Latkes with starch, from scratch

As always, I have a lot of posts to catch up on. I meant to post an article from The Atlantic last month all about how un-traditional potato latkes actually are. It turns out that, hundreds of years ago, latkes were made with cheese, then with grains. People used schmaltz before they used oil, and latkes weren’t associated with Hanukkah until more. It’s a very interesting article, if you have time for it.

So this year, I tried a new latke recipe for Hanukkah. Not the squash latke recipe I posted about during Hanukkah, but a potato recipe I made during that time and never got around to posting. Look at this as a very early post for the next Hanukkah, alright? The basic principle is outlined in this article on The Kitchn, but the recipe below is from Cook’s Illustrated. Basically, when you squeeze the water out of the grated potatoes, you let the water rest so that the starch collects at the bottom. The water is then carefully poured off, while the starch is added back into the potato mixture, making for crispier latkes. The starch acts as a binder, and this recipe doesn’t even contain flour, so it’s gluten-free (yet I didn’t have any trouble with latkes falling apart).

Both sources I linked to above recommend hand-grating the potatoes (because the food processor tends to make longer strands, which interfere with the proper latke consistency), but I really didn’t feel like it. I parent a toddler, I deserve to use my food processor here, and so do you. Instead, I cut the potatoes in 2-inch chunks to make sure the shreds wouldn’t be too long. Also, I forgot the parsley. The latkes were delicious nonetheless!

2 lbs. russet potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed, and shredded
½ cup grated onion
salt and pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp. minced fresh parsley
vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)
apple sauce and lactose-free sour cream, to serve

Adjust oven rack to middle position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 200 °F.

Toss potatoes, onion, and 1 teaspoon salt in bowl. Place half of potato mixture in center of dish towel. Gather ends together and twist tightly to drain as much liquid as possible, reserving liquid in liquid measuring cup. Transfer drained potato mixture to second bowl and repeat process with remaining potato mixture. Set potato liquid aside and let stand so starch settles to bottom, at least 5 minutes. (I had about 1 cup of liquid, which yielded roughly 1/8 cup of starch in the end.)

Cover potato mixture and microwave until just warmed through but not hot, 1 to 2 minutes, stirring mixture with fork every 30 seconds. Spread potato mixture evenly over second rimmed baking sheet and let cool for 10 minutes. Don’t wash out bowl.

Carefully pour off water from reserved potato liquid, leaving potato starch in measuring cup. Add eggs and stir until smooth. Return cooled potato mixture to bowl. Add parsley, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and potato starch mixture and toss until evenly combined.

Set wire rack in clean rimmed baking sheet and line with triple layer of paper towels. Heat ¼-inch depth of oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking (350 °F, if you want to bother measuring it). Place ¼-cup mound of potato mixture in oil and press with nonstick spatula into 1/3-inch-thick disk. Repeat until 5 latkes are in pan. Cook, adjusting heat so fat bubbles around latke edges, until golden brown on bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn and continue cooking until golden brown on second side, about 3 minutes longer. Drain on paper towels and transfer to baking sheet in oven. Repeat with remaining potato mixture, adding oil to maintain ¼-inch depth and returning oil to 350 °F between batches. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.

(Cooled latkes can be covered loosely with plastic wrap and held at room temperature for up to 4 hours. Alternatively, they can be frozen on baking sheet until firm, transferred to zipper-lock bag, and frozen for up to 1 month. Reheat latkes in 375 °F oven until crisp and hot, 3 minutes per side for room-temperature latkes and 6 minutes per side for frozen latkes.)


If you want a seasonal dessert, consider apple latkes with caramel sauce and lactose-free sour cream!

Filet de porc au cinq-épices

Voici une recette que j’ai trouvée sur le site d’Épices de cru. Il s’agit d’une recette rapide et délicieuse, que nous avons tous beaucoup aimée. J’ai doublé les quantités ci-dessous pour avoir des restes et j’ai servi le tout avec du riz.

Pour la marinade
2 c. à soupe de sauce hoisin
1 c. à soupe de vin de riz chinois ou de gin
2 c. à thé de vinaigre de riz
1 ½ c. à thé de sauce soya
1 c. à thé de sucre
1 c. à thé de gingembre râpé
2 gousses d’ail, hachées finement
½ c. à thé de cinq-épices chinois moulu (j’avoue que j’en mettrais moins la prochaine fois)
quelques gouttes d’huile de sésame grillé
1 pincée de sel

Pour le porc
½ lb. (250 g.) de filet de porc
3 oignons verts
2 c. à soupe d’huile végétale
2 c. à thé de sauce soya

Mélanger les ingrédients de la marinade et réserver.

Couper le filet de porc en tranches de ¼ po. (5 mm). J’ai aussi coupé mes tranches sur l’autre sens de façon à avoir de plus petits morceaux, plus faciles à manger pour les jeunes enfants et les grands adultes qui ne se servent pas de couteau. Des morceaux de taille uniforme permettent d’obtenir une cuisson réussie. Mélanger le porc dans la marinade et laisser reposer 15 minutes.

Entre-temps, séparer les parties blanches et vertes des oignons verts. Couper le blanc en sections de 1 po. (2,5 mm) de long; ciseler le vert.

Chauffer un wok à feu vif. Y verser l’huile et ajouter le blanc des oignons verts. Faire sauter 15 secondes. Ajouter la viande et remuer jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit cuite et encore juteuse (environ 2 minutes). Verser la sauce soya. Bien mélanger et verser dans un plat de service.

Servir avec du riz et garnir des oignons verts ciselés.

Pancakes à la courge musquée et à la fève de tonka

Je viens de découvrir la fève de tonka. Ou plutôt, je viens d’en découvrir le goût, parce que j’en avais entendu parler depuis plusieurs années quand même. J’en cherchais de temps à autre dans le rayon des épices, sans succès. Non seulement c’est assez rare, mais en plus, il se trouve que la FDA en interdit la vente en tant qu’épice aux États-Unis! En effet, elle contient de la coumarine, qui peut être toxique pour l’humain (selon Wikipedia, il en faudrait environ 275 mg/kg). Bon, soit, mais la casse contient également de la coumarine, et Dieu sait que les Américains raffolent de la casse! Toujours est-il que c’est parfaitement sécuritaire en petites doses. J’en ai commandé en ligne, d’une entreprise qui s’est trouvée être un magasin de fournitures wiccanes… Avoir été à Montréal, j’en aurais commandé chez Épices de cru!

Alors, donc, j’ai commencé par faire une recette de Catherine Draws : des pancakes à la courge musquée et à la fève tonka. Et je suis tombée sous le charme de la fève de tonka… C’est le noyau d’un fruit et on l’utilise comme la muscade, en la râpant. Elle a plus un parfum qu’un goût; ça rappelle un peu la vanille, mais plus délicat, plus foral. C’est vraiment délicieux! Si vous l’utilisez dans un plat sans en avertir les convives, il y a de bonnes chances qu’ils lui trouvent un goût de je-ne-sais-quoi, à la fois familier et indéfinissable. J’ai bien hâte de refaire cette recette! (À noter que j’utilise le terme « pancake » pour différencier des crêpes minces européennes, puisqu’ici il s’agit bien de crêpes à l’américaine.)

