Iced Tea Limeade

It's so hot! It's like a sauna out there -- nothing compared to the beautiful Pacific coast and Rocky Mountain air that I took in for two weeks when we were vacationing in Vancouver. Although it's good to be home, I already miss the cool mornings, crisp evenings, cedar-scented air and the comfort of knowing that at any point in the city, all I need to do is look up and I'll see the mountains, so close and beckoning.

Toronto's smoggy summer air welcomed us home. But hey, I'm not complaining too much. I still have more than half of my summer holidays left and lots of catching up to do. I was terrible at documenting my food adventures in Vancouver, although we did have quite a few! So I thought I'd try to re-make some of my favourite things that I sampled while on vacation and re-live the experience all over again.

Let's start with this drink. I had to start with something low-key and easy, seeing as I'm easing back into this Toronto weather. This drink is tart and refreshing and just the thing to keep you hydrated on a day like today. Let me tell you about what inspired this drink. On one of your last city walk in Vancouver, we stumbled upon this cute little coffee shop called Arbutus Coffee that's housed in a beautiful building in a mostly residential area. We literally stumbled on it -- it's in a place you wouldn't expect, much like Le Marché St. Georges which we loved, Union Market (saved for another post!) and the Wilder Snail where we bought juices and power bars, coffees and hot chocolate and sat on a perfect spot across the street in a park on our last day in Vancouver.

But back to the iced tea. When we came across Arbutus, I was a little caffeinated already, but couldn't resist trying the coffee, which was very strong and smooth. My partner took it easy, and ordered a summer special -- iced tea lemonade. I was offered a sip and was very impressed. It wasn't watery and bland like a lot of homemade iced teas can be. It was strong, very lemony and sweet: a perfect refresher on a summer afternoon. Thinking about Vancouver cafes today, I made a batch of my own iced tea, using limes instead of lemons, and brewing a strong white tea berry blend as the base. I sweetened it with some lime-infused simple syrup and drank it up with lots of ice. And although I wish I were drinking this refreshing tea from a straw, walking along a quiet sidewalk in Vancouver, relaxing at home with homemade iced drinks is just fine by me.

Iced Tea Limeade
makes about 5 cups

For the Lime-Infused Simple Syrup
1/2 cup of natural cane sugar
1/2 cup of water
zest of one lime

1. Combine the sugar and water in a small pot. Heat on low, stirring gently, until the sugar dissolves.
2. Turn off the heat. Add the lime zest and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
3. Strain out the zest and store in a jar.

For the Tea
4 tea bags of your choice (something fruity yet caffeinated would be my recommendation)
4 cups of boiling water
1 cup of cold water
juice of 4 limes
4-6 tablespoons of lime-infused simply syrup (taste as you go and add as much as you like)

1. In a pot, bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add in the tea bags, turn off the heat and let the tea steep. Allow it to cool.

2. Transfer your strong tea into a large jar or jug. Add the cold water, lime juice and syrup. Stir well.

3. Serve over ice and stay cool!

Not Just a Salad

This is a bit of a cheater post, since what I'm leaving you isn't really a recipe, but I couldn't let this salad slide by the way side. Considering that I've had it in different variations about 5 times this past week, I can safely say that this salad is a winner.

Ok, so it really is just a salad. But hey, I love salads. You can make friends with salad. Wanna know why? Because you can put whatever you want in it, and when it's late spring about to bloom into summer, the markets are just beginning to tumble out the fresh, local produce, perfect for a salads. It's also a time when avocados aren't five dollars a piece, and can be purchased three at a time for a reasonable price.

Fresh herbs litter this lovely salad -- thyme, parsley, oregano -- anything from your garden. I've had versions with fresh peas, lovely Ontario asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and just bare bones as the picture shows: crisp romaine lettuce, avocado and tofu chunks, random fresh herbs. It also sings with a simple lime vinaigrette sweetened with maple syrup.

I would love this salad sprinkled with cumin-seasoned black beans, chickpeas, slices of fresh, local strawberries, chunks of fresh peach, Ontario corn, fresh off the cob, cucumber cut into tiny chunks ... Seriously, whatever you want.

Happy Salad!

Summer Fresh Salad Base:
for one!

3 large leaves of romaine lettuce, chopped
a chunk of firm tofu (mine was seasoned with herbs)
1/4 of an avocado, chopped (don't wait till it turns brown like I did!)
1 handful of fresh herbs -- I used parley, oregano, thyme

1. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, plus any extra add-ins you like (suggestions above!). Now, make your dressing.

