Recipes | Breakfast Shake

This is what I have for breakfast most mornings. I am so not a morning person. In fact it's pretty useless to try and have a conversation with me if I've been awake for less than an hour. A fact my husband is slowly realizing (you know...it's only been six years...). So making or eating food that early? Crazy talk. My tummy isn't awake enough yet. Yet somehow...it's still hungry.

I lived off slimfast chocolate royal shakes for 5 years, by the way. Then I decided to stop eating processed food. Then I decided to stop eating bananas (because really? They're not from here. Also, I want them to not become extinct). And everyone knows fruit shakes need bananas, right? Wrong. I know there are a million and one ways to make shakes and that really no one needs a recipe, but this is what I do:

In my magic bullet cup I add:

Maybe a half cup of yogurt. Usually Island Farms Raspberry. It's my favourite so I always have it around. Vanilla is good too. It has to have some milkfat to it and it has to be sweetened.

A handful of frozen fruit. This brings me almost 3/4 of the way up the cup. I froze peaches, raspberries and strawberries this summer and just ran out (boo!). So I'm buying frozen canadian strawberries at the moment. The frozenness is key here. This is what makes it nice and cold and nice and thick. So you don't miss the banana.

Fill it up with milk. I just upgraded to 1%. Will it make me fat? Only time will tell.

That's it. No extra sugar. Sometimes I add a splash of vanilla.

Blend. Best enjoyed with a straw.

Also, I did this before I got the Magic Bullet. But I always over-measured and ended up with a lot of shake.

Inspirations | Eleni's NYC

Look at these sugar cookies by Eleni's NYC! I thought I was a half decent cookie decorator but obviously...there are levels I was unaware of.





(via Black*Eiffel)

Hi!

Welcome to my new blog! Cleverly disguised as an old blog by my moving posts from my other blog over. My food posts were threatening to take over my creative life blog. And my Twitter. And Facebook. Also I talk about food all day at work.

Clearly it was time to start a foodie blog.

My set-up is not the best for taking photos inside. In winter. At night. But so be it, you guys will just have to bear with me until more money/spring comes my way.

Blame Kait, she wanted to know how I live off root vegetables.

Pretties | Tea Towel Love?

The Storque on Etsy has a fun article right now featuring handmade tea towels. Here. Here's my favourites:

Linen Tea Towel by Jewelweeds:



White Filigree design on Unbleached Linen Tea Towel by FlowerPress


Brown Fiddlehead Towel by Lotta Helleberg


Cabin Fever Tea Towel by Karen Has Cabin Fever

Recipes | Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Here's my recipe for sandwich bread. I decided to start making my own sometime around Christmas and haven't bought bread since. I had some flops, but this version is working well and tastes great. I had some criteria for it:

- It had to be 100% whole wheat. A lot of sandwich bread recipes are half white. A lot of whole wheat bread flour is half white. I say no.

- It had to taste yummy. Obviously.

- It had to be moist and rise well. Many of my early attempts met the first two requirements but didn't rise much.

This is what I came up with. It's a variation of this recipe. I'm making this as detailed as possible, to give beginner bread makers confidence. I'll give you the how to first, and then explain it later. With footnotes. Eeeexcellent.

Ingredients:
3 cups warm water
2 packages or 4.4 tsp active dry yeast*
1/3 cup honey
6Tbs vital wheat gluten**
4 cups whole wheat flour***

3Tbs butter, melted (you can also use olive oil)
1/3 cup honey
1 tbs salt
3-5 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
1) Get a big bowl and add 3 cups of warm water. Not hot, you'll kill the yeast, feel it on your wrist. Add the yeast, 1/3 cup honey, 6 Tbsp of gluten and 4 cups of flour. Stir to combine. It will look something like this:



2) Cover it with a damp tea towel**** and let it rise in a warm place for about half an hour or until big and bubbly. My warm place is next to my radiator. You can also put it in the oven with the light on. If it's cold it'll take the yeast a longer time to get to work.