1 tasse de farine tout-usage
2 c. à thé de poudre à pâte
1 ½ c. à soupe de cassonade
½ c. à thé de sel
2 pincées de fève de tonka râpée finement
1 œuf
2/3 de tasse de babeurre (du lait sans lactose avec un peu de jus de citron)
1/3 tasse + 2 c. à soupe de chair cuite de courge musquée, en purée
1 noisette de beurre ou de margarine (ou de l’huile végétale)
yogourt nature sucré, miel, sirop d’érable (au goût, pour servir)

Dans un grand bol, mélangez la farine avec la poudre à pâte, la cassonade, le sel et la fève tonka.

Cassez l’œuf sur les ingrédients secs, versez le babeurre par-dessus, puis battez le tout vigoureusement à l’aide d’un fouet.

Quand le mélange est homogène, incorporez la chair de courge musquée.

Laissez reposer le mélange au réfrigérateur pendant 30 minutes.

Préchauffez le four à 212 °F.

Dans une poêle antiadhésive, faites fondre une très petite quantité de beurre à feu moyen-doux. Essuyez l’excédent avec un papier absorbant. (Trop de beurre mènerait à de moins jolies pancakes).

À l’aide d’une louche, versez une petite quantité de mélange dans la poêle. N’étendez pas. Faites cuire à feu doux jusqu’à ce que de petites bulles s’ouvrent dans la pâte. Retournez alors la pancake, et faites-la cuire encore 30 secondes. Transférez-la ensuite dans l’assiette se trouvant au four, puis recommencez jusqu’à épuisement du mélange.

Quand toutes les pancakes sont cuites, servez-les garnies de yogourt nature sucré, d’un filet de miel ou de sirop d’érable.

Skillet Baked Ziti

I’m back, after a little post-holiday hiatus. This time, I’d like to share an easy recipe from Serious Eats, which my friend Jen shared. The pasta is cooked by adsorption using chicken broth, though you could use vegetable broth instead. The yield is smaller than the recipes I normally post: you’ll probably get only 4 small servings out of this. That being said, it was really good, so I wouldn’t hesitate to make it again.

1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 medium cloves garlic, minced or grated with a microplane (about 1 Tbsp.)
1 tsp. dried red chili flakes (or to taste)
a 28-oz.can whole peeled tomatoes
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cup homemade or store-bought low sodium chicken broth
3 cups uncooked penne or ziti
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella (I used Daiya’s vegan substitute to avoid lactose)
½ cup picked fresh basil leaves, cut into strips

Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 400 °F.

Heat the oil in an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant but not browned, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and a pinch salt and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, breaking up the tomatoes with a potato masher as they soften until the sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Add broth and bring to a gentle simmer.

Add the pasta and cover. Raise the heat to medium, making sure there are active and vigorous bubbles. Cook, stirring occasionally to make sure the pasta isn’t sticking, until the pasta is just firm, following package directions for timing (12 to 15 minutes).

Remove lid, season to taste with salt and pepper, stir in the parmesan, and spread the mozzarella on top (a few stray chunks of mozzarella never hurt). Transfer to oven and bake until cheese has melted and is starting to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Top with basil and serve.

Batch of links

- I realized that I haven’t yet talked about Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (affiliate link), and I must remedy that! I read this book last spring and absolutely loved it. It discusses the extrovert ideal (including the charismatic leadership and groupthink that are so prevalent these days), the biological and cultural predispositions to introversion, and how to function as an introvert (how to talk to extroverts, when to act more like them, etc.). It also dispels some myths, for example explaining the difference between someone who is an introvert and someone who is asocial. Every page I read made me nod my head, “Yes. Yes, that’s me!” I highly recommend it if you are an introvert or if you are trying to understand introverts. You can see the author’s TED Talk here (I had linked to the French version a few years ago). Bonus: a Buzzfeed list of 17 graphs that are way too real for introverts.

- A neat animated video on blame, and one on the difference between empathy and sympathy, both narrated by Brené Brown.

- A couple moving to New York wasn’t sure which neighborhood would be best for them, so they had the brilliant idea of renting a dozen Airbnb apartments for a month each before deciding where to settle down.

- A really great, really moving article about death, written by a father of two after his wife passed away from cancer and their best friend came to help. An excerpt: “I was in shock and stayed there a long time. We don't tell each other the truth about dying, as a people. Not real dying. Real dying, regular and mundane dying, is so hard and so ugly that it becomes the worst thing of all: It's grotesque. It's undignified. No one ever told me the truth about it, not once. When it happened to my beloved, I lost my footing in more than one way. “

- And an essay titled One Bouquet of Fleeting Beauty, Please, about the impermanence of life as seen by an assistant florist. (This hits home to me mostly because I used to be an assistant florist too.)

- Apparently, having a doppelgänger is not that unusual – each of us might have a half-dozen or so around the world.

- Did you know there’s a new way to learn written Chinese? It looks very promising, too.

- I’ve been reading a lot of articles about the “death” of handwriting. Not just the loss of handwriting to keyboards, but the loss of cursive to script.

Forty-five (!) US states have dropped teaching cursive in favor of using keyboards, even though studies show that kids who learn cursive script exclusively in their early education have a leg up on others as far as quality of writing goes. Specifically, learning cursive over script (the two types of handwriting) allows kids to have better grammar and spelling, as well as to write more quickly and more legibly. Notably, there are no more problems with mirror letters and spacing, and kids understand words and sentence structure more easily. Keyboards should only be introduced once some form of handwriting has been mastered. (All this info is from an article published by the Université de Montréal.)

Actually, a very interesting article in The Atlantic explains how the ballpoint pen killed cursive. You see, cursive was natural when everyone used fountain pens, but a ballpoint pen actually makes it harder to write in cursive, making script a more natural approach. I learned cursive with a fountain pen (though I have since switched to a cursive-script hybrid using ballpoints), and it didn’t even occur to me that some people don’t know how to use a fountain pen until I met the Engineer – he has no problem with a ballpoint, though, but looking at him with a fountain pen, you would think the pen had a mind of its own and was intent on defeating his attempts at writing! We were obviously in different school districts, though this make me wonder what schools still use fountain pens these days.

A Time article titled The paperless classroom is coming showed both sides of the analog vs. digital debate: teachers say they observe a 20% improvement in the quality of student writing when using digital word processing (as opposed to longhand), and schoolboards do everything they can to bring technology to classrooms. But parents worry that their children won’t know how to write by hand properly and they are left out of the loop when there is no paper trail; plus, doctors warn of physical ailments tied to looking at blue light from a screen too long or sitting at a desk made for pen and paper while using a computer. Obviously, one can have a much more interactive classroom with computers or tablets, as well as teaching methods that are more tailored to each child, but I worry that something important is lost as well when computers are introduced too early in development.

