The Worst Pancakes I've Ever Made

This is them.
Right here.

I am a free spirited pancake maker.  I am not one for strictly following any recipes, let alone PANCAKES, which for the most part, are generally pretty fool proof.

Usually.

These disgusting specimens however, have me thinking I might have to rethink this philosophy.

At least until I've got a few more good batches under my belt.

These were entirely raw on the inside and pretty burnt on the outside.
EVERY SINGLE ONE!

Sonny tried one and immediately gave it back to me. 
"No like" he says.
"Bad pancake"

Let the record show that the little human who will pretty much eat anything we put in front of him, was not interested in these.

Which is fair because they were Pretty Bad.  Capital letters people.

I blame the carrot pulp from the juice we had that morning that I based these around.

It should have been a feature, not a main!

Lesson learned.

Raw Lemon Bars (Where We Eat An Entire Tray of Lemon Bars Before They Are Set)

I made this recipe from one I found on pinterest here from This Rawsome Vegan Life
(this should be an Oh How Pinteresting!)

And Oh Goodness it's good.
I made a couple of changes to the original recipe, but in essence it's the same.
(I swapped out the oats for ground almonds, and put my coconut for the topping inot my spice grinder to whiz it up really fine to smooth out the texture)

And I've made it twice in two weeks!
 I feel no shame, it's all raw and healthy!

And yes, we DID eat the first tray entirely before the Lemon Topping had set up.
But you would too, so I suggest you give it a try.

Probably pancakes, but who knows at this point?

I am trying to remember what the H I was making when I made this mess here.

Pancakes maybe?

I DO like that I have left a freshly tumbled bangle AND the tumbler in amongst the FOOD items as well as literally piled everything on top of my clean dishes in the corner.

Foodsafe would be having a heart attack.

Well, maybe not a heart attack.  Let's be serious.  Other than the steel shot filled tumbler mixed with a chemical compound to clean metal this is all food grade.

:)

Fridge Fudge

Let me share a very good thing with you.
This is Fridge Fudge.

It is HEALTHY.  It is technically GOOD FOR YOU.
The fact that it is insanely delicious has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on it's goodness.

And it's really, really delicious.

I usually make it in a rectangular pan, lined with parchment, but I received these great little silicon muffin cups for christmas and I am kind of using them for everything right now, so I thought I'd give the Fudge a try.

Total Success.

They just pop right out and you can inhale or savor.  Whatever your style may be.

(forgive me these pictures, it was a DO It Now Before They Are All Eaten situation this morning, and I am not set up as a food stylist!)

Here.  Make some!

Fridge Fudge
1/2 c nut butter (I use almond butter most of the time, but I've done it with tahini and they were great too)
1/3 c coconut oil
1/4 c agave or honey or maple syrup
pinch of salt to taste (I really like a hit of salt so I am pretty generous)
dash of vanilla
1/3 c cocoa powder or carob powder (I was reading yesterday that cocoa has crazy iron in it so eat up!)
1 c combination of almond meal, nuts, seeds, oats, dried fruit
     (this is the great this about this recipe.  The Fudge pictured above is almond meal, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, craisins and hemp hearts! But I've made it before with candied ginger, walnuts, raisins, coconut, slivered almonds... you can even swap the vanilla for almond extract.  THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!)

On the stove over low heat, melt the nut butter and coconut oil until smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in everything else.

Pour into a little dish lined with parchment, OR if you've got them, these silicon muffin cups worked great!  It made 12 cups last night.

Put your dish or cups into the freezer for 30 minutes and then they are set and ready to enjoy!
They keep in the fridge once they've been set, but they have never lasted longer than maybe 24 hours around here (IF they were lucky!) so I can't tell you how long they would keep for if you didn't eat them for some reason.

I DARE you to try to not eat them.

xo

Sushi cones for lunch (or as I have started to call them, Sushi Burritos)

Calling them burritos is totally unfair.  They are delicious Cone Rolls and I shouldn't be obnoxious.
But I had never tried one before a few weeks ago, where on a whim, and an open minded food choice feeling (when you've got restrictions like we do trying new foods is hit and miss) I ordered one when I was out for lunch with my Sister and my Mom and I am HOOKED.

The first thing I thought was "Oh it's a delicious sushi burrito!" and it stuck in my head.

