Baking for the office

On Wednesday evening, Andrew asked if I could do some baking for an office Halloween party on Friday.  Actually, he didn't 'ask' me so much as he 'emailed me from his business trip'.

No problem, I have a hundred recipes I could make.  He then emailed me back and said they had to be decorated in a Halloween theme. 

Well.  I bake, but I don’t decorate.  But Andrew has such innocent faith in my ability to whip up any recipe that it’s hard to be cross with him. I desperately cast my mind back to when the girls were young and any kind of Halloween decorations impressed them.  I did a ghost cake one year, and another time I made meatballs and passed them off as eyeballs.  I didn’t think either of those would cut it with Andrew’s co-workers.

I was stumped until I remembered the pumpkin muffins I’d made a week ago. I don’t usually frost muffins, but of course these would require something special.  I found a wonderful frosting recipe on Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice to accompany them.  And the decorations were bat, ghost and pumpkin sprinkles bought at the cake decorating store.

Andrew was back in town Thursday evening and the plan was in place.  And he called from work Friday morning to tell me that everyone, including him, loved the muffins.

I loved them too, both with and without adornment.  But I might love them even more when they’re decorated for Halloween and wearing a delicious orange cream cheese frosting.

Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

pinch allspice

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup plump raisins

1/2 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease muffin tin or fill it with paper liners.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating after each addition, then add the vanilla. Lower the mixer speed and add the pumpkin and buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients and finish mixing by hand.  Stir in the raisins and dried cherries.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

From Reeni at Cinnamon Spice and everything nice

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 Tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of one orange

2 – 4 Tbsp milk

3 – 4 cups icing sugar

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla, orange zest, and a tablespoon of milk.  Beat in 3 cups icing sugar, adding more milk and sugar as needed to get a spreading consistency.  Beat until light and fluffy.

Thursday's Child: Nisanyan House

Nisanyan house
Photo credit: Rainer Stratmann

In October, I’ve been writing about hotels we’ve stayed in that are remote.  The final one is the Nisanyan Evleri, located just outside Ephesus, Turkey.  Although it was less remote than some of the others, we still required alternate means to deliver our luggage.

Nisanyan house is perched on the hillside above Sirince, just a few miles outside of Ephesus, and it’s a steep and winding drive to get there. The hotel itself was accessible by car, but the outlying house that we stayed in wasn’t. The path to the houses is narrow and bumpy, and is followed by a steep staircase.  Carrying the luggage all that distance would have been unwieldy. 

Upon check-in, we had noticed a motorcycle complete with sidecar sitting on the path.  Instead of carrying passengers, it carried our luggage to our house!

The dining room.  Photo credit: Rainer Stratmann

Although we had a busy day in Ephesus and the surrounding area, we still had enough energy to wander down the winding paths into the village.  It was a labyrinth of lanes twisting down the slope, and of course we got lost on the way back.  But asking a young cyclist for directions in a combination of rudimentary Turkish and pantomime only added to the adventure.

Mealtime at the Nisanyan Evleri was heavenly.  Because the hotel is a little out of the way, it’s much easier to eat there than to find a restaurant, and the dining experience was so wonderful that it was an easy choice.  The lamb shank, cooked to tender perfection and served with vegetables, was one of our best meals in Turkey. 

Walking back to our house after the meal, it was so dark that we could see every star in the wide-open sky.  But the cobbled path was lit by torches so we could safely make our way back.  At night, the village was peaceful, and the lights twinkled through the darkness.

Sirince at night.  Photo credit: Rainer Stratmann

Book Signing

I’m thrilled to let you know the date of the first signing for my newest book, The Witch of Bloor Street.  I’ll be at the Queensway Chapters store on Wednesday, November 24 between 7:00 and 8:30 to sign copies of my book.  Queensway Chapters is located at 1950 The Queensway, right across the street from Sherway Gardens. 

This evening is also a fundraiser for Martingrove Collegiate, so for any books you buy (not just mine) a portion will be donated to the school.  Hope to see you there!

