But I am not.

The simple fact is, I am training for a marathon and that training takes a lot of time. It is also quite exhausting and food is to refuel not to look pretty, as least at the moment. My concerns these days are my pace, and the distance and injury related. Food, baking and cooking take the backseat.

However, do not despair, I have posts liked up, or rather, I have cooked and baked, taken pictures but no time to write it down yet. There is also a stack of books on my counter that asked to be reviewed. I also want to re-make old recipes and re-shoot them so you, my reader, has a better idea of the product.

After the FBC conference in April there are many things that I would like to enhance with the blog. As said above, photographs are one thing, re-writing the recipes is another thing. But all of this is work in progress, or rather planning in progress.

I will try to add a new recipe this week for your enjoyment. The marathon is May 26th, a couple of days of rest afterwards and I should be back to my old self.

Thank you for your patients.

What keeps you busy these days?

Happy Baking and Cooking.

FBC2013

Yes, that’s quite the title and it is really fitting the weekend that we had, out at the Hockley Valley Resort in Orangeville. It was great to say the least, overwhelming almost. A whirlwind of 3 days of meeting people, eating great food, learning a lot and enjoying it to the fullest.

Writing a sum up of this conference is much harder than I thought. I seem to be unable to gather my thoughts in a reasonable manner, bringing across what I have learned without babbling.

I was quite excited to read that Food Bloggers of Canada were organizing a food blogger conference in Canada. I knew there were similar events in the States, however, that always seemed far away. Frankly, Toronto is not much closer for someone from Saskatchewan but it was meant to be for Canadian food bloggers, the first of it’s kind, something I wanted to be part of.

A big Thank you to Mardi, Ethan and Melissa who organized this event, as well as the volunteers who helped out.

Friday, April 12, early in the morning my flight left for Toronto and I was nervous as to what to expect. Yes, there is the line up of events online, yes, you can see who is coming, but reading about it and actually being there are two different things.

I met up with Bridget with whom I had a lovely chat and lunch before meeting up with Valerie to share a ride to the Resort. Oh Toronto, I don’t think we will be friends, your drivers are a bit crazy. But we made it just to arrive to a black out at the Resort probably due to that freezing rain we saw on the way.

Oh well.

A quick check-in and before I knew it Kelly, my roomie, took me to our room, which was spacious and comfortable and I really really liked those big bed and soft sheets. I had to catch my breath, change and then off to the bar we went to chat with other food bloggers.

Now, I am not a fan of the word “swag” but I am a fan of goodies. Like grow-your-own-mushroom-kit (started two days ago), lentils in a wine bottle, cook books, coupons for things like Blurb, little kitchen gadgets, oh, a Delta touch-less faucet, and of course Moo business cards. Those were put to good use during the weekend and I was glad I had them.

Kris and Kelly

Around 6 p.m. a reception was held by the sponsors with little snacks and Henry of Pelham Sparkling – Cuveé Catharine. It was a good time to mix and mingle, meet more people, or meet people you know online but never seen before. KitchenAid Canada had set up a pictures booth with little props, goofy photos were the result.

Canadian Poutine

Main Course the first night.

Delicious Dessert

Dinner was lovely. More people to meet, more food to eat, more wine to drink, oh and some pictures of course. Funny how it is that I took pictures of the meal but not of the people who shared it with me. I know that there were three people who represented brands: Sandra from the Dairy Farmers of Canada, Annelies from Attune Foods, and one of the owners of Henry of Pelham (sorry, didn’t catch your name). And David Leite was the key note speaker, giving us some lovely insight. (I didn’t take notes but should have.)

Delicious KitchenAid Cookies

Later that night we all switched into comfy pants and went to the movies, generously sponsored by KitchenAid Canada. We had delicious milkshakes, which were prepared in KitchenAid blenders, there was popcorn and monster cookies by Sweetopia. Most people got to the conference that day, getting up early, so the movie cleared out fairly fast. We all had a good nights sleep.

Saturday started as any Saturday should start, with a breakfast buffet. If you liked sweet or savoury in the morning, they had it. I went for French toast, hmmmm.

The following is just a “short” summarize of the panels, I took more notes than that but it would go it too much detail, I believe, if I would list them all.

