A Sunny Saturday in Toronto with Siblings

Saturday was a beaaauuutiful day! My brother Ryan and sister-in-law Deanna came to visit us, and we didn't even wear coats! We went to Allan Gardens first, then through to Nic's lab, and Kensington Market. A plethora of pictures from Allan Gardens will come out soon.

Nic gave Ryan and Deanna a tour of his lab at UofT, which was cool for them. I'm still only getting an understanding of his Master's, and he's almost done!

We walked through to Kensington Market and looked in a bunch of stores. These pillows are at the Blue Banana Market.

We stopped for drinks at Trinity Common, and my ceasar was perfect.

Dinner at Pho Hung in Chinatown.

Food Friday: Butternut Squash Crockpot Soup & Easy, Homemade Bread

Last week there was a very rainy, cold day, so I knew I had to make something warm. Nic had brought home a butternut squash, and I found a super easy crockpot recipe, so that was an easy decision-crockpots make things very convenient. I also hadn't baked any bread since moving to Toronto, so I figured that was the day! The recipe I used makes one loaf pan, perfect for the two of us. 

Ingredients for the bread:

3/4 cup warm water (you don't want to kill the yeast if it's too hot)

1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

1/2 cup milk

About 3 cups flour

Step 1:

In a bowl of warm water, dissolve the yeast. If it starts to get gloopy, it's working!

Step 2:

In a large bowl, combine salt, sugar, shortening, and milk.

Step 3:
Slowly combine 2 cups of flour into the bowl of dried goods.

Step 4:
On a floured surface (or in your stand mixer) knead the dough until it is soft, not sticky.
Getting the right texture for the dough can be challenging. For years I baked bread and kneaded it by hand, so I now can tell just by looking at it if it'll turn out right.
You want the dough to be sticky to the touch, but easily pull off the sides of your bowl.

Step 5:
Butter a large bowl, and put the dough inside to rise for an hour.
If you have a sunny windowsill, cover the dough and place it there so the warmth will help activate the yeast. Another option is to put it in the oven with the light on.

Step 6:
Punch down the dough, and transfer to your buttered loaf pan. Let it rise for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven at 375*F.
"Score" with 3 cuts across the top, and bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes.
This time that I baked it, it was almost done around 30 minutes, so I tented it with foil to make sure the outside stayed the same, but the inside baked more.

Time to start the soup! Check out the original post on Gimme Some Oven.

Soup ingredients:
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 medium-sized butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded, and diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
The original recipe also uses 1 diced white onion (I hadn't realized we had run out!), fresh sage, and coconut milk

Step 1:
Peel, de-seed, and dice the butternut squash. Prep the rest of the fruits and vegetables.

Step 2:
Add everything into the crockpot and stir. Cook the soup on low for 6-8 hours, or 3-4 hours on high.

Step 3:
Once the soup is cooked and the ingredients are softened, blend them up. If you're using an immersion blender, make sure the sides of the container are much taller than the height of the soup! We're lucky enough to own a Blendtec, which can blend up the hot soup all in one go.

Fresh bread and delicious soup is always a good decision on a cold day! You can add coconut milk, regular milk, or sour cream to the soup when eating it to get a little more creaminess. 

I already miss that bread!

Food Friday: Easy & Fast Brandy Pear Tart

A year ago I bought myself Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts book, and have loved baking everything possible. I've kind of fallen off baking quite as much, because Nic and I have no willpower when it comes to baked goods. If it's there, we'll eat it all. Right away. Oops. 

A lot of people get initimidated making pastry, and it does take practice, but this pear tart is incredibly easy: you're not even making traditional pastry, so it's a lot less finicky.

Ingredients:

2 ounces cream cheese (about 1/2 cup)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (about 1/4 cup, if you only have salted butter, don't add the salt later)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, and any necessary for dusting

1/2 cup white sugar, and any for dusting

1/8 teaspoon salt (unless you used salted butter)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons brandy (Martha suggests pear brandy, I used regular, and I've also used amaretto in the past which was delicious)

1 ripe, firm pear

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 400*F.
2. Combine cream cheese and butter in a food processor, stand mixer, or in a bowl to use with a hand mixer.
3. Add the flour, 1/4 cup the sugar, salt, and process until combined. Dough will stay sticky, so don't be worried.
4. Line a rimmed baking sheet, pie, or tart plate with parchment paper. Put some flour on your fingers and pat the dough in, it will be pretty sticky and messy.



5. Halve pear lengthwise, core, and cut into thin slices. Keep the skin on.
6. In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and brandy.
7. Soak the pear slices in the mixture. When you're plating it, shake the excess liquid off.

8. Arrange the pear slices around the outer edge in whichever pattern you like, and then add another layer until you've placed all pear slices.

9. Sprinkle tart with 1 tablespoon white sugar and the cinnamon. 

10. Bake until golden, 25-30 minutes, making sure you rotate it halfway through to get an even bake.

Yes, this pear tart is as delicious as it looks. We did finish it in one go. Oops. 

You can enjoy it warm or at room temperature. 

My Typical Breakfast: Protein Pancakes and Grapefruit

I have two usual breakfasts, oatmeal or protein pancakes.
I discovered these banana egg pancakes through Blogilates back in 2nd or 3rd year university, and have loved making them ever since. Somehow with one banana to one egg, it tastes like pancake and not scrambled eggs.

