Ravenous Rowie

I'm Baaaack!

2011-06-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Yup, still alive! After a long break I have decided to come back to my little blog. I think this time around it will be a bit different. I'll still be sharing food and recipes now and then, but posts will include more gardening, crafting and knitting, daily life, and sometimes might just be a picture. Pretty much whatever I'm feeling at the time. I know, less structured and always changing, but such is my life!

Nothing much out of the ordinary has happened in the last few months, but I'll fill you in on May. Here are a bunch of pictures... enjoy!

Our garden is really taking off this year. Hopefully we'll get some fruit from this apple tree!

One of my favorites! This lilac smells sooo good!

My 29th birthday was on Sunday. It was a perfect day! Lots of time spent relaxing, reading, knitting and strolling through the garden and property with Ben and my dog. It was also a day full of delicious food! Ben spoiled me rotten!

Breakfast:

Dinner was a huge salad with greens fresh from the garden, cucumber, avocado, grilled asparagus, spot prawns fresh from the dock, and homemade garlic dressing with toasted almonds. It was DELICIOUS!

Here is the amazing cake Ben made for me. It was beautiful...

and drool-worthy! Lemon chiffon cake filled with fresh strawberries and lemon curd, frosted in whipped cream, and topped with more strawberries. Life is good (and so is cake)!

To completely change the subject, I have recently learned to knit, and it has become a new obsession! I am currently knitting wash cloths, flip-top mittens, kids fingerless mitts, baby Uggs, socks, a scarf, and a hat! Yikes! Here are a few of my recent projects.

Those of you that are still around, thanks for sticking with me!

Linzer Cookies

2011-02-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

Happy weekend everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It's raining like crazy here, so I've been staying snuggly warm in our house, and knitting my little heart out. Tons of fun!

I'm also getting ready for Valentines Day, and I bet you are too! Here is a wonderful cookie recipe that your sweetheart, family and friends will all love! Each one is a valentine on it's own. You'll love the unique flavor combo, the shortbread like texture, and the snazzy (and easy!) decoration that finishes it off!

Aside from your usual stand mixer, spatula etc., you'll need a Food processor, zester (or the fine side of a grater), a rolling pin, and 2 cookie cutters (one large and one small, preferably of the same design).

Linzer Cookies
1 cup almonds
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla
2 yolks
zest of 1 lemon
powdered sugar for finishing
1/2 cup raspberry jam, strained

Toast the almonds and let cool. Grind the almonds with 1/3 cup of the sugar.

Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and blend until it's as fine as you can get it. Set aside.

Beat butter and remaining sugar in your mixer, add the yolks, vanilla and zest.

Beat in nuts and flour mixture.Form dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Roll out to 1/4" thick on a lightly floured surface, and use cookie cutters (I used hearts, to keep it festive!). It's best to roll the dough as few times as possible, so get as many cookies from each rolling as possible. You know, pretend you're playing Tetris!

Leave half of your hearts whole, and use the tiny heart to cut out the center of the other half of the cookies.

Bake at 350* for 16 minutes, until edges just start to turn golden. Let cool. Spread wrong side (the side that had been down on the sheet) of the whole hearts with a thin layer of the strained jam.

Using a sifter, dust the right side of the hearts with cut out centers with the powdered sugar.

Sandwich the cookies together carefully, and admire your handiwork!

Now get to bakin'! Enjoy!

CSN Zester/Grater Review

2011-02-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

How's everyone doing this week? I've been enjoying this slow time of year. Reading, knitting, kayaking, hiking and, of course, baking. I've also been playing with a few new toys I got in the mail! CSN stores let me choose some things from their stores to review, so after many hours of drooling over pages upon pages of fun kitchen stuff I chose 3 zester/graters.

I got 3 different ones, each of a different coarseness. The first is your typical zester, and I had to choose the one with the green handle. Of course. Some of the features are updated from the old version. There are nice little rubber caps on the metal edges, and the handle is nice and grippy. It even comes with a blade cover! I absolutely love this kitchen tool! It masterfully separates citrus zest from the pith without spraying the flavorful oils everywhere. It's easy to hold and use, is nice and sharp, and looks oh-so pretty! This is my absolute favorite, and I will use it all the time!

The second grater that I got is the same as the first, but with a coarser blade. It has the nice rubber tips and cushy handle (in black...they didn't have green :( . This one advertises on its handy blade cover that it's good for soft cheese, chocolate and such. I gave it a go on chocolate, which worked out as I was having hot chocolate at the time, and it needed that extra kick! The blades were nice and sharp, and put out a fine shaving of chocolate. It would be so easy for melting, or in my case, decorating baked goods! This should prove useful!

The third grater has all the same features, blah blah, but this blade is good for carrots, cheese, potatoes and the like. I couldn't resist trying it out immediately, so I whipped out some baby carrots and went at it! Beautiful shavings were my reward. Next time I make carrot cake, this will be a life saver! No more crunchy bits in my bakes goods! This would also be great for latkes!

I can't wait to get down and dirty with these babies in my kitchen! Ben has been eyeing them since I opened the package, and I keep expecting to walk into the kitchen and find him guiltily grating and zesting his heart out. I'm so glad I got these, and I know they will be used frequently. They are great quality, so I know they'll be around for a long long time. I would absolutely recommend these to anyone looking for a zester! The shape and size makes these so easy to use, plus it's super fun that some of them have color options for the handles! Who doesn't like to accessorize in their kitchen?! You can find them here at the CSN kitchen store!

At the bakery I make linzer cookies all the time, and they require lemon zest. I'm going to give the green handled zester a go with that recipe, and then share it with you guys! These cookies are absolutely perfect for Valentines day (it's coming up quick!), not to mention totally delicious! Linzer cookies combine the nuttiness of toasted almonds with cinnamon and lemon for a unique flavor in the dough. Once baked, these heart shaped cookies are sandwiched with raspberry jam, and covered in powdered sugar. Just perfect for your sweetie! Make sure to check back for the recipe! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Glass Dharma Winner!

2011-02-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! SO sososo sorry about the delay in announcing the giveaway winner!!! Ben and I went on vacation to Mt. Washington, and I brought my computer thinking there would be service. There wasn't! Despite my short freak-out session about not being able to post the winner, we had a wonderful time!

We stayed 3 nights, went tubing, and went snowshoeing! We had beautiful weather, and a nice little condo to hang out in! Because we had our own kitchen, we were able to do things like have french toast for dinner, and ice cream for lunch! Lots of snacking, lounging, hot chocolate sipping and movie watching ensued. Next time we go we want to try out snowboarding or skiing.

Do you guys have a favorite? I can't decide if I would try the skiing or the snowboarding. I've done both before. I remember liking skiing, and being ok at it. I did one class a long time ago for snowboarding, and spent most of the day on my butt, but I really want to try it again! We'll see when the time comes.

I suppose you're getting antsy about the contest! I guess I have made you wait long enough! The winner of the Glass Dharma giveaway is...
Theresa from Island Vittles!!!

Theresa- Please get your email address to me so I can have your gift certificate emailed to you!

Congrats Theresa! Thanks to all for reading, and participating! Hope you enjoy your new kitchen toys Theresa!

I promise that I'll be posting some good recipes soon! I think my phase of blog-slacking is over! Until next time!

Glass Dharma Giveaway!!!

2011-01-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hello there foodie friends! Today I wanted to tell you about a new product I tried. Glass Dharma glass straws!

My first impression on taking these out of the box? They're beautiful! I got 4 different types of straws: original straight, original bent, smoothie, and mini. Two of them have these beautiful glass bubbles of color on them. If I had multiple straws the colors would help a group of people tell which straw is theirs, but for now I just admire the color as I'm sipping!

I tried all of these, and I really like the straight original straw. The size is a comfortable fit for my mouth, it fits nicely into our kitchen glasses, and is easy to use. I like the mini straw too, it fits our smaller size of kitchen glasses perfectly! The bent straw has a great appearance, but it doesn't come with the color, and being glass the angle is not adjustable. Still a nice straw though!

My new favorite? The one I won't let anyone touch because it's MINE? The smoothie straw! I love smoothies, but I don't have an expensive blender, so sometimes they are chunky. Using a regular straw was pretty much impossible with my smoothies. The chunks would plug it up, and I just gave up on the whole idea. This new straw from Glass dharma is nice and wide, so no chunks get stuck, and I can just sip away to my hearts content! It also has a great little cleaning brush, so I never end up with grodey bits stuck inside.

Want to know a little more about Glass Dharma straws? They are perfect for everyone who wants to cut down on their plastic use, both for health and environmental reasons. These straws are:
-sustainable
-reusable
-durable
-easy to clean
-suitable for hot and cold drinks
-dishwasher and microwave safe

Still unsure if you want something so fragile in your kitchen for everyday use? Don't be! Glass Dharma offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, AND a lifetime guarantee against breakage! It can't get any better than that!

So, you want some of these babies for yourself? I can help with that! I am offering a $25 Glass Dharma gift certificate to one person! Here's how the giveaway works:
-You must be a follower of Ravenous Rowie
-Go to the Glass Dharma web site, then leave me a comment on this post telling me what you want to get with your gift certificate if you win!
-I will randomly select one winner a week from today, on Monday January 31st!

That's pretty much it! Hope you all have a great week, and good luck with the giveaway! I think I'll go slurp something good through one of these awesome straws now!

Chocolate Covered Caramels

2011-01-18T23:12:00.000-08:00

Hey there friends! How is your week treating you so far? Not much going on here. I've been working on our property with Ben getting lots of firewood cut and stacked, having bonfires, and clearing brush. Things are slow at the bakery I work at, so not much going on there either.

I do have a great recipe for you today! These chocolate covered caramels are totally delicious, and you get quite a few from one batch. These would look so perfect in little bags with red bows, just right for Valentines gift giving! Your sweetheart , or your sweet tooth , will be happy!

Caramels
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbs. butter
1 cup cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Butter a 7x12" baking dish.
Place all the ingredients except the vanilla in a large heavy saucepan, stir, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

-Reduce heat to medium, and cook at a slow boil until the misture turns golden and reaches 246* on a candy thermometer, 20-30 minutes.

-Then whisk in the vanilla, remove the pan from the heat, and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

When the mixture has cooled, cut it in 1/2" squares and wrap individually in waxed paper, or dip into tempered chocolate using a fork.

If you dipped them in chocolate, place them on waxed paper/parchment paper/silpat until they have set. If you don't temper the chocolate, it may bloom.

-The caramels will keep about 2 weeks if stored in an artight container in a cool place.

Enjoy!

P.S. check out my etsy shop! You can find some pics, and the link in my sidebar! Sorry about the guiltless self-advertising! O.K., not really ;)

Chocolate Turtles

2011-01-10T23:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! So sorry, I know it's been a long while since my last post. It was nice to have a little break though. I've been so busy, plus I've been teaching myself to knit (SO fun!)! I'm feeling the craving for more good food and fun recipes though, so here I am!

Today's recipe is left over from my holiday candy making. These turtles always look so cute, and people are always impressed. Make them now for a sweet treat, or add them to your Valentine's Day "must make" list!

Chocolate Turtles ( by Cathy Burgett)
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup cream
2 oz. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

l lb. pecan halves, lightly toasted and cooled
4 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, tempered

Place the pecan halves in clusters of 5 (1 for the head, 2 for the arms, 2 for the legs) onto silpats. You should get about 28-30 turtles. I didn't have halves, so I used chopped pecans and just made clumps. They didn't look quite as nice, but they tasted just as good!

Make the caramel: Place the sugars, corn syru, cream and butter in a heavy-based wide pot, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often until a candy thermometer reads 248*, or hard ball stage.

-wait for the caramel to cool just a bit, and add the vanilla. Next, you can either put the caramel into a piping bag and squeeze it onto the turtles (more precise method, but more dishes and messier), or you can do what I did and just spoon the caramel onto each clump (takes slightly longer, but it's easier and neater).

-squeeze/spoon quarter-size pools of caramel onto the center of the pecan bodies using a circular motion. The caramel will sink down between the pecans, so a few layers of caramel will be necessary.

-Allow to cool for a few minutes until the circles are firm enough to pick up. Transfer turtles to a parchment-lined work surface.

-Push and adjust the pecans so that no spaces form between them. Allow turtles to cool completely.

To finish turtles: Temper the chocolate.
-Fill a parchment cone with the chocolate and pipe a quarter-sized round of it onto the parchment-lined sheets.
-Gently press the flat side of the cooled turtle into the chocolate.
-Pipe a coating of chocolate on top of the caramel, allowing a small amount of caramel to show around the edges.
-Allow chocolate to set. Store turtles in an airtight container at cool room temperature.

Enjoy, and have a good week!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! How were your Christmas and New Year celebrations? It snowed and hailed some of the days surrounding the holiday, but we did not end up with a white Christmas.

It was, however cold enough for the dogs to need their sweaters!

Our Christmas was a comfy home affair where none of us really got out of our pajamas all day, we ate tons of yummy snacks throughout the day, (Please disregard the Temptations, they were for the cats, I swear!)

had a big fire in the wood stove, and generally lounged around enjoying ourselves. I made lots of cookies to share with friends, and to snack on throughout the week.

We let the dogs open their own gifts, too. That is always fun to watch. They were certainly enjoying themselves. The cat even joined in!

And this is what it looked like after the gift opening frenzy. We were wading through gift wrap all day!

I had a wonderful time with family and friends. My mom and sister were visiting from California and we had a great time seeing the Butchart Gardens with all of the Christmas lights,

lounging around, eating at the pub, and touring around our small island. We also did a day in Victoria where we went to the Empress Hotel for high tea!

It was SO good!

Very snazzy! I'm surprised that I even got out of my chair after all of the tea with cream and sugar, mini sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, and an entire plate of desserts, not to mention the champagne! It was such a wonderful experience to share with my family!

We looked at the Empress' Christmas tree collection, wandered the inner harbor, admired parliament,

and went through the Royal BC Museum. There were SO many beautiful sights for us to enjoy! Plus, being reunited with some of my family for the holidays was a fun treat. I love being a tourist in my own city!

We also had a great little new years celebration with me, Ben, mom and sister. We watched movies, ate lots of chocolate, drank champagne, did sparklers and pulled crackers, and set off a few fireworks from our deck. A very enjoyable night!

Today I cleaned up Christmas in the house. No more tree, decorations, or pine needles coating the floor. Presents are put away too, and things are back to normal. I've been messing around with teaching myself to knit, and I've managed a scarf, a purse and two hats so far. It's so fun learning something new!

I fully intend to get back into sharing tasty recipes with all of you very soon! As life evens out again I will find the time. I also have an awesome giveaway coming up for all of you, so stay tuned!!!

Happy New Year!

English Toffee

2010-12-20T22:12:00.000-08:00

Yikes! Sorry it's been so long since I posted! The Christmas season is catching up with me, and things have been busy! I'm officially done with my Christmas shopping, thanks to a couple long days in town. Our tree is up with lights on it, and we'll be decorating it tomorrow. I even got my hair cut! (thank goodness!).

Before I start in on this wonderful recipe, I wanted to let you guys know that for the next couple/few weeks, until everything calms down, I may only be doing one or two posts a week. So don't worry, I'm not ditching you, I'm just going to focus on enjoying friends and family for the holidays!

Now, on to the important stuff! I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite candies! My husband loves it too. There is nothing like a crunchy, chocolate & nut covered hunk of buttery toffee to let you know it's a special occasion! It sold really well at the craft fair too! Here is the recipe we were given in school, written by our instructor, Cathy Burgett. Make sure you use a large enough pot for this recipe. The boiling sugar will grow quite a bit, especially when you add the cream and butter. Be careful it doesn't overflow!

English Toffee
1 3/4 lb. sugar
water to cover
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup cream
1/2 Tbs. vanilla
8 oz. butter

12 oz. chocolate, tempered
1 cup chopped walnuts (4 1/2 oz.)

-Bring the sugar, water and cream of tartar to a boil.

-Cook until it reaches a light caramel color. Add the cream and butter.

-Continue cooking, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches the hard crack stage, 295*.

-Pour out onto a well-oiled, warmed full-sheet pan (I used 2 half sheet pans and silpats) and spread evenly and slowly with a pastry spatula. Spread it about 1/8" thick.

