My Kitchen | Tins

Here's a couple things I picked up for my kitchen this weekend. First off I broke down and bought a third bread tin. My recipe makes three loaves. I only have two loaf pans. Well I also have a glass one but I very highly do not recommend making bread in a glass pan, at least if you ever want it out again. Mom has offered me a couple of hers...but I couldn't wait anymore (although I still wouldn't mind a 4th). So here she is, I'll let you know how it turns out, it's a stainless steel tin and I got it at Cottonwood Kitchens in Nelson, one of my favourite stores.


Ooooh, aaaaah.


And next, I wanted a decorative tin to keep crackers in. I went back and forth between thrifting and buying a pretty new one but in the end thrifting is a) more fun b) cheaper and c) more eco-friendly. So I found this baby for 99 cents. I rather love it. It has a photo of Lake Louise on the top and the sides are circled with little illustrations for each province of Canada. Delightful. Anyone know anything about McGavin's Princess Fruit Cake? I'm curious when it would have been sold orginally.






I'm going to try and find a couple more tins. But that is it. I am not a tin collector. Do not give me tins. I repeat, no buying boxes of tins for Hanna at garage sales!

Happy Monday!

Hello all, hope you had a good weekend! I had to work Saturday but Sunday was a rare full day off and also our 6 year anniversary :) We spent some time in Nelson (bought a couple presents for my kitchen, I'll have to show you later) before heading over to Ainsworth Hotsprings for a soak and dinner. Ainsworth is a favourite spot of ours, it has a fun, natural horseshoe shaped cave adjoining the hotest pool and a very nice restaurant. We had mussels in some kind of cream sauce to start, then I had a rack of lamb with some sort of amazing sauce including juniper berries. I didn't know they were edible! A nice glass of Columbia Garden's Ge and creme brulee for desert. I loooove creme brulee. Mmmmmm....
People always think it's strange that we would rather have a really great dinner than presents, but we think of it as a shared memory. Seriously, we'll sit around a reminisce about our favourite meals. Doubtless one of the reasons our marriage is a happy one!

Anyway, back to real life today. It's homemade pizza night (pesto with sundried tomatoes, prosciutto, frozen spinach, mushrooms, goat feta and mozza) and here are some links I've come across lately for your reading pleasure:

Broth is beautiful - why you should make homemade broth
Put down that winter tomato! It was picked by a slave! - just in case you were enjoying your winter tomatoes...
Food Photography for Bloggers - some nice tips here
A big list of DIY recipes

Book Review | Whitewater Cooks

Whitewater Cooks is the cookbook put out by Shelly Adams who runs the Fresh Tracks Cafe at Whitewater ski hill near Nelson, BC. It includes many recipes from the cafe as well a few others she's come up with. This is one of my all time favourite cookbooks for three reasons.

3) It's really pretty, great inspiring photos, nice layout. Makes you want to just sit around and look at it.

2) The food? It's really really good. As in I actually cook more than one or two recipes out of it.

1) The best thing about this cookbook is that it's local. Everyone I know who loves to cook in the area has this cookbook. Or at least really wants it. We sit around and talk about the muffins. The veggie burgers are legendary. It's part of the local food culture, and I love that.

If you can get your hands on this baby, here are my favourite recipes:

- The Glory Bowl - It's a rice/tofu/salad thing. Best dressing every. My supper tonight.
- Tabbouleh and Chickpea Salad.
- Whitewater Veggie Burger. We had this for dinner last night. I couldn't believe how good they are. We were in awe. Better than beef, and I do love beef.
- Whitewater Marvellous Muffins. My copy falls open to this one. I especially love making them with dried cherry, dark chocolate and pecans...mmmmm
- Whitewater Granola Bars. Best bar ever. Chewy toasted deliciousness.

So go get it! Buy it local if you are lucky enough to be a Kootenian, but otherwise you can get it on amazon. It's also a great cookbook if you're vegetarian, it has meat recipes, but a lot of meatless ones as well.

She has a new book coming out tomorrow, so I'm on the watch for it!

