Chili days and chili for supper

Hi readers,

I hope you have managed to stay warm and cozy this weekend. It’s been pretty nippy out there but my favourite saying has applied to the past few days. “Cold hands, warm heart” is something my Gammy used to say and Maggie even gave me a Kate Spade travel mug with that written on it.

Right now, I am on hour 10 of my bus ride back from StFX University in Nova Scotia. At the start of the semester, our Dean of Student Affairs, Jackie Bailey, invited me to join a delegation of eight students and four staff/faculty to travel to the east coast for a leadership summit. I was beyond thrilled to represent Bishop’s and absolutely flattered. The bus ride hasn’t even been that bad since I’ve been accompanied by inspiring people. I’ve been pretty stressed these past few weeks and this little weekend getaway to the coast was just what I needed. It was amazing to meet students from the U4 League schools, Acadia, Mount Allison, and St Francis Xavier. We are all tiny primarily undergraduate liberal arts schools that share similar values about what education should be. I even got to sit at the head table at the opening dinner with StFx’s President, Dr Sean Riley, as well as Olympic gold medalist, Mark Tewksbury, and Olympic coach Debbie Muir. The campus is so beautiful; it reminded us of a New England private school. I went for a run while there to look for the ocean but when I couldn’t find it a few of us recruited our bus driver to take us on an adventure to find the sea. Overall, I had a remarkable weekend that will definitely remain one of my favourite memories of being a Bishop’s student.

 Here are a few shots from the weekend:

They gave X cookies on our beds!!

What a beautiful business building

Ocean adventures with Serge, the bus driver

The brave souls who endured the chilly ocean breezes

This was the poster I put together with help from Diane and Chelsea

Showing off my Dri-fit BU Gaiters shirt #selfie

We <3 free wine

Jason made wonderful closing remarks

Again, beautiful centre

Flashback to a week and a bit ago, during a particularly cold day, I made this batch of Quinoa Chili for my friend Erin’s birthday. Everyone at the party asked for the recipe and so I will share it here! I guess that’s the point of having a food blog I guess!!

Quinoa Chili with Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans (vegan!!)

makes 6 hearty bowls of chili. From Milk Free Mom

- one 29 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

- one 6 oz can tomato paste
- 32 oz vegetable stock
- 1 onion, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 cup dry quinoa
avocado and green onions for garnish  (optional)

✿ Heat the oil in a large heavy soup pot (I used my new dutch oven) over medium low heat. 

✿ Add onions, and cook until soft and they start to turn brown (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes. 

✿ Add the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. 

✿ Add the beans, stock, and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper . Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the quinoa. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes – 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until quinoa and potatoes are cooked and the chili has thickened. 

✿ Add a bit of water if the chili becomes too thick for your liking. Top with avocado and chopped cilantro. 

Enjoy and have a fantastic week!

xox Gaby

p.s. The blue dutch oven I received for Christmas from my parents was accompanied by an immersion blender I will be using any day now to make nice warm soups!

Fish and Fresh Starts

Hi lovelies,

Happy middle of January!! I have been back to school for a week (that took me way too long to figure out), but man oh man it feels like longer. I have been so mixed up with my days, it's definitely going to take some time to get used to doing something other than eating and reading all day. Last weekend, I went to the Bishop's Business Bootcamp to spruce up my resume writing, interview, and networking skills, but in all honesty I was most excited about wearing a blazer and having the "professional photo shoot". Those quotations marks were definitely necessary because it ended up being a point and shoot on a tripod and a purple wall as our back drop. Lame… I know. Now that I'm back into the swing of things I figured that meant blog post time!!

I just spent way to much time making this year in review collage, I might as well share it:

It makes me so happy to see such a wonderful year! I am hoping this year will be filled with as many or more adventures and new friends. Here is a recipe for fish and chips! The best part of this recipe is the Lemon-Chili Mayo. It's sooooo delicious with fish, burgers, or fries. I made a side of sweet potato fries to accompany these easy fish cakes

Not Your Mother's Fish and Chips

Ingredients

- 1 rib celery, coarsely chopped

- 2 green onions, coarsely chopped

- 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

- 450g firm white-fleshed fish filets (such as halibut), coarsely chopped

- 3/4 fresh bread crumbs

- 1 egg

- 2 tsp Dijon mustard

- 1/4 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp chili powder

Lemon-Chili Mayo:

- 1/3 cup light mayonnaise

- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

- 1/4 tsp chili powder

Instructions

✿ In a food processor, pulse together celery, green onions, and parsley until finely chopped. Scrape into bowl.

