New Year, new goals..

Photo by Caitlin, at her lovely place

I spent my New Years Eve with a lovely group of people in a lovely place.
I made the banner above, after being inspired by this post.

The new year has never been a huge deal for me, I've always been more influenced by the school year and looked at September as more of the 'fresh start' time of the year. That being said, I do usually make a few resolutions, usually of the "just be more healthy" variety. This year, though, I did come up with a couple rather specific things, and I have a feeling the specificity will make them easier to stick to.

Again along the healthy line, I've resolved to cook fish at least once a week and to do a veggie dinner once a week as well (as a lover of alliteration I was thinking of a "Meatless Monday" theme). Tonight I did pan fried tilapia and yesterday it was roasted veggie sandwiches with sunchoke purree (on homemade bread no less!) so I'm off to a good start already.

Though I adore a good restaurant meal, I do cook a lot at home and those meals are generally pretty healthful. They may contain some indulgences like duck fat and such, but hey...that's still better than all that processed crap, right? ;) A more general resolution, which I guess is ongoing, is just to keep up with the home cooking with whole foods.

I also want to get on my "swimming regularly" goal from my 29 Before 30, and tomorrow my plan is to march on over to the pool and sign up.

I hope everyone out there has had a good start to 2012, and if you've made any resolutions - all the best with them!

29 Before 30

Another list inspired by another blog.

My next birthday is my 30th. And while I am determined for it to "not be a big deal", well, we'll see how that goes.
But in the spirit of being a grown up and making goals, I've come up with 29 things I plan to do before I turn 30.


1. Make a quilt

2. Start swimming regularly

3. Make gumbo

4. Make 3 different types of cheese

5. Organize sewing room/work area

6. Learn how to knit

7. Make a piece of clothing for myself

8. Get Horizon training

9. Do my driving test

10. GO to a life drawing class

11. Put photos into photo albums

12. Edit wardrobe to only things I wear & love

13. Do some dyeing with homemade natural dyes

14. Make an embroidery sampler

15. Do a photography project/learn to use all the cameras around me

16. Paint a picture

17. Sew something for Minnie

18. Make mustard

19. Take a train trip

20. Host a themed dinner party

21. Go to Museum of Anthropology

22. Organize spices/pantry

23. Do yoga regularly

24. Finish 'mad women' embroidery project

25. Get into making smoothies

26. Do a daily photo project for at least a month

27. Read 30 books

28. Go to Vancouver Police Museum

29. Go to New Orleans (again!)




The (very, very, hopeful) plan is that I will actually ring in my birthday in New Orleans. With lots of friends, maybe even some family - that would be ideal.

There are some long overdue things on the list *coughDRIVERSLICENSEcough* and some newer interests of mine. A lot of the things on my list are things I've been meaning to do for ages and have bits and pieces in books and documents on here related to them (painting, sampler). I've got such a problem with motivating myself though. So here is a list for all to see! And if I fail, then all will see that too!

Shades of Yellow

November in Vancouver can be tough.
Before moving out here I had numerous people tell me to watch out for the rainy weather, and do my best to stay positive. I'm a pretty positive person, and have never minded rain all that much, so I didn't think I had anything to worry about. And I didn't! Until I finally (it took a couple years) experienced a real Vancouver bout of rain. Good lord.
Rain isn't as exciting here as it can be in Ontario - there's no thunder or lightning.
Just clouds, and rain, rain, rain. And wind.


Grim car garage view chosen to emphasize cruddiness

Weather like this usually keeps me inside. As I get older I seem to be less capable of doing nothing all day, so inside days generally lead to me keeping busy. And most of the time, keeping busy = cooking.

My canning craze from the bountiful days of summer has not slowed much, even if the produce has. So, looking to things in season in fall lead me to one of my favourite veggies - beets!



Specifically these lovely golden beets. I used this Alton Brown recipe as a base (I loved the idea of roasting the beets instead of boiling!). I roasted them with onion, garlic and some sage from my garden (that and thyme are the only things left). I used regular pickling vinegar, but threw extra sage in while bringing it to a boil. I then chopped the beets up, and popped them in jars, to which I had added some mustard seeds, nigella seeds and a few juniper berries.
Et voila!



