loveliness.

Category: food

• chocolat

  Posted at 11:21 pm by jasminedesirees, on November 13, 2013

  Probably since the first time I watched Chocolat I’ve harboured a secret belief that I was the main character in a previous life and that given the right set of circumstances,  the inate talent that I possessed would emerge and all my dreams of being a master chocolatier, dating Johnny Depp, and wearing my hair in a sassy bob would come true.

  Nobody likes chocolate more than I do, and I firmly believe that (I am eating some even as I write this), but a couple of weeks ago I signed up for a chocolate making class with Rachel Dunn chocolates in Concord, and let me tell you, if anyone likes chocolate more than I do, it is Rachel.

  Rachel has been making chocolate since she was 17, her chocolates are world famous, and she owns her own company that does nothing but make chocolate every single day. They say if you want to be successful in business, you need to do what you’re passionate about, and Rachel is passionate about chocolate.

  She stood up in front of the class and introduced herself, and you could tell that she was thrilled, absolutely elated, to be sharing the art of chocolate making with a new group of people.

  She could barely contain herself as she lamented the lost art of candy making, shared every single thing she knew about chocolate and candy making, and expressed the fervent belief that we would leave the workshop and share what we had learned with all of our friends and family. She truly loves chocolate, and wants other people to get the same joy from it that she does.

  The class itself was great, it was 2 hours long and we made about 15 different kinds of candy, including truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries, English toffee, peanut butter cups, and a ganache tart.

  It was really fun and informative, and the candy we made was delicious. The best part is that she sends everyone home with recipes for all of the things we made in class, so you can make them at home for your friends and family. Or eat them all yourself when your husband is gone to Mexico for a week. There is no judgement here.

  World famous candied applies

  

  

  I may have gotten slightly carried away with the peanut butter in my peanut butter cups

  

  I am practically a professional strawberry tuxedo applier. That’s probably a real job.

  Posted in chocolate, food | 0 Comments | Tagged candy, chocolate, food, learning, Rachel Dunne, recipes

• perogies

  Posted at 11:06 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 25, 2013

  For Thanksgiving last week I made homemade perogies. I like to pretend it’s to share my culture with other people but mostly I just love perogies. They are kind of a pain to make from scratch and I can’t find anywhere to buy them here so I don’t make them very often, but when I do, they are glorious.

  I used this recipe.

  this

  plus this

  plus four pounds of cheese= this

  this

  plus a rolling pin and a drinking glass

  equals these delicious morsels, plus carpal tunnel syndrome from working the dough and rolling it out

  finished product and also proof that there is beauty in the world. Let’s be honest, I was too busy eating these to take a decent picture.

  Luckily I made way too much bacon and had about a pound left over to nibble on to give me sustenance through this arduous task. Once the perogies are done, I boil them in hot water until they float, then saute them with butter and onions until they are brown.

  Serve with sour cream and mushroom soup sauce (canned mushroom soup + water +microwave) and you can even add ranch if you are throwing all sense of caloric decency to the wind. My dad says if you eat too many perogies you will start to look like one. Which is probably true. But there are worse things you could look like, am I wrong?

  Posted in food, friends, recipes | 0 Comments | Tagged cooking, perogies, pierogies, recipes, Thanksgiving

• giving thanks

  Posted at 9:19 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 16, 2013

  Monday was Thanksgiving (I try not to call it Canadian Thanksgiving even though I’m sure some people think I just can’t read a calendar because it kind of feels weird and dis-associative. It’s MY Thanksgiving so I feel like I shouldn’t qualify it, as though I’m saying it’s not REALLY Thanksgiving).

  I haven’t been able to be home for Thanksgiving in a very long time, but it’s become a tradition to celebrate it with friends, food and lots of booze, and it’s far enough away from American Thanksgiving (ha) that I’m not interfering with anyone’s plans with their family.

  I’ve had some very memorable celebrations, the time at our Sheridan St apartment or “the ghetto” as it was less than affectionately referred to by our friends, when we didn’t have any furniture except for a tiny, musty futon and ended up eating and cooking most of our meal sitting on the living room carpet.

  There was the year that my sister made electric purple sweet potato casserole that was way too nasty looking to eat. The year my friends in North Dakota surprised me with a Thanksgiving celebration of fries and gravy (poutine’s cheeseless counterpart), ketchup chips and perogies even though in their opinion, and this is a direct quote “Canadians don’t even believe in pilgrims.”

  And one of my fondest orphaned Thanksgiving stories, my first year living in Honolulu when my room mates who I’d only known for a couple of months surprised me with a KFC picnic in our new dorm room to celebrate. It was my first holiday so far from home and to this day I think it was the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me.

