EVERYTHING IN MODERATION

I'm trying to learn to eat properly again. Like right now...I'm craving all kinds of eats but just had breakfast about an hour ago and that breakfast was filling and I know I shouldn't be craving more food. So instead I'm going to busy my hands with a blog entry and hopefully that will do the trick.

Here are yesterday's eats...

It started off with dim sum at a local restaurant with a group of my high school friends. I took some pics of them but I don't think any of them know about this blog except for Sean (who was in attendance), so I'll just post pics of the food. I didn't eat all of this...it's a mish-mash of what the table ordered.

One of my fave things to eat...rice noodle roll with beef.
I used to order the shrimp version of this but since the introduction of my shellfish allergy in May, I'm now avoiding all shellfish, which is truly a shame because I ADORE scallops!! I miss those the most.

Steamed shrimp dumplings:

BBQ pork bun:Everyone at the table loves these so we actually got two orders. I'm not a fan of dough-y things so I passed.

Vanilla custard with tapioca:
A little early for dessert? Heck no! The secret at dim sum is to eat when it arrives because you never know when the cart will arrive again.

Pic of our table:
Clockwise-ish: Mini egg tarts, rice noodle roll, pork dumplings, custard with tapioca, some kind of smaller rice noodle roll with shrimp, meat dumpling with peanuts and green onion, more custard with tapioca and sticky rice with chicken in lotus leaf.

Out-of-focus flaky BBQ pork pastry:

After a whole lot of meat, we needed some veggies...baby bok choy with king oyster mushrooms and carrots:
Deep-fried tofu topped with shrimp:I didn't eat any of this because of my shellfish allergy. Seriously, why do dim sum places hide shrimps in everything??

Eggplant stuffed with fish paste and some kind of veggie (I think):I'm not sure what was in this because I didn't eat any of it. I have an aversion to eggplant because a) I'm not crazy about the texture and b) when I was younger, eggplant gave me the hives.

Mango pudding shaped like a fish:
This was tres-excellent. I'd consider it even better than the mango pudding at another dim sum place that Sean and I frequent because a) the pudding was softer and b) there were actual pieces of mango in the pudding.

There was also other food I didn't get photos of including curry cuttlefish and the special rice dish with sausage and dried pork. I also preferred the special rice at this place than the regular one I frequent.

The rest of the day's eats...almonds, dried cherries, brie, whole wheat Triscuits

Dinner was leftover pork chop and applesauce, Israeli couscous with mushrooms and dried cherries, baby carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper and stir-fried snowpeas (courtesy of dad). Clearly I would not cook with that much oil. :/
I tried to stay in tune with what I was eating and stop when I was full. After all was said and done, this is what I had left:
What can I say...sometimes the sides are more delicious than the main itself.

But then 9 o'clock reared its ugly head and despite having dinner not more than two hours ago, I wanted a snack while I watched Desperate Housewives with my mom, so I made myself a mug of Starbucks' peppermint hot chocolate topped with marshmallows along with a homemade raspberry oat bar and a Starbucks chocolate hazelnut biscotti.
Look at my little spoon...courtesy of Air Mauritius:
Oh and the Starbucks items were courtesy of one of my co-workers who gave me this for Christmas:You all know how much I love mugs and this mug is gigantic, which is great because you all know how much I love giant mugs of tea! And inside the mug were these:
Sigh...I'm going to miss my wonderful co-workers.

Money spent: $13 (sigh...that dim sum place is so expensive!)

POMEGRANATE LEMON CUPCAKES

I wanted to start the year off right so I decided to make a batch of cupcakes for my family to take to my aunt's new year's dinner. It's a tradition that we go to her house for dinner on new year's day but I had other plans but wanted to whip up a batch of cupcakes anyway. I settled on pomegranate cupcakes seeing as we had a couple of white pomegranates in the fridge about 24-hours away from the compost bin.

After frosting and decorating, this is what I came out with...24 standards, 12 of which I frosted:and the other 12 I left unfrosted for my mom and 20 minis for my relatives:Here's a standard aerial close-up:and a mini in profile:Pomegranate lemon cupcakes with pomegranate frosting, topped with white sugar dust and pink sanding sugar. There are actual white pomegranate arils in the cupcakes that held their shape during baking.

The frosting was a little too tart for me. Instead of using some kind of pomegranate juice, I ended up using pomegranate molasses, perhaps a little bit too much, but Sean said he'd probably like them so I'm going to give the rest of them to him and his family.

I also used white pomegranate instead of the regular red pomegranate because that's what I had in my house but if I ever made these cupcakes again, which I probably would, altering the frosting (perhaps cream cheese would be better?) I would use red pomegranate seeds for the batter instead.

