The Speed of Life

The Most Incredible Thing I've Ever Made

2010-10-16T23:38:00.000-04:00

Of course I had some help from G with this one. :-)

Madeleine
Born October 13, 2010

She is pure and utter perfection.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First Foray Into Making Baby Clothes

2010-08-11T09:44:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've sewn anything, but since I'm expecting my first little one, I have a pretty good reason to get back into it! Also, given how hot and humid it's been lately, it was nice to spend a few hours in my cool basement craft room, rather than sweating outside.

I bought Amy Butler's book "Little Stitches for Little Ones" almost 2 years ago when my cousin was expecting her second child. The only thing I made from it was the Snuggie wrap, aka Baby Burrito which can be found in this post.

I've flipped through the book many times admiring all the cute things, and finally decided on the Comfy Baby Jumper dress pattern. I wanted to make something not too difficult, and using supplies I already had. I purchased the fabric several years ago before I really knew how to sew, and when I bought it, I only bought a metre of each, which isn't really enough to make most adult sized clothing. So it sat in my fabric box, untouched, waiting for the right use. I think it worked out rather nicely in the dress, and I can't wait to see my little girl in it. I did make the 9-12 month size, so it will be awhile before she can model it!!

Although you can't tell from the photo, the dress is fully lined. The book also has a pattern for matching bloomers, but I didn't make them as I didn't have the elastic for them. I'm not sure if I will since my local fabric store closed down. Perhaps I'll make some matching booties instead!

Monster tomato

2010-08-08T15:29:00.000-04:00

We picked the giant today! It weighed in at over a pound, and I took it's picture next to a loonie for reference.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First Harvest

2010-08-05T16:48:00.002-04:00

I'm so pleased and excited to show you my first garden harvest of the season, not including herbs of course. Today we picked some baby beets, new potatoes, a pie pumpkin and bush champion tomatoes!! Looking forward to eating them for dinner tonight!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Low Fat Blueberry Zucchini Bread

2010-07-15T11:09:00.001-04:00

What, that title didn't grab you? I know a lot of times when we hear "low-fat" in reference to a baked good, many of us automatically envision dry, tasteless, dense products that aren't worth the calories, however low-fat they may be.

This one however, is different.

I adapted a recipe found on Allrecipes.com, and will provide my adaptation here:

Low Fat Blueberry Zucchini Bread
(Yields 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain nonfat yogourt
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
2/3 cups fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift together flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, baking powder.
3. Beat eggs. Add and mix well sugar, vanilla, and oil yogourt. Add zucchini to egg mixture. Add dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in blueberries. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in centre of loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

The resulting loaf was moist and delicious, with the right amount of sweetness for my tastes. It baked up perfectly, though due to the size of the pan I used, I had to bake it a little longer than the original recipe states.

I think this is my new favourite way to eat zucchini! I might just have to make a second loaf, as the first one is almost gone!

Fabric Flower Bib Necklace - 1st Attempt

2010-07-14T14:12:00.000-04:00

While out shopping with some friends recently, we visited a shop in Port Credit that specialized in beautiful and original handmade pieces of clothing, jewelry and accessories. One of the things we all loved was a bib necklace, embellished with fabric flowers. When we turned it over and saw the price tag, our jaws dropped. They wanted over $100 for a necklace that consisted of fabric and ribbon? Then a lightbulb went off, I thought I remembered seeing a tutorial online for creating similar necklaces, so I vowed to find it again, in hopes we would be able to recreate a reasonable facsimile.

Turns out this takes a bit of practice.

I followed the instructions on Mandy's blog, found here. She is obviously a very talented person.

While my first attempt was alright, it certainly is not worthy of being sold in a garage sale, let alone a trendy boutique! I had issues making the flowers - I was getting glue everywhere, and they ended up looking messier than I would have liked. It probably didn't help that I did this late at night when I was really tired, so I'll have another go at it and hopefully achieve some better results.

Anyways, without further ado, here is my necklace.

I apologize for photo quality, I can't seem to hold a camera steady to save my life these days! I realize you can't make out any of the detail in the black flowers - I bet you didn't even know there are small black beads on the necklace either! At least you get the general idea.

Lemme know what you think!

Sometimes You Just Need a Cupcake

2010-05-04T12:58:00.000-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy, so last weekend I decided to take measures to add calm and comfort back in to my life. The obvious answer here was cupcakes!

I made a simple vanilla cupcake, with decadently rich chocolate frosting.

Best of all, we have been showing restraint, so there are still some left! I think a cupcake will make a most excellent afternoon pick me up!

Peanut Butter Marshmallow Brownies

2010-04-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, so I decided I'd tease you with a picture of some delicious treats I baked up a few weeks ago - Peanut Butter Marshmallow Brownies! I decided to only make half a batch, which was probably a smart move since they were inhaled rather quickly!

Stay tuned..more to come!

Ch-ch-changes!

2010-01-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

The Speed of Life has had a makeover!

In addition to getting a brand new look, I have also merged my other blog, Follow T, with this one. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Follow T was a place where I posted pictures taken when I was out and about, be it on my travels, or just around the area where I lived, whenever I saw something interesting I felt like sharing. For ease of blog management, I decided to merge the two. All posts originating from Follow T have been appropriately tagged with 'followt'.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the new format! :-)

Store name fail

2010-01-31T18:55:00.001-05:00

Cornish Pasties

2010-01-30T12:00:00.005-05:00

Finally!

Some of you may know that I have been wanting to make pasties for awhile. I first tried them in the UK, where they originate and are very popular. For those of you who don't know what they are, basically they are handheld meat pies. I have had them made with shortcrust pastry and also with puff pastry, and with a variety of different fillings - beef, cheese & onion, curried mince, etc. I put off making pasties for 2 reasons: because they seemed daunting, and because I never had a recipe that I knew was good. Crappy pasties are pretty disappointing!

I finally decided to tackle pasties, and figured I would go with the traditional Cornish Pasty - a flaky shortcrust pastry filled with beef, potatoes, swedes and onions. I used and recommend the recipe I found on About.com. They also have a video demonstrating how to assemble them.

From Wikipedia:

The origins of the pasty are largely unknown, although it is generally accepted that the modern form of the pasty originated in Cornwall. Tradition claims that the pasty was originally made as lunch ('croust' or 'crib' in the Cornish language) for Cornish tin miners who were unable to return to the surface to eat. The story goes that, covered in dirt from head to foot (including some arsenic often found with tin), they could hold the pasty by the folded crust and eat the rest without touching it, discarding the dirty pastry.

The recipe I linked to above, makes 2 large pasties. They were actually a lot easier to make than I had anticipated. I really lucked out with the pastry - mine turned out very nice and flaky. I did make a few small changes to the original recipe. My adaptation is below:

Cornish Pasties

Ingredients:

For the Pastry
4 oz/110g all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2oz/ 55g vegetable shortening
2-3 tbsp cold water

For the Filling
¼ cup/50g onion, finely diced
½ cup /110g potato, diced
¼ cup/50g swede (aka turnip or rutabaga), diced
4oz /110g rump steak, cut into small cubes
Salt and pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preparation:
Makes 2 pasties
Pre-heat oven to 425 °F

First make the shortcrust pastry. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl. Rub the shortening into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm. Add the water to the mixture and using a cold knife stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry, Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.

Divide the pastry into 2 and roll each piece into rounds the size of a tea plate (approx 6 - 7 inches).

Place the onion, potato, swede and meat into a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Season well with salt and pepper. Divide the meat mixture between each pastry circle. Brush the edges with a little beaten egg. Draw up the edges of the pastry into a line above the center of the filling. Crimp the top edge ensuring the seal is tight. Brush each pasty all over with the remaining beaten egg.

Place the pasties on a greased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

We had a hard time waiting for them to cool, but I felt we should eat them warm. To distract us, we took the dog for a walk. Coming back into the house was like walking into a British bake shop. I snapped a few pictures, and then we dug in.

Absolutely delicious! I'm glad I finally decided to make Cornish Pasties and the recipe I chose was definitely a keeper!