-If the candy begins to harden before it can be spread evenly, place the sheet pan of candy in the oven for a few minutes to warm and soften. Allow the candy to harden at room temperature.

-Gently disengage the sheet of candy from the sheet pan. Spread the top of the toffee with a thin layer of tempered dark chocolate and immediately sprinkle on the ground walnuts so that they stick to the chocolate while it is wet.

-Chill 5 minutes, then flip the sheet of toffee over and repeat the spreading of the chocolate and walnuts. Chill again briefly before breaking up.

-Store in a cool dry place, in a tin, or a nonporous plastic container.

This stuff looks so decadent! There is so much going on in it, you only need a little piece of it to satisfy a sweet tooth. Friends and family will love to munch on this throughout the holiday season, or for any special occasion that comes up!

Hope you all are surrounded with friends and family, and have a merry Christmas! Make sure to eat your candy (and share it too)! ;)

Cream Cheese Pastry Dough for Parties! (or whenever)

2010-12-14T22:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! How was your day? I spent mine cleaning and organizing everything I took to/made for the craft fair, I hung ornaments on one of the trees on our property out by the road, and I helped Ben with a bonfire that actually ended up failing. Too wet and windy! I mucked about with him in the mud, wearing my green rain boots though, and that was fun. Christmas cards are finally ready to be sent tomorrow, and I've got a full day of work ahead of me! Lots more Christmas stuff to do at the bakery!

I know this is the time when all of those holiday parties start piling up. Lots of pot lucks, family and work gatherings, and people over at your house. Here is an incredibly easy recipe that always impresses, and tastes great! There are lots of variations too, so you can use whatever you've got in your kitchen! That's right, I'm talking about cream cheese pastry dough. You can use it for sweet or savory things! Here it is, just in time!

Cream Cheese Pastry ( by Cathy Burgett)
1 1/2 cups flour
4 oz cold butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
8 oz credam cheese, cut into 1-inch pieces

-In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, butter, and cream cheese. (you can add a few spoonfulls of things like citrus zest, pesto, cheese, herbs etc. at this point. I used cilantro pesto)

-Pulse until the mixture forms a ball.

-Wrap and flatten into a disc. Chill the dough for 10 minutes.

-On a lightly floured surface, tap and roll the dough out to a 1/8 inch thickness.

-Cut 3-inch circles from the pastry. (I used a square cutter, whatever you have around works)

-Pat the circles into small muffin tins. (I put papers in first, just to be sure nothing would stick.)

-Chill the dough for at least 10 minutes in the freezer before filling and baking.

-When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375*, fill each lined muffin tin with a sweet filling, or a savory filling.

-Bake the tartelettes for 25 to 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.

Alternatively:
-Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board to about 1/8 inch thickness.
-Cut 3 inch rounds.
-Brush each round lightly with egg glaze.
-Fill each round with half teaspoon of a cooked and cooled sweet or savory mixture and fold in half, crimping the edges with a fork.
-Prick the top of each turnover.
-Chill the turnovers for a least 10 minutes in the freezer.
-When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425*.
-Bake the turnovers on a parchment lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

You can make all kinds of fillings!
Sweet:
Lemon/lime/orange curd
pastry cream
mousse
pudding
pie filling

Savory:
cooked veggies
meat fillings (cooked ground meat with herbs etc.)
Tapenade
quiche
potato with seasonings
cheese

I made a tapenade out of artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, pesto and parmesan cheese. I spooned a bit into each pastry cup and covered the filling with parmesan, then baked.

I also made shrimp quiche tartelettes. First I prebaked the shells for 10 minutes. Then I put one baby shrimp in each shell, then covered it with a mixture of:
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup milk
1 egg plus 1 yolk
s&p
pinch nutmeg
1 tsp dill

Then they got baked for about 35 minutes. Delicious!

I also made a cilantro pesto to go along with both of these fillings.
Cilantro Pesto:
1/2 bunch cilantro
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 box frozen spinach
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander
olive oil as needed

-add all ingredients but olive oil and puree. Pour olive oil in slowly, stopping often to scrape down sides of work bowl, until desired consistency is reached.

I mixed this into the cream cheese pastry, used it to moisten the tapenade, and mixed it with plain greek yogurt to pipe on top of the quiches. You could also mix this with some plain cream cheese to make a great party dip/spread! This stuff has such great flavor!

I know that's a lot of ideas, but I'm hoping that you can find a use for this dough this holiday season! Sweet or savory, your friends will love this! Plus, they look so cute! Nobody has to know how easy these little nibblers were to make!

What is your favorite potluck party goody?

Goodnight everybody!

Incredibly Easy Marbled Halva

2010-12-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back to blogging after a busy weekend! I had a great time at our girls night gingerbread decorating party! Check out what we made!

Yup, that's a kitty manger. My friend Nora is using this kitty manger scene as a raffle item to raise money for the feral cats in our area. It turned out so cute!

I also had another craft fair on Sunday. It went pretty well, although it wasn't very busy. It sure felt Christmasy though, and I bought some fun stuff! Um, I also could have spent about as much as I made, but let's just forget about that one! ;)

Today Ben took out a huge tree on our property with his tractor, and I helped him clean up the brush.

Then I came inside and snuggled with the dogs as I wrote our Christmas cards. I'm feeling a bit tired tonight, so I'm posting a super easy candy recipe.

Have you guys ever had halva? It's very much like fudge, but made with tahini as the base. There aren't many ingredients, but it sure tastes good! If you like tahini, that is. This was something new for me, and I'm so glad I tried it!

Marbled Halva (from the Uprisings baking book)

Makes about 2 lbs. Mix in two batches

Light:

7/8 cup dry milk

1/3 cup honey

3/4 cup tahini

Dark:

1/2 cup dry milk

1/3 cup carob powder (I used cocoa powder)

1/3 cup honey

3/4 cup tahini

Mix each batch in it's own bowl. It comes together quickly and easily. It should form a very soft playdough type ball.

Set one batch on top of the other and knead for a short time, until two colors are marbled together.

Press into an 8" pan and chill overnight.

Cut into cubes and enjoy! Store in the fridge.

I was bad and didn't take any good pictures of my finished halva. You can see it there on the left. I loved this stuff so much! I think I need to make it every year now!

That's it for tonight folks! I'll be back tomorrow with a recipe for a great savory party treat! Cream cheese dough with a couple different fillings. Perfect for any pot luck or party! Goodnight!

Sweet Ideas

2010-12-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm going to a girls night of gingerbread cookie decorating! It's going to be SO fun! I've been making little hors d'oeuvres for us to snack on, and I'm bringing all of my fun decorating books, my piping tip set, cookie cutters and other decorating paraphernalia.

Because of all that awesomeness I'll not be posting a recipe for you guys tonight. I'll just leave you with some of the things I've been baking for the holidays. Hopefully you'll see some decorating ideas, or party treats that you can use this season!

Gingies!

Mongo gingie! He's grumpy, lost an arm!

Gingerbread christmas trees! Love how these turned out!

Some of our bakery display.

Gingerbread cupcakes with chocolate or vanilla buttercream and little gingerbread snowflakes.

Stained glass sugar cookie Christmas trees.

Linzer snowflakes. The dough has almonds, cinnamon and lemon zest. They're filled with raspberry jam, and dusted with powdered sugar! YUM!

Peppermint spritz candy canes.

Tender Eggnog sandwich cookies.

Double decker Christmas rice krispie treats.

Decadent fudgy mint brownies with a ganache topping and cocoa shortbread crust.

Mini yule log cakes. Chocolate roulade with ganache mousse!

Well, that's some of the fun stuff I've been up to! I'll be posting recipes for lots of these later on. Now, I'm off for a fun evening with the girls, plus tomorrow is the craft fair!

P.S. I've been working on some improvements for the blog. On the right at the top you can now subscribe to my RSS feed, and follow me on twitter and Facebook! If you want to get an email when a new post is up, please go to the "contact me" page and email me with you email address. So happy to have all of you along for the ride! Happy baking!

Quick Dinner with Red Quinoa

2010-12-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

I realize that lately every post has been about cookies, candy or cupcakes. I admit, it could be worse! But please don't think that's all I eat! Every once in a while I'll actually cook a healthy meal, too. The people over at Alter-eco fair trade were really generous, and sent me quite a few samples a while back. I've slowly been working my way through them. I'm sort of savoring each item, not wanting to run out!

Last week I finally cracked open the bag of red quinoa. I had tried regular quinoa before, but never the red stuff. First of all, the color is just beautiful! Very festive for this time of year. I wanted to be able to taste the quinoa, not a bunch of other stuff, so I opted for a very simple pilaf.

I sauted one onion, added the dry quinoa and dry cooked it until it smelled toasty. I added the recommended amount of water, and let it cook while I prepared the rest of dinner. Good so far!

I cut up a head of broccoli, spread it on a baking sheet with olive oil, s&p, and popped it into a 400* oven. Pretty darn easy!

Finally, I set up our bamboo steamer with some water and brought it to a boil, creating lots of steam. I made a quick vinaigrette to flavor the tilapia fillets. Here's what went into a small bowl:
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
2 tsp honey
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme
s&p

If I'd had a fresh lemon I would have cut it into slices and laid them in a layer on the bottom level of the steamer. Sadly, my kitchen was bare of lemons. I set the fillets on the top of the steamer basket, spooned some vinaigrette over each one, put on the lid, and steamed them until the fish was opaque and flaky, about 7-10 minutes, depending on the thickness. That was easy too!

Just as the fish was cooking I sprinkled some grated cheese over the broccoli that was still in the oven so it would melt a bit. I also added s&p, plus a tiny bit of minced thyme to the quinoa. That dinner came together in about 45 minutes from start to finish! Maybe less!

I love the contrast of colors, and textures. It all tasted SO good! I spooned a bit more of the vinaigrette over the fish once it was served.

The quinoa kept its beautiful color through the cooking process, and the texture was amazing! It was light but almost crisp at the same time. No unpleasant hardness or weird chewiness, just toasty goodness. Everyone in our house was pleasantly surprised! I'd say the red quinoa is a but nuttier and lighter than regular quinoa. I think I like it better, too! Now I really can't wait to try the black variety!

Hope this gives you some quick and healthy dinner ideas! You're halfway to the weekend, and there are more candy posts to come! Hurray!

Meet Eden and New Moon Kitchen!

2010-12-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

Hello bloggy friends! As you know, I have been reviewing food products every now and then. It's always great to learn about new products from a great company, but it's even more fun knowing about the people behind the food!

I had the opportunity to sample a wide selection of cookies, and a granola, from New Moon Kitchen! I also got to learn about Eden, the inspired entrepreneur behind these fabulous products! Considering that New Moon Kitchen products are available in health food stores across Canada, I thought you might want to know more about them, and the food they offer! Here's the info they sent me.

About New Moon Kitchen
New Moon Kitchen is an all-natural gourmet bakery that has been dedicated to making delicious and healthy baked goods since 1997. Hand-made with the finest ingredients their products and facilities are kosher in addition to being egg, wheat, dairy, peanut and nut free. They carry eight varieties of cookies along with cakes, breads and their own brand of granola. Products can be found at fine food and health stores across Canada, with plans of expansion across North America.

About Eden Hertzog
Eden is a young, socially conscious entrepreneur who started New Moon Kitchen in Toronto when she was only 20 years old. Fresh out of high-school and working at a local bakery Eden noticed a lack of healthy desert options for vegetarians. She used the bakery to experiment and create recipes and within the year New Moon Kitchen was born. In addition to being a successful business woman, Eden is also a folk/pop musician performing around Toronto.

When I first received these cookies in the mail I, of course, ripped open the box and started tasting and sharing with whoever was around me. About five or six friends tasted these cookies with me that day, and all of them were exclaiming over how tasty they were. All were surprised when I started reading the ingredient list to them, and let them know it was all vegan! You guys know that I'm pretty picky about that sort of stuff. I don't like to sacrifice texture and flavor for "healthy" food. People were definitely asking for seconds. So was I! Unfortunately, because they're at my house, I could help myself to seconds and thirds, double-fisting it around the house! Luckily these are as healthy as you can get as far as cookies are concerned.

There were so many flavors to taste, so I'll just tell you about my favorites. Lets start with the Ginger Snappers. These tasty little guys pack a big punch! Among the other great ingredients, they have lots of real ginger so they are nice and spicy! It caught me off guard at first, but soon became addictive! This is what a ginger snap should taste like, vegan or no!

My other main favorite is chocolate espresso Mokas cookies. These ones have a great balance of chocolatey goodness and organic fair-trade espresso, with just a hint of cinnamon. It's a good thing nobody else was around so see me wandering around the house and yard with a small stack of these, munching happily. So good!

I really liked the way the larger cookies were packaged, in little packets of two. This made them so handy to bring along wherever I happened to be going. Healthy treat on the ferry, anyone?

I enjoyed the granola too, but it may have been my least favorite item. It was reminiscent of granola I have tried to make at home, and the dried fruit seemed a bit hard and overdried to me, like it had been baked along with the grains instead of added afterwards. The granola was also a bit oily for me. Other than that, the ingredients were nothing to complain about, and the flavor was good. I liked it over plain yogurt.

Next time I head out to the health food store, which item will I be buying again? Probably a box of those spicy little snappers! Such a great flavor for the holidays!

I hope you guys check out New Moon Kitchen, and taste some of Eden's handiwork. I love finding new products, especially ones made right here in Canada! Just one more fun thing about these cookies. Each box has a cute little sticker on it saying "baker babe approved". I like the sound of that. I'm a baker babe, and I approve. Come on, baker babes out there, you'll approve too!

I intend to put a few of those ginger snappers out for Santa. Seems like a good way to get on the Big Man's good side! ;) Hmm...I know what I'm having for dessert tonight!

Peanut Brittle and Movie Monday

2010-12-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling Christmasy! We got the lights on the house hooked up from last year, and they look great! I put up a few lights inside, and played with chocolate while listening to Christmas music! Now I'm writing to you and watching the old stop motion Rudolph! Please tell me you have seen this! Yes, it's old, but it's such a classic! I can't do without it each year. I have to hear "Holly Jolly Christmas" (and maybe sing along), and see the island of misfit toys! If you haven't seen this, it's a must!

source

We didn't really watch many other movies this week. Just two.

Movie Monday

Better off Dead- This is a 1985 John Cusack movie. That should be all you need to know! His girlfriend dumps him, and he spends his time either trying to kill himself, or thinking of ways to get her back. It was pretty bad, but definitely funny, and very '80's. Fun to see once.

Princess of thieves- This was terrible. If we hadn't been so tired, I'm not sure that we would have watched the whole thing. Keira Knightley plays Robin Hoods daughter. She wants to show her absent father that she's as good as a son, so she dresses like a boy and follows him on his adventures. Terrible acting in general, less than fantastic costumes, very predictable and simple story line. I could have skipped this one, and you should too!

Ready for another candy recipe? This one just comes from good old Betty Crocker. My husband loves peanut brittle, so we tend to have it every year. I made a big batch to sell at the craft fair too! There's not much to it, and it has such a great flavor!

Peanut Brittle

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp water

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 cup light corn syrup

3 Tbs butter

1 pound shelled unroasted peanuts

Butter 2 cookie sheets (or use a silpat). Mix baking soda, 1 tsp water and the vanilla: reserve. Mix sugar, 1 cup water and the corn syrup in 3-quart saucepan. Cook over edium heat, stirring occasionaly, to 240* on candy thermometer (or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from water).

Stir in butter and peanuts. Cook, stirring constantly, to 300* (or until small amount of misture dropped into very cold water separates into threads that are hard and brittle).

Watch carefully so mixture does not burn. Immediately remove from heat: stir in baking soda mixture (it will bubble a bit, so be careful!).

Pour half of the candy mixture onto each cookie sheet and quickly spread about 1/4 inch thick: cool. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

You should probably taste some. Immediately. Not to say that's what I did...but it could be. Or I could have tasted a lot of it. Whatever.

What was left after the tasting got packaged up for the craft fair.

It was one of my best sellers at the last one, and I'm hoping people will like it this weekend too!

