There are so many factors that go into a good food item like the three things mentioned above.
Roasted Tomato, Goat Cheese, Olive & Basil Tart. $6.99 slice
Besides dinner… there’s breakfast, lunch & snack time. What appeals to you at one time might not at another.
Like when you crave a simple but well made grilled cheese sandwich or clubhouse and another time something totally different like chicken pot pie (which I personally never crave but some people do).
TEAS
Sometimes you come across something you see regularly in almost every restaurant or coffee shop but something looks different about it. It somehow looks fresher, more appealing and makes you want to bite right into it. I had that experience recently at Coco et Olive on Main street. I was going for a simple latte and mid-afternoon snack but looking at all the goodies at the counter made it a challenging situation to choose only one thing. At times like this you have to make a difficult decision. You order something, take another thing home and decide to come back again and again to try everything you never thought you wanted. See what I mean?
Best lemon bar & a great vanilla latte
Coco et Olive Cafe – 3707 Main St.
Across the street you’ll find Liberty Bakery – 3699 Main Street
These pastries look so yummy. Liberty used to be in my neighbourhood (it was called Elsie’s then). They moved away and I couldn’t find them for ages until I came across the bakery by accident on Main Street. I spotted the buttercream & mocha petit fours I love and used to buy regularly in their window.
Talking about Austin Texas and barbeques yesterday got me thinking about mouth watering ribs. Of course you cannot beat barbequed ribs for the best smoky flavour but I just made an amazing batch of ribs that were completely baked in the oven – while still maintaining a smoky flavour. That’s right! Even I was surprised at how delicious they turned out. I first rubbed them all over with a homemade tex-mex dry rub which I provided the link to below (from a previous blog post) but you can always improvise.
3 -5 lbs pork ribs (I used baby back ribs)
3 or more tablespoons dry rub (use your favourite and add a smoked sea salt as part of your seasoning – Trader Joe’s makes an excellent one).
1 cup barbeque sauce (this time I used Stubb’s Hickory Bourbon but there’s a link at bottom for a good one made from scratch).
DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 300* F.
Season all sides of the ribs with the dry rub of your choice.
Using a 13x9x2 baking dish (or most likely a larger 15x11x2), place the rib slabs *meaty side up into the pan but make sure not to over crowd. I usually put the baking dish (or pan) right on top of another slightly larger pan/dish that has at least a half inch of water in it. This helps tenderize the ribs and keep them from drying out. You can always try it without but this seems to work better.
Cover the baking dish with foil and place on center rack of pre-heated oven. Bake for approximately 2 1/2 – 3 hours (depending on the size of the ribs you are using).
Remove the ribs from oven and drain any grease from dish; reserving the foil.Slather with your favorite BBQ sauce and return the dish to the oven (un-covered) for an additional 30 minutes.
Once done, remove the ribs to a platter, loosely tent the platter with the reserved foil, and allow to rest for 10 minutes. (This step is important — the resting period gives the ribs time to re-distribute their juices, just like a steak would).
Enjoy!
*other recipes call for you to first place the ribs with the bone side facing up – until step #5 when you put the barbeque sauce on at which time you flip them over to the meaty side up. I’m just telling you this but the way I did it (above) turned out to be excellent.
We’re looking at a few ways of eating that are all the rage these days.
Classic cookbooks like Betty Crocker, Julia Child and The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking are handed down through generations and are still unprecedented references to go by. But our lifestyle has changed and along with it our ways of eating too.I still enjoy a good old fashioned breakfast on occasion…like once a week. A break from granola & yogurt. Except now I spread avocado in place of jam on toast and fresh fruit on homemade waffles. Well it’s a start.
No longer banned from the food pyramid, (good) fats are now seen as keys to weight loss.
I don’t know what appeals to you but let’s have a look at some of the new age cookbooks as seen on Flipboard.
The paleo diet is also known as the caveman diet—i.e. food you might have foraged or killed.Move over, kale. There’s a new darling on plates, and they call her quinoa. (Keen-wah)Health concerns aside, many people say a gluten-free diet just makes them feel better.Over a thousand (!) articles and recipes about whole foods, vegetarianism and veganism. LOCAVORE A magazine that seeks to strengthen your connection with food, culture and the land.
A new study (ha!) out of California’s Loma Linda University found that vegetarians live longer and were especially less likely to die of heart disease than carnivores. The studies found that the mortality rate of meat eaters was as much as 19 percent higher than that of self-identified vegetarians, and the effect was significantly greater for men than for women. The Loma Linda studies showed an even longer lifespan for pesco-vegetarians, or those who included fish in their diets.
