de facto redhead

I love pancakes, you love pancakes, we all love pancakes, so let’s eat pancakes every day! OK, maybe not every day, but definitely once a week, which is the pancake schedule I try and restrict myself to. Because I love pancakes so much, and sometimes lose control and eat them twice a week, I have started omitting the chocolate chips I like to include, and instead adding ground flax seeds. I also use skim milk, egg whites, and pure maple syrup. I’m even giving up on Aunt Jemima – last week I bought PC Blue Menu’s new Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix to try and healthy things up a bit more.

This past week, though, saw Pancake Tuesday come and go, and while I had regular ol’ pancakes on that day, I got to eat my and Ami’s fantastic recipe of the week on Saturday, when I cooked up a batch of walnut pancakes with maple-glazed apples for breakfast for my visiting brother Darcy and his girlfriend Kayla. Ami made her pancakes for dinner, on Pancake Tuesday, and the whole pancake idea was so appealing, Chris asked her, “Why don’t we have pancakes more often?” Why, indeed!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts (*see note below)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Canola oil

Maple-glazed Apples
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 apples, such as Macoun, Jonathan, Delicious, or your favorite variety, peeled (optional), cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices (I did not core my apples – I just cut slices off the apples, around the core)
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons maple syrup, plus extra for serving (optional)

Directions
1. Make the pancake batter: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, walnuts, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the egg. Whisk in the buttermilk, butter, and maple syrup. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and blend until just incorporated, using a light touch. Set aside and let sit for 15 minutes. (If making ahead several hours, cover and refrigerate until ready to cook the pancakes. Bring the batter to room temperature before using.)

2. Meanwhile, prepare the apples: Melt the butter in a medium skillet set over medium heat. Add the apple slices, sprinkle with the allspice and nutmeg, and cook for one minute, gently stirring. Add the maple syrup and cook for two minutes, gently stirring, until the apples look glazed or caramelized. Remove from the heat and set aside. (I would leave these on the stove low heat for the rest of the cooking time, so the apples are warm when you use any leftovers for garnish)

3. To make the pancakes: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Brush it lightly with the oil. When the pan is hot, add 1/4 cup pancake batter to the pan. Add another two or three pancakes, depending on the size of the skillet and making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Place three or four of the apple slices on top of each pancake, gently pressing them into the batter. Cook two minutes or until bubbles begin to surface and the pancakes appear golden brown on the underside. Gently flip the pancakes and cook another two to three minutes, or until the apples are caramelized and the pancakes are golden brown. Serve immediately or place on an ovenproof plate and keep warm in preheated oven. Repeat with the remaining batter and apples. Heat any remaining apples in the skillet until warm and serve on the side or spoon on top of the pancakes. Place one cup of maple syrup in a small saucepan and warm over low heat. Serve the warm syrup on the side, if desired.

Makes 8 to 9 pancakes (NOT TRUE! See our comments below…)

*Note: Lightly toast the nuts on a cookie sheet in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and pulse in a food processor or blender. You don’t want the nuts to be like sawdust; they should be just finely ground. If you buy finely chopped walnuts, toast them in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes, or until very lightly toasted.

My ingredients.

Ami’s ingredients.

Ami’s batter (and look – it’s in a Pyrex bowl!).

What things looked like on my stove.

My finished product!

Ami’s final presentation that looked glazed and lovely!

Ami and I both agreed that our pancakes turned out really well, were delicious, and were worthy of a repeat appearance at our tables. My experience was pretty straightforward, since I followed the recipe almost exactly. The only thing I did differently was to double it, because Ami warned me that while the recipe says it yields 8-9 pancakes, it’s actually more like 6-ish (and, in the end, I concur – a doubled batter made about 14 pancakes). Ami, however, is going vegan for the month of March, and therefore had a few substitutions. She used:

• Almond milk with a squirt of lemon juice to create her own homemade (and vegan!) buttermilk
• 1/4 cup of applesauce in place of an egg
• Earth Balance vegan butter instead of regular butter

