Food & Fiction

Happy New Year!

For a Reems, reading is as important as eating. As we head into January, that time of year when Christmas becomes a distant memory and evenings are spent curled up on the couch, I want to pass on some of my favourite titles with food themes-

1) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- I'll have to start off with one of my favourite childhood books. This was a title that frequently wound up on my stack of library picture books. I reminisced about it to Mike, and he suprised me with a copy. If you have kids, or you wish that hamburgers fell from the sky, this is the book for you.

2) Five Quarters of the Orange - the author, Joanne Harris, is a kindred soul - most of her books heavily feature food. Chocolate is also one of her books .

3) Anne of Green Gables - Raspberry cordial anyone?

4) 100 Mile Diet- This book really motivated me to make an effort to eat food closer to home (something that I am finding much easier in BC than Alberta!). This book is written by a couple who tell their tale in alternating chapters. I enjoyed reading the male and female perspectives and came away from the book both inspired, and with a small crush on one of the authors.

4) The Sunday Philosophers' Club It was a toss up which Alexander Mccall-Smith series I would include in this list. I am a fan of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and the promotion of a Woman of "Traditional Build." However, the Sunday Philosophers Club wins for tempting my taste buds beyond bush tea.

5) Brilliant by Marne Davis Kellog - Pure chick-lit with food descriptions that made me drool.

6) Like Water for Chocolate - Hmmm, how can I describe this book? Hispanic food erotica?

So there are some suggestions. Any for me?

Holiday Strategies

Admittedly, over Christmas I eat treats, a lot of treats. At a certain point I become saturated, stuffed to the top with sugar, chocolate, butter, and other terribly wonderful substances. Dinner is a slapdash affair, left over dip, sliced deli meat, a hunk of stollen. I begin to mourn veggies, tofu, and fruit smoothies, for they have been squeezed out, replaced by the pre-Christmas pickings.
Right now, a pile, no, a small mountain (think Finlayson, not Baker) of cookies rests on my counter, offerings for the weekend’s festivities. But I am not tempted. I, the ultimate sweet-tooth, ate a mere half of a cookie, and a good cookie at that, and my head spun. I’m finished on cookies, maybe forever, more likely until tomorrow.
This year, thank goodness, I thought in advance. Anticipating the ambush of sweetness, I checked out my new favourite veggie cookbook from the library, Fresh at Home, which was written by the owner of Fresh restaurants in Toronto. Healthy rice bowls, salads, and smoothies populate this book. Thus I am armed and ready. During the holiday bonanza, I like to prepare lighter meals, fresh meals. For instance, yesterday’s dinner consisted of warm bread (prepared by yours truly), soup (oh, me again), and salad (naturally). Soup in the fridge is a must. Throw some in a pot on the stove and dinner is ready in a matter of minutes. And trust me, it should be filling enough after the Friday afternoon staff treat-fest in the break room, the box of gratitude chocolates left on the counter, and the mocha that accompanied your stampede through the mall before heading home.
Typically, I look in the fridge before deciding what soup to make. Yesterday I looked on the fridge, at the pumpkin which has been loitering there for the past couple weeks. With a sweet potato on the counter, I was ready to liquefy.

This soup is really quite nice, with a smooth, sweet flavour, compliments of the sweet potato and a little maple syrup. In addition, roasting the veggie before tossing them in the pot brings out their best.

Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Toss together the following:
1 small sweet, or pie, pumpkin skinned and cubed (think bite-sized)
1 large sweet potato skinned and cubed
1 TBP olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP fresh rosemary, minced
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Roast on a large cookie sheet in a 350 oven for about 45 minutes, or until the veggies are tender and roasted. Be sure to mix the veggies a couple of times during the roasting to ensure that the cook evenly.

When the veggies are nearly done, in a large pot use a little olive oil to sauté:
One medium onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, diced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp turmeric

When the onions soften, remove half from the pot and place in a food processor. Add half of the pumpkin/sweet potato mixture and a tiny splash of water. Puree until smooth. Now, put the puree and the remaining pumpkin/sweet potato mixture in the pot and add:
2 cups veggie stock (I use a good-quality veggie cube. If you make stock, even better.)
1 cup water
2 tsp maple syrup
1 TBSP fresh rosemary, minced

If the soup seems thin, don’t worry it will thicken as it cooks. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

Now, in the oven or a frying pan cook:
2 good quality sausages (they should be raw when you buy them)

Chop the sausage and add it to the soup. Let the soup simmer for at least 5 minutes with the addition of the sausages. Adjust seasoning by adding more salt and pepper if needed. Also, add water if the soup has become too thick. You are ready to serve!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas..

I've been hitting the flour. My kitchen is as white as the ground outside (mostly due to little white hand prints decorating my pantry). I've done it - I have attempted the Gevulde Speculaas - I use the work attempted, because while they taste amazing (judging purely from the rate they are flying out of the cookie container), this was a first attempt. I know that I have stressed and stressed some more about the importance of a slight under-bake if you want a really moist square- one with a bit of chewy "melting-in-you-mouth-ness." Well, I baked the speculaas perfectly, they taste super, but if I am being really critical, and let's face it - when it comes to food I have a high bar, I would say 2 minutes less baking time would have been the ultimate in perfection. However, this will have to wait until next year because my waistline can only handle so much.

I would like to brag, because I think I deserve to, that I made the almond paste filling from scratch. I won't say it's easy - it would be if you have a food processor, but alas I do not. Scraping the blades of my blender repeatedly, while making almond paste, was one of the first times I have really wanted a food processor. Please, if you own one please let me know which model you have and if it's worth owning it - because generally I like to stir; and I find chopping most vegetables, aside from onions, therapeutic; and I hate washing dishes; and up until renting a house with more cupboard space than I know what to do with, I have begrudged the space that unused appliances, and even used appliances, have occupied (Because of this Mike's rarely used quesadilla maker was a casualty of our move); and if you recall from my last post I am a one-bowl wonder. But I am derailing, suffice to say that almond paste can be made in a blender - just tack on a few extra minutes of pulsing and scraping to your efforts.

Yes, this is another "back-to-the-Dutch-roots" recipe. As I get older I get more nostalgic. These are one of Oma Reems' specialties. Soft and spicy, with gingerbready goodness, and an almond filling that marzipan lovers like myself go crazy over. When I go to Victoria I plan to get her authentic recipe - however, for those Reemses out there, you can empathize that attempting to get a recipe over the phone from Oma, with a hearing aid that may or may not be turned on- is a feat that would try even the most patient. I thought that I would stick to the internet this round and next year attempt the Reems method. I found a great Dutch food forum and combined two posts to come up with this recipe- Gevulde Speculaas

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
3 cups flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/s tsp baking soda

Combine the above ingredients. Divide dough in half - roll or pat one half into a 9 by 13 pan.

