Trip 2013: Idaho, and a bit of Oregon

The last couple of days have been filled with a lot of driving.  We left Montana, travelled a bit through Northern Idaho, and yesterday we entered Oregon.  A lot of miles to cover in a short period of time!  

We had a really hard time finding a hotel on Monday night (everything was completely booked) so we ended up spending a night in our truck.  That was... uncomfortable! Literally the second we drove into Oregon we found a Comfort Inn and slept... oh glorious, sleep.  We spent the rest of the afternoon  just lazing around our hotel room, catching up on Breaking Bad (not even visiting another country can keep me from my Walter White!), showering (oh, showering... I missed you so), and doing the oodles of laundry we had already accumulated.

Now that we've been in the US for few days I'm starting to notice some differences, especially in the food we eat!  Alberta Beef - Being as how I hardly eat meat, I didn't even know that this was going to be an issue.  One taste of non-Alberta beef later, I miss the meat back home something fierce.  Iced-Tea - literally just cold tea here.  I've debated adding sugar to my glass but feared the looks I might get. Which brings me to coffee - I may or may not have a serious addiction to Tim Horton's which unfortunately can not be found in the US.  We finally found some great coffee at a waterfall when we first entered Oregon - and let me tell you, after going 3 days without anything even resembling a decent cup of coffee, angels sang from the sky the second the first sip touched my lips.  I immediately downed the coffee Marc had purchased and bought another one for the road.  We might have to visit this waterfall a few more times while we are here, but with a view like this I doubt that will be a problem.

Next on our list is finding a Dutch Brothers (which the uber helpful ladies at the front desk of our hotel told me is great coffee), or a Dunkin Donuts (that's got to be like Tim Horton's right?), and if all else fails, a Starbucks (I really love Pumpkin Spice Lattes, but Marc hates Starbucks with a passion).  The next few days of our trip are what I am most excited about - the Oregon coast and the Pacific Coast highway.   I'm sure my next blog post will be nothing but pictures!   I am seriously in love with Oregon so far, I can't wait to see what else this beautiful state has to offer!   

Trip 2013: Montana

Our vacation has officially began! If you're been following me on Facebook you know that I'm spending the next week travelling around the North Western US, and the following week on Vancouver Island.

We got a bit of a late start on our way out on Saturday (if you know me personally, this won't surprise you in the least). After some last minute errands, we left home just before lunch.   We went through one of our favourite places, which is Jasper National Park, then continued heading South until we reached our first night's destination which was Fairmont, British Columbia.  Marc is quite the shutterbug so we stopped multiple times along the way and saw some really amazing things.  First we stopped off at Sunwapta Falls (which I will upload a video for as soon as we get to a place with a better wifi signal). 

After that we took in a nice hike around the Columbia Icefield.

 We also stopped by Petyo Lake, and then paid a visit to one of the most breathtaking places I have ever been to in my entire life (Moraine Lake). 

Marc taking it all in at Moriane Lake

We capped off the day with an evening soak at Radium Hot Springs and then finally arrived at Fairmont around 11pm.  Yesterday was an another awesome day. We started off by visiting our second hot spring in less than 10 hours.  We were the first to arrive at Fairmont Hot Springs and nearly had the pool all to our self - it was incredibly luxurious!   After our soak we had a nice breakfast at a cafe with an amazing view of the mountains. 

We then headed to the US border and were on our way!   I was surprised at how easy it was to cross the border into Montana - there was no line-up whatsoever, and the entire process took less than 3 minutes total.   Once in Montana, we went to a cute little vintage style Cafe called "Cafe Jax" which I thought was pretty cool! 

Glacier National Park had some more breathtaking views - the cliffs there are pretty scary and when you are driving the roads are windy and narrow and there are no guard-rails!  I thought that was pretty crazy.  It was kind of scary looking over the edge - but also pretty jaw dropping views.   On this drive we met a really great hippie couple from California - they were on their way to Canada so we traded some advice for each other.  I didn't take very many pictures yesterday, was just busy taking it all in!  Marc took a bunch though, so be sure to check out his blog Nature Heals the Soul for more photo's from our trip!  Well Marc is looking like he is really anxious to get back on the road, so off we go on another adventure...

Apple Chips

Here is this month's recipe as it appears in The Hinton Voice. 

[We are about to come into one of my all time favourite seasons – I’m not talking about fall, although that’s pretty high up on my list too.  I’m talking about apple season!   Crates of freshly picked, crisp, colorful apples line the stands at the Farmer’s Market’s and grocery stores.  Guaranteed around this time of year, I always have at least 10 pounds of apples in my house at any given time.  I pack them in our lunches, cook them into oatmeal, and bake them into oodles of delicious treats.

One of my favourite healthy snacks is apple chips, though I didn’t start making them at home until recently.  Not only are they way cheaper to make at home, they are really easy to make as well!  Slice your apples and bake – that’s pretty much it!  Pure apple goodness – it doesn’t get much better than that!

There are a few tricks to making sure your apples chips turn out nice and crispy:

-       First, slice your apples as thin as you can – too thick of a slice and your apple chips will be more gummy than crisp (which can also be equally as delicious, but that’s not what we’re going for here).  The thinner you slice your apples, the better.

-       Second, make sure that all of your slices are uniform in thickness to promote even cooking.  There’s nothing worse than having a mixture of undercooked/overcooked chips. Also, one slightly thicker apple slice can turn the entire batch of stored apple chips soft if it’s not cooked to the same crispness).  Use a mandolin (a slicer) if you have one, if not use the sharpest knife you can find. 

-       Third, once your apples are done cooking, leave them in the oven as it cools down.  This will help crisp up the apple chips, and as far as I’m concerned, the crisper the chip, the better!]

Recipe makes approximately 4 dozen apple chips

Ingredients

- 2-3 apples, any variety

Optional ingredients

- 1 tbsp lemon juice

- 2 cups filtered water

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp sugar

 Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine water and lemon juice.

Wash apples, and then slice (see tips above) and place them in lemon/water mixture for about 15 minutes.  This will help prevent the apple slices from turning brown.

Strain water and pat apple slices dry.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat) and place apple slices in a single layer, being careful not to overlap.  Sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for 2-3 hours (2 hours for soft apple rings, 3 hours for chips).  Turn oven off and leave apple chips inside for an additional hour.  The apple chips may appear slightly soft when you take them out of the oven, but they will harden up as they continue to cool.  

Store in an airtight container for up to a week, or in the fridge for up to a month.

 - Nutritional Info (1/2 recipe) -

Calories - 80   Fat - 0    Carbs – 22     Protein - 1   Fibre – 5

Salsa Verde: Green Tomatillo Salsa

What a crazy week this has been!  We incorporated a company (as of June Marc is a Journeyman Electrician so he needed to start a business so he can contract himself out).  We also purchased Marc a company truck - as you can see, he is pretty excited about that!  It's been a crazy busy week of meeting with the dealership, lawyers, accountants, banks, insurance brokers, etc. and getting everything lined up  to start the business. 

We've also been getting ready for our trip in two weeks.  We are heading to Seattle for IFBC, my very first blogging conference!  Neither of us have been to the US since we were kids so we are both pretty excited for the trip!   Even though the conference is just for a weekend, we both took 2 weeks off so we could take our time exploring the US on the way there, and visit my family on Vancouver Island the following week before we make our way home.   Needless to say, a lot of exciting things are happening for us right now!  Today I decided to share a recipe I recently fell in love with - tomatillo salsa.  I was first introduced to this type of salsa last year, when a Mexican friend of mine hosted a dinner party before Christmas.  I couldn't get enough of this salsa - it was incredible, especially paired with her homemade tortillas.  
One of my bosses went to Mexico recently and brought me back a tortilla press.  I hit up my friend for some masa harina (corn flour with a hint of lime - perfect for tortilla's) and attempted to make my own version of tomatillo salsa to go along with them.  After a few attempts, I had a winner. 
Ingredients - 1 lb tomatillos - 1/2 jalepeno, deseeded and rinsed - 1/2 medium white onion, chopped - 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped - squeeze of fresh lime juice - 1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves - dash of salt
Directions

Peel tomatillos and rinse - pat dry.  Cut in half and place on a baking sheet (cut side down) with jalepeno.  Broil for about 5 minutes, until tops have turned brown (even black in some spots), like the photo below: 

Blend roasted tomatillos and jalepeno with remaining ingredients until combined. 

Enjoy!

Summer: a visit with our nieces!

The past few weeks our (soon to be) 15 year old niece Gillian was visiting with us.  She lives a 5 hour drive from us so for the past few years she has stayed with us for a week or two in the summer.  

We usually bake something together while she is here, and this time was no exception.  The first evening she was here I was getting this post ready so needless to say she wanted to make cookies.  Instead of chocolate chips, we used Reeses Pieces and Mini Reeses - the results were delicious!     

