Stocking the freezer and fridge with baking goodness; consequently, there’s been a lot of meals in bowls of late.

Nobody tells you that when you start baking as a business – rather than for friends and family – that you will have questions. Lots of questions. Or at least, nobody told me. Also, I was not informed at the inordinate amount of thinking involved. Thank heavens for Rachel and her spreadsheet system for organizing all the things.

My big fret at the moment is how much stock will I need? It’s the type of thing that is a little bit paralysing, particularly (I suspect) the first time. I don’t know how many sales to expect per hour. I don’t know which things are going to be the most popular, the best loved, and which people are going to look at like it has a head growing from it. (Disclaimer: There are no heads growing out of anything that comes from my kitchen.) It’s also a lot of putting-oneself-out-there. Which, as someone with a bit of training in theatre, and a past that included running for political office, is something that I’m generally alright with, once I get past the stage fright. (Also paralyzing? This article, which Kelly of The Gouda Life posted, which made me think “OMG! This isn’t going to work.” And then I remembered to breathe. If it doesn’t work, that’s okay. Sort of.)

My full menu for Urban Craft will be posted as a separate page shortly, but I’m happy to provide you with a sneak peek of what you might find on my table:

–

Cookies
Homemade Oreos
Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

Meltaways
(Packages of six small, truffle-like cookies)
Earl-Grey Meltaways
Lime-Coconut Meltaways

Bars
Lemon Bars with Milk Crumb Crust
Carmelized Chocolate Almond Bars

Mini Loaves
Brown Butter Banana Cardamom Chocolate Chip Loaf
Maple Carrot Loaf
Chocolate Tea Loaf

Spreads
Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

–

I have my favourites, but I’m wondering, which among these appeal to you the most? I don’t know if anyone can predict a best seller, but I think it’s difficult the closer you are to the product.

I was going to title this post “Keep calm and have a cupcake”, but I somehow forgot to take pictures of the chocolate-cardamom-nutella cupcakes. I haven’t been baking enough during the daytime, and natural light being essential to decent photos, you’ll just have to wait until the sun stay up later in the day for more frequent baking photos. Which, is also why you’re getting an Instagram photo, for now.

The past week has been a panic-and-freak-out sort of week: I busted my butt to get to Toronto, to interview for a pretty incredible job opportunity, which ended up not working out, despite my best hopes. I’m taking it in stride, but it’s still stressful. Also stressful was the travel: Freezing rain made for delays there and cancellations on the way home. I was pretty happy to have a roof over my head on Thursday night and Via Comfort Class on Friday morning. Oh, also on Thursday, I got an e-mail from Urban Craft officially welcoming me as a vendor for February sale at GCTC. Yay! And then, this morning, my vendor information came.

And then, I was like “Whoa.” This just got real. Very, very real.

This is going to be a huge learning curve for me. I recognize some of the other vendors, like michaelsdolce – a phenomenal company who I mostly know for their preserves – and Pascale’s (Ottawa’s Queen of Ice Cream). Yeah, I’m a bit panicked at the moment. Partly, out of the scope of it all and partly because I want this to be a great big success, and successes are scary, hard, challenging things. I’ll try to blog about the challenging things the best that I can. The trouble is, the challenging things tend to bring me back to the kitchen, to explore a favourite recipe, or make something that doesn’t need a recipe at all, like this galette.

Galette is a general term used to refer to a flat, free-form cake or pastry; in the savoury sense, it often is specific to a buckwheat flour pancake, sold by creperies, filled with savoury fillings. Alyson (of Unruly Things) and Deb (of Smitten Kitchen) jointly introduced me to the concept of a galette as something that wasn’t necessarily made with buckwheat flour. Think of it as a free-form pie, and you’ll be singing.

Pâte Brisée
Makes enough for 1 7-inch galette

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Combine flour and butter in your food processor; pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea-sized pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it’s ready. If the dough doesn’t hold together, add a little more water and pulse again. Too much water makes for a tough crust. Gently shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Savoury Swiss Galette (Swiss chard, carmelized onions & Swiss cheese galette)
Serves 4 as a main, with sides

1 recipe Pâte Brisée (above)
1 bunch swiss chard, cleaned stems removed, blanched and well-drained
1 medium yellow onion, carmelized in 2 tbsp olive oil.
1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese

Heat the oven to 400F.

Once your pâte brisée has chilled, roll it out on a floured surface (or on a Silipat) into a ten-inch round; don’t fret too much if it’s not perfect.