Spread with almond paste - Go ahead and use store bought. If you want to make your own here is what I did (the amounts of ingredients are approximate, sorry but I was in my "chuck ingredients in until it looks right" kind of mode -

Take about 3 cups of blanched almonds. Grind in a blender or food processor. Into your blender or processor add an egg, 1 tsp of almond extract, a few tablespoons of water, 1/2 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of sugar. Add more sugar to taste if you like. Voila.

Finally, roll out the second half of the dough and put on top of the filling. I had to patch mine up, but once I covered it with flaked almonds you couldn't tell. Next time I will make this I will brush with some egg and then put almonds on top - this time round at least a third of my almonds came off.

Bake at 350 for 30 min (although recalling my rant have a peek in your oven at 25 minutes to see if they are ready). Take out when the dough looks SLIGHTLY underbaked. It will harden up on it's own. Though if you like a drier crumb I would bake for 35 minutes.

Merry Christmas and stay warm!!!

It snowed! (What does ‘it’ determine? The sky, the clouds, the weather, mother nature, God, the world? I’ve never been sure.) About five centimeters of white clotted our driveways and roads. Yeah! For once Victoria felt Canadian. Caleb and I stepped out into the world first thing. We walked a couple kilometers to a palm tree that Caleb photographed in the snow. I photographed Caleb photographing. Also, I lured him into the grocery store on the return trip. After all, on a snow day, what is there to do besides play outside and bake sugar cookies? I toted home a knapsack full of veggies and fruits and Caleb carried a bag of flour slung over one shoulder. With only two weeks to Christmas, snow on the ground, and sugar cookies dancing in my head, I knew life was perfect. Or nearly perfect, the wind was bitingly cold and the skin on my hands and face was red and chapped. I spent most of the day singing along to Christmas songs (we’ve got a whole cache of new Christmas records), mixing, rolling, and cutting dough, and crafting Christmas cards. Two varieties of sugar cookies sprang forth from my laborious activity: one, a lime drop sugar cookie, the other, a rolled sugar cookie. The second, the rolled cookie, is a play on the original sugar cookies, which, while sweet and tasty, strikes me as a tad dull, the bland face of a too beautiful model. So I jazzed, spiced and changed to develop a not-so traditional sugar cookie that includes the likes of buckwheat flour, cardamom spice, and slivered almonds. I hope you tear into these as quickly as we did! (I just ate one for breakfast).

A Not-So Traditional Sugar Cookie

Beat together:
¼ cup butter
1 TBSP olive oil
¾ cup brown sugar

Beat in:
1 TBSP apple sauce
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla

In another bowl, mix together:
1 and 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until almost combined.
Then, Add:
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup slivered or flaked almonds

Divide into dough in two and shape into disks. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least I hour. Roll dough between two pieces of wax paper. Do one disk as a time, leaving the other in the fridge. Make sure to roll the dough out evenly, about ¼” thick. Cut out shapes with your favourite cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of your cookies. Larger cookies will take slightly longer. The cookies will firm up after they’ve cooled a bit. I like soft chewy cookies, and I think this recipe tastes better as such, so I prefer a shorter baking time.

Birthday Boterkoek

In Calgary Mike first began embracing the Dutch culture (well, I guess since I am somewhat Dutch I suppose it could be argued that this embracing began a little earlier..); he was excited to find a community of people who went to church, lived their faith, yet still enjoyed a pint on a Friday night. His Sottish Campbell ancestors rejoiced in their graves when he discovered John Calvin, to the extent that we now have the complete set of Calvin's commentaries gathering dust on our book shelf.

Since moving to Chilliwack, Mike's embracing of all things Dutch continues with his exploration of Dutch food. What's not to love? Cheese, bread, and baking loaded with butter. Mike has become a regular at the Dutch store, and is working his way through the long list of goudas.

So, to celebrate his birthday tomorrow I have baked his favourite Dutch delicacy -boterkoek. This is my first time attempting this feat and I am excited to report that it may be the easiest thing, albeit somewhat artery clogging, to bake. I did knock the sugar content down slightly, and found the recipe with the least amount of butter (courtesy of the Chilliwack YMCA cookbook, thanks Hanna).

So here it is-

Boterkoek

1) Cream 2/3 cup butter with 2/3 cup sugar
2) Add 1 beaten egg and 11/2 tsp almond extract
3) Mix in 11/2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
4) Press dough into a pie plate or cake pan. If desired brush with egg (1 tsp reserved from the beaten egg)
5) Decorate with almonds (if you are being festive)
6) Bake at 350 degrees for about 350, or until brown on top.

So, that's it - another addition to Mike's adopted heritage - now if he can just get into a Dutch passion for cleaning!

Simple Sweets

Desserts are truly one of my favourite things. I’ll leave the raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens to Julie Andrews. Pass me the lemon cheesecake. Dessert cookbooks are another one of my favourite things. You’ll notice in a previous post that Haley gloats upon obtaining a copy of Nigella Lawson’s new Christmas cookbook. She plans to curl up on a couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a book full of Nigella and do some serious reading, naturally, one of her favourite things. I would be ridiculously jealous, but I too have Nigella on hold at the library. Some of my favourite dessert cookbooks of late include the Moosewook Restaurant’s book of desserts (these people are wonderful), Perfect Light Desserts (this one is sooo good! Not full of boring, icky light desserts, but really tasty creations), and my ancient copy of The Joy of Cooking (this book feels a lot like a mother, or grandmother, laying all the kitchen tips and secrets bare).

Caleb’s birthday falls in the second week of December, giving me a big fat wonderful excuse to drool over dessert recipes. Perfect. After an exhaustive search I decided upon a Joy of Cooking special: lemon cheesecake made with cottage cheese. This appealed to my low fat sensibilities. I worked out a number of ways to further reduce the fat and I was off, flying high before I fell. Because I reduced the fat in the cake it needed a shorter baking time. I realized this after I pulled it from the oven. Boohoo. While the dessert was tasty, it was decidedly dry, as over-baked cheesecakes tend to be, particularly low-fat over baked cheese cake. Yet I’m still excited, and hopeful. With a little tinkering this could prove to be my work-horse of cheesecakes. Well I couldn’t serve a dried out cake at the birthday go time. What to do? I had no time during the day to prepare another dessert, as Caleb and I had a list of plans. A normal, less obsessive person would probably just pick up a cake from the store or bakery. But I am obsessive. I unearthed my recipe, or rather, the Moosewood Collective’s recipe, for Six Minute Cake. As Caleb’s family members arrived for the birthday dinner, and I sprinkled the coarse salt on the foccacia, dropped the meatballs in the sauce, panicked about a salad, I used my third free hand to whip up a six minute cake. I swear I did it in five. I served this simple chocolate cake warm from the oven with a dollop of mocha whipped cream. It was a hit.

