Monthly Archives: October 2011
Simple Chana Masala (Chickpea Curry)
Chana Masala in an Indian Chickpea Curry. I used to make the “real” version of it with 5 or 6 different spices and a slow simmer for 45 minutes but when I moved out of my parents house, and was cooking only for myself, I wanted a quicker way to that same satisfaction. I have made this a million times and it still remains one of my all time favourite dishes!
Begin by slicing 4 shallots…
You definitely want them to be chunky. Or at least I want them to be that way…
Throw them into some oil in a heated saucepan…
Give them a nice saute for only a minute or so…
And then take out these!
Add 1 teaspoon of each into the sauteing onions. The spices need to be cooked before the other ingredients are added so that they begin to release their intense aromas! Seriously. You can quote me on that one…
Then take out these…
Add both 14oz cans (diced tomatoes and chickpeas) into the onions and spices (but only after you have let the spices cook for a minute or so!)…
Also add one more can of water…
I boiled this pretty rapidly for 20 minutes or so. Just remember that if you are boiling the mixture like me, stir it every five minutes or so to ensure that it doesn’t burn. If you don’t want to watch it so intensely, just simmer it for 45 minutes UNCOVERED…
Then taste it. Does it need seasoning? Mine needed a teaspoon or so of salt. It should look like this when it is done, the consistency of a thick stew…
Just serve it with rice and you are through! Curry satisfaction in a simpler fashion…
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:25]
Posted in Vegetarian Main Dishes
Tagged chana masala, chickpea curry, chickpea recipe, chickpea stew
1 Comment
The Picnic Of Love (a.k.a. how to create the most romantic picnic ever!)
(NOTE: I am the only person in ALL of France who wears a helmet)
One of the best things about dating a French man is that he is always completely down to have a romantic time. I am the uber hopeless romantic in the relationship, FOR SURE! Buuuuut he definitely has it in him too. I would have never settled for anything less 
.
A few days before we had this picnic, we were short-cutting through a small path on our bikes to get back home from the centre of the city. When I saw this mystical place (pictured above and below and around this whole post) I stopped my bike in an instant and basked in the beauty that I saw around me. This place is stunning, beautiful, mystical, whimsical, wonderful, dreamy, romantic, any other adjectives you can think of?
Let’s talk about the food!
- I put all the food in jars. I keep jars for this specific reason, they make great storage containers!
- Jar 1: Salad= beets, lettuce, tomato, cucumber
- Jar 2: Dressing=olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt
- Jar 3: Pasta=cooked turkey breast, pasta, pesto sauce
- Baguette and cheese are musts!
- Orange juice (or wine if your boyfriend doesn’t have an exam the next day!)
Hey! Look at my outfit!
My red hat is making another appearance. As I told you before, it has not come off my head.
Could I have found a better location?!!!
Happy day everyone!
Sincerely, Yummy Laura
Mon Chapeau
I purchased a beautiful red hat the other day and it has been on my head ever since with the exception of showering and sleeping, but other than that it has been on my head.
When I was exploring all of those vintage stores in the old city the other day I was actually looking for a hat. I had been wanting to get to the market and take photos for quite some time (nearly 1 whole week, GASP!) and so, to motivate myself to get my butt off of this chair that sits before my computer most of the day, I told myself that if I did what I wanted to do and got to those stores, I could reward myself with a vintage hat! What I got was so much better than just a vintage hat…
Before we move on with the story, let me just fill you in on my obsession with hats. I think they look good on me and therefore I love, love, love trying them on. I don’t buy many because their price tag sometimes scares me off, but I admire them from a distance. I had a huge ambition as a teenager to become a hat designer and even had the opportunity to practice the skills of making hats when I was interning in fashion school. And there you have it, the background to my love for hats. Larger than my love for scarves or gloves or chocolate or dresses!
