Cookbook Challenge: comfort foods for the winter that wasn't

With apologies to the rest of Canada,  (who hate us west-coasters at the best of times),  this winter has been more like spring.  BBQ has seen more action than the slow-cooker.  As a skier, I am brazen enough to complain about the warm winter we had, which doesn't tend to get a lot of sympathy from anyone.  If only we could ship some snow from the Maritimes onto the top of Whistler.

Skiing with Rich in Feb

This is what the hill normally looks like in April or May, not February!

But even in a comfortable winter, I love comfort foods.  Winter is the best time to indulge in soups and stews.  I didn't get this when I was little, and would beg my mom to make lasagna and meatloaf in July.

Cookbook Challenge 25: South Indian Lentils & Vegetables from The Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Shehzad Husain and Rafi Fernandez

That is a bit of a mouthful.  This is a big book which I brought home from India with me in 1997 as a gift for my mom.  I have conveniently forgotten how heavy my backpack was, but I'm sure if this was my idea of a good souvenir, it was a seriously heavy bag!

After owning it for awhile & not using it, my mom gave it to me and occasionally asks me to make Indian food.  I have not been very adventurous, but the book actually has lots of great looking recipes.

The one I chose was hardy and yummy and easy to make.  Also, Finley liked it, which is a huge score these days.  It's one of those kitchen sink kind of meals where you can throw in whichever veggies you happen to have on hand.

Cookbook Challenge 26: French Onion Soup from Heartsmart cooking for Family and Friends by Bonnie Stern

I don't know where this book came from.  Other than Jaime Oliver, I think Bonnie Stern is the cookbook author most represented on my shelf.  Her stuff is always reliable - tastes good, easy to prepare and healthy.

I've never been into French Onion Soup, but Derek and my in-laws are serious connoisseurs.  I made this especially for Derek.  I mostly just liked the cheesy bread on top!

Cookbook Challenge 27: Chicken Pot Pie from "Dinner: A love story", by Jenny Rosenstrach

This wonderful book was a gift from my sister Briana.  It's part cookbook, part journal, part guide on how to bring your family & besties together to eat, drink and be merry.  This idea really strikes a chord with me - growing up, we ate dinner together pretty much every night.  The whole family, and often boyfriends and friends too.  It was so great to all sit down & catch up on our day, laugh & joke and eat good food.  Not to get super geeky here, but research shows that the benefits of families eating together are huge - improved communication, relationship building, more nutritious food, modelling manners.  Obviously that is pretty much why my siblings and I are models of healthy, polite and communicative human beings!

Anyway, back to the book.  It's great.  She also has a blog:  http://www.dinneralovestory.com.  Thanks Briana for introducing me to this great book & blog.

Chicken pot pie is comfort food through and through.  It was delicious!

At our house, Finley is not quite on the same eating schedule as us, but we have most breakfasts together and dinner a few times a week.  Sometimes a guy likes to be independent at his own little table though: 

Cookbook Challenge 28: Indonesian Chicken from Whitewater Cooks with Passion, by Shelley Adams

This is cookbook author who is the third most represented on my shelf (I think this is incorrect grammar, but I can't seem to figure out the right way to say it).  I got this book for Christmas.  As compared to the first three whitewater books, my initial flip through this book didn't light me on fire.  The recipes looked good, but nothing special.    Finally I had to just jump in.  I made the Havana Chicken, but I won't blog about that one as it was only OK, it was burned, and I got a bad burn and did an F-bomb dance on the back porch while BBQing it.  

My friend recommended the Indonesian chicken.  It was easy and delicious and no sensitive ears were harmed in the making of this dinner.  

Here's what I've been doing instead of skiing this "winter": LOVING my new bike!

Hello... is anyone out there?!

I've been a very negligent blogger lately.  I am shocked to see that my last blog post is over two months old.  Up until that point, 2014 was shaping up to be a decent blog year for Throckmorton & I.  Not incredibly prolific, but a steady output never the less.  Then boom!  We disappear.