What a reminder that food should be simple and fun. It should taste good. Tiered cakes and frothy egg whites have their place but most often a slice of something hot and chocolate and a little sweet beside it is all a girl needs.

Six Minute Chocolate Cake

Sift the following ingredients directly into a an 8 inch square or 9 inch round baking pan:

1 ½ cups white flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar

In a measuring cup, measure and mix together:
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or coffee
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix with a fork or whisk.

When the batter is smooth add 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar.

Stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350. Let the cake cool in the pan on rack. You can cut the slices directly from the pan to serve.

The Moosewood Collective suggests that you let the cake cool and then refrigerate it for 30 minutes but I prefer the cake warm.

Mocha Whipped Cream

Combine and whip until stiff:
1 TBSP instant coffee
1 cup whipping cream
¼ cup icing sugar
1 TBSP cocoa powder

On a Veggie Note

Before I answer the bake-off call…

Haley, my co-blogger, wants cookie recipes. She berated me for slacking on the blog and hording food secrets. While I have not been writing I have been baking, and cooking, and, most importantly, eating. I have loads, mounds, bowlfuls, of cookie recipes. Cookies and all doughs sweet are my weakness, but before I web publish my Christmas treats, I will start the holidays on a veggie note. It is possible. Here is a gem I revised from the Rebar Cookbook: Mushroom Cashew Burgers. The Rebar recipe, Mushroom Pecan Burgers, provides the template for my recipe. I’ve adjusted the ingredients and the spices.

Mushroom Cashew Burgers

In some olive oils, saute:

1 red diced onion

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp chili pepper

Add:
4 cloves garlic, mined

1 1inch thumb ginger, minced

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Saute until the mushrooms begin to release their juices and the pan begins to dry out.

Pour in:
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Continue to cook until the liquid evaporates. Take the mushrooms off the stove top and let them cool in a bowl.

Add:

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice

1 ½ cups grated carrot

Mulch the mixture in the food processor.

Return mixture to bowl and add:

1 cup cashews, roasted and mulched in the food processor (or however you wish to grind them)

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

½ tsp cracked pepper

½ tsp ginger (powdered)

1 tsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Mix and season to taste (you may add salt, pepper, cayenne, ginger, etc). Shape into patties and saute in your favourite skillet.

Cookbooks and Bake-offs

This is what I just picked up from my holds at the library. A beautiful crisp new copy. I am pumped to cozy up on my couch, book on lap, steaming hot chocolate in hand. Ahhhh.

I have a confession - I love to read about food. Read about it and look at pretty pictures. Does all this cookbook and blog reading translate into actual cooking? Sometimes..

On another note I am pumped to report that Reems is being pitted against Reems in the chocolate chip square challenge- here is R1's comment from yesterday-

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is crazy. I just logged on to see your squares. Would you believe I am planning to attempt the chocolate chip squares??? The bake off was set for tonight! Yikes. We're so alike.

This may get messy. Stay tuned.

Attempting the Chocolate Chip Square

Growing up chocolate chip squares were a Reems' household staple. R1 and I were recently reminiscing about the "original square." In the late 80s, before Joan discovered such terms as "low fat" and "fiber," these squares were everything you could want in a recess snack - butter and sugar, combined with chocolate? Almost good as everyone else's oreos (kids with moms or dads who bake never know how good they have it - who wants homemade cookies when you could be eating a fruit rollup?)

As the years progressed the squares became slightly more, well, healthy, as the amount of butter decreased and the amount of oatmeal inversely increased. Before you accuse me of being overly critical of a working mother of four who still managed to produce a never ceasing flow of baked goods and nutritious meals, I do want to express some gratitude for having been instilled with the value of healthy eating and active living. That said, I set out to replicate the pre-oatmeal-low-fat-square of my memory while making it slightly healthier than the original.

Now according to my R2 I haven't quite nailed the original square. However, judging by the amount of these that I have been baking lately I have come up with a formula that is working. The beauty of squares, as opposed to cookies is that they are quick and easy. You can mix up a batch while you are making dinner. No fiddily little balls, no endless batches. The key to this square is your baking time. Please use the baking time as a guideline and watch these like a hawk the first time you bake them. All ovens are different and what these babies need is to be under-baked. Take them out when the middle of your pan is still doughy. They will firm up while cooling. If you leave them in too long don't blame me.

Chocolate Chip Squares

Cream together:

1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup brown sugar

Add and mix:

2 eggs
generous teaspoon vanilla

Next Add:
Note: I am a one bowl baker. My method? Measure all of the dry ingredients on top of the wet ones, and then give the dry ingredients on top a good stir and then stir the whole mixture together.
21/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

You may need to use your hands to combine the dough. If it is really dry you can add a scant tablespoon of water but be careful not to overdo it.

Press the mixture into a small cookie sheet or a 9 by 13 inch pan (the cookie sheet will produce a skinnier square and therefore requires a slightly shorter baking time).

Bake at 350 degrees for aproximately 15 minutes for a 9 by 13, 12 minutes for a cookie sheet. Start peeking into the oven at 10 minutes. UNDERBAKE!!!

Let cool for about 15 minutes and then cut into squares. Try not to eat all of them while you do this.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Christmas is coming - it's that pre-holiday time of year when I like to leaf through cookbooks and magazines, dreaming about Christmas cookies.. particularly those that require copious amounts of butter and sugar. This is the time when healthy eating is pushed aside. When shortbread and fudge take centre stage. However, for the amount of time I spend looking at recipes, my actual baking output is pretty limited. I tend to make a few batches of biscotti and some sort of square. This year I am thinking of giving Speculaas a go. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Today I was baking for the newest addition to the Reems clan - Tommy Harvey. I needed something to withstand the long journey from the 'Wack to Victoria. Those BC ferries are a rough ride. Biscotti it is.

Biscotti, is a bit of a cheat - hardly any fat and definitely pushing the envelope of a sugary concoction. However, having been on the receiving and giving end of a batch of biscotti at Christmas time I can vouch for the coziness of a cup of hot something, and a nibble of biscotti goodness.