Now back to the story. What I found when I was browsing through the vintage stores was much better than I could ever have imagined. I found a sign and I do not know what most of the sign said but in huge letters the word “CHAPEAUX” caught my eye. Out of curiosity and a burning desire for a new hat, Max and I followed the three of four signs to the location of a little shop. In the shop was a very friendly woman and we found out that she was a hat designer! Perfect! I tried on five or six hats and I knew which one I wanted immediately! The red, elaborate one of course! I thought I would just go in and pick a hat and leave but NO! She measured my head and I picked out a fabric and she specifically designed the hat just for me!
Now I have yet to tell you the best part. As the three of us were chatting, we found out that she was the creative director for Yves Saint Laurent for 5 years! My hat was being designed by the creative director of Yves Saint Laurent! For some reason this fact makes me giggle inside and shout out with joy. For some reason.
Anyways, I love the hat and as I mentioned earlier, the hat has not come off yet.
I also made this video for you! Enjoy!
Bye-bye for now!
Sincerely, Yummy Laura
Vintage Market Tour
I visited the old part of Lille last week. I go there often and continue to notice the many vintage stores in the area. When I was younger, I loved shopping at vintage stores. I remember visiting Toronto’s Kensington Market any chance I could, grabbing a skirt or top for $5 and wearing it for many months usually with something that never quite matched it well enough. That is because I have a hard time wearing vintage so in the past few years all the many trips to vintage stores have been window shopping ones. These are trips where I admire everything in the stores and fear buying anything. Max apparently has a similar problem with buying vintage things. We love them, just don’t know what to do with them once they are purchased.
This is until one day when Max and I were on a night out on the town and found a vintage store that doubled as a bar. You remember the place, right? The place where I bought the red scarf! I realized that is pieces like that red scarf are the reason I love vintage stores. It was one scarf but it was completely different, completely original and completely my style and it was only 5 EURO. And no one, I mean I NO ONE will have that same scarf. Awesome!
Ok, now on to this particular trip I went on. I decided, after being inspired by my red scarf, to spend an entire afternoon rummaging around these shops. I ended up visiting 5 or so shops and buying nothing except a non-vintage red hat, but that is a whole other story coming up tomorrow.
Most of these shops were cross between vintage and hand-crafted/designed pieces of clothing, jewelery and furniture.
I love this place in particular because the owner took vintage pieces they found in other stores and completely revamped them into some stunning art pieces Just look at those tray tables and those little boxes!
Here was another shop. These stores were high-class but the prices were all very reasonable for the most part. I wanted that jacket in the very right hand side of the picture but it was huge on me. A good tailor would be a necessity when buying vintage.
Another thing I love about this store, which I have not seen very often, is the limited selection. There is no rummaging through the racks getting completely confused after the first couple of minutes. Every piece is within a section of similar pieces and together they tell a kind of story. They were telling me that I need a good tailor in France.
Hats, hats, hats, hats, hats! I love hats! Can’t wait to show you my new hat tomorrow!
This is the last picture I have for you today. It was also the last vintage store I visited on the adventure. I couldn’t understand why they were charging the equivalent of 50 dollars for a sweater that was vintage. Don’t they know that it has been worn before?
To end on a positive note: I have re-awoken the beast laying dormant inside of me! I want to go again! And again and again! I want to find another “red scarf”, I want to find a chapeau and a purse that are so uniquely ME and so uniquely not what everyone else has and priced so well for the quality! I want to go again and then get a tailor.
I will never be a vintage queen (although they say never say never) but it is a new curiosity for sure, and it seems to be tres populaire in France.
The end.
Sincerely, Yummy Laura
Posted in France
Tagged lille vintage stores, shopping in french vintage market, vintage market
3 Comments
French Style: Sophie
This is Sophie. I was riding my bike through a park yesterday afternoon and ambushed her when I noticed her style. I hopped off my bike and asked her in my broken French if I could take pictures of her.
Please bask in her style, won’t you?
I love the whole assemble. Especially the matching tights and scarf and the stunning jacket. I have a thing for well tailored jackets and this jacket just does it for me!
Sincerely, Yummy Laura
Leftover Madness: Stuffed Peppers Into Quiche
It’s time for Leftover Madness! I’m excited! Are you?