DB January 2010: Gluten-Free Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-27T06:03:00.002-05:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Nanaimo Bars!!! YUM! When I found out about the January challenge, I thought it was very fitting to have a Canadian recipe featured just in time for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver in February. My heart started to swell with national pride. Since that I try to be a good Canadian, I actually made Nanaimo bars fairly recently, on Christmas Day in fact. It turned out that I had even used the exact same (official) Nanaimo Bar recipe so I knew this one would be tasty, and easy to make. The challenge for me this month was the twist - to make homemade graham crackers to use in the Nanaimo bar base, and gluten-free at that! Now this was a challenge I was up so ready for, I tackled it the first week of January.

Now gluten-free flours are not something I typically stock in my pantry, so I went over to Ambrosia to pick up the ingredients. Of course by the time I left, I had purchased a lot more than was originally intended, but that is par for the course when going to Ambrosia. They had everything I needed so as soon as I got home, I made the graham cracker dough. It came together easily, but since it was already 11pm, I wrapped it and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day I got to work on the graham crackers. I let the dough come to room temperature to make rolling easier, and I found I frequently had to flour the rolling pin and surface as was described in the recipe. I used a cookie cutter to cut round grahams, and because they were smaller, the baking time was shortened. I must say, they were delicious - they baked up nice and crispy and tasted better than their store-bought counterparts.

Gluten-Free Graham Crackers:

As they cooled, I ended up having to go out, so the Nanaimo Bars had to wait until the following day. Because I had made them before, they came together quite easily. When it came to making the custard frosting layer, I decided to flavour it with a little bit of peppermint extract and tinted it green with some food colouring to change up from the bars I had made only weeks ago. It ended up being a very tasty result. Nanaimo bars are known for being quite rich, so I usually cut them into very small squares. I had a couple and the rest were packaged up and given to friends. From what I heard, they were enjoyed by all.

Mint Nanaimo Bars:

Thanks to Lauren for a great challenge! This is making me look forward to the upcoming Winter Olympics. Go Team Canada!

Pizza night..again

2010-01-23T18:15:00.001-05:00

Veggie-garlic-goat cheese in the front and curried chicken & potato in
the back.

Clementine Almond Cake with Chocolate Ganache

2010-01-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

My mom asked me if I would bake her a dessert for a dinner party she was hosting, and of course I gladly said yes. There was just one catch - the dessert had to be gluten free as well as dairy free. I immediately thought of a recipe for Clementine Almond Cake that I had made once before, which I already knew was delicious. The recipe is by Nigella Lawson and though it is a bit time consuming, it is well worth the effort.

The cake itself is moist and rich, but it's appearance is a little plain. Since this was going to be for a dinner party, I thought I better try to make it look a little special, so I decided to coat it with a chocolate ganache. I think its universally known that chocolate is an excellent match with both almonds and oranges.

Now, I've never actually made a chocolate ganache before, but I knew they primarily consisted of chocolate, heavy cream, and perhaps a little butter for extra shine. Since I needed a dairy-free ganache, I had to make a few substitutions. Here is what I came up with:

Dairy-Free Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

300 grams dark chocolate, chopped finely (I used Lindt)
3/4 cup plain soy milk
1 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Directions:

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heat resistant bowl. Heat the soy milk and shortening in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling soy milk mixture over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. Allow ganache to cool to about 85F - 95F and then pour over the cooled cake. Apply ganache to the sides with a spatula.

Since the cake was only a single layer, I had extra ganache leftover. I couldn't let it go to waste, so I put it in the bowl of my stand mixer, attached the wire whisk, and beat it for several minutes until it lightened in colour and resembled a chocolate frosting. After that I chilled the chocolate in the fridge for a little while, then formed it into balls, and rolled into cocoa powder.

I present to you Dairy Free Chocolate Truffles:

These truffles truly are decadent, you don't even miss the dairy!

South St Burger Co

2010-01-22T19:37:00.001-05:00

Cheeseburger craving has been satisfied...for now.

This Cake is Bananas

2010-01-18T22:05:00.004-05:00

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Do you have a Gwen Stefani song in your head now? You're welcome.

Whenever I buy bananas, it seems we cannot eat them all in time before they get too ripe to eat. I think I have to start buying them in pairs rather than bunches, that might be the only way this scenario does not occur. An abundance of overripe bananas eventually leads to a freezer full of bananas. These frozen bananas dream of one day being released from their ice prison to be reincarnated as tasty baked goods, usually some kind of banana bread. This time however, I decided instead of freezing my overripes, I would bake them up right away since the ice prison was at capacity. Ok before this talk of frozen bananas and prison starts taking a turn for the worse, I will just talk about the baked goods.

I made a banana cake! Actually, this recipe is for a "banana snack cake" with chocolate chips that is intended to be baked in a sheet pan, cut into squares and eaten plain. Since I had baked this very version just two days before, (I told you I had a lot of bananas) I thought I would gussy it up a bit. I omitted the chocolate chips. I must have had a moment of insanity, not sure why I did that. I made up for it by adding frosting, copious amounts of chocolate frosting. Oh, and I baked the cake into rounds and even practiced my piping techniques.

Et voilà:

Hey it kind of looks a bit like pac-man!

Oh, and one more thing...

This cake is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!!

Milk Pan Bread

2010-01-18T21:43:00.003-05:00

I like to bake bread. All kinds of bread.

I also like my cast iron pan. I REALLY like it. A lot. In fact, it lives out on the kitchen stove so that it will never be overlooked, and is usually the first choice when I'm doing some cooking. It even comes camping with me. I'm surprised I haven't nicknamed it as I have nicknamed my beloved KitchenAid stand mixer. Her name is Shelby in case you were wondering. I'm getting carried away now. My point is, I wanted bake some kind of a yeast bread in my cast iron pan, rather than the ever popular cornbread that seems to be traditional.

I just wanted to make something really simple (read: white bread *gasp*), so I chose the "Milk Bread" recipe from the Joy of Cooking since the description stated it would be great for forming into rolls. Shelby made the dough which was a cinch with the dough hook and after the first rise, I formed the dough into little balls and then they rose for a second time. After that I brushed the tops with melted butter and into the oven they went. They emerged soft, fluffy and slightly sweet. In my pan below, you can see eight buns, but there were actually a dozen - I baked the rest in a separate pan and sprinkled on a bit of garlic and salt as a test.

The rolls turned out very well, nice and tender and were even delicious for sandwiches the next day. The plain ones were preferred, but it would be interesting to play around with the flavours. Then again, if it ain't broke, why fix it? I'll definitely be making this milk bread again, but will try a standard loaf because I know I want to make grilled cheese sandwiches with it, and maybe french toast.

So what should I name my cast iron pan? Leave me a comment and give me some suggestions. :-)

Happy Baking!

Beer sampling

2010-01-09T18:37:00.001-05:00

At West 50 pourhouse

Pizza night

2010-01-03T18:59:00.001-05:00

First homemade pizza of the year:
Garlic crust, tomato sauce, roasted chicken with pesto, onions,
artichoke hearts, mozzarella, and grana podano. It was delicious!

Crappy Tire Critter

2009-12-30T00:41:00.001-05:00

This is the second time I saw a mouse at Canadian Tire. This poor
little guy seemed kinda deformed. Perhaps the result of living under a
shelf full of chemicals.

Backyard skating

2009-12-30T00:38:00.001-05:00

Our friends built a skating rink in their backyard. It was totally
AWESOME.

I scored!

Recycled Denim Wine Bags

2009-12-28T16:55:00.000-05:00

Gift wrapping has been all wrapped up (ha!) for the year, so finally my craft room could be used for making crafts again. I just wanted to do a couple of quick projects while I got caught up on a few podcasts, so I chose to make some wine bags.

If you have been following my blog, you've probably seen me post about these before. Usually I make them out of scrap fabric and remnants from other projects, but today I decided to try something different by recycling some old jeans.

I pretty much stuck to the same pattern as before, except I used fabric that was cut from the leg and back pocket from a pair of old jeans. The addition of a pocket on the wine bag makes a cute place to stash a small card or even a corkscrew.