Oh and they are SO GOOD!
I decided to try and recreate them at home last week when we had a friend staying with us from the mainland and it was the perfect build your own lunch!

We usually have sheets of nori around for Sonny, as they are nice healthy snacks and the kid LOVES it.  And we had everything else in the pantry just waiting for me to figure it out.

I made a simple salmon salad with a can of sockeye and some vegan mayo (Sonny and I are off eggs) and sliced up avacado and cucumbers and prepped the brown rice with some rice wine vinegar.

Some braggs and tamari on the side and we were rolling (har har!)

I found a photo tutorial on rolling the cones here via Pinterest.

I expect that we will be eating these a lot around here for a while!

Easy Banana Ice Cream

So.  We've been pretty good about keeping our sweets to the weekend.
(I say this as I LITERALLY just finished eating a chocolate donut... it's Tuesday)

This past weekend we had an Earl Grey Tea Cake from The Flying Apron Cookbook.
Quite delish.  Vegan and gluten free and sweetened with maple syrup and honey.

And LAST weekend, the weekend after the SUPER INTENSE CHOCOLATE CAKE EXPERIENCE we went with something a little lighter and tried the 2 ingredient banana ice cream that's made it's way across the Pinterest scene.  A bit like a floozy, you saw it everywhere.

But it gets around for a reason.  It's damn good.

It was easy as heck (again, a bit floozy), literally 2 ingredients and a blender is all we used.
And we saved half of it in the freezer for the next day and it totally held up.  The texture was still smooth like a soft serve ice cream and no flavour changes.

We will definitely make it again!

I used the images and the recipe found here.

Savory Bread Pudding

Sooo this is essentially stuffing for dinner.

It's REALLY good.
(It's gluten and dairy free too.  I am going to try it egg free next time I make it... but I halved the called for eggs and subbed in a flax egg to even it out again.  I could potentially make it vegan too, but then it wouldn't have SAUSAGE in it!)

I based it on this recipe that I found on pinterest.  OH PINTEREST.

I used some GF croutons that my Mom had given to me leftover from holiday stuffing, and I have been trying to think of ways to use it besides salad and sweet bread pudding.

I didn't have any mushrooms, so I added carrots, parsnip, kale and SAUSAGE.
And we can't have dairy so I used some soy cheddar that I just shredded fine.  Usually we don't use soy either, but we had it on hand.

It was delish.

I will definitely make this again.
It's perfect November Food you know.  Am I the only one who feels like all food should come wrapped in pastry come October?

Please note the time

That is PM people.
I even made blueberry sauce from scratch because I DON'T MESS AROUND.

This was a week or two ago.

But I am doing it again. RIGHT NOW.
 ...only tonight it's 9:52 pm and I'm only halfway through this batch.

I didn't intend for it to be this late!  But I had to go to the grocery store for the main ingredient, and then the grocery store didn't have it so I had to go to ANOTHER one.

But I am close to perfecting an amazing gluten free, egg free pancake!

French Toast Sandwiches

We made these banana stuffed French Toasts a few weekends ago and Oh. My. were they good.

Nothing like frying up blueberries to jazz up a meal!

(This might be the last french toast we have for a while, Sonny and I are both off eggs.)


*sigh*


This Guy!



xox

Serious Girl Crush.

Oh my sweet lord, I am SMITTEN.

I discovered this new show whilst perusing recipes on The FoodNetwork. I've now got every episode set to tape on the PVR so I miss NOTHING.

How incredibly lovely is Sophie Dahl?

We only just finished watching the first episode that we've taped and I couldn't delete it! I am going to have to go back and watch it again. And again.

love!

New Fall flavor!

Okay so I am going to be trying something new here, since I CLEARLY can't get my self together enough to post regularly - due to thinking that I needed to be more professional and post more things jewellery related and less silly crap. But it's the silly crap that I love best, so I am going to try something.

I'm going to post little things here and there that are ENTIRELY silly, non jewellery related in the hopes of kick starting some inspiration for this wee blog here.

I am still dealing with the little bug that's been keeping me down lately (more on that later, as I am sure you'd all just LOVE to hear all about it) but I can see an end in sight. But because of it I have been monstrously UNproductive in my studio. sigh.

It will come back. It always does.


So ahem, something new, and fun!



Hot Carob with Cinnamon.
I picked up carob powder the other week when I was looking for cocoa powder and this afternoon is the first time I've tried anything with it.

