simple potato salad

While my mom and I were out last week, we were reminiscing about a comment that was made about a year ago.

The comment was something along the lines of my mom not thinking about what words were coming-out of her mouth.

Like when she referred to a beautiful sunset by saying "the moon sure looks pretty."

Ummmmm.....

The comment we were laughing about was when we were out one evening and my mom ordered a wine spritzer. Judge all you want, but apparently they making a comeback. Usually when you get served a white wine spritzer, you get a glass with ice and wine, with a small carafe of club soda to add to it.  My mom gets her drink, pours in her club soda and adds a lime, takes a sip. She makes a face. Like a pucker face.

"Whew, that's strong. I think it's a double."

Wait, what?

"No mom, I think you just need to add more club soda. I'm pretty certain there's no such thing as a double wine spritzer. Pretty sure that's just a full glass of wine."

"Oh." And the she laughs.

So while you are enjoying this simple potato salad on a warm summers eve, try having a wine spritzer, a double if you please. Which is just basically ice and wine.

Simple potato salad
[ slightly adapted from the Kitchn ]

2 lbs russet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cubed into 2-inch chunks
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/4 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green onions
salt & pepper to taste
finely chopped chives for garnish

In a large pot, add the potatoes and cover with cold water. Place pot on stove top and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes for 20 - 30 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender. Drain potatoes and add back to pot. Add to the pot mayonnaise, dry mustard, yellow mustard, celery, and green onion. Mash slightly with a potato masher, leaving quite a lot of chunks. If you like a smoother potato salad, mash more. Continue mixing by folding the ingredients with a rubber spatula. Season with salt and pepper, transfer to a large bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Serve topped with chives, if desired.

overnight oatmeal in a jar

Oatmeal is one of those crazy health foods that you should eat everyday.

But when it's steamy hot outside, the last thing I want to do is eat a huge bowl of warmth. But I love oatmeal, and I want it in my belly even though it's summer time.

I've been reading all over the internets about this overnight oatmeal. You take some oats and some milk, toss it in a jar, leave it in the fridge overnight and voila!¡ You've got oatmeal.

I have some steel cut oats and milk in the house, and I've got 5 minutes, let's try it.

I really liked it. It's not like the warm, traditional oatmeal in the sense that it's creamy with almost no liquid. This is almost like cereal. The oats have softened but not completely, so they have a really nice chew to them. I added some brown sugar, blueberries, and chopped walnuts to my bowl this morning and it filled me up without feeling like a lump in my stomach.

This recipe is so versatile, you can use soy or a nut milk in place of the dairy, you can add whatever sweetener you prefer, and add whatever topping you have in the house. Chocolate chips, marshmallows, and raspberries? You go for it.

It's oatmeal, no matter what you add to it, it's still healthy.

Overnight oatmeal
[ from the Kitchn ]

Like I said above, this recipe can be adapted to any tastes. Feel free to replace the milk with your favourite non-dairy option, maybe take out the brown sugar and use agave syrup.

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups  non-fat milk
2 teaspoons brown sugar
toppings of your choosing

In a large mason jar, or medium sized bowl, combine the oats, milk, and brown sugar. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, stir and pour a serving (about 1/2 cup of mixture) into a bowl. Top with desired topping and enjoy.

watermelon granita

The heat can do crazy things to ones state of mind.

Friday, after work (yes I'm working part-time, another time we'll go over it) I had an intense craving for watermelon.

Like crazy, pregnant woman intense craving. (no I'm not pregnant, don't be thinking crazy like that)

So naturally I'm thinking, let's pack Avery up in the stroller and let's walk in the sun to go get a watermelon. Totes perfect idea.

But here's where the heat makes you crazy. Of course I'm not going to go to the TWO grocery stores literally five steps from my house, I decide to walk to a specific produce store. A 45 minute walk, one way, from my house.