Another endeavour of mine has included Meyer lemons. I was introduced to these beauties while working at South China Seas. I got to take the odd, almost-bad one home but usually just made them into lemonade or threw them into some gin (which, don't get me wrong, was delicious).
In the last week or two I have noticed that they've become available at "regular" grocery stores, usually in bulk (a bag of 6 or so). Adam decided to pick some up, and since they don't have the longest shelf life I needed to use them up quickish.
I turned to one of my favourite things in the world - lemon curd.
Oh. My. God.
First of all, it's pretty much the easiest thing in the world to make. Whiz everything up in a food processor and then cook it for less than 10 minutes and you're done. It tastes a million times better than any you would buy. And! With the extra floral sweetness of Meyer lemons? Ridiculous.



The jar on the left was full as of Saturday.
The jar on the right is what I did with the rest of my lemons. Another delicacy I was introduced to through SCS was preserved lemons. They're used primarily in Moroccan cooking and often made from Meyer lemons. I actually have never used or tasted them myself, but now is as good a time as any, right?
As of today they're halfway through their sitting period. They've been blanched, cut up, mixed with salt and covered with their own juice. They sit in this mixture for 5 days, after which I'll top up the jar with some olive oil and pop them in the fridge where they should be good for up to a year.

Yes, I can!

I think the best thing about my not working this summer was the fact that it led me to start canning. It was about the middle of August that I finally got myself a canning pot and decided to give it a go, and I've made at least a couple things a week since.

The older I get the more I love doing things that my own parents did - it gives me just an awesome feeling of nostalgia and makes me feel even closer to them somehow.
Growing up, most summers my parents canned tomatoes and some type of jam - usually strawberry to use up all of the spoils from the pick-your-own farm we'd visit.

A couple months back, a post on the awesome blog Crackers led me to buy Canning and Preserving by Ashley English which contains a wealth of canning info and recipes. It's a perfect book for someone getting into canning, as it goes over pretty much every possible thing that could go wrong and how to avoid it.

Most of the stuff I've made so far has been from the book too though, as with any of my new interests, I've thoroughly researched online and found a few really amazing canning blogs as well, chock full of recipes I can't wait to try.



L-R: Dill pickles, tomato basil sauce and pickled okra - all recipes from Canning & Preserving. The last two jars are canned peaches in a vanilla syrup and a strawberry jam with balsamic and pepper.




L-R: Cherry marmalade, peach lavender butter (again, from Canning and Preserving) and blueberry maple jam.

So far, everything I've made has been pretty easy with no real problems. And the few mishaps I've had, really aren't so bad (floating peaches!) and are easy to fix (pack more tightly!)
I've also made fairly small batches of everything, mostly to do with cupboard space, but also to cut down on cost.

This afternoon I'm actually planning on turning these wonderfully sweet cherry tomatoes & basil from my garden...



..into a few small jars of tomato basil jam.

I know it's said in pretty much every mention of canning, but I really cannot wait to eat some of that sunny tomato basil jam on a rainy, grey January day.

And speaking of sunny! I have to admit, I was way too quick to judge the seasons out here. The last week has been beautifully hot and sunny. Just yesterday in fact we got back from a blissful three days of camping near Squamish with a wonderful group of friends. I took loads of pictures with my A-1 and can't wait to get them developed.



We were on a small lake we had all to ourselves, complete with a raft tethered across the lake. I swam tons and pretty much had the best time ever.

Holy hummus, Batman!

I've always loved hummus. My parents made it a lot when I was a kid, so I grew up not only loving it, but loving homemade hummus. The store bought stuff usually just doesn't measure up.

It's one of my favourite things to make - it's super easy and fast, and is great for experimenting. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I just experimented myself into....

The Best Dang Hummus EVER



It's like a caprese salad in delicious hummus form. And perfect for the summer time!

