I’ve picked up snowboarding now that I live so close to the mountains. Being a beginner means a lot of falling and unfortunately I took a particularly bad fall the most embarrassing way possible…

I hurt myself falling off of the chairlift.

With 3 out of 4 tendons of my rotator cuff injured, I was given the bad news of not snowboarding again until I healed up.

This disappointing information required a hefty dose of chocolate. I chose Robert’s Brownies My Way by Alice Medrich
because she uses the phrase “densely creamy and intensely bittersweet”. I didn’t find them intensely bittersweet, but these brownies are lightly sweetened and they are fudgy to a point where you think they haven’t been baked long enough. As long as the toothpick comes out mostly clean, you’re in the clear.

Recipe here.

2011 was one heck of a year for me, I changed jobs and moved to the West Coast. While things have settled down over here, a lot of my kitchen things are still in storage that I miss (e.g. my tart pan).

I didn’t complete much of my 2011 goals, so here’s hoping that 2012 will be a better year.

Start cooking from my Unloved Collection
There is a growing stack of cookbooks that I haven’t even touched. Some have daunting ingredient lists and others just haven’t drawn me in. I’m also going to go back and look at old cookbooks that haven’t been used that much lately and see if I can cull my collection a bit.

Make pasta
I just got a pasta maker and I’m now searching for the best book to go along with it. This gadget has been on my list for years, but never purchased for fear of it being a dust collector. 2012 will be the year of carbs for me!

Croissants
The croissant process requires a lot of time spent in the kitchen. I don’t foresee myself making this regularly, but it’s been on my list of things to do for a few years now.

Bagels
This was on my list last year. If I can bake bread, are bagels just as easy?

This is one heck of a cookie. It’s an intense chocolate, crisp exterior and when your teeth sink down into it, it turns into a rich fudge. Magical.

I made these during my true Nervous Chef days when I was setting off the smoke alarms. Somehow I didn’t screw these up. Surprising, as meringues have been failing me as of late.

You need good chocolate (aim for something you would eat on its own, quality matters here), sugar, pecans and egg whites. Everything comes together quickly, so when the oven is done preheating your cookies are ready to go in.

Most of my cookies look a little more rough than the ones I’ve seen on the web. I’m not sure the reason why. Maybe not enough mixing?

These are from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet, but you can also find them in Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies.

Melting Chocolate Meringues (makes about 30 2-inch cookies) From Bittersweet

Ingredients:
4 1/2 ounces 70% chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large egg whites (1/4 cup), room temperature
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, I think toasted hazelnuts would work well too)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Melt chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. I make a make-shift double boiler by placing the bowl on top of a saucepan filled with simmering water. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar and vanilla. When soft peaks form, slowly add the sugar until you get stiff peaks. Be careful not to beat too long or they’ll be dry.
4. Mix up the chocolate and nuts into the egg whites and fold with a rubber spatula until the colour is uniform.
5. Drop tablespoons of batter 1 inch apart onto the cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cookies should look dry and have a bit of give to them when pressed on. They’ll still be gooey inside. Cool completely.

I may have missed baking a pumpkin pie for Canadian Thanksgiving, but at least I’m in time for the American one.

This is from King Arthur Flour. Apparently Canadians prefer their pumpkin pies spicier compared to their American counterparts. I’m a fan of the spicier ones myself. Do you have a preference?

The flavours meld much better the next day. If I had to serve this, I’d make the pie one day in advance.

Recipe here.

Every so often I am suddenly hit with a flavour/texture that I need to make. I was looking for something light but crunchy. When I saw Bonita’s post featuring these hazelnut meringues, I knew I had to make them.

The key to a good meringue is a bowl that doesn’t have a speck of fat and room temperature egg whites. I’ve heard not to use egg whites from a carton, but I use them and it works out fine. I never had a problem with meringues until recently — it would not maintain a stiff peak no matter how much I beat it. Did my meringues need a blue pill?

