Archive for June, 2010
Sorry guys, I’m kind of punking out on a recipe on you again. But if you’re in Calgary, you’ll be glad I did. (And if you’re not, here’s a little food porn-sweet dreams!)
See that pie, right up there? The one loaded with dark, chewy cherries? Every bit as good as it looks. So sublime that I want to put it on a Tshirt. For real.
I’m trying not to get too hung up on all that time I wasted not knowing about Bliss & Co. I had heard about it, lots, and even heard rumour of how great their cupcakes were. The best in the city, even. (They won best overall cupcake in a taste test at Avenue Magazine. For real!)
Well. I’m a bit of a cupcake fan. Those are big words. I think I was afraid to confirm that cupcakes that good were available so close to where I live.
Eventually I gave in (about a month ago – sorry, I haven’t meant to keep this from you) and W and I went downtown for cupcakes, in the name of research. We were not disappointed. They were indeed among the best I’ve eaten – the strawberry swirl tasting of real strawberries, the cake itself dense, moist and not overly sweet. They were perfection. And with a lower price tag than at other cupcakeries. (There’s a great cupcake price comparison here.)
The cupcakes were heavenly. I could gush on. But the PIE. Oh my. The pie.
There were coconut cream pies, filled with layers of ganache, house-made caramel, coconut pastry cream and whipped cream. And then there were fruit-filled hand pies – apricot, cherry, and strawberry-rhubarb on the afternoon I was there. I took them all and ate two on the way home. Everything – pastry included – was made from scratch. The pies – larger than tarts, smaller than galettes (one might call them crostatas, and if one might want to learn how to make them, one could find a great tutorial, complete with grandma hands, here) were loaded with fresh fruit, and not at all stodgy, the way some cornstarch-thickened fruit pies can get. They were bliss. I ate two of them, in piranha fashion, as I was taking these photos. (If you go for some, best to call first or go on the weekends.)
And I was happy (and not at all surprised) to see that they make a kick-ass brownie, too. I love the way they dragged the tip of something through the surface of the batter before baking them, making a subtle pattern like the paisley on a sock. Or something far tastier.
And I just have to say – the women who own the place and work there are just lovely. (And I don’t mean that in a your-great-aunt’s-lilac-hat-is-just-lovely sort of a way.) I could have pulled up a stool and chatted with them as they baked all afternoon. Of course if I had, most of their profits would have been eaten up.
June 10 2010 | eating out | 16 Comments »
I’m cheating tonight and offering up a recipe (or idea, really) that I was reminiscing about today and realized I took photos of a few weeks ago, and so went and dug them up. Because it’s exactly the sort of thing that comes in handy in summertime – something you can pull together in a few minutes when there are mouths around to feed.
Plus, I’m in full-on bean mode. The book is in the final FINAL for-real-now stages of pulling it all together and I live and sleep beans. I dream about soaking times. (Still no title, by the way. Help.)
So I may be a girl of fewer words this week, or I may just start recycling. I’ve got a sudden onslaught of other imminent deadlines too, and I’m on the Eyeopener covering traffic all this week, AND this weekend is Gallery Calorie, an event I’ve helped organize and am emceeing. In fact, I’m in a meeting about it now. I look very busy taking notes on my laptop. But -are you reading this Artemis girls?- I’m totally paying attention. You’re talking about silent auction items now. (I love silent auctions – I try to buy gifts there – there’s always cool stuff, and the bonus of your money going to charity.) If you don’t have plans this Saturday, it’s the best party in the park of the year – fist, a stroll up and down 17th Avenue, popping into shops and restaurants and trying food and wine and other tasty stuff, checking out art and shopping and such, and afterward there’s a party in Tomkins Park, in front of Mount Royal Village, with a live band (Magnolia Buckskin!) and food and drinks and general merrymaking. And I’m emceeing!
Oooh – they’re talking about Art Race now! This is the best part, and totally unique. We have 30 pieces of original art, and sell 30 tickets at $150 a pop. At the afterparty we hold a race – the artwork is set out under a tent for all to peruse in advance, and then we start drawing numbers – the first person to have their number called gets first pick, and so on. SO MUCH FUN. And last year I brought home an original Lisa Brawn woodcut (LOVE HER. gush.) made out of a chunk of reclaimed grain elevator. How cool is that? When I was drooling over her pieces at the Axis gallery at Art Central at Christmas they were worth far FAR more than $150. It became imminently clear that Santa doesn’t spend that much. But she’s back again this year! I can’t wait to see what she brings. All artists have of course donated their work. Thanks guys.
