But then, I started getting a little bored.

Why?

Despite the bread being tasty, it still wasn’t tasty. The making bread at home thing never lasted long enough to see a recipe perfected. That, and, once I started using a bread maker at home myself, I wasn’t the biggest fan of how big the loaves were. Each slice of bread was as big as my head and that, I definitely was not feeling. I like big sandwiches as much as the next guy, but that was just too awkard.

Recently, I began to hum and haw over the whole yeast business of bread making. I began wondering if it really was that much of a bother to bake things that required having to wait for yeast to activate and rise in dark, warm areas. I had attempted a recipe for french bread, utilizing the bread maker to make my dough and the loaves just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped and/or was promised in the recipe. Never mind that the recipe called for kneading the dough by hand and all of that fun business. I decided to forgo that part and attempt bread maker experiment number one. Clearly, the bread maker failed.

I then experimented with multiple batches of cinnamon buns and had a go with a couple of loaves of french bread. My experiments resulted in delicious samplings of sweet, sweet heaven wrapped in cinnamon and french loaves that were so quick and easy, all I need to do now is finesse my method enough to never have to worry about buying store baked bread again.

Seriously.

Fingers crossed.

Up for a yeasty experiment of your own? Give this 30 (give or take) minute french bread recipe a shot. It’ll help you to feel as though you accomplished something in your day.

Quick & Easy Baguette
from Babble’s The Family Kitchen

• 2 cups very warm water
• 1 packet yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 cups flour

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, as you whisk together the warm water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Allow your yeast to activate for 10 minutes. If your oven emits heat, leave the bowl sitting on top of the stove. If your oven is like mine and feels frigid along its exterior (thumbs up insulation!), just make sure you don’t do something silly like put your yeast in the fridge where you’ll successfully kill millions and millions of little yeast men and women.

After ten minutes, stir in the salt and add flour one half-cup at a time. Add flour until the dough becomes soft but not sticky, followed by kneading the dough until it’s elastic.

Cut the dough into four even pieces and roll each piece into a long, thin rope.  Twist together two ropes to form one loaf and transfer both loaves onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You can either bake the loaf right away if you’re in a hurry or allow it to rise for an additional 15-30 minutes. The original recipe tells you to allow the loaf to continue rising on top of your warm oven. Frankly, I knew I was going to allow my dough to rise the 30 minutes ahead of time, and so, never preheated my oven to 425 at all. Instead, I preheated my oven to about 200 and then shut it off, somewhere in the dough kneading process. I use the remaining heat in the oven to help my loaves rise during this time. It’s the only way I can do it around here, since my oven doesn’t warm the whole stove top and we keep our home relatively cool – cool enough to prevent a good rise out of our dough.

When you’re ready, put the loaves in your 425 degree oven. To prevent the loaves from drying out during the baking process, cover a cookie sheet with ice and place it on the rack below your loaves. Shut the oven door and do not open it again until you’re pulling the loaves out of the oven – approximately 15-18 minutes later or until they’re golden brown.

I over did with mine, accidentally. I put the loaves in the oven and went upstairs to play video games (it was for my YouTube channel! Not mindless pleasure!) and left the loaves baking for 20 minutes. Oops.

They were still really soft and tasted great. They were just a lot more golden than they were supposed to be.

Then again, we could say that their being more golden only made them that much more valuable.

Am I right? Am I right?

Okay. Lame joke. Whatever.

Then, I spotted the black and white cover of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The vintage photograph image of the creepy, little girl peaked my interest, because, seriously, how can old, creepy photos NOT peak your interest, right?

I picked up the novel and started flipping through it. The old photographs sprinkled throughout the book pretty much sealed the deal for me right there, despite not having a single clue what the book was about. I don’t know what it is about me and those photographs, but, it seems that you can sell me on anything if you throw them in. It’s like an extra interest bonus or something.

Hey Vic, want to rob a bank? I’ll give you these really neat creepy, old photographs. SOLD.

Hey Vic, want to burn all of your clothes? I’ll give you these really old, creepy photographs. SOLD.

It’s like the icing on the cake, guys! ICING ON THE CAKE.

Anyway, I digress.

