Guess what...
IT'S A SNOW DAY! School is cancelled...although I figured that out after I had had a shower and gotten dressed. So it's now 7:15 and I'm wide awake and ready to go, while the rest of Charlottetown is snuggling in bed because it's a snow day. I'm sure I'll find something exciting to do today...
Pizza!
One of my favorite things to come home to is this:
A ball of homemade pizza dough! It takes 5 minutes to mix up in the morning and I'll let it rise while I shower and get ready and then I pop it in the fridge and head to school. As soon I get home I take it out of the fridge and squish it out and let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes till it becomes more pliable.
After letting it have this initial rest it will be much easier to roll out. I also let it rest in between rolling. I usually do a quick roll out and then let it rest 5 minutes and then give it another roll. These rests relaxes the dough and lets you roll it out even farther. Once the dough is rolled out it's time for toppings. Ahh, toppings....the list can go on and on. What can't you put on a pizza?? I love anything on my pizza but since moving in with my olive loving roommate our pizza's usually consist of these toppings:
olives, black and green
pineapple
capers
sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and peppers
something tomatoey, either sauce or just diced tomatoes
cheese
pineapple
capers
sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, and peppers
something tomatoey, either sauce or just diced tomatoes
cheese
And trust me when I say this, those toppings make a damn good pizza!
One of my favorite pizzas in Italy was the Margahrita, the simplest pizza ever. Tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil. That's it. It is heaven. And it just proves that you don't need a ton of toppings to make an awesome pizza.Pop that topped pizza into a hot, hot oven and keep it in there for as long as it takes you to do the dishes...unless you're Snow White and in that case buy a dishwasher.
Here is my go to pizza crust recipe when I want something no-fuss and yummy!
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
1 T honey
1 T olive oil
Mix together the yeast, flours, and salt. Add in the water, honey and oil. Mix briefly with a spoon and then knead on the counter for approximately 5 minutes or until a smooth dough is formed. Place in a lightly oil bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm-ish place for roughly 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Turn the dough out onto the counter and squish down a bit and reform into a ball. Place it back in the bowl and either let it rise for another45 minutes and then use it or cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours.
I usually bake pizzas between 425 to 450 F...the hotter the better!
This recipe will make a pizza that will feed 4 people.
Have fun!
I usually bake pizzas between 425 to 450 F...the hotter the better!
This recipe will make a pizza that will feed 4 people.
Have fun!
Ah, Foie Gras
Every once in a while in life you come upon times when you must make a choice or 'choose a side' of a belief. And while it's always good to be open and flexible it's also fun to have opinions and be passionate about certain things. One thing that I have been thinking about lately is something you never want to bring up among chefs or people passionate about food unless you are prepared to have a debate...and that something is foie gras. Some of you may know what this is and are gasping right now thinking "oh no, does this girl know what she is getting herself into!" but relax, I'll share with you my opinion and let you decided, or not decide, what you wish. I am by no means an expert on foie gras but I've been doing some reading about.
the controversy is in the way the liver is fattened. A practice called gavage is used which is force-feeding through a tube so that the liver of the bird expands, as much as 8 times it's size, in a very short period of time. Anthony Bourdain, famous chef and food writer, visited a foie gras producing farm and spoke to a veterinarian about gavaging. The whole interview and visit to the farm can be viewed here, if so desired. Essentially the vet explains that the anatomy of a duck is quite different then that of a human, not only does a duck have wings and webbed feet, but their windpipe is located on the tongue and therefore they do not have the same gag reflex as we do and can breathe quite easily with a tube down their throat. Makes sense so far, right? At this point I had an "aha" moment, this gavaging may not be natural in anyway but at least the duck is not in huge amounts of pain, I will admit that my imagination got a little carried away in picturing a terrified duck squawking in terror. Not to say that there aren't places that are not so human about it but I was beginning to understand a little of Anthony Bourdain's side of things. But I was still not quite satisfied, because aren't ducks and geese natural eaters? Will they not just eat and eat if there is food around? Which lead me to another chef and food writer, Dan Barber. Dan Barber is a Chef and owner of a restaurant in New York that is the perfect image of 'farm to table' food. He is also a fan of foie gras. Here is a video of him doing a talk on foie gras, it is very interesting but a little longer than Anthony Bourdain's 5 minutes. Dan Barber visits a farm in Spain where a farmer and his family has been producing foie gras sans gavage since 1812! He treats the geese like his babies and gives them exactly what they want. He keeps them in a paddock with electric fence on the outside to protect them. And get this, his geese call down wild geese from the sky and they STAY not just for a visit but forever, or until they are harvested! The geese, eat, and eat, and eat, and while he might not be able to harvest it as quickly as other places his foie gras is natural and happy. Dan also talks about the history of foie gras and how it originated with the Jewish who discovered that in the fall their geese gorged themselves naturally preparing for winter and their live enlarged and became a delicious, fatty, treat. And then the Pharaoh found out about the treat and he wanted it all the time. But it's not available all year so what did they have to start doing for fear of their lives? Gavaging. And so it turns out that the story of foie gras is much like the story of much of the food we consume today, out of season and far from happy. You may be wondering why I even brought this up, or maybe you've fallen asleep 5 minutes ago, but if you're still here the reason my mind is on foie gras is because we got one in at school yesterday and had a little demo on it. 
