I am so excited that I am preparing for the trip a little more than I would any other trip. I really can’t explain why, I’m just doing things a little differently than what I would usually do before a trip. For example I got my “salsa” pants hemmed which cost me more than buying another pair of pants but I really want to wear them since I’ve only ever worn them once because they were too long and I kept stepping on them.  I went tanning… Yes… I went indoor tanning… and after you stop laughing I can tell you about it.   Winter really makes my skin look pasty and I thought, since I will be salsa dancing, I would like to look sun-kissed. There’s a place in Winnipeg called Body Shades that has a great selection of tanning lotions and tanning beds, for my first time I used the Entropy unit that gives you “6x the results”… to tell you the truth I did spend a little more than I wanted to because I did buy lotion and even tattoo protecting balm.  but it really was worth it. I actually did see the results after only 7 minutes. I think I may go again before I leave on Tuesday, I do have a pedicure and manicure there on Monday so I may have to take advantage of another session of tanning.  Other than that, I just have to pack and get ready for 4 nights of dancing and 2 days of workshops in beautiful BC.  Will keep you posted on my activities!

I recently went for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and had their “Vietnamese Coffee”, they serve it in a tall glass with condensed milk at the bottom. You get to mix it up and even add more hot water to it if you find it too strong but I thought it was perfect the way it is. The sweetness of the condensed milk mixed with the bitterness of the coffee really worked well, and I thourougly enjoyed it!

My dad used to love his coffee black, and he’s the one who introduced me to cappuccinos. I took great pleasure in preparing his coffee for him whenever he drank it. It really wasn’t a daily ritual by all means, and we never had a coffee maker at home (that I can remember anyway) but I do remember a stove-top espresso maker and the good ole instant coffee and whenever he drank it, which was only once in a while and usually in the afternoon I really liked fixing it for him.

Anyway, I’m getting a little off topic here. My point was that, after having that Vietnamese coffee, I realized how the North American coffee “culture” is really not a culture at all… you go to a coffee shop, ask for an overpriced, over-roasted, fast-food-ized latte and then you’re on your way. Whatever happened to sitting down with a book, a newspaper or a good friend and just savoring the taste and the moment that should come with a cup of coffee?  In the fast-paced “go-go-go” society that we live in now, I think that, if you do happen to drink coffee, you should do it slowly and enjoy it… not just mindlessly chug it down…  So, if you just so happen to have the time and the inclination to do something an itsy bitsy bit different with your coffee, here are a couple of good ideas from all over the world:

Vietnam (can be hot or iced)
Dark roast coffee, finely ground and individually brewed in a small metal drip filter. If you don’t have an indivudual drip filter you can just brew a strong cup of dark roast coffee in your regular coffee maker. 
Pour the coffee into a cup with a quarter to half as much condensed milk as coffee (depending on your taste) mix and enjoy. If you like it iced, just pour over ice.

Café Cubano
Another type of espresso coffee. It’s an espresso shot sweetened with demerara sugar as it’s brewed. Add the sugar to the container into which the coffee will drip.
You can have this coffee “cortadito”, which means small cut, by topping it off with steamed milk. Or as café con leche or cofee with milk, served alongside a cup of hot or steamed milk.

Italian Coffee
Now, Italians take their coffee quite seriously. And they have some variations on serving it. The main Caffe is really an espresso, a small cup of very strong coffee, topped with a caramel coloured foam called crema. My personal favourite, of course, is the cappuccino. Cappucino is a shot of espresso with 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 foam, I like to top mine off with cinnamon.

French Coffee
Using a french press of course! The coffee is ground a little coarser so it won’t seep through the press strainer. Use two level teaspoons for six ounces of water, pour just enough water over grounds to wet them. Fresh coffee will expand as gas escapes. Pour remaining water and stir. Place the plunger over the press to keep the heat in but don’t press down. Let the coffee brew for 3-4 minutes and then push the plunger down slowly. Pour and drink.

Brazil
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Woman on Top” you may have been curious as to what Penelope Cruz did to the coffee to have the aroma travel as far as it did… It looks like she added cinnamon to it.  Here’s the closest recipe I found to what she was making:
1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick), condensed milk, 5 cups water, 1 1/3 cups strong coffee.
In a saucepan combine cocoa, cinnamon and salt. Add condensed milk and mix well. Over medium heat stir in water and coffee and heat thorougly but DO NOT boil. Strain and serve.   

Mexico
1/2 cup ground coffee, 1/3 cup chocolate syrup, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 cup milk, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp vanilla.
Combine coffee, cinnamon and nutmeg and brew in coffee maker.
In small saucepan heat brown sugar, syrup and milk. Stir until sugar is melted. Pour sugar mixture into hot coffee and add vanilla. Listo!