You will need:

- One can of chickpeas
- One small tomato or a quarter of a big one (I used an heirloom tomato that was about 2x the size of a cherry tomato)
- Handful of fresh basil
- Garlic to taste (I used 4 cloves, but I like it REALLY garlicy)
- Splash of balsamic vinegar
- 1/4-1/3 cup of olive oil (again, to taste and texture preference)
- Salt to taste

Whiz everything except the oil together in a food processor, then add the oil slowly until it's the consistency you like. DELICIOUS!

I ate some on toasted rye bread with thick slices of heirloom tomatoes on top and was in heaven.

Thai Tuesday!

Actually, these days Tuesdays are known as True Blood Tuesdays. After watching the show solo for the last three seasons I have finally found other people to watch it with! And it's such a ridiculous show, it really is much more fun to watch with others :)

Our Tuesday routine generally consists of me making something for dinner, with others bringing ingredients or snacks. A recent Tuesday had me craving Thai food like nobody's business so we added even more alliteration to the day.



I made Drunken Stir-Fried Beef with Green Beans, and a yellow chicken curry with zucchini and red peppers.
I used this recipe for the beef, and it was awesome. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of my own garden beans and tomatoes to use, but I'm hoping in a few weeks I will and I'll make it again.

As for the chicken curry, I used my own method for making a wicked awesome Thai curry.
Before I got hired by the school board I spent about two years working at an amazing store in town - South China Seas Trading Co.. They carry ingredients for almost any kind of cuisine you could imagine (Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, African...) and I learned so much working there.

I LOVE Thai food, but find that it can be hard to find really good Thai food in restaurants. This frustration led me to just learning how to make my favourite dishes myself. Curries are great to make, they're relatively easy and the ingredients are usually pretty easy to find.

How to make a perfect Thai curry

What you'll need:
- One package Thai curry paste of your choosing (yellow, red, panang or green), about 2 tbsp
- One can of coconut milk
- 1lb meat or seafood (chicken and shrimp go especially well with green, beef is better suited to red or panang), cut into bite sized pieces
- 1lb-ish vegetables (if you want - use your imagination: sweet peppers, squash, bamboo shoots, eggplant, etc)
- Fish sauce, palm sugar (or brown sugar), lime leaves, lemongrass -- all of these should be available at Asian groceries, often you can find the lime leaves and lemongrass frozen if they don't have fresh. You can also get them dried, but they're not as good.
- 1 tbsp cooking oil

What to do:

1. Heat oil over med-high heat and add curry paste - stir-fry for about a minute.
2. Add meat/seafood and cook about 3 minutes, until sealed on the outside.
3. Add can of coconut milk, bring to a simmer then turn heat to med-low.
4. Add your vegetables, a couple dashes of fish sauce (about 1 tsp), 1-2 tsp of palm sugar, 2-3 lime leaves and two stalks of lemongrass (white part only) **It's good to leave the lime leaves whole and the lemongrass in fairly big pieces so you can pick them out -they're both really tough and lousy to eat**
5. Cook for about 20 minutes, until meat is cooked through and veggies are tender. Serve over jasmine or sticky rice.

You could easily make this veggie by omitting meat and throwing in some tofu puffs, or regular tofu - leave out the fish sauce and it's vegan!

Sometimes you gotta feed your soul.

Photo by Adam - he's a big Devo fan ;)

Yesterday was my first foray into the world of fried chicken, and boy oh boy was it deliciously successful.
The store I used to work at had loads of cookbooks I would constantly leaf through, and one of my favourites was The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (even if they do look like they barely eat any of their food). They have two recipes for chicken: Tuesday and Sunday, with the Sunday being a little more complicated. I found a recipe online for their Tuesday Fried Chicken which I used as a guide. I couldn't find the other one, but knew that the main difference was that you brined the chicken, and so I began.

Seriously - best chicken EVER. I brined it overnight in a pretty basic brine of salt, sugar, peppercorns, and I added a bay leaf and some fresh thyme. Then I dredged the chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks) in flour with a little salt and pepper added, dipped it in buttermilk, and dredged it again in a flour,cornmeal, salt and pepper mix.

