Forgive me, blog, it's been 5 months since my last entry.

I had a craving this morning and you all know how dangerous it is to ignore a craving so I answered it.
I "needed" a dutch baby.

It's a simple recipe but the taste is rich and addictive.

You will need a 9"cast iron pan*--I have no idea if you can make this in something other than a cast iron pan. Besides, if you don't have a cast iron pan, fix that. (especially if you are a vegetarian. cooking in it leaches iron into your food and even more so if you cook tomatoes. I use mine all the time, I have 3 sizes. No, 4. I also have a dutch oven that I make my sourdough bread in)

oven at 425F

Mix together:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs

heat pan in oven (I put it in as the oven pre-heats otherwise I forget. you can use a cold pan, it would take an extra 5 minutes to bake)

Pull pan out to melt 1/4 cup butter, watch this closely and try to do it quickly, the butter is prone to browning but a bit brown is fine, don't worry. You can also melt butter before dumping into pan but the pan is so nice and hot, why waste electricity using the microwave for 20-30senconds?

Pour batter into pan and bake for about 10 minutes (about 15 if your pan was cold)
as soon as you pull it out, sprinkle it with icing sugar. as much as you want.

enjoy and try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting. It's that good.
but rich. all that butter. mmmmmm

* a 9" cast iron pan is measured on the bottom.

I am posting this to tell everybody how much I love love love my julienne tool and the newest cookbook in my collection of neglected cookbooks (because honestly, when I don't have time to sit and flip through my cookbooks in search of a recipe, I sit down at my computer and simply google one up put of thin air. But how I love to sit and flip through my books, it's a pleasure I dearly miss and I know one day when life is less ... full, I will once again be able to sit and fondle all my cookbooks again)

For lunch today, I made myself a vegetarian wrap (I am returning to my vegetarian ways). The two star ingredients in this wrap are the julienned carrots and the quinoa and bean dip.

The carrots were julienned with a cute little tool I bought from Pampered Chef. I've only been to one Pampered Chef party and I have never regretted choosing the three items I bought: a trio of nesting sieves, a pizza stone and the julienne cutter.

isn't this an interesting looking tool? It's really sharp and I have to be sure to put it's guard on when it's living in the tool drawer.

The bean dip is marvellous, found it in this cookbook: Quinoa 365. Look for it on page 35. I will not post the recipe because you must buy the book. You will thank me, trust me.
I swear, every recipe looks delicious and I want to make every single one of them. My one complaint is that there aren't enough photos; usually this discourages me from buying a cookbook--yes, I am a big kid who only wants picture books--and if it wasn't for a recipe printed in my city's newspaper's food section, I wouldn't have bought the book. The recipe that made me fall in love with this cookbook is: Moist Chocolate Cake on page 159. A seriously divine cake. Works really well as cup cakes too.

A truly a fantastic cookbook. find it here: http://www.amazon.ca/Quinoa-365-The-Everyday-Superfood/dp/1552859940

BUT if you are in Ottawa, do go to Collected Works to buy it, they are terrific, we love that store. find it here: Collected Works.

look how happy the carrot looks. I slathered on some quinoa bean dip, added some lettuce and dressing and topped it with the happy carrots. That is when I knew I just had to make this wrap the subject of a Bits Of Time entry. Half the fun I have from baking and cooking is what the food looks like at the different stages of it's creation.

When I worked in a bakery, years and years ago --pre kids, I may as well say in a previous life-- one of my more important shifts was to open on Sunday mornings. I had to be there at 6am (which doesn't sound as insanely early to me anymore. My boy's natural wake-up time is 5am; he has trained me well) to open the doors at 9am and greet the neighbourhood with freshly baked muffins, scones, cinnamon buns and croissants (the last two were prepared by the master bread-maker during the week, frozen and I simply had to proof and bake them. magic). 

One of my pleasures was to gather up the ingredients in a bowl and give them a one second look before mixing them all up (I was in a hurry after all). The  different textures and colours, such simple ingredients that when combined would magically become something so yummy and sometimes complex in flavour. 

... it just made me so happy. Call me simple but this makes me happy. 

go buy that cookbook!

Food!
I made hamburgers. I know what you are thinking, hamburgers, big deal, everybody can make those and you are right but what is exciting is that I made my own buns and added just the right stuff to the beef to make it succulent.

I found the bun recipe, called Jiffy Hamburger Buns, in the cookbook Whole Foods For The Whole Family edited by Roberta Bishop Johnson.  The buns took an hour to make, if not less--counting the baking time too.  Truly.
I'd put the recipe here but I didn't change a thing and can't call it my own. Just go buy the book :)
For the buns, you just mix the ingredients together, let rest 10 minutes after the knead, then roll, cut into rounds and let rise 20 minutes. The fastest bread I've ever made (I am not counting the pizza dough I make, there's no rise time at all with that one).  I had too much dough for my needs so made 8 buns and shaped the rest into a small loaf. The loaf sat in the fridge while the buns rose for 20 minutes and then baked for 12-14 minutes.
My one deterrent to making bread on a regular basis is the rise times and how they can vary depending on temperature, humidity and flour freshness; starting it is no problem but when that bread needs to be loved (punched down and shaped), it can't wait. Having kids has given me a new perspective on bread making and a new thing I can anthropomorphize.
For instance, I have a new pet, it's name is Oliver and he lives in my fridge and has to be fed weekly. I simply have to pull him out, mix in some flour and water and leave him until he starts to burp freely. Then it's back into stasis again. This sourdough is a true home-made-can't-get-more-home-made-than-this sourdough. A friend made it by fermenting her own home-grown grapes, mixed flour in and let it magically become sourdough (she's my hero. I made one once out of a potato, flour and water years ago-- pre-kids, back when I didn't realize I had oodles of time. It was good) But I digress.