Recipe:
1 banana
1 egg
Optional: chia seeds, cinnamon, anything else delicious

Mash the banana and egg together. I like to use my Magic Bullet for minimal effort.
Heat margarine or butter in the pan at medium heat.
Pour the pancake(s) onto the pan and cook until browned and solid, then flip.

I top mine with peanut butter or jam.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

Every year my Mom makes these phenomenal peanut butter chocolate truffles, and I devour them. I can never take just one at a time (and  I wonder why my body fat percentage has gone up!) but this year I'm going to try.
The recipe is surprisingly easy, which is good because they disappear so quickly.

Peanut Butter Truffles

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cups icing sugar

Mix well. Chill dough for a minimum of an hour, but you can go longer.

Form into balls by rolling in your hands. You may have to chill dough again in between because it gets soft. 

Place balls on baking pans and chill well or freeze.

8 oz. (225g or 8 squares) semi-sweet chocolate, melted (you'll probably need more)

Melt chocolate in microwave in bowl that is large enough to dip balls. Don't overheat the chocolate.
Dip peanut butter balls in melted chocolate and set on waxed paper on baking pan.

Chill well.

That recipe makes about 2 dozen. My mom usually has to double it because I'm so obsessed. I only made one batch. I should have made more. 

Merry Cookiemas! - Cookie Decorating Party

For our first Christmas, I wanted to host some sort of a Christmas cookie party. I figured for the three houses of my friends from undergrad, we should either make cookies together, or exchange them, so we have more cookies. We ended up decorating regular sugar cookies, and doing Maddie's cool egg-wash orange cookies, and splitting them up at the end. 

I set up our side table with the baked cookies (since Maddie was baking the orange ones in the kitchen at the same time), hot chocolate stuff, and someone even brought Bailey's.

Nic's parents lived in Zambia for a few years, and came back with this sugar cookie recipe. Nic was adament that we had to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup milk
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 cups flour

Instructions:

1. Cream sugar, butter, shortening, and salt.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
3. Stir the baking powder into the flour.
4. Alternate adding milk and baking powder/flour mixture slowly.
5. Chill dough.
6. Roll out, cut out shapes, and bake at 350* for ~10 minutes.

I got these stunning copper cookie cutters at my bridal shower this spring, and I love how they look! My other cookie cutters are 5 dinosaurs that I got from Dollarama. We used both. 

 

We made basic icing with butter and icing sugar, and added food colouring.

 Maddie really wanted to do her egg-wash orange cookies. I'd never seen these before, so it was really cool to try them. I found a recipe from Pioneer Woman that you can try out. You roll them out, then paint them with different egg-washes, and then bake them.

I didn't do a cost breakdown, but I'm pretty sure that all of us chipping in for 4 dozen + cookies was cheaper than doing it all separately. And way more fun.

Home to Ottawa - Hometown Tourist

This past weekend I took the train "home" to Ottawa to check out OttawaU for grad school. I'm very scared, but I'm applying to the Master's of Globalization and International Development. I hadn't really wanted to tell people, in case I don't get in, but so many people asked me why I was home, and what I'm planning on doing further from now. I'm currently hard at work on scholarship applications, and very excited about what the future holds for me and Nic.

After talking to professors and to people in the Graduate Studies office, I walked around the Rideau Centre (waaaayyy quieter than the Eaton Centre, I can't believe I used to complain about it) then took a reading break along the river.

Saturday morning, Kelsey and I went to Suzy Q's for doughnuts. We love that place. If you're ever in Ottawa, check it out. 

We also had to go to IKEA, and loved every minute of it. I had such a great time catching up with her. 

Kelsey and her dog, Rogue

I had a great weekend at home, staying with my parents. After my time with Kelsey, I had lunch at my in-laws, and supper with some friends. I certainly missed Nic (five months of marriage on that Friday, and we'd never spent a night apart since the wedding) but it was good to be back. 

Who knows? Maybe we'll be moving there in August. 

Thanksgiving Sunday: Hosting our Family!

For Sunday lunch we had cauliflower lentil stew, fruit, and fresh cheese from the market! 

Cheese plate

I made this cheese board for Nic and me last year (I made a matching one for Ryan and Deanna's wedding). The knives are from Monica for my bridal shower, and say "to have" and "to hold," which is absolutely adorable. 

Dad, Mom, Deanna, Ryan, me, and Nic, on our Sunday walk through Cedarvale Park

Yum

I love to bake pies, so I made apple tarts for each of us to eat as a snack Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Martha's guidance I got the perfect pastry for tarts this time around, wonderfully flaky. I was pretty happy with my performance. 

The food

Nic pointed out a couple days later that we should have closed the bedroom door for this. Yup, since Mom and Dad's stuff is in there, including the air mattresses, and some of the stuff from our living room.

The Menu:

Roasted butternut squash, lentil, cranberry, and brussel sprout salad

Turkey

Cranberry sauce

Delicious stuffing using my mother-in-law's recipe

Vegetarian gravy (stock + corn starch essentially)

Mashed potatoes

Spinach, pear, and goat cheese salad

The dining table

Gold Autumn Scroll table cloth from Bed Bath and Beyond
Gold flecked napkins from Bed Bath and Beyond last Christmas
Tea lights, white pumpkins, and a beautiful arrangement from Tidy's Flowers

Cheers!

So thankful for my wonderful family! Nic and I were very happy to host my parents for the weekend, and Ryan and Deanna for the day. It was a cool experience to show off our neighbourhood, Nic's lab, my gym, and some other parts of Toronto we've been loving.