Pimento Grilled Cheese

It's approaching summertime in Calgary and we all know what that means. The re-emergence of food trucks! Unlike warm, US cities where they stay out year-round, our food trucks basically go into hibernation in the winter. Can you blame them? Not too many customers are willing to stand outside in -20 weather with blowing snow and a wind-chill making it feel more like -30. However if there's one exception to that rule, it would definitely be the grilled cheese sandwich from Cheezy Bizness. The bomb dot com, right there. In fact, I would stand out in -20 weather naked if it meant that I could get my hands on one of those babies. 

So what makes them so frickin' delicious? Without question it's the pimento cheese. Now I cannot claim to be an expert on pimento cheese (being from Canada and having never really travelled to the deep American south). But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that cheese suspended in more cheese is probably a pretty darn good idea. If it's any consolation, I do kind of wish that I could make Paula Deen my adaptive grandmother.

Now take that pimento cheese and slather it all over 2 slices of really fresh, soft, nostalgic white bread - with pickles, you can't forget the pickles - and you are in a grilled cheese universe that you didn't even know existed. I have no idea who originally came up with this idea in the first place but they get my vote for the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, they might as well be the next Prime Minister as far as I can tell.

PIMENTO CHEESE

1/4 cup cream cheese (light or regular), softened to room temp.

2-3 tbsp. mayonnaise (or in this case, Miracle Whip)

1 cup shredded medium cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded aged cheddar cheese

1 tbsp. canned Pimento peppers, mashed

In addition:

- thinly sliced pickles and avocado

- thinly sliced lunchmeat of your choice (like prosciutto)

- white bread

Combine all of the ingredients into a homogeneous, cheesy paste. You want the mixture to be fairly tight with minimal cream cheese and mayo to bind it all together. Otherwise it will just pour out of the sandwich like a river of cheesy deliciousness swimming away from you. And you most certainly do not want that situation on your hands. Ha it will quite literally be "on your hands".

Smear on 2 slices of white bread sandwiched with thinly sliced pickles and avocado, if that's your thing (which in my family's case, it definitely is). You can toast the sandwiches on a panini press until golden and melty or you can butter both sides and cook them in a pan like typical grilled cheese. Up the greasy factor even more! And there you have it, pimento grilled cheese, inspired by Cheezy Biz food truck here in Calgary. It will change your life.

Rhubarb "Eton Mess"

Spring is here my friends! 25 degrees in Calgary in May? I'm not sure I believe it either but it has happened. Unfortunately it's a little cooler today but it's not snowing so I'm not complaining (Calgarians are famous for whining that it's too cold and then they can't take it when it gets hot, sorry Mother Nature, you can't win).

Anyways, for me, spring means rhubarb. It's one of those things that isn't around for long though so you have to get your fix while it lasts. Get all rhubarb-ed out and then you won't have to eat it for the rest of the year!

I kept things simple stupid for dessert last night and made my take on Eton Mess. It's a traditional British dessert usually composed of strawberries, cream and meringue. Yes, I understand that I'm only using one of those 3 components in my recipe but that's why it's in quotations.

When I worked at Boxwood last summer we had a rhubarb "Eton Mess" on the menu. All I really altered from that recipe was the crunch factor. Instead of meringue, I topped the cream with a toasted oat crumble. It gave it that granola kind of feel. Actually my mom's first request was, "can I have this for breakfast tomorrow?" Unfortunately there were no leftovers. But that's what's nice about this dessert; it's not too sweet that it couldn't double for breakfast the next day. It's an appropriately "spring" end to a meal this time of year!

Rhubarb "Eton Mess"

Poached Rhubarb

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3-4 stalks of rhubarb, peeling and diced

Bring the sugar and water to a boil to fully dissolve the sugar. Add the rhubarb and cook over medium heat until it JUST begins to soften (no more than 5 minutes or so). Then remove the pot from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature. This way the rhubarb absorbs the syrup without completely disintegrating. Any rhubarb you don't use immediately can be refrigerated in the syrup. Also, leftover syrup is great for flavoring cocktails. You could even make a springy rhubarb lemonade with it! Another idea I came up with and can't wait to try is reducing the syrup until all of the water evaporates and then using the flavored caramel to do whatever you like (I'm going to try candying almonds!).

Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla paste (or extract)

Whip the cream to soft peaks using a whisk or electric hand mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate if not using immediately.

Oat Crumble

1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp. brown sugar

Toast the oats and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Pay close attention because once the sugar melts you want to take it off the stove and get it onto a plate to prevent the sugar from burning (make sure you are also stirring throughout this process so all of the oats are evenly coated in brown sugar). Cool slightly before assembling.

To serve: Rhubarb on the bottom, then whipped cream, then crumble. That's all she wrote. Thanks Guy Fieri for getting that tag line stuck in my head. Now we're all on our way to flavortown! Nope, not allowing myself to stoop to that level.

Beet and Avocado Salad

Funny how I've been the least busy I've been in months and yet here I am, blogging for the first time in over a week. Lazy me. It's this weird transition time between the end of the winter semester and the beginning of the spring one. Yep, call me crazy but I'm going to school full-time this summer. So if that's any indication, you really won't be hearing from me in the coming months! Ha! Well, I will at least attempt to update as much as possible.

