Home is Where the Spa Is.

I love a spa.

I also love a good manicure, pedicure, body buff and facial.
Also candlelight.
Calming music.
Essential oils (geranium and lavender - yum!).
Fluffy towels.
Bubble bath.
A good book.
My nightie.
And space...

Five Steps to a Perfect Day Spa - without leaving home!


1. Take the space:
I chose my bedroom and bathroom to turn into a private sanctuary for one afternoon. 

Tidy up. Clear out the clutter. Close the blinds. Turn off the phone. Shut the door on the outer world and say hello to your inner world. Light a candle. The world can spare you for one afternoon. Hello.

Hello, inner world.

2. Pick a theme:
Choose a contemplative theme - and transform your space (in my case the edge of the tub) with beautiful objects you love to look at. The kind that make your eyes happy just to land on them. Add something to symbolize your theme.

Imagine Peace

3. Create the atmosphere:
Treat all your senses - sight, sound, smell. Select your favourite bubble bath or essential oils. Find some calming music, load it onto your iPad, iPod, or stereo. Let the music take you inward as you relax. Listen. You'll hear something remarkable. You.

I hear you. 

4. Assemble your supplies:
Check that you have everything you might need handy, so that you have no reason to break the spa-spell.  Fluffy towels. Check. Tea. Check. Manicure set. Check. Two uninterrupted hours. Check. Fluffy robe. Check. Favourite colour of nail polish. Check. Fluffy little cotton balls. Check. Book. (Checkbook not needed - you're home! It's free!)

Manicure-in-a-basket. Magic.

5. Indulge.
Thoroughly. Slowly. Completely. And don't emerge until you're done. See you in two hours. Maybe three.

See you later. Much later.

Bread and Jam - er, Clams.

In most excellent news, The Preserving Kettle canning classes are continuing throughout spring, summer and fall (YES!) so I will be bringing you ongoing blogs about jam, jellies and a host of preserving possibilities. It's a tough job, I know. But I'm willing. Such a trooper.  You could say I've got jam.

In the meantime, I promised to blog a bit about bread. I posted one of my favourite quick bread recipes as the ROM for March, and promise to post my best-ever French bread recipe, as an homage to my infatuation with all things francaise. HOWEVER.

captivating Calabrese!

Let me startle and amaze you by recommending a store-bought loaf. Yes, I did say store-bought. This is beautiful crispy-on-the-outside, soft-and-tender-on-the-inside Calabrese white from the local Save-On Foods. Yum. I served it alongside a platter of steamed clams that four of us DEMOLISHED as an appetizer. Sadly, not a clam left standing.

Steamed Clams* (legs hidden) with Chorizo 

The Calabrese was the perfect dipping bread - spongy enough to suck up all that delicious wine-infused clam broth and strong enough to do the job. Incidentally, one of the best recipes for steamed clams EVAH, courtesy of the fine chefs at Northview Golf and Country Club in Surrey BC. If I share it with you I will have to kill you.

(No, seriously - I will be posting it in April - this one definitely deserves Recipe-of-the-Month status).



*My family has an ongoing joke about clams, provoked by Johnny Hart's series of BC cartoons about clams published in the seventies. Still can't talk about them, serve them, dig them or think about them without chuckling. Enjoy!

Marvellous Marmalade: A Cure for the Winter Blues

Yes, I know I promised that I would blog about bread - and I have (in a way) - by posting Aunty O'Valerie's Irish Soda Bread recipe as the Recipe of the Month. Which is soooo totally appropriate for March -  yes?

Agreed, then. BUT. Just one thing.

Before we get to blogging about bread there is a foundation that needs to be put in place.

Yes. Jam.

That's what I'm saying. We can't even begin to talk about bread without jamming about jam. (Well, marmalade to be precise!) For, after all, what is bread without jam? Nekkid. That's what. Of course there is BUTTER. (Thanks for pointing that out.) And it is true that I could easily devote an entire post to the virtues of butter, but for now it is jam that will carry the day.

Last week, I attended a marmalade-making class. Seriously. Can you imagine my happiness when I received a flyer from the local Community Kitchens coordinator (none other than my dear friend, Cie, she of previous blog posts about brunch) promoting local preserving workshops? What luck!

Cie, along with the amazing Kathy Marven (a marvel) of de la Bouche Specialty Foods have teamed up to offer three canning workshops this spring: Marmalade, Winter Chutnies, and Spring Jams. My oh my. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I'm signed up for all three. Apron and camera in tow.

The class was one of the best things I've done all year. Cie and Kathy talked about the history of marmalade and the Seville orange trade - (Sevilles in season now, btw) and then Kathy demonstrated the method and technique of making a sparklingly beautiful Pink Grapefruit Marmalade. 

Outside, it was a filthy night. Inside, we snugly circled the demo table while the preserving kettle bubbled away on the community stove and the tang of citrus stung the air. We passed around odd-looking peeling and preserving tools, taste-tested oranges and lemons and conspiratorially swapped favourite canning stories as though trading national secrets.

We finished with the Great Marmalade Taste-Off. We compared the evening's batch with two or three of Kathy's other specialties and a couple of store-bought brands. Hands-down winner? You guessed it.

And we each went home, fully contented, with our own jar.  A perfect pink cure for the winter blues.

Next up? Toast and jam. In my jammies.


To find out more about Community Kitchens, click on the link.


de la Bouche Specialty Foods can be found at the Haney Farmer's Market (May-October) or via email: delabouche@telus.net

Seville Oranges are VERY SOUR.

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Recipe of the Month - February

This was the February Recipe of the Month which I will leave posted here for  a couple of days, and then it can be found under ROM in the tag cloud. In March, we'll celebrate bread...oh, yes!

Contented in the kitchen.

BROWN SUGAR AND YOGURT PANNA COTTA

This is one of my company faves. Easy to make and it has to be made early in order to set, so dessert is out of the way even before you start on any other dinner party details, and it never fails!

As Karen Barnaby says, who published this recipe in the Vancouver Sun, it doesn't require a lot of precise mixing, measuring or icing. I use almost any kind of fresh berry to garnish this with - and peaches are awesome, too - and I always drizzle a little balsamic reduction over the fresh fruit. It is light, creamy and a perfect ending to any dinner. And, yes, since you asked - I have been known to have it leftover for breakfast!

4 tablespoons (60 mL) water

21/2 teaspoons (12 mL) gelatin

11/2 cups (375 mL) whipping cream

1/2 cup (125 mL) brown sugar

11/2 cups (375 mL) plain yogurt

1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract

1 pint (500 mL) fresh sliced strawberries or other fruit for garnishing

Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let stand until softened.

Combine the cream and brown sugar in a large pot to prevent boiling over pot. Bring to a boil, add the gelatin and remove from the heat. Stir until the gelatin dissolves. Place the yogurt and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk in the cream mixture.

Pour evenly into 6, 4 to 5 ounce ramekins, dessert dishes or wine glasses. Place in the fridge and chill until set, approximately 4 hours. To serve if using the ramekins, place the ramekins in hot water for 30 seconds. Run a very thin knife around the inside of each and place a plate over the top. Turn upside down and vigorously shake the ramekin while holding the plate securely. The panna cotta will fall out on to the plate. (I rarely do this, I usually just serve it in the ramekin, fruit and balsamic on top, with a nice shiny spoon!) If you're using a wine glass or dessert dishes you don't have to remove the panna cotta. Garnish with the fruit.

Makes 6 servings

No pictures of this one, so you'll just have to imagine it, but imagine it DELICIOUS.

(PS - I think it looks like Mother and Jane are making panna cotta in the illustration. Bake, Jane, bake.)