With my husband spending most of September also in recover phase, we dialed down on the drinking thing so all of this was in between so we went for lighter drinks. One of these was one that we had tried out a month or two ago but forgot to take a picture of so forgot to share on the Wine Recap. These things happen but coincidentally my friend bought it this time for the Battle of Ingredients so here we are.
Let’s check out what we tried this one!
Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Producer: Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Alcohol Content: 5%
Location: Ontario, Canada
I’ve heard about how good Mike’s Hard Lemonade before but never had it before. On a spontaneous trip to the grocery store, we picked this up as a fun little taste. It did live up to all the good stuff we’ve heard and it tasted really good. I like lemonade in general and the alcohol was light so it actually balanced out smoothly.
Palm Bay Strawberry Kiwi Iced Tea
Producer: Mike’s Beverage Company
Alcohol Content: 5%
Location: Canada
I’ve tried Palm Bay before on a taste testing at the Grand Prix event before. I can’t remember what flavor it was since it was a few years ago but one evening, my husband’s coworker gave him one of these to try out. Palm Bay is very much a party drink. Its really sweet. I’m not a big Strawberry Kiwi flavor fan and this is good for a group but not one that I’d pick up as much, mostly because if it was for myself, I’d prefer MadJack.
Ambrée aux Herbes (Gluten-Free)
Producer: Brasseurs du Monde
Alcohol Content: 4%
Location: Quebec
I don’t drink beer often. Its a little too much than I can handle. I believe it has to do with the hops and the gluten aspect. I’m not a big fan in general but when we went to the supermarket, we saw a variety pack for this gluten-free beer. It had 4 flavors. I only have one here since the other ones, my husband had drank with my father in law one day so that I didn’t try it. This one is a herb flavored amber beer and its actually fairly good.
Cote des Roses Listel -Gris
Gerard Bertrand Coté des Roses
Producer: Gerard Bertrand
Alcohol Content: 12.5%
Location: Languedoc-Rousillion, France
Other than a beautiful bottle, Cote des Roses is actually a really lovely tasting wine. It feels like a long time since I’ve actually drank wine so I’m not sure how to describe it. However, it was very balanced. I love the smoothness where its not too sour or too dry and it was fruity and light. I plan on giving the white wine a go and get three or these bottles or something to turn it around and make a glass bottle rose bouquet. It’ll be such a beautiful decoration.
Listel – Gris
Producer: Listel
Alcohol Content: 12.5%
Location: Languedoc-Rousillion, France
Taste Tag: Fruity and Light
Leaning a little more on the drier side, Listel- Gris is still fairly decent. Not quite as good as the balance the Cote des Roses achieves. However, there is a depth to it. The after tones of this one works well. There is a fruity and light taste however so its not hard to drink. A nice one to have with friends, making it a great choice for our barbecue.
That’s it for this Wine Recap! We’re slowly getting back into the wines and alcohol however, we’re being careful of health. If it slows down a little with this, it will be in the amount we decide to recap.
What have you been drinking? Any great ones to share?
Last month I was contacted and asked to create a recipe using coconut flour. Seeing as how I’ve been meaning to give coconut flour a shot, for my gluten-free flour choice, I decided to give it a try! You can find more info on coconut flour on their site here.
For this recipe, after some thought I decided to use a banana bread as the foundation. I’ve heard that coconut flour is a little more dry than normal flour but still very good. But then, most gluten-free flour seems to have that problem too. I wonder if it’ll turn out the same way.
Banana-Walnut Bread
As I’ve been saying in previous baking posts, moving has been really hard. I can’t seem to find everything I need between leaving some pans for my mom, coincidentally the loaf pan so I was stuck with this square one. Still, bread is bread and with a little lower baking time, it worked out pretty well. Before I say anything else, here’s the recipe I used, adapted from the Pumpkin Bread recipe in the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook. It’s not Christmas but its my go-to bread recipe.
Banana- Walnut Bread
Makes 24 slices (in a loaf pan)
3 mashed bananas
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups coconut flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottoms only of pan with shortening or cooking spray.
2. In large bowl, stir banana, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well mixed. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts. Stir in nuts.
3. Bake 8 inch loaves 50 to 60 minutes, 9 inch loaf 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.
4. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely about 2 hours, before slicing.
For once, the recipe up there, ingredients is exactly the portion I used. I had to guesstimate a bit of the portions as I couldn’t find my measuring cups but it worked out okay. It definitely was a little dry and crumbly but the taste was very good. I’d have to agree that with a little practice in finding the right level of moistness to the recipes and some research, coconut flour could be a really good alternative for a gluten-free diet/baked good.
This banana bread was pretty good. I think it was a good idea to decrease the sugar since bananas already have quite a bit of it. The walnut pieces gives it some chewy texture and it smelled delectable. Think banana and coconut filling the house. I’m serious, its a pretty good choice. I’ve been searching a long time for a good gluten-free flour. Cloud Nine with a rice and buckwheat base was a good mix but unfortunately thats not available at Costco anymore (or anywhere I frequent). The Robin Hood GF flour has a beet base and it tastes really bad. Blame that one for why I haven’t been baking a lot. Now, coconut flour smells really good without being in the recipe and if it holds all those nutritious values like on the site, I’m down for giving it a shot.
Do you eat gluten-free foods? Have you tried out coconut flour as a substitute for all-purpose/wheat flour?
This past week went by in a flash. Maybe it was having fun, maybe it was work being busy but peaceful, maybe it was just having time to finally get things out of the way and maybe its just finally feeling like I’m moving into a direction where things are resolved. Sure, that resolved feeling doesn’t quite feel that way during this week but as I put this post together on Sunday night, I also try to reset my mindset.
Last week’s updates was set up in a 10 item list mostly focused on gardening but I love that structure so to not overwhelm everyone, I’m keeping that structure from now on but we’ll be staying positive and looking at happy stuff. That was always the goal of being here and as much as I love to share events, I also love to share positive thoughts 🙂
The past week wasn’t quite as eventful, thank goodness, but it did involve hanging out with friends and experiencing/exploring new stuff so I’m pretty excited to share it.
1) Attending and seeing an entire movie at Shitfest Social
Eric organized a Shitfest Social in the Evening with Table 9 Mutant hosting it in his place, although he still made an appearance. The movie is that one up there, Alone in the Dark. You can check out all our comments and interaction right HERE! It was pretty hilarious and fun stuff to just be watching a crappy movie at the same time and seeing everyone’s comments and criticism.
Just saying, if you do want to watch this, think about all of us that suffered to tell you that it sucks. I was pretty confused throughout the whole movie as to what was going on and the ending didn’t really make sense either. Plus, it had some pretty horrible music and it was so loud that it overpowered anything they were saying. Anyways, just perfect Shitfest material, my friends.
2) Free Children’s Workshop at Home Depot
Project: Bug House
Totally new experience for me. I never knew that Home Depot offered these free workshops for kids once a month. Apparently, its every second Saturday. You get little badges for every project you complete and its just amazing seeing kids bond with their parents and other relatives. A really nice family activity! Kudos to Home Depot 🙂
3) Enjoying my mom’s vegetable and flower garden
There are also lavenders and pink roses, some purple flowers, etc. Lots going on.
Sweet Potato
“Delicata” Squash
These two are the ones I gave to my mom to plant in her garden: Sweet potatoes and Delicata Squash. My mom also has chives, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, winter melon, other varieties of squash and bitter melon.