I let the chicken come to room temperature before I started and then after all the pieces had been dipped I let them sit on a rack for about 30 minutes as well - I can't remember where, but I read about this step somewhere.

Then, I fried it all up in lard. I'm not going to make this everyday, so why not eh? ;)

It is the juiciest, crispiest, TASTIEST chicken I've ever had - there are some happy tummies around here.

Summer non-cooking

Summer has finally made its way to Vancouver! And with its arrival, my drive to cook has somewhat vanished. Today was the hottest day we've had so far, and I figured a nice, cool meal was in order.


No summer meal is complete without a gin&tonic, am I right?

The fruit salad is cantaloupe, mint and lime juice and was super tasty (and took all of 5 minutes to make).

Honestly, if you're looking for a low maintenance, lazy meal to make, gazpacho ain't it. But I had never made it, and once I get an idea in my head for a meal I gotta do it - and I'm glad I did! It was delicious.

I used this recipe as a guideline. Today was the Main St farmer's market so I picked up some heirloom tomatoes, red pepper and cucumber and used up some green onions and garlic I had in my csa produce box. Throw in some basil from my windowsill, and it was quite the local soup ;)

Gazpacho
5-6 medium to large sized tomatoes
1 long English cucumber, peeled seeded and chopped
1 red sweet red pepper, peeled and chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, minced
Two handfuls good bread (I used baguette), torn into pieces
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Olive oil
Red wine or sherry vinegar
Pinch of cumin

1. Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze the seeds and as much liquid as you can out, into a bowl.
2. Strain the tomato liquid to get rid of the seeds and reserve.
3. Chop up your tomatoes and put into a glass bowl along with the reserved tomato liquid and all the rest of your ingredients - except one tablespoon of basil.
*For the olive oil and vinegar I didn't measure, just but in enough to coat everything. If I had to guess I'd say 3-4 tablespoons of oil and 1-2 tablespoons on vinegar.
**I added a little water to the bread before mixing it in, probably 2 tablespoons or so
4. Let mixture sit at room temperature for an hour
5. Puree mixture in batches in a food processor or blender. Add a little water each time to get to a nice, soupy consistency. I used about one cup of water in total. Strain puree through a sieve - really push down on the solids to get out as much liquid as possible.
6.Add the remaining basil, and then season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

From what I've read, gazpacho really is best to eat as soon as possible, since the tastiness of it comes from the freshness of the ingredients. This seems like a recipe that would be really fun to play around with too - adding different fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano) and a jalapeno or other chili would definitely work. You also could skip the straining part if you wanted a chunkier soup, or reserve some of the chopped veggies and add them in after pureeing.
I can see myself definitely making this again this summer - I think it would be a great thing to bring for a potluck or bbq.

Film Friday - Addendum

19, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

A slightly-belated post - I realized I had a picture from when I tried Magnolia cupcakes. The vanilla ones were as good as mine (using their recipe) and I believe I got a red velvet but was a little underwhelmed because the icing gave my mouth that gross greasy feel (always use butter only, dudes).

Another gem from my NYC trip in summer 2009.

Canada D'eh

Red velvet, eh., a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

First ever try at red velvet cupcakes. I used the Magnolia Bakery recipe (their vanilla cupcake is my go to recipe because it is ohmygodsoawesome).

They're cheek-tinglingly sweet, so I'm happy. The other 24 of them are coming with me to a friend's house for some Canada Day bbqing and firework watching.
Hope all my fellow Canadians are having a lovely day, and everyone else too :)

Sunday morning ritual

Tea, poached eggs on toast and last week's Coronation Street queued up.

Today's eggs were a little special, as they came from a duck! I recently signed up for a weekly produce box (with eggs bi-weekly) and the first delivery came with 3 free duck eggs to try. They tasted the same to me, but had bigger yolks (yum) and way thicker shells. I don't know if it's noticeable in the picture, but they were at least twice as thick. A beautiful colour too - the faintest hint of turquoise.

