The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I had been thinking about what kind of cake to make for Rain’s first birthday for a few months. I’ll admit I’ve been really excited about all the fun things I can do for kids birthdays now, you know things in small format on sticks etc. Even before I had a kid, despite constantly dissing the cute trend that’s been snowballing in the last few years, I had thought about how I might get away with it at my next dinner party. But then the adult in me couldn’t visualizes brown butter rice krispy pops as the desert following beef bourgangion, go figure. This kid thing may open up a whole new chapter of cute, which used to terrify me but I find myself suddenly drawn to.

I’m sure all of you mothers out there with even the slightest interest in baking understand the dilemma. It was going to be his first taste of sugar so it had to be perfect. I went through the usual list of common first birthday cakes from the allergen free to the fake chocolate black bean cake, none of which seemed particularly appealing to me. I think maybe this is because I’m not exactly a birthday cake person *gasp* shocking I know. I do love many kinds of cake especially those that shine in the morning with a cup of coffee, I’m just not crazy about the typical icing heavy variety traditional to birthdays. I don’t find them very exciting. They have a tendency to be overly sweet with not much flavor, at least the North American variety. I also really wanted to give him something he would love, he’s never had cake before or really any sugar to speak of so I was challenged by trying to find something he already liked and take it to the next level with some serious sugar.

I know you’re thinking that I’m crazy because any kid presented with a high concentration of sugar for the very first time will absolutely go nuts over it no matter what form it come in. While I don’t deny that could be the case, there were also a few other problems that influenced the direction I took. Most important of all, I had yet to give him any form of wheat or eggs. I’m really not one to get all crazy about the allergen thing, but why take the risk on his first birthday even if it is remote?

Actually, once I stopped focusing on birthday cake the answer came quickly to me: yogurt. My son goes absolutely nuts over plain unsweetened yogurt. I mean completely nuts. You would think you were in a monkey cage at the zoo standing in the middle of a giant vat of bananas. It’s to the point where we have to conceal the yogurt all the way in the back of the fridge because if he even gets a glimpse of the shiny white container he becomes completely entranced, every fiber in his little body starts to twitch and noises of all frequencies come flying out of his mouth at such speed there’s no time to even comprehend whats happened before a melt down of epic proportions is well underway. We have to go to great lengths to conceal yogurt in our fridge or anything that resembles a yogurt container.

Yes this was going to be the perfect introduction to sugar and the perfect occasion to just let him have at it. I had the perfect cake… see how many times I’ve said perfect in the last 2 sentences? That’s how PERFECT it was going to be.

Raspberry Dacquoise for the adults and the filling which contained no wheat, nuts or eggs made into a mini individual flower shape for the wee one. I’ve been making this cake for a few years, a recipe I found over at Chocolate and Zucchini that has become one of our favorites. It’s definitely not the most simplistic but really worth it for a special occasion and the filling on the inside: a combination of Greek yogurt, whipping cream and sugar was the answer I was looking for. It is totally yogurt like, same colour, same texture with just a few ingredients to make it even better. I was sure he would love it and that it would result in tiny adorable yelps of joy, with little hands grabbing for it before the candle was even blown out. After which we would have to take him outside and hose him down because much like most meals his entire little body would be covered from head to toe… all of this would naturally be captured on video which we would watch years down the road… blah blah blah…

Oh my GOD was I wrong.

Who took my banshee and replaced him with this sweet little reserved angel? He barely even expressed interest in touching it. I had to feed him some with a spoon. Dude are you serious? My child hates being fed with a spoon, pureed baby food lasted for maybe a week or two with this guy. He has to do everything himself. He comes by that honestly.

After a good 20 minutes of trying to spark his interest we gave up and fed him plain unsweetened organic yogurt for dinner for which he displayed his usual enthusiasm. Sigh. Just when you think you have them figured out they change.

But not all was lost the cake was as amazing as ever and if you’re fairly brave in the kitchen I suggest you give it a whirl – it is truly exceptional. For the recipe you’re better off referring to Chocolate and Zucchini (Raspberry Dacquoise Entrements)as this time around I quadrupled the recipe making the dacquoise in a full sized sheet pan and assembling in a giant pastry ring to accommodate all of Rain’s party guests. I will mention that I used exclusively Greek yogurt which turned out to be my favorite so far. The original recipe calls for Fromage Blanc, which is not only hard to find in North America but adds another lengthy step to the process should you choose to make it like I previously did. Also, I used frozen raspberries this time, I wanted them to taste good and they’re not even close to in season right now – I would suggest using fresh if you can find some decent as mine bled as they thawed taking away from the aesthetics of it.

Aesthetics aside, it did look nice on the cake stand!

