Tolerating Intolerances

We've been dealing with a medical mystery in our house since November. Miss Charlotte has a few symptoms of a food intolerance (I'll spare you the graphic details), so I have spent the better part of 4 months eliminating common allergens from my diet. This is difficult for a girl with no food restrictions who loves to bake and eat! We're not out of the woods yet but I've been told to go back in a normal diet until February. (***since drafting this, I have actually gone off of gluten and dairy again...fingers crossed things are improving)

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share some of the successful things I made while on these special diets

Oatmeal Thumprint Breakfast cookies

Creamy Avocado Pasta Sauce

 

The "best" vegan chocolate chip cookies

The best vegan cookies (in my opinion)

Yummy Soy,Dairy,Egg-Free bread

There you have it folks- if you're ever avoiding soy, dairy and egg for whatever reason- here are some yummy recipes that are tried and tested. Throwing gluten into the mix has definitely thrown me off, so if you know of any yummy gluten-free recipes please send them my way:)

Small Victories

I mentioned in my last post, that certain everyday tasks become accomplishments when parenting a newborn. While I have found getting out of the house to be the best remedy for feeling human again, today I stayed in and had two small victories- I made a soup from scratch (granted I roasted the vegetables yesterday) and baked homemade cookies. We have been blessed by great friends bringing food by and a freezer full of meals we prepared ahead of time, but sometimes it's nice to have fresh food you cooked yourself!

The soup is super easy- just roast a squash, an onion, two cloves of garlic and an apple together for an hour. I like to add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar or maple syrup to the squash hollows.  Then add a quart of chicken stock, the roasted vegetables and salt and pepper to taste in a pot to simmer before pureeing. It's one of our fall favourites!

The recipe for these Best Ever Oatmeal Raisin cookies can be found in this post

Raspberry Crumb Muffins

My mom is in town this weekend and she brought a few pints of Raspberries from my grammy's garden with her. They have gone a little mushy, so we needed to do something with them this morning. I found this recipe, and it looked delicious. They turned out really well, although I would highly recommend not using paper liners as they stuck to the paper a little bit. Later today I am going to attempt some frozen yogurt!

Hope you're all having a nice long weekend. Baby Madia is due in two weeks, so we're all getting a little bit anxious and excited for the upcoming arrival!

On the Weekend

We had a great weekend, here's what kept us busy:


On Friday night, Chris took me to the Keith Urban concert (apologies for the blurry iphone photo). Little Big Town opened for him, and they were awesome. Keith was amazing, and he is a crazy good guitar player.

On Saturday I made these brown sugar oatmeal cookies from Pioneer Woman, they are delicious. They make a ton, so I put two thirds of the dough in the freezer. Chris thinks they need chocolate chips, I think they're perfect as is.

On Saturday night, we decided to order Chinese Food from a local restaurant. It was our first time, and when we called they said if they delivered it would be 2 hours but if we picked up only one. We opted to pick up and an hour later, we ventured down to the restaurant. It was packed with pick up patrons (good sign as I think traffic means quality), but we learned very quickly service was lacking. We ended up waiting in the cramped space with five other customers for another hour with the phone ringing off the hook non-stop and nobody answering it. Apparently we made the rookie mistake of ordering after 4 pm. Chris felt like he was living the Seinfeld "Chinese Restaurant" episode, and although the food was good, I'm not sure we'll be ordering again soon!

On Sunday I went to Yoga at Lululemon. Most stores do a free Sunday Morning Yoga class, and it's worth checking out in your area if you've never been.

I also worked on my menu planning skills by making a batch of this quinoa salad and this chili.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Life Lately

I'm currently light shopping for almost every room in our house...it is painful and I have not made one solid decision yet.

I made oreos again last weekend to bring to my friends house. They were better the second time around because I let the dough mix until it was full combined and balling up in my mixer.

The holiday cups and flavours are back at Starbucks- certainly an early indicator that the holidays are upon us!

I made wonton soup on Sunday night for the first time, and it was delicious. I somewhat followed this recipe.

This guy had a late night photo shoot a few days ago, I loved how they turned out!