Arugula!

Arugula!, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

First proper 'harvest' from my garden.
Tomatoes are transplanted, as are the cucumbers (and they're flowering!). Beans are coming up and herbs seem to be doing well.

This arugula however, is coming up gangbusters. If you like arugula - plant it! So easy to grow.
And fun to say! Me and Adam have gotten into the habit of pronouncing it like one of those old fashioned horns (a-WOO-ga!)

A Sunday in May

Yesterday was a pretty great day. Earlier in the afternoon I headed downtown in the rain to take part in SlutWalk Vancouver. The event got a ton of attention (as well as the one in Toronto, and others internationally); a lot of people didn't agree with/get it but it all seemed to go off quite well. Because of the weather it probably wasn't as well attended as it could have been, but I read somewhere that about 2000 people were out, so not too shabby at all. I had my camera, and Adam came along later on with his, but it ended a little earlier than I thought it would and he missed every bus he tried to make so neither of us got any pictures. Lucky for me, lots of other people did!

(My two cents on the whole thing: for me this was less about the word 'slut', which honestly I have no real feeling towards. But the fact that today we still have people asking what victims were wearing, or how many sexual partners they'd had sickens me. One sentiment I saw over and over that I think summed it all up nicely: teach 'Don't Rape', not 'Don't get raped'.)




Hey, there's me! ;)


Photos by Michael Brophy, from facebook.

After the walk, I met up with Adam and we ended up at one of our favourite restaurants in town for dinner, The Greedy Pig. If anyone is reading this from Vancouver, and you haven't been, and you love decadent comfort food (heavy on the meat!) then check it out. They have amazing cocktails as well and the owners are super sweet. And, they have marrow on toast. 'Nuff said.





We then wrapped up the day with a drink at Pub 340 before heading home, to a street blanketed with petals. Oh, Vancouver....you're alright.

Joyeuses Pâques

Since before I was born, my dad's side of the family has been celebrating Good Friday with a big picnic. Growing up I never missed one - the first one I missed was the year I moved out here. And of course the subsequent ones, but I've kept the tradition going Vancouver style.


And I'm clearly quite pleased about it.







We headed to a park just a few blocks away, gorged on chicken legs, hummus and chocolate and played a bunch of bocce ball (ooh, nice alliteration). Minnie Pearl ran herself ragged with other dogs in the park and could barely walk the next day. All in all, a wonderful day.



Another tradition we had at home was our Easter egg tree, decorated with eggs that were blown out and dyed. I made a few when I first got out here, but they have since disappeared, probably broken in a move. So I made some new ones this year and decided to go the natural route.

The ones above were dyed using pickled beet juice, turmeric and red cabbage. I also did some with blueberries, which were a slightly darker, more indigo blue.







Blowing out 8 eggs could mean a lot of waste - but not if you use it to make a fritatta! I added some tissue paper blossoms to spiff up my branches, and I just could NOT get over the colour that the red cabbage eggs came out. So beautiful! And not at all purple! Nature is great.

My little bit of earth

For the last few years, as soon as the weather starts to get warmer and the days get longer I get so excited to start planting.
Growing up, our garden at home was always quite well tended by my mum and dad. Not one of those really neat and tidy gardens, more English country garden in style, and always with a small vegetable patch for beans, tomatoes and basil.
Most summers we took a family trip to the nursery, and my sisters and I were allowed to pick out a few flowers each to plant in our own window boxes that hung from the playhouse in the backyard.

I guess once I had my first, real place of my own out here, in order to make it a home I figured it needed some plants to take care of.
I'm not known to have the greenest of thumbs...the handful of houseplants I've had through the years generally don't fair too well. Even my attempts at container gardening out here the last two summers haven't rewarded me with much - heat waves, trips back home and a general naivete can be thanked for that.

But this year is different! With more space and (most importantly) sun than I've had yet I wanted to really make a go of it. And so I present to you, my little bit of earth*:


The view from my kitchen window.