  This year was no exception, Derek and I had a turkey cook off (I’m pretty sure I won, ahem) and a bunch of our favourites came over to help us eat it (even though there were 10 of us, we didn’t put a dent in that turkey, in case you were wondering what I’ll be eating for the next two weeks). We had perogies, mashed potatoes, stuffing and some amazing mac and cheese, way too many desserts, and some very intense beer pong matches.

  There was the small matter of a puppy almost getting ran over by a car, but it’s pretty likely that it’s not even possible for horrifying catastrophes to occur on Thanksgiving, and everyone walked away unscathed.

  So as a status update, today I am feeling fat and happy because of all the delicious things I’ve had to eat lately, and also lucky that I’ve had the opportunity to make so many good friends, all over the place.

  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  
  Posted in food, friends, holidays, life | 0 Comments | Tagged Canada, food, friends, holidays, life, Thanksgiving

• eat all the things.

  Posted at 9:07 pm by jasminedesirees, on August 22, 2013

  I have a friend coming in to town over Labour Day weekend from L.A., and she was wondering about the best places to eat in San Francisco for a truly delicious, unique experience. I asked my food-loving co-workers for suggestions, and I got a lot of feedback. It turned into a pretty impressive list, so I decided to share it.

  I’ve been to the first few, and really enjoyed them, and I’m pretty excited to start eating my way through the rest of the list.

  Tacolicious– The tacos here are really delicious, they have a bunch of different kinds, and they have really interesting margarita flavours to try as well.

  Spruce– This place is a little more expensive but it’s really funny because if you go in here, every.single. person. is eating a burger. Their burgers are amazing, their fries taste like potato chips, and they gave us a free giant cookie when we came in for being first time visitors, but I was already so full from eating everything else that I was like “I’ll never be able to eat this cookie, I’ll have to save it for tomorrow”. And then I ate the whole thing before we even made it home.

  Cafe Delucchi– In North Beach, the “Italian” part of the city, I went for dinner here a few weeks ago with my Italian girlfriend and it was so friggin good. Then we went across the street for hot chocolate and cannoli’s, it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.

  Tartine– I’ve never been here but I’ve had food from here. It’s pretty much an SF institution, and their flourless chocolate cake might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

  Flour and Water– Pizza and pasta, came very highly recommended

  Thanh Long– Vietnamese fusion cuisine

  Burma Superstar- Apparently a very unique experience.

  Yank Sing– Deem Sum

  State Bird Provisions– This place has a constantly evolving menu, and is apparently a cliche, but classic San Francisco suggestion

  Golden Boy– People are pretty crazy about this pizza place.

  Frances– A bit expensive but really good food-

  AQ– Uses seasonal ingredients to make brand new

  Mission Chinese– Life changingly good Chinese.

  Swan Oyster Depot– A place to get very fresh seafood. I’ll be taking my sister and brother-in-law here for sure.

  Foreign Cinema– I’ve heard the food here is amazing, and the really cute thing is that they show movies on the wall of the court yard.

  AsiaSF:  It’s a bar and restaurant but the servers are really beautiful drag queens. It’s apparently a must do for visitors to the city, I might take my sister there when she comes in to town tomorrow.

  The Latin American Club: If you like margaritas as much as I do, and I’m not sure that it’s possible to, you should check this place out.

  And the final suggestion I was given: get a bacon wrapped hot dog in the mission. We used to go to Mazatlan all the time to see my Grandpa, and the bacon wrapped hot dogs they sell on the street at 2 a.m. are a thing of beauty, so we’ll see. Big shoes to fill, and what not.

  I’d love to get more suggestions, so if you have any for me, please leave them in the comments. 🙂

  Posted in food, San Francisco | 0 Comments | Tagged food, foodie, restaurants, San Francisco, Spruce, State Bird Provisions, Tacolicious, tartine

• food porn

  Posted at 2:48 am by jasminedesirees, on July 10, 2013

  This might be a really weird thing to share, but I saw these videos the other day and they are gorgeous. I basically quit my job and signed up for culinary school immediately, and who would want to eat potato chips and canned slop when there is food out there that is this beautiful?

  It’s food art, and even though it’s advertising, I could watch these all day.

  
  minimOilism No. 9 from agency twofifteen on Vimeo.

  
  minimOilism No. 17 from agency twofifteen on Vimeo.

  
  minimOilism No. 6 from agency twofifteen on Vimeo.

  
  minimOilism No. 4 from agency twofifteen on Vimeo.

