Emily tries to do it all

Beans and Rice!

2011-04-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Do you know what the fantastic thing about a beans and rice budget is? Beans and rice.

Although hardly poverty stricken, I have put some considerable thought into cutting down my expenses over the past year. Grocery costs have been my biggest success. I've already written about the many ways bread baking has benefited me, but discovering the awesome power of beans and rice has been even better.

Here's my confession: for a long time I thought beans and lentils were spicy. Except for baked beans, the only time I'd ever had bean dishes were either Indian or Tex-Mex places. I don't do spicy, so I wrote off beans.

I guess the turning point was when I started making my own chili and discovered I could dial down the heat to where I liked it. Then, I started extending a pot of chili by serving it over rice. Voila! I had a meal that was cheap, easy and healthy. My love affair with beans and rice had begun.

Talking with people about beans, as I am wont to do, I found that everyone, everywhere, wants more beans and rice recipes. So here are my favourites. Note: you won't find the hot and spicy here. These are simpler, more comfortable dishes that I really enjoy and hope you will too.

Lentils and Rice, with or without Pork
By Mark Bittman

When Bittman posted this on the New York Times website, he included about a million variations. I haven't tried any of them, because this one is so delicious, I didn't feel like reinventing the wheel. This quickly became one of Fiance's favourite dishes as well.

A few tablespoons of olive oil
4 slices of bacon (optional)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup brown rice
2 cups green lentils
water
Bay leaf

Heat oil in a pot large enough to hold all the ingredients. Saute bacon, vegetables and oil for about 10 minutes, until vegetables start to brown. Add lentils, rice, bay leaf and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Chickpeas and Veggie Rice

by Me! (I rarely come up with recipes all by myself, so this is a big deal)

1 can chickpeas, drained (or 1 cup dried chickpeas, pre-cooked)
1 cup brown rice
2 cupa chopped vegetables (any kind, really. Frozen works well here)
1 can V8 juice.
1/2 cup water.

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot or rice cooker. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Chard and White Bean Stew
Adapted from the Smitten Kitchen (www.smittenkitchen.com)

1 pound chard (or kale, or spinach, or collard greens. Whatever)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 cans white beans (or 1.5 cups dried beans, pre-cooked)
1 large can pureed tomatoes
Thyme
Bay leaf

Remove all stems and ribs from the greens. Boil for one minute then coarsely chop. Dry out the pot, heat the oil and saute the vegetables for 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes, beans and seasonings and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the chard and cook for 5 minutes more.

Black Beans and Tomato Rice with Caramelized Onions

I guess I came up with this one, too, but it was based off a comment I read on a food blog I forget, so not really mine

2-4 thinly sliced onions, depending on their size and how much you like onions
Olive oil
Sugar
3 cups pre-cooked rice
1 can black beans, rinsed (or 1 cup dried black beans, cooked)
1 large can diced tomatoes

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Stir in the onions with a dash of sugar to help them brown. Cook, stirring occasionally, for half an hour, until the onions become dark brown. Add the rice, beans and tomatoes, and bring to a simmer. Serve

Roasted Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes

By Oh She Glows (www.ohsheglows.com)

1 Can chickpeas (or 1 cup dried chickpeas, pre-cooked)
1 large sweet potato
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with tin foil. Toss all the ingredients together on the sheet and roast for 45 minutes, stirring midway through.

Besides the fact that all these recipes are really, really tasty, healthy and cheap (which is what I was looking for to begin with) they're also all simple, one-pot dishes and use many of the same ingredients (without getting repetitive) so you likely already have all your ingredients on hand. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Greenest Soup

2011-03-16T10:32:00.001-07:00

I have decided that February, March and perhaps April are bad months for goals. It's not my fault, it's the season. It's dark, it's cold, for every fleeting glimpse of spring there are another 15 cm of snow. My only goal for the immediate future is to not irrevocably damage myself or others. I will run when I darn well please. The laundry can rot for all I care. Washing machine: I will see you in a few weeks.

Not that it's been a bad winter. In fact, I got engaged! Henceforth, Boyfriend will be renamed Fiance. This is likely the only blog change that will occur in the next little while. Eventually, I will probably be writing this as a wedding blog, but that's a ways off. Interesting proposal note: I suspected something was up when I found roses the day before. In the laundry room. The one place he never expected me to be!

My point is, I've been in a regeneration mode. I can't grow right now. I need to do some minor foundation repair. It's great to be constantly looking for progress, but it's not realistic all the time. I'm not letting myself go completely. I'm keeping an eye on the budget, I'm working out a few times a week, I made the greenest soup ever. But I'm just giving myself a break for a little while. I'm sure I'll be back to my normal, over-achieving self soon.

In the spirit of doing whatever the heck I feel like, here is the greenest soup.

Adapted from "Cook's Illustrated"

An onion
Some butter or oil
2lbs broccoli
1/2 lbs kale
2 cups broth
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Cheddar cheese.

Chop up the onion, broccoli and kale stems. Saute in butter or oil for about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup water and baking soda (I don't know why, but if Cook's says so I do it. Probably something science-y) cover and simmer 20 minutes

Add the broth two cups of water and the kale leaves. Simmer a few minutes more. Throw in some grated cheese and puree until it has the consistency of green slime.

Seriously, it's pretty good.

Cracks of Light

2011-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

There's a song by the Pathological Lovers that starts:

"The shortest month,
Is by far the longest.
You've got to be at your strongest,
In the Wednesday of the year."

I find it very comforting. More than that. By the time the singer howls, "F*ck you, February, F*ck you" I'm right there with a "Hell ya!"

Sorry about all the profanity, folks. February does that to me.

I'm a pretty upbeat person, but this time of year just gets to me. It's really cold. There's a lot of snow down and more coming. Where I live, it could conceivably be well into April before it even starts to melt. It's dark. I have a cold.

I don't see my friends as much, because the weather makes it so hard to get around. Same reason keeps me from running outside, or being outside at all. Every little thing seems to take more work and I just feel drained all the time. Being so tired, I don't work on any projects. I don't cook or bake as much. I don't do any of the things I derive so much satisfaction and pride from. So I start to feel low from that. I know I'm not going to make most of my goals for February.

Depressed yet? I know I am.

If you're not familiar with Free Will Astrology (www.freewillastrology.com) you should really check it out, regardless of your belief or lack there of in astrology. These horoscopes are not vague predictors, but rather starting points for introspection. My horoscope for February is particularly apt:

"In Leonard Cohen's song, "Anthem" he sings, "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" from what I can tell, Virgo, the weeks ahead will be one of the best times all year for welcoming the light that comes through he cracks"

Hell ya.

Knowing how rough February is for me makes it all the more important that I focus on the bright spots. I don't think I'll ever feel happy-go-lucky in February, but I should be able to find a way to be a little happy for the things that make me so lucky.

1. Valentine's Day. Even when I was single I didn't understand how people could be so opposed to it. At it's worst, it's a day filled with sweets and chocolate. At it's best, it's a giddy explosion of pink and red sparkles raining down on that downy-warm feeling of being loved.

2. Longjohns. Wearing ridiculous t-shirts to work. (under sweaters, so no one knows, but still). Sweaters.

3. Soup. Oatmeal. Chili. Stew. Any warm, soft meal in a bowl.

4. I have a hot water bottle that has a cover that makes it look like a stuffed frog. But it's a hot water bottle.

5. Those times my friends and I make the effort to get together. It means more because it's harder.

Ok, so five is not a lot, but it's a pretty good start.

January Update, February Goals

2011-01-31T15:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't go for a run after work today, even though I planned to. I had a long meeting, then some other small frustrations. I stayed a little late. I didn't get to half of my to-do list.

I came home and cuddled with Boyfriend a bit. We watched kitten videos on youtube. Then, feeling somewhat restored, I made the best spaghetti sauce I have ever made. I'm kind of a novice with sauces, so this may not rock your world, but it was pretty good, so I'll include the recipe below.

What's my point? If I'd forced myself to run today I would have met my goal of 15 runs in January. I accepted that today it wasn't in the stars, and moved on. The whole reason I'm doing these month-by-month resolutions is so that I have 12 chances to pick myself up and start all over again.

So, here's the January results:

1. Run 15 times. Nope. See above. But I ran 14 times, which is pretty good. I like the technique of getting my shoes on and running for 5 minutes. There was only once I did that and actually stopped after 5 minutes. All the other times I kept going.

2. Stick to January's budget: Yes! I think. I actually managed to lose the lovely budget I typed up for myself, but the bills were all paid, spending was tracked, and there's leftovers. So I passed this one.

3. Fold the laundry right out of the dryer. Um.....

Not exactly.

This was a total fail. The only load I got folded and put away the day I washed it was a load of towels. The first load of clothes I folded and left in the basket for two weeks. The above load I completely abandoned. But! In my defense, we watched the episode of "I, Claudius" where Caligula was assassinated on the anniversary of the event. That would not have been possible if I were folding laundry.

Sigh.

4. Study French. Sort of! The first two classes were canceled due to weather and the instructor's illness. So I've only been to one class so far. But I've practiced. Je m'appelle Emily.

So, not really a stellar start to the month, but not a bad one either. I'll call it a pass.

Next!

New goals for February:

1. Run 14 times. It's the same number of runs as January, but with fewer days it's a bigger challenge.

1(a) In keeping with fitness, Boyfriend and I have started the 100 pushups challenge (www.hundredpushups.com) so, I resolve to keep that up.

2. Stick to the February budget. Much tighter than January (I'm going on a trip this spring!) and I've got a few birthday presents to buy. We'll see.

3. Fold the GD laundry. Roman emperors be damned.

4. Study French, for real this time.

Wish me luck!

Kind of a rough but not really a bad day spaghetti sauce

Olive oil
3 small onions
2 cloves garlic
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 can (750ml) pureed tomatoes
t1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.

Heat olive oil in large, deep skillet. Slice onions and brown them in the oil. Add garlic, cook for a couple of minutes, add red pepper flakes and cook for another minute. Pour in the tomatoes and the vinegar. Simmer about 20 minutes or so.

Women's Work

2011-01-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

Have I told you about the exhibit?

I probably have, it’s all I talked about for several months last fall. But then, maybe I didn’t. I don’t like to talk about work in this space. I don’t feel it’s appropriate.

Anyway, last fall I had the privilege to work on an exhibit. It was a photographic website on the daily lives of women in rural Newfoundland prior to confederation.

It was a lot more work than I expected, but not nearly the kind of work that the women I was representing had done.

Do you know what’s involved in “making fish”? I do now. This is what women would do with the fish that the men brought in before it could be sold. It had to be washed, salted and dried many times over. We are talking literal tons of fish here. Washed, salted, and spread out to dry. Many times. I know I’m repeating myself here, but it’s important. One thing that had never occurred to me about this process: if there was any sign of rain, the fish had to be brought in before it happened, then spread out again after.

In case you’re not familiar with Newfoundland weather, this is the part where a chill goes down your spine.

Basically, this would be all day, six days a week, of backbreaking labour. Labour that had to be performed perfectly, as it was the backbone of the family finances.

But that’s not all!

During the fishing season, the family would eat five meals a day. The first breakfast around 4am, as the men had to be on the water by dawn. Then a second breakfast a few hours later. The largest meal of the day was at midday, then at 5 there would be a light supper, followed by lunch before bed. All of these were cooked and served by the women of the family. Newfoundland families from this time often had 8 or more children, which was helpful for the hands with work, but made for more mouths to feed, not to mention more laundry.

But let’s just stick with the feeding for now. In the communities this exhibit examines, there were few stores. Women could buy flour, oats, tea, tobacco and molasses, but often not a whole lot else. (Especially if the fishing was poor). Women baked bread and prepared all meals from scratch. The majority of their ingredients they had to provide for themselves as well.

Most houses had a vegetable patch, but gardening is hard in Newfoundland. In most areas the topsoil is very thin, and what there is is highly acidic. Also, there can be frosts in June and September, so the growing season is very short. Women would lay out caplin to rot in the sun and fertilize the soil. The vegetables that were grown in these patches would be the only ones their families would get. The berries picked up from the barrens the only fruit.

One thing that sticks with me from my research is an oral interview that was done with an elderly woman years ago. She had been born in the late 1890s and had been interviewed in the early 80s. She was describing her housework and said, “When I had a spell, I’d do some weeding.” What she meant, was that she weeded as a break from work.

Personally, I consider weeding to be work.

I won’t even get into the cleaning, the laundry, the knitting and sewing, childrearing, teaching, healing, etc.

My point is that women worked hard. They have for millennia, all over the globe. I’m sure in the world now there are women who have similar lifestyles.

I work 40 hours a week in an ergonomic chair in a climate controlled environment, where I have full benefits and rights and have never encountered any kind of discrimination, then I come home to my 21^st century partner, electric stove and washing machine, and do pretty much whatever I feel like. Because I can.

But I do bake bread. And I grow vegetables. I cook dinner. I crochet blankets. I don’t have to do these things, but I choose to. Whenever I push my fists into warm dough, I know that my grandmothers did this, and their grandmothers. So on and again for a thousand years, on this side of the ocean and the other.

I don’t have to do these things, but a little ache in my shoulders and some slightly sore feet remind me of where I’ve come from. They give me a sense of connection and continuity with the past. And remind me to be grateful for all the advantages I have now.

Resolutions

2011-01-01T12:47:00.001-08:00

For various reasons, I didn't go ahead with a planned post for my favourite albums of the year, but I just couldn't let 2010 slip away completely without mentioning this one. It's amazing. Brilliant. Thrilling, even. I listened to it nearly every day since I got it last spring. I listened to it while I worked, I listened to it while I cooked and cleaned. I listened to it when I walked to meet my best friend on her wedding day. I listened to it while I prepared for my New Year's guests. I listened to it this morning while I nursed my hangover. This album will forever be 2010 to me.

Onwards to 2011. I was thinking long and hard about my new years resolutions. I love resolutions. The word sounds so strong and stalwart, and opportunities to improve myself, to challenge myself are always exciting. I'm not great at keeping New Year's resolutions, however. 12 months is a long time, and it's hard to predict how your needs will change.

So this year, I resolve to make monthly resolutions. The first of every month I'll start with a few resolutions for the month ahead. I'll take stock of how I did the month previous and what I need in the month to come.

