daring kitchen

I did it! My first Daring Cook challenge. It was something I'd never have tried, and the results, well... you'll have to read on.

"Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice."

I must admit, it seems hypocritical for someone raising chickens to be eaten, to be iffy about dealing with chicken livers. And I do like to eat real pate. But working with liver didn't have much appeal for me - and then the Tricolor Vegetable Pate option of the challenge caught my eye. With R acting as my able sous chef (and taste testing as we went along), we started. I also chose to make baguettes, using the provided recipe. Baguettes are a favorite bread for me and making them from scratch sounded like fun.

The bread: not nearly as technical to make as I thought it would be, really quite basic and requiring very few ingredients. My new mixer even helped out with the kneading. It turned out very tasty but lacked the nice holes that typically are in baguette. I blame that on rushing one stage of the rising time (curse you, mid-day appointments, messing with my baking!). The crust could maybe have been darker with a longer baking time, but it tasted great.

The pate: the flavor! I loved it. I'd sampled as I put it together, but the flavors had overnight to get to know each other a little better and that only added to it. It was three layers: one of white beans, garlic and herbs, the second of roasted red pepper and feta, and a third pesto/ricotta layer.

Lots of different tastes, but all working together to make the whole even better. Wonderfully garlicky, the cheeses and herbs complementing it well. The danger in this dish would be to sit and eat the whole thing myself.

We had the results with a fancy family dinner of glazed grilled halibut and grilled asparagus, and it worked perfectly: nice and summery, not too heavy. D and all the girls liked the flavor of the pate (quote from D: "it's not the kind of food I get excited about, but it's really good!") and raved about the bread.

Given what I was putting together, it really was quick and easy to make (and with the overnight refrigeration, a true make-ahead), I plan to use this as a take-along dish for a party sometime. Now I just need a party to go to...

still at it

Today started running week 4. Yes, I know it's Thursday and so I feel a bit like those companies whose fiscal year starts on March 26th if there's a full moon and it's a Thursday with a rerun of Seinfeld playing. But, the run times carried over skipped days and rather than bypass the process I'm trying to rein it back in and stick to the program rather than the weekday.

Last week it was run 90 sec / walk 90 sec / run 3 min / walk 3 min, then repeat. Not too bad and I admit I was feeling a little confident about it, especially with the sweet new shoes I bought to replace the six-year-old cross trainers I'd been using.

Then I saw this week's schedule: run 3 min / walk 90 sec / run 5 min (eek!) / walk 2 1/2 min, then repeat.

Ugh. But ... I did it. I know I'm still barely running, and 5km still seems crazily marathonic (don't bother looking it up; I'm quite sure I invented that word just now), but I'm seeing progress. Real live progress.

And - don't tell running - but I (gasp!) might be starting to like this.

The flirty mixer, meanwhile, had her first run at cooking yesterday as M made chocolate chip cookies. Worked beautifully. Today it's getting another workout as I complete my first Daring Kitchen challenge. The reveal date is Monday and pics of the yummyness will be up then!

flirt

She's winking at me. Every time I walk in the kitchen, the light hits just right and I swear, she winks. Beckoning me over, promising we'll have fun together. I think I'm falling in love.

I had ordered a new mixer using saved up Visa points. Our old KitchenAid had, after many years' long service, called it quits and so we decided to use points on a new one. I had gotten spoiled by the old mixer and wanted another KitchenAid but the $350 price tag was steep, so points it was.

But there was no white one available. Just - red. In my kitchen with its buttery yellow walls, grey-green cabinets, and wood floor. Oh well, I thought, I'll hide it in a cupboard so it won't clash.

Yesterday the box arrived, I opened it and - yes, really - I let out a long, slow 'oooohhhhh...'

Candy apple red. And the finish has an extra clear coat or something, because it has depth to it - like a car's metallic finish. Glass bowl. Silver attachments. All shiny and new.

Too pretty to hide. Too flirty not to accept the offer. It's hot.

Wonder what we'll make first?

pretty

I wonder

if everyone looked every day

for something pretty - not extravagant, not elegant, just pretty -

would we become more able to find the simple beauty in things?

Would it become easier?

... the way a leaf trembles in a barely-felt breeze

... the sheen of sunlight on weathered wood

... a puff of cloud shifting across sky

... a plant struggling its way through a sidewalk

... the rough texture of bark

... the miniature crags and valleys in gravel

... light filtering through cobwebs

Or is it too hard to do? A waste of time? There's really nothing of significance in those things. Why bother?

Do we need the flash, the 'pow' of light to make us look, to demand our attention?

Are we missing the whispering lovely because the manufactured crass screams at us?

How are we training our senses?

dust

The house is full of dust and plaster-y bits with the wall fixes going on this week. A think coat over everything; I wanted to clean last week but what was the point? There was more every day. But it's worth it. The walls look better even in their splotchy, patched, not-yet-painted state. The ducts that had been visible and teasing me all this time are safely hidden away in the walls.

Tomorrow the cast-iron pipe that's been ... err ... working from the bathroom since plumbing first came into the house some fifty years ago will be removed and replaced with modern pipe, then that wall in the front entryway can likewise be closed up.

Then, the whole house can get a fresh coat of paint. Now that, I can do.

Meanwhile, the hens are indignant at their house arrest, and simply won't listen when we tell them that it's for their own good, having spotted a fox on the laneway and in the yard last week. They just complain when we go over. Yes, hens complain. The chicks are growing well and batch #2 for this summer will be arriving on Wednesday.

The weekend was busy but good and ended with a show in Morrisburg for the Love Dundas event. Went really well, they appreciated it, and I officially hate hockey arena acoustics. D did a great job keeping it under control, but it had that just-on-the-edge feel to it. But, the gang was awesome as always and we had a good time.