Well, Rudolph just ended, and this post is over too! Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, and a good night!

Peppermint Patties

2010-12-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday! Yup, it's still the weekend. This is a good thing! I am gearing up for my second craft fair of the year, it's this coming weekend! I'm still pretty well stocked from the last one, but I need to make more turtles and truffles. I also (unfortunately) went to the cake decorating store and started hemmorhaging money. This means I have lots of new toys! I got some more chocolate molds, this time in sucker form. I bought some of those nasty colored melts to fill in the pictures on top, then I'll fill the bulk of the mold up with real chocolate. Hope they turn out!

Today I wanted to share another candy recipe with you, so you can start gearing up for the holidays too! Peppermint is good year round, but always seems most appropriate during the holiday season. So here's the recipe for peppermint patties! It makes a lot, but that way you can mess some up, eat lots, and still have some to share!

Chocolate Peppermint Creams (from 1,000 chocolate, baking and dessert recipes)
1 egg white
2 cups confectioners' sugar, plus extra for dusting
few drops peppermint oil (I used about 1/2 tsp to make it really strong)
7 oz semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

-Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the egg white until stiff.

Gradually sift in the confectioners' sugar and mix together to form a firm, pliable mixture.

Add the peppermint oil to taste and mix well.

-Lightly dust a cutting board with confectioners' sugar, turn out the mixture, and knead for 2-3 minutes.

Roll out to a 1/4" thickness,

then cut into circles, using a 1" round cutter. (I used a ravioli cutter!)

-Transfer to the prepared cookie sheet and leave for about 24 hours, or overnight, until set and dry.

- Temper your chocolate, and gently dip each peppermint in using a fork. (They do become a bit brittle, so be very careful. Broken means "sample" in my book!) Lift out quickly, letting any excess chocolate drain against the side of the bowl, and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Let set.

Now you can eat them, package them, gift them, potluck them, sell them at the craft fair or leave some out for Santa to supplement the cookies!

Now it's time to do some chores (oh joy), and then make some truffles (oh JOY!). Christmas music might help the process. Nobody's home, so I can listen to it LOUD while wearing my Santa hat! Don't tell, ok?

Cupcake Art

2010-12-04T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! This will just be a quick post, but I wanted to share with you this amazingly cute painting by Lisa Orgler from The Lunch Box Project! I sent her a photo of one of my cupcakes, and she painted this!

Needless to say, I'm totally thrilled! This sweet little picture is actually painted on a playing card (it's kind of Lisa's trade mark)! She has dedicated the whole month of December to painting other bloggers' cupcakes, and I was lucky enough to have her select my picture to be included! I can't wait to see what other delicious designs she comes up with!

Please check out her blog to see more of her amazing art, or check out her etsy store where you can purchase a variety of her cards, posters and paintings! I am waiting for her cupcake compilation poster, which will include all of her December cupcake pictures! Waiting is haaard!

A BIG thanks to Lisa!

Happy weekend, all!

Hazelnut Praline Truffles

2010-11-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! How are things in your neck of the woods? We had a good day here. Lots of rain on and off, but Ben and I went out and cut up/hauled brush and firewood today. I played with fondant a little bit, and read more of Kitchen Confidential. Tomorrow is my bike ride/and walk to work day, so I hope it's not raining then!

I'm also super excited because the plans are final for my mom and sister to visit between Christmas and New Years! I haven't seen them in a really long time, as they live in California, so it will be so enjoyable! I think we'll be going to the Butchart Gardens to see all of the lights. We also might go to the Empress Hotel to see all of their Christmas trees! I can't wait! Anyway, back to the food!

Are you ready for more candy? I thought you might be! This is one tasty recipe! You can just make the praline and eat it as-is. It makes a great hard candy. You can also cover the whole praline in tempered chocolate, then break it up into shards. Very pretty and tasty! Or, you can grind it up and put it into truffle filling, which is what we're doing today. This stuff is delicious beyond words!

Use a large sauce pan, as the sugar likes to bubble up quite a bit. This will also take a bit of time, so don't become too impatient! Sugar takes it's time, but it will burn quickly if you aren't paying attention!

Hazelnut Praline by Cathy Burgett
2 1/2 cups skinned hazelnuts (16oz)
1 1/2 cups sugar (10 1/2 oz.)
water to cover (use as little as possible, while still covering the sugar, as you will then have to wait for all of it to cook off again)

Bring the sugar and water to a boil, and cook over high heat until light caramel in color.

Add the hazelnuts and continue cooking until all the nuts are well separated into the caramel and it is light brown.

Pour the mixture onto a well-oiled baking sheet, or silpat, spread nuts to one layer, and leave it to harden.

At this point you can do any of the things listed above! I used mine in truffles, so if you want to do that too, continue on! Make a half batch of this basic truffle filling and let it cool in the fridge. Break up the praline a bit and put it into your food processor.

Grind it until it becomes very fine granules.

Put the truffle filling into your mixer, and beat it on medium until light. Add the ground praline and beat until well incorporated.

Now you can scoop it into little balls, roll it between your hands, or pipe it into tempered chocolate molds.

If you want rustic looking truffles you can roll them in finely chopped toasted hazelnuts, or quickly dip the refrigerated balls of filling into tempered chocolate.

I sold these at our local craft fair, and they were a hit! I think we ate a good amount of them ourselves, too! These would make wonderful hostess/workplace/friend gifts for the holidays. Incorporate a few onto a cookie plate for a pot luck! Have them around for you own holiday guests to enjoy, or just eat them all yourself! It's ok, I won't tell!

Movie Monday

2010-11-30T02:42:00.000-08:00

Hi guys! Our power has been out for hours, and I had given up on getting anything posted today. Instead of worrying about that, I've been lounging around in my PJ's and slippers, listening to crazy wind and rain, and reading Kitchen Confidential. I'm almost done. It just keeps getting better, and, unfortunately, makes me want to get back into a restaurant kitchen. Flitting thoughts of pastry chef jobs, raunchy kitchen banter and cocky friends with knives stream through my head as I read. But then I remember that I get to work at a bakery, and that I make all kinds of fun stuff, every week! That's the place for me! It is a good book though ;)!

Here's a quick rundown of our movies for the week.

Movie Monday
Elf- This has become on of my FAVORITE Christmas movies!!! Will Ferrell plays Buddy the elf, who's actually a human raised by elves. He goes to NYC in search of his father. This is hilarious, cute, and very festive. It makes me want to answer the phone "Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?!". A must see, if you haven't already!

Miracle on 34th ST.- This is a Christmas classic! If you haven't ever see this movie, well, I'll claim I don't know you, you deprived child! This one is from 1947, and is black and white. A movie in the true Christmas spirit, about a man who claim to be the REAL Santa Claus, is put on trial for being insane, and who is trying to win over a mother and daughter who "don't believe". Love this one!

Dr. Dolittle- I'm talking the 1967 Rex Harrison version here, none of that Eddie Murphy crap. This is long, and a bit hokey, but i love it! There's an unfortunate amount of singing, but the cute animals strewn throughout the movie make up for it. There's also some hilarious things like the pushmepullu, the giant pink sea snail, and the lunar moth! Harrison is Dr. Dolittle, a vegetarian veterinarian who doesn't do well with people. He's out to find the giant pink sea snail, and takes a few friends, a talking parrot, and his chimp along for the ride. Worth seeing at least once!

Ghost Writer- Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor star in this drama/mystery about a writer who is hired to finish the memoirs of a former prime minister. Things get dicey as more information is uncovered, and McGregor starts to worry that he'll go the way of his predecessor who supposedly committed "suicide". Great story line, good acting, keeps you on edge and wondering! This is a pretty smart movie, and Ben and I both liked it. Nothing amazing, but a good movie.

Easy A- The always charming Emma Stone stars in this high school comedy about a girl with a virginal reputation, who accidentally starts a bad rumor about herself. Things snowball from there, with some hilarious results! Yeah, it's another high school goofy movie, but it's smarter, and is pulled off rather better, than lots of others. Great entertainment value! We liked it a lot!

Shrek Forever After- I liked this one better than the third shrek, but not nearly as well as the first two. This time around Rumplestiltskin tricks Shrek into never being born, creating an alternate world where Rumple rules with the witches. It's still funny, but is nothing spectacular. If you really liked the other movies then you would probably enjoy this. If not, then you can skip it. Nothing new here.

Sherlock Holmes- This is the 2009 version. I bought it on blu-ray, cuz we liked it so much! Good action, good acting, interesting storyline, and great use of the books characters. This is an exciting, adventurey, big budget movie.Lots of fun!

What movies did you guys watch this week? Anything good that I should check out?

Congrats on surviving you Monday! Good night!

Crofters Superfruit Spread and Kitchen Confidential

2010-11-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! How's the weekend treating you? We've been holed up in our cozy house with the dogs, rain outside, and lots of Mario Kart Wii tournaments!

I also just started reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Fantastic book!!! It is smart and hilarious, mostly because it's all true! I grew up as a kitchen brat, following my dad through many restaurants where he was head chef. My babysitters were the guys on the line who made me tip'n'tail green beans, the bar tender who let me behind the counter to make my own shirley temples (they went through a lot of cherries!), and the waitresses who let me squirt the whipped cream on pie slices and fold napkins in the back room. I have witnessed much of what Bourdain talks about in his book, and it makes me love it even more!!! If you are a foodie, have a high tolerance for bad language and being disgusted, and love smart anecdotes pertaining to awesome food and bad behavior, then this book is for you!!!

Besides enjoying my new book, I've also been enjoying Fruit spreads from Crofters!!! They sent me 3 flavors of their superfruit spread, and I've been powering my way through these jars!

The Asia spread is by far my favorite. It's smooth, tangy/sweet and delicious! The best way to enjoy it is on toast.

Obviously.

But it's really good stirred into oatmeal for some extra fruity flavor! I added vanilla and sliced almonds too!

Yeah, not the prettiest, but oh so tasty!

My new favorite? Crofter's Superfuit spread on waffles! Oh yes, this is a must try!

The other flavors are good too. The North America spread has nice little berry bits in it, and the South America spread is mouthwatering as well! I especially like that they are not gelatinous like jelly. It spreads smoothly. You can buy Crofter's products at most large grocery stores, I just saw some at our local Super Store. There is no excuse! These organic jars of antioxidant rich fruity flavor have great ingredients like morello cherry, passion fruit puree and fair trade cane sugar! It'll be a perfect addition to your breakfast table! Yum! They also have great info and recipes on their site! Hope you guys get a chance to try it out!

Speaking of trying things out, I'm thinking of sharing more candy posts. Does that sound good to you guys? I got a lot of enthusiastic responses from the truffle post. Plus, it's just that time of year! Cookies and candy are flowing out of my kitchen, and unfortunately often into my stomach! I'll see what I can come up with next! Hope your Monday is a good one!

Thanksgiving with POM!

2010-11-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Hope all of those who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful time! I am still not used to Canadian Thanksgiving, it seems so early! Ben and I had the house to ourselves, so we celebrated U.S. Thanksgiving in our own way.

This is Magic Lake, all frozen over. It got coated in snow overnight!

We slept in, and woke up to more snow! We had nutella in our oatmeal, then went to visit our pigs. Tobogganing down the hill got lots of snow up my back, but it was SO fun! I took Izzie down with me a few times, and Ben and I went together. Tons of fun!

You can see our sledding tracks all down the hill!

Bird prints in the snow! Too cute!

Then we came in, put on Miracle on 34th St., and Ben made a pumpkin pie. We played Mario Kart Wii, then I made us some dinner. We had pan fried chicken breasts, parmesan mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus. I also roasted a head of garlic. YUM! For the chicken I made a great sauce using red wine, dried cranberries, and POM. It had that perfect festive color, and a great savory/sweet contrast of flavor. I think the POM really made it!

Red Wine Cranberry POM sauce (inspired by America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook)
1/4 yellow onion, finely diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbs. flour
3/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 Tbs. honey
1/3 cup regular POM pomegranate juice

Once you have pan fried your chicken

(breasts dried, tossed in flour s&p and fried in canola oil until golden and cooked through) remove it from the pan and keep it warm.

Add the onion to the pan and saute until softened. Add in the garlic and stir until fragrant.

Stir in flour and cook 30 seconds, then pour in wine, stock, cranberries, thyme, honey and POM juice. Scrape bottom of pan to loosen browned bits.

Bring to a simmer, and cook until sauce has thickened and reduced slightly, about 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over the chicken.

This was the perfect easy meal, that tasted and looked like Thanksgiving without the hassel! I've been using POM juice in other ways too! I made a spritzer out of it with lime juice and seltzer! Yum!

After dinner we had Ben's pumpkin pie and watched the new Star Trek movie.

Then it was off to work for us! I got to decorate this birthday cake! It was really fun! I think piping is my favorite! So many things you can do!

Hope everyone's work week was good, it's Friday!

Basic Truffles

2010-11-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hi there bloggy friends! Before we get to the chocolate, I wanted to let you know that I will soon have the opportunity to review an item from one of the CSN family of online stores! I will probably choose a food related item, but they also have things like tv tables, baby items and games in their selection of over 200 stores! I'm not exactly sure what I'll be getting yet, but I'll show you as soon as it gets here!

I thought you might like another installment in the candy series! Here is another staple recipe for you. Truffles! Everyone loves them, and they are disgustingly simple! You can, of course, make them as complicated as you like, but they don't have to be hard!

This is another recipe from school. I have used it countless times! I'm sure you will too!

Chocolate Truffles
1 lb. semisweet chocolate
1 cup cream
6 Tbs. butter (3 oz.)

Bring the cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from the heat and stir into the chocolate and butter.

Stir until smooth.

Refrigerate until firm. Beat the mixture with the paddle attachment on the mixer on medium speed until light. Add liqueur if desired.

Form into balls with your hands or a scoop,

or pipe into small rounds onto parchment-lined sheets. Freeze until firm before coating, rolling in nuts, or rolling in cocoa powder.

Variations
Liqueur: Before chilling the mixture, add 2 Tbs. grand marnier, brandy, kahlua, or other desired liqueur.

Nuts: Before chilling mixture, add 3/4 cup ground nuts such as hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds.

Coatings: Cocoa powder, melted, tempered dark or white chocolate, finely chopped nuts.

You can also pipe this filling into tempered chocolate coated molds to make snazzy truffles!

This filling melts easily and quickly, so don't handle too much, and store somewhere dark and cool. The options are endless here! Use any liqueur, Stir in all kinds of nuts, candy cane bits, praline or whatever! Just try not to eat all of it out of the bowl! Don't worry, you can lick that when you're done! ;)

Movie Monday and Some Chocolate!

2010-11-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

Heeey, look! It's actually Monday! I remembered! I think it's a miracle. Anyway. We've been having lots of crazy weather here. Temperatures below freezing, snow flurries, and some really strong winds! Everything is pretty cozy though, and we're actually enjoying the excitement!

The power is amazingly still on, despite a few brown-outs and flickering. The fire is roaring and there are lots of fuzzy little bodies napping in front of it.

I have hot tea, slippers, and a good book. Plus a little chocolate! I am enjoying some of the chocolate that was sent to me from Alter Eco Fair Trade, and it is delicious! There is a plain 85% dark chocolate, and some dark chocolate with crystallized orange peel.

Both have a nice snap when you bite into them, and a very creamy and silky texture. I am totally a fan of dark chocolate in general, but the flavor of this, especially the 85%, is really intense while not at all bitter. The dark chocolate with orange is the perfect mix. The fresh flavor of orange is strong but not overpowering, and the little nuggets of crystallized orange peel create an interesting texture with a flavor burst.

Just a little bit goes a long way, so it's perfect for my "behaving myself" dessert nights. I love finding new chocolate, especially when it's really good. You guys should try this. You won't be sorry! Check out their website to order some of your own!

We've all been sick/fighting the flu, plus all of the crazy weather, power outages, and the craft fair this weekend. Needless to say we haven't watched as many movies as we usually do. Nevertheless, here's the list!

