coconut grilled peaches

Not exactly what I had in mind, but they blew canned peaches out of the water.

Brunch.

Father's Day buffet. Those lemon scones were AWESOME.

thai peanut stir-fry

Pasta: the staple and failsafe student standby. It was also free!

not dead. I promise!

So it's been a terribly busy semester hereabouts, which would explain the drastic reduction in blog posts. Also, I managed to destroy my digital camera on a canoeing trip with the boyfriend, so I'm hoping fervently that Christmas will yield a new camera, or at least a non-digital camera I can borrow.

In the meantime, though, I HAD to commemorate the cooking of my very first turkey, which my mother kindly sent to my roommates and I for the lean time at the end of the semester when none of us had money.

So I took the built-in webcam from my MacBook and took some pictures.

It has a FACE! Honest to goodness!


Isn't it pretty? It was definitely yummy.

As soon as I return home next week, I'm going into full DIY and cooking mode, so expect a lot more exciting things coming up a lot sooner!

Cheers,
Meg

BEST RESTAURANT EVAR.

Now, with a wine option like that (if it hadn't been the middle of the day...), plus a whalewatching business operating out of the joint (which we took advantage of before lunch), you'd think that would be enough to make this a pretty cool restaurant.

You'd be wrong. The decor was charming, the locale was great (way out in the middle of nowhere on a little island), there were boxes full of Trivial Pursuit cards to pass the time, and the service was as homey and friendly as could be. They even let the patrons use the piano in the dining room, and the sweetest little girl from one of the other tables played a bit while we were there. She was good, too.

Oh, and the food? The food was phenomenal. The menu had something for everyone (and there were 8 of us with very different palates) and I don't think anyone was disappointed.

The problem is? It was months ago, and I'm still thinking about that peanut butter pie...


Cheers,
Meg

Pie and a Song

She's my cherry pie

Cool drink of water

Such a sweet suprise


Tastes so good

Make a grown man cry


Sweet cherry pie

Oh yeah


She's my cherry pie

Put a smile on your face

Ten miles wide


Looks so good

Bring a tear to your eye

Sweet cherry pie



Sweet cherry pie

Yeah


Swing it!

Yeah, so I'm not original. But who cares when there's pictures of cheery pie to ogle?

Sometimes after a long day of editing Powerpoints, writing speaker's notes, sending emails, consulting with your supervisors and colleagues, and doing a bunch of research, a gal just needs to stop and smell the flowers.
Mmmm, that's better. Too bad the flowers don't smell quite as good as my first peach crumbles.

I'll be honest: I'm afraid of crumbles. I always, always, ALWAYS manage to screw up the topping somehow, even if I follow the recipe to a T. I've never figured out why this always seems to happen. It's really a shame, because I love crumbles, and I've watched my mother whip up a blueberry crumble in the time it takes to preheat the oven.

So on Sunday night, thanks to a pile of beautiful ripe peaches in my fridge, an unwillingness to pack for school, and an inspiring recipe from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook, I knew I had to make peach crumbles in individual ramekins and risk the crumble topping (after all, if it flopped, I'd still have yummy baked peaches underneath).
I prepared the peaches first, which I had never actually tried before. For those of you who were as ignorant to peach peeling as I was before Sunday, it was pretty easy: all you have to do is put your peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, place them immediately in cold water, and peel them one by one.
The boiling water loosens the skin from the inner fruity part of the peach, and the cold water bath keeps them from cooking (I think - this is about as scientific as I get). It's a bit messy, but far better than peeling them by hand (I know because I made the mistake of trying to peel by hand first).
The divine peaches looked awesome in Mom's new bird's-egg blue bowls, so of course I took loads of pictures to avoid starting the dreaded crumble topping.
With one last picture (or five) of the pretty ingredients in their pretty bowls and a deep breath, I started my foray into the crumble topping.
So it looked good, my flour, oats, and brown sugar all mixed together nicely. I only had one ingredient left: the wet one. Butter. Okay, actually it was margarine, but one must make do sometimes. I was quite worried, because I hadn't actually softened it in the microwave: I turned half of it into a puddle. "Oh, great," I thought as I walked apprehensively towards my bowl, "This crumble topping is going to be ruined too, I just feel it."
Unsurprisingly, my "crumble-topping-sense" pretty much sucks, and the topping turned out beautifully. There was one tense moment when I wasn't sure that I had added enough "butter", but I was, of course, wrong.
Gosh, isn't it beautiful? Look at it! So pretty! All those years of frustration, dissolved into nothing. thanks to my beautiful perfect crumble topping.

In a state that can only be described as elation, I whipped up the crumbles, spicing the sliced peaches with pinches of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and popped 'em into the oven, along with a few apple mini-crumbles (I ran out of peaches).My little brother asked me to take pictures of his fried egg for the blog, so I snuck my crumbles into the background. I'm such a terrible sister. I don't feel too bad, though, because his fried egg was an unphotogenic diva of a fried egg. And yes, they DID taste as good as they looked. Now THIS is what summer's all about. Until next time!Music of the day: "Crush", by Jennifer Paige (cheesy pop, yes, but oh well - my Dad likes the song and he's the purchaser of the peaches: the founder of the feast, as it were)

Sometimes, less is more.