Bloggers & Brand panel

Bloggers and Brands

- both sides were able to talk about what is important
- the relationship should be beneficial on both sides
- the brand should fit your blog

The Critic & the Chef panel

Critic and the Chef

- social media and blogging has changed this relationship
- everyone is a critic now, everyone can voice their opinion
- interesting to hear how chefs cope with so many critics nowadays and what they think of photography in the restaurant

Tech for your Blog

Tech for your Blog

- accessibility of your blog for mobile devices
- use the right formatting tools for your posts
- Use Headings
- pay attention to picture size and use link colours
- avoid flash
- tags and alt tags for pictures
- Google webmaster tools, Google Sitemap, Google Authorship, Google Analytics

Making Dough

Making Dough

This is a two headed beast for me because on the one hand yes, I’d like to make money of my blog, but no, I don’t like ads that much. I believe this is something I will have to look into later down the road.

Food Photography & Styling

Food Photography

I struggle with good pictures much due to the lighting in my house. I also have some issues with props, or rather, the lack of props, which has something to do with space and storage….

- rule of thirds
- vertical images are better than horizontal
- depth of field
- lighting should come for the back or the side
- colour temperature and food enhancements

I need to work on most of these but as I see it photography is a learning experience. There are very few who are good right from the beginning. The rest of us learns by taking pictures.

Dessert on a plate

My biggest issue though with the panel was the food enhancement. For commercial shots I understand that you prop your food, that you use materials on it to make the colours and textures pop. I get it. For me, that wouldn’t work because afterwards I am consuming that food. I prop my food too, arrange it to make it as appealing as possible. But I will not rub my burger meat or scrambled eggs with extra oil to make it look shinier. For my blog, I want my readers to see how it turns out, so they can go and bake or cook it and be like “That looks very much like what she posted.” Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear and see what a professional had to say.

Changing Face of Food Writing

Changing Face of Food Writing

- know your food history
- take care of your credibility
- tone your communication skills
- take a writing course
- find your niche

Hey, is anybody out there?

Hey, is anybody out there?

- engage the reader by thinking about him/her and make them care
- how personal do you like to write?
- who are you writing to?
- put forth an opinion
- questions, things that are trendy, kitchen disasters
- leave room for comments, e.g. leave a hole

Davide Leite Q&A

David Leite’s Q & A

It was really funny and interesting and I guess we could have just spend the whole day listening to him, asking questions.

- language, love it, embrace is and use it right
- right use of punctuation, exclamation marks should only be used once
- smilies don’t belong in a blogger’s text
- get some one to edit if you can
- if you are busy, upload a pictures or just leave a short text so readers know you still care
- go with your guts
- Zombie posts are ok
- post of a 1000 word are ok

This  concluded Saturday’s session and we had some time to hang out with others or relax and get ready for the dinner that night. Again, the evening started with a little reception and a sparkling wine by The Grange of Prince Edward. This time there was no assigned seating. The dinner was delicious and the conversations were fun.

Salad appetizer

Turkey breast, bacon and vegetables

Creme Brulee, Cake, Caramel

The evening was concluded with a concert by Brad Fillatre and a late night snack provided by Campell’s. We sat and talked and drank and enjoyed it until the wee hours of the morning.

Meeting friends

Sunday morning rolled around way too quickly and had a little surprise for me. After checking out and taking my things to the car I found the rental care dead. Yes, I had left on the lights. So, after a quick bite I was able to get a boost before returning to the last sessions.

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping for Bloggers

- pay attention to expenses and income
- be organized
- get an auditor who knows about blogging/food blogging

Publishing Panel

Publishing Panel

- market has changed greatly over the last 10 years
- do an app, e-book
- get some experience, co-author
- find your niche

This could be a separate conference because each blogger is different and there are many approaches to the topic.

Recipe Development

Recipe Development

A completely new topic to me. I tweak recipes, I sometimes combine two, but I don’t think I ever really developed a recipe from scratch.

- compare various recipes to find the things that works
- have a base recipe and change things until you have what you want
- test, double test and re-test again

There are different approaches to this and it depends much on the person on how to go about. I believe for a baker it is important to understand the chemistry side of baking. What ingredients will do what thing when baked, basically.

Future of Canadian Food Bloggers

Future Trends in Canadian Food Blogging

Dana McCauley looked back on the development of the past years and pointed out that one should choose to be different (find your niche), have a purpose and don’t look to be popular. She had 8 simple wishes for food bloggers:

1. Tell a story2. Teach blogging basics & ethnics to children
3. Learn the difference between their, there, and they’re
4. Edit relentlessly
5. Understand the difference between a journal and a blog
6. Be transparent
7. Reward quality
8. Put a flag on it

I believe the last point resonated with most if not all of it. Be proud of being a Canadian Food Blogger because we are a unique bunch and should be afraid to point out that we are.

Thus the First Food Bloggers of Canada Conference ended. Well, not quite true, lunch was served before we all headed out to go back to our lives and blogs.

