Coming soon!

Yay for long weekends!

I will be enjoying mine as much as I am sure you are enjoying yours. That's why I am going to take a little bit of a break but here is what you can look forward to:

• My attempt to make strawberry lime jam
• Some breakfast cereals you should think about adding to your yogurt in the morning
• My new September diet of no sugar, low carbs and high protein... except for cheat days. 

In the mean time, I will be enjoying my carbonated strawberry lemonade and gin afternoon cocktail while watching Milos Raonic play in the U.S. Open... go Milos!

Pineridge Hollow

What should you do on a weekend? Visit a new Farmers' Market!

M. and I woke up early at 10am (well, for us) on Saturday morning to make our way to the Pineridge Hollow Farmers' Market located in Birds Hill Park for some fresh produce and breakfast grub.

Word of caution: there are two entrances to this market. One entrance is outside of the park and one is inside the actual park. If you go through the park, you need to pay $5 for the all day park pass. News to us. Instead of going back and around, we simply paid the fine, but realized we should've checked the Market's website that morning for details. Live and learn.

So that you don't get caught, for directions click here.

Look at all this loot we picked up!

We purchased some tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes (more than is shown), broccoli, and corn.

We also picked up this pillow for $25 ($20 for a pillow cover only or $25 for both pillow and cover) and two cards that were $3 each from a lovely little artist/vendor called Boomerang 360. 

When I went on the official Pineridge Hollow website, I noticed that there was a restaurant nearby the market and the menu looked appetizing, so, after our shopping, we went off to have breakfast.

Sure enough, the place was packed and there was a long line up at the door! We waited for about 10 minutes before the hostess was even able to talk to us and, at this time of 12:30pm, she told us that we should have made a reservation since they were booked solid until 4pm. Ummm...how about putting that valuable suggestion on your website? Sheesh. 

At that point, we were starving and I was really disappointed. 

M. and I at that point had no patience to go anywhere else and wait for food, so, we decided to try out the new frozen pizzas we picked up from Costco the night before. It should be noted how we never go down the frozen food aisle when we grocery shop except to pick up mixed berries for smoothies, so it wasn't until M.'s family mentioned that we could find vegetarian frozen pizzas that were loaded with kale and broccoli at Costco that we finally made a point of venturing down the frozen food aisle. 

For $6 a pizza (from a pack of 2), this hit the spot. The ingredients and crust tasted very good and I would gladly buy this product again. We definitely hit the 'green vegetable' daily nutrition requirement for that day.

For dinner, M. made a wonderful and tasty supper with the produce we picked up earlier that morning. He made some tofu on the side with the peaches and cream corn, broccoli with cheese, and small red potatoes with cream and dill. So excellent.

The next day for lunch, I had cut up some tomatoes and cucumbers from the market with salt and pepper and left over goat cheese that I had bought for my sables last week. 

Overall, some good eats this weekend! What Farmers' Market did you visit this past week?

Well...

Remember how I gabbed about my purchase of this eye catching cook book? Well...

It has glossy pages, beautiful photographs that made my mouth water, and its attractive description "Vegetarian Recipes From My Parisian Kitchen" had me sold.  I kept thinking how this book would introduce me to new spice combinations and flavours and, since I am part French, familiarize me with a country I have yet to visit. 

Okay, I know this sounds a little odd for most people, but, for me, cookbooks are personal. Shopping for ingredients, preparing, cooking, etc is a serious time commitment so therefore I am picky about the books I purchase. 

Why the sorta dramatic intro? Well, I was disappointed with the results of the first two recipes I tried.

So last weekend was a four day weekend for me, and I decided to have a cooking extravaganza! I showed my prep work in a post last week and here is how the not-so-extravaganza went...

Let's start with the Eggplant and Fresh Tabbouleh. It looked appetizing and the ingredients sounded wonderful; fresh mint, basil and cilantro, red onion, eggplant, whole wheat couscous with a tahini, harissa, and lemon juice dressing. It was even featured in Shape magazine this month!

Well... I couldn't eat it. It wasn't edible. All I tasted was mint. What a waste of food and what a disappointment. It sounded fantastic but it was far from it. I won't even share the recipe because that's how much I care about you.

What have I learned from this? Basil and mint don't mix (unless it's followed by some rum), but, on the plus side, I now know how to prepare and cook eggplant. A small victory there, but still: strike one. 