Café de Olla (Mexico)
In El Salvador we drink “Café de Olla” (Pot coffee) a lot. Even though it originated in Mexico, I like to call it our own.
8 cups of water, 1/2 cup coffee, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 whole cloves, 1 square semi sweet coffee.
Boil water in saucepan, add cinnamon, cloves, sugar and chocolate. Bring to a boil and skim off foam. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add coffee. Steep for 5 minutes and serve.

Now, there are myriad of ways to prepare coffee, Ethiopia, Morocco, Great Britain, all have their own rituals or ways to prepare coffee that are interesting. You can add a shot of whisky here, a dash of Kalhua there, but the ones I’ve listed above are my favourites. Do you have any new recipes for coffee? I’d really love to try them!

Now that it’s January, a new year, I’ve had a chance to cook and bake a couple of times. Seeing as today is the Epiphany, January 6th, I made a traditional “Rosca de Reyes”, which translates as “Spiral of Kings”.  When I lived in Mexico as a child I remember very well going to the neighborhood party on January 6th, Dia de Reyes, (Day of the Kings) and having a piece of bread. The tradition is that everyone gets a slice of bread, and whoever gets the little plastic figurine of the baby Jesus (yup, there’s a little figurine baked in each bread)  has the honour of having a party and making the tamales for February 2nd which is Dia de la Candelaria.  Every kid wanted to get it, I know my parents were not very keen on the idea of making tamales for the whole neighbourhood, and, now that I think about it, in the whole 5 years that we lived in Mexico we never had the honour of getting the little figurine.

Anyway, in the tradition of holiday nostalgia I really wanted to make one… Now, aside from the fact that I used whole wheat flour, hence, making it very dense to eat, it turned out very good. So, here’s my version of a traditional Rosca de Reyes.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup warm water
1 packet of yeast
4 cups flour (2 cups whole wheat, 2 cups white)
4 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp anise seed
4 tsp vanilla extract
a small figurine (optional)
Candied fruit (I couldn’t find a lot of fruit so I used candied pineapple, figs*,  maraschino cherries, mangoes and apricots)
Maraschino cherry juice

Preparation:
Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast water, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, cinnamon, anise seed and vanilla extract. Mix until a dough forms and knead for approx. 5 minutes, then cover and let rise in a warm area until dough is doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Punch dough down and shape into a wreath by rolling it into a log shape and then bending the ends around to form a circle. It should be about 12-14 inches in diameter. If you are using a toy you can insert it by pushing it up through the bottom. Smooth out any lump or tears.

Preheat oven to 350 Celsius.

Add the fruit by laying it out across the top and pressing it in slightly. Let it rise until doubled. Brush top with the cherry juice (or spoon it on top) and bake for approx. 45 mins. 

Ready to Bake

And there you have it, let it cool slightly before serving. It’s a delicious accompaniment for tea or coffee or, of course, chocolate caliente.  I personally really enjoyed it both with a cup of my favourite tea and with a cafe con leche. I did make a couple of substitutions and additions (ie. the cherry juice) but it turned out very well.

Enjoy the delicious Rosca de Reyes!

Ready to Serve! Yumm!

It’s great to feel like I’m making progress with my injury, I can feel that the pain, if any, is merely muscular and nothing that a bit of Tiger Balm won’t help with if needed. I was a little more adventurous today and did the Turbo Jam Cardio Party Remix this morning! A 30 minute cardio workout with some jumping involved. I live on a 3rd floor and sometimes I’m afraid that the neighbors below me will knock on my door and tell me to keep it down but maybe I’m not as noisy as I think I am, I have no rugs or carpet so I try to tread softly and working out barefoot is not so good for shock absorption in your joints so, while wearing runners, I jump as quietly as I can. It’s easier than it seems actually!

Now, if I can only keep my diet as clean as I’d like. It’s helpful to make your own meals, and while my sister is visiting I’m trying to keep our at-home meals as clean and natural as possible, but when we’re out and about it’s a little harder to do. At work today we have our Thanksgiving Lunch so I’m assuming there’ll be turkey with all the trimmings. That’s all a bit heavy (and I have no idea how they expect everyone to get back to work after that!) so I’ll check out the food before I make a decision. Turkey’s not bad as long as it’s without the skin so sticking to white meat is the best, however, white meat is usually dry and gravy will just undo all the careful planning so tread carefully! A little indulgence once in a while is good but this Thanksgiving weekend will bring a lot of meals like that so try to moderate yourself. If you really love your mom’s pumpking pie then refrain from eating all the other pies and desserts that may be available and save yourself for that delicious treat that you’ve most likely earned! I always like to think about the positive instead of the negative as well so instead of saying “I can’t eat that” or feeling like you’re depriving yourself try to think about the positive and say “I’d rather eat this…”, “this is so much better for me” and think about the hard work you put into your workout and how you feel when those pants you couldn’t fit into finally button up and look great! Also, keep writing everything down in your food journal, you’re less likely to deviate from the plan if you know you’ll be recording everything you put in your mouth into your journal. I think the best rule of thumb is always KEEP IT CLEAN!

