THE BEST BACK RIBS EVER!! WITH A FOXLEY INSPIRED GLAZE

We consider Foxley’s Restaurant on Ossington a neighborhood restaurant.  We love their ribs and tonight I am making them.  I’ve had the ribs in the oven, sprinkled with salt and pepper and tightly covered w ith tinfoil.  I’ve roasted them all afternoon at about 275 – 300 degrees. (to be precise 3 hours) Roast them meat side down spread with half the glaze..  I’ve just taken them out and brushed the underside  of the ribs with a little of my fabulous Foxley inspired sauce.  I’ve taken Foxley’s recipe lightened it, added more dimensions of flavour and reduced the cloying molasses flavour.   Put the ribs back in the oven, underside down, brush with more of the glaze   and turn the oven   up to 375 degrees and roast for about 15 minutes.

So the amount of ribs is up to you.  But these are soo good roast more than you think.  They won’t go begging

THE GLAZE

On very low heat Slowly saute in a little canola oil a generous cup of finely chopped shallots.   Sprinkle them with a little salt.  This should take about half an hour.  This is a process not to be rushed, but to be savoured.  The sweet aroma of shallots cooking in a little oil is too wonderful for words.  Don’t brown them.

Now add one heaping tablespoon of finely grated ginger and a couple of fat garlic cloves, finely minced.  Saute for a few minutes than add two tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce,  l tablespoon oyster sauce, l tablespoon fish sauce, l tablespoons ketchup and a scant half cup of cooking molasses.  Cook over low heat until the sauce thickens and glistens and calls your name.  For extra spice add one generous tablespoon Asian chili sauce.

Now take  the ribs out of the oven and turning them to generously coat them with more  this glistening glaze.   Put them back in the oven for a few minutes more.     When your ribs look sticky and wonderfully brown take them out and cut them into 2-3 rib servings.   Sprinkle them with finely chopped green onions.   Serve with finger bowls and plenty of napkins.

LIVE BEAUTIFULLY LIVE CLEAN AND GREEN

 

Living beautifully is not just  about candles and flowers and linen napkins. It’s also about organizing and controlling clutter in your home.    When your closets and drawers are tidy you have peace of mind.    Your life is in order.  Don’t make it into a huge project.  Do a drawer or a cupboard one at a time.  Half an hour of organizing and you’ve completed a task.

Kitchen counters shouldn’t be where unread newspapers and magazines, unopened bills and junk mail land.   Deal with it every day.  Have a wastebasket by the front door.  Use it.

Don’t greet guests at the front door with every pair of shoes you’ve worn in the last month. If you must store them by   the front door find a low cupboard with doors and hide them.  Put a pillow on top of the cupboard and you have a place to sit to take off outdoor shoes.

It’s little details  like clutter that take away from all the good things you do in your home.

There are dozens and dozens of cleaning products on the market.  Many of them are harmful to our environment and you and your family.  And they are expensive.  Chic and cheap is a good to keep in mind.   I use just five products, spending almost nothing and my house is safely clean. 

The five most harmful products you can use – especially if you have small children, pets or are immune compromised are;  Toilet bowl cleaners (this is considered most harmful), chlorine bleach, dishwasher soap,  glass cleaners,  fabric softners and plug-in room deoderizers. Let’s add  everyone we love to those who need to be protected from toxic products.  There are safe and economical alternatives. Read about them in my column to the right.  Let’s make our planet a better place to live beautifully.

I am looking forward to your hints and suggestions on “live clean live green”.

BLT SALAD AND ASIAN COLE SLAW

There has been an amazing number of people making the BLT SALAD.  And justifiably so.  The smoky bacon, crisp fresh croutons, tart tomatoes are a perfect complement to the buttermilk dress and dark green romaine leaves.  But darlings, hidden away in the recipe pages is an absolute stunning coleslaw.   It’s served with the spicy Korean Pork tenderloin but it deserves more recognition.  We make this in large amounts and it lasts two or three days in the refrigerator.  It is wonderful as a side with sandwiches or just a bowl of coleslaw for a snack.  You wont regret adding this spicy coleslaw to your repertoire.

