Arches everywhere

Although this neighbourhood is full of square boxes and straight lines, there are a few arches to be found. This is St Paul's Anglican church. It actually has arches on all sides. 

We went to Stanley Park to see the unconventional Lumberman's Arch, not an arch at all, strictly speaking. 

This metal arch was on the beach last summer as well. 

Off in the distance is the arch of the Ironworkers' Memorial Bridge, commonly called the Second Narrows. Beyond it is Mount Baker, always a treat to see. 

In the other direction is the First Narrows, or Lions' Gate Bridge. Fog is coming in. 

It is quite a climb up from the sea wall to Prospect Point, and in the time it took us to get up there, the fog got a lot thicker and part of the bridge was quite hidden from us. 

Our last arch picture (perhaps; there's time to find more before the end of the month) is the upside-down arches of 815 Chilco Street. There is only one apartment per floor; the views over the park and water must be stunning from the upper floors. And you get very mod, circular, upside-down arched balconies. Out of our price range, unfortunately. 
 

One day soon I will show you some knitting!

Looking forward to February recipes

When I got here to Vancouver I checked out the big cookbook I had, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I had picked it up in a Little Free Library some time last year and hadn't really looked at it much. It seems to really be a book about how to cook everything, and as I flipped through it, I saw a quarter of a page on how to steam carrots. I am not a super-complicated cook, but I can't give shelf-space to a recipe that basic. And no pretty pictures... so I gave it away. 

Moving on, I looked at two Cooking Light magazines, one purchased here last year and one brought from a Little Free Library in Toronto. 

I tried a recipe from the one on Soups and Stews, Fast Chicken Chili with Butternut Squash. 

One thing you can count on about Cooking Light is that it is absolutely American and loves convenience foods. They suggest brands of pre-chopped potatoes or pre-cooked rice or whatever. I am not lazy enough to buy pre-cooked rice, but I am too lazy to peel and chop my own squash. This recipe needs 2 cups of chopped butternut squash, and I was certainly looking forward to finding pre-peeled and chopped squash in my local store. Although they sell this in the Loblaws up the street from me in Toronto, I couldn't find any in the two stores I looked at here! I couldn't even find frozen cubed squash, only spiral ribbons. What the heck, it's stew; I just tossed in the ribbons. 

The recipe also calls for the breast meat from a rotisserie chicken. I don't really like most grocery-store rotisserie chickens as they tend to be too salty and too dry. I found some chunks of chicken that are maybe meant for sandwiches or salad and that was fine. It would also be easy enough to poach or fry up some actual chicken pieces, or use leftovers.

The spices were nice, and it helped that I accidentally dumped out twice as much red pepper flakes as was called for! The recipe made a lot of stew and I enjoyed it as leftovers for lunch. 

For a moment my plan was to change the "official" recipe book for February from The New Basics to these two magazines, but then my hold appeared at the library and I will have the New Basics for three weeks at least. I can't scribble in the margins like I would at home, but I will be happy to explore this book more. 

I did try a recipe from New Basics yesterday. I had some quinoa in the cupboard, from perhaps last November or maybe last summer. I think this is the only quinoa recipe in the book, and it is an adaptation of a rice salad recipe. 

Cook the quinoa, adding some raisins in at the end of the cooking time. Add chopped green onions, peanuts, mandarin orange segments, sesame oil (or olive oil if that's what you have) and mint (or perhaps cilantro if you recently made chili and have some left in the fridge). 

Very tasty, but it would also be fine with rice or barley. 

There is a huge variety of recipes in this book and I will have fun with it, I think. I shall throw in more from those magazines as well. I also picked up a book about baking, and since I shouldn't really eat cookies and cakes, I think I will work on some yeast bread recipes. I had a library book on bread, but all the instructions involved turning on your heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook. My kitchen here is tiny and I don't even have a heavy-duty mixer in Toronto, so I need a recipe which says, "stir for a long time and then knead" and things like that! 

I have a few late-addition Vancouver arches to show you before we start a new photo theme as well. 

We made it to the beach for sunset yesterday

Different setting for a while

Beach scene with bonus arch on the bridge

We are in Vancouver. We took a short walk yesterday after we arrived and I was on the lookout for arches. Not a lot in this neighbourhood of apartment buildings! 