Big and bubbly:


3) Mix in the 3 tbsp melted butter 1/3 cup of honey and salt. Here's where it gets tricky if you've never worked with yeast. You need to add the right amount of flour. Start with 2 cups and start kneading it in. Keep adding flour a bit at a time as you go until it is still a bit moist but not too sticky. You will figure this out with a bit of practice. Some people turn the bread out onto a floured surface to knead. I don't know why. I just knead in the bowl. If you've never kneaded bread...I dunno, look it up on youtube? Pretty much you just keep pushing it around and folding it over. This might take...10 minutes? You will be done kneading when the bread feels smooth and elastic. So they say. You'll notice that it feels different.


Another way to tell is to take a bit of dough and stretch it into a square between your fingers. If you can make a little window transparent enough to see light through without the dough breaking, it's done. Try doing this with one hand and taking a picture with the other hand. I dare you.


4) Either wash your bowl or switch bowls at this point. Put a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl and grease it. Then put the dough in and give it a turn before flipping it over so the greased side is up. This helps prevent it getting a skin as it rises.


5) Cover with a warm, moist towel again and let it get back to rising. It rises until doubled. Or until you poke it with your finger and it the hole doesn't fill back in.


6) Divide into three equal parts. Take each part one at a time and throw it repeatedly onto the counter/table as hard as you can. This is good fun. And great for working out your anger issues. Oh, and for getting out air bubbles.

7) Preheat oven to 350.

8) Grease***** three loaf pans. Use steel. You'll hate yourself if you use glass. Trust me. Form three loafs. You kinda flatten the bread, then fold/roll the sides over to make a loaf shape. Pinch the bottom together and put it in the pan.



9)Cover and rise again, until the dough is about an inch over the top of the pan. If you over-rise at this point they can collapse in the oven.


10) Bake for 25-30 minutes until nice and brown. Also until the bread sounds hollow when you tap the bottom of the pan. I haven't mastered this. The hollow sound I mean, but that's what they say. (I hijaked a third to make cinnamon buns...there should be three loaves)


11) Turn the loafs out onto a cooling rack and wait until cool to slice. I always end up cutting the crusts off and eating them hot because I love them sooooo much. But if you wait it's easier to slice. Apparently cutting into it too early disrupts the loaf structure. So don't be like me (but it's soooo good).


12) Enjoy! I recommend pre-slicing and freezing two loafs as the shelf life is shorter than store bought bread. Because we didn't add any weird chemicals.


Footnotes:

* I buy my yeast in a jar and keep it in the freezer so that it stays good for longer.

** Vital wheat gluten is extra protein. Whole wheat flour has less protein than white. This is why it doesn't rise as well. The gluten helps the yeast along and makes it rise better. I get an inch more rise at least with the gluten and a fluffier texture. Cheating? Kind of. But so is yeast if you think about it. I buy mine at the health food store and keep it in the fridge. Add 2 Tbsp per loaf. My mom swears by using vinegar, by the way. I can't make it work...I've heard that it works better with sugar and I prefer honey.

*** Your flour is very important. As in, don't buy a huge bag until you know it works for you. It has to do with the grind, and the type of wheat and a bunch of things. Here is what I use and love. It's what my mom and gramma both swear by, and they are more knowledgeable than me by far in these matters. We get it from Cosco.


**** You should have a tea towel just for bread, cause it can get oil stained and such. Some people swear by potato sacks (which you can buy at Canadian tire...you don't need to get potatoes :P) and some people use plastic wrap. But I say boooo to plastic.

***** You can use Pam. But I think Pam is for weenies. It's only fat free if you spray for 1/3 of a second? And has propellant? Aerosol? Use olive oil with a pastry brush. Barely takes any. Or use your butter wrapper. That's what it's for.

That's all! (and maybe too much, but what can you do?) My main recommendation is not to be scared, just give it a go. If you fail...well...try to eat it while it's still warm. Even doorstop worthy bread is good with butter when it's still warm. Let me know if you try it!

Friday Night Pizza

As you may have figured out by now. I'm big on food, and I'm big on making it from scratch. I've especially been focusing on perfecting bread recipes lately. I'll share my whole wheat sandwich bread recipe with you later, but tonight is Friday. And Friday night at my house is Pizza Night.

We love pizza. Craig would eat it everyday if I let him. When I started doing Pizza Night I often bought shells or used pita's just to save time. I started doing real dough in October sometime and while it was yummier, it took a long time. Like, two three hours to get to dinner, and that doesn't work every Friday.