This is actually a "no dig" garden, instructions for which you can find here. The main reason I went with this type of garden is probably the reason most people do - sheer laziness. Also, I realized when sticking in the fence that there are what seem to be flagstones under a lot of the grass and so digging all that up would have sucked.

My (somewhat ambitious) vegetable plan is to grow cherry tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, arugula, bush beans. I'll also have a pretty good selection of herbs: basil, chives, dill, sage, lovage and sorrel. And inspired by Generation A by Douglas Coupland and the Stuff You Should Know podcast about honeybees disappearing I'm including a patch of bee friendly flowers: corn poppies (also edible!), echinacea, mountain phlox and sunflowers.


Orginization! And dollar store gloves.


R-L: Cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, sage and lovage.

I've already started a bunch of things inside, and have planted a few outside. While I don't have to worry about frost like I would were I in Ontario, I do have to think about the rain and not drowning my poor little plants.

I'm feeling pretty good about it all this year. I've done a lot of reading and have been studying those seed packets like nobody's business. Here's hoping for a bountiful season!

*If you can tell me the origin of that phrase, I'll bake you cookies! Seriously.

This week

Well, the past week.

Thursday (last)

Walking home from a friend's house after a night of wonderful company. Trees not quite blossoming yet, but they still look pretty under street light.

Friday

Meeting Alison on Main St for breakfast at the newly re-opened Slickity Jim's.

Saturday

Me realizing I woefully underestimated the amount of dirt needed for my no-dig garden. Back to Canadian Tire!

Sunday

Mason jar terrarium - and it's actually working! That teeny flower that's way above everything else? Totally not there when I made it. Instructions from here.

Monday

Dinner. Venison burgers, parsnip oven fries and kale chips. So, so good.

Tuesday

Slicing tomatoes for a vegetable dish that turned out horribly. Moosewood cookbook, I am not impressed.

Wednesday (yesterday)

Taking advantage of the brief break in the rain. Spring time!!!

Now, off to Granville Island, again, while it's not raining.

Tortilla pizza

Years ago Adam lived near The Staircase in Hamilton when it was open as a theatre and restaurant. We would go often-ish, I probably ate there about 5 times in total, and my favourite thing was their tortilla pizzas.

The other night I was dead tired after a day of work and running on little sleep (thanks Minnie).
I wanted something fast with relatively little work, and this turned out to be perfectly that.
The day earlier I had been reminded of those tasty pizzas for some reason, and so picked up some tortillas and other toppings that I imagine might be tasty - and boy howdy were they!

I'm a huge fan of cheeses, all kinds, though blue cheeses rank particularly high. And I love them even more when accompanied by something sweet, so naturally blue cheese and pear is a favourite of mine. Running with this theme I present to you,

Blue Cheese, Pear and Caramelized Onion Tortilla Pizza
yeesh.


Complete with JP2 peeking through

Ingredients
One large sweet onion
One Bosc pear
A good chunk of blue cheese
Olive oil
Honey
Balsamic vinegar
2 big flour tortillas

Cut the onion in half, and then slice thinly. Heat about a tbsp of butter in a heavy pan over medium heat and add onion. I cooked it on medium just until it started to soften, then turned it to med-low and cooked it about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the onions to get good and dark, sticky brown but not burn.
Meanwhile, put your tortillas on the pan you're going to cook them on and pour about a tbsp or two of olive oil on each tortilla and brush it around.
Preheat your oven to 400.
Once the onions are done, spread them evenly over the entire tortilla. Remove the core from the pear in whatever method you prefer and cut it into quarters, then slice each quarter thinly. Arrange the pear slices on top of onions, then crumble as much cheese as you want over everything. Finish it off with a drizzle of about a tbsp of honey for each pizza, and about a tsp or two of balsamic vinegar.
Put the pizzas in the oven for 7-8 minutes, then turn on the broiler and leave them in another 2-3, watching to make sure they don't burn.
Take them out, slice 'em up and devour.