Red and White

Before I start blogging about my lemon poppy seed cake disaster, I thought it would be wise to wrap up my Canada Day posts.  Since Canada Day fell on a Friday, we had a 3-day long weekend that proved to be jam packed with things to do.  It started off with me prepping for the roasted steak lunch with vegetable and pasta sides for my in-laws.  A couple of weeks prior I had gotten some flank steaks and marinated them in some masala, and minced ginger and garlic, before sticking them into the freezer for a rainy day. That so called rainy day turned out to be a sunny Canada Day!  I thought I would make some fancy dessert, but didn't have time, what with my husband flying in from a business trip, the sides to make for lunch, and a commitment to make dessert for my mom's barbecue. So I opted for something that would be simple yet would fit the colour scheme of the day.  I decided to mix fresh Ontario strawberries with California raspberries on a white dish that one of my students had given me and sprinkle them with powdered sugar!

Strawberry and Raspberry Medley

1 pint Ontario strawberries, washed

1 pint raspberries, washed

1 tbsp powdered sugar

2-3 mint leaves (optional)

Wash and drain the strawberries and raspberries. First, layer the strawberries on the bottom of a white dish and then place the raspberries around the strawberries and in the crevices.  Put the powdered sugar in a small sieve and begin to "dust" the sugar over the berries**.  Tuck in a few mint leaves for garnish.  Serve plain or with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt.

**  Make sure your berries are dry before dusting them with powered sugar.  I hadn't drained all the water off the berries when I sprinkled them with the sugar, and so the sugar was sucked into the berries...that's why my berries look naked.

Double Chocolate Chip Cupcakes!

Lately I've been feeling like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done.  The weekends are a blur, and the weekdays are packed with gym classes, family stuff, appointments, meeting friends, and everyday errands. I've also been taking an online Qur'an class that involves listening to two lessons a week, doing homework and then partaking in a live session with a TA. And just because I wasn't busy enough I went to a two-day board workshop on reading assessment!

I have also found myself connecting with the arts and crafts scene online.  There is this really cool iPod app called CraftGawker that tracks interesting craft projects people have created. It gives you a new selection of projects everyday and you can "heart" them and go to the artist's blog to learn more about the project.  I have already added 150 projects to my favourites in the hopes that one day I will be able to sit down and make them.  I did start a few Ramadan and Eid projects, but I'll save that for another post.

And now for this wonderful recipe from My Baking Addiction.  Jamie has a plethora of interesting recipes and I have more than one recipe from the site tagged as a future kitchen adventure. I decided to try out this recipe on my UNO friends as we were gathering at Shiva's house for our meet-up.  There was a lemon poppy seed cake in the mix, but that definitely is another story because it involves a cake falling apart and me trying to come up with a creative way to salvage it!

Although the recipe gives you exact measurements for the frosting, I decided to be more free-flowing with the confectioners' sugar measurements and just kept tasting the icing until it was "just right."  I made these cupcakes a second time for Canada Day and instead of using the cream cheese frosting, I used melted chocolate. Pictures and the alternative icing ingredients are below.

Double Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup of cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup 1% sour cream

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  (Dark or white chocolate chips would also work well here)

a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips for decoration (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-cup regular-sized muffin tin with liners.  In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until the consistency is light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Beat in the vanilla.  Mix in the flour in two batches, alternating between the flour and sour cream.  Begin with the flour and end with the flour.  Fold in the chocolate chips.   Since I wanted my muffins to roughly be the same size, I used a 1 1/8" ice cream scoop to fill my cupcakes-each muffin had exactly 3 scoops of batter.   Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

3 oz bitter sweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled  ( I melted the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave.  I set it on high for 30 seconds and repeated this until the chocolate was melted.)

confectioners sugar to taste, sifted.

In a bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until well blended.  Add in the vanilla and salt and mix well.  Pour in the melted chocolate and gradually begin to add the confectioners' a little at a time until you reach your desired sweetness.  Once your icing is ready, spread over the cooled cupcakes using an offset spatula. Top each cupcake with a semi-sweet chocolate chip.

 **Alternative icing

I made another batch of these cupcakes for a US and Canadian family reunion barbeque at my mom's during the Canada Day long weekend.  Since the cupcakes were going to be devoured mostly by kids under the age of 12, I thought it would be best to swap the cream cheese frosting for plain melted chocolate.  Following the same procedure from above, I melted 15 milk chocolate wafers in the microwave. Once the melted chocolate was slightly cooled, I spooned it over the tops of the cupcakes and added a toothpick Canadian flag as decorations

Refreshing Mint Tea to Beat the Heat!

I don't like the heat. I'm one of those crazies out there that loves SNOW and RAIN and ICE! I do like the sun, but only in the spring or fall.  One of the reasons why I don't like the heat is because summer = air conditioning season.  I have a love-hate relationship with the A/C.  I love it after spending an entire day teaching in a hot and sticky classroom. It's also great when the humidity is so bad that my hair underneath my hijab is calling for mercy. But I hate it when I have to wear a sweater inside because the A/C is on full and the room feels like it's 10 degrees Celsius. Or when my joints start to hurt because of the freakishly cold air. Or when I sweat like crazy after going from an air conditioned place into the sweltering heat. See..love and hate!

