June 19th, 2009
It’s a good thing Movie Man doesn’t read my blog as I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble posting this instead of focusing on the many things I need to complete before our upcoming nuptials a few weeks away.
I’ve started working on the fondant flowers for the wedding favours:
I am making A LOT of them:
There are more. Thankfully they are teeny tiny and I can make many without going too crazy. They still need to be dusted with sparkle dust and I’ve decided to torture my maid of honour into piping the centres of approximately 400 flowers. Maybe torture is too strong of a word, but she has expressed interest in selling her baked goods and I’m simply giving her the gift of experience of what it would be like to do this kind of thing.
I chose fondant flowers instead of piping as my piping skills are lacking. I also didn’t want to have my hand frozen into a claw-like shape from piping so many cookies, I think it would ruin our wedding photos.
I tinted the fondant with Wilton gel paste. I was advised to use gloves, but I forgot to pick a pair up and decided to go without. A few of my nails are slightly teal tinged, so lesson learned.
I haven’t worked with fondant that much so the tip I got at the Bonnie Gordon School (they sell 1kg of fondant for $7) is to generously dust the surface with cornstarch. Icing sugar would just make it unbearably sweet and if you’ve ever had fondant, it’s sweet enough as it is. I dusted my surface too generously and the flowers were heavily covered in the stuff. Oops. If you brush the pieces later with some water, the cornstarch will disappear. After that mistake I dusted until the fondant was no longer sticky. To store it, I wrapped it in saran wrap and then put it in a ziplock.
My gumpaste cutter came from the Bonnie Gordon School. It was pricey at $6 for something that is 1cm big so I plan on using it as often as I can for future cakes. This is unfortunate for Movie Man as his 30th birthday is this year and I’m certain he doesn’t want flower blossoms all over his cake.
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June 17th, 2009
You know when you get a certain craving for a food or drink that’s so strong that you’ll find a way to have it, even if it’s out of the way?
A few years ago it was when I really discovered chicken wings and Movie Man and I would travel halfway across the city to get Duff’s and of course afterwards get some gelato at Hollywood Gelato next door. Yesterday it was hot and felt very summery and I wanted a frozen hot chocolate. I don’t know why, I’ve never had one and it’s not like I was watching the movie Serendipity. But I got it into my head that I had to have one so I gave my Magic Bullet a little work out. What’s not to like about a frosty version of hot chocolate? This would be great with some (or a lot) of Kahlua, Frangelico, Amaretto or Irish Cream.
Recipe here. Note: it says to pour milk slowly into the melted chocolate and hot chocolate mixture. I poured my cold milk too fast and the chocolate seized. For a fool proof drink use warm milk.
Tags: drink, frozen hot chocolate
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June 11th, 2009
Movie Man and I have a term when it comes to what he will and won’t eat. He won’t eat anything with “expressive eyes”. This means no beef, pork, lamb, etc… Chicken and fish are still ok, I guess their eyes aren’t expressive enough. For simplicity sake I rarely cook these things. It’s just easier that way even though I’m often told to make whatever I want. I don’t plan on making a pot roast if it’s just me eating it.
When I have the rare opportunity to dine alone, I’m excited to eat “forbidden” foods. There was a special on top sirloin so I got that and googled how to cook it. I’m clueless at knowing the different cuts of meat so the internet is my best friend. Top sirloin is supposed to be a tougher cut of meat so it does best when you marinate it. I marinated the steak for about 2 hours with the bbq marinade from Donna Hay’s No Time to Cook. I added some liquid smoke for extra flavour. I made the garlic aioli from the How to Boil Water cook book and the aioli split on me. I think I let the olive oil puddle too much while I was whisking. I couldn’t be bothered to fix it. For the side dish, it was boiled potatoes tossed with olive oil, fleur de sel and black pepper from French Taste. The aioli was decent, but I probably would try a different recipe and I can’t really comment on the potatoes because I was too into the steak. The steak was excellent and I really liked the marinade with it. This was the first time I’ve ever made steak and I’m happy to have a thermometer so I knew the steak wasn’t overcooked (my worst fear is spending good $$$ on a steak only to have overcooked it and taste like rubber).