Movie Monday
Ella Enchanted: This stars Anne Hathaway when she was younger. It's definitely made for young girls, but I have to say I enjoyed it anyway. Ben didn't even complain. Go figure. Ella is under a spell that causes her to always be obedient. She has funny friends, goes on a quest, and meets a handsome prince. Magic, singing and comedy fill out this cute little movie. It's a fun lightweight watch.

Mission Impossible 3: This one wasn't as good as the other two. It still had good action, an actual plot, and reasonable acting, but it didn't suck you in as much as the first one. Ethan Hunt now has a girlfriend, and doesn't go on real missions anymore. He's asked to do just one more, and of course it gets bigger and more involved than anticipated. It's a good one time watch action flick.

The Man in the Iron Mask: I just finished reading the book, by Alexandre Dumas. It was a pretty good book, although I liked the first two better. This movie is supposedly based on the book, so I waited to watch it until I was done reading the original. No need. This was nothing like the book at all. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the king of France, and the man in the iron mask. It's a pretty good movie, but not fantastic. Good period drama, nice costumes, alright plot considering it's all new. The main thing that bothered me in this was John Malkovich. He's a good actor, but he really is wrong for period pieces. Every time I heard him talk it ruined the scene. All in all, it was entertaining, especially if you haven't read the book!

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: We both really liked this one! Nicholas Cage is Balthazar, one of Merlin's three apprentices. He looks for a thousand years for a special boy, and finds him in modern times. Dave is a goofy science nerd, who now also happens to be a sorcerer's apprentice! Funny, light, with a unique twist on the original story. It also has a great throw-back to Mickey and the brooms! This is a fun one!

The Muppets' Wizard of OZ: This was probably my least favorite muppet movie ever. Don't get me wrong. I still watched it, and enjoyed it too. It just wasn't up to par with things like Muppets' Christmas Carol, or the Great Muppet Caper. Ashanti is the star of this, and I can't say that she is a great actress. She does have a great singing voice though! There is the usual muppet hilarity, great characters, and the expected songs. It's a fun one timer, but I don't think I ever need to see this one again.

That's it for tonight folks! I just finished reading The Man in the Iron Mask, and I just started reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It's great so far! Time to curl up in front of the fire with all of those dogs! G'night!

Kilimanjaro Wot Sauce Chicken and SNOW!

2010-11-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well hello there! This has been one busy week! We got tons of snow!!! This is supposed to be the snowiest/coldest winter in the last 50 years! I am so excited, being from California and not so used to the snow. It made driving a bit difficult, and we ended up walking 7 miles in the snow in the middle of the night for a work shift, but it's still fun!

Snow everywhere!Our deck, yard, and water view were all covered!

Lots of beautiful shots. This is at the Driftwood Center, where the bakery is, at about 4am! Like the cat tracks across the bridge?

Ben took this one. So cute!

Saturday was also the craft fair that I've been working towards! Most of my items were not so popular, but my candy went really well and I made back all i'd spent, plus a little profit!

I think I'll be doing the next craft fair, on December 12 th too. Admittedly, the power was out, and lots of people couldn't get there because of the snow, so it wasn't ideal selling conditions.

I had tons of fun though, and had lots of friends wander by, say hello, and buy things. I got to meet lots of new islanders too!

With all of this cold weather, and a house full of sick people, we wanted something a bit spicy for dinner. I had just the thing! The nice people over at Kilimanjaro Foods sent me a package with some fun new things to try! They have a great selection of African and African-inspired sauces and gourmet items, all full of flavor and enthusiastic inspiration. One item was this Wot sauce, a spicy tomato based sauce that's good for soups, stews, meat...anything!

I decided to try it over chicken and rice. I browned some drumsticks in a pan to bump up their flavor.

Then I poured half the jar of sauce over them, added about 1/3 cup water, and let them simmer until done.

I made a pot of rice, and baked some cauliflower (425*, covered in olive oil and salt, bake until browned about 20 minutes). We put it all into one bowl and made sure everything had sauce. My whole family raved about this! Everyone in the house agreed that it is just delicious!

It was just right! Such a simple meal, easy and fast to prepare, and SO much flavor! The house smelled wonderful from all of the herbs blended in the sauce. There was a good spicy kick to the Wot sauce, but I could totally handle it, even being the spice-wimp that I am! I can't wait to try other Kilimanjaro products! You can try them too, by ordering online from their website! You'll be amazed by the intense range of flavors, and how easy it makes your dinner preparation! If you have their products, and want some inspiration, then check out their recipe page for tons of good ideas!

We are expecting more snow, and some seriously cold weather here in the next few days. Time to break out the snow gear! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends. I'll be posting more candy recipes soon. Stay warm!

What day is it? Movie Monday-ish

2010-11-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I just put up a post, but I just realized something. It's Tuesday. Right now. Uh, that means that yesterday was Monday. Follow me so far? That also means that for 2 out of 3 weeks, Movie Monday has been on a Tuesday! Seriously? Am I losing my mind already?

I don't want to call it Movie Tuesday, cuz that just doesn't sound as good! I guess I'll just have to try harder, and actually pay attention to the days of the week. Huh. What a concept! ;)

Movie Monday:
Mission Impossible 2: Neither of us had ever seen this one before. It's surprisingly entertaining for being a sequel! Lots of good spy stuff, action, and more Tom Cruise. I have to say that I liked it!

Joe vs the Volcano: I saw this once a really long time ago, and didn't remember it much. This is one of the odder Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movies that I have seen! It's from 1990, and looks it! Meg plays 3 different characters, and does it rather poorly, but she's so cute that it doesn't matter. She does best when she just plays herself. That aside, this was pretty funny! Worth a watch.

Quantum of Solace: Hmm...what can I say about Daniel Craig? Hot, muscely, hot, good actor, hot, looks good in a tux, hot, and HOT! Oh, right...the movie! Typical James Bond flick. Good plot, lots of action, Bond wooing the ladies, and more action. This is one of my favorite Bond films of all time! If you haven't seen it, you need to. And I'm not just saying that because it's got Daniel Craig. But he is hot!

The Princess Diaries: Ann Hathaway plays a school girl, not with the in-crowd, who finds out she's a princess! Cute, funny, and very well done for this type of movie! I watched it by myself, but Ben actually said he'd seen this when it came out (!!! The things you find out about your husband! Wow!!!) and liked it too! Ha!

Joe's Apartment: This is an MTV movie, and is hilariously bad. Yes, it was funny. Yes, it was stupid. We laughed a lot, but often while cringing. Joe moves to the big city, and everything goes wrong. The roaches in his apartment can talk, and they decide that they like Joe, and want to help him out. It's all about Joe trying to get the perfect girl...with cockroach commentary and songs. Weird. I know.

Return to OZ: No child should ever watch this movie! Creepy! Dorthy Gail has been odd ever since the tornado, so good old Aunty Em takes her in for some electro shock therapy! Thanks Aunt Em! Sheesh! Dorothy ends up back in OZ, of course. She has all new friends, even odder than last time. The wheelers are out to get them (scary clown/bell boy looking guys with wheels instead of hands and feet). Plus this super scary lady who collects heads and can change from one to another runs around yelling "Dorothy Gail! Doorooothy Gaaaaaiiil" Yeah. Creepy! This is what I'm telling you! Anyway, I remember it from my childhood, (it's from 1985) and I do like it. I just don't know how I survived it without nightmares!

Yup, that's what we watched this week! I promise I'll try harder to remember which day is Monday! Next week! hehe.

How to Temper Chocolate

2010-11-16T22:48:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Today was yet another fun filled day of chocolate, truffles and packaging! I can't believe how fast this weekend is coming! I totally just released the tension by shopping. Yeah, and I spent a lot too. Uh, don't tell Ben, OK? It's just that I was browsing through the baking books on Amazon, and happened to come across a whole section of cookie decorating books (which happen to be my weakness!). I get to make and decorate tons of things for the holidays at the bakery, and new ideas are never a bad thing! Have I convinced you yet? Yeah, I convinced me too! Awesome! I hope they get here soon!!! I'll be sure to show you when they do!

Oh Here's something else I wanted to show you! There was this rain storm a few days ago, and when I got up super early for work this is what I saw!It was a whole rainbow, too! So beautiful!

Awesome, right?!

Oh, right, and speaking of holiday treats, I have decided to go ahead with my candy posts for the holidays! This will be the first of my series of candy posts! I've been making tons of different things for the Christmas craft fair, and I love to include candy with the cookies plates I give to friends for holiday presents.

Tempering chocolate is a very important and basic skill. You can do TONS of stuff with tempered chocolate! You really need a candy thermometer to do this, as tempering requires some rather specific temperatures. This is not something to be intimidated by, it just takes a little precision and time. You can do it!

Because I knew I would be making a lot of stuff, I bought a huge bar of chocolate! You want to choose a good brand. Something that is totally delicious all by itself.

I'm in love! I was almost sad to open it's perfect wrapper, but it was worth it! I also prefer dark chocolate, but you could use milk chocolate if you really wanted to. This also works for white chocolate. These are the instructions we were given in culinary school, written by Cathy Burgett, our teacher. Ready? Here we go!

To temper 1 1/2 pounds of chocolate:
-Chop the chocolate very fine, and place two thirds of it in a metal bowl. Bring a pot of water to a simmer, remove it from the heat and place the bowl of chocolate over the water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the surface of the water or the chocolate will overheat. Stir the chocolate frequently as it is melting. Take the chocolate's temperature occasionally to make sure that it does not exceed 125*. If it looks like it might be getting too hot, take the bowl off the water bath, and keep stirring to complete the melting.

-Remove the bowl from the water bath when the chocolate has melted. Dry the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the remaining third of chocolate, a little at a time until the temperature comes down to 87* to 91* for bittersweet or semisweet chocolates, or 84* to 88* for milk or white chocolates.

-The chocolate can drop down as low as 71*, but then must be reheated repeatedly over the pan of hot water for no more than 2-3 seconds at a time until it comes back up to 87*-91*(bittersweet or semisweet) or 84*-88* (milk or white).

If the chocolate cools down below 71* you must start over. If upon reheating the chocolate the temperature rises above 91* for darks, or 88* for white or milk, the chocolate goes out of temper and you must start over. When the chocolate is in the ideal temperature range it is in a good state of temper and can be used for molding, coating, rolling and decorations.

I used my tempered chocolate to make truffles in molds, for chocolate coffee bark, and to coat things like turtles, peppermint patties, and caramels. It also went on English toffee! When Chocolate is properly tempered it should appear very glossy and smooth, and have a good hard snap to it when you break it. Chocolate that is out of temper it will "bloom", or have the cocoa butter rise to the surface and create a milky film on top, looking cloudy. It will also be softer, lacking the nice snap of tempered chocolate.

See? Super shiny! And we all know that I like shiny things! I hope you guys get a chance to try this out for the holidays, and create something beautiful, and delicious! More candy posts will follow, and I'll be referring back to this post. There will be lots of good ideas for using tempered chocolate! I bet you can think of some too!

Tomorrow is my early shift at work. On Wednesdays I ride my bike about 3 1/2 miles to Magic lake (above picture), and then I meet my friend/boss Nora and we walk the last 3 miles together. We get to go on the "Heart Trail", which takes us up and down quite a few nasty little hills, but with moss, trees, leaves, ferns and mushrooms as our scenery. Not too shabby! Check out the steam that was rising last week! Cool!

Guess I had better go to bed soonish. G'night all!

New Header!!!

2010-11-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

This is just a quickie to let you all know the obvious...I have a new header!!! My super awesome friend Ben (but not my husband Ben) got this one together for me, and I love it!!! Hope you guys like it too! Also, just a heads up, I'm working on updating my recipe page. FINALLY! So things will start looking a bit neater around here!
G'night!

Super Easy Tofu and Asparagus Over Rice

2010-11-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, friends, I think I finally have my picture dilemma figured out. For now, at least! I'm just going to use photobucket until all of that space is gone. Then...who knows! But, at any rate, this means that I can now put up regular posts again! Hurray!

I have had a headache most of the day, and Ben and his mom are still super sick, but I still got lots of candy making done today! I made peanut brittle, turtles, and coated a bunch of truffles. I also did some packaging. Saturday and the craft fair are coming pretty darn quick! I was thinking it might be fun to do a series of candy posts for the holiday season! What do you guys think? Would that be good for you? It's a lot of work, but I've really been enjoying all of the candy making!

Last week I was feeling tired, but it was my turn to make dinner. I thought I'd just throw together some stuff we had around. I had some of this red rice from Alter Eco Fair Trade to try, so I broke that out. Asparagus, tofu and a bottle of black bean sauce all appeared on the counter too, so I went at it!

Tofu and Asparagus over Red Rice

2 blocks of firm or extra firm tofu
1 bunch asparagus, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup Alter Eco Red Rice
1/2 bottle black bean sauce
oil for frying

First, cut up your tofu into bite sized pieces and drain it, using paper towels or however you usually get the liquid out of your tofu. I seriously wish I had a tofu express! Totally on my Christmas list for this year!!!

I started my red rice cooking so it'd be done in time.

What a beautiful color!!!

Wait until your rice is almost done cooking before you start this part. It only takes a few minutes. Heat up your frying pan with some oil in it, probably on med-high, and brown your tofu on all sides. Toss in the asparagus and fry just until it's bright green.

Then pour on as much sauce as you want. I used enough to nicely coat everything.

Pile some of the gorgeous rice into your bowl and top with tofu and asparagus! It's as easy as that! Super tasty too!

This red rice from Alter Eco Fair Trade was a bit chewier than the white jasmine rice, but it had great earthy flavor, and the color was just fantastic! Very tasty! A perfect base for this simple meal. YUM!

I made a quick side salad of mandarin orange segments with pomegranate on top! So pretty, and delicious! Nice and light.

Happy eating everyone! Hope you survived your Monday!

Fellow Foodie Bites #8

2010-11-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

Well, my friends. I am sick. My husband is sick. My mother-in-law is sick. I'm kinda waiting for my father-in-law to get sick too. It sucks. I have no energy, and the craft fair is next weekend! Hope I feel better by then. Needless to say, I haven't figured out my no-picture-space dilemma yet, so here is a plain, boring post. Sorry, that's just the way it is today. Blah

Luckily all of this food is NOT blah, so check out some of these fantastic recipes!

Fellow Foodie Bites
-More from Joy the Baker! Apple crisp is a classic!

-Ooh, or how about this chocolate cobbler?! Yes please!

-Sticky mustard orange chicken sounds like a delicious dinner waiting to happen!

-Black bean spinach burgers sound like a filling alternative to beef! I think I'd like fries with that!

-Super charge me cookies sound like the perfect snack!

-I have made regular yogurt at home before, but I'd love to try making this soygurt!

-Lemon basil flatbread would be so good with pasta or soup! I kinda want some. Like NOW!

-I think my husband should make these fish tacos for me! Don't you? Yeah, he totally should.

-Here's a great idea of Thanksgiving! Maple pecan pie!

-Harvest root vegetable pie sounds like the perfect meal for a cold and rainy night! That might be coming up pretty soon here!

-Here's a great way to get your greens in! Swiss chard tart!

-Tahini soba noodles with tofu meatballs could be the next great meal in this house! So many tasty aspects to this dish!

-Katies peanut butter babies sound so delicious. And simple!

-These would be great to have around for entertaining during the holidays! Easy whole wheat crackers!

Hope you find some great recipes to try in there! I know I want to try them ALL!

Grandpa Dave's Clam Chowder

2010-11-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! How was your week? You made it! Happy weekend! I have been crafting like crazy, getting ready for the Pender Island Christmas craft fair next weekend. Just today I started making all of the candy I'll be selling there. I have the filling done for the peppermint patties, some hazelnut praline made (for truffles), and a batch of marbled halva ready to slice! I think I'll have to break into the chocolate tomorrow! So, now that we've discussed dessert, which should always come first, how about some real food?

Here's another Grandpa recipe for you! In case you hadn't figured it out yet, my grandpa is a pretty cool guy! I loved growing up with delicious food all around! Now, I am really enjoying trying all of his recipes myself. This is a good one, so be prepared to bolt for you kitchen as soon as you're done reading!

