Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

1 Apr

I’ve had this recipe sitting in my “to make” file for for some time, and since it’s a holiday today and I have nothing pressing to do, I thought this would be a fabulous morning to try out a new recipe.

A friend posted a picture of this recipe on Facebook, but you can find the original here. I’ve converted the recipe over to Canadian measurements.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Filling:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, just melted
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Glaze:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pancakes:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

Prepare the cinnamon filling: In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a zip baggie and set it aside. Make sure that the texture is similar to that of toothpaste when you’re ready to use it – it needs to be thick enough to make a solid swirl.

Prepare the glaze: In a small pan, heat the butter over low heat until melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cream cheese until it is almost smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the pan, stir and add in vanilla extract. Set the pan aside while you make the pancakes.

Prepare the pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the milk, egg and oil, just until the batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

*Or, if you’re feeling lazy like I was, using a pancake mix works perfectly fine*

Cook the pancakes: Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium-heat and spray with nonstick spray. Use an ice cream scoop (or 1/3 cup measuring cup) to add the batter to the pan. Use the bottom of the scoop or cup to spread the batter into a circle. Reduce the heat to medium low. Snip the corner of your baggie of cinnamon filling and squeeze the filling into the open corner. When your pancake begins to form bubbles, add the filling. Squeeze the filling on top of the pancake batter in a swirl. Cook the pancake 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bubbles begin popping on top of the pancake and it’s golden brown on the bottom. Slide a spatula underneath the pancake and gently but quickly flip it over. Cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until the other side is golden as well. When you flip the pancake onto a plate, you will see that the cinnamon filling has created a crater-swirl of cinnamon. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, and repeat with the remaining pancake batter and cinnamon filling. Re-warm the glaze briefly, if needed. Serve pancakes topped with a drizzle of glaze.

cinnamon roll pancakes

*

Just a little note, from my experience. When the recipe says snip the corner, it should really just be the tip. Cut it VERY tiny, otherwise you won’t be able to get the desired swirl effect. For the first pancake I made, I accidentally cut the tip of the bag a bit too wide, and it was a total disaster:

whoops

Haha! Don’t get me wrong – it still tasted fabulous, but it didn’t look very pretty.

This is a perfect recipe to use at a brunch where you want to impress your friends or family, and it’s very simple to make! Just be forewarned that they are EXTREMELY sweet! I could barely get through two of these, so I’ll have plenty of leftovers for dessert or another breakfast.

Parmesan Hashbrown Cups

10 Feb

This recipe is so simple and quick to make, and very delicious. A friend of mine tweeted a link to this recipe the other week, and I knew I’d have to give it a try.

Parmesan Hashbrown Cups

  • 1 20 oz bag (or 2 1/2 cups) shredded potatoes
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 350. Coat muffin tins with cooking spray. Combine potatoes, onions, cheese, salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss lightly with a fork. Drizzle on olive oil. Toss with fork again until mixture is well combined. Spoon evenly into each cup. With back of spoon, apply gentle pressure to pack mixture into each cup.

Bake in lower third of oven until golden brown. Let rest for 5 minutes, run a small knife or spatula around the edge of each cup, making sure the edges are loosened and gently lift each potato cup out.

hashbrown cups

The original recipe said to bake for 60-75 minutes, which I thought was a bit excessive. My muffin tin has extra large cups, so I was able to fit everything into 6 cups instead of 12. I ended up keeping a close eye on these as they baked, and sure enough, they were done in about 35 minutes. Your oven may vary, so I suggest checking on them after 20 minutes or so.

I served these with a side of ketchup, and they were fabulously delicious!

I’m still here!

4 Feb

I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since I last posted. I’ve definitely neglected this space for way too long. As sometimes happens in the real world, life took over, and I didn’t have much free time. The busy season (work-wise) ended for me at the beginning of January, but since then I’ve been in a huge slump. I got the horrible flu bug that’s been going around, and I’ve just had no inspiration to write, cook much or create anything worthwhile in the past month. It hasn’t been fun.

I’m trying to snap out of it, and I’ve made plans to visit a few new restaurants, take a cooking class and try out some new recipes I’ve discovered, among other things. Hopefully all of these will be inspiring and will translate into more things to share with you in the coming months. Thanks for sticking around, and I hope to be back again soon with some great new content!