I picked a random spot in the book and started reading a little snippit in order to get a feel for the writer’s style. I do this with every single book. It may only be a paragraph, or it may be a full page, but I always read a small, random section of each book to see how I feel about the style it’s been written in. I can no longer remember where I picked this habit up from. All I can remember is that I recall reading the suggestion to do so somewhere, a long time ago.

The style seemed good, the photos were spot on, and I loved the fact that the book had colour throughout. I’m always intrigued by books that have a print style slightly different from the norm. Miss Peregrine’s has a neat maroon filigree along the bottom of each page, as well as patterned chapter pages which add to the whole feel of the book, as silly as that may be.

I fell right into the story rather easily. It’s written smoothly and carries you along like a perfect wave from start to finish. It does feel jumpy, though, I suppose, at the beginning where the pace is quicker, moving almost… too fast? I understand that this is what gets the ball rolling, but it felt really quick and didn’t overly develop the one relationship between the main character and his grandfather.

The further I got into it, the more it reminded me of X-Men. The fact that the novel revolves around a group of gifted children isolated in a secluded historical home with a headmistress who cares for and helps them to develop and hone their talents is very similar indeed. Sure, that may be where the comparison’s end, but the premise is there.

Even though I found the book enjoyable and devoured it in only a couple of days, I found myself frustrated with the ending. Why? This book is obviously the first in what will one day be a series. I was blindsided, and I didn’t like it. I had no idea this was going to be s story involving more than one book, and so, expected a novel that would tie up its loose ends and complete properly. Instead, I closed it up, having one small plot point resolved, and a much larger, more vague adventure on the horizon… THAT I CAN’T EVEN READ ABOUT UNTIL WHO KNOWS WHEN!

I’m the type who delays reading a (popular) series until it’s a bit more developed as I prefer reading as much of the story as possible in one go. Injecting gaps between books only requires you to read the preceding novel before the newest, which, let’s face it, never happens. Then, I find myself confused in the newest book’s plot unless the author does a decent job of recapping what’s happened before, which, at the same time, can become irritating, I suppose, if you’re reading through them all at once.

So hard to please, I am.

Miss Peregrine was good. Heck, I may even say it was great. It had all the elements of interesting and fun with just the slightest bit of suspense and a dose of intrigue. It also had just the right amount of creep factor for others like me who just can’t handle books and movies that are too heavy on the creep.

Seriously.

Don’t read this novel late at night when the house is dark and quiet and you’re right at the point of the novel where they’re discussing Wights and you have to look at the accompanying photos and then decide, “Do I venture out of the bedroom, into the dark house, to use the washroom? Or do I stay here safe and warm?”

Getting up to go to the bathroom was the hardest thing I did that night.

Silly Miss Peregrine.
Silly Wights.

Silly Vic.

As a result, I began experimenting.

There is a good chance I started safely with spaghetti squash. I prepared it as an alternative to standard wheat pasta with some nom-tacular pasta sauce. I was skeptical, but after giving it a taste, you’d never know that the “noodles” were vegetables rather than delicious strings of boiled dough.

Having a successful first go at it, I tried acorn squash. At least, I think it was acorn. It may have been something else. Either way, the second attempt was awful and I nixed that cute looking green squash off my list.

Then, I came around to butternut. I was a little timid after my experience with the acorn, afraid that the flesh of the butternut would taste equally bitter. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised.

Ever since, butternut squash has been a regular fall and winter guest in my kitchen. In fact, butternut and zucchini are the only squashes to grace my kitchen at all. I haven’t revisited spaghetti squash since those early experimentation days, no matter how often I think about picking one up. It’s a shame, really. I need to be a little more proactive about that one.

I’ve been preparing butternut squash soup for maybe three or four years now. It’s undergone minor alterations over time and by now, there is no real outlined recipe anymore. I make it by eye and by taste, which is really great when you’re attempting to tell others how to make it themselves. Seriously. A number of gals asked me for my recipe a year or so ago and you should have seen the copy I put together for them. I’m fairly certain the whole thing was, “uh, some of this, some of that… just eyeball the amount of this.”