Chocolate Caramel Hazelnut Tart

2009-12-28T16:36:00.004-05:00

Recently, my parents gave me a new cookbook specifically geared towards baking called "The Art and Soul of Baking" by Cindy Mushet. After spending some time perusing the book and drooling over the many delicious looking and sounding baked goods, there was one thing that jumped out at me and begged to be made first: the Baci tart.

Inspired by a chocolate confection of the same name, Baci tart consists of a combination of some of my family's favourite things, chocolate, hazelnuts and caramel. I decided this would be made and served for Christmas dinner.

I really enjoyed making it. It wasn't very difficult, but looks and tastes like it was. I served it with a dollop of vanilla whipped cream. It was absolutely delicious!

DB December 2009: Gingerbread House!

2009-12-23T07:39:00.002-05:00

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

A Gingerbread house!! Woohoo, what fun! I was certainly pleased to hear this month's challenge was a gingerbread house, and not a fruit cake! Who doesn't like gingerbread houses? I have had some gingerbread house experience in the past - I have decorated them, and I have baked gingerbread cookies, but never have I made gingerbread building materials and assembled them into a house, then decorated, all from scratch. This was a challenge I was definitely up for.

This month we were given the choice of two recipes to follow, I chose Y's recipe because it contained a lot of spices, which I ground up fresh in my relegated-to-spices coffee grinder. The dough was pretty straightforward to put together, but after reading comments in the DB forums, I decided to add my flour gradually until it was the consistency I wanted, rather than have it too dry to work with. I think I ended up just shy of the measurements the recipe called for. This recipe did not call for molasses, but for some reason I think all gingerbread should have molasses, so I substituted some of the sugar in it for molasses. Then I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge..for a week.

When I finally found time to roll out and bake the dough I was a bit worried that it might not be so great after been sitting in the fridge and potentially absorbing garlicy leftover smells. It was double-wrapped, so I decided to risk it. I took it out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter so it could get to room temperature, and in the meantime, worked on the blueprints. Since it was pretty early in the morning, I wasn't really in the mood to perform any complex mathematical calculations, so I ended up using the pattern from the Joy of Cooking. I cut out my shapes from cardboard and then rolled out the dough onto parchment paper, and traced the shapes. It was pretty simple, and I am keeping the cardboard shapes for future gingerbread houses to come. My gingerbread baked nicely, it didn't crack or shrink or puff up too much. I didn't even trim it after, I just left it to cool, then stored the pieces in big ziploc bags. With the gingerbread scraps, I made a few cutout cookies which were delicious!

Decorating happened a few days later. I took my time with this, and actually quite enjoyed it. I was a bit concerned that the house would collapse, but the royal icing I used was like cement - once it dried, it wasn't going anywhere! I got an assortment of festive candies from my local bulk store and got to work. I kept the decor pretty traditional, using a red/white/green colour scheme and the typical wintery motif of snow, icicles, sled, christmas tree and snowman.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed making it. However, a lot of work and time went into it, so I definitely thing doing it over a series of days was the right way to go. I don't think it would have been as much fun if I did it all in one day!

Thanks to Y and Anna for the challenge and Happy Holidays to all! :-)

Jenolan caves

2009-12-03T04:45:00.001-05:00

Blue Mountains

2009-12-03T04:43:00.001-05:00

Three sisters etc.

Billabong wildlife centre

2009-12-03T04:42:00.001-05:00

Fed kangaroos, petted koalas and dingos too!

Port Macquarie

2009-12-03T04:39:00.001-05:00

Hunter Valley wine region

2009-11-29T17:03:00.001-05:00

We went to Pooles Rock and Rosemount/Lindemans

Sydney's best fish & chips

2009-11-26T22:08:00.001-05:00

From Doyle's at Watsons Bay!

Mind the Gap

2009-11-26T22:06:00.001-05:00

An ocean cliff with a nice view, The Gap is also a popular suicide
location according to wikipedia. Interesting.

Manly Beach

2009-11-25T22:44:00.001-05:00

Almost empty at 10:30am, was packed when I left a couple hours later

Bamboozled

2009-11-24T06:07:00.001-05:00

Graffitid bamboo in various colours at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Fireworks

2009-11-24T06:05:00.001-05:00

In celebration of the grand finale of Australian Idol, as seen from
hotel.

Pop tree

2009-11-22T01:12:00.001-05:00

Definately a "green" Christmas tree!

Paddy's Market

2009-11-22T01:10:00.001-05:00

Bought some oranges and bananas.

Sydney eats

2009-11-22T01:09:00.001-05:00

A giant German hot dog and the famed Harry's Cafe de Wheels where we
enjoyed curry pies.

Room with a View

2009-11-21T17:14:00.001-05:00

Hmm, guess where I am?

Holiday Cards

2009-11-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

Usually I buy my holiday cards from Costco, but this year I wasn't overly impressed with the selection at my local store so I decided I would attempt to make my own. I have a stockpile of scrapbooking supplies that have been collecting dust for awhile as well as some blank cards that I can't even remember buying. I went to Michael's and picked up some stamps and ink pads, and then got to work in my craft room.

Wow, my first few cards turned out like crap! I guess I was expecting them to look nice right away, but I was sadly mistaken. It took a couple of hours to make an ugly card??!! I was beginning to rethink my decision to make cards. The next day I decided to seek some inspiration online to get the creative juices flowing. I guess that was all I needed because the next day, cardmaking was easier, quicker, and most importantly, I was having some decent results.

In total I have made about 35 cards, each one of them unique. Here is a sample of some of them, so if you are on my holiday mailing list, you can look forward to receiving something similar.

For the crafty readers - the paper used for this project was double-sided scrapbook paper by K&Company, patterns designed by Amy Butler. Products found online here.

I've also printed some new return address labels, so I just need stamps and an evening with a glass of wine to write the cards and address the envelopes, and they will be ready to send! I have already got a good chunk of gift-buying completed now as well. I am so on the ball this year!

If you send cards to your friends and family at the holiday season, do you buy them or make your own? Leave a comment and let me know!

St Lawrence market

2009-11-07T14:43:00.001-05:00

Just a quick visit, got some Portuguese chicken sandwiches and a new
hat!

Mmm cupcakes

2009-11-07T13:32:00.001-05:00

Too full of empanadas to try them though!

Shopping in Kensington Market

2009-11-07T13:27:00.001-05:00

Daring Bakers October Challenge: French Macarons!

2009-10-27T06:27:00.000-04:00

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I have been aware of the macaron craze for a few years now, but did not actually want to make them until I had tasted them at a swanky brunch I attended, and found out for myself just how tasty these little things could be. I was both excited, and slightly intimidated to find out that macarons would be the challenge for October.

Nevertheless, I decided that this month I would start the challenge early, just in case I had to do repeat attempts in order to get it right. I went out and got the ingredients at the beginning of the month, and attempted batch #1 very soon after that.

That's right, I said attempt #1! It was a complete flop! I followed the recipe to a T (or so I thought), except that I only made a half batch as I was anticipating minor disaster. As I went along, I thought everything was going just fine, but during the baking stage was when I found out something was not quite right. My macarons were flat, and bubbly, and getting too brown before the baking was complete. I was so disappointed that I could not bring myself to take a picture. Of course I wasn't so disappointed that I couldn't taste them, so taste them I did. Not surprisingly, given the ingredients, they were very good even if the texture and appearance were all wrong.

Oh well, not to be discouraged I decided to check the daring bakers forums to see if anybody else had the same issue as I had. I found that I was not alone, and other bakers were reporting similar results. Luckily, many of the bakers were also providing tips and tricks in order to succeed.

The following week, I decided to attempt batch #2, with new found macaron knowledge under my belt. This time, I was feeling pretty confident that I would succeed. I decided to try a different recipe by Helen of Tartelette, and employ a few of the techniques I learned in the DB forum. I aged my egg whites for three days. I ground the almonds even finer in a food processor with some icing sugar. I was a little less gentle when folding the batter, and I counted my strokes. I let the macarons rest for half an hour after piping onto the cookie sheets. I stacked my baking trays so the macarons would bake more evenly. I used the trick of adding a few drops of water under the parchment paper so they would not stick when I tried to remove them.

