Rainy day spicy pumpkin coconut soup

This long weekend was pretty cold and wet out, I was sick and had lots of spare time so I puttered around the kitchen, opened and closed the fridge door a few times, hoping to see something I didn't before each time. I did the same thing to the cupboards. I found a tin of organic pumpkin and coconut milk. SOUP. Soup is what I'll make with my spare time. A spicy, pumpking coconut soup.

14oz can organic pumpkin
13oz can coconut milk

1 medium onion chopped
4 cloves, garlic minced
some fennel
some cinammon
some coriander
some cumin
some galengal
lots of ginger
some chilli pepper flakes
1 cube veggie bouillon
2 tsp sugar
2 cups of black tea - I happen to be drinking tea so I used my tea... you can use water
oil

Sorry about the measurements for the dry ingredients. I don't really measure when I cook.

In the pot you want to cook the soup in, drizzle pot with oil, heat. Throw in the onions and cook for a few minutes and then the garlic.

Cook for about 5 minutes and then toss in the dry (minus the sugar and veggie bouillon cube) of the ingredients. Add more oil if it becomes too dry. I like to heat all the dry ingredients with the oil to bring out the fragrance. Cook on low for another 5 minutes, making sure not to burn the spices.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Let simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Altogether this took about 20 minutes to make! Yummy!

Smoothie Kick

It’s summer. It’s hot. And I’ve been on a smoothie kick.

Here are some recipes I’ve adapted from recipes found online and made up myself.


Breakfast Buzz!
4oz chocolate almond milk
4oz cold coffee (I add a little bit of the coffee grounds too)
1 tbsp crunchy almond butter
1 frozen banana (I slice up and freeze over-ripe bananas)
Blend!

Green
3/4 cup loosely packed kale (just the leaves)
6oz almond milk
1 tbsp crunchy almond butter
some frozen banana slices
Blend!

Sunday long-run treat
frozen mango
some frozen banana slices
coconut water
Blend!

I think some people call this a sunrise
frozen strawberries
frozen mango
frozen banana slices
6 oz orange juice
2 tbsp yoghurt
Blend!

A bagged lunch

This is what happened when I asked AF to pack my lunch. No, he didn't use the many, many reusable containers we have. He chose to use a GIANT freezer bag. He didn't want to "break" or "bend" the brocolini.

Here's another shot of my lunch. I wonder what he would have done if I asked him to pack my soup? A garbage bag?

Is this one of those tricks that guys do? Do what you're asked to do wrong? So that I'll do it myself next time and you get away with having to do nothing? Hmmmmm..... Do you know it did make me do though? It made me laugh really, really hard.

Note: This not my whole lunch. This is just a "pre" lunch. I have a lunch around noon or before and then I eat again later.

Moist wipes and Baconnaise

Last night AF and I went to his company's Christmas party. There was a fun Secret Santa gift exchange and stealing. We got a Snuggie! Yay! And then it got stolen. Awww!

This is what we came home with. The meal of champions. AF cannot stand canned tuna, mayonnaise, chocolate spread and jams & jellies. He made a commented (made fun of) on how stinky a colleague's (pictured in the black t-shirt in the background) tuna & mayo lunch was one day. And karma brought him the gift below!

Moist wipes, canned tuna, Baconnaise, Nutella and apple mint jelly. Yep, that's BACONNAISE in the picture. For realz! Ahahahahahahahah!

Sunday Brunch: Pasta Frittata!

This is what I made for Sunday brunch after my hill running on the Sunshine Coast. This brunch was AF's idea. He requested an omelette made with leftover ravioli. We wanted to carry as little leftover food as possible back to Vancouver in our car. Especially if the lineup for the ferry ended up a two sailing wait in the hot sun.

6 eggs
leftover items from previous night's dinner

• leftover pasta - in my case this was leftover ravioli in mushroom & garlic alfredo sauce
• a dallop of leftover sauce
• sauteed mushrooms
• sauteed zucchinni
• you can add some grated cheese - but I wanted to keep this light and omitted the cheese

First, run hills for about 2 hours. Jump into icy lake. Stand in lake for about 15-20 minutes. Admire nature. Get inside, dry off.

