In my old life, a typical weekend would involve work. Baking. Watching Euro-movies on my laptop in the background. Lather, rinse, repeat.

In my new life this weekend, there was work… there was A LOT of baking. There was watching Euro-movies on my laptop in the background. AND THEN… there was a baptism?

One of these things is not like the others, I KNOW, but do you remember this?

When I arrived in Calgary at the end of October, the little bean had grown to this:

And now, she’s a WHOLE KID! In honour of her jettisoning her original sin this weekend, by mom’s request, I baked a vanilla cake with lemon curd and vanilla bean frosting that read, “Yay yay, Sia’s baptised today”, and then 12 cupcakes with a lemon centre and 12 plain vanilla—all with a baby foot on them. I did it because Sia’s a baby (and has feet), but the more religious amongst us preferred to see something divine in the decoration. I was told not to ask, lest the conversation devolve into politics. (!!)

ANYWAY: for my new best friend, Sia, I spent a ton of hours in my new kitchen (which I haven’t learned to love yet)—but I will do anything for my best friend. She’s that awesome, at just 5 months old…

and it’s her party, so she can pick at the fondant if she wants to… (ick, baby! Please don’t eat it!)

I *love* this kid. Funniest, most easy-going bébé I’ve ever seen. Currently the best person I know.

So I guess my life is kinda the same, but long live the differences!

Happy Boxing Day!

I have just spent a lovely Christmas doing absolutely none of my usuals… I usually spend the day on my own (which is my choice!); I have chocolate for breakfast, cheese for a mid-day snack and salmon for dinner; I watch The Sound of Music and go for Starbucks coffee—if it’s open.  It’s my ritual, and I love having a 100% free day in which I can have all the quiet time I want, and zero guilt about not working.

This year was drastically different… and surprisingly great! I have preferred to be on my own for the last years mostly because our “family Christmas” became de-centralised when my sisters and I grew up, and the traditions just vanished—after that, I had in my mind what I liked Christmas to be, and I made it what I wanted. BUT: if I went to others’ Christmases, I felt like I was missing out—seeing others have their Christmas and me not having mine bummed me out a little.

With all this in mind, I meant only to overnight in Van on my way back to the Hinterlands, but then Tara got the Christmas claws in me: and it’s hard to say no to her—especially when she was offering Christmas morning with a happy baby, a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old and her Mom’s excellent cooking…

It was so fun to be with little believers! And to eat an Eastern-European-inspired Christmas dinner! Big thanks to Tara and her family for a great day—and there’s no better way to remember it than in pics!

… and then there was brunch…

… and dinner! Featuring turkey (no!), smashed potatoes, yam pie, perogies, piroshkys (new fave!), salad, buns, stuffing, and cabbage rolls. Yessssss!

Yum. Hope everyone had a happy few days—I’m off to run my “no carb left behind” Christmas off!

I look forward to pomegranate season all year. Now that it’s here, I’m looking for every conceivable way I can find to sneak pommies into my diet, on one condition: I like to keep them as unadulterated as possible, because a) if they’re just juiced or b) hidden, then a) I could just *buy* Pom juice no matter the season, or b) it’s basically WASTED!!

I bought a box of six pommies at Costco last Friday, and though I’ve been known to eat two poms (alone!) a day in the past, fructose fails to thrill me as it used to… I’m sure not giving up the red riot, however—think of the anti-oxidants! Think of the children! It would be a crime not to do my part and ingest at least as many poms as I have fingers and toes during this fine pomegranate season.

I find it really satisfying to shuck the poms: I do a couple at a time, my fingernail beds turn purple, and I play a game I call “no seed left behind”,  in which the object is for me to save *every* unburst seed I can, while still chucking the too-soft, purpling ones. And when it’s all over… well, some #5 usually breaks out. And I give in. For the sake of the children…

1. In a Pomegranate-Pear Fall Salad

2. As a garnish, ’cause they’re so pretty.

(This is the flourless chocolate cake I made for my neighbour’s 21st birthday on Sunday last… with a little whip cream on top. Hated the tip I used, but apparently, the dessert was a win!)

and you’ll remember this little beauty from last Friday—the apple-frangipane-pom tart:

3. In cupcakes!

I made these last year for a birthday—they’re grapefruit pomegranate cupcakes with grapefruit cream cheese frosting… and pomegranates FTW!

