say it with pie

White Christmas? Pshhhht! Boat Christmas is where it’s at, as the kids say.

Yes, me and Pete spent Christmas on my parents boat in Florida. Instead of placing presents under the Christmas tree, we placed them under a television tuned to the burning log channel. It was very festive!

Continue reading Christmas in Florida »

Charlie likes licking wine gums!!! Cute!

Wine gums contain gelatin which is what I assume he is attracted to, not the subtle cherry flavour.

In related news, thank-you to Pete’s mom for the wine gums in my Christmas stocking. I promise this is the only one the cat gets.

I outdid myself with these beautiful tuna spoons, made for Pete’s work holiday party.

It’s pan-seared, sesame-encrusted maguro perched atop a slice of avocado, finished with a dribble of soy sauce and a flourish of wasabi mayo. The spoons and plate are from Tap Phong Trading Co on Spadina; I can not believe I had never been there before.

Let’s move in for a close up, shall we?

Oh yeah. They tasted as good as they looked!

The League of Extraordinary Dancers is an online series debuting in 2010. I have no idea what this even is, but it looks totally epic.

This picture sucks pretty hard. That’s because I was like, “Aaaahhhh, I need to put down my camera and eat this bread as soon as possible!” And then I did. And it was amazing. And you can’t have any.

I’ve been wanting to try making bread on my pizza stone since I mastered basic pizza, and I thought this Pane di Granoturco would be a fun place to start. “Pane di Granoturco” just means “Bread with Cornmeal” in Italian; it’s a home-style loaf that goes nicely with stews or soups, like this butternut squash soup I whipped up super fast:

It’s finished with some piri piri that my friend Jeanette made. Also, check out my awesome cat salt shaker.

The recipe is courtesy of Chef John from Food Wishes, who produces free instructional cooking videos. I think Chef John has to be my favourite cooking personality of all time: online, on television and in real life. I have waited tables in almost a dozen restaurants in my time and I’ve found that chefs usually have anger, ego or drug problems. But Chef John seems like such a delightful fellow! He makes me rethink my deep-seated prejudice toward chefs! Check out the site and spend an afternoon going through the archives. You will become a fan.

Great Grandma C’s Pane di Granoturco from Foodwishes on Vimeo.

I recently got a pizza stone and I am in LOVE with it. Homemade pizza is quick, easy and sooooo delicious.

My best pizza so far has been a potato pizza bianca with Etorki. Etorki is a French sheep milk cheese that has the most wonderful nutty flavour. I brushed the dough with olive oil, threw on some shredded Etorki, added some rosemary sprigs and covered the top with Yukon Gold potatoes sliced thin on a mandoline. Then I drizzled some oil into the potatoes and gave it a generous dose of freshly ground sea salt and pepper.

It was unspeakably delicious.

I attempted to recreate the pizza a few days later with mozzarella and, while very good, it just didn’t have the complexity of the Etorki version. I’m excited to try making more pizzas with non-traditional cheeses. Taking suggestions!

Edit: I made this pizza again with mozzarella and Le Riopelle de l’Isle, an earthy triple-creme from Quebec with good results!

Nightmare Cat is twitchy!

(It hasn’t set yet)

This is what chocolate mousse should not look like:

At least I know what I screwed up: I used a giant block of high-quality baking chocolate from St. Lawrence Market which didn’t have enough cocoa butter to get truly molten when I heated it. Then I got distracted and overcooked the egg yolk. That’s what you get for multi-tasking in the kitchen.

Most of the time, though, chocolate mousse is a quick and easy dessert that always looks more labour-intensive than it really is. I got it perfect on my second try yesterday when I actually used the proper ingredients and stayed focused. Plus, it costs under $10 to make! I follow the standard Joy of Cooking recipe.

There hasn’t been a Caturday around here for a while!

That’s because Charlie joined the Twitter brigade. He can usually say what he needs to in under 140 characters. TwitPics here!

I like a traditional ploughman’s lunch, but I love a fancy ploughman’s lunch. This one features a lovely sheep brie from Global Cheese, whole wheat crackers, spinach greens, golden beets dressed with a dash of balsamic and oil, apple slices and dried apricots.

Pete took one look at it and said, “More like WOWman’s lunch!” and I think he had a point.