Remember those delicious stuffed peppers I made on Friday? Well, today I am turning the filling into a quiche. When I finished stuffing the two bell peppers, I ended up having a lot of the rice/meat mixture left over and right away I knew what I wanted to do about it. I made a pastry crust, added the meat mixture inside and poured in the liquidy egg mixture and voila, I had a quiche!
You can use this recipe as an inspiration for any leftovers you have. Do you have chicken breasts lying around? Maybe some fried vegetables? Just make the pie crust as I do, add whatever you have inside and pour in the egg mixture that I’ll show you below.
Let’s begin!
First let’s make the pastry crust:
Measure out 250gr of pastry flour…
Now add it to a mixing bowl…
Measure out 125gr of butter…
Now break it into small chunks and drop them into the flour…
And with your hand, coat them with the flour so that they don’t stick to each other…
Now the next step is a little hard to explain but hopefully you will understand what I mean and the picture will help!
In between your fingertips (the coolest part of your hands) rub the flour and butter together gently to form it into little crumbs. You do not want the butter to smear together and this is why you use this technique, just to evenly distribute the butter without warming it up and keeping it completely coated in flour…
Continue with that method until the whole mixture has this texture (below)…
Now make a well in the middle…
And add one egg yolk to the well…
Along with 50mL of water…
Mix it around with your hands…
When it gets really thick and hard to mix about, turn it over on the counter and knead it. Knead it only for a brief period of time because we don’t want it to be a chewy pastry!
Form it into a ball shape and wrap it up in some parchment paper (or plastic wrap or something) and stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so, just to let the gluten rest…
Take it out of the fridge and it should look like this…
Roll it out…
And place it into a 9 inch circular pan. I put my pan over top…
Then flip it over!
I take a knife and run it along the edges to get rid of the excess dough. It is not sweet dough so I won’t be making any cookies out of it. Into the garbage it goes!
Bake it at 375 degrees F for ONLY 5 MINUTES!!
For the quiche filling:
Add three eggs to a bowl…
Along with 1 cup of milk…
And whisk (that is all the steps for the egg mixture by the way…it’s that easy!!!)…
Now to assemble the whole thing:
Add your leftover rice/meat mixture into the pie crust…
And pour the egg mixture on top…
Bake the whole thing at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes and voila!!
Enjoy!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:24]
Posted in Beef
Tagged meat quiche, meat quiche recipe, pastry dough, pie crust recipe, transforming leftovers
2 Comments
Abbreviated Guide To Staying True To Yourself
I have put together an abbreviated guide on how to stay true to yourself. What does it mean to stay true to yourself and why is it important? For me staying true to myself means never sacrificing the different components that I have decided make me, me. It means not sacrificing those awesome quirks in my personality or my personal style or my hobbies and interests for another human being. This doesn’t mean that I don’t or won’t pick up some more quirks or hobbies or style tips from others along the way nor does it mean that I won’t change certain aspects of myself along the way (usually this happens so that I can grow into a better human being!). Staying true is so, so, so important because it can really help create a happy life for yourself. I truly believe that (besides having faith in something, cause this is so important!) when you are being fully yourself and loving every minute of it, you are happy and in the best position to make awesome things happen for you! Just imagine a young lady, wanting to please everyone around her and therefore dresses as her friends dress and goes to school for the program her parent’s wanted and acts the way everyone expects her to. What do you think about it?
So, without further ado, here are 5 points I have put together that can kick-start your way to staying true to yourself:
- Don’t try to be someone else, even if that person is really cool. I guarantee you that you are cool too. The world only needs one of each person so let them be who they are and shine your own light in your own way. When you don’t shine your own personality, the world is missing out in a big way. Seriously, we need you to be you and remember you are really cool!
