And The Winner IS....

Congratulations to Andie Jaye, from Crayon Freckles. Picked totally at random (literally, picked a name out of a bag), Andie Jaye is the winner of my first giveaway. She won this cute little picture and frame:

Also, I just discovered that if you want to link up to Andie, you can do so at her link party, which you can check out (which I shall happily be doing) here:



Andie, please contact me with your address and I'll happily send you your prize!
That's all for today folks.Have a great day!

French Herb Potato Salad

Before I begin, I'd like to also give a quick reminder that this is the last day of my giveaway. Hope you'll join me, I'll be picking the winner tonight, and will announce it tomorrow. Check it out here:

So for Labour Day Weekend, my friends hosted a BBQ, which they held in their fantastic backyard since the weather was great. It was a perfect day. Swimming, our closest friends, wine, food and a campfire to top it off. So along with some store bought wine and pasta  salad, I decided to make something very Mediterranean. Ina Garten's French Potato Salad. The way I see it, if there's someone you're going to turn to for a recipe like potato salad, you cannot go wrong with the Barefoot Contessa. While she is not a qualified chef, her recipes are only fantastic. This recipe was great, I just wanted to eat more and more of it. But of course I didn't, because that wouldn't be very Mediterranean of me, would it?

So here's the recipe:

• 1 pound small white boiling potatoes
• 1 pound small red boiling potatoes
• 2 tablespoons good dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar  (couldn't find it, so I used white wine vinegar)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 10 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced scallions (white and green parts)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves

So essentially, this was a pretty quick recipe to make. I washed and boiled the potatoes whole for about 25 minutes (they suggested 20-30) until you can feel they are ready with a fork. It also said to steam them afterwards for 10 minutes, but my potatoes were fully cooked. If I cooked them a minute longer they would have been overdone. 

While they were boiling, I chopped up all of my herbs and put them in a bowl. I was a little iffy about the 

combination of dill and basil, but with everything else it was just perfect. Sort of pickley.

So after that, I let them cool and quartered or halved my potato depending on their size. The strange part is that next, you're to mix in the chicken stock and wine. I did it, and it sort of makes sense, since potatoes soak up liquid when they're hot. It just made them extra tasty. I whisked together the vinegrette by drizzling in the olive oil to the mustard, vinegar, and half the salt and pepper. Actually I forgot to mention I didn't have any kosher or sea salt, so I ended up using about half the amount of regular old table salt. Don't forget, it's a much more concentrated flavour, so you don't need as much. I mixed the vinegrette, herbs and remaining s & p into the potatoes,  and ended up with this great, fresh tasting salad. As I suspected I didn't need ALL the vinegrette, but I suggest you make it as directed for the first time like I did, and then judge for yourself. 

Enjoy!

Have a great day!  

A Work In Progress...

So the topics I've been choosing for this blog over the last month or so have not so much been related to the Mediterranean Diet, but more the parties and such that I've been going to and the projects that go along with them. It's not that I've been doing nothing but partying and haven't been focused, or even that I've been off in my eating habits, but more that I've had some frustrations that I'm dealing with in terms of my weight loss. NO, this is not one of those diet-blog posts of a frantic dieter confessing his or her sins, only to vow that they will only eat salad and carrot soup for the next month (although I'd be lying if I said the thought never crossed my mind...), but more of a reflection of what's hard about this diet, what's working, and what I need to tweak for my own personal situation. Because that's what this blog is all about: me adapting the ideas of this lifestyle into my own personal life.

If you've read my intro, you know that I lost some weight with Weight Watchers about a year ago, and have kept it off for over a year by following the principals of the Mediterranean Diet, which you can check out by following the Basics link above. And, although I've continued following it over the last month as usual, an extra five pounds just seemed to cling onto me out of nowhere. Week one, I was mystified. I've been exercising more than ever. Week two I decided to contribute it that great monthly excuse women have for putting on weight (a perfectly valid excuse, I might add). Week three, I realized that, as a teacher, although I've been bumping up my exercise routine, instead of running after a bunch of 6 year olds all day, I've been basically sitting on the couch or on the computer blogging over the summer holidays. Not to mention a great stay-cation, multiple birthdays (including my own) and bbqs and other wonderful summer festivities. Basically, this summer I payed the price for sitting on my butt all day and didn't burn enough calories.