"I HAVE FEET!!" is not something I have ever yelled before, but found myself doing exactly that as I watched in amazement, as they magically appeared in the oven. Of course, this sent G running to the kitchen to see what the fuss was about, and when I explained he insisted I take pictures while they were baking, since I was a little concerned they might deflate upon removal from the oven. I'm happy to say they didn't deflate, so I don't have to show anybody the in-oven pictures - the oven window is embarrassingly dirty!

Check out my feet!!!

I was absolutely stoked to see that they had baked properly and produced the desired foot that is so sought after. Patiently, I waited for them to cool before attempting to fill them, and when they were ready, I took the easy route and filled some of them with Dulce de Leche and the rest with Nutella.

Seriously, these are absolutely delicious, and now I know why bakeries sell them for $3+ a piece. The outside is crisp, and the inside is soft and they just melt in your mouth. Absolutely lovely! I think I'll definitely have to try making them again, and possibly even play around with the flavour, though you really can't go wrong with the plain almond version.

Thank you to all the Daring Bakers who helped me get over the macaron hurdle!

Presqu'ile point lighthouse

2009-10-11T16:28:00.001-04:00

Camping @ Presqu'ile provincial park

2009-10-10T12:08:00.001-04:00

Doggy chair and camp kitchen

Camping stereo system

2009-10-10T12:04:00.001-04:00

I can can

2009-09-27T11:56:00.001-04:00

Peaches & pickled beets

Weekend Project: Dry food storage shelving

2009-09-26T13:58:00.003-04:00

Last week I was lucky enough to become the proud new owner with almost four dozen old canning jars in an assortment of shapes and sizes. My neighbour found them when she was cleaning out her father in law's house, and thought I might like to have them, since she knows I like to can. I was thrilled when she gave them to me, and immediately brought them home to inspect. Some of the jars were dated, and some of them were marked as old as 1943 which I thought was pretty neat!

I washed them all in the dishwasher, scrubbed the zinc lids with a bit of lemon to brighten them up and purchased new lids and washers for those that were missing them. I immediately knew that I did not want to use some of the jars for canning, because that means that usually they will end up as gifts. Already growing quite fond of the old ones, I couldn't let them leave so soon. Instead, I decided to use them to store dry goods, which up until now have been stored in boxes, bags, and plastic containers in a very unorganized manner in my kitchen cabinets. I also knew, I did not want to hide them back in the cabinets, so I painted some old shelves in white, to match the kitchen cabinets and my very lovely husband hung them up for me this morning.

The jars were filled and labeled, and arranged on the shelves. I love that everything is now easy to find, and also easy to see when I need to restock. Also, now that everything is clearly labeled, G has no excuse when I ask him to get me cake flour, and he brings three other kinds first. ;-)

The kitchen has also been given a good scrub, and I'm now ready to get cooking! There are still a bunch of jars left, so maybe I should go find something to can.

BTW - the weird brown thing on the bottom shelf is actually an intercom/radio system for the house that is older than I am. Rather than remove it (since the radio still works), we decided to try to hide it behind some jars that are obviously not tall enough. :-) Eventually it will be removed completely when we remodel the kitchen. Until then, I will just pretend that my dried beans are singing to me while I cook!

Ginger cookies

2009-09-21T19:56:00.001-04:00

Freshly baked!

Flower Hair Pin

2009-09-15T16:26:00.002-04:00

Ok, let me just be clear here, I did not come up with this idea all by myself. I saw some similar flower hair pins when I was browsing on Etsy and thought I might be able to come up with a similar version of it, since I seem to have an abundance of scrap fabric and beads leftover from my jewelery-making days.

This was a very quick and easy project, and the result was pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Of course I didn't have the foresight to take step by step photos, but it was easy enough that a description should suffice. First, pick your fabric. If you want to do the curled edges, you'll need something like polyester that you can melt with a lighter. If you are accident-prone and risk burning your house down, you might want stick to a fabric that is the non-melting variety. I assume no responsibility, so proceed at your own risk! Assuming you did choose polyester, trace and cut several circles using different household objects, and then quickly run the edge of the fabric close to a flame to get the edge to curl being careful not to let it catch on fire. When you have finished curling all the edges, stack the circles from large to small to create your flower. I had 5 circles, but you can do however many you like. Using a needle and thread, make a stitch from the back of the stack and then stitch each bead on separately. You can use one, or a cluster of beads. When they are all fastened, tie at the back and then make a few stitches around the bent end of the bobby pin, to hold it in place. To secure the bobby pin, use a dab of crazy glue and let it dry thoroughly before wearing in your hair!

If you'd rather use it as a brooch or to pin onto a purse or something, skip the bobby pin part, and just use a safety pin. Lots of possibilities here, have fun!

Late Summer Apple Cake

2009-09-06T16:19:00.003-04:00

It's Labour Day weekend, the last long weekend of the summer. Rather than spend this weekend camping, like we normally would, G and I decided to stay home and do a couple of day trips on our motorcycles, and work on putting some more kilometers on my clock as my bike is still in the break-in period.

Yesterday's trip had an agro-tourism spin to it. We visited an old water powered grist mill to devour a few freshly made cider donuts. We also visited a Buffalo ranch where we were able to have a chat with the farmer and watch him feed the animals. And the reason for this post today - we went apple picking! Given that we went to the orchard on bikes, we had to prepare in advance. G attached his luggage to his bike and I used my tank bag, and away we went. We happened to arrive at the orchard on the first day of picking, so there were 2 kinds of apples ready to be picked: Paula Red, and Silken. We did also manage to sneak in a few Cortland and McIntosh varieties, despite the fact they weren't quite ready. In total, we picked a half bushel, which were split into 2 bags so that we could distribute the weight evenly in G's bike luggage. Initially we were only going to pick half that amount, but we were having so much fun that we got a little carried away.

1/2 Bushel is a lot of apples for 2 people. I made a couple of mini apple pies for dessert last night, and this morning I nuked some sliced apples with cinnamon and sugar for breakfast. I decided to get out my copy Joy of Cooking to see what kind of apple recipes might entice me, and was immediately drawn to Apple Cake Cockaigne. This is actually more of a tart then a cake, and the apples are definitely the star of the show. The cake batter is more of a stiff dough, and makes a thin layer at the bottom. On top of that is a neatly arranged fan of apple slices, followed by a brown sugar, butter and cinnamon topping. The cake is then baked for 25 minutes and served warm. My mom stopped by this morning and she got to have the first piece, along with a bag of apples to take to the cottage. She and I both agreed that the apple cake was absolutely delicious. It made for a fantastic second breakfast with my second cup of coffee and will be equally delicious served with vanilla ice cream for dessert tonight too.

....if there is any left by then!

I have some more apple plans in the works, apple crumble/crisp, and maybe apple fritters too. What are your favourite apple recipes?

Where the buffalo roam

2009-09-05T15:35:00.001-04:00

Went to a Buffalo ranch, but there won't be meat available until
December. Had a nice chat with the farmer and got to go to the corral
and watch him feed the animals!

Apple picking

2009-09-05T14:10:00.001-04:00

We picked a mix - Paula red, Macintosh, silken, courtland. Being on a
bike, we were limited to one bag!

Tyrone Mills

2009-09-05T13:18:00.001-04:00

One of Canadas oldest water powered grist mills, still in operation -
producing cider, lumber and flour. We sampled some delicious hot &
fresh cider donuts that disappeared before I could take a picture!

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Dobos Torte!

2009-08-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Wow. Was this ever delicious! I feel the need to tell you that right of the bat, before I get into the details. It was so good. Everybody who had a piece (or two) agreed! This was a great recipe, one that I'm sure will be made again and again.

When I heard that this month's challenge was to make a Dobos torte, I was very excited. Growing up, my mom would buy Dobos from a local bakery, and I loved splitting the layers apart with a fork and eating it layer by layer. I'm a fan of frostings and icings, so the fact that this has a lot of it is a big plus in my book. When I saw the recipe, I realized that the Dobos I had been eating all these years was not quite the classic version..it was missing the caramel/toffee pieces on top, and instead, coated with a firm chocolate ganache. Intrigued by the caramel, I looked forward to the challenge.

