vickichowder: January 2013

BREAKFAST SPECIAL AT STONE CROCK & FMT

, by vickichowder

RECIPE: BUTTER COOKIES

Let's begin today with the understanding that I just love going to the farmer's market in St. Jacobs. Ever since I knew that we were just about 30 minutes away by bus, I would be extremely eager to finish class and head there for some fresh fruits and meats.

And every time I go, I get my girlfriends to come along with me, just so I don't feel as guilty when eating the delicious pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We like it so much that we ordered the exact same thing - twice.

The milk we buy is pasteurized, so you can drink it right away! The first time we bought it, we found it to be quite light tasting - as the label on the bottle indicated that it was indeed 2%, but it really did taste much more like the 1% kind of milk. But I would still say that it tastes much better than the bagged milk in grocery stores.

But the second time, the milk was incredibly creamy and smooth~

Advertising their milk so maybe they will sponsor me with more (:

I think the difference lies in the after taste of the milk: upon drinking just a sip of bagged milk (because I think Lactancia carton milk is good), I get this milky breath (which I hate), that can only be eliminated if I eat some non-dairy based foods. However, upon drinking cups of the milk from the market, there isn't any milky after taste at all! My guess is that the difference is due to the freshness of the milk. Please let me know if you happen to know why (:

I've been meaning to post this up: sautéed mushroom, grilled beef, on a bed of broccoli.

Milk from the market is now one of the things I buy almost every time I go, and grapefruit is another. After my lovely European friend (I'll have to use lovely every time I describe her because she's just so goddess-like) introduced me to grapefruit, I bought five for $2 whenever I go to the market.

In fact, I happen to go purchase grapes and grapefruit from the same stall so often that the man at the stall would sneak in an extra fruit or round down the price for me *yay*

Oatmeal, oatmeal-raisin in the back, and green tea butter cookie. The peanut butter ones are baking!

Last week, a day after our farmer's market trip, we I suggested that we make cookies despite the fact that it was one in the morning. And we didn't just make one type of cookies - we made three.

But I'll only give you one recipe today! They are one of my favourite cookies because they are super variation-able, and the dough keeps in the freezer very well. Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures of the process - but the recipe for butter cookies is simple and straightforward (:

I put a crushed hazelnut on it prior to baking

~ Ingredients ~

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup caster sugar

1 egg

2.5 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

[Additions]

Green tea powder*

Salt*

Cocoa powder*

Extracts (almond, vanilla, bourbon...)

Chopped/ground nuts

~ Method ~

1. Mix the flour and baking powder, and the addition if it is labelled with *

2. Beat the butter and sugar for 4 - 5 minutes using an electric beater.

3. Beat in the egg and 1 - 2 teaspoon of extract (if using) for 2 minutes.

4. Sift in the mixture from step 1, into the butter, three separate times, mixing it with a spatula.

5. Mix in the nuts if you are using them.

6. Now you can roll it into a log (to get round cookies upon slicing), roll it into a sheet (so you can use your favourite cookie cutters) - and wrap with plastic wrap to put into the freezer for 15 - 20 minutes.

7. When you dough is frozen, take it out and cut into slices or use your cutters! Place it either on a non-stick baking sheet or a parchment/silpat lined baking sheet.

8. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes on 350 F. The temperature and time varies with each oven, so keep a closer watch on your cookies after the 12 minute mark!

9. Let them cool on a rack when their done.

I hope you will make these cookies personalized to your own liking!

My very first croquembouche - hopefully its golden colours will brighten this gloomy day.

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I've been feeling rather under-the-weather recently. It first started on Monday morning when I oddly had no appetite after a few spoonfuls of oatmeal (and I typically really like to eat oatmeal in the morning!). So I thought,

"Hey, maybe my stomach shrunk!"

and

"I guess I just ate a lot last night and I'm still full from it!"

I just want to cuddle in bed - but the gym is calling

But I was wronged. After going to the gym on Monday afternoon, my appetite didn't come back ):
And I didn't want to eat after yesterday's gym session either, and when I did eat, it's no longer a pleasant feeling like usual. *missing the enjoyment of food consumption*

In addition to this, I'm starting to feel my forehead heat up.

