Eponym

Its been sometime since I have been able to sit down and recollect my thoughts and images that float around in my head. I find it hard to sit down and type...I never use to. Things are different.

Life is full. 

Magical. Everything is. Its hard not to believe in something much greater then us...when we are surrounded by life.

Time...just wish for a little more of it.

But then life gets in the way.

Harvest time

It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, which means I was able to close down the restaurant for a couple of days. A nice break. Hanging out with my three favorite people is pretty awesome. We made our way to the pumpkin patch, sort of a tradition.

I know I don't post very much anymore....I miss it. I always think of this space as a personal journal so-to-speak. I enjoy visiting it from time to time and looking back at photographs.
Juggling the restaurant and the family, I don't have much time to get the camera out, mostly everything is done on the ol'iphone. Convenience.

I would like to say I made some crazy amazing meal, but no. I did not. We were invited over to eat at someone else house :) Honestly I don't cook all that much at home anymore, mostly all the cooking I do is at Wild Leek, I bring home things. Which is kinda nice.

I hope all my fellow Canadians had a great weekend with loved ones. I sure did!

Progress

I have to admit I don't think about blogging lots lately, kinda sad.. I know. I love 'this' space of mine. Sometimes I look through my family section like an old photo album, that is why I loved blogging so much. I could record my life and look back.

Since April the girls and I moved into an apartment in the city, which was a huge change for us. Good change though. I believe everything happens for a reason, and the universe was pushing me in this direction.

When I opened the restaurant I had to put my daughters in daycare. It was hard at first...it was upsetting leaving when Simone was crying.  Now she just walks right in and does her thing. Kinda neat how adaptable children are. Leeluu starts school in September, amazing!

Starting a business, my thoughts. I love cooking, getting to create specials everyday, and designing a menu every month is really cool. Talking to the customers, connecting with the community, it is all super fun. It's hard work, trying to keep up with everything though. I am still wrapping my brain around how to get everything done that needs to be done in a day. I think with time it will become a little easier juggling family and work, I was able to go to the beach last weekend...I hope to sneak away there again soon.

Wild Leek Food & Juice Bar

I have been MIA as of lately, I miss blogging. I have a new love...all my time and energy is spent with that. I thought I would share some photos of the progress of Wild Leek Food & Juice Bar.

So far everything has been pretty smooth. I am SO excited to get into the kitchen and start cooking! The restaurant is looking great, and I have learned so much, floor sanders are cool ( quite a bit different than using a mixer haha).

I met a cool new friend that is going to work with me..her name is Andie. I can only imagine the kinds of things we are going to create together. The other day we tested out all the juice and smoothie recipes...mmm.

I hope some of you will stop by if your in town... and if you are not local, I will post pics as often as I can. You can follow the daily specials here or here or here!

Dreams really do come true

So the news that I have been hinting at the last couple of months? Guess where I am? In my own restaurant kitchen!! 

I have been working on this for the last nine months..getting everything together. I am opening a small neighborhood restaurant in Halifax. It is going to be wonderful..tasty, fresh and fully VEGAN! I can hardly wait to get back into the swing of it!

Crazy to think back to my first post on Kirsten's Kitchen! Wow its been a journey to get to this point...but I am HERE and so happy! I will keep you updated on the progress of the renovations I am doing.

So with great pleasure I will open the doors to Wild Leek Food & Juice Bar this May! 

First day of Spring { asparagus quiche }

It official the first day of spring has arrived, with a snow storm! Boo. That didn't stop me from baking up this delicioso 'vegan asparagus quiche'. Even with the snow, I can feel spring is going to pounce upon us with sunshine, buds on the trees, birds singing but until it comes I will be opening my front door to rubber boots filled with snow!

But inside the house we are drooling over this 'egg-less quiche'. Yes, that is right there are no eggs in this, but how you ask? TOFU! I once read that you should treat tofu like flour, if its not seasoned or done something with it will just be flour. Well same goes for tofu. Lots of good things went inside this quiche... sautéed onions, Daiya cheese, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, and asparagus!

Cobb salad { vegan }

Hey everyone, I have great dish from the secret recipe club again! A veganized Cobb salad, this was super easy to prepare and very tasty. It comes from fellow blogger,  the daily dish recipes. Nicole makes some yummy looking recipes.

There are a few stories of how the Cobb salad was invented, I like the one were the Chef hadn't eaten until midnight so he threw some left overs together and behold this delicious creation! I had to omit a few of the traditionals because...well they are not vegan. HA. So instead I used almonds, Daiya cheese and oranges.


Cobb Salad
serves 4
I used my own maple balsamic vinegerette recipe.

3 cups mixed greens
1 carrot-peeled and shredded
1 green pepper- small diced
1 tomato- small diced
1 orange- segmented and small diced
1 avocado- small diced
1/4 cup almonds- chopped roughly
1/4 cup Daiya- -pepper jack cheese

Assemble in a salad dish and enjoy!!

Ginger chocolate mousse {gluten free}

It's Valentines day tomorrow and I thought it would be nice to make a vegan inspired dessert. I decided to go with chocolate (of course) and put a twist on it...ginger! The both pair very nicely together, so....'vegan ginger chocolate mousse' it was! 

I love candied ginger but I have never made it before, I found this recipe and I really like how simple it is. I didn't weigh anything out, just eye balled it. Now that I have done it, and tasted it fresh, I don't think I can go back to store bought. Have you ever candied anything?

I had some friends over with there daughter for lunch this afternoon, they were the taste testers for this...and I think it was a hit! The crust is coconut and dates with a little maple syrup, and the mousse was infused with star anise, peppercorns and ginger! I melted the chocolate and made the chocolate hearts free form with the back of a spoon. It was a fun morning. I hope everyone gets to spend some time with someone special!

Vegan 'Sfeeha'

As I sit here and write this post I am eating yummy 'vegan sfeeha' other wise known as 'meat' pies. I put my own twist on this traditional recipe by veganizing it!!

This little delicacy comes from  Lebanon. I recently joined 'the secret recipe club', where you get sent a blog that you may have never discovered otherwise, and have to pick recipe from their collection, and make it. Lucky me I to get chef in disguise, this lady rocks! Orthodontist by day/chef at night. And she has great recipes that I am looking forward to veganizing more of.

After scrolling through her delicious looking photos, I settled on the 'sfeeha'. Little pastries filled with savoury goodness. I thought it would be a good first attempt, and I was right! These taste like awesomeness.  I didn't have some of the ingredients that Sawsan used but I thought I could manage to make it tasty with what I had on hand....I kept the recipe for her dough, which is amazing.

'Sfeeha'- Veganized 
makes 12 

Dough:

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil

Filling:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 stalks celery-minced
1 clove garlic
1/2 package of Yves veggie ground round
1 tsp sage
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tsp molasses
1 tbsp tahini
3-4 tbsp of water
freshly ground pepper
sea salt to taste

For the dough sprinkle the sugar into the water in a small bowl, add yeast. Let sit for about 10 minutes and foam. In a medium sized bowl combine flour and salt, pour the water into the flour and mix with a spoon until forms a ball. Flour surface and knead dough for 7-8 minutes, unitl smooth. Pour olive oil into a bowl, place dough in and give it a spin, to coat. Cover with a towel and let rise until double its size. ( appox 2 hours).

Once dough has risen, roll into golf ball sized portions and set on a tray. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

For the filling. Heat pan and add oil. Saute onion, garlic and celery until soft. Add veggie ground round and stir until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and contiune to cook until soft and hot. 6-8 minutes.

Roll out the balls of dough, to form small circles. Place a scoop of filling in the middle, with water pinch the sides of the dough to form and X. Brush pastry with olive oil

Place on greased cookie sheet at 400 for 20 minutes.

Teriyaki noodles with Chinese broccoli

I feel like I have not been in my kitchen in for-EVER! I mean I make toast and things like that, but I have not been cooking like I usually do. My upcoming plan is in full swing, with hopes that everything goes as it should...I will release the news soon!

Tonight was a good night to be inside cooking its pretty chilly outside and I really do find my qi when I am in the kitchen. This was a quick week night meal that turned out pretty tasty.

I find Chinese broccoli at my local grocery store, and I like that its leafier than regular old broccoli, but if you can't find it, the normal stuff with do just fine.

Teriyaki noodles with Chinese broccoli

cooked noodles- udon, soba, rice or whatever you prefer

1 tbsp sunflower oil
1/2 block tofu cubed
1 garlic clove-minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger-minced
6-8 mushrooms-sliced
8-10 stalks of Chinese broccoli
black onion seeds- optional

sauce:

3 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp palm sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp sesame oil

mix together and set aside

In a cast iron pan or non-stick heat oil add tofu. let brown.
Add garlic, ginger and mushrooms. Allow to sauté for a few minutes
Throw in broccoli, just allow to green up a bit
Pour sauce over and allow to thicken a bit
Serve over noodles.

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

~Albert Einstein 

Root vegetable soup

I have not been around here lately, things in my life have been a little crazy. My oldest daughter Ocean, is in the hospital. Since she is hopefully on the mend, I thought I would take her some home-made soup. I made this "root vegetable soup" to compensate for the yucky hospital food.

Picked up a bag of stewing vegetables at the grocery store yesterday. It's just handy and pretty inexpensive. I also grabbed a can of kidney beans, and whipped this together this morning.

Root vegetable soup

2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion-small diced
1 clove of garlic- minced
2 carrots- peeled and sliced thick
1 potato- peeled and cubed
1 turnip- peeled and sliced
1 small rutabaga- peeled and cubed
5 cups water
1/4 cup rice
1 can of kidney beans- rinsed
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
a few leafs of kale- chopped
dried oregano
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

In a large pot, gently heat oil, add onions and garlic. Sauté until soft.
Add veggies and continue to sauté for 4-5 minutes.
Add water and rice.
Bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer.
Add beans. Season with vinegar, oregano and salt and pepper
Stir in kale once ready to serve.