WHAT WE ATE IN CALIFORNIA

Last week after my licensing exam we packed it up and left for California. It wasn't a perfect trip for many reasons (it was planned last minute after canceling a trip to Brussels, driving in San Francisco was a Russell Family Nightmare, and the weather was underwhelming). But don't get me wrong, I know how fortunate we are to be able to go on any trip at all, rain or shine, bickering or not, and we saw some amazing sights!

One of the best things about the trip was hands down the food we ate so I figured I would share it in one glorious, mouth-watering post.

Above: freshly squeezed lemonade (with basil leaf) and an appetizer of abalone (a mollusc - think clam or mussel but not quite) with parsnip puree, peas, asparagus, and potato hash.
Location: Carmel
Restaurant: Basil

Above: mussels diablo, scallops with shiitake mushroom and lobster risotto, and ling cod.
Location: Pebble Beach
Restaurant: Stillwater

Above: chocolate float from Ghirardelli Square. Interesting story about this one - about two and a half minutes after this was taken, a seagull pooped on hubby's head (in the vicinity of said chocolate float) and we had to call it a loss. The three sips I had were delicious. Didn't need the calories anyway.
Location: San Francisco - Ghirardelli Square

Above: for this meal I decided I would only eat round things. Top is arancini (crispy balls of risotto) and bottom is meatballs. Hubs got chicken parmigiana and I didn't get a clear photo. Excuse the phone quality.
Location: San Francisco - North Beach
Restaurant: Original Joe's

Above: this was the biggest (and only) "activity" we had planned during our trip - a meal at Restaurant Gary Danko. Think of it as an event like seeing a Broadway play. All the memories. A thousand times the flavour. We had one more course I forgot to photograph (him - oysters and caviar, me - lobster risotto). First photo is a poached egg with bacon brioche, parmigiano-reggiano and crispy sweetbreads. It is extremely necessary to give the details because this was the best thing I HAVE EVER TASTED. Second photo is a dungeness crab salad. Third photo is seafood coconut curry. Fourth is a stuffed, roast quail. Fifth and sixth are an assortment of creme brulees (olive oil - seriously DELISH, vanilla, and grand marnier) and grand marnier souffle with creamsicle ice cream. Nothing in this lifetime is ever going to top this meal.
Location: San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf
Restaurant: Restaurant Gary Danko

In the middle of all that we were at a national park and ate pizza and salad, and we had Mexican food twice in there as well. The Russells ate well on vacation.

Stay tuned for more touristy pics later!

HOW TO BAKE THE BEST COOKIE

I am infamous for my cookies.

Okay. Maybe not. But I'd like to be.

Baking has always been something I enjoy. My parents have a photo of the first time I made cookies all by myself - no help from mom. During my teenage years I prided myself on the fact that my cookies were better than my mom's (HI MOM) - and she agrees. :)

Here is how to make better cookies than your mom.

1. Chill the dough. The more patient you are (when I'm trying to make a really impressive batch I keep the dough in the refrigerator for 36 hours) the better they will be. I discovered this by accident in high school when I started a batch late at night and realized if I kept going I'd be taking cookies out of the oven at 2 am. I swear by it.

2. Use bread flour and cake flour. All purpose flour is the enemy of "best ever" cookies. I stumbled upon this tip in this blog post from For Me For You. (And by the way, her recipe is literally the bomb.)

3. Stoneware is the only way to go. We have one piece of Pampered Chef stoneware we received as a wedding present and it so great. I really need to ask for more. The thing is...you don't use any nonstick spray. You cook something greasy on it the first time and presto! Nonstick for life, yo.

3. Don't overcook. I have discovered there is no tried and true temperature or time in the oven that works every time. Ovens are like relationships. Or fingerprints. Each one is different. My oven gets hotter the longer it's on so after the first batch I have to decrease the temperature. And always err on the undercooked side of life.

4. Leave them on the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. If your cookies are slightly undercooked (remember - that's the goal), they need to sit on the pan a few minutes longer. After that, put them on a cooling rack so the air circulates around them and they cool evenly.

Take your cookies seriously, folks. This is a science.

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

This fall I had a mandatory education weekend in far, far away Nova Scotia and took the opportunity to make a pit stop in Halifax to visit my friend E! (Side note: the friends I made during my science degree are some of my lifelong best friends and I just love them.) E semi-recently moved back to the east coast after a stint in Saskatchewan and I'm so happy to have her back even though I still don't see her as much as I'd like!

During our visit she took me to a place I had heard a lot about but never been to - The Middle Spoon. For some reason the name always reminds me of Middle Earth and I kind of picture it being overrun with hobbits. :) That is fortunately not the case. As you probably know, it's a dessert place!