Vinaigrette
juice of half a lime
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of maple syrup (or honey, or agave)
1/2 teaspoon of herbs de Provence
a few grinds of black pepper

2. Whisk together all the ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Add more sweetener if you like.

3. Pour over your salad and dig in.

Cool Treats for Cinco de Mayo

I don't know much about Cinco de Mayo.  I never knew what it was all about.  I only knew that it meant the 5th of May, which was yesterday.  I learned that it commemorates the Mexican resistance against French occupation.  Inspiring indeed.  Although Cinco de Mayo isn't really recognized in Canada, I feel compelled to mention it because somehow, it's been on my mind all weekend.  There are hosts of Mexican-inspired recipes I've been waiting to try, like this roasted pineapple and black bean bowl, these sweet potato and black bean enchiladas and these Mexican hot chocolate cookies.  But they'll have to wait.  It was biking weather, which meant not too much time in the kitchen, but I did make these creamy and cool mango lime popsicles to commemorate the occasion. 

They are a perfect after-biking treat when you're not sure whether you're more hungry or thirsty. The yogurt gives it a creamy protein boost while the mango and lime still manage to quench your thirst.  It tastes tropical and inviting and it's impossible to eat just one.  But that's ok.  There's no added sugar -- just fruit and 100% juice are enough to sweeten it, provided that you have a nice juicy ripe mango.  If you use greek yogurt instead, you'll up your protein content for sure.  If you have it on hand, buttermilk is a handy replacement for the yogurt.  And if you want a super grown up treat, a shot of tequila might be good.

I'm not going to pretend to speak Spanish and type something that I got off a translator, so Happy Cino de Mayo!

Creamy Mango Lime Popsicles
makes about 16, depending on the size of your popsicle molds.

1 large mango, diced
1/4 cup of 100% juice -- mango would be ideal, orange would work in a pinch, I used Ceres pear juice
juice and zest of 2 limes
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut water
1/2 cup of skim milk yogurt


1.  In a small pot, combine the mango and fruit juice and heat until boiling.  Reduce to simmer and then cook, covered for about 10 minutes, or until the mango softens and starts to break down.  Blend the mixture using an immersion blender, or transfer to a regular blender.

2.  Cool the mixture to room temperature.  Add the juice and zest, coconut water and yogurt.  Whisk until well-blended.  Pour into popsicle molds and freeze overnight.

3.  Enjoy!

A Brand New Grain

During my cleanse I discovered many different things. First, quinoa is more versatile and tasty than I thought. Second, bananas are a good replacement for sugar. Third, all you need is a blender and frozen fruit to make ice cream. Fourth, giving up gluten is not that easy. And last of all, millet is delicious. I had never tried it before, though I've seen many delicious-looking recipes, including a recent one that I'm aching to try now that I've jumped on the millet band wagon.

I did a little research online and found that it was easy enough to prepare, and fit within the boundaries of my cleanse (ie. gluten free). I also read that you should toast millet before cooking it up -- it gives it a deeper, richer, nuttier flavour. This I definitely needed, since added salt and fat were out of the question. I also toasted up some spices along with the millet before dumping it into a pot of water and letting it do it's magic thing. It cooks up fairly quickly -- about 20 minutes, so not much longer than rice or pasta -- and tastes magical. It's filling, hearty and a perfect, healthy cleansing supper. I ate it topped with some dressed up green veggies and smiled at every bite. I didn't even want to taste the spinach-infused noodles tossed with broccoli, barbecue pork and soy sauce that was being slurped up and savoured beside me.



Would I make it again, now that I'm not cleansing? Yes, definitely. Although I'd probably add a soft-boiled egg on top to bump up the protein factor, or even a little sprinkling of chopped walnuts or pecans. Next time we cleanse though, I'll get my act together a little bit better and experiment with dried legumes, and fat-free, gluten-free baking ...

Spicy Lime-Scented Millet with Dressed Veggies
serves 2

1/2 cup of millet
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of Mexican chili powder (or curry powder)
1 cup of water
1 bay leaf
1/2 a tomato, diced
juice and zest of half a lime

1 cup of broccoli florets
1 large handful of green beans, trimmed
juice of half a lime
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
a big grind of pepper

1. Blanch your veggies in boiling water until tender. Drain and toss in the lime juice, balsamic vinegar and pepper. Set aside while you make your millet -- the veggies will soak up all the yummy dressing goodness.

