toy story 3 treats.

Toy Story 3 came out last Friday. It makes me and Caleb feel so old to see that Andy is going off to college and that his dog is old and his toys are going to be given away because we were really young when the first movie came out. Nevertheless, everyone around us keeps saying that it is Pixar's best film to date, so I'm definitely interested in going to see it sometime.

If you also are from the Toy Story generation, or just love those good friends Woody and Buzz, then you might want to celebrate their third film with some treats. Bakerella created some great recipes for Disney Family to help you get in the mood of movie-watching. Below are a couple of my favourites. Her cake pops are so cute and look fun to eat too!

Hamm cake pops

Mr. Potato Head cake pops

If you really want to jump into the Toy Story 3 action, there are lots of other treats and crafts to do here.

penne frittata with basil and ricotta

A week or two ago Caleb and I had this delicious Penne Frittata with Basil and Ricotta, and it is so easy to make and very delicious that I just had to share it with you.

I found the recipe over at Sunday Suppers and it has recently been featured in Martha Stewart Living. Caleb found the basil a little too strong, so I think the next time I make it I'll try a little less, or else some other sort of combination of flavours. I used my favourite penne made out of kamut flour instead of wheat and it tasted just fine. In fact, we almost ate the whole dish for dinner!

lemon raspberry oatmeal muffins.

Finding out I was allergic to wheat one year ago took a toll on my baking adventures. I am still learning how to substitute different flours into my baked goods to yield similar results (and taste) as using good ol' all purpose flour. Many of these trials have resulted in sub-par baked goods or outright failures, but on Saturday morning I baked some muffins, and boy, were they delicious!

These muffins are light and fluffy with a mild lemon flavour that compliments the raspberries just right. This tangy citrus flavour is balanced out nicely by the sweet oat meal, making this a delicious recipe that is easy to make.

Lemon Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins

Adapted from The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook, by Elizabeth Baird.

The original recipe calls for two cups of all-purpose flour so if you'd like to do that, feel free. Even if you aren't allergic to wheat or have a sensitivity to gluten, using different flours in your everyday baking is a great way to integrate more food types into your diet. Different grains have different benefits, and everyone's body can use more diversity in the types of foods we eat.

This recipe also calls for buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, don't worry, I never do either. Instead for every 1 cup of buttermilk called for in a recipe use one cup of regular milk with 1 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice stirred together and left to sit for 10 minutes to let the acid permeate the milk. There, you have a pretty close resemblance to butter milk.

1 cup oat flour

1 cup buckwheat flour (these are the two I chose for this recipe, but choose whatever types you want)

1¼ cup buttermilk

1 cup packed brown sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 cup quick coking rolled oats

1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind

2 eggs

⅓ cup vegetable oil (I use canola because it is very flavour neutral)

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 375℉.

In a large bowl combine flour and buttermilk. Let sit for 10 minutes (or longer, make ahead the night before and allow to sit overnight - soaking the grains makes the muffins nice and moist).

To the flour and buttermilk mixture add brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, rolled oats and lemon rind.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Sprinkle frozen raspberries (feel free to use more than amount above) over mixture and fold into batter.

Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are firm to the touch. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.

Yield: 24 muffins (although the original recipe says 12, so I guess it depends on how much you pour into your muffin cups - I filled them ¾ full).

Store in airtight contain for 2 days or freeze for up to 2 weeks.

urban garden.

In Canada, Victoria Day - the wonderful kick off to cottaging long holiday weekend in May - is also a great opportunity to get the garden growing. Although we live in a small apartment with only a few plants, in the spirit of outdoor gardening I want to share a great book I read a few weeks ago by Gayla Trail of the ten-year strong gardening project You Grow Girl. The book is Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces and while it specifically targets the challenges of growing food in small urban spaces, there are tips and tricks throughout the book that anyone interested in growing their own fruits and vegetables will benefit from.

inside cover

My favourite thing about the book is that it actually makes me feel like I have a chance of growing great food in my own small space. The book empowers you by providing lots of information about countering pest infestations in natural ways and also reviews a variety of different fruits and vegetables and what sort of environment they require in order to survive. She also includes lots of tips and tricks for container gardening (even growing upside down tomatoes!). Gayla also includes a few recipes and preserving techniques for your bountiful harverst. She makes gardening look like something that you are able to accomplish and enjoy the results of your hard work regardless of the space you are gardening in. Run to your local library or favourite bookstore to get your hands on a copy of this wonderful guide - you won't be disappointed.

find more previews of the book here

tomato.

