Figue et Noisette

Dandelion Green Pesto and Roasted Dandelion Root Tea (or weeds)

2011-05-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have never really understood why people hate dandelions. I see people spending hours in their yards trying to get rid of them, I just don't see the point (especially given that our yard is full of them). I can't stand spending hours pulling them (unless it's for a culinary purpose) and for so many reasons, I refuse to spray them with chemicals. I feel like people should forget about having the perfect green lawn and embrace the humble dandelion. What is so wrong with having a yard full of yellow flowers? Especially when you can eat them! I mean, isn't grass a weed when it comes down to it? And grass is a lot less pretty than yellow flowers, no? Plus, grass needs mowing and lots of care and attention, dandelions thrive when you ignore them. If I haven't given you enough reasons to go 'au naturel' in your lawn, the following recipes might sway you. Pleasantly bitter, garlicky dandelion pesto. It's delicious on salmon, pasta, stirred into a plain tomato sauce, spread on little toasted baguette rounds with a tomato slice, I could go on, but I'll let you use your imagination. And a nutty cup of roasted dandelion root tea sweetened with honey.

Dandelion roots have been used for medicinal purposes for a long time. So, when I was harvesting my greens for the pesto, I kept the roots too. I have to admit that pulling a dandelion out with the root intact is difficult, but even more rewarding than pulling a carrot out of the earth, and that's saying something! These ugly, white, slightly parsnipy looking roots are really good for you. They clean your liver and help with digestion. Plus, when roasted in the oven and infused into milk or water and sweetened with a little honey they make a lovely tea reminiscent of chicory and the Italian toasted orzo drink. That's to say, nutty, mildly bitter and round with a lovely dark colour, it is, dare I say a good, caffeine-free substitute for coffee (but then I'm not a coffee girl). To roast your dandelion roots, give them a good wash, then put them on a cookie sheet in a 325F oven, turning them over every 15 minutes or so for up to an hour. I found that I took some out earlier than others. The thin ones will get dark brown and toasty quite quickly, while the thicker ones will stay soft inside. You want them hard, crunchy and dark brown (see photo). When they're ready, cool them then grind them in a clean coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle until they are coarsely ground. Infuse a teaspoon or so per cup in hot water or milk, strain, sweeten to taste and enjoy!

Dandelion Green Pesto

Ingredients

8 c Dandelion Greens (make sure they come from somewhere that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides, like your own backyard)

2 Cloves Garlic

1 t Sea Salt

1 c Toasted Walnuts

Black Pepper

1 Lemon, Juice And Zest

⅓ c Olive Oil

Procedure: 1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add 1/2 the washed dandelion greens to the pot, swirl with a pair of tongs and remove to a large bowl of ice water. Do the same thing with the remaining greens. Remove the greens from water and place in a colander. Squeeze the remaining water out of them and roll them in a clean kitchen towel. Place in the food processor with the remaining ingredients and pulse until well combined. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, garlic and lemon if you think it needs more. It will depend on how bitter your greens are. Check the consistency too, if you like it runnier, add more olive oil or even a little water.
Use the pesto for pasta, salmon, chicken, toasts, tomato sauce, etc. I usually freeze a few portions in an ice cube tray, when frozen, remove and place in a ziplock in the freezer. Then you have pesto to use whenever you need it!; Now, get out in your yard and pick some dandelions! Then decorate your dining room table with some humble little yellow flowers while you wow your guests with pasta and dandelion green pesto and a warm cup of roasted dandelion root tea with dessert.

Quinoa Rice Breakfast Cereal

2011-04-14T07:37:00.001-07:00

So, it's day four of my little cleanse, and it's actually going quite well. I miss cheese, yogurt and bread, but have been keeping those cravings at bay with salty rice crackers (didn't realize how much I love them!) and creamy tapioca pudding made with rice milk and honey. I think knowing that this is only for two weeks makes it easier. I'm already thinking about bread and cheese....

Breakfast was an area I was a little worried about starting this diet. I love having toast with peanut butter and bananas or oatmeal or granola with kefir, all of which are on my do not eat list! So I had to come up with a good alternative, to fill me up and satisfy my need for a substantial morning meal. I had tried creamy rice cereal in the past, and found it lacking in something. The texture can be a bit too grainy or something. So the other day, I mixed it with quinoa that I decided to try grinding in my coffee grinder (I don't drink coffee, so I only use it for flax and spices). It worked perfectly! I cooked the two together with a mixture of rice milk and water and drizzled honey overtop. Today I served it with an apple blueberry compote, almonds, blueberries and honey. It was a perfect, creamy, nutty, fruity and warm cereal that I think I will continue making even when I'm done with this crazy diet. And for me, that's saying something.

Quinoa Rice Breakfast Cereal

¼ c Quinoa
¼ c Rice Cereal / Rice Meal
1 c Water
1 c Plain Rice Milk
Pinch Salt

Put quinoa in a clean coffee grinder and pulse until finely ground, about like coarse cornmeal. Place in a medium saucepan with rice, water, rice milk and salt. Give it a stir and turn the heat on to medium. Bring it to the boil, stirring constantly. Cook until thick, about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat, cover with lid and let stand for 5 minutes or so. Drizzle with honey, fruit, dried fruit, almonds or whatever you like.

Honey Puffed Grain and Seed Squares and a personal challenge

2011-04-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

I am embarking on a culinary adventure/challenge that I never thought I would be embarking on. It all started the other day, when I went to see a naturopath for the first time. After her in-depth assessment of my overall health, she suggested it might be a good idea for me to do a two week "cleansing diet". The purpose of this diet is to see if some minor health problems clear up if I cut out refined sugar, gluten and dairy....my three favourite food groups! I have always been very sceptical (even bordering on critical) of people who jump on the fat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free bandwagons, unless they have actual allergies. It always seems so extreme, and besides, many of these things (minus the refined sugar) are so healthy! The first question I asked was whether I can (permanently) re-introduce these foods afterwards, even if my symptoms clear up. Her answer was yes, which for me was huge. I wouldn't even be willing to try this is if meant I could never go back to gluten and dairy! Plus, it's not like I have severe reactions to these foods. I am interested, however, to see how my body reacts without them. So starting Monday (after a dual birthday party for which I made two cakes), I will give it a try. I'm looking at it as an interesting culinary project and a personal challenge that way I can have fun with it and try some new ingredients and recipes that I might not have thought of otherwise.

I came up with these really yummy puffed millet and quinoa squares last night, and think they will be a good sweet fix for me, because I certainly can't get very far through a day without something sweet (no pun intended for those of you who get that reference). I will be posting some recipes over the next two weeks, so stay tuned for some (hopefully) delicious, gluten, dairy and sugar-free recipes!

Ingredients

1 cup Liquid Honey

¼ cup Pure Almond Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Salt

2 cups Puffed Millet

1 cup Puffed Quinoa

1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

1 Tbsp Poppy Seeds

1 Tbsp Flax Seeds

2 Tbsp Sunflower Seeds

2 Tbsp Pumpkin Seeds

¼ cup Chopped Almonds

Procedure

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper.

Put honey, almond butter, salt and vanilla into a medium saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil, stirring with a spatula. Remove from heat, pour in remaining ingredients and stir until everything is coated in the honey mixture. Pour into prepared pan and press down with a spatula or with wet hands.

Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, let cool fully and then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese

2011-03-24T06:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, and that's an understatement. It's actually been almost three months since I've posted! If you are reading this, thank you for not giving up on me entirely. I don't have any reason other than I've been busy with life. But alas, here I am now, and I'm coming to you with a super delicious recipe that I came up with last night when I was thinking about mac and cheese, but didn't want something really heavy and greasy. My mind wandered to sweet potatoes, because I love them, and then I thought about pureeing them and using that as the sauce. Well, it worked! It turned out better than I could have expected, creamy, cheesy, with a perfectly crunchy top and an earthy sweet, garlicky sauce coating and filling the little macaroni noodles. I also think it would be a super way to 'hide' sweet potatoes for kids (or husbands) who claim not to like them. If you don't see them go into the food processor, you would be hard pressed to pick them out in the finished dish. Please try it and let me know what you think, there are surely a million spins you could put on it, I added spinach to the pasta and sauce before pouring it into the baking dish, but you could add lightly steamed broccoli or cauliflower, goat's cheese, the possibilities are endless. Please take the amounts (especially the milk, cheese and spinach) as guidelines, if you like more or less, add more or less.

Ingredients: 1 Medium Sweet Potato; 1 c Skim Milk; 75 gm Crumbled Feta Cheese; 75 gm Grated Old Cheddar; ¼ c Plain Bread Crumbs (I make my own by throwing stale bread into the food processor and letting it go until it turns into fine breadcrumbs); 4 Cloves Garlic; 1 T Olive Oil; 2 Handfuls Washed Spinach; 1 lb (a regular sized package) Macaroni or other small, tubular pasta; Salt And Pepper

Procedure: 1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut sweet potato into thick rounds, place on baking sheet with garlic cloves, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for about 40 minutes, turning the rounds over about halfway through cooking. They should be very tender.; 2. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, put cooked sweet potato and garlic into food processor and pulse until smooth. Pour in milk and feta and pulse until combined. Taste for salt and pepper and add as needed. When pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot. Pour sweet potato mixture over top if pasta and stir to combine everything. Add the spinach and stir it in until it's wilted from the heat. Pour the pasta into a large rectangular baking dish. Sprinkle with the cheddar and bread crumbs and pop in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes, or until golden and bubbly. Enjoy!

Bon appetit! And I promise to be back before long with more recipes!

Mandarin Champagne Jelly

2010-12-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone once again. So much preparation, planning, shopping, baking, cooking, wrapping, and in one glorious, food-filled day, it's over. This year I had bronchitis to tend with while I celebrated, luckily my antibiotics kicked in just in time to allow me to enjoy the day. My Christmas was filled with delicious food from morning until late at night, family and friends and some lovely gifts, given and received. But this post, of course, is all about the food.

Usually, I plan more elaborate and rich Christmas desserts like cheesecakes, tortes and ice creams, but this year I wanted something a little more refreshing, and seeing as my brother and A were coming to our place for not only their second dinner of the night but their fifth meal of the day (!), I didn't want to make their last bite of the night painful. I had been watching Jamie's Christmas shows over the past few weeks, and one of his desserts appealed to me more than the others, Clementine Jelly. The only thing is, I'm not a huge fan of gelatine. I'm not going to go vegan on you, don't worry, and I'm not sworn off gelatine entirely, it has it's place, I just have a hard time getting past that very wet-dog/barnyard-y smell it releases when it's soaking. I've been wanting to try cooking with agar agar for a while anyways, so I thought I'd take Jamie's idea and make it my own. I also liked the thought of incorporating some champagne, to make it feel a little more grown up and festive and hopefully a bit bubbly. The result? A light, refreshing, delicious, and mildly bubbly, post-feast treat.

Mandarin Champagne Jelly

3 cups mandarin orange juice, freshly squeezed (I didn't count, but it was about half a box of Chinese mandarins)

1 cup champagne (Ok, I used sparkling wine)

2 tsp agar agar powder

pomegranate seeds for serving

Put the juice (and pulp) into a saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle the agar agar over top and whisk in. Bring to a gentle simmer, whisking, for about 5 minutes, until the agar agar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes while you decide what glasses you want to serve the jelly in. Pour the champagne over the warm mandarin juice and give a gentle whisk. Pour into glasses, (you can strain it into the glasses if you like. I only did this for one person, not naming names) cover and pop into the fridge to set for about an hour, they don't take long to set. I made mine the day before and they were perfect and made my life much easier on Christmas day! Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds before serving. Serves 6-8 depending on the size of your glasses.

