simple can be fancy

I find that taking photos for my blog can be quite trying at times. It's either too dark or I can't be bothered to set up for a good shot or my camera batteries have died. Often times, when I don't have a great photo, I'll just scrap my post and wait for the next recipe and photograph that works. But this time, I just couldn't do that. Sure, it was too dark on Friday night when I snapped this soy/ginger/blood orange trout, but the fish was so delicious and easy that I had to write about it. The photo may be lacklustre, but this recipe isn't. It's simple enough that you can put this dish together within 5 minutes, pop it in the oven and the results will be so delicious and impressive that you can serve it to the fanciest dinner guest and get rave reviews. It's that good.

soy, ginger & blood orange baked trout fillets
2 trout (or salmon) fillets
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 T Japanese soy sauce
juice & zest of 1 blood orange
1 clove of garlic, grated or finely minced

Preheat oven to 375. In a small oven proof dish, lay fish fillets skin side down. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the soy sauce, orange juice & zest, garlic and ginger. Pour over fish and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until fish is just done. Remove from oven and serve.

simple can be fancy

I find that taking photos for my blog can be quite trying at times. It's either too dark or I can't be bothered to set up for a good shot or my camera batteries have died. Often times, when I don't have a great photo, I'll just scrap my post and wait for the next recipe and photograph that works. But this time, I just couldn't do that. Sure, it was too dark on Friday night when I snapped this soy/ginger/blood orange trout, but the fish was so delicious and easy that I had to write about it. The photo may be lacklustre, but this recipe isn't. It's simple enough that you can put this dish together within 5 minutes, pop it in the oven and the results will be so delicious and impressive that you can serve it to the fanciest dinner guest and get rave reviews. It's that good.

soy, ginger & blood orange baked trout fillets
2 trout (or salmon) fillets
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 T Japanese soy sauce
juice & zest of 1 blood orange
1 clove of garlic, grated or finely minced

Preheat oven to 375. In a small oven proof dish, lay fish fillets skin side down. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the soy sauce, orange juice & zest, garlic and ginger. Pour over fish and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until fish is just done. Remove from oven and serve.

snow day

Vancouver is in the midst of a winter wonderland and I'm certainly not complaining. Snow is a rarity here in winter and although I'm favorable to the warmer temperatures we get here on the wet coast, I'm not missing all the rain. I love snow! I like how it makes everything sparkle! I like wearing mittens and sporting rosy cheeks! It's also wonderful to wear boots as something other than a fashion statement. And because Vancouverites aren't used to snow, snow days (ie. days off work/school/etc.) are just part and parcel of a little snowfall. So even though I work from home, many of my clients don't, so it's been a little quiet here in my home office, which means it's catching up time for all of my other little self-directed projects. So when nature dumps snow on my doorstep, I find that it's the perfect time to treat myself to an extended morning. Yesterday I made yogurt waffles with walnuts and caramelized bananas (the bananas were for Cornelius) and today I made scones. Mmmmm, fragrant with a heady aroma of ginger and vanilla, they were the perfect way to stretch my morning into something special. Delicious.

ginger & vanilla scones
1/2 c milk
1 egg
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1/4 c cold butter, cubed
3 T white sugar
2 T crystallized ginger, diced finely
2 T chopped walnuts
2 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix the milk and the egg together until frothy and then set aside. In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cubes of butter and crumble the mixture through with your hands until it's blended through and you have no lumps larger than a pea. Add the sugar, walnuts and ginger and encorporate into the flour. Add in the vanilla and milk mixture, reserving about a tablespoon of the milk as a glaze for later. Mix gently with a fork.

3. Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 an inch thick, and cut into 8 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with remaining egg/milk mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

snow day

Vancouver is in the midst of a winter wonderland and I'm certainly not complaining. Snow is a rarity here in winter and although I'm favorable to the warmer temperatures we get here on the wet coast, I'm not missing all the rain. I love snow! I like how it makes everything sparkle! I like wearing mittens and sporting rosy cheeks! It's also wonderful to wear boots as something other than a fashion statement. And because Vancouverites aren't used to snow, snow days (ie. days off work/school/etc.) are just part and parcel of a little snowfall. So even though I work from home, many of my clients don't, so it's been a little quiet here in my home office, which means it's catching up time for all of my other little self-directed projects. So when nature dumps snow on my doorstep, I find that it's the perfect time to treat myself to an extended morning. Yesterday I made yogurt waffles with walnuts and caramelized bananas (the bananas were for Cornelius) and today I made scones. Mmmmm, fragrant with a heady aroma of ginger and vanilla, they were the perfect way to stretch my morning into something special. Delicious.

ginger & vanilla scones
1/2 c milk
1 egg
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1/4 c cold butter, cubed
3 T white sugar
2 T crystallized ginger, diced finely
2 T chopped walnuts
2 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix the milk and the egg together until frothy and then set aside. In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cubes of butter and crumble the mixture through with your hands until it's blended through and you have no lumps larger than a pea. Add the sugar, walnuts and ginger and encorporate into the flour. Add in the vanilla and milk mixture, reserving about a tablespoon of the milk as a glaze for later. Mix gently with a fork.

3. Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 an inch thick, and cut into 8 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with remaining egg/milk mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

prepare for an ass-whoopin'

When I bake things for just me and the husband, I don't go to too much work. I like to keep things simple and relatively foolproof. But sometimes, when I'm having guests over, I like to guild the lily to make things a little bit more special. When I spotted these Ginger Gems on one of my new favorite blogs, Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit, I knew they'd be perfect for tonight's activities. What's tonight? Well, tonight, we're getting together with friends to play some board games. Ticket to Ride (Europe) and maybe some Settlers of Catan. Betchya didn't know that I was a totally competitive board game geek? Well, the truth is out. I love almost all board games (Monopoly not included) and I love these cookies. You can make them without the glaze, but why bother? Just look how pretty they are under a dazzling white lemony frosting. And that's the plan. I'm sure everyone will be so enthralled with my baking capabilities that they won't even notice just how much I'm kicking their asses!

ginger gems
(from the Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c vegan margarine, softened
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 c crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 T molasses
1 T vanilla extract
1/4 c water
2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c finely chopped walnuts

glaze ingredients:
2 1/4 T lemon juice
1.5 c powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar, margarine, oil, molasses, and vanilla. Mix well and add in the water and ginger and stir well until absorbed. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix until completely combined. Add in the chopped walnuts.

2. Drop batter by tablespoon onto a prepared cookie sheet and flatten tops slightly with your fingers. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes before removing from the pan then place on a cooling rack.

3. For the glaze, whisk the lemon juice into the powdered sugar. Dip the top of each completely-cooled cookie into the glaze and return the cookies to the cooling rack until the glaze hardens.

prepare for an ass-whoopin'

When I bake things for just me and the husband, I don't go to too much work. I like to keep things simple and relatively foolproof. But sometimes, when I'm having guests over, I like to guild the lily to make things a little bit more special. When I spotted these Ginger Gems on one of my new favorite blogs, Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit, I knew they'd be perfect for tonight's activities. What's tonight? Well, tonight, we're getting together with friends to play some board games. Ticket to Ride (Europe) and maybe some Settlers of Catan. Betchya didn't know that I was a totally competitive board game geek? Well, the truth is out. I love almost all board games (Monopoly not included) and I love these cookies. You can make them without the glaze, but why bother? Just look how pretty they are under a dazzling white lemony frosting. And that's the plan. I'm sure everyone will be so enthralled with my baking capabilities that they won't even notice just how much I'm kicking their asses!

ginger gems
(from the Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c vegan margarine, softened
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 c crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 T molasses
1 T vanilla extract
1/4 c water
2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c finely chopped walnuts

glaze ingredients:
2 1/4 T lemon juice
1.5 c powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the sugar, margarine, oil, molasses, and vanilla. Mix well and add in the water and ginger and stir well until absorbed. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix until completely combined. Add in the chopped walnuts.

2. Drop batter by tablespoon onto a prepared cookie sheet and flatten tops slightly with your fingers. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes before removing from the pan then place on a cooling rack.

3. For the glaze, whisk the lemon juice into the powdered sugar. Dip the top of each completely-cooled cookie into the glaze and return the cookies to the cooling rack until the glaze hardens.

peachy keen

The photo was taken on top of Anarchist Mountain overlooking the Okanagan desert....and all the brown forest fire smoke coming across the Washington border.

Our week-long camping trip was wonderful! We canoed on Slocan Lake, wandered around historic Greenwood, and dreamily made plans for the future. Ahhhh, I love summer roadtrips and get-aways! The food was amazing as well. The vegetarian cashew chili I prepared the first night was delicious and the left-overs made an amazing burrito dinner the second evening. Over the course of the week, we had amazing barbequed corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, delicious nectarines, and the best sandwiches from the Frog Mountain Cafe in Cresent Valley. Yum!

Back in Vancouver, I made sure to start our return to civilization on the right foot with a freshly baked batch of peach and vanilla scones for breakfast. The turned out deliciously and were great served with cold butter and a bit of cinnamon honey from the Okanagan. To carry on with the peach theme, dinner was a super-tender pork tenderloin roasted with peaches and ginger. As much as I love travelling, I sure do enjoy the comforts of home!

peach & vanilla yogurt scones
1 c white flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 T sugar
1/3 c chilled butter, diced
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 c vanilla yogurt
2 T milk
1 peach, diced

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter. With your hands, combine the flour and butter together until mixture is crumbly and the butter pieces are no larger than peas.