Then heat a 9" cast iron fry sautee pan at medium. Layer the mushrooms, zucchini and then pasta in pan. Beat eggs and leftover sauce together. Poor egg mixture over pasta and veggies. I let it sit there about 10 minutes before remembering that I was supposed to put it in the oven.

Place in 350 degree oven about 15minutes. Let sit for a bit before serving. Serves 4-6.

Tada!!! Pasta Fritatta! I served the frittata with half a "Everything" bagel and mimosas, YUM!!!

Sorry, I don't measure when I cook. But now that I'm writing down the recipes, I think I will start measuring so that it's easier for you to try out and improve.

Slow cooker muesli for a cold day

2 cups steel cut oats
6 cups water
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 apple peeled, cored and chopped
handful of raisins and craisins
handful of chopped almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar (I think this amount will do) I didn't actually use any sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Dump everything in the slow cooker and cook on low over night and voilà!
Nice hot muesli for the morning. I eat it with almond milk or plain yoghurt.

Almond butter sauce

I love almond butter and I love making this simple sauce to spoon over tofu, rice or steamed veggies.

I don't measure... (sorry)

In a small sauce pan heat over medium

• Some almond butter
• dash of mirin, if you don't have any, you can just skip the mirin and use a sweet apple juice or pineapple juice instead of adding water to this mix
• some water
• some chili garlic sauce - I use the brand from Vietnam and has got the rooster on the jar. I LOVE this stuff!

Therapeutic cooking

I've been cooking like crazy. Today I made gibanica. I'm cooking way more than both my bf and I can eat!

I don't measure but here's approximately what I used

1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream or you can use yoghurt
3/4 cup of feta
some sparkling mineral water
3 eggs
1 pkg of filo pastry

Line the bottom of baking pan with sheets of butter filo then fill the pan with sheets of filo soaked in the cheese, sour cream, feta, mineral water and egg mixture. I watched many times my friends' moms make this and never thought I would remember what to use or how to make it. It's so easy! Bake at around 400°F for about an hour. Check on the gibanica time may vary according to oven. I baked mine for about 45-50 minutes.

I also seen one of my friend's mom use some flour, sparkling mineral water, cottage cheese and some grated mozzarella. I'm going to try to make this a few times and try to get it light and not heavy and greasy...  


The real reason why I've been cooking (aside from obsessive running) is that my boyfriend's mom lost her battle with cancer Sunday evening.

Baker's Market!

What?!?! yes!!! That is right. It's TRUE! It's a Baker's Market!!! I did not die but I am in HEAVEN! I must find madeleines and buy them ALL!!!

Look there are even petits macarons!!!

Eating, drinking and being merry at Whistler Cornucopia 2009 Part 2

Chef's Table Luncheon:
Wayne Martin - Fraiche Restaurant & Road 13 Winery

posting to come... better yet, read Deana Lancaster's article, Lunch reaches new peak

Reception Wine: 2008 Honest John's White

Poached Lobster with Truffles

2008 Road 13 Riesling

•

Roasted Quail, Pear, Bacon, Cauliflower Volute, Jus

2007 Road 13 Jackpot Chardonnay

•

Roasted Lamb Loin, Seasonal Mushrooms, Arugula Pesto

2008 Road 13 Pinot Noir

•

Apple Tart Tatin with Crème Fraiche Ice Cream

2006 Sparkling Chenin Blanc

Eating, drinking and being merry at Whistler Cornucopia 2009 Part 1

Bubble-licious with Mark Taylor of Cru and the Wine Diva 

"Come quick and drink with me! I'm drinking stars!"
this is what Dom Pérignon to have said when he first discovered champagne.

Luna Argenta Prosecco (Italy)
Pale honey colour with small bubbles. Perfect breakfast wine, light, crisp, fun and undemanding.

Sumac Tribute Sparkling Brut Blanc de Blanc (BC)
100% Chardonnay. A bit of earth, peat and apple skin

Segura Viudas Brut Heredad Reserva Cava (Spain)
Creamy and toasty. Good with slow-roasted meats, stewed tomato dishes, scallops, crab and olives.