Marmalade (the dorky jam)

2010-11-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

I once overheard a conversation in a shoe store between two people about my age that went something like this: "Marmalade is gross", "Yeah, it's like something my Grandma eats", "I don't even know why they still make it, nobody really likes it, except Grandmas". I restrained myself from jumping in and explaining to them the virtues of marmalade, it's citrusy sweetness and versatility. But that might have made me look crazy.

Marmalade is kind of like a dorky kid in high school that nobody likes, but that ends up being cool and successful later on. I put it in the same category as raisins, prunes and pickled onions. I feel the need to stick up for these underloved but delicious ingredients. Raisins, in particular, get a lot of flack. I get the slime factor, when they sit inside cinnamon buns and just get wet and ruin the whole experience. But when they are the star of the show, like in a really well basted and aged fruitcake, they become delicious and complex, with notes of caramel and molasses. But standing up for raisins is for another post. Today I'm working on converting marmalade haters, and I know this cake will do the trick! This one's for my shoe buying peers, and their Grandmas.

Citrus Yogurt Cake

I have adapted this cake from a recipe I found in Cooking Light a few years ago. I've made it many times and everyone always loves it, even marmalade haters (my husband included).

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Sift dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1/3 cup olive oil (or you could use canola oil)

Whisk these ingredients together in a large bowl.

zest of one orange and one lemon

1 cup freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice (I usually squeeze one orange and one lemon and make up to the cup mark with water)

1 tbsp orange flower water

Add juice and zest to the wet ingredients. Then add the wet into the dry and give it a whisk to combine, stopping when the ingredients are just about combined. Finish mixing gently with a spatula. Pour into a greased and floured 8 inch round baking pan (I line the bottom of mine with a circle of parchment paper just to be on the safe side) and bake for about 50-60 minutes. Check at the 50 minute mark. A toothpick should come out clean and it will be lightly golden on top. Remove from oven and cool about 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.

While the cake is cooling, get on with the glaze.

Glaze

1/3 cup marmalade

2 tbsp Grand Marnier

Place the marmalade and liqueur in a small saucepan and warm on medium heat until it just starts bubbling, remove from heat. Put the warm, but not hot, cake onto the serving dish and poke it with a toothpick to create lots of little holes. Pour the glaze over the top. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature before serving.

To make the cake ahead of time, bake the cake, cool completely, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. Remove from freezer and thaw for a few hours, make the glaze and pour over top before serving.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2010-11-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

November is a month that I come into with a certain amount of dread. I'm not a cold weather person and the first month that has the real potential to feel like winter just doesn't appeal to me. But every year, I'm reminded that there can be nice days in this transitional month. There are not many leaves left, but there are a few hangers-on, there is the odd day that the mercury creeps tentatively up to 13 or 14C, and have I mentioned my love of scarves? So November is not all bad. It is also a great cooking month. There are still pumpkins and squash around, and I just ate my last garden tomato this week (with a tear in my eye). I pulled all my swiss chard and multicolored carrots the other day, before the big frost, as well as what was left of my parsley, chives and mint. So there has been a last bowl of my favourite summer dish, taboulleh, in my fridge this week and parsley on everything. Now I must move forward into this inevitable season of cold whiteness and enjoy the flavours it brings.

My last post was all about pumpkins, and I do love them so! On Halloween as I was carving a funny face into a big pumpkin, I decided to make roasted pumpkin seeds, and since JS doesn't like them, I made them spicy. They are so easy to make, and are delicious and really healthy too! Here's what I did....

Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups pumpkin seeds (washed and dried)

2 tbsp olive oil

good sprinkling of Maldon salt and black pepper

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp piment d'espelette

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Toss the pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the oil, salt and pepper and spices. Spread onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in a 350C oven for about 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temp to 250C and continue baking, stirring occasionally for about 45 minutes or until they look toasty, dry and golden. These are best when they are warm from the oven, but you can keep them in an airtight jar for about a week.

Ten things to do with pumpkins

2010-10-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

There's something about October and pumpkins. The very word October conjures images of the big, orange squash. They are so versatile, healthy and delicious. October is such a crisp, cool and crunchy month outside and that has me yearning for warm bowls of smooth pumpkin soup; toasty, golden, salted pumpkin seeds; cinnamon and clove spiced cakes baking in my oven and creamy pumpkin risotto on the stove. Forget about carving scary faces in your pumpkin, put it in the oven instead!

Here is my top ten list of things I've been making with pumpkins these last few weeks:

1. Roasted pumpkin and goat cheese salad (pictured above)

2. Glazed pumpkin cookies (recipe below)

3. Spiced pumpkin whisky ice cream (pictured above, I made this for Thanksgiving and it was delish!)

4. Pumpkin risotto

5. Creamy pumpkin soup

6. Pumpkin and feta quiche

7. Pumpkin pecan loaf

8. Pumpkin spiced breakfast oatmeal (To die for!)

9. Toasted pumpkin seeds

10. Pumpkin spice squares

I'm not going to give you ten recipes, but here is the recipe for the Glazed Pumpkin Cookies that I got from the new Canadian House and Home. They are so amazing, you have to try them!

Glazed Pumpkin Cookies

adapted from Canadian House and Home, November 2010

Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk flour with spices and salt. In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter with sugar. Add egg, pumpkin and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture into butter mixture until just blended. Drop with a tablespoon onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 13 minutes, they should look like they are just cooked in the middle, but not over baked. Cool on a wire rack.

Glaze

1 cup icing sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup almond milk (or regular milk)

Whisk together in a small bowl adding more almond milk or icing sugar to get the consistency you need. When the cookies are cool, dip the tops in the glaze and put them back onto the rack to drip and dry. Makes about 3-4 dozen cookies depending on how big you make them. I got 3 1/2 dozen. If you're serving these to friends, make sure you keep a stash in your freezer because they will be gone and when your friends go home you will wish you had just one more to get you through the dishes and clean-up (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything)!

Healthy Granola Cookies

2010-10-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the quest to make cookies that are a little healthier. I'm not saying that cookies full of butter and sugar and chocolate shouldn't be enjoyed, but I prefer to leave those cookies to special occasions and holidays (especially Christmas, when a few extra pounds are expected). On an average day, when I want cookies, I want to feel just a little bit virtuous about it.

The other reason I've been thinking about trying out some healthier cookie recipes is because my Dad is a cookie addict. I know people who like cookies, but my Dad's love for the little round discs of buttery goodness goes beyond almost any love for a food item I've ever seen. My Mom has spent 41 years of marriage trying to keep up with his demand for a full cookie jar. When she makes cookies, it's like a factory in the kitchen, there are jars and tins slowly being filled and racks and trays covering every surface. She has "healthified" her cookies over the years, but one of the ways she does that is by using soft margarine. I'm not a proponent of chemically produced "healthy" fat. I've been trying to get her to switch to butter for years, but to no avail. Their Doctor told them that margarine is good for the heart, so it stays. But these cookies use canola oil, and a small amount of it, which in my opinion is much better for the heart, but I'm no Doctor.

I came up with these cookies this morning, and they are my rough draft, but I must say, they turned out so well, I don't think they need any editing. You can definitely play with them to make them your own by putting different nuts and seeds in them, or by using a different type of granola.

My Healthy Granola Cookies - Rough Draft

I use my homemade granola (http://figueetnoisette.blogspot.com/2008/10/tree-hugging-granola-making-and-more.html) for these, which has gone through quite a number of drafts itself, and is now the best it's ever been. I will post the newest version soon. The one I made yesterday has almonds, hazelnuts, dried apricots, dates and golden raisins in it, but you can really use any granola you like.

Preheat the oven to 350C.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I think spelt flour would also work great here)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup ground flax

Whisk together in a large bowl. Add:

2 cups granola

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

In another bowl, whisk together:

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

3 egg whites

Pour this over the dry ingredients and stir in with a spatula until everything is combined. Spoon onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (they should be about the size of a ping pong ball), and make sure you space them apart so they have room to spread. Bake for about 12 minutes or until they are golden brown around the edges and the centres don't look pale and doughy anymore.

Eat!

Scarves, socks and Sunday night soup

2010-09-27T06:07:00.001-07:00

I'm not a fall person. I love the barefoot, carefreeness of summertime. I love the sticky, sleepless nights, the hot, humid afternoons. I love sitting by the lake, going to the beach, swimming in cool water and heating up afterwards with the hot, summer sunshine. But, inevitably, fall makes it's appearance. It's not that I can't appreciate the beauty of fall, it's the imminence of winter that I can't get past.

Something I can embrace about fall though, is the food. I love warm bowls of soup after many months of crisp salads, bread baking in the oven, spicy cakes made with apples and pumpkin (there is one in my oven as I type this).

I will also admit that I love wrapping a cozy scarf around my neck and wooly socks on my feet and going for long walks, watching the leaves changing colours and crunching beneath my feet. The sun seems to cast a more golden light and every day when I get up I'm happy for any plant in my garden that has survived a night a little cooler than the last. It's always exciting to see which ones hold out the longest until they get covered up with their white blanket of snow to have a long nap until spring.

So I guess I'm coming around to fall. And a warm bowl of soup sure makes it easier to embrace.

Sunday Night Soupe Maison

This recipe is so easy I struggle to give you an exact recipe, so I will just give suggestions. It is pretty much impossible to screw up, and it will always taste good. My Mother-in-law is the master of this soup, and when I make it, JS is in heaven. He could eat just this soup all the time and be happy. His Mom used to make it for him every Sunday night. When I made it the other day, the only veggies I had to hand were potatoes, onions, carrots and some swiss chard in my garden. It was delicious! You can also add celery, garlic, turnip or any vegetables you like.

3 medium red potatoes

2 small or one large onion

5 medium carrots

1 zucchini

A few Tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp dried herbs (I use herbes de provence, but any mixture of thyme, oregano, sage and/or rosemary will do)

Salt and pepper to taste

A few large leaves of swiss chard, spinach, kale or other leafy greens

Roughly chop the vegetables into fairly large chunks. Tumble them into a large soup pot with the olive oil and herbs and turn the heat to medium. Toss them around for a few minutes to heat and release some of their aroma.

When they are beginning to soften, but not brown, pour water in to cover them. Add a little bit of salt and pepper, stir and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.

At this point, the vegetables should be cooked. If you stick a fork into a carrot and it's soft, that's perfect.

Add your chard leaves and let them wilt for a few minutes.

Puree right in the pot with an immersion blender, or you can use a blender or food mill (if you want to be really traditional). Add more water if it is too thick. Taste and correct seasonings. Serve in a big bowl with some chopped fresh herbs, a grating of parmesan cheese and some good, crusty, whole grain bread. Eat and feel happy about the changing seasons.

Back to blog

2010-08-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been on hiatus. I don't really have any great excuse except that I got married in July and leading up to that took a great deal of planning, plus we had 8 house guests for the entire month of July which actually took more planning than the wedding itself.

But with the start of the school year just around the corner, I always feel inspired to start something new (or in this case, re-start something old). I also get this funny urge to buy nice new fall clothes, but that's for another blog.

This time of year is bittersweet for me. It's still summer, and I am constantly reminding myself of that, but everyone is acting like fall is already here and that means that winter is around the corner (ugh!). But the sweet part is that in reality, we still have several weeks of summery weather, cooler nights that just beg for another blanket and someone to snuggle with (lucky me, I have two!), and a bounty of beautiful summer vegetables from the garden and the farmers markets! This is, without a doubt, my favourite time of year to cook.

Today was warm and muggy and I wanted a healthy lunch made with garden vegetables. My friend Steph called last night from the west coast to say that what she was making for dinner (couscous with chickpeas and olives) made her think of me. I wish I could have shared it with her. Instead, I made a lovely bulgur salad full of fresh herbs and tomatoes from my dear friend Dave (mine are still green on the vines!?!). It fit the bill for a late summer, Sunday lunch for one.