No matter what eating plan you follow, the basic formula is always the same: calories in versus calories out. So, now that school's back on, I'd like to gear down and figure out what tweaking I need to do to make sure I'm doing my best. Today: How To Eat. Sounds too simple. But it's so important. I've been reading Laura Calder's French Taste, And she outline's this very topic, as do many other books focused on Mediterranean Eating.

She says:

• As much as possible, buy good, natural ingredients (i.e. whole foods), and cook from scratch
• Never eat alone if you can avoid it.
• The only other activities to engage in while eating are talking and drinking.
• Always eat sitting down.
• Never lay a guilt trip on your appetite.
• Relish every bite.

This pretty much sums it up, huh? I do find this to be a challenge. I find it hard to not sit in front of the TV while eating and pretty much tuning out everything else, especially after a long day of work. This is something I really want to work on. Focusing on what I'm eating, and the company around me. It's almost an unnatural thing in North America to eat this way, TV or not. I also feel sort of challenged by the fact that my husband grew up in one of those households where you look at your meal or the tv, shovel the food in as fast as possible, and then get on in life. He's game to try and do pretty much anything I ask him to (which I am blessed to have), but that makes this kind of thing totally unnatural to him. We've been living together for years, but this was never really a focus. I do feel like this is a challenge I want to get into, though, because it does make such a difference in how much you eat, and the way you feel after eating. I know this from experience, I just have to make it a habit. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts, and if not watching TV while eating or rushing through meals is a challenge you find really difficult also. 

Whoa, this is a crazy long post... My friend the Littlest Crafter is so shaking her head at me as she read's this... Next time, less venting, but I had lots to get out of my head!! Progress reports to come soon!

Have a great day!

Zucchini Flowers....Mmmmm

So today, I'd like to send you over to my buddy The Littlest Crafter's blog. She'll tell you all about the awesome lazy weekend we had a few weeks back, and the good, garden-fresh stuff we came up with, including the most delectable zucchini flowers we bbqed. 

Definitely one of the best things we ate all year. It was one of those moments of eating in slow motion, and the recipe was one I sort of made up depending what I saw on online recipes mixed with what I found in their fridge. Go check it out! There may still be some of these left in your garden!

Before you go though, don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Have a great day!

Barbie Cake Part 3 - The Decorating

So this is the third and final part of my Barbie Cake series. Today I'll be giving you some tips on how to actually decorate a barbie cake, and how to use fondant. One thing I'll say is that I mis-measured, and so my barbie dress ended up too big for the cake base, so I ended up with two separate cakes, but I did tie them in together. But before I begin, don't forget to check out my giveaway! Sit back and have a cocktail, this is going to be one long post! 

Ok, so as you saw in parts one and two, I made the marshmallow fondant and rice krispie base ahead of time, just to make life easier. Decorating day required me to make a batch of buttercream icing. Now, in the past couple of years, I've switched my recipe for something a bit different if I'm actually decorating. Often if I'm just making cupcakes for the family or something like that, I'll use the Betty Crocker Buttercream Recipe. Actually, taste wise my hubby prefers it. However, the Wilton Buttercream Recipe is a much better recipe for decorating, because of the consistency. It really does whatever you want it to, and sticks in place. I think it's because of the Crisco. I know, it's gross to think of putting vegetable shortening in your icing, but it just works, and I think it tastes just as good personally. That being said, on to the decorating.

I made the icing purple, because I figured if I did the whole thing pink, it would look like a hot pink mess... toooo much. After baking and cooling an 11" cake, I iced both the cake and the rice krispies with what's called a "crumb layer" of icing. This basically means a very thin layer of icing that you let set for a while. This serves a few purposes. First, it means that when you're doing your properly icing your cake, it puts a barrier between messy looking crumbs and your icing. Second, it gives the fondant or piped icing something to stick to.  

At this point I'll explain the dress first, then the cake later on. So I've often been asked how to make the dress look like it has waves in it. The secret? Big hunks of fondant rolled into a sort of cylinder shape, but rolled really thin at one end. I made five of them, just because.  

I wanted to make sure I spread them out at least somewhat evenly, so I made small marks with a knife on the icing, and then stuck them on with a bit of a firm hand. 

Next was the cover. To make this, first knead the fondant you will be using for a few minutes to make sure it's good and malleable. What I do is measure the cake from one end to the other, bottom to top to bottom, and then make sure my rolled out fondant gives me a few extra inches. BUT: make sure you roll it out on icing sugar, and that you lift the fondant very frequently to re-spread the icing sugar. I do this, but I tend to always just take it a bit to far without lifting, and I end up ripping my fondant off the table. I think this has happened to me just about every time I've made a cake... Argh!!!