I’m afraid to tell you that this is probably going to be no better. I assure you, however, that it does taste really stinkin’ good.

Butternut squash… away!

HEARTY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP (STEW)

• 1 medium sweet onion
• 3 medium carrots
• 4-5 potatoes
• 2-3 stalks celery
• 1 medium-ish butternut squash
• salt & pepper to taste
• curry, if you’re feeling exotic
• cayenne, if you’re feeling spicy
• chicken / beef / vegetable broth (whatever tickles your fancy)
• ground meat (optional)

I’ll start off, right away, by saying that the meat in this recipe is 100% optional. This is, traditionally, a meatless soup, but, since I can’t leave well enough alone and much more prefer my soups to be stews, with chunks of vegetables and meat in them, I’ve since started adding proteins. Also, this helps make the dish rather filling and a bowl of this stuff can leave you feeling … well … pretty stuffed yourself.

The makings of this soup are pretty basic. Chop up your celery, carrot, potato, butternut squash (not shown here) and onions and toss them around in some olive oil, salt and pepper, over medium-high heat. This allows your veggies to fry up a little prior to adding the broth, which adds a nice flavour.

Give the veggies about, oh, 5-10 minutes of fry time before adding broth. I think the recipe I originally adapted this from called for 5 minutes, or until the veggies were brown. I have never let my vegetables brown. Maybe the onion, but that’s about it.

I typically start all of the vegetables cooking, just as I’m starting to peel and chop up the squash.

I make LARGE quantities of this at a time, and so, I prefer to allow those veggies the time to fry before adding in the squash.

The quantities of vegetables listed above is based on my recent batch, which very clearly made a full pot of soup. Decrease quantities to make less, and use this rule of thumb in terms of ratio:

Most: Squash
Second most: Potato
Some: Carrots, Onion
Least: Celery

Once everything is warmed/browned to your liking, add just enough broth to cover the vegetables. If you add too much broth your soup will turn out rather watery. The idea here is to have a nice thick, creamy soup, and so, the amount of broth you add is key.

Allow everything to simmer on low heat for about 30-40 minutes, or until the squash is soft. Using an immersion blender, blend all of the veggies down, until you get a nice, creamy texture.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, a regular blender is fine, but holy smokes, be careful. I have splattered butternut squash all over my walls far too many times using a regular blender.

Leave LOTS of air space in the blender, as the heat from the soup will create a vacuum that will only explode once you start blending. You have to move pretty quick with the regular blender. Don’t leave the soup sitting in the  jar covered with the lid for too long before blending or you’re asking for trouble.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, I prefer soups that are more stew-like in nature, and so, as the soup simmers, in a separate pot, I chop up and boil an extra couple of potatoes and a carrot or two.

Then, once the soup is blended down, I add the potatoes and carrots from the separate pot, as well as the meat that I’ve prepared ahead of time, to create a thick, creamy soup base, with chunks of vegetables and meat to complete the wonder that is a steaming, hot bowl of amazing.

Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Add curry if you want to change up the flavour. Add cayenne if you want a spicier butternut squash soup.

Most importantly, enjoy.

And don’t get any on your walls.

Anyway. Boom. It was added.

Then, a friend of mine went to see it. I only know this because she posted it on Facebook, but according to that status update of hers, it was dreadfully depressing and yet, also amazing.

Flash forward a few months to the Trinity College book sale where I stumbled upon a book entitled, Never Let Me Go. I picked it up, read the synopsis and thought to myself, “It’s a book! The movie is based on a book!”

Yes. I am ashamed to admit that I had no idea the movie was based on a novel. Heck. The movie was based on a novel that was deemed to be the best novel of 2005. It was based on a Man Booker Prize short listed novel. It was based on a novel with so much buzz that I just couldn’t hear it!

So. Yeah. You can imagine that my plans to watch the movie were immediately pushed back in favour of reading the book first. I am not a movie before book kind of gal.

Then, I started reading it, and, of all things, I was… bored.

It was a really odd combination of feelings I had towards the novel at first. I was intrigued because Ishiguro doesn’t give away the premise right away. The story is built up slowly, with pieces being revealed to you, bit by bit. As a result, I was somewhat hooked, and yet, not hooked enough to devour the words any faster than a few pages a day.