✿ Add fish to food processor, pulse until fine but not puréed. Add to bowl; mix in bread crumbs, egg, mustard, and pepper. Divide into 8 portions, form into 1/2-inch thick patties.

✿ In a nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat; cook fish cakes, turning once, until golden and firm to touch, 8 to 10 minutes.

For the Lemon-Chili Mayo:

✿ Whisk together mayonnaise, lemon juice and chili powder. Serve with fish cakes.

Yum!!! Now excuse me, I have to scoot over to my friends' house for pizza and to watch Prisoners. A.K.A. excuse me while I go pee myself every too seconds out of fear.

Ciao!

Gaby

Merry Merry!

Merry Christmas babes!!!

I had a wonderful past week and I really hope everyone reading did as well. We did our classic Christmas Eve mass at Saint François D'Assise church + Levesque-Mumford party and then went to bed and waited for Santa to do his magic. Christmas morning, my mom, my dad, and I were up bright and early but I had to wait FOREVER for the two other sleepy heads to wake up to enjoy the festivities. Christmas dinner was pretty simple and casual as our guests were just my aunt Nini and Uncle Roger, and the student that's boarding with them. Before our guests arrived my family and our friend Liz went to deliver food to the less fortunate with the Carleton Tavern. We talked with a guy who told us it was his first Christmas out of jail in twenty years and it was wonderful to see him light up with our gifts.

On Friday, we headed to Peterborough to meet up with my mom's side of the family and it was soooo nice to see the Farlows!! It was fun to have a new baby in the mix (congrats Laura and Jeremiah) and to have the big boy/girl reveal for Robyn and Ian's baby. We also played a gambling type game and I won a whopping total of $63. Yay!!!! I love and miss all of my relatives already.

Here are a few shots of the fun:

On Sunday morning, my cousin Ali's boyfriend, Andrew, made a delicious breakfast that is totally worth sharing:

Prosciutto Egg Cups

Ingredients

- Prosciutto

- Eggs

- Cheddar cheese

- Spinach

Instructions

✿ Grease muffin tin and preheat the oven at 350℉ 

✿ Wrap a piece of prosciutto around the sides of the muffin tins and place a few leaves of spinach at the bottom.

✿ Crack an egg into the centre and top with grated cheese

✿ Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the egg has set.

The chefs!

Enjoy!

xox Gaby

My Favourite Things

Hi lovelies,

TGIF!!! Well to tell you the truth I didn't even realize that it was Friday since all my days have been mixed up. I have been thoroughly enjoying my break and it's so nice to have all my sisters together. Britt arrived from Vancouver on Monday and Steffi's last day of teaching was yesterday so we're all on break!

Last night, Steffi, Britt, my mom, her friend Birgit, and I went to the Sound of Music at the National Arts Centre and it was fantastic! It's such a classic movie and the stage production was so well executed. SO much better than the Carrie Underwood remake… It was such a wonderful evening filled with good music and dancing. It made me miss the days when I was in my high school's theatre program and we would parade over to the NAC for a quick matinee all the time.

The other night I made this fajita/burrito recipe and it was easy and tasty.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito

Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1 pepper (colour of your choice! I used red.), sliced or chopped
- 1 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice
- 1 small white onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 can of black beans (15oz)
- 3/4 cup fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Sour cream, salsa, avocado, cheese, and green onions for toppings
- Tortillas

Instructions:

✿ Boil a pot of water and add the chopped potato (1 inch pieces). Simmer till tender.

✿ Warm some olive oil in a medium skillet or saucepan, add the garlic, pepper, and onion. Cook over medium-low heat till the onions are tender.

✿ Once the potatoes are cooked, drain the water and add the rinsed black beans to the sweet potatoes. Also add the lemon juice, cilantro, and salt.

✿ Use a potato masher to mash the potato mixture until smooth.

✿ Spoon the mixture onto tortillas, add the onion/pepper mixture, and top with various toppings mentioned above.

Enjoy!

xox Gaby

Transporting Goodies During the Holidays!

Hi readers,

Hopefully a better chunk of you, who are in university, are finished exams and have returned to your home towns. I'm writing this post while watching the Holiday, so if my sentences don't make sense you'll know why. It's such a great holiday movie (no pun intended) and I've been meaning to watch again for a while. I love the scores in it and they're perfect for studying.