I had the most delicious toffee pudding (and apple cider)! It was the richest, most delicious, warm, comforting dessert ever and totally inspired me to make something similar at home!! I found this recipe and it turned out sooooo good!!! It was just like what I experienced at The Middle Spoon. I made it for friends and we all loved it (as far as I know)! It's something that is perfect for winter time since it's warm, sweet, and full of cream, sugar, and dates! But fair warning, the amount of cream used is somewhat alarming. Enjoy!

OATMEAL SOUFFLE

I was visiting my friend F two years ago and her mom made us a very fancy breakfast of oatmeal souffles. It felt so sophisticated and civilized (and was so nice of her)! This weekend I was feeling a little ambitious and thought I would try to make it myself.

I've always heard souffles are fairly difficult so I was pretty excited it was easier than I thought. Of course the thing is... they "fall" once they start to cool. When they first come out of the oven they're a beautiful towering creation and a few minutes later they start to sink. But boy are they cute before they fall! So I think if you were serving them at a dinner party (or in this case a brunch) the key would be to have everyone seated and ready to admire their souffle immediately out of the oven.

When the timer dinged I warned hubby we had to rush to get photos before the souffles fell. We were a well oiled machine. I grabbed them from the oven, put them on the plates he was holding, ran them to our butcherblock, and had the camera ready to go with the lens cap already off.

I used this recipe (how many times can I say pinterest has literally never failed me,) and I quartered it to make two servings. This involved a fair amount of math (as hubby said, "There's some pretty serious fractions going on over here,") but it turned out just fine. My ramekins are really like a two person serving so I made one gigantic portion for the two of us to share. The only alteration I made to the recipe was I used only milk since I didn't have any cream on hand (and I feel terribly guilty consuming cream). I did use a dash of rum and liked the flavour but it would be equally good without it. Warning: measure out the ingredients and have them organized and ready to go because you have to work quite fast. My stand up mixer is such a superstar and really helps at times like this.

This would be perfect for Christmas morning breakfast if you're feeling up for a little challenge! Hope you like it!

AUTUMN SOUP

I made the most delicious soup a few weeks ago. As always it was a Pinterest recipe and it is my new favourite. I liked it so much I made a triple batch of it again this week to freeze.

Soups are one of my favourite things to make for a lot of reasons. They freeze so well, I really like the ease of one dish meals, they're warm and comforting, and they're usually a healthy meal (as long as it's not a creamed soup).

My mom asked me what was in this recipe and really...it has everything. Carrots, celery, parsnips, kale, squash (I used buttercup instead of butternut), plus roasted garlic (I don't think I'll ever go back to mincing garlic for a soup because yum - roasted garlic) and tomato paste (crushed tomatoes - never again). It also takes shredded chicken and gnocchi and parmesan at the end.

This is the recipe and I followed it exactly (except I substituted buttercup squash instead of butternut). If you like soup, enjoy. I predict we will be eating a lot of it this year.

SUMMER MEALS POST THREE: TACO SALAD

This taco salad is something my aunt has made forever and we have adapted it as a regular meal in the last couple of years. It's so fast to make, feels relatively healthy (if you go light on the chips and dressing), and really inexpensive. The best thing is it only takes a few ingredients and we basically have all of them on hand all the time anyway.

This post is for my friend K who sent out a request on facebook today for some new meals to add to her meal rotation. :) We all end up cooking the same thing all the time, don't we?

I fry up some ground beef with taco seasoning and then put it in the freezer to cool down while I prepare the veggies. I like meat in my salad to be room temp so it doesn't wilt the lettuce. So then I cut up romaine lettuce, a bell pepper, a tomato, and shred some cheddar cheese. At the end I throw in the ground beef and some tostitos chips, then drizzle with catalina dressing. It's soooo good. This is seriously my favourite at home supper right now.

SUMMER MEALS POST TWO: STUFFED PEPPERS AND MUSSELS

Two posts in one week. Totally on a roll. See you again in 8 months. Kidding, kidding.

I have some exterior house updates to share eventually - the house is looking waaay different than last summer. But for now we're going to stick with a second post about summer meals. Earlier this week I shared burrito bowls. I had leftover corn and black beans from that meal so decided to add them to rice and stuff them in green peppers cooked on the barbecue. We had mussels as our protein (we're big fans) which I cooked in a covered pot on the stove.

Here's what I did for the stuffed peppers.