Summer bulgur salad

1 cup bulgur wheat

2 cups water

1 tsp salt

Bring water and salt to the boil in a medium pot, add bulgur, stir and cover. Turn off the heat. Let the bulgur absorb all the water for about 20 minutes while you prep the vegetables.

a good handful of garden herbs, finely chopped (I used parsley, chives, basil and mint)

a few tomatoes, diced (I had a really lovely variety of heirlooms, you can use any fresh tomatoes)

half a cucumber, diced (I used a really lovely Armenian variety that I planted this year, it is so delicious and crisp, without a trace of bitterness, plus, the seeds are tiny!)

juice of one lemon

a few glugs of olive oil

salt

When the bulgur is cooked, spoon it into a large dish and let it cool a little bit. Add the vegetables and herbs, squeeze the lemon over (catching the seeds between your fingers) and drizzle with olive oil. Taste and see if it needs a little salt or more lemon or oil, and add as needed, tasting along the way. This dish is so flexible and easy. You could add pine nuts, olives, capers, feta, any other vegetables you like. And it keeps well for several days in the fridge and makes a perfect lunch to go. Eat outdoors with a cold glass of rose and a good book!

The sweet side of the avocado

2010-02-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

For a while I've been meaning to experiment with avocados used in sweet things, but every time I buy avocados and they are sitting, perfectly ripe on my counter, all I can think about is a squeeze of lime, Maldon salt and a drizzle of the basil infused oil I brought back from France. Needless to say, until today, I hadn't gotten around to all my sweet avocado ideas!

My first idea came to me a while ago when I began making matcha lattes with almond milk, which I keep a stash of in my pantry. I love the slightly sweet, slightly almondy, creamy smoothness of almond milk to tone down the grassiness of matcha. I love starting the day with matcha, but sometimes the intensity and the greenness is a little much for me first thing in the morning. Matcha is super healthy and contains lots of antioxidants, the reason why it's better for you than regular green tea is due to the fact that you consume the whole leaf when you drink it rather than just the infusion of the leaves. Anyways, it occurred to me to combine avocado with matcha in a morning smoothie, to play on the green colour, but I wanted something with a little more flavour. Banana came to mind, as it has the power to make any smoothie sweet enough and gives great body and texture when pureed.

So this morning was test time. I decided to try frozen banana, avocado, almond milk and matcha. It worked! It was so creamy, cool and sweet, without being cloying and it felt just right for a morning pick me up. Plus, isn't everything green cool right now?

Green Sunrise Smoothie

1/2 an avocado (rub the other half with lemon, wrap tightly and save to throw in a salad later)

1 frozen banana (I freeze mine, peeled, in ziplock bags when they start to get brown and spotty)

about 1/2 cup of almond milk

1 tsp honey

1/2-1 tsp matcha powder (if you've never tried matcha, use a small amount to start, it has a pretty intensely green and slightly bitter taste)

Whizz everything in the blender and pour into a glass. Drink immediately, before it has the chance to turn a not so appealing khaki colour. Feel great about starting your day in such a healthy way. Serves 1.

Mon pain a moi

2010-01-31T11:26:00.000-08:00

The bread baking has been continuing here. I've been really excited about the pain au levain, which I've played with a little bit to make it my own. It's a very dense loaf, maybe because my starter is not quite mature enough, but it has a crispy, hard, caramelized crust that I love and a chewy interior.

Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini has a great recipe that I have mostly followed, but changed a few things. http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/07/natural_starter_bread.php

I have just slightly adapted this method.

Rustic Pain au Levain

The night before you want to bake:

Feed your starter, scoop out 1/2 cup starter and put in a clean glass bowl, stir in 1/2 cup plain flour and 1/4 cup filtered water. Remember to stir with a wooden spoon. Cover and let sit overnight.

If you don't have a starter, have a look at Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. There are fairly clear instructions on starting your own from scratch.

The next morning:

In a stand mixer with the paddle or dough hook, mix together:

600g flour (I use 300g whole wheat, 100g rye, 100g spelt and 100g white, all organic)

400g pure water

200g starter

1 Tbsp gluten flour

Mix until a rough dough is formed. This dough will be very sticky. Cover the bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Add 2 tsp sea salt and allow the mixer to mix the salt in. Then transfer the dough to a floured countertop and knead by hand until the dough is less sticky. This might take about 10 minutes. Put dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm, draft free area and allow to rise. After about an hour, fold the dough over, cover it up and allow it to continue it's slow rise. The bread should just about double in size after about 8 hours.

Oil and flour a cast iron or glass pot with a lid that is safe for the oven. Place the dough in the pot, make a few slits in the top and sprinkle with flour. Put the lid on and place the pot in the oven. Turn the oven on to 450F and set the timer for 1 hour. At that point, take the bread out and check it. Mine is usually not baked yet, so I uncover it and place it back in the oven for at least 15 and up to 25 minutes. If you stick a knife in the middle of the loaf it should come out pretty clean. This extra, uncovered time in the oven will allow for deeper caramelization of the crust. When the bread is baked, take out of the oven and carefully (don't burn yourself!) remove from the pot onto a wire rack. You really should wait for this bread to be cool before you cut into it, otherwise the middle can be gummy.

Enjoy and revel in the fact that you made a loaf of bread that is so rustic and beautiful! It is amazing what flour, water and salt can make when we treat them right.

Brioche and Pain au Levain

2010-01-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today was a successful day on the bread front. In between clients, I kneaded and turned and gently set my doughs in bowls to rise. I peeked in on them, deflated them when they needed and finally tonight baked them, separately, each waiting their turn, in a hot oven until they were both golden and puffed. They are possibly the two most different types of bread, so let me start with the brioche, which I promised I would tell you about today.

I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's Basic Brioche recipe. It required lots of steps and seemed a bit daunting, like many of her recipes I must admit. But when I broke it down and actually looked at the steps, I realized it wasn't that difficult.

The soft, golden yellow dough that I had set in the fridge last night puffed until the plastic wrap around it was really tight. When I looked at it this morning it reminded me of a chubby woman squeezed into a mini skirt. All I had to do today was fold it and leave it to rise. I decided to make it in a big loaf pan with white sugar crystals on top, my favourite topping for brioche. Then it baked for about an hour and voila! A real brioche made in my own kitchen. I tried to be patient, but patience is not a great quality of mine, so I sliced it carefully while still a bit warm and spread it with apricot jam from last summer. It was lovely, mildly sweet, golden from the free range eggs, rich from the butter and with a softness that I was surprised and delighted by. All in all, the brioche was a winner.

Now for my pain au levain. I was skeptical about the life of my starter. I again used Rose's recipe for starter and I realized after about a week or two that I had been stirring it with a metal spoon. Apparently that is a big no no, but in all my reading about starters, I couldn't figure out why. Some people claim that metal is warm and will kill the bacteria, others say that metal contaminates starter. I wasn't sure. So I kept dumping out a little each day and feeding it with flour and pure water. It was smelling like a starter, acidic, maybe even a little cheesy. It was bubbling a little bit, like a good starter should. It was a nice even colour, with no streaks. I decided to name it (as both Rose and Clotilde did) and came up with Yuki. So I set out to try Clotilde's recipe for Pain au Levain using my very own Yuki. Basically I used 600g flour (red fife, whole wheat and white), 400 g water, 200 g yuki, 1 tbsp wheat gluten and 2 tsp sea salt. This got mixed, rested, kneaded and rose all day. The baked in my beloved red cocotte. It didn't give away how lovely it was going to taste with much of a smell wafting from the oven the way the golden brioche did. I tried to wait patiently by distracting myself with the end of a captivating book, but I was dying to see what was going on inside the lidded cocotte. Finally an hour passed and I opened it up, only to find it a little bit pale and not as high as I hoped. So I took the lid off and popped it back in to get a bit more colour and hoped for the best. I still wasn't sure that the starter had done it's job very well. So with a bit more patience I waited for the miche to cool and then, finally, cut into it. Well, let me tell you, I needn't have worried. If I dare say this, it was almost as delicious as my favourite bread, Pain Poilane! It had a lovely, chewy, compact interior, a hard, carmelized crust and that nice, mildly acidic tang that a starter lends to bread. I can't believe that I was able to create such a nice bread in my own kitchen!

Brioche

2010-01-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

I decided to try my hand at a real brioche. Plain and simple. A rich dough full of butter and eggs, baked until golden and eaten just a little bit warm from the oven. It started last night when I got the sponge together and put in the fridge. this morning all I had to do was mix the dry ingredients together and cover the sponge and let it sit for a few hours. Then I mixed them together in my mixer and added the cold eggs then the soft butter bit by bit. That gave me the most beautifully sticky and soft golden coloured dough, which spent a couple of hours rising and is now resting in the fridge. It got deflated once, went back into the fridge and will get folded tonight before spending a chilly night in the fridge. Tomorrow it will rise once more before being baked and then enjoyed with some good butter and apricot jam. I can hardly wait!

I will post a photo tomorrow to let you know how it turns out....

Grapefruit Avocado and Feta Salad

2010-01-16T11:47:00.000-08:00

The weather is tricking us into thinking spring is on the way, which I guess it is, but truthfully not for another 10 weeks. Snow is melting off rooftops and the streets are mucky and brown. I felt like having something bursting with flavour for lunch today. Something light, fruity and healthy. I had a few ripe avocados, tons of citrus fruit in the fridge and some feta cheese, so there was my lunch. It was just what I wanted, the silkiness of the avocado and the burst of pink grapefruit with some salty feta and a drizzle of sharp lime juice and basil infused oil. Perfection! I think some good black Kalamata olives tossed into the mix and a few fresh basil leaves might have taken this to the next level, but I thought of the olives after the fact and I had no fresh basil. I ate it with my homemade olive bread from last night's dinner (which is possibly better the second day) and sauteed tofu and spinach. I hesitate to give you a recipe for this, as quantities should vary according to your taste, but here's what I put in mine.

Grapefruit Avocado and Feta Salad

1 pink grapefruit

1 avocado

feta cheese (as much or as little as you like)

juice of half a lime

basil infused olive oil for drizzling

Maldon sea salt

Segment the grapefruit and remove the membrane and pith. Cut each segment into two or three pieces. Cut the avocado into small cubes. Cut the feta cheese into small cubes. Toss or arrange on a plate. Squeeze a fresh lime over top and drizzle with the oil. Sprinkle with Maldon sea salt. Eat!

Honey Cakes

2010-01-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Thursday night is girls night, and with two about to have babies, we may not have many Thursday night get togethers for a while. So while we still can, I want to make some pretty, delicious and healthy homemade treats to share.

Today as I thought about what to make for tonight, I decided I wanted to use some mini bundt pans that I got last Christmas from my Mom and that still had the labels on. I found a recipe for little bundt type cakes and completely changed it to suit my taste and what I had on hand. They turned out delicious! With a dark, almost crunchy exterior and a moist, honey scented crumb.

I am making an apple compote with a touch of cinnamon and honey to go along with them and, as always, we will have a pot of honeybush tea to share as we nibble.

Honey Cakes

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 12 mini bundt pans, or use non-stick ones. Alternatively you can use a muffin pan.

1/3 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup dark runny honey

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk together in a large mixing bowl until smooth.

1/3 cup hazelnut flour

1/3 cup red fife flour (or whole wheat flour)

1/3 cup white flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

pinch vanilla bean powder (optional)

Whisk together to blend. Add to wet ingredients and stir with a spatula just until incorporated.

Pour into prepared tins and bake for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire rack and cool. Serve with home made apple compote or plain.

Pain Quotidien

2010-01-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, JS always knows that cookbooks are my favourite gift! This year he got me two that I had on my list. One of them is Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Bread Bible. I decided that as one of my New Year's resolutions, I would start baking bread. Not the same old bread that never has a great crust and is just kind of bland, but real, crusty, artisanal breads with a more complex sourdough taste and a chewy crumb.