Leaving a three-inch border, layer the dough with the chard, then the onions, and finally the thyme. Fold the border into the middle and pinch it here and there so it has some form to it. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden. Allow the galette to cool for a few minutes before serving, lest you burn your tongue.

“The possibility of physical and mental collapse is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

On my list of books to read this year is Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. No, I have not read it. I have also never seen the film, despite a friend’s dear adoration of All Things Johnny Depp. My favourite English teacher in high school famously had pieces of construction paper with literary quotes on them, posted around the classroom. While his students probably had pinups of the days’ Justin Bieber*, he was trying to get us to consider the art of language and the language of literary arts. I was part of his last grade twelve class, before he retired. He let us pull the quotes down, one by one, on a hot, June day, before our exam, and take them home. I took over a dozen, and I kept them, but also transcribed them into a book. I’m pretty sure that this was one of them.

And, now, here I am. In over my head, and I don’t mind. I ran into a friend last week, on the street, on my way to meet some lovely folks for lunch, here.** She updated me on her things. I updated her on my things. My list was embarrassingly long: Half-marathon training, two part-time jobs (or maybe one full-time job that would require moving), baking for Urban Craft, blogging here and there, Heritage on the Flats, the dog, ultimate frisbee. It doesn’t seem that long when I type it out, of course, but reflecting on it further, those big things (half marathon, baking for business) have many, many small steps, like training, or like the actually baking process, or merchandising. It all seems very big, and broad and boundary-less at the moment. And that is overwhelming. And that is a problem. The possibility of mental collapse is real, lest I reign things in.

When I can’t reign things in, I go back to the basics. I return to the kitchen, most often, and make the things that I love, and that I know well. Like Jacques Torres’ chocolate chip cookie recipe, in all its glory, which I have revisited again and again, whenever I crave chocolate chip cookies. (Whenever other people crave chocolate chip cookies, I make cream cheese chocolate chip cookies. But, I don’t especially like the texture of these. Luckily, other people do.) But, the Jacques Torres’ ones are about as down and dirty as you can get with a chocolate chip cookie. Worth noting is that, although I’ve changed a few things about this recipe, I still rely on the dough chilling (like a villain) in my fridge for at least 24 hours. Sometimes longer (up to three days). Or, you can freeze the cute balls of dough; but, then you run the risk of eating all the dough, as I am wont to do.

The Best Damn Chocolate Chip Cookie. Ever.***

1 1/4 cups butter, room temperature (If using unsalted butter, add another 1 teaspoon kosher salt)
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract (Please don’t use artificial vanilla. Please.)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips. (Chipits has started making some; anything that’s around 60% cacao works well)

Cream together the butter and both sugars, until fluffy, about 5-7 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for another two minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. On a lower speed, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, not more than 30 seconds. Do not overmix the dough, lest you want cookies that have the texture of scones. (Maybe you do?) On the slowest of settings, mix in the chocolate chips until combined.

Scoop 1/4 cup sized mounds of dough and roll them into a ball. Place the dough onto a cutting board, spaced close to one another. One the cutting board is full, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F. Transfer the dough to a parchment or Silipat-lined baking sheet, spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack, for at least ten minutes. Assuming that you can wait that long.

* I have obliterated from my mind who was popular during that era, and it’s only been ten years. Wait. It’s been ten years. Damn.
** I recommend it. Highly. But, I didn’t take photos. Forgive me. But, Kelly did when she went last month. Go look at those!
*** I stand by that claim.

I usually don’t dedicate posts to anyone, and I don’t think I’m going to make it a habit, but I would like to draw your attention to Rachel, of Heart of Light, who has blogged about lentils here, here, and here. She likes lentils, and I like her, and so if I were to dedicate this post, it would be to Rachel, who also introduced me to homemade Indian food, including naan, which is so much better than the dry stuff from President’s Choice.

Lentils are hardly photogenic, but trust me: You want to make this dish. Even if you don’t like lentils. Especially if you don’t like lentils. Because these don’t taste like normal lentils. They taste like baked beans. Yes. You heard me. BAKED BEANS. Which might be my favourite part of breakfast: They’re smokey, savoury and a little sweet. And they’re not as unhealthy for you as that giant sausage or those pancakes smothered in syrup and cream. (Don’t get me wrong: I love a good pancake, but these lentils you can eat on a weekday.) Of course, these lentil didn’t come from a book dedicated to eating more legumes, or one prominently featuring Indian food. Actually, I probably shouldn’t say that, because I haven’t actually read the book. But, The Art of Living According to Joe Beef is prominently at the top of my food reading list (okay, it’s actually the third one on that list, and I’m not sure why.) I’d have rushed out to buy it by now, after reading reviews, but I’m not shopping until February 26, when we will be in Montreal anyhow, and it seems appropriate to buy the book in the city to which Joe Beef owes at least some of its dues.

