Spicy Potato and Lentil Soup

January 30, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

Okay, so you know how a few posts ago I said that my borscht was the cheapest thing I’ve ever made? Well I lied. Poor Mr. Borscht didn’t hold his title for very long, and this new soup quickly edged it out in both taste and price. While I could go on and on about how great this soup was, I think I’ll condense my admiration down to four main points *ahem*:

1. It was SO fast to make. Since I’m apparently never home for dinner anymore, I decided to make this soup at 9:15 a.m. Yes, I had soup for breakfast, don’t judge me. I had to be at school that day for 10:45, so let this tight schedule attest for how quickly this soup cooked itself up.

2. I’m not really a fan of chopping things, so I was relieved when this soup only required two potatoes, a celery stalk, and an onion to be chopped. BUT HOLY, on that note, I cut up the most potent onion ever!!!!! Seriously, I was crying like a teenage girl listening to Taylor Swift. I wiped my eyes on my shirt so many times that my sleeve was partially drenched by the time I was finished cooking. I need a set of these!

3. This soup just confirmed that my taste buds are way more high maintenance than in my “I’m just going to eat plain rice for supper” days (aka last year). I was not at all happy with how little cumin and cayenne pepper that the original recipe requested, so I simply added a teaspoon more of the cumin, and about ten pinches of cayenne pepper (versus the original single pinch requested). Mmmmm, that spice, combined with the explosion of fresh parsley, made my life. Also, for anyone that is stuffed up or sniffly from a winter cold, this soup is so spicy it is sure to clear your sinuses! Who needs cold fx, right?

4. Last but not least this soup was, of course, cheap. I calculated my total cost per serving to be about 80 cents a bowl. Stellar!!

Recipe: Canadian Living (with a few spicy adaptations by yours truly).

The Ottawa Cupcake Challenge

January 29, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

Dear world:

A few weeks ago I was asked by Jessey to be a guest blogger for Local Tourist Ottawa, a cool blog that her and her friend Amy started a while back. The idea behind the blog is great: it’s all about people sharing what they love about Ottawa and encouraging others to discover more about the city they live in (what fun is a city to live in if you can’t explore it, after all?). When I saw that Jes wanted me to be a guest blog, I was out-of-my-mind excited. Maybe this is a good time to say this: I have absolutely NO idea how/why people are still reading my blog or how I am suddenly a legit blogger. People I don’t know comment on my posts, link to me off of their blogs, and everything! Anyways, it’s mind boggling, and I’m so honoured and happy that people seem to like what I do. So everyone, thank you so much for giving me even more validation to do what I love. It’s really just so lovely.

Buuuuuut back to me guest blogging. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to write about at first, until one day it hit me:

I am going to find Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

With that thought firmly planted in my mind, and I pitched the idea to Jes who (thank heavens) loved it.

So here is a shameless plug. Please, please, please read my posts on Local Tourist Ottawa, as I sacrifice my dental health and well being for a delicious mission. Here’s the link to the intro post I’ve already written, outlining the technicalities of my adventure. I plan on trying/blogging about at least one cupcake a week, so please keep checking back for updates. I’ve already got a list of more than a dozen bakeries/cupcakes to try (so many people commented on my intro post/tweeted at me suggesting places!), so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Keep calm and have a cupcake — A notepad appropriate of such a mission. Thanks mom!

Cookies and Creme Cupcakes with Oreo Cream Cheese Icing

January 28, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 5 Comments

I made these cupcakes late last week in preparation for a field trip I was taking on the weekend with my roommate Britt. She, and the rest of the Carleton varsity nordic ski team, happened to be competing in North Bay this past weekend. North Bay just happens to be a hop, skip and a jump away from my hometown of Sudbury, so I decided to take a little break from the madness of Ottawa and have a weekend breather at home.

Since I was bumming a ride off a bunch of athletes, I wanted to do something to earn their acceptance. And of course, everyone loves cupcakes. So, I set out across the Internet to find the most delicious looking cupcake recipe that I could. I found the recipe for these ones on my favourite food blog, Annie’s Eats.

Get this – there was half an Oreo at the bottom of every one of these cupcakes (see picture below!), making the first bite a sweet surprise. Then there were chunks of oreos chopped into the cupcake batter. To top it off was a decadent cream cheese icing with crushed oreo crumbs and a cookie garnish. I think I bought out the grocery store’s entire supply of oreos in preparation to make these, but it was totally worth it. Also, making these cupcakes reminded me of how miserable I am at icing things. Since proper piping bags aren’t really in my student budget (although I have managed to snag some of Britt’s in the past), I was using a floppy Ziploc bag with a hole cut in the corner. Even though the cupcakes looked nice, I ended up with half the frosting all over my hands, in my hair, on my apron……..

Oreo cupcakes2 — The fancy schmancy Oreo base

While I modeled the food (aka ate part of the cupcake so a picture could be taken of the inside), Britt got her camera out on the bus. After some shaky pictures taken while travelling down a bumpy northern Ontario highway, we decided to wait until we got to North Bay before having a full fledged photo shoot with these cupcakes. And then, I shared with the team, and earned their acceptance, one cookie-filled bite at a time.

Oreo cupcakes4 — Have cupcakes, will travel.

Note: All these pictures were taken by my talented roommate Brittany.

Good Luck in Denmark Emily!

January 26, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 2 Comments

My goodness, every other post these days is featuring a card that I’ve made. It seems like January is the month of birthday celebrations and departures, the most recent of which is my friend Emily who left for a six month Danish adventure this past Monday. I’m really sad. Emily’s exchange means that I am now the only Carleton j-school student left on this continent with a famous name (that’s right, Emily’s last name just happens to be Dickinson). I know this post is a bit delayed Em, but I wish you the best of luck in Aarhus and hopefully I’ll be there to visit sometime this summer!

Also, follow Emily’s blog for updates on her European adventure!

Apparently I was channeling the “tacky Danish tourist” for this card, my bad.

Festive Fruitcake Cookies à la Pioneer Woman Cooks

January 23, 2011December 31, 2011 ~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

Okay, so maybe these aren’t that festive anymore since it’s now January, but shush.

So I know it must seem that all I’ve been doing lately is baking. This is, in part true, but only because I haven’t had much time to eat anything but my copious amounts of reheated, leftover soup. To add to my massive amounts of baking, I present to you these fruitcake cookies. After I made my dad’s fruitcake back in December, I was left with several bags of leftover gooey fruit and peel. In a stroke of genius, my roommate Britt came across this recipe for fruitcake cookies on one of our favourite blogs, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. When we measured out my leftovers ingredients, I had EXACTLY the right amount of fruit. It was like the fates wanted me to make these cookies and really, who am I to deny the foodie gods anyways?

Now, these are technically called cookies, but they’re really more of mini whoopie-pie-like cakes. I didn’t actually like the fruitcake that I made for my dad (although he loved it!), so I was a little skeptical as to how these were going to turn out. In the end, they wound up being fantastic and, although not for everyone I’ll admit, had a hearty taste and a chewy softness that made me super happy. Also, there was a cup of brandy/whiskey in these babies, which absorbed quite nicely into the fruit…