This is a relatively new building and stands out from the crowd. Pretty square, with a few arches at the entrance and some arch-like ornamentation at the top. 

It's right on the beach. I bet those big windows add another million to the price! And see, faint little arch outlines in those top windows. 

This one is an older building, right next door. Ornamentation galore, but really only at this main entrance. 

I will continue my quest for the next few days before switching themes. I might switch cookbooks early, but I've got no groceries in stock just yet!

Two more recipes

Yes, I said the last post would be the final recipe for the month, but I forgot that I have two absolutely go-to favourite recipes in Moosewood Cooks at Home. 

One is, serendipitously, a recipe from my early childhood. My aunt sent my mom a copy of this cake recipe in, perhaps, 1967. My cousin Timothy, or Timmy, or, as he likes to call himself these days, Tim, was having a moment of enjoying cooking chocolate cake. This batter can be mixed in the pan, there are no eggs or cream or weird ingredients, no mixer needed, so, perfect for a kid to mix up. We always called it Timmy cake and it was a staple birthday cake for decades. 

As you can see, this page has been heavily used. There may have been a catastrophe with some cocoa powder at some stage. 

We like it with whipped cream and some berries, or ice cream, or icing, but I have never made the glaze they recommend. We also often make cupcakes.

The other simply essential recipe is the Caesar Salad Dressing. It is so much better than anything you get in a bottle and it makes the salad maker a star at any event. As you can see here I have some quibbles with amounts... specifically I say one needs more garlic! I originally liked to use only one egg, but I have learnt that, in fact, two eggs is better. 

The little hand-blender whips this up in no time, if you have remembered to hard-cook an egg or two. I like to make my salad with romaine, croutons, parmesan, and often anchovies. 

Now I really think we are done with this book. For now!

One last recipe for the month

Next week I am jetting off to Vancouver. That blizzard was the last straw, I tell you!

I have plans for continuing my cookbook journey, but I am not taking January's book with me for the last week of the month. February's book is The New Basics, which is very large and heavy so I won't carry that with me, either. It is also ubiquitous, and I can take it out of the library or find it secondhand with no trouble. I can also totally switch things up (my blog, my rules!) and cook from a book I have there, likely Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. We'll know by February 1, that's all I'm saying about that!

On the day of the big snow (we stayed indoors because of Snowmicron, apparently!) I felt the urge to save the world through food, and so made a loaf of challah -- the bread machine made the dough and I braided it. 

It was delicious, and looks so impressive, doesn't it?

I also found an easy and quick soup recipe in January's book, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. It was Portuguese White Bean Soup. I am pretty sure the recipe in the book only calls for one can of beans. At least, one can is what I had and what I used! I also used leftover potatoes, so cooking time was even quicker, and I threw in some carrots and broccoli stems. When it was done I pureed it, because the skins on the beans were quite tough -- not a usual problem with canned beans, but there you go. It was nice pureed! The bay leaf and fennel were a nice flavour combo, and a squirt of lemon juice gave it all some zip. 

Totally easy and tasty, warming on a snowy day, with a piece of fresh bread to go with!

Yet more arches

Last time I told you that I went in search of more impressive arches. I went to the university a few days ago when the sun was shining. 

Today looks like this: 

I'd say a foot of snow already and several hours of this still to come. I have got the bread machine going and my soup recipe all ready to go. 

So let's look at pictures of a sunny day!

No arches here. This is the new glass and steel addition to the University of Toronto's brutalist library, Fort Book. Really called the Robarts Library! 

When I was a student here the main entrance was on the fourth floor. If you needed assistance, I'm sure it was available, but the expectation was that everyone would walk up the outside concrete stairs to get in. 

There was a ramp, but it was super steep, with hairpin turns, so probably not very useful! Since then they have changed everything around and the main door is on the ground level. I'm sure the architect is sad about that. 

An arch into a courtyard, through residences

University College

The old colleges try to look English

Or perhaps Italian

This is the biggest, fanciest, ornate-est, most tourist-friendly arch around. Bus tours used to come into the university and park right about here. (Now the field opposite is a construction site as they make a geothermal heating plant and giant underground parking lot.)