- Know your limits and challenge them. What are you afraid of? What won’t you eat? How many miles can you run (or do anything!)? What are these limits you have set for yourself? I am afraid of roller coasters. Max took me to Canada’s Wonderland one day last summer and I really didn’t want to go with him on the roller coasters. After all, I was scared. Roller coasters were beyond my limit of possible things I could do. Max wouldn’t accept this which was great because I went on a few roller coasters. The truth is I hated being on them! I cried after the first two! I still don’t like roller coasters but I felt great that I challenged a limit for myself. Now I know that even though I don’t like them, it is not so bad to keep Max company by going on one and nothing terrible is going to happen to me.
- Know your boundaries and question whether or not they are reasonable. Setting boundaries is a great way to not let other people step all over you. A boundary is an imaginary line you draw between something acceptable and not acceptable in terms of the way other people treat you. Things deemed unacceptable do not necessarily have to be “bad” by society’s standards but just something that crosses your own personal line. I respect myself and others a lot and have a lot of boundaries. For example, I will stick up for myself if someone buds me in a line that I have been waiting in for quite some time. This is my own boundary and I realize that the same situation may not affect someone else at all. The reason I created this boundary was because I was at my doctor’s clinic one day lining up to put my name on the “walk-in” list. The wait time for this list is usually 2-4 hours and with every person in front of you in line you can expect to wait an extra 1/2 hour. Two women bud me in the line and I ended up waiting for 5 hours to see my doctor!! Not exaggerating! If I said something at that moment to stick up for myself, that would have never happened and I am sure they would have respected my wish for them to go behind me in the line. Other boundaries I have are people being prejudice around me or someone treating me with general disrespect. When I say “question whether or not the boundaries are reasonable” I mean that sometimes it is ok to just let things go. Is it worth your time to stick up for yourself in this instance if it will do you no good? For example, if someone is joking with you and you took it personally it is okay to just let it go. Not everything has to be a boundary!
- Accept that you, nor anyone is perfect in itself but perfect with imperfections. Sometimes I get mad (sometimes more than sometimes!) and yell at people I love and say things I regret. Sometimes I don’t do something I promised I would do. Sometimes I forget important things. Now breathe with me, it is ooooooooookaaaayyyyy. Yes, it is okay! Totally and naturally great in its own way. Every time I yell and fight or fail to keep my word I think to myself, “I’m going to try to change this behavior of mine next time a situation like this rolls around.” And then I leave it at that and move on still loving who I am, not beating myself up which is cause for more problems.
- Never settle for less. Bottom line, the most important point on the list. Who is your dream guy? Don’t settle for less. How do you want to be treated? Don’t settle for less. What kind of job do you want? Don’t settle for less. You may have to make choices that seem like less along the way but as long as you keep the big picture in focus, you cannot go wrong! You do not want to be sitting at home, at the age of 50 wishing you hadn’t settled for less than YOU DESERVE!!!
The end.
Strawberry Almond White Chocolate Treats
I have a habit of making chocolate treats and because my oven is kurpluts and I have a primal need to make sweet stuff, this chocolate making thing is a great alternative! I tend to make all different kinds of chocolate candies during the winter season to give to my family and friends in pretty packaging as thoughtful home-made gifts.
I went to the chocolatiers of Lille earlier this week and tasted what the professionals had for me. The chocolate was divine! When I tasted the white chocolate (you can check it out in that post) treat from one of the shops, I was inspired to make the same kind at home. And I did. And they tasted identical. Ok, ok, mine tasted way better.
Now I will show you how to make them too!
Begin by taking an entire jar of strawberry jam (around 1 1/2 cups) and adding it to a saucepan with 6, YES 6, extra teaspoons of sugar…
Boil the mixture rapidly for 5 minutes while stirring CONSTANTLY. If you don’t stir constantly the jam and sugar mixture will stick to the sides and be next to impossible to clean off. But then again, nothing is impossible!
Pour the hot jam onto a non-stick surface to cool off. I am using a silicone cake pan…
Now moving onto to part deux (that’s two for everyone who does not know French). Melt 2 white chocolate bars. I chose white chocolate with almonds in it (by accident) but it tasted wonderful! You can use either or. There will be another almond aspect in the candy and so I believe that the almond white chocolate works best!
