An attempt was made to ascend one of the remaining remnants of the old growth forests of British Columbia. Up into the endangered Jumbo valley, whose ski resort future is looming within her glory. Though we underestimated the mighty whipping winds which brought a taste of winter and a swelling fondness for the unpredictable. At first our persevering spirits motored forth, with my 7 month old baby strapped to my chest, every step was placed with meaning and my clumsy nature replaced with grace. Meandering up this narrow slippery path, the moment being the only possibility, I squelched the idea that this sort of reckless snowy mountain hike makes me a negligent mother. It’s that kind of domesticated human brainwash babble that I catch myself in sometimes. Our feminine ancestors were certainly out perusing the land daily foraging food with their babies. We did end up turning back, it was a white out and the epic views were smothered in clouds and snow. For now the foraging will happen close to home, until Jumbo welcomes us back next summer. It was an absolute pleasure to reconnect with my sister and our friend, we came home from our hike to a slow cooked boeuf bourgignon which I’m just going to have to recreate and share with you all.
For now I have a spiffy way to roast up brussels sprouts that every the pickiest little turkeys will gobble right up. These caramelized maple almond brussels sprouts and pumpkin will convert any hater, they sure did the trick for me, former loather of all things brussels and J too. The sweet gooey maple crunchy roasted almond bits and slightly bitter minister cabbages speckled with slices of creamy pumpkin- oh it’s just perfection. Honestly I ate these as a meal by themselves today, even baby Mav chowed down. Paired alongside roast chicken or turkey, you’ve got yourselves a colourful healthy side dish and maybe even a new fall staple.
My sweet seeeesta and our friend are coming to visit this weekend! I’m so excited and roasting a huge chicken while I watch every car that passes by. It’s very lovely that they are coming for the weekend since it’s a 10 hour drive. We plan on checking out some hot springs, going fishing and hiking up to the Jumbo Valley, an absolutely stunning mountain pass home to the worlds largest Grizzly habitat. An old guy in town told us a funny story today, he was at the gas station, eating a muffin and bent down to check his tire pressure. He put the muffin down on his trunk and while he was fiddling with the tire, a bear stole his muffin and brushed up against him non-chalantly. Lots of bears around these parts, so hopefully we’ll see a Grizz on our hike, just not too close…
I ripped the last of the kale out of the garden today as the frost is coming soon. What to do with a big bunch of fresh kale? Make a fabulous salad of course, loaded with honey crisp apple slices, parmesan cheese and a tarragon-mustard vinaigrette. It will pair beautifully with our balsamic roast chicken and crispy roasted potatoes.
I don’t always know what to write about. On this food blog, which I suppose is entirely supposed to focus on food, that which nourishes us and how to best enjoy it. Though I do consider myself, and all of you for that matter, judges of good taste, I also feel like holy fuck, we are so lucky. First of all, to eat and have no real worries about where our next meal is coming from, but on top of that blessing, to photograph this nourishment, to share it far and wide. Whoa. I look at these numbers sometimes, I watch the real time on google analytics of all the people from all over the place checking out this meal that I created and wrote about and photographed and digested and gave back to the earth. It’s surreal to me just how deeply we are all connected, each and every one of us. Even that neighbour that you fucking can’t stand and your uptight stupid know it all boss, the primary investor at Monsanto and the guy who tried to shoot Harper yesterday. Does that perpetuate a feeling of compassion within us, or does it strike a chord of anger? I think for me it’s a bit of both, recently there was a study done on the worlds population and if all the food were divided equally, how many calories each person would be allotted daily. 2700. 2700 calories is plenty, for anyone, not to mention a child or elderly person just wouldn’t be consuming that many calories, so it would all balance itself out. Is the possibility of this statistic even real? It would seem so, yet the gluttony which rears its ugly head around every corner stifles the souls knowledge of the potential for every single one of us to be fed. Nourishment, to me, simply doesn’t always feel complete when I know there are hungry brothers and sisters out there. I want to feed them all, just do it, plant gorilla gardens everywhere and spread seeds like STI’s around every corner. Though i’m far from being in any epicentre of the hip happenings, I guess the first step is to just act locally, think globally. There are ideas brewing in my head and heart as to how this is possible. I want to let them stew and form themselves better before blurting anything out. But I feel a potential of thought is greatest when actions show themselves to be louder than words.
Now about these muffins, I loathe a dry muffin, honestly I have never enjoyed a wheat muffin except for the ones they make at Dominion Cafe, pear ginger white chocolate, I have to make a paleo version. Normally conventional muffins are so bleck, dry and dense and just blah. Well, not these little pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Its likely I put way too many chocolate chips in them, speaking of sharing food maybe I can give organic chocolate chips out at halloween instead of GMO candy. I digress, these muffins are excellent, they’re moist, delicately spiced and filled with chocolate. Alongside a cup of coffee, they are like a morning bear hug. The basis of this muffin recipe is borrowed from these delicious blue berry muffins.
A few years back I stopped watching television, it’s a time suck and I hate all the ads. But I still can’t help myself from watching cooking shows on you tube, and as you may be able to tell from the name of my website Naked Cuisine, Jamie Oliver, the original naked chef, is my all time super fave 10 year ongoing crush and inspiration. I’ve though about doing a Julie and Julia, momofukufor2-esque blog with only Jamies recipes, you never know, maybe someday. The other day I caught up on Jamie’s Ministry of Food show, where he highlights super simple recipes for people who may not think they are very good cooks. I never fail to learn a thing or two, really who needs cooking school when you’ve got the food network, especially with Heston’s new show, all the best shows seem to come out of Britain for some reason.
