How was your weekend? I hope you spent a decent amount of time enjoying the wonderful weather brought to us c'est fin-de-semaine (that's an ode to you, M-Sac) which included thunder and lightening that almost brought down my house, wind which threatened to throw me across the Atlantic (which I wouldn't have minded) and a nice healthy May dose of Sunday morning flurries. Ohhhh, Canada. Needless to say, my activities required indoor voices only.
I spent the weekend continuing on my journey of unearthing my domestic goddess. And if you got the chance to taste my carrot cake or baked brie you would not be sneering at my use of the term goddess, on the contrary my friend, on the contrary. Actually, the carrot cake was part of last weekend's festivities, but the excitement of it carried over to this week anyways. You see, my maman was overseas for the past 7 days visiting my dear M-Sac in L-Town so I decided to save her a chunk in the freezer as a welcome home present. Now, I am usually not one to verbally pat myself on the back, but this carrot cake definitely deserves it. The combination of crushed pineapple, grated carrots, chopped pecans, sugar, butter and a cream cheese icing (obviously) made for a 9x13" pan of heaven, courtesy of Canadian Living. Here's a shot of what's left, stowed away in my freezer, waiting patiently for our next binge day:
This weekend however, I crossed over to the savoury side of the palate. In addition to indulging in a Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings marathon, I spent Friday evening catching up with Mama and her European adventure while assisting her in the preparation of 40 cannelloni for my grandmother's 80th birthday party. This experience not only taught me how to cook an essential dish but also inspired my new goal for the week! (I tend to set both fitness and diet goals every week to keep myself entertained and motivated) I didn't realize it as we were working, but in retrospect there was definitely a common denominator responsible for the success and fame of these cannelloni. What was the LCD, you ask? One word: freshness. Aside from minor ingredients, everything in this dish was made with fresh supplies bought earlier in the afternoon: fresh ricotta from Quality Cheese, fresh noodles from the pasta store, freshly grated parmigiana reggiano cheese...mixed with tasty sauteed spinach, fresh tomato sauce and grated mozzarella...all of which adding up to a casserole sent straight from the Italian gods themselves (are there any of those btw?). Unfortunately, I do not have any photo documentation, but you'd be lying if you tried to tell me your mouth wasn't watering anyways.
So, as I stated earlier, my new "thing" for the week is to try my best to eat only fresh foods. Minor exceptions will be made, for both convenience and budget. Things like frozen fish fillets are permitted, but canned tuna or salmon is not. Nothing in cans or bags are allowed, neither are things that require scorching in the microwave (cough there goes my popcorn addition cough). Yogurt is still allowed (hello, pro-biotics) and so are things like plain chocolate (i.e. from the 1kg bar of Diary Milk mama brought back). This goal stems from two sources: 1) from the fact that my stomach has not suffered, despite eating a dish not normally included in my diet and 2) from a summer time spent eating foreign (but always fresh), carby, starchy foods, huge portion sizes, not gaining an ounce and always feeling amazing...
And just as an added FYI, my fitness "thing" for the week is two cut my runs in half and add an extra swim session daily (basically, short run, two swims...this is just a needed break from running, just to switch it up, just so I don't stop loving it as much as I do)
I'll keep you posted and let you know how I'm feeling come Sunday!
P.S. Stay posted for my first Vaughan profile, should be up by the end of the week! Research begins Tuesday evening with a much-needed-and-awaited date with a long-lost-stew-loving-sister...
P.P.S-- a shout out is necessary--Happy 80th to my Mociute aka Mociuts aka the Queen aka coolest grandmother ever! xox
P.P.P.S Another shout is necessary--I just wanted to thank my lovely friend Justine for her amazing appetizer idea. It was quite the hit at the party this weekend and may have been one of the reasons why most of our supper dishes ended up packed up and taken home as the whole family's food supply for the week. Curious as to what this tasty treat was? Baked brie, topped with fig jam, wrapped in phyllo pastry:
It was actually my first time working with phyllo and proved to be not as difficult as I feared...
Butter that baby up reeeal good...
Before and after shots
800 gram wheel of brie already half done after a mere 15 minutes of being put out...
Ahhhhhh!!! Allllllll of that food sounds incredible! Esp the brie :) And I commend your efforts, dearest friend--esp bc I, a processed/ frozen food junkie would never even ATTEMPT such a feat (why invite failure when you can just pretend it doesn't exist? that's what I say ;)). And PS, I laughed out loud looking at those shots of the food. They complement the new blog layout perfectly :)
ReplyDeleteO! Merci pour le shout-out! Il y a tres tres appreciae(add accent-et-gou) et a porter un grand rire a mon visage :)