Making biscotti seems a bit involved when you first glance at a recipe. While it takes awhile because of the double baking required, it is actually ridiculously easy (our little secret). My go-to One Smart Cookie is still packed in my garage. My favourite biscotti recipe is still cranberry-almond with white chocolate. However, lacking my favourite recipe, and the requisite white chocolate Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Hazlenut Biscotti fit the bill.

I'll let you link to the recipe. I did a few tweaks. I didn't have hazlenuts so used almonds - I didn't toast them either, I just did a rough chop on a cup of natural almonds; I used one cup of sugar, instead of 1 1/3; I only had 2 eggs left so I added 1/3 cup leftover coffee (you could use water), and 2 T vegetable oil.

Even with my tinkering they turned out beautifully. To dress them up if you are giving them as gifts, spread or drizzle with some melted white chocolate.

Finally, grab a book and your cup of coffee. Ahhh, biscotti time!

Welcome to world Tommy!

Lovin' Lunch..

I love lunch. I used to say breakfast was my favourite meal, but I was doing lunch a disservice. The joy of lunch is that you can make breakfast-like meals at a more leisurely pace - I find that first thing in the morning Finn, and admittedly, myself, just want our breakfast asap. The other great thing about lunch (and I have thought of many), is that it doesn't have the same planning or pressure that dinner has. Dinner requires a lot more thought and effort. For the minimal time and effort investment, lunch always rocks. Load up the carbs and cheese, and you've got yourself a meal.

Lunch for me is frequently a guilty pleasure. There is something about spending way too much time making an awe-inspiring sandwich, or a mid-day egg fry up, just for oneself, that feels well, overly indulgent. Today was such a day. Our pictures still aren't downloading so I'll have to tell you about my and Finn's lovely breakfast-for-lunch.

Whole wheat dutch pancakes and caramelized bananas. Now, in the rest of the world dutch pancakes are crepes. In the land of the Dutch, pancakes are a big deal; Reems' have been known to pound back dutch pancake after dutch pancake at Oma's and Grandma's houses. No Aunt Jemima in sight. A dutch pancake demands Rogers Syrup. Nice and thick and sickly sweet - I love the stuff.

How to replicate?

Combine-
2 eggs
1 cup flour (I used whole wheat to assuage that niggling guilty feeling that pancakes may not be the healthiest option - in my parenting defence Finn doesn't get any syrup on his).
milk - about 1 cup

Add enough milk to make a runny consistency- this is a judgement call. The batter should be quite liquid. When you put a scoop into the pan it should swirl around quickly.

Using a soup ladle put about a quarter cup into a smallish non-stick pan that has been preheated to nice and hot, and coated with oil, butter, or non-stick spray. Tilt the pan until you have a nice round crepe.

Now don't go anywhere because these babies cook quickly. It usually takes me one pancake to get into my groove - they take about 30 seconds and then require a flip. I like to have two pans going at once to double my production time. You can put a pie plate in a warm oven and just add to your stack. But look out, these babies go quickly.

Caramelized banana slices - Totally unnecessary, but oh so good. I used my silicon spatula to put a light layer of butter into a hot pan. I sprinkled about 2 teaspoons of sugar on the pan which quickly dissolved into a lovely caramel and then in went the sliced bananas. Stir around for a minute or so and yum.

Now assembly time. Put some bananas in the middle, drizzle with some rogers syrup, and if you are lucky enough to have some whipping cream kicking around in your fridge from the apple cake you made two days ago (lucky me, lucky Finn), put a nice dollop of that on top. Now roll up your pancake by sticking the tong of your fork in the edge and roll (This takes a bit of practice and many years of eating these at your Oma's house. If you don't have a Oma you may never really get the hang of it). I really need to get this camera problem figured out. These pancakes were a sight to behold.

Bingeing

Not that I recommend it (bingeing, that is), but after spending two months on the road my kitchen is a haven and my stove my best friend. Cookies are the outcome of this sweet sweet union. It's a completely natural and beautiful act. Although, yesterday I baked a pear cake and met with minor disaster. The batter was sweet, subtle, smooth (too many s's, I know) and the pears perfectly ripe but stupid me pulled it from the oven too soon. Upon cutting into the cake, I was greeted by a gooey fist clenched at its centre. Opps. I nearly cried. It was to have been pure bliss. But I will bake the pear cake again. Oh yes, and I will eat it with whipping cream. And ice cream. Ha.

But back to the cookies, I found the recipe in my new favourite cookbook in the whole entire world, Perfect Light Desserts, by Nick Malgieri, and David Joachim. It is seriously the best dessert book I have chanced upon in some time. These men can bake. Mmmm, men who can bake... The cookies are both molasses laden and chocolaty. Go figure. Plus, wait for it, they contain 4 Tbsp of butter! It sounds like less when I put it in tablespoons. Somehow, a quarter cup sounds like more and I'm aiming for popularity, so tablespoons it is. I brought a plate of these circles of perfection into the high school where I was substitute teaching this week. I left them in the staffroom along with my card. Let's just say I've been getting a lot of calls. Although the one at 6:30 this morning was less than thrilling.

Anyhooo, here you have it:



Chocolate Spice Cookies

1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves (I used allspice)
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (good thing I've been churning out gallons)
1/4 cup molasses

Preheat the oven to 350.
Sift the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar together. Beat in the applesauce and molasses
Stir in the dry ingredients. Don't over mix! This is the low fat cookie cardinal rule.
Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared pans. Flatten the cookies with your hand or the back of a fork.

Now, the baking is slightly different. Position your racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven. Place one sheet on the top rack and one on the bottom. Bake the cookies for ten minutes, switching the positions of the sheets half way through baking. The cookies will be quite moist when done but they will firm up as they dry. Resist the temptation to keep baking them. This is the second cardinal rule of low fat cookies: always slightly under bake.

Peter Piper Puts Peppers into Pesto..

Finn and I happened upon a beautiful vision of peppers today. Well, a beautiful stand with bags of peppers just waiting to be gobbled up. I got to work roasting the peppers and making a red pepper and spinach pesto, as well as a red pepper hummus. I've always loved roasted peppers but hate, HATE taking the peel off them. I have solved this problem -why bother? There is nothing wrong with a bit of skin. After you've taken the charred bits off you can just chuck the lot in the blender and be done with it.

To roast your beauties-
I sliced them in half, seeded, and rubbed, no 'massaged', a little oil onto the peppers. I placed them on an oiled cookie sheet and popped them under the broiler for about 5 minutes. Don't stray too far, when they start getting nice and blistery (charred little black spots) take them out and pop them into a bowl, cover with saran wrap and let cool. When cool you can skin them or, take a note from a lazy cook and if you are using them in a sauce or dip just chuck them into your blender or food processor.