Truth be told, this book and this recipe weren’t on my radar until I saw them featured on Seven Spoons. Tara has given a most in-depth description of her adoration for baked beans, which I can unabashedly say that I agree with. At the end of the day, this post is mostly to say “GO! See what Joe Beef did! She what she did there! Do it! (But maybe tweak it a little to your taste…)” I stuck fairly close to the recipe, save for the bay leaf (which I plumb forgot about) and the addition of molasses (because they’re not baked beans unless you involve maple syrup AND molasses). I finished the pot with some Applewood smoked sea salt, which – as one might expect – imparts an awesome smokey flavour into dishes. I recommend it here, highly, but also on popcorn, since it makes it taste like you’re eating bacon popcorn and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Given that Tara spent a good bit of time writing out the recipe and making her notes, I’m going to suggest that you visit her post or pick up a copy of The Art of Living. Consider this more of an ode to the recipe, than the recipe itself, if you will.

My adaptations to the recipe were – for those who are curious – as follows:

- I used 6 slices of bacon, instead of the 4 that were called for; as a result I omitted the 2 tablespoons of neutral oil called for.
- I left out the mustard powder and bay leaf.
- I added 1 tablespoon molasses, at the same time as the other wet ingredients were added.
- I added 2 teaspoons of smoked sea salt at the very end.

We’ve entered 2012, the Year of the Dragon, the Year of Sustainable Energy (according to the UN), and the Year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It’s also the beginning of the year and people are starting to make their resolutions, their goals, and their purpose for the next twelve months known. I’ve started to do so, for better of worse. I’ve fallen into the trap, if you want to call it that, of resolving to be healthier this year and to end this year in a healthier body*. What struck me as interesting, if I may speak freely for a moment, was how many people on January 1 were saying that they wanted to stick to a resolution, but didn’t actually start their resolution on the first. What better a day than the first day of the new year to feel motivated and to get momentum for something that you know is going to be difficult?

Funny that I should say that, since this morning I have had trouble getting going. Even with this delightful, amazing Indian-inspired rice pudding for breakfast. I should clarify something: This isn’t really rice pudding. It’s not thick or dense or pudding like at all. It’s kind of more like a rice cereal. But, if I call it that, I’ll be reminded of Rice Krispies, the original rice cereal. And it’s not like that at all. It’s like if you had oatmeal, but made of rice. With lots of milk.

This was created largely to use up leftover basmati rice from dinner last night (Hey, I really like basmati rice, okay?). When I was younger, my family used to visit friends who made the most delicious curries and other Indian food, and I’m pretty sure that my mother couldn’t stand the curries. But, I loved the rice. It had cardamom in it and was dotted with raisins. This has that. It also has coconut, for sweetness, and cashews, for crunch and density, and mangoes, because I like mangoes. It’s a really great, quick breakfast that’s a good way to use up leftover rice, something which I come into at least twice a week. (And it discourages me from eating too much rice at dinner!)

Indian-inspired Rice Pudding
for one large breakfast serving

1/3 cup cooked basmati rice
1/2 cup frozen mango, thawed**
2 tbsp milk or dairy drink of your choice
a small handful of shredded coconut
a small handful of golden raisins***
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 tbsp roasted cashews

Place the first three ingredients (rice, mango, milk) into a small saucepan and heat over medium for about 5 minutes, until well combined and the mango is heated through. Add the coconut, raisins, cinnamon and cardamom and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring. Serve, and top with cashews.