Bread baking seems like such a basic and old fashioned skill that few people today really have. The process of creating something so wholesome and belly filling with 4 ingredients, flour, salt, yeast and water, is pure alchemy. People today are so worried about eating too many carbs, but I feel strongly that bread is the pillar of any meal. We should all be eating bread, not the horrible, white, spongy loaves that sit on the shelf for weeks, but real, homemade loaves that fill the house with an unbelievable smell. So onwards with my new years resolution, and my mission to fill my house with the aroma of yeast and flour baking in my oven.

I started with the recipe for Hearth Bread. I was a little sceptical because she always uses instant yeast (I buy my yeast in the bakery of my supermarket in a large brick. It's the moist, pressed kind of yeast and it's what they use in France so I assumed it was the good stuff). This bread started with making a sponge, which I had never made before. It's basically a dough made with flour, water and a tiny smidgen of yeast and left to sit for the day. Then you mix the sponge into the dough when you're making the bread. I followed her recipe step by step (a feat for me, who likes to improvise and adjust) and the bread came out beautifully! It had a crisp crust and a moist, chewy crumb. The only step I ignored was at the end when Rose advises to leave the bread to cool on the rack before eating. I think we ate about 3/4 of the loaf before it was even warm!

Next I made a ciabatta bread, which started with a biga, similar to the sponge I made for the hearth bread. It also turned out lovely. It had a nice crust and a chewy interior with lots of little air pockets.

Yesterday I made her Flax loaf, which is a straight dough bread, no starter, sponge or biga required. It may have been the biggest success yet! It had a nice, wholesome flax flavour and a soft and chewy crumb. Best of all it was the fastest bread I've made so far in terms of rising time, which means I can think about it at 3 pm and still have fresh bread for dinner! We enjoyed some last night with cultured butter sprinkled with Maldon salt alongside sweet potato and vegetable soup. Yum!

I also tried her pizza dough which was a success. It doesn't require much kneading, which produces a softer crust and was very much enjoyed by the crowd at JS's birthday dinner on Sunday night.

My other project is the sourdough starter that I started from scratch. It has taken longer then indicated and required a lot of love and persistence, but it looks almost ready to bake with. I can't wait to see how my first loaf turns out! I have been advised to name my starter, maybe because it is a living organism that requires daily care (it eats flour and bottled water for dinner every night), but I've had a hard time coming up with one seeing as it doesn't really look like your typical pet. It's a jar full of bubbling, acidic smelling goo. Gooey, Bloop, Yuki? Any suggestions? I'm kind of liking the sound of Yuki....

As you can see, so far so good on the bread baking front. I have been successful with each loaf, although there is always room for improvement. I would like to get a pizza stone to bake the bread directly on, as Rose recommends in many of her recipes. I also want to try my hand at baguettes, but maybe after I feel a bit more confident as I think they are one of the more difficult breads to master. In the meantime I will tend to Yuki, maybe try a loaf using some of her this weekend and enjoy the delicious smells wafting about my house during the cold, dark days of this new year.

Thinking Pink at Christmastime

2009-12-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

I have been enjoying a pyramid of apples that I put together on a pink cake stand last week so much that I haven't eaten an apple for a week so as not to ruin it's colourful beauty! Finally this morning I took a photo and then ate an apple. Turned out the apples look prettier than they taste. I'm going to have to make an apple crisp or a pie or find some other delicious way to use them up. But alas, this post is not about apples, it's not about anything really, except the pretty pink things I keep seeing that are making me think about Christmas. Now, Christmas is not usually a holiday that is celebrated by decorating the house in pink, but that may change at my house this year. I bought some beautiful berry-ish pink plant at the florist a while back which is lasting a super long time and I've been admiring it's beauty on my kitchen windowsill behind the sink. It contrasts so nicely with it's pale greenery and cute pink berries to the bone-chilling cold and snow outside. It makes me think of life in this season of dormancy. Pink is the colour of happiness, youth, flushed cheeks, baby pigs, rhubarb crisp and little girls dresses and for me a nice change from the ubiquitous red and green of Christmas. So I'm going to drink a glass of sparkling pink wine and toast to a pink Christmas.

Healthy Monday Morning Muffins

2009-11-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

My long lost friend J and her cute little boy came over for a visit yesterday morning and I wanted to make something yummy and healthy to snack on. I had a bag of hazelnut flour that I had been waiting to use and this seemed the perfect occasion. I was in the mood for something sweet, but not sugary, with interesting textures and a healthy feel. Whole wheat and hazelnut flour, spelt flakes, oats, honey, Medjool dates, organic cocoa and the local, free-range eggs I just got would give any muffin a bit more interest.

So out came the mixing bowls and whisk and I started playing. I was a bit worried how they might turn out seeing as I had a 20 month old boy to impress, and kids are the toughest critics, but with such great ingredients they were bound to come out okay, and they ended up more than that. They had a natural sweetness, a great texture and delicious nuggets of sweet dates and crunchy walnuts hidden within. The only thing I would change next time is to stir in some dark chocolate chunks, but that's because I have a thing for dark chocolate in the morning. Not that you must eat these muffins on a Monday morning, I just had one after lunch on a Tuesday and it still tasted just as good, I promise. Although eating one on a Monday morning is sure to start your week off on the right foot.

Oh, and just to prove to you how good these are, J's little boy ate 2 whole muffins all by himself!

Healthy Monday Morning Muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup hazelnut flour

1/2 cup spelt flakes

1 cup oats

1/2 cup coconut

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 C.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, stir all the dry ingredients together except the cocoa. Sift cocoa into mixture and stir to combine.

1/2 cup honey

2 mashed very ripe bananas

1/3 cup canola oil

2 small eggs

3/4 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

In a large mixing bowl whisk all wet ingredients together until combined.

Add dry ingredients into wet while stirring just until combined.

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

5 large Medjool dates, chopped

Add walnuts and dates to the muffin batter. Pour into muffin tin lined with papers. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted down the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Let cool and enjoy!

Amaretti

2009-10-25T23:46:00.001-07:00

About a week after we got back from France, our next door neighbours were off to Italy, leaving behind Zelda the black lab. Being the dog lover that I am, I offered to look after her for three weeks while they ate their way from Rome to Northern Italy with their three (smallish!) children. Roo and Zelda and I got into a nice routine of fun daily walks, backyard ball games and evening play dates and when the three weeks had passed I was actually a little bit sad to get back to a normal doggy routine. The sadness was eased somewhat by a generous gift from D. and S. that we appreciate so much especially considering that they must have carried it home in their carry-ons along with the three little ones and all their things.

We were presented with a beautiful, hand-painted espresso set and a pretty box of authentic, artisanal amaretti. I could smell those little morsels of bitter almond through the box and wondered how they didn't get devoured on that long flight home by D. or S. or one of the kids. When I opened the box that heady scent of almond filled my senses and I just couldn't wait to brew a cup of coffee to go with them. I immediately ate one. It crunched gently and broke in my mouth, then it seemed to melt into a delicious sweet almond powder. The flavour was so authentic that it almost seemed too good to be true. It wasn't reminiscent of "almond extract" but rather of the true flavour of bitter almonds. In fact the cookies themsleves had a surprisingly bitter quality that was really delicious.

Authentic amaretti are made with apricot kernels, or the little almond that is found inside an apricot pit. The kernels are extremely bitter and need to be blanched and skinned before using, but they hold the key to that unmistakable almond flavour. These amaretti were definitely authentic and are being rationed at our house to prolong the pleasure. I think there are two or three left in the box and I will be sad when the last one gets eaten because I'm pretty sure that any amaretti I will find here will pale in comparison.

Savoury Zucchini Loaf with goat's cheese and olives

2009-10-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

One of the things I noticed when we were in France this summer was that at almost every family meal, someone would invariably bring a cake sale, or savoury cake baked in a loaf pan. I had tried them before, but never have I seen such a variety and on so many occasions. In fact, I think the cake sales were even more prominent this summer than the ubiquitous quiche! One of these cakes stood out in my mind, Tatie Mireille's Cake Sale au Chevre, aux Olives et aux Noisettes. Mireille is a creative cook, her flavours are definitely Mediterannean, but she is not restrained by a single way of cooking. This cake sale was a perfect example, she took her recipe for a cake with ham and cheese and made it so much better with goat's cheese, black olives and hazelnuts. Her daughter also made me an amazing crepe while we were there with goat's cheese and honey, but that's for another post....

Last night was girl's night and A. had the most gigantic zucchini I've ever seen from her Mom's garden that she absolutely had to get rid of. She had already made a chocolate zucchini cake and was going to make another one and she couldn't fathom what to do with the rest. I gladly took some home, she even pre-shredded it for me! So today as I was working and thinking about what I should make for dinner after another boring week of pasta (our kitchen is in reno mode and I have been very uncreative as most of my things are still in boxes) I thought of making a savoury zucchini cake with nuts and olives. I somehow found my measuring cups and spoons and I went about throwing together this loaf with what I had in the garden and my cupboards.

Savoury Zucchini Loaf with goat's cheese and olives

Preheat oven to 350

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (if it's wet, give it a squeeze and drain the liquid)

1/4 cup plain yogurt (you can use goat's milk yogurt if you have it)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

3 eggs

1 Tbsp. grainy dijon mustard

Stir these ingredients together in a large bowl until combined.

good handful of parsley and chives, well chopped, or other herbs of your choice

12 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Add these ingredients and stir to combine.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

Sift into mixture and stir until just combined.

1/2 cup soft goat's cheese (substitute with feta if you like)

Crumble into batter and fold gently to combine. Pour into a greased and floured loaf tin. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes and then invert cake onto the rack and cool completely. Serve in small slices as an appetizer. Keep well wrapped in fridge for up to 3 days.

Please be creative with this recipe, use it as a guideline. If you don't like walnuts, add hazelnuts, if you don't have parsley add basil. Add other ingredients, like sundried tomatoes or green olives. As long as you stick to the base, you can add and omit as you please!

Bon appetit!

Macarons

2009-10-03T14:36:00.001-07:00

What is a trip to Paris without a stop at one of the best patisseries? I made sure that during our few days in the city of lights we made a stop at Laduree for macarons and chocolat chaud. I probably would have chosen the Champs Elysees location on my own, but our Parisian friends joined us and recommended Laduree Bonaparte, a little out of our way, but also a little less touristy (although still very busy on a weekday afternoon). They wanted to take us upstairs to the tea room to enjoy our tiny, dreamy and colourful macarons. We weren't really dressed for it, but the friendly staff didn't seem to mind (I guess when you're willing to spend 20 euros on two hot drinks and four mini-macarons they don't care what you're wearing). The room was quiet and painted blue with gold gilding, the tables were dressed in fine white linens with silver cutlery and my beautiful tea (a la fleur d'oranger) came in a gorgeous bone china tea cup. The hot chocolate that JS ordered was so thick you practically needed to eat it with a spoon, it was rich, velvety and not too sweet but even JS, ever the chocolate lover, had a hard time finishing it! It was a difficult task to choose our macaron flavours, although one of those decisions in life that is a pleasure to be faced with, but after much deliberation I chose Cassis-Violette, Caramel au Beurre Sale, Fleur d'Oranger and Pistache. All were delicious, but my hands down favourite was Cassis-Violette, it had a jammy and tart filling that nicely contrasted with the soft, delicate almond cookies.

On our way out I had to stop to take some macarons to go, partly to share with our friends and partly so that I could get one of their signature boxes and a beautiful bag to take home as a souvenir. I even got to choose which box colour (!), pink for me! My pretty green bag hangs beautifully in my office so that every time I look at it I think of our afternoon break at Laduree that late August day.

