Stuck Working

What a gorgeous day outside and I know this is probably the last day I'll be able to wear shorts this year. Sad.

I am stuck working today but I hope that you take advantage of such a beautiful sunny day. Very well could be the last.

My hubby did pick this up for me for lunch to lift my spirits. It's helping.

How Do You Like them Apples?

It's that time of year where everywhere you turn someone is asking you, "do you want some crab apples? My neighbour left me too many!" Or "Want to come over after work and pick up some apples? My apple tree went crazy this year!" And the question is, what the heck do you do with all of them? I received two grocery bags full of apples and well, I certainly did not want these colourful, crisp, tart apples to go to waste! I started looking for some recipes.

I found a apple crumble and a squash and apple soup to try out.

Let's start with the apple and butternut squash soup.

Making this soup was a perfect excuse to finally use my crock pot. Very excited for all the soups and stews I will be making over the winter.

The soup itself was okay. As M. nicely put it, "feels like I am drinking some hot apple cider with a side of squash." I guess I added too many apples. I didn't think it was that bad. Better not share the recipe until I have made it again and tweaked it. Oh well... 

On to the apple crisp! 

My friend A. came over on the weekend to help me peel and cut up apples so that I can make my first apple crisp.  A vegan one to boot!

I mixed the apples with the following spices; cloves, nutmeg, all spice and cinnamon. The smell was incredible. It hasn't even hit the oven yet!

Our crumble toping.

Here is the crumble coming out of the oven. You can see on the sides all the juices from the apples. Not only was this visually appealing but the smell of cinnamon that fills the kitchen is just heavenly.  Salivating yet?

Final product!

Warm apple crumble with ice cream is a perfect marriage. Delectable. Just as good cold too :)

This is actually a recipe that I found from Post Punk Kitchen's website. Click here for the link. I also copied her recipe below for you to enjoy!

Ingredients

For the filling
4 lbs apples (I use Roma)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple juice or water
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (cornstarch will work too)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup raisin (optional)

For the topping
1 cup quick cooking oats (not instant)
1 cup flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup canola oil
3 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F

Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Dissolve the arrowroot in the apple juice or water. Set aside.

Place apples and raisins in the baking dish, add sugars and spices and combine everything well (you may need to use your hands to do this). Pour arrowroot mixture over everything.

To prepare the topping, in a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add oil, soymilk, and vanilla, mix well. Crumble topping over the apples. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving

Happy 5 years, M.!

This is for my husband. Thank you M., for the most wonderful 5 years. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

How did we celebrate this very special anniversary you may ask? Through food of course! With the craziness that our life has been lately, a night in with good food, wine and a movie was music to our ears.

M. and I had decided a long time ago that we will no longer buy each other presents for anniversaries or Christmas' but instead, we will have a mini splurge! A splurge could be anything from going to a restaurant that is usually out of or our budget or a nice bottle of wine or even a night out to the VIP theater! But, for this anniversay, a quiet evening at home sounded perfect but we need supplies.

We started off with a stop at Godiva and we purchased a "around the world" chocolate box. It had flavours from Brazil, Japan, France, Belgium and America. Interesting flavours. My favourite was a honey nougat and my least favourite was a banana flavoured one. Remember that banana cough syrup you took as a child? Yeah, it tasted like that.

We wanted a cheese plate and a nice bottle of wine with our movie so we went to La Grotta Market on Friday night to get supplies.

Before our hunt for cheese, we found some fresh Fettucini pasta that looked too good to pass up. 

M. ended up making Fettucini Alfredo. It was delicious. Nothing beats fresh pasta.

On with the cheese! We picked up 4 cheeses, some crackers, raw almonds and Kalamata olivies. M. picked two cheeses and I picked the other two. He picked a Moroccan spice and spiced Gouda. I picked a sticky toffee cheese and Wensleydale blueberry cheese. I couldn't try the Moroccan spice cheese. I am not a fan of a lot of spice but M. loves it and he even said this cheese was too hot for him. I love the Gouda though and the ones that I picked. They were on the sweeter side but it still went well with the wine.

We also found some panna cotta at the drool worthy bakery counter. I chose the kiwi one to try. It was delicious! Not as creamy as I've had int he past but I loved the kiwi.

