Even though I ignored them all season long, my cherry tomato plant pulled through and produced a crop of sweet fruit all on its own. Having too much for a single family to eat, we always share our harvest with friends. For one package, I created a gift box packed full of cherry tomato goodness. These little guys are sweet like candy. Fittingly, both metaphorically and physically, I found an old bright red candy tin to use as a container. The ribbons are book headbands and the card is a vintage miniature playing card scavenged from eBay. The embossed overalled girl licking her lips on the front of the box is too cute for words. Delicious sweetness, indeed.

Today, we spent the afternoon picnicking at a semi-secret park, Crab Park at Portside with our friends Jonathan, Anita, Jamie and Heather. On the hottest day of the summer, the other city beach parks would have surely been jam packed. Jonathan and Anita live in the area and, to beat the weekend rush, suggested Crab Park instead. Sure enough, we had the whole park practically to ourselves. On the menu was a spectrum of finger foods: deli meats, baguette slices, cheese, mixed nuts, fresh berries, chips & salsa and, for dessert, a variety of chocolates. The meal was paired with Villa Teresa Rose’ Veneto and Old Style Pilsner for a high/low, old-world/new-world fusion. Conceptual? Yes. Purely coincidental? Um, maybe.

Crab Park isn’t well known to people who don’t live in the area. That’s, partly, because it’s surrounded by industry and, partly, because it borders the northern most tip of the Downtown Eastside. If you do make it to the park, you’ll see a 360° microcosm of Vancouver – old, new, rich, poor, scenesters, immigrants, families, singles, industry and nature. To the north are unobstructed views of the North Shore Mountains. To the south, loom the heritage buildings of Gastown and Railtown. To the west, you’ll see the downtown financial district and luxury cruise ships docked at Canada Place. While to the east, is the port with brightly coloured shipping containers that look like giant lego building blocks. Adding to the industrial romance, occasionally, a helicopter will fly by to land at the nearby heliport or a train will chug along the still active railroad. This is not Celebration, Florida, though. You’ll see homeless people and colourful locals dotted throughout the Park. For the most part, they’re just getting some rest in the sun like everyone else. If you’re comfortable with that part of the urban tapestry, give Crab Park a visit. It’s a diamond in the rough.

I decided to try Martha Stewarts Fish Tacos recipe but when I looked in the fridge, I realized I didn’t have any fish so I substitute it with steak instead. I marinated the steak with garlic, Maggi, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil & pepper. I also decided to add some avocado and cherry tomatoes which the recipe didn’t call for. It was pretty quick and easy to prepare everything and making the tacos made dinner a lot more fun too. I also grilled the tortillas directly on an electric burner which I had a lot of fun doing. Not bad for a Thursday night dinner.

Recipe taken from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

I made my first homemade pasta today! YUM. And, I had so much fun making them too. It wasn’t as hard as I thought. Though, it does take some time but hopefully with practice, I’ll be faster at it. There’s really nothing like eating homemade pasta. The freshness of the flavour exceeds any pasta you buy from a grocery store. I’m now inspired to make different types of pasta and ravioli might be the next one to make!

For the sauce, I wanted to keep it simple so it doesn’t over power the taste of the fresh pasta. I sauteed garlic and onions in olive oil, then mixed three medium sized chopped tomatoes, basil, oregano, dried chilli flakes, Parmigiano-Reggiano and fleur de sel. Mmm…. it was so good!

I seem to have an obsession with cups. I don’t know what it is but I think that my coffee tastes better in a cup that has a nice shape or pattern to it. Part of my enjoyment of drinking coffee is the cup itself – it’s part of the experience. As soon as I step into a vintage or a home store, I go straight for the cups. I always stop myself from buying them as we have way more then what we need but just admiring them makes me happy. A few that I absolutely love, but don’t have yet, are: Sentou-ti cups, cinq cups, zipper cups, Fellina Sok-Cham espresso cups, ABC Paper Cups, & Marimekko Oiva cups.

I found a great Roasted Corn and Black Bean vegan salad recipe which I decided to try yesterday and I was impressed. I found a new summer salad favourite. But it’s quite ironic as we paired our vegan salad with spicy Italian sausages which Peter barbequed. It’s very easy to make and would be great paired with a nice cold mojito!

I’m starting to feel the urge to start baking again and totally want to try this Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe. It doesn’t only look delicious, it also looks so pretty all packaged nicely with parchment paper and tied with Divine Twine. I’m also drooling just looking at this Peanut-Rice Crispy Treats recipe. I think i’m going to have a busy baking week if I can get myself to stay home!