Good Luck!

Quote Today:
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy”

Woke up with a bit of pain this morning, just stiffness but it was still hard to move. I did a 35 minute DVD – Chalene Johnsons’s Turbo Jam 3T’s, a strength workout using resistance bands, it was exactly what I needed to get me up and going in the morning. Just enough strength to workout but not strenuous. It may be harder for me to get my workout in when my sister is visiting but I’ll aim to still do my 30 minute elliptical training after work, now that I started moving I don’t want to stop. My goal is to be ok to do the workshops at the fitness conference on the 17th, I think that with the athletic therapy, chiropractic and massage I should be able to participate. Hey, no one ever succeeded by taking the “safe” and easy route right? I know that as long as I’m taking care of myself, taking the necessary rest and not overdoing it by overtraining I will heal and still be able to workout. So far I’ve been able to function without painkillers in the last 4 or 5 days so I know the pain is minimal to non-existant. And that’s the way I like it!

Meanwhile I am preparing for my sister’s visit. Gives me a chance to cook for real! Living on my own doesn’t give me the inspiration to make complex dishes and I usually stick to easy peasy meals, but with her coming I’ve already started on the empanadas which were a special request and the chicken that I’m making for panes con pavo (it’s only two of us so I’m making chicken instead of turkey. We’re don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but we’ll be doing a small dinner anyway since she will be here for a few days.  Looking forward to a lovely meal with her!

Because it’s so hard for me to stay away from potato chips now that I’ve opened the vortex, I will post the updates of my “detox” on my blog. I started by writing DAY 1 on the little blackboard in my kitchen and I will stay on track by being accountable. Not sure if this will work for potato chips (and french fries for that matter) but it’s worth a shot! When I start training again it will be easier to stay away from junk but meanwhile all I have is my will power.

Fall is my favourite season. Sandwiched between extreme hot and extreme cold it makes a nice transition to enjoy the outdoors, the changing of the leaves and the cool weather. Taking a brisk walk mid afternoon and hearing the crunching of the leaves under your feet is very calming to me. I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t enjoy the perfect weather for jogging because my injury is still healing but it doesn’t stop me from taking lovely walks. One think I will say, Canada has perfect autumns! My iphone pictures don’t do the colours justice.

Behind the Winnipeg Legislative

Bears and leaves

Quote today:
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf’s a flower.”
–Albert Camus

This recipe is adapted from the Hungry Girl newsletter. I really love her stuff but I don’t like the fact that a lot of the ingredients she uses are terribly processed, and as far from “natural” that you can get. I am also not a fan of consuming aspartame or Splenda, you just never know, you know?  So here is the recipe with some minor modifications:

Chocolate Lava Cakes
(makes 4) 

For Filling
1/4 c. sugar free chocolate pudding (approx. one snack cup)
1/2 tbsp mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. light or fat free liquid creamer
1/2 tsp. light whipped butter or margarine (like Becel)

Place chocolate chips in a glass (I used my glass measuring cup) and set aside. Pour the creamer in a microwave safe bowl with the butter and heat in the microwave for about 15 seconds until butter has melted and mixture is very hot.  Pour the mixture over the chocolate chips and stir until the chips dissolve. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and then add the pudding and stir well. Spoon the mixture into four evenly spaced mounds on a plate and freeze for about 25 minutes until they’ve firmed up a bit.

For Cake
1 cup moist-style devil’s food cake.
1 tbsp baking cocoa
1/4 cup fat free liquid egg
1 tbsp. mini-semi sweet chocolate chips
2 dashes salt

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place chocolate chips and cocoa in a small heat resistance bowl. Add 1/4 cup boiling water and stir well until chips and cocoa have dissolved. Add 1/2 cup cold water and stir well.
Pour the cocoa mixture into a mixing bowl. Add cake mix, egg substitute and salt to the mixing bowl and whip with a whisk or fork for about 2 minutes. Please note that the batter will be quite thin.

