Flowers and Body Fat?

Alright, so this post is not really about food. well kind of, it's about what happens to your body if you eat too much food.

A few days ago, Jackson received a Withings body scale from work. It can accurately measure your weight to the nearest 100 grams, your muscle mass and fat mass. It also has wifi, so it sends all the info to the Withings website so your can track your weight gain/loss. Good idea right? NOT! This scale just reinforces the fact that I don't exercise enough. I know that already, I don't need a scale that measures my the fat in my body to tell me! >:(

Anyways, Jackson is slightly obsesses with it. He uses every morning and night, even after he unloads in the washroom, just to see how much weight he'll lose.

On a completely different note. I went to the Golden Acre garden center last night. I love flowers, and now that spring is finally here, there are so many to choose from. Every spring/summer Jackson and I will always grow some cherry tomatoes and experiment with a few different types of veggies or fruit. Last year, we planted zucchinis, strawberries and garlic. Let's just say none of them worked out except for the tomatoes. I'll spare you the details, because it'll just dig up some old anger issues I have with my garden.

Every year I always buy herbs, usually Basil. I like to have fresh herbs on hand so I can use them when i cook. Hopefully I'll take better care of them than I did the previous year:P

That's all for now...

Bakery tour of Calgary

Ok, so it' no secret that I like food. One of the things I like other than baking is buying baked goods.

One of my favorites is Eclair de Lune. This is a little French bakery located just off Northmount Drive.

They are open six days a week, but they sell out of the good stuff really quickly, so you have to go early if you want a good selection.

One of our favorites things to get when we're there(yes, Jackson likes it there too, I think he likes this bakery more than me:). Is the three cheese croissant. They also make this spinach and ham quiche that's really good:)..

For the sweet desserts, there's too many to choose from, and they change each time we go. I got this Lemon Meringue Tartelette from my last bakery trip.

More Bakeries to come...enjoy:)

The GREAT bake Xchange of CPC

Well, it's been a while. Sorry to all those who keep checking my blog and gets sadly disappointed because I've been so...um...busy.

A few weeks ago, I organized the Great bake Xchange at my church with a few of my friends. The result was a lot of sweets and slightly hurt stomach at the end from eating to much.

I decided to retry this mini shortbread fruit tart that I made a while ago for my husband's work bake exchange they didn't turn out too well:P Sorry husband's co-workers...:P

To my relief, the mini tarts turned out fine. Good thing too, because I didn't start baking until 12am. If they didn't turn out, I really don't know what I would do.

Some of you might be wondering why I was so crazy to wait until midnight to bake. Well, let me tell you, driving from grocery store to grocery store at 10:50pm at night looking for whipping cream because everywhere you go tell you they are sold out, is not fun!! Not at all!!

Mini Shortbread Fruit Tarts

Shortbread Crust:

yields about 20-24 mini tarts
1 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Curd Mousse:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

4-5 TBS lemon curd

Whip heavy cream to medium peaks.

Shortbread tart directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Using your stand mixer,

mix butter, brown sugar, white sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Work dough until it holds

together. Chill slightly...enough where the butter solidifies again.

Take a small chunk and place it into each mini tart. I'm using a mini cupcake pan. Bake for 10-

12 minutes, or until lightly brown around the edges. Keep an eye on them after 8 minutes or so. Depending how thick the dough is, the baking time will vary. You don't want them to burn. Let cool slightly and make an indentation with the back of a teaspoon. This will help hold the filling. Cool/chill completely.

Lemon Mousse directions:

Whip heavy cream into medium peaks. Fold the lemon curd into the whipped cream. Place the mousse in a plastic bag ( or use a piping bag) and cut a small hole. Pipe lemon curd mousse into each tart. Or just use a spoon like me:) Top with berries and you're good to go!

Enjoy...:)

Creamy Caramelly

My attempt at posting regularly has ended in a fail! It's not my fault, I've been really sick, with pink eye and everything. I'm sure people would love eating pink eye contaminated cookies. Who wouldn't?

A few weeks back I made Creme Caramel. I loved it. It was actually a success. Sadly I was so eager to eat it that I didn't take any after photos. *Tear* Sorry Guys. You can enjoy these wonderful photo of me melting sugar. *hahaha* The recipe is listed below...enjoy:)

this is what the creme caramels looked like pre-oven.

Creme Caramels

Makes six 6-ounce creme caramels

2 cups sugar

3 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 325 °F. Using 1 1/2 cups of sugar, prepare the caramel (see method below). Pour just enough caramel into six 6-ounce ramekins to cover the bottoms with a think layer. Avoid getting any on the sides of the ramekins. Bring the milk to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the vanilla. In a bowl. whisk the remaining 1/2 sugar with the eggs and egg yolks for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture is slightly pale. Use a whisk to stir the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir until the eggs are completely combined with the milk. if you see a lot of froth on the mixture, skim it off with a pastry scraper. If you see specks of egg int eh mixture, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve.

Pour the mixture into the caramel-lined ramekins and arrange the ramekins in a baking dish with sides at least as high as ramekins. Pour enough hot tap water into the baking dis to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the surface of the custards stay still when you wiggle them back and forth.

Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Run a knife around each of the custards to loosen them. Put a rimmed place over a creme caramel and, holding the ramekin firmly against the plate, flip the whole thing over. Give it a quick up and down shake while still holding firmly and lift off the ramekins. Serve cold.

Caramel

Makes 1 cup of caramel

2 cups sugar

To make 1 cup of caramel, place 2 cups of sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium to hight heat and stir continuously with a heavy wooden spoon as the sugar melts and turn colour. The caramel is ready when it is smooth and deep reddish-brown in colour. Use immediately.

On a completely random note. This is what I had for lunch the other day. Grilled cheese and ham sandwich with avocado. Mmm...it was delicious. Needed more butter though:P

Until next time....

Mini Donuts...

I didn't think anyone actually reads my blog, but I was wrong. So Sarah, I'm blogging this entry just for you:P

A year ago, I got these mini donut bake pans.I finally decided to try it and see if it actually works.

I used the recipe that came with the pan. Let's just say it didn't quite work out. Although I was super pleased with the presentation, the taste needed some work.

I will try again, with a better recipe and hopefully it'll turn out better, but for now I have to settle for looking at them instead of tasting it. Probably for the better anyways - haven't done anything active all winter:P:P

The dough was really thick and sticky.

the finished product....Glazed and Chocolate dipped mini donuts

And for the actual size...

Once I get the recipe right, I'll post it. But for now, enjoy the pictures:)

cooking, baking and eating...my favourite:)

I've decided to revive my blog and use it to keep track of the different types of food recipes I've tried and any new restaurants we visited. Basically anything to do with food. There's been so many new recipes we experimented with the last few months. Red wine lamb stew, red wine sauce with steak, takoyaki (Japanese octopus balls), just to name a few.

This will also help me remember the successes and "oopses" of each recipe so I don't make the same mistakes again. It's happened before:P

Well, hopefully I'll have some time to try a new recipe in the next little while so I have something to post:P