Food.Love.Happiness

Herbed Crepes with Rice, Mushrooms and Kale

2013-06-13T22:09:00.001-04:00

Fun fact of the day: Did you know that nearly 65 per cent of rice consumed in Canada is grown in the U.S? Canada barely produces any rice of its own, so I guess we can thank our U.S neighbours for all of those whole grains. The USA Rice Federation sent me some recipes for summer using rice and this recipe for stuffed crepes caught my eye:

It also reminded me of the last time I ate crepes, which was in Laos. Yes, Laos. Believe it or not, with the strong French influence in that part of Southeast Asia, some of their street food includes freshly made crepes, pastries and baguettes. One night in Luang Prabang, after perusing the night markets, we stopped at a crepe stall for a late night sweet fix. The delicate, light crepes were flipped and served using only a stick and a hot pan. The ones we got were filled with gooey melted banana and Nutella; the art of the delivery though is in the crepe itself.

The next morning, someone on our tour group asked about the crepes and one of the girls said, "they were alright, but they could have used more Nutella." The phrase kind of stuck with us as a running joke throughout the trip. So when someone asked how something was or how we liked something we would say, "alright...but it could have used more Nutella."

It's funny how you associate food with a certain place or even time. That's why local food can say so much about a community. For example, something as simple as a stack of rhubarb from a co-worker's garden can become multiple jars of Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce. This was my first canning project of the summer.

I also made a Strawberry Rhubarb pie and it was definitely not my first pie of the season. The sauce works on yoghurt, ice cream, granola and pretty much anything you want summer rhubarb on. I also plan to make some Dandelion Jelly, Zucchini Relish and more salsa this summer all on my preserving to-do list.

I also like to stock up on local vegetables when I can. We have one tomato plant on our porch ready to go this summer and I am always looking for fresh, leafy greens in season. These crepes are a great way to use up some vegetables and make a savoury, filling meal whether you like them French-style with traditional sauce or on the lighter side with just a bit of cheese grated inside and baked:

Herbed Crepes with Cheese, Rice, Spinach and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

Crepes

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives

Filling:

1/4 cup butter, melted

8 cups sliced cremini or white mushrooms

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

8 cups fresh trimmed spinach leaves (or kale)

1 3/4 cups brown or white rice

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dry sherry, dry white wine or vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 1/4 cups milk

1 3/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Note: I omitted these ingredients and made the crepes without the sauce on top. Instead, I grated about a 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese into the rice filling.

Crepes: In a blender, blend eggs, milk, flour, 2 tbsp of the butter and salt until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Heat 8-inch crepe pan or stick-resistant skillet over medium heat; brush lightly with some of the remaining butter. Stir half of the chives into batter. For each crepe, pour about 1/3 cup batter into centre of pan, swirling to coat; cook, turning once, until set and light golden, about 1 minute. Transfer to plate; repeat with remaining batter to make 12 crepes.

Filling: In large, wide saucepan, melt 1 tbsp of the butter over medium-high heat; sauté mushrooms, onion, garlic, half of the salt and pepper until golden brown and liquid has evaporated, about 8 minutes. In 2 or 3 batches, add spinach, letting each batch wilt before adding the next and stirring often. Once all is wilted, continue to cook until almost no liquid remains, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in rice.

Some exciting news for my Ontario readers who also like tasting, savouring and promoting local food. Food Story is a Toronto Farmer's Market Delivery Service that delivers a customizable weekly box of artisanal and farm fresh food to your door. Similar to a CSA box program, Food Story wants to connect local producers to local food enthusiasts:

They are offering new customers in the Toronto area a discount and free delivery with your first delivery order of organic, local food. Use promo code FOODLOVEHAPPINESS with a minimum $25 purchase to receive a 25 per cent discount and check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

"Top Banana" Frozen Bananas with Coconut Sugar

2013-06-02T11:42:00.001-04:00

I started quite a few business ventures when I was younger and although I wouldn't quite call them successful, I can see where I get my entrepreneurial spirit. From a cat-sitting/dog walking venture, to garage sales, lemonade stands and even creating a mini-summer camp in my backyard with my friend (which only had 2 campers, so it was pretty much babysitting), I have always been an "idea" person. I also made cassette tapes of myself playing piano and singing and would try to sell them to my parent's friends at dinner parties.

I think that's one of the reasons I enjoy blogging. It's about branding yourself, creating interesting e and trying to find your niche. Who knows where it will go, but one of the perks is definitely sampling neat food items from different companies.

GraceKennedy sent me a sample of their Organic Coconut Sugar; it's a natural sweetener made from nutrient-rich sap of coconut flower buds. I used it on top of yoghurt and granola, but it can be used as a 1:1 substitute to brown sugar in baking or to sweeten coffee or tea. The other day I sprinkled some into tomato sauce as a bit of a sweetener and I also added some to this frozen dessert.

Because the new season of Arrested Development was released last week I thought it would be fitting to make some frozen bananas to eat while I watch the new episodes. Even though the Bluth company never really works out as planned, they still try to do their best (I guess?) and keep the family together.

These frozen bananas were somewhat inspired by this Nutella Crunch Ice cream Cake. I used melted nutella as the coating and then rolled the bananas in a mixture of All-Bran buds, puffed quinoa cereal and coconut sugar. I found the puffed quinoa cereal at Bulk Barn and thought it would be neat to try. It's kind of like quinoa in Rice Krispies form.

Frozen Chocolate Bananas with Coconut Sugar

Ingredients:

3 bananas

1 cup Nutella

1 cup All-bran buds

1 cup puffed quinoa cereal

3 tbsp coconut sugar

Melt Nutella in a small bowl in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Peel the bananas and cut them in half. Coat the bananas in the melted nutella. Combine the All-bran, quinoa and sugar. Roll the coated bananas in the cereal mixture. Place them on a plate or cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the bananas in the freezer for at least one hour. I used skewers as the sticks, but you could also use popsicle sticks or toothpicks. Make sure to put the sticks in before they are completely frozen.

I am sometimes too much of a "thinker" for my own good. Sometimes I over plan things a little too much, like with planning parties. When I was younger, my birthday parties were always elaborate and meticulously planned. From the Indiana Jones themed party where my parents actually buried treasure in the backyard to having a Clown entertain and paint our faces to even a session at Glamour Shots.

Birthdays seem a little more low-key nowadays. I don't need treat bags, invitations or formal activities. Some good friends, good food and cozy setting and maybe some drinks are all I need. And especially for the summer, some homemade Sangria is always nice. Sometimes I need to let go, stop planning and just enjoy the wonderful moments.

When we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake the other weekend, we picked up a few bottles of red wine that was on sale. According to the salesperson, the wine was from 2008, which was not a great year for Ontario wine; however, she did say it was a great wine for house parties or making Sangria.

So I turned to the Joy of Cooking for a classic Sangria recipe made with club soda, fruit and lemon juice to serve at my Birthday celebration. I also made a Thai-inspired coleslaw with cabbage, mango, green onions, peanuts and a dressing to go along with burgers and pulled pork. After a getaway exploring wineries and food trucks, my low-key Birthday party was a great way to unwind and finish up the long weekend.

We ate some burgers, drank quite a bit of Sangria and relaxed on the porch. My birthday cake was an experiment based on this summer fruits chocolate frosted cake recipe I found on Pinterest. Like many things on Pinterest, looks can be deceiving. The idea is that you ice a whole watermelon so when you cut into it the slices are all "cake-like" slices of watermelon. The tricky part was getting the icing to stay on the watermelon. I don't know if you know this, but watermelon is made up of mostly water, so this was a difficult task.

I ended up scraping the icing off of the side and iced the top of the cake instead with some icing and sprinkles. The process was quite neat and Mike did a great job carving the watermelon--the intentions were there--however, the staying power of icing on water was not.

Good ideas can easily flop and sometimes you have good intentions. Like the Bluth family, you don't always plan for crazy things to happen; they just do. But just remember, "there is always money in the banana stand."

Food Truck Eats at Peller Estates Winery

2013-05-21T18:47:00.002-04:00

If you've ever been to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, you probably know the main strip is like Piccadilly Circus mixed with the vibe of creepy clowns and amusement park rides. When I was younger, I was somewhat traumatized by the The Fun House--not so fun as an anxious child--and especially the Butterfly Conservatory.

However, about 20 minutes away from Niagara Falls is Niagara-on-the-Lake, a beautiful town set right where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario among wineries, scenic roads and quaint shops. For tourists and Ontarians, it's a relaxing destination to sip some wine, take a romantic stroll and stop to smell the flowers.

Even better was the opportunity to hang out at a winery, taste some wine and eat food from gourmet food trucks! Food Truck Eats was the perfect summer kick-off with 20 food trucks and 20 different wines to sample at Peller Estates Winery. The event is in its second year and this year offered an afternoon event and an evening market. This year both events completely sold out with about 3,000 tickets sold.

Peller Estates is one of the flagship wineries in the Niagara region and has been making their award-winning wines, including their famous icewine, for about 50 years. They also know how to throw one heck of a party. Included in each ticket was entry to the event, a souvenir glass and a complimentary glass of wine. I had my game face on:

Before the event they sent out a list of "Top Tips to Enjoy Food Truck Eats." They recommended to make a plan of the trucks you wanted to visit and to "not wear white." My partner in crime did not wear white, however, and spilt some red wine on his shirt in the first 10 minutes. The only thing about these events is trying to balance wine in one hand, food in the other and good conversation. My friend Steve also came along for the festivities.

The first step was to get some wine, which is the best thing to mull over as you're waiting in line for food trucks. Peller Estates had many of their wines to sample, including their icewines and Late Harvest Vidal. I tried a glass of the Gewuztraminer, as I tend to go for light, refreshing wines.

Then we waited in line for our first food truck Gourmet Gringos for their tacos, ceviche and Huevos Rancheros. I got the Peruvian Tiradito, which was fresh seared marlin, jicama and in a jalapeno-lime mojo along with beer battered mahi mahi tacos with coleslaw and guacamole. There were also tacos with a variety of fillings, including chicken, chorizo and black beans.

Whenever I tell people about food trucks and how popular they are now I think they are still a little hesitant about the idea. Someone I know said they probably wouldn't order seafood off a truck, but I think it's just the misconceptions about street food. This is definitely still gourmet food and beautifully prepared even if you do eat it while sitting on the ground. The seared tuna was refreshing and the salad underneath was tangy and crispy. It was the perfect cool appetizer to start the warm afternoon.

Then we ventured to Rome N' Chariot, an Italian food truck and tried their Holy Trinity of sliders with meatball, veal and eggplant with marinara sauce and parmesan cheese on slider buns. Again, a nice little sample of the different foods as opposed to gourging ourselves.

There were so many trucks I wanted to try, but alas, so little time. The boys were looking forward to the "Dirty Southern Love" sandwich, a triple-decker made up of fried chicken, candied bacon and waffles topped with Louisiana butter sauce and Ranch dressing from Dirty South. Unfortunately, they were sold out of those before we got there.

My favourite looking truck was Manual Labour Coffee with their 1969 Bailey Travel Trailer converted into a mobile espresso and coffee truck. My dream is to one day restore a vintage RV or camper van. Maybe I'll be in the food truck business one day...or at least take it on some adventures.

The classics were also there from my days hunting down Toronto food trucks. Gorilla Cheese never disappoints and Feisty Jack was serving some classic British favourites, including Tikka Masala, Scotch Eggs and Fish and Chips. The line-ups weren't so bad if you had a glass of wine in hand. I have to praise the food trucks workers and cooks for being incredibly efficient and friendly, especially serving crowds of people on a hot afternoon.

We stayed at the Moffat Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is part of the Vintage Hotels group who also own the Prince of Wales Hotel. That doorway was actually the door to our room, which had two doors: one on the inside and one to the street.

