a dash of zest: 2011

December 30, 2011

Carrot Soup

Winter is officially here and by that, I don't mean the actual season (though that is also true). Snow arrived this week, covering the grounds (which means I have to walk through mucky slush) and it's cold out. Like minus 10 degrees C cold. This type of weather is conducive to colds (the malady), which I am suffering from as we speak.

Is it spring yet?

I have been craving for stews and soups like there's no tomorrow. For weeks, I could think of nothing but chili and cornbread and had to make them to squelch the craving.

November 29, 2011

Baked Leek & Spinach Frittata

Remember when I went to France three months ago? Yeah, I can't believe it's been that long either.

I finally organized all my pictures from my travels, including my Really Long Backpacking Trip in Asia from 2009. I know. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator. I took some really amazing pictures in China that I eventually want to share with you, but let's take baby steps and start with France.

I didn't quite know where to start since I took almost 4 gigs of photos of my time on the farm, Paris, and an absurd amount of food-related photography (my meals, cheese, bread, macarons, etc.) It seemed most logical to start from the very beginning.

October 31, 2011

Butternut Squash, Red Lentil & Coconut Soup

I don't want to start another post in disbelief that, once again, time has passed much too quickly for my liking. But really, how is it almost November already?

The family and I went apple picking for the Thanksgiving weekend, an outing that is turning into a yearly tradition. We picked Galas and Honeycrisps and Mutsus and Jonagolds, plus Fujis and Golden Delicious and Ambrosias, oh my. All twenty pounds of apples have been baked, cooked and consumed. I made six jars of applesauce and it was, bias aside, the best tasting applesauce of my life. Every time I eat a spoonful, I actually take A Moment to enjoy the apple goodness and pray to the cooking gods that I can recreate this perfection next year.

A pie was baked. I am slowly getting the hang of pie crust (I'm quite proud of the edges). The smell of freshly baked apple pie was too tempting and the pie was sliced into before it had the chance to cool, which resulted in major juice leakage. I'm assuming this is the norm and I have learned my lesson for next time.

September 29, 2011

Spaghetti with Walnuts & Anchovies

Another month has come and gone. Fall has arrived. I keep waiting for my life to calm down so that I can have some Me time, but that has yet to happen. I have shiny new kitchen tools that are begging to be used - a madeleine pan purchased in France, a gorgeous green ceramic pie dish, and a bread knife that wants to cut into some crusty bread.

August 31, 2011

France 2011

I'm back in town briefly before I fly out to Halifax to visit a friend who recently got married and moved out east, so here's a brief recap of my trip:

The sun was setting when my flight left for France.

The organic farm I stayed on was in the Normandy region, near a small town called Bernay.

July 30, 2011

Strawberry Galette

I'm not exactly sure when this happened but it is somehow the end of July. This month has been a tiring, activity-filled blur, which included watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) at the midnight showing. Nothing says I'm turning into an old bag like constantly yawning in line and hoping I don't fall asleep during the movie.

July is also the time of year where I grow another year older. I am trying my best not to let the mid-twenties crisis overwhelm me, but this year more than anything I can feel Adulthood approaching as friends around me are getting engaged and married. Cue the, "What am I doing with my life?" moment.

June 27, 2011

Jalapeno Cheddar Scones

Summer is officially here and the city is a-buzzing. After a long, cold winter, everyone comes out of hibernation and each weekend, streets are shut down for the many festivals happening around the city. While I'm sure this aggravates motorists to no end, summer festivals are one of the reasons why I love Toronto.

The past month has been filled with baseball games and bike rides and strolls along the beach. The farmers' markets are in full swing and my dragon boat team's season has started. Life has been busy but in the best, possible (if exhausting) way.

I also had the pleasure of trekking out to Prince Edward County to spend the day at the Great Canadian Cheese Festival, sampling on local wine and cheese. I purchased two blocks of cheese, a lovely smoked cheese from La Fromagerie Blackburn and the award-winning Louis d'Or from La Fromagerie du Presbytère.

May 22, 2011

Crunchy Granola

Ah, spring. Thank you for your belated arrival. Last week was the first week where the temperature stayed in the double digits and it was definitely most welcomed. However, it seems that I have developed an allergic reaction to pollen. My eyes were itchy and watery and I kept sneezing at random, but even this bizarre development (and the rainy weather this week) has not dampened my enthusiasm for warmer weather.

Do you know who else was enjoying the warm Toronto weather last week? Mark Bittman. I am a huge Mark Bittman fan and I let out a surprising but gleeful, "What?!" when I found out through twitter that he was in town to check out some of the wonderful food programming we have in the city. (Yes, I reluctantly joined the twitter world, mostly because I needed a way to get around New York Times' monthly article limit by following their twitter feed. I don't think I'll be sharing my account with you anytime soon as I have yet to do my first tweet.) For years, a weekly highlight was to see what recipe he was going to post for his now-defunct Minimalist column. The most mind-blowing revelation to date is savoury oatmeal. Who knew that adding soy sauce and scallions to oatmeal would taste like congee? These days, I look forward to his entries on food sustainability.

