Whistler baking

We are up at Whistler for New Years and in the condo we have a lovely kitchen (OK it's small but we have it stocked pretty well.)  I was in charge of making dinner so I made Dutch dill potato soup and baked some Hovis bread. 

I first was introduced to Hovis bread on Denman Island at the farm market.  On one of our visits I asked whether she gave out her recipe and she didn't used to but now is getting older so she happily gave it to me.

The nice thing about the bread is that it is a quick bread.  Which means that it takes very little prep and it is very hard to screw up.  Just mix all the dry ingredients and then add the buttermilk mix and then put in the pan and bake, easy peasy.

Hovis Bread
Makes 2 loaves, 12 slices each, 4 Points+ per slice.

5 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 cups White Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

5 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Salt

1 litre buttermilk( not reconstituted from powder)

~Preheat oven 350°

~Mix all dry ingredients

~Add buttermilk and stir to combine.

~Divide dough between 2 loaf pans.

~Bake 1 hour.  Cover with aluminium foil if bread starts to brown too much.~let cool (if you can) then enjoy

Sugar and Spice, Only Lighter.

I have a bit of a cookie problem, I have a see a cookie - eat a cookie, kind of problem.  As a solution I have looked for some alternatives which are a little better for me or at least not as bad for my waist line.  I have been doing weight watchers for the last few weeks in order to shed my baby weight.  I found a great site called Gina's skinny recipes and her recipe for snickerdoodles really intrigued me.  I had to make a few modifications since we don't have some of the ingredients that she called for, and I found the dough a little dry to form properly so I added a bit of milk.

Skinny Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles
Based on skinnytaste.com snickerdoodle recipe
Makes 40 cookies, 1 points+ per cookie or 3 points+ for 2 cookies.

1 cup White All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/4 cup Butter, softened (or if your adventurous you can brown the butter first) 
1 cup Sugar
1 tbsp Agave
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
2 tbsp Milk
3 tbsp Sugar*
1 tbsp Cinnamon*

~Cream together butter and sugar
~Add egg, agave and vanilla and mix until combined.
~In a separate bowl mix flours, baking soda and cream of tartar.
~Add dry ingredient into the wet ingredients,  if it too dry you can add the milk.
~Using a small disher, dish and roll the dough into 40 balls. 
~In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
~Roll the balls in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place on a lined cookie sheet.
~Bake 10 minutes at 350 deg.  or until the cookie starts to colour around the bottom.
~Remove and let sit on the sheet a couple minutes and then place them on a cooling rack to completely cool.

Sugar and butter blended together.  This is a light recipe so there is less butter.

Add egg, vanilla and agave.

Start a mixin'.

Wet ingredients all mixed

Dry ingredients waiting to join the party.

Hmmm, looks a little dry. I'll add some milk.

Much better consistency

Sugar and spice and everything nice. 

Delicious

A Recipe from my Youth

My mum is a fabulous cook, and always had some interesting recipe up her sleeve that she would crack out and it would leave a mark in my memory.  This recipe is one of those lovely memories and the best part is that I actually have a recipe to go along with that memory. 

This is a Sweet Curry Sauce that works really well with chicken and rice.  I bet that it would work well with just about anything but I have use it for chicken with rice, because that is the way that mum did it.

I have adapted the recipe a bit with ingredients that I keep in the house.  I am more likely to have greek yogurt in my house then sour cream or light sour cream.  Plus, I love the extra protein found in fat free plain greek yogurt.

This is not a true curry, since I am sure that real curries would never include ketchup.  Don't let the ketchup keep you from trying this; it has a great flavour.

Sweet Curry Sauce

Makes 4 servings, 2 Points+ per serving.

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 cup Onion, diced (I usually don't measure but use a whole small/medium onion)

2 tsp Curry Powder (I add more when I feel like it)

4 tsp Ketchup 

4 tsp Dry White Wine (I use white cooking wine with tarragon in it)

4 tsp Apricot Jam (I used cloudberry jam since that is what I had in my house at the time, it is also good. Probably any light coloured jam would do)

3/4 cup Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt.

~In a saucepan over medium, saute the onion in the oil until they are translucent, about 2 minutes.  Keep stirring to keep the onions moving so they do not burn.

~Add curry powder and cook 1 minute.

~Add ketchup, wine, and jam and simmer until reduced by half (this does not take very long.) 

~Add yogurt to the cooked onion and stir.

*You can serve this sauce hot or cold.

*If you want to make it a head of time you can cook it up but leave out the yogurt until you have reheated the onion mixture.

Saute the onions.

