My sister made some salt and vinegar chickpeas, which come from the Oh She Glows blog. Again, if you haven't checked this blog out, you have to, as it is fantastic. This has started a whole new obsession for me. If you like the salt and vinegar ones posted here, read on for a couple other varieties that I've made that have been almost equally delicious (or more so, for those who don't like vinegar, like my husband).
Good thing these are chickpeas, as they are completely and utterly addictive. As in, I can eat almost a whole can without even noticing it. Watch out local grocery stores - next time you put chickpeas on sale, you're gonna regret it.
I love vinegar. To the extent that my mouth is watering as I write this. Knowing how much I love salt and vinegar, my sisters both told me that I had to try these. But said that they probably wouldn't be quite vinegary enough for me.
And then a friend tried them and she let them soak for an hour. And found them nice and vinegary. So that was my plan... soak for an hour. But I forgot as I started making these that I had plans to meet a friend at the mall. So when she called, I just left these soaking in the vinegar. So they soaked for just over 3 hours in all. Yikes...
They soaked so much that my eyes started burning and tearing as I opened the oven. These are gonna be delicious, I thought. Then I noticed 5 month old Chloé (who I had plopped on the kitchen floor to take these out of the oven), whose eyes were also tearing. Oops. But maybe she'll love them some day too?
As for Logan... not so much. He was eager to try them, as he saw that I couldn't stop eating them. Has to be something good... right??? Wish I'd gotten a picture of his face. He apparently doesn't like super duper, erase your taste buds vinegar.
I love, love, love these. Love them because they're chickpeas, so they're good for you. Love them because they pretty much taste just like really good salt and vinegar chips (ya know, like the old salt and vinegar Ruffles they used to make maybe 15 years ago... my mouth is watering again as I type this). Love them because nowadays I'm starving midafternoon and this is the perfect snack to help me stay full until dinner. Just... must... not... eat... the... whole... can...
And the 3 hour soaking?? Great if you love, love, love vinegar like myself. If you just love it, perhaps stick to the 30 minutes to an hour.
Two little hints if you make this recipe. Just sharin' some personal experience here. If you have a cut on your finger, put on gloves before massaging in the olive oil. As the vinegar just seeps right onto your hands...
Also, don't take your contacts out immediately after mixing these. Even if you have washed your hands. You'd think I'd have learned after getting vinegar in my cut...
2 C canned chickpeas
3-4 C white vinegar
1 tsp. coarse sea salt (I used fleur de sel)
2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2.
Take chickpeas and vinegar and place in a medium sized pot. Add a dash
of sea salt. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Let sit in
pot for 30 mins.
3.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Carefully drain chickpeas.
Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
Massage with fingers until fully coated.
4.
Roast for 45 minutes, flipping once half way through. Keep a careful
eye on them after 35 minutes of cooking to ensure they don't burn. The
goal is crispy and golden chickpeas, not black ones.
Note:
when you bring the chickpeas to a boil, some of them split open and
some of the skins come off. Not to worry if this happens - it will turn
out regardless.
As for the other varieties...
Garlic Roasted Chickpeas
I made just a plain salt and garlic version for my husband to snack on, and also, to put on salads and stuff. They were really good too. A bit crunchier than the salt and vinegar variety though, since they hadn't been soaked in vinegar prior to cooking. I basically used the same procedure as above, but didn't pre-soak the chickpeas in vinegar and then I threw in 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic alongside the olive oil.
Logan loves, loves, loves these ones, much in the same way that I love the salt and vinegar ones. He can often finish off almost a half can by himself. And I'm happy that I'm finally getting some protein into him.
Sweet and Salty Chickpeas
This time, I roasted the chickpeas dry and afterwards, mixed them together with 2 tsp. olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar and 1 tsp. sea salt.
These are all best right out of the oven. Any leftovers (as if!) are best kept in a sealed glass jar. The salt and vinegar ones become less crunchy after a day (but even more vinegary!!). The other ones tend to stay relatively crunchy.
