Living in the capitol of British Columbia (yes it is Victoria, not Vancouver), you sometimes forget that there are reasons why we are so overrun with tourists during the summer. You forget that attractions abound all over the city and are beautiful, wondrous places to take yourself and your children. With this in mind, last weekend we decided to go to The Butchart Gardens, a staple attraction and probably the biggest draw for many tourists coming to the island.
Nestled in Central Saanich, The Butchart Gardens have been around for over 100 years. A great feat for a garden. But when you arrive there, you realize why it is still there and draws so many to it’s beauty.
Continue reading “Peach Plum Bourbon Butter” →
Today marks the first post in a series of challenges sponsored by Canadian Tire. For the next two months I will be challenged to use my kitchen in more creative ways and create six original recipes using various tools available at your local Canadian Tire. The Kitchen Crew, a fabulous group of fellow food bloggers, are tasked with “missions” to complete and provided with various kitchen tools or appliances to do so. For my first mission, the task was as follows:
“It’s back to school time again! And you know what that means – packing your little one a lunch and preparing snacks for an army of friends after school. Besides wanting to be nutritious and delicious, you also don’t want to slave away for hours in the kitchen. Your mission this week is to develop easy eats for back to school! That means a total prop time of 20 minutes or less – no cheating!”
Continue reading “Kitchen Crew Mission #1 – Baked Apple Pie Oatmeal” →
As the summer draws to a close, I am hanging on tight with everything I can muster. The days are shorter, but I try to pack even more into every minute that I can. You might have noticed a lack of personal photos accompanying my recipes like I used to have. This I can blame solely on the possession of an iPhone. In most situations it is more convenient to whip out my tiny cell than to try and carry around my uber heavy DSLR everywhere.
I actually quite like the feeling I can achieve with the iPhone camera. It’s not half bad for most situations, though for my food photos, I always use my Nikon. It’s just part of my routine and I enjoy the ability to alter settings the way I want to. Also, the iPhone does not have a way with bokeh…at least not yet.
Continue reading “Peach Salsa” →
Zucchinis. A gardener’s bane and a foodie’s dream? Or a gardener’s dream and a foodie’s nightmare?
I like to look at it both ways. I love that a simple plant I barely need to even look at produces food every day. There is always at least one zucchini ready for me every day. On the other hand, that means I need to eat zucchini every day. Which I don’t totally mind….I like zucchini. Raw, dipped in gloriously creamy homemade ranch dressing. Shaved into noodles and tossed in a vinaigrette over greens. Sautéed with butter and salt and pepper. Grated, mixed with beets and turned into little pancakes, dipped in tangy sauce.
Continue reading “Chocolate Zucchini Bread” →
Sometimes the late summer bounty can be overwhelming. Take these plums. They come from a tree outside my kitchen (and living room) window. The tree must be 30 years old, at least and no one was around to prune it the last two years (before we moved in). Suffice it to say, the plums have a way of taking over your thoughts. There are plums to harvest, overripe plums to pick up off the ground, puts to find a place for and recipes to be thought of to use them in.
These Italian prune plums are slightly different then the ones I grew up eating as they are rather large. I’m not sure what kind they are, just that they are juicy and delicious and I want to eat them all, but no one wants to eat prune plums all day long just to keep up with their tree. We pick at least 10lbs. each time we harvest and we cannot keep up with it. The plums we pick go bad very quickly and even the kids have gone off them by now. The chickens have been getting a lot of fruit…
Continue reading “Plum Cake” →
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Hi! I'm Elizabeth. I like fitness, bad ass tattoos, food, bacon, chocolate, taking lots of silly pictures and my spawn. Check out my FAQ for all the usual Qs or send me an e-mail and tell me all about your cat and your Aunt Sally's amazing apple pie. |