A-ha moment: every bite comes with a splash of pommie juice—they sink in the batter, but stay intact when baking. In fact, I think the batter is like a buffer, because I tossed some pommies into my pancake protein pancakes but the heat from the pan broke them down. Not so when baked in a cupcake! This one was a real winner, though I say it myself…

4. As a delightful mocktail:

I mortar-and-pestled some pomegranate seeds, and mixed the juice with sparkling water… tossing in some (floating? Cool! ) pom seeds as a garnish was delicious… though *nothing* looks appetising in an iPhone pic, does it?

(Action shot!)

And… 5. With a spoon.

Are you in pom-rhapsody, too? What seasonal treats do you look forward to?

It is a weekend of many posts—in part because there’s lots to say, and in part to make up for my dereliction earlier this month while chasing that bloody deadline…

So! Here we go!

Things I forgot to do yesterday: eat and drink. I had a stunning pumpkin protein pancake breakfast, which carried me right through the day until I went to the event. Imagine that!! I *never* forget to eat—but it’s awfully different spending a day hustling and bustling, and not just desk-bound. I kind of liked spending energy on activity instead of just brainpower…

My menu was modified in the end by two things—first, cost, and the need to stay within budgetary constraints. I can do that!

Second, I had seen fresh figs at Costco last week. This week? Well, I saw a VITA-MIX, live and in person (bigger than I thought!)… apparently, Vita-Mix tours Costcos and sells the blenders for $499, which is a passable discount in Canada, since they sell originally for $579 on the website, and we have no option to hit the refurbished models like in the US…

But I digress. This week at Costco, there was nary a fresh fig to be found. Alas and alack! BUT! I did find these babies:

Oh, the fun I will have with YOU, little pommies!

But it did mean a quick menu re-vamp… and this was the end result:

A veggie tray with edamame hummus (not photographed, and the hummus was purchased in the end because there was a special on dips, and I got the hummus and baba ganouj for a steal!); also unphotographed was the baba ganouj with pita wedges.

The cheeses were Stilton (ick!), double smoked cheddar, and Chevre, all purchased for a reasonable price at Costco… and then the fun began!

Fudgy brownies with a dot of pumpkin-cream cheese frosting… the brownies were just slightly overbaked, in my opinion (grrr!), and the frosting was too soft because I didn’t have enough icing sugar on hand. So they were ugly… but they tasted good enough.

Now, of course, I’m left with this:

And the me of yesteryear might have had to resort to throwing it out to avoid eating it… but now, I’m wondering what else can I make with it? It’s a bit soft, still… but I’m thinking sandwich cookies. Stay tuned!

I also made a frangipane-apple tart:

I took the recipe from here, though I used only half the frangipane, and dressed it all up with pommies (some before baking and some after). It was declared a fabulous tart, and on the inside all I could think was “this tart *almost* never was! Phew!”

I had started out cobbling together bits and pieces of different recipes to make the tart, borrowing the base from my Martha Stewart baking handbook (which, in fairness, I’ve had both stunning successes and crushing defeats from)… and this is what happened:

WHY, tart dough? WHY won’t you come together?

Fortunately, the recipe I ended up using after that first fail (and a minor panic about dwindling time…) draws the tart crust from a David Leibovitz recipe, and it doesn’t need any time in the fridge… crisis averted! Incidentally, this is a crazy tart dough, and it’s crazy easy. MUCH recommended.

And then, thanks to Kath‘s suggestion, I went for meatballs to round it out:

They’re extra lean ground beef with fresh parsley for colour, onions and garlic, some dried basil and marjoram, salt and pepper, panko, and I would have used an egg to bind it all but I had these two egg whites on my counter from the failed tart dough… in they went, and they worked a treat.

The sauce was the true winner, though: a sweet-and-sour mix from the Looneyspoons cookbook—a jar of Smuckers’ seedless raspberry jam, 1/4 cup of mustard (I used dijon), and a tsp of horseradish for kick. Heat it up, and serve!

All in all, I had fun! And my presentation still really needs work, but people were pleased with the taste—and while I wish I could do pretty and pretty tasty, I’d rather have people say “mmm!” when they take a bite than “this is too pretty to eat!”

MAYBE the best thing to come out of it was this:

I didn’t use all the sliced apples for my tart… so I chucked them, MORE apples, spices, water and apple cider vinegar into the Crock Pot, and today I’m a blitzing away from a new batch of apple butter.

Win, win, win!

Do you prefer to cook for yourself, or for others?