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Review: Sweet Shop of Dreams

I enjoyed this quick read where a London gal moves to the countryside to help her ailing aunt out with a sweet shop. The plot is very straight forward as most major plot points are guessed light years before they occur but the writing is fast paced and interesting so I enjoyed the book. 

There are flashbacks from the Aunt's POV which are fine but written in a very difficult to read scripty font which is very tiresome. Additionally, there are sweet based chapter openings that are written in yet another font and seem very out of place but half way through the book I realized that they are supposed to be excerpts from the Aunt's sweet shop book. 

There are some problems with this book but overall I enjoyed it! 

Check out my Goodreads page for more food themed fiction! 

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My Vintage Kitchen: Picnic Thermos Pack

I scored at the thrift store last week! I picked up this sweet Thermos and cup travelling case for $6.99! It's from Cutter&Buck and is in great shape. The leather covers come off the Thermos and cups for easy cleaning and there are a ton of pockets for odds and ends. 

I plan on taking this out before the snow flies! :)

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Drinking: Iced Coffee

I was looking through this old, aged, strained 'Canadian Cook Book' last night in search of recipes to vegan-ize for a project I've been toying with for ages and found a very interesting coffee recipe. 

This cookbook was first published in 1923 and revised in 1953. 

Clearly iced coffee is not a new 'hipster' creation. Even the 'best iced coffee ever' claims regarding coffee ice-cubes is not a new invention! 

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Drinking: Pineapple Rum

I found these cute 70's cocktail glasses at the thrift store for 50 cents each! A random customer stated their jealousy of my great find so I had to come home and put them to good work immediately!

I used this recipe for inspiration but this is basically 1/4 cup dark rum, 1/2 cup freshly made pineapple juice, and a tiny bit of lime juice. Served over ice. 

It's basically delicious! 

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Fermented Pickles

I came across some pickling cucumbers through a friend of a friend of a friend. There are always too many cucumbers! 

I roughly followed this fermented pickle recipe (and by roughly I mean I threw some salt and water in jar and the next day I added, without measuring, some pickling spices). It seems to be going well though as within a day tiny bubbles were forming at the surface and within 3 days the jars were smelling like pickles.  

These photos are the pickles at four days. I can't wait to try them! 

Have you made fermented pickles? 

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Eating the Web: Kombucha, Kvass, and Aquafaba

1. Chocolate Beer: A non-alcoholic beer which uses beer brewing principles with cocoa beans makes for a very interesting concept. 

2. 21 Ways to Flavour Kombucha: My SCOBY has been basically undisturbed since I acquired it last fall. Time to brew up some new flavours! 

3. Cooking with Beet Kvass: I participated in a free 2 hour fermenting class a few weeks ago - and it's really inspired me to get back to fermenting. Using beet kvass in Bloody Mary's seems like an excellent idea! 

4. Coffee and Tonic Water: Back in the good ole days when I lived in Toronto, we regularly visited a few coffee shops that offered drink options that combined carbonated beverages with coffee - they were all delicious and I really should DIY it. 

5. Aquafaba: I've been intrigued by this concept for weeks now. Basically, the liquid in canned beans (especially chickpeas) can be used as an egg substitute and made into classic egg dishes like meringues! (I made some vegan butter that will be up next week!)     

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Review: Beet Juice Powder

I've finally joined the 'green juice' campaign. I've jumped on this trendy bandwagon because due to some health issues last winter I was unable to eat anywhere near the 'proper' amount of food. I picked up a Magic Bullet and have been happily juicing kale and spinach and adding either oranges or fresh pineapples (dear gawd - don't forget to add some sweet fruit!) to help me eat more each day. 

I received a free jar of Pines Beet Juice Powder and added two teaspoons to my kale and orange smoothie this morning. It does add some of that great 'earthiness' that's associated with my love of beets and makes the drink a deep red colour. It seems a bit pricey for a dried product but does contain mostly beets. This product is also raw, gluten free, non-gmo, and USDA Organic so overall it's a pretty slick way to get some beets into your morning smoothie. 

I wonder if it would make a good 'red velvet' cake? hmmmm. 

