Tuesday, August 7, 2012

What to do with all those Bananas?

Make Banana Bread!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-banana-bread/

Or turn them into muffins.

I put a chocolate icing on top. Icing is a pretentious word for melting 1/4 cup of chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp of skim milk in the microwave for 30 seconds ... or until it's smooth, liquid and easy to spread. Stir patiently and thoroughly and spread it on the cake immediately. The chocolate will harden quite quickly (in about 5 minutes or so).

And OFCOURSE I substituted half the butter for unsweetened applesauce.



(source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ rakratchada torsap)

Monday, August 6, 2012

Chicken Soup куриный суп

A simple, healthy soup.

What you will need:

4 Whole Chicken thighs, washed
2 medium onions, peeled
2 large potatoes, peeled
1 large carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced (optional)
1-2 tsp oil or butter
salt
pepper
2 tbsp dill
a dollop of sour cream to serve

1. Take a large soup pot, fill with approximately 12-15 cups of water. Place the chicken in the pot, make sure the chicken is submerged in the water. Add one whole onion in the pot. Cover pot and boil for 40 minutes.
2. In a separate pan, warm some oil. Dice the second onion and add it to the pan. Mildly fry for 5 minutes on medium heat. The onions shouldn't get any colour, they should just soften. The recipe doesn't call for celery, but I added one diced celery into the pan to saute as well.
3. Add the sauteed onions and celery to the soup pot. Add salt, pepper, dill and carrots.
4. Immediately after step 3, Take the chicken out of the pot but keep the soup boiling still.
5. Peel the potatoes. You can add them whole to the soup pot or dice the potatoes and add. Boil for another 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
6. Finally shred the cooled chicken and add to the soup pot. Let the soup come to a boil once more.

And you're done. I've managed to make the recipe look difficult, but it's the simplest thing ever. Enjoy!
Here's a couple of good videos for it:  

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Good Eats at Banff

I actually took some pictures of the food I ordered...

So the first place was the Wild Flour which is a wonderful place that serves wholesome, earthy, tree-hugger type food. The food is very delicious. The bakery is attached and you can see the bakers at work while you wait in line to order your food.

The day I took this picture I got the Swiss Cheese, Arugula, Ham and Tapenade pressed panini sandwich. I ended up taking the ham out because I didn't feel like eating meat that day. The sandwich was warm and deeelicious!!

The next morning I decided to try something other than a chain for my latte. I chanced upon the first of 3 cafes, all called Evelyn's. Despite there being three of these on the same street that only spans about 5 blocks, I was very happy with what I received. The food was delicious, the view from my chair was perfect for people watching, and the weather was phenomenal... how could I possibly complain? I also ordered the Vegetable Puff Pastry. Little did I know that it was Indian inspired and turned out to be so spicy that I couldn't handle it more than 1 bite every 5 minutes. But it wasn't bad. The filling was ok, but the texture of the pastry was perfect.

 The view I enjoyed...



The Secret to Soft Dough that rolls easily

Well, it took me a while to figure this out, but here it is...

If you want a soft dough using plain, all-purpose flour, then whether or not you add egg, milk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oil, anything.... doesn't matter... to get soft dough.... (drumroll)....

... Mix the dough with
........................WARM WATER.

The dough will form easily, then let it rest for 15 minutes. The dough will be soft, pliable, easy to work with and will have a very pleasant texture.