Reset.

Yesterday I needed a 'reset' day. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. More accurately, I woke up on no side of the bed, as I was still tucked deep in the duvet when my eyes opened at 11:37am.

Seriously. Who does that? I'm not sixteen. I kept saying, "Oh well, I must have needed the sleep", but really? I felt angry at myself for sleeping in, and then quite mopey at the weather, as well as my lack of personal agenda. My lack of summer plans (read: failed attempt at heading across the pond) is REALLY weighing on my spirits.

I did what I always do when I'm feeling grouchy, and that's head for some exercise. Some people reach for ice cream (I just picked that up on the way home).  My swim was amazing. I killed it. As the weather wasn't great, it was an indoor workout, but it felt like a piece of cake, (lemon lime cheesecake to be specific) as I'd been used to swimming the last month outdoors at kits pool. To put this in perspective, Kits pool is 137.5m in length, where as the indoor pool at Hillcrest is 25m. Touching the wall after 25m feels like a breeze.

Baba Ghanouj

An ex-boyfriend and I used to make Baba Ghanouj quite frequently. We'd make it whenever we were feeling uninspired to cook, and just felt like a 'picky' (as I call it) dinner. This usually consisted of meats, cheeses, pita, or naan bread, veggies, and various dips. In otherwise, a great summer meal.

Last night, I was craving it. I don't think I've made it since 'the divorce'. Luckily I found a simple recipe in one of my cookbooks.

THE BEST Rum (BRANDY) Balls

Before we are all completely sick of all things Christmas, I wanted to share this family recipe (I say family, as we've made it for years, but it is actually a recipe of Diane Clement's). We haven't made these rum balls in a few years, as the rolling process is a bit tedious (basically we got lazy), but this year I insisted.

Chicken Fajita Seasoning.

As most of you know, it has been a very hot summer in London this year. Thank god for this, as we put up with one of the longest winters known to mankind. When the heat hit, we were ready (our wardrobes certainly weren't but our bodies were).

Why am I telling you this? Well, in the summer I tend to crave a few things. Fruit, Salads (and fruit salads), sushi, and any mexican dish you can name. Last night on my way home from a day of research, stopped at Waitrose to pick up some groceries for fajitas. Usually, I'm lazy and grab a packet of fajita seasoning, but they were all out. Surely I can make this, I thought...

So what I'm about to share with you is definitely not ground breaking, but you will certainly feel silly if you've been buying those same packets all these years.

Here it is, quick and easy, fajita seasoning (and yes, once you put these items together, you can just throw it into any recipe calling for fajita seasoning as per the instructions. With my fajita dinner, I added 1/4 Cup water to the pan to create a bit of a sauce.

1 tbsp cornstarch (I used flower as we were out of cornstarch...it worked fine)

2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp salt (you could use a little less)

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp crushed chicken bouillon cube (I didn't have this, so left it out)

1/2 tsp onion powder (I also didn't have so eliminated)

1/4 tsp garlic powder (I just added fresh garlic to the pan)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp cumin 

VOILA! 

(not rocket science, I know)

Wish me luck as the girl who prefers bed and breakfasts is off camping in Wales for the weekend. 

Don't laugh.

...all because when I tried to say I didn't have camping equipment in London, I was told to 'live a little'. 

And that is all it takes.

Baked Apples.

I do have a sweet tooth. Sometimes it's worse than other times.

Last night I rushed home from the train carrying an Ikea bag full of paintings over one arm, and my leather school bag with five new books and countless readings over the other arm. Despite being completely aware that the house was vacant of 'treats', there was absolutely no way I was navigating the dinner rush in or local Waitrose as a 'wide-load'.

I get home from class on the later side, and I usually allow myself the evening to relax. I eat dinner, and then either work on the blog (as I'm doing now), or download an episode of something (shhh...don't tell!).  I always have a cup of tea (yes, HOT and BRITISH), and a little something sweet.

There were no chocolate biscuits (yes, I have acquired a taste for those terrible things...just like Hugh Grant in Love Actually), or any of S's freshly baked cookies, so I decided to make a baked apple.

***Warning the following is not a precise recipe...don't get your hopes up!***

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp of butter with a pinch or two of brown sugar, and a similar amount of white sugar (told you there was no precision), along with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and a handful of oats. Squish it together with your fingers. Yes, you're basically making an apple crisp topping. Set the mixture aside.

pre-squish

Take the core out of the centre of 1 apple. I cut a slice out of the bottom bit of the core and used it to plug the hole so that my filling didn't seep out the bottom.

Line a bread tin, or cookie sheet with foil, and place the hollowed out apple on it. Stuff the filling into the apple. If you carefully carve a flat ledge around the top portion of the hole, your 'stuffing' will overflow quite nicely on the top of the apple. Makes it look pretty!

Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until the apple is baked through.



I poured the apple juices back over the top of the apple to make sure none of the goodness escaped!

Add a dollop of creme fraiche, boil Kettle, make tea, download show, and dig in!

What? Too much Creme Fraiche? I beg to differ.

 Happy Friday!

What are you up to this weekend?

I have an exciting weekend ahead of me, and I'll make sure to take lots of pictures. 

Tonight I'm making dinner for M. Any suggestions?

photo credit: first apple image.

Cayenne-Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa....and a diamond.

I realized I never told you this happened...

It's not my hand.

Nope.

I can't believe you thought that!

That would be the hand of my best friend Kristin. 

It's a big beautiful rock isn't it??

Okay, focus back here.

Kristin and I have been best friends since the first day of Kindergarten, and it was Kristin who was the star of the blog when she became my first London visitor in the fall. This engagement is a BIG deal. I'm so happy for her and her fiance, Laurent. They make a wonderful couple, and it's about time! I'm excited for the wedding, and Kristin is busy planning like a mad woman. It is however, very hard to be away from home when something so exciting is in the works in Vancouver.

