get outside!

Well, our snowthower is officially on the fritz just in time for a huge dumping of snow. That means a good hour of shoveling, which I normally wouldn't be too thrilled about taking care of, except for the fact that Owen loves playing in the snow. He seems a lot more climatized to the weather since he gets 2 half hour outdoor playtimes at child care. Me on the other hand, I'm lucky if I get 20 seconds from the front door to my car and back. The temperature outside is so beautiful and crisp that you really don't notice how long you've been out, with no wall clocks or digital devices, time almost stands still. Until you've seen half your day spent enjoying the freshly fallen snow.
 

I took Owen out for toboggan ride around. The road is shut down near our home so we have loads of space to ride around without another person in sight.
 

Owen's little nose and cheeks were so rosy and once all the snow gear was removed he was treated to his first ever cup of hot chocolate.

potato pancakes

To me Potato Pancakes (or latkes) are the best way to enjoy a fried potato. Yes, better than chips, better than homefries and even better than french fries. And, there is definitely something about this time of year that, regardless if you are Jewish or not, latkes just fit with the season!

I was really excited to make these because I was certain Owen would go nuts over them. What I loved about making them was how fun they were. I grated russet potatoes lengthwise on the course side of a box grater to get long strings of potato. The potatoes are then left to sit for a few minutes in cool water. From there, I did something the recipe didn't call for, I put the potato in a tea towel and squeezed as much moisture out as possible. Once fairly dry, it was simply a matter of mixing the rest of the ingredients which included eggs, beer, flour, s&p and the starch left over from the soaking potatoes.

The potato pancakes fried up like a dream with those crispy edges. I especially liked the addition of beer to the batter. It gave a subtle flavour that I'm not sure anyone would be able to detect unless they were told beer was added. However, as much as Nuno and I loved them, Owen did not. Even with the addition of applesauce he wasn't enticed enough to finish even one.

christmas day 2012

Every Christmas with Owen just keeps getting better and better. Christmas through a child's eyes is definitely my favourite way to enjoy the season. Here is our tree on Christmas Eve.

The night before Owen left milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

Christmas morning we awoke to a covering of freshly fallen snow. The first of the season and it felt so festive.

My sister Katie stayed with us for the holiday. One of the most special things about this Christmas were the stockings she made. She knitted Owen, Nuno and myself stockings and filled them with tons of thoughtful retro and silly toys. The loot included wind-up robots, a wall crawling octopus, silly glasses, finger puppets and a kazoo.
 

For breakfast I made a strada, fruit salad and mimosas. Our mimosa's were made from Sophia Coppola's blanc des blanc champagne from her father's vineyard. Owen's mimosa was strictly orange juice with his new sock monkey straw.
  

Christmas day was spent with my side of the family and it was wonderful celebrating with my parents, grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles. Great food and as always, lots of gifts. My family are so nice and tons of fun... what can I say, I'm related to the most wonderful people and married into even more great people. I can honestly say I can never relate to those people who shutter at the thought of spending the holidays with family. I struck it rich!
 

Here's Katie with her most amazing gingerbread egg nog trifle!
 

Everything was delicious, but this trifle had me back for seconds.

dead celeb gingerbreads

So if gingerbread houses aren't quite your thing, check out what my sister and cousins created last weekend.

There is a yearly tradition in my family of commemorating the passing of the years celebrities in gingerbread cookies just in time for the holidays. Let us all take a quiet moment to celebrate the lives of...
Jerry Nelson

Neil Hope (Wheel's from Degrassi)
  

Adam Yauch (from Beastie Boys)
  

Dave Brubeck
  

Dick Beals
 
Ravi Shankar
 

Richard Dawson (my sister tried to make kissy-lips since Richard always tried to make out with the Family Feud guests.
 

Robin Gibb He's no longer "stayin' alive."
 

Sherman Hemsley Maybe he really has Ghost Fever now?
   
Phyllis Diller
 

Whitney Houston

 Larry Hagman I shot J.R.
 

Neil Armstrong

 

 

Davy Jones
 

Ernest Borgnine  
 

R.I.P. Andy Williams, Andy Griffith, Rodney King, Ray Bradbury, Dick Clark, Donna Summer, Michael Clarke Duncan and all the other dead celebrities of 2012 that they didn't have time to make!

Celebrity grim reaper

Who's next? Feel free to make predictions on who will be made into a gingerbread next year.

merry christmas 2012

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
 
 

gingerbread houses

This year we decided to make a couple of gingerbread houses instead of doing the usual holiday baking.

To start, a trip around Bulk Barn didn't really provide all the different candy selection I was after so I took a good hard look around Dollarama's candy aisle with quite a lot of success. Turned out to be quite a bit more inexpensive as well.

I used candy straps cut and trimmed into a scallop shape. That was probably the most time consuming step but well worth the effort.

I was interested in attempting a stained glass effect so the houses could glow at night. The way I got this to work was to use a heat gun and warm the prepared walls and carefully cut out the window shape. From there crushed Jolly Rancher candy melted with the heat gun finished the effect.

Once the houses were constructed and dried into shape, I had Nuno and Owen help complete the fun decorating as a memorable birthday project.