The second recipe I attempted were the Rosemary Sables.

They were essentially fancy crackers made with goat cheese, honey, italian spices and whole wheat flour.  They were quite good, but, not palatable enough for me to spend another $7 on 300g of goat cheese.  I feel like I could have found a very similar box of crackers for the same price. Strike two.

Fortunately, I resorted to a tried and tested recipe for dessert (not from the above book), and it was pretty darn scrumptious. I made mini tartlets with a vegan custard topped with some fresh fruit and glossed with apricot jam. The pastry was flaky and light! Purchasing the mini tartlet pan kit from Williams and Sonoma (which provided the pastry recipe) was well worth it!

Click here to see the previous post on how the pastry was made:

Mini Tarts Pastry Recipe

by Williams-Sonoma Kitchens

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups - all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 250 g of butter (or two sticks) cut in 1/4 inch pieces
• 6-8 tbsp of ice water

Directions:

• In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt and pulse to combine. 
• Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. 
• Add the 6 tbsp of ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. (My dough ended up sticky but it still worked well)
• If it is crumbly add the remaining 2 tbsp of water and pulse twice between each tbsp of water.
• Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide in half.
• Shape each into a disk.
• Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. 
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Remove the dough from the fridge and let stand for 5 minutes.
• Place one disc of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out 1/16 inch thick. 
• You must work fast with the dough however because once the dough gets too warm, it's not workable as it rips apart and gets too sticky. If this happens, put it back in the fridge for 15-20mins. 
• Cut out enough of the dough to place in tart shells. I have used it for the mini-tart pan and for individual larger tarts and the dough works very well. I had a tart cutter but if you don't, you can certainly take some dough and fill the tart molds quite easily. 
• If you have made a filling (quiche, cheesecake etc.. place it into each tart now)
• Bake the tart for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees. 
• Bake for another 10 mins (approximately) or until the tarts turn golden brown.
• With custard or pudding, you cannot bake it with the tarts, therefore, I pokes holes into the tarts before it was baked or you can put pie weights into each tart so that they don't puff up.
• Remove the tarts from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. 

I can't share the vegan custard recipe unfortunately but here is the recipe book that I picked it up from.

The recipe is called Strawberry Kiwi Creme Tart on page 111. I actually make this recipe every Christmas Eve. It's our tradition. What makes this custard unique is that it's made with cashews (soaked in water for at least 24 hours) instead of using cream with a unique binding agent called Agar Agar. It's a vegan gelatin option derived from a South East Asian seaweed. You can find this powder at Scoop n' Weigh on Taylor but be forewarned: it's pretty pricey at around $16 per 100 grams. Luckily, you only need 2 tablespoons for this recipe.

Here are some pictures of the baking process...

 All the ingredients in the blender to be smoothed out!

Final Product:

To wrap this up, the dessert was amazing. It was a hit when I brought left overs at work earlier this week. Unfortunately, the tabbouleh and crackers were a let down BUT I have hope for another recipe that I am planning to try out. After all, I don't want it to be three strikes in a row for this book. 

So...Frescolio just opened down the block

Have you folks heard about this place?

By George, it's a fine oils and vinegar tasting bar!

I like the concept, but  - Aye Carumba! - the reported $5 for 60ml bottle of olive oil is a little pricey for my tastes! But, as a fan of both oil and vinegar, I'm sure i'll pop in...just might need to work overtime that week.

Click here for the link to learn more about them on CBC.

Click here to peruse their website.

A far from lazy Sunday in the kitchen

This post is more of a diary write up of what I accomplished today to prep for my cooking extravaganza that will be happening at casa M. and Steph's, tomorrow.

I have a four day weekend that stretches until tomorrow and after spending two days that included hanging out at the River Heights Farmers' Market and at a friends pool, I am ready to dive into my new cookbook- The French Market - and also to find a recipe that will incorporate one of the new pans I purchased a couple weeks ago.

I found a recipe for Eggplant and Fresh Herb Tabouleh as well as Goat Cheese and Rosemary Sables from the cookbook. I decided to try the Eggplant/ Tabouleh recipe when I found eggplant at the River Heights Famers' Market. The vendor, Stefan who runs the Blu Lagoon booth, explained to me how to cook eggplant (since I never have), and, when I explained to him the recipe I was planning to make, it turned out that he also had the fresh basil and mint that are also required ingredients. Score!