Doesn't seem so bad yet right? But I decide to walk at 3:30 in the afternoon when it's about 27 degrees outside (that's 80 F for my American friends) so naturally it feels like it's about four thousand degrees outside. Whatever, I'm out enjoying the sun after all the rain, working on my tan, and Avery likes the fresh air.

Arrive at the produce store. Watermelons are priced at ¢49 a pound, so of course, I look for the biggest one I can find. My watermelon cost $11.35.  I bought a 23 pound watermelon. Which I now have to put in the stroller and push along with a 13 pound child, my diaper bag which weighs at least 10 pounds, and the stroller itself which probably weighs 25 pounds. For 45 minutes. Up hill most of the way. In flip-flops.

I ate ice cream on the way home to make up for all the unintentional calories I burned.

So because I bought a stupidly enormous watermelon, I literally have a shit-ton of it. Not that it's a bad thing, but I cut 3/4 of it and it filled the biggest bowl I own so I needed to find a recipe to use up the last quarter.

Thanks PW for helping me beat the heat and keep the crazies away.

Watermelon granita
[ from Pioneer Woman ]

8 cups of seedless watermelon chunks, 1/2-1/3 watermelon rind removed and cut into chunks
juice of 2 limes
1/3 cup white sugar

In a blender, combine half of the watermelon, half of the lime juice, and half of the sugar. Blend until completely smooth, pour into a large bowl. Repeat with remaining watermelon, lime juice, and sugar.

Pour watermelon mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish and place in the freezer for 2 - 3 hours.
Remove from freezer and with a spoon, scrape the frozen layer. The sides will be more frozen and the middle will be almost slushy. Return to freezer for another 2 - 3 hours, repeat scraping process. Continue freezing and scraping until the entire mixture is frozen and scraped. Served frozen in fancy glasses.

and a picture of Jackson. Just cause. Check my pink pants and the husband's dirty foot.

iced ginger lemon green tea

Do you want to know what's not a good idea?

Drinking too much wine, staying up way too late, getting 3.5 hours sleep, and being responsible for a small child while massively hungover. 

That was my Saturday morning. The sound of the coffee brewing sounded like nails on a chalkboard. 

My head was pouring, my mouth was like a desert, I was still in the red wine fog, yet I had to feed/change/entertain a 3 month old. 

Bad, bad, bad, very horrible situation.

Lesson learned. Next time, drink non-red wine drinks.

Ginger lemon green tea. Much better. Clean, fresh, sweet, spicy, no risk of hangover, much better choice. 

Unless you add vodka or gin to it......

Not saying that's a bad idea......

Iced ginger lemon green tea

[ from the Kitchn ]

1/4 oz good quality Chinese green tea leaves

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup agave syrup

3/4 ginger syrup (recipe below)

lemon slices for garnish

Place the tea leaves in a large bowl. Boil 3 1/2 cups of cold water and then let rest for 5 minutes. pour hot water over the tea leaves and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain, keeping the liquid and throwing out the tea leaves. 

In a large pitcher, mix together the lemon juice, steeped green tea, agave syrup, ginger syrup, and 8 cups of cold, filtered water. Stir well and let sit the refrigerator overnight. 

Serve with lots of ice and lemon slices for garnish.

Ginger syrup

This recipe makes about 5 cups, which is much more than the 3/4 cup that you need in this recipe. Keep the extras for more of this delicious tea or add 3 tablespoons a cup of club soda and you've got homemade ginger ale. Aren't you fancy?

1/2 lb fresh ginger root, with skin on

3 cups white sugar

2 cups water

Cut the ginger into 1/2-inch nubs and whizz in the food processor until the pieces are fine and stringy, like small wood chips. 

Place the sugar and water in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until sugar has dissolved. Add the ginger and turn off the heat. Let saucepan cool on the stove and then place in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, strain the syrup twice through a fine mesh strainer to get all the little bits out. Store unused syrup in an airtight jar. This syrup will keep for a couple of weeks as long as it is refrigerated.

apple blackberry crisp

As much as I love the sunshine and heat of summer, I really love fall.

