What not to eat: Yam bacon pizza recipe

What happens when you combine sparse leftovers in your cupboards and fridge to make a meal? Sometimes the answer is Yam Bacon Pizza. While we didn't actually have bacon on hand (we rarely have processed meats of any kind in the house - may be a few times a year), we have a flax whole wheat pizza crust, tomato sauce, cheese, onion and yam. I Googled and found this recipe for sweet potato pizza (though I think those are yams in her photo - yes, there is a difference) with prosciutto, onions and rosemary. Perfect! Except, I'm not a fan of prosciutto (something about the texture), and I know B is happy for any occasion to have bacon due to the aforementioned bacon shortage in our house, so we swapped the prosciutto for bacon.

The result - SUPER delicious, slightly healthy (ok "healthy" might be an overstatement but hey, there are vegetables), but definitely easy meal! The combination of the sweetness of the yam, salty, crunchy bacon and tangy onion is better than I expected. A must-try treat!


Ingredients:

Pizza dough (You can make your own or cheat and use store bought)
1/4 - 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 medium yam thinly sliced
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or cheese of choice)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onions until soft. Add yam and cook for 5-7 minutes, until yam is soft and a little crispy on both sides.

3. Brush the crust of the pizza with 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Spread dough with pizza sauce. Add the slices of sweet potato and onion. Sprinkle bacon, cheese and rosemary on top. Drizzle toppings with remaining olive oil. Bake for 15-18 min.

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Recipe: Creamy Vegetarian Beet Borscht

I've made a few different borscht recipes before, but this one has been my favourite so far. The great thing about Borscht, is that it is pretty modifiable in terms of what vegetables you use, depending what you have on hand. I was missing the turnip so I added extra potato. You could also add celery, or any other root veggies you have on hand. I'm thinking now it would've been interesting to throw the yam I have in the fridge into the mix. Maybe next time.

As the title suggests, this recipe makes a creamier, thicker soup, which requires a bit of food processing and blending to get the right consistency. With all the processing, blending and transferring of hot liquids going on, and with the deep maroon colour of the soup, my kitchen resembled a murder scene when I was done, but it was worth it. The soup has a pleasant full texture, and a light flavour. I made some cheese biscuits to go with the soup, which make it the perfect meal for a cold winter's day.


Ingredients (makes about 8 servings):

2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
1 cup of chopped onion
2 small cloves of garlic, minced
3 - 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 pounds of beets (about 6 medium-sized), peeled and chopped
2 cups tomato, chopped
2 cup of potato, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 bay leaves
juice from one lemon
6 - 7 cups of vegetable stock
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 - 3/4 cups of sour cream
Fresh dill for garnishing (i didn't have on hand so I used dried)

Prep:

1) In a large soup pot, heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft - about 5 minutes.

2) Add the vinegar and cook until most of the vinegar evaporates, about 3 minutes. Add the beets, tomato, potato, carrot, bay leaves, stock, salt and pepper, and half of the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, immediately reduce the heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very tender (about 30 - 40 minutes). Add the remaining lemon juice. While the soup is cooking, combine the minced dill and cream in a small bowl; set aside.

3) Once the soup has cooled down a bit, process in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and gently heat over low heat.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with a bit of minced dill.


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The Garden Sleuth

I realize summer ended long ago (at least here in Calgary), but I'm still pondering over WHY my garden failed miserably this year. Yes, the garden FAILED (you can see the very sad picture of our lone tomato, hanging in defeat on the vine. That was the only one that ever appeared *tear*). There is nothing so heart-breaking to an amateur gardener as slaving over and pampering a garden all spring and summer long, only to be rewarded with wilted, stunted plants and not enough veggies to make but one salad. I have finally come to terms with my lost investment and am ready to delve into what I did wrong. I need to solve this mystery so I can ensure I don't have the same result next year.

This past summer, I made the mistake of trying a number of new growing methods and components at one time, any one of which could have lead to my dismal produce outcome. In addition, our summer was anything but until early July. As far as I can tell, my lack of fresh produce could be the result of any (or all) of the following reasons:

1) I started with seedlings, which seemed to be doing very well. Unfortunately, I failed to "harden off" the seedlings before planting them outdoors (who knew?! Now I know.)

2) Using all organic soil. I don't know why this would be an issue exactly, but the year previous I used conventional soil, and all was well.

4) Using organic compost. Again, not sure if/why this would be an issue, but the year prior I didn't use compost at all and had a better turn out, though, admittedly, also a smaller variety of "crops" (if you can call container gardening "crops").

5) The ratio of compost to soil. Pretty sure there is an ideal ratio of compost to soil, and pre-tay sure I ignored it. My 'throw caution to the wind' gardening approach may have been my downfall.

5) The monsoon we experienced for 10 days immediately after I planted said seedlings. That one weekend of heat was deceptive, and enticed me to move the seedlings outside prematurely. I thought summer had arrived, but I was sorely mistaken. The rains ensued for 10 days straight, like I have never seen before in Cow town. I covered the seedlings with garbage bags to protect them from drowning (though, they were exposed for a while before I covered them). Come to think of it - poor things also went without light for days too! I'm starting to think this garden was DEA summer (dead on arrival of summer).

6) The aforementioned late summer - the season finally appeared sometime after the monsoon stopped, but I fear it was too late.

So which one (or combination) of these items doomed my produce, I ask you expert gardeners? Could there be something I missed, or (better yet) some mysterious virus that caused fatality to my plants that resulted from no fault of my own? I know, unlikely.

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