Caramel Sweets

I am getting married in August and the “real” countdown to the event seems to be setting in these days.  The closer I get to the event, the faster I have to turn my ideas into reality.  One of the most incredible sources of inspiration for me has been the handmade items on Etsy.com.  I am purposely trying to purchase goods and services from smaller, less mainstream designers and vendors for decor and event details.  My secret goal is to create an environment entirely furnished by the hard work and amazing products of Etsy designers so I know my money is going to support small business enterprises.  Keep checking back throughout the summer as I reveal what I’ve chosen.

On a Skype call with my mother, who had just returned from a bridal lunch for her ex-colleague’s daughter-in-law to be, she excitedly showed me the bridal lunch favour she received: Two macarons bundled in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon.  Seeing how much I love macarons, if  macarons did not have to be eaten fresh, I think she would have saved them for me for a month until I returned for a visit to Toronto in May.

Our conversation got me thinking further on the topic of appropriate  favours and gifts to thank the people who have put in so much effort and time helping us plan from abroad.  How do you choose?  What is the protocol?  What is appropriate?  I’ve seen gifts and favours across the spectrum from “nothing” to “over the top” and it can be a confusing process narrowing down what to buy.  I have made some inroads on this topic and I a’m not about to go publicly disclose the gifts I have chosen and spoil the surprise for my bridal party, as some of them follow this blog however, I am happy to share some neat and interesting things that I have seen while browsing the web, that might also be of interest or inspiring for you!

First off- I love caramel anything. I tried making caramel once for a chocolate caramel tart a few years back which  I think I have to try again, but hats off to those talented caramel makers who are showcasing their goods on Etsy.

I am particularly fond of the caramels from Cheri’s Calabasas Candy Co.  Cheri, from Calabasas, California, is both an artist and a chef which is quite obvious from her amazing looking caramels below!!

Photo: Uncut Dark Chocolate Caramel

Photo: Fleur de Sel Caramel made with Madagascar vanilla

Photo: Uncut Vanilla Pecan Caramel

Photo: Lavender Fleur de Sel Caramel

Love This: Bright + Bold for Spring

Here are some stylish, bright and bold home accessories that I found  for spring while browsing the web.  Hope you are having a great Wednesday (aka hump day).

Hans im Gluck

From a food perspective, I consider myself an omnivore who flirts with a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle.  Maybe that means I am a flextarian.  I have also heard that term tossed around in the food circles.  Labels aside, I eat meat.  Not a lot and not often but I do eat it every now and then when I get a craving for iron or whatever the reason my body is prompting me to choose meat.  One of the pleasures I have when travelling is eating at local burger joints.  The specialty burger shop is overdone (don’t mind the pun) in North America.  Please note this is not a complaint.  The ubiquity of the burger that has been reinvented, re-topped, grilled, cooked, spiced, and rolled is wonderfully creative and as a off-and-on again consumer, I appreciate the efforts of these new burger warriors.

However, in Europe, the specialty or niche burger market is more of an anomaly; more the exception than the rule.  So when I find a place that looks like it might have good burgers, or perhaps I’ve read a review guiding my search of good burgers, I often pop in an check it out.  This past year, I have dined on burgers at Burgermeester in Amsterdam (goat cheese and apple burger to die for), Yes Burger in Prague (a solid chicken burger) and Die Burgermacher in Vienna (Oriental Lamb burger).  The newest addition to my list Hans im Gluck in Munich.  I expect this list to continue to grow, so if you live or will be travelling to Europe and want to jump on the European burger bandwagon, do check back for new recommendations.

As a restaurant, or burger grill, Hans im Gluck has a neat and unique interior with floor to ceiling real birch trees mirrored by birch tree wallpaper that looks like it could come from the Copenhagen based design company, Ferm Living. The restaurant also has wood panels on the walls, mixed high top and regular height tables, wooden tabletop accessories holding toppings in amazing Weck jars, and most importantly, an extensive menu of meat-non meat burgers that are messy, but quite satisfying.

I tried a beef burger with hummus, olives and arugula that literally went all over the place and required two trips to the washroom to get the sauce off my fingers.  Given the interior design, I felt like I was sitting in a modern camp site or cool looking forest while eating a burger.  I expected the waitress to come over and ask whether I wanted a side of roasted marshmallows with my meal.  That was a joke.  I will be honest with you my dear readers, Hans im Gluck was not the best tasting beef burger that I have ever eaten, but it was a solid contender on innovative flavour combinations and all in all, I was satisfied with my late afternoon lunch.