Other non-vegan-related switcheroos:

• Ami didn’t have allspice, so she used a equal-amount combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
• She also didn’t press the apple pieces into her pancakes because she knew from previous experience that vegan pancakes aren’t as heavy as regular pancakes, and there was reason to assume the slices wouldn’t stay in place very well. As an easy fix, she just used her cooked apples as a topping/garnish. However, I also found the slices a bit awkward because they, in combination with the walnuts, made the pancakes lumpy, so I really had to take care to make sure the pancakes were cooked through (which also increased the cooking time from the 2-3 minutes per side to more like 5 minutes per side).
• I chose to use four Red Delicious apples, and Ami used two Pink Lady apples and two McIntosh apples.

When all was said and done, Ami rated this recipe a 4 out of 5, and I agree with her. It was really good (positive comments all around my breakfast table, and from Ami’s husband Chris, there was an exclamation of “Good call!!” in response to the affirmation of the presence of walnuts), but a point was docked from Ami because the pancakes weren’t the absolute BEST ever. My criticism is that the recipe took a long time (about an hour and a half), and there were a lot of dishes to clean up afterward. My counters looked like a bomb had gone off.

An interesting note from Ami, is, of course, that these pancakes can definitely be made vegan-style (and still turn out deliciously!), and my tidbit is that they’re pretty good leftover the next day! The nutty flavour remained strong, and the apples that were cooked into the pancakes still actually tasted good (this was my biggest leftover fear). I heated up the pancakes in the oven this morning for 20 minutes, and I was good to go.

Oh, pancakes, don’t ever leave me – I love you so!

When Ami and I pick our recipe for the week, we take turns in our selections. I send Ami a list of four or five recipes, she chooses what looks interesting, and a final decision is made based on our mutual agreement. The following week, Ami sends me her picks, and everything works out vice-versa. Last week’s recipe was from Ami’s list, and the winner was sushi. Here is an idea of what happens in our e-mails:

Me: The writer who made the sushi makes it sound so easy, and I have to admit that I’m intrigued – sushi is something I have never tried to make on my own, but I love going out to eat it!

Ami: I am intrigued by the sushi too! I actually have been dying to try making it. I (like you) love going out for it, but have never tried making it myself. That is the best and easiest-looking step-by-step instructions I have ever found. I think we should try it! I also love that you can basically fill them with whatever you want. I have been wanting to try making it myself since I saw Samantha do it in Sex and the City. Haha.

Me: When it says to wet the edge of the nori, do you think that means both edges of the roll, or just the last edge, that you’ll reach once you have everything rolled up? I have never bought or cut up an avocado before – any tips? I am going to have to seek out a bamboo sushi mat! And by saying that, I guess that means I’m officially in for the great sushi experiment of 2011! I thought of the SATC movie, too, when I began thinking about making sushi myself, and then I thought, “They took a workshop, and I’m going to attempt this myself??!!” Haha.

Ami: As far as wetting the edge of the nori…I think they mean the last edge, the side that will be folding over.  However, I have cooked with nori before (just not for sushi) and I don’t think it will matter if you wet both sides.  It is pretty pliable and forgiving.  I would just wet whatever you need to to get it to stick closed. I can’t believe you have never bought or cut an avocado!!!

Me: Do you think the sesame seeds have to be roasted/toasted? I bought raw ones in bulk from Whole Foods, but I saw roasted ones in a jar at Fortino’s, which made me doubt my purchase. Also, is rice vinegar the same as rice wine? There was rice wine at Whole Foods, but it was expensive, and I didn’t think I would use it that much to warrant the purchase, so I looked again at Fortino’s, and they didn’t have it all, but they did have rice vinegar, which had a picture of sushi on the front of it and ended up convincing me that it must be the same thing…?