Thing is, I really haven't been making anything worthy of sharing. Salads, omelettes, more salads. Sometimes with romaine, sometimes switching it up with baby kale. Lots of avocado involved. Blue cheese dressing, truffle salt dressing. Just balsamic and dijon if I'm really indifferent. Oh and you can throw some eggplant in there too, sauteed of course. 

I'm kind of on a health kick and it feels great. Lots and lots of fruits and veggies. But it's not overly conducive to sharing new recipes for delicious sweet things. I did make some bread pudding the other night to use up some stale raisin bread we had. Nothing too fancy, just whip up a custard, toss in the bread and any fruit/chocolate/nuts of choice. Bake. Slice. Serve. 

But back to salads. I made one last night that I put quite a bit of effort into. Actually I probably spent more time plating than I did prepping. After about 20 minutes everyone at the table was like, "can we just eat it already?" To which my reply was, "no I am making it beautiful dammit!" Sometimes you just have to go balls out. This is the intense art of salad making after all. Basically a full-contact sport. 

 Beet and Avocado Salad

1 avocado, cubed
7-8 small beets, roasted and sliced (literally just wrap them in foil and pop them in a 350F oven for 1-1.5 hours until tender, then peel and slice)
1-2 handfuls baby kale
1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
Cranberry White Balsamic Vinaigrette (see below)

Individually toss the avocado, beets and baby kale each with adequate vinaigrette. I composed the plates by creating a line of beets and avocado right down the centre. Then I scattered the remaining garnishes over top. If you want a more "lettucy" salad, feel free to use more kale and turn the beets into a garnish rather than the main event. Unfortunately then it's time to destroy your artistry.

Cranberry White Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. cranberry mustard (if you can't find this feel free to use dijon)
1 tbsp. honey (you can use less but the beets I bought weren't very sweet)
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk together the vinegar, mustard and honey before slowly drizzling in the oil to emulsify. Season to taste before using. Any extra keeps well in the fridge for at least a week.

A little something totally un-food-related

I'm usually not someone who spends a lot of time uploading preachy videos to Facebook, exclaiming that "everyone must watch this" or "this is what's wrong with our government" or "Monsanto must die" (although out of the three, this is definitely the one I would agree with the most). 

But this video is different. Don't worry, I'm not about to force some crazy conspiracy onto you, no chemtrails   or anything wacked like that here. It's simple, to the point; something everyone, regardless of age or gender should see. Let's face it, you're going to spend the next 20 minutes on Pinterest or reading random blogs anyways so why not watch something productive? I'll leave it at that.

For those of you who love TED talks as much as I do (in this case it also helps if you care about food) you should also check out this one with Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill Farm:

The Eddie Burger and Bar

So it's April 30th in Calgary and not surprisingly, the snow is still coming down like it's Christmas time. Theoretically, such weather conditions suggest that spring skiing would be a relatively valid idea. I mean Sunshine still has over a 200 cm base. How could that be bad?

Well folks, I'm here to tell you that it was more than bad. It was downright awful. 

I was excited to make one last trip out to the slopes Saturday, I really was. But after run #1, I knew we were doomed. It's never a good sign when you look down and all you see is shear, blue ice under your skis. Combine that with wind so strong that it shuts down all of the chair lifts and you have yourself one pretty magnificent day. Ha. 

On the bright side, we left early and headed to Banff for lunch at the Eddie Burger and Bar. Things were starting to look up my friends.

First off, I'd like to make a point of saying how AMAZING our server was. There was a large group in the back of the restaurant that hadn't gone to sleep from the night before and she went out of her way to warn us and apologize (before kicking them out). You could tell she genuinely cared about the customer's experience and I really appreciated that. 

I just felt sorry for the mom at the table beside us who was trying to explain to her young kids why a couple of grown men couldn't get up and walk straight out of a restaurant. "Mommy why is he holding onto his friend like that?" "He's not feeling very well right now". Classic stuff.

Onto the food! If you hadn't guessed from the name, they're kind of into burgers and such. I loved how they stamped an "E" into the tops of all their buns. They give you a card and a marker and you can pick your choice of bun, patty, toppings etc. customizing your burger as you see fit. They also have a menu if you would prefer the kitchen to make that decision for you. My sister got a "build-your-own" with a veggie burger, garlic aioli and tzatziki on a pretzel bun. With a side of veggie poutine (they have both beef and mushrooms gravies), naturally.

My parents both opted for poutine with a side of sliders (no I did not say that backwards). They were a trio of bison, beef and Wagyu. As for the poutine, my dad had his topped with Montreal smoked meat.

And as you would expect at a burger joint, I ordered......a salad! Now before you judge, this was a very delicious salad. Pears, pecans and a healthy topping of gorgonzola - I'd put it up against any of the other dishes at the table. It was well-dressed in that almost over-dressed kind of way that I like. It wasn't lacking in flavor, that's for sure!

If you're looking for a casual meal in Banff, the Eddie gets my vote for both food and service. I guess the day turned out to be not so bad after all!