So, without further ado:

January Resolutions

1. Run 15 times. 2010 was not a good year for my fitness. I kept a half-hearted workout routine going, but I was no where near competition. I pretty much embarrassed myself at the one race I ran. Then, a few months ago I realized that my sporadic running (along with a few other factors) had resulted in an injury. My physiotherapist had me stop running entirely for a couple of months, and it sucked. It also strengthened my resolve. Now that I have his ok, I need to make running a part of my lifestyle again. But I'm out of shape and not sure how well I can do. So instead of setting a goal for distance or time, I'm just going to commit to pulling on my running shoes half the days of the month.

2. Stick to the January Budget: Like I said above, 12 months is a long time. As it's impossible to predict what my needs will be that far in advance, I'm going to do month by month budgets.

3. Have the house as clean on February 1st. as it was today. Boyfriend and I get pretty slack with the cleaning, honestly. Yesterday we scrubbed from top to bottom, and it looks fantastic. Except for some dirty dishes it was nearly as clean today. I'm going to try to do that again.

3.(a) Fold my laundry and put it away. I have a terrible tendency to leave my clean laundry heaped in a basket unfolded, and just haul things out as needed. It's not a good system. In January, I'm going to try to stop that.

4. Study French. I don't know French, at all. Can you believe it? It's so embarrassing. I took French until 9th grade, but due to lax teachers I didn't learn much. I opted out in Highschool, and in University I studied Latin and German instead. I start French classes on January 13th, and I'm going to make a real go of it this time.

There are my four for January. Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it goes.

Christmas Coins

2010-12-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

The first financial lesson I learned from my father was to save my pennies. Literally.

I don’t know how or why Dad started saving his coins. I know when he was a boy in the late 50s and early 60s he’d do small jobs for his older brothers in exchange for “silver” ie, nickels and dimes. They were worth more then.

In any case, at the end of every day Dad would put all his change in a jar under his desk. When I was small Kraft peanut butter came in clear glass jar in the shape of a teddy bear. We had about a half dozen of these, washed out and ready for coins.

It usually took about two months to fill a jar, then it would be placed on the shelf leading down to the basement. By November, the shelf would be full of coin jars, crammed with coins.

A few weeks before Christmas, Dad would empty all the jars onto the dining room table. It looked like piles of pirate treasure. He would roll while mom made dinner. I can remember sorting the coins based on the pictures when I was too small to count them (maple leaf, beaver, bluenose, moose and loon, if you’re not Canadian. Later there were polar bears). When I got a bit older I counted the ones my brother sorted.

A few hours every night for about a week (depending on how many coins there were) we’d all sit around the dining room table together, rolling coins. I really liked doing it as a kid, making piles of coin like Scrooge McDuck, and I still do, honestly. Plus, it was the first sign that Christmas was coming to our house.

The coins were our Christmas money. Some people have Christmas Club accounts or some other way to budget for the holidays. Dad put in a small amount every day, an amount that he wouldn’t miss, and over the course of the year it would slowly add up to hundreds of dollars. After the advent of the toonie ($2 coin, which was a total game-changer for this technique) we top a thousand, easy.

I’ve done this since I’ve moved out, but I’m not as disciplined as Dad was. Even so, I rolled over $200 last weekend, which is enough to pay for the simple Christmas Boyfriend and I have planned. It also helps me avoid waste. I’ve noticed that if I have change in my wallet it almost always winds up at Tim Horton’s or in the vending machine. Overpriced junk that I don’t need. Without change in my wallet that temptation is gone.

Which plays into my new, focused spending plan. Christmas means a lot to me. Certainly more than 200 coffees. I have trouble resisting my sugar cravings when there’s so much temptation around. But I’m a lot less likely to break up a bill than I am to scrounge quarters for a fix. Better that those coins be safe in a jar on my vanity, waiting for Christmas.

So save the penny, and bring on the foonie!! (Occasionally a five dollar coin is proposed. I don’t think it’ll ever actually happen, but I can dream)

Post Script

2010-12-01T05:11:00.000-08:00

I want to post an addendum to my last entry. Within a few days of posting my thoughts on gratitude, I saw the headline “Gratitude is Nice, But Don’t Let it Keep You from Action” on one of my favourite websites, The Gloss. See link below.

On the surface, Jen Dzuria’s article seems to be the exact opposite of mine. She talks about how being thankful for the little things can cause a person to stop striving for the bigger things. She discussed her own experience with this, describing a time in her life when she focused on the positive things in her life and ignored the major problems she should have been working on.

I want to be very clear that this is not what I am advocating. I can be thankful for what I have now and still work hard for more in the future. Gratitude is no excuse for complacency. Contentment in the now is no reason to ignore the future.

Right now, I am working at being content with what I have. I am proud of what I have. I’ve accomplished a lot so far, and I have quite a bit to show for it. But I’m still looking ahead. I’m working hard and keeping my eye open for better opportunities at work. I’m saving my money so one day I can afford a car and a house. When I talk about being content, I’m thinking more about squelching the jealousy I feel when others talk about shopping sprees and fantastic trips. Some of these things I’ll never need, others I may have to wait for. I don’t want that to make me miserable, so I focus on the positive.

For perhaps the millionth time I’m reminded of the Serenity Prayer. I think, whatever your religious feelings you can see the wisdom of striving for:

“the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”

The answer to any debate is almost always the middle of the road. Life is rarely an all-or-nothing proposition. Be content with what you have, but keep your shoulder to the wheel and your eyes on the horizon.

And read Jen Dzuria’s articles, because she’s a smartie.

http://thegloss.com/career/bullish-gratitude-is-nice-but-dont-let-it-keep-you-from-action/

Thinking About Thinking

2010-11-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

I’ve been thinking about frugality lately. I started for practical reasons, I need to make better use of my money. This was originally a short-term goal, but the more I think about it, the more I think that it should be a lifetime goal, a value.

Being frugal is not the same as being cheap, or even being thrifty. Those focus on spending as little as possible. Frugality is about the mindful use of resources. That phrase “mindful use of resources” came from my dictionary and I just love it. I’ve been rolling it around on my tongue all day. It doesn't have to be all about money, there are all kinds of resources I should be more mindful of. I can hardly claim to be the Queen of Green, but I do my best. I try to save energy, recycle, reduce and reuse whenever I can.

Mindful is, I think, the key word. Whenever I rinse out a can or resist turning up the thermostat, I am reminded about why I do those things. The simple actions of living green remind me to do so, and reinforce my commitment to do so. Furthermore, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have the option. There are people who can’t afford to heat their homes, people who can’t afford thick sweaters and hot chocolate to stave off the cold, people who don’t have homes at all. My sweaters and hot chocolate don’t seem like luxuries compared to some, but there are others who would think so.

I think gratitude is inherent to contentment. It’s all too easy to look at those who have more and feel bitter. It’s harder to be thankful for what you have, especially when that doesn’t seem like very much. But when I can manage it, I can be happy, and it makes the road easier.

There’s a transit strike in my city right now, so last weekend I walked to the mall to meet friends. It’s a 45 minute walk and it was dark, windy and snowing. It would have been easy to call a cab, or to spend the whole time wishing I had a car, but I really focused on this walk. I thought about co-worker who has a physical disability. She lives far from the office and relies on transit. She said, “Thank goodness I have friends I can get a ride from”. If she can be thankful for that, I can certainly be thankful for my strong legs. I also made myself think about my good boots and coat, my warm mittens, my mp3 player (which certainly isn’t fancy but sure made the walk more fun) and all the wonderful people I was walking to see. Honestly, by the time I got to the theatre I was in a pretty good mood. Plus, I’d saved $15 and a couple litres of gas and gotten some exercise to boot.

It’s really hard, it takes a lot of discipline, to be mindful all the time. But even after such a short time I’m already seeing the benefit. I’m finished with the diet/binge pattern of spending that I’ve been on, I’m tired of feast and famine. I want my spending to reflect what I value, and not convenience or impulse. I want to be mindful of how I use all my resources, and how lucky I am to have those resources in the first place.

An Unsponsored Recommendation

2010-11-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

Robin Hood Nutri-Blend flour is awesome. I don't normally recommend products, because I genuinely believe that, for the most part, one brand is as good as any other. And that may be true in this case as well, but Robin Hood is the only one offering this in Newfoundland right now.

I'm sorry, I'm so excited I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up.

I am fairly committed to healthy eating 80% of the time. Besides the obvious health benefits, I like the wholesome feeling I get from eating healthy foods. My brother's godfather always credited his health to a simple credo: "avoid the three deadly white powders; white sugar, salt, and white flour." This has always been held up to us as an example of disciplined healthy eating. I don't follow it. I do try to keep it in mind, and reduce those ingredients. Can I use honey instead of sugar? Can I half the salt? Will whole wheat flour work? Sometimes yes, but sometimes no. And those times when it's no I go ahead with the white powder, because I do need my treats sometimes.

So, I eat whole wheat bread, muffins and pasta, because those taste really good, but never whole wheat cakes, cookies, or pizza crusts, because they don't. Or do they???????

I first heard about "white whole wheat flour" from Orangette. She wrote about a flour that had all the wonderful properties of white flour (the lightness, the flavour, the texture) while still having all the fibre and nutrition of whole wheat flour. Apparently the difference is in how the flour is processed. It seemed incredible, but I could not find the brand she mentioned in St. John's and I certainly was not about to start ordering my flour online. It remained a far-away dream.

Until a month or so ago. There, in my grocery store, was Robin Hood Nutri-Blend Flour, making the exact same claim. I quickly bought a bag, even though it was more than I'd usually spend. (It was about $3.50 for a 2kg bag. I usually buy the 10kg bag for $7. Once in a rare while I get it on sale for $5).

I tried it out on the recipe that Orangette had used it for, "Everyday Cake" (see link below). The first thing that I noticed was that the swapping of flour did not make for a particularly healthy dessert. The cake still calls for a fair bit of butter and sugar. But it was an improvement over white flour. Also, it was delicious. Boyfriend and I agreed that it was a phenomenal cake, and were quite sure that we wouldn't be able to tell the difference with white flour.

So I put it to a harder test: pizza dough. I seriously hate whole wheat pizza crusts. They never taste right. The biggest problem is that pizza dough is such a basic recipe, the flavour of the flour is front and centre. You don't think about it that way, but there is nothing else to taste in pizza dough. Whole wheat flour gives it a lot of that whole-wheaty taste. That's great to have in bread or muffins, but not in my pizza.

I was a little worried about it when I saw it. The dough was definitely off-colour, much darker than my usual crust, but I needn't have worried. It tasted perfect. The product had lived up to the hype.

I still use regular whole wheat flour for everything I always used to. And I use white flour for those desserts which are so decadent as to be unsalvageable, such as frosted cakes or butter cookies. But for my more in-between desserts, everyday cakes and cookies, I use the new flour. A bit more nutrtious, without having to compromise a thing.

http://orangette.blogspot.com/2009/04/about-cake.html

* Robin Hood has given me exactly nothing to endorse this product. But if they'd like to.....

How I Buy Books

2010-09-19T03:38:00.001-07:00

First, an experiment:

Does a picture of my kitten, Stringer Bell appear there? If so, I'll post more pictures in the future.

Now, on to books. I buy them a lot. I got this from my father, who always talked about collecting beautiful and rare books, and having a supply of unread ones against a rainy day. Or a sunny day, both are good for reading. In the days before my budget, it was not at all unusual for me to buy 2-3 books a week, every week. Even since the budget, I still buy 3 or 4 a month. Some months more, like last April when I bought over 30.

Obviously used books make up the bulk of these purchases. Unlike my father I like paperbacks and am less concerned with the look of a book. Although I certainly do appreciate beautiful hardcovers, I don't generally buy them because he has so many and is generous about lending them to me, as long as I am very, very careful with them. I buy books to carry in my purse and read in the lunch room or on the bus.

Used bookstores are where I stock up on writers like Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Robertson Davies, Graham Greene and other old reliables. Writers that I know I'll enjoy whatever they have to have to offer me. I don't need to read the back cover or check out a review. I'll get something out of it, anyway.

My number one favourite books to read can now only be found in used book stores. These are the Penguin paperbacks that were published in the 1970s. This has less to do with the content and more to do with the construction, although there are so many authors published this way. Lots of Hemmingways, Waughs, Conrads and others, as well as shorter classics. By shorter I here mean less than four hundred pages. Unlike modern paperback binders, the Penguins of this era were not so foolish as to try to construct a 1000 page novel that will not fall apart upon second reading. These paperbacks have the most wonderful paper. It's not stark white, but a very light cream and the feel of the paper is incredibly soft and just a bit thick, the print leaving a visible indent. I believe it is impossible to get a papercut from one of these. These may be a result of aging, but the effects remain the same. They have a simple illustration on the front cover, a blurb and a couple of reviews on the back (both covers are cream-coloured as well). The spine is orange with white type, not unlike the blogger template, now that I think about it. These become illegible after multiple readings, but the binding always holds together. Probably why there are so many of them still around after 40 years.

For larger classics I look for hardcovers from the 40s, 50s and 60s. These are often very small, just about 4 or 5 inches tall, so they fit perfectly in my hand. They usually have tiny print, which is a downside but a reasonable compromise to have a book of reasonable size. More than once I've had to limit my reading of a book that was too heavy to hold in one hand. My hands are small and peculiarly weak. This is something I'm working on. These are especially good for writers like George Elliot and Charles Dickens, and other behemoths of their type.

As for new books, there are no shortage of these either. Boyfriend and I usually go to Chapters at least a couple of times a month just for something to do. We get fancy coffees and wander the stacks, making mental lists. It's hard to resist the bargain section, which has been a good source for reference books like "Grandma's Household hints" and an illustrated book of Saints. You can sometimes find leftover hardcovers of books that have just come out as paperbacks. I got Lisa Moore's "Alligator" for $5 this way.

Which reminds me of a rant I'd like to have. This concerns paperbacks priced $17-$25. This is unreasonable. I understand that they generally higher quality, but the purpose of a paperback is to provide a cheaper option for a book. Hardcovers coming in at $40 in unreasonable too, but that's a bit less crazy. I will not pay that much.

So for recent books I look to other sources. Primarily amazon.ca and, to a lesser extent, Costco. Yes, you heard that right, I buy books at costco. The selection is small, and generally only current or recent bestsellers, but they're generally about 40% off the cover price.

Mostly, though, I use amazon.ca. I also get my cds and dvds there. You can generally count on 20%-30% off, and shipping is free with a $35 purchase. I've also started using www.swagbucks.com for further discounts on amazon. (swagbucks is kind of hard to explain, but if you do start using it, tell them thestuckduck sent you). This is where I go for Nick Hornby, Tom Robbins, Muriel Bradbery, Allan Bradley, cookbooks and other more recent books. Most of the same editions that go for $25 at Chapters can be had at $14, which is much better. I also do nearly all my Christmas shopping here, because I can do it in 15 minutes from my couch. It helps to already know what you're getting everyone.

