Run Fast. Eat Slow

I finally went out yesterday for a run. It wasn't fast. it wasn't glamorous. It wasn't far. But I did it. I'm hoping that as spring approaches I'll get back into a routine of going more and more.

I wanted to share a few recipes with you from this cookbook, Run fast, Eat slow by Shalane Flanagann and Elyse Kopecky. A friend recommended the book and I ordered it, made one smoothy from it and promptly forgot about it. Last week, I was in Victoria for work..with a quick visit to see Daniele, Paul, Skylar (who despite me being scared of dogs, is so cute and the most gentle dog!!) and of course the latest addition- little Brielle.

When your best friend becomes a mom to the sweetest little girl and makes it look easy <3

So anyway, Daniele had the cookbook as well. She actually does run fast and ran almost the whole time during her pregnancy. Yesterday we were chatting on the phone and she mentioned she was going to make these superhero muffins. Very appropriate name for superhero mom, baker, cleaner! Really, I called at 9am BC time and she was vacuuming.. who does that? :P

I realized I had all the ingredients too. So we both made the muffins, and although we are over 4000 km apart, it almost makes me feel like we are baking together :) ! Here is the superhero muffins recipe and I'll be sharing more soon.



Superhero Muffins

These muffins are so moist and are quite healthy. I admit they look a little out there, but hey don't judge a book by it's cover. Stefan ate them right up. He just told me again how good they are.. and asked why they have chocolate in them because It doesn't go well (see note below about chocolate or raisins).

I always laugh when cookbooks have recipes that "hide" vegetables.. like hmm.. these muffins wouldn't fool anyone. if your kid is a picky eater and you want to trick him/her into eating carrots and zucchini, these would NOT be for them. for everyone else, enjoy!!

We are off to see the Butterflies today at the Museum of Nature! Can't wait!

Food Bloggers of Canada Conference

Over a month ago now, I attended the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference, which took place in Ottawa this year, at the Delta Hotel. I signed up nearly a year ago when tickets were first released. I had been wanting to go for a few years, but with travel and accommodations, it would have been quite expensive. When I saw it was in Ottawa, I jumped at the chance.

I had been travelling out East to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland for work all week. I got home late Friday afternoon, dropped my luggage at home and headed straight to the conference. I got there just in time to admire the view from the penthouse level (Caesar in hand no less!)

What ensued was a fun-filled weekend, with delicious food, great sessions, and inspiring people. It was truly an experience to have so much beautiful, well presented food and be surrounded by like-minded people who are all snapping photos and posting on instagram/snapchat/facebook/twitter..

It took me a few weeks after the conference to go through all the business cards of the people I met and check out everyone's blogs, but I now have so many new blogs to follow. I'll share some of my favourites in a separate post.

Here are a few highlights of the weekend:

1. The swag bag- by far best swag bag, EVER

2. Elizabeth Baird as Keynote Speaker

3. Great Speakers and Sessions

On branding by Sam Turnbull of Fuss Free Vegan

On community building by Deb of Sugared Tea Cup

On Overhead video production 

4. These amazing cakes from Holland Cake and Shake

5. My anniversary surprise.. fine this one wasn't part of the conference, but it was definitely a highlight of my weekend so I couldn't leave it out. Saturday was a year and half anniversary with Stefan (fine I guess that makes it more a month-aversary, but a significant one non-the-less). I had warned Stefan that I would be gone from 8 am till 10pm (sorry babe) but he was so sweet and made me a scavenger hunt with balloons and photos and messages..so sweet and thoughtful!

All in all a great weekend. Many thanks to all the generous sponsors and to Ethan and Mellisa from Food Bloggers of Canada for organizing everything.

I have since made great recipes from the cookbooks I got in the swag bag and will be sharing them soon. Stay tuned as we head into holiday madness.

Part 2: Chilli Pickling

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Does this tongue twister ring a bell? I couldn't help but think of it, while pickling the peppers..I mean chillis..with Stefan on the weekend. We got everything ready to pickle and then realized we didn't have enough vinegar. So we decided to go play squash.. then buy some more vinegar and then get to work. It was a fun little project for a rainy day.

We borrowed this canning pot from Stefan's parents (on the right in the photo below), although if you don't have one, you can just use a regular pot and sterilized tongues.

The pot has a rack inside so you can take the sterilized jars out without touching them.

We loosely followed this recipe from the Roasted Root. Basically, you cut up the chillis, prep onion and garlic, fry to soften them up a bit. Then you sterilize the jars and make your vinegar mixture. You put the chilis in the jars, fill with the vinegar mixture and let cool. Its important to close the jars most of the way and then let cool so that they seal, and then tighten the jars.

These would make great gifts. I made chalk labels that say "Spice up Your Life". They are really spicy! Too spicy for me right now, but maybe after some time they will be more tolerable ;) Maybe next time we will try roasted red peppers.

Part 1: Chili Plant

Back in July, I got Stefan two chilli plants for his birthday. Did you know, we have the exact same birthday? Same day and year. We are maybe two hours apart. When we first met and found that out, we calculated the chances and it was something like 1 in 6000. Pretty crazy right? I don't know if I believe much in horoscopes and astrology but we do have similar personality traits and I wonder if it's the birthday.  We have teachers in both our families, family in Austria and Poland (so nearby) and both went to French school. For a couple years after university,  I lived with Keldi in a house diagonally behind Stefan's family home. We had a few friends in common, but never met. I'm surprised our paths hadn't crossed sooner, but glad that they finally did :)

We have both taken an interest in photography in the last few years. Stefan is really talented. We woke up early yesterday and decided to go check out these stromatolite fossils over on the Quebec side of the Island Park bridge. I had been before, but forgotten how beautiful it is there.

Anyway, back to the birthday and the chilis. I had seen a chilli plant in the market and went back early one morning with Daniele to sneakily buy it, but the stand was closed. I could see the plant but it was fenced in..hmm what to do? Well luckily we found another booth that was open and had some other types of chillies and I decided to get a hot chilli plant and a Hungarian chilli plant.

I always call them chilli peppers, but Stefan is advising me that it's wrong..they are not peppers, just chillies. He says it's a taxonomy error.. hmm.  Regardless of the name, Stefan really liked them, and it was a gift that kept on giving. Because we don't get much sun on our balcony and were heading off to Europe, we asked Stefan's parents if we could keep them in their garden. Stefan's mom is a wonderful gardener, and I'm not sure what she did, but the plants flourished and we got so many chillies! It was a lovely surprise to see about 40 of them on the plants.

Back in July 

Beginning of October 

Stay tuned for Part 2 on pickling.

A Jaunt in Paris

So, I took a quick little trip to Paris for a long weekend to celebrate my friend Annelies' birthday. She was in Europe from Argentina, and I decided to make the trek across the pond to celebrate with her and our other bestie Manar, who came from London. It was so good for the soul :)

It might seem a bit extravagant, and it was a little, but I found a great price on the flight, which made it affordable. I was so lucky to get upgraded on the way there, as there was a couple that wanted to sit together, so they asked if I minded switching seats. who would mind being upgraded? Now that's love. Sitting with your wife back in economy class and forgoing the little luxuries of your ticketed seat. I'd like to think I would do the same but who knows. It was very nice to have the extra leg room and the food was much better. 

We stayed at a lovely airbnb in the Marais, which was great.

Paris was absolutely beautiful, and the weather was warm and sunny. We walked and walked and ate, and stopped at cafes, and hung around in parks, and did a bit of shopping, and even some wedding dress shopping (no, not for me!) met up with another friend from high school, and caught up with friends from Montreal. We spent time with Annelies' friend and her newborn baby--adorable. 

Sur les Champs Elysees

Here are some photos of food 

Delicious brunch at the Hardware Societe

Croque Monsieur avec frites

Cobb Salad

Delicious Steak

Breakfast at the airbnb

and some other photos

Near Sacre Coeur

Tour Eiffel

Coffee Break

Rooftop Cafe Oz

Cafe Oz

Us at Cafe Oz

Nightime View

Les filles

Macarons from La Duree
to bring home for bae and my parents

Until next time Paris. 

Mealshare

Have you gone to Origin Trade in the market?

If not, drop everything and head on over. It's a cute coffee shop/bar lounge that serves delicious food in a cozy atmosphere.  I was there recently for a private event to learn more about Mealshare, an organization that works to end youth younger.

Origin has some sweet specials. I will definitely heading back there soon!

Mealshare has already donated over 1.3 million meals to youth in need through their charity partners. Lets help them give more. Mealshare has a buy 1 give 1 approach. If you buy a Mealshare menu item at one of the partner restaurants, the restaurant donates to mealshare, who in turn gives the money to organizations such as Boys and Girls Club and Operation Come Home, and they provide meals to youth.

A snapshot of a few that work hard to make this all happen-
including Mariam from Mealshare (second from the left)

Delicious Food from origin Trade

Mealshare has some new partners and the list of restaurants is really impressive. In Ottawa, the participating restaurants are:

The Red Lion

The Shore Club

Social

Petit Bill's Bistro

The Albion Rooms

CRAFT Ottawa

Clocktower Brew Pub

Perspectives

10Fourteen

Art Is In Bakery

Black Cat Bistro

Coconut Lagoon

Industria

Pure Kitchen

Feast + Revel

Origin Trade

Beckta

Restaurant 18

Wellington Gastropub

La Roma 

Trattoria Caffe Italia

Sutherland Restaurant Bar & Cafe

Red Apron

Pascale's Ice Cream

Pressed 

Head on out for a nice lunch or dinner at one of these delicious restaurants and order a mealshare item.There is no additional cost to you, and it will mean a lot to the recipient. As someone who gets hangry when I haven't eaten for a few hours, I can't stress enough the importance of proper nutrition. Lets give our youth the best chance of success. Thank you to Mealshare and its partners for making this happen and for giving us a way to give!

Pie Workshop at Life of Pie

Pastry Hands On

I came across this "Pastry hands on" workshop by chance and jumped at the opportunity to do it. i immediately asked my friend J as she and Pat always get quiches and pics from life of pie. unfortunately she was fighting a bad cold and wasn't able to attend :(.. but luckily Antonella stepped in and we had a great time! 

dream mixer

making the dough

my quiche dough

mini tarts

they had fruit inside

learning from the best

filling the tarts with fruit mixture and topping

Anto making it look easy

ready to go in the oven

finished quiche

finished tarts

This hands on course was great. the class was small enough that you really got to learn. We each went home with 6-10 tarts, a quiche and enough dough to make about 6 more pies. wow!! I won't give away all the pie lady's secrets and recipes, but i recommend this course if it's offered again. Apparently they will also have a course on making scones..mmm..yum!!