Eats & Smiles: Reflections on 2012

It's interesting how quickly things can change in one's world. Times like these seem to leave you less energy or inspiration for other things... like cooking.

It's been a whirlwind.

My December was filled many casual drinks with old friends and a few with some new ones. I managed to have some quality time with friendly and family faces. My world became bigger and smaller in the span of thirty days. The two biggest bits of news... We got engaged! In a completely amusing moment of shock and surprise, I found myself saying "of course" to a pledge of becoming a Mrs. Then, our world became a little bit smaller as our New Year's Day found us in the emergency vet and saying goodbye to our dearest and first furbaby, Wally.

Ironically, I had started the month of December with writing a love letter to the Edmonton Humane Society, thanking them for bringing both Wally and Jack into our lives. It was published this last week...

Tears of joy.

And tears of sorrow.

So, yes, it's been a whirlwind. To put it mildly.

In a wannafoodie world, I definitely chipped away at some of my foodie goals for 2012, which included:

- Mastering the creme brulee

- Making bread and -shocking- making cheese

- More brunch with friends

- Curing and preserving

- More Mexican

- More Soul

- More ice cream

- French cooking

- Infusing

- Donuts

Well, I definitely made some fantastic attempts in some areas and didn't chip away at others. I made a few creme brulees and pot de cremes... some turned out more like runny custard toppings or chocolate fondues. They were all still tasty!

I made many many loaves of sourdough bread and other sweet breads a la Peter Reinhardt. My momma launched her bread company and proved that she is truly a bread master. The "bread touch" is in my genes... somewhere! I'll tap into that even more and figure out if I can master these doughs.

It's so funny to read about making cheesemaking a goal for 2012! When I wrote that, I had absolutely zero idea that Valerie, Ian, Addie, and Deb would be launching Cheesepalooza that August. By August, I had made a few fresh cheeses but the challenge gave me such a framework of both learning but also of support that made this 2012 challenge much more attainable than it may have been on my own.

There were many more brunches with friends but also dinners with friends, drinks with friends, camping with friends, and so on. Food is so much better when you get to enjoy it with others. We even challenged ourselves and made a multi-course meal for New Year's Eve, where we made the meal together, then sat and enjoyed the meal together, complete with some pretty decadent wine pairings for each course. It was infinitely more comfortable, casual, and celebratory than being in a restaurant... having to dress up, pay through the nose, worry about finishing up by a certain time, and -the worst- figuring out how to get home on that very busy evening!

There was no curing, as I had no idea how all-consuming my cheese challenge would become, but there was more preserving this year. We have come to completely hoard our stash of preserves, carefully selecting jars for consumption, and enjoying the fruits of our labours and the bests of the season previous.

There was a bit more Mexican (and an amusing attempt at a campside mole) but no more attempts at Soul. Still some work to do in this area.

There were a few more ice creams and sorbets. I was particularly pleased with a pumpkin pie-chevre faux ice cream. It was little more than pumpkin puree with homemade chevre, pumpkin spiced syrup, and a bit of gelatin (after finding inspiration from my Momofuku cookbook in the use of gelatin).

I succeeded in adding more French cookery to my repertoire! I made dulce de leche filled puffs in Argentina of all places for Brunch with Friends 3... a little Europe meets South America. I read French Kids Eat Everything, which pushed me to think about my own eating habits both in terms of the what but also the when and how. It reminded me that it never hurts to add a bit more ceremony to your daily meals. I took a French Country cooking class, which was fantastic! Then we remade that menu with our own inspiration for a family dinner. I read Julia Child's and Laura Calder's cookbooks... reminding myself to cook ingredients simply and preserve their integrity through elevation and simple sophistication.

I didn't manage to attack any infusions but sure did enjoy some mixology attempts... I now know that my perfect negroni substitutes cinzano for the red vermouth. I will also substitute aperol for campari, if I am feeling like toning down the delightful bitterness.

Oh donuts... donuts... I sure managed to eat them but did not manage to make any. I sure need to get on that bandwagon.

So, all in all, it looks as though I managed to chip away at some of my foodie goals better than others but am so happy with my progress. I definitely feel as though I have a broader repertoire than when I started. I'll continue to work towards achieving more of these goals.

And eating a lot more salads... I do have a wedding coming up now.

wannafoodie in Metro Edmonton!