So that's it, that's all my advice and bookbuying. I am also a big proponent of book-lending and book sharing, and any other means of bringing a book into your life.

Home Made Ice Cream: The Agony and the Ecstasy

2010-09-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

The plan to make my own ice cream started a while ago. I’m not sure exactly when, a year at least. I planned and plotted this out for a while.

I don’t know why I always want to try to make everything myself. It’s a compulsion that started in childhood, when I would carefully sew pillows for my dolls and trim them with my stringy, awkwardly crocheted lace (Usually blackened by my dirty fingers by the time it was ready to be attached.

I guess it comes from the feeling of connection I have with things I’ve made, I talked about this a bit in my post about hand-made gifts. Also, the sense of pride I get from having produced something tangible. Either way, as ice cream and making things are my two favourite things, it was inevitable that I’d try my hand at ice cream making.

I ordered David Liebowitz’s book, “The Perfect Scoop” from Amazon a few months ago. The fuss the food blog community made over this book was more than recommendation enough. It seemed that even looking at another ice-cream recipe was tantamount to heresy. Over the following weeks I’d pick up the good book, casually flip through the pages, admire the bright photos, marvel at the exotic recipe names.

Then came The Big Move. Obviously all thoughts of making anything were pushed aside (although I did eat a shocking amount of store bought ice cream in this time). On one expedition to Wal-Mart for house things, I did find a Hamilton Beach ice cream maker on sale for $35. Not the fanciest model, by any means, but the price was right. It was actually one of the first things moved into the new house, as I laid it on a shelf when I walked in and there it sat for over a month.

After the move was the trip, and then there were guests. And then I didn’t want to do much of anything for a while. Finally Boyfriend returned and settled in. Last week was Labour Day, and the time was finally right.

Saturday over dinner we decided that we were really going to do it this time. Knowing that the canister needed to freeze for 24 hours, I popped it into the freezer, and we were on our way! Sunday, we bought the ingredients for chocolate ice cream (of course we were starting with chocolate, do you even know us?). This meant going to the grocery store and buying a 2L of 2% milk (we needed that anyway) 1L of whole milk, and a half litre of cream. Fortunately I’m immune to strange looks from my cashier at the grocery store.

Back home, I set about the recipe, with Boyfriend near by for amusement and support. It was an awfully fussy recipe. Heat this, chill that, strain, use every bowl in the house, etc. I got a bit frustrated here and there, but my frequent tastings assured me that I was making something delicious. Finally ready, we double checked the instructions and saw that the batter also had to chill for 24 hours. Darn. Into the fridge it went, and we waited another day.

Holy cow, I forgot to mention that we got a baby kitten during this time! His name is Stringer Bell and he’s 8 weeks old. He’s the cutest thing in the history of cute things, but isn’t allowed to have ice cream and so is unrelated to this blog post.

Monday night finally came. Our long weekend over, back to work and school the following day, it was at last time to make ice cream. I put together the machine, poured in the mixture (spilling a lot of it down the stove and onto the floor in the process) and waited. And waited. And waited. Our mixture did not become ice cream. It did not look like it would become ice cream. This was pretty disappointing.

We decided to save the mixture and try again tomorrow. As we poured it from the machine into a container we realized, we had way too much of it. The instructions for the machine had cautioned against using more than a litre, but as the recipe claimed to produce a litre we hadn’t thought much of it. As it happened, if you include what had spilled, we had nearly 2. We put the batter back in the fridge, washed the canister and put it back in the freezer, and waited another day.

After work on Tuesday, we made one last try. This time we only put in a half litre and, with fingers crossed, tried again. It took a little longer than the instructions said, and had a consistency more like melty soft serve, but it was ice cream! And it was the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted. I’m not exaggerating, and I have eaten an awful lot of ice cream. It was so rich, but just shy of too rich, so creamy, so …. Perfect! It was unreal. It was worth it.

We made the rest of the batch the next day, with the same results. We wound up with about 1.5L all together (not including that which was spilled) and after a night in the freezer it had the consistency of regular ice cream.

I figure that this ice cream cost $4-$5 for ingredients. I can get ice cream for that much or maybe cheaper if I watch for sales. But not the brands I like. Premium ice cream costs more, Breyer's runs $6.99-$8.49 for 1.5L, Moo Moo's (local) is $15 per 1.5L, and Hagan-Daaz is a staggering $21. I think the taste of my ice cream ranks up with the higher end, maybe better.

There's obviously a bigger time commitment, but that sort of thing doesn't bother me too much. I like concocting. It's worth it for me. Besides, in time I may be able to streamline the process, I foresee quite a lot of home made ice cream in my future!

Introspection and Cabbage

2010-08-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

"Know thyself" said the Greeks. Maybe Socrates, maybe someone else. Thoreau left society to live alone in the woods in order to accomplish this, among other reasons.

Why the philosophy? I don't know. Maybe because I'm considering my life and where it's going. I've been spending more time alone than usual, which as Thoreau discovered causes those sorts of thoughts to spring forth.

I've been spending time alone because I've been living alone, for the first time in my life. I've had roommates since moving away from home. Technically this place is not mine alone, Boyfriend will be moving in with me. But he's spent the summer on the Northern Peninsula and I've been on my own in this house for nearly two months.

There have been times when the solitude has been a relief, even a joy. After a heavy day at work, or a week that's found me busy every night. It's wonderful to have a space over which I had complete control, a place where there was no need to consider anyone else at all. Music if I wanted it, silence if I didn't. No mess if I didn't make one, and no one else judging my mess if I did.

There have been other times, when the solitude has become emptiness. Where my house, instead of seeming large, became tight, closed and oppressive. One Saturday morning I dashed out to the grocery store, just to be around people. I'd only been on my own since the previous afternoon, but at that moment it was more than I could handle.

What have I learned in this time? I think I do well enough on my own, but I do need other people. I need someone to share my life with. I can make a house feel like home all by myself, but I want to share my home. Not with just anyone, but with someone I love who loves me, to share not just my home, but my life. Boyfriend will return from his Northern adventure next week, and he'll move in then. And I'm ready for that.

The other issue about living alone is the cooking. I discussed this in an earlier post, but I find very little pleasure in cooking just for myself. It doesn't seem worth the time or the dishes. I eat tuna sandwiches, cheesy eggs, and veggies from the market. Almost all my meals are forgettable.

Except this one:

In a fit of loneliness the other evening, I decided to make the ultimate comfort food. It had to be warm and mushy, to start. It had to have cabbage (because the cabbage couldn't wait any longer to be cooked) and it needed to have chicken-soup levels of comfort.

I started with a recipe from I Know How to Cook By Ginette Mathiot but I changed it a lot. That's something new for me. Maybe when I'm feeding myself I'm more likely to take risks? Who knows. Anyway, I came up with the following, which was everything I needed it to be:

Comfort Cabbage

Half a large cabbage, sliced to ribbons
An onion, chopped
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1 slice prosciutto, ripped to bits
1 cup chicken broth

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then stir in the onions. Add a pinch of sugar to help them brown. When they start to brown a little, add the cabbage and stir to coat. Pour the broth over and reduce heat to a low simmer. Simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Done!

The Air Freshener Rant

2010-08-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

I hate air fresheners, room scents, and anything created by the Glade company. Strong words, but carefully considered.

I should mention I do not have a problem with scents, even artificial scents in general. I am an avid collector of perfumes, and I wear one almost every day (but never at the office, because I'm a stickler for rules). The difference is that for perfume we're talking about a half drop selected by myself that no one else can smell. I frequently do checks on this with either Boyfriend or other friends, "Can you smell me now? How about now? No? Good!" A scent can be a very personal thing. Room scents, on the other hand, fill the air, and everyone has to smell them. Moreover, I find most of them unpleasant. Scented oils are heavy, incense is smokey, and those awful aerosols and plug-in things just smell like a chemical swamp. I was excited by the claims of febreeze when it first came out, as it was advertised as a product that would eliminate smells without covering them up. I imagined a sort of spray baking soda. It's not. It smells like febreeze, which smells awful. I recently read about a woman who, when she was too busy to clean would squirt windex into the air to trick guests into thinking she had. It always worked and I bet smelled better than febreeze.

I don't see what's wrong with having your house smell like it does naturally. I open the windows as often as I can and I clean regularly. My house smells fine. I use baking soda in the fridge, the garbage and anywhere else that a bad smell might have a chance to grow and that takes care of that. I have the added advantage that I bake frequently, so my house often smells like baking. That's all the perfume it needs.

There are times, however, when the house gets a bit stale. I experienced this a few weeks ago when we had some pretty warm weather. There was no breeze coming in through the windows and, even though the house was clean, the air was heavy and sticky. I had guests staying with me and I knew they would be tired when they arrived. I wanted my house to be fresh and refreshing, I wanted it to smell like lemons. There's an easy and cheap way to do this without using lemon scented air wick. (I can only assume that whoever created this product has never actually encountered a lemon)

The only room-scenting technique I have ever employed comes from an old "Hints from Heloise" column. One of the few that doesn't involve re-using old containers. Basically, boil some cinnamon. It makes your house smell like cinnamon. Duh. So simple, and so perfect. Now, the cinnamon part has never quite worked for me, as the smell makes me crave it so badly that I usually wind up dropping whatever I was busy with to make a coffee cake. But this technique works with almost anything. The evening my guests were to arrive I put a few drops of lemon juice in bowls which I placed around the house. I then boiled the kettle and poured the water into the bowls. The cold bowls increased the steam, which quickly dispersed through the air. Each room was immediately freshened, and had just a slight hint of real lemon. Less than five minutes, barely costing a penny and no huffing mystery chemicals. Ta da!

2010-07-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

July has been kind of a crazy month. For one thing, I moved with 8 days notice. When I was starting the process I thought how I did it might make for an interesting blog post, but I did everything wrong, so I really cant give anyone advice on this particular topic. I'm not far enough removed from the various disasters for them to be funny yet, so I wont be talking much about them either.
In the midst of this chaos, I hopped on a plane to St. Anthony to visit Boyfriend. Boyfriend is working as a Viking this summer, as part of the Norstead Theatre Festival. Norstead is the recreation of a Viking trading community circa 1000 AD built near the archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows, where the Vikings actually did settle 1000 years ago. Its something I always wanted to see, and with Boyfriend there (for three months!) I had the perfect excuse.
It was a wonderful vacation, although the weather was bad. On a foggy day I climbed to the lookout point on top of a cliff, where I could see the waves crash on shore and the mist swirl around the sod longhouses. On a rainy windy day I retreated into one of those longhouses, with strawberry plants growing on the roof, and sat around the fire with ladies in full Viking dress. One of these, called Olga on the site but Violet outside, taught me naalbinding. Naalbinding is the technique Norse women used to knit hats, mittens and socks. It uses only one needle, about 3 inches long, flat and made of Caribou bone. The needle is threaded and worked through loops on the opposite thumb. As much as I love crochet I've never mastered knitting, which can be frustrating as its much better for practical items. Perhaps two needles are just too many for me. Naalbinding might be the answer. Boyfriend has promised to bring a needle home with him when he comes.
When off site, I stayed with Boyfriend and two of his co-workers, P&N in a modern 2 bedroom apartment. Since they were hosting me and saving me the cost of accommodation, I wanted to do something nice for them. If you know me, you already know this means I did some cooking. There were a couple of challenges to this. First, they are only there for the summer, so they only brought the necessities in terms of equipment. Second, I didn't want to buy a lot of ingredients that wouldn't get used up. Finally, P is a vegetarian, something Im not used to considering.
The first day I made Marcella Hazan's fabulous tomato and onion sauce, because it was easy and they had all the ingredients on hand (Put ¼ cup butter, one onion, one large can of tomatoes in a pot. Season with salt and pepper, simmer for 45 minutes) I served it over rigatoni, because thats what was there. The second day we went to the grocery store where I bought ingredients for quiche, pizza, and chili.
I used a pot for a mixing bowl, a beer bottle for a rolling pin (I know a wine bottle is classier, but hey, we were Vikings, after all) and when the chili wouldn't fit in the pot I split it into two pots.
Like most vacations it was over way too fast and I was plunged back into the chaos that is my house. But more on that later, when I'm ready

On Handmade Presents

2010-06-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

Even though I crochet almost constantly, I don't often give handmade gifts. Generally, I give people books. Almost exclusively, actually. Handmade gifts are an awful lot of work and (somewhat selfishly, I admit) I have trouble parting with something I've worked very hard on. This is clearly evidenced by the four afghans that are currently draped over my living room furniture. Also, handmade gifts are often just as expensive as store bought ones. I use synthetic yarn and it still costs anywhere between $50-$100 to get enough for a blanket or even a small throw.

So when I make a handmade gift, it's usually a very special occasion, and for someone I love very much. I'm currently working on two, which is very unusual. It's got me thinking about what it means to make something for someone else. The most special gift I've made so far was for the first of my friends to get married, M&H. It was a pretty hefty financial investment, as well as an enormous time investment. I made them a white bedspread, and it took me six months. They say the most important part of a gift is the thought that goes into it. When you're making a gift, it's not just one thought, it's many thoughts. While I was making that bedspread I thought about them the entire time. I don't mean that I was 100% focused on just them, but somewhere in my mind every single stitch (and they were countless) was for them. Every stitch was a little hope, a little prayer, and a thank you for all the love they've given me.

On Victory and Independence

2010-06-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last night my mother made a roast chicken for Sunday dinner. After dinner I collected the bones and scraps and took them home with me. I put it in the stockpot with vegetable odds and ends, herbs and water and let it simmer for 3 hours. While that was happening I planted my Victory garden.

Since many have asked, my Victory Garden is basically a simple kitchen garden. During WWII in England people were encouraged to replace their flower gardens with vegetable gardens so they could use fewer food rations and support the army. Now, my vegetable garden won't help any soldiers anywhere, but I like to call it that anyway.