4) Spending time with friends at Longueuil’s Percussion Festival
Performance
Face painting
Courtesy of my friend 🙂
I’ve never been to the Longueuil Percussion Festival but the last few years, we’ve been learning a lot of festivals and checking them out one by one. This one was really awesome since I spent it with some great friends, made some new ones and the kids with us had a blast which always makes for fun times. There was a bag of free samples from a pharmacy chain and lots of games and crafts for kids. Plus, of course, there’s food and I’ll talk about that in the next point…
5) Eating great food at Percussion Festival
Lemonade&Ice Tea
My friend’s food stand Takoyaki Montreal
Takoyaki
Shaved Ice from Takoyaki Montreal
J-Dog
Last year for the Matsuri Japan Festival, I had already talked about my friend owning a food stand. This year, they got a spot in the Percussion Festival. They had their usual Takoyaki, which is either octopus, shrimp (I think) or mushroom flavor shaped in little balls. They also had shaved ice in lots of flavors as well.
Not their booth, but J-Dog also made an appearance and last year, I had that awesome hot dog up there and I just couldn’t resist to have it again. Plus, Lemon Heaven was there and they make the best lemonade EVER! 🙂
Friends, Food and Festivals…the 3 Fs I possibly love the most!
6) Reuniting and meeting new friends for my friend’s bachelorette party dinner
Glasses decoration at Kyomi Restaurant
Special table decoration at Kyomi Restaurant
Bachelorette parties are kept secret so only some food and decor shots here. I haven’t seen the bride in at least 5 years but we’ve known each other for a long time. It was my pleasure to be invited to her bachelorette party and her wedding next weekend. Kyomi Restaurant is not a typical restaurant you would catch me at but the decor was beautiful. The lighting gave a beautiful mood. You can see it on the glass and yes, those are penis decorated straws. Don’t ask…
As always, there’s always food in the mix.
Wonton Soup
Someone’s meat dish
These two dishes was one of the girl’s meal: Wonton soup and a meat dish. Not sure the exact thing.
Then me, my best friend and another friend decided to order three dishes and share among us.
Basil Shrimp
U.B.B.
Lobster Salad
All three were very good. Lobster Salad was delicious. Basil Shrimp was original and I was happy to have rice. The saw was done really well and they had a rice sheet at the bottom which gave it a nice texture. The U.B.B Maki rolls were great. UBB has eel, avocado, shrimp tempura and mango.
Blue was the theme. Here’s my outfit for the party
Dinner may have taken long and I may have had gotten beat to the last parking spot and ended up parking in the side streets and had to trudge in my heels to and from the car but seeing some long time friends and hanging with a bunch of nice girls was very enjoyable. It was a change of pace and just a nice night 🙂 I couldn’t join them for the activities before and after as I already had plans and I needed to get home to rest for Sunday.
7) Spending an entire day with my boyfriend
Not a lot of pictures to show for this one but after a pretty busy Saturday, my boyfriend and I took Sunday to recharge and spend together. Mentally, its been a tough week with a lot of stuff to reflect on and I might touch on that a little but we had a few errands to run so we took care of stuff together.
I’m thankful for those lovely friend and family that took my advice and gave me Reno Depot gift cards because it covered all my pool treating and maintenance expenses and I love you for it. We didn’t get the chance to get more paint but we definitely have to do that as our next priority. We made a stop at Ikea and bought some ceiling lights. As much as we want to change as little things as possible, some rooms have really dim lights and we’re going to do a little moving lights around and installing extra ones. We still have to go back for a second round for wall mounted lights and dining table but things are falling into place. One floor is completely painted and I’m getting some furniture ready to be moved over.
Gluten-Free: Bison Burger and Sausages
After that we ate dinner together at our home. We made some gluten-free penne, sausages and bison burger patties (our first time trying) along with some broccoli.
We even managed to see two movies on Netflix: a ridiculous soft porn movie giving this chick a million times to show off her too big boobs called Jailbait (Side note: I should’ve used this Shitfest, Eric.) and a Marvel movie I’ve never seen and know nothing about, The Punisher with Thomas Jane. Review for this one will happen eventually…
8) Calming my soul with some Michael Buble
It really doesn’t mean anything but Michael Buble is always a winner especially with these slower songs. It brings me contentment. Plus, I started trying to play this on the piano so its pretty much on repeat 🙂 Thats really how this all started. The second one that I have on repeat is called Lost.
9) Fantasia Film Festival coming up this Thursday!
Last year, I got mega sick last year for Fantasia Festival so I missed my most anticipated movie which when some of you reviewed it, turns out it wasn’t all that great. Still, this year, I was more structured. I tracked when the schedule came up and made my setlist of 10 movies 🙂 My boyfriend will join me for the weekend ones so yay to date night.
Still, all is just talk until I get the tickets. I”ll be updating you on what I’m going to see right after I manage to get my hands on those tickets 😉 I’m excited. It looks like there are some cool movies in this year’s line up
10) Finding inspirational quotes 🙂
This quote just made my day when I saw it. I’m happy that I found someone that I can lean on and confide in 🙂
So true, right? Its a work in progress. Negative BS, the door is that way, please see yourself out 😉
Here we go! My 10 things this week! I’d say its a winner. Saturday was a bit nuts and overcrowded but the next two-three weeks will be very busy with Fantasia in my plans. I’m planning on drafting a mad amount of posts so that I’m covered for the nights I’m out. Lots of planning in there 🙂
I’ve been planning this for a little while and I feel that there is no better time to launch a new little focus here in terms of baking.
There’s been a little bit of research going on after my uncle and aunt came a few months ago and talked about the benefits of gluten-free lifestyle and suggested that maybe it was the hidden cause of the sudden downturn of my health from the relapse of lactose intolerance to caffeine sensitive among the many other stuff. Generally, my sensitive digestion system. I have accepted and worked around to how to live with all these foods that I can’t eat but it sure would be nice to not have to go out and worry about it one day or just at least not feel bloated all the time.
After taking a little time to adjust, I’ve decided to slowly go on the gluten-free path. Its going to be hard to find alternatives and from the look of it, might even be more costly but nonetheless, my health is the most important and I want to be sure to feel better.
With that, here is my new little focus in baking & cooking: Gluten-free meals and desserts 🙂
Of course, I’m only doing this little by little and my first step was to cut bread out of my life. Plus, I picked up my first bag of gluten-free flour from Costco a month ago so when I had an an abundance of zucchini stacked up in the fridge, I decided to finally try my hand at making a Zucchini Loaf.
Here’s how it turned out 🙂
I got the recipe in the Butter Baked Goods by Rosie Daykin. The recipe itself is called Grandma Daykin’s Zucchini Loaf.
Here is the original recipe, however I halved it to make one loaf only.
Ingredients
Makes 2 loaves, about 8 to 10 slices per loaf
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
2 cups grated raw zucchini
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp pure vanilla
How to make it:
1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
2. Onto a large piece of parchment paper, sift together the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the zucchini, sugar, oil, and vanilla and mix to blend.
4. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Use a spatula to spread the batter smoothly across the pan.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and allow the loaves to cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Use a serrated knife to slice the loaves, then serve.
Other than halving all the ingredients to make one loaf, I also had a few modifications.
The all purpose flour was replaced by the Cloud 9 Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Mix. Its one to one cup replacement so it makes the whole process easier.
I don’t have pumpkin pie spice so I had to do a little rough blend of ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg.
As for zucchini, my grater miraculously vanished. It could have gotten mixed up in my packing somehow so I spent some extra time to finely chop it.
In terms of vegetable oil, I used canola oil since that was the closest I had (the other would’ve been olive oil and I’m not sure that would do so good).
I didn’t have enough vanilla but I did pour all the remainder I had left.
This recipe is pretty much in the awesome area. It had the right amount of sweet to balance off the zucchini. Plus, I’m not sure if it was the flour or just the entire recipe itself but every bite melted into my mouth literally. I fell in love with this more than I expected. If this is what zucchini loaf tastes like, sign me up for more 😉
Have you tried eating gluten-free foods? Do you have any suggestions as to how to slowly get into it? Have you tasted zucchini loaves before?
Tranquil Dreams 