To appreciate the beauty of the restaurant’s interior, I’ve included a couple other day time shots with better lighting.  Unfortunately when I snapped the pictures above, it was quite dark in the restaurant.  Any other cool European burger recommendations out there?  I’m always eager to learn about new spots.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

Kitchen Spring Cleaning + Weekend Roundup

I was looking around my kitchen this past weekend after accidentally breaking yet another one of the delicate Riedel O glasses, thinking it may be time for a spring re-fresh; a few new accessories and gadgets to freshen-up  the kitchen environment  for spring.  You know, the typical spring cleaning you do on your wardrobe where you edit items in and out? Same idea, but for the kitchen.

I would like to add a couple new tools and delete some others that are on the brink of no-return- frayed plastic edges, chipped or broken ceramic and glass.

Kitchen editing for spring, makes cooking more enjoyable when you have a new tool to play with.  Not that cooking and entertaining isn’t fun, in and of itself!  It’s just that, sometimes when you have something new and fun to use, culinary pride and excitement, that can diminish due to the monotonous rhythms of life,  gets renewed.

One of the concepts I noticed that appears to be making a comeback online is the “general store” e-commerce site where you can shop across several product categories, of niche brands for the home and the site gives you the feel of being in a general store. One store in particular, whose items I loooooove is Father Rabbit out of New Zealand.  Father Rabbit has a wide variety of great, classic pieces for the home that have a bit of a vintage flare but could easily mix and match among contemporary accessories.  I think my favourite kitchen items are the five photos I have selected below.

Photo Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7

Outside of a good spring cleaning, something that seriously needs to happen in my house, here are some other things I found this weekend that I thought you might enjoy.

1. Mim Design’s (Australia) interior of Joy Cupcakes.  The quilt patch colourful wall, mixed with hanging wooden spoons on the wall, upside-down cupcake wrapper lights and a marble counter top (looks like marble) with a fringe that mirrors a doily is just spectacular.  The store has lots of natural light but clearly screams, modern cupcake.

2. Design Attractor’s (Czech Republic) colourful Restyle Prints sold through Etsy.com.  I, of course like this Retro Tea Prints, particularly the ones seen here, and here.

3. Seventeendoors’ post (Sweden) for the most stunning black and white kitchen I have seen in a while.  It’s got floor to ceiling tiles, great eclectic hanging lamps, a chalkboard cupboard and a mix and match of stainless steel, black and white.

I had too many carrots…

I opened my vegetable drawer to find out that I had too many carrots.  In my efforts to reduce my carrot supply, I set out to make a carrot cake.  Nothing like a carrot cake recipe that typically calls for 4 to 6 cups of grated carrots to burn through my stash.

I have had a page ticked down for a carrot bran brunch bunt cake from the LCBO‘s Food and Drink magazine (old issue) for weeks now and decided to do something about it.  I already went grocery shopping today and when I was assembling the ingredients, I realized I was short an egg (I had three out of four eggs).  After debating the potential baking repercussions of being short an egg in a cake, and not wanting to go back out and buy a dozen more eggs, I decided to regroup my baking initiative and look for a new recipe.  The problem is, when you look for a new recipe, you never have all the ingredients in your deviation plan, so you end up in the same spot you started out.  One egg short of a cake.

Carrots were on the brain.  Determined not to give up, I found a carrot cake recipe in the Rose Bakery (Paris) cookbook, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea,  that seemed a bit too decadent for what I was intending to bake (more healthy-brunchy-less rich carrot cake for dessert), but it was usable as a base.  I modified the recipe’s 2 cups of flour with a mixture of 1/2 cup white flour, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup wheat bran and added a handful of golden raisins, 1/2 a can of pineapple chunks and another handful of crushed walnuts. I also skipped the frosting and tested it out with some blueberry jam.

I think it turned out well. It is a carrot cake mutt; a hybrid of several carrot cake-bread-loaf recipes which was transformed into something that turned out moist, crumbly and delicious.  (Thankfully- the baking gods do not always smile down on me when I get creative and mix different recipes!)

If you are looking for something a little more decadent, there is a great recipe here.