Meanwhile, in another large bowl, toss 1 pound (6 cups) thinly sliced cabbage and one generous cup of grated carrots with three scallions white and green parts, l tbsp canola oil, salt to taste, and the remaining 2 tbsp v inegar. l tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp tablespoon sesame oil and l tsp chile sauce.  Let sit for l5 minutes, toss and again, and transfer to a large serving platter.

TWELVE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT

 

I couldn’t sleep last night.  Instead of counting sheep I started making lists.  I love lists; ten best movies, ten best beaches, what’s in what’ s out, lists like that.   My newest list, barely ten hours old is TWELVE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT.  I would love to read what’s on your list.  Just click on comments and list away.

My morning coffee, made in a Bodum single cup French Press.  I have one cup a day.

Soaking in my lavender-scented bath.

My Mother’s deep blue teapot.  It was a wedding present eighty-two years ago and one of the few things I have  of my Mother’s.

The far horizons from every window of my home; Mount Baker, Golden Ears, North Shore and Sunshine coast mountains and ships navigating the Fraser River.

Boxes and boxes of ivory candles.  I light  candles all  the time even in the daytime, a habit I developed while living in Amsterdam.  On a rainy day it chases the gloom away.

Always stacks and stacks of books and magazines on my bedside table.

My Canon digital camera.

The dozens of family photographs in every room.  I want my family and friends around me always.

My sewing machines;a fifty-three year old black mammoth of a Singer, and my slender white Elna

My chef’s knife.   It fit’s so perfectly into my hand it becomes an extension of me.  I’ve been known to take it with me when I am going to be cooking in someone else’s kitchen.

My secateurs and transplanting spade from Lee Valley  Tools (I guess that count’s as two)

An almost lifesize painting entitled The Anniversary by former artist-in-residence University of Regina Angela Sweetman

SUMMER IN TORONTO

Toronto is a fabulous city.  It’s a city of ethnic neighborhoods vibrant with  regional foods and cafes.  A city of very old neighborhoods and ivy covered  buildings faded with age.  There are farmers markets and street entertainment, upscale restaurants and dingy but fascinating coffeehouses,  tiny funky bars with names like Sweaty Betty and Baby Huey, museums, art galleries and  boutiques.

Flowers from the country at a neighborhood farmers market.

Toronto is a great city for walking and investigating quaint streets and interesting doorways.

The St. Lawrence Market  is the cathedral of food.  And the early shopper always get the best cheese – and anything else.

Beloved  Daughter an I always stop at our favorite sushi place for lunch in the St. Lawrence Market.

We always buy fish from this smiling fish monger.

Food from everywhere in the world and the farmer in the next county at At Lawrence Market.

The Kensington Market is not for the faint of heart.   It’s  pungent with the smell of meat and poultry, vegetables and fruit, Asian restaurants and coffee-house .  It spills though narrow streets and between ancient buildings.  It is truly a street market in every sense of the word.  We love ambling through it.

And stopping for a chocolate cupcake lavished with ganache.

Or a gelato.

Beloved Daughter and I always find something to smile at when we explore Toronto.  I’ll be joining her for a few weeks.

FIRST RHUBARB OF THE SEASON … RHUBARB CRISP

OLD FASHIONED RHUBARB CRISP

OLD FASHIONED RHUBARB CRISP

It’s the first rhubarb of the season courtesy my wonderful next-door-neighbor, Angela.     This spring time dessert is simple to make .  Serve it with vanilla ice cream or pour thick whipping cream over it.

RHUBARB CRISP

6 cups of  rhubarb cut into one inch pieces (you can also use frozen rhubarb with great success.  Bake it frozen)

1 generous tbs cornstarch

For the Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup old-fashioned  slow cooking  rolled oats (not the instant or 5 minute kind)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 oz butter or hard margarine (use the best quality margarine you can buy if this is a diet issue)

a pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Toss your rhubarb with the cornstarch in a shallow baking dish.  The size will depend on much rhubarb you end up using.   This recipe doesn’t have to be too precise on this.   Be generous as rhubarb bakes down.

