Easter Eggs

Earlier in the month some of the Provisions ladies got together for an Easter egg dyeing party, with the hope they'd turn out well enough to use in our window display. That they did.

We used this oil technique to achieve the marbleized look, and kept it classic and pastel like for the rest. Not the most involved thing ever, but crafty enough for most of us at the table that evening. Happy Easter, everyone!

S'mores, a speakeasy, Rge Rd and sharp knives.

Whoo. Four items, one post.

I've been making quite a few s'mores lately. Funny, I never really considered them something easy to make in the oven, but Rachel made them one evening and I was hooked. Most recently I made Kim Boyce's graham wafers, picked up some marshmallows from work and utilized some smoky chocolate from Mast Brothers to create a pretty delicious version.

On Thursday, Richard and I stopped in at Three Boars for the third version of their 'speakeasy'. Each Thursday starting at 8PM, the new upstairs portion of the restaurant is turned into a lounge of sorts (just drinks, no food). There's a one off cocktail menu each Thursday. Richard enjoyed spiked eggnog, whilst I sipped tea with ginger and gin. Looking forward to more of these evenings throughout the winter. Drinks were priced from $7-10, with one $20 drink that served two. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for weekly details.

After a crazy day at the shop, and a couple hours at All is Bright, Charles and I headed over to Rge Rd (10643 123 St) and lucked out with a couple seats available at the bar. We enjoyed the 'Questionable Bits' (Tempura battered pig's heart and the best beef tartare ever; $15), Potato and Leek soup ($10), chicken breast with spicy Brussel sprouts ($29) and seared pickerel ($27). We finished the evening with their version of... a s'more ($10). Yeah. We're pretty predictable.

French 75 with Victoria Gin

Chicken breast with braised chicken galette and habanero Brussel sprouts

Seared pickerel with dill, ricotta and beet perogies, cabbage and white onion cream

Last night we stopped by the Knifewear pop up (10816 82 Ave) to buy our Christmas presents. Ta da!

I can't even find the post, but back in 2009/10 I posted about our new Mac santoku knife. Well, a couple weeks later someone tried to cut through a rabbit bone and needless to say, the knife didn't survive. Four years later, we now have two very sharp, beautiful knives, and can't wait to neatly cut many, many onions and vegetables... and no bones, or nuts or chocolate. Merry Christmas to us.

We are looking forward to the Hwkrs Mrkt this coming Saturday evening! I'm determined to pack the big camera and write a real post. See you there!

Some cookies. And a little ice cream.

Right after my January/February cake phase, I quickly moved on to cookies - Our little oven needed to be tested. First up were the Quinoa Cloud Cookies from 101 Cookbooks... Sadly they didn't turn out, though with nearly a kilo of quinoa flour left over, I'll be trying them again to fix whatever mistake I made (I suspect it was measurement of the flour; I should always use a scale is the weight measurements are there).

Moving on, I picked up a copy of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich early in March. With easy access to great ingredients (I settled into a lovely "off-festival-season" gig at Provisions by Duchess), the desserts in this book, featuring the flavours of a great chocolate, fresh cream or fruit, nuts and grains, are exactly what I want to make when I step into the kitchen.

I started with her recipe for Whole Wheat Sables, though I swapped out the whole wheat flour for spelt, as suggested, since that's what we had on hand. The dough comes together easily, with just a few ingredients, and is then shaped into a log before being refrigerated over night. I found I needed to cook them about four minutes longer than the suggested 12-14 minutes to get that perfect sandy texture, and to bring out the nutty flavour of the spelt flour (again, our oven...). I made Tartine's Lemon Cream to serve atop the cookies after a lamb dinner made my Rachel.

Next up were Nibby Buckwheat Cookies - Definitely the best of all the cookies I've baked this month. If I can get buckwheat flour into something, I will (these scones, for instance), and I was happy to see it featured prominently in this book. The pairing of buckwheat with cocoa nibs is genius. The flour has a wine like flavour, and cocoa nibs, depending on the brand and origin, often have a fruity flavour that compliments the flour well. She also notes that the buckwheat flour acts like cornstarch - but with better flavour - to give the cookies a fine, sandy texture. Alice Medrich knows her stuff. You can find the recipe here.

Now that things seem to be on the up weather wise, we've found a permanent spot in the freezer for the ice cream bowl. At Cally's Teas the other day, I found dried Lemon Verbena, and picked up a little to make a mint and lemon verbena ice cream also found in the book. This was my first attempt at "Philadelphia" style ice cream, without an egg based custard. The base is made with a fifty-fifty cream-milk mixture, along with a little sugar, and then your flavourings of choice.

I took my pint of ice cream into work on Monday, and I think everyone enjoyed its freshness, particularly since it happened to be the first real warm day since last week's storm.

Cookies and ice cream. Clearly the next step is ice cream sandwiches.