Difficulty level: easy
My blog has evolved over
time from being simply about good eats to also being a forum where I can
voice about parenting challenges. I guess this is just another type of "food for thought". And heck... it IS my blog. I can write about whatever I want, right????
I return today to the topic of parenting. Specifically, parenting Logan.
Logan has always been a challenging child. In
politically correct terms, we could call him a spirited child. To-ma-toes
tah-mah-toes. Let's just
call a spade a spade and say difficult child. Adorable, super funny, loveable,
challenging child.
I guess he was challenging from the day he was born.
Though I didn't realize quite how challenging he was until I had Chloé
and realized how laid back some babies can be. I used to describe him
as an easy baby. Looking back, I can see that he really wasn't. And why my friends laughed at me when I said that.
This temperament has continued, as he approaches his two year birthday
in just about a month (*sniff sniff*). There is no question that this kid
keeps us on our toes. He knows what he wants, when he wants it and
insists that he get everything 10 minutes before he's even expressed a
desire to have it. He's quite impulsive, has low tolerance to frustration and has a hard time calming himself down when he's upset. He can go from giggling his
head off to being in a 30 minute long screaming fit in the blink of an
eye. I sometimes can't even figure out quite what triggered the change.
When Logan is happy, he's exploding with joy and enthusiasm and the whole world is happy.
And when he's not... well that's a whole 'nother story... (note the blurriness of some of these photos, as Logan tantrums it out):
Being quite an analytical person, I've thought lots
about our challenges with Logan. This self-reflection is sometimes driven by someone insinuating (or even flat out commenting) that maybe it's due to something we're doing wrong as parents. And sometimes it's just in an effort to brainstorm as to whether changes could be made that would have a positive impact.
I've questioned whether we've been
overly indulgent with Logan. If he has perhaps learned that he gets everything the
second he wants it. After all, that's what people are quick to tell me. But my gut has always told me that this is not the case. Heck, I
work with preschoolers day in and day out. I certainly don't think that I'm a parenting expert, but I know all about setting
limits, being consistent, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah until I'm blue in
the face.
Even though he was my first, I didn't run to him the
immediate second that he cried, knowing that I didn't want him to learn
that the entire world revolves around him. From a young age, I used cues such as "wait", "in a minute",
"coming", etc. Which must mean that I wasn't giving in to everything
he wanted immediately, right?? In fact, these words were all a part of
his early vocabulary, making me realize just how young he had to learn
to wait with a baby sister close in age.
Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. I think too much.
Despite all of the chatter and opinions from people galore, giving perspective on what we need to change and despite my constant reflection, I came to the conclusion awhile back that it is just who Logan is. A driven, determined, passionate, relentless soul who won't let anything get in the way of what he wants. And one day, this will make him a great leader.
It's probably also partly his age. At least, that's what I'm betting on...
Upon picking Logan up from daycare the other day, one
of the caregivers commented the following to me: "I've been a teacher
for 35 years and I've worked with a lot of difficult children. Your
little Logan... well, he's really quite challenging".
Ouf.
That says a lot.
I
think that a lot of people would have been offended by this. Me?? I
felt relief. Relief that it wasn't just in my head. Relief that I
wasn't the only one who found him tough to manage at times. Relief that this is probably not really about how we parent him and more just about who he is at this point in time.
Now
I'm not trying to suggest here that I'm the only one in the world who
has a "spirited" child. Heck, there are whole volumes written about the
subject, so I clearly can't be the only one to have such a child. And from the constant
conversations that I have with friends and even random strangers, it seems to me that the world is full of these spirited children.
I am also
clearly aware that Logan is likely not the most challenging child in the
world. I can keep things in perspective. However, the acknowledgement that he is also probably not the
easiest child in the world has gone a long way towards making me feel like my feelings about the challenges of raising him are real.
I'm not doing it perfectly, but I'm doing it as darned well as I can. And that's gotta count for something.