We then strolled through the nice shops on the main street and got some ice cream for dessert. There were so many neat goodies and treats in that shop. Don't let me into a speciality food shop, especially a tea and coffee shop. We ended up buying a bag of Niagara Icewine tea made from the frozen grapes that produce Ice wine although there is no alcohol in the tea.

The next day we stopped at some wineries to check them out and then had to leave the wonderful paradise. This was part of my birthday present and it was a nice, relaxing weekend to kick off my birthday, the long weekend and the start of summer.

Afternoon Tea for Two and Strawberry "Monkey Bread" Cake

2013-05-08T19:25:00.000-04:00

When I was in London, England for the summer a few years ago, I lived in Notting Hill right near Hyde Park. I took walks through the park all the time to unwind from work and exercise from eating too many fish and chips.

I really thought of the park as a kind of heaven on earth. At any given moment there were people hanging out, playing sports, rowing boats, riding horses, eating ice cream and soaking up the English sun. To say it was a magical place would also be fitting, as an elaborate production of Peter Pan was staged in the park at that time as well. The park is every bit of English elegance, charm and history all in one place.

Nestled in Hyde Park is Kensington Palace, now the home of the Royal Couple Will and Kate. At the time you could stroll around the castle for free, as well as the gardens. I'm guessing the security might be a little stricter now. Next to the palace is The Orangery, probably the fanciest place to have a cup of tea in London. Let's just say, it was a little bit out of my price range. I can dream though.

Lucky for me, my favourite tea shop in London, Ontario--where I now live--The Tea Haus (in Covent Garden Market, also named after the "real" market in England) started up an Afternoon Tea at their store. It was Mike's Birthday last weekend, so instead of, you know, watching the hockey game and drinking beers, I took him for tea at the market on Sunday.

The tea for two included unlimited tea served in fancy china and on a nicely set table along with a platter of goodies from Le Petit Paris, which is also located in the market. The tray included macarons, tarts, biscotti, sandwiches and much more. I assumed it would be all sweet treats, but it was nice to have a few savoury things thrown in there to balance everything out. There was a tuna, chicken and egg salad "tea sandwich."

Saturday morning was also the first farmer's Market of the season, so I picked up some rhubarb and lavender, as my dining room table vase has been neglected lately. According to the lavender farm owner, you can actually barbecue lavender. You put a few sprigs on the coals and the scent and flavour will infuse into whatever you're grilling. How cool is that?

This would be a nice treat for Mother's Day too. The only weird thing was that we were the only ones having the tea service at that time, so a few people walked by wondering why we had a nicely set table and fine china in the seating area of the market. A little girl walked by and asked if we were having a tea party. Why yes, we had a tea party. We're adults, after all.

As well as the tea treats, I also made a Strawberry "monkey bread" cake with a lemon glaze as a Birthday cake. The original recipe called for cream cheese icing, but I thought that would be too much, so I added a little glaze made from icing sugar, lemon juice and milk. I also added a few sprigs of lavender on top of the cake.

Monkey bread is a sticky, pull-apart, cake, similar to a coffee cake. Apparently it is also known as "monkey brains," "bubble loaf," and "sticky bread." You make a sweet dough bread and let it rise for about an hour. Then slice the dough into strips and brush brown sugar, butter and strawberries on each piece and layer the pieces into a stack. Then place the juicy stacks into a bundt pan and let it rise again for about an hour.

Bake the cake for about 30-40 minutes and let it cool before adding the glaze or icing. See the full recipe here. It wasn't quite a traditional coffee cake, but the slices ended up being huge and it pulls apart nicely if you don't want the effort of utensils or plates.

I also made a layered chickpea salad for a BBQ we went to on Saturday. You have to have a salad with burgers at a BBQ if only to add some greens to all that protein. I made a similar dish before as a layered dip with hummus, tzatziki, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese. For a salad, I layered chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, green onions and feta cheese then made a dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and garlic and let the dressing soak into the salad.

Normally, I would put the dressing on right as I was serving the salad, but I thought it would almost "marinade" the chickpeas. The worst thing about making chickpeas is having them taste too much like chickpeas. Am I right? It tasted exactly like a Greek salad. Plus it had all those chickpeas for extra fibre and anything layered in a glass bowl always looks extra fancy. Here's the original recipe.

If you also love eating well, and bright colours, head on over to enter to win a Yonanas machine. It's a machine that makes frozen yoghurt with bananas and other fruits. All you do is freeze some bananas and add them to the machine with any flavour combinations you want and you have your own healthy soft-serve ice cream.

They also come in cool colours, such as Raspberry, Cranberry, Lime and Grape. Go to their Facebook page before May 9 at 10pm and let them know your favourite colour for a chance to win!

Green Tea Detox Smoothie and Orzery Morning Round Pitas

2013-04-21T15:57:00.003-04:00

We went to our favourite loose leaf tea shop the other weekend to stock up on teas. We usually go every few months and hand over our tins for them to fill with our favourite flavours. I love Earl Grey and black teas, as they remind me of home. Although I don't religiously participate in British "tea time," I do find myself reaching for the kettle around 4 or 5 pm in the afternoon for a good, strong cuppa' tea.

This is our tea and coffee drawer at the moment. The tins from David's Tea and are the perfect size for stacking and sorting teas in a drawer or shelf. On occasion I drink green teas, such as right now while I am sick. I have had this nagging cold/flu/virus/plague/overall yuckiness this week that I can't seem to shake.

I haven't really had much of an appetite for the past few days. I've been subsisting on jello, popsicles, cereal and crackers. I especially haven't felt like cooking or baking anything. When in doubt, and in need of vitamins, make a smoothie. Can someone please tell me how to take a nice picture of a smoothie? Is that possible? This doesn't look appealing, but I can assure you, it's refreshing and soothing for those in the midst of sickness. Kiwi or mango would also go nicely with these ingredients.

Antioxidant Green Tea Smoothie (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:
1 banana
1/2 large orange, peeled
1 tbsp honey
1-2 cups brewed, chilled green tea
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

The original recipe used frozen berries and greek yoghurt. I thought the yoghurt might curdle with the orange juice, so I opted to make it creamier with the banana and chia seeds. I feel like smoothies are a free-for-all when it comes to ingredients, measurements and recipes. I also don't think it's necessary to completely detoxify yourself with juices and smoothies, but if you're not in the mood for solid food, it's a good way to get some vitamins in your system.

I did get a nice surprise in the mail this week though. Thank you to Orzery Pita Break for letting me try their Morning Rounds Breakfast Pitas. Not that I need persuasion to eat more carbs as I already buy bread, wraps, pitas and sometimes bagels, but these things are the coolest.

They are toastable fruit and grain breakfast pitas that come in four flavours: muesli, apple cinnamon, cranberry orange and multi-grain. Each pita bun contains approx. 200 calories, which is a good amount for a breakfast to keep you going. A pack contains six pitas you can grab and eat with jam, butter, cream cheese or by themselves.

My favourite was probably the Apple Cinnamon. As you can see, the bag got eaten into before I could even take a picture. I am always on-the-go and Mike works nights sometimes at the hospital, so he usually has a snack when he comes home. He also appreciated the name of the pitas ("morning rounds," get it?). These are the in-between a sandwich and bagel amount of carbs, so they could be a snack or breakfast. And you don't even need a plate...

They are also vegan, low fat, low in sodium and a source of fibre. Check out more information on Ozery Pita products and where to buy them in Canada.

Peeps Pavlovas, Peeps Fruit Kebabs and Easy Frozen Yoghurt

2013-04-08T19:46:00.002-04:00

Since moving closer to my work, I sometimes go home for lunch. It's nice some days to get away for a short break. Usually, Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals is on during lunch time. There are some TV chefs who make cooking look fun, but use too many ingredients or make it seem more complex than necessary. I love Jamie Oliver because he uses simple recipes, ingredients and helps you to understand that cooking isn't that complicated.

For example, his recipe for one-minute ice cream is so simple I wonder why I never made it before. Then when you realize how easy something is and the satisfaction of making it yourself, you wonder why you ever buy store bought food items. Although I still love frozen yoghurt places with all-you-can-eat toppings and flavours. Nothing can really beat that, but for a quick makeshift alternative, this is amazing.

First though, a recap of Easter weekend. Is it too late to talk about Peeps? I went on a hunt for Peeps and stocked up on a few boxes of the colourful, sweet and cute marshmallow treats. I was looking for something to make with them for Easter and found a few cake recipes, but loved this idea for Peeps fruit kebabs. All you do is arrange Peeps and fruit on skewers.

Thank you Pinterest. I also made some Peeps Pavlovas, also inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe. In one of his shows, he made a berry meringue dessert inspired by pavlova. He put some raspberries in a bowl, then mashed in some honey until it turned jelly-like and then swirled in some yoghurt. Then he topped meringues with lemon curd and the yoghurt mixture. I couldn't find ready-made meringues at the grocery store, so I went with ready-made Angel food cake dessert cups. One day I will make my own meringues from scratch. And maybe even my own marshmallows (or even Peeps).

Last Saturday I found some pork shoulder on sale and made pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce. The pork wouldn't fit in my slow cooker, so I slow cooked it in a Dutch Oven pot for a few hours, then shredded the meat and added the sauce: a mixture of vinegar, tomato paste, brown sugar, Worchestershire sauce and some spices. Full recipe here.

Then on Sunday we had a family dinner and my Mother-in-law to-be made this amazing "Creme Egg" ice cream bomb except it was actually mango, vanilla and chocolate low-fat frozen yoghurt. Such a neat idea and similar to the idea of the Christmas cake bomb I made during the holidays, which was also a Jamie Oliver recipe.

What can I say? I love a man who cooks. Literally, all you do for this recipe (watch his show and count how many times he says "literally") is add frozen fruit, yoghurt and honey to a food processor. The whole point is to blend everything while the fruit is still frozen, so it will make everything else into a semi-frozen, creamy mixture.

One-minute Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen fruit

1 cup yoghurt

2-3 tbsp honey

You can use whatever type of fruit you like and mix up the combinations. He suggested mango with a bit of lime juice or berries with a sprig of fresh mint. This would be a great way for kids to get their fruit and good-for-digestion yoghurt fix of the day.

Eat it straight away or transfer it to a container and leave it in the freezer for a bit. Be careful or it will freeze solid. I prefer it a little on the softer side and with a few fruit chunks still left in there. I can't believe how easy this is. I will be saving so much money on frozen yoghurt and ice cream this summer by making my own.

Then relax. That's it. Literally, that's all you do. And go out and enjoy the short bursts of sunshine. Before you know it, it will be a busy, jam packed summer full of activities, events and vacations. My only wish? That they made Peeps year round...

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood: Coconut Date Squares

2013-03-30T08:48:00.000-04:00

According to the Stats Canada Twitter account (a parody of Canadian stats and not affiliated with the actual Statistics Canada) "67 per cent of Canadians will spend the Easter long weekend cleaning their garage." Admittedly, I am taking that extra day to start some spring cleaning. Although it's more like spring unpacking, throwing out and organizing. There seems to be an endless stack of empty boxes that won't go away after moving places. I am looking forward to the summer in our place though with lot of beautiful skylights and hopefully a newly built deck soon.

I checked out the new Target store in town yesterday and purchased a few things to spruce up the place for Easter. I think Easter colours and decorations are my favourite of any holiday. The lovely pastel colours, cute animals, bright coloured eggs and spring flowers are all signs that Spring is definitely here. Also, some of my favourite chocolates include Mini Eggs and Creme Eggs.

I even found rainbow coconut at Bulk Barn in pink, yellow and white colours; a neat way to add some colour and flair to desserts. The plates were purchased at Target and are actually plastic salad plates. I am a sucker for anything coral or teal coloured. They have some fairly nice home decoration items as well, but unfortunately, my goal was to stock up on marshmallow Peeps and they didn't have any. I was a little disappointed at their selection of Easter candies and chocolates.