Food Bloggers of Canada Conference 2013

What an experience. How much was given to us to learn, to understand, to connect with and to take back home to use. I still need to work on many things but I am very glad I went to this conference.

Here a little sneak peak for you.

Photography and Food

Like every family, mine has certain dishes that are a staple. It’s those dishes that identify us as a family. Many have been handed down generations, some are fairly new. My mother like to experiment with new things, but she also liked to serve those classics that work with everyone. Such a dish are Stuff Bell Peppers.

I have to insert a little cultural lesson here so we are on the same page. In many German households and families lunch is a warm meal and supper is a cold meal. During the week the kids will have their lunch at school or if living close by, at home. Adults will have a canteen or cafeteria close by or some sort of little kitchen at their work place. University students have a cafeteria where they are many lunch options. Supper then is cold, with dark breads or buns/rolls, cold cut meats, cheese, of course butter, maybe a salad.

There is also a time difference, at least for supper, because my family usually didn’t eat supper until 7 p.m. It probably had much to do with my parents not getting home until 5 or 6.

I find it a bit tricky to come home and then have supper right away, cooking does take some time and it feels much like a rush to me. That’s why I prefer cold supper, also warm suppers tend to be a bit hefty.

So, these stuffed peppers are meant as lunch, but of course work for supper as well.

Ingredients:

- 8 to 10 bell peppers
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1 medium sized onion, diced
- salt
- pepper
- paprika
- ketchup
- mustard

First, prepare the bell peppers. I usually use green ones, but if you prefer red, yellow or orange, by all means. Cut off the top, clean out the center and the stem from the top and wash all. Set aside.

Combine ground pork and ground beef, add the egg, diced onions, salt, pepper, and paprika. I like to use ketchup and mustard for flavouring, but that is up to you. Combine everything well. Then stuff the bell peppers with the meat and press the top back on. Secure with some toothpicks to they will not fall off. Make patties of the left over meat, if you have any.

Use a large and deep frying pan with a lid to cook the bell peppers. I used my Nordic Ware Braising Pan for this. A separate blog post for Nordic Ware will follow. Add a bit of olive oil to the pan and let it heat. Then lay the bell peppers on their side and cook them until lightly brow. Flip them to the next side and so on until all sides are slightly cooked and a bit brown.

You might need to add a bit of water, depending on how much moister you have in the pan. Close the lid and let the peppers cooked for 30 min or until done. You might have to cut one open to check.

Remove the peppers from the pan, then thicken the liquid with tomato paste. I also used Knorr for sauces, which is a thickener. Basically, you are looking for a tomato sauce/gravy. That goes best with stuffed bell peppers.

You may serve potatoes or rice with the bell peppers.

Happy Cooking!

One of my first baking experiences, besides a simple cake, were muffins. I love muffins! They are simple and versatile and fun! Of course there is this rivalry with Cupcakes, but often I find cupcakes too sweet. Muffins on the other hand can be savoury as well. This recipe isn’t, but it’s on my “Baking Bucket List” to make a savoury muffin one day.

Another meeting at work with people coming in from out of town and I thought I should make a little snack for them. Muffins always work and after checking my recipes and the pantry I decided to go with banana and oats. Fruity muffins wake you up and oats give you and energy kick, perfect combination for meetings. My boss even liked them and she is not a fan of bananas in baking.

Ingredients:

- 200g bananas
- 100g flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- dash cloves
- dash salt
- 150g oats
- 1 egg
- 60 ml oil, neutral flavour
- 80g sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla sugar pr 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 250g milk

You may use fresh or frozen bananas for this recipe. I used frozen bananas because I had nothing else. If you do the same, I suggest that the bananas are as much frozen as possible so that you will get chunks of bananas. Otherwise it will be more like banana bread, which is still good but not what I was looking for.

Combine all dry ingredients as well as the oats in a bowl and set aside. Then mix the oil with sugar, add the egg as well was vanilla sugar/vanilla. Pour in the milk and mix until well combine. Now sprinkle the dry ingredients on top and combine again. The bananas are the last to be mix into the batter, carefully. As mentioned above, you do not want to have mushed bananas. The batter will be fairly runny, so don’t worry.

Get out a muffin tin and either line it or grease and dust with flour. Then spoon the batter into each mold until full. Bake at 200°C for about 20 to 25 min. Check with a skewer to see if they are done, if it comes out clean, remove the tin from the oven and let it cool for a bit before removing the muffins from it.

I served them plain, but you can also dust them with icing sugar or even drizzle some chocolate on top.

The oats give this muffin a nice crunch and the bananas a good round fruity flavour.

Happy baking!