Ami: I would toast the sesame seeds…probably not necessary per se, but they definitely taste better that way. It’s really easy to do yourself though…just throw them in a skillet with a LITTLE oil for a few minutes until they brown up a little (or do the same, but in the oven). You can even YouTube it to see a video, I am sure there are tons of them. I often toast nuts and seeds for salads and they taste way better. My bottle says “rice vinegar” too… so lets hope it’s fine. Haha. I think they are the same. This is the kind I have: http://www.marukan-usa.com/Product_New_Detail.html. I have used it for other Asian-type dishes before and it’s been fine.

Over the past few weeks, these types of exchanges have been typical. Although, as you might have noticed, it’s me asking all the questions, and it’s Ami with all the answers! Haha! Here is the recipe we used, from A Healthy Passion:

Ingredients:

2 cups water (I didn’t follow this – I just poured in what my rice package said to use for 1 cup of rice)

1 cup brown rice

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled

1 avocado

2 tbsp sesame seeds (toasted ones!)

1 tbsp rice wine (rice vinegar is perfectly good, too!)

3 sheets nori

Directions

Cook rice according to package directions, fluff with a fork, and pour into a large bowl. Cool and stir in rice wine. (I kept my rice in the fridge while I cut up the vegetables). In the meantime, peel and cut veggies into strips. Cover your sushi mat in Saran wrap, and lay a piece of nori down, covering it with rice. Lay down 3 strips of cucumbers, 3 pieces of carrot, and 3 pieces of avocado. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, wet the edges of the nori, and roll. Using a sharp knife, slice the roll into 1-inch-thick pieces.

My sushi ingredients.

Ami’s sushi ingredients.

My cut-up vegetables. They look tasty!

Ami’s creation before she attempted the ambiguous rolling of the sushi mat.

Ta-da! This is Ami’s roll, and mine looked more or less the same.

My sushi in its completion. It’s not the best picture, and this fact is magnified when you see Ami’s final shot…

I think her plating and food display turned out a bit better than mine did!

From our first attempt at sushi, we learned a few things, and our lessons began with the amount of vegetables to cut up. Read: WAY LESS than what is called for. I used about one cucumber, roughly half an avocado, and one-and-a-half carrots. Ami’s experience was pretty much the same. I had to throw out the unused avocado because I didn’t realize it would turn brown within a day (even when kept in a container in the fridge), but I just saved the rest of the veggies for Darcy’s lunches. Ami, on the other hand, had put her unused vegetables in a bowl, to be stored away after dinner. While cleaning up, Chris asked her if they were scraps, and she said yes, thinking he wanted to eat them. Nope, he wanted to throw them out, so in the garbage they went. Noooooooooooooooooooo!

There are words of wisdom in that paragraph. Use them as you will.

Onward, and into the nori. Ami and I thought  it seemed super-brittle, and that couldn’t possibly be right…could it? Well, it was, as we both found out it becomes much softer and more pliable once the rice is spread over it. Also, for me, 1 cup of rice yielded enough for four rolls (i.e. four sheets of nori).

Other notes from our sushi experiment include:

• The bamboo sushi mat. How do you use it? What is its purpose? We had no idea, because it seemed like you could just roll the sushi on your own, without the mat, but I made the sushi again later in the week, and I discovered I could make the beginning of the roll a lot tighter by curling the mat around the first “hump” of nori, rice, and veggies, and then pressing inward with my clawed fingers. Does that make sense?

• For wetting the edge of the nori, I kept a little bowl of water on the counter, and just dotted the edge with my wet finger. Ami and I agree that wetting the edge really does make a great seam for the sushi roll!

• Substitutions/additions made in our recipes were: a red pepper in Ami’s sushi, and canned tuna with hot sauce in two of my sushi rolls. Darcy came home halfway through my preparations, and decided the vegetarian sushi wasn’t going to quite cut it for him, so the solution was to mix up some canned tuna and hot sauce for his own at-home version of a spicy tuna roll.

• Both Ami and Darcy thought the carrot in the roll was odd – they thought it was too hard/crunchy, so if you don’t like carrots, or prefer a softer roll, take heed!

