Happy Canada Day!!

Yay for long summer weekends!

I'm continuing my challenge to make a different green salad & quinoa salad every weekend and using up a fennel by making this:

I'm going to make a romaine salad w/ blueberries, figs & coconut - cause that's what's in the fridge. Then I'm going to pack it all up on the bike and head over to the island for this:

A wonderful weekend of celebrations to all!!

the summer of lobster?

I think this could be the one.

These were so big and sooooo goooooood!

And yes, there was turf with that surf. But I'm trying to eat less meat on the island so my goal is to make a different quinoa salad and green salad every weekend. The green salad was a version of a niscoise: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, snow peas, cooked potatos & chopped hard-boiled eggs in a vinaigrette.

The quinoa salad had: pineapple, red pepper, green onions, garlic, cilantro & pumpkin seeds. The dressing really made this even better the next day: pineapple juice, lime juice, white wine vinegar, avocado oil and grated ginger - so fresh & yum!!

the end of the birthday

After my fabulous nap the fine fellow returned from the city with lobster tails for an incredible birthday bbq dinner.

I made an amazing spinach salad with pears, blackberries, peas and walnuts with a maple dressing, and a tomato, cucumber and basil salad. The fine fellow cooked up some asparagus with portobello mushrooms in garlic in his sexy red pan and we had an amazing looking meal on the table.

That lobster was soooo good!! We finished things up with my favorite coconut-lime cake (which is of course wheat & dairy free) and sliced strawberries - yum!

Stuffed and happy - turning 40 has been pretty great! Thank you so much to everyone who has sent me kind wishes!!

You know what I wished for? I wished that I could really really feel the love that everyone around me has for me. I got this in so many more ways than I could possibly have imagined. I am truly grateful!

Marcel likes banana pancakes

My sweet sister Ceciley makes really great mixed CDs and she put Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes" on the one I was listening to the other day. Made me really want to eat some real banana pancakes.

Good thing I bought some Bob's Red Mill gluten-free pancake mix. I find these are especially yummy if I add vanilla and cinnamon to the mix.

Marcel likes them too! It was raining and I am pretending it's the weekend all the time!

Wishing you all a wonderful real weekend!

clafoutis ... almost

The saga of the wheat-free clafoutis continues. I am determined to make one of these because I LOVE it! To recap, I have made this twice now and both times were massive failures. But, hey-ho, I have a new pyrex pie plate and so I decided to go back the the original recipe and try again to see what would happen.

Okay, much better. I overcooked it a bit I think, and it puffed up and then fell after I took it out of the oven. But it was totally edible and pretty good. So, the vintage pie plate was the big problem here. Next time I will try another recipe with more eggs cause I would like it to be eggy-er.

After I made this I looked up some videos to see if I could pick up some tips on how to do it better. I found this handy and entertaining video where Chef Nathan makes it in pan - enjoy!

making cookies with my sister

My sister and I lived together for many years on our own and for all of those years our cooking repertoire consisted of pasta and eggs - everything else was take-out or order in. Neither of us knew how to cook, so this is actually the first time we have made something together.

It's funny to me to see how we interact together. I've got the technical and instructional part down and then she makes it fanciful and creative. We're both good at both of those things but when we're together these are the roles we tend to take on - me being the bossy older sister and all.

Since I started making these cookies last year, they have become an absolute staple. They're super-easy to make and everyone loves them - enjoy!



Here's the recipe again:

• 1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

• 1/2 cup smooth almond butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips or a bar of your favourite chocolate, chopped up
* you can add other goodies that you like in addition or instead

- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- mix dry ingredients together
- add nut butters and mix
- add egg and mix
- add chocolate chips (and/or other goodies) and mix
- drop dough in rounded balls onto greased baking sheet
- bake for 5-10 minutes, keep and eye on them as they can burn quickly
- let them cool for about 10 minutes so that they set and don't fall apart
- EAT, ENJOY! they are yummy with a glass of almond milk!

dinner party for my sister - with the actual dinner

In case you were wondering how the lobster salad turned out, the last video did indeed show us triumphantly finding the perfect, and perfectly ripe avocados to serve it in. And if you would like to see how it turned out press play below:

 

And here's the recipe for the Lobster salad:

- 1 can lobster (tails & claws only)
- grape or cherry tomatoes*
- mini cucumbers*
- celery*
- red onion*
*all chopped very small

Dressing:

- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- splash of grenadine or pomegranate juice
- salt & pepper

Serve in half a perfectly ripe avocado and enjoy!

dinner party for my sister

When my sister was here I threw a little dinner party so she could meet the fine fellow and a few of my other boat friends. And to make it seem like summer, I wanted to serve the amazing lobster salad that Tim had taught me how to make.