When I saw his How to Cook Everything at my favourite used bookstore (the one where I can never leave without buying something), I snatched it up without a second thought. It is the first thing I reach for whenever I have a cooking related question. Skills his cookbook has taught me: how to skin the overabundance of tomatoes growing in my backyard last summer to make oven-dried tomatoes, how to shape a baguette, how to roast a juicy chicken and how to make granola.

April 04, 2011

Almond Butter

A few days after I wrote my post on Japan, the Tohoku region of the country suffered massive destruction from the earthquake and tsunami. It was heartbreaking to see parts of the country so close to my heart, a place I called home for a year, completely in ruins. For days I couldn't turn myself away from the news and even though I was lucky enough that all my friends in Japan are okay, I know people who have friends and family affected by this tragedy.

On Friday night, I was more than happy to attend and participate in the Japan Benefit Party. It didn't matter that I had to be up at the crack of dawn the next day and only got four hours of sleep - it was my way of giving back to Japan, as well as thanking Japan for welcoming me with open arms and teaching me so many wonderful things about its culture.

Ganbare Japan.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

I am in love with my food processor. I'll let you in on a little secret: I purchased the food processor as a gift to myself, a self-congratulation for finally finding employment. That's right, while most people my age would go to the mall to buy a pair of shoes, a purse or an item of clothing, I bought myself a kitchen appliance.

It remains one of my favourite purchases in the past year. My 15+ year old blender just wasn't doing the job I needed it to do (I was sick of constantly having to scrap down the sides) and my shiny new toy is capable of producing fresh almond and flax seed meal. Also: homemade nut butter!

March 05, 2011

Memories of Japan

I just finished reading A Year in Japan (日本の一年) by Kate T. Williamson and every page managed to put a smile on my face. It's a gorgeous illustration book that captures the random but everyday aspects of Japan, details I think one would really appreciate if they've lived in the country. Some examples: bananas are sold sealed in a plastic bag, takeout sushi comes with a small fish-shaped plastic container of soy sauce, and Japanese winters are unbearably cold not because it is that cold temperature-wise but because the buildings lack central heating and insulation. (No exaggeration, it was the most MISERABLE winter of my life and we all know how cold it gets in Canada.) Random memories make me long for Japan. I thought I would make my own list of things I missed, though I limited this entry to ten items or else it would be never ending.

My mamachari

I was quite fond of my bike. It was what you would call a mamachari (mother or grandmother's bicycle) but don't let the name fool you because everyone rides these bad boys. This was my main mode of transportation the whole year round - in the freezing cold, during rainy season and in the humid heat. I was especially proud of the fact that my bike had a front AND back basket, as they were quite useful during grocery runs. The bike only had one gear but who cares, it was comfortable and easy to ride on. I would trade my current bike for my mamachari if I could.

Mikan

My students liked to tell me these are "Japanese oranges" but they are much more similar to mandarins. Seedless, easy to peel and deliciously sweet, my prefecture was known for producing a large amount of mikan so I ate an abundance of these during the winter.

February 21, 2011

Kale Pesto Pasta

We had a tease of spring on Friday when the temperature jumped up to 9 degrees C. Nine! Alas, the warm weather was temporary; by nightfall, it fell to -9 degrees C and my hopes of an early spring were dashed.

Aside from looking forward to the sun setting past 5:30 in the afternoon and not having to wear ten layers of clothing to keep warm, I am counting down the days until the arrival of fresh spring vegetables to replace the wilted selection currently at my supermarket.

February 14, 2011

Swiss Chard, Potato & Sweet Potato Gratin

The past few weeks have been a wonderful stroll down memory lane. There was lunch with high school friends, some of who I only get to see about once a year, and we caught up on each other's lives and reminisced about the past. The week before that, I visited my university roommate in Hamilton and we had a lazy weekend enjoying each other's company. It's moments like these that makes me wonder where time has gone and when exactly it was that we entered adulthood.

January 25, 2011

Homemade Applesauce

The past weekend affirms the fact that I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold. The temperature hit -20 degrees C (windchill excluded) and I can't help but wonder why I live in a country such a distance away from the equator. As the winter drags on, I reminisce to my favourite season: autumn.

Autumn is the perfect season - not too hot or cold, wonderful crisp weather, the fall harvest, the leaves changing colours. What's not to love? I will admit, the beginning of last October was really rough work-wise and I was more than ready to embrace the Thanksgiving long weekend when it arrived. On the agenda: fall foilage and apple picking.