Glitterberry

A Pie for Mikey

2011-08-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

There are some memories that will stay with me for the entirety of my life. Like everyone else, some are good and some we can care less for--but these memories help make up who we are and how we define life.

I remember the day of my wedding, walking down the aisle and seeing my to-be-husband for the very first time that day. His eyes held mine, and I was unable to focus on anyone else on the crowd, on anything else that was happening. The look on his face is something I will cherish forever.

This week, the online food community reaches out to Jennifer Perillo who had unexpectedly lost her husband Mikey. He loved peanut butter cream pie and it was Jennifer's wish that people would make a pie and give it to someone they loved.

"As I spend Friday reflecting on the love and life that was gone in an instant, I'd like to invite all of you to celebrate his life too. Mikey loved peanut butter cream pie. I haven't made it in a while, and I've had it on my to-do list for a while now.

I kept telling myself I would make it for him tomorrow. Time has suddenly stood still, though, and I'm waiting to wake up and learn to live a new kind of normal. For those asking what they can do to help my healing process, make a peanut butter pie this Friday and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there's no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on."

My husband loves oreos and I thought it best to include them in the pie I made. My heart goes out to Jennifer and her two daughters and to everyone who has lost a loved one. May we all cherish the moments we have together.

Jennifer's recipe for the pie is bellow:

Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Serves 10 to 12

8 ounces chocolate cookies

4 tablespoons butter, melted

4 ounces finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces cream cheese

1 cup creamy-style peanut butter

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. Press mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Pour over bottom of cookie crust and spread to the edges using an off-set spatula. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use. Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream). Fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. Drizzle the melted chocolate on top, if using, and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving.

Comic Con and Kjøttkaker

2011-08-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Kjøttkaker...

This stuff is amazing and delicious!
A Norwegian meatball, this is complimented with potatoes and cranberries.

My friend from Norway gave me this recipe:

1lb ground beef
3 eggs
Salt and pepper
Loads of butter
Bit of milk

You mix the eggs, salt and pepper into the beef and make little balls as so:

When they're into little balls, go over them again with more salt and pepper. Pan fry the little meats with the milk and butter, and put the finished meat in a large pot with the leftover juices. This juice will become the gravy.

Add a liter of water with more milk and butter and let the meatballs sit for a few hours on simmer.

So it's a little late getting this up, but I'm finally doing it. COMIC CON! It was amazing and fun and I'll have a million more memories to add to my bank. Here's just a few glimpses into the wild week of awesome.

Team Fortress 2

George R R Martin

Steven Spielberg

Assassin's Creed Doctor

Jareth from Labyrinth

Man About Town

2011-07-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend my grandparents (from my mom's side) gave me a set of beautiful Japanese china they had owned. Since I was little, I remember eating off this china whenever my grandma made any sort of Japanese dishes from her family. Wonderful memories are planted within each and every dish. It's special--almost magical, and it's hard to believe it now belongs to me.

Another important piece of china I have, is a dish my grandmother (from my dad's side) gave me at my bridal shower. This dish was given to my great-great grandmother as a wedding present, then given to my great grandmother for her wedding, then to my grandmother and then to me. Again, a crazy concept that it belongs to me.

Here is the rest of my hutch. If you click on it and go to my flickr page, I've tagged it in detail.

We also set up our fish tank and named the fish! Based off of Old Gregg, these little guys love swimming around the bottom of the Black Lake.

And since I usually post about food, here's a drink recipe off of Urban Dictionary:

Curly Jefferson

An alcoholic drink, based on a minor character from the Mighty Boosh sketch "The Legend of Old Gregg," consisting of one-half Bailey's Irish cream and one-half whipped cream-flavored vodka.

I ordered a Curly Jefferson and drank it from a shoe

Lamb Dinner

2011-07-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

After six months without a Costco, the new store finally opened last Friday. Thank the gods.
We braved the grand opening, fighting our way through hoards of people, sampling the bison dogs and fancy cheeses. I love the store and the wide variety of foods they have. Much better than the other Costco.

One of the things I found was a boneless leg of lamb. I had been wanting to make this for a while now and was extremely pleased to find it. So off to home we went.

