Category — Cooking

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.

There’s a lot of activity shaking down in our neck of Ottawa these days and as much as I want to just focus on food writing and cooking, my inner community activist is being consumed by the completely foolish reconstruction plans of an arterial highway/main street not far from us.  Yes, highway and main street!  That’s Ottawa planning for you.

Sigh.

I’ve been putting together some items for Alden’s expanded “play kitchen 2011.”  Last year, the husband crafted a lovely tabletop cooktop for him out of spare Ikea shelves and now we’d like to build an oven and shelf unit for the cooktop to sit on.  My role was to find some new playfood to use.  As much as he’s loved all the crochet foods I made last year, I just didn’t have time to dedicate to crafting more food.  I relied on the internet and found some super cute Erzi and Haba playfood on the Baby Naturopathics website.

I really like the Haba felt noodles: fettucine, bow ties and ravioli.  They were sort of ridiculously priced for felt and my inner “crafty mom” is still feeling a bit guilty for not making my own.  If you are crafty, you could easily whip these up with some felt at home.  But alas, time was of the essence.

Some things, were just too amazing to resist.  The coffee beans in the little tin?  He is going to love putting those in the mini espresso maker for “coffee”.  The roast chicken with the removable legs?  I think he’s going to love roasting it up in his oven.

I looked at many play versions of coffee makers but they were so expensive!  The mini espresso maker is the perfect size and essential for the kid who likes playing with the “real” thing.

I also picked up some tea bags, sausages, fish filets, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and jam.

The clincher?  The mini chef hat.  I found this one at J.D. Adams in the Glebe (but they also have them at the Glebe Emporium).

I won’t lie, it’s been kind of a dream of ours to have a great lunch, sweets and coffee shop near our home. Ok, the dream is mostly my husband’s since he works from home and there’s only so many biscotti or polish donuts a person can eat before getting a little bored.

Pressed gourmet sandwich shop is slated to open on November 21 at 750 Gladstone Avenue (corner Gladstone and Arthur) and will feature:

• Fair trade coffee from Equator
• Lots of in-house cooking (and smoking!) and many local ingredients
• Vegan options
• Large space for live music
• Ample stroller parking
• “Kid’s menu” with Mac n’ Cheese, grilled cheese and all-natural hot dogs
• Lots of space to meet and gather
• Wifi

When we met last night, they were still working on sourcing their sweets and bread.  So far, they know it won’t be Art-is-in since they felt their business was too similar to their City Centre concept.  (My 2 personal cents: I don’t go to Art-is-in at the City Centre because it’s just not convenient to walk there from West Centretown, we don’t have a car to drive there and I haven’t bothered to figure out how to get there on a bike.  And I love their bread.  Ok.. rant over.)

Update: They’ve decided to go with ACE bakery ciabatta – it provides the right texture for the paninis.

They are planning to open early around 7:30 to catch morning commuters.  And will hopefully soon have their liquor licence for those after-work commuters and evening concerts.

Jeff, the owner, gave me a tour of the space last night.  Of all the cool things they were planning, the piece of equipment that really got Jeff talking the most was the smoker. I am convinced that by opening day, this machine will have moved into a prime viewing (and smelling) location.

He talked of brining and smoking pork belly, making brisket for chili and even smoking squash for vegetarian soups.  They’ll also be doing vegetable dishes like collard greens and braised red cabbage.  It’s great to see vegetables being featured.

They have done extensive renovations to turn the old fluorescent kebab shop into a cozy nook.  With the fluorescent lights gone, the walls and ceiling repainted and the addition of lovely wooden church pew seats from a local church, artwork, and ambient lighting – the space has really transformed into the kind of space to sit and relax.

While they may have had reservations about joining the Twitter thing, I have no doubt that they will find it teaming with local foodies waiting to retweet daily specials.

