Anecdote

Thanksgiving has come and gone (unless you are a lucky American and are still anticipating!), but the memories, oh, the food memories are here to stay! I did my best to add a twist to all of the classic sides and have an exciting menu for the families in attendance.

We started with appetizers of smoked oysters and crackers, and a double creme brie wrapped in fluffy, crispy layers of philo dough with a cranberry caramelized onion compote on top. Needless to say, it was heavenly, and we all gorged ourselves fully before the main occasion.

ready for the oven!

covered in ooey goodness!

We were lacking in a floral centrepiece of sorts, so my mom ventured out into the "Larchwood Estates" and found a few colorful sprigs to adorn our table! My sister then had the idea to add some cranberries to the bottom for some extra cheer.

After our delicious meal of turkey, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, scalloped yams with asiago, brussel sprout crumble (with panko), came dessert! I found a great recipe in a magazine for a pumpkin cream cheese  style nanaimo bar. First, a base of graham cracker crumbs, then the pumpkin cream cheese filling, then a layer of chocolate. It was very decadent and delicious!

fresh from the oven!

I will be making this treat again soon for Christmas time! I am thoroughly enjoying the pumpkin season!

Against the Grain

I have recently been trying to re-create the generic products I buy at the grocery store. By making certain items at home, I can control sodium levels and know exactly what ingredients are in my food. No more sneaky bpa infesting or preservatives! So far, I have made homemade pickles, "sun dried" tomatoes and pesto.

First came the pickles! The Root Cellar had a great deal on baby cucs, which inspired me to go ahead with making pickles.





           

     the fixin's





I gathered all of my ingredients (I used a recipe from Ricardo and Friends, which you can find on the Food Network website). It is fairly simple, just onion, garlic, vinegar and spices, a good jar and cucumbers, of course! You add the vinegar and spices to a pot and bring to a boil, then pour the hot pickling liquid over the cucumbers snug in their jar. Then you have to wait the agonizing two weeks while they get pickled!

After the two weeks was up, John and I dove in! They were supposed to be dill pickles, but I found them to be more like bread and butter pickles (which I don't really like), but John loved them, and they are all in his belly! Next time I will add more dill seed and weed and less onion.

Nothing Better

I recently attended a wedding ceremony with my mom for an old neighbour held in ChinaTowns' Sun Yat Sen Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day and the ceremony was very sweet and quaint. Afterwards, I went exploring in the Gardens and want to share some of the shots that I took. The Gardens are filled with bamboo, willow trees, lily pads and koi fish.... enjoy!

bamboo

lily pads

A few days later, John and I were out in Tsawassen, and got to enjoy a gorgeous summer sunset. The sun was a brilliant orange ball setting over the horizon, and we had fun skipping rocks and looking at seaweed.

Our attempts at skipping rocks were not the best, but we had fun all the same.

Then, on July 30th, it was Johns 22nd Birthday, so I slaved for a few hours in the kitchen to make him a Summer Fruit Cake. I used a boxed organic vanilla cake, organic mint leaves, cream cheese icing (premade) and any fruit I desired. I made the cake in a casserole dish and lined it with parchment paper so that it did not stick and could be transported easily. I literally just "picked" the cake up by the edges of the paper and lifted it out of the dish for faster cooling. Once cool, I cut the cake in half (horizontally) and made a layer of icing and mostly blueberries. Then I laid the other half of the cake back on top, and did another layer of cream cheese icing, and then "strategically" placed all my fruits, which I had covered in a glaze. To do the glaze, I heated up some organic Happy Planet fruit juice and added a few tablespoons of apricot jelly. I cooked it until it became thick, and could coat the fruit. The goal was for the jelly to reset and leave the fruit with a nice sheen, and also help keep them in place. I saw this technique on "French Food at Home". I did not follow it exactly, and recommend looking it up so that it can be done better than I did. It still worked, but it could have been better. After I covered the cake in the fruit, I placed mint sprigs around it for a hit of colour, and also, to cut the sweetness of the cream cheese icing , cake and fruit, which are all sweet. It was a huge hit, and everyone commented on the mint being the perfect pairing for the cake! I will definitely be making this one again!

Next time, I will put up my recipes for my ultimate summer lemonades: Rosemary Lemonade and Mint Lemonade.  Ciao!

Get Your Groupon!