Using your balloon whisk mix your dry ingredients.   Add the butter cut into small chunks.   Using your fingers, NOT a food processor, blend in your butter until all the dry ingredients are assimilated.  Put this on top of the rhubarb.

Bake on the middle rack of your oven until the rhubarb bubbles along the side of the dish.  About 30 minutes or so. When you are baking any fruit desserts such as crisps, cobblers and so on, this is what you look for .  Fruit doesn’t bubble until it is cooked.

Serve rhubarb crisp with lovely big scoops or ice cream, or  my favorite way, a jug of whipping cream to just pour over it.

CHEF’S NOTE:  You can easily double this recipe.  It doesn’t take much longer to make up.  Then put half in ziplock bag in your freezer.  You have it on hand to make any type of fruit crisp.

This dish also freezes well uncooked.  Excellent for preparing a dessert several days ahead of time

BANANA BREAD … a World War Two recipe from the past

Growing up during World War Two almost everything was either rationed or not available.   There were kids who had never tasted marshmallows or chewed bubble gum.  Of course, one doesn’t miss what one has never had.

Me, dressed in patriotic  red, white, and blue crepe paper for the  Pet Parade

Me, my older sister Mona, and our Uncle Bert.  Sadly he did not come back from the war.

It was patriotic to do you bit for the war effort.  We collected string, tin foil (from cigarette packages) metal and even fat.    Once a week the women in our neighborhood met and knitted socks or rolled bandages as their contribution for the war effort.  Tea and only  one kind of goodie was served.    Food was rationed.   My Mother came home from one of these  work projects with this recipe for Banana Bread.   It was the talk of the afternoon because it didn’t contain nuts, but looked like it did.  Nuts were not easily available during the War.    This is my Mother’s world War Two  Banana Bread.  I’ve added the nuts.    Now you have something to do with those over-ripe bananas,

1/2 cup butter ( or very good quality hard margarine)

2/3 cup scant or white or brown sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

1/2 tsp each salt and baking soda

1 1/2 cups generous of VERY VERY ripe bananas.  They should be soft and squishy in the skins

1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Have all ingredients at room temperature

Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix alternatively with the mashed bananas.   Start with one-third the flour, when this is mixed add half the bananas, now add another third of flour mix just until the flour is assimilated, add the rest of the bananas.  Mix briefly, then add the final one-third of the flour.  Add the chopped walnuts and mix briefly.

Pour into a loaf pan and let stand twenty minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.   Test by sticking a cake tester or a very thin knife, into the centre of the loaf.  It should come out clean.

Banana loaf, like most loaf cakes or breads freezes well.

MY BEAUTIFUL GRANDMOTHER an altered board book BEAUTY FROM THE PAST

My Grandmother   l902

My Grandparents wedding portrait.  Married in Old Lambeth Church, London May 2, 1903

My Mother,  her Brother and a whippet named Mim.

With these and other pictures I’ve created a story of family in an altered board book.  It’s part real and part fantasy.  But isn’t that what life is about?

Enjoy my altered book BEAUTY FROM THE PAST (it’s in the right hand column)

SMILES THAT MAKE US HAPPY AND SMILES THAT FILL MY LIFE WITH SUNSHINE ARE THE SMILES THAT YOU GIVE TO ME

SMILES FROM BRAVE AND BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER

Handsome and enterprising Son with his amazing smile

And his gorgeous, dimpled Titan haired wife.

Mother and Son

Brave and Beautiful Daughter and Distinguised husband at their  Farm

Distinguished Son-in – law as sous chef

Birthday Smiles with Husband

We always seem to be cooking ….

Or eating.

Turkey with Younger Brother and smiling wife.

Smiles with Dear Friends…

share happy days.

Life is a carnival on Halloween

Smiling  woman loaded with shopping have walked through this doorway since l884.

WE WOULD WALK A MILLION MILES FOR ONE OF YOUR SMILES……

SIX MORE FRENCH CANDLESTICKS HOW TO DO IT!

Darling, why stop at one pair of candlesticks.   Two candlesticks are only a pair.  Eight candlesticks are a collection!!

Go to the column on the right and I share more of my painting secrets with you.