of our picnics are spur-of-the-moment affairs, so I like to be able to pull some inexpensive yet tasty treats on short notice.

Here's what was in our cooler yesterday:

Lime and Garlic Chicken

Potato Salad with Bacon and Garlic Scapes (recipe below)

Tossed Green Salad (veggies from our CSA share)

We didn't pack any dessert, since we planned to enjoy our traditional festival chocolate-soft-serve cones. Otherwise, I would have packed some quick homemade bars or cookies. I'm planning to try these Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies from Cooking Light magazine soon; Gingersnaps are another picnic-perfect family favourite (no chocolate chips to melt all over the place on a hot day!)

We usually bring a family-sized thermos jug of lemonade along, but yesterday we just had ice water as the kids had already polished off our lemonade (which reminds me, I need to stock up on lemonade again when it's on sale).

Potato Salad with Bacon and Garlic Scapes
I decided to toss the garlic scapes from this week's CSA share into my potato salad, with delicious results. You could substitute fresh green beans for a similar texture and flavour.
[Sorry no photo - still no digital camera!]

Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
6-8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
1 medium onion, chopped
4 strips regular or turkey bacon
1 bunch garlic scapes, chopped into 1" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, sliced
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp honey mustard
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Cook potatoes and onion together in boiling water until potatoes are tender. Drain potatoes; refill pot with cold water and set aside to let potatoes cool.

2. While potatoes are cooking, cook bacon until crisp; cool and crumble.

3. In same pan used to cook bacon, saute garlic scapes in olive oil until tender-crisp (if you used regular bacon, you may have enough bacon drippings to skip the olive oil).

4. In large mixing bowl, combine bacon, garlic scapes, garlic, green onions, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper.

5. Drain potatoes thoroughly and add to dressing mixture; stir well to combine. Serve warm or chilled.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Learning to Embrace Leftovers

I am always surprised when someone expresses their utter disdain for leftovers. I have been a long-time fan of them, myself, for many reasons. Firstly, I can use them to help put together a meal faster than usual on a night where I don't have much time or energy. In addition, the wise and creative use of leftovers means that nothing is going to waste, keeping my grocery bill down! And I admit I feel more than a little satisfaction in creating something delicious out of items a lot of people might have just tossed in the garbage.

A few evenings ago, my husband was out at dinner time and my motivation for cooking for myself and my two boys was running low (sometimes it's hard to muster up my cooking enthusiasm when I know they'd be just as happy with a peanut butter sandwich!)

I rooted around in the fridge for a couple of minutes, and came up with: 2 baked potatoes (leftover from burger night), half a carton of sour cream, a few strips of bacon and a jar of salsa with a few spoonfuls left at the bottom. I also had some garlic chives poking up in the veggie garden. Inspiration struck and I came up with the following:

Spicy Potato, Bacon, and Onion Hash

2-3 strip of bacon
2 baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
3-4 tbsp salsa
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
sour cream and garlic chives for garnish

In a small frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from pan. Saute the potatoes and onion in the oil until onions are tender and potatoes turn golden brown. Add salsa, salt and pepper and mix well. Crumble bacon and add to potato mixture. Cook for a minute or two longer. Spoon out onto serving plates and garnish with sour cream and garlic chives.

To round out our meal, I scrambled up some eggs and toasted the last few slices of homemade bread we had on hand. This turned out to be a deliciously satisfying meal!

I hope I've convinced you that leftovers are a good thing - they can be the springboard to a tasty, something-for-almost-nothing culinary creation.

RECIPE: Easy Oven Fries

I know I'll have a happy family on my hands if I make oven fries for dinner! We like them cut really chunky but you can slice them finer if you prefer.

Time: 45 minutes
Serves: flexible

Approx. 2 medium potatoes per person
Olive oil (approx 1-2 tbsp)
Sea salt (approx 1-2 tsp)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel the potatoes and cut them into desired size pieces. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, stirring until potatoes are uniformly coated. Sprinkle with sea salt (add more salt if you like them really salty) and mix well to distribute evenly amongst potatoes. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, spread potatoes out evenly onto cookie sheets in a single layer. Place on middle rack of oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip fries over and bake about 10 minutes more or until golden brown.

RECIPE: Chickpeas with Potatoes and Peas

I love ethnic foods of many types. Indian cuisine is perfect for the frugal-minded, as many of their dishes are heavy on the legumes and rice. This is really quick to make and if you have any around, some crispy pappadums or warm Nan bread make a tasty addition to the meal.

1 tbsp canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, cut in 1” pieces (use sweet potatoes for added nutrition!)
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
½ cup crushed tomatoes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ginger
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cups frozen peas

In large frying pan, sauté garlic and onion in oil until tender. Add potatoes, vegetable broth, crushed tomatoes, cumin, turmeric, ginger, chickpeas and peas. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (add more water to mixture as needed to prevent drying out while potatoes are cooking).