Grandpa Dave's Clam Chowder
5-6 small slices of ham, if desired (I didn't use any)
3 med. red potatoes (I used 6 tiny yukon golds)
1 bottle clam juice
2-4 cans clams (I only used 2, but do what you like)
1/2 cup white wine
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp tabasco
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
dash of pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
2 cups half and half
2 Tbsp butter
1 carrot, sliced very thin
1 stalk celery, sliced very thin (I would have used this, but I didn't have any!)
3 large cloves garlic, minced

-Saute vegetables in butter until soft.

-Deglaze pan with white wine

-Add potatoes and clam juice

-Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer until potatoes are tender. About 15 minutes. Have some wine while you wait!

-Stir in bay leaf, tabasco, pepper, worcestershire, thyme, cream and ham.

-Stir in clams and their juices shortly before serving. Just long enough to heat them through, but not make them tough.

This freezes well!

I decided that it wasn't quite as thick as I like, so at the very end I stirred in a bit of roux. Not really the way it should be done, but it worked! I used about 2 Tbsp flour, and made a paste of it with some olive oil, then brought it all to a boil quickly.

Perfect clam chowder! YUM! Just right for a cool evening. Enjoy!

Question of the day: What is your favorite cool weather comfort food?

Movie Monday, Even Though It's Tuesday

2010-11-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! I feel so silly! I told you last week that I'd probably forget all about movie monday, and then today I asked Ben what day it was and he said it was Tuesday! Doh! And then, to top that off, I just found out that I am out of space on my picasa web album thingy, and it won't let me upload pics to my blog! I am hopeless with computery things! How do I fix this?! Anybody out there know a solution? Do you have to upload pics to some other place like photobuckt and then upload again to your blog? I hope somebody out there knows what's goin' on, cuz I sure don't!

Well, enough of me freaking out. Hopefully you will be seeing my poorly lit pictures here again soon. Without further ado, here is movie Monday, even though it's Tuesday.

Movie Monday

Across the Universe: Yup, I watched that. I totally thought it'd be some goofy love story thing, but it really turned out to be a group of young people dealing with the Viet Nam war, doing drugs, and singing Beatles songs at each other. Not bad for what it was I guess, just not what I was expecting.

Chocolat: I totally loved this movie. Quirky and fresh, but with a quaint style, this is such a fun movie! A mother and daughter arrive in a sleepy stuck-in-it's -ways little town, and work themselves into the community through their chocolate shop! Seriously, how can you go wrong with a movie about chocolate?! Oh,and Johnny Dep is in it too. That's most definitely a plus!

Clash of the Titans 2010: I had seen this before, but I just bought it on blu-ray, and Ben and I had the house to ourselves over the weekend, so we watched it LOUD! Such a fun action movie! Plus, I loved the throwback to the classic version! Big budget film, lots of computer graphics and crazy monsters. Guys in short skirts. Even a plot! This was fun, and you know I'll be watching it again soon!

Inception: This was a crazy mind twister! Dicaprio does a great job. It's all about entering other peoples dreams, almost like alternate universes. Kind of a thriller, some good action, definitely some drama. A good movie, but once you've seen it, it won't be the same again. Kind of like watching the sixth sense or something.

Meet the Robinsons: This one was obviously my pick. I love computer animation, and this was such a fun and unique idea! Lewis is a young inventor, and things just aren't working out for him. He meets a boy from the future, and takes a time machine to the future! Lots of fun and laughs.

Mission Impossible: Ben and I had both seen this once before, but a really long time ago. It still holds up to the new action stuff! Cruise makes a great spy trying to find out who the mole in his team was. Tons of great action, a few good plot twists, and lots and lot of TOM! The perfect actiony spy flick!

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: YES! This was SO hilarious! I personally like Michael Cera, and if you don't then this won't be your movie. A liking and a bit of knowledge of video games helps when watching this, but is not required. Scott wants to date this new hot chick, but to do so he must defeat her 7 evil exes! Plenty of awkward moments, crazy fight scenes, loud music, and hilarious outfits! A must see in my book!

The Expendables: This movie was a hilarious excuse for overly muscular guys (many of which are looking pretty damn old!), lots of stuff blowing up, lots of guns, everybody dying, and...oh yeah, more muscly guys! I'll admit, while there was almost no plot to speak of, it was still entertaining. The perfect funny, non-stop action, brainless kind of entertainment you want on a weekend. Worth seeing, if you like action.

Wild Target: An odd but funny movie! A hit man is hired to kill a young woman, but instead becomes her protector! Rupert Grint (ron weasly from the harry potter movies!) is a tag along goof. A bit of action, lots of laughs, and a real story line. Pretty good!

Ok, now the truth is out. You can tell that we don't have lives, can't you. Oh well. My non-life requires me to ride my bike to work tomorrow morning in the rain. Whatever.

Hope I figure out my stupid picture problems!!! It could be bad. Seriously. Send help!

Fellow Foodie Bites #7, Plus A Bonfire!

2010-11-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

Well hello my foodie friends! How was your Monday? Not too brutal, I hope! Over the weekend Ben and I had a huge bonfire! It rained a bit, so everything was nice and wet. I totally forgot my camera for the before shot, but lets just say that the pile to burn was HUGE! This is where is used to be.

Please excuse the darkness, but it was pretty late by the time I went and got my camera.

Ben rode his mini tractor. He loves that thing! It's like his personal go-kart!

We warmed ourselves by the fire,

and roasted marshmallows!

I LOVE marshmallows! Maybe one of my favorite foods! It's just not a campfire, or bonfire, without them!
Perfectly roasted!

Needless to say we had a good time with the bonfire. I do realize that my clothing is hideous, but I wasn't exactly out to impress!

This food, however, definitely is out to impress! So, without further ado, here are some of the recipes I have been wanting to make!

Fellow Foodie Bites

-This socca recipe from the twins over at pure 2 raw looks delicious! I had never heard of socca before!

-Here is a great seitan demo from hungry hungry hippie! I have always wanted to try this stuff out.

-I love finding energy bars that taste good, and are healthy! These look like they are both!

-These roasted potato chips look like the perfect snack, plus, no frying!

-Warm sticky toffee pudding should be a meal all in itself! Who wouldn't want to eat the entire batch?!

-I'm always looking for new grains to try, or new ways to prepare them. Curried millet is a must try!

-I love hummus, and I love sweet potatoes. Now I can make sweet potato hummus!

-Who doesn't want more pumpkin recipes?! When paired with creme brulee you can't go wrong! Mmm, pumpkin creme brulee!

-I keep meaning to try baba ganoush. This looks like a great recipe!

-I have totally been digging soup lately. It's just that season, ya know? This roasted squash and white bean soup looks perfect for a Fall evening!

-Let's end with dessert, shall we? Joy the Baker is totally my favorite blogger, and her apple spice cake looks beyond amazing! Seriously. It's worth just looking at the pictures!

I thought I'd leave you with some quick meals we've been having lately. Over the weekend Ben's parents were away, so we had breakfast for dinner! One of our favorites! Ben made amazing french toast!

YUM! Oh, that's totally his plate. You can tell by the half stick of butter on top, and the entire jug of syrup!!!

Here's another tasty thing. I spooned some black beans into a bowl, and topped them with half an avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, and halved bococcini. Sprinkle a little lime juice on and we're in business!

This was a really filling and tasty lunch!

Hope the rest of the week is great for everyone!

Grandpas Gingerbread

2010-11-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is post 100! My how time flies when your blogging for fun! I'd like to thank all of YOU, my readers, for making this so fun and rewarding! Love hearing from everyone! As a giant thank you from me, here is something special!

My grandpa makes the BEST gingerbread. He has always been a baker, and always has a kitchen stocked with the yummiest baked goods available. All of my friends in junior high and high school wanted to be adopted by my grandparents, probably because of the perks!

After so many years of having grandpas baked goods available at all times, moving 1000 miles away from him and his kitchen has been quite a shock. Calling him for recipes has become a common occurrence. I love being able to re-create all of those smells from my childhood.

Now that the holidays are on the way I am craving the warm scent of spices in my kitchen, and some of grandpas gingerbread. Now you can have that warm fuzzy feeling in your home too!

Grandpas Gingerbread
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg

-Preheat oven to 325*, and pull out an 8x8x2" baking dish. No need to grease it.

-Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.

-Combine the molasses, sugar, melted butter, buttermilk and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and pour into the dish.

-Bake about 40-45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares.

I immediately downed a warm square, just to make sure it was good,of course. We happened to be going over to a friends that day, so I stuck four pieces on one of my palm leaf plates from Marx foods and we were on our way. Luckily I have the type of friends that happen to be whipping cream when I arrive, so that went on top of the still-warm gingerbread. Heaven!

Make this for your family and friends this holiday season. Then memorize the recipe, because everyone will be asking for it! Happy eating!

Now I'm on my way out into the fog and mist to have another bonfire! The temperatures are cooling down...maybe there is snow in the near future? Well, hopefully there will at least be snow this season! I want to go tobogganing! Happy weekend all!

Nature's Path Nom Nom's!

2010-11-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, and happy Tuesday! Today I had a big bonfire and got our yard cleaned up a bit. Unfortunately I now smell like bonfire. But it was lots of fun! There is nothing quite like a huge column of flames of your own creation! Very satisfying! Plus, I got to tromp around through the Fall leaves in my green boots!

Today's post is kind of breakfasty. Nature's Path sent me some great samples, and I have really been enjoying the new selection! Everything is organic! That's the way to do it! It kind of makes me want to eat breakfast for every meal! So, lets get started, shall we?

The least breakfasty item was this box of granola bars. They should really be called "candy bars"! And I mean that in the best way! They are advertised as "sweet and salty", and they live up to it! They are also slathered in chocolate. Very chewy, just they way I like my granola bars, and I love the texture! Want to know some other great stuff about them? They are low sodium, have no trans fats and are a source of fibre.

The down side? They should be called candy bars because of the amount of sugar they contain! I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that I won't be downing these every day. They are a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth, and are an excellent treat!

YUM!

This granola was in my box of goodies as well. I had never tried this flavor, pomegranPlus with cherries, but I regularly eat the Nature's Path HemPlus granola, and I LOVE it! This flavor didn't quite live up to my expectations, but was good nevertheless. I really enjoyed the variety in each spoonful, including rolled oats, crispy rice, dried coconut, and red sour cherries. The flavor of pomegranate in my granola took a bit of getting used to, but it totally grew on me!

The down side to this one? I truly was not a fan of the dried fruit in this. It was hard and really stuck to my teeth, plus it didn't really impart any extra flavor. Only a small complaint which is overwhelmed by all of the other goodness! I love that this contains lots of fibre, whole grains, and is vegan!

My least favorite of the bunch? Nature's Path organic Optimum Blueberry cinnamon cereal. Meh. There is actually nothing wrong with this cereal. It's pretty good! I liked the crunch, the different textures, and the freeze dried blueberries. For some reason this just wasn't my flavor. I like cinnamon, and I like blueberries, but evidently not together in my cereal. Oh well.

I was impressed to see that this stuff includes whole wheat meal, wheat bran, flax, puffed kamut, oat bran and other great ingredients! Gotta get those omega-3s in, and your fibre!

The other cereal was Flax Plus maple pecan crunch. Usually maple flavored things make me gag, and pecans are not my favorite. Oddly enough, this was totally my favorite! This stuff is SO good! The pecans add a great light crunch, the maple flavor is perfect, and the little flakes have the perfect texture! YUM! I am totally going to have to buy this one again!

Once again it has high fibre, 0g trans fat, and lots of whole grains. I am actually considering trying to make my own granola bars using this stuff as the base! I think they would be SO good! This cereal would be good as a layer in a parfait too, or over yogurt, or or or...Ok, I think I'll just go have another bowl full!

Want some of your own? Nature's Path products can be found just about anywhere! Most large grocery stores carry their products, and will have most varieties. I actually buy the hemplus granola in bulk at my local natural foods store! I really suggest that you pick up a box of this stuff. It's got a great Fall-y flavor to it. And you guys know that I'm all about Fall-y things! If you can't find their stuff in your store, then order some online! This stuff is seriously worth it! You can also find recipes and other information on their web site!

Well, I think I'll go read a bit and then head to bed! Tomorrow is my double-shift day, so I gotta get my beauty sleep! 13 miles of bike riding and hiking are waiting for me in the morning! Night all!

Tofu in Coconut Curry Sauce and Movie Monday

2010-11-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Today I wanted to share with you a brand of rice that I hadn't tried before. Alter Eco Fair Trade is a fantastic company that provides fair trade foods from all over, and they sent me some samples to try! They have very high quality organic products, with a huge variety! This is definitely a store you can be proud of supporting! You can purchase any of their products at their online store!

For this recipe I tried their white jasmine rice. Just opening the package I got a hug whif of that heady flowery scent. Oh, I love jasmine rice SO much! I was definitely excited to use this! I found that It cooked up nice and fluffy, and the aroma just got better as it cooked! The bottom line? Fabulous texture, flavor, and quality! I am totally going to have buy some more of this! I can't wait to try out the other samples! Here's the recipe I made to put over the rice.

Tofu in Coconut Curry Sauce (adapted by Cathy Burgett from The Green's Cookbook, by Deborah Madison)
2 Lbs. firm tofu, rinsed and drained (I only had 1 Lb, so I substituted 2 small sweet potatoes, par cooked and cubed.)
oil for frying, or stock for simmering

2 Tbs. roasted peanut oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced (my bell pepper was green)
2 serrano chiles, minced (I didn't have these, so I used red chili flakes)
1 Tbs Thai curry paste or curry powder
1 cup canned coconut milk
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock, or water
salt
2/3 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup roasted chopped peanuts

Slice the tofu into 1/2-inch pieces and fry it in vegetable oil until crisp and brown (this is what I chose to do). Alternatively, simmer the tofu in stock and cover for 5 minutes. Drain either preparation of tofu.

Over high heat, saute the onion, bell peppers and chiles (if using) in the peanut oil for 1 minute. Stir in the curry paste or powder and the coconut milk. Add the stock and salt to taste. Add the tofu. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the tofu is hot.

Serve over noodles or rice (I chose rice, obviously!)

garnished with peanuts and cilantro.

I also steamed some broccoli, and we mixed that into the bowl of goodness too! This was SO good! I can't get over the aroma and flavor of this rice! I am hooked!

And you will be too! Come on, you know you want to try some!

Want something good to watch with that fabulous dinner? Well, this is just a trial, but I would like to start "Movie Mondays". My husband and I are total movie fans, and we tend to watch a few each week. I thought you might like to hear what we're watching, and maybe even give me some suggestions as to what to watch next! Movies are fun, and hopefully my "Movie Mondays" blurb will be fun too!This was obviously our Halloween selection. Here goes!

Movie Monday #1
Machete: Starring Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, and Michelle Rodriguez. This was bloody, full action and a bit gritty. Definitely a Robert Rodriguez film, and definitely not for the faint of heart! Surprisingly good story that held up through the whole movie, and good acting! This was Ben's choice, but I ended up liking it too!

The Nightmare Before Christmas: We have seen this a million times, but it was so appropriate for Halloween. Plus, even though we each own it on dvd, we ended up buying it on blu-ray. SO worth it! This movie is one of our favorites! Tim Burton's style is awesome! This is one of the few animated movies that I can get Ben to watch again and again!

Young Frankenstein: Only Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder could come up with something this funny! Obviously this is another favorite, but it needed to be watched for the holiday. SO hilarious! It's a classic!

From Dusk Til Dawn: This was another of Ben's picks. George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, and quite a few other big names bring together this Robert Rodriguez movie. Yes, another. This was a bit tense and suspenseful, some good action, and a good storyline. Then it just goes crazy!!! I won't tell you about the ending, but lets just say, if you are into action and gore, this is your movie! Rodriguez sure has a knack for hilariously gorey movies!

Casper: You know, the friendly ghost! This is a fun, light hearted movie with Christina Ricci. Nothing really scary here, but it's entertaining. Plus, I remember when it came out and the guy playing Casper was HOOOT! Please forgive me for saying that!

Shadow of the Vampire: This is a great one that I had never seen. John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe are fantastic! Dafoe is hardly recognizable in his makeup, but his acting is hilariously good! There is suspense, a good story, and a good sense of humor all mixed into this off-beat and odd movie. Definitely something unique!