I'm thrilled to be included, alongside the esteemed and amazing Kitchen Magpie Karlynn and Phil the Baconhound, in a 12 Days of Christmas feature in Metro Edmonton. The 4th day of Christmas featured favourite holiday recipes from the three of us as well as many other local Edmontonians. 

Check out the full article and recipes here!

You can also find the full, step-by-step version of the Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies here. These are fussy babies since homemade marshmallows do not withstand heat in the same way that store-bought marshmallows do... so you have to chill chill chill your dough (and even your assembled cookies), cook these at a low temperature, and I highly recommend a test cookie to make sure that your oven isn't too hot! (Or... maybe give these a shot with store-bought marshmallows with a slight drop of peppermint extract on it.)

Thanks again to Metro Edmonton and Heather for including me in this Christmas countdown! And to all of you for reading!

*smiles*

Eats & Smiles: Easter Eggs

After seeing the rash of egg-related articles in this last month's Bon Appetit and released throughout the month on their website, I was obsessed and could think of little else other than dyeing eggs. While Easter was a welcome excuse to dye some eggs, I really just wanted pretty coloured eggs for my regular ol' non-Easter life. Taking a hard boiled a egg for a snack (especially with my batch of flavoured salts) was infinitely more entertaining in it being a dark purple or vibrant yellow... rather than plain white. 

Plus! It labelled my eggs in a sense. The hard boiled ones were coloured yellow and the raw ones were dark purple-blue. Now I could store them in the same container without mixing them up or having to spin-test them to figure out which were boiled (you know about the spin test, right??). 

Eats & Smiles: Mate

One of my favourite things in travel is the opportunity that it affords in exposing me to new and interesting food items or rituals.

Olive oil in Italy, herbs de provence in France, dulce de leche in Argentina... those tastes and smells can instantly transport you back to your memories of those places, reminding you of your adventures, and urging you to plan your next.

One such bit of food tourism of my latest adventure was my introduction to mate in Argentina.

Eats & Smiles: Argentina

Our recent trip to Argentina was abundant with wine and some pretty spectacular meals. While I typically do not offer up restaurant reviews per se, I thought that this collage would be a great way to share some great menus and some places that you should definitely consider visiting should you venture so far south. 

Eats & Smiles: Plans for 2012

Happy new year! Well... happy new year and how was your first week of 2012??

My year has started off with a bang. We enjoyed great holiday time with our families and friends in each city. There is never enough time in that regard! New hours at work are getting my butt out of bed much earlier but also out of the office at a staggeringly wonderful 4pm. I've been diligent about packing lunches and snacks and we've been eating in more than eating out. The dog is getting at least two solid walks each day and has is getting one step closer to being a "big boy puppy" with no more lunch time bathroom breaks. We've also dedicated time to doing a big hike or walk each weekend... though the first attempt at 6km ended up at roughly 20km and finding ourselves on the opposite side of a ridge than our car. There aren't words for the gratitude that we have for the family who let the two of us and the puppy into their van and drove us the 20+ minutes (by highway!) to our car. That said, we made it home... I enjoyed a long hot bath with my homemade bath salts and we lived to hike another day. We also are looking forward to many adventures in 2012... my sister's wedding, several weddings near and far, a trip to Buenos Aires (only one month away!) and a trip to the cottage in Ontario! And that is just what is planned right now... woo hoo!

Charlie really liked the hike... all 20 km of it.

So, I am thinking about kick starting this blogging year with the Bon Appetit Food Lover's Cleanse. It seems like a wonderfully tasty way to spend two weeks and get rid of any holiday meh in time for travel holiday woo!

In addition to using that as a starting point for my foodie journeys for 2012, I have been thinking about what things I would like to cook or bake or slurp or chomp this year... in no particular order.

[ 1 ] Mastering the creme brulee... this has been an absolute favourite dessert of mine for years. I love the hard sugar surface and the ever-enjoyable cracking and shattering that follows to reveal a creamy dreamy custard. Plus, I really want a kitchen blow torch. Yep, I said it.

One Ordinary Day - Creme Brulee (source)

[ 2 ] Bread bread and cheese! I've started making my own bread, though not as often as I would like. While I tried to challenge myself to make all of the bread for our home, it didn't quite work out that way. That's alright though. I can still make a mean bit of dough and just need to do that more often. So, I'd like to make a bit more bread this year but also expand into the wonderful world of cheese. My sister Susie has ventured in and produced some beauties, including some amazing mozzarella. I want to add this to my repetoire.