Carrot Coconut Soup

This soup was really, really good. It’s great in the fall, but also perfect to start the New Year, as it’s warm and comforting, but also not carb-heavy (I’m assuming I’m not the only one who eats more carbs that usual in late December?). You can serve it with some Thai chili sauce if you wish, and I’d consider a dollop of plain yogurt or a drizzle of olive oil to make it richer. You can also double the recipe easily.

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter (I used vegan margarine)
1 lb. carrots, peeled, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
13.5-oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
fresh cilantro leaves (for serving)

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add carrots and onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring often, until carrots are softened, 15–20 minutes. Stir in broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very soft and liquid is slightly reduced, 40–45 minutes.

Let soup cool slightly, then purée in a blender until smooth. Reheat in a clean saucepan, thinning with water to desired consistency if necessary; season with salt and pepper.

Divide soup among bowls, top with cilantro, and drizzle with Thai chili sauce (if using).

Hamburgers au porc et au cheddar, sauce à la moutarde et au sirop d'érable

Voici une dernière (je pense) recette de Coup de Pouce pour clore mon trip
« burgers ». Elle a été publiée dans un dossier sur les hamburgers en août 2010. Nous avons beaucoup aimé cette combinaison de saveurs! J’ai doublé la recette pour avoir des restes, et je l’ai faite dans une poêle plutôt que sur le grill – adaptez comme vous voulez, donc! Pour nous, c’est une recette à refaire.

1 œuf
1 c. à soupe d’eau
¾ tasse de cheddar fort râpé
¼ tasse de chapelure nature
1 gousse d'ail hachée finement
½ c. à thé de sel (environ)
¼ c. à thé de poivre noir du moulin (environ)
½ c. à thé de sauge séchée (je n’en avais pas)
1 lb. (500 g.) de porc haché maigre
2 c. à soupe de moutarde de Dijon
2 c. à soupe de sirop d'érable
1 c. à thé de vinaigre de cidre
1 petit oignon rouge
1 c. à soupe d’huile végétale
4 pains à hamburger

Dans un grand bol, battre l'œuf et l'eau. Ajouter le fromage, la chapelure, l'ail, le sel, le poivre, la sauge et le porc haché et mélanger. Façonner la préparation en quatre pâtés de ¾ po (2 cm) d'épaisseur. (Vous pouvez préparer les pâtés à l'avance et les mettre dans un contenant hermétique en les séparant d'une feuille de papier ciré. Ils se conserveront jusqu'au lendemain au réfrigérateur.)

Dans un petit bol, à l'aide d'un fouet, mélanger la moutarde de Dijon, le sirop d'érable et le vinaigre de cidre. Réserver.

Couper l'oignon en quatre tranches de ¼ po (5 mm) d'épaisseur (réserver le reste de l'oignon pour un usage ultérieur). Piquer une brochette de métal ou de bois préalablement trempée dans l'eau horizontalement au travers de chaque tranche. Badigeonner l'oignon de l'huile, saler et poivrer.

Régler le barbecue au gaz à puissance moyenne. Mettre les brochettes d'oignon sur la grille huilée du barbecue, fermer le couvercle et cuire pendant environ 10 minutes ou jusqu'à ce que l'oignon soit tendre. Défaire les brochettes d'oignon dans une assiette et réserver. (Je me suis contentée de faire cuire mes oignons à la poêle.)

Entre-temps, mettre les pâtés de porc sur la grille du barbecue, fermer le couvercle et cuire pendant 10 minutes (les retourner deux fois et les badigeonner chaque fois de la moitié du mélange de moutarde réservé). Poursuivre la cuisson de 2 à 4 minutes ou jusqu'à ce que les pâtés aient perdu leur teinte rosée à l'intérieur (j’ai utilisé un thermomètre).

Entre-temps, si désiré, mettre les pains sur la grille du barbecue et cuire pendant 2 minutes ou jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient dorés. Mettre les pâtés de porc dans les pains et garnir des tranches d'oignon réservées.

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving is a holiday I’ve adopted since moving to the States. We have Thanksgiving in Canada, but it’s not nearly as big a deal there as it is here, and I only celebrated it on occasion. Now, though, how can I resist a holiday that’s all about the food? As I read in this November’s Bon Appétit, “It’s not Thanksgiving unless there’s more food than you know what to do with.” It’s my excuse to make a huge meal and drink sparkling cider from the nice glasses. (Plus, it’s almost like a dress rehearsal for Christmas, so this post isn’t entirely unseasonal – or so I tell myself.) This year, however, I couldn’t find the file of recipes I had torn out of magazines. I know I got rid of a lot of those papers after last year’s feast (because I made the recipes), but I could have sworn that I still had a bunch of recipes, including one for turkey breasts, and I couldn’t find any of it. After a quick online search, I think I have located the turkey recipe on the Bon Appétit website, but then I realized that they are butter-roasted turkey breasts, and I’m wondering whether I just threw the recipe in the recycling bin because it would have had too much lactose anyway. That would explain why I can’t find it, at least! So I figured I’d just roast turkey breasts (for 3 adults and 1 child), except then I miscommunicated with the Engineer and he bought boneless, skinless, plain turkey breasts when I was expecting bone-in, skin-on, festive turkey breasts. I ended up using this method to bake them in the oven, with some fresh thyme, and they were very good.


For side dishes (and really, that’s what Thanksgiving dinner is all about, right?), I made recipes I found this year, which made me feel like I was on top of things. We ate pull-apart potato rolls, caramelized onion and bacon gravy as well as sautéed pears with bacon and mustard dressing (the sleeper hit of the meal, I think). I paired them with my regular cranberry sauce because, after trying a bunch of others, I’ve decided my go-to was always the best one. I also made garlic olive oil mashed potatoes, as those were the best I had made in the past 6 months (including goat cheese and caramelized onion variations). I made the gravy and cranberry sauce the day before (so all I had to do was reheat the gravy), the potato rolls that morning, the sautéed pears in mid-afternoon (they can stay at room temperature for a few hours, and that pretty much makes them the ideal Thanksgiving side dish), then the turkey and potatoes before dinner.


For dessert, I made the Engineer choose between two options: chocolate pie or pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting. He chose pie, so I made the Pioneer Woman’s chocolate pie. I liked that it was super simple and can be made the day before; basically, you just fill a pie crust with a chocolate pudding mixture. Ree Drummond’s recipe is below, but you could also use your favorite pudding recipe, or this one. I served it with the rest of that CocoWhip and it was fantastic!


Pull-Apart Potato Rolls
1 medium Yukon Gold potato (about 6 oz.), scrubbed
1 cup lactose-free whole milk
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing (I used vegan margarine)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ¼-oz. envelopes active dry yeast (about 4½ tsp. total)
3 (heaping) Tbsp. sugar
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend
2⅔ cups (or more) bread flour
1 Tbsp. flaky sea salt, plus more
vegetable oil (for surface)

Boil potato in a small saucepan of boiling water (no need to add salt) until a paring knife passes through flesh with no resistance, 30–40 minutes; drain. When cool enough to handle, pass through ricer into a small bowl (peel won’t go through; discard).