This time around I made sure that the bowl was clean (wiped down with vinegar), but I didn’t let the egg whites fully come to room temperature which is why it took longer for the stiff peaks to appear. Lesson learned: do what the instructions say and make sure that the necessary ingredients are at room temperature.

The taste profile was exactly what I was looking for in a cookie. I used a 70% chocolate and I think it might have been too stark of a contrast with the sweet meringue. 60% and lower would suit the meringue better.

I sound a little bit like a broken record recommending Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich so much, but it really has become my go to source for cookies.

You can find the recipe here

On the first visit to Seattle last year, Richard and I did the Pike Place market tour. For 2 hours, we toured around with Nick as our tour guide.

It was well worth the $40, we would have missed out on a lot of things (history and tasty food) if we didn’t take the tour. As I’m still fairly new to Vancouver, I’d love to take a Granville Island tour as I’m certain I’m missing out on many delicious things.

Delicious donuts from Daily Dozen Doughnut. These babies are best hot and fresh.

Beecher’s cheese (we also sampled their mac and cheese)

MarketSpice. We got to sample the famous tea from MarketSpice. It reminds me of Fall in a cup. When my parents would come over, she would always request this tea. My husband who is not a tea drinker, will drink this tea. Need I say more? You don’t need to go on the tour to try this tea as they have samples at the store so check it out if you’re there. They also have any spice imaginable there.

Piroshky from Piroshky Piroshky. I’d like to try making this at home.

The end of the tour concluded with mini dungeoness crab cakes from Etta that were so good I booked reservations to go there. We ran in the pouring rain, wrung out our jackets and had a lovely meal.

I was also introduced to Chukar Cherries. I became completely obsessed with their Chocolate Honey Pecans. As soon as the tour was over, I went back there to pick some up. The problem with these is that the bags are too small. I would prefer something Costco-sized.

On our next visit, we did the gourmet food tour. It was more posh than the Pike Market Place tour as we sat down at the restaurants to enjoy the food and also got a chance to speak with some of the chefs. Highlights were:

Duck cake from Andaluca

Truffle pizza from Serious pie

Cassanova roll from Japonessa

Japonessa is a unique fusion restaurant that combines Latin American cooking with Japanese. Strange, right? But it actually works. The Cassanova roll we tried was toned down in spice for us, but even then, it was a bit too spicy for me. But I am a spice wimp. Sometimes you get sushi that seems like it’s been sitting there for some time, but you could tell how fresh this was. I also enjoyed the green tea tiramisu that was served.

Overall, I enjoyed both tours, but if I had to pick one tour to go to it would be the Pike Market Place. It’s such a vibrant environment and so rich in history that it makes you appreciate the market even more.

In Seattle, I fell for Tommy Douglas’ donuts at Lola’s (they also sell them at Dahlia bakery if you want quick donuts to go). They’re made-to-order so you’ll always get them hot and fresh. The jam flavour varies, but it’s always served with vanilla mascarpone cream. Once you’re done with the donuts, you’ll probably want to eat the leftover jam and cream.

My eggs benedict from Lola’s where I had the crispiest, most flavourful potatoes. I usually will ignore my fries or whatever side dish is on my plate, but I couldn’t stop eating these.

My favourite part of this trip? Going to Arcade Lights, a festival involving tastings of over 50 local food businesses. I wouldn’t have been able to try all the fabulous food that I wanted to without this festival.

The samples were generous and I ended up finding a great cider at Finn River. I also tried a pumpkin pie ice cream from Peaks Frozen Custard, that it tasted like they just scooped the filling out and froze it. Throughout our trip, we’d occasionally say, “Remember that ice cream? It was good, wasn’t it?”

Waffles from Sweet Iron

I can’t wait for my next trip back there to go back to my favourites and find some new ones.

Canning was a forbidden topic in the household.

Awhile back I made strawberry conserve (you can get the recipe here) to use in a buttercream. My canning experience didn’t go so hot, but I chalked that up to not having any proper equipment. So I borrowed my mother-in-law’s huge canning pot, bought all the tools that would make life easy (jar tongs are a must) and let everything sit and collect dust on our balcony until we moved to Vancouver.