2. In the meantime, make your millet by first toasting it along with the cumin and chili powder in a dry pan until it becomes fragrant - about 2-3 minutes. Add it to a pot with the water and bay leaf. Bring it up to a boil, then reduce the heat and let the mixture cook, covered until most of the liquid is absorbed - about 15 minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes, lime juice and zest and give it a good stir. Cook uncovered for another 5 minutes or until the tomatoes break down and all the liquid is absorbed.

4. Serve topped with the dressed veggies.

Coffee Update!

The Rooster - cappucino, regular coffee and double chocolate rooibos latte, enjoyed at home because it sooooooooooooo crowded!

Linux Cafe - maple soy latte, mochaccino and soy ginseng (!!) latte: kept me up all night!

The Tampered Press - cappuccinos and latte with homemade oreo, apple loaf slice and shortbread

A year ago, blogging woes, and getting over it ...

Last summer, something very special happened. Ok .. not so special, but something very relevant to "Leslie Caradmom" happened. I was sitting at home, bored and surfing the internet. I was looking for a project to do, something to make to while away the long dusty hours in late July. I stumbled across this post about buttermilk cherry sherbet at this blog: Everybody Likes Sandwiches. I thought to myself as I read the post: wow .. I never thought making anything ice cream-like would sound so easy. I was intrigued, and glued to that website for about an hour, looking through previous posts, drooling over the gorgeous photos and pretending that I had my own kitchen so that I could re-create some of the healthy and delicious looking recipes.

Then I remembered something: I had bought a whole bag of cherries and they were sitting inside my partner's fridge in his apartment. OMG, I was going to make ice cream. An hour later, I was staring at a beautiful, deep magenta pool of deliciousness. It was the most delicious ice cream I had ever tasted and I didn't even need all those calories from from heavy cream, OR an ice cream maker. I was totally hooked, and I went on to make another sherbet with lemons and limes, and yet another one with peaches and strawberries. Kickpleat's blog not only inspired me to cook, but also to write. I remembered making her carrot spice loaf but not having any eggs. Instead, I used a vegan trick I had learned in university: a handful of oatmeal, a teaspoon of cornstarch and a squeeze of lemon. The loaf turned out so perfectly that I wanted to take a picture of it and write about it.


Fast forward to March break of 2010 when I made my very first post. I was hesitant because I didn't want to be judged or made of fun of, so picked a handle, stayed fairly anonymous and wrote and cooked my way through to the summer. This summer, I tried a recipe that I've wanted to try since I read the post: tomato and corn biscuit pie. It's everything brunch should be: tangy, filling, hearty and healthy. I never thought I'd ever make any sort of pie, but there I was, rolling our biscuit dough and decobbing corn and zesting lemon. I made on a Saturday morning when I was having my best friend over for brunch, and it was definitely a hit. I followed it with this delicious, thick, creamy orange yogurt served on top of citrus fruits and the first cherries of the season.


It was like a milestone. I left so free to cook and write .. I hadn't written anything in ages, and hadn't shown my writing to anyone since university. I loved the privacy of anonymity; it gave me the freedom I needed to just relax and share my ideas with whoever was reading, without people around me knowing what I was doing. Apart from a few people, I told no one that I had started a blog. I wanted it to be a different part of my life, a little secret that I only shared with a few others. I loved that people actually read my writing, and was thrilled when other bloggers started commenting. It was free from the judgments and mockery of daily life.


Mais, récemment, j’ai perdu cette intimité. C’était comme une sévère invasion dans ma vie privée, comme j’étais exposée, forcée de partager une partie de ma vie que j’ai essayé si fort à tenir et cacher. J’ai pensé quitter à blogger, mais enfin je continue et j’en suis bien contente. Je continue à cuisiner et écrire, et partager mes histoires avec ceux qui veulent prendre le temps de le lire; c’est en fait ce que j’ai admiré de plus chez les autres blogs que je lis : le fait qu’il y a des personnes ordinaires qui tiennent le courage d’expérimenter et de partager leurs résultats, qu’ils soient des succès ou des échecs, avec le monde. Peut-être pour moi, c’est comme un petit signal inconscient: je dois écrire en français plus souvent pour maintenir de temps en temps la liberté et l’intimité dont j’ai désespérément envie. Alors, c’est un assez longue poste, mais ça me fait du bien: merci pour votre patience. Je vous laisse avec une petite recette pour la crème glacée – modifiée bien sur de ce poste original de kickpleat. J’ai utilisé des mûres au lieu des cerises, et j’ai ajouté le jus de lime et de citron. C’est bien rafraichissant, pas très sucrée, bien acidulée et parfaite pour savourer quand le monde vous fait du mal. Essayez-la, je vous en prie. Ça vaut la peine.