It looks completely unappealing, doesn't it?
For those of you who do not know, foie gras is, quite plainly, fattened goose or duck liver. Now,
the controversy is in the way the liver is fattened. A practice called gavage is used which is force-feeding through a tube so that the liver of the bird expands, as much as 8 times it's size, in a very short period of time. Anthony Bourdain, famous chef and food writer, visited a foie gras producing farm and spoke to a veterinarian about gavaging. The whole interview and visit to the farm can be viewed here, if so desired. Essentially the vet explains that the anatomy of a duck is quite different then that of a human, not only does a duck have wings and webbed feet, but their windpipe is located on the tongue and therefore they do not have the same gag reflex as we do and can breathe quite easily with a tube down their throat. Makes sense so far, right? At this point I had an "aha" moment, this gavaging may not be natural in anyway but at least the duck is not in huge amounts of pain, I will admit that my imagination got a little carried away in picturing a terrified duck squawking in terror. Not to say that there aren't places that are not so human about it but I was beginning to understand a little of Anthony Bourdain's side of things. But I was still not quite satisfied, because aren't ducks and geese natural eaters? Will they not just eat and eat if there is food around? Which lead me to another chef and food writer, Dan Barber. Dan Barber is a Chef and owner of a restaurant in New York that is the perfect image of 'farm to table' food. He is also a fan of foie gras. Here is a video of him doing a talk on foie gras, it is very interesting but a little longer than Anthony Bourdain's 5 minutes. Dan Barber visits a farm in Spain where a farmer and his family has been producing foie gras sans gavage since 1812! He treats the geese like his babies and gives them exactly what they want. He keeps them in a paddock with electric fence on the outside to protect them. And get this, his geese call down wild geese from the sky and they STAY not just for a visit but forever, or until they are harvested! The geese, eat, and eat, and eat, and while he might not be able to harvest it as quickly as other places his foie gras is natural and happy. Dan also talks about the history of foie gras and how it originated with the Jewish who discovered that in the fall their geese gorged themselves naturally preparing for winter and their live enlarged and became a delicious, fatty, treat. And then the Pharaoh found out about the treat and he wanted it all the time. But it's not available all year so what did they have to start doing for fear of their lives? Gavaging. And so it turns out that the story of foie gras is much like the story of much of the food we consume today, out of season and far from happy. You may be wondering why I even brought this up, or maybe you've fallen asleep 5 minutes ago, but if you're still here the reason my mind is on foie gras is because we got one in at school yesterday and had a little demo on it. It looks completely unappealing, doesn't it?So, whats my opinion then? Well, I think that it is like any food product, it is no different than eating factory produced meats or asparagus in December. Animals in factory farms aren't all that happy either. I think what it comes down to is not choosing foie gras or no foie gras it's about choosing sustainable and happy food products or not. It's about honoring the seasons and treating everything with a respect, whether it's a goose, a pig, tomatoes, or stalks of asparagus. For now that's where my opinion lies...in trying my best to make sustainable and informed choices. Innocence may be bliss (if you don't look to deeply) but knowledge is power.
*Thanks for listening to my rant...they happen every so often!
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!
Yesterday I organized the freezer...well, really I just moved a couple things around...and I found a hoard of frozen bananas. The thing is I hate eating brown bananas, even if they are even just slightly brown I find they taste too sweet and mushy. I would rather eat green bananas than brown ones. Anyway, whenever a banana turns to brown for my liking I chuck it in the freezer. Which is how this came to be...
Something had to be done. Tracy had spotted some Banana Blueberry Oatmeal muffins on a blog earlier and these frozen bananas were practically screaming "Bake us into MUFFINS!" even though there is currently Wholewheat Apple muffins and Blueberry Bran muffins in the freezer!So, I did. I thought I'd post the recipe and maybe a few of you are in the same frozen banana predicament I was in and could use a little help getting rid of them! *The recipe will be written in full form at the end of the post*
First, preheat that oven to 350F and prepare the muffins cups! Either line them with liners or spray them with oil or butter them with butter. Odds are the difference. I only had 3 liners so I did the rest with oil.
Grab one egg and crack it into a bowl...
These eggs were given to us by one of the instructors at school. His father-in-law raises chickens and so he gave us a dozen. Aren't they beauties? All because we gave him loaf of homemade sourdough for Christmas!
Mash the bananas and eggs together!
I used a potato masher but a fork will do too!
Something had to be done. Tracy had spotted some Banana Blueberry Oatmeal muffins on a blog earlier and these frozen bananas were practically screaming "Bake us into MUFFINS!" even though there is currently Wholewheat Apple muffins and Blueberry Bran muffins in the freezer!So, I did. I thought I'd post the recipe and maybe a few of you are in the same frozen banana predicament I was in and could use a little help getting rid of them! *The recipe will be written in full form at the end of the post*First, preheat that oven to 350F and prepare the muffins cups! Either line them with liners or spray them with oil or butter them with butter. Odds are the difference. I only had 3 liners so I did the rest with oil.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse 10 times.
