Eat the Alphabet #21: W

The Letter W

There was surprisingly a lot for W....makes up for the next 3 letters I guess...lol.

For starters we had Waldorf salad containing Walnuts and Wasabi, on a bed 

of Watercress and topped with Wensleydale cheese.

For dinner we had White and Wild rice, Wieners cut in to Wedges, 

a stir-fry consisting of Wax beans, Waterchestnuts, Wakami and Worcestershire sauce (apparently pronounced "Wustershur", or just "Wuster".... I usually 

go for 'Wur-chesht-ur-shur-dee-stur-shur-shire' myself....).

White Wine and Water to drink.

Dessert was Waffles with Whip cream, Walnuts, White chocolate chips and Watermelon.

And to clean our teeth and freshen our breath, Wintergreen mints (Also, I spy an X item!)

Happy Eating!!

Eat The Alphabet #20: U and V

The Letters U and V

Combining these two because not many things begin with either. And honestly, the end of the alphabet has been a bit of a drag.

Lunch: Upma
Upma is an Indian dish, often served as a breakfast or a snack. Essentially it's coarse flour fried with onions, oil, cumin and mustard seeds.
We made a rice version and added Veggies.

For dinner we had Venison on Vermicelli, served with Vegetable soup which was
seasoned with Umi plumb vinegar.

For dessert: Vegan Vanilla Upsidedown cake.
We used peaches instead of the traditional pineapple, cause that's what we had.

Pretty yummy!

Also found Ugli fruit (or tangelo). Kind of like a grapefruit/orange... it was ok...

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #19: T

The Letter T

I found these photos from July and realized I never posted this blog... ooooops.

Letter T was yummy!
There were lots of options, but not all of them made a good meal, so we picked ones that worked.

We had Turkey Tacos made with Turmeric, Tarragon, Thyme, and Teryaki sauce. Actually tasted AMAZING, which I had doubted before.

Tomato on top, and has to add lettuce, because, tacos.
And Tasti Taters on the side.... my rule throughout this whole thing was that brand names didn't count as a food letter, but we caved for this one because they yummy.

Toby likes tacos!

For dessert we had Toast, Tea, and Tangerines.

And for dessert the next day (cause I didnt have time the first day) we
made Tarts with Treacle.

All-in-all, a good meal!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #18: S

The Letter S

As with P, there were LOTS of things beginning with this letter.

Initially I was going to do 'Silly Sushi' and just lay everything on our list out to make sushi with.
I still think it would have been a cool idea, but i ended up breaking it up into meals to be able to make more out of it.

So, for breakfast:
Scrambled eggs
Sausage

Syrup
Smoothie with Strawberries, Spinach, and Soy milk

For lunch: Soup, Salad and Sandwich.

Soup:

Stock

Spinach Spaghetti

Steak

Leftover Sausage from breakfast

Sweet potato

Sage

Savory

Saffron

Sea Salt

Sandwich:

Ideally we would have used sourdough or spelt bread, but we're stuck with out gluten-free stuff.

Spinach

Sprouts

Sauerkraut

Sopressata Salami

Swiss cheese

And then a Spinach Strawberry Salad.

By this time, I'm full and can't even comprehend making dinner, let alone eating it. So I didn't. This dinner happened the next day.

SUSHI!

Made with Sockeye Salmon Salad

Snow peas

Shrimp

Sesame Seeds

Seaweed
And a Southwest Style Sushi roll containing Salsa and Sour cream.

And served with Soy Sauce,

Spaghetti Squash and Sauce,

And Sake to drink

Also Sea Salted Soy beans!

For dessert: Sundaes
Homemade Strawberry Sorbet

Starfruit

Sunflower Seeds

There were lots of other dessert things like Strudle, Shortbead and Sugar cookies that I wanted to make too, but we left it at this.

Alright everyone, we're in the home stretch... only a few letters left, and also the hardest...

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #17: R

The Letter R

The letter R might be my favourite so far. Though, I haven't re-read most of the posts on here, so I may take that back. R had lots of hearty comfort food, perfect for this early-spring cold-snap.

 For dinner:
Risotto, made with Rice, Radicchio, and Red pepper; topped with Ricotta
Rutabaga and Raisins (in hindsight Roasted Rutabega would have been good)
Rabbit baked with Rosemary
Radish and Rosemary Relish
Root beer (with Rum)

:

 Dessert:
Red delicious apple, Rhubarb, Raspberry and Ricotta bakes, in Ramekins.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the dessert until I was staring at it all, but it worked great!!

Each ramekin has a small amount of each fruit, until filled.
2 Tbsp of cornstarch mixed with about half a cup of water was divided between each.
A generous squeeze of agave syrup for each.
I layered several very thin apple slices on top to make a base for the cheese so it wouldn't sink down into the rest of the fruit.
Ricotta was spread evenly over each one.
I put the ramekins in a baking dish with a small amount of water in the bottom. Makes it easier to get in and out of the oven, the water protects your baking dish, and helps the desert cook evenly.
In the oven at 350F for close to an hour... I had my timer set at 40 minutes, but wanted the cheese to brown more so I left it in.