The recipe was a bunch of things just thrown together, roasted in the over for 20 mins per pound at 400 degrees. Here's what i included:

Salt and Pepper to taste
Whole garlic stuffed into little slits I cut in the leg
Red wine
Rosemary
Oregano
Olive oil

The dish came out great and I'll be making it again soon!

BBQ and the Fair

2011-06-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

The fair—a place where you can go to enjoy the sun, pet farmyard animals, see the latest new contraption, and gouge yourself on fatty, fried foods. This years new rave was fried kool-aid which looked like a donut hole plastered in red food colouring. Instead of trying that, the husband tried the fried oreos. They came out as large, fried balls and despite the look, amid the deep fried batter, there was an oreo lodged inside.

Other than the food, the fair was fun. I always enjoy seeing the 4H animals and wandering around aimlessly through the booths. We ran into family members--twice--even with this crazy hordes of people. It's always nice to see the fam.

When we got home, I started to work on our meal for the night (recipes bellow). We had a lot of catching up to do in the Game of Thrones, so I wanted to make something with that theme. In the end, it didn't have anything to do with GoT, but it came out great anyways.

Pork Tenderloin with a Black Raspberry Serrano Chili Sauce

Oreo Log Cake

The Tenderloin was adapted from this recipe here

The Brine for the pork:

1/4 cup kosher salt
3 cups water, warm
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup ice cubes
2 pounds pork tenderloin, skin removed
olive oil
black pepper

Dissolve the salt in the 3 cups of warm water. In a gallon-sized plastic bag, place pork and all other ingredients, including the water with salt within. Brine for exactly 20 minutes no longer!

Make your sauce while you're waiting for this to brine.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 to 2 Serrano chilies, seeded, minced
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup seedless black raspberry preserves
1 1/4 cups wine, preferably Merlot, divided
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Add the butter to a saucepan over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the Serrano chilies and garlic and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the black raspberry preserves and 1 cup wine and combine well. Simmer until reduced by half. Add the cornstarch to the remaining 1/4 cup red wine in a small bowl and mix well. Pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes more.

Remove the pork from the brine and pat dry. Rub the pork with the olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium heat.

Add the pork tenderloin and cook for 6 minutes on each side, browning evenly and the internal temperature registers 135 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Evenly spread 1/4 cup of the glaze over the pork. Cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.

Slice the pork, arrange the slices on a serving platter and serve with remaining warm glaze.

OREO CAKE

Ingredients:

cups

whipping cream

tsp.

vanilla

pkg.

(9 oz.)FAMOUS Chocolate Wafers

Preparation:

BEAT cream with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in vanilla.

SPREAD 1-1/2 tsp. whipped cream onto each wafer; stack, then stand on edge on platter. Frost with remaining whipped cream.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours. Cut into diagonal slices to serve

Les Miserables Dinner

2011-05-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do--and sadly I don't do it as often as I would like--is to throw a themed dinner party to go along with a movie. With a little wine and some french foods, Les Miserables was the theme of the night. Other than the movie skipping every once and a while, I'd say the night went great.

Main dish of the night, was coq au vin. I had never made this before, and was a little concerned with how it was going to come out. It takes a while to prepare, having the chicken absorb the wine over night. The day of the party, I had a cheese making class I was going to, and was fairly stressed on trying to figure out how I was going to prepare the dish (Which normally can take a while). With a little luck, I realized I could cook the chicken via crock pot. Inspiration came from this recipe.

I changed a few things, using whole chicken leg and thighs and a bit more wine, added more garlic, and used pearl onions instead of the yellow onion. I put everything together the night before to allow it to soak overnight. In the morning, I put everything in the crock pot and let it cook for 8 hours.

My friend Mj made these amazing petit fours which were just as delicious as they looked.

Chicken Adobo

2011-05-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing is better than sticking something in the slow cooker and coming home from work to a house filled with delicious aromas. This is one of those dishes :) Though this would have tasted better with rice, the asparagus was cooked with spare adobo sauce and held the flavor well. Will definitely be making this one again!

Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo

- 2.5 lbs of chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 5 cloves of garlic

1. Mix marinade of vinegar, soy sauce, chili powder, pepper and garlic
2. Clean chicken and place in slow cooker, pour the marinade over the chicken
3. Cook on low for 5-6 hours

Salty Like the Sea

2011-05-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who like salty, this is a great dish. The bass absorbs the flavors of the soy sauce without ruining the tender texture. I modeled this off of a chicken dish my mother used to make when I was a kid. While trying different types of white fish, I figured, why not?

