Happy New Year everyone!!!

I'm off to do some pre-drinking before we go clubbing. Be safe tonight everybody, and best of luck for the new year!

Canadian Cooking for the win!

I used to work at the front desk of a travel hostel in a past life. Every now and again I'd have people who would ask me what Canadian food was, and once you got beyond Timbits, Poutine and Maple syrup, most people couldn't name anything. In actual fact, Canada is a buffet of culinary amazingness that never ceases to surprise me. For one thing, we have amazing fusion foods since we're so multicultural. Second, each region and province has their own traditions and staple ingredients that make a Sunday night's dinner all the more unique.
I think it's in my blood that I love coastal food. I was born in Vancouver in British Columbia to a pair of food-loving parents that took advantage of the local fare as much as possible where ever we've lived. I was lucky enough to do some traveling in Canada while I was working at the hostel and did a week long tour of the Maritimes. I cheaped out on a lot the things involved in the trip, I got the flight, tour and accommodations on sale so I could treat myself to the wonderful cuisine of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. I also lucked out and did my trip just as lobster and crab season crossed over each other. It was amazing.

It's been a few years since that trip, and I do miss the food a lot. Fortunately, I was in a Value Village a few months back and may have found the answer to my problem: "Nova Scotia Cooking" by Heather Mackenzie and Charles Lief. I finally got around to trying one of the recipes today now that I have a break from school. Herbed Biscuits! I think, if there are any left, they'll be great with tomorrow's planned dinner. 

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
Full recipe makes 18, half recipe makes about 10.

In mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in herbs and spices.
Add butter and cut into flour mixture with a fork until it resembles a coarse crumb.
Add milk and stir gently, taking care to not overmix as biscuits will be tough,
Turn dough out onto a floured board and quickly knead 5 or 6 times. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick an use a floured biscuit cutter or glass to cut out biscuits.
Place on an ungreased baking pan and bake in preheated 400 f (200C) over for 15-17 minutes (My oven seems to be super strong, ten minutes was more than enough).

Time for a makeover!

Makeover!
I figured it was about time to bite the bullet and attempt to personalize the bog a wee bit. I'm not really tech oriented, so I figured this would take a fair amount of swearing to get right. I was right too. Half an hour and many tweaked filed later, I have a new picture to represent the blog! It's also another creative use for Christmas leftovers, since the picture is of a toasted turkey, panko broccoli and smoked Gruyere sandwich. Nice topper too. 

This is the slightly late picture of how I wrapped my family's presents this year. It kind of happened by accident to, I was watching a DVD of a TV program and decided to be slightly productive while I was watching it. What I didn't realize while I was cutting dozens of paper floraly bits was that the TV program was 5, 1 hour sections. I spent a lot of time in front of the television that night..

The presents look awesome though! This one is a CD for my Dad. Yay for double sided wrapping paper from Ikea!

X-Mas Dinner Aftermath

The Christmas dinner was a huge success! Everything was cooked perfectly and everybody ate everything, and had seconds! I don't have any pictures from the day, or the prep the day before since my roommate and I were a bit preoccupied, but one of our buddies took a lot of pictures to make up for it. I'm figuring it's in the 200+ range, including Triffle prep the night before. I'll put some of them up when I see his copies up in the book of face.

An issue now of course, is leftovers. I've been snacking on the extra roast potatoes for the last day or two since they taste great cold, and the leftover Triffle was my breakfast the day after dinner. I was able to use the extra egg whites from the Triffle and some of the leftover panko broccoli to make a really mice scrambled egg breakfast this morning. Real easy too, just flash the broccoli in some olive oil over medium heat and pour in the egg whites. Already had the garlic in it!

To celebrate the end of the Christmas dinner, I decided to make another mess in the kitchen and attempt to make fudge for the first time! I found this great recipe by Andrew Lewis of Up Craft fame, featured on the Craftzine website. Not only was the recipe for regular vanilla and chocolate fudge, he includes variations for chili chocolate fudge, whiskey and rum! I decided to try the rum fudge as a present to some of my friends this year. The original recipe can be found here!

Rum Fudge:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup of evaporated milk
8 tbsp of unsalted butter
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
4 tbsp rum

Directions:

Step 1: Put all of the ingredients into a large saucepan, with the exception of the rum, whiskey, and vanilla essence, if you are using it.

Step 2: Fill a bowl with cold water and place it near to the stove. You will need this water later on.

Step 3: Bring the saucepan slowly to the boil, stirring the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon. Boiling the mixture too quickly can cause the sugar in the mixture to stick and burn, so take it slow and steady.

Step 4: Keep the mixture at a steady boil, stirring all the time. If you stop stirring even for a few seconds, the mixture will stick to the pan and start to burn.

Step 5: After a while, the mixture will start to thicken and will leave a thin, glossy coating on the back of a wooden spoon. You may also notice that the boiling becomes slightly less vigorous, with fewer bubbles on the surface of the mixture. These are both signs that the fudge is almost cooked, and it usually takes between 10 and 30 minutes of boiling time to reach this stage.

Step 6: Test the consistency of the fudge by dripping a small amount of it into a bowl of cold water. If the mixture forms a soft ball or tear-drop shape as soon as it hits the water, then the mixture is cooked and can be removed from the heat.