Tortilla Soup

8 Dec

This recipe is from my new vegan cookbook. This tortilla soup is incredibly easy to make and amazingly delicious. The aromas in your kitchen will be pretty phenomenal as well! I had some down time today (a rarity in my world right now), so I made this soup for lunch.

  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup soy milk
  • 3 cups vegetable stock
  • 2 cups of canned diced tomatoes with juices
  • 1 or 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
  • 1/2 cup diced Spanish onions
  • 1/2 cup diced celery
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
  • Sea salt
  • Fresh ground pepper to taste

 

  • Crushed tortilla chips (I used lime tortilla chips for an added kick of flavour)
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, torn
  • 1/2 avocado, diced

Whisk the tomato paste with the soy milk in a medium stockpot until completely combined. Add the stock, tomatoes and their juices, chipotles, onions, celery, corn, garlic, chili powder and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle into four serving bowls and garnish with crushed tortilla chips, cilantro and avocado.

bubbling away

*

finished product

I couldn’t find the chipotle peppers during the last few times I went grocery shopping, so I left that out. I’m sure they’d add a lot of great flavour if you can find them. Maybe I just wasn’t looking closely enough. ;)

In any case, this is the first recipe I’ve tried out of this cookbook, and I’m a huge fan. I have plenty of leftovers, and hopefully this will taste even better tomorrow!

Local gardening wrap-up

24 Nov

Some of you may remember the gardening series I posted about this summer. There were going to be three posts, but life got in the way for both of us, so we are happy to bring you the final installment in the series today. Natasha’s first post is here.

*

Wow, this summer completely flew by!! Can you believe it’s already November?!? My summer didn’t exactly go as planned, so I didn’t update as much as I would have liked, but I wanted to share a few final thoughts from my little garden plot. Overall, it was a great success – we grew pounds and pounds of veggies, and I was still picking strawberries, carrots and green onions on thanksgiving weekend!

Once the garden was up and running, it was pretty easy to maintain. Whenever I stopped by to pick some veggies, I would also pull a few weeds and that seemed to keep everything in order. Easy peasy. Some days I also had to water, but it was rare that I worked at the garden for more than 30-45 min, about twice per week.

And for the little work we put in, we got LOADS of beans! If we had a bigger freezer I likely would have been more diligent in blanching and freezing them, but this year I just shared them all with family. I tried a new-to-me variety called Maxibel and highly recommend them. They will certainly become one of our garden staples. The beans are about 6-8” long, crisp, and very prolific. They’re not quite as sweet as Kentucky beans, but they’re still yummy enough to eat raw if you want.

The gourmet lettuce mix was a big producer too. I’m glad we had the blend so there were always different kinds of lettuce growing: green leaf, red leaf, red romaine, butter, and a few others I hadn’t tried before. There’s no doubt that we have the perfect climate for growing lettuce; I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad crop.

Another experimental crop was Goldana turnips. I only planted a few, but once they were ready for eating, I really wished I had planted more.  They were much sweeter than regular turnips and very tasty. Even my husband – who doesn’t care much for turnips – thinks I need to plant more of them next year.

We tried a “snack mix” of snap peas which I wasn’t so crazy about. Apparently, I’m picky about the tenderness of my pea pods and some of these were a bit too tough for my taste. I think I’d commit to just one variety next year, and possibly plant a less seeds. At one point we had so many that we were simply getting tired of picking and eating peas. Again, a bigger freezer would have been helpful!

For whatever reason, no one at the garden had much success with butternut squash. I think my seeds only put out a few tiny leaves and that was it. We have a good stock of spaghetti and hokkaido squash in our cupboards though! Six of one, and three of the other. Since I had planted only 6 seeds of each, I’m very than happy with the results!

While our cucumber fared better than the butternut squash, it was just barely. Technically we grew two of them, but they never got bigger than a couple inches long. I had tucked them behind the beans with a trellis, but the beans grew big and leafy so fast, that the poor cucumber plants hardly got any sun at all. Next year I’ll be planting them more on the south side of the garden, where they’ll get more sun and can hopefully help keep the lettuce cool.