One of the most important ingredients is the shiitake mushroom. If you have regular button mushrooms, the dish will still taste good, but it won't have the rich flavor that is released from the shiitake.

Soy Sauce Sea Bass

- 1 lb corvina sea bass
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp wasabi
- 1 Tbsp oil
- Pepper to taste
- 6 stalks of green onions
- 2 cups of shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1. Mix together: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, wasabi, oil, pepper, half the green onions and a handful of shiitake mushrooms--let sit for about 15 mins after mixing

2. Cut fish into sizes of your choice and cook in a pan for about 1 minute

3. Pour mixture over fish, let sit another minute, then carefully flip the fillet

4. Let cook until half to seventy-five percent of the liquid mixture is gone

5. Cook the rest of the mushrooms and green onions in another pan, use the remaining mixture to pour over vegetables when completely cooked.

Summer's Around the Corner

2011-05-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but whenever summer rolls around people pull the plastic out. Plastic plates, plastic cups, plastic decorations--I just don't understand. I would suppose the heightened use is due to portability and convenience, but it just doesn't fly for me.

What I do think of when our days become longer and our weather becomes warmer, is the delicious colour yellow. In celebration of the coming season, I've prepared a lemon-garlic chicken with roasted squash.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

-1 Whole Chicken

- Lemon cut in Half

-2 Heads of Garlic

-3 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary

- 4 Tbsp Butter

-Salt

-Pepper

1. Pre-heat over to 475 degrees.

2. Clean whole chicken, washing inside and out. Pull the skin away slightly over the breasts.

3. Salt and pepper chicken to taste.

4. Cut one head of garlic in half horizontally, place in chicken cavity along with one sprig of rosemary and one half of lemon.

5. Zest lemon, mince 5 cloves of garlic, place zest, garlic and 2 springs of rosemary in bowl with melted butter. Mix and pour over chicken, covering the entire bird. Spread some of the mixture in between the skin and meat.

6. Cook for 30 minutes to brown skin.

7. Lower heat to 375 degrees and cook for another hour or until bird is cooked thoroughly.

8. Squeeze lemon over top of chicken when done.

I also made a rhubarb sauce to add a little sweet to dinner. It's simply two stalks of rhubarb cut up and cooked in a small amount of water until soft. Add half the juice of lemon, some cinnamon to taste and a packet of Truvia.

Here is a happy pic of our pup Saturnine finally settling down for the night. He loves the longer days and never seems to tire running around the house or yard.

Tea

2011-03-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Really getting into tea recently! Every time I write, I have to have a cup of tea to really help me focus. Why? I have no idea, so I really can't complain. I can't help but fall in love with the aroma and soothing tastes. The hardest part was finding a store that had really good loose leaf teas, originally I tried this one brand that was local, but the prices were too expensive and the teas were so so. With a little luck, I was able to find Adagio teas online which offer a good price for decent teas. Completely obsessed with their sampler packs! Try them out! Here's a link to Oolongs (my fav!). Oolong Tea

Chana Masala and NaNoWriMo

2010-10-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally starting to cool down now and I couldn't be happier. The sooner that happens, the more energy I will have and the more creative I will be. This leads into two things: good foods and choices of insanity.

Part One....

Good food!

Chana Masala is by far one of my favorite Indian dishes. Depending on how you make it, the dish could be creamy, spicy, tomatoee, and so on. It even tastes good on pasta noodles, although I prefer it over the traditional rice.

Chana Masala

1 - 13 oz can of Garbanzo Beans(Chickpeas)
2 1/2 Tbsp Ketchup
1/2-full - 14oz can of Coconut Milk (How creamy you want your meal depends on this.)
2 Tbsp Curry Powder
2 cloves of Garlic
1 Medium Onion, diced
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1-2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (Test this out slowly! Some Cayenne spice is spicier than others so it varies. I like spicy so you can do less or omit it completely if you'd like)

-Pour olive oil into pan and saute onions and garlic

-Once sauteed, add in tomato paste, curry powder and cayenne pepper. Mix until onions and garlic are covered evenly in spices.