*I am also resolving to start using proper capitalization in future posts. I’m not sure when I became so lazy, but it doesn’t have the aesthetic appeal that it once did.
**I threw the frozen mango in with the rice last night after dinner and stuck it in the fridge
***I cheated and used Thompson raisins. Speaking of which, who is Thompson and why does he have raisins named for him?

i’ve reached the point of being embarrassed to rear my head around these parts. for shame. it seems like everytime i show up here, it’s to apologize for being absent. and i need to be more present. everywhere. including here.

i’m taking stock of things, (including meat and vegetables), and realizing that i don’t spend enough time creating things in the kitchen as i would like to. so, there is that. these grapefruit bars and these toffee, coconut, oreo squares were part of a whirlwind that also involved a three-layer peppermint fudge cake and ended with a broken oven. i’m also terrible at keeping secrets, so i will tell you all this: i want to share my baked goods more often. as in, sell them. regularly. my repretoire is bigger than i give myself credit for (though, i’m not sure it’s as big as lynne’s! not yet, at least.) so, maybe, hopefully, 2012 will be a year of craft shows and order for friends, family, and people who appreciate delicious treats.

in the next few days, i am going to more fully develop a business plan, but i’m also going to take the opportunity to bake my heart out for new year’s eve and to resolve myself to making 2012 a red letter, banner year. does anyone have any banner paper? or red letters?

grapefruit bars

crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, cold

preheat oven to 350F.
in a stand mixer on medium speed, mix together the dry ingredients and the butter until well combined, with the largest pieces being about the size of a pea.
press the dough into a parchmented 9×9 pan. stab gently with a fork. cook for about 15 minutes, until golden.
let cool. (i hate this part.)

grapefruit curd:
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup grapefruit juice (about 2 large grapefruits)
zest of one grapefruit
zest of one lime
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup flour

preheat your oven to 300F. whisk together the eggs and sugar until fluffy. add juice, then flour and cornstarch. pour over cooked crust and set in oven for 45 minutes at 300F, or until golden.
let cool and slice into as many, or as few, squares as you would like.

we’re 36 hours away from moving house and home. 36 hours away from leaving the last four and a half years of kitchen behind. new neighbourhood, new grocery stores and food shops, new kitchen (eep), and a new place to sit and eat. the sitting part is especially exciting, since we’ll actually having an eating space that is higher than jayne is tall.

our oven blew a fuse on friday night at five pm. after i finished an epic day of baking grapefruit bars, almond joy squares, and a three tier peppermint brownie cake for a great event. (they raised $1600 for a local women’s shelter!) our landlord offered us his toaster oven for the five days we had left in our lease, which was nice of him, but it would be too much like using an easy bake oven.

besides, my camera bag is packed away, and with it my cord to off-load the photos. which is unfortunate, because since i was baking all day, i was able to get some great shots in the light. meantime, you’ll have to settle for a photo of peanut butter brownies.

you’re so hard done by.

also, if you have a knack for buying other people’s things, or acquiring them, have a quick peek at the things, offered page. basically, make me an offer on anything on that page in the next 36 hours. or, just claim it. we’re easy around here.

peanut butter brownies with chocolate ganache
adapted from smitten kitchen

for brownies
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon salt

for ganache
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter, softened

make brownies:

preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle. butter a 13x9x2 inch baking pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper and butter parchment.
beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, then add peanut butter and beat until incorporated. beat in whole eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. reduce mixer sped to low, then mix in flour until just combined.
mix in chocolate chips, then spread batter in baking pan, smoothing top.
bake until brownies are deep golden, 40 to 45 minutes.
cool completely in pan on a rack, about 90 minutes.

make ganache:
pour chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl.
bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour over chocolate chips and let mixture stand for one minute.
gently whisk in butter until it is incorporated, chocolate is melted, and a smooth mixture forms.
spread ganache on cooled brownies and let stand until set, about 30 minutes.
brownies keep in one layer in an airtight container three days.

i am hoarding cutlery in my desk drawer. after years of never being able to find a fork, or a spoon in my office, i am taking revenge and hoarding them. of course, these are mostly my cutlery, and will only become an issue when we move and someone (namely my husband) asks why there are only six spoons, instead of eight.

i would also hoard this chili, given the opportunity. but, i’m hoping instead that by sharing it, more of you will make it and that there will be more chili to go around. except on one’s clothing. i should start hoarding napkins at work. especially when i have afternoon meetings.

chili is hard to mess up, granted. but, i’ve also had a lot of chilis that were not to my taste, including my mother’s, which, while i loved it as a child, reminds me more of spaghetti sauce than chili. then again, maybe it’s just a cincinatti thing.