This month, Caleb and I are trying very hard to eat better. We're following guidelines found in Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food. As a result, we're working at eliminating foods from our diets that have unnecessary preservatives, ingredients that seem unpronounceable (or have numbers in them), and items with high-fructose corn syrup. Those are just some of the 'rules' we're trying hard to follow. As a result, I've been making more things from scratch. I love cooking and working with food, and was excited to try to make the perfect tomato pasta sauce. I love tomato pasta sauce that has tons of ingredients in it, and chunks of tomato. Caleb likes really smooth pasta sauce that coats the pasta and wraps itself around the noodles. My challenge was to find a great tomato pasta sauce that we could both enjoy and was simple to make.

The sauce I came up with is an adaptation of "A Fine Tomato Pasta Sauce" in The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook. It makes a lot of sauce, so be sure to have some empty Mason jars ready to store it in the freezer. Also, be sure to let the sauce cool completely before putting the lid on it and freezing it, or else you might find that Mason jars are tough, but no match for expanding heat and tomato sauce. I recommend putting it in the jar (or whatever container you want to use to freeze it), keeping the lid off, put it in the fridge for a few hours, and then, when completely cool, put the lid on and move it to the freezer.

A Smooth Tomato Pasta Sauce

Adapted from The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook, by Elizabeth Baird

A dollop of olive oil.

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, grated

4 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

A pinch of hot pepper flakes

1 tsp each salt and pepper

1 can (2.8 L) crushed tomatoes

4 tbsp tomato paste

3 tsp granulated sugar

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook garlic, onion, carrot, basil, oregano, hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper, stirring often, 5 minutes or until onion is softened.

Add tomatoes, stir in tomato paste and sugar. Bring sauce to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and with an immersion blender , purée until smooth.

Either serve over top of pasta or else refrigerate in airtight container for a couple of days or else freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat to serve.

Note: Depending on the type of tomatoes you buy they could be or less acidic. Adjust the amount of sugar to help balance out the acidity. Or, use your own favourite sweetener, try honey, stevia, brown sugar, or something completely different. This sauce is open to interpretation, and not yet perfect, so feel free to put in some of your favourite spices and mix it up to make it your own.

cake.

If you love cake, either eating it or baking it, then you will probably love this song.

In the summer I made the Winning-Hearts-and-Minds delicious chocolate cake from Orangette. With a dollop of whipped cream on the top, this rich, moist, chocolatey cake truly won us over. Also, it is great for those who can't eat wheat because it only calls for a couple tablespoons of flour which can easily be subsituted (I'd recommend white rice flour).

Here's the recipe from Orangette below:

7 ounces (200 grams) best-quality dark chocolate
7 ounces (200 grams) unsalted European-style butter (the high-butterfat kind, such as Lurpak or Beurre d’Isigny), cut into ½-inch cubes
1 1/3 cup (250 grams) granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the base of the pan with parchment, and butter the parchment too.

Finely chop the chocolate (a serrated bread knife does an outstanding job of this) and melt it gently with the butter in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring regularly to combine. Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, stirring well, and set aside to cool for a few moments. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition, and then add the flour. The batter should be smooth, dark, and utterly gorgeous.

Pour batter into the buttered cake pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the center of the cake looks set and the top is shiny and a bit crackly-looking. (I usually set the timer for 20 minutes initially, and then I check the cake every two minutes thereafter until it’s done. At 20 minutes, it’s usually quite jiggly in the center. You’ll know it’s done when it jiggles only slightly, if at all.) Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes; then carefully turn the cake out of the pan and revert it, so that the crackly side is facing upward. Allow to cool completely. The cake will deflate slightly as it cools.