Thoughts | Busy Lives vs. Slow Food

When I explain to people that I am making all my food from scratch (usually as I'm feeding them crackers or muffins. I'm a compulsive feeder...I'm channeling my Mennonite grandmother at an early age here.) they usually wonder how I make the time. Well the nice ones ask how I do it. Some people just say "Oh it must be nice to have time to bake your own bread!". This makes me craaaazy. I work full time, it's often 6 days a week. I do freelance illustration and graphic design at home. I don't just sit around cooking because I'm bored! But before I give you any time management things, here's two things you should know about me.

- Making good food is a priority for me. There is not a whole lot in my life that is more important to me than food. I love to eat it, and it is the fuel that makes my body run well. It makes my husband happy. When I end up working a ton I sometimes don't vacuum...or get to the laundry mat as soon as I'd like, but I do cook. It's just more important to me.

- I love to cook. Even when I'm tired, I just love to create food and eat it. I like the challenge. It's like being crafty/artistic...and it tastes good (99% of the time anyway).

Okay, so here's some tips:

- Meal plan. For me this helps a lot because I work funny hours. Sometimes I need a supper that I can make in 20 minutes. Sometimes I have all day. Sometimes I can prep in the morning. Often I make supper to take to work and leave Craig's in the fridge. You get the picture.

- When you have some free time, use it. If you know you have a day off (my days off are not the same every week) or a few hours at home, plan to bake your bread or roast a chicken or something else that will help you make it through to the next day off. Yes I often go a month or two without two days off in a row.

- Plan for leftovers. If you are making something that reheats well make 2 or 3 times what you need. I am all over left over stir fry (but I haaaate leftover pasta...uck) and I always make a ton. I serve us and at the same time put up to 4 servings in the fridge in containers. It's the same amount of work and you don't have to cook the next day. Ditto for pizza, steel cut oats...lots of things.

- Multi-task. I'm baking bread right now. I shower while I'm cooking steel cut oats. Most slow food in not labour intensive, you just need to kind of be hanging around.

- Have a few really fast meals tucked up your sleeve. There are meals that I can make in just a few minutes, with whole ingredients. I'll try and post some soon. Find a couple you like and keep the ingredients around for emergencies. My favourite right now is sausage and cabbage stir fry. Yum yum.

It's really just about being moderatly organize and just deciding that you're going to do it. Sometimes we are eating toast at 5:30 because supper just isn't happening until 8:00. But to us, real food is worth having to be flexible. I'm lucky to have a husband who is excellently supportive in my foodie endevours. :)

Do you guys have any tips on time management and speedy whole food cooking?

Omelettes for Everyone!

You can thank my adorable Sister in law for this link. Man, I want me some backyard chickens. If only I had a backyard.

Recipes | Seedy Crackers

One of the hardest things about cutting out processed foods is snack time. Granola bars and crackers were pretty much always in the cupboard until January. And while it might be healthier to just eat an apple...well sometimes you just want crackers! My favourite crackers are the Seed Celebration crackers from the Shoppers Organics line. So I decided to make something similar.

I started with the Parmesan Cream Crackers recipe from Bitten (you should watch the video where he makes these, it's very amusing). I made these once before using all-purpose flour. This time I used half AP flour and half WW pastry flour. They turned out really well, so next time I will use 100% WW pastry flour.



Ingredients:
1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons butter
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp poppyseeds
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup (plus maybe a bit more) cream

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 400. Get a cookie sheet ready and dust it with flour.

2) In food processor pulse flour, salt, cheese and seeds to combine. Add butter and pulse until it's crumbly. Add cream while running the machine at a low speed a bit at a time until it forms a ball.

3) Flour your counter and roll the dough out until it is very thin, 1/2 cm maybe.

4) Transfer to the baking sheet and score the dough into cracker sized rectangles.

5) Bake for about 10 minutes, until it's lightly browned. Let it cool and then snap apart into crakers.

6) Serve at room temperature or store in a sealed container or tin for a few days.



I also made a version with no seeds and Nostrala cheese. Mmmmmmm. We love us some crackers. This is a very quick and easy snack to make, and they keep decently well (as long as you don't eat them all the first day!

Pretties | Beautiful Bowls

My kitchen would like to be friends with these bowls :)

1) Set of Four Small and Colorful Prep Bowls by Lynn Cardwell


2) White Porcelain Bowl with Lattice Design by Isabella Bramson


3) Small Bowl - Teal and Brown Pottery by Pate Ceramics


4) Simple Yellow Bowl by Simply Daisy


5) Olive Star Rice Bowl by Lure Arts