When all else fails. Make desert.

Alright, so dinner wasn't a failure. It's just a work in progress.

There's nothing I enjoy more than cooking for people I love. So when I found out that Mom, Dad, Stéphane and Dasha were coming over for dinner, I put my thinking cap on and tried to whip something up that would be gluten free, vegetarian, low in fiber, include some form of protein, no chocolate and not too expensive. Ummmm right. That's a tough one. So I settled on a beet salad and Zucchini Corn Pancakes.

My zucchini corn pancakes were originally supposed to be vegan friendly and had gluten in it. I nixed regular flour and used buckwheat flour instead. I am sure I could/should have used a mixture of other flours that would be lighter than buckwheat but it's what I had on hand. I also added chopped shrimp to the pancakes. The finished product was really delicious but the texture is a work in progress. The outside took a while to brown and the inside still remained doughy. Dasha and I played with different temperatures and tried butter vs. olive oil. Olive oil in the best we've found but it still left the inside a little too doughy for my liking. The recipe definitely has potential so I'll keep playing around with it.

The beet salad was something I wanted to try because Sean had a beet salad with yellow beets that he really enjoyed. He's mentioned it a couple times that we should try to make the salad again. I have never had a beet salad. Beets being recently introduced into my kitchen as they weren't something I really enjoyed before. I could see the potential with this salad but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I think I'll have to try a couple before I try to make my own.

Feeling quite discouraged, I set to make desert. When it comes to sweets I feel like a have a better handle on the flavors. I feel more confidant so I play with ingredients a little more. The dish was inspired by the tropics. Think mangoes, papaya and bananas with the comforting taste of vanilla and cardamom. It was like sunshine in a bowl. Which was a welcome change considering the cold wet Vancouver weather.



3/4 cup turbinado sugar (I prefer to use turbinado sugar because it's flavor is earthy which lends itself well to this recipe)
1 cup water
6 cardamom pods - seeds removed*
1 ripe papaya
1 ripe mango
1 banana
1 container of Vanilla Liberte Mediterranée Yogurt

• In a small pot, add sugar, water and cardamom seeds. Boil on medium high heat until it becomes thick but not quite caramel consistency.
• While the sauce is cooking, dice papaya, mango and banana and place in a medium bowl. Place 2 scoops of yogurt in each serving bowl (if you have small bowls, use them. I forgot to and used a big bowl... the desert ends up looking lost.)
• Once the sauce is ready, pass through a sieve to remove cardamom seeds. Sieve directly over diced fruit. Stir until fruit are well coated.
• Scoop fruit over yogurt and enjoy!

Leftover fruit mix is delicious on oatmeal in the morning.


* To remove the seeds from the cardamom pods, set one cardamom pod on your counter, take a large knife and lay it flat on top of the cardamom pod, crush the pod (usually one good whack with your fist will do. But be careful!). Pick out the seeds from the crushed cardamom mess. Repeat with 5 other pods.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday I bought my first ever Christmas tree! I was brimming with pride when I carried it home. I cuddled it closed to me because I knew this little green shrub was the first in my very own tradition. What is different from this little green shrub is that it isn't a coniferous tree but a perennial herb. My Christmas Tree is a Rosemary plant.

Now how did I go from a traditional Christmas tree to a not so traditional tree? Well, it started a couple of years ago when I read an article about alternate tree type decorations for Christmas (or Solstice). The idea was the Christmas trees aren't environmentally friendly and their artificial counterpart isn't any better. So what to do? I wasn't ready to nix the whole Christmas tree idea all together. Afterall, a Christmas without a Christmas tree is like a Birthday without a Birthday cake! While some may be there, I just wasn't ready to accept the idea.

This year I got a letter from the building that I live in saying that we aren't allowed to have any live Christmas trees in our apartments. Apparently this is a fire hazard (I could see their point if we were still putting candles in our Christmas tree but thanks to technology, we have these wonderful little electric lights). If anything, I think it would just be a bigger mess for the cleaning people to clean up when we take out our dehydrated, shriveled up, needle dropping Chritstmas trees. But I digress.

