Sometimes I skip dinner and just eat dessert.

Well guys, my aunt brought to my attention that I haven't really brought up my dietary restrictions. I can't have wheat or gluten, dairy, corn (probably just the by-products, but I haven't tested that yet), potatoes and yeast (but I mostly ignore that). It's a lot, I know. That's just a heads up, because most of the recipes I post will be free of all that. But, if you're wanting to see a recipe cater to your specific restriction, just hit me up and I'll see what I can do~

Okay, I've been cooking a lot lately. It's picture sharing time! Excite!!

Peanut butter and banana french toast sandwhich on gluten free bread~

Lamb with a gremolata about to go in the oven.

Finished lamb with a samosa-style twice baked yam.

Hasselback potatoes (and a yam for me and my aunt).

Yay!! I make things taste good~ But the recipe I'm going to share with you today is one I just made up on the spot. I needed to use some rhubarb I picked yesterday, and some strawbs that were nearing the end in the fridge. I was the strawberry hero.

And guess what! I measured things for you, because I love you so much. Just kidding, I on;t half measured them. Because I half love you so much? I tried, anyways. So here, take it:

Shortbread crust:

• 1c gluten free flour
• 1/2c sugar
• 1c butter or something dairy free. I used vegan margarine (boooooo, use butter if you can).

Filling:

•  2c rhubarb chopped up
• 2c strawbs
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp black pepper (seriously, try it. Go on.)

Crumble topping:

•  2 or 3 healthy spoonfuls of butter (or like, you know, whatever)
• 3 nice big handfuls of slow cook oats (because gluten free oats take their time)
• Some brown sug

HERE'S HOW TO PUT IT TOGETHER

Do yourself a favour and preheat that oven. 350. Mix your shortbread things up, and in a greased pan throw that in the bottom, like this:

Put some fork holes in that shit and bake it for about 10 mins.

While that bakes, you can mix your other shit in separate bowls.

Bowl 1

Bowl 2

Take your shortbread crust out, let it cool for 10 mins if you want. I'm impatient, so I really didn't. Then put the filling on the shortbread, and crumble your crumble on top~

 Put it back in for like... 25 minutes? My aunt has a convection oven, so it doesn't take as long for anything, but 25 should be fine.

This is what I got in the end:

  

And I have to say that this is stupid good. YUM!!! I'm eating it right now. Let me know if you add your own spin on it~

Later days, 

Brittney

 

It's Getting Warm Out~ (Even in Canada)

Lately I've been "paying rent" at my Aunt and Uncle's house while we wait out Jake's visa application by cooking dinner. For the first week my Uncle was away (he's a pretty traditional guy), so I could make whatever I wanted (since my Aunt has an adventurous pallet), but now that he's back, I'm challenging myself to make some more traditional things. I grew up in a household that ate A LOT of meat and potatoes, so after I moved out and started making my own food, you can bet I stayed far away from that style of cooking. All of this is new to me. Okay, whatever, tomorrow I'm making lamb. It should be tasty.

Tonight is steak (which my Aunt is grilling), but I'm gonna make some hasselback potatoes. They look cool. Here have a picture:

I obviously didn't make that. I have absolutely no photography equipment, and so as you might have noticed, I have to take all my pictures outside.I'm all excited to make these potatoes. They look great!!

Yesterday, I made lasagne. AND because I have time like that, I Wikipedia'd lasagne. I learned that lasagnE is plural, and lasagnA is a single piece of noodle!! I feel smart. Herp derp. I also made lavender frozen custard. It was delissshhhhh.

Recipe!

• 1 can coconut milk - for 2-3 people, but this recipe doubles very easily
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2-3/4 cup sugar - depending on how sweet you like it. 
• 1 bunch of lavender sprigs tied together with butchers twine
• A cap full of vanilla
• That's it, seriously.

