Supermarket Oddity!

Yes, you are reading that correctly. "Goat Milk Caramel Spread".

For those that know me well, you can imagine my reaction upon discovering this treat at No Frills. Something akin to the reaction I had when I found gluten-free perogies. For those that don't know me well, I welled up with joy when I found those perogies. Right there in the frozen food section of my local health food store.

I am, at this very moment, eating goat milk caramel spread on raisin toast. I plan on eating it on pretty much everything until the bottle is empty. I, of course, have an acquired taste for goat milk, given that I can eat little else. But experiencing the warm, earthy taste of goat cheese, one of my most favourite things, interpreted in caramel form, it's unreal. I'm planning on putting it on ice cream, french toast, and drinking it directly out of the bottle (again).

Writer's note: The day after writing the above post, I awoke with, shall we say, some interesting sensations in my stomach. I'm not saying the caramel is to blame, but the over-indulgence may have contributed. More research is required. Ow.

Santa brought me a new toy!

Christmas has come and gone, and I was able to check a few things off my running wish list. Something I've been after for a while now is a enameled cast-iron casserole pot. I've often been found in Williams-Sonoma ogling the Le Creuset dishes, shedding a tear or two at their price tag. I love cooking, but at over $200 each, they're a little out of my reach, even if they do come in pretty colours, like aubergine or egg yolk yellow. Sigh. My inner Julia Child weeps.

Luckily, there are knock-offs that are much more affordable, and I now have one in my possession. With the ability to go from stove top to oven, it's a versatile addition to my cookware collection.

I have in my possession a cookbook called Bowl Food. Living in a small apartment, I have long since sacrificed my dining table to my sewing machine, and I tend to eat all my meals either standing up in the kitchen or on the sofa. As the title suggests, Bowl Food contains recipes for soups, stews, curries, salads, any saucy dish that can be eaten, in my case, with minimal mess while curled up on the couch. Many of the dishes contained in its pages required the use of a dutch oven, and now I could partake! One of these coveted dishes was a chicken casserole, which I have since made several times, with some interesting variations. The original recipe is as follows:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 lbs. boneless chicken thighs halved, then quartered
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, cleaned and sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in your dutch oven over medium heat and cook the chicken in batches for 6-7 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove chicken from dish and set aside.

Add remaining oil and cook onion, leek and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes or until soft, and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the tarragon, chicken stock, cream, lemon juice, and mustard, bring to a boil, and cook or 2 minutes. Return chicken to dish, add salt and pepper to taste and cover.

Place casserole in the oven and cook for 1 hour until the sauces has reduced and thickened.

Initial issues with this recipe: Adding cream and lemon juice at the same time. Really? Don't most cookbooks advise against that? When I made this, I added the dairy first, cooked it for a bit, then added the lemon juice close to the end once the proteins in the milk had cooked a bit.

That said, I obviously didn't add cream, I used my usual go-to dairy, 3% goat milk. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe to the letter. The next time, I had no chicken, so I used pork, and added some white wine instead of lemon juice. The next time, I didn't have chicken or mushrooms. I substituted pork again, and added cubed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Every time, it was amazing, but by far, the pork-wine combo was my favourite.

I mean, you can't go wrong with pork and wine.