I've heard people complain that growing vegetables is even more expensive than buying them, but these people are probably falling into the trap of buying things they don't need. My garden cost less than $10 this year. I had a trowel and a watering can that I'd purchased several years ago for about $5 each. They're still perfectly good. I borrowed a shovel from my parents and I bought 6 packets of seeds for $3, 3 bags of black earth for $3 and a bag of sheep manure for $2. I also let a couple of potatoes and onions sprout. This is plenty for my garden. It's a little longer than a meter and a little wider than a half meter. It's small, but I plant more densely than the packets say and last year I got more vegetables than I could eat. Many wound up being given away or getting made into soups and frozen. It doesn't always work, last year I didn't get any carrots, but this year I only planted about half of each package, so I'll have more to plant after the first harvest. Also, I only planted vegetables that I know will grow in my climate, so I won't have any disappointments like I had last year. (Dreams of broccoli dead in the dirt)
So I planted peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, cabbages, carrots, onions and potatoes. The only one I haven't grown myself before are the cabbages. But it's Newfoundland, surely cabbages will grow fine? Anyway, if this summer is anything like last summer, I may be able to get enough veggies for several months.

This morning a warm rain fell on my garden and I made a vegetable soup out of my stock. I browned some onions in oil and then added four cups of vegetables (I had potatoes, carrots, parsnip, turnips and celery on hand) then 5 cups of stock (I have a litre and a half left) and a large can of diced tomatoes with their juice. After a half hour of simmer I got more than 3 litres of soup with less than $5 worth of ingredients, and when I make that soup this summer I'll use fresh vegetables from my own garden.

It gives me a wonderful sense of independence to provide healthy food for myself, growing it is even better. My own little victories.

No Spend Month Day 31: The Wrap Up

2010-05-31T05:23:00.000-07:00

I've learned a lot of things this Month, but one thing struck me most of all. I have wonderful family and friends. They have been so overwhelmingly supportive and generous that a couple of times I felt like I was cheating. They've been there for me with constant encouragement and have treated me to lunches and even a movie. Above all I have to take a moment to thank my wonderful Boyfriend, without whom I surely would have cracked. It was very hard to leave a job I loved, even though I believe I'll be back, and he got me through that. That day I thought I just couldn't make it, he took me out for pizza and beer. He brought bottles of wine and a tub of decadent ice cream. These were just the physical tokens of his emotional support, which was constant and unfailing.

Anyways, that's enough mushy stuff, time to get to brass tacks: What did I spend?

I spent $99.32. Considering I spent more than that on each of my trips to Sephora last month, I'm pretty impressed with that.

I bought:
Milk, butter, eggs, honey, peanut butter sugar, green peppers, red peppers, corn on the cob, bananas, a candy bar and bag of chips, cheese, beans, peas, lettuce, rubber gloves, 4 cups of coffee (2 for Boyfriend, as small tokens of gratitude) 6 packets of vegetable seeds, and my last loonie went to an adorable little girl selling Kool-Aid to benefit the Janeway Children's Hospital.

The thing about this budget, is that it's unsustainable. I didn't buy any personal hygiene products, no clothing, no books, no gifts, less than $10 on entertainment. Also, I had a freezer stocked with chicken, salmon, ground beef and lamb stew. I had a pantry full of flours, pasta, lentils, rice, almond milk, chocolate chips, canned tomatoes, yeast, oils, vinegars and seasonings. I had large bags of apples, potatoes, carrots, onions and big head of celery. I even had a half bottle of wine for cooking.

This post is getting long enough, so I'll talk a bit more about lessons learned sometime this week. What I'm immediately taking away is this:

I set myself a goal and I achieved it. I lived on a very restricted budget for 1 month. I did it with help. I used what I had, I accepted the generosity of others, and I did without. I definitely think I'll do this again next year, and in the meantime I'll resolve to take my new habits forward. Here's to waste-less summer!

Make this Soup

2010-05-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is exactly the kind of recipe I love, the kind that I could eat everyday for the rest of my life. It's healthy and simple and delicious. No surprise, it's a soup.

Although I talk about food a lot, I don't really post many recipes on this blog because I don't come up with my own. I take recipes mostly from friends, foodblogs and cookbooks. This one came from Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking". I use this book often, even though I've run into a couple of duds, because it works wonderfully well as a general instructional manual. She's convinced me to put celery into almost everything, even though I don't like celery, she's explained why you brown the onions first, then add the garlic. "The alchemy of cooking" as Nigella Lawson once said. One of her big ideas about food, and this makes her different from Julia Child, is that you should really let the flavours of the food speak for themselves. There isn't a lot of seasoning or altering of the food.

First, defrost a small package of frozen peas (I used 300g) chop potatoes into small dice (3cups) and thinly slice 3 cups of onions. A note on quantities: I thought there were just a few too many onions. My lunch date, K thought there were a few too many peas. These can be altered to suit your preferences. Thinly slice 2 cloves of garlic.

Brown the onions in olive oil with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. Add the garlic and cook a until just starting to brown. Add the potatoes and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add enough water to cover by a couple inches (in my pot this was 5 cups) and a beef bouillon cube. Reduce heat to minimum, cover, and let simmer for half an hour. Add peas and simmer another 5-10 minutes. Done!

It doesn't sound like a lot, but the garlic and onion make for a lovely savoury broth and the peas add just a bit of sweetness. It's yummy and healthy and it feels good to eat it, especially the way K and I did, sitting by a sunny window with big mugs of tea and oatmeal cookies for dessert.

I have no idea how much this cost to make, but I had everything in my kitchen already except for the peas, which cost $2.09. I got 7 servings so I'm considering it to be a very budget lunch.

No Spend Month Day 17: A bit of Math

2010-05-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'd be able to even consider this No Spend Month thing if I had not already seriously considered my food budget. I've done this several times since I've been on my own, the last year in particular. Food is something I refuse to scrimp on, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to save.

Bread is my favourite example. I eat a lot of bread. I eat bread like and 18th century French Peasant. (If, you know, they could get bread). I never really thought about bread as expensive. For years I used to eat Dempster's whole wheat, which cost $3.19 a loaf. That's not a lot of money, right? Plus, I have to have bread.

When I started shopping with Mom at Costco, I realized that I could buy two loaves for $6 and freeze one until I was ready to eat it. I was pleased with this savings, so I wanted to calculate how much I saved per year by making this change. Figuring that I eat about 1.5 loaves a week, my savings added up to $14.82 a year. Not too shabby.

A few months later I was out of bread and had no ride to costco. Rather than buying the Dempster's at full price, I picked up a loaf that was made in the grocery store bakery for $1.99. I actually really liked it. I was fresher than Dempster's, and had fewer mystery ingredients. I switched, and calculated my yearly savings again. This time it was a whopping $78.78 over what I was spending at Costco and $93.60 over what I had been spending before. I felt like a very savvy shopper and bragged to everyone.

Late last fall I started making my own bread from a recipe I got from Orangette. (See below). I fell in love with this recipe, and started making my own bread nearly all the time. For one thing, the only ingredients are yeast, water, honey, oil and whole wheat flour, so there is no salt or sugar or any preservatives or mystery ingredients of any kind. For another, it's delicious. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, absolutely perfect for toast or soaking up soup. Finally, I discovered that I find it incredibly soothing to make bread. This recipe only takes 2 hours from start to finish (and most of that it's rising or baking) so it doesn't take too much time, and I get all my frustrations out pounding that dough. Not to mention how wonderful the house smells when I make it. My breadmaking day began to be my favourite day of the week. I didn't know how much the bread cost, but I didn't care. I won't compromise on the quality of my food.

But one especially dull afternoon, I decided to find out. I figured out how much I paid for the individual ingredients and how much of each I used and added it all up. I came up with about $0.90 a loaf. This is a lot cheaper than I had originally thought, and a heck of a lot cheaper than the store bread. How much am I saving a year? That's a yearly savings of $85.02 over the store brand and $179.40 over the original dempsters bread.

To emphasize: In 2010 I will save $179.40 on bread alone over what I paid in 2008. That's a lot of money.

Now, obviously not everyone is into bread baking, but my point here is that the best way to save money is to look at the things you buy the most often and try to think about a way to do it cheaper. Those savings might be small, but they add up faster. Can you buy in bulk? Is a cheaper brand just as good? (or better? As it was in this case) can you do it yourself? Just keep in mind that, when it comes to nutrition, a better price is not necessarily a better buy. Read all the ingredients and nutritional information carefully. Keep your body and your wallet healthy

No Spend Month Day 11: Love with Little Money

2010-05-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

The biggest challenge while on a budget is gifts. I like to think of myself as a generous person, I sincerely enjoy buying things for other people. I like thinking about what they might like, searching for just the right thing, carefully wrapping it up and imagining how they’ll react, how they’ll use it, etc. This is even a bigger deal when it comes to a member of my family. My father, mother, brother and I are a real set of 4, and I’m very grateful for each one of them and all that they do.

So you can imagine how Mother’s Day falling in “No Spend Month” caused me some consternation. I thought about blowing half my budget on a present, because surely a Mother’s Day present is a necessity? But I don’t think my mother would like that. Mom has always been a paragon of thrift and minimalism. She taught us to save, to be careful and thoughtful with our money. She has been very enthusiastic and supportive of the no spending, and I think she would have been very disappointed if I broke it to buy her a present.

I had to do something else to show my appreciation of everything she’s done for me. The thing my mother appreciates most is time together. That’s why for the last few years my brother and I have generally given her experiences rather than things for gifts. I’ll take her for a mother-daughter manicure and he’ll take her to dinner and a movie. I knew without question that I would be spending all of Sunday with Mom, but doing what?

The answer was what it usually is: cook something. I know it sounds trite, but there’s something about sharing food that I strongly associate with sharing love. When I cook something for someone, it’s because I love them. When I make whole wheat bread or a nourishing soup for myself, it’s because I love myself and I want to be healthy and strong. When I make cookies for guests, it’s because I love them and I want to welcome them into my home. Even when I mix a box of Kraft Dinner for my brother, it’s because I love him and I enjoy spending Saturday afternoons the way we did when we were kids.

Saturday afternoon I made a lemon blueberry cake. Mom doesn’t like cakes that are too sweet or too rich, so I picked one that had no icing. Sunday I went grocery shopping with my Dad shortly after breakfast. He helped with the ingredients for the day and I made French onion soup for lunch, then a Julia Child steak recipe (Oh, so good) for dinner with mashed potatoes and peas. All her favourites. While pots simmered we chatted and played crib, and after dinner we retired with our glasses of wine to watch “Brothers and Sisters”. It was a really wonderful day. One of the most fun I’ve had for a very long time. I’m pretty sure Mom really liked it too, which is of course the point.

The idea of love with little money was reinforced for my last night. I had gotten a call from my friend J who wanted to lend her support for the no-spend project. She invited me over to her place for dinner and a movie. Fun and free. She looked up a fancy salmon recipe she’d had once (oh, so good) and picked out a movie I really should have seen a long time ago. (Can you believe I’ve never seen Dirty Dancing before?). It was a great time, but what touched me the most was how she’d gone out of her way to show her support by choosing an activity that would allow me to continue.

And it’s soon time for me to show her the same support, mere hours after I left dear J got engaged!!

No Spend Month: Day 7

2010-05-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

I am a little bit proud and a little bit ashamed to admit that I have spent exactly nothing all week. I’m proud because it seems to me to be quite an achievement to spend nothing for that long. I’m embarrassed that I had more than enough food accumulated to make this possible.

So what did I eat? On the weekend I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread and made a big pot of barley soup. I had peanut butter toast and tea for breakfast every day and soup for lunch every day. I’m lucky in that I don’t mind repetition with meals, especially if they’re healthy and yummy. I get fatigued of processed foods after a few days, my body can really feel the difference, and if I don’t like something I’m simply not going to eat it. But I’ve had peanut butter toast and tea for breakfast nearly every morning for several years, and it’s still one of my favourite parts of the day.

Dinners I thought would be trickier, but apparently I thought wrong. I had braised chicken and veggies, spaghetti with home made sauce, even lamb stew! I buy meat in bulk and freeze it, so I may not need to buy meat at all during this entire month.

These meals were supplemented with apples from a five pound bag, popcorn from the pantry and chocolate from the stash. Yes, I keep a stash of chocolate in my closet, doesn’t everyone?

So I clearly haven’t been deprived, but I sure have been tempted. I went into Auntie Crae’s, a local bakery and specialty grocery store, to inquire about a certain ingredient and I nearly threw in the towel right then. Chocolates and nuts and fancy, fancy cheeses. After I spoke with the clerk I practically flung myself out onto the street to avoid the truffle oil. Side note: did you hear that scientists are working on cloning truffles so the masses can eat them? I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Worst was yesterday. I had a job interview. I’m pretty good at interviews, to quote Angela from “The Office” : “I believe I stand up very well under scrutiny”. But it’s still stressful. I usually cope by having a fancy coffee before and a chocolate treat after. Yesterday I held off! I had a standard cup of black tea from the box of tea bags I keep in my desk and waited until I get home to attack my stash. I still wanted to buy myself dinner, though. Boyfriend wasn’t over and I simply could not will myself to get down in the kitchen. I thought about Ziggy’s, the chip truck that parks down the street. Poutine for $6, would it really be so bad? It was looking bad.

When things look bad the answer is always the same: call mom. Within an hour I was at the table with my parents, tucking into chicken, rice and broccoli with homemade rolls and wine.

Overall I think this week was a very good start to my challenge. I will need to go to the grocery store tomorrow, so some spending will happen. I need more fresh veggies and I need a couple of ingredients to properly celebrate a truly fantastic mom this weekend. But more on that later.

PS: Basia Bulat’s new album “Heart of My Own” totally rocks. Get it.

No Spend Month

2010-05-01T07:19:00.001-07:00

For the month of May, I have decided to take on a "No Spend Month" challenge.

The goal is to buy nothing that is not a necessity for 31 days. I've heard of variations of this challenge before. I read a book about a woman in England with massive consumer debt who stopped shopping for a year. I read about a blogger from www.gourmet.com who stocked up his pantry and survived with his kitchen garden for a month. But these examples had slipped my mind until recently.

A couple weeks ago I went to visit my brother and a few friends in Toronto. While there I spent quite a lot of money. Because of brother's generous hospitality I didn't need a hotel, but we ate out every meal, I bought expensive cosmetics and bath stuff that isn't available in Newoundland, and I picked up 23 used books. (Funny story, just after I got home there was a massive used book store at the library where I was able to pick up 15 books for $6.50, then found a cookbook I wanted at Chapters for 75% off, bringing the total number of books purchased in April to 39!)

I got home slightly reeling from my credit card total, especially considering the looming layoff from work. I knew my job was up in July, and although there are several other opportunities there, nothing is certain. I needed to save.