I cooked half a cup of basmati rice in the rice cooker for two stuffed peppers. Then I hollowed out the peppers (I used green but you can use any kind of bell pepper). When the rice was done I mixed in some corn and black beans, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin... I can't remember if I used a couple of other spices. I think I might have added a little cinnamon and garlic powder? I mean really you can't go wrong no matter what you add. Then I added a couple of spoonfuls of salsa and some shredded cheese on top. Hubby put them right on the barbecue for 10 minutes or so. I toyed with the idea of making the stuffed peppers a meal by themselves and adding some sausage, but I decided I was in the mood for mussels.

Now for our secret mussel recipe - world famous. Just kidding, but I do have a little cousin who loves our mussels and requests them when she comes to visit. :)

We do the same thing every time - I add crushed garlic to a pot (5 or 6 cloves), chopped green onions, and sliced hot peppers (jalapenos etc). The hot peppers make the dish - trust me!! Use lots and lots of them - you can't go wrong. I pour in a quarter or a third of a bottle of white wine (I buy the cheapest wine at the liquor store for cooking). When I made them this week for the first time I bought non-alcoholic wine at the grocery store because I was feeling too lazy to make an extra trip to the liquor store. I didn't notice a big difference, to be honest.

Now, I'm not a chef so take this with a grain of salt (hehe), but I usually throw out the raw muscles that are open and won't close. I must have seen this on the Food Network at some point or something. I think it's basically the same as not eating the ones that aren't open once they're cooked. The idea is that the raw ones that don't close are already dead so you don't want to eat them. I don't know.

I cook them on high just until the shells all open. It doesn't take long. 10 minutes max! Just in time for your stuffed peppers to grill on the BBQ!

Enjoy, my friends!

SUMMER MEALS POST ONE: BURRITO BOWLS

I'm a little embarrassed. It has been so long. It feels like when you awkwardly run into a friend on the street and they say, "How long have you lived here?!" And you say, "A year and a half....sorry I never...called..."

Ah well - I'm back.

Thought I'd start my August posts after a long hiatus with some meal inspiration. We barbecue all summer because I don't want to heat up the house by turning the stove on and our meals get so boring to me. You must get where I'm coming from. It's a variation of a grilled veggie, potatoes, and chicken breast with an occasional hamburger or kabob thrown in. Snooze fest.

I can't take the credit for some of these meals I'm going to share with you guys because I texted three people in my life who I feel make delicious meals. :) My friend S said she had been planning on making burrito bowls at some point and I thought that was a fantastic idea. To cook them I used my rice maker and one burner on the stove - minimal heating up of the house and not barbecue!! Hallelujah!

First off I started the basmati rice in the rice cooker (the longest step). Then I fried up some extra lean hamburger with some thinly sliced red onion (we're not the biggest onion fans in over here). When that was cooked I added a half package of taco seasoning. Next I added some black beans (you buy them with the other canned vegetables - I had never used them before) and corn - both rinsed and drained. To assemble, put rice in a bowl and then the hamburger/bean mixture over top. Then I added the cold ingredients - fresh tomato, sliced green onion, a couple of spoonfuls of salsa and sour cream, and grated cheese. Mix up and enjoy. This is a fairly healthy meal (as long as you watch your portions of meat and rice!), something out of the ordinary for us, and didn't make the house any hotter than necessary. Hope you like it! Stay tuned because I'm going to show you what else I've made with black beans and corn recently. Thanks for the idea, S!

BANANA BREAD THREE WAYS

It's no secret I love to bake.

Special breads are one of my favourite things to bake and recently I have been making a cream cheese banana bread I found on pinterest. Then I started to think about comparing new banana bread recipes to find a favourite. So I tried out my current fave - Cream Cheese Banana Bread - and compared it with a Coconut Banana Bread and Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread. My mom has a classic recipe she has always made but it's kind of nice to add a twist.

Now, I have to warn you. Hubby was very evasive and wouldn't tell me which one he liked best. He was all, "Why do I have to pick a favourite?" "Why do you always make me pick a favourite?"

So I'm just going on one opinion here (my own). Maybe if you try them you can let me know what you think. :)

1. Coconut Banana Bread. The clear loser. It is a healthy version so it really wasn't sweet at all. I really like coconut but we both agreed it didn't add anything. However, if you're into the healthy version of things, it's definitely the one for you. Personally, I won't be making it again. It just doesn't feel like the treat that banana bread is. I know that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement, but if you're looking for something healthy to bake, here's the recipe - LINK HERE.

2. Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread. We haven't eaten the whole loaf yet (because as you can see we were in banana bread overload so this one went to the freezer) but it was delicious. I would consider this one more of a dessert with its sugary cinnamon topping. In all honesty, I would cut the amount of cinnamon "swirl" in half because it was a bit excessive and didn't all bake into the bread. If I was trying to have a relatively simple dessert at a dinner party, this would be on my list. If you like sweet, this is your option - LINK HERE.