Scenes From the Weekend

We had a gorgeous holiday weekend, here's a little bit of what I saw

I went for a walk on Saturday morning and captured some of the colours and fruits of the season.

I finally took some photos of my fall decorations, I made a friend with a neighbourhood barn cat, and our sweet family made a special Thanksgiving wedding cake, so we could celebrate with all of the family members that couldn't make it to New Brunswick for the wedding.

It was also a baking weekend. I roasted my own pumpkin for the pumpkin spice cupcakes, and the carrot cake recipe from a family friend was a big hit with our first Thanksgiving crowd.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

#fallingforfall

Have you seen this hashtag trending in your instagram and facebook feed? Personally, i'm a big fan of fall, so i'm in for falling for fall. I was inspired by this perfect red maple leaf when I was volunteering last weekend at the Run For The Cure. I carried it around, searching for the perfect place to take its picture...a few people even commented on the fact that I was carrying this little guy around. Despite my lack of photographing talent and my constant use of my iphone camera over our beautiful Nikon we received as a wedding present, I pretend to be an artistic photographer every now and then and it brings me great joy.

We have a busy holiday weekend ahead including two Thanksgiving dinners! I am on dessert duty for both and will be making carrot cake, a lemon dessert and these pumpkin spice cupcakes (recipe here). I have decorated the house with a few of my fall decorations. With my buffet and two additional fireplace mantels that I didn't have in our last place, the decor is looking a little sparse, but definitely festive. I also picked up two pumpkins last weekend, so my porch is looking season ready!

Wishing you all a great Thanksgiving, hoping you get to enjoy all the tastes and sights of the fall!

Goodbye Fruit Flies; Hello Pies

Last Saturday was a very wet, rainy dreary day, so the mister and I decided to stay in. While he occupied himself with a video game (do they ever grow out of these???); I played chef and baker. I had a ton of stuff from my farm basket that I wanted to use up. I ended up making fresh tomato sauce, potato and leek soup, these yummy pear streusel bars and a peach pie.


I had some much peaches and pears, that the cats were starting to double as fruit fly swatters. I knew I didn't want the fruit to go to waste, so I looked for a couple of recipes for yummy baked goods that I might be able to freeze (hoping to bring them to Thanksgiving dinner).

This pear streusel bar recipe is excellent. Very easy to make, and tastes delicious. The sugar glaze is definitely optional. One of the reviews I read suggested substituting the cinnamon chips with chocolate chips...not sure that would be my first choice. Caramel or butterscotch would be my go-to if I couldn't get the cinnamon chips.

Then I made this peach pie. I loved the recipe because it was so easy, no peeling the peaches, no top crust, the fruit is mixed with sugar only. I haven't tasted it because it got froze for a special occasion, but after reading the reviews, I'm pretty sure it's going to be delicious!

PS- I am loving the Brown Eyed Baker Blog (say that 5 times fast), she has tons of recipes, they are easy to follow and she likes to keep things simple (a woman after my own heart).

Fresh Cherry Crisp

One of the very wonderful things I have experienced from participating in the Harvest Share program has been trying new recipes with fruits and vegetables I wouldn't necessarily pick up on my own. When I have bought cherries in the past, it has just been to eat fresh like grapes. When I received cherries in my farm basket, I knew I wanted to do something more with them. We ate a few fresh, and then I decided to make a cherry dessert. I learned that most cherry desserts on the internet use canned cherry pie filling, but when I came across this fresh cherry crisp; I knew I found a winner. The end result was the perfect balance of sweet, tart and crunch. Preparing them in individual ramekins makes it easy to serve and reheat!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these cookies from this recipe on the weekend and they are by far my favourite cookies I have made in the last few years. The peanut butter chocolate combo is perfect and they have a nice crisp on the outside of them like good peanut butter cookies do. Definitely worth a try! 

***Note: I changed the flour to one cup and baked at 350 not 375 like the recipe calls for.

Whole Lemon Tart

I made this tart a few weeks ago to bring to Easter Dinner. I used attending dinner parties as my chance to try a new recipe (always accompanied by something safe that I know works, in this case vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing). The lemon tart definitely stole the show, and is a perfect spring/summer dessert!

