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!

The Night Market.

The Night Market; the rows of lit booths stuffed with Hello Kitty and all things cute, the electronic dance music and Michael Jackson impersonator, and the smoke lifting from the fans behind the BBQs into the crisp summer air.  

The first thing we do is beeline it to the food booths.  There's just something more exciting about food when they put it on a stick or deep fry things that aren't supposed to be deep fried (like ice cream).

  

The deep fried ice cream, a fish waffle filled with custard (or chocolate or red bean), and a coconut.

And of course, I bought a Hello Kitty phone charm.

Summer Explosions

Summer Explosion, originally uploaded by jill.s.

My favourite time of summer is the Celebration of Light in Vancouver. Countries around the world come here to compete for the best show of fireworks set to music.

We get down to the beach early to stake out a spot and wait for hours until it gets dark. And here's what we're rewarded with.

The nightlife.

Granville Street, originally uploaded by jill.s.

Finally the weekend.

It's Friday! The weekend...

My weekend plans are...

1) To see an outdoor show
2) Make a pizza
3) My to-do list (packing)

There is one thing I have been wanting to do all summer but haven't got to yet. And that is to see a theatre show outdoors under the stars. They have several here, some on the beach, some in a park. And I love outdoor rock concerts :D. Hopefully I'll find something for this weekend.

Also, I have lately had a huge craving for pizza. With real homemade crust and toppings, not the delivery or frozen type. Once I make it, I'll take photos and post the recipe, so you'll have to wait!

And of course, I'll need to tackle my to-do list, which is mainly packing up my belongings and giving things away. Moving is never fun, although I can't wait to be settled in a new place.

My photo is from the Keukenhof gardens in Amsterdam. Acres and acres of tulips.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Wall of hamburgers.

One thing I love about traveling are the moments when you see something cool and say to yourself "What, why don't we have this in Canada!?" In Sweden it was the ATM machines that accept handfuls of change (although I've heard they exist in the US), in Finland it was the bottle return machines that suck up the bottles through a hole and print out a receipt for you, and in Amsterdam it was the wall of hamburgers.

FEBO is like a regular fast food restaurant only instead of a cashier counter they have what looks like a wall of vending machines. You put your change into the windowed door with the burger/fries/snack that you want, it unlocks and you take it out. Clever.

I've heard this place makes the best fries, but I didn't get to try them.