That left the tahini (I was out), whole wheat couscous and Harissa spice to find. Now for those who have indulged on tabouleh (I have not... yet) you must be thinking Harissa? In Tabouleh? But tabouleh is a salad! Why would you put a very hot spice in a salad!? My answer to you is... I am following the recipe. I don't know why! Clotilde Dusoulier, who is the author of this cookbook, and that's good enough for me.

M. and I picked up some groceries today and after not being able to find Harissa at Bulk Barn, I remembered that there was a middle eastern grocery store in Wolseley, off Maryland, that may have it. Well, when I asked (possibly the owner) for Harissa and I told him it was for tabouleh... well, did I ever open a can of worms. He flat out told me Harissa does not belong in tabouleh then proceeded to sell me a pre-made tabouleh mix. Still bought Harissa in a paste form, just to try it in the recipe. (They had probably a half dozen brands/consistencies of Harissa, so I'd like to think he knows what he's talking about.) Anyway, when we were paying for our items, we noticed that they had vegetarian roti's ready to go, so we also picked up a couple.

Our snack when we got home; vegetable roti's (M. took a bite before I snapped the pic), cucumbers, sliced apple, cheddar cheese and pickles.

After our snack, M. wanted to make our protein bars for the week. We switched up the protein powder we normally use from vanilla to chocolate. So, these protein bars are double chocolate protein bars! Click here for the recipe that I posted previously.

Once that was done, onto the prep work for tomorrow's supper. As per the tabouleh recipe I was following, we could prepare the eggplant the day. I was instructed to let it sit at room temperature with a thin coat of salt for at least an hour and then steam it. Once it was cooked, it had to be completely cooled. The plan is to do the prep work today and enjoy it tomorrow.

Eggplant hanging out before the steam.

The reason, as I learned, for the eggplant to be left alone for at least an hour with a thin coat of salt is to remove the bitterness.

Since this recipe would be our supper tomorrow night, M. wanted to make a tofu stirfry with kale, the rest of the tariyaki sauce we picked up in the States, peas and chopped up cashews over top a bed of quinoa. Yum!

After supper (and before Breaking Bad at 8pm... obsessed!) I wanted to make the pastry for the mini tartletts since they needed to sit in the fridge in disk form for a couple hours. It can stay in the fridge for up to two days. I might as well bake them tomorrow and make the vegan custard filling with raspberries tomorrow afternoon. Here are some pictures of the process of making the pastry...

Pan I will be using.

Ingredients required.

Dough being 'pulsed'.

After the pulsing action happened.

Dough in disk form covered by saran wrap.

I wasn't really in the mood to make the Sable's tonight after spending over an hour and a half of my day doing dishes. Also, since the mixture for the Sable's only need to sit in the fridge for one hour after you make it, the Sable's can be prepared, baked and presented tomorrow at supper.

M. will come home from a long day at work with a feast awaiting him!

More details regarding each recipe will follow in the next post. I hope everyone had a lovely Sunday in the kitchen, too!

Some Seitan, please!

Seitan? What is that? How do you pronounce that? Where can I find that?!

Well, Seitan (sa-ay-tan and yes, I have said 'Satan') can be found at Organza and Vita Health. Seitan is essentially a 'wheat meat' as it is made of wheat gluten. This is a an alternative protein for vegetarians instead of using Tofu or Tempeh. 

I really enjoy Seitan because, despite it's expensive price ($5.69 at Organza) for 225 grams, it has a high amount of protein per package. The only negative I have is that this product is made from wheat gluten so, obviously, not gluten-free. However, one of my favorite things about seitan is that it really absorbs the flavors from marinades/ sauces so there is no need to marinate hours before you make your meal! BONUS!

Now, for some nutritional facts per 100 grams;

• 124 calories 
• no saturated or trans fats
• no cholesterol
• 390 mg of sodium which is 17% of you RDA
• 6 grams of carbs
• 1 gram of fibre
• 1 gram of sugar
• 18 grams of protein (YES!)

Other than Green Cuisine brand (above), we haven't spotted any other competing seitan brands yet in the city.

However....

We spotted these babies at Whole Foods during our Minneapolis trip for a criminally low price of $3.99 each! There were about 7 flavours to choose from (!!!), and we picked up the chipotle. Fortunately, we had the foresight to bring a cooler with us on the trip, so we were able to keep the product chilled as we travelled home across the border.