In my home, I usually have all the windows open so there is good cross-ventilation and sometimes a fan that's on rotation.  I really only turn the A/C on when there is no breeze outside and when the thermostat inside my home reads 30 degrees Celsius. 

I was searching for some interesting recipes and came across one on Dawnaara that is supposed to help you naturally beat the heat without any A/C.  I made a huge jug full of this Sun Mint Green Tea and it was amazing!!  There is a lot of mint in this recipe- 2 cups to be exact- and according to Chinese medicine mint is spicy and cooling at the same time.  Mint helps push sweat out of the surface of the skin and this helps cool you down.  Make a jug of this and keep it in your fridge for those hot, sticky summer days!

Sun Mint Green Tea

2 cups of fresh mint leaves, thoroughly washed

1 tbsp of loose Japanese Cherry Blossom green tea leaves (you can use any kind of loose leaf green tea)

2 litres of spring water

sugar (optional)

In a large glass jug toss in the mint leaves, green tea leaves and spring water. With a wooden spoon, stir the mixture while at the same time bruising the mint leaves. This will help the leaves release their flavour.

Cover the top of your jug with its lid or a piece of plastic wrap and place the jug in a sunny spot for a few hours and then put into the fridge to chill.  Once refrigerated, strain out the mint and green tea leaves and pour yourself a glass of sun mint green tea.  You can add sugar to your tea if you like.

Reflections and Cashew Cookie Revamp

My father passed away at the end of 2009. His death was a shock to my system and for a really long time I couldn't wrap my head around it.  From the moment I got the phone call, I began to relive some of the moments I shared with him, all the while trying not to break down and cry. 

 My father had a thirst for knowledge. He read books on tax law, general business and accounting procedures to stay up to date in his profession. To increase his vocabulary, he would read pages from the dictionary and always carried a pocket-sized dictionary and thesaurus in his briefcase.  He would read magazines and the newspaper from front to back and would make note of articles on current events that he wanted us kids to read. He would even take the time to point out and clip newspaper articles that were relevant to our professions: health care for my sister, business and taxes for my brother, and education for me. My dad knew I was fond of cute animals and the like, so whenever he saw something like that in the paper, he would be sure to save it for me.

A few days after the funeral, we began to sort through the paper work in my dad's office.  We came across a few things that really surprised me. In my father's wallet were little pieces of paper with inspiring quotes and prayers that he had collected over the years from cards and newspapers.  It was only after he left this world, that I realized I shared this passion of quote and poetry collecting with my father!

Throughout high school I would decorate my school agenda with poems and quotes that resonated with me. For those five years (back then high school in Ontario was from grade 9-13), anytime I, or my friends were bored or needed some inspiration, we flipped through my agenda.  I wish I had known back then, what I know now about my father and his quote clipping habits. Maybe we could have traded a few quotes with each other.

The recipe that I'm going to share with you is something I know my father would have loved eating since he was fond of nuts!  This cookie is a revamped version of my cashew butter cookies that I made a while back. 

Cashew Cookie Revamp

1 16 ounce jar of natural cashew butter with the natural oils

2 tsp baking powder
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
Dash of instant espresso powder
Whole cashews or any nut for decorating (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in all of the ingredients in the order presented above, except the whole cashews. Using a small cookie scoop (1 1/8"), scoop out the cookie dough and place it on a parchment-lined cookie sheet a few inches apart. Place a whole cashew on top of the cookie and press down gently. In my picture, you can see there are a few almonds on top....I started using almonds until I realized that I had cashews in the fridge!

Bake for exactly 10 minutes (use a timer!) and remove and cool for at least 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH them until at least 10 minutes are up, otherwise they will fall apart.

Cold Quinoa Salad

Slowly but steadily, quinoa is making its way onto my kitchen table more and more these days. It's not a daily staple because right now my husband won't touch it. And I don't think it will take over the staple white basmati rice that we eat.  I can't imagine a quinoa biriyani or a chicken fried quinoa. Just even saying it (or typing it) feels weird.  Nonetheless, I think quinoa has its place in cold and warm salads, porridge, and some baked goods.  

I haven't had any experience baking with quinoa flour as yet, but I have been inspired by some of the recipes in the Quinoa 365 cookbook that is sitting on my shelf.  One of these days I WILL get to it and bake with quinoa flour and share my success and/or failure with you.

This quinoa salad was inspired from 101 Cookbooks blogger Heidi Swanson's Quinoa with Currants, Dill and Zucchini recipe that made its way into my inbox a few weeks ago.  As soon as I saw her beautiful pictures, I knew I had to make a version of it right then and there.

I improvised her recipe by using red quinoa instead of white, swapped the dill for coriander, used green zucchinis instead of yellow, added kalonji or black onion seeds instead of the sesame seeds,  and removed the currants completely. 

