What's cooking, good looking?
Using up food before a trip edition



I'm going to be in Cuba for the next week — returning on Saturday, April 18^th, so there won't be any new posts during that time.

This week has been a flurry of activity, with me running errands during my lunch hour to try to get the supplies I needed for the trip, then coming home to make a succession of meals which used up the last of the groceries I had in my fridge. Amongst them, the cornbread muffins seen above (recipe substitutions: Ezekiel flour instead of all-purpose; agave syrup instead of white sugar; soy milk with lemon juice instead of buttermilk; and rendered bacon fat instead of vegetable oil), which are filled with a mix of dairy-free "creamy sheese", the last of a jar of (phenomenal, btw) shitake mushroom tapenade and chorizo sausage that I picked up last week at The Sausage King in St. Lawrence Market.

I also used up some spinach, smoked salmon and eggs I had around by making a Benedict-inspired dinner, with asparagus, wilted spinach, smoked salmon and a dairy-free hollandaise (made with vegan margarine instead of butter.

Finally, I made candied walnuts using a simple sugar syrup, sea salt, cinnamon and a touch of cayenne. This is a favourite recipe of mine, discovered in a Christmas recipe magazine I picked up several years ago. I consistently add more salt than is called for in the recipe, as I find the sugar to salt ratio in the original recipe doesn't set off the sweetness as well as I would like. These will be accompanying us on the trip, to provide a tasty, highly portable snack.

Have a great week while I'm gone, intertubes!