Chocolate Salami

The small, meaningful Christmas gift is certainly the most difficult of all gifts to give. Last year I successfully made and gave chocolate granola, and thus began my search for a similarly non-difficult, doesn't expire too quickly, chocolatey recipe. Eventually I remembered my past Christmas obsession with chocolate salami from the previous year.

So that's what I made. Saucisson au Chocolat from Olympic Provisions. The bits I snuck from the bottom of the bowl were delicious - Slightly sweet, a little boozy, with perfect crunch from the nuts, seeds and bits of potato chips. I also got a little 'Martha Stewart' with the packaging. You know, Christmas and all.

No pigs were harmed in the making of this salami!

Chocolate Granola. The Mast Brothers Cookbook.

I am loving the Mast Brothers Cookbook. On our last day in New York - also the day of the book release - I walked back to the factory to pick up a copy, and found they had all been signed! It wouldn't fit in my already overstuffed luggage, but it was well worth lugging it across the subway system to the airport. Also, have you seen the cookbook trailer? Adorable.

I made the chocolate date cake soon after arriving home - delicious - and marked the chocolate granola for later, soon realizing it would be a perfect give to give coworkers. No last minute baking for me!

A couple weeks ago I made three batches, scooped the granola into six jars and still had some left to keep around the apartment for breakfast. Win.

The recipe is pretty simple - Mix 1 cup each of almonds, pecans and rolled oats with a 1/2 cup of honey and 2 Tbsp brown sugar and place in a 350 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes and let cool. In the meantime, melt 3 Tbsp of butter* with 2 Tbsp cocoa powder and set aside. Combine a 1/2 cup each of cocoa nibs and dried cranberries (or cherries or figs or other suitable dried fruit) with the roasted nuts/oats and stir in the butter mixture. Once everything is cool, mix in 5 ounces of chopped chocolate (I chopped up chocolate from one of the Mast Brothers tablets).

*I used the canola oil from Mighty Trio Organics since I wasn't sure when people would be eating the granola. It worked out well since it's so nutty and light.

So there it is. Christmas gifts (well, some of them) done.

Where did July go?

Once again I've let things slide a bit blog wise as the Festival approaches. We're just a couple days away which means it's crazy 12-hour-day time at the office for me, and long days on site for Charles.

I was hoping to get some posts up, but truthfully, we haven't really eaten out nor have we eaten at home in the past month. Instead, we've been fed by the Site Kitchen, a wonderful group of volunteers who prepare breakfast lunch and dinner during the build and teardown of site.

By far my favourite meal is Christmas in July, a celebratory meal that happens the day after we take over Gallagher Park. This year I volunteered to help cook Christmas dinner (instead of just showing up to eat) and Andrew (the Site Kitchen Coordinator) left me in charge of the vegetarian main.

I had quinoa and portobello mushrooms to work with, and ended up roasting the mushrooms then stuffing them with a mixture of quinoa, dried cranberries, pecans and garlic. I also snuck some chèvre in the centre of the mushrooms before topping them with the quinoa mixture. Combined with potatoes, stuffing, gravy and fantastic people the meal was memorable as per usual.

Waiting to serve the hungry masses

The Festival menu sounds great this year and I'm hoping to get in there with the camera a bit more this time around to capture baby kale salad and Bulgogi beef ribs, amongst other dishes. If you're around the Festival this weekend make sure you say 'Hi'!

Happy Boxing Day!

Okay, I'm behind with posting. I've got a post on d'Lish in the works, as well as one for Moriarty's, so hopefully I can get them up in the next couple days. At any rate, I hope you've been consuming lots of good food over the last couple days, weeks, etc.

The past two days were a bit of a whirlwind for us. Conquering turkey this past Thanksgiving, we decided to do a ham for my family on Christmas Eve. We had ordered and paid for a ham via Serben's website at the beginning of the month and arranged to pick it up at the Downtown market last Saturday. This worked incredibly well - firstly, we didn't have to worry about rushing to the market early in the morning, and secondly, it gave us lots of time to make room in our freezer.

Deciding to forgo any glazes we just studded the exterior of the ham with cloves, which ended up giving our apartment a beautiful fragrance once the fat of the ham began to melt. Amongst the ham cooking, I also made a mint chocolate ice cream that would be my brother's Christmas gift. It turned out well, though I wish more of the emerald green would have made its way into the custard mixture. Once everything was complete, it was packed up and taken to my Nanny's for the evening.

Although we were bagged after a day of cooking, everything was enjoyed. The ham was excellent - nicely smoked and moist, the entire family was pleased, and leftovers were further enjoyed Christmas morning. Accompaniments included orange glazed beets, butternut squash mashed potatoes, cabbage and leeks that I just sautéed a bit, and devilled eggs. Dessert was Valerie's pavlova served with what I think was the best whipped cream ever (orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon, a bit of sugar and cognac) and a glass of eggnog.

 The ham

 The eggs

 Beets. Sadly, these are a difficult sell in my family, so my Mum and I are slowly working our way through the leftovers.

Cabbage 

Potatoes and Squash 

Eggnog

We also changed things up this year, opening gifts Christmas Eve. I received a gift certificate to support an ongoing shoe addiction, while Charles' received an addition to his rather large stuffy collection. We also received gift certificates to da Capo as well as Credo, so lots of coffee for us in the new year.

With my Aunt taking on Christmas dinner, she said carte-blanche when I asked if there was anything I could bring. So I ended up grabbing some chocolate from work - the milk chocolate trio (Fleur de Sel toffee, chai granola and orange gingerbread bark), along with pink champagne truffles and cinnamon and mocha melt-a-ways. Otherwise, we spent most of 'the day' itself baking cookies that I planned to give as gifts.

It was a last minute cookie takeover of our apartment, and really, I should have done more than just make the dough earlier in the week to avoid the rush. There were three kinds - Valerie's Grandma Maude's gingerbread, chocolate-mint sandwiches and peanut butter with salted peanut caramel - and happily they all turned out well. The peanut butter seemed to be the big hit with the testers (my Dad and brother), although the soft gingerbread was the favourite for my Nanny and I.

Peanut butter with salted caramel 

Gingerbread with squished icing

 Chocolate-mint sandwiches

So the ham is all gone, as is the stuffing and gravy from last night, and I'm off to my Nanny's to bake off the rest of the gingerbread dough. Happy Boxing Day, everyone!