February to April 2013 Food & Love

Walty’s Mom Muffins
Patricia Chuey is Walty’s mom and she is a fantastic individual. I will share with you not only one of her recipes but one of the products she makes for those who are gluten intolerant. But even if you are not gluten intolerant, I would recommend this blend, it is easy in the stomach and tastes great!!!

Ingredients:
1 ½ Cups of multipurpose baking blend
½ Cup of granulated sugar
1 Tsp of baking powder
1 Tsp baking soda
½ Tsp of salt
1 Egg
½ Cup of canola oil or melted butter
1 ½ Cups of override mashed bananas
1 Cup of fresh or frozen berries, optional

Preparation:
1) Preheat oven to 375^oF/190 ^oC. Mist muffin tins with cooking spray.
2) In bowl, combine baking blend, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3) In another bowl, beat egg. Add oil/melted butter and bananas. Mix well and pour into dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Fold in berries if using.
4) Divide into 12 regular or 24 mini muffin tins.
5) For regular muffins bake for 20-22 minutes, for mini bake for 13-15 minutes.




Salsalada.
This is the most fantastic legacy we could have from Antelma, my mom’s companion-friend-worker-everything. She makes this fantastic spicy salad that goes well with anything: tortillas, bread, on its own, on top of meat…

Ingredients:
Chiles habaneros
Radishes
Onion
Lemon Juice
Salt
Olive oil

Preparation:
1) Simply cut all ingredients thin, mix all together and pour in a lot of lemon juice, some olive oil and salt.
2) Let it soak for a while so the flavours are stronger.



Other dishes:
Brian’s face with tacos pastor ;)

Rice with nuts… delicious!!!

Chiles poblanos

Jamaica leaves are Mexican meat, super tasty and nutritious

Tamales are my weakness and I thought I had no weaknesses???

January 2013: The recipe of the month, the best coffee shop and the food!!!

Back on track again to collect enough information and share.

The recipe of the month.
I am still impressed with the following salad, I am totally in love with it and want to thank our friend Olivia for sharing the recipe with us. It was such a lovely salad and just the salad makes for a meal; you do not need anything else for dinner but a good plate of this salad and some bread perhaps or a glass of wine?

Ingredients:
Cooked quinoa
Cooked red beets
Chopped walnuts
Feta cheese
Minced fresh garlic
Coriander powder
Salad dressing: salt+pepper+sugar+veggie broth+Dijon mustard+vinegar+olive oil
If you wonder about how much to put of each ingredient: I was not given those amounts but I followed the recipe by heart and taste and it turned incredibly well.

Preparation:
1) Have the quinoa and red beets cooked (peel them first). Cut the red beets in small squares.
2) Add all ingredients in a bowl and serve
3) Top with salad dressing.

This is a wonder in my life now!!!



49^th Parallel Coffee Shop
Brian B. (no my Brian) knows where the good coffee shops are and this one is now one of my top five coffee shops in Vancouver. It is located on Main St and 13^th Avenue; it serves coffee and donuts only but not regular donuts, excellent donuts. The prices are reasonable and the environment is awesome!!!






Food enjoyment!!!
Friends and food, enjoying a meal around the table rather than in front of the TV, that is life!!! For those who do not share the same passion or simply do not know better, you are missing out. But I am not here to convince you about my philosophy; I am writing and showing you pictures to tell our friends that those moments are priceless and that we are thankful for having you and creating those memories… those conversations…

Craig and Babita know how to entertain and give love through food. Babita is an awesome cook and someday I wish to have that charisma she has to do the same for people… You are a great example of what women should know about life… and men as well but I say women because cooking is a nurturing “thing” and we are built with nurturing.

Anton’s is better with friends for two reasons: lots of food and why not? This time we enjoyed it with John, a good friend who shares the passion for motorcycling and innovation with us. It was a lovely evening at this Italian place where pasta is served in a variety of ways for a reasonable price. There is only one in the mainland and it is located in Burnaby on Hastings; if you decide to go, be ready for a 45 minutes line up.
Thanks John for making an effort to connect…

More to be discovered… Christmas & New Year 2013, Survived.

Definitely we ate more than we needed but I cannot complaint about the beauty of having more than enough food. It is known that Canadians waste at least 20% of the food purchased at home and that makes me sad; I have to say that this Christmas we made an effort to eat all the items we cooked. I wish I had made notes about the recipes I came across but I was too busy eating and enjoying family, so I am sorry but no recipes from the season.