Mix milk and ¾ cup riced potato in the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment until no lumps remain. (I added the rest of my riced potato to the mashed potatoes I made later that day.) Add ½ cup butter and mix until incorporated. Switch to dough hook. Add all-purpose flour, yeast, and sugar and mix on medium speed, scraping bottom and sides of bowl as needed, until a very wet, sticky dough forms, about 2 minutes. 


Let dough rise, uncovered, in a warm spot, 30 minutes (it will have puffed slightly).


Add eggs, egg yolk, 2⅔ cups bread flour, and 1 Tbsp. salt and mix on medium-high, adding more bread flour if needed, until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Brush surface of dough with butter, cover, and let rise in a warm spot 30 minutes (dough should rise 1½ times its initial size).


Turn out dough onto a lightly oiled surface and divide into 18 pieces; roll each into a ball using your palm. Brush a 13x9" baking dish with butter and place balls side by side in dish (rolls will be touching). Brush tops with more butter. Let sit, uncovered, in a warm spot 1 hour.


Preheat oven to 400 °F. Brush dough again with butter and sprinkle with salt. Bake rolls on a low rack until deep golden brown, 15–20 minutes (I’m suggesting a low rack because I feel like the bottom of my rolls was a little underdone). Transfer dish to a wire rack and let rolls cool in dish 10 minutes. Turn out rolls onto rack and let cool 30 minutes before serving.



Sautéed Pears with Bacon and Mustard Dressing
6 oz. slab bacon, sliced ¼ inch thick, slices cut into ¼ inch pieces (I used regular sliced bacon)
4 ripe but firm Bosc pears, quartered, seeds removed (I also removed the stems and blossom ends)
kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
3 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. walnut oil or olive oil
½ cup unsalted, roasted walnuts
sliced chives (for serving)

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crisp around edges, 10–12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp. bacon fat from skillet. 


Season pears with salt and pepper and cook in skillet with bacon fat over medium-high, turning occasionally, until golden brown and starting to soften (they should be slightly firm at cores), 5–7 minutes. Transfer to a platter; let cool.


Meanwhile, whisk vinegar, mustard, and 3 Tbsp. oil in a small bowl to combine; season dressing with salt and pepper. Toss walnuts with remaining 2 tsp. oil in another small bowl; season with salt. Drizzle dressing over pears and scatter walnuts and bacon on top. (At this point, the dish can be stored at room temperature for 3 hours, tightly wrapped.) Just before serving, top with chives.




Caramelized Onion and Bacon Gravy
¼ cup olive oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
6 slices bacon, finely chopped
4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1¼ tsp. paprika
1 tsp. finely chopped thyme
3½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
kosher salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft and caramelized, 30 minutes. Add the bacon, garlic, paprika, and thyme and cook, stirring, until the bacon is browned but not crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the bacon is tender, about 5 minutes.

Using a blender (I used a stick blender), purée the gravy in batches until smooth. Return the gravy to the skillet and keep warm over low heat. Whisk in 1½ teaspoons salt and ¾ teaspoon pepper. Serve. (The gravy can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop before serving.)


Chocolate Pie
1 whole pie crust, baked and cooled (Oreo or graham cracker crusts are acceptable)
1 ½ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ tsp. salt
3 cups lactose-free whole milk
4 egg yolks
6 ½ oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 sp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. butter (I used margarine)
whipped cream substitute, for serving (I used CocoWhip)

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir or whisk together.

Pour in milk and egg yolks, and whisk together.

Stir over medium heat until the mixture just barely comes to a boil and becomes thick, about 6-8 minutes (maybe less, maybe more; just watch it!) The second it starts to bubble and thicken (it should be thick like pudding!), remove it from the heat. Add the chocolate, vanilla, and butter, and stir until everything is beautifully combined.

Pour the pudding into the pie crust and place in the fridge to chill for 4 hours uncovered. (Note that if you are using a commercial pie crust, which are shallow, you will have extra filling – just spoon it into some ramekins and put them in the fridge as well, it’s delicious chocolate pudding!)

Cut into slices and serve with whipped cream.

Toddler Gear

This is an update to my previous posts Baby gear and Baby gear – A follow-up. We got a few more items now that the Little Prince is older, and I thought I’d share some links I found useful. I’ve actually started writing this post in the fall and never got around to completing it, probably because it became so long and unwieldy… So I’m actually going to give you a table of contents of sorts, and you can just scroll down to what interests you. Note that some of the links are affiliate links (meaning that if you were to buy something from my Amazon store, I would get a small percentage, but it would be no extra cost to you).

- Car seats (and cooling devices)
- Learning towers
- Books
- Toys (ONE toy, really)
- Apps
- Videos
- Rant about child restraints for airplanes


First, car seats. This is the subject of controversy for some. Depending on where you live, you may not be required to keep your child rear-facing more than 12 or 18 months, even though the AAP recommends at least 24 months – and keep in mind that the real factors to consider here are the height and weight of your child, not strictly his or her age. The thing is that all the research I read says that rear-facing is literally 500% safer than forward-facing for small children up to 4 years old, at which point the risk of internal decapitation drops because cartilage and the spinal cord harden (technically, it would be somewhat safer for older kids and adults too, but that’s just not practical). Given that, we decided to keep the Little Prince rear-facing for as long as possible, which works well for us now given that he’s a great traveler. [If you’re interested, you can read this (community-sourced) post debunking myths about rear-facing toddlers.]

So I did some research to find a car seat that would keep the Little Prince rear-facing ideally until he’s around 4 years old and that would convert to a forward-facing seat, then booster, seat down the road. I loved this list in particular because it factors in your child’s height and weight ratio, though there were also some contenders in this list as well as that article. In the end, we settled on the Diono Olympia Convertible Plus Booster Car Seat, which fit all our criteria and is well-rated by users. It is rear-facing for now, will be forward-facing later, and turns into a booster seat – it’s actually good for 10 years, starting in infancy. As a bonus, its low sides make it easier to get the Little Prince in and out of the seat. Keep in mind, though, that you should check your car manual to see the specifications of your LATCH system, which may differ from those of your chosen seat.

On a side note, if your child is over 4 years old, you might want to consider the Mifold instead of a booster seat. I’m certainly keen on getting one for travelling, at the very least, when the Little Prince is older.

Plus, on keeping your kid cool if the air conditioning doesn’t quite reach the back seat so well (this is a real problem for us here in Texas): we bought a car seat liner, but I honestly couldn’t tell you how big of a difference that makes. The one thing that *was* a lifesaver was this fan that gets plugged in to the cigarette lighter. We clip it onto the overhead handle on the side opposite the Little Prince’s seat. That way, he can’t actually reach the fan or wire, but gets the full benefit of the air. It’s made a big difference in our road trips over the summer, and Texas is hot enough that we even needed it in October and will surely need it in the spring again. The downside is that it wouldn’t work so well if we had two kids in the back seat instead of just one, because the fan really does need to be out of reach to be safe, in my opinion. There are more ideas here, and if you don’t take yourself too seriously, there’s always the noggle.