All in all, Ami rated her experience and the recipe a 3 or 3.5 (so, 3.25?) out of 5 because she had issues with the rolling (damn the mat!), and she felt like the sushi was missing something, which means next time, she wants to try adding tuna, crab, or a sauce to inject some life to what she and Chris thought was a rather “boring” meal, even though it was served with soy sauce and wasabi. Darcy also had wasabi with his rolls, but I just ate mine plain, because that’s the way I like them. My rating of the recipe would be a 3.75 because while I enjoyed the rolls very much, I was already looking forward to what else I could put in them, which means there is room for improvement.

The biggest thing to point out about this recipe, though, is that it’s EASY! Making my own sushi had never even crossed my mind until Ami suggested it. If you give it a try, too, let us know!

I’m posting this week’s recipe a day early because it’s Oscar night, and that means tomorrow is reserved for my dress review. Will I face bitter revolt because I am straying from my usual schedule? Let’s hope not (Joanne, I told you to put down the pitchfork, and GO HOME already), because if you so choose not to come back, you will be missing out on further recipe wonders such this week’s Baked Peanut Butter and Banana French Toast, from Food & Drink. Sooooo goooood…

Ingredients

1 wide supermarket-style baguette
2 large bananas
½ cup (125 mL) peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1 cup (250 mL) milk
3 eggs
2 tbsp (25 mL) brown sugar
2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
½ tsp (2 mL) each cinnamon and nutmeg
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
1 to 2 tbsp (15 to 25 mL) butter, melted
Maple syrup or chocolate sauce

Directions

1. Slice baguette into ten 1½-inch (4-cm) pieces. Using a knife, slice through the bottom crust of each piece, nearly right to the other side, to form a pocket. Thinly slice 1 banana. Spread about 2 tsp (10 mL) peanut butter into each pocket, then stuff in a few banana slices. Squish bread back together again and don’t worry if it tears a bit and you can see the filling.

2. Whisk milk with eggs, sugar, vanilla, spices and salt until blended. Place stuffed bread in milk mixture. Turn once. Refrigerate, covered, at least 2 hours or up to overnight, turning a couple of times.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450°F (230°C).

4. Brush baking sheet with half the butter. Place bread on top, spacing evenly. Brush tops with remaining butter. Bake in centre of preheated oven for 6 minutes. Turn and continue to bake until golden, 5 to 6 more minutes. Slice remaining banana. Serve scattered with bananas and drizzled with syrup or chocolate sauce.

It’s cookin’ Monday! Last time, Ami and I had risotto and roasted vegetables cooking in our kitchens, and just about a week ago, we decided to try our hands at home-made bread. When I told my mom what I was baking, she had a decidedly negative reaction. “Bread is SO hard to make. Good luck, chump,” is basically what she said, and when I was with Susie this weekend, telling her about the bread, she asked incredulously, “You made it from scratch?!?!?!” Well, yes, I did, and so did Ami, and with little more than a few e-mails back and forth with our initial uncertainties, we truly accomplished this most impossible feat. We created bread with our very own hands, and the flour runneth from our fingers and the dough riseth most mightily…

Chef Michael Smith’s Country Bread

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup any multigrain mix
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups warm water

Directions

In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients together, evenly distributing the salt and yeast throughout the flour. Pour in the warm water and stir with the handle of a wooden spoon until a moist dough forms. Continue stirring until the dough incorporates all the loose flour in the bowl, 1 or 2 minutes in total. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place for 18 hours. The dough will double in size and bubble (don’t worry if you don’t see this happening – I didn’t notice a difference in the dough until the 18 hours were up), and long elastic gluten strands will form without laborious kneading.
Knock the dough down and toss it with a splash of vegetable oil, evenly coating the dough ball. Form it into a 9- x 5-inch (2 L) loaf pan and, without covering, rest it a second time. In 2 to 3 hours it will double in size once more.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C). When the dough is ready, bake for 45 minutes.

My ingredients, minus the vegetable oil, which I forgot to photograph.

Ami’s ingredients, minus her oil (she used olive), which she also forgot to photograph.