Grab one egg and crack it into a bowl...These eggs were given to us by one of the instructors at school. His father-in-law raises chickens and so he gave us a dozen. Aren't they beauties? All because we gave him loaf of homemade sourdough for Christmas!Peel two frozen bananas that have thawed at room temperature for a couple hours.
Mash the bananas and eggs together!I used a potato masher but a fork will do too!Add some canola oil:
And some honey, which I didn't have enough of because of a previous granola making adventure, so I just added a touch of cane sugar too:
And add some buttermilk...or milk with a splash of vinegar!
And some vanilla extract:
Mix that all up real good. You don't want big lumps of honey so make sure it's really mixed in.
Now add in the dry ingredients that we pulsed earlier:
...and mix just till the dry ingredients are moistened. It should look like this:
Now is when you add in the blueberries!
Mix gently and just until it's is barely all combined...lumps are good!
Pan them up filling the cups 3/4's full. I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup.
Pop them in the oven and bake fro 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a centre muffin comes out clean.
And some honey, which I didn't have enough of because of a previous granola making adventure, so I just added a touch of cane sugar too:And add some buttermilk...or milk with a splash of vinegar!And some vanilla extract:Mix that all up real good. You don't want big lumps of honey so make sure it's really mixed in. Now add in the dry ingredients that we pulsed earlier:...and mix just till the dry ingredients are moistened. It should look like this:Now is when you add in the blueberries!Mix gently and just until it's is barely all combined...lumps are good!Pan them up filling the cups 3/4's full. I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup.
Pop them in the oven and bake fro 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a centre muffin comes out clean.Let cool and enjoy!
B-A-N-A-N-A Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg
1 large egg
1 cup mashed banana, either frozen and thawed or just ripe bananas from the fruit bowl
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup frozen blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line/grease 12 muffin cups.
Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor. Pulse 10 times.
Mash together egg and banana. Mix in oil, honey, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir briefly just to moisten. Add in the blueberries and mix until just combined.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tin and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool.
Makes 12 muffins
2/3 cup frozen blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line/grease 12 muffin cups.
Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor. Pulse 10 times.
Mash together egg and banana. Mix in oil, honey, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir briefly just to moisten. Add in the blueberries and mix until just combined.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tin and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool.
Makes 12 muffins
Happy Sunday!
And like usual it's a pretty good one! Have I mentioned lately how much I love Sundays? Well, because I have said it in a while...I LOVE Sundays. There is something so comforting knowing at the end of any kind of week, whether long, short, challenging, or exciting, there is a day of recovery. As I kid I dreaded it...urgh, the day before school starts again, a total write-off...but now it's a day were I usually catch up (in sleep, laundry, homework, or cooking). And I so look forward to it.
First we went to the gym and then we went for a Sunday drive...
We visited a little grocery store that we'd been wanting to check out.
This morning Tracy and I hopped into the new car that Tracy's husband bought her, his name is Sebastian and he quite a guy.
Here he is waiting for us to take him for a spin.
We visited a little grocery store that we'd been wanting to check out. 
It was small and squishy but full of treats!
Like one of our favorite cheeses...Halloumi!
And incredibly large rat traps!
We finished the drive with a viewing of the water...the sun seems to come and go here quite often and I was so glad that today, all day, it has been wonderfully sunny!
Isn't that gorgeous?
What are you all up to today?
Here I am!
I'm still alive! Sorry, guys. I'm not doing very good at posting regularly. By the time my school day is done I have just about enough energy to make some supper and read a book! I'm enjoying it though! These last two weeks have gone by so fast...and I have a feeling that the next month will go by just as quickly.
This week at school we have what is fondly known as "Big Sandwich Day". We actually had it twice. I made a batch of bread dough that had roughly 18 lbs of flour and made two kinds of loaves, some super long rectangular ones and 3 huge round ones.
With the rectangles we made huge philly cheese steak sandwiches and the round ones were made into muffaletta sandwiches (a New Orleans specialty). 
They were quite the sights to behold! And kinda yummy!
They were quite the sights to behold! And kinda yummy!
We also had Poutine Cook-off. Ha, yup it's all fun and games at Culinary School!! You can check it out on Tracy's blog. It was awesome! See if you can guess which one I did!
I hope you all had a great weekend and hopefully I'll fit a few more posts in this week!
Happy Birthday Brother!
Today is my brother Zach's birthday. You must all be pretty familiar with his face now...he appears quite often here. He is, with out a doubt, one of my most favorite people on this planet. Even when he tries crazy ninja fighting moves on me or holds a knife in a threatening manner... 
Even then I still love him!
Happy birthday Zach, I love you lots and lots and lots!
Even then I still love him!Happy birthday Zach, I love you lots and lots and lots!
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