The colourful house was Owen's. He got a little preoccupied with snacking on stray crumbs of royal icing and broken shards of candy canes. But he definitely put his own stamp on the house. Nuno built a snowman and snow fort of marshmallows.

I made my gingerbread house in an icy blue scheme.

We're really loving how they turned out.

veal marsala with polenta

Midweek last week was Nuno's birthday. I always try and make something unexpected for him based on his favourites so I proposed a dinner of Veal Marsala with Polenta.

It's hard when a birthday is smack-dab in the middle of a busy work week (not to mention busy time of year with the holidays), I had to keep it simple and quick so we could eat before 8pm. I chose to use Giada De Laurentiis' recipe for the veal marsala (our first time trying one of her recipes). Served over polenta it was a real winner, simple and full of flavour.

Kristlemas at stratus vineyards

It's not the easiest thing to wake up the next day after a nasty stomach bug and want to eat, drink and be merry. But there is a certain feeling of appreciation and elation you get after spending days caring for those sick and being sick yourself that a day out for some holiday merriment can provide. Kristlemas was a holiday market at Stratus winery where local vendors (many from the Handmade Market), food trucks & vendors and plenty of wine & beer (Oast House present!). El Gastronomo offered some of the most incredible features including fish tacos, roti and wings. Owen enjoyed a double pork burger (this burger was huge, and the kid loved it!).

Stratus is a gorgeous modern building and had vendors set up throughout the winery.

Owen busted his moves infront of the live band.

Owen seemed particularly enchanted with the gingerbread house. Looks like we've got to make one of our own this season.

Here's Owen's photography debut! Here's how life looks at 3 feet tall.

pork and edamame fried rice

Everyday Food magazine November 2012 issue has a spread on different quick and easy ways of cooking with pork tenderloin. We buy pork tenderloin quite frequently when its on sale. Owen loves edamame and fried rice so this sounded like something we'd all enjoy.
 

There was quite a lot of celery in this dinner and I might have undercooked it because it was still quite crunchy. I found the flavour a little overwhelming. I enjoyed the contrast in texture between all the ingredients. I doubt we'd make it again but it wasn't bad at all.

mediterranean braised chicken thighs

I needed a beach read in Florida so decided to give Today's Parent a whirl. I decided to try a recipe from the November 2012 issue for Mediterranean Braised Chicken Thighs and serve it over couscous.

This was a tasty stew-like dinner with chicken, fennel, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and parsley. It was a little bitter because of the black olives but overall it had a nice flavour. Definitely needs a little more refining beyond salt and pepper.

holiday music recommendations

The holiday season is upon us. We're busy decorating, stringing lights, buying gifts and writing holiday greeting cards. But part of the holiday experience is Christmas music. I can tolerate most of the typical music you'll hear throughout the malls during December, but there are so many more great holiday songs out there that don't hit most people's ears. My sister has an annual tradition of finding these songs and making a kitchy holiday compilation and sending it out with her Christmas cards. Merry Thriftmas is a collection of holiday rarities, some transferred straight from her thrift store vinyl. Merry Thriftmas is now on Volume 4, The Santa Boogie Edition. I offered to help her reach even more people by making the compilation available for download.
 

Click here to download and enjoy!

As great as Merry Thriftmas is, we are also enjoying Holiday Rocks available through SomaFM. This is a stream we've been airing throughout the house this month. It's like having an amazing indie mix tape of hard to find holiday tunes. You'll hear songs by Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers, The Apples in Stereo, Belle & Sebastian, The Ladybug Transistor Friends & Family (and in true indie pop tape trade tradition) Six Cents and Natalie! You'll also hear great songs by classics like the Beach Boys, The Who and The Band. If you get hooked, don't forget to donate!

broccoli and pork stirfry

The Broccoli and Pork Stirfry from Everyday Food Light is a dinner we tried when it was first published in the September 2008 issue of Everyday Food magazine. I remember being slightly underwhelmed with the result but since it's been years we decided to try it again.

This time around we made a few small revisions to try and help improve on this dinner. We coated the pork in cornstarch to keep the pork more moist. We also added orange extract to help boost the orange flavour I found too mild the first time around. All in all both of these revisions improved the dinner. I really like that this is a healthy kid friendly dinner and would definitely make it again.

cuban black bean stew with yellow rice

One meal Owen can't seem to resist is Cuban Black Beans and Rice. In Florida, while I was enjoying my multiple cuban sandwiches from the Floridian, Owen was only too happy to eat their Cuban rice and beans. I did my best to observe that dish in particular so I could make something similar once home since it's such a hit with the guy. I decided to try Cuban Black Bean Stew with Yellow Rice from Everyday Food Light.

I'm not totally sure this is anything like what we had in Florida, but it's a success none the less. The best I could do to figure out the yellow rice was to add a chicken bouillon cube in with the steaming rice. The other flavour that sets the Cuban beans apart is the diced red bell pepper. The pepper I used was huge it was pretty overwhelming in the dinner, but totally delicious despite. There is something really simple but totally wonderful about a meal like this, even without any green or meat, it is still very satisfying.