I was feeling like a Hot Chocolate was in order, so I thought I'd give it a go.

And it ain't half bad!

Here's what you need:

A mug of milk (I used unsweetened almond milk, cuz' it's what I like)
2 teaspoons sweetener (I used agave, but sugar or honey would work well too I think)
a dash of vanilla
1 cinnamon stick
1 heaping teaspoon of carob powder.

Pour it all into a sauce pan and heat it up gently on the stovetop.
It's nuttier than a traditional hot chocolate, but mighty tasty!

And apparently carob is actually pretty good for you, so no guilt! Wee!

Now I am off to cull all of my Lucky magazines from the last 5 years to clear up some (much needed) bookshelf space.

I hope that everyone out there is having a lovely weekend (Happy Thanksgiving to you other Canucks out there!)

Sorry Turkeys.

Easter Easter

I am not really sure where Spring has gone so far.
It's Easter already?

I hope that all of you out there who celebrate this weekend are spending the day with family and friends, enjoying the Bounty of the Bunny (Chocolate people)!

I am making crepes for dinner at my Parent's place tonight, and hoping that I might see a single Reese's Peanut butter Egg.

SO GOOD!


xox

Home made Pho (sort of)

Last week when Geoff and I were both sick with the Head Cold, (Capitals people) we ate a lot of soup.
And a lot of oranges, but soup was high up there on the list.

And I had picked up this really amazing roast beef at the Red Barn Market at Mattick's Farm that I wanted to really enjoy before it went off (as sometimes happens when we get deli meat becuase we both forget all about it.) But all of the meat from Red Barn Market is SOOO GOOD. Like, So Good. So we are much better at remembering we have it and it get's eaten up pretty fast. Particularly the bacon. Oh god the BACON! It's so good there that I will actually not eat any other kind of bacon now.

It's that good. And it's hormone and nitrate free (except for the nitrates that occur naturally from the smoking. But that doesn't count)

Anyway, I digress.
So we were feeling sickly and wanted soup and I found a recipe on The Kitchn, which of course I can't pull up now, but you should think about browsing that site anyway because it's great. Really.

So we made a version of it and it was really good.
So good that I took a picture.

Nothing like late night crepes

Gluten Free of course.


They soothe the soul.

And they are SO FLIPPING EASY!

All you need is:
2 eggs, sweetener, flour, oil, milk and a little salt.

-with a whisk, in a medium mixing bowl, beat your eggs.
-add in some sweetener (I usually use honey or agave, but sugar is good too) anywhere from 2 T to a 1/4 cup, depends on how sweet you want your crepes.
- whisk in 1/4 cup oil (melted butter is also REALLY GOOD)
- add flour in large spoonfuls until your batter is just too thick to whisk anymore.
- now add your milk, in stages until you've got a nice soupy batter.
- add a pinch of salt and whisk in.

If you want to add more flour to make EVEN MORE CREPES, now is the time, just remember to add more milk to thin it out again.

Have a non stick skillet (or a crepe pan if you're fancy) heating up on medium heat while you are mixing everything up so that it's nice and hot now that you are ready to go.

-ladle or pour your batter into the skillet, swirling the good stuff around to get an even crepe. (pour out any extra batter back into the mixing bowl if your scooped/poured too much)
-let it cook up until the edges start to dry and brown up, flip over to cook up the other side (maybe a minute, if that)
-remove your crepe from the hot skillet and lay flat on a plate.
-stack those babies until all your batter is gone.
-fill with WHATEVER YOU WANT! The beauty of crepes is that they are pretty much delicious with EVERYTHING.

Easy peasy.

I've been making just enough for a couple crepes each, spreading almond butter on them and then rolling up a banana cut in half lengthwise.
Yep, Banana Burritos.

Zero guilt factor when I don't use white sugar.

Oh Inspiration!

I love it when this happens.

I have been drawing away, some new print ideas for FGI and Spring palettes, and thinking about art and other things.

I have been trying to spend LESS time in front of the computer (I fall into blogs, dear lord, and loses HOURS to reading them, which I love, but frankly is not very productive.)

But tonight, while also doing laundry, picking up groceries, making dinner/lunch for tomorrow (Geoff's back in class, got to prepare lunches!) I sat down on the floor in front of the computer (trying to make it less comfortable so I don't linger long) and popped over to Mint.