Peter picked some strawberries from our garden over the weekend and they are so tasty and so sweet. The only problem is that we don’t have very many so we have to savour every bite.

Yesterday was Peter’s first Father’s day and I decided to surprise him with Jennifer Causey’s ‘Simply Breakfast More Please’ book as a present. I didn’t have the time to make him a special Father’s day breakfast as we had to rush out of the house in morning to meet the rest of the family for an all day Father’s day picnic at Kits beach. But I figured he can just feast his eyes in Jennifer’s breakfast photos instead. We’ve been a big fan of her blog with all her delicious breakfast photos so we are happy to add her book to our library. Happy belated Father’s Day to all the father’s out there!!

We had lunch at Nuba with Eileen & Jessica on Saturday and indulged ourselves in Lebanese food. We went to their new location on E 3rd and the space is so beautiful. Nuba is probably one of my favourite places to eat in the city. Their vegetable falafel is to die for. Try it if you’re there! The ingredients and the taste is very close to one of the best falafels I had ever tasted which happens to be located in Paris. It’s called L’as du Falafel in the Jewish neighbourhood. So tasty! Peter loves ordering the Najib’s Special which is crispy cauliflower tossed with lemon & sea salt. It doesn’t sound like much but it transcends cauliflower-ness. Who knew fried cauliflower could be so good? You also can’t go to Nuba without ordering their Turkish coffee. It’s brewed to order and is made with rose water and spiced with cardamom. The first sip will be shockingly exotic in taste but enjoy the experience. It’s like a mini-vacation. With the spicy floral aromatics of the rose water and cardamom you’ll feel transported to another world.

My favourite breakfast these days – homemade whole wheat bread, cream cheese (or avocado), fresh basil, pouched eggs, fleur de sel & a drizzle of olive oil. It’s so simple but so flavourful (the photo doesn’t do justice to how good it is but believe me, it’s so good!). Fresh basil is so good with anything really… I also received my Anthropolgie catalague so I happily ate my breakfast while dreaming of all the beautiful things I was looking at which I wish I could own. They are just way too expensive. But so beautiful! I heard from a friend that Athropologie might be opening a store in Vancouver to take over the Liberty space on Broadway. I’m so excited!!!!

I spent part of my day today having lunch with our good friend Gen and her little Aoi as they are moving to California. We are sad that they are leaving but yet excited for their new adventure. We will miss you guys!  xoxo

We had our friends Tami, Jim and their super adorable daughter Lily over for brunch a few weeks back and we ate, ate and ate!! I love having friends over for brunch. It’s casual and a good way to spend a Sunday morning. We had homemade coconut Belgian waffles, homemade whipping cream, strawberries, nutella, syrup, dolce de leche spread, bratwurst with carmelized onions & yams, pineapple juice and Milano coffee. Tami made us cupcakes for dessert with lavender tea sprinkled on top. Yum! We were happy and very full after.

A nice lunch with my friend Kevin at Little Nest today on Commercial Drive. I had toasted organic baguette with ricotta and honey & chocolate cake. Kevin had a platter of smoked applewood cheddar, mild genovese salami, apple, fig jam, maple roasted hazelnut, crostini and organic baguette. After lunch, we headed off to one of my favourite Italian grocery store called Santa Barbara and bought a 3L extra virgin olive oil for only $17! I love this place. Kevin has been extra busy at school doing his Master’s so it was nice for us to have some much needed quality time together to do some catching up. We then headed to the park for a quick walk until heavy rain started falling from the sky and we quickly ran to my car and headed back home. A perfect simple Thursday.

I woke up this morning with the smell of one of my favourite breakfast – eggs benedict! Thanks Peter, you’re the best!! The eggs benedict was done westcoast-style with smoked salmon and avocado. We also had rosemary potatoes and cherry tomatoes. The rosemary and tarragon are fresh from our yard.

Today is a special day as it is my first Mother’s Day. I sometimes find it hard to describe what being a mom is like and find that there are no words to describe the love that I feel towards my little Luna. But yesterday, I received a beautiful email from my cousin which clearly describes everything I feel about being a mom. I found myself getting all teary eyed when I first read it as it captures what motherhood has felt like for me.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful Moms out there!!