When I got home I did the usual things, I bought groceries, did the laundry. But there was no room in the freezer or pantry for the new items, they were already stocked. I put the clothes away and discovered that if all the clothes are washed, there's no room for them. The closet and bureau were stuffed to overflowing, I wound up piling my jeans on the floor to make room. I have too much stuff.

That day, idly surfing the internet, I came upon www.smallnotebook.com. It's a simple living blog, and the blogger does a yearly No Spend Month, in which the family attempts to curb all spending. It seemed like the perfect solution.

You pay your bills, obviously, and set aside a very tight budget for groceries, then spend nothing else. For example, you can buy fruit and milk, but not that oh-so-tempting wheel of camembert. The idea is to force yourself to really think about whether something is a need or a want.

Having never done this before, I'm not really sure how much my necessities will cost. I usually spend a lot on groceries, but that's because I like to cook and I'm always buying fancy ingredients. That's why the cupboards and freezer are in the state they are. I've decided to go with $100, because it's a nice round figure. I don't have a car, so I won't need gas. I have no dependents, but the budget will include the food I feed to Boyfriend and any guests. (Since there's no money for going out, I imagine I'll be having people in more often) That's necessary because the point is not to punish you by forcing you to end all social contact or subsist on Mr. Noodle. It's to make you think about what you really need to be spending.

I was pretty pleased with my plan. I didn't stock up, per se (I didn't really need to) but I did pick up a gift I knew I'd need. Then I had a meeting with my boss and received my two weeks notice. It turns out he can't make the changes to my position while I'm still in it. He hopes to find another place for me soon but, or course, no guarantees. So now, with credit card debt and unemployment bearing down on me with shocking speed, my little personal challenge has become much, much more important.

Well, I'm back!

2010-02-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hello! Anyone still checking this? Hope so!

I decided to take a little break from blogging, I was taking a break from a few things. I'm not out of my winter hibernation yet, but I am ready to re-enter the blogosphere.

I recently read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto" which was absolutely fantastic. His thesis is that it's fine to eat traditional whole foods, even those which modern scientists have warned about, as long as you avoid overindulging. He presents the theory is that the dangers of the "Western" diet come from overprocessing and additives, like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup.

With this is mind, I made a very nutritious and delicious lunch for the week. An Italian lentil and rice soup followed with banana muffins that are actually healthy.

I should explain that, as a picky child muffins were on the "do not eat" list. I was suspicious of muffins, something that seemed so like cake, but didn't have icing and worse, may contain fruit. When I discovered that most muffins contained as much sugar and fat as cupcakes, I was morally outraged and continued my boycott.

Recently, however, I encountered a woman who put an end to all that. The lovely Nicole of www.pinchmysalt.com . She has a slew of muffin recipes that are made with whole wheat flour and oat bran and sweetened with honey. Yummy, satisfying and containing no refined sugar, flour or preservatives. Michael Pollan would approve.

My Top Albums - 2009

2010-01-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

Kim Barlow and Matthias Kom – Spring Break Up

Holy cow, I love this album. When I first got it I enjoyed it too much to listen to at work. (Co-workers noticed my blissed-out expression as I swayed happily in front of my microfilm reader, completely ignoring it). Kom and Barlow combine beautifully to create an album of bittersweet chips. Neither of them have voices that would get them on “American Idol” but they both have a quality of honesty and emotional expressiveness that makes you feel like they aren’t just singing lyrics, they’re telling you about it. These are nine break up songs (and one love song) that are full of beauty and tinged with humour. Like that chuckle through the tears when you think for a moment, “What was I thinking?”

Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels

Nothing can compare to listening to the Great Lake Swimmers live, but this album comes close (and without an obnoxious and apparently lost barrista in the crowd loudly explaining that cappuccino and lattes were basically the same thing). This is an album for quiet times. Built on a solid foundation of delicate harmonies and strong talent, Great Lake Swimmers succeed in establishing a cohesive, peaceful and completely enjoyable album

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight

You’ll notice that this album is a bit different from the others on my list. No banjos here. This is a pop album that rocks and rolls and is more effective at busting me out of my 3pm slump than anything else I’ve tried. I think I’ll forever associate this album with my fastest typing, as the driving beats send my fingers skittering across the keys.
The songs themselves couldn’t be further from 3pm in an office. It’s an album about being out at night: clubs or parties or walking down the street, seeing people, meeting people, and the feverish dreams that follow.

The Burning Hell – Baby

I’m not going to lie to you, the first time I heard The Burning Hell, I fell asleep. The worst thing about this story is that I was actually hearing them live. That’s right, I fell asleep at the Ship Pub. In my defense, I’d just returned from law school and I didn’t do much but sleep that whole week. Also, the Burning Hell had started their set with a series of slow songs, which had a sort of dirge-like quality. Throw in the soothingly deep voice of Matthias Kom (Hey! It’s that guy again!) and I was out like a light. I left before the show got going. The second time I saw the Burning Hell was several months later. I was a happy dropout/waitress and I got swept into the energy that their live shows grow into to, like a power-saving bulb which slowly lightens the room from dimness to a dizzying blinding bright. I’ve heard that their previous albums have failed to capture this energy, but I don’t know anything about that because I don’t have those albums, I have “Baby”
And “Baby” is awesome. I bought this early in the year and I think I can reasonably estimate that I listened to it 200 times (allowing 4 times a week, 50 weeks out of the year). This album makes me want to dance Matthias Kom (the “Pope of Pop” as M has dubbed him) weaves his lyrical magic through bouncing, sometimes racing tracks. Although he notes “Every good album needs a slow song or two” these are mostly songs you can dance to, or clean your house to, or cook dinner to. Whereas the Great Lake Swimmers you listen to in your rocking chair with a cup of tea, when listening to The Burning Hell you have an icy glass of water which you bounce over to when you need to cool down. They’ve managed to affect this change while staying true to their traditional themes of grave situations, historical political conferences, and (of course) the things that people make.

...and two albums I wish I hadn’t bought:

Lily Allen – It’s not me it’s you

Oh Lily, please don’t take this personally. I think you’re lovely and your first album got me through some rough times. But on this one your pathos has become petulance, your raw honesty a crassness it simply isn’t as good. Maybe you should take a little time to make peace with the people who tormented you in highschool, deal with your daddy issues, and construct a healthy relationship. It’s not that you’re not talented, “The Fear” may have been one of the best single tracks of the year, but it’s time to grow up a little.

Joel Plaskett – Three

Apparently, I missed the something. That’s how it feels, anyway. I wasn’t very familiar with Plaskett’s earlier works, but what I had heard I’d liked just fine. And then this album came out the Canadian music industry collectively crapped themselves, so I had pretty high hopes. I also really liked the 3 albums for the price of 1 part. But it wasn’t that good. I don’t mean a very good album that just didn’t meet the impossible hype, there just wasn’t much there. A few really good songs, a bunch of “meh” songs, and a few cringe-worthy ones. And then it gets shortlisted for the Polaris! Seriously? This is considered great art, worthy of being up there with the Great Lake Swimmers? I don’t think so. I wound up leaving this one at the cardshop, and I never bothered to go pick it up.

Sugar Pie, You know I love you

2009-12-31T12:25:00.000-08:00

Over coffee this morning, a coworker described in glowing terms a dessert she’d once had in a small pizzeria in St. Pierre. It was sugar pie. Sweet, creamy, heaven in a pie crust, is what she said. Sugar pie.

It stuck in my head. I’m new to pies, for a lot of my life I was very anti-pie. I’m still not huge on fruit pies. But through quiche and savoury pies I’ve begun to learn that pastry can be an excellent vessel, and I’m beginning to explore dessert pies as well. There was something about the thought of sugar pie and I just couldn’t think of anything else.

So I took to the internet and discovered that it is a traditional dish of Quebec (land of poutine, don’t forget) and incredibly simple to make. The only truly important element is the sugar itself. Pure Quebec maple sugar. I was now more determined than ever.

At the start of my lunch a dashed quickly across the parking lot to the supermarket to pick up a few ingredients. Namely, a half-litre of cream. I wasn’t shocked that the supermarket didn’t carry the proper sugar, and darted downtown to the specialty grocery store/ bakery/ deli, Auntie Crae’s. It took some digging, but Auntie Crae’s came through with small packets tied with twine and a maple leaf on the front. They cost $7.58, which seemed a little much for a small packet of sugar, but this was a special, seasonal sugar. Then I looked more closely. The packet contained 125 grams. For the cup of sugar the recipe required, I would need to buy two packets which meant spending $15.16 on sugar. Not sugar to stock up against the apocalypse, but sugar to go in one pie.

This was when I paused to have a think. I wouldn’t be able to leave the store if there was a possibility that I would never have a sugar pie. How could a person live like that? When you’re talking about something that you might regret for 60 years, fifteen bucks is not that much. Furthermore, if I didn’t make it today, than when? I couldn’t make it January, not with my resolutions for frugality and healthy eating kick in. Optimistically I could hold onto my resolutions for a few months, but I’m not going to make a maple sugar pie in summer, that’s just insane. So really now was the time. The last week of the year was the perfect time for sugar pie and I was standing there with cream and just the right kind of sugar.

I bought the sugar.

Quebec Maple Sugar Pie (from Epicurious)

This really couldn't be simpler. Whisk together one cup pure Quebec maple sugar (I've been assured that this is of the utmost importance) with 1/4 cup flour. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream and mix. Pour the works into a partially baked pie crust and bake or 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

This pie will come out of my oven in 2 minutes. It smells amazing, it looks amazing, but I won't taste it quite yet. I'll save that for midnight. I have a feeling that it will go very well with cheap champagne

Cookie Baking: Day 3, 4 and 5

2009-12-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, the schedule slipped over into a fifth day, but more on that later.

Day 3

This was a very simple day. Boyfriend and I rolled out the dough, cut the shapes, and baked the cookies. We got 8 dozen here, but it didn't really feel like much work. The butter cookies got green and red sugar sprinkled on top, but the chocolate ones we left blank. It seemed that icing these would just be a mess.

Day 4

I kept a record of this one:

10:00 – Put on Pants

10:06 – Preheat oven

10:15 – Begin Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkles (www.epicurious.com) by toasting hazelnuts or “filberts”. I distracted the kitten by tossing her one, then was suddenly gripped with fears of a feline hazelnut allergy and stole it back. Kitten is not happy.

10:26 – Take out the hazelnuts

11:03 - Man, hazlnuts take a long time to shell!!

11:05 - Encounter my first problem of the day. I need to pulse the hazelnuts till finely chopped, but I don’t have food processor and my blender is full of sticky fig mixture. I briefly consider using my roommate’s processor without her permission (she’s not home) but I really didn’t want to risk anything happening to it, as I don’t know how to use it. I finally decide to go with Boyfriend’s coffee grinder. Coffee and hazelnut go together, right?

11:25 – Hm. Hazelnuts may be too finely chopped. Anyway, time to melt the chocolate.

12:03 – Chocolate hazelnut dough is finished! (30 minutes active time my ass) I put it in to chill and treat myself to a cup of tea and a beater before I start the dishes.

12:28 – Dishes are done! Time to start the trios!

12:45 – Well, that was quick and painless. Flour, butter, sugar, salt, egg and vanilla. Gotta love it. It’s chilling in the fridge (I have to admit, I did not consider fridge space when I started this project) and now it’s time for lunch. Kale and white bean soup, anyone?

2:02 – Back to work. It’s not all the dishes that bug me so much, it’s washing the exact same dishes over and over again. My big red bowl will be pink by the time I’m finished!

2:20 – Middle of the recipe for molasses crinkles and I discover that I need ground cloves and I only have whole cloves. At this moment I thank heaven for my friend J, who gave me a mortar and pestle for my birthday 3 months ago. Thanks, J.

2:35 – Oh no! A jar o partridgeberry jam fell from the cupboard and into the mixing bowl! Thank goodness it didn’t break!

2:40 – The bowl broke. There’s egg all over the counter. I don’t believe this

3:07 – Call it a miracle, but the cookies are in the oven!

3:17 – The molasses crinkles are out of the oven and they look fantastic!

3:30 – about half of them burned on the bottom. It’s ok, though. I have enough for gift and even the burnt ones taste pretty good, so I’ll just keep those.

3:45 – I start shaping the trios. Each is made up of three dough balls with a different kind of jam in each. To be a bit special, a used all locally-made jams. Blueberry, Rasberry and Partridgeberrry.

4:07 – The first batch of trios goes into the oven.

4:21 – I become so engrossed in the meditative feeling of rolling dough balls that I forget about the first batch and the alarm goes off. More burnt cookies!

4:35 – The second batch goes in.

4:45 – I don’t know how I feel about these. They came out all right, but they’re somewhat cracked and not uniformly golden. Also, on a few the jam bubbled over onto the cookie. I’m not really into jam cookies anyway, I’ll have to get Boyfriend’s opinion on them

5:00 – Ok, time to go to my parents for dinner. I’ll just finish cleaning up and then return for the shocking conclusion: Chocolate-Hazelnut Crinkles!!! (Or was that foreshadowed when I made the dough this morning?)

Day 5

I woke up Monday morning feeling like I needed more molasses crinkles. I was out of butter and eggs, so my first trip was to the grocery store. While there, I noticed the pillsbury roll out dough. That would work for the fig swirls, but I'd never used a pre-made dough before, did I really want to start? I stood there for quite a while, then finally grabbed the box and headed out.

When I got home I unrolled the dough, spread the fig mush over it, rolled it back up and stuck it in the fridge. Then I got to baking. This was actually my most intense day, as I had a deadline: the office Christmas party at 4. The fig rolls in the fridge, I pulled out the chocolate hazelnut crinkles and started rolling balls and dipping in icing sugar. I got 4 dozen of these, so it was a lot of rolling. I skipped lunch and jumped right into the molasses crinkles. This was frustrated, as I ran out of the dark brown sugar and had to use the golden sugar. Also, there wasn't quite enough molasses, even though there should have been by the size of the container. Then there was more rolling and sugar dipping. I didn't burn these, anyway, so that was good. They weren't quite as good as the first batch, I'm blaming the sugar, but they were pretty good. 2 dozen more.

By this time it was after 3, and I was supposed to be at the party by four. I really didn't want to spend another day baking cookies, so I pulled the fig rolls out of the fridge and started slicing. I got two dozen more and did my makeup in the kitchen as they were baking. But they came out! They looked as if the dough in the middle hadn't baked properly, but they were just fine.

Conclusion

I baked 19 dozen cookies, and that is quite a lot. But you know, I would do it again. The cookies came out great and the recipients were all really appreciative. I didn't let myself get stressed, even when things got a bit tangly, and i enjoyed the feeling of baking treats for the people I care about. Finally, the house still smells amazing!