Anyhoo, great way to start off baking in 2010!

WHY SO MUCH FOOD??

A lot of food went into my mouth today. I have no excuse except for the fact that nothing was entirely satisfying and all these extra snacks were around so I just kept on snacking. I did plan on exercising after it all went down but a 90-minute conversation with Sean but a halt to those plans.

The day started out all well and good...
There was a bowl of rice noodle soup for lunch. Besides the rice noodles there was slices of pork and various Chinese veggies in a beef broth. I didn't even eat the entire bowl set out for me by my parents. I only ate half and then left the rest for later on.

But then later on I decided to eat this banana tart...And then finished off the rest of my noodle soup.

And then dinner rolled around and because we had something different than our usual pork with red and green peppers, I ended up eating the whole thing. I present you with, pork chop with applesauce.It's probably nothing new to you but it's something entirely new to my family. After pan-frying the pork chops, my mom and I teamed up to make the sauce of apple cider vinegar, applesauce, a chopped-up apple, thyme, cinnamon, salt and pepper. It was a little bit too vinegar-y and my mother disallowed me from adding nutmeg or more cinnamon to the mix (she's not a fan of those spices) so we added a little bit of sugar and that was that. To be honest, I'm a big fan of sour/tart flavours so I thought that the sauce was great. But that meant eating the entire plate's worth of food, which I should not have done.

And then I didn't stop there. I also ate (unpictured) a slice of leftover meat pie, a mini salmon tart thing and a mini mushroom tart thing (both from M&M's). Then a couple of hours later, I had this for dessert:A cup of vanilla Earl Grey with a pomegranate lemon cupcake. The frosting on the cupcake was too tart for my liking (is that even possible?!) but I ate it because nothing I had eaten that day was entirely satisfying. While I was really excited about the pork chop and applesauce, what I really wanted alongside it was a baked potato and steamed carrots.

So the whole day was kind of a write-off in terms of food. I also ate some Lay's lightly salted chips as well as drank about 3/4 of a can of Coke. Tomorrow is going to have to be more of a healthy food day. Oi.

GOOD FOOD FOR 2010

The food for 2010 has already started off rather well. After mass, 4/5 of my family headed out for dim sum and after a short 10-minute wait, we dug into various small dishes of yum! We had pork dumplings (siu mai), beef rice noodle rolls, beef balls, curry tomato cuttlefish, fried sardines, special rice dish with sausage and dried pork, beef spare ribs and some other stuff I can't remember. It was too much food but I really have not had a meal like that with my family in months; not one where we all sat around and enjoyed ourselves. I genuinely had a good time and good chats with my parents. Sadly I have no photographic evidence of this meal as the only thing I brought with me as we left the house for church was my set of keys.

After an afternoon of stomach unease (too much dim sum and I knew it would happen), I decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes (more on the next post) to take to my aunt's house for New Year's dinner. It's a tradition to go to her house for dinner but since the weather was really bad in Sean's town and he didn't feel like driving and I didn't want to go alone (my family would be there but I haven't seen my extended family in like...4 years), I stayed home alone. There was almost nothing in the fridge beyond some rotting produce but I did manage to whip this up:Orechiette with zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes. The 1/4 of a zucchini was randomly on the counter and once I saw the mushrooms that were about 24 hours away from their expiry date, I knew a pasta-veggie dish was in the making. With the addition of some thyme, it was really tasty!

And then a few hours later I was craving some sweet but despite all the treats we had in the house (including those cupcakes and other leftover treats from holiday parties), I wanted something warm. I had intended to microwave some frozen fruits and top them off with a bit of whipped cream but there was none in the house so I just settled on the warmed fruits:

2009 FOOD RECAP

Sadly this will be my last recap of food from 2009. There's going to be a little bit of everything to cover. Double sadly, not all of it is awesome but at least we're starting on a good note.

So you know your boyfriend is totally awesome (and so is the rest of his family), when they smuggle coconut macaroons from the Mandarin for you and then wrap it up as if it's a Christmas present:Christmas dinner at my house...salad, roast potatoes, turkey and gravy, cranberry sauce.

Late night snack in my new favourite Olympic mascots mug...Tetly chai tea (from a tea bag!) steeped in organic 2% and below is a white pomegranate.
I love these Christmas bowls I picked up from the Dollarama a couple of years back. They're perfect for mise-en-place baking and for holding snack foods. Only half of this pomegranate was consumed.

