I know some of you’ve heard me mention poutine before so if this sounds like it’s a bit redundant, glance at the pictures and move on. For those who have Deep South roots but have been uprooted, and talk of Southern Soul Food is a painful topic, I apologize in advance for the emotional pain this part of the post may bring on.

“Quebecian” comfort food is poutine. Here in the south we know a lot about comfort food. We have fried chicken, rice with okra and ‘maters, many different kinds of peas and beans including but not limited to: black-eyed peas, field peas with snap beans, lima beans, and they are all cooked to oblivion and served over rice, we have biscuits, and macaroni pie, which is not quite the same as mac and cheese. Macaroni pie has eggs, milk and sharp cheddar cheese. And everything is cooked in butter, if you believe Paula Deen. Oh, and we have sweet tea. How could I have forgotten sweet tea? Or peach cobbler? Or key lime pie?

So, anyway, this is supposed to be about Canadian comfort food, not southern. Just wanted to whet your appetite a little. Poutine (pronounced pooh-teen or pooh-tin) comes from Quebec, according to wikipedia. And the version I’m familiar with is fries, topped with cheddar cheese curds and gravy. To me, the gravy is what made the difference. When I was in Alberta with Christy in November, I got some at Swiss Chalet and then later at A&W. Gotta say A&W’s just hit the spot. Of course, it may have been because we had just finished a long day of wedding photography and were hungry.

I’ve attempted to make it before but this past winter I tried it again and it was as close to A&W’s as I could imagine. We had just been to Holmes County so I bought some cheese curds. I LOVE cheese curds and it’s good that I don’t live close to where they live. You could make poutine with a mild flavored white cheese, such as farmers or Monterey jack, but for me it’s best to assume curds are the ONLY option, so as to not get tempted to make it often.

I don’t have an exact recipe to share with you, but here’s kinda how it’s made, give or take a few cups, teaspoons or pinches.

I found some frozen fries that were in dire need of being eaten, and stuck them in the oven to bake them. If you enjoy making homemade french fries, by all means, fry ‘em up.

Make a roux by throwing some flour and oil (veggie, canola, olive or other) in a frying pan.

Over medium heat, keep it stirred until it turns a golden brown.

Slowly pour in beef broth, stirring as you go. Let it simmer until it thickens into a nice gravy. I think the ratio I used was 1 cup of broth to 1 T. each of oil and flour. Salt to taste.

Place your fries in your serving bowl, place the curds over top of the fries and pour on the hot gravy. You want the cheese to get melted enough to be stringy.

Goodness that’s alot of cheese! You really don’t have to use that much. Let’s just say I was trying to o.d. on calcium.

Sprinkle some black pepper over top and dig in. These pictures are about 4 months old and I’ll just have to look at them for a while. There are no curds in my near future. Sad. My cousin Twila who lives in Wisconsin dairy country told me that the A&Ws there sell fried cheese curds. Oh my!

What comfort foods do you like?

I used to cook a lot of Tex-Mex meals. Anything with sour cream and cheese. Maybe it was a reaction to my time in VS when we only had those items when they were on sale, and then only sparingly. Maybe it was because we had a great cook there who grew up in Mexico and shared her delicious enchilada sauce recipe with us.

Maybe I just plain long liked this type of food. I certainly did not grow up eating this kind of food, although we always ate well. I’d say it was more the down-home country cooking.

Anyway, I’ve been on a Italian kick for the last year or three and the other day I felt inspired to make fajitas. I had everything on hand and I was amazed again at how little time it takes to make a meal like this.

Slice the chicken breasts into small pieces. I should’ve cut these finer because after it was cooked I had to do that. This is 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It is in one of those homely melmac bowls that we have on hand because it doesn’t matter if it gets broken when kids use it. Matter of fact, they probably can’t break it. Plus it is easier for them to scoop food up, since it has a nice bowl shape. But this is supposed to be about fajitas, not homely melmac bowls.

I minced 2 cloves of garlic, sprinkled kosher salt, seasoned salt, chili powder & lime powder. My sister got some lime powder in Thailand. It tastes just like the lime in the koolaid packs. It is handy to use instead of lime juice.

While meat is marinating, slice a pepper and onion

into bite-sized pieces.

This is also a great way to stretch your meat.

Wash and chop some fresh cilantro.

Get the peppers and onions cooking in a skillet over medium heat. Since the veggies haven’t been marinating, sprinkle them with salt, seasoned salt and chili powder. I only used about 1 T. olive oil. The veggies will draw their own juice.

When they were about 1/2 finished cooking, I added 1/2 a nice ripe tomato that I had, chopping it into 1/2 inch chunks.

The tomatoes will kind of disintegrate into mush but I loved the extra flavor they added.

After they’ve cooked for another 5 minutes or so, remove the veggies and place in a bowl to keep warm.

Throw the chicken in the skillet and cook just ’til meat is white all the way thru. Overcooking white meat is the best way to ruin it!

Toss with the veggies and start to build your fajita.