Once the fondant is the right size, lift it up and try to centre it over the cake, or in this case rice krispies. One tip I heard when I first started really helped me out. My instinct would have been to try to smooth down the fondant over cake, but instead, you should be sort of pushing up and making the fondant cup around the cake, not spreading it down, because it will stretch and tear. You'll see what I mean once you do it. When shapes are not following the natural progression of the fondant, like the waves, always lift the fondant a little and cup it in, forcing it to fit the shape properly. It will do this as long as you don't stretch it out, even if it seems unnatural. If there are large surfaces that need smoothing, you can use a fondant smoother, I usually do, they do a great job!

Trim the fondant, but not too close to the cake, because then it will peak through. Then you can dip your finger in a little water and smooth out the rough edges. 

I decided to have a bit of a flowery theme here, just because I have some flower shaped fondant cutters. So I decorated the base with 5 leaves. Then I added a couple of flowers to the base to tie it all in. Some people won't like this, but I've found the best way to make fondant stick on fondant is by rubbing the tiniest amount of vodka on the back. Sorry peeps, it just is. I do mean tiny though. Nothing that would hurt anyone.

For the actual Barbie top, which you can find in most good decorating stores, that part is a little challenging. What I did was cut out two of the same shape that connected at the shoulders. Then I stuck them together and smushed them. Another blogger, I'm really sorry but I don't remember who, gave the tip that a little Crisco will smooth out imperfections in fondant, so I used that to make the shoulders a little smoother. I was sure I took pics of this process, but apparently not. I tied it all together by using some of the darker fondant to make a twisted looking waste type thing (that's the technical term, I think) and then put a flower on the chest to finish it off.

As for the actual cake, I used a technique that I love, in which you pipe little star shaped flowers onto the cake, and it makes everything look a little bit fluffy. I've done other cakes like this and generally find them less stressful than fondant, like this superman cake I made for a good friend some time ago.

So what I did was put some more icing on the top of the cake, and smoothed it out as much as possible with a knife made for icing cakes. Then I piped the icing on the sides.

Again, wanting to tie in the two cakes, I decided to print out a pic of a crown, which I used to trace onto some rolled out fondant and cut around it.

Instead of the circles on top of the crown pic, I added small flowers to match the dress, and stuck it on the buttercream. I used a pic to trace where I wanted to pipe the words out, and then piped it on. I added two fondant hearts because Katie is two years old, and then I just topped it with some crown candles.

I also had a fondant crown for the Barbie, but that seems to be missing too.. Me thinks I forgot to download a couple of pics of the ol' camera, but this post is getting way to long, so I think I'll stop here. Hope this will help some novice cake decorators out, I had lots of fun sharing. Now back to the Mediterranean Diet!!!!!

Have a great day!

Barbie Cake Part 2 - Rice Krispies!

Welcome to part 2 of my Barbie Cake Project! It's been a few days, because I've been so busy decorating that I really didn't have any energy left to post. Today, I'll be showing you how I made Barbie's dress. It is really not complicated at all. But first, just a reminder. I am one week in to my two week giveaway! You should check it out here. All you need to do is become a follower, and up for grabs is this cute skittles picture frame idea I came up with:

On to the Barbie cake. So, as I was saying last time, this is my second Barbie Cake. Last time, it was a bride, but this time is a princess. So I actually have the cake pan for the dress mold, which looks like this:

You'll have to excuse the cake mess in the background, but whenever I make a cake it's like a tornado hits. I should have a post just about the mess it makes!!! Ok maybe not, but I'll be for sure showing you the messy pics. It's too ridiculous not to.

This is a Wilton pan. Wilton makes all the good stuff, and has all the good recipes....don't ya think? Anyway, last time, I tried to make an actual cake in this pan, following all the directions, only to have the cake rip in half as I was carefully taking it out of the mold. My cake was too delicate. After wiping of the tears, I realized that this was one of those cases, just like you see on Ace of Cakes, that it's not worth using cake, and rice krispie treats are a much better way to go. Anyway, who doesn't like rice krispie treats? And since it all goes on a cake base anyway, you end up with two desserts in one! 

If you want the official Kellogg's recipe, you can get it here. 

Ok, so there is no genious work in making rice krispie treats (I keep wanting to say squares, but this is not a square at all!) I melted up my marshmallows in the microwave with some butter.

Once they were melty, I added in some pink food colouring just for fun. Then I used a huge bowl to mix in the rice krispies. 