Farmers' Feast

2009-09-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was the inaugural Farmers' Feast, an event I helped co-ordinate and that we hope will continue to grow each year. The idea was to promote local food made by local chefs and to bring the producers, chefs and consumers together to create relationships and bring people closer to the food they eat.

The night was a smashing success. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, no wind, and an unusually warm day for late September. Guests were greeted with live jazz and a free glass of wine if they brought their own wine glass. The chefs really showcased their unique talents with delicious local fare such as mini-bison burgers, Manitoba pike cakes, pulled Manitoba pork with aioli on local lettuce, vegan shepard's pie made with all local produce, vegetarian pemmican, Manitoba pumpkin crumble squares, local apple cider, fairly traded organic coffee and so much more that I didn't even get a chance to taste! People wandered from booth to booth, chatting with the chefs, tasting the delicacies and sipping wine or local Manitoba beer. There was an ambiance to the evening that was almost tangible; people laughed; kids played; little Wally the puppy made people swoon; music drifted; wonderful smells filled the air; it was better than any of us thought it could be. A perfect way to cap off a Manitoba summer.

Poilane

2009-09-15T11:34:00.001-07:00

Mr. Poilane might have rolled over in his grave this morning if he saw me eat his prized bread, arguably the best bread in the world, smeared with peanut butter.

We arrived home from France last night with our kitchen in the midst of being renovated, no stove, oven, sink or food in the fridge, but there was peanut butter and I had carefully carried a huge (12 inch diameter?) round Miche Poilane across the Atlantic, so that's what I had for breakfast. But alas, this post is not about peanut butter and I am not going to try to argue it's virtues with the French (I've tried, they won't hear any of it). What I want to talk about today is the bread, pain Poilane.

I had read about it's carmelized crust, chewy interior, the famous starter, the stone milled flour and sel de Guerande that lend Poilane's bread it's distinct flavour and texture. When we decided to spend a few days in Paris on our way down South and a day on the way home, the one must on my list of things to was to stop in at Poilane. Day one we headed to the rue du Cherche-Midi, the tiny Poilane bakery was just as you would imagine a perfect Parisian bakery, lined with beautifully flaky viennoiseries and the signature round miches engraved with a P. I asked the woman for a quarter loaf and she sliced it with a huge apparatus that I can only compare to a paper cutter, we took it home and tasted it that night with my favourite butter flecked with crystals of sea salt. Everything I had read about Poilane's famous bread was true. The rustic crust was almost black on the bottom and the flour had carmelized and released flavours of molasses and toast, the crumb was chewy and moist, salted just enough so that you knew it was there but you couldn't taste it, the starter lent it's little bit of acidity and the butter smeared on top just took it to the next level.

The next day we wandered around Paris some more and I insisted we take the Metro to the rue du Cherche-Midi again for another quarter of a miche. I made sandwiches with brie for me and jambon buerre for JS to eat in the train with a bottle of wine on our way down south. I told myself that on our last day in Paris I would get an entire loaf and haul it with me back across the ocean to take that taste home with me if only for a few days. We had to go to the alternate location because the Cherche-Midi store is closed on Sundays, but luckily the other store on boulevard de Grenelle was open. So, we all headed across the entire city to the 15th (where there is really nothing else to see or do except drink very expensive coffee in touristy cafes and then pay to go pee as we learned) on 3 different metro lines to get the famous bread. Then I carried it all around Paris and back to our friend J's place that night and then on the RER, our transatlantic flight, the Toronto airport and another flight and car ride home and into my makeshift kitchen where it sits proudly on my cutting board as I type this.

I have since gone grocery shopping and have bought some roquefort and chevre with which to enjoy it (the bread has it's pride too) and I intend on eating and enjoying every last carmelized crumb.

Les Cepes

2009-09-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

On Monday evening we went to see a Y, friend who lives in the Pyrenees. The plan was to hike to a refuge where we would sleep and start hiking early the next morning. When we arrived rfom our day on the beach in Spain, later than expected, we were not really in the mood to start hiking. So we opted to pitch a tent in his parents yard and have dinner with them, and start the hike in the morning. Luckily for us his Mom was making a poelee de cepes for dinner. Cepes season is at it's peak in the Pyrenees right now, and she had been picking the day before at about 2000 metres. Their tiny hut built into the side of the mountain (and completely self-sustaining with solar panels and a fireplace) was covered in trays of wild mushrooms sliced thinly and laying out to dry.

We had our delicious dinner of sauteed cepes with olive oil and garlic, olives from the tree in the yard and brined by Y's Dad, home made bread and steamed potatoes and a salad of tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce, and muscat wine to start and a really good red wine from the region. We ate by candlelight in the garden on a table that looked to be 100 years old and benches made of stone and built into the slope of the ground. After dinner Y's Mom wandered all around the dark and sloped yard to pick all sorts of herbs (thyme, rosemary, mint, verbena) to make an delicious infusion. We fell asleep to the sound of crickets chirping and the lights of a village below twinkling and woke up in the clouds.

Y assured us that the hike would be short and easy, "ca va pas trop monter" he insisted. Why we haven't learnt our lesson that he has lived in the mountains his whole life and is in much better hiking shape than us is a mystery. It turned out to be a long and difficult hike, but we managed. We walked through pine forests and picked wild mushrooms, though not as many as a couple of older men we passed had in their basket. We walked through a clearing filled with cows and listened to the bells clinking as they chewed their grass, we stopped here and there to have a rink and admire the truly spectacular scenery. And we stopped at the top (or what felt like the top) of the mountain to have our lunch on a rock. We were at 2400 metres and started at 1560 metres, not a bad hike if I do say so myself. Lunch is so much more satisfying when you are truly re-fueling.

On our way back down we took a different route to try to find more cepes, and got a little lost. I had a few moments of wanting to scream or cry, but I contained myself and kept on going. The hike down was in some ways harder than up as we were in an area without trails that was very steep. It took much longer than it should have to get back to the car, but we all arrived with no broken bones.

Before we headed on our way we stopped back at Y's place and his Mom sent us home with a jar of dried cepes. We had picked about 7 or 8 good sized ones too, so it was a good day.

Tonight back in Beziers, I made a gratin de cepes with layers of potatoes and sauteed cepes covered with milk, dotted with butter and sprinkled with gruyere.

Gratin de Cepes

5 or 6 medium white potatoes (Yukon Gold would work well too)

2 or 3 good sized wild cepes, or substitute other wild mushrooms if you can't find cepes

500 ml whole milk

3/4 cup grated gruyere

a few dots of butter

salt and pepper

Clean the mushrooms with a brush or dry paper towel and cut into thin strips, use the stems too. Sautee them in olive oil at high heat for a few minutes, tossing around, until golden.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Peel, then cut the potatoes into thin rounds.

In a buttered glass baking dish, place a layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of cepes until you have used all of them, sprinkling a bit of salt and pepper between each layer. Pour the milk over and then sprinkle with the gruyere and dot with butter.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown and tender when you press a knife into the middle.

Enjoy the aroma of the forests of the Pyrenees while you wait for it to be cool enough to eat.

Belles Figues

2009-09-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

We're holidaying in the South of France right now, enjoying every minute and every morsel of delicious, crusty bread, creamy cheese and perfect red wine, but I have also been spoiled with all the fresh fruit at this time of year. We've had juicy muscat grapes, tiny green plums, apples, almonds and pears right from the trees, and today, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, fresh, heavy, ripe, sweet figs from the tree to my mouth.

JL asked me last night if I would be interested in coming with him and the neighbour to a fig tree in the middle of a friends vineyard to pick enough figs to make confiture and figues confites. Would I? The question didn't need to be asked! So off we went this morning with our hooks and baskets to a beautiful, huge vineyard with rows and rows of merlot, cinsault and chardonnay grapes among others. I had a taste of the merlot grapes as we walked, sweet and lovely, even though the neighbour said they were the worst eating grape.

The fig tree was so big you could see it from miles away in the middle of the rows of grapes, but it was only when we got close the the smell overcame us. That unmistakeable perfume of ripe figs and fig leaves, earthy and sweet, the smell of the sunshine and the South of France for me.

We picked quite a few and tasted a few in the process. JL wanted me to taste one from the tree and then one that had fallen to see the difference. The freshly plucked fig was cool, perfumed and lightly sweet, the fallen fig was warm, super sweet and concentrated, almost like it was full of honey. Both were sublime.

Here are some photos to look at while you plan your next holiday to the beautiful South of France.

The Kristin/Julia Project

2009-08-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

So, on Friday night N and I went to opening of Julie and Julia. I decided it would be fun to invite her over for dinner first, and of course, in keeping with the theme of the evening, break out Mastering the Art of French Cooking and make something full of butter. Well, I did break out the old cookbook, but none of the recipes were really speaking to me. I wanted something that would be light and tasty, using all the wonderful produce that is around at this time of year, and that would have a Provencal feel. I know that it's pretty hard to find anything in France that would qualify as a proper vegetarian meal, but I thought that Julia must have something that I could make work. I was wrong. I was finding myself uninspired to create this meal and my day got busier than expected. I didn't have time to go shopping (luckily I have a garden and a fridge full of produce these days) and we had to eat really early to get to the show on time, so I decided that I would try my hand at a Soupe au Pistou with a green salad and some good toasted french bread drizzled with olive oil. I worried that this might be a bit too simple, when Mastering the Art of French Cooking is anything but, and I didn't want to disappoint, but time was not on my side and I had to make something. I adapted Julia's recipe, adding a few things, omitting a few others, and it turned out delicious! I only hope Julia would approve.

Soupe au Pistou de Julia (adaptee par moi)

4 litres of water

2 cups each diced carrots, potatoes, and a combination of leeks, shallots and onions)

1 Tbsp sea salt, fresh ground pepper

Boil the water, vegetables, salt and pepper slowly for about 40 minutes.

2 cups canned chick peas

2 cups diced green and yellow zucchini

1 cup diced green beans

Add to the soup and continue boiling gently for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the pistou:

4 cloves of garlic, grated

4 Tbsp tomato paste

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (when I say parmesan, I mean a wedge of cheese that you are going to grate yourself, not some tub of "parmesan" dust that they probably swept off the floor of the cheese factory)

1/4 cup olive oil

Combine in a bowl. Once the soup is finished cooking, taste and correct seasonings. Add one ladelful of soup into the pistou, then add the pistou into the pot of soup and give a stir to combine. make sure to take a good whiff of the soup as you add the pistou, heavenly! Serve immediately with really good toasted artisanal bread drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Bon Appetit!!

PS Just as I am posting this, my Mom called to tell me that there is a Julia Child special on PBS right now, I turned it on and she is making a omelette with the ease that most of us can only make toast.

Little Bums

2009-07-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

Apricots are my little darlings of the fruit world. Their velvety skin, golden with sun-kissed coral cheeks, their sweetly tart, juicy flesh, their love of being stewed and cooked, their ability to be delicious in a sweet or savoury dish, all of these things put apricots right up there with fresh figs, summertime strawberries and wild Ontario blueberries for me.

The B.C. apricots are ripe right now, and every year as soon as I find them, I make jam. I have tried variations, adding the little almond inside the pit (blanched and chopped) is one that I love, but this year, I'm in a bit of a pinch for time and I don't feel like taking a hammer and splitting pits in my kitchen (it's actually a lot more difficult than it may seem). So I experimented and came up with a lovely Apricot jam with vanilla and lemon juice. I make it the French way, macerating the fruit and sugar overnight and then boiling until the natural pectin thickens. This makes a jam that is dark golden orange coloured and lovely with it's sweetness and tartness mingling.

