where in the world is beth?

I am in Thunder Bay with a broken arm.

That is my answer.

To that question.

P.S.: Go see Juno. It’s really good.

christmas cookies

I baked cookies!

I used the cookie recipe from this December/Novembers Blueprint (don’t even get me started on the fact that my favourite magazine is shortly-to-be defunct - I am pretty upset about it, actually).

They turned out pretty well - even better because I added couple teaspoons of spices to make them more christmasy (1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger and a pinch of nutmeg).

I had never thought of colouring the dough instead of icing sugar cookies before, but they turn out so, so pretty.

As you may know, I’m not much of a baker, so whenever I get the urge to bake I end up having to improvise:

1. You may notice that those cookies are drying on bamboo sushi mats (which is something I seem to unwittingly collect).
2. I cut the little flowers out with little metal cutters that are really meant to cut out vegetables to decorate sushi (not so much cookies).
3. I used a little glass to cut out the big round cookies, which is pretty tradtional, actually (I always think those round cookie cutters are kind of silly).

I think Alton Brown with his “no unitaskers” rule would be quite proud of me.

and then it snowed more!

We had a busy weekend planned - but then this storm happened.

Oh well, it was fun to sit and drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas specials (The Animaniac’s Christmas Special, to be specific) in the middle of a swirly, whirly, winter wonderland.

a perfect winter day

I have to say, yesterday was pretty much the most perfect winter day.

Not only did it snow buckets of crunchy, sticky, white fluff, but my parents called to say that they had gotten last minute tickets to go see the Nutcracker.

I have never seen the Nutcracker, not even as a child (it’s sad, I know). Even though I’m not a very dancey kind of person, I thought it would be something I should probably experience, at least once in my life.

Even though the dancing was, indeed, a little much for me sometimes, the sets were soooooo breathtakingly sumptuous. It’s definitely worth going if you consider yourself at all the kind of person who enjoys some eye candy (even if you aren’t very dancey either).

Let me add that the ballet is set it in imperial Russia so the entire second act centers around a giant, gilded, Fabergé egg that is big enough for ballerinas to come pirouetting out of it. There was pretty much always enough going on on-stage to keep my dad and Liam entertained (and if you know those two at all, you know that’s a big deal - I mean, it’s ballet, and they’re dudes).

On the way home, we passed by the park a block down the street and noticed they had a real live outdoor skating rink with real live skaters playing hockey. It was too surreal. Toronto has not had Winters that were cold enough for that in a while (at least, not this early in the year). I had forgotten it was possible.

Coming back home and looking out over the moonlit, snow covered eaves of my little Toronto neighborhood pretty much cemented it as the best winter day ever.

yummy week

I’ve been having a good food week. Right now I am sitting here with a (natural) peanut-butter and (concord) grape jelly sandwich and a big, tall glass of chocolate milk. I don’t think it gets more nostalgic than that (*sigh*…grade two… bag lunch… twenty five cents for a carton of the good stuff *sigh*). I bet it’s a meal that people across North America remember and cherish in the same way I remember and cherish it, and that’s sort of neat.

I’ve also been exploring exotic, not so familiar, tastes.

We finally ventured out to little India last week (also known as one block down the street) and bought some spices, paneer (fresh cheese), jellabi (basically funnel cake soaked in syrup), daal (spiced lentils) and the most yummy, fresh, delicious naan (spicy flat bread) and had ourselves an authentic Indian feast!

One of the stores down the street sells samosas at three for a dollar, so I think I’m pretty much sunk. I could eat a bucket of them, and actually I have.

Last night I made a cottage pie, which is something I had in England. It’s basically what we know as Shepard’s pie, but in England a pie with lamb is a Shepard’s pie, and a pie with ground beef is a cottage pie (and it comes smothered in cheddar!). I don’t know what it was about the “Shepard’s” pie I had growing up, but it was not as flavorful as the one I had in England. So I attempted to re-create it.

I cheated and used a lot of “Montreal style” steak spice to season the meat (which is basically just sea salt and cracked black pepper with some cayenne, corriander, dill, garlic, and onion), and it seemed to do the trick in the flavor department. I ran out of corn starch to thicken up the gravy for my stew, so I had to improvise. I thought about what a peasant living in a small cottage might do in my situation. I decided to toss in a few cubed up slices of stale, oatmeal-honey bread into the pot to soak up the stock and it worked like a charm! It thickened my sauce, gave it a richer flavour than starch or flour would have, and bulked it up enough that it could stand up to being covered with mashed potatoes.