I now have leftovers for tomorrow. What to do with leftover steak? Chowhound has the answer.
I apologize for no picture, they all turned out blurry and unappetizing.
Tags: aioli, potatoes, steak, top sirloin
Posted in Dinner | No Comments »
June 9th, 2009
It was a busy weekend as my bachelorette and bridal shower happened! I’m still recovering from my cold, but I had such a fun time! My bachelorette was held at The Clay Room where we got to paint ceramics. They’ll be ready in a week and I can pick up this pretty little thing:
It’s a batter bowl with a ball of yarn that my friend painted on. It’s my two loves in one! Although I don’t knit that much any more, I still consider myself a knitter and once in awhile I will go in my yarn stash just to look and feel yarn.
After all that work painting, the ladies and I hit up MoRoCo is Yorkville for some afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is served with scones, sandwiches and an assortment of pastries. This is different from high tea which is a heavier meal that includes cold meats, eggs or fish.
Everything was set up so nicely and I loved how the tea cups were all mis-matched. I’d like to start collecting tea cups, but I don’t think Movie Man could handle me collecting something else in our teeny place.
The teas they served came from the Tea Emporium. I chose Garden of Eden which is a green tea with a fruity flavour. Cream of Avalon was also a popular pick among us and Swiss Shoko was also picked. I don’t usually like chocolate teas, but the Swiss Shoko was very good with milk and sugar.
After we had picked out our teas we had to make room on our table for all the goodies:
We were served smoked salmon, cucumber with cream cheese and watercress, and egg salad with sweet curry sandwiches. All the sandwiches were delicious and I loved how the cucumbers and the smoke salmon were cut thinly and placed on top of the sandwiches. It made the flavours easy to identify. We were all pretty hungry and everyone thought that the food wouldn’t be enough but when we were eating the scones we were all starting to feel full. The scones were small and crispy on the outside and dense. We had a selection of cranberry and chocolate chip. Both were really good. I’m a huge dessert fan so the dessert selection was my favourite part. There was a selection of macarons which I loved, chocolates, and sugar cookies filled with lemon buttercream. Everything was presented so nicely. We weren’t able to finish everything so the leftovers were packed up in a cute cardboard box.
I loved everything about this place from the way it was decorated to the tiny details like the ceramic milk pitcher that was the size of my thumb. I definitely want to come back there again.
MoRoCo
Website
99 Yorkville Avenue
416.961.2202
Tags: afternoon tea, moroco
Posted in Toronto | 2 Comments »
June 8th, 2009
Surfing Craigslist I came across an ad where someone needed to take food pictures. I thought having some pro pics would be neat so I sent him a note. I made my famous Chocolate Chip cookies, peanut butter, and sugar cookies. This is how it turned out:
I realized I don’t have time to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe, so I’m going to default to a tried and true recipe. I’m using the sugar cookie recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Christmas Cookies and I’m going to increase the lemon zest for a more lemony flavour. I made these cookies for my bridal shower.
I thought of doing the milk and cookies and the photographer thought of doing a twist on that and made the cookie like a garnish for the drink.
I also wanted to see a pile of cookies beside it. A huuuuge pile of cookies:
And finally here are the peanut butter cookies:
Peanut butter cookie recipe here.
Photos by Steven Liu.
Tags: Cookies, photo shoot
Posted in Cookies, Dessert | No Comments »
May 27th, 2009
Movie Man had his stag last weekend. I surprised him on Friday with some peanut butter cookies. I figured the people from his stag would eat most of the cookies — they ended up eating everything. Also, I think I am the first person to make cookies for their fiancé’s stag.
I finally used my cookbook Martha Stewart’s Cookies (Costco is my new favourite place for cookbooks). In the instructions, it said to put heaping tablespoons and I think I was a bit too generous at first:
Gigantic cookies. Also overdone.