After I have added the ketchup, jam and wine, then reduced.

My completed dinner including; 2/3 cup white rice, chicken thighs and carrot parsnip mash.

Little Man

I back for a bit again, it has been a while since I posted but I have been rather busy not that we have 3 kids in the house.  I thought I should give a bit of an update on how little man decided to make an entrance in the world. 

I was resisting being induced since I wanted to avoid anything that could lead to a C-section.  I believe that one intervention so easily leads to another which could end in a C-section.  So I brushed aside all my doctors suggestions of an induction until it was 14 days passed my due date and my doctor was sharing her worry if we put it off too long.  I said if it didn't happen by Thursday then I would consider it and that she could put me on the induction list.  2 days passed and nothing happened, but I was still very emotional and upset when the hospital called and said I should come in for induction.  

The nurse was kind and told me that I should arrange childcare (which was already taken care of,) call my husband (we were having lunch so I didn't have to wait for him either,) and clean my house (apparently she thought my house was much cleaner then it was.)  With that description of timing, I wasn't in a rush so we putzed around and killed time, all the while I would randomly start crying since I was really not wanting an induction.  We were at Costco, it was about 3 hours after the initial call and I got another call asking if we were coming it.

We finally made it into the hospital and since they knew I was a reluctant participant in being induced they offered to break my waters (I've always wondered why waters is plural) first.  I liked that option better then a pitocin drip.  They broke my water at 3:15 pm and labour happened rather quickly, with very little time between contractions.  Then at 8:23 pm Little Man was born.

Here he is 4 days old, at the office, hanging out for some tummy time.

This is how much he loved the car seat, or not! He is about a month in this picture

A beautiful picture of Little Man with his dad (although not much to see of him.) He is about 5 1/2 weeks old.

Little Man is now almost 8 weeks old and starting to smile which is really a lot of fun to watch.  Currently he is an awesome sleeper but I am sure that will change in time.  The best part of him being an awesome sleeper is that I get to sleep and with sleep the "Crazy Mom" hasn't really made an appearance, Yippee.  

I will be back to posting again soon. I've tried but my husband stole the SD card out of my camera and he takes the other SD cards to work with him and I only seem to make stuff in the kitchen when he is at work.  I made a lot of tasty, tasty dishes recently that would have been nice to post, but I guess that means I just need to make them again soon.

I am so done.

I have made it to 41 weeks and 3 days.  My ultrasound showed low amniotic fluid levels, but it was a wait and see, but since I will be 14 days over due when my appointment is scheduled I didn't really see a point to coming in on Monday for another non-stress test which might lead to being induced which might happen anyways if I'm still pregnant by Tuesday.

Here is a picture of me at 39+ weeks, although I am sure I am bigger now but I don't have a new picture.  

So my plan for now is to rest, hydrate and hope for the baby to make an entrance soon.  I have been drinking my raspberry leaf tea, I don't know if that is helping at all. Tomorrow, the kids have a Raffi concerts in the afternoon and on Sunday Ladybug has a birthday party to attend.  

My Mum's Brownies

Growing up we had sweet occasionally, but when we did have them they were awesome.  Now these brownies are a bit strange, they taste bland the first day.  You have to let the brownies sit over night for them to reach their ultimate deliciousness.  As my mum says, "set aside overnight to mature."

BROWNIES

4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
1/4 lb Butter (mum's recipe calls for unsalted but I prefer salted butter)
1 1/4 cups plus 3 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
3 large Eggs
3/4 cup All-purpose Flour

For a 9x9 pan increase recipe to:

5.25 oz unsweetened chocolate

5.25 oz butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup flour

FROSTING

1 1/2 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate, melted
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Evaporated Milk, at room temp
16 pecan halves, optional

-Preheat oven to 350°

-Line with parchment or butter an 8" square pan.

-In a double boiler or in a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt together chocolate and butter, once melted allow to cool for 5 minutes.

-Beat together chocolate mixture and sugar, 1-2 minutes or until the  mixture is completely combined.
-Add Vanilla.

-Add lightly beaten eggs and mix to combine.

-Add flour and beat to completely combine and has a shiny velvety look, about 1 min or less.

-Spread batter evenly over prepared pan and bake 20-25 min, until a very thin crust forms on top and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean or with a moist crumb.  DO NOT OVER BAKE.

-Cool in pan to room temp.  Cover when cool and set aside overnight to mature.

Frosting:
-In a blender, combine the melted chocolate, sugar, and evaporated milk. Process 3-5 minutes, until mixture is smooth and shiney.  The sound of the blender changes when the mixture is ready.