[Update, March 2018: It seems that a manufacturer has finally taken this seriously! We just bought Brica’s Breeze Baby-in-Sight Fan Car Mirror, which should help keep the Fox cool. Our other fan is rigged between the two front seats so that it now faces the back seat, which means that the Little Prince should be fine. The downside of the Brica fan is that it only operates for 10 minutes at a time, though one can turn it on again with the remote. That sounds like it’s going to be a lot of clicking on a 5-day road trip, and I really don’t know how long the batteries will last. But on the plus side, there are no wires, and the fan is directed right at the baby!]
[Updated update, August 2018: Well, the remote stopped working after a week or so, well before the road trip. I got a brand-new battery, but that didn’t do anything. So perhaps don’t buy this after all.]



I also wanted to talk about “learning towers” or “activity towers”. This is the name given to structures that are similar to stools with a guardrail, on which a toddler can safely stand to reach the sink or to see on the countertop while you’re cooking, for example. I had fully intended to build one myself after seeing Ikea hacks like this and this, made with a Bekväm stepstool – it looks relatively easy to make, using the dimensions either in the second link or in the beginning of the comments here. (If you’re *really* crafty, you can make prettier ones like this one.) When it came down to it, though, I realized that I had neither the time nor the energy to do this, so I looked at commercial versions. While I liked the idea of a foldable tower, I ended up preferring the adjustable height and aesthetics of the Little Partners tower. The Little Prince’s grandparents gave it to him in red, and we love using it. (It should be said that the Little Prince hasn’t figured out how to climb in and out of it yet, so when I put him in it, it doubles as a “toddler safe-keeper” when I need to open the oven door and don’t want to risk my kid running to the oven to see what’s baking.)



As for books, we are big fans of the classic Goodnight Moon. (This essay explains part of its enduring charm.) The app is also excellent. We also like most books by Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton. If you are in a bilingual English-French family, I strongly recommend the Oops & Ohlala series, where one family member says something in French and another responds in English. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that one of the kids is a girl and one is a boy, but I love that it’s not glaringly obvious. As a bonus, the pages are coated with plastic, making the book more resistant in little hands.

Also, I totally got my kid a few books about food. We went with World Snacks, a series by Amy Wilson Salinger, for the moment, and I’ve got a lot more up my sleeve for when the Little Prince is older. Currently, he’s all about First Book of Sushi, Let’s Nosh and Yum Yum Dim Sum (always in that order). I wouldn’t say they are must-reads, but he loves them right now! He’s getting more from the same collection for Christmas.

Finally, I recommend anything by Hervé Tullet – his books are translated in English, but we have the original French version of Press Here and Mix It Up and love them.


For toys, we tend to prefer things without batteries (though there are always some exceptions). I’m not going to give you a gift guide or anything, but if there’s one toy he’s playing with every day now, it’s a set of magnetized letters. Every kid needs a set of magnetized letters, right? The one we favored was this set by Educational Insights: it has 100 jumbo pieces, with uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and symbols like question marks. (There’s another version with just uppercase letters, but I prefer the expanded set!) Bonus: the set comes with its own storage bin, so your husband won’t have to commandeer one from your already-pared-down Tupperware collection in the kitchen. As with all magnetized letter sets, the magnets can come off and some letters are small enough that in theory they could be swallowed (lowercase “I” and “l” as well as the “-“ sign), so always supervise your child when he’s playing.



Apps: New guidelines say that it is fine for toddlers to spend *some* time in front of a screen each day. I’m not getting into that debate in this post. For the Little Prince, we’ve found that judicious use of the iPad is a godsend. First of all, please use a protective case (I highly recommend Griffin’s Survivor cases, which come in dozens of colors and are very durable). Also, start by downloading the free app AppShopper Social, the relaunched version of AppShopper: this app allows you to create a wish list of apps, and when the price drops on one of them, you’ll be notified via email. This is great to take advantage of flash sales you wouldn’t find out about otherwise!
[Update: I’m not sure that the new version of AppShopper is adequate anymore. I am now looking at AppZapp for those functions. I haven’t used it much yet, but it seems to fit the bill.]

We often put the iPad in Guided Access mode to keep our little one playing on the same game (otherwise, he has a habit of opening things he shouldn’t, and on several occasions has locked rotation on my screen and put me in airport mode). Lately, he’s been allowed to wander among the apps in his folder, but needs some supervision to stay where he’s supposed to be. Is there a way to keep him within a specific folder? For older kids, there’s software called Zoodles, which looks like it’s essentially a kid mode with curated educational games, but I haven’t used it yet.

I’ll talk about some of the apps that we have for the Little Prince. This list is by no means exhaustive, it’s just what he’s into at this point (almost 2 ½ years old) and what he has been into so far. As he gets older, I find that getting apps that are slightly too hard for him is a good strategy, because then he learns a new skill (swipe instead of tap, match shapes and colors or what have you).
- Animal Friends (free, multilingual): find animals, play peek-a-boo on the farm, count.
- I Hear Ewe (free, multilingual but no French): animal (and vehicle) sounds.
- Peek-a-Zoo ($3.99, multilingual): animals from different environments. The French translation was atrocious, so I sent them a revised text and they fixed some of it. There are also wordless apps in the same family for even younger kids, such as Infant Zoo (catchy music!) and Egg Head.
- Busy Shapes ($2.99, wordless): this is was absolutely awesome at first, but the difficulty level increases very quickly and there is no way to set it so that only easier levels come up, even when you delete the progress the player has made. So the Little Prince usually can’t play for more than a few minutes without getting frustrated.
- Sago Mini Forest Flyer ($2.99, wordless): this is fantastic. You guide a little bird around the forest, and there are adorable and funny animations all around. Even I had fun with this. Also check out other Sago Mini apps, such as Sago Mini Space Explorer, Sago Mini Ocean Swimmer or Sago Mini Friends – or just get a bundle.
- Endless Alphabet ($6.99, English only): this is a bit of a splurge, but it was so worth it for us! It’s an app with great animation, where letters in a word get mixed up and you have to put them back in the right order (the space where each letter goes is outlined, and you just drag and drop each letter in the right spot). Once the word is complete, you get a fantastic animation with a spoken definition of the word, and I have to say that the voice is super friendly. New words are added periodically. I truly love this app, which by the way is the main reason why the Little Prince now uses words like “fireworks”, “lick” and (yes) “gargantuan”; I’m sure it is also a contributing factor to his ability to read short words already. There are sister apps, Endless Reader and Endless Numbers, which both have a free version with a few levels and a paid version for the whole shebang. However, they cost (respectively) $29.99 and $14.99, which is outrageously expensive for apps! The Little Prince loves the free versions so much, though, that we’re probably going to cave and get them for him at Christmas…
- Bamba Burger (free, wordless): I’d had this in the iPad for a year or so, but the Little Prince started playing with this one last month, and now he can’t get enough. There are tons of great sister games, but the annoying thing is that there are ads for all games within the app, so your child will invariably get stuck pressing something that he can’t access or request more games.
- Toca Kitchen 2 ($2.99, wordless): cooking meals to serve to one of the various characters. He also just started playing with this and with sister apps, and can’t get enough.

