Farewell 2016

This has been a roller coaster kind of year, filled with highs and lows. Hopefully next year will have more of the former than the latter.

See y'all then.

Tuscany

I spent just under two glorious weeks in Tuscany, basing myself in Florence to explore the region.

Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance, which is not surprising, as there were gorgeous art and architecture everywhere I looked.

Tuscany is even more beautiful in person; pictures don't do it justice. One day was spent biking in the countryside. Pro tip: unless you are a road cyclist, rent a vespa or car to get around. I'm in pretty decent shape but biking was painfully difficult, as the countryside was mainly made up of hills.

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Sneak Peak: Tuscany

I went to Tuscany and ate my weight in food. I wish I was exaggerating but everything was delicious and there was no stopping myself. More details and photos to come!

Plum Torte

I've had my eye on this classic plum torte recipe, which has been around for years. It was first published in The New York Times in 1983 and is one of the most requested recipe of all time. It's not hard to see why, as it is simple and versatile. Coincidentally, the NYT ran an article on the recipe just before I was going to make it.

I had my doubts when I first made the batter, as it seemed too thick and insufficient, but it rises beautiful around the plums. The plums become juicy and jammy, both sweet and tart at once.

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Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes

It's been a quintessential summer so far where we've been blessed with hot, humid weather. Unfortunately those days are soon coming to an end, as the sun is setting earlier and the cool evenings require a sweater.

However, summer isn't quite over yet. We've officially hit peak tomato season and all I want to do is consume tomatoes.

I've had them raw in salads, bursting with tomato flavour; cooked into ratatouille, where all the summer vegetables shine through; stuffed with rice and baked, concentrating that tomato-ness.

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Happy Summer!

July is the month where I turn another year older and it's a wonderful month to celebrate a birthday. I’m a true summer baby, where nothing makes me happier than being warm in the sun.

The past year has been a significant one: I finally have job security, which comes with the perk of insured benefits. You know you’re getting older when you’re exciting about benefits!

I also took the big step of purchasing my first home. This has been my goal for years and to finally achieve it is satisfying, yet frightening. It has consumed my life for the past three months (hence the lack of substantial posts), but I’m finally settled in and I hope to get back into the groove of things.

June 2016

Life is super hectic at the moment! Instead, have some links I've enjoyed in the past month:

- I've been feeling natsukashii (nostalgic) about Japan recently, and then the NYT does an article about the Kumano Kodo, which I have hiked because it's located in my prefecture! My town, Tanabe, even gets a shout out.

- Musical theatre fans, you must watch this Carpool Karaoke video with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, Jane Krakowski and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. I had the same reaction as they did when I heard the first two notes of "Seasons of Love," and their rendition of "One Day More" is ah-mazing.

- On a more sombre note, if you haven't already, please read the powerful letter the Stanford rape victim read aloud to her attacker. The amount of victim blaming that occurs when a female is sexually assaulted is infuriating. I don't know what's more disgusting about this whole case: that the offender's father didn't think his son should be punished for "20 minutes of action," that the offender is blaming alcohol for his actions and that HE will have to live with this for the rest of his life, or that the judge gave him such a light sentence.

- The immigrant history of small-town Chinese-Canadian food. It's all about the families.

- One of the most tragic things I've read recently: the underground race to spread medical knowledge as the Syrian regime erases it.

- I was obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club as a kid so I enjoyed this ode to the series.

- If you are a West Wing fan, The West Wing Weekly is for you. It's a podcast hosted by Josh Malina, who played Will Bailey on the show, and he gets the best guests. My favourite episodes so far: "1.10 - In Excelsis Deo with Richard Schiff" (Toby was my favourite) and "0.01 - West Wing Reunion, Live from ATX" (featuring Aaron Sorkin and a good chunk of the cast).

Spring has sprung!

What I've been up to: undertaking a massive cleaning purge, relishing the return of spring produce, basking in the spring summer-like weather.

Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whenever I bake a dessert, whether it is a cookie, cake or bread, I immediately want to add nuts to it because I am a nut-fanatic. I think they add a unique flavour and texture, and can bulk up a meal (like this one, which is still one of my favourite pasta dishes).

However, I have a colleague who is allergic to nuts so whenever I want to bring something into work, I have to remind myself to bake nut-free goods. It's more difficult than you think. I don't know how parents do it these days, making lunches for their kids to bring to their nut-free schools.

When I stumbled upon this tahini chocolate chip cookie recipe, it was an "Aha!" moment. Instead of using peanut or almond butter, it uses sesame seed butter, which gives it that nutty flavour. It's great timing that I'm going through a tahini phase at the same time as the food blogging world.

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Moutabbal

You know what I learned during my travels in Turkey? The Turks can prepare eggplant really, really well. I find it such a finicky vegetable to cook with, as it can be too mushy or bitter, but without fail, every eggplant dish I ordered was insanely delicious (and I ordered many of them). One of the most memorable eggplant dishes that I ate was a meze - an eggplant dip with an intensely smoky flavour, one that I was hoping to replicate.

Unfortunately, I don't have a gas burner so I improvised and threw the eggplants under the broiler in my oven. While this method does not result in a smoky flavour (I'll have to try grilling it on the barbecue in the summer), it does make a wonderful eggplant dip.

Note to self: do not line the baking sheet with parchment paper when broiling things because the paper will BURN. Please see photographic evidence:

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Banana Bread

I have a weird relationship with bananas. I like to eat them when they're still green, just past the starchy stage, so that they're nice and tart. Once they start ripening and turn sweet, I can't eat them. The aroma of ripening bananas turn my stomach.

And yet, I love bananas baked in goods, so I allow the bananas to overripe and become super sweet. I then freeze them for future baking projects or add them mashed to a warm bowl of oats.

I realize that I have a really small opening to eat a banana as is. But think of all the banana breads I can make!

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Roasted Butternut Squash, Lentil & Farro Salad with Pomegranate & Tahini Dressing

We're deep into root vegetables season and my go-to way to prepare them is to coat them in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast them in the oven. Toss the caramelized veggies with some quinoa and maple syrup vinaigrette, and you have a meal prepared in less than an hour.


To change it up a bit, I roasted some cubed butternut squash and, rather than quinoa, used farro and lentil to bulk up the meal.


I also used my newly purchased Turkish ingredients of tahini and pomegranate molasses to make a dressing. The pomegranate molasses was an impulse purchase, but I'm so glad I brought some back with me. The tahini is the best I've ever had, with a deep, intense sesame flavour.

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