Peter's Pepper Pesto (say that one three times fast)
For my pesto I put 2 peppers (4 halves) into the blender. I added the "juice" from the pan, about 2 tablespoons olive oil, about a 1/4 c of pine nuts, 2 handfuls of spinach, garlic, salt, and pepper, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and a crumble of feta cheese. Add a little bit of water if necessary, until you get your desire consistency. I would definitely say that this was more of a Mediterranean pesto. It would have been prettier without the spinach but I need to resort to trickery to get sir Mikey to consume his veggies.

Pepper hummus.
Make hummus. Add roasted red peppers. Done.

Butter and Apples


More than once this fall, I've pulled out a bowl, a canister of flour, and a pastry recipe only to find, alas, that I cannot lift my hand to cut the butter (or lard, according to some recipes). It seems that my mother's lessons in health have been carved with fire upon my soul. "Too much," her voice screams through my mind. "Too much." And so I closest the block of butter back in the fridge before rummaging for the oldfashioned oats to make a crisp. A few days ago, my vision of pastry was forever changed when I checked out a book from the library titled Perfect Light Desserts. Amongst other low fat and delicious-looking recipes, I found a lighter pie dough, which still uses butter. I'm not a huge fan of the oil crust. I'm not going to give you the recipe as I haven't tried it yet; although a pumpkin looms on top of my fridge, so the time may be neigh. But last week, after casting aside yet another pie crust recipe with a sob, I made this lovely French Apple Cake. The recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking but I've tweaked it to my liking.

Here's what I did:

French Apple Cake

Spray a deep 8 inch pie pan or a deep round casserole dish. Cover the bottom with:
3 cups sliced apples (you could up it to 4)
Sprinkle the fruit with:
1/3 cup sugar
cinnamon
1 Tbsp flour

In a bowl, sift:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

In another bowl, beat together:
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup milk
Add to the dry ingredients and beat with swift strokes just until blended. Cover the fruit with the batter. Bake at 375 for aprox. 30 minuted. Reverse on a platter and cool slightly.

Make meringue:
Beat until frothy:
1/8 tsp salt
2 reserved egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
Add gradually:
4 Tbsp sugar
Whip until stiff and glossy. Be sure to whip continually. Heap onto cake and bake at 300 for 15 or 20 more minutes.

Pad Thai--

This is a go-to meal at our place. I started making pad thai from a Moosewood recipe awhile back. I have adapted it through the years so that I'm not sure how close this recipe is to the original. There are lots of instructions here and even more brackets but that's just to make the recipe look like way more work than it is. Pad thai is very forgiving, I am always playing with the ingredients depending on what I have on-hand.

I like to serve this garnished with strips of omelette, green onions, peanuts, and prawns.

First your protein bits:
Saute cubed tofu, or chicken, or prawns, and set aside (you could skip this step if you want vegetarian pad thai). I add a shot of asian chili sauce or soy sauce for flavour. When it's just our little Campbell trio I just use tofu, but for company I typically use prawns as well.

Mix Sauce ingredients:
lime juice from 1 lime (I substitute lemon juice sometimes or skip this if using a vinegary asian chili sauce), 3 T asian chili sauce (that sweet, vinegary red stuff you see on the table at Vietnemese restaurants. If you don't have it use ketchup), 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 T natural peanut butter, 1 tsp red pepper flakes (I just usually put a few shakes of hot sauce in instead), a shot of water (maybe 3 T) and 2T fish sauce (you could skip the fish sauce but it definitely is better with it). I also add about half a teaspoon of dried ginger if I don't have fresh, ditto for garlic.

Get those noodles ready:
Pour boiling water over one package of rice noodles (flat noodles, not the really skinny ones - these are in the Asian food section at most grocery stores). If you are just making this for 2 people you only need about half a package but break the noodles in the package!!! I learned this the hard way and was finding little noodle bits months later). Let soak for about 5 minutes while you get going on the next step and then drain.

Start wokking:
Heat a wok or deep frying pan with a half T or so of veg or peanut oil, add 3-4 cloves minced garlic and a few teaspoons of finely minced or grated ginger.
(Optional: If you want to add shredded carrot, sliced cabbage, or julienned peppers add now and stir fry. I typically add a cup or two of grated carrot). Then make a space and scramble 2 eggs (I often cook the eggs like an omelet beforehand and cut them into strips and then add at the end with the peanuts).

Next add:
bean sprouts (as much as you want, I probably use about 4 cups), the noodles, and the sauce. Stir for a few minutes - if it doesn't seem like enough sauce I add a bit of water, and another squirt of chili and soy sauce.

Finally:
Stir in the meat or tofu, about a cup of chopped green onions, and about a half cup chopped peanuts. Sprinkle on some reserved green onions, peanuts, sprouts, and egg for garnish. Serve with lime wedges.

Eat!

COOKIE?

I think about cookies, a lot. Mostly, I think about eating cookies. When, where, how many? I ask myself. Is eight thirty a.m. too early? Is obesity a possibility? These are all difficult questions, which I eventually ignore and simply eat cookies. My favourites include oatmeal chocolates chip in all its splendid varieties (Have you been to Pure Vanilla Bakery and tried the Kitchen Sink? Go! Go!), double chocolate, and peanut butter. Yes, this is a predictable list. I’ve come to accept that I’m not the most creative person. Quirky, yes, but I’m unimaginable to a fault, routine to the brink of boring.

A few weeks ago I lay awake at three in the morning. To calm my revving brain I invented ice cream flavours. I came up with apple pie.

Two nights ago, yet again, I lay awake at three in the morning. This time I brainstormed cookie recipes. After over an hour I had created two combinations. One involved oats, one involved chocolate. Why not use a pre-existing recipe, you are probably wondering, as over one million chocolate and oatmeal cookies already exist in the world? Despite the banality of my ideas, at three in the morning I felt the excitement of creativity, which is highly addictive and enabling, a word I hear spoken with reverence these days. So I enabled myself.

Besides, I like thinking about cookies. They are chewy. And sweet. Like fat little men. Or baby heads.

I tried the oatmeal recipe, which I’ve titled Honey Nut, and the cookies were truly tasty, and wheat free, for those poor, poor, allergy-suffering souls. I thought about selling the recipe rights to Martha Stuart for disgusting amounts of money, but then I’d be a SELL OUT, so instead, I’ve posted it here for your gorging enjoyment.

Honey Nut Cookies

1 cup barley flour

1 cup slivered almonds

1 ¼ cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

¾ cup honey

¼ cup applesauce

¼ cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chocolate chips.