Blackberry Yogurt Ice Cream
adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

1 cup of blackberries
3 tablespoons of water
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of sugar
juice and zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
1 tablespoon of creme de cassis or a liquor of your choice
1/2 cup of skim milk yogurt

1. Put the blackberries, citrus zest, water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a small pot. Bring to boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until the berries have broken down and the liquid has reduced and become slightly syrupy.

2. Let the mixture cool a bit. Add the rest of the sugar and let it cool completely. Add the citrus juice, alcohol and yogurt stir until combined.

3. Pour into the glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Put it in the freezer and whisk the mixture every 30-40 minutes until the mixture has set (about 4 hours). Remove and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

***I found that no matter what I did, the mixture still froze solid come morning time. Oh well. It takes about 15 minutes at room temperature to become scoopable. Worth the wait, I would say!

Blueberries + Lime = A 94th Celebration

Birthdays are a very particular thing in my family. There's a certain series of events that take place -- that ALWAYS take place without variation. First, the whole family goes out to dinner at a Chinese (HAS to be Chinese) restaurant, and then everyone goes home for presents, singing (YES .. STILL), pictures and cake.

Yes ... the cake. When we were little we used to pick out a cake at a bakery in Chinatown, and then pretend that we loved it because our dear parents had bought it for us. But let's face it. If you've ever had Chinatown cake, you'll know it's not something to write home about. Yes, it's very pretty. Sure, it's relatively inexpensive, and of course, they can write your grandma's name in Chinese upon request. But other than that, what is it really? Dry, flavourless sponge, canned fruits, and an very strange frosting that's oily, not sweet and leaves a funny coating in your mouth. To this day, I wonder what goes into that frosting..

For years and years we ate the cake and told ourselves that it was delicious. Then, one day, my sister and I decided that we had had enough. No more Chinatown cake. I was going to take it upon myself to MAKE everyone's birthday cake. I think the first one I made was for my partner in crime, my sister. It was a chocolately, moussey mess, but it sure tasted a whole lot better than Chinatown cake. And I'm proud to say that even as I've grown up, I still continue to take requests and bake everyone's birthday cake.

Yesterday my dear, sweet grandma turned 94, yes ninety-four, quatre-vingt-quatorze. 29 years ago, she left everything in her home country and flew thousands of miles to come and take care of my sister and I while our parents returned to work. She toilet-trained us, made us breakfast every morning, played the "groom" in our wedding games when my sister and I couldn't decide who would be the boy, and gave us unfaltering love in the way that only grandmas can do. I'm not sure if my grandma knows how much I love her and appreciate her (my Cantonese has gone downhill ever since my first day in kindergarten), but I hope she does, and I hope that she had a nice birthday yesterday. It was no different: dinner with everyone at a Chinese restaurant, home for presents, pictures .... and cake.

This year, it was a blueberry bottom cake scented with lime. I first saw a version of this cake at Everybody Likes Sandwiches and made it for my parents. I added lemon juice and zest instead of the vanilla and use blackberries as the original recipe calls for. This year, when I spotted 2 pints of blueberries (sadly non-local of course) in my parent's fridge and 10 limes that my Dad got on sale, I thought I'd switch up the original cake with these 2 new ingredients. It worked nicely, the lime giving the blueberries that little boost to make it taste totally tropical and not typical in the wacky month of March. The berries turned lovely and jammy and the cake was light and citrusy. And it pleased the crowd -- most importantly, it pleased my grandma. Happy Birthday, Poh-Poh!

Lime Scented Blueberry Cake

2 pints of blueberries
1/2 + 2 tablespoons of sugar
zest and juice of one lime
1/2 cup of margarine
1 large egg (or 2 tiny peewee eggs like I used)
1 cup of all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup of skim milk
1/4 cup of plain yogurt

1. Wash the blueberries and spread them out over a non-stick or buttered cake pan (6-8inches). Sprinke 2 tablespoons of sugar over it and add half the lime zest and juice. Toss around until everything is mixed and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the milk, yogurt, and rest of the lime juice and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the margarine, sugar and the rest of the lime zest until smooth. Beat in the egg(s) until light and fluffy. Add the baking soda and salt and mix well.

4. Alternately add the sifted flour and the milk mixture to the egg mixture . Mix until blended -- careful not to overmix.

5. Pour the batter over the blueberries and spread it out evenly.

6. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, and the top is golden brown and the blueberries have just started to spill over the top of the cake.

7. Serve warm (although it's still delicious at room temperature).