We also received a plate of dainties from our neighbours.  Just a little something more to top off the evening. Carb overload.

What a fantastic evening.

Happy... Thursday!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

The weekend is right around the corner and I haven't yet shared about my adventure from last weekend :)

Last Sunday was a busy one for us. We made time to go to ManyFest that was happening downtown. This past summer flew by and I haven't been able to enjoy the food trucks that have been lined up during lunch time only a few blocks away from the office. I told M. that going to ManyFest was our last chance to be part of this new food truck craze and we had to make it count.

Off we went to Broadway/ Osborne area and perused through the trucks. I wanted to try and sample a few things from most of the trucks we were checking out but not all of them were veggie friendly and, if they were, they had nothing, well, that exciting to offer. I was tired of the ol' poutine or fries flavoured with some sort of spice. Also, the line ups were quite long so we had to be strategic with what we wanted to try.

Such a beautiful day.

I decided to go to, Stuff It, which focus on pitas. There weren't any vegetarian options to try pita wise but they did have deep fried pickles with cajun spice that sounded interesting.

Here they are with a side of some dressings. They look like fries don't they? When I think of deep fried pickles, I am expecting thick cut breaded deep fried pickles. When you bite into them you still get that crunch but juicy. Although these were enjoyable to eat, especially when you have a fried food craving, they were a let down since it was more batter than pickle. Also, they took over 20 minutes to get after they took my order.

While I was waiting for the pickles, M. was over at the Red Ember wood fire oven pizza truck ordering us their Caprese pizza.  I have been hearing a lot of talk about this particular food truck all summer so I couldn't wait to dig in. I also love that they focus on local ingredients from the grain to the flour used in the dough to the cheese to top it all off (and everything in between). The pizza we had was three cheese topped with basil. It was delicious. I could have probably eaten another. Great crust!

They also had tasty fun ginger ale pomegranate drink. It was refreshing.

A view of the truck.

There were a couple other trucks that I would have loved to try (such as the Greek Foods Market or samosa truck) but after the pickles and pizza, I couldn't eat another bite!

I will definitely return back next year!  Did anyone else make it out to this festival? 

Well, don't fret. Many of the food trucks can still be found on Broadway including the Red Ember. Check out their website here to see where you can find them.

When I was writing up this post last night, I was starting to get hungry for pizza so I made this little gem.

Spinach, tomato and cheese pizza. Not all local ingredients unfortunately or cooked in a wood fire oven but it was still delicious!

Risotto with Peas

I owe you a risotto recipe! I found a very simple recipe of this Italian classic that I found easy and not time consuming (with prep about 40 minutes).  I made risotto again tonight for dinner using this recipe and it was just as flavourful and creamy as when I made it the first time. 

First, you need some white wine. I used wine from my wedding.

The key ingredient: Arborio rice which I found at Superstore. It's the starch from this type of rice that brings the creaminess to the dish.

My set up. I made vegetable broth to the left and I started making the risotto in the pan on the right.

The oil and rice mixing.

My supervisor. 

I ladled my broth (to be on the warmer than hot side too) in a 2 cup measuring cup so that it was ready to go as you can see on the top right. My risotto is now simmering.

Wine break!

Up close view to the stirring/ simmering process when adding broth to the rice.

Final Product!

Risotto with Peas

(adapted from Thug Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup chopped shallots or yellow onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup Arborio rice*
• ½ cup white wine
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 ½ cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ¼ cup minced chives
• pepper to taste

Directions:

• Warm up the veggie broth in a medium pot until it gently simmers then turn off the heat.
• In a large skillet or pot with a wide bottom, heat up the 2 tablespoons of oil over a medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté them around until they start to look golden, about 2-3 minutes.
• Add the garlic and rice and sauté until the rice smells toasted and starts looking like it absorbed some of the oil, about 2 more minutes. This helps make your risotto creamy. 
• Add the white wine and salt to the pot and cook until most of the wine has evaporated and you scraped whatever bits of shallot got stuck to the bottom of the pot.
• Now add 2 cups of the warm broth, stir, and lower the heat so that the pot is at a simmer, uncovered. Stir every couple of minutes until most of the broth has absorbed into the rice, about 7-10 minutes. Just stir it every minute or two. Add another 2 cups of warm broth at this point, and do that whole stir and simmer thing again for another 7 minutes or until the rice tastes slightly undercooked and there’s still broth in the pot.
• Add the frozen peas and stir the entire mixture off and on for two minutes until the peas are cooked. Turn off the heat; add the lemon zest, remaining oil, half the chives, and a little pepper. Serve right away and top with the remaining chives.