3. Add the vanilla extract, yogurt, milk and peaches and stir into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon. When the mixture comes together, knead the dough a few times, and then flatten dough into a disc about half an inch thick. Cut into 8 pieces, place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

pork tenderloin with peaches & ginger
1 pork tenderloin
salt & pepper
1 t olive oil
2 peaches, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 T chopped ginger
1 T chopped garlic
1 t molasses
1 T soy sauce
1 t hot sauce
juice of half a lemon

1. Heat oven to 450 F.

2. Sprinkle salt & pepper over the pork tenderloin. The secret to a tender roast is to sear the meat, so this step is very important! In a heavy cast iron pot, heat the olive oil and sear the meat on all sides. Turn off heat.

3. Add the peaches and onion to the pot. Pour the remaining ingredients over top and mix with a wooden spoon. Cover the pot and place into hot oven for about 30 minutes or so. Remove lid and continue cooking for another 15 minutes before removing from oven. Slice and serve.

short and sweet

Tonight's dinner was left over bbq pork/vegetable stirfry that I made last night to rave reviews from Cornelius. Dessert? Gingerbread chocolate chip cookies from a Martha Stewart recipe. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as I didn't flatten the dough, nor did I wait 2 hours for the cookie dough to chill. I let it chill exactly 15 minutes and just scooped the batter out with a spoon and skipped the added sugar bit too. It made 30 yummy cookies that are crispy out the outside and chewy good on the inside. So good.

Chocolate Chip & Ginger Cookies

7 oz chocolate chips
1 1/2 c plus 1 T flour
1 1/4 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 T cocoa powder
8 T softened butter
1 T ginger
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c molasses
1 t baking soda

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

2. In another bowl, beat butter and ginger until fluffy. Add brown sugar and molasses and mix until combined.

3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Mix half of flour mixture into the butter mixture, then add the baking-soda mixture and the rest of the flour mixture. Mix in chocolate chips.

4. Heat oven to 325°. Roll dough into balls and chill for 15 minutes. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTE: The next day, these cookies were hard as delicious little stones. Still tasty, but they lost that soft/crisp edge.

curious orange.

butternut squash & apple soup

This soup is still simmering away on the stove, so I have no idea how exactly it will taste, but if I can go by smell alone, "Damn! This is fine soup!"

1 small butternut squash
1 granny smith apple
1 onion
1 T butter
3 cloves garlic
water to cover
vegetable bullion
1 t thyme
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger
1 t cumin
1 t corriander
1 t red pepper flakes
1 T curry paste
salt to taste

Melt butter into a heavy pot. Add the cubed onion, garlic and apple to the pot and saute until translucent and soft. Add a dash of salt. Add cubed squash to the pot and mix in all the spices. Cover the vegetables with water and let simmer until squash is soft and the mixture is fragrant, about 30 minutes. Taste and reseason if necessary. Puree and serve with a dollup of yogurt.

ginger pineapple chicken -- the speedy way

Last night I told Cornelius I would have dinner ready by the time he returned from doing laundry. Time wise, I didn't hold up my end of the bargin, but it wasn't for lack of trying. He left with 2 loads to take over to our friendly (but slightly scary) neighbourhood laundromat and I searched the cupboard and fridge for ideas.

I had frozen chicken thighs, a can of pineapple, an onion, some celery, a large knob of fresh ginger and a few assorted items to make a nice sauce. Ah, some kind of sweet/sour sauced chicken, I thought! So that is what I set out to do.

I nuked the frozen chicken for a few minutes on a low setting. Still half frozen, I stirfried them with some garlic and ginger. I'm sure I was breaking some kind of rule by using still frozen chicken, but I was running out of time and I had a growling stomach to prove it. I dumped in a bit of vegetable broth once everything was nice and golden brown, threw in some red chilis, and put on a lid hoping that all the simmering would do the trick in fully cooking the chicken.

While things were gently bubbling away on the stove, I added some brown sugar, juice from the can of pineapple tidbits, soy sauce, white vinegar, more ginger & garlic and some sesame oil to the the remaining vegetable broth that I had left in a measuring cup. In another bowl, I made a slurry with a few tablespoons of the above mixture and some cornstarch.

It was around this part of the story when Cornelius did return with the loads of clean laundry and I didn't have things ready. No worries, as he quickly opened the cookie tin and started snacking on a couple of peanut butter cookies.

When I poked around the simmering chicken and noticed that things were indeed going as planned, i added some chopped celery and onions and the pineapple tidbits to the mix and then dumped in the sauce and some of the slurry to thicken everything up. I let the mixture bubble away for about another 10 minutes or so and then I served our meal up over some sticky rice.

Dinner went surprisingly well. We had clean clothes and our bellies were full. Not bad for a Sunday evening.