Grahma Beck Brut (South Africa)
Port Salut cheese

Lucien Albrecht Cremant Rose (non-vintage) (Alsace)
100% Pinot Noir. Clean, crisp. Sexy, peachy colour. Bright but creamy, notes of berries, long finish. MY FAVOURITE (it's pink!)

Laurent-Perrier Cuvee Rose Brut Champagne (non-vintage)
100% Pinot Noir. Very buttery. ALSO MY FAVOURITE!!! (also pink...)

Penny's Hill Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz
I didn't make any notes. I don't like sparkling Shiraz... yet.

Generally you can pair champagne with anything that's a bit heavy or greasy. The lightness and bubbles just help to cut that grease and cleanse.

Here's a 20 second lesson on how to open a champagne bottle as per Mark.

1. Foil off. Keep wire cage on
2. Napkin over top of bottle and cork, this also helps with grip.
3. Release cage
4. Twist bottle and cork in opposite directions
5. POP!
   

Cheeseburger Throwdown!

BAM!

So this weekend if I wasn't ripping the old laminate floors out of my new apartment... err... more like, watching my dad and my brother meticulously take each floor board out, careful not to break each one so that we could recycle the floor boards. And me, just waiting to take away each board to pile up neatly.  ok ok so if I wasn't busy this weekend I would have participated in this cheeseburger throwdown!

Just check out that burger on the left! nom nom nom! I work with M, the creator of this burger. MmmmmMMMMmm... and we talk about food at work ALL the time. For the last few weeks he even talked about making his own hamburger buns and testing out different hamburger recipes. This guy is making his own HOME-MADE HAMBURGER BUN! Well that's just intimidating, right?? Who would enter the throwdown arena with someone who makes his own hamburger bun?!?! But alas, he did not use his own home-made hamburger bun, he used one from Cob Breads. I'm a little more food snobby, I would have used bread from the Swiss Bakery. :-P

I wish I could have participated in this throwdown but I am juggling waaaay to much right now. When the dust settles down, I may just put on my chef's hat and apron and sharpen my knives.

Rest day...

Today is my rest day according to my training schedule. My original plan was to ignore that completely and go for my morning run anyway or go to the gym and do some weights. I don't mind running before sunrise, it's really nice to either get home just before sunrise or stay out, keep running AND watch the sunrise. Anyway....

How yesterday forced me to rest today. It kind of went like this...

My boyfriend and I were going to go to Sushi Maki on Hornby. I used to go there ALL the time because my friend had her office in the old BC Hydro building, the Electra (you can see it's corporate colours in building tiles) there and I did freelance work for her. When we worked on projects we would go eat there almost everyday. I even became friends with the original owner, Ken and he just made really really good sushi... going there almost everyday, how could he not? Right??? Ken sold this business opened up a new business on Commercial Dr. now and I hardly ever leave the downtown area....

ANYWAAAAY, I had heels on which I forgot to change out of after work and didn't want to walk up to Sushi Maki. We were already on a street where there are THREE sushi restaurants in a row. The one I wanted to go to, Sushi Spot #1, was PACKED! And for good reason - pretty good food for a good price. I felt the shakes coming on... My blood sugar was dropping. I wanted to avoid the even stronger shakes to come, the sweating, confusion and clumsiness I opted out of waiting in line. Even though I knew Sushi Spot #1 was pretty good. We walked up the street to check out the others.

Sushi Spot #2 had a few people in there but we walked on to check out the other one further up. Sushi Spot #3 was empty... hmmmm... it's probably best to go to Sushi Spot #2.

Or so I thought.

Service was meh, my boyfriend got his food first, he even got his tempura next. I got my miso soup but that came first thing right after tea only because it's easy to make. I used to work in a Japanese restaurant and if you are expecting a busy night you just stack the clean miso bowls up, each bowl with a few cubes of tofu, few dried pieces of wakami and a sprinkle of chopped up green onion and you ladle the the hot miso soup into each bowl as needed. I sat there for 30 minutes waiting for a chicken teriyaki bento box. My boyfriend was trying to eat in slow-motion so that he wouldn't finish before I got my food. Boy, was I starting to get shakey and agitated. I was HUNGRY. My little bento box finally came. I ate it. I left..

I got food poisoning!