friday fixations

{bird bnb} Oh god this is too cute! Look at him! He's eating popcorn on a couch! (This is my favourite picture from the bunch, obviously.)

{insane christmas wishlist} This made me laugh out loud. Not the list, the fatherly explanation of said list.

{cat flakes} This is silly, but good for a moment.

{different sized christmas lights} Maybe you do this already, but since we were lacking in decorations this year, we opted to go a little bit crazy on the lights. We bought a small ball-style light (the options in Finland are more for bulb shape and size instead of colour and movement as in Canada) and later we bought really tiny fairy lights that are in the same colour family as the larger ball light. I think the combination of a larger light bulb and a smaller light bulb makes the tree look a little more interesting and, dare I say, twinkly.

{jaffa cakes} These look like cookies but are totally cake-like. They've got a fruit topping which is more like a jelly instead of a soft jam, and it's dipped in chocolate. Jellies and chocolate? On top of a cake-y cookie? I want have to try more flavours.

{christmas gifs} I love a good gif and some of these would make great e-cards.

{finnish gifts} Twelve ideas for Finnish-themed gifts. Wouldn't it be great to get a pair of scissors? You can always brag about their strong Finnish design and your knowledge of said design. (My sarcasm doesn't translate here very well.) I would like to try that liquorice, though. I like things that can potentially be so divisive.

{lionel stitchie} Clever street art always has a place in my heart.

{gingerbread deaths} Those poor gingerbread men.

friday fixations: food edition

{shredded wheat} You're probably not going to be a fan of this unless you like mushy oatmeal, but this particular breakfast has some really deep-rooted memories for me. My gram used to serve this to me with hot water and brown sugar. A couple weeks back, I saw a commercial for shredded wheat, and I just couldn't stop thinking about having some again (ah the power of advertising). My favourite way remains the same, hot water, a little brown sugar, and now I add just a dash of milk for some extra creaminess. It's so good and really filling! (Plus I like that the ingredient list is literally one word long: wheat.)

{pumpkin} Well, duh, it IS pumpkin season. Who isn't hooked on it? But I think I've taken one extra step over the edge this year. I cooked up my own pumpkin puree last year and it took a lot of time and work, so now that we're leaving, I have a lot of frozen pumpkin that I just can't toss in the garbage! I have to do something with it! Besides adding it to meat sauces (this is a sneaky way to get it into foods plus it acts like tomato sauce when you don't have any tomato sauce) and soup, I've also been baking things with it (cuz I bought a big bag of flour last month like a dummy). I love this pumpkin sandwich bread (not pumpkin bread like banana bread) and I've got my eyes on these pumpkin gingersnap cookies (because I love gingersnap cookies AND I have a box of molasses to use up, too -- naturally).

{gingerbread oreos} If this is the last Oreo cookie I ever get to eat, it was a pretty damn good choice. They were bought on a whim and now I feel like I need to smuggle a case load of them into Finland.

{clumpy cranberry spice granola} I really want to try this recipe. I love granola that's got clusters in it, but the only recipe I have (that makes really good granola) is way too full of sugar (let's face it, like all things, it's really good just because of the two types of sugar). I'd never thought to add egg whites to granola to create the clumping effect instead of using double the amount of sugar. At least with this idea, I can still tell myself this snack is relatively healthy (compared to store-bought).

{pecan butter tart ice cream} If you're not into candy cane ice cream (like me), you might be interested in this one. Butter tarts really feel like Christmas because of that whole cookie-exchange vibe this time of year gives off (I mean, what bake sale or exchange doesn't have a plate of tarts?). Besides, this ice cream really does butter tarts justice.

friday fixation: colour dipped marshmallows

I had this weird idea yesterday to colour dip marshmallows as an unexpected Valentine treat. I didn't think they'd turn out at all, but they ended up working so well and looking so cute that now it makes me want to colour-dip the whole bag!

Just add a few drops of food colouring to some water, then dip in a marshmallow. Set it aside on a cooling rack to dry. The amount of colouring and water is up to you depending on how dark or light you want the colours to be.