That is, I wasn’t hooked enough to read it quickly through, oh, say, the first half of the book. Then, something clicked, and I raced through the last half five times faster than the first. However, I think that may have happened because by the middle of the novel, you’re aware of what the characters are and what their sole purpose is in life. It may be around the middle of the book that you start to connect and feel for the characters, wrapping yourself around them like a warm, cozy, “there, there, it’s going to be okay,” kind of blanket.

Except it won’t be okay.

It won’t be okay at all.

As soon as I finished the book, I sat down to watch the movie. Well, it wasn’t immediate. It’s not like I finished reading the last page and right away dived into the movie. There were a few days in between, but I figured sitting down to watch the movie right after completing the book was a good move if I wanted an accurate comparison of the two versions.

It should be made clear that I hardly ever, ever, ever see a movie about a book so soon after completing the book. It always ends up being one of those situations where I read a novel and then months or years later, someone decides to make a movie version and I never bother re-reading the book before seeing the film. I find this strategy tends to lead to less anger and frustrations.

And oh boy, was I was angry and frustrated watching the film adaptation. The details just weren’t there. So much of the character development, individually and as a threesome, was lost. Things happened unlike they did in the book. I had to bite my tongue numerous times to keep from saying, “But that’s not how it happened!”

In the end, I didn’t particularly find either the book or the movie all that sad and depressing. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m cold and callous or because, ultimately, I didn’t connect enough with Ruth, Tommy and Kathy, but I wasn’t left feeling much emotion at all. I found myself feeling pretty indifferent as I read the final few pages, which, I suppose, is kind of how Kathy ends up feeling by the end herself. Sure, there’s a sadness to the lives they lead, but there’s also a level of acceptance about the whole thing. You live the cards you’re dealt. You do with them what you can.

It was an interesting read and not blatantly science fiction, not that that would have been a problem. It is a nice change, however, for those who aren’t typically fond of the genre. It’s much like a soft introduction to the idea without being too overwhelming about it. The book is more or less about the characters, focusing heavily on their lives and emotions, rather than the sci fi elements of their being.

Otherwise, it may start slow, if the pace of the novel isn’t what you’re used to, but by the end, it’s worth it. Every word.

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are already here. In January, it always feels like December is ages and ages away, and, well, I suppose it is at that point, but before you know it, March has come and gone, summer has vanished and you’re looking at your Christmas tree again.

What a blur the last year has been. In all of its blurry goodness, it’s certainly been a whirlwind of really great proportions with lots and lots of learning opportunities.

Now, we can dive into 2012 and enjoy the last year of our lives … if you’re into that sort of thing. I guess.

On the topic of holidays, for your Christmas enjoyment, here are some shots taken during a Christmas photo shoot I did with a couple of friends. I was asked to shoot “cheesy” photos and I’m sure that by some point in the afternoon, there was regret hanging in the air over having asked for cheesy/tacky holiday photos. I took cheesy and awkward to some oddball places, and loved every second of it.

All in all, though, it produced some really great shots for these guys, and I hope they’re just as happy with their photos as I was with them. This was definitely one of those photo shoots where I was nervous throughout the whole thing, assuming nothing was turning out the way I wanted, only to get home and realise I was being foolish.

Tacky, cheesy photo success.

Happy holidays!

If you’ve already forgotten (Christmas may do that to you), I mentioned this dip in the post about our Mad Men-ish cocktail party. The homemade onion dip and guacamole were completely devoured by the end of the night, meanwhile, the store bought salsa sat all by itself on the table, sad and alone, wondering why no one had wanted to eat it.

It’s because you’re store bought, Salsa. You just can’t compare to the love and tenderness that goes into the dip process.

Okay. I’m being hard on the Salsa. It’s not its fault. That’s just how it came into the world. I can’t blame it for that.

Funny, funny, I know.

The short of the story here is, Meg attempted to make the onion dip herself for a family shin dig she was going to last weekend and failed. The problem? It just didn’t turn out right. We messaged each other a few times, attempting to figure out what may have gone wrong, to no avail.

My solution? Making a new batch together.