Ok friends, there you have it. I'll keep this up for another week or two (if I remember!), and then you guys can let me know if you like it, or if it's a waste of blog space!

Hope everyone survived their Monday!

Boo!

2010-10-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone is eating plenty of candy!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone out there is having a good holiday!

Happy Halloween! love, Princess Leia

Perfect Vanilla Ice Cream and the Lovely Blog Award

2010-10-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Happy almost-Halloween! Are you guys all gearing up with special treats and some pumpkin carving? I think we'll be carving ours today. I realize that I'm a whole holiday behind at this point, but I just can't skip this recipe! Remember back from my Thanksgiving post when I showed you those pictures of the vanilla ice cream I made? Well, you really need to make it too! It is the dessert staple! So make a run for your kitchen, break out the ice cream maker (yeah, I know it's the middle of Fall! Just do it already!), and whip up a batch of this creamy vanillay goodness! You won't regret it!

Vanilla Ice Cream (recipe adapted from Room for Dessert by David Lebovitz)
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
5 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream

- Measure the milk, salt and sugar into a saucepan and heat until it begins to simmer.

-Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

-Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream and add the vanilla extract. Chill thoroughly, and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Put it in your freezer overnight (or as long as you can restrain yourself!), and then dig in! I made this for our Thanksgiving dessert, and it went perfectly with Ben's pumpkin pie!

Enjoy!

As a side note, I wanted to thank Jeanne at Simple Math Bakery for bestowing on me this "lovely blog award"! It was just SO sweet of her, and I'd like to share the love! Here are a few blogs that I want to recognize, and that you should really check out! They all deserve this award! If you are receiving this, please copy it to your blog (if you want to), and then pass it along to 12 other bloggers who have lovely blogs!

and now for something Completely Delicious- Annalise is so creative with her food! I love her down to earth recipes and seasonal thinking!

Annies Eats- The decorating ideas on this blog are out of this world! I want to make everything she posts, and eat it too! I'd browse this site just for the pictures!

Brown Eyed Baker- Michelle always has a recipe for exactly what I want to make! And if I don't know what I want to bake then there are sure to be great ideas waiting for me on her blog! I love how clean and professional all of her photos look!

Carrots 'n' Cake- Tina has a great mix of food, recipes, and exercise. Plus I just can't get enough of her little pug!

Espresso and Cream- Madison shares a clean and beautiful blog, with creative recipes that I always want to try! Her photography style is my goal! Everything is beautiful and simple, great quality shots, but still with the feel of something homemade!

Ezra Pound Cake- Now here is a blog that I go to when I'm looking for something to make at home. A good meal, or a simple dessert or treat. This is food presented beautifully and professionally, but in a very accessible way. I think I just saw something on there that I want to make for dinner!

fANNEtastic food- Anne's blog is one of the fist I ever started reading! I love that she can create such healthy meals and still have them look so good! Plus, I like seeing her daily food, and her exercise regime really inspires me to get off the couch!

Joy the Baker- Joy is the best! She writes my very favorite blog! She is hilarious, smart, and always has a fresh take on everything. I look forward to every lighthearted post, and to all of her drool-worthy recipes! This is the place to go for baking recipes (and some other good stuff too!).

How Sweet It Is- Jessica writes my other favorite blog. She has a great sense of humor, and her writing style is so fun to read! Plus, she is notoriously in love with everything peanut butter/chocolate, possibly with bacon on top. Oh, and she has a very impressive shoe collection!

Kath Eats Real Food- KERF is on of those blogs that I stand in awe of. Very professional, great recipes, fantastic photography and lots of fun!

Koko's Kitchen- Koko writes such a lovely blog! I enjoy all of her creative recipes so much! She is always giving me new ideas, and new spins on classics.

Willow Bird Baking- Julie writes about making beautiful delicious food. Very accessible recipes, but you really just want to make it so that her pictures will come to life in your own kitchen! Great ideas are overflowing from this blog!

I hope you will check out some of these blogs! I enjoy their posts SO much, and I hope you will too! They all have very lovely blogs!

Question of the day: What are you going to be for Halloween? What are your special plans to celebrate? What is your favorite Halloween treat?

Happy haunting!

Butternut Squash Soup

2010-10-27T02:16:00.000-07:00

Huh, where to start? Well, I like silky things. Do you like silky things?

Think expensive underwear, washed dogs...and this butternut squash soup.

Seriously. It's good. Plus, it's orange, and feels like Fall. Who could argue with that? You should make it.

Want something to really convince you? To push you over the edge and into the soup pot? It's the toasted pumpkin seeds. They are divine. Beautiful little light and crunchy pops of flavor floating on top. Perfect!

So here it is. The soup you'll be making tonight. And all through Fall. Oh, and probably all through the Winter too. Just warning you now.

Butternut Squash Soup
(from The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook)
3 pounds butternut squash (about 1 large or 2 small), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 8 cups)
1 onion, halved and sliced 1/2 inch thick
4 tsp canola oil
s&p
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 Tbsp minced fresh sage (this is my own addition!)

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 450*. Toss the squash and onion with 1 tablespoon of the oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt, then spread out over two rimmed baking sheets.

Roast,stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned and softened, 30-40 minutes.

2. Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven (I used a stock pot) over medium heat until shimmering. Add the roasted vegetables and cook, stirring often, until the squash begins to break down, 3-5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until nearly evaporated, about 1 minute. Stir in the broth, sage and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the broth is flavorful, about 5 minutes.

4. Discard the bay leaf. Puree the soup in a blender, in batches, until smooth (I used my immersion blender instead). Return the soup to a clean pot, stir in the half-and-half, and cook gently over medium-low heat until the soup is hot, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

I served it with toasted pumpkin seeds on top!

The only bad part? Peeling butternut squash sucked! Seriously, someone needs to come up with a better way than spending 30 minutes mangling a squash!

Luckily it has great texture and flavor, so I guess I'll be using it again! Mainly because I couldn't live without this soup! Want a slight variation? You could use coconut milk instead of cream! Cuz it's good to keep your creamy options open.

We had a bit of cheesy veg pizza on the side. Cuz that's how we roll. It filled out our meal nicely, and was pretty darn good dipped into this bowl of deliciousness!

Oh, and Izzie liked licking the bowl. And my spoon. And the pot. She has good taste.

Things That Make Me Feel Fall-y!

2010-10-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! How was your Monday? I spent the day with Ben and his dad, hauling firewood that we cut and split yesterday! There is a bit of a wind storm going on, and the air is brisk, so I had on my ear flap beanie. Our Maple trees are all showing off their beautiful vibrant leaves, and I was sipping chai all day. This combination makes me feel SO Fall-y! Here are some other things that make me feel Fall-y.

I am totally in to decorated Halloween and Fall cookies at work right now! Here are some of my sugar cookies. (They may look familiar...picture at the top?)

I also made some meringue ghosts!

Boo!

This is our huge, gorgeous maple tree, right in our view from the deck! We love watching it change throughout the year, but it is at it's most spectacular in Fall!

Izzie and I love the leaves! Plus, now that it's Fall, I get to wear my orange sweatshirt! Kinda reminds me of pumpkins!

Now that the weather is wetter, we have just an overload of mushrooms and fungus! I have never seen so many mushrooms on one island! There are SO many varieties too. We have a mushroom guide book, and it's so fun to identify them (when we can!). Check out this beauty!

And here is another cool growth we found. Pretty awesome!

This is what the weather looked like today. Grey and windy! We went down to the ocean to check it out. Big swells, and white caps as far as the eye can see! Plus, because we were up a ways from the water, you could really lean into the wind and it would support you a bit! I love that feeling, especially when you get a bit of sea spray in your face at the same time!

Needless to say, I am really enjoying Fall here on Pender Island! I hope you are too! So break out your own ear-flap beanie and go stomp on some leaves!

Todays question: What makes YOU feel Fall-y?

Garlic Gold Guacummus

2010-10-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Happy weekend bloggy friends! Here in South Western British Columbia we are waiting for a big wind storm to arrive! Eeeee! Can't wait! I just love relaxing inside with my slippers and tea, watching the weather go crazy! (OK, sometimes I need to walk down to the ocean to experience the action there too. Nothing like ocean spray in your face!).I totally hope the power goes out!!! I really have been wanting to finish my book, The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (one of my favorite authors!), so hopefully this weather will be conducive to that!

I am also anticipating some soup or stew action in my kitchen to go with the weather, and we brought home a freshly baked loaf of light potato sourdough bread to go on the side! I really prefer my bread with garlic, because lets face it, garlic makes everything better! Lately I have been drowning my bread in Garlic Gold nuggets! I received some sample Garlic Gold nuggets, and I have been enjoying them SO much! Here's what I got in the mail. Garlic Gold original nuggets, sea salt nuggets, parmesan nuggets, and italian herb nuggets, plus a few packets of Garlic Gold oil! That package was quite the treasure chest of loot!

Want to know some good stuff about Garlic Gold Nuggets? They are USDA certified organic! For the original nuggets the ingredients are "organic garlic hand chopped and toasted in crunchy perfection in organic extra-virgin olive oil" Sounds good, right? Right! The bottle has a handy shaker top, and the suggestion that these can be "the healthy alternative to bacon bits!" My bottles are at least halfway gone at this point. I can't seem to stop using them! Seriously! This stuff is good on everything! Want some examples? I thought you'd never ask!

Here are the parmesan nuggets on some bread. The perfect accompaniment to pasta and a salad! The parmesan flavor comes through nicely, and the garlic nuggets are so light and crisp! It's a little burst of flavor every time you hit one! Mmmm

I shake both the original and the parmesan nuggets onto pasta dishes. Adds good flavor, plus those little flavor punches are great when you hit the nuggets!

Baked asparagus with sea salt nuggets! Oh yeah! This is my favorite way to prepare asparagus, and now it's even better! Toss your asparagus in olive oil, grind on some black pepper, and liberally sprinkle with Garlic Gold sea salt nuggets. Bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes and you are golden! (ha, bad joke! I'm not sorry!)

This asparagus was good enough for our Thanksgiving dinner!

Another use of the parmesan nuggets. I sprinkled them all over a turkey and chard saute. YUM!
I don't have any pictures (bad blogger!) but we have also been enjoying the Italian nuggets. Ben seasoned some ground turkey with it before putting it on pizza! I bet it would be good in meat balls too!

Here is a little something I came up with, using my lovely Garlic Gold samples! Guacummus! I'm sure that most of you have made some imagining of this at some point. It's pretty much just a plain hummus with an avocado and some guacamole flavoring! SO good! Who cares about crackers, I was literally eating this with a spoon! Whip out your Garlic Gold nuggets, and about 1-2 tablespoons of garlic gold oil and you're ready to rock!

I used one can of garbanzo beans, 2 cloves or garlic, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 2-4 Tablespoons olive oil plus the bit of garlic oil, 1 Tablespoon cumin, 1 Tablespoon coriander, 1 large avocado, and a good sprinkling of Garlic Gold nuggets.

Puree away, adding more or less oil and seasoning as you see fit. Just try and get a nice creamy texture.

Serve with chopped tomato, chopped cilantro, sunflower seeds and another hefty sprinkling of garlic nuggets, because you can never have enough garlic!

And now dig in and enjoy! Mmm! You should check out their web site! They have recipes, gift boxes, and lots of other delicious garlic products! You can also read about the health benefits of garlic there. I always love being reminded that something I think is a tasty treat is good for me too! So, on that note, please excuse me while I go shake garlic nuggets into my mouth!

Blueberry Bavarian Cream and A CSN Winner!

2010-10-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!!! (If I were a muppet I'd be dancing and waving my arms!) The weekend is almost here, and I have been a craft-making maniac! I recently paid for my table for the Christmas craft fair, so I have been working on my stock! I think I'll be selling an odd conglomeration of handmade cards and gift tags, jewelry, homemade chapstick, and probably some homemade candy. Guess what I'll be doing as soon as I'm done with this post? ;)

Before I dive into the Bavarian cream recipe I'd like to post the winner of my CSN giveaway! By random selection, the winner is....

SolDucky!

Congratulations! Please email me (in my contact tab) with your email address and I'll have your gift certificate to you ASAP! Thanks for participating everyone!

Here is the Bavarian cream recipe that I made for our Canadian Thanksgiving! I used blueberries, but this really works with any berry. Enjoy!

Blueberry Bavarian Cream (adapted from Cathy Burgetts strawberry bavarian cream recipe)
2 Tbsp gelatin
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb. blueberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
juice of 1/2 lemon

-Prepare a one-quart plain or fluted mold by rinsing it with water.

-In a bowl, stir the gelatin into the water and stir it with your finger to dissolve. Leave it until spongy, about 5 minutes.

-Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks, and refrigerate it.

-Puree blueberries in a blender or food processor.

There should be 1 3/4 cups of puree.

-Bring the sugar and water to a boil.

Remove from the heat and add the softened gelatin to the hot syrup. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add this syrup to the blueberry puree and stir in the lemon juice.

-Set the mixture over a bowl of ice water and stir until it starts to thicken.

-Gradually fold in the softly whipped cream and pour the mixture into the prepared mold. (work fast, because the cream sets quickly.)

Oh, and don't waste any!

-Cover and leave in the refrigerator until firmly set, 2-3 hours.

-The bavarian cream can be made up to 24 hours ahead, but it stiffens with age and must be brought to room temperature before serving.

-Not more than 3 hours before serving, unmold the cream. Run a knife around the edge and pull the cream away from the mold with a finger to release the airlock.

-Dip the mold in hot water for a few seconds and dry off the base. I filled my sink with hot water.

-Set a platter on top of the mold and invert it. Give a sharp shake so the cream falls onto the platter.

You don't have to use a fancy pan like this, you can use a regular cake pan, or a tube pan or whatever. I just like the fancy look it gives. If you use a plain pan you can pipe whipped cream over the top for decoration! The bavarian cream can also be used as the filling in a Charlotte! You just need lady fingers and you're in business!

Hope you guys like this recipe, and enjoy it as much as we did! Dig in!

The In-between Thanksgiving Post

2010-10-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I am home from our wonderful anniversary trip to Tofino! We had such a good time! I am still sorting pictures, as we took millions! The highlights? Great hikes, beautiful scenery, long sandy beaches with crashing waves, our room with a view, awesomely fresh sea food, exploring new places, a boat ride, and 3 grey whales! Good times!

So now that we're back, and I have been looking through all of the things I have saved up to post, I realized that although I posted about our anniversary which was on Canadian Thanksgiving, I never posted about our actual Thanksgiving dinner! It's the ultimate food blogger sin! What was I thinking?! So, because we celebrate both Thanksgivings (old habits die hard) I thought I'd share about one to prepare others for the second! I'll be posting the actual recipes for some of this in upcoming posts.

Here is our turkey defrosting. Our bad little cat Andy decided he'd check out the poultry when nobody was looking, and ended up tearing through the plastic and munching down a bit of his own Thanksgiving dinner.

He was very pleased with himself!

Hurray for pretty turkey!

My FIL has a wine making shop, Pender Island Cellars, and he contributed this wine to top off our dinner!

Our Thanksgiving table! Terrible picture lighting, I know.

YUM!

These are the dinner rolls that I made. Pretty darn tasty!

This is my cranberry orange relish. My mom always used to make it, and I love it! Especially compared to that canned stuff! I really like that you can make this as sweet or unsweet as you want. Perfect! I have always thought of this as "mom's recipe", but she told me it's really off of the cranberry bag! Who knew?! I used about 3-4 cups cranberries, zest of one orange and started out with about 1/2 cup of sugar. Tossed it all into the cuisinart and did a rough chop. Taste and add Tablespoons of sugar to your liking. Try not to blend it too much, you want it to stay coarse. YUM!

I baked some asparagus, and added some garlic gold nuggets for seasoning with the salt and pepper.

Stuffing!

Here's my plate, all loaded up!

Someone else wants some Thanksgiving dinner too!

Yeah, I ate that much!

This is the blueberry bavarian cream that I made, using blueberries that we picked from the farm down the road! It's so nice to have a light fruity dessert after that heavy meal!

We couldn't resist having the traditional pumpkin pie too, so Ben made this one. Beautiful and delicious!