[ 3 ] More brunch with friends... Our aim is to have brunch with friends each month, saving December when things seem too frantic with Christmas and parties and open houses and such. That said... maybe it becomes a Brunch with Friends Open House. hmmm... food, or rather brunch, for thought.

Brunch with Friends: Menu One

[ 4 ] Curing and preserving. Our first impromptu preserving escapade this year turned out to be a raging success. I cannot wait until for the spring and trying to grow some of our own produce, while buying more and other great wares at our local farmers markets. In addition to rolling up our preserving sleeves again, I would love to try curing meats and such. I treated myself to a beautiful book on curing that makes it seem possible for a gal like me. We shall see...

Preserving!

[ 5 ] More Mexican! After yet another trip to the country to the south, I have again affirmed how much I enjoy some really rustic and authentic Mexican cuisine. Couple that with being completely awestruck by Rick Bayless on reruns of Top Chef: Masters (here is a great article about him from another food crush of mine, Jay Rayner), I really need to wander through this world beyond the taco. Oaxacan black mole, anyone?

[ 6 ] More Soul... I missed out on Soul Food on New Year's Day this year (just one of those things that happen when you are celebrating the holiday season in two different cities... you can't be everywhere at once). That said, I need to get in gear for next year. Black eyed peas (as suggested by Mon), collard greens, corn bread, chicken and ham... time to grab that Black Pot Cookbook that I received as a graduation present and start practising!

[ 7 ] Ice cream!!! This one deserves three exclamation marks. For Christmas this year, I was spoiled nicely and received the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. Doug has already made a beautiful berry sorbet... I just can't decide what will be my first attempt.

[ 8 ] French cooking... unless something else ends up catching my eye. A birthday present has been burning a whole in my indecisive pocket for months now - a gift certificate for a cooking class at the Cookbook Company! I always seem to lean towards Italian in terms of my cooking but I thought French country cooking would be an amazing way to expand my culinary horizons. Though that tagine one looks intriguing too... hmmm.

[ 9 ] Infusing. I need to start thinking about this now, so that the liquors are ready for cocktail season this summer (not that infused liquors are limited to the summer, it just seems that is the time of year that I enjoy them the most).

[ 10 ] Donuts or doughnuts or however you feel it should be spelled. I got a faux-nuts baking tray and a donuts cookbook at Christmas too. Not in line with Year of Health but definitely in line with Year of Yummy.

What else should be on this list?

What is on your foodie hit list?

Eats & Smiles

After all of the appearances on blogs and Pinterest,

I have been trying to come up with

my perfect version of the pumpkin spice latte.

Current attempts feature my own pumpkin spice blend,

pumpkin puree, milk, espresso and vanilla... still tweaking.

I received my first batch of cookies from the

Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.
Thanks, Carole at theyumyumfactor.blogspot.com!

More photos to come with the full cookie post next week.

 Both the cookies and the lattes have been a treat

while I work away on my Christmas offerings at the dining room table...

Outside the window, the birds on our bird feeder and on the ground below

are a delightful distraction, for me and for the cats.

Not so much a smile then but rather one for the memories, 

my Santa figurine (that I've had since wee) plummeted from the shelf above the television

to a shattered demise below. A few tears... then back to it.

 Another glorious weekend... 

Doug, Charlie and I trekked about the snow and trees and bridges.

Eats and Smiles.

Eats & Smiles

By way of introduction... I have been wracking my brain to come up with something special to celebrate my 100th post. Many bloggers enjoy "Wordless Wednesdays" and share photo posts with few or no words accompanying them. As I am a woman of typically MANY words, I will likely opt for the "few" as opposed to the "no" but thought this might be a great new wannafoodie feature that will help me to share with each of you and alleviate the pressure of coming up with a new recipe in order to blog. Let's face it... there are some weeks where I eat pizza or taco salad nearly every day (albeit homemade but that wasn't necessarily blog-worthy).

So, thank you for reading... and being part of my wannafoodie world. Time for me to be silent(ish) and just share the things that make us smile... in food and in life.

A day not too long ago...

Charlie, our 11 month old black lab

Doug and the retrieving puppy.

Me, trying to be an outside person.

A day more recent...

Butternut squash soup with goat cheese, balsamic caramelized beets and vino.

Hot chocolate with homemade peppermint marshmallows.

Eats and Smiles.