There’s also a free app called YouTube Kids. I like it less – sure, the Little Prince can watch curated videos, but there’s a lot of unboxing videos on there and I’m against those for various reasons, so I wish there were boxes for me to check to include/exclude further content. (Like, nature documentaries are cool for kids, but I couldn’t find any. I’d also like videos in French.) Plus, there are ads, so I feel like it defeats the point of an app… It’s also not interactive like the apps I like. All this to say that I’m actually I’m considering uninstalling it.

We have a few more apps that I really like but that are a bit too advanced for the Little Prince now, so I’ll report back on those.


People keep asking us what kinds of videos the Little Prince watches. We’ve shown him some Baby Einstein and Sesame Street (more to keep him entertained on long road trips and such than for any educational value), but he’s also into almost anything by A.J. Jenkins and loves the alphabet in particular (if you’re looking for higher production value, check out Alphabet Songs by ABC Mouse). He also has a thing for Super Simple Songs like Put On Your Shoes and Do you like… (there are compilation videos out there, too). Most of the videos he watches now are available for free on YouTube.



Finally, while we’re discussing toddler gear, I’d like to give you a word of warning against the Sit Seat Travel Harness (the picture is straight from the official product and not mine). It can be used as a travel high chair, but that’s not what we needed it for (we already had a My Little Seat and I had sewn an Anywhere Chair, so we had that covered). The point of the seat, as the name, photo, and official description imply, is that it can keep your baby safely in your lap on an airplane (up until he is two years old, at which point he needs his own seat anyway). This seemed like just what we needed, since the Little Prince wouldn’t sit still in a front-to-front carrier anymore last Christmas. Well, that didn’t happen. We used it on 4 flights, operated by United and Air Canada. On the first flight, the flight attendants marveled over it and said it was the neatest thing they’d seen and they loved it. On all three subsequent flights, I was absolutely forbidden to use it, but when I pressed for a reason, no one could explain the logic behind it. When I got home after that trip, I looked up the airlines’ rules about travel harnesses. The FAA doesn’t require kids’ seats (despite deaths and injuries), though it recommends them. It specifically forbids harnesses for taxi, take-off and landing, but I was forbidden from using in in flight as well! I mean, what about turbulence? Airlines can be fined if they have so much as a box of tissues unrestrained, but children under two are allowed to stay on their parent’s lap untethered – how is this specific harness less safe than that? Wouldn’t it be smart to use it, were it only to protect the other passengers from the projectile your child will become otherwise?

United’s policy suggests that the Sit Seat Travel Harness is acceptable, as it does not fall in the “forbidden” category (“The following child restraint devices may not be used on board the aircraft: booster seats, belly belts attached to adult seat belts only, and vests or harnesses that hold the infant to the adult's chest” – and this, by the way, means that front-facing baby carriers aren’t actually allowed, even though flight attendants approved it when we used one with the Little Prince when he was 5 months old; would they be safe in a bulkhead seat?). When I contacted them, the email that I got in response stated: “I regret that I do not know the rational [sic] for this policy. We can only advise as to what is the policy.” As for Air Canada, they forbid “vest or harness type devices”, but when I emailed to ask why, I was not given any information (just the standard “sorry you had a bad experience on our flight” spiel).

Anyway, now that I’m done venting: If your child is old enough for his own seat (meaning, can sit up by himself) and is over 22 pounds, then I recommend the CARES system, which takes up very little space in your carry-on and is FAA-certified. That’s what we got for our next flight.

To conclude this aparté, I’m angry that 1) the FAA won’t step up and mandate safety measures like is the case for cars; and 2) nobody in charge seems able to explain the rules currently in place regarding the vest harness.

Pain-gâteau aux légumes

Cette recette a été publiée dans le Coup de Pouce de mai 2015, mais elle n’est pas en ligne (je vois d’ailleurs dans leur index des recettes de 2015 que c’est un choix éditorial). Mais moi, il faut que je vous la donne, cette recette, parce qu’elle est géniale. Nous avons eu un pain-gâteau moelleux, savoureux, parfait pour le déjeuner! C’était vraiment délicieux. Pour les légumes, la recette recommande les légumes racines : carottes, patate douce, rutabaga, panais, etc. J’ai pris une petite patate douce et deux panais; je les ai pelés puis râpés au robot, et ensuite je les ai hachés (toujours au robot).

2 tasses de farine de blé blond (ou 1 tasse chaque de tout-usage et de blé entier)
2 c. à thé de poudre à pâte
¾ c. à thé de cannelle moulue
½ c. à thé de sel
1 œuf, légèrement battu
½ tasse de sucre
4 tasses de légumes hachés finement
½ tasse d’huile végétale (carthame, canola, pépins de raisins)
1/3 tasse de sirop d’érable
1 c. à thé de vanille
½ tasses de pacanes, hachées (facultatif)

Préchauffer le four à 350 °F. Graisser un moule à pain de 9 pouces x 5 pouces.

Dans un grand bol, mélanger la farine, la poudre à pâte, la cannelle et le sel. Réserver.

Dans un autre bol, mélanger l’œuf, le sucre, les légumes hachés, l’huile, le sirop d’érable et la vanille. Verser ce mélange sur les ingrédients secs et mélanger jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient humectés, sans plus. (Dans mon cas, à ce stade, j’avais peur que ce soit un flop total. Ce que j’avais ressemblait plus à de la bouillie de légumes qu’à de la pâte à gâteau! Mais j’ai continué, et heureusement, parce que le résultat après cuisson était excellent.)

Mettre la pâte dans le moule à pain et lisser le dessus; parsemer de pacanes. Cuire de 60 à 65 minutes ou jusqu’à ce qu’un cure-dents inséré au centre du pain en ressorte propre. Laisser refroidir pendant 10 minutes. Démouler le pain sur une grille et laisser refroidir complètement.

Vanilla Honey Rice Pudding

I’ve been reading through Joanne Chang’s Baking With Less Sugar. The title is pretty self-explanatory; it’s about baking with less refined white sugar and embracing other sweeteners, such as honey or maple syrup. As it happens, you can often trick your brain into thinking that you’re eating something sweet by adding extra cinnamon or vanilla, because we associate those with sweet desserts! The first recipe I tried is the vanilla honey rice pudding. It turns out that it’s not very different from my usual rice pudding, which uses 1/3 cup sugar (compared with ½ cup honey here); this version also has a bit more fat, but nothing worrisome. Interestingly, though, this felt sweet enough that I didn’t want to add maple syrup to it, despite the fact that that’s how I ate rice pudding when I was growing up. Even though each step took me a little longer than it should have (especially waiting for the mixture to thicken over heat), I really liked the result. I might actually cook it a bit less next time, to have it less stiff. The Engineer liked it so much that he declared it surely flows from every faucet in heaven!