Here's my piece of pie with the vanilla ice cream that I made! I loved this ice cream recipe! Don't worry, I'll share it soon!

We opened our anniversary presents and cards after dinner. We got so much fun stuff! It was our cotton anniversary, so we got some cute halloween things from my mom! Evidently Canadian money is made of cotton, so Ben's parents gave us some CASH!

We also got these awesome cotton t-shirts from my grandma! Thanks grandma, they're super cute! (I feel like we should go jogging in our matching clothes or something...)

I'll be posting recipes for the rolls, bavarian cream, and the ice cream! Keep an eye out for them, so you can make them for your Thanksgiving dinner too!

I'm On Vacation!

2010-10-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I know I've sort of been MIA lately. Last weekend was our 2nd anniversary, and this weekend we are in Tofino, on Vancouver Island, celebrating! We have 3 nights here, and we're enjoying every minute of it! Because I want to get back to enjoying myself, and getting ready to go out to dinner, I will leave you with a few of the pictures we've taken so far. Enjoy!

Evidently the fishing in Tofino is "Awesome!" I love it!

This is the boat we went on for our whale watching this morning!

Our first whale siting! This grey whale was named "Two Spot".

Hello sea lions!

This is a great tide-pooling area!

Crows that tried to eat our lunch!

Beautiful Fall colors on our drive!

View over Lake Kennedy.

Appetizer from dinner last night. Cod fritters! YUM!

Dessert #1 Warm sticky toffee pudding (it used to have vanilla ice cream on top, but we ate it.)

Dessert #2 Anise panna cotta with pumpkin dice. So creamy and delicious!

More grey whale!

Beautiful breads at this little bakery we discovered.

Us on our whale watching excursion.

More pretty Fall-ness

Sunset from our room.

Lunch on the beach.

I'll post again soon, we'll be home Tuesday night. I promise I haven't forgotten that this is a food blog!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

A CSN Store Giveaway, and Fellow foodie Bites #7

2010-10-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hello there friends! Today I have something exciting for you! I was contacted by CSN stores (which is made up of over 200 online stores!), and they are offering a $35 gift certificate to one of my readers! I took some time to check out what they have to offer, as well as browse through a few of their online stores. There is SO much to choose from! Check out this site for a cool bar stool, this one for an overwhelming selection of everything I have ever wanted for my kitchen (including a vita-mix...drool!), and this one to find your way to all of their different stores! Online shopping is WAY too much fun!

Want to enter this giveaway?
- Just leave me a comment on this post, telling me which CSN item you are drooling over (it'll be hard to choose just one!)
- Make sure you are a "follower" of Ravenous Rowie

That's it! The only unfortunate bit is that you must live in the U.S. or Canada. This giveaway will close on Thursday, October 21st. On that day I'll randomly select a winner! I hope you guys like this giveaway! It's all for you!

And now, here's another installment of tastyness from lots of the wonderful blogs that I follow. I always fully intend to try out all of these recipes, and usually only manage a few. But at least I have this list to remind me! Here goes.

Fellow Foodie Bites
I'll start off with this sweet potato enchilada recipe, because I already managed to make it! These enchiladas are amazingly good! And don't be afraid of the sweet potato, the sweetness and texture make this a winner!

Here is a recipe using kelp noodles, which I had never heard of before. I'll be looking for these at my local natural foods store next time I go!

With Chocolate Covered Katie vegan desserts abound. This vegan peanut butter cup pie makes me drool!

I have always wanted to make real caramels, and this seems like the perfect recipe! These might end up in my holiday gift baskets!

Butternut squash and pumpkin recipes are popping up everywhere in the blogosphere these days. I found butternut squash and apple soup, butternut squash ravioli, pumpkin pancakes, a butternut squash smoothie (which I have actually tried, and LOVED!), and pumpkin spiced nutty granola.

To continue the Fall feeling here's a beautiful apple tart tatin, turnip potato fritters, cinnamon crumble bread, and some whole wheat sweet potato muffins.

Comfort foods are abounding as the weather is turning cooler, and I start craving heartier foods. This Moroccan vegetable stew sounds like the perfect thing for a rainy day. These garlic knot rolls would probably be amazing with the stew!

What? Time for dessert? OK! I'd never say no to dessert! This chocolate chili tofu pudding sounds so intriguing, and I do have some silken tofu lurking in my fridge! Or how about some 3 minute vegan maple oatmeal cookies? YUM! And finally, this decadent show stopper, the no-bake tiramisu cheesecake! I am dying to make this one!!!

Hope you guys find something fun and new to try out in your kitchens! Happy cooking!

Quick and Easy Dinner with Eden Organic Pasta

2010-10-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you have a long day. Sometimes you want dinner, but nothing sounds good. Then, you see this tasty (and healthy!) box of Eden Organic pasta sitting on your kitchen shelf, and you think "hey, pasta's easy!".

Then, dinner starts coming together in your mind. No recipe, just easy ingredients that you know you have.

Like some delicious basil olive oil from the Sciabica family to saute your pieces of chicken in.

Those tomatoes hiding in the crisper? The kalamata olives lurking in the fridge? Those can go in with that cooked chicken. Yeah, now we're going somewhere!

So can that feta that you don't know what else to do with. And why not throw in some pesto too? Talk about quick and easy! That only took as much time to come together as it took for my Kamut and Quinoa Twisted Pair pasta took to cook! (it's got 100% organic whole grains, uses recycled and recyclable packaging, and is salt, oil, egg and additive free!)

A quick green salad, and maybe a slice of bread with some tapenade on the side and you're ready to go!

See, that was pretty painless! Now you have a delicious and healthy dinner! And you want to go to the store and buy every type of pasta that Eden makes! I mean clear the shelves! Cuz this stuff is good! I mean that in the way that I had to show Ben the box to convince him that it was healthy! Score!

Mmm, maybe not the best pictures, but this was a tasty meal! I love it when a spur of the moment dinner is so good! And I couldn't have done it without this Eden organics sample! Check out their site for more healthy, organic, delicious foods like canned beans, teas, grains and so much more! Cuz sometimes, you just want some quality food made easy!

Our 2nd Anniversary!

2010-10-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggy friends! Today is my second wedding anniversary! It also happens to be Canadian Thanksgiving. We lived, and were married, in California, and found out on moving here that our anniversary was right around, and sometimes on, Thanksgiving! Awesome! Now we get a huge delicious meal to celebrate!

As I am spending the day cooking, baking, and enjoying the company of my wonderful husband, I will just leave you with some of my favorite pictures from our wedding! I may have gone a tad overboard here, but I promise there will only be one wedding post! So, if wedding pics are not for you, you can skip this post. Otherwise....let the pictures begin!

This is the fabulous Cathy Burgett with Ben. She introduced us at culinary school, was our favorite teacher, kinda wanted to adopt Ben, and made our wedding cake! We love her!

My friend Corinne did hair and makeup, and another friend, Lucy Shea, did our photography. I have such awesome people in my life!

Me with my mom and sister. Rita was my maid of honor, and mom did my flowers and wedding decorations! Love those ladies!

More of moms handiwork. My bouquet smelled so good with all of those freesias!

Ben's dog Toby was the best man. He looked so cute in his bow tie! Unfortunately he decided to pee on the table cloth in the background just as I was walking down the aisle, but hey, he was excited, and when ya gotta go ya gotta go!

Aw! I kinda like that guy!

This is my grandpa Dave. He walked me down the aisle, donated plants for our decorations and centerpieces, and made me happy just by being there. I love my grandpa!

Just after we were married! Ben is usually a non-smiler, and isn't a fan of pictures. I guess he was happy or something!

Ok, this takes a bit of an explanation. We like pirates. And piratey things. SO, we decided to have a piratey wedding! Nothing over the top, we didn't say our vows in pirate lingo or anything, but we had treasure chests for people to find around the property with loot, candy and treasure. We also fired a mini cannon! It was our "unity canon", instead of a unity candle. We fired it together just after we were pronounced "man and wife". Hurray for explosions!

Both sides of the fam!

My brother (yes, he's tall!), me, mom, and sister.

We got married at our house, and took lots of picture down by the creek on this cute little bridge that Ben built. It was so nice getting to enjoy our home on this special day!

Us.

I love this one! Thank you Lucy!

Good friends and lovely ladies! I'm so glad I got to share this day with them!

It's culinary school all over again! Cathy Burgett, and my partner in baking, music and travel, Kelly!

Grandpa gave a nice toast. Look at all that love!

Here are some pics taken at our treasure chest spots. We provided pirate attire at each chest, for that authentic piratey look!

I think my aunt and uncles liked the idea! Aaaargh!

Two of our good friends. This is probably my favorite picture of them EVER! That strap-on parrot is the best!

My favorite picture of grandpa Dave. I think he liked the cake!

Um, I liked the cake too! Chocolate with hazelnut praline and white chocolate plastic? Oh yeah! Who needs a plate?!

Our car got tagged by some piratey wedding guests!

After a wonderful day filled with friends and family we drove off to the coast for a few days. We'll be going to Tofino to celebrate this year, but because of the holiday we are waiting until this coming weekend. It will be so fun, and I'll tell you all about it!

I love you Ben, here's to many more years together!

Dinner at a Friends

2010-10-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yikes! My day has been crazy! The weather outside was beautiful, so Ben and I went on a nice walk around the property with my dog. Then I had to come back and take over the kitchen. Canadian Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I had a lot to do! (well, I still have a lot to do!)

I made some vanilla ice cream base which I'm just about to churn, and a blueberry bavarian cream. YUM! I can't believe how much heavy cream I used though. I'm sure my thighs will be reminding me for months! Tomorrow I need to make my cranberry orange relish, and some dinner rolls. Don't worry, I'll share recipes soon enough.

Right now I wanted to tell you all about our nice evening spent with our friend, Alison! In my last post I showed you the tapenade and the nut butter cups I made as a hostess gift for her.

I got all snazzied up (as much as I could knowing I had to go to work later that night), and Ben and I hopped in the car for the short island drive over to her house.

Stepping into the home of someone with a strong sense of personal style is like stepping into a new world where everything is fascinating and delightful. Ali has the most wonderful little home, and as she welcomed us in our eyes traveled ravenously over all of her unique furnishings. I love it there!!!

Isn't that a cute way to serve dinner? So personal and comfy! A perfect little dinner party!

First she brought over these divine little mushroom and puff pastry hors d'oeuvres (yes, I just spelled hors d'oeuvres correctly! uh, twice!!! It's a miracle!). The puff was so light and crisp and tender, and she made it herself!!! We were so impressed! I could have eaten an entire meal of just these!

Next was the soup course. This was a delicious and creamy curry soup with a bit of heat. So satisfying!

Main course! Homemade gnocchi with homemade tomato sauce! This was so good! She sauted the gnocchi a bit after boiling it, giving it a bit of a meat substitute feel, kinda like sausage! Impressed yet again! Plus, I totally love all of her plates and bowls! Each one is unique and fun!

Ali has three kitties, and they are so cute and friendly! This little sweetie wanted to join the party!

My favorite part? Dessert, of course!!! Ali wowed us again with an angel food cake covered in local Pender blackberry syrup! This was so delicious I managed two slices, even after our filling meal! Bravo on the cake Ali!

After dinner we participated in some more kitty love. Never enough, especially when they are this cute!

Sadly this is the best picture of me and Alison taken all night. We aren't looking at the camera, it's fuzzy and dark. Maybe it's better that way!

By the time dinner was over we were incapable of moving, so we just lounged around, played with kitties, and enjoyed the company. It was all over sadly soon as Ben and I had to be at work at 9:30pm. We waddled out to the car, and out of Ali's cute little home.

Sigh. Now that was good food! Thanks for the great evening Ali!

Tapenade and Treats

2010-10-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! How are things in your neck of the woods? It's a rainy cozy Fall day here! Just the way I like it!

Earlier this week a friend invited me and Ben over for dinner! I thought it would be fun to bring over a little somethin' somethin' for the hostess, so I spent an hour in the kitchen that afternoon whipping up some treats!

First, I was inspired by this post from Chocolate Covered Katie. I had plenty of good fillings sitting around, and I always have a stash of dark chocolate, so I went for it! Nut butter cups!!!

I melted some dark chocolate in a double boiler until it was completely smooth,

and then spooned a thin layer into some cupcake papers.

Make sure to spoon some chocolate up the sides a bit too, so your filling will be completely enclosed in chocolate! It doesn't always come out perfectly (at least for me!), but do your best. These are supposed to be fast and easy!

I put the chocolate coated cups into the freezer on a half sheet tray, and went to find my fillings. I decided to use regular old peanut butter, some Artisana almond butter, and some Artisana coconut butter. I did have to melt the coconut butter to make it useable, but then I got to lick the spoon, so it was OK.

After 10 minutes in the freezer the chocolate shells were hard, so I pulled them out and spooned in some nut butter! Be sure to keep the filling below the height of the chocolate you spooned up the sides! Freeze again.

While these were freezing again I decided to make some tapenade. We had a sad jar of green olives in the fridge, mostly used, but with not enough left for any practical use. I tossed these into my food processor with a big container of kalamata olives, a few cloves of garlic, and a small splash of my Sciabica's garlic olive oil.

Pulse until things are all chopped up looking, but not pasty. Make sure to scrape down the bowl, pulse, scrape, pulse....you get the idea. You really just want to make sure your finished product is still a bit chunky.

Are you waiting for more instructions? You're out of luck. That is the end! You're done! Just scoop it all out into a storage container (after immediately eating as much as possible out of the bowl) and put it in your fridge!

Do you see someone else who wants a bite? I do!

Ok, time to pull out the nut butter cups again! It takes a bit longer for the nut butters to harden, maybe 15 minutes. Just spoon a nice thin layer of chocolate over the top of each cup, smoothing it to the edges so it seals all of the yumminess in.

I chose to top each so I would know which filling was in each one. Almond, peanuts, and shredded coconut.

Plus, it looks pretty, so what more do you want?!

Same old song and dance...pop 'em back into the freezer!

I decided to bring our friend some tapenade, so I filled up a little jar, tied on a ribbon, and made a cute little label.

Being crafty is fun and oh-so nerdy! I love it!

Just before we left for dinner I pulled out one of each flavor of nut butter cups and placed them on a palm leaf plate from Marx Foods. You remember Marx foods, right? That's where the dried mushrooms from this post come from!

These plates are perfect for goody giveaways!

They are rigid, attractive, biodegradable, sustainable and look really nice! They would be great for casual weddings, picnics, or BBQ's too!

Ok, all ready to bestow foodie gifts in exchange for good company and good food!

Whaaat?! I even did my hair?! I must really like this friend! ;)

Sciabica's Olive Oils Are Liquid Gold!

2010-10-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the lovely people at Sciabica's Olive Oils sent me a package!!! *squeal* I love packages! Take a look-see at this loot!

I couldn't believe how generous they were! I immediately tried out the lavender olive oil as a hand moisturizer, as suggested. It smells divine! It also has a nice silky feel on the skin, and surprisingly soaks in quickly and isn't too oily! I have since moved on to using it as a facial moisturizer too, and I love it! (consequently, my keyboard is now well oiled and smells nicely of lavender! hehe)

Before I dive into all of the uses I've put these delicious olive oils to, let me tell you a little bit about Sciabica family and their products. Here's a bit of info from their brochure.
"The Sciabica Family has been producing olive oil since 1936, which makes us by far the oldest producer in California. All of our olive oils are 100% extra virgin, cold-pressed, unrefined, and 100% California grown and pressed." I love that this is a family business! There are three generations of Sciabica's working together to produce this wonderful oil.

What I received in the mail was a set of their flavored oils. They have developed a new process for creating this fresh flavor without any artificial flavors, and no infusion, which means no heat spoiling the oil. "Each is naturally crushed and cold pressed with its respective fruit or herb...Lemons, garlic, etc. travel with the olives through the presses!" That sounds pretty awesome! This is real quality!

Well, The info in the brochure was impressive, but the flavor was beyond impressive! I never want to run out of this stuff!

Here's some of the stuff I've been doing with my liquid gold. I coated some veggies with rosemary olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them. YUM! I couldn't believe how much fresh, real rosemary flavor came through!