That's it! Super simple, right?

foodie christmas decoration

I know I said I was tired of wreathes, but somehow, the Christmas wreath still makes sense to me. Plus, as I was cleaning out my pantry, I had a great idea for my wreath decorations and I couldn't exactly ignore myself now could I?

I bought this plain wreath at the thrift store last year. It had nothing on it. Please see last year's post for the full story and to see what last year's decorations were.

Anyway, while cleaning up the pantry, I decided I should pull out my cookie cutters because I had thought to string them up on the tree and then I remembered that during the summer, I came across some small cooking utensils and fake vegetables. They were only a buck and I thought they'd look so cute on the Christmas tree as decorations. I still had the fancy dried corn out from fall decorations and many other prop ideas came to mind, hence the foodie wreath was born.

I attached everything with bits of floral wire which I got at the dollar store. I think that's the single most versatile purchase I've ever made there.

The only thing I bought was some pasta. First, the penne for a garland. I was going to dye them Christmas colours but decided I liked the natural pasta look better. There're some fake tiny tomatoes from my fake vegetables and you can see a tiny wooden bowl in the background.

Second, I bought a bag of bowtie pasta for little bows (obviously).

Fake beet! Oh the cuteness!

Fake carrot! And some cookie cutters. I liked these solid types for the wreath because they were a little easier to see than the usual cookie cutter types.

Tiny rolling pin and I added a medium sized pin that came with a ravioli making plate I have. Both of which I've never used. The red beads are a store-bought garland I already had. I thought they made nice "berries." An alternative could be some of those fake beaded necklaces you can find in abundance at thrift stores.

A real clove of garlic! Just push a piece of floral wire right through the whole bulb and tie it on. Those little green and yellow flowers and stems are sprigs of Greek mountain tea. Idle Husband's mom has sent me far more than I'll ever be able to drink in my lifetime (I have a huge peanut jar filled with the stuff plus three arm-sized bags of it). There's no need to wire them on, they'll stay if you just shove them in.

Some other items that were not pictured or hard to see: dried mushrooms (you can buy these literally anywhere and are really tasty once rehydrated, but I also attached wire to them and added them to the wreath), fake grapes, tiny cutting board, tiny mallet, tiny whisk... I just thought it might be nice to add some bay leaves or other herbs, candy canes or wrapped candies, gingerbread men... I mean, there're so many different ways you could go with this idea!

For the outside of the house, I wanted to do simple swags with the garland and lights this year, but I felt like there should be something at the top of each swag. Out came the mountain tea! I made little upside-down bouquets of the stuff, twisted it together with the floral wire, then added a cookie cutter (that I know I'll never use) to the top. I'm not 100% sure I like the cutters (they're kind of hard to see), but I really like the mountain tea bouquets (plus they smell so nice!).

To attach the swags, I used (you guessed it) floral wire! I just put two pieces together so I'd have a long enough wire to go around the railing. There was enough length left on the wire to also attach the mountain tea bouquets.

And that's how I've done up the front of the house this year. It's something a little different than the typical Christmas fodder, but it's still pretty Christmas (who's NOT cooking and baking at this time of year?) and it fulfills one of my main objectives for Christmas decor: It MUST look good during the day when the lights are off.

I hope that gives you some outside-of-the-box (and cheap!) ideas for decorating your home, wreath, or tree this year!

fresh pumpkin puree

Remember my pink pumpkins? Well, in a moment of zeal the other week, I found myself cutting up the smallest one so I could try cooking it up.

I don't know what came over me. It was already around 3 in the afternoon. I had begun the process of making a new bread recipe (three loaves of oatmeal raisin bread), finished another batch of tzatizki, and had cleaned all the bathrooms earlier in the day.

I think I thought that since the oven was going to be on anyway I might as well do a pumpkin and see how it goes. And then I figured I had to do the seeds at the same time (oven efficiency etc.) and it wasn't too long before I found myself without any counter-space or time left.