4 cups lactose-free whole milk
1 whole cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
½ cup jasmine or white basmati rice
½ cup raisins or currants (I used golden and brown raisins)
3 egg yolks
½ cup honey
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. kosher salt

Place the milk and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan. Using a small paring knife, scrape the seeds from the split vanilla bean into the milk; throw in the pod as well. Bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the rice with a wooden spoon and decrease the heat to a low simmer. Cook the rice slowly in milk for 20-25 minutes, uncovered, or until the rice is soft. Stir regularly during cooking with the wooden spoon to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom.

Remove from the heat, remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean pod, and stir in the raisins. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and honey; slowly ladle the hot milk-rice mixture into the yolks, whisking all the while. Continue adding hot milk-rice mixture to the yolks until about half of it is mixed in. Dump the rice mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the ground cinnamon and salt.

Serve warm, or refrigerate and serve cold.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

What can I say, I liked vegan chocolate tarts. These are made with coconut oil in both the crust and filling. The filling didn’t come out nearly as smooth as for my chocolate cashew tarts, even though the original post showed them as being perfectly smooth, but they were very good nonetheless. I think it’s because I’m using a new kind of cocoa, and based on what I can tell after making a batch of my usual chocolate sauce, it does seem to absorb more liquid than other brands (but it tastes fantastic!).

For the crust
1 ¼ cup almond flour
3 Tbsp. cacao powder
1/8 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
¼ cup extra-virgin unrefined coconut oil, melted

For the filling
½ cup extra-virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/3 cup maple syrup, at room temperature
1 cup cacao powder

For the crust
Place the almond flour, cacao powder, and salt into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the maple syrup and coconut oil and blend together with a fork until everything comes together and mixture becomes wet.

Press the dough evenly into cupcake pans with liners (I got 9 out of this and recommend silicone liners). Spread the dough with fingers along the bottom and up the sides. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to allow the dough to firm up and chill.

For the filling
Put the coconut oil and maple syrup in the bowl of a food processor and process until well combined. Add the cacao powder and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the edges of the bowl as needed. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crusts and spread evenly.

Return tarts to the refrigerator to set and firm up for at least 1 hour. Tarts can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days.

Cobb Salad with Creamy Pesto Dressing

I really liked this salad because it was hearty enough for dinner. I’ve made many salads that might look a bit like this (such as this southwestern chopped salad with a cilantro-avocado dressing), but that didn’t quite cut it as a meal. However, this Cobb salad with creamy pesto dressing from Parents magazine really hit the spot. Plus, it was highly adaptable – I made a vegetarian version and made a few substitutions according to what I had on hand. The dressing was really, really good!

(I just now realized how bad the picture is. But hey, I wrote the post, so I’m going to hit publish anyway. See, I used to have a lightbox and two lamps set up on the dining room table, but now that the Little Prince is reaching and grabbing whatever he can, that was no longer an option. I’m hoping that at some point next spring I can set something up in the guest bedroom, which is in the process of becoming the guest bedroom / sewing room.)

For the dressing
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup buttermilk (1 tsp. lemon juice + lactose-free milk)
1 cup fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp. finely grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, finely minced
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mix together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, basil, Parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper in a blender until everything is well combined (I used a stick blender). Transfer to a plastic container. Refrigerate for up to 2 days until ready to serve

For the salad
6 cups slivered romaine lettuce
8 slices bacon, cooked and roughly crumbled (or sunflower seeds)
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced
2 medium-size tomatoes, seeded and diced (I had miniature tomatoes)
1 ½ cups cubed cooked chicken (or 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained)
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
½ cup diced red onion
½ cup crumbled blue cheese (I used feta; any lactose-free substitute is fine)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Scatter the lettuce over a large serving platter.

Make nice neat rows over the lettuce with the crumbled bacon, diced eggs, tomatoes, chicken, avocado, onion, and blue cheese. (The order is of no consequence; whatever strikes you. I made the salad directly in plates instead of having a serving platter, though.) Season with salt and pepper. You can drizzle the dressing over the salad, or serve it on the side.

The Squash Moratorium

I know this sounds like the title of a Big Bang Theory episode and doesn’t augur well for the recipe, but bear with me. Each fall, I make recipes with squash. I try not to make them too often, because I know that squash is unpredictably hit or miss with the Engineer and I don’t want to make him sick of it. So maybe a dish every other week or so? But this year, he declared a squash moratorium. It came on the heels of a squash risotto (in which I had omitted the sage to avoid a repeat of the pumpkin ravioli fiasco, and really, it would have been fine had the squash been roasted instead of pan-cooked). Before that, I had made a vegan spaghetti squash lasagna bake where we both agreed that the tofu mixture meant to replace ricotta was very good, but the rest wasn’t. So that stopped my experiments with squash this year. However, I had already planned spaghetti squash latkes before the moratorium was imposed, I had the squash sitting on my kitchen counter, and I was making them to eat for lunch with the Little Prince, so the Engineer wouldn’t have to suffer them for dinner. I went ahead and made those despite the moratorium, and I’m glad I did.

I’m no expert on Hanukkah, but I believe that technically, the important thing about a latke isn’t the potato, but the oil. Latkes made with other vegetables are therefore acceptable, if not as traditional. The advantage of using spaghetti squash here is that you already have strands of vegetables, so there’s no need to grate anything. And really, these latkes are awesome! I’d never made any with cheese before, but it worked really well. I hope you try them!

1 medium spaghetti squash
olive oil, for drizzling
salt and pepper
¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
5 sage leaves, finely chopped (I only used 2)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg
¼ cup Pecorino Romano, grated (I used parmesan)
¼ cup chickpea flour
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Lightly drizzle the flesh with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven, cut-side up for about 40 minutes or until tender.

Allow the squash to cool slightly, then use a fork to shred the squash into strands. Transfer your squash "noodles" to a strainer to drain any excess liquid. (I strongly recommend wringing them in a clean dish towel like you would with potatoes. You probably need to be gentler with cooked squash than with raw potatoes, but my mixture ended up too soggy with only a strainer and I used extra flour to compensate, but ended up with latkes of the pancake persuasion when I prefer something with no “batter”.)

In a large bowl, combine the sliced green onions, chopped parsley, chopped sage leaves, and minced garlic. Once the spaghetti strands have drained of excess liquid, add them to the bowl with the herbs and toss to coat. Fold in the egg, Pecorino Romano, chickpea flour, salt, and pepper. Toss all of the ingredients together until the mixture is well combined.

Using a soup spoon, scoop a generous amount of the squash mixture into your hands and form into patties, one by one, and lightly flatten. Make sure you shape all of your patties before heating the oil. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pan. Once the oil is hot (you can test by adding a strand of squash — if it sizzles, you're ready to go), add the patties, making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Depending on the pan size, you should be able to fry about 4 to 5 latkes at a time. Fry for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Flip the latkes and fry for another 2 minutes on the other side. Transfer the cooked latkes onto a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with the rest of the mixture and additional peanut oil.