Last year I made an Easter Wreath for my German Language class. This year I thought I revisit that recipe and see how I can improve on it. Since then and now I have actually found fresh yeast and thought I would give it a try.

I also was teaching an Easter Baking class and so I thought this would be something people would enjoy. Working with yeast dough is not something a lot of people like to do. Many are “scared” because things can go wrong and all your work would be for nothing. However, I believe if you stick to a couple of ground rules not too much can go wrong.

The recipes comes from a book called “German Cultrual Traditions – Deutsche Traditionen: Easter – Ostern” and was published here in Saskatchewan for Canadians with a German background or Canadians who are generally interested in other cultures.

Ingredients:

- 600g flour
- 30g fresh yeast (or about 10g of dry yeast)
- 250ml luke warm milk
- 100g sesame seeds
- 75g soft butter
- 75 sugar
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom (use all spice if you don’t have that)
- 2 tsp. ginger

- 1 yolk
- 1 tbsp. milk

You should start the dough in a bowl. I prefer a large metal bowl, which is also perfect for the dough to rise in.

Sift the flour and make a dent in which you pour half of the luke warm milk. Then crumble the yeast into that milk as well as a bit of sugar. Twirl the milk with the yeast and sugar and a bit of flour to make a sponge. Do not combine all! Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot for 15 min.

Tip 1: Make sure the milk is not too hot, otherwise it will kill the yeast. Too cold milk will slow the rising process down.

Tip 2: A warm spot can be on top of your oven when it is turned on. If the top of your oven is not warm you might want to try on top of your heating vent. Otherwise a warm room or even sunshine should do the trick. You may also use a lamp with the spotlight on the bowl.

The sponge should be visibly enlarged after the rising time. Pour the rest of the milk along the edge, sprinkle 75g of sesame seeds, all of the cardamom and ginger as well as the salt and sugar into the bowl. Then add the egg on the side and the soft butter. Knead the dough quickly into a soft dough.

Tip 3: Due to the sesame seeds the dough might feel a bit tough.

Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and use a bit of oil to cover the inside of the bowl. Place the dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap again. Place in a warm spot for another 15 to 25 min or until the dough has doubled.

After the second rising, turn the dough onto a clean, lightly dusted work surface and cut it into three equal parts. Each should be rolled out, without extra kneading, into a long strand. The longer the strand the bigger the wreath in circumference. Lay the out parallel to each other, tuck all three ends together and braid. Close the other end by tucking all ends together again, then form a wreath and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cover the wreath with plastic wrap once more and let it rise another 15 min. Combine egg yolk with 2 tbsp. of milk to make egg wash and brush the wreath. Then sprinkle the remaining 25g of sesame seed on top of it and bake at 200°C of about 25 to 35 min. Time varies due to your oven.

The wreath is done when it’s light brown/golden-brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. It is most delicious when still warm, with a bit of butter or Nutella. Easter wreaths are typically served with an egg or two which are placed in the middle.

Tip 4: I have noticed that this works much better with fresh yeast than with dry quick rise yeast. If you have fresh yeast available, I recommend to use that.

Happy Easter!

Sometimes it needs only one item or ingredients to come up with something quite delicious. That exact same thing happened to me the other day, for breakfast, on a Saturday. Simple things make life wonderful.

The culprit came in the disguise of an English Muffin. While I know about them and once in a very long while have them, I’ve never really bother buying them. But, they were on sale and my husband was quite happy to get them. So, I was wondering what I could make with them. Saturdays are my talking days because I speak with family and friends back home, which requires me to get up earlier than my husband. Time change plays a big role here.

Breakfast with our family is usually cereal, once in a while toast, but rarely anything fancy. Well, I thought I do something about it.

Ingredients:

- 2 English Muffins
- 2 eggs
- 3 pieces of bacon
- cream cheese, any flavour you like

I have a small square pan in which I can fry eggs in and it gives a perfect shape. Whisk the eggs in a little bowl and fry it in the pan. If you don’t have a similar small pan, just make scrambled eggs, it works just as well. This kind of omelet if quite fluffy and perfect for sandwiches.

Place the bacon in a convection oven and let it bake for 5 or so minutes until it is crispy and to your taste. Of course you can fry it in the pan as well.

Toast the English Muffins and spread cream cheese on each side. I used a peppercorn cream cheese from a local cheese maker. You can also use mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, or whatever else you like for breakfast.

Cut the egg square into 4 pieces, then place on piece each on the English Muffins. Cut up the bacon and spread equally on the eggs. Close the “sandwich” and serve with fresh fruit and juice.

It made for a super delicious and satisfying breakfast. You can also vary it by cutting up bacon and adding it to the eggs while frying or add vegetables if that is more your breakfast thing.