Anyway. All the proceeds from this year’s event are going to two great charities – the Servants Anonymous Society and Birthday Buddies, an organization that buys, wraps and delivers gifts, balloons and cake to kids who are living in homeless shelters throughout Calgary. Can you think of a better cause? We sold out last year, but there are still some tickets available for this one. They’re $40 – email me if you want some! Or you can buy them online at the Gallery Calorie website.
And it’ll be nice and sunny out this Saturday! Remember the sun? Best to celebrate our few short days in its presence with martinis and cupcakes.
Oh right, the fava bean toasts. So simple, but so delicious. We had them at a birthday party a few weeks ago and they took a few minutes to assemble as we all stood around and chatted with our drinks. Bread was brushed with oil and grilled, then topped with a tumble of fava (aka broad) beans and big shavings of Parmesan cheese – do them with a vegetable peeler. I think she may have snipped on some mint. Perfect patio food.
Setting my alarm for 4am. Will be having extra martinis on Saturday, and cheese (Janice Beaton!) and cupcakes. Won’t you come join us?
And if you’re jonesing for new recipes, I do have some going over at Family Kitchen. The latest: Blueberry Brown Sugar Buttermilk Cake.
June 08 2010 | appetizers | 28 Comments »
Yes, I shared. Honestly, I have no idea why my pants are getting so tight.
But first: Plantain fritters! I wish I would have figured this out on Monday. Then again, best that I didn’t – the house smelled like mini donuts and the Stampede all day. They were fantastic. And easy to make. They brought out the banananess of the plantains – as fritters, they tasted more of bananas than I think bananas would have. And they held up to the heat – when you bit into one, it wasn’t mush.
I love that this week I was forced to make my acquaintance with something that has been available to me for most of my life, and yet I never bothered getting to know. I still have enough left to take a stab at a curry next week.
Which, ahem, brings me to a small confession. I assumed that since we started on Monday, Sunday night we’d be wrapping up the Week in Their Kitchen project. It makes sense, right? En route to CharCut, where I had booked a seat at their communal table for Meat Sundays, at which this particular Sunday they promised to make a 15 kg poutine, I got an email titled: three more meals and you’re home free!
Um. Whoops? We’re supposed to keep going from the hamper until Monday noon? Maybe I didn’t read the instructions thoroughly. (Try to hide your shock.)
At any rate. I didn’t bail out on going for poutine, since I had already signed up. It was stupendous.
John and Carrie brought it out steaming – all 35 pounds of it (they weighed the ingredients) including 3 kg of cheese curds and I imagine a bucket of gravy. The fries themselves were cooked in duck fat. It was poutine perfection, served at the communal table, family-style. Awesome.
And yes, I enjoyed it. A little too mightily. It was good food with good friends around a table of happy (verging on ecstatic) people. It was nice to see cheese again, but I had been eating my share of potatoes this week anyway.
Which brings us back to the Week in Their Kitchen project. Yes, it wraps up today. But I can’t say I’m excitedly looking forward to the end of the day (to sum, that was the gist of the aforementioned email: I imagine many of you are looking forward to dinner tomorrow when you can eat whatever you want! That’s right after your lunch tomorrow you are all free of the Hampers!) because really, all the participants in this were always free of the hampers. We’re not homeless, or struggling. We didn’t worry all week that we can only access the food bank once per month, and what we might do when this stash runs out. This has been a learning experience, but I still can’t say I know how a food bank client feels, or that I’ve truly walked a mile in their shoes. Some participants have said this week was fun – I doubt anyone actually utilizing the food bank would share that sentiment.
So. I won’t be going out for a celebratory dinner tonight. I’ll use up the rest of my hamper, along with the (comparably vast quantities of) ingredients already in my kitchen. I’ve already gone and bought a couple bags of food to give back to the food bank (remember-Husky covered the cost of the extra food for all our hampers). I’m going to continue on in some way, cutting my food spending drastically – for the next month at least only buying fresh produce and milk. (And toilet paper. Hard to make that from scratch.) I’m going to shop from my cupboards instead of from the store, and make do with what I have, which is clearly not that difficult.
I’ll try to pursue new sources of fresh produce for the food bank wherever I can (a portion of the new Ramsay community garden?), and contribute easy recipes (hopefully even compile a cookbook) because that’s what I can do to help. And I’ll focus more energy on being happy for what I have, and less thinking about what I’m in the mood for.
And I’ll eat more plantain fritters.
Plantain Fritters
Thanks to Gourmet for walking me through this.
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
1/2-3/4 cup water
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 ripe plantains
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
canola oil, for cooking
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the water and egg and whisk until the batter is smooth.
Peel plantains and cut on a slight diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces. Heat a half inch of oil in a heavy skillet or pot until hot, but not smoking. Dip the plantains in the batter to coat them and fry in batches (don’t crowd them) until bottoms are golden, about 45 seconds, then turn over and fry until other side of each is golden, 30 to 45 seconds more. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
While still warm, toss each batch in sugar mixture until coated. Serve warm.
