Bacon on a cupcake. SERIOUSLY!

I have to say that cooking is my favorite thing to do BUT I do also like baking a little. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to be so exact with certain things otherwise things can go really wrong. Honestly.. I think either baking SODA or baking POWDER should change their names. It can sometimes make things confusing especially when you read recipes fast(woops).

About once every few months I go on these big baking marathons but recently they have been more frequent which seems to be fine with my family. It's good that I live with people to eat it all. Tonight was by far my longest. I made one dozen muffins, two dozen cupcakes and 47 cookies. It's half I didn't want to go to sleep and half that we need baking around the house because it's the holidays!

This is a cupcake I decided to make tonight. It is a chocolate cayenne cupcake with cayenne glaze and candied bacon on top. The recipe will be on Girl About Town next month.

Oatmeal, cranberry, raisin and sun flower seed cookie and raisin and banana muffin. Both of these can be found on Google.

All the cookies.

Cupcakes and muffins

The whole batch.

What do you like to bake?

-Marielle

Remembering my favorite meals

Growing up in a Japanese family we often went out for Japanese food, had it at Winnipeg's Japanese Cultural Center and my favorite was New Years day. New Years day my dad's side of the family would get together and eat tuna sashimi, inari, futomaki, vegetable tempura, teriyaki chicken and chowmein. It was probably my favorite meal besides my grandma Sasaki's Christmas dinner.

The last one we had a few years ago was out of this world. In Sasaki tradition we of course had WAY too much food. Here are some pictures from that night.

My uncle Chris cutting the tuna for sashimi.

My uncle Les making the inari.

Me making maki.

All the rolls.

My auntie Sandy's beautiful setup. 

Another view of the table.

My uncle Ian set up the sake.

My uncle Chris also made soba.

Inari and rolls together.

I believe my dad made the chicken.

The whole family together. From right to left: Auntie Lee, late uncle Fred, uncle Chris, uncle Les, uncle Ian, sister Danielle, cousin Cam, Dad and myself. I believe my auntie Sandy is taking the picture.

What was your favorite family meal while growing up?

-Marielle

Girl About Town

Hey guys! I have been doing a lot of cooking for a website called Girl About Town that is going to launch VERY soon. I'll put up some pictures and then when the website starts up you can get the recipes there. Enjoy!

Click the pictures to see the larger versions.

Donburi 

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Thai Peanut Stir Fry with Noodles

Roasted Walnut and Fruit Pancakes

Yam and Roasted Vegetable Mash

Chili

Corn Chowder

Gaucamole Bites

Brown Butter Mushroom, Thyme and Feta Pasta

Broccoli, Parsley and Carrot Coleslaw 

BBQ Roasted Potates

Enjoy!

-Marielle

And that's how you make bannock!

When I was coaching a girls softball team for the North American Indigenous Games there was this young girl who would always make and great play and end it with "And that's how you make bannock!" I thought it was the funniest thing. I always think of her phrase when ever I think of bannock.

If you don't know what bannock is, it's a type of bread which originated in Scotland. When you but bannock into wedges they're called "scones". I thought that was a neat little piece of trivia for you!

Where I'm from bannock is made by aboriginal people where they fry or bake it. My mom made it for me when I was little and we'd often eat it with jams and jelly's.

Tonight I got in the mood for bannock and used this simple recipe.

6 cups of flour
1/4 cups of baking soda
2 Tablesoons of salt
3 Tablespoons of sugar
1/4 melted butter(the original recipe called for vegetable oil)
1/2 cups of milk
2 1/2 cups of warm water

Set over to 370F. Add all dry ingredients together and then wet. Fold with hands. If it gets too sticky add more flour and if it is too dry, add more water. I ended up adding a LITTLE bit of flour. Probably a couple tablespoons.
Lay out in a cookie sheet. About an inch thick. Putting flour on your hands will help make the spreading easier. The recipe I was using said to poke holes in it with a fork but I don't really see what good that did so you can do it or you can skip it. It's up to you.
Put it in the oven for 15min and let cool for 5.

