remembrance day brunch

toad in a hole

I saw this recipe on They Draw and Cook, and honestly, I was a little nervous using a drawn recipe. I can't see the finished product, and all the comments are about the drawing itself. But I had some sausages I didn't know what to do with, so I thought I'd take a chance. Good thing I did, cuz the recipe ended up turning out rather fantastically.

Normally, I don't like really like sausages either, but I really did enjoy President's Choice brand uncooked Hot Italian pork sausages. They weren't too spicy, salty, or fatty. Just make sure to cook them before adding them to the souffle dish. The recipe was a little unclear on that part.

And check out They Draw and Cook for more amazing recipe illustrations.

fig crisp -- it's all right

We headed over to the Italian Centre Shop this weekend mainly to pick up a spinach feta twist. It's kind of a bum idea cuz it's almost 100% worth it to drive all the way over to Hellas Foods for a tyropita (cheese pie) instead, but the (mostly) spinach (not really tasting of) feta twist is still good, even if they only cooked them from the easily accessible frozen twists in their grocery department. While there, I thought I'd pick up some tomatoes and lettuce just to get us by until I could go for a serious grocery run, when we serendipitously stumbled upon flats of figs again.

How exciting! Actually, ICS had a lot of interesting produce. Fresh dates (what does one do with fresh dates?), fancy mushrooms (enoki are so cute!), and persimmons (I should really try these at some point in my life) among others I can't remember, all fairly budget friendly. Of course, I'm sure I've said it before, but they have lots of interesting products. Their pasta aisle alone is pretty amazing.

So back to the figs. Honestly, I really just wanted to use my new oven proof bowls, so I spent a lot of Saturday trying to figure out what I could do with them. Originally, I thought of making a galette, but I didn't think it would cook up crispy like it's supposed to if pressed into bowls. Instead, I revised a rhubarb crisp recipe I had (and, like, really revised it. I revise it for rhubarb now, too, because the original was super full of sugar), and I divided it among the bowls. I like that part the most about this. Preportioned = perfect.

Fig Crisp
(makes 4 ramekins or one medium sized round baking dish)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup melted butter or canola oil (I think you could get away with a little less if you wanted to)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
7-8 figs, peeled and sliced (this depends on the size of baking dish)

In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and melted butter and mix together with a fork until crumbly and moist. If using ramekins, put about 1/4 cup of the oat mixture into each bowl (divide the mixture in half if using a larger baking dish and use half of the mixture for the bottom).

Using a fork, press the oat mixture down firmly into the bottom of each ramekin.

Take the sliced figs and arrange them on top of the oat mixture so there's an even layer for each portion (if using a larger baking dish, you might want to double up on the figs).

Gently sprinkle the remaining oat mixture (about a 1/4 cup per bowl) on top of the figs. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top (it should take 45-55 minutes for a larger dish).

These would be delicious with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream right when they come out of the oven, but we enjoyed them plain with a small drizzle of caramel sauce.

{fig jam}

I still had a little over a pound of figs left, so I made another jar of jam. If you'd like that recipe, check out my previous fig post. In my many fig searches, I also bookmarked some interesting ideas for fig jam, including an appetizer, on grilled cheese, fig poptarts, and fig newtons (music auto starts on this link, fair warning). But I think I'm going to come up with a savory dinner idea. For some reason, I can't get the idea of figs and black pepper out of my head. Hmm...

Friday fixations

I thought I'd revisit some of my past recipes since Christmas is fast approaching (and Thanksgiving for Americans), and I'm quickly getting too bogged down by moving details to even think about baking right now (gasp! What am I going to do for Christmas presents this year?!). This is the first recipe I posted over at Tasty Kitchen. It's my Gram's original tomato soup cake recipe, and it actually made the home page when I first posted it. I can't tell you how super excited I was about that!

Anyway, this cake is very easy to make and tastes more like a spice cake than tomato soup. So don't worry, you could easily sneak it past any picky eater. You can also adapt it by omitting the walnuts and raisins or by substituting another nut/fruit combination, and it goes perfectly with cream cheese icing but it's definitely delicious all by itself. I think it would make such an interesting dessert for any dinner or party. What a conversation you'd have!