My carrots didn’t do so well either, but I think that’s partly because of the soil in my plot. It was really hard and clay-like in spots. The carrots that matured well enough to pick were really short with weird bends and hitches… a sure sign they need softer soil. I’ll need to amend the soil with some sand next year before planting.

That being said, I still tried planting a late-season crop of carrots which are still out there weathering the rain. If they don’t mature, it’s not a huge loss, and if they do, bonus! There’s also a few beets on the go. They didn’t look so great the last time I stopped in, so I don’t have high hopes, but they’re not dead yet so I’ll let them do their thing.

Oh! I almost forgot! The home remedy I tried for the bugs eating my leafy-greens worked well. Basically, I took a spray bottle mostly filled with water, added a few drops of Dawn dish soap, a smidgen of light oil (i.e. canola or sunflower), plus a pinch of garlic and cayenne. The one for the powdery mildew didn’t work as well, but I also wasn’t very consistent with using it, so I’ll have to try it again next year. When I looked around at the neighbouring plots, it seems that everyone was struggling with powdery mildew, especially on squash plants, so I certainly don’t feel bad about the sad shape mine were in.

All in all, the community garden was great fun.  I loved chatting with the other gardeners, learning new tips, hearing new ideas, and being able to see how my produce fared in comparison to others.  I think seeing that others were battling some of the same challenges I was helped me just enjoy the process and not feel like I was doing anything detrimentally wrong.

You can find more of Natasha’s writing on her personal blog, My Front Stoop. Thanks, Natasha for sharing your gardening tips with us!

Sip & Slurp

10 Nov

Thursday night was the 3rd Annual Sip & Slurp at 1 Fish 2 Fish in Langley. I’d never heard of this event before, but it’s a fabulous occasion! I ended up winning tickets through Tourism Langley, which was so awesome. I would have ended up going even if I hadn’t won, because I can never pass up a chance to have delicious seafood and drinks. The market is fairly small, so there were only a limited amount of tickets available for the event. It did get pretty crowded in there once the event was in full swing, but everyone was happy and seemed to be having a great time, so the space wasn’t too much of an issue.

The Sip & Slurp was a chance to celebrate Ocean Wise month by tasting a variety of amazing seafood appetizers, fresh oysters and some local wines and cocktails. The food was prepared by Dan Trites, chef at Ignite Cafe. I haven’t been there before, but after the incredible food at this event, I’ll definitely be checking them out.

There was an amazing selection of appetizers to try.

This was probably my favourite. Seared tuna with asian slaw on a wonton wrapper

*

Squid with sundried tomato pesto and mango salsa. Another favourite!

*

There were about 7 or 8 different types of oysters to sample. I’ll freely admit that this was my first time eating raw oysters. I’ve had them in various cooked or baked formats before, but I was always a bit nervous to try them raw. I bucked up my courage and tried several of them, and ended up pleasantly surprised. My favourite one was called Effingham. The flavour was incredible!

Chef Dan at work

There were a few door prize draws throughout the evening, and I ended up winning two bottles of wine. When my ticket number was called, I felt guilty for about 2 seconds, but I got over that pretty quickly. Who am I to pass up free wine?! ;)

The Sip & Slurp is a fantastic event for an extremely reasonable price, and this will also be added to my calendar for next year!

On Cookbooks

4 Nov

I don’t remember when I got my first cookbook, but I know it was definitely in the late 80′s. It’s called Kids Cooking – A Very Slightly Messy Manual.

As you can see, it is VERY well loved. I can’t remember the last time I actually used this cookbook, since all the recipes are ridiculously simple and most of them aren’t interesting to me any more. However, the chocolate chip cookie recipe is to die for. I made those cookies ALL the time when I was a kid. I haven’t made cookies in a good 5-6 years, so maybe it’s time for me to consider baking again.

Over the years I’ve accumulated an interesting variety of cookbooks – some were bought because they were compilations that were sold as fundraisers, a few are the cookbooks filled with the recipes that are used at the retreat centre that my parents run, I have a few specialty ones (bread, crab/seafood, chicken, slow cooker), and a couple other really random ones.