It is tomato season, and you know what that means in my house? Lots and lots of sandwiches and salads featuring everybody's favorite vegetable...er, fruit. I mean, even my little brother eats them, and he's the kind of guy who would make a meal out of only a big piece of steak (actually, this past weekend, he did - and I joined him, but I ate some humus afterward too).

And one thing my mom is good at is sandwiches. In particular, a VERY classic sandwich with tomatoes as a featured ingredient: BLTs. If it were possible to be in love with a sandwich, this would probably be my spouse (the utterly divine ham sandwich at Salvatore's in Halifax is a babe, but totally out of my league, unfortunately).

So since Tom, my little brother, spoiled my dreams of BLTs this weekend by preparing steak (and eating all the tomatoes in the house just to spite me), last night I finally got the sandwich I'd been craving for days. And oh, was it ever dreamy.

Since I made it myself, it wasn't quite as special as Mom's, but I know better than to complain. True love is true love, after all.


Music of the day: "Ganges a Go-Go" - Kalyanji and Anandji Shah with Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow, from the album Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars.

Frustration!

So, these are supposed to be the lazy hazy crazy days of summer, right? Pretty foliage everywhere? Check.

Easy minimalist yummy cooking with fresh ingredients? Check.

Road trips to beautiful locales? Check.
Boozy thirst-quenchers? Check.

Picnics and party food? Check.

So why, oh why, does my Mac refuse to rotate my pictures?

brownies and cookies and tigers oh my!!

Bonjour! It is I, Martha Stewart!! Queen of baking!! Psyche! It's ReemBean, alright, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but here I am with two new recipes to tickle your sweet tooth! These recipes were made in an attempt to please 3 very small hooligans, otherwise known as the spawns of satan, or Greg's 3 cousins, Monica 9, Kara 8, and Kevin 12.
First recipe on the list, and now Greg's favorite brownie recipe:

Orange Cappuccino Brownies
2 oranges
3/4 cup butter
Coarsley chop:
2 squares (1 oz each) semi sweet chocolate
2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules
3 eggs
1/4 cup orange flavored liqueur (Grand Marnier or Triple Sec)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 package (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

Grease 13x9 inch pan. Finely grate orange peel, and measure 2 teaspoons peel. Melt butter, chopped chocolate squares in large heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and espresso powder, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Beat in eggs one at a time with wire whisk, whisk in liqueur and orange peel. Beat flour into chocolate mixture until just blended, spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, until center is just set, and remove from oven, let cool on wire rack.

While brownies are baking, melt chocolate chips and shortening in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, after removing the brownies from the oven, spread melted chocolate over brownies and let cool completely.

Cut into 2 inch squares and garnish with thin strip of orange peel. To make thin strips of orange peel use citrus zester and tie the strips into little knots.
I'm a regular Martha Stewart! Don't they look awesome??

Second recipe is a version of chocolate chip cookies that is super awesome for kids.
Mini M&M cookies:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (12 oz) mini m&ms
1 cup peanut butter chips

Stir flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, in large bowl until fluffy. Then beat in eggs and vanilla, then add flour and blend on low until well blended. Stir in m&ms and peanut butter chips with mixing spoon. Drop heaping teaspoons full onto ungreased cookie sheet 3 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown, at 375 dedgrees F. Remove cookies from oven and let cool for a few minutes, then remove to cool on wire rack.

The verdict? So good Greg got mad at everyone because they ate all "his" cookies, and he only got one. I had to substitute the peanut butter chips in this recipe for Greg, so I used white chocolate/semi sweet chocolate swirl chips instead.

This is ReemBean, signing off.

A Red Kind of Day...

Hello, all. It's Meg. I'm terribly sorry for dropping off the edge of the universe, dear readers. Work has been keeping me busy, as has re-reading the first six Harry Potter books in preparation for the release of the seventh and final book (I'm halfway through book 3 right now...will I be able to finish between 1000-2000 pages by Saturday?). Also, I have acquired a shiny new Mac laptop (his name is Squishy), and I've been spending a lot of my spare time converting from my PC ways. This has all led to very little cooking going on.
However, I did a fair bit of cooking in June, so here comes part of my backlog.

As I did last year, this year I made Dad's birthday cake. Instead of busting out my Nigella cookbooks, I allowed my father to make a request. He asked for a family favorite: Red Waldorf Cake. It's named after the hotel where it is said to have originated, according to family legend, and some distant cousin alledgedly paid 125 dollars in order to acquire the recipe. I have no clue how true this story is, but the cake IS delicious, so it doesn't really matter.
I started baking in the afternoon, happily mixing the odd red batter which smelled strongly of chocolate. I daydreamed about the final product on a pretty cake platter, covered in snow-white buttercream, and tried my best not to salivate.
Then the doorbell rang. I had gotten a package, as it turns out, and it contained my new red iPod. It couldn't have come on a more colour-appropriate day.