However this post will not be empty, let me show you some of the Mexican and Chinese dishes that our friends shared with us before Christmas. The first picture shows a traditional Yucatecan meal for which I don’t know the name or recipe but I hope that by spending enough time in Yucatan I will be able to collect that recipe.

Picture number six shows something called Nagaimo, also known as Chinese yam; it is a type of yam that may be eaten raw. I heard it is pretty good to aid with kidney diseases. It is pretty tasteless but I added some sugar to it and the flavour and texture were nice.

The last two pictures show something called salted duck egg which is a Chinese preserved food product made by soaking duck eggs in brine (salt solution) or packing each egg in damp, salted charcoal. In Asian supermarkets these eggs are sometimes sold covered in a thick layer of salted charcoal paste. The eggs may also be sold with the salted paste removed, wrapped in plastic, and vacuum packed. From the salt curing process, the salted duck eggs have a briny aroma, a very liquid egg white and a firm-textured, round yolk that is bright orange-red in colour or black. I could not enjoy them at all but Brian took soya sauce, dipped the eggs and ate them with a beer in hand.

More to be discovered… Christmas & New Year 2013.

I will update this blog January 2013… Some recipes to share for the last part of the year but will combine with Christmas and New Year once we lived through it…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Swiss Medley Vegetable for Thanksgiving Day!

Without any hesitation a super recipe from Babita, a good friend of us, to celebrate Thanksgiving!!!
Thanks guys, dinner was excellent, company was exceptional and I could not have asked for more!!!

Ingredients:
1 Pack of frozen California mix veggies
1 Can of mushroom soup
⅓ Cup of sour cream
1 Cup of Swiss cheese
1 Can of French fried onions
½ Tsp pepper

Preparation:
1) Make sure veggies are not frozen by the time you use them.
2) In a baking pan, mix the veggies + the can of mushroom soup + the sour cream + ½ cup of Swiss cheese + ½ can of French fried onions + pepper.
3) Cover pan with foil and place in oven at 350^oC for 45 minutes. Take out briefly.
4) Cover the mix with the rest of the cheese and French fried onions, take foil off and cook for 10 more minutes with the same temperature.

Hard to see on the plate but for sure tasty!!!

Already September?

Tequila Chicken-for about 4 people.
This is not a recipe given to me by another Mexican, it was given to me by Lee… Brian’s wonderful cousin.
I love this recipe and although I was unable to capture it perfectly I am sure it can be reproduced.

Ingredients:
3 Grilled chicken breasts
Onions
Bell peppers
4 Cups of pasta (penne noodles)
2 Jars of Alfredo sauce
Juice of 4-6 limes (or lemons)
Cajun
Onion powder
Cayenne
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder
Chipotle chili pepper
Salt
Other available seasonings/spices
Tequila

Preparation:
1) Grill chicken.
2) Fry veggies.
3) Cook pasta.
4) Combine chicken with veggies, all the seasonings/spices (to taste) and Alfredo sauce. Cook for a while.
5) Add lime or lemon juice and tequila (to taste) to the pot where everything is cooking, shortly before serving. Cook for few more seconds.
6) Combine pasta with the mix from previous steps.
7) Enjoy!!!



Uni (Sea Urchin).
I would not recommend this $20 dollars dish we got at Fujiya. Well, I did not get it, dear Jimmy did; he loves it and was very kind to share with us. It requires an acquired taste…

This has been an aphrodisiac in Japan for thousands of years. Sea urchin, or uni, as the Japanese call it, rose to popularity in North America in the late twentieth century.
Contrary to popular belief, the portion of the sea urchin sold and served as one of the ocean’s most opulent treasures is not the roe. It is the gonads of this hermaphrodite sea creature that are scooped out of the urchin’s spiny shell in five custard-like, golden sections.
From a nutritional standpoint, sea urchin is one of the most prominent culinary sources of anandamide, a cannabinoid neurotransmitter. Does this mean that eating uni will produce a similar effect to ingesting marijuana? Probably not, but it is possible that uni activates the dopamine system in the brain, humans’ built in “reward circuit.”



Ceviche Brian.
Brian found this wonderful recipe that we have tried many times by now. Of course, we learned about ceviche in Peru!!! It is great to cook fish this way…

Ingredients:
Fish (we used basa)
Lemon juice (enough to cover the fish)
Onion
Seeded tomatoes
Jalapeno
2 Tsp salt
Oregano
Tabasco sauce

Preparation:
1) Mix all ingredients listed before.
2) Refrigerate for 4.5 hours.
3) Stir occasionally.