•  Pressed website
• Twitter
• Facebook

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Update!  December 8, 2011

We’ve had several meals here now (with and without the small boy) – here are some of our favourites:

Latte

Panini with homemade pickled beans (totally delicious)

We eat a lot of meat at home, so it’s nice to have a break.  Their vegetarian chili is filling and perfect for winter.

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On Sunday, we were feeling adverturous.  Letting our cares flap in the breeze.  Booking the Vrtucar to go to the market AND pay for parking.  That’s the wild side for us.  Hey, it was cold.

Alden chose a purple cauliflower.  That’s the wild side for him.  Will he eat it?  Who knows.  He chose it very carefully.  Not the cauliflower in the front, but the second one in.  That’s the one.

Having driven to the market instead of biking, we were feeling particularly wimpy and prone to the cooler October temperatures.  Our usual stop for an apple cider wasn’t going to warm our quickly cooling toes.  Then I saw the Flatbread Pizza Company oven.  Without a lineup.

Let’s get a pizza!

I asked about the dough. There were no eggs or milk.  Can you leave the cheese off the top?  No problem.

Sold!  There we were – ordering our first pizza.

We went with the Italian sausage and onion pizza.  While the kid ended up just picking off the onions and meat to eat, we happily picked up the slack by devouring the crusts.

This was a solid win in the allergy-friendly dining out handbook.  Why didn’t we try this sooner?

The little dude still got his apple cider.

I took the best parts from Marisa’s (Food in Jars) and Bon appétit’s recipes for tomato jam and made the most deeeeeeelicious spread imaginable. Thank you both for the recipes.

I had seen recipes for tomato jam before, but it wasn’t until we had tomato jam with our appetizers at DiVino the other week that I realized exactly what we were missing.  And with several pounds of garden tomatoes ripening in our basement, I suddenly knew just what to do with them.

Out came the canning supplies: mini jars, stock pot, funnel and tongs.  Ready to go.

The greatest thing about the Food in Jars method is that it’s SO easy.  All you have to do is chop the tomatoes and toss the ingredients in a pot to cook away.  No blanching the tomatoes or removing seeds, everything goes in the pot.

I served my jam with bread and goat’s cheese and I’m not sure there is any better possible pairing.

Aren’t these little 1/2 cup size jars cute?  And my favourite part of the process?  Making the stickers for the lids.

Making a pumpkin pie

The older Alden gets, the more I realize that we are solidly in the “Granola Parent” category. As Halloween draws closer, not only are we preoccupied finding allergy-safe candy for the BIG day, but all of the other “week of” activities that seem to go along with major holidays these days.

Take for example our daycare, they’ll be doing a “trick or treating” activity on Friday the 28th. (Presumably, some children don’t attend on Mondays so they don’t want them to be “left out.”)   Then there will be the real Halloween on the 31^st.  AND to top off that candy train, I had a message that someone wants to bring in treats to Alden’s class the week of Halloween.

REALLY? Are our three year olds not getting enough candy after two trick or treating outings?

And this rant, this has nothing to do with food allergies.  This is about using basic common sense when teaching small children lessons about healthy eating habits.

And before anyone accuses me of being anti-sweets, I am not.  I just want to control when and how often sweets are consumed at this time.  Because right now, we are in the middle of a very anti-vegetable phase and  I can’t compete in a competition between carrots and candy.

There are enough birthday party celebrations held in-class without adding “just because” treats to that list.

And tonight, I’m treating the little guy to cupcakes.  Because he’s had a rough week at school and he’s been super keen to try new (healthy) foods.

The greens in my garden had grown to Popeye-esque proportions and it was time to use them up.  So, on Saturday afternoon, I pulled up beets and hacked off the leaves to make beet green chips.  So easy.  So kid friendly.

Then on Sunday, it was showtime for the swiss chard.  Now, the little guy loves stuffed grape leaves from Raw Sugar, so I gambled that stuffed swiss chard would also be familiar enough to casually slide onto the dinner table without an upturned nose or a scowl.