I bought a bag of lemons from a market the other day and stacked them up neatly on our table as a centre piece. I’m quite happy how it looks as a centre piece. So much so, that it doesn’t make me want to use them. But I have been wanting to make lemon meringue pie for quite sometime now and I found a recipe online that I might want to try. Does anyone have a good lemon meringue recipe they would want to share? I was also watching an old episode of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita and he made limoncello from scratch at Villa Maria in Ravello. It looked pretty easy actually. Easy enough that I might try making that too. That episode made me miss the Amalfi Coast. Sigh…

I’ve been thinking about waffles these past few days so instead of just thinking about it, I decided to bring out the waffle maker and make something a little different – coconut waffles! It is so good eaten on it’s own or you can spoil yourself by adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top with some warm chocolate drizzled on it. Coconut and chocolate make an excellent combination. Indulgence!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup toasted sweetened coconut flakes
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
One 14-ounce can coconut milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbs unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1. Preheat a waffle iron
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut flakes, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, eggs, and vanilla until completely blended.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the coconut milk/egg mixture, blending gently only until the ingredients are combined. Add the butter in a slow stream, continuing to blend until the butter is incorporated.
4. Pour a generous 1/2 cup batter into the waffle iron.
5. Serve the waffles with the topping of your choice.

Note: To toast sweetened coconut flakes: Arrange an oven rack at centre position and preheat the oven at 350F. Spread the coconut flakes on a baking sheet, and bake until the flakes just start to brown, 4-5 minutes (or less).

Recipe taken from the book ‘Waffles’ by Betty Rosbottom. ISBN 0-8118-4842-6

On a rainy Thursday morning, I had a craving for something sweet to eat for breakfast as I look outside watching the rain fall from the sky. I was secretly happy it was raining which meant stroller fitness (an exercise program I have joined which happens every Thursday morning) would be canceled. As much as I want to keep fit and loose my pregnancy weight, I really just wanted to sit in my cozy kitchen and enjoy my apple strudel and my ultra favourite Milano coffee. As I happily eat away those strudels and lick my fingers to make sure nothing goes to waist, I was thinking to myself this is definitely much better then running outside and doing jumping jacks. Exercise can wait until next Thursday.

Dinner and Movie night yesterday was French-themed. We watched Flight of the Red Balloon accompanied by a French-inspired tasting platter. On the platter was: a baguette from Terra Breads, hot calabrese, local goat cheese, manchego, sweet pearl onions, olives and cornichons. The highlights of the platter were two spreads that we bought at a Farmer’s Market in Saint Rémy de Provence. We were saving them for a special occasion. A night at home can be as special as any occasion, so we opened them up. Why not? The dark spread is Crème d’Alhambra, which is similar to a tapenade but slightly creamier and less salty. The ingredients are olives, olive oil, anchovies and, unlike tapenades we’ve had, sheep cheese. The mustard colour spread is Carmin d’Artichauts with is 60% artichoke hearts, olive oil, dried tomatoes, pine nuts and garlic. Imagine those ingredients together. It tastes exactly like that. Nothing more, nothing less. Simple and delicious.

And how was the movie? As the backdrop to our meal, it was perfect. The film is filled with vignettes of Parisian life with lovely locations, styling, cinematography and beautiful people. The story is rather meandering and abstract, though. You won’t laugh, you won’t cry, you may not even know the movie ended but, served with dinner, you will enjoy your meal. Bon appétite.

I wanted to put together a special package for Valentine’s for Nerissa. While searching through our hard drive, I found a photograph of scooters and macarons Nerissa shot in Paris. It’s a beautiful image and it was a shame it only existed in our digital archives. I came up with the idea of printing and framing the photograph and packaging it with a set of macarons. Unfortunately, sourcing macaroons in Vancouver was more difficult than I anticipated. There was none to be found near home or near work. With a little one in the house it’s hard to sneak out on long secret missions and I wasn’t able to put all the pieces together for the 14th. Luckily, the next special occassion, Nerissa’s birthday, is soon after Valentine’s. Perfect timing since I figured I would need one or two more weeks to get everything together.

I sent a message out on Twitter asking where in Vancouver I could find macarons. I was told La Baguette et L’Echalote on Granville Island or Thomas Haas. I chose Thomas Haas. I then packaged the macarons in a Ladurée souvenir box we bought in Paris; fitting since Ladurée started Nerissa’s macaron obsession. The framed photo and box of macarons were stacked together, tied with a ribbon and, viola, there it is. Bon Anniversaire!