I will probably attempt some shopping tomorrow for food and last-minute treats. For now I am enjoying a day of peace and quiet. Things just seem better with some sunshine, chirping birds and more outdoor time. When it comes to most things though, the right tools for the job are always important.

Take making pizza, for example. I take pizza seriously, so when I am making it at home, I make sure I have the right equipment. First, a pizza stone is essential. One day I would love to have a real pizza oven somewhere in my house or yard to live out my pizza making dreams. A stone is a worthwhile purchase for any serious pizza lover. You also need a pizza paddle. You can't really have one without the other because you will have a hard time moving the pizza from the stone without one. Trust me, it works wonders and both of them together make great, crispy pizza.

I usually make a quick batch of dough and sauce for pizza. There are a ton of recipes out there. My usual recipe involves some tomato paste with a bit of water, honey, spices and a touch of fish sauce. Then add any toppings to the pizza, including meats, olives, vegetables and cheese.

I know it seems a little excessive. And it would be much easier to simply call up your favourite pizza place and order one. And I do have my favourite pizza place(s). But sometimes there's nothing better than homemade and feeling like a pizza making master at home. I don't throw the dough up in the air though. I haven't quite mastered the perfect pizza dough. If you have any recommendations for super dough recipes, let me know.

Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on the stone and paddle. Roll out the dough and assemble the pizza near the front of the paddle. While you are making the pizza, heat up the stone in the oven for about 20 minutes. When it's pre-heated, transfer the pizza from the paddle to the stone and bake for about 15 minutes at 400F. You need a hot oven to make good pizza.

I had a bit of a transferring mishap with this one, so it's not completely perfect. Like anything, it takes practice and the right tools for the job. I would say that the stone has drastically altered the quality and crispiness of the crust though. And you can put together the whole thing in less than 30 minutes. I usually keep some dough and sauce readymade in the freezer.

With all of the treats and chocolate over this weekend, here's a little something on the lighter side. You could eat it as a dessert, breakfast bar or snack. The recipe is vegan as it uses a mixture of chia seeds and lemon juice to bind the ingredients together instead of eggs. There is also no butter. Save your splurging for the abundance of chocolate eggs/bunnies you'll probably be eating this weekend.

Coconut Date Bars (adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup whole wheat flour (for gluten-free, substitute with quinoa flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup shredded, dried coconut (with some extra to sprinkle on top)
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease an 8x8 baking pan. In a small bowl, mix the chia seeds and lemon juice together and let sit for about 15 minutes. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and coconut. Combine the oil, applesauce and maple syrup, then mix in the chia seed mixture and chopped dates. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine, then pour into a baking pan.

Sprinkle some more coconut on top and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cut into squares.

They have a bit of tang from the lemon juice and chia seeds, plus some natural sweetness from the dates and coconut. And you can bet these squares have lots of good fibre too. If you're having people over this weekend, they will love a break from the super sweet with these healthy, filling squares.

Eating healthy on-the-go: Oatmeal in a Jar

2013-03-15T20:13:00.002-04:00

Things have been a little topsy turvy lately. In the midst of the heavy lifting involved in moving to a new place, I have been doing the Oprah and Deepak Chopra 21-day Meditation Challenge to relax a little bit. Hearing a meditation by Chopra is a nice, soothing way to end my day and I find I can focus and relax a little more each time I meditate.

In one of the meditations, Deepak talked about finding balance and the centering thought was "balance is my true nature." He described how we can send messages of love and support to our bodies by eating good food, getting rest and engaging in stimulating activities. It's a nice thought, but sometimes when I try to find balance, I feel like I'm swaying back and forth and about to fall on my face. I try to find balance in work, life and health, but frankly, I don't think many people have found that perfect balance.

Sometimes we sway completely to the side of laziness, bad food and stress because that's the way life goes. For example, I can't feel settled in a new place until I have everything unpacked and arranged perfectly. Unfortunately, that process takes quite awhile. I don't know where anything is, so it's hard to achieve my normal feng shui. There are things you can do to help make things easier though. One of those things is quick, healthy and easy meals on-the-go.

One of my favourite Tumblr blogs right now is Sad Desk Lunch. It doesn't really give packed lunches a good name; however, I can find the humour in trying to put something together for lunch and sometimes failing and also those times when your co-worker's lunch looks and smells way better than yours. Sometimes there is just too much going on to have time to worry about making good choices for each meal of the day.

I thought I would take a cue from Sad Desk Lunch and show off my desk lunches too. I don't think they're too sad. I try to bring my lunch to work most of the time. On occasion I will buy something or get a coffee somewhere. These are my meals from last week not counting various snacks throughout the day and office treats (do you find offices are always in abundance of sweets and treats?)

Monday: Bagel and cream cheese with fruit salad

Tuesday: Italian wedding soup with an Activia yoghurt

Wednesday: Bagel and cream cheese with a few slices of sausage and fruit salad

Thursday: Leftover rice noodle salad with tofu and a piece of toast

Friday: Leftover pizza (at least I used a plate).
Maybe some of them fall on the side of sad I suppose. Day-old pizza heated up in the microwave was a good and bad addition to the weekly menu. Then I discovered the magic of mason jars for packed lunches and my mind was blown. It's not like making oats is an arduous process. You can cook them in the microwave in a few minutes. Who doesn't love an easier way of doing things though, right? It definitely makes me feel a little more at peace.

All you do is add oats, milk, fruit and toppings to a jar and place in the fridge overnight. In the morning you have oats that are ready-to-go. The "soaking" process "slow cooks" them rather than having to heat them.

Soaked Oats in a Jar (adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup frozen or fresh fruit
3/4 cup vanilla soy, almond or regular milk
1/4 cup water
Toppings of choice: Sliced almonds, raisins, chia seeds, etc.

Combine ingredients in a jar and stir together. Let sit in the fridge overnight. Make ahead the night before for cold out of the jar or warm ready-to-eat oats.

That is also why I love slow cookers. Just set it and forget it. Slow cooking helps when your house is full of boxes, bags and stuff everywhere. Oh, moving day. When your kitchen--and life--is in disarray, the last thing you want to worry about is being perfect.

Canned goods, bulk items and kitchen staples can be a life-saver when it comes to finding quick meals. You will always have a meal on hand if you have something such as canned tomatoes, tuna, frozen vegetables, oats, pasta, etc. in your cupboards. Canned fruit is a quick alternative to fresh fruit; however, the sugar levels in the canned syrup are quite high. I was trying to use up some canned goods and food so I wouldn't have to pack it up and move it to our new place, so I added it to some oats to make my own version of "Peaches and Cream" oatmeal.

Peaches and Cream Slow-Cooker Oatmeal (adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
1 can of peaches in juice (try and find the reduced sugar variety)
1/2 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup soy, almond or regular milk
1 cup water

Add ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low overnight. Add more milk to serve if desired.

After a few hours or overnight, you have warm oats when you wake up for breakfast.

We have just about moved everything. Now it seems like the calm after the storm. All there is left to do is try and make the place feel like home. Last night I baked for the first time in our new kitchen and it started to feel a lot more cozy. Plus there are lots of beautiful windows for natural light and food photos of course. I can't wait until summer when the warm sunshine beams into the skylights and large windows.

In one of the meditations I have been doing, one of the mantras to repeat was the word "Yum," which stands for the sound that resonates with the heart centre. According to Chorpa, you should repeat the word "Yum" until you feel infused with a feeling of peace and safety." How fitting that a word often used to describe how we feel when eating delicious food is connected to the centre of our hearts.

National Cupcake Day: Zucchini Banana Cupcakes with Homemade Banana Chips

2013-02-25T08:34:00.003-05:00

There are so many food-themed days that go by with a flash and I usually miss them, such as International Pancake Day, Macaron Day and National Pizza Day. This list of food days every year is insane. I don't usually need an excuse to enjoy or cook something. In this case though I thought I would take one for the team and bake cupcakes because today, Monday February 25, is National Cupcake Day.

Although I didn't officially register for official Cupcake Day festivities I thought I would make some cupcakes to show my support for a good cause. For National Cupcake Day you can bake cupcakes for friends or host a cupcake party in exchange for donations to animals in need. The fundraising goes towards Humane Societies and SPCAs across the country.

According to the website, "Your cupcakes will help give a surrendered cat a new forever home, rescue a neglected or abused animal and give them a second chance at a new life and provide emergency surgery to thousands of animals."

This is Cally. We adopted her from the Humane Society a few years ago when she was about six-months-old. As much as I am extremely grateful for what Humane Societies do--and I used to volunteer there as well--I am glad she only lived at the shelter for a short time. Many of the animals live there a lot longer than she did and the volunteers and staff treat them wonderfully, but it's not a home or where they should live for long.

They should be in loving homes with lots of space, attention and a lot of this...see picture below, i.e, napping after a long day. Before we adopted her we used to go see the animals at the shelter all the time in the hopes of one day finding the perfect pet. One day we said, "We should really get a cat. Let's go and look at them and see if there's one we like," and came home with one the same day. Her original name was "Finesse" and she charmed us with her playfulness, beauty and slight quirkiness.

Now I can't imagine life without her. After a few years, she has grown up a little bit--but not too much--and will soon will be moving to our new place with us with stairs to conquer and bigger windows to see outside. I won't get into how much of a crazy cat lady I really am. I did bake some cupcakes though, or shall I say, "cup cats."

I found the perfect printables online. They are technically for a kid's Birthday party, but who cares? There are four different types of cats you can print and wrap around cupcakes.

She is not so keen on baking though and would much rather curl up and relax than help me.

Don't be put off by the fact that these cupcakes have vegetables in them. And I guess they are a little more muffin-like than cupcakes and also a bit like banana bread. I was going to use all whole wheat flour, but sometimes find the taste can be a little too grainy. They have a mix of white and whole wheat flour, banana, zucchini and are fairly low-fat. A cupcake is a cupcake though. You could also add chocolate chips.

Zucchini Banana Cupcakes (adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup grated zucchini
1/3 cup mashed banana (approx. 1 banana)
1 tbsp canola oil

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl, whisk egg and brown sugar until smooth. Add vanilla, butter and milk, then stir in the zucchini and banana. Add in the dry ingredients until combined. Add a tbsp of oil if mixture is a little too dry. Fill muffin tin liners with batter and bake for 15-17 minutes.

I was going to make my usual icing recipe from Wilton; however, I discovered I had no shortening. My Wilton cake decorating instructor told us you can use half butter and half shortening, which is what I normally do. She recommended either using all shortening or half butter, but not all butter. The icing does taste somewhat different and is a different consistency than with shortening.

After much deliberation I googled some recipes for using butter and to be honest, it all depends on how you like your icing to taste. I still prefer the shortening version although I know many people have an aversion to shortening. This version is still pretty good if you're stuck for ingredients and need some icing made quickly.

Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (Recipe)
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine butter, 3 cups icing sugar, milk and vanilla into a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until smooth and then add the remaining one cup of icing sugar.

Homemade Banana Chips
Ingredients:
Banana, sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice

Slice one banana (or however many slices you need) and put them on a greased baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle lemon juice over the slices and make sure to coat each piece. Bake for 2 hours at 200F. These are made similar to kale chips as an alternative to dehydrating the fruit.

Depending on how long you bake them, the banana chips won't be quite the same or as crispy as store bought. I think they make a neat decoration for cupcakes though. Next time I might try incorporating the banana into the icing.

Find National Cupcake Day on Twitter and use the hashtag #NationalCupcakeDay to see how people everywhere are celebrating with cupcakes and supporting animals in need.