Blog Award

I was thrilled to hear that I received the "One Lovely Blog Award" from Chaya at Sweet and Savory. Chaya is truly a prolific blogger – every time I check her site, she has a new recipe (or three) posted.  Whether she's participating in Meatless Mondays, Tuesdays with Dorie or Gluten-Free Wednesdays (to name only three of the groups to which she belongs) she always has a range of delicious sweets and savories to choose from.  Thank you Chaya!

Having received this award,  I now have the honour of awarding it to some of my favourite bloggers.  It was tough choosing only a few, but here are some blogs that I never miss reading:

Pixie Baker – Valerie's wonderful blog inspired me to start my own.  She consistently produces the most amazing recipes, and her creations are always beautifully photographed.   Oh, and if you happen to have a connection to the F/V Northwestern, it's worth your time to let her know!

Cake Wrecks – I read this site almost every day, because you can never laugh too much.  Cake Wrecks documents an incredible array of cakes that were poorly-decorated and offered for sale.  The incompetence is breathtaking.  To balance this, occasionally they showcase cakes that are unbelievably gorgeous.  Take a look at these peacock cakes and sigh.

Amie Kaufman – Amie is even newer at blogging than me, but she has jumped into it wholeheartedly.  She has a weekly feature called BTW (Beyond the Blog; Things I Like; What I’m reading) that is always worth checking out.  And anyone who enjoys traveling and writing as much as she does is okay by me!  

books I done read – My favorite book review site.  I don't always agree with the reviews, but I am always entertained by them.  It's worth reading the posts on any of the books in the Twilight series, especially if you didn't care for them.

Cake or Death – Liz has a great sense of humour.  She's a pastry chef, so her desserts always have that extra-professional look.  Whether she's adding brown sugar frosting to her double apple bundt cake, or impressing her husband with the world's largest tootsie roll, she always grabs my attention!

Carlavista – Carla is one of my dearest friends, and she writes a general interest blog on all kinds of topics.  Recently she’s written about everything from road rage to a movie that her cousins acted in, directed and produced.  Check out her blog – she always has something interesting to say.

Eats Well With Others – Joanne is a medical student, a marathon runner and consistently posts the most interesting, healthy collection of recipes I've seen.  Also, she is so nice even her ex-boyfriend's mother reads her blog.

Edible Mosaic – Faith has an incredible array of recipes, both savory and sweet.  She recently posted the best guide to making caramel that I've ever read.  Caramel has always intimidated me, but after I saw that post I thought, maybe this time I'll give it a shot!

Journey of an Italian Cook – Claudia is both writer and baker.  In fact, I had no idea what an accomplished playwright she was until I checked her bio for this award.  She has received twelve national playwriting awards and her plays have been produced around the world.  No wonder her posts are always interesting and entertaining.

Mission: Food –Victoria has just moved to New York, and I love seeing the city through her eyes.  I'm already dying to go back, just so I can try out some of her recommended restaurants.  And she has even met Daniel Boulud!

Simple Math Bakery – I think Jeanne is brilliant.  I don't know anyone else who could work the Fibonacci sequence into a baking blog, but she managed to do it.

Bakingdon – If only to see this fabulous cake.

Official rules of the award:

1.  Accept the award.  Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2.  Pay it forward to 12 other bloggers.

3.  Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

Braces food

No cookies this week.  No peanut brittle, no sticky toffee, no caramel corn.

This week, my 13-year old got braces.

Anyone who has worn braces themselves, or whose child wears them, knows that for a few days you don’t care about eating.  Your mouth aches, and your teeth sense every air current that wafts by.

It may not seem like it from this blog, but I do emphasize nutrition and a balanced diet in my house.  But for those few days after someone gets new braces, I don’t worry about them eating the four food groups.  I just try to provide food that requires no chewing at all. 

I was more successful at some of these things than others.  Next time you think of me as an expert in the kitchen, consider this.  I made jello for her, and I managed to gel it at a 30 degree angle.  (It must have been tipped by something else I put in the fridge.  I have truly never seen anything like it.)