Dinner last night was at Munch in North Vancouver. What a fantastic place! I had a nice creamy seafood risotto with a glass of Malbec and Peter had a bison burger. I could have seriously had another plate of that risotto but was too embarrassed to order another one. Well, I’m going back with my friend Sisi for lunch next week so I could have my second serving then. It’s nice to have a place like this in the city where Peter and I can enjoy a really good meal and not have to worry if Luna cries. How many places have a play area for kids and a full bar for adults? Yippee! We’d definitely recommend this place to other young families too.

First treat of the day for us was a visit to Mark & Shannon’s new place for coffee and a slice of lemon meringue pie. Mark converted a 70 year old schoolhouse in Strathcona into an innovative mixed-use multi-family dwelling. The conversion maintains 40% of the original structure with modern updates getting the schoolhouse to Built Green Platinum standards. Each of the five units have a flex-space that could be used for an income-suite, additional living space or a home studio. The main floor of the schoolhouse is Shannon’s studio/workshop with future plans for public community programming. It’s a beautiful and thoughtful conversion which I’m sure must be the talk of the neighbourhood. Now, about the pie…it was baked by Shannon’s mom and it was spectacular!

Breakfast today: Homemade whole wheat bread (freshly baked yesterday), coffee, Casa Giulia blueberry preserve & cheese tarragon omelette. I was also happy to receive my Anthropologie catalogue in the mail this morning. Like a magazine subscription, Anthropologie mails out a new catalogue each month with great photography, locations and styling. It’s incredible to think they’re essentially producing 12 different lookbooks with 12 different themes each year. That’s a lot of imagery/creative to produce. And it’s all top quality. Having produced a few photoshoots and lookbooks in our day, we really respect the effort and imagination put into these monthly catalogues. We’ve kept every issue we’ve received neatly stored in our library. It’s a nice monthly visual treat and it’s free to subscribe.

These days, I’m all about simple and quick breakfasts but…it has to be delicious, too. Today’s breakfast consisted of: homemade whole wheat bread with flax & sunflower seeds, hard boiled eggs, coffee and Casa Giulia blueberry preserve from Italy. Peter’s Note: If you can’t get enough of breakfast photos visit Jennifer Causey’s Simply Breakfast blog. If anyone is keeping track, Simply Breakfast is, hands-down, the number one breakfast blog. Jennifer has documented 507 breakfasts (and counting) over the last 3 years. Simply awesome!

Last night we borrowed Nerissa’s parents’ electric raclette grilll and had Jonathan & Anita over for raclette. Wikipedia describes raclette as “both a type of cheese and, informally, a dish featuring this cheese“. I’d describe the dining experience similar to a fondue but with the cheese and accompaniments grilled instead of boiled. While there’s one or two places where you might be able to order a savory fondue, it’s really hard to find a restaurant that has raclette on the menu. The only one, in Western Canada, that we’ve seen is the Grizzle House in Banff which is fitting because the dish has an old school Swiss alpine feel.

The cheese is grilled in tiny pans and served over bite sized potatoes along with sweet pearl onions, cornichons and sausages. It doesn’t sound like much but the flavor combination is really delicious. Raclette’s fun because you eat at a casual pace and the table has a communal feel fueled with conversation. Jonathan & Anita also brought over prosciutto, melon, pâté and manchego cheese. As an experiment, we melted the manchego in the raclette pans and grilled the pearl onions. Pretty yummy, actually. Those were probably one of the many raclette etiquette rules we broke last night but that was part of the fun; it was interactive and a new adventure for all.

I spent an afternoon at Little Nest with the girls (& Peter). We had a lot of catching up to do so the afternoon was filled with non-stop chatting, laughter, entertaining Luna, coffee and munching on food. I love this place. It’s casual, kid friendly and has great food too. I could spend everyday here if I lived on Commercial Drive.

I was checking out Bloesum Kids the other day and there was an article on this wicked café called Moomah in New York. It’s like a gallery/studio/café/shop all in one. This place is stunning, you have to explore the site yourself to know what I’m talking about. It’s a creative café where parents and kids can hang out. It’s a similar concept as Little Nest but Moomah offers a little bit more by having some classes for kids & adults. Oh, do I wish we had a Moomah here in Vancouver…

Last night was filled with great food & wine at Doni & Gen’s place. These days, gathering with friends at each others’ homes makes for a perfect weekend. We indulged in fresh oysters, cheese, cured meats, paté, Portugese sardines, apples, strawberries, cornichons and some artisan rolls. We ended the evening with some lovely dessert wine and chocolates. Thanks Doni & Gen for another wonderful get together!

