Picture Tuesday!

Hi everyone! No, Christie and I have not vanished, we have both come down with nasty colds, and the only thing going on outside of our respective daily responsibilities has been rest and sleep. I’m not going to let that stop me from my photo Tuesday though, I was adamant about that. I woke up early this morning to make sure and take a dose of daytime cold meds, and pack up some camera gear to take along with me to work. When the time came for me to take a lunchtime stroll around work to snap some pictures, I wasn’t so sure it was a wonderful idea as it was cold and breezy, as well as muddy. I sucked it up and went out anyways, I mean, it would have really defeated the purpose of having brought along gear to work right?



So off into a large, muddy field out behind my work I went in search of any signs of spring. Not a green blade of grass anywhere. Seriously, everywhere I looked there was only brown crunched up vegetation and mud. No real colour of any sort to find. I trudged around with my camera out for what seemed like 10-15 minutes before I noticed that there were all kinds of things to take photos of around me, I just had to look. There were these shrunken berry looking things on the ends of some branches, and plenty of tall, dried out grasses for me to get creative with. It helped that the light just happened to be rather pleasant, and the sky a nice baby blue.



I walked around and had some fun playing with depth of field, bokeh (that funky, pleasing blurry effect), and the textures of my surroundings that were emphasized by the natural sunlight. What began as a sniffling, cold walk around without much hope had quickly turned into something I was really very happy about, I just had to be a little flexible on what I was trying to capture. When I first set out I had the idea concreted in my head that I was going out there to find some magical shoot of green grass poking out of a muddy puddle, or a single bud on a branch beginning to open up, and instead of being totally discouraged when that idea didn’t pan out, I took in my surroundings and found something I had not thought of finding. It really is a good lesson, even with careful planning and well thought out shots, a photo session, whether an interior shot that is all setup, or an outside search for that perfect capture, it is always a good idea to keep yourself open and let a little bit of randomness enter that creative process.

St. Paddy's Day Lemon Vanilla Cookies

In Montreal we all celebrate St.Paddy's Day the Sunday after the actual day because that is when the whole city shuts down for the giant parade. These are a homage to that wonderful time when we drink on the streets right along side the cops.

P.s. One of these cookies is for Jen, her first St.Paddy's away from the big M.


St. Paddy's Day Lemon Vanilla Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies Book

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp.unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reserved
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 large egg
Icing
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
7 1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
2-3 drops of green food colouring

Preheat oven to 375. Put butter, granulated and confectioners' sugars, vanilla seeds, and zest into a bowl, whisk until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg. Add flour, baking powder, and salt in 3 batches; mix until combined. Roll out dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. Cut cookies with clover cookie cutter then refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes. Remove shapes from dough. Re roll scraps, and cut out. Space cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until pale golden, 5 to 6 minutes. For the royal icing: Put confectioners' sugar, meringue powder,a couple drops of green colouring, and 1/4 cup water into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; whisk for 10 minutes. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip. Decorate each cookie with icing.

Beer Battered Onion Rings

I guess my health kick is out the window. But who can blame me. Onion rings, come on, these are not an everyday food item and I had to bend the rules. Ian and I made these for the Food Network Canada's monthly challenge. They were large, perfectly browned, and the onion inside the crispy shell was sweet and tender. Plus, they were beer battered which made them great for St. Paddy's Day. I drew the line when green beer was mentioned.


Ricardo's Beer-Battered Onion Rings
adapted from Ricardo and Friends, www.foodnetwork.ca
makes 4 servings

1 large Spanish onion, sliced into 1-cm rounds and separated into rings
1/4 cup cornstarch
Batter
1 cup flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pale ale
Oil for frying

Preheat the deep fryer to 190°C (375°F). Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with paper towels.In a paper bag or large bowl, toss the onion rings in the cornstarch to coat well. Set aside.
Batter
In a bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the beer.Using your fingertips or a wooden chopstick, dip the rings in the batter, 4 or 5 at a time. Shake off excess batter and deep-fry for about 3 minutes, turning half way through cooking. Drain on the baking sheet. Season lightly with salt. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Picture Tuesday