Cookie Baking: Day 2

2009-12-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, things just don't work out. This was one of those times.

Friday, the second day of my cookie-baking extravaganza, I tried to make fig swirls. Basically, you make a pastry dough, roll it out flat, cover it with a fig filling, roll it up like a jelly roll, and slice cookies off of that for baking. I thought it sounded lovely and traditional, and a bit different for my cookie jar.

But it didn't work. The problem was in the pastry. The dough simply wouldn't stick together. I don't know if I did something wrong in the recipe, if the recipe itself was flawed, or if I was wrong to use a mixer instead of a food processor. I suppose it could be any combination thereof.

But you live and you learn. I never claimed to be anything more than a rookie in the kitchen, so there are going to be times when things don't go as planned. I have lots of other cookies, so I chucked the bad dough and moved on.

Any suggestions for what to do with the fig filling?

Cookie Baking: Day 1

2009-12-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Alright, December has been kicking my ass. There has been an awful lot of work, and an awful lot of play, in the form of social engagements. But now I have a few days to myself and I've decided to immerse myself in an ambitious baking programme.

The idea came from www.epicurious.com 's "25 Days of Christmas Cookies". I quickly got caught up with the idea of doing all of them, baking cookies everyday. Boyfriend quickly pointed out that that would be more of a death march than a joyous kitchen experience. So I picked my top 5, pulled out Orangette's butter cookie recipe (www.orangette.blogspot.com) and made a schedule.

Tonight was the first night. I thought about live-blogging, but there was no time. After work Boyfriend and I hustled down to a local specialty grocery store for the last necessary ingredients, and then back home. I had almost forgotten that we would actually have to eat supper tonight as well. I took the opportunity to test out my new rice maker. I mixed wild rice, water, carrots and onion, turned the thing on, and then put on my baking apron.

The Danish Butter cookies take a pound of butter. I'm not kidding. Other than that, it's a fairly simple recipe, just sugar, flour, baking soda and egg. Since the butter is really the centre stage I used Spyglass butter, made just an hour away near a very good friend's childhood home.

I rolled out the dough, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge where it will stay until I'm ready to actually bake it. Boyfriend cooked some chicken while I started the dishes. We took a break for dinner and Jeopardy, and then got back to the business of the cookies.

Our next recipe was Chocolate roll outs, from www.epicurious.com . I really like the idea of chocolate cookies in Christmas shapes. Boyfriend started the dishes while I melted some bittersweet chocolate, and mixed it with sugar, butter, vanilla, flour and cocoa. The dough was delicious! I rolled it out, wrapped it in plastic, and popped it in the fridge.

At this point I took over the dishwashing duties. I'm beginning to realise that this will be a theme of the next four days. Dishes done, I called it a day ... for now!

Dreamy Kale

2009-11-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

When you start dreaming about kale, you’re eating too much kale. This is exactly the situation I found myself in one morning, waking up to wonder, “Was it really a dream? Did I actually dream about cooking kale? Do I have any kale in the fridge?”. Well I don’t know if it was dream or heavenly vision but I woke up in possession of a new recipe, and a new reason to fall in love with kale all over again.

In the dream, I was washing and ripping kale leaves, getting ready to make my staple kale and chickpeas (recipe at www.orangette.blogspot.com) and sighing, wishing that Boyfriend found it filling enough for a meal, when it hit me: not chickpeas but chicken! I decided to make the switch to satisfy my ever-loving carnivore. As the dream continued I saw myself sautéing the chicken with prosciutto, for flavour. What an idea! Where had that come from? A few hours after waking I was still mulling it over in my head, so when I went home for lunch I took out some chicken to thaw. And thus, that night I had the best kale yet.

Dreamy Kale

Two chicken breasts, cut into cubes
¼ cup prosciutto, shredded
1 tbs Olive oil
A big bunch of kale, washed and cut into ribbons (should still be wet)

Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add prosciutto and chicken and sauté until chicken is browned. Add the kale, cook until wilted. (You may need to add it in batches, but as it wilts it will shrink and you should have room for all of it). Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 2

The Flying Troutmans

2009-11-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

There's just something about Miriam Toews. I've never known an author who could be so uplifting and depressing at the same time.

I read her mega-hit "A Complicated Kindness" summer before last. I usually avoid the big bestsellers, they have an annoying tendency to be sad voids where a potentially good story gets bogged down in terrible writing and critic-pandering, but when M. tells me I should read something, I usually do. He was right, as he mostly is. I liked it very much. A book about the hard times, and a hard girl that managed to avoid cliches and was funny without simpering.

If anything, I liked The Flying Troutmans even better. Again a story about people dealing with impossibly sad situations, Toews takes her prairie desolation on the road, to the deserts of the USA in this surprisingly optimistic story. The narrative is more traditional and therefore probably more accessible than the first. The heartbreak is constant, but so too is the idea that, although things will probably never be ok, they might at least get a little better. This is more optimistic than it sounds. You know that the characters will never be free of their burdens, because they are imposed by bad luck on people they love. They would not choose to leave anyone behind no matter how hurtful that person was. But you believe that things will likely improve to the point where they will be bearable, and that's good enough.

When the characters reach a situation that they can live with, you want to stand up and cheer. Bound by love, they find a way to deal.

Ode to Poutine

2009-11-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

There are times when nothing else will do.

For those of you who don't live in Canada, poutine is the miracle that occurs when you sprinkle cheese over homefries and then pour gravy over the whole works. Traditional poutine uses cheese curds, but most of the chip joints in St. John's just use shredded mozzarella.

I find that when I'm really tired, when I'm stressed and work out and spread too thin, I need poutine. When things are bad but not too bad, I'm all about more wholesome comfort foods like peanut butter toast or soup, but there comes a time when it has to be poutine. Gut-churning, heart-stopping, oh-so-satisfying poutine.

Such a time came Saturday night.

It started Friday morning. I had to be early for work to attend an all-day symposium. The symposium was a success, but immediately after I was off to the mall for midnight madness. Once a year all the stores have 20% off and stay open till midnight. It's kind of how they kick off Christmas shopping. It's completely exhausting to work, but when you work at a cardshop it's all hands on deck. By 11 my feet were aching and my head was pounding. But when another girl got sick I was asked to come back to open the following morning.

Opening was a bit of a mess, it took me three counts to get the cash to balance, and the rest of the day was kind of a blur. By the time I was walking home from the busstop in the rain it became clear that it was a poutine night. Thankfully, wonderul boyfriend obliged with carryout from The Big R.

I barely got through a third of it (and a glass of wine) I felt full and comforted. After a big food-induced coma I was ready to tackle another week.

Veggies!

2009-11-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

Oh, I've been a bad blogger! I started this blog to find the humour and joy in my often too packed life. But instead of coming here for that I've been overwhelmed by work and obligations. Bad Duckie!

So what have I been doing? Well, working mostly. Cleaning some too (although you wouldn't guess to look about me. I may never clean again if this is how long it lasts!) I read a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, almost entirely on the bus, and cooked a whole lot of vegetables.

I was, for the vast majority of my life, a very picky eater. I refused many foods based on their names and appearances. I rejected anything that may have had spices in it. I ate mashed potatoes, noodles with Parmesan cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. As I reached adulthood, I came to be embarrassed in public of my reluctance to eat anything out of the ordinary, but I was still mystified by exotic options and overwhelmed by heavy applications of pepper.

I think, in my study of wine I found the root of my problem. I'm over-sensitive. I read a criticism of wine super-critic Robert Parker which basically said that he had smelled and tasted so much, his senses have become deadened and he only likes very strong wines now. I think I have the opposite problem, I smell and taste things too much. I've known for years that I have an overdeveloped sense of smell. I can smell a cheap vanilla body spray from 4 cubicles away. I've decided that's why I often find heavily seasoned dishes to be too much for me. So I've decided to focus on finding a variety of foods with more delicate flavours based on garlic, butter, oil, a dash of salt and pepper, and light seasonings to make meals that are aromatic and delicious, but subtle.

This is where the vegetables come in. For most of my life I would reject vegetables based on the fact that they were green and ugly. I began eating them with a steely determination for health, eating them raw or steamed because they are healthiest that way. Recently I've decided to be kinder to vegetables. To understand that they need different techniques and time to bring forth their proper flavour. And what flavour! They subtle differences between kale, romaine and spinach or between Brussels sprouts and cabbage have shown me a spectrum of colour I didn't know was possible. The sweetness of a carrot, the crunchy bitterness of broccoli send me into ecstasies of joy. Vegetables! Who knew?

Some of my new favourite vegetable recipes:

BSB

(Adapted from www.gourmet.com)

Butter-Seared broccoli, but calling it BSB puts me in mind of the backstreet boys, which automatically increases the joy of any endeavour.

Chop the florets off a head of broccoli and wash. Melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a skillet on high heat. The butter will foam, then subside. At this point add the broccoli and stir constantly. Marvel as your dull broccoli turns a vibrant shade of green, putting your spring lawn to shame! After a minute or two the butter should be absorbed. Remove from heat and sprinkle a pinch of coarse salt over. Run around your house insisting everyone eat your delicious broccoli, then sulk when you don't have enough left.

Brussels Sprouts

Adapted from a recipe from my lovely and talented roommate: http://www.blogger.com/profile/14863524897893517543

Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Chop sprouts in half, removing any icky leaves as you do. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, then arrange on the sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn, give another little brush with oil and return to the oven for an additional 20 minutes. (Although if they're small you might want to check on them after 10, I overcooked them the first time I tried it)

Mashed Butternut Squash

Adapted from Orangette. She does this as a puree, but I like a mash better. www.orangett.blogspot.com

Peel, seed, and chop up your squash. Boil squash until tender. Drain off liquid and mash vigorously with a glob of butter and a tablespoon or two of maple syrup. Eat for lunch out of a bowl on a cold and rainy day.

Braised Cabbage

Also from orangette. What can I say? The girl understands veggies.

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, rinse and pat dry. Chop into eighths and arrange the wedges in a baking dish. They can overlap a little, but shouldn't be layered. Chop up three or four carrots and a big onion and distribute around the cabbage. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup chicken broth, a few pinches of coarse salt and a couple good cranks from the pepper mill over the whole works. Cover tightly with tin foil and bake at 300 degrees for an hour. Then take it out, turn over the cabbage, add more liquid if it's at all dry, re-cover and put it back in for another hour. Yes, this takes a ridiculously long time, but you can't believe how delicious this is. Try it!

My Favourite Part of the Day

2009-10-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

At 3:30 pm I turn off my microfilm reader or shut down the archival database and I put on the kettle. I suppose I don't need to actually shut down to have tea, but it feels more like a real break that way. I'm not the only one who does this. I've quickly learned I need to fill the kettle all the way and start a line of mugs if I want to get my turn. The coffeepot is strangely lonesome at this time, the bustle of 10:30am being long over. I like to look at everyone's mugs. People usually only bring one mug to work, and it's usually one they like very much as they use it everyday. A lot of people have handmade mugs, which is oddly reassuring, although I know that a museum probably has a higher percentage of artsy types than other government offices. Boss J. has kittens on her mug. C in public relations has a travel mug, even when she has no appointments. R's is huge and bright yellow. E has a mug with our logo that she bought on her first day of the job. Mine is one of the handmade ones. A gift from Boyfriend on his recent trip to Labrador. The potter's name and the year are engraved on the bottom.

While the kettle boils I find out what the weather is like. The Museum is composed largely of windows that are several stories high and wrap around the building to provide panoramic views of the city. However, I'm in a little beige cubicle and can't see out. So people tell me what's happening. Apparently it's snowing.

With my tea I have a cookie. This is a shocking admission, because I take my tea in my office and food in offices is strictly forbidden. But the other part of this ritual is looking at kittens at icanhascheezburger.com or checking on my favourite blogs (see below) and I'm not giving up on it. The cookie has become such an important part of my day that it keeps me baking on a regular basis, even when nothing else does.

This is also the time of day that Tom Allen, DJ on CBC radio 2 shifts from classical music to contemporary. Today as I snuggled into my chair with my tea and my chewy cocoa chocolate chip cookie (see Orangette) Tom was playing some Joni Mitchell and kittens were being adorable. I thought to myself that this was a moment of perfect happiness. Perfect. I couldn't be happier if I was on a yacht in the Mediterranean. And I get this moment every single day.

I'm really very lucky.

Favourite Blogs

www.orangette.blogspot.com

www.spicedish.typepad.com

www.pinkofperfection.com

Soupy Sunday!

2009-10-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had yet another example of how the simple things in life can be some of the best.

I woke up in the morning and baked bread. I have never actually done this before. I used the recipe for "Rancho La Peurta Whole Wheat Bread" that I found here: www.orangette.blogspot.com . It was a little denser than I like my bread, but very good. It was pronounced fantastic by AC, who is a connoisseur of homemade bread, so I'll take that as high praise. AC and his girlfriend KW joined Boyfriend and I for soup for lunch. The soup, as usual, was one of Julia Child's. It was the saffron potato variation on her garlic soup. I was a little nervous as I was spooning it up. It was far too easy to make, for one thing, and for another it looked like nothing. Small pieces of boiled potato in a clear broth. Oh dear, I thought to myself, They're all going to hate it.

But JC didn't let me down. It was delicious! Unaccountably delicious, in fact. One of those meals that are double or triple the sum of their parts. And just too simple not to make all the time. Add friends, homemade bread, cookies, port and wonderful friends and you get a perfect Sunday.

(I made my usual chocolate chip cookies as a fall-back in case the rest of the meal was a disaster. I aged the dough for 36 hours after reading an article that claimed that this was the holy grail of baking tips. I don't think it made that much difference.)

Julia Child's Garlic Potato Soup:

I haven't given measurements for some of the herbs because she called for dried and I used fresh. Herbs are something you can play around with anyway.

1 head of garlic
thyme
sage
four sprigs of parsley
2 cloves
pinch of saffron
3 cups chopped potatoes.

Separate the cloves of garlic and peel them. Throw them in 2 quarts of water with the thyme, sage, parsley and cloves. Simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the broth and discard the garlic and cloves. Add the potatoes and saffron to the broth and simmer for 20 minutes more.

And that's it! Seriously, that's all you have to do for a foolishly yummy soup.