Vietnamese soups.
Vancouver is amazing when it comes to food. We discovered this great place in downtown Vancouver called “Next Noodle Bar”. Affordable prices and delicious food. It is located at 560 Robson St.
We ordered: Hot and chili chicken and Wor Wonton Noodle.
FANTASTIC!!!

Do you wonder what we cook in Canada?

We finalized our 26 months journey on the road through The Americas but that does not mean the “Journey” has ended. There is more, there is always more and we will find it…
We are now back in Canada and I want to make sure I start documenting some cool/simple/interesting things we eat. I will be sharing once a month couple of recipes/ideas with you… Please enjoy.


Cups…
I believe this dish has a different name but I usually name them however I like. This is a simple way of serving eggs if you have a muffin tin and an oven.

Ingredients:
Oil
Eggs
Ham
Green onions
Yellow peppers
Salt
Pepper
Cheese

Preparation:
1) Spray with oil the bottom and walls of a muffin tin.
2) Cut all the veggies in small pieces.
3) Add a slice of ham in each muffin space of the tin.
4) Add veggies accordingly (take in consideration the space you need for the egg).
5) Add one egg to each muffin space of the tin.
6) Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover with cheese.
7) Bake at medium heat for about 10 minutes. It can take longer or less time depending on the setting of the oven. I forgot to write the temperature we used but I am sure you will be able to tell if the eggs are cooked.

The dish cost $12.95 CAD for 9 people: 2 eggs each person… Delicious and easy to prepare.



S’more.
This is the most delicious camping snack I have ever tried. Why did not I know about it? Why? Perhaps because it is dangerous: lots of calories.
It is basically a marshmallow sandwich except for the bread would be two cookies with chocolate and or two pieces of chocolate with the marshmallow in the middle. Brilliant. Of course the marshmallow has to be previously melted (cooked) in the fire pit.
Try it and you will love it, I could only take one, it is too sweet.
I forgot to mention, this recipe was shared by Carmen, a wonderful Canadian woman ;)




Affogato.
This is a delicious simple Italian idea. Vanilla ice cream topped with a shot of hot espresso. Fantastic!!!
Price= $4.75 CAD plus tax, remember in Canada everything is PLUS TAX…



Baileys.
Have you ever thought of making baileys? I bet not. Here there is a simple recipe given to me by our cousins Lee and Jen.

Ingredients:
1 Cup of rye
1 Tbsp of instant coffee
1 ½ Cups of whipping cream
3 Eggs
1 Can of Eagle brand milk
1 Tbsp of chocolate sauce (Quick)
2 Drops of vanilla

Preparation:
1) Blend everything together.
2) Shake before serving.

Note: It keeps for approximately one month.



Spitz.
This is another kind of snack for when you are camping and around the fire pit. They are simply sunflower seeds with skin so you put them in your mouth and take the skin, spit it out and eat the sunflower seed.
I do not know the exact price but I do know they are really tasty.



Timbits.
At Tim Hortons you can get coffee and various items to accompany your coffee, like timbits. The middle of the donut does not go to waste, there are different flavours and although it is not a healthy snack it is for sure a sweet snack…
Price= 10 timbits for $1.99 CAD.



Pineapple upside down cake.
Thanks to Babita, a good friend of us I learned this simple and sweet recipe.

Ingredients:
1 Box of cake mix (white, yellow or French vanilla)
2 Medium pineapple cans
3 Eggs
Sherries
Brown sugar
Butter

Preparation:
1) Select a pan of about 13x9 inches to bake the cake.
2) Butter the pan.
3) Cover the bottom of the pan with brown sugar.
4) Lay the slices of pineapple on top of the sugar and place a sherry on each ring.
5) Follow the instructions of the box of cake mix but substitute the water for pineapple juice (from the can), as much as possible, the remaining amount (if you are missing pineapple juice) can still be water.
6) Pour the mix on the pan and cook as instructed in the box.
7) Flip cake on a flat sheet; soften the sides before you do so.



Julia’s cheese.
Julia is an awesome lady who keeps George happy and how couldn’t she? She cooks great dishes.

Here there is an example of a simple but tasty appetizer.
Pick any cheese you may like, the one we had was Brie and it was topped with nuts and caramel sauce, baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at a temperature of 250^oC.
Enjoy…