Braised Lentils and Chickpeas with Kale & White Wine

I love me a good challenge.  It seems like every so often I take a deep breath and do something tremendously brave that both excites and terrifies me, and no doubt keeps my mother awake at night.  Sorry mom!  I've gone and done it again, and fingers crossed I'll land on my feet like I always seem to do.  More on this little shake up in a future blog post when I'm ready to spill the beans, but until then you'll just have to hold your horses.  Speaking of challenges, I've entered a recipe into another Canadian Lentils Recipe Revelations Challenge and I'm super excited for you to try it.  White wine, paprika, kale, it's a one pot little wonder that will have you licking the pot.  Or wait?  Is that just me?

Petite Retreat: Buckwheat Porridge & Caramelized Apples

We need the tonic of wildness...We can never have enough of nature. ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

I needed it badly.  A getaway from the city; from my busy life.  It seems like ever since June hit I was running full steam ahead, with the new job and side projects and writing and well, life.  Taking a break from this space helped, but not quite enough.  I needed to remove myself from the everyday life and just retreat.  Luckily I knew of just the place to disappear to.  A while back a friend mentioned that she visited a beautiful forest lodge, called Flora Bora, that rented out yurts.  What is a yurt, you ask?  Read all about them here, for a far better explanation than I could ever give.  This place was to be my tonic.  

Win! Warm Lentil, Bacon & Asparagus Salad with Fried Eggs

This is a sponsored post, but there is no shortage of love for lentils on these pages.  And you guys know me - I wouldn't tell you about something unless I really was in love with it.  So here we go!  

First things first.  May is Love your Lentils month (but I'm crazy about them the whole entire year - just scroll through my recipe index and you'll find the love) and to help celebrate Canadian Lentils has created a really fantastic contest.  Here's the part where I tell you about the good stuff:  the grand prize is a trip for 2 to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (my hometown!) and the heart and soul of the world's lentil production.  We love our lentils here.  Not only will you get to hang out in my beautiful city, but also take a tour with famous chef Michael Smith, stay in a posh hotel by the South Saskatchewan River for 3 nights, and you get $500 to spend on fun stuff while here.  All you have to do is enter your lentil recipe - you can be a blogger or a home cook - and just by voting you have a chance to WIN.  I won't bother you with all of the particulars - you can read them here.  But I urge you to enter, and while you're there, throw a vote my way too, because I really, really want to stay in that hotel (and meeting Michael Smith wouldn't be too shabby either.  Oh, and the cash, yeah, the cash, that would be nice.  And I've got a hankering to tour a farmer's field like nobody's business.)  So go vote!  Pretty pretty please and thank you. 

A Good Year: Roasted Grape & Ricotta Crostini

I hope everyone has had peaceful yet super fun holidays.  Me and my mom slipped away to the country to visit my sister and her family and it was a blast.  It's been a long time since I played hide & seek for a good hour.  Funny how you can hide in the same spot and little kids still think you're the best.  "Auntie, where are you?" still rings in my head and warms my heart.  It was great being away, and the scenery was just gorgeous - some of my photos are at the end of the post.  Happily the cats didn't burn the house down and were quite glad to see me to have their food provider back again. 

Runneth Over: Swiss Chard & Heirloom Tomato Tart

Holy cow these are busy busy times.  My garden is running over with goodness, the veg doing their thing and growing crazy fast and furious and making me wonder, yet again, why the heck I planted for a family of 12 when there is just me and my handsome man to feed.  But we'll eat loads of it fresh, then preserve the rest.   I'm almost a little afraid to go out and check the beans because I know they'll be out. of. control. and some massive blanching/freezing will have to ensue in the next day or so.  If you are bored and/or want a bag o' beans, come on by - I can use the help :) Speaking about out of control, my chard has gone bonkers crazy productive, and I know I'm not the only one.  A funny thing happened last week.  Within a matter of minutes two friends, from different provinces, one in real life face to fave convo, and the other via Instagram begged pleaded with me to post a Swiss chard recipe on the blog.  Seems like their favourite green has gone bonkers crazy productive too.  Less I disappoint those I love, I have a chard recipe for y'all today.  And it's crazy bonkers good. 

Road Trippin': Pecan Caramel Fudge Pie

I feel like I've been gone from these pages for eons!  Okay, it's only been 10 days but feels like forever. I've missed you guys!  In case you missed it earlier, last weekend I was hired by Tourism Saskatchewan to be the chef for a group of travel writers and Tourism Sask staff, while we explored the Grasslands National Park area of southern Saskatchewan.  Two RVs were to be our home base for the four days while we were trippin the roads down south.  I knew it was going to be an adventure, because seven women traversing the prairie is always an adventure, but I had no idea it would be as adventurous as it was.  So let me get the dirty deets out of the way first.  The rental RVs we were travelling in were completely dilapidated and pieces of crap from the good old days of 1986.  I'm still in awe that we actually didn't break down on the side of the road somewhere.  One of them, we found out the first morning, did not have a working refrigerator, so most of my dairy and some meat was ruined. Boo to that.  But the biggest, baddest let down was having no running water the whole entire trip.  I'm not a camping girl, nor do I have any experience with RVs but I just assumed they came jam packed with water.  Not ours.  So we had to haul it and boil it for food prep.  I felt a little like Laura Ingalls Wilder, minus the petticoat and bonnet.  Needless to say, this threw a huge wrench into food prep, making cooking for seven take much much longer than it normally does.  But in the end, the food was made and was very warmly received and no one got sick (my biggest concern the whole trip) and I have an arsenal of stories I can whip out during a lull at dinner parties.  We all need those, don't we?