chili, previously: chili con carne from bon appetit

white bean chipotle chili
makes 6 servings

1/2 lb medium or lean ground beef
1/2 lb stewing beef
1/2 lb italian sausage, out of its casings
2 tbsp butter
2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cups dark ale (i used Wellington ale)
2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups dried white beans, soaked (cover with hot tap water and soak for two hours)
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, diced
a good bit of salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder

season meat with salt, pepper and cumin. in a dutch oven, cook the meat in batches and drain on paper towel.

add butter, onions and garlic and cook until translucent. add pepper and continue to cook over medium for 3-4 minutes, until soft. add remaining ingredients and, once brought to a boil, turn the heat down to low. simmer for at least 45 minutes.

serve with your favourite cornbread.

a more exciting name for this post, i cannot come up with. (believe me, i tried.)

there has been a good bit of talk (from one blogger in particular) about the moral perils attached to sponsored posts; sponsored posts are those which are authored for remuneration, either in the form of products or money. advertising and advertorials are becoming more common in blogs and i personally don’t see anything wrong with that, because at the end of the day it’s not much different from campbell’s placing a soup advertisement next to a recipe that calls for soup. product placement has been part of our society since before television (radio shows were often sponsored and had products included in the content). since i don’t monetize my blog (at the moment), i look for opportunities to share events or organizations that are doing good things with food: for example, capital cupcake camp.

so, when the folks behind the ottawa good food box asked me if i would like to test drive their program and write a little ditty about it, i felt that a) the contents of the food box would all be used (i wouldn’t be creating waste); and b) food equity is something that i want to support, because there were certainly times when i was in my undergrad that i could have used the tremendous power of buying wholesale. oh, and the organization also tries to provide locally grown fare whenever possible. boxes (available in three sizes) are delivered monthly, the idea being that they can supplement your current grocery shopping and take a least few dollars off the grocery bill.

i received the medium size food box ($15) this past wednesday. justin faubert of landwaterfork (a relatively new-to-ottawa caterer and sustainable food consultant) outlined in detail what was included in the food box, but to recap, it includes:

• 5 apples
• 4 pears
•  2 oranges
• 6 bananas
• 2 lb bag of yellow onions
•  2 lb bag of carrots
• 2 green peppers
• ½ lb button mushrooms
• large head of celery
• green cabbage
• romaine lettuce
• small bag of fresh cranberries
• small pumpkin

*a note on removing skins: you may have your own method, but if you don’t, i recommend looking at this video. i swear, it works for garlic as well as nuts and it far easier to clean up than rolling the nuts in a towel. i usually use a large mason jar, rather than a bowl, but it still works like a charm!

as i write this, roofers are roofing our roof. they are making a lot of clamoring noise, such that i often have wondered today whether our house will fall down. luckily, at the very least, this is not our house, and we will not be its occupants after november 30. christmas will be spent elsewhere, where i haven’t the slightest of an idea. i haven’t had an idea since we gave our notice…but, there are some places that seem more likely than others. regardless, adventure (along with our dog and a good sense of what we want) is now underfoot.

and so it is, with that, that i bring you a smattering of adventures in this kitchen, in this house, where i have been trying more and more to throw caution to the wind and a bit more fire into the pan. sometimes, it’s just a matter of calling something new, sometimes it’s a matter of finding something new, and in this case, it’s a matter of calling something old by a new name.

whenever i heard talk of lima beans as a child, i was reminded of Paddington Bear, whose aunt lives in Lima, Peru. while perhaps this isn’t the most fear inducing of associations, it reminded me of older people, and food that perhaps tasted like a sunday roast with over-boiled potatoes and yorkshire pudding. luckily, i was never asked to eat lima beans as a child, and i obeyed this diligently.

but, now i can’t help but to wonder if i missed out? visiting the grocery store this week, i was struck (not literally, thankfully) by a can marked BUTTER BEANS, and thought “butter? i like butter. i can get on board with that!” of course, they are one and the same, the butter beans and the lima beans. one serious advantage of bilingual food labels is that they can aid you by providing more information than one would receive through unilingual packaging. grade 12 French tells me that “petits haricots de lima” are la même chose as lima beans. luckily, these beans by any other name are just as creamy, smooth and mild in flavour. they are not the paint, but the canvas, for this incredible everyday salad.

mexican-inspired butter bean salad
makes 1 large or 2 small lunch portions

mix together in a medium bowl:

6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (about 3 branches, with multiple leaves)
1/2 carrot, grated
the juice and zest of 1 lime
1 clove of garlic, grated/crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

add:
1 14-ounce can lima beans (or butter beans), drained, rinsed and drained

allow the salad to sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.