Saturday, October 16, 2010

Cooking Chronicles cont.

The madness continues this weekend... I blame it on the Food Network  (particularly the wednesday evening line-up) and all those darn food blogs I read... how am I suppose to sit by and watch such delicious and amazing things and not try to make them for myself?  What I really need to do is have my very own kitchen and make these things everyday instead of blitzing the kitchen on the weekend and salivating my way through the week.   So, what's on the menu for this weekend??

First up:

Stuffed Zucchini from a random Sobey's inspiration magazine.  I changed a few things around, added some nutritional yeast instead of cheese and added a shake of cayenne pepper- they were a wee bit bland but I am sure that can be fixed.  After dinner I whipped up a batch of Jenna's Cinnamon Walnut Bread (with a splash of vanilla and a bit of nutmeg for fun).  It was ridiculously easy to make - she promised 45 minutes tops (including the 40 minute baking time) and she didn't steer me wrong.  The bread is delicious, and even makes for a mighty tasty slice of toast the next morning too!   I think I'll bake another loaf tomorrow for the office crew back at base.

Tonight:

Fish tacos with guacamole ala Alton Brown at Good Eats.  Both were fantastic, I've never done the fish version of taco, and this did not disappoint. My mother in law pronounced it be to amazing and I left the dinner table rather pleased with my progress.

Tomorrow:

I'm thinking something yummy I can bring back to base with me (can you tell I'm avoiding the galley?).  Since perusing Jenna's blog daily, I see her eating her homemade Channa Masala quite often and I think it will make an excellent après yoga meal!  Now I just have to get something green to complete the meal - Jamie's special green monster smoothy maybe (amazing grass powder, spinach, frozen mango pieces, orange juice and pasteurized egg whites), yes I do think so!

In other news, Pete and I have decided to sign up for the Resolution Run put on by the Running Room.  It sounds like great fun on New Years, and we even get a snazzy jacket out of it!  Score!  That being said, I really should start a real training plan though, my runs these days have been up to 6 km and either hill sprints or proper sprints.  I have also - ahem -  "agreed" to do a triathlon sometime next year - I blame Frayed Laces and her amazing finish at last weekend's Ironman. For those who know me, know I CANNOT swim.  I somehow faked my way through many many levels of swimming, mysteriously got my SCUBA license and passed the swim test in the military without actually physically being able to swim.  What I do in water cannot be called swimming, nor can I keep it up for enough time to make it a proper distance consistent with a triathlon.   Pete seems to think that we can work on this and improve if we do it together.  That, however, remains to be seen.  Maybe once we move to Ottawa I will magically find my groove and not drown in the pool - fingers crossed!

Alright, it's saturday night, almost 10pm and I am beat - night!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

All things Pumpkin

Hi, my name is Linda and I have a problem.... I can't stop baking... or cooking for that matter - especially anything that involves Pumpkins ;)

Way back in high school I discovered cooking, and baking - I won the Food Studies award from my high school and cooked my way through my time in Switzerland and France - my kids in Geneva had never eaten peanut butter cookies before I made them - bizarre, I know.  After I came back to Canada  and eventually had my own kitchen, I began reading food blogs and started collecting cookbooks (today however, they remain in a box, in someone's garage waiting for me).  I officially have 10 weeks until I finally get to live in my own place again and can cook for myself and my husband.   In the meantime, I'm doing my best to save money for the wedding, house and move to Ottawa and by doing so I end up gyming it up quite often and either reading borrowed books (yay for friends and base libraries) or watching TV (you've got to love recession TV, it's so much better during a downswing in the market!).  My TV of choice these days???  The Food Network.  Now living in barracks makes it rather difficult to cook for myself - however, I do have these wonderful in-laws that invite me over on the weekends.  My repayment for the lovely hospitality??  Cooking dinner, and snacks, and dessert as often as they'll let me.

Now for the rundown:

Although I am by no means Vegan (being from Alberta and having cattle ranching in my blood I love me a good steak) Angela and Emily both write a vegan geared blog -  their recipes are awesome and it truly is nice to be full from a meal without meat and help out the environment a bit.  When I finally do have a kitchen full-time I might go crazy with the freedom to create, but for now I'll have to settle for being a weekend kitchen warrior.
Source : Angela @ Oh She Glows