Here's where I blogged about it, and here's where you can find the recipe on Tasty Kitchen!

curent fixations

{plate bowls} Yes. I love plate bowls. There should be no plates and there should be no bowls. The two should only exist in their combined state. So even though it went completely against my nature, I didn't think it would matter too much if I broke up an already lacking set of china just to have four cute vintage-y plate bowls. I definitely would have paid more than the $1.99/bowl I did pay just for the fact that they're not accosting my eyes with 'Pasta! Pasta! Mama Mia!' in green and red with spaghetti entwined around the words.

{super meat boy} I don't think I've mentioned it entirely enough, but I love cute video games. It doesn't really matter that they're bludgening squirrels, it's the fact that they're doing it cutely that makes it so wonderfully enjoyable. Super Meat Boy does just that and it also has wicked hard game play. Ok, maybe not wicked hard, but you are going to lose a meat boy or two (or more) on most levels. And that's what makes it so fun and fun to play together with Idle Husband. No, it's not two player, but we swap the controller back and forth for each level, old school. So when I can't pass a level, IH has a go at it and neither of us ever gets frustrated. It's also got unlockable content (big surprise), but it's unlockable gameplay with different characters which makes it more interesting (and not another cheap stuffing of minigames to fool you into thinking you got a bigger bang for your buck). We only just started the game when we accidentally stumbled on a warp zone which then zipped us over to another set of entirely different levels with a different character with different abilities and seemingly impossible levels forcing us to figure out how to use those abilities. And did I mention the graphics or the music? Both are adorably indie and interesting and fun and artistic. Final bonus? If I want to sit back and enjoy the story without playing (a definite must for me on any game we play), I can because it has that, too, and yes (you guessed it), it's crazy cute. Another $10 game (for a limited time only!) worth its salt. It makes you wonder why you ever bothered with that $60 game you got exactly one day worth of fun out of.

{the island of dr. gateau} Start learning about food and science and the study of all things having to do with taste written in the most clever and entertaining way, all while looking at ridiculously delicious photos of highly scientific food you'll probably never cook because it's so...well, scientific. Amazingly delicious.

{liz lemon} Actually, I adore Tina Fey as Liz Lemon. Tina Fey is my hero. Anyway, I'm assuming that by now, it's no secret that Liz is a little frumpier than most leading lady characters, and I love that honest and real quality about her. So even though she's not dressed in ridiculously fashionable (and mostly unattainable and unrealistic) Hollywood style, her look is absolutely adorable and completely do-able. On a more recent episode, she paired a long sleeved plaid shirt with a short sleeved sweater, and I'm totally planning on rocking that look as soon as I can. Other cute Liz Lemon inspired stuff: nerds, lemonade, necklace, postcards, glasses, blurgh, and check out fuck yeah liz lemon for quotes that will make you giggle.

{rose hips} I'm suddenly very sad I kept deadheading my rose bush with such gusto during the summer. I forgot how lovely rose hips are and how much they add to a fall bouquet. Only four escaped my cutter, so I stuck them into a tiny dried bouquet I already had.

{the edmonton vestiary} Finally! A stylish photo blog from our fair city! It's so refreshing to see real-life fashion that comes straight from the streets of Edmonton. If you love people watching (and ever had the notion that Edmonton was unstylish), I suggest you visit the vestiary tout suite!

a breath of fresh air

This is my first day home from taking pictures of land for a photography job . I can't tell you how difficult it is taking pictures of bare land. Especially at this time of year. It feels like there's absolutely nothing (pretty) to focus on. On the other hand, there's something so incredibly calming about large empty (quiet) spaces. It's something extremely rare in the city.

Here are some outtakes:

the sun was an unexpected challenge

gloves don't work very well for blocking the light!

I loved these so much I had to pair them

office and a living room

Lately, I've been thinking about our little office/living room dilemma. I don't think there's any reason why we shouldn't have a proper office in the new house, but I've also come to realize that we do a lot of work in a lot of other places around our house (hello, downstairs, kitchen counter, dining room table) that probably every space should be comfortable enough for working on a laptop (since almost 100% of our time, if you only count the weekends, is spent on a laptop).

So I decided to go back to Olioboard and fiddle around with a living room (for me to relax in and casually work on the computer) and office (for Idle Husband to get down to business) concept for the main floor of the new house.