Valentine's Day recap: The Early Bird and Kashi's newest cereal

2013-02-18T19:25:00.001-05:00

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone and today is Family Day in Ontario. It's a somewhat new holiday for the purpose of having an extra day--and a long weekend--to spend with family. And who can complain about another holiday in February? I know some people think "consumer" holidays are cheesy and overdone. I like any chance to celebrate though and I had a great Valentine's Day this year:

I had dinner cooked for me: Mustard Sage Porkchops with Israeli Couscous, Edamame and Pancetta. The pork chop even looks like a heart. Nothing says love like heart-shaped meat. Then there was a special delivery at the door on Thursday evening of fresh macarons from Petit Le Bon Bon. They are a local online macaron shop that delivers and they also have a macaron-of-the-month club. This month's flavours were Red Velvet and Chocolate Cherry.

Although Mike joked that the whole concept reminded him of "2 Broke Girls," with two girls starting their own dessert business out of their house, these macarons are high class and some of the best I've had. They weren't too crunchy or chewy and were just the right size. Plus the flavourings, especially the cherry chocolate ganache filling, were light and beautiful. A huge thanks to them for delivering a dozen macarons on Valentine's Day as I'm sure they were extra busy that day.

I suppose the macarons weren't a complete surprise as I did say, "Please order a dozen of these macarons for Valentine's Day." I have thoroughly enjoyed them though and will definitely be ordering from them again. They would be great to bring as a hostess or shower gift.

I had already baked some treats for the week as well, including the Jello Cookies and these Fresh Strawberry Squares. The squares tasted almost like mini Strawberry cheesecakes.

They were made with fresh strawberries, condensed milk and custard filling on top of a shortbread-type crust. I then decorated them a bit with some extra slices of Strawberries and icing sugar.

Instead of going out for dinner on Valentine's Day evening, we decided on going for weekend brunch. We went to The Early Bird Diner in London, Ontario. I have always been a fan of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" and have always wanted to go to a place that serves that special kind of epic food. The Early Bird definitely lived up to the hype I had heard about it. The diner is decorated with vintage and rock memorabilia and has a really neat vibe. I would love to go there in the evening as well for their famous appetizers including bacon-wrapped pickles and mammoth Grilled Cheese sandwiches. I think going here will only be a once in awhile occasion though:

Mike ordered the "Turducken Sandwich," a monstorous rendition of a club sandwich with panko-fried chicken, turkey and duck bacon along with a side of fries. After a few bites he said, "I don't want to alarm you, but I think I could finish this whole thing." We ended up sharing a bit of both entrees and had a lot of leftovers to take home.

I got the Pancake Stacker that was four large pancakes layered with potato hash, peameal bacon, smoked bacon, fried egg and maple syrup. I did not even make a dent in the stack and I felt somewhat silly for ordering fruit salad as my side. That's like asking for a Diet Coke with pizza.

And of course, I had to "instagram" my brunch as well. Turns out the diner has been featured on The Food Network on the Canadian version of "Diner's," called "You Gotta Eat Here." Even though the rich food and epic portions are not something I can really handle, I applaud the owners for their creativity and bringing such a neat local hangout to London.

I got another special delivery in the mail from Kashi. They sent me their newest flavour to try: Blueberry Oat Clusters and Flakes. One cup of the cereal has 45 per cent of the daily fibres needed to help lower cholesterol and six grams of protein per cup. Their new flavour contains whole grain oat clusters and sun-ripened blueberries. I have tried other "blueberry" flavoured cereals in the past, including Special K, and found them a little too sweet. The Kashi flavouring is just right and not overpowering. I find artificial blueberry flavours a little off-putting and resembling those generic blueberry muffins, but I liked that Kashi cereals don't taste artificial and contain all of that good stuff.

Speaking of good stuff, let me tell you about the perfect pairing when it comes to breakfast. My dietician told me about the wonders of All Bran Buds and I have not looked back since. If you don't like the flavour of bran, you don't need to eat them on their own. Just sprinkle them onto cereal, yoghurt or in baked goods or bran recipes. They have 44 per cent of your recommended daily fibre and it's the good kind--soluble fire that keeps things going through you well, a little bulkier...which is great for digestion. What a perfect couple :)

Also, on the subject of loving yourself, I signed up for this 21-day meditation challenge by Oprah and Deepak Chopra. I'm not normally a "Hail Oprah" type of person although I can admit to watching her show at times. This challenge sounded right up my alley though and you receive daily mediations, inspiration and resources by email. Could be neat.

In terms of Canadian online health resources, CBC is launching their Live Right Now campaign again this year. I was so inspired by their "Village on a Diet" TV show a few years ago and the campaign has a lot of the same ideas for healthy living, eating and exercise. It's always great when you have online buddies rooting for you too!

Valentine's Day Jello cookies

2013-02-10T16:48:00.000-05:00

Someone on my Twitter feed posted this quote a few minutes ago: "Get out there and improvise and take chances and don't be a perfectionist--leave that to the classical musicians"--Dave Brubeck. That will be my topic sentence for today.

I remember a story my piano teacher used to tell me. To put it in context, I grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, which also used to be the home of Jazz Pianist Oscar Peterson. My piano teacher used to tell me that someone he knew lived in the same building as Oscar Peterson. He was so excited to live there and be able to hear beautiful jazz music through the walls from a master pianist. When he was asked how it was living near him, he said, "It's driving me crazy. All I hear for hours on end is scales!" I don't know if the story was true or told to me so I would practice my scales. I still remember it though because I learned growing up that being good at anything takes time, practice and hard work.

The thing about food blogs is you sometimes don't get the whole story behind the picture. You don't actually know how much the recipe was tested, made and styled. When I make something for the first time I know that it sometimes might not turn out perfectly. Practice makes perfect. These Valentine heart-shaped Jello cookies turned out though.

I suppose Jello is not the most romantic of foods. It's usually what you eat when you're sick or can't eat anything else. Jello is a little bit goofy too, like the texture, the jiggling nature of it and those chunky bits you have to scrape at the bottom that I secretly like. For some reason, the video posted above makes me laugh every time. I think it's a testament to why people love Jello so much. You can use it to make something sweet for Valentine's Day, such as cookies, squares and heart-shaped treats and it makes a tasty dessert (sugar-free or regular) or snack and it's fun for any age.

These are easy cookies to make and the colour comes naturally from the Jello powder mix with no food colouring necessary. The cookies turned out beautifully; however, the squares I saw on Pinterest did not at all. This was the recipe and original photo for Jello Heart Squares:

This was how my mine turned out. They were so bad that they warranted their own "nailed it" meme.

The condensed milk did not set and cutting heart shapes out of the red jello was quite difficult. Most of the jello fell apart and I attempted some sort of vintage marbled looking creation with the leftovers. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the actual recipe. Something went wrong along the way, that's all.

Just like the Muppets video, I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it and I will probably be submitting my photo to the Craft Fail or Epic Pinterest Fail blogs soon.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, it really is like relationships though. There are ups and downs, good and bad moments, but sometimes you just have to laugh. Like baking, you want everything to turn out perfectly. The reality is, it takes hard work and sometimes a little bit of luck. You can even have the perfect plans (and tools, such as this shiny, new candy thermometer), a beautiful vision and a bright picture of the future (ahem, Pinterest)....

Then the universe will tell you, nope, not today and at that moment you just have to relax a little, laugh it out, have fun and keep at it. Everything will turn out in the end. Ok, too many baking/relationship metaphors? I'm not an expert by any means--on relationships or even baking--so I'll go back to this now:

Maybe it's the winter cold funk, the fact that it's February or the "100 day flu" I've had that's made me a bit of a Debby Downer lately. Usually baking lifts me out a bad mood and other times the precise and intricate nature of baking frustrates me to no end. Last week I tried to make cake pops and they also came out quite 'Fail-Blog" worthy.

A few weeks ago I tried to make Lemon fudge and Maple fudge squares and they also didn't turn out quite right. Thank goodness for friends who care more about the taste than how much you slaved away to make it look like the food blog you saw it on. Because sometimes, things aren't going to turn out how you want them to. Sometimes I wish my life looked like one of those beautiful food and design blogs with perfectly photographed (and sometimes Instagrammed) moments. Maybe someday it will.

Back to the cookies:

Jello Cookies Recipe from Justhelen.net

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Jello powder (Strawberry, Cherry or Raspberry works for the red colour)
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp lemon baking emulsion (or vanilla works)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Additional food colouring if needed to enhance the colour

Cream butter, sugar and Jello powder together. Add eggs and extract, then add flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Refrigerate the dough for a few hours or overnight. Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes with a cookie cutter. Sprinkle with coloured sugar or stick some conversation hearts in the middle of each cookie.

Then bake for 400F for six minutes and let cool on a cookie rack. And I am happy these turned out and had the tanginess and fruitiness of the Jello flavouring in them.

And in conclusion, I'm alright that I'm at the point in my life where I can still experiment, have meltdowns and dream about crazy things. And I'm glad I have people around me who will say, "Relax, you're doing a good job. You're doing the best you can and that's all that matters," whether they are referencing work, life or baking.

Superbowl Snack Ideas

2013-02-02T11:39:00.001-05:00

A few Superbowls ago I made this legendary greek dip that was devoured in about two minutes by hungry football watchers. I love layered dips piled high with vegetables, cheese and toppings. This one had a layer of hummus, tzatziki, feta cheese, chopped tomatoes, green onions, olives and some parsley. Legend-ary.

I remember one Superbowl Sunday I was working at the campus pub serving wings and beer to football watchers and I ended up taking home quite a few take-out containers of leftover deep-fried goodies, as well as a large Budweiser hoodie (it has become the perfect boyfriend sweater). Not that I am remotely interested in football. I have tried to understand the game, I really have. But when it comes to the food side of celebrations, even if they are sports related, I can always get excited about that.

Just like football, I like spinach dip, deep-fried bites and wings just as much as the next person, but that much cheese, batter and salt is hard to handle even on the best of days. Eating a whole dish of greek layered dip probably isn't a great idea either. If you're looking for some alternatives for Superbowl snacks or really aren't that into celebrating football and need traditional fare, I have a few ideas:

If your friends are of the sophisticated set--or would rather cheer for Martha Stewart than the 49ers--try some smoked salmon dip made with cream cheese, smoked salmon and herbs. I used greek yoghurt instead of mayonnaise for this recipe. Sausage rolls are also super easy to make if you have some frozen puff pastry lying around.

Or perhaps a fine charcuterie plate with cured meats, cheeses, olives, dips and crostinis?

As a wise woman once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that." I'm barely making it through the winter here. I would much rather "work on my night cheese" Liz Lemon-style and have a simple meal and a few easy homemade dips, such as tzatziki, hummus and guacamole.

The National Pecan Shellers Association (c/o The Kellen Company) sent me a few "Heart Healthy Recipes for Superbowl." Try any of these pecan-inspired recipes, including Crab Tacos with Corn, Pecan and Avocado, Pecan Pesto Pizza and Lemon-Pecan Linguine. They have all sorts of ideas for incorporating pecans into snacks that are a little nicer on the waist--and heart apparently. These Turkey Pecan Enchiladas and Pecan Orange Slaw were also on the list.

The recipe for Oven Baked Pecan-Crusted Chicken fingers caught my eye. I decided to use fish instead and use the same recipe instead of chicken then realized they had recipes for Pecan-Crusted fish on their website afterwards. Oh well, you can't go wrong with breading made with nuts, herbs, spices that is baked in the oven.

Oven Baked Pecan-Crustd Chicken/Fish Fingers (for one)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pecan pieces

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

2 tbsp olive oil

1 fish/chicken filet

*Emeril's Essence Creole Seasoning

1 1/2 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp black pepper

1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tbsp dried oregano

1/2 tbsp dried thyme

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. In a food processor, combine pecans, bread crumbs and spice seasoning mix. Pulse for 1 minute to combine. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, olive oil and remaining spice mix. Dip the fish and/or chicken into the egg mixture, then the pecan mixture. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake, turning once, about 15-20 minutes.