Eating Alone

2009-10-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

While at Chapters last week I browsed through What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin. The book is both a study of solo eating habits and a collection of recipes for one. I didn't buy it, but I think I'll go back for it because I've been thinking about it a lot. I've always enjoyed cooking, but I have to confess that I only started doing it regularly when Boyfriend came on the scene. My single life was a parade of convenience foods and while he was away last summer I set a new record for tuna sandwiches. I cooked a proper meal once or twice a week, but from the same handful of recipes. I almost never experimented or tried something new. I suppose that I wanted something familiar and comforting when I got home, and now that I have that in the form of a person I'm looking for something different from my dinner plate. I don't mean to suggest that this is at all typical, but it was my experience. I still frequently eat alone, but rarely at home. It's usually while going from one job to another. (Ever eaten leftover beets under an umbrella at the bus stop? I have!)

As it happens, this week I did eat alone. Boyfriend picked up a nasty cold and didn't leave his house all week. (No, we don't live together. Seems like it sometimes, doesn't it?) With the book in mind I started the week determined to eat real food. I made the Braised Kale and Chickpeas I talked about a few posts back, except this time I actually used chickpeas. Tuesday I had an entire frozen pizza. Wednesday I can't remember what I had. At all. I'm here racking my brain. What did I do Wednesday? I know I watched Glee, I know I did some laundry, but I can't remember a single thing I put in my mouth. Yesterday was a collection of various leftovers.

It's clear to me: I love food, I love cooking, I love eating, but for me it needs that extra spice, someone you love to eat with. Boyfriend will be over tonight. I don't know what we're having, but I know I'm a lot more interested.

Pride of Ownership

2009-10-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday I made Boeuf Bourguignon, but I don’t really know what to say about it. It is one of Julia’s most famous dishes and I assumed that after making and eating it the words would flow, but they don’t. It took 4 hours, including chopping, and it was absolutely delicious. But that was all to be expected. There were far too many onions, but that’s typical of JC. The beef was delicious and fell apart in my mouth. I’ll make it again (with fewer onions) once in a while for the rest of my life. It just wasn’t inspiring in the literary sense.

What was inspiring, was my lemon blueberry almond crumble. This one came from a recipe on epicurious.com, but I changed it enough that I think I can call it mine. I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before. Perhaps it’s a certain pride of ownership that makes me want to show the world. You don’t need me to tell you that boeuf bourguignon is time consuming and delicious, but if I don’t tell you about my dear little crumbles, no one will ever know.

Lemon, Blueberry and Almond crumble

Adapted from www.epicurious.com

1 cup sliced almonds with skins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2 large egg yolks1 teaspoon vanilla
Fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh blueberries
Sugar to taste

I started by popchopping the almonds into big chunks and toasting them for 5 minutes in a pan in the oven. Then I mixed flour, sugars, half the zest, cinnamon and salt with a wooden spoon. Boyfriend mixed in melted butter while I separated the eggs and lined the muffin pans with papers. Don’t forget to grease the papers I did, and it made for some tricky eating. Then we mixed in the yolks and vanilla. We pressed heaping tablespoons of the mixture into the papers, then chilled for 15 minutes (putting the remaining dough aside) while we prepared the blueberry filling. This was where I got really creative. I mashed the blueberries slightly to get the juice flowing, then I poured sugar over them, stirred, and added more sugar until the juice began to thicken. I added the remaining zest and as much lemon juice as I could squeeze out of the lemon. My friends and family like things really lemony. I dropped teaspoons of this mixture into the muffin cups while Boyfriend mixed the almonds into the remaining dough, which we then sprinkled to cover over the muffin cups. We baked for 20 minutes rotating halfway through. They were brown and toasty on top and very, very good.

Cooky

2009-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

A little bit about myself, if you haven't gleaned it already: I am very sentimental about the past. Particularly my own childhood. There were issues, of course. Mean kids and everything that brings. But there were some very wonderful times in my home, and particularly in my kitchen. Most of these memories involve my mother, and almost as many involve Betty Crocker.

The Betty Crocker Cookbook, circa 1977, was a constant. Her happy face, the colours dimmed over the years smiled over hundreds of cakes, cookies and pies. Coming home to see that orange binder open on the table meant something delicious was on it's way. My mother's copy is an absolute mess. Most of the pages are falling out, a lot are out of order. They're badly stained with grease and chocolate. Some have my mothers neat handwriting amending the recipes so they will cook perfectly in our dishes, in our oven. I love this book more than anything. So you can imagine my joy when my mother gifted me with my very own copy, 1977 edition and everything. It's just the same, except this one is clean and neat. But that won't last.

Last year at Christmas, Betty Crocker released her* 1967 Cooky Book, complete with the controversial "y" spelling of cookie. You can imagine how excited I was. But I didn't find this until January. I decided to wait until Christmas to use it.

Working in a cardshop messes with my internal calendar, and for the last few weeks I've been humming carols and dreaming of shortbread. The day before yesterday I added an extra blanket to my bed and decided, that's it. It's Christmas now.

Last night was my inaugural cooky. Almond Butter Cookies. the simplest thing in the world to make. Cream a cup of butter with a half cup of sugar. Add a cup of chopped almonds. Then two tablespoons of vanilla and two cups of flour. Form into balls and press flat with a greased glass dipped in sugar. Oven for 10 minutes and there's your cooky!

The were done by the ever-obliging Boyfriend in the popchop. It's an interesting thing, the problem with the popchop is that it doesn't chop evenly, but in this case it worked to an advantage. Some of the almonds were reduced to powder while others remained in small chunks. The powder combined with the flour to infuse the whole dough with an almond essence while the chunks livened up the cookies.

These were a very simple taste. Crumbly, just a bit sweet, just a bit almond-y, just a little bit creamy, not too soft. A perfect cooky to have with a cup of hot chocolate on a wintry night. I froze half the batch for use in December.

*Yes, I know she's not a real person. I don't care. I'm pretending she is.

Too big a promise

2009-10-07T11:06:00.001-07:00

First, you must understand: I think that mashed potatoes are the perfect food. Nice ones, not too lumpy, not too watery and made of real potatoes. Extras, like garlic, are nice but not really necessary. Boiled potatoes, some butter, some cream and some seriously vigorous mashing and I am a very happy person.

So when epicurious.com readers declared cauliflower puree, "just as good as mashed potatoes" I was understandably wary. But I had been looking for something to do with the lovely white cauliflower we'd picked up at our last farmer's market, and you could add garlic, cream and butter, so I decided to give it a try.

You start by boiling chopped cauliflower for ten minutes in water and milk and garlic. Then you drain (saving the broth) and roast the florets in the oven for 10 minutes at 250 degrees. At this point, you toss the cauliflower in the blender with some of the broth, and puree. Boyfriend seemed aghast at this. It turns out he's something of a blender virgin (Seriously? In this day and age?) and hot vegetables and broth offended his delicate sensibilities.

We wound up with something that looked like rice pudding, and that didn't taste like mashed potatoes at all. I considered adding more butter, more cream, more garlic, but I soon realized that I was considering a cream and butter soup with a cauliflower base. This goes against the spirit of the current vegetable theme, which is to let the veggies speak for themselves with minimal assistance. Anyway, Boyfriend loved it, eating the last half of mine as well as his own. Me, not so much. I doubt I'll make it again.

But the veggies were not a complete failure. When in doubt, listen to the gospel of JC (Julia Child) we had her carrots. I don't remember the French, but the dish consisted of boiled carrots tossed with a glob of butter and some chopped parsley. Delish, fab, and not trying to be something it's not.

A hard admission

2009-10-05T08:58:00.001-07:00

I only started this blog a few weeks ago, but something fairly major has changed since then. When I started running was one of the most important things in my life and my goal of running the Cape to Cabot was uppermost in my thoughts. If you've been reading through, you may have noticed I stopped writing about running, or only mentioned it in passing. The reason for this was that I was grappling with myself, slowly coming to terms with the fact that I had been too ambitious and set a goal I wasn't ready for.

The workouts began to overwhelm me. They took everything I had, and it took me too long to recover from them. I started to dread them. There have been plenty of times that I've had to force myself to run, but this was different. Running had lost it's joy. I tried to push myself forward anyway. I told myself that it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't hard, and that if I just got through I would feel much better.

But that simply isn't the case. Last night my father and I had a long talk. We went over the runs I had done, how I felt, and what my expectations were. The conclusion was obvious. I would probably be able to finish the race, but it wouldn't be a good run. I may have had to walk parts and I was risking injury. It was a hard thing to decide. I've been telling people for 9 months that I was going to do this, and I've got a lot of pride. But I want to recapture running. To enjoy it and do it for fun again. I'm worried that doing this race now would ruin that. So I'm leaving it to next year.

We got beets!

2009-10-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

So Lisa Simpson happily declared many, many years ago. The joke being, of course, that no normal child would ever be excited about beets. I completely agreed.

When I myself was a child, I was both picky and willful. Some vegetables were eaten after long, drawn out negotiations (I would eat 23 peas, no more, no less) but some vegetables I would not even consider. Beets fell into the latter category. It wasn't a vegetable my parents ate regularly, so it wasn't much of an issue. The end result being that I ate beets for the first time yesterday.

A quick survey of food writers has revealed what seems to be a unanimous opinion on beets; they must be roasted, not boiled. The recipe we chose was from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski of Loony Spoons fame. As their cookbooks combine two of my Father's favourite things, healthy recipes and terrible puns, Loony Spoons was a big part of my childhood, and the subject of many negotiations. My tastes having matured, I accepted the complimentary copy I was given with some excitement. Having read through it, I decided that I would have bought it for myself, if I'd needed to.

So last night we got out the beets and turned to These Beets Were Made for Walking. Boyfriend wrapped them individually in tin foil and roasted them for an hour while I did hill sprints and took a shower. Then we took them out and let them cool while we roasted shallots in olive oil with fresh thyme. Boyfriend peeled and chopped the beets while I made chicken and broccoli to complete the meal, then we tossed the beets in a bowl with the shallot mixture and some balsamic vinegar.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting for my first beet experience, something mushy and turnip-like, I suppose, but it wasn't what I got. It was firm, with a rush of juice. My first bite quite surprised me. I ate my beets slowly, desperately searching for descriptors, but few were forthcoming. Beets are very different from anything in my (admittedly limited) experience. In the end I can only describe them as adult. Of course it was ridiculous for a child to like them, because beets are a grown-up food. But then, Lisa was always well beyond her years.

An Unusual bit of Experimentation

2009-09-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to eat healthier in general, Boyfriend and I have taken to loading up on vegetables at the Farmer's Market and then looking through cookbooks for interesting ways to cook them. We found huge stalks of purple kale with bright pink stalks and purpley veins running through firm, dark green leaves. It was irresistible. The recipe we chose was from my favourite food blog, orangette (see link below) but there were some changes. The recipe was for braised greens with chickpeas, and seemed pretty simple. We substituted shallots for the onions, because we'll need them for a recipe later this week (stay tuned) but we were a bit stumped when we found that our local grocery store had no chickpeas. Seriously, no chickpeas. No brand-name chickpeas, no store-brand chickpeas, no organic chickpeas. No chickpeas at all. We were in disbelief. How could there be no chickpeas? There was a big gaping hole on the shelf between the beans and the lentils where the chickpeas should have been. The beans and lentils were both decently stocked. It made no sense. Boyfriend and I wandered up and down the aisle, muttering "no chickpeas? no chickpeas!" over and over. Eventually, we were forced to give up.

Now, I very rarely make changes to recipes. Shallots for onions are one thing, but how could we not have chickpeas with braised greens and chickpeas? After much, much deliberation, we decided to go with the lentils. Neither of us are very experienced with them, but we figured they looked similar and are both involved in Indian food in similar ways, so we nervously went ahead with it.

Boyfriend washed the Kale while I sliced it into ribbons. The kitten had a very odd reaction to the Kale, she seemed to be afraid of it. When boyfriend shook a leaf she'd leap at it, then mewl at me with fear and confusion in her eyes. She later took a stalk (about a foot long) and ran upstairs with it.

We cooked garlic and shallots in olive oil in the large skillet until the onions were nice and soft, then added the lentils. We weren't sure how long to cook them, as it turns out lentils are very tiny and probably don't need to be cooked long at all. Anyway, we gave it a few minutes and then added the kale. Looking from the bowl of kale ribbons and the pan they were supposed to go into, my elementary understanding of physics warned me this couldn't possibly work. I threw in a a handful, and the kale shrunk up wonderfully. I was able to add it, handful by handful every few minutes until all had somehow found room in the skillet. Orangette then advises gently simmering for 15 minutes, but we found this to be unnecessary. Either because the lentils were so small or because it took so long to get all the kale in, we worried about overcooking after about 5 minutes.

The result was one of my favourite things: warm mush. Comforting and yummy. I once dated a vegan who said that he liked his food to taste as much like dirt as possible (we didn't last long) and I think I almost understand what he was saying when I ate this. There was a simple earthiness to it. Boyfriend found it a bit bland, and not quite filling enough, but it was just right for me and I think it'll make a great lunch. Next time I'll have to see how well it keeps.

The best food blog out there: www.orangette.blogspot.com

I'm 26 now, which is quite a lot.