June 07 2010 | sweet stuff | 26 Comments »
Check this out – a new method for making amazing fries with less oil (!) and no need to double (par) fry. I never would have thought of this. It’s rocking my world like the no-knead bread. Except that I don’t eat fries quite as often as I eat bread. In my dreams, maybe.
Yesterday I followed a trail of bread crumbs (fry grease?) to an old Cooks Illustrated post about French fries (this is what happens when I’m supposed to be working) – it seems they burned through about 50 lbs of potatoes to come up with this method, wherein cold potato is set in cold oil in a pot and then brought to a boil together, much like you’d do when boiling potatoes (in water). The crazy part is – there’s apparently less oil in these cold-start fries than in traditional ones. I don’t understand why, but I never did that well in science. And I ditched chemistry for bio.
I’ve been dying to get in the kitchen and try something new, which has been difficult with the dwindling hamper on our dining room table. But I have potatoes! I have oil! I have salt! Giddy-up.
With fries like this, you need a good wobbly homemade mayo. And hey! I have eggs! I have oil! It’s clearly a sign.
So – you can go to see the original recipe at Cooks Illustrated, but it does seem a little wordier than I think it needs to be. (Not suggesting I know more than Cooks Illustrated, of course. But I did streamline it a little.) I didn’t measure my oil, nor my potatoes. I didn’t use bacon fat (although that does seem worth a try, don’t you think?). I cut two potatoes (unpeeled) into even sticks and put them in a pot, and covered them with canola oil. I did as I was told and covered the pot to bring it to a boil, which did indeed take about 5 minutes, but then I took the lid off (there’s condensation there – you don’t want that in your oil) and let it bubble away. It was odd, like I was boiling potatoes, only with oil. I didn’t wait to give them a stir though-I did so at about 10 minutes. Not sure what the difference is.
Anyway, in about 20 minutes they were beautiful and golden, and I took them out to drain on paper towels and showered them with salt. They had a lovely texture.
And mayo. I’ll send you over to Delicious Days – they have a wonderful tutorial.
(And our friends/neighbours brought over lilacs! How gorgeous are these?)
June 05 2010 | veg | 26 Comments »
What kind of wine does one pair with day-glo powdered cheese? WHAT, THERE’S NO WINE IN MY HAMPER? I didn’t think of that.
Ah well, it’s a working weekend for me anyway. Best to just hunker down with my Oreos and forget that it’s Friday night. And it’s sunny out. Let’s not talk about that.
Dinner tonight was not as thrilling as last night’s. Mike actually got into the mission and came up with the idea to use sauteed mushrooms, which are meaty-like, in the generic Hamburger Helper. W stuck to Cheerios.
As I sat glumly eating my salty orange mushroom pasta it occurred to me that PEOPLE ACTUALLY BUY THIS STUFF. It’s imported by Wal-Mart. They sell it in their stores. It isn’t exclusively for people who have no choice – many folks out there actually go shopping and spend their own dollars on this.
Maybe they’re all eighteen? I remember when Mike and I first moved out I lived for a good couple years on Pop Tarts, Eggo Waffles and Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni – all the stuff we weren’t allowed to have growing up. So then I started to grow out.
And yes, it’s cheap. So are beans. And rice. And barley. And a thousand or so other real meals I can price out in my head in the same ballpark as Hamburger Helper. But I don’t much feel like going off on another tangent tonight. I’m crashing down from my Oreo high.
It seems I let last Free Stuff Friday pass with nary a free thing, overwhelmed by a book manuscript deadline that’s still looming (silly me, I thought I’d be celebrating this weekend! Have I met me? Clearly not) and I do have a few things. But what I’m really dying to do when this week is over is bake. And reduce the ridiculous amount of food in my kitchen. Perhaps that should be the freebie du jour – a box of miscellaneous yogurt containers from my freezer and bags of unlabelled grains from my cupboard.
But I completely forgot that I bought a bowl at the Empty Bowls Benefit a month or so ago with the intention to give it away here, filled with cookies or something. And since I need an excuse to bake cookies, I’ll use FSF as such. A handmade bowl filled with homemade chocolate chip cookies (yes, I already chose) doesn’t sound too bad, does it? And if you’ll take a look at that detail, someone stamped MMMMMMM around the entire bowl. Appropriate, no?
So you know the drill – leave a comment, let us know what you had for dinner last night (or the night before, or what you’re planning for tonight) or tell us something else if you want. I’ll take anything, really. I’ll be reading them all tomorrow as the ultimate procrastination aid.
June 04 2010 | leftovers | 91 Comments »
« Prev - Next »