I buttered my pan, lined it with plastic wrap, and then buttered the plastic wrap too. I then dumped the mix into the pan, and with buttered hands (ok, so just deal with it, it's not that bad), I patted it down hard. 

With a little cleverness, I made just enough to get myself an 8 x 8 pan filled with extras, most of which was gone by the time I dropped off the cake last night. I actually just had some more for breakfast... mmmm... Isn't it weird how the lighting of these two pics makes such a difference in the colour?

Ok people... I wasn't going to do this. But I just can't wait to show you what the barbie part of this cake ended up looking like. Since I ended up with two cakes, I think I can justify doing this.. Here it is... one of two big reveals!!!! 

The best part of this cake was, aside from my friend's reaction, that three people stopped me (actually one couple stopped their car in the middle of the street to ask) where I got the cake and they freaked out when they found out I made it. It's a great feeling, and makes it all worth the effort.... 

That's all for today folks.. Oh. Did you notice more of my cake-making-mess? I told you... It's impossible to avoid. 

Have a great day, and to my Canadian readers, enjoy this Labour Day Weekend!

Barbie Cake Part 1 - The Fondant

Making Marshmallow Fondant In The Bread Machine...

So I haven't shared this aspect of my culinary skills with you yet, but I sometimes decorate cakes. It's something that I really love to do, but also something that takes a lot out of me, so I don't get to do it all that often anymore. I am currently in the process of making a cake for my good friend Elizabeth, who's daughter is turning 2. She is, like so many two year old girls, having a princess birthday theme, and so Mommy really wanted me to make a kind of pink version of this cake, which I made for another friend's bridal shower when she got married. 

So I decided that, although it is not at all in the theme of the Mediterranean Diet, I would share my cake decorating experience with you as I make this cake, because it would be nice to pass on some of the tips I've picked up along the way. This is really a live and learn kind of project, and I usually end up in tears at some point while decorating, just because I'm a perfectionist and this is really intense work. 

Today, as there were no subbing jobs, I tackled the fondant. I have a love/hate relationship with fondant. On the one hand, it makes a beautiful, polished looking cake, but on the other hand, it's one of the most tedious element of decorating. Most fondant cakes that I make take at least 6 hours to decorate. I always make Wilton Rolled Marshmallow Fondant, so if you want the recipe, you should check it out. It is much cheaper and tastier than store-bought fondant. If you've never worked with it, it's much like working with play-doe, but more on actual decorating in future posts about this cake. I'm sooo not there yet. 

As I said, the actual making of fondant is far from my favourite part of decorating.. You have to basically need it like bread, but for a really long time, about 10 minutes or more. If you've been paying attention to my past posts, you know that my bread machine is my favourite kitchen tools. So the last time I made fondant, I realised it would be a great idea to make the fondant on the dough cycle, and let it do the work for me. This turned out to be an excellent idea... I doubt I'd ever make it by hand again. It was painless!

So here's what I did:

First off, because I didn't want to overload my machine, I halved the recipe and did it twice. It was still much easier than doing it by hand. You start off by microwaving your marshmallows with a little water for thirty seconds at a time, and stirring them, until they are completely smooth and melted. If you want all (or half in this case) of your fondant to be one colour, because maybe you're topping your cake with it, this is the best time to add your colour, which I actually forgot to do. Oh well! A word from the wise: Don't use those liquid food colours, use the gel based by Wilton. They are far better quality, and have a much bigger selection of colour. Yes they are more expensive, but you also use way less. ANYway....

I essentially dumped in all of the ingredients, marshmallows first, followed by crisco and icing sugar, and let it run! I actually started with a little less icing sugar and then added the rest in later, just to test, but it definitely still needed the full amount, so the second time around, I just added it all in. 

If you do end up adding more icing sugar, watch out, it'll jump back out at you!!! What a huge mess!

That's basically it! You know it's a good consistency when it's not tacky anymore, but you can sort of stretch it out without it ripping. If it is tacky, add a little more icing sugar. If it won't pick up all the icing sugar and rips when you try to stretch it a little, add water 1/2 a tbsp at a time. 

Like I said, I tried to add the colour at the end of the second batch, but the machine wasn't fast enough for me, I ended up needing it in by hand. I think the dough kind of looks like a Campino... When your colouring is done, wrap up the fondant tightly and stick it in the fridge overnight. 

That's all for now. Stay tuned for making the dress mold. What it's made of: pink rice krispie treats!

Have a great day!