-Frost the brownies with a thin layer of icing, cut into 16 pieces and top with pecan halves, if desired.

NB. If using unsalted butter or if you like salt, you can sprinkle the icing with flake sea salt. 

Ladybug turns 6.

Ladybug turned 6 in September.  I decided that I wanted to make a rainbow cake, and since I didn't think many of the parents would thank me for a heavily dyed cake so I served it to the adults instead.  

It had to be 7 layers since Munch knows that there are 7 colours in a rainbow.  Red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Pumpkin Time Again

October is Thanksgiving time in out neck of the woods, so since I love pumpkin things I have to make my own pumpkin puree.  Once you start making your own puree, it is hard to go back to canned pumpkin, it just taste too tinny.  I have also found out recently that my mum does not like pumpkin as a dessert, especially pie.  I may have known this but didn't want to give up my pumpkin pies.  As a result I decided to try something different for dessert for our family Thanksgiving dinner.  

The result of my experimenting has led to a pumpkin pie cheesecake, with dulch de leche topping.

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

Dulch De Leche:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

You could just make 1 can or you can make 3 at a time, like I did.

-Remove the paper from the can and place in a pot and cover water, covering by about 3 inches of water.  

-Bring to a boil and boil covered for 4 hours.  (Covering makes it so the water doesn't evaporate to quickly, but make sure that it covers the whole can.  You don't want the can to explode, which would be bad.) You can always make a few extra cans to keep them on hand for later :)

-You will need to cool the can before you open it, so if you are in a hurry place it in an ice bath

Crust:

1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumb

1/3 cup melted butter

1 tbsp Sugar

-Preheat oven to 350.

-Mix all ingredients together and dump it into a 9 or 10 inch spring form pan.

-Using the back side of a spoon, press into the spring form pan, covering the lip between the bottom and the sides of the pan.

Cheesecake Filling:

3-250g Blocks of Cream Cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

4 Eggs

2 cups Pumpkin Puree

2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice*

-In a bowl cream together cream cheese, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.

-Add eggs, one at a time, making sure that they are completely incorporated before adding the next egg.

-Add the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, stir to combine.

-Pour cream cheese mixture into prepared spring form pan and bake 50-55 minutes.

-The center of the cheesecake will still be jiggly, but still have a bit of structure.  If your puree is thinner it will take a bit longer to bake.  So keep and eye on it.

-Once it is cooked enough, turn off the oven and place a spoon in the door and let it cool down for at least 30 minutes.  You should be cool enough to be able to pick it up with your bare hands.  Let the cheesecake cool completely and then top with the duche de leche. 

*I make my own pumpkin pie spice since then I know what is in it and I can modify as I see fit :)

Pumpkin Pie Spice:
2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
2 tsp Freshly Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Cloves
1 tsp Ground Allspice
3 Cardamom pods, Freshly Ground

-Blend all ingredients together, remove as many lumps as possible.  Use what you need for this recipe and store the remaining spice blend for your next pumpkin pie or latte, Yum.

39 Weeks

Fall is upon us, which means variable temps and chilly mornings.  Tested was a perfect example it was cold in the morning so I wore pants and I layered 2 shirts, which was great but I walked the kids the school and was hot and sweaty all morning after that.  I'm carrying my own personal heater so the temperature differences between inside and outside is making it hard to maintain a comfortable body temp. 

Yesterday I was looking for some kid gloves that I packed away in the spring and in the process of searching for those I found a pair of maternity pants, yippee.  Plus, I also found a whack load of nursing tops.  I don't now if they will fit yet but it was nice to find them. All quite worn but still they should make winter nursing easier.  Now. Just need to find a home for all the gloves and winter gear I found.

Baby keeps getting bigger, I know not much of a surprise. But moving around is still uncomfortable and will continue to get more and more uncomfortable until the baby arrives. Then after little man arrives I will be a different uncomfortable for a while.

On a completely different note, we lost out on a other property the other day.  Our ceiling price and his floor price just didn't meet.  We were the only offer he has had in 70 days on the market, so we are planning to wait til November and make an offer again, maybe he will be more willing to bring his floor closer to our ceiling price.  For us the house is a tear down since it is quite chopped up with the latest reno from the 70's.  But we understand that the owner sees it as a family home and probably doesn't want it torn down, but the property allows a lot of options.  For us right now there us very little on the market that fits what we want, but it is a buyers market and we don't need a place right away since we have our house still.