Very quickly into the process we discovered the little follies Meg had made with her batch.

“Yep. Mine definitely didn’t taste anything like this.”

What should you watch out for? Using the proper amount of greek yogurt. Don’t use the whole tub, folks. It’ll taste funny. Maybe not bad, necessarily, but just not the way that onion dip is supposed to taste.

Use sweet onions. I don’t care what other people tell you. Use sweet onion. Trust me.

Add the secret ingredient. What is it? You’ll find out in a second.

OM NOM ONION DIP!

They had some samples to show me from other vendors online and I did a little searching of my own to find some great looking concert tickets of days gone by. Ultimately, I came across a plethora of fab looking Beatles tickets from the 60s that I used as inspiration in creating Kate and Joel’s modernized invitation version.

We went through the proof process and now, they’re sitting on the ideas until the new year when they finalize their wedding day/venue details and we go ahead with wrapping up and printing.

In the meantime, I took their concept, swapped out the information, and made it available online for everyone. I love the concert ticket idea and it looks really sharp, especially with the perforated, detachable RSVP card on the side, similar to that of a real ticket stub.

Maybe rock concert weddings will be all the rage next year.

One can hope.

Seriously. Wouldn’t that be neat? I love all the shots I see of couples getting married inside of old theatres and concert halls. I wish it weren’t so expensive to do so, or else, we may see more of that floating around out there. I looked into it myself even, and was appalled at how much they were charging to just rent the space on a dead, non-performance night.

Ho hum. Shucks.

Check out this invitation template, available for purchase, in my Etsy shop: Concert Ticket Wedding

Well, maybe not every time.

This here is a random infusion of cat hilarity. Again.

Guys, I seriously can’t help it. I am a cat video boob and it’s all the better when the video features my own lovely, little fur balls of awesome.

This whole little incident happened rather randomly one morning. Daisy was the first to jump up onto the couch for a snuggle with me, followed shortly by Beatrice, who just can’t live without having Daisy nearby.

With Daisy snoozing on the couch beside me, Beatrice crawled right up on me for a cuddle, before falling into the crook of my arm to have a bath. Then, she starting bathing Daisy, and to my surprise, Daisy loved it. I grabbed my phone and began filming the moment, only to have it quickly turn sour. Turns out, Daisy didn’t realise it was Beatrice that whole time…

Last year was my experimentation year with them. The first few batches were slightly over baked, as well as experimental in terms of ingredients since I was making some substitutions from the original recipe. One batch even ended up without baking soda (I was rushing, obviously) and fell flat.

Then, I got it. I found the ginger snap groove.

Now, they’re perfect. Each. Time.

Sparkly Ginger Cookies
adapted from a Canadian Living magazine recipe, 2008

¾ cup unsalted butter (softened) / margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
¼ cup honey
¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (or more if you prefer)
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
turbinado sugar

– In a large bowl, beat together the butter/marg and sugar until fluffy followed by beating in the egg and syrup. Stir in crystallized ginger.

– In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt) and stir into the butter/marg mixture slowly.

– Refrigerate dough until firm: anywhere from 1-2 hours.

– Place your turbinado sugar in a shallow bowl and begin rolling your dough. One tsp per cookie is plenty. Roll the ball through the turbinado sugar to coat and place on a greased cookie sheet, or parchment lined cookie sheet. Keep the balls about 2″ apart.

– The fun part: bake in a 350°F oven until the edges brown (approximately 12-14 mins) and let cool on the pan for a couple of minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Why is that the fun part? Every oven is different and I’ve definitely found that pulling the cookies out at the optimal time is the key to making sure these little guys taste great. I’ve found 12 minutes is my key time this year. Last year, it was 11 minutes. If you wait too long they get too hard, but pull them out at just the right time and the exterior is a bit crunchy and the inside soft. It’s perfect.

This recipe will yield about 70-80 cookies. I doubled this recipe earlier this month and ended up with 160 cookies. Well worth the time to come out with so many delicious treats.

… Not all together. Not together at all. Separately. One at a time. In my belly.

Nom nom nom.

ANYWAY.