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Review: Forbidden Flavours

Forbidden Flavours is a local Brandon/Shilo chain and I love supporting them for that reason. The location on 18th is my favourite as the physical space is large enough to accommodate plenty of folks and there are some great comfortable chairs and couches. The staff never try to rush you out the door so you can really tuck into a book or work on some homework at this location - the free WiFi helps too! Coffee shops in a small town like Brandon are weird because it only takes a few loud/annoying folks to really ruin the experience and I find that a comfortable visit to Forbidden Flavours isn't guaranteed due to this. This is, of course, no fault of the establishment but it bothers me all the same. 

According to their out-of-date website the 18th Street location once held a used book store which would have been pretty cool! They have the standard coffee items and a few speciality drinks - I usually order the green tea frappé which is always great. They also specialize in ice-cream (which I've never had) and have a few cakes and cookies on offer. I would avoid the bakery section as everything I've had has been stale, mushy/dried out, and just icky. The bagels are good so order that if you are hungry! I've never been able to have have a sandwich/panini from Forbidden Flavours as they do not offer vegetarian options.  

Overall this is a nice, usually quiet, cafe that I love supporting because its locally owned! 

 

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Review: Brew'd Awakening

#LWA #onlinebookclub #bookclub #lovedit

A photo posted by Sarah (@wingedsnail99) on Apr 25, 2015 at 10:31am PDT

I finally managed to get out to this cafe. It has been on my 'to-try' list since I first moved to Brandon but the Internet Cafe part of this establishment scared me off. I am not interested in the type of cafe that an 'Internet Cafe' calls to mind - dark, dingy, with rows and rows of computers from the 90s. Thankfully I gave this place a shot because it is nothing like the Internet Cafe's of old.

This cafe is bright, clean and cheerful. The decor reminds of 1950 Rock-a-billy with bright teal vinyl bench seating and primary colours. The music playing fit the theme as well. The computers available are in a circular desk and there are only about five of them. The tables are clearly designed to accommodate laptop computer users as one is board room style and almost all the booths would fit 6-8 people. There is a comfy leather couch in the back and some bistro-style metal tables near the front.

The menu is pretty standard cafe fair with the full range of espresso machine drinks available. I've been trying to limit my caffeine intake lately so I noticed that there is not much choice with regard to non-coffee 'fancy' drinks. There wasn't very many vegetarian food choices either. However the iced tea and cheese cake I had were both very good.  

However, the staff was quiet but very polite. Good service is ridiculously hard to find in Brandon so I am very glad to have had a good service experience at Brew'd Awakening. I will return!   

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Review: Pie

I purchased this beautiful zine a few months ago. It was a little pricey for a zine but 100% of the proceeds go to the Atlanta Community Food Bank so it was worth it. This is a full color zine with two very interesting pie recipes (Chocolate Chess Pie and Cranberry-Pecan Crumble Pie) and a plethora of quotes, stories and beautiful photos about pie. There is even a pie chart! 

Order here.

A photo posted by Sarah (@wingedsnail99) on Feb 23, 2015 at 10:32am PST

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Ethiopian: Injera Recipe Review

Since I received Teff Love in the mail at the beginning of the month, I've been cooking all things Ethiopian. I've basically eaten nothing but Ethiopian food since this book arrived and it's been a deliciously good time! 

There are two recipes for injera in Teff Love and one in Vegan Eats World. I decided to try them all and give you the run down. 

Vegan Eats World, Ethiopian Savoury Crepes (206) 
Method: 1 hour ferment
Ingredients: common pantry items 
Difficulty: very simple
Taste: decent

While not an 'authentic' injera this recipe is easy, fast and reliable. It's perfect for the weekday injera fix. 

#injera #ethiopian #food #vegan

A photo posted by Sarah (@wingedsnail99) on Feb 16, 2015 at 10:24am PST

Teff Love, long ferment (Ye'tef Injera, page 30)
Method: 6 day ferment (if you have to make the Ersho starter, 3 if you don't)
Ingredients: common pantry items
Difficulty: moderate, as it takes a few minutes of upkeep each day)
Taste: good

While this recipe does take a few days to develop the flavor is there and it isn't really that hard to do - it just takes a little planning. 

Teff Love, short ferment (Quick Teff Crepes, page 33)
Method: instant
Ingredients: speciality items (vegan yogurt, carbonated water)
Difficulty: easy
Taste: After days and days of easy cooking injera, I was surprised to find that I couldn't make this recipe cook properly. It was failed crepe after failed crepe. After 1/2 the batter I simply gave up! 

Overall, I would make the Vegan Eats World recipe for week-day Ethiopian feasts and go with the long fermented version offered in Teff Love for dinner parties, special occasions, and weekend meals because it does taste better. 