For those of you that don't know me, I am extremely thrifty and frugal when it comes to money. I refuse to pay more for anything if I know I can get it cheaper somewhere else. It can be hard to live a "spontaneous" and adventurous life when you are stuck on a budget and paying off student loans, and it is easy to become sad and depressed when you feel like you are limited in options for fun. Vancouver has great attractions, but they can come at a steep price. Enter GROUPON! Everyday, they email you a new "deal" for a Vancouver attraction, be it for restaurants, spas, activities, you name it, they got it! It works on "collective buying power". A company submits to be on groupon and offer a wicked deal, because they know in return they will get a huge boost in business from everyone who purchases their groupon. A deal must be "tipped" with a minimum amount of people purchasing this deal for it to continue. Usually, by the time I have checked my email, the deal is already on for the day. I have already received a mani/pedi from Solarice Spa for $40 instead of $90, $10 for $25 worth of products at The Rocky Mountain Soap Company,

and $30 for 30 days unlimited boot camp. These are knockout prices and today's is $10 for an express admission and 10% off to The Vancouver Art Gallery! Immerse yourself in culture people!

http://www.rockymountainsoap.com/

 Right now, the Art Gallery is showing:

The Modern Woman:
Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec
and Other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris
June 5 to September 6, 2010

There are also a few other gallery shows going on. Check out the link below!

There are other sites that offer sweet coupons too: Grooster, Living Social, Team Buy and the brand new eco-friendly Ethical Deal!

 http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/

ENJOY!

Octopus's Garden

When John is away, I have a hard time being motivated to cook, and usually end up having cereal for dinner. But since I know I need to bring a lunch to work, I turn to easy things that are still healthy and satisfying. Bring on my fish bags. Sounds gross, but they are awesome. And stupidly easy. And only take 23 minutes. And are dirt cheap.

What you need is:

1. parchement paper

2. fron salmon filets (highliner $6 for 4)

3. quinoa or rice or whatever you like

4. quick cooking and easy prep veggies like mushrooms, broccoli, baby bok choy, spinach, green beans... play arouns with different combos

5. sauce: bc famous salmon marinade or teryaki are our fav's

And that is it. place frozen salmon on parchement paper, layer veggies, pour sauce, make tent and cook at 400 for 23 minutes while quinoa or rice is cooking!

The tenting is the hardest part, you need to make sure you have adequate paper for folding and wrapping. Then unwrap your steaming parcel and mix in your rice side. Quinoa cooked in chicken broth is particularily scrumptious with this, and makes it that much more healthy. You can also try this with white fish, like cod or basa, and do a simple lemon ginger sauce for a delicate flavour.

Since I'm on seafood, for Valentines Day John and I cooked our own lobsters! It was exciting and we had a good time with it.

I made a "bouquet garni" of thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and sage (herb bunch) to flavour the cooking water, and also added half a lemon and its juice and whole peppercorns. I did not have any string in which to tie up my herbs, so I used a loose leaf tea bag holder, which worked very well!

Sweet Rush

The crisp was great! A blend of rhubarb and apples, jacked up with ground salba, flax seeds and shelled hemp seeds. We paired it with some vanilla frozen yogurt for an awesome dessert.


I made Jerk chicken the same night as the crisp, a variation from Anthony Sedlaks recipe from his book The Main. I made the Jerk marinade myself using my magic bullet and let some chicken breast marinate for a few hours. Then I heated up some lentils and black beans as a side and made a pineapple red onion salsa to go on top. John barbecued the chicken and it was fabulous!

Last night we made mustard marinated pork tenderloin with a leek, yam and parsnip roast and home made garlic butter for garlic bread. The pork was super tender (from the barbecue a la john) and the whole tenderloin was only $5 on special at Thriftys! Super good deal (should be on for a little while longer) and if you are going to make pork tenderloin, don't forget to remove the silver skin that usually covers a section of the meat.

For fashion lovers, this months Flare magazine (Canadian and only $3) has an awesome designer prete a porter pull out section featuring Chanel, D&G, Versace etc! And the free May issue of Alive magazine is out at Thriftys (Choices in Vancouver) and they have some super good information on detoxes and cleanses.

Brighter Than Sunshine

It finally feels like Summer is around the corner, as we have had some gorgeous sunny days! My flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the produce is amazing!

I had to pass along the Root Cellars awesome new double ad Wednesdays! Each Wednesday is their new flyer day, but they are holding over the previous weeks ad, plus adding the new ad for a double ad and double savingssss!!! Pretty awesome idea... so Wednesdays are now produce day for John and I!



We go a little nuts at the Root Cellar (it's hard not too!) but now we have tons of fruit and veggies to last us till next week: leeks, carrots, tomatoes, endive lettuce, broccoli, onions, zucchini, watercress, rhubarb, spinach, yams, asparagus, baby bok choy, mangos, apples, strawberries, grapefruit, oranges and the list goes on!

I am planning on making a lovely rhubarb crisp on friday and a huge salad to use up some of those veggies!

gorgeous green asparagus