We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...
...at least until my energy levels start to drop again



Risotto's one of those dishes where my fussy attention to detail really shows through. I also really like that the variations are endless as long as your finished product includes what is effectively a thick rice soup (which makes it similar to congee, but usually with richer flavours).

So, to breakdown how anal I can get about my food, here's a rundown of the ingredients I used this time around:

• Carnaroli rice (Arborio rice is much easier to find and work with, but I don't like the end result as much)


• filtered water (yes, that anal) broth, made with an organic herb bouillon cube, an organic onion bouillon cube, saffron, a pinch of smoked salt and Smoke'in Apple wine


• nitrate- and nitrite-free bangers


• one whole organic onion, diced


• four white mushrooms, sliced (if the farmer's market across the street carried organic mushrooms, I'd have gotten those)


• Ontario peas, pre-frozen


• organic baby carrots, chopped

For a dish like risotto, you don't really have to use a lot of "premium" ingredients for the flavour to really shine through. My favourite type of food to cook, I've realized, can feed many, uses a variety of ingredients and doesn't need a lot of expensive items to taste good.

What's new with me...
...it doesn't get any newer than this!



This is also why I haven't been posting with anything approaching regularity for the past month. Frankly, I'm surprised I was able to keep up the charade of normalcy for the first two months. As it turns out, the first trimester of pregnancy is exhausting. I barely had energy to pack lunch, never mind whip up anything challenging on the culinary front.

My energy levels are returning to normal now and I hope to be able to post more frequently. I don't know how much cooking I'll be doing in the midst of all the unpacking I'm going to be doing over the next few weeks, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Boy, could I go for a bowl of this right about now



Apparently, I made this on March 3rd of this year, the last time I had a nasty cold. I haven't really had enough energy to wander around the apartment this time, never mind go for a grocery shop to get healthy, soup-making ingredients.

Fortunately, Matt's been keeping a good stock of Habitant soup around (which, as it turns out doesn't tend to use a lot of unnecessary preservatives). I've had pea soup and minestrone, and still have a can of garden vegetable to get to (likely today).

If I manage to find the energy to leave the apartment today, I thought I might get some meatballs, to improvise an Italian Wedding soup.

I've otherwise been having (way too much) orange juice, water, decaf green tea, and whatever starchy foods we happen to have lying around. Oh, and plenty of nap-time.

Imogen Heap - Just for Now

via Reddit.

Dinner-time staple: pizza bread



This iteration used a folded manouche (split open), black olive tapenade, bruschetta topping, sliced mushrooms and goat's cheese.

Homemade, organic butter tarts



When Matt and I first met, we were working together. Just up the street was a 7-Eleven convenience store. When I would offer to pick up a snack for Matt, his go-to order was "a small chocolate milk and a two-pack of butter tarts".

Well, it was just a few weeks ago that I realized that Matt probably hasn't had a butter tart in years, much less a homemade one. I decided to bake some up for him as part of my birthday present to him this year.

I followed CareBear's Butter Tart recipe, having created shortcrust pastry from scratch, using a recipe similar to the Basic Shortcrust Pastry Recipe on About.com. The pastry used organic flour and organic butter.

For the filling, I used the aforementioned organic butter (which I browned first), organic brown sugar, organic eggs, homemade vanilla (using organic vanilla bean and some 7-year rum I brought back from Cuba, and I substituted organic pecans for the raisins.

French vanilla non-dairy ice cream



Made with:

• a carton of soy creamer
• 4 organic vanilla beans, seeds only
• a dash of sea salt
• 4 organic egg whites, beaten
• 2 organic eggs & 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup organic sugar

Every once in a while, the same again

1. FOR ORCHESTRA #12: Bon Jovi ‘Livin on a Prayer’


2. The Nice Guy Paradox


3. TED Talks Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code


4. Teens & Porn


5. I'm an atheist, so what?


6. The Generation M Manifesto


7. Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food


8. King Corn (Part 1/4) and the rest


9. Will someone do to Photoshop what InDesign did to Quark?


10. Software Developers Should Never Have Dress Codes


11. Light and matter united

Total Eclipse of the Flowchart



In sequel to this post. Found via Reddit.

Ghanima: for Lunch!



Today's lunch is organic roast beef and caramelized Vidalia onion on an Ace Bakery Bake Your Own Multigrain Petit Pain, with garlic "butter" and Sunflower Kitchen Basil Pesto.