Slicing a pumpkin open is fairly dangerous and scary and is really the hardest part of this whole task. This one seemed to crack so once I got a line sliced, I hit it on the counter to separate the halves. I read that a serrated bread knife does a safer job, but I tried that on another pumpkin and I thought it was more difficult and messy.

As I scraped out all the seeds and stringy membrane, I realized that I've never seen such beautiful pumpkin seeds before. These were plump, white, and perfect.

The seeds became a drain on time, though. And definitely, if I've ever thought it about anything, a job for children. Standing in the kitchen, picking seeds from pumpkin membrane is so tedious and tiring. If I didn't have pumpkin bits strewn everywhere and slimy orange hands, I would have taken the bowl into the living room to work on it so I could sit comfortably with the tv on (I think I'm getting old). Also, my next house is going to have so much natural light in the kitchen, it's going to make visitors ooh and aww (and all my prep pictures won't look like they were taken inside a gas station bathroom).

So back to the pumpkin cooking (which is the point to this anyhow). Initially, I was going to use the oven because it had to be on for my bread, but after one singular google search, I found that steaming pumpkin is faster, so out came my steamer pot (really just a big pasta pot) and my stove was commissioned for steaming.

I ended up cutting the pumpkin into quarters so they'd fit in the pot better. Depending on the size of the quarter, they took around 45-60 minutes to cook. So this is not a job you should start at the end of your day.

Once done, I removed the segment with a ladle and a slotted spoon (cuz I didn't really have a better plan for getting the pumpkin out of the pot) and let it cool in a bowl until I could safely handle it.

The pumpkin meat scrapes out fairly easily, but the rind will also come off easily so just be sure not to get bits of skin in your pulp. All that's left is to puree it and, like magic and unicorns, you've made your own pumpkin puree! Wasn't that so much better than buying a can at the store?! Except now it's 7 and you've only got one more segment left to cook, and your back is aching and your feet are tired (because you really should've left the seeds for a separate project) and usually you're falling asleep in front of the tv around this time, so don't worry about that damn last pumpkin slice until tomorrow.

{pumpkin puree}

1 sugar pumpkin (jack-o-lantern pumpkins have barely any pulp inside -- you know, so you can cut a face out of them easily. Note the inside difference on mine -- and are apparently very watery so don't bother with them)

Carefully, slice the pumpkin in half and use a spoon (or ice cream scoop) to scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Cut the halves in half again (in quarters) so they can easily fit into a steamer pot. Add one quarter to the pot (or two if you can fit it) and fill the pot with enough water so it's about a quarter to half way up the side of the pumpkin slice and there's enough so the pot doesn't boil dry, then turn your heat to high. Once boiling, lower the heat to about medium low or just so the water continues steaming but isn't at a rolling boil.

Check on your pumpkin periodically with a fork (by that I mean to jab it). Once it's soft all the way through, remove the pumpkin from the pot and allow to cool to the touch. With a spoon, scoop the pulp from the skin, then puree the pulp with an immersion blender or regular blender (whichever works for you). The amount of puree you get varies with the pumpkin. Mine netted me the equivalent of 6 cans (and a bit) of pumpkin puree. You can use it for recipes right away or do what I did and measure it out (so you know how much to take out for future recipes) then freeze it in well-labeled freezer bags (I like using bags now because I can freeze things flat and it takes up a lot less space than jars or plastic tubs).

{note} All in all, it is more economical to make your own. I've since had the pleasure of figuring out if this whole venture was worth it and, had I bought the equivalent in cans, I would have spent around $16 (given the price at Superstore last week). So, minus the amount for the pumpkin itself, I saved $10. I've also been using pumpkin for just about everything lately. Recipes coming soon!

pixy stix

Earlier this year, Idle Husband alerted me to this super awesome site, Stop Zombie Mouth. There you can find some coupons for a free P.C. or Mac download of Plants vs Zombies to give out for Halloween. (Plants vs Zombies is one of my all time favourite games.) 

