Baking. I used to do it all the time but kind of lost my passion for it. Cooking is so much more forgiving than baking and I like to make mistakes. But for some reason this past Christmas - I think I was spurred on by new baking accessories - I found myself knee deep in flour and sugar. Here are some of my treats. And today on this rainy day in Vancouver, what better than one of these with a nice cuppa. Lovely.
It's snowing today in Vancouver and the whole place has the look of a Winter Wonderland. Being somewhat of a cold creature, I head for the indoors on days like this, staying close to the fire. Although it's pretty early, I'm already thinking about how I will warm up later. Hot Port is one of my favourite drinks from my days in Ireland where on cold days, this was the perfect remedy, always taken close to the peat fire.
So these days I'll settle for a gas fire and the 'pub' will probably be my living room but I think I can probably recreate the authentic hot port.
To make:
Fill a wine or brandy glass with a 2.5 oz measure of port. It doesn't need to be your best. Most bars in Ireland use something like Sandeman Ruby Port for this application.
Drop in one sugar cube
Add about 1 oz of boiling water.
Garnish with a clove studded lemon.
Enjoy under a down blanket or ask an obliging bar tender to make for you.
For our last day on our recent trip to San Francisco, we headed back to the Mission District where we'd already spent a bit of time...but not enough. Mission Dolores
The Mission District gets its name from the Mission Dolores, one of the original California Mission Churches. The Old Mission or Misión San Francisco de Asís was founded in 1776 and was also known as Mission Dolores due to the presence of a nearby creek called Arroyo de los Dolores.
Holy Bread of a Different Kind
Having heard about Tartine which reportedly makes best loaf of bread in the world we thought we'd try our luck at coffee and a pastry for breakfast. Given the line up which extended a block from the entrance they must be doing something right. Patience not being my biggest virtue we decided to move on and try it later. We did manage a lovely biscuit later in the afternoon. Not bad. I can't speak for the bread but by all reports it's amazing and sells out within 45 minutes of 5pm when it hits the shelves each day.
We did a bit of a drive-by on Delfina which seemed to be the talk of the town. All weekend, anyone we asked recommended it as a great place to eat. There is a main restaurant as well a more casual pizzeria. Again - big line up waiting for the Pizzeria to open for lunch. It looked great but we were too hungry to wait.
Down the street is Farina, an Italian bistro, specializing in pizza and pasta. We were there for breakfast so didn’t get to taste the latter but really enjoyed the floor show in the open kitchen where pizza dough was tossed and rolled before being slipped into a forno style oven. Another chef hand rolled pasta and made what appeared to be squash tortellini.
Later we walked around the Mission to take in the atmosphere and check out the murals which are very prevalent in this area. Some of the more elaborate ones, like the Maestrapeace Mural which covers the Women's Building, feature incredible detail.
We would have been very happy to spend the entire weekend here. Such a lively neighbourhood with plenty of options for food and a great atmosphere. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip to San Francisco.
Addresses:
Delfina, 3621 18th Street
Farina, 3560 18th Street
Mission Dolores, 3321 16th Street
Tartine Bakery, 600 Guerrero Street (at 18th)
Can I just say how much I love the modes of transport in San Francisco. Let's face it, in my ideal world, I'd really be more of a car and driver girl than a bus passenger but in San Francisco it's different. The Cable Car and the Street Car transport you to a time forgotten. And rather than being a hokey tourist attraction, they provide a very efficient and valuable service that actual residents use.
I love roasted peppers and I love the process of roasting them. bought some beautiful peppers at Vancouver's Trout Lake Farmer's market...
Shortly after we returned from Spain, Super G gave me a gift of Phaidon's The Book of Tapas, by Ines & Simone Ortega which delighted me to no end. The photography is beautiful and there are lots of recipes to try out. You can buy it here. For my first venture, I decided on meatballs or albóndigas because I thought these could also serve nicely as picnic food, to be warmed up on the barbeque.
So I pretty much did the prep at home and then took them in my fabulous picnic tiffin tin to the picnic site and then warmed them up on the barbeque in a roasting dish. Worked a treat. I will try this recipe again although I would probably play with the spice mixture a bit. For me the seasoning was not adequate. That said, they were even better the second day.
Here's some shots from the preparation:
This is a recipe that I found on my iPhone's epicurious app...which I love by the way. My favourite part is the built-in shopping list feature that allows you to check off the items as you shop or even email them to your honey to buy for you. I came into some basil recently via some props for a photo shoot we did for a client so it was great to put it to good use in this dish and I made a lovely basil oil by blending a very generous handful of basil with 3/4 cup of olive oil and a pinch of salt.
Afterwards you need to drain the oil from the basil 'solids' using a coffee filter. I was at Super G's this day so I fashioned something makeshift out of a chinese rice bowl, a coffee filter and elastic band borrowed from a sprig of asparagus.
You grill the eggplant - I used a grill pan rather than the barbeque and got those lovely charred grill marks. Make a stack - eggplant, tomato, basil oil, goats cheese, basil oil. Repeat.
My intention was to use these for our planned BC day picnic so I wrapped them in foil and put them in the fridge so that they could just be popped on the barbeque. The popping on the barbeque part worked great...I just couldn't wait until the picnic to eat them and we ended using them to test drive the new portable barbeque commissioned earlier in the day.
On reflection, I'd probably pare the goat's cheese down to just one round within a stack. But it sure looked purdy! And yummy too.