I was going through our photo files and I found these. I had almost forgotten what life was like before Luna. These photos were taken probably a year and half ago. The image above was taken from one of our weekend breakfast. I always make it a point to have something special for breakfast as it makes it a good start of the weekend. I still try to do that until now but with less effort and less time to eat.

The second image shows our favourite thing to do on a rainy Saturday night. It’s something we get excited about. We grab a good film, open up a nice bottle of french or spanish wine and eat all of our favourite food as we watch our chosen film. It’s like our own version of a tv dinner. We usually end up drinking a whole bottle of wine and eat up all the food too. If I remember right, I think we were watching the classic french film Mon Oncle while devouring all this food.

Great film + great food = happy people.

Since I purchased my bread maker, I have been non stop making all sorts of bread from whole wheat bread, white bread, french bread, rosemary, raisin etc… It’s so much fun! Today, I made raisin bread for my sister as per her request. This recipe calls for more work than other bread recipes. After the kneading cycle, I have to remove the dough from the machine and flatten it out as if making a pizza dough and spreading the raising/sugar/cinnamon mixture to it before rolling it like a baguette (I roll out the dough with a mojito muddler as I don’t seem to stock a rolling pin in my kitchen!). I’ve made this recipe a few times and it’s always a hit! It’s amazingly good eaten freshly baked with a spread of melted butter on top!! Here’s the recipe for a 2 lb bread:

Recipe (2 pounds)

Granulated sugar – 1/3 cup
Cinnamon – 3/4 tbs
Raisins – 1 1/4 cups
Milk – 1 1/4 cups (300 ml)
Butter, room temperature – 2 1/2 tbs
Egg, room temperature – 1
Salt – 1 tsp
Granulated sugar – 1 1/2 tbs
Bread flour – 4 cups
Yeast – 2 tsp

The granulated sugar, cinnamon and raisins mixture is spread out on the dough after kneading (see photos above).

Happy bread making!

My mom is staying with us for three weeks. She arrived last night and we’re really enjoying her traditional home cooking comfort food. More info and recipes coming up…but first, we’re going to Marga and Dan’s wedding shower.

There’s nothing like having some chewy double chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day. While Luna is fast asleep in her own little world, I’m busy in the kitchen trying  a new recipe. These are truly amazing! They are super chewy and not too sweet. These would make fantastic christmas presents. Just sprinkle some icing sugar on top of the cookies to make them look more festive.

Recipe
1 1/4 cups margarine
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions
1. Cream together the margarine, sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla.
2. Blend in the cocoa and add baking soda, salt and blend well.
3. Add the flour into the creamed mixture and fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Bake at 350° for 8-9 minutes.

Recipe by Recipe Zaar.

I love weekend breakfast so I always make the effort to make something nice. Especially in the summer, we eat breakfast out in the garden as we hear the birds chirping with the sun blazing at us. It’s so lovely. It’s makes a great start of the day.

This weekend, I made a nice omelette with sausages, tarragon (I can eat tarragon with anything!), fresh basil (from the garden), cilantro and cherry tomatoes (from the garden).

Since we moved to our house in Beach Grove, I haven’t had much luck with my baking. I’m used to having a gas oven which we had in our previous condos. But buying an older house means older appliances. I don’t get the luxury of a Kitchen Aid gas stove which I absolutely miss from our condo in North Vancouver.

Lately, everytime I bake, the bottom of my cookies or cupcakes get burnt as the previous owners probably bought the cheapest stove/oven they could find as it heats up tremendously on the bottom leaving whatever I’m baking burnt on the bottom and the top uncooked.

However, I’ve managed a way to getting around this. Now, I double up my cookie tray to thicken up the bottom and if the recipe calls for 350 degrees, I make sure to put it at a lower temperature.

And… voila! It works. These cookies are really good. It’s chewy and not too sweet. Indulgence!

My parents have an apple tree in their backyard. It’s actually a sad looking apple tree as it’s somehow growing sideways rather than upwards. But whichever way it’s growing, an apple tree is still an apple tree. So last week when Peter and I were there, we grabbed a bag full of apples to take home. I had them sitting on our dining table for days as I stared at them figuring out what to do with them. I searched online trying to get some kind of inspiration and after a few days of searching, i found a Jewish apple cake recipe that just looked too delicious to ignore.

Here’s a link to recipe: http://www.grouprecipes.com/39250/best-jewish-apple-cake.html