a hippie with a minivan

Beef and Udon Noodles

This is a very easy and quick meal that can be made in about 15 min which is great for a midweek meal on our house when I don’t feel like cooking that much.

You need to start with a good cut of beef that will be tender without being cooked long.. Sometimes I will use tenderloin (Filet Minion) or sirloin, but this time I asked my butcher for what was best and he gave me a great 2 pound roast that I was able to slice up when I was ready to use it and it was absolutely perfect. Talking to the butcher is always a good idea.

Ingredients:

For the Beef:

2 lbs of sliced beef
2 tsp of Tamari (or dark soy sauce)
2 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tsp of rice vinegar
1 tsp hoisin

For the rest of the meal:

2 Sweet Red Peppers sliced
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 knob of ginger chopped
2 tbsp Hoisin
2 tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tsp Tamari
800g of Udon Noodles
bunch of green onions (roughly chopped)

Start by Marinating your beef… Just throw the ingredients together and massage it into the beef a bit. You can marinate the meat for a few hours or a few minutes, it is up to you and how much time you have…

Heat up a skillet to a high heat and add a tsp of oil and stir fry your beef. Don’t overlook it, you want it still a bit red as it will continue cook after it is out of the pan and will be added back and will cook a bit more after. You do want to get nice brownish bits on it though.

Take the meat out of the skillet and set aside.

In the same hot pan, add a bit of oil if there is none left.

Add most of the green onion to the pan (reserve some for garnish), add the garlic and the ginger and stir fry until fragrant. Add the red peppers and cook until soft but still slightly crisp.

Add the Udon noodles. I couldn’t Udon noodles before unless I went to a grocery store closer to Montreal, but now I can easily find them at most of the grocery stores around me now. They come packaged like this and are pretty cheap and are delicious. And this comes from someone who does not like pasta.

So add the noodles and then add the Hoisin, Oyster sauce and the Tamari. Stir around quickly and lower the heat and add the beef.

Let it all cook together for another minute or two and it is done.

That is all…

Doesn’t it look delicious?

it is… it really is…

Wordless Wednesday

rare pictures of me…

With my soon to be 6 year old…

My little girl who isn’t so little any more…

and me…

3,780

Do you know what that number means?

It is the amount of days that I have been breastfeeding. Non stop…

First a newborn,

then a toddler nursing throughout a pregnancy,

then a newborn and a toddler,

then a toddler and a little kid throughout a pregnancy,

then a newborn, a toddler and a little kid,

then the little kid got big and turned five and weaned…

then back to a toddler and a little kid,

then two little kids nursing throughout a pregnancy,

then another turned 5 and weaned,

then I was left with a little kid nursing and still pregnant,

then a newborn and a big kid,

then the big kid weaned and I just had a toddler…

and now she is a little kid and still loves her “maju”

If I use a conservative number and say that in average over the 3 780 days that I have been nursing, I have nursed 4 hours a day during that time. Nursing newborns, tandem nursing, triandem nursing, nursing for nourishment, nursing to sleep, nursing for comfort, nursing through sickness and nursing on normal days just because…

I will have already spent more than 15 000 hours breastfeeding.

Pretty amazing isn’t it?

Baba Ganoush

If you have never had it or you are wondering what Baba Ganoush is, it is really not as strange as it sounds.

Baba Ganoush is made from smoky roasted eggplant, Tahini (Sesame paste) lemon juice, garlic and a few herbs and spices. It is creamy and has a subtle smoky flavour that is greatly paired with crisp tortilla chips straight out of the oven or next to fresh-cut veggies. Though the traditional spread is not made with chickpeas, I add them in to add a bit of bulk and make it more of a complete meal, yet I don’t add enough to change the taste. So maybe this is more a Baba Ganoush style humus if you were really getting technical.

It had been quite a while since I had made it and I kept on forgetting until I found some eggplants in the discount section at the grocery store. A little bruised but perfect for roasting. Wilhelmina fell in love with it and ate it with tortilla chips the night I made it and then ate more for various snacks and even breakfast in the days after with carrot sticks and sliced red peppers. I bought more eggplants this weekend because she was asking for more once it was gone.

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
2/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher or coarse Sea Salt
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoon olive oil
a half bunch flat-leaf parsley
1 can of Chickpeas (about 2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 tsp of smoked paprika (or)
- a few dashes of liquid smoke*

* The smoked paprika or the liquid smoke add an amazing depth to the Baba Ganoush. You don’t want to overdo either though, especially the liquid smoke, so use sparingly and adjust at the end as needed.

Preheat the oven to 375.
Prick each eggplant a few times, then broil in the oven until the skin blackens turning over a few times. Keep a close eye on them to not overdo it.
Place the eggplants on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re completely soft. You will able to prick them easily without resistance.
Remove from oven and let cool.
Split the eggplant and scrape out the pulp. Place the pulp in the blender or food processor with the other ingredients and process until smooth.
Taste, and adjust seasonings.
Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of chile powder or smoked paprika

For the Chips:

Preheat oven to 400
Combine a tsp of garlic powder, a tsp of chile powder, 1/4 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp of salt to a few tbsp of olive oil.
Cut some tortillas into wedges and place on a baking sheet.
Brush the wedges with the seasoned oil and bake a few min until crisp. They will cook fast so keep an eye on them and take them out when golden.

More Crafts

During the daytime I find it hard to get into the sewing room. I mean, I don’t mind when Wilhelmina is with me, though she does get into everything. But it is when she is not with me that I worry what she is getting into because she is the type of kid that is always getting into something.

So during the day, while the kids are doing their own thing and I have done what I want to do around the house, I either read, which doesn’t work for long because I am always interrupted or I am on the computer and honestly I am getting sick of it. The computer is such a waste of time. I read the news, read a few blogs, go on Facebook, search for things the kids ask me, check a few random sites, get lost on Pinterest or Foodgawker, watch a TV show online etc… but really what I am doing? Not that much… at least nothing that I feel really good about at the end of the day.

So I decided that I would get back into Knitting and Crochet. I have known the basics of knitting since I was a kid, but I have never really made anything more than a swatch, and I tried a bit of crochet a few years ago but didn’t really get far into it. I had the tools that were passed down to me years ago, and I am now taking the time.

I got all of my things out last week and used one day to practice knitting using the Stitch N’ Bitch book that my friend Gen passed on to me. I had never really lost the technique but I just got my hands used to the motions again.

The next day I taught myself how to Crochet.

I started by the basics: making a chain, single, half-double, double etc and then after not long, I made my first granny square.

I am now working on a different type of square that I will be able to piece together into a blanket. I love being able to do something that I have something to show for at the end of the day and that I can do when I am with the family and not hidden in my sewing room. I also love that I can do it and it doesn’t matter if I am interrupted.

What is also great is that Colin is interested in learning how to knit now and Wilhelmina has been playing with a ball of yarn and crochet hook and wants to do like me. Maybe this will catch on.