I Think I'm Going to Let this Blog Rest for a Bit

Life is lovely, but not all that exciting right now. Cycling, working, having fun, the end!

Really, though, I am very lazy with the writing, and find it easier to microblog via Twitter, and post pictures at Flickr, while social networking it up on Facebook. So if you're interested in keeping a-track of me, here are a couple of links:

• Follow me at Twitter (updates like the ones you're seeing in the left column here)
• Flickr has pictures I upload

I'll probably start blogging again, should anything that I need to share come up!

Substitutions

When I need to get out of my head, I do something physical. I heart the exercising, but act of creating something just isn't inherent to hefting weights or cycling for a bargazillion miles, or even horseback riding.

I used to fulfill my need to create something with my hands by art. 3D collages, which I am promising myself to get back to making, and soon, and later with ceramics. Lately, though, and I'm sure you've already noticed, it's been with cooking and baking and kitchen experiments galore.

This weekend, I tried my hand at candy making, for the first time ever. When I was a child, I loved Kraft's Chocolate Caramels, and decided that that was the place for me to start. Using my new favourite cookbook, Chocolates and Confections by Peter Greweling, I set to work.

Two things that I thought would ruin the batch:

1. The power went out and stayed out for a good minute 2/3 of the way through the process, though since I didn't seemingly loose and heat from the mixture, and kept stirring away until the power came back on, I decided to finish the batch and see how they would turn out.
2. The next morning, I realized that I had used half and half instead of heavy cream, meaning a lower milk fat content in the candy.

That being said, those suckers still turned out! They're just a little softer then I had wanted, due to the accidental half and half substitution, but still tasty and lovely and chewy.

I wrapped 'em on up in wax paper and will be brining them into the office tomorrow.

So, take a look:

A Quick Tiny Mango Pie add-on

A tinyunicorn requested the recipe for the wee jar pies below. Ah, recipe.

Crust: here you go. Okay, so neither Jen or I had ever made a pie crust, and having witnessed the pain that pie crust has cause friends and relatives, and feeling like this project was too cute to allow for failure, we went with pre-made. 3 boxes will cover 24 4 oz jars.

Filling: Mango Pie at MyRecipes.com. This is the only recipe for Mango Pie that I've come across that uses the mango whole, instead of making into some odd cream pie base. In case you'd rather not visit MyRecipes, here's the lowdown for the filling:

• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) mango wedges (about 4 medium)
  
• 1 tablespoon chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Now, as a lass who eats a mango a day, I know what possible disappointments can lurk inside a fresh mango. Do yourself a favour, and for this pie filling, buy frozen cut mango - we used the organic Naturally Preferred line from Kroger. 4 packs will give you enough for 24 4 oz jars.

TINY MANGO PIES! But first, some other things.

It's been awhile, no? A lot's been going on. I went back home to visit, and had a final dinner at Susur. And while I am sad his Toronto location is closing (Lee isn't the same, kids), I am excited to see what he opens in NYC.

The Toronto weekend was incredibly fun. I heart being happy like that.

What else? Oh, I'm riding a lot. On my bike. AND ON A HORSE. That's right, Jen, Allison and I started horseback riding lessons yesterday. We all spent hours on horseback as children, but - well, we're children no more. Loving it. LOVE.

And on to the pies.

Because we can't help but fall in love with awesome, tiny food, Jen and I decided to steal this idea from NotMartha and make tiny pies in 4oz jars this afternoon. Jen took the first 3 pictures, and I took the rest.

I give you: Wee Mango Pies

And the Obligatory Food Photos

I made cream cheese sugar cookies last weekend.


On Friday, I churned up a batch of cheesecake ice cream to bring to a friend's party. No, no chunks o' cake in this baby - ice cream that tastes like cheesecake filling through and through. But that's just white and not very photogenic, so no photos for you.

Turning away from pastry, I made quinoa for the first time this weekend. This has it mixed into carmelized onion, garlic, three kinds of mushroom and wilted spinach with a squirt of lemon juice:


And an old standby - cauliflower, celery, onions and asparagus on a baking sheet, heading into the oven to roast before being made into soup.

There are a lot of Rules in Roller Skating

Decision of a Century

For the past couple of weeks, I've been toying with the idea of doing a Century Ride - 100 miles (161 km - I'm still so very metric) of road cycling in one shot. I figure that since I've been pushing out 25 mile rides at a moderately easy pace post-weight training session that 100 miles is a do-able goal.

So, I've been toying with the idea - until I ordered The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling from Amazon. Even though 25 miles is easy to do, 100 miles, I know, is a different animal, and it's something that I'm going to need to train for, and learn how to fuel myself for.

September seems like a good goal to work towards. You all better hold me to it.

Totally unrelated, here's an obligatory what I made over the weekend food photo.




Regard, the mostly organic Chewy Oatmeal Raisin cookie. I modified the recipe to use whole wheat flour, add cinnamon and up the raisin factor.

Amano, Hermano

Via BlakeMakes.com and their Soopz network, this week I received three Amano Single Origin dark chocolate bars in the mail.

I heart dark chocolate, but I'm very demanding and more then a little snobbish about it. I am happy to report that Amano's bars made my heart flutter and my tastebuds dance with delight. All three are lovely, shiny looking bars with a strong snap. And talking about snap, each bar can be broken (or, using my preferred method of cutting with a serrated knife) into 15 squares, making sampling all three in one sitting an easy task.

The Ocumare (70% cacao - Venezuela) is the most typical of the bars. But when I say typical, I perhaps mean traditional tasting, as it stays truest to what you would expect in a dark chocolate. But, at the same time, it brings that flavour profile to a completely different level. Deep, and dark and peppery. This is a small bite bar, for sure - which just means that the savouring and tasting can go on for days.

The Cuyagua (70% cacao - Venezuela) is the newest, and limited edition, product in the Amano line-up. Though still possessing a lovely dark chocolate canvas, it layers on sweeter berry and tree-fruit flavours to an excellent effect.

The Madagascar (70% cacao - Madagascar) is my favourite, through and through. Biting into a square was revelatory, as the dark, deep chocolate was imbued with an excellent tart, tangy and citrus-y note. It also had a lovely, lighter feeling on the tongue then the more buttery feeling Ocumare.

Heart dark chocolate. Heart Amano. The end.