I really love making Indian food. Another lifetime ago, long before I was married and even longer before baby Rain was an idea, I spend around 8 months travelling all around India and Nepal with two of my girlfriends. Despite my indifference to almost everything at that time of my life, somehow food and cooking was a priority as it’s always been. I was relatively intent on learning as much as I could about the regional cuisine of the many different places we travelled and I did a pretty good job of retaining and documenting most of that information considering I was completely stoned out of my mind 98% of the time.

All of you former young world travellers out there know how it is to be 18 and in search of the next “life changing” experience. Or maybe that was just typical to the angsty teenage backpackers travelling in South Asia in the late 90s? Either way, I was definitely in search of something or at least thought I was because it was all or nothing on every front. I think it’s safe to say that was the case for my friends as well. From the strange yogi who completely hypnotized my friend into covering her whole body with turmeric – incidentally my first experience with the spice – which despite relentless scrubbing made her appear jaundiced for 2 weeks afterwards (this still makes me laugh harder than most things), to the apprentice of a particularly famous guru, who I thought had the answers to all of life’s questions and had me dressing all in white and carrying a poster sized FRAMED picture of her with me for the rest of my travels. It’s safe to say that I am completely terrified of having a teenager, or at least one as willful as I was.

Sometimes a little unplanned baking session can really work to your advantage, even in cases where substitutions are necessary. I’m the kind of person that believes in having a fully stocked pantry if I can at all times, meaning that if I am a little low on one sort of baking staple I will make sure to restock on my next trip to the store. I’m likely even a little over stocked with many different grain flours, sugars and nuts – I like to be prepared because I really love to bake and running out quickly to grab what I’m missing is really not as easy as it used to be.

The other day when the urge to bake struck I was unusually underprepared and couldn’t manage to shake the desire to make some sort of soft cake-like apple muffin, so I was forced into improvisation and completely out of my comfort zone. I’ll admit the situation wasn’t dire, I had little bits of different flours: regular AP flour, whole wheat, rye, corn, barley, oat and rice as well as about 1/4 cup of flax and a few walnuts. I routinely bake with a mix of these, but all together and completely unmeasured made me a bit nervous and the fact that I had only one single egg, almost no sugar and half the amount of oil I generally use was not going to help me. I knew that if I didn’t add in a significant amount of moisture, the result would be dry.

Fortunately, I had a can of pumpkin which to be quite honest is one of the most important pantry shelf items because of its versatility. I use a lot of this stuff both for baking and cooking it can completely save you in a situation like this. I also had some apple sauce and yogurt that was meant for baby R and a container of molasses that would substitute for some of the sugar. I was on my way, but still feeling a bit skeptical – again baking substations are really not my thing.

While we’re on the topic of butternut squash I thought I may as well post this improvised tart I made with left over squash from my previous post. I bought one of those jumbo squash this time around so we’ve been eating a lot of it. I have to hold back making my absolute favorit squash loaf as i am trying to control the urge to bake 24/7. Baby Rain even sampled some of the pureed variety and of course he loves it – still haven’t encountered a food he wont eat, including greens, we are so fortunate!

This tart is a little involved as there are many components that require individual cooking and of course anything involving crust will take just a bit longer. It’s definitely worth it though and this crust is now one of my favorits. I have been improvising with different whole grain flours for a while and while I do use a combination of white AP flour you could substitute all whole grain if you like. This is a really flavourful crust which we’ve come to love and it pairs perfectly with these sort of  Autumn root vegetable tarts.

I have been on the hunt for new and exciting sage recipes. I don’t know what it is with this herb but it sure does grows like a weed in my garden. I was looking through some pictures the other day, taken in May just after planting and realized how quickly I forgot about the savory, marjoram and dill I planted – all absorbed by my mutant sage bush. I have cut it back twice now, but this just seems to encourage new and stronger growth to the point where half of one of my vegetable beds is now all sage. I used to love sage but I have to say it is officially getting a little old.

I’ve made several varieties of sage pesto, sage anchovy fritters on 2 separate occasions for a crowd, stuffing, brown butter sage ravioli, crispy fried sage for topping salads, sage in every soup imaginable I even harvested large bundles for bouquets, this thing is unstoppable. I was considering dedicating a whole series of posts to good old sage but this guy thought otherwise and I am bound to obey. A series of posts, ha! You are crazy lady.

I bake a lot. Probably too much. I’m starting to realize this is the reason I’m currently about 40 pounds overweight. Funny how that realization just makes me want to bake more. Just joking… I do have every intention of being able to wear jeans again and hopefully soon at that. After one full year in leggings I think its time, and when I say leggings I mean underneath long muumuu type shirts so lets not get excited people i am NOT that person. Actually, I was trying to evaluate how long I thought I could safely get away with the whole just had a baby thing and I came to the conclusion that I am rapidly approaching the the end of that era.

Waaaaaaaa. But its definitely for the best.