-Add garbanzo beans, lemon juice, coconut milk, salt and pepper on medium heat for 15-20 minuets, stirring occasionally.

-Serve over rice or pasta

Part Two...

...The insanity.

I have heard about NaNoWriMo for a couple years now. For some reason, I was under the impression that you had to be in high school to actually participate. I was talking to a friend about it yesterday and she informed me how wrong I was. It appears I was getting confused with this and their Young Writers program. I looked into it some more, and just couldn't get away from how intriguing it sounded.

The goal is to write 50,000 words within the 30 days of the month of November. A little crazy yes. Okay, a lot of crazy--but still fun. True, I am already writing a book (something I will have to put aside while I'm working on this) and true that I've already past 50k words in length. However, I feel that this challenge will really push me to my limits, transform me not only in writing skills, but also show me what I am actually capable of.

So, during the month of November (and the weeks of prep leading up to it), I'll keep you updated not only with foods, but with the progress of the challenge. I'm really looking forward to it.

Kanji

2010-10-06T08:33:00.001-07:00

Paella, Peanut Butter Jelly Bread and 61k Words

2010-10-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I really need a nice place to take my photos so they're not just on a cutting board like this....but

This was amazing. I loved this so much I'm getting hungry just posting about it. It was the first time I have ever made Paella and I wasn't sure how it was going to come out. Spicy, jucy, and filling, this dish had an amazing assortment of flavors. I will definately be making this again soon. Very soon.

When I was younger, I remember my mom had made a Peanut Butter Jelly bread. I believe she only made it once, but I loved that bread. It was sweet, crispy, and a meal per slice--everything a kid could ask for. Veganized, we use bananas instead of eggs--which I can only argue that it makes it a thousand times better.

Other news: I've reached over 61k words in my story. Slowly but surely it's coming along and it's hard to believe that it's actually happening with everything else that's going on in life. For anyone who says they can't do something they've always wanted to do because they have no time, drive or experience--just do it. If it's something you truly want to do, these things will fall into place. I've been working more on my description. I hate when people go on and on about what the environment looks like, but I need to find a good balance between too little and too much.

Japanese Curry

2010-09-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ahh the food of my childhood. I love this curry and it will always have a special place in my heart. It's easy to make as well as delicious. Although its STILL considered summer (Can't wait for the 23rd!) it's cooled down enough to start preparing these fall meals.

Esme Pasta

2010-09-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

A favorite among my household! It's quick and easy and taste of peanutty goodness without the peanuts. I like to put breadcrumbs on the top and bake it for about 5-10 minuets after, giving it a slightly crunchy texture. I got the recipe off Vegan YumYum's website

Adobo Tofu and Green Beans

2010-09-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I've had Adobo. I made it once when I first became vegetarian using the fake chick'n which seemed to ruin the flavor. This however, came out really well.

We cut the tofu into squares and fried them slightly in olive oil.

Once that was done, we soaked them in the adobo sauce while the green beans cooked. Here is the finished product.

Cobbler and Children's Book

2010-09-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Fresh peaches = cobbler!

My grandparents have a peach tree and every year I look forward to making fresh pies and cobbler. This is a raspberry cobbler I made a few days ago. Here are the ingredients:

-3 Cups of Peaches
-1 Cup of Raspberries
-2 Cups of Sugar
-A stick of margarine or "butter" spread
-1/2 Cup of Water
-1 1/2 Cup of Almond Milk
-1 1/2 Cup of Self Rising Flour
-Nutmeg to taste
-Cinnamon to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

I mix the water, peaches, raspberries and 1 cup of the sugar together in my saucepan.

While thats cooking, I stick the "butter" in my dish and put it in the oven to melt. I mix together the remaining sugar, the flour and milk (slowly) as well as the cinnamon and nutmeg, then pour over the melted butter.

I place the fruit right on top of the flour mix and bake the dish for about 40 minuets.

Yay!

To follow up on the children's book post I had the other day, I have finished up my sketch!

This should hopefully be finished by the end of March 2011. I'm really looking forward to working on it and hope that the experience will be just as educational as fun.

