A Week in Their Kitchen is a week long challenge that will see various members of Calgary’s media and public surviving on the contents of only an Emergency Food Hamper throughout Husky Help the Hungry week (May 31-June 6 2010).

Participants will be blogging about their experience, both with visiting the food bank, and cooking with the items in their hamper, to help give the public a sense of what it’s like to be in need.

As part of my job, I regularly have to refer clients to the food bank, so it is very interesting to view the experience from their position. Please check out the blog, leave a comment, donate to your local food bank, and open your mind to what it might be like for you to depend on a food bank for your nutrition.

http://weekintheirkitchen.wordpress.com

Thanks in advance for your support!

Last night Tim did a surf and turf, pictures is steak, asparagus, red peppers and … peaches!!! There was also some extremely fresh halibut searing in the oven. We are very meat and veggie heavy in our household. No need for fluff like pasta or potatoes. Unless it’s risotto, which in that case is a whole other story altogether. There is always room for more risotto.

Tim used the grilled peaches to make a grilled peach chutney, which he seasoned with mint and was the best thing ever.

My food photos aren’t exactly Pioneer Woman worthy, but you can at least get the gist. Here is the end product:

And we were stuffed after! It tasted great, and we had enough steak leftover to make a pizza later that night (we eat A LOT – if we eat dinner early, then we have to eat two dinners!)

Another great thing to grill is pineapples. If you ever make homemade hamburgers, grill some pineapple slices for a topping on the burger and your life just might be changed for the better. More things I would grill: strawberries, mango, bananas (mmm… for bananas foster), or any kind of fruit really.

What is your favourite thing to grill on the ‘que?

I am adding comments people give me on Twitter because dammit, my followers (I hate saying that word) are awesome people with great comments:

@darylcognito: @leahblonde to be complete asparagus needs to be wrapped in Prosciutto (Mmmm … more meat. I mean, very good idea)

@calgaryfitness: @leahblonde Wow ur man is a great cook! I ? grilling fruit…I have a great recipe for grilled peaches stuffed with veggie/feta quinoa YUMM. (Wow, must get said recipe ASAP!)

@danellew: @leahblonde Yum!! I’m jealous (Note: It is not hard to get an invitation to dinner at the Tim & Leah household! You pretty much just have to bring wine and be prepared to bring board games)

You can pretty much put whatever in them but this is what we put in them:
chicken (basted with butter and cilantro)
carrots
celery
alfalfa sprouts
bean sprouts
cilantro
garlic
salt and pepper

Kent just started working at a new restaurant which unlike any he’s worked at before, requires him to wear a tall chef hat instead of a short one. He hates it. I don’t know what’s funnier, the hat itself or the fact that his mom irons it for him every morning! I guess in a month that will be my job. I’ll let you decide:

My dad (who reads our blog! Hi dad!) tried on the hat too and I think it suits him better than Kent. But maybe it’s the jam on toast and the moustache. Then again, he did keep it on for much longer than Kent did. He also makes a mean bacon and eggs.

And one more thing before I head off to religion class – some family blog love!

Our cousin Lindsay just started her first blog called One Million Little Thoughts which everyone should check out and leave comments on to get her motivated! She did a “100 things” for her first post so she is obviously a natural.

My last post on things that I love inspired my cousin Lara to write her own post, current L-O-V-E-S on her blog, Crazy/beautiful/blog. I only share one of the same loves as her despite being family… can you guess which one?

For good Catholic girls like us, today is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday or, if you wish, the horrible name, Fat Tuesday. What is the significance of this day? Well it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, but other than that I’m not really sure. Maybe you are supposed to fill yourself up with pancakes before you fast on Ash Wednesday. I could google it, but instead I will let someone feel smart and comment with the answer.

At my school this morning, we all enjoyed McDonalds pancakes. They were delicious. After school my friend Chris that I carpool with said to me, “I’m so full of pancakes. I had seven. And two donuts.” which made me laugh pretty hard.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, in which us good Christians give something up or do good deeds to commemorate Jesus walking  through the desert for 40 days and nights.  As children, our mom always made us give up television for Lent because she hated us watching it. We weren’t really allowed to watch it much any other time of the year either, but that didn’t really matter when we all had four sisters always around to entertain us. It worked, because none of us (well except Lauren) are big television watchers to this day.

To be honest, I can’t really remember if I’ve given anything up in recent years, so that probably means I haven’t given up anything too significant. This year, inspired by my previously mentioned pancake-loving friend, I will be giving up junk food of all sorts. My working definition of junk food is “anything that I would feel guilty eating.” Since I am a bridesmaid in Erica’s wedding in May, and a bride in my own in August, this is probably a good idea, Lent or no Lent.

What I like about Lent is that there is a set time limit. New Years resolutions are so difficult to keep, I think, because the time limit is something more like “forever.” Nobody can give up junk food forever.

So today I ate my last pancake and tonight I made my last batch of popcorn. Let the fasting begin…

And you? Will you be giving up anything for Lent?

Who wouldn’t crave a cupcake from Crave? (You know when you type or say a word too much in a short time span and it seems to lose it’s meaning? That just happened with crave.) Well, I couldn’t get there for lunch, as I have been going home for lunch everyday because Tim has been working 3pm-12am everyday this week. Let’s do some math – if Leah works 8am-4pm and goes to bed at 10:45pm, and Tim works from 3pm-12am and gets up at 9:00am, how much time do they get to spend together? You got it kiddies – NONE! Unless Leah comes home for lunch between 12pm and 1pm, then they get 30 minutes because it takes 15 minutes to walk each way. Anyways, what I am trying to tell you is that I didn’t go to Crave to get a cupcake for lunch because I went home and visited Tim for half an hour. Although, that didn’t stop me from going AFTER work!

I got there right about 10 minutes before they were closing, and they happened to be getting rid of the days leftovers. They may have noticed me eyeing those puppies up, or else out of the very kindness of their pink frosted hearts they gave them to me! For free! I was so happy, but I swear I must have looked like the biggest oinker when I was walking home with 18 cupcakes. I didn’t even have an excuse. I bought 6 for Tim and I to put in the freezer, and they gave me 12 more mini ones. (More math time – If Leah buys 6 cupcakes and received 12 mini-cupcakes free, and then takes them home to her gluttonous household of two lonely souls, after 24 hours how many cupcakes are left? If you think I’m telling you, you are crazy. This was a rhetorical math question. Do those exist?)