I used the recipe as provided, because I love the traditional flavour of the chocolate buttercream and sponge combination. I made the sponge cake first, which was a first for me. It came together well and baked amazingly quickly. Using a measuring cup to scoop out the batter ensured that my layers were fairly even in terms of thickness, but I did end up with 7 layers instead of 6. My secret to trimming them was to use a pot lid with a handle, which i cut around while holding firmly in place. This worked out really well and was a great solution to not having an 8" springform to trace.

The buttercream came together nicely, albeit a little slow as I had to wait for the melted chocolate mixture to cool before I could I could whip the butter in. After licking the beaters, I knew it was well worth the wait. As for the caramel, well, I will agree with the recipe author, this is indeed the trickiest part. Despite oiling and re-oiling the knife, I still had a bit of difficulty cutting the warm, not quite set caramel, so in the end I had a few cracks that shouldn't have been there. My solution to disguise the imperfections was to drizzle some chocolate over the caramel pieces, and I think it worked out nicely.

Assembling the torte was probably my favourite part. Spreading the buttercream was somehow therapeutic, probably because it spread so easily and didn't make a crumby mess of the cake layers. I used chopped hazelnuts on the outside of the torte, which was a perfect match. It almost tasted like nutella when combined with the chocolate.

The only bad thing about this, is that I have no leftovers! Looking at the pictures again definitely makes me want to have a slice. Next time when I make this (and there will be a next time) I think I would like to try making individual small cakes, and also play with the caramel a bit, making sugar decorations without using the sponge as a base.

Thank you Daring Bakers for another delicious challenge!

Life's ruff

2009-08-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Handy way to show size

2009-08-18T11:18:00.001-04:00

One gallon milk yielded about one pound mozzarella.

Mozzarella making

2009-08-17T23:10:00.001-04:00

First attempt appears to be a success. Haven't tasted it yet though -
will find out tomorrow. Ricotta to be made from leftover whey soon!

Colourful carrots

2009-08-05T17:26:00.001-04:00

From the Canal Rd farmers market in Bradford - waiting to be roasted.

Camo fail

2009-08-04T18:40:00.001-04:00

You'll never be spotted in this!

Proctor & gamble warehouse sale

2009-08-04T17:11:00.001-04:00

The biggest one yet - email me if you want the address.

Daring Bakers July Challenge: Milano Cookies!

2009-07-27T07:52:00.000-04:00

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

This month's challenge actually had two recipes, as mentioned above. We could make any one of them or both. Because I have a bit of prior marshmallow experience, I decided to skip the Marshmallow cookies, and just make the Milanos, which I had never made, or even eaten before.

I am familiar with the Pepperidge Farm version you find at the supermarket, but to be honest, store-bought cookies are not often stocked in my kitchen, due to the alarmingly short shelf-life they seem to have. And by that, I mean they don't last long on the shelf, and quickly find their crumby little selves in the dark depths of our cookie-loving stomachs. :-)

This month, I was pretty good about not leaving the baking to the last minute. I did manage to find some time mid-month, on a day that I spend lazing around the house for the most part. I found this recipe to be fairly straight-forward, however it did take awhile before the final cookies were ready for tasting. The batter came together quickly, and I was excited to use a piping bag to create the cookies. The excitement didn't last long, however, when I realized after the first two pans of cookies were done, and it looked like there were still millions to go. At that point, I decided to email a fellow Daring Baker to warn him about the high yield, but it turned out I was too late, and he had already come to that same realization himself!

After what seemed like eleventy-seven baking pans later, the cookies were done! I tasted one, and thought it tasted a bit like a fortune cookie. Is this how they are supposed to taste? I should note that I stuck to the recipe - not knowing what to expect I figured it would be safest not to tweak it at all. With the universal truth that Chocolate Makes Everything Better in the back of my mind, I decided to press on and make the ganache. This is when I noticed that I did not have any oranges, whose rinds were called for in the ganache recipe. Oh well. Can't really go wrong with chocolate and cream right? This part came together much quicker, and I was back on track to enjoying myself, as I started sandwiching the cookies together. Luckily, my piping skills paid off here, since I was able to find cookie pairs that were of similar shape & size quite easily.

Now for the final taste test. The chocolate certainly made them taste better, but while I would say they were good, they weren't earth shatteringly so. I thought that the result wasn't worth the effort, and won't be adding this recipe to my recipe box. The fact that there is a tin full of cookies untouched on the kitchen table is a pretty good indicator that this isn't a winning recipe in my house. Overall, I still enjoyed the challenge and trying something new. I am certainly looking forward to see what's in store for next month's challenge!

Lazy dog

2009-07-26T16:41:00.001-04:00

Must take after her parents.

Finally found

2009-07-26T14:48:00.001-04:00

PB&J flavoured m&ms!

Playing with Polyvore

2009-07-24T15:40:00.004-04:00

For those of you who are not aware, Polyvore is a cool website where you can create outfits/sets/collaborations from images found online. I would call it"virtual fashion scrapbooking". It's free to use, and a fun way to get inspired for new outfits as fall approaches. The editor is straightforward and simple to use. Here are a couple that I came up with:

Is this Love by tikitonic featuring American Eagle Outfitters

Step into Fall by tikitonic featuring Forever21

Scallion Pancakes

2009-07-21T19:36:00.003-04:00

On the occasions when I do make it into the office on the same days as my colleagues, I can usually persuade a couple of them to join me for lunch in one of the neighbouring restaurants. A Chinese place we have been to a few times serves the most delicious Scallion pancakes that we only ordered one day when we saw some people at another table devouring. They looked so tasty, we had to try them too. They were delicious, and it has been awhile since I have had them.

I came across this recipe awhile ago, and bookmarked it, knowing that I would have to try it sometime. Today turned out to be that day! The recipe from Appetite from China included great step-by-step instructions, complete with photos. Mine worked out pretty much the same as that, except that I had to use a bit more flour then the recipe called for. I ended up with 18 small pancakes.

They were delicious when warm. Flaky, and savoury and studded with mild scallion flavour. I actually only cooked a few of them to try - the rest I placed between sheets of waxed paper, and popped them into a resealable bag and froze them to use at a later date.

I served the scallion pancakes with a simple ginger dipping sauce:

1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

This recipe makes a great substitute for those days I just don't make it to the office, especially when they are waiting for me in the freezer!

Baby Burrito

2009-07-15T09:07:00.003-04:00

I have been waiting for a certain baby to make his appearance into the world before I posted this. I am happy to say, he is a beautiful and healthy little boy, and his proud parents are both doing very well too!

I wanted to give the parents a gift that was was useful and unique, and I also thought it would be fun to give them something handmade, created by me of course. I scoured the net (shocking, I know) in search for some interesting handmade baby gift ideas and came across some photos of something called a "Snuggie Wrap Blanket" by Amy Butler. Of course the pattern was only available in one of her books, so I ordered it and waited for its arrival. When it did arrive, I was very pleased. The book is called 'Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones" and its full of adorable projects, clothes and toys and accessories to make for baby and mommy.

The pattern was fairly simple, but I studied it first then set out to the Fabric store to get the materials I needed. I wanted to use fabric that was nice and stylish, without having to resort to typical baby prints. I chose a khaki coloured heavy cotton with a simple print for the exterior, and a soft flannel in green to coordinate. I made the size that was for 3-6 month olds, since I wasn't sure how big the baby was going to be.

I finished the Baby Burrito (I thought this was a more appropriate name) before the baby was born, so I was pretty pleased with myself. It was pretty quick to make, and there wasn't much confusion since the pattern was well-written. I did have to learn how to make proper button-holes for this, since it uses large ones for the strap. After practicing a couple of times on scrap fabric, I had it down.

Here is the finished result, complete with baby-wrapping instructions. Note that whilst very cute, my lovely model Eric has disproportionately long legs in comparison to to his torso, so this should actually fit differently on an actual baby. However, the wrapping process remains the same. Just for reference, the belt should actually tie around the baby's stomach area.

Click for larger image.

A cool breeze

2009-07-12T14:17:00.001-04:00

On the shores of Lake Ontario

Wednesday Bike Meet

2009-07-08T21:23:00.001-04:00

Apparently this was a small turnout than usual..I estimate about 60
very shiny bikes were in attendance.