2009-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

On my birthday I rarely deny myself anything that tickles my fancy, often with disastrous consequences.
I started the day quite responsibly, waking in the dark at 6:15 for a fartlek that turned into a steady hard run. I’ve never been good at regulating sprints, and I felt like running hard, pounding out the trail, stretching my legs and pushing myself. It was 6k, which felt like recess after last Sunday. Actually, the whole run had the feeling of recess, racing from one end of the playground and back, before running had any particular goal in mind.
While in the shower I decided on my first indulgence of the day; a Tim Horton’s breakfast. Scoff if you must, but there are few things that start my day off as happily as a bacon breakfast sandwich on a bagel with a large half-coffee half-hot chocolate. Even though nothing involved in the buttery mess has even a passing relation to a barnyard animal, the pleasure of it gives me more energy for the day than any painstakingly-prepared, all-natural, nutrient-packed breakfast ever could. Also, I was able to eat it on the bricks by my work, warmed by the first rays of an unusually warm first day of fall.
For lunch I traipsed down to my favourite coffee shop, Coffee & Company, a place that’s usually outside my budget for lunch. But oh, so worth it. I start with a Café Voltaire, double chocolate, double espresso, double pretentious. Then there’s their chicken pesto panini. Juicy grilled chicken, still-crisp roasted red and green peppers with pesto spread and provolone cheese, grilled on their in-house baked herb panino loaf. I topped this off with an impossibly rich Godiva champagne truffle.
Not every birthday at my office is celebrated with a cake (although my co-workers did sing to me mid-meeting) but by coincidence there was a baby shower that afternoon, which meant Costco cake and half a root beer. A bad idea in retrospect.
Dinner was at the St. John’s fine dining standby, The Cellar. It’s been my parent’s favourite restaurant for twenty years, but somehow I’ve never been there. I started with baked brie in filo with blueberry sauce and apricot chutney. Now, I’ve never met a cheese that I didn’t like, but warm brie is almost another entity onto itself. It looked so good that everyone wanted a bite, which was a good thing because if I’d eaten the entire thing myself I don’t know how well I could have done with the rest of my dinner. This was the New York strip in red wine and mushroom reduction. Cooked perfectly, as expected, but it fell into the trap that catches so many of these steakhouses: over-peppered. I understand that pepper is an important part of steak and very popular, but I think it often overpowers the sauce, so that you can hardly appreciate it. The veggie side was a dish of beets, corn and red pepper. Sweet, but not too sweet.
With diner I ordered a 2007 Louis Latour pinot noir and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I usually have something very powerful with steak, like a shiraz or a Chianti. Sometimes even a zinfandel. But last night I wanted something a bit light, fruity, nuanced, and this wine didn’t deliver. It had a very poor nose and was really pretty flat on the palate.
Partially because of the poor wine, I decided to order a glass of Newman’s Own port wine with my dark chocolate hazelnut torte. It was sweetly syrupy which went very well with the slightly bitter torte. At this point I started to get a bit nervous about going home, where awaited my favourite dessert of all time. But could I do it justice?
Well, I did my best. My mother had baked the Betty Crocker cocoa fudge cake. This was my first birthday cake and every birthday cake except for one. (A year in Fredericton) This cake is moist, sweet, creamy and chocolaty. As full as I was, I had a small piece and scraped up every last bit of icing. Anyway, there’s more to last the week now.
That was my birthday. A couple of presents especially worth mentioning: Essentials of Italian Cooking from Boyfriend (oh, you’ll be hearing more about that!) and from my parents (in addition to the fabulous meal) a running jacket and tickets to La Boheme which will be playing here in March. Pretty good haul, I must say.

In which Emily runs 18k, witnesses an accident and makes soup

2009-09-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

Before today the longest I'd ever run was 16k. I've done this distance a few times but never gone beyond it. Today the schedule called for 18k so away I went. I tend not to think about running while running, but it was hard not to today. I was very aware of how everything felt, and not in a good way. It was even worse because I ran over the same terrain three times. The time dragged and it felt very long.

I was heading up the last hill, about half a kilometer from home, I heard a crunch and scream of metal. I broke into a sprint as saw a car hit a building and careen through the intersection. It came to a stop on the other side, and I ran forward as fast as I could. As I got there, people were starting to converge and two were already calling for help. Fortunately, no one seemed to be hurt, but the older lady who was driving stayed in the car just in case. We were close to the central fire station, so it didn't take long for help to arrive. I gave a statement to one of the firemen and then ran the rest of the way home. It was very hard to start running after being stopped for so long, my knees felt creaky, but it was only about three minutes.

After two big glasses of blueberry juice and a very hot shower, Andrew and I started Sunday's soup. Being so tired, I decided to take more of a supervisory role so I could sit with my feet up. It was a very simple soup, potato and leek. Basically, you just boil a whole mess of leeks and potatoes for about an hour, then mash and stir in cream, butter and parsley. Very simple and good.

2009-09-17T09:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's hill sprints really took a lot out of me and work was really stressful. So, to relax on my first evening off of the week I decided to cook pasta sauce and bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I should confess, I have a kind of "from scratch" complex when it comes to baking. I got it from my mother, who has never and will never use a mix. There are four main reasons I will never use a mix:

1. It doesn't taste as good. It just doesn't.
2. Most mixes contain weird ingredients and additives. Why bother with that if you don't have to?
3. Mixes don't really save you that much time. I've seen mixes where you have to add milk, eggs and oil. So all the mix does is combine the flour, baking powder and sugars for you. Is that really that difficult.
4. In "from scratch" baking, you can taste the love.

Anyways, I consider myself something of a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur, and there's one recipe I always found trumps all the others. It's the recipe that comes on the back of the Baker's brand chocolate chips. It can't be improved upon. I don't always use Baker's chips, but I long ago copied down the recipe and fixed it to my Betty Crocker Cookbook. My only advise is to turn the cookie sheet every five minutes while to cookies are baking, so they cook more evenly.

As for the sauce, it was nothing original, but impossible to mess up. Dice about 6 cloves of garlic (Did I mention I have a pop chop? Envy me.) Cook the garlic in about a half cup of olive oil until it's soft but not brown, add a can of diced tomatoes, oregano (fresh if you have it, and I did!) salt, pepper and whatever other seasonings you fancy. Give the tomatoes a quick mash if you don't like big hunks of tomato in your sauce (I don't) and let simmer for as long as possible (at least an hour). We had it over cheese totellini that was on sale at the grocery store.

It was a good time and made for a delicious dinner, but I probably should have been resting more. I completely collapsed afterwards and realized there would be no way to get my 8k in this morning. I'll try again this evening.

What a difference a day makes

2009-09-16T04:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at 6:30am it was light enough for me too get dressed without turning the light on. Today I needed the light. It's that time of year now. I don't know what time it was, but I was on my fifth hill sprint when I noticed the sky over the harbour was a bit pink. (Oh yes, I was doing hill sprints at dawn)

To make up for two days off I spent two days working. As in, I worked from 9am to 5pm and then from 6pm to 10pm. Factor in a combined total of 2.5 hours on the bus and a 6k fartlek and you can see why those 48 hours took so much out of me. I was so busy I needed to get my mother to bring bread to my office because I didn't have time to get to the grocery store. Also, by September 15th I had already broken 4 Christmas ornaments. Still the Queen of Clutz!

These early morning runs are really starting to get to me. I'm barely awake from them and they leave me spent for the rest of the day. Especially now that they're getting longer and I need to start getting up earlier to compensate. It's only a few more weeks, I suppose. Great, now I'm freaked that the Cape to Cabot is so soon...

"The Unicorn" by Iris Murdoch

2009-09-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

Last night I stayed up late to finish The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch. It took longer than a medium-length paperback normally would because of the arrival of the fall Vogue. But The Unicorn fit nicely into my purse and had chapters exactly the right length to fit into a 15 minute work break, two chapters to a bus ride. I talk first about these minor structural elements because if you know anything about Iris Murdoch I don't need to tell you that it was a fantastic read. As the friend who lent me the book said, she's a reader's writer. Her books are deep and well written, and at the same time gripping and engrossing. Her characters are full, her backdrops lush. In the Unicorn she lulls us into a happy dream world out of time, misty with mystery and whiskey. As the truth of the situation situation is slowly revealed a cold darkness grips the reader, as it grips the heroine, Marion. Like the reader she is disturbed, but unable to wrench herself away. She at first relishes her part in the adsurd fairy tale until she realizes she has become ensnared in a net which she quite willingly threw herself into, and is now unable to escape. A cold darkness descends so thick that I imagined all the ensuing scenes to be taking place at night, even though they may have been at breakfast. The characters do seem to be travelling through an endless night as they wait, and wait, and wait for the forewarned crisis which is all the more horrifying for it's incomprehensibility. As they wait they become increasingly desperate, clinging together or wrenching apart in a dance of domination and sexual desire.

This is the second Murdoch novel I have read, after "The Black Prince" and I've never understood why there isn't a greater fuss about her. She is truly one of the great modern novelists.

A Weekend Off

2009-09-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had two full days off in a row for the first time in over two months. I scarcely knew what to do with the extra time, so I pulled down Mastering the Art of French Cooking for answers. Now, I'm no Julie Powell, but Julia Child has become a sort of idol of mine. Especially since reading her memoir, My Life in France. I always love reading books about food, but this one was something else. It was joyous. It was all about discovery, experimentation. With her insistence that all recipes be perfectly replicable, she made cooking something more akin to baking, my first love. I have also discovered by using her cookbook that if you do what she tells you it will be delicious. They don't just work, they're spectacular.

Anyway, Saturday morning Boyfriend and I went to the Farmer's Market to load up on ingredients and treats. We sipped fresh lemonade (I should say guzzled) while we picked up broccoli, carrots, leeks, lettuce, cucumber, turnip, fresh herbs, blueberry jam, homemade bread and cupcakes.

Sunday morning (after a decidedly ordinary 12k run) we got to work making Soupe au Pistou. Apparently a traditional soup in Provence, which I enjoyed because I've recently finished reading Four Queens detailing the history of the 4 daughters of the Count of Provence who all became queens, despite their relatively humble origins. It was especially fascinating because only two actually married Kings. Marguerite married one of the Louis and Eleanor married Henry V of England. The other two married men who were able to acquire Kingdoms, largely through the machinations of the Provencal family. But I digress.

We started by boiling new potatoes, carrots and leaks with a bit of salt for 40 minutes. Then we added green beans from my own little garden (so fresh they were picked after the soup had been started) Kidney beans, broken spaghetti, breadcrumbs, pepper and and let that boil for 20 minutes. Meanwhile we made the pistou, a paste of tomato paste, Parmesan, garlic and basil (this looked kind of gross but smelled amazing) and then stirred in olive oil. Then we varied from JC a bit. I'm sorry, we didn't have two soup tureens (actually, we didn't have one, we borrowed it from Roommate). We added a cup of the soup broth to the pistou, then transferred all that back into the soup, stirred it in and served it. It smelled amazing, and the taste was something else. So flavourful and satisfying. Not creamy, but thick enough to feel substantial. The vegetables were tender but not too soft. Everything was simply tasty. Boyfriend had balked at the $9 for a tiny bottle of saffron but we decided that it was well worth it, especially because we have a lot left for more soup. Not that we'll need it anytime soon. Boyfriend and I had our fill (with homemade whole wheat bread for dipping yum) and Roommate had had a bowl as well, I was able to bring a litre to my parents and put a litre in the freezer for some warm comfort on an upcoming winter's day.

2009-09-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday turned out to be pretty good after all.

The run wound up being one of the best I'd had for months. I started out slow so I promised myself that if I got to the end of Bannerman Park and I still felt like going home, I could go home. Well, by the end of Bannerman Park I was flying. Once I was over the large hills at the start of my run I hit the level ground with a renewed strength. The golden slanting rays lit up the final burst of green and made my eyes ache. I passed a ballpark that had just had it's final mow and the sweet smell of grass on the sharp autumnal wind opened my lungs and my chest and sparked a store of energy I didn't know I had. By the time I reached Quidi Vidi Lake I felt as though I were a machine, well oiled and indefatigable. I felt fit, I felt strong and I ran back up faster than I had run down.

Meanwhile my lovely boyfriend had decided that if it had to be premade sauce it ought to at least be loaded with cream and cheese, accompanied by chilled white wine and followed by peanut M&Ms. After a hot shower I was able to slip my aching legs into some fuzzy sweats and curl on the couch with fettuccine alfredo and old Blackadder episodes. You can't ask for more out of life than that.

Today there is no running, but there is work, second work and a birthday party for a friend. Off I go!

A bit of whining at 3:30 on a rainy Thursday

2009-09-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

Ever had a day when everything seems to be a dark blue? Everything is normal and fine, but all the zing has gone out?

As you may have guessed, I'm having one of those today. I slept to late to run before work. Thankfully I'm not working tonight so I can run then. But I feel so tired and heavy. It's 8k, which isn't that long, but it seems an impossible stretch righ now. The boyfriend and I were going to try a new recipe for dinner, but as I won't be back from my run in time we're probably just going to have spaghetti with sauce-in-a-jar again. There's very little that's as depressing as jarred sauce when you were hoping for something a bit more special.

My other big complaint is about microsoft word. Four pages into a project for work I realize that I need to adjust the tabs so that everything is nicely lined up. I need it to look like columns, without actually having the dividing line. There is no way to do this. I can't even just line things up with the spacebar, as whole paragraphs will start jumping around unexpectedly. I'm not one to rant about computer companies, but does Microsoft think we can't be trusted to create our own paragraphs? Must they protect us from ourselves getting wildly out of hand with margins? Will the world end if we abandon the standard half-inch indentations?

stitch, stitch, stitch

2009-09-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

I decided to spend my evening off hemming a new pair of pants to save a few dollars on a tailor. I learned how to sew when I was younger, but unlike other crafts I never had much patience for it. As Anne said in Anne of Green Gables "It's just one seam after another and you never seem to get anywhere". But the pants were gorgeous and far too long.

I first started by doing it inside out, pretty typical but I picked out the stitches and started over. It took an outrageously long time to do, and the kitten was no help, but I finally got them done and it's not a bad job, if I do say so myself. Probably not quite as neat as a tailor would do, but unless someone decides to examine my ankles up close (unlikely) they should do fine. I still have another pair of pants, but no grey thread, so we'll have to wait on those.

First Entry!

2009-09-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I suppose the best way to start here would be with a little introduction. My name is Emily and I'm just shy of 26. I take on a lot and I plan to use this space to process it all. I'm hoping that writing for others will force me to see the humour in things and keep me grounded in why I'm doing them. So here are a list of things that fill up my days (and nights)

I have a career I really care about, and I realize that I'm pretty lucky for that. I'm a Junior Archives Assistant and I hope one day to be an Archivist. Things are going pretty well here. I have four bosses but my only complaint about them is that there are so many that things get confused. I volunteer for overtime and extra work because I'm trying to make myself indispensable. So far I think it's working, but it can be kind of tiring. Like when I'm at the office on Labour Day.

I also have a part time job at a cardshop in the mall. I'm training myself to be good with money, which is easier to do when you have some. So I work an extra 10-15 hours a week and try to put that money towards grown-up things like savings and debt repayment.

Is everyone reading this from St. John's? If not, I'll take a moment to explain the Cape to Cabot. It's a 20k road race that stretches between two of the areas most popular geographic attractions. The first is Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. The second is Cabot Tower, a tower built on Signal Hill that dominates the Harbour. From one point you can see the other across the water, but to cover the distance on land you have to take a winding route up and down some of the steepest hills you've ever seen. It takes place October 18th and I'm training.

I also have my hobbies, cooking, baking, crochet and reading. I'm obsessed with food in general so there will probably be a lot of that here. I realize that most of my hobbies are kind of grandmotherly in nature, but that's always been the kind of things I enjoy most.

And then there are friends and family and so forth. And at some point I really need to do some laundry...