Fun in P Town

Last week I took a little break. Headed to Portland with a couple of lady friends. We spent some time a little high brow and spent some time a little low brow. Did some ‘antiquing’ , eating, drinking, dancing, laughing, checking out art and crafts and some of Portland’s ‘clubs’. It was a very well rounded getaway.

Some culinary highlights; fresh pretzel at Deschutes served with cheesy stout dip, enjoyed with Red Chair citrus ale. Eggy, cheesy bagels from Kenny and Zukes, conveniently located right next door to our hotel. Donuts from Voodoo, were also a must.

Voodoo licious

Between the three of us we shared 5 donuts over our three day stay. Chocolate with coconut, hawaiian sprinkles, vanilla with M&M’s (my 2nd fave), Maple Iced with Bavarian Cream and the top fave pick of all of us, the ODB. Not sure how this donut is associated with Wu Tang’s ODB, but it was amazing–vanilla donut, chocolate icing topped with oreo cookies and peanut butter drizzle–as I said, amazing.

ODB

We spent a few hours at the Portland Art Museum, and could have spent a few more. We were all pleasantly surprised by the size of the museum and the extensiveness of the collections. We went specifically to see the Mark Rothko and John Frame exhibits, but the museum has so much more, for all tastes. I will deffinately go back.

Oh, and I bought a candle scented like campfire–yup!

morning tea and scone

Muffin Mania

muffin man

Been baking a lot of muffins lately. I found a great recipe that I can change up for whatever flavour suits our fancy! The recipe is from ‘How it All Vegan’ page 130, Applesauce Muffins. We modified and made pumpkin, pumpkin chocolate chip and gluten free banana chocolate chip. Yum!

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup soy milk (or almond or dairy)

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp oil

1/3 cup maple syrup (or agave or straight up sugar)

1 cup applesauce (or pumpkin puree or 2 mashed bananas)

3/4 cup raisins (or choc chips)

 

I also added 1/2 tsp of pre mixed pumpkin spice to the pumpkin muffin mix.

 

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl sift together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix until ‘just mixed’. Scoop into lightly oiled muffin tins, or tins with paper/silicone liners. Bake 15-20 mins. Test with a toothpick to see if finished.

 

moist and yum

Cartem’s Donuts

They’ve barely been open a fortnight but these donuts are Vancouver’s most wanted. Thanks to FB and Twitter word has spread fast. http://cartems.com

Julie and I had a donut date on Wednesday morning. It took us a while to find the shop front. We didn’t start out with an address, just a general idea. Once we found it, they were cash only, (so new!), so we found a bank machine and headed back to the shop. The line up was out the door and there were two donuts left in the case…. They sell out SO fast.

frowny face

The shop front is a small space sublet out of the Penn Bakery, but the donut baking takes place at Woodland Smokehouse Commissary.

So we chatted with the owner, Jordan, for a while–he was calling the kitchen to get an eta on the next delivery, and a flavour list! Jordan told us a bit of the history behind the shop, why donuts, (he had a dream-literally), ingredients source, delivery, (he does it by bike) and all the while there was a constant stream of customers coming into the shop. Pre paying for donuts that weren’t even out of the fryer yet!

These 3 guys are selling 400+ donuts a day!!!

The eta was a little off, so I didn’t actually get a donut on Wednesday–We tried to get a half dozen, 2x triple choc, 2x Earl Grey and 2x Campfire, (s’mores with homemade vegan marshmallow!!!) When Julie went back to pick up our order there were a couple Earl Grey and some Carrot Cake left. I won’t lie, I was pretty disappointed. But the deliciousness of the donuts is a consolation.

Lucky for me the commissary is right down the street from my house!!! Most of the donuts go to the Cartem’s shop front, but they do leave some for sale at the commissary. I stopped in this morning at 9, hoping to score a fresh Campfire. When E and I walked in we were pegged right away as donut seekers. There were no donuts left at the counter, but some in the back being freshly glazed, each one is dipped by hand. So we browsed the shop for a few minutes and then had our pick of 4 donuts–vanilla glazed, sweet heat or carrot– we went with the vanilla. Super moist, sweet and yummy–but not a Campfire.

fresh vanilla!

Ashala, E and I shared a Carrot Cake and Earl Grey over tea this morning. I can see why the Earl Grey are a top favourite. But what really struck me was how fresh these three day old donuts still were! Seriously moist and soft–not a hint of staleness. Quality ingredients perhaps?

My quest for the Campfire continues. I’m now following @WoodlandSmoke for the flavour updates! Yes–real time donut updates!

Magne-Stamp

I’ve taken to saving interesting postage stamps. The other day Ewan and I made them into  magnets for the board in his room. Super easy!  Stick the stamps to magnet paper trim and done!

magne stamps

Yule Log

Over the holidays I made my first attempt at a Recipe from my mum’s old Be-Ro cookbook. I can’t find a publication date on the book, but I’m guessing 70′s. I remember baking fairy cakes from this book with my mum when I was little.

I used the chocolate swiss roll recipe to make a yule log for dessert after Christmas dinner. My first attempt came out too flat, no self raising flour. Second attempt I added some baking soda, baking powder and a dash of salt and it rose nicely.

Chocolate Swiss Roll

2 eggs

75 g/3 oz castor sugar

50 g/2 oz self raising flour

25 g/1 0z cocoa powder

 

Line a swiss roll tin with parchment paper. Pre Heat oven to 425.

Break eggs into a bowl, whisk lightly, add sugar and whisk well until thick and creamy and almost white.

Lightly fold flour and cocoa into mixture. Pour mixture into lined pan. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Don’t over bake.

Turn out onto sugared parchment, remove lining paper, trim edges and roll with fresh parchment inside.

Allow to cool, then gently unroll, remove paper and spread with Buttercream, then re-roll.

Coat with chocolate buttercream and decorate.

filled and rolled

The recipe was quick and easy. When I make it again I will cut the baking time about a minute as I found the cake a little dry. I flavoured the filling butter cream with Almond and used chocolate for the coating. Dusted it with a little cocoa and festive red bird.

done and yum

Terrariums!!

I made some, with tutorial by the lovely Ashala.

Check ‘em out!

scooter

lynx

cowboys and.....

british soldiers

vespa two

Rolling and Dipping

A few weeks ago Kyle, myself and 3 friends took part in a chocolate making workshop. It started out with a tutorial covering some history of chocolate, cocoa growing and how chocolate is made, including the all important tasting. We learned what gives Hershey’s its unique flavor and what exactly those percentages mean. After hand washing

ganache

big slabs of ganache were brought out and divied up, each of us were given a metal sheet lined with wax paper. We were instructed to cut, mold, sculpt our ganache,

molding and cutting

which we would then dip, decorate, chill and take home. Our host told us that in a recent group someone had sculpted the Taj Ma Hal–no pressure.

Pretty steep learning curve, working with ganache. If your hands are too warm it gets very melty, if using a cookie cutter that is too small the ganache will stick. It is also very rich, so maybe less is more.

We were provided with texture sheets, colour sheets, cocoa, nuts and green cocoa butter for decorating. Each table was given a melter, dipping tools and stirring instructions.

I rolled and formed 2 cupcakes, an ace, brass knuckles and a plain old ball and square with the leftover. The knuckles had to be dipped separately and the melted chocolate kept the pieces together.

cupcakes!

We came home with a lot of chocolate that we’re slowly working our way through. The richness really prevents consumption of a large quantity in one sitting. Not sure if that is a good thing or not!