Tag Archives: banana

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, my lovelies!

For the past five or six years, Christmas day has looked like this: lying around in my pajamas alllll day, eating popcorn, and watching movies. The Christmas movie rotation includes My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the original cartoon, not the Jim Carrey version).

This year, I’m dog- and house-sitting. This means that I’ll have to get dressed and feed her, and while I’m up I may as well head to my parents’ place and make them brunch. I’m thinking waffles with boozy bananas. Maybe some bacon for the salty-sweet thing. That should do it.

A seedy post

Sometimes I confuse myself. For instance, when it comes to strawberry or raspberry jam, I insist that the seeds be in it. Seedless raspberry jam is no fun whatsoever. But then today, I made myself a banana-blackberry smoothie. Given what I just said about raspberry jam, you’d expect me to be all over the seeds, right?

Wrong.

One sip into the smoothie, I got distracted by the seeds and had to get the strainer. That’s right kids, I actually strained my smoothie. I’m high-maintenance like that.

Yesterday’s banana bread is today’s breakfast

People often ask me what my favourite cookbook is, and I never know what to tell them.  It really depends on what you plan to be cooking, and what your skill level is.  However, if you really pressed me for an answer, I would tell you that you should probably have The Joy of Cooking on your bookshelf.  I own the 1997 edition, and it has been there for me whenever I’ve had a culinary question.  There are great reference sections for vegetables, meat, and fish, and I’m constantly referring to the handy-dandy table of cake pan substitutions. 

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Multitasking

I have banana bread in the oven. In the meantime, I’m eating Cheerios and reading Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food“. So far, it’s brilliant. I really hope I finish it soon, because it’s due back to the library tomorrow and I’m tired of renting, as opposed to borrowing, books. This is what happens when you borrow five books at one time and realize that you have no way of reading them all in three weeks.

Chocolate flashbacks

I trekked out to North Van to visit my old boss today. It was great to see my former co-workers, but wow – lots of things have changed in 10 months. I only knew two people in the pastry kitchen – the other four people are all new. And most of the girls in the cafe are new, and had no idea who I was.

At least things are pretty much the same in the chocolate kitchen, where I used to work. At the height of the Christmas season, we produced more than 60,000 identical, perfect, delicious-tasting chocolates each week. It was an insane exercise in organization, efficiency and artistry. I definitely enjoyed the experience – and my fantastic co-workers – but at the end of the day I knew that I wasn’t cut out for the madness of 16-hour days on my feet, fuelled by expensive cappuccino and pastries.

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