Preparing it was simple. We heated it up in a pan, and it tasted exactly like Italian Tofurkey sausages except instead of it being 280 calories a sausage it was 160 calories per 114 grams. That's a big win. Plus, it's a welcome break from soy protein. 

Did you notice the packaging?! 3.2 X more protein than most tofu! And it's vegan! And there's 28 grams of protein per serving! You will also notice that for the traditional seitan, there seems to be more protein per serving. I really don't have an answer to why except that each company has their own recipe that they tinker with but in the end, it is very nutritious and it gives us veggies a break from soy and also provides a different texture to play around with in recipes! The texture reminds me of ground beef. 

You can actually make your own seitan. I have a recipe from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz on page 132 and 133 to be exact. I have never made it but you better believe it on my 'must attempt' recipe list. 

With seitan, you can deep fry it, grill it or chop it up or even add it in a fried quinoa stir fry recipe, like so... 

Fried Quinoa with Seitan

This recipe is a play on fried rice. I made it 'healthier' by using low sodium tamari and seitan to amp up the protein. 

You can be very versatile with your vegetables but I used cauliflower, butternut squash and peas. There is no need to add too many seasonings. The tamari is very flavourful with the garlic. 

Squash is a fryin'!

Quinoa cooking to the left. 

I have a 3 cup food processor that I use to grind up the seitan. Looks like veggie ground beef doesn't it?

Time to add the eggs!

Scramble them up!

Time to eat!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of chopped cauliflower in bite size pieces
• 1 cup of peas
• 1 cup of butternut squash chopped in bite size pieces
• 1 package of seitan (225 grams)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 1 vegetable cube
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 5 tablespoons of Tamari
• 1 teaspoon of crushed red peppers
• 2 tablepoons of olive oil
• black sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

• Use a very large non-stick frying pan if you do not have a wok available to you.
• Add both tablespoons of olive oil while the pan is heating up to medium-high heat.
• Add the garlic and once it's fragrant, add the butternut squash.
• Make sure not to burn the squash but cook until you can pierce your folk through it but not enough that it's cooked all the way through.
• While this is cooking, make quinoa as per the directions on the package. Quinoa can be prepared the same way as rice. Therefore, in this case, 1 cup of uncooked quinoa needs 2 cups of water and 1 vegetable cube.  It takes approximately 10-12 minutes. FYI- the vegetable cube adds flavour to the stir fry.
• Add the cauliflower to your pan with the squash when the squash is starting to cook through.
• With seitan, it is usually in a vaccum sealed package with a bit of liquid. Drain the liquid in it's entirety. Using a food processor, ground up all of the seitan.
• Once the cauliflower is starting to cook through, add the seitan, peas and cooked quinoa and mix. Add the Tamari and let it cook for approximately 5-7 minutes. You can add more Tamari if you like but it really is to your taste. The more you add, the more salty it becomes. 
• Spread the mixture up to the sides because you want to make a well for the eggs.
• Crack open those eggs in your well. You want the eggs to be scrambled but over cooked a bit before you add to the entire mixture. Try and scramble them within the well you made. Once it's starting to be in scramble form, add a bit of the mixture at a time. You really want to taste bits of eggs in your stir fry. You will end up mixing it in the entire mixture. 
• We're done! Time to eat!

From MB to ND to MN and Back

Alright, Folks! Who is ready to live vicariously through my shopping excursion in America? Hold on to your hats! This is a long one...

Last weekend, M. and I went off to Minneapolis as our final destination to do some shopping and taste some great food.

I gave you a little teaser in the last post of some 'must-have' ingredients and cook wear that I wanted to give a home to in my kitchen. Essentially, I wanted to take my time through Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and find funky and different spices or foods that we can't find in Winnipeg.

Well, this is what we came back with...

Turns out that after I took this picture and started putting away my new purchases, M. had already put away approximately 20% of our groceries. Yup, there was more. Eeeep!

Either way, I think you get the idea.

On my 'must buy' list was a second madeleine pan that I found for $10 and a mini tarts pan that I picked up from William and Sonoma for $24.99 (but with a 20% off  discount, so it was well worth it.) I also found a mini whoopie pie pan that was an impulse purchase from Bed Bath and Beyond in Grand Forks, N.D. for $10 marked down from $15. I also picked up a pack of 6 individual tartlett pans from there for $15. All in all, I found the prices were reasonable and my head is now swimming with new recipes (that most of the pans came with) that I am eager to try.