Serve in wedges at room temperature with a loose dollop of ever-so-slightly sweetened whipped cream.

Note: This cake is even better on the second day, so consider making it the day before serving. And thank you to Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini, whose mention of a clementine cake in Trish Deseine’s Mes petits plats préférés led to my stumbling upon Je veux du chocolat! in the bookstore one day.

delicious.

Sometimes when I'm cooking in the kitchen I like to experiment. But on most days when I'm in the kitchen say, roasting a chicken, I'll add a few (traditional) spices to create some delicious flavour, say, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs de provence. But, sometimes I like to be a little more adventurous than that, maybe use cayenne pepper instead of black, and paprika instead of salt, with garlic and mustard powder. Former picky-eater Caleb has been very brave trying some of the foods that come out of my kitchen, and for that, I am forever grateful. I know our relationship is stronger because he will try anything I create in the kitchen and almost always smile and say "yum." The problem is, I'm worried that I might create something that is the opposite of 'yum' and instead the food twists your tongue in a knot and your stomach too.

Although I'm not afraid to try new things of my own creation in the kitchen, it is nice to have a support system encouraging your experiments on the way. And with that, I introduce you, dear reader, to my favourite new kitchen companion. Meet The Flavor Bible.

Compiled by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg it is an "essential guide to culinary creativity, based on the wisdom of America's most imaginative chefs." It has helped me create the Butternut Squash Soup below.

You can find virtually any ingredient you might want to cook with, and find a list of other ingredients that compliment the flavour as well as lists of specific combinations that are tried and true.

Take the following few examples:

chicken + avocado + bacon + garlic + mayonnaise + tarragon

chicken + cloves + rosemary + yogurt

(Already my chicken options got a lot more flavourful.)

mango + black pepper + lemon + mint + passion fruit

scallops + bacon + garlic + chanterelle mushrooms

scallops + bay leaf + vanilla

butternut squash + bacon + maple syrup + sage

For 380 pages the lists go on and on. It even includes tips on how different ingredients are best cooked, but there are no recipes - no religious cooking rules to follow. This book helps me enjoy the process of cooking as much as the end product, it's a platform for the imagination.

Butternut Squash Soup

I was almost impatient to start 'soup season' this Fall, and even though our apartment is almost always too hot, I started making soup early in October. Every time I make a soup it is a little different, depending on the ingredients in my pantry and how much time I have to spend on it. But here is an approximation of a soup I made a couple of weeks ago that had both of us smiling by the end of the bowl. The inspiration was from The Flavour Bible.

1 butternut squash

butter

chicken stock (home made or low-sodium store bought)

sage

maple syrup and/or brown sugar

I like to cut my squash in half, butter the exposed flesh and roast them in a 350°F oven for half an hour or more, until the inside is really soft. (To prepare the squash take the butt of a chef's knife and hit the stem until it pops off, then slice the squash in half, take a spoon and remove the seeds, you can then roast them separately if you want for a snack.)

Once the squash is soft all the way through (using a sharp knife, it should slide easily through the squash), remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.

Using tongs or wearing an oven mitt in one hand, remove the skin of the squash with a knife.

Cut the squash into cubes.

Place in a medium-sized (3-4L) saucepan, add 4 cups chicken stock, sage, and bring to a boil. (Tip: To keep the sage from floating around everywhere, wrap it in cheesecloth and tie some twine around it and attach it to the handle of the saucepan for easy retrieval.)

Let boil for 20 minutes, or however long you feel the ingredients need to mingle.

Remove sage and take saucepan off the heat.

Using a hand-held blender, blend the squash and soup stock until a consistent texture. I like thick soup, but if you want your soup thinner, add more stock or water.

Add maple syrup (or brown sugar, or both) to taste.

Serve with small slices of bacon as garnish.