Serve the latkes hot, with lactose-free sour cream if desired.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I found a recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins that happened to be egg-free, using yogurt instead. When I first made them, though, I wasn’t satisfied with them: the batter had been a bit too stiff, and the yield was only half-a-dozen, so that annoyed me. Luckily, I’d also had the good sense to reduce the baking time. All that said, I liked them enough to make them again and tweak the recipe further, so what follows is my adaptation for 12 muffins. I really enjoyed these on the second go! Note that you could make a glaze with ½ cup of powdered sugar (sifted) and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, but I didn’t feel like glazing muffins. They were great for breakfast as is.

2/3 cup regular white sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup poppy seeds
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup plain lactose-free yogurt (Greek yogurt will do)
½ cup lactose-free milk
¼ cup vegetable oil (such as safflower oil or grapeseed oil)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 °F. Grease a muffin tin (or line it with paper liners) and set aside.

In a small bowl, rub the white sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium, whisk together the yogurt, milk, oil, vanilla extract, the reserved lemon-infused sugar, and the lemon juice.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and fold together. Divide batter between muffin cups. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing (if desired).

Coquilles farcies à la saucisse

J’ai essayé cette recette que Coup de Pouce avait publiée dans un cahier de recette pour la famille (dans le sens où les enfants sont censé aimer cela). J’avoue que ça a été un succès un peu mitigé avec notre enfant, mais nous, on a aimé ça! Ce serait pratique à congeler, aussi…

16 coquilles géantes (la moitié d’un paquet de 340 g; je recommande un peu plus)
2 c. à soupe d’huile d’olive
1 oignon, coupé en dés
1 poivron vert, coupé en dés (j’ai pris un poivron rouge)
2 gousses d’ail, hachées
1 lb. (500 g.) de saucisses italiennes douces, la peau enlevée
1 œuf
¼ tasse de persil frais, haché
2 tasses de coulis de tomates (de type passata)
1 c. à thé d’origan séché
¾ tasse de fromage de style mozzarella râpé (j’ai pris du Daiya)
¼ tasse de parmesan râpé

Huiler un plat carré de 8 pouces allant au four. (Mon plat mesurait plutôt 9 pouces par 13 pouces.) Préchauffer le four à 425 °F.

Dans une grande casserole d’eau bouillante salée, cuire les pâtes de 8 à 10 minutes ou jusqu’à ce qu’elles soient al dente. Égoutter et passer sous l’eau froide. Réserver sur un linge humide.

Entre-temps, dans un poêlon, chauffer l’huile à feu moyen. Ajouter l’oignon, le poivron et l’ail et cuire pendant environ 6 minutes ou jusqu’à ce qu’ils aient ramolli. Mettre cette préparation dans un bol. Ajouter la chair des saucisses, l’œuf et le persil et bien mélanger (la recette d’origine recommande un mélangeur à main, mais je l’ai fait à la main avec une fourchette – évitez simplement de trop mélanger). Farcir chaque coquille de 1 c. à soupe de ce mélange. Placer les coquilles côte à côte dans le plat huilé. (Alors, j’avais mal lu les instructions et j’avais fait cuire toutes les pâtes. J’ai quand même rempli mon grand plat rectangulaire, vu que j’avais assez de farce pour cela. Personnellement, j’aime mieux faire cuire quelques coquilles de trop plutôt que d’en manquer, alors c’est ce que je recommande.)

Dans un autre bol, mélanger le coulis de tomates et l’origan. Verser ce mélange sur les coquilles. Parsemer du fromage mozzarella et du parmesan. Couvrir le plat de papier d’aluminium et cuire au four pendant 20 minutes.

Retirer le papier d’aluminium et poursuivre la cuisson pendant environ 10 minutes ou jusqu’à ce que le fromage soit doré.

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

This year, I made a pumpkin pie before Thanksgiving. We were going to be hosting the Engineer’s mother over the Thanksgiving holiday, and I really didn’t know how she felt about pumpkin pie this year, but I didn’t want to take a chance (she once said she disliked pumpkin and squash and had refused to taste pumpkin pie the first time we celebrated Thanksgiving here; then again, she said the same thing about sweet potatoes at the time, but a year ago she said she ate sweet potatoes practically every day, so who knows). But I, for one, really wanted a pumpkin pie this fall, and it seems like all the ones I remember were rather ho-hum, non-descript pumpkin purée pies. I therefore decided to make a pumpkin chiffon pie recipe that I had seen on The Kitchn, but which is actually adapted from Saveur magazine. I had been hanging on to the recipe because it calls for cream, but I decided to use coconut milk instead, and it worked out just fine. So this recipe is dairy-free, though it isn’t vegan – or even vegetarian, come to think of it, because I used animal gelatin. The author of the original post says that the problem with this recipe is that it will ruin you for other pumpkin pies. And I have to confirm: yes, it’s true. Don’t eat this if you foresee a lot of plain pumpkin purée pies in your future: this is a different beast, sure, but anything else will pale in comparison. It is scrumptious (can I use that word with a straight face to mean beyond delicious?). The filling is both dense and fluffy, all the tastes are perfectly balanced, it holds together well, the crust is not just an afterthought… It is basically the perfect pumpkin pie. Come to think of it, maybe I should have made my mother-in-law taste it after all, because this one might have changed her mind. Or at least, if not, nothing will.

Note that the recipe below makes one large pie if you are using a deep pie dish like the one pictured; if you use the shallow tin plates in which most commercial pies are baked, you’ll get two pies out of it.

For the crust
4 cups crushed Nilla wafer cookies (a rough texture with unevenly sized pieces is fine)
10 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (I used vegan margarine)
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt

For the filling
3 tsp. unflavored gelatin (I used 1 packet)
¼ cup Cointreau or Drambuie (I used Grand Marnier; apple juice would work, too)
1 ½ cups pumpkin purée
½ cup coconut milk
½ cup sugar + 1/3 cup sugar, divided
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
¾ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. salt
4 egg whites
fresh whipped cream substitute, to serve (optional)

For the crust
Preheat oven to 400 °F.

In a large bowl, combine the cookie crumbs, butter, sugar and salt (I did this in the food processor, since that’s what I used to make crumbs out of the cookies in the first place). Press mixture firmly into 2 tin 9-inch pie pans or 1 deep 9-inch ceramic pie plate.

Bake for 10 minutes, and cool on a wire rack.

For the filling
In a small bowl, sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over ¼ cup Cointreau to soften for 5 minutes. Set the mixture over a bowl of hot water and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the pumpkin purée, coconut milk, ½ cup of sugar, 3 egg yolks, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt and cook the mixture over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the gelatin mixture, and let the mixture cool.

In a large bowl, beat 4 egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Beat in the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating the meringue until it holds stiff peaks, and fold this meringue into the partially cooled pumpkin mixture.

Pour the filling into the baked shells and chill the pie, lightly covered, for at least 6 hours. Garnish with fresh whipped cream (there is lactose-free cream in Canada; otherwise, use any vegan substitute, or omit it if you forget your whipped topping in the freezer like I did).



[Update, November 2018: I made this pie for Thanksgiving this year, and my mother-in-law DID like it!]