To melt them, break them up into a large bowl…
Now place that bowl on top of a small pot of simmering water (this is called a double-boiler)…
And keep stirring this until it melts…
NOTE: Try not to get any steam into the bowl, it tends to curdle the chocolate!
Yum! When it is melted, remove it from the heat and let it cool for 5-10 minutes so it is a little thicker and less runny…
While you are waiting…
Grab that dish with the jam in it and give the jam a good stir around. It is going to be EXTREMELY STICKY AND THICK. This is good! I’d stir it around before it sets too much and becomes impossible to spread later on…
Soooooo sticky!!!
Now back to the chocolate.
Spoon the chocolate out onto a parchment lined baking dish. I used two 9×9 dishes…
Spread it out evenly in a very thin layer and set aside to cool…
Now while you are waiting…
Take out three of those store-bought squares of Marzipan or Pates d’Amondes as they call it in France (this is the other almond component to the dish). I sandwiched one square at a time in between two sheets of parchment paper and rolled it out as thinly as possible into a square shape…
By the time you are finished rolling all three squares out the chocolate should be set!
Place a couple of large globs of the jam carefully on top of the chocolate sheet and with an ordinary butter knife, spread it carefully around. To do this without breaking the chocolate, I grab the edge of the parchment paper opposite to the direction that I am spreading the jam…
Then blanket it with the rolled out marzipan…
This will be a cut and paste job with the other rolled out squares of marzipan…
Also, trim the edges off the whole thing so that what you have before you becomes a perfect rectangle or square…
See…
And now cut this into little squares and place the squares evenly and separately on a baking sheet…
Melt 2 more white chocolate almond bars in the exact same way that we did the previous two chocolate bars.
When the chocolate is ready, spoon a little on to each square…
They should all have about this much…
Now spread the chocolate around these little guys as evenly as possible.
An alternative method, which I didn’t think about until I was trying to fall asleep last night, is to use plain white chocolate and dunk these little guys right in there and then place them on the tray to dry…
Let them cool and harden completely. Break them apart and voila! Enjoy!!!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:23]
Stuffed Peppers
I made stuffed peppers the other day. I was a vegetarian for eight years and stuffed vegetables of all sorts (especially peppers!) were one of my main go-to meals. Now that I eat meat, I wanted to try to make this favourite with meat! Long story short, it turned out so yummy that I almost screamed! Stuffing peppers with meat was meant to be!
Now I will teach you how to make them…
You will need:
Shallots, 2 peppers, 2 slices of Swiss cheese, frozen ground beef (it doesn’t have to be frozen!), rice, and pesto (I’m using the store-bought kind but you can make it fresh if you desire).
Begin by chopping the shallots…
Throw them into some melted butter in a hot saucepan…
Next I will add my frozen ground beef.
The reason I am using frozen meat is because 1) I completely forgot to take it out of the freezer and defrost it and 2) To show you how to cook frozen ground beef. My mom taught me this years ago and it really gives the beef a completely evenly cooked consistency.
Let it just sit there for about 20 seconds or so and then flip the whole thing over…
Scrape off the cooked meat layer with a wooden spoon and wait another 20 seconds before flipping it over again and doing the same on the other side…
This process will be repeated until all the meat is cooked…
Also note that I don’t know why but the ground beef in France is more red in colour than I am used to. Even when it is fully cooked it still has a red colour!
Take the beef off the heat and set it aside.
Now we will prepare the peppers by taking a knife and cutting the core out of the top…
Then shake out all the seeds and pull out any extra white flesh from inside…
While all this was happening I forgot to mention that I was cooking the rice. It is two servings of rice whatever measurement that may be. I forget. Sorry. I just followed the directions on the package and you can too!!
Now add the cooked rice to the ground beef…
Along with 3 rough tablespoons of pesto…
Stir it all together…
And stuff it into the pepper! It only takes a little to fully stuff the pepper. Make sure you really press down and pack the rice and you may be surprised how much extra you can fit in there.