I served the fish with some Tabouleh couscous salad and homemade tzatziki. All I did for the tzatziki was add lemon juice, dill, chopped cucumber and garlic to plain Greek yoghurt. I would say these recipes are quite "heart healthy" as well.

And in case I'll be wanting to snack later on, a baguette, crackers or chips with homemade dips can usually be devoured to distract myself from actually understanding the rules of football.

New Year, new you, detox salad...after this piece of cake

2013-01-16T20:04:00.003-05:00

I know it's a little stereotypical to post a salad recipe right after Christmas for that bright and shiny new you for the new year. Really though, January is a great time for new beginnings and eating well is always a good choice, especially when the post-holiday blues can get some people in a rut.

It is also prime flu season and I have been flattened for the last few days with the virus. Yet another reason to eat well and let the body rest even when you're not feeling it. First off, a look back at a bit of New Year's Eve indulgence:

This cake was the bomb, a christmas pudding ice cream bomb, in fact. What else do you do when all of those Christmas treats are on sale and you're stuffed to the brim with sweets? Make a cake, of course.

On New Year's Eve we played some board games, ate some food and played some more games. We did dress up, but there was no night of desperately trying to wave down a cab and sloshing through the snow in heels and I was alright with that.

The cake I made for the occasion was a Jamie Oliver recipe my Dad made for Christmas dinner. It seems quite labour intensive; however, it just involves some leftover ingredients and a lot of freezer time. Jamie explains it best:

He is right; it's "retro beauty" and not that difficult to make. Layer the Pannetone bread in a bowl lined with saran wrap (or "cling film")...

Then spread the bread with jam and add some ice cream and the fillings. I used "cranberry trail mix frozen yoghurt," then stuff any leftover holiday ingredients in there, such as glace fruit, maraschino cherries, clementines and almonds. Wrap it up and freeze until about an hour before you want to serve.

Speaking of leftovers, after the indulging, socializing and eating, you tend to do a lot of this during the holidays:

Some presents this year included a cozy Hudson's Bay throw and a beautiful, orange dutch oven pot which I used to make this turkey and wild rice casserole with leftover turkey and cranberry sauce.

And then make something green and energizing because you will need it to get through going back to work and that time of year when everyone is sick (and it's only time until you get it) and is it spring yet?

Making a salad out of brussel sprouts is something I never thought to do. Like many interesting meals, the idea for this recipe for Shredded Brussels Sprout and Tangerine Salad came from Pinterest. Also, check out this other refreshing recipe for a Brussels Sprout Pomegranate Citrus Salad.

Brussel Sprout, Clementine and Edamame Salad
Ingredients:
1/2 pound brussels sprouts
2-3 clementines
1/2 cup cooked edamame beans
1/4 cup walnuts
Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice,
a squirt of dijon mustard

In the original recipe, the sprouts were shredded raw, but I cooked them and chopped them up afterwards. Then I added the clementines, edamame beans, walnuts and dressing. Then enjoy the greens, fruit and vitamins and hope it detoxes, rejuvenates and refreshes you...and have another piece of cake for dessert.

It's Christmas; fireside blazing bright

2013-01-04T19:49:00.002-05:00

I was looking at my finances for December and it seems I spent quite a bit on food last month. Oh well, I regret nothing. It's not that I spent a lot, but food is such an important part of the holidays and seems to take up a significant part of expenses this time of year. Even in the lead up to Christmas I felt like I was eating more elaborate food simply because everyone was gearing up for parties, dinners and celebrations.

Grocery stores, magazines and of course, food blogs, don't help the situation with mouth-watering holiday and entertaining ideas. One of the latest editions of Canadian Living had this recipe for mustard sage pork chops with israeli couscous and I also enjoyed a stuffed acorn squash with tofu, brown rice, squash, onions, celery and mozzarella cheese. Also, a big shout out to this sweet potato gratin recipe. Somehow the sauce tasted exactly like real meat gravy even though it was made with coconut milk and potatoes. I assure you, I don't eat this extravagantly normally.

I also love giving presents and treats usually more than receiving them. I am not one of those people who shops months in advance, but I do like to put careful thought into what I give each person. Sometimes you need something nice on hand to give to co-workers, friends and hosts as a small token of your appreciation. Thus almost 50 jars of homemade strawberry jam that were once originally planned as wedding favours, were used as Christmas gifts this year.

I put together some gift baskets for the family with homemade jam, fruitcake, stollen bread, roasted nuts and a tea ornament from David's Tea. It might sound like a lot of work to put all of that together; however, I had my friend the trusty bread maker by my side. Did you know you could make Christmas fruit bread in a bread maker? I did not.

A stollen bread is a German fruit bread dusted with icing sugar. I also made a traditional fruitcake for the first time using a recipe from an old Delia Smith Christmas cookbook. They weren't that difficult to make partly because I skipped the alcohol in them, so they didn't require "feeding" or soaking. Yes, you have to "feed" the cakes with Sherry or Brandy. They did have to bake in the oven for 4 1/2 hours though. My goodness.

The first batch of cakes I attempted a marzipan topping using store bought almond paste, but the marzipan turned out kind of lumpy and I had to cover it up with sprinkles. For the second batch I rolled out the almond paste and laid it across the top of the cakes like fondant. They looked a lot nicer and it was also a little less effort.

Even if you're on a small budget, you can still make the most of the season. For example, it is possible to have a real Christmas tree in a small apartment and with a cat (who is also small). You just have to vacuum the needles up every other day. There's nothing like having a real tree though.

A few simple decorations are all you need, such as some Christmas cards strewn up on the wall, a poinsettia or two and homemade wreaths and decorations using tree trimmings are always fun.

When you're done decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping and running around aimlessly I suppose you can actually enjoy the holidays, which includes taking cheesy photos for next year's Christmas cards, taking a walk through the park and streets to see the Christmas lights, then snuggling up with some hot chocolate.

You are allowed to splurge a little bit though whether it's for yourself or someone else. We went to the market and bought some fancy blocks of cheese to eat on Christmas day as we watched movies and relaxed before dinner.

For dinner I let some cranberry sauce simmer away and roasted some spiced and sweet nut mixes for gift bags. Then I put a pot roast in the slow cooker and let the smell of meat, vegetables and gravy consume the apartment all day.

With any roast beef dinner you need some Yorkshire puddings and gravy; it's the British way. Gordon Ramsay helped a bit with that. I used a recipe from one of his books to make them for the first time. They are not the safest food to make, as you have to heat the oven to 450F, then pour oil into a muffin tin and let it smoke slightly, then pour the batter in the pan. We didn't have any cooking-related accidents or injuries, which was good.

Yes, the holidays are about somewhat splurging and then paying for it later. I have signed up for a booty camp fitness class for the new year, so I will be working away those extra calories. The food, presents and treats are nice, but ultimately Christmas is about celebrating and being thankful for everything and everyone you have. And also welcoming some new additions to the family...

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012

2012-12-13T19:39:00.001-05:00

I recently wrote a story for a wedding blog on Edible Gift Ideas and I came to the conclusion that most of the fun in giving an edible gift is actually in the packaging. It's true though. I love browsing craft stores for neat boxes, bags and supplies and I especially love giving homemade treats as gifts.

No reusable Tupperware for these cookies. These tasty cookies get sent off in style.

Last year I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap for the first time and I made sure to sign up again this year.

Food bloggers from all over sign up for the exchange where you're matched with three recipients. You then send a dozen cookies to your matches and receive three dozen in exchange. Then everyone waits anxiously by their mailboxes for their cookies and posts the recipe they made on their blogs.

I made sugar spiral cookies last time that were a little tedious, so I decided on something a little easier this year. Or, something that was actually easy, but looks like it took hours and hours to make--that's where some packaging and ribbon go a long way too.

I take absolutely no credit for this amazing recipe and its versatility. Chatelaine Magazine knocked it out of the park with their Holiday Cookie Collection feature, both in their December magazine and on their website. They have recipes for 100 holiday cookies and most of them use the same sugar cookie base. The genius part is that you just add fillings or flavours to various batches and you magically have a whole bunch of different types of cookies.

Since I needed to make three dozen cookies I decided on three different types of cookies: fruitcake, candy cane and ginger. I did stock up quite a few sticks of butter, but I hardly had to buy any additional ingredients. For the fruitcake, glaced fruit; for the candy cane, crushed candy canes; and for the ginger, candied ginger.

After "slaving away" baking cookies, you then package them up nicely and ship them off to all your friends. And receive some lovely packages from your other friends, but actually people from the internet. These chocolate truffles from Kristy of Gastronomical Sovereignty were heavenly and I loved her sparkly packaging.

Sadly, at press time I only received one package of cookies in the mail. Fingers crossed that the rest are on their way. I guess it is a busy time of year for mail and all, so I should cut Canada Post some slack.

Update: I received two lovely packages in the mail this week and they were definitely worth the wait. Check out these gingerbread white chocolate blondies in pretty packaging from Becky of bex bakes and cakes. She also has a blog devoted solely to whoopie pies!

And let's talk about these gingerbread eggnog fudge cookies from Sharana from Living the Sweet Life. Besides getting wonderful treats like these (I haven't made gingerbread this year yet, so I definitely enjoyed these two batches of treats), I also love discovering new food blogs, especially Canadian ones.

These were my cookies in cookie boxes purchased from Michael's Craft Store. I can't make these look any cooler than Chatelaine Magazine.

Can I also say I am so excited to make fruitcake this year? Yes, fruitcake. I love fruitcake so much and I don't know why, even though the glaced fruit looks like something from a 1970's nightmare.

Vanilla Icebox Cookies (Recipe from Chatelaine)

Ingredients (makes 55-60 cookies)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Stir flour with baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Gather the dough into a ball or separate it into however many batches you want to make.

Add your various fillings and mix well into the dough. Roll each portion into a 2-inch wide log, wrap it in saran wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice cookies into 1/4-inch rounds and arrange 1-inch apart on the sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes and let them cook on a wire rack.

And there you have it. According to Chatelaine, these cookies last up to five days refrigerated and up to one month frozen (uncooked dough). Just don't look at the nutritional information because that's no fun at this time of year.

After I mailed off my required cookies, I made two more kinds from the Holiday Cookie Guide: London fog and Birthday cake. Those ones were made with ground tea leaves, sprinkles and a touch of icing on top. You could put any kind of filling you want in them to modify the basic recipe. Now I'm thinking ground espresso, chai tea and coloured sugar. This could get interesting.

To receive notifications for next year's Great Food Blogger Cookie swap sign up here. Who knows? You may even receive a pretty package of cookies from a fellow Canadian foodie.

Holiday Mini Egg Scones

2012-12-06T20:11:00.000-05:00

A few Easters ago I made mini egg scones. Look how pretty they are with the pastel chocolates and slightly browned pastry edges. Mini eggs are those perfect morsels of candy and chocolate combined.

And scones are that perfect mix between a sweet cake and a biscuit.

You have to use up all of that holiday chocolate and candy somehow. It's not even the holidays and I've already almost gone through my stash of holiday candy. Really, you could put any chocolate you want in them, but there's something about mini eggs that adds a little bit of sweetness that isn't overpowering.

These ones turned out slightly more cake-like than the Easter ones. With the melted chocolate, buttery dough and hint of sweetness, it didn't matter. Bulk Barn must have a candy colour scheme for each season or I must be one of their most loyal customers; either way these would also work with Halloween candy or multi-coloured candies for birthday or kids parties.

Just be careful not to eat all of the chocolate before you combine it with the dough. A little icing sugar sprinkled on top makes them a little more festive too. A tip for making scones from Canadian Living: always use cubed, chilled butter because the cold butter combined with the dry ingredients give it that flaky scone-like texture. They also don't require any egg.