Well, not to worry, as we are back!

It's Monday evening, but it feels like Sunday, as we have just enjoyed a long weekend.  Today is "Family Day" in B.C.  It is wonderful to have a long weekend in February, and I think it might be the most relaxing long weekend of the year.  As opposed to the glorious warm summer long weekends, where the impulse is to get out of town, travel, camp, bike, cram the maximal enjoyment into 3 little days off, a long weekend in February says "Hey, it's cold out there.  Slow down.  Sleep in.  Have another cup of tea."  Which is mostly what we did.

I won't lie, I would've like to have spent my long weekend on my skis.  But it has been a dreadful season at Whistler.  It's been one Pineapple express after another.

We had one snowy weekend in town, but it didn't last long.

I started Family Weekend at work, helping to welcome a new baby girl to the world.  It was a lovely start to the weekend especially as it was a long-time patient of  mine and I also got to help deliver her first daughter 2 years ago.  Many congrats to them!!

The rest of the weekend was spent with our little family.  We had a yummy brunch on Saturday - pancakes & egg muffins (new recipe!)  I snuck out for a quick soggy ride while Finley napped.  In the evening Derek & I went out for a lovely date while our nanny looked after Finley.

Sunday we met up with some of Finley's friends at Little Sneakers.  Imagine a gymnasium filled with balls, climbing structures, ride-on toys & little cars, bikes etc.  Now add 25 or so children.  Mayhem.  Finley loves it!

Today I had the bright idea to take Finley down to the Aquarium.  It was raining.  It was a holiday.  I'm not sure what part of me thought that I alone came up with the idea of taking my kid to the Aquarium.  It was completely nuts!  I think there were more kids than fish today.

Finley hasn't been to the Aquarium before & I thought he'd be pretty excited to see fish, belugas, dolphins, frogs, otters.   But no, it turns out that the doors & stairs at the Aquarium are far more exciting than the exhibits!  We met up with his buddies Sam & Robbie and for a while they were entertained with a marine-themed sing-a-long.  He was starting to lose his patience when they announced that we were going to sing Baby Beluga.  Finley knows that song & we often sing along to our book before bed.  Unfortunately, when the band-leader produced her copy of the book, Finley was quite upset to see it.  He didn't understand how this Aquarium employee got her hands on HIS book.  Much crying and grabbing at the employee ensured.  We took our leave.

We stopped to say Bye to the belugas on the way out.  Thank to Briana & Ted for the annual membership.  We have many Aquarium visits in our future!

Fall is flying by!

It's always surprising how quickly the Christmas decorations go up after Halloween.  I used to think it was an eternity between Oct 31 and Dec 25.  This year the calendar is moving at warp speed.   As bad is it is to put up the Christmas decorations immediately after Halloween, I'm sure that posting a Halloween blog post in the weeks before Christmas is a crime on the same level.  So I had better post this quickly, because the snow is falling outside tonight and December is only days away!

Finley loves to watch the train go past the window of our house.  He gets so excited when he hears the horn.  I thought he would be very excited to go for a special train ride at the West Coast Railway Museum; turns out, he was not super thrilled.

I think we'll give the Polar Express a miss this year, given the enthusiasm he had for the Mystery of the Magic Pumpkin Tour.  I thought the train was pretty awesome - they were playing Ghostbusters & all the employees were in costume.  They took us to a pumpkin patch where we picked out the perfect pumpkin to take home.

They had a carving station and a bunch of crafts happening, but it was getting close to nap time, so we had to go.  I broke my back trying to carry both my pumpkin and my munchkin back to the car.  It felt like it was about 5 km, thought it was probably 500m.  It's pretty sad what I will do for something free.  Even a free pumpkin which rotted before Halloween night (which make it look more ghoulish, so was actually a good thing... or so I told myself!)

