Olympics!

Canada has one silver medal so far in Women's Freestyle Skiing Moguls (Jennifer Heil). Here's the latest results (they update)!

Happy Valentines Day!

Said the Whale - Camilo

Made me smile

Watching the Olympics from wherever you are

My home, my heart, is in Vancouver. And so are the 2010 Olympics games. I, however, am in Finland, and I'm missing home like crazy. The Olympics starts today and my friends are posting photos of Canadian spirit and are planning which free concerts to go to. Wintersleep, Alexisonfire, and even Our Lady Peace are performing for free - check out the Facebook group Free Olympic Shows. So, I found a good link which I hope will serve me well for watching the Games live over the internet.

If you go to the official website and scroll down to the bottom right of the page, it will say "Watch Olympic Coverage Live" with a drop-down list of countries.

I'll be testing out the link when the Olympics starts!

Good luck to team Canada (especially for hockey).

Cooking in Circles

Lately, I've been finding myself cooking in circles. You know... I either make chicken and spaghetti, or chicken curry from curry paste, and I'm getting a bit bored. And you know what they say.

"Life is too short for boring food." - anonymous

When I first left for university, I started on a diet of grilled cheese sandwiches, which I always find myself pronouncing "grrled" cheese sandwiches - am I the only one? Luckily, while I was home for Christmas my dad gave me two cookbooks by James Barber, Flash in the Pan and Fear of Frying. I never went back to grrled cheese sandwiches again.

For those who don't know, James Barber is a Canadian cooking icon. He introduced scores of kitchen apathetics - like your typical university student - to easy, inexpensive, gourmet-like food in his show The Urban Peasant. I still remember watching it when I came home from elementary school. He passed on in 2007 but you can still buy his cookbooks.

And now again, as I've moved halfway across the world from Canada to Finland, the only cookbook I have is The Genius of James Barber. As I flip through the pages making note of tasty recipes, I'm saying to myself, "yes, thank you, no more spaghetti."

It's a bit tough food-wise moving from Vancouver to Finland. Vancouver is a port city, and I could buy almost anything I wanted from the markets there. I miss Granville Island, TNT and Farmer's Markets. In Finland, the food options have taken some getting used to. Sushi is considered a delicacy instead of a staple, the coffee tastes different, and it costs two to three times as much to eat out in a restaurant as it does in Canada. But the chocolates and sideways cinnamon buns (korvapusti) are delicious and the traditional food is quite healthy, so there is some trade-off.

It's time for me to get cooking again.

So, I offer you a recipe of my own. My favourite meal ever is Sunday Brunch and pancakes are the perfect fit. I used to make these for my family every Sunday, and when I go home my mom makes them for me. These are a little different than most pancakes because they are thicker and less spongey. You can switch up the flour for whole wheat pastry flour and heat frozen strawberries in a sauce pot for syrup to make them a little healthier.

Pancakes

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

(or whole wheal pastry flour)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cinnamon

2 eggs (separated- whites stiffly beaten)

1 cup milk

3 tablespoon butter or oil

chopped up apples or other fruit or berries (optional)

Whisk together the egg yolk and all ingredients except and egg white and fruit. Fold the in the egg whites and the fruit pieces. Heat a pan on the stove on medium with some butter or oil. Now make your pancakes!

Serve with maple syrup and peaches or strawberries.

Reference - My mom

Oh, and if you're ever in Vancouver go to Horizon's Restaurant for Sunday Brunch! It's at Burnaby Mountain Park and has a beautiful view of the city. I heart very much.

New Year's and Resolutions!

Happy 2010 everyone!

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't been updating my blog lately. Like most procrastinators, I have an excuse. I couldn't figure out what my blog was about and what to write. Should I keep it personal with photos and stories of everyday life? Or talk about my interests, technology, politics, travel, etc? Do I take photos of my dinner and post it along with a recipe to replicate it?

But it's a new year, which also means it's New Year's Resolution time! For the new year, I will write in my blog about anything. This means it might be a bit incoherent for a while from post to post, but hopefully things will settle down as I eventually figure out what this blog is about.

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays!