A Homemade Life- Part 2

This is a continuation from my first post on this topic found here. 

When Brian and I got married, and despite the fact that I was working full time, we still managed to fall into somewhat traditional roles around the house. Due to me working shift work with a sporadic and changing schedule, I was often home during the week and able to do things around the house. I had time for things like cooking and baking, and I had an eager audience to practice on! Brian came home hungry and I was able to make a nice dinner for us to enjoy together- so much more fun than just cooking for yourself. I baked for our lunches, started to make bread from scratch, made granola for breakfast... and it all continued from there. Brian usually cooked for us on the weekends and we still do that now.

The groceries that I bought changed as well. Almost everything can be made at home! For example...

Salad dressing- there is a reason why those dressings keep so long on the grocery store shelves! You can make many different dressings with olive oil, vinegar, fresh herbs, maybe some mustard, and spices. Here are some examples. Delicious homemade dressing goes very nicely with greens from our garden in the summer.

Bread- Fresh, homemade bread is one of the simple pleasures of life. We very, very rarely buy storebought bread- the exception being hamburger or sausage buns.  I have tried making those too- it's just usually a last minute meal for us and there's no time to make buns. But I love homemade bread for a few reasons- it's healthy, it's fun and satisfying to make, its so much cheaper- but most importantly, it tastes amazing!
Making bread from scratch with yeast, kneading it and shaping it into loaves doesn't take as long as you might think. And the only ingredients are flour, water, yeast and salt. It takes about 4 hours including baking time, so a morning or afternoon at home is all you need- and most of that time is hands off! We usually make bread most Saturdays, and slice and freeze it right away for fresh toast and sandwiches all week. Since homemade bread has no preservatives, its best to eat it within the first couple of days, or freeze it right away. We buy flour from Costco in 10 kg bags for about $8.

Homemade falafel (deep fried chickpeas) on a homemade pita bread

Tortillas, pitas, naan- any type of flatbread- Also very easy to make! And much cheaper.. there are all sorts of recipes and they also taste delicious.

Bagels- On the topic of bread, homemade bagels are amazingly good. They are quite time consuming, but well worth it. I have tried the ones from this book and they were delicious.

Granola- I have a classic recipe and it's a quick and healthy way to start the day. There are all sorts of granola variations, depending on how sweet, crunchy, or clumpy you like your granola. We tend to go for mildly sweet, goldenly toasted, and minimally clumpy in our house. It's nice not to have to buy storebought cereal.

Yogurt- I was given a yogurt maker a couple of years ago and have given it a lot of use! I'm not making yogurt as much these days though, maybe once or twice a month... we discovered the plain Liberte yogurt at Costco was almost the same price as buying the equivalent amount of milk and turning it into yogurt. Milk in NL is expensive, $4.25 for a 2 L carton. Maybe I'll make more yogurt again when we live somewhere else.

Baking- the possibilities are endless! Mmmmm. I usually have a couple of types of baking in the house at all times. We keep it in the freezer for freshness and to slow down our consumption.

Granola bars and other snacks- I have tried granola bars a few times, and haven't quite perfected a recipe, but we aren't buying this stuff either.. too much packaging and not cheap either. When our kids are old enough to need packed lunches I'll probably experiment with this again.

Sandwich meat- Brian likes to have meat on his sandwiches, and after a while of buying deli meat every week we decided to try our hand at making sandwich meat at home-- success! We just buy a large cut of meat, for example a beef roast, and then have it for dinner one night. The leftovers get sliced thinly and put in the freezer, all ready for sandwiches! Delicious hearty meat, without all those nitrates, and a lot cheaper too- $3-4 per pound instead of $2 or more per 100g.

Crackers- This is something we just started recently. Who knew crackers were so easy to make! This is my favourite recipe right now.

Beer- Brian has been brewing his own beer for a while now, using grains, hops, yeast... all sorts of interesting combinations and the results have been great! I'm not much of a beer drinker, but even I can tell that he's getting pretty good at it.

I think there's more, but that's what comes to mind off the top of my head. A theme seems to be keeping to a budget, while not sacrificing taste- two things that are important for this graduate student household.

Next up.. why making all this stuff from scratch makes it easier to feed your little ones! Stay tuned for Part 3.

Brown butter toasted steel cut oats with roasted pears... Good Friday breakfast treat!

Our dinner guests... Easter Sunday 2014 (it was a potluck, we din't make all that food! :)

A Homemade Life- Part 1

Something that I have really enjoyed doing since Brian and I got married is learning more about cooking and baking. Or more specifically, developing a love for all sorts of homemade goodness and learning how to make many things from scratch.It's become one of my favourite hobbies, and also something necessary to keep our family well-fed, healthy, and happy!

I did cook a little before we were married. But it wasn't quite the same. Looking back, the first time that I really had to cook for myself was during my high school summer job at a provincial park in Northern Ontario. We were at least an hour drive from any sort of grocery store, and I didn't have a car. So if I managed to catch a ride to town on my day off, that's when I got groceries. I usually stocked up on quite a few boxed and canned items as I wasn't sure when I would next be in town. Looking back, I'm not exactly sure what I ate those two summers... a lot of instant oatmeal and canned veges? Definitely a lot of peanut butter and jam for my lunches in the front gatehouse. Supplemented by things cooked over the campfire, and some moose. Probably not the most nutritious experience! 

My next cooking adventure was during my time at Western. First year was taken care of by residence dining hall, along with instant oatmeal for my early clinical mornings. The dining hall wasn't open before 7, so I would make instant oatmeal in a paper cup in the dark so as not to wake my roommate, and eat it at the bus stop waiting for my transportation to the hospital. These days, I find instant oatmeal tastes horrible.. but I'm spoiled now with the real stuff cooked on the stove every morning.Claus's love oatmeal! 

The rest of my university years were spent living with dear friends in the Pink Flamingo, our student house. There were a lot of baked potatoes with ketchup in the microwave, frozen veges, and bread with peanut butter and jam. And granola bars. Or pancakes, thanks to Aunt Jemima. I used to ask Lindi if she wanted me to make her pancakes... I liked making them, and pancakes were a great snack anytime. Supplemented by weekly student dinners at my church's young adults group, always with leftovers to take home- what a treat that was! 

here we are, way back then....

Then I moved to BC, and lived with my great-aunt and uncle- and they ate well. Really well. Fresh salads before every meal! Blueberries and delicious yogurt for dessert every night! Multigrain bread from a local bakery! It was a real treat. Living in BC was a contrast to how I had eaten in university. This was due in large part to my aunt who is an excellent cook, with many years of homemaking under her belt. Though, I do remember thinking that everyone in Victoria seemed to eat a lot better... as all the nurses took whole avocados out of their cooler bags at lunch break. Fresh, delicious food seemed to be everywhere.

And, I met a man who cooked amazing omelettes, whipped up cookies on a whim, and made cooking a hobby and a joy. We always laugh now at how I used to make him pancakes.... slapping them with the spatula to make them 'cook faster'. My patient future husband never said a thing but now I know he must have been cringing inside! Good thing that didn't scare him off ;)

to be continued...

the early days... this was 6 years ago now!

Bananas Foster

During our time spent with family last week, we finished off a delicious meal with one of my favourite desserts, Bananas Foster. Well actually, I have a lot of favourite desserts... but this is one that Brian and I learned how to make when we lived in our little bachelor apartment as newlyweds. It's simple, dramatic, and delicious. Brian had the camera out when I was making it and thus documented the process quite nicely.. I never usually do these food type posts but thought I might as well!

Here is how you make it, step by step. The actual recipe can be found here. You should give it a try!

Slice the bananas in half and then horizontally. You want them to be firm-ripe.. sweet tasting but not so ripe that they fall apart, they need to stand up to cooking.

Melt the butter over medium heat, stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook until moist.

Add the banana liqueur and stir continuously. We've had that same bottle for a while now and it's finally almost gone. Made by the Dutch! (Bols Amsterdam)

Put the banana pieces rounded side down in the pan and cook until they begin to soften.

There they are, getting all soft and delicious in the caramelly sauce.

Get your rum ready! You also will want to have a lighting device ready. A BBQ lighter would probably work well... we just used matches with a homemade skewer- aka pared down chopstick. If you do something like that it's easier to light the skewer from a lit candle than a match.. timing is important!

Turn the bananas over onto their flat sides. They are a bit fragile. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the rum. When the pan is off the heat, turn that element up to high.

 Put the pan back onto the hot element, and quickly ignite the rum! You should see flames like this. Flambéing..... ooh la la! Shake the pan gently.

See how the flame dies down...

Get your ice cream ready. The Breyer`s Natural Vanilla is an excellent choice.

Arrange some banana pieces on your ice cream and pour some sauce over them. Serve immediately. Yum!!

A satisfied customer! :)

Playdates and the Garden

Last Saturday Bronwen had a little reunion with some of her friends that she hasn't seen for 6 months. 

We used to have a little playgroup of toddlers all around the same age (within 2 months of each other)-- but then when the one year mark hit half of the moms went back to work and the group was a lot smaller. Last Saturday we met up for coffee and snacks and fun!

These little crackers were a big hit! Just like adults around the chip bowl...

It's not very easy to get a picture of 7 wiggly kids..

James is pretty much done with this... dumped out his crackers and trying to slide off the couch. The girls are shocked.

And here are some pictures from our garden! I kept forgetting to take pictures so now everything is pretty huge.. it's easier to see what is going on in our plot when the plants are smaller. I went to the garden last night on my own to do some weeding, watering, and harvesting. We have a plot in the community garden at the university, so what you see in this picture actually belongs to a whole lot of people (though maybe one day, we will have a homestead with a garden this big ;).

If you look very closely you can see a string which is the border of our plot. There are three sections in our plot: from left to right- kale and chard, zucchini, then in the middle carrots and beets and turnips/rutabagas, and on the far right onions and greens.

Our onion section! And a couple of cucumber plants.

Beets.. with their beautiful colour! The greens are also good to eat, and apparently as good for you as the beets themselves. We have been eating a lot of greens the last few weeks... feels very healthy and they are tasty too. It's nice to use almost all of what we harvest!

Here are some zucchinis. I am really looking forward to having these grilled on the BBQ.

Our kale and chard. For boerenkool, stumpot and stir fries! :)

Romaine lettuce which is just waiting to be put in some tasty Caesar salads.

And here are the turnips! We have been eating the greens from these too as they are getting really big.

It's been really fun to grow things and a good hobby to do as a family.
Sometimes it's a bit more complicated as the garden is at the university rather than right in our backyard. However, Brian often goes on his lunch break or before school, or I go with him in the morning with Bronwen. I like to go by myself in the evenings too. And on Sunday after church we usually pop by since it's just down the road from our church. This past week we took some friends over so they could have some fresh-picked greens... I have a feeling we will be doing that more often in the next few weeks as things keep growing!

Weekend on the water

We just got back last night from an awesome weekend in Trinity, an outport Newfoundland village. Our friends Ralf and Karina have a cabin there and kindly invited us to come out and spend the weekend with them and their twin boys. The weather was absolutely beautiful as well. It was a relaxing trip and nice to get out of town for a bit.

 One of the docks down by the water.

 Walking the quiet streets of the town.. Bronwen really enjoyed herself. She walked pretty much the entire length of the town all on her own. Getting better at going up and down hills, ramps, and definitely up steps (but not down steps quite yet).

 Waiting for breakfast.. Ralf made delicious thin pancakes for us both mornings.

 We took a trip out to the newly established Bonavista Social Club, opened last summer. They are a bakery/restaurant... everything is baked in this amazing brick oven. You pick your own pizza base and toppings and they bake it up for you. They also have sandwiches and salad. It was absolutely delicious!

 Another view inside the building. It is a converted woodworking shop.

 You can eat inside or out on the porch.. and this is the view from our table on the porch.

 Bronwen loves to ride on dad's shoulders... and hold on to his 'mane' for extra security.

 The greenhouse, where fresh greens are grown for salads and sandwiches.

 At our table on the porch. It's such an amazing spot.

 Our pizzas, out of the oven.

 Ready to eat! They are brought out on a handmade wooden cutting board. I had pesto with roasted peppers, mushrooms and chicken. Brian had tomato with caramelized onions, olives and spinach. Yum!

 Miska knows who is most likely to drop food. She waits politely.

 Bronwen's new friend, a very patient and calm dog (belonging to Ralf and Karina).

 My handsome husband, relaxing on the porch with a coffee.

 Bronwen with her buddies Marco and Sebastian.

 We did a hike called Fox Island, just up the road from Trinity. Such clear water!

Such a great weekend! A nice way to start off our spring and summer Newfoundland adventures.