Rubbishy Cookery

  While recently in Portugal, I enjoyed many variations on lemonade. Strawberry was a popular flavour, but at one special patio café near the famed “Triangle” neighbourhood in Lisbon, the sign read: “strawberry, ginger, mint”. When I asked for the special lemonade, the server asked me which one I wanted—silly me, I thought it was all three flavours combined! But they were happy to accommodate my initial expectation and so I was able to enjoy an ice cold glass of strawberry-ginger-mint lemonade. What a combo! Here it is! Ingredients: Directions: I used a generous handful of frozen strawberries, a sprig of garden fresh mint, about a half tablespoon (?) of peeled fresh ginger, two or three generous soup spoonfuls of frozen concentrate lemonade, then added two ice cubes and water to the Vitamix: Here’s a side view: Let ‘er rip: Pour and enjoy on your favourite patio with your favourite Portuguese literature: Obrigada!

  This is a recipe that uses not one, but two (2!) types of canned fish! Ingredients: Missing from the above photo, but should usually be assumed: salt and pepper. Also missing and a last minute optional addition: Directions: You’ve probably heard that kale needs to be massaged with oil for salads in order to soften the tough leathery leaves. We’re going to be extra frugal and massage our kale (which is coming from the late fall backyard garden crop today, harvested in the dark cold rain) with the fishy olive oil with which our canned tuna is packaged.  Here is a picture of pre-massaged kale: Add that tuna olive oil: Get in there with both hands and massage! Then you’ll have nice tender oily kale: Nice! Meanwhile, in a little dish, squish up a clove of garlic and add some salt to let the garlic mellow and soften for a minute or two: Add an anchovy: Mash them up together: Add some squeezed fresh lemon juice and a few squirts of Worcestershire sauce: Mix it all up and add a good...

  Hey everyone, it’s a dessert!  Or, a sweet, sweet breakfast.  Or whatever!  This delightful treat was just invented on a whim and is tasty and healthy-ish for any time of day! Ingredients: Directions: I hope you have a little mini mixer like the one in the photo above. Do they even still exist? Mine was purchased sometime in the early 1990s at a long-gone store called Consumers Distributing. If it ever dies, I don’t know what I’ll do. Anyway, I digress. Throw some frozen blueberries, a few spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, and a couple of spoonfuls of lemon curd into the mini mixer: Run the mixer on high speed for about a minute: Scrape down the sides if necessary. That looks great! Spoon into little bowls or mini ramekins. Choose something that doesn’t clash with the mousse if possible. Unfortunately I didn’t follow this advice and the colour clashing of the little bowls and mousse did affect my enjoyment of the finished product. Learn from my mistake! Cover with plast...