Mulch the oats in a food processor or a blender. Place them in a bowl. Do the same to the almonds. Add the almonds to the oats. Add the cinnamon and salt and mix.

Combine honey, applesauce, oil, and vanilla.

Add the dry mixture to the wet, mix and add chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Take out the cookies even if they seem a bit soft. They will harden up as they cool.

Yum! I found the recipe a little sweet so I’m going to try cutting the honey to a half cup or upping the amount of barley flour.

cooking frenzy--

I have a mini-me. Seriously, Finn loves his food. This kid can put it back just like his mom. Fortunately for me, Finn is showing more of a Reems approach to food (MikeyC being the most "particular" eater ever. Not an exaggeration). Unfortunately for me, the little food-monster is a beggar, and so I need to cook when he is having his afternoon siesta. Lately these hours have become a full-blown cooking frenzy. Today I made two loaves of banana bread, a batch of corn chowder, and cheese scones.

Now my new town, Chilliwack, is the land of corn. Cows and corn. There is a "corn drive-through" on every corner. There are entrepreneurial five-year olds sitting behind mounds of corn. To live here, you have to love your corn. We've eaten enough cobs for awhile and so I decided to try a chowder.


Chilliwack Chowder-

Chop up some celery, garlic, and onion - red pepper would be great too.

Saute this in a few tablespoons of butter over low heat.

When nice and limp, and smelling oh, so lovely, stir in a few tablespoons of flour.

Next, add a few cups of water. Then add a diced potato or two (I used left-over roasted potatoes chopped fine). Cook until potatoes are tender.

Then add cooked corn-off-the-cob- as much as you have. Today I had two cobs. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, chili powder, or whatever else you want to jazz it up with. If you want you can put everything into the blender at this point, or you could leave it a bit chunky. I like the best of both worlds and use my hand blender for a rougher texture.

Finally, add a few cups of milk, and heat through. Garnish with green onions.

Voila. Lift up a ladle to Chilliwack.

PLATEFULS

It's Sunday morning and I'm a little groggy. The guy downstairs decided to play, no, blast, base-loaded hip hop last night at three in the morning. Yup, thanks. So I hope this blog makes sense. Regardless, my stove-top espresso and these pictures are softening my jagged nerve endings.

Here's a bit of what I' ve been doing with my spare time. The great thing about substitute teaching is no marking, no preparation, and more time for cooking.





Shrimp and Coconut Curry
This one (above) is a new recipe I improvised from the Vij's cookbook. Vij's is an award winning Indian restaurant in Vancouver, which I am dying to try. Anyhow, the basic gist is puree two tomatoes and heat them in a saucepan with some spices. I used graham marsala, cayenne pepper, salt, and tumeric. Let the mixture simmer for about three to five minutes. Add half a cup of water. Simmer for another ten minutes. Add a cup of coconut milk and simmer for yet another ten minutes. Throw in 15 to 30 deshelled prawns and cook for four minutes. The prawns will turn pink. They really don't take long to cook.

Serve the prawns and curry bowls over brown rice along with steamed veggies.


Dinner on the deck
We bought and old ironing board at a thriftstore last week. It makes a perfect table.

September Slacking

Recently, people have been telling me that they love September. I can see their point. The air is warm, the sun is shining, the apples are ripening, and the blackberries are falling off the bush into my pail. Also, the crowds of tourists and teenagers have nearly disappeared. For these reasons September makes me happy. But September is also a month of change, back to school, back to work—new jobs, new people, new responsibilities. Suddenly I have a tummy ache. I haven’t truly started September. My first day of work is Friday (tee hee) so Caleb and I have still been playing at summer. And when it’s hot, because it is, and I’m spending my days on my bike or at the beach, I don’t like to eat large hot meals. Last night, Caleb and I whipped up what we’ve taken to calling the Quick and Dirty Salad, a mound of fresh rice and veggies topped with cheese and protein. The recipe is very simple and, naturally, very flexible depending on what you’ve got in the crisper but I provide the recipe as a guide, a starting point, and a source of ideas.

Also, I wanted to post this stunning photo.

Quick and Dirty Salad

Salad

Usually, I have most of the ingredients that require cooking left over from a previous meal. For example, I wouldn’t make rice specifically for the salad as it needs time to cool. Instead, make a little extra for your stir fry and save it in the fridge for your salad.

4-5 large leafs of Romaine lettuce, washed and chopped

Half a carrot, grated

Quarter of a beet, grated

1 tomato, diced

1 cob of corn, cooked

Half a red pepper (not green! Yew)

Half an avocado, sliced into slender pieces

2/3 cup cold cooked brown rice (optional. It depends on how hungry you are.)

3/4 cup chickpeas, cooked (or/and two boiled eggs.)

1/3 cup feta, crumbled

2 to 4 Tbsp pumpkin seeds

Assemble the above ingredients on two plates or pasta dishes. I suggest putting the cheese and seeds on top.

Dressing

This recipe comes courtesy of Joan Reems (my mother). I believe it’s the best one she’s ever given me. I always have a batch in the fridge as it’s so simple to prepare and so much healthier than commercial dressings. Oh, and it tastes good.

1 cup yogurt

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp dried dill

Combine, adding more water depending on desired consistency.

Reems Breakfast of Champions-

OK, I've had a reader request for the coveted Reems granola recipe.

Background here - The go-to-brekky of choice for any Reems is a good, hearty, home-made granola. This is the breakfast for champions.. and let's face it - for those of us who need nourishment to make it no, not until lunch time, but until that mid-morning-banana-muffin coffee break.

Now I realize that there are different types of cooks out there. Those that adhere strictly to the recipe, and the rest of us - those that choose to use a recipe as a helpful guideline, some suggestions that leave much to the cook's discretion. The past few weeks I have been living without any cookbooks and with stolen, intermittent internet. This makes for fun in the kitchen. This granola recipe is Reems-based, from my memory.

GRANOLA, REEMS BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS-

Step 1-
Combine your dry stuff- again, this is a guideline, fiddle with the amounts and the ingredients-

6 cups oats (Reems oat of choice is the large-flaked here but I suppose you could use quick oats)
1 cup bran
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut (optional)
a good shot of flax seed
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts or almonds or pecans etc. etc.
good shot of cinnamon

Step 2-
Your wet stuff-
This should equal around a cup and a half to two cups. Combine the following in a glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave until hot. I have substituted Rogers Syrup for honey, I have also added a very runny plum jam (my first, and to date, only jam-making attempt). I am going to try a cup of apple sauce in here at some point. You could also use brown sugar instead of the honey. If you like a richer, sweeter granola you can up the honey and the oil.