Crisp, cool air.

Crunchy leaves to step on.

The return of hockey.

Pumpkin things.

Plus all things baked that come ushering back into season. Crisps, crumbles, pies, cookies, doughnuts, turkeys. 

With some hand-picked blackberries stored away in my freezer (thanks mom!), I made an apple blackberry crisp, at the nagging  request of the husband. 

It's was the perfect blend of late summer sweetness from the blackberries, with the tartness of fall, granny smith apples. Topped with what tasted like a giant oatmeal cookies, with tons of brown sugar.

This topping can be used with any sort of filling, raspberry and nectarine, just plain ol' apples, triple berry, anything you want to put a topping on basically, just adjust the flour accordingly depending on the juiciness of the fruit. 

Apple blackberry crisp

3 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices

2 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen. If frozen, do not thaw.

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

topping:

1/2 cup butter, cool and cubed into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 large flake oats, not quick oats

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, toss together the apples, blackberries, cinnamon, sugar, and flour. Stir until no dry clumps remain. Pour into a 9x13-inch dish, or a deep, round ceramic dish (like me!). Set aside. 

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the brown sugar, oats, white sugar, and the flour, stir to combine thoroughly. Add the cubes of butter and turn your mixer onto medium speed and it should start to form crumbles in about 2 - 3 minutes. Once you see all the butter has been combined into the flour-sugar mixture, turn off mixer. Alternatively, you can use your hands and crumble the butter into the dry ingredients until you get the same result. 

hey it's me!

Using your hands, scoop handfuls of the topping onto the fruit, making sure to press down and cover the entire top. You should see no fruit poking through the topping, press the topping gently to make sure it adheres to the fruit. 

Bake for an hour to 75 minutes, or until fruit is bubbling and topping is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

grilled pizza

I'm eating a fistful of carrots right now. Along with crackers and cheese. And water.

I'm a single lady for the next couple of days, the husband is away for work. Which means, I don't really eat "real" meals. 

It's not like I'm not eating anything, but nothing really of substance. Just snack stuff. 

I might get hangry later, so I might eat a salad. Or popcorn.

I'm thinking the latter.

black bean + heirloom tomato quinoa salad

Well folks, this is what we've been waiting for. The last few days of summer. Hot, dry, full of last minute parties, deep fried fair food, farmer's markets full of fresh, local produce, last minute road trips, everyone is trying to squeeze ever last drop out of summer before winter arrives. 

But I have to say, I'm kind of ready for fall. 

Summer is awesome and all, but I bought a new raincoat and I'm DYING to wear it. Quote me on this later, in January, when I am cursing the rain. 

lemonade

Finally, we had a beautiful day of rain.

Usually, I wouldn't care if I ever saw a day of rain in my life, but this baby cooking business has turned me into a sauna.

Real life.

Sunday afternoon, it was hot and humid, overall just horrible. I couldn't cool down. Nothing would help. I tried to make a salad and when I opened my cupboard to get some beans,  the entire top shelf fell backwards. Fantastic.

I made lemonade and then I had a pity party on the patio because I was hot and I needed to fix the cupboard.

The pity party didn't work so well, but the lemonade cooled me down.

Organic lemons + sugar + ice cold water. Simple, easy, refreshing. I don't add much sugar because I don't like my lemonade over-sweetened, I enjoy the tart taste of the lemons, but feel free to add more sugar if you need to.

Lemonade

7 large, organic lemons
1/3 cup white sugar
7 cups water

Cut each lemon in half, squeeze over a large pitcher to extract juice. You may also use a citrus press, but I don't have one, so I use my brute strength. Be careful to avoid getting any seeds in the juice, to help avoid that, place a fine mesh strainer over the pitcher. This will catch any seeds before they fall into the juice.