Last Friday was my long awaited Mad Men inspired cocktail party that had me mildly stressing by the end of the week since I’m one of those who cannot leave well enough alone and just go to the grocery store to buy all of the food pre-prepared for my guests. Instead, I insist on preparing all of the food myself. I don’t regret it. Things made from scratch are just that much better, but when you’re up and spending an hour making (amazingly delicious) onion dip at 8 in the morning, as well as meatballs and guacamole and pumpkin syrup and pumpkin loaves AND cleaning the house, you know you’ve flipped your lid just a little bit.

Maybe.

The details don’t matter, however. The night was great. It was laid back and easy going. Everyone looked fab in their suits, ties, black lined eyes and red lips. Some folks floated in and out throughout the night while others stayed from start to finish. In the end, two fabulously awesome friends (thanks Mike & Andrew!) stayed to help us clean up which eliminated much of the work the next day, which was jam packed with a birthday party and an afternoon of volunteering.

Preparing for a cocktail party obviously requires having lots of beverages on hand for cocktail-ing with. In addition to two giant bottles of wine, there was loads of pop, beer, juice and cider. What was left in the end? Not the white wine, that’s for sure. Who knew White Sangria would be so popular?

The Glogg did well, but it was so sweet after simmering for so long (I wanted to keep it warm for anyone looking to have a glass), that it was almost too much to handle after one serving. Delicious, but, as Oliver said that night, heavy. It was very much a, nice to drink on a cold night, curled up on the couch with a movie, kind of drink.

All right. I was pretty darn excited about the candied bacon and definitely used it as my selling point when telling people about the party. Despite my own personal excitement, I wasn’t really sure if others shared in the same enthusiasm about bacon laden with layers and layers of “candy” coating.

The result? Enthusiasm!

The candied bacon was the first thing to disappear from the table. Whether they were simply curious or loved the taste, everyone (well, almost everyone) had a taste. The guys hung out around the table making candied bacon sandwiches with the other deli meats on the table thrown in, just for the sake of taste experimentation. It was a candied bacon extravaganza!

The dairy free chocolate cupcakes from back in October made a reappearance on the table, as did my yearly ginger snap platter. This year, we experimented with putting chocolate chips in the centre of the cookies. Seems that idea went over quite well, since that layer of the cookie platter disappeared first. People like pairing their ginger with chocolate. Protip.

I made guacamole and chip dip that I came across on Pinterest (where else do we find things these days, am I right?) and let me tell you, it was bloody amazing! I was in the middle of making it when I took a moment to read through some of the people’s comments at the bottom of the post and got a little worried.

Yes… I read the comments as I’m already making a dish rather than beforehand. I’m just a little bit backwards. It’s fine. I survive.

The comments were divided. Some thought the dip was amazing whereas many others said it tasted bland and would opt for the over salted onion soup mix package dips any day. I didn’t believe it. Making the dip from scratch just had to taste better than store bought.

I took some of the comments into consideration though and made some alterations. Okay. I made one alteration. The result? An amazing dip that was also gone by the end of the night. In fact, both the onion dip and guacamole were gone by the end of the night. What remained? The store bought salsa.

Insert some pumpkin loaves I prepared on a whim, with only about a half an hour on the clock before I had to get my butt into the shower and a giant 5lb gummy bear and that was mostly our spread of eats and treats. Real food seemed to win over the desserts. We had a significant amount of desserts left over and hardly any “real,” savoury foods. Go figure.

Oh. Right. Meatballs! I made meatballs in a homemade hoisin sauce. They were also really, really good and nearly all gone by the end of the night. I think there were a few folks who ate lots, rather than multiple people eating a couple. Either way. They were delicious.

This lovely lady also provided the party with “Balsamic Bertrams.” If you don’t know what a Balsamic Bertram is, I suggest you look it. No, really. Don’t. You won’t find anything. I made it up.

A Balsamic Bertram is a delicious goat cheese crostini with balsamic reduction and bruschetta topping. They’re amazing!

The treadmill was spot on with the theme. It was very 1960s.

Silly treadmill.

Have a Mad Men-ish cocktail party. I recommend it. I highly recommend it. You won’t regret it and everyone will look so dashing.

SO DASHING.