3. Cream Cheese Banana Bread. This is the one I've been making for the last year or so. It takes a stick of cream cheese and it is really so delicious. It is moist and thick and just perfect, really. This is definitely my favourite (although jury's still out on hubby's choice). You can add pecans (which I've done before) or leave them out (which I mostly do). And when you lick the batter off the bowl at the end - someone else must do that too - it is AH-mazing. Since I recommend this one so highly I know you'll go make it this weekend so...you're welcome - LINK HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this! It really is fun to compare recipes and see if you can find one you like best. (One of my best friends spent a summer trying to find "the perfect chocolate cake" and "the perfect chocolate chip cookie" with her mom!) Happy baking.

CURRIED CAULIFLOWER

Most nights we have a fairly healthy meal, whether or not I'm "on the wagon".  Although I have to say, a lot of the healthy recipes I have tried have been flops.  We have been married for six years and from day one I insisted hubby tell me if he didn't enjoy something I cooked.  So there have been a few times I've made healthy recipes where our meal ends with hubby saying slowly, "You know...you say you want me to tell you when I don't like something..."  And honestly, it is always unanimous.

When I was visiting my friend F in Calgary this winter/spring, a friend of hers took us out for authentic Indian food.  He chose the meals we ordered and we shared everything.  I love trying new foods and having someone there who knows the food and could order for us?  It was pretty fab.  One of the dishes we had was a cauliflower appetizer and it was sooo good.  Covered in spices.  Roasted perfectly.  Yum.

It was a dish I thought I could recreate at home without too much trouble - granted, my version is not a legit Indian version.  I didn't buy any special spices; I only used what I had in my cupboard.  But let me tell you.  Still yum.

I made this dish again a week ago and I think it's going to be in our regular rotation.  It's nice to have cauliflower without drowning it in cheese sauce (delish but not so much on the healthy end of things).  Here's what you do:

1. Steam the cauliflower until it is the texture that you like - I like mine to be a bit on the soft side.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. Heap the cauliflower onto the cookie sheet. Drizzle in olive oil, sprinkle on cumin, curry powder, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy).  If you don't cook with these spices very often - the curry powder and cumin aren't spicy so don't be afraid to use lots to give lots of flavour!
4. Bake in the oven at 350.  I can't remember how long I baked this for but maybe in the 20 minute range?  It will give your nice soft cauliflower a bit of a crispy, roasted texture on the outside.  Just keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

That's it! Easy, really tasty, and healthy.

CALGARY FOOD: MODEL MILK

I returned home Tuesday after a lovely visit in Calgary, Alberta visiting a friend from my undergrad.  We last saw each other three years ago when she came east to visit her sister at university, and when she left I remember crying and thinking, "I wonder when we'll see each other again."  Three years is too long, but better than I had hoped for back in 2011!  I had some Air Canada credits from the fall when I completely changed my life plans and cancelled my cross Canada tour.  They have to be used within a year so it seemed the perfect excuse to visit!

I'm going to break my trip into a couple of posts so you can enjoy the beauty of the Rockies separately. :)  This is going to be a little food post from one of the restaurants we ate at called Model Milk.  I think we all know how much I love to eat and going to new places to eat is always one of my favourite activities.  (Also on my trip we went out for authentic Indian food with a co-worker of F's who is from India.  It was amazing and I wish hubby could have been there!  I didn't take any photos though, sorry.  Let's just say google "dosa".  Sooo good and I'd never heard of it before.)  After that long aside, Model Milk was a cool little spot full of wood and brick and iron railings.  We sat upstairs where the room is essentially one large balcony that overlooks the main floor.  Around the outside perimeter is a long wooden "bench" with water jugs and artwork.  It's a very attractive spot.

The food was tasty too, although not the best meal I've ever had.  (Hubby and I have a mental list of the best meals we've ever eaten and we sometimes we reminisce about how delicious they were.)  F and I both had gnocchi with pumpkin puree, butternut squash, and brussel sprouts (yum - love them).  The other girls split a plate of chicken and waffles that probably could have fed three! 

It was one of many fun nights we had during my trip!  More to come later.

VALENTINE'S DAY 2014

Happy almost Valentine's Day!

This isn't necessarily my favourite holiday, but I do love celebrating things in general, so I'm on board with even Hallmark created holidays.  And I love love.  So, let's just leave well enough alone. :)

One of us was a little more successful in their present giving this year and surprisingly it wasn't me!