Until the verdict is in, meat eaters would do well to eat ample servings of fruits and veggies, limit intake of red and processed meats, eat fish often, and consume fewer calories overall. Vegetarians should find ways to get plenty of protein, iron, calcium, zinc, B12 and omega-3 fatty acids, all of which are often lacking in meatless dishes.
So, which category do you fall into?
Source: Flipboard for cookbook photos & New study by Kellee Katagi for Natural Choices.
Tuesday is food day on this blog but it doesn’t always have to be a posted recipe. It’s about food in general. Good food that is.
Sometimes we just want to share something we’ve tried recently that we found to be outstanding. Which brings me to your not typical run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia – Peaceful Restaurant. In a sea of Chinese restaurants this is quite the claim. While I’m at it, it must be noted that Vancouver has some of the finest Chinese restaurants in the world and, word on the street (according to my Chinese friends) is that they’re even better than a lot of the ones in China.
Okay, to be fair when Superstar Food Network Restaurateur Guy Fieri says something is hot you’ve got to at least check it out.
While I can’t vouch for everything on the menu, here are two extra special dishes. One is ordinarily served in every single Chinese restaurant and the other is a bit more unusual. I’m talking about Peaceful’s Special House Fried Rice & Beef Rolls.
You come to expect the same old, same old house fried rice. Not here. This one is extra flavourful and comes fully loaded. I don’t know which part of the world you live in, but if you make it over this way please try this *house fried rice. The beef roll ups, on the other hand are unusually unique and super tasty. The pastry is crepe like and flaky while the meat has the texture of pulled pork with an exotic mixture of hoisin, green onion and something a little spicy. It is simply put, delicious. No other words to describe it, you have to experience it.
They have three locations:
532 W Broadway #110, 2394 W 4th Ave in Kitsilano and 43 E 5th Avenue in Mount Pleasant.
*the only thing I don’t like is the baby shrimp but you can pick them out or maybe ask them to omit them entirely from your order (if you don’t eat shrimp).
Neither did I. According to an article in the Globe and Mail, the level of arsenic in rice depends on the geographic region in which it is grown.
Photo: Getty Images
There are low levels of arsenic in most of the rice we eat. Not surprisingly to chemists and food safety experts, trace amounts of arsenic actually are present in many foods, and rice is especially prone to accumulating it. For consumers, this may come as a shock. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element present in rock, soil, water and air that was once used in pesticides and, until 2009, by poultry farmers in medication targeting parasites in their birds. Today, arsenic shows up as largely a byproduct of heavy metal industry.
It exists in two chemical forms: a less toxic organic form that we can ingest with virtually no risk and a slightly more toxic inorganic form that reacts to our bodies and can do damage.
In 2012, Consumer Reports conducted a study that found measurable levels of arsenic in almost all of the 60 rice variables and rice products they tested. Further study showed that the inorganic arsenic levels found in rice varied across geographic locations and types of rice. The breakdown:
White basmati rice from California, India and Pakistan, and sushi rice from the United States had half of the inorganic arsenic amount of most other types of rice;
Rice from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas had the highest levels of inorganic arsenic;
White rice from California had 39 percent less inorganic arsenic than white rice from other parts of the United States;
Brown rice had 80 percent more inorganic arsenic on average than white rice of the same type (that is because it accumulates in the grain’s outer layers, which are removed to make white rice):
And rice that’s grown organically took up arsenic the same way as convention rice.
But how dangerous is arsenic and should we be limiting the amount of rice we eat?
“Essentially…you would need to eat three kilograms of rice a day to get noticeable toxic effects,” says Keith Warriner, a professor of food science at the University of Guelph. He says Codex, an international group of food safety experts funded by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has recommended a maximum level for arsenic in rice of .02 milligrams per kilogram – which means most of us don’t come close to eating toxic levels.
Whew! I was worried because I love Japanese sushi (white over brown) rice, Chinese fried rice, Indian Basmati, Mexican and Thai Jasmine. That could be a problem.
While Codex recommends adults limit their rice servings to four a week, and zero for children under five, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency say the trace amounts of arsenic found in food are not considered a safety concern for Canadians.
Warriner says that while the risk of arsenic exposure from eating rice is minimal, if you are really concerned you can opt for white rice over brown, soak it overnight prior to cooking (to eliminate inorganic arsenic by 30 to 60 percent), and choose rice from geographic regions known to have lower levels of arsenic in the soil.