38 weeks tomorrow

The end is near but probably not really near enough.  I have been a bit of an emotional time bomb recently. I don't know what will push me over the edge. Friday the kids where unappreciative (how unsurprising) and they were fighting with each other non stop. This probably would have been fine except that all they wanted was their dad (again would have been fine) but now that they are sitting beside each other , it was really constant.  I picked up a frozen dinner since I wasn't in the good to cook and I didn't know when J would be done his golf thing.  Then I told the girls to go paint or play in their play room because mummy really needed a time out. 

The girls can be very good doing other things whole mummy decompresses for a bit watching highly inappropriate TV programming.  But Friday was not one of those days.  After gazillionth time kicking them out of my room I lost it, there were tears and I was done. 

Add to all this that I was guilt tripped by a 5 year old because ladybug is having a small party at a party place because I'm not up to having a big party and cleaning.  Her mom was especially helpful by telling her kid that she just won't invite L to her party in October.  Thanks, just what I needed.  I really wanted to do something for all her class mates but didn't have the energy to try organize something and L wanted a fairy party.  This was an easy solution, and yet so much more stressful then I imagined. 

Today's emotional rollercoaster is so stupid, my gas card has something wrong with it and now says that the driver number is unauthorized, OK after taking the card to my awesome MIL who deals with the company I head back and I pull out my credit card and now that isn't working at the pump and the attendant accused me of putting it in backwards.  I wouldn't put it passed me since that has happened but I followed their stupid diagram (my kids aren't supposed to say stupid but it is an inanimate object and what they don't know.) and I was thwarted.  I'm not big on being thwarted right now especially by a stupid gas pump. 

On a completely different note, the doctor is sending me for an ultrasound to check position of the baby since she is not completely sure whether baby is head down

Remembering summer in the UK

2 years ago we were in the UK for my cousins wedding.  There were a few things that were a revelation on the trip.

Firstly, food prices were actually really reasonable.  If purchasing food at the grocery store you could get some really awesome deals.  Even the ready-meals at the grocery store were reasonable.

Secondly, when traveling with kids rental apartments are the best way and value for your money and sanity.  After a few weeks sharing a room where we would have to escape to the bathroom to do stuff on the computer or read our books, I decided that while in Birmingham I had booked a 2 bedroom apartment right in the heart attack of Chinatown and it was sooooooooo nice. The girls shared a room and we had our own cooking facilities and best of all we had a  laundry machine all to ourselves. 

Thirdly, I love Tesco and all the lovelies helped within their walls. 

Fourthly, Crabbies is an delicious alcoholic ginger beer which I bugged my local liquor store to start carrying :)

Now, on one of our many trips to Tesco I picked up a cooking magazine because pictures on the front cover was this totally delicious looking almond fruit tart.  Since I had some lovely Okanagan peaches and some Italian prune plums so I decided to make that almond tart with some of those fruit.  Being lazy and terrible at making pastry, I used a pre-made pie crust which worked perfectly since the filling then filled 2 shells instead of just the one called for in the recipe.  This let me try it with both peaches and plums.  I think it would also be really tasty with pears or apples.

Almond Fruit Tart
Originally published in "Good Food" magazine, Sept 2010

500g Puff Pastry "or" 2 pre-made pie crusts
3-4 ripe Peaches, cut into 6 wedges "or" 12-14 Italian Prune Plums "or" both

Filling:
175g/6oz Ground Almonds
50g/2oz Toasted Almonds, plus a handful more to decorate
250g tub Mascarpone (or a 250g brick of cream cheese, if you cheap like me)
25g/1oz Butter, softened
200g/7oz Golden Caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp to decorate
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Almond Extract.

-Preheat oven to 400.
-If using puff pastry, roll out pastry on a floured surface until big enough to line a 23cm tart tin with an overhang.  Line the tin with pastry, gently folding overhanging pastry down the outside of the tin, then prick all over with a fork, Line with greaseproof paper; sit a 20cm round tin on top (it should fit snugly). Fill with baking beans, then blind-bake for 20-25 minutes until the sides are set.  Remove the beans, tin and paper and cook for 10-15 minutes more until golden, risen and crisp. Cool a little, then trim the overhang and press down.
-If using pre-made crusts, I just baked it until it was golden.  Let cool.
-Lower the oven to 350.
-Beat together the filling ingredients, spoon into the tin and top with the peaches or plums. Scatter with 1 tbsp caster sugar and extra flaked almonds, then bake for 40 min until puffed up and golden, with a slight wobble in the center.  Cool to room temperature.

NB: if using pre-made crusts it will probably take less time to bake, so keep an eye on the state of the almond filling.  Remember: puffed up, golden and with a slight wobble in the center.

Enjoy