Awesome Lunch & Artistic Coffees

On Saturday, my dad and I had a day out that started with some excellent wildlife photo ops at a location out on the Kootenay Pass where volunteers from two local wildlife associations feed a herd of big horn sheep. The purpose of the program and the feeding is to keep the sheep off the highway so there aren't any accidents that can kill or seriously harm both sheep and humans. The sheep were very placid and allowed me to take photos with no problem, and I also got a Telegraph article out of it, so if you want to read more about this unique opportunity, you can go here. I have a full Flickr set with all the big horn sheep photos here.

After that, Dad and I went to Nelson to do some grocery shopping, something we do very regularly, and we always have lunch! We had wanted to go to The Preserved Seed, but they are closed on the weekends, which we were very disappointed about. So, we opted instead to go to Max & Irma's (previously blogged about here) where we had a lovely lunch.

I had the Pollo Calzone, which had in it chicken, sauteed onions, artichoke hearts, and three cheeses. The crust was perfect and spectacular! I complimented the chef on my way out because it was so fabulous!

My dad had the Santa Fe melt, on multigrain bread. The bread was homemade. Not sure what was on the melt other than chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Dad said it was excellent. Both meals came with a fresh house salad and Dad's came with a side of tortilla chips.

Max & Irma's always has really great homemade desserts, but we were both full, so we didn't have any. Great meal!

On Valentine's Day, my brother Jem came up to town and we went for coffee at a local shop called the Alpine Grind. I had to take a picture of these very lovely drinks they made with the decorative tops. Beautiful! The one on the bottom, the darker one, was my mocha, and the other one was a vanilla latté, which my brother claims is the best in town. It was a crummy day weather-wise up here on Monday, so a big hot drink was just perfect.

Magazine Monday #66: Brown Sugar & Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Maple Espresso Glaze

So, I was invited to a friend's for dinner last week, and I offered to bring dessert. I have a ton of rhubarb in the freezer, but my friend's husband is not a fan. Plan B involved blueberries, but that was a no-no, too. Plan C kinda fell into my lap during a ransacking of my recipe binder. I just happened upon this recipe from the October 2007 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine, and I had all the ingredients on hand.

This is one frakking fantastic cake, people! It was a huge hit at dinner, and I had some left over to munch on when the urge arose. And arise it did. This makes one awesome midnight snack, I can tell you for sure.

The recipe is here.

I used dark brown sugar, not the golden kind. I actually prefer the darker sugar because it has more flavour and it's a little richer. I really think it makes a difference in the taste & texture of my baking.

When I made the glaze, at my friend's house, I added too much liquid, and it came out more as a sauce. I was totally OK with that and so was everyone else!

Definitely a keeper recipe that I think I'll go back to time & again!

Magazine Monday #26: Coffee Crunch Squares

I don't drink coffee, but I do enjoy baking, sweets, and drinks that are flavoured with coffee, and when I saw this recipe in the Feb. 2009 issue of Bon Appetit (my last issue, as I've decided to let this subscription go - at least for now), it really appealed to me. I also had all of the ingredients on hand and it looked simple enough.

And it was. The recipe is here.

I didn't pat this into at 12" square on a rimmed baking sheet, as the recipe indicates; I pressed the dough into a 9x13" baking pan and baked it for about 40 minutes. My dough also didn't come together very well, so I added some vanilla to bind it and this worked fine.

The result: very strong coffee flavour, but very good. Although I didn't do this, I think these would be wonderful served warm with some vanilla ice cream.

This recipe is a keeper!