First, you put the can of coconut milk in a pot on the stove with the sugar, vanilla and lavender (med-low heat). While that's all happening, beat your egg yolks till they reach the ribbon stage. Which looks like this:

When your lavender has infused to your taste into the coconut milk, strain it through a fine mesh strainer, then add about 1 cup of it to your eggs SLOWLY. Eggs hate being pressured into doing things they don't want to do. you have to ease them into it, like a cult leader eases his new members. Yeah, you have to love bomb your eggs. Then, when they're tempered, you can put all that back in the pot on low-medium heat and thicken that up. You want your custard to be thick, but still runny.

When your custard is done, strain that to get rid of any cooked egg parts. Those are the enemy. Put your mixture in a cake pan and throw it in the freezer. Stir it around every half hour or so till it's frozen. After you can put it in a container and enjoy the shit out of it.

Your welcome,
Brittney


UPDATE! Jake brought to my attention that the lavender flavour really came out as the ice cream froze (and also as my tea cooled, but you don't know about that, so there). I just wanted y'all to know to be careful about your ice cream being too perfumey because you can't smell it so well when it's hot~

Boy, Do I Have a Story For You!

Jeez, where to start? Well, as you may or may not know, my boyfriend and I had planned to move to Bristol. Notice the past tense. Jake lost his wallet, like 3 hours before our plane left. Yay. Also, he left part of his luggage on the bus. So, after a week of madly running around trying to sort shit out, feeling like we were contestants in the Amazing Race, we finally have everything done. Now, all we have to do is wait. Le sigh.
     "So, what have you been doing this past week, Brittney?", one might ask. (Or one might not, but in that case, one may fuck right off.) Cooking!!!! And also reading about cooking. And also playing Scrabble.

One thing I've made a bunch of this past couple of weeks (mostly to impress people, if I'm being honest) is my Coconut Curry. It's so good you wouldn't know how vegan it is (if you don't add meat, which I do).

Fucking delicious looking, right? If you aren't having a mouthgasm, you're too picky and need to change.

RECIPE!

Ingreeds:

• Coconut milk (from a can) - I use 1 can for every 2 people I'm feeding. 
• Lemongrass - 1 stalk for every can. 
• Lime Leaves - I don't know, just a bunch I guess. 
• Ginger - some.
• Garlic - lots.
• Tumeric - about 1 tbsp?
• Curry powder/cumin/garam masala - to taste
• S+P - to taste
• Meat? Tofu? Other crazy things? - your call.
• AN ONION - I don't care if you "don't like them." You are confused, add it anyways.

Okay, so as you've noticed, I'm not a huge fan of exact measuring. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry.

Moving on, step one: (Cut a hole in the box.) Dice your garlic, peel your ginger (with a spoon works best), beat the living hell out of your lemongrass (seriously, that's what you're supposed to do), and open your coconut milk into a pan or a pot or whatever you have that works. Throw your things I just told you to do stuff with in the cooking vessel. Bring that to a simmer and let it do it's thing for a little while, you want all your ingredients to lend their flavours to your sauce. 

When you can taste the lemongrass (should be about 10-15 mins) and your sauce is quite a bit thicker and more lovely, you should add your spices. Okay, here I'm gonna lecture about tasting your shit as you go, because when you don't bad things are gonna happen. Don't be afraid to spoon your food in and around your mouth before you serve it (okay, maybe not around). After your sauce tastes wonderful, strain it.


While your sauce is simmering, go ahead and cut your veg or whatever. After it's done, you can saute up some garlic and onion in oil. Reduce your heat and add your veg, meat, etc in there. Be mindful of the cooking times of your veg. For instance, if you have broc, add that with your meat, but if you have zucchini, add that quite a bit later since it takes very little time.

When your veg is cooked-ish, deglaze that shit with some white wine. Feel free to experiment with different liquors BTW, I'm just kind of poor. After your wine (or other fancy alcohol, like tequilla or sake) has reduced, pour your sauce into your veg. Let that sauce thicken for a bit.

OKAY PS I forgot to tell you to do up your rice, or noods, depending on preferance, at the same time you're sautéing your veg/meat/aliens. So, yes. Do that.

At the end, when I plate, I garnish with some green onions, because then I look like a fancy cook, and I am. And so can you be.

The end.

-Brittney

TL;DR: If you don't like onions, you aren't cooking them properly.