Last week, Mom called to tell me the news; this year we will not have a Christmas tree. WWHHHHAAATTTT!!!! No Christmas tree?! So what are we going to decorate?! And what will I sleep under Christmas morning?! Oh right, I haven't slept under the Christmas tree for probably 15 years. This was a tradition that my brother and I enjoyed when we were little. It was always such a treat to camp out in the living room, surrounded by presents and twinkling lights. Eventually we outgrew the tradition but I definitely haven't outgrown the memories.

So now I was faced with the reality. No Christmas tree allowed in my apartment (unless it's a fake one, but I don't want a fake one, I want a real one. It smells nicer and somehow I think it's more environmentally friendly) and now, no Christmas tree at Mom and Dads. It was hard for my overly traditional brain to wrap around. What to do? I toyed with the idea of getting a potted pine tree or something of the sort that I could decorate and then plant in the forest come spring time but then I remembered the little tree that my brother and I grew when we were little. I think it stayed in our yard for 5 years before getting too big. We dug it up and with Mom and Dads help, we set out to plant it in Queen Elizabeth Park. We found it a new home and promised it we'd come visit (which seemed like a reasonable thing to tell a tree when you're 10). When we went back to visit, it was gone. Apparently the parks keeps track of which tree is where and if a tree is planted where it shouldn't be, it gets removed. So, Christmas tree in pot idea was thrown out the window.

If I was going to get something live, I wanted it to be used after the Holiday season was over. I'm absolutely terrible at keeping any plant (having recently thrown out my plumeria 'tree' - more like stick - it died because it was too cold in my apartment. I was proud of this little plant! I brought a teenie nub home from Hawaii and tried to grow it here - knowing full well that our climate is VERY different. It worked for 3 years and it would make pretty leaves during the spring and summer, in the fall they would drop and it would hibernate and then take on the spring again. It never made flowers but it was pretty and I was semi successful at growing a tropical plant in a not so tropical environment). What resemble a Christmas tree, is useful after Christmas and easy to take care of? A rosemary plant!

So there we have it. A non traditional Christmas tree. I even went to Michaels where they have an entire section of really tiny ornaments for really tiny Christmas trees! Now it's almost perfect. It just needs to grow a little because the star on top is a little bit too big but if I keep up with watering (it needs a cup of water a day) it should look great.

Dried-Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

These cookies are a side effect of being struck by Cupid. Love makes you do silly things, this includes making heart shaped cookies.

Dried-Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 with rack in the center. Put butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon* until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.
Press dough evenly into a 8-inch square (or 10' round works as well) baking pan. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes.
Run a knife around edges; remove shortbread (be careful, it's fragile. This is where having two people in the kitchen came in handy) and transfer, right side up, to work surface.
Cut out hearts with a 2-inch heart shaped cookie cutter. Trim any stray bits of cranberry from edges with a paring knife. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.

*I personally use my hands. I like to feel my food. Plus, you get to lick your fingers after your finished mixing. Yes, I wash my hands afterwards.

'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies

To kick off December, Chera came over and we made some delicious cookies. There's nothing better than a warm apartment filled with the wonderful smell of baking cookies. One of the cookies we made were the 'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies that I spoke about in my previous blog post. The only thing we didn't add to these was orange rind. We didn't have any oranges. Oops. They are yummy cookies none the less!

'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp finely ground pepper, plus more for sprinkling
1 tbsp and 1 tsp of good quality instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Orange rind, grated finely to taste.
Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling (I used regular sugar because I forgot that I could use turbinado sugar)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, pepper, espresso powder, and cinnamon into a large bowl; set aside.
Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment*; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, vanilla and orange rind. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, mix until just combined.
Turn out dough onto a piece of parchment paper, and roll into a 2 inch diameter log**. Roll log in the parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350. Remove log from parchment paper. Let soften slightly at room temperature, about 5 minutes. Roll log in sanding sugar, gently pressing down to adhere sugar to dough. Transfer log to a cutting board and slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Sprinkle each round with freshly ground pepper.
Bake cookies until there is slight resistance when you lightly touch centers, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in air-tight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

* I used a hand held mixer. But before I got my hand held mixer for my birthday (Thanks Mom & Dad) I used a whisk and it works just fine.

** A problem I always have with these cookies is that they end up looking like D's because one of the sides get flattened when I cut them. This time, I made a rectangle and made square cookies. Problem solved :)