As the condo was being taken over by men, I headed over to the neighbours. First up was seeing Laura Calder at The Cookbook Store promoting her book French Taste and doing signings. I got to tell her that her brioche was the very first bread I made (note: also done by hand) and we got to chat about that. She’s a lovely lady.
When dinner rolled around, my neighbour made some delicious leek, potato, and tarragon soup:
I served up some pavlovas for dessert.
The pavlovas would have been good with some whipped cream. Yum. I used the pavlova recipe from my Small-Batch Baking book as it was just the two of us.
The day after the stag I got to go on a cookbook binge — Movie Man’s treat. I got 3 cookbooks off Amazon. I won’t be getting them for about a month because of the slow delivery time which is ok because one of them is an ice cream book and my dress fitting is coming up real soon.
Recipe for leek, potato and tarragon soup here
Tags: Cookies, soup, Toronto
Posted in Dessert, Dinner, Soups, Toronto | No Comments »
May 21st, 2009
Surprisingly, there isn’t a dedicated cheese shop in this area. Queen West has all sorts of stores dedicated to specialty food products such as The Healthy Butcher for organic meat, Tealish has over 130 different kinds of tea, The Spice Trader which has made me re-think my spice storage solution as I have so many spices from them, and the Olive Pit below with some of the most amazing oils and balsamic vinegars I have ever tasted.
Finally Leslieville Cheese Market opens up a new store in the area (it opened on the 15th). You can find them at 541 Queen Street West. They are West of Spadina, before the Healthy Butcher. The other day I went in “just to look” and caved when I bought sourdough bread (if I can’t make it, I’ll have to buy it). Then I went back again to have some cheese to go with it — I just couldn’t resist. I’m a total cheese newbie and the staff were very helpful. I got to try a couple of soft cheeses and a couple of blue cheeses. I’m glad they label the cheeses when you buy them because usually I end up forgetting the name of that great tasting cheese I had and can never buy it again. I bought La Sauvagine and Le Ciel de Charlevoix. La Sauvagine is my absolute favourite! I love blue cheeses (which is probably funny because I have super sensitive taste buds), but this cheese is so soft and creamy I could slather the entire cheese on one slice of bread. It’s kind of buttery with a bit of a tang to it, it’s definitely not flavourless. This place also gets bonus points for giving me a free baguette! I’m up to my eyeballs in bread from buying sourdough AND making a ciabatta the same day so I gave most of it to my neighbour who was very happy to accept it. The baguette had a crunchy crust with a soft and chewy interior. I was happy that I wasn’t given a stale baguette since they were going to be closing up shop for the day.
They label the cheeses so you don’t forget the name.
Delicious, delicious cheese is found within the wrapper.
My teeny offset spatula works great for spreading.
This isn’t butter on bread, it just looks like that. Yum!
This is the other cheese, Le Ciel de Charlevoix:
It’s a firmer cheese.
This would be an excellent cheese to crumble onto salads or pasta. It’s actually making me want a salad right now. And I hardly ever want to eat a salad.
They’ll be offering classes at this location too, but no dates have been set. I’m looking forward to the beer and cheese tasting. For $30 per person it’s an excellent foodie date.
Website here.
Tags: cheese, queen west, Toronto
Posted in Toronto | 3 Comments »
May 18th, 2009
Out of all the cakes I have made so far, fancy or simple, this cake is THE best cake I have ever made. Maybe because it involves 3 of my favourite things: chocolate, peanuts, and caramel. This cake is so good I need to erase it from my memory so I will be able to fit into my wedding dress. I have never made a cake without a special occasion or reason like a test run, but flipping through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home To Yours the picture caught my attention and never let go. I spent weeks thinking about making the cake before actually making it. Movie Man was also bugging me to make some brownies so I figured a brownie cake was a good compromise (he still wants brownies after this, the nerve!).