In the last 2 years or so, I’ve changed my diet a fair bit. I now have a mainly vegan diet. I already limit my dairy intake due to my lactose intolerance, but meat is featuring less and less in my cooking these days. I rarely touch red meat because it’s never digested well, but these days I’ve begun limiting the amount of poultry I eat as well. I’ll never cut seafood out of my diet, so I’ll never be a true vegan, but it’s interesting to see how my eating habits have changed as I get older and learn more about food and cooking.

So, with these changes comes a desperate need for new recipes. I’ve found lots of great sites and recipes online, but there really is nothing like a good cookbook for inspiration. I recently got an Amazon gift card, so I decided to spend that on a shiny new vegan cookbook.

I saw this in a bookstore last year, and it was added to my wishlist immediately. There are so many amazing sounding recipes in this book, and I’m excited to share my discoveries with you over the next few months.

Hilltop Diner Cafe

25 Oct

For many years I’d drive past the Hilltop Diner Cafe in Langley (on Fraser Hwy, near 240th St), and wonder about what was inside. I never had the courage to go in because I (wrongly) assumed it was a junky old place with super greasy food. Appearances can definitely be deceiving. I’ve been there several times now, and I think it’s fabulous!

The diner has been open for over 65 years, which is a pretty impressive feat. It’s small and there’s limited parking outside, but it’s very cozy inside. The staff are all very friendly and welcoming, and the diner has a great small-town vibe about it. The decor on the walls is fairly minimal, but it is your classic diner-style decorating. I don’t think much has changed in all 65 years of them being in business, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

When you walk in, you’re greeted by one of the ladies at the counter and can find yourself a seat wherever there’s space. They offer you coffee or another drink when they bring you your menu, and your cup is never left empty for long.

I’ve only been there for breakfast, so I can’t speak to the lunch items they offer, but their breakfasts are incredible. The portions are huge and almost everything’s made from scratch. Some dishes to highlight would be their pancakes which are fluffy and enormous, to their huge pieces of French Toast and their omelettes.

My favourite breakfast dish that I’ve had so far are their Benny’s.

There are several options you can have for the meat – homemade sausage, bacon, ham, or if you don’t want meat you can get a grilled tomato. They cook the eggs to your specifications, there’s plenty of fabulous Hollandaise sauce, and their hash browns are phenomenal – chunks of crispy fried potatoes with green onions. Yum!!

The Hilltop Diner is open daily from 8:30am to 2:30pm. If you go there for breakfast and don’t want to have to wait for a table, I highly suggest getting there earlier in the morning, as it really begins to get busy around 10am.

Hilltop Cafe Diner on Urbanspoon

Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields 2012

11 Sep

This past weekend was the 18th Annual Feast of Fields event. It happens every year in September, and last year it was at Krause Berry Farms. This year it was held at Golden Ears Cheesecrafters in Maple Ridge, so it was a slightly longer commute for me this time. But boy, was it EVER worth it!

The weather wasn’t hot and sunny, but for the majority of the afternoon the rains held off. I noticed quite a few people begin to leave once it began pouring, but us die-hards who were prepared with jackets and umbrellas were going to stick it out until the bitter end (or until the food ran out).

This year there were 13 tents offering food and wine, which I think was an increase from last year. As we were standing in line for one of the food items, we were talking with a man behind us, and we were all lamenting the fact that the tents didn’t have numbers on them. The program we were given had a numbered map, but it would have been a little less confusing if the tents physically had their numbers on them.

We also overheard one girl exclaiming to her friend that “This is my favourite day beside Christmas! Actually, it’s BETTER than Christmas!” Haha. So awesome. And that was at 1:30pm, so the festival was just getting going at that point.

Well, without further ado, here are some pictures of some of the INCREDIBLE food we tasted. I think we tried just about everything that was listed in the program, except for a few places that ran out of food very early on, which was too bad.

Sapo Bravo 30 component dungeness crab “slaw” from Vancouver Club

Yarrow Meadows Duck Confit with cherry tomatoes on a blueberry cracker from Wild Rice

Ceviche: Fresh OceanWise seafood and citrus valencia orange with habanero pepper, stacked on organic blue corn tostada served with housemade guacamole & pickled chayote from Lolita’s “South of the Border” Cantina

This was my favourite dish from last year, and it was just as fabulous again this year!