This blog should really be called the Soup Blog

2010-08-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, I noticed for some reason I basically only post soup blogs. I didn't even realize I ate that much soup until I glanced over my previous posts...then looked at the imaged I posted on Flickr. It might just be the current time in my life, because I don't recall eating this much soup ever. Then again, I could be wrong. Here are a couple more soups that I've made recently, both being Matzo.

This is the traditional soup, made with vegetable broth, carrots, matzo etc.

The second soup I wanted to play around with a bit and add a bit of an Asian flavor. This flavor I was able to obtain simply by adding shitake mushrooms and a little bit of hot spice.

I actually really enjoyed the flavor of this a lot!

Other things in life:

I've been working on the concept of the children's book I'm working on. Image should soon be finished and posted sometime during this week. Originally, I was debating between working in watercolour or digital paint. My conclusion was digital paint. I wasn't sure the best way to scan watercolours in, not to mention the loss of colour that sometimes happens in the scan. Also, the ease of changing your image, fixing mistakes, etc, are a thousand times easier to do digitally. My problem is that it takes me a lot longer to do digital painting since I've just recently started and am slowly learning the techniques. Overall, it should be a great learning experience.

Chili Yum

2010-08-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's been hot, but for some reason I had been craving chili. My mother made the best chili when I was growing up. It was one of my favorite dishes and I could eat it no matter the temperature outside. Earlier this year, I finally got the recipe from her and made it veg. It's actually really easy to make and is done almost completely from pantry items. The secret to awesome chili is cilantro. Cilantro adds such a fantastic flavor that separates it from ordinary chili. <3

Mom's Chili

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Large cans tomato sauce

1 Large can crushed tomato

1 Large can pinto beans

1 Large can spicy chili beans

2 Cans diced tomatoes with hot chilies

1/2 Bunch of cilantro

2 Onions, sauteed

3 Garlic cloves

To your liking:

Garlic powder, Salt, Pepper, Cumin, Chili Powder, Cayanne

Miso Soup and Shortcake

2010-07-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

Being part Japanese, I had luckily grown up with many of the cultural flavors my grandmother prepared. I would like to start blogging more of her dishes with the veg flair. I'm gong to start off with miso soup. We would often have a miso soup with breakfast, lunch or dinner as a side or a large pot filled with many different ingredients as a main dish.

This miso soup was a main dish, filled with daikon radish, spinach, tofu, shitake mushrooms and green onions.

For dessert, I had bought a bunch of fresh strawberries and prepared a strawberry shortcake.

For the shortcake, I didn't add any additional sugar, but just mashed up some of the strawberries to create the more luqidy substance and it seemed to work really well. Delicious!

4th of July!!!!

2010-07-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Fourth was a fun and fantastic holiday. We spent the night eating, sitting around the firepit and glancing at the hidden glow of fireworks from my home. I had spent the previous week finishing up the kitchen,consisted of painting the cupboards and walls, while my husband--3 hours before guests arrived--worked on building stadium seating for our entertainment room.

Having a house has been a challenge trying to get everything fixed up and in order, but it really does make a difference when you can say to yourself, I want this wall this colour--and you can go and do it. The entertainment room is almost done, as well as the kitchen, bathrooms and our offices. We have the guest room left along with our own room. Hopefully this summer we'll be able to put them together.

For the 4th of July menu, I had prepared a couscous, Texas caviar, fruit and vegetable tray, pita tray, salad, corn, grilled tofu, and this amazing dessert which I still have not named. Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of all the foods :( But I do have a picture of the initial spread. This is more a vegetarian spread since a friend had brought cheese, but that is in the back.

I really need to remake the dessert and post a picture. It was a strawberry, banana, pineapple almost like a pie dish. I had made a 9 x13 and it was completely gone by the end of the night. Simply, it was a must make again dish.

Summer Solstice!

2010-06-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year and the shortest night. I always try to make foods with summer ingredients as best I can for this special day. This year, I made a green gazpacho, grilled portobellos, Texas caviar and a strawberry-pineapple mouse.

In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for those Aboriginal people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable. --religioustolerance.org

Posole!

2010-06-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

I know, its summer and its hot--why would I make posole? Because it's delicious. I love the smell of this soup and its rich ingredients. At my work, people bring this in all the time and I am never able to eat it because of the broth or a form of meat. So I finally sat down and made my own.