Blood bath

2009-07-08T19:29:00.001-04:00

To wash your feet in!

No, I don't have a foot fetish.

Red Bull, gives you...

2009-07-08T19:26:00.001-04:00

Horns?
I have no idea what this stuff is, anybody want to guess?

Welcome home

2009-07-06T13:09:00.001-04:00

Chicken with Almond Sauce

2009-07-06T09:43:00.003-04:00

This was something I cooked a couple of weeks ago, and started to write a post, but forgot all about it until I saw it in draft status today. The recipe is from on of my Indian cookbooks that is written by Meena Pathak - you may have seen Pathak's various Indian spices and sauces available at your supermarket. (This uses none of those products, so don't worry if you haven't). Upon a quick Google search, I have found the same recipe is available online, so I'll link it here and keep the post short and sweet.

I will say that this dish is absolutely delicious, so please go and try it. Trust me, you will lick the plate clean. It's creamy and rich and bursting with flavour and spice, but pretty mild in terms of heat. It's very easy to make too! Ok, I'm drooling - I really need to make this again soon.

Ol' Red

2009-07-01T22:30:00.001-04:00

Since red seems to be the theme for today, I thought I'd share this
beauty.

High park continued

2009-07-01T22:28:00.001-04:00

Celebrated Canada Day at High Park and left seeing red...red (fire)
ants, that is. Ouch!

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T14:45:00.001-04:00

Topiary skeletons

2009-07-01T14:32:00.001-04:00

Behind the greenhouse in High Park

Camel Towing

2009-06-30T09:58:00.001-04:00

Awesome

Daring Bakers June Challenge: Bakewell Tart!

2009-06-27T09:11:00.004-04:00

*Clears throat*

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

To date, I can honestly tell you that this was the DB challenge I most looked forward to after seeing the recipe posted! I absolutely LOVE Bakewell tarts since I'm pretty fanatical about anything with almonds. A couple of years ago, I made miniature Bakewell tarts similar to the kind you might buy in a shop. They had an icing glaze on top and a Glacé cherry as well. I think those ones are called Cherry Bakewells (shocking, I know). While they were tasty, I was looking forward to making this version, in a tart pan that has not been getting the attention it deserves in my house. Poor neglected tart pan.

Anyway, back to the topic. This was actually the easiest Daring Bakers challenge to make so far, or at least I thought so. First was to make the shortcrust pastry, let it chill in the fridge, then roll it out and press into the tart pan, as I did here:

Next I spread a layer of homemade raspberry jam which I had pressed through a sieve to remove the seeds. I forgot to take a picture of that. Oops. I did pop it into the freezer for a bit to let the jam solidify a bit which helped with the next step. On top of the jam layer went the best part - the frangipane. Frangipane is an almond flavoured filling, that bakes up moist and spongey. It's divine.

After that, I popped it into the oven and after 25 minutes I sprinkled on a handful of sliced almonds and baked 5 minutes more. Here is what it looked like after coming out of the oven.

Then the waiting began. I made this tart to be served for Father's Day lunch that I was hosting. The problem was, I made it the evening before, so I had to stare at the finished tart for hours before I got to taste it. It was worth the wait, though and most of it disappeared at lunch, as everybody continued to cut off 'just a little more' from the quickly shrinking tart. Here is one such piece.

It was truly delicious and definitely lived up to all of my expectations. I can see myself making this for years to come! Thank you Daring Bakers!!

Eggsicles

2009-06-26T10:32:00.005-04:00

A local delicacy...

Ingredients:

12 eggs, still in carton

Directions:

1) Gently whack carton of eggs on kitchen counter, just enough so that a crack forms in each one, but does not completely break and make a big eggy mess. Other methods include allowing a watermelon to roll on top of eggs while taking sharp corners with groceries in trunk, or allowing carton to get a beer bottle massage as you struggle to cram more bottles in the fridge.

2) Place carton back in fridge. Yes, I said fridge - not Freezer. Using the fridge will result in a slow freeze, which allows for all the other aromas in the fridge to marry with the eggs. This is where you can get creative - chuck out those odour-abolishing boxes of Baking soda and take the covers off of last week's leftovers. Something garlicky is even better.

3) After a few hours, or overnight, your eggsicles will be ready. Crack shell on counter and peel about half of the shell off. Serve in an egg cup. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Hmmm...seems I need to add a note to say 'THIS IS JUST A JOKE'. Eggsicles, while do exist, are Barftastic. DO NOT MAKE THIS.

Best of the Best Blueberry Muffins

2009-06-25T08:51:00.003-04:00

Blueberry muffins - big deal right? I wasn't even going to post about this, but quickly changed my mind after the first bite. These are definitely post-worthy!

I stumbled upon this recipe when I was searching for a way to use up leftover buttermilk that was remaining from the recent Red Velvet adventure. If possible, I wanted to incorporate blueberries into it since I had them in abundance, but I did not want to make buttermilk pancakes. I found this recipe on one of my favourite recipe websites - Allrecipes.com and this is definitely a recipe I will be using again and again. The muffins were incredible! Soft, tender and moist, with a crusty top, similar to what you would get at a really good bakery. Probably better, even. They were also a good size, and they formed proper muffin tops when baking. Even the next day they were fantastic. I just cannot NOT share this recipe with you!

Best of the Best Blueberry Muffins

INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup unsalted butter
* 1 1/4 cups white sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs
* 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 1 pint fresh blueberries - rinsed, drained and patted dry
* 2 tablespoons white sugar (I used vanilla sugar for the muffin tops)

DIRECTIONS

1. Position rack in the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray the top of a muffin pan with non-stick coating, and line with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix together 1 3/4 cup of the flour and baking powder. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated. Crush 1/4 of the blueberries, and stir into the batter. Mix the rest of the whole blueberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of the flour, and fold into the batter. Scoop into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown, and tops spring back when lightly tapped.

Since this recipe only used up a 1/2 cup of buttermilk, I still have more waiting to be used. I'm tempted to make more muffins, but there is only so many we can eat. I'm open to suggestions - what are your favourite buttermilk recipes??

Don't need video

2009-06-24T20:51:00.001-04:00

To capture a wagging tail

The sea is closer than I thought

2009-06-24T20:46:00.001-04:00

Spotted at my local park

Ice Cream Ride

2009-06-22T21:06:00.001-04:00

To Musselman Lake! We had 13 bikes on our group ride, and it seems the ice cream place we stopped at was quite the biker hangout for street bikes and cruisers alike.

Father's Day Bbq

2009-06-21T16:11:00.001-04:00

Tandoori Chicken, Mixed veggies and Sagu Potato skewers..went with a bit of an Indian theme.

Red Velvet cake

2009-06-17T19:31:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday S!

I made this cake to celebrate S's 40th Birthday yesterday. A special occasion deserved a special cake, so I decided to try something I had never tasted before, let alone attempted to bake, a Red Velvet cake. I have read conflicting stories about its origins, but I think it was created somewhere in the Southern US..or not. I'm not really bothered by the history, I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so after watching Bobby Flay challenge the Cake Man Raven to a Red Velvet throwdown on Food network, I knew that this was something I wanted to try to make.

Despite the fact that Cake Man Raven lost the throwdown, I still thought his cake looked better. It was was ridiculously red and he really knew how to frost it to make it very attractive, and left me wondering if I could yield similar results with my spatula. Luckily his recipe was posted on his website. As it turned out, I didn't even get to test out my frosting skills on the first cake, because it turned out so horribly I could not bear to waste cream cheese and butter on what essentially equates to a red play-doh pancake. It was flat, dense, ridiculously coloured and tasted like play-doh. No way could I serve this to anybody! After a quick trip out to the supermarket to buy some more red food colouring (different brand) I set about attempting Round 2, but using a different recipe. This time I chose this recipe, and had far greater results. I decreased the amount of food colouring significantly and still managed to create a cake that was bright red. I ended up using a different icing recipe, since I still wanted to use up all the cream cheese that I had planned to use in the original recipe, so I used this recipe from the Packet and the Pantry blog. I really think that was a smart decision. I don't even like cream cheese icing, but somehow, red velvet needs it. It's a great combo!

