window love

photo credit Ami

learning a new skill

I grew up cooking with mum in a spacious kitchen; I should also mention the rule in our household was "if you cook, you don't clean up." The result was not bumping elbows and definitely not cleaning as you went. I am not a tidy chef; I have been known to dirty every pot, pan, and counter surface available to me while cooking a meal. So what happens when you take an explosive chef and move her into a cramped Upper West Side kitchen? A lot of complaining that the sink was too small, that the counters were too tiny, that the kittens get under foot! I can definitely say that I used the hot summer weather as an excuse to make a lot of sandwiches. New York's weather is getting a little more autumnal and I've been craving heartier dishes. Tonight I made chicken stew with biscuits and I cleaned as I cooked! I have to admit, it's nice to sit down to eat and know that I don't have to get up to clean.

banyan tree mayakoba

Much overdue honeymoon. Swimming in our pool while raining was perfection, Playa Del Carmen rain is not Victoria rain.

chicken stew with biscuits

Ina Garten, let me count the ways you love rich food. I have learned to replace all the cream and half&half in this recipe with milk. I have learned to cut down on the amount of butter. I use organic frozen veggies so I don't have to parboil carrots. I have learned to make a half recipe, 8 portions?! Who are you feeding with those giant sized portions? However, with all the amendments required this is pure comfort food and I adore it.

On another note: It is also impossible to take a picture of stew that looks good.

gratuitous cat post

How can you not love that face?


Sometimes I wish I had a top hat and a monocle for this little man.


That is all.

touch of sea salt

I completely blame Jojo for my new addiction. And by blame, maybe I mean holy crap how did I not know about this until now?!

shake shack sunday

This past Sunday, Ami and I went outside to enjoy the sun and just happened to both be craving burgers. Now normally, we deny the existence of Shake Shack just a few blocks west of our place to save ourselves from morbid obesity but sometimes you just have to give into the desire for all things delicious.


Seriously, it tastes as delicious as it looks.


My first "Arnold Palmer," aka lemonade mixed with iced tea. Truly scrumptious! (Anyone else just have Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flash backs?) I also love that you eat outside at the Madison Square location and even with snow still on the ground it was busy!

tumblr obsession

I am currently obsessed with To My Wife tumblr. The one above made me laugh out loud to the point where I woke up sleeping afternoon cats. They were very unimpressed and luckily I managed to capture the pre and post-laugh moments. Note: the laughter was due to the fact that I have found airplane boarding passes from at least 3 years ago in Ami's jean pockets.




I do love how pissed Boris looks. Sorry for quality, iPhone's camera fails at dealing with black vs grey cat.

freezing rain

Icicles on my AC unit and week old snow that is slowly turning into an ice cube.

gobi paratha for the win

Gobi Paratha is possibly the favourite meal I've learned to make from my mother-in-law. Flatbread stuffed with spicy cauliflower mixture that you eat with yoghurt and chutney? Yum!


Start by grating the cauliflower florets, spread out on a towel and leave to dry overnight. Add garam masala, chili pepper, ajawain and salt. Note: ajawain is not required, it just helps with digestion.


Make the dough with chapati flour and water. I learned to how to do this by feeling the dough and watching, so I don't have the best idea of the ratio.


Roll out two discs and pile on the cauliflower mixture. Put the other disc on-top and roll them out together!


Cook until golden brown on both sides, spread a small amount of olive oil on both sides. And finally the best part, eat! If you want to learn how to make it, I suggest you buy a ticket to New York and I'll show you in my kitchen. Otherwise I'll try my best to write out the recipe, but I make no promises that it'll turn out correctly.

etsy-addict

Recently I lost an earring while walking outside all bundled up; I'm assuming that the scarf/toque-combo pushed it out of my ear. As a result, I have become more partial to post-style earrings during bundling weather! My most recent purchase is from Upper Metal Class and I'm obsessively refreshing the USPS website to see if they are getting closer to my earlobes!

mr.brown can cook, can you?

Alton Brown is possibly the most inspiring food network chef. I love Nigella, Jamie, and Ina; my love has been proven by my ever expanding cookbook collection (I will not admit I have a problem yet). Oh but Alton... Mr.Brown, you make me think I can do anything in my kitchen. Including rendering my own lard.



I'm not sure if I even have a use for lard... but the way he sells it makes me think I should rethink my love affair with butter.

winter wonderland

Winter has a grip on the city and the resulting effect is all the New Yorkers complaining about the "arctic conditions". As a perennial optimist I'm going to point out the great things about snow in this city: fresh snow blankets the old dirty muck, the city seems to slow down and (saving the best for last) when is it better to bake then when a blizzard is happening outside your window! Which means making a batch of my now perfected bread. I'd also like to point out that -5C is hardly arctic.

tastes like canada

om nom nom indeed! Firstly, having Nathan tell me "look for the om nom nom sign, and you'll have found Poutini's" was possibly the best nerd moment I've experienced in awhile. Followed by heart-attack-inducing-squeaky-cheese-gravy-fries-coma. I'm definitely making a trip back there next week while I'm back in Toronto.

first new york christmas

Christmas away from Victoria = my very own Christmas tree. I had a great time running around to find ornaments, finding out how expensive they are, buying a few (how could I say no to a narwhal Christmas ornament?!), making a few, and receiving a few in a care package from Mum. I do have to say that my favourite project was the faux capiz shell garland it did take me awhile to get it long enough even for my small tree and then I was paranoid that the cats were going to attack it so I was vigilant in repositioning it every night on the higher branches. I took the tree down today, carefully packed up all my ornaments and put them away. I think that's the worst thing about Christmas, how empty the apartment is without any decoration.