Not only is it St-Patricks day today, but it is also picture Tuesday! I have been extremely thankful for all the positive feedback Christie and I have been receiving in regards to our blog, so much so that I have rediscovered my passion for photography through the constant encouragement I receive from my Flickr contacts, close friends, and especially Christie (love ya). I love my cameras, really, I do. Since I went digital 4-5 years or so ago, I began to slowly but surely slow down as far as quantity is concerned, and in hindsight it really is rather odd since digital photography as a medium should, technically, open the way to making more rather than less. Unfortunately digital photography, at least the digital cameras with the same configuration options as film cameras, cost a mint, and I just could not invest a small fortune into that kind of equipment as I am not exactly making a living off of it. Enter my “end of production line” Nikon D80. I love this camera, it reminds me about what I was so excited about when I first began reading about “the future of photography = digital”. I can control pretty much everything I want with this camera, and it meets my needs. That’s an important one right there, it meets my needs.

The change has been so quick, so drastic, that suddenly not only have I become an avid Strobist reader http://www.strobist.blogspot.com , but I have also dusted off both my Holga 120 as well as my Mamiya M645 medium format film cameras. A short while ago, I decided to make the leap into wireless flash photography thanks in large part to the Strobist blog. I put together my first kit using odds and ends reviewed on the blog, and have been very happy with the results. Living in a city where finding an apartment offering the kind of natural lighting required for daily food photos costs a premium, I needed a different solution, off camera flash. I ordered my kit from China, and received it promptly one week later. I have been happy with it until now. Using only one lighting source has resulted in similar lighting results almost every time, and it was time for a second flash. But seriously, they are just pretty damn expensive (about 350-400$ Canadian for 1 flash unit).

I found myself at a local photo supply store last week, just about to suck it up and buy one, when I decided to “think about it”. I am very happy that I did. By complete random chance, I decided to browse over to Strobist this afternoon to take a peek, and lo and behold, and answer for my budget http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/03/manual-flashes-two-debuts-and-adoption.html)! Mpex, a photo retailer in the US, has teamed up with Strobist to create a manual flash (the LumoPro 120) for people that require the flexibility of off camera flash, and removed the bells and whistles in order to reduce price significantly! I really could not be more excited, really, if you are interested in the least bit in lighting, I highly suggest taking a look at the Strobist blog, and take note of the post linking you to this wonderful new inexpensive flash. I am going to be ordering a new kit this week with an extra flash so that I can really work on lighting.

To celebrate today’s wonderful discovery (the Strobist created LumoPro 120 Flash), I decided to go through a binder of hand processed b&w negatives that I took using my modified Holga 120 camera. I have a full box of 120 format B&W film that needs to be used, and 2 lonely medium format cameras that are calling out to me to be used, so don’t be surprised to see me start to delve deeper and deeper back into photography, and I am loving every minute of it.

Raspberry Lemon Almost No-Fat Mini Muffins

I'm still on my health kick today so in keeping with the whole grain aspect I baked these wonderful little Raspberry Lemon muffins. And guess what... they have almost NO fat in them! How amazing eh!

They do sport a lot of baking powder and apple sauce to bind everything together which makes the batter light and fluffy. Not to mention all the berries I jam packed into them creates a melt in your mouth muffin. I love the berry right on top just like a beautiful jammy jewel.

Since raspberries are almost five dollars for a half pint right now I would advise buying the frozen ones. I was afraid that they would suck, but they actually really did the trick! Just don’t buy the ones frozen in their own juice or else you’ll end up with red muffins (which is not appropriate since Valentine's Day was a month ago).

Raspberry Lemon Almost No-Fat Mini Muffins
adapted from www.ilovemuffins.ca
makes 24 mini muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Put 24 mini muffin papers in a mini muffin tin.
In a large bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon zest. In a small bowl, beat the egg until foamy. Stir in the buttermilk, applesauce and vanilla. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in the raspberries right at the end and don't stir too much or the batter will turn red. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups and place one raspberry right on top of each muffin. Bake for 15 minutes.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

After all the butter, sugar, and just plain fatty foods that I have consumed since starting this blog, I am finally starting to feel it. I am NOT craving cookies, cupcakes or chocolate and it's really scary! All I want is some veggies and a couple days of low fat meals.