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup water

Step 3
Combine until all the dry stuff is moistened. You can add a shot of water if needed.

Step 4
Spread over 2 cookie sheets. Bake in a low oven - maybe 250 degrees for an hour and a half or so (stir around a few times if you remember). If you like a drier, crunchier granola you can leave it in a turned off oven for awhile afterward. Otherise just let dry on the counter and then ladel into one giant container.

Step 5 (Sorry Heather).
Optional, but I feel that it would be criminal to miss this step. The raisin step. Add as many or as little as you like. For Calgarians - you may just want to add raisins in on a daily basis as I found that they dried out quickly. I love this with dried cranberries as well.

That's it. Now all you have to do is scoop yourself out a beautiful bowl of granola each morning. I eat mine with a few blueberries from the freezer, sliced banana and some plain yogurt.

Sorry about the lack of pictures here, our memory card does not like our laptop.

Getting Fresh

In Toronto there is a restaurant called Fresh, which, go figure, focuses on fresh food, such as salads, rice bowls, veggie burgers, and wraps—all my favourites. Their smoothies are delicious and I didn’t get a chance but would love to try their selection of caffeinated blended bevies. (Is a drink still a smoothie if it does not contain fruit?) I was excited to find that the owner/chef has released not one, but two cookbooks. I, too frugal to purchase a copy, checked out cookbook two, Refresh, from the Victoria library. The veggie burgers look juicy and I’m intrigued by the vegan cookies but so far I’ve only experimented with one recipe. Caleb and I collaborated on a batch of Indian Dosas. We followed the basic recipe but made some changes to the filling based on the ingredients that we had on hand. The Dosas are curry-spiced crepes stuffed with a chickpea-veggie filling. Yeah, beans!

Indian Dosa Pancakes

Dosa Pancakes

1 cup flour (you can use spelt, whole wheat, or white)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ cup milk or soy milk

½ cup to ¾ cup water

1 Tbsp oil

Combine ingredients and fry on a skillet.

Dosa Filling (Based less than loosely on the Refresh recipe)

4 cloves garlics minced

1 Tbsp fresh ginger mince

1 onion diced

1 carrot diced

1 red pepper diced

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp masa harina

1 tsp coriander

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

(I chose the spices based on what I had in the cupboard. Also, I wanted to create and Indian flavour. Adjust the flavouring to suite your palate and ingredients).

4 cups cooked chickpeas

Heat a shot of olive oil in a pan or wok, add garlic, veggies, and spices. Cook until veggies just begin to soften. Add chickpeas and cook until mixture is mushy, then mulch in the food processor along with the juice of one lemon. Return to the pan and reheat.

Assemblage

Dosa Pancakes

Chickpea Filling

¼ cup toasted pumpkin seeds

2 Tbsp feta cheese

Half a carrot, grated

½ cup mango, peach, or apple chutney (You can use store bought chutney; I’ve been making mine with the not-so-good-for-eating fall apples.)

Fill your dosas with chickpea filling, chutney, and a little carrot, roll up likes pancakes, top with carrot, pumpkin seeds, and feta. Enjoy!

Back on the Scene (Bearing Carrots)

I have returned from my cross-Canada adventure and herby recommit myself to blogging. Haley says I can no longer slack. She also says someone not of Reems kinship is reading and commenting on the blog. This is very exciting news. We have a readership. And so, without a photograph (all good foodblogs have tempting visuals), I post my latest dessert, a fat-free, VERY TASTY, carrot cake. When Haley came to visit last week I made this dessert to impress her and our excessively health-conscious mother. I have moved into number one daughter position. Perfect. In reality the praise goes to the Moosewood Collective who created the recipe and published it in their Book of Desserts in the first place, although, I adjusted the carrot content of the recipe and added pineapple.

Fat-Free Carrot Cake

1 ½ cups packed finely grated carrots

¾ cups canned crushed pineapple

1 ½ cups packed brown sugar

1 ¾ cups water

½ cup chopped dates

½ cup raisins

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups white flour

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

In a saucepan, bring the carrots, brown sugar, water, dried fruit, and vanilla to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for at least an hour. According to the Moosewood Collective, the longer you let the mixture stand, the more the mush will absorb the water. I could only afford an hour but they suggest over night. My cake turned out quite nicely.

Combine flour and spices.

Preheat the oven to 300 and oil and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Stir the carrot mixture into the dry until just combined. Ensure no traces of flour are left.

Cook for about an hour or until an inserted tester (knife, toothpick, or what-have-you) comes out clean. Cool for 10 min in the pan before inverting onto a wire rack.

I topped the cake with a lemon glaze, which consisted of the juice of two lemons and ¼ cup of sugar. I warmed the ingredients in a small saucepan until the sugar had dissolved and then poured it over the cake. This sauce is very liquidy and moistened the cake considerably. I recommend the lemon sauce but I’d like to try a simple dusting of icing sugar or cinnamon. The cake was quite different than the typical carrot cake, moist and fruity, almost dark in flavour. I loved it!

I think I’ve hit on a fabulous whole-wheat peanut-butter cookie recipe but I need to make a couple of adjustments before posting. Stay tuned!

(Hi Haley!)

Haley's Salad Formula-

Due to poor blogging habits Reems Eats is in serious jeopardy. I' m therefore feeling a lot of pressure to publish a recipe that is going to propel us back into the blogosphere. I'm going to stay tried, tested and true. Here is my standard "company," or potluck, salad. It has a loose formula thus ensuring that no two salads are ever the same.

Salad Formula-

• Salad base - lettuce or spinach
• Veggies- I typically use julienned red or yellow peppers and some sort of oniony veggie - red onion is one of my faves or green onions are great too. You can get creative with this category
• Avacado. I know, a veggie. However, my love of the avacado demands it gets its own category. You can skip the avacado, but why would you want to?
• Cheese -I usually go with crumbled feta or chevre. You could mix it up a little and maybe try some cubed havarti or wouldn't some smoked gouda be fab?
• Some fruityness. Depending on what the season is. In strawberry season there really is no other option. In the winter I often just chuck in a handful of dried cranberries. Mango slices or halved grapes also work well.
• Nuts. Toasted and slivered almonds, pecans, or walnuts are all good. If you have the time and really want to go to the next level - Heat up a small pan with a touch of butter. Add a few handfuls of the aforementioned nuts. Now add about a teaspoon of sugar, some salt, some pepper, a dash of cumin, a dash of chili powder, a dash of cinnamon, a dash of garlic... you get the idea. Toast until all nice and crusty with deliciousness. These nuts are awesome and can be a stand alone snack as well.
  