I'm pretty pleased with the end results, and am happy that I can now say I've made Red Velvet cake, but I'm not in any rush to make it again. I prefer my cakes to be chocolatey, and perhaps not so artificially coloured. That being said, this would be a great cake for a Canada Day party! If anybody needs some small bottles of Green, Yellow or Blue food colouring, let me know since I now have them in abundance. :-)

Altoids Power!

2009-06-17T10:35:00.005-04:00

Well, haven't had a non-food related post in awhile. Granted, it's origins are somewhat edible in nature. I have been hanging onto this empty Altoids tin since March, knowing there must be something I can do with it, aside from storing small objects in. I thought about making a portable survival kit, but really, that is just stuffing a bunch of things in it, and did not satisfy my geekery requirement. So, the empty tin sat in a drawer, holding unused foreign currency from past vacations around the world.

On a recent trip to Sayal, our local electronics store, I thought of my Altoids tin, while helping G find the parts for his electronic project pertaining to his motorcycle. Then I remembered seeing something on Instructables about using empty Altoids tins for making chargers for PSPs, and I decided I needed something similar for my iPhone. I checked out what kind of parts I would need then spent awhile in the store looking at all the interesting parts and adding them to the basket, only to have G advise against some of my selections in the interest of safety and actually getting it to work properly. Why can't I use the biggest green LED I could find?? Keep in mind I have very limited electronics knowledge. In fact, I think my only experience is when my parents bought my brother and I one of those 75-in-1 electronic project kits from the now defunct Canadian Radio Shack where you connect wires to things to make a light go off, or a radio or something. I loved that thing, and was very pleased to see Sayal selling similar kits. I'm still thinking of getting one, even if they are targeted to kids. So as G helped me find the parts I needed, his project sort of took the back-burner and we rushed home to begin Altoid tin surgery.

As I mentioned, my electronics experience was extremely limited (Yay, alliteration!) so it was decided that G would supervise. In reality, he probably did most of the work, and I followed orders. After melting something with the soldering iron that wasn't solder, we decided it was probably better that way.

What we made was a solar-powered/rechargable charger for USB devices, housed in an empty Altoids tin. Essentially it has a switch with 3 settings: 1)solar power to charge the rechargable batteries inside 2) off and 3) charge the usb device from the batteries. It actually works!!! Here you can see it charging my old ipod:

Sorry about the cowhide background, I realize its a bit distracting. The solar panel is on the outside as you can see, and the inside is shown here. It's hard to tell what's going on in the tangle of wires, so maybe I will get around to making a diagram of the wiring if anybody actually requests it.

The whole thing was pretty cheap to make, the most expensive part was the rechargable batteries, but we kind of needed those anyway. It was a fun little project, and seemingly quite useful. I already charged a friend's blackberry for him, and it took under 2 hours - although I'm not sure how much charge he had left on it to begin with. I think this will come in handy when I need to charge something in a pinch. It's small enough to fit into a purse, and since it doesn't require an external power source (besides the sun anyway), it will be great when I'm out on the bike - it fits nicely into the windowed pocket on my tank bag, so I can charge the batteries while I ride.

Edited to add circuit diagram, courtesy of G:

Go Altoids Power!! Ok, now I sound like a mint supremacist. :-) BTW, creme de menthe altoids are AWESOME.

Fleur de Sel Caramels

2009-06-10T13:59:00.007-04:00

These are evil. If they are not the devil in candy form, than surely they are the devil's spawn. Sinfully rich and delicious, I ask that you don't attempt to make them yourself. Please come and take mine or I run the risk of eating them all myself, in record breaking speed. Once you see the recipe, you'll know why that is probably not a good idea.

I had seen this recipe floating around online for maybe a year or so, and always wanted to try it. I even bought Fleur de Sel specifically for this, but since heavy cream wasn't something I stocked in my fridge regularly, I did not get around to it. After receiving a gift of another box of Fleur de Sel and vanilla beans, I decided to get my act in gear and use some of it.

For those of you wondering what Fleur de Sel is, let me tell you what my friend Wikipedia has to say about the subject.

Fleur de sel ("Flower of salt" in French) is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. Traditional French fleur de sel is collected off the coast of Brittany (most notably in the towns of Guérande - Fleur de Sel de Guérande, hand harvested from salt marsh water being the most revered), Noirmoutier, and also Camargue. It is often slightly grey due to the sandy minerals collected in the process of harvesting the salt from the pans. On occasion, the presence of Dunaliella salina (a type of pink micro-algae commonly found in salt marshes) can give it a light pink tint. Due to its relative scarcity, Fleur de sel is one of the more expensive salts. It is usually sold in airtight jars as it is slightly damp

That's probably more information than you wanted or needed to know, but let me just add that Salty + Sweet = YUMMY! The salt really takes the caramel to a euphoric level, you just have to taste it to believe it. I used the following recipe:

Fleur de Sel Caramels
makes about 40 pieces

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel (plus a bit more for sprinkling on the caramels after)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
(I also added 1/2 vanilla bean and scraped the seeds into the cream mixture)

Instructions:

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly oil parchment.

Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

Ok now before you start getting all impressed, let me tell you that these lovely caramels you are now drooling over are actually attempt number two. Yes, that's right, attempt number one was FAIL. Let me tell you why. You may have noticed that there is a very important piece of information missing from the part of the recipe that instructs you to boil the sugar, corn syrup and water. The temperature! They included it in the final cooking step, but not this one, where I would argue that it is an equally important step in the process. They refer to "light golden caramel" as the colour to look for to know when that step is done. Well. Have you ever sent your partner to the paint section of home depot and asked him to pick out a red swatch? He will come home with no less than 15 samples, I assure you. Ok, what I'm trying to say is that describing a colour can be somewhat difficult and going by a temperature would have been a lot more precise. I bet you are thinking that now that I have done this a second time, with success, that I will tell you the magic number. Don't hate me - I tried, I really did..but I forgot what the temperature was. I got distracted and did not write it down. I do recall it being over 300F though. Sorry! I basically let the sugar cook until it got to the point where I was scared I was going to burn it - follow your nose on this..at least that part of me seems to be functioning. The Failamels turned out to be very pale in colour, and didn't have the intense caramel flavour that batch number two boasted.

*** Pay close attention to the last step, since the temperature seems to rise very quickly after it gets to the 240F mark. I did let mine get to about 252F since I wanted them a little firmer than the first batch, and while still quite soft, they hold their shape a little better.

I did not pay attention to the number of pieces this was supposed to make, and just went to town with my pizza cutter, that I had lightly oiled. I ended up with 90 caramels in various sizes, it seems that I cannot cut a straight line to save my life. I wrapped the caramels in waxed paper, and have been storing them in the fridge as per instructions from similar recipes, since they are too soft at room temperature in a house that is not currently air-conditioned.

If you do happen to drop by to find there are no caramels left, I retract my initial statement and encourage you to try making them yourself. ;-)

DC metro

2009-06-06T21:35:00.001-04:00

Capitol

2009-06-06T21:30:00.001-04:00

Went for a nice walk to see a fair chunk of the historical landmarks.
Beautiful weather and no blisters!!!

Brasserie Beck

2009-06-05T12:29:00.001-04:00

In Washington DC. Everything was delicious!

City S'mores

2009-05-27T13:19:00.004-04:00

No campfire? No problem!

On a recent camping trip, I discovered that one of my friend's kids had never experienced the beauty that is S'mores. Not pointing any fingers, but you know who you are!!! I was flabbergasted and immediately started them on the path to enlightenment. Not surprisingly, the traditional campfire S'mores were well received. After returning home from our camping trip, I had some leftover graham crackers that I wanted to use up, and thus - the idea for City S'mores was born.

I have made homemade marshmallows so many times by now, that I think its safe to say I'm pretty good at it. I have experimented with flavourings, colourings and decorations, but I've never messed with their structural integrity - until now. I lined my pan with graham crackers, some of which I had to do some delicate cutting to cover the base entirely. A serrated knife proved to work well for this, as the gentle sawing did not shatter the graham crackers. Next I whipped up a batch of marshmallows, flavoured only with vanilla and spread them on top. At this point, I wasn't totally sure if the marshmallows would adhere to the graham crackers, but decided to risk it in the name of S'more research. I dusted the top with icing sugar, and then let them rest over night to set.