For the stew:

• 1 pound ground beef (whatever cut you prefer - nothing too lean though)
• 1 tbsp “Montreal style” steak seasoning (or an equal amt. of a mix of salt, pepper, and your favourite herbs and spices for beef - thyme, rosemary, dill, and coriander being quite good here).
• 2 carrots (diced)
• 2 sticks of celery (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 cup beef stock
• 3 slices whole wheat bread (chopped into 1 cm cubes)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

For the mash:

• 2 pounds of potatoes (chopped into 1 inch cubes, un-peeled - potato skin is flavourful and nutrient rich, and you don’t even notice it when it’s mashed)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper

Topping:

• 1/4 cup old/aged cheddar cheese (grated)

1. Steam or boil the potatoes.
2. Saute the meat with the spices and garlic until it is browned. Add in the vegetables and continue to sauté until they soften.
3. Add the sauces, stock and bread to the meat mixture, stirring to make sure the bread absorbs all the liquid and begins to break down and thicken the stock.
4. When the potatoes are fork-soft, drain them, and mash them with the butter and milk, seasoning well with salt and pepper.
5. Layer the meat stew into the bottom of a casserole dish, and then cover evenly with the mashed potatoes. Give the top of the potatoes some texture by using a fork to draw a pattern into the mash (I like a big spiral). Sprinkle the top evenly with the grated cheese.
6. Broil at 400 for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

In the end, my pie came out of the oven golden and crispy on top, and rich and comforting in the middle. It was quite perfect. You should try it! It makes a lot - at least enough to stuff 6 people - or two people 3 times, as the case may be.

There was one blight this week though. The less said about my fish-ball pad-Thai the better alright?

christmas with cats

Having a Christmas tree is a bit of a challenge with three young cats around.

Ornaments are batted at, jingle bells are jingled at inappropriate times (like while sleeping) and trees are invariably climbed and subsequently toppled.

Last week we had to run out and switch our lights from gorgeous, over-sized, specialty orbs (not so environmentally friendly, but Christmas is a time of indulgence) to boring, old, white LEDs (environmentally friendly, but kinda hurt my eyes to look directly at).

We also picked up some more plastic ornaments. I love glass ones to bits, and I covet my mothers collection of antique ornaments (passed on from her grandmother and mother), and I’m sure they’re about a zillion times better for the environment, but they are just so impractical.

Finding plastic ornaments that aren’t tacky (in other words: look like glass) is strangely difficult, requiring an across town search for them. All because I can’t have glass ornaments around the house until my kitties get old enough to know better than to break open a glass ornament and eat it.

For future reference to me: having three kittens in one apartment is not the best idea ever. Try to pace yourself next time. Maybe adopt one cat at a time, next time?

three movies

We rented a bunch of movies over the weekend and, by some fluke, all of them turned out to be perfect for a snow-bound, tree-trimming weekend. Each was very different, but very good in it’s own way.

First we watched a Japanese animated movie called Paprika.

It had that sumptuous, colourful, dense, Hayao Miyazaki style imagery I am really digging these days. The plot was kinda trippy, (a company develops a machine that lets people enter each others dreams - but something is corrupting the dreams of those who use the machine) but not completely unintelligible - at least, not compared to say, a David Lynch movie. Compared to Mullholand Drive this movie was pretty straightforward. The eclectic/electro soundtrack was pretty cool too - the “parade” song in particular is definitely stuck in my head these days.

Then we watched a musical: Hairspray.

They filmed this all over Toronto last year, with the main street scene close to our old apartment in Parkdale. They transformed a whole, actual city block into 1962 Baltimore (the early sixties is my absolute favorite era). We visited one afternoon when they weren’t filming, and it was amazing the attention to detail they put into the thing. I was pretty wary of a big studio adaptation of such a classic cult film, but I was impressed first by their authentic sets, then by the thumbs up of John Waters himself (not exactly an easy thing to get from such a known curmudgeon) and then by the good reviews.

So we finally took the plunge, and gave it a go, and we were impressed. The singing and the plot ebbed and flowed naturally and didn’t take itself too seriously - and the music didn’t even suck all that much - pretty catchy, actually. With the possible exception of John Travolta (who wasn’t even all that bad, considering) the cast was perfect, and any opportunity to see Christopher Walken sing and dance should be taken.

Then we watched a small indie feature: Waitress.

You might have heard of this one, as the woman (Adrienne Shelley) who wrote and directed it was murdered shortly before it’s release - which I would normally be wary of, as films in these situation often get hyped out of control. However, in this case the hype was justified and it truly is sad that this unique voice was silenced.

It’s a bittersweet little film about a young woman (Keri Russell) who works in a pie diner and makes miraculously delicious pies. She gets pregnant by her abusive husband (Jeremy Sisto, duh), and then falls in love with her gynecologist. It reminded me a bit of The Gilmore Girls - snappy dialoge, eccentric small townies (including Andy Griffith!), and a general romantic quirkiness.

I mean, The bottom line is, this movie involves quirkiness and pies, so I am pretty much in love with it.