What a Long Weekend

How was everyone's long weekend? Mine sure felt long. With another 15 hours of over time under my belt, I was exhausted but I managed to make some time to have some fun.

M. and I decided to go to The Grove for dinner on Friday night. We enjoyed some drinks and delicious foods. M. went for the veggie burger and I was craving a pizza. I tried "The Paige". The toppings included caramelized onions, onion salsa, pear and prosciutto and finished with basil. Minus the meat this is what landed in front of me.

I loved it! The pear wasn't too sweet and the onions had great flavours. The crunch from the onion salsa came through and the freshness of the basil tied everything together. This combo works and it is my new favourite! My plan is to recreate this at home.

I ended my meal with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. It wasn't exactly what I expected since when I have ordered this dessert in the past it had a type of caramel sauce and chocolate. This was a plain cake with some kind of syrup and fresh blueberries. They also put flowers on my plate. Why put something on my plate that is not edible? (Trust me. I asked) It was a pretty plate but this fell flat for me.

I also managed to do some cooking. It was more for de-stressing than anything. I decided to make risotto for the first time (maybe not the best decision for a de-stressing recipe search) and even though you need to show great patience it was fun to make and the results were worth it. I found it from Thug Kitchen's blog. A vegan blog that has a lot in-your-face attitude. Probably because of all of the profanity. I get a kick out of it.

Finished product!

I added some frozen peas at the end of the process. This dish was extremely flavourful. It reminded me of the first time I had risotto during my Minneapolis trip last year. I love this recipe. I will share my adapted version soon. The original recipe asks for asparagus which I look forward to trying next time.

 We also enjoyed the last of the summer sun and had a BBQ on Monday. M.'s parents were over and we all enjoyed potatoes, grilled corn, zucchini, broccoli and tofu. It was fantastic comfort food and a great feast to end the weekend.

M.'s mom was also kind enough to bring some dessert from a bakery in T-cona. We enjoyed some tiramisu, baklava and raspberry tartelette.

How was your weekend?

Friday Night Break

M. and I are off to The Grove for drinks and dinner. Enjoying some time together since I've worked 55 hours this past week. Great kick off to the long weekend. Enjoy yours too!

So... cold...

It looks like our summer is ending sooner than we all would have liked. This past weekend certainly proved it! M. and I had planned to take the Friday off and go out to Bird's Hill for a picnic and a long walk with our dog but those plans abruptly changed. An opportunity came up at work to work some over time and with how the weather was turning less sunny and more rainy, my relaxing weekend turned into an errand running/ working weekend. You win some you lose some. I even had plans to try out two new recipes to blog about; asparagus risotto and meringue kisses but I didn't even do any of the cooking all weekend. It was all M. He made simple but tasty meals.

Corn, garlic bread, salad and marinated tofu with yellow beans from the Farmers' Market.

I am holding on to summer though and this upcoming weekend will all lift up our spirits as it seems to be bringing on some better weather. For a last hurrah, here is a recipe I have been enjoying this past season. What's a better way to say good bye to summer than to make some ice cream? Not just ice cream, but VEGAN ice cream!

This was the first attempt. I made chocolate coconut fudge ice cream that looked like soup! The texture was less than ideal but it had a good flavour though. 

The second time I made it, it turned out a lot better. After I churned the ice cream, I put it back in the freezer for an hour, the texture was harder and very creamy. I topped it off with some chopped pecans. Enjoy!