And it almost worked.   Once he realized that they contained meat – MEAT! – he warmed up to the idea.  Although, I say that in the most lukewarm of ways.

Look at those little bundles... so cute.

Now, the rolls weren’t overly tedious to put together, but it’s a dish that’s best saved for the weekend when you have a bit of extra time.

Handy tip #1:  You’ll want to find some nice large swiss chard leaves with as few holes as possible.  Luckily, it’s the perfect time of year for finding swiss chard in the market if you’re not growing them yourself.

Handy tip #2: Don’t pick swiss chard wearing pajama pants on a Sunday morning when you live next to a church.  The raised eyebrows from passers-by had me believing that God frowns upon flannel snowflake prints.  Oh well.  Such is the life of the urban gardener.

(For the fashion record: I was wearing a normal fall raincoat over the jammies.  Nonetheless, the addition of slippers to the snowflake ensemble was likely the downfall.)

I followed this recipe for Bulghur and Beef-stuffed swiss chard from the Washington Post almost to a tee.  I made a slight modification to the herbs – tossing in extra parsley, oregano and lemon balm that I had gathered in my PJ outing.

As we tucked into our dinner, it struck me that without any thought or planning, most of our dinner was home/locally grown.

Home: chard, tomatoes, onions, herbs, homemade chicken stock
Ottawa: ground beef (Bearbrook Farm)
Canada: bulgur
Unknown: rice

We’ve come a long way from just being very mindful about shopping for local ingredients and reading the labels.  Now it’s part of how we cook.  Having a garden has trained us into the “use it or lose it” mentality.  If you have a CSA box, you’ll know the feeling.  If there’s anything that irks me more, it’s letting good food go to waste.  I believe some people refer to that as being Scottish.  Stereotypes aside, I don’t like wasting food.

And these swiss chard rolls?  They will be gobbled up before you know it.  No waste.

It’s cranberry season in Ottawa (finally!).  I’ve had the recipe for cranberry maple butter bookmarked all summer and have waited patiently for cranberries to appear at the market.  I picked up these Upper Canada Cranberries a week ago – they’re pretty perfect looking.

I followed the recipe from the Small Batch Preserving cookbook and ended up with almost two full cups of delicious cranberry butter.

The boy and I sampled it on top of our “cheesy mouse biscuits”  (homemade herb crackers that actually have no rodent or cheese components).  If you want to know the story of the ‘salty cheesy mouse biscuits’ you just need to pick up a copy of the book Cherry the Pig.  In the story, Cherry bakes a lovely apple cake, but the mice who nibble at it think it’s awful.  Cherry’s feelings are hurt until she figures out that mice like salty cheesy biscuits.  Suffice to say, we’ve been reading this book a lot.  And I get a lot of requests for “cheesy mouse biscuits!!”.

Using this easy (and vegan!) recipe from the Straight from the Farm blog, I whipped up another batch this week for work.  I happened to be making pasta on the same night, so I thought it might save time to roll the cracker dough out in the pasta maker.  It worked like a charm!  I fed the dough through the rollers to the 3-4 setting and then cut out squares using a rotary ravioli cutter.

Homemade crackers are pretty unusual – despite the fact that they are a snap to make.  The novelty factor will impress everyone from toddlers through senior executives.

Exhibit A.  I’m really proud that he tried the cranberry maple butter (and liked it!) – he’s usually a bit of a jamophobe.

One problem.  Canning seems to require a lot of dishes.  And dishwashing.  Ugh.  What a mess!

After the “great tomato canning weekend of ’11” I caught the canning bug.  Since mustard is off the menu in our house due to allergies, I wanted to have something zingy that we could add to our burgers in its place.  Enter relish!

Looks at those red onions.  They are almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  We picked them up at the farmers market – likely the Roots and Shoots stand, but my memory is a bit fuzzy.

After thinly slicing the fennel, red pepper and onion, they needed to rest for a bit before being cooked.  I followed the handy recipe from Small Batch Preserving (but you can also find a variation online at the Three Clever Sisters.)

I’ve totally mastered the art of small batch canning.  Our large stockpot does double duty sanitizing the jars and then acting as the boiling water canner.  The small pot on the rear of the stove heats up the lids.  And finally, the smaller stock pot is used for cooking.  Easy.

I’m really fond of the small 125mL size jars – they’re the perfect size for condiments like relishes that you don’t use very often.  It’s also a great size for gifting.

Wouldn’t you like to get a little sampler of relishes and jams as a gift?  Affirmative.

This recipe is a keeper -it tastes great and it just looks like summer.  Mmm!

Few food-realted things in Ottawa have made me fume as much as the recent “great cupcake challenge” post on Apartment613.  I was upset that Thimblecakes (my choice for the best cupcakes in Ottawa) seemed to be getting judged unfairly against the competition.  And when I shared my outrage with my husband (a small business owner here in Ottawa), it hit a nerve for him about how people treat entrepreneurs in this city.

This type of food writing also left me with a bad feeling about how us food bloggers go about our business of critiquing food – many of us (myself included) having neither small business or culinary training. (A topic best saved for a separate post.)

On that note, I asked Wendy, the owner of Thimblecakes, if she would be interested in doing an interview for Apron Strings because these negative reviews stung me as if the shop was my own.  People who know me, know how special this shop is in my life (offering nut-free and vegan cupcakes and ice creams). It’s one of the few places I know I can easily take my son out to eat.  With no worries.  It is priceless.  And it is a one of a kind shop in Ottawa. And there are great people behind these cupcakes who truly want you to have a great experience and delicious cupcakes.  Whether you have allergies or not.

Welcome to Thimblecakes!

I wanted readers to know why Thimblecakes is so special and what sets it apart from other cupcake shops. Let’s get to know Thimblecakes!

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Many of your cupcakes are vegan. Are you a vegetarian / vegan?

I call myself a vegetarian with vegan tendancies! (I’m not strict. I cheat on dairy and eggs when it’s convenient! I know so bad! But only organic free range)

(I have been known to sneak cheese in the house after Alden is asleep.  Shh!)

How did you get into the baking business?

I started baking around 4 or 5 years ago when I tried a business venture that was going poorly. Broke, alone and bored my obsession with the Food Network took off. I would watch it while I baked, learning new skills with every batch! I found a new love.

With way too many sweets in the house I started giving them away to neighbours and when I found a new job, my new obsession turned into a business from all my give aways. My regular clientele encouraged me to open a store front and one, Dee even came up with the name after a little brain storming session! I’m so lucky

How did you know it was the right time to open a shop? Did you research other neighbourhoods?  Or was Centretown always the aim?

I did much research. I sat on many benches watching the flow of traffic day and night, weekends and weekdays. I thought I knew every space in the city for lease until I sat at the Bridgehead one day, looked out the window and saw a for lease sign in the window across the street. Woohoo!  It was perfect! 

 Is there a right time to open a small business? I don’t think one can know. You just have to give it a shot and see if people want what you’ve got! 

The cupcake display wall

Your shop is one of the few nut-free bakeries in Ottawa. (Thank you!!) What made you decide to go peanut/nut free?

We knew the unfortunate truth that food allergies are becoming common place. Two of my dear friends, one being my business partner is allergic to nuts and I felt just terrible for them that they would have to miss out on part of a celebration because of an allergy.

 I had tried for a year to be completely vegan so I also understood having to miss out. Then I met some friends that shared with me how hard it was living with an egg allergy. Then it hit me how many people were gluten intolerant. Then another friend mentioned how many young ones (and older ones) have type two diabetes. So we offer the whole spectrum of “free” cakes, because people need it and we can help (and I think they taste pretty darn GREAT!)

