Sunday, June 12, 2011

Crazy in love

One tends to do crazy things for the people that they love. Maybe you'll travel far and wide to see them, give birth to them (and you don't even know them yet!), hold the core of a fruit or vegetable while they gnaw on it (obviously I'm talking about Oslo here), we could go on.


I've spent a lot of hours with a group of people over the last 6 months. Most of us started off as strangers, but after sweating profusely on each other, pretending to be acrobats together, discussing bodily functions, and ooh-ing and aah-ing over each other's arts and crafts project, just to brush the surface of what we've done, you suddenly have a group of people who you love and call your friends.


To celebrate the end of our time together as power yoga teachers-in-training, we had a potluck. The last few weeks, the only things that's come out of my kitchen has been served in a coffee or Magic Bullet mug. My Magic Bullet came with 4 mugs, so I had to come up with something else. I decided to consult my own blog, and settled on one of my favourites, pesto quiche.


This is where the crazy starts. I decided to make mini-quiches for ease of serving at the potluck, I had never made mini-quiche before. Then, I decided to attempt gluten-free, as I knew some of my new loves enjoy this kind of diet. I know very little about gluten-free, except that if you're celiac or sensitive to gluten, it sucks. But I have almond flour, and I knew that's cool, and oats. Oats are tricky, as you have to make sure that they were not processed in the same plant as wheat, because there is cross-contamination. That dang wheat dust is sneaky and will cling onto oats. So my mini-quiche wasn't entirely gluten free, but it was a decent first attempt.


How I did this:


Crust

3/4 cup oats
1/2 cup almond flour
4 tbsps earth balance
3 tbsps almond milk

Filling

4 eggs
1 onion, chopped and slightly fried in olive oil
2 tbsps almond milk
3 tbsps pesto
1 tbsp grainy mustard
some ground pepper
(I just realized that I forgot the parmesan cheese, but I was going for non-dairy. if you're ok with dairy, parmesan makes it even more tasty)

The beginning of my gluten-free experience: The crust was really crumbly, and I had a feeling it would remain that way while baking. I had a few strategies in making the quiche in the mini muffins tins, all well greased with earth balance:

- Go traditional, put the crust at the bottom of the tin and bake before filling. There was no way my almond crust was going up the sides of the tins, picture stubborn like a terrier. I don't recommend this way, the stubborn remains and it's impossible to get the crust off once cooked in one piece.

- Put some of the egg filling in the bottom, put a layer of the crust, flattened in between your fingers, then add some more filling, followed by more flattened crust on top. This is a pain and silly, don't do this.


- Fill the tins with the softened onions and eggs mixture, then roll little balls of the crust and drop on top. This was the best strategy, there was no crust stuck to the pan, so you can maximize the yummy crust experience.

I reached 36 mini-quiches. It was exhausting, I did it in two batches, and made another normal sized quiche. I slept in between the two batches. Crazy. Here is the result:

I only took the minis to the potluck. Everyone enjoyed them, or at least the love me enough to tell me that they did. I loved all of their food, and not just because I love them. I've never seen so many creative quinoa salads in one spot. We filled a table with many savouries and sweets, and left with satisfied tummies.

Thank you lovies, for the food, for the good times, and for being part of this journey. You'll always have a special place in my heart, and I hope we do more crazy stuff together.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Kuniks and Kakivaks: Pangnirtung Youth Council Book Club

This is not a food post.

Ok, if you insist, we'll start it off as a food post. I'm open to trying new foods, at least once. I thank my mum for this. She encouraged me to try everything at least once, so I do. This is a valuable lesson when you decide that you want to travel internationally. You never know what you're going to encounter:

Jambon persil (ham and parsley in a gelatin loaf): not really my cup of tea
Escargots: Yes!!!!
Callos (cows stomach with garbanzo beans): a little too salty for my taste
Gazpacho (a cold, tomato-based soup): Give me more, give me more!

Just to name a few, I could go further.

The way I see food is the way I see education: limitless. You don't know where you can actually get to, what you can actually achieve, unless you reach for something, because that something that you achieve will lead you to something else. Which is why I'm posting this (almost) non-food post.

My friend Tommy lives in Pangnirtung (Pang). I lived here on and off while growing up, when I was 2, 7, 9, 12, 14, 21 and 22, for a total of about 4.5 years. Confused? If you really care to become unconfused, you can buy me coffee, and I'll draw my life for you in map-form and you'll understand. But on to the point of this post:

Tommy has a blog called Kuniks and Kakivaks, and he blogs his perspective on all things Inuit/youth/north related. I read his blog regularly, and today's post got me wanting to share.

When I was 12, I spent half of my summer in the Pang library. This library hasn't changed much since then, it's a room about the size of your bedroom, with shelves lining the perimeter, and tables in the middle, you can imagine the extent of the content. Pretty limited. Tommy wants to help the youth of Pang develop a book club, which I think is pretty cool, and I want to help him. You can check out his idea here:

Kuniks and Kakivaks: Pangnirtung Youth Council Book Club

If you are in Ottawa, and want to donate a book, contact me. I'll figure out how to get the goods to Tommy and his crew.