This started me thinking. I know the coupons are meant to be given instead of candy (you know, to stop "zombie mouth"), but it kinda feels wrong not to hand out candy on Halloween. At first I thought it might be fun to attach the coupon to those smaller-sized suckers, but then I discovered pixy stix at the dollar store.

I haven't officially tasted these (I'm not really keen on having a mouthful of sugar), but Idle Husband seemed to really enjoy them. He sampled one of each flavour and orange is his favourite.

I printed out one sheet of coupons (8) because I'm only going to give the coupons to kids who look old enough (I don't remember there being a lot of older kids -- and by older, I mean waist height -- at our door last year). Then I punched a hole in each side of the coupon and threaded a pixy stick through. Easy!

Download coupons here and test out the game online here.

creme brulee

I'm pretty sure I've never had crème brûlée up to this point, but, as most of my projects in food, this was a request from Idle Husband.

A few months back, he proclaimed his sweet love for creme brulee. I looked at him in disgust and cursed the restaurant that had this on its menu. He just had to go ordering the most finicky thing and then he just had to go loving it. How the heck would I pull something like that off? I'm going to have to get a torch? That's too much trouble, so just remember that dessert fondly cuz it's not coming out of this kitchen any time soon.

But before I knew it, I found myself trying to come up with birthday ideas and decided this had to be it. He'd forgotten all about creme brulee by that time and had stopped bringing it up at every meal. This would be the perfect surprise! And, yes, despite my annoyance, I'd track down a torch (they aren't too expensive at Home Sense and I printed a 10% off coupon. Just be sure to get butane and test it as they aren't prefilled) and even some real vanilla beans (another luxury I've refused myself to have. Too fancy! Too expensive! Too finicky!). This was a birthday treat, after all.

I assembled my ingredients and read through my recipe again, separated my eggs, measured out the cream and sugar, and... is that it? That's all? I didn't even have to lug out the KitchenAid? The entire project was too easy. Easier than a cake, actually. Maybe it's this recipe in particular, but I couldn't believe that by the time the cream had boiled, I was pretty well done.

My kitchen wasn't a disaster. I had used one bowl and a pot. The only issue I had was the bain marie but that was on account of having a too-small tea kettle, and I worried tremendously as I removed them from the oven as they seemed more wobbly than trembling in the centre as called for in the recipe.

Since creme brulee can sit in the fridge for up to three days, I made these a day in advance (without the sugar crust), and hid them in the bottom portion of the fridge (I can hide things practically in plain sight around here). They set up during this resting period, so I was no longer concerned about the wobble.

The torching is easy. Don't even worry about overdoing it. The burnt bits add a really nice caramel flavour. Just be sure to add a thin layer of sugar. I found that a thicker sugar top ruined my enjoyment of the custard (which reminds me of a very delicate vanilla pudding) since I had to crunch my way through each spoonful. A thin delicate layer gives just enough sugary crispness for texture. Also, save the vanilla bean and stick it in the sugar you're going to use to top the creme brulee. It's so delicious! I'm so sad this recipe made an uneven five ramekins for us. I want one last whole one for myself! But we shared it, even though I know we both felt the same way.

recipe from Alton Brown

fruit pops

Eating berries by the handful just wasn't cutting it, so I had to start freezing them.

And you should, too. It's too damn hot not to.

{fruit pops}

Any fruit you've got in any amount you've got (pitted, seeded, skinned, sliced -- if necessary)

a little pot

a little water

a little sugar

a little lemon juice

Put the fruit in a pot. Add a little sugar to your liking; add a little lemon juice for brightness (about a teaspoon); add a little water for berries just to get them started (if you're using peaches or another wetter fruit, you probably shouldn't have to bother). Boil until the berries pop and break down and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and blend with an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a proper blender and puree that way. You have the option of straining the skins out if you want. I did for the saskatoons but my lazy crept in for the others. They're still good, though. Carefully pour into a popsicle mould and freeze until hardened.