This all being said, we have moments when he is utterly happy and completely delicious to be around. And regardless of what kind of a day it is, I do cherish my time with him as I know there will come a day when he no longer wants to cuddle with me when he gets up in the morning (even if it has to be at 4:30 in the morning). And a time when he will no longer want to have anything to do with his uncool mom.
The more challenging aspects of parenting is part of why I started my 'favourite moments of the week' in my posts.
To remind myself of the great joys of being a parent and to help keep in perspective the
not so great moments. Because challenging or not, I love my little guy to
death and wouldn't trade him for the world.
This weeks' favourite moments have included:
-
watching Logan kiss each and every Disney princess on the poster at
Toys 'R Us. Apparently, we are also going to have our hands full when
he's a little bit older!
- Logan telling me he was going to "be back" (yeah right!) as he quickly ran away from me as I tried to get him in the car.
- watching Logan dance like a maniac and scream "mommy dance" as he watched our recent zumba video.
- watching Logan and Chloé interact as Chloé gets older. She now lights up immediately when he looks at her and follows his every step with her eyes. Love :)
The title of these cupcakes says it all. Pure decadence. My cake obsession
lives on. Which is kind of odd, given that I don't love cake. Don't
get me wrong. It's not that I don't like it. It's just that it's far
from my favourite dessert. If I'm going to eat something chock-full of
calories, I'd much rather eat cheesecake. Or a brownie. Or even better, a peanut butter brownie.
I almost never take a slice of cake at birthday parties or at weddings,
as cake just isn't my thing. Or should I say wasn't???
I'm realizing that when it's done right, cake can be delicious in its own right. My lemon curd filled cupcakes
from last weekend were incredibly delicious. So delicious that I had
to give the vast majority of them away to stop myself from eating them
all. I've realized that using denser cakes, a filling and good icing
makes it a whole new ball game.
This weekend I dappled in some chocolate cake. I used the baking soda-less version of Katie's sour cream chocolate cake
and made the entire batch into cupcakes. Wow... this makes A LOT of
cupcakes!! I think I counted about 34 or so. Though I did make them
small as this recipe is super dense. Great to pop into the freezer for
when people stop by for a visit.
I
then took out the centre of the cupcakes with an apple corer and filled
each one with some delicious chocolate-peanut butter ganache, using a
decorating bag and tip. I found the recipe for this ganache here.
1 C heavy cream
1 1/2 C chocolate chip morsels (I used dark chocolate chips)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 C smooth peanut butter (I used soy butter, since I can't eat peanut butter right now, but think these would be even more delicious with peanut butter)
1.
In a small saucepan, combine the cream, powdered sugar, chocolate chip
morsels and butter over low heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add
the peanut butter at the same time. Stir until smooth.
2.
The ganache will be too hot to spread or pour. Set in the refrigerator
for several minutes. Then place the ganache on the counter and stir
once or twice over the next ten minutes until it has reached the desired
consistency.
I
found that the butter set on the top of the ganache as it cooled (or
perhaps it was the oil from the soy butter?). So I just whisked it all
together again before using.
This
recipe makes A TON of ganache. Even too much to fill all 34 cupcakes!
I stuck a full tupperware container into the freezer with the remainder
for some other cupcake project.
I then topped each cupcake with some chocolate cream cheese icing that I found on the cupcake project blog, using a number 96 decorating tip. Yum.
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 C unsalted butter at room temperature
4 C sifted powdered sugar (you can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)
1/2 C cocoa powder
1.
Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. It's important
that they both be at room temperature prior to mixing so that they will
mix together well.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder.
For instructions on how to pipe icing, click back to my post on lemon cupcakes.
I'm
realizing that I'm going to have to put a halt to making these kinds of
cupcakes for awhile, as it's just too time consuming with little kids.
I made the cupcakes early Saturday and didn't have them filled and iced
until Sunday evening. Though since there are so many, they'll last in
the freezer for quite awhile.