My French Style Apricot Jam

1 kg ripe apricots (weigh after removing the stones)

850 g sugar

juice of 1 lemon or lime

1 vanilla bean

The night before you want to make the jam, quarter apricots and place in a large, heavy bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid. Add sugar, lemon or lime juice and vanilla bean, which you should split down the center and scrape the seeds out. I usually cut my vanilla bean into 3 pieces so that a few of the jars have a pretty length of vanilla bean inside. Give this all a good stir so that the sugar begins to melt a little and leave out on the counter all night.

The next morning, give another good stir and place on the stove turning heat to medium. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for at least 1/2 an hour and up to 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Sometimes I help the fruit along by gently pressing it into the side of the pot while it cooks and other times I just let it do it's thing. Either way you know it's going to taste amazing. When it looks thick and dark golden, pour it into sterilized jars and put the sterilized lids on tight, then invert the jars for a few minutes. I left my jars inverted for the day and when I flipped them back over the jam was stuck on the lids. Not a big deal, but a little funny looking and slightly annoying when the time comes to open them. Don't forget to label the jars with the date. If you keep them in the fridge I think they might last a little bit longer, but they can be stored at room temperature for at least 6 months if they've been properly sterilized. I'm not going to get into sterilizing jars, but if you've never done it, do a quick google search, I'm sure you'll find lots of tutorials. I do mine in the oven and I boil my lids.

This jam is so heavenly spooned over a good piece of crusty baguette smeared with goat cheese. Mmmmmmmm.....now picture eating this while sitting in an apricot orchard with little goats walking around nibbling the grass.

Carottes Amoureuses

2009-07-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

I was at the farmer's market last week and bought some lovely, sweet, baby carrots. When I got them home I noticed these two babies, all curled around each other. They just look so happy that I can't actually bring myself to eat them.

Everyone should have someone who fits with them as well as these two fit together. They just don't make sense when they're apart. That is true love.

Strawberry Fields Forever

2009-07-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

It feels like winter here right now. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but only mildly. It actually feels like winter in the South of France, which is cold. It's gray and cloudy, very windy, and the temperature is about 12C! I know I spend a lot of time complaining about the weather, but when you live in this city, that's what you do. People talk about the weather constantly, and not in the "I don't know what to talk to you about so let's just talk about the weather" kind of way, but in a detailed and analytical kind of way. We also feel that since we live through such brutally cold and long winters that we deserve hot and sunny summers, but Mother nature doesn't always reward us accordingly.

A wordy introduction to tell you that I have been waiting impatiently for strawberries this year, another thing that many Manitobans think they deserve. It is a late year for everything here because of a late and cool spring. But, astonishingly, the berries grew. And ripened. And my Mom and I, as has become our yearly tradition, went to pick some.

They were small little berries, but juicy and full of flavour. I made jam, sorbet, and ate strawberries for days. I tried some new jam recipes this year, Apricot Strawberry (very good), Strawberry Vanilla (ditto), and plain Strawberry, and as always, Freezer jam. So now when winter actually comes I can open a jar and fondly remember our freezing cold and rainy summer. Maybe it will make winter seem not so bad!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

2009-07-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

In response to my post about goats, I thought I should think of a good recipe using goat cheese. I have no shortage of goat cheese recipe ideas, but I especially love it when it's warmed in some way. This quiche is a delicious combination of creamy goat cheese, eggy custard, and gorgeous green herbs from my garden that just seem to get slipped in to everything I make lately. Please use this as a guideline and add whatever herbs you like and more or less cheese to your taste. Quiche is such a simple thing to make, I never measure, if you add 4 eggs instead of 3 or yogurt instead of milk or parsley instead of sage, it will still taste delicious!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

1 roll frozen puff pastry

3 eggs

a nice piece of soft goat cheese (I used about the size of a golf ball)

3/4 cup milk

a good bunch of herbs, I used basil, chives, summer savoury and sage, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

Thaw the puff pastry either overnight in the fridge or on the counter for an hour or

two. Once thawed. place it in a pie dish with the parchment on the bottom and press

into the sides. Give it a few pricks with a fork.

Beat the eggs, then add the milk, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the chopped herbs over the pastry, then add the cheese, breaking it up with

your fingers. Pour the egg mixture over top and put the quiche in the oven for about

45 minutes or until golden and puffed up. If you're not sure whether it's done, put a

knife in the middle and make sure it comes out clean.

Let cool and serve warm or at room temperature. We even it it fridge cold the next day

for lunch. Serve with a green salad and a crisp white wine for a beautiful summer lunch.

Goats

2009-06-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

For some time I have had the somewhat odd dream of wanting to be a goat farmer. I would have an old house in the countryside (this you have probably heard me talk about already) and a whole bunch of really funny goats with lots of character. Early each morning I would wander over to the goats, bleary eyed and tired, and then the goats would do such funny things that I would perk up and have a great day milking them and making fresh cheeses covered with home grown herbs, vegetable ash and sea salt. I do realize that this is my dream sequence and probably not at all the life of a real goat farmer, but a girl's gotta dream!

Last week, in the Okanagan with L, we went to a goat cheese farm and the goats were just as I imagined. Full of character, each one doing a funnier thing than the next. They just seem like such funny animals to be around every day. And the cheese, well, it was incredible. Full of that earthy, barnyard flavour that is so characteristic of goat's cheeses. They also had homemade gelato that was so creamy and rich, but light at the same time. I was in heaven!

Here is a quirky photo of those goats to replace a recipe, which I don't have time for today. If you look at what the goats are doing it is such a funny scene. The one standing on the box just stood like that the whole time, there is a goat in the middle who was scratching her back with her horns, and the one sleeping in the food trough made me laugh. If these goats don't brighten your day, nothing will.

Pizza Dough!

2009-06-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much time, but I know if I don't do this now I won't find the time till next weekend. So I will hastily give you my recipe for my much tested pizza dough. I have had 2 requests in the past week for this (thanks for making me feel like a real chef by asking me for recipes B and L!) This recipe is really not a recipe at all, and it has evolved over time to include a bit of whole wheat flour. Now before you try to tell me how un-Italian that is, and how true pizza dough is made with Italian "00" flour, the suggestion to include a small amount of whole wheat flour came to me from a true Italian Mamma. So there. Try it, it's really good!

My Pizza Dough

4-5 cups of white flour as needed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 packet traditional yeast or a big chunk of fresh yeast (please don't use quick rise!!)

1-2 cups warm water, as needed

Dilute yeast in about 1/4 cup of warm (not hot) water in a small glass bowl. Set aside for about 10 minutes while you get on with the flour.

Stir 4 cups of the white flour and the whole wheat flour with the salt together in a bowl. When the yeast is diluted, pour over the flour, then add the water a little bit at a time until you have a "shaggy mess" as Nigella would say.

Then turn the dough out onto the counter and start kneading. As you go you will feel that the dough is either too wet and sticky or too dry and floury, just add more flour or water as needed as you knead. After about 5 or 10 minutes you should have a beautiful, elastic ball of dough. When you do, clean your bowl in hot water, give it a slick of oil and turn your dough around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp, warm, clean dish towel and put it aside in a warm and non-drafty spot in the kitchen.

After an hour it should be well risen. If you want to use it right away, go for it. If not, give it a punch and a couple of kneads and put it back in the bowl. If you want to make it a day ahead, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day leave it out for about 4 hours or until it comes to room temperature.

To use it, stretch it onto a cookie sheet that you have sprinkled with fine cornmeal, top with whatever you like and bake it for about 20 minutes at 400. These are guidelines only, you really need to know your oven to get the timing right, and it also depends how thick or thin you make your crust. Sometimes this amount gives me 2 cookie sheet sized pizzas and sometimes I just get one. Depends on my mood.

Buon Appetito!

Slow Food Manitoba

2009-05-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

My life has gone from rather uneventful to a gong show in a matter of a month! It all started on a particularly quiet day. I had a break in the afternoon and was looking at a website that I had bookmarked, www.slowfood.com. I decided to contact Slow Food to see if we had a convivium in Manitoba, which we didn't. Then, a few emails were shot around and before I knew it I was co-founding a Slow Food Convivium here. Our first meeting was a huge success, over 35 people showed up to something we were planning to have in my living room. Luckily we had about 20 that rsvp'd and I decided at that point to move to a larger location. This city is really like a huge small town, word travels fast, and before we knew it my co-founder, N, and I were attending meetings for other food-related organizations, planning events for this summer and running a community garden that required a lot of weeding this past long weekend. I think I am more tired coming out of the long weekend than I was going in.

On top of all that I am still taking my writing course (which I am somewhat neglecting), trying to juggle two gardens in need of lots of love, reading a wonderful book that I must finish before book club (which I am hosting with a friend), and starting a new job on Thursday! Phew. Needless to say I have been completely neglecting this blog, which I promised myself I would keep updating.

This weekend I will try to get a recipe up and take some photos. I promise!

Slowing Down

2009-04-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is important to slow down and take your time. Lately that is what I have been doing. I can't say I feel like I am getting much accomplished, but that will come with time I suppose. I have started a writing course, which I am very excited about. Also on my list of new things to do I am going to be starting up a Slow Food Convivium. Slow Food is an organization which promotes sustainable agriculture, fair pay for food growers and producers, culinary traditions around the world and much more related to good, clean and fair food. Slow Food was created to counteract the fast food phenomenon.

I am hoping to organize outings to different local food producers to see where our food is coming from and to try change peoples habits when purchasing food. I also want to promote gardening and think it would be great to hold some gardening information sessions to learn about growing vegetables, composting, etc. Maybe we can even start up a community garden project!

I have a few people interested and I'm hoping more people will show some interest. If you are in my area and are interested, please send me an email or check out www.slowfood.com for more info.

Happy Easter weekend! Hope you have time to slow down and enjoy the sunshine!

Dreaming....

2009-03-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 10th. 12:24 p.m. Current temperature -23C. Seriously.

These are the kind of days that I retreat into my dream world.

The latest dream: finding a wonderful old mas in the south of France with an old olive grove and oil mill. Learning the art of making olive oil. Selling my award winning olive oil to the best restaurants across the world and delivering it to them personally. Having a huge vegetable garden with fresh produce all year long. Keeping laying hens and a few goats for milk, a pig named Petunia and 2 or 3 horses, not to mention a whole pack of dogs.

Okay, I'm awake, and I'm aware that this dream is a pretty specific one. Having said that I will continue to dream about it.

Today I have no recipe for you. Just a picture of France to help you go into a momentary dream world.

Chai

2009-02-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

I have loved chai lattes ever since the mega coffee chains that you see on every street corner made them mainstream. Having said that, the syrupy sweet, not too spicy lukewarm chai lattes that you find in those types of shops could use some improvement.

My version may not be authentic, I have not consulted an Indian cook or even a cookbook. I just played around with spices, toasting them gently and then infusing them in roiboos tea and sweet milk. I have really made this to suit my taste, so feel free to adjust the spices as you like. JS finds my version a little heavy on the spice (just the way I like it!).

Please don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients, they are all easily accessible and you can omit the ones you don't have or don't like. I find that all these spices are used very frequently in my house.

This spicy, creamy and not too sweet chai has now got me thinking about incorporating these tastes into an ice cream or gelato since I now have an ice cream maker!! Imagine the spiciness in a cold ice cream with just a hint of sweetness....I'll work on that this summer!

My Un-Authentic Roiboos Chai

6 cups water

3-4 cinnamon sticks

5 cloves

8 cardamom pods

1 bay leaf

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2-1 tsp black peppercorns

1 big piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into large chunks

1 star anise or 1 tsp anise

3 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp loose vanilla roiboos (or plain roiboos, or if you insist, plain black tea)

1 cup whole milk

Toast all the spices except the ginger and the bay leaf over medium heat in a dry frying pan. When they become fragrant, after about 4 or 5 minutes, remove from heat and transfer them to a mortar and pestle. Gently crush them with the pestle until they are broken up, you don't have to grind them to a powder.