Now for the moment of truth, did the marshmallow fuse to the graham crackers? I turned out the whole thing upside down onto my cutting board and lifted off the silicone pan. The mission was a success!! Everything was sticking in all the right places, just like I had hoped. Next was the most difficult part, cutting them into squares. I found the best way to do this was to use the serrated knife to saw through the graham layer, then use a large chefs knife to get through the marshmallow layer. This is a messy job, since freshly cut marshmallow wants to stick to anything and everything. This is easily remedied by dusting the cut sides with a bit of icing sugar.

Once I had finished cutting all the little squares, I melted some milk chocolate chips in the m-wave and dunked the naked mallow tops into the melted chocolate, making sure to tap of excess icing sugar first. I set them onto waxed paper to harden. I did perform rigorous quality assurance testing, so I know it's safe to share with friends. ;-) Come and get 'em!

BTW - here is the marshmallow recipe I use. For these I just omitted the peppermint.

Daring Bakers May Challenge: Strudel!

2009-05-27T07:39:00.000-04:00

First things first:

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I have to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to this challenge. After spending so long rolling out pasta dough for the March lasagna challenge, I wasn't sure I wanted to repeat that to make strudel, something that I could take or leave. However, it is called a challenge for a reason, so I decided to suck it up and just do it!

It turned out my fears were all for naught, it wasn't nearly as challenging as I was expecting. The dough came together very quickly and was very soft and pliable, it was actually rather nice to work with. It took no time to get it thin enough to read the phone bill through it. I stayed pretty close to the original recipe, and filled my strudel with fuji apples (my current fave), cranberries, raisins, toasted almonds, and rum & amaretto. I used panko since I didn't have any regular breadcrumbs, and they seemed to work out just fine.

I only waited about 60 minutes for my dough to rest, so the whole process was pretty fast. I did managed to puncture my dough a couple of times during the stretching period (which I fully expected), however it was pretty forgiving. Once the strudel was filled and rolled, you couldn't even tell. After the strudel baked and cooled, I dusted it with icing sugar and sliced it. It disappeared only minutes after that. If I didn't take a picture, I might not even believe I made it! The strudel was very good..tasted just like strudel should, and similar to some my mom made years ago. I think I would make this again, perhaps after a day of apple picking in the fall. It would be great served at brunch or with coffee in the afternoon.

If you are a strudel lover but have always been afraid of the work involved, fear not, it is quite simple. Give it a try!

Busted!

2009-05-22T14:26:00.001-04:00

I leave my office for two minutes to return to this:

Sew: A Needle Pulling Thread

2009-05-22T10:53:00.004-04:00

Today's post is brought to you by the letters C, R and the number 5.

Finally, another sewing project! I was beginning to think this was turning into a food blog, so I decided to mix things up a bit.

On my mom's last trip to India, she brought me back some very lightweight (read: see through), white cotton fabric that she found and figured I could do something with. After a bit of thought, it seemed like the perfect material to make a light, summery shirt that she had already given me a pattern for months ago. It was one of those ones she bought, but never used. The pattern is New Look #6298, and I made Style C from that. The pattern was fairly easy to follow, even though the wording was slightly different than the verbage I was used to from other patterns. I didn't find the sizing to be accurate and ended up having to take in the shirt in several places to give it more of a flattering shape, not the box-like one that it started out as. The ruffles were time consuming, but not all that hard to make..now I know the ruffle secret! Oh, and I did leave out the buttons on this, since I thought they weren't necessary..that and I didn't want to bother. :-)

I am posting this a bit late..I have actually worn it already and immediately spilled something on it, so I had to wash and attempt to iron it before taking pictures. I didn't starch it, so it's got the wrinkly-relaxed look, which I probably prefer for this.

I wore it to my parents house and at first I didn't say anything, I wanted to see how long it would take before my mom noticed it. When I walked in, I could see her eyeing it, but she didn't make any comments and proceeded to do whatever it was she was doing. After clearing my throat a few times and making weird faces, with no results, I finally blurted out "What do you think about my shirt?!?!" at which point my mom immediately clued in. I had mentioned to her previously that I was working on a shirt with the fabric she gave me. However, her response was "You didn't make that!". This is probably the best kind of response to my creations I can get. I don't want them to look homemade! I did have to show her the mistakes and crappy parts to get her to believe me, but eventually she did. So I guess it's safe to say I did a reasonably good job on this! I still have enough cotton leftover to make another one..but I might have a go at making a swimsuit cover-up since it would probably be good for that kind of application.

P.S. C is for cotton, R is for Ruffles, and 5 is the approximate number of days it took to make this (not full 24 hour days of course..but not sure about total hours spent - I had a lot of podcasts to distract me).

Chicken feet

2009-05-20T19:11:00.001-04:00

Did not make it into the shopping cart today...and probably never will.

Tiki Treats

2009-04-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

Tiki loves peanut butter. Well really, who doesn't love peanut butter? Aside from those who are allergic to peanuts of course, I can't really think of many people who don't like it. Or dogs. I decided to make Tiki some homemade doggie biscuits, which satisfied my need to bake, without actually having to consume the final product, not that I couldn't - there aren't any strange or meaty ingredients.

Here is my recipe, which made approx 100 miniature bone-shaped biscuits. I wasn't that accurate with measuring the ingredients, so this is my best estimation.

2/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup rice flour

Warm peanut butter & honey in the microwave until nice and runny and then stir it together with the rest of ingredients in a mixing bowl. Knead dough for a few minutes until it comes together. If it's too crumbly, add a little bit of water. It should resemble oatmeal cookie dough. Dust your rolling pin and work surface with oat/rice flour, and roll dough approx 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough with a small cookie cutter or just use a knife and cut it into squares. Bake biscuits for 15 minutes (or longer if yours are bigger) at 350 F. Allow to cool fully before letting your dog taste them!

When I took them out of the oven, Tiki was whining in anticipation. I'm not sure how she knew they were for her, but she was pretty excited! They didn't take long to cool, and they have been given two paws up!

Daring Bakers April Challenge: Cheesecake!

2009-04-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

After last months lasagna challenge, this month's cheesecake challenge sounded like a breeze! I actually put this off until almost last minute though because a) it sort of slipped my mind, and b) I didn't really want to eat the cheesecake, given how rich they typically are, and I couldn't think of enough people to share this with this month to not leave tempting leftovers. Anyway, I DID make it, and I'm glad I did.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

We were given a fairly straightforward cheesecake recipe to work with, and were left to our own creative devices. The inspiration for my cheesecake was the best Frappucino I have ever had, in the only Starbucks in Argentina. It was Dulce de Leche flavour, hwhich I cannot get at the local Starbucks here. My cheesecake version contained Starbucks cream liqueur in the cheesecake batter, and was topped with Dulce de Leche, and chocolate covered espresso beans. I stuck with the traditional graham cracker crust since that is my favourite. It was absolutely delicious. The batter seemed kind of thin before it was baked in a water bath, but it baked up perfectly, with ZERO cracks! The texture was rich and creamy, pretty much cheesecake perfection.

I opted to only make 2/3 of the recipe, bake it in a square pan, and then cut it into smaller cheesecake squares, so that when I had a piece, the portion size would not be heart attack inducing, nor leave me feeling like I needed to spend hours at the gym (since we all know that wouldn't happen). I used an 8" square silicone brownie pan, so I did not have any issues with water leaking in, as some people encountered when using springform pans. I cut it into 16 squares, as you can see here:

Did you know that cheesecake makes for a very delicious breakfast? Well, neither did I until this challenge. Before this could get out of hand, I managed to package up most of the cheesecake to put in the freezer for emergency cheesecake cravings. Never know when they'll strike.

Can't wait to see what next month's challenge has in store!

Biker coffee bar

2009-04-25T14:22:00.001-04:00

In Belfountain

Badlands

2009-04-25T13:41:00.001-04:00

One of the stops on our bike ride today.