Nest stop: Hart House. The student services building, with reading rooms and gyms and a theatre. There is now a plaque in the women's changing room saying that women weren't even allowed in the building until the 1970s, except for one room, in the late afternoon. 

An arch in the basement. Lucky for me it was open and I was able to go in to find a loo. Because of covid, I had to register, say I was vaxxed, say I had no symptoms, etc etc. There were a few people around, but not many. 

The way out. 

 

And that is your arch post for today! I'll just look at the snow some more here. 

Neighbourhood arches

I knew there were arches on houses in my neighbourhood, so I went out the other day in search of actual architectural arches, and not just semicircular forms. 

These were once described as an "only in Toronto" phenomenon, the upside-down arch on the porch. I think the style is used elsewhere, or was. I think it might have been popular in the 1970s or 80s, but I don't really know. It does seem that there used to be more of them. 

An arched porch added to this house, I think. 

A straight-line house with an arched window. There might be a Juliet balcony there? 

Teeny little house with an upside-down arch. 

More straight lines, with a tiny, yet emphasized arch on one window. 

I got a new app to arrange photos in cute configurations, so here you go: five neighbourhood arches. 

These arches are all very fine, but I did feel the need for more grand structures, for arches which actually hold things up. So I went on a quest, which I will show you next time!

Meanwhile, I did finish my mat. 

I didn't run out of the pale blue, but I was worried about the brighter blue. I might have been able to get another two rows out of this, but I don't really think so. 

All's well that ends well. I liked doing this, but the yarn was disappointing. 

What will my next project be?

Mushrooms and dessert

Yesterday we found ourselves with a great big roast of beef, so of course we had to have extra everything to go with it. Nothing succeeds like excess. 

I continue to forget to take pictures of food that I make, most of the time. 

We cooked the beef low and slow, following this recipe. I have never cooked a piece of meat at 250ºF before, but it worked most excellently. The meat was nicely red, tender and delicious!

I found a side dish in my book of the month, Mushrooms in Lemon Marinade. It is easy and tasty, but sort of more a salad or appetizer than something to serve with a roast beast dinner. Cook mushrooms and garlic, add some herbs and lemon juice, salt and pepper, and voilà. We thought it might be good to cook the mushrooms more than the recipe says, but as it was, they were chunky and chewy and salady, which is nice. 

I have had this cookbook for 20 years or so, and I remember making the Coffee Ricotta Mousse and thinking it was super delicious and creamy and great. You just take a 454 gram container of ricotta cheese, add 1/2 cup of icing sugar, a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee and a splash of vanilla. Feel free to add a bit of booze as well. Mix it all up! 

This time, the first time I made it in years, I used low-fat ricotta and skimped a bit on the icing sugar, and it was not as great as in my dreams. The ricotta didn't get smooth, although I whipped it with my electric mixer. There were little grains of cheese and as it sat it got a bit watery. We didn't have any good booze for it (they suggest brandy, but Kahlúa would also work!) and I guess if you don't use the fat, sugar and alcohol suggested, you can't really complain if the dessert is not quite up to scratch! 

I could still eat the whole thing at one sitting, though. But didn't. 

This seems to be becoming a food blog, and I'll see what I can do about that next time!

Knitting and muffins

I continue to make my thingamabob. It is a mosaic knitting pattern, so I knit dark blue and slip the white for two rows, knit the white on the next two rows and slip the dark blue. It's quite fun, but of course one can mess up the pattern if not paying attention.

I did not take a picture, but I did once get distracted and make a mistake, think it wouldn't be too bad, continue knitting, realize it really was that bad, rip out several rows. 

It was just after the change from white to light blue, and I had found a knot in the yarn, right in the middle of the row! Since I am too lazy to rip out half a row, I just cut the knot and carried on. But when I got to the end of the row, there was another knot! So I unwound all the rest of the ball, found two more knots, and we were all in time-out for a day or two. 

When I got back to it, I reknit the last row, so my diamond pattern was off and it actually looked terrible. 

Now I believe I am on my way to having a perfect thing, though the second half might be shorter than the first if I run out of the pale blue yarn, losing so much at the changes between the bits. We shall see. Curses on Martha Stewart and her cotton/hemp, now discontinued, yarn. 