I like to spread sour cream right on the tortilla. And speaking of tortillas, everytime I have homemade ones, I declare I will never buy them again. But, I must admit it is much more convenient to just buy them. And I buy them most of the time.

Spread a small amount of fajita mixture on tortilla. And PLEASE do not over fill them! It just makes no sense to eat them with a fork. They are supposed to be eaten out of the hand!!

Sprinkle some fresh cilantro over it and seal it up. I didn’t have any fresh or canned salsa to add to this but quite honestly, I didn’t think it needed it. I personally do not care for bought salsa. There is one brand (Herdez) that I buy the Salsa Casera and add cilantro to that I like pretty good. And deep in the recesses of my xanga archives is a recipe I use to make “restaurant salsa.” That is what I most often make.

I made some guacamole, using the verbal recipe that Linda gave me, as best as I could remember. And it was good. I usually used mayo in the gaucamole and just did not like how it tasted. But for some reason I thought that’s how it was supposed to be.

And I had some leftover beans I pulled out of the freezer. Linda, these were some you cooked for me for the rice and beans meal for CB.

There you have it. Simple and easy. It really needed rice to go with it, but we are out of rice right now.

Happy cooking!

Need a quick meal idea? Who doesn’t? Have leftover French bread hanging around your house that needs to be used up? Here is a quick meal (that you may already know of).

Take French bread (this was homemade and I had sliced it thinner than normal ’cause I was gonna use it for sandwiches), spread some butter or olive oil on it, sprinkle garlic salt on and broil for a bit until just starting to turn brown. Spread pizza sauce over the toast and then add whatever toppings you want. I used hamburger, onions and black olives.

Bake for about 5 minutes. My little toaster oven has a convection option which is what I used. You may need a little longer in a regular oven. Add your choice of cheese on top and sprinkle on a little pizza seasoning and stick it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

I think I turned the convection broil on for a little bit.

There you have it. A quick, yummy little pizza sandwich thingie.

We have been having just the most beautiful weather these past few days. I would use about 10 exclamation points but that might be redundant.  We had low humidity and cooler temps. The highs for at least 4 days was in the 80s. Combine that with a reduction of humidity and it was wondermous! We had guests for a cookout Saturday evening and we even lit a campfire and the kids roasted marshmallows. Thank you, God, for a delightful gift. May it come again next week when we have VBS.

And what’s more amazing is that the northeastern states are having hotter weather than we are. Right now it’s 84° and feels like 90°. Meanwhile, in Mystic, CT, it’s 94° and feels like 101°. Once in a while life is fair.

In honor of all 12 raspberries

that I have harvested from my newly transplanted-from-SC vine,

I shall share 2 recipes with you.

As I blogged about, many moons ago, I love the Hot Pepper Raspberry Preserves that does get expensive to buy. Last year I managed to get some black raspberries from our friend Beat K’s mom when we were in PA for a weekend. I googled until I found 2 recipes to try. And oooh la la! It changes the face of cream cheese and crackers forever.

Here are the 2 recipes that I used and it bums me out that I didn’t make any notes. The bell pepper flavor was slightly stronger than I prefer so I would tweak that a little. Also, next time I make some, I will strain the seeds out of both. I do not enjoy getting them stuck in my teeth.

Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly

1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
1 c. frozen or fresh raspberries
1/4 c. jalapeno peppers, chopped
3 c. sugar
3/4 c. cider vinegar
3 oz. pectin

Remove seeds from the jalapenos, unless you want fairly hot jelly.

Place the raspberries, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, sugar and vinegar in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes. Stir in pectin. Strain mixture through a fine strainer to remove pieces of pepper and seeds. Pour strained liquid into hot jars. Cover with new lids that have been boiling tightly and store in a cool place for up to 6 months (if it lasts that long). Yield is about 2 cups.

Raspberry Pepper Jam

5 c. fresh raspberries
2 jalapeno peppers
1 bell pepper
4 c. sugar
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1 package powdered pectin

Wash raspberries and place 1 cup in the bottom of a large sauce pan. Crush them and then add the remaining berries. In a food processor, chop the jalapenos and bell pepper. Add the chopped peppers to the sauce pan along with the sugar and vinegar. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring often. Simmer for 15 minutes until all the berries are broken apart. This concentrates the berry flavor and boils off some of the liquid content. At this point, stir in the powered pectin. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Ladle into hot 1/2 pint jars and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Makes about 5 half pint jars.

This second recipe is not nearly as spicy and next time I think I will double the jalapenos.

Some notes: be careful when handling the jalapeno peppers. The fumes can kind of burn your lungs and the oils can be painful to your skin and eyes if it comes in contact with them. I usually use gloves if I’m handling more than a couple of jalapenos. I’ve had some painful hands because I didn’t do that.

Also, the first recipe does not tell you to process in water after you close the jars. I can’t remember if I did or not. It probably wouldn’t hurt to do that.

We like it best with cream cheese and crackers but I think it would be good on some kind of meat as well.