Oct 27th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Twenty Chewy Cocoa Cookies with Chocolate Chips
In so many ways, it would be easier to make a gargantuan batch of cookies. If a girl is going to sift one cup of flour, she might as well sift five. Then she’d have lots and lots of delicious cookies to dole out to friends and family, or to freeze for busy nights ahead.
The only thing is, I prefer baking my cookies in small, secret batches. They feel more special that way, more exclusive. In my kitchen as I sift and stir and bake, I think of those one or two special people who will receive them this time. How I might nestle them into a small box, or wrap them up in a cellophane bag. How they might smile when they receive them, or maybe, if they’re hungry, eat one right away.
Tonight I baked exactly twenty chocolate cookies. Some for my sister, some for Michael, and yes, some for me. Just twenty cookies, crisp on the outside, dark and dense with cocoa and chocolate chips on the inside. Just enough to savour, and just enough to selectively share.
If you had just twenty chewy cocoa cookies chock full of chocolate chips, who would you share them with with?
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Tags: chocolate, cookies, dessert
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Oct 27th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Average is Better: Applesauce Muffins
Sometimes a girl needs an average sort of muffin. Someone wholesome and reliable, the sort of muffin you can bring home to your parents and count on to get along with your best cup of tea, mug of coffee, even your favourite stew.
This average applesauce muffin forgoes fluffiness for a moist, honest-to-goodness crumb. He skips over-the-top sweetness and goes straight to a hint of brown sugar and honey. He can’t be bothered with fussy frosting (vanity is sooooo unattractive in a muffin) for an aww-shucks slice of apple. And best of all, you can always count on him to rise to the occasion when it really counts.
Your mothers were right, ladies. When it comes to applesauce muffins (and men), “average” is actually better.
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Tags: apples, muffins, simple
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Oct 19th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Colourful Curried Confetti Soup
The leaves have begun to scatter. After yesterday’s rain, they littered this morning pavement like coloured confetti. I can’t help but think that before long, even these leaves will pass, and we’ll be left with nothing but bare branches, grey pavement and even greyer skies for the winter months ahead.
It would be a melancholy time, if not for recipes such as this one for a colourful curried confetti soup, with its flurry of red onion and cabbage, orange pumpkin, yellow sweet potatoes and green zucchini. And for fall company like Lindsay, who blew into my apartment a few nights ago as if on seasonal cue with a warm grin, girly gossip and a massive green salad from Whole Foods. I love that she’s the sort of friend I can share this sort of messy, unfussy soup with-both of us in comfy sweats, catching up on life and relationships between spoonfuls. Perfect company to colour grey fall evenings.
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Tags: cabbage, soup, sweet potato, vegetables, zucchini
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Oct 13th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Brazenly Braised Purple Cabbage
You’ve got to admire the prima donna boldness of purple cabbages. While savoy cabbages’ crinoline leaves crinkle shyly under pressure, and average green cabbages go almost unnoticed in their Plain Jane simplicity, purple cabbages are bright, brazen and audacious. They’d pucker up their purple lips and flirt with your boyfriend in a heartbeat. Shamelessly.
Don’t bother trying to stop them. Braise them. It’s true they’ll soften sweetly and be even sexier the next morning. But he’ll fall in love with both of you.
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Tags: cabbage, simple, vegetables
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Oct 10th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Curried Coconut Shepherd's Pie with Slow Roasted Yams
To be honest, every minute of this week has been a hurried-scurry: out the door every morning for a jog before scurrying to and through a day at the office. Scurrying here, there and everywhere to meet friends, or to run those scurrying types of errands that you can’t quite remember after because you were… well… scurrying.
But it’s Friday. The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend lies ahead.
So tonight, instead of scurrying, I came home and slow roasted yams in the oven to top a homemade shepherd’s pie. I gave them their sweet time to caramelize instead of hurriedly boiling them into submission, and added a slow tropical drawl of coconut and curry. A pot of red cabbage and apple braised slowly on the stove top. My dear friend Jim came over for dinner. We drank a bottle and a half of very good Australian shiraz and caught up on over a year of life.
So much has happened in this year between Thanksgivings. Our lives have emptied and refilled in ways that neither of us could have imagined.
Between the hurrying and the scurrying, so many changes take place in our peripheral vision, barely noticed until we pause to ponder them with a good friend over good wine, and a shepherd’s pie topped with unscurriedly-roasted coconut yams.
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Tags: casserole, sweet potato, yams
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Oct 8th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Rustic Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
Step out of your high-heeled shoes, my friends. Throw on a worn sweater and those flannel PJs you save for nights like these. It’s just us tonight, there’s no need to put up your hair. Steep yourself a cup of your favourite tea, and bake these pumpkin cornbread muffins.
Earthy with cinnamon and cumin, these down-to-earth, no-airs muffins are moist with pumpkin and honey with a rustic cornmeal crunch. They taste best in comfy threads, at a casual fall brunch, a country Thanksgiving, with a steaming bowl of your favourite stew or chili, or simply with a dollop of butter and tea.
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Tags: muffins, pumpkin
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Oct 8th, 2009 by messy kitchen
Restaurant Review: Smitty's Oyster House
When the sun cracks the sky first thing Friday morning,
and you find yourself seated at this gleaming bar in Gibsons by noon…
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Tags: restaurants, Reviews
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Oct 7th, 2009 by messy kitchen
The sunshine has surprised all of us this fall, bursting forth frequently and with rare sincerity for this time of year. This past weekend it beamed over the Sunshine Coast, where we gathered with friends to celebrate Tara and Doug’s wedding. It glistened the ocean, dappled the trail beneath cedar trees, and warmed our walks along the shoreline.
And it made these small summer squashes all the more perfect when we found them on Sunday, tucked inside a deserted roadside produce stand. We chose the smallest ones, fist sized handfuls of sunshine from a stranger’s garden, place them on a scale, and dropped a few coins in a box in exchange.
On a fall night, this bright tasting recipe for Roasted Summer Squash and Shallots tastes of sun, Sunday and the small delights of an earlier season.
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Tags: simple, summer squash, vegetables, zucchini
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Oct 1st, 2009 by messy kitchen
Honey-Spiced Pecans & Fennel Seeds
The weather has turned, and the oak trees around the corner have been heavy with acorns and raindrops. In the gaps between showers, neighbourhood squirrels have been scurrying, moving the bounty of nuts to hiding spots in preparation for winter.
There is something to be said for this simple sort of life.
But the sad truth is, I would make a horrible squirrel. I am bad at climbing trees, which would mean that the freshest, juiciest nuts would be taken by braver, more nimble squirrels. With little sense of direction, anything I hid would be lost forever, no matter how many hints and scents I left behind to mark its location. (Six paces to the right from the mushroom then three paces to the left. Hmmm. Which mushroom?)
But my surest failure would be in hoarding for winter. I cannot fathom resisting the urge to nibble, nibble, nibble the entire trove of autumn nuts, regardless of imminent frost. Like these warm Honey-Spiced Pecans & Fennel Seeds. They never made it into the roasted pear and arugula salad it was intended for. They were nibbled, nibbled, nibbled until the last sticky one was gone.
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Tags: nuts, simple
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Sep 28th, 2009 by messy kitchen
September's Cinnamon Cider Roasted Vegetables
Given September and the season, we have been blessed with more sunny skies than we could have hoped for here in Vancouver. But today, as the month draws to a close, showers have slipped in and with them the suggestion of cozy sweaters, woolen socks, and the scent of cinnamon and apple cider to warm these wholesome roasted vegetables and the months to come.
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Tags: cabbage, simple, vegetables, zucchini
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