Put all the spices, including the ginger and bay leaf, into a pot with the water and the sugar. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to medium, cover the pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn the heat off, then add the tea and cover to infuse for about 5 minutes.

Strain the liquid through a mesh strainer into another pot* then add the milk, add more or less to your taste. Put the chai back over medium heat for about 5 minutes to warm the milk.

Pour into mugs and enjoy!

*at this point, if you are not going to use all the chai, pour some of it into a pitcher, allow to cool then keep in the fridge for a few days. When you want a cup, just add some milk and heat it on the stove until warm.

My Birthday and a bowl of happiness!

2009-02-03T07:44:00.001-08:00

This morning, after opening presents in bed, lovely dresses and a top and a jacket from my French family, I turned on the radio. The CBC morning show host was interviewing a guy from Gimli who has extended his carrot harvest into the long, cold Manitoba winter! All he does is cover his carrots with thick foam before the ground freezes and it actually insulates them enough that they don't freeze! He can only harvest about 2 or 3 times in the winter because every time he opens the sealed up foam the ground gets a little colder until eventually it does freeze. This story is so unbelievable to Manitobans, who woke up to -31 (not including the wind chill!) this morning. This kind of out of the box thinking could actually be used farther north where the produce is prohibitively expensive due to shipping costs and the growing season is extremely short.

Coincidentally, I decided yesterday to make a Carrot Orange and Ginger soup. It was delicious and looks so happy and full of vitamins in this very long and very cold winter! I needed a pick me up, and this soup fit the bill perfectly.

Tomorrow the high is -8, so we are getting a bit of relief from the cold spell. Spring is around the corner and I know I'm not the only one with spring fever at this time of year. Just the thought of fresh asparagus and tiny carrots pulled from the earth are enough to make me swoon. But for now, I am just going to content myself with a brightly coloured bowl of vitamins!

Carrot Orange Ginger Soup or Happiness in a Bowl

2 pounds or just under 1 kg of Organic Carrots

1 small to medium sized onion, or half a large one, roughly diced

1 piece of fresh ginger about the size of a big fat thumb, peeled and grated

1 orange, zested and juiced

salt and pepper

a bit of olive oil

Peel your carrots if they are old and need it, if they are fresh just give them a scrub. Cut the ends off and chop them into large chunks. Don't worry about what they look like, they are going to get pureed in the end.

Saute the onions over medium heat in enough olive oil to coat your soup pot. When the onions are softened, add the carrots, grated ginger and orange zest and juice. Pour in enough water to just cover the carrots. Add a good pinch of salt and some freshly grated pepper. Bring the soup to the boil, then lower heat slightly but continue a very slow boil for about 30 minutes or until you can easily pierce a carrot with a fork. They should be very soft.

Have a large bowl and a ladle ready, then transfer the soup into the blender in batches and puree until smooth. Put the soup back in the pot and taste. If the soup is to thick, add a bit of water. Adjust salt and pepper. Serve with a sprig of parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil and some crusty toasted bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Eat and be happy!

Voyageur Pea Soup

2009-01-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

Every February when I was in elementary school we celebrated the Festival du Voyageur. I don't remember much about it except that we wore long embroidered sashes around our waists, made candy from pouring maple syrup onto clean (never yellow) snow and we ate delicious soupe aux pois. Most of the other kids thought the pea soup was gross, it was mushy and khaki green coloured, but I loved it! That was back in the days where I ate little bits of meat in things without too much disgust. Since then I really haven't had pea soup much at all because of the ham in it. So today I decided to make my own version, meat-free.

Voyageur Pea Soup

2 cups green split peas, rinsed

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

1 large carrot, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

About 6-7 cups of water or vegetable stock

3 bay leaves

herbes de provence

a dash of spanish smoked paprika

black pepper

salt

olive oil

Pour a little olive oil into the bottom of your soup pot. I hat giving measurements for thing like this because it should just coat the bottom of the pot. Add onions, celery, carrots, and a healthy dash of herbes de provence. Saute these for a few minutes until the onion is soft, then add the garlic. and just a tiny dash of smoked paprika. I love the smoky resonance of smoked paprika, but I don't think it should take over the taste of the soup, it should just linger in the background so you get a hint of smokiness without knowing what it is.

Add the peas, 5 1/2 cups of the stock or water, bay leaves and a grinding of black pepper. If you are using water, add some salt.

Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer and continue simmering for about 45 minutes then reduce heat a little more and cover and simmer for another 45 minutes or until the peas are cooked and mushy. During this time, give it a stir every once in a while and add more water or stock if it looks too thick. At this point taste for salt. It may need a little more, but go slowly so you don't over salt.

Remove the bay leaves. If you have an immersion blender stick it right into the soup pot and give it a whizz. Don't puree it, just help it to become partially blended into a thick, textured soup.

Now, find a red sash to tie around your waist and imagine yourself sitting in the snow eating this soup while singing French voyageur songs!

Scones and Tea!

2009-01-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

On Friday we had a nice visit with J and I had wanted to make something to go with tea for an afternoon visit. Naturally, scones came to mind. I wanted to make them a bit different, just for a change, so into one batch I put golden raisins, dried apricots and fresh orange zest, and the other batch got sharp aged cheddar and cracked black pepper. After tasting the two I couldn't decide which I preferred they were both pretty yummy! We served them with some of our summer preserves, grape, rhubarb vanilla and spiced apple cider jelly from my Mom's friend (which I intend to make this year, it is so good!).

Scones are the easiest dough to make in my opinion. The golden rule is not to overwork the dough. I use my hands to make scones, I know some people prefer to use the food processor, do it whichever way suits you best.

We had some left over and I will admit (somewhat ashamedly) to eating about 6 throughout the day. I couldn't let them go to waste, and they just don't keep well, so they had to be eaten that day!

Happy baking and even happier eating!

My Scones

2 cups plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine salt

1/4 cup cold butter

3/4 cup cold milk

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Measure the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and give it a whisk to combine. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and drop into the bowl. Working with your fingers, rub the butter into the flour, quickly, until the mixture looks like lumpy sand, you want to keep some bits of butter a bit bigger than others. At this point gradually add your milk while stirring with a wooden spoon. If you have added all the milk and there is still flour in the bowl, add a little bit more. When the dough comes together and there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured, clean counter and turn it over once or twice. Do not Knead. Shape it into a flat, round disc with your hands and cut into 8 wedges. Place them on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper and bake for about 20 minutes or until they are puffy and golden.

Be creative with this recipe. If you want sweet scones, brush them with milk or cream and sprinkle sugar on top before they go in the oven. You can add lemon or orange zest, raisins, currants, dried cranberries, walnuts, pecans, cheddar cheese, dried herbs, grainy mustard, anything you like really. Add fruit and nuts to flour mixture just before adding the milk, as for things like grainy mustard, mix it into the milk before adding. When I make cheese scones I always sprinkle grated cheese on top of the scones before baking. Have fun with these and be creative!

Crepes Sucrees

2009-01-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit overdue, but I wanted to give you my crepe recipe.

On new year's morning I decided crepes would be the best thing to go with my traditional New Year's Morning Mimosa.

Crepes sucrees are one of my favourite meals, if you can call them a meal. Once in a while a lot of sugar is just what I need for dinner. My favourite ways to eat them are either with some melted butter and white sugar or a squeeze of lemon and sugar. Both of these ways can be very messy, so you need a plate to catch the drips. JS loves them with strawberry jam or nutella. They are also delicious with some pear or apple compote. Enjoy them with whatever tickles your fancy!

Crepes Sucrees

2 cups (or 250g) flour

500 ml milk

3 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp melted butter

as for flavouring your batter, you can leave it as is, or add any of the following alone, or in combination. I personally usually put in some orange flower water and vanilla.

2 tsp orange flower water

1 tsp vanilla

grated lemon zest

a glug or rum

extra butter or canola oil for greasing the pan

Put flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and give them a whisk together. Add about half your milk, whisking it in as you go.

Beat the eggs together in another bowl then add them to your flour and milk mixture along with the melted (but not hot) butter. Whisk this all together and slowly add the rest of the milk. When the batter is done it should e the consistency of heavy cream.

Let the batter sit for about 20 minutes.

Now, if you are using a crepe pan, that's great. If not, use a non-stick frying pan. Heat your pan at about medium heat. Get a little bit of oil or melted butter on a folded up piece of paper towel and wipe this onto the pan.

With a soup ladle, pour a bit of batter onto the pan to check your heat. The batter should have time to move around the pan before it sets, but it should set fairly quickly. You need to use two hands for this, one hand to ladle and the other to twirl the pan, like I'm doing in the picture. After about 2 minutes it should be time to flip your crepe. You can do this the French way, by tossing it into the air (which you must try at least once, even if it ends up on the floor!), or by lifting an edge with a butter knife or a spatula and flipping it with your fingers. Leave it for another minute or 2 on the second side until it looks golden and beautiful, then slide it onto a waiting plate. The first crepe is for the cook, because it's not usually the prettiest. If your batter seems to thick or too thin, add a bit of milk or a bit of flour until it seems right to you.

Finally you are ready for the assembly line. I always have a cloth handy for drips, my paper towel for greasing the pan between crepes and a plate for the finished products.

This might seem complicated, but I promise you it isn't! It just takes a bit of kitchen organization and the result is infinitely worthwhile!

Bon appetit et bonne annee!

Snow Day!

2009-01-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make and I am rather ashamed of it. I am going to come clean and get it out in the open. I am a bouillon cube user.

I know that vegetable stock is one of the easiest and cheapest things to make, and that it is 100 times better than cubes. I have made stock in the past and I realize that it is so much tastier. I know that cubes are probably full of artificial fats, flavourings, colours, and the dreaded MSG, but somehow I just never get around to making it....until today!

I have been planning it all week, and today is the day. I want to simmer it slowly for a few hours, which requires me to be home and it couldn't have been a better day for hanging around the house. It snowed so much last night and it just seems the perfect day to make something slow and savoury which will fill the house with aromatic loveliness.

So here is my veggie stock recipe. Keep in mind that this shouldn't be followed with scientific precision. Adjust the amounts and even the ingredients to suit your taste. I stay away from anything too strong like cabbage, asparagus or peppers, but feel free to throw in some leeks, shallots, parsley or other herbs. I make my stock with skins on most of the vegetables, so using organic produce here is the best way to go.

My Veggie Stock (not from a cube)

2 onions, skins on (unless they're muddy), chopped into quarters

3 carrots, washed but unpeeled, cut into thirds

3 celery stalks, rinsed, cut into thirds, plus the pale green leaves from inside the heart

Fronds from one bulb of fennel

4 cloves of garlic, skins on, slightly crushed

1 piece of ginger, peeled, about the size of a ping pong ball

5 fragrant bay leaves (please smell them before you throw them in, do they have a smell? If they've been sitting in your cupboard since the 80's they most likely do not. Get rid of them and buy yourself some more from a quality spice store.)

7 peppercorns (because I like the number 7, adjust to your taste)

1 good branch of rosemary

a few branches of dried thyme (I always dry mine from my summer garden and use it on the branch which contains a lot of flavour)

1 scant tbsp coarse sea salt (or less, it's better to adjust salt at the end of cooking, adding too much at the beginning can spell disaster)

Put all of the ingredients in a large pot, mine holds about 4 litres I think. Cover the vegetables with water so they have a nice amount to swim around in. Bring to a boil, once boiling reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Enjoy the smell! When you feel it's finished simmering have a taste and adjust the salt if you need to.

Cool the stock in the pot. Strain out the vegetables through a mesh sieve into a bowl and discard them. Transfer the stock to containers and refrigerate for a few days or freeze for a few months.

Use this liquid gold in soups, stews, pilafs, risottos, or anywhere you would use a bouillon cube and enjoy the difference.

