Something I love...

On Sunday while I was making bread I was listening to 'Definitely Not the Opera' on CBC, the whole show was about dancing. A couple people were interviewed but the one that caught my attention was Matt, who has travelled all around the world and video taped himself in many, many different countries doing this strange and hilarious dance. The video starts out with just him and then soon people join in with him...to me it is so beautiful. All these people dancing and not caring that they have no coordination or talent...and smiling and laughing. Wow. When the world seems all doom and gloom it is things like this that remind me to hope. Watch it here, I think you'll like it too.

Long days make for a very hungry girl...

Today was the first day of my last rotation of school...ever! It'll be a doozy month, I am not only taking a meat, game, and poultry class but I'm also doing a baking course that I missed last year. I'll be at school from 7am-5pm...long days!
Here I am at 6:50 this morning! The lights weren't even on in all the kitchens!By 5 pm I was a little less enthusiastic but I came home and Tracy told me that she had made meatloaf for supper...and the long day melted away. It is so yummy and makes me feel so warm, cozy, and cared for! Definitely what my growling tummy needed after a long day!
I've had so much fun lately keeping up with the blog and doing regular posts...I will try my best to continue it through this next busy month! But just as a warning, they might not be as frequent!

A new favorite

One of my favorite food magazines is La Cucina Italiana, it reminds me of Italy...the food and the pictures. Sometimes there are articles about places I've been and that makes me indescribably happy to read about them. In the most recent one I read I found a recipe for malloreddus, a pasta similar looking to gnocchi but made of simply flour, water, and salt. It is rolled on a gnocchi board and pressed firmly so it curls up.
They hold their ridges much better than gnocchi and are so, so, so cute looking!
Malloreddus are traditionally served with a sardinian sausage and tomato sauce. The sauce was actually what drew me to the recipe because I'm on a bit of a sausage kick. I have discovered the sausage vendor at the market and each week bring home a different kind to try. This would explain last week's chorizo sausage soup! On Saturday I picked up some mild Italian sausage to use in my sauce. The sauce is just onions, bay leaf, sausage, water, and tomatoes, simmered for an hour...it is so simply and so delicious.

I served it with a spinach salad with polenta croutons and corn...

I had so much fun making it...I was smiling the whole time. And eating it was just a pleasurable! You really can't beat good food eaten with good company in Sunday sunshine!

Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Spring!

When I was walking home yesterday I took by usual route through the park and was delightful surprised when I saw this:Sidewalk chalk!! A sign of warm weather and laughing kids! It made me smile!
This little, teeny-tiny clump of snow made me smile too!
I hope you've found some spring where ever you are!

It's the simple things in life...

Like caramelized onions, homemade ricotta cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and a ball of pizza dough....
that can create extraordinary results...

Oh, yum!

Two more things...

I just got back from a lovely St. Patrick's day supper and movie...neither of which were very Irish, but I had my St. Patty's day t-shirt on and I was feeling pretty good!And on one last St. Patrick's Day note, a picture I received this morning from the cousin's down south....my handsome cousin Quinn as a leprechaun:Oh my goodness! Shoe buckles and all!

I hope you all had a great St. Patty's Day!

Kids, don't try this at home.

What not to do on St. Patrick's day:

Buy a 4-pack of Guinness:blend it together with vanilla ice cream and green food coloring, and think it's going to be delicious. 'Cause it's not going to be!!

But if you must, if you must torture your taste buds with the over bearing taste of milky, green Guinness, at least don't use you're whole container of ice cream in the process, so that at least you'll have some left to rid your mouth of that awful after taste instead of having to eat stale taco chips.

Please. Don't try this at home.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Good Morning Everyone! It's St. Patrick's Day today! Yippe!!! I love St. Patty's Day! This morning I woke up in my shamrock pj pants...had some oatmeal (you know, just plain, straight up, Irish-style) and am currently watching Ellen Degeneres' St. Patricks Day show. Which is funny because I was just reading up on last years St. Patrick's day post and I did the same thing!
My shamrock cookies are already baked...

and decorated!It's sunny out and it's already looking like a pretty great St. Patrick's day. I hope you are all wearing something green or something Irish!

I'll keep you posted on the rest of my St. Patrick's Day adventures! What are you all doing to celebrate?

Look what I found this morning...

Poptarts!

It wasn't that long ago that I had my first poptart...strangely enough it was at the urging of my massage therapist that I went out and bought two boxes of the the things. While they were fun they were far from life changing! I haven't had them since, but when I happened upon a blog where someone had made them I knew I had to do it too! And I had the perfect occasion to make them...Tracy's sons came to visit last week! Last year when they visited Tracy and I made corndogs and I also made everyone decorate cupcakes. They were a hit and I think they poptarts were too!

We all squished into the kitchen and I rolled out the dough and cut the little squares...and the guys filled them with cherry jam. One was filled with M+Ms...Ha!

They looked so cute and poptart-y once they were baked!Especially the baby one!!

I whipped up some pink (it was supposed to be red!) icing and we squiggled it all over the poptarts!

I do have a picture of the guys with the finished product, but I'm afraid of the harassment I'd get if I put it up here! We had fun!

Just another thing to add to the list of things I've made!

Cream Puffs

I will admit that I am a little hung-up on cream puffs after having those super big and super delicious ones in Vancouver, they are amazing. Little crunchy puffs of heaven!

I thought that the first Saturday of March break would be a perfect day to whip up a batch. And as I was making the choux paste I remembered a book I always read when I was growing, it was a series of beginner chapters books all about a maid named Amelia Bedelia. First off, her name is great, I was into (and actually still am) funny rhyme-y names like that! Second, she was just plain hilarious, she always misunderstood directions and was fired more than once...but she always got her job back by making cream puffs for the couple she worked for. As I made my cream puffs I channeled Amelia Bedelia and that put a big smile on my face which in turn may be the reason they worked out so well!