I took the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. There are two cool things about this tart; one, the crust is frozen before baking to reduce chances of shrinkage and two, you use the entire lemon (minus the seeds). I was definitely skeptical, but the results were delicious!

Minimal shrinkage on the tart shell and proof you put the whole lemon into the filling!

Best to bake on a cookie sheet covered in parchment or a silicone mat!

Final product just missing a dusting of icing sugar...delicious!

Happy Monday everyone:)

Reality of the Situation

I made these muffins on Sunday morning for breakfast. They were healthy, yummy, and they turned out great, so of course I had to take a photo for my blog.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the reality of the situation is that most of my food photography sessions, actually look like this:

Boy-Cat is fully engaged in the process...he doesn't even like muffins (unless they're cat-nip infused)!

Happy Wednesday. I will have some very exciting news to share soon!

Oatmeal On The Go

I love making baked oatmeal on the weekends, and I usually end up putting leftovers in a pyrex to take with me to work during the week. That was until I came across Katie's recipe for oatmeal cupcakes. It makes two dozen, so I decided to make half a batch of chocolate chip and half a batch of blueberry! I used brown sugar instead of stevia, but maple syrup would work well too. They were great freshly baked (Chris had four), and I took two to work today that I didn't have time to warm up and they were still delicious (and filling)! They're great because you can freeze them and just pull them out whenever you need them. They're also a great way to use up overripe bananas!

Baker & Co Ltd Plate thrifted

Oatmeal On The Go

• 5  cups oatmeal
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp brown sugar (or maple syrup)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• optional: 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• 2 1/2 cups over-ripe mashed banana, measured after mashing (About 6 bananas)
• 2 2/3 cups water (if you use maple syrup, cut water by 1/3)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp oil 
• 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional add-ins:, shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, ground flax or wheat germ, raisins or other dried fruit, etc.

Preheat oven to 380 F, and line 24-25 cupcake tins. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. In a separate bowl, combine and stir all wet ingredients (including banana). Mix wet into dry, then pour into the cupcake liners and bake 21 minutes. If you're making two flavours, split the batch before adding inclusions. I used 1/3 cup chocolate chips in one batch and 1/3 cup blueberries in the other batch.

Bread Winner!

OK, so you know the story here from yesterday; I had a hankering for some garlic breadsticks to go with my pasta e fagioli. Lucky for me, the grocery store didn't have any, and I had to try my hand at bread yet again. Given my recent history of severe disappointment, my expectations were low (and Chris' were even lower given he asked if we had "backup bread" in anticipation of yet another epic fail).

I have loved Annie's blog for a long time, and she was the first person I turned to when considering a roll recipe. Her soft garlic knots fit the bill, and didn't seem too complicated. She has a great step by step guide, and amazingly they turned out perfectly! The only change I made was to mix with the dough hook for about 5 minutes and not 8 minutes.

After they had finished rising the second time and topping was brushed on

Fresh from the oven

Served with soup!

So here's what I think, I am going to continue making bread from Annie's recipes. The winning combination for my success is bread flour and instant yeast. I know my grandmother who has made bread every week for as long as I can remember would probably say this is cheating, but given my excitement for how well these turned out; I really don't care. I'm calling 2013 the Year of Bread:)

Holiday Cookie Tray 2013

This is the cookie tray I am bringing to Chris' parents house on Christmas Day! It is a combination of my treats as well as a few from the cookie exchange!

So far, I have made:

Peppermint Patties
Sugar Cookie Cutouts
Homemade Oreos
Homemade Twix Bars
White Chocolate Cranberry Bars
I also found a peanut butter cup recipe that I need to try, so there may just be one late addition!

Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday with your family and friends

Mountain of Oreos

I always have a hard time deciding on my cookie club cookie each year. This year I went with homemade Oreos from Smitten Kitchen. They looked fairly easy to make and my friend Jess also made them recently.