Note: There is yet another recipe for injera in 'Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food' but I haven't tried it yet because it calls for urad dal which I haven't been able to source in Brandon yet.  

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Getting Over a Cooking Rut

I have been in a pretty serious food rut since I moved to Brandon from Toronto over the summer. I am not sure why this cooking rut has occurred but I was in the thick of it for many months. I had no desire to explore new recipes and as a consequent new vegan cookbooks arrived in my mail and were simply placed on the shelf and my food blog was all but dormant over the fall. I think the worst of my cooking rut is behind me now but here are a few ideas in case you are experiencing a cooking rut as well!

Acceptance:

Some cooking ruts are so deep that the best thing for them is simple acceptance: Take a break from the kitchen. Buy a few frozen pizzas or plow through that pile of freezer meals. Return to your tried-and-true family favourites. Give the kitchen to your significant other for a few nights.

Inspiration:

I think the surest way to get over a cooking rut is to get inspired. There are few ways to fight a cooking rut with inspiration: Buy (or loan) a new cookbook. Try a new restaurant. Cook with a friend. Host a potluck or a dinner party. Browse food recipes on sites like Tastespotting. 

Re-vitalize. 

Sometimes you just need a new approach: Start a new blog series. Tired of making Italian food? Start a blog series that focuses on Ethiopian or Mexican food. Make a few simple meals and spend the extra time deep-cleaning or organizing your kitchen. Browse restaurant menus online and try to replicate the meal you would have if you actually ate there. Try meal planning. Try not meal planning.  

Future:

As your cooking rut won’t last forever, plan for when the rut is over: Order a food or cooking magazine subscription. Join a CSA. Ferment something - starting a vegetable ferment only takes a few minutes but the waiting time provides plenty of opportunity to discover recipes that use the fermented vegetable. Plan a five course meal in excruciating detail.  

Here are interesting articles that loosely relate to cooking ruts. Link Link

What are your tried and true methods of getting over a cooking rut?

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Ethiopian Food

I moved to Brandon, Manitoba from the great cosmopolitan that is T dot and it has been quite the adjustment. For some reason my desire to cook and create in the kitchen was really affected by the move. However the forthcoming (and ordered) Kittee Berns cookbook, Teff Love, inspired me to create a huge Ethiopian meal. I followed the "Ethiopian Mesob Not be Missed" suggested meal plan from Vegan Eats World but included the Keysir Allecha (Beets) from Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food.

I really like how Kittee Berns uses traditional names for dishes and helps you learn a least a little about the language. Terry Hope Romero uses bland English names for all the dishes which is quite the disappointment. 

#ethiopian #food #cookbooks #cooking #yummers

A photo posted by Sarah (@wingedsnail99) on Jan 26, 2015 at 12:32pm PST

The menu:
Cauliflower and Green Beans in Berbere Sauce (Vegan Eats World, 288) - really made potatoes and kale in Berbere Sauce.
Seitan Tibs Simmered in Berbere (Vegan Eats World, 168) - I used pressed tofu. I liked this dish.
Fluffly Scrambled Chickpea 'Eggs' with Shallots (Vegan Eats World, 269) - Decent but the recipe in Papa Tofu is much better.
Saucy Berber Lentils (Vegan Eats World, 165) - decent
Ethiopian Savoury Crepes (Vegan Eats World, 206)
Keysir Allecha (Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food, 50) 

The injera recipe from Vegan Eats World was the best part of this meal. I couldn't find injera ready-made for purchase in Brandon and the last time that I purchased them (in Toronto) I got a stale batch. This recipe makes decent injera (better than stale ones) and is only a 2 hour wait! They are easy to cook up as well. They may not be 'authentic' but they will definitely do in a pinch! I still want to try the recipe in Papa Tofu but I like that this recipe can be cooked up easily and they do taste decent.

I purchased the berbere spice blend and it wasn't very vibrant. I think a combination of the spice blend and the non-authentic nature of the Vegan Eats World recipes made the entire meal seem sort of... bland. I am glad that I tried the recipes from Vegan Eats World but I will be returning to the recipes in Papa Tofu and in the forthcoming Teff Love. 

The intention of the meal was to get me back into the kitchen as I had hoped that cooking a huge meal would get my culinary creative juices flowing and it has. I've been dreaming of a chocolate coconut carrot cake...

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