Camp-foodie

A few weekends ago (and ambitiously early in terms of my tolerance for outdoorsy activities), we packed up our world and trekked it out to Spray Lakes. For someone with a near-complete disinterest in the discomfort of the outdoors, I needed a beautiful setting, good company, and really good food in order to get to the point of suspended disbelief and settle into enjoying the escape. 

Our first trip to Spray Lakes was last year and while there was a general state of preparedness, there was one tremendous misstep, which led to one tremendous meltdown. We each thought that the other had put the bag full of blankets in the car..... it was cold..... there was one sleeping bag between the two of us..... there was ugly crying..... need I say more?

Well, we made it through (without driving back home in the middle of the night) and in true Christine fashion, we laid everything out upon arriving home and now have itemized Excel packing lists, prepacked tubs of gear, and dedicated camping blankets whose sole purpose is to get us through the camping cold snaps. 

So, obviously, the first thing that made it to the car this year was a tub full of blankets (haha!) and we got on the road and out to our little hideout in Spray Lakes. We even managed to procure our same campsite, which just made everything so familiar and lovely. It really is the perfect site. And because I was packed up and felt prepared (basically since last summer), I had the time and energy to focus on the part that I really love... the food!

Gnocchi

Gnocchi is one of those things that I have wanted to attempt for a very long time but never ever have... for some unknown reason. I certainly try my hand at a great many other complicated things and, despite many failings, try again... (read: macarons). And I wouldn't even think to put gnocchi in the same category as the oh-so-challenging macaron. Yet... I have not made gnocchi.

Well. I have now! And I've even made it again. It's so easy. Like making a big batch of pizza dough, portioning, and freezing it. Once you freeze these little potato presents, you can have a great dinner at the ready in a few effortless minutes.

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??). 

Brunch with Friends: Menu Four

So much Brunch with Friends! Technically, Brunch with Friends: Menu Three happened in February but after the big holiday and some serious photo review with guest photographer Dean, the post didn't see the light of the online world until March... which was only days before Brunch with Friends: Menu Four.

I've said before how much I enjoy having brunch with people. Dinners are great but there is something even better about a great brunch - which can lean more to the sweet or to the savoury, depending on your particular inspiration at that moment - where you can spend great time with friends, justify alcohol before the PMs, and say goodbye while still having your entire day ahead of you.

This particular brunch seemed to require a great deal of negotiation. Not with the menu but with disparate and conflicting schedules of the invitees, we booked this brunch in - no lie - January and then had to further tweak the date come March. Finalizing a date and time in the last three days before the proposed date felt like a battle won... then to the quick planning, purchasing, prepping, and prodding... then Brunch.

Brunch with Friends: Menu Three

Brunch with Friends has gone international with this instalment!

We were staying in Dean's home while in Buenos Aires (thus having a full kitchen at our disposal) and he had a great many friends both in town and also visiting... It seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. Dean was game. And what friend is going to pass up a brunch invitation??

This was also the largest group that has ever sat down to a BWF meal... numbering nine guests. And we were up to the challenge!

Dean and I batted around ideas for brunch but were waiting to see what was in season and looked good at the market before setting the menu. I knew that I wanted to see some typical Argentine products on the menu - like Argentine chorizo and dulce de leche - but in what form was to be determined. 

Brunch with Friends: Menu One

September and October have always been hectic months for me. Ever since I was a little girl, Momma R would tell me that I was busy as a bee during these months and would end up sick at some point during or towards the end of it. Well, true to form, I am sitting in a hotel room in Whitehorse and, instead of breaking bread with friends tonight, I am drinking neo citran and watching pixelated food network. At least, it gives me the opportunity to take a break, process some photos and give wannafoodie some overdue attention.

Our new plan for breaking bread and sharing time with friends is to host them for brunch. Brunch has always been one of my most favourite meals... it has the best of everything - sweet, savoury, boozy and a civilized hour! hahah. I enjoy dinner parties but Doug and I have a newfound appreciation for brunch parties - prepping in advance, hosting our friends, then still having our whole day to fuss and muss and reset for the week.

In the midst of our chaotic fall and just prior to leaving on our Mexican adventure and wedding celebration of our friends, Cary and Des, we took a welcome reprieve and invited the soon-to-be newlyweds to kick off our Brunch with Friends series.

Baked Eggs

Last year, I went to Paris. I went to Paris to celebrate my good good friend’s 30th birthday. We walked and museumed and ate. So many of the highlights seemed to involve food, as seems to be the case with many trips. We had chocolat chaud and palmiers from Angelina (which means I brought back a bag of their chocolat chaud), we ate breads and fruits from the Marche (where I bought herbes de provence and chestnut paste). We ate pretty little cupcakes from Berko and many of my favourite crepes with calvados and apple compote. It was a dream.

In, what Parisians would probably liken to a cheap department store, I bought a pretty little ceramic tray for eggs and a cookbook, Petites Coquettes. My French lapsed after high school and seemed to have been overwritten by my Italian studies in University but I figured that food, as the universal language, would help guide me through this cookbook. The photos, the care and the simplicity of this bit of French food did… with a few toast “fingers,” baked eggs is one of my favourite morning rituals.

Eggies

Momma Rogerson has her own personal vocabulary. Not quite English at times, not quite anything else though either… a unique blend of Ukie-Yiddish particular to her alone. I have appropriated some of these “isms” into my vocabulary because, really, it is impossible not to and, well, they amuse me every time I say them.

One of Momma Rogerson’s “isms” is her love of Eggies. Eggies is infinitely more amusing than Eggs. Capital E or lowercase e. That’s probably why I love the Eggies so much… and why I think that eggs for dinner is so amusingly decadent. Hmmm… maybe I’ll have Eggies for dinner later.

In the interim, lunch looms. Dinner will have to wait for now. Egg salad, it is. I have some great pagnotta (bread) from the Italian Centre and everything else that I needed to get my dose of Eggies.

Benny with a Buddy

January is the time of year when everyone seems to be either money or waistline conscious... or a combination thereof.

In my opinion, there is very little bad about eggs benedict. English muffins are not bad as far as carbohydrates go. There is a whole string of commercials espousing the benefits of Eggs (yes, with a capital E). You do have bacon and butter in the hollandaise... but you can find many a nutritionist that will tell you that it is important to have fat in your diet as well. Sure, they aren't waiving the flag for saturated fats but, sometimes, that is the only way to go.

At the end of the day, or meal, eggs benedict are a bit of a caloric splurge but seems somewhat more justifiable when said splurge did not come along with a $40 bill for the pair of you.

Yep, I can justify just about anything...