One item that met with more success was the banana strawberry smoothie.  She loved it, and it got some fruit into a mouth that couldn’t chew a thing.

Strawberry Smoothie

From Canadian Living

1 cup milk

½ cup frozen strawberries

Half banana

¼ cup strawberry yogurt (original recipe called for plain yogurt and 1 Tbsp liquid honey.  I just used what I had on hand)

In blender, blend milk, strawberries, bananas and yogurt until smooth and frothy.

Thursday's Child: Casa Guilla, Spain

Photo used courtesy of www.casaguilla.com

Unlike all the other hotels I’m writing about this month, we took our own luggage directly to the Casa Guilla.  But the white-knuckle drive to get there, and the utter peace once we arrived, make it one of the top remote hotels we’ve ever visited.  

Andrew is an enthusiastic driver.  It’s his willingness to rent a car and drive into the far regions of foreign countries that lets me seek out these amazing locales.  But this drive tested even his limits, as we rounded one hairpin turn after another, with sheer drops of a hundred feet or more.  I had booked us into the Casa Guilla for two nights, and the plan was that on our full day there, we’d drive back into the valley and see some of the surrounding countryside.  When I shared this plan with Andrew, he said, “I’ll be driving that road one more time, and that’s to take us back to Barcelona.”

Take a look at the picture at the top of this post.  Notice the buildings all along the ridge.  Then see the building perched at the very top: that’s Casa Guilla.  Even parking our car was an adventure.  I stood along the edge to help Andrew back up, to prevent a reenactment of the final scene in Thelma and Louise.  

Scenes from our hike  

Casa Guilla is nestled in the Pyrenees near the village of Tremp.  It's a couple of hours from Barcelona but it seems like a million miles away.  According to the Casa Guilla website, they've dated the house back at least 1000 years, to the time of Charlemagne.

Even though we never did make it into the valley (except on our way back to Barcelona), we had a wonderful day exploring the casa and hiking around the area.  We relaxed by the pool, and we enjoyed two gourmet dinners which were framed by the most glorious sunsets we’ve ever seen.  The beautiful views of the Pyrenees and the serenity of the hotel made the drive there and back more than worth it.

Hiking down the mountain was easier than driving.
Hiking back up was good exercise!

Casa Guilla patio

Desert Island Songs

Normally I write about baking, or traveling, or writing in this space.  But as one of my favourite writers said, “If music be the food of love, play on.” 

Duke Orsino (and William Shakespeare) had it right.  Music inspires my writing.  When I find an album I love, I listen to nothing else for months on end.  My family loves that about me.

So I decided to write about my Desert Island Songs – the music that, if I was stuck on a desert island with an iPod that held only ten songs, I couldn’t live without.

Here’s my list.  What’s on yours?

Ten (well, actually eleven) Desert Island Songs

1.  “Nobody Does it Better”, Carly Simon – If I’m ever with you near a karaoke machine, I will want to sing this song.  Don’t let me do it.

2.  “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, Neil Young – Any top ten list that doesn’t feature at least one song by Neil Young is incomplete.

3.  “The Scientist”, Coldplay – It tells a story, and I love songs that tell a story.

4. “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”, The Police – Best.  Song.  Ever.

5. “With or Without You”, U2 – Because I love melancholy songs performed by a singer with a great voice.  See also #2 and #10.

6.  “September”, Earth, Wind & Fire – Even people living on a desert island have to dance sometimes.

7.  “My Best Friend’s Girl”, The Cars – This album got me through the worst summer job ever.  I still don’t understand the lyrics, but I love this song.

8.  “I Want You Back”, The Jackson 5 – And 8a is “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, Jay-Z.

9.  “Singin’ in the Rain”, Gene Kelly – I couldn’t have a desert island list without a song from a musical, could I?

10.  “Racing Like a Pro”, The National – If it isn’t “Racing Like a Pro”, it would be “Start a War” or “Gospel”.  Usually, desert island songs should be at least five years old, to make sure they stand the test of time.  But I know I’ll be listening to this album (Boxer) for the rest of my life.