Step 7: If you are using vanilla essence or rum, stir it in now. Be aware that the boiling temperature of the rum is lower than the boiling temperature of the sugar, so it will boil as soon as you add it to the fudge mixture. Make sure there are no naked flames nearby that could ignite the alcohol vapors.

Step 8: Allow the fudge mixture to cool for 5 minutes, and then begin beating air into it with a wooden spoon. Continue beating until the texture of the fudge becomes slightly grainy and stiff. This will take approximately 20 minutes, and the exercise will do wonders for your tennis serve.

SAFETY NOTE: In case you are wondering why I do not recommend using an electric beater to do this job, it is because at this stage of the fudge making process, you are essentially working with molten sugar. An electric beater can easily throw molten sugar out of the mixing bowl, resulting in serious burns.

If you choose to ignore the risk of serious burns (and take sensible precautions against molten, airborne confectionery), you will find that an electric beater will take about 5 minutes to whip the fudge to a much lighter consistency than is possible with a wooden spoon. (Take heed to this warning! Fudge seems to retain heat for a very long period of time and can still burn after being long removed from a heat source)

Step 9: Line a suitably sized baking tray with parchment paper, and pour the fudge mixture in. Let the mixture cool, and then divide into bite-sized pieces. It is easiest to cut the fudge into squares while it is still slightly warm, and then wait for it to cool completely before turning the pieces out onto a plate.

If your fudge doesn't set solid, there is no need to panic. You can just pop it back into a saucepan, boil it for a few more minutes, and then repeat steps 8 and 9.

After the fudge had been sitting in the baking tray for about a half hour I put the whole thing in the fridge to aid with the setting up. I am really happy with my first fudge attempt, it came out really well and tastes amazing! This is coming from someone who isn't a huge fan of rum too! I'm sure my friends will be quite happy.

Christmas Update!

I'm on holiday!! Finally!! Sleep.

First things first, getting those Christmas cards out. I love getting handwritten cards from my relatives, and I love sending them. Every year in the week after Christmas my Mom and I wander through the local Chapters and get all the Christmas cards packs for 30-50% off. As long as you remember which relative gets which card and avoid giving them the same one next year, it works quite well.

Second, the menu for our Christmas dinner party has been decided!

Turkey

Candied Yams

Roasted Potatoes

Salad with homemade Caesar dressing

Asparagus

Panko Garlic Broccoli

Raspberry 'Triffle' and assorted wines, teas and coffees for dessert

My roommate is in charge of the turkey, as per usual, since I've never had turkey for X-mas during my lifetime. Neither of my parents liked it, so it was never served to myself or my sister. I still get strange looks from people when I tell them I've never had turkey for Christmas or Thanksgiving. I'm doing the Panko Broccoli and the 'Triffle,' both recipes that have been made in my family for a while now. Triffle has been a festive, holiday dessert for many years and I always look forward to it. Now, to see if I make it properly... the bright side is that I can make it the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight for maximum rum soakage.

D.I.Y. Photography HARDCORE!

Over the last month or so, I have been working on a big project from my 19th century photographic processes and materials class. We were instructed to experiment and recreate a 19th century photographic process, and keep it as close as possible to the traditional process. We had some of our presentations today, and we've got a wide range of photographs, everything from ambrotypes, tintypes, calotypes and albumen prints. I am so glad my presentation is done and I can hand in my lab book tomorrow. So tired.... and woozy from a variety of funky chemicals.

I decided to make tintypes! Myself and my group members made a whack load
of unique, one--of-a-kind photographs on metal plates. I made the main decision to do photographs on metal plates since I figured that using glass plates (like in Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes) and being a klutz probably wouldn't go well together. Turns out that that was a good decision, since in one day our glass varnish bottle exploded and the glass mortar and pestle fell apart in my hands. We weren't having the best luck that day.
This is a real, 19th century tintype, eg, what it's supposed to look like! Note the hand tinted rosy cheeks to make "Grandma Carmen" look less dead!

This project had us using the 19th century process as much as possible, and in our case we made our own emulsion and developer from scratch. We used a few ready-made chemicals and materials, mostly the pre-cut metal plates and commercial rapid fix. There was a fair amount of trial and error involved in this project, we have a lot of messed up plates.

Mmmmm... Developer.

I started with a colour photo I happened to have had lying around at the time, I think my final results turned out fairly well.

Yep, the tintype is reversed. Generally speaking, there was a bit of a loss in detail, the lighting effects on the wall are completely gone. Still looks awesome though, I'm quite quite happy with it.

The best part about this whole thing, it means I've only got one last assignment before I'm done for the semester! Thankfully we got an extension on this essay, since it was supposed to be due on the same day as this presentation. I probably wouldn't be alive at this point had I had to do both for today. My consumption of real food has gone down in the last few weeks with crunch time. Still eating well, but the time to cook fun or new stuff hasn't existed in a while. Starting this upcoming weekend though, back to real food and crafts! My roommate and I plan to have a Christmas dinner party before she heads back to the island for the holidays. Updates will come soon with the menu plan!