I was very curious to find out what “long elastic gluten strands” are. Now I know, and so do you.

This is Ami’s dough, just before it went into the oven. I had made my bread before her, so I sent out the alert that she needed to watch for this phenomenon. Our solution was to simply tuck the errant dough back into the pan. As you will see, hers turned out looking better than mine did…

…it looks perfect!!

Mine oozed…

…but looked much better when it was out of the pan and cleaned up a bit.

What do you think? It’s not bad, if I do say so myself! All the ingredients were easy to find in the grocery store, and I’m sure many of you have many of the required items in your cupboards right now – Ami did, and she opted for rolled oats as her multigrain mix, while I chose to try out the Red River cereal. No complaints from either of us on our choice of “mix-in.” Other differences between us were my bread flour versus Ami’s all-purpose flour, and the aforementioned use of vegetable oil (me) or olive oil (Ami). Oh, and while I used a plastic-wrap shower-cap-with-elastic thing to cover my bread, Ami used a tea towel, which is good to know if you don’t have plastic wrap on-hand, or if what you do have doesn’t stick to your bowl (which is what happened to me, and was the reason why I scrounged out the shower-cap apparatus).

During the entire process, we found out there isn’t really much of a process at all. There is a lot of waiting. And sleeping. The dough does have to sit for 18 hours, after all! Our agreed words of warning are regarding the crazy dough-ooze that creeps up and flows outside the pan during the last 2-3 hour part of the recipe. Unless you have a deep pan, the escaping dough is going to be a part of your life. Stop being judgmental, and just accept it for what it is, OK?

As I said in the dough-ooze’s caption above, we just tucked the extra dough back into the pan as best we could. In the “after” pictures, you’ll also notice that my bread is slightly burnt on top – for some reason, the crust started to get a little too brown after about five minutes, and I had to put the pan on the lowest oven rack, as well as lower the temperature by 20 degrees. This wasn’t a problem for Ami at all, though, and her loaf of bread looks lovely!

And finally, Ami and I want to reassure anyone who tries this recipe that if your crust feels rock-hard when you take the pan out of the oven, don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that your bread is ruined.We literally knocked on the tops of our loaves, and we both thought we had messed something up, but when we sliced into our bread, it was bliss! So soft and delicious! I had a bit of trouble getting the loaf out of the pan, but I think that’s because of the ooze, since Ami didn’t mention that she had any difficulties.

We found the bread to be pretty filling, with two (thick-cut) slices the maximum we could eat in one sitting, but damn (or day-um!), it was good. Ami rated this recipe a 4.5 out of 5 (it lost a half-point for the mess of the ooze), and I agree with her score, but I withhold half a point for my slightly burnt crust.

I have already stated to Darcy that I will make this bread again, and Ami’s husband asked her bake more the day she made her first loaf, so I foresee more bread-baking adventures in our futures. If we can do it, you can do it!

Hi, everyone! Welcome to the first cooking collaboration between Ami and I! As I mentioned on Facebook and in my previous blog post, we will be attempting to either cook or bake a new recipe every week, and we will be sharing our adventures with you – and just because this recipe happened to turn out well and cook rather smoothly, don’t assume that we (well, me, at least) are chef extraordinaires who are taking on this project only to rub your pretty little noses in our kitchen prowess. All you have to do is read my last post to see that, to me, this a whole new world, worthy of Jasmine and Aladdin singing on a magic carpet. Anyway, without further ado, here is my and Ami’s first recipe of barley risotto with roasted winter vegetables, which is a foodnetwork.com recipe suggested to us by our friend, Sandy/Alex:

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 1 small celery root (about 1/2 pound), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 1/2 small butternut squash, halved, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 4 to 5 cups torn mustard greens (1 small bunch)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Toss the carrot, celery root, and butternut squash with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the salt on a baking sheet and spread out in an even layer. Roast until golden and tender, about 25 minutes.