During this holiday season, you may catch yourself bringing goodies over to friends and family. If you don't want to risk forgetting your favourite cake carrier or glass tupperware at someone's house save your cleaned recyclables and use them to transport baked goods. You can wrap them up for a more christmasy feel and add ribbon and a card. I usually use hummus containers for small portions of cookies, spinach containers for cupcakes, and I also make my special boxes that I make from inside-out cereal boxes. The last option is great because you personalize your boxes with greetings and drawings on the exterior and add some tissue paper on the inside.

I use this template to make mini cupcake boxes out of cracker or cereal boxes, and adjust it for bigger sizes. This is a cheap alternative that reduces waste during christmas. Merry Christmas!!

Gaby

Spring Rolls and Home

Hello!

I am home for the holidays and it feels great! It's nice to be in a city instead of a small town with not even a movie theatre. I had to remind myself how to drive but after a few days I think I'm back to normal ;) For this holiday season I'm going to try and eat fresh foods and exercise a lot to balance out all the sweets and treats! I went to a step aerobics class yesterday at the recreation centre I used to go to in high school. I tell ya, those women sure know how to keep it up in an aerobics class. To begin, I was the only one under 50 but it took me sometime to get back into the rhythm and keep up. I usually enjoy running outside, even in the winter months, but it's been especially cold since I've been home and it seemed like a better idea to go to an indoor class.

Today I made spring rolls for lunch and they were delicious. I used leftover salmon from last night's dinner and picked up some vegetables at the store this morning after I met Maggie at the UofO library.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

For this recipe I am not going to indicate specific amounts, because it depends on how much you would like in each spring roll.

- 1 package of rice paper rounds

- 1 package of vermicelli noodles

- 1 bunch of cilantro

- Carrots

- Green onions

- Cucumber

- Shrimp, crab, or whatever fish/meat

1. Boil a pot of water and soak vermicelli noodles for one and a half minutes

2. Soak one rice paper at a time in a bowl of warm water for about 45 seconds or until they are soft and no longer crunchy.

3. Shred the carrots, and chop the cucumber, cilantro, and green onions.

4. Add the veggies and the noodles to the rice paper and roll them up!

 You can enjoy them with soy sauce, hoisin sauce, or anything that will spice them up a bit. Enjoy!

xox Gaby

Finals and Goodies

Hello!

I am in the the middle of finals now and I have already finished 3/5 of my exams! In less than a week I will be back in Ottawa, baking, seeing friends and family, and starting my christmas shopping. I'm beyond excited to get home seeing as I haven't been back since Thanksgiving (Canadian that is). This week has been really stressful and I have managed to get some baking in since I find it calms me. I can't eat everything I make though, or I'd blow up, so I've been giving away goodies here and there. My meals haven't been too exciting and consist mostly of me grabbing something frozen from the freezer. So nothing too exciting other than the fact that PC Blue Menu Lasagna is really delicious especially combined with homemade garlic bread.

I mixed up some butter, herb & garlic cream cheese, rosemary, and garlic (lots of it!), spread it on some french bread, and popped it in the oven at 350℉ for a few minutes. It was wonderful :) Right now, I'm writing a blog post to keep me up because my roommates and I are going to see Catching Fire. We're going to a later viewing and I might be the only student to usually go to bed at 10/9:30 during exam time but I'm getting sleepy!! 

Here is a recipe for Ginger Molasses Cookies. They are nice and soft when you don't bake them too long. I made them for my friend Rachel's birthday and shared them with my Bishop's University Commerce Society team. They were a hit! These puppies are from my old recipe book that my mom and I made this summer with all our old family recipes. They're classics and I always know they'll be delicious. 

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

✿ Mix and form 1" balls 

✿ Roll in a small bowl of white sugar (not included in ingredients), and press lightly with a fork

✿ Bake at 350℉ for 8 minutes or until they crack. Don't over bake!!

Enjoy!

My family calls recipes "keepers" if they're worth remaking and this is definitely a keeper. The other day I stumbled upon this cook book called Keepers. SO cute! I really want to take a look at it when I get home and rush to Chapters. I am having slight Chapters withdrawal. There aren't any in Sherbrooke  and it makes me sad :( Anyways, I'll be at one soon enough! Yay!!

xox 

Gaby