Chocolate Coconut Fudge

Ingredients:

• 2 1/1 cups (600ml) unsweetened 100% coconut milk
• 2/3 cup of organic cane sugar
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 8 oz of semisweet chocolate, chopped

Special tools:

• Candy thermometer

Directions:

• Prepare an ice bath in the sink or a large heatproof bowl. I used my soup stock pot and filled it up half way with ice and some cold water sitting just above the ice.
• In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut milk, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, syrup and whisk vigorously until smooth and combined. Clip a candy thermometer to the saucepan and set the pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring regularly with a rubber spatula and scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent the syrup from sticking and burning, until the mixture reaches 155 degrees F.
• Turn the heat to low and add the chocolate, stirring constantly until completely melted. Remove from the heat. Transfer the mixture to the ice bath and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Transfer the cooled base to an ice cream maker and churn it accordingly to the manufacturer's instructions.
• Transfer the sorbet to a storage container. Serve immediately or harden in your freezer for 8 to 12 hours for a more scoopable sorbet. 

Around The World in a Few Blocks!

I mentioned quickly in a post last week that M. and I were going on a date night by taking a food tour in the West End hosted by the West End Biz. Our long time friend, Joe, was hosting and organized all of the tours. He did an incredible job.

The premise of the tours is that every Wednesday for the month of August, you will go on a walking/ food tour around the West End where you try out 3 or 4 restaurants in the neighbourhood. While walking to each restaurant, you are entertained with stories about the neighbourhood such as where the street names came from and how West End was one of the first established neighbourhoods in Winnipeg. There were also some pop quizzes. I was embarrassed over how little I knew about Winnipeg.

Every tour has a different route and a different restaurant to try so there are no duplicate tours. At each restaurant you are given a sampler of what they have to offer. Because this is such a diverse neighbourhood, it does force you to try new foods that maybe you would never have been brave enough to try on your own. All part of the fun!

The price feels a little expensive at $45 per person and then an additional fee for alcohol (you pay $6.50 for imports and $4.50 for domestic) but we did end up having 4 small meals (4 small AMAZING meals) and so M. and I felt it was worth it. Our total came to $120 which included 4 import drink tickets. This did not include tips for each restaurant that we left. (Also to note, this is not a vegan friendly tour.)

We were twelve for this particular tour and our first stop was at the corner of Sargent and Langside where a Chinese/ Vietnamese restaurant called Thanh Huong is located. They had the largest summer rolls I have ever seen. Our vegetarian option were two summer rolls with deep fried tofu instead of the shrimp and deep fried spring rolls with accompanied sauces. It was a great way to start. M. and I shared a Chinese beer which was also light and refreshing.

We then made our way to X-Cues. We found it odd that we were making our way to a pool hall for dinner but we were game. It's also the go to spot for all west enders to celebrate the World Cup!  X-Cues is also still run by the family of the original Italian owner who opened this location as a members-only espresso bar in the 60's. They still have an espresso bar set up. We didn't get to caffeinate ourselves this round but we are tempted to go back. We were served fresh pasta with tomato sauce, an omelette and a salad. Our import beer was Heineken which was too bad because we found out later that there was an Italian beer we could have tried. The food was okay. Not our favourite but we really enjoyed the atmosphere.

We took a longer walk down Sargent and made our way to Central Park to go to Merkato's, an Ethiopian restaurant. We had to get very cozy with the other participants because you eat the food with your hands and the food is shared with everyone. We had our vegetarian dish that had lentils, potato, salad, spinach and mixed vegetables M. and I have gone to Massawa, an Ethiopian restaurant on Osborne a number of times and so we weren't foreign to Ethiopian food. We really enjoyed our meal.

Finally, for dessert, we took a walk by the University of Winnipeg and made our way to Homer's, which has undergone some recently renovations. It looked great! We had Baklava with coffee to end the evening with tales from the original owner about his village in Greece and how he turned this restaurant that was once a Dairy Whip into one of Winnipeg's favourite go to Greek restaurants.

I highly recommend this tour. It was very well organized and only lasted 2 and 1/2 hours. M. and I thoroughly enjoyed the food but we think Thanh Huong was our favourite. It was vegan friendly as well and we can't wait to introduce this restaurant to our friends.

If you are interested in joining a tour, click here. The West End Biz's plan is to make this an annual event if it is successful. So far so good, says Joe!