  Posted in food, nutrition | 0 Comments | Tagged advertising, food, food porn, healthy eating, natural eating, nutrition

• banana chocolate chip

  Posted at 4:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 28, 2013

  There isn’t much in this world I hate more than I hate bananas. Apparently (according to my mother) from the time I was old enough to eat solid food, I’ve had a unique hatred that borders on phobia, and refused to have anything to do with them.

  I personally think it’s a texture thing, since they don’t really have an overpoweringly strong smell or taste to them, and I was intrigued when I recently came across this recipe, and decided to test that theory.

  The basic premise is that you make pancakes with just one banana and one egg, rather than unhealthy pancake batter. I also added a little pinch of salt to add a little depth to the flavour.

  I wasn’t expecting much from this recipe (I also hate pancakes, and refuse to eat them except as a vehicle to consume large amounts of chocolate for breakfast) but it was actually really delicious. It didn’t taste like bananas, and the texture was very pancake-ish.

  It’s a very simple recipe

  Mash up the banana…

  Add one egg and a pinch of salt and beat

  Cook like you would a regular pancake, with a tiny bit of oil or cooking spray

  Add chocolate chips (or blueberries, nuts, etc) and flip

  Put on a plate

  Demolish in 5 seconds flat (with Derek’s help)

  I will definitely be making these again as a “healthy” snack or for breakfast. I also think they would be good with a dash of cinnamon and vanilla, and then served with sugar free syrup and a sprinkle of icing sugar, like french toast without the bread or the frenchness.

  Posted in chocolate, food, recipes | 0 Comments

• superbowl weekend

  Posted at 5:00 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 6, 2013

  We had a very busy weekend last weekend, my brother in law and his girlfriend are having a baby in April, and the baby shower was Saturday.

  

  

  Cantaloupe baby head, the picture isn’t the greatest but it was super cute

  Sooo many presents

  Strawberry and lemon cupcakes (but sadly, none for me)

  The In-Laws

  

  In case you were wondering, this is what you eat on Superbowl Sunday when  you can’t eat any of the chicken wings, delicious dips or brownies.. I was especially sad about the brownies, but I made this amazing fruit salad with strawberries, blackberries, kiwi, pineapple, raspberries, and grapes, and no disgusting melon. I love fruit salad and would order it all the time but usually it is half honeydew melon, half cantaloupe with one strawberry on top.

  I hate cantaloupe, it’s been pointed out that I may have a irrational hatred for it, I can’t even be in the same room with it because the smell makes me sick. But my fruit salad was delicious, and between that, grilled chicken and veggie skewers, I still managed to eat myself into a mini-food coma.

  

  

  Posted in food, life | 0 Comments

• quinoa salad

  Posted at 4:52 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 5, 2013

  Since I’ve been doing my cleanse, I’ve had to be a bit less discriminating about some of the things I’m willing to eat, if only out of sheer boredom. I’m kind of a picky eater, so there are lots of things that are probably delicious together that I just would never think to combine.

  My girlfriend turned me on to this recipe for a quick, delicious lunch, and as I was getting pretty sick of quinoa, tamari and veggies every day, I was excited to have a new option.

  You will need:

  2 cups cooked quinoa
  4-5 dried apricots (avoid brand with added sugar or preservatives)
  2 tablespoons dried cranberries
  1 handful of slivered unsalted almonds
  1 tblsp olive oil
  1-2 tblsp balsamic vinegar

  Chop up the apricots, then combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, mix and serve.

  This salad can be served warm or cold, I’ve eaten it both ways and it is super simple to make, and delicious.

  My only word of caution would be to add the balsamic vinegar a little at a time, I added too much once and it was NOT an enjoyable experience.

  Enjoy!

  Apparently I need a new cutting board

  

  
  Posted in food, nutrition, recipes | 0 Comments

• hungry for change

  Posted at 5:02 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 1, 2013

  After my little rant last week, I was still feeling pretty frustrated about nutrition. I know I don’t eat the best all the time, and I know that eating as much chocolate as I do is probably not ideal, but I KNOW that. What I want to know is how I should be eating most of the time, so that I can sometimes eat desserts and cheesy things (mmm lasagna) and know that I’m still eating as healthy as I could be, at least 80% of the time.

  I started reading the book Clean by Alejandro Junger and it had some great suggestions for ways to get started eating healthier, and even some recipes. I also watched Hungry for Change, a documentary (available on Netflix) and it was actually kind of crazy how it addressed a lot of the things I was talking about last week. I would definitely recommend this film for anyone who wants to learn more about nutrition.
   