Embarrassing for a picnic planner to admit really, but I had never been to Vancouver's Trout Lake Farmer's market. I usually do Yoga on Saturday mornings so had never found myself in the right place at the right time. So this weekend, with some picnics in mind, I decided to break with tradition and take a wander through. My mum, her friend Mrs. B and my friend the 'Funburger' were in tow. Needless to say nature's bounty was much on display and we ended up with some lovely things for my BC Day picnic.
Eggplant....gorgeous cute, round ones. And purple peppers, sweet and yummy.
Yellow plums...they have a name...but it escapes me. Someone? Anyone? Feel free to chime in anytime.
Purple Potatoes. Very Barney. The vendor recommended mashing with some green onion but also said a potato salad would work well. And being that potato salad is so much more 'picnic' you know which route I went.
Overall I found the experience to be a lovely one and one I will repeat on Saturday mornings...just means getting up earlier...not really my forte but I digress.
There really is something special about getting as close to the source as you can and then spending the time to make it even more special. More on that later.
So I've been jonesing for a picnic. And contrary to my usual form...I did not plan. But I didn't let that stop me. So a quick round-up at my local shop and a stop at our neighbourhood asian fusion restaurant and my picnic was born.
The location - Vancouver's sunny Spanish Banks. And inspired by my recent trip to Spain, that wasn't the only Spanish thing on this picnic. Although I readily admit to purchasing almost everything for this impromptu picnic. I did manage to through together some yummy pintxo Gilda - anchovies, olive and spicy pipparra peppers. The ultimate in portability...perfect for a picnic.
I also insisted in bringing along my new Bodega glasses, typical Spanish glasses found in tapas bars which I found double nicely as picnic glasses because of their wide bottom and low centre of gravity. Picnic need not necessarily mean plastic. If you are an adult and can confidently say you are not clumsy, then you can still have nice tableware.
A few starters - Greek Salad, Olive & Rosemary Bread from Vancouver's Terra Breads and store-bought houmous.
The main course, a yummy Asian salad from The Red Door.
When we planned our trip to Spain, we weren't thinking of the World Cup. We picked our return date of July 12th, somewhat randomly. It was only after I had booked that we realized that the World Cup Final would be on July 11th and that we would be in Madrid and that there was a very good chance that Spain would be in the Final. So from that point, it was very much a case of believe and it will happen. That said, the first game we watched, still in Canada at this point, at Vancouver's Cafe Barcelona, left us a little shaken - losing to Switzerland? But from there, there was nowhere to go but up.
Having watched a few games in Spain, we were cautiously optimistic, but by the time we hit Segovia and watched the Germany Spain semi-final, it was clear that we were on the right track.
So as we reached Madrid, the mood was great and everyone had their party clothes on.
The morning of the final, we got up early enough and headed to the Retiro, Madrid's beautiful park. Apparently this is a Sunday tradition for me. My dad used to take me here every Sunday, when I was a child and we lived here for a few months. I love that everyone comes here. The old ladies, the young hipsters, the loud-mouthed youths, the families. It's a beautiful park with acres to walk and lots of shade to keep cool in. This Sunday was different only in the displays of yellow and red and the sound of the vuvuzela which started early.
Being our last day in Spain, we hit the Corte Ingles one more time to see if there was any last minute shopping we could avail of. Near the Puerta del Sol, the fans were out in force, even Mickey Mouse, who everyone knows is Spanish, was there. At this point, I was somewhat weary of the Vuvuzela and game time being still several hours away, I had serious doubts as to the lasting power of some of the more ardent fans.
For the match itself, I'll be honest, and just tell you that we wimped out of going to Plaza de la Cibeles, a short walk away, with the thousands of fans and opted for the cool, air-conditioned comfort of our hotel bar. The atmosphere was still very lively with lots of fans and we were close to the action, in Plaza Santa Ana. Our own group consisted of myself, Super G, my friend Jay who lives in Germany or (Yeik as he is known locally in Spain...more on this later), my sister and her fella plus one of her former work colleagues and his wife who are both Spanish. So we had a nice little international but clearly pro-Spanish contingent.
The match itself was kind of difficult to watch, with attrition setting in pretty early, the Dutch clearly determined to stimy Spanish efforts. But with Iniesta's late goal, the atmosphere exploded and the fans went mad. After the match, there was nothing to do but hit the streets and join the party!
We joined the action for a while and then headed for a meal, at a local pizza place nearby. It was perfect, simple and just what was required. The partying continued long into the night and even by morning, there were still a few stragglers around.
The next day, our flight was delayed by two hours, which delighted us because it gave us another couple of hours to enjoy in Madrid. When we finally did go to the aiport, we learned that the Spanish team would be arriving around 3. We didn't expect to coincide with them, but as we were taxiing for our flight, the captain indicated that the aircraft carrying the Spanish Team was on our right hand side. (I think this also explained our long taxi and why we were making a runway change at last minute...) I have to say, this was a pretty cool moment, and everyone on the aircraft started to clap at this announcement. It was the cherry on top of a beautiful and memorable trip.
Here are some pictures from our Lunch at Pan de Lujo in Salamanca district. Very cool, oasis like setting. We had a group of 5 and shared a few dishes. All yummy. An escapist atmosphere out of the hustle and bustle.
I love Fanta de Limon. (Lemon Fanta) I'm not sure why we don't have it in North America. It is the perfect soft drink. For me it's the taste of childhood - I always preferred it to the 'Naranja' or orange variety and there is nothing finer for quenching thirst on a hot summer's day. And did I mention that it is 37 C today in Madrid.