So when I mentioned trying canning again, it was met with eye rolls and muttering. I had an itch to make blueberry jam and so a Saturday morning was spent picking 11 pounds of blueberries. Plenty to make jam with.

I found adding all that sugar to make jam a bit disturbing. A lot of sugar makes sense as it aids in the preserving process and helps to gel. I used the blueberry jam recipe from Well Preserved: Small Batch Preserving for the New Cook which is a great book for getting into canning and for those who don’t want to can a zillion jars. I’ve made the salsa that won’t last long in this household. Other recipes I’m itching to try: Spiced Blackberry and Apple Jam (great for fall), Red Pepper and Orange Jelly and the Curried Apple Chutney.

Don’t forget jam just isn’t for bread. It’s amazing with some brie and crackers or warmed up makes a great syrup for pancakes or waffles. You can also put in yogurt, use it for thumbprint cookies, or little mini pies.

Canning Tips

- Don’t try and use a small pot. The jam will boil up considerably and you will have a huge mess on your hands.
- Long sleeves are a good idea. Even the smallest splash back from jam will hurt. All that boiling sugar and all.
- 220F is a good rule of thumb to tell when your jam is done. It’s easier to take the temperature than to see how it sets on a white plate.
- Make sure to wipe the rims of the jars with a damp cloth. That way you won’t have any food bits ruining the seal.

Recipe for blueberry jam here.

You don’t need to have a camp fire to make these s’mores-like bars.

It’s all pretty simple, making it a perfect recipe for the trepidatious baker. You mix up a few ingredients and bake until the marshmallows are a wonderful gooey mess. These have been described as “crack” by a few people, so use at your own risk.

Recipe from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

You can find the recipe here

I always get suckered when I see things claiming to be the “best”. I then feel obligated to try it and to see if the claim is true. Most of the time I’m pretty disappointed with the outcome.

So when I saw the cook book Beat This saying that it had the best recipes, I had to test it out.

With strawberry season at full peak, the strawberry pie recipe was meant to be. Instead of rolling out the crust, you just press it in making the whole process less time consuming. I had doubts that the crust would turn out, but it actually does. The downside? If you haven’t given your pie pan a good greasing, it’ll stick and crumble when you try and slice it out. The dough turned out to be much more powdery looking than I had hoped for. I think you can add a bit of water, but I left mine as is to see if it would turn out (and it did).

After the crust is cooled, the you beat heavy whipping cream and cream cheese that then turns into a light and fluffy filling. The strawberries aren’t baked, so make sure you’re using the best you can find.

Strawberry Pie from Beat This

Pastry
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Salt

Filling
3 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Topping
1 quart strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup currant or seedless raspberry jelly

Directions:
1. Have a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Generously butter a 9 inch pie pan.
3. Mix the pastry ingredients together until the dough starts coming together. It will still be a bit powdery looking, but once baked it’ll be fine.
4. Press in the crust and prick it with a fork in a few places.
5. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
6. Whip the cream until soft peaks form and add the other ingredients until combined.
7. Pour into crust, smooth it out and chill for an hour.
8. Put the berries on the filling, points up. Melt the jelly on low heat and use a pastry brush to put the glaze on.
9. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

It’s scorching hot in Toronto right now. Over on the West Coast? Not so much. I’m really missing the crazy and humid Toronto heat until I acclimatize to the breezy weather here.

This was the last ice cream I made in Toronto before I had to return the ice cream maker to my sister. In The Perfect Scoop, the recipe references this ice cream tasting similar to an orange creamsicle, a favourite of mine when I was a child. Every other kid I knew always bought those rocket popsicles (now called Mega Missiles?!) because of the cool colours, but I was all about the creamy filling hidden underneath the crisp cool orange exterior. So of course I had to make this.

There was never a chance that this ice cream would develop freezer burn.

The sour cream gives it an extra creaminess and a tang to it. Did it taste similar to my childhood favourite? I recently had a creamsicle and it just wasn’t as good. So I’m saying goodbye to creamsicles and saying hello to this ice cream.

Recipe here.