I decided to repost a recipe from my archives while I finish up a few new posts. This was originally posted a few years back and is still one of my favorite recipes. It’s so great for a party or even just a very indulgent weekend snack. It’s a bit of a time commitment but very much worth the effort. If you’re entertaining it’s unexpected and will even appeal to the most picky eaters. These chicken rillettes are fabulous with a good glass of chardonnay, throw a few cheeses on a board with some great bread and you’ve got an instant party. 

OK guys, after more than 6 months with my new camera and several BlogHer Food panels about food photography I decided to get proactive and actually start to read my camera manual in the hope that one day I may actually understand at least 2 of its functions. I haven’t started yet but the decision has been made, which is more than I could say for myself a few weeks ago.

My dear friend in San Francisco was kind enough to spend an hour or so with me on the weekend going over some of it’s basic functions. I’m proud to announce that I now know what shutter speed is and took my first pictures on the manual setting. Where are some examples you ask? Well lets just say they were taken while watching a band I enjoy perform at the Folsom Street Fair on Sunday and though I tried I just couldn’t find a way to work all that leather and nakedness into this site. Also, I didn’t want the people who organize leather pride week to hold me accountable. This event is definitely not the ideal place for a newbie behind a camera on manual setting for the first time. Overexposure just got taken to the next level. Not funny, I’ll stop.

I started writing this post in April and it was pretty much complete without recipe and picture, but I never managed to get it published. Seeing as it’s so hard to complete a post these days I thought I would publish it anyway – the recipe is truly great. Having a baby who wont let you put him down (my fault I know – and we are working on that) really doesn’t’ leave much time for anything else. I am also happy to report that my vegetable garden did incredibly well despite all the rain this year and the fact that summer still really hasn’t arrived – hot summer that is. 

Spring has yet to really make it to Vancouver. For those of you not familiar with the climate here that means it has been raining or cloudy pretty much since October of last year, with an exception of a few days here and there. Depressing I know. I continue to hear that this must mean we will be having a really hot summer – a symptom of widespread desperation no doubt. I hate to be a pessimist but as far as consistent sunny weather goes this area of the world is not reliable and we are lucky to have a few months of sun before it starts all over again. In the past I have chosen to not let this bother me, I didn’t really have a choice. In fact, I generally embrace the rain and cloudiness. I grew up in this town after all, its a part of who I am and I can’t deny that.

This year is different. This year  after many years of pining, planning and envisioning I was finally able to realize a dream: my very own vegetable garden. A few weeks ago we moved into our new house a small apartment sized 100 year old East Van charmer. It’s perfect and felt like home immediately. More importantly it has two amazing vegetable beds, that were all ready for planting. I was so excited about this that I think we were in the house for only a few days before I planted every single vegetable that is known to thrive in the Pacific Northwest. No really, if everything goes my way I will be my own Farmers Market. For this to happen I need sun and lots of it. I can already see a few of my lettuce varieties starting to droop and I am really not impressed. I have high expectations for my garden, despite being a newcomer to gardening and the lousy weather.

Well I finally managed to get an hour to post a much needed update. Things have been extremely busy around here and even though I was warned, I still had some delusions that I would be able to handle it all and not  get so unacceptably behind around here. To all those peeps who told me otherwise you can officially pat your selves on the back and give me a big I told you so. You were right and I was so so incredibly wrong. Go ahead and rub it in I’m cool with it. In fact, I scoff at my former self for even thinking that I would still retain even an ounce of independence and able to enjoy some of the luxuries I once did.

Turns out I work on no ones schedule but his and he is very demanding and never takes no for an answer. But of course I enjoy every moment and when you’re this cute you can pretty much get away with anything.

It’s no secret that I am lover of all things soup, always have been and always will be. I’m pretty sure this has something to do with my absolute love for things that pair amazingly with bread, or more accurately my need to pair everything with bread. Isn’t everything just better with bread? I can fit it into any meal. Have what you think is a no bread necessary meal lined up? I bet I could fit it in, feel free to email me and we can discuss.

Actually, I have recently found myself in the unique position of having to eat much lighter than i’m used to. Not because I want to but because my body is forcing me too. Its definitely not like the earlier weeks of pregnancy where a seemingly never ending appetite seems to alert you to taste buds you never even knew existed, making eating even for a major food lover like me an elevated version of the usual religious experience. A few weeks back I was discovering flavor profiles in soda crackers that would blow your mind. Now sad as it is I can only eat very small amounts at once and even when I do that there seem to be uncomfortable consequences. It’s like alien resurrection inside my stomach after I eat so I’m really trying hard not to cramp his/her style cause revenge is a bitter bitter pill to swallow. No matter what you hear kicks feel like before you’re pregnant, nothing can prepare you for the feeling of a foot in the ribcage during the 8th month of pregnancy.