Which lead me to The Golden Smith.

Which frankly I am already in love with and feel like I could pour HOURS into reading.

But instead of doing that right now, I am going to take food out of the oven, drink a glass of water and plop myself in the living room for some late night doodling.

Keep working Professional Lady. Keep Working!

But this weekend? Oh there will be some BLOG READING. Maybe even ALL DAY.


bliss

Giant Cinnamon rolls

I think we ate them for dinner.

They were a snap too, I just used the Gluten Free Pantry's French Bread/Pizza Dough mix, rolled it on some cinnamon and sugar (with nutmeg and cardamon too), then plopped some butter in the creases and baked.

They were best that day, but not bad the next day.
(I had made up a bowl of drizzly icing to go with them. Dangerous? Yes.)

I think that I prefer them a bit smaller though, these were too big for me. I made them once before in muffin tins and I think I'll do that again next time.

These were however made at a reasonable hour.
So we had time to digest at least.

monster garlic

When Geoff goes grocery shopping he always brings home something interesting.


(the first time he shopped in Halifax most of what he brought home was pink. I'm not even kidding, it was hilarious)

Single serve brownie in under 5 minutes. Sweet Jesus.

The more I think about it the more I think that I was emailed a link to a recipe for Brownies in a cup, maybe from Mom? Hard to say now since I have now MADE this recipe, tweaked a little bit from this recipe I found when late the other night I NEEDED A BROWNIE RIGHT THEN.

Ahem.
I made the recipe directly from the recipe above (here it is again) and the first one didn't work.

Of course, I WAS making it with gluten free flour and I didn't add any binder like xantham or guar gum that time.
So I followed the recipe and it was a bit runnier that I expected a brownie batter to be, but I gave it a shot.
No go. It was still super runny and uncooked after the first 2 minutes.

I gave it another minute to see if that was all it would need, but alas, it burnt.
And burnt BAD. (I had to soak the mug over night in soapy water to get it out of there)

So I looked online a bit more and noticed another recipe that was EXACTLY the same except that it called for another 2 Tspn of flour so I gave that a try.

I really wanted a brownie.

That worked pretty good.

But it still wasn't the fix, the thing, you know what I am talking about.

When you need a brownie it is not something you can rationalize and make do.
NO! It had to be RIGHT.

So I tried this the next day...

Jana's One Cup GF Chocolate Cacophone
(you like that?)

Take one mug.

Into this mug put:

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil (I used grapeseed, it's what we had)
2 tablespoons Almond Milk (or regular milk, whatever. Juice would probably be good too)
2 grinds of sea salt (the salt REALLY makes a difference here)
4 tablespoons Brown Sugar (I bet brown rice syrup or honey would also work)
4 tablespoons GF flour blend
1/4 teaspoon (or 2 pinches) xantham gum (this made a HUGE difference)
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon chocolate chips
1 cap of Vanilla (it's the perfect amount, why measure?)

Mix it up well with a teaspoon and microwave on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
(the batter should be a little bit thick, like a regular brownie batter.)
Mine looked like this...


It came out hot and cakey and cooked all the way through. (I bet if you wanted a "molten" effect, you could microwave it for just 1 minute.)

It looked like this...


It made just a bit more than I would have liked to eat (for lunch the day after I made one for dessert the night before. Don't judge me) but it was REALLY GOOD.

Much better than the one from the night before.

I would DEFINITELY make this again.

(yes that is "Breaking Dawn" on the table, 4th read through. [Geoff was away for the weekend] I don't care what anyone thinks about that either. I love it like a Teen loves swoopy emo bangs. Or Twighlight, whatevs.)

Halibut a la Jamie Oliver

So last night for the first time in my life (that I can remember, apparently when I was a small child I enjoyed fish sticks. ugh!) I ate and enjoyed a fish meal.

That's right, I said it.

I ate fish. And liked it.

It was sort of like this recipe from Jamie at Home (which is AMAZING by the way, go out and get it right now)

This cook book is so awesome. EVERYTHING that we have tried from it has been delicious.
Seriously delicious.

And last night's meal also allowed me to use the heart shaped Le Crueset roaster we got for the wedding.
This guy.


Anyway, it was basically White Fish roasted with bacon (god yes!) leeks and asparagus.
Delish!

And. This. Is. The. Thing.

I will eat it again.

I am reformed.