About a week or so after Gillian arrived, her parents and little sisters Ella (6) and Aline (3) arrived for a visit!  The little girlies loved helping me water my garden while they were here:

We took them for an fun afternoon at our local spray park where they had an absolute blast - especially Ella who laughed with glee every time the water splashed her! 

On one of her last nights here we had a crazy downpour of rain.  It came down hard and fast, and in less than an hour we had just under 50 mm.  As you can see, the street outside our house flooded like crazy.

We made the most of the rain and all piled into the car and drove through puddles for a bit - good times all around! 

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far!  It's hard to believe it's coming to a close soon - I'll be loving each and every moment leading up until the very last day!  

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is my August recipe for The Hinton Voice.

[Ok, so these cookies are amazing.  They are literally the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had in my life (sorry Gramma, if you are reading this - your Ginger Sparklers are still my #1).   These cookies do what a good chocolate chip cookie should - they stay soft for days after you bake them – if they last that long that is.

I've seen “secret ingredient” (aka pudding mix) cookie recipes floating around for some time now.  Each claims to be the best cookie ever, but that's a pretty bold statement to make.  Now, having tried incorporating vanilla pudding into my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe, I know it truly is a star.  The second the pudding mix hit the cookie dough batter, something magical happened. The delicious smell that wafted through my kitchen was simply incredible.  Not that I tried copious amounts of dough or anything (ok, so I might have), but it tasted just like birthday cake batter – likely due to all the vanilla goodness.

When I took the cookies out of the oven I was initially met with skepticism.  They were really puffy and just didn't quite look like they had finished baking.  Having burned cookies before after making this assumption, I took the pan out of the oven anyway and thought I would see what happens.  Sure enough, as soon as they cooled they were the perfect shape and consistency!  In fact, I had a really hard time keeping my husband away from these cookies long enough so that I could take a picture of them.] 

Recipe makes 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

¾ cup golden brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1-2 tsp vanilla extract)

1-3.4 oz package vanilla pudding mix

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp coarsely ground sea salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1-2 good quality chocolate bars (my favorite is Lindt)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Fold in eggs and vanilla until well incorporated.  Mix in vanilla pudding mix (be prepared for your kitchen to start smelling like heaven at this point).

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Coarsely chop chocolate bars and add to batter along with chocolate chips.  Mix until just incorporated.

Drop cookies by heaping spoonful onto baking sheet (12 cookies per pan fits perfectly).  For more uniform looking cookies, roll dough into a ball first.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly browned.  Cookies will look quite soft but they will firm up as they cool.

Allow cookies to cool on pan until slightly firm (about 5 minutes), then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. 

Enjoy!

 - Nutritional Info (per cookie) -

Calories - 97   Fat - 6    Carbs – 10     Protein - 1   Fibre – 1

Raspberry Overnight Oatmeal

I absolutely adore steel cut oats, and they are by far my favourite breakfast food.  They pack a ton of nutrients and to be honest, they just taste really darn good.  I truly feel like I'm eating dessert every time I'm eating this, which I love considering it's so healthy. 

Steel cut oats take on the flavour of whatever you serve them with, making them extremely versatile. Another recipe I love using steel cut oats (and also the most popular post on this blog to date) is the very first recipe I posted, Apple Pie Breakfast.  

I love that after assembling a few basic ingredients in your slow cooker right before bed, you'll wake up to a delicious smelling house and a tasty, nutritious, already-made-for-you breakfast.  

This recipe keeps really well in the fridge, and re-heats fairly decent making it an ideal breakfast for busy mornings. 

Ingredients - 3 cups water - 1 cup raspberry juice - 1 cup steel cut oats - 1/8 tsp sea salt - 1 tsp coconut oil - 1 cup raspberries - 1/4 cup brown sugar Directions
For best results: combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook for 2-4 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low until it reaches the consistency that you like. Be sure to stir every hour or so if possible (you can also cook longer without stirring, just add an extra cup of liquid to the ingredients). 

Stovetop Directions Bring water and raspberry juice to a rapid boil.   Stir in oats, salt, and coconut oil - cook 2-3 minutes stirring frequently.   Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.   Stir in brown sugar and raspberries, cooking for an additional 15 minutes.   Remove from heat and let stand a few minutes before serving.  Sprinkle with brown sugar to taste.
Enjoy!