I
shared some of my lemon cupcakes with Hilary, my kinesitherapist, who
offered to taste-test all of my cakes (baha... she has no idea what she
is getting herself into!!). So I'll have some of these with me for you tomorrow, Hilary.
Difficulty level: moderate to difficult and somewhat time consuming
This is another recipe that my mom
used to make us as kids. Now that Logan is eating fish, I decided to
make this, thinking that it was a perfect combination of things that he
likes. And that he would therefore actually eat it.
For quite awhile now, I've been attempting to get him to just eat what we eat for dinner. And so far, I haven't had much luck with it. He often ends up munching on crackers, bananas and yogurt and calling it a meal. But I am being persistent in my efforts.
I got a great big grin when I put this on his plate.
However, within seconds, he was scraping all of the tuna casserole off of his plate and onto the table...
Without a single bit of it ever touching his lips.
I am, however, happy to report that when I served him leftovers today, although he yet again did not touch the tuna casserole, he happily munched away on the corn I served with it, which is a first.
My intention when Logan eats this one day is to add some cooked sliced mushrooms and peas into it so that in can become a one dish meal. But I didn't want to push my luck first time around.
regular potato chips (or Premium Plus crackers)
medium egg noodles (I used whole-wheat)
2 cans of tuna
can of condensed mushroom soup
milk
1. Take a bag of regular crushed potato chips and spread some on the bottom of a casserole dish. Alternatively, you can use whole-wheat Premium Plus crackers (enough to cover the bottom). I used whole-wheat Ritz crackers because that's all I had in the house that would work.
2. Cook 3/4 bag of noodles according to package directions.
3. Using 2 cans of tuna, alternate putting noodles and tuna in the casserole dish (I did 1/3 noodles, a can of tuna, 1/3 noodles, a can of tuna and then the rest of the noodles).
4. Pour one can of mushroom soup and one can of milk over the casserole.
5. Place more chips/crackers on top.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for one hour.
Difficulty level: easy
I promised awhile back to start a series of 'faves' posts. And then I got so caught up posting all sorts of new recipes that I didn't even get past my first one, breakfast faves. So here we go with the second installment.
This is probably the favourite of all faves. My favourite recipes by my mom... all the ones she used to make us as kids. What could be better than that?
My mom was a great cook. Well, she probably still is, but my dad now does the cooking at home. She somehow managed to feed a table of 6 every night with home cooked meals. Perhaps it is part of what started my passion for food and cooking.
These are pure comfort foods. For me at least. I've
lightened a few of them up, since there wasn't as much of
a focus on healthy eating when I was a kid. But they're still just as delicious.
I can't even really begin to recommend one over the other, as they are all great, great recipes. I always have at least one or two of these on hand in our freezer for busy nights (aka every night...). If these don't make you want to start cooking and baking, you may as well just stop reading my blog, because nothing will. Ok wait. No... please keep reading it ;)
mom's microwave mac and cheese: Perfect for kiddos. Quick and easy and made in the microwave. A much, much healthier version to Kraft Dinner (never mind much, much better tasting too!). I like the lightened up version, though my sister Ashley swears by the original recipe.
mom's spaghetti sauce: This was once upon a time dumped into the trunk of my mom's car. By yours truly. Entire batch (and this makes a BIG batch!). True story. Worst part? It was supposed to be our dinner at Girl Guide camp that night. I have no recollection of what we had instead. Actually, worst part was probably cleaning it out of the trunk, though I have no recollection of that either - I'll bet I probably didn't even help... oops...
In my opinion, this is the best homemade spaghetti sauce known to man. But I'm a bit partial.
mom's French onion soup (dad's ceasar salad, also on the same link, is also out of this world): Again, in my humble opinion, the best darned French onion soup and ceasar salad out there. In fact, I never order French onion soup in restaurants, because it's never as good as my mom's. We have this every year for dinner on Christmas Eve. A tradition I intend to continue with my family.
mom's shepherd's pie: A true classic :)
mom's chili: This is almost always typically on hand in my freezer for quick defrosting in the winter. I usually serve it with a biscuit, such as whole-wheat yogurt biscuits or spelt biscuits and a salad. On occasion, we make some healthy home fries (which I've never blogged) and serve it over those for a homestyle version of chili fries.
mom's chicken and rice: I don't make this one super often, but this is one of Jérôme's favourites (along with the mac and cheese, above).