Tom Jones coaster for scale

I hope to make a side dish from Moosewood Cooks at Home today, but this morning I whipped up a batch of muffins from this year's Milk Calendar. If you scroll down to page 3 on that link, you will find them, before January's page. 

They are peach and prosciutto muffins! I used a few slices of bacon and frozen peaches, and subbed 3/4 of a cup of whole wheat flour for some of the white. Good! Certainly not sweet but enough of a treat. 

I am not sure what our usual Toronto January weather is any more, but it has been overcast and about 0º for a while, and I am tired of it. One wonders how I'll manage in a Vancouver winter, but right now I am sick of the darkness. Bring on -5 and clear blue skies!

Recipe #3

Today's recipe is for some simple biscuits, or as they say, Savoury Scallion Biscuits. They use a bit of whole wheat flour -- calling for whole wheat pastry flour, but all I had was regular whole wheat all-purpose -- and use yogurt and oil instead of butter or cream or buttermilk. (I bet you could use buttermilk and they'd be fine.) I also used dried dill instead of fresh; it is January in Toronto! 

Gotta work on the food photography

They were very tasty! Easy and quick to make and I like the green onion, sorta sweet! 

I made them yesterday afternoon and, amazingly, there are still some leftover today. They are better fresh out of the oven, but not bad the day after with butter! 

I would still like to try one of the fish recipes in the book, and I have an old favourite dessert that I think is in this book as well. I think the family is already looking forward to next month, but I am having a good time with this book. 

More on arches

Yesterday I went for a walk with some friends, out east towards the Don. We found we had to stop in the Riverdale Farm to find a public washroom, so we had a look at the animals and remembered the days when we would take our kids there on a regular basis. 

Riverdale Farm is where I started out the afternoon of the big power failure in 2003! That was an adventure... walking 6.5 kilometres home with two little kids, picking up half-melted popsicles at every corner store, no power on my phone and Stephen at home wondering if we were stuck in the subway, perhaps on the viaduct. 

Luckily no such misfortunes befell us this time!

I saw this ruined cart on the farm and took pictures of the arch-like shape of the wheels. I think, though, that we decided that an arch must really be somewhat structural, and not just a semicircular shape. 

  

We continued our walk, but this part of town is full of one-time cheap Victorian workers' houses, all squares and straight lines, not an arch in sight. 

Actual knitting content: I am making a table mat or runner or gigantic dishrag.

Half-successful recipe

Last night I made Curried Vegetables with Dal. Sweet potatoes and cauliflower, add some spinach at the end. We served it on rice. It was quite pretty, golden curry with brighter sweet potato and green spinach, but alas, no photo! 

The dal was just split peas cooked in water, and all the spices (a fresh chilli, which I didn't have, fresh ginger, curry powder, cumin) were in the vegetable mix. They want you to puree the split peas, but I had so much extra water that it just made soup. 

It was a moderate success. Debbie and I enjoyed it, Elaine went straight for the leftover mac and cheese, and Stephen turned his nose up at it as well. 

When the kids were little, some of the other moms in the neighbourhood and I wanted to have a Yucky Vegetable party, where we could eat parsnips and squash and red peppers and sweet potatoes and broccoli and all that without anyone whining at us. We never got around to it, but perhaps there is still a need. 

Photo themes

I was thinking of my slightly successful Project Spectrum from last year, and wanting another way to focus my picture-taking when out and about. Apparently these ideas are called Photo Themes, and there are bazillions of prompts out there on the internet. I picked these from the long list here. 

How to choose from such a long list? I just took one from each letter, starting at A. I didn't like any of the K themes, so just skipped over those. Still, I have at least another year's worth of ideas, and could go through the list over again. 

• Arches for January

• Bikes for February

• City Hall in March

• Dots / Dashes / Diagonals in April

• Environmental Trash in May

• Feet for June

• Glass for July

• Hidden in August

• Inclines in September

• Joy in October

• Leaves in November

• Macro for December

February is probably too early for a lot of bike action; the colourful fall leaves might be mostly done in November; and I don't have a real macro lens. But I think I will have fun with this. 

From yesterday: 

Is it an arch if it's just snow on a log?