Hopefully my twice-daily vitamin C boost of lemon water and lots of fruits will counter the growth of this sickness!
And lastly, something I've been wanting to say:

Every time I look at the stats of my audience, I feel so happy that to see that there are so many of you outside of North America! Thanks for reading (:

, by vickichowder

BAKE

BACK TO SCHOOL

, by vickichowder

AYCE

FULFILLING MY CRAVINGS

Click to see JJ Japanese Thai on Urbanspoon!

While waiting for my other friends to come I take pictures.

Have you met my love for butterfish?

A craving that's been lingering around for more often than not is my sudden need for sashimi once a week or once every other week. And that's how I ended up choosing JJ Japanese Thai restaurant to eat all-you-can-eat for dinner:

There's so much variety here, but I still can't get my mind off that salmon.

The atmosphere was really nice and quiet, and the washrooms were beautiful (which is the main thing I use to judge the overall cleanliness and quality of the restaurant). The only thing I didn't like about JJ was the service we received from the servers. They seemed rather unenthusiastic and got several of our orders wrong (she often gave us different sashimi from the ones we told her we wanted). But oh well - we can always get more!

We paid an average of $35 (some got more drinks than others), but I can see the differences in sashimi when going to a nicer AYCE now: the size and thickness of each slice is similar to sashimi from an à la carte menu.

Butterfish and salmon tataki - sashimi that's lightly seared on the outside

Determined to make our money's worth of this place, we tried to order a lot of the sashimi as well as other seafood dishes. My favourite seafood dish was the salmon tataki because the sauce that they pour on top is a bit spicy and cuts the fat in the salmon really well! The one thing I didn't like about the salmon tataki was that they seemed to be coated with crumbs!

Beef tataki

I ate with one of my friends who is 99% carnivorous, so we got several orders of the beef tataki - which was also extremely delicious. The deep fried garlic slices went well with the softness of the nice and rare beef (I love it that way). Very tender and a must-order-as-much-as-you-can dish if you happen to be eating their AYCE option.

Chicken teriyaki

The chicken teriyaki was grilled, but still very moist and flavourful! Though most of the vegetables that were underneath the chicken remained uneaten, it was taken away by the server who knew that it probably wouldn't get finished. She was right - it wouldn't have, as our mouths were too occupied with meat, seafood, or the foods of the deep-fried kind.

Mini sushi pizzas

I was disappointed but also relieved because the piece of rice was so small. Disappointed because since it was such a thin piece of rice it was dry after being deep-fried. But glad that it was small because it didn't fill us up too much.

Deep fried gyozas

My most memorable memory of going to Krispy Kreme was not the gush of their distinct smell that goes through your olfactory senses the moment you walk in, nor was it watching the bare doughnuts roll through the waterfall of white glaze - the sense that retained my most memorable Krispy Kreme moments was none other than my sense of taste!

The guy shoots rings of chocolate batter into the hot vegetable shortening

This doughnuts are covered with a thin layer of their sweet glaze

A while back, the Krispy Kreme workers would kindly offer a freshly fried and glazed doughnut off the hot rolling racks to whoever went in and asked (I would often go for seconds and insist that I needed to give one to my dad - which was, of course, not true, because I would end up eating the second one too!).

The cashier lady kindly microwaved a few for us so we could eat it "fresh"

Now, free doughnuts from my favourite doughnut shop no longer exist - so my excitement that bubbles when I see the "Hot Now" sign lit up no longer bubbles as much as before. But the absence of free doughnuts will never stop me from satisfying my Krispy Kreme cravings!

One last need that must be continually satisfied is my need to take pictures of the foods I am about to eat - before it is eaten. And so this weekend my breakfast was delayed for 10 minutes as I tried to find the better plates, cups, and positions that the foods would look best in. All that time spent was just to capture this:

Good morning food!

My mom made a sponge cake with kabocha squash, a Japanese pumpkin (remember how I said I liked pumpkin flavoured things and eating kabocha?). Along with two nicely ripened kiwis, a Korean persimmon (which has seeds!), and a cup of hazelnut coffee, I enjoyed the relaxing breakfast I've been longing for.

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I went into the holiday break with the mindset that I'd be able to catch up on my missed hours of sleep - but I was wronged. Those two weeks didn't do much good to my black circles and under-eye bags, so I hope to be able to sleep more this school term (which I doubt will happen too *sad*)

Recently discovered that sleeping on my back is more comfortable that I thought it was *yay*

Oh yes, since I went back home this weekend, I had my typical weekend diet which meant of dimsum Sundays.

Do you have a typical weekend/weekday diet? What does it consist?