I am a huge fan of plain yogurt. I much prefer it to the oversweetened flavoured varieties with ingredient lists a mile long or the icky, fake sugar stuff. I buy the higher-fat variety, which has more flavour and is much less sour than the thin, blue-ish fat-free option. I like the natural yogurt flavour with just a spoonful of sugar mixed in. You can alternatively stir in some honey or maple syrup, your favourite jam, or try it with a bit of vanilla extract and then sweeten to taste with sugar.

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In the summer months, when peaches are at their prime, and sweet, juicy berries are abundant, chocolate desserts usually get displaced in my kitchen by fruit concoctions.

This isn’t a conscious shift, but a product of my impulsive shopping, or what I call ‘market fever’. The symptoms of market fever include dizziness and impaired judgment in the presence of produce, and usually results in lumbering home with half one’s weight in local fruit crammed into just two reusable shopping bags, walking 15 blocks with the dog’s leash tied around one’s waist, with fingertips numb and white with loss of circulation. This particular fever is often marked by fresh cherry (or raspberry/blueberry/insert other highly pigmented fruit here __________ ) stains are present around mouth and on shirt front. Continue Reading »

Here’s a great online tool for easy cooking conversions. They have over 7000 foods stored in a database so you can convert specific ingredients from weight to volume, and from metric to US measurements.

I may have just used it to convert milk chocolate from ounces to cups. Perhaps so that I could share with you a recipe for Milk Chocolate Cream Pie with a Pretzel crust… uh huh, I might have just done that…

Making a pie from scratch feels important – like you are part of something that goes way back.

Back to moms and grandmothers with strong hands and pie-crust rolling biceps, flour-dusted frilly aprons and wispy curls of grey hair escaping their braids from the exertion of baking. Back to days of spending hours in a kitchen on a hot summer day, piling fresh-picked, sun-warmed berries into pastry shells, and then letting the hot pies cool in the breeze on the window ledge, attracting hopeful neighbourhood kids and dogs alike.

Making pie is wholesome.

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I would like to tell you about lobsters and sisters. Both are special, but lets talk about sisters first. My adorable, happy-go-lucky, green-eyed sister is particularly special, for many reasons. Here are just a few:

1. She thinks I’m funny! I mean, she actually laughs at my jokes! Usually only I laugh at my jokes, so this is a big one. I’d keep her around just for that.

2. She makes killer chocolate chip cookies. And she always gets lazy scooping dough toward the end, so we get to have a ginormous cookie baked in a pie plate to kick off the cookie fest.

3. She is quiet when she wakes up. To me, this is a mind-blowingly impossible ability. She makes breakfast without banging bowls, dropping spoons, or stubbing her toe. This girl has magic powers.

4. She loves dogs and babies as much as I do, and we can talk to either in silly dog-and-baby babble without thinking the other is less cool. (For example, me to dog: “Well hewro you booful rittle roggle dogger! Aren’t you a handsome devil! Yes you are! You are just the most handsomest dogger woggle in this whole entire house.” – Katie totally gets that, and usually joins in).

5. Her smile makes me smile too no matter how sad or tired or grumpy I may be in that moment.

6. She makes the house feel full, even though you hardly know she’s there. (The words of my mom, who got it exactly right).
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I spent last weekend in Whistler. Great friends, gorgeous sunshine, ethereal mountain views, fresh salad with greens still warm from the garden, a bbq and a gorgeous backyard patio… It was a summer weekend to remember. I even watched my first ever soccer game! And not just because the bar showing it was air-conditioned. Although that definitely helped.

It was hotter than you would ever imagine it could get in a Canadian mountain ski resort, so we retreated from the village to the lake to cool off with a nice swim. Crystal clear green-blue water, with snow capped Whisler and Blackcomb mountains towering impressively in the backdrop – it was truly breathtaking. And I’m not just talking about the view! To swim in that lake was to have your breath quite literally taken away. The water was so cold that it felt like your lungs were being stabbed with a million knives.

After entertaining ourselves at length watching tough guys try to impress their girlfriends with their bravery only to squeal like girls when their… erm… boys… reached the frigid icy water, we were eventually led to seek out alternate means of refreshment. Enter Mojitos.

Mojitos are simple, fresh, and absolutely delicious. Nothing but mint muddled with sugar and lime, rum and soda water. In a cold glass filled with ice, nothing could be more refreshing after a hot day in the sun. We prettied ours up with a handful of raspberries from the back yard. Continue Reading »

This post does not include a recipe, but instead a suggestion! If you, like me, start to hyperventilate at the sight of juicy, succulent, bright local berries, then you may, like me, get a bit overzealous in your purchases.

I had such a moment of dizzy overexcitement at the market this Sunday, which resulted in me coming home with enough BC raspberries and strawberries to give a lesser woman a stomach ache to be nursed in the fetal position. But to my dismay, and despite my very best efforts, I couldn’t eat them fast enough! (Must be something to do with my technique; too much breathing between swallows?)

This morning I woke up to admire my berry bounty when I discovered brown spots disgracing my beautiful strawberries. Noooo!

Once I recovered from the initial panic, I took several deep breaths, and asked myself: Jenn, what do you do do when life gives you blemished berries?

You make jam!

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Summer has officially begun on the West Coast of Canada! Hoorah!

To celebrate, I spent the day at the beach with my adorable furry bottomed friend. I put in some time working on my freckles, examining seashells, doing some neurons-not-required reading, and savouring the first of the local cherries. And despite all of that exhausting labour, I found time to cook! It was the perfect day.

This couscous salad is perfect summer food; delicious, light, cool, and full of bright flavours like herbs, lemon, and fresh garlic. It is perfect picnic food. Perfect potluck food. Perfect side dish to grilled chicken or steak. It is a warm weather staple in my kitchen. Continue Reading »

Hi old friends. My last post was in July. And here we are in July again. Ta da! Can we just fast-forward the in-between and pretend it didn’t happen? No?

Okay, here’s the scoop. I was an intern. In a hospital. Me no likey. I’m a fainter. ‘Nuff said. But it had to be done, and I learned a heckuvalot whilst working my rather distressed hiney off.

And really, all that matters now is that I made it out the other end alive (if slightly worse for the wear and a bit shell-shocked), and got a few pretty letters tacked onto my name in the process. Not to mention I have a very clear picture of what I don’t want to do with my life (which I think is a very important first step in making career decisions). Hoorah!

Now lets pick up where we left off, which was, I believe, celebrating life and summer and delicious food!

I thought a humble pie would be a very symbolic, tail-between-legs way for me to reappear on the blogosphere. Then I found out what humble pie was. Blech. You’ll be very happy I am making you Cinnamon Bun Biscuits instead, and I think you will be much more likely to forgive my absence having spared you the deer innards.

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It’s Summer! It’s Summer! And I’m still here! Except now my brain is in a beachy-happy-place instead of in a library cubicle, my nose deeply planted in an Agatha Christie mystery instead of in a Nutrition and Disease textbook. Hooray! Although sunkissed and befreckled, I’m also a little shame-faced about my total, unexplained hiatus from the blogosphere… It is amazing how fast a week turns into two, turns into three, turns into several. Do you want the Coles Notes version? Okay, here goes:

Mid to late April: Exams! Last ones ever!! Eek! This gives me a strange happy-sad-frightened feeling.

Early May: MEXICO!! Girls getaway. All-inclusive. Endless beaches. Endless tequila. A trip we affectionately refer to as “Swine Oh-Nine”. (But don’t worry, *oink*, no symptoms, *oink*).

May, immediately post Swine-09: Full-time summer course + lots of visiting family = a bustling, happy house… and a very busy (but happy!) Jenn.

Beginning of June – present: Happiness, in the form of: a sister, a bouncy dog, endless sunshine, a whole lotta ice cream, buckets of Corona, a secret beach, a bicycle, a bikini (or ten), strawberries, and freedom.
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