I had mine with peach preserve made in BC and homemade strawberry jam from Scotland. You could really use anything you want. It's great with soup too.

Ball of bannock dough in bowl.

Bannock straight out of the oven.

Homemade strawberry jam from Scotland. Made with award winning Castleton strawberries.

Peaches from our friend in BC, Adrienne Alexandre.

I had tea with local honey to go along with my bannock.

What would you eat with your bannock?

-Marielle

Toronto and Hamilton 2012

Hey everyone! August was a pretty busy month which is why I didn't blog much but I'm back! 

At the end of August I headed to Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario for my uncle Leslie's wedding. It was awesome! Our first day we went to a great restaurant called Sarcoa.

Slow roasted pork belly sandwich. Mayo, pickled shallots and apple cabbage slaw. Homemade ketchup and fries on the side.

Shrimp po-boy. Fried black tiger shrimp, chipotle mayo, lettuce and red onion. Side caesar. 

The night before the wedding we went to probably one of my favorite restaurants in life called Rapscallion. They only served one kind of beer called Mickeys that had a little riddle on the cap of the beer. If you guessed in five seconds you got your beer for free. Needless to say no one got a free beer. 

 Beet and goat cheese salad. They made little ravioli out of the beet and goat cheese! How cute!

Antipasto

Grilled octopus salad

Roasted bone marrow

Veal cheek and tongue

In Toronto my uncle Chris brought me to this great bar in Kensington Market called Thirsty and Miserable. I had a cool beer called Kwok that came in a neat glass that needed it's own wooden older. They had a GREAT selection of beer and it was nice and small which is what I'm into. 

We also decided to make dinner at my uncles one night. BBQ chicken(I forget what we put on it but it was spicy)corn on the cob and beat and goat cheese salad(my fav).

View from my uncles place in St. Lawrence Market area.

Dinner!

The cook.

Last but not least was probably one of my favorite places I've been in Toronto. Don Don Izakaya.

When you walk in they announce you and hit the taiko drum twice and the kitchen staff greets you. 

Some of our food.

Fwhat-Fwhat Pork bun

Steamed Shabu-Shabu

My uncle Chris.

There were many more places I went but I didn't get any pictures. I guess I'll just have to go again really really soon!

What are you favorite places to eat at in Toronto?

-Marielle

Midnight snack

My sleeping schedule is all out of wack recently so I tend to go to bed pretty late and wake up late. Which means my eating schedule is also out of sorts. Last night at around midnight I made and AWESOME pizza and am now craving it. If you like garlic, you will like this pizza. 

For the crust I decided to use some pita bread we had in the fridge that we get at the Greek Market in Winnipeg. They're the perfect size if you're like me and can't eat a lot.

I've never been a huge fan of pizzas that are COVERED in tomato sauce so I often use balsamic reduction or pesto. Last night the only thing I had on hand was some balsamic reduction.

When the reduction hit the pita, which was cold, it became really hard to spread so if you encounter this problems just put how much you want on and then throw it in the oven for about a minute. That should loosen things up and make it easier to spread.

Then I sliced up one clove of garlic really thinly. You can use roasted garlic which I actually recommend.

The Greek Market sell ready made dips and spreads which we often get. My favorite is the feta and roasted red pepper. I took about a tablespoon and spread it out thinly. Again I'm not a fan of sauce so if you want to lay it on thick, by all means. 

I usually like to look in my fridge and see what I have that will go together really well. My mom had just picked some zucchini from our garden so I sliced one up really thin. I did it thin because I want the outside to get a little crispy and I didn't want my pizza to be watery from a thick piece of zucchini on it. I then added goat cheese, the thinly sliced garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper.

I had some peppers I had roasted the night before so I added some to the top which turned out to be a really good idea.

The finished product! I put the pizza in for 8 min at 450f. When I took it out I oiled the edges(you can also use garlic butter) drizzled a little balsamic reduction on top and green onions.

This pizza was so good but had a real garlic kick to it which I love. 

What kind of pizza's do you make at home?

-Marielle