AAA Hopcott premium grilled steak, roasted pepper, chorizo, and gouda on artisan ciabatta from Hopcott’s Premium Meats

Tempura bacon with a maple chive sour cream dip from Pearl Urban Bistro

WOW. There are no other words than WOW to describe how amazing this was!!

Wild Salmon Crudo, Fennel, Olives from Fishworks

Grand Marnier & Callebaut Mousse with Bremner’s Blueberries from Chef Ann Kirsebom’s Gourmet Sauces

Herbed buttermilk whole grain crackers with heirloom tomatoes, basil and goat cheese brûlé from Slow Food Vancouver

Grilled pizza topped with duck and sage sausage, local heirloom tomatoes, Goat’s Pride feta cheese, and a Skeeter farm arugula and local hazelnut pesto from Seasonal 56

Seasonal 56 is one of the best restaurants in the Langley area. I highly recommend trying them out sometime! Here’s my review from last summer.

Fennel and basil coleslaw with pippin-peach vinaigrette and pollen creme fraise on purple and savoy cabbage leaves from Aphrodite’s Organic Café

Qualicum Beach Scallop Ceviche from Rain City Grill

This dish was the favourite this year! We may or may not have gone back a few times to have more of these. SO delicious!!

HEE! I had to include this just for fun. This was at one of the wineries’ tables.

Albion Wild salmon ceviche from Whet Kitchen.Bar.Patio

Thyme and Birch Syrup infused watermelon from Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

These watermelon bites were super refreshing. Even though it wasn’t a warm day, these little bites of freshness were very welcomed.

Sakura Farms braised pork belly, star anise sweet soy glaze, Barnston Island micros, sweet rice cake from Prestons Restaurant

Cured Pacific Provider salmon belly with Glorious Organics pickled beets from The Next Course @ The Listel Hotel

Windset Farms Symphony Heirloom Style Tomato Salad, Basil Pesto, Maestro Pepper Spicy Sorbetto from Yew Restaurant + Bar

This tomato dish was phenomenal! The pepper sorbetto really kicked it up an extra notch. Very impressive!

Artichoke Stacker from Choices Markets

Berry cream cake from Krause Berry Farms

There was so much more that I could have shared with you, but then this post would become a novel! Since I was the designated driver, I only had little sips of a few alcoholic drinks. My favourites were the Victoria Gin from Victoria Spirits (the flavours in this were unbelievable. I’m a fan!!), and the Pinot Gris from Gray Monk Estate Winery.

I’m so glad I was able to go to this event again. Last year I discovered it by (happy) accident, and it now has a permanent spot on my calendar.

The tickets are a bit on the pricier side ($85 per person) compared to other festivals in the area, but it is worth every penny and more.  Next year’s event will take place on Sunday, September 8th – location TBA.

Damiko Sushi

28 Aug

Recently I went for lunch at an excellent sushi place in Langley called Damiko Sushi. They’re located on 200th Street, just past 72 Ave in a little strip mall right next to the Esso gas station. The location is a bit difficult to get to, as you can only access it by going North on 200th, but don’t let that deter you from going! The restaurant is a bit on the small side, so if you are going with a group or during meal rush hours, it is definitely a good idea to make a reservation.

I decided to try their Fancy Roll, and it was indeed pretty fancy!

The colour and presentation of this roll was amazing. The Fancy Roll has “crab meat, avocado, cucumber inside. Topped with salmon, tamago and masago.” For those not familiar with Japanese words, tamago is grilled egg, and masago is a kind of fish eggs/caviar. There were three different colours of masago – black, green and orange/red-ish. I’m not sure what the sauces were that were on the plate, but they added some great flavour to the rolls.  I really liked this roll, and was surprised at how filling it was. Normally I would get a side order of Miso Soup or Sunomono, but this dish was plenty.

Others in my group had (and enjoyed) the Spicy Ichi Roll, Chicken Teriyaki Lunch Box, and the Salmon Teriyaki. One of my friends comes here regularly, and thinks their Miso Soup is some of the best she’s ever tasted.

The prices are very reasonable, and the service is quick and wonderful. Their entire menu is available for take-out, plus they also do catering as well. They’re open daily from 11:30am to 9:30pm. Quite impressive hours for a restaurant in the Langley area! I definitely recommend giving it a try sometime!

Damiko Sushi on Urbanspoon

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.