About Karla Plumb
A girl in her kitchen in the Great White North.
Soooooo…I’ve been away for a while. Yes, and totally slacking on the food blog front. My sincerest apologies to all my FFwD friends and everyone who I’ve missed in the past few months. Suffice it to say that my year off in no way prepared me to enter back into the working world where one is expected to put in an 8-10 hour day and then come home to create lovely food & photos for their blog! And I thought the long-neglected little blog could use a little colour rejuvenation.
It’s been kind of a rough week. The last-standing Canadian hockey team lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins (tho I congratulate the Bruins because they played great!). Yesterday I backed our car into the bike leaning against the back of the garage, punching a hole in the exterior of the hatch door and causing more than $1000 damage. And on Saturday, my favourite band lost one of their brothers: Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band passed away.
Now, I’ve never purchased rhubarb before in my life. My mom always seemed to have a huge rhubarb plant growing in our backyard and we’d have so much rhubarb crisp, rhubarb pie, strawberry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb upside-down cake and even just plain ol’ raw rhubarb dipped in sugar over the summers, I get a sour taste in my mouth anytime rhubarb is mentioned. Heh!
First of all: I KNOW! How pretty was that wedding? I got up at 3:45 a.m. and watched the Canadian CTV feed straight through until 10 a.m., took a brief pause and then switched over to TLC and watched it all over again. I’m not even kidding ya. My favourite parts were the lip-reading when Harry whispered to William “Wait ’til you see her!” at the altar, and then once Kate had settled herself into the carriage after the ceremony, she turned to William and did exactly what I would have done: she said, “Are you happy?!” just to convey how crazy-happy she was. SIGH. Magic! Of course, I also would have smooched him huge in the carriage, but that’s just more proof that I am not Royal.
So in lieu of wedding cake, we got torteau de chèvre – goat cheesecake. Or is it ‘goat cheese cake’? Whatever, it was YUM. And so easy to put together, even with the folding in of the egg whites, which I always think I over-mix, and I don’t think mine poofed quite as much as Dorie’s picture, so it’s possible I did it this time, too. My mother-in-law was staying with us for a few days of big city shopping, so I made the cake while she was here in lieu of us traveling out to London this weekend for Mother’s Day. She loved it! It was a great treat after a long, cold and rainy day of shopping, as well. (more…)
A few weeks ago, a good friend invited Jon & I over for dinner, failing to mention at the time that one of the nights she gave us as an option to come was her birthday! I only found out on Facebook a few days prior to the evening, and vowed that I would make her a birthday cake because I think, like Deb at Smitten Kitchen, no one should have a store-bought cake – or worse, NO cake! – on their birthday! And then she very generously agreed to come with me to a nightclub late on a Sunday night to help me scope out this photography competition I’d entered and needed to do some reconnaissance on what I’d gotten myself into. So she definitely earned a cake FOR SURE. It’s the least I could have done.
Ha! You thought I’d forgotten or bailed on French Fridays, didn’t you? Nosiree!
I had such grand plans for this big cookie. My two sisters, their husbands and my mom came out for a visit and I made Dorie’s Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port, and I totally prepared ahead of time and made David Lebovitz’ Salted Butter Caramel ice cream for dessert. And my plan was to make the Salted Butter Breakups to go along with the ice cream, so we could all sit around the table and break off the cookie pieces and dunk them in our ice cream. Isn’t that a fabulous idea?
I am not normally a fan of orange baked in a dessert – I’m more of a peel-n-eat kind of girl when it comes to oranges. And this is why doing French Fridays with Dorie has totally opened my eyes to new flavours and different experiences: the orange-almond combination of the tart was so…playful on my tongue, I couldn’t get enough! I considered using pears instead, but then decided to not be such a baby and try the oranges. And I’m so glad I did.
Funny story: on our recent trip to Boston, my sister & brother-in-law got us onto the steel-cut oats bandwagon. Jon absolutely loved the texture and chewiness to them with a little drizzle of maple syrup, while I was more into a little brown sugar and peanut butter on mine. And upon our return, I was ordered to find some before the following weekend so we could enjoy this delicacy at home!
However, I ended up buying old-fashioned oats instead of the steel-cut ones and was very clearly told that they were not the same thing when Jon saw them in the cupboard. Dammit! So, back to the store I went and returned with the right oats.
I haven’t had a chance to throw any elaborate dinner parties because a lot of our friends in Ontario don’t live here in Toronto, they live in London. We do have a few friends here in town, and I do enjoy having 1 or 2 people over for an evening. Last night was one such occasion, with a good friend who is also a foodie, so I pulled out some of my favourite recipes and something new to impress her with.
On the menu was Ginger-Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Maple Mustard Sauce, roasted potatoes, a spinach & strawberry salad and Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake from Around My French Table with caramel sauce for dessert.