Why am I suddenly telling you this? Well, tonight I made a recipe that Kristin used to make for me when we lived in the same apartment building in the West End. It's a recipe she found in one of those Martha Stewart 'Everyday Food' magazines that you see near the cashier in grocery stores (at least in Canada). Have you ever browsed through one of those? They are actually awesome. There's even an APP for your iphone. I digress...

Cayenne-Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa: 

Ingredients:

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, (6 to 8 ounces each)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, finely diced **** I would actually use less or it's quite strong and finely diced is key!!!!
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 Hass avocado, pitted and cut into chunks

Method:

In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne; rub all over chicken.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chicken, and cook until browned on the outside and opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine onion and lime juice; set aside. Just before serving, fold avocado chunks into onion mixture; season with salt and pepper. Serve chicken topped with salsa.

K used to make it with Quinoa, but tonight I just grilled some veggies.

These avocados were small so I used 3.

I grilled veggies, but honestly, it's better with a carb.

It looks better with Quinoa also...don't copy me!

For the actual recipe on Martha's page, click here. We must give credit where credit is due.

A few of our favourite things.

Here are two of our favourite holiday recipes. My family loves these two recipes, and we make them every year without fail. This year we certainly devoured our fair share of the treats. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I had to make both of these twice, as we finished the first round before Christmas Day!

Peanut Butter Slice

Ingredients: 

2 Cups Semi Sweet chocolate chips

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup chopped unsalted peanuts

1 1/2 Cups Graham Wafer Crumbs

1 Cup Butter melted

1/3 Cup sifted icing sugar

Method:

Combine peanut butter, peanuts, graham wafer crumbs, butter, and icing sugar in a large bowl, and press into the bottom of an ungreased baking pan. Place pan in fridge to cool.

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler then spread over top of cooled peanut butter mixture.

*helpful hint: it is best to cut these into squares before the chocolate completely hardens or it becomes a very difficult task!

And the final product....bet you can't eat just one!

Granny Dorothy's Lemon Slice

(I love anything lemon, so this one is my absolute favourite)

Ingredients:

(Crust and topping)

1 1/2 Cups Graham Wafer Crumbs (yes, if you're making both recipes, just crushing them all up at once saves a lot of time)

1/2 Cup Melted Butter

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

3/4 Cup Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/8 tsp Salt

(Filling)

1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk (difficult to find in the UK!)

1/2 Cup lemon juice

1 tsp lemon rind

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Combine the ingredients for the crust and topping in a large bowl. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased pan.

Mix the filling ingredients together, adding the lemon juice to the sweetened condensed milk, and stirring until the mixture thickens. 

Spread filling over bottom layer of crust.

Cover top of filling with the last 1/3 of the Graham Wafer mixture.

Place in oven, and cook for 25 mins. Let it cool, and then chill in the fridge. This slice is especially yummy / chewy taken directly from the freezer!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to grab a piece of lemon slice from the freezer. Shhh...don't tell!

Vij's Chai and Rice Pudding.

Baby it's cold outside...

image.

Yesterday it snowed in the UK. Apparently it was really coming down in London, but by the time I got up, it had stopped in our neighbourhood.


Last night our flat was especially chilly as they are painting the back bedroom and bathroom, so we've got the windows open so that S doesn't die of fumes.

Cozied up in our pjs, we decided to make homemade Chai and Rice Pudding. Both recipes are from Vij's cookbook.

image.

You can buy it here (it would make for an excellent Christmas present), but their website has the chai recipe on it. Yes, happy face. Click here for Chai!

If these two recipes don't warm your toes, I don't know what will.

Grilled Courgette and Mint Salad with Pesto Fusilli.

Last night was my night for dinner as 'S' is at school all day on Mondays.  I was also a bit of a slacker, playing hookie with a friend, and didn't go into the studio, so it was only fair.

I made Rosie's homemade pesto from my favourite blog, The Londoner.  You'll have to check out her page, and search the blog under recipes to find her quick and easy pesto recipe.

It's very straight forward, you just tear all of the leaves off an unsuspecting basil plant, toss them in a blender, along with 50g of pine nuts, 1 Cup of Parmesan, 2 garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, and half a cup of Olive oil. Blend it up. Done.

I made a pesto Fusilli, along with my favourite Grilled Vegetable Salad. It's usually made with Eggplant and Zucchini, but after hobbling down to Waitrose, I discovered they had sold out of Eggplant. A Zucchini salad it would be.

For the full recipe click here. Trust me, this one is worth it! It's even better in the summer months when you can use the BBQ to grill the veggies properly.

*If you're wondering what the white drizzle is (not in the recipe), I had a taste of a grilled aubergine salad at Ottolenghi this weekend, and my friend and I were convinced it was sour cream. I gave it a try on this salad and it worked nicely. Thanks Otto!

Delicious Lemon Cookies.

image.

I found this yummy cookie recipe on Pinterest  (here), and as I absolutely LOVE anything lemon, I had to give it a try. They were delicious. Especially tasty with a cup of Earl Grey tea while watching 'The Holiday'.
No, they don't fall under the new "I can't do any physical activity diet", but hey, I was feeling sorry for myself.

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice**

¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

** I didn't find 1 tbsp enough lemon, so I put a lot more (like 2-3 tbsp)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 

3) Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. 

4) Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. 

 5) Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

6) Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

After tea, cookies, and my wonderful romantic comedy, it was off to bed, hoping to dream about a handsome man visiting me in a country cottage* 

*although, secretly not, as I'm suppose to create a piece of work for Tuesday's Art Therapy class based on a dream, and having to incorporate a half naked Jude Law into my image might be difficult to explain. Always thinking ahead.