They were quite easy to make, but keep in mind that oreos have 2 sides (who knew!), and that means double the amount of cookies for whatever you are baking for. In my case, I needed to make 6 dozen plus some to share for cookie club, so this meant 3 batches and over 180 cookies!

Our power went out just as I finished making the frosting, so you can picture me piping by candlelight!

They're pretty tasty, although very very sweet, so you may want to reduce the sugar in the actual cookie as the filling makes up for it!

Here they are all ready to go:)

Handmade Market

On Saturday I made my way to Beamsville with one of my best pals. We had a great day (despite the frigid weather), and I was able to get a few things knocked off my Christmas shopping list in the process. Here are some pictures of the day!

I loved the soy candles in the vintage crown jars of course!

Les and I devoured the apple twist with caramel drizzle, and the apple cider was delicious!

Loved the cutting boards made out of wine barrel tops!

Sugar Cookies and Sprinkles

I love making sugar cookies. For some reason they remind me of my Grammy Forsythe. She always used to have some on hand, some iced with sprinkles and some with just sprinkles. My Grammy was always good for sprinkles. She had a cupboard full of them, all different colours. She rarely mixed her colours but she did have these multicoloured round ones, they were always my favourite (some things never change)! I made these on Saturday for a potluck we attended.

The recipe I use is similar to this one, and it freezes and doubles really well. I typically freeze the dough in two portions and then just pull it out of the freezer a few hours before I want to bake!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hibernation

hi·ber·nate

  [hi-ber-neyt] 

verb (used without object), hi·ber·nat·ed, hi·ber·nat·ing.

1.

Zoology . to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormantcondition, as bears and certain other animals. Compareestivate.

2.

to withdraw or be in seclusion; retire.

3.

to winter in a place with a milder climate: Each winter finds ushibernating in Florida

We've been really busy lately, between travelling, holidays, work and wedding planning, it feels like i've been running on empty for a few weeks now. I've made a plan to "hibernate" for the entire month of January. We already have commitments lined up in November, and I know December will be busy with the holidays, I have planned to do absolutely nothing in January. I got a head start on my hibernation when I found myself with a free weekend...the only problem is that I don't really know how to hibernate, it's not in my nature. 

Here's what I accomplished this weekend when I was trying to hibernate:

• I failed at making bread not once, not twice but three times. I tried two recipes from Edie at Life in Grace and one from Michael Smith. The results were not impressive, one did not come out of the pan despite much greasing, and two were far too moist despite very dark outer crust. Almost the entire reason why I have a stand mixer is to make bread. My grandmother makes bread every single week, and   even with a full recipe and having shadowed her a number of times I still can't master the recipe or technique. I am seriously thinking of joining a bread making course!

• I successfully cooked:

• Homemade Pasta Sauce
• Sausage & Pepper Penne
• Best Ever Beef Stew
• Homemade Chicken Stock
• Corn & Potato Chowder
• Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Cinnamon Raisin Cookies

• I caught up on my television shows:

• The Bachelor Canada (Guilty pleasure, and I'm a proud Canadian)
• The Voice
• Nashville (I'm in LOVE with this new show)
• The Big Bang Theory
• New Girl

• I switched my summer and winter clothes now that it's starting to get cooler
• I went to Yoga class
• I found the cupcake carrying case at Winners. (i've been coveting since I was introduced to it by Francine in July)

The only thing I didn't accomplish was starting my sewing projects, I guess there's always January!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

My friend made these cupcakes for an event we went to in the summer, and I knew I wanted to try my hand at them for fall treat. When Dixie Anne asked me to bring dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner, I was ready to go. Apples are a true sign of fall for me, and I love the apple caramel combination. Last year I brought an apple caramel cheesecake for Thanksgiving!

This recipe came from the DC Cupcakes sisters and can be found here. You can also find a recipe to their pumpkin spice cupcakes on the same page. I'm making them this week for Chris' fall potluck, so will report on them next week!

Once the cupcakes have cooled, you use an apple corer to take out the centre and fill it with yummy caramel!

Finished Product! They're a bit on the sweet side, so I may ease up on the caramel next time...