Here are some spices that I found at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. 

From right to left; unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar (Trader Joe's), Organic Balti Curry, Organic Ras el hanout seasoning, aged Apple Cider Vinegar, and cocoa, sugar and chili seasonings (Whole Foods),  Himalayan pink sea salt (The Gourmet Chef), Taco seasoning (Trader Joe's) and finally, Avocado Oil from Whole Foods. Funny thing about the oil is that this 500ml container cost us $10.99 USD, so we bought two thinking it was a good price. After all, the exact container sells for $16.99 at Vic's Fruit Market. Sure enough, the day after we returned we hit Costco in Winnipeg and saw, for the first time, avocado oil. 1L for $10.99 CDN. Speechless.

Some of these items were pricey but have you ever seen a cocoa, sugar and chili seasoning grinder that is perfect to top off cookies, bread, pudding and fudge in Winnipeg? NOPE! Well worth the $5. 

What about the food? Well...

The hot buffet from Whole Foods

Macaroni and cheese, sauteed broccoli, mashed potatoes, grilled zucchini, chili lime tofu and red quinoa.

Peach Iced Greed Tea for me and Rootbeer for M. 

We ended up staying at Sofitel through Hotwire. We were not disappointed. There was a French theme to the hotel so the local parisian cafe had these treats waiting for us every morning. 

 I gobbled down chocolate croissants. I didn't have a choice.

Also, in the lobby, they had some form of French baking and water flavoured with either cucumbers, oranges or lemons on a daily basis. One day, there were madeleines...

I grabbed these before we left for the day but I wish I grabbed 6 more packs... they were so fluffy and light. They really were incredible.

Here is a shot of the hotel lobby.

 When we were at the Mall of America, we unexpectedly stopped at Starbucks for lunch.

This is called the 'Protein' bistro box. For $3.99 USD we had half an apple, a handful of grapes, a couple slices of Wisconsin cheddar cheese, a raisin pita with honey peanut butter and a hard boiled egg. I washed it down with a grande peach iced green tea lemonade for another $3. I have seen these types of packs in Alberta but, man oh man, did this ever hit the spot. 

Some nutrition facts about our Protein Bistro Box as they call it, 380 calories, 19g of fat, 6g of saturated fat, 470mg of sodium (ouch), 19g of sugar and 13g of protein. Not bad! This kept me quite full until dinner. Wish we had these in Winnipeg. Perfect lunch. 

Onto dinner! I googled 'vegetarian friendly restaurant and Minneapolis' and the restaurant Barbette came up. The menu looked very appealing and so were the reviews. With confirmation of local brews that are served on tap, M. and I decided to try it out.

The decor for me felt like a European (French?) Bistro and the menu was heavy on the Italian classics with a twist. It was very cozy with some cool and interesting art hanging on the walls.

 We tried their cheese and fruit plate to start. We were served thinly sliced apples, strawberries, grapes, apricots that were soaked in honey and a spread out drop (yup that yellow strip next to the apple) of truffled honey. The cheese we received was a gruyere and a Wisconsin cheese but I can't remember what kind. Either way, it was all wonderful. It was a great start to our meal.

M. ordered the Zucchini and Summer Squash Parpadelle

I had the sweet corn risotto. This is the first time I have ever had risotto. I really want to find this recipe and make it every weekend if I could. If M. would have let me (and if we weren't in public) I would have licked my plate clean.

We finished off our meal with the seared banana and Nutella Panna Cotta. 

I would highly recommend this restaurant. You can check out their menu here. It's located in a very hipster type neighbourhood called Uptown and I made a note for the next time I am in town to explore this neighbourhood a little more. It reminded me quite a bit of Osborne Village. 

One of the last items on my "must buy" list was to pick up these two cookbooks:

and

I only found the French Market Cookbook at Barnes and Noble. I maybe saved close to $15 than buying it in Canada but I could have definitely purchased both of these for the same price I paid for one on Amazon. Ah well. It was good reading material for the drive down to Minneapolis! A post about this beautiful book with its glossy pages, alluring photographs and achievable recipes will follow soon.

My trip was wonderful and I hope we can go again next year to try out new restaurants and explore new gourmet food stores I discovered on this trip.