Last week I found the perfect solution. I've been using the Homemade Thin Crust Pizza recipe from The Kitchn. I love this crust, it's really fast because it doesn't need to rise, and it's fairly foolproof. You don't need to understand yeast breads to pull it off. Most importantly it's super yummy and doesn't get soggy. Easy pieces to hold in your hand.

Tonight we had pizza with homemade pesto sauce, sundried tomatoes (courtesy of my mom), little panfried chicken bits, frozen spinach and farmer's cheese. I don't know exactly what farmer's cheese is, but it's replaced mozza as my favourite pizza cheese.

I usually whip up the crusts while Craig prepares all the toppings. It's a fun night in the kitchen. And now we must do dishes.

Inspired? Go forth! Make pizzas!

Thoughts | Missing the garden...

Missing the sunshine. Missing summer. Fall was amazing this year but winter...it's getting me down.

Anyway, I'm going to ramble about food for a bit. If you wonder why I'm so obsessed about local food, first read Animal Vegetable Miracle, then read In Defense of Food...and then google Monsanto. That's about all you need to know. Other than that I love food. A lot.

First off, my New Years resolution of eating Canadian produce only is going quite well (I know I know, it's only been 2 weeks...). Partly because as it turns out, I like all those vegetables. Wonder what's available in BC this winter?

- Squashes (and I could use some advice on butternut, because it always turns out dry for me...but I loooove spaghetti squash)
- Carrot, parsnips, beets, potatoes. Amazing roast veggie mix, let me tell you.
- Green leaf lettuce (greenhouse grown), sprouts. Makes a good salad, especially with a bit of feta crumbled on top.
- Cabbage. Good in stir fries (with carrots and parsnips :P). Fried up with sausage. Yep.
- Apples. I happily don't tire of apples.
- Mushrooms.

I miss bell peppers, but that's about it. Everything else tastes nasty this time of year anyone, so why bother?

Anyone think of something I didn't list? I'm buying American garlic and shallots, because I haven't found Canadian ones. I'd like to grow some...if I ever live in one place long enough. Oh to have a house and a garden and a root cellar... I'm counting veggies and fruits frozen in Canada, although I haven't bought any yet, because I still have my own.

Which brings me to my next update. How my food stored from the garden this summer is holding up:

I more than one years worth of:
-Pickles, asparagus and beet. I need to stop hording them and eat them more! But seriously I have tons.
-Pasta sauce. I'm mostly using it for pizza and that doesn't use a ton at a time. Next time I'm going to use smaller jars too.

I made just enough of (I think...):
- Jam, I made a lot and we're eating a lot. We love jam.
- Canned fruit. Like the pickles I need to stop hoarding so much. I'm just used to stealing from my mom, so I forget that I have lots.
- Frozen summer squash. I did quite a bit, and mostly use it for stir fry.
- Pesto. I have enough...I would eat more though...
- Frozen herbs. Although I'd like more dill...

Next year I'll do more of:
- Frozen fruit. I'm almost out. I've been having breakfast shakes pretty regularly. I need to double or triple the amount of fruit I do next year if I want to eat it all winter. And I do, it's soooo yummy and a good way to get your vitamins all winter.
- Asparagus, but I knew that, asparagus season ran away on my last year and I've been rationing.
- Ratatouille. I can't tell you how much I love this stuff. With sausage. I need to post the recipe. I only have one meal left of it and that makes me soooo sad.

And I'll run out of soup probably, but I can do more this winter.

What I didn't do and want to next year:
- Frozen green beans. I want some.
- Canned veggie broth. I made some asparagus broth, and it's great. I want to make a big batch of general veggie broth next year, so much cheaper and happier than buying organic chicken broth.
- Dried fruits and veggies and herbs. Stealing my parent's dehydrator for a bit if I live nearby.
- Apple juice. I just wanted juice when I was sick. And most juice gives me heartburn anyway. I miss home squished apple juice.
- More kinds of pickles...haha because I don't have any? But seriously, pickles are so fun! I want to do green beans...and maybe cauliflower.
- Maybe freeze some spinach. And Kale.

So how about you guys? Any of you do some preserving this year? How's it holding out? This local/sustainable eating thing would be a lot less fun without ratatouille and frozen raspberries, I'll tell you that!

I could talk about food all day long...but it's time to go eat!