You'll have to go buy a copy of this cookbook, it's full of good recipes. Go to the La Leche League's page: http://www.lllc.ca/ and click on their link to amazon.ca and then do a search for the book. In this way you can buy a good cookbook and benefit the La Leche League by going through their website to buy amazon books.  They appreciate every and any donation to help them in their loving support of all breastfeeding moms.
Here are some photos of the buns. I didn't have my usual camera so relied on my ipod touch to snap these. (which explains a bit, no? Fluorescent light makes it tricky to get good colour and no matter how bright I feel the kitchen is, the ipod says differently; I didn't use my sweet, little, simple, easy Canon Elph because my husband took it to work that day)
I used whole spelt flour.

These are the buns rising

Buns baked and cut in half. The little loaf I made with the extra dough. Makes a good bread too; nice and dense.

For the burgers, I pulled out a pound of ground from my freezer and let it thaw --Once a year I buy an 1/8th of a naturally raised cow, as close to organically raised as it can get without it being certified. The best beef I've ever tasted. I got it from this farmer: http://www.littledownfarm.ca/ 

In a bowl I mixed together:
1 egg
2 Tbs Ketchup
2 Tbs cream
1 minced garlic
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp hickory smoke BBQ sauce
1 tsp sesame dressing (any dressing would do, even plain vinegar)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

I added:
2-3 slices of dry toasted bread crumbled into the egg mixture (I heat the oven at 350F or put on the broil and toast the bread until done, being careful not to burn  so flip often and watch closely)

Mix it all well and add the beef and mix until well blended. Form into patties. The size I chose to make gave us 6 burgers.
I fried them in a pan but if I had a BBQ, I'd have done them that way since everything tastes better cooked on a BBQ.


The following photos were taken with my ipod touch as well so ignore the quality.

We always add cheese to our burgers. 

This is what my son left behind. 

running, onward.

I have 5 sessions under my belt, still doing 5 minutes brisk walk to start then 1 minute jog, 90seconds walk sets. All for about 20-25 minutes. The program I mentioned last entry says to increase the jog times but since I am carrying more weight than the average person who tends to *want* to run/jog, I am taking it easy and repeating the 1st week until running for one full minute is easy.
Last session, by the 4rth set I was jogging the full minute without pushing myself from 30seconds on so it's a wonderful improvement.

I am still in the giddy stage of wanting to go daily but I am sticking to every other day (mostly Mon-Wed-Fri). My energy levels are better. My hunger is huge though and low-carbing right now is very difficult. As long as I don't *gain*. I've lost about 20lbs since May and intend on never ever regaining them back. Ever.

running

I now have 2.5hrs to myself every day because my youngest sweetie is in school--she loves it, squeals with delight when the bell rings for line-up and cries when we have to leave even after a 30 minutes play in the school yard past dismissal.

Today's "bit of time" that I could take away from regular errands and chores was me finally taking my flab in hand and start my journey to being fit fit fit.

I've been talking about wanting to run/jog for more years than I care to admit. Well today was the day I finally shut up and simply DID IT.
I googled how a sloth can become a runner and found this very helpful site: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml


So today, I walked briskly for about 5 minutes and jogged (bounced and jiggled in my case) for 60 seconds then walked for 90 seconds just as the site said I should do. I have a poor sense of time so I used my archaic cell phone (I know, oxymoron but in cell-world, it is archaic, it has no --gasp-- camera)

I sit here, post jog, slightly sweaty, calm heart because I was a good girl and walked to cool down and did some nice enjoyable stretches. On the advice of a friend who is very athletic (check out his site http://www.ottawatriathlonclub.com/default.asp), I did not push my stretches, I was very gentle and I hope, in my run-frenzy, I didn't hurt any of my 42 year old joints or other fleshy bits. His running advice was also similar to the couch-to-5k. This guy is amazing, I am a sloth compared to him.

I hope to continue this running thing, I loved it, it was a gorgeous day and the crispy leaves made it fun to run on the grass.

My goal is to become fit and lose 40lbs. wish me luck.

photos of foods in mid creation.

When I bake it puts me such a happy mood. I love taking all these various ingredients and magically transform them into a succulent cake or tasty yet healthy muffins (I know, oxymoron but you haven't tasted MY muffins)

When I am baking, I'll mix the ingredients together; the dry together; the wet together and then take a few minutes to admire how pretty they look.

Here are a few photos of ingredients I had the presence of mind to run for the camera to snap a few pics:

 this jumble of spoons caught my eye. These are my favourite measuring spoons. There are in metric, keeps me honest (Canada is metric after all. I would fail the test if I had to convert cups to ml. The only place I use metric in my cooking is these measuring spoons--1/4cup=60ml=4Tbs; 1Tbs=15ml. That's it folks. Otherwise I need paper or my handy laptop to google it)

flour with cinnamon

upside down pineapple cake

oil, yoghurt, egg, vanilla.

I love making muffins for this reason you see above. Just before I whisk up the wet ingredients, I pile them all together and have a look to admire the colours.