I used the lime olive oil, and the jalapeno olive oil to make a great southwestern tahini dressing. I used some Artisana tahini, 1/4 cup of each olive oil flavor, a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a dash of coriander and a splash of pick a peppa sauce. I loved how well the heat of the jalapeno oil came through, and the tangyness of the lime.

This salad was served with some enchiladas that I made. I made them with some baked chicken, which I coated in the lime olive oil before it went into the oven. I added a bit more delicious lime flavor to the filling, and had a winner!

Double yum!

I have used the garlic olive oil in a tofu marinade, which had great flavor.

I can't wait to try the lemon and orange oils on fish, and I really want to try the basil oil with some balsamic vinegar as a bread dip! I am admittedly scared of the habenero olive oil, but that's just because I'm a heat wimp. I'll make my husband try that one!

I always use olive oil when cooking, but I had never had experience using flavored oil before. I think I'm hooked! I know where to go for more, too! Check out the Sciabica's website for their premium olive oils, gift packs, recipes, vinegars, and cosmetics! This is the perfect secret weapon in any cooks kitchen!

Did I say that I was impressed?! Oh, and please look away while I chug this bottle of garlic olive oil!

Ben's Birthday and Angel Food Cake!

2010-10-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Ben's 27th birthday!

He had just gotten a new row boat, so we went out in that to celebrate the day.

Luckily it was beautiful out and we really enjoyed ourselves!

We explored new beaches.

Found treasures.

Admired the scenery.

And enjoyed the sunset.

For his birthday dessert Ben had requested an angel food cake with mocha whipped cream, and the same dark chocolate ice cream I had made for the FIL's birthday but with peanut butter swirled in. I complied.

I used this same recipe for the ice cream, but at the last minute of churning I spooned in some slightly melted peanut butter. It took some light stirring by hand, but I swirled it in pretty well! That was all done the day before so it would freeze properly.

I also made the cake the day before, but frosted it the day of. I used Cathy Burgett's recipe for angel food cake. It's the BEST! Here it is!

Angel Food Cake
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup sifted cake flour (regular flour will work too)
1/2 tsp. salt
10 egg whites
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't use this and just doubled the vanilla)

-Have ready one unbuttered 9" tube cake pan or springform pan. Preheat the oven to 350*.
-Sift the sugar twice.
-Sift the flour three times with 1/4 cup of the sifted sugar and the salt.

-Whip the egg whites with the lemon juice until the mixture is foamy, then add the cream of tartar and continue whipping at medium speed until the whites take in a lot of air and are stiff but not dry. Do not overbeat the whites. They should be just softly peaked.

-Gradually whip in the remaining 1 cup sifted sugar. The whites should just fall over slightly when lifted up from the whisk.
-Sift the flour/sugar mixture in thirds over the batter. Fold it in gently and briefly after each addition.

-Fold in the extracts with the last addition of flour.

-Pour the batter into the unbuttered tube cake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes,

or until the cake is lightly golden on top.

A knife inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean.

-To cool, invert the pan and let the cake hang by resting the pan on its legs for about an hour.

-When the cake has cooled, turn it right side up and loosen it by running a knife around the outside edge and around the center tube. Invert the cake onto a wire rack or onto a serving platter.

-If the cake is to be used within a day, wrap it in plastic wrap and store it at room temperature. Wrap it in foil for freezing up to one week.

On the day of Ben's birthday i whipped a few cups of cream with some powdered sugar, a tablespoon of instant espresso powder and a few ounces of melted dark chocolate. I covered the whole cake, covered the sides with chocolate shavings, and piped a boarder on top. Oh, and what birthday cake would be complete without sprinkles?! I do love sprinkles!

Everyone gathered at the table, and I lit the candles. Ben blew them out and we dug in!

Everything turned out great! I ate about five times as much as I should have, but I totally enjoyed every bite! The ice cream was especially good. I loved the big chunky swirls of peanut butter in it.

Seriously, what is better than dark chocolate and peanut butter with a bit of cream and sugar mixed in?!

NOTHING!

All in all it was a total success! Ben opened his presents, we watched a movie, and snuck another spoonful of ice cream before calling it a night. What a fun day!!!

Happy birthday Ben! I love you!

Pumpkin Roulade for Bonnie

2010-10-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! Happy weekend! Last night at the bakery I was in Autumn mode. I dyed the rice krispie treats orange and put Fall sprinkles on top, I decorated pumpkin sugar cookies, and I adapted one of Cathy Burgetts roulade recipes for my old friend Bonnie.

Bonnie and I have known each other since fourth grade. We were friends through the New Kids on the Block faze, sleepovers with "light as a feather, stiff as a board" and princess underwear. Her dad took us to Marine World at some point, and ever since then I have felt like I owed her, cuz Marine World was awesome! So I'm finally paying her back with this pumpkin roulade recipe. Hopefully she'll get to make it before her third baby girl arrives! This is for you Bon Bon!

Pumpkin Roulade with Vanilla Whipped Cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. clove
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup pureed pumpkin
2 Tbs. vanilla
1 Tbs. molasses
6 egg whites

For the filling
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbs. vanilla

To make
-Preheat the oven to 350*
-Prepare a 1/2 sheet pan by buttering it, lining it with parchment paper, buttering it again, and flouring it. Tap out the excess flour.
-Sift together 1 cup of the sugar with the rest of the dry ingredients onto a sheet of parchment paper.

-In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, oil, pumpkin and vanilla until well blended.

-Gently stir the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture.
-Beat the egg whites gradually until they hold soft peaks. Continue beating at high speed and meringue the whites with the 1/2 cup remaining sugar. Beat the whites until they are stiff and glossy, but not powdery.

-Fold 1/3 of the whites into the yolk batter to lighten it,

then fold in the rest of the whites until thoroughly mixed in.

-Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan, and spread it evenly with an offset spatula.

-Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges of the cake just start to pull away from the sides of the pan, and the middle of the cake feels springy to the touch. You can insert a tooth pick, and it should come out clean.
-Remove from the oven, and cool completely in the pan.
-While cake is cooling make your filling. Pour cream into a mixer and sift the powdered sugar over it. Whisk on high until soft peaks form. Add in vanilla and continue whisking until you have stiff peaks. Set aside.

-When the cake is cool, sprinkle it liberally with powdered sugar. Cover the surface with a piece of parchment paper, and invert the cake.

Peel off the parchment paper on which the cake was baked.

-Spread the filling onto the rectangle of cake.

-Using the parchment on which the cake is sitting, roll up the cake, starting at the long end,

into a log.

-Place the roulade, whole or cut, on a cardboard cut to fit it, or directly onto a serving platter, and sprinkle with a final dusting of powdered sugar.

This is such an Autumnal, fragrant and delicious cake! It looks so impressive, but don't be fooled by the long instruction list. It is easy! Your family and friends will "ooh and aah" when you show up with this for parties, or if you're not careful your husband will eat most of it while you're not looking!

As a variation, you could substitute brandy or rum for the vanilla in the whipped cream filling. But you'll have many opportunities to try different flavors, because once you make this you'll have to make it again and again!

Enjoy!

Some Artisana Nut Butter Love

2010-10-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! The weekend it almost here!!! Ok, I'll try not to get too excited.

Today I really wanted to share with you my new love: Artisana raw organic nut butters!!! YUM! The fabulous folks over at Artisana sent me a package brimming with goodies, and I have been devouring their fantastic variety as fast as possible.

I. Am. In. Love!

First, here's an excerpt from the letter they sent me.
Premier Organics, manufacturers of Artisana organic foods, headquartered in Oakland, CA was founded in 2002 with devotion to sustainable living and through our community we support the organic and living foods movement, the Earth and her forests. We try o buy our foods as close to the farmer as possible. In many cases we are able to buy straight from the organic farmers. It's a choice. It's how we operate. It's how we live our lives. Premier Organics offers Artisana organic raw and now lightly roasted nut butters and cacao butter. The facility is free of peanuts, gluten, and soy and operates under strict food safety protocol. All products are certified organic by QAI and Kosher by KSA. Products are available throughout the U.S., Canada and Internationally.

Nut butters have also been shown to be beneficial to your health. Scientific evidence shows that incorporating walnuts in a healthy diet reduces the risk of heart disease by improving blood vessel elasticity and plaque accumulation. By aiding in the lowering of LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and the C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Coconut has been shown to help reduce LDL cholesterol, help balance female hormones, and assist in weight loss. Nuts really are a super food.

Here are just some of the ways that I have been enjoying all of the different varieties.

On a banana.

I found that the pecan had an almost smoky aftertaste, even though it's raw. It was very full flavored, and paired well with my banana. Plus no sugar, preservatives or artificial flavors! Score!

In my oatmeal.

Walnut may have been my least favorite, and it was still really good!
Not to mention that I was getting my Omega-3 for the day! Thanks walnut butter!

More banana, this time with cocoa nibs too!

I have to say, this cashini is one of my favorites! Very smooth, flavorful, nutty, and delicious on everything! Big score on this new product, Artisiana! Gooood stuff!

I made a tahini based salad dressing.

This stuff was SO good! There is zero bitterness to the Artisana tahini, which has been a problem for me with some other brands of tahini. It is smooth and creamy. I wish I had a vat of this stuff! I can only imagine what it would do for my hummus! The dressing made with lime and jalepeno flavored olive oils was perfect on my southwestern salad!

Cacao bliss was very tasty on my waffle! I would have liked for this to be a bit smoother, but the combo of chocolate and coconut was amazing, and if I had more I'd be sucking it out of the package!

Coconut butter is another favorite!!! I used this packet in a smoothie with a banana, an avocado, 1 tsp vanilla, and vanilla rice milk. So creamy, and the coconut flavor really came out! YUM!

I really want to try more things with the coconut butter like icing desserts with it, mixing it into my oatmeal, and baking coconut butter cookies (instead of peanut butter cookies). Don't know if that last one will work out, but it's worth a try!

Yesterday when we went to town I grabbed another couple of these fabulous nut butter pouches and shoved them into my purse. At about 3 pm we were still without lunch and I was ravenous! I pulled out a pouch of almond butter and an apple and got the hunger beast under control! That in itself is a fantastic selling point for me. I loved having tasty, healthy, real food available instead of stopping for some fries. These little pouches are the best!

You can order these cute little pouches of nut butters from Artisana here, or look for their products at your local natural foods store! These products are fresh, healthy and great quality. If you are a nut butter lover then you have GOT to try Artisiana! I am thoroughly impressed, and most definitely in love!

Beet Gnocchi

2010-09-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

Phew! Today I was baking up a storm!!! Tomorrow is Ben's 27th birthday, and I want him to have amazing food to celebrate! The presents are wrapped, the alarm clock is turned off, and the fridge is full! Here's the rundown. I made: angel food cake which will get mocha whipped cream tomorrow, dark chocolate ice cream with a peanut butter swirl, a tropical avocado smoothie, pumpkin pie popsicles, mini crustless pumpkin pies, and Garlic Gold guacamole hummus. I'll be posting on pretty much all of this eventually soon, so no need get worried!

Now, on to the beets! Lately I have been trying really hard to like beets. I know they are healthy, they are pretty and they taste....well, there's the problem! They kinda taste like dirt! Literally!

So I have been trying to work them into meals in sneaky ways, like this beet gnocchi. I still get the pretty color, the health benefit, and only a little bit of the flavor. Good deal! Here's the recipe, which I found in a magazine from the UK (which means all of the measurements are in grams. Grr, more thinking!) called Vegetarian Living. They wanted you to make your own pesto to top it all, with smoked almonds and all kinds of fancy stuff, but I thought making my own gnocchi was fancy enough! So here is my version, which is pretty much like theirs...done the lazy way!

Beetroot Gnocchi
600g floury potatoes (such as russets), cut into large chunks (I used about 3 medium sized potatoes)
125g cooked beetroot, pureed (1 medium sized beet)
1 large egg
450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
a little olive oil

For the top:
homemade or store bought pesto, as much as desired
1 bunch chard
1 cup shredded cooked chicken

-Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water for about 20 minutes until soft. drain thoroughly, then when cool enough to handle, pass them through a potato ricer or mash using a potato masher until smooth. Add the beetroot and mix together.

-Make a well in the centre of the potato and beetroot mixture, and beat in the egg and some seasoning.

Add the flour and mix to form a dough. Turn the dough out and knead it for a few minutes on a floured surface.

-Divide the dough into four or five pieces

and roll out each one into a 2cm-diameter rope. Cut off pieces of dough at 2.5cm intervals. You may need to keep adding flour as you go, it gets pretty sticky!

-Here you can either cook the gnocchi right away, or freeze it.

The recipe says it makes 4 servings, but I don't want to weigh 500 lbs, so I froze half and cooked half, and we still had leftovers! Just lay out your gnocchi on a baking sheet and freeze, then transfer to a ziploc bag. No need to defrost when you want to cook them, just drop them into boiling water!

-To cook: drop the gnocchi into a large pan of boiling water, then when they rise to the top, after a couple of minutes, scoop out and coat in olive oil. You may need to cook them in batches depending on the size of your pan so they don't stick together.

-For the topping sautee chard in a pan until wilted,

add a few spoonfuls of pesto and the chicken. Toss together until all is hot. Serve on top of the gnocchi with added pesto if desired. Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and voila!

I roasted some cauliflower, tossed in olive oil, s&p, at 450* for about 30 minutes, stirring once and sprinkling a bit of parmesan on in the last 5 minutes. It was a great side!

It is a bit of work making gnocchi, not something I'd really like to do every day, but we got two dinners for four people out of it, the flavor was amazing, AND it was pretty!

There is no arguing with pretty food! The beet flavor comes through a bit, but is not at all overpowering. Now this is how I like my beets!

Lemon Curd Recipe

2010-09-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I finally found the time to write up that lemon curd recipe for you! Remember all the way back to that cheesecake recipe where I showed it topped with lemon curd, but didn't tell you how to make any? Yes, I'm evil. Just ask my husband! ;)

I'm going to make you wait for that recipe for just a minute more (see, Ben was right about the whole evil thing!). It has been overcast with showers for a few days now out here in the islands. But back on Saturday our afternoon weather was just beautiful. You would have never known it would be raining by evening.

Ben and his dad decided to go kayaking, and I was planning on taking Izzie for a walk.

Well, the guys chose Medicine beach as a launch spot, and it's about 5 miles from our house. They drove, and we walked.

Izzie and I spent some nice time on the beach, and had a snack. I read my book while she napped...

but not before rolling in some unknown but very stinky beach funk which stuck to her neck. Great.

Eventually the guys showed up from their mini kayak adventure, and we all drove home together. Ah, I just love the weekends!

Ok, now that I have made you suffer, here is the lemon curd recipe. From Cathy Burgett, as usual. Her recipe's are my baking staples!

Lemon Curd
zest from 6 lemons
juice from 6 lemons (1 cup)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
6 eggs
12 egg yolks
9 oz. butter

-Place the eggs and egg yolks in a large bowl that will fit over a water bath.
-Whisk in the other ingredients to mix, and continue whisking over hot, simmering water until the butter is melted and the curd is thick.
-Remove from the heat and strain into a clean, dry bowl.
-Cover the curd with plastic wrap, pressing it right down onto the curd so it doesn't form a skin, and refrigerate.
-Lemon curd will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 days, and it will freeze, well-covered, for 2 months.

Yield: 1 qt. lemon curd

You can also make this recipe using oranges, limes or other citrus (think blood oranges!). I used it as a cheesecake topping, but it is also good over ice cream, as the filling in a layer cake, in tart shells, over fresh berries, or by the spoonful (my favorite)! Try it in crepes, or use it as a layer in a parfait! The uses are endless.

Enjoy!

Larabar Winners!

2010-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggies! Here's what you've been waiting for! The Larabar giveaway winners!

Everyone who commented won! That's right, you heard me! Here is the list.

Winners!
Trine bean
Mary
Emily B
Tiffany
TMC
Evan Thomas
Broccolihut
Cee
Amanda Thomas

9 lucky winners! Please send me an email at Pirateyfun@yahoo.com with your address so I can send off your Larabar prize!

Thanks for participating! Hope to keep hearing from all of you in posts to come!