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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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