Combine the chicken broth and thyme in a pot and bring to a simmer.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the barley, onion and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften a bit, about 5 minutes. Pour in the wine, and cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid is absorbed. Add 2 cups of the broth, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently. Add the remaining broth and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the barley is tender but still slightly firm and the mixture is still soupy, about 30 minutes. Add the roasted vegetables and cook until the vegetables are heated through. Stir the mustard greens into the risotto, then let the mixture sit until the greens wilt, about 3 minutes. If the risotto thickens up too much, thin it out with a little hot water. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately (or else face certain death). Pass grated cheese at the table (not exactly a necessary step, and why dirty an extra bowl?).

Here are the ingredients and brands I used.

Here are the ingredients and brands Ami used. (Is that not one of the biggest carrots you have ever seen? My carrots look pathetic in comparison.)

The various stages of risotto cooking.

My risotto on the left, Ami’s on the right.

First off, let’s address the ingredients. Mustard greens? Celery root? Never heard of them. Well, I hadn’t until I read this recipe. Ami and I both struggled to find mustard greens – I had absolutely no success, and all she found was stray mustard greens mixed in with other leafy vegetables. I ended up using spinach, and Ami used kale. She also added more ground pepper to her dish because she had read that mustard greens have a more pepper-like taste than kale. And what about the curious celery root? It’s that ugly brown, warty-looking thing in my ingredients picture. It was actually pretty easy to find (I saw it at both Longo’s and Food Basics), but in a fit of contrariness, Ami’s root pulled a disappearing act because it overheard us calling it names, and she used turnips instead. I didn’t make any other substitutions, but Ami used 1/2 tsp. of dried thyme  in place of the fresh stuff, and also grated Pecorino Romano cheese instead of Parmesan. Oh, and we both didn’t know what “smashed” garlic meant, so we each went for the next best thing: minced. I actually tried to “smash” my garlic down with the bottom of a spoon, but that method was useless. One more note about the ingredients: can I just please complain about how hard butternut squash is to peel? *Whine*

OK, on to the actual cooking. Ami and I found the recipe fairly simple to follow, and the only thing we thought to be off about the instructions was the second addition of the broth, which is supposed to take 30 minutes to soak up into the barley – we thought it was more like 15-20 minutes. There actually isn’t much more to say, other than if you’re skeptical (as I was) about roasting the vegetables first and then leaving them out in the open until they’re ready to go in the risotto, don’t be. A warning, however, to those with errant husbands and/or boyfriends who are underfoot whilst you’re cooking: Ami remarked that her husband Chris “kept picking them (the roasted vegetables) off the pan and eating them.” G’way with you!

From start to finish, the recipe took me an hour and 40 minutes, and that’s from setting everything out on the counter to sitting down with fork in hand. And, by the time I did sit down, I had, of course, sampled the risotto, and I thought it to be quite good! The taste of the celery root was a bit questionable, but any doubt was easily disguised by the mixture of other flavours and textures in the risotto. Ami and I both agreed it was very filling, but that being said, Darcy ate his right up, and Chris scarfed down three servings. You man, you like risotto. Me woman, I full. Based on those  nine words of supreme articulation, I rate this dish a 3.5 or 4 (so, 3.75?) out of 5, and Ami rates it a 3 out of 5. For me, I found the Parmesan really gave the dish that extra oomph into cheesy goodness that is my score of 3.75 out of 5.

Questions? Comments? Let us know!

An ad to which I should take heed?

If you follow me on my De Facto Redhead Facebook page, you might have noticed my announcement this week that I am starting a new feature on my blog – cooking! Joining me in my culinary adventures is Ami, formerly of the Beyond Peas and Carrots blog, and currently a busy stay-at-home mom to Holden and wife to Chris. Ami and I have known each other since we were 11 years old, and while the years have taken us in different directions, thanks to Facebook, we reconnected, and now, by chance, we live within about an hour of one another!