Mini Egg Scones Recipe (from We are not Martha)
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups butter, chilled
1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup greek yoghurt
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 cup Cadbury mini-eggs, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Dice the cold butter into pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Break down the butter until it resembles coarse meal. Add the sugar, vanilla, yoghurt, vanilla and milk. Chop up the mini-eggs and them to the batter.

The rest is up to you. I like my scones lumpy and free-form, but you could use a cookie cutter or cut triangular sections from the dough. Bake the scones at 350 for 17-20 minutes. Let them cool on a wire rack completely. You could also drizzle a bit of melted chocolate on top for decoration.

They were definitely a little too free-form when they came out of the oven. I wonder if the cookie sheet was too warm before I put the dough on it or maybe the butter wasn't quite chilled. The coloured candies and a bit of decoration makes them look better anyway.

Have you started your holiday baking yet? I am anxiously awaiting my cookies in the mail from the Food Blogger Cookie Exchange. I had lots of fun making sugar cookies with various holiday fillings and I can't wait to post the results next week!

Spaghetti Squash Stuffing and helping out with the Soup Sisters

2012-12-01T16:20:00.003-05:00

For the last few weeks I have seen nothing but turkey, stuffing, pie and "green bean casserole" recipes and I have been a little bit jealous. Here in Canada, we had our Thanksgiving months ago, or so it seems like it. After seeing so many Thanksgiving recipes and roundups, I had a huge craving for brussel sprouts. I guess you know you're officially an adult when you actually crave green vegetables.

I wanted to make brussel sprouts as a side to something, but I wasn't sure what to make. Then that idea progressed into making a mini "Thanksgiving" dinner on American Thanksgiving Sunday. I didn't want to buy a whole turkey, so I made vegetarian stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts with some homemade pumpkin pie for dessert.

I use spaghetti squash as a substitute in quite a few dishes now. According to Chatelaine Magazine, spaghetti squash is only 44 calories a cup and if you use half of it instead of a full pasta serving, you can cut down on 100 calories. Traditional turkey stuffing, on the other hand--as well as consuming a plate of Thanksgiving goodness--probably has a lot more calories. I didn't actually find any recipes based on my creation. I found a lot of "stuffed spaghetti squash" recipes, but no, "spaghetti squash stuffing" recipes. So, this is an invention of my own.

A traditional stuffing with half spaghetti squash instead of bread. It might not cut down on all of your holiday calories, but the small things help right? If you had a turkey, you could put the turkey neck on top of the stuffing to add some more juice or cook the stuffing right inside.

Spaghetti Squash Stuffing

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 spaghetti squash
4 pieces of sliced bread or day-old baguette
1 cup chicken stock
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup crushed walnuts
1 handful of fresh sage and rosemary

Leave the bread out for a few hours to make it a bit stale. Microwave the spaghetti squash for about 5 minutes then scoop out the filling. Combine vegetables, bread, herbs, raisins and walnuts in a casserole or baking dish. Pour chicken stock, then egg over the mixture. Mix up with your hands. Cover and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. You can broil the top for a few minutes if you like the top on the crispy side.

Since I'm in the holiday spirit, I thought I would do something to give back. Of course, it's important to give all year round, but I just happened to stumble across a wonderful opportunity. Soup Sisters is an initiative dedicated to providing comfort to women and children in need through the making and sharing of soup.

Once a month, at Soup Sister events across Canada, ladies (and gentlemen too, called the Broth Brothers) get together for a soup-making event in a professional kitchen under the supervision of a chef. Anyone can sign up for an event and some even sign up in groups as a night out with girlfriends. Events are a chance for people to get together to make soup and then have a nice meal together afterwards.

We were separated into four teams to make four different types of soup: mushroom, lentil, chicken noodle and hamburger soup. I was on team "Hamburger Soup" and our soup included tomatoes, barley, ground beef, carrots and celery. I helped chop some carrots and celery, while my other team members added the ingredients to the pot and stirred. The recipes were printed out on each station and we also wrote out the ingredients on labels that were going to be on the soup containers for the Women's House.

After all of the soups were made, we all sat down for dinner and wine. The meal started with a moroccan salad of quinoa, lentils and vegetables. The chef wouldn't tell us her secret recipe, but I think I'm going to recreate it at home some time.

Then cheese biscuits, warm right out of the oven, were passed around in anticipation for the soup.

The soup du jour was Moroccan chicken stew. The chef leading the event also teaches cooking classes and had taught a Moroccan cooking class that day, hence the theme. So we ate the leftover soup from her cooking class instead of eating the soup we made. Overall, we made about 70 litres of soup that night, which is about 150 individual servings. The soup gets packaged up and delivered the next morning to the shelter kitchens.

I didn't have enough cash on me to purchase a Soup Sisters Cookbook at the event, but I am planning to pick one up soon for a Christmas gift. It was a nice evening out and a chance to give back, as well as pick up some new cooking skills and recipes. There are monthly events across Ontario, including Ottawa, Toronto and Kitchener, so check out their website for bookings or to donate.

Love The Pie: Traditional Pumpkin Pie

2012-11-18T19:44:00.000-05:00

I am almost in winter hibernation mode: I have that constant cold feeling only defeated by wearing sweaters and hiding under blankets, I have been cravings carbs like nobody's business and I have also not enjoyed scraping ice off of my car windows.

Of course, with the holiday season near, I am also craving ALL the sweet things, such as cake and pie, both of which I made this week. It's hard to say which is better. There have been many battles--or just one notable epic battle--pitting fluffy, sugary cake against sweet, hearty pie. Personally, I am a pie person. I like cake, but I can only eat it in small doses before wanting to pass out from a sugar induced coma. Granted, cakes are a lot prettier, but pie is the winner for me when it comes to taste.

I also love food trucks. Whenever there is a food truck in town I most likely know about it. Although the Jack Astor's food truck was more of a promotional stunt and not an actual food truck, I couldn't resist free food on a Friday. They were offering complimentary new menu items in London over the weekend at various stops. I am willing to stand outside in the cold for the sake of "trucking." First off was a sample of their new Feta Guacamole with red onion, black beans and roasted poblano peppers. It was pretty standard guacamole with a bit of a spicy kick.

The entree I sampled was "One Really, Really Big Meatball" of beef, veal and pork in a garlic tomato sauce with bucatini pasta. The other option was "Junk Boat Chicken:" crispy fried chicken in garlic and ginger sauce with jasmine rice and seasonal vegetables. The meatball actually was a really big meatball and the sauce had a pretty good balance of sweetness and herbs.

Overall, not bad for restaurant chain food and free too. Speaking of restaurant food, every time I hear the words "Festive Special" on the radio my heart yearns for some Swiss Chalet winter goodness. It's not the holiday season without a chicken dinner followed by Lindt chocolates.

Then there was the cake I baked and decorated this week (like there is ever really a reason to bake a cake). I made one box of cake mix into four mini cakes because I wanted to practice my piping skills.

I also made one batch of buttercream icing and filled the layers with homemade strawberry jam for extra sweetness because they needed more sugar.

I played around with various piping techniques, such as the rosette, shell border, star fill-in and zigzag pattern. My piping bags and tips should probably come out of hibernation a little more because my lettering and outlining was a little shaky. Some coloured sugar never hurts to "cover" things up though.

Then there's the pumpkin pie I made this weekend. Americans are celebrating their Thanksgiving right now and I am a little jealous. Canadians had ours about a month ago and it definitely didn't feel like the holiday season was beginning then. However, we do get to take advantage of Black Friday deals and shopping that has somehow become popular here.

There is still a lot of pumpkin on grocery store shelves though and they always make a great Christmas dessert too. I always use the recipe written inside the label of E.D Smith's Pure Pumpkin.

E.D Smith's Traditional Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 can Pure Pumpkin
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 unbaked homemade pie shell or frozen deep dish pie shell

Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Add pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt; str until well combined. Blend in milk. Pour filling in pie shell. Bake at 425F for 15 min. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue baking 30 to 35 min. longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool.

Makes 1 pie. To make 2 pies, use 1 can Pure Pumpkin and double all other ingredients.

For the crust I used this recipe for the "perfect pie crust" that I found on Pinterest. The recipe uses a butter and vegetable shortening mix instead of straight butter usually used in pie dough.

This was the first time I've used shortening in a pie crust. The dough was a little greasier than I'm used to, but I enjoyed the taste and it would also work well for a savoury pie.

I rolled the dough into the pie plate and crimped the edges with a fork. Then I filled the crust with the pumpkin mixture and cut out heart shapes from cookie cutters using the leftover dough.

If you love pie, there is still time to submit your link to the Love The Pie link-up. If you have a pie recipe, link it up with Tidy Mom. If you're a U.S resident you can enter to win a new Whirlpool Range, so come join Love the Pie with TidyMom sponsored by Whirlpool and enter to win a new Whirlpool Range.

You can also post your recipe on Twitter with the hashtag #LovethePie. Even if you can't enter--or technically enjoy American Thanksgiving--there are plenty of pie recipes and photos to check out.

Tasty Travels: Street Food in Singapore

2012-11-10T11:28:00.001-05:00

Singapore is one cool place. With a population of about 5 million, it is one of the wealthiest city-states in the world. And although it is one of the smallest countries with a land area of about 710 square km, it has an overwhelming financial wealth, as well as a wealth of culture, architecture, technology and history--and don't forget its prime geographical position. Established by Thomas Stamford Raffles in the 19th century as a trading post, the sea town soon attracted commercial and trade success from China, India, Indonesia, the Malay Peninsula and the Middle East as evident in its now four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

In Singapore you will find warm weather, clean streets, futuristic skyscrapers, modern necessities and a variety of cuisines and food delights at your fingertips. The residents love to shop, hang out at hawker centres and take in all sorts of entertainment. As Lonely Planet says, it's the "perfect pit stop to recover from the rough-and-tumble of the rest of Southeast Asia." The culture in Singapore is the perfect representation of a "melting pot."

Singapore was the first stop on our Asian adventure and although there were a lot of food highlights on the trip, it was my first love when it came to finding good food for good prices. Sometimes, you’re just drawn to places and you feel there's a reason you need to go there. I felt that way about Southeast Asia for some reason and Singapore was the perfect, relaxed place to start my journey.

There were so many neat things to do and places to see. Some highlights for me included Sentosa Island, The Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, Marina Bay, Orchard Road, Clarkes Quay and exploring the neat neighbourhood pockets of shopping, entertainment, food and atmosphere.

After about 15 hours flying from Toronto to Hong Kong and then 5 hours to Singapore, we finally arrived in Asia. We took the metro system from the airport to the hostel and when we came up from the subway platform, we were welcomed by the sights and sounds of Chinatown at nighttime:

For a second I thought we had emerged into a different world and I realized that yes, we were actually on the other side of the world. The hostel was cozy and the location couldn't have been better as it was surrounded by outdoor market stalls, temples, hawker centres and malls. I highly recommend 5footway.inn Project Chinatown found on Hostelworld.com.

For the first few days I had quite a bit of jetlag, so my appetite wasn't the greatest. Being in a plane for 20 hours will truly test the depths of your soul and strength. I didn't want to waste any travel time though, even though I learned after a few weeks that it's alright to take a few "rest days." For the first few days we took it easy by walking around, ducking into any mall we could for momentary relief from the heat and trying some recommended food spots. I don't know why you would ever cook for yourself in Singapore when endless options--usually cooked right in front of your eyes--are available anywhere and anytime, such as this enormous plate of chicken fried rice.

First off, let me introduce you to my good friend the "chilli crab;" it is not however, a kind friend to white shorts or your budget for that matter. First you pick out your own special friend from the collection:

The waitress actually brought around a bucket with a few live crabs in it for us to pick out which one we wanted. A note on buying chilli crabs: we paid $75 for the whole crab and it was definitely the most expensive meal we had in Southeast Asia, but it's one of those things you have to try. At least the beer was cheap.