I've been dying for some good ol’ healthy and delicious oatmeal and remembered that "everybody likes sandwiches" had this to die for vegan baked apple oatmeal. I really don’t think that I would make a good vegan, but if I could eat this every day, all day, it wouldn't be hard. Needless to say I made it more omnivorous, but the idea is the same. The best part is that the apple cider and milk bake into the oatmeal. Next time we are defiantly adding toasted pecans and raisins.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from everybody likes sandwiches blog
1 1/4 cup of instant oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 large apples, diced
1 cup 1% or skim milk
2/3 cup apple cider or juice

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine everything. Place mixture into a baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve with additional milk and yogurt.

Itty Bitty Chocolate Persian Sable's with Cherry Filling

And now for the best cookies ever! Well, maybe not the best, there is still something missing if you compare them to those perfect little cookies from Nocochi. But these are extremely close. (Please do not judge me on the horror that was yesterday’s events.)

I tried to remember what I loved about the cookies and realized my favourite part is the extremely short dough that they use. It’s so light; it literally melts in your mouth. So I pulled out the big guns, well actually the tiny ones. I found this book by Flo Braker called 'Sweet Miniatures' at Winners for seven bucks (steal!). It seems that she has her finger in every pie because I also noticed that she made a large contribution to the ultimate "Baking with Julia" cookbook.

She says that rice flour is the key to a distinguished shortbread. I had come across this ingredient in many of the Persian cookie recipes and gave it a try with the addition of cardamom and rose water to keep that Persian taste.

They came out so, so, so good. Although cutting out each tiny cookie, cooling the dough, punching a hole in the cookie, cooling them...again, baking them, cooling them...a third time, powdering a million little tops, then finally filling them with cherry jam and squishing them together(pheeeeewwphhh) took four hours.

So I think next time I will just spend the money on the real ones and save the time. I am still going to use this recipe, just not on such a teeny tiny cookie.

Itty Bitty Chocolate Persian Sable's with Cherry Filling
adapted from Flo Braker

1 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1 stick plus 6 tbsp. unsalted room temp. butter
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tbsp. rose water
1 cup cherry jam

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk butter for one minute, and then add sugar and whisk until light coloured and fluffy. Add vanilla, cardamom, and rose water. Mix until blended. Add both flours, cocoa, and salt in three increments, mixing between each addition. When dough is combined, lay out on a plastic sheet and roll until 1/8 inch thick. Cut out tiny shapes with cookie cutter, punching a hole in half of them. Cool the rolled out dough with the cut shapes for 10 minutes so that the pieces lift easily from the plastic sheet. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place pieces on it. Cool for another 10 minutes. Bake for 9 minutes. In the mean time strain 1 cup of cherry jam into a small pot, boil for 7 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. When the shapes with the hole are cool dust with powdered sugar. Place 1/8 tsp. of jam on bottom piece of cookies and squish together.

Worst Cookies Ever

Well, as you might have guessed from the title, I just made the WORST cookies on the face of this earth. They looked so pretty and I spent three hours making them, but one bite and I threw the whole batch out.

You see, I had the best little sable cookies at this place downtown called Nocochi. On my way home I ate all the cookies that I bought and vowed to find out how they got them to melt the second they touched your tongue.

It turns out that they are Persian cookies made with clarified butter, chickpea flour, powdered sugar, rose water, and cardamon. I should have known better with the clarified butter( I hate the smell of it) but I pressed on.

Arg, I'm so disappointed. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. By the way here is a nice photo that Ian was playing around with. It's much better than stinkin cookies.

Chicken Piccata

Hey there Barefoot Bloggers. So this is the second challenge that I have participated in with the BB's and let me tell you... it has been so much fun! This Thursday Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings chose Chicken Piccata.

For those of you out there that don’t know the fancy name, it’s basically classic breaded chicken (no shake n' bake allowed) with a lemon sauce. Oh yeah, and butter. Lots, lots, lots of butter. I even cut the amount of butter in half, and still the sauce was buttery. What did you expect from Ina, really!