{hint} run the pop mould under warm water until the popsicles loosen and you can remove them. Then wrap each pop with plastic wrap and store in the freezer like so. I figure if I'm running the water to remove one, I might as well remove them all at once so that later I can just reach in the freezer and grab a pop as I like.

{suggested} If you don't wanna make popsicles, the resulting mix is really delicious poured on pancakes and added to smoothies!

{warning} you will have blueberry mouth (blue lips, blue teeth) so maybe don't offer a blueberry pop to company.

friday fixations: b.c. edition

Sometimes the best pictures are the blurred ones.

The pixelated whale. Was it part of the Olympic stuff? I only think that because the torch thing was close by.

I love barnacles!

Sorry; he's dead.

I tried to eat seafood as much as possible and these fish and chips (or fish and shrimp chips) were so delicious. There's no sense ordering steak in Vancouver as there's no sense ordering fish and chips in Edmonton. This was our hotel and we splurged on room service. The views (and the bed!) were amazing!

We quite literally stumbled on this community garden downtown! It was so amazing. I wish we had more green spaces like this.

At The Templeton, I had the Hakai omelette with smoked salmon and we shared a vanilla milkshake. All were delicious. Also, the waitress was so great!

The best saganaki we've ever had at Panos, a Greek restaurant we just happened to notice.

carrot cake

It was mom's birthday this weekend and for the first time in, I don't know how long, she was actually with us so I decided to make a cake.

The fact that I've been having a terrible craving for carrot cake and cream cheese frosting had absolutely nothing to do with it.

I swear.

I only made a few alterations to this recipe. I cut some of the oil with whatever applesauce I had left which turned out to be a measly quarter of a cup. I wish it would have been more, but I cut the sugar in the frosting a bit to make up the difference and because I like to taste a little more cream cheese tang rather than pure sugar. 

The amount of frosting is perfect for icing between the layers, but I had some leftover white chocolate ganache that I've been desperately wanting to get rid of which I used instead. I kind of wish I hadn't since I ended up with too much cream cheese frosting, so the outside was rather thick and bulky. I stuck some coconut on there to hide it.

Despite all the changes, this cake was so good. Have you ever had the last piece of something and almost wanted to not eat it just so it never ends? That's how I felt when we finally finished this cake. It stays moist for days (and I baked it on one day and iced it the next) and it's carrot-y and cinnamon-y and just perfect. The original called for nuts, but I don't like stuffing a bunch of things into my carrot cake. Some people like raisins and nuts in their carrot cake so that doesn't mean you couldn't add them, I just don't like those additions muddling up the carrots. The coconut, though, was actually quite nice and added a little texture.

recipe adapted from All Recipes

{carrot cake}

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (part or all applesauce)

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

Blend the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla together.

Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together.

Add the dry to wet in increments until blended.

Stir in carrots.

Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans and divide the mixture evenly between them. Bake in a 350 oven for around 40-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool about 10 minutes before attempting to remove from pans.

{cream cheese frosting}

1/2 cup of butter, room temperature

8 ounces (one package) cream cheese, room temperature

3-4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

coconut or nuts if desired

Blend the butter and cream cheese together until well mixed. Add the sugar in increments until you reach desired sweetness. Frost the cake once well cooled.

friday fixation: tsoureki

I know it's strange, but this week is Greek Easter so on Monday we promptly (I have no idea how she manages to time the mail so well!) received our Greek Easter gifts. Among the treats, was a loaf of tsoureki (pronounced choo-wreck-ee). I'd never had it before and it fascinated me so much, I had to try some while Idle Husband was at work. He insisted he didn't like it and wouldn't even have a slice (while I insisted it was delicious and had a big pocket of chocolate inside), so (shamefully) I've been eating it all week long. There are a lot of recipes for the bread online, but it wouldn't surprise me if you found a loaf at the Italian market or Hellas Foods.

Now that he's seen the pictures, Idle Husband is really sad he missed out. I told him it was full of chocolate!!