This was the aftermath of the chilli crab consumption. You really can't be self conscious when you're constantly licking your fingers and wiping chilli sauce from your mouth.

As well as street-side restaurants and stalls, the infamous Hawker centres offer a variety of cuisines, including Chinese, Malay, Indian, Indonesian and much more. Singapore isn't known as the cheapest place in all of Southeast Asia, but most of the dishes we had were usually less than $5.

Maxwell Food Centre--one of the city's best hawker centres and right down the street from our hostel--has more than 100 stalls and is open 24 hours a day. It was also featured on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations." You don't argue with Bourdain as this sign pinned next to one of the stalls pointed out:

I went there! Like he says in the video, "if you love food, this might just be the best place on earth." There was something so simple about the dish of boiled chicken and white rice. The hawker centres are sweaty, people are pushy and good luck finding a table, but man, there's definitely something about the experience (and the signature "Chicken Rice"). After six weeks in Asia I had consumed more white rice than I could ever have imagined.

I don't normally like to go to the same food place twice while traveling, but we had to go back to the Maxwell Centre the next night to try another stall. This time we had duck over noodles that was a little too drenched in sauce for my liking, but with those prices you can't complain.

They have also redefined the food court over there. Like Bourdain says, "where in America the food court is the nexus of all things generic and awful, in Singapore, these open-to-the-street food centres, coffee shops and hawker centres offer a near limitless variety of Malay, Chinese and Indian dishes." Pictured below is a Chinese seafood soup served with white rice and a Korean bibimbap with various condiments; just an example of the variety of cuisines offered.

There are also limitless options when it comes to desserts. In the VivaCity food court after a trip to Sentosa Island, I had a snow cone-like concoctions with different flavours of ice syrup, creamed corn, condensed milk, red beans and jello. It was a strange and colourful dessert that somehow all worked together.

Singapore is a warm place. Actually, it's downright sweltering, especially in the summer months. So I appreciated the refreshing ice and jelly desserts as well. My favourite flavour combination that I found was lemongrass and aloe vera jelly. Somehow if I made these things at home they would seem strange, but here, it somehow works and its an appreciation of being creative with simple flavours and ingredients.

(Photo one: source; Photo two: source)

There are so many weird and wonderful things in Singapore that just seem so normal to everyone else. Maybe we take ourselves too seriously in North America. Where else in the world could food court and fast food be the best food around? And who mixes beans, jello and syrups together over ice?! Singapore is a mishmash of different cultures, styles and eras that could at first seem odd all smushed together on one island, but somehow that’s the charm of the place.

Cookbook Review: 300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes

2012-11-06T16:54:00.003-05:00

I have been making my own bread for awhile now. It started with making my own pizza dough and then progressed to learning about the "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" method. Their master recipe is basically fool-proof and involves making a simple dough then storing it in the fridge and ripping off pieces whenever you want to make a loaf. Of course we're always looking for simpler and faster ways of doing anything these days.

I got a bread machine for Christmas last year and have been looking for recipes to try. The bread machine is great: dump the ingredients into the machine, press a button and let it do the work. I didn't know it can get any easier than "bread in five minutes a day," but with a bread machine, it is almost astonishing the amount of work you don't have to do.

I got 300 Best Canadian Bread Machine Recipes in the mail recently from Robert Rose. The book--by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt--is THE comprehensive bread machine book full of recipes, instructions and techniques and everything you need to know about making bread in a machine.

I didn't realize there were that many variations of flour, water and yeast--300 in this book to be exact. There are all sorts of bread recipes, such as low-fat, international and gluten-free, and even recipes for pitas, bagels, pizza dough and dessert loaves. Each recipe even has measurements to make different size loaves, so you know exactly what you need to make a 1.5 or 2 lb loaf and how many servings each recipe yields.

My kitchen is starting to look like a little bit like a space station control panel. I recently got a Burr coffee grinder that takes up quite a bit of space, plus a coffee machine, espresso machine, kettle and toaster. The thing with appliances is you seem to accumulate them, but never get rid of them. The bread machine is quite large, so it doesn't actually fit in the kitchen. I have to plug it in on the floor when I want to make bread. The cat was quite curious about the machine and its constant whirring:

Remember Tim Horton's soup in a bread bowl? I think every Canadian does. For a brief period of time they offered chicken stew or chilli in a bread bowl and the country rejoiced at the concept that you could "eat the bowl too!" It really was a glorious moment for Canada.

These bread bowls are just as good although they are quite dense. Be prepared for a heavy meal, especially if you're filling them with chilli or a thick soup.

Soup-in-a-bread-bowl (pg. 306)

Makes 4 bowls

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp packed brown sugar

3 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour or bread flour

3/4 cup cracked wheat

1/2 cup buttermilk powder

1 1/4 tsp breach machine or instant yeast

Measure ingredients into baking pan. Insert pan into the oven chamber. Select Dough Cycle. Remove dough to a lightly floured surface. Cover with a large bowl and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 portions. Form into balls 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) in diameter and at least 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) high. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. When cool, cut out the center, leaving at least a 1-inch (2.5 cm) thickness of bread on the bottom and the sides. Fill with hot soup and serve.

I also made the Tomato Rosemary Ciabatta recipe (pg. 201) from the book. The recipe includes sun-dried tomatoes and dried rosemary for extra flavour.

The method was similar to the bread bowls. Pour the ingredients into the pan and set the bread machine to the dough cycle.

Then let the dough rise for 30-45 minutes and bake for 25-30 minutes. The recipe made enough dough for two ciabatta flatbreads.

Both recipes tasted great and didn't have too much of that "soda" or "yeast" taste for homemade bread. There are so many more recipes I want to try from this book, such as Greek-style pitas, parmesan rosemary bread sticks and maple banana flaxseed bread. I have a feeling the bread machine will be making an appearance and churning out the smell of freshly baked bread for awhile now.

Halloween Chocolate Bark with Halloween Candy

2012-10-31T11:34:00.002-04:00

Apparently I missed the boat on Halloween. I went to Bulk Barn on the weekend to stock up on Halloween treats and most of it was already on sale. The normal Halloween fare was pushed to the side and heavily discounted next to Christmas-coloured candies and treats.

On the way home from a concert last Saturday, I saw crowds of people wandering the streets dressed up in costumes of all sorts. According to my calendar, I'm celebrating Halloween THIS Saturday at a Halloween party, but it seems like it's almost a week too late. I suppose everyone is distracted this week by a certain storm. Many people have more on their mind right now than costumes and candy.

If you have to be stuck indoors, why not stock up on some sweet treats? Even if no one treks to your door this year, you can still enjoy these easy desserts that take less than 10 minutes to make and will satisfy your candy cravings.

I made some Holiday chocolate bark last Christmas using holiday-themed candies and treats. It's an excuse to buy bags of fun treats and melt them together. The problem is that you may want to snack on everything as you're making the bark.

You can also store it in the freezer and break off a piece when the mood strikes. With this gloomy, rainy weather, the mood for sweet treats and comfort food has definitely been passing through. Here's hoping all of this chocolate lasts until Saturday...

White Chocolate Bark (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients
1 cup white chocolate melting wafers
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped pretzels
1/4 cup candy corn
1/4 cup dried cranberries

They all kind of start out looking like pieces of art. Melt the chocolate wafers in a small saucepan with a teaspoon of oil. The oil makes the chocolate a little easier to spread when it's melted. Make sure to turn off the heat just as all of the chocolate has smoothed out, so as not to leave it on too long.

I usually find it's best to take off the heat right as the last few lumps are melting. You can add the rest of the ingredients straight into the saucepan and mix it all together or leave half to sprinkle on top--depends on your aesthetic choice.

"Butterfinger" Chocolate Bark (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients
2 cups milk chocolate melting wafers
1 tsp canola oil
1 cup candy corn
1/4 cup peanut butter

In a small bowl, melt the candy corn and peanut butter for about 30 seconds in the microwave. Melted candy corn does look kind of cool. In a small saucepan, add the melting wafers and oil and melt the chocolate wafers.

Spread about half of the melted chocolate onto the parchment paper. Let the layer set in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Once the layer has cooled, spread the peanut butter and candy corn mixture on top and repeat the cooling process.

Spread the remaining chocolate on top of the middle layer and let set in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

After about 20 minutes of freezer time they are ready to break apart. The measurements for the recipes aren't exact; just add a bit of this and that or make your own combinations of sweet and salty flavours.

Reeses Peanut Butter White Chocolate Bark (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1 cup white chocolate
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup Reese's Pieces, chopped

In a small bowl, melt the butter for about 20 seconds in the microwave then add the peanut butter and icing sugar. In a small saucepan, melt the white chocolate wafers. Pour half of the white chocolate onto parchment paper. Spread the peanut butter mixture on top of the white chocolate; it's alright if it swirls together.

Add the Reese's Pieces to the remaining white chocolate and pour it on top of the middle layer. I found the colours of the candies melted together somewhat in the white chocolate, so you can always add some on top afterwards to add more colour.

Since I was in such a baking mood, I also made these marshmallow rocky road squares from The Happy Baker cookbook. Are marshmallows considered a spooky treat?

Now to get my costume ready. Hint: the red wig is coming out again this year and I grabbed a few pieces of retro costume jewellery from the thrift store to wear with a red vintage-style dress. Any guesses as to the stylish lady I'll be dressing up as this year?

Soup Stock dishes out the goods in Toronto, Ontario

2012-10-24T15:03:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, about 40,000 hungry people showed up in Woodbine Park to try soups created by more than 200 local chefs and restaurants for Soup Stock. If it sounds amazing that's because it was. And it was all for a good cause. The one-day culinary festival was held to protest against the "mega-quarry," a proposed construction project that would affect about 2,300 acres of farmland outside of Toronto.

Riding the Queen Street streetcar to the event, I overheard a fellow passenger nicknaming it the "Soup Stock Express" because so many people were geared up with their bowls, blankets and bags. The event was "B.Y.O.B:" Bring Your Own Bowls (and spoons) although there were dishes and merchandise for sale. I loved seeing everyone's soup vessels from mason jars to thermoses to cups.

There were lots of fall-insprired soups with seasonal ingredients, such as squash, beets and carrots. Beet Borsch soup seemed a popular option, as were stews with beans and root vegetables. The ingredients--apparently about 12,000 pounds of them--were all donated by local farmers.

I got a map of the soup stations laid out in the park, but frankly it was overwhelming. There were so many delicious sounding soups from well-known restaurants that I wanted to try. This soup by Taboo Resort based out of Gravenhurst caught my eye frankly for its display and the fact that split pea soup is one of my favourite types of soup.

Next up was Mildred Temple's Kitchen with mulligatawny soup and Irish soda bread. Is it bad that I went straight for the stations that were serving bread along with their soup?

The mulligatawny had beautiful curry flavourings with some toasted curry leaves sprinkled on top. I have never had this type of soup blended and smooth before--the ones I have had previously have all been fairly chunky soups--but this was nice.

Urban Herbivore had sweet potato coconut soup with a squirt of siracha sauce on top. This was another nice blended soup that wasn't too rich or creamy.

They also served it with some crunchy breadsticks. The soup tasted similar to the mulligatawny with a little extra kick from the hot sauce.

The highlight of the event was probably getting soup dolled out by Susur Lee himself from his restaurant Lee & Bent. I'm such a Food Network fan girl. There were some other big names in attendance: Connie DeSousa, Dustin Gallagher, Carl Heinrich, Jamie Kennedy, Rob Rossi (I'm sensing a Food Network theme here) and more. CBC Host George Stroumboulopoulos also got up on stage to speak and introduce some great Canadian music that played while everyone slurped on their soups.

This soup was hot and sour with mushrooms, which I'm guessing is similar to the one he serves at Lee.