Since I'm still kinda new to this whole cooking thing it could have been a disaster, particularly since i forgot to get avocados the day before. So we went to Kensington Market on a quest with fingers crossed ... 

ooops, I did it again

Remember back in May when I was pretending to be in France and I tried to make a clafouti? Well, just as a reminder it was supposed to look like this:

but came out like this:

I love this stuff and it seems like it should be so easy to make. So I tried a new recipe from the Nourishing Gourmet (lots of yummines overe there) - and this is what is should look like this time:

and, um well, here's my attempt:

The first one was so burnt to get the middle to set it was inedible, and this one is both overcooked and unbelievably greasy - gross! Is it the the pie plate, is it me?

Happy Hanukkah!!

To all my Jewish friends and family!!

I'm gonna try my hand at making some potato-leek latkes for brunch on the weekend!

I'm gonna skip the caviar, although I think Marcel would love them served this way.

things I did for my b-day - part 3

I recently discovered some amazing wheat-free, dairy-free sweet treats at Pulp Kitchen - it's across the street from the Damzels' store in Leslieville. 

Turns out they get their deserts from LPK's Culinary Groove where they make all kinds of gluten-free, vegan deliciousness!

I am officially in loooooove with their coconut cake with lime frosting - couldn't ask for a better birthday cake!! But what's that you're looking at Marcel?

Yes, those peonies you picked for me are simply amazing!!

And thank you for remembering how much I like to have flowers in the bedroom too!!

He's so thoughtful!

cannes I make a clafoutis?

My lament over not being able to eat pain au chocolat (otherwise known as a chocolate croissant) at chabichou, lead me to thinking about the delicious delights I can no longer enjoy at yet another delightful French cafe: Clafouti.

And then it occurred to me that while a wheat-free croissant is probably not worth having even if it exists, a wheat-free clafoutis might be something I could actually make.

Et voila! Pattycake has a recipe for a wheat-free blueberry & fig clafoutis - what could be better?

The recipe seemed so easy ...

eggs, (almond) milk, honey, vanilla, corn flower ...

add lots of figs and blueberries and it should come out looking like the photo above.

Well, except when it doesn't.

 

So, yes I can make a clafoutis - but not a good one. My custard would not gel and in the end the entire thing was seriously overcooked. Not sure what the deal is with this, but if I've learned anything about baking it's that the second time I make something it usually comes out better ...

At least my hat still looks good and I'm planning to do some other French things with the fine fellow on the boat this lovely long-weekend ;) Joyeux May 24!!

peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

My friend Rory served these yummy wheat-free, dairy-free cookies at a gathering recently and I could not believe how simple they are to make - you barely even have to cook them!

• 1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter

• 3/4 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp bake soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees
mix in first 5 ingredients
add chocolate chips last
drop dough in rounded balls onto greased baking sheet
bake for 5-10 minutes

 
I used chunky natural peanut butter so mine turned out very crumbly, but oh so good!
 

chocolate banana bread pudding

I did actually make this with my first batch of boring banana bread, but I guess I didn't really follow the recipe well-enough for it to turn out any better than the banana bread did.

But I did buy some vanilla and made the banana bread again with more bananas. Way better, and I saved some to give the bread pudding another whirl.

This time I followed the recipe much more carefully - smaller pieces, smaller dish, but I did double the chocolate, cause why not?

This looks much better than last time already and smells like heaven in the oven.

And holy crap - this is amazing!

Now I understand why Amy at angry chicken immediately froze two-thirds of it. Me, I'm gonna eat it!

 But I really need to go to bed.

squash & pear soup

I bought a bunch of my favourite "fragrant" pears recently but I just wasn't eating them. Before they went bad I thought I'd try to make this harvest squash and pear soup.

Since I'm becoming a soup expert I deviated somewhat from the recipe - or cheated, call it what you will.

 

I still had one of these mystery vegetables left so I added it too along with the ginger and some nutmeg.

Needs work.

easy banana bread

I was dreaming about the Mexican Chocolate Bread Pudding that Amy over at angry chicken made recently and feeling kinda sorry for myself that I would never be able to eat it since I simply can not imagine baking my own bread.

But then I got to thinking ... maybe I could make wheat-free banana bread, and doncha know pattycake has a recipe for that with "easy" in the title. So I thought I'd give it a whirl.

But since I'm still not really set up for baking, I got most of the way into the recipe before I realized I hadn't bought any vanilla. Hmmm, well there's vanilla in the rice milk right?

It cooked up very fast but looked pretty good.

Turns out the vanilla is pretty important to the taste, and it could use a few more bananas. So on its own, not so interesting, but I do believe it will make an awesome Mexican Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding!