Tuesday Food Basket

Our CSA - Jardins du Tessa is back and bringing us our lovely food basket every 2 weeks throughout the winter. We signed up for the weekly basket in the summer and have been so impressed we have decided to do it year round. Every week we go to our community center to pick up our basket and there is always so much tasty food. The best part is, it's all local, organic, and freshly harvested. I can't say enough about how great this CSA is. This was what was in our basket this week.

It included onions, red cabbage, a baby pumpkin, rutabaga, shallots, carrots, potatoes, spaghetti squash, beets and jerusalem artichoke.

Bakery Love

I am so excited because on the weekend we found the most amazing new bakery that has opened - 3 blocks from our house! The only thing our neighborhood has been missing is really great cafe. Not any more. Welcome De Farine & D'eau Fraiche.

1. Button cookies and home made pocky 2. The heart shaped tea and rose cake we bought (and devoured) 3. Pretty glass cake displays 4. Passion fruit cake 5. Display of mini cakes that can be made to order

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Soup

This soup was simple and very delicious. The idea came from The Vegan Table, but I made my own version.

Pumpkin Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp chili flakes
2 cups veggie stock
1 15-ounce can organic pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp real maple syrup
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish
1 cup roasted corn, for garnish

1. Heat oil medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until onion begins to soften.
2. Add turmeric, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and cayenne. Lightly toast in pan by stirring for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add vegetable stock, pumpkin puree, maple syrup and lime juice. Bring to a boil by raising heat, then turn down heat to obtain a gentle simmer. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
4. Remove saucepan from the heat. Stir in the non-dairy milk. At this point you could blend this but I didn't bother.
5. Served topped with roasted corn, pumpkin seeds and some fresh ground pepper

Banana Berry Muffins

I did some baking last week out of a new cookbook I got at Christmas call La Dolce Vegan. These were suppose to be banana blueberry - but all I had was mixd berries so in they went. They are okay - but something about the molasses in these was not to my taste.

Facebook Challange

A few weeks ago there was a facebook status update going around saying:
"Pay It Forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade by me to the first 5 people who leave a comment here saying that they are in on this. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status.* The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent out to your 5 people sometime in 2011."

So I posted it. However I only received 2 comments back (I have to say it put my craftiness into question!) But I decided that these 2 lovely friends would receive a few handmade things throughout the the year rather than just one. This was the first: handmade postcards with owls on them (I have been very inspired by animal stationary lately).

 

Friday Photo Collage

 

1.  Dinner - minted mashed potatoes and  green beans 2. Our new toy the Whirley-pop which makes amazing stove top popcorn 3. Dinner - baked beans, cornbread and cabbage 4. Yummy lunch of bread, pears and gingerbread cookies 5. My new knitting project

Vegan Baked Beans and Corn Bread

 I have been craving baked beans lately so I started searching through my cookbooks and came across this beauty in Veganomicon. I also made some cornbread from the same cookbook. Served with some Earth Balance, maple syrup and cabbage on the side it made for a really nice winter meal.

Awesome Animal Stationary part 2

Even more sweet stationary.

 1. Lady pilot letter press 2. heather kintner 3. adorapop 4. A hue of duck egg blue 5. Vanja Kragulj 6. Three dog party

New Dish-ware

The past few years we have received some beautiful dish-ware from Ps family. Here is a selection of some of our loot.

1. Set of three dishes from Maxwell Williams 2. Crème brûlée dishes from Sophie Conran for Portmeirion 3. Butter dish from Sophie Conran for Portmeirion 4. Cupcake stand by Luxe (Wildly Delicious) 

Recycled Jar Pencil Holder

 Remember when you were a kid and made art projects using scraps of paper wrapped around the end of a pencil and glued to the page? I made this pen holder a little while ago for my desk at work using that same technique - except with tissue paper wrapped around wire to make a delicate flower.

Awesome Animal Stationary part 1

I was browsing around Etsy and came across some really sweet stationary that I wanted to share. They just make you want to write a note to someone.

1. Man vs George Design 2. henri hopper 3. Pencil Shavings 4. Thompsondesigns 5. Cryptogamaelacrime 6. Bang bang youre thread

Knit Tie

Another project I finished over the holidays - a knit tie for P. He is wearing it a lot which I take as a good sign. It was good practice for this new knitter on increasing and decreasing.

Friday Photo Collage

My week (s) in photos

1. My new favorite wine Goats do Roam 2. Mortar and pestle to crush spices for these gingerbread cookies 3. guacamole and dukkah eaten at new years 4. Crazy art installation near our house. The red lights turn white when you walk by 5. Apple slices with lemon and cinnamon (my attempt to make lunches cuter) 6. Dinner last night

Coffee Cup Cozy

I just started knitting and I made these as x-mas gifts this year. They were simple to make but I think they are so cute.

Hand Made Christmas

P and I have a tradition of making collaborative gifts for family at Christmas. This year we did these really cool embroidered pictures of family members. P drew all the portraits then I hand stitched them. I think they were well received.

Roll Out Cookies

P and I are back home after spending the holidays in Calgary. I had some time and came across some cute cookie cutters so I thought I would make these sugar cookies from vegetariantimes.com and these gingerbread cookies from theppk.com.

Both turned out yummy but the dough for the sugar cookies was too crumbly for my liking and only baked up okay. The gingerbread dough however turned out perfect and was easy to work with. They were soft with crunchy little edges. So yummy! I did add 2 Tbsp of fresh ginger instead of dried and I also added some ground black pepper because I like my ginger cookies spicy.