Little story to share though. Though he has no recollection of it, my dad made this for our wedding rehearsal dinner, which they hosted at their house, as I didn't want it to be in a restaurant. He insisted on making just the rice, even though my mom and I explained many times that the recipe would not work that way. And... the rice came out uncooked. And... he served it anyways... I still remember Maria, our Brazilian friend, chowing down on the uncooked rice anyhow, since she had been in rice withdrawal since arriving in Canada for our wedding. lol
mom's spinach salad: Super fantastic. I am drooling as I type this. Love the vinegary dressing. And the delicious almonds. And the whole darned thing. I get asked for the recipe for this every single time I take it somewhere. It's that darned good. I'm so glad summer is around the corner as we make it way more often in the summer.
mom's trifle: Fantastic for a crowd because it's HUGE and really quick to make. And looks beautiful to boot.
mom's apple crisp: LOVE this with peanut butter mixed in instead of butter. Perfect fall dessert for when we've just come home from apple picking.
mom's cheesecake: My sister Kristy's all-time favourite and my mom's go-to recipe when we have company. An absolutely delicious, out of this world creamy cheesecake.
mom's cinnamon bread: Such good university memories :) And now, memories of Logan and Ella, chowing down on this together at the farm, 15 years later (ouch!).
I also have fond memories of tearing apart my mom's kitchen as a child to make this with friends in elementary school. Without her permission. We'd just sneak into her kitchen before she was home from work and whip up a batch. And, of course, leave all of the mess behind. No wonder she didn't like me to bake!
mom's lemon bread: One of my all-time favourites, though I rarely make it since Jérôme hates lemon.
mom's shortbread cookies: Featured at every single Baynton family Christmas gathering.
mom's muffins that taste like donuts: omg I haven't made these in so long that looking at this picture is making me crave them. Pure heaven. We always take these camping with us as a treat. Though we haven't camped at all since the monkeys came along. But we plan to try our first camping excursion with them sometime this summer.
mom's bran muffins: love, love, love these. They make a whopping huge batch which means they don't all disappear within a few days. At least, unless you invite over the whole neighbourhood. I remember always getting in trouble as a kid for sneaking one of these out of the freezer (where my mom had hidden them so that they wouldn't all disappear - 60 muffins still disappear relatively quickly with 6 to eat them!).
Enjoy!! I hope this is making you run to your kitchen!
These are amongst my other latest and greatest addictions (alongside brown rice bowls, cake decorating and knitting). Katie made these for us for lunch one day while we stayed with them in Vancouver. And for whatever reason, the small changes she made to a regular old grilled cheese sandwich made these delicious. So delicious that I've been eating them maybe 4 or so days a week for lunch lately. Until this obsession passes, at least.
A tip to all of my readers out there: I recommend that you not breastfeed your baby while making these sandwiches. You might just slam her foot into the drawer as you shut it, leading to many tears. Or perhaps touch her foot to the hot Griddler. Good thing she was wearing socks! And that I noticed it right away!! Didn't even shed a tear for that one. Here's hoping no one calls child protective services after reading this post...
I also recommend that you unplug your Griddler once you are done with it. And before leaving the house. For three hours.
As with any grilled cheese sandwich, these are super easy to make. Perfect for those baby busy days.
The trick to making these more delicious is the following:
butter or margarine
whole-wheat sourdough bread, or any other good quality bread
extra-old cheddar
basil
No complicated tricks here. Obviously, you butter the bread a bit, put in the cheddar and then add one basil leaf. And grill. Easy as that.
My mouth is watering as I type this. I did not make one for lunch today....