The cake was simple to put together, but making caramel sauce always makes me nervous because it usually takes me two or three times to get it right and not burn the sucker. It didn’t get the dark amber it was supposed to because I was impatient and Movie Man didn’t want me to burn it. It was a light caramel and it was still really good. In the directions, Dorie says not to worry if the cake sinks or has a small crater in the cake. My cake definitely had a crater:
When it came to the filling, there was definitely more caramel in the middle, but it was all good. The cake was definitely like a brownie, dense, moist and not too sweet (I used 70% bittersweet chocolate which I recommend). The batter is very thick, jiggling it will not help smooth it out, you’ll need to use a spatula. The next day the caramel crystallized. I’m not too sure if it was from being impatient or just technique (I didn’t wet down the sides, but I never do and don’t run into problems).
You must, must make this recipe. If you really want to take this recipe a step further, throw in some fleur de sel in the caramel for some salted caramel goodness. But please don’t hate me if you can’t stop thinking about this cake — I warned you it was good.
Recipe here
Tags: cake, Dessert, dorie greenspan
Posted in Cakes, Must try | No Comments »
May 17th, 2009
I think everyone I know loves cheesecake. ADORES it. Which is why whenever I say cheesecake isn’t really my thing, people are so shocked. I’ll still eat it, but I’m not gaga over it like everyone else. Maybe it’s the texture or maybe it’s the fact that I can’t have that much lactose without feeling utterly sick for the rest of the day.
We spent Mother’s Day at Movie Man’s brother’s house. Movie Man’s mom loves cheesecake. So much that at one point she was making cheesecake once a week for over a month — that’s a lot of Philly cream cheese to go through. There was even a time where I opened up their fridge to find 10 packs of cream cheese. So of course I would make her a cheese cake for Mother’s Day. I’ve actually never made a homemade cheesecake before. I say homemade because there was a brief moment in my life where I would churn out at least a dozen cheesecakes everyday. I think I finally forgot the recipe that I thought would be forever etched into my brain.
I used a recipe from The Cake Bible. After some Googling (er, research?) I found mixed reviews of it. Some felt it was too fluffy and moist, others made it clear that this is the only recipe they use. I decided to try the white chocolate variation because it’s supposed to be more firm. This recipe also uses a water bath (where the pan is surrounded by water) to help prevent cracking. I did get a teeny tiny crack:
I think that was from manhandling it too much though. The Cake Bible doesn’t give a graham crumb recipe, it just says that you can pat on the crumbs afterwards. I like the graham crust so I tried one from Anna Olson. When I baked it, it didn’t look “done” so I baked it some more…and then some more again. I didn’t like the addition of flour the recipe called for, but when it came time to cut the cake, it was rock hard. I can’t blame the recipe for my overzealous baking, but next time I’ll probably just stick to the recipe on the graham cracker box.
At the last minute I decided the cake needed a topping so we went to the grocery store to get some blueberries. The total cost of blueberries would have been $10 so Movie Man suggested blackberries instead. I boiled some water, sugar, and a bit of cornstarch to make a glaze and then threw in the berries to coat it.
How was the taste of the cheesecake? In my opinion, it’s just cheesecake. The book says it’s made converts out of people who hate cheesecake — I wasn’t converted. But from people who love cheesecake? Everyone took seconds and they were quite happy with it.
Tags: cake, cake bible, cheesecake, rlb
Posted in Cakes, The Cake Bible | No Comments »
May 12th, 2009
Food styling by my neighbour! I love it! Most of the time I This banana bread is probably the most unhealthy banana bread I have ever eaten. It is a Nigella recipe and there is a lot of butter. The butter is used as a liquid instead of buttermilk or yogurt. The results are so delicious though, that I think I may just use this as my go-to banana bread recipe. I was a bit worried at first as the recipe is a bit plain — no spices at all. The recipe did have raisins, but I am in the camp where raisins don’t belong in any baked good (don’t even get me started on raisins in cookies!) so I omitted them. This was so easy to put together that I just did everything by hand and I think this was actually faster than doing it in my stand mixer.
Recipe here
Tags: banana bread, nigella
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