Hearty and delicious!!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #16:L

 The Letter L.

I did letter L in December and forgot to post it!!!
Must have been around the time my computer hard drive crashed, and I just forgot about everything.

Anyway, this is what happned!

Lentil and Leek Lasagna

Lobster tail on a bed of Lettuce with Lemon butter drizzle

 Homemade Limeade!

(also proof to myself that Toby at one point this winter had appropriate clothing on... this must have been right after a bath..)

For dessert I used the leftover limeade, added some almond milk, and made homemade sorbet, using snow from outside as a chilling agent because I didn't have any ice.

It worked!!

Phew, now I think I'm caught up!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #15: Q

The Letter Q

In contrast to the last post, Q is a small one.

Lunch was supposed to be Quark and Quince Quesadillas.
However, Quark cheese and Quince did not want to be found.
Quark is similar to cottage cheese, and I found a company that makes it, but couldn't find it anywhere.
Quince is similar to pear, and is in fact sometimes called a 'yellow pear', so we bought some pears and just made pear and chicken Quesadillas with our daiya cheese.
Still delicious!! 

 For 'dinner' (which was just me because Toby couldn't eat the next items) 

I made Quail egg Quiche and Quinoa.

They're so cute!! About the size of grape tomatoes...

I made a mini quiche out of half of them, and hard boiled the rest because we wanted to see the inside of them. I read some posts form people online who make deviled eggs out of them for parties because they're bite-sized. Lots of work, but surely incredibly adorable! 

There's some other interesting Asian herbs and fruits that start with Q that I knew I wouldn't find, but overall there wasn't much to choose from.

Do you know where to find quark cheese?? 

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #14: P

The Letter P.

So...as I've mentioned, there are some letters that seem to have lots of good food associated with them and some that don't.
But P.....P.....I could make a week's worth of meals. Full meals.
I tired to narrow it down to a big dinner, but even then I felt like I was leaving to many good things out.
So, we did a P day. Albeit, we did it over a few days because it's a lot.
But the end result is a full day of P foods.

Breakfast:
Pomegranate seed Pancakes
Prosciutto wrapped Papaya

Gluten free Pancakes

2/3 cup white rice flour (brown rice is fine, I just find there's more of an aftertaste)
1/4 cup potato starch

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup agave syrup

2 tsp canola oil

1 1/4 cup almond milk (or whatever milk)
2/3 cup fruit (optional)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add oil, vanilla and agave.
Mix with a fork, slowly adding flour to the mix.
Slowly add milk  and mix well. Add fruit/nuts/chocolate chips if desired.
Let sit for a few minutes to thicken. Add a touch more milk if it seems too cakey.

Pour small blobs of batter in a hot non-stick pan (about 1/4 cup?)
Cook on medium heat until edges look dry. Turn over and cook for another minute until firm.
Makes about 8 medium/small pancakes.

Lunch:
Personal Pizza with:
Pesto
Provolone
Pineapple
Pickles
Pepperoni
Peppers
And Pomegranate juice to drink

Snack:
Popcorn
Potato chips
Peanuts
Pumpkin seeds

Pretzils
Pea chips

Dinner:
Pulled Pork made with Paprika
Penna Pasta Primavera with Parsley, Peppers and Parmesan
Peas
And Pina colada to drink

Dessert:

P fruit parfait made with:
Plum, Peach, Pear, Persimmon, and Passionfruit

And Peppermint tea

I still feel like we skipped so much.... Pumpkin Pie, Pappadums,
Pickerel, Pecans, Pistachios, Parsnip,  Pani Puri, Pumpernickel....

On to the next letter!!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #13: O

The Letter O.

O is a letter of unique choices...

First up, Oxtail soup.
This dish originated as a 'poor-man's' soup using an inexpensive, flavourful cut of meat, mixed with root vegetables that may be left in a cellar.
It's ironically become an item on many high-end restaurant menus.

Next.....Octopus... yep.
With Okra and Oregano and Oyster mushrooms.

I should have looked up how to cook okra BEFORE cooking it... cause It was all wrong. Turns out Okra turns water to phlegm, hence why it's used to thicken soups. I, however, just threw it in a pot to steam, and ended up with sludge. So I drained the sludge and added the frozen/thawed seafood mix I had and some oregano.
And then I overcooked it because I was afraid of getting food poisoning from under-cooked octopus, so it was really really chewy.

Toby kept saying how much he was looking forward to trying octopus (from a kid who won't eat fish unless it comes from a can), and he tried really really hard to 'like' it, but I said it was ok if he didn't cause I knew it was overcooked. So he spit it out. So did I.

He did, however, really really like the calamari chunks that were in the seafood mix.

Then I figured out homemade Onion rings!! My fav.

 Obviously there were Olives involved.

 And Oranges and Orange juice for dessert!!

Happy Eating!!