There will be leftovers don’t fret that you can’t fit everything you made into these 2 peppers! Thank goodness for my new series Leftover Madness! Or you can just prepare more than 2 peppers, easy!
Break up one slice of cheese per pepper and strategically place it on top of the opening in the pepper…
Oh ya! And place those babies on a baking dish!
Now stick them into a 220 degree C. THAT’S CELCIUS. Wait, let me go look it up in F………..
……..
…….
That’s around 425 degrees F!!
Yes it is. And bake those babies for 10 minutes.
When they come out they will look like this…
Yum! Enjoy! I served it with a simple beat/tomato/cucumber salad!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:22]
Posted in Beef
Tagged stuffed pepper recipe, stuffed peppers, stuffed peppers with ground beef
1 Comment
The Chocolatiers Of Lille
Candy stores, or chocolatiers are tres populaire in France. I do not not live in a huge city (although I do recommend visiting in if you ever visit France) and there is at least 10 or 12 chocolatiers within a half-hour walk from my front door. In the town I am from in Canada, a chocolatier opened up and then closed down within less than a year so naturally this chocolate shop thing excites me, it’s not something I am used to!
Today I visited four shops in Lille and bought chocolate from every one of them. Their window displays are colourful and elaborate, filled with a large selection of all their delicious chocolate and non-chocolate treats made in all different colours. It is very hard to enter the store and not buy even just one tiny morsel of chocolate for $0.60 just to taste it!
All of them are similar but the chocolate you receive is reflected in the price you pay for it.
I first went to a high-end chocolatier called Meert. I have no idea how that is pronounced. This was the prettiest shop of the bunch, with a large selection of chocolate and non-chocolate candies. The style reflected something I only pictured in my childhood. The counters lined in a gold trim and painted in a dark green colour, the antique cash register and the fancy glass displays all caught my attention. This was also the most expensive of the bunch of stores I went to. For two little chocolates I payed EURO 2.80 or so. The chocolates with the green pistachio on them (pictured above) are the ones from this store. When Max and I taste tested them, they were the most intricately made of all the chocolates. Inside was a layer of pistachio paste, topped with a layer of almond paste (I think) then coated with the thinnest layer of dark chocolate followed by another very thin layer of milk chocolate and then sprinkled with pistachios!!! The best part when biting into it was that I could absolutely taste all those layers and it tasted oh so divine!
The second place I went to was a place I has already visited and purchased from in the past. Except when I went before, I was buying Macarons (which they are well known for). This place is called Weiss (bottom left corner of the photo). They were the second most expensive place but they were also my second favourite. This is not always true but in this instance the more expensive the chocolate, the better it tasted and this was not just in my head! I didn’t let Max in on the price until afterwards and he ranked them in the same order. I payed EURO 1.80 for 2 of those divine white chocolates in the picture. Inside was a layer of strawberry jam topped with a layer of almond paste and then coated in white chocolate. I will have to make these!!
From Jeff De Bruges I purchased the two round chocolates in the picture. They were called Rochers and I am assuming that it is because they had a similar taste and look to a Ferrero Rocher but they were ten times better. Before eating these I would have never thought that I could possibly taste a chocolate that would be ten times better than a Ferrero Rocher but then after tasting these I realized that I am in France and this is where chocolate has been perfected, right? Ten times better than Ferrero Rochers exist here!
And that leaves us with the last chocolate shop I visited today. It’s Chocolat Passion. I bought that giant mountain-like chocolate. On the bottom, on the inside, was an orange flavoured brittle topped with a mountain of orange flavoured ganache with little candied orange pieces throughout and then the whole thing was coated with milk chocolate. It was extremely rich. At the beginning I was having an orange overdose so I put it aside and then later, after my lunch, I had the rest with a coffee and it tasted much better! This mountain thing was so rich that it served both Max and I two times each!
Anyways they were all amazing and with that I conclude my trip to the chocolatiers of Lille. Now I am going to go jump around and bounce off the walls proceeded by a long nap. If you get my drift.
Thanks for reading!