(Agreed!  Alden has nosedived into more than a few of your cupcakes.  And despite what a certain Ph.D candidate and university lecturer in law at Carleton thinks – it is not just for unvaccinated granola munchers.  Allergies happen and  Alden is fully vaccinated.  Posts like that make me so angry.  So angry.  No link for you law-man! )

Savouring a mini cupcake

Aside from offering allergy-friendly treats, your business also stands out because of your environmental concerns.  What are some eco-friendly things that people may not know about your shop?

I think it’s really important to use local and organic products and luckily we have many customers that also feel that way! It tastes better, it’s better for the environment and it gives money to local people!

We use environmentally friendly everything, so we apologize in advance if you’re used to Cotonelle at home. We have the rough recycled paper toilet paper at our shop! Myself and my partner take the recycling home every week from the shop as the city won’t give us bins, crazy eh? Same with the compost.

 (Yes!  I know how much our small family tosses into our Green Bin.  I hope food businesses will be able to take part in composting too.  It seems a logical extension to the program.)

People who aren’t parents probably don’t know the controversy over food dyes and artificial flavourings.  What’s your policy?

Our flavourings come from fruits and vegetables, we use very little extracts. (Only mint. I tried to use fresh mint and after a good puree it doesn’t even smell like mint anymore, weird!) The only coloring we use is in the vanillas because some of our clientele wanted to see splashes of bright colour.

 I always see your shop name popping up at local community events. 

We love to be involved with community events! If it wasn’t for this wonderful community, I wouldn’t have a shop! People have been so lovely to us, we try and help everyone that asks us, even if it’s simply a handful of free cupcake cards to give away as a prize for their event.

Our big one this month is for the Maycourt hospice. They’re doing a holiday tour to raise money where people visit the most beautiful homes in the city and upon return can indulge in some ThimbleCakes. I just love the Maycourt, perhaps it strikes the heart for me as my Grandmother had stayed there. What a lovely facility and a wonderful concept.

Last month we were involved with the running of the brides, a Humane Society fundraiser and of course Capital Pride! What fun that was!

I should have taken the photo before I bought half the minis. The dish on the left? All vegan.

Experimenting – do you set aside time each week to experiment with new flavours and combinations or is it more of an ongoing process?

We come up with new recipes every two months to keep our cakes seasonal! I usually put two or three days aside for experiments just before the new flavour launch. For example today we created 6 new flavours including Viva Puff (vegan), sea salt caramel and a lovely apple spice! I love baking! It’s such a fun challenge to create new flavours!

(Sea salt caramel!  My weakness!)

Vegan chocolate ice cream.

And last, but not least.  How do you handle food reviews?  I think you need to have a very thick skin to open a food business.  Everyone seems to have an opinion… and a blog.  : )

To be honest it breaks my heart when someone doesn’t love the thing l have poured my heart and soul into. I am so incredibly proud of this shop, its goodies and the staff that I can’t read them.

Luckily for every one bad one there are 20 rave reviews and three times that of verbal praises, but it’s that one poor one that sticks in my head.

I have a staff member, Jessica, who researches the reviews. I feel it’s still very important to know what people are saying and listen to what they want from us. There is always room for improvement and the pats on the back sometimes feel good too.

Parting words?

I would love for people to know that ThimbleCakes was created out of love! Any baker or chef, home or professional will tell you that there’s something about feeding people. It just feels so good to hear the mmms and “ this is so good” from happy people that it keeps me striving to make cupcakes that everyone can enjoy! 

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There you have it! A glimpse behind the scenes of Thimblecakes.  To my foodie readers, always question who is writing these reviews and don’t be afraid to use your own judgment.  In the world of cupcakes, some people like them sweeter, richer, denser, crumblier, taller, wider, smaller, cheaper….  you get the idea.  Taste and preferences are complicated.  And clearly, with the number of cupcake shops in Ottawa, there is something to suit everyone’s tastes.

Now, if you’ll excuse me,  I’m feeling the need to go eat some cupcakes…  signing off as Wendy would say, “Big smiles!”

369 Bank Street
www.thimblecakes.ca
(613) 695-0109