I wish all my favourite food bloggers had cooking shows, it would be so cool to see people in their home kitchens working their magic. I love the little videos that Green Kitchen Stories puts out and Perennial Plate travelling the world. What are some of your favourite cooking shows? Do you prefer reading food blogs and looking at photos over food video? Someone contacted me recently about a new iPhone app they wanted me to try where you make little cooking videos and post them a food gawker for video type website. I had to decline since I’m likely one of the last people on the planet without a cell phone. We actually just moved from an area where there wasn’t even service. They were going to put a cell tower on our friends land but there was massive revolt and hardcore hippies uttering death threats so I think they put a pause on the project.
This chicken is absolutely simple, perfectly cooked every time, and pretty classy too. It’s really easy to whip up the whole lot in under 20 minutes with a nice fresh salad. If you want to watch Jamie cook up prosciutto parmesan chicken check it out here. The method for perfectly cooked chicken is to make the chicken breast or thigh equally thick by bashing it under plastic with a rolling pin or other heavy object. It cooks a lot faster that way and comes out perfectly juicy every time.
4 boneless, skinless free range chicken thighs or breasts
½ C parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbs olive oil
fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
Place one piece of chicken at a time in a ziploc bag, bash it with a rolling pin a few times so that it has an even thickness.
Lightly sprinkle parmesan on one side of the chicken pieces. Cover with layers of prosciutto so that the cheese is protected.
Heat a frying pan with a bit of oil, when its nice and hot put the chicken in, prosciutto side down and cook for 3-3½ minutes per side over med-high heat.
You know when you want a brownie, but you don’t want a whole brownie, well that’s where these little bites come in. They satisfy your brownie tooth without going overboard, that is, if you can refrain from eating them all. Really you could without feeling too guilty, since you use dates instead of sugar and they’re totally grain free. I was pretty excited about my latest thrift store score, which was a mini muffin tin, who knew making all things mini could be so fun.
Yes, you guessed it that lovely rose plate was another thrift store score, straight outta grandma’s cabinet. The frosting on these bites could fool Tony the Tiger, its creamy luxurious and spiked with ample vanilla and soft honey notes.
Paleo Bite Sized Brownies with Vanilla Honey Cashew Frosting
Author: Chantelle
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 14
Ingredients
½ C date paste, softened in warm water for a few minutes.
2 Tbs+2 Tbs melted coconut oil
1 egg
2 Tbs cacao powder
1 Tbs coconut flour
½ tsp sea salt
½ C raw cashews, soaked 6-8 hrs
⅓ C water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs+ drizzle honey
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F
Combine the softened date paste, coconut oil and egg.
In a separate bowl combine the cacao powder, coconut flour and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients.
Drop brownie dough by the Tbs. into your mini muffin tin.
Bake for 10 minutes.
In a blender or food processor add the strained cashews, coconut oil, vanilla, honey and a pinch of salt, slowly add the water until the consistency is thick yet spreadable and super smooth and creamy.
When the brownie bites have cooled slightly, spoon a dollop of frosting on top and drizzle with a little extra honey.
Aloha homies, I’m really excited today, I got to share an article on Real Foodies of my top 1o most affordable super foods. If you’ve ever checked out the super foods section at your local health food store you’ll know many of those rare earth delicacies don’t come cheap. But fear not, even if you don’t have elk antler velvet in the budget there are plenty of affordable, amazing super foods that have just as many superpowers.
Is pulled pork a superfood? Well I sorta think so, it sure gives you heaps of protein and energy. I’d never made it until a few weeks ago, we had a housewarming party and I made these pulled pork lettuce wraps and they were a hit. So I made them again and I wanted to share with you guys, I do realize my posts have been pretty ‘meaty’ lately…I hope you don’t mind. I will bring a little more balance to the table very soon, paleo brownie bites anyone? The pulled pork recipe comes from momofuku, slightly altered and the homemade bbq sauce is my own creation. We also made little gluten-free pizzas with the leftovers and they were superb with a nice glass of red wine. There’s something really therapeutic about shredding pork, I just can’t put my finger on it. P.S. The balance of easiness to deliciousness with this just topples, its SO easy and you could totally do without the BBQ sauce for an even easier take, but seriously would you want to?
Rub down your pork butt with the salt and sugar, let it sit 6hrs or overnight.
When your ready to cook it, brush off excess salt and sugar, preheat oven to 300F and let the pork cook for about 6 hrs. or until it's tender and pull able.
Turn oven up to 500F, remove the pork and sprinkle with ¼ C additional sugar for a crunchy caramelized crust. Return to oven for 10 minutes
Using 2 forks just tear in to that bad boy, rip it all up, smother it in BBQ sauce and plunk it into a crunchy lettuce leaf.
To make the BBQ sauce: Add fat, onion and garlic to a hot skillet and cook until slightly browned.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. For a really smooth BBQ, you could blend it all up with a touch of stock or water. This makes about 1 C worth of sauce for smothering on your pulled pork.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