Cold Quinoa Salad

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3/4 teaspoons table salt

1 cup  red quinoa, well rinsed and drained

2 cups water

3 key limes

2 small green zucchini,washed and grated on a grater

2 tablespoons kalonji or black onion seeds

half-bunch of coriander, washed thoroughly and drained

Heat up the olive oil in a medium-large sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Add in 2/3 of the green onions and cook until the onions have softened a bit. Add in the quinoa, and salt and "toast" the quinoa kernels. Add in the water and bring the mixture to a boil, while stirring occasionally. Let the mixture boil for a minute or so before turning the heat down to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook the quinoa until all of the water has been absorbed. This can take from 12-15 minutes. 

While the quinoa is cooking, grate the zucchini, zest and juice the key limes and set aside.  When the quinoa is cooked, remove from heat and add in the zucchini, lime zest and juice, the black onion seeds and coriander.  Scoop out the quinoa salad into a serving bowl and sprinkle the rest of the green onions, a few coriander leaves and some black onion seeds on top. You can serve it immediately or put into the fridge to cool before serving.

A family visit

Bonjour!

After working for a few months at home in Toronto, I decided to take a break and fly down to LA.  I haven't been back here in a while, so it feels good being here and sitting on my couch. Yes, I said my couch.  For those of you who know me personally, you know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, don't worry about it! heh

As soon as I got here, I started to clean and organize things that my husband couldn't get to because of his hectic work schedule. It was important that I tackle things as soon as I landed because my family was finally coming down for a visit during the Victoria Day long weekend.  It's taken them a while to organize a trip down, so I wanted to make everything perfect for them.

After a few days of cleaning and cooking, I was ready to have them here for a wonderful vacation that everyone needed.  I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy that they were finally here. Sad that my father, who had unexpectedly passed away in December 2009, was not here with us.  Alas, God is the Best of Planners and this is what was meant to be.

One of the dishes I prepared was curried zucchini. This recipe is a no-fuss recipe that allows you to complete other tasks as it cooks on the stove top. Prepare all of the ingredients before you start cooking and I guarantee that it will probably be one of the easiest things you've ever cooked!

Zucchini Curry

8 thin zucchinis, washed and cut into coins

1/2 cup diced onions

3 heaping tbsps minced garlic

1/4 tsp turmeric

6 Roma tomatoes, washed and diced

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp lemon juice

salt and red chili powder to taste

coriander leaves for garnish (optional)

In a medium sized pot, warm up the olive oil over medium-high heat and begin to brown the diced onions. Once the onions have changed to a pinky-brown colour (about 15 minutes or so), add in the garlic. Cook the onions and garlic until the garlic has a slight golden colour, then add in the turmeric and tomatoes.

Cook the tomatoes for 3-5 minutes and then add in the zucchini coins. The tomatoes will continue to break down and release their juices which will help cook the zucchini. Once you notice the mixture starting to come up to a boil, add the salt and red chili to taste. Stir for a few minutes and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and let the zucchini cook down.   Stir it occasionally until the zucchini is softened, and the tomatoes and liquid have reduced down. Before removing from the heat, add in the lemon juice and adjust the curry for salt and red chili. 

Put the curry into a dish and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with naan or white rice.

Blueberry Explosion Muffins

I have come to the conclusion, and have had it verified by several people, that teachers are pack rats.  We find things that could spark interest in the classroom and have the potential to help us create exciting and invigorating lessons. So what do we do with them? We keep them, tuck them away into a bin or box and have them collect dust until that eventful day, which sometimes never arrives.  And if by chance we open that box and find those precious things so many months (or years) later we don't have it in us to toss them into the garbage because we end up suffering a "What if I need it later.." moment. This leads us to dusting the items off and making a mental note of their presence, closing up the bin and then repeating the cycle again and again and again. 

Well I've decided to take the plunge! I have slowly, but steadily been looking at my teaching resources and purging myself (and my apartment) of outdated and no longer "cool and interesting" stuff. At the same time, I have been transferring paper copies of units and resources that are worthwhile to keep to digital copies. I am literally spending hours at my desk going through the painful transfer process.  I am only scanning about 10% of my resources because I want to be able to manipulate documents at a later date.  I am HOPING that by the end of it, I will have 2-3 jump drives with CD backups of my documents and just a few bins of books. 

To help me keep my energies up, I decided to bake some mouth watering blueberry muffins.  I LOVE how these turned out. The  blueberries stain your fingertips as you unwrap the muffin and then burst in your mouth to release their sweet and tart juices.

The original recipe on Gina's Skinny Recipes calls for the use of whole wheat pastry flour, but also gives you the options of using a blend of whole wheat flour and white flour.  I just used Robin Hood's Nutri-Blend flour, unsifted. In the US, the Nutri-Blend equivalent would be white whole wheat flour.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of blueberries. Now this works fine in regular muffin tins, but I would cut it down to 1 1/4 cups if I was making these in mini muffin tins.

Blueberry Explosion Muffins

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 cups of Robin Hood's Nutri-Blend flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  The original recipe calls for 325 degrees, but over the years I have found that my oven works best at 350 degrees. 

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the beaten egg, melted butter, vanilla, and applesauce.  Add to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is just blended. Gently fold in the blueberries with the spoon.

Using two spoons, divide the batter in paper-lined muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out crumb-free.  Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes.