lazy sunday, sinful brunch, and the perfect light dinner

Sundays at our house are usually pretty layed back and low key. We almost always sleep late, and therefor we are beyond starving by the time we get up and get going. Depending on the state of my kitchen and my refrigerator, we either hit up the closest breakfast restaurant for a greasy spoon brunch or we enjoy a hearty and filling brunch chez Erika. Either way, two things are for certain: a) we are extremely full afterwards, and b) because it is usually early afternoon by the time we finish eating, we are not usually hungry again until early evening. This poses an interesting question for Sunday dinner... what do I make? The answer is simple and yet delicious.



harvest vegetables



soup, salad, and bread



 The challenge for Sunday dinners, is to make something light, easy to make, and somewhat healthy (after the greasy yet satisfying brunch). One of my favourite meals of all time, is soup, bread, and salad. It's everything you could ever ask for, it's yummy, it's nutritious, and it hits the spot! This past Sunday I decided to make one of my new favourite soups. It's a soup I have came up with on my own, sort of. I'm a big fan of cooking with seasonal and local ingredients. So during the fall/winter months, this means using squash, sweet potato, turnip, parsnips etc. One day I decided to just throw all of these ingredients in a soup pot, and see what happens. Turns out that these ingredients combined with some chicken broth and cream make for an amazing soup! I also like to make my own chicken broth to put in the soup. But regular old store bought chicken broth works well too. Some weeks I don't have a leftover chicken carcass hanging out in my fridge to make a homemade broth with. Just sayin.



my handy lettuce dryer



adding the poppy seed to the dressing

 Salads are my "feel good about yourself" accompaniment to any meal. I always use healthy lettuce (ie: romain or spinach) and I always make my own dressing. It's also a great way to get my husband and my stepson to eat their vegetables! Who doesn't like salad?! Especially with homemade dressing! One of my "go to" guides for salad dressing ideas is what I like to call my "cooking Bible's", better known as "The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook" and "The Betty Crocker Cookbook". These two cookbooks will teach you just about everything and anything you need to know about cooking. My dad and my stepmom bought these books for me over 10 years ago now, and they have been one of the most useful gifts that they have ever bought for me! I love them so much, that I have even bought them as gifts for other people. Anyway, getting back to the salad... there's an orange poppy seed dressing recipe in The Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that goes great with spinach salad. That was the salad of choice from last Sunday night.



the cooking Bible



 As for the bread, I opted for cornbread. I am probably the biggest bread lover I know. It's yet another trait that I inherited from my late Opa Schmidt. Bread is the one carb I could never give up! I'll ditch pasta, rice or potatoes any day, but bread I could simply never live without. God help me if I develop a gluten allergy someday! Getting back to the cornbread.... Cornbread is such a quick and simple bread to make, not to mention it tastes so rich and hearty. I used to work for a restaurant that had cornbread on their menu. During the many hours I spent working for this establishment, I devoured 100's of corn bread muffins. Until a manager divulged to me how many calories were in them. They had more calories in them, then a chocolate chip cookie! For real, I'm not kidding. That was the end of my cornbread snacks. Until I found a great recipe which contained a lot less sugar on the ingredient list, but still had the same great cornbread taste! You guessed it, the cooking bible strikes again!



the perfect light dinner



 The boys really enjoyed their Sunday dinner. Jake was impressed with how delicious and nutritious the soup tasted. And Owen commented on how filling the soup was. Not to mention my co-workers got to enjoy the leftover cornbread at work on Tuesday! Too bad their wasn't any leftover soup to stick in the freezer for a later date. Guess that's just a sign that I make good soup!

Erika's Harvest Vegetable Soup:                     

                                                                          

                                                       1/ 2 of a butternut squash (peeled and cubed)



hand blending the soup

 2 parsnips (peeled andchopped)                                      
 1 turnip (peeled and  cubed)                                                                    
 1 small sweet potato (peeled and chopped)

making a rue

 2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
 2 stalks of celery (peeled and chopped)
 1 onion (peeled and chopped)
 2 cloves of garlic (peeled and chopped

 1 carton of chicken
broth  (or you can make your own)                                            
 1/2 L of light cream
  1 tbsp of butter
  2 tbsp of flour
  fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper (to taste)

 Combine chicken broth and vegetables in a large pot, bring to a boil and then simmer on low for about 30mins. In another large pot combine butter and flour on medium heat to create a rue. Then slowly add cream and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and let simmer for about 5mins. Then add vegetable broth mixture. Use a handblender to puree. Heat soup to desired tempreature and serve. Makes about 4-5 servings.



Spinach Salad and Orange Poppy Seed Dressing:  
                                                                                     1 bunch of baby spinach (washed, cut, and dryed)
                                                                                     1/2 of a red bell pepper (chopped)
                                                                                     1/4 c of raw sunflower seeds

making the dressing



blending the dressing

                               1/2 c of yellow cherry tomatos (cut in half)

                        

    dressing:

                                                                                                       3 tbs of sugar

                                                                                                       1 1/2 tsp of shredded orange peel

                                                                                                       2 tbs of oj



                                                                                                       2 tbs of vinegar

                                                                                                       1 tbs of finely chopped onion

                                                                                                       1/3 c of olive oil
                                                                                                       1 tsp of poppy seeds

                                                                                                       dash of fresh ground pepper   

 
  In a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients for salad and set aside. Use a blender or food processor and combine salad dressing ingredients (except for the olive oil), blend on low speed adding the olive oil once ingredients are blended. Toss salad with dressing and serve. Makes about 4-5 servings.

Corn Bread:                                                               

                                                                                   1c of all purpose flour


making the corn bread batter

                              3/4 c of cornmeal
                              3 tbs of sugar

                              2 1/2 tsp of baking powder

                              3/4 tsp of salt
                              1 tbs of butter
                              2 beaten eggs

                              1c of milk

                              1/4c of sunflower seed oil

 Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Combine wet ingredients (except for 1 tbs of butter). Mix wet and dry ingredients together, and pour into greased (using the 1 tbsp of butter) loaf pan. Preheat oven to 400F and bake for 20-25 mins.

the perfect cupcake for the perfect best friend

 

Emma and I just a few short weeks
 before we both turned 16



This past Saturday is a very important day on my calendar year... January 14th. It is a day I have been celebrating every year since I was 15 years old. It is one of best friend's, Emma Elston's birthday. Emma and I have turned a few significant ages together... sweet 16, adult 18, legal age of majority 19, quarter of a century 25 and this year we turned the old triple decade 30! For those of you who don't know, my birthday is January 2nd. Every year Emma and I get to turn a year older with in weeks of each other. That also makes us both Capricorns, but that's another blog entry all in itself!

 

  Like me, Emma has two best friend's. We were both more than happy to plan an exciting birthday for her! Her other best friend lead the planning of  the day, and I took more of a backstage roll. Which I was more than happy to do, after hosting my own 30th less than 2 weeks prior. Not to mention a week before that hosting Christmas Eve at my place as well! Since it is well known that I am a passionate baker, I was placed in charge of the birthday cake. I was given the option of making it or buying it. But to me, there was no option. This was my best friend's 30th birthday, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't create her something totally unique and amazing! A store bought cake simply would not do. I had to come up with something that would "wow" her, and everyone else. 



  Now this was not any easy task. Emma is not the biggest dessert fan (unlike myself). In fact, she can sometimes either take it or or leave it. She is however partial to a few sweet treats... apple crisp, apple pie, nanimo bars, rice crispy squares, and the candy swedish berries. Since Emma had already had her fill of my nanimo bars at Christmas time, I ruled that one out right away. I decided that an apple upside down cake would be perfect, and probably not too complicated to find a recipe for or to make either. But still it didn't seem like enough? Then I started thinking about the swedish berries.... hmmm... what kind of dessert could I make with swedish berries? And then a light bulb went of in my head... what if I made swedish berry cupcakes! I had never even heard of such a thing before, not even on any of those cupcake shows on TV! But I was confident that I could do it. 

  To me, a cupcake is all about the icing. The cake must go well with the icing, but if the icing isn't any good, forget it! So I decided that the best way to make a swedish berry cupcake, would be to make the frosting taste like a swedish berry. That was going to be a bit of a challenge, but I do love a good baking challenge! I decided that the cake part should be white cake (since Emma's not big on chocolate cake). But the cake part needed a "swedish berry touch" as well. I thought about how I cut gum drops in quarters at Christmas, to make my Grammies famous gum drop cake... couldn't I do the same thing with swedish berries? Why not! So that took care of the cake part. But I still had to figure out the frosting part...

