Grand Canyon adventure

I find it interesting, that while life and of necessity both making and eating food continue, writing about this may not. At the end of April I was gifted with a 6 day hike in the Grand Canyon. My best friend and I decided last fall to do this trip together and it not surprisingly was our 'best trip ever'. We hiked long and hard and were gifted with being part of this amazing piece of our world. We of course ate many energy bars and trail mix as well as meals prepared by the lodges and hotels. My favourite meals were prepared by our 2 guides, Travis and Marc, Travis being a foodie extraordinaire. A banquet 'fit for royalty' was prepared at the bottom of Havasu Canyon on a small BBQ. (..and yes, our guides carried all ingredients all of the way down in their packs) It started with grilled Brie with blueberries (see photo)on French bread; grilled fresh salmon served with home-made pepper, onion, cilantro, pineapple salsa (see photo) and chicken grilled in balsalmic vinegar and olive oil; grilled portabello mushrooms and couscous with grilled zucchini and asparagus....since I have been back, I have made a conscientious decision to become vegetarian. Knowing more about factory farming as well as reading the amazing book "Birdology" by Sy Montgomery has opened my eyes and heart to the creatures who have graced my table with their flesh. So....I am experimenting with tofu, have started to include 3 Tbsp of hemp hearts in my breakfast porridge and have opened a new chapter in my life and love of food. In actual fact, I think that I am just picking up the pieces of my initial venture into being a veg that started about 25 years ago and just fell by the wayside over the years. Stay tuned for more recipes and learnings.....Love to all

pot luck dishes

I recently went to a pot-luck and decided to bring a salad and dessert...healthy for the former and decadent for the latter :) I found a grain salad recipe in the Stop cookbook (I have not yet found a recipe I don't love from this cookbook!). The options for ingredients are pretty much endless and I used quinoa and bulghur as the grains, sweet red pepper, carrots and cucumber for the veggies, cilantro and parsley the herbs, cumin, curry and paprika the spices, grapeseed oil with lemon (yum!) for the oil with cider vinegar and cranberries, pecans, pumpkin seeds and dried apricots....it made a large bowl and was absolutely delicious as well as colourful and of course very healthy. It is one of those dishes that I can feel my body saying thank you for.

The dessert I decided upon was for a chocolate pie. I got the recipe from the internet which included an oreo cookie crust. I wanted to make the filling from scratch of course and used a high quality chocolate. It was well worth it and while a bit like a pudding filling rather than a solid pie, it got raving reviews. I used an organic cane sugar for the sweetener. I intend to experiment with agave soon, not in this recipe but perhaps for granola...who knows???

Sis' granola

A while ago (months actually) my sister gave me her recipe for home-made granola and I have just made it for the first time.....it is absolutely the best, most nutritious granola I have ever had. Thanks Sis!!! I had a blast buying various types of grains and nuts to try and then mixed and matched when it came to putting it all together. As I love cranberries and dried apricots, these were the fruits I chose to add...As it makes a large batch I am hoping that it won't get stale before I eat it all, if I decide not to give any away, which I may. I am thinking that I will post the recipe at the local bulk store where I have made friends of the owners and they are teaching me some of the business, as well as bring some in for them to try. The world can only get better with happy thoughts and bodies, fueled by good, healthy food...YUM!!!

...best ever zucchini loaf

I actually have been both baking and cooking over the last couple of weeks and just haven't made the time to post. I am the proud owner of an amazing cookbook from The Stop, a community kitchen in north-west Toronto. In fact, I was so blown away by most of the recipes in this book, I took the folks there a Christmas braid as a treat. As my sisters will testify, these braids are a family gift tradition that are usually reserved for good friends. The recipe for zucchini loaf has cranberries and pecans as well as being sweetened with mostly apple sauce. It was a huge hit at my 'condo-warming get together, as was the delicious minestrone soup from the same cookbook. The soup had fennel, beans not too much tomato....YUM!!!

...on the bake again...hehhe

Well, after the visitors, came preparing to move and once I started to empty the cupboards of flour, bran, wheat germ etc etc and after that the baking dishes that found their way into boxes....well it seemed like baking was just not going to happen for about a month....and that is just how it is.

So now that I am nicely (or at least 'good enough') settled in to a new condo with a brand new stove....I have started to re-stock the baking cupboard and tonight I made both a chocolate 'wacky cake' (it is a simple recipe, not all that healthy, but not to unhealthy either that can be made right in the pan:)) and also some carrot muffins and cake. I am wonderfully pleased with the oven, which is cooking at the temp it says it is and doesn't have any 'hot spots'..so YES I do intend to bake, cook and write more in coming weeks. The carrot muffins have both whole wheat and spelt flour and the sugar is reduced a bit and is an organic something or other....will follow up on this soon.

Day 18???...whatever

It has been 'many a day' since I have done much cooking or baking, hence the posting has not happened either. I was busy entertaining a friend and her daughter from out of province and somehow just got busy doing other things this past week, which did not include baking. I did make some banana muffins with whole wheat, flax and limited butter....they are terribly wholesome...and a bit on the dry side. So next time I will add some applesauce. After all, if it works for blueberry muffins, why not banana? So now I have some company...again....here is the photo...will bake and write more soon.

Day 17....same day, more baking

Well then, since I had already dirtied the large bowl for the pizza crust, I figured that I might as well re-use this as well as the flour and other items on the counter and throw together the ingredients that I had ready for some energy bars. The recipe called for sunflower seeds and dried fruit, in addition to granola, flour, rolled oats, an egg, a bit of oil and some spice...I added coconut and used maple syrup as I had forgotten to buy honey... I also do not own an 8" cake pan so I made them in a round pie plate. Into the oven they went, right after the pizza was done as they needed a much lower temp. About 25 minutes later and they were a nice light brown on the edges and pronounced done. A little while later my friend arrived for her pizza critique and ended up munching on the squares, for at least 10 minutes, in spite of announcing that she doesn't like this type of thing....seemed to be making an exception. At any rate, they tasted even better the next day.