Sidenote: I just realized this concept is especially girly. Sorry, IH. I promise there'll be more masculine stuff in real life! A girl can dream, right?

My favourite find was the desk. I definitely want a new one that's just as simple as the one we have now. But the problem with simple desks is that most of them don't have any drawers for storage. As much as I liked having a thousand pens and pencils and erasers and rulers and scissors sticking out the tops of cups and in stupid boxes and tins all over our desk, its charm has really started to wear off. Like really. I woke up one day and realized I've got a hundred mismatched pens stuffed into every available space and the clutter and disorder hit me like a ton of bricks. After schooling, do you really need to have over 20 pens sitting around your house? Even in school it took me a year to use one pen and I made a point of using the same pen every day, in every class until the ink was gone. The idea of taking all of our pens and throwing them out the window has definitely crossed my mind. And then I might stomp on them or run them over with the lawn mower. Yeah. Actually, I think the smart thing to do would be to throw them all in a bag and donate them to IH's work or some school somewhere (though they probably only accept unopened packages of school supplies for those in need. SIGH. Maybe teachers should stop making lists of useless school supplies kids really don't need every.single.year so those kids don't have to go through life with 100 pens floating around that they're never going to use. Packing them, unpacking them, trying to store them never knowing what to do with that huge pen-monkey on their backs. But that's a rant for another day). So don't worry. I won't ceremoniously chuck them off high level bridge. I do hate being wasteful (which is probably why I've been cursed with enough pens to give to each person in Edmonton in the first place). I just think that it would be prudent, at this stage in my life, to have four pens and four pencils that look nice and I can spend the rest of my days using them up (because that's exactly how long it'll take to use them. I might even will them to my children, because I have doubts I could even use all the ink and lead out of four pens and four pencils before my end).

Still irritating about Olioboard is the orientation of items, so what I would really prefer to do is put the desk behind the sofa. I think that would maximize space. You'll just have to imagine that. And there isn't an office chair because that side chair has wheels and looks comfortable enough to work in, so I thought it could move back and forth between the two areas. It's also a lot nicer looking than what I'm sitting in right now, tacky black leather IKEA I'M AN OFFICE CHAIR!!!!!!! chair. Oh really. We hadn't noticed.

I adore that sofa, too, but I'm still sad -- almost 6 months later -- about my missed purple brocade Craigslist sofa and matching side chair deal. I don't know if I ever mentioned it other than to friends and family, but just bringing it up now makes me almost want to cry. Admittedly, it was entirely my fault for looking at furniture 6 months ago knowing fully well I wouldn't be able to buy anything, but STILL. It was purple and brocade and tufted and almost like that teal sofa, but PURPLE. And not garish purple. Nice purple. I'll just sadly add that to my list of second hand/vintage furniture finds I wanted but couldn't have (cuz as much as I liked it, there was only so much I could fit in my bedroom growing up). 

And I'm definitely dedicated to adding more touches of yellow whenever and wherever I can. It's such a happy accent colour. I have no idea why I shut yellow out of my life for so many years. Oh and completely ignore my selection of tchotchkes. I mostly chose them for colour and orientation not because I particularly liked them. Besides, I have quite enough of my own tchotchkes as it is.

Now for a new house update: We got a possession date! December 21! What a nice Christmas gift! We stopped by this weekend and unexpectedly got to walk through it. They've finished painting the walls and the ceiling. I'm pleasantly surprised by the ceiling texture, actually. Ideally, I wanted a smooth ceiling, but apparently, it's still 1985 in the building world so they only offered popcorn or knock-down (unless we really wanted smooth, in which case we'd have to offer up our first born). I had never seen knock-down on a ceiling (strangely enough, something pretty similar is on the walls at mom's house), and I'm definitely not disappointed. It's much better than popcorn, that's for sure. We also had never seen the basement finished, so it was really interesting to finally get the chance to see the layout in person instead of just visualizing it. Now I feel very pressured to start getting things packed and organized. That's the terrible part about moving. I look around at all our stuff and it doesn't feel like much, but I know things always tend to multiply as soon as you want to put them into a box (refer back to my abundance of tchotchkes).