There was even dessert soup. I could tell by some reactions from it that the thought of pink soup was a little odd, but Leah's Bakery "dessert soup" of raspberry mousse with an oatcake hit the spot after all of those spicy soups.

Interesting, right? But I had to go back to get seconds of this one.

There were also a few free samples in the mix, like these crostinis from Petite Thuet, and definitely lots of eating, sitting and trying to juggle a bowl, camera, purse and bag while walking around.

The park was fairly spacious, so it wasn't too much of a hassle to navigate the lines and stations. There were a lot of spots to rest and recharge after so much soup eating and mingling.

I heard about last year's event in Woodstock, Ontario called "FoodStock," which saw about 28,000 people attend, so I was pleased to go this year. Foodies lead a strong fight and who doesn't love soup? This year the fundraising efforts went towards the David Suzuki Foundation and Canadian Chef's Congress. It was great once again seeing the local food community come together for a good cause and some good food.

Comfort Foods Revamped: "Hamburger Helper" and "Lemon Meringue Pie"

2012-10-15T10:48:00.001-04:00

The other day I was at a friend's house and she was eating Hamburger Helper. You know, that cheesy, meaty dinner mix that--like I learned about Kraft Dinner--is a good idea in theory, but is not so good for you.

I don't even want to know the list of preservatives, and not to mention the sodium, inside a box of Hamburger Helper; however, there was something about the smell that made me crave a big bowl of cheesy pasta. I like to think my cooking repertoire has expanded since my days of boxed, canned and frozen meals. I try to use fresh ingredients as much as I can, but I had a craving for comfort food and wanted to create my own version of the family classic.

There's something about the weather getting slightly colder and drearier that makes me want to dive into a plate of carbs with a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate and maybe a slice of something decadent for dessert. Am I right? This version of "Hamburger Helper" is made with whole wheat pasta, homemade tomato sauce and even some kale thrown in there for good measure.

"Hamburger Helper" (Low-fat, dairy-free alternative to the boxed mix)

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat macaroni
200 g lean ground beef or turkey (about 1/2 cup)
Tomato sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
1 can of tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 bunch kale, stems removed (about 1 cup)
White sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup milk (soy/almond milk for dairy-free)
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp nutritional yeast (substitute grated cheese for a dairy sauce)

Brown the ground beef until cooked through and drain any excess oil or fat from the pan.

For the tomato sauce, add the onions and garlic to a saucepan and saute for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and any additional water depending on how thick you want the sauce. Let simmer for about 30 minutes until the sauce thickens and add the kale.

Cook the pasta and drain. In a separate saucepan, make the white sauce: add a tbsp of olive oil, then the flour and let cook for a few minutes. Add the milk and whisk repeatedly for a few minutes until thickened. Add the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper.

Depending on how tomato-like or more creamy you want the sauce, add about a half of the tomato sauce portion to the white sauce. Freeze the rest of the tomato sauce for another meal (I always have some in the freezer for a quick pasta meal). Add the pasta and ground beef to the sauce mixture.

And then there's dessert. As soon as I come home the kettle is on and I am warming myself up with some tea and thinking about a snack, or dessert.

I recently tried the new lemon flavoured Activia yoghurt and thought it tasted exactly like lemon meringue pie. I also tried the President's Choice 0% Greek Yoghurt with lemon fruit on the bottom and enjoyed that it had an actual lemon swirl in the yoghurt, unlike the Activia version.

So I got to thinking that all the lemon yoghurt needed was a crust and it would taste exactly like pie without all of the calories of pie. It's not an exact replica, but it's a healthier lemon treat that can be frozen and eaten cold or consumed straight away.

"Lemon Meringue Pies" with Lemon Yoghurt (makes 6 mini pies)

Crust (Gluten-free)
1 cup almonds (or almond flour)
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp melted butter or margarine
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and salt

Filling
1 cup low-fat milk (can be soy or almond milk)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice (can also add grated peel of 1 lemon for more lemon flavour)
1/2 cup low-fat lemon yoghurt

In a food processor, pulse the almonds until they reach a flour-like consistency. In a large bowl, slightly melt the butter then add the remaining crust ingredients. Press the mixture firmly into a muffin pan. Bake for 15 minutes at 350F.

For the filling: In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cornstarch and sugar over heat. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and lemon yoghurt. Pour into the shells when they have cooled. Set the pies in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Sprinkle candied ginger, lemon peel or brown sugar on top for decoration.

So there you have it. A comfort-food inspired pasta dish and dessert without all of the guilt of their original versions. Now all you need to do is turn on the kettle, cuddle up under a blanket and find a good book, TV show or someone to snuggle with and you're all set for winter.

Healthy Fall Treats: Gluten-free Walnut Brownies

2012-10-10T09:11:00.001-04:00

It seems the "great pumpkin" has arrived. Although it is almost time to pick out your own orange friend, I'm not talking about the pumpkin that Linus longed to appear on Halloween night.

I mean the "great pumpkin" of the food blogging world: the endless recipes of pumpkin and fall-inspired desserts, my vast amount of bookmarks and "favourites" of pumpkin bread, cakes, desserts and even pastas (like this recipe) and the bursting to the brim of Google Readers, Pinterest boards and Delicious accounts everywhere with pumpkin everything. Check out these pumpkin spice donut holes dipped in white and milk chocolate I picked up from the Cupcake Diner the other weekend:

I made my own version as well. Apparently the trick to these donut holes was baking them in a mini-muffin pan. I tried making baked donuts awhile back and they did not turn out like this at all. The trick might have also been the buttery, brown sugar coating.

Because I needed a pumpkin dessert detox after all that, I decided on a healthy (healthier) treat for dessert the other night. There's nothing better than taking a solid baking recipe and substituting healthier ingredients to make it better for you. I admit, sometimes it doesn't work out. Sometimes you're expecting cake or cheesecake and your "healthy alternative" doesn't resemble the real thing in any way and it's downright disappointing. But sometimes you can surprise yourself...

The California Walnut Commission sent me a sample of their California walnuts and some recipes for "edible gifts" this holiday season. Although it's not quite time to stock up on holiday baking supplies, it's never to early to start thinking about gifts. And I'm always looking for an excuse to bake and pass on the goods to fellow "taste tasters," or gift them to myself I suppose.

This brownie recipe is easy on the stomach with no gluten or refined sugars. The walnuts are a nutritious addition and provide those good-for-you, heart-healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fats. According to the recipe, these brownies only have 194 calories per serving.

Fudgy Walnut Brownies (Gluten-free)
"Guaranteed to please any sweet tooth, this gluten-free brownie packs a nutritious punch in every tasty bite. The addition of dates and quinoa flour add the fudgy texture while significantly raising the bar for a scrumptious treat that's full of goodness."

(Recipe by California Walnut Commission, walnutinfo.com)
Ingredients:
1 cup dates, pitted
2 tsbp water
7 oz dark chocolate (good quality) chopped
6 tbsp butter, salted
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp quinoa flour
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the inside of a 9-inch square pan with foil and set aside.

In a food processor, place dates and and 2 tbsp of water and blend into a paste. Set aside.

In a medium sauce pan over low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring until smooth (not the healthiest part, but a little bit of butter won't kill you). Remove butter and chocolate from heat and mix in the date paste followed by one egg at a time until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, sift together the cocoa powder and quinoa flour and stir in the chocolate mixture. Mix in the walnuts and pour the mixture into prepared baking pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the brownies feel set in the centre. When ready, remove the brownies from the oven and allow to cool completely. Sift icing sugar over the top of the brownies.

This was my first time using quinoa flour. I suppose I could have ground some quinoa in the food processor and made my own, but I decided to buy a small bag. I didn't necessarily need the brownies gluten-free, but I wanted to test the exact recipe. However, I have tried gluten-free brownies from a boxed mix and these were just as good.

The chocolate I was using wasn't high quality dark--only melting milk chocolate chips--so they weren't as chocolate-y as they could have been. The brownies were a little on the crumbly side, but it might depend on how long you bake them. Next time I think I would only put 1/2 cup of walnuts in because I like brownies chewy rather than crunchy, but that's personal preference. For a break from the month of pumpkin craziness, try these chocolate treats for some sweet crunch.

Cookbook Review: Best of Bridge Slow Cooker Cookbook

2012-10-05T15:49:00.002-04:00

There is nothing old-fashioned about using a slow cooker; however, I think many outdated recipes involving cream-based soups and mounds of BBQ sauce have catapulted slow cooker recipes back to the old days. But think about it: a slow cooker is the perfect way for the modern woman on-the-go to make easy, nutritious meals. Yes, they can be nutritious with the right ingredients.

I recently got a slow cooker and have been looking for easy meals to turn on and let cook all day. There's nothing better than coming home to a wonderful smelling house with dinner warm and waiting. I was looking for healthier options and not any of those "cream soup" and "salty sauce" slow cooker favourites I often see on recipe searches.

I was excited when Robert Rose sent me a copy of "Best of Bridge: Slow Cooker Cookbook" from their new titles for fall 2012. Some of their latest titles include "300 Best Bread Machine Recipes," "500 Best Quinoa Recipes," and "250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu recipes." That's a lot of recipes.

The book--written by chef, food writer and stylist Sally Vaughan-Johnston--features some classic slow cooker recipes for stews, soups, pot roasts and chillies, but also some new, updated recipes you should definitely learn if you want to become a slow-cooker connoisseur.

Did you know you can make bread, desserts, puddings, salsas and stratas in a slow cooker? I didn't. Are you saying you can put mostly anything in there, turn on the button and leave it to work its magic? I'm beginning to like this cooking method of "chopping up a bunch of things and throwing them in a slow cooker." Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to take a glamourous photo of the process.

The first recipe I made from the book was Pork Vindaloo (pg. 184). I like curries, but I was looking for a lighter take on traditional curry flavours and I thought a vindaloo with its vinegar-based sauce would be a little easier to handle for those who can't handle too much heat, like me.

First I cooked the onions, garlic, ginger and some curry spices for about 5 minutes. The recipe said to use a "vindaloo or other hot indian curry paste," but I didn't have any so I used a selection of Indian spices.

Then I added the pork and stirred in the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar and a bay leaf.

I transfered everything to the slow cooker and cooked on low for about 5-6 hours.

I wouldn't say it was the most "curry-like" curry I've ever made (it seemed a little too tomato sauce-based for me and more like a ragu) but I enjoyed an alternative to the usual "coconut milk/cream/scathing hot death" curries. I realize now it could have been because I used dried curry spices instead of a curry paste and it didn't really achieve the same effect.

The next recipe I tried was Putanesca Pasta Sauce (pg. 250) also titled "the working girl's pasta sauce." I like it! I cooked up some ground beef, onions and garlic for a few minutes then transferred it to the slow cooker with the tomatoes and a touch of sugar.

Ok, it's not quite as easy as simply dumping the ingredients in the slow cooker. There is some preparation involved, but it's nothing back-breaking.

Then you add some green olives, black olives, capers and parsley after it's been cooking for a few hours. It's a little tangier and sweeter than most tomato sauces I've made, but it was a nice twist on my go-to sauce recipe. So what did I do with that sauce of mine?

I got some spaghetti squash and laid it down in a Corningware dish then poured the sauce over top and sprinkled some light mozzarella cheese and breadcrumbs on top; it's like a "pasta bake" without the pasta. Look at the slightly burnt cheese and sauce baked goodness. You don't need a can of condensed soup to make that. Plus it beats a can of plain old tomato sauce any day.

So stop "pinning" those slow cooker casserole recipes full of cheese, tacos and cream--you know the ones--and pick up a book with some recipes full of real food and ingredients, 200 recipes to be exact.

I can't wait to make the "Mushroom barley soup," "Java jive pot roast," (a pot roast with a subtle coffee flavour) "Chicken Santorini" and perhaps something to simmer away for those Thanksgiving leftovers.