I was pretty happy! While they weren't the size of Beard Papa's cream puffs they were quite yummy!Check out that filling! One more look...

Sausage and White Bean Soup

It is so sunny here and the snow has almost all melted, except for the big mountain of snow in the school parking lot, and it's starting to feel like Spring. This makes me so happy! But I'm trying to not get too excited...last year there was a snowstorm in April. Winter is almost gone but there is still the occasional snowflake and cold wind so I thought I'd make one last winter soup. Something hearty and filling. I picked up some chorizo sausage at the farmers market, soaked some beans, and spent the afternoon making soup! It turned out to be just what I needed! I thought I'd share the recipe just in case any of you wanted to give a hearty winter soup one last hurrah!

Sausage and White Bean Soup
adapted from 'the kitchn'
serves 4

Olive oil
2 links of chorizo sausage, or any spicy sausage, or really any sausage!
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
3 small red skinned potatoes, diced
4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon oregano
1 bay leaf

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper

Heat some oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium high heat and saute sausage until it's golden on all sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion to the pot. Saute till translucent. Add garlic, saute 30 seconds. Add carrot and potato, saute 5 minutes.

Stir in broth, oregano, and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer. Simmer till vegetables are tender.

Add the beans and reserved sausage. Season with salt and pepper!

Vegetarian Variation: Replace sausage with 1 lb kale. Wash kale and remove the hard ribs, chop into thin ribbons. Add to pot right before add the liquid and let it wilt slightly, then add the broth.

*Loving the response on the last post, keep 'em coming!*

Hello out there!

Occasionally I wonder who all reads this blog. Some I know, either through their comments or just talking. But who else is out there? So, please, do me a favor, leave a comment saying who you are and how you heard about the blog. I would love to know!

Bye-bye Vancouver!

One of our lasts nights in Vancouver the Atlantic Canada House Culinary Team took a evening cruise. It was gorgeous.

We saw the Olympic Rings...
And the torch!
And the Lion's Gate bridge...isn't that purty?
We took a big group photo...and Chef Kevin gave us all fancy knives as job-well-done gifts!
On our very last night our plane didn't leave till 10:30 pm so we got one last sunset in Vancouver...it was an especially beautiful goodbye sunset...And just for kicks here is a picture of me sleeping on the floor in the Toronto airport...red-eye flights and me do not work so well!
This was the last Vancouver post! Bye-bye Vancouver! It's been a pleasure sharing it with you!

The Medal Ceremony

During the Olympics there was a night for each of the Canadian provinces. We were lucky enough to get tickets to PEI night at the Olympics. We got to see the medal ceremony for the day and attend the Premier's party on the top floor of The Bay!

The medal ceremony was exciting because it was the day that Christine Nesbitt got gold for speed skating and Marianne St-Gelais got silver.

Here we are eagerly waiting...in our matching jackets nonetheless!
Here is Christine getting her gold!
At the Premier's party I got to have my picture taken with Marianne St-Gelais and her silver medal!
How exciting is that!

Eating with the Team

As a group of aspiring culinarians (wow, that makes us sound so snotty!) eating at some of Vancouver's best restaurants was quite important. We managed to dine out at some well-known restaurants as well as some that were equally delicious but more hole-in-the-wall. Here are a few of the highlights!

We went to Tojo's Restaurant for some delicious Japanese food. I had tuna for the first time...I was saving myself for the right restaurant, and boy was I satisfied! We got our picture taken with Tojo himself...

One of the other restaurants we went to as a group was Vij's. Vij's has the best Indian food in Canada and the coolest part is that the entire kitchen staff is made up of women. I have never seen a place run so smoothly...it was so calm and everyone felt so attended to. The woman working were so beautiful, never breaking a sweat or raising their voices, they kept smiling at us as we ate. I had the goat stew...it was so, so, so delicious and it was served in the cutest red pot that I wanted to take home with me!Another memorable meal was tacos at La Taqueria downtown. Ah-mazing! Just a little place with no tables only stools. And smiling Mexicans! I had 4 tacos, I just let them choose which ones to give me. My favorites were the one with beef tongue and the vegetarian one with creamed corn and roasted poblanos. They made me pretty happy!
One night a graduate of Chef Kevin's dropped off seven 30 day dry aged steaks for us. They were mammoth.
We BBQ'd them up and had one helluva dinner.
And one last bit of deliciousness...my Valentines day treat...a heart-shaped jam filled doughnut!

YUM!

PEI Home

While I don't have all my stuff or all my people in PEI I do consider where I live here to be one of my homes. I have my home in Winnipeg that has always been my home and will always be my home, but I also have this place that I spend most of the year, that I have settled into and grown to find quite comfortable. Coming back from Vancouver I was particularly struck by the things I love about this home in PEI..

Like this patch of sun in the living room...I have been known to take the occasional nap in this spot...I missed the sun when I was in Vancouver.

Or the view from this window...Blue skies and blue water...beauty.

And the kitchen, though it may be small, it has my purple spatula in it and it has the perfect sized pan that only sits flat on the stove if you prop the handle up with the sea salt container. It may be messy but good food and fun comes out of it. I missed cooking in it.

And my bed. I love my bed. I love my pillows and my cupcake pj's. I love the pile of books on my dresser that never seems to be finished.And the one picture that I'm missing is of Tracy and I sitting at the dining room table playing the game bananagrams. We are both laughing and congratulating each other on our long or creative words. We are in comfy clothes and drinking tea.

This is what I miss when I'm not here...I'll be graduating in a little more than 2 months and leaving this home, I think these will be the things I will remember the most when I look back on my PEI home.

More Vancouver tomorrow.