Happy Cooking!

The other day I made a simple dinner with ham, vegetables and mashed potatoes. I thought I would share our family recipe with you because I think it’s different from what most people make.

I really love mashed potatoes but the first time I had some in North American I was quite disappointed. The mashed potatoes I got were, well, nothing like I am used to.

Ingredients:

- cooked potatoes
- milk
- butter
- salt
- nutmeg

Cook your potatoes until soft and falling apart. Using a fork or masher, break the potatoes up. Add salt to your liking before you add butter and milk. If you use salted butter, make sure you don’t use too much table salt. The amount of milk and butter you add to your potatoes depends on how creamy you like it. Combine all with a hand mixer. Add nutmeg to liking when serving.

You see the difference is the hand mixer and my families mashed potatoes are more like creamy potatoes I guess. There is no real English word that I could use.

In German “mashed potatoes” are “gestampfte Kartoffeln”. But we rather eat “Kartoffelmus“, which is when you translate it more like “Apfelmus” – “apple sauce”, so “potato sauce”. Of course that sounds a bit wired so lets go with “creamy potatoes”. Yes, culture and culinary difference are a beautiful thing.

Tip: When re-heating cold creamy potatoes you should add a bit of milk to make it creamy again.

Happy Cooking!

This week we invited some friends out for supper to thank them for helping out last October. We set up the Fondue since we haven’t done that in a while and it’s a lot of fun. You can eat while you talk and not stuff yourself like crazy. The challenge was dessert because one of your friends is living gluten free.

I have not yet baked gluten free and I probably should do it more often. But this situation presented me with a real challenge since I don’t even have a recipe book for gluten-free baking. Thanks to my wonderful foodie friends I was able to find a lovely recipe. Thanks to the Baking Beauties I got this awesome recipe for what she calls “Gluten-free Cinnamon Bun Cheesecake”. Go check out her site for the original recipe.

Here is my mini version.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup pecans
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, divided
- 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 1/2 tbsp. butter
- 4 ounces (125g) cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 egg
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla, divided
- dash of salt
- 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup
- 1 tsp. heavy cream

Tip 1: Allow enough time for cooling before serving.

Combine pecans with 1/8 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in a food processor until in small but not too fine pieces. Then add 2 tbsp. of melted butter and combine again. You should have a slightly wet mixtures which can be pressed into small spring forms (about 5 inches in diameter). Those should be lined on the bottom with parchment paper.

Tip 2: I got two small spring forms plus two small tart forms out of the pecan mixture.

Beat the cream cheese and granulated sugar until it is smooth. Make sure the cream cheese is room temperature, it will make the mixing easier. Then add the sour cream and cornstarch and combine well. Add the egg and egg yolks one at a time until each is combined before adding a new one. Finally add the salt and 1/2 tsp. vanilla them mix again before pouring into the forms.

In a small bowl, combine 1 tsp. cinnamon with the rest of the brown sugar, then add 1/2 tbsp. melted butter as well as  1/2 tbsp. maple syrup and 1 tsp. heavy cream. Combine with a wire whisk and swirl it over the cheese cake batter. Using a knife or fork go through the batter to distribute the syrup, making sure not to combine it too much.

Place all forms onto a cookie sheet with a rim in case they overflow and bake at 180°C for 40 min. or until set, being light brown.

Tip 3: Small tart forms are shallower and thus bake quicker and small spring forms. Check to make sure they do not burn.

Serve the warm cheese cake with Caramel sauce and chopped pecans or some whipped cream if desired.

Happy Baking!

This year I had no time to make anything special for Valentine’s Day because I am teach that very day so no time for romance. However, last year I made a couple of things and I’d like to share them with you.

I also have to admit that I am not all to much a fan of the 14th of February. Not that we should share love and be happy, but I’d rather get a random bouquet of flowers during any day of the year than on Valentine’s Day. It feels kind of forced you know.

Last year I made some cute little Heart Cake Pops for a friend. Not that I look at them I notice that I really used an interesting ankle to put them on the lollipop stick.

I also made Heart Shaped Doughnuts. I found the baking pan at Bulk Barn and just couldn’t resist. I was just too cute. They turned out really well, although the icing was not quite what I expected.

The Red Velvet Cake was made the very night of Valentine’s Day last year. As soon as my husband was out of the house I went to work and decorated the cake. I even made the fondant myself, I admit, the colour is not the best but it was the first time ever making and colouring fondant. The cake was made the day before because I only had 3 hours until his return.

You can also make heart cakes without special pans. Melissa showed us how to do that, check the link here.

I hope you have a wonderful day and Happy Baking!