New Year's Resolutions and 2008 Favourites

2008-12-31T11:46:00.001-08:00

So, I made a list of all my New Year's resolutions, and there are many. Usually I don't really intend to keep them, but this year I made fairly achievable ones. Do more yoga, write more, keep the blog up to date, things of that nature. So in the interest of getting the year off on the right foot, I decided to post one last entry in 2008.

This photo of Roo is my favourite image of Christmas 2008. She just embodies Christmas in this picture. You can see the happy chaos around her and the big smile on her face. I know dogs can't smile, but look at that face, if she could smile, she would be in this picture.

Here are a few of my favourite food related things from this year:

Favourite meal in a pinch: Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

Favourite morning tea: Milk Oolong

Favourite evening tea: Honeybush Botswana (a blend of honeybush tea with calendula and sunflower I believe)

Favourite spice: Spanish Smoked Paprika

Favourite thing to make with fresh tomatoes: Pa Amb Tomaquet

Favourite healthy snack: My healthy banana cake, which I made yesterday with dates and walnuts, mmmmmm!

Favourite new ingredients: local organic spelt flakes, quinoa flour, red quinoa

Favourite homemade jams: Nanking Cherry, Apricot Vanilla with apricot almonds

2008 has come and gone, I did a lot of cooking and baking and not a lot of photography (another of this year's resolutions!). We will be celebrating with friends, dogs, wine and a fire tonight to ring in the new year. Hope it's a happy, peaceful and healthy 2009 for all!!

Getting in the spirit!

2008-11-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

JS will roll his eyes at me when he sees that I'm thinking about Christmas already. In his mind, nobody should be allowed to even think about Christmas until December 1st. Christmas carols in November? Not a chance at our house! But an early gift to ourselves is an exception to his way of thinking I guess, and so, we bought a camera.

As it turns out, JS was not too happy with the D60, and so we went back to the store last night after work and upgraded to the D80. We just got the kit lens, which is an 18-55, but it will do for now. We'd like to get some better lenses eventually. The D80 just has better features and is quite a bit faster, so it will take us farther than the D60. The cookie to the left is one of my first photographic attempts with the new camera.

After fooling around with the camera, it was time to get into the kitchen! Today was the day I set aside to start my Christmas baking. First on the list was shortbread. I decided to be a purist this time and not get into lavender and crystallized ginger. At Christmastime, I think tradition always wins. So scalloped round, buttery shortbread biscuits with sparkling coloured sugar were in order. Also on the agenda was gingerbread, the dough is hanging out in the fridge while the shortbread continue to hog the oven. Hopefully I'll have time to bake them today.

Usually I send some cookies to all our "gosses" in France. I've done shortbread, sugar cookies and gingerbread. Surprisingly, J, who was 2 at the time, loved the spicy gingerbread, even though the French don't usually seem to be fans. So this year I'm going to go with gingerbread again. Maybe in the shape of sapins de noel....

Point and Shoot

2008-11-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

I am really excited to tell you that I got a brand new Nikon today! It's a pretty entry level D-SLR, a D-60, but it's so much better than what we have now and I hope it will take my photography to the next level. The battery is charging as we speak in anticipation of tomorrow's daylight when I will begin playing. Now, 4:42 pm, the sun is setting (boo to winter!) and there's no chance of taking any pictures tonight since I don't have a flash. Until then, I will dream of what I'm going to photograph tomorrow.

Adventures in tea!

2008-11-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

You may or may not know that I am a tea lover, there are few times in the day that I would say no to a good cup of tea. I'm not talking about Tetley with milk (sorry Grandma!), but more interesting varieties from China, Japan, Korea, South Africa and South America. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind a cup of black tea with cream if I'm having scones and jam on a Sunday afternoon, but on a day to day basis I like to experiment with different varieties. To me it's a little like traveling the world in my kitchen, a daily adventure!

This past weekend my Mom and I went to visit friends and family in Ontario. We spent most of the weekend visiting, and made a few outings to some really great tea shops where I racked up my credit cards and came home with (some would say) ridiculous amounts of roiboos, oolong and mate. Luckily for me security didn't tear open my bags, it may have looked a bit suspicious, all those little clear bags with green and brown dried up herbs inside!

J and I had lots of fun smelling, tasting and choosing our teas.

Among my favourites from this trip are: Milk Oolong Guanzhou which brews up pale yellow in the cup and tastes of evaporated milk with an aftertaste of orchid and mangoes; Morrocan Mint made with gunpowder and refreshing peppermint; Chocolate Mint Roiboos made with real chocolate and mint leaves, this tea could replace dessert for me some nights; Honeybush Orange with real orange zest and natural flavour but no acidity.

D got back from Beijing this week and brought me back some amazing Jasmine Pearls from his usual tea shop. This time he also brought a few different qualities of Jasmine tea, so I could do a tasting. There are the pearls, then two lesser quality teas that are not rolled into pearls, but still smell amazing. Can't wait to try them side by side. Just wish J was here to share.

Pear and Apple Compote with Spiced Butter Biscuits

2008-10-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

This is my first submission to Sugar High Fridays, an online blogging event that happens every month. All you have to do is make a sweet treat within the selected theme, then submit your recipe and a photo. I thought it would be easy, especially given this month's theme, Spices. What a great, vast and vague theme. How hard could it be? I thought about using one of my Mom's or my Granny's wonderful spicy recipes, like Ginger Cookies or Apple Spice Cake, but then I thought I should do something more original, use my imagination a little.

At this time of year I buy bags and bags of pears and apples every time I go to the store, anticipating winter, when you can't buy a decent piece of fruit to save your life. I had been wanting to use the star anise that I have in a cute little jar in my spice cupboard (up until now all I've done with it is smell it occasionally). I also picked up some cinnamon sticks the other day. With all these yummy fall ingredients around, these recipes just naturally fell into place. I decided to make a compote with pears and apples and some lovely spices and sweeten it with honey. Then, to dress it up, a buttery shortbread biscuit with some of the same spices.

JS was my photographer for the day, and I have to say that about 30 seconds after taking the photo you see here, the cookies and compote were gone. When I make something that gets this hearty a reception from him, I know it's good. He's not an easy boy to please in the food department. So here you go, enjoy!

Pear and Apple Compote

4 ripe Anjou pears

2 McIntosh apples

4 tbsp honey

1/2 cup water

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cloves

a good grating of nutmeg

Peel and chop the pears and apples into small chunks. Put everything into a medium sized pot and cook, covered, over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Take the lid off and continue cooking and enjoying the smell for about another 10 minutes. When the fruit is tender, remove from heat and discard the star anise and cinnamon stick. Put through food mill on fine, or blitz in the food processor until smooth. I like the food mill because it doesn't allow any fibrous bits through, plus it feels very old-fashioned. Allow to cool and then refrigerate.

Spiced Butter Biscuits

Preheat oven to 300 F.

1 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Cream together until well blended. Add:

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Stir into butter and sugar until smooth.

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

pinch salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp each ground cloves and freshly ground nutmeg

Blend these dry ingredients together then add to butter, sugar and egg mixture with a spatula. When it comes together, press into a parchment lined 9x13 pan. Score the surface of the dough with a knife to create squares or rectangles to the size you like. Sprinkle with white sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges and not too soft to the tough in the middle. Remove the parchment from the pan onto a wire rack to cool, then break along the score lines.

Serve with Pear and Apple compote, sharp cheese, nuts and dried fruit for a casual dessert, or eat simply with tea.

Tree-Hugging, Granola making and more....

2008-10-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

We've been going for some really nice walks around the neighbourhood lately. There are still some warmish days left and we have been taking full advantage with the knowledge that winter isn't too far away from rearing it's chilly head.

I really love our area, with it's interesting gardens, old houses, and mix of people. It tends to attract tree-hugging, recycling, nature-loving, bike-riding, lawnmower pushing, Birkenstock-wearing granola types. So, the other day when making granola, I thought to myself "How appropriate!". I don't know whether I came here because I was attracted to this earth loving lifestyle, or whether it has rubbed off on me, but either way, I feel at home here.

So pull those dusty Birk's out from the back of the closet and get in the kitchen to make this yummy and healthy granola! Then, while you're waiting for it to bake, go hug a tree!

Tree-Hugging Granola

Preheat oven to 225 F.

7 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup whole almonds (chop them or leave them whole, whichever you prefer)

1/2 cup flax seeds

Mix these together and set aside.

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup agave syrup or honey

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

Whisk these ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over the oat mixture and combine until everything is moistened. Spread into a cookie sheet as evenly as possible. Pop into the oven and bake for about 1 hour, stirring it around once or twice during that time.

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped, dried apricots

When you take the granola out of the oven after one hour, add the dried fruit and give it a stir. Put it back into the oven for about 20 minutes. Leave to cool on the counter then store in an airtight container.

Please have fun with this recipe! You can add any dried fruit, nut or seed. Try sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped dried figs, dried cherries, hazelnuts, whatever tickles your fancy! Chocolate chips or chunks make a great addition once it's cool.

This granola is so good over plain yogurt drizzled with honey; with soy, almond or cow's milk; or just straight out of your hand.

Yellow Tomato Coulis

2008-10-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I lied. I decided to write a post tonight about some yellow tomatoes I had piling up. Here's how it started....

Our tenants moved out last Friday, and the first thing I did as soon as they gave me the keys and pulled out of the back lane was to raid their vegetable garden. They left loads of carrots (made a yummy shredded carrot salad today), and about 60 or more tomatoes, most of them yellow. I don't mind yellow tomatoes in a salad or a tart, but really, what else does one do with yellow tomatoes? I don't think sauce would taste the same if it was yellow. But, something had to be done, a few of them were starting to get mouldy, and there's not much I hate more than watching a tomato from my garden go into the compost bin. Of all the vegetables in the garden, I think of tomatoes as my babies. Maybe because I start them from seed every spring, putting them outside in the warm sun during the day and bringing them inside to bed every evening; seeing them grow from skinny little sprouts, to tiny little plants with a few leaves and little soft hairs on their stems; planting them into the earth where they have to fend for themselves and where they grow big and lush with thick woody stalks and pretty yellow flowers promising beautiful, shiny fruit; catching a glimpse of one of those little flowers growing a small green globe. Yes, tomatoes are definitely my babies of the garden. So, something needed to be done with these yellow babies, and the only thing I could thing of was coulis.

Here's how I did it:

Cut a cross in the bottom of each tomato, piercing the skin, but not cutting deep.

Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for about 30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon and when they are cool enough to handle, peel the skin off.

At this point seed the tomatoes and remove the hard bit where the stem was.

Drop the flesh into a blender and whizz until liquid.

If you want a nice tomato juice, there you have it. You can also use this to dip good, crusty baguette which has been cut into long fingers, rubbed with garlic, toasted and drizzled with good olive oil and coarse sea salt. This is a Catalunyan treat called Pa Amb Tomaquet and is worth trying for it's simplicity and shocking burst of flavours.

Happy coulis making!

Figue et Noisette

2008-10-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

I decided today to set up my new blog, Figue et Noisette. I decided on that name firstly because I wanted something French, as france is my second (oh wait, maybe third) true love and the country that inspired me to start my dessert catering business that I ran for three years. Also, figs and hazelnuts are among my favourite things to eat, and can be used in so many ways, sweet and savory. Lastly, I think of the fig as such a beautiful representation of femininity and the hazelnut seems a good masculine symbol. So we have the yin and yang, two very different, natural foods that complement each other, yet are so different, one luscious, sweet and soft, one crunchy and rich. Okay, you get the idea....

This will be my place to share recipes, play with my new camera (which I haven't bought yet....), and write about cooking, baking, gardening, traveling and all things related.

I may take a while to get back here because I want to wait for my new camera before I start posting, but please bookmark me and come back. I will have lots of recipes and yummy food ideas!