Ami devoted a lot of her posts to cooking and baking, which I have been attempting (as of late) in ever-increasing quantities. I have always enjoyed baking, but cooking? Not really. Let’s review:

1. Childhood: My mom used slap my potatoes down on my plate (while I was scrunching up my nose), and say, “You’ll have to learn how to make these for your own family some day, you know!” Me? Forget the potatoes – I really would have preferred a hot dog or a grilled-cheese sandwich. Or maybe plain pasta. That was good stuff.

2. Teenage years: Absolute refusal to learn how to cook aforementioned potatoes, and my mom’s increasing exasperation with my bored stares at her requests for me to “JUST peel the potatoes, OK?” No can do, mom, this girl’s gotta talk on the phone for eight hours with the friends she just left 10 minutes ago.

3. Adulthood – 19/20 years old: Ahhhh, the freedom of college, and from the shackles of Sunday’s potato meals! Their replacement? Oh, just eight months of the residence meal-plan at Humber College, from which I ate bagels, croissants, salads, hard-boiled eggs, and toasted turkey sandwiches before scurrying up to my room only to be starving in the evening, at which time I would scarf Mini-Wheats and rice cakes topped with peanut butter. Maybe throw a juice box in there for good measure. Truly, I wasn’t a calorie-counter dieter at the time, as much as the evidence is mounting to the contrary – the food in that cafeteria was just BAD…and yet somehow my friend Peter squandered away his entire meal plan in half the year. He liked the eggnog.

4. Adulthood – 20/21 years old: I’m living with a roommate now (hi, Cristiana!), and while I have officially said goodbye to the meal plan, I now have to take care of producing SOMETHING for my own meals. Enter my staple lunch of a piece of fruit, baby carrots, two rice cakes topped with peanut butter, and something for dessert. Cereal or a bagel was usually my breakfast, and supper meant the astounding variety of pasta and Prego sauce, eggs and toast, or French toast.

5. Adulthood – 21/22/23 years old: Graduated from college and moved back home to finish university as a commuter with about an hour’s drive to class. In other words, back to the Sunday pototoes. And no, two years away didn’t make me miss them.

6. Adulthood – 23/24/25 years old: I graduated from university, and moved to Toronto to work retail for the summer before I went back to college for a post-grad program. After I graduate from college (again), I start working in Toronto as well. During these years, I live with Sandy first, then Susie, then Kristy, then (briefly) Erin. Each person became very familiar with my english muffin pizzas, and, yes, pasta with…wait for it…not Prego, but a step up into Classico!

7. Adulthood – 25/26/27 years old: The Edmonton years, when Darcy and I moved in together, and he did the cooking. My specialties were pancakes and a macaroni and hamburger casserole. These were also the Edmonton years when my mom would ask, “What are you feeding Darcy?” Didn’t I just answer that? Pancakes and macaroni and hamburger casserole.

8. Adulthood – 28 years old: Back to Ontario! Roles reversed, I’m the one at home, and Darcy’s the one out at the office. I finally start to feel some sense of homemaker stir within me, and I decide to start trying to cook. Miracle of miracles, I’m not that bad, and now I might even, ahem, enjoy it. Say what? I actually credit part of my motivation to begin cooking to Ami, because when she was writing Beyond Peas and Carrots, she was constantly posting about this meal or that dish – and her son is not even a year old! I guiltily read her posts while wearing my pajamas at four in the afternoon, thinking I should stop being such a slattern, at home all day and producing nothing in the way of sustenance for Darcy and I. What? A graduation from english muffin pizzas to pita pizzas doesn’t count?

So, while I would by no means call myself a cook, I am trying to at least become a competent one, and my little collaboration with Ami, in which we will compare our ingredients and experiences cooking or baking the same recipe, is a great way to experiment with new foods, hone some skills, reconnect with an old friend, and inspire me to get some fresh content up on De Facto Redhead!

You can look forward to our first recipe review on Monday – it’s a barley risotto with roasted winter vegetables, and we can thank my former roommate Sandy for the recipe, who has also evolved his palate from his Delissio pizza days. Aren’t we soooooooo grown up now?

Carla vs. Potatoes, 2007.