I truly enjoyed this dish, but I wasn't so fond of the three steps, three bowl breading catastrophe that left the walls and floor of my kitchen covered in egg, flour, breadcrumbs and salmonella.

I think it was worth it though. You should have seen Ian's face when he took the first bite, he was in pure heaven. For him, breading + chicken + lemon = win. Mind you, he was the kid in kindergarten that ate the left over lemon and lime candies that all the other kids wouldn’t touch.

Chicken Piccata
adapted from Ina Garten's book 'Barefoot Contessa at Home'

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 extra-large eggs
1 tbsp water
2 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
Freshly squeezed juice from 3 lemons, lemon halves reserved
1 cup dry white wine
Sliced lemon, for serving
Italian Seasoning, salt, and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound out to 1/4-inch thick.
Mix the flour with salt and pepper in a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the egg and water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate with Italian seasoning. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and bread crumb mixtures.
Heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add 1-2 of the chicken breasts and cook for 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Re-oil the pan with another 1 tbsp. of olive oil and repeat. Place the chicken on the sheet pan and allow them to bake for 5 to 7 minutes while you make the sauce.
For the sauce, wipe out the saute pan with a dry paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, wine, the reserved lemon halves, salt and pepper. Boil over high heat until reduced in half. Off the heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and swirl to combine. Discard the lemon halves and serve 1 chicken breast on each plate. Spoon on the sauce and serve with a slice of lemon.

About Coco Bean Chanel

Let me tell you about Coco Bean Chanel.
Some have been asking about Coco so here is the story of the most loved cat in the world.

Exactly four years ago, almost to the day, I was living downtown Montreal in a really crummy apartment, but I didn’t care. I was a student in the center of the biggest party town, I had no debt (because I was still living off my parents) and I didn't know how to cook, anything, but that didn’t matter because I was young and Kraft dinner tasted just fine to me.

Now, I have this thing where I always have to stop into pet stores to see the kittens, so I ducked into this one down the street from my apartment, and there she was. She was so tiny, in this large cage, all by herself. As I got closer to her she started to play with me through the cage. Her little tongue was sticking out (now a Coco trademark) and she kept getting her tiny claws stuck in my sweater.

Ok, so because I was living off my parents, I went straight home to call my mom. "No" she said right away. But that didn't deter me. You see, my dad and brother were coming up to visit from Toronto that weekend for the St. Patties day parade. I knew I had just one chance if I was going to own that little bundle of fur.

So, when my dad was leaving the house that Saturday morning to drive up to Montreal, the last words my mom said to him were " Don't you dare buy her that cat"

He bought the cat.

Come on, she was so cute, who could resist her?? We all made a pact, let’s not tell mom anything until a week later, then dad would break it to her. Unfortunately that night Coco didn't want to be alone so she slept on my brother’s back and kept him up all night. When my dad and brother left that Sunday, my brother was dropped in Oshawa, about an hour before Toronto. There is one thing you must know about my brother. He can not keep a secret. Ever. It has always been that way, since we were young. So when my mom called him to ask how the weekend was he said "great, but the cat kept me up all night". Busted.

But it's all ok now. No one can resist Coco Bean. She is a Tortie and is still very tiny for a cat. Her tongue sticks out when she is happy and she is always purring like a motor. Every single night while I am reading she joins me before bed and tries to block my book. Same with whenever I study. Or use my laptop.

Every night she also sleeps under my arm and will nudge my shoulder until I let her in. She purrs for a long time then falls asleep with her head on the pillow. She carries around a small stuffed lion like it is her baby, and every day moves it to the living room in the morning, and back into bed at night.

One time she ran away. It was the worst three days of my life, but I found her down the street, hungry and needing to use the litter box. I trained her well.

She loves Ian, and men in general. She will sit on anyone’s lap and show off by rolling around if you are new.

(Coco in her Montreal Canadiens Hockey Jersey)
So that is the story of my favourite animal, my Coco Bean Chanel.