• Dressing. In a pinch I use some sort of bottled vinaigrette - Kraft's light sundried tomato or light poppyseed are my go-to's. If you have even thirty extra seconds - Combine a few glugs of balsamic vinegar with one glug of olive oil. Add maybe half a teaspoon of sugar, a smidge of garlic, salt & pepper, and any herbs you have around. mmmmmm!

There it is. The salad formula. The spinach salad pictured isn't doing this formula justice. Happy lettuce!

My glorious debut

I have spent far too long greedily absorbing the bounties of this glorious blog, and now it is my turn to give back.
Well, that's not quite true. In reality I forgot about aforementioned blog until about an hour ago, and since then have been greedily catching up. I am particularly excited to fry up some hummous cakes (Not that I am trying to cause conflict by voting for a favourtie recipe...I promise I just like the ease).
Speaking of ease, my debut is quick and to the point. In fact, the entire recipe can be summed up in 3 words:
ROAST SOME CHICKPEAS
With my insatiable appetite that cannot be quenched, a mere midmorning muffin and tea-time cookie do very little to tide me over, and I find myself stuffing handfuls of chocolate chips in my mouth, handfuls of cereal, handfuls of cookies, handfuls of anything I can get my grubby hands on.
At risk of this blog becoming Carmen's confessions of a foodaholic, or confessions of a gluttonous pig, I will stop there.
I decided if I am going to be shoving handfuls of food into my gobber on an extremely regular basis, it might as well be a tasty, healthy treat!
Hence the roasted chickpeas (Although I summed it up in three words, I will still share the longer version):

Turn the oven to 425
Pat the chickepeas dry.
Sprinkle them with a spoon of olive oil (not very much or they won't be crispy)
Season them with whatever you'd like...my favourite is a bit of garlic and some chili powder.
Spread them on a cookie sheet
bake them for about 30-40 minutes, until they seem good and browned.

Once they're out, you might need to do a bit of reseasoning according to preference


I shove handfuls in my mouth relatively guilt free.

I found the idea for this online, and one commenter mentioned hers went soft overnight. Naturally I can not comment on that, because mine have never lasted overnight.

Brunching With Babies

In a previous post Haley wrote that when chocolate is unavailable, heaven forbid, lemon is the next best choice in the dessert world. Her observation must have fluttered through my brain last week as I dug through cupboards and recipe books. I was holding a Victoria day brunch for my siblings and their children. The bagels and eggs had been bought and the ingredients for a hollandaise sauce stood ready. I need a dessert-yes, even breakfast warrants treats-but my cocoa jar was empty. Fortunately, I found three large lemons rolling around my crisper. As the brunch promised to be filling, I wanted dessert to be a few mouthfuls of sweetness. A cake or pie seemed too heavy handed and unbrunch like. I opted for mini cupcakes. A few weeks ago Caleb found miniature muffin tins at the thriftstore in Sidney. Almost every bowl, spoon, and pan in my kitchen is secondhand. I find the older cookware to be durable. Plus it comes in funky retro colours. For these mini lemon cupcakes, I used a recipe for lemon loaf from the Moosewood Desserts Cookbooks. Then, in salute to the cupcake my mom used to make when I was little, I mixed up a batch of lemon curd, cut out the centres, and filled each cake.
1/2 cup butter (I reduced it to 1/3)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used half white, half brown for a lighter texture)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp of lemon zest
1 and 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I used 3/4 cup butter milk to accommodate for the reduced amount of butter)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted the nuts)

Cream butter and brown sugar
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add the lemon peel.
Separate bowl: Sift flour, b. powder, and salt.
Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the creamed mixture, beating until JUST combined after each addition. Stir in nuts (if using).

Pour into a loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 mins.
Or
Pour into mini muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 min.

Cool and then cover with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice with 1/4 cup sugar. Poke holes in cake with a toothpick. Pour glaze over.

Then, cut a circle out of the top of each cupcake, fill it with lemon curd (not glaze). Take the piece you cut out of the cupcake and cut it in half. Arrange pieces on top of the cupcake.

Lemon Curd:
Mix in a saucepan: Juice of two lemons, 1 Tbsp lemon zest, 1/4 cup sugar. Heat, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Take off heat. Run through a mesh strainer. Optional: mix in 2 Tbsp butter in pieces (Most recipes call for 1/2 cup butter but this seems unnecessary).

Pop (into your mouth) and enjoy!

Ahhh, Sunnyslope..

Snack time is always a little more exciting when I'm back at 6364 Sunnyslope Dr. By myself. Pilffering through the cupboards and fridge for Joan's hidden stashes. Finding that last little bit of apple crisp, or the roll of Drosts hidden since Christmas. There is something nostaslgic about this- Brings me back to my teen years. This morning? A discovery from the freezer. A lovely tupperware full of homemade eatmore bars. Thanks Joan. Always good to be back!

The Stone vs. Cookie Sheet Dilemma

What Reems doesn't love a good pizza. This a popular Friday night meal at the Campbell household. Mikeyc is the king of the pepperoni and feta (the key here is that the pepperoni must be on TOP of the cheese). For myself, a rummage through the crisper drawer to see what veggies are requiring urgent attention. This particular pie had a medley of orange and red peppers, spinach, green onions, and shrimp. The shrimp is a new addition to my pizza repertoire; however, so easy. Just shake some little precooked shrimpies from your bag in the freezer, run under tap water, break into two if desired, and voila! A pizza with class (to combat the more, shall we say, ghetto pepperoni).

Now my other dilemma. Pizza stone or cookie sheet? Now, in the past I have been a stone kind of girl- despite my inital stone near disaster.. the first meal that I ever prepared for future brother-in-law Rhys... note PREHEATING of the stone is required. So when you have a little grublet like Finn lurking in the shadows I find it easier to premake the pizza during nap time or Daddy and Finn hangout time.. This makes the cookie sheet the better option.
Pizza Stone
PROS

• Nice round shape. who doesn't like a good wedge of the 'za?
• Years of getting my stones nicely seasoned (don't used soap on them, soak and scrub clean)
• The bottom gets nice and crispy (although I must say that I am in the soft and doughy team so this is a con for me)

CONS

• Preheating - requires everything to be preassembled and then thrown together in a mad pizza making frenzy right before they need to go in the oven. This is particularly problematic when making 2 pies.

Cookie Sheet

PROS

• Can premake your pizzas
• The doughy crust (A con for some)
  

CONS

• Not as cool.
  

OK, folks. There you have it. Ramblings on pizza stones. Just what you needed to enlighten your otherwise dull existences. Victorians, I look forward to seeing you.. but more importantly to sharing some good eats.