  I knew that there is a shot called "swedish berry". So I asked the bartender at my work what goes in this delicious shot. She told me it is a combination of red sour puss and banana liqueur. I wasn't nuts about buying an entire bottle of each of these, just to flavour my frosting. Plus not everyone likes the alcohol taste in their desserts. So I decided that I needed to find both a banana and a raspberry syrup, but with out any sugar in them. Because butter cream frosting is already sweet enough on it's own! I searched the grocery store to find such things. I was able to find banana extract next to the vanilla extract in the spices and flavourings section. But I was out of luck where the raspberry syrup was concerned. What was I to do now? The answer is simple (well sort of), I would have to buy raspberries and make my own!



raspbery syrup



ingredients for the cake portion



  Due to my wonky work schedule, I often do not get home from work until super late. This has lead to many late night baking sessions. The night before Emma's birthday was no different. I began baking Emma's birthday cake and cupcakes at around 11pm. The first step was to make the raspberry syrup. I placed one pint of fresh raspberries in a saucepan with a splash of water and let them boil for about 10mins. Then I strained out the seeds, and voila: sugar free homemade raspberry syrup! I promise you, it really was this simple!

  

ready to go in the oven



  Next I started the cupcakes. I learned a long time ago a baking secret from a popular food network chef. She actually uses cake mixes all the time! She explained that all a cake mix is, is the dry ingredients of a cake. You can also, alter or add to the cake mix any way you like. So for my swedish berry cupcake, I started with a regular box of white cake mix. I followed the instructions on the box, adding a bit of vanilla extract to the batter as well as 3/4 of a bag of swedish berries cut in quarters. I also substituted the water the box called for, for milk.Then I lined a cup cake baking sheet with cup cake liners, and filled them about 2/3 full. Into the oven they went on 350degrees for about 25 minutes. We all know the rule of thumb when it comes to baking cakes in the oven: The cake is cooked, when a knife or toothpick can be inserted in the cake and it comes out clean.




frosting ingredients

 

mixing the frosting



  The cup cakes came out of the oven looking great, and ready to be frosted once they cooled. On to the frosting. I followed my standard butter cream frosting recipe: one 500g bag of icing sugar, 1/2c of unsalted butter (softened), and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. I used a hand mixer to blend the butter, vanilla, and slowly added the icing sugar. Once these ingredients were combined, I added my raspberry syrup, and 1 tsp of banana extract. I folded the syrup and banana extract in with a spatula, so that I wouldn't splatter any of the syrup on myself. Then came for the big moment of truth...the taste test. At this point, if the frosting tasted like crap... I was screwed. Thank God, that didn't happen... the frosting tasted EXACTLY like a swedish berry candy!!!! After a few minutes of patting myself on the back for being a sheer culinary genius (and maybe some help from above, my late Opa was fabulous European cake baker), I wrapped up the frosting and went to bed. It was 3am after all, and the cupcakes had to cool completely before I could frost them. So I set my alarm for 730am, and went to bed. Keep in mind I had to get up in the morning, frost the cupcakes, make a run to the deli, get my self packed and ready for a day of snowboarding, and meet the girl's in west Hamilton for 11am!

  On to the next day, Emma's birthday! My alarm did not go off at 730am... just my luck. For some strange reason, it did not go off until 8:30? When my alarm went off, I laid there slowly waking up... thinking I had lots of time, it was only 7:30 right?! When I finally rolled over and looked at the clock, I sat up and bolted out of bed. I was now running an hour behind schedule! I guess that's what you get for staying up until 3am baking. I quickly got myself ready, hit up the deli down the street (had to grab my contribution to the ski hill lunch), and came home to frost the cupcakes.



the finished product!



  I grabbed my piping bag, placed a random pipe inside and began filling the piping bag with frosting. Gosh, I haven't pipped frosting in a while. I had forgotten how hard it is to do? I kept getting air bubbles in the pipping bag, making it difficult to pipe the frosting. Needless to say, it took a bit longer than I had expected to pipe the cupcakes, but somehow I managed to finish. I took the remaining 1/4 of a bag of swedish berries and topped each of the cupcakes with them. Now I was done... the cupcakes looked great! But how did they taste? No time for taste testing when you're running that late though. I packed up the cupcakes (reserving one for Jake to try), and all of the other stuff I had to bring with me and piled into the car along with my chauffeur (Jake). On the way there, I gave Jake his cupcake to try. His response? Typical guy, "It's good." Well what the hell does that mean?! Just "good", not "great" or "amazing" or "the best cupcake you've ever freakin had"!? Guess he didn't understand all of the blood, sweat and tears that had gone into making these cupcakes! He also said "they're really sweet, almost too sweet". Wow, I love how brutally honest he was. Too late to do anything about it now though!



the birthday girl blows out her candles



30 and fabulous



  We had a fabulous day snowboarding, picnic lunching in the ski chalet, lots of girl chat on the drive up and back, fabulous take out dinner from Papa Guyo (authentic Mexican restaurant), and a wonderful night of socialising, drinking and guitar playing (and drunken sing alongs). Emma's other best friend hosted a great bash! And how were the cupcakes received you ask? Everyone loved them! Most importantly, Emma loved them! Mission accomplished.

swedish berry cupcakes- A+
apple upside down cake- C-

  As for the apple upside down cake, it was just "ok". A bit of a disappointment, in my opinion. It turned out more like a apple bread than a cake. Guess it serves me right for trusting a random recipe off the internet. It did teach me though, that trusting my own ideas and creations is best. Lucky for me, I decided to blog about the cupcakes!

 
   



my life as "the model housewife"

First off, I would just like to start off by saying that I am not, nor do I strive to be "the perfect housewife". It really is just a catchy title for my blog, and that is all. Let's face it, nobody's perfect... least of all me! My family, friends and co-workers do however like to tease me that I am the "model modern day housewife". I would be lying if I told you that I don't find this incredibly flattering, who wouldn't want to be considered a roll model for others? But the truth of the matter is that I love being a wife, a stepmom, and just doing what is considered domestic things. I also like to think I'm pretty good at it too! So if that makes me a "model housewife", then so be it.

 My aspirations of becoming a housewife started at an early age. I have always LOVED what most would call "girly things". I loved wearing dresses, playing with make up, playing with my dolls, pretending to cook or helping my mom in the kitchen. I dreamt about meeting my prince charming and having a beautiful wedding. That's right, I was totally suckered in to the whole fairy tale/storybook happy life. My aspirations were to grow up, get married and be the perfect wife and mother. And let's not forget about my career goals of becoming a model, actress, journalist.... I really did think that life would all be just that simple and easy. Boy, was I naive!

 So after coming to the realisation that my career goals may have been slightly unrealistic, if you will. I took a year long course at Mohawk to become an aesthetician. It was around this time that I met my prince charming, or so I thought. This is when I came to my second realisation, that prince charming doesn't exist. That's right ladies, I know it's hard to believe and heartbreaking as well... but that fairytale character that you read about as a child, actually is just that, a fairytale character. Don't get me wrong, my husband is a wonderful guy and I love him very much! But just like me, he is not perfect.

 So enter my husband, Jake Brown. We fell in love quickly, and moved in together quickly as well. I was more than happy to settle into my role as a "common law housewife". Little did I know at the time, that moving in with Jake would prolong my dreams of a fairytale wedding by 8 LONG years! Yep, I "played" housewife for a LONG time, before he put a ring on it. So, what did "playing a housewife" include you ask? Well, such roles as personal chef, housekeeper, personal assistant, etc. Basically all of the luxury's my husband enjoys now, but without the commitment of marriage. Oh, and let's not forget being a co-parent to Jake's son. Enter Owen, my stepson. Even though I only officially became Owen's stepmom a year and a half ago, I have been an active parental figure to him since Jake and I moved in together. Thank God I grew up with stepparents myself! Being a stepmom is a very rewarding yet challenging job. And it's not always challenging because of the child you are stepparenting. It's more the situations that you are placed in being a stepparent. I'm lucky, I have had the pleasure of helping Jake and Owen's mom raise the most respectful, good natured and kind hearted 14 year old boy I know. 

 Getting back to my journey of being a housewife.... after a short lived career in aesthetics, I decided it wasn't for me. I took a job as a server at local family restaurant, and serving has been my source of income ever since. I'm convinced that having a flexible and non super demanding job has contributed to my success at being "the model housewife". I can't imagine going to a gruelling 10 hr a day job, and then coming home to do laundry, cook dinner, and have a positive and upbeat attitude at the same time. I'll be honest with you, I'm not someone who deals well with lack of sleep! It's one of the main concerns I have with possibly having a baby one day. I need to have my 8 hrs a night, or I can't be held accountable for what I may do or say. 

 After 7 years of proving myself as a girlfriend, "stepmom", and "housewife", Jake finally got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Enter the most stressful yet exciting year and a half of my life to date. The "model housewife" also has to plan her own "model wedding". I may have put some of my "housewife" duties on the back burner during that time, but I assure you that after the wedding I picked right up where I left off. Now I was officially (and legally) a housewife. Pretty much directly after we got back from our honeymoon, we started looking for a house to move into. We found a charming little house, not far from where we already lived. We moved in and got a dog all in the same week, adding another role to my housewife duties... dog walker!

 Moving into a house has given me even more opportunities to expand my horizons as a housewife. I can now garden, bar-b-que, and host parties and dinners for larger groups of people. My life is happy and full ... but lately I have been feeling the need for a creative outlet for all of my "model housewife" duties. I decided a blog was just the thing I needed to start. What does this housewife intend to blog about you ask? My topics will include: cooking, baking, household duties, home decor, stepparenting, and basically any issues or topics that affect today's housewife. Stay tooned!