For Halloween day, I couldn't wait to get dressed into our costumes.  It turned out that the costume I got for Finley was a little too small, but he rocked it anyway.  He was so darn adorable that I was inspired to dress up in costume that enhanced his Halloween look.

Ladies and gentleman, I bring you Princess Leia & Chewbacca:

I had the day off of work, so I took Chewie to a Halloween party at a community play group. We did arts & crafts, had special treats for snack and even trick or treated!

Next year Finley will be old enough to chose his own costume - I can't wait to see what he will want!

Winter seems to be arriving this weekend and it's chilly out.  We've been cooking lots of comfort foods lately, and I've got some cook book challenges in the wings.... so there will be more posts to come!  Soon, I hope!

Fall Firsts

There is lots to love about fall.  Here are just a few of the things that I enjoy about the season:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Cozy sweaters
3. Beautiful colours in the forest
4. Halloween
5. Ski season is around the corner!

We've had a great autumn so far.  Actually, with the weather we've been having, it was starting to feel like an extended summer.  But not to worry, the rain is here, and it's here in a big way!

Our first fall event happened before it was fall.  Every year there is a Fair in town - the Brackendale Fall Fair.  I had heard that it was great, but I'd never been.  This year we went to check it out & it was awesome.  There was live music, a petting zoo, lots of food vendors, a farmer's market & pretty much everyone in town was there.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!

Biking in fall is awesome - the crisp air, the colourful leaves littering the trail, the tacky dirt on the trail.  I got a new bike in July and it has been SO MUCH FUN!  It is like the One Ring of bikes - it performs well in all conditions.  I even took it to the bike park this weekend & it was perfect.

Last weekend Finley and I planted some new foliage on the decks to brighten things up.  I did most of the work, but Finley kept me company while he man-handled my decorative peppers.  My new approach to the potted garden is to use perennials and just add some colourful annuals around the edge according to the season.  I'm hoping it will be less work.  I can use my extra time to power-wash the deck!

Let's face it, it's not quite as easy to get out and about in the pouring rain.  Here we are are enjoying a rain-free day at the river.

Back at home, Finley is into all the classic games.  Hide and seek:

I wanted to brave a turkey this year, but I didn't stop to consider the details of that plan.  So when I went to order our free-range organic turkey and was told the smallest bird was 12lbs, I thought that might be a bit much for two adults and one baby.  It was a bit late to have other people over, so I decided to do a roast chicken instead.

You may remember that I'm not that good at roasts & I have an inexplicable fear of handling full carcasses of meat.  I am better now, having BBQed whole chickens.  Still, I wouldn't say that traditional meals are a strong suite of mine.

Sounds like time for a Cookbook Challenge!

Cookbook Challenge #25: Thanksgiving Dinner for Two from Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver

We got this wonderful book as a gift from Derek's Dad & Step-mom.  We - as in both of us - Derek and I got this book.  Notice Jamie says right on the front cover that we can rediscover how to cook simple, delicious, affordable meals.  I'm not sure if Bruce & Sharon thought that Derek might crack this book & try some new dishes, but I have to admit that I had that thought when I saw the book.  More of a fantasy, really.  I don't think Jamie has Derek convinced yet, but perhaps he just hasn't been hungry enough to try yet.  (Ask him about the first time he made his famous tomato soup, or stir-fry.... driven by hunger and wife MIA!)

Anyway, I thought Jamie could help me with my first roast chicken & the appropriate fixings for a transitional-ish Thanksgiving dinner.

"Perfect Roast Chicken":

"A consistently good gravy" (my first gravy!):

(tastes better than it looks, and I did strain out the veggies etc!)

"Baked Carrots in a Bag":

"Baked French Potatoes":

Everything turned out really well!  Jamie Oliver's cookbooks are usually pretty straight-foward and easy to follow, once you get used to his random measurements (dash of this, handful of that!)

Since only 50% of the dinner guests like Pumpkin Pie, but 100% of the guests love the Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake from Xocolatl, we had the latter.  With Pumpkin chocolates on it!