Making Liv’s “Crispy Bits”

Cooking with daughters

I am very fortunate to have four daughters. I am also fortunate to have four daughters who all love to cook so getting together for a meal is always a pleasure. We all have the same taste, and interest in good, clean ingredients. Grace slants Italian and makes her own pasta regularly and bone marrow (a favourite of mine) for just herself! Aubrey and her partner, Tanner, make a lot of “bowls” - a basic ingredient at the bottom like glass noodles or rice topped with whatever is available. Carlyle and her partner Mitch, plan out their recipes for the week, focusing on a chef or style, smoke their own meats, carefully preserve and vacuum seal all leftovers in the freezer for future meals. 

We don’t all see one another as often as I would like as we are all in different locations except for Carlyle but sometimes life gets in the way. Liv is on the west coast which makes regular get togethers hard. I recently went to visit her in Victoria when she was free from a Rugby tournament and had the opportunity to check out her living space and her kitchen. We found time for a couple of quiet evenings and we made dinner together. It was fun. She is a vegetarian and her partner a vegan and both are good cooks and inventive. I always feel healthy changing up my eating habits now and then.

I love the vibe of the west coast. It seems that everyone exudes a lifestyle of fitness and agility, marching up mountains, hiking along the abundance of trails, and the beaches. The scenery is breathtaking and sometimes I feel in a heartbeat we should all move. But then we have beauty here in Ontario and realistically, it is all about finding that beauty in all things where you live. I love going to the local markets in Victoria, while ours here in town are wonderful but on the west coast, the produce is in season all the time and in such abundance! I went shopping for her a couple of times, coming back to her home loaded with food for a large family. It was hard to resist. 

When we lived on the farm, our vegetable garden was located near the house. I enlisted the girls’ help when they were young, and we spent our first May “two-four” together on the farm planting the seedlings we’d grown. A day later, it hailed, snowed, and rained — not at all how I had expected our new country life to begin. But we persisted, and the garden grew. We picked our first crops of baby onions, zucchini, and beets, and, to celebrate, grilled them up over an open flame, forgetting about any meat accompaniment. I combined oil, garlic, lemon juice, and fresh herbs from our garden to serve on top of our grilled veggies or alongside as a dip for bread. It was delicious, tasting of the new earth that we now called home. 

Today, the farm is gone, I don’t have a garden and neither do any of my daughters except for Carlyle who has raised beds in her backyard and this past summer, grew an incredible bounty of kale, salad greens, tomatoes and herbs. It was formidable what she and Mitch were  able to grow from a small space. All of the girls choose their produce carefully from local grocers or markets that specialize in fresh vegetables. Once you know what the real thing tastes like, you crave it and search it out. 

When the girls are home, I try to keep it simple so we aren’t spending a lot of time cooking but able to relax, play a board game or work on a puzzle while we are waiting on something to cook. Our last family gathering was camping in Presqu'ile Provincial Park in Ontario. Of course we made an assortment of delicious things, grilled vegetables, pizza, all over an open fire. It was so much fun. 

One thing I have learned from Olivia is how she layers food with protein filled treats. There is one of her pantry staples she calls “crispy bits” which is an assortment of spice, seeds and nuts that she sprinkles on top of everything. Grilled vegetables, topped with crispy bits, stir fry topped with crispy bits, salad topped with crispy bits….I became addicted to it and also sprinkle on basically everything like salads, grilled chicken, steak. It’s so good. I think it makes a simple food which comprises most of our daily meals a little bit special.

Having these “toppings” creates texture in a meal. For example if you are making a puree or a mashed potato, sprinkling this on top adds the opposite texture to the vegetable. You can add to it a variety of things, anything served hot or cold. I suppose you could sprinkle it on a devilled egg and it would be yummy. You can also switch out ingredients in the crispy bits like olive oil instead of butter, switch out the almonds for any other nut, add different seeds.

It's the beginning of Spring and after Easter ham, I know there will soon be asparagus, garlic scapes, and lamb. I will make up a variety of vegetables like roasted asparagus or broccoli in the oven with garlic butter, mashed parsnip and potatoes topped with the crispy bits and a really lovely fresh light green salad with lemon and olive oil dressing and….if it's not overkill, top with crispy bits. 

Liv’s Crispy Bits

Ingredients