Our holiday in meals

Hello!  I’m back from a nice week-and-a-bit long holiday.  We stayed in Ottawa and spent our days cooking, sledding, snowball-throwing, skating and playing some serious amounts of lego and trains.  All three of us got to spend time doing some of our favourite things which felt like a real luxury.  I even had an afternoon out by myself for a bit of peace and quiet.  Lovely.

I did a lot of baking with Alden – we made cookies, cinnamon buns, biscotti, bread and apple crisp.  He’d be beyond upset if he missed out on some dough action.

He is a mini master in the kitchen.  He is always ready to help, whether it’s taste-testing the cookie dough or making sauces with his Dad.

The individual servings of apple crisp in the mini Le Creuset dishes made this simple recipe seem pretty special.  I splurged before Christmas on the Scandinavian-esque tea towel.  A little touch of Nordic-chic for the table.

We made gingerbread men from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  (We also did a modified version of their white chocolate and cranberry biscotti, but with chocolate chips and figs.  It was a hit in our house.)  Seriously, I love this cookbook.

The biscotti made our “tea time” a real occasion. I bought the boys a set of Ferrari espresso cups to use for snack time.  (The Ferrari on the cups looks very similar to Francesco from the Cars movie, so I *knew* they would be a hit.)  Alden loves them and he has made it clear that  I am not allowed to use these cups – they are strictly for the boys.  (I picked them up at Preston Hardware if you’re interested in getting a set.  They also have cappuccino sized cups.)

I treated myself to a new bike after Christmas and tarted it up with a big crocheted flower.  Hey, it’s my “social bike”.  While not food-related, I was pretty chuffed to have some new wheels.

The dish that I was looking forward to making most was a gravlax fish recipe.  It was a nice change from our usual fare of smoked salmon from the Whalesbone.  I picked up a couple of trout filets from Whalesbone and did a half recipe of this cure from Australian Gourmet Traveler.  It cured for 24 hours, but it could have done with less.  It ended up being a shade too salty and as you can see from the photo below, there were a few spots that were overdone and a bit chewy.

I could see this becoming a tradition.  The leftovers made for easy tapas-y lunches with bread and olives.  Or in the case below, caper berries!  They have all the flavour that you love about olives, but with no pit to remove.

I whipped together the cheese bread recipe from Artisan Breads Every Day.  We found it a little heavy on the onion, so I’ll tone that down next time or add some herbs to make it more savoury.  It went great with the fish.

We worked off some calories with a winter bike ride along Dow’s Lake. I’m not sure who loved being out and about more.

On New Year’s Eve, we spent the afternoon outside sledding at a local hill.  The husband roasted a duck and fried up some potatoes in the duck fat.  If you haven’t made potatoes using duck fat, get on that in 2012.  (You can get it at any good butcher.  Or just roast a duck and collect the drippings.)

I helped by assembling our collection of relishes and chutneys for the big meal.  The boy konked out mid-meal at the table leaving the remainder of the evening free for sipping Prosecco and enjoying a cheese plate.  We even watched a movie!  The second one we’ve seen in one week!  (In case you’re wondering, they were: Bill Cunningham New York and Our Idiot Brother.  I’d easily recommend watching both.)  We also watched the Dr. Who Christmas special, but I fell asleep halfway through.  It was overly sentimental.  I was looking forward to something a little sillier and light.

Dog-themed Prosecco – you can’t go wrong with a dog on the label.  Trust in the wiener dog.

Finally, for our New Year’s Day lunch, I whipped up a pretty basic risotto with some mushrooms and bacon.  We cracked open the new bottle of truffle oil and drizzled it on the top of our dishes.  It took the risotto from being tasty to beyond terrific.  Even Alden wanted in on the truffle action.

In 2012, I expect we’ll keep cooking, keep baking and keep trying to avoid stepping on lego in the middle of the night.  Easier said than done.