  The film talks about how our diet now is so much different from how it was back when people had to hunt or find everything they ate, at every meal. Our food used to be very nutrient rich, and low calorie, things like lean proteins, veggies, fruits, etc. Now our food is low nutrition, but very high calorie, so even though people are eating so many more calories, they aren’t getting the nutrition they need, so they can be overweight, but actually starving to death from lack of proper nutrition.

   
  It also explained how, even though our environment and the availability of food has changed drastically, our body is still designed the way it originally was (basically). So we are designed to gain weight whenever there is excess food because we used to need it, there could be a drought or long winter, and it might be a long time before our next meal, so storing up calories was very necessary. But now, our body still stores up calories in order to keep us nourished when food is not available, but now, for most people in America, there isn’t a time when we don’t have food, so we just keep storing.
   

  The one thing that really stuck with me from the film, though, is about all of the additives and preservatives that can be found in a most processed foods.. except Peanut M&M’s right? Those are still ok? RIGHT?
   

  It’s actually gets a little scary when you start to really look at the food labels, and see what some of them contain. With the help of Google, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t know what most of that stuff even was. And I guess that’s the problem? If you really don’t know what something is, why would you put it in your mouth? Or into your children’s mouth’s?
   

  Since I started reading the book, I’ve been trying out the “cleanse” that it suggests. Well, sort of. It’s like a pre-cleanse cleanse called the Elimination Diet, and basically you just cut out sugar, processed foods, dairy, read meat and wheat products. At first I was like, but what’s left? But there is actually a lot you can eat, mostly free range chicken, wild caught fish, and organic fruits and veggies, you just have to get creative, because it can get a little boring (I actually made fish for supper last night… this has NEVER happened before, ever).
   

  It’s not bad for a “cleanse”, because you still get to eat, which is a necessity for me. I’ve been having a smoothie every morning (recipe here) with fruit as a snack before lunch. For lunch it’s been either quinoa, veggies and chicken, or this really great quinoa salad my friend turned me on to (recipe here) and I eat almonds as a snack. For dinner, it’s chicken and veggies, and I drink TONS of green tea all day.
   

  I don’t really know what I’m expecting I guess, I’ve been doing it for a week, and I can tell I’ve lost weight, but I have also felt a bit more tired, which can be a side effect. I guess what I am hoping is that after 2 more weeks, I’ll feel so amazing that I will want to keep eating like this most of the time, with occasional trips to the Cheesecake Factory, for special occasions.

  This Sunday is the Superbowl though, hopefully I can keep it up! I’ll keep you posted.
   

  If anyone has seen the film or read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
  Posted in food, nutrition, thoughts | 0 Comments

• smooth operator

  Posted at 5:45 pm by jasminedesirees, on January 31, 2013

  I’ve been doing a “cleanse” for the last 8 days (more on that tomorrow) but I’ve been starting the day with a fruit and veggie smoothie. It’s only been just over a week, but I can already tell I’ve lost weight, and most importantly, the reason I decided to try this in the first place, I just feel better.

  It’s kind of hard to explain, I just feel lighter, never bloated or full or “gross” as I like to say, and I don’t get “starving” anymore. One of the things I read before starting this was that it can put you back in touch with the real feeling of hunger, because you aren’t eating for cravings, or out of boredom, and there is nothing really “fancy” to eat, so you are just eating basic food that you need to not be hungry, and to get vitamins and nutrients.

  I still have almost 2 weeks left, so I’m excited to see how I feel in a couple more weeks, and if I can find any really noticeable changes.

  Here is my morning smoothie recipe:

  2 cups coconut water
  1 large handful of kale
  1 sprig of fresh Parsley
  1 tsp coconut oil
  1 tsp ground flax seed
  1 tblsp chia seeds
  4 frozen peach sections
  1 handful of frozen mixed berries

  Combine coconut water, kale and parsley in blender, blend well to break up greens. In a separate glass, mix one tblsp chia seeds with 1 tblsp coconut water, set aside. Mix remaining ingredients into blender. Lastly, pour in chia seeds, which will have combined with the coconut water to make a gel. Blend and serve.

  

  

  Soaking chia seeds

  Yum

  I’ve been making it every morning for over a week now, and I like to play around with the ingredients a bit. Sometimes I omit the mixed berries, and instead add in 1 whole peeled kiwi, which is really delicious. I also want to try mixing in other veggies, like cucumber.

  Sometimes I will add a little bit of Naked juice Green Machine for a some extra fruit, but just a splash or two.

  
  

  
  Posted in food, nutrition, recipes | 0 Comments

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