Add the water and sugar, stir until sugar is well dissolved. Serve in tall glasses with lots of ice to extremely overheated, pregnant women, sulking on the patio.

summer vacation : Palm Springs

Last week, I had the pleasure of travelling to Palm Springs, California for a few days with some family.

It was 5 days of laughs, sunshine, overeating, over-spending, and over-tanning.

Let's recap, shall we?

When it's 119 F outside, nothing cools better than a couple of plastic baby pools filled with hose water and a very large, ice-filled glass of lemonade mixed with iced tea. Also note all of the glorious palm trees, you do not see those in Vancouver. Ever.

Watching my aunt skip breakfast, yet drink 3 caesers (aka bloody marys) on the plane ride down.

Going to the cheesecake factory, only to get cheesecake to go and eat it on the way back to the house. Cousin A got red velvet cheesecake, I got oreo cheesecake. Next time, I'm tackling that amazing looking carrot cake. Seriously, it's like 12 layers high. Not really, but kind of.

Try on and buy, tons and tons of maternity clothes. My cousin likes to call them fat lady clothes, which I think is mean, but funny nonetheless since you get to try the clothes on with a fake belly. See below, me wearing fake belly. Looks so strange.

Celebrate my 27th birthday with my family. A Cousin who is more like a sister, an Aunt who is more like a second mother and their neighbour who I had just met, and absolutely love. Going for a wonderful dinner, where my Cousin freaked out when she saw Tamra from the Real Housewives of OC walk in, proceeded to get a photo and text everyone in her address book until some one would answer. I have no idea who that woman was and walked right by her several times, without even thinking. Also, was completely surprised to find a gift from my mother followed me to California.

This baby.

I am in love.

Nikon 3100 has me love struck. Besides the fact of being completely floored that I recieved the camera to begin with, I was now OBSESSED with photographing everything.

Mostly of cats. And food. And new babies. But really, mostly of cats.

Also, I need this. And I'm pretty sure Nikki does too.

s'mores ice cream

I have a new obsession.

Pinterest. Have you been on it? It's ah-maze-ing.

It's sort of like a place to create digital inspiration boards. I find it extremely helpful with sorting my bookmarks for recipes. So, the idea is that you "pin" something to a board, for example a recipe board, and not only does it show you a pretty picture of what it is, it will link back to the original source.

It's also a really good place to avoid working, for hours and hours and hours. You get the idea...

california dreamin' + news

As I've said in previous posts, the summer so far in Vancouver has basically been, let's say, non-existent. There have been only a few days of over 20 degree weather ( that's around 68 F for my American friends), and I'm sick of it.

So, I've decided to go on a girls trip with my Aunt and Cousin down to California. More specifically, Palm Desert. I'm going to the land of the heat! The average temperature there right now? About 45 degrees ( or 113 F). I'm there for 5 glorious, sun-filled days in which I will do the following that I can't do at home.....

- get a freakin tan.

- on my right knee.

- shop at Target.

- eat my body weight in cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

- try not to drool at the baked potato bar at the Souplantation

- drink lots of lemonade.

- follow the nightly routine while in the desert with my family, get cheesecake to go, come back to the house, change into your pajamas and watch a real housewives marathon.

- work on my tan some more.

- go to the date farm.

- sit inside, with the air conditioning and complain about how hot it is.

- shop at Nordstrom.

- take care of the little bean growing inside of me.

- shop at DSW shoes.

- sleep in and drink Starbucks everyday.

- work on my tan, and hope I don't burn.


Wondering what the 4th to last one is about? Well the husband and I are expecting a little one. Should be here in February 2012. We're very excited.

Now I can blame my pants not closing on that, not the fact that I've been eating ice cream every night and salt & vinegar chips.

This guy is none too happy about this new revelation.

blueberry boybait

Do you want to know how to bait a boy ? Or keep a husband?

No, not that. Dirty, dirty.

Make this cake. The husband refers to it as blueberry cake, but I love the name just as it is. Blueberry boy bait. It just sounds so, naughty. Oh, and it is.