Source: Kat Sieniuc for The Globe and Mail – Health Section
This recipe is from Steve Clifton, the proprietor of Palmina Winery in the Lompoc wine ghetto, Santa Barbara county.
edible, Santa Barbara
“The fish is so buttery, high in omega-3’s and really, really flavorful” he says. That’s why you don’t need to add much to it. Black Cod (Sablefish) also happens to be one of my all-time favourite fish and so I look forward to trying this dish.
Makes 4 Servings:
1 ½ pounds filet of black cod (sablefish). Filets need to be no longer than 8 inches.
3 Tbsp. chopped dill
2 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. lemon zest (from roughly 2 small lemons or 1 large)
1 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. olive oil (divided)
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper
For the SALAD:
2 cups baby arugula
Juice of ½ lemon
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Pinch of salt
1 cooked fingerling potatoes, sliced
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450F. Lay the filtets out, remove any bones. Brush the top side of the filets with 1 Tbsp. olive oil and sprinkle the remaining ingredients evenly on the filets (2 Tbsp lemon zest, dill, salt & pepper).
Roll up the filets lengthwise into a spiral and tie with kitchen twine. Place on an edged baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle filets lightly with 1 tsp. olive oil and 1 tsp. lemon zest, and salt/pepper. Bake fish for 25 minutes.
In a small bowl mix arugula, lemon juice and olive oil until all the arugula is coated. Remove fish, plate over arugula and serve with 2 sliced fingerling potatoes. Yum!
Wine pairing: look for medium bodied whites with high aromatics and rich full-bodied whites aged in oak.
Source: Edible Santa Barbara: Celebrating the Local Food and Wine Culture of Santa Barbara County.
This delightful dish that’s very similar to quiche comes courtesy of our friend Ruth. She brought it over for a Grammy party and everyone raved about how amazing it tasted so it was only right to ask her to share the recipe. She said she didn’t have one (don’t you hate it when people say that?) but thankfully she wrote down the steps:
For the Pastry:
To make one 9” pie crust:
1 cup of *pastry flour (either whole wheat or white)
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter
3 Tbsp. cold water
Directions: Cut cold butter into small cubes. Then with a knife cut cold butter into sifted flour/salt mix. Add water until you have a workable dough.
Roll out and line pie plate. Place in freezer until the filling is ready. Doing this helps to make the crust flaky.
For Filling:
1 ½ cup finely chopped onions or combo of onion & mushrooms – sauté onions until caramelized. Ruth sautés the onions and mushrooms separately.
½ cup of grated sharp cheese like Cheddar or Gruyère
Mix milk (both wet & dry), eggs, salt, thyme, nutritional yeast and oil in blender.
Layer onion (then mushroom if using), then cheese in pie plate.
Pour blended mixture over top.
Bake at 375F for 10 minutes then turn oven temperature to 350F. Bake an additional 15-30 minutes until brown. Check with a toothpick inserted in the middle to make sure it’s not too wet.
Enjoy!
*make sure it’s pastry flour & not all-purpose
**There are two basic kinds of powdered milks, instant and non-instant or “regular”. They are processed a little differently so the end results are not the same. The texture is also different. Some instant powdered milks look flaky but the non-instant is definitely “powdery”. Non-instant milk is denser and more concentrated. Maybe not as easy to find as regular.
This post came about after I was out looking to buy an ordinary sandwich condiment – known to compliment everything from tuna to egg salad sandwiches. It was difficult to find a low-fat healthy mayonnaise. By now I’m way more careful about reading labels. You may have some idea that mayonnaise is not exactly a healthy condiment, but you may not be aware of just how high in fat and other harmful dietary elements it really is. Every single mayo jar I came across including ½ the calories (in fact specifically half the calories) contained high fat. Which made me question how many people actually pay attention to what they use in countless recipes. I mean you can make a sandwich without mayonnaise but honestly the stuff really does add to the overall taste. So if I can make my own mustard then I can certainly make my own mayonnaise. It’s very easy and a whole bunch healthier. Have a look at two DIY recipes.
1) Healthy Mayonnaise Recipe
Please note: it is very important that all the ingredients are at room temperature for this recipe. Having ingredients that are too hot or too cold can cause the mayo to separate or not emulsify. Any oils can be used for this, though I prefer coconut, olive, walnut or other healthy oils.