I came home to this lovely spread this evening.  We won't be spending Valentine's Day together tomorrow due to some scheduling problems (a regular occurrence around here) so hubby surprised me with flowers, a table set with our fancy china, a little present/card, and take out sushi!  My fave!

Sushi AND a card with dogs on the front?  Someone clearly knows the way to my heart.  And on the other hand, I "surprised" hubby with this disgusting blob of a dessert.

This was my attempt at a molten chocolate cake.  I swear I made it two years ago on Valentine's Day and it turned out perfectly.  This time I quartered the recipe and I think therein lied the problem.  I was told it tasted the same but it just didn't set right and the top started to get a bit dark before the cake was really solid enough to take out of the pan...  I also kind of thought this photo was hilarious.  I used the self timer and (not on purpose) cut off my entire face except for my pout.  Ha!

Sorry, hubby!  I tried to make you a special treat!  Dinner was followed by some Olympics highlights (I ate one of those Cream Eggs) and a bubble bath is in my near future.  Make sure to love someone tomorrow!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Hello, world!  Happy New Year!  I can't believe the holidays have come and gone and I miss Christmas like you wouldn't believe.  So much that today, January 17th, my Christmas tree is still up and looks just as beautiful as it did four weeks ago... for the most part!

I just went through my photos and thought I'd give you an update of our Christmas through a photo recap.  First of all, the three of us did a lot of cuddling (and after Christmas most of the cuddling took place while watching Downton Abbey - or "going to Downton" as we call it in this house).

We hosted a dinner party for four and I tried my hand at baking fruit tarts with custard.  Not too shabby.  The pears really made the dessert.

Next, we had our own "Christmas morning" together the three of us on December 23rd before heading up river to the in laws' and eventually my family's on Christmas night.  I don't care what you say, Leroy understands everything.  Hubby and I were getting ready to open stockings, I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and literally Leroy (on his own) went into the living room and lay down beside his stocking.  He totally gets it.  Totally.

Around that same time, the 23rd or so, we had a big ice storm that resulted in the neighbour's tree falling down into our yard.  We were nervous to leave the house to visit family because we weren't sure if the power would stay on.  Turned out our house was fine, but many in the area lost power for days.

Then we spent a few days at my parents' house with the siblings.  Sister, hubby, and I played a friendly game of Life.  (I won... as per usual... not competitive or anything.)  And why is it in that game you end up with soooo many children!?  And whyyyy do they force you to buy a more expensive house when you're Game of Life middle aged?!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a happy, healthy, and exciting (in a good way) new year!  We have dubbed 2014 "the year of the resident" but as one of my classmates pointed out, "the year of the paycheque" is just so much nicer! ;)

CHRISTMAS TREATS

You know I like to bake, right?  It's not super obvious, is it?

Did you also know I just bought some personal training sessions and I am very much on the wagon?  That's right...hopped on at the most difficult time to be "good".  Christmas time.  Oh, the horror.  And considering my love of baking, it seems so much worse.

My solution has been to bake a number of Christmas goodies and give them away!  Hubby is shocked and appalled but it's really the best fix, I think.  So I made a few things this year (my mom's version of Oh Henry Bars - really  nothing like the chocolate bar, Peppermint Macarons, my aunt T's Bailey's Fudge - crazy good, Coconut Chocolates, and Pecan Snowball Cookies) and most of them are packaged up to go!  My mom gave me really cute Christmas treat boxes last year so I used those and bought these adorable little dishes from Michaels (pictured below).  They were literally $2 each.  AMAZING!

I just kept a few things so hubby can snack on them over the holidays.  So I was able to bake, hubby gets a few treats, and treats for friends!  I'm pretty happy about this (although don't get me wrong, I would way rather be eating those sweets)!

I used the Christmas gift tags I bought on Etsy, tissue paper, and ribbon to package up some of the sweets.

They look good, right?  I tried one (really, only one) of the Coconut Chocolates because I had never made them before and they were so good!!  The graham cracker square you're seeing is our version of the Oh Henry Bar.  I'm really not sure why we call it that because there are no peanuts or caramel.  They simply consist of graham wafers, chocolate, butter, brown sugar, and graham cracker crumbs.  Really easy and hubby's favourite Christmas treat that my family makes.

Can I just say I'm really proud of this photo?  I never feel like my photos are very good and this one with the tree in the background out of focus looking so amazing is such a happy accident. *Ahem* I mean photography skill... ;)

And aren't those little dishes from Michaels so great?  Really - $2.  I only bought two but I probably should have bought fifteen.

Merry Christmas!  I just can't stop saying it.