Once the pudding mounds in the freezer are a bit firm, spray four baking ramekins (approx. 4 inches in diameter) with a little bit of vegetable oil. Evenly spoon the cake batter into the ramekins. Remove chocolate mounds from the freezer and place one in the centre of each batter-filled ramekin. If the mounds are frozen to the plate, use a sharp knife to “scrape” them off.  Put the ramekins in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cakes will look shiny when done.

cakes before going into oven

Carefully remove the ramekins from the oven. You can eat the cake right out of the ramekin (but make sure you let it cool a little bit because it will be very hot), or wait until it has cooled completely and plate the cake by running a knife along the edges and flipping it upside down. Pop it in the microwave for about 15 seconds to heat it back up before serving. 

Personal notes: 
Like I mentioned, I adapted this recipe from the Hungry Girl. I only made little modifications, like using plain cocoa instead of a packet of diet cocoa mix because I don’t like the aspartame in it, nor did I use the sprinkle of granulated Splenda in the batter because I found the cake sweet enough as it was (and because I don’t like using Splenda anyway). I was going to use egg whites instead of the  liquid egg but I actually forgot. I will definitely try it with egg whites next time I make them, you never know if something turns out until you try.
Anywho, I’ve made these 3 times this week for 3 different occasions and all three times I got rave reviews, the best one was from my friend’s husband (who stays away from anything fat-free btw!) who said that just adding a scoop of icecream and you could sell these at any restaurant… now that’s a compliment if I ever heard one!  So there you go, delicious lava cakes at at least half the calories of any of the cakes you can get in a restaurant. I tell you, you won’t be dissapointed!

In searching the world of empandas I found that El Salvador has a very unique kind. Firstly, they are not made of any kind of flour, but the shell is actually made of plantain, and second, they are not tradionally filled with any kind of meat!  If you are fortunate enough to try an authentic Salvadorean empanada, IN El Salvador of course, you will know what I’m talking about regarding their unique-ness…. I found the following recipe in a cookbook called “Comida Tipica” (literal translation is “Typical Food” but it means “Traditional Food”) by Vilma de Escobar, who is famous in El Salvador for making our traditional dishes and writing cookbooks that are easy to follow. So, I thought this would be the best recipe to try and to post… Also, our empanadas are fried, in trying to make a healthy version I baked them with great results. Here we go:

Empanadas (makes 20-24 empanadas)
6-10 Ripe plantains (enough to get 3 cups of paste, see notes)
Custard (recipe follows)
Oil in a spray pump (you can use non-fat cooking spray but not the same results)
1/4 c. granulated sugar

In a large soup pot boil the whole plantain (peel and all) with water until soft. Once boiled (handle with care, they are extremely hot!) peel the plantains  and run them through the food processor, (I used a potato masher and did it by hand. I would suggest the food processor method for a smoother paste). 

mashed plantain

Once the plantains are mashed and free of lumps place in a large bowl and refrigerate the paste until completely cooled (approx. 1 hour).  Once cooled, knead the “dough”. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Form small sized balls (approx. 1 to 1 1/2 in.) for each empanada and make a round by placing the ball between 2 sheets of wax paper or plastic and flattening with the bottom of a plate or bowl or using a tortilla maker.

round with filling

Put a tsp of custard in the middle and close the round to make a half moon, pinching the ends together. You may get some of the custard oozing out, it’s ok. You can play around with the amount of filling to your taste.
Place the empanadas on a cookie sheet lightly sprayed with oil. Lighly spray the empanada with oil as well.
Baked in the preheated oven for 15 minutes on one side, turn them over and bake 10 minutes on the other side.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar and serve.

Custard
2 Cups of skim milk
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 tbsp. corn starch
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

Blend all ingredients (except the vanilla) in a blender for approx. 10-15 seconds. Place mixture in a saucepan and bring to a boil mixing constantly, once it thickens mix the vanilla in and remove from heat.  Let it cool. The custard can also be enjoyed on it’s own with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

fresh custard!

NOTES: Plantains are not as hard to find as you may think. I found some in my local market. However, most of the time, they will be green and not quite ripe. So, to speed the process, keep in a plastic bag in direct sunlight for a couple of days. Remember to check on them daily because over-ripe plantains are really not pretty.
The cookbook I have is written like you were talking to your friend, or your grandma, when you ask for a recipe that they may not have written down, so I did my best to put the measurements in. (in the book they say, “enough sugar to sweeten” or “form into a ball”). The empanadas can be fried but I needed a “healthy” option for my health-conscious friends so I baked them. They turned out GREAT! In fact, I will be baking them from now on!  They were a hit at the BBQ I brought them to!
The recipe can definitely be doubled or tripled if you need more empanadas, so don’t be afraid to do so!

Today’s Quote: “Like you I love love, life, the sweet smell of things, the sky-blue landscape of January days.”
                                                                                                                              – Roque Dalton (Salvadorean Poet)