Lunch at work on the 30th...turkey soup with potatoes, carrots and barley.
Snack bento of cherries, clementine, whole wheat Triscuits and brie.
And then late at night, this was consumed because it was hanging around:
A Cadbury Triple Chocolat snack cake. It was okay considering I'm not a huge fan of chocolate. I got this for free from Blockbuster while renting Food, Inc so don't count me as one of those people that would ever buy this again.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I really cannot express just how happy I am right now...and not just because 2009 is over and done with. I quit my job! Yes, that's right...after three months of complete stress and frustration, enough was enough. As much as I loved the job itself and as much as I'm going to miss the people, I can't for one more minute, be there and take it from the back (if you know what I mean)...because that's really how I felt for the past three months. Working for what is known as one of the worst companies in Canada, I am so beyond relieved right now. I am on Cloud Nine.

And yes, I know I'm unemployed and that this isn't the greatest time to be looking for a job, (I quit effective immediately) but I'm happy...for the first time in three months and everyone that's important to me (my parents and Sean) already see the difference even though it happened less than 24 hours ago.

I was actually afraid that my dad wasn't going to take it well...he's always of the mind that's it better to have a job than no job at all, but he actually said to me "to hell with them" after I told him in detail exactly what had happened that made me come to the decision that I had to quit. And then today, on our drive alone to and from work so I could pick up the last of my things, he said that on principle, I had to quit. So I'm glad he was on my side this time.

So to new beginnings! I know that 2010 will bring bigger and better things. Sean and I plan on moving out. There's snow falling outside. It is cold and wintery. What better way to start the new year?

Cheers everyone...(aka my two readers)

HOLIDAY BAKING: PEPPERMINT CUPCAKES

I wanted to re-create the exact same cupcakes I made last year but since I a) ran out of candy canes and b) did not have time to scour the town looking for more candy canes, I made a few adjustments on last year's candy cane cupcakes.

Vanilla peppermint mini cupcakes just out of the oven:
Chocolate ganache laced with peppermint extract and a shot of chocolate liquor:
Cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache:
Frosted with peppermint frosting and topped with bittersweet chocolate shavings:
Close up:
Profiles:
Yummy:
Aerial:
Four standard-size cupcakes ready to be given away:
Profile:
Cross section:
I just ate half of the last regular-sized cupcake left and wow, totally awesome! But you most definitely must be a lover of mint in order to love these cupcakes. There's peppermint extract in all layer of these cupcakes: the cupcake itself, the chocolate ganache and the icing

HOLIDAY BAKING: COOOOOOOKIES!

Tuesday night meant a cookie fiasco. It came about mainly because I was in a grumpy mood. Even though I usually bake to get myself out of a funk, baking and an unhappy Dom do not mix. Oh yeah, that and Bejewelled Blitz. Now, now, don't laugh!! It's just too addicting to stop playing. So yeah, my original dark chocolate candy cane crackle cookies ended up burning because I spent too much time playing Bejewelled Blitz. Sigh.

After the BB baking debaucle, I didn't want the entire baking night to go to waste so I quickly whipped up a batch of these, which I knew would be a hit:They're basically butter cookies rolled in sugar and then baked in the oven. I added a little bit of red food colouring this time so they took on a bit of a pink hue along with the white granulated and pink sanding sugar. These cookies turn out soft...just the way I like them. They're incredibly buttery though so I kept these really small this time. In the past I've made these using instant coffee granuales instead of the sanding sugar. I also baked a batch and topped them with Hersey's Hugs (the Kisses that are white chocolate with milk chocolate stripes) and gave them to my co-workers with their Christmas cards, but I kept this batch for my mom who doensn't like chocolate. These are all that remained once it was photography time.

Lastly, I made a batch of raspberry oat bars for who else, Sean's parents. I kind of miffed the measurements and made the crumble bit way out of proportion this time. I was also lacking in free time (baking on Christmas Eve is NOT a good idea) and rushed the toasted coconut process so these were a little crispier than I would have liked. I'm really going to have to go back and follow the original recipe to a tee one day to find out what they're really supposed to be like. It's been years since I followed the original one. Sean's parents were presented with a bounty of my Christmas baking. They received the four peppermint cupcakes, along with the raspberry oat bars, individually-wrapped fudge and random Hershey's Kisses (mint truffle version). I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of their holiday treats tin! Oh well!

It was a good holiday baking time but unfortunately no time was left for cherry almond biscotti---boo! As for the rest of my baking list:
- dark chocolate candy cane crackles (done but burned)
- toffee crackle cookies (store had no Skor bars, no time to run to Bulk Barn)
- vanilla peppermint cupcakes with chocolate ganache and peppermint frosting (done and a success)
- raspberry oat bars (done!)
- apricot poppyseed thumbprint cookies (no time left)
- snickerdoodles/honeydoodles (no time left)