Ingredients
4 egg yolks at room temperature
1 TBSP lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 Tsp regular or Dijon mustard (or ½ tsp dried mustard)
Salt and pepper
⅔ cup olive oil
⅔ cup coconut oil (warm) or other healthy oil (macadamia works well)
Instructions
Put egg yolks into blender or bowl and whisk/blend until smooth
Add lemon juice or vinegar, mustard and spices and blend until mixed
SLOWLY add oil while blending or whisking at low speed, starting with olive oil. Start with a drop at a time until it starts to emulsify and then keep adding slowly until all oil is incorporated.
Store in fridge up to 1 week.
Author: Wellness Mama
This is a good organic store-bought veggie mayo – from health food stores.
2) Best Homemade Mayo
ingredients
2 whole pastured eggs
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. prepared mustard
2 cups light olive oil (not a vegetable blend)
instructions
Blend eggs, vinegar, salt, and mustard in food processor. While machine is running, slowly add oil, VERY SLOWLY!! Continue until all of the oil has been added and the eggs and oil have formed an emulsion or Mayonnaise. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.
Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
NOTE: Be sure to use eggs from a healthy, trusted source. Most people worry about raw eggs, but there is no need to worry if you purchase pastured (NOT pasteurized) eggs from a local farmer whose chickens freely roam, eat off of the land and are well-cared for. There are MANY more cases of salmonella from processed, cooked foods than from using pastured, raw eggs. Just a thought.
Everything you see at the farmers markets is fresh, locally grown and organic.
Natural coloured cauliflower. I like purple.
Last Saturday we visited the farmersmarket in Palm Springs. It’s small compared to most I’ve seen, but what it lacks in size it makes up for with prize produce and products. I mentioned how large the size of the grapefruit, oranges and lemons are but we came home with a bag of the tiniest Hass avocados I’ve ever seen (just as good but with a much smaller pit), Barhi Dates, Smoked Gouda, baby heirloom tomatoes, Oatmeal honey bread (no preservatives of course) Avocado oil with lime (Mexican dinner coming up), a delicious Avocado body lotion with jasmine and a fruit I’ve never heard of before.
waiting to ripen
It’s just so nice walking around in the open air on a nice day and looking okay, sampling all the good stuff. Everything is slightly more expensive than shopping the local grocery store, but considering the quality and work involved it is quite worth it, not to mention healthier. Maybe I won’t buy every single item there but for a whole lot of things it makes shopping & cooking a much more pleasurable experience. AND you are helping to support the farmers.
• 1-2 avocados, depending on size
• 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 thick slices of sour dough bread
• 8 slices of watermelon radish
• 1 scallion, sliced thin
• 2 sprigs of fresh parsley or chervil
• 2 tsp. pickled mustard seed
• 1 small pinch of chili powder
• 1 pinch of flakey sea salt
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil Recipe:
1. In a bowl, mash avocado.
2. Add lemon juice and a pinch of kosher salt.
3. Toast bread and layer with avocado mash, followed by radish, scallion, herbs, and mustard seed.
4. Finish with a sprinkling of chili, sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.
Mustard Seed
Ingredients:
• 1 cup mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbl salt
Recipe:
1. In a small pot, add mustard seeds and cold water to cover. Bring to boil and immediately drain and repeat three times. On the final time, drain seeds and transfer into a jar.
2. Warm the water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Once it comes to a simmer and the sugar has dissolved, pour into jar with mustard seeds and allow to pickle for at least 3 hours before using.
Grapefruits the size of footballs, Oranges the size of Watermelons and Lemons the size of Grapefruit…
this is a fairly large size bowl
picked or fallen from the trees right outside our front entrance.
Not until I cut the orange in half did I realize it was not a grapefruit. Have you ever tried eating a huge orange, grapefruit style? It works if the orange is really juicy – a pleasant discovery. What a treat.
Like when you crave a simple but well made grilled cheese sandwich or clubhouse and another time something totally different like chicken pot pie (which I personally never crave but some people do).
I was going for a simple latte and mid-afternoon snack but looking at all the goodies at the counter made it a challenging situation to choose only one thing. At times like this you have to make a difficult decision. You order something, take another thing home and decide to come back again and again to try everything you never thought you wanted. See what I mean?
Coco et Olive Cafe – 3707 Main St.
These pastries look so yummy. Liberty used to be in my neighbourhood (it was called